Nerdgasm for New Year’s: Geeky Things to Be Excited About in 2015

Gaming Gets Better

While movies are going to be great this year, games are looking even better. We are even starting the year off right in February with next-gen releases from two studios that churn out incredible products.

Turtle Rock, the studio responsible for the arcadiest game since the Ninja Turtles beat-em-ups, is going to take online co-op to the next level with the appropriately named Evolve. Games like these have proven that multiplayer matches can be every bit as exciting as well-crafted story modes. Evolve’s ingenious mechanics in particular seem to promise a fresh, fun, unique experience with every single playthrough. Let’s just hope it’s as fun trolling other players as it was in Left 4 Dead.

The other big title dropping in February is From Software’s Bloodborne. After showing the world that “Nintendo hard” is still alive and well with titles like Demon’s Souls and Dark Souls, the Japanese studio bumps their setting from gothic medieval to decidedly gothic revival Victorian. The new environments promise more densely-packed battles, and the combat system is expected to increase the addictive risk/reward components of their past games.

Just like films, games in 2015 are slated to get some new entries in big name series. The ones I’m most pumped for are the as-of-yet-untitled open world WiiU Zelda game and Rocksteady’s Arkham Knight. Uncharted, Just Cause, Halo, Final Fantasy, The Witcher, Mortal Kombat and other series like Ratchet and Clank are also set to get new titles, most of which seem like they will live up to the legacy of their predecessors.

Many games outlets are chomping at the bits for a series of indie games that look extremely promising, even if we’re not entirely sure what we’ll be getting. The makers of Limbo are coming out with Inside, No Man’s Sky is an ambitious game with an indescribable scope, Rime is a very pretty adventure game, and Below is a new retro/pixel art game from Capybara studios.

As with most indie titles, I’ll wait and see how the reviews come out in the wash before getting too hyped. However, one title I’m likely to buy on day one is Hotline Miami 2. The visceral, lightning-quick formula established by the first game seems like a hard thing to screw up. There is another game I’ll be interested in even if it plays terribly, and that’s Cuphead. The game looks like a gorgeous Max Fleischer cartoon from the ’30s, complete with a filter to make the screen appear like an oversaturated TV broadcast.

Finally, 2015 may just be the year we see game studios stop dragging their feet on titles that have been brewing for years — some of them for over a decade. Metal Gear Solid V is the most likely release that we’ll see, although I’m still mad at Kojima for firing the real voice of Solid Snake: David Hayter. Kingdom Hearts III may rear its head this year, even if the entry has undergone so many changes since its announcement that god only knows what we’ll end up with.

My fingers are also crossed to finally hear some news about Bethesda’s latest game, which all signs point to as being Fallout 4. Likewise, I want an official word on what happened to The Last Guardian, spiritual sequel to Shadow of the Colossus, even if it is just a confirmation that they finally put the title to rest.

While we’re at it: George R.R. Martin, can you hurry up and finish The Winds of Winter, dammit? The show is about to have to start making things up out of whole cloth just to avoid a hiatus. As much as I’d like to see Tyrion open up a cake shop and Hodor embark on a singing career, I’d rather you called all the major plot beats before HBO does.