From new takes on old franchises to entries for all-new platforms, these are the titles we most want to play

Every gaming year’s most anticipated list feels like a mashup of aspiration and prudence, a medley of punchy independent efforts squaring off with titanic franchises designed to reel in loyal fans by the gazillions.

Not that sequels have to be stale. I can’t wait to try Mass Effect: Andromeda, for example, after the triumphs of Dragon Age: Inquisition. Halo Wars 2 revisits the original Xbox 360 game’s laudable, subversive approach to a genre generally inseparable from keyboard and mouse. The Persona games practically make reinvention their watchword. And does anyone really want to gripe about a Red Dead prequel?

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Ellen McLain, the voice behind the murderous artificial intelligence GLaDOS from the Portal series, and her husband, John Patrick Lowrie, who voices The Sni​per from the game Team Fortress 2, are nothing if not adorable.

The celebrity of the characters they portray may not be readily apparent for the ​minority of Americans who don’t play video games. But the games they have worked on have won multiple British Academy Awards (the UK Academy Awards have a video game category), sold out 10,000-seat stadium esports events in under an hour, and raked in hundreds of millions of dollars annually for at least one of their publishers. Ellen and John, and their decade-spanning body of work, are at the epicenter of the video game voice acting universe. During a recent recording session at a dimly lit Seattle studio, the couple gave me a demonstration of how they work.

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Dancing With Eternity is now an audio book

Ellen McLain and John Patrick Lowrie (me) read my award-winning scifi novel, Dancing With Eternity. Called “mind blowing … pitch perfect … a stellar debut that shows why science fiction is still the most interesting genre today” and “a complex, cerebral, yet exciting science fiction thriller”, Dancing With Eternity is now realized as an audiobook complete with score and sound effects. Get it here:
http://www.audible.com/search/ref=a_mn_at_ano_tseft__galileo?advsearchKeywords=dancing+with+eternity&x=-1211&y=-41

Dancing With Eternity is now an audio book

The legendary Ellen McLain (voice of GLaDOS in the Portal games and Gipsy Danger in Guillermo del Toro‘s epic blockbuster, Pacific Rim) joins her husband, John Patrick Lowrie (voice of the Sniper in Team Fortress 2, Sword Control in Halo Reach, Pudge, Storm Spirit et al in DOTA 2) in bringing to electrifying life John’s award-winning scifi epic, Dancing With Eternity. Produced by Jim French Productions in crisp detail complete with music and sound effects, the book becomes a cinematic experience that lets you move through the worlds and adventures of Steel, Mohandas and the crew of the starship Lightdancer as you never have before. Feel the tropical breezes of Vesper, the lonely desert winds of Eden, experience the NavNet and interstellar flight. The score by the author captures the tension, the mystery and wonder of this story and propels you from chapter to chapter. Every word of the original novel is brought to life.

Ellen McLain stars as the enigmatic Steel, owner of her own starship, driven by forces that will only be discovered in time. Ellen also performs all the other female characters, bringing to each one a vitality and depth that you have come to expect from this award-winning actress. John Patrick Lowrie narrates as the unemployed actor, Mohandas, who is swept up in Steel’s feverish quest. Follow them as they explore the alien yet familiar social tapestry of 40th century humanity, a place where death is almost forgotten and intimacy enhanced by a telepathic internet that connects every single individual human mind.

Dancing With Eternity, the award-winning, critically acclaimed science fiction novel, now an epic audio book. Look for it soon on audible.com, amazon.com, and iTunes.