My Top 12 Upcoming Xbox One Games For 2017
With this year coming to a close, I'm going to take a look at my top 12 Xbox One games for 2017, there are a lot of games with a lot potential hitting the shelves next year, if they can live up to the hype surrounding them at the minute, we will be in for a magical year of gaming bliss. This is the games industry and that means that some or even all the titles on the this list could still possibly be delayed but all release dates are correct when this article went to post. Lets begin.
1 – Resident Evil 7
Set for release on the 24th of January 2017, Resident Evil 7 is of course being developed and published by Capcom. Resi 7 was revealed to the world for the first time at Sony's press conference at E3 and in my opinion, it was one of the best looking games at this year's show. The following day Capcom released a demo that was and still is exclusive to PS4. Thankfully I have a PS4 and was able to give it a blast. To cut a long story short, it's brilliant and also bloody terrifying.
The biggest change that players will notice from the word go, is the switch from 3rd person to 1st person. It works a treat, the game becomes instantly more claustrophobic, intense and scarier than any other Resi game I have ever played. You can only see straight ahead, it really puts you in the middle of the action. Resi 4 is regarded as the best game in the franchise so far, it also was the first time that any Resi game was played from a 3rd person perspective, it opened the whole game up, it made combat and movement an absolute joy next to the tank like controls from the previous games in the series. Switching the camera to 1st person is exactly what might rejuvenate this long running franchise.
If you are planning on buying this for the PS4 then you are also going to get the added treat of playing this scare-fest in VR if you also plan on getting yourself Sony's brand new PSVR headset, it's terrifying on a TV, I can't imagine how scary it would be in VR. This will be my first game purchase of 2017, it's right up my street, hopefully it can live up to all the hype.
Video By Resident Evil
2 – For Honor
Next on the list is this very promising melee hack and slash action game that is being developed and published by Ubisoft. For Honor is set to hit the shop shelves on the 14th of February and will be released on the Xbox One, PS4 and PC. The game first came into the public domain at E3 2015 and immediately caught the eye of just about everyone thanks to the very slick melee combat and large scale battles that the game throws you into.
For Honor is set during a fantasy medieval period and gives you the chance to take control of 3 separate factions. You can either play as The Legion, which are basically Knights, The Chosen, who are Samurai and The Warborn, who act as Viking Warriors in the game. Each of these factions have 4 separate classes, the Vanguard, who are the most balanced of the 4, the Assassins, who are fast and agile but offer a low damage count in combat, the Heavies, who can take more of a beating but are the slowest moving of the classes and the last class in For Honor is the Hybrids, this class is a combination of all the other 3 and can borrow moves from each. All the heroes in the game are unique, they all have own weapons and fighting styles.
It's the melee combat that sets this apart from most other hack and slash games out there. The idea at the centre of For Honor's combat is the "Art Of Battle" system, for example, you can carry a sword in one hand and a shield in the other, you can block right, left and high and you can deliver blows in the same way. The idea is to block on the correct side that your opponent is attacking and also try and get a blow in on them to the side that they have left open. It might sound complicated but from what I've seen and read about the combat system, it appears to be very natural and intuitive and a few rounds of play.
For Honor will also feature an extensive set of multiplayer options too. We will have 4v4, 2v2 and 1v1 duel modes, you will also be able to fully customise your fighter in multiplayer so that they stand out on the battlefield. This looks to be a very exciting game from Ubisoft, new IP's are always welcome and with a bit of luck it plays as good as it looks.
Video By Outsidexbox
3 – Tom Clancy: Ghost Recon Wildlands
The brand new Ghost Recon is being developed and published by the good folks at Ubisoft. It is set to be released on the 7th of March next year and will available to buy on the Xbox One, PS4 and on PC. The game will be set in Bolivia this time around and will see the player trying to takedown the Santa Blanca drugs cartel as their influence has the country on the brink of collapse.
