The New Wave of Video Games Excite Loyal Fans

Photo courtesy of Blozikiki, Flickr

The video game industry has gotten off to a strong start this year with the release of “Resident Evil 7,” “For Honor” and the addition of Lunar New Year skins for the first-person shooter, “Overwatch.” Video game company The Behemoth, which has produced hit games such as “Castle Crashers” and “BattleBlock Theater,” also recently made a splash with the release of “Pit People,” a turn-based strategy game. It is the first game of its kind for the popular company.  

Among the games generating buzz amongst gamers are reboots of older games that are being remastered for newer systems. One such game is “Crash Bandicoot,” a game which originally debuted on the original Sony Playstation in 1996.

“I’m excited for the new Crash Bandicoot, because it’ll be a great way to have some nostalgic moments on a modern gaming system,” sophomore Jimmy Scalia said. “Crash Bandicoot: N’Sane Trilogy” is scheduled to release on June 30 of this year.

“I’m excited for Final Fantasy VII’s reboot,” sophomore Eric Lapp said.

“I’m a huge fan of the franchise as a whole and I’m excited to see any new information, whether it’s trailers or screenshots, or even gameplay,” Lapp continued.

The release date of “Final Fantasy VII” has yet to be confirmed; however, according to Game Director Tetsuya Nomura, the game will be shown off at this year’s Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) in June.

Sophomore Fiona Connell expressed interest in the remastering of “Star Wars Battlefront 2.”

“I’m really excited because it will feature content from the newer movies. I used to play the original 'Star Wars: Battlefront' on my PSP. It’ll be very interesting to see how the new one compares to the old one.”

According to an EA press statement, the game is expected to be released during the holiday season of 2017.

There is also plenty of new content being released in 2017. “Prey,” developed by Arkane Studios and published by Bethesda, the makers of "The Elder Scrolls" series, is a game in which the player takes on the role of an explorer on a moon-orbiting space station. There they will find clues that uncover what happened on the station as well as a dark, mysterious alien race that has taken over the ship.

“It’s a new twist on the classic survival horror game,” sophomore Andrew Wild said.

“It should be an interesting game; Bethesda doesn’t mess around when it comes to publishing content,” Wild continued. “Prey” is scheduled for release on May 5 for PS4, Xbox One and PC.

343 Industries launched “Halo Wars 2” on Feb. 21. This real-time strategy game brings back many of the aspects from the original “Halo Wars” and features new vehicles, a new threat, new maps and gamemodes.

“I’m incredibly excited for the new 'Halo Wars,'” sophomore Jimmy Addie said, “I loved the original 'Halo Wars,' and I was hoping that they’d make another one. I played the beta, and I already preordered my copy.”

Video games are useless without consoles or PCs to play them on. On March 3, Nintendo will launch their new console, the Nintendo Switch. This console utilizes the same gamepad style controller as the Wii U, but takes it one step forward by incorporating two controllers that can be removed from the gamepad for multiplayer games. The Switch will launch with six games, the most publicized being “The Legend of Zelda: Breath of The Wild.”

2017 will bring plenty of new releases across all gaming platforms. Some games are entirely new, while others are remastered versions of games of the past. Many students find that video games are a critical piece to any party or social gathering and with a large variety of new content on the horizon, many gamers are excited to experience the next wave of gaming.

kferlita@ramapo.edu