January 2021 is passing us by and you all know what that means. Yep, getting hyped for new projects that will most likely disappoint or at the very least be delayed for another year.
Anyway, here’s the five projects announced to be released in 2021 that I’m looking forward to.
If you’re reading this and most of these have been delayed just substitute in your own entries.
1. Prince of Persia: Sands of Time remake (PS4, XB1, PC, Switch – March 18)
(c) Ubisoft. Video courtesy of IGN via Youtube.
Does anyone else miss the days when Ubisoft made something other than open-world snore fests that’s as fun as adding a random number to an excel sheet every hour? I sure do and now along with the rerelease of Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World, we have the announcement that a remake of the best Prince of Persia game – Sands of Time (2003 not 2010) – is coming out this year.
The 2003 original was a masterful combination of wall-running, puzzle platforming, and action that kept the gameplay flow consistent and pretty seamless. The unique game mechanic involving the rewinding of time was iconic and is probably the first thing that people think of when they think of Prince of Persia… well that or the average movie from 2010.
If this remake is anything like the excellent Tony Hawk remaster we got last year then this game’s one to keep an eye on.
2. Mortal Kombat Remake (April 16)
(c) Warner Bros. Pictures. Video courtesy of Screen Culture via Youtube.
As those of you that have been following this blog for a while would know, I love the corny goodness of the 1995 Mortal Kombat film (forget that Annihilation ever happened). It’s one of my favourite movies to sit down and watch on a lazy Sunday afternoon. Now twenty-six years and multiple games later, it seems like they’re giving this movie business another go.
Now the first movie was far from perfect. It was a bit of a mess but it was a campy mess the kind of which you get around with your mates and take the piss out of. To be honest that’s pretty much all I’m looking for in this remake. The same cheesy film from 1995 with better special effects and better acting.
Maybe that’s not what everyone else is looking for but if we’re being honest, it’s a video game movie and the track record for those types isn’t great. Let’s lower our expectations here people.
3. Horizon Forbidden West (PS5, PS4 – 2021)
(c) Guerilla Games. Video courtesy of Playstation via Youtube.
Now we’re crossing back from movies into video games with a sequel to one of my favourite games ever, Horizon Zero Dawn. The 2017 original was a testament to publishers giving their developers enough freedom to pursue their passion instead of chaining them to the same franchise year after year no matter how bad the smell gets.
Guerrilla Games had spent nine years grinding out Killzone game after Killzone game when they finally got a bit of freedom and absolutely smashed it out of the park. A great mix of open-world gameplay with a gripping narrative whose quality genuinely surprised me. It was easily my game of the year back in 2017.
Hopefully, we’ll be getting a Mass Effect 2 type sequel and not a Bioshock 2 sequel. Guess we just have to wait till we get to murder more robot dinosaurs.
4. Mandalorian: Season 3 (Disney+ Dec 25)
(c) Lucasfilm. Video courtesy of IGN via Youtube.
The surprise hit that gave some hope that maybe we might see another consistent Star Wars movie trilogy around the same time as the heat death of the universe – The Mandalorian – certainly is a thing now isn’t it? Seems like you can’t go anywhere without Baby Yoda popping up right in your face.
The two seasons streaming on Disney+ follow the eponymous mercenary Din Djarin as he discovers a force-sensitive child on a mission and is charged with protecting him as he goes on the run, searching the galaxy for any of the child’s kind (read: Jedi).
The western themes and iconography bleed through every second while also dipping into Kurosawa territory, mainly with S2E5 “The Jedi” (which also includes a surprise cameo from Michael Biehn – a big plus for me).
Hopefully, season 3 will be just as good if not better while also trimming down on some of the filler episodes we saw in the second season.
5. The final Jack West Jr. book (2021)
(c) Booktopia. Video courtesy of Booktopia TV via Youtube.
Now I know what you’re thinking: Yeah, video games, tv shows, and movies are great but what about literature? Well, I don’t know about literature but this Matthew Reilly guy’s been pretty busy lately. He’s released his most recent book in the Jack West Jr series, The Two Lost Mountains, in October last year and it’s probably the wildest book in the series so far.
If you’ve read the book like I have, the first question you most likely asked was: when can we read the next book? Well then, it’s good news for you because Reilly has announced that the final book in the series entitled “The One something something” is being released later this year.
With the Jack West series having begun 16 years prior and just as much fun as it was back in 2005, I’m looking forward to reaching the end of this wild ride and am excited to see what comes next from Matthew Reilly. Hopefully another Scarecrow novel or standalone novel like Temple.
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Have a great day,
-Rohan