Felix “Wibble Wobble” Threepaper
Welcome folks, and happy “43rd Anniversary of the World’s Largest Ever Jelly” week!
On 5 February 1981, officials from the Guinness Book of World Records confirmed that Paul Squire and Jeff Ross from Brisbane, Australia made the world’s largest jelly (or Jello to you US readers). It was 35,000 litres (7,700 gallons) in volume and made in a tank donated by a local swimming pool company. The jelly was pink, with watermelon flavour. You may all celebrate by playing a game where you collect more consumables than you will ever use.
This week is strangely quiet after such a frenetic start. It’s like 2024 got up when its alarm went off, had a shower, brushed its teeth, then went straight back to bed.
Helldivers II is a Sony ‘sclusy. The first Helldivers was a top-down, multiplayer, humans-against-the-universe kinda shooter with a tongue-in-cheek, Starship Troopers vibe. Helldivers II takes it to 3rd-person, but otherwise keeps the same attitude. This is reflected in grimly funny cutscenes and the gameplay mechanics that often serve to remind you that you are not Master Chief; you are cannon fodder. Friendly fire is always on and your 4-player squad gets 20 revives per match. In the endless battle against bugs and robots, humanity must produce its own waves of expendable grunts.
Atomic Heart: Trapped in Limbo is the second piece of DLC for this Russian Bioshock Infinite-alike. It picks up right after the end of the story and sends you to Limbo, a fleshed-out version of a place you visit during the main campaign, as well as giving an alternate ending. This game was a GamePass ‘hit’ that attracted over 5 million players in the first month. Could that have happened without GamePass? Probably not. Did those 5 million players translate to more money flowing back to the dev team? Also probably not. The devs do get the chance to make their money on the DLC. It’s like buying a band’s merch, cause they don’t get squat from album sales. This doesn’t seem sustainable for anyone but the biggest names; subscription models need to be examined more closely.
Speaking of subscription models, Foamstars is available to PS Plus subscribers as a February game. It’s Splatoon by Sony. Instead of shooting paint, you’re shooting bubbles that pop into foam. There are some other points of difference in the mechanics, mostly cribbed from Overwatch, but it’s fundamentally the same as Splatoon, with as much emphasis on shooting the environments as each other.
Shanghai Summer is a visual novel that takes the protagonist through 12 days of summer. Players will do some light clue finding, then head back to the mind palace for lashings of deduction to resolve the narrative’s mystery.
This week’s award for the most generic name that could have been made by AI is Dungeonoid 2 Awakening. It’s dungeon-crawling mixed with old school brick-breaking as you pick a character, then control a platform that slides around to bounce a ball into bricks.
On the ports front, Alisa is a horror adventure game that came out on PC in 2021 and looks like a PS1 game. Do not confuse this game with Alisa from the Tekken series, like my Google search did. Cannibal Abduction is also a horror game, but looks more like a PS2 game. .T.E.S.T: Expected Behaviour is not a horror game, but makes me scream just for that period before the first “T” in the title. It’s 3D puzzling with a time limit. Jubilee is a pixelated precision platformer.
Once again, no game really jumps out at me this week, besides the horror games, and I hate it when they do that. I just started Warhammer 40K: Rogue Trader, my first dip into the Warhammer universe. Apparently this means I’ll be painting miniatures within 3 months.
I guess the Resident Evil 4: Gold Edition would be an excuse to finally try a classic, foundational game, with modern bells and whistles. It’s a GOTW that feels like homework.
GWJ Word of the Week
Looter-shooter: an action game, usually with shooting gameplay, where the player rewards are randomly-generated weapons and items. 2009’s Borderlands popularised the form. The randomised nature of the loot keeps players replaying the game, or grinding, in the chance of getting a rare item of high quality. Later, games like Destiny introduced microtransactions, where you can simply buy the rare items in-game with real currency and save yourself hours of grinding. These mechanics went on to become the backbone of the mobile gaming market and would later evolve into loot boxes and other compulsion mechanics that are conceptually indistinct from gambling.
Here's the list, in release-date AND alphabetical order!
PC
-
02-05
- Apocalypse Siege
- Baby Dino
- Burrito Bear
- Crazy Animal Choir
- EGG (KolbasinoGames)
- Escape from the test
- Firework Survivor
- Friendly Snowball
- Heroes of Troubled Times
- Neon Fuga
- Passing Into Fantasy
- Recon Quest
- Soulivion II
- Spectator 2
- Tenno
- The Chosen One by the World
- The Isle of Elanor
- World in fire
-
02-06
- AeternoBlade II: Infinity
- Arms Trade Tycoon: Tanks
- Atomic Heart: Trapped in Limbo
- Cat Billiards
- CLeM
- Failed Trust
- Monster Parade: Nurturing a Hero's Sacred Sword!?
- Murder Is Game Over: Deal Killer
- Onward and Upward! DX
- Puzzle Art Gallery - Nature
- Slot Shots Pinball Ultimate Edition
- Space Garbage
- That Way!
- Threes!
- Traffic Master
- Way of the Hunter: Matariki Park
-
02-07
- Cat Bang
- Dungeonoid 2 Awakening
- Elder Trial
- Endless Faith
- Folgore
- Gregg: Tower Defence
- Hook Line & Sinker
- Keep It Steady!
- Luminous
- MIX IT!
- My Team Goes Forward
- Purrs In Heaven
- Sticky Struggles
- WitchHand
-
02-08
- 100 Winter Cats
- Alice49 EP.0
- Dead Hook
- Duel with the Devil
- Dungeon of Stone
- Farm Racing
- Forest Keeper
- Helldivers II
- Hunt Together
- KONOSUBA: God's Blessing on This Wonderful World! Love for These Clothes of Desire!
