February 27 - March 5

  Felix “Crouching Dragon, Hidden Tiger” Threepaper

Welcome folks, and happy “116th Anniversary of the first meeting between Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung” week!

Freud and Jung, two of the founding fathers of psychoanalysis, first met in Vienna on 27 February 1907. The meeting lasted over 12 hours and each came away impressed with the other. The friendship didn’t last, though. Within 6 years, they had fallen out over different theories of psychology and it turned nasty—Freud started a rumour that Jung slept with his patients and Jung started a rumour that Freud was involved with his sister-in-law. You may all celebrate by playing a party game with betrayal mechanics.

Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty is by Team Ninja, who made Nioh, which has a rep for being hard. Feedback from the Wo Long Beta last year was that its Nioh and Sekiro-flavoured combat was brutally hard: even though every attack, even boss attacks, could be parried and used to launch a counter, the timing windows were wafer-thin. In response, Team Ninja has opened those parrying windows so wide you could drive an e-scooter through them.

Other features of the open-world action let players set their own pace. Just exploring and planting flags can toughen you up for a fight. You can summon NPC buddies to fight alongside you. There’s risk/reward incentives in the morale rank system: you can play it safe and grind it out, or choose tougher fights to powerlevel.

The setting is fantasy, Three-Kingdoms era China full of demons and soldiers and looks lush. Not to mention all the fancy weapons, techniques, and magic you can get your hands on. Even the bamboo-slicing looks satisfying.

Scars Above is a sci-fi, third-person shooter. Crash-landed on an alien planet full of critters, you blast and puzzle-solve your way through the story. Combat is supposed to be challenging, with respawning enemies and a rock/paper/scissors system, where you match the weapon type to the enemy’s weak spot. You scan the environment to find upgrade materials to make new weapons and improvements. It’s standard AAA action fare—the key will be whether the combat feels fun, and it looked a bit sluggish in the previews.

Phantom Brigade is XCOM meets Battletech with a twist on pure turn-based combat. You line up your attacks in pause mode, then the turn plays out in a burst of real-time. The twist is that you can see the enemy’s intended move when planning your turn. As you loot and salvage your way through the liberation-themed storyline, your mech squad will grow from a ragtag bunch of rebels to elite curbstompers. Many fans have been smacking their lips for this one, as it’s been in open access since 2020.

Lucy Dreaming is a British, point-n-click adventure that’s so inspired by Monkey Island, the Guybrush actor does a voice in it. Lucy is trying to rid herself of nightmares and explores dreams and reality in her surreal adventure.

Destiny 2: Lightfall is the beginning of the end of the Light and Darkness saga. If you know what that means, then you’re already getting Destiny 2: Lightfall.

Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope: Tower of Doooom drops some higher-difficulty battle missions into a spooooky sclusy for Season Pass owners.

And Bendy and the Dark Revival is a console port of the 2022 survival-horror, creepy cartoon game inspired by Bioshock, with a combat system that’s about 10 years behind the bigger games mentioned this week. If you’re not hooked on the Bendy lore, you may not find much to enjoy about this sequel.

Phantom Brigade is absolutely my jam and I can’t wait to play it … when it finally comes out on console. In the meantime, I’m looking at Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty. I bounced off Nioh, but this looks more forgiving. There’s a demo available for folks to get a taste before release. GOTW.

