It's that time of year again: the last big games of the season have hit shelves, Holy shit, look at that list!

With so many heavy-hitters arriving next year, from Geralt to Batman to that dude with the awesome ax-saw from Bloodborne, it looks like there's going to be stiff competition for players' attention. Each release has something that sets it apart, but I suspect there will be games with just the right amount of similarities to spark a rivalry. And you know, just for fun, I'm gonna make my guesses right now. Place your bets, place your bets!

If this isn't the first thing that popped into your head when you read this article's headline, you don't know Lara Croft and Nathan Drake. Though they've never met, don't exist in the same universe, and were birthed from the minds of completely different developers, there's no denying that the rivalry between these two ruggedly attractive adventurers runs deep, and has shaped them both.

It wasn't always that way. Lara had been raiding ancient and holy structures for a good ten years before that whippersnapper Drake made the scene. But he brought with him a whole host of new ideas about scaling walls and punching stuff, which Croft clearly took to heart. They now compete for the title of Most Epic Action-Adventure Badass on a regular basis, and with both dropping in 2015, this will be the first time they've both had an original release in the same year. And with both acting as console-exclusive daredevils on release? Things are definitely going to get adventurous.

When looking up 2015's most anticipated titles in a sleep-deprived fugue state, I typed Evolve: Wild Hunt into the search and didn't realize my error for several seconds. It just seems so right, doesn't it? That's because Geralt of Rivia from have the same important job: kill the shit out of some monsters.

Granted, the where, how, and why of the monster-killing is different for both. Geralt will use his Witcher abilities to hunt beasts in a massive open world setting, while the Evolve hunters will fight behemoths (indeed, one's even named Behemoth) to clear a far-off planet for human civilization in asymmetrical multiplayer combat. Still, the basic premise remains the same - kill that big thing before it kills you, for adventure and profit. But between a medieval magic user and grizzled futuristic warriors with a death wish, who is the ultimate predator? Only time will tell… specifically the 365 day period beginning on January 1st. Yeah, that time.

We've got more hunters here, but these folks specialize in saving mankind… or what remains of it. DUN DUN DUN! Set in different post-crisis cities, both focus on the struggle to combat a hellish blight that turns humans into demonic creatures. It's a rough job, but…

Unlike the badass hunters from the previous slide, the hero of Bloodborne (currently codenamed 'That Guy') and the knights of The Order are more hemmed in when it comes to combat. Navigating the cramped streets of the gothic Y'harnam or alternate-universe London is no easy task, especially when they're full of human mobs and post-human Frankensteins that want to rip the heroes to pieces. Bloodborne dude and The Order's knights are going to need every ounce of wit and steel they can gather to survive, but the real question is, who's going to survive better?

In , where you try to keep the streets of L.A. safe from sophisticated career criminals who try to rob banks, start high speed chases and, yes, take hostages. The ultimate goal is to stop these evildoers from doing all that evil, which just goes to show that crime doesn't pa - oh wait. You can also play as the criminals in both games and ensure that their dastardly plots succeed. Well! Nevermind then.

As part of both Siege and Hardline, you'll flip between cop and criminal teams regularly, alternatively enforcing or thwarting the law. Both are intriguing in concept and leave little room for questioning the morality of hostage-taking, since you'll be the one doing the nabbing in about five minutes. But which one will have the upper, morally-gray hand? Keep your sights set on next year.

You normally wouldn't try to equate an eccentric billionaire with a thing for cosplay and a grizzled veteran who likes taking selfies. But in the words of an insane clown, maybe they're not so different after all. While Big Boss has quite a few years on Batman in the video game protagonist department, Batman was doing the gruff pseudo-hero act before Snake was a twinkle in Hideo Kojima's eye. That gives each equal claim to the cranky-and-jaded-protag title going into 2015, when kick it into gear.

Even taking into account their equally tragic pasts, there's no clear-cut winner. Both of these guys have grown thick calluses on their souls from exposure to the horrors of man, yet keep hoping that others will be able to ensure peace. Plus, there's the horrors of their personal lives: Batman may be able to play the 'dead parents' card (and boy does he ever), but Big Boss gets to mourn the fact that he was made to kill his mentor/mother figure as a pawn in a giant game of Illuminati chess. 2015 will tell who's the grumpiest, most ruined and noble justice-seeker.

