New Year, New Games, New Consoles - What To Expect in 2020

New Year, New Games, New Consoles - What To Expect in 2020

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Matt Lorrigan

Happy belated New Year everyone! It’s 2020, and we’ve got an entirely new year ahead of us, a fresh start that we’re going to use almost exclusively to play more excellent games. 2020 is sure to be an exciting one for video games no matter what, with the launch of two brand new consoles at the tail end of the year, but there are plenty of amazing looking titles coming out between now and then. We accidentally broke our crystal ball at the XBA Christmas party, so unfortunately we can’t show you exactly what the future holds - but we can talk about everything that we do know, and what else we’re expecting in gaming for 2020.

Lets kick it off with January, which as we know is always the most exciting month of the year for new releases! Listen, I’m not going to lie, January is a little dead, and not in the Resident Evil 2 way that 2019 was - although it does see the launch of Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot, which hopefully turns out better than the average anime game. There is also Journey to the Savage Planet coming out at the end of the month, a really cool and funny looking game from the man who directed Assassin’s Creed 3 and Far Cry 4, that has you exploring an uncharted planet to see if it’s fit for human habitation. While it looks a little like No Man’s Sky, the game is actually a handcrafted experience, and it's looking to be a good one at that.

February kicks things up a gear, with Zombie Army 4: Dead war bringing some excellent B-movie shooting shenanigans that are perfect for co-op play. Darksiders: Genesis shakes up the series’ formula, moving to a top down camera for more hack-and-slashy action, and with the game already out on PC and Stadia we know it’s a pretty good time. Fans of PlatinumGames are in for a treat, with the action game experts rereleasing the excellent Bayonetta and Vanquish in a double pack to celebrate the developer’s tenth anniversary. And how can we possibly forget the car crash waiting to happen that is the Sonic the Hedgehog film, which is very kindly releasing on Valentine's Day to create the perfect date night for couples the world over.

The month of March is when things really kick off. DOOM Eternal releases after a brief delay from 2019, and it looks wickedly good. The Slayer is kitted out with a range of new weapons and gadgets to help him demolish demons, and the game just looks like more of the stuff that made the 2016 reboot great - if it’s even just as good as that game, then we’re still in for a treat. We can’t forget about Ori and the Will of the Wisps either, the follow-up title to 2015’s stunning Ori and the Blind Forest. The Metroidvania looks to improve on the combat from the first game, with a return to the pixel-perfect platforming and exploration that made us fall in love with the original title. This is definitely one to keep an eye on in 2020.

Cyberpunk 2077 may be the most anticipated game of the year, both inside the XBA offices and with the general public. The Witcher 3 developer CD Projekt RED’s highly anticipated next game has a massive amount of hype and hope driving it forward, and with the quality of The Witcher 3 leading us to name it our best game of the decade, expectations are high for the sci-fi RPG. With a focus on the density and verticality that a cityscape setting offers, and the developers pedigree for real choice and consequence in its games, we could be looking at one of the deepest RPGs out there, contained within the excellent setting of Night City. Needless to say, we’re dead excited. Speaking of the dead, it isn’t the only highly anticipated game coming in April, with the much-requested Resident Evil 3 remake giving the classic PS1 title a ground-up makeover and a new perspective. Coming out just over a year later than Resident Evil 2, and given much the same treatment, we’re hoping it's every bit as good as 2019’s reimagined zombie classic.

It’s genuinely hard to fathom that there hasn’t been a big budget Avengers game in the last decade, outside of the Lego games and Ubisoft’s decidedly average Battle for Earth in 2012. So much like Thanos, an Avengers game was always inevitable, and Square Enix has taken up the task with Marvel’s Avengers launching in May. Despite the Earth’s Mightiest Heroes looking a little like a set of off-brand toys, the game is set to be an interesting combination of co-operative Anthem-style expeditions and solo story-based missions, that we definitely want to see more of soon. 

June is E3 season, as it always is and always will be, and with it comes the exciting prospect of new console news, next-gen games, and big surprise announcements. Microsoft is sure to take advantage of the event, with Sony rumoured to be a no-show once again, and it’s here that we’re most likely to see the full, detail-heavy reveal for Xbox Series X, and possibly even a lower-spec model of the console at a lower price, if rumours are to be believed. Launch lineups, third party next-gen games, console pricing and release date - we’d be massively surprised if we didn’t find all these out at Microsoft’s conference. Whatever happens, it’s sure to be an exciting E3.

Once we begin looking at game releases beyond June, release dates begin to get vaguer and vaguer, but there are still lots of big games to be excited about. Dying Light 2 is supposed to be arriving in the first half of 2020, leaning further into the parkour and horror elements than the cult classic original. Watch Dogs: Legion looks like an incredibly ambitious follow up in Ubisoft’s hack-and-whack series, allowing players to take control of any NPC in the game. The fact it’s set in London is an extra plus for those of us in Blighty as well, and Ubisoft has designated Legion as a next-gen game, meaning we’re likely to see it arrive on Xbox Series X. Microsoft Flight Simulator is making a comeback, and the games looks visually stunning, with satellite photographs and data being used to create an accurate recreation of our entire planet, with the developer claiming that players should be able to fly over their own home in the game. With a whopping 20 million gigabytes of data used in the game’s creation, we don’t doubt them.

