After a rollercoaster ride of a year for gamers with many ups and downs, 2017 is finally over. However, this is nothing to worry about because we can look forward to another great year for the industry and gamers alike.

To start off the year right, Capcom is dropping a monster of a title. Monster Hunters: World lets players jump into a hostile jungle environment where they can track, hunt and kill monsters big and small in a third person action and adventure shell. The player must improvise and adapt to various environments in order to kill huge beasts including T-Rex, pterodactyls, dragons and much more.

To end this month, we are getting a horrifying VR experience. The Inpatient is a virtual reality oriented prequel to the widely successful horror game Until Dawn. This is exciting for many reasons, the largest of which being that we can all enjoy terrifying storytelling of a creepy insane asylum in 360 degree virtual reality. Also, this is a big step in streamlining VR games and making them more accessible because currently quality VR games are quite few and far between. It is also releasing exclusively on PS4, which has a fairly accessible VR accessory.

Come March, we have a rather innovative title, A Way Out, which is a strictly two player cooperative. This is definitely a huge twist because this means players physically can’t play it alone. So for this one, players have to grab a friend and play split-screen or online on this storytelling prison break game. In A Way Out, the two players must work together and communicate in order to achieve their goals, and each player sees a different view as each character has unique story and plot lines that unfold simultaneously while playing.

Crackdown 3 is also an exciting title to be released this spring. It features all of the satirical unadulterated violence and coop play of the two previous games with some major additions. These additions include the obvious next gen graphics and processing speed, but most importantly a fully destructible environment. This means that all structures in the game can be destroyed. Players can use this to their advantage by (as shone in the announce trailer) blowing up the base of a skyscraper to drop a building on the head of the enemy. 

One of the most exciting titles of the year is the extremely anticipated sequel to one of the most well respected games of all time, Red Dead Redemption 2. It is the sequel to Red Dead Redemption, RockStar’s slam dunk western open world game. The game featured a riveting plot line filled with gritty characterization and an amazing depiction of the wild west, not to mention an extremely fun multiplayer. We have little details on the game other than that it will in fact be a prequel to the first game and will be about the main character, John Marston.

Undead Lab’s State of Decay is getting a long awaited sequel that will feature online co-op play, which is an upgrade to one of the biggest downfalls of the original. So, players can grab their friends and enjoy a zombie survival gaming experience in a whole new way. The exact release date remains to be determined.

Last but most certainly not least is the Insomniac Spiderman game, which comic book fans and die hard spiderman fans alike can’t wait for. There are a long list of Spiderman video games, but less than half of them are worth playing and Insomniac’s new title looks like it could win game of the year. It looks to have excellent storytelling with riveting plot lines, and it seems to have dynamic gameplay that rivals the Batman: Arkham series.