November 18 - 24 | Gamers With Jobs

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

Welcome folks, and happy “717th Anniversary of William Tell shooting an apple off his son’s head” week! You may all celebrate by playing a game where you can land noscope headshots.

This late into November, you may have already drafted a GOTY list, but 2024 isn’t done yet.

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl was made in extraordinary circumstances by Ukrainian devs who eventually had to relocate workers to Prague to finish the game. The S.T.A.L.K.E.R. series blends the post-apocalyptic exploration of Fallout with harsh survival mechanics like in Far Cry 2. Weapons can jam, ammo is scarce, and you need to manage hunger, thirst, sleep and radiation. You don’t level up, you just find better gear, and get better at navigating the harsh environment. The devs designed the map with 5 key themes in mind, 2 of which are “freedom” and “loneliness”. It has an open-endedness that leads to myriad harsh ways to die, but also moments of quiet awe as you stand atop a ruined apartment block or see a shaft of light in an abandoned stairwell. If you want a shooter with Souls-like challenge and mystery, this could draw you in for dozens of hours.

Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 brings more aircraft than ever before, and now you can do more with them: firefighting, search and rescue, cropdusting, skydiving and so on. There will be helicopters, hot air balloons, gliders, even dirigibles. There’s a career mode, and most of your official add-ons for previous Flight Simulator games will work with this. Grab your HOTAS gear out of the cupboard and get on board!

Towers of Aghasba has an interesting gameplay cycle: Defeat a boss in a barren, combat-heavy area to reclaim the area, then nurse the area back to health with gardening and town-building mechanics to create an ecosystem and economy that can produce good enough gear to tackle the next, harder, barren area. “Gardening” doesn’t quite capture the scale of what you can do with plant life: it’s more like reforesting. You plant a tower tree as a base, and as it grows it attracts more types of animals and other plants, until eventually you have megafauna stomping around. The animals are more than just food and crafting ingredients, and you can get just as much reward from nurturing them as from hunting them. Then there’s the city-building, where you plonk down your buildings in your area, and that too can grow to an impressive scale. Then there’s a whole Animal Crossing layer where each player has their own island and can visit and trade with other players’ islands. It looks stunning and lush, although I have no idea how deep the combat goes. The game holds your hand through one loop of the gameplay cycle, then you are free to progress how you see fit. Do you train up to take on the next barren area, or just noodle around on your friends’ islands, farming and trading?

Touhou Spell Carnival is a cross between bullet-hell and RTS. I watched previews to see how this plays out and they were all in Japanese, so I can say that combat happens on a grid, and not much else.

Crusader Kings III: Tours and Tournaments is the console release of the expansion that makes your leader have to travel around their realm to do things during peacetime. You can also watch vassals and all sorts of other characters travel around the map too. All up, it zooms in on individuals to add many more ways to flesh out their stories in this rich history tapestry-weaving game.

If you don’t have a system that can run Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024, the Switch has a consolation prize with Flight Attendant Simulator: Onboard Tasks. Sure, you won’t be piloting a plane or seeing amazing vistas through the cockpit window, but you’ll be doing other fun stuff associated with air travel, like stowing luggage, giving safety demonstrations and serving food. Cabin crew life never looked so glamorous.

There’s 3 strong contenders this week. Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 is the best there is at what it does. Towers of Aghasba is an impressive-looking new game that has some interesting ideas for how to balance its different systems. But I have to give the GOTW to S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl, not just for the devs’ incredible achievement in finishing the game while their country was being invaded, but because it looks like the polished, next-gen instalment that S.T.A.L.K.E.R. fans have been waiting for.

GWJ Word of the Week

Bullet hell: A game state that involves lots of deadly projectiles coming at the player, usually quite slowly, but in a way where they eventually fill the screen, so your hapless little avatar has nowhere to go without getting hit. Except there is always a dodge path to be found by the good players—I only played these games in the arcade era and they munched my coins too fast for me to git gud.

