With Cyberpunk 2077 now delayed until September, the only thing we're getting in April is a new line of Funko Pops based on the male and female versions of V, as well as two different versions of Keanu's Johnny Silverhand. They will invade your nightmares and never leave. 

It's really hard to pick between them. Which one is the most revolting? Keanu's hair and beard makes his Funko Pop's hideous head look even more monstrous, so I guess he wins the award for least breathtaking toy. Get a good look at God's mistakes below. 

While they're more than twice as expensive, I'm more partial to the McFarlane Toys range, which includes 7" posable action figures and a big 12" Johnny Silverhand going wild on his guitar. Unfortunately, only the male version of V is available. They're also due out this spring. 

Will any of these be gracing your shelves?

Cheers, Game Informer.

CD Projekt Red will be crunching to finish Cyberpunk 2077, despite it recently being delayed until September.

In a question-and-answer conference call, CD Projekt's co-CEO Adam Kicińsk admitted that the development team will be required to put in longer hours as the game's launch approaches. In it, he says "[they] try to limit crunch as much as possible, but it is the final stage. We try to be reasonable in this regard, but yes. Unfortunately [the team will be required to crunch]."

CD Projekt Red has been criticised for its working conditions before. In a report by Kotaku's Jason Schreier last year, it was said a goal of Cyberpunk 2077's development was to be "more humane" after it emerged developers were expected to work long hours and weekends during the making of The Witcher 3. Part of this was the introduction of "non-obligatory crunch", although the effectiveness of that was questioned at the time.

The studio's Glassdoor page also shows that things haven't improved much. Most of the negatives given by employees on the page include things such as a poor work-life balance, poor pay and incompetent management. One former employee summed it up succinctly as "too much pressure and no life", while another pointed out the poor pay, "...even compared to what other gamedev companies in Warsaw pay."

Crunch isn't something unique to CDPR, of course, as other studios like Rockstar and BioWare have also been accused of unreasonable working hours. However, it's more than a little bit ironic when a dystopian cyberpunk game where the value of a person has been reduced to nothing is being developed by a studio that allegedly treats its workers the same way.

When Cyberpunk 2077 was delayed until September, there was hope that this was a sign things had indeed changed in the studio. More time to polish would reasonably mean less crunch required, after all. It's a shame that that's seemingly not the case, and instead it just means more time for developers to burn themselves out for the sake of a videogame.

It's not one delay, but two.

CD Projekt Red announced earlier today that its anticipated RPG Cyberpunk 2077 will not make its planned April release, but will instead be out in September. In a followup Q&A session with investors, the studio said that the planned multiplayer component of the game will also be delayed, and probably won't be out until sometime after 2021.

The studio clarified during the call that the second "triple-A" project it was reported to be working on last year is the Cyberpunk multiplayer component, which is being developed in parallel with the singleplayer game. At the time, CD Projekt said that second project remained on track for release sometime in 2021, but that's very unlikely to happen now.

"Given the expected release of Cyberpunk 2077 in September, and the series of events which we expect to occur after that stage, 2021 appears unlikely as a release date for Cyberpunk multiplayer," SVP of business development Michał Nowakowski said during the call. Later on, it's repeated that multiplayer will "probably move out of 2021."

The delay also means that hands-on events planned for this year will also have to be pushed back, which isn't terribly surprising, but the studio said that it will still have a "presence" at E3 and Gamescom this year.

The good news, as far as it goes, is that CD Projekt thinks that the new Cyberpunk 2077 release date is really solid. "We pretty much know where we stand, and which aspects of the game will still require work," Nowakowski said. "We're confident the game will be released on the 17th of September."

Cyberpunk 2077, which was slated to be out this April, isn't going to make it. CD Projekt Red dropped the news today that its big ugly-future-RPG has been rescheduled to September 17.

The full delay announcement is below. 

R. Talsorian Games, the company that created the Cyberpunk tabletop RPGs that Cyberpunk 2077 is based on, expressed support for the delay on Twitter.

The last time we checked out Barely Regal's Cyberpunk 2077 demake, now called Cyberpunk 1997, it was already shaping up nicely, evoking the first of CD Projekt Red's gameplay reveals, but 20 years older and made entirely in Dreams. Since then, there's been some significant changes. 

In the latest video, we get another look at the market, but Barely Regal also spends some time exploring the player's apartment, complete with bed, microwave, computer and an armoury. Instead of playing a cyberpunk, Cyberpunk 1997 makes you a future cop—oh no—during a period of martial law. 

The original demo ended before we got a look at the outside world, though a short clip at the end of the video teased what was beyond the megablock. You can forget that, however, as Barely Regal seems to be taking it in a different direction. Instead of being first-person, leaving the market changes the perspective to a top-down view, reminiscent of the first two Grand Theft Autos. 

There's mention of lots of interactivity, missions, combat and the day-to-day work of being a cop and ruining everyone's good time, though the only interaction shown off in the video is the act of driving the cop car. It's still super-impressive, however, especially since Barely Regal is still just using Dreams to create it all. 

Dreams is a game creation platform designed by Media Molecule, and while the official launch isn't until next month, for a while now testers have been revealing their incredible creations. Unfortunately, Dreams is a PS4 exclusive, at least for the first phase. Eventually, Media Molecule hopes to expand Dreams so creators can take stuff out of the platform and fool around with it using external tools, but for now everything has to be done on a PS4. Still, it's a cool thing to look at. Perhaps we'll see similar efforts on PC when Cyberpunk 2077 releases in April.

McFarlane Toys has announced a set of Cyberpunk 2077 action figures to release this spring, one of the protagonist V and three of Keanu Reeves. So, there you go, you can now own Keanu Reeves dressed up as a reboot of the coolest character from a tabletop RPG from the 80s. You can actually have three of those and put them on your desk in a neat little row of Keanus Reeves. There’s also a figure of game protagonist V in generic Male form, specifically the version featured on the game box that nobody will play as because they’ll all customize the character. The toys will be on sale at GameStop and Walmart sometime this spring. Presumably in time for the game itself. Here's the listings on their website. Here’s details on the figures: 

• 7” Johnny Silverhand has a guitar, a bottle of what is decidedly whiskey, and can throw up the horns. 
• Variant 7” Johnny Silverhand has a nuke in a duffel bag(?!) and a gun. 
• 12” Johnny Silverhand, screaming, guitar.
• 7” Male V has an SMG, a pistol, and a pink katana. 

If you're hungry for Cyberpunk 2077, here's everything we know about Cyberpunk 2077. Also here's a reminder 

Naming your game after the genre of fiction it’s set in is a funny thing. Imagine if BioWare had spent the last decades peddling its two big RPG series, Space Opera and High Fantasy, before floundering a bit with the release of Mecha-Science-Fantasy. It’s especially bold when the genre in question is cyberpunk—a subcategory of sci-fi that has always been kind of nebulous, its edges as fuzzy as if you’d just swallowed a palmful of Dex octagons. 

There’s a bulletpoint list of markers you can run through, sure. Cybernetic limbs. Mega-corporations. Hackers. Neon billboards and Japanese kanji. Ethernet cables that go straight into your skull. Neologisms that sounded cool and futuristic in 1984 but now seem a little silly and dated... and, yep, Cyberpunk 2077 has them all. 

