This week sees the release of Company of Heroes 2
, one of the various properties carved up when THQ went under. Bill and I saw it during our last E3 and man, that snow looked amazing. The gameplay also looked impressive and served to remind me that the Eastern Front was not a place I would have ever wanted to be.
We also get the release of Deadpool (PS3
, 360
, PC)
this week, the comic book video game that three, maybe four people have been clamoring for. Nothing against Deadpool, but humor in games is pretty tricky, 4th wall humor even trickier and my concern is that Deadpool will end up being just an annoying mess of 4th wall breaking poop jokes. I’ll still give it a shot, but I’m not expecting much.
In other miscellaneous game news, Project X Zone
brings eight gazillion fighters to the 3DS, Spartacus Legends brings gladiatorial gore to PSN and XBLA, Game and Wario brings minigames to the Wii U and Ride to Hell: Retribution (PS3
, PC
, 360
) brings biker club fun to various platforms. It’s like Sons of Anarchy just without an MC member who moonlights as an Elvis impersonator.
Deals
Toys R Us – Get all Skylanders single pack figures (Giants, Spyro’s Adventures and Lightcore) for two for $16. Get All Skylanders Giants giant figures at 2 for $22. Get all Skylanders Giants starter packs for $39.99.
Target – Buy one, get one 50% off on all Sims games. Get $30 off of a Skylanders Giants starter pack when reserving Swap Force for a buck. Get Injustice, GoW: Judgement, Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate (Wii U), FIFA 13 or SimCity for $39.99 each. Get Tomb Raider for $29.99.
Best Buy – Save $25 on Skylanders Giants starter packs and get a free backpack (while supplies last). Save $5 on all Skylanders Giants figure packs.
With the Steam summer sale looming large I see nothing compelling here.
Besides, I am crazy addicted to Animal Crossing; the improvements over the others in the series are palpable.
Also tucking into Zelda: Oracle of Seasons, which is a great side dish.
And then there’s The Last of Us. I have never seen a title go from ‘this is okay’ to ‘oh my god this is amazing’ in quite a sharp turn before. The opening is Zombipocalypase: Drake’s Fortune at best, but after what is essentially a three hour tutorial it becomes something incredibly special. Absolutely love it. Second best game I played this year, after Fire Emblem.
I am also high on my own Animal Crossing supply. I wish I could catch sharks. They reek of bells.
Ditto for Last of Us. I’m in the home stretch now and I want to see where this one ends up. I doubt it will be in a sunshine filled meadow.
I know! Those sharks are a gold mine. The worst part is having to donate my first of everything to the museum. The resident’s keep slagging it off for too few exhibits so I have been pouring my efforts into fixing it up.
The island is the best place; you can easily scare up piles of fruit to import, high value beetles, and the fishing is way better. On a good trip I can come back with three sharks easy.
And I didn’t realize they had added achievements in the form of badges, which is even worse. Between that and the civil engineering projects I will be playing this damn thing for months.
Oh, don’t get me started on these blasted public works projects. They want a fountain, but will they pay for it? Ohhhh nooooo! Heaven forfend!
Blasted ingrates.
You should take a look at State of Decay after TLoU. It’s the exact opposite in many ways. It also may be the best zombie game ever made.
I have played the demo, I liked it a lot.
Going to wait for it to hit the PC so they can iron out the tech issues though.
Both games have merits, and I definitely want to play through State of Decay.
I’m also going to play it eventually but I also want to let the patching issues simmer down a bit.
Have you tried DayZ? If not, I hope you will sometime when it becomes available as a standalone game (no need to jump in the paid-alpha/beta, but in that case, you’re probably in for a long wait).
It’s different from any other zombie game I’ve played, and improvements in the standalone version that were discussed couple of days ago at Rezzed sound awesome (different medications, implementing online radio for fun and making ambushes, all that talk about sun, proteins, thirst, hunger… damn, can’t wait for it to become available!)