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

PC

• 02-27

• Away From Life
• Basements n' Basilisks
• Cockroach Simulator household survivor
• Colors' Heartbeat
• DEAD CIDE CLUB
• DESTRUCTURE: Among Debris
• DownhillMadness
• Elephantasy: Flipside
• Endless Spaceship
• Fateweaver: The Alchemist's Quandary
• Gatekeeper: Eclipse
• Gehinnom: Prologue
• Ghosted
• Hypnotic School Days
• I am Your President
• Otherwar
• PARANORMAL GIRLFRIEND
• Rhythm Drive: Synthwave City
• Rider of Justice
• Rytmos
• Shopping Center Tycoon
• SkyCraft
• Special Courier
• Stellar Mess: The Princess Conundrum Chapter 1
• The Bride Horror Game
• The Fog
• The Ouroboros King
• Tirosens thistle
• Vincent's Horror Story
• Voltaire: The Vegan Vampire
• Zombie World

• 02-28

• A SIMPLE REQUEST
• Anti-Bully Adventure
• Byte The Bullet
• Card Crawl Adventure
• Chainmonsters
• Cold Shell
• Dead Earth
• Demolition Master
• Desolation
• Destiny 2: Lightfall
• Dragon Sleuth Brittany
• Dreadful River
• Dungeons of Aether
• End of world: Survivors
• Fingerspelling Unleashed - BANZSL Edition
• First Person Hooper
• Frogurai
• Goblins
• Idle Gem Quest
• Infinite Incantation
• Jetpack Jack
• Little Legion
• Nayla's Castle
• Neopunk
• Paper Needs Inspiration!
• Pasha Planet: Reborn
• Project: WATERFALL
• Public Land Hunter
• QTI - Quantum Tunnel Idle
• REMEDIUM: Sentinels
• Rustled Pete
• Scars Above
• Simple Increment
• Sokoball Dreams
• SpacePod
• Station 99
• The Big One
• The Nameless Braves: Heaven - Episode 1
• Tower Survivors
• VERO FINALE I
• Where is the meaning?
• Wuxian
• yni^

• 03-01

• A Fox and His Robot
• Age of Discovery
• Alephant
• ANIMARAMA
• Area: Zero
• ball-e
• Belle Automata
• Black Metal
• Blockappend
• Boulder Escape
• Burkov: Point of Contact
• CardShark
• Chess Morph: The Queen's Wormholes
• Cosmic Crashers
• Dust Devil
• Esperia ~ Uprising of the Scarlet Witch ~
• Fight With Keys
• Formula 2707 - All Stars Kombat
• Frack the World
• Full Gear
• Gone Rogue
• Gunpowder Punk
• Have a Bloody Goal
• Hightail
• Hot Heat Reset: Chapter 1
• Konkan Coast Pirate Solutions
• Light of Alariya
• Lilly's Flower Shop
• Mafia in Town
• Mahjong - Legacy of the Toltecs
• MASKA
• Maxwell's Wicked Dollhouse
• Megaton
• Nightly Trash
• Noah Please!
• OnTheWire
• PACK MY STUFF
• Pete's Peril
• Phantom Brigade
• Poly Vita
• PolyRoyale
• Puppet Master: The Game
• RED FLOWERS
• Ruined Kingdom
• Sea Wolf: Tactics
• Shotgun Shenanigans
• Sister Wish
• SlipDream Resonator
• Small Town Detective
• Spirit Eyes
• Stickman Trench Wars
• Tanxl
• The Legend of Martial Arts
• UC Love
• Unforgettable Voyage
• Unification
• vivid/stasis

• 03-02

• 50 Rounds
• Cavimilation
• Chains of Time
• CLUNK
• Escape First Alchemist
• Fairytale Theatre
• Fremdganger - The Cheating Demon
• I commissioned some bees 14
• Jigsaw Puzzles Infinite
• King Of The Castle
• LIQUID
• Lords of Infinity
• Lunar Lander
• Meg's Monster
• One Military Camp
• OscarWildeCard
• Painter Simulator
• PowerWash Simulator: Midgar Special Pack
• Prehistoric World: A New Beginning
• Shan Hai Ling Yao Lu
• Souls of Tartarus
• Space Pop - Bubble Shooter
• Stuffo the Puzzle Bot
• The Last Fortress
• THE MEME HUNTER
• The Smile Alchemist
• Wormhole Cafe

