The pandemic 2020 and especially 2021, seriously confused the plans of everyone in the gaming industry. The drastic measures taken by governments have led to a real cyclone of shifting schedules, delays, logistical difficulties and the ultimate postponement of dozens of gaming titles. This is especially true for the most expected of gamers triple projects of A Next Gen managers, which will finally give a real start to the next gaming generation and allow the impressive power of next-generation hardware to shine with all its glory.
Well, in the coming 2022, all this is coming to an end, and we are expecting a rare abundance of big, strong titles. And there is hardly any clearer evidence of what the coming year looks like than the first two months. Months that are traditionally not particularly full of new releases, but this time exceptionally literally overflowing with deadly cool games. This, of course, is more than good news for the huge gaming community, which is thirsty for a shocking dose of electronic entertainment, and bad news for our wallets, which will be probably in a quiet horror from the list that we have prepared for you.
Weird West
When you see the name Devolver Digital - one of the most common companies in the business, it should immediately become clear that this is a non-standard game. Weird West is an action role-playing game based on the best traditions of the top-down genre and titles such as Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun and Desperados.
Mixing a western with a pinch of supernatural elements in a unique way, Weird West promises great freedom of research and approach to different situations, further fueled by the fact that the levels will be generated randomly with each new playthrough.
God Of War
After almost a year of rumors and speculation, it is now an official fact - one of the most cult exclusives for the PlayStation 4 comes for the PC. And obviously in its best possible form with a whole bunch of pure PC enhancements: support for 4K / 60 resolution, DLSS and a ton of visual enhancements.
On top of that, of course, you get one of the most impressive, mature and powerful games of the previous generation with an amazingly deep and emotional story, backed by an extremely challenging combat system, rivaling benchmarks in the genre such as the Souls series.
Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection
And if God of War isn't enough for you (or you don't like it), Sony has prepared another absolute masterpiece for you, which also leaves the bosom of pure PlayStation exclusives to make us happy on PC as well. The Uncharted series has always been an absolute benchmark in the world of action-adventure games and for many of its fans it is the true spiritual sequel to the cult Indiana Jones series.
Combining in a unique way real historical facts and mysteries with fiction and offering combinations of challenging puzzles and dynamic gameplay, the games in this series are a must for all fans of the genre.
For all of them, the Legacy of Thieves collection offers the last part of the saga - Uncharted 4: A Thief's End, and its expansion - Uncharted: The Lost Legacy.
CrossfireX
One of the main competitors of the "eternal" CS: GO will finally debut in February. Unlike CS, however, CrossfireX will be available only to owners of the Xbox platform, but judging by Microsoft's policy recently, we will probably see a version of the PC at one stage or another.
As long as, of course, CrossfireX is successful enough in the meantime. However, the single player campaign is run by an experienced studio such as Remedy Entertainment, and this definitely gives hope. We will see.
Lost Ark
And while the future of Diablo 4 is in question with all the turmoil Blizzard has been going through lately, one of their strongest competitors, Korea's Lost Ark, is finally on the verge of delighting an ARPG-hungry audience.
Published (and localized) by Amazon Games, Lost Ark will be a free 2 play (similar to the hugely successful Path of Exil, but many players fear the game will stumble too much on the pay 2 win model, where if you don't pay for virtual items, you just won't be able to progress normally (hopefully that won't be the case, because beyond that Lost Ark looks fantastic in both vision and gameplay).
Horizon Forbidden West
The first big PlayStation exclusive of the new gaming generation comes loaded with huge expectations. The original Horizon Zero Dawn has become one of the key titles of the PlayStation 4 generation thanks to the combination of an extremely original, huge and open to exploration world, intriguing story and dynamic action gameplay with role-playing elements.
Horizon Forbidden West seems to be a (slightly disappointing) direct sequel following the "If it's not broken - don't fix it" formula. The story will continue literally from where it ended in the front, but now on a completely new continent, full of new, even crazier and more challenging mechanical opponents.
Elden Ring
The event, which all Souls fans have been waiting for more than a decade, is finally about to become a reality - a real (although not a direct) sequel to Dark Souls, but with visibly added elements from other cult FromSoftware titles like Bloodborne and Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice.
Unlike all previous Souls titles, the main novelty in Elden Ring will be the huge, completely open to free exploration gaming world. This is a decisive step in the opposite direction for the studio, which has always presented to its fans a very carefully and precisely planned path for progression through the game levels.
Beyond that, you can expect many of our well-known Souls elements - a brutally ruthlessly challenging combat system, many different options for approaching battles; a huge variety of spells, armor, weapons and items and a flexible role-playing system that allows you to develop your character in whatever direction you want.
Source: HICOMM
