This week is the week of Wolfenstein, Transistor and OH MY GOD A SINGLE MILLION STEAM GAMES I’VE NEVER HEARD OF!
Make it stop.
Ascend: Hand of Kul (PC)
What is it? I don’t know much about this. It’s an Action-RPG of sorts that’s really doing a bad job of explaining itself.
Should you care? I’m going to say no.
Distant Worlds: Universe (PC)
What is it? A vast, apparently plausible real time strategy game on a grand scale.
Should you care? This seems quite intriguing.
Firefighters 2014 (PC)
What is it? Oh man, a fireman simulation. Oh god. It exists.
Should you care? This is insane. Like it’s a legit simulation. Actually focuses on the daily operations of being a firefighter. My Dad was a firefighter for 30 years. Where’s the part where they order in pizza and watch the Champion’s League?
ibb & obb (PC)
What is it? Urgh ANOTHER 2D platformer… wait. This one looks interesting and original and has a cool art style?
Should you care? I’m interested in this. Looks cool. Has a lot of gravity bending mechanics. I can get behind that.
Imagine Earth (PC)
What is it? A puzzle/strategy game about planetary colonization.
Should you care? I know very little about this. Par for the course with Steam releasing a million games each week.
Out There Somewhere (PC)
What is it? A retro-styled 2D platformer lovingly based on 16-bit [slowly puts gun to head]
Should you care? Wait! Apparently this is actually quite good. Unbelievable!
Panzer Tactics HD (PC)
What is it? A HD remake of the Nintendo DS strategy classic.
Should you care? I can think of plenty of better options in this genre.
Paradigm Shift (PC)
What is it? Yet another steam game I hadn’t heard of until right before it hits release. Horror-styled point-and-click adventure game. Interesting themes.
Should you care? Production values seem pretty low. Not sure how the slow pace of a point-and-click will work as a horror game.
Project Temporality (PC)
What is it? A mind-bending action-puzzler with time based mechanics ala Braid.
Should you care? Apparently this is a well-designed video game and it looks pretty swell.
The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing II (PC)
What is it? A Diablo style third person thing that looks sort of cool and mental.
Should you care? Man, this is just another game in a long list of Steam releases I haven’t been able to keep up with. It’s ridiculous.
They Breathe (PC)
What is it? A horrible parable about brutal eco-system where we all fight over oxygen.
Should you care? Original, dazzling and fantastic. Keen to check this one out myself.
Transistor (PS4/PC)
What is it? The newest game from the creators of Bastion, which everyone (except me) seemed to love.
Should you care? Absolutely, despite not liking Bastion all that much, I am excited about this one.
Tropico 5 (PC)
What is it? The latest entry into the often criminally overlooked Tropico series.
Should you care? Yes. You should care. This series is great.
Wolfenstein: The New Order (360/PS3/Xbox One/PS4/PC)
What is it? Probably the biggest AAA release of the week.
Should you care? Yeah, I think so. Looks good. I’m keen on engaging in some simple FPS pleasures.
Comments
52 responses to “This Week In Games”
I dot know if I’m more hyped for Transistor, or it’s soundtrack…
Ashley Barrett’s voice…. *swoon*
Haha! I thought the same! Can’t wait to get that OST! (Probably will get the game too. :P)
Same. Saw a soundtrack bundle, instantly went for it. After the amazingness of the Bastion soundtrack, there’s no way I couldn’t get the Transistor one.
Im with you @markserrels
I didnt warm to Bastion either
Visually it was wonderful, but the slooooow movement and animations were painful
I started Bastion on the weekend, and it’s… alright. I guess.
There’s nothing particular wrong with it, the art style is very nice. But a few hours in I’m not really feeling why people raved about it. So far it’s good enough, just not great.
That’s pretty much how I felt. Cool idea held back by some mediocre combat and… not much else really.
I’ll throw in a +1 to this. I liked it, the art style was great but the gameplay I’ve seen a million times before. If the game was more difficult I probably wouldn’t have bothered to finish it. As it was, I got through it quickly and had an alright time with it. Good, just not nearly as great as the internet made it sound.
I really liked Bastion, primarily because it was not really about combat, or really talent (of which I have little), but a story, which I had not really done for a while. This and Limbo were a similar joy for me – Limbo was a lot darker obviously, but Bastion has a really good endgame…… (I liked it anyway)
Well. It wasn’t about that unless you were being anal-retentive and trying to make your score on all the Breaker trials or whatever they were called. 😛 I drove myself nuts not being able to progress without maxing those as soon as I got to them.
You’re all monsters. Monster!
😉
Played Ibb & Obb when it was free with PS+. It’s a really fun and clever 2d platformer with a beautiful art style, definitely worth trying.
I want to be excited for Transistor but I can’t help but feel the sword is going to be as annoying as Kring. Also, is it weird that I’ve played about half an hour of Bastion many years ago but listened to the soundtrack for more than the length of the game? I am definitely getting the soundtrack this time, even though you have to buy the game just to get it…
pretty sure you can get em separately through steam…
That’s the weird thing, you can’t. It specifically states you need the base game to play it. I had the same problem with Hotline Miami.
well…. that’s just dumb.
anyway…. here’s a solution
Should definitely check out van helsing 2. The first one was great and this one is shaping up to be even better!
