Every Tuesday, Foresight for the Week is your guide to the gaming industry for the next 7 days. With game and DLC releases, news about upcoming cons and events, and information on the latest patches and updates in gaming, Foresight for the Week helps you stay on top of everything gaming. 

Game Releases

Pro Evolution Soccer 2018 (Xbox One, PC, PS3, PS4, Xbox 360)

Pro Evolution Soccer is weird. Overall, it’s a much better game than FIFA and it has been for years. The problem is, Konami still hasn’t been able to license any of the biggest clubs in the world. As a result, you have a spectacular game that gets little attention, all because it’s essentially off-brand. It’s a shame really. FIFA is the lesser game by almost every metric, but that just has never mattered to fans. They want to play as their favorite clubs, not their favorite club’s doppelgangers. Thus, this year’s PES 2018 will almost definitely be overshadowed once again by it’s name-brand counterpart. 

NHL 18 (Xbox, PS4)

NHL 18 has a ‘better late than never’ feel to it. The team over at EA Vancouver promised us a spectacular game years ago, and they failed miserably. Ever since then, they’ve been struggling to get back into fans’ good graces. This year, fans might finally get the hockey game they were promised years ago. The only problem is, gamers have a whole new set of standards. If all NHL 18 does is meet the standards of gamers from a few years ago, then EA Vancouver is in for a world of hurt. 

Here’s to hoping that NHL 18 is good and that NHL 19 is exponentially better. 

Ken Follett’s The Pillars of the Earth (PC, PS4, Xbox)

Ken Follett’s The Pillars of the Earth releases for consoles this week. The game is based on Follett’s highly successful book series, The Pillars of the Earth. According to the developers, Pillars is a “a one-of-a-kind, 2D point and click adventure. […] The development team took the 1200-pages book as the blueprint, and turned it into an interactive novel. Players follow a nonlinear storyline with three playable main characters. The game is going to be released as three books with seven chapters each.”

You can read more about the game here or on its Steam page.  

Metroid: Samus Returns (3DS)

Samus is among the most recognizable characters in gaming and every time a new Metroid game comes out, it’s kind of a big deal. Metroid: Samus Returns is a 3DS game, a re-imagining of the 1991 classic from the Game Boy. The game was rebuilt from the ground up, but it still feels like old Metroid. It’s fun, intense and full of challenges. Plus, it looks beautiful. Samus Returns has the perfect mix of nostalgia and quality, a combination that most remakes struggle to achieve.