2020. The year of the gamer.
With the arrival of TWO new consoles and a lot of top-secret games still to be announced for both of them, there’s a lot for gamers to get excited about in 2020, but for the purposes of this list, we’re only working with games that have been confirmed to be released some time next year.
Even with the games we already know about, it looks like the next 12 months are going to be an epic time for gamers, starting off with…
DOOM ETERNAL
Release Date: 20 March
Platforms: PS4, Xbox One, Switch, PC, Stadia
After the 2016 rebootquel that saw Doom return and show the other first-person-shooters how it’s done, the inevitable to sequel is guaranteed to bring us more of the same. More monsters, biggers guns, more panic as you try to use a rocket launcher explosion as a double-jump over a demon-filled chasm. You know, the usual.
CYBERPUNK 2077
Release Date: 16 April
Platforms: PS4, Xbox One, PC, Stadia
AKA the one with Keanu Reeves in it. Yes, it looks a bit like Grand Theft Auto set in the semi-distant future and we are fully on-board with that. Visually, it looks absolutely astounding and the early word indicates that the game world you’ll be dropped into will be absolutely HUGE. We can’t wait.
MARVEL’S AVENGERS
Release Date: 15 May
Platforms: PS4, Xbox One, PC, Stadia
Sure, there was initially some backlash when none of the characters looked like the famous actors we’ve seen in those roles for the past few years, but keep in mind that this take on the Avengers is branching off into its own territory, with the first trailer dropping some major plot points (did they just kill off… one of the biggest characters in the MCU? In the very first trailer?), and if it can be even half as good as the Spider-Man game we recently got on the PS4, then we’re in for some good times.
THE LAST OF US PART II
Release Date: 29 May
Platforms: PS4
The Last Of Us is one of the greatest video games of all time, equalling – if not surpassing – movies in terms of storytelling and visual beauty, so the idea of a sequel is equal parts exciting (we get to hang with Joel and Ellie again!) and terrifying (what if they mess up what we loved about the first one?), but the trailers so far point to another potential instant classic, with the post-apocalypse ravaged world still barely held together by nothing more than hope.
SKULL AND BONES
Release Date: TBC
Platforms: PS4, Xbox One, PC
Remember those bits of the Assassin’s Creed games when you got to be a pirate and fire canons at other ships and it was generally the best part of those games? Well, Ubisoft, the folks behind the Creed series, are aware of that too and smartly set an entire game around those pirate’ing mechanics. Yo ho ho!
WATCH DOGS: LEGION
Release Date: TBC
Platforms: PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Project Scarlett, PC, Stadia
Set in a version of London that has been more-or-less taken over by an over-bearing government (ahem), you’ll be able to play as just about anyone in the city, attempting to crack open the stranglehold and to assist the populace rising up against their “This is for the greater good” overseers.
Considering the game has already caused quite a bit of controversy, we imagine this will get a lot of people talking once it is released proper.
SYSTEM SHOCK
Release Date: TBC
Platforms: PS4, Xbox One, PC
A remake of one of the most iconic horror games of all time, the grandfather of the BioShock and Alien: Isolation games, you’ll once again find yourself traversing a mostly empty space station, filled with deranged creatures and a nasty A.I. system that has decided to take the space station for itself.
HALO INFINITE
Release Date: TBC
Platforms: Xbox One, Xbox Project Scarlett, PC
Master Chief is back again, taking a more central role than he did in Halo V, but aside from the rumour that the game will actually be set on a Halo ring, not much more is known about it at this point. Not that it really matters, it will be absolutely massive regardless.
RAINBOW SIX: QUARANTINE
Release Date: TBC
Platforms: PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Project Scarlett, PC
Typically a fairly formal tactical shooter, Rainbow Six appears to be going the horror route (kind of) with the latest outing, as a virus begins turning the population into zombie-like creatures. You can never have enough zombie shooters, to be fair.
WAY TO THE WOODS
Release Date: TBC
Platforms: PS4, Xbox One, Switch, PC, Stadia
Much in the same way that Untitled Goose Game kind of came out of nowhere to win all of our hearts in 2019, our guess at 2020’s version of this is Way To The Woods, in which you play a magical deer, trying to bring its young fawn safely across an abandoned America. There will be subtext.
Clips via PlayStation, Xbox, and Nintendo