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

PC

11-18
Astrozar
Bramblewood
Brawlers of Duality
Bub-O Burst
Cloudy Valley
Don't Be a Hero
Echoes of Formosa: Agent Reborn
Fight Back The Night
Finity
Forgotten but Unbroken
Frontline Inferno
Haunting Hijinx
HeightMaster
Hot Rod Racer!
Hotloop
Iconia Defenders
Lost Temple Treasure
MATH
Mister Antonio
Once Alive
Pro Basketball Manager 2025
Raster
Rose
Seer's Gambit
Shadows At Bay
Songs of the HMong
Stealth Syndicate
SZX
Virtual Campus
What's Up There
World Crafter TD
11-19
A Drop of Color
Ancient Mind
Ant protect the queen
Cabin Escape
Cybertrash STATYX
Depths of Endor: Dungeon Crawler
EXPERIENCE OF FICTION LIFE
Goldenheart
HAPPY HOLES
I AM DOG
Magibrick
Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024
Multimind
Netveil
Node Farm
Papa's Pizzeria Deluxe
Rise & Muse
Rogue Knight
Sklime
Sleeping: Counting Sheep
SPASE DEFENSE
Starpuffs
The Seven Realms - Realm 3: High Lathion
THRESHOLD (Julien Eveille)
Toads of the Bayou
Where the Heart is: Season 1
You Are the Next
11-20
3D RMB Knowledge Park: Learning Games for Toddlers and Kids
6-Sided Stories
A-Train9 TRAIN CONSTRUCTION
Asterogues
Dark Honor
DIRTY HALLOWEEN
Endless Defense: Survival
Fault - Broken Promises
Forge Front
Homecoming -KITAKU-
Jellies of the Deep
Luma Island
Open Hunting XL
Ottoman Dreams: Rise of Suleiman
Quiz & Learn: Food & Drink
Randotura
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl
Silverpine Creek
Spellwheel
Stig
Summa Expeditionis
Tales Beyond The Tomb - Pineville Night Stalker
The Cursed Ritual
Traverse Colour Space
TRUEM arcade
Zup! Y
11-21
1000 Waves
Beach Boys 2: Zodiac Date
Canis Watch
Card Hero
Coffee Beans
Cursed New Year
CYBERPHOBIA
DEMON COMPASS
DevilReversi
Doctor Dash ASMR Hospital
Fallen Cage
Falling with Ice Phoenix!
Fantasy Aquarium
Five Nights at Roner's: Remastered
Follow the meaning
Gravenfall: Veil of Darkness
Haunted Hearts Hotel
I Lost Someone
I'd Kiss THAT Fish
I.H.A.S
ICBM: Escalation
Imminent
Interim Crossroads
Jack of Clubs
Jet Fighters with Friends 5
JUST SKATEBOARD
Juxtapose
Loco Motive
Meow Mission
Mercury Abbey
Monitoring All Night
My Imaginary Friend
Obscurefiend
Prison Princess: Trapped Allure
Re-Exit
Shadowhand Solitaire
Snowboard Legends
Starsim
Strinova
Super Rolling Heroes Deluxe
Sweet Warrior
The Devil Within: Satgat
The Last Humble-Bee
There's No Santa
Urbex Awakening
Way of the Bullet
11-22
A Few Days With : Amber
Akizora no Memories
Beta MAX
BlockArena
Bound by Desire
Bricking Bots
C.V. Atashi to Atashi no Nakanohito The Fourth Insider
Cardaire
Cat's Vote
Cloud Piercer
Coconut Simulator
Corrupt Them All - Tokyo Meow
Dokimon: Quest
Faith Of Life _ Survive Edition
Farm Invaders (Luis Martinez)
Forest of soul slave
Forgotten Mechs
Fruity Friendz Adventurez
Goo Goo Grapplers
Gravity Survivors
Hidden Cats : Thief
I commissioned some frogs 3
I Wanna Be A Game Dev!
In Search of The Golden Crops
Invention 7
Isle of Birds
joiLAB VR
Kosmolaris
Mahjong (Taranau Aliaksei)
Meander Land
Playing God
Prickle
Project Aphotic
Public Enemy: Ghost Village
Sakurairo Tetra Prism
Scourge Of The Village
Spirit Mancer
Toastercide
Tsuma wa Kon'ya mo Ubawareru ~Seiso Kei Kyonyuu Hitozuma wa Choukyouzumi Niku Ana Dorei~
UnDuster
Wind's Poem
Witch and Council
Youlogic
11-24
Archaeology - Frozen Knights
Archaeology - Frozen Village
Bat Bots
Christmas Tree Decorator
Globalization
Marks of Ki
OVER ROAD
Reverse Escape Room: Archaeologists Sanctum
Rocket Rush
Stones of Flesh
The Grave Keeper
The same day~Never-ending celebration party~
The Strange City
Time to Tell Time