July 20 – July 26

Section: 

I think the most notable thing this week is that the WiiU has six brand new games. Well, five, since Binding Of Isaac is hardly new. Even so, seeing a game like Binding Of Isaac on a Nintendo platform is one of those "Huwhaaaa?" moments that have me reaching for the Scooby Snacks. I shouldn't be surprised, though. The big N did trot out Bayonetta as an exclusive launch title, after all.

I won't, however, be picking a WiiU game this week, mostly because I don't yet own a WiiU and it would feel disingenuous to pick a game that I literally can't play, even though I've picked plenty of games that I can play only in the theoretical sense, since I haven't bought them yet.

Speaking of games I haven't bought yet, Journey makes the big leap into the next generation, giving me the opportunity to ignore it on a whole new platform. (I recommend Gold Bond for that burn.)

Bosch's Damnation was a title that stood out, but only because I was truly hoping that it would be sponsored by DeWalt. Alas, no.

But enough about what I don't want, how about what I do? Well, I have two and I'm unable to decide, so I'll just let 'em rip and let the chips fall where they may.

The first is Tembo: The Badass Elephant. Sure, it kind of looks kind of like an iPhone port, but the trailer speaks to me in a way that I thought the medication was supposed to stop. It's like BroForce, with a heavily armed elephant as the protagonist. If that's not in my wheelhouse, then I need a contractor and some permits for expansion.

The second, and more out of character for me, is Blues And Bullets. I admire the entertainment industry's dogged determination to turn Eliot Ness into Wyatt Earp, facts be darned, and the art style on this one is derivative of Sin City in a way that has my full attention. My only qualm is that it's episodic. As a rule, I don't buy episodic games at release, preferring instead to wait and buy the season, but something about this one makes me think jumping in early may be worth my while. The opportunity to play the plot of Heavy Rain without the potential to get inadvertently attached to the game's villain is a big draw indeed.

What else we got?

Chris "C" Cesarano

I'm going to cheat this week and pick a game that has been out for a long time now (in videogame years), but which I haven't gotten to and which is just getting ported to Steam. Some of you may recall my musings over Way Of The Samurai 3's ability to draw your sword at any time, an action that could greatly shift the direction of events within a game's story.

I haven't had a chance to play Way Of The Samurai 4 yet, but its release on Steam increases the possible platforms I can play it on by one. Promising a number of factions and variety of endings, I imagine this new game will encourage as much additional playtime as the third entry of the franchise had.

Erik "wordsmythe" Hanson

Everyone here is wrong. There's a King's Quest title available this week. Sure, Roberta Williams wasn't at the helm of this one, but: King's Quest!

Now if you'll excuse me, I need to call all my siblings to gather and play this together around one monitor.

Felix “Nickname” Threepaper

This week’s GWJ Conference Call had a question for the panel: What was the first game they played to completion? My answer is King’s Quest.

King’s Quest: A Knight to Remember has eschewed point’n’click guesswork for story decisions and puzzles. Great Scott, it’s got some good voice actors on board and it looks purdy. OK, nostalgia, you got me this time.

This week:

PC

  • Ikazuchi no Senshi Raidi III: Gyakushuu no Jashinkan
  • The Bug Butcher
  • Breach & Clear DEADline
  • Tembo the Badass Elephant
  • Game of Thrones: Episode Five – A Nest of Vipers
  • Yasai Ninja
  • Bosch's Damnation
  • Build 'n Bump
  • Battle For The Sun
  • Way of the Samurai 4
  • Better Late Than DEAD
  • Feist
  • Olympia Rising
  • ICY
  • RETSNOM
  • Blues and Bullets
  • 9 Clues 2: The Ward
  • Russian Front
  • King's Quest: A Knight to Remember
  • Legend of Kay HD

PS4

  • Journey
  • Hatoful Boyfriend
  • Zombie Army Trilogy
  • Game of Thrones: Episode Five – A Nest of Vipers
  • F1 2015
  • Q.U.B.E. Director's Cut
  • Tembo the Badass Elephant
  • Nutjitsu
  • Poltergeist: A Pixelated Horror
  • Arcade Archives MagMax
  • Yasai Ninja
  • Capsule Force
  • Phantom Breaker: Battle Grounds Overdrive
  • King's Quest: A Knight to Remember
  • Legend of Kay HD

Xbox One

  • Zombie Army Trilogy
  • Tembo the Badass Elephant
  • F1 2015
  • Game of Thrones: Episode Five – A Nest of Vipers
  • The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth

Wii U

  • Pixel Slime U
  • The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth
  • Dragon Fantasy: The Volumes of Westeria
  • The Quiet Collection
  • Canvaleon
  • Legend of Kay HD

PS3

  • Game of Thrones: Episode Five – "A Nest Of Vipers"
  • Q.U.B.E. Director's Cut (PS3)
  • King's Quest: A Knight to Remember

Xbox 360

  • Game of Thrones: Episode Five – A Nest of Vipers

PS Vita

  • Hatoful Boyfriend
  • BlazBlue: Chrono Phantasma Extend

Nintendo 3DS

  • The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth
  • Dragon Fantasy: The Volumes of Westeria
  • 3D Streets of Rage 2

Comments

...but the trailer speaks to me in a way that I thought the medication was supposed to stop

Was reading the site while drinking my morning coffee. And now I need a new keyboard...

