What an unmitigated nightmare of a year 2020 has been. Between the natural disasters that went large this year, over to COVID-19 and the horrors of a pandemic, very few people will look back at this year with fond memories.
Typically at the end of the year we look back at the highlights, but given that 2020 has been so unrelentingly miserable, we’ve decided to look forward instead. Each of the DDNet team is going to list the five things (related to games) that they’re looking forward to in 2021. Whether that be new games, announcements, events or experiences. Be sure to let us know what you’re looking forward to on the rebound, too! We’d love to knock this year out with a wave of positivity.
First up in this series is the DDNet podcast editor (and regular), Alan!
The eventual rerelease of Cyberpunk 2077
I don’t think it’s controversial to say that Cyberpunk 2077 has maybe had the single worst launch of all time, and in an industry that has had stinkers like Anthem and Fallout 76, that’s genuinely impressive. While the game itself is pretty fun (I would argue it’s great), it’s held back by constant crashes, visual bugs, frame rate dips, and a whole load of other things that are simply unacceptable for a console release. I’ve been playing on the PS5, and have since given up as a result of the sixteen crashes I’ve experienced in my ten or so hours with the game. Truly a sad state, and a lesson to management everywhere on how to actually release a game of that scale. Anyway, can’t wait to play it when it actually works. Hooray!
The slow crawl of PS5 upgraded games
The PS5 also came out this year, with maybe one game that I would consider wholly worth purchasing on day one (being Demon’s Souls), which in all honestly gave me a resounding feeling of “bleh”. While the console itself is great, I’m just waiting to see what the hardware can do, outside of just loading very fast (which is does do, and is very good). Games like CONTROL, which is supposedly releasing in the next two months, are set to give that PC gaming visual experience, without the need to figure out why your PC is suddenly on fire and screaming at you. What a wonderful world.
Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity frame rate patch
This won’t happen, but I want it to. Please, my eyes, they are very sick.
NieR: Replicant
Do I need to say anything more? NieR Automata was fantastic; I have zero doubts that this will be a faithful and loving recreation of a game that missed a lot of people (myself included) when it launched originally on the PS3 and Xbox 360. Yoko Taro will also probably mess around with it too, so that’s always something to look forward to. Maybe he’ll just have a section where every character in the game gives you the middle finger if you try to skip past the text adventure section! Maybe he’ll sell another t-shirt by rolling around on the floor again (this happened)! I don’t know what will happen, but I sure am interested.
Back 4 Blood is just Left 4 Dead 3 and I’m very cool with that
One of the most formative console gaming experiences I had in the late 00’s and early 10’s, was sitting on a mates couch, and playing Left 4 Dead 1 and 2 until 4 am while eating what amounted to just pure sugar. Back 4 Blood, made by the original developers of L4D (Turtle Rock studios), is looking more and more likely to scratch that same itch of mission-based horde gameplay that I’ve been waiting for all these years. While games like Vermintide (and the upcoming Darktide) have done their best to emulate the style, it’ll be nice to go back to classic “gun and also a guitar” style combat that made me fall in love with co-op first-person shooters. They’ve literally just put a Boomer into it, and slightly changed the name. It’s just the Boomer. That’s enough for me to trust them.
