I was doing some research to write this, and set off a game trailer. It stopped playing and started buffering at the black ESRB warning screen on the front. Right at that moment my younger son walked in to bother me, did a double-take and said, "Ooh, simulated gambling?" This says something I probably shouldn't know about his weekend, and our game of the week.
Telltale Games comes in with a second installment in their Poker Night series. This time, it's Brock Sampson, Claptrap, Ash, and Sam (of Sam & Max fame) bellied up to the felts, with GlaDOS dealing. To sweeten the deal they included a large collection of items for Team Fortress 2 and Borderlands 2 gear.
Dead Island Riptide (a sequel to last year's tropical zombie nightmare) deserves a mention. The first game's visceral take on the zombie genre came through from trailers to closing credits. Early word is this one is more of the same, for better and for worse.
If you're on the look for something a little quirky, Thomas Was Alone is an indie platformer/adventurer that's been around for a couple years but has made it's way to the PS3/vita (it's a cross-buy).
PC
- Dead Island Riptide
- Don't Starve (download - $15)
- Dyad (download - $15)
- Monaco: What's Yours Is Mine (download - $15)
- Telltale Games' Poker Night 2 (download - $5)
- Star Trek
- StarDrive (download - $30)
Xbox 360
- Dead Island Riptide
- Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen
- Star Trek
PlayStation 3
- Dead Island Riptide
- Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen
- Fire Pro Wrestling (PS2 Classic)
- God Mode (PSN - $10)
- Star Trek
- Thomas Was Alone (PSN)
Vita
- Draw Slasher (PSN)
- Guilty Gear XX Accent Core Plus R (PSN)
- Thomas Was Alone (PSN)
Nintendo 3DS
- Mega Man 4 (Virtual Console)
- Puzzler World 2013
PSP
- Black Rock Shooter: The Game
Nintendo DS
- Puzzler World 2013 (DSiWare)
Comments
Don't let Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen get lost in the shuffle. It includes the original game, plus the expansion for $40. It's a great deal for a great game!
Most places: Aristophan | Switch: SW-7774-7919-6764
Can't see the need to pre-order Poker Night 2... $5 and the old game, which I swear everyone here already has. No other bonus items for pre-order. Might as well wait until it's $2.50 in a couple months?
What Stele said ^ -mortalgroove
Switch: 6273-9936-5107
Dragon's Dogma Dark Arisen is my pick. Will definitely be picking it up in the upcoming weeks
Now Playing: Crimson Shroud, Blood of Bahamut, SMT IV, RDR, SBCG4AP, Octopath Traveler, The Baconing, The Legend of Dragoon.
Switch Friend Code: SW-7025-5637-0902
I think I remember Sands saying the first Poker Night was a solid poker simular with some humor. I don't think that's enough to get me to pull the trigger, but we do have some hatte addicts around here.
Words... are a big deal.
Jill Lapore wrote:Editing is one of the great inventions of civilization.
I guess I should have made a really controversial choice, like Black Rock Shooter.
Maybe this issue is best debated amongst the people who need to get off my lawn. - JoeBedurndurn
Steam: Momgamer
Missed out on Dragons Dogma first time around - time to give it a whirl I think.
inactive here until further notice.
LONG LIVE THE GLORIOUS JRPG REVOLU—
[sounds of door being kicked in, scuffle, shots being fired.wav]
Well Minarchist was no help at all.
I'll be getting Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen at some point. Probably not at $40 though. I'm enjoying my backlog too much to rush out and buy it right now.
"It is a fact of life that people love to complain, particularly about how terrible the modern world is compared with the past. They are nearly always wrong." - Steven Levitt
XBL & Steam: S0LIDARITY || PSN: Sobiesa
Really surprised you passed over the gem that is Don't Starve. It just came out of beta, and is a steal at $15 for such a great little title.
Steam: [GWJ]UMOarsman
Dragon's Dogma for sure, but I also already have Don't Starve and Monaco. Can't wait to dig into those.
How did I live before digital distribution of old, cheap games?
MilkmanDanimal wrote:You did live before digital distribution of old, cheap games. Now you just play games.
To anyone on the fence about Thomas Was Alone, I'd like to nudge you over. I just finished it a couple of weeks and ago, and it's a really solid platformer, kinda quirky, very endearing. Definitely won me over!
I myself am still hesitant about Poker Night 2... I mean, when's the last time I played the first one? Do I really need another Poker game?
