Every week, it feels like there’s more games for more platforms than ever. So, to help you cut through the noise, we pick out five games that you should play this week. Starting with the latest round of a franchise that wants to eat all your time.
Pick Of The Week
Mass Effect: Andromeda, Tuesday (PS4, Xbox One, PC)
Yes, BioWare is back with another action RPG that will suck up hundreds of hours of your time as you play somebody who looks suspiciously like Shepard as you explore a new galaxy to find humanity’s next Earth. Needless to say, this enormously complicated task is made that much worse by the local civilizations, who aren’t eager to have billions of refugees show up even if they weren’t blatantly evil. So you will make like that true diplomat of space, Captain Kirk, coming in peace, blowing the dialogue option, and killing everything anyway. Hey, biology is cruel. We’ll have a review later this week.
This Is The Police, Wednesday (PS4, Xbox One)
An odd mix of adventure game and strategy game, This Is The Police puts you in charge of a decaying American city in the late ’80s, as you try to manage both the day-to-day operations of the police and political intrigue forcing you out of your job in 180 days. The goal is to give players a better understanding of the difficulties in managing a city department, which it perhaps doesn’t entirely succeed in. But the game itself is highly interesting, and console players will finally be able to give it a shot.
88 Heroes, Friday (PS4, Xbox One)
You’ve got 88 levels to finish in 88 minutes, and 88 heroes, each with unique abilities, to finish the job. Needless to say, things get frantic fast, which is the whole point. If you’re looking for a twist on platforming, look no further.
Troll and I, Tuesday (PS4, Xbox One, PC)
If you’re looking for some couch co-op, Troll and I essentially lets you command an adorable version of Mad Max‘s Master Blaster, as a young boy, good at sneaking, and his pet troll, good at smashing, work their way cooperatively through levels that have both action and puzzle elements. You can play solo, but the split-screen mode for couch co-op may just make this the best game for friends this week.
Toukiden 2, Tuesday (PS4, Vita)
Finally, if you want some open world monster hunting, cult series Toukiden is back with, well, all the open-world monster hunting you could ever want. Ever notice how many video games prepare you for a career in large pest control?