Greg “DoubtingThomas396” Decker
I know you’ve come to expect certain things from The Week Ahead. I know you’re expecting me to pick the game that you’ve never heard of and don’t want to play, expecting Chris to pick the game that you should like but don’t, and expecting Felix to pick the game that you actually care about.
So you might expect me to pick Bird Game, which mixes beautiful, minimalist art design with Star Fox 64, or Them’s Fightin’ Herds, which is a two-dimensional fighting game that will probably be getting a call from Hasbro’s lawyers any day now.
But I’m not picking any of those. This week I’m picking Sword Art Online: Fatal Bullet. Everything about it appeals to me. It’s an Action RPG with third-person shooting mechanics, or possibly a third-person shooter with ARPG elements. Either way, it’s gorgeous and the gameplay footage looks like a cross between Tom Clancy’s The Division and Gungrave: Overdose. The game also promises character creation and some sort of Important Choices mechanic, which I suppose means that it’s very important what color my character’s hair is.
Like Strong Bad says, you gotta have blue hair. Sword Art Online: Fatal Bullet gets my pick for game of the week.
Chris "C" Cesarano
I'd have pegged Greg for Rad Rogers given that it's a 3D Realms side-scrolling shooter by-way of Conker's Bad Fur Day, but given that it's been out on PC for a while now I suppose he's already played it. That seems to be a common thread with many games on the list this week.
If Gematsu is correct then Bandai Namco will be releasing Little Witch Academia: Chamber of Time for PlayStation Network this week, a role-playing game based on the super charming anime that you really should have watched on Netflix by now. Take Harry Potter, remove the overly-serious epic overtones and swap it with an all-girls school, and you got a recipe for one of the best shows period. Sadly there's little official confirmation of a February 20th launch date, so I cannot risk making it my pick of the week.
Honestly, I'm not sure what should be my pick of the week. Injustice has finally piqued my interest by providing the 90's movie Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles characters as DLC. Apex Construct is the first VR game to even mildly tickle my fancy. Past Cure looks like just the sort of story-focused AAA game I'd have been psyched for five years ago but can only offer a shrug to now. Symmetry and The Station look like the story-driven indie games this community would eat up.
Eh, screw it. My pick goes to SteamWorld Dig 2 on 3DS, because it's just that good.
Felix “Lumberg” Threepaper
Metal Gear Survive tempts me with its fulton and FOX engine shine, but the equation doesn’t balance. Subtract Kojima kookiness and interesting guard AI and add swarmy zombies, survival mechanics and … tower defence? The real solution is to finish those last few missions in Phantom Pain.
Past Cure tempts me with its offer of “nightmare-fueled stealth gameplay”, but then I remember its dev team is 8-strong, while the credits on any decent 3D immersive stealth game go for 15 minutes.
Symmetry is my pick. I get The Dig vibes from it, even though the mechanics are totally different and it’s got its own aesthetic. The aesthetic is “retro-futuristic” (I’ve been looking for a word to describe Fallout games!) and the mechanics are “survival management”. You and your team have crash-landed a spaceship on a hostile planet and you have to manage your team’s various needs while trying to fix the ship to get home. It’s a fine hair to split, but the survival mechanics I find frustrating in a single-person game, when applied to a whole team – that’s management, which is a universally-acknowledged synonym for fun!
Here's the list, now in release-date order!
PC
-
02-19
- Alea
- Aplestia
- Beer Ranger
- Bird Watcher
- Charlie II
- Committed: Mystery at Shady Pines - Premium Edition
- Drill Arena
- glutton man
- Hexed
- In Darkness
- Mavi's Journey
- Only You
- Porcelain Panic
- Psychopathics
- Puzzle With Your Friends
- Red and Yellow
- Robot Fighting
- VoxelWorld
- ZombieHunt
-
02-20
- Age of Empires: Definitive Edition
- Animals Memory: Cats
- Annotation of Love
- ASCII Game Series: Beginning
- Capsule Jump
- Club of fighters
- Cypher
- Deadly Blue
- Delirium: Bad Trip Edition
- Discovery Tour by Assassin's Creed: Ancient Egypt
- Dusk Of Confinement
- Earthworms
- Fantasy Mosaics 20: Castle of Puzzles
- Far-Out
- Injustice: TMNT DLC
- Legendary Gary
- Little Witch Academia: Chamber of Time
- Montecrypto: The Bitcoin Enigma
- OH MY GOD, LOOK AT THIS KNIGHT
- Pinball FX3: Jurassic World Pinball
- Run and Jump
- Sea Battle: Through the Ages
- SmartBoy
- Solar Battle Glargaz
- Stickman Fighting
- Stonies
- StrikeForce Kitty
- Super T*ts Rush
- Survive: The king killer
- SYMMETRY
- The Station
- THE UGANDAN WARRIOR or DO YOU KNOW DA WEI?
- Unborne
- Xploquest 2
- Zed Survival
- Zombie Lane Survival
-
02-21
- Abandon Ship
- Beyond the Invisible: Darkness Came
- Demolish & Build 2018
- Gleaner Heights
- Hexvade
- Metal Gear Survive
- Mr.Jezko
-
02-22
- A Kiss For The Petals - Maidens of Michael
- Achievement Hunter: Princess
- ALASKA
- Arkasha
- Bird Game
- Bitcoin Or Bomb?
