After what was a pretty quiet January, February is really starting to pick up the pace. We had Majora’s Mask last week, Dying Light a while back, and now it’s the turn of The Order: 1886, perhaps one of the ‘purtiest’ games on the PS4 to date.
I’m actually super keen to be playing an ‘event’ game, which is a term I just made up that is completely meaningless.
David. (PC)
What is it? A strange abstract shooter type thing that looks gorgeous and unique.
Should you care? Eurogamer said something like, if Shadow of the Colossus was made by Ikea it would look like this. Pretty high praise.
Dead or Alive 5 Last Round (Xbox One/PS4)
What is it? Whoa, this snuck up on me. How times have changed. Once upon a time people were going wild for these games, now? They’re sort of a relic.
Should you care? Still, I always thought the Dead or Alive series worked well as a simple, pick-up-and-play fighter.
Dynasty Warriors 8 Empires (Xbox One/PS4)
What is it? I lose track of the Dynasty Warriors series, but I realise there are people out there who follow its every step. You know what it is. If you like it you like it, if you don’t? Don’t bother.
Should you care? It’s one of those series: you either love it or hate it. You don’t need me to tell you where you should care about this one@
Hand of Fate (Xbox One/PS4/PS Vita/PC)
What is it? The Australian-made, really-quite-good card game thing with cool Action-RPG elements.
Should you care? Yeah, this is a bit of a humdinger. I expect this to do quite well. If you’re into card games or RPGs (that’s all of you I’m guessing) you need to check this out.
Hektor (PC)
What is it? One of those weird PC-only horror games. There seems to be so many of them. This one is first person and seems a bit NOPE NOPE NOPE in a good way.
Should you care? Looks well-made and scary in all the positive ways.
Hot Tin Roof: The Cat That Wore A Fedora (PC)
What is it? It’s a 2D platformer that has an element of Fez about it in that it messes with your idea of what 2D is.
Should you care? As much as I hate to recommend a game with a ‘Fedora’ in the title, this seems sorta interesting.
Idol Hands (PC)
What is it? This is a god game ala Populous. Has the greatest pun name ever. IDOL HANDS. I love it.
Should you care? Come for the name, stay for the nostalgia of a genre revival.
The Order: 1886 (PS4)
What is it? One of the first big-time AAA exclusive releases in a while. Made by previous handheld/remake specialists Ready at Dawn.
Should you care? I’m keen for this. It’s been a while since we’ve seen the release of a big ‘event’ game like this.
Total War: Attila
What is it? I can’t believe this is coming out so soon! The latest in the super popular and super good Total War series.
Should you care? All signs point to yes: you should care about this. At the very least you’ll want to keep track if you’re a fan of the series.
Did we miss anything? What are you buying this week?
Comments
22 responses to “This Week In Games: Time To Join The Order”
Dynasty warriors is next week Mark, wish it was this week though
The order and Dead or alive for sure, but after Rome 2 I’m very weary of the new total war the series has hurts me too many times
I will wait until I can get a good deal on The Order, I don’t think it’s going to set the world on fire but would still like to play it
This is my theory, because I also have a lot of other games to play, but we’ll see if that actually happens.
I’m waiting for the reviews. I was pretty cold on early showings of The Order. but as it has progressed it has started to look more appealing to me. I’m not expecting anything revolutionary, but if it’s just a good, solid shooter with some purdy graphics, that’ll be good enough for me. But if it’s too bogged down with QTE’s and half-arsed stealth sections then I may give it a miss or wait until it’s cheap.
There’s a thread on Reddit that this game is only about 5 hours long, with half of that cutscenes and QTEs, so I’m definitely going to wait until reviews are out!
I think the reviews will be all over the shop, there will be those that…
will complain it doesn’t have MP…
will complain that is doesn’t do anything new (not nextgen enough)…
etc…
For me though, I was on board from the very first trailer, I loved the look and style. What I’ve wanted out of this game is functional gameplay (I don’t care if it doesn’t reinvent the wheel). A decent story and an overall interesting premise. From impressions on the web, this is what it seems to deliver.
