It's a new year and it's bound to be more exciting than last year. Why? Because all the games we wanted last year got pushed to this year, and it's not like that happens every year... or does it? Despite a number of solid games, 2014 didn't quite live up to the indie movement of recent years and was something of a mess on the AAA end of things. There was a lot of disappointment for big new IPs like Watch_Dogs and little innovation from the sequels out there like Far Cry 4. But before I turn this into and Ubisoft is bad rant let's talk about the year ahead.

2015 is gonna be a year. Games are gonna come out. Some games we think are going to come out won't come out. It's gonna be great. I'm excited and you should be too for some of these games that might come out in 2015.

The Will it Come Out Award:

The Witness

Jonathan Blow released Braid in 2008. He announced his follow-up in 2009. I've been expecting The Witness to be released every year for 5 years now. Is this year the year for the surely mind-bending puzzler? I don't know. I do know that I loved Braid, so even if Blow makes me wait another year to see Soulja Boy's mind explode, I will.

Runners Up: Broken Age Part 2, Routine

The Will it Come Out Fo Real Award:

DayZ

I have no interest in DayZ, but it seems like that standalone thing was announced and released on early access ages ago. It seems like ages ago that DayZ was even a thing people were into. Maybe I've lost touch, but DayZ still isn't out fo real yet, and something is telling me it won't be by the end of the year, Bohemia is.

Runners Up: Prison Architect, Kerbal Space Program

Game that is most likely Frog Fractions 2:

You think I know? Because I don't.

The Oversaturation Award:

Survival Games

I like Don't Starve and games like it, but when I looked at a list of games coming out this year I saw a stupid number of survival games. It hasn't been that long since the survival genre really came into its own, and I suppose it was only a matter of time before the market capitalized. A few examples can already be seen on Steam's Early Access, The Long Dark, The Forest, Rust, Project Zomboid and others like The Flame in the Flood continue to pop up and look promising, but how many more comers can the genre really sustain before the whole thing becomes a bit stale. Survival elements even seem to be making there way into other games.

Runners Up: Space Sims, Open World Ubisoft Games... Oh wait...

The New Trend:

Big Publishers Believing in Singleplayer Games

The booming trends of recent years have been Indie games, zombies, Rogue-likes, Early Access games, Local multiplayer's resurgence, the aforementioned survival genre. Even space sims seem to be making a comeback. This year the big trend will be big publishers trusting in Singleplayer experiences again. It happens every now and again with certain developers such as Irrational with Bioshock, Rockstar with Grand Theft Auto and Bethesda with Elder Scrolls, but I think last year's Wolfenstein: The New Order caught a lot of people off guard and showed a real demand for the singleplayer game. Will a lot of these games come out this year? Probably not, but I'm hopeful a bunch will be announced. Look, I'm trying to be optimistic here okay.

Runners Up: Game Demos with Announcements a la P.T., E-sports focus on more games

Coolest Art to Preview:

Apotheon

It's the Greek art style and the Greek art style alone that makes me want to play Apotheon. I'm not sold on the rest of the package, but I seriously like looking at it. Seriously, look at it.

Runners Up: Return of the Obra Dinn, Jotun

Franchise Nintendo Will Most Likely Continue to Forget Exists:

F-Zero

Miyamoto said he was unsure where F-Zero could go after GX. F-Zero GX is one of the most thrilling racers out there and we're going on 12 years since it came out, so it came out before online console gaming was even a thing. That'd be a start Nintendo. Give me some online F-Zero so I can fly off the track and lose immediately with witnesses.

Runners Up: Eternal Darkness, Wave Race

Which Series Microsoft Will Most Likely Bring Back to Please Gamers:

Freelancer

Space sims are back. Games like Elite: Dangerous and Star Citizen are at the forefront of this recent movement, and it'd only seem natural for a business such as Microsoft to capitalize in some way. Freelancer wasn't the most loved game of its day, but as one of the last Space Sims of its day it garnered quite a cult following. Star Citizen is likely where that cult will end up, as its director, Chris Roberts, also played a role in the development of Freelancer, and a lot of the same ideas are being carried over. I doubt that would dissuade Microsoft from capitalizing on an opportunity to bring back a game from a long dead genre that seems to be on its way to a new golden age.

Runners Up: Crimson Skies, R.C. Pro Am

How Sony will copy Nintendo or Microsoft this year:

I'll leave this one for you to speculate. Sony does a lot of following in the other two of the Big 3's footsteps. They started to embrace indie developers like after a few stories about Microsoft's embrace was revealed to be rough on some of the indie devs. Sony made the Playstation Move to get in on some of that Wii money. The Vita is being integrated to their consoles the way the Wii U controller integrates with its console. They started charging people to play multiplayer like Microsoft. They also introduced voice commands to the PS4 in some sort of attempt to emulate the Kinect voice commands. Sony has even hosted their own Playstation events a la Nintendo Direct. Sony seems to be having a lot more success than either company at retaining the core gamer and it seems to have been accomplished by being a bunch of copycats. Will it be a Sony Kinect? Will they announce a Playstation All-Stars Kart or a Playstation All-Stars Tennis? It could be any of these things or maybe it'll be the year Sony gets copied by Microsoft since they may be a bit more desperate. Time may tell.

Most Surprising Not Surprise:

Bethesda Game Announcement

In 2011 Skyrim was released. It's been a few years since then. Most of us probably would have thought Fallout 4 would've been out by now. Oblivion was released in 2006 and Fallout 3 in 2008. Based on recent trajectories of Bethesda's releases, last year should have been the year, but it wasn't. We're due for something, whether it's the next Fallout or the next Elder Scrolls game. It'd be surprising and exciting either way, but at the same time, expected.

Runners Up: Red Dead Announcement, Mirror's Edge game delayed/cancelled

Most Anticipated Game:

Bloodborne

It's real close between this and The Witcher 3, but ever since I laid eyes on Demon's Souls the series has been my favorite video game thing. Anything Hidetaka Miyazaki touches I'm sure I will love. So it looks a lot like the Souls games we've already gotten, and a lot of people didn't like Dark Souls II for that reason. Well, I loved Dark Souls II despite Miyazaki not leading on it, so with him leading on Bloodborne, GOTY 2015 is its award to lose in my mind. I might sound hyped or whatever, but hype for a game like this is irrelevant for me. I would say I'm not even excited for it. I just know I will love it.

Runners Up: The Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt, The Witness