Big Red Barrel’s Gaming Picks for 2016

The year is 2016. In the coming months, we will be inundated with superb video games demanding our time – but which ones should we play?

To be honest, that decision is entirely subjective and is for you to make, however, below is a list of games we’re looking forward to! Enjoy!

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Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End (Diarmuid)

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The Nathan Drake saga is coming to an end. Naughty Dog are currently diligently at work putting some final spit and polish behind their latest Uncharted game and I am eagerly anticipating its release. This is the series that turned the Santa Monica-based studio into one of the most revered developers in the world so as you can imagine, my expectations are high.

Last month’s multiplayer beta gave us a taste of A Thief’s End updated game-play, with more refined animations and precise controls. The added modes, power-ups and TLOU-influenced mechanics have turned what has sometimes been considered a superfluous mode into a fun, fast-paced thrill ride.

Regardless, I am here for the single-player primarily. I want to see how Nate’s story ends. Why is his brother suddenly back in his life? Is this one adventure too many for Sully? Does Nate finally get the life he wants with Elena? April cannot come soon enough!

  • Expected Release: 26th April

Mass Effect: Andromeda (Alex)

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2016 is finally upon us. I say ‘finally’ not because I am eager to age another year, but because I can barely wait any longer for Mass Effect: Andromeda. ‘The transmission will resume in 2016’ promised BioWare in their N7 day trailer. Yes, I am on the edge of my seat refreshing BioWare website every couple of hours for a new trailer, screenshots, concept art, anything new! No, I don’t have a problem – you have a problem!

On a more serious note, last E3 the release date for the game was set as Holiday 2016. Since that trailer, little else has been revealed about the game (yes, I am ignoring and purposely oblivious to anything that has since been ‘leaked’ about the game). While I can easily see, Mass Effect: Andromeda slipping into 2017 and, although my sanity might suffer, I would be happy for them to take all the time they need – my optimistic side is still hoping for 2016 release.

I don’t know anyone who played Mass Effect trilogy and wasn’t at least interested in trying out Andromeda. If, however, you are not familiar with the universe, then I could not recommend this space RPG series more highly. If Andromeda is to be anything like the previous games – and why wouldn’t it be? – I can’t wait to explore a new Galaxy, to meet, befriend and romance new companions, shoot some aliens and even give the Mako a second chance. Also, I am sure there will be some world ending event that I can prevent.

  • Expected Release: Q4 2016

Dark Souls 3 (Kev)

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My adoration for this series is hardly a secret. Demon’s Souls was a step in a direction I had unknowingly wanted Action RPGs to go for long time. For me, it brought the fun I had as a kid playing D&D into video games in a challenging way. Dark Souls improved upon the formula, and then some. It was special, and in retrospect the best video game to release in 2011.

Dark Souls 2 was a let down for many, but I enjoyed it on a level that only just fell short of its predecessors’ lofty established heights. Bloodborne made some fundamental changes to game-play and world design that strayed from the Souls experience, which led to divided opinion among the existing fanbase, but I think everyone ultimately agreed that it was, at the very least, a great game.

Dark Souls 3 promises to return us to the multi-layered approach of the core Souls games, allowing for multiple character builds, plentiful weapon and armour combinations, and locales that stand out vividly from one another, while likely bringing in some combat refinements, courtesy of Bloodborne‘s critical and commercial success. I can’t wait to see what devious traps and puzzles the development team at From Software put into this thing, as well as a return to the Dark Souls flavour of level and encounter design I love so much.

  • Expected Release: 12th April

Horizon: Zero Dawn (rwilliams-smith)

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It is a truth universally acknowledged that dinosaurs are the coolest things in existence. The second coolest are giant robots. Combining these two things into giant robot dinosaurs is basically all that’s required to turn me from an intelligent adult into a gibbering child with excitement.

Horizon: Zero Dawn promises more mechanised lizards than you can shake a stick at – and so is the obvious choice for most anticipated game of the year. The team at Guerrilla games are renowned more in the FPS genre for their Killzone series, but after many many iterations of that, it looks like they’ve been given creative free reign to make something entirely new and entirely awesome. If the game comes out even half as amazing as it looks at this point, then I might just have found myself a new favourite franchise.

