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| source// Epic Games |
There are some truly exciting prospects on the horizon that make it a truly exciting time to be a gamer, from No Man’s Sky to Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, and from The Legend of Zelda to Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End.
With that said, it’s an even more exciting time to be a PC gamer; not only are we getting most of the year’s biggest releases, but they come alongside a host of brilliant exclusives – the kinds of which console players can only dream about.
From survival-horrors and shooters to flight simulators and everything in between, there are a lot of interesting things coming to the PC this year, and though some of them might eventually find their way over to consoles, we get them first.
More so than ever before, PC is the place to be, and here’s why…
Honourable Mentions: Fortnight, Syberia 3, Might & Magic Heroes VII, Overwatch, Kingdom Come: Deliverance, Total War: Warhammer, Wreckfest, Grim Dawn, Black Desert Online, Lawbreakers, Obduction, Camelot Unchained and Battlefleet Gothic: Armada.
10. Dreadnought
An upcoming flight simulator developed by Yager and published by Grey Box, Dreadnought is shaping up quite nicely. The game itself revolves around the piloting of a large spacecraft; players must shoot down enemy vessels, strategies and allocate power reserves to various systems.
Unlike a lot of similar games, Dreadnought isn’t about a single pilot flying around dogfighting with other ships; the game is designed to make you feel like a captain, coordinating attacks and positioning yourself in the most advantageous positions possible to get the drop on your adversaries.
In order to succeed, you’ll need to choose your targets carefully, manage your systems effectively and target specific weak points on opposing vessels. It’s designed to feel like a collaborative effort, as though you’re controlling literally hundreds of crew members, all working towards a common goal. This will become particularly difficult during the game’s multiplayer, which pits players against one another, challenging their leadership abilities and their capacity to remain cool under immense pressure.
It looks like it’s going to be a lot of fun. It’s a unique concept, and it looks absolutely stunning. There are multiple ship variations to choose from, and each one comes with its own weaknesses and advantages, meaning there’ll hopefully be plenty of replay value.
9. Mount And Blade II: Bannerlord
Announced back in 2012, Mount and Blade II: Bannerlord is the upcoming prequel to the incredibly successful PC exclusive title Mount and Blade. Like its predecessor, the game will have a multiplayer focus, adapting the previous game’s combat system, and improving upon everything from the siege mechanic to the artificial intelligence.
Most of the changes to the game are being made based on players’ feedback; they’ll be more options during battle, and the graphics are also getting a huge overhaul. For the first time in the series’ history, motion capture is being used to give the game a greater sense of realism; the models will also be more detailed, and the shading effects have been drastically improved as well.
All in all, the game is going to be a huge improvement on the first, and it’s definitely something to look out for. Hopefully, it’ll fix everything that was wrong with the first game, while bringing a bunch of exciting new ideas to the table.
8. A Hat In Time
Though it’s had a long and troubled development history, A Hat In Time is supposedly still coming out in 2016.
The game itself is a throwback to old school platformers like Banjo Kazooie, Conker’s Bad Fur Day and Donkey Kong 64. It’s a ‘collect-a-thon’ that’ll have players running around huge, expansive maps to snap up various items whilst solving puzzles and fighting enemies. It looked promising a few years ago, and it looks even more promising now; the game genuinely seems like it’s going to be a lot of fun, offering varied environments, a plethora of challenges and lots and lots of things to collect.
The developers have kept the story details pretty close to their chest, but it should be an adorable nostalgia trip for anyone who grew up in the 1990s. Best of all, Grant Kirkhope, the original composer for Banjo Kazooie, has worked on several songs for the game’s soundtrack, so it’ll at least sound awesome, if nothing else.
The game’s planned to eventually make its way over to the Wii U, but until then it’s only on PC hardware where you’ll find it.
7. Serious Sam 4
Since it was announced back in 2013, development team Croteam have been keeping the long-awaited sequel to Serious Sam pretty close to their chest. All we know is that it’s planned to release this year, and that it’ll follow on from the events of Serious Sam 3. Composer Damjan Mravunac had this to say about the game:
“Our main project that we’re working on right now is, of course, Serious Sam 4. It was on the back-burner for some time while we worked on the Talos Principle. However, while the Talos Principle was being developed, at the same time, we worked on improving the technologies that would help us make Serious Sam faster and more easily, such as photogrammetry and motion capture”.
If Serious Sam 4 does get released this year, it’ll blow the competition out of the water. The previous entries in the series have been hugely successful, and considering the company’s recent success with the Talos Principle, there’s nothing to suggest the latest entry in the series won’t impress. Let’s hope this gets a proper release date soon.
6. Star Citizen
Much like Elite: Dangerous, Star Citizen will allow players to explore a massive universe of infinite possibilities, in which any number of things can occur. It’s essentially a huge sandbox that lets players do whatever they want, from trading resources and making contact with new factions, to battling pirates and taking on dangerous bounty hunter missions.
The game itself is said to revolve around an intricately detailed story with a rich lore; players have the option to forge their own adventures, but the game will offer a detailed narrative for those who want to be swept away by a good story. Star Citizen is also absolutely stunning visually, with cutting-edge graphics and incredibly detailed environments.