Ultimately, though, these are empty signifiers. You could cobble together a generic golem out of these things and accurately call it cyberpunk—I’m looking at you, Netflix’s Altered Carbon—but that doesn’t get at what made these stories exciting in the first place: the sense of a terrifyingly plausible future. Not in that hard sci-fi way, of future tech so detailed you could probably request a spec sheet for it, but more the way technology warps the society that creates and uses it. And CD Projekt Red seems to agree. 

“It is deeply fascinating to us to explore the relationship of humanity and technology and how it shapes life in 2077,” says 2077 level designer Miles Tost. “What does this level of technology mean in a world where ‘rich’ and ‘poor’ have basically taken on entirely new meanings in terms of their dimensions?”

Company town

The open-world RPG is actually a remarkably good fit for cyberpunk. Like the noir detective stories it originally drew inspiration from, cyberpunk is fundamentally a genre of the city—places where the population clusters, and subcultures can grow quickest around new technologies. And so it feels natural that most of what we’ve seen of 2077 hasn’t really been about player character V. For now, at least, they’re something of a cipher, and Night City is the undisputed star of the game. Well, except for Keanu, maybe. 

It’s the promise of Night City that gets you, isn’t it? The promise of an open world as crowded with details and vignettes as it is with cybernetically-enhanced bodies. In the gameplay demos we’ve seen so far, stepping out onto the street means being nearly overwhelmed with chunks of world-building and background dialogue picked out in surtitles that hover over the speaker’s head. 

Side quests, an area in which CD Projekt has pretty thoroughly proved its chops in the past, also provide a great chance to squeeze in a few extra perspectives on how this future is shaping its people. And they’re a great way of pulling you through the world, the same way a lot of cyberpunk fiction uses the thread of a detective story. 

Even the first-person perspective you’re roaming the city in feels like the right choice. Those soaring, spinner’s-eye shots of Blade Runner’s cityscape might be the one image pretty much everyone points to when talking about the genre, but for my money, cyberpunk futures are best viewed from the pavement.

Castles in the sky

Those stacks of skyscrapers are a way of literalising the rich/poor divide that’s so vital to cyberpunk’s vision of the world. The 1% (or, more accurately, the 0.001%) live clear of the grime, in upper orbit or mega-suburbs or gleaming penthouses. The megacorporations aren’t just a stock genre element—they’re a way of showing how access to technology is mediated by our capitalist overlords. What does an obsolescence cycle look like for an ability-boosting implant? What if your bionic eye came as a mandatory part of your job? And what would happen when you left? 

If you wanted to sum up cyberpunk in a single handy soundbite, it’d be the one that Neuromancer author William Gibson has wheeled out in countless interviews: “The future is already here—it’s just not very evenly distributed.” 

So if you’re not one of the people craning their necks from down on the street, then you most likely deserve the guillotine, or whatever the cyberpunk equivalent is. Probably just a guillotine with a few cables and neon lights stuck on the side, to be honest. Whether all this matching of genre features and game tropes is happy coincidence or careful design, it’s hard to tell. But CD Projekt certainly seems to understand what has traditionally made cyberpunk interesting. 

“To us, cyberpunk explores a dystopian world of low life and high tech in which we focus on street-level stories. Our protagonist is not the kind that is out to save the world,” Tost says. It’s an absolutely textbook definition of the genre, one that takes in the wisdom of cyberpunk scholars like Bruce Sterling, Lawrence Person and especially Mike Pondsmith, creator of the Cyberpunk pen-and-paper RPG, now consulting on 2077. 

Everything that’s been shown so far promises a faithful adaptation, a game worthy of the label it has stuck on itself. But I said at the outset that cyberpunk’s main thrill is catching an ugly little glimpse of our own future, and that future surely looks very different now to the way it did two or three decades ago. So, given that CD Projekt clearly knows its cyber-onions, how is the developer intending to spin its own vision out of all those influences?

“It’s funny because we’re trying to re-envision how people from the ’80s and ’90s envisioned the future, and then lace that future with modern nuance,” Tost says. It’s an issue that’s particularly noticeable with the outdated technology that comes packaged with the genre—there’s nothing less cyberpunk than Wi-Fi, for example—but it goes deeper than that.

“I think there’s a degree of truth in assuming that cyberpunk was born out of the fears of people in the ’80s and these fears were consciously exaggerated enough to form a separate genre,” he says. “The image of megacorporations you know from 2020 [the second edition of Pondsmith’s Cyberpunk RPG] was born out of fears of privatising the state and asking: ‘What would you do if democracy was a capitalist-controlled farce?’

“And we’re adding some contemporary scares to that as well. How has social media, for example, evolved in 2077? What power does it hold?”

The game’s main way of addressing this topic seems to be through ‘Braindances’. As Tost explains it, these are, “a way of experiencing someone else’s past experiences, including their emotions, what they felt,” in a virtual reality representation—a localised dose of cyberspace. It’s an idea with its roots in the tabletop RPG’s sourcebooks, which predate the likes of Twitter or Facebook, but it’s easy to see how it could be extrapolated out into something with more timely social media parallels.

Braindances are presented as a form of escapism from the grim realities of life in Night City, with people using them to play tourist inside celebrities’ heads and live out staged fantasies that appear to be real. It’s Instagram for your frontal lobes, or Twitch by way of the holodeck.

Among the modern fears shaping 2077’s world, Tost also namechecks the specter of climate change—a fairly inescapable part of our current future. In the game, global warming is apparently the reason for Night City’s large Haitian population, presumably because the island nation is now underwater.

Whether CD Projekt actually has anything interesting to say on either of these topics remains to be seen—but hey, that’s what playing the game is for.

Augmented reality

There is one aspect of 2077’s future that has already raised a few red flags, though: its treatment of body augmentation. Whether in the form of prosthetic limbs or brain mods, this has always been a big theme of cyberpunk stories, and one that can be harmful if not dealt with properly. And all the way back to the original RPG, Cyberpunk’s handling has always been a little clumsy. 

In the original tabletop game, adding modifications to your character’s body caused a literal ‘humanity’ stat to drop (though the most recent edition takes a more nuanced approach). That doesn’t seem to be present in 2077, but Tost outlines one of the consequences which has carried over: “A mental illness, that in 2077 is still very poorly understood, called Cyberpsychosis can cause people to run amok when they implant themselves with too much cyberware and in the process lose their humanity.” 

There are no mechanical implications to cyberpsychosis—this can’t happen to the player, Tost says, because it’d be an instant game over—but it’s still integral to the game’s fiction, and the presence of a ‘mental illness’ that’s self-inflicted by too much technology sets alarm bells ringing. It’s like CD Projekt talking about the idea of the natural body being ‘sacred’, and augmentations ‘profane’. This stuff might sound OK, until you apply its logic back to the real-life present and realise the things it says about, for example, disabled and trans people are potentially offensive. 

One of the benefits of reconstructing a genre three decades on from its initial peak should be the chance it offers consider, with modern sensitivity, what aspects weren’t treated well the first time round and address them. Maybe this will play out in the full game—there might well be a side quest dedicated to exploring the topic more thoughtfully and sensitively—but the early signs are a little troubling.

'Punk's not dead

But there’s no question that 2077 gets the genre, whatever your fuzzy definition. All the cool surface bits are there, presented more lavishly than we’ve ever seen before: the chrome-and-black style, the nostalgic-meets-futuristic tech, the grime illuminated by bursts of neon. CD Projekt knows the right references to drop, and the studio has demonstrated that its understanding runs a little deeper than that. 

