With the local launch of the PlayStation 4 just around the corner, we thought we’d put together a list of five games that we’re really excited for and can’t wait to play. Some will be available at launch, while others will only be shipping next year sometime. On to the games!

DriveClub

Developer: Evolution Studios
ETA: Early 2014

It might not be the realistic driving simulation of Gran Turismo or Forza, but Evolution Studios’ DriveClub has something else going for it: a fanatical dedication to making in-game cars look as good as or better than their real-life counterparts, down to the weave of their seats and the physical makeup of the materials covering their race-ready internals. It’s one of the best-looking titles for the PlayStation 4, and will beautifully showcase the console’s graphical power.

It will also make extensive use of the console’s new more social focus by encouraging social play. The driving clubs that give the game its name are organisations made up of groups of players. The point is to encourage players to earn Fame points for their chosen club, which are earned by completing driving Challenges and competing against other clubs for the best times/points/score.

These challenges can be anything from driving fast for set number of seconds, drifting around specific corners and accumulating the highest score, beating ghost cars and other actions that naturally happen around race tracks. Actions from all members of the club count towards each club’s total Fame, meaning anyone can contribute regardless of their driving skills.

These social aspects could well prove to be the hook that the racing genre needs to get people coming back, thinking “Just one more race, I have to beat that other club’s lap time!” Sony will launch a limited free-to-play version for PlayStation Plus subscribers alongside the full retail release.

Infamous: Second Son

Developer: Sucker Punch Productions
ETA: March 21, 2014

The first InFamous ended with an explosion that was thought to have destroyed all remaining Conduits, people who can naturally channel incredible power through their bodies, but of course it didn’t. In the aftermath of the explosion, the Department of Unified Protection (DUP) is formed to monitor for Conduit activity in the US, effectively branding any detected Conduits as bioterrorists.

The second game puts players in the shoes of a 24-year-old graffiti artist, Delsin Rowe, whose own powers awaken through serendipitous contact with another Conduit. Now a hunted man, he teams up with his brother, a cop, to fight back against the oppressive DUP and anyone else who gets in his way using his newfound powers.

InFamous: Second Son is set in a detailed open world that players can explore using the series’ trademark parkour system that has Delsin running over rooftops and jumping up walls like an athlete possessed. Delsin starts off being able to control and use smoke as a weapon, but his main ability is absorbing the powers of other Conduits, which the developers say is only the “tip of the iceberg” of what he’ll be able to do by the end of the game.

Expect to encounter footsoldiers of the DUP, other Conduits with incredible powers and various bad guys throughout the game, and take them all out by unleashing Delsin’s growing powers.

Killzone: Shadow Fall

Developer: Guerrilla Games
ETA: Out now

The latest Killzone is the best-looking and most polished in the series thanks to the graphical grunt of the PlayStation 4. The sci-fi world of the planet Vekta is shown off in amazing detail, and players will fight their way through its open design using a combination of stealth and run-and-gun tactics, while experiencing a decent sci-fi story with political undertones that mirror quite closely today’s newspaper headlines.

The first-person shooter action takes place on Vekta, the planet where Vektans and the Helghast live together in an uneasy truce, separated by a huge wall. Both sides routinely undertake covert missions against one another in the hopes of ending the war between them once and for all. Players step into the shoes of Lucas Kellan, a young Vektan soldier with a pretty good reason to loathe the Helghast: they killed his father.

Killzone has never looked this good, and Shadow Fall offers players around ten hours of entertainment in the single player campaign, and countless more shooting each other online in a robust multiplayer mode.

The Order: 1886

Developer: Ready at Dawn, Sony Santa Monica
ETA: 2014

Join an order of Knights in an alternate-history version of Victorian England, in which mankind fights against a half-human, half-animal enemy using weapons based on technology the real Victorian England couldn’t even dream of.

In the game’s alternate history, around the seventh or eighth century, a small number of people took on animal-like characteristics. Humanity at large was quite understandably afraid of these “half-breeds” and declared war on them, but due to the half-breeds’ strength and resilience, they couldn’t be wiped out, leading to centuries of conflict.

Eventually this strange history’s version of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table make an appearance, and Arthur, together with his Knights, take up the fight against the half-breeds.

The Order looks like it’s going to be a glorious mash-up of amazing graphics, anachronous weapons and third-person action in a truly unique setting, all powered by the PlayStation’s beefy hardware. Roll on, 2014.

Deep Down

Developer: Capcom Online Games, SCE Japan
ETA: March, 2014

Deep Down is a dungeon-crawler with action role-playing elements in a similar vein to 2011’s excellent Dark Souls. Except it’s been designed just for the PlayStation 4, and boasts some of the best-looking graphics of any game, ever, along with some pretty tight melee combat that will challenge gamers’ reflexes and timing to the max.

Developed by Capcom Online Games and Sony Computer Entertainment Japan, it’s going to be a free-to-play game that anyone with a PS4 can play, even if they don’t have a PlayStation Plus subscription. It’s not yet clear how, exactly, Capcom will be funding the game, although you can probably bet on there being micro-transactions for vanity items in there somewhere.