From the advent of subscription-based game streaming services like Apple Arcade and Google Stadia to the rollout of some of the popular gaming titles for mobile platforms, the year 2019 has been a year full of surprises, fun and captivating experiences for the community of ardent gamers. The new year is unlikely to see any let-up in excitement, as some of the most popular gaming titles are scheduled to be launched in 2020.
Here is a list of popular games that will be launched or undated in 2020:
12 MINUTES (ANNAPURNA INTERACTIVE)
Availability: Xbox One, Windows 10 PC
Storyline: 12 Minutes is a real-time top-down interactive thriller with an accessible click-and-drag interface. What should be a romantic evening with your wife turns into a nightmare when a police detective breaks into your home, accuses your wife of murder and beats you to death, and then you find yourself immediately returned to the exact moment when you opened the front door, stuck in a twelve-minute time loop, doomed to relive the same terror again and again, unless you can find a way to use the knowledge of what is coming to change the outcome and break the loop.
Age of Empires III: Definitive Edition (TANTALUS MEDIA, WORLD’S EDGE)
Availability: Windows 10 PC, Steam, Xbox Game Pass
What’s new: Ultra high definition graphics, new sound effects, enhanced maps, and more.
Immerse yourself in this award-winning strategy experience, remastered for 2020 with all new 4K Ultra HD graphics, new sounds and more. You can command mighty European powers looking to explore new lands in the New World, or jump eastwards to Asia and determine the outcome of its struggles for power.
BLEEDING EDGE (NINJA THEORY)
Availability: Xbox One, Windows 10 PC, Steam, Xbox Game Pass
Game play: Bleeding Edge is a 4v4 brawler that combines third-person action combat with online team multiplayer. It features a diverse roster of fighters with a mix of ranged and melee combat styles, as well as moment-to-moment gameplay that is all about combos, dodging, timing, dexterity and good teamwork to secure a win. Bleeding Edge will be launched on March 24, 2020, on Xbox One, Windows 10 PC, Steam and with Xbox Game Pass.
CROSSFIREX (SMILEGATE ENTERTAINMENT)
Availability: Xbox One; Xbox Game Pass
What’s new: Coming first to the Xbox One console in 2020 with unique content for Xbox Game pass members, CrossfireX is an all-new, free-to-play instalment of the world’s most played PC gaming franchise, Crossfire. Built from the ground up, CrossfireX delivers a wide variety of high-quality first-person shooter (FPS) experience, with new multiplayer maps and modes from developer Smilegate Entertainment, and an all-new single-player campaign developed in partnership with Remedy Entertainment.
CUPHEAD: THE DELICIOUS LAST COURSE (STUDIO MDHR)
Availability: Xbox One, Windows 10 PC, Nintendo Switch
Storyline: In Cuphead: The Delicious Last Course (DLC), Cuphead and Mugman are joined by Ms Chalice for a DLC add-on adventure on a brand-new island! With new weapons, new charms, and Ms Chalice’s brand-new abilities, take on a new cast of multi-faceted, screen-filling bosses to assist Chef Saltbaker in Cuphead’s final challenging quest.
CYBERPUNK 2077 (CD PROJEKT RED)
Availability: Xbox One, Windows 10 PC, PlayStation 4, Google Stadia, Steam
Cyberpunk 2077 is an open-world, action-adventure story set in Night City, a megalopolis obsessed with power, glamour and body modification. You play as V, a mercenary outlaw going after a one-of-a-kind implant that is the key to immortality. You can customise your character’s cyberware, skillset and playstyle, and explore a vast city where the choices you make shape the story and the world around you.
DOOM ETERNAL (ID SOFTWARE)
Availability: Xbox One, Windows 10 PC, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, Steam
Storyline: As the DOOM Slayer, you return to find Earth has suffered a demonic invasion. Discover the slayer’s origins and his enduring mission to raze hell. Experience the ultimate combination of speed and power as you battle your way across dimensions with the next leap in push-forward, first-person combat.
DRAKE HOLLOW (THE MOLASSES FLOOD)
Availability: Xbox Game Pass, Xbox One, Windows 10 PC
Game play: You can explore this blighted world with your friends: Gather supplies, battle savage creatures, and build villages to protect the local innocent vegetable folks known as Drakes.