For better or worse, the game will likely overwrite the public understanding of what ‘cyberpunk’ means. This is a genre whose boundaries are defined by precious few texts—the undisputed cyberpunk canon consists of roughly one book—and no straight-up cyberpunk work has reached the audience CD Projekt is going to. 

So yes, Cyberpunk 2077 is cyberpunk. Duh, it’s right there in the title. The important question now is exactly how the developer chooses to define and explore that.

It goes without saying that you can't have a good cyberpunk experience without some good cyberpunk music backing it up. Syndicate would just not be the same without Skrillex, right? (And for the record, I believe completely unironically that Syndicate is a far better game than it's generally given credit for, and has an excellent soundtrack.) To that end, CD Projekt has dropped a teaser showcasing some of the musical talents contributing tunes to its upcoming cyber-RPG Cyberpunk 2077.

The soundtrack will feature tracks from Run the Jewels, Refused, Grimes, A$AP Rocky, Gazelle Twin, Ilan Rubin, Richard Devine, Nina Kraviz, Deadly Hunta, Rat Boy, and Tina Guo. Refused may actually be the preeminent name on the list, at least in game terms: CD Projekt announced in July that the Swedish punk band will stand in for Samurai, Johnny Silverhand's band in the Cyberpunk universe. It's also recording a "greatest hits" EP as Samurai, featuring music "heavily inspired by the original source material, as well as original tracks created by the band exclusively for Cyberpunk 2077."

Refused isn't the only real-world talent to take on a role in the game, though. Grimes will also appear as the voice of Lizzy Wizzy, the frontwoman of the in-game band Lizzy Wizzy and the Metadwarves. She showcased some of her own musical contributions (and, I would guess, teased a bit of the Cyberpunk 2077 soundtrack) with a performance at The Game Awards last night.

Cyberpunk 2077 comes out on April 16, 2020.

2020 is upon us, y'all, and that's not just the year we're in—it also feels like it's the number of games coming out in the near future. There are so many! We've started rounding up every upcoming PC game out in 2020 that's worth paying attention to, along with what we know about when to expect it. It's our comprehensive guide to the next year in PC gaming.

We've organized the new games of 2020 by month and highlighted the biggest games of the whole year just below. Check back often to see how release dates have changed and what new PC games have popped up. Also, don't miss the "Release date TBA" page for everything that hasn't committed to an exact month yet. There's a whole lot of 'em.

Table of contents

Release date TBAJanuaryFebruaryMarchAprilMayJuneJulyAugustSeptemberOctoberNovemberDecember

New games of January 2020

Monster Hunter World: Iceborn

January 9| Capcom | Link | Action RPGThose darn console players got Iceborne early just like the base game, but at least we get to play it in the actual dead of winter. Iceborne comes with a new suite of monsters to, what else, hunt, a new snowy biome and campaign, and a new "Master Hunter" rank.

Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot

January 17 | Bandai Namco | Link | RPG It's a full-fledged RPG recounting (once again) the saga of Goku AKA Kakarot. Flashy DBZ-style combat seems to take a page from the 3D brawler Jump Force. 

TemTem

January 21 | Crema | Link | Basically a Pokemon MMOA Pokemon MMO in all but name/license, TemTem lets you wander a world filled with other players and a whole bunch of monsters to catch, train, and fight. You can join friends to play through it all together, including 2v2 battles.

Rugby 20

January 23 | Bigben Games | Link | SportsThe rules of rugby aren't entirely clear to me, but I do know that Bigben's Rugby 2020 looks like a faithful recreation of the sport in video game form. It's got burly men, strong kicks, and a ball that looks like a slightly bloated football.

Warcraft 3: Reforged

January 28 | Blizzard | Link | RTSThe long-awaited remaster of one of the greatest strategy games is almost here. On top of updated graphics, Reforged is also revamping Warcraft 3's online infrastructure to make it feel competitive in 2020.

Journey to the Savage Planet

January 28 | Typhoon Studios | Link | Co-Op ExplorationExplore and catalog the titular Savage Planet, and find a whole bunch of oddities that make The Outer Worlds look like a pleasant stroll. Run around with a friend in co-op, too.

The Walking Dead: Saints and Sinners

January 23 | Skydance Interactive | Link | VR First-Person ActionSkydance took over The Walking Dead game rights after Telltale bit the dust, and it looks like a VR FPS/action game is their first big stab at it. Fight your way through an undead-infested New Orleans in search of a secret that might turn the tide of war between human factions.

Cook, Serve, Delicious! 3?

January 29 (early access) | Vertigo Gaming | Link | CookingThe popular cooking franchise goes on the road. You’re managing a food truck while headed to the national cooking championship. Also it’s 2042 and humanity has been ravaged by war. Oh my god, is that ice cream truck shooting at us? Holy shit!

The Biggest Games of 2020

There are tons of new games coming in 2020, but only some can truly knock it out of the park. Here's what we're most looking forward to, and what we think will be the biggest games of the year.

Half-Life: Alyx

March 2020 | Valve | Link | VRThey did it. The madmen, they did it. It’s not quite Half-Life 3, but it is a full-length Half-Life game starring Alyx Vance, all played in VR, so it might as well be.

Cyberpunk 2077

April 16 | CD Projekt Red | LINK | RPGHackers, limbs with swords in them, and Keanu Reeves—what more can we ask for?The team behind The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt turn the classic tabletop game into a full-fledged adventure.

Doom Eternal

March 20 | id Software | Link | FPSDoom Eternal brings hell to Earth, a nice change of setting from 2016's excellent reboot. Expect to fight twice as many demons in this installment, using a brutal upgraded armory. This includes a new version of the Super Shotgun, which features a grapple-friendly 'meat hook' on the end, and hopefully a ton more ludicrous weapon mods.

Halo Infinite

2020 | 343 Industries | Link | FPSWe now know that Halo Infinite will be a launch title for the next gen Xbox "Scarlett." It's also coming to PC. We didn't get to see any gameplay at E3 2019, just the spiffy story trailer you see above.

Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot

January 17 | Bandai Namco | Link | RPG It's a full-fledged RPG recounting (once again) the saga of Goku AKA Kakarot. Flashy DBZ-style combat seems to take a page from the 3D brawler Jump Force. 

Monster Hunter World: Iceborn

January 26| Capcom | Link | Action RPGThose darn console players got Iceborne early just like the base game, but at least we get to play it in the actual dead of winter. Iceborne comes with a new suite of monsters to, what else, hunt, a new snowy biome and campaign, and a new "Master Hunter" rank.

Dying Light 2

Spring 2020 | Techland | Link | Open worldFor all it’s glorious zombie parkour, the original Dying Light really failed to give players a narrative worth remembering. Techland clearly wants to change that by bringing on writing powerhouse Chris Avellone (of KOTOR 2, Pillars of Eternity, and Fallout: New Vegas fame) so it can give you more a more compelling reason to hopscotch the undead. Narrative choices in-game will alter the world, like a certain faction constructing additional outposts and unfurling banners across walls, which you can slide down like a drunken musketeer. As for the zombies, they’re more likely to hide from the sun now, but that makes their dark indoor dens that much more dangerous and lucrative for brave (read: totally dead) acrobats.

