January 30 – February 5

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Another week, another ten new games on my wishlist. Wowsers!

This week I’m tempted to go with Satellite Repairman, in which you play a person tasked with keeping a planetary satellite system up and running in the midst of a pan-galactic war. It’s like if Battlefield 1 had put the player in charge of tending the carrier pigeons for the whole game. That one looks like a prime candidate for a Steam-sale pickup sometime next year.

This week, however, my pick goes to the game that’s actually going to make it into my house this week. Poochy and Yoshi’s Woolly World comes to the 3DS, and brings with it a new amigurumi amiibo. I enjoyed the first one on the WiiU, but I don’t have a WiiU anymore, and anyway most of the really good WiiU games play better on the 3DS (he said, probably igniting some kind of firestorm in the comment section).

Anyway, I’m up for some Yoshi’s Island-inspired yarncraft action. Poochy and Yoshi’s Woolly World is my pick of the week.

Chris "C" Cesarano

I was going to explain to Greg how wrong he is about his 3DS assertion, but then I remembered he's a philistine that dislikes Splatoon.

So instead I'll look ahead and see that we have a comfortable release list coming around this week. Double Dragon IV releases on nearly everything, and while I'm certain the old-school look and feel will please plenty out there as much as a bowl of punch, I'm not particularly interested myself. I was one of the fools that enjoyed WayForward's totally tubular and brotastic Double Dragon game released prior. Digimon World: Next Order has my interest piqued, but so did its predecessor last year, and I still haven't gotten around to that one. [I guess you could say it's a … soft pique? -Ed.]

If you've been holding off on grabbing the latest Hitman, you can snag the entire first season all bundled up for a nice price. In truth, this could be the absolute worst way to play the game. It sounds like the charm is to go back and replay each map repeatedly, discovering all its little secrets, routes, and methods across multiple playthroughs. By packing each mission into a single package, you silently encourage the player to approach the game as they always have: one after the next. So if you're grabbing Hitman in its entire season one package, do yourself the favor of making sure to give each map a second, third, perhaps even fourth look.

Hitman gets my pick of the week.

Felix “Crom of the crop” Threepaper

This week’s list is packed like my work email inbox after a month away.

Like a guy who has a client meeting on his first morning back, but is not across the materials, when asked for my opinion, I say, “Um, I agree with my colleague, ccesarano, over there.”

I’ve said before that I was waiting for the whole Hitman season to be bundled up before jumping in. That time has come, and ccesarano has sage advice on how to wring maximum value from the game. I heartily endorse his comments.

As for a more original suggestion, try Conan Exiles. It’s a multiplayer, open-world survival game that looks like a blend of Rust and … that other MMO Conan game from last gen. It enters Early Access this week, so you can have your say on whether being able to summon a colossal statue of your god to stomp all over your enemy’s painstakingly-built village is OP.

Colleen “momgamer” Hannon

I’m here surrounded by all the upcoming shiny things, so it’s a bit hard to step back into what you can actually get your hands on this week. But I’ve got some help here on this list.

My sneak and kill tastes run more with the ninjas, but I don’t mind the Hitman games. While they don’t thrill me, we always ended up with them because my sons hit it as hard as I would let them at that age. Regardless, I am a giant fan of well created and well delivered episodic games, and IO has been hitting their marks like a champ with this one. To top it off, this week brings us the whole season on one disk, which opens the door for a Netflix-style binge of sneaking and wet-work.

But I’m going to tap Learn Japanese To Survive! Katakana War as my pick for the week. I enjoyed it’s predecessor Learn Japanese To Survive! Hirigana Battle, which introduced you to the most basic form of the Japanese alphabet in a fun way. This one takes us into the modern world, and introduces you to the katakana characters and their Romaji variants. This one’s an important tool for anime/manga fans as you build vocabulary about people and the Japanese versions of foreign words. Ganbatte kudasai!

This week:

PC

  • A House of Many Doors
  • A Long Road Home
  • Angels with Scaly Wings
  • Arc Continuum
  • Causality
  • Conan Exiles
  • Crimson Trigger
  • Dark Angels: Masquerade of Shadows
  • Depths of Limbo
  • Diluvion
  • Double Dragon IV
  • EvilMorph
  • Finding Hope
  • Geo
  • Heavy Metal Machines
  • Hero
  • Heroes of Dire
  • HitBox
  • Koi Musubi
  • Kronos
  • Learn Japanese To Survive! Katakana War
  • Linelight
  • Nash Racing
  • No Way Out
  • Nyheim
  • OBCIDIAN LEGACY
  • Only One Hope
  • Project: R.E.B.O.O.T 2
  • Queen of Seas
  • Rosenkreuzstilette
  • Satellite Repairman
  • Shtriga: Summer Camp
  • SQUAKE
  • STONEBOND: The Gargoyle's Domain
  • The Esoterica: Hollow Earth
  • The Saint: Abyss of Despair
  • The Videokid
  • Tyler: Model 005
  • Vidar
  • Warlock's Tower
  • We Were Here
  • Wells
  • World Keepers: Last Resort
  • Xenon Valkyrie
  • ZANGEKI WARP

PS4

  • Digimon World: Next Order
  • Divide
  • Double Dragon IV
  • Dynasty Warriors: Godseekers
  • Hitman: The Complete First Season (disc)
  • Knee Deep
  • Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 4 - Road to Boruto

Xbox One

  • Aqua Kitty UDX
  • Hitman: The Complete First Season (disc)
  • Kill The Bad Guy
  • Knee Deep
  • Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 4 - Road to Boruto
  • Pixel Heroes: Byte & Magic
  • Wells

3DS

  • Legna Tactica
  • Poochy & Yoshi's Woolly World

Vita

  • Dynasty Warriors: Godseekers

RIFT

  • Aquila Bird Flight Simulator
  • CuVRball
  • FootRock VR
  • Ropes And Dragons: VR
  • VRChat
  • We Were Here

Vive

  • 1-2-Swift
  • Aquila Bird Flight Simulator
  • CuVRball
  • First Impact: Rise of a Hero
  • FootRock VR
  • Ropes And Dragons: VR
  • Samurai Sword VR
  • Snailiens
  • VRChat
  • We Were Here

Comments

Maybe the Digimon game but other than that I have no clue for most of the other games on this list.

This week is definitely A House Of Many Doors for me. I Kickstarted it, so I know it is coming. The game is very similar in feel to Sunless Sea, though a completely different setting. It is built on the same engine and published with the help of the Sunless Sea team, but is an independent project.

I'm also interested in the Poochy & Yoshi game and will likely get that at some point.

Given the long list of PC releases, there is likely an indie release or there as well that I might find interesting.

The PC list is so long I don't even know where to begin with it.

Finandir wrote:

This week is definitely A House Of Many Doors for me. I Kickstarted it, so I know it is coming. The game is very similar in feel to Sunless Sea, though a completely different setting. It is built on the same engine and published with the help of the Sunless Sea team, but is an independent project.

Me too! Looking forward to it and highly recommend that everybody take a look at it.