May 29 - June 4

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

Welcome folks, and happy “70th Anniversary of the first confirmed climb to the top of Mt Everest” week!

On 29 May, 1953, Tenzing Norgay and Edmund Hillary reached the peak of Mt Everest. While Hillary took the first steps onto the peak, it could not have been done without Norgay, who had saved his life once before on an earlier attempt. The British government gave all the awards to Hillary for the climb, but Hillary himself always saw the partnership as equal and spent much of the rest of his life furthering the cause of the Sherpa people. You may all celebrate by playing a game where your sidekick gets all the accolades.

It’s a bumper week, with a bunch of AAA titles alongside some quality triple-I indies. I’m sure some games were robbed.

System Shock is a Kickstarted remake of a dead-set classic. While Ultima VI can probably lay claim to being the first immersive sim, 1994’s System Shock set down a template that was iterated upon by games like Thief, Deus Ex, BioShock, Dishonored and Prey.

The original System Shock was massively influential, but it was also notorious for being hard to revisit because of weird controls and ancient UI. That all changes this week. The dev team, which includes the original art director, has done a fantastic job glowing up the visuals and sound design. Each level is an explosion of distinct colours, details, and lighting effects. Terri Brosius, the voice of one of the best villains in games, SHODAN, re-recorded all her dialogue and then some. Enemy AI and weapons have been rejigged to be more effective by today’s standards. The level design is largely the same, as that was one feature that didn’t need an upgrade. Some other legacy features that remain include inventory tetris and assigning weapons and items to hotkeys—playing with a controller may not be so great until the console version releases and they put in a selection wheel.

Street Fighter 6 is another big deal this week. It has enough features to keep both noobs and hardcore fighting game fans happy. World Tour is a story mode, where you take your character through an open world with quests and hidden secrets and so on. It also has a hilarious feature where you can challenge any random NPC on the street to a fight, even that granny selling dumplings on the corner. It serves as an extended tutorial for newcomers. Fighting Ground is the classic, PvP mode which looks to have enough crunch to it to keep the dedicated fighting fans happy. This looks like a return to form for the series, learning from the many missteps of Street Fighter V. No loot boxes this time around!

Company of Heroes 3: Console Edition is what it sounds like. I love how these RTS titles are making their way to the couch, even if they mean frequent pausing while you bring up the radial command menus.

Super Mega Baseball 4 is another entry in this solid series of arcade baseball sims.

Poly Bridge 3 is an indie physics game about building bridges and testing their load-bearing capacity by having vehicles go over them. There’s over 100 levels in campaign mode and a sandbox mode where you can build your own levels and publish them online. It’s a simple idea, executed elegantly.

We Love Katamari REROLL+ Royal Reverie is a remake of the second Katamari game from 2005. Katamari is a classic, not just for spawning a heap of sequels, but also for making people rethink what games could be. This version brings a graphical and UI upgrade, and new challenges.

Everdream Valley is an adventure/sim game that builds upon the likes of Stardew Valley and Animal Crossing. You find yourself on a 3D map with a rundown farm, which you must rebuild, as well as caring for your crops and animals. At night, you dream, and can become different animals from your farm, each with their own set of minigames and activities. The more variety of animals on your farm, the more variety of dream minigames you can do. These kinds of games are very cozy.

Driftwood is also a chill game, about a sloth who loves to longboard. The key mechanic is drifting and the key state is flow as you navigate your way downhill, taking curves and avoiding obstacles, accompanied by smooth beats.

It’s a strong week, but my GOTW is System Shock. It’s like a Blu-Ray version of a classic film. Folks like me, who missed it the first time around, can enjoy it with the same sense of awe that players must have felt back in the day.

