What to Play in November and December: 12 Notable Upcoming Games

FPS
Out November 5 for PC, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X/S, and Xbox One

The first of three big-name first-person shooters arriving before year's end, Activision's annual Call of Duty title comes (in part) from series veterans Sledgehammer Games, best known as the lead developer for 2017's Call of Duty WWII, and runs on a modified version of the engine that drove 2019's Modern Warfare reboot. And Vanguard returns the franchise to the battlegrounds of World War 2, with a single-player campaign that focuses on the origins of the concept of "special forces" during that conflict. In fact, you'll get to play as four different elite soldiers (each from a different Allied nation) who are involved in key WWII battles in Europe, Africa, and the Pacific, with the story inspired by actual events rather than striving for historical accuracy. Multiplayer, meanwhile, will feature 20 multiplayer maps at launch, including four exclusive to the new "Champion Hill" mode featuring combat between teams of two. Also new to the series in Vanguard (but common in CoD competitor Battlefield) are destructible environments, while returning favorites include a Zombies mode (developed separately by Treyarch).