As we go into the 25th month of 2020, it feels like time has no meaning anymore, yet it turns out that things do keep coming out and there’s plenty of marketing things to stir up FOMO and get us excited. It’s telling exactly how much the pandemic has sort of skewed the whole perception of time, though, when you think about it. Like… how many people even remembered that the Snyder Cut of Justice League came out in 2021 until I put it in my list of 2021, or that the boat got stuck in the canal less than a year ago?
It’s hard to even gauge some of this when it comes to video games, because so many things got pushed back from last year to this year, or announced without any dates at all. Both the Xbox and the PlayStation were guilty of it, but the PlayStation, especially, saw most of its marquee titles moved to 2022 at the earliest. Still, there’s plenty of things coming, so here’s the things we’re looking forward to the most, be it media, tabletop, or maybe even some toys. Who knows, it could happen.
Ace
Look, my list is all about video games right now because that’s pretty much where my head is at. I will include a list of non-video game honorable mentions at the bottom though.
Splatoon 3
I need to lead with this. Oh yeah. My favorite Nintendo franchise is coming back. And I am more than ready to come out of retirement to get my splat on. Heck, maybe I’ll come out early and work off the rust in some ranked battles in Splatoon 2. No solid release date yet. It can’t come out soon enough. I am STOKED!
Metroid Prime 4
True story: E3 2017. I was driving to the L.A. Convention Center in stop and go traffic on the 110. Nintendo’s Direct was airing so I did what I advise everyone NOT to do and set up my phone on my dash and brought up the stream in my YouTube app. I watched and watched and the moment the trailer played and the words “Metroid Prime 4” revealed itself, I just lost it in the car. I may or may not have shed a tear too. My favorite Nintendo franchise is coming back as a proper sequel to the Metroid Prime trilogy.
Sequel to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
It came as a bit of a surprise when Nintendo pegged a 2022 release date for this game during that one Direct. Sadly, I haven’t finished the first BOTW yet, but that should be pretty easily done at this point. Everytime I go back to the game, I keep trying to finish the Master Sword trial and failing. Meh. I guess I don’t need it. I can’t wait for my favorite Nintendo franchise to come back with the BOTW sequel. I’m guessing the holiday season will be the release window.
God Of War Ragnarok
Eric told me that playing the PS5 upgrade of God of War is “life-changing”. I’ll take his word for it right now but I do kinda want to get back and play New Game + mode. Might be a good way to whet the appetite. Completing that game on Give Me God of War difficulty is still one of my greatest video game achievements. Ragnarok looks more of the same but like way more and that is just fine because what is already there is awesome!
Gran Turismo
So like this video came out a few days ago as I write this, a 30-minute deep dive of the game. It looks phenomenal and I don’t say that word too often. It comes out on my birthday month, on March 4th to be exact. That’s in one month! Needless to say this is the game I’ll be playing on my personal new year day and then some.
Horizon Forbidden West
I was hesitant putting this one down on this list. I really liked the story and combat of the first game, especially the combat. Fighting off robotic prehistoric dinosaurs with a bow, trip wires, and what have you, just so much fun. But for some reason, this sequel is something I can wait for a sale on. That’s how I got the first game, might as well follow tradition.
Final Fantasy VII Remake Part 2
Ah, Final Fantasy VII Remake. The game where everyone in your party is ridiculously attractive. I haven’t heard a peep about Part 2. No trailer, no teaser photo, no release date, nothing. Supposably, Part 2 is supposed come out this year, but I’m not holding breath. And honestly, with all the games I mentioned above, I wouldn’t mind if Part 2 came out in 2023 or later. And since there’s no video for FFVIIRP2, I posted one of the DLC pack for Part 1 with Yuffie. This reminds me, I still need to play through that.
Honorable Mentions
Okay, so non-gaming stuff? In no particular order:
- Reducing my video game backlog.
- The last of my Kickstarters finally being delivered. I’ve given up supporting anything on there. It’s a bad habit, full of FOMO and other nefarious tactics. I’ve only regretted backing one thing on there, I’ve received everything else thus far, and I consider myself extremely lucky for that track record.
- Stranger Things coming back on Netflix.
- My tax return.
- Dining in indoor restaurants.
Eric
I always like to look back at last year’s post to see how the games I anticipated actually turned out. So, quick review time!
Hitman 3. Yes, I was excited for it, but I actually never bought it. As much as I liked the game loop of these Hitman games, I’ve just never really found a great need to buy them on release. I still haven’t even gotten around to playing Hitman 2.
Deathloop. This one was my Game of the Year, until I played Bowser’s Fury. Deathloop is so, so fun, and I’ll probably write an in-depth review of it one of these days. But if you haven’t played it, and you like action games, pick it up.
Resident Evil: Village. People love this game, and while I don’t think it’s bad, it’s definitely not my favorite Resident Evil game. I thought Village was fine, but haven’t really had an urge to go back and play it. Although I do like that the overarching story of Resident Evil actually progressed for once. I’m interesting to see where Capcom goes next with this series.
Little Devil Inside. Still waiting on this one to come out. Still excited. Looks like Winter 2022, and if gets delayed, I’ll probably be mentioning it again this time next year.
