There are a lot anticipated games for the next generation of consoles. You know them all and you can’t wait to get your sweaty hands on them — they’re the next Halo, Metal Gear Solid, God of War, Uncharted, Gears of War, Forza, Gran Turismo, Call of Duty, Battlefield, Killzone… You get the point. But what are the top 10 most anticipated brand new IPs of the next generation? Note: A majority of the games on this list won’t be coming to the Wii U.
10. Knack – PS4
From the unique minds over at Japan Studio (developers of Ape Escape, Demon Souls, Patapon and the recently released Puppeteer) comes a fresh new platformer called Knack. First announced during Sony’s Playstation meeting in February, Knack is bound to be the next new signature 3D platformer since Ratchet and Clank and Jak and Daxter were first released on the PS2 over a decade ago.
Knack’s been described as “a little bit like Crash Bandicoot and Katamari Damacy, with a touch of God of War” by game developing genius Mark Cerny who’s directing it, (he’s worked on everything from Crash Bandicoot and Jak and Daxter, to Uncharted and God of War 3). Thus, it’s in extremely experienced and well-kept hands, and it’s already much anticipated by platformer-loving gamers.
9. Ryse: Son of Rome – Xbox One
The Xbox One launch game, Ryse: Son of Rome, is being developed by graphics powerhouse and Far Cry and Crysis developer Crytek, and is essentially Microsoft’s response to Sony’s God of War. It takes place in Roman times where you control the main character, Marius, throughout his life, from childhood to Roman General.
Ryse was announced in 2011 during a Microsoft press conference and was thought to be a Kinect driven game, only later to become a “Better with Kinect” series. Ryse (being a third-person action/adventure game) will be coming from a developer that has mastered the first person shooter genre. Seeing exactly how Crytek can translate its thorough experience with FPS games to a third person game will be half the anticipation.
8. Deep Down – PS4
Deep Down is a free to play, online, dungeon crawling, dragon killing, real time action RPG that partially takes place in New York City in the year 2094 (come again?!). Deep down is being developed by the video game veterans at Capcom and was first introduced at the Playstation meeting in February and was made playable at the 2013 Tokyo Game Show.
Not much is known about the game, and the name “Deep Down” is a working title. Therefore it could change by the time the game is released in early 2014, but it has been likened to Demon souls and Skyrim.
7. Quantum Break – Xbox One
This ambitious Xbox One exclusive is being developed by Max Payne and Alan Wake developers Remedy Entertainment and was revealed at the Xbox One Reveal event in May. Quantum Break is an ambitious third person action video game / live action TV show hybrid, where choices made in the video game influence the “television show” component in the game and vice versa.
Not much is known about the actual story other than, it takes place after a failed a science experiment goes awry and the two main playable characters, Paul Serene and Beth Wilder (between whom the player’s point of view will shift) are then given the power to manipulate time and the choices that alter the ultimate outcome of the story.
There will also be “junction points” where the player will take on the villain’s perspective, whose grasp on time manipulation over powers the two protagonists and is able to see several branches in times and manipulate things at his will.
6. Driveclub – PS4
While Gran Turismo 6 is making its late debut on PS3, the driving simulation vacuum is being filled by no other than Driveclub, a first person on-road driving simulator coming out of a studio that is notorious for its off-road driving games (see: MotorStorm series), Evolution Studios.
First revealed at the Playstation event in February, Driveclub will feature hyper realistic models of each car and have a strong reliance on community features, taking advantage of the PS4’s “share” feature to manage and play with in racing teams.
5. The Order: 1886 – PS4
The latest game out of the studio that churned out two of the PSP God of Wars games — Ready at Dawn, finally makes the leap to a full blown console game with “The Order: 1886” a PS4 exclusive that was revealed at 2013’s E3 and is expected to be released mid-2014.
