MEtal Gear and Nobunaga's Ambition NES

August 31 – September 6

Section: 

This week's apparent faves both come from Japanese series that began in the 1980s. Now, as the owner of a functioning Walkman, I appreciate when something can last that long in our digital age, but I only have the Walkman because that was the easiest way to keep up with my live sportsball addiction while riding the bus. Luckily, this week's picks aren't a frustrating reminder of how little we've changed – or the Gordian Knot we've tangled in intellectual property law – over the past 30-odd years.

For me, everything I see about Nobunaga's Ambition: Sphere of Influence indicates that it might be too deep for many players, with the additional caveat that if they were able to get it to control at all artfully for consoles, it may be a small miracle. These are both descriptions that get me excited.

To be fair, if anyone's going to get the controller mapping down well, it's the folks that have been working on it from the start, as part of this series and their Romance Of The Three Kingdoms work.

Chris "C" Cesarano

While the only "full" Metal Gear game I've played was the original Metal Gear Solid on the Playstation, I enjoyed Ground Zeroes enough to be enticed by The Phantom Pain. I'm sure I'll be able to figure out the story as I go along, right?

Instead, my pick this week goes to the first ever grand strategy franchise I was aware of. Back when I was a wee little one, my older brother rented Nobunaga's Ambition for the NES. I'm not sure whether his love of the game helped influence his passion for history and Japan or the opposite. Or perhaps it was akin to a whirlpool, sucking all surrounding concepts into what would become his core adult interests. Either way, Nobunaga's Ambition II was one of the few strategy games I played and enjoyed growing up, and therefore I cannot overlook a new entry after such a long period of silence.

Now comes the question: Play in on a PC that may struggle to process its Total War-inspired battlefields, or play it on PS4 with a controller? A choice that would leave the most hardened of generals struggling with indecision upon the field of battle.

Felix “SNAAAAAAAAKE” Threepaper

This is another week where franchise loyalty kicks in. I hardly know a thing about Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, but nor did I about MGS4 back in the day, and THAT knocked my socks off. It was like when I saw my first David Lynch movie*: weird, oddly compelling, excessive in spots, but still haunts me to this day. I have no idea about new features or gameplay, but frankly, that’s the way I want it. My only expectation is to be surprised.

*Lost Highway

Greg "DoubtingThomas396" Decker

So I hear that they made a new Mad Max movie. Everyone seems to think it's really good, so naturally I have no interest in seeing it. The game, on the other hand, is getting mixed impressions from the outlets I visit, so again it's quite natural that my ears perked right up when I saw it was coming out this week.

Anyway, I'm chomping at the bit for Fallout 4, and a game that lets me scratch that post-apocalyptic itch while driving around in the V8 Interceptor has me slobbering like a dog that's just heard a bell. Even if it's just Borderlands with a Mad Max license, I'll be happy. Perhaps especially so. Mad Max gets my GOTW nod.

This week:

PC

  • Stasis
  • Close Your Eyes
  • Immortal Defense
  • Rememoried
  • Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain
  • iZBOT
  • Armello
  • Mad Max
  • Trigonarium
  • Red Goddess: Inner World
  • Act of Aggression
  • Renowned Explorers: International Society
  • Raiden IV: Overkill
  • Company of Heroes 2: The British Forces
  • Gunman Clive 2

PS4

  • Mad Max
  • Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain
  • Nobunaga's Ambition: Sphere of Influence
  • Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons
  • Xeodrifter
  • Grow Home

Xbox One

  • Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain
  • Mad Max
  • Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons
  • Super Toy Cars

Wii U

PS3

  • Nobunaga's Ambition: Sphere of Influence
  • Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain

Xbox 360

  • Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain

PS Vita

  • Danganronpa Another Episode: Ultra Despair Girls
  • Xeodrifter

Nintendo 3DS

Comments

Immortal Defense is getting a Steam release, eh? I played it back closer to release and it's perhaps my favorite tower defense game. "Tower defense? That doesn't look like tower defense." You would be correct, it doesn't look a thing like a game at all and instead looks like Milk Drop the game. And it's better because of that.

