Every week, it seems there are more games available for more platforms than ever before. So, every week, we cut through the noise of a busy release schedule to find the five games you need to play this week. And this week’s pick is a highly anticipated sequel to a beloved cult classic.
Pick Of The Week
Halo Wars 2, Tuesday (Xbox One)
True, if you preordered this game, you’ve already been playing it over the weekend. But, if you didn’t, the standard edition arrives tomorrow. The original Halo Wars is an underrated game that managed to crack what had evaded console developers for far too long: How to put the real-time strategy game onto consoles with a controller. The result was a surprisingly frantic and deep RTS that drew in both hardcore Halo fans and strategy fans who were surprised they could play a game on a console. We’ll have a review later this week.
Berserk And The Band Of The Hawk, Tuesday (PS4, PC, Vita)
The absurdly excessive grimdark manga Berserk finally gets the Dynasty Warriors treatment it really should have had by now. As Guts, you’re tasked with… well, really it doesn’t matter, your job is to turn everything in range of your giant sword into chunks of meat and a fine red mist, just like in the manga. While we may tease, and we admit we’re excited to see what a certain notorious subreddit satirizing overly pompous manga fans does with this game, it does look like a lot of gory button mashing fun. We’ll have a review for this as well later in the week.
Vaccine, Tuesday (PS4, Xbox One)
Vaccine mixes throwback PS1 graphics, much in the vein of the original Resident Evil, and a randomized mansion where you have to find a vaccine and get it back to your partner within the time limit without getting killed. Which is, of course, a trickier proposition than you might think. It looks to be a fun take on survival horror, which is enjoying an indie renaissance of late.
Shift Happens, Wednesday (Xbox One)
The adorable, and surprisingly tough, co-op platformer comes to Xbox One. The concept is pretty simple; you and a buddy have to tag-team your way through a series of increasingly difficult puzzles with clean Pixar-esque graphics. If you need a kid-friendly game, or just want to chill with a friend in between destroying people with a giant sword or leading the troops, this will be a good palette cleanser.
Lego Worlds, Friday (PS4, XBox One)
If you’re sick of Minecraft but still want to build stuff, Lego officially has your back with their world-building sim. Bust out the brick hose and build yourself something that hopefully is not a giant Lego wang, but considering what happened in Minecraft, maybe just get that out of your system first thing, OK?
Anything we missed? Let us know in the comments!