Splatoon – Q2 2015
Nintendo’s exclusive paint-by-numbers multiplayer shooter sees squid take on octopus to try and cover the ground in your team’s ink.
Matches are 4-vs-4, with the addition of a single-player campaign, and that’s about as much as we know right now. Players can swim through ink of their team’s colour for a speed boost and to replenish their battery, so trying to have as much of the map covered serves a strategic advantage.
Everyone has enjoyed what they've played of Splatoon so far, so it could be one of the Wii U's best multiplayer offerings.
Premature Ejudgeulation
Call of Dulux meets a disaster at the Montblanc Ink factory.
Zelda Wii U – late 2015
The Legend of Zelda’s Wii U debut remains hotly anticipated, and for many people it's a reason to buy a Wii U. At The Game Awards, series director Eiji Aonuma teased some early gameplay alongside Nintendo legend Shigeru Miyamoto, and it looked mightily impressive.
The footage hinted at many new things, but started with Link roaming around a gigantic open world, which he was free to explore. Miyamoto suggested that it will include a day/night cycle, with the demo opening at sunset. We also saw Link take a ride with Epona through a lush forest, and Aonuma confirmed that we won’t need to steer the horse in order to avoid crashing into trees, so that’s handy.
Aonuma also stated his team remain confident it will launch in 2015, but not before some of Nintendo’s other titles due out next year, like Star Fox for Wii U. Either way, Zelda can’t launch soon enough.
Premature Ejudgeulation
It's time to buy a Wii U, again.
Halo 5: Guardians - TBA
Fans may treat Halo 5 with a little more trepidation following the botched launch of the Master Chief Collection, and early multiplayer footage which showed Guardians looking very Call of Duty-inspired didn't do much good either.
It was recently revealed that Master Chief will no longer serve as the sole playable character in Guardians, with players taking control of Agent Locke. It is still not known whether Locke is friend or foe, but an added cutscene in the Halo 2 Anniversary edition gave us an early insight into his character.
With a multiplayer beta set to launch on December 29 for owners of The Master Chief Collection, fans are set to get an early glimpse of what’s in store for multiplayer. That is, of course, if 343 can actually get it working.
Premature Ejudgeulation
Moaners be damned. This will be great.
Star Wars: Battlefront - TBA
With Star Wars set to be the biggest thing at the box office since, well, Star Wars, DICE’s Battlefront offering serves as a more than welcome return.
DICE’s experience with Battlefield shows they know how to make intense and vast multiplayer shooters, and with vehicle combat playing a big part, the thought of whizzing between AT-ATs while on an Imperial Speeder certainly whets the appetite.
We haven’t seen any gameplay of Battlefront yet, but the developer has promised to show more this spring.
Premature Ejudgeulation
Obi-Wan Kenobetter be great.
Exploration in an infinite, procedurally-generated galaxy... with space dinosaurs. Every new trailer shows off the incredible vastness of the universe created by Hello Games, with the player told to simply explore what’s out there.
Not much has been seen outside of the exploration aspect of No Man’s Sky, and how exactly it all ties together with other players remains a mystery, but it certainly looks lovely. Hopefully we find out a little bit more early in the new year.
Premature Ejudgeulation
No man knows how this game actually plays.
Yoshi’s Wooly World - Early 2015
Yoshi has been given an Epic Yarn makeover for the forthcoming wooly world. The slower pace and lower difficulty of Yoshi titles is certainly not to everyone’s taste – former editor Simon Miller definitely didn’t enjoy the 3DS’ New Islands).
Footage shows how cute a woollen Yoshi can be, but presents something that is still more aligned with the Kirby series: simple, slow gaming for families. Yoshi can still eat the baddies, but this time turns them into little yarn balls, and his feet turn into wheels at full sprint. Wooly World also supports local co-op.
Let’s see if Nintendo can knit together something good come 2015.
Premature Ejudgeulation
Stringing us along until the next big Nintendo game.
Until Dawn - TBA
Sony’s exclusive horror title goes all Heavy Rain with its branching narratives and choices that will no doubt come back to haunt you. Characters can die in Until Dawn but the story carries on: it's up to you whether you want to try and make it to the end having helped everyone survive, or have it play out like a teen horror and just have one person left to fight off the scary clown slasher.
Steve Burns recently played a bit of Until Dawn and wasn’t all that impressed with what he was shown. With no official release date, hopefully developer Supermassive Games has time to make it less Scream 3 and more Cabin in the Woods.
Premature Ejudgeulation
Hopefully quality, like the first half of Jeepers Creepers, not the second half.
Tom Clancy’s The Division - TBA
Ubisoft’s third-person MMO shooter takes place in post-pandemic New York, and story-wise that’s about as much as we know so far.
Gameplay trailers have shown off some pretty cool features (including characters considerately shutting car doors, which nearly caused the internet to explode), and Ubisoft’s new Snowdrop engine has shown off some very new-gen effects.
The trouble is Ubisoft games never quite look the same upon release. Watch Dogs at launch was a million miles away from its debut trailer, so we’re naturally sceptical as to whether The Division will look this good when it arrives, especially considering its expected scale.
The PvP combat has consistently looked great, though, and we can’t wait to see more of it next year.
Premature Ejudgeulation
10/10 on the Ubisoft game mechanics checklist.
Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End - TBA
Naughty Dog continues to raise its own bar with every new release, but expectations don’t come much higher than Uncharted 4.
We got an extensive look at gameplay during the PlayStation Experience, which showed much larger combat areas for Drake to fight his foes, as well as some new toys to use to traverse the environment.
The subtitle has led many to suggest this may well be Drake’s last ride, but knowing Naughty Dog it’s going to be one hell of a trip.
Premature Ejudgeulation
Most likely to cause a fanboy war in 2015.
Rainbow Six: Siege - TBA
Following the disappearance of Patriots, Ubisoft came flying out of the blocks at E3 with a new 5-on-5 tactical shooter in the form of Siege. The developer certainly wasn’t shy in showing off its reborn Rainbow Six, with extensive gameplay footage appearing over the course of the event.
The level of destruction possible in Siege looks very impressive, with the SWAT team able to blast through the floor, walls and windows to get at the kidnappers. It certainly has all of us intrigued, and looks to be one of the more interesting offerings in 2015.
Premature Ejudgeulation
A classic of the genre returns and is looking good.
