Gaming season is upon us! Gaming season is a time every fall where almost all of the big games release and new big games are announced. With games like Cuphead, Call of Duty WWII and Pokemon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon appearing during this season, a wide variety of games will make Gaming Season enjoyable for any gamer.
First of all, Call of Duty has gotten a brand new installation called Call of Duty WWII, released on November 3rd, 2017. This game strays from the futuristic styles of Call of Duty Infinite Warfare and Call of Duty Black Ops III and is going back to a WWII styling. This game follows a campaign based around a war torn Europe and the soldiers involved. This game is from a company new to Call of Duty, Sledgehammer Games, not veteran designers like Treyarch and Infinity Ward, who were blamed for the decrease in quality. The game has done better than a few predecessors with an 82% on Metacritic.
Nintendo has also been releasing new titles, with Super Mario Odyssey, released October 27th, 2017, debuting on the Nintendo Switch. Odyssey has become a fan favorite Mario game with its semi realistic humans and ability to take over other characters with a hat ghost. This game is also open world, something akin to Super Mario 64 and Super Mario Sunshine Odyssey has gotten acclaim and has been getting astounding reviews with a whopping 97% on Metacritic.
Another Nintendo title is Pokemon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon, which are main series Pokemon games released for the Nintendo 3DS November 17th, 2017. These games are alternate timeline retellings of Pokemon Sun and Moon that get progressively divergent the further the story proceeds. These games are considered much more difficult than the previous installments, some say a bit too difficult. With a score of 85% on Metacritic, these games are generally favored by many.
Another large release is Destiny 2, released September 6th, 2017, being the long anticipated sequel to the first Destiny game, released September 9th, 2014. This game is an online only first person action adventure game with a shared world concept, meaning that there are servers with many players in the same world doing tasks. Destiny 2 has received generally favorable reviews with an 85% on Metacritic.
Yet another first person shooter adventure game, Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus has released on October 27th, 2017, and follows the plotline of the Nazis taking over the USA after winning World War II. This game is a “what if?” scenario with many futuristic aspects even though it is set in the 1960s, as was Wolfenstein: The New Order, the first installment of this storyline within the Wolfenstein franchise. Wolfenstein II has overcome struggles with a political controversy it went under earlier this year. Wolfenstein II has very good reviews with an 89% on Metacritic.
As for driving games, Forza Motorsport 7 has released as of October 3rd, 2017. Forza Motorsport 7 is the 10th Forza game including the Forza Horizon games. This game has the most vehicles in Forza history and does what every Forza Motorsport game does, adds more cars and tracks, along with a graphics update. This series is a front runner of the racing game genre and is living up to its name with Forza Motorsport 7 receiving an 86% on Metacritic.
Diving into indie games, Cuphead was released on September 29th, 2017, after many delays. Cuphead has received acclaim and is considered a very good game with an 87% on Metacritic. Cuphead uses 1930s era cartoons as inspiration, taking music from that era, as well as making the graphics look similar to the cartoons of that time. Cuphead features mostly boss fights and a few run and gun levels. Within the game, the bosses are all unique and have completely different fighting sequences, each needing to be fought in different ways.
In horror games, The Evil Within 2 has released on October 13th 2017 and is based in mostly a parallel universe called the STEM world, inhabited by terrifying monsters. This game is a adventure survival game, as well as a horror game, similar to Resident Evil 7 and Outlast. This game has gotten generally positive reviews with an 81% on Metacritic.
Games to come are Dead Rising 4 and Xenoblade Chronicles 2, to add more into game franchises that already have popularity, and Hello Neighbor, which got its popularity from its many demos and gets its full release in early December of 2017. Dead Rising 4 is a zombie action horror game focused on surviving and building weapons, having an occult following of fans who are ready for the release on steam in March of 2017. Xenoblade Chronicles 2 is a follow-up to Xenoblade Chronicles, a generally well received action role-playing game for the Nintendo 3DS, and will be released in December of 2017. Hello Neighbor is a game that has gained popularity through Youtube and people playing the demos, being a game about quirky puzzles found throughout a neighbor’s impossibly complicated house.
Gaming Season as a whole has something for every gamer. This time period allows games to gain recognition before the holiday season and gets people on board with them before holiday sales begin. This season allows new concepts, such as Cuphead, or old concepts, Such as Call of Duty and Pokemon, to flourish. This season allows old games to try a new style yet keep people happy, like Super Mario Odyssey.
Overall, this gaming season has been the most impactful with its games. But everybody wonders if next year’s line up could have any chance to top this year’s lineup. With such a varied and fantastic lineup, next year’s gaming season’s line up has a lot to live up to.