  • Expected Release: Q3 2016

Overwatch (Smashsoul)

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2015 may be long remembered as the year when many AAA developers decided to ditch single player first person shooter experiences in favour of having a multiplayer only experience. The only problem with this was the fact that many of the multiplayer only games released last year were sub par at best. Evolve, Rainbow Six: Siege and Star Wars: Battlefront really didn’t do anything that made me want to come back for more even a month after their release. They were lacking on content and were boring if I were putting it bluntly.

However, a multiplayer only first person shooter that has stood the test of time and has a consistent player base even to this day is none other than Team Fortress 2 from Valve. Believe it or not that particular game is 9 years old in 2016 and I go back and revisit it frequently. It’s fun, it’s fast paced and has been constantly evolving over the past decade through free content drops and patches from Valve as well as making the jump to free-to-play.

What I’m trying to say is that I want more shooters like Team Fortress 2 from a developer that will do right by their game and continually support it instead of popping out a sequel a year down the line. That’s why Overwatch from Blizzard Entertainment has been on my radar for quite some time. It may be their first outing into the first person shooter genre, but Blizzard know how to make a quality game and take on an entirely new genre and dominate it – just take a look at the likes of World of Warcraft and Hearthstone.

Set in the near future, Overwatch has a distinct and colourful art style and a whole array of maps and characters with differing abilities to choose from. The characters are split into four categories depending on their abilities and utility (Offense, Defense, Tank and Support). Gameplay isn’t grounded in reality and feels like some old school arena shooters. It’s fast paced and frantic with an emphasis on teamwork.

Blizzard are intent on making Overwatch a first person shooter that anyone can jump into and play whilst also offering something for players who like to invest in their games as well as providing extra updates, content and characters to players over the lifespan of the game for free. Originally thought to only be coming to PC, Overwatch will also be coming to the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 –a decision largely attributed to Diablo III’s success on console – at some point this spring. With so much hype and expectation surrounding it, I truly hope Overwatch will be the game to make me love first person shooters again.

  • Expected Release: Q2 2016

Monster Hunter X (Rik)

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My most anticipated game of 2016 is without a doubt Monster Hunter X Cross (is that how we’re supposed to write it?). I spent the better part of 2015 playing Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate with my best friend, and the chance to conquer bigger and badder monsters has us both giddy with excitement. Bringing together villages, regions, and monsters from previous portable Monster Hunter titles, as well as brand new baddies and special Variant monsters to the mix, X Cross seems to be a ‘very best of’ the series, much in the same way people have described Mario Kart 8.

Add to that new weapons and four new ‘Hunting Styles’ that can drastically change the way you play, tweaked mechanics, and new weapon and armour upgrade systems, X Cross is looking to be the king of the franchise. Not to mention it looks absolutely stunning, which is a pretty impressive feat considering it’s built on the MH4U engine!

There’s no set release date as of yet, but going by the popularity of the series so far, and how well X Cross is doing in Japan right now, it’s safe to assume we’ll be hunting on these shores later on in 2016.

  • Expected Release: Q3 2016

Tom Clancy’s The Division (Josh)

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Ever since its debut trailer made me feel super uncomfortable about crowded shopping malls, I’ve been hoping that Tom Clancy’s The Division would be something special. This online third-person survival shooter from Ubisoft is a new IP that places you in a quarantined New York City following a pandemic and the subsequent collapse of government and order. As agents of The Division, you can join up with friends as a squad or fight as a lone wolf as you dive deeper into discovering what happened and trying to, as the tagline suggests, “save what remains”.

I was skeptical that Ubisoft may be making the same mistakes that they made with Watch_Dogs; that it was all hype and no substance. But if anything, they’ve done the opposite. Since E3, the previous tidal wave of hype went dark, replaced with the faintest trickle of information. The game’s core mechanics look like you can really make the character your own, with RPG-leveling and the game’s Dark Zones look to add a unique take on finding loot and then defending yourself from other players to escape the area and keep what you found. These Dark Zones also give the player the option to go rogue and turn against their friends. Tense standoffs and paranoia seem to follow. I mean, if your friend finds a really good rifle, ask yourself: How good friends are we?… Do they need it?… Even if it would look better on you?

  • Expected Release: Q4 2016

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Let us know what you think of the list above. What games are you looking forward to this year?

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