November 4 - 10

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IMAGE(https://www.gamerswithjobs.com/files/pictures/pictures/picture-13445.jpg)   Felix “Tempus Fugit” Threepaper

Welcome folks, and happy “OMG it’s nearly Christmas already! Where does the time go?” week! You may all celebrate by remembering we’re still 7 weeks from Christmas, then playing a game with a rest function that shows the hours passing.

Death Stranding drops this week, in case you hadn’t heard. If I’d written this TWA entry a week ago, my editor would have a lot fewer grey hairs I’d be gushing about Kojima, the self-styled auteur whose connection to a game makes it an event, an experience, something Worth Discussing. That’s been my feeling for most of this year, but after reading a bunch of reviews in the last week, I now wonder if Death Stranding is even Worth Playing (for me).

The weird thing is, the reviews aren’t bad, by any stretch. Death Stranding is sitting at 84 on Metacritic, and is getting the breathless praise for reinventing videogames that Kojima so often gets. So why am I grumbling? Maybe because I’m finally getting a picture of what you do between the cutscenes.

From what I can tell, once you strip back the WTF premise and story, a large amount of your time in this 50-plus hour game will be spent carrying packages from A to B. Kojima has apparently reinvented videogames by recreating The Postman. There are a bunch of mechanics, such as falling over if you’re carrying too much or trip over a rock, that seem designed to make traversal “interesting” without making you enter combat every 10-seconds. Combat is intended to be rare. The asynchronous “stranding” elements allow you to change the environment in ways that assist you and other players in their world, such as leaving a rope at the top of a cliff, or even building a road. Rain falls, though, and slowly washes your improvements away, maybe to encourage players to maintain the commons. It sounds like an interesting garnish, but not hearty enough to fill you up by itself.

One of my personal dealbreakers for any game is “the game really gets good after 10 hours,” which is a common refrain in reviews for Death Stranding. This is not to say that it is a bad game—for starters, how would I know? I haven’t played it. Plus, all story and character discussion is currently embargoed, and many fans of games like The Last of Us and Red Dead Redemption 2 argue that the story and character moments lift the experience above any frustration with the game mechanics. I just find it strange that after having big hype for this game all year, once I dove more into what it actually is, it sounds like work. Had I not read a review, I probably would have bought it day one and would be doing all this griping in the game thread instead.

After taking too long to criticise a game for taking too long, here’s a quick shoutout to some non-Kojima games this week. Need for Speed: Heat continues racing games’ love of open worlds. It also continues the legal day racing/illegal night racing dichotomy that was introduced in Payback but you can switch between day and night at will, rather than having to drive aimlessly around for 12 hours until sundown.

Blacksad: Under the Skin is an adaptation of the Spanish/French noir comics about a cat detective in 1950s USA, by Spanish devs Pendulo studios. It looks to have a Telltale-style, adventure narrative gameplay that involves timed conversations, object search sequences, but no inventory mix-n-match.

The Lord of the Rings: Adventure Card Game launches in digital and cardboard formats this week. The digital version is always-online, even for the single-player campaign. Also, multiplayer is co-op instead of PvP—you can form a makeshift alliance (if only there was a more elegant way of saying that) to beat Sauron, but not actually be Sauron.

Just Dance 2020 drops and somehow I know some of these songs! Now I can finally work out how to dance to Old Town Road, Baby Shark and … Always Look on the Bright Side of Life?

Given that what I thought would be my GOTW got a last-minute scratching, I’ll throw a bone to Planet Zoo. It’s the mashup of Zoo Tycoon and Planet Coaster you never thought you needed. Just remember, the aim is to build a genome in which the animals thrive, not create some sadistic Skinner Box like we all did with Planet Coaster.

Here's the list, now in release-date order!

PC

  • 11-04

  • Mars Power Industries Deluxe
  • Return Of The Zombie King
  • BreakTube
  • Vecter
  • It Will Find You
  • Hexagun
  • Way of Boy
  • I will eat you
  • Super Novel Collector
  • Queeny Army
  • Shooting Star
  • Shiki
  • KAJA
  • Short Scary Stories
  • Go Out
  • ImageStriker
  • Tank battle
  • Mazi - Remastered
  • 11-05

  • Blacksad: Under the Skin
  • Planet Zoo
  • Conception PLUS: Maidens of the Twelve Stars
  • Beautiful Bricks
  • Invasion 2037
  • Galactic Rangers VR
  • Eye Of Plunder
  • Alfonzo's Arctic Adventure
  • Knight Eternal
  • Red Dead Redemption 2
  • PuzzlesCave
  • Shadow of the Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition
  • Red Dead Online
  • DemonCrawl
  • Guildmaster Story
  • Monster AyaginuTan
  • Heart in the Dark
  • Gates of Hell
  • Romguns
  • N.E.O
  • The Rest of Our Lives
  • mm Garden
  • 11-06

  • Avabel Online
  • Into the Radius VR
  • A Year Of Rain
  • Meteorfall: Krumit's Tale
  • CARRUMBLE
  • Parcel Panic
  • Marbles on Stream
  • [MISC] TIMELINES
  • aMAZE Gears 2
  • D3D INSIDE
  • Resurrector
  • Anonymous Player
  • Tactical Nexus
  • World War 2 Winter Gun Range VR Simulator
  • Iron Blood VR
  • sin play
  • Soviet Bear Uni Adventure
  • Planet Lander
  • Go All Out: Free To Play
  • 11-07

