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My 10 Most Anticipated Games Of 2017: Hayley Williams

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It’s 2017 and things are looking up, if only because it’s not 2016 anymore. Also we’re getting a new Mass Effect game.

Going back to my list for 2016, a lot of the games I was excited for then have been pushed back to 2017 — not that I’m complaining, now that it is actually 2017. A number of new games have also snuck up on my radar over the course of the last year. Here’s hoping they won’t get delayed either.

Here are the ten games I’m most excited to get my hands on in 2017:

Horizon Zero Dawn

Oh red-haired lady hunting badass robot dinosaurs, you can’t be in my life soon enough. This particular game was on my list last year as well, but this year it’s got an actual release date, hooray! I got my hands on the game demo at PAX last year, which thankfully hasn’t changed my mind about it. The controls are classic AAA action-adventure — if you’ve played Shadows Of Mordor, Far Cry, Assassin’s Creed, you’ve played Horizon Zero Dawn — but dammit Aloy looks like a really cool character, and I’m looking forward to getting into her head and her world.

Release Date: February 28

Mass Effect: Andromeda

Confession time: I only played the original Mass Effect trilogy very recently, at the end of 2015. But it was an instant favourite, something that I immediately played through again for different routes. I bought all the DLC. I even romanced Kaidan. Yes, I was that committed to Mass Effect. Even though I love the original trilogy, though, I was relieved to find out that Andromeda would be, quite literally, distancing itself from the characters and the worlds that we already know and love. I’m ready for a new adventure, Bioware. I’m ready to explore a new world. I’m ready to finally have a female turian companion.

Release Date: March 23

Yooka Laylee

A Banjo Kazooie sequel by any other name would smell as sweet. Banjo was my childhood, and I’m pretty sure that my body has been irreversibly trained to be happy any time it hears the cartoony sound effects and catchy music. Watching the trailers for Yooka Laylee brings up the same pleasure response in me. Yes, I backed the Kickstarter. I’m a terrible person, but I don’t care. I just need that classic, fun, late-90s-era platforming in my life again.

Release Date: April 11

Nintendo Switch

Oh Wii U. You let me down. But I’m not going to pretend I’m not still a slave to the Nintendo machine. The literal Nintendo machine. I have to confess that I’m not entirely sold on the whole click-click-switch thing though — I’ll probably just use it as a regular console 90 per cent of the time. But hardware isn’t why you buy Nintendo consoles. It’s the first party titles you want (see below). But please, Nintendo, I’m begging you, make 2017 the year that we finally get a new Metroid game! It’s been ten years since the last one!

Release Date: March

Agony

Agony is a survival horror game set in hell. That’s pretty cool. It looks so, so messed up and I love it. You also have the ability to control other poor lost souls and possess demons. That’s pretty cool too. I’m also a pretty big fan of the Giger-esque flesh-and-bone constructed environments of Agony’s version of hell. While I’m not yet sold on the ‘scariest game ever’ tag that some people are giving it, I’m more than willing to let Agony try and prove itself to me. Bring it on.

Release Date: Q2

Visage

Oh look! Another horror game! I’ve been following Visage since it first crossed my radar early last year. It’s a little bit PT, a little bit Amnesia and a good heaping chunk of its own thing as well. It looks quiet and tense and utterly creepy, as well as eerily beautiful and almost poignant. I can’t wait to see the finished game that comes out of this.

Release Date: Q2

Earthlight

A local game from a Melbourne team, Earthlight is the only VR game on my list, despite enjoying the HTC Vive quite a bit last year. Thing is, there are few VR games that work as more than a quick mini-game, an isolated experience. Earthlight is the first game I’ve tried out that has the potential to be more than that. More than that, their dedication to properly depicting the experience of NASA astronauts on the ISS is admirable, and hell, who doesn’t want to be an astronaut?

Release Date: TBA

Nidhogg 2

I’m pretty sure the first Nidhogg almost killed me once. I remember going home the day I discovered it, telling my brother we needed to play this game, and then just playing through match after match for five hours straight. And I laughed. I don’t think I’ve ever laughed so hard in my life before or since that moment. For some reason, this simple, frenetic fencing game just hit that tiny spot right in the joy centre of my brain and I just could not stop laughing for hours on end. I lost my voice the next day. Nidhogg 2 is, as the name would suggest, that game’s somewhat surprising sequel. The graphics are upgraded, as if moving from the NES to the SNES, and you get new weapons like bows! I’m not sure if I dig the cartoony, Homer Simpson-esque player sprites but hey, it’s Nidhogg. There’s no way I won’t enjoy this game.

Release Date: TBA

Zelda: Breath Of The Wild

It’s the next Zelda game. Of course I’m looking forward to this.

Release Date: TBA

Tacoma

I played Gone Home for the first time this year. I’m not sure why it took me so long, because it was everything I enjoy in a game, bundled up in one lovely, simple package. Tacoma is the studio’s next game, set on a space station 200,000 miles from Earth. Just like Gone Home, you’re the single explorer of a lonely space, though this time the story unfolds through holograms that replay prior actions. Some of my favourite moments in other space games have been unraveling these kinds of sub-stories, so it’ll be interesting to explore that format without worrying about all the shooty bits that usually come in between.

Release Date: TBA

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