The Entertainment Software Ratings Board this week decided to celebrate its 30th anniversary — and this is how I find out that I’m older than the organization that tells me what games are appropriate for my age. I’m not sure how that piece of trivia slipped the cracks of my mind, but that’s a heck of a way to feel my age, lemme tell ya. Not to mention the ESRB rubbed salt in the wound by releasing a song to commemorate the occasion that is, if I’m honest, kind of a banger.
It’s been an odd week — we go from Valve officially acknowledging Deadlock, its open secret of a game, to the closure of Blue Protocol before most of us got the chance to play it. Remedy revealed it plans to collaborate with Annapurna on not only Control 2 but also the expansion of its universe’s lore into the realm of TV and movies. I wish them luck — I was rather skeptical when they tried a similar experiment with Quantum Break.
One of the other highlights of my week was the Nintendo Direct, which showcased not only several indies but also several partner titles. I never thought I’d see Yakuza Kiwami make it onto the Switch, but here comes Sega proving me shortsighted. But the game that attracted (pun intended) the biggest piece of my attention was Date Everything, the cheeky visual novel/romance sim from Sassy Chap Games. I’m not sure which household object will become my favorite, but I treasure the audacity and want to encourage more of it.
In personal news, as a Star Wars fan, I feel honor-bound to try out Star Wars Outlaws — I’ve actually been looking forward to it! However, it’s going to have to wait, because there’s one other game that comes out this week that I’m just a little bit more eager to try out: Emio — The Smiling Man: Famicom Detective Club. I can’t resist a mystery story, and I enjoyed the remastered Famicom Detective Club trilogy, so this one is a gimme for me.
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What to play this week
What’s new:
- Star Wars Outlaws
- Visions of Mana
- World of Warcraft: The War Within
- Emio – The Smiling Man: Famicom Detective Club
- Gundam Breaker 4
- Gori: Cuddly Carnage
- Castlevania Dominus Collection
- Monster Jam Showdown
- Shadow of the Ninja – Reborn
- Crypt Custodian
- Peglin
- Bloodless
- Akimbot
- Squirrel with a Gun
- Endzone 2
New on subscription services:
- Core Keeper (Xbox Game Pass)
- Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor (Prime Gaming)
- LEGO: Lord of the Rings (Prime Gaming)
- Middle-earth: Shadow of War (Prime Gaming)
- Arcade Paradise (Prime Gaming)
- Industria (Prime Gaming)
- The Collage Atlas (Prime Gaming)
- Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora (GeForce Now)
- Cat Quest III (GeForce Now)
- Cooking Simulator (GeForce Now)
- Crown Trick(GeForce Now)
- Darksiders Genesis (GeForce Now)
- Expeditions: Rome (GeForce Now)
- Heading Out (GeForce Now)
- Into the Breach (GeForce Now)
- Iron Harvest (GeForce Now)
- The Knight Witch (GeForce Now)
- Lightyear Frontier (GeForce Now)
- Memoriapolis (GeForce Now)
- Metro Exodus Enhanced Edition (GeForce Now)
- Outlast 2 (GeForce Now)
- Saturnalia (GeForce Now)
- SteamWorld Heist II (GeForce Now)
- This War of Mine (GeForce Now)
- We Were Here Too (GeForce Now)
- Yoku’s Island Express (GeForce Now)
- Castle Crumble (Apple Arcade)
