The Retail Games of 2015: Part 3

ScreamRide - Spring 2015

Xbox exclusive ScreamRide looks to take a different approach to the fairground management sim. Whether your creations work beautifully or end in bombastic destruction, both outcomes are welcomed in the world of ScreamRide.

The launch trailer showed rides failing spectacularly with occupants flying into walls. Whether this was a consequence of poor creation or a deliberate choice seems to be in the hands of the player, and sets up something very intriguing.

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Alton Towers 1.5.

Mortal Kombat X - April 14

The super-violent bash-em-up returns with the tenth Mortal Kombat. Initial trailers show the latest entry reverts to Mortal Kombat 4’s fighting style system, with each combatant able to choose from multiple disciplines.

The initial trailer certainly built plenty of hype, with Scorpion and Sub-Zero kicking seven bells out of each other with everything they could summon or grab hold of.

We’ve only seen a snippet of the roster so far, but among the newcomers is Johnny Cage and Sonya Blade’s child, an insect-enthused woman, a dwarf underling and giant monster duo and the blood god of Outworld, and that’s just the start. Expect things to get very bloody when this launches in April.

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Get over here and into our disc drives.

Dead Island 2 - Q2 2015

With Techland moving on to make Dying Light, Deep Silver has brought in Spec Ops: The Line developer Yager to make Dead Island 2.

Early footage from Gamescom shows Dead Island 2 takes place in California (not an island, but Yager doesn’t care), and looks unsurprisingly similar to both Dead Island and Dying Light. With Techland’s new IP due out first it'll be interesting to see which comes out on top. Although, with the thirst for the zombie apocalypse seemingly never-ending, it’s possible for both to do well in 2015.

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No Techland gives us hope.

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt – May 19

Geralt is back and CD Projekt Red look set to deliver one of the most beautiful games yet on new-gen consoles with The Wild Hunt.

The Witcher 3 promises to tell a much darker story (if that is even possible), and brings to an end Geralt’s tale. Although it has suffered some substantial delays, we still have over 35 minutes of footage to enjoy while we wait, featuring Geralt on horseback.

The Polish developer doesn’t pull any punches when it comes to telling a somewhat mature narrative, and we’ll no doubt face some tough choices once again. Hopefully they don’t come back to haunt us at the close of the trilogy.

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CD Projekt Red Hot.

Batman: Arkham Knight – June 2, 2015

Rocksteady’s third entry to the much-loved Arkham series is giving players the chance to do something they've wanted to all along: drive the Batmobile, which the developer seems to have turned into a city-destroying tank.

Early footage from the recent Ace Chemicals trailers shows Bats doing the same Caped Crusading Kickass-ery we’ve seen in the past two entries, and this time it’s the Scarecrow and the Arkham Knight who serve as the main enemies.

The trailers suggest that the core mechanics won’t deviate too far from the previous entries to the series, but considering their quality and success, we doubt many people will have an issue with that.

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Project Gotham Racing 2 with fighting.

Mad Max - TBA

With the release of the Mad Max movie this summer, Avalanche Studios may well be under pressure to release the game around the same time. We’ve seen very little since the initial announcement way back at E3 in 2013, which is never a good thing.

The official website still lists it as coming out in 2014, bizarrely. Hopefully that’s just because the team is so hard at work making a brilliant Mad Max game. Unless, of course, it launches on New Year’s Eve, in which case that’s unlikely.

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The film looks great.

Majora’s Mask 3DS – Spring 2015

The long awaited Majora’s Mask 3DS remake is finally arriving in 2015. Fans have been clamouring for the game ever since Ocarina of Time came to the handheld back in 2011.

The game will offer a more streamlined gameplay experience, although no details were given as to how this translates to gameplay.

Nintendo knows it has a back-catalogue that can pretty much print money, and Majora’s Mask is certainly one of the titles capable of being an instant hit. Fans craving more Ninty nostalgia will no doubt pick it up in the spring. At the very least it will tide fans over until Link’s Wii U debut later in the year.

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What took Nintendo so long?

Star Fox Wii U - TBA

Shigeru Miyamoto is making a new Star Fox, and it’s definitely coming out before the next Zelda offering. This information comes direct from Miyamoto and Eiji Aonuma’s bromance at The Game Awards, and there’s been little else regarding Star Fox other than some very blurry footage.

That said, we're not asking for much either: as long as it is a better-looking Star Fox (aka Lylat Wars) 64, then we’ll be very happy.

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Do a barrel roll of excitement.

Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain – 2015

Hideo Kojima continues the battle for reach versus grasp with The Phantom Pain. We gave up on making sense of the Metal Gear storyline a long time ago, and are all but certain that the plot found in the fifth entry will only serve to tangle the storylines even further.

2014’s Ground Zeroes gave us an early glimpse into the basic gameplay and look of the upcoming release, and was generally well received. The improvements the the core mechanics presented a more fluid experience, while it looked superb on next-gen and PC. Although hearing Jack Bauer as Snake is still weird.

The open-world setting means players will get a chance to drive trucks and horses (unbelievably, Kojima has managed to add stealth to horseback riding), and, of course, extract farm-life to your home base via airlift.

The recently revealed Metal Gear Online will also launch with The Phantom Pain. Hopefully it’ll offer something new in the mulitplayer shooter space.

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Obey Kojima. He drives a...