Yesterday I spent a good chunk of time hanging out in Elder Scrolls Online and talking with my friend Clockwork Bells or Bells as I tend to refer to her more often than not. I realize it is probably confusing given that I am most often known as Bel but I assure you that Bells is a completely different human being that is legitimate and not someone I just made up to entertain myself. Somehow we ended up getting on this kick of talking about the games coming out and release dates and it made me realize just how much of my year is already spoken for. In January I did a post looking forward into the year but at that point a lot of the dates were not necessarily set in stone. This morning I thought I would refresh that post and talk about some of the dates of specific things that I know I am going to be playing.
Outriders – April 1st
On February 25th we got our hands on a demo of this game and I am super engaged with it. I like its particular brand of run and gun looter shooter nonsense combined with a very Diablo 3 style build system. I am fully on board with this game and looking forward to the release date on April 1st. I think the demo was a pretty great call because this is one of those situations where a game is launching into a genre that has some pretty tarnished history with games like Avengers, Godfall and now the mostly cancelled Anthem. Putting a demo out there shows that they were confident in their product enough to let us start playing it ahead of time. The cherry on the top however is that some progress will be carrying over, but I have not gone grind happy like so many have because I don’t want to wear the game out before it even launches.
Mass Effect Legendary Edition – May 14th
I love Mass Effect and over the course of the years since its release I have played through it a number of times. I cannot believe how absolutely giddy I am about the prospect of playing through it once more, but this time with improved graphics and hopefully improved interface on the game that needs it the most… Mass Effect 1. Over the weekend I talked about comfort gaming and how often I revisit good experiences from the past as a way of salving mental wounds of the present, and experiencing Mass Effect all over again with fresh visuals is going to be one hell of a nostalgia trip. I pretty much expect to be doing nothing but playing this when it launches until I have exited the other end and am watching the credits roll on the third game.
The Elder Scrolls Online: Blackwood – June 1st
I’ve said this before, but right now I am having this renaissance with Elder Scrolls Online and on June 1st the next major chapter of the story is released with a whole slew of new content and a new zone. That said I am so far behind that I doubt I will actually be caught up by then, but I am going to make an attempt to at least get a little closer to being caught up. If nothing else I am sure there will be some trickle down effect that impacts me and my enjoyment of the game when this batch of content launches.
Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart – June 11th
This is finally one of the reasons why I actually bought a PlayStation 5 and it is coming out like six months after that purchase. I am hoping for the sake of many that by the time we hit this point in the year that it becomes a little bit more reasonable get a console. I am a huge fan of Ratchet and Clank and I am super looking forward to Rift Apart. Like this is a different sort of experience than playing a “forever game” like so many on the list. Similarly the Elder Scrolls experience is different than a traditional expansion launch because I am effectively at end game gear and have been for years now. So there shouldn’t be much of a conflict of poking my head into this game and playing the hell out of it.
New World – August 31st
This is another game that I am super on board with and looking forward to playing. If you too got caught up in the whole madness of Valheim, then I highly suggest you also put this game on your radar. While it doesn’t have the really cool building elements, it does have a lot of the same exploratory and resource gathering concepts. I played this game last year for the first time and fell in love and have been anxiously waiting to get my hands on it legitimately. There is part of me that wishes it had just launched last year as planned, but I know the game that exists today will be better received than the first version that I played. I am not at all into PVP and this game has so much PVE meat on its bones that I think it will keep most traditional MMO players happy.
The Plan So Far
That friends is pretty much all that I know that has a proper release date. There are lots more games that I am interested in, but for now this seems to be the tentative schedule that I am looking at as I progress into the year. Other bits of information that we know are the fact that Diablo 4 will not be coming out this year at all and it is starting to look like Vampire Bloodlines 2 won’t be either. I am certain whenever Horizon Zero Dawn Forbidden West comes out that it is going to take up prime gaming real estate. Currently Phantasy Star Online 2: New Genesis is also slotted for release which I expect will get on this list at some point as well. Right now there is a big gap that is the month of July and most of August but honestly I would probably be perfectly happy just to keep plugging away at Elder Scrolls Online pending we still have a presence in that game.
I’ve never really done this sort of thing, actually tried to plot the course game wise through the year. We will see if in the end my year actually does look anything like this since I am very easily distracted.
I think you’re the first I’ve seen to make the Valheim/New World comparison, Bel. It was one of the first things that I thought of when I started playing Valheim but then the similarities to original EverQuest and Landmark pushed just about all the other lookalikes out of my head.
New World really does look and feel a lot like Valheim, to the point where I was actually pleased to hear New World had been pushed to late summer. I think if it had come out right against Valheim it would have suffered very badly in comparison because there are too many similarities and Amazon is a hate-name for many whereas Valheim is a plucky indie that’s far better than it has any right to be. Hopefully, by the time New World does come out it’ll be far enough away from all the Valheimania it will get a fair shake on its own merits.
Can someone explain to me what the New World is supposed to be doing? I get that it has PvE, but all the news I’ve seen of late is that the social constructs are PvP-related, namely Territories. I’m not really getting the overall point,
New World is the story of a game trying to find itself. It started its life as a hardcore PVP territory control game with some PVE elements. It has morphed over its long series of alpha tests to become progressively more and more PVE focused, so much so that they are adding in dungeons and raids essentially. Why I like the game is that I enjoy its combat and crafting systems and that the world is really interesting and provides a constant challenge. It is extremely dangerous so you sorta have to keep your head on a swivel. I like that you can set up camps that serve as a portable base while you are out exploring and it also changes your spawn point. I really dig the territorial system because the more you do in a specific area the more faction you gain and the cheaper and more efficient everything gets. It is a game where presence feels like it is important and over time each of the towns can build into something really interesting. The other quirk of the game is that there are no vendors at all. Everything is player made and player sold via a trading post/auction house system that only serves a single town. It is going to be an interesting experiment.