A new year is upon us, and while we can’t be sure it’ll be a good one or that we’ll keep to the many resolutions we make, we can trust it to deliver an array of excellent titles.
The forecast for new PC game releases in 2022 has been looking bright and primed to be one of the best years for gaming in a long time. So, we’re here to let you in on some of the titles we cannot wait to get our hands on.
While we wait for these titles to arrive, make sure you check out the best PC games you can already play.
Elden Ring
This one’s a no-brainer: from the moment Elden Ring was announced, along with the knowledge that George R.R. Martin (the genius mind that brought us A Song of Ice and Fire) was announced, the hype surrounding this title has been atomic.
Elden Ring is an open world soulslike dark fantasy RPG published by BANDAI NAMCO and developed by From Software Inc. . Become the Elden Lord by restoring the Elden Ring from its scattered shards. Fight, gain and build up your skills, and explore the Lands Between.
Due for release February 25 2022, you can pre-order Elden Ring on Steam now.
Redfall
Redfall is the newest offering from Arkane Austin , the studio behind Dishonoured and Prey . Published by Bethesda and due for release in Summer 2022, Redfall is an open world co-op FPS game in which you have to take down vampires with unique powers who have taken over the town of Redfall, Massachusetts.
You have four characters to choose from, Devinder Crousley, Layla Ellison, Remi De La Rosa, and Jacob Boyer, each armed with their own unique weapons and abilities with whom you must form a crew of vampire slayers to save the town.
Redfall will be available on Windows 10 and Game Pass.
The Callisto Protocol
Set in the PUBG universe in the year 2320, this immersive action survival horror game is developed by new studio Striking Distance Studios (founded by co-creator of Dead Space , Glen Schofield) and published by Krafton .
You play as a prisoner attempting to escape a maximum-security prison colony on Jupiter’s moon Callisto. You must fight your way through hordes of various alien monstrosities, explore the colony, Black Iron created by the United Jupiter Company and uncover the secrets that lie within.
Although there hasn’t been a specific release date announced just yet, Callisto Protocol is definitely coming out at some point in 2022.
Starfield
Starfield is a new action RPG developed by Bethesda Game Studios and published by Bethesda Softworks. Since the release of The Elder Scrolls and Fallout franchises over 25 years ago; this is the first new universe by Bethesda in a world set in space. You play as a space explorer in Starfield 20 years after a colony war took place between the Freestar Collective and the United Colonies, the two largest factions in Starfield .
It was announced during the Xbox showcase at E3 2021 that Starfield would be an Xbox exclusive, but it'll be available on Windows 10 and Game Pass from 11 November 2022.
God of War
It was announced in October 2021 that the superb God of War 2018 would be coming to PC, much to the PC gaming world’s delight.
God of War is a single-player third-person action-adventure game developed by Santa Monica Studio and published by Sony Interactive .
You play as Kratos, the troubled former Greek god and his son Atreus. Packed with side quests, boss battles and a rich storyline, it will show PC gamers why it is one of PlayStation’s most popular and beloved exclusives.
God of War 2018 will be released on 14 January 2022 and is available to pre-purchase on Steam .
Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Extraction
The much-anticipated spin-off to Rainbow Six Siege is finally here! Ubisoft Montreal is back with Rainbow Six Extraction with plenty of kill-it-with-fire alien monstrosities to keep you sharp and alert.
In Extraction you play in a team of three to complete objectives while eliminating alien enemies called Archaeans. In each incursion all objectives and enemy placements are procedurally generated; there are up to 12 objectives to complete, including gathering intel or collecting samples.
Out for release January 20 2022, Rainbow Six Extraction is cross-platform and will be available on Epic Games, Ubisoft , Amazon Luna , and Google S tadia .
Company of Heroes 3
The much-loved RTS Company of Heroes is back with its third instalment from developer Relic Entertainment and published by Sega .
In a departure from its Western and Eastern Front settings, Company of Heroes 3 is set in the Mediterranean focusing on Italy and North Africa during WW2. There are a bunch of new features and improvements to look forward to, like the tactical pause and destruction system, which is not just for show, but allows for more strategic depth to gameplay.
There’s no specific release date yet, but it’s tipped for a Q4 2022 release. In the meantime, Wishlist it on Steam .
Ark II
In a surprise preview at the Game Awards 2020 , it was revealed that Ark 2, sequel to Ark: Survival Evolved , was on its way. Many fans were impressed with its graphics and actor Vin Diesel’s involvement in the game.
