Thoughts on Upcoming Games

Posted on August 31, 2026 by Tyler F.M. Edwards

Between the Gamescom announcements, other recent teases, and some upcoming releases, there’s an unusually large number of games on the horizon I’m keeping an eye on. I thought I’d do a rundown on everything I’m looking forward to, or at least willing to hear more about. Maybe some will be future favourites. Maybe some I’ll never mention again. Place your bets now!

Aion 2

Obviously this is the big one right now. I was pretty excited when it was first announced and have gone back and forth over how hyped I am since then. Right now I’m expecting it will probably be like Lost Ark: Not something I end up sticking with longterm, but something that will give me a hundred hours or so of good entertainment all the same. I hope for more than that, but I don’t expect it. It’s always good to have managed expectations.

Right now my major concerns are that the endgame seems extremely sweaty, the community seems quite toxic (both problems Lost Ark had as well), and the class design seems a bit uninspired, with little room for meaningful customization. I’m hoping we get the Brawler class with the Western launch; it seems a bit more mechanically engaging than the others from what I can see. Then again, I do like the DPS/healer hybrid role of the Chanter as well.

One thing’s for sure: I’m maining Asmodian. Azphelumbra!

Exodus

Probably the game I’m most looking forward to right now, though a bit farther off than Aion 2. It’s been a long wait for this Mass Effect spiritual successor, but we now know it’s coming April of next year. Some of the early previews looked a bit janky, but the recent Gamescom trailer focused on the intelligent octopus known as Salt was very good.

Again, I try to manage expectations. I’m not expecting a perfect game — the Mass Effect games never were either — but I am hungry for a BioWare style narrative-focused RPG right now, and the world-building looks incredibly fresh.

Warlock

Another thing we got a peak at during Gamescom. This D&D based action RPG looks a little campy, and the trailer seemed very over-produced to the point I question how representative of actual gameplay it is, but the general concept of combining magic and physical skills is appealing, I’m always up for more of Tricia Helfer in anything, and the fact it’s set in Ravenloft is a big plus (even if they picked what I’d consider to be one of the least interesting Domains of Dread — at least it’s not Barovia again).

Path of Exile 2

Having finished the original and declared it to be one of the games of all time, I’m a little lukewarm on PoE2. I’ve been waiting for it to launch and go free to play to give it a shot, but now the time for that is only a couple months away.

I’ve heard it’s going for a slower, more deliberate approach to combat with more actual rotations as opposed to spamming a single nuke, which is very appealing to me, but I’ve also heard it’s been trending away from that and more towards PoE1 combat, which is not. I like the changes to skill gems not being tied to gear, but the passive wheel still seems an exercise in quantity over quality.

I was looking at potential builds the other night, and I was thinking of going either druid or huntress with a mix of shapeshifting, companion, and necromancy skills (going for the “cycle of life and death” vibes), only to discover that the skill nodes for those three things are all in completely different parts of the wheel and thus difficult if not impossible to combine. That was pretty demoralizing. Again, PoE seems to be the champion for the illusion of choice rather than genuine choice.

It’s also a bit of a bad look that PoE2 seems unlikely to launch with all of its promised classes. Makes it hard to want to jump on board when I don’t even have the full roster to choose from.

Wolcen 2

Now here’s something unexpected. After the disastrous collapse of Wolcen: Lords of Mayhem, I didn’t really expect its developer to have much of a future at all, let alone produce a sequel.

I have conflicted feelings. Wolcen was in many ways the best ARPG I’ve ever played. Its combat and build system were second to none (here’s the real depth of choice PoE only pretends to). Now whenever I play similar games there’s this nagging voice in the back of my mind saying, “Why doesn’t this feel as good as Wolcen?” But its post launch support was one of the most mismanaged disasters I’ve ever seen.

If they can produce a game that’s as good as Wolcen but actually has a finished storyline in a reasonable timeframe and doesn’t light itself on fire after launch, that’s a game I’d love to play.

If.

Road 96… 2?

The folks at Digixart recently released a brief teaser for what appears to be Road 96 2. Again, not really sure how to feel here. Road 96 was one of my favourite games of the decade, but it didn’t really demand a sequel. Its prequel, Mile 0, already felt a tad unnecessary.

I’m not even sure how you do a sequel to Road 96. The endings are different enough it seems like they’d have to pick one to be the canon ending, which is likely to piss a bunch of people off.

I’d love to revisit Petria in a way that captures the magic of the original, but I just don’t know how likely that is.

Fable

I did play the original Fable a long time ago, and I remember mostly liking it, but it was never a franchise I had much attachment to. Still, the reboot looks very pretty, and a classless RPG with lots of choices to make is always an appealing prospect.

Can’t see myself buying it at full price, though.

Blood of the Dawnwalker

I’m not a big vampire fan, but this looks like it has the potential to be a good “choices matter” RPG. Another one I’m definitely not going to pay full price for, though.

Cinder City

After how The First Descendant turned out, it’s hard to have much optimism for another Korean looter shooter, but the Gamescom trailer did make it seem intriguing. Will keep an eye on it.

