John’s Ones to Watch
STARFIELD
Starfield is the first new universe in 25 years from Bethesda Game Studios, the award-winning creators of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim and Fallout 4. In this next generation role-playing game set amongst the stars, embark on an epic journey to answer humanity’s greatest mystery.
JEDI: SURVIVOR
This narratively-driven, single player title picks up five years after the events of Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order and follows Cal’s increasingly desperate fight as the galaxy descends further into darkness.
RESIDENT EVIL 4
Resident Evil 4, 2005’s legendary survival horror, is brought fully up-to-date in this ground-up remake. Six years after the events of Resident Evil 2, Raccoon City survivor Leon Kennedy has been dispatched to a secluded European village to investigate the disappearance of the US president’s daughter.
HYENAS
According to Creative Assembly, Hyenas will thrust us into a world broken by billionaires; they left the Earth behind to colonize Mars, and the zero-gravity tech they used to power their journey shattered our planet in the process. What remains of humanity is stuck in a drifting slum affectionately titled the ‘Taint’.
PAYDAY 3
Payday 3 is an upcoming first-person shooter game developed by Overkill Software and Starbreeze Studios and published by Prime Matter, as a sequel to Payday 2 from the same series.
John’s Personal Picks
The Last of Us: Factions
When The Last of Us released back in 2013 it wasn’t really on my radar, but after reading all the positive reviews I went down to blockbuster (yes it was still around then) and picked up a copy. It was soon to become one of the best gaming experiences I had ever had.
From THAT opening (that I don’t think I will ever get over) to the final act, this was a new type of game experience. It pulled more from the cinematic than the all-out-action that the PS3 era had become famous for.
The multiplayer was great fun, but it did feel like more of an afterthought, so when Naughty dog announced Factions I was all ears. Set on the West Coast of the USA, with a whole new cast of characters, but with the tight controls and gunplay of TLOU2, this is top of my list of most anticipated games of 2023.
Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom
The follow up the 2017 Masterpiece is finally nearly here and I, for one, cant wait!
For me, the brilliance of Breath of the Wild was very nearly missed. I played it half-heartedly when it first came out, racing through it as my back catalogue was stacked. My eyes were opened when I picked it up a few years later with my then 5 year old son. He was entranced as we ventured through the world, pointing out everything I missed first time. My son’s added curiosity of “what would happen if we tried this?” or “whats over that hill” revitalised the game for me. We discovered a whole new way to play it and after many happy hours kicked Gannons ass!
Now, we’re on our 4th play-through – but with him firmly in control and me playing the side kick – and we are still finding new things every time we play.
With a whole new Zelda adventure on the horizon, we are very excited to dive back in to Hyrule and discover the new mechanics, Dungeons, quests and adventures it has to offer.