Death Stranding

"Early Summer" | Kojima Productions | Link | Geopolitical QWOPHideo Kojima's first game since unshackling himself from Konami and buddying up with Sony. Shockingly, we get a PC release only half a year or so after the PS4 debut, if estimates are to be believed. Reconnect a post-apocalyptic America by delivering packages and establishing network links. As you can imagine, that's the simplest description of a Kojima game we can write without writing a college dissertation.

Kerbal Space Program 2

2020, possibly 2021 | Star Theory | Link | Space SimThe little green weirdos are back, this time with an easier tutorial system so you crash and burn with a little less frequency. There's also space colony building, interstellar travel, multiplayer, and continued mod support.

Microsoft Flight Simulator

2020 | Asobo | Link | Flight Sim (duh)Asobo and Microsoft are using Bing Maps of all things to scan the known world, including Andy's hometown of Glasgow, with a scary level of detail. Live weather data will factor into flight plans, too.

Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2

2020 | Hardsuit Labs | Link | RPGThe vampires of modern day Seattle are missing their leaders, leaving a massive power vacuum for clan leaders to fulfill. You're a newly created vampire (a "thinblood") who gets to waltz into this simmering city and the politics and clashes of its various clans. Check out everything else we know about this long-awaited sequel.

Rainbow Six Quarantine

"Next Fiscal Year" | Ubisoft Montreal| Link | 3v3 Tactical ShooterIt appears that Rainbow Six Siege's popular Outbreak mode was a sort of proof of concept, with alien zombies and some recognizable operators hunting them down. Ubisoft says of Quarantine: "What Siege is to the PvP shooter genre, we will be to PvE co-op." There's a chance this one comes out in 2021, what with Ubi's delay.

Watch Dogs Legion

"Next Fiscal Year" | Ubisoft | Link | Action RPGAnother victim of Ubi's decision to delay some key titles. You'll get to take on a fascistic government in modern-day London, and damn near anyone you meet (and their unique talents) can be recruited to the cause of overthrowing them. Will Ubi finally take a meaningful political stance? Probably not, but look! Piggy masks!

Total War Saga: Troy

2020 | Creative Assembly | Link | StrategyThe Total War Saga games (of which this is only the second) focus on a very specific period of time. We've got the classic war between the Greeks and the Trojans across the Aegean, secret agents, no cavalry, and special troops designed to evoke the origins of mythic beasts, like a minotaur who's just a big dude wearing a bull's head cap. Check out everything else we know.

Marvel's Avengers

September 4 | Square Enix | Link | Action RPGKamala Khan aims to get the Avengers back together in this action RPG with single-player, co-op, multiplayer, and an all new tale divorced from the MCU. We keep getting some vague Destiny vibes what with the apparent focus on replayability.

2020 PC games without firm release dates

Hollow Knight: Silksong

TBA | Team Cherry | Link | MetroidvaniaWhat started as DLC for Hollow Knight, starring Hornet as a playable character, apparently could not be contained. It's become a full game, a sequel to Hollow Knight, with a new setting, 150+ new enemies, a quest system, and doubtless much more. Whereas Hollow Knight was about descending deeper into the depths of Hallownest, this game will see Hornet climbing through a new kingdom to reach a peak. Team Cherry haven't mentioned a release date, but seem to be well into the game from what they've shown.

Halo: The Master Chief Collection

Ongoing | 343 Industries | Link | ShooterDespite a disastrous launch on Xbox, the Master Chief Collection slowly became a definitive gathering of Halo games, made playable on newer hardware. It finally started coming to PC with Halo: Reach in December 2019. The rest of the Halo series will be added to the collection over time. Fingers crossed they're all on PC by the end of 2020.

Kerbal Space Program 2

2020, possibly 2021 | Star Theory | Link | Space SimThe little green weirdos are back, this time with an easier tutorial system so you crash and burn with a little less frequency. There's also space colony building, interstellar travel, multiplayer, and continued mod support.

Microsoft Flight Simulator

2020 | Asobo | Link | Flight Sim (duh)Asobo and Microsoft are using Bing Maps of all things to scan the known world, including Andy's hometown of Glasgow, with a scary level of detail. Live weather data will factor into flight plans, too.

Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2

2020 | Hardsuit Labs | Link | RPGThe vampires of modern day Seattle are missing their leaders, leaving a massive power vacuum for clan leaders to fulfill. You're a newly created vampire (a "thinblood") who gets to waltz into this simmering city and the politics and clashes of its various clans. Check out everything else we know.

Crusader Kings 3

2020 | Paradox | Link | StrategyThe grand heir of strategy RPGs, the third installment will focus even more on character development and RPG elements. Read our big everything-we-know guide for more.

Godfall

2020 | Counterplay Games| Link | "Looter slasher"Godfall is a fantasy action RPG from Gearbox Publishing and Counterplay Games, coming to PC via the Epic Game Store in 2020. The trailer gives us some deep-voiced knights and gives us a good long look at their armor—Godfall is described as a 'looter-slasher' by the devs, and players will be slashing their way toward legendary armor sets. Not much word on what the story is about yet, but hey, that's some fancy armor. 

Rainbow Six Quarantine

"Next Fiscal Year" | Ubisoft Montreal| Link | 3v3 Tactical ShooterIt appears that Rainbow Six Siege's popular Outbreak mode was a sort of proof of concept, with alien zombies and some recognizable operators hunting them down. Ubisoft says of Quarantine: "What Siege is to the PvP shooter genre, we will be to PvE co-op." There's a chance this one comes out in 2021, what with Ubi's delay.

Ruined King: A League of Legends Story

TBD | Airship Syndicate| Link | RPGRuined King is the first singleplayer League of Legends to be announced, a turn-based RPG from Darksiders Genesis developer Airship Syndicate. The game comes after Riot announced a new publishing label, Riot Forge, which will release games set in the League universe from other developers. In Ruined King, we'll play LoL champions and explore the city of Bilgewater and the Shadow Isles.

CONV/RGENCE: A League of Legends Story

TBD | Double Stallion Games| Link | PlatformerThere were not one but two singleplayer League of Legends games announced at The Game Awards. We didn't get a huge reveal of the second one, CONV/RGENCE, but we know it's a colorful singleplayer platformer developed by Double Stallion games. You'll play as Ekko, who has invented a device that can manipulate time, and face the "huge consequences" of doing so. No release date was announced, but it's coming to PC. 

Fast & Furious Crossroads

2020 | Slightly Mad Studios| Link | ActionDeveloped by Slightly Mad Studios and published by Bandai Namco, Fast & Furious Crossroads will release on Steam in May 2020, and features fast cars, explosions, and approximations of Michelle Rodriguez and Vin Diesel themselves.

Watch Dogs Legion

"Next Fiscal Year" | Ubisoft | Link | Action RPGAnother victim of Ubi's decision to delay some key titles. You'll get to take on a fascistic government in modern-day London, and damn near anyone you meet (and their unique talents) can be recruited to the cause of overthrowing them. Will Ubi finally take a meaningful political stance? Probably not, but look! Piggy masks!

Chivalry 2

2020 | Tripwire | Link | Melee ActionChivalry’s brand of sword-swinging melee action continues, this time with 64-player brawls, horses, and a revamped combat system. Tripwire says they’re aiming to make you feel like you’re really in the chaos of something like the Battle of the Bastards.

