Games to look forward to in 2017

New year, new games, right? 2016 was a great year for games, and stay tuned for a list of things I liked last year, but the future is now, and it's time to see what is going to be playable soon, and what we will hopefully be blogging and talking about next.

There are very few games I tell myself are going to be day one purchases, so when I decided to buy a game right up front it means a big deal to me. So all these games are contenders to be purchased on launch day for me. The first one is Horizon Zero Dawn. I don't typically get PS4 games, but I do make exceptions for great ones like The Last of Us, and the next one I think is going to be Horizon Zero Dawn. Now I said this was going to be a day one buy for me, but since this is a new IP and game I'll probably wait for some reviews before I decided to buy it, but from what I've seen so far the game looks like a complete blast, and has potential to be something really special. Pulling elements from games like Far Cry and Rise of the Tomb Raider, I think this could be a great fusion of semi open world game-play and story telling. This one is dated on PS4 for 2/28/17

I can't help but love the indie darlings, and my favorite two studios are putting out their next games this year. The last time something like this happened is when Transistor and Super Time Force both launched in the same month back in 2014. This year Supergiant Games is planning to bring out their next game after Transistor, called Pyre, which will be coming to PS4 and PC some times this year. This game breaks the developers mold of action heavy combat games, and instead presents us with a 3v3 basketball-esk arena game. It's very stylized, and has rpg elements like the companies prior games, but the gameplay and combat take place on a isometric court where you are trying to get a mystical orb into your opponents Pyre. Ok it just took me way to much thought and googling to figure out how to describe this game, the concept is kinda crazy I know. I played this one it at Pax East last year, and believe me it's going to be fun even it's a departure from what this team is known for.

So to get to the other indie game I'm excited for, and a good example of how the landscape of the gaming industry is right now, is Pit People from The Behemoth. In 2017 Pit People is entering early access (or Game Preview as it's called on Xbox). Pit People is another one where just based on the dev team alone I'm excited for the game. From as far back as Castle Crashers (and then even going back to play Alien Hominid) I've been super into everything this group has done, and actually Battleblock Theater is one of my favorite games of all time (but that's another blog post). So Pit People is, as always, a new genre for The Behemoth. This time they are tackling a turn based strategy game. It's a take on the genre like I've never seen before, where you don't command your units to attack they just have a predetermined attacking pattern for what every is closest to them, so you are just moving them into place. Also you move all your units at once, so they all attack at the same time. I love how creative they are being with the different types of characters you can use, and how those strengths and weaknesses coexist. This one we don't have to wait too long on as it enters preview on 1/13/16, but we will see how close to finished it is when it releases. More on that topic as that game gets closer.

That's going to be it for now. There are certainly a lot more games I'm looking forward to, but these three represent a good list for the first chuck of the year. Technically Pyre doesn't have a release date, but their only other two games have released in the first half of the year, so I'm counting on that again. I'll be back with more games to look forward to soon, but in the mean time let me know what games you are most looking for this year, and what you are going to be playing first.