Kingdom Come: Deliverance is a game where instead of playing some grand hero, you play as Henry of Skalitz - a dorky, ordinary guy during a civil war in 15th century Bohemia. I never finished the first game but with the next game releasing tomorrow, I'm tempted to jump back in and finish what I started. I fell off of it because the narrative, while interesting, could get very sluggish. That's not to say it's bad but the narrative takes its time to settle you into the world and characters which can be off-putting if you're not in the mood for it.

Otherwise, this game franchise is right up my alley and Kingdom Come: Deliverance II looks to be more of what I wanted out of the game - Bigger fights and higher stakes.

In Civilization 7, the campaign will be divided into antiquity, exploration, and modern ages instead of the ancient, renaissance, and modern eras from the previous title. During each of these, you'll get new civilizations you can choose from and the leaders you choose are not civilization-specific.

I'm really nervous about how these changes will pan out. One of my favorite aspects of civilization games is being that civilization. I like to take that one civilization through to the end for thematic reasons, and I'm worried this change will make each age feel disjointed and not connected at all.

I don't mind choosing a new leader, either. I've always thought it was a little silly having an immortal leader ruling until the end of time, but now that leaders and civilizations aren't tied together at all I'm worried it'll further erode the theme that I chose at the start of the campaign. I'm not too excited about playing Ghandi ruling over America, for instance.

Another issue I have with the series is that each new game leaves behind features from the previous title, and then requires players to pay for expansions later to add those same features from past games into this one. Each expansion costs $30-$40, so the price for full admission becomes quite steep a few years after release.

I'm still looking forward to the new ideas they're bringing into the game. While I'm nervous about the changes, I always appreciate it when developers are willing to take risks and change up the formula.

Avowed is a game I have been looking forward to ever since they released their first trailer at the Xbox Games showcase in July 2020 . It's not going to be the Skyrim-like open world that I initially expected, but the game still looks like it'll be big enough. Obsidian's CEO Feargus Urquhart said that the original pitch was for it to be a sprawling open world like Skyrim, but it shifted to a smaller scope and will be more comparable in size to KOTOR II or The Outer Worlds.

Avowed will take place in a setting they've already built in Pillars of Eternity - Eora. It'll be set on a remote island called the Living Lands, which hasn't yet caught the attention of Eora's colonial powers.

The gameplay looks fantastic, and I'm a total sucker for being a spellcaster with a magic book in my hand to cast from. That's something I'd love to see from more fantasy games - crazier magic and glowing spell books. I'm a tad worried it'll have a similar issue that Skyrim did for me, where the weapons just never feel weighty enough.

Obsidian's strength has always been storytelling, and I'm glad to see they're not too ambitious trying to chase the Skyrim comparisons and are clearly playing to their strengths.

RGG games always have a pretty large amount of goofiness to them, and this one seems to crank it up even more. You play as Goro Majima after he loses his memory and ends up on a Hawaiian island. From there, RGG seems to go all-out on the weirdness - you can get a small tiger companion, beat up pirate gangs, complete bounties, and play an assortment of mini-games that the Yakuza series is known for.

This series has been putting out a lot of bangers lately with Like a Dragon: Ishin!, and Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth. I love that RGG studio doesn't feel pigeonholed into doing one specific type of game and instead are doing absolutely anything they want. At this point, any setting seems appropriate for this franchise and it keeps each new entry feeling fresh and new even if a lot of the bones are similar to previous entries.

I'm a huge Monster Hunter fan and played some of the earliest games on the 3DS - which didn't even have a stick to control the camera. These days, the series is much more accessible, and they're continuing their tradition of releasing on consoles with two sticks!

There are some big changes coming with Monster Hunter Wilds, with the biggest being the Focus Mode. Focus Mode lets the player more accurately aim their attacks to target monsters weak points. While in focus mode, the monsters wounds will be highlighted, which makes it easier to break parts off for harvesting. You don't even need to carve the parts anymore after they're dropped, which is one of the biggest quality of life upgrades. It really dragged down the gameplay needing to carve them in the middle of a fight because the monster ran to the next area and you don't want to forget it.

Players will have a backup weapon that they keep on their mount so they can swap weapons while out on a hunt. It's a really cool idea and could be great when playing in a team setting and need specific buffs from a hunting horn, or just want to practice with a specific weapon but want a way to swap if things go south. I'm someone that really enjoys playing with all of the different weapons in Monster Hunter because each one feels so unique from the other. The ability to swap weapons in the middle of a hunt instead of waiting through multiple loading screens and running through the town to change my weapon will make it way easier to find my new favorite.

There are quite a few more quality of life changes coming: armor is no longer gender-locked, you can summon NPC's to fight with you if you're offline, and the map is now 3D to make it harder to get lost. The map change is a big one for me as well because I struggled to find my way around the map quite often in Monster Hunter World.