July 26 - August 1

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IMAGE(https://www.gamerswithjobs.com/files/pictures/pictures/picture-13445.jpg)   Felix “Take That!” Threepaper

Welcome folks, and happy “76th Anniversary of the election of Clement Attlee as PM of the UK” week! In July 1945, the Nazis had been defeated (though not yet the Japanese) and the mood in the UK was for change. It’s important to remember that in the immediate aftermath of World War II, there was a definite vibe that people had been through hard times of rationing and sacrifice, and it was the government’s turn to give something back, to rebuild, and to give people the freedoms and opportunities they fought for. Attlee set up the modern welfare state, the National Health Service, and full employment. You may all celebrate by playing a game where your citizens are more productive when they are happy.

The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles is a re-release of 2 games that were previously available only in Japan on 3DS and mobile platforms. They serve as a prequel of sorts to the Phoenix Wright games, set in 19th-century England and Japan, and you play as Phoenix Wright’s ancestor. Basically, it’s all the features and gameplay you love from Ace Attorney, but set in the Victorian/Meiji-era. There’s even a famous detective, Herlock Sholmes, taking the place of good ol’ Dick Gumshoe. Unlike previous re-releases of Ace Attorney games, this will feature an assistance function if you get stuck.

Minecraft Dungeons: Echoing Void is the sixth piece of DLC and the last expansion covered by the current Season Pass. It takes you to a dungeon called “The End” and, as such a name suggests, will conclude the story of Minecraft Dungeons. It’s more the end of a chapter than the end of the whole thing, as no one’s giving up on this cash cow yet. It’s just that the next chapter hasn’t been announced.

Microsoft Flight Simulator makes its way to next-gen Xboxes, and GamePass, this week. Considering the full premium deluxe bundle, with all planes and maps unlocked, retails for anywhere north of US$120, having it on GamePass is quite a deal. You’ll have to cover your own costs of joysticks, yokes, rudders, and pedals, though. Flight sims are having a bit of a resurgence and this is one of the best.

Samurai Warriors 5 is the first new Samurai Warriors game in 7 years. This is Koei Tecmo’s tactical-action series where your hero dispatches hordes of enemies with field-clearing moves. Samurai Warriors 5 takes you back to the historical setting of the original game—sort of a revamp that sets up a new series arc for Samurai Warriors.

I’m old enough to remember when we called interactive novels “Choose Your Own Adventures.” Anyway, Vampire: The Masquerade - Out for Blood is one of those. Text only.

As cool as Microsoft Flight Simulator looks, I can’t go past The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles for GOTW. No one else does this kind of game like Capcom does. L.A. Noire tried, with more visually impressive ways to do investigations, but came up lacking in the interrogation/evidence-challenging mechanics. The Phoenix Wright games were a delight to play with the kids when they were re-released, and I look forward to the same experience with these 2 games.

Here's the list, now in release-date AND alphabetical order!

PC

  • 07-26

  • Cat Attack
  • Cavern Commandos
  • CS Horizon
  • Destroy All The Cubes
  • Drive-By Cop
  • Dungless 2
  • Escape from the Office
  • G-Mode Archives 28: Sepas Channel
  • Game of Love
  • In Space No One Can Hear You Clean
  • Intravenous
  • Jigsaw Frame: Hot Anime
  • Kitsune Killer
  • Light Pursuer
  • Lucky day
  • Monster Academy
  • Moon Defence
  • My Living Things
  • Neon: Eternal
  • Orbit-X
  • Parking Slide
  • Pets No More
  • Pipe Dreamin' VR: The Big Easy
  • Present Danger
  • PRINCESS IN AIRINESS
  • Puzzles with cats
  • The Grass
  • THE ILLUSION
  • Vermillion
  • White Eyes
  • Wild Journey
  • 07-27

  • Art of Fury
  • Big Fish
  • Blackhaven
  • Chihiro Himukai Always Walks Away
  • Deadlokk
  • DeMagnete VR
  • Destruction Time!
  • Emotion
  • Fairy Sister
  • God of Riffs
  • Golden Boy
  • Gun Game
  • Hell Let Loose
  • HighFleet
  • Idol Manager
  • JumpingFrog
  • Killer Gin Bros
  • MIA
  • Need for sharp
  • Night Book
  • Nightingale
  • Samurai Warriors 5
  • ScrewUp
  • SIGURAT
  • Space Intervention
  • Stolen Eggs
  • The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles
  • Tribes of Midgard
  • VR Paper Airplane Hunting
  • Wardwell House VR
  • Z Mutants
  • 07-28

  • Assignment 42
  • Ayo the Clown
  • Chernobylite
  • Cupid's Palace
  • DMN7
  • Extreme Legendary Hero Edition
  • Final Fantasy II Pixel Remaster
  • Final Fantasy III Pixel Remaster
  • Final Fantasy Pixel Remaster
  • Hodl Simulator
  • Lost Kittens: Maze Garden
  • Meteor Storm
  • Minecraft Dungeons: Echoing Void
  • One More Dungeon 2
  • Porter in the Castle
  • Project Venus.RP
  • Schematic
  • Tackle Girl
  • Temple with traps
  • The Forgotten City
  • Unbound: Worlds Apart
  • Unnatural Disaster
  • Vacancy Unlimited
  • Wishlair
  • 07-29

  • Abomi Nation
  • Dungeons of Voidria
  • Eldest Souls
  • Fuga on the Battlefield
  • Fuga: Melodies of Steel
  • HORROR TALES: The Wine
  • Omno
  • Reptiles: In Hunt
  • SPACE TOW TRUCK
  • Starbase
  • The Ascent
  • Vampire: The Masquerade - Out for Blood

