Gaming can be one of the most rewarding hobbies there is, but it can also take some serious cash to wade through the new releases. Some games will blow your mind, while other either can’t or don’t live up to the hype, so you just chucked 60 bucks into the void of forgotten games. To help you avoid that second thing, we’ve compiled a list of the most exciting recent and upcoming releases that should keep you entertained until the next round. Here are the best new video games you should know.
Get Even
Available Now
Atmospheric suspense/horror games are an easy way to get our attention. Done right, they’re some of the most immersive experiences in gaming, can tell great stories, and are just begging to be featured in any fever dreams we have coming up. Get Even is absolutely in that genre, though it gives itself a twist not many other similar games will. The player gets a gun in this one. And let’s distinguish, because there are plenty of horror games that give you guns, but those rely more on grotesque monsters or jump scares to scare you. Get Even balances the suspense of Amnesia or Outlast with guns, so you’re still scared, but you also get the satisfaction of fighting back. PC | Consoles
Steel Division: Normandy 44
Available Now
Strategy games can be some of the hardest to get into, mostly because every opponent you can find, human or computer, is somehow amazing at the game. The learning curve is so steep it’s hard to imagine ever getting mediocre, let alone finding a talent for it. For Steel Division: Normandy 44, that might not necessarily be the case. Military types seem far more important in this game, so if you find some tolerant veteran players, you may be able to learn the ropes in supporting roles, then expand your play style once you get more comfortable with the game’s pacing and controls. Plus, the game’s recent enough that you could still stumble on a game of newbies and you could all get better as you try to destroy each other. PC
PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds
Early Access Beta Available Now
The battle royale shooter game isn’t a particularly new idea, though, for the most part, it was more included as a smaller mode in a larger game and finding populated servers or a consistent player base was difficult. PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds seems to have solved this problem by making it the only available mode. If you want a squad based shooter with constant respawns, Battlefield 1 has been out for awhile and Call of Duty: WWII is on its way. If you want to camp out on the edge of the map with a handgun and the only ten rounds of ammunition you could find, anxiously waiting for someone to stumble through your very specific line of fire only to be sniped across the map by someone way better than you, then pick this one up. Even The Atlantic has a lot to say about the morbid addiction the game immediately starts, and The Atlantic might be the least game focused magazine in the world. PC | Xbox One
Splatoon 2
July 21
As far as we can tell, the enthusiasm for the Splatoon franchise is genuine and we get it. The game is colorful, fun, and unique in a time where most games seem to be mass produced shooters made of different shades of brown. Granted, we’re moving away from that, but it’s still the dominating genre now. Splatoon and its upcoming sequel have one of the weirdest plots and characters we’ve ever seen. Basically, everyone can shapeshift between human and squid and the goal of online multiplayer is to cover as much of the map in your team’s ink color as you can. You can shoot other players, but no one dies. You get splatted and returned to a starting point. It’s completely family friendly and a great change of pace from the violence or seriousness of other games. Switch
Tacoma
August 2
Tacoma has had its fair share of delays, but that’s less a sign of a bad game and more a sign of the developer’s desire to make a good one. It’s only the second game Fullbright, the developer, has made, after 2013’s Gone Home. Like that game, exploration is the key to uncovering the game’s full story, though Tacoma builds on the light puzzle sections of Gone Home. For Tacoma, the player will have to think of the station’s 3D renderings of its crew as a narrative/puzzle hybrid, where the full story of whatever happened on the station will only be told through manipulating, rewinding, and replaying the 3D recordings. We can’t think of any other game that approaches narrative quite that way, but it might be the key to telling even better stories in games. It allows the developer to immerse the player in a new way, rather than railroading them and hoping the story’s compelling enough that the player sticks around. PC | Xbox One
Lawbreakers
August 8
Judge us however you want but Overwatch never grabbed our attention the way it seemed to for everyone else. But that’s kind of what happens when the first you hear about a game is all the porn it inspires (don’t worry, that’s a link to a Kotaku article, not actual porn). Luckily, our first exposure to Lawbreakers was a surprisingly fun cinematic trailer. The soundtracks great, there’s some good physical gags and robot humor, and there’s a ton of variation in character weapons and skills. Early looks at gameplay and classes prove there’s a lot to love about the game and within a few weeks of release, there are absolutely going to be professionals pulling off ridiculous stunts and stringing together impossible kill streaks. Hopefully someone sets up some noob-friendly servers because the alternative is broken controllers and rage quitting. PC & PS4
Matterfall
August 15
We refrain from talking about indie sidescrollers so when we finally do talk about one, you know it’s going to stand out from the masses. Matterfall promises to do exactly that. It’s colorful, fast paced, contains inventive puzzles, and the gameplay, while familiar, refreshes the sci-fi genre. Enemies explode with satisfying particle effects, the music conveys the futuristic setting well, and it’s approachable enough that casual gamers will like what they find while seasoned pros will appreciate the challenge. This looks like the kind of game that was invented for speed runners but not in a way that’ll cause epileptic episodes. And it being a PS4 exclusive means, once it comes out, we may have some reevaluations to do. PS4
Uncharted: The Lost Legacy
August 22
When we were writing that exciting games from E3 article, we weren’t expecting August release dates to be coming up so soon. We get how time works, that’s not it. What we mean is, we weren’t thinking about how close August and June actually are, so Uncharted: The Lost Legacy coming out so close to that article has us happier than June’s trailers. Having a new protagonist should be an intriguing prospect and we’re predicting a Rogue One type game. Even if the characters aren’t the franchise mainstays, if it’s made right, it could end up becoming our favorite release. PS4
Hello Neighbor
August 29
We talked about Hello Neighbor in our first gaming post this year, so we’re glad to bring it back up now that it has a date. We’re very excited to see what changes have been made to the AI now that the Alpha and Beta stages have ended and the full release is coming up. This kind of AI could transform the possibilities of gaming, potentially turning them into more challenging, true to life simulations rather than the scripted games we’re familiar with. Plus that Pixar art style gets super creepy in this game and we’re suckers for atmospheric games. PC | Xbox One
Destiny 2
September 6
The first installment of the Destiny franchise has so much replay value we’re surprised anyone was clamoring for a sequel. We figured everyone was so busy grinding for loot they hadn’t bothered to look away from their screen long enough to realize they hadn’t gotten a Destiny followup yet. Not that we’re complaining. It’s true the first one didn’t get really good until a few months after the release, once DLC started impacting the game, but if the second one can learn from that, expect an excellent game right away. All Platforms
Dishonored: Death of the Outsider
September 15
Arkane Studios deserves a lot of praise for their work on the two main Dishonored games. Stealth games always run the risk of getting boring and repetitive, but by switching up settings, giving the player more choice of characters, and building on the supernatural elements of the series, they kept gameplay fresh and fun and built an engaging, fully formed world. That’s why we have high hopes for this new installment. We’re getting new characters, including a new protagonist, a brand new setting, and even more supernatural abilities. It’s not clear if this is going to be a full blown sequel or a sort of stand alone expansion, though initial impressions lean toward the latter. Not that we’re complaining. All Platforms
