Gaming Announcements Winter 2016-2017

2017 and beyond is shaping up to be one incredible cycle for gaming in general. Last of Us Part 2, Uncharted: The Lost Legacy, Awesome Games Done Quick and so much more are shaping to make the next few years of gaming very exciting.

Speaking of awesome games done quickly ...

Let’s hit the pause button just a smidge here. A few years back an organization was born by the name of Games Done Quick that aimed to have fun with gaming and help the world using those gifts – which include speed running through a game, showing off game-breaking glitches and so much more – through charity efforts.

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Two week long marathons were created as a result of this organization: Awesome Games Done Quick (usually done in the middle or the end of January and typically benefitting the Prevent Cancer Foundation) and Summer Games Done Quick (usually done at the end of June or start of July and typically benefitting Doctors Without Borders). The last few marathons have been exceptionally successful, pulling in the better part of $500,000 - $1 million+, but this most recent one set multiple records for the organization - the most impressive one being the grand total of donations raised.

The totals are still coming in (last I saw, at least) but as of right now the tally stands at just shy of $2.2 million dollars – setting multiple records for the organization, Games Done Quick, over the course of this past week.

For more information on what this organization is all about and what they do, how you can tune in, join in, volunteer, and donate, visit https://gamesdonequick.com.

You can also visit https://www.youtube.com/user/gamesdonequick to watch archived runs from multiple marathons as well as https://www.twitch.tv/gamesdonequick to watch the marathons themselves or to catch what they call The GDQ Hotfix, a series highlighting many of the types of activities you will see when the big marathons happen. Congrats on the hard work you guys. The world is much better for it. #GamingForGood

Going further into some generalized big gaming announcements from the later part of 2016 and early part of 2017 here, we’ve had some big things come forward. Obviously, there is the updates and news on The Nintendo Switch, Nintendo’s next great console adventure. I will be covering that in an article dedicated to it all on its own. But there were a few other pieces of awesome information that I think is worth mentioning at this current time.

The thing that has this gamer the most excited (despite the fact I most likely will not get to play it because my desktop VGA set up can’t handle it) is the upcoming major expansion to Final Fantasy 14, an online massive multiplayer role-playing game (MMORPG) that is currently playable on PC and PlayStation 4 (PS4). We’ve seen A Realm Reborn and Heavensward, let alone all the little patches in-between. This summer (2017) we will see the coming of Stormblood. Beyond this confirmation, this is where we start to get into some iffy areas of what is confirmed, rumored and hoped for out of an expansion PCGamer.Com says could be as big as Heavensward .

We know new jobs are coming down the pike, with one seeming to be confirmed to be the Red Mage class (a mixed DPS (damage per second) styled class with both melee and distanced magic attacks). The other class that seems to be up in the air has the fans divided between hoping for the Blue Mage (a magic user that adapts their abilities from monsters) and the Samurai (this one is kind of obvious) role. We also know that new areas are coming, many of which that will play directly into the expanding storyline as well as a fourth residential district that will have a direct story impact. New transportation methods are coming (swimming and diving) that will impact certain jobs (such as fishing), a new eight-person raid, new Primals (one-off bosses, as PC Gamer calls them), and new dungeons are other things to be expected this summer. There are more things that seem to be confirmed and others that seem to be rumored – of which I will cover more in detail at a later date in time.

Moving onto the console market, there were a few major surprises towards the latter half of 2016. First and foremost, there was the announcement of a little sequel game by the title of The Last of Us: Part 2, which features a rather angry not so little anymore Ellie. Beyond that, and the fact that it has been confirmed that the game is set five years after its predecessor and Ellie is a playable character this go-round, everything else is still merely conjecture. Naughty Dog has been fairly quiet on the project, thus far. And considering there hasn’t been a 100 percent confirmed release date announced yet, that isn’t unsurprising.

Another surprise, again by Naughty Dog, was the announcement of another piece of the Uncharted puzzle. Uncharted: The Lost Legacy was announced and so far all we know in terms of a release date is sometime this year (2017) is what they are aiming for, provided no delays occur. Beyond that, much like the Last of Us sequel, there are few known details with even more fan conjecture. Fan favorite character, Chloe (from Uncharted 2) will feature as the main heroine in this game, with a surprising sidekick in the form of Nadine Ross (the bad-ass mercenary boss from Uncharted 4). The game seems to be centralized around an item called the Tusk of Ganesh with gameplay taking the pair all around India. And the total game time is somewhere between the length of time it takes to complete the Left Behind DLC for The Last of Us and Uncharted 4. Kind of vague and a rather large swath of time ranging between the two titles, so the hopes are for this game to be rather substantial all on its own.

Of course, you also have the announcement of the Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy, a remaster of and update to original 1990s trilogy, as well as the impending releases for Resident Evil 7, Horizon Zero Dawn, Mass Effect: Andromeda, Tekken 7 and of course, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (but more on that later in The Switch article).

The end of 2016 and beginning of 2017 have given us gamers some great promises. Now, let’s see if those promises can be fulfilled. Stay tuned for more information as these situations develop.

Until next time guys!!