- Magic Runes
- My Island (2019)
- Project 47
- Shanghai Summer
- Successful business
- super bad hero
- The Inquisitor
- Touhou Danmaku Kagura Phantasia Lost
- Unreality
-
02-09
- Acapella Master
- Captain Firehawk and the Laser Love Situation
- Desert Kingdoms
- Echo Tokyo: Reaper
- Eldritchvania
- Forgotten Monsters
- Goat Scourge
- Grieve
- Hoverkitty In The Hoververse Chapter Three
- I commissioned some abstract bunnies
- Legumi
- Limsod
- Look Inside
- Nathan Morgan: Dilemma
- OVRDARK: a Do Not Open story
- Reroute
- Resident Evil 4: Gold Edition
- Spheric Bombs
- Star Shift Rebellion
- STARS ERA: ABYSS FRONTIER
- Stellar Reflections
- TETRIS almost
- The Legend of Elrian
- Unknown Signal
- What if your girl was a frog 2
-
02-10
- Serbian Dancing Lady
-
02-11
- Cats Hidden in Georgia
- DNA: Episode 2
- Off-Road: Redneck Racing
- Planet Management Company PMC
- RPG Survivors
- Selling Souls
- Why do you love me?
Xbox Series X
-
02-06
- AeternoBlade II: Infinity
- Alisa
- Alisa: Developer's Cut
- Atomic Heart: Trapped in Limbo
-
02-08
- Cannibal Abduction
-
02-09
- Jubilee
- Resident Evil 4: Gold Edition
Xbox One
-
02-06
- AeternoBlade II: Infinity
- Alisa: Developer's Cut
- Atomic Heart: Trapped in Limbo
- Sydney Hunter and the Curse of the Mayan
-
02-08
- Cannibal Abduction
-
02-09
- Deathly Dangerous
- Jubilee
PlayStation 5
-
02-06
- Alisa
- Alisa: Developer's Cut
- Atomic Heart: Trapped in Limbo
- Foamstars
-
02-08
- Helldivers II
- Legendary Tales
- Shanghai Summer
-
02-09
- Jubilee
- Resident Evil 4: Gold Edition
PlayStation 4
-
02-06
- Alisa: Developer's Cut
- Atomic Heart: Trapped in Limbo
- Foamstars
-
02-08
- KONOSUBA: God's Blessing on This Wonderful World! Love for These Clothes of Desire!
- Shanghai Summer
-
02-09
- Resident Evil 4: Gold Edition
Nintendo Switch
-
02-06
- Alisa: Developer's Cut
- CLeM
- Town Adventures
-
02-07
- Dungeonoid 2 Awakening
- HunterX: code name T
-
02-08
- .T.E.S.T: Expected Behaviour
- Alisa
- Alpaca Wonders Why
- Cannibal Abduction
- Chou Nanmon! Hyoushiki Quiz Are? Kore? Dono Maaku? Asobete Manaberu Benkyou Kyouyou Game
- Croc's World 4
- Deathly Dangerous
- Dreamland Solitaire
- God of Light: Remastered
- Guutara Jou Kousei Keikaku ~ Neet Girl Rehabilitation Plan ~
- Illang
- Invector: Rhythm Galaxy
- KONOSUBA: God's Blessing on This Wonderful World! Love for These Clothes of Desire!
- Neet Girl Rehabilitation Plan
- Pirates: Caribbean Chronicles
- Police Car Driver City Parking Simulator
- Quiz Doubutsu Zukan DX
- Shanghai Summer
- Shougakusei Demo wa Garu Suuji de IQ Quiz Geki Muzu Nanmon nou Tore nou Katsu Hirameki Suugaku Shikou Puzzle
- Slimeboo
- Super Cannibal Abduction
- West Hunt
-
02-09
- A Void Hope
- Borzoi Adventure
- Football Simulator 2024
- Forklift Simulator 2024
- Golfinite
- Jubilee
- Prisonela DX
-
02-10
- MakOS new operating system
Comments
Oh Helldivers 2. I had quite a bit of fun with thr first and the perspective change seemed like a very good idea to me. Early marketing seemed to suggest they were loosing the friendly fire and the situational, accidental death based humour that came with it but it sounds like those thing are still in place. Looking forward to giving it a try, especially if I can get some co-op going.
‘…or you can get to work. That's all it is. You just begin. You do the math. You solve one problem... and you solve the next one... and then the next. And If you solve enough problems, you get to go home.’ - Mark Watney, The Martian.
Cannot wait for Helldivers 2! Looks great and took a lot of what was in the first one and adapted it to the second one but in 3d along with a few more touches.
aka Skavn
Apparently Helldivers 2 has massive preorders and is ridiculously popular on Steam. Who knew there were so many existing and potential Helldivers fans?
It’ll be fantastic if it takes off. It’s only £30 as well which is in my ‘tempting purchase’ zone.
‘…or you can get to work. That's all it is. You just begin. You do the math. You solve one problem... and you solve the next one... and then the next. And If you solve enough problems, you get to go home.’ - Mark Watney, The Martian.
what is the game with the thread picture?
remastered inventory Tetris from Resident Evil 4!
Defunk'd Bloggue
Bluesky: @lancecalhoon.bsky.social
I need to get better at inventory Tetris. I could barely squeeze a golden egg into my inventory last night and I don’t have the rocket launcher yet (I do have a crap ton of health sprays and hand grenades though.)
‘…or you can get to work. That's all it is. You just begin. You do the math. You solve one problem... and you solve the next one... and then the next. And If you solve enough problems, you get to go home.’ - Mark Watney, The Martian.