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

PC

  • 05-29

  • Cell Machine Indev
  • Chris - The Element Runner
  • Cinderstone Online
  • Frigato: Shadows of the Caribbean
  • Horror Amusement Park
  • Light of Hope 1 Fungi Spirulina
  • Magenta Horizon
  • Magic Paper
  • Meteorite Miner
  • N-Age
  • Noxious Weeds: Prologue
  • Peasant Jump Quest Extreme AI 8K
  • Rerun
  • Return
  • Space Mutants
  • Sybil is Haunted
  • The Backroom Project
  • The Highrise
  • The Paradixion: Son's Room
  • Tornado: Research and Rescue
  • Tower of Chaos
  • 05-30

  • All is Fair in Love and Vore: The Tavorion Collection
  • ArchiHexago
  • B..:EvaSive
  • Block Tower: Prologue
  • Divine Comedy
  • DREAMLINED
  • Everdream Valley
  • Farting Simulator
  • Farworld Pioneers
  • Forgotten Memories
  • Friends vs Friends
  • GeneRally 2
  • Glass Masquerade 3: Honeylines
  • gravity
  • Land of Zombies
  • MagicArchitect
  • Mobile Suit Gundam: Battle Operation 2
  • Our Adventurer Guild
  • Poly Bridge 3
  • Return to Grace
  • Shame Legacy
  • Shop-Like - The Rogue-Like Item Shop Experience
  • System Shock
  • The Squeal of the Pig
  • Three Kingdoms Origin
  • To Hell With The Ugly
  • Truck Problem
  • WhiteClothes
  • 05-31

  • Aenas-Cat and The Sea-Prologue
  • Alien Invasion: RPG Idle Space
  • Beyond Solar
  • Candle Knight
  • Deadly Delivery
  • Decarnation
  • DEFENDUN
  • DOOMBLADE
  • Escape from the Marble Monster
  • Etrian Odyssey HD
  • Etrian Odyssey II HD
  • Etrian Odyssey III HD
  • Fairy Massage
  • Flood Escape
  • Kam Thunder
  • Kittyverse of Madness
  • LASERPITIUM
  • Lillusion
  • Mega Maze
  • Midnight Witch
  • Mortal Fighter
  • Number 1!
  • Old Boy
  • Quasimorph: End of Dream
  • Rags to Liches
  • Shards of Nogard
  • Shattered Heaven
  • Sir. Ball-Up
  • STASIS: BONE TOTEM
  • The Legend of Crystal Dust
  • The Tartarus Key
  • Violet Bricks
  • Zombie Neighborhood
  • 06-01

  • April's Diary
  • Arobynn: Below The Surface
  • Balance 97.261/100
  • Barrett Foster : Chapter One
  • BicycleSim
  • Big Byz Wars
  • Color Pals
  • DESORDRE : A Puzzle Game Adventure
  • Die Daddy Die
  • Dragon's Hoard
  • Driftwood
  • Eye 4 Eye
  • Fourzy
  • Freak Hunter A Retro Type
  • Homebody
  • Idle Dice 2
  • Killer Frequency
  • Kvark
  • Liminal Space
  • Longevity Party
  • Lord Privateer
  • Love and Enchants
  • Merto's Part
  • Mislight
  • Molly Medusa: Queen of Spit
  • Myriads: Renaissance
  • Mythrealm
  • No More Rainbows
  • Paco
  • Party Quiz
  • Phonk Cats
  • Picket Line
  • Poly Jigsaw: Predators
  • POP BATTLE
  • Racing the Gods - Beyond Horizons
  • Reconnecting
  • Roober
  • RuneShroom
  • Search
  • Septaroad Voyager
  • Slayers X: Terminal Aftermath: Vengance of the Slayer
  • Sylvio And The Mountains Giants
  • TailQuest Defense
  • Turro 2022
  • Urban Flow
  • We Are One
  • 06-02

  • Aery - The Lost Hero
  • Age of the Duel
  • Blooby Block
  • Class of '09: The Re-Up
  • Crossing Damaged Bridge
  • Dread Descent
  • Dwarfender
  • Firewall
  • Heretic's Fork: Probation
  • HOROS - monster slayer and lover of many
  • Master Builder
  • Mirage
  • Nextbots In The Backrooms
  • Pile Up!
  • Project Proxima
  • RoboJesus
  • Roguebot
  • Silent Paws
  • Street Fighter 6
  • Sugar Tanks
  • Super Mega Baseball 4
  • The Ghost - Task of the Ghost Hunters
  • The Soul Labyrinth
  • VT Harmony
  • We Love Katamari REROLL+ Royal Reverie
  • Wise Garden
  • Wizard's watch
  • You'll stay here forever
  • 06-04

