Find all previous editions of the PCG Q&A here. Here are some highlights:
- Who would you have cast as Geralt?
- Which game would you cross with your favorite TV show or film?
- Which game did you finish despite hating every minute of it?
We're in the last leg of 2018, but there are a lot more games on the way to keep our PCs warm during the colder, darker nights ahead. This is the time when many of the biggest releases come along to take advantage of the holiday spending mood, which puts games such as Fallout 76, Assassin's Creed Odyssey, Call of Duty: Black Ops 4, and Battlefield 5 within this final stretch.
There are exciting games from non-giant developers ahead, too, such as Griftlands and Super Meat Boy Forever. The point is: there are a lot of new games to pick from as the year winds down, and none of us have time to play all of them. Well, maybe one person does, and we'd like to meet them, but the rest of us have to be choosy. So which are you going to pick?
For this week's Q&A, we're asking: What unreleased 2018 game are you most excited for? Below are a few answers from the PC Gamer staff—let us know in the comments what you're eyeing.
Jarred Walton: The Bard's Tale 4: Barrow's Deep
I'm becoming a creature of nostalgia, and sequels and updates to games from my youth make me happy. I loved many of Interplay's old games in the '80s and '90s, and The Bard's Tale was one of the first RPGs I can remember playing. Naturally, I backed the Kickstarter, and I'm counting down the remaining days before the game arrives. Wes's preview of the game only makes me want to play it more, though I did play through (and beat!) the remastered Tales of the Unknown in preparation. It's like a modest indie game in today's market, but still enjoyable, and the quality of life features (like an integrated automap) make it far less painful than back in the '80s. Basically, I'm planning to relive my childhood, with better graphics and sound.
I'm also looking forward to Shadow of the Tomb Raider and Battlefield 5, not because I'm likely to love either game, but because I want to check out the ray tracing effects and do some testing on Nvidia's upcoming GeForce RTX cards. The previews were impressive on many levels, but often felt a bit like I had a choice between "ultra ray tracing" quality and "medium disable simulated reflections" quality. In practice, I'm not sure the improved shadows and reflections are really going to blow me away.
Jody Macgregor: Pathfinder: Kingmaker
A couple of my favorite games have been adaptations of tabletop RPGs (Vampire: The Masquerade—Bloodlines and Shadowrun: Dragonfall), so I'm always down for another one. And Pathfinder seems perfect for videogame adaptation, since its rules are fussy and full of complexity for its own sake and I'd rather have a computer handle them than have to think about them myself, while its setting is full of neat ideas. Like Outsea, which is a settlement created by a species of saltwater aquatic people who tried to cross the land in a magical seawater bubble but became stranded in the River Kingdoms and just decided to stay. Kingmaker's combat is real-time with pause, which I've never been a fan of, but I'll look past it for a game in a cool setting.
Chris Livingston: Fallout 76
I'm both excited and curious to see how Fallout 76 will really work. I'm not super interested in base-building, or even that keen on multiplayer, but I'm looking forward to exploring the world and seeing what it has to offer. I've got plenty of concerns, too: Bethesda's singleplayer Fallout games have always been an enjoyable exercise in roleplaying, and I'm not sure how that will carry over into a game where all the other characters are actual human players. I can't say I don't really wish Fallout 5 was coming out this year instead, but I'm definitely still looking forward to 76.
Samuel Roberts: Also Fallout 76
It is undoubtedly the first multiplayer Fallout, and even though I've heard it explained in several presentations by Bethesda's Todd Howard and some faux Vault-Tec videos, it still feels like an unknown quantity to me. I know I'll enjoy venturing across this massive landscape with a friend or two, but what will I be doing 50 hours into the game? Quests? Fighting the next settlement over? Looking for nuclear codes? It's still hard to reconcile what it'll be like versus playing a traditional Fallout game when we haven't had hands-on with 76 yet, and story and setting are what I love most about Fallout. That said, I love the idea of a 'live' Fallout where we might have limited time events and other fun stuff to keep me playing months later.
Joe Donnelly: Football Manager 2019
What are the chances of Red Dead Redemption 2 coming to PC? That's a question I hope gets answered sooner rather than later because, honestly, that's the game I'm most looking forward to in the remaining months of 2018. But, until that's answered, my most anticipated upcoming PC game is Football Manager 2019.
I loved the fundamental changes introduced by FM 2018, which extended our managerial responsibilities past the pitch and into the dressing room and beyond. I suspect this year's installment will follow suit, and I hope it dives deeper still into the personalities of its players and backroom staff. Sports Interactive head honcho Miles Jacobson often generates hype around this time of year via his personal Twitter account, but this post also has me excited. Who knows what that entails, but I guess we'll find out on November 2.
James Davenport: Forza Horizon 4
It's car time, baby. Horizon 3 was the most fun I've had driving recklessly since Burnout Paradise, and I'm betting Horzion 4 will enable me to be just as much of a fool, if not more. A new 'seasons' system means it could be summer one week and winter the next, which should do nicely to freshen things up as I bash my way through the events (read our recent interview on the topic for more). Better yet is the new multiplayer system. Actual players will appear in your game, somewhat similar to Destiny 2's social locations. Cars cannot dab, so I'm afraid Horizon 4 won't be a meme generator, but giving strangers the ability to t-bone me at any point is a perfect fit for the open world shenanigans the series is known for.
I don't expect much to surprise me car-wise. They have wheels, they go fast, some drive better on roads, others better off roads—as long as I don't feel pressure to do anything except exactly what I feel like, Forza Horizon 4 will be my end-of-year panacea, a relaxing denouement after stabbing innumerable people in the neck in Tomb Raider and performing daily chores for glowing polygons in Destiny 2.
