New game releases.
Yakuza Kiwami is Now Available on Steam!
SEGA’s critically-acclaimed entry that started a legend. Become Kazuma Kiryu, an up-and-coming yakuza who takes the fall for the murder of a crime boss, only to emerge from prison ten years later to a changed world. Remastered from the ground up, now in 4K and uncapped framerates on PC.
Far Cry® New Dawn is Now Available on Steam!
Dive into a transformed vibrant post-apocalyptic Hope County, Montana, 17 years after a global nuclear catastrophe.
Lead the fight against the Highwaymen, as they seek to take over the last remaining resources.
Your regular weekly update is back, and we’ve got plenty to catch up on – it’s been a pretty good couple of weeks all things considered, with some interesting new releases and game updates, as well as a healthy amount of sale action to see you into the weekend. For some of you in the UK it’ll be school holidays next week, so you may want to read this week’s update with interest.
Highlights from this week include catch-up reviews on The Escapists 2 (which is pretty good) and Invaders from Dimension X! (which is a bit rough around the edges, but a neat war game that we’re glad to see exist).
Meanwhile, in mobile games…
There’s not much more to say about this game beyond what we stated in our review, so go give that a read. Suffice to say, if you like board games, there’s a high chance you’ll like this game. Better yet, you can try it out for yourself for free!
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iaMkh3oBiA8?controls=0]
The art style on this one reminds me of our 2018 GOTY, Meteorfall and makes me wonder if the same artist was involved. This is a premium card game/dungeon crawler where players can re-arrange the dungeon cards themselves. Plenty of collectables and plenty of replayability by the sounds of things, and we’ll get you a full review as soon as we can.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ISK6UosYsIk?controls=0]
One of our favourite strategy titles is now on Android! Woot! The pricing model is slightly different to what is on iOS, but it’s basically the same as Plague Inc. – you can try it out for free, and then there’s an IAP to unlock the ‘Premium’ version. There are additional IAPs beyond that, but these are exactly the same as what iOS users have.
From last week there was also text-based strategy game A Few Minutes of Glory (iOS), which we’ll have a full review for next week, as well as Throne Quest (iOS & Android), an action RPG that’s also on our list to take a deeper look at.
Finally, Victory Point Games released one of their solitaire board games in digital format called Gem Rush (iOS, Android). It’s an unfortunate title for the mobile app store, but we’ll get you a full review as soon as we can.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gun4qCKFvAo?controls=0]
The Trese Brothers have updated two of their catalogue recently – Templar Battleforce continues to get refined with improved iPad Pro support, and recently released Star Traders: Frontiers get a new content drop in the form of a new high-difficulty role and play-style. The link may be from steam, but it’s worth paying attention to the PC page because that’s where they talk about their plans and updates for the game (across all platforms).
The iconic farming simulator/RPG is finally making its way to Android. Pre-registration is open right now, so if you click on the above link you can sign up to notified when the game is released. The generally consensus is that it’ll be premium and cost the same as the iOS version, and also have all of the same functionality bar multiplayer. No news yet as to the ‘when’, but I’m sure we’ll find out soon.
There’s actually quite a lot of games on sale this week, so this section is going to have to be a bit brief:
Also available at a discount are Asmodee’s digital ports of Love Letter and Patchwork.
That’s everything in this week’s update – enjoy your weekends and we’ll see you next week. If you’ve seen anything else you think deserves as mention, let us know in the comments!
Super Mario Maker™ 2! The Legend of Zelda™: Link’s Awakening! Astral Chain™! The recent Nintendo Direct added several big Nintendo Switch™ games to the year’s growing lineup. Host Chris Slate wouldn’t stop gushing about the news to everyone within earshot, so to get some work done, his coworkers locked him in a room with Bill Trinen from Nintendo Treehouse and Anthony Foster from the social media team at Nintendo of America. It turned out they couldn’t wait to talk about the games, too!
Nintendo Power Podcast is available on Apple Podcasts, YouTube, SoundCloud and Google Play Music and on the Nintendo Switch system in News.
We hope you enjoy the show!
–Your friends at Nintendo
Games Shown:
© 2019 Valve Corporation. All rights reserved. All trademarks are property of their respective owners in the US and other countries.
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Play NBA 2K19 for FREE starting now through Sunday at 1PM Pacific Time. You can also pickup NBA 2K19 at 67% off the regular price!*
If you already have Steam installed, click here to install or play NBA 2K19. If you don’t have Steam, you can download it here.
