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.

2014 got a pass because not a lot of original content for PS4 and Xbox One was being released until the final quarter of the year. 2015 is different, because now we’re starting to see development for these new platforms ramp up. There’s no need to see teams waste their time to bring games only a few years old to these new consoles. Already we have DmC: Devil May Cry Definitive Edition, Devil Mary Cry 4: Special Edition, Saints Row IV: Re-Elected, Dead or Alive 5: Last Round, and Final Fantasy X/X-2 HD Remaster among others. Now there are some exceptions for games that were only released on one platform (Resident Evil Remake HD), or games you can’t get anymore because they’re so old (Grim Fandago: Remastered). Other than these few exceptions, enough is enough!

The Wii U can’t compete with the PS4 and Xbox One as is. Basically a PS3/ Xbox 360, the Wii U came too late, and despite having the best first-party lineup in 2014, has failed to keep up with PS4 and Xbox One. It’s time for Nintendo to get on, or at least close to Sony and Microsoft’s level. The New Wii U could be a game changer with more power, a new elegant design, and the adoption of a more traditional controller. Perhaps it could be enough to draw back third-party publishers. We can’t expect a new console yet, but an update (like the New 3DS) could turn around the Wii U’s fortunes.

At the beginning of the game you'll start off with one or two fairly standard horse breeds, and certain types of horses are better suited for different situations -- some are faster and more agile, while others are more sturdy and durable workhorses. Whichever breed you may wind up with is up to you, but the important thing is that once you pick a horse to your liking, spend time to develop your bond with it so that you can increase its ability to aid you while roaming through West.

With enough time and bonding, you can even unlock more advanced riding tricks and techniques, such as rearing, drifting, and a quick turn ability. Where cars and other vehicles in Grand Theft Auto are fairly disposable, Red Dead Redemption 2 creates a more genuine relationship between the player and their horse, and given that I had a few close calls with my own horse, Marble, out on the road that almost led to its death, I would have been heartbroken at his loss if that happened.

Dice is bringing their FPS expertise to Star Wars: Battlefront Holiday 2015. We can’t wait for them to use their knowledge harnessed over many Battlefield games to create the ultimate Battlefront experience. You know which Battlefield game Dice shouldn’t model Battlefront after? Battlefield 4. Undoubtedly the worst launch of 2013, Battlefield 4 was a huge mess with numerous bugs, glitches, and netcode issues. Nobody wants to open a brand new multiplayer game at launch and find out its unplayable. That’s what happened with Battlefield 4 and a whole bunch of games in 2014. In fact, let’s make 2015 the opposite of 2014 and have every game work properly at launch, please!

At the game's beginning, a botched robbery in the town of Blackwater has deprived the gang of most of their funds and made them the top target of the law as a result. From bands of lawmen, to Pinkerton agents, to the growth of big cities like Saint Denis -- the game's stunning, New Orleans-esque urban setting -- Red Dead Redemption 2 puts the Van der Linde gang's backs against the wall, and seeing their story of survival and preserving their way of life makes for a striking contrast to what we saw from the setting of Red Dead Redemption and its depiction of the "end of the West."

Nintendo and Bandai Namco shook the world of Pokemon in 2014 with the announcement of Pokken Tournament, a brand new fighting game. Obviously there was a lot of excitement over this cross-over, until we found out that it was going to be Japan-only. Even worse, it would only be released in arcades. We’re hoping that Nintendo and Bandai Namco announce this game for the Wii U, and that will launch in North America and Europe.

With the release of Grand Theft Auto III in 2001, Rockstar Games essentially gave us the first taste of what would become the open-world game. The ability for players to take on the story and explore Liberty City however they saw fit was truly a revolutionary experience at the time, and even to this day, the game has still been the essential foundation for all other open-world games that followed it. In the 17 years since its release, the genre of Open World Games Strategy-world games has flourished not just from Rockstar's later games, but with many other studios taking their own spin on that formula, expanding on it, and remixing it in varying ways, to greater and lesser effect.