20 Most Hotly Anticipated Holiday 2017 Video Games - Ranked

14. Middle-Earth: Shadow Of War

Release Date: October 10 (PS4, Xbox One, PC)

The Hype: Though Shadow of War's marketing push has been somewhat derailed by some less-than-ideal PR fiascoes regarding DLC and over-sexed female villains, the game nevertheless looks like a solid improvement upon the original's fantastic foundation.

Far from a typical video game created from an existing IP, 2014's Shadow of Mordor was widely-lauded for its innovative Nemesis system, which returns with some new bells and whistles, namely promising greater control over the player's allies.

It remains to be seen whether Shadow of War is anything more than a decent update of the original, but honestly, given how great the first game was, that'd basically be enough.