It seems like every week I hear an announcement for yet another amazing video game that’s going to be released this year. I thought 2013 was good with the Civ5: Brave New World expansion, the X-COM: Enemy Within expansion, Pokemon X&Y, and Fire Emblem Awakening…but it’s going to get even better:

  • Final Fantasy X HD Remaster: Okay, I know, this technically isn’t a new game. I played this back in high school, and I’m currently playing through it with Sean (who has played pretty much every Final Fantasy but this one). Man, do the updated graphics look amazing. The game always had beautiful worlds and fantastic looking monsters, but now it’s absolutely gorgeous. So gorgeous that we still haven’t disabled the five minute long aeon summon intros. I technically never finished FFX – like most RPGs, I got to the final dungeon, took a break, and then couldn’t figure out where I was or what I was doing and gave up. But this time I’m committed to seeing the ending! But even though I know the plot, it’s still a lot of fun watching Sean’s reactions as we play. Watching him go through the rite of passage of stupendously failing at Blitzball was pretty satisfying (sorry, Sean).
  • Peggle 2: I still don’t quite understand why this game is so addictive, but it is.
  • Tropico 5: My first Tropico game was actually Tropico 4, so I’m a newcomer to the series. But I instantly fell in love with planning out my cities and what industries would support my island, and figuring out how I can financially support free health care, education, and lodging. Of course I make my island a socialist utopia! I’m OCD enough that planning out the most efficient layout for my roads is enough to entertain me, but I’m looking forward to the new colonial eras in this game and the expanded building options.
  • Mario Kart 8: I like to play a lot of different video games, but if there’s one game I can say I’m actually extremely good at, it’s Mario Kart. It’s to the point where no one will play me because I’m generally so far ahead of the pack that even multiple blue shells won’t stop me (especially now that I’ve learned how to dodge blue shells on certain levels – yes, it’s possible). I’m super excited for the updated graphics and tracks, but I’m mostly excited that people will play with me for a little bit before I’ve committed all the tracks to muscle memory.
  • The Sims 4: A couple of weeks ago I was wondering if The Sims was due for a new game, since The Sims 3 came out during my senior year of high school, which is officially forever ago. It was a good feeling to go online and check, only to see that it was coming out this September. Time to recreate characters from Game of Thrones and see who marries who!
  • Civilization: Beyond Earth: I was positively euphoric for the whole day when I read about this release. I love the Civilization games – my cumulative number of play hours is definitely in the thousands, not the hundreds. Sean is as much as a fan as I am, and we spend a lot of time conquering the world together in team multiplayer games. For years now he’s been telling me I should play the old Alpha Centauri game because it’s such a classic, but I was holding out. I insisted Sid Meier would come out with a new Alpha Centauri sometime soon. They rebooted X-COM to incredible success, Civ5 was no longer having anymore expansions, they could easily adapt the Civ5 engine to this game, and Steam’s DLC system would rake in a lot of money from hardcore strategy gamers like us who want every expansion. I’ve never been so happy to be right. I can’t wait to explore the crazy alien terrain they come up with, genetically modify creatures and my own people, build giant robot armies…how could you not be excited for a sci-fi Civ game?!
  • Super Smash Brothers for Wii U: I mean, it’s the new SSB. I don’t have to say anything more.
  • Pokemon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire: A gen 3 remake using the new beautiful graphics on the 3DS? Take all my money, Pokemon.

Are there any games you all are looking forward to?