A few cult classic games are getting long-awaited sequels, with Streets of Rage 4 and Psychonauts 2 finally releasing tens of years since their previous entries. Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2 also gets in on the action, with developer Hardsuit Labs promising a more polished game than the 16-year-old original. Some well-loved indie titles are getting sequels much sooner - Little Nightmares, Surgeon Simulator and Kerbal Space Program are all getting second entries, with the indie scene still looking healthy in 2020.

Then there is the stuff we technically don’t know about yet, but almost definitely do. The fact that Warner Bros Montreal is making a new Batman game is pretty much an open secret at this point, and the rumour mill continues to spin with whispers of Assassin’s Creed Ragnarok (although it might not even be called that), a new AC game based in northern Europe and heavily focused around Norse mythology. Regardless of what it’s called, we are due a new Assassin’s Creed game this year. The same can be said for Call of Duty, which has had a new title every year since 2005. Normally we’d be expecting Sledgehammer to be developing this year’s CoD, but reports suggest that Treyarch is being passed the torch, meaning this will be the first Call of Duty title in years to have a two year development cycle - let’s hope this doesn’t detract from the game’s quality. And finally, unless something goes severely wrong at EA, I’m fairly certain that FIFA 21 will be coming out this year.

All of those games are current-gen games, though. How boring. Wouldn’t it be exciting if we were getting some brand new consoles this year? Lucky for us, we are, with Microsoft’s Xbox Series X launching in Holiday 2020. We got a proper look at the system back in December 2019, and it looks almost like a PC tower, but we haven’t had a full rundown of the specs as of yet. What we do know is that the console will have a Solid State Drive to improve loading times, especially when streaming in assets in an open world. It will also be fully backwards compatible with Xbox One, and with any older Xbox titles that have already been made accessible - we wouldn’t be surprised if Microsoft continued to expand its back-compat library once the Series X launches. The console is supposed to be four times more powerful than the Xbox One X, and claims to run games in 4K resolution at 60fps. Impressive numbers, for sure, but what about the games? Well, the big one is Halo Infinite, which will be a launch title for Xbox Series X, and despite also coming out for Xbox One, will “be doing things to take advantage of Xbox Series X,” according to Xbox’s Matt Booty. We’re also expecting a new Forza game, probably Forza Motorsport 8, at launch, although there will be no Series X exclusive titles from Microsoft at launch. Could we also see the return of Xbox's dormant franchises - possibly a new Kameo or Banjo-Kazooie, or maybe even the heavily rumoured Fable 4?

We’ve got a fantastic looking year of gaming ahead of us, and we haven’t even mentioned every game here. Gods and Monsters, Rainbow Six: Quarantine, Elden Ring, Crusader Kings III, LEGO Star Wars - there is so much to be excited for. 2020 is going to be great, and we’ll be here as always to give you all the news, reviews and achievements. Let us know what you’re most excited for this year down in the comments!

Comments
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  • I'm looking forward to: RE3 Yakuza 0, 1, 2 and the full suite of Kingdom hearts games that are getting ported over this year.
  • It´s just me or it seems that the whole gaming market is lacking nowadays? Let´s hope it's just a phase.
  • @2 totally agree. I cant remember the last time i was actually excited about a game/console that i had to have day one. I think there are a few factors: Got too big a backlog cos of cheap indie games, too many games just get pushed out half finished, season pass still always put me off, announcing a £30 season pass 6 months before release but mainly money. Im most looking forward to resi 3 remake which says it all. Wont even bother with next console for a year at least.
  • @2 and @3 I would have to disagree. I feel like gaming gets better and better every year. With the amount of quality titles that are released are almost overwhelming. Playing games like sekiro, rage 2, fallen order, and a slew of other amazing games was fantastic last year.
  • @2 & 3 Completely agree I remember back in the 360 days it seemed like a game came out weekly that I would look forward to playing now I barely turn the Xbox on, absolutely loved resi 2 and can’t wait for the 3rd having never played it before. There’s definitely a speed and greed aspect to games these days with how quick they are pushed out broken, buggy unfixed messes, borderlands 3 was unplayable at times for me at launch and for a few weeks after barely touched anything since
  • Can't wait for RE3 and Doom Eternal. The Avengers game is a wait-and-see for me. And as much as I'm looking forward to Cyberpunk, I think I'm going to hold out for an XSX version. By then I'm sure they'll have ironed out most of the bugs and released DLC, which they can bundle with updated visuals as the "Ultimate" next-gen edition or something like that.
  • @6 I’d like to do the same but don’t think I’ll be able to haha
  • I wanna play Avengers, Cyberpunk and WD Legion... but not enough to pay day-one prices. Cyberpunk is the one I have highest hopes for in terms of quality having recently started Witcher 3.
  • @4 of course there are still good games being published, but the amount is significantly lower than in the 360 times. We have a good game every other month at maximum...
  • @4 I would heavily disagree. 2019 was trash for games with Seikro and RE2 being the exceptions. Nintendo killed it this year, but from both Sony and Microsoft the year was lacking. The majority of titles that released this year were full of bugs, glitches, framerate problems, and crashes. Most were either lacking in content or reinforced with microtransactions which I wish we could do away with. Gaming is not going in a direction I like and hopefully we can turn it around in the coming years or face the fact that AAA devs want us to pay over $100 per game to get what we used to pay $60 for. I'm not a fan of it and I don't understand why you are.
  • @10 couldn’t agree more not many devs could give a fuck about gamers these days bar a few exceptions, think gamings in a bad place at minute
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