Total War Saga: Troy

2020 | Creative Assembly | Link | StrategyThe Total War Saga games (of which this is only the second) usually focus on a very specific period of time. We've got the classic war between the Greeks and the Trojans across the Aegean, secret agents, no cavalry, and special troops designed to evoke the origins of mythic beasts, like a minotaur who's just a big dude wearing a bull's head cap. Check out everything else we know.

Gods & Monsters

2020 | Ubisoft | Link | Action RPGThe Greek gods have been defeated by some malevolent force known as Typhon, so you’ll take a customizable protagonist around an open world to fight, well, monsters, while managing stamina and resources. Think Assassin’s Creed with even less realism.

Humankind

2020 | Amplitude | Link | 4x Civ SimFrom the makers of Endless Legend, it’s a beautiful 4x Civ-killer that seems to focus heavily on how societies build upon one another, rather than simply replacing stone structures with steel ones, and what kind of legacy each era leaves for the next. But you won't be playing a famed leader from history in Humankind: you'll create a leader of your very own. The new trailer announces the avatar creation system and shows off a bit of land and naval combat, too. Read everything we know.

Age of Empires 4

TBA (possibly after 2020) | Relic Entertainment | Link | RTSWe don’t know much about AoE4, but Relic Entertainment has the necessary pedigree with Company of Heroes and Warhammer: Dawn of War franchises under their belt. It sounds like Relic is interested in making the RTS genre less complicated, and the first trailer shows off a variety of eras, including indigenous people, British redcoats, Roman legionnaires, Samurai, and others.

Little Nightmares 2

2020 | Tarsier Studios | Link | Co-Op Horror PlatformerA very creepy, remarkably... fleshy aesthetic set the original apart, and it looks like the sequel adds a new character for a friend to play as.

Desperados 3

TBA | Mimimi Productions | Steam | TacticsThe team behind the brilliant Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun take their tactical selves to the wild west. You’ve got another ragtag group of uniquely skilled fighters shooting, abducting, stealthing, and apparently even mind controlling their way across dusty one-street towns. Check out Phil’s preview.

12 Minutes

2020 | Nomada | Link | Narrative MysteryA husband is enjoying a romantic night with his wife, until suddenly a cop shows up at their door, accuses her of murder, and beats him to death, only to wake up and relive the same 12 minutes over and over again.

Disintegration

2020 | V1 Interactive | Link | FPSFrom Halo co-creator Marcus Lehto, Disintegration blends FPS mechanics with a slower RTS mentality. Player-controlled pilots take over a hovering “gravcycle” while AI soldiers shoot it out on the ground.

Destroy All Humans! Remake

2020 | Black Forest | Link | Action AdventureCrypto is back to, you know, destroy all humans. Drive the alien’s flying saucer, probe some lifeforms, smash every quaint piece of 1950’s America, and listen to some dope Rammstein apparently.

N1RV-ANN-A

2020 | Sukeban Games | Link | Visual NovelA sequel to VA-11 HALL-A, N1RV-Ann-A returns to the cyberpunk world of drink slinging, all from the POV of a new bartender (and single mother?) named Sam. I love the first game’s writing, so fingers crossed for more talking shibas.

Oddworld Soulstorm

2020 | Oddworld Inhabitants | Link | Platformer AdventureAbe is back, and Soulstorm asks “what if Oddworld infused a classic platformer with a dash of Deus Ex,” and threw in a deep crafting system to boot. Soulstorm itself is a sort of second chance for creator Lorne Lanning to do Abe’s Exxodus right, considering the original had to be shoved out in nine months.

Roller Champions

2020 | Ubisoft | Link | Sports ActionIt’s 3v3 roller derby, where you fight for control over a ball while doing laps, with an arcadey twist. It made Phil feel like an asshole, so you know it’s good.

Eastward

TBA | Pixpil | Link | Adventure RPGEastward is a  throwback to classic RPGs of yore, with plenty of modern flair. A miner discovers a...minor deep underground, and they’re off to solve why the planet is being besieged by big mechanical baddies. It wears the Akira/Macross/Studio Ghibli inspirations on its sleeve.

LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga

2020 | TT Games | Link | Action PlatformerCan they make these things any bigger? This new LEGO game covers all nine films, including Rise of Skywalker, so you can only imagine the NDAs those folks have had to sign.

Tales of Arise

2020 | Bandai Namco | Link | Action-RPGThe latest entry in the long-running “Tales of” JRPG franchise, Arise features two protagonists on an adventure about “inheritance and evolution.” They’ve definitely upped their game in terms of animation and world design.

Way to the Woods

2020 | Anthony Tan | Link | AdventureA seemingly magical deer and her fawn navigate through a serene post-humanity world, using light to solve puzzles and defeat a mysterious black ooze.

Tunic

TBA | Andrew Shouldice | Link | Action adventureFormerly known as “Secret Legend,” Tunic evokes the charm and beauty of The Legend of Zelda, all wrapped up in a beautifully fluid cel-shaded art style. Challenging combat demands plenty of dodge-rolling and pits you against huge bosses.

Evil Genius 2

2020 | Rebellion | Link | Sim StrategyBuild a bad guy lair, recruit specialists to help you take over the world, and maybe build a doomsday device or two. Spies will try to throw a wrench into the process, so manage your crew’s morale, or maybe invest in a little brainwashing.

No Straight Roads

2020 | Metronomik | Link | Musical Hack-n-SlashFrom Final Fantasy 15 lead designer Wan Hazmer, you control a rock band fighting against EDM-loving baddies. Combat is all timed to the music, which shifts between genres like classical piano and house DJs. Just leave drum 'n' bass alone, you monsters.

Due Process

TBD | Giant Enemy Crab | Link | Tactics FPSA mix of SWAT and Rainbow Six Siege, two teams will plan a classic breach-and-clear scenario using a top-down procedurally generated map you can actually draw on, like a more badass John Madden. Then you’ll all go into FPS mode and, one hopes, execute said plan (and each other) perfectly.

Get in the Car, Loser

2020 | Love Conquers All Games | Link | Visual Novel/RPGFrom the co-creator of Ladykiller in a Bind, this visual novel/RPG is all about a lesbian roadtrip to destroy a growing horde of cultist edgelords, and being a “useless gay disaster.”

Carrion

2020 | Phobia | Link | Reverse-Horror MetroidvaniaIn Carrion, you are the monster inside the walls, an increasingly bigger pile of fleshy tentacles hellbent on escaping from a research facility. You can also make yourself smaller to solve puzzles. Fleshy, fleshy puzzles.

Ooblets

2020 | Glumberland | Link | Farm sim/monster collectorIt’s impossible to describe everything Ooblets is in one blurb, save for that it looks immensely charming, and you get to collect little Pokemon-esque creatures to chill with on your farm.

Yes, Your Grace

Early 2020 | Brave at Night | Link | Kingdom ManagementBeing king is a busy gig, and you’ll learn it firsthand as you hear the cries for help of your subjects, tend to family drama, and organize warriors, all from the comfort of your cushy throne.

Battletoads

TBA | DLaLa Studios | Link | ActionThe amphibious beat-em-up is back, and well, we asked for it. Thankfully some modern touches are being applied to the toads, including 4K, hand drawn graphics, three-player couch co-op, and "body-morphing genre mash-ups." We don’t know for sure if it’s coming to PC, but given Microsoft’s "ecosystem" policy, it’s a likely bet. We don't have an exact release date and haven't really heard much since its announcement, but we also wouldn't be surprised if this one dropped suddenly.

