Welcome to Respawning’s Games Club! The purpose of this is to get a bunch of us together every Monday to allow us the chance to chat shit about whatever takes our fancy in the world of video games! Today to start the year off we’re going to be talking about what we’re playing at the beginning of this year and what our most anticipated games of the year are!

Javier

I am still playing Shadow of War and Skyrim VR, I just cannot put these games down. They’re both absolutely fantastic, massive and addictive. Shadow of war has not got boring once yet for me and I am pretty far in. I am going to also be playing Starblood arena VR and the Batman Telltale series due to Playstation Plus getting some really really good games this month.

My most anticipated games of the year… There’s a lot, it seems like this is going to be a good year for gamers. My top 3 are probably God of war, Red dead 2 and the new Spiderman game. I LOVE the god of war series and it’s one of the few gaming properties where i’ve played every title including the handheld releases, I am so excited to smash up the Norse gods with Kratos (Hopefully Thor and Odin). Red dead 1 is one of my top sandbox games of all time so i have high hopes for the second and I missed the Amazing Spiderman game so i’m due a fix. I’m also really excited to play the new Far Cry as i’m a big fan of the series and want to see how the new coop system works out.

Ben

So mine’s going to be a short one as I’m sitting at work in the staff room having a short break. Something that I’ve been doing for the past few days in playing through The Last Of Us again… And it’s reminded me of how much I fucking love single player, story oriented games. There’s a huge amount of online multiplayer’s games like COD and Battlefield. But the number of games that are easy to find with a massive (and awesome) story line is slim. Maybe I haven’t been seeing many of them as a lot of advertising goes into massive multiplayer games. I really can’t wait for The Last Of Us 2, not only to continue the story of Joel and Ellie. But to be able to play an amazing story orientated game once again. Comment below any single player games that would be cool for me to play. As a little extra, FarCry 5 is coming soon. Ohh that’s going to be fun.

Luke

I am currently at the tail end of a playthrough of Dark Souls 2: Scholar Of The First Sin (again!) there is just something about this game that keeps me coming back to it again and again. This is however the first chance I’ve had to pick up SOTFS and the DLC of Dark Souls 2 which I am thoroughly enjoying as additions to the game. I am also going to use this playthrough to finally go after the Darklurker (probably 10+ times but I WILL kill him)  after so many years of trying to crawl through the chasms of the dark I feel I am finally ready in my skill level of the Soulsborne series to give it a go.

As for what I am looking forwards to in 2018? Fucking loads. I won’t bother explaining why I am stoked for each game but this is the top 5 games on my radar in 2018:

  1. Ni No Kuni 2
  2. Metro Exodus
  3. Vampyr
  4. Code Vein
  5. Toejam and Earl: Back In the Groove.

BONUS ROUND: Kingdom hearts 3 – It hasn’t made my top 5 because I truly don’t believe that it will be out this year without delays.

Joe

Recently I’ve been delving more and more into some of the good ol’ Roguelikes I used to play on PC… Just now on Switch! Enter the Gungeon and The Binding of Issac: Afterbirth+ are my two favourite Roguelikes, and being able to go through them all over again without any unlockables or extra areas has certainly been refreshing!

In terms of my most anticipated games of 2018, there are three titles in particular that I’m immensely excited for – Fortunately two of them are coming out on the 26th January! Dragonball Fighterz, Monster Hunter: World and Kingdom Hearts 3 (If it actually sustains it’s 2018 release period…) – Ever since I was a kid, I always used to watch Dragonball Z on Jetix / Toonami (God, remember those channels..?), and to finally see Arc System Works bring what may be one of the most faithful adaptations of the original animation style to a competitive fighting scene is, frankly, rather amazing.

Monster Hunter: World needs no introduction either – Being the first Monster Hunter title on a non-Nintendo console since Monster Hunter 2 (Which was, and still is Japanese exclusive), not to mention the first full Monster Hunter game to be released on PC, it’s easy to see why us fans of the series are hyped beyond belief – Given the amazing beta last month and the solid form the game appears to be in, Monster Hunter: World looks to be the new core of the entire series in a similar vein to Monster Hunter 3: Ultimate and Monster Hunter 4: Ultimate.

Finally, the biggest can of worms yet, Kingdom Hearts 3 – Regardless to say, if it actually releases this year as originally teased, then I’ll be mightily impressed – Being the conclusion of all the currently released Kingdom Hearts titles, it pits our protagonists against every villain introduced so far whilst breaching new grounds in terms of the series’ combat and world design… I’d love to begin the end of Sora’s journey… If it’d only release this year as expected.