July 12 - 18

Section: 

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

Welcome folks, and happy “78th Anniversary of the Battle of Prokhorovka” week! This was a massive tank battle between Germans and Soviets in WW2. The Soviets managed to stop a German offensive, but only by losing 5 tanks for every tank they destroyed. After the battle, Soviet military leaders over-reported the German tank casualties (strictly for morale purposes, of course) which led later historians to believe this to be the “Biggest Ever Tank Battle,” involving some 2,000 tanks. In reality, it probably featured a measly 800-1,200 tanks. You may all celebrate by playing Command & Conquer: Red Alert and doing a classic tank rush.

Reconnaissance Team of the 7th Engineer Brigade of the Demon King Army (AKA, Devil Army 7th Engineer Brigade Scouting Class, depending on how you translate the Chinese title) is a Chinese-language-only visual novel/puzzle game that also features a Windows 95-lookin’ version of minesweeper. It’s not particularly amazing, or worth playing at all unless you can read Chinese, but I mention it because 10 years ago, we wouldn’t even know this game existed. Hooray for global storefronts and hundreds of games coming out (Every. Dang. Week.) to be researched—well, googled at least— and potentially shouted out on TWA; truly gaming’s finest honour.

Streets of Rage 4: Mr. X Nightmare is a substantial DLC that adds new playable fighters and a whole bunch of weapons, including the unlicensed lightsaber laser sword. There’s also a new Survival Mode and a cool incentive to play it: completing Survival Mode will unlock new moves for the roster of playable fighters.

The Owl and the Lighthouse graduates to the PC from mobile devices this week. It’s an idler game, where you play for 5 minutes at a time. The gameplay loop is about hanging out in your lighthouse and collecting wood from the nearby forest. You make the wood into carvings to give to travellers who stop by, and in return, they tell you a story. Once you’ve heard a story, you can close the game until the next traveller arrives. It’s aiming to give a moment of zen every once in a while rather than immerse or challenge you.

Cricket Captain 2021 is the world’s most granular cricket management sim. It has updated its databases to account for the stats, records, and rosters from the past year and added in a whole bunch of classic, historical cricket matchups and domestic comps. Managing cricket has never had so many spreadsheets!

Batbarian: Testament of the Primordials is a 2D Metroidvania with lashings of self-described snarky humour. Within the Blade is a ninja 2D-platformer with RPG elements and crafting, like a 16-bit mashup of Mark of the Ninja and Tenchu.

Lost at Sea is literally a desert island game. It’s a walking simulator where you are a castaway on a strange island; you must explore it and solve puzzles to regain your memories. Lost at Sea claims to be about life itself, including some heavy emotional themes of fear of death, but it also wants to be tranquil.

Another emotionally-heavy game this week is Where the Heart Leads, a puzzle adventure game about an old man who enters a sinkhole to rescue the family dog and ends up going back in time to crucial family moments (as you do). From there, it’s all about choices and changing the past, then seeing how it resonates in the present/future.

Observer: System Redux is a comprehensive rebuild of Observer, a cyberpunk, psychological horror game from 2017. This is the game that featured the original ran blade himself, Rutger Hauer. It got solid reviews but drew criticism for the clunkiness of its stealth sections. Those stealth sections have been completely revamped and some new content has been added.

Nintendo has been steadily rejigging its old Wii and WiiU catalogue for the Switch. This week, we get a heavy hitter: The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD. Skyward Sword was a commercial success on its original release, but it still feels underappreciated somehow. Maybe because it came out a week after Skyrim. This HD version is more than a graphical upgrade. You can now choose to play with motion controls, as the original Wii version intended, or with regular joystick’n’button controls. Other quality-of-life improvements include skippable dialogue, skippable cutscenes, and skippable tutorials. I’ve never seen a game advertising so proudly how much of it you can now skip, but as someone who chafes under the yoke of the JRPG text scrawl, this is genuinely appealing. With this kind of polish job on a gem from yesteryear, it’s certainly something to tide you over until Breath of the Wild 2 comes out. GOTW.

EDIT: Just because this post isn’t long enough, here’s another shoutout: Neurocracy. Who among us hasn’t fallen down a Wikipedia rabbithole? You start by looking up the capital of Belarus and before you know it, 3 hours have passed and you’re reading about mixed unit tactics among Mongolian horse archers. In many ways, the Wikipedia rabbithole is a kind of self-directed choose-your-own adventure. All this is to say that Neurocracy is an anthology of sci-fi stories presented in the form of a Wikipedia rabbithole. You read entries in a fake Wikipedia set in 2049 and follow hyperlinks to other entries. The plot focuses on a high profile assassination that you are trying to solve, and the game is set over a period of 10 days, during which time entries on the Wikipedia will change. It’s a fascinating new way to present a story.