Solar Ash Kingdom

TBA | Heart Machine | Link | Action AdventureIt looks like the team behind the moody and colorful Hyperlight Drifter are staying firmly in that style, but this time in 3D. Details are sparse, but we can apparently expect to fight huge monsters and slide around a bunch.

Biomutant

2020? | Experiment 101 | Link | Action RPGThis very peculiar looking action-RPG mashes up martial arts, gun-fu, and plenty of anthropomorphic beasts to take down, all with a bit of DMC flair. The ability to infuse your little warrior with the genes of other beasts along the way means Soul Calibur 6's wacky character creator might get a run for its money.

Babylon's Fall

2020? | Platinum Games | Link | ActionThe next big thing from the Bayonetta and Nier: Automata developer, supposedly. Babylon’s Fall’s trailer teased a big ol’ timeline full of something called an Oversoul, the Age of Dawn, a World War, and the birth of a goddess. Then there’s a bunch of futuristic knights wailing on a big baddie before posing in front of a huge cathedral. Subtle, thy name is Platinum. Square Enix debuted the new trailer above after a lengthy silence to assure us that we'd get more info on the game during the summer of 2020.

Spelunky 2

2020? | Mossmouth | Link | Roguelike platformerIn the sequel to our 2013 GOTY, you'll be playing as the Spelunker’s daughter and exploring the moon. In Summer 2018, we got a look at the game in action—glance at the trailer above for an idea of what's coming. Originally scheduled for 2019, developer Derek Yu and his team is still working away on Spelunky 2. Hopefully it's out in 2020.

The Pathless

2020? | Giant Squid | Link | Action adventureThe team behind Abzu is whipping up this blend of Princess Mononoke and Journey, which makes sense given that Giant Squid’s founder was the latter’s art director. As a veiled huntress, accompanied by a friendly eagle, you’ll traverse a seemingly endless forest filled with ruins, puzzles, and massive beasts of fire and light.

Boyfriend Dungeon

"When weapons are beautiful enough"| Kitfox Games | Link | RPG/dating simSome people want to date dudes, some love the ladies, others adore cats (no judgment), and some folks just love a good katana sword. Boyfriend Dungeon says “why not all of them in one?” in what KitFox is calling a "shack-n-slash." Brilliant.

Kunai

TBA | The Arcade Crew | Link | MetroidvaniaTabby is a side-scrolling ninja who also happens to be a living tablet. Like... an iPad tablet. Tabby gets the power to pull of some sick ninja stunts while hack-and-slashing his way through a washed out retro-looking world at breakneck speed. I’m particularly a fan of that rockin’ chiptune soundtrack.

Scavengers

2020? | Panache Digital Games | Link | Survival shooter'Co-opetition' is the awkard buzzword in this competitive shooter that blends PvE and PvP. Team up with buddies to scrounge for resources on a hostile, snowy planet, but make it back to your space station before a storm swallows you up, or other enemy teams kill you and take all the credit. You can read James’ hands-on thoughts here.

Young Souls

TBA | 1P2P | Link | Co-op dungeon crawlerAfter a ginger-haired pair of siblings are transported to another realm, they’ll slash and combo their way through hordes of evil monsters and upgrade gear in a pretty dang gorgeous mix of 2D and 3D graphics. The FLCL fanboy in me always loves a good Vespa scooter.

The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe

2019 |Galactic Cafe | Link | AdventureI could listen to the Stanley Parable narrator read a phonebook, but I never expected a full update. Galactic Cafe is celebrating a console port by adding new choices and new endings on top of the original classic.

Werewolf: The Apocalypse—Earthblood

TBA | Cyanide Studio | Link | Action-RPGWe're officially getting Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines 2, but the World of Darkness franchise is setting out to explore its considerably more hairy side. There’s little more than an announcement to go on, but developer Cyanide Studio (Styx, Call of Cthulhu) has said it’ll explore the "shamanistic and tribal world" of the Garou (French for "werewolf") as they battle the forces of The Wyrm. Werewolf will be an RPG, but with Cyanide’s history of creating bike racing management sims and Warhammer football games, who knows exactly what it'll play like?

The Forgotten City

Late 2020 | Modern Storyteller | Link | AdventureThe Forgotten City started life as a Skyrim mod, and it was really, really good. So good in fact that it’s getting a standalone remake. After you stumble upon an ancient Greek city, you discover 26 trapped explorers perished because one of them broke a mysterious law, and it’s up to you to travel back and forth through time to influence events to something less deadly. It's now expected in late 2020 after being delayed at the end of 2019.

Jet Lancer

2020 | Vladimir Fedyushkin & Nicolai Danielsen | Link | Bullet HellAn aerial dogfighting game with bullet hell mechanics, giant spider/octopus mechs, and a single-player campaign. Looks like a good choice for anyone who loves busy screens.

VirtuaVerse

2020 | Theta Division | Link | Point & Click AdventureA trippy cyberpunk point-and-click adventure. There’s a smuggler who refuses to live on the grid, a kidnapped girlfriend, and AR technomancers. Also features a red hot metal/chiptune/synth soundtrack from Master Boot Record.

Haven

2020 | The Game Bakers | Link | RPGTwo lovers escape to a lost planet, fend for their lives against monsters in turn-based combat, and explore some gorgeous landscapes. The developer seems to imply this will be a good one to play with a partner, on account of all the hugging, I assume.

The Artful Escape

2020 | Beethoven & Dinosaur | Link | Musical AdventureIt’s 1972 and young Francis Vendetti must use his guitar prodigy skills to battle with a dead folk legend, and whatever else his warped brain can come up with, on a trippy adventure through time, space, and guitar solos.

Humanity

2020 | Enhance | Link | PuzzleHumanity itself is the puzzle, and you’re guiding the little lemmings through all manner of environmental puzzles, including some where darkened versions of humanity fight back. Commentary? Maybe. Puzzler with a very unique sense of art direction that’s sure to play havoc with lesser PCs? Definitely.

Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond

2020 | Respawn Entertainment | Link | VR FPSRespawn, of all teams, is diving into VR through the Medal of Honor franchise. Shoot and explode Nazis across 50 different short levels, catch grenades and chuck them back, or infiltrate a German U-boat. It looks like Respawn will have lots of fun little diversions and scenarios to break up the usual WWII tropes.

Among Trees

2020? | FJRD Games | Steam | Survival/adventureThink The Lone Dark, but much, much prettier and calmer. Instead of constant existential dread, there’s a gorgeous “survival sandbox” teeming with plants and wildlife, only some of which we presume will want to kill you. It's releasing as early access first.

Gears Tactics

TBA | Splash Damage | Link | TacticsThis PC-only turn-based strategy game is a prequel set 12 years before the original game. Massive boss battles, you say?

Streets of Rage 4

TBA | Lizardcube, Guard Crush | Link | Beat-em upAxel and Blaze are back to beat up some bad dudes, and looking pretty spiffy doing it, thanks to some fancy work from the artists behind Wonder Boy: The Dragon’s Trap.

Serious Sam 4: Planet Badass

TBA | Croteam | Steam | FPSOld Sam has been mostly hanging out in VR the last couple years, but he’s finally returning to TV screens after seven years without a core sequel. Sam’s got himself a motorcycle now, so expect some bigger shooting grounds, and tens of thousands of enemies onscreen. But Croteam says it’s totally not an open-world game. Okay, then.