Plus, I’m getting a 14cm Galahad Sackboy for my troubles also! 🙂
Yeah, I don’t give a shit about lack of multiplayer since I’m not going to play it anyway. And if we didn’t buy games that didn’t do anything new and “next-gen-y”, then none of us would own a single game for our PS4’s / XBones.
Look at something like the Uncharted games – don’t really do anything revolutionary, but what they do they do better than anybody has ever done it before. If The Order is just a solid shooter, then I’ll be happy enough with that. But yeah, I just want to make sure it gets that “solid shooter” part right before parting with my money.
Oh well, I’m on holidays for 2 weeks as of the end of this week, so won’t be buying anything until I get back. By then the dust should have settled and we’ll have some firmer idea of what it’s like and I can make a decision then.
Yeah, I think that this is smart. It looks like an okay-quality corridor shooter, and assuming that’s all it is I’m interested but not desperate. Main worry was that they seemed to show very short sequences from it that had a lot of cutscenes and QTEs. I’m not sure it’ll have enough substance to it to get it at full price.
I’m not into this week’s line-up. After Rome 2 the Total War franchise is clearly something that is best avoided until well after launch. I highly doubt that The Order has what it takes to set the world on fire, so there’s no chance of me getting a PS4 for it. Overall this week doesn’t seem like anything worth writing home about. I might go check out one of those indie titles sometime, though.
100% agree about Total War. The fact that they’re trying to label Attila as a fall game when it fits that niche of an expansion just makes it feel like a really slapdash effort by Creative Assembly. I’m not sure if it’s their fault or Sega’s but Total War has gotten really hit-or-miss lately.
I’ve been a very, very long time Total War fan and I suffered some of the worst beginnings to Rome 2 (as in, entirely unplayable for over a year)
Having now put well over 200 hours into Rome 2 and closely following Attila’s progress while checking YouTubers Let’s Play videos of the review copy (see lionheartx10, WarriorofSparta etc) I am confident that mistakes have been made and learned from. I will be picking up Attila on day one with confidence that it will be a complete game (barring DLC, which is a whole other discussion to be had another time).
For note, I am fairly certain that CA – not Sega – are at fault for the major issues of Rome 2. Sega gave them delay after delay before it was released incomplete, so yeah.
I’ve heard reports that The Order: 1886 isn’t amazing. I’ve also heard it’s not bad. Seems like it might be another next gen exclusive that is kinda alright but not a must have. The average next gen exclusives continue to disappoint is my guess, but I’m more than happy to be proven wrong.
I’ve got Dead or Alive coming for review ATM.
But you want to talk “under the radar” the. the Order is one very hidden game. Barely any press, no commercials, no trailers, nothing. I think a lot of people are going to wait for reviews before buying it since there was next to no marketing done for it
My feeling is that it is probably a stinker. There was a huge marketing push when it was first revealed and has since died off completely. I am guessing the publisher doesn’t have much faith in it for this very reason.
I was originally excited for The Order: 1886 when I first saw the announcement trailer. Then I saw it was a third person shooter. Then I saw gameplay videos and it just looks really generic with decent graphics. Not for me 🙁
Attila, all reviews point to yes, but they did for Rome 2 as well when it was first released and it wasn’t that great. Even without the bad press from Rome 2 though, I won’t be getting Attila. I got the Barbarian Invasion expansion for Rome (let’s be honest, it’s the same expansion) and couldn’t get into it. I love building Rome up but I’m not so interested in seeing it fall apart. That’s just my preferences over the historical period though
I’m waiting on reviews to the order, I’ll probably end up getting it but I’m expecting to be on par with Ryse where it is fun and pretty but is short and lacks the substance to be more than a throw away 10 hour game.
Rumours floating around are that Order is only 5 hours long with 2+ of that being unskippable cutscenes.
“I’m actually super keen to be playing an ‘event’ game, which is a term I just made up that is completely meaningless.”
I think you may have been listening to the crew at Kinda Funny, they were discussing ‘event’ games in their last gamescast I believe.
Isn’t Kirby out this week too?
Oh… I just read it’s delayed up to 6 months in PAL territories, yet out in America this week?
What the fuck! I need this in my life Nintendo!
Dead and Alive for me. Amazingly this will be the first time I purchase DOA5. I limit buying multiple editions of the same fighter to Arc System Works titles :p