2015 was an incredible year for video games, with us being bombarded with fantastic releases throughout the latter half of the year, making it incredible difficult to narrow our annual end-of-year list down to even 20 of our favorites (though we tried, as you can see right here).
But with such a good year behind us, what will 2016 bring? Suffice to say there are plenty of good games waiting for us right around the corner, but once again we’ve managed to narrow it down to just 20 of the games we’re more looking forward to.
Here are our top 20 most anticipated video games of 2016:
Top 20 Most Anticipated Video Games of 2016
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20. Eve Valkyrie
We spent a significant portion of 2015 listening to people tell us how virtual reality was going to be a game-changer, and in 2016 we'll finally be able to see whether or not the technology will actually manage to break the mainstream, or whether it will go the way of so many other supposedly revolutionary peripherals before it and slink off into irrelevancy.
The one thing that will prevent it from doing so is if it has a solid software line-up, and as of right now Eve Valkyrie stands head and shoulders above its competitors as a game that will convince people to strap on a VR headset and give the tech a shot. Now announced as a pack-in title for the Oculus Rift, early impressions of the space shooter have been positive and we hope it, and VR in general, lives up to expectations.
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19. Mafia III
Mafia II offered glimpses of greatness marred by long stretches of mundanity, with the entire game being bogged down by an atmospheric yet nigh-on worthless open-world that offered minimal interaction and served only to unnecessarily pad out the game. We're skeptical of Mafia III, then, but from the minimal amount of footage we've seen of it, we can safely say that we're remaining cautiously optimistic. With a plot that centers around a biracial, orphaned Vietnam War vet returning from the war and trying to find his place in 1968 New Orleans, Mafia III looks set to boldly tackle the racial tensions of its era, along with the emotional trauma suffered by the player-character as a result of his participation in one of the most controversial events in American history. Whether it will do this adeptly is anyone's guess, but we look forward to developers Hangar 13 and 2K Czech trying.
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18. Street Fighter V
Street Fighter IV significantly shook things up for the Street Fighter series, debuting a brand new art direction along with Focus Attacks, Ultra Combos and tightened gameplay that saw the series returning to its roots whilst offering enough to keep it feeling fresh. Street Fighter V looks to continue down the path laid down by its predecessor, bringing the series to the current console generation and giving the fighting game community something to pour their blood, sweat and tears into across the course of the next few years.
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17. Cuphead
One of the unexpected stars of E3 2015 was Cuphead, a side-scrolling run and gun game with an art style heavily inspired by cartoons of the 1930s. Combining the surrealist imagery of that era in animation with an unlikely choice of genre served to make unknown indie developer Studio MDHR's creation one of the most talked-about announcements of the gaming expo, with it looking set to be one of the Xbox One's most unique adventures of 2016.
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16. The Last Guardian
When you've been promised something for so long without these commitments having been fulfilled, eventually your level of anticipation is bound to dwindle, and that is the case with The Last Guardian.
We are incredibly pleased that Team Ico is still working on the game, but with it having experienced a change of hardware from the PS3 to PS4, a notably troubled development cycle and little in the way of any concrete information since Sony confirmed that the game was still definitely a thing and not just a figment of their imagination, we're still left to wonder when we'll actually be getting our hands it. Hopefully the impossible will become possible in 2016, and we'll finally be able to go on a journey with that adorable giant bat/dog/chicken thing.
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15. Sea of Thieves
Though it has no confirmed release date, we hope that Sea of Thieves will see the once illustrious gaming studio Rare finally returning to their prime in 2016, as we can't wait to get our hands on their upcoming multiplayer game Sea of Thieves. Placing players in the role of pirates, the first-person game will feature user-generated content, allowing players to create their own custom series using in-game tools.
Players will be granted the opportunity to create their own crew of pirates with their friends, even staging mutinies wherein they can decide to throw a fellow swashbuckler overboard. It's shaping up to be a game we hoped would be created since we pretended to be pirates when we were kids, and hopefully Rare finally lives up to expectations with this one.
