December 9 - 15

  Felix “I hate those guys” Threepaper

Welcome folks, and happy “1,488th Anniversary of General Belisarius reclaiming Rome for the Byzantine empire” week! You may all celebrate by playing a game where you take a city, lose it again shortly after, then take it again, and by the time you get to keep it, it’s all pillaged and ruiny.

2024 is juddering to a halt, approaching the end with a bang as one of its most anticipated games launches properly this week.

Reviews are already in for Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, due to its soft launch on 6 December. Overall, the impressions are good—the general consensus is that it captures the spirit of the 1st and 3rd movies, in all their Nazi-punching glory. This comes through in the cutscenes and snappy dialogue, where Troy Baker does an Indy voice that manages to leap the uncanny valley. The puzzle elements will have you examining artefacts and the walls of ruins looking for clues, giving you a chance to appreciate the detail of the environmental art.

When Indy uses guns, the enemies start using theirs and the whole map gets alerted very quickly. This discourages from playing Indy as a trigger-happy maniac like Nathan Drake. If Indy sticks to his fists (and, of course, his whip), he can avoid raising the alarm and the enemies obey Marquis of Queensberry rules. Apparently this can lead to some silly situations, where you have a bunch of 5 or so Nazis with rifles on their backs waiting patiently to duke it out with you. This silliness is compensated by the fact that it’s fun to punch Nazis. The first-person fisticuffs mechanics, and the stealth elements of the game, reminded reviewers of Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay, which is promising, because that game ruled.

On paper, it has a lot in common with Star Wars: Outlaws: they’re both graphically-lovely renditions of a classic movie IP. They both offer a bunch of different mechanics with an open-world structure that try to promote stealth and judicious combat rather than shooting everything. However, Indy strikes a different balance to Outlaws by giving you fun punching and more choice about when to go loud, instead of hiding in the shadows and getting your pet rodent to do your dirty work. Indy’s combat and enemy AI may be more unrealistic, but look like more fun.

PlayStation and Switch owners will have to be happy with Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver 1 & 2 Remastered, a port of some classic action-adventure titles by Aspyr, a dev that specialises in port-polishing. Although the original games are 21 and 27 years old, they were ahead of their time, with a cool mechanic where you switch between two planes of existence as you do third person combat and puzzling with RPG elements.This remaster makes them feel like they are only 10 and 16 years old, like games that would have rocked a PSP. Otherwise there’s a bundled port of Mercenaries Saga: Rebirth & Lament, some Japanese SRPGs from the last few years.

Indiana Jones and the Great Circle gets the GOTW. It may sneak into GOTY discussions, like Indy snatching his hat just before the stone door comes down. The good thing about reviews being out already is that we know it doesn’t suck, which is a huge relief. You could beeline the main story to experience the best of the set-pieces or get lost in the ample but non-compulsory side-questing, if you want to savour the vibe. I’m sure I have Christmas preparations to get on with.

GWJ Word of the Week

SRPG: Short for strategy RPG or simulation RPG. These terms, more commonly used in Japan, describe what are generally called tactical RPGs in the West. This category contains games like your X-COM, your Valkyria Chronicles and your Final Fantasy Tactics. Although SRPG is a more popular term in Japan, many of the SRPGs that come out there have “Tactics” in the title, showing how blurred the descriptors, and game markets, have become.

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

PC

• 12-09

• Indiana Jones and the Great Circle

• 12-10

• Arima Lodge
• Ashes of Equestria
• Ballionaire
• Cake Space Shooter
• CELL 0: Cyber Entertainment Leisure Lounge
• Chess Infinity
• Conradito Cafezito
• Dagger Froggy
• DigDigDrill
• Fast Food Simulator (No Ceiling Games)
• Flip Flop XL
• Go Home Annie: An SCP Game
• Haloo
• Hotel VIP
• JR's Christmas Adventure
• Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver 1 & 2 Remastered
• Magical Magic World
• Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Rita's Rewind
• Potion Wilds
• ReTrime
• Revenge of Black Bone
• SHAPE SHIFTER
• Ship Of Mist
• The drawing of the Apocalypse
• The Knight Girl And Dungeons
• The Outlast Trials: Project Breach
• The Short Bread Game
• Tilebreaker Next Level
• What is in the Black Box?

• 12-11

• 3072
• Aden
• Bubble girl
• Burrow Wing
• cats diner
• Creepy Claus
• Donerksela -Sacred Area-
• Fairy Tail 2
• Fledgling Manor
• Frog Escape
• Gnomdom
• Hyper Tunnel
• Kings of Emperor Bonaparte
• MiSide
• My Sticker Zoo
• Night to Meet Chu!
• One Pass
• Proto Garden
• Rascal's Escape
• Reavers of New Rome
• Reves, lettres et ciel
• Sayonara Okaasan
• Sheng Huo Chashao Haoguo Sheng ni
• Shiren the Wanderer: The Mystery Dungeon of Serpentcoil Island
• Short Trip
• Sinking the Boats
• Someone is behind you
• Swordhaven: Iron Conspiracy
• The Empress Quest : Full Moons Saga
• The Mission Exorcist
• There Exists Nobody
• Tower defense for virus
• Tri Breaker: A Sacred Symbols Odyssey