The Order: 1886 is a third-person shooter that takes place in a near-replicated steampunk London 40 years after the start of the industrial revolution in an alternate history. Where you assume the role of “Galahad” the leader of “The Order” a fraternity of protectors who’s existed for more than a millennium, whose duty is to watch over and protect humankind from a mysterious inhuman force.
In this alternate history, The Order is finally able to attain and wield some very advanced alien weaponry that begins to turn the tide against this mysterious threat.
4. Watch Dogs – Multiplatform (Including Current Gen)
Out of the extremely capable hands of Ubisoft Montreal, whose best known for the Assassins Creed series and FarCry 2 and 3, comes the highly anticipated third person action/stealth, multi-platform, next gen launch game “Watch Dogs.”
“Watch Dogs” takes place in Chicago, a city that features a super computer known as CtOS (Central Operating System) that essentially controls all of the city’s technology, everything from cell phones, ATMS, security cameras to automated city functions, like traffic lights and raise-able city barriers, etc.
In Watch Dogs you play as a skilled hacker vigilante Aiden Pearce who hacks the CtOS to manipulate the city to get away with his own brand of street justice and to stop potential crime, something the police apparently have an issue with.
3. Destiny – Multiplatform (Including Current Gen)
From Bungie, the Halo heavyweights, and former Xbox exclusive developer comes there next destined to be masterpiece, Destiny. First unveiled at Sony’s 2013 E3 conference, Destiny is an online open world first person shooter with MMO elements, something that begs the need of a high-speed FiOS connection. Instead of being able to interact with every individual player that’s on the same server you are, Destiny will have “on-the-fly” match making, only allowing you to interact with other players whom the game matches you with.
Destiny takes place 700 years in the future in a post-apocalyptic world, where after centuries of technological advancement, space exploration and space colonization of planets in the solar system, called the Golden Age, a mysterious dissolution of these planetary colonies, called the collapse occurred, leaving only the humans on earth that were protected by a massive spherical space ship called the traveler to survive.
While trying to repopulate, hostile alien races begin to take over former human colonies and start to clash with the humans. The player takes on the role of the guardian of the city to protect from encroaching hostile alien forces.
2. The Last Guardian – PS4
The Last Guardian is the mysterious spiritual successor (but not a sequel!) to the cult classic and critically acclaimed games Ico and The Shadow of the Colossus from the mysterious developer Team Ico. It’s been in development since 2007 and was first shown at 2009’s E3 Sony Press conference as a PS3 game. Then years passed, with every passing game convention, eager gamers anticipated that the Last Guardian would finally make an appearance. However, this was to no avail; after several years of not hearing anything about it, most were afraid the game had been abandoned and thrown out.
Not only until very recently have we started to hear murmurs from Sony that it hasn’t been abandoned and that they’re planning on reintroducing it to the public. But with it being this late into the PS3’s lifespan, odds are that they either redeveloped it for the PS4, or they will release it as a downloadable PS3 game that’s playable on the PS4. Either way, Sony has given us fans of Team Ico perpetual gaming blue balls waiting for this classic.
Not much is known about the actual game, it does include a mysterious looking boy and some giant dog-cat-chicken hybrid, who one could only assume is the guardian. Team Ico games are known for being simple, classic and majestic.
1. Titanfall – Xbox One, and PC
This game made one helluva impression during this year’s E3 when it was revealed for the first time, taking home 60 E3 awards, including a record breaking 6 E3 Critic’s Awards. Titanfall is being developed by the brand new studio, Respawn Entertainment, a studio formed by disgruntled fired co-founders of Infinity Ward (the people who made that little COD Modern Warfare 2 game that you may have heard of).
The result is a futuristic, multiplayer only, fast-paced, parkour-style on-foot FPS. It’s also an all-powerful, agile mech or titan simulator where you can go from one to the other without hesitation. Titanfall is an Xbox One exclusive and is expected to be due out early 2014
This concludes my list on the top 10 most anticipated new IPs for next-gen consoles. Did I nail it, or am I missing something? What games would you rearrange or add to this list? Please feel free to let me know in the comments section below.