GEARS TACTICS (THE COALITION, SPLASH DAMAGE)
Availability: Windows 10 PC, Steam, Xbox Game Pass
Storyline: Gears Tactics is the fast-paced, turn-based strategy game set 12 years before the first ‘Gears of War’. Cities on the planet Sera are beginning to fall to the monstrous threat rising from underground — the Locust Horde. With the government in disarray, a squad of survivors emerges as humanity’s last hope. You can play as Gabe Diaz, recruiting, equipping and commanding your squads on a desperate mission to hunt down the relentless and powerful leader of the Locust army — Ukkon, the evil mastermind who makes monsters. Against all odds and fighting for survival, you have to outsmart your enemy in uniquely brutal, turn-based tactical combat. You can experience the intensity of one of the most acclaimed video game sagas in an exciting new way.
GROUNDED (OBSIDIAN ENTERTAINMENT)
Availability: Xbox Game Preview, Xbox Game Pass, Xbox One, Windows 10 PC, Steam Early Access
Storyline: In Grounded, players are shrunk to the size of an ant and tasked with surviving in the unique micro-world of a suburban backyard. This harsh and dangerous landscape can be navigated solo or with up to three additional players in cooperative multiplayer, working together to progress through story missions or exploring the intricately detailed game world. Players must gather, craft and build bases with everyday objects found within the yard, searching for life-saving resources, while living alongside peaceful and giant hostile insects, all fighting to survive. To be launched in the Xbox Game Preview with Xbox Game Pass, Grounded will evolve and change based on community feedback to enhance player experience.
HALO INFINITE (343 INDUSTRIES)
Availability: Xbox Series X, Xbox Game Pass, Xbox One, Windows 10 PC
Storyline: The Master Chief will return in 2020 with the global release of Halo Infinite alongside the launch of the Xbox Series X. This next chapter in 343 Industries’ legendary Halo franchise invites players to join the venerable Master Chief on an all-new adventure as he faces new threats and gains new allies on a mysterious Halo ring. Halo Infinite is powered by the studio’s next-generation Slipspace Engine.
KINGDOM HEARTS III REMIND (SQUARE ENIX)
Availability: Xbox One, PlayStation 4
Storyline: Determined to rescue Kairi, Sora travels to the Keyblade Graveyard a little before the final battle is to take place. Lacking a corporeal form, he traces the hearts of the seven guardians of light. Through experiencing their personal battles first-hand, Sora is about to discover truths that he never before imagined.
LAST STOP (VARIABLE STATE)
Availability: Xbox One
Game play: Last Stop is a single-player third-person adventure set in present-day London, where you play as three separate characters whose worlds collide in the midst of a supernatural crisis. An anthology connecting three stories as one, Last Stop is centred on secret lives, the ties that bind, and how magic can be found in the mundane.
MARVELS AVENGERS (SQUARE ENIX)
Availability: Xbox One, Windows 10 PC, PlayStation 4, Google Stadia
Storyline: Marvel’s Avengers begins at A-Day, where Captain America, Iron Man, the Hulk, Black Widow, and Thor are unveiling a hi-tech Avengers headquarters in San Francisco and reveal their own helicarrier powered by an experimental energy source. The celebration turns deadly when a catastrophic accident results in massive devastation. Blamed for the tragedy, the Avengers disband. Five years later, with all super heroes outlawed and the world in peril, the only hope is to reassemble the earth’s mightiest heroes.
MICROSOFT FLIGHT SIMULATOR (ASOBO STUDIO)
Availability: Windows 10 PC, Xbox Game Pass for PC
About the game: Microsoft Flight Simulator, the next generation of one of the most beloved simulation franchises, is specifically designed for flight simulation fans through a focus on the authenticity of flying and visually stunning environments. From light planes to wide-body jets, players can create their own flight plan and fly anywhere on the planet in highly detailed aircraft. Players can experience an incredibly realistic world in day or night, and face life-like challenging weather conditions.
MINECRAFT DUNGEONS (MOJANG)
Availability: Xbox One, Windows 10 PC, Xbox Game Pass, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch
About the game: Minecraft Dungeons is an all-new action-adventure game set in the Minecraft universe. It will be launched in April 2020. Created in the classic dungeon crawler style, Minecraft Dungeons takes players on an epic quest full of new characters and environments to discover, with a single player or co-op multiplayer options for up to four players; there is also a couch co-op.