• 12-12

• Anzu
• Arobynn: Sword of Adventure
• Azura's Crystals
• Baratrum
• Battle Bloodlines
• Block Puzzle
• Breath of Death VII: The Beginning: Reanimated
• Bronana
• Castle Doombad: Free to Slay
• CheckOut
• Chroma Zero
• Chronicles of Delights
• Cosmic Royale
• Creeper World IXE
• CybArena
• Elise
• FIND ALL: Christmas
• FlockIt
• Hatsuyuki Sakura
• HIDDEN CATS 2: Crafts
• Inn Hand
• Just Catch Fireballs
• Kaiju Princess 2
• Kemotaku
• KLETKA
• Lumen World of Color
• Maki: Paw of Fury
• Mini Mini Golf Golf
• Mr. Rightaway
• Night to Meet You! Obake no Mare to Iyashi no Hitoiki
• Paw Paw Death Festival
• Please Smile
• Restless Grounds
• Samsara
• Silent Mourning
• Slap It Together!
• Sweet Fantasy
• Tesseract - First Chapter
• The Ouroboros Express
• The Spirit of the Samurai
• Unhinged Bisque Doll
• WhatRogue: Exile Land
• While Sleeping

• 12-13

• 10 Dead Doves
• Aaero2
• Alleviate
• AssassInvisible
• Broke Alchemist Emma's Debt Repayment Plan
• Care
• CARGO 19
• CARnage
• Cities Domination
• Corpo Connections
• Dash Connect 2
• Defense Breakers
• DOSMan: Space Aliens in Space!
• Dubio
• eleMENTAL
• Escape from Grimazel's Cottage
• Fateful Destiny
• Finger Fury Clicker
• Gehenna
• Intransigent
• INVISIBLE FLOW
• Lost Skies: Island Creator
• Lust Sisters
• Midnight Paradise
• Mika's Battle S 2
• My friend Mango
• Night at the Office
• Night Of The Abattoir Man
• Night of The Black Goat
• Paper Plane Arena - Shamans
• Pyromania
• Ripple in Dirac Sea
• Seedsow Lullaby
• SnaPaul
• Stellar Stables
• Super Burger Clicker
• The Cabin Factory
• The Exile Princes
• The Hunt Begins
• The Power of Doznath
• Tile Cities 2
• Turkey Bois
• Valledi
• Vigaro Runner 2: Return
• Wizard Shrimp

• 12-14

• City Multi Fun
• The Last Three

• 12-15

• Cafe Paris
• Cavalry Charge - Three Kingdoms
• CSC
• Eden Fruit
• Gift Collector
• Mansion of the Dead
• Missile Pilot
• Redline
• Relics (Infinite Ollie Games)
• The Ape Tales: An Epic Adventure Game
• Undercover
• You and Me and Her

Xbox Series X

• 12-09

• Indiana Jones and the Great Circle

• 12-10

• Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver 1 & 2 Remastered
• Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Rita's Rewind
• The Outlast Trials: Project Breach
• Wildfrost

• 12-11

• Faaast Penguin

• 12-12

• Dreamless Girl
• For the King II
• Smoots Summer Games II
• Undisputed: The Problem Child

• 12-13

• OVERTOP
• Zombie Rollerz: Pinball Heroes

Xbox One

• 12-10

• Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver 1 & 2 Remastered
• Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Rita's Rewind
• The Outlast Trials: Project Breach
• Wildfrost

• 12-12

• Dreamless Girl
• For the King II
• Smoots Summer Games II

• 12-13

• OVERTOP

PlayStation 5

• 12-10

• Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver 1 & 2 Remastered
• Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Rita's Rewind
• The Outlast Trials: Project Breach

• 12-12

• Asonde Mahjong ga Tsuyokunaru! Ginsei Mahjong DX
• Besiege
• For the King II
• Undisputed: The Problem Child

• 12-13

• Fairy Tail 2
• The Gate of Firmament
• Zombie Rollerz: Pinball Heroes

PlayStation 4

• 12-10

• Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver 1 & 2 Remastered
• Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Rita's Rewind
• The Outlast Trials: Project Breach

• 12-12

• Besiege
• Mercenaries Saga: Rebirth & Lament

• 12-13

• Fairy Tail 2

Nintendo Switch

• 12-10

• Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver 1 & 2 Remastered
• Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Rita's Rewind
• Taito Milestones 3

• 12-11

• I am an Air Traffic Controller AIRPORT HERO Centrair 20TH ANNIVERSARY
• Rascal's Escape

• 12-12

• ACA NEOGEO Selection Vol. 1
• ACA NEOGEO Selection Vol. 2
• Azura's Crystals
• Cho Aniki Collection
• Cowboys vs Zombies
• Dot Piece Puzzle
• Dragon Slayer: The Legend of Heroes II
• Fading Star Melody
• Hidden Cats in Santa's Realm
• Ketsu Battler
• Maki: Paw of Fury
• Meow Moments: Celebrating Renewal & Romance
• Mercenaries Saga: Rebirth & Lament
• Momotaro Dentetsu: Showa, Heisei, Reiwa mo Teiban! Asia Edition
• Mystery Walk
• Pinball FX - Williams Pinball Volume 2
• Pinball FX - Williams Pinball: Universal Monsters Pack
• Pinball FX - Williams Pinball: Volume 1
• Raging Loop & Death Match Love Comedy! Kemco Adventure Pack
• RIKI 8Bit GAME Collection
• Snowman Story
• Spot The Difference: Classic Finding Puzzle
• The ZVENGERS -INFINITY DEFENSE-
• TIMORE NARHELMA
• Victory Heat Rally

• 12-13

• Archer Maclean's DropZone 40th Anniversary
• Border Police: Contraband Simulator 2024
• Chernobylite
• Chernobylite Complete Edition
• Fairy Tail 2
• Monkey Kong in New-York
• Ninja 1987

• 12-14

• Aquatic Life: Fish Simulator RPG
• Farm