My most anticipated games for the rest of 2016

We have had a fairly slow Summer when it comes to game releases but a lot of the big hitters are just around the corner, making now the perfect time to go over my personally most anticipated game releases for the rest of this year! For this list, I will primarily be focussing on games that are also coming to the PC, though since I am looking forward to a couple of console exclusives, I will give those an honourable mention at the end.

Activision and Infinity Ward really missed an opportunity this year. A lot of people wanted Call of Duty to return to its roots as a World War shooter but instead, they are pushing the ‘futuristic' direction of the franchise for another year. Battlefield on the other hand will be heading back in time, to an alternate history version of the first World War. So far, everything we have seen looks great, and we will all get a chance to try out the game for ourselves when the beta launches this month.

Gears of War is a series I grew up with on the Xbox 360 and while a few of the main games have been notably absent from the PC over the last few years, Gears of War 4 will be launching on PC as well as Xbox One in October. From what we know about the series so far, Gears of War 4 could be a good jumping on point for new players, or those who play on PC exclusively as we are introduced to a brand new cast of characters and new enemies.

This may be seen as a controversial pick as Gears 4 will be a ‘Windows 10 exclusive', at least at launch and so far, the Universal Windows Platform has not impressed. However, we do know that improvements have been made to the dev tools this year, so hopefully Gears 4 will end up meeting PC standards when it comes to graphical features and optimisation.

World of Warcraft: Legion is coming at the end of August and thanks to the pre-expansion events, I have successfully been hooked back in. The Broken Shore scenario was a fantastic little quest filled with story that perfectly sets up the events of Legion. The invasions have also been fun to take part in- taking down a boss with what looks like well over a hundred other players and then watching everyone mount up and fly off to the next one is really something.

I only just started getting into World of Warcraft properly at the end of last year when a friend of mine decided to take me through the levelling process. So a lot of these big MMO-style events are quite new to me, but still, Blizzard have done a good job of hooking me in.

Next up is Deus Ex: Mankind Divided! This game is coming to the PC, Xbox One and PS4 on the 23rd of August and is a direct follow up to the events of Human Revolution. We will be put back in the shoes of Adam Jensen and be forced to deal with the fallout of the ‘Aug Incident', in which all augmented beings suddenly became uncontrollably violent. I haven't necessarily been a Deus Ex series fan since its inception like some of our readers, but Human Revolution really drew me in, so hopefully, Mankind Divided will be a worthy sequel.

Ubisoft had been keeping very quiet about South Park: The Fractured But Whole, even after its initial teaser announcement at E3 2015. However, this year they really let the floodgates open, bringing Matt and Trey out on stage to discuss the direction of the new game. Instead of fighting over the Stick of Truth, this time, the kids in town will be playing Superheroes and fighting it out in a Civil War. We will once again be taking on the role of ‘the new kid' who discovered his superpowers after witnessing his mum and dad go at it in the sack.

One of the major focuses for this game has been the combat system, which is now a little more involved. It is still turn based, but you have nine superhero classes to choose from and the ability to bring more characters into combat with you. If you aren't a fan of the South Park TV series, then this game might not end up being for you as a lot of the appeal relies on the humour. However, as a long-time series fan myself, I can't wait for the December release date to come around.

Dishonoured 2 absolutely deserves a spot on this list. Dishonoured did an excellent job of building up the world and introducing us to all of these supernatural elements. Now with Dishonoured 2, we will hopefully get to see all of that expanded on and for the first time, you can play through the story from two points of view, as Corvo, who we met in the first game, or Princess Emily, who is now all grown up with strengths and powers of her own.

Those are my top 6 but as an owner of both an Xbox One and a PS4, there are a few console games I am also looking forward to this year, so here are some honourable mentions:

• Final Fantasy XV- The new action combat system looks like a fun change of pace.
• The Last Guardian- After years in development hell, I just really want to see how this one turns out.
• Destiny: Rise of Iron- I am a fan of Destiny. Not super dedicated, but I like to jump back in for each expansion.

KitGuru Says: So there you have it, those are the games I am looking forward to the most for the final months of 2016. What games are you guys excited about? 

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