- Boo! Greedy Kid
- Citystate
- Demon Hunter 4: Riddles of Light
- Dissembler
- Dread station
- Escort Commander
- Farm Together
- IMM Defense
- Meteor 60 Seconds!
- NCradle: An 80s Synth Adventure
- Nonograms Prophecy
- OldGrad
- PROJECT VELOCITY
- QLORB 2
- Russian AYE Race
- Slime Sports
- Star Drift
- Starman in space
- Stellaris: Apocalypse
- Tales of Nebezem: Elemental Link
- THE LAST HUNT
- Them's Fightin' Herds
- TinyWar high-speed
- Toon War
- Trivia Vault Football Trivia
- Zup! 8
-
02-23
- A Salem Witch Trial: Murder Mystery
- Abo Khashem
- Armored Animals: H1N1z
- Army Truck 2
- BYTEPATH
- cityglitch
- Creatio Ex Nihilo II: Deus Otiosus
- Debtor
- Distortions
- Escape the Pacific
- Exiled Kingdoms
- Fallen ~Makina and the City of Ruins~
- FriendZoned Archer
- Hiking Simulator 2018
- Ice Cream Factory
- Keyboard Warrior
- Mike Dies
- Mount Your Friends 3D: A Hard Man is Good to Climb
- NeonBall
- Neoncers
- Puke Simulator
- Space Bob vs. The Replicons
- Super Multitasking
- Sword Art Online: Fatal Bullet
- The Binding Of YOU
- The Great Tournament 2
- The Necklace of Blood
- Trivia Vault Baseball Trivia
- Yume Nikki: Dream Diary
- 02-25
- Angry VS Android
- Blood Drift
- Derrek Quest V Regression
- Radiant Melodia
- Trivia Vault Olympics Trivia
PS4
-
02-20
- Apex Construct
- Armored Warfare
- DEADBOLT
- Defender's Quest: Vallye of the Forgotten DX
- Injustice: TMNT DLC
- Little Witch Academia: Chamber of Time
- Metal Gear Survive
- Pinball FX3: Jurassic World Pinball
- Symmetry
- The Persistence
- Xenon Valkyrie+
-
02-21
- Rad Rogers: World One
-
02-22
- SEUM: Speedrunners from Hell
-
02-23
- Past Cure
- Sword Art Online: Fatal Bullet
PSVR
-
02-13
- Sprint Vector
Xbox One
-
02-20
- Injustice: TMNT DLC
- Metal Gear Survive
- Pinball FX3: Jurassic World Pinball
- Symmetry
- The Station
-
02-21
- Rad Rogers: World One
- Space Hulk: Ascension
- Xenon Valkyrie+
-
02-23
- Fumiko!
- Past Cure
- Sword Art Online: Fatal Bullet
Switch
-
02-20
- Old Man's Journey
- Pinball FX3: Jurassic World Pinball
- Puzzle Puppers
-
02-21
- Layers of Fear: Legacy
-
02-22
- ACA NeoGeo: Magical Drop III
- Dragon Sinker
- Hollow
- Membrane
- Pac-Man Championship Edition 2 Plus
- Superola and the Lost Burgers
- Typoman: Revised
-
02-23
- PayDay 2
3DS
-
02-22
- SteamWorld Dig 2
Vita
-
02-20
- DEADBOLT
RIFT
-
02-20
- Seishin - Virtual Rhythm
-
02-21
- Conquer
-
02-22
- Elven Love
- Miney Company: A Data Racket
-
02-23
- Moto VR
Vive
-
02-20
- Data Thief
- Seishin - Virtual Rhythm
-
02-21
- Conquer
-
02-22
- Elven Love
- Miney Company: A Data Racket
-
02-23
- Kingdom of Blades
- Moto VR
Comments
Pass. I only mount my friends in 2D.
How did I live before digital distribution of old, cheap games?
MilkmanDanimal wrote:You did live before digital distribution of old, cheap games. Now you just play games.
I looked at the video for that one. It's somehow both more disturbing and less disturbing than the 2D version at the same time.
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!
Sword Art Online getting a mention. I'm surprised. That series has a bit of a mixed reputation.
I'm somewhat leaning towards Rad Rogers myself.
Deadbolt on Vita? That game is fun but I don’t know how good it will play without a mouse to do head shots with.
‘You seek a world filled with endless war and destruction. On that we can agree’
I can't even find Little Witch Academia on US psn right now, maybe tomorrow?
PSN id: Mustard9773
Steam Id; Fastmav347
3DS Friend Code 2595 1989 9877
Correct. Today is Monday and the store updates on Tuesdays.
How did I live before digital distribution of old, cheap games?
MilkmanDanimal wrote:You did live before digital distribution of old, cheap games. Now you just play games.
Evidently there was a listing for PlayStation Network Europe confirming the release date, so crossing fingers that for some reason Bandai Namco and PlayStation's websites were just never updated to be more specific than 2018.
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Oh hey! Little Witch Academia: Chamber of Time really did show up on the PSN store on the 20th!
.........but you can only pre-order it and it has a June 30th release date. Which is a Saturday, meaning "we don't actually know when this is coming out but we think it's sometime before July 1st".
Still, up until today it wasn't showing up at all, so that's something at least.
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We have so much fun.
Words... are a big deal.
Jill Lapore wrote:Editing is one of the great inventions of civilization.
I was also bit suprised on the price, 50 bucks seems a bit much to me
PSN id: Mustard9773
Steam Id; Fastmav347
3DS Friend Code 2595 1989 9877