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

PC

  • 07-12

  • Balls out of Control
  • Cabin Fever
  • Claire de Lune
  • Dark Side of Fate
  • Entangled
  • Everlasting Guilt
  • Hell Corp
  • I Am - a story of awakenings
  • Jun Bao's Adventure
  • Kashiba Jin Oo Toubou
  • Magic Adventures
  • Mrs.Cat In Mars
  • Pocket Mina
  • Purgo box
  • Selene's Nightmare
  • Sonata Theory
  • Survivor
  • Sweeping the Ruins
  • The Owl and the Lighthouse
  • 07-13

  • Ancient Dino Runner
  • Ascent
  • Barking Puzzle
  • Blood Labs
  • Cricket Captain 2021
  • DEKONSTRUKT
  • Destined to Die
  • Earth Marines
  • Fat Fritz 2.0 SE
  • Highlaundry
  • Historical Jigsaw Puzzle: World War I
  • HuGe
  • Hungry Bunny
  • Junebug vs. Evil
  • Magic gems
  • Nine Heavens Conferred God
  • Outsider: After Life
  • PROJECTIONS
  • Radio Viscera
  • Save The Octo
  • SINGULARTY WORLD
  • SMETANKA
  • Stonescape
  • The Chameleon
  • The Final Stand: Breakout
  • Triversal
  • Ultimo Soccer UDC
  • 07-14

  • 3 O'clock Horror
  • Anatomy Of Fear
  • Averon Rising
  • Azimech
  • Cat from the box
  • Cross Board SOCCER
  • Dream Engines: Nomad Cities
  • Duck Flighting
  • Epocria
  • Escape from Terror City
  • Frame Game
  • Ghost Hammer
  • Gromopoli
  • Hustle Game
  • Impossible Pixels
  • Indoorlands
  • Not another zombie game
  • Old Evil
  • Reconnaissance Team of the 7th Engineer Brigade of the Demon King Army
  • Replicators Defence
  • Rolling Car
  • Runic Relay: The Trials
  • Set Up a Street Stall
  • Skydome (Nomad Brasil)
  • Snowpainters
  • SPACE DANCE
  • Space Punks
  • SuchArt!
  • Tank Zombie Smasher
  • There May Be Ninety-Nine Of Us, But We Have To Win In Ninety-Nine Turns!
  • witch elixir
  • 07-15

  • Calm Down, Stalin - The First Person
  • First Days of Atlantis
  • Guild of Darksteel
  • Highrisers
  • Lambs on the Road
  • Little Witch Academia: VR Broom Racing
  • Lost at Sea
  • Medieval Shop Simulator
  • Pugmire: Treasure of the Sea Dogs
  • Raptor Boyfriend: A High School Romance
  • REIGNS of SAMOSBOR
  • Robo-Worms
  • Squingle
  • Streets of Rage 4: Mr. X Nightmare
  • Tenjin Town Monogatari
  • The Unreal Story Battle Zone
  • Walkabout Mini Golf VR
  • Warhammer 40,000: Battlesector
  • We Are Open
  • Wonhon: A Vengeful Spirit

Xbox Series X

  • 07-13

  • F1 2021
  • 07-15

  • Blaster Master Zero II
  • Lost at Sea

Xbox One

  • 07-13

  • F1 2021
  • 07-15

  • Batbarian: Testament of the Primordials
  • Blaster Master Zero II
  • Streets of Rage 4: Mr. X Nightmare
  • 07-16

  • Restless Night
  • Within the Blade
  • Wizodd

PlayStation 5

  • 07-13

  • F1 2021
  • Where the Heart Leads
  • 07-15

  • Lost at Sea

PlayStation 4

  • 07-13

  • Where the Heart Leads
  • 07-15

  • Little Witch Academia: VR Broom Racing
  • Streets of Rage 4: Mr. X Nightmare
  • 07-16

  • F1 2021
  • Hotline Miami / Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number
  • Observer: System Redux
  • Within the Blade

Switch

  • 07-12

  • Fates of Ort
  • 07-13

  • Curved Space
  • 07-14

  • 3D Air Hockey
  • Induction
  • 07-15

  • Dark Fantasy: Jigsaw Puzzle
  • Dark Nights with Poe and Munro
  • Defend the Kingdom
  • Escape From a Deserted Island ~ The Adventures of Nyanzou&Kumakichi: Escape Game Series ~
  • Guild of Darksteel
  • Junkyard Builder
  • Labyrinth City: Pierre the Maze Detective
  • Lambs on the Road: The Beginning
  • Lotus Reverie: First Nexus
  • Macrotis: A Mother's Journey
  • Our Battle Has Just Begun! Episode 1
  • RED COLONY 2
  • Risk System
  • Rogue Wizards
  • Streets of Rage 4: Mr. X Nightmare
  • Wizodd
  • Word Crush Hidden
  • 07-16

  • Lost Grimoires 3: The Forgotten Well
  • Restless Night
  • The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD
  • Within the Blade

Comments

After the battle, Soviet military leaders over-reported the German tank casualties (strictly for morale purposes, of course) which led later historians to believe this to be the “Biggest Ever Tank Battle,” involving some 2,000 tanks. In reality, it probably featured a measly 800-1,200 tanks.

If there's any one constant in history, it's the inflation of numbers related to battles.

Oh, and of course you mentioned a Cricket release.

Well, I have to remember that GWJ has readers/listeners outside the USA

Plus, cricket is an inherently absurd and funny sport.

Felix Threepaper wrote:

Well, I have to remember that GWJ has readers/listeners outside the USA

Plus, cricket is an inherently absurd and funny sport.

Hot take: all of professional sport is inherently absurd and funny.