• 03-03

• 8-Ball Pocket
• A Cats Life
• A Terrible Place
• bearcycle
• Covid 69
• Dragon Pinball
• Garten of Banban 2
• Grace Online
• GUN KING
• HVOR: Confrontation
• Life is Pain
• logik
• Lunar Mirror:The Pavilion of Desire
• misaligned
• Mythica Adventures
• Neko-chan's Club
• New Earth Saga of the New Gods
• No Way Out (bati)
• Ogre Chambers DX
• Sears: The Sky Frontier
• Shards of Nogard
• sh*ta ni
• SokoChess White
• THE ABYSS (Illya873)
• The Adventures of LinShanHai - Chapter2:Bus Bombing
• The Castle Burns!
• TIMESTRIDE
• TRAUMA Broken Paradise
• Tune in to the show
• Ultra Break
• What Do You See?
• Wheelie King 5
• Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty

• 03-04

• Apex Point

• 03-05

• Big Lanzi vs Demon King
• Deeper In The Dark
• Doll Limit
• Mega Mall Story 2
• The Homecoming Exhibition
• Ultimate Anime Jigsaw Puzzle

Xbox Series X

• 02-28

• Destiny 2: Lightfall
• Merge & Blade
• Scars Above

• 03-01

• Bendy and the Dark Revival
• Fight'N Rage
• LEAP

• 03-02

• Iris and the Giant
• Mayhem in Single Valley
• PowerWash Simulator: Midgar Special Pack

• 03-03

• Jurassic Pinball
• The Smile Alchemist
• Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty

Xbox One

• 02-28

• Destiny 2: Lightfall
• Merge & Blade
• Scars Above

• 03-01

• Bendy and the Dark Revival
• BROK the InvestiGator
• LEAP

• 03-02

• Iris and the Giant
• Mayhem in Single Valley
• Meg's Monster
• PowerWash Simulator: Midgar Special Pack
• Vanaris Tactics

• 03-03

• Jurassic Pinball
• The Smile Alchemist
• Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty

PlayStation 5

• 02-28

• Destiny 2: Lightfall
• Scars Above

• 03-01

• Bendy and the Dark Revival
• BROK the InvestiGator
• Fight'N Rage
• LEAP

• 03-02

• Mayhem in Single Valley
• PowerWash Simulator: Midgar Special Pack

• 03-03

• No Longer Home
• Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty

PlayStation 4

• 02-28

• Destiny 2: Lightfall
• Scars Above
• Vampire: The Masquerade - The New York Bundle
• void* tRrLM2(); //Void Terrarium 2

• 03-01

• Bendy and the Dark Revival
• BROK the InvestiGator
• LEAP

• 03-02

• Mayhem in Single Valley
• PowerWash Simulator: Midgar Special Pack

• 03-03

• No Longer Home
• Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty

Switch

• 02-28

• Afterthought
• Choice of Life: Middle Ages 2
• Lucy Dreaming
• Splatoon 3: Expansion Pass Wave 1 - Inkopolis
• Vampire: The Masquerade - The New York Bundle
• void* tRrLM2(); //Void Terrarium 2

• 03-01

• A Fox and His Robot
• BROK the InvestiGator
• Green Soldiers Heroes
• Ken Follett's The Pillars of the Earth

• 03-02

• Aery - Calm Mind 3
• Bonfire Peaks: Lost Memories
• Chess Pills
• Dream Park Story
• Fitness Boxing Fist of the North Star
• Hike Valley
• Live Factory
• Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope: Tower of Doooom
• Mayhem in Single Valley
• Meg's Monster
• PowerWash Simulator: Midgar Special Pack
• Pretty Girls Breakers! PLUS
• The Smile Alchemist
• Vanaris Tactics

• 03-03

• Disaster Detective Saiga: An Indescribable Mystery
• Gunman Tales
• Ro
• Ruku's Heart Balloon
• The Atla Archives
• Void Scrappers