PaigeFTW: Looking Ahead in 2016
Every year I make the grand declaration that this will be the best year ever in gaming. This will be greatest year ever. The year that defines all other years.
(As you might have guessed, I am often disappointed.)
But 2016 is totally going to be The Big Year, and here’re a few reasons why.
- Fire Emblem: Fates (3DS)
After Fire Emblem: Awakening brought the franchise back from the brink of cancellation, Fates promises to triple what you liked — with three separate story scenarios. I played Awakening three times in a row for 200 hours last time, so god save me Feb. 19.
- Persona 5 (PS3/PS4)
After the resounding success of Persona 4, which Atlus has milked to within an inch of its life, Persona 5 promises a fresh start for the Japanese high school simulator/demon-summoning dungeon crawler.
- Mass Effect: Andromeda (PC/PS4/XBO)
Do we really know anything about how the new Mass Effect will fit into Shepard’s story? Well, supposedly it won’t, at all. But who even cares — a new BioWare game is a new BioWare game.
- Horizon Zero Dawn (PS4)
It’s a beautiful take on the post-apocalyptic action RPG genre with robot dinosaurs and archery and a female protagonist, by the makers of Killzone? That sounds pretty great to me.
- Pokemon GO! (iOS/Android)
I have my doubts about this “real-life” Pokemon AR game, but the Internet seems convinced that it will be the messiah come to Earth. The idea of catching Pokemon all around the world, raising them and battling trainers on the go is … well, pretty damn awesome.
- Final Fantasy XV (PS4/XBO)
It’s been in development for 10 years, the next numbered title in the world’s most storied RPG series. Admittedly, Final Fantasy VII Remake has stolen some of its thunder, but at last, at long last, we will find “the true figure still hidden in the sleep.”