The holiday season has arrived! Black Friday sales have already begun for many retailers and online stores and now is the time to find the perfect gift for the gamer in your life. While a brand-new console is always the dream gift for any video game fanatic, no new consoles were released this year. Also, the scarcity of consoles that seemed to plague last year’s holiday shopping seems to be resolved. Your favorite gamer probably has the newest available console of their choice. That makes one of the best gifts a blockbuster new game! This seemed to be the year of sequels and there are many that top gamers’ most wanted lists.
God of War Ragnarök has turned out to be one of the most stunning sequels to be released this year. The latest installment of the God of War series, it continues the storyline of 2018’s God of War game in which Kratos began his adventures with his son Atreus following the death of his second wife. There is a brief story recap but the action-adventure game’s story is best appreciated if you have followed the series since the beginning when Kratos was a Spartan Warrior seeking his revenge against the gods for the death of his first family.
In the newest game, Kratos and his son are forced to leave the frozen land of Midgard to travel the nine realms. Fimbulwinterhas come and Ragnarök is quickly approaching. The game has beautiful visuals, highlighted by the travel through the different realms. It features familiar gameplay, with the return of Kratos’ double chain blades and axe, but has enough improvements to gameplay to make it a unique experience. The game uses both combo-based battle and satisfying puzzles to move the plot forward. Unfortunately, the one drawback of the newest God of War is that it is exclusive to PlayStation. Thankfully, it is cross gen and available for PS4 and PS5 consoles with an original price of $69.99.
For a more universally available sequel, A Plague Tale: Requiem is a stunning option. This third person action-adventure game combines several genres including survival, horror, and stealth. It has many improvements over its predecessor includingnoticeable visual improvements. There is a progression of awards that includes additional skills and abilities that can be unlocked and upgrades for gear and equipment.
The story follows Amicia and her brother Hugo as they search for a cure for Hugo’s mysterious blood disease. During their adventures they must survive not only the soldiers of the French Inquisition but also hordes of plague-ridden rats. Only recently released on October 18th, A Plague Tale: Requiem is available on PC, Switch, Xbox series X/S, and PlayStation 5 for $59.99.
For the fun-at-heart gamer that takes the past-time less seriously, Nintendo release their sequel Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope for Switch. The game play is very similar to the original game with the addition of Sparks which can be equipped to characters to give them special abilities to help defeat the enemies they will face. There are nine playable characters this time around with Mario, Luigi, Princess Peach, and Bowser being joined by their Rabbid friends Mario, Luigi, Peach, Rosaline, and Edge. With plenty of players to build your dream team from, it is nice that the game has loosened the team requirements and teams are no longer forced to include Mario and at least one Rabbid team member. The updated action-adventure game features turn-based gameplay and is the perfect choice for Switch players of all ages. Its original price was $59.99 but many retailers have it discounted for the holidays.
The final game sequel that has made it to many players’ wishlists is Rogue Legacy 2. The original Rogue Legacy reinvented the roguelike game and spawned the subgenre of rogue-lite. Unlike standard dungeon crawl games, in Rogue Legacy 2 (and the original) you are able to keep your loot after death and purchase permanent upgrades. The biggest advances to the game are in its look, mechanics, and reimagined modern-day premise. The basics, however, remain the same. You are spawned as a character with a random name, class, and quirky trait that explores and randomly generated world. You can either battle fast and hard or take it slow and steady to build up your character over time. Rogue Legacy 2 was surprising in its popularity and may have even escaped the radar of your game fan. It is available on PC, Switch, Xbox One, and Series X/S for a reasonable $24.99.
The final installment on this list must be the gamer gift that keeps on giving: Xbox Game Pass Ultimate. Frequently called the “Netflix for games,” Game Pass Ultimate has an amazing list of benefits for both PC and console subscribers. New third-party games are added and updated frequently creating a library of hundred of games that are available to users. Amazingly, first party games, like Halo Infinite, are available on Game Pass Ultimate on the day they are released. It is an all-encompassingmembership and the $14.99 monthly price includes membership in Xbox Live Gold and EA Play, as well as access to Xbox cloud gaming. Cloud gaming is now available for Android and iOS as well, allowing players that would never dream of buying a console to access its games and benefits. Availability is also expanding with the recent announcement that it will soon be available for Meta’s Quest 2 and Quest Pro VR systems. Even more exciting, the Xbox Streaming Stick will allow cloud gaming from any television, no console required. While there is no release date for the Streaming Stick, new Samsung tv’s are being released with the Xbox Streaming app which provides access to cloud gaming. If the price seems steep, compare it to new release games that are typically between $59.99 and $69.99. The volume of titles that Game Pass Ultimate provides makes the price seem quite reasonable in comparison.
In the year of sequels there is nothing old about the enjoyment game fans will have with these titles. For a year with no new consoles releasing, there is still much to look forward to finding under the tree.