Hey, I’m Marina, and this is my brand-spanking-new blog called Games, Galaxies and Other Geekery. As you may have guessed, the blog will mostly be about video games, somewhat about the awesome space stuff I vaguely understand but think is cool and a little bit about whatever nerdy or geeky thing I have recently become obsessed with. I’ll try not to ramble about Joss Whedon, “Mass Effect” or “Legend of Korra,” but I make no promises. Seriously.
Now that the disclaimer is out of the way, I can go into what this post is about: the coolest games coming up for 2015. I know not everyone subscribes to Game Informer or spends hours dissecting game endings (“Mass Effect 3,” *cough*) or sneak peaks, so I am here to guide you.
It’s a new year, and the future is really bright for gamers. It was really hard to choose my top 10 favorites coming up, so instead, here are the top three games of 2015 that I’m most excited for:
1. “No Man’s Sky”
Release Date: TBA
Consoles: PS4, PC
I know a lot of people start from the bottom and work to the best, but I’m just so darn excited about this one. Hello Game’s “No Man’s Sky” looks beautiful, and I’m not just talking about graphics. You start with a ship on a random planet. From there, you can explore the planet and gather supplies, or you can launch into the wide blue yonder and find other planets. This game is going to be so huge they don’t even tell you what percent of their universe you’ve explored because the number would be so low.
This game, however, will be run on the next generations consoles, i.e. the Xbox One and PlayStation. I will be playing it on the PlayStation because I’m a total fangirl. Not very American of me, sure, but Xbox gave me the wiggins with their Kinect stuff, and I’m really just here for the RPG.
For a look at the sheer size of the universe they’re working with and their cool graphics, here’s their trailer, courtesy of PlayStation:
For those of you who prefer to shoot at stuff and then blow it up, this probably wouldn’t be your cup of tea. This is all about exploration and wondering at space/dinosaurs/spaceships. If you want action, there’s always:
2. “Kingdom Hearts 3”
Release Date: TBA, ugh.
Consoles: PS4, XBox One
Okay, not exactly the “guns-a-blazin” kind of game I was hinting at, but it’s something I’ve been waiting on for years and years, so “Kingdom Hearts 3” is second on the list. I can’t even tell you how many hours I’ve devoted to this series, but it’s close to my heart. The only reasons it’s second on the list are that I’m kind of put off by how long we’ve had to wait and that the little games like “358/2 Days” and “Birth By Sleep” have disappointed me.
And then they go and tease us:
Jerks…
Anyway, my dysfunctional relationship with the game aside, “Kingdom Hearts 3” is highly anticipated and promising. For all my grumbling, I will be one of the first in line to grab a copy, and then I will no doubt devote an entire post to wax poetic about how wonderful and amazing it is.
The coolest thing about Kingdom Hearts is the amazing storyline. The fighting mechanics are always super fun, but they don’t make me tear up and hug my Pikachu pillow like *SPOILER ALERT* Riku’s sacrifice or like the ending of the first game when *SPOILER ALERT* Kairi and Sora are forced to watch each other drift away. Sniff.
3. “Rise of the Tomb Raider”
Release Date: Q4 2015
Consoles: XBox One, XBox 360
It’s really hard to look at Lara Croft and say, “Nah, I’m good.” She’s been awesome since the first PlayStation console, and Angelina Jolie did nothing but make the title more attractive. Heck, I think Lara had a lot to do with PlayStations kicking off, and I’m fangirl enough to love it just for that.
Young Lara Croft from the 2013 game was brilliant, and the whole game was fast-paced, beautifully written and well executed. At points during the game, young Lara is slowed by injuries or handicapped by ropes, and you have to think and move quickly to avoid the blood-curdling scenes where she’s brutally murdered or killed by traps and what-have-you. And the game has great emotion. I mean, she kills a guy and then freaks out about it. The writers don’t just gloss over it, which is a big step forward in and of itself.
“Rise of the Tomb Raider” takes off after young Lara’s adventures in the game and in Gail Simone’s comics. She is (big surprise) disturbed about the craziness that ensued in her last adventure. The video that was released at E3 even shows her talking to a psychologist about the events while showing off cool action scenes:
Whoa, dealing with trauma. I’m loving the direction of Tomb Raider right now. I know: Older Lara is such an awesome, strong figure, so why make her vulnerable? I know I’m not alone when I say it was really cool to see a tough lady in video games back when it was so rarely done — back before BioWare made such strides towards representing everyone and before games like “Skyrim” allowed extensive customization. Even so, the humanization and the weakness, along with the strength that comes from overcoming it, are what makes this new Lara so admirable.
The things that should draw people to this new Tomb Raider are an eloquent storyline and incredible graphics. It’s such a high-paced game, and it has so many things to interact with — puzzles, enemies, making weapons, etc. — that it’s sure to be a great buy.
BONUS: The Other Cool Stuff
There are lots of other awesome games coming out, like a new Final Fantasy, Zelda, ADR1FT, Minecraft Storyline, “Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture” and others. If you want to buy a video game now instead of waiting for these beauties to come out, however, here’s IGN to kindly offer its top picks for 2014 listed by platform. Spoiler alert: “Dragon Age: Inquisition” won top pick, and boy, did it deserve that award.
I’m not really sure how to sign off, so I’ll be trying something new out every blog. Here goes.
Blog you later, space cowboy.
