STACK #244 February 2025

GAMING FEATURE

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There’s plenty to get excited about on the games horizon in 2025, with new franchises arriving, and familiar ones returning. We’ve selected 15 games that we’re expecting will see a release sometime this year that we think are well worth looking forward to. Words Amy Flower NEW GAMES HEADING OUR WAY!

The big daddy of the first-person shooter genre is set to return, in this third outing of the modern series from id Software – and it’s a prequel! We’ll learn about the rise of the demon-fighting Doom Slayer to saviour of us all, as we enter a world that promises “an epic cinematic origin story”. Expect manic FPS action that ups the ante from its predecessors as we get medieval on Hell’s butts!

survival in the harsh lands of Pywel. There’s an impending catastrophe, and it’s up to you and your Greymane comrades to engage in fierce battles to save the land, slashing, parrying, and blocking to victory.

Elden Ring Nightreign Get ready for a new experience set in FromSoftware’s epic world of Elden Ring , something different than the classic action RPG that started it all. Instead, it’s a three-player co-op roguelike, although we are promised the ability to go it alone. It’s set in a new take on the starting zone Limgrave, with randomised encounters the order of the day, while the main aim is to take out any of eight bosses.

Borderlands 4 Hold onto your loot, for all the wild shooter action is heading back our way, and its set to bring more mayhem – and open world to explore - than ever. Nabbing secret alien treasures is the name of this particular game, which will be aided by new vehicles and ways of getting about, including a very handy grappling hook. Plus, classic two-player couch co-op is coming back for another run.

Death Stranding 2: On the Beach

Yes, it’s the sequel to Hideo Kojima’s epic that almost defied description – action, adventure, walking simulation, bubble babies – it had the lot! The main original cast return, along with newcomer Elle Fanning. Not surprisingly, details of the new story are vague, but we are promised a journey upon which we’ll save humanity from extinction, which was part inspired by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Fable It’s 13 years since we last journeyed through the worlds of a Fable game, and this time out we’re heading into a reboot of the series, a change of pace from the clever folk at Forza Horizon heroes Playground Games. This means some serious updating of gameplay mechanics and graphics, in a single-player action RPG experience set in the original game’s world of Albion, which is under threat.

Crimson Desert Grab your trusty sword and head into a

medieval action-adventure open world fantasy as Kliff, a mercenary leader who’s burdened by painful memories of his past as he struggles for

Doom: The Dark Ages

14 FEBRUARY 2025

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