June 18 – June 22

Section: 

You probably don't have this week circled on your calendar, and if you're anything like me — and God help you if you are — you're probably squirreling away money for the upcoming Steam sale. That said, this week's release list is surprisingly robust, and contains several games that deserve at the very least passing consideration.

First up is LEGO Batman 2: DC Super Heroes, which I'm begging you not to tell my son about until I have a copy of it in hand to deliver. While he's lacked interest in the recent Harry Potter and Pirates of the Caribbean LEGO games, this is one that I suspect will dominate his attention, and if I put myself in his shoes is being released at an ideal time, just as the summer starts. Next only to the deceptively excellent LEGO Star Wars III, LEGO Batman has been a fixture in his gaming rotation for however long it's been out, and frankly I had a pretty good time with it too.

Also this week, the new version of Magic the Gathering: Duels of the Planeswalkers. This new version is, like any good Magic release, a dependable iteration of an already solid game. It does add some additional multiplayer functionality as well as the ability to manually tap lands along with updated decks and cards. I'll certainly be picking this one up and playing it happily until inevitably after about 15 hours I finally conclude that the computer is a dirty cheater because there's no way you always have Titanic Growth at exactly that moment every single time!

Rounding out the week are Spellforce 2: Faith in Destiny, the new MMO The Secret World and the absolutely amazing looking Quantum Conundrum. But my game of the week is the Civilization V expansion, "Gods and Kings," which frankly I had no idea was at impending release. With religion implemented back into the game, a new espionage system, diplomacy tweaks, city-state improvements, improved AI, new units, new civilizations and integration into Steamworks, Tuesday suddenly can't come fast enough for me.

PC
- Brave: The Video Game
- LEGO Batman 2: DC Super Heroes
- Sid Meier's Civilization V: Gods & Kings
- Spellforce 2: Faith in Destiny
- Civ V: Gods & Kings and The Secret World
- The Dark Eye: Chains of Satinav
- The Secret World
- Tiny & Big: Grandpa's Leftovers (download)
- Gateways (download)
- Magic: The Gathering - Duels of the Planeswalkers 2013 (Steam)
- Quantum Conundrum (download)
- Resonance (download)
- Roller Coaster Rampage (download)
- Cinders (download)

Xbox 360
- Brave: The Video Game
- Gateways (XBLIG)
- LEGO Batman 2: DC Super Heroes
- Steel Battalion: Heavy Armor
- Magic: The Gathering - Duels of the Planeswalkers 2013 (XBLA)

PS3
- Brave: The Video Game
- LEGO Batman 2: DC Super Heroes
- Magic: The Gathering - Duels of the Planeswalkers 2013 (PSN)
- Tomba! (PSone Classic)

Wii
- Brave: The Video Game
- LEGO Batman 2: DC Super Heroes

Vita
- LEGO Batman 2: DC Super Heroes

Nintendo 3DS
- LEGO Batman 2: DC Super Heroes
- Order Up!! (eShop)
- Slitherlink by Nikoli (eShop)

Nintendo DS
- Brave: The Video Game
- Pokémon Conquest
- Lola's Fruit Shop Sudoku (DSiWare)

Comments

Quantum Conundrum looks enjoyable enough that I might actually stupidly attempt to run it on my MacBook. I will be sorely disappointed.

Happy Fathers Day indeed.

Pokémon Conquest for me, only because Pokémon + Nobunaga's Ambition is too good of a mix to pass up.

If only Koei would resurrect Liberty Or Death and mash THAT up, because the image of Ben Franklin and Pikachu or George Washington riding a Charizard would make my year.

Maybe I should put LEGO Batman 1 on the top of the pile, in honor of the sequel's release.

Oh hey, forgot Magic was coming out. Sweet.

I wish I knew when Quantum Conundrum was going to be out on console. It's weird to me that they haven't announced a date yet.