I know Grow Home beat it for the PS+ freebie, but Armello release for PC and PS4 tomorrow and looks interesting.

I've got my eye on Stasis this week.

Isometric p&c sci/fi horror?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ACFy...

Looks intriguing.

garion333 wrote:

Immortal Defense is getting a Steam release, eh? I played it back closer to release and it's perhaps my favorite tower defense game.

100 story-driven missions? Very interesting.

I probably should finish (start? ) Defense Grid 2 first. But definitely going on the wishlist.

TheHarpoMarxist wrote:

I know Grow Home beat it for the PS+ freebie, but Armello release for PC and PS4 tomorrow and looks interesting.

Last weeks' 3MA podcast was about Armello if someone is looking for some more info about the game.

Thanks, tboon!

What's with the generational oversight? Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain is also coming to PS3/Xbox 360 tomorrow.

Kurrelgyre wrote:

What's with the generational oversight? Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain is also coming to PS3/Xbox 360 tomorrow.

Thanks. It's a lot harder for me to find missing entries than it is to check existing entries for correct release dates.

I have Brothers coming tomorrow. Will be nice to finally give that one a spin.

According to the Playstation Blog, In addition to Armello, Disney Infinity 3.0 (ps3/4), Fat City, The Muppets Movie Adventures (PSVita), Nova-111 (PS3/PSVita), Space Hulk (PSVita), Super Time Force Ultra (PS4/PSVita), and Zombie Vikings are also coming out this week.

the Playstation Blog

That sounds like something we should check.

Edit: The trick is, as with a lot of the info out there, we're often putting our list together to publish at the beginning of the week—which is the same time a lot of these other sites are publishing. So I'm going to try and check the PS Blog going forward, but there's a very real chance that I'll have edited and given the green light to our TWA before the PS Blog post goes live.

I'm getting a good "Event Horizon meets Sanitarium" vibe from Stasis so far...seems promising.

Yay Kickstarter week!

TheHarpoMarxist wrote:

Armello release for PC and PS4 tomorrow and looks interesting.

I'm looking forward to digging into my Kickstarter copy since I've been ignoring the alpha/beta builds the entire time. Really pleased that this project didn't drag out like some other projects I've backed.

Aaron D. wrote:

I've got my eye on Stasis this week.

Isometric p&c sci/fi horror?

I played the alpha they released during their Kickstarter and it was appropriately creepy and moody which was cool given how far back the camera is positioned. I didn't back it because I didn't see myself playing it (definitely was not my cup of tea) but I'm always happy to see another Kickstarter success.

Speaking of Stasis, the RPS review says a lot of good things about it. It's 20% off until Sept 7, so I'm tempted to get it now.

Given the dearth of Nintendo releases lately, I feel it is necessary to point out that Runbow was overlooked last week. I'll go back to playing Mario Kart now...

Kyekye wrote:

Given the dearth of Nintendo releases lately, I feel it is necessary to point out that Runbow was overlooked last week. I'll go back to playing Mario Kart now...

I think part of the issue with the Nintendo lists is that Nintendo doesn't put out a list of eShop releases until after these articles run. I think Tuesday is the day that information goes out with most games hitting the eShop on Thursday. Last week also saw both Sin & Punishment games hit the Wii U eShop as well.

EDIT: From poking around NintendoLife we've got:

Wii U:
Vs. Excitebike (Virtual Console)
Gunman Clive HD Collection
EDIT2: Mario Golf (Virtual Console)

Europe is also getting Startropics 1 and 2 for the Wii U VC, but there's no word yet if NA gets them too.

I can't find anything listed for 3DS releases this week.

I can't get into David Lynch movies. It always feels to me like it takes more skill to tell a story without any plot holes than it takes to tell a story where "things just happen". I did enjoy Twin Peaks but Twin Peaks, despite being complicated made sense as long as you didn't miss an episode. Where as in Lost Highway things just happen for no discernible reason.

