Online gaming has had a tough couple of years that has felt like a bad beat at a casino! Don’t get me wrong: we’ve had lots of beautiful games to play and chat about, but the Covid-19 pandemic has ripped large holes in our routine. As a result, any excitement or anticipation throughout this year’s reveal streams was tempered by the knowledge that no matter what games were announced or how good they looked, they’d be years away.
While the year of delays has been frustrating, it has set the stage for 2022 to be one of the most exciting years in online gaming history. In 2022, we’ll see new games from well-known studios, as well as sequels to all-time online classics, and the indie industry will be bigger and more surprising than ever. As a result, every genre once thought to be extinct will be alive and thriving in 2022.
With all this in mind, here are the best five games that I believe will come out of 2022.
- Pokemon Legends: Arceus – Arceus is numerous things in Pokemon Legends. It’s a brand-new Pokemon game made specifically for the Nintendo Switch. It’s a prelude to Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl, which were released in November on the Nintendo Switch. And, probably most crucially, it’s being built by Game Freak, the team behind every mainline Pokemon game since Red and Blue.
Pokemon Legends: Arceus is set in the Sinnoh region, similar to Diamond and Pearl, but in a distant past before humans and Pokemon interbred. Gameplay clips from trailers show the playable characters creeping up on Pokemon and attempting to catch them in real-time, as well as the series’ trademark turn-based fighting. Finally, Arceus appears to be giving longstanding players what they’ve been asking for: something new.
- Gran Turismo 7 – Gran Turismo, one of the most well-known racing simulation games, will finally see its newest installment released in March of next year. The covid epidemic delayed the game’s development. Thus Sony and creators Polyphony Digital opted to postpone it until 2022. Gran Turismo 7 has several new and returning fan-favorite features that have sparked excitement among gamers and motor enthusiasts alike!
A realistic driving experience that makes full use of the haptic feedback available in current controllers has been a primary focus of this new chapter in the Gran Turismo series. Aside from that, the experience of customizing and altering your vehicle has been improved even more than in previous games, and other confirmed features include weather changes during races and dynamic lighting. As a result, for the player who appreciates both autos and video games, Gran Turismo 7 will define your 2022.
- Lord of the Rings Online – If you want to immerse yourself in a lore-rich fantasy world with nearly 15 years of material and support, check out The Lord of the Rings Online. You design a character and go on adventures based on Tolkien’s hugely important fantasy writings. Throughout the main story, notable characters and antagonists appear. Nonetheless, each highly detailed and well-known gaming location has a slew of side quests. If you want a friendly, free-to-play experience in a conventional fantasy setting with a great story and deeds to do, you can’t go wrong with this game.
- Hogwarts Legacy – Hogwarts Legacy is a bit of a sleeper compared to some of the other big-name open-world games coming out in 2022. There hasn’t been an actual Triple-A Harry Potter video game since the introduction of the tie-in movie games, and everyone who has played those games knows how unsatisfactory they are. On the other hand, Hogwarts Legacy is a little different. It takes place in the 1800s, long before modern technology was invented and well before the events of the Harry Potter series. It’s the first in a planned series of new Harry Potter games from WB’s Portkey Studios, and everything we’ve seen so far puts it miles ahead of expectations.
- Sifu – Sifu is a fighting game developed by the same team that brought you Absolver, a delightful martial arts game launched in 2017. Sifu builds on that game’s water-color graphic design and distinctive martial arts gameplay by adding a new aging mechanic. You play as a kung fu student who must kill five assassins to avenge his family, but you will be revived somewhat older each time you die. As you get older, you get stronger, but your health suffers. You must avenge your family before Father Time extinguishes you.
