15 for 2015: Nathan Drake vs. Lara Croft

Perhaps it's not fair to put them up against each other. But everyone is going to do just that anyway. Especially if they see release in close proximity to each other. After all, Naughty Dog borrowed a lot from Tomb Raider when they created Uncharted, and Crystal Dynamics no doubt took inspiration from Naughty Dog's work when they rebooted their franchise in 2013. And when Microsoft announced an exclusivity deal on Rise of the Tomb Raider it became clear that the two adventurers would go up against each other - each an exclusive - sometime during the fall/winter of 2015.

We haven't seen a ton of either game at this point, but we expect these titles to be heavily featured at the Sony and Microsoft press conferences respectively. And we will start hearing a lot about them soon, very soon (the Uncharted 4 media blitz has sort of already kicked off).

Is it truly A Thief's End?

The Uncharted series has risen from humble beginnings to become what is perhaps the biggest first-party franchise Sony has in their stable. Anticipation for the fourth game - A Thief's End - is naturally very high and it had its proper debut at E3 last summer. As the subtitle suggests this is being some sort of ending to the Nathan Drake story. Naughty Dog have gone on record to describe the plot as follows: "his greatest adventure yet and will test his physical limits, his resolve, and ultimately what he's willing to sacrifice to save the ones he loves".

The story is set a few years after the events of Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception and Nathan Drake has "been out of the game" for a while. One last adventure for all the marbles.

More recently Naughty Dog's Bruce Strahley stepped onto the stage of PlayStation Experience in Las Vegas back in December to show the first gameplay demo - and it showed a return to familiar settings with jungles, a cave and rock climbing. One of the main focus points was the seemingly much improved enemy AI and behaviour, something that seems to have been lifted from The Last of Us - and the environment looked more open and offering more options for the player on how to progress.

In a recent feature in GameInformer it was also revealed that there will be an AI partner for Nathan, sort of like Ellie in The Last of Us, in the shape of his brother Sam. A long lost brother at that. It will be interesting to see how that plays out. Ellie was a natural fit in The Last of Us, but it remains to be seen how a companion affects the established dynamics of an Uncharted title. That said, if there's one studio who can pull that off it's Naughty Dog. But we always have that lingering doubt when it comes to AI companions and we can't quite shake that. The GameInformer preview also confirmed multiplayer, which shouldn't come as a surprise as the last couple of games have offered well crafted multiplayer experiences.

There are however some dark clouds on the Naughty Dog skies. Clearly something happened mid-development as Amy Hennig and a few other key members of the team up and left. Has the direction of the project changed any as the dynamic The Last of Us duo Bruce Strahley and Neil Druckmann took charge? Maybe, maybe not. Regardless of what happened we're still confident that the end product will be nothing short of spectacular.

The first lady of adventure returns

Lara Croft has been through a lot in her days. Her breakthrough in the mid-90s on PlayStation. Her sudden fall from grace as developer Core Design lost their magic touch in the late 90s and early 00s. Staying relevant thanks to some decent (but not great) motion pictures starring Angeline Jolie. Moving houses from Core Design to Californian outfit Crystal Dynamics. A switch that naturally brought about some changes, but over the years the studio showed an increasing understanding for the franchise and the games grew gradually better and more up to date with modern standards. 2013's Tomb Raider was a game that qualified on many Game of the Year lists, receiving accolades the franchise hadn't seen in many years. Lara Croft was back.

While Lara Croft has never really been exclusive to any one format - her fortune was made on PlayStation and it is naturally the platform she is most associated with - and so when Phil Spencer revealed that Rise of the Tomb Raider was an Xbox exclusive at Gamescom in August it caused a tidal wave of fan reaction. Lara belonged on PlayStation 4 and why would Square Enix abandon the Tomb Raider fanbase (that's largely on PlayStation) in such fashion. The simple answer is money. Microsoft stepped in to finance the project and in fact it has been revealed that Microsoft will be the publisher of the game (much like they published Dead Rising 3).

As you may recall the most recent game rebooted and gave us an origins story for Lara, and this sequel is meant to show her journey to become the fully-fledged adventurer she goes on to become. At the time of the announcement Crystal Dynamics put emphasis on the work they'd done as far as the engine and their performance capture techniques and how it will help deliver a stronger narrative. As this is clearly an area where Naughty Dog excels it will be interesting to compare what strides Crystal Dynamics have made in this area.

Camilla Luddington is back as Lara Croft, and Rhianna Pratchett has once again worked on the story.

Regardless of whether you're a fan of Nathan Drake or Lara Croft, or if you own a PlayStation 4 or Xbox One - next winter looks sure to deliver a great adventure. And it's going to be fascinating to follow this duel as two highly talented developers look to push the boundaries of action-adventure and gaming narratives.