Mind you. I would have loved to have seen Lynches take on Dune.

strangederby wrote:

I can't get into David Lynch movies. It always feels to me like it takes more skill to tell a story without any plot holes than it takes to tell a story where "things just happen". I did enjoy Twin Peaks but Twin Peaks, despite being complicated made sense as long as you didn't miss an episode. Where as in Lost Highway things just happen for no discernible reason.

Mind you. I would have loved to have seen Lynches take on Dune.

You mean the full uncut version? Because the 3+ hour version I've seen was not actually much better than the theatrical release version.

Ah ignore me. For some reason I mixed up David Lynch with Alejandro Jodorowsky who would have had H. R. Giger working on the visuals.

I will NOT ignore you!

I'm pretty surprised *nobody* has said anything about Act of Aggression. Not even in the game's thread.

I've been looking forward to this "spiritual successor to C&C Generals," but haven't been able to find much solid info on it. I'm mostly interested in the single player, but everyone who has been testing it has been talking about the multiplayer.

I liked RUSE a lot, so I'm interested to see what that group does with a modern setting.

shoptroll wrote:

Europe is also getting Startropics 1 and 2 for the Wii U VC, but there's no word yet if NA gets them too.

Well, that's a Nintendo property we don't hear much about.

BadKen wrote:

I'm pretty surprised *nobody* has said anything about Act of Aggression. Not even in the game's thread.

I've been looking forward to this "spiritual successor to C&C Generals," but haven't been able to find much solid info on it. I'm mostly interested in the single player, but everyone who has been testing it has been talking about the multiplayer.

I liked RUSE a lot, so I'm interested to see what that group does with a modern setting.

There's a trick to writing the blurbs in the TWA OPs, in that as much as we might name-drop a few games, we ultimately have to each settle on one (unless we're feeling cowardly). With more writers we get to mention more games, but it's still a winnowing process. That's to say: I looked at it and considered it, but the 14th Nobunaga's game (apart from mobile platforms) grabbed my attention more—partly because I'm not much for the RTS genre.

Maybe that means we have a hole in our roster?

Maybe, but it does seem that interest in RTS games has been waning in recent years. I was also not just referring to the article, but also to the comments.

Maybe interest is waning because of the rise of MOBAs, which basically fill the same competitive niche. People just don't seem to be talking about RTS games much despite some solid recent RTS releases like Grey Goo and the criminally ignored Etherium. Grey Goo got a little attention at release, but dropped off the radar despite the developer's continual attention to the game and updates with lots of improvements. I hope Act of Aggression doesn't suffer the same fate.

shoptroll wrote:

I can't find anything listed for 3DS releases this week.

Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader, so nothing worth mentioning.

BadKen wrote:

Maybe, but it does seem that interest in RTS games has been waning in recent years. I was also not just referring to the article, but also to the comments.

Maybe interest is waning because of the rise of MOBAs, which basically fill the same competitive niche. People just don't seem to be talking about RTS games much despite some solid recent RTS releases like Grey Goo and the criminally ignored Etherium.

RTS games haven't really been my thing, but I think you're right that MOBAs have stolen a lot of their thunder in the last few years. Beyond that, I think RTS games got a generally bad reputation as being primarily for players with high APM or else just not being good. Kinda like fighting games.

ClockworkHouse wrote:

RTS games haven't really been my thing, but I think you're right that MOBAs have stolen a lot of their thunder in the last few years.

Agreed. I think that we're also seeing very few major publishers sinking money into the genre because the audience stagnated while development budgets have increased. The lack of eSports visibility due to the rise of MOBAs (which originated in the RTS community) hasn't helped either. And I'm not sure if Blizzard's handling of Starcraft II's release cycle helped get that community off the ground either since some people were put off by the announcement that the single-player campaign was being divided among 3 releases.

Plus, RTS isn't a genre that has historically translated well to consoles either. So that really dampens publisher interest.

Well, poop.

If the PC Gamer review of Act of Aggression is any indication, the single player is stinky, and the skirmish AI is stinkier.

Oh well.