  • Black Cat: Back Light
  • Jumbo Airport Story
  • miniBONG
  • VerdantOfWorld:LostWay
  • Wild Park Manager

Xbox Series X

  • 05-30

  • Chicory: A Colorful Tale
  • Company of Heroes 3: Console Edition
  • Farworld Pioneers
  • Shame Legacy
  • Super Mega Baseball 4
  • 05-31

  • Aquarist
  • LASERPITIUM
  • Railbound
  • Undead Horde 2: Necropolis
  • 06-01

  • Homebody
  • Killer Frequency
  • Slayers X: Terminal Aftermath: Vengance of the Slayer
  • 06-02

  • MINABO - A walk through life
  • Speed Truck Racing
  • Street Fighter 6
  • We Love Katamari REROLL+ Royal Reverie

Xbox One

  • 05-30

  • Chicory: A Colorful Tale
  • Farworld Pioneers
  • Shame Legacy
  • Super Mega Baseball 4
  • 05-31

  • Aquarist
  • LASERPITIUM
  • Lucy Dreaming
  • Railbound
  • Undead Horde 2: Necropolis
  • 06-01

  • Homebody
  • Killer Frequency
  • Slayers X: Terminal Aftermath: Vengance of the Slayer
  • 06-02

  • MINABO - A walk through life
  • Paper Flight - Beyond Time
  • Speed Truck Racing
  • Sugar Tanks
  • We Love Katamari REROLL+ Royal Reverie

PlayStation 5

  • 05-30

  • Company of Heroes 3: Console Edition
  • Everdream Valley
  • Farworld Pioneers
  • Shame Legacy
  • Super Mega Baseball 4
  • The Caligula Effect: Overdose
  • 05-31

  • LASERPITIUM
  • Undead Horde 2: Necropolis
  • 06-01

  • Gunfire Reborn
  • Homebody
  • Killer Frequency
  • 06-02

  • Shantae
  • Street Fighter 6
  • We Love Katamari REROLL+ Royal Reverie

PlayStation 4

  • 05-30

  • Everdream Valley
  • Farworld Pioneers
  • Shame Legacy
  • 05-31

  • LASERPITIUM
  • Undead Horde 2: Necropolis
  • 06-01

  • Gunfire Reborn
  • Homebody
  • Killer Frequency
  • SkateBIRD
  • 06-02

  • Shantae
  • Street Fighter 6
  • Super Mega Baseball 4
  • We Love Katamari REROLL+ Royal Reverie

Switch

  • 05-30

  • Farworld Pioneers
  • To Hell With The Ugly
  • 05-31

  • Decarnation
  • LASERPITIUM
  • Mythargia
  • Potion Craft: Alchemist Simulator
  • Sunshine Shuffle
  • The Tartarus Key
  • Undead Horde 2: Necropolis
  • Undying
  • 06-01

  • Aery - The Lost Hero
  • Boxville
  • Constellations
  • Dwerve
  • Etrian Odyssey Origins Collection
  • GyroGunner
  • Hidden Bunny
  • Homebody
  • Japanese NEKOSAMA Escape The Sweets Shop
  • Killer Frequency
  • Korokoro Harley
  • LotionSamurai for Nintendo Switch
  • Move the Box: Classic Block Puzzle
  • Powers of Hex
  • Project Nightmares Case 36: Henrietta Kedward
  • 06-02

  • 7 Horizons
  • Johnny Trigger: Sniper
  • Kuroi Tsubasa
  • Super Mega Baseball 4
  • We Love Katamari REROLL+ Royal Reverie
  • 06-03

  • Kitten Island

Comments

Chicory landing on Xbox (and Game Pass) and Gunfire Reborn on Playstation are also noteworthy this week.

Diablo 4 releases on June 1/2 for certain preorders so technically not officially releasing this week but you know that’s what I’m playing this week.