3 – Halo Wars 2
Okay, so we may have lied a tiny bit above when we said the next Halo game wouldn’t appear for some time, but it’s safe to say that Halo Wars 2 doesn’t really count. The first Halo Wars was a risky spin-off, but it was able to successfully bring the core Halo elements into a fun real-time strategy scenario that, for once, didn’t suck on consoles. For the sequel, 343 Industries is teaming up with Creative Assembly, the folks known for their work on the Total War series, to bring back this underrated offshoot. With a pair of successful betas so far, Halo Wars 2 is shaping up to be a worthy follow-up. It’s out in February.
2 – Crackdown 3
When it comes to open-world games, Crackdown 3 is the only one to offer real-time destruction as a true selling point. Powered by Microsoft’s Azure Cloud technology, players will be able to run around and destroy environments all in real time. While it will come packaged with a hefty single-player campaign, it’s the online multiplayer modes in Crackdown 3 that will take advantage of cloud computing so that players can wreak havoc any which way they want. It’s been almost seven years since the last Crackdown game, so anticipation for Crackdown 3 is understandably high. We’re expecting a new reveal at E3 with a locked in release date for the holidays.
1 – Cuphead
Cuphead has been a long time coming. Having first blown the pants off of everyone at Microsoft’s E3 2014 Conference, Cuphead is finally ready to launch sometime in mid-2017. Boasting a unique graphical art style that harkens back to 1930’s cartoons, Cuphead is a run-and-gun action platformer with a heavy focus on intense boss battles. Possibly even more impressive is how Studio MDHR is using the same techniques used in the 30’s to create the visuals and audio for authenticity. By implementing hand-drawn assets, watercolor backgrounds, and original jazz music recordings, Cuphead is all about bringing a cartoon to life. While we don’t usually believe that graphics are the end-all-be-all for games, we’d be lying if we said we weren’t immediately smitten with Cuphead when we first laid eyes on it. Xbox gamers, don’t let this one slide.
What are you most looking forward to, readers? What did we miss? We’d love to hear you sound off in the comments below or hit us up over on Twitter! Happy gaming!