*Offer ends Monday at 10AM Pacific Time
Play Arma 3 for FREE starting now through Sunday at 1PM Pacific Time. You can also pickup Arma 3 at 66% off the regular price!*
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*Offer ends Monday at 10AM Pacific Time
Sid Meier’s Civilization® VI: Gathering Storm, all new content for Sid Meier’s Civilization® VI is Now Available on Steam!
Civilization VI: Gathering Storm introduces an active planet where geology and climatology present unique new challenges. The second expansion to Civilization VI adds new Environmental Effects, Engineering Projects, Power and Consumable Resources, as well as the World Congress and a new Diplomatic Victory. This new expansion also extends the Technology and Civics trees with a future era, and adds eight new civilizations, nine new leaders, a variety of new units, districts, wonders, buildings, and more.
AWAY: Journey to the Unexpected is Now Available on Steam and is 15% off!*
In a mood for a little journey to a colourful world full of unexpected events and crazy characters? Jump into a feel-good adventure with rogue-lite elements, where action meets cuteness and powers come with friendship. A love letter to anime and quirkiness from two indie developers.
*Offer ends February 20 at 10AM Pacific Time
There is something incredibly synergetic about prison and videogames. While in real life incarceration is a punishment most wish to avoid, its inherent nature and location in places meant to be inescapable goes in direct contrast to players’ instincts to solve a puzzle — you put a player in a prison facility in a game, and you can expect them to try to break free almost immediately. The genius of The Escapists is recognising that urge and building a whole game about it, providing players with all the tools, opportunities, and mechanics to crack the hardest joints.
From lax holding facilities to maximum security prisons, The Escapists 2: Pocket Breakout includes five different levels, including the tutorial, two easy prisons, a medium and a hard. Each has a different layout and number of characters, providing a variety of situations to keep gameplay fresh, further compounded by the completely randomised rosters (that can also be customised by the player before the start of each scenario).
As a game, The Escapists 2 rotates around following a stringent set of rules to cover up the continuous rule-breaking. A daily routine consisting of roll calls, meal times, gym and shower breaks, and even work must be adhered to, lest the guards get suspicious and start keeping an eye on you more often. You don’t really need to do the things they expect you to do — being on the mess hall networking will fool them even if you don’t properly eat — but the balance between legal and illegal activities makes up the biggest part of the game’s loop.
The other facet of the game comes in the planning and execution of the actual breaking out of prison, which requires you to decide by yourself — with very little assistance — the who, the what, the why, the when, and the where. Digging under the wall, cutting fences, hiding in a shipping crate, and even disguising yourself as part of a video crew can be used to attain freedom, and you will need to not only mentally keep track of all the moving pieces, but also get them in place.
Besides straight up snatching the items from their relevant locations, the best way of gathering materials for your escape is from other prisoners. By doing favours to other inmates, players can get money with which to buy supplies from other fellows dabbling in contraband, presenting a wide array of items to create anything from makeshift tools to a dummy prisoner to fool the guards who look at your cell bed.
Performing those actions can be a bit of a chore at times, thanks to the game somewhat finicky system when it comes to targeting people and items for use. The context buttons sometimes feel arbitrary in their placement and prompting, leading to some puzzling moments of thrashing about something or someone to get it to do what you want to get done. That is further compounded by a save system that only saves when you are at bed or at the end of specific routines, meaning that The Escapists 2 can be slightly inconvenient at times, especially for a mobile game.
In terms of comparison to The Escapists 1, the sequel takes everything that worked on the first instalment and expands it. The game is virtually the same as the original but bigger, which coupled with the 8-bit graphics and great music and sound design should provide plenty of fun to fans of the franchise — and provide a great starting point to newcomers.
The most important thing for this edition, arguably, is how well The Escapist 2 performs on mobile. The game has been out on Steam since mid-2017, but Team 17 went all out on this port. Aside from graphics and audio quality equal to the PC version, Pocket Breakout enjoys wonderfully touch-responsive rolling menus and three different control systems: an on-screen dynamic or fixed joystick, a click and hold movement system, or a click-only method similar to RPGs of old like Diablo. All work equally well and have their strengths and weakness, meaning the only factor that dictates their use is a user’s personal preference.
Just because a game is premium doesn’t automatically make it good – there are plenty of titles out there that fall short in one way or another. The Escapists 2: Pocket Breakout is not one of those games; featuring an interesting premise, a fun and versatile gameplay loop, and a number of mobile features that put several lesser ports to shame. Given its replayability and execution, The Escapists 2 is an easy recommendation if you feel at all attracted to its core premise.
