The first half of 2022 had plenty of blockbuster titles for players to blitz through, but the second half of the year is shaping up to be just as busy.
'Elden Ring' has run the table on 2022 as a whole, with other heavy hitters like 'Gran Turismo 7', 'Horizon: Forbidden West', 'The Quarry' and 'Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga' vying for our attention.
The second half of 2022 promises to be as robust, and we're here to run down our picks for the best games that are due for release in the second half of this year.
Keep in mind that game development is notoriously inconsistent when it comes to release dates, so take the release dates as a rough guide and not gospel.
Saints Row (August)
The 'Saint Row' series was once seen as a pretender to the 'Grand Theft Auto' series, but established itself as its own brand of chaotic fun, and the 2022 reboot looks to bring the franchise back to its roots.
The more outlandish elements from later sequels such as battling zombies or gaining superpowers have been stripped away to make the game more of a piece with 2008's 'Saints Row 2', considered by many to be the peak of the series.
The reboot appears to be taking cues from the likes of 'Breaking Bad' with its Southwestern America setting, and with the zanier elements dialed back, a back-to-basics approach could be what the series needs.
Technological advances mean that the player can go custom their character, gun and vehicles to their hearts content, and with this being the first 'Saints Row' game to be properly developed for the next generation of consoles, we expect a dizzying amount of depth and variety as we wreak havoc.
'Saints Row' is looking good for an August release, so we can whittle away the last days of summer causing mayhem.
Two Point Campus (August)
At the other, violence-free end of the scale, the winning 'Two Point Campus' is set for release in August.
We went hands-on with the game earlier this summer and the game nails a fundamental part of a management game; it makes the hours melt away.
With students and teachers gearing up for the return to campus in August, 'Two Point Campus' is well-placed to make going back to take advantage of the back to school rush.
Players who are familar with 'Two Point Hospital' will know the score and how the games operate - think 'SimCity' but with an obsessive level of detail and a cheekier sense of humour.
Based on our hands-on experience with the game, fans of 'Two Point Hospital' will lap this experience up, and the game also manages to make itself appealing and easy to play for newcomers.
If you've ever wanted to design your dream college campus, 'Two Point Campus' will be one of your favourite games of the year.
Destroy All Humans! 2: Reprobed (August)
The original 'Destroy All Humans!' games were staples of the PS2 era, with the games showing the late, great Pandemic Studio at their best.
2006's 'Destroy All Humans! 2' is the latest game to get the remake treatment, following on from the original game getting a makeover in 2020.
Everything that made the original game an irreverent cult hit appears to be present and accounted for here, with the developers ironing out the quirks that held the game back from greatness in 2006.
Crypto's trip through the 1960s looks like a blast, and with the Unreal Engine 4 powering it, the game looks more funkadelic than ever.
For those who enjoy their collector's editions to be extravagant, developers Black Forest Games have a €399.99 edition that comes with a 27-inch statue of Crypto, so presuming you're either Jeff Bezos or a gamer with an unlimited budget and a touch for the whimsical, this is the collector's edition for you.
Session: Skate Sim (September)
Skateboarding and video games seem to go hand-in-hand, and 'Session: Skate Sim' looks like it could become the successor to the 'Skate' series.
'Tony Hawk Pro Skater' arcade-style antics are out, with the game favouring realism over fast thrills.
As the success of the 'Skate' games proved in the late 2000s, there is a major demographic of gamers who like their skateboarding games to be technically challenging, and 'Session' already has a massive online following.
The game is set for release in September, with the game being released on all major consoles.
'Session: Skate Sim' is one of the great gaming underdog stories with the game starting life as a Kickstarter project, and with a strong community behind it, the game could become one of the year's surprise hits.
Splatoon 3 (September)
The WiiU was a failure beyond belief for Nintendo, but at least they got the 'Splatoon' franchise out of it.
The franchise has been a quietly steady performer for Nintendo, and while the franchise never quite hit 'Mario' or 'Call Of Duty' levels, the franchise has a dedicated fanbase, and now 'Splatoon 3' looks set to please fans new and old alike.
Every console needs a party game, and 'Splatoon 3' looks set to continue Nintendo's proud tradition of being the game console everyone wants to see at a party.
Based on what we've seen so far, 'Splatoon 3' looks to be more of the same, but in this case that isn't a bad thing - the 'Splatoon' series exists somewhere between doing a crossword in a newspaper and 'Call Of Duty', and there are very few gaming experiences like it.
Marvel's Midnight Suns (October)
The Marvel brand is a license to print money, but video games based on the comic book brand have been hit or miss.
'Spider-Man' on the PlayStation consoles have been smash successes, while Square Enix's 'Avengers' live service grind fest left people wishing they were watching 'Thor: The Dark World'.
