PCs, handhelds, mobile, console, indies, triple A, free-to-play — the gaming scene gets more diverse and difficult to follow by the day, but thankfully I’m here every week to guide you through what’s happening with games.
As always, I’ll rattle off five games I think you might want to check out this week. Keep in mind, these articles aren’t meant to be comprehensive lists of everything coming out that week so much as a nice rounded tasting menu. So, here are the games you need to know about this week…
This Week’s Strategy RPG
Fire Emblem Fates (3DS, Feb. 19)
The latest entry in Nintendo’s strategy-meets-dating sim series arrives this week. This time around, the game is split into two parts – Fire Emblem Fates: Birthright and Conquest. Unlike, say, Pokémon, where only a few minor tweaks separate versions, Birthright and Conquest are totally different games with unique play styles (Birthright is more easy-going and open-ended, while Conquest is more rigid and difficult). Pick your Fire Emblem wisely! Or, y’know, just grab both.
This Week’s Horror Game
Layers of Fear (PC, Mac, Linux, Xbox One & PS4, Feb. 16)
Layers of Fear is a new hallucinogenic horror game that casts you as a painter trying to complete his masterpiece and, well, things aren’t going well. You’re losing your mind, or maybe your painting is projecting some sort of malevolent power, and the house around you is turning into a psychedelic, artistic nightmare. Layers of Fear looks like an original, truly unsettling nightmare.
This Week’s Pineapple Management Sim
No Pineapple Left Behind (PC, Mac & Linux, Feb. 18)
No Pineapple Left Behind is kind of strange game. No Pineapple Left Behind is a school management sim, in which you have to balance resources and teachers, while trying to get the best grades possible out of your students. Or you can just make everything much easier by magically turning your students into compliant, unquestioning pineapples. But is that the right thing to do? It’s up to you in this wacky satirical game. Here’s the game’s Steam page.
This Week’s Other Strategy RPG
Project X Zone 2 (3DS, Feb. 16)
The original Project X Zone was a strategy RPG crossover featuring famous Capcom, Sega and Bandai Namco characters, and Project X Zone 2 continues down the same track. Now there’s even more characters – everything from Resident Evil to Tekken to Yakuza is covered this time around. Hell, even Nintendo gets in on the fun, adding Chrom and Lucina from the Fire Emblem series to the mashup madness. If you like Japanese games, you’re pretty much guaranteed to find something you like in Project X Zone 2.
Pick of the Week
Street Fighter V (PC & PS4, Feb. 16)
This generation’s hadoken-fest is almost here. Street Fighter V serves up one of the biggest, baddest, most over-the-top rosters to date, but it also presents a somewhat streamlined fighting system designed to appeal to casual Street Fighter fans and those new to the series. Street Fighter V doesn’t reinvent the wheel, but it looks as crazy, gloriously cartoonish and fine-tuned as ever. Get ready to get your fight on.
Definitely a hard-hitting week. Any games you’re itching to get your hands on that I failed to mention? Hit the comments and let the world know.