June 11 – June 15

Section: 

After a month and a half or so sabbatical from The Week Ahead, it's time for me to come home. For some of you, who have likely found the past 6 weeks' content insightful, informed, coherent and generally tolerant of other peoples and cultures, this will be something of a disappointment. For the rest of you, it likely means you have never thought about who is or is not writing this content and you don't plan to start now. Either way, I feel your pain.

Tempted as I may be to now catch you up on the status of my Diablo 3 character — he's doing great, by the way — now seems as opportune a moment as ever to step into this week that brings us an eclectic blend of games, not the least of which being the Metal Gear Solid HD collection and Gravity Rush on the Vita. Gravity Rush in particular, a quirky-looking but initially well received superhero game of a kind, seems particularly intriguing. Say what you want about Sony handheld devices, but both the PSP and now Vita seem to rarely shy away from having a unique and diverse games library.

But my game of the week, because I am friends with Gaald and wish to remain so, is Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion. Though SoaSE never consumed my life like it did some, it was a finely crafted strategy game, and Ironclad's frequent and meaningful updates continue to flesh out an already deep experience.

... also, there's Lollipop Chainsaw.

PC

- Krater (download)
- The Adventures of Shuggy (Steam)
- Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion (download)
- Splice (download)

Xbox 360
- Dirt Showdown
- Lollipop Chainsaw
- Babel Rising (XBLA)

PS3
- Dirt Showdown
- Lollipop Chainsaw
- Babel Rising (PSN)

Vita
- Gravity Rush
- Metal Gear Solid HD Collection
- PulzAR (PSN)

PSP
- Gungnir

Nintendo DS
- iCarly: Groovy Foodie!
- 7 Wonders II (DSiWare - $8)
- Devil Band: Rock the Underworld (DSiWare - $2)

Comments

Ah Sins... to buy now, or to buy in 3 weeks on the Steam sale?

I just gave the demo for Splice a look and it's really, really... nice. A bit alluring, actually. Enough to make me buy it right away. I recommend trying the demo to see if it's your thing.

For those of you who aren't afraid of Japan, Gungnir is a Japanese SRPG from Atlus. I won't be getting it until after I've finished my current crop of PSP games, but it's supposedly pretty rock solid.

It's made by Sting, which is the same studio that developed Yggdra Union and the strategy/shmup hybrid Knights in the Nightmare. They always seem to be full of ideas, even though those ideas rarely seem to coalesce into anything truly remarkable; maybe they finally put it all together with Gungnir.

Welcome back Elysium, may your beard forever be illustrious!

Stele wrote:

Ah Sins... to buy now, or to buy in 3 weeks on the Steam sale? :D

Oh, it's that time of year again isn't it?

OzymandiasAV wrote:

It's made by Sting, which is the same studio that developed Yggdra Union and the strategy/shmup hybrid Knights in the Nightmare. They always seem to be full of ideas, even though those ideas rarely seem to coalesce into anything truly remarkable; maybe they finally put it all together with Gungnir.

I still need to play those other games. Sadly, I've heard Knights in the Nightmare is best on DS but it's a $50+ cart at this point.

ClockworkHouse wrote:

I still need to play those other games. Sadly, I've heard Knights in the Nightmare is best on DS but it's a $50+ cart at this point.

Looks like the PSP version of Knights is $16 on Amazon.

But yeah, the DS one is $50+. I had a friend that got it on release and was telling me how great it was, but I didn't get it then.

Of course you might be able to track one down at a Gamestop for someone not smart enough to resell somewhere else. List price is $9.99 for the used DS one.

I own Knights on both the DS and PSP. I'm a whore for Sting games. Gungnir's getting bought tomorrow for sure.

Well sh*t, even though I never got around to finishing it, I loved Knights in the Nightmare (mudder fugger gets HARD, yo). So not having a PSP means I evidently miss out on another game of theirs.

I've known a lot of people to be really excited for Lollipop Chainsaw, and Suda 51 + James Gunn should be an amazing combination, but I just can't get interested. Maybe it plays better than the footage suggests, but damn. It just looks anything but entertaining.

The Wii re-release of Pikmin 2 that happened yesterday should be up there, only because it didn't make it on last week's list.

No Krater love?

fangblackbone wrote:

No Krater love?

There is no Krater love
On this The Week's Ahead
No Swedish game
That's independent

There is no Krater thrill
That Sean Sands brings to me
No crafting game
Mixed with action-RPG

It's a Swedish game
Arriving 12th of June
And to think that it's on Steam
Pre-purchase for free tunes

There is no Krater love
On this The Week's Ahead
No Swedish game
That's independent

(Apologies to Amy Winehouse)

Gravey wrote:
fangblackbone wrote:

No Krater love?

There is no Krater love
On this The Week's Ahead
No Swedish game
That's independent

There is no Krater thrill
That Sean Sands brings to me
No crafting game
Mixed with action-RPG

It's a Swedish game
Arriving 12th of June
And to think that it's on Steam
Pre-purchase for free tunes

There is no Krater love
On this The Week's Ahead
No Swedish game
That's independent

(Apologies to Amy Winehouse)

We would also have accepted:

When she gets lonely and the longing gets too much,
She sends a message coming in from above.
We don't need no letter at all!
We've got a thing, and it's called Krater love,
We've got a wave in the air,
Krater love.

Tried the Splice demo, it looks very tasty.

So many games I want to play this week...

Sins of a Solar Empire is excellent, but I'm probably waiting a bit on it.
Lollipop Chainsaw looks good, though I still have my last Suda51 game to finish, Shadows of the Damned.
Gravity rush is a day -10 purchase, I paid it off a couple of weeks ago.
Gungnir will be purchased this weekend, can never get enough Sting games.
MGS? I've never finished one in the series, maybe I should start now.

ccesarano wrote:

Well sh*t, even though I never got around to finishing it, I loved Knights in the Nightmare (mudder fugger gets HARD, yo). So not having a PSP means I evidently miss out on another game of theirs.

You could probably also get a Vita, we'll know tomorrow if it'll work on that platform.

The release announcement back in Dec said it would be on PSN as well. I would assume all PSP titles on PSN work on Vita too, or would that be crazy?

Stele wrote:

The release announcement back in Dec said it would be on PSN as well. I would assume all PSP titles on PSN work on Vita too, or would that be crazy? :D

I dont think they do, through the vita store you can only download a sliver of them. Maybe if you buy them via the ps3 and transfer them they will work, not sure.

Stele wrote:

The release announcement back in Dec said it would be on PSN as well. I would assume all PSP titles on PSN work on Vita too, or would that be crazy? :D

There was a bit of a screw-up where Sony apparently hasn't done its part to make sure the Vita can play Gungnir at launch. Atlus is hoping to get that capability added soon, but the game isn't playable on a Vita yet.

I think I'm going to like Krater - it's like Diablo meets Baldurs Gate meets Borderlands meets Magika

*oh, and having a Fallout 1/2 style overworld map doesn't hurt either!

"Unexpected Harvest" is my favorite micro-brew.