November 22 - 28

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IMAGE(https://www.gamerswithjobs.com/files/pictures/pictures/picture-13445.jpg)   Felix “Crow No Trigger” Threepaper

Welcome folks, and happy “313th Anniversary of the death of Blackbeard” week! Over his 2-year career, Blackbeard became one of the legendary pirates. Though fearsome, he wasn’t heartless. His preferred practice was to hold the crew of a ship captive on his own ship while their ship was ransacked, then he would let the captives go, either back on their ship or marooned ashore, to be rescued later. His biggest act of piracy, the blockade of Charles Town, was done because he needed medical supplies for his crew. Blackbeard finally fell to a cunning ruse: during a battle, he and his crew boarded a ship, only to discover lots of extra fighting men lying in wait below decks. You may all celebrate by revisiting everyone’s favourite pirate game: Lego Pirates of the Caribbean: The Video Game.

It’s relatively quiet this week. Maybe the big devs are worried about Halo Infinite, which doesn’t properly release for a couple more weeks, but is already getting a lot of buzz in Beta.

Cricket 22 - The Official Game of the Ashes drops on the heels of a scandal involving the Aussie now ex-captain, resulting in minor delays as they take him off the box art. I’ll spare you the details, but it will make the sledging at the upcoming Ashes series extra spicy. The game is the first sequel in the series since 2019 and Big Ant have added in Big Bash, nets challenges, and more female commentators to go with the female leagues. They also finally got the rights for the New Zealand and West Indies teams. The Switch version will come out in January 2022. If you don’t like it, well, no one else is making cricket games.

Farming Simulator 22 is also the first sequel in its series since 2019 and will contain updates to reflect the revolutions in farming since then. New features include: Seasonal cycles! Production chains! grape and olive crops! And more vehicles and tools! The addition of seasonal cycles adds more strategy to the mix, as you will have to plan your months and the order in which you do things. The production chains add a tycoon element, creating incentives to keep buying more land and equipment so you can refine your products for greater profit. Why sell your wheat when you can make it into a cake instead?

Asterix & Obelix: Slap Them All! is a 2D beat ‘em up based on the comics. Unlike previous 3D Asterix games, staying in 2D means they can have much more fidelity to the original art style from the comics. And a beat ‘em up makes sense, because every comic featured Asterix and Obelix pounding on swathes of Romans. I’m not sure how this rates purely on its brawler mechanics, but as an interactive experience of some of my favourite childhood reading experiences, it looks like the best Asterix game yet (not a crowded field, admittedly).

Death’s Door, the well-reviewed, isometric, Zelda-like dungeon-crawler, comes out of its timed ‘sclusy and onto the Switch and PlayStations this week.

DEEEER Simulator: Your Average Everyday Deer Game is a port of the GOAT simulator-alike, LULZY mayhem game. Depending on how funny you find ragdoll physics, this could be hours of mindless chortles or a relatively amusing 10 minutes. My kids will probably love this game.

As the title suggests, Hearts of Iron IV: No Step Back is an expansion that focuses on the Eastern Front in WW2. It will release simultaneously with patch 1.11, aka “Barbarossa”. If you want a chunky description of what made the Eastern Front so significant in WW2, I suggest Hardcore History’s “Ghosts of the Ostfront” series. It’s relatively short for a Hardcore History series, coming in at a humble 5 hrs 40 mins total.

It’s another hard week to pick a GOTW because my plate is still full from previous bumper weeks. I enjoy a spot of virtual cricket, but only very occasionally: maybe one or two sessions every summer, probably relating to whether Australia won a test that day and how many day-beers I’ve had. That’s not enough to make me buy the latest edition. Asterix & Obelix: Slap Them All! tugs heavily on my nostalgia strings, but what I really want is to read the comics again. Death’s Door gets the GOTW because it looks like the best actual game. If you can accept its melancholy vibe, there’s some solid dungeon-crawling with fighting, exploring, and puzzling to be had. I’m too busy for it now, but will keep an eye out for it in the post-Christmas sales.

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

PC

  • 11-22

  • 2048_st
  • Airball
  • blockit_st
  • Bogdanoff vs. Wojak Simulator
  • Cube Space (Gagonfe)
  • DELUGE
  • Duck Simulator 2
  • Eternal Starshine
  • Farming Simulator 22
  • Friki
  • Hidden Ghost Town
  • Let's Puzzle
  • NEDEN?
  • Rhythm Retro
  • Scrapvival
  • Slide Furry
  • Somnium
  • Space Gliders
  • Sumy Shelltris - ICEBLOCKS 3
  • Take Over Body
  • The 2020 Trail
  • The Missing Link
  • Venatio
  • 11-23

  • Alpine - The Simulation Game
  • Andy's Apple Farm
  • CARNAGE OFFERING
  • Cat Clicker
  • Cat Fish Island
  • Deranged
  • Evasilix
  • Fate Seeker 2
  • FIGHT BOTS
  • FrankenStorm
  • haunt
  • Hearts of Iron IV: No Step Back
  • Mido and Di
  • Myths or Reality: Fairy Lands
  • No Crooks On Christmas
  • Pregnant
  • Retro Three Kingdoms
  • RoboLingo
  • Spell Sweeper
  • Tilting Tiles
  • TownOfDestruction
  • Tunnel of Doom
  • 11-24

