PC Games coming in 2016

A big part of my gaming life has always been computer gaming, usually with a healthy dollop of warfare and combat flavour. Occasionally online (with the likes of the Battlefield series, a particular favourite was Battlefield 2142) but more often strategy based games with lots of resource management and armies trudging about, and of course the first person shoot and hack ups that everyone knows. All a big reason as to why I don't get as much painting done as I would like.

Always popular in the Warblog HQ have been the Total War series and the many mods available have kept me busy for many wee small hours. It is with interest that I have noted the forth coming Warhammer Total War. I'm not sure which company has bought into whose franchise here but which ever it is, I'm quite happy about the prospect.

Total War; Warhammer

You would be hard pressed to not have seen some of the hype around this game since there's been a fair amount of it out there. Interesting to note that it's very much Old World based and still very firmly entrenched in the previous Warhammer milieu, obviously GW are keeping there options open here with the licencing but I suppose AoS setting doesn't lend itself to the Total War concept.

Looking at the write-ups for this, it looks suitably resource rich and has a reasonable amount of factions to play with the Empire coming out quite well and the Dwarfs, Vampire Counts, Dwarves and Chaos in there too. It will be interesting to see how much of the TW ethos is retained and how much lost due to the programming contraints and the amount handed over to the fantasy mechanics, I hope not too much. The usual fluff and fuss can be found on the Total War web site with release around April time.

Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord

M&B 2 is a action/RPG mix and this one of the stables is a prequel to the previous ones set 200 years in the past so you can expect circa 1000AD tech and aesthetics and the usual mix of European and Near East types in conflict with each other and much running around meeting people getting them to do what you want them to do or killing them and taking their castles.

The pre-release screen shots etc look quite pretty for in game and the though the map still looks quite simplistic as previous versions have been. Still mod-ifyable from design concept the base game does look to be improved but much playability will likely come from the mods that will be sure to appear. Check it out at Taleworlds for info but with no release date yet they still obviously have some work to do on this one.

Deus Ex: Mankind Divided

The Deus Ex franchise is one of my favourite one's mainly because of the design aesthetic that permeates the 'Blade Runner' type setting, with the investigative theme and high tech smooth upper class wealthy corporate 'upper' world and the grimy and hard-life lower common 'lower' world on the streets. Hacking and gun play with a big helping of stealth and diplomacy makes the game play very interesting, along with lots of futuristic hardware is hard to beat combination.

In the continuing story Jensen has to defeat another world wide conspiracy in a background of hate against his kind (augmented humans). Details can be checked out on the Deus Ex Universe site. Not out until August, it should be worth waiting for.

Doom

I think this one will need no introduction to anyone out there and is the next incarnation of the pre-emptive first person shoot-em up that set the genre base plate. This, it's fourth incarnation I think, will be a re-invention of the original descent into hell and shoot lots of really creepy and gribbly things before they eat you kind of thing. Switch your brain off and look out your BFG.

From the Bethesda shop and following on from the likes of Fallout 4, Skyrim, Dishonoured and Rage, the mechanics of the game should be fine and you can expect lots of gore and very disgusting opponents. Due for release in the Spring and can be checked out on the Bethesda site.

X Com 2

The latest of the X Com stable is another which has been vastly improved, looks-wise from it's original and is an enjoyable tactical challenge in a not too hard on the brain kind of way. Lot's of tech, research and gribblies again, but I think the overall scope of the latest incarnation lacks a bit of the long reaching depth the older versions had. You know, just over a bit too quickly, certainly the last one (X-Com; Enemy Unknown and Enemy Within) was by defeating the 'mother-ship' it all was over too easily. However, in this one apparently it wasn't easy after all and the aliens have taken over and the 'good guys' have to fight the good fight to get it all back.

X Com 2 is out in February with new treats and can be checked out on the X Com 2 site.



Of course there are many other title's forth coming in the year including Battlefleet Gothic: Armada, Hitman, Mass Effect Andromeda, Homeworld: Deserts of Karak and Dishonored 2 to name but a few, but these few are one's I'm looking forward to. On a slightly different note, there are a big number of action films due for release this year too, not least a large number of Marvel Universe flicks, and these may spawn their own Computer Games.

One thing I have noted on the the titles that are coming up over the next few months and indeed generally, including my top picks, is that the vast majority of the titles are additions to ongoing franchises. Makes you wonder if there aren't any new idea's out there, or is it that the games developers et al, are not willing to take any risks on promoting new idea's.