We’re coming up on that time of year that game publishers toss out the games that they’ve previously announced, which usually hold releases for the third and fourth quarter to focus on the holiday season.
For those of you who don’t care or are not paying attention, I’m going to go through the most anticipated games releases for the remainder of the year (going by console rather than release date so you can easily find games for your preferred console).
This article will also refer to the Electronic Entertainment Expo, or E3 — if you would like a refresher, I covered it here.
Let’s start off small with XBox One Exclusives.
During E3, Microsoft announced a lot of games, most of them scheduled for 2019 or planned for release on multiple consoles. One of these games, much-awaited by some, is “Playerunknown’s Battlegrounds,” more commonly known as “PUBG”. This is the first time “PUBG” has come to a console. Also planned is “Forza Horizon 4,” the next big racing game in the long-running Forza series. Fear not, these are only exclusives for this year — games coming to more than one console will be at the end of this list, after Nintendo’s lineup.
Next up, PlayStation 4.
With a big push during E3 for four specific games, “The Last of Us 2,” “Death Stranding,” “Spider-Man” and “Ghost of Tsushima,” I didn’t think we would be getting anything until the beginning of 2019, but lo and behold, the newest “Spider-Man” game is scheduled for Sept. 7. Then, other than third party games, we don’t get a PlayStation exclusive until December with three “Persona” themed rhythm games. So if you like Persona 3, 4 or 5, or rhythm games in general, Dec. 4 will be an exciting date.
To me, there are only three Games coming to The Switch that I’m excited for.
Hopefully “Super Mario Party” will fix all of the problems from the last few Mario Party games and return to its roots of friendship-ending goodness. Did you like Pokemon Go? Do you remember the Poke-Walker from 2009? Well then look no further than “Let’s Go Pikachu” and “Let’s Go Eevee.” Nov. 16 will be a great return to Kanto and a change of form. Finally, the game I’m most excited about is “Super Smash Brothers: Ultimate.” I know the University of Utah has a big Smash Bros. fan base here on campus, myself included, so I hope that this new release becomes the new standard for competitive and friendly play. “Ultimate” comes out Dec. 7.
Now to make things easy, I’ll go over a sort of top ten for games coming to several consoles (these are not in any particular order, but by month of release).
Starting with September, we have “Shadow of the Tomb Raider” coming Sept. 14, “Life is Strange 2: Episode 1” on the Sept. 27, and throughout the rest of the year we’ll get the next three episodes of “Telltale’s: The Walking Dead: The Final Season.”
Oct. 2 starts us with the long-awaited “Megaman 11”, followed by “Assassin’s Creed Odyssey” on Oct. 5. “Red Dead Redemption 2,” the ultimate cowboy story, will be released on Oct. 26.
November is a big month, with “Overkill’s The Walking Dead,” “Spyro: Reignited Trilogy,” and “Fallout 76,” planning releases on Nov. 6, 13 and 14, respectively.
Finally, Dec. 4 gives us “Just Cause 4.”
Overall, 2018 has been a pretty good year for gaming, and you never know what it will drop for us gaming fans before year’s end.