Demyx wrote:

I wish I knew when Quantum Conundrum was going to be out on console. It's weird to me that they haven't announced a date yet.

Yeah, and I'm sad it's coming out when I'm not going to be near my computer for a few days

Pheh, Civ expansion..
It's all about Resonance this week, I tell you!

/me blushes and hides in woods

Sir, Secret World isn't out until July 3rd.

Also: We must make Magic together. Magical magic!

Spellforce! That's a blast from the past!

Dark Eye: Chains of Satinav looks absolutely flippin' gorgeous

IMAGE(http://gamingunwrapped.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/THeDarkEye.jpg)

The fact that it's a classic point n' click adventure game suprised me somewhat, given most games in that series are RPG's and it's based on a PnP RPG.

...although going by the name I expect it will probably keep interrupting me to advise that I turn left at the next junction 0_o

I tried the demo for Steel Battalion, and it broke my heart.

I have two copies of the original, complete with controllers, sitting in my basement. As soon as the weather turns a bit cool this fall, I'm planning to build a virtual cockpit setup with a buddy and setup two dedicated, modded XBoxen exclusively for mech-on-mech combat. If only the Kinect version was playable, I might not have to resort to such measures.

stevenmack wrote:

Dark Eye: Chains of Satinav looks absolutely flippin' gorgeous

...although going by the name I expect it will probably keep interrupting me to advise that I turn left at the next junction 0_o

Yeah, that was my first thought too. Chains of Satnav!

If I were to purchase something this week, it would be Pokemon Conquest.

Buuuut I'm gonna save my money, save my pile and just play what I got.

Aristophan wrote:

Spellforce! That's a blast from the past!

I've been playing through SF2 and it's a good game. I've still got a lot to chew through (how many games can you say that for now?) before I even consider getting this new release though.

Huh; have there been new Dark Eye games since the Realms of Arkania trilogy? I remember playing the second one for a while back when it was new.

Tanglebones wrote:

Huh; have there been new Dark Eye games since the Realms of Arkania trilogy? I remember playing the second one for a while back when it was new.

Drakensang was a Dark Eye game and there's another one due soon (I think) called Demonomicon?

Funny thing about knockoff New Era caps. My cousin works at the corporate headquarters here in Buffalo, and they get people calling all the time saying that they lost or damaged the sticker on their hats, and asking for new ones. They will send out one or two with proof of purchase, but if you ask for a dozen or more, they start to get suspicious.

That is a funny thing. I assume there was spam here?

Ok...I wasn't sure about Lego characters with voices, but...

freakin' sold.

Where's your car?

Nothing at all for me this week... I might try Lego Batman for the Vita.

Okay does Steam not release anything I want to buy anymore? I wanted to get Lego Batman 2 for my son, through Steam so it'll be easy to play...like Lego Batman 1. Is Warner Interactve now going the same route as EA or what?

Tomba! makes a comeback! Nice.

Nevin73 wrote:

Okay does Steam not release anything I want to buy anymore? I wanted to get Lego Batman 2 for my son, through Steam so it'll be easy to play...like Lego Batman 1. Is Warner Interactve now going the same route as EA or what?

It's not just steam in this case - I checked every digital retailer I can think of and it's notable only by it's bizarre absence. I can only assume there's some brick and mortar calling dibs on it as a timed exclusive.

Nevin73 wrote:

Okay does Steam not release anything I want to buy anymore? I wanted to get Lego Batman 2 for my son, through Steam so it'll be easy to play...like Lego Batman 1. Is Warner Interactve now going the same route as EA or what?

There are a couple threads on the Steam forums that pop up in google search. But apparently the forums are down for maintenance so I can't read them. Not sure what's going on.

Amazingly there is a PC Demo though. Haven't seen as many of those lately for console ports.

Lego Batman 2 on Steam. And 10% off to boot, $26.99

Maybe they just waited until Friday for worldwide release?

Why did you tell me you can finally manually tap lands in Magic?
You work for WotC, don't you?