New Year, New Games, New Consoles - What To Expect in 2020

New Year, New Games, New Consoles - What To Expect in 2020

8
Matt Lorrigan

Happy belated New Year everyone! It’s 2020, and we’ve got an entirely new year ahead of us, a fresh start that we’re going to use almost exclusively to play more excellent games. This year is sure to be an exciting one for video games no matter what, with the launch of two brand new consoles at the tail end of the year, but there are plenty of amazing looking titles coming out between now and then. We accidentally broke our crystal ball at the PST Christmas party, so unfortunately we can’t show you exactly what the future holds - but we can talk about everything that we do know, and what else we’re expecting in gaming for 2020.

Lets kick it off with January, which as we know is always the most exciting month of the year for new releases! Listen, I’m not going to lie, January is a little dead, and not in the Resident Evil 2 way that 2019 was - although it does see the launch of Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot, which hopefully turns out better than the average anime game. There is also Journey to the Savage Planet coming out at the end of the month, a really cool and funny looking game from the man who directed Assassin’s Creed 3 and Far Cry 4, that has you exploring an uncharted planet to see if it’s fit for human habitation. While it looks a little like No Man’s Sky, the game is actually a handcrafted experience, and it's looking to be a good one at that.

February kicks things up a gear, with Zombie Army 4: Dead War bringing us some excellent B-movie shooting shenanigans that are perfect for co-op play. Darksiders: Genesis shakes up the series’ formula, moving to a top down camera for more hack-and-slashy action, and with the game already out on PC and Stadia we know it’s a pretty good time. Fans of PlatinumGames are in for a treat, with the action game experts rereleasing the excellent Bayonetta and Vanquish in a double pack to celebrate the developer’s tenth anniversary. And how can we possibly forget the car crash waiting to happen that is the Sonic the Hedgehog film, which is very kindly releasing on Valentine's Day to create the perfect date night for couples the world over. The second month of the year also brings three PlayStation console exclusive games - Street Fighter V: Champion Edition, including the base game and all DLC characters; Iron Man VR, where you can finally take to the skies as Tony Stark in the iconic suit; and the magical game development game Dreams, which will no doubt have our jaws on the floor with the mad creations the community will come up with.

The month of March is when things really kick off. DOOM Eternal releases after a brief delay from 2019, and it looks wickedly good. The Slayer is kitted out with a range of new weapons and gadgets to help him demolish demons, and the game just looks like more of the stuff that made the 2016 reboot great - if it’s even just as good as that game, then we’re still in for a treat. Final Fantasy VII Remake comes to PS4 right at the beginning of the month, and if we’re honest it still doesn’t feel real. It may only be part one of the legendary JRPG game, but it looks like it could be the perfect kind of reimagining - bringing the game up to modern standards while maintaining the core of what makes it so well-loved. Nioh 2 is out the same month, and looks cracking, with the samurai Souls-like boasting the same stunning visuals and brutal boss fights as the original, as well as some outrageous monster designs.

Cyberpunk 2077 may be the most anticipated game of the year, both inside the PST offices and with the general public. The Witcher 3 developer CD Projekt RED’s highly anticipated next game has a massive amount of hype and hope driving it forward, and with the quality of The Witcher 3 leading us to name it our best game of the decade, expectations are high for the sci-fi RPG. With a focus on the density and verticality that a cityscape setting offers, and the developers pedigree for real choice and consequence in its games, we could be looking at one of the deepest RPGs out there, contained within the excellent setting of Night City. Needless to say, we’re dead excited. Speaking of the dead, it isn’t the only highly anticipated game coming in April, with the much-requested Resident Evil 3 remake giving the classic PS1 title a ground-up makeover and a new perspective. Coming out just over a year later than Resident Evil 2, and given much the same treatment, we’re hoping it's every bit as good as 2019’s reimagined zombie classic.

It’s genuinely hard to fathom that there hasn’t been a big budget Avengers game in the last decade, outside of the Lego games and Ubisoft’s decidedly average Battle for Earth in 2012. So much like Thanos, an Avengers game was always inevitable, and Square Enix has taken up the task with Marvel’s Avengers launching in May. Despite the Earth’s Mightiest Heroes looking a little like a set of off-brand toys, the game is set to be an interesting combination of co-operative Anthem-style expeditions and solo story-based missions, that we definitely want to see more of soon. May also sees the release of The Last of Us Part II, three years on from the original announcement, and will see you playing as Ellie in a story that is sure to put us all through the emotional wringer, if the original title is anything to go on. With some simply stunning visuals and tense set-pieces shown off, we’re hoping it builds on the incredible The Last of Us in a meaningful way, and given Naughty Dog’s pedigree, we’re sure it will.

