Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp Complete

Animal Crossing fans may have to wait until the Nintendo Switch’s successor for a sequel, but Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp Complete may fill the gap. Based on the defunct free-to-play title launched in 2017, this is a version of the game without the microtransactions and playable offline. It launches on December 3rd for iOS and Android, retailing for $9.99 until January 31st, 2025, and providing a whopping 10,000+ items to unlock, numerous events, and different animals to interact with while building your ideal camp.

Warhammer 40,000: Darktide (PS5)

After a troubled launch on PC and some redemption on Xbox Series X/S, Warhammer 40,000: Darktide is finally making its way to PS5. Launching on December 3rd, it includes all the improvements and revamps, from the new Talent Trees for each class to Mastery, the Party Finder, and the brand new Havoc system, which adds challenging assignments post-Trust Level 30. If a compelling four-player co-op shooter based on Warhammer 40K sounds like your thing, Darktide may fill that void.

Infinity Nikki

One of my most anticipated games of 2024, Papergames’ Infinity Nikki is a free-to-play open-world title with gacha elements. However, it’s also a dress-up adventure title, where organic exploration and a relaxed atmosphere take precedence over min-maxing characters and still not beating Memory of Chaos 12. As Nikki and Momo arrive in Miraland, there are bosses to tackle, Curio Domains to conquer, and outfits granting different abilities. It’s oddly endearing, and launches on December 5th for PC, PS5, and mobile.

Marvel Rivals

What happens when two Doctor Dooms wreak havoc with time and space, causing heroes from across realities to partake in interdimensional conflicts? You get NetEase’s Marvel Rivals, a free-to-play hero shooter that makes you feel like you’re Spider-Man. Or Venom, Iron Man, Captain America, and Jeff the Shark. With 6v6 battles, Team-Up Attacks that promote synergies between related characters, and a stylish presentation, Marvel Rivals offers its own take on the genre’s objective-based competitive play. It’s out on December 6th for Xbox Series X/S, PS5, and PC, with 33 heroes, eight maps, and even more content to come post-launch.

Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun – Aiko’s Choice (PS5, Xbox Series X | S)

Mimimi Games is sadly no more, but Shadow Tactics lives on. Xbox Series X/S and PS5 players will finally get their hands on Aiko’s Choice, a standalone expansion focusing on the titular Kunoichi. There are three new main and interlude missions alongside brand new environments, as Aiko must confront her past and defeat her old sensei. If you enjoyed the base game and synergizing your party’s abilities to clear missions, lethally or otherwise, then Aiko’s Choice is a must-play. It goes live on December 6th for consoles.

Indiana Jones and the Great Circle

MachineGames’ newest full-fledged title is upon us, and it’s decidedly not a shooter-focused affair. Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is based on the acclaimed movie series (we don’t know about the latest films), taking place between Raiders of the Lost Ark and The Last Crusade as Indy scours the globe to investigate the Great Circle. Don’t let the first-person, sometimes third-person perspective fool you – this is more of an action-adventure title with platforming and puzzle-solving. You can rely on stealth to knock out enemies or engage in melee combat. With MachineGames touting this as their longest game, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle could be a great way to end the year when it launches on December 9th for Xbox Series X/S and PC.

Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver 1 and 2 Remastered

It’s been a long time since we’ve seen anything from the franchise, and while not a new game, Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver 1 and 2 Remastered is still a dream come true. Out on December 12th for Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, PS5, Nintendo Switch, and PC, it remasters both Soul Reaver titles (if the name didn’t give it away) with improved visuals and even a new map and compass for exploration. Long-time fan or not, both titles are action-adventure classics that must be experienced.

Delta Force

Over 15 years since NovaLogic’s Delta Force: Xtreme 2, the series is making a comeback. Developed by TiMi Studio Group, Delta Force will be available in open beta form on PC starting December 5th. The free-to-play title features single-player and co-op, but multiplayer is the real appeal alongside an extraction shooter mode, Hazard Operations, and massive battles with vehicles and dozens of players available. Could it finally restore some luster to the Delta Force? We’ll find out next week.