Ikazuchi no Senshi Raidi III: Gyakushuu no Jashinkan

Now that's a title!

Zombie Army Trilogy has been out for months. Is it getting a retail release or something?

Doubting Thomas wrote:

Speaking of games I haven't bought yet, Journey makes the big leap into the next generation, giving me the opportunity to ignore it on a whole new platform. (I recommend Gold Bond for that burn.)

**gasp** You monster!!!!!

Wordsmythe wrote:

Everyone here is wrong. There's a King's Quest title available this week. Sure, Roberta Williams wasn't at the helm of this one, but: King's Quest!
Now if you'll excuse me, I need to call all my siblings to gather and play this together around one monitor.

Now you I like! This is one title I'm definitely curious about and looking forward to! It kinda crept up on me too. I didn't expect it to be out so soon! Guess I need to call up my sister and have her drop everything she's doing, for old times' sake. So we can push old ladies in their cauldrons, throw buckets at dragons, that kind of thing.

Edit: Also, why is the new GoT episode labeled "Game of Thrones: Episode Five ... (PS3) " in the PS3 section? *confused* Not that I care, since I still don't own a console, but you know... OCD and all that jazz.

Might be worth noting that Binding of Isaac Rebirth on 3DS is only compatible with the "new" 3DS that launched earlier this year.

I'm definitely interested in King's Quest, but I'm going with my standard policy of "wait and see what the reviews are like for the first 1-3 episodes".

Legend of Kay HD

Looks like the correct title for this is actually Legend of Kay Anniversary, and it releases next week.

Can't wait to play Issac on the couch via XB1!

Oh King's Quest. Probably my first real PC games. My dad told one of his coworkers that we got a PC at home finally (1990-ish), and she comes over and copies some 3.5" disks for me and suddenly I'm lost in Daventry for weeks.

I cannot flipping wait for King's Quest.

Nice to see Dragon Fantasy getting a port to another platform. I enjoyed that on Vita.

Hatoful should be good for a laugh on Vita.

Kings Quest. Yeah, I should pick that up now that I've finished the first 7 games in the series.

Stele wrote:

Oh King's Quest. Probably my first real PC games. My dad told one of his coworkers that we got a PC at home finally (1990-ish), and she comes over and copies some 3.5" disks for me and suddenly I'm lost in Daventry for weeks. :D

Christmas 1990: I get my first computer to call my own, and it has a massive 100 megabyte hard drive. I was able to do a complete install of King's Quest V, which took up nine megabytes. It probably took an hour to install.

IMAGE(http://i.imgur.com/iOqTZDm.png)

The new Talos Principle DLC campaign is out this week.

Day One, etc. etc.

There are a lot of games on that list but only one of them is named King's Quest. Sign me up.

kazriko wrote:

Nice to see Dragon Fantasy getting a port to another platform. I enjoyed that on Vita.

Hatoful should be good for a laugh on Vita.

Kings Quest. Yeah, I should pick that up now that I've finished the first 7 games in the series.

There's an eighth game. It's called King's Quest: Mask of Eternity.

No, there's only 7 KQ games.

Stele wrote:

No, there's only 7 KQ games. :P

It had King Graham, so it STILL COUNTS!!
Dawn. In the shady meadow by the river. Pistols, good sir.

King's Quest VIII is the JarJar Binks of King's Quest.

TheHarpoMarxist wrote:

King's Quest VIII is the JarJar Binks of King's Quest.

Loveable?

I had an easier time with 8 than with 7. I really wanted to love 7, but I seemed to derail before I'd really found my first puzzle.

So does someone want to tell the gang not to let "Wordy from the Future" into the column next time?

(King's Quest apparently doesn't come out until the 28th)

I exist outside time.

[Also, I know these dates come from somewhere, but I am increasingly suspicious of the idea that there's a single date out there. As far as I'm concerned at this moment, the release date exists in a quantum state until the game's actual release.]

wordsmythe wrote:

the release date exists in a quantum state until the game's actual release

Devs do enjoy the sound of deadlines as they buzz by, don't they?

(The release date, as far as I can tell, has always been the 28th/29th)

Yeah, sometimes I can find evidence of how we came up with things on the weeks we list them. Often I can find evidence both ways. I'm hypocritical about this, but this sort of thing is hard to post-mortem due to the prevalence of ninja-edits online.