Wildlands is a tactical open world 3rd person shooter, the map in fact is the biggest ever created by Ubisoft. In game you will control a 4 man squad, the campaign can also be played by up to 4 players in co op mode and I believe that players will be able to jump in and out as they please. Due to the open world nature of Wildlands, the objectives can be tackled in any order, of course the game can be played using stealth tactics or you can go in all guns blazing if that's more your cup of tea. The game will feature a day/night cycle and a full weather system, this may well prove to be very handy for stealth approaches, using the cover of night and pissing rain to conceal your team as you launch an attack on a enemy stronghold might just give you the edge.
This looks to be a return to form for the Ghost Recon series, Advanced Warfighter was good but not the game that everyone hoped it would be. With the open world in Wildlands, Ubisoft are aiming big, in the trailer below you get to see how the stealth works when everyone in the team does their part, the world looks beautiful and massive, if Ubisoft can fill it with enough interesring missions and good multiplayer they might well have a smash hit on their hands.
Video By Ubisoft
4 – Mass Effect: Andromeda
Mass Effect: Andromeda is set to launch in Q1 2017, the game is being developed by Bioware and published by EA. Of course it was initially set to be released in Q4 2016 but like just about every new game that comes out these days, it has suffered from slippage. Andromeda is the follow up, but not a sequel to the hugely successfully Mass Effect trilogy on the Xbox 360, during the game's production Bioware have stressed for people not to call this Mass Effect 4, the original story concluded at the end of ME3, this is a brand new tale.
Mass Effect: Andromeda is set in the Andromeda Galaxy surprisingly enough, this time around Bioware are promising an open world to explore, the game will feature a whole host of brand new alien races to interact with and a new ship called the Tempest to take you from A to B. You play the game from a 3rd person view as always and you control either a brother or sister, if you choose to play as the sister then your story and that of your brother will be woven through the plot as you progress.
The Mako, the six wheeled vehicle from Mass Effect 1 makes a return in Andromeda, which means that you should be able to land on planets and explore the surface. We have also being promised co op multiplayer by Bioware, it was a lot of fun in ME3 if you had a few friends. Bioware have opted to use DICE's Frostbite 3 engine for Andromeda so we can expect some top notch visuals come launch time next year.
This could well turn out to be game of the year, Mass Effect is a modern day classic, I was blown away by the scale of the original trilogy and if Bioware can work their magic again we could well be in for an absolute treat come hopefully March, at the latest, of next year.
Video By Mass Effect
5 – Sea Of Thieves
Next up on the list is Sea Of Thieves, this is being developed by Rare and published by Microsoft Studios. At this moment in time it has no official release date, all we have to go on is the very vague window of Q1 2017. The game is set to come out for Xbox One and Windows PC only, in fact this is the first Xbox/Windows exclusive on this list. This exciting looking pirate adventure was first seen on the Microsoft stage at E3 2015, at the time Rare promised that this is set to be their most ambitious game ever, this is high praise indeed considering Rare's brilliant back catalogue.
So basically what we have here is an open world pirate adventure that lets you team up with your friends and go explore the open sea for hidden treasure and quests, you can go explore islands that you find or maybe you'd prefer some ship to ship combat against another group of players, the choice is completely yours.
The best looking thing about Sea Of Thieves is that the game will force players to work together. When you and your mates get on board your ship everyone must be assigned a role for the ship to function, somebody has to steer, another person has to work the sail, maybe somebody on look out too. During combat against another ship you will be required to man the cannons, if you take damage, somebody will have to try and repair it or water will get in and eventually you will sink. Working together is very much the theme here.
This will be the first game that Rare will have put out in bloody ages that is not tied to the Kinect and I am very glad of that. In my opinion Microsoft have under used the talents that are available at Rare, these are the guys that brought us GoldenEye, Perfect Dark and Diddy Kong Racing way back on the N64. If Sea Of Thieves can match up to the quality of those 3 games then it might be in for something of a classic.
