Around this time last year, I started going on about how 2015 wasn’t that great a year for gaming. Sure, we got Witcher III, Metal Gear Solid V and Rise of the Tomb Raider but I never saw it as a vintage year.
We come to 2016 and I was going to say 2016 has been a worse year for gaming after numerous disappointments such as No Man’s Sky, Street Fighter V and Star Fox Zero which the year likely will be remembered for them from the mass gaming media.
And I honestly thought due to 10+ years in development both Final Fantasy XV and The Last Guardian wouldn’t be up to snuff, yet both seem to have proved me wrong.
Now I still don’t think 2016 is a vintage year for gaming but looking at the games we did get like Uncharted 4, Overwatch and even Final Fantasy XV. I’d go as far as saying 2015 and 2016 are even in terms of quality games.
Neither like I said are vintage and when I mean that, I’m thinking of what you would call the years of years and each generation of gaming has them, a certain year when everything just clicks into place.
That last generation had a few great years but one quite early into the generation sticks out to me and if you have been on such forums as Super ONM who even ran a vote for best year in gaming with this year being one of the favourites.
That year was 2007
Why I personally think the year was so great as we got the PlayStation 3 in Europe and getting new hardware is always great feeling and we got some amazing games such as Bioshock with its unique atmosphere and storytelling, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare which really did put Call of Duty on the gaming map and you just have to see the love for this game from the clamouring of the recent remaster, Halo 3 which was the end of forerunner trilogy, Mass Effect which kicked of what would become my favourite game of all-time (I count the trilogy as one game) and Super Mario Galaxy just to name a few.
If you look back further, years ending in seven have been rather good for gaming as in 1997 we got Final Fantasy VII, Goldeneye 007, Castlevania Symphony of the Night, Tekken 3 along with Nintendo 64 making its PAL debut and you could still argue some of those are the best games around or at the very least important gaming milestones.
1987 wasn’t as great, then you must remember games were still a young entertainment medium and at the time we still saw Final Fantasy, Metal Gear, Contra, Double Dragon, The Legend of Zelda, Mega Man, Phantasy Star along with getting the Master System.
I guess you can get what I’m going to say and that’s could 2017 be one of those vintage years for gaming or at the very least one of the very best for this generation of gaming.
Originally my plan was to talk about all the great games coming in 2017 like Halo Wars 2, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Mass Effect Andromeda and we will see new hardware from both Nintendo and Microsoft.
If you know me, most would call me a PlayStation fan more than anything now (SEGA still at heart) due to me buying things like the PlayStation VR, PlayStation 4 Pro and expense editions of The Last Guardian day one along with doing a PlayStation Podcast and a PSVR news series.
With that said after PSX, I changed my mind and instead of talking about all the great games coming in 2017.
I’m going to talk about the great PlayStation 4 exclusive coming to PS4 in 2017 now some of these are also coming to PC or part of the PlayStation family but I hope this article inspires other Gintendo members to do a similar piece on Xboxes and Nintendo’s 2017 which both also share games with PC or within the same family of systems.
This is my personal list of games I’m looking forward to and you may think why X game is missing also this list only has games with an actual date or been confirmed as 2017 (I do cheat with two games), so no The Last of Us Part II or Death Stranding here as they’re likely years away.
Cosmic Star Heroine – A homage to SEGAs Phantasy Star series
Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy – Crash gets the “AAA” Remaster treatment with the first three games making a comeback
Danganronpa 1•2 Reload & Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony – A strange murder mystery visual novel where a teddy bear is the star
Digimon World: Next Order – Its Digimon
Dragon Quest Heroes II – The second in the Musou X Dragon Quest series
Final Fantasy XII HD The Zodiac Age – The PS2 JRPG Classic makes a return in 2017 to help celebrate Final Fantasy’s 30th anniversary
Gravity Rush 2 – The Cult Classic VITA game finally gets a sequel
Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice – Ninja Theory take on mental illness in this PS4 title
Horizon Zero Dawn – The big confirmed 1st party title for PS4 where you take on Robot Dinosaurs in a strange future where mankind has gone back to the times of the Vikings
Hot Shots Golf / Everybody’s Golf – Arcade Golfing fun for the whole family
Kingdom Hearts I.5 & II.5 HD Collection and Kingdom Hearts II.8 HD Final Chapter Prologue – For the first time ever the complete SAGA will be on one system and find what happens before Kingdom Hearts III in the Final Chapter as Aqua
Masquerada: Songs and Shadows – A Isometric-RPG with voice work from Ashly Burch and Jennifer Hale
Nex Machina & Matterfall – Housemarque continue their relationship with PlayStation with these two titles
Ni no Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom – The whimsical JRPG on PS3, Ni no Kuni is gets a sequel in 2017
Nier: Automata – Platinum games take the reins of a Square Enix IP to bring this Bayonetta style action game
Nioh – Dark Souls X Onimusha in this PS4 exclusive coming February 2017 from Koei Tecmo
Patapon Remastered and Loco Roco Remastered – Not one but two unique PSP games are coming to PS4
Persona 5 – Possible contender for GOTY 2017 as the Persona series from Atlus just ooze quality
Pyre – The team behind Bastion and Transistor comes their new title in 2017
Shenmue III – The KickStarter has this listed as coming in December 2017 but I wouldn’t get your hopes up for that date
Uncharted: The Lost Legacy – More Uncharted starring Chloe and Nadine
Vane – From most of what was Team Ico comes this indie title which will likely be delayed
What Remains of Edith Finch – Giant Sparrow plan to being us their follow up to The Unfinished Swan in 2017
WipEout Omega Collection – Sony bring back WipEout in this collection featuring tracks and ships from numerous games in the series
Yakuza 0 & Kiwami – Yakuza come to the PS4 for the first time in the west with 0 and the remaster of the very first game in the series
Yonder: The Cloud Catcher Chronicles – A charming open-world adventure from Australian based studio Prideful Sloth
Ys Origin – Ys will be celebrating its 30th anniversary in style by coming to the PS4 for the time in the west
Now all those are currently planned for 2017, the two games I personally reckon will also come to PS4 in 2017 are Days Gone from Bend who haven’t released a game since February 2012 meaning something like an October 2017 release (Zombies/Freakers and Halloween) could be likely with the game possibly in development for 4+ years.
The other game only makes sense to come out in 2017 as its celebrating its 20th anniversary and the series its tied to is also celebrating its 30th anniversary, meaning Square Enix would be mad not to capitalise on these two events. I’m of course talking about releasing the first episode of Final Fantasy VII Remake in 2017 maybe 7/7/17 would make a good date.
Those are the games I’m looking forward to playing on my PlayStation 4, what about you?