Welcome back to This Week In Games Australia, your guide to what you’ll be playing in the week ahead. After a huge week to round out January, the first week of February is much quieter. The headline games this week are Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition, which comes to console thanks to Game Pass, Season: A letter to the future, which arrives on PlayStation, and Deliver Us Mars, which arrives on absolutely everything.
Also dropping over the weekend was a new Aussie original: Atone: Heart of the Elder Tree.
Here’s what you’ll be playing this week.
January 28
Atone: Heart of the Elder Tree (PC, NS, PS4)
A rhythm combat game inspired by Norse mythology, Atone: Heart of the Elder Tree was created by Wellington-based Wildboy Studios. Its approach to rhythm combat is a screen similar to Guitar Hero, with notes cascading down lanes, to be struck at the appropriate moment. I love the look of this one. I’ll be checking it out this week for sure.
January 31
Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition (XSX)
One of the grandfathers of RTS comes to consoles at last. Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition is just about the best version of the game ever released, and now it has controller support for those who’d like to play on a big TV and kick back on the couch.
Season: A letter to the future (PS5, PC, PS4)
Season: A letter to the future is, at its heart, a game about climate change. It shares a conceptual space with games like Lake, that have you driving around a small, secluded town and getting to know the inhabitants. What’s different about Season is that you are actively recording the stories of people who are about to die. The world is changing, and you are the only person who can capture and preserve the stories of people about to be displaced by that change. Beautiful stuff, strongly recommended.
Spongebob Squarepants: The Cosmic Shake (NS, PS4, XBO)
WHOOOOOOOO LIVES IN A PLAYSTATION UNDER THE SEA
Superfuse (PC)
Superfuse is a sci-fi action RPG about superheroes. It’s a little bit Diablo in its top-down design and a little bit Borderlands in aesthetic its over-the-top approach. The major difference is that you’re crawling through dead starships full of corrupted alien beings, and ripping them apart with your energy arms. Looks like fun!
February 2
Deliver Us Mars (PS5, XSX, PC, PS4, XBO)
Deliver Us Mars is a game about what happens when you prang your spaceship into the planet Mars and have to figure out how to not only survive, but get home. Not quite The Martian, this is a serious, dramatic game about what extreme isolation and the threat of impending death can do to people when they start to lose hope.
Fashion Police Squad (PS5, XSX, NS, PS4, XBO)
2022’s most fashionable game comes to consoles. A Build Engine styled shooter in which murder is the last thing on your mind, Fashion Police Squad is a game about helping people look and feel better in their clothes. Baggy suits? Unacceptable. These patches — what are we trying to say? Beggar? No. Let’s work with me here. It’s dumb, it’s fun, and you’ll love it.
February 3
SpellForce: Conquest of Eo (PC)
You see, when I hear Eo, I just think of the Disneyland ride starring Michael Jackson and directed by George Lucas. This is, of course, is not that ride. This is Spellforce: Conquest of Eo, a high-fantasy, turn-based strategy game. It’s look kind of like Civilisation by way of Warcraft III, which means I’m already liking what I’m seeing, and maybe you will too.
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