Xbox Series X

  • 07-27

  • Alchemic Cutie
  • Microsoft Flight Simulator
  • Night Book
  • Splitgate
  • 07-28

  • The Forgotten City
  • 07-29

  • Eldest Souls
  • Fuga: Melodies of Steel
  • Paint the Town Red
  • The Ascent

Xbox One

  • 07-27

  • Alchemic Cutie
  • Blightbound
  • Clone Drone in the Danger Zone
  • Harvest Moon: One World
  • Night Book
  • Samurai Warriors 5
  • Splitgate
  • 07-28

  • Minecraft Dungeons: Echoing Void
  • The Forgotten City
  • Trigger Witch
  • 07-29

  • Blaster Master Zero III
  • Eldest Souls
  • Fuga on the Battlefield
  • Fuga: Melodies of Steel
  • Omno
  • Paint the Town Red
  • Skydrift Infinity
  • The Ascent
  • 07-30

  • Alfonzo's Arctic Adventure
  • Flowlines VS
  • HORROR TALES: The Wine
  • inbento

PlayStation 5

  • 07-27

  • Night Book
  • Splitgate
  • Tribes of Midgard
  • Yonder: The Cloud Catcher Chronicles - Enhanced Edition
  • 07-28

  • The Forgotten City
  • 07-29

  • Eldest Souls
  • Paint the Town Red

PlayStation 4

  • 07-27

  • Blightbound
  • NEO: The World Ends With You
  • Night Book
  • Samurai Warriors 5
  • Splitgate
  • Synth Riders
  • The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles
  • Tribes of Midgard
  • Winds & Leaves
  • 07-28

  • Minecraft Dungeons: Echoing Void
  • The Forgotten City
  • Trigger Witch
  • 07-29

  • Blaster Master Zero III
  • Eldest Souls
  • Fuga on the Battlefield
  • Fuga: Melodies of Steel
  • Omno
  • Skydrift Infinity

Switch

  • 07-26

  • Pets No More
  • 07-27

  • Clone Drone in the Danger Zone
  • Corpse Killer: 25th Anniversary Edition
  • Dariusburst: Another Chronicle EX+
  • NEO: The World Ends With You
  • Night Book
  • Samurai Warriors 5
  • The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles
  • 07-28

  • Ayo the Clown
  • Minecraft Dungeons: Echoing Void
  • Unbound: Worlds Apart
  • 07-29

  • B.Ark
  • Banners of Ruin
  • Blaster Master Zero III
  • Christmas Tina
  • Eldest Souls
  • Escape from Naraka
  • Fuga on the Battlefield
  • Fuga: Melodies of Steel
  • Infection Maze
  • Kosmonavtes: Escape Reality
  • Paint the Town Red
  • Piczle Puzzle & Watch Collection
  • Skydrift Infinity
  • The Long Gate
  • Trigger Witch
  • 07-30

  • 10 Second Ninja X
  • Alfonzo's Arctic Adventure
  • Alone With You
  • Apple Slash
  • Bustafellows
  • HORROR TALES: The Wine
  • Papa's Quiz
  • Super Squidlit
  • Xenogunner
  • 07-31

  • Easy Flight Simulator

Comments

This feels like a really big week for games. To highlight a handful not mentioned above:

Omno is the one I'm most looking forward to (day one on Game Pass). It's a 3D puzzle-platformer kind of thing, with strong Journey-meets-Supraland vibes. The podcast team would describe this as "a delight!" 15 times in a two-minute segment, and it really is - at least based on the visuals and the impressive demo they put out a few weeks back. Solo developer.

There is also The Ascent, "a solo and co-op action-shooter RPG set in a cyberpunk world", which has received a great deal of advance buzz. This year's Hades? Also on Game Pass.

The Forgotten City is a murder-mystery adventure that began life as a Skyrim mod.

Splitgate: a Halo-meets-Portal free-to-play multiplayer shooter that was DOA on PC but has been given a new lease of life with its console release - so much so that the servers couldn't handle the influx of new players for the beta. Looks pretty cool, although I suspect a ridiculously high skill ceiling.

Finally, maybe-possibly worth a look are the STALKER-esque Chernobylite and the pixel-art soulslike Eldest Souls, which is hopefully better than its painfully generic name.

Also missed was NEO: The World Ends With You, no doubt the Game King's most anticipated game of 2021. I haven't played the demo yet, but it looks to have some nifty action-RPG combat and, while I am more than sick of Tetsuya Nomura's modernized fantasy styling, it's more than perfect for a bunch of fashionable teens fighting on the clean yet apparently mean streets of Shibuya.

However, it is not an immediate purchase for me. The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles is my choice, but I must finish A.I.: The Somnium Files first.

I am hyped for The Ascent. If they deliver on the promise of a twin stick cyberpunk roguelike then it's a perfect fit for me. (And no, Ruiner didn't do it for me.)

garion333 wrote:

I am hyped for The Ascent. If they deliver on the promise of a twin stick cyberpunk roguelike then it's a perfect fit for me. (And no, Ruiner didn't do it for me.)

Did seem like there was much talk about that game here. I was starting to wonder if I was the only one here interested in it.

Will have to pull myself away from NEO: twewy to play it though, so who knows if it'll happen.

I'm also interested in checking out The Ascent. I haven't played a good twin-stick shooter in that style since Alienation. I'll check it out with my co-op group since we all have Game Pass already.

I'm very interested in the Ascent, as co-op ARPGs are just a fun way to hang with friends. Suffice to say, Dark Alliance did not exactly scratch that itch.

Flight Simulator is pre-installed at this point so I can fly by my current house, fly by my old house in Northern VA, and maybe fly by my old college. Then it'll get deleted.

Splitgate is a lot of fun and I am not completely garbage at it.