  • Failspace
  • King's League II
  • IgKnight Golf Defender
  • Albedon Wars
  • Surviving Medieval
  • SUPERVERSE
  • Pistol Whip
  • Skybolt Zack
  • Garfield Kart: Furious Racing
  • Mustache or Revenge
  • The Secrets of Jesus
  • Stay Cool, Kobayashi-san!: A River City Ransom Story
  • Voxelgram
  • Abode 2
  • Project R.I.P. VR
  • More dark
  • Cockwork Industries Complete
  • Jewel Match Atlantis Solitaire - Collector's Edition
  • Original Walker: Prologue
  • Grand Academy II: Attack of the Sequel
  • Gangsters 1920
  • Stratoscape
  • City Survival
  • The Refuge
  • Space electrician
  • RotoBrix
  • RED EVIL
  • BRITANNIA VR: OUT OF YOUR MIND
  • Nanoworld
  • 11-08

  • Scatteria
  • Ghost Grab 3000
  • Jumanji: The Video Game
  • Cthulhu's Catharsis
  • Need for Speed Heat
  • Radish
  • Hibiscus Red
  • Explosion Magic Firebolt VR
  • Word Training Camp
  • Nauseous Pines
  • HAM-MASTER
  • Deep Ocean Rush
  • PUT IN BAD
  • The Princess, the Stray Cat, and Matters of the Heart 2
  • UBERMOSH:OMEGA
  • Bundle Kitt
  • 3 Blind Mice: A Remediation Game for Improper Children
  • Lurk in the Dark : Prologue
  • Somewhere inside
  • Basic Car Repair Garage VR
  • Pixel Puzzles Traditional Jigsaws
  • Thanks For Listening
  • MyStar
  • 11-09

  • Ashland
  • Space Wars
  • Bruxinha Luana

PS4

  • 11-05

  • Blacksad: Under the Skin
  • Valfaris
  • Destiny Connect: Tick-Tock Travelers
  • Conception Plus: Maidens of the Twelve Stars
  • Garfield Kart: Furious Racing
  • Audica
  • Shadow of the Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition
  • The Elder Scrolls Online: Dragonhold
  • Lithium: Inmate 39 - Relapsed Edition
  • Asdivine Kamura
  • Football Game
  • Light Fairytale Episode 1
  • MechaNika
  • Just Dance 2020
  • 11-06

  • Fire Pro Wrestling World: Entrance Craft
  • 11-08

  • Death Stranding
  • Need for Speed Heat
  • Stay Cool, Kobayashi-san!: A River City Ransom Story
  • Jumanji: The Video Game
  • Police Chase

Xbox One

  • 11-05

  • Blacksad: Under the Skin
  • Just Dance 2020
  • Garfield Kart: Furious Racing
  • Shadow of the Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition
  • The Elder Scrolls Online: Dragonhold
  • 11-06

  • Wizards of Brandel
  • 11-07

  • Stay Cool, Kobayashi-san!: A River City Ransom Story
  • 11-08

  • Need for Speed Heat
  • Jumanji: The Video Game
  • Tanky Tanks
  • STURMWIND EX

Switch

  • 11-04

  • Touhou Kobuto V: Burst Battle - Youmu Konpaku
  • 11-05

  • The Lord of the Rings: Adventure Card Game
  • Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games: Tokyo 2020
  • Garfield Kart: Furious Racing
  • Farm Expert 2019 for Nintendo Switch
  • Ships
  • Just Dance 2020
  • 11-06

  • Construction Simulator 2: Console Edition
  • 11-07

  • Incredible Mandy
  • Tokyo Dark: Remembrance
  • Skybolt Zack
  • Ritual: Crown of Horns
  • Farmer's Dynasty
  • Stay Cool, Kobayashi-san!: A River City Ransom Story
  • Headsnatchers
  • puzzlement
  • Juicy Realm
  • ANIMUS: Harbinger
  • MEANDERS
  • Strange Telephone
  • The Manga Works
  • Monkey Barrels
  • The Grisaia Trilogy
  • Asdivine Kamura
  • 11-08

  • Disney Tsum Tsum Festival
  • Layton's Mystery Journey: Katrielle and The Millionaires' Conspiracy - Deluxe Edition
  • New Super Lucky's Tale
  • STURMWIND EX
  • One Person Story
  • Blindy
  • REKT!
  • House Of Golf

Vita

  • 11-05

  • Football Game

Comments

Definitely picking up Death Stranding.Valfaris will definitely make it onto my collection at some point. Lithium looks very interesting, so that might come up, as well. I would also say I'd get Fire Pro Wrestling World: Entrance Craft , but I haven't even gotten the base game yet, so there's that...

Garfield Kart: Furious Racing

That's all that needs to be said.

Garfield Kart: Furious Racing

Buy it.

Prediction - Baby Shark being in Just Dance is going to seriously hurt it's sales numbers. No parent I know willingly invites that into their home.

Jonman wrote:

Prediction - Baby Shark being in Just Dance is going to seriously hurt it's sales numbers. No parent I know willingly invites that into their home.

No parent I know willingly invites a fart into their home, and yet so many of us laugh.