Call of Duty, Halo 5, Fallout 4 top most-anticipated video game list

Mike Snider | USA TODAY

Video game fans still plan to answer the Call of Duty.

Call of Duty: Black Ops III (Nov. 6, for Microsoft Xbox One, Sony PlayStation 4 and PCs) is the fall's most anticipated video game release, according to Nielsen's latest survey of consumer anticipation for titles coming out by the end of the year.

The next installment in Activision's multibillion-dollar first-person shooter franchise got the highest Nielsen Game Rank anticipation level — 98% out of 100% — among games to be released by the end of 2015. More than 4,800 gamers aged 7-54 were surveyed Aug. 24-Sept. 19 for the rankings. Rankings take into account consumer awareness, purchase interest, purchase urgency consumer rating and other factors.

Several other new chapters in popular game series are highly desired, including Assassin’s Creed: Syndicate (Ubisoft, Oct. 23) and Fallout 4 (Bethesda Softworks, Nov. 10), both of which drew 95% anticipation ratings and will be released for PS4, Xbox One and PCs.

Halo 5: Guardians (343 Industries, Oct. 27) got a 100% rating among games coming only to Xbox One. Thus, Black Ops III "is the most anticipated title releasing on multiple platforms this holiday season, but on the Xbox One platform specifically, Halo 5 has slightly higher anticipation," said Scott Pitchford, Nielsen Games' director of research and client consulting.

Other much anticipated games include Need for Speed (Electronic Arts, Nov. 3, PS4, Xbox One), which had a 92% rating, Star Wars: Battlefront (EA, Nov. 17, PS4, Xbox One, PCs) with an 88% rating, Rise of the Tomb Raider (Square Enix/Crystal Dynamics, Nov. 10, Xbox One) at 80% and Rock Band 4 (Harmonix/Mad Catz, Tuesday, PS4, Xbox One) at 76%.

With the growing hype around Star Wars, it might surprise some that Need for Speed is more anticipated than the upcoming Star Wars: Battlefront game.

"There is certainly a lot of buzz around anything Star Wars right now, and Battlefront was a popular franchise during it’s relatively brief existence 10 years ago," Pitchford said. Having been dormant for a long while, combined with the fervor for Star Wars, it makes sense that it would rank highly, and it does, he said.

"But Need For Speed is a long-standing mainstay in the racing genre, and the franchise itself has been around for over 20 years," Pitchford said. Plus, this will be the first Need for Speed title on the 8th Generation consoles. "So I can understand why the anticipation for it might be a little higher than usual this year."

The most anticipated PlayStation 4-only game: Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection (Friday). And the most anticipated game for Nintendo's Wii U is Yoshi's Woolly World (Oct. 16).

For more on the holiday's most anticipated video games, go to Nielsen's report.

Follow Mike Snider on Twitter: @MikeSnider