Cyberpunk 2077
The crowd at E3 went absolutely ballistic when Keanu Reeves appeared on stage to promote this exciting open-world RPG from CD Projekt RED. The Hollywood superstar plays Johnny Silverhand, a legendary Rockerboy cum digital ghost that lives in the head of the protagonist, V. You can fully customize your hero’s gender, appearance, attributes and more, while Keanu will be on hand to guide you along the way.
It takes place in the sprawling Night City, located in the Free Republic of California. Gamers can look forward to a lot of first-person shooting, third-person driving, and gorgeous cut scenes, while there is a massive world to explore. The onus is on the team at CD Projekt RED to make every part of the city impeccable, but the studio has excelled on The Witcher series.
This game will be more adult and foul-mouthed, featuring plenty of nudity, but it turns out you can actually finish it without killing anyone, should you so desire. Details of the game were first unveiled in 2012, so fans will have been waiting eight years to get their hands on Cyberpunk 2077 by the time it is released next year. We hope it will prove to be worth the weight.
Marvel’s Avengers
Marvel’s Avengers series has dominated the film industry over the past eight years and it is now preparing to conquer the gaming world. Marvel’s Spider-Man, a PS4 exclusive launched last year, was a brilliant game, lauded by critics and beloved by legions of gamers. The firm will hope to score an even bigger win by bringing its outrageously popular Avengers ensemble to the gaming arena.
There is no exclusive this time around, and it will launch on the PS4, Xbox One and PC on May 15, 2020. It is developed Crystal Dynamics and Eidos Montreal and published by Square, although Marvel will take a hefty cut. Its story begins on A-Day, with the Avengers partying at their new HQ in San Francisco, before a calamitous event leaves the city in ruin. Earth’s mightiest heroes must unite in a bid to save the world from destruction.
There will be a multiplayer component alongside a single-player campaign, allowing teams of four to battle together in a number of new scenarios. Initial glimpses of the game have been a little underwhelming, but Crystal Dynamic has talked a great talk, and if it can walk the walk then we will be in for a veritable marvel. Either way, it is sure to shift millions of units due to the sheer popularity of the series.
Halo Infinite
This could well be the most enthusiastically anticipated game of 2020. Not only is there a new Halo coming out, but it is also the launch game for the next-gen Xbox console. Microsoft’s latest console currently goes by the name of Project Scarlett and it has promised a release date of “Holiday 2020”. Halo Infinite will be the sixth main entry in the iconic series, continuing the story of the Master Chief.
The team has promised to tell a much more human story than Halo 5: Guardians, and split-screen multiplayer will be reinstated by popular demand. Developer 343 Industries has referred to it as a spiritual reboot, which sounds like an attempt to recapture the magic of Halo 3. However, it takes place later in the chronology than the previous installments, and it also has a more open-world approach than ever before, massively scaling up the gameplay.
The FPS genre is dominated by CS:GO, Call of Duty and Overwatch right now, as you can see here, but Halo: Infinite could well muscle its way into contention. The new Xbox is designed to bring PC gaming into the living room, and Halo: Infinite could end up becoming a major esport if 343 gets it right.
The Last of Us is widely considered to be one of the greatest games of all time. It featured a smuggler called Joel trying to escort teenager Ellie through a post-apocalyptic world ravaged by cannibals and mercenaries. Gamers loved the narrative, the graphics, the combat mechanism, the stealth aspect, and the brooding atmosphere, and it shifted almost 20 million units.
The Last of Us Part II is, therefore, one of the most keenly awaited games ever. It featured an older Ellie, who is now playable and enjoying a blossoming romance with a new girl called Dina while trying to survive. It should be in safe hands with Naughty Dog, and it has the potential to be excellent.
The survival horror RPG genre is flourishing right now and gamers can also look forward to Dying Light 2 – a zombie game featuring Parkour mechanics – among others, but The Last of Us Part II should dominate when it is launched.
Honourable mentions must go to Elden Ring and the Final Fantasy 7 remake, but we have opted for an intriguing new title to round off our list. It will be the third installment in the award-winning Watch Dogs series, developed by Ubisoft, and it will take gamers to a dystopian, post-Brexit London. Every single character in the game is a potential protagonist for you to recruit to your cause, and each comes with his or her own skills and traits, including enforcers, infiltrators, and hackers. Like Cyberpunk 2077, there will be non-lethal weapons for anyone not down with killing.
The game will be released for PC, Xbox One and PS4 on March 6, and it is sure to prove popular due to its ambition. The single-player mode will have five main storylines and more than 60 missions, while multiplayer will return for Legion. The second game in the series was a lot better than the first, and if the upward trend continues then Watch Dogs Legion could be brilliant. The visuals released look really exciting, and it is definitely one to look out for in 2020.