If you’re a fan of the Elite series, Star Citizen should excite you, a lot. Hopefully, it’ll take the concept and evolve it into something truly groundbreaking, something of the like to which we’ve never seen before.
It’s currently early days, but like most of the entries on this list, the game looks remarkably promising, and utterly tantalising. Hopefully, it can live up to the hype come launch.
5. Unreal Tournament
Developed by Epic games, Unreal Tournament could be the next big thing on PC. The game’s currently a work in progress, but it’s being updated all the time; the developers are constantly making tweaks, trying to make it the best that it can possibly be. It’s already a lot of fun, so the finish product should definitely be something to look forward to.
Technically the ninth instalment in the series, Unreal Tournament will feature multiple game modes, including Assault, Capture the Flag, Bombing Run, Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch and Duel. Each mode will vary from the last in terms of player capacity and objective, so there should be something for everyone.
Additionally, the game will be completely free on PC, OS X and Linux, so if it turns out to be a letdown, it’s not like we had to pay for the thing in the first place.
4. The Bard’s Tale IV
It’s been 28 years since the last proper Bard’s Tale game, Bard’s Tale III: Thief of Fate. Since then, EA have relinquished the copyright, allowing inXile to continue the legacy with this most recent instalment, Bard’s Tale IV. The game’s already been successfully crowdfunded, comfortably exceeding its initial $1.25m goal, which means it’s only a matter of time before we can finally get our hands on the thing.
By all accounts, it’s going to be a genuine dungeon-crawler which prioritises maze-like environments and puzzle solving. Unlike the company’s previous games, Bard’s Tale IV is being developed on the Unreal Engine, and will utilise photogrammetry, a graphics technique which allows the game to map real-world textures onto its own environments.
What does this mean? Well, that Bard’s Tale IV is going to look absolutely fantastic (The Vanishing of Ethan Carter and Star Wars Battlefront also used this technique), and providing it doesn’t deviate too much from the series’ already winning formula, it should be a huge hit.
Be jealous console gamers. Be very jealous.
3. Asylum
Developed by Senscape, Asylum is an upcoming survival-horror game coming exclusively to PC. The game is set in the Hanwell Mental Institute, and pits players against all manner of disturbing threats. By all accounts, players will be able to freely explore the asylum to their heart’s content, discovering secrets along the way. The horror aspect of the game is going to prioritise atmosphere over cheap thrills, emphasising moments of silence in order to create a deeply unsettling sense of tension.
Like many of the other entries on this list, Asylum is the result of crowdfunding; the game successfully raised over $100,000 in 2013, and development has continued ever since.
The developers claim that the game will take over fifteen to twenty hours to complete, which for a linear, story-focused horror game with a limited budget is pretty damn impressive. Though it looks as though it’s going to be a survival-horror, the developers have actually suggested that the game’s more comparable to the classic adventure-game genre, what with its emphasis on puzzle solving.
The story is said to revolve around several atrocities committed prior to the player’s arrival; left to piece together the mystery, players must uncover the Asylum’s dark history, fend for their lives and escape to tell the tale.
In short, it looks awesome.
2. Torment: Tides Of Numenera
Spiritual successor to the1999 title Planescape: Torment, Torment: Tides of Numenera is currently being developed by inXile, and should make you very excited.
The game’s going to be primarily story-driven, emphasising player engagement with the world over actual combat, though combat will feature heavily throughout the game as well. Dialogue is being handled through a traditional dialogue-tree, allowing players to determine their own responses to a given situation.
Unlike many similar games, Torment doesn’t rely on a black and white morality system; instead, it uses ‘tides’ to determine how players’ actions will effect the world around them, the allegiances of various factions and the perceptions of other characters.
The game was funded entirely through Kickstarter, surpassing it’s target goal of $900,000 in just six hours. Currently, there’s an early access version of the game on Steam, but the finished one shouldn’t be too far behind.
1. Routine
A survival-horror first announced back in 2012, Routine has had a long and arduous development history over the last couple of years, but it’s currently scheduled for release in 2016. The game represents the first project of the newly formed LunarSoftware, and seems as though it’s taking more than a few cues from Irrational Games’ System Shock series. On the subject of the game’s development, the studio had this to say:
“A few months ago [actually March, just for the record] we talked about going through the game replacing all of the placeholder art, we’re happy to say that now we are doing the big second pass on all environments and core gameplay features. […] It has been a very slow process for us but we are working as much as we can to get Routine to a polished state that we are all happy with”.
With its sci-fi setting, dark atmosphere and claustrophobic environments, Routine looks set to steal the show in 2016. Like Asylum, the game grants you free reign to explore to your heart’s content; the story is non-linear and the game is said to feature multiple endings dependent on your decisions. Best of all, gameplay revolves around a perma-death system which will have you constantly on edge; if you die, you’re done forever; there’s no lives system and no take backs.
With this and Asylum set for release in 2016, it should be a good year for horror games on PC. I don’t know about you, but I can’t wait.
What’s your most hotly anticipated PC game for 2016? Let us know in the comments!
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