Path of Exile 2 (Early Access)

Between all the delays since it was first announced, Grinding Gear Games’ long-awaited Path of Exile 2 is finally out on December 6th, albeit in early access, for Xbox Series X/S, PS5 and PC. Don’t take this to mean it’s lacking content. There will be three campaign Acts, six classes (each with two Ascendancies), hundreds of passives, tons of Skill Gems, and much more to play around with. It should take a newcomer about 25 hours to finish the story content, but then you get to the endgame. The Atlas of Worlds has changed and taken some points out of Last Epoch’s Monoliths of Fate.

With Waystones equipped, you travel to nearby map nodes, clearing out enemies and bosses to clear corruption. Accessing Towers will unlock more of the map, which means more corruption and challenges. You’ll encounter revamped league mechanics like Breach, Delirium, Ritual, and Expedition, each with different rewards, bosses, and pursuits. The amount of content doubling during early access is mind-boggling, and we can’t wait to dive in.

Alien: Rogue Incursion

Alien: Isolation 2 is official at long last, but it will take a while to arrive. In the meantime, Alien: Rogue Incursion could serve as a decent substitute, at least for those with PlayStation VR2, Meta Quest 3, and SteamVR headsets. It launches on December 19th and focuses on Zula Hendricks, a former Colonial Marine who ventures to the planet, Purdan, to investigate an SOS. As you might guess, it’s Xenomorphs, and while iconic tools like the Motion Tracker, Pulse Rifle and Shotgun are available to fight them off, caution and careful movement are also important for survival.

Overthrown (Early Access)

With so many noteworthy survival crafting titles this year, it seems right to end with another, specifically Brimstone Games’ Overthrown. The premise is as you’d expect, with resource-gathering, farming, construction, and more, as you throw objects at them to expand. However, there’s a fair bit of combat as you fight off bandits and other threats. As one of the more popular titles during the last Steam Next Fest, Overthrown has generated some hype. Here’s hoping it delivers even more when it arrives in early access on December 5th for PC and Xbox Series X/S.

The Spirit of the Samurai

One of the more intriguing side-scrolling action games we’ve seen over the years, The Spirit of the Samurai focuses on three characters: the samurai Takeshi, the spirit Kodama, and Chisai, a cat. Between exploration and fighting off Tengu and Jorogumo, the real hook is the stop-motion animation, resulting in an unorthodox yet hypnotizing aesthetic. The Spirit of the Samurai launches on December 12th for PC, and if you’re looking for an unconventional Metroid-style experience, this could be worth checking out.

UFL

Aside from EA Sports FC, there isn’t much by way of other football titles to really embrace. UFL could change that, offering a free-to-play experience developed on Unreal Engine 5 with over 4500 real-life players, club management, a Premier Division, and much more to dive into. Given how other free-to-play titles like eFootball ended up, we’re a little skeptical, but UFL is still worth watching out for when it launches on December 5th for Xbox Series X/S, PS5, and PC.

Skydance’s Behemoth

If you’re looking for a different kind of VR experience, something with more visceral melee combat, there’s Skydance’s Behemoth. Set in the Forsaken Lands, players control Wren the Hunter and embark on a quest to take down the Behemoths to end a terrible curse. Developed by the team behind The Walking Dead: Saints and Sinners, it’s out on December 5th for PlayStation VR2 and Meta Quest and has offered some pretty satisfying combat thus far.

My First Gran Turismo

Less of a full game and more of a free trial version of Gran Turismo 7, My First Gran Turismo is meant to get newcomers into the franchise with specific tracks, cars, and events. It’s out this Holiday season for PS4 and PS5, potentially launching on December 3rd (the same day as PlayStation’s 30th anniversary). Though the content remains unknown, if you’ve ever been unsure about Gran Turismo 7, My First GT could be the perfect test.

