2015 is mere hours away, and I could not be more excited to say goodbye to 2014. A lot of things happened during the year that I liked, and a lot of things I didn’t. The games industry has plenty to prove after 2014 with numerous disastrous launches, delays and disappointments. Going forward into 2015 there are certain games I'd like to see announced, certain games launch, or specific things happen within the gaming industry. These are my wishes for the game industry; 15 for 2015.

Unfortunately, GTAV felt a little too cliché. This is where I get nervous that Red Dead Redemption 2 might lean too heavily on certain tropes. I would much rather see an American western tale that resembles a classic, opposed to a film that has been rebooted as of this year. I do not need a game with big set pieces, explosions and more ammunition falling than the leaves on the trees. I’m going to make one more recommendation of the west I envision opposed to the west presented by Hollywood: the Lonesome Dove series puts on the glitz of western tropes while also doing a great job explaining how people lived at the time. This is more in the style that would be preferred in Red Dead Redemption 2. A game where cowboys are cowboys, people are living by the land they’ve settled and getting along fine with the natives. Yes, there were some bad Tribes, but mostly few and far between.

In order to grab the hat, you'll need a boat. Head out towards the biggest island around, and you'll find an even bigger, still mostly destroyed pirate ship. Inside lies your prize; the coolest hat in the Seven S

Assassin’s Creed: Victory was rudely outed December 2014 as the next Assassin’s Creed game, and there’s one thing everyone is thinking right now; please don’t be like Assassin’s Creed: Unity. Unity was a broken wreck at launch. Riddled with bugs, glitches, a Co-Op feature that barely works, and a continuously dipping framerate, Unity is the poster-boy for how not to launch a game. True, the experience has gotten better with patches, but that’s no excuse for launching Unity in the state it was in. Victory cannot achieve victory if it is in anyway like Unity. Hopefully, with Ubisoft Quebec leading development, we won’t have to experience an Assassin’s Creed wreck two years in a row.

Getting back on topic, the problem with the controls is that they can be overly finicky. For example, mounting your horse and strangling a nearby pedestrian are assigned to the same button for whatever reason. Same goes with interacting with an item on the ground and say vaulting over a railing to your death. Throwing dynamite while in cover can also be hazardous as more than often it found itself on the cover in front of us. In addition, dealing with a horse is the biggest pain in the ass than anything else in video games and Red Dead Redemption 2 is no exception. The difference between this and Grand Theft Auto is that your vehicle won’t run away when it hears gunfire, ensuring you fail a mission when you need him. The physics can be a little wonky, too, as we had multiple instances where the horse could easily make a small dip or go over a rock, but instead decided to trip over its own feet, dying in the process once in a while. We even had an instance where it ran into another rider while in the cinematic camera angle (which allows you to put the controller down as the horse gallops to a set destination), something the recipient of the crash was not too happy about. Finally, I don’t know who thought it was a good idea to assign the run button (tapping X) to the horse, but there has to be a better way. As you can see, I’m not a big fan of horses in video games, www.Kannikar.Net as it consistently feels like you’re fighting with them, which doesn’t help with the already finicky controls.

Rockstar has such a great opportunity to deliver a tale that is bathed in more of a classic period piece than a ritzy Hollywood do over. If the game looks anything like what the teaser presented, they just might deliver that game. It seemed calm yet brooding. It seemed slower, while being thoughtful. The posse of men on horseback seen in the trailer is fitting for the time. It was stupid to travel alone through the wilderness of America, and cowboys relied on each other for not only companionship, but the journey ahead. My mind keeps wandering to The Magnificent Seven though and I can’t shake that this is what might be showcased. A band of cowboy bandits causing all sorts of mayhem in a sort of Magnificent Seven bizarro world. The previous two games were great because the stories encountered seemed real; the characters seemed like real people dealing with personal qualms that had nothing to do with me. It’s the reason I loved the Witcher 3, the world didn’t care about the player, but if I could stop and help, I’d go for it. Otherwise, time to hit the dusty trail.

It’s safe to say that Red Dead Redemption 2 is easily the most visually-impressive game Rockstar has ever created. While it’s difficult for open world games to compare to more linear, focused experiences due to the amount of content shoved onto screen at once, there were times when I thought I was playing a CG movie. Maybe that’s a little bit of hyperbole as there are still some compromises that are taken, but for the most part this is arguably the best looking game of the year. Character models are remarkably detailed, even with the most insignificant individuals, and the open world is absolutely gorgeous. Not only does it have an incredible amount of variety, from industrial cities to snowy mountains, but the way settings are organized bring the world to life in a sensational way. From a pure visual aspect, the only negative notions are minor ones, namely beards can sometimes look like they’re pulled off a character creator, and the rendering and reflections when moving through water has a strange issue on the sides of the screen. Animation is the only other aspect that can be bothersome at times. Don’t get me wrong, everything is animated meticulous, from faces to actions, but when you need to interact with something in the world, it can put you into an animation that takes a lot longer than you’d hope for. Other than that, I was blown away with what Rockstar was able to accomplish, as the world of Red Dead Redemption 2 is simply breathtaking.