May 16 – May 21

Section: 

IMAGE(https://www.gamerswithjobs.com/files/pictures/pictures/picture-5877.jpg)   Greg "Doubtingthomas396" Decker

Have you ever noticed that nobody in a work of fiction who has the name Decker (or its attendant homonyms) is a good person? They're always vicious military men hunting the A-Team, or cackling mad scientists trying to destroy or enslave humanity (or both, for preference; Deckers tend to be on the ambitious side). [Or systematically murdering Replicants. -Ed.] Being named Decker, I always found it funny that such malignity should be ascribed to a surname that comes from the German word for roofer.

It also makes me feel as though I'm letting the side down. After all, if every other Decker is trying to rule the world, what does it say about me that I'm content to be a Senior Engineer because I don't want to be promoted to management? Shouldn't I have more drive than that?

This week sees the release of The Infectious Madness of Doctor Dekker, which is an FMV adventure game that takes the technology from Her Story and amps it up to make the players feel as though they are actually speaking to psychiatric patients. According to the press kit, if you can type a question, the characters can answer it. Given that normal humans frequently misunderstand my questions and respond with gobbledygook that they believe is an answer, I'm not sure I'll be able to tell the difference.

I'm curious to see what, exactly, is wrong with this particular Doctor Dekker. I’m also interested to see if they can crack the Turing test with pre-recorded video files. One way or another, it's bound to be entertaining. The Infectious Madness of Doctor Dekker is my game of the week.

IMAGE(https://www.gamerswithjobs.com/files/pictures/pictures/picture-13445.jpg)   Felix “Four-minute response time” Threepaper

A game with a name like Endless Space shouldn’t have a sequel; it should just keep expanding forever. But here we are. I always find galactic-level 4X a bit cold, but Amplitude has been shaking up 4X for a while now, and it uses Early Access as a genuinely consultative process to tweak balance. Endless Space 2 phases from Early Access to Full Release this week.

“Souls-like” has become a genre. That’s good, because I get sick of typing “third-person melee combat game where any critter can one-shot you, with RPG character upgrade systems”. The latest Souls-like is The Surge, which uses a sci-fi setting.

When I read The Great Gatsby, I thought it was crying out to be made into a video game. GTA: Chinatown Wars-style gameplay as Jay Gatsby, building his bootlegging empire. "Press X to stare across the bay." Maybe if you choose the right conversation options, Gatsby can actually end up with Daisy. A timed car chase when driving back to East Egg. Well, my dreams have come true this week with The Great Gatsby: Secret Treasure! *Checks earpiece* Oh … it’s a hidden-object game. Never mind.

A game with a slightly less tangential relationship to the original work referenced in its title is Reservoir Dogs: Bloody Days. It’s a top-down shooter with a couple of neat tricks that make it stand out from the pack. Firstly, although there’s 3 Dogs on screen, it’s not co-op, it’s single-player. Secondly, it has a time-rewind mechanic whereby you control one Dog for a bit, hit rewind, then control another Dog during that bit. So Mr White can barge into a room and flush some guards out a door, hit rewind, then Mr Pink can head to that door and pop them as they come out, hopefully before they pop Mr White. The movie reference got my attention, but the mechanics got my nod for this week.

IMAGE(https://www.gamerswithjobs.com/files/pictures/picture-103324-1484747184.jpg)   Erik "Wordsmythe" Hanson

That is a neat mechanic, Felix, and a nice mirroring of the way that the film unrolls.

Looks like Chris is busy moving this week, fellow goodjers, so you're stuck here in the middle with me to round out the week's biased opinions.

Quick hits: Hole New World nails the NES Castlevania aesthetic, and adds the "fall through a hole into an upside-down world" thing. [i]GRIDD[/]i has a rad synthwave soundtrack. Farpoint wants to be the next big PlayStation FPS. The Surge seems to be getting the most attention.

For the fighting-game crowd, Chicago-based NetherRealm Studios is also launching Injustice 2. I try to pay attention to fighting games, even if I'm never good enough to let myself be seen playing. Injustice 2 incorporates lots of online features we've come to expect from shooters: daily challenges, rules variants, collectable and color-customizable gear, and player guilds. The nice thing about online play is that I can blame Comcast when I stink.

