Anticipated Games of 2023
February is the shortest month of the year, but in terms of the number of interesting projects it can compete with the traditionally fertile autumn-winter period. And what are these releases – everywhere you can find a potential candidate for “Game of the Year” in at least one genre: the long-awaited Hogwarts adventure, a sequel to the space simulator itself, another JRPG from Square Enix, several real-time strategies and so many sequels and re-releases. Novelties can be found for free at piratebays. Let’s take a closer look at the most anticipated games of 2023.
Sons Of The Forest
The search for a missing billionaire leads the main character to a deserted island lost in the ocean. But is it deserted? The island is full of life: both cannibalistic savages and human monsters live here. We will have to resist not only the numerous enemies but also natural conditions – as the original, Sons Of The Forest is not just a horror but also a survivalist. Promised even a change of seasons, which will affect the gameplay – have to stock up on food before winter. On the island, there will be found friends – a few allied NPC. In addition, you can survive in co-op. Journalists from IGN, who played the trial version, noted an improvement in all aspects of the original and a decent intelligence of enemies and companions.
Operation: Harsh Doorstop
As the authors of Operation: Harsh Doorstop say, they always wanted to see a full-fledged tactical sandbox, but the developers of such projects are now thinking more about monetization than about the gameplay capabilities. We had to create the “dream game” on our own – it will be free-to-play, and the main development vector will be determined by the community.
Gameplay is oriented on the classic principles of tactical shooters, such as Project Reality, Squad, and Red Orchestra. In addition to the single-player mode, co-op and competitive multiplayer it is worth noting the support of Steam Workshop – in terms of flexibility of modifications, the developers want to make their product similar to the Arma series.
Company of Heroes 3
This time, we will have to fight in the Mediterranean theater of operations – the events of the third part unfold on the Italian coast, which begins with the landing of the Allied army in 1943, and in North Africa, where the war was for almost three years since the summer of 1940.
The single-player campaign offers not only the usual tactical battles of the series but also a global mode where you have to make strategic decisions that affect the course of the game: choosing the location of the main strike, planning artillery strikes and bombings, managing supply lines, and squad management. Worth mentioning are the detailed graphics and dynamic destruction system – these traditionally high-quality aspects for an RTS from Relic Entertainment are set to get even better. We’re promised a full-fledged simulation of debris and materials – for example, pieces of blown-up buildings can kill infantry who take cover, and some surfaces have multiple layers of textures that appear as they are destroyed.
Deliver Us Mars
Ten years after the events of Deliver Us The Moon, humanity once again finds itself on the brink of extinction. If in the first part, the rescue had to be sought on a satellite of the Earth, now the main character will go to Mars, where the arks of colonizers stolen by villains are located, which became the last hope of civilization.
Deliver Us The Moon was praised for the atmosphere of space solitude and scolded for the monotonous gameplay, which is a typical “walking simulator” with simple puzzles. It seems that the sequel should be expected to be about the same.
Hogwarts Legacy
A large-scale open-world action RPG in the world-famous franchise – even with such a presentation, it’s clear that we have a game with big ambitions. The authors promise at least 35 hours of gameplay only in the main storyline, and the full passage will take twice as much time. The place and time of action – Hogwarts of the XIX century, and the main character will be one of the students who have the key to an ancient secret that can tear the world apart.
Hogwarts Legacy looks so tempting that even the modest experience of the developers in making such a large game doesn’t stop the buyers, thanks to whom the game is already breaking the sales record. Avalanche Software studio, even though they made games based on the movies, in the creation of landmark projects, was not noticeable. Whether it will be able to please a huge army of fans – we will find out very soon.
Returnal (PC release)
Spectacular action-horror about a time loop, which was the first full-fledged exclusive of the last generation of PlayStation, is out of beta-testing on PC. The PC version is created in the latest technological fashion: surround sound, shadows, and reflections with ray tracing, a lot of control settings, support for DualSense controller with adaptive triggers and haptic feedback, as well as NVIDIA DLSS and AMD FSR.