I almost feel like this got over-marketed. That's a weird thing to feel, especially for an indie title.
This one I've gotten a handful of gentle nudges for. I may by eccentric, but that's definitely a marketing approach that I respond better to.
Words... are a big deal.
Jill Lapore wrote:Editing is one of the great inventions of civilization.
Any one going to pick up Monaco on XBLA? Looks fun.
FYI, Telltale Games' Poker Night 2 will be out for PSN and XBLA, too. It's also going to be available for the Mac.
I'll probably get it, but I'm more interested in the new Full House Poker coming out soon on XBLA. The current one is the best video game poker ever to get released, as it uses realistic amounts and timing for the blinds.
If they could make it a little harder to get your initial chips, like with a minigame or such, it could be great. If losing that last stack or busting out meant you had to play a game you didn't want in order to get more chips, then folks would be less likely to play so dumb.
Fake money poker is always iffy, but I've seen it done well before with Poker Academy Online. They handled it with what they called Freerolls, which was exactly the kind of horrible poker people want to avoid. But you would win chips there, and then take them to tables, where if you busted you had to go back to the freerolls.
And then they had an assortment of tables, for tourney or ring play, with different priced buy-ins. The goal was to progress up to the higher levels and then maintain. The higher the level you could play, the more realistic the play. It wasn't a perfect simulation, but it was fun and made good strategic sense.
There are elements of this in Full House Poker, but I doubt even the new one will push it this far.
Sounds like the worst release week since New Year's.
But possibly...what is that Star Trek game? Some kind of putrid film tie-in or an actual game worth evaluating?
"Fairy Braincess" - - - L4D4Ever!
Keithustus on Steam, XBL, iOS GC, EA Origin, & elsewhere
I just saw it the other day when Amazon was giving some pre-order bonuses for it. It claims to be a standalone story, with the new movie actors doing voices. So it's possible that it won't suck completely.
But not sure if it's supposed to be a bridge story between the two movies or just some standalone by itself thing? And I have seen zero pre-release coverage of it. No behind the scenes, no preview videos, no catch-all here... although I haven't particularly been looking. Really the game just popped on my radar last week with the credit/pre-order notice at Amazon.
So... I dunno... find out if it's any good will ya?
What Stele said ^ -mortalgroove
Switch: 6273-9936-5107
Seriously?
With Monaco finally releasing, and Don't Starve?
Calling it "worst" seems like pushing it a bit.
I get that some people really liked Full House, but I'm not very tempted to buy a poker game skinned with the Tanners.
Words... are a big deal.
Jill Lapore wrote:Editing is one of the great inventions of civilization.
Kimmy!!
Yes, seriously, there's been at least something interesting in pretty much every week of 2013 until this one, and this one might have a decent Star Trek game, possibly. Monaco is an IGF coop game about French....no reason to go on. Don't Starve looks like it could be worth a look, though.
"Fairy Braincess" - - - L4D4Ever!
Keithustus on Steam, XBL, iOS GC, EA Origin, & elsewhere
What's "interesting" is going to vary person-to-person. Maybe the other 51 weeks of the year will cater to you better.
"It is a fact of life that people love to complain, particularly about how terrible the modern world is compared with the past. They are nearly always wrong." - Steven Levitt
XBL & Steam: S0LIDARITY || PSN: Sobiesa
StarDrive is going for $24.99 until April 26th on Steam.
"World Domination, Ho!" - My wife
"I'll be your frosted pastry." - Cory "Demiurge" Banks
Steam padriec#1126
Yeah just heard on my Facebook feed, Monaco is delayed on XBLA. Steam version still comes out tomorrow though!
There are 0 reviews at Metacritic, of PS3, 360, or PC versions. Not a good sign. If they didn't get the game out to the press before release, it probably sucks and they didn't want bad reviews hurting day 1 sales.
The user reviews for the versions are mixed. A lot of complaints and accusations going around about people that work for the game company giving high reviews or people that are just trolling star trek giving bad reviews. Hard to figure out what the real deal is.
What Stele said ^ -mortalgroove
Switch: 6273-9936-5107
Thanks for looking into this. Guess I'll wait.
"Fairy Braincess" - - - L4D4Ever!
Keithustus on Steam, XBL, iOS GC, EA Origin, & elsewhere
Words... are a big deal.
Jill Lapore wrote:Editing is one of the great inventions of civilization.