With the next-generation PlayStation and Xbox due to arrive before the end of the year, there’s plenty for gamers to get excited about in the months ahead For the latest updates, follow us on Instagram @arabnews.lifestyle Spider-Man: Miles Morales The follow-up to 2018’s highly acclaimed “Marvel’s Spider-Man” will be one of the launch games for the PlayStation 5. It’s got a lot to live up to, with its predecessor being widely hailed as one of the best superhero games so far. One thing’s for certain: Judging by the trailer, it’s going to look spectacular. The game sees Miles Morales increasingly at home in his role as the titular web-slinger as he faces down a huge energy corporation and a criminal gang equipped with cutting-edge weaponry. The third instalment of inXile Entertainment’s popular squad-based RPG is, according to head developer Brian Fargo, “epic in size” — in contrast to the two previous titles. The player takes charge of a squad of up to six Desert Rangers “trying to rebuild society from the ashes” more than a century after nuclear bombs destroyed most of the world. You’ll have to decide which of the game’s many factions you want to befriend or fight as you try to prevent the inhabitants of Colorado from tearing each other apart. There’s plenty of excitement around the release of this space combat game — and not just because it’s set in the “Star Wars” universe. EA’s “Star Wars” games so far have been a mixed bag, but this one looks very promising indeed. Players can fly one of eight customizable ships (four from the Empire, four from the New Republic) and play single-player or multi-player modes. The single-player story mode involves the player in both sides of the fight, swapping roles between a rebel and imperial pilot. The first-person viewpoint only adds to the intensity of the dogfights. This isn’t the only big “Star Wars” release in 2020, either. For those who don’t mind a bit less realism, “Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga,” comes out later in the year. This action adventure game might be the best-looking of all the upcoming PS5 releases we’ve seen so far. It looks like a high-quality Japanese animated movie, even though it’s made in America. You play as Kena, a young Spirit Guide searching for a mountain shrine. You can enlist the help of some incredibly cute little critters called Rot who can help you transform the overgrown jungle into a navigable environment. But you’ll also have to face off against more-threatening inhabitants too. It will inevitably be a hit, purely because it’s an “Assassin’s Creed” title, but Ubisoft’s 22nd release in the action RPG series isn’t resting on its laurels. This time around, you control Elvor, a Viking raider taking part in the invasion of Britain in 873AD, who’s the latest hero (or heroine, if you choose) caught up in the timeless fight between the Brotherhood of Assassins and the Templar Order. The scenery of the open-world adventure looks amazing from PS5 trailers and while the gameplay looks similar to previous outings, there are some tweaks, including the ability to play dead so that enemies ignore you. One of gaming’s favorite characters is making a comeback in 2020 and Activision have even been kind enough to include a ready made headline in the title of this platform game for lazy journos. You can play as Crash or Coco Bandicoot to repair the rip in the fabric of time created by old enemy Doctor Neo Cortex. This hotly anticipated RPG third-person shoot-em-up from Polish producer People Can Fly allows players to customize their characters and choose skills including time manipulation, control of seismic energy, and mastery of fire as you fight for control of the planet Enoch, where a mysterious storm gives superpowers to both the natives and their would-be colonists — humanity. Back on the original PlayStation, “Oddworld: Abe’s Oddysee” was one of the finest — and most difficult … and strangest — games available, with players taking the role of Abe, a Mudokon slave at meat-processing plant RuptureFarms who must lead his fellow Mudukons to freedom and safety. “Soulstorm” is billed as a “reimagining” of its sequel, 1998’s “Abe’s Exoddus.” Abe must free more of his brethren from captivity. It’s still a side-scrolling platformer, but — particularly on next-gen consoles — with all sorts of mind-boggling new skills for Abe to learn.