Ark 2 is an open world survivalcraft game developed and published by Studio Wildcard and follows on from its predecessor’s last DLC, Genesis Part 2. Explore the world, battle primeval creatures, craft a base, tools, and weapons, and enjoy improved graphics and enemy AI.
While there’s no specific release date just yet, Ark 2 will be coming out some time in 2022.
Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodhunt
Following a successful Steam Open Access, Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodhunt is due for release in Spring 2022. This free-to-play title is developed and published by Sharkmob and promises hours of endless vampire-on-vampire hunting fun.
Navigate your way around the rooftops and gorgeous streets of Prague in this action-packed, epic battle-royale title based on the Vampire: The Masquerade TTRPG and World of Darkness series. Choose your clan: Brujah, Nosferatu, or Toreador and “archetypes” to utilize its unique powers coupled with your strategy to reign supreme.
While you wait for its release, you can add it to your Wishlist on Steam .
Dying Light 2 Stay Human
Fans of Dying Light are itching to get their hands on the second instalment of the beloved action RPG Dying Light 2 Stay Human . Developed and published by Techland, the game sees you fighting (as its title implies), to stay human.
In this huge open-world survival-horror RPG, play with up to 4 player co-op using your combat and parkour skills to kill all the particularly hideous zombies infesting one of the last remaining human settlements.
Dying Light 2 Stay Human is due for release 4 February 2022. You can pre-order it now on Steam or Techland’s official site.
We also have to drop a few honorary mentions: Evil West , Hogwarts Legacy , Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League , Total War: Warhammer III , and Sonic Frontiers .
Murderous bears and heavy metal exoplanet atmospheres lead the week in science news
There was a lot of science news from across many fields this week, from biology and wildlife management to NASA's plans for the International Space Station and even some extreme exoplanet news (who doesn't love a weird exoplanet?).
In Sweden, researchers found that some brown bears were more aggressive killers than others, and it could have important implications for protecting reindeer herds shepherded by Indigenous people in the future.
We also caught sight of an exoplanet with a layered atmosphere of iron, chromium, and other metals. Yes, you read that right, an iron and chromium atmosphere, made of metallic gases. How is that even possible?
For more terrestrial matters, a new study found that about 1,600 years ago, Earth might have had a near-miss encounter with a comet, and given the damage that just the cometary debris caused, we caught a lucky break.
Another study revealed strong evidence for a pair of ancient supermountains on Earth that might have been instrumental in the development of complex lifeforms about 2 billion years ago.
And not to be upstaged by primordial supermountains and dangerous comets, NASA revealed its plan for decommissioning and safely deorbiting the International Space Station, and it even gives us a target date for the final, spectacular descent of the ISS into the Pacific ocean.
So, fellow science nerds, let's dig into the major science news for this first week of February 2022.
Bears Wake From Hibernation and Slaughter Reindeer Calves with Abandon
Everyone knows that bears are ferocious predators, but a new study that tracked the hunting behavior of brown bears in Sweden reveal that some are more aggressive and deadly than others.
The most deadly of the 15 bears tracked in the study, an especially aggressive female, killed 38 reindeer calves in just a single month before going on to kill 18 moose calves the next month.
While moose herds are wild, reindeer herds in Sweden are partially domesticated and herding is a major cultural and economic activity among the indigenous Sámi people.
The slaughter of so many calves can have long-term consequences for a herd's viability, so understanding how brown bears hunt vulnerable calves can improve wildlife management practices.
Newly-Discovered Exoplanet Has Atmosphere Rich In Heavy Metal Gases
When it comes to extreme conditions, our solar system has some notable outliers, like Venus with its crushing 482 degree Celsius atmosphere or Saturn's moon Titan that is cold enough to condense methane into sloshing liquid lakes on its surface.
They've got nothing on the exoplanet WASP-189b , however. This gas giant is a hot Jupiter, meaning that despite its enormous size and mass, it orbits extremely close to its star.
The dayside temperature is 3,200 degrees Celsius, which isn't just hot enough to melt iron, it actually turns it into a gas, along with chromium, magnesium, and titanium oxide.
These metallic gases are actually layered in WASP-189b's atmosphere in a similar manner to Earth's, where heavy water vapor resides in the lower troposphere while lighter gases extend higher into the stratosphere.
Earth Might Have Narrowly Avoided Devastating Comet Impact 1,600 Years Ago
While our planet has seen its share of impact events from asteroids and comets in the distant past, we may have come close to seeing a similarly devastating impact as recently as 1,600 years ago.
