Games
All aboard the hype train for this month’s most promising new releases.
The final leaves fall from the trees, rich shades of ochre, ginger and russet fade to nothing as the frost sets in. Autumn is done, dead, buried. It's the Christmas season now, and that means even more new games than usual, as publishers rush to get their titles into stockings across the world.
Prepare yourselves, there really are a lot this month. Here we go...
Owlboy
We'll be honest, there's quite a lot of open world go-and-assassinate-people games on the list this month, so Owlboy should make for a refreshing change in between sessions of Fast Travelling across a map to shoot people in the face.
A labour of love 10 years in the making, this beautifully pixelated 2D platformer is a throwback to the classics a generation was reared on via the SNES and Sega Mega Drive. It's Steam only for now, but if it's a hit we're hoping it'll flap its way onto consoles eventually too.
Release: PC, November 1
Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare
At this point, if a Call of Duty game didn't drop in November, the physicists at the Department of Defense would probably ring up Activision in a panic, wondering what was wrong with their atomic clock. But no, right on cue, here's the latest Call of Duty, this time in space with zero gravity bits and bobs, as well as Kit Harington and Conor McGregor because somebody at Activision noticed that people quite liked Game Of Thrones and MMA. Really though, we're here for the multiplayer, and at this point again we'd also be very surprised if it wasn't brilliant.
Release: PS4, Xbox One and PC, November 4
Football Manager 2017
There's not a great deal to say here, really. Either you've already pre-ordered the latest gaffa-simulator from Sports Interactive already and bid farewell to your loved ones for the winter, or you haven't. As well as new camera angles and support for new league rules in matches, this year's version also factors in what may or may not happen with Britain pulling out of the EU; will your star striker now need a work permit?
Release: PC, November 4
Eagle Flight
Through years of hard graft and many, many open world games, Ubisoft has managed to turn its company name into an adjective. Assassin's Creed is very Ubisofty. Watch Dogs is definitely Ubisofty. And Eagle Flight, the publisher's first foray into virtual reality, is as Ubisoft as games come.
It's in Paris for one, set in the post-apocalyptic future, and is as open world as games come, in the sense that you can take to the skies above it too. Still, that's no bad thing; no other game quite lets you experience the sensation of swooping up and down like a bird of prey, with the possible exception of that bit in GTA V where you play as a pigeon. If you've got a HTC Vive, Oculus or PS VR headset, pop it on and start soaring from November 8.
Release: PS4 and PC, November 8
Dishonored 2
Bethesda's Dishonored was one of the last generation's most critically acclaimed new series, so expectations are high for this sequel. This time around you can play as one of two supernatural assassins in the fictional city of Karnaca. If you missed the original, or its current-gen remaster, think of it as medieval Deus Ex, minus the robot racism.
Release: PS4, Xbox One and PC, November 11
Watch Dogs 2
Watch Dogs, it's fair to say, did not live up to the hype, let down by the usual open world collectible detritus and an entirely forgettable protagonist in chunky knitwear. Still, we're hopeful for this one.
Assassin's Creed didn’t hit its stride until the first sequel, after all, and Ubisoft has clearly drawn some lessons from this, doubling down on the hacking elements to the game and letting you seek out non-lethal routes if all the usual open world mass murdering feels a bit incongruous, and even introducing a co-op mode. Bring it on.
Release: PS4, Xbox One and PC, November 15
Assassin’s Creed: The Ezio Collection
Speaking of Assassin's Creed, Ubisoft is bringing some of the best entries in the series back for the seemingly inevitable remaster on current-gen. In a year without a new Assassin's Creed entry to sink our hidden blades into, this should keep fans going, while introducing newcomers to the stealth series also.
While Revelations was a forgettable end to the story of charismatic, stab-happy Florentine Ezio Auditore, Assassin's Creed 2 and Brotherhood remain for many the series' apex, thanks to their sprawling open world cities and innovative mission design. There are no multiplayer modes included this time round, sadly, but we're looking forward to visiting Desmond once more in upgraded graphics.
Release: PS4 and Xbox One, November 17
Pokémon Sun and Moon
Pokémon GO was the hit of the summer, but as winter draws in, the appeal of hunting for an elusive Blastoise or walking 10km to hatch a Lapras is quickly diminishing. Thankfully GameFreak and Nintendo are back with the next pair of mainline outings in the series, letting you hunt down over 800 critters to do battle with from the comfort of your sofa, or at least the relative warmth of the train on your morning commute.
This time the setting moves to Alola, a fictitious take on Hawaii where all the Pokémon sport strange new looks, or in the case of Dugtrio, absolutely astounding blonde mullets. Oh, and if you don't pick Rowlett as your starter, you're dead to us.
Release: Nintendo 3DS, November 22
Final Fantasy XV
More than a decade in the making, this is the game that could kill the JRPG (Japanese Roleplaying Game) off as a genre entirely, or resurrect it. Years of teaser trailers and demos have still shed surprisingly little light on the story (a prince with spiky hair goes on a road trip) or perhaps more importantly, the combat system, which seems to have done away with the turn-based elements of most Final Fantasy games before it in favour of pure melee action. What we are certain of: this game's Brobdingnagian proportions. Don't expect to be done by Christmas.
Release: PS4 and Xbox One, November 29
The Walking Dead: Season 3
The TV show may have devolved into nothing more than a weekly dose of manipulative torture porn, but we're still very much invested in Telltale's choose-your-own-adventure game. It's been a long wait since the end of Season 2, and the creators are keeping tight lipped about plans for what follows. We do know that Clementine will be returning, while original TWD author Robert Kirkman has hinted that its narrative will weave in more closely with that of the comics. So maybe some zombies will appear at some point? We can but hope.
Release: Every conceivable platform under the sun
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