Last Guardian Collector's Edition

December 5 – December 11

Section: 

My favorite game of all time is Ico, the haunting story of a young boy left to be sacrificed, who tries to escape an enormous castle and save a girl. To this day, thinking about it gives me goosebumps. The team's second game, Shadow of the Colossus, is equally beautiful, but nothing can compare to my first experience.

And nothing made me feel that way until their latest game, The Last Guardian, debuted at E3 2009 (holy crap!). It's been in development for nine long years, and has had numerous delays. Originally intended to launch on the PlayStation 3 in 2011, it's finally launching this week on the PlayStation 4, and I'm delighted, excited, and terrified. Fumito Ueda, director, and his team left Sony but stayed on as creative consultants, so I'm afraid of what that means for this long-awaited game.

I want to say there's more I'm excited for, but to be honest, The Last Guardian is all I've been excited for these last few months. Here's hoping I'm not disappointed!

Greg "Doubtingthomas396" Decker

I was all set to pick The Last Guardian this week. I really was. I have a good record when it comes to games that get written off as vaporware and then finally get released. (PS: The previous sentence has twenty one words in it. Twenty one is divisible by three, and so it two plus one. Half Life 3 confirmed!) But I can’t shake the fear that your giant bird-dragon-dog-thing companion isn’t going to survive to the end credits, and if there’s one thing I will not abide it’s killing off a loyal quadruped for cheap pathos.

The kid I have no attachment to.

So The Last Guardian will have to wait until sufficient spoilers exist to tell me whether it’s a game I want to invest time in. Instead, I’ll play against type and jump on Space Hulk: Deathwing. I know that judging a game by its trailer is a fool’s game, but hot dang! It looks awesome!

Space Hulk: Deathwing is my pick this week.

Felix “Ninja tread house” Threepaper

After 9 years, we FINALLY get our Neverending Story game.

The Last Guardian has cool stone-temple-looking environments to explore, with vertiginous ledges to shuffle across. I’ve shuffled across many a ledge these last 9 years; it’s hard to see how they could come up with something new in that area. Ledges that crumble just BEFORE you grab onto them?

What else has it got? Do we control the beast? Guide the beast? Are we [spoiler] ACTUALLY the beast? We don’t know, and for that, you can put me down as a “maybe”.

Ubisoft is going for Virtual Tabletop Gaming with Werewolves Within. Get a bunch of early adopters together and play a version of Werewolf, or Mafia, or whatever you guys call it. If nothing else, I dig this for being a fledgling neural subnet, bringing us one step closer to a Deus Ex future.

As for an actual choice this week, Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun is an isometric, tactical stealth game set in the Edo period of Japan. Isometric pathfinding usually makes stealth hard, but it can be rewarding as long as the game is generally fair about when you stuff up – think Commandos. This game promises as much, with level design that’s been well-tested during its greenlight and beta phases. Add in a menu of characters whose different abilities you use to progress through the levels (think Commandos again) and you can consider my alert phase triggered.

Chris "C" Cesarano

Grasshopper Manufacture and Sony teamed up to stealth release Let It Die this weekend during their Playstation Experience event. A free-to-play combat game, I've only had the opportunity to play the tutorial through. I have a feeling it'll be an interesting weekend experiment to many and then remembered by only a small, dedicated fanbase. If there's any compliment I can give it, it's in Grasshopper Manufacture's persistent talent to craft a brand new punk genre that I can only really describe as genre-punk.

What has me salivating this week, however, is a game I cannot even play on my preferred platform of consoles yet. Just as well, as I continue to be waist-deep in Final Fantasy XV, but that doesn't mean I'm not green for PC players. Space Hulk: Deathwing invades Steam. It is just the manner in which I yearn to experience the Space Hulk concept: a massive spaceship in the Warhammer 40K universe infested with Genestealers and other Tyranid creatures. If none of that makes any sense to you, just imagine a 4-player co-op shooter where you play as Terran marines from Starcraft in an Aliens-style scenario against the Zerg.

Space Hulk: Deathwing gets my pick of the week.

Colleen “momgamer” Hannon
Uh oh. I agree with someone. This is kind of weird. Felix, you might want to watch out for glitches in the Matrix or something.

I’ve had my eye on Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun for a while now. This isn’t like Ninja Gaiden, where you romp around mowing a bloody digital lawn with a blithe disregard for propriety. This is Silent Justice with emphasis on the “silent”.

I will end up with The Last Guardian but it won’t be until I get a PS4. I’m close to meeting the criteria. All I need now is a release date for Kingdom Hearts III and I’ll schedule it.

This week:

PC

  • 3D Chess
  • Adventures of Hooi
  • Best Buds
  • Coffin of Ashes
  • ConflictCraft
  • Dead Rising 4
  • Demented Pixie
  • Drop Alive
  • Gladiator School
  • Her Majesty's SPIFFING
  • Himawari: The Sunflower
  • Indie Game Sim
  • Ley Lines
  • Mr. Massagy
  • Natural - Beyond Nature -
  • OneShot
  • Patchwork
  • Pawn
  • Sacred Almanac Traces of Greed
  • Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun
  • Space Hulk: Deathwing
  • SQUAKE
  • Tayutama 2: You're the only one
  • The Fishing Club 3D
  • Void Pyramid
  • Winged Sakura: Demon Civil War
  • Zen Pinball 2: Bethesda Pinball
  • Zup! 2

PS4

  • ARK: Survival Evolved
  • Cranga!: Harbour Frenzy
  • Space Overlords
  • Star Wars Battlefront Rogue One Scarif
  • Star Wars Battlefront X-Wing VR Mission
  • The Last Guardian
  • Werewolves Within
  • Zen Pinball 2: Bethesda Pinball

