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 LEGO Game
LEGO Marvel’s Avengers (PC, Xbox 360, Xbox One, PS3, PS4, PS Vita & Wii U, Jan. 26)
There’s actually a lot more to LEGO Marvel’s Avengers than just The Avengers. Of course, the game covers The Avengers and Age of Ultron, but it also draws from most of the Avengers tie-in movies, as well. Expect content drawn from Iron Man 3, Thor: The Dark World and both Captain America films. LEGO Marvel’s Avengers looks like a merry MCU mashup indeed.
This Week’s JRPG
Final Fantasy Explorers (3DS, Jan. 26)
Final Fantasy Explorers boasts impressive, in-depth character design and Pokemon-like monster collecting, but the feature that really sets it apart is the ability to transform into various fan-favorite Final Fantasy characters. Fight it out as Cloud, Tidus or Lightning, all in the same game! Final Fantasy Explorers also lets you team up with friends online for some co-op adventuring. Final Fantasy Explorers is definitely an interesting, somewhat different take on the Final Fantasy formula.
This Week’s Sexy Cyborg Shoot ‘Em Up
Bombshell (PC, Jan. 29)
What if I told you the creators of Duke Nukem were publishing a sexy cyborg-starring game called Bombshell? You’d run the other way as fast as you could, right? Well, Bombshell is a real game, and surprisingly it actually looks pretty okay. The game is actually relatively tasteful and appears to be a sort of over-the-top, gun-toting version of Diablo. Bombshell doesn’t break any radical new ground, but it looks like some decent dumb fun. Here’s the game’s Steam page.
This Week’s Dose of Bleakness
This War of Mine: The Little Ones (Xbox One & PS4, Jan. 29)
2014’s This War of Mine was a fun, but exceedingly dark strategy game, in which you and a group of civilians had to eke out an existence in a ruined landscape inspired by the Bosnian War of the early ’90s. Well, things get even darker in the follow-up This War of Mine: The Little Ones, as you’re now tasked with protecting children from the horrors of war. As long as you’re not looking for light escapism, This War of Mine: The Little Ones should be a challenging, moving experience worth your time.
Pick of the Week
The Witness (PC, PS4, Jan. 26)
After a long wait, the second game from Jonathan Blow (the divisive creator of Braid) finally arrives. The Witness is a laid back, Myst-like adventure that tasks you with solving countless maze-like puzzles. In order to best these puzzles, you’ll have to learn their various rules, and as you do so, the story of the island itself will slowly be revealed. Is The Witness as great as Jonathan Blow probably thinks it is? Maybe, maybe not, but it definitely looks like a solid, intriguing throwback to adventure and puzzle games of old.
And 2016 finally kicks off in earnest! Any games you’re itching to get your hands on that I failed to mention? Hit the comments and let the world know.