Also, DT, have you not seen Blade Runner? I'll grant you that Rick Deckard isn't exactly a boy scout, but he's not a bad human being. I mean, assuming he's a human being.

IMAGE(https://www.gamerswithjobs.com/files/pictures/picture-111373-1483294321.jpg)   Chris "C" Cesarano

There are people with great stories about how video games taught and prepared them for something in real life. At best, video games taught me how not ready for life I've always been. I wish the years spent playing Tetris on GameBoy or hurrying to harvest all the summer crops in Harvest Moon prepared me for moving. No matter how many times I've gone and done it, however, there is no preparation.

That a new Fire Emblem title releases this week is just what these exhausted bones need. Without the worry of packing or unpacking weighing heavily on my shoulders, I can go ahead and snag myself the latest entry in Nintendo's tactical role-playing game – and, perhaps, the final traditional entry in the franchise on the 3DS platform.

Rather than follow in the footsteps of Awakening and Fates, Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia is a remake of a much earlier entry in the series. It retains some of the quality-of-life adjustments made in Fates, but simultaneously delivers a number of mechanical adjustments that should please more old-fashioned fans of the franchise. Simple concepts such as modifying the range of archers makes them simultaneously more useful, but also a much greater threat as well. Perhaps the biggest shift is the inclusion of dungeons to crawl around and slay foes in.

Shadows of Valentia easily snags my pick of the week.

IMAGE(https://www.gamerswithjobs.com/files/pictures/pictures/picture-1395.jpg)   Colleen “momgamer” Hannon

I’ve been a fan of dealing silent justice in many forms for a long time, but it’s been a while since I’ve seen anything I’d call an innovation in the formula – they’re pretty much rush/sneak then stabby-stabby. This one removes the concept of color, but somehow makes that into an intriguing feature.

In this 2d combat arena, you play part of either Team Light or Team Shadow, using the correspondingly colored areas of the screen to skulk around and murder your foes. The Light players can blend into the light just as well as the Shadow characters vanish in the dark areas of the screen. There are game modes where you shift around the control of the colors of the areas of the screen as well, allowing you to expose your enemies when they least expect it.

I tried out the Steam version a while ago, but for me it felt like it would play better with a controller. This week we get to find out for sure, as it comes out on both the big consoles. My pick this week goes to Black and White Bushido.

This week:

PC

  • A Hole New World
  • Blood of Old: The Rise To Greatness!
  • Bokida: Heartfelt Reunion
  • Empathy: Path of Whispers
  • Endless Space 2
  • EVIL POSSESSION
  • Fat Mask
  • Flight Sim World
  • Ghost Files: The Face of Guilt
  • GRIDD: Retroenhanced
  • ICED
  • Interplay Solitaire
  • Journey Of Johann
  • Lacuna Passage
  • Mages of Mystralia
  • Metagalactic Blitz
  • Neighbourhood Necromancer
  • No Stick Shooter
  • Nongünz
  • Oafmatch
  • Old Man's Journey
  • Operation Babel: New Tokyo Legacy
  • Production Line
  • Rabbit Story
  • Ravenfield
  • Regalia: Of Men and Monarchs
  • Reservoir Dogs: Bloody Days
  • Rise of Balloons
  • Rocking Pilot
  • ROKH
  • Runic Rampage
  • Shotgun Farmers
  • Skylar and Plux in Adventure on Clover Island
  • SuperCluster: Void
  • Terroir
  • The Falling Nights
  • The Great Gatsby: Secret Treasure
  • The Infectious Madness of Doctor Dekker
  • The Surge
  • Under That Rain
  • Watch Dogs 2: No Compromise
  • Willy-Nilly Knight
  • Xgun-Weapon Evolution