Xbox One

  • Dead Rising 4
  • Energy Cycle
  • Her Majesty's SPIFFING
  • Sky Force Anniversary
  • Star Wars Battlefront Rogue One Scarif
  • Tennis in the Face
  • Zen Pinball 2: Bethesda Pinball

Wii U

  • Fast Racing Neo

PS3

Xbox 360

3DS

  • Animal Crossing: New Leaf - Welcome Amiibo
  • Galaxy Blaster

Vita

  • Demetrios - The BIG Cynical Adventure
  • Space Overlords

RIFT

  • Arizona Sunshine
  • CRANGA!: Harbor Frenzy
  • Off-Road Paradise: Trial 4x4
  • ROM: Extraction
  • The Unspoken

Vive

  • Arizona Sunshine
  • CRANGA!: Harbor Frenzy
  • Off-Road Paradise: Trial 4x4
  • ROM: Extraction
  • Street Champ VR
  • The table at war VR

Comments

Nary a Dead Rising 4 mention? Wow. I don't much care for the series, but I'm beginning to think GWJ is no longer filled with mainstream gamers.

Let It Die better not turn out like Project Treasure/Lost Reavers.

///

Welcome to the front page, geekwithtanlines! Don't think I know you at all, so congrats on the promotion!

If none of that makes any sense to you, just imagine a 4-player co-op shooter where you play as Terran marines from Starcraft in an Aliens-style scenario against the Zerg.

I can't think of a better sentence that distills the weird chains of inspiration and duplication that drive creative properties in gaming. This leaves me a little dizzy.

garion333 wrote:

Nary a Dead Rising 4 mention? Wow. I don't much care for the series, but I'm beginning to think GWJ is no longer filled with mainstream gamers.

That was a back-up back-up for me, but in truth I'll probably hold onto it until the game releases next year on PS4. I'm curious, but honestly, the sequels have moved further and further from what I dug in the original that it's kind of hard for me to get my care on.

No mention of the fantastic Pocket Space Empire?! You animals!

http://store.steampowered.com/app/44...

It's really great y'all.

Ley Lines

According to the Steam page, this is releasing in 2 weeks, on December 20.

The Fishing Club 3D

This is releasing next month, on January 16.

PC

The Unspoken

This is exclusive to the Oculus Rift, so it should probably be listed in that section instead.

Veloxi wrote:

No mention of the fantastic Pocket Space Empire?! You animals!

http://store.steampowered.com/app/44...

It's really great y'all.

I want to buy it just for the woman narrating the first vid on the Steam page!

MeatMan wrote:
Ley Lines

According to the Steam page, this is releasing in 2 weeks, on December 20.

The Fishing Club 3D

This is releasing next month, on January 16.

PC

The Unspoken

This is exclusive to the Oculus Rift, so it should probably be listed in that section instead.

Such are the travails of TWA lists in the fourth quarter. I checked the steam pages for those games on Friday morning and they were all supposed to be this week. I'm not perfect and may have incorrectly transposed something, but I don't even add something to the list unless I get at least two reputable websites to agree on the release date.

I'd love to have actual, accurate dates for everything, but I need to set a cut off somewhere so that everyone has time to pick a favorite.

I'm also realizing I need a better resource for checking Rift releases.

garion333 wrote:

Welcome to the front page, geekwithtanlines! Don't think I know you at all, so congrats on the promotion! ;)

Thanks, garion333!! I'm active in the slack but not terribly much in the forum!! Thanks for the warm welcome

Dead Rising 3 is some of the most fun I have had in this current generation of consoles, and was endlessly hilarious and ludicrous. It embraced silly, campy fun, and it sounds like 4 is heading even more in that direction. First line of Jim Sterling's review:

"With Dead Rising 4, Capcom’s curious zombie series has officially entered Saints Row territory."

No more timers, no annoying limited save points, just pure, stupid, unadulterated fun.

Aaron D. wrote:
Veloxi wrote:

No mention of the fantastic Pocket Space Empire?! You animals!

http://store.steampowered.com/app/44...

It's really great y'all.

I want to buy it just for the woman narrating the first vid on the Steam page!

Fan of Polish accents?

Dead Rising 4 was an also-ran for me... I didn't mention it because all I could think to say about it was that I'm hitting Zombie Fatigue – maybe the exhaustion I'm feeling with season 7 of The Walking Dead has something to do with it.

I'm ready to shoot Nazis again, though.

wordsmythe wrote:

Fan of Polish accents?

No, more like so-charmingly-amateurish-that-it-actually-works-accents.

Aaron D. wrote:
wordsmythe wrote:

Fan of Polish accents?

No, more like so-charmingly-amateurish-that-it-actually-works-accents.

So a... lack of polish?

Hey Greg, there's a spoiler post on NeoGAF that gives you just enough information in the first post to make your decision without spoiling any of the story. I had the exact same concern, this post cleared that up.

Everything I've seen about Last Guardian suggests that it's like an extended escort quest ...except as if you were trying to escort an actual real world cat.

Drekk wrote:

Hey Greg, there's a spoiler post on NeoGAF that gives you just enough information in the first post to make your decision without spoiling any of the story. I had the exact same concern, this post cleared that up.

Could you shoot me that link?

Thanks

Bethesda pinball!

MaxShrek wrote:

Bethesda pinball!

I have to admit, this looked pretty cool:

IMAGE(https://blog.zenstudios.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Bethesda-Pinball-Screenshot-7.jpg)

Then I wondered, who will be the first to make it in Fallout 4?

I didn't realise Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun is like, basically, identical to the old "Commandos" games...but with Ninjas and Samurai. Cool.