Video By Xbox
6 – Little Nightmares
Developed by Tarsier Studios and getting published by Bandai Namco, Little Nightmares is set for release sometime in the Spring of 2017. The game was first announced back in 2014 under the name of Hunger and was going to be a PS4 exclusive, unfortunately Tarsier couldn't find a publisher until Bandai Namco stepped in and signed a worldwide publishing deal, the name of the game changed to what it is now and thankfully this cracking looking single player puzzle platformer will now be released on the Xbox One, PS4 and PC.
The game revolves around a 9 year old girl called Six, she has been kidnapped from her home and has been put to work in an underwater resort called The Maw. The resort only caters for the rich and by sheer chance Six has a chance to escape. Although the game features a 9 year old girl as the main character, the mood of Little Nightmares is very dark, it is very much an adult game. As you help Six to escape there will be puzzles to solve, lots of platform action to navigate and a bit stealth thrown in for good measure. Check out the video below to see what its all about, the first time I got a look at it I was instantly sold, it just drips atmosphere and tension.
I'm really looking forward to this, one of the best games that I played this year has being Playdead's Inside, Little Nightmares looks like it will set similar kinda tones, dark, scary and open to interpretation. With a bit of luck this hits the shelves on time, I have read a few articles from folks that have had some hands on time with Little Nightmares and they all seem to say the same thing, this is a brilliant game to play and that Tarsier might have something very special on their hands come launch next year.
Video By IGN
7- Cuphead
Cuphead is the brand new game from Studio MDHR, the studio was set up by two brothers, Chad and Jared Moldenhauer. The game is inspired by 1930's cartoons which the two brothers loved watching in their youth. Cuphead's development began in 2010, the brothers are trying to create the game using the same animation techniques as those found in the 1930's cartoons that they love so much, hand drawn characters and painted backgrounds gives the game a very unique and brilliant aesthetic. The game is set to come out in Q2 2017, when it finally does arrive it will only be available on PC and Xbox One but hopefully it makes its way to the PS4 at some stage too.
Cuphead is a Run n Gun game where you get to play as Cuphead. At the start of the game you manage to lose a bet to the Devil and you spend the rest of the game trying to repay that debt. The game is a sequence of Boss battles, some of them are as big as the screen your playing on. You'll get infinite lives in Cuphead to get you through the levels, it also will have two player co op multiplayer, player two gets to play as a character called Mugman. As you progress through the game you'll get brand new weapons and more powerful super moves to take on the harder bosses.
I was hooked the first time I saw Cuphead, the graphical style certainly makes it pop. This might well prove to be the sleeper hit of next year, it has already received high praise from many corners of the Internet, it might not be for everyone but either is Call of Duty and that sells by the millions.
Video By IGN
8 – Red Dead Redemption 2
RDR2 is being developed by Rockstar and will be published by Rockstar and Take Two Interactive, it is set for release sometime in the Autumn of next year. The original was released way back in 2010, it was and still is a masterpiece and the world had been waiting patiently for Rockstar to announce the sequel. On the 18th of October of this year we finally got that announcement and on the 20th of the same month we were treated to the first ever cinematic trailer for RDR2 which you can watch below.
Now everything that your going to read next is pure speculation on my behalf. Rockstar has not released and actual information on the game, we don't know anything in regards to the story or most importantly we don't know when RDR2 is taking place. The "when" here is the crucial point because I belive that Red Dead 2 will be a prequel. I'm not the only one thinking this way, there are rumours all over the Internet debating the "when". The 1 minute trailer that was released has been dissected on Youtube by tonnes of folks, there are a lot of very interesting rumours flying around about both the "when" and "what" Red Dead 2 has in store.
The main reason I belive that RDR2 will be a prequel, is that the first game is set in 1911, this is pretty much the end of the wild west as it was, if the game is set after the events of the original it won't be a western anymore, remember World War 1 started in 1914, things started to move quickly at the turn of the century. I think the story for RDR2 will once again be about John Marston but this time it will be based around the gang that John use to ride with prior to the events of the original. In fact John's wife Abigail was also part of Dutch's gang back in the day so this prequel theory might tie in nicely.
