The days are getting shorter.
The nights are getting colder.
And we're going to want to spend less and less time doing fun, outdoor things.
And to that end, there are a lot of great video games still to come between now and Christmas! Some of these you might want to ask Santy for, but some you'll definitely want to play the second they come out.
FORTNITE: SEASON TEN - PC, PS4, Xbox One, Switch - Thursday 1 August
Listen, you either know and love Fortnite, and the news of a new season fills you with extreme happiness, or you don't know and/or love it, in which case, just skip this one and move on to the next one.
CONTROL - PC, PS4, Xbox One - Tuesday 27 August
A mind-bending platform'y, shooter'y kinda original project, as you play an agent with the Federal Bureau of Control, an agency that keeps the laws of reality in check. So kind of like The X-Files meets... X-Men?
Clip via GameSpot TrailersBLAIR WITCH - PC, Xbox One - Friday 30 August
A first-person (like the movie!) horror experience (like the movie!!!) that throws you deep into those scary woods and you've got nothing but your video camera and your wits and a few other bits you find along the way to keep you alive. An effective diarrheatic.
Clip via Game InformerGEARS 5 - XBox One, PC - Tuesday 10 September
You can't keep a good, money-making shooter down. We're back to space with grunts in order to stop another form of beasties from taking over planets, but really, we don't play these games for the plots, do we? No, we don't. We play them so we can shoot guns bigger than most cars at space insects bigger than most buildings.
Clip via IGNBORDERLANDS 3 - PS4, Xbox One, PC - Friday 13 September
Seven years since the hugely successful and much-loved first sequel, we're back to the first-person shooter RPG, and the kind of grand-daddy of the "looter shooter" genre that has since exploded in popularity since BL2 dropped. So goodbye to your free time once this arrives.
Clip via BorderlandsFIFA 20 - PS4, Xbox One, PC - Friday 27 September
Football. Now more football than ever before.
Clip via EA SPORTS FIFAGHOST RECON BREAKPOINT - PS4, Xbox One, PC - Friday 4 October
The sorta-sequel to Wildlands, you're back in the open world, online tactical shooter environment of some fictional Asian island, and you play a special forces guy sent in to check on series of disturbances.
Clip via Ubisoft North AmericaCALL OF DUTY: MODERN WARFARE - PS4, Xbox One, PC - Friday 25 October
Not to be confused with Call Of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, the 2007 game of practically the same name, although you can kind of confuse it with that one, as it is being referred to as a "soft reboot" of the Modern Warfare series overall. Much like Fortnite and FIFA, you'll already know if COD is your bag. And if it is, then this latest entry will be a must-buy.
Clip via Call of DutyLUIGI'S MANSION 3 - Switch - Thursday 31 October
Sure to be one of the biggest games of the year, as Luigi takes centre stage again (and let us be honest, he's a lot more interesting than Mario), and returns to a haunted mansion for the third time. Is it the same haunted mansion? Or is he just unlucky enough to keep encountering loads of different haunted mansions? The mind boggles.
Clip via NintendoDEATH STRANDING - PS4 - Friday 8 November
One of the most anticipated games of the decade, thanks to the involvement of the guy behind Metal Gear Solid, as well as director Guillermo Del Toro and Nicolas Winding Refn, and some actual recognisable actors. The trailer contains a plot that might snap your brain in two if you try to understand it immediately, but this really does look like something we're going to be talking about for a long time afterwards.
Clip via PlayStationSTAR WARS JEDI: FALLEN ORDER - PS4, Xbox One, PC - Friday 15 November
After the multiplayed, loot-box crazed problems of the last Star Wars game, EA have course-corrected with this single-player-only outing, set in the days after Episode III: Revenge Of The Sith, when Order 66 was passed and most of the Jedis were massacred. It is being called "the Dark Souls or Sekiro: Shadows Day Twice of the Star Wars games", which sounds like quite the claim.
Clip via EA Star WarsDOOM ETERNAL - PS4, Xbox One, PC, Switch, Stadia - Friday 22 November
Doom made a comeback in 2016 to show all the other shooters how it is done. No cover, no slowly recovering health, no heavy-handed political plot. Just you, your guns, and the ability to jump like gravity doesn't matter. And then jump again, mid-jump, for good measure. Because FUCK gravity! Well, this is more of that. Can't wait.
Clip via Bethesda Softworks
