The 10 (Well, 12) Most Anticipated Games of 2018

With 2018 just weeks away, there's no shortage of games we're most excited about. A mixture of big budget games and potential sleeper hits, our gaming calendar for the new year is looking jam-packed already—even if those pesky release dates haven't quite been ironed out yet.

Dragon Ball Fighter Z (January 26)

Revealed at E3 2017, Dragon Ball Fighter Z looks to be perhaps the most lovingly crafted, detailed Dragon Ball Z game to ever exist. Built by Arc System Works, the creators of the Guilty Gear series of fighting games, it boasts stunning animation and accessible combo systems that are enough to stoke anyone's anime nostalgia. As an added bonus, the game will feature a new storyline and a new character (the villainous Android 21) created by Dragon Ball artist and scribe Akira Toriyama himself.
System: PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Microsoft Windows

Monster Hunter World (January 26)

The latest installment of Capcom's cult classic multiplayer action-adventure series is also the first to come to next-gen consoles in the West. With a renewed emphasis on a massive world and easy-to-use online play, it's also the first installment in the series in a long time to make a play for crossover success. And based on the experience players had in the recent beta, it might just succeed.
System: PlayStation 4, Xbox One, coming later for Microsoft Windows

Far Cry 5 (March 27)

For the fifth numbered entry, Far Cry is leaving its "exotic" roots behind and finding conflict much closer to home than ever before—in Montana, to be exact, where the player will take on the role of a small-town sheriff investigating a radical, violent cult. At its best, the Ubisoft franchise series strives to tell stories about violence and colonialism in wild, dangerous worlds; at its worst, well, it still lets you shoot rocket launchers from a helicopter.
System: PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Microsoft Windows

Red Dead Redemption 2 (Spring)

The original Red Dead Redemption is one of the most praised videogames of all time, a sweeping cowboy epic in the best open world Rockstar Studios has ever put together. We don't know much about the sequel, which is slated for release sometime in the second quarter, other than it's a prequel to the original—and it has one hell of a pedigree to live up to.
System: PlayStation 4, Xbox One

Metro Exodus (Fall)

The follow-up to the acclaimed but under-recognized Metro 2033 and Metro: Last Light, brilliant first-person shooters that masterfully blended a distinct take on the post-apocalypse with taut, claustrophobic tension. For the new one, based on the Metro book series by Dmitry Glukhovsky, Ukrainian developers 4A Games are going all out, promising a dynamic, haunted world to chart a path through as the survivors of former Russian Federation try to forge a new life in the nuclear wastes.
System: PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Microsoft Windows

Untitled Valve VR Titles (TBA)

Valve, famed creators of Half-Life and owners of the Steam platform for PC gaming, don't really make games anymore. They're more in the hardware and software selling business, which makes us all the more excited by news that they're working on three standalone VR games for the HTC Vive (which has a branded partnership with Steam). We don't know what these games will be, but Valve insists they're coming, and we're eager to see what one of the most legendary studios in gaming has cooking. Given Valve's history with release dates, though, you may want to take that "2018" with a salt shaker or two.

Kingdom Hearts 3 (TBA)

A sequel ten years in the making, Kingdom Hearts 3 will hopefully bring the reality-hopping journeys of Sora, Donald, and Goofy to a satisfying conclusion, or at least satisfying enough to make us feel like kids again for a little while. In 2003, Square Enix's mashup of Final Fantasy and Disney properties seemed outlandish. Nowadays, we're just hoping they don't delay this game for another five years to put the X-Men in it.
System: PlayStation 4, Xbox One

Marvel Powers United VR (TBA)

Speaking of Marvel, Sanzaru Games' upcoming Oculus Rift exclusive gives you the opportunity not to just play with your favorite heroes, but to embody them in VR. Feel the sheer scale of being the Hulk, or the wild energy of blasting through Kree soldiers as Rocket Raccoon. Me, I'm looking forward to being Captain Marvel, flying and battling through all the worst baddies Marvel has to offer.

Donut Country (TBA)

Ben Esposito has been making Donut Country, a game about the secret life of holes, in one form or another since 2012. What began as a goofy lark is now a full-fledged adventure, silly and creative, vibrant and challenging. Be the hole you've always wanted to be in your heart. Eat the ground under you. Then eat everything else, too.
System: PlayStation 4, Microsoft Windows, iOS, OS X

Anthem (TBA)

After the middling success of Mass Effect: Andromeda, Bioware's new title looks like a moonshot: a major, online epic in an entirely new world, a found future of cool mechanized exosuits called Javelins and lots of monsters to kill beyond the city walls. Done well, this game, which purports to be a "shared world" experience, could be a Destiny killer. Here's hoping Bioware can get their mojo back.
System: PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Microsoft Windows

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