Windjammers 2

2020 | Dotemu | Link | Arcade/sportsWe forgive you, Dave Lang. For the rest of you, if you haven’t heard the gospel of Windjammers, that’s fair. The original never came out on PC. It’s extreme air hockey in all but name, and it’s got quite the cult following.

Twin Mirror

2020 | DONTNOD | Link | AdventureA guy named Sam is having a tough time returning to his bombed out post-industrial hometown, searching for answers to the death of journalist, and then things get even tougher. He wakes up in a motel with no memory and discovers his shirt drenched in blood, and his mind opening up some sort of rifts in reality, all in what the Life is Strange developer is calling a “story-driven investigation game.” It looks like a more adult take on Life is Strange’s YA trappings, for better or worse.

Sable

2020 | Shedworks | Link | AdventureSable wears its influences on its sleeve, including that of late French comic artist Jean 'Moebius' Giraud. A sci-fi coming of age tale (and one of our favorite things at E3), you traverse a beautifully cel-shaded desert full of ancient alien ruins, with no particular objective beyond learning more about the world and maybe solving some simple puzzles. Like all good coming-of-age stories, there’s a (hovering) motorcycle to ride.

Psychonauts 2

2020 | Double Fine | Link | AdventureDive once again into the twisted minds of the Psychonauts in the long-awaited sequel to Double Fine’s inaugural game. Characters Raz, Milla, Lili, and Sasha make their first visit to Psychonauts’ headquarters, with all the psychic crime fighting it entails.

Cuphead: The Delicious Last Course

2020 | Studio MDHR | Link | PlatformerCuphead is based on old timey cartoons, so it only makes sense that they’d introduce a gender-swapped version of their original hero. Well, actually it’s the Legendary Chalice character (who you may remember from the mausoleum level), now referred to as Ms. Chalice. The DLC is also promising a new isle to fight through, new bosses, new weapons, and more, so I’m sure it will be a relaxing, serene experience for all involved.

Minecraft: Dungeons

Spring 2020 | Mojang | Link | Dungeon crawlerDare I say it, are they making the Minecraft equivalent of Ultima Underworld? Okay, no, it's more of a classical Diablo-style hack-and-slash looter, but however it turns out, you'll be able to bring three friends along for this spin-off.

The Settlers

2020 | Ubisoft Blue Byte | Link | City simThe Settlers series is 25 years old, and the seventh iteration came out all the way back in 2012, but Ubisoft is taking another crack at the medieval city building genre.

The Dark Pictures: Little Hope

2020 | Supermassive Games | Link | Choice-driven HorrorThe next episode in Supermassive Games' The Dark Pictures anthology series is Little Hope, starring the mean guy from the first Maze Runner movie. Since the story won't be directly tied to Man of Medan, we don't know much beyond the brief teaser above. There's also no firm release date, but expect it in the first half of the year.

Circuit Superstars

2020 | Original Fire Games | Link | Remember Micro Machines?Published by the Square Enix through their indie outfit Square Enix Collective, Circuit Superstars is a throwback to Codemasters' Micro Machines with a more realistic take and modern look. It's due sometime in 2020.

Witchbrook

"Coming soon" | Chucklefish | Link | RPGChucklefish is bringing pixelated life sims to a Hogwarts-like setting, where you’ll work to finish wizard school, battle in the forest, and take care of magical creatures. Want some other influences to get your brain running? Chucklefish says Garth Nix’s Old Kingdom, Harvest Moon, and Studio Ghibli are all incorporated. Fingers crossed for magical talking cat companions.

New games of February 2020

Ori and the Will of the Wisps

February 11, 2020 | Moon Studios | Link | MetroidvaniaOri and the Blind Forest crushed players' hearts with an emotionally charged narrative and crushed their spirits with challenging Metroidvania gameplay, so why not go for two?

Mega Man Zero/ZX Legacy Collection

February 25 | Capcom | Link | It’s Mega ManDelayed to February, this Mega Man collection combines Mega Man Zero 1, 2, 3, and 4, plus Mega Man ZX and ZX Advent. There’s a new slew of features designed to help players get through tougher areas, a new leaderboard “Z Chase” mode, an art gallery, and other goodies.

One Punch Man: A Hero Nobody Knows

February 28 | Bandai Namco | Link | Anime FighterOne Punch Man's debut game is already out in Japan, but the West has to wait until the end of February. For the most part, A Hero Nobody Knows looks like a standard anime fighting game, but it's fascinating to see now developer Spike Chunsoft is getting around the anime's purposefully overpowered main character.

New games of March 2020

Doom Eternal

March 20 | id Software | Link | FPSDoom Eternal brings hell to Earth, a nice change of setting from 2016's excellent reboot. Expect to fight twice as many demons in this installment, using a brutal upgraded armory. This includes a new version of the Super Shotgun, which features a grapple-friendly 'meat hook' on the end, and hopefully a ton more ludicrous weapon mods. As of October, Doom Eternal's planned November release date was delayed to March 2020.

Mount & Blade 2: Bannerlord

March 2020 | TaleWorlds | Link | Action RPGAnother one we’ve wanted for-freaking-ever. This sequel adds way more RPG elements, including a full single-player campaign with an unwieldy level of freedom, new factions, castle sieges, and childrearing. It’s...a lot, so here’s everything we know.

Bleeding Edge

March 24 | Ninja Theory | Link | Co-Op Competitive ActionNinja Theory (Hellblade, DmC, Enslaved) are taking their melee combat chops and building something that looks like Borderlands meets Overwatch.

Doom 64

March 20 | id Software | Link | FPSPC gamers are finally getting the N64 Doom, and it’s also a preorder bonus for Doom Eternal. Of course there’s some visual improvements, but we don’t know if much else will justify the (currently unknown) standalone price tag.

New World

March 2020 | Amazon Games | Link | MMO

We played a bit of New World earlier this year, and it's an interesting one—it doesn't seem 'revolutionary,' as so many MMOs brand themselves, but smartly-designed. At The Game Awards, Amazon revealed a new cinematic trailer and a release month: May 2020. Before the reveal, we had a chat with the game's director, which you can read here.

Naraka: Bladepoint

"Early 2020" | 24 Entertainment | Link | Action

24 Entertainment, a Chinese studio, revealed a trailer for its slick and stylish multiplayer melee action game that promises a "boundless movement system" that enables players to climb, hang, wall-run, and more, aided by an "aim-at-whatever-you-want" grappling hook. We're a little fuzzy on how it all works—there are block and parry systems but no actual block or parry buttons. The trailer also shows players grappling, swinging, climbing, and wall-running all over the place. It's expected to arrive early in 2020.

New games of April 2020

Resident Evil 3 Remake

April 3 | Capcom | Link | Horror

Nearly on the heels of the Resident Evil 2 Remake, Capcom has announced Resident Evil 3 will get the same treatment in April 2020. Jill Valentine takes on Raccoon City again with a new wardrobe and an updated face. The remake will also come with Resident Evil Resistance included, the 1 on 4 asymmetrical multiplayer mode.

Cyberpunk 2077

April 16 | CD Projekt Red | LINK | RPGHackers, limbs with swords in them, and Keanu Reeves -- what more can we ask for? The team behind The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt turn the classic tabletop game into a full-fledged adventure.

