Most Anticipated 2018: Les choix de Chris

It is likely that 2017 could go down in games history along with 1998 as a banner year for the medium. No matter what you might be into, the video games of 2017 probably had something for you. Taking a quick glance into 2018, there does not seem to be as many heavy hitters but, then again, at this time last year, no one saw PUBG coming.

With that out of the way, I’d like to dip my toes into the waters of my gaming future. Below is a non-exhaustive list of the games that are currently tickling my pickle with anticipation.

Mount Your Friends 3D

The original Mount Your Friends is one of my all time favorites. It has everything you want in a multiplayer game: fun, challenge, grab-ass, and swinging pickles. As an added bonus, it is the only game I’ve ever played that accurately depicted the sounds my hands make when I aggressively slap hams. The dream team at Stegersaurus have their work cut out for them with the follow up, Mount Your Friends 3D. Little is known about the game beyond an announcement trailer. The game is moving from the 2D realm into 3D, which should be enough to spice up the gameplay. My only concern is that we may be losing the ability to import our own faces onto Mount Men. I hope my fears are unwarranted.

Mount and Blade 2: Bannerlord

Mount and Blade (along with the amazing Warband follow up), remains one of my all-time favorite RPGs. The action and combat is sublime, the battles themselves can reach epic proportions, and the mod scene is as good as it gets in PC gaming. The structure of Mount and Blade allows the player to write their own story and, more importantly, is the only game of its type that lets me feel like I’m truly building my own empire. Why waste time saving princesses or thwarting ancient evil when I could be laying siege to castles and expanding my area of influence? I don’t know anything about Bannerlord other than it is the official sequel to Mount and Blade. That’s all I needed to hear to be sold.

Metro: Exodus

I love S.T.A.L.K.E.R: Shadow of Chernobyl. Depending on the day you ask me, it may be my all-time favorite gaming experience. If you tell me that some random game is like S.T.A.L.K.E.R, I will want to play it. If I was scheduled for some hyper-aggressive colon therapy, I would be terrified. If the doctor told me it would be like S.T.A.L.K.E.R, except in my butt, I would dive face-down onto the table in anticipation. 4A Games is made up of former S.T.A.L.K.E.R veterans and delivered some of my favorite FPS games in recent years, Metro: 2033 and Metro: Last Light. Metro: Exodus continues the series and based on its E3 2017 reveal, the game is an early frontrunner for best looking game of 2018.

Anno 1800

2018 seems to be the year that all my favorite games get sequels. I cannot begin to imagine how many hours I’ve spent playing Anno 1404. The premiere supply chain simulator on PC, the Anno series has had its ups and downs. While I felt that 1404 was near perfect, I could never get into the future worlds of Anno 2070 and Anno 2205. When developer Blue Byte and Ubisoft teased the newest entry into the Anno series last year, I could barely contain my excitement. I don’t need to go underwater or to the moon in my Anno. I just need wooden ships (although I’m guessing my ship will be steam powered in 1800) and fields of hemp, spice, and bear furs and I can be a happy man.

A Way Out

“From Hazelight, the makers of Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons”, is all I needed to hear to buy into this 100%. Watching The Game Awards show this past December and having Hazelight founder Josef Fares tell me that the Oscars should “fuck themselves up” and that “This is the shit! I’m telling you — this is, this is the real shit!” I’m with Josef on this. I want the real shit in 2018.

Railway Empire

If you were to spend any meaningful amount of time with me, you’d learn that I am a sucker for simulation games and that I’m sexually attracted to trains. Unsurprisingly enough, I really loved the 2005 remake of Sid Meier's Railroads!. Inevitably, I would play the game for hours until it crashed under the load of my rail empire, because the only thing the game was better at than being fun was crashing to the desktop. If Tropico vets Kalypso Media can deliver the same experience to me without that constant crashing, Railway Empire is a stone cold lock to own a monster chunk of my 2018 gaming time.

Crackdown 3

In my opinion, the original Crackdown was the crown jewel of Microsoft’s Xbox 360 library. Hopping around that big city and collecting those green orbs was one of the best experiences in gaming. The game was big, loud, and stupid, in the best ways. I never played the sequel, but I heard it was pretty poopy. Microsoft revealed the third Crackdown game like 200 years ago at some forgotten E3, but it may actually see the light of day in 2018. The early teasers have promised the classic Crackdown fun, but now it includes physics-based building destruction and the gratuitous use of Terry Crews. Unlike the previous entries in the series, Crackdown 3 will see a release on the PC. Please Microsoft, don’t screw this up.

Pure Farming 2018

Sure, European-sourced farming simulators are a dime a dozen on the PC these days. Understandably, none of these games appear to contain any fun in the eyes of the uninitiated, but like the cult hits Euro Truck Simulator 2, American Truck Simulator, and Goat Simulator, these weird PC sim games attract a devoted audience that finds lots of joy in the seemingly mundane. Pure Farming 2018 sets itself apart from the pack by being the one farm simulator that appears to be pushing the limits of PC graphics tech. Any idiot can plant some beans using an old laptop with integrated graphics, but the seeds I sow with my 1080 Ti will bear sweeter fruit! Dying Light publisher Techland is behind this gorgeous farming simulator. If it is half as compelling as the company’s zombie survival parkour adventure, the PC simulation game community will be in for a treat. Hopefully, we don’t hit a drought and have the bank foreclose on Pa’s land.

Chris Jarrard

Contributing Tech Editor

Chris Jarrard likes playing games, crankin' tunes, and looking for fights on obscure online message boards. He understands that breakfast food is the only true food. Don't @ him.