Now there is also a good chance that everything I just wrote could be total nonsense, the GTA games, also by Rockstar is a perfect example of why. GTA 1 to 5 have actually nothing to do with each other, they are all separate stories in separate cities, RDR2 could be set same around the same time but might follow a different protagonist altogether in a different part of the West, the two games might have absolutely nothing to do with each other. The one thing that I do know for certain though is that Red Dead Redemption 2 is going to be an incredible game when it finally does arrive next year.
Video By Rockstar Games
9 – Scalebound
Developed by Platinum Games and getting published by Microsoft Studios, Scalebound is set for release in the second half of 2017, the game will only be available on the Xbox One and Windows PC. Scalebound is a 3rd person Action Role Playing Game where you control a character called Drew, you will not be alone in your adventure in the world of Dracanis as you are accompanied by your trusty dragon Thuban.
In the game, Drew and his dragon are bound as one, if Thuban dies then so does Drew. Thuban is controlled by AI for the most part in Scalebound but you will be able to issue commands to him during combat. There are 3 types of dragon classes in Scalebound, an all-rounder, a tank like class, which will probably let you take and inflict more damage and a more agile faster class. All 3 classes can be blended together so that you can set Thuban up to best suit your play style. Drew and Thuban can also be upgraded as you progress by collecting gems that fall from defeated enemies.
Drew will be equipped with both melee and ranged weapons, some of the enemies in the game will be massive and Drew will have the ability to climb on top of them to inflict damage, you will also have the ability to transform into a half dragon hybrid, when in this mode you will be able to cause more damage to your poor enemies. Scalebound will also include a 4 player coop multiplayer mode but information on that is pretty thin on the ground at the minute.
Scalebound is being directed by Hideki Kamiya, he has worked on games like Bayonetta for the PS3 and 360 and also on both Resident Evil 1 and 2 back in the 90's, Kamiya is promising very deep customisation options for Thuban, citing that no two dragons will be the same. Scalebound's release date has already slipped a few times, it was set for a worldwide launch at the end of 2016, but hopefully the extra time that is being spent on it right now will go along way to making this one of the better Xbox and Windows exclusives of next year.
Video By IGN
10 – Crackdown 3
Crackdown 3 is being developed by the British company Reagent Games and is set to be published by Microsoft Studios, it is set for release sometime next year, there is no official date as of yet I'm afraid. It will be of course the follow up to the 2010 smash hit Crackdown 2. This series has always been famous for its over the top action, but with Crackdown 3 the folks at Reagent Games are promising something that has never been seen before for the multiplayer mode, a completely destructible city. When the Xbox One was shown to the world for the first time, Microsoft stated that for every Xbox One that was sold there would be another 3 in its Azure Cloud to back it up. For sure, some games take advantage of Azure, titles like the original Titanfall used the Cloud for its multiplayer modes but no one has really delivered what Microsoft had promised, that is until Crackdown 3 hits the shelves.
I think it is fair to say that the Crackdown 3 online multiplayer will be where this game is at, if Reagent can pull this off, we will be looking at something simply breathtaking, the thought of an entire city falling down around your ears is mind boggling. The game will run on the Unreal 4 engine but most of the magic is going to happen on the cloud. So far Reagent have got the equivalent of 10 plus Xbox Ones doing the processing work in the cloud, basically Azure will be used to crunch the numbers for the city wide destruction, while your Xbox One at home will draw the pretty pictures on your TV. The single player campaign will also allow you to blow up parts of the city, but because there are people out there that have an Xbox One but might not have an Internet connection, Reagent has only included the ability to blow up the entire city in multiplayer modes, you need to be connected to Xbox Live for all this magic to work.
Crackdown 3 will also be another Play Anywhere title for Microsoft, the game will be exclusive for Xbox and Windows PC. I have high hopes for this, the ideas for the multiplayer are new and exciting. If the cloud can really be harnessed in the way that Reagent hopes, then it might just change how games are built in the future, of course the cloud has its limits too, latency and lag might be an issue but its nice to see that developers are willing to try something new. Time will tell if Crackdown 3 can deliver, if it does, then this will surly be a must buy.