Come 2015, it'll once again be time for a ragtag team of heroes to combat a vast network of foes with the most ridiculous array of weapons and powers you've ever seen. Blizzard is ready and raring to deliver just that with its team-based shooter .

Crashing the house party that Team Fortress 2 started, both Battleborn and Overwatch are looking to build off those foundations and add their own flair to the décor. Both have grand-scale narratives as their backdrops, with the Overwatch folks battling to bring peace to a vaguely chaotic world and Battleborn's crew trying to protect the last living star in the universe. Yeesh. This involves a lot of killing each other (though Battleborn boasts a MOBA-like horde mode as well). With an arsenal full of bizarre offerings from lightsabers to steampunk shotguns and the mighty fists of a silverback gorilla, both games look completely insane. But which one is SANE???! WE'LL PAINT THE WALLS WITH THE BLOOD OF MUSHROOMS!!!

Yes, both of these games and their beloved protagonists are the brain fruit of the same company. But you've seen will be hitting store shelves and battling for the heart of every gamer's inner child. Yes, even the kids who played Sonic.

Each of these games has something special tucked in its corner to win player favor. The Legend of Zelda has had a relatively consistent release schedule over the course its illustrious history, particularly since the late 90s, giving the Hero of Time plenty of… well, time to gain more fans. Fox hasn't been so lucky, since his last original title came out in 2006, but that just means fans are even more excited to see him back in action and barrel-rolling to his heart's content. It'll be a tough race for sure, but only one can be the TRUE VICTOR! I mean, unless people buy both. That could also work.

The new year is fast approaching, and these conflicts will come to a head before you know it. But there's still plenty of time for more rivalries to blossom. What other matchups do you think we'll see next year? Which of these adversarial relationships gets your blood pumping the most? Tell me in the comments below - betting hasn't ended yet!

Want to hear more about 2015? Of course you do, because it may just be .

The life expectancy of a free-running enthusiast who is infected with a zombie virus is admittedly pretty slight, but that doesn't mean you have to try and get yourself killed. The new choose-your-own-adventure style interactive trailer for Dying Light embedded below lets you get a feel for the game's survival freedom: engage in your preferred mix of high-flying acrobatics and clever zombie traps, or maybe even hang back a bit when distraction is the better part of valor (hint: no matter how much you idolize Casey Jones, taking on armed thugs with a baseball bat is still a poor idea).

Will Techland finally make good on its grand zomb-pocalyptic ambitions, previously seen in ? We'll find out soon enough. Dying Light's set to release on PC, PS4, and Xbox One on January 27, 2015 in North America, but until then make sure to click on for some of our preview impressions from earlier in the game's development.

Usually, your character in a first-person shooter isn't much more nimble than your typical zombie. It's here that Dying Light immediately separates itself from the rest of the genre, with fast, acrobatic movement that looks more like Mirror's Edge than Dead Island.

You can scale trees and poles, jump from rooftop to rooftop, and climb around almost anything, within the world. Being this agile completely changes how you approach situations, as you don't always need to carve a hole through the undead horde in order to escape. When forced to choose between fight or flight, flight is actually an option, and it looks incredibly fun.

Climbing around wouldn't be as entertaining if the world itself wasn’t wide open to explore. Thankfully, Dying Light is massive, with detailed environments that look truly stunning. We watched as the hero ran across rooftops, looking off into the brilliantly rendered distance and surveying the gigantic playable game space.

Techland wasn't ready to talk about the actual geography of Dying Light, but we could see that the game didn't take place in a wholly developed nation. The buildings were made of wooden planks and sheet metal, and the location looked more like a shanty town than a bustling metropolis. If we had to take a wild guess, we'd place the setting on an island or in South Africa, but we're not sure just yet.

When our demo started, the protagonist saw a number of supply drops fall from the sky. After a quick radio call with another survivor, he set off to try to work his way towards the nearest one in hopes of finding medical supplies, leaping over buildings and avoiding undead along the way. As he passed a building, he heard a noise that sounded like whimpering, and went into a nearby home to investigate.

