Dates For Your Diary: Games Releasing In March 2018

 
 
Below are some of my highlights of games releasing in March 2018 with some of my thoughts, impressions and why I’m looking forward to them.
 
 
Sea Of Thieves

Release Date: Tuesday 20 March 2018
Platforms: Xbox One & Windows 10 PC
Price: £49.99
 
Having played the alphas and betas extensively over the last year or so I am very much looking forward to Sea Of Thieves.  Rare have very much delivered on the authentic pirate adventure game they promised when the game was announced nearly 3 years ago at E3 2015.  It is their first game on Xbox One and the first since they stopped making games exclusively for Xbox’s Kinect motion sensing camera in several years.  Everything I’ve played in the alphas & betas points to this being a true return to the glory days of Rare and I have only seen a small part of what the full game has to offer according to the developer.  This game looks utterly incredible on an Xbox One X in 4K although it still looked and ran very nicely on my Xbox One S I had last year before upgrading so owners of that and the original Xbox One console won’t be left out and they have said it will be very scalable for mid to low end spec PCs and should run comfortably as low as 540p on lower end PCs as well.  I’m looking forward to hitting the Sea Of Thieves next week and diving into the full game.
 
A Way Out

Release Date:  Friday 23 March 2018
Platforms: PS4, Xbox One & PC
Price: £24.99
 
From many of the core development team that brought you indie game classic Brothers: A Tale Of Two Sons, comes A Way Out a brand new co-op game that must be played with two players either split-screen or online where you play as two men who escape from prison and follows their adventure as they run from the law.  When this was announced at last year’s E3 they had me at Brother’s; A Tale Of Two Sons as that game is a classic in my opinion that I would recommend to anyone and this looks like it could be another great game by this very talented team.
 
Far Cry 5

Release Date: Tuesday 27 March 2018
Platforms: PS4, Xbox One & PC
Price: £49.99
 
Far Cry 3 was, in my opinion, one of the greatest games of the last console generation.  The main villain Vaas was the real standout and up there in terms of provided a hated and fearful villain as Heath Ledger’s Joker in The Dark Knight.  He was excellently well written and voice acted and so were the rest of the cast.  The game itself was a fantastic open world first person shooter with excellent main story and great side content which was just the right amount and varied enough that it provided a good 20-30 hours of gameplay that never descended into repetition and tedium as so many of it’s peers in the genre including other Far Cry games.  It’s sequel for me was quite the disappointment, with a far weaker villain, a uninteresting story and over-use of the same type of activities seen in Far Cry 3.  Instead of being bigger, better, more as you would expect from a sequel, it was bigger, worse and too much of the same.  Far Cry: Primal, a spin off title that took the Far Cry gameplay back to the Stone Age with only primitive weapons like clubs and bows did a better job but still not up there with the high bar Far Cry 3 set for the series.
 
This sequel then is looking to change that and get the series back on track and it’s looking very promising.  Set in America in Montana, a town that I don’t believe has ever been featured in a video game and it’s more rural countryside type landscape is not used in games often either.  The main villain also looks like a contender to take Vaas’ crown as one of gaming’s meanest villains as he is the leader of a fanatical religious cult  who are taking people in Hope County against their will and brain washing them into following their sadistic ways or killing those who refuse to bend to their will.  In terms of gameplay the developers have promised tighter more focused and fun gameplay and mission variety.   You can play the entire game solo or with a friend in online co-op.  The game also features Far Cry Arcade which has more coop modes as well as competitive multiplayer where you can either team up or compete against other people on a variety of maps made by the developers or create your own as the level editor returns to the series allowing you to make your own maps to play on with dozens of options to customise them exactly how you want.  With characters and assets from the entire Far Cry series and some other Ubisoft games to choose from it’ll be exciting to see what players can come up with.
 
 

Martin McCurdie

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