Back 4 Blood. This one…hoo boy. I didn’t hate it, but me and my buddy just fell off of it really quickly. All of the mechanics in the game are pretty good, it just didn’t have the staying power I hoped it would.
Which leaves one game. Still. For the third year in a row.
Sigh. Throw up the teaser.
I haven’t watched this trailer. I haven’t watched anything that’s come out in the last year. I’ve been going back and playing old Soulsborne games in anticipation.
There’s not much I can say about this one, honestly. We all know it’s going to be great. It comes out February 25, 2022.
Aside from Elden Ring, I’m weirdly content with the games I have right now. I’m working my way through my back catalogue, currently playing through The Last of Us: Part II and Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch. So I figure I’ll just keep churning through the hundreds of games I need to play through and wait for 2023.
Nick
I really don’t know a whole lot that I’m looking forward to this year when it comes to video games, and I have no idea what’s coming out for LEGO. There’s plenty of stuff out there, and I’m sure some shows. I’ll be honest, last year, I kind of adopted a “wait and be surprised” attitude a lot of the time when it came to stuff. I watched very few trailers, I didn’t seek out a ton of information, so I went into stuff blind a lot.
I also didn’t play new releases for games, and just generally let stuff go. Which certainly saved me some money and time, and generally, stressed. Turns out I didn’t miss most of it. Weird.
Saints Row
I’ll admit, I’m a little bit skeptical about this game. I honestly don’t trust THQ Nordic and their parent company, Embracer Group, to make fantastic games like the old Deep Silver was capable of doing before THQ imploded. Saint’s Row started its life as a buggy-as-hell GTA clone that had a decent story to become a better-than-GTA game with III and a “it has no right to be this stupidly fun” over-the-top romp in IV that threw everything out the window in the franchise and opened the game up by having you climb a nuclear missile with Aerosmith playing in the background before aliens invaded and blew up the earth.
I repeat, that was the opening of the game. It only got crazier from there. I loved that game, and still play it from time to time, because it was just crazy. Sometimes, you gotta go with the crazy game. The new entry, due in the middle of the year, is supposed to go back to a mixture of comedy and drama, somewhere between 2 and 3, and have a bit.
Starfield
I honestly don’t know if I’m excited for this game, which is 11 months from release supposedly. It’s never going to come out in November – my prediction for 2022 is that it gets pushed to March next year. Microsoft is bad at a lot of things, and I’ve written plenty about all the terribleness that Bethesda does, but both of them haven’t had the deep-seated crunch exploit culture that dominates a lot of the other big companies. I’m sure they have crunch in spurts, all video games companies unfortunately have that baked into their DNA, but it’s not the pervasive, constant culture that made up “Bioware Magic” and forced out all the Naughty Dog titles.
This game is supposedly a year out, and we know nothing about it except that it’s a Sci-Fi title from the company that makes Elder Scrolls and Fallout. It’s exclusive to the Xbox on consoles, the first “big” exclusive of the generation and why Microsoft ultimately paid all those billions. Sony players will need to come to the PC to try it, or grab an Xbox Series S. Those are decent enough bones to build from for a game, and hopefully we learn more in time.
Mostly, though, I’ll admit I want them to get this out so they can work on Elder Scrolls VI and Fallout V.
Ms. Marvel
I’ve made no secret that Ms. Marvel / Kamala Khan is perhaps my favorite “new” hero of the last decade. Given the fantastic job that’s been done on the other shows on Disney+, this one feels like a perfect fit, not just because it will fit well
She-Hulk
In that same vein, the other show I’m excited for is the angry green lawyer. I like the character, and there are two very good recent runs that could be drawn on for the show… Charles Soule’s 2014 run and Mariko Tamaki’s 2017 Hulk where Jennifer dropped the “she” from the title. The former is more likely, as the latter is a fantastic run, but relies on a lot of established trauma and in-universe events to draw from for the story. It’s a great read, and could be drawn into a great later season, but hard as a starting point.
More than that, though, She-Hulk is a great connecting title to pull together a lot of other characters and shows. She has long-time ties to the Avengers, but also to the Hell’s Kitchen and Defender types. Bringing in the Netflix characters, you know, for no particular reason, is easier through this character and show. It can also bring in a lot of other characters that didn’t quite make it elsewhere, like Squirrel-Girl, etc.
Basically, the show has promise for the title character, and promise for everything else it offers. Probably more than any other Marvel show to date.
Warhammer 40k – Eldar Craftworlds
I talked in great length how Warhammer 40k became my hobby of choice in 2021, and that looks to continue in 2022. One of the big reasons why is that my “first” Warhammer 40k love, Craftworld Eldar, i.e., Space Elves, are getting a huge revamp this year… their first in a very long time. The model range for Eldar is the oldest in 40k, with some of the kits and models ranging back to the mid-90s without an update, and the average age of kits in the range coming in somewhere around 20 years right now. Compare that to most of the Space Marines I posted, which are all 1-5 years old (a few may be older, but most are pretty new).
Maybe I’ll write more for the two or three out there who care, maybe not. I honestly haven’t decided… but seeing the army I like fills me with joy and my wallet with dread. This is going to be an expensive and busy year for me, hobby-wise. Time to start clearing out the pile of shame to make room for all the new stuff.
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