1001 Threads of Mizan

The Gamescom trailer for this really impressed me, but the more I read about it, the more I got the vibe it may not be for me. The massive boss battles seems like it will be echoing the Soulslike formula I dislike, and while they say it’s possible to play solo, it sounds like it will be inadvisable to do so.

Still, maybe one day. The magitech Arabic mythology flavour is super cool.

Tarae: The Unbound

Not much information about this so far, but a Diablo-like ARPG based on Eastern mythology seems like an appealing prospect in theory. Worth keeping an eye on.

Marvel’s Wolverine

I just want to say I was really looking forward to this, and I resent Sony for not doing a PC port. Bold strategy, Cotton, we’ll see if it pays off for them.

Silver Palace

This was a trailer that caught my eye during the Gamescom reveals. I’m not big on anime-style stuff as a rule, but the Victorian noir vibe was intriguing, and some of the fight moves looked very cool (though I’m not sure if that’s representative of gameplay or just trailer fakery).

Is it just me, or does a lot of the promotional material for this game feel very sapphic coded?

I’m not really sure what it is, though? It looks like a Genshin style gacha game. The official website is frustratingly unclear, but this site seems to confirm it’s a free to play gacha title. I’ve avoided gacha games until now. Partly because they don’t seem super appealing (bhagpuss’ gushing over Neverness to Everness notwithstanding), but mainly because they all seem to be Chinese, and I’m trying to avoid supporting Chinese games on ethical grounds. Silver Palace’s developer, though, is Singaporean, which I have no objection to.

Miracle

I don’t have anything new to say about this. I just wanted to mention it again because it’s so exciting.

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Guild Wars 3

This one’s still aways off, and I’ll be surprised if it doesn’t get delayed. Not really sure how I feel about it. Guild Wars 2 is a great game in many ways, but it’s just never been able to hold my attention for that long, and one of the biggest factors in that — its poor story writing — is one of the things least likely to change in a sequel.

Overall it’s too early to form any strong opinions. I am hyped for playable Kodan, though. Bearfolk is an underrated archetype. Bears are cool.

Vindictus: Defying Fate

I don’t have anything to say about this I haven’t already said over on Massively, but no list of upcoming games I’m looking forward to would be complete without it. I really like what I’ve played so far, despite being pretty bad at it, and I hope we get a release date soon.

Life Is Strange: Reunion

This is actually already out, but I’m waiting for a discount. I never played Double Exposure and was kind of writing off the franchise for dead until they said they were bringing back Chloe.

Here’s the thing: This is shameless, cynical fan service. But it’s shameless, cynical fan service aimed directly at me and my interests.

It’s a kick in the teeth they didn’t get Ashly Burch back to play her, though. Her performance was absolutely iconic.

And more

I’ve already written about my thoughts on the next round of Age of Empires DLC. I’m eager for AoE4’s Raiders of the North to finally arrive so I can delve into the Crucible. I’m a bit concerned about its replay factor if it’s going to continue to be just wave defence scenarios, but AoE4’s bones are so good hopefully that won’t be an issue. AoE2’s Viking Sagas is, as I’ve said, something I want to play but probably not at full price.

There’s also Godsworn. Still no date for it to finally leave early access, but I believe they’re targeting early next year. I can’t be mad at the developers — there’s only two of them working on the game full-time — but I am impatient to finally sit down and play through the completed campaign.

Then there’s BlizzCon. We don’t know what will be announced for sure, but all signs point to a StarCraft shooter. My money is on “Destiny 2 with a StarCraft skin,” with smaller odds on “Warframe with a StarCraft skin” or “Helldivers 2 with a StarCraft skin.”

As I’ve written elsewhere, I think a StarCraft shooter could be good, but probably won’t be, so I’m not super enthusiastic. StarCraft II was such a near-perfect game I kind of wish they’d just let the franchise lie. There’s nowhere to go but down.

RPGs Versus Progression Games

Posted on September 12, 2017 by Tyler F.M. Edwards

Has it ever occurred to anyone that the video games we refer to as role-playing games, or RPGs, are spectacularly mislabeled?

Let’s look at what that term actually means. “Role-playing” refers to assuming an identity or personality other than your own. To pretend to be someone else, usually to act out a scenario or tell a story.

While most RPGs incorporate at least some element of this, it’s very rarely the focus. It isn’t what defines the genre. In video game terms, RPG elements are considered to be things like character levels, stat sheets, experience points, and unlockable abilities. All of these things have little or nothing to do with role-playing.

I understand that the ingrained terminology of the genre is not going to change just because a chubby blogger in Toronto says so, but I would like to outline why I believe that most if not all video games we call RPGs are mislabeled, and how this goes a long way to explaining my love-hate relationship with the genre.

Stop, drop, and role:

I know quoting Wikipedia is in the same realm of tackiness as bringing 7 Up as a wedding gift, but while looking for definitions of role-playing, I found this one pretty apt: “A role-playing game is a game in which the participants assume the roles of characters and collaboratively create stories.” [Source]

I would argue that video games eliminate the need for other players in the creation of your role-play story, as scripted NPCs can fulfill the same need. That doesn’t mean you can’t or shouldn’t role-play with other people, of course; it just means they aren’t a necessity.

