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Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 is due to be released later this year, in October. It is already available to pre-order, coming with private beta and bonus digital items.

So what can we expect from the newest addition to the Call of Duty family? Unsurprisingly, it is a shooter game, played in the first person. It follows on the Black Ops 3 and much of the story is the same. Zombies will again feature prominently and will be taken to a new level, featuring distinct storylines for zombies. There will also be a Blackout, a battle royale game mode which replaces campaign mode. There will be different vehicles that players can use during this mode.

The game is going to be released for Windows, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One towards the beginning of October. There will be different special editions available, Digital Deluxe and Digital Deluxe Enhanced, which comes with a special zombie map.

If you ask any virtual reality fan what their biggest problem is with the current technology on the market, chances are the cord is going to come pretty high up their list. It is a trip hazard, it limits the space where you can go whilst wearing the headset, and it kind of takes away from that whole virtual reality experience. Very soon, HTC Vive could have a cordless version to explore. The developers behind the original console have partnered to develop it and a prototype is expected later this year.

This sounds great – doesn’t it? There will still be some drawbacks for some people. The headset will use a wireless transmitter, so it’s going to need a very high-quality computer system and a very fast WiFi network. The headset is also quite heavy – although the transmitter is actually lighter than other components that could have been chosen for the device. However, it is clearly a step in the right direction.

The games market has been shown to be growing still, according to reports from Trade body UK Interactive Entertainment. It reached a record high of £5 billion, which is 12.4% growth since 2016. 

Whilst this doesn’t come as a surprise as such, seeing as the industry has always been so strong, it is reassuring news. Inflation is high, the amount of disposable income people have is lower, and many people in the UK are feeling the squeeze financially. It is thought that this rise in sales is largely due to the versatility of the market and the expansion of the audience – gaming is no longer associated with particular people and limited genres, there is something for everybody. Game software proved more popular than non-digital boxed games, though the sales of these also grew in numbers.

Some of the most popular titles in 2017 were Horizon Zero Dawn, Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Wildlands and Destiny 2.

Red Dead Redemption 2 is the sequel to wild west game Red Dead Redemption, by Rockstar. It is going to be out in spring 2018 but up until now, the exact release date remains unknown. However, some details are gradually beginning to filter through and there is also a trailer. Whilst it doesn’t confirm a whole lot, it does show that it will stick with the wild west theme and it looks likely that it will be set in an open world.

We also know that the game is going to feature a new protagonist, someone called Arthur Morgan, in place of John Marston. He is part of the Van der Linde gang and he is an outlaw fighting his way through the game.

The game was announced back in October 2016 but there is no definite release date as of yet. It was thought it may be released for PS4 and Xbox One this year, but that is not going to happen.

There is still some of 2017 left – but really not a lot. As we near the end of the year and get into the festive spirit, we have been thinking back on some of the best games that have kept us captivated throughout 2017. Here are some favourites:

• Resident Evil 7: Biohazard. This goes back to the early days of the Resident Evil franchise, in a terrifying game where your character is being stalked in an old mansion. It has a very different feel to the shooter Resident Evil games that have come before it.
• Yakuza 0. An 80s based game that follows the story of Kazuma Kiryu further. It explores Tokyo and some lesser-known parts of the city – the underbelly, some might say. It is full of comedy and quirks that will keep you interested.
• Mario Kart 8. This was re-released for the Nintendo Switch after Wii U racer. It’s one of the most immersive Mario games for a while.

The Super Nintendo Classic Mini console was released at the end of last month and has been flying off the shelves. This is great for Nintendo in many ways – it can certainly be called the success they had hoped for. However, reports suggest that Nintendo may actually be struggling to keep up with demand. The brand’s president has been quoted as saying he wished they had more hardware and it has been suggested that Nintendo are upping the production of the console, as they just don’t have enough units.

This could actually end up being bad for Nintendo’s reputation, as it is angering a lot of fans. As games like Super Mario Odyssey are released, the situation is only going to get worse. So how do you get hold of a console? Well, lots of shops are still getting hold of new stock, just slowly. Keep checking back on all the major sites and eventually, you should get lucky.

Super Mario Odyssey is due to be released on the 27th October. It will only be available on the Nintendo Switch console – unlike other titles, such as Zelda: Breath of the Wild, it is not going to be available on the Wii U as well. The release comes 7 years after the Mario series’ first title for the Wii consoles, and it is the first open world game since Super Mario Sunshine, which was released on the Nintendo GameCube.

The main difference with this game is that it will feature 3D open worlds, in much the same way as Super Mario 64 from 1996. There are also a number of new gameplay features, including:

• Mario’s hat. It has eyes and will be his sidekick in missions.
• There will be quests within the worlds. One involves a skipping rope and another uses remote control cars.
• Players can buy new outfits using currency earned during the game.

There has been lots of speculation over when the PS5 will finally be released. Some people are saying that it would be as soon as early 2018, whilst others say it won’t be released any sooner than the end of next year.

One of the biggest puzzles is the lack of correspondence from Sony themselves. They are keeping quiet about the console and have not been acknowledging any of the rumours. They’re not giving anything away this time.

Lots of people think the PlayStation’s newest model will not be launched until 2019 or possibly even 2020, with experts claiming Sony may be waiting for technology to move on first. There will be more 4K televisions on the market by then, which could make for a more timely release.

The Xbox One X will be released in November this year, so the competition for Sony is hotting up. Many are eagerly awaiting what they will come up with for the PlayStation 5.

There will be a new title added to the Harvest Moon series coming in the near future. It is going to have the name Harvest Moon: Light of Hope and has been developed by Rising Star and Natsume. The game will be available for Nintendo Switch, PS4 and, for the first time ever, for PC as well.

Whilst it is a new game, not a lot has changed with the graphics and with the style of it. It is still much the same as the originals, which were for Super Nintendo. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing – it has a sense of nostalgia that many critics are enjoying. Characters look endearingly retro – players are cast as a sailor who is assisting with the rebuilding of the town where he is shipwrecked, following a devastating storm. The storyline has been well developed and has more to it than in previous Harvest Moon games, something that is being praised.

Remastered and packed with DLC material, Assassin’s Creed: The Ezio Trilogy includes all three of Ezio Auditore da Firenze’s legendary adventures: Assassin’s Creed II (with all of its downloadable content,) Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood, and Assassin’s Creed Revelations. In addition to featuring the three games and their expansions with enhanced graphics, the collection also comes with Assassin’s Creed Embers and the three-part Assassin’s Creed Lineage, short films that dig into Ezio’s backstory and add an action-packed epilogue to the trilogy.

In Assassin’s Creed II, meet Ezio — the dashing hero of the Italian Renaissance — as he embarks on a quest to avenge his fallen family members and uncover a despicable plot that threatens to plunge all of Italy into chaos! Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood picks up immediately following the events of AC2, and follows Ezio as he delves deep into the heart of corruption in Rome, and rises to a position of prominence and leadership in the Brotherhood. In Assassin’s Creed Revelations, Ezio has become an older, wiser leader of the Assassins … his path will lead him to exotic Constantinople in search of truth, but will he find it within the ancient homelands of the Assassins?