Inside, he was attacked by a zombie, who chewed on his leg for a few moments before being stomped to a pulp. In the next room, a little girl was hiding in an armoire, crying about how her dad was "very mad and might hurt you." You got back in touch with a woman on the radio who said she'd come pick her up, and continued on your way. Objectives like this are optional and randomly appear in certain areas, creating unique situations for each person who plays.

Yeah, you read that right: Your character just had his foot chomped on by a zombie. Shouldn't that, you know, cause him to freak out and kill himself else he be turned into one of them? Well, no, because he's already on his way. Your character in Dying Light is infected with the zombie virus, and a little nibble here and there isn't going to change that.

His infection does come with a benefit, though: it also allows him to sense other zombies. He can send out a pulse--a sonar of sorts (zombdar?)--that shows where undead monsters are hiding. Totally worth it, right? We're guessing this is why it's so important that he finds medical supplies.

Sure, you'll spend plenty of time running over and away from zombies, but eventually you're going to have to fight some. This is, after all, a video game--and one made by the people who made Dead Island, no less. We watched as the zombie-hunter beat down hordes of enemies, cracking their skulls with blunt objects (with gory visibility thanks to with a cool x-ray effect), slicing off appendages with blades, and even using some cool acrobatic maneuvers to kick enemies or jump on their heads.

There are special abilities unlocked throughout the game, too. At one point the hero spun around with a machete, slicing enemies in a circle around him. Later, he grabbed a sledgehammer and leapt off a building, smashing into the ground and sending a wave of body parts flying through the sky.

You won't be limited to the weapons scattered around the world, though. Tinkering is a major part of Dying Light, and you'll be able to piece together different weapons from parts found in nooks, crannies, and bodies. We watched as the hero turned loot into a badass electric machete that was later used to slice apart undead hordes.

This element feels like it might be a double-edged sword. On the one hand, adding loot that can be turned into upgrades and crafted items gives you a reason to explore the world even more. No stone will go unturned when there's a chance that doing so could result in making a rocket-powered sledgehammer. That said, we feel as though an open-world zombie game with an emphasis on parkour might be enough complexity for one game, and adding in goofy, makeshift weapons might muddle things.

It's not uncommon for there to be day and night in open-world games, but usually day is bright and sunny, night is dark, and that's all there is to it. This isn't the case in Dying Light--when the sun goes down, everything changes. In the demo, the character was finally able to find a supply drop (besides the first one, which was guarded by gun-toting soldiers), but he arrived just as the sun went down.

During the night, the zombies behave more aggressively. This, alone, is disconcerting, but even more troubling is the other stuff that shows up when it's dark out. There's a different, mysterious kind of monster that prowls the streets after dark, hunting down the living (instead of, you know, just wandering around like a dumb zombie). You can try to outrun them, hide from them, or avoid them altogether by getting back to your base before they arrive.

We're still learning about the world of Dying Light--we don't know what caused the zombie outbreak, where the game takes place, or what's going on with the story. After seeing some of the different zombie types, though, we're sure it's all bad news. Besides regular zombies, which can swarm in massive groups (at one point, it looked like there were easily 100 running at the player) and the aforementioned night hunters, there are also other things that go bump in the day.

Giant, monstrous zombies roam the streets, bashing walls and charging the player. The coolest thing we saw, though, was a recently turned human. It was a zombie, through and through, with a hunger for flesh and a case of the undeadsies, but he still had some of his humanity left. It felt… different when he was killed. The noise he made unsettled us. We doubt the game will go into the morality of killing a mostly-human zombie, but we were intrigued by the concept.

We'll give you a few minutes to let this all sink in. We know what you're feeling. It's… confusion. Here you were, thinking you'd seen everything there was to see from a zombie game, when Techland shows up and throws Mirror's Edge into the mix and gets you all excited. Will it end up bringing your love for zombies back from the dead? Let us know what you think, and be sure to check back as we find out more about this intriguing game.

And if you're looking for more, check out .