MINECRAFT EARTH (MOJANG)
Availability: iOS, Android
About the game: In this game, you can discover a new dimension of Minecraft as you create, explore, and survive in the real world. As you join a community of builders and explorers spanning the planet, you collect resources for your builds, craft in augmented reality and then place them at life size. You can even team up with others for this adventure. Minecraft Earth early access continues into 2020 and looks towards new features and experiences in the spring.
ORI AND THE WILL OF THE WISPS (MOON STUDIOS)
Availability: Xbox One, Windows 10 PC, Steam, Xbox Game Pass
Storyline: To be available on March 11, Ori and the Will of the Wisps will have you embarking on an all-new adventure in a vast, exotic world where you will encounter towering enemies and challenging puzzles on your quest to unravel Ori’s destiny.
PSYCHONAUTS 2 (DOUBLE FINE PRODUCTIONS)
Availability: Xbox One, Windows 10 PC, Xbox Game Pass
Storyline: Razputin Aquato, a trained acrobat and powerful young psychic, has realised his lifelong dream of joining the international psychic espionage organization, the Psychonauts. But these psychic super spies are in trouble. Their leader has not been the same since he was kidnapped. What is worse is that there is a mole hiding in the headquarters. Raz must use his powers to stop the mole before they execute their secret plan of bringing a murderous psychic villain, Maligula, back from the dead.
RUST (FACEPUNCH STUDIOS)
Availability: Xbox One, Windows 10 PC, PlayStation 4, Steam
Storyline: The only aim in Rust is to survive. To do this, you need to overcome struggles like hunger, thirst and cold. Build a fire. Build a shelter. Kill animals for meat. Protect yourself from other players, and kill them for meat. Create alliances with other players and form a town. Do whatever it takes to survive.
TELL ME WHY (DONTNOD ENTERTAINMENT)
Availability: Xbox One, Windows 10 PC, Steam, Xbox Game Pass
About the game: Tell Me Why is a new Xbox Game Studios-exclusive game from DONTNOD Entertainment, which created the beloved and award-winning franchise Life is Strange. With a true-to-life story and authentic characters, Tell Me Why creates an inclusive gaming experience. Tell Me Why is a single-player narrative adventure game with a story unfolding across three chapters.
THE ARTFUL ESCAPE (BEETHOVEN & DINOSAUR)
Availability: Xbox One, Windows 10 PC, Apple Arcade
Storyline: On the eve of his first performance, Francis Vendetti battles with the legacy of a dead folk legend and the cosmic wanderings of his own imagination. Francis, a teenage guitar prodigy, sets out on a psychedelic, multidimensional journey to inspire his stage persona.
VAMPIRE: THE MASQUERADE – BLOODLINES 2 (HARDSUIT LABS)
Availability: Xbox One, Windows 10 PC, PlayStation 4, Steam
About the game: Sired in an act of vampire terrorism, your existence ignites the war for Seattle’s blood trade. You can enter uneasy alliances with the creatures that control the city and uncover the sprawling conspiracy which plunged Seattle into a bloody civil war between powerful vampire factions. You and your unique disciplines are a weapon in our forward-driving, fast-moving, melee-focused combat system. Your power will grow as you advance, but remember to uphold the Masquerade and guard your humanity, or you will face the consequences.
WASTELAND 3 (DEEP SILVER)
Availability: Xbox One, Windows 10 PC, PlayStation 4, Steam
About the game: Wasteland 3 is a post-apocalyptic role-playing game, featuring challenging tactical combat, hours of exploration, and a deep, reactive story full of twists, turns, and brutal ethical decisions. You can play this in single-player or co-op mode as you customise your squad with perks and abilities geared to your playstyle, and customise your vehicle, the Kodiak, turning it into a hardened war beast. The goal is to save Colorado.
WEST OF DEAD (RAW FURY)
Availability: Xbox Game Pass, Xbox One, Windows 10 PC, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, Steam
About the game: This game takes you to a place of gun smoke and darkness, sin and damnation, wendigos and witches. You can step into the boots of the dead man William Mason (voiced by Ron Perlman) in this fast-paced twin-stick shooter. You will need to dodge behind cover as you try to outgun your enemies in the unknown procedurally generated hunting grounds.
Source: Business Standard
