I’ve already given thirsty Half-Glass Gaming readers a little taste of my most anticipated games of 2022 — a little sip, if you will. Those are the games that I’m really hoping will wet my gaming whistle in the coming months.
However, I did want to add some games that I am still on the fence about. Do these belong in my library of game titles? I don’t know. We’ll have to wait and see.
So here is a list of games releasing in 2022 that I am tentatively interested in, though not as hyped about as some of the other games coming out this year. In fact, I bet I won’t even get around to playing most of these games in 2022. But even so, my heart skips a beat at the thought of maybe giving them a chance.
So here are the games I might find myself getting excited about this year, or I might not. Only time will tell.
CrossfireX
I have very little knowledge of what CrossfireX will actually be, if I’m being perfectly honest, other than a shooter and the console version of the PC Crossfire series. I also have zero interest in the free-to-play online component.
No, for me, my interest lies in the fact that the single-player story content is being developed by one of my favorite developers in the industry today, Remedy. It’s hard to say how much of their imprint will be on CrossfireX, but one would imagine that, to tap a studio like Remedy, there has got to be a reason other than work-for-hire luck of the draw. And considering bullet-time seems to be a factor here, I assume that Remedy should be able to steer whatever this franchise is in the direction of glorious, fun over-the-top action, even if it is devoid of their usual bizarre-leaning story elements and protagonists.
CrossFireX is scheduled to release February 10, 2022, for Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S.
Horizon Forbidden West
I make no bones about my relationship with the first Horizon game; although I enjoyed my first 20 or so hours with it, I burned out pretty quickly. I also found Aloy to be a bit of a snooze and kind of annoying at the same time. Truth be told, I thought most of the characters were a bore.
Of course, I will watch Lance Reddick read the phonebook if that were an option, so if something incorporates that dude, you can consider me at least partially onboard.
Ultimately, I just thought the game had a bit too many rough edges, but I saw the potential for future installments to build something incredible on that shaky foundation. Will Forbidden West make good use of that potential? I guess I’ll have to wait an see. I will say that I am hopeful and impressed by what I’ve seen so far.
Horizon Forbidden West should be launching on February 18, 2022, for PS4 and PS5.
Elden Ring
I am no Souls fan. Or rather, I’m not great at the type of combat presented in those games (parrying is my personal garlic), and I also don’t have the penchant to get good at difficult games. But even more than that, the art style was never really my cup of tea — I’m no romantic when it comes to gothic imagery.
But then I saw the first trailer for Elden Ring and said, “Hold on, they might have something here.” But even though that initial spark has kept Elden Ring simmering in the back of my mind as something that might speak my language, I still am not sure that Elden Ring is actually for me.
I am a fan of open-world games, so it’s the open-world elements that speak to me the most here. But even then, I don’t get the sense that Elden Ring will have that “What’s over there? Oh, it’s a tiny fisherman’s shack, and now I’m off on a side quest,” kind of gameplay that I really enjoy.
But maybe it will still grab me, which is why I am cautiously watching Elden Ring as it draws closer to release.
Elden Ring is set to launch on February 25, 2022, for PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and PC.
Saints Row
The newest entry in this long-ish-running open-world crime franchise is simply titled Saints Row (not to be confused with 2006’s Saints Row).
I was never the biggest Saints Row fan, especially as the series evolved into over-the-top action simulation. But the original two games were rather enjoyable, and they had enough contrast with Grand Theft Auto to not just come off as more clones in the genre. It’s been almost nine years since the last — and, in my opinion, worst — entry in the series, Saints Row IV, so it’s hard to gauge what to expect with this upcoming reboot.
But with the lack of a new Grand Theft Auto game (aside from the recently released remakes, which were of mixed quality), and my own personal boredom with Grand Theft Auto Online (and even RDO), there might be enough of an appetite to push Saints Row to be a massive success. I am very much interested to see how this one shakes out, because I could really use a great open-world crime game right about now.
From what I’ve seen thus far, though, the combat looks a bit bullet-spongey, so I’m girding my excitement until I see more. It’s also a cross-gen title, which oftentimes leads to hits in the visual polish department or game performance issues. Plus, the response to the game’s trailers hasn’t exactly been positive. I guess we’ll have to wait and see how all this plays out.
Saints Row is now scheduled to launch on August 23, 2022, for PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and PC via the Epic Games Store.
Starfield
On paper, Starfield sounds like a slam dunk. And, truth be told, I’ve been hungering for a good Bethesda open-world RPG for some time now — more than ever after recently dipping my toes into The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Anniversary Edition.
But very little has revealed about what Starfield will ultimately be. I mean, yes, it’s a Bethesda game in space — I got that much. But how will everything come together, and, more importantly, how well will it function? I doubt we’ll know anything more until E3 this year.
