Most anticipated games of 2014

Part Two

The Crew

Ready to put your next-gen console through its paces to see what it can do? Why not takeThe Crew out for a spin. Designed from the ground up for the new hardware, this new open-world racing game is set in the United States—by that, we mean the entire country. (It'll take you 90 minutes to drive coast to coast.) A single-player campaign mode features missions that involve infiltrating criminal organizations, but The Crew also offers online multiplayer for racing against friends and strangers.

Dark Souls II

A sequel to the notoriously challenging 2011 action-RPG game Dark Souls, Dark Souls IIretains the previous game's controls and extreme difficulty level, but puts you in a world that's twice as large. (It's a completely different setting than the prior game.) Sure, the early going is reported to be "more accessible" to newcomers, but rest assured that the game was designed to be hard. Note that while the PC release has been delayed slightly, the PC version should be much stronger out of the gate than the previous game (which required modding to improve the graphics).

Halo 5

Halo 5 (if that's even you're real name) has been confirmed for a 2014 showing, but it's still unclear if the rather diminutive and humble numerical extension is the final indicator for the next installment of the series. We know next to nothing about the next game, but we do know that Master Chief was doing his best Tusken Raider during the Xbox One's reveal early last year.

Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor

Sweet baby Lucifer, this game is soooooo long overdue. We haven't had a decent single player Lord of the Rings (LOTR) title since the criminally underrated LOTR: Return of the KingRPG six years ago. Shadow of Mordor places you in control of a recently slain ranger that is revived and is granted wraith abilities to seek out his vengeance. Half-ranger, half-wraith all badass. The open world title takes place between The Hobbit and The Lord of The Rings and looks absoloutley stunning. Here's to hoping it doesn't get delayed.

South Park:The stick of the truth

You may remember this title from our 2013 game preview, but months of repeated delays (partially due to the bankruptcy of original publisher THQ) for this spin-off from the long-running Comedy Central TV series appear to be over. While there have been previous South Park-related games, The Stick of Truth is the first major release that aims to capture the outrageous R-rated fun of the TV show. The game is an RPG developed by Obsidian Entertainment (Dungeon Siege III, Fallout: New Vegas) with heavy involvement from series creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone (including the script and voice acting). Players control the newest kid in South Park, who will have to befriend Butters, Cartman, and the gang and fight villains such as the school's goth kids.