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At the start of the new year, we once used to run a series looking at the trends we think will emerge over the next 12 months - the ideas and technologies that will go on to shape and define the games we play and how we play them. This year, it didn't seem a particularly fitting way to tackle what lies ahead: not because there won't be grand themes emerging, and not because there won't be new approaches that will dazzle and confound us, but rather because it seems pointless pointing out what's becoming patently obvious. VR will eke closer to becoming a reality, even if it is one that's likely to be limited to the enthusiastic few for the foreseeable future; new and exciting voices will continue to bubble up through the cauldron of Steam; games will continue to explore new, challenging and increasingly mature subject matter and big budget triple-A games, while diminishing in number, will continue to beg for more of their players time with open worlds that become broader and more bombastic.
There's something so very familiar about it all, but not wearily so. The last few years have seen tumultuous change, the turnover that comes with a new generation spinning more furiously as so many other volatile elements were thrown into the mix. It's been an exciting couple of years, but also - as witnessed by last year's cracked tempers and broken games - it's been a fractured, frequently frustrating era.
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