Trials of Mana

April 24 | Square Enix | Link | RPGThe third entry in the classic Mana series, rebuilt into a fully 3D game, an upgraded battle system, voice acting(!), and a remastered soundtrack(!!!).

Gears Tactics

April 28 | Coalition | Link | Strategy

Set 12 years before Gears of War at the start of the Locust War, Gears Tactics is a turn-based strategy along the lines of XCOM. "It's our take on the classic turn-based strategy genre, with a character-driven story, faster, more aggressive gameplay, a customizable squad and equipment—and of course it wouldn't be a Gears game without massive boss battles," Coalition studio head Rod Fergusson said in 2018.

Grounded

Spring 2020 | Obsidian | Link | Survival Co-OpIt’s Honey, I Shrunk the Kids meets classic survival games (think ARK, Rust), with you and a band of friends surviving giant bugs and other threats in the backyard.

Zombie Army 4: Dead War

Early 2020 | Rebellion | Link | Co-Op Shooter“Zombie Army 4” might be the most aggresively video game-ass video game title ever, but so far it’s proven to be a comfortingly familiar blend of Rebellion’s Sniper Elite gameplay and Left 4 Dead. Expect big occult vibes, Nazi zombie tanks and Nazi zombie sharks.

New games of May 2020

Wasteland 3

May 19 | inXile Entertainment | Link | CRPGWasteland 3 has been long in the works by inXile, but since their acquisition by Microsoft, the studio has likely been able to take its time to make it great. So far, Wasteland 3 looks like a refinement of the sequel's mechanics in a brand new setting: Colorado.

Maneater

May 22 | Tripwire Interactive | Link | Shark-PGGrow up from a baby shark (do-do-dodo-dodo) to Jaws himself by swimming around an open world, chomping on sealife, other legendary beasts, and bounty hunters who probably taste even worse. Somehow they made being a shark more of an RPG than you might expect, but it definitely comes with plenty of blood.

New games of June 2020

Dying Light 2

Spring 2020 | Techland | Link | Open worldFor all it’s glorious zombie parkour, the original Dying Light really failed to give players a narrative worth remembering. Techland clearly wants to change that by bringing on writing powerhouse Chris Avellone (of KOTOR 2, Pillars of Eternity, and Fallout: New Vegas fame) so it can give you more a more compelling reason to hopscotch the undead. Narrative choices in-game will alter the world something fierce, like a certain faction constructing additional outposts and unfurling banners across walls, which you can slide down like a drunken musketeer. As for the zombies, they’re more likely to hide from the sun now, but that makes their dark indoor dens that much more dangerous and lucrative for brave (read: totally dead) acrobats.

Death Stranding

"Early Summer" | Kojima Productions | Link | Geopolitical QWOPHideo Kojima's first game since unshackling himself from Konami and buddying up with Sony. Shockingly, we get a PC release only half a year or so after the PS4 debut, if estimates are to be believed. Reconnect a post-apocalyptic America by delivering packages and establishing network links. As you can imagine, that's the simplest description of a Kojima game we can write without getting into dissertation territory.

Phantasy Star Online 2

Spring 2020 | SEGA | Link | MMOAgainst all odds, the classic MMO is somehow, somehow coming to western shores. It’ll be free-to-play, and will include all updates and content currently available to eastern players.

Empire of Sin

Spring 2020 | Romero Games | Link | Crime Sim/TacticsThe Romero family brings the mean streets of 1920’s prohibition-era Chicago to life in a very XCOM fashion.

Griftlands

June 2020 | Klei | Link | Card-Based AdventureIt’s a deck-building roguelike set in a sci-fi realm, with that signature Klei art style.

New games of July 2020

Nothing yet, but as soon as we find some games with July release dates, they'll go here.

New games of August 2020

Tell Me Why

Summer 2020 | DONTNOD | Link | Narrative AdventureFollowing in Life is Strange’s footsteps, DONTNOD’s new adventure game sees twins return to their childhood home to unearth some traumatic memories. The game will apparently focus strongly on one of the sibling’s life as a transgender man. All episodes are launching at once, which is also lovely.

Outriders

Summer 2020 | People Can Fly | Link | Co-Op ShooterThe Bulletstorm team is making another co-op shooter, this time set in a desolate sci-fi world with up to two friends at your side. Sure sounds familiar, but PCF says this is the game they’ve always wanted to make, and Bulletstorm was the world’s longest dick joke, so god only knows what’s in store.

New games of September 2020

Iron Harvest

September 1 | King Art Games | Link | Mech TacticsIf you love mechs, you’ve probably seen the art from Jakub Różalski that inspired this game, contrasting the desolate beauty of post-WWI Europe with rusty machines of war.

Marvel's Avengers

September 4 | Square Enix | Link | Action RPGKamala Khan aims to get the Avengers back together in this action RPG with single-player, co-op, multiplayer, and an all new tale divorced from the MCU. We keep getting some vague Destiny vibes what with the apparent focus on replayability.

New games of October 2020

Nothing yet, but as soon as we find some games with October release dates, they'll go here.

New games of November 2020

Nothing yet, but as soon as we find some games with November release dates, they'll go here. With the PlayStation 5 and next Xbox likely launching in this month, we can likely expect some big games.

New games of December 2020

Nothing yet, but as soon as we find some games with December release dates, they'll go here.

Cyberpunk 2077 is probably going to be the biggest game release of the first half of 2020. It's the big dog, the gorilla with a shotgun, the Classy Freddie Blassie in a room full of pencil-neck geeks, and nobody's going to mess with it. Or so it seemed, until earlier this month, when Valve announced Half-Life: Alyx—an actual new Half-Life game—and set it to come out in March, just a month (and possibly less) ahead of Cyberpunk.

The insertion of Alyx definitely makes the upcoming spring more crowded, but CD Projekt said in a recent earnings call (via Yahoo! Finance) that it's not worried about the competition. In response to a question about the possible impact of a new Half-Life on Cyberpunk 2077, vice president of business development Michal Nowakowski said that VR is "an extremely nichey niche [part] of the market," and he doesn't think Valve is really looking to make Alyx a big hit anyway.

"The only reason I can think of why has Valve has decided to actually put this title in the market is because they actually have a corporation on the hardware side of the things," he said. "This is probably a big effort for them to sort of try to expand that. That niche is very, very, very—and I could add a few 'verys' here—small."

"So from the market perspective, are we afraid? No, because it's a very different niche. It's—this is an endeavor to sort of try to push the hardware while we are really targeting the mass markets where it is, which is major consoles and the PCs without the need to have the VR gear."

Nowakowski added that even if Half-Life: Alyx lives up to its billing, no other developers have committed to VR to a comparable extent, so the likelihood of a sudden rush to it in the immediate future is very slim.

"Perhaps Half-Life will be this first stone that is going to turn into something larger as we go, but that's definitely not going to be the case come first half of the next year. I daresay it's probably not going to be next year," he said. "Even—I don't actually know even further because things may change. And at some point, VR may be a mass-market entertainment that will validate the business model behind it, but it is not the case, at least not for us right now."

As for the possibility of CD Projekt's previous games getting the VR treatment, president and joint CEO Adam Kiciński suggested that it's not likely to happen: VR games need to be designed as such from the start in order to be any good, he said—The Witcher games obviously are not—and besides, "we are rather for delivering new games than working on old titles."