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14. Crackdown 3
The first Crackdown was a surprisingly accomplished game considering it was pretty much just used as a vehicle to shift a Halo 3 beta, but its sequel failed to improve upon it and put the series in limbo for a few years.
However, Crackdown 3 is being billed as the biggest selling point for the Xbox One's use of cloud computing, with its fully destructible environment making use of the feature and therefore providing an experience that is impossible to get on any other console. We can't wait to see what this could spell for the future of Microsoft's console.
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13. Deus Ex: Mankind Divided
Deus Ex: Human Revolution was one of those games that everyone who played it seemed to fall in love with it, with the only major criticism leveled at it being its boss fights. Their inclusion was incongruous with the rest of the game, which mostly focused upon exploration and stealth guided by a plentiful amount of genuinely interesting conversations to be had with the inhabitants of its world, exhibiting a nuanced approach to the shooter genre that was undermined by being forced to kill a boring, big baddie every now and again.
Fortunately Deus Ex: Mankind Divided is seeking to remedy that flaw, with its approach to boss fighters arguably being the most intriguing aspect of the upcoming game. Responding to the criticisms of its predecessor, developer Eidos Montreal has introduced a new system in which players can actually approach boss encounters with an unprecedented level of freedom, with them able to be "defeated" using force or reasoning, and with players also able to overlook them altogether. It remains to be seen how well this new feature is implemented, but being able to get beyond a boss battle by simply holding a conversation is a wonderfully unique approach that we can't wait to experience.
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12. Dreams
Media Molecule hasn't announced that Dreams will be released in 2016, but with us already having seen quite a bit of footage from the game, it seems likely that it'll make its way to store shelves next year.
Hopefully that's the case, because it looks likely that the LittleBigPlanet developers will once again provide us with an experience that only they can, with Dreams looking set to once again offer players a vast amount of tools in which they can create their own experiences and share them with others, all within the game's gorgeous and, for lack of a better word, dreamlike world.
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11. Battleborn
2016 is set to be the year in which the worlds of the MOBA and the FPS collide, a natural evolution for the shooter genre that has been a long time coming.
One of two games (we'll get to the other one later) representing this change is Battleborn, Gearbox Software's upcoming title that takes the class-based and team-focused gameplay of League of Legends, and combines it with the fast-paced freneticism of an FPS. It's shaping up well, and looks set to be a worthy early figurehead of a brand new era for its genre.
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10: Dishonored 2
The original Dishonored was a slow-burner in terms of its popularity. While it garnered a plentiful amount of praise following its release from critics and players alike, it wasn't until the speedrunners came out of the woodwork that we realized the true potential of the game.
Combining the game's plentiful amount of abilities together in order to stealthily tackle each level without receiving so much as a papercut, Dishonored was all about completing each level as stylishly as possible. We're therefore expecting that Dishonored 2 significantly ups the ante in this regard, offering us a whole new range of fun abilities to tinker with, along with a brand new protagonist in the form of Empress Emily Kaldwin.
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9. Horizon Zero Dawn
Guerrilla Games will finally step out the shadow of their Killzone series with Horizon Zero Dawn, a brand new game from the studio that sees them stretching their legs in uncharted territory.
This action role-playing game tasks players with exploring an open-world that combines both the prehistoric and the futuristic, with it being dominated by mechanical beasts that are to be defeated using weaponry both primitive and incredibly destructive. It looks like a combination of Monster Hunter and Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor, an unlikely pairing that we believe could well stand be one of the most successful new IPs of 2016.
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8. Mass Effect: Andromeda
We still don't know much about Mass Effect: Andromeda at all, which means that we can't get too excited about it just yet, but it'd take a monumental screw-up for BioWare to release a game in their sci-fi series that we don't enjoy.
While the main Mass Effect trilogy may have been wrapped up, we're looking forward to seeing what its creators have up their sleeves for a brand new story in its world, and how they're going to approach it following the infamously disappointing conclusion of Mass Effect 3.
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7. Persona 5
Persona 4 Golden was a game which convinced Vita owners to keep a hold of the console, which is a testament to the tremendous quality of the game considering how Sony little effort Sony put into making it a worthwhile investment.