'Marvel's Midnight Suns' is technically an action game, but it has more in common with the 'XCOM' series of games which makes sense as the game comes to us from Firaxis Games.
Firaxis Games successfully revived the 'XCOM' series in the 2010s to great effect, and the strategic geniuses working their magic in the Marvel world is an incredibly exciting prospect.
A deck-building game with RPG elements is the kind of novel approach we'd never associate with the Marvel brand, but with everyone's favourite heroes like Iron Man, Spider-Man, Wolverine, Captain America and Blade in the mix, 'Marvels Midnight Suns' looks like a surefire hit.
'Forspoken' is being developed on the same engine that made 'Final Fantasy XV' such a rewarding and rich experience, and has been updated to include ray tracing technology.
Those with a PlayStation 5 will probably be familiar with ray tracing from the likes of 'Gran Turismo 7', but applying ray tracing technology to a high-octane action game like 'Forspoken' could be a leap forward for the gaming industry.
Gotham Knights (October)
The 'Arkham' series of games proved that gaming could make a game based in the 'Batman' world that wasn't utterly terrible.
'Gotham Knights' follows the exploits of Nightwing, Batgirl, Robin and Red Hood as they look to restore justice to Gotham City.
In the world of 'Gotham Knights', both Batman and Commissioner Gordon are dead which has left Gotham City in a state of lawlessness.
Our four heroes have been tasked with bringing safety back to the streets of Gotham, all while fending off the Court of Owls.
More indebted to the comic books than any film version of Gotham, 'Gotham Knights' looks to be a riot for fans of DC.
A friend can drop in and out of the action at any time, and you're going to need all the help you can get to rid Gotham of its crime problem.
Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare II (October)
The biggest name in gaming is back for another round, and what could be bigger than a reboot of 'Modern Warfare 2'?
The original 'Modern Warfare 2' made 'Call Of Duty' the household name it is today, with gamers of a certain vintage able to recall 1v1 quick scoping matches on Rust with the same reverence as a foreign holiday.
Bringing 'Modern Warfare 2' into the 2020s is a tempting prospect, and while the games single-player mode will be discussed and dissected for all of a week, the game's bread and butter is the expanded Warzone mode.
Warzone helped 'Call Of Duty' out of the doldrums after a few dud entries ('Infinite Warfare', anyone?) and Warzone promises to be bigger and bolder than ever.
The underrated Special Ops mode is confirmed to return, along with some new exciting modes such as Knockout where players are tasked with capturing a package with a limited amount of lives.
In Prisoner Exchange, players are tasked with extracting a hostage ala 'Rainbow Six', while the other team are tasked with making sure the hostage doesn't escape.
'Modern Warfare II' appears to be throwing the kitchen sink at this year's 'Call Of Duty' entry, but considering how the franchise has arguably abandoned its traditional multiplayer base in favour of chasing 'Fortnite' money in recent years, these additions show Infinity Ward still have the interests of the fans at heart.
Hogwarts Legacy (TBA)
Over 20 years since it first impacted the culture, 'Harry Potter' has transcended all mediums from film, theatre and of course print, but it has never had a truly great triple AAA title.
An open-world RPG set in Hogwarts using the Unreal Engine, which recently wowed us in 'The Matrix Awakens' tech demo, is a tantalising prospect for any fan.
Series creator JK Rowling has no involvement with the project, but considering the recent controversy around her and the quality of the 'Fantastic Beasts' films, that may be a positive thing.
Avalanche Software are the developers involved here, best known for their work with the Disney brand and the 'Disney Infinity' games, meaning they have good chops in using established IP.
The gameplay footage released earlier this year looks like a treat for fans of the series, and is a dead-cert to become among the biggest hits of the year.
God Of War Ragnarok (November)
In a year with 'Gran Turismo' and 'Horizon: Forbidden West', the PlayStation 5 having 3 killer exclusives in a year would send out a hell of a warning shot to Microsoft and Nintendo, and with 'Starfield' being pushed until next year, the gap is open for a game of the year contender like 'God Of War'.
Kratos will be raising hell across Norse mythology this Christmas, boy in tow.
The Castillo Protocol (December)
Speaking of Christmas, EA are looking to make us sleep with the lights on this Christmas with their new horror game.
'The Castillo Protocol' is the new nightmare from Glen Schofield, one of the masterminds behind the original 'Dead Space' (before the series became as scary as an episode of 'Scooby-Doo').
Schofield was tapped by Activision to help produce the 'Call Of Duty' games, but the veteran game producer has returned to the world of horror with this space-themed horror game.
The game follows strange goings-on at a prison colony on the Jupiter moon of Castillo, and players must stop an alien invasion before it's too late.
If this sounds similar to 'Dead Space', you'd be right, but Schofield is one of gaming's most adept and versatile creative minds, and the trailer that debuted in June looks suitably pants-wetting.