  • Archie
  • BOXNIGMA
  • Cliffhanger: Challenger of Tomorrow
  • Dungeon of hell
  • Element Quest
  • EOS 27
  • FORZA POLPO
  • Grappling Hook Ball Tournament
  • Himegimi Detective
  • Hunkenstein
  • INVITATION To FEAR
  • King under the Mountain (Rocket Jump Technology)
  • Kirakira Monstars
  • Life in the Machine
  • Little Island
  • Motorbike Traffic Splash
  • Nanny
  • Obama Boss Fight
  • Release The Bride
  • Scriptur
  • Sniper Road
  • Suicide For Him
  • The Ball Flow - First Approach
  • The Dawning
  • Think of a Hero
  • TRACHI
  • 11-25

  • Asterix & Obelix: Slap Them All!
  • Atomic Cyclecar Racing
  • CALL OF DOOM
  • Combo & Stealth
  • Crash the Core
  • Cursed House 10 - Match 3 Puzzle
  • Dead Transmission
  • Deiland: Pocket Planet
  • DOOM DAY
  • EQDRIVE.IO
  • Flannel Amethyst
  • Gladiator: about to die
  • Gun To Colonists
  • Hot Roads
  • Ice sugar
  • Indirection
  • SGS Heia Safari
  • Slot Idler
  • Spin City
  • The Expanse
  • WILDLOTUS
  • 11-26

  • Angels Prayer
  • Ball Gun Arena
  • Castlepoint
  • Color by Number - Monster Heroes
  • Date Night Bowling
  • Enigmarella
  • FerryGate
  • Futa Battle TD
  • Heroes of Xanfurth
  • Implements of Hell
  • Interplanetary Gardener
  • Knight and Princess
  • Len's Island
  • Lights
  • MageRun
  • Misunderstanding
  • PROVIDER
  • R-Naught
  • Spin Fighter
  • Sunny Beach Dolls
  • Tall Poppy
  • The Gift
  • The Giraffe World - Steam Edition
  • The Vaults
  • Thrive
  • Touhou Aotsuki Fight
  • TraxWorld
  • X Virus
  • You Have to Play This Game
  • 11-27

  • Mars parking simulator
  • Mega City Void
  • Toy Kingdom 3
  • 11-28

  • Adamanta View
  • Picross 21:M

Xbox Series X

  • 11-22

  • Farming Simulator 22
  • 11-25

  • Cricket 22 - The Official Game of the Ashes
  • 11-26

  • Little Bug

Xbox One

  • 11-22

  • Farming Simulator 22
  • 11-23

  • DEEEER Simulator: Your Average Everyday Deer Game
  • 11-25

  • Asterix & Obelix: Slap Them All!
  • Cricket 22 - The Official Game of the Ashes
  • 11-26

  • Little Bug

PlayStation 5

  • 11-22

  • Farming Simulator 22
  • 11-23

  • Death's Door
  • Winter Sports Games: 4K Edition
  • 11-25

  • Cricket 22

PlayStation 4

  • 11-22

  • Farming Simulator 22
  • 11-23

  • Death's Door
  • 11-25

  • Asterix & Obelix: Slap Them All!
  • DEEEER Simulator: Your Average Everyday Deer Game
  • 11-26

  • Windlands 2

Switch

  • 11-23

  • Death's Door
  • Let's Sing 2022
  • My Universe: Interior Designer
  • My Universe: Puppies and Kittens
  • 11-24

  • Drizzlepath: Deja Vu
  • Poker Club
  • 11-25

  • #1 Sudokus
  • Asterix & Obelix: Slap Them All!
  • Cricket 22 - The Official Game of the Ashes
  • DEEEER Simulator: Your Average Everyday Deer Game
  • Doctor Who: The Edge of Reality
  • DoDonPachi Resurrection
  • Puzzle Frenzy
  • RoboShark Rampage
  • Shiro
  • 11-26

  • Date Night Bowling
  • Little Bug
  • Night Lights
  • Real Boxing 2
  • 11-27

  • Farmquest

Comments

Wow, yeah, my spreadsheet of upcoming releases I'm interested in is blank for this week. Usually there's at least something big releasing on Black Friday, but I guess everyone wanted their major games out before (save Halo: Infinite's campaign, which is after).

We're entering the quiet weeks, where the discussion will go to Game of the Year because what else is there to talk about?

Unless I missed something this is the wait for 2022 sale week of releases.

Cricket 22 - The Official Game of the Ashes drops on the heels of a scandal involving the Aussie now ex-captain, resulting in minor delays as they take him off the box art.

It's so much more than taking him off the box art. There are cinematics, gameplay logic, loading screens, and other stuff (see this tweet from one of the devs). Feeling for those now crunching because one guy made some silly choices.

charlemagne wrote:
Cricket 22 - The Official Game of the Ashes drops on the heels of a scandal involving the Aussie now ex-captain, resulting in minor delays as they take him off the box art.

It's so much more than taking him off the box art. There are cinematics, gameplay logic, loading screens, and other stuff (see this tweet from one of the devs). Feeling for those now crunching because one guy made some silly choices.

Can’t they just Ctrl-V Wade textures over him?

Is it just me, or was Death's Door only a timed exclusive on Microsoft for a very limited window? I was expecting something like a one-year period. I was excited about the game when I heard about it earlier this year on the podcast, and it's definitely going on my list to buy around the holidays, or early next year.

It released July 20th, so yeah, only maybe four months. Possibly a three-month timed exclusive.

I mean, I don't perceive that as a problem myself. I don't like third-party timed exclusives for any platform, and it's nice to know more folks can play it now.

Yeah, me neither -- release on as many platforms as possible is a good thing.