Also woot for wolfenstein!!!!!!!
My copy of Wolfenstein arrived today (4 days early), sometimes it’s good to pre-order 😀
It’s actually out tomorrow. 🙂
EB in Canberra has signs saying the 22nd, but it’s the 20th in the US?
Odd because EB online says the 20th. I think Europe are getting it on the 22nd?
They changed the date month or so ago to the 20th
Well that works! All I know is that there is a motherfucker of a day one patch i’ve had to have running while I’m at work. (5.5GB for PS4)
That is crazy plus the 40 something gig install, I read the 360 version is 4 disks!
Yeah that’s just silly, albeit worth it for that id Tech 5 goodness.
I should have my Drakengard 3 CE hopefully by the end of the week. Will have to smash over the weekend before Watch Dogs next week!
Lucky! I ordered the vanilla edition of Drakengard, I don’t think it’s even left Amazon yet 😛
Only Wolfenstein for me this week.
WOW! So many PC games! I feel sorry for your wallets master race!
Sometimes I’m glad the Wii U and PS4 have such desolate games libraries lately! $$$
I only just recently picked up Tropico 4 with a bunch of DLC so I should probably give it a go before deciding if I want Tropico 5 (though I saw some early footage from cr1tikal who did some voice acting for it and it looks pretty spiffy).
This week for me it’s all about WOLFENSTEIN. I liked the last Wolfenstein even though it got hammered a bit by critics. New Order looks fantastic.
TROPICO 5 all the way. Viva El Presidente!
Looking forward to Wolfenstein, as I quite enjoyed the last one. And, having finished Outlast last weekend and Whistleblower last night, I feel like spending a few hours shooting supernaturalist Nazis would be quite cathartic. Wondering if I should go back and play Return to Castle Wolfenstein… it came with the new one on GMG, and I feel bad for never actually playing it.
I just spent the weekend replaying Return To Castle in order to get psyched for The New Order, which I will be playing all this week (bar full-time work, game of thrones, socialising) *sigh*
Is it worth playing? I’m expecting it to be far more difficult than I’m used to, given its age, but not really sure what to expect beyond that.
YES! it’s amazing, I actually find it easier now than I did back in the day (I was only 12 when it came out) with faster computers and 120+ frame rates it actually feels quite good. The story is excellent and some of the levels (i.e. the crypt) are actually quite creepy and engaging.
Excellent story; creepy, engaging levels… you’ve convinced me. 🙂
*eagerly awaits GMG to release steam keys*
Mien leiben *thud*
Yay Wolfenstein. Anyone know how reliable EB are with getting games delivered on time? First time I done an online order with them.
I’ve never played Tropico but it does interest me, just depends if I can commit any time to playing it.
Usually arrives on release for me (rural NSW), Wolfenstein was shipped Thursday so I’m expecting it to arrive today.
Yeah my copy of Wolfenstein arrived this morning, I always pre-order through EB when I want something the day before it’s released (I live in Canberra)
I love how every single game on this list is for PC. I see no need to get a next gen console. I’m happy with my pc and Wii u.
Why no The Forest?
http://store.steampowered.com/app/242760/
Keen to get Wolfenstein this week. Question: Should I play the first one?
Play Return To Castle!! It’s so frickin’ good. Wolf 3D and Wolfenstein 2009 are actually both pretty average by today’s standards.
You won’t miss much if you don’t.
It was a great game 20+ years ago but it wasn’t exactly story driven.
You should totally give it a go though if you’ve got time, it’s pretty easy to get hold of.
If you play it for 5 minutes you’ll basically have seen the whole game.
Damn, I thought Watch Dogs was out this week!
Not that I’m super excited, but I was planning on waiting for the reviews to decide if I’d get it or Wolfenstein.
If Wolf gets good reviews then I’m going to have to decide whether to grab it now and risk Watch Dogs being brilliant or hold off a extra week to wait and see.
Next week is going to be brutal with Watch Dogs, Mario Kart 8 and Drakengard 3
Yay, Wolfenstein… been a fan of the series for a long time and yes, i loved the last Raven Software one.
Now if only Green Man Gaming would give me my code, i would have liked to pre-load for what seems to be one motherfucker of a download. Thank god for Internodes unmetered steam content.
2009 Wolfenstein really wasn’t that bad, people like to hate on it for some reason but I quite enjoyed it too. Not as good as Return To Castle though!
Ahhh… time for El Presidente to return! I love the Tropico games.
@markserrels Maybe it’s time to split the list and give Indy/Steam Exclusives/under $20 their own sub-section on This Week In Games? It’s nice having them on the list but it’s a bit of an overwhelming mess on weeks like this one.
Wolfenstein this week!
Also, my pre-order has a copy of Return to Castle Wofenstein with it.
Fun times ahead.
Get Psyched!