Video By IGN
11 – Cyberpunk 2077
Cyberpunk 2077 is being developed and published by the Polish company CD Projekt RED, the game is set to come out sometime in 2017 but to be honest I would take that with a grain of salt, out of all the games in this Top 12, this one has the biggest chance of slipping to 2018 or worse. The only trailer that was released for the game came out in January 2013, we have seen or heard nothing from the developers since. Now to be fair to CD Projekt RED, they have been very busy working away on the Witcher 3 and it's DLC for the last few years but now hopefully, they can put all their time and effort into getting this finished once and for all.
Unfortunately very little is actually known about 2077, we do know that its going to be an action RPG, so with that in mind I'd imagine that character creation will play a big role, as you progress will acquire skill points that then can be used to upgrade your weapons and character, will we see levelling up and so on? 2077 will use the same game engine as The Witcher 3, the REDengine 3, so we might see some similarities between the two games and that is no bad thing in my eyes as The Witcher 3 is bloody amazing by all accounts. I have not got around to playing yet, but I will, soon. The game is of course open world, the night time setting in the trailer looks stunning, how big the city is remains a mystery too.
This is probably the game we know the least about on this list but it may prove to be the biggest, CD Projekt RED are masters of their craft, my flat mate is playing The Witcher 3 at the minute on his PS4 and it looks jaw dropping, he has assured me that it is a cracking game to play. If Cyberpunk 2077 can get near to the heights set by The Witcher then we are in for a great experience, if we will get to enjoy that experience next year or in 2018 I just don't know, hopefully by E3 we will have better understanding on when Cyberpunk 2077 lands and maybe just maybe we might get to see some gameplay footage too.
Video By Cyberpunk 2077
12 – Pro Evolution Soccer 2018
PES 2018 will be developed and published by the good folks over at Konami, this is the only sports game on this list and it is also the only game here that has not been officially announced yet but we all know its going to happen anyway and for that reason it makes its way into my Top 12. I'd imagine we are looking at sometime around September next year before PES hits the shelves, with maybe the demo arriving around August.
So what do we hope to see in next years title? For a start I'd imagine that Konami will stick to the Fox Engine, PES 2017 looks absolutely brilliant, some people out there prefer the look of FIFA but I have always seen PES as the more pleasing game of the two to watch. By the time that the next game launches, the PES team over at Komami should be masters of the Fox Engine, they have had a few years with it now and I expect that the visuals and animation will take another massive step forward for this years game.
Off the pitch is where Konami can make the biggest improvements I think, the menu systems and front end have always lagged behind FIFA's more flashier and TV style presentation. For PES 2017 there was a lot of improvements made in this regard but more can still be done. On the pitch is where Konami will find it harder to make gains, don't get me wrong, it can always play better but at the minute this game is almost perfect, I love it. I will be honest here and say that most of my time spent with PES, is spent in the Master League mode.
I play Master League in co op with one of the guys I live with. Playing as two players on the same team is how this mode should be enjoyed, learning each others game and putting together defence splitting moves is far more satisfying when its two people rather than doing it by yourself. I have a tonne of faith in PES at the minute, over the last few years this game just keeps getting better and better, it still falls behind FIFA in terms of sales but certainly not in terms of quality. I know a lot of people that choose to buy PES over FIFA this year, if Konami can keep the momentum going into next years game, we might see and even bigger shift towards the Japanese giants magical football franchise. Roll on September.
So thats it folks, because PES 2018 has not even been officially announced yet, I don't have any videos that I can post here to show you of it. I hope you enjoyed my Top 12 for 2017, I know some folk out there might agree with some of my choices, but I'm also pretty sure that some people will have a completely different view of gaming in 2017. Please feel free to post your own favourite games for next year in the comments below.