June is E3 season, as it always is and always will be, and with it comes the exciting prospect of new console news, next-gen games, and big surprise announcements. Or it would, if Sony were to make an appearance, but that is no longer a certainty. Sony famously skipped E3 2019, and rumour has it, they’ll be skipping it again. We got our first full look at the PS4 way back at E3 2013, but with Microsoft already having revealed the Xbox Series X, and Sony a possible no-show, a full PS5 reveal could really come at any time in 2020.

Once we begin looking at game releases beyond June, release dates begin to get vaguer and vaguer, but there are still lots of big games to be excited about. Dying Light 2 is supposed to be arriving in the first half of 2020, leaning further into the parkour and horror elements than the cult classic original. Watch Dogs: Legion looks like an incredibly ambitious follow up in Ubisoft’s hack-and-whack series, allowing players to take control of any NPC in the game. The fact it’s set in London is an extra plus for those of us in Blighty as well, and Ubisoft has designated Legion as a next-gen game, meaning we’re likely to see it arrive on PS5. Ghost of Tsushima is due out in the summer, and may be Sony’s last big PS4 exclusive before the launch of the PlayStation 5 - and what a swansong it could be, with some stunning visuals and an experienced developer in Sucker Punch.

A few cult classic games are getting long-awaited sequels, with Streets of Rage 4 and Psychonauts 2 finally releasing tens of years since their previous entries. Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2 also gets in on the action, with developer Hardsuit Labs promising a more polished game than the 16-year-old original. Some well-loved indie titles are getting sequels much sooner - Little Nightmares, Surgeon Simulator and Kerbal Space Program are all getting second entries, with the indie scene still looking healthy in 2020.

Then there is the stuff we technically don’t know about yet, but almost definitely do. The fact that Warner Bros Montreal is making a new Batman game is pretty much an open secret at this point, and the rumour mill continues to spin with whispers of Assassin’s Creed Ragnarok (although it might not even be called that), a new AC game based in northern Europe and heavily focused around Norse mythology. Regardless of what it’s called, we are due a new Assassin’s Creed game this year. The same can be said for Call of Duty, which has had a new title every year since 2005. Normally we’d be expecting Sledgehammer to be developing this year’s CoD, but reports suggest that Treyarch is being passed the torch, meaning this will be the first Call of Duty title in years to have a two year development cycle - let’s hope this doesn’t detract from the game’s quality. And finally, unless something goes severely wrong at EA, I’m fairly certain that FIFA 21 will be coming out this year.

All of those games are current-gen games, though. How boring. Wouldn’t it be exciting if we were getting some brand new consoles this year? Lucky for us, we are, with Sony’s PlayStation 5 launching in Holiday 2020. We haven’t had a full reveal of the system yet, but we do know a few things. The controller (presumably the DualShock 5) will have adaptive triggers and haptic feedback, the console will include a Solid State Drive in order to increase speed and reduce load times, and the GPU will support ray-tracing acceleration. We also know that the logo looks basically the same as the PS4’s, but beyond that, confirmed details are a little sparse. What about the games, though? We’ve got Godfall, a looter-slasher which looks a little bit like Destiny with swords, which is also due Holiday 2020 and will probably be a launch title. We expect at least one Sony franchise at launch as well, maybe Horizon Zero Dawn 2, or possibly a return to Killzone, Uncharted or God of War. Maybe if we wish really hard, we’ll even get a new Ratchet & Clank game on launch.

We’ve got a fantastic looking year of gaming ahead of us, and we haven’t even mentioned every game here. Gods and Monsters, Rainbow Six: Quarantine, Elden Ring, Yakuza 7, Babylon’s Fall, LEGO Star Wars - there is so much to be excited for. 2020 is going to be great, and we’ll be here as always to give you all the news, reviews and trophies. Let us know what you’re most excited for this year down in the comments!

Comments
8
  • I honestly don't mind that January is somewhat of a dead month. It gives me time to play some of my ridiculously high quantity of backlogged games. I'm certain that many of us have accumulated more than three unplayed games.
  • I never have a backlog of games to play since I have extremely selective in what I play, but a remake of Vanquish is a pleasant surprise indeed! Maybe, just maybe, they will remove those pesky challenges, well only the last one! Not much on the radar besides FF7, Nioh 2, RE3 and Ghost of Tsushima. Outside that, empty year for me it seems, just like 2018.
  • Persona 5 Scramble isn't a playstation exclusive game, it's also coming out on the switch. It also doesn't have a western release date yet. Persona 5 Royal is a playstation exclusive game and comes out at the end of March.
  • The Last of Us II should be epic.
  • Great article :) keep it up
  • @3: Persona 5 Royal has been out in Japan for ages - it's the Western version that's out in March
  • PST, it is not the year that is late.
  • Hell yeah, PS5, time for a new edition of Skyrim!
  • You need to register before being able to post comments

Game navigation