New evidence from the Ohio River Valley in North America indicates that the Ohio Hopewell culture that mysteriously and suddenly declined about 1,500 years ago might have been the victim of an airburst from fragments and debris from a comet that made an especially close pass.
Stretching across 11 Hopewell sites in three states, archeological evidence shows telltale signs of an airburst, including specific meteorites known to be the result of an airburst.
Extensive historical comet records from China also detail an unusually large number of comet approaches right around the time the Hopewell decline began.
The airburst appears to have set 9,200 square miles of the region on fire, which would have been devastating to Hopewell agriculture, likely hastening their demise.
International Space Station To Deorbit In Fiery Sendoff In Early 2031
NASA revealed its plan for decommissioning and safely deorbiting the International Space Station (ISS), which anticipates the aging space station will decelerate and burn up in the atmosphere in early 2031 .
Entering its third decade of continuous occupancy and operation, the ISS is one of humanity's greatest scientific and engineering achievements, but the rigors of operating in low-Earth orbit have gradually taken their toll on the station's primary structure.
It won't be safe to use the station beyond 2030, NASA says, so it is planning for how to safely bring it out of orbit. NASA will then turn over responsibility for operations in low-Earth orbit to the private sector while NASA pivots its focus to future lunar missions and an eventual manned mission to Mars.
Ancient 'Supermountains' Might Be Responsible for Complex Life on Earth
We also took a deep dive this week into a new study arguing that ancient supermountains might have been responsible for two of the biggest evolutionary developments in the history of life.
The mineral zircon, with a low level of lutetium, is only able to form under immense pressure, and so are typically only created in the heart of tall mountains produced by the collision of tectonic plates.
Using this mineral as a marker, researchers at the Australian National University were able to track mountain formation through the geological record and found two supermountains as tall as the Himalayas but three to four times as long. These supermountains may have seeded the essential minerals and oxygen on Earth's surface that are necessary for life to evolve.
"This study gives us markers, so we can better understand the evolution of early, complex life," one researcher said. The processes involved look complicated on their face, but they are actually rather straightforward, and the new study gives us an important piece of evidence towards solving the mystery of the origins of life on Earth.
Google Chrome's downloads bar is getting less annoying
Google is currently testing a new downloads feature in Chrome Canary, the development channel for its Chrome web browser, that should offer users a less intrusive experience when downloading content.
As spotted by Reddit user Leopeva64-2 , a new downloads icon will sit in the toolbar alongside any extensions you currently have installed into the Chrome browser, similar to the downloads display seen in the Microsoft Edge web browser. The planned relocation was spotted late last year by the same Reddit user, though we now have additional information about the download bubble itself.
The bubble will expand when clicked to display your most recently downloaded files, enabling the same quick access that the current toolbar provides, as well as displaying the progression on any active downloads.
According to a recent patch , the downloads button will change color and size to reflect the stage of your download progress, with the icon shrinking and switching from grey to blue while active. An animated progress 'ring' is also in the works, though all of this is still in development so it's unlikely we will see it land onto the stable version of Google Chrome anytime soon.
That same patch also seems to confirm Google's plans to remove the downloads bar from the bottom of the web browser entirely and replace it with this more discreet, bubble model that doesn't hog a section of your display, stating: "Right now we are still showing the download shelf just for reference, but the ultimate goal is to replace the shelf with the bubble in the toolbar."
Analysis: Chrome trying to emulate Microsoft Edge isn't surprising
Poor Microsoft Edge . Despite having some pretty cool features and not demanding a bizarrely high percentage of your device's memory to run, Google Chrome still dominates as the most popular web browser with 63% of the market share.
It's amusing that Chrome has taken inspiration from a competitor like Edge, but Microsoft's own browser is very slowly starting to make some ground, with 4.12% of the overall market share, up from 3.23% YoY. Those are still small numbers in the grand scheme of things, but it looks like Google will take that growth seriously regardless of its advantage.
We can't especially be mad about it either. The current downloads bar on Google Chrome takes up an unnecessary amount of screen space, with the entire bar appearing and condensing your browser window even if you're only downloading a single image. It'll be nice to not have such an eyesore to deal with if you just want to send a dumb meme to your colleague.
As mentioned, the downloads bubble is still a work in progress so while it looks promising, we will have to wait for it to be completed and included within the consumer-ready stable build of Chrome before we can confidently say it's an improvement, but things certainly look promising for now.
Via Neowin