Alright, throwing my own hat in the mix. Time to confuse everyone!
Psychonauts 2
I’m not without concerns, but what I’ve seen of it is great and it has to be said… Psychonauts 1 and RoR is a masterpiece. I even went back and played Rhombus of Ruin again last week, no regrets there. I guess it’s worth mentioning that the ONLY reason why I ever looked into VR is because of Rhombus of Ruin.
Psychonauts is an action platformer with some top-tier storytelling, and arguably Tim Schafer’s greatest work. Everything down to the worldbuilding, sometimes-abrasive characters (especially early on), and even the level design itself tells a twisted story about characters that have buried pasts and trauma they hide from the world.
It also has to be said… even after playing Rhombus of Ruin, seeing all these characters from the original return in a modern engine, it’s amazing seeing it all in a modern scenario. There’s no visual discrepancy at all, they look identical to their previous appearances… just better. The Unreal Engine 4 lighting and production value combined with that distinct look of Psychonauts is just a sight to behold.
This game doesn’t have a Steam page yet, but it’s due for early this year. I’m going to link the first trailer instead…
Greedfall
You knew the jank was coming up eventually. Greedfall is the latest game by the Technomancer/Bound by Flame developers, Spiders-- a French AA team that’s been making BioWare-y RPGs full of ups and downs. Having played most of their games, they’ve been slowly evolving and mastering their craft, and I have a VERY good feeling about their latest game.
It’s a weird take on the colonization era with nature-monsters and magic. Not too much info yet, but it seems like you’ll be stuck between finding a cure for your homeland’s plague on the island or turning against some generals that step a bit over the line.
Unfortunately, we aren’t getting any more info about it until next month.
Crackdown 3
Honestly, I don’t even feel like going in depth about this. It’s just going to get delayed again. Also, it has Terry Crews now.
The singleplayer footage I’ve seen looks like… well, modern Crackdown. I want to be excited for it, but it’s already been six years. Why hurry to release it now?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9yK0qGZz6GE
Resident Evil 2 REMake
Honestly, nothing I say will do this justice. It’s everything RE2 aspired to be thematically, done with modern tech and fan-favorite perspectives.
If you’re a little on edge about how the over-the-shoulder perspective would do in a horror game, well… you should definitely be on edge, but not about that.