PS4

  • ACA NeoGeo Over Top
  • Akiba's Beat
  • Baila Latino
  • Black and White Bushido
  • Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 – Zombie Chronicles
  • Chroma Squad
  • Deemo The Last Recital
  • Farpoint
  • Future Unfolding
  • Injustice 2
  • Portal Knights
  • Seasons After Fall
  • Shadow Warrior 2
  • Skylar and Plux in Adventure on Clover Island
  • Tango Fiesta
  • The Surge

Xbox One

  • Black & White Bushido
  • Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 – Zombie Chronicles
  • Injustice 2
  • Mages of Mystralia
  • Mayan Death Robots: Arena
  • Portal Knights
  • Seasons After Fall
  • Skylar and Plux in Adventure on Clover Island
  • Tango Fiesta
  • The Surge
  • Watch Dogs 2: No Compromise

Switch

  • Thumper

Wii U

  • PINBALL

3DS

  • Cooking Mama: Sweet Shop
  • Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia

Vita

  • Akiba's Beat
  • Hakuoki: Kyoto Winds
  • Oceanhorn: Monster of Uncharted Seas
  • Operation Babel: New Tokyo Legacy

RIFT

  • Time Carnage
  • No Clue VR
  • The Slopes

Vive

  • Neverout
  • No Clue VR
  • Voxel Shot VR
  • Zombie Kill
  • Disc League
  • The Slopes

Comments

Having been surprised with a Switch over the weekend it's safe to say that Fire Emblem Echoes is going to have to wait as I went and spent $100 on games the other night. Bye bye gaming budget.

I've heard good things bout Chroma Squad on pc, so maybe now that it's hitting console I might pick it up. Or I'll continue to ignore it. Dunno.

The Infectious Madness of Doctor Dekker sounds interesting, but when I see how it plays it looks tedious. I fully support FMV games though. More! More! More!

Bleh, the header image got me thinking there was a surprise re-release of Westwood's Blade Runner hitting this week

Based on Momgamer's description, Black and White Bushido is basically one Samurai Jack scene turned into a video game.

Anyone else on Xbone getting Injustice 2?

Endless Space 2 for me this week as a fan of Amplitude Studios.

Curious to read about how The Surge is.

Taharka wrote:

Based on Momgamer's description, Black and White Bushido is basically one Samurai Jack scene turned into a video game.

Yes! That is amazingly like it.

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

So many things that I want this week...

But I don't have any video game budget left this month, and this year my plan is to finish more money worth of games than I buy, an I only have about $20 more beaten than I've spent right now.

Among the ones I might want to buy:

Chroma Squad - Want to play this one...
Shadow Warrior 2 - Might be fun if it's cheap.
Skylar and Plux in Adventure on Clover Island - Cool, a ratchet and clank clone?
Akiba's Beat - I hear it's way better than Akiba's Trip.
Hakuoki: Kyoto Winds - Low priority, but can't have too many visual novels. Even if they're Otomes.
Oceanhorn: Monster of Uncharted Seas - Zelda Knockoff for Vita.
Operation Babel: New Tokyo Legacy - Another low priority, maybe I'll get it when it's cheap.

How about Commodore Matt Decker?

IMAGE(https://vignette1.wikia.nocookie.net/memoryalpha/images/f/f9/Matt_decker.jpg/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/1000?cb=20090325181015&path-prefix=en)

Decker was a very popular name in Star Trek, and none were villains.

Posted on fighting game post as well:
Injustice 2 Guild for PS4 created. ID#0SN5X [GWJ] Heroes With Jobs

Hrdina wrote:

How about Commodore Matt Decker?

IMAGE(https://vignette1.wikia.nocookie.net/memoryalpha/images/f/f9/Matt_decker.jpg/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/1000?cb=20090325181015&path-prefix=en)

Decker was a very popular name in Star Trek, and none were villains.

I'd forgotten about that.

Confirmation bias strikes again!

BNice wrote:

Endless Space 2 for me this week as a fan of Amplitude Studios.

Curious to read about how The Surge is.

So far The Surge seems to be pretty good. Come check out the thread.

doubtingthomas396 wrote:

I'd forgotten about that.

Confirmation bias strikes again!

How can you forget about that? This man is the one Star Fleet officer who could out-Shatner James T. Kirk.