Okay okay! Everyone else on the site has had their turn to discuss what they’re excited about this year. I’ve kept y’all waiting long enough, but it’s finally time for me to get hyped with the rest of y’all. On with the list!

Granblue Fantasy Relink

This one may maybe a bit of a surprise to folks who know me. My experience with heavily anime-inspired games is shaky at best. Played a few hours of Persona 5, but just haven’t gotten around to playing more of it, but it’s well-documented how much I adore the Bayonetta series. I honestly don’t even watch anime much outside of video games. But for some reason, the gameplay of Granblue Fantasy Relink just blew me away. But then I played the demo a few days back and it blew me away.

It feels a lot like a Platinum-style game, with aerial combat and plenty of flashy moves, and the flashiness of those moves is what sold me. You have several skills you can use in combat, but your ultimate ability can be synchronized with the other members in your party for massive damage, which was incredibly fun to pull off. The boss fight at the end of the demo brought into focus just how much fun that combat was. I have no idea if I’ll fall in love with the story and characters, both of which seem very much in line with the tone I expect from games like this. And despite the game coming out at the start of February, I am uncertain if I’ll have time for a massive RPG like it, especially with several Yakuza games, Tales of Arise, Scarlet Nexus, and a few other similar titles on my backlog. But if the stars align, I could see myself getting into this title.

Stellar Blade

After 20+ hours of Elden Ring, The Surge 2 is still my favorite souls-like I’ve ever played. That’s admittedly a bit of a trollish answer, but it’s one that I give sincerely. That game’s combat was faster and more fluid feeling than any of the Fromsoft games I played at this point, and despite not caring about its batshit insane story, that combat and stellar progression system was more than enough to keep me engaged. I’m glad to see in recent years more devs have taken the Fromsoft formula and sped it up a bit, and after Stranger of Paradise and Wo Long Fallen Dynasty before it, Stellar Blad seems to be another game in that lineage.

What makes Stellar Blade different is that it looks way more influenced but games like Nier Automata and Bayonetta than just From Software alone. This means the gameplay is fast-paced, but also there seem to be many massive set pieces of a badass girl doing badass stuff. That is just exactly the kind of game I go crazy for, and while there’s not much information out there about the game, I’m hoping it ends up being comparable in length to something like Bayonetta rather than Elden Ring. Either way, it’s shaping up to be one of the most impressive of the few PS5 exclusives announced for 2024, and I can’t wait to play it this April.

The Fall Guy

While the rest of the world fell in love with Ryan Gosling in his role as Ken in last year’s Barbie movie, I loved him since way back in 2016 in The Nice Guys. He might be a talented dramatic actor, but he is just such a natural in comedic roles as well. The Fall Guy is another one of those roles, and seeing Gosling as an in-over-his-head stuntman in search of a missing leading man is exactly what I want. But besides some great action scenes and a leading man, the supporting cast is excellent as well. Getting to see Winston Duke be the goofy best friend is a refreshing change from his more stoic and sinister roles in Us and Black Panther. And seeing Emily Blunt, an actress I rarely see in movies as fun as this, get to banter with Gosling as the leading lady is just as nice to see. This one doesn’t drop until May, but I’ll be in the theater for its opening weekend.

Furiosa

Mad Max: Fury Road is one of, if not the, greatest action movie ever made. I’m not even a fan of the series, and I still have never seen any of the prior movies, but that entry almost singlehandedly got me into the series. Based on my hype for the franchise, I even played the 2015 Mad Max game. But I haven’t had much new from that world, until this year. Furiosa, a prequel movie for the best character in Fury Road, is coming out later this year and I couldn’t be more excited for it. I’m sure the movie will have action scenes I can’t even imagine right now, but I’m equally as excited for Anya Taylor Joy portraying the titular character. I loved her in The Menu, and I think her intensity in that film will carry over perfectly in this new Mad Max film. After only one trailer, I still know next to nothing about the movie, but I’m confident it’ll be well worth the wait.

DiCaprio 3

JID is one of the most talented rappers out right now, regardless of era, age, or style of hip hop. From DiCaprio 2 to The Forever Story, his ability to combine slick wordplay, dynamic flows, and insane adaptability in different genres always impresses. I’m even still a bit salty about his snub at last year’s Grammys for The Forever Story. Well, he’d not let it get to him much, as he has announced plans for two new projects: Forever and a Day and DiCaprio 3. The former is set to be a B-sides album for his previous release, similar to Kendrick’s untitled unmastered, and the latter is supposed to be a Gangsta Grills-style mixtape in which JID rappers over the instrumentals of his rap contemporaries and idols.

I’m excited to hear about both projects, but I’m most excited to hear DiCaprio 3. JID is just so adaptable that seeing him adapt to classic beats that I already have a history with is very enticing. Will he follow the set flows of these original songs, or will he find new pockets in those tracks that no one else has? I can’t wait to see how he tackles it, and perhaps interacting with the music of more popular artists will have a Joyner Lucas-like effect and lead to him getting more of the attention he deserves.

Selaco

This game has been way too long in the making, but if everything works as expected, this will finally be the year I can get my hands on Selaco, the impressive indie shooter from Altered Orbit Studios. I hesitate to fully call it a boomer shooter, though. It absolutely takes from shooters of the 90s, as it is a mod of the original Doom after all. But the art and gameplay pull much more directly from the FEAR series, and many other shooters from the PS3 generation. If you know anything about me, you know that I have a slight obsession with the games and aesthetics of the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, so the fact that I’ve lived long enough to see modern releases inspired by that era excites me. I played a demo for the game a while back, and it played incredibly well, and word it plays just as well on Steam Deck. I am certain that this will be my favorite shooter released all year, so I’ll continue counting down the days until I can get my hands on it on May 30^th.

And that’s all for me, see you later in the year to talk about some fo this upcoming media, and a lot more!