NAILING DOWN the games of 2022—what’s left of it, at least—proved to be trickier than in previous years. There is a distinct lack of concrete release dates out there, with developers preferring to take an ‘it’ll be done when it’s done’ approach instead of killing themselves with 80-hour weeks as they crunch toward an unwise deadline.
And that’s just fine. After all, the more game developers who are left alive, the more games we get to play.
There’s also a dearth of big names. There’s no Call of Duty coming out this year. No new GTA, unless you count another re-release of V. No Assassin’s Creed nor Far Cry. No Halo, no Doom, no Civ… the list of absences goes on.
This leaves room for the other players, at least. We see a great number of new games that aren’t sequels, spin-offs, or remakes (though there are still examples of all three) and an awful lot of games with ‘TBC’ where their release date should be. If this represents a healthy correction for the game industry after years of crunch-based horror stories, then so be it.
Our PCs will be ready when the time comes.
Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands
A Borderlands spinoff, Wonderlands returns to the fantasy role-playing game of Assault on Dragon’s Keep for a first-person shooter that can be played solo or in a four-player co-op. There’s the usual randomly-generated loot system to ensure interesting new guns keep coming, but while Borderlands forced you into pre-existing characters, Wonderlands has a looser character generator, with a class system allowing you to put your own stamp on who you are.
• Out: Now
Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga
Is there anyone who hasn’t played this yet? A somewhat repetitive series going since 2005, brings together Lego versions of all nine films into the best Lego game experience since the last one. The big change this time is that it’s more of a third-person shooter than before, with a shiny graphical overhaul. The floaty movement of the original games has gone, replaced by clever environmental effects such
