It seems like every week there’s more games for more platforms than ever. So, each week, we cut through the noise to find the five games you should be playing this week. Starting with the return of an underrated RPG.
Pick Of The Week: Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age, Today ($50, PS4, Xbox One and PC)
The series is back, well, sort of. This is an upgrade and rerelease of a Japanese title that offered a lot more jobs, some improvements to how this open-world RPG functioned, and a way to speed things up in the game. It’s a fairly interesting upgrade to an already excellent game, and we’ll have more on it in a review later this week.
Minecraft Story Mode: Season 2, Today ($20, PS4, Xbox One, and PC)
If Notch’s antics on Twitter haven’t turned you off the game completely, you can pick up the second season of Telltale’s pretty funny attempt to impose an actual story on the block-smashing/building game today. The original game was adorable and kid-friendly, and Telltale lightening up, slightly, so if you want a game that’s less of a drag, this’ll be ideal.
Serial Cleaner, Friday ($15, PS4 Xbox One and PC)
Serial Cleaner is sort of Hotline Miami in reverse. Instead of showing up and brutally killing criminals, your job is show up after the bloody deeds are done, get all the evidence cleared away, and dodge the police while doing it. It’s a witty, gross take on both ’70s noir and the top-down violent games we’ve seen in waves since that aforementioned game with the guy in the jacket came along, and a welcome little twist on the mechanics. We’ll have a look later this week.
Black The Fall, Today ($15, PS4, Xbox One, and PC)
This puzzle game, set in a grim future where an engineer and an abandoned robot team up to escape a Communist regime, has style to spare. But it also promises some interesting gameplay, and paired with its unique world, is drawing a lot of comparisons to hits like Inside.
Deadcore, Thursday ($20, Xbox One)
Finally, this PC game, which mixes FPS, platforming, and speedrun elements, is arriving on Xbox One. It’s pretty straightforward: hit the ground running, clear the obstacles, gun down the abstract bad guy cubes, and hit the exit. It’s pulling it off that’s the hard part.