In the line-up for 2015 we found some reboots, some space-dinosaurs and some chicken hats – it’s going to be a great year.

Battlefield Hardline (PC, PS3, PS4, X360, Xbox One) 

In this generation, balls will still be kicked in FIFA, chests will be opened in Dragon Age, and ovens will catch fire in The Sims. In the realm of shooting people in the face, though, war has supposedly changed.

As Call of Duty tries to win over audiences with near-future Kevin Spacey exo-suit antics, Battlefield has reinvented itself as Need for Speed with guns. Hardline will depart from the dreariness of driving tanks and shooting men in war-torn cities, in favour of police cars and crime-ridden cities.

It’s not all a glorified reskin though. A multiplayer public beta released last year resulted in tangible improvements on user feedback. The game’s release was delayed and explosive weapons toned down to better fit the civilian theme.

The game is also to ship with a fully-fledged single player campaign, styled like a crime thriller TV show, and should be in safe hands, being developed by Visceral Games, the studio behind the Dead Space franchise.

Battlefield 4, dubbed by many ‘Betafield 4’, was broken. It might be worth waiting after pre-orders to see if new developers and a fresh setting will give the series a much needed revive. – Oliver Brett

Release Date: March 19 [divider]

Hotline Miami was a game that rebirthed the top-down action game. Drawing heavily on the 80s soundtrack and stylised violence of the film Drive, the game proved to be much more than merely a beat-em-up with a copied art style; instead it produced a powerful soundtrack by various artists (including M.O.O.N.), an intensely challenging difficulty and an affecting story.

The new addition in the series, entitled Wrong Number, follows events re- lated to the aftermath and prelude to the first game. 13 new characters will be introduced, many of them playable – each with their own special abilities and weapons. A level editor (squeals) and an additional ‘hard mode’ unlock after finishing the initial story, both of which will add to replayability; always a plus in short games. The brutal cartoonish violence that made the first game so visceral will also be making a repeat entry, with a larger array of weapons and objects with which to perpetrate it.

Reportedly, the sequel will “flesh out the universe”, deviating significantly from the prequel whilst maintaining the much-loved tone and style. Its page on Steam is available to browse (soon to pre-order from), so keep an eye out! – Max Elgar

Release Date: Q1 2015 [divider]

As Harvey Dent said in The Dark Knight: “You either die a hero or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain.” Thankfully, this doesn’t seem to be the case for the Batman Arkham series – unlike other popular franchises which recently became glitchy messes (*cough* Assassin’s Creed).

In this final instalment, we follow Batman as he faces off against the usual suspects: the Scarecrow, Two-Face, The Riddler, Harley Quinn and more, who have united to take over Gotham City. New features include additional gadgets, an improved combat system and most excitingly, the Batmobile as a driveable vehicle – something fans of the series have been waiting for since Arkham Asylum’s release in 2009. The opportunity to speed through Gotham City in the Batmobile is one that will come in handy, as the game’s map promises to be five times the size of Arkham City’s prison city.

Despite its release being delayed, Tom Clancy’s The Division seems the kind of game that deserves a longer stint in the development oven if it means the final product won’t come out half-baked and potentially poisonous, so I’ve let it slide. With impressive weather effects and polished environments that change in an incredibly realistic way when players blow them up, New York has never looked this good. And that’s saying something, considering the city’s pedigree as a post-apocalyptic chaos zone.

The Division’s creators say it blends the shooting elements of Clancy titles with skill progression and a seamless open-world to create a game that’s definitively RPG. It’s a sentiment that might just pull disillusioned Destiny players out of their funk, especially as the game’s fleshed out combat scenarios seem a much more enticing home for co-op gunplay than the washed-out worlds of Bungie’s love-it or hate-it title.

By now, dystopian future premises are nearly as common as main characters who can breathe, and it’s likely The Division’s story won’t win many prizes for originality. However, it’s an end-of-world context that could well open up a whole section of tactical gameplay possibilities. – Joe Baker

Release Date: TBA 2015 [divider]