FREE-TO-PLAY

One of UFL’s bigger draws is, of course, going to be the fact that it’s a free-to-play game, following in the footsteps of Konami’s eFootball (though hopefully it’ll fare much better). Built on Unreal Engine, UFL is promising top notch visuals and production value, and of course, authentic football simulation. Hopefully the latter in particular is a promise it’ll live up to.

NOT PAY-TO-WIN

Free-to-play games are a dime a dozen, but only a small number of them are able to find the right balance with their monetization. Strikerz says it’s adopting what it calls a “fair-to-play” monetization model with UFL, which means players will be able to pay for cosmetic items, but according to the studio, nothing that will ever affect gameplay or could be called pay-to-win. Meanwhile, new features and updates will launch for free. Speaking to IGN in 2021, studio CEO Eugene Nashilov said, “In UFL, players will be able to control all aspects of the game, ranging from teams’ composition to what tactics and formations will be used in the upcoming match. Your path to victory is determined by your skill and ability. In other words, our game is designed to be a fair-to-play experience that implies a skill-first approach and zero tolerance for pay-to-win options.”

LICENSES

Securing licenses is a big part of being able to make an authentic football sim that audiences actually widely adopt. As far as players are concerned, UFL is making the right promises, having secured the FIFPro license and featuring over 5,000 licensed, real-world footballers. As far as clubs are concerned, licensed selections will be more limited. Some of the clubs that the game has secured official licenses for are West Ham United, PSV Eindhoven, FC Shakhtar Donetsk, AS Monaco, Sporting CP, Celtic, and Rangers, among others.

THE BASICS

Let’s get down to the moment-to-moment on-pitch action, an area where UFL is promising all the bells and whistles you’d expect from a football sim. Players can perform passes, lobbed passes, through balls, overlap passes, and more, while different varieties of shots included regular shots, lobbed shots, skilled shots, several kinds of trick shots, and more. Players can call for teammates and direct them to specific spots, wile in defence, the game allows for different kinds of tackles in passive and active tackles, not to mention the basics like slide tackles.

CREATING AND MANAGING CLUBS

A big part of UFL is going to be the global online league, which is the game’s central mode. To kick things off, players will create their own club, following which you’ll build a squad of players from around the world. Each season will see players competing against each other and climbing through the ranks and seasons in order to be crowned the UFL Champion. In a nutshell, yes, it’s the game’s own take on Ultimate Team, unsurprisingly.

MATCHMAKING

UFL is going to use a skill-based matchmaking system, which is something that the developers announced pretty much the day the game was first unveiled. Specifically, players will be matched against each other based on their skill alone, and climbing through divisions will allow you to potentially also break into the Premier Division. That, in turn, will open up exclusive new rewards, like spots in pro tournaments.

OTHER MODES

UFL’s selection of modes is going to be a bit more limited compared to its competition. The global online league will be the centerpiece of the experience, as previously mentioned, while outside of that, the game will also feature options for 2v2 matches, 3v3, an offline mode, custom tournaments, events and challenges, and missions. Those looking for a career mode will be disappointed, however. Hopefully that’s something Strikerz ends up adding down the line.

ENERGY MANAGEMENT

As with with football sim that sees you managing your own team, managing and maintaining the reserves of your squad will be a crucial part of UFL, which means making use of substitutions and properly rotating your squad will be something you’ll have to keep in mind. Meanwhile, the game will also have the option to spend in-game currency to instantly recover a player’s energy- which potentially sounds like something that could rub players the wrong way, so hopefully it’s implemented in a properly balanced fashion.

PERKS

UFL also features a progression system that sees players leveling up and slowly improving. Part of that comes through new perks. Every time you level up, you earn a point that you can then use on a perk, with each perk having four individual levels of its own. From passive buffs to more tangible boosts, different kinds of perks will allow you to customize the players in your squad in a variety of ways.