Either way, role-play is about assuming a role and telling a story.

Now what does that have to do with level grinds and character stats? Nothing whatsoever.

In the early days of tabletop role-playing, things like character sheets and stat rolls and such were necessary to give the experience some degree of order and consistent logic. Video games, on the other hand, have the ability to keep all that under the hood and provide the player a seamless, immersive experience.

But because the genre’s origins were rooted in numbers and stats, gamers and developers have come to conflate the two. The character sheets and dice rolls continued into the digital space, and now they’ve taken over the genre entirely to the point where they’ve shoved out the actual role-playing.

Consider MMOs. Traditionally developers have had to designate special servers (usually a minority of the total server pool) for role-playing, and increasingly they’re not even bothering to do that.

Those who do role-play in MMOs are often viewed by other players as strange or even deviant, and openly mocked. They are a minority, and like all minorities in gaming, held in very low regard.

Does this not seem incredibly bizarre to anyone else? If we’re to believe the name of the genre, role-players are the only ones who are actually playing the games correctly, and I say that as someone who is at best only on the barest periphery of role-play.

I think this proves the games we call RPGs aren’t about role-playing at all. Most of them incorporate RPG elements, but that doesn’t make them true RPGs.

To give you an idea, I think Life Is Strange is much more of an RPG than World of Warcraft. It’s all about playing a character and making choices as that character to shape the story. I’m not sure it’s a perfect example of what an RPG could or should be, but it’s certainly much closer than most of the games we call RPGs.

So what should we call them?

I name your true name:

I would argue that the genre we have come to call RPGs should instead be known as progression games.

The core concept that unifies the genre is that of progression, of growing more powerful and improving your character’s performance. You level up, unlock new abilities, get better gear, and so forth. This is true regardless of whether you’re playing Mass Effect, Pillars of Eternity, Diablo, Aion, Persona, or whatever other example you want to give.

Progression is the mechanic that purists of the genre cling to. I’ve often heard complaints that level-scaling such as was introduced to the Elder Scrolls Online with One Tamriel is bad because it makes games less of an RPG. That’s an absolutely ridiculous argument; level-scaling makes a game more of an RPG by eliminating ridiculous scenarios like slaying a dragon with a single punch.

But level-scaling does make it less of a progression game. We have conflated RPGs and progression mechanics to the point where people are unable to separate them, but in truth it’s little more than an accident of history that the two are related at all.

Pretty much the only area where the two concepts meet is when constructing a character build. Your choices of which stats to stack and which abilities to unlock help express the identity of your character, and that is an element of role-playing as well as a means of progression.

For example, in World of Warcraft, my warlock actually hates demons. As a result, I choose the talent Grimoire of Sacrifice whenever possible, allowing her to sacrifice her demon minion to increase her own power. This enhances the fantasy of the character. To her, demons are simply a resource to fuel her own quest for vengeance, and Grimoire of Sacrifice lets me express this concept through the gameplay.

But even then performance concerns in progression games can often cause you to make compromises in your character concept in order to ensure your character is strong enough to overcome the challenges before you. This is especially a problem in MMOs, where there’s an element of social pressure to conform.

Stalled by progression:

Understanding the difference between role-playing and progression games goes a long way to explaining the love/hate relationship that I have with the genre we tend to call RPGs. You see, I’m a big fan of role-playing games, but much less fond of progression games.

Certainly progression provides a very strong psychological hook, which is why nearly every game of every genre now has at least some small element of it. We are as a species keyed to appreciate reward structures like this.

But that doesn’t necessarily make it interesting gameplay, and the more time you spend with it, the more transparent it becomes. After so many years of playing progression games — especially MMOs, where the treadmill is at its most naked and cynical — I have almost entirely stopped caring. I’ve gotten so much phat lewt and heard so many level dings that it’s stopped meaning anything to me at all.

I still like making builds, and earning new abilities is the one part of progression that still consistently excites me, hence my two Panoptic Cores in TSW (RIP). But for the most part I’m reaching the point where I just want to establish a good build as quickly as possible and then focus on actually playing the game.

Progression inhibits role-play at least as much as it enhances it. It’s a distraction at best, a roadblock at worst. Hence my eternal frustration with a genre I otherwise love. What I want is to inhabit a character, to immerse myself in a world. Most of what we call RPGs offer this, but not always to the extent I crave. Too much focus is put on the numbers, not enough on the texture and character of the world and its story.

I think this is what keeps me coming back to Bioware, despite their inconsistencies. They’re progression games, but they haven’t forgotten their RPG roots. They’re still, at their heart, about people, places, and stories.

And that’s what attracts me: Exploring new lands, getting to know characters, and living out stories. Those are the experiences I crave. That’s what role-playing games are truly about.

Superior Realities

Tag Archives: Life Is Strange

Thoughts on Upcoming Games

RPGs Versus Progression Games

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