The biggest news of the year for Microsoft wasn’t about its games, but about the hardware that will be running those games. At E3 2017 we got a glimpse of something new, something more powerful than anything on the market outside of custom built PCs. A new and better version of the Xbox One – formerly known as Project Scorpio – the Xbox One X, which has finally released into the wild.
The console boasts features that Xbox One fans have been wanting including native 4K gaming with HDR, better frame rates, and even a chance for older games to look better than ever. While Sony was showing off some solid games, Microsoft did so as well, and even gave us a glimpse of the Xbox One’s future.
Also: How the Nintendo Switch’s 2018 is Looking
While the new hardware certainly offers up some exciting things to look forward to, we can certainly guess that we will have some solid Xbox One games to be looking forward to in 2018. So let’s take a look at the games that we gamers should be rubbing our hands together as we patiently await those them in the upcoming year.
Ori and the Will of the Wisps | Moon Studios | TBA
Have you ever wondered if a game could spin your heart in circles and tug at it a bit more than your average game? When Ori and the Blind Forest released, that’s just what players received: an emotional roller coaster. The game was a solid representation of both narrative, platforming, and puzzle solving. Let alone did it do all those quite well, it was gorgeous, extremely gorgeous. Now, we have a follow-up title set to launch exclusively on the Xbox One family: Ori and the Will of the Wisps, a direct sequel. This new title will carry on from our previous story, and give us a bit more to look forwards to. Since little is known about it besides being a sequel an featuring the same gameplay mechanics, we can certainly cross our fingers and hope the game is as strong as the first one.
State of Decay 2 | Undead Labs | 2018
Zombies. We all love them, we all hate them, but we certainly can’t seem to get enough of them. The best part of the zombie apocalypse? You get a chance to enjoy it with your friends. State of Decay 2 just happens to be offering many of the online features that fans had wanted: cooperative play, more bases to defend, and upgraded performance. In 2018, that will certainly happen as players take to the zombie apocalypse, defending survivors, fortifying their bases, and even hunting down valued resources. What’s not to love when you’re a few baseball bat swings away from an apocalyptic grand slam?
Sea of Thieves | Rare | Q1-Q2 2018
Pirate games are rare. So rare that you can probably only count a few of them that actually are noteworthy and should have your attention. One of those titles just happens to be Sea of Thieves by Rare, the team behind the legendary Conker franchise. Unlike the foul-mouthed, beer-guzzling furball, Sea of Thieves is quite different. It’s a cooperative online multiplayer game where players will take to the seven seas upon a pirate ship, assuming the roles needed in order to sail. You will steer, you will hoist the sails, you will navigate, fire cannons in combat, and even take to varied tasks upon a ship. While quests and cooperative play are a big thing, Sea of Thieves promises an experience unlike any other thanks to the power of the Xbox One consoles. Currently, the game is set to launch in 2018, having been pushed back from its original 2017 release date.
Crackdown 3 | Microsoft Studios | Q2-Q3 2018
Crackdown 3 is anything but small. The guns are big, explosions are bigger, and the games leading man Terry Crews is even bigger. That’s exactly what Microsoft is needing in their 2018 line-up, bigger, better, and louder games. Crackdown 3 is certainly promising to do just that in all its glory. While the open world title has received strong criticism due to its 2017 release date being canceled, we can certainly take faith in the fact Microsoft is taking that extra time to polish the game, and offer fans on Xbox One’s a chance to partake in one of the best open-world franchises out there. If anything can’t come soon enough, it’s certainly Crackdown 3.
The Last Night | Odd Tales | 2018
Developed by indie team Odd Tales, The Last Night is an upcoming platforming title, one where fans will take on the role of Charlie. Charlie is a lower-class citizen in a futuristic world, one where the smallest of jobs have been taken up by robots, leaving those in need of work to walk the streets, and take whatever work they can get. For Charlie, this means getting in gunfights, throwing a few fists, and getting himself placed on a most-wanted list (or so we hope). Unfortunately, at this time, there’s not a lot more information about the game out there. Thankfully we have a lot to look forward to thanks to the game’s trailer.
What games do you hope to see make their way to the Xbox One family in 2018? Let us know in the comments below.