PLAYER CARD SKINS

Speaking of customizing players, player card skins will be the game’s primary way of customizing players (and its primary way of getting you to spend money on it). As their name suggests, these are skins that you can apply to your player cards. Coming in four different rarities, player card skins will primarily function as cosmetic items, but according to Strikerz, players will also be able to combine them in different ways for tactical boosts. How that affects the studio’s promise of zero pay-to-win mechanics remains to be seen, but it might be worth keeping an eye on.

SKIN PACKS

Cracking packs open as you continue building your squad is a big part of the Ultimate Team experience, and UFL will have its own version of that with skin packs, which are exactly what the name suggests. Packs will be either earned through gameplay or purchased with in-game currency, and each will include a number of card skins, with each card’s probability of showing up in a pack being determined with a dice roll by its rarity.

IN-GAME CURRENCY

UFL will make use of two different currencies in the form of League Points (or LP) and Credit Points (or CP), with the former being used to purchase customization items, boosters, skin packs, battle passes, and slots for players in your squad, and the latter to purchase customization items and skin packs as well, and also players in the transfer market, or instantly recover a player’s energy, which we touched on earlier. Players will earn LP by earning it through the battle pass (which will be paid) or completing challenges, while CP is earned by winning ranked matches and, again, completing challenges. Both currencies can also be purchased with money in the in-game store.

EARLY ACCESS

UFL is going to be available for free to everyone on December 5, but those who want to hop into the game a little early have the option to do that as well- if you spend some money, that is. Those who pre-order the game via its Founders Pack (which costs $15) will get seven days of early access, starting November 28.

The Casting of Frank Stone

By now, we should all be acquainted with Supermassive Games’ brand of narrative adventure, choice and consequence, and character-driven horror. The Casting of Frank Stone has all that but spices things up further by tying up with Behaviour Interactive’s Dead by Daylight. Skill checks collide with potential life-ending choices, and somewhere, someway, the Entity is seemingly involved. It’s out on September 3rd for Xbox Series X/S, PS5, and PC.

NBA 2K25

Visual Concepts’ NBA 2K series is back for another round, as it usually is by this time of year. Launching September 6th for Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, PS5, PC, and Nintendo Switch, it adds 9,000 new animations, Rhythm Shooting, Signature Shots, and even Learn 2K, a mode for learning everything there is to know about NBA 2K25. Best of all, this marks the first time the PC version has parity with the current-gen releases (though crossplay is a no-go).

Towerborne (Early Access)

Stoic Studio’s long-awaited Towerborne, which combines side-scrolling beat ’em up combat with live service machinations, enters early access for PC on September 10th. While that means Xbox Series X/S players will miss out, combat has looked compelling, with each of the four classes looking unique. Early access also offers a storyline, “hundreds” of Discovery missions, 13 Venture missions (which feature multiple bosses), Aspects, and four Danger Levels for about 30 to 60 hours of gameplay.

The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom

After years and years, Nintendo finally delivered a new title in The Legend of Zelda series not focused on Link. Well, not in the way that we’re used to. With a strange corruption taking over Hyrule and Link out of commission, it’s Zelda’s turn to protect the kingdom. Featuring a top-down perspective, the art style from the Link’s Awakening remake, and the ability to duplicate almost everything, The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom looks like a delightful action-adventure. It’s out on September 26th for the Nintendo Switch.

Throne and Liberty

From its initial announcement as a new Lineage title to launching for PC last year in South Korea, NCSoft’s Throne and Liberty will be available for Xbox Series X/S, PS5, and PC in North America, Japan, and Europe on September 17th. Featuring crossplay support, the free-to-play MMO promises massive fantasy medieval skirmishes, an extensive world with day/night cycles, multiple weapon types, and even shape-shifting. New MMOs aren’t necessarily a dime a dozen – perhaps this will be worth the wait.

Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster

Despite the name, Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster is closer to a remake, with revamped visuals courtesy of RE Engine, a new modern control scheme, full voice-acting, and the same zombie-slaying that defined the original. There are also a ton of quality-of-life improvements, including an option to fast-forward through time, new photography features, autosaves, and more. Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster launches on September 19th for PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC.

Frostpunk 2

11 bit studios’ Frostpunk 2 is launching on September 20th for PC after facing a delay, and its expanded scale, factions, and system of proposing laws (and dealing with the consequences) looks as enticing as ever. Several changes and improvements have been made, from a cleaner UI to more direct-use abilities and Zoom Stories to focus on individual citizens. There’s even modding support at launch, with the tease of T-Rexes in the frostland.

UFL

If the latest EA football title isn’t doing it for you, then maybe UFL will. Developed by Strikerz Inc. on Unreal Engine, the free-to-play title launches on September 12th. It features 2v2 and 3v3 matches, an extensive online experience courtesy of an online football league, and about 5,000 real-life players (including Cristiano Ronaldo). Whether it threatens EA Sports’ dynasty or not, UFL could be a decent alternative.

Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown

The racing genre has been feeling a little barren lately, which KT Racing’s Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown should help to address. Offering a 1:1 scale of Hong Kong Island with numerous districts to explore, two factions to join, a revamped ranked experience, and a live service approach, there’s plenty to look forward to. The question is whether it all coalesces into a fun experience, especially after all the delays. Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown arrives on September 12th for Xbox Series X/S, PC, and PS5.

Astro Bot

The beloved Astro returns in a much bigger, more fleshed-out adventure on September 6th. With over 50 planets to explore, more than 15 new abilities, and +300 Bots to rescue – including cameos from Horizon, Bloodborne, and Jak and Daxter – there’s a lot of content to look forward to. Whether you’re in it for the tight platforming and adventuring or to collect every single Bot, Astro Bot looks to be a good time.

EA Sports FC 25

Dread it, run from it – a new football title from EA Sports arrives all the same. This year’s iteration brings several new features, like Player Roles, Goalkeeper Playstyles, and FC IQ for improved team AI. Perhaps the most intriguing new addition is Rush, a 5v5 competitive mode promising faster, more exciting matches. EA Sports FC 25 arrives on September 27th for Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, PS4, PS5, PC, and Nintendo Switch.

Mortal Kombat 1: Khaos Reigns

Remember the gold old days when Liu Kang didn’t have to deal with a chaotic fighter who used their limbs to fight? Khaos Reigns is the post-story expansion for Mortal Kombat 1, adding a new plot with Havik as the antagonist. It also includes Kombat Pack 2, with fighters like Sektor, Cyrax, Noob Saibot, the T-1000 from Terminator and even Conan the Barbarian. Launching on September 24th, Khaos Reigns will be available for PS5, Xbox Series X/S, PC, and Nintendo Switch.

The Plucky Squire

Indie platformers come and go, but something about The Plucky Squire from All Possible Futures makes it stand out. Maybe it’s the gorgeous art style or the seamless transitions from 2D to 3D gameplay, with genres like role-playing games, side-scrolling shoot ’em ups and more thrown into one intriguing potpourri. Either way, it’s out on September 17th for PS5, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch, and PC, and we can’t wait.

Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2

Almost 13 years after the original’s launch, Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 is upon us. With massive swarms of Tyranids to assail across a 12-hour campaign, tons of weapons, and epic set pieces, the sequel promises a heaping helping of bloody action (which newcomers can jump into without any hurdles). There’s also a separate Operations mode with co-op support and PvP, multiple classes, and extensive customization to keep players busy. Space Marine 2 launches on September 9th for Xbox Series X/S, PS5, and PC.

Starfield: Shattered Space

Last and hopefully not least is Shattered Space. Bad things are going down, with cosmic horrors running around and various factions in conflict. With new space suits, gear, and unique weapons to go with new quests and horror elements, it could be the shot in the arm that the space-faring RPG needs when it launches on September 30th.