Every so often there comes a time when I have to make hard decisions. Fortunately, I'm pretty good at those; it's the little, inconsequential decisions I can't handle. I can decide whether it's time to buy a new car like that (Oh, sorry. Format issues. Imagine I snapped my fingers just then). Ask me if I want tacos or quesadillas for dinner, though, and it'll be time for breakfast burritos before I make up my mind.
This week's hard decision is to go with my heart and pick the game I want but know I won't play anytime soon, or spend some time digging through the list to come up with a pick that you would expect from the poor man’s Allen Cook who is typing this right now.
In the end, though, I have to be true, and my truth is that I'm most excited for the new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles game. It's a cartoon action game from the people who made Transformers; Devastation, which has been sitting in my wishlist for months now.
Sorry, gang. I know you were expecting a paean to Dovetail Games or a quirky little game nobody else would ever play, but this week my nod goes to Activision. The fact that it gets me partial credit on my bold predictions for 2016 has almost nothing to do with it.
Felix “Elementary > Sherlock” Threepaper
Given how much it’s been talked about on the Conference Call and around the podcast traps, I kinda thought Overwatch was out already. Well, you can pay for it this week. At this point, I figure most people would know their position on this game, be it Day One Purch, Steam Sale or Nah, Mate. It’s totally outside my wheelhouse, but hey, it’s Blizzard, and even I can spot a Game of Significance to the Community sometimes.
With the latest episode of Telltale’s Game of Thrones, this game series is finally outpacing the events of the books and even the TV show.
Psych! Of course it’s not; if it did, I would buy it.
Warhammer’s ceaseless quest to be represented in all genres of gaming hits another checkpoint this week. To be fair, Total War: Warhammer is a stronger thematic fit than, say, Warhammer Dating Sim. But will this be basically a skin, or have they tweaked the gameplay to make it feel Warhammer-y?
I have long kept a monocled eye on Frogware’s Sherlock Holmes series, because I really want there to be a good Sherlock Holmes video game. I never purchased any of the first 7 games because each time, asking me to pay Australian AAA Release Price for a console adventure game not by Telltale was a losing proposition. However, Sherlock Holmes: The Devil’s Daughter is more reasonably priced AND the title reminds me of a lyric in a Flight of the Conchords song. More substantively, I like the idea that you can solve the cases that form the “missions” of the game, but not the overarching mystery if you haven’t kept your mind palace in good order. Eighth time’s the charm: GOTW.
Chris "C" Cesarano
There's no doubt in anyone's mind that Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutants in Manhattan will be arriving at my apartment Tuesday evening. It is Ninja Turtles and Platinum Games. You got peanut butter in my peanut butter with that one, making some combination of Peanut Butter Chrysalid EX (assuming culinary fusions follow Japanese anime naming conventions). I will play the sh*t out of that game.
But that will not be my pick of the week. No, this week I'll be throwing the community a bone by picking Overwatch. Believe it or not, the beta was actually the first time I truly played a Blizzard game. Having had some time with the beta, I can't say I feel like I've been missing much, but it'd be downright hipster of me to avoid noting the good time I did have.
Will Overwatch have staying power or will it be forgotten after the summer like Titanfall was? I'll let the Conference Call overlords determine that down the line. For now, I look forward to getting my competitive gaming on with colorful characters until the next Splatfest drags me back to the WiiU.
This week:
PC
- Airport Madness 3D
- ASTROKILL
- Aurora Nights
- Concrete and Steel
- Dovetail Games Flight School
- Dual Core
- Dungeon Escape
- Excubitor
- Forgotten Tales: Day of the Dead
- Game of Thrones Episode 4: Sons of Winter
- Ghrian
- Grandpa's Table
- Hyper Bounce Blast
- Infection: Humanity's Last Gasp
- Jeklynn Heights
- Lumo
- OmniBus
- Overwatch
- Robot Arena III
- Sherlock Holmes; The Devil’s Daughter
- Siralim 2
- Subterrarium
- Table Top Racing: World Tour
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutants in Manhattan
- Total War: WARHAMMER
- Vairon's Wrath
- ZeGame
PS4
- Crazy Strike Bowling EX
- Downwell
- Dungeons 2
- Game of Thrones Episode 4: Sons of Winter
- The Last Blade 2
- Lumo
- Overwatch
- Sherlock Holmes; The Devil’s Daughter
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutants in Manhattan
Xbox One
- Game of Thrones Episode 4: Sons of Winter
- Overwatch
- Sherlock Holmes; The Devil’s Daughter
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutants in Manhattan
- Tropico 5 Penultimate Edition
Wii U
- Dual Core
- Rynn's Adventure: Trouble in the Enchanted Forest
PS3
- Game of Thrones Episode 4: Sons of Winter
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutants in Manhattan
Xbox 360
- Game of Thrones Episode 4: Sons of Winter
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutants in Manhattan
Vita
- Downwell
- The Last Blade 2
Vive
- Storm VR
Comments
OmniBus was robbed!!
Steam/Nintendo/Etc.: Danopian; 3DS: 3110-8616-9304
drdoak: "GIT GUD AT PETTING NOOB"
ClockworkHouse: "I think what you're really seeing is that coital monotony applies to gaming, too. ;)"
That was a tough call for me. If it means anything to you, the decision almost literally came down to a coin flip.
Jonman Wrote:
Yes, you can cancel Darksiders, but only by using your Sony Golds. Which, while pretty good, aren't a patch on Zelda.
I'm A Steam Curator!
It's a Blizzard game. They'll keep it around out of sheer force of will even if the community shrinks by 90% in a month. After all, this is the company that is still patching Starcraft/Diablo II/Warcraft III and kept throwing resources at fixing Diablo III after it failed to retain players for the first year.
Contrast that with the EAs of the world who just let things die on the vine because they've already moved onto the next iteration.
My theory is that it will have staying power on the PC, but fail to have staying power on console. Then again, if they can provide new content on a regular basis, it could have a Destiny level of impact.
YouTube | Twitch | Blog
SW-3864-9679-7572
So we can look forward to a year of people playing it while complaining about how bad it is until there's a patch that everyone agrees is kind of all right but not enough?
Jonman Wrote:
Yes, you can cancel Darksiders, but only by using your Sony Golds. Which, while pretty good, aren't a patch on Zelda.
I'm A Steam Curator!
They've already committed to free updates with new heroes and maps, although no schedule has been given. Probably something every 2-3 month given how Diablo III and Starcraft II have been going lately. Even if the console fan base falls off while PC sustains itself I'm sure they'll try and get as much of it as possible out to the consoles like they seem to have tried doing with Diablo III. Although I think they've run into some issues with the platform owners and their update policies?
My expectation is there will also be some paid DLC/expansion business down the road (a la Destiny) since that's been their bread & butter business model for the last two decades (Heroes of the Storm being the lone exception). Although I'm honestly not 100% sure how well that will fit the type of game (as hero switching is vital and paid maps unfortunately partition communities), but it's also likely they'll have a way for people to play with those who haven't upgraded yet if that does happen, as I can't think of any Blizzard game where it hasn't been possible to downgrade temporarily.