November 10 - November 16

Section: 

I am so very sorely tempted to make World of Warcraft: Warlords of Draenor the Game of the Week, because for me it very much is. I'm back on that WoW tip, as the kids apparently say if video game streamers and podcasts are to be trusted, which arguably they are not. And, in the direct aftermath of a stellar BlizzCon, in which it felt like that august and storied developer could do no wrong, I'm well and fully hyped for a return visit to Draenor and to see the world that would become Outland in the days before it was left a shattered remnant.

But, if I do that; if I make WoW: WoD the game of the week, then that would effectively be the end of Gamers With Jobs, because Shawn would immediately sever all ties with me for snubbing Assassin's Creed in favor of an MMORPG expansion. I, therefore, make this sacrifice for you.

Assassin's Creed: Unity is our Game of the Week. In this installment you get to run the rooftops of revolutionary France, and probably do a lot of jumping off of very high things to land in or on the things below. In what has historically been an unusual move for Ubisoft, the game is launching concurrently on Xbox One, PS4 and the PC, though the company still managed to spook traditionally skittish PC players by getting into some kind of kerfuffle with Steam last week.

Also this week, the habitually delightful Lego games from TT Games returns LEGO Batman 3: Beyond Gotham. Set aside that this iteration contains a panoply of DC characters, that it takes place on multiple worlds. Set that aside, because TT Games had me at including a 1960's Batman outfit. Running around in a LEGO world pretending to be Adam West? Yes, please.

There are a ton of other things to talk about this week, and arguably many games are going to "get robbed." There's not much left of the holiday game launch season, so enjoy it while it lasts.

PC
- World of Warcraft: Warlods of Draenor
- Assassin's Creed Unity
- LEGO Batman 3: Beyond Gotham
- Valkyria Chronicles
- Space Hulk: Ascension
- Chariot
- This War of Mine
- Global ATC Simulator
- Desert Ashes
- Magnetic By Nature
- Why So Evil
- Get Off My Lawn!
- Toyboy Turbos
- Deadlings - Rotten Edition
- Oort Online
- Deadstone
- Amphora
- Randal's Monday
- The Sun and Moon
- Homebrew - Vehicle Sandbox
- Frozen Synapse Prime
- QP Shooting - Dangerous!!
- Reverse Side

PS4
- Assassin's Creed Unity
- LEGO Batman 3: Beyond Gotham
- Pro Evolution Soccer 2015
- Retro City Rampage DX
- Terraria
- Nano Assault Neo-X

Xbox One
- Halo: The Master Chief Collection
- Assassin's Creed Unity
- LEGO Batman 3: Beyond Gotham

Xbox 360
- Assassin's Creed Rogue
- LEGO Batman 3: Beyond Gotham
- Digimon: All-Star Rumble

PS3
- Assassin's Creed Rogue
- LEGO Batman 3: Beyond Gotham
- Digimon: All-Star Rumble
- Pro Evolution Soccer 2015
- Retro City Rampage DX

Wii U
- Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric
- LEGO Batman 3: Beyond Gotham
- A World of Keflings
- Tengami

Vita
- LEGO Batman 3: Beyond Gotham
- Tales of Hearts R
- Minecraft: PlayStation Vita Edition
- Senran Kagura: Bon Apetit!
- Retro City Rampage DX

3DS
- Sonic Boom: Shattered Crystal
- LEGO Batman 3: Beyond Gotham
- Picross e5
- Pokemon Trading Card Game

Comments

I'm back on that WoW tip

Yuuup. Might just have accidentally ended up back in Azeroth somehow myself. Don't know how that happened. (*Yes I do - all expansions up to the Panda one and 30 days for £5).

Not going to buy the expansion yet though - I've not even played through Pandaville stuff. Hell, I don't think I even ever finished Cataclysm.

LEGO Adam West was robbed.

IMAGE(http://media.tumblr.com/e7cf382ecdc1eec78f6b53cc0bc652e5/tumblr_inline_mlp023XJ3q1qz4rgp.gif)

I am excited for Lego Batman 3--the last couple Lego games were fantastic!

- Randal's Monday

Until just now, I didn't know that this game existed, but now that I do, and being the huge Clerks fan that I am, I feel compelled to play it.

What time do the LEGO games unlock? I am off tomorrow and want ot play I was hoping I could start downloading it at midnight.

I have no idea how I'm going to decide what to play when this week.

If DA:I wasn't coming out next week, I'd be all over WoW. That said, I know that I'll pick up Warlords some time next year.

My most anticipated release this week is the first DLC pack for Mario Kart 8. While Nintendo certainly isn't a stranger to DLC at this point, this is the first time that Mario Kart has gotten DLC. It sounds like it's a set of beautiful new tracks, and the amount of content you get (3 characters, 4 carts, 8 tracks) for the price ($8) is pretty generous.

But after well over a hundred hours of Mario Kart 8, I'm ready for a few fresh faces and some fresh tracks to race on.

Although The Week Ahead doesn't cover iOS, can I chime in here with this very brief plug for my 100% GWJer-developed iOS RPG, Vigil RPG, releasing TONIGHT on the App Store at around midnight ET? There's some discussion over on the iOS Games Catch All thread.

Really interested in This War of Mine myself. The "other side" of most major games and a survival alternative to zombie overload.

WolverineJon wrote:

Although The Week Ahead doesn't cover iOS, can I chime in here with this very brief plug for my 100% GWJer-developed iOS RPG, Vigil RPG, releasing TONIGHT on the App Store at around midnight ET? There's some discussion over on the iOS Games Catch All thread.

