Luke Brown

For the longest time, the Uncharted series has strictly followed the adventures of Nathan Drake, a roguish treasure hunter as quick with a quip as he was with a gun. Last year, Nathan's story came to a close in Uncharted 4: A Thief's End, but fans only had to wait a few weeks to learn the franchise's fate was not the same as Nate's. Uncharted: The Lost Legacy was unveiled last summer, and arrives this year with heavy expectations. Not only does Lost Legacy expand on the world and characters of the series in smart, exciting ways, it also offers some of the best puzzles and adventure Uncharted has ever seen.

For the past few years ILMxLAB, Industrial Light and Magic’s Experience Lab, has been developing new ways to enjoy Star Wars using the latest virtual and augmented reality technologies. We've seen some samples of ILMxLAB’s projects in that time, but nothing beyond a very nice tech demo has been released to the public so far. That changes this winter when ILMxLAB and The Void will team to release Star Wars: Secrets of the Empire. Billed as a full-immersive virtual reality experience, Secrets of the Empire will let you actually enter that galaxy far, far away by simply dropping a visor down over your head.

Oh to be a kid again in this day and age of advanced technology. While we had Big Wheels and Power Wheels growing up, today's kids have things like Mercedes cars and BMWs to drive around the playground. There's probably a Tesla out there too, what with it being the leading electric car and all. Those are cool and all, and they made me mildly jealous, but not nearly as much as learning Radio Flyer is releasing a battery-driven Landspeeder from Star Wars in a few months. I haven't wanted to be a kid again so much in my life.

Ubisoft is taking a different approach with Far Cry 5 than we're used to seeing from the franchise. Typically a series that's been about exploring locales many people can only dream of traveling to, it's a bit strange to see one coming home to roost in the United States. That's not a bad thing, as even the US is country that has a number of states and cities that are often ignored when it comes to games. With its rural setting in the Big Sky Country of Montana, Far Cry 5 already had our attention. It's the new spins on gameplay and narrative that'll keep it.

Last year, Spider-Man fans were delighted to see Insomniac Games had taken up the charge on a new web-slinging adventure for the PlayStation 4, Marvel's Spider-Man. At the time, all we got was a brief teaser hinting at the possibilities, but at this year's E3, Insomniac unveiled the first actual gameplay from its upcoming action title. We got to see Spider-Man in action like we hadn't seen before, and learned a bit more about Insomniac's vision for what's sure to be one of 2018's most spectacular games.

For years, writers have struggled with the idea of artificial intelligence growing into something that is more than the sum of a bunch of circuits. Science fiction is filled with tales of robots wanting to be more than their coding, and the concept has filtered down from the likes of Pinocchio to Blade Runner to I, Robot and more. In all that time, we've rarely been given an opportunity to step into those robotic shoes ourselves, and that's where Quantic Dream's Detroit: Become Human starts to get interesting.

The Star Wars franchise is no stranger to strong leading women fighting for the Rebel Alliance, but it's a bit more uncommon for the Empire's female allies to get the same recognition. Villains like Asajj Ventress and Doctor Aphra have become fan favorites not just because they're women, but because they show a side of the galactic conflict rarely seen. After seeing a brief portion of the Star Wars Battlefront II single-player campaign in action, it won't be surprising at all to see Commander Iden Versio join those memorable ranks this fall.

Just when you thought the Terminator franchise was dead, along comes a mobile game developer to prove you wrong. Hitting mobile platforms today is Terminator Genisys: Future War, a new clan-based multiplayer game from Plarium Games. Why the developer wanted to hitch its wagon to the least-successful sequel in the series is beyond us, but setting Future War in the post-Skynet timeline where humans battle machines was definitely a smart choice.

For all the hype surrounding Star Wars: The Last Jedi in the past month, we still haven’t seen very much in the way of new looks for our favorite characters. Nearly every shot of the trailer and officially sanctioned image from Lucasfilm has shown heroes like Rey and Finn and villains like Phasma and Kylo Ren as we saw them last in The Force Awakens. Aside from new toy packaging and the rare t-shirt design, there hasn’t even been very little headway into different haircuts for these characters. That changes today however, due largely to Star Wars Battlefront II’s pre-order materials. Thanks to Gamestop, we now have a bit of an idea what Rey and Kylo Ren will look like in the upcoming eighth episode of the Star Wars saga proper.

Nearly every major bit of media based in the Star Wars universe has focused on the Rebellion's fight against the evil Empire, or its successor, the First Order. This fall, EA studios DICE, Motive and Criterion will show us the other side of the coin in Star Wars Battlefront II. This fall's shooter sequel invites inside the inner ranks of the Empire as it attempts to push back against the Rebellion in the wake of the Battle of Endor.

Announced at E3 2016, Injustice 2 is the follow-up to NetherRealm Studios' popular DC Comics fighting game, Injustice: Gods Among Us. Taking up some time after the conclusion of the first game's story, Injustice 2 brings with it a new threat to the populace of Earth, along with new heroes and villains to battle it out for dominance in the face of whatever monster lurks in the darkness of space. Previously only announced with a vague 2017 release timetable, we now know Injustice 2 will be making May 2017 that much more super alongside events like Free Comic Book Day and the theatrical release of Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 2.

If there’s one thing we’ve learned from our years on the Internet, it’s that there’s no aspect of comics that can’t be broken down and quantified in a single definitive list, preferably in amounts of five or ten. And since there’s no more definitive authority than ComicsAlliance, we’re taking it upon ourselves to compile Top Five lists of everything you could ever want to know about comics. This week, we're casting our gaze at the greatest quarter-munching, joystick-waggling, button-mashing comic book video games.