Deep down, I feel like I will end up checking out Starfield regardless, but with maddening little to go on, it’s just a name on a list for now.
Starfield is scheduled to release on November 11 — which at this point should just be deemed Bethesda Day — for Xbox Series X|S and PC. This will be coming to Game Pass as well.
Hogwarts Legacy
This one mostly makes this list for two reasons:
- The gameplay genuinely looks interesting.
- Morbid curiosity.
When Hogwarts Legacy was first revealed, I think it garnered a lot of attention and positioned itself as possibly the next Skyrim. I personally have no interest in the world of wizarding, but even I had to admit this looked pretty awesome. And then J.K. Rowling continued to be a person of values that seem woefully out of touch with the current climate of our great republic. And just when this game seemed to have an amount of hype that developers and publishers would kill for, Rowling doubled down and really started to present herself as a despicable person.
Maybe it was all that Trump stank in the air, or maybe she was just sniffing too many of her own farts, but Rowling was unable to read the room, and as a result effectively killed the buzz for this title completely. And that really has to suck for the doubtless hundreds of people that worked on the game. I mean, even if all of them share in Rowling’s sentiment (something I can’t imagine being true, but I’ll entertain the thought just for the sake of argument), they at least had enough sense to zip it.
Since its promising reveal, Hogwarts Legacy has gone dark, presumably to let the atmosphere cool a bit and let the game stand on its own merits, despite the fact that, regardless of how little Rowling was involved in making it, she still stands to profit greatly from its success.
It’ll be interesting to see how this game lands, as no doubt it’s an incredibly expensive piece of software to make, and I imagine it might have even been poised to kick off a gaming franchise, if not a whole universe.
Hogwarts Legacy has no release date or even release window, although there’s a chance it will pop up at E3 this year or Geoff Keighley’s 2022 Summer Game Fest.
Ark 2
I played maybe 20 minutes of ARK: Survival Evolved, and it landed with such a disappointing thud that I never went back to it. It’s important to note here that I played it on consoles instead of PC, so that fact may have greatly impacted my enjoyment of the title. But still, from where I’m standing, that game was a hot mess.
But I am nothing if not a glutton for punishment when it comes to survival games, and my boy Vin Diesel is going to star in Ark 2, something that still seems like the delusional hallucinations of a feverish brain.
The thing is, I might not even play this one. But I definitely plan on watching a digital version of Vinnie D fight some dinosaurs in some Let’s Plays and livestreams.
I will say that Ark 2 does get points in my book for simply slapping the number 2 on its title without adding any unnecessary subtitles (Dying Light 2: Stay Human, I’m looking you square in the eyes, my friend). If you’re going to have a numerical representation of which installment in a series the current game is, you don’t need a stupid, tacked-on, meaningless subtitle. But I digress.
Ark 2 has no confirmed release date, but it’s vaguely slated for 2022.
Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League
Pretty much the only thing Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League has going for it is a properly utilized subtitle. Aside from the premise — superheroes turned bad are in need of some killing — nothing else about this game looks at all interesting to me. I don’t think the combat, in as much as we’ve seen, looks all that appealing. I don’t much like the characters or any of their designs. And, for the most part, I think this looks more like a spiritual successor to Sunset Overdrive than a proper entry in the DC Universe.
With all that said, this does look like the kind of game that a majority of the video-game-enthusiast community will flock to. So for that I say, “Why not? Bring it on.”
Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League has no confirmed release date other than the blanketed 2022, but even that might be pie in the sky.
Gotham Knights
Gotham Knights seems somehow intrinsically tied to Suicide Squad to me, even though there is, in fact, no connection outside of both taking place in some semblance of the DC Universe.
Either way, I am not really looking forward to Gotham Knights, perhaps because I soured on each successive release of the previous Batman Arkham series. And even though we are led to believe that Batman is dead… come on, we all know he’s not. There’s no way they’ll permanently kill off the Dark Knight. So even the premise of this game feels like a lie to me.
But I love Batman, so I’ll probably watch this one from afar — like on a neighbor’s TV through their window…
As you probably guessed, there is no confirmed release date for Gotham Knights outside of the general 2022 window, and even that was moved from its previous 2021 window.
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild 2
What would be an upcoming games list without The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild 2?
I personally enjoyed my time with the original Breath of the Wild, despite my reservations with Nintendo games in general. I never finished it, but by the time I reached that point, I had spent so much time trying to tackle every shrine and find every cool little secret that the prospect of beating Ganon felt pretty unnecessary.
I’ve already explored this world to the point of exhaustion, and the sequel seems to be set in that very same world. Will the prospect of underground labyrinths and stuff in the clouds be enough to make this feel fresh? Who knows, but you know that everyone and their cousin will be talking about this one when it launches, so I feel like I have an obligation to at least check it out.
But who knows if we’ll even hear a peep from this one in 2022?
