Blockbuster sequels

New IP’s are always exciting, but there’s just something special about going back to some of your favourite franchises with new iterations and sequels. In March we’ve had a few major blockbuster sequels announced that you really need to keep an eye out for!

Shadow of The Tomb Raider

Square Enix’s hit reboot of Tomb Raider followed by Rise Of The Tomb Raider did well on all platforms, even with its Definitive Edition and now even has a big screen movie adaptation! The game brought back the franchise into the modern era, tackling the origin story of one of the most iconic characters in video game history. The newly announced title, Shadow of The Tomb Raider from the looks of the teaser is going to be another action packed adventure with enough combat to keep shooter and action fans happy. The setting seems to be moving to south America, something that has a lot of potential in terms of puzzles and tomb, I just hope they do enough justice to the rich and vibrant setting of the new game.

The Division 2

When Tom Clancy’s The Division came out, it was expected to redefine how we look at FPS’ with its MMO style approach to PVE and PVP elements. However with bugs, hackers and of course half complete concepts it turned out to be a little underwhelming, but still managed to do enough to get a lot of people interested in the new franchise with The Division becoming the fastest selling new IP in history. The Division 2 it seems has been in the works for a while with the focus being the inputs from the community on the first game. While The Division has definitely received enough post launch content support, the core mechanics are what troubled most gamers. Hopefully, Division 2 can tackle those while exploring a new theme or setting for the sequel which is expected some time in 2019 that would put it about three years after the original.

Call of Duty Black Ops IIII

While a new Call of Duty game is no surprise at all, the Black Ops series has fared better than most in recent times. The original Call of Duty Black Ops was one of my favourite Call of Duties of all time with its throwback to old school shooters. However, the flavour of hour seems to be double jumps and flying drones which has seen the franchise go slightly futuristic in its last two outings. Black Ops 4’s teaser stated “Forget Everything You Know” hints at a drastic change for the franchise, maybe altering timelines in the campaign that would of course mean more futuristic combat; in contrast to the last COD title WW1, maybe to provide a bit of variety for COD fans. One of the iconic parts of a Black Ops game has always been its zombie mode, so hopefully that’s going to really take center stage this time around.

Yakuza Kiwani 2

The popularity of the Yakuza series seems to have catapulted outside of Japan. Last year, we got two games on the PS4 in the form of Yakuza 0, a prequel to the franchise and Yakuza Kiwami, a remake of the first game. SEGA is already releasing Yakuza 6, the final game in Kiryu’s story, next month and they have added another surprise to their 2018 catalogue. They have confirmed that Yakuza Kiwami 2, a remake of the second game, will launch in just five months on August 28, 2018. It uses the brand new Dragon engine which was first utilised in 6. Yakuza 2 is widely considered as one of the best games in the series and we cannot wait to see if the remake does it justice. In addition to the exciting new story and engine refinements, you also get to play as Majima which will hopefully build upon his character arc from Yakuza 0.