Fortunately the series will be making it onto the PS4 in the form of Persona 5, and while developer Atlus is keeping the game under wraps, it's going to continue the Persona trend of allowing players to explore both a paranormal, hostile world filled with ugly beasties to be killed in turn-based battle, and the high drama of a Japanese high school. If that sounds like a weird combination, that's because it is, and we love Persona for it.
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6. Dark Souls III
Dark Souls II was a little disappointing. While it was more aesthetically beautiful than its predecessor, featuring more awe-inspiring level design and impressive structures to scale, in many ways it missed the point of what made the original so great, namely its over-reliance upon equating difficulty to simply placing an insurmountable level of enemies before the player.
However, Dark Souls III will see series creator Hidetaka Miyazaki take over directorial duties, after he took a break during the development of the second game in order to focus his efforts upon Bloodborne. While it's difficult to tell whether or not Dark Souls III will be able to compete with his previous masterpiece, we have a lot of trust in him to exceed our expectations once again.
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5. Uncharted 4
After the melancholic and affecting story of The Last of Us, Naughty Dog returning to the quips and Hollywood-style action of Uncharted could be perceived as a step down by some.
However, even though we were left disappointed by Uncharted 3, we certainly have room for some more of the series' ridiculous action set-pieces in our lives. With this set to be Sony's most high-profile first-party PS4 release yet, we expect to be blown away with this one.
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4. Final Fantasy XV
The Final Fantasy series has been disappointing us almost as long as we can remember, but with Square Enix having surprised us all with the genuinely fantastic MMO Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn, we've also been mightily impressed by what we've seen thus far of Final Fantasy XV, the next release in the mainline FF series.
Final Fantasy XV features a unique and suitably campy storyline for the series, taking players on a road trip with its cast of big-haired heroes as they explore its vast environment of gigantic monsters in their sports car. We're hesitant to say this, but Final Fantasy XV looks like it's shaping up very well, and we can't wait to play it.
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3. The Legend of Zelda
The Wii U continues to slip into irrelevancy with a whimper, as while Nintendo's console has an impressive back catalog of games, in 2015 it saw barely any great releases as its creators continue to focus upon the development of the NX.
However, unless Nintendo surprises us next year by announcing it will be making the move to their upcoming new console, The Legend of Zelda looks set to provide the perfect swansong for what has been a fun - if flawed - system. Nintendo continue to keep details regarding the game under lock and key, but it looks beautiful and it's The Legend of Zelda - that's all you really need to know, isn't it?
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2. No Man's Sky
No Man's Sky will be the biggest game we will have ever played. With a procedurally generated open-world environment that even its creators cannot fully explore, No Man's Sky presents a universe of opportunity in which the player can travel to places no one else may even get a chance to visit in their lifetime, such is the unfathomable scale of Hello Games' creation.
While we remain concerned that its sheer size may not be complemented by enough things to do in its setting to keep us invested in it for as long as we hope, No Man's Sky will certainly prove to be an extraordinary leap in what a video game achieve, no matter the quality of the game tucked away inside of it. We hope it lives up to our expectations, as it certainly sounds too good to be true - but that doesn't make us any less excited for it.
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1. Overwatch
Overwatch has been on our radar ever since Blizzard announced that it was working on an FPS, but since the closed beta sunk its teeth into us we're stuck impatiently awaiting its full release. As previously mentioned, 2016 seems like it will be the year in which the worlds of the MOBA and the FPS successfully collide, kickstarting a new era in the latter genre in which militaristic combat is supplemented by more arena-based shooters that incorporate the class-based strategy of games such as League of Legends.
Overwatch showcased just how impressive this collaboration can be, with its beta proving to be one of the more addictive gaming experiences we had in 2015, topping the Twitch streaming playlists and showcasing how Blizzard may have another huge, genre-defining hit on their hands. We weren't expecting to be as enamored with it as we was, but just like Blizzard completely blew us away with Hearthstone, Overwatch is on course for a similar destiny. 2016 can't come any sooner.
