When new consoles are introduced, it is par for the course to expect a year of growing pains. Developers are figuring out the new hardware and SDK’s.  Plus games released in the first year of a consoles life are often developed for years with incomplete specs. My point being, 2015 is the first year beyond that growth period and it looks to be a great year for games. This is a look at my most anticipated games for the year.

10. Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End

As a huge fan of the Uncharted series, you would expect this higher on my list, but the trailer has me excited and nervous. If Uncharted has one serious flaw, its that they got it right 2nd time out of the gate. Since Uncharted 2, the series has merely iterated on itself in small ways. Uncharted 4 is seemingly following this path. The animations and characters look more lifelike than ever, combat is silky smooth, and yet, you still appear to be traversing, combat, repeat. This trailer is small fraction of what is no doubt a huge game, I just hope it has a few more surprises in store.

9. Mirrors Edge

This may be just a dream of mine, but Mirrors Edge was announced last  year, and it could come out this year. It COULD, stop laughing. Mirrors Edge is a first person platforming game where you free run through a neon future. The first game suffered from combat, meaning, it had combat that was bad. This remake, will hopefully learn from that mistake and make shooting less of a requirement.

8. Rise of the Tomb Raider

It’s hard to call 2013’s Tomb Raider a clone of Uncharted, when Uncharted was merely the next step in what Tomb Raider was trying to do years earlier. Anyway, Tomb Raider took the gameplay of Uncharted and made the combat a little better, and thats all I ask. If the sequel can have a solid final act that doesn’t dissolve into madness, we could have game of the year contender.

7. Star Wars Battlefront

DICE is busy this year with Mirrors Edge, Battlefield Hardline, and now Star Wars Battlefront. With the track record set at 0 by Battlefield 4, its naive for me to put Battlefront on this list, but the thought of a good Battlefront game with X-Wing action has me too excited to care. If this game actually come out (and works) I will be a very happy jedi.

6. Bloodborne

First there was Demon’s Souls, then Dark Souls, and now Bloodborne. Hidetaka Miyazaki returns to direct another game in his series of “punishing games” to make us all frustrated followed by extreme satisfaction. It’s the fact that they are challenging which makes them so much better when you prevail.

5. Final Fantasy XV

Full me once, shame on you, full me 15 times, shame on me. I know, I know I shouldn’t be excited for another Final Fantasy game, but I am. Most people hated XIII, but I wasn’t one of them. I actually fell in love with the combat system and XV looks even better. They took the “13 is just a single corridor” comments to heart and have opened up XV with huge gorgeous vistas. As soon as I quit my job and cut off ties with the outside world, I look forward to completing this game.

4. Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain

Last years Ground Zero’s was a weird experiment. A small taste of the work they’ve done to improve the “gameplay” of Metal Gear Solid. It was a short sand box experience that proved Metal Gear can survive in the modern world of shooters. The Phantom pain looks like a glorious playground of nonsense and I can’t wait.

3. Halo 5: Guardians

I had honestly fallen pretty far from Halo fandom. I was pretty down on the series after the multiplayer of Halo 4 just missed the mark for me, but Halo 5’s beta has grabbed me hard. I log on to play several matches a day while I can, and I love it. You’re more mobile, and you go down quicker. It retains that halo feeling, while giving you a lot more options to play with. It’s a fresh invigorating take on the franchise and I can’t wait to play the single player.

2. The Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt

After the amazingness of Dragon Age Inquisition, I can only hope The Witcher 3 can live up to that. The Witcher 2 was amazing and everything shown from the sequel looks to follow suit. A deep huge RPG with tons of potential.

1. Zelda Wii U

My most anticipated game for 2015 is a Wii U game. Did you see what Nintendo did in 2014? They killed it. Now, I think they will kill it with Zelda. Everything they’ve shown not only looks fantastic, but they appear to be taking steps to address age old problems with the series. Open world and massive. Nintendo is trying again, and when they work hard, magic happens.