Obligatory coming to Android question:
Coming to Android?

There is only one:

IMAGE(http://i2.wp.com/thegamefanatics.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/Halo-MCC1.jpg?w=790)

Wait, that's four games. There are only four. That's it.

Also, in case anyone cares, Pro Evolution Soccer 2015 will also be out on the XB1 and 360.

ClockworkHouse wrote:

My most anticipated release this week is the first DLC pack for Mario Kart 8. While Nintendo certainly isn't a stranger to DLC at this point, this is the first time that Mario Kart has gotten DLC. It sounds like it's a set of beautiful new tracks, and the amount of content you get (3 characters, 4 carts, 8 tracks) for the price ($8) is pretty generous.

But after well over a hundred hours of Mario Kart 8, I'm ready for a few fresh faces and some fresh tracks to race on.

So excite-bike.

Tengami was definitely one I was looking at back when all the indies were spotlighted. Now, there's just too much else that has my attention.

Tanglebones wrote:

Obligatory coming to Android question:
Coming to Android?

Only in the vanishingly, incredibly unlikely (and equally unexpected) event that Vigil RPG becomes a million-seller!

The reason being that the game was written in Objective-C (Apple's language for writing Mac and iOS apps); to get it working on Android, I'd need to teach myself about Android programming, port all of the code over, and buy Android device(s) to test it on.

Expense aside, I'd guess that just educating myself and doing the code porting would take something like 6-12 months (of me working between 10pm and midnight 3-4 days per week, which was my routine for writing the iOS version). My wife has been kind of neglected while I've been in my home office pushing Vigil RPG across the goal line over the past few months, so I'm looking forward to spending that time with her instead!

Zoso1701 wrote:

Tengami was definitely one I was looking at back when all the indies were spotlighted. Now, there's just too much else that has my attention.

I'm in a similar position with Tengami and a good-sized collection of other Wii U indie games. Ironically, for a console that has been roundly criticized for its lack of releases, I haven't been able to keep up with them. I have a good number on the pile and a long wishlist.

ClockworkHouse wrote:

I'm in a similar position with Tengami and a good-sized collection of other Wii U indie games. Ironically, for a console that has been roundly criticized for its lack of releases, I haven't been able to keep up with them. I have a good number on the pile and a long wishlist.

Yea, it's a fight I don't think we Nintendo advocates can win with some, but the evidence surely supports a strong library of genuinely unique and GOOD gameplay experiences.

Was listening to a podcast yesterday that I wanted to like and when they started talking about Nintendo - they were just obviously ignorant, no one owned a WiiU - complained about how Smash and Mario Kart are rehashes (just after highlighting COD: Advanced Warfare). Boo-urns.

I would get Warlords, but $50 seems awfully high priced for an add-on. Seems like Blizzards WoW additions have progressively gotten more expensive.

Pay Day 2: Safecracker Edition was robbed!

Coolbeans wrote:

I would get Warlords, but $50 seems awfully high priced for an add-on.

Maybe, but the WoW expansions usually have more solid content than most full priced games, so I have no problem with it. I'd gladly pay $50 for add-on content for many of my favorite games if they were as well developed as Blizzard expansions. Sure beats the DLC model.

Coolbeans wrote:

I would get Warlords, but $50 seems awfully high priced for an add-on. Seems like Blizzards WoW additions have progressively gotten more expensive.

It has been a decade, so ...

Well, seeing as I got 15 spacebucks free from Sony, I might take up the 7.99 deal on Retro City Rampage DX tomorrow. I played around with the original version and, while it was fun, it wasn't on my list at the time so I pushed it out of my head... until this was announced. It would basically be a freebie!

Halo:MCC was robbed!

Pre-loaded Valkyria Chronicles last night, very excited to finally play the only game I feel I missed not having a PS3.

I was really hoping for a Revolutionary France AC... as ACIII. Now I'm all AC'ed out, each annual milking siphoning my enthusiasm for the series until there's nothing left.

(Actually, that's not entirely true: I got both the first AC and Liberation recently, but that was less than $8 total, and I feel like they're different enough—the first for sure—from where the series ended up to make them worth playing.)

This week the release I'm most excited about is WolverineJon's iOS game Vigil!

TheHarpoMarxist wrote:

This week the release I'm most excited about is WolverineJon's iOS game Vigil!

This App Store link isn't live for me yet, but it should be going live sometime between now and early tomorrow: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/vigi...

Valkyria on PC! :cooL:

Tales of Heart even though it sounds kinda okay.

Assassin's creed... I'm done with that series I think.

Tales of Hearts R is the only thing I have preordered.

Nano Assault Neo-X might get purchased eventually.

Randal's Monday has no linux version, so I'm not picking it up until they release it.

A World of Warcraft expansion release is an Event. A new Assassin's Creed is just a new release.

Just sayin'.

ClockworkHouse wrote:

My most anticipated release this week is the first DLC pack for Mario Kart 8. While Nintendo certainly isn't a stranger to DLC at this point, this is the first time that Mario Kart has gotten DLC. It sounds like it's a set of beautiful new tracks, and the amount of content you get (3 characters, 4 carts, 8 tracks) for the price ($8) is pretty generous.

But after well over a hundred hours of Mario Kart 8, I'm ready for a few fresh faces and some fresh tracks to race on.

Mario Kart 8 DLC was robbbed!

Also, curious to see how Randal's Monday turns out but I have a bad feeling about it.