Got a good amount of posts out this month, which is always cool. 10 posts in a month is quite solid. Don’t have much in the oven since I just posted a bunch, but Xenoblade 3 is coming out tomorrow so yeah.
August may be lacking in HUGE releases, but it does have some COOL SMALLER releases. I like me some less budget-intensive, good games. Here I’m highlighting: 20 Multiplats and 2 PC games. I’m probably getting 6-7 of those. Shame Massage Freaks was delayed for stupid reasons.
Disclaimer: I only list games that I think are worth mentioning. This includes games I’m personally interested in, games that will likely be popular, highly advertised games, some more niche stuff I may notice, and such. Not just games I care about myself, I highlight as much as I think makes sense. And of course, I can’t see the future, so I may be missing games and I may be listing games that may get delayed.
MULTIPLATFORM RELEASES
Frogun 08/02 (PC, Switch, PS4, Xbone, PS5, Xbox X/S)
This is a PS1-style (visually) 3D platformer that I feel we’ve seen a lot of trailers for for a long time. It looks fun.
Azure Striker Gunvolt 3 08/02 (Xbone, Xbox X/S)
This just came out on Switch today, and I’m sure it’s at least pretty interesting. I will review it at some point.
GigaBash 08/05 (PC, PS4, PS5)
This is a kaiju 3D arena fighting game. Looking at the trailers, it gives me some Power Stone kinda vibes. Looks okay. I won’t get it.
Two Point Campus 08/09 (PC, Switch, PS4, Xbone, PS5, Xbox X/S)
Two Point Hospital was a Theme Hospital spiritual successor, it seemed pretty decent from what I’ve seen. This is a similar take, but instead you manage schools. I’m sure this will be pretty good.
Cult of the Lamb 08/11 (Switch, PC, PS4, Xbone, PS5, Xbox X/S)
This is an action roguelite with some Isaac-like feel to it, though it seems to focus on melee attacks from the little I’ve seen. Though this has some out-of-dungeon gamepaly where you build out your base/cult. Looks pretty fun. Might grab this.
Super Bullet Break 08/12 (Switch, PC, PS4)
I did play the demo for this. It was quite fun, after I figured out a few things a few runs into it. It’s a deckbuilding roguelite ALA Slay the Spire (which there’s obviously a bunch of now). It has a gacha-like mechanic for unlocking new cards and such (but no microtransactions, it’s just part of the actual game progression), but I gotta say I really enjoyed that demo and will definitely get this.
Blossom Tales II: The Minotaur Prince 08/16 (Switch, PC)
Blossom Tales was a pretty cool Zelda-like, that played a lot like Link to the Past, though with some differences in how it handles movement and combat. I’m definitely looking forward to playing the sequel at some point.
Rollerdrome 08/16 (PC, PS4, PS5)
This is a rollerblade-focused third-person shooter that, when I saw the initial announcement trailer, I thought was a multiplayer game (it was pretty unclear). It isn’t. I like the kinda old-school cel-shading style it has, though I’ll probably need to see a review to know if I want to try this one out.
RPG Time! The Legend of Wright 08/18 (Switch, PS4)
This game came out on Xbox and PC in March this year (not on Steam yet, it’s on the Microsoft store, the Steam release is September 13), to literally no fanfare. As in, there’s one review I can find on Youtube. Only 4 “critic reviews” and 4 user reviews on metacritic. No one bought this. Maybe the Switch/PS4/Steam release will gain some traction?
That said, this looks pretty cool as far as presentation (imitating a really in-depth tabletop RPG style with a lot of handdrawn things and using household items for stuff), though gameplay seems to be very minigame-focused, rather than actually being an RPG. I remain curious about it, and probably won’t buy it.
Thymesia 08/18 (PC, PS5, Xbox X/S)
This is a souls-like that I tried the demo for and didn’t enjoy. There was just something off about how different types of attacks worked. Just didn’t feel right to me, maybe I’d just need to give it more of a chance but MEH
Madden NFL 23 08/19 (PC, PS4, Xbone, PS5, Xbox X/S)
It’s madden. The last one got wrecked by user reviews (below 1/10 on Metacritic), no idea why. To me madden is madden, it’s boring unevolving crap but it does what it does in a way that generates millions of sales every year so it doesn’t NEED to be good anyways. Last good one was 94 on Genesis.
Saints Row 08/23 (PC, PS4, Xbone, PS5, Xbox X/S)
This game is being made by people who hate Saints Row, hate the fans, hate what fans loved about the previous games, and want to change it because fuck the fans. Don’t buy this 😀
Devs need to learn that being shit to the fanbase and removing what people liked about an existing series is bad.
SD Gundam Battle Alliance 08/25 (Switch, PC, PS4, Xbone, PS5, Xbox X/S)
It’s a fairly standard arena combat game with Gundam that you’ve likely seen many of before. Except this uses the Super Deformed chibi Gundams. It looks fine. Not really my jam.
Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid Burst Forth!! Choro-gon Breath 08/25 (Switch, PS4)
It’s a Dragon Maid bullet-hell shooter. Looks fine, pretty standard for the genre.
Soul Hackers 2 08/26 (PC, PS4, Xbone, PS5, Xbox X/S)
Gotta say it’s a bit weird for this not to get a Switch version, there’s nothing in current videos that wouldn’t work on there and it’s THE system for JRPGs right now. That said, I’ll be grabbing this on PC. Soul Hackers was a pretty cool SMT spin-off (though not quite as good as the mainline), this looks very good too, though I’d say quite a bit different from the first game based on what we’ve seen. I will never say no to more SMT.
Pac-Man World Re-Pac 08/26 (Switch, PC, PS4, Xbone, PS5, Xbox X/S)
Some years ago on youtube I’d see a lot of hype regarding this particular sub-series of Pac-Man. I never actually played them though. They seem like pretty okay 3D platformers. I might grab this.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Cowabunga Collection 08/30 (Switch, PC, PS4, Xbone, PS5, Xbox X/S)
This is a collection of 13 retro TMNT titles. It features, I think, all the NES, SNES, Genesis and Game Boy games (so there’s multiple versions of Tournament Fighters) and some arcade games too. A lot of these are pretty solid games in their own right, and the Game Boy games are ones I never played so those alone make me interested in checking this out. Good stuff, definitely better-priced than that horrid Sonic Origins thing.
Prinny Presents NIS Classics Volume 3: La Pucelle: Ragnarok / Rhapsody: A Musical Adventure 08/30 (Switch, PC)
I think this may end up being the last NIS Classics release, because these are pretty much the last remaining truly noteworthy NIS classics. Not that it’s impossible for there to be more, they have made a lot of games. Like, GrimGrimoire would be a possibility if there wasn’t a separate remaster coming out. Maybe the sequel to Rhapsody which never came out in english? I don’t know what other game would be really worth being released alongside it though. Something like Cooking Fighter Hao isn’t particularly interesting.
Anways, La Pucelle is great (a precursor to Disgaea with some different mechanics), Rhapsody is pretty good. Yay.
Destroy All Humans! 2 Reprobed 08/30 (PC, PS5, Xbox X/S)
There was a remaster for the first Destroy All Humans, now the sequel is getting one too. I dunno, those games didn’t impress me back in the day. I don’t think I care for them now either.
Dusk Diver 2 08/30 (Switch, PS4, PS5)
This came out earlier this year on PC. No idea if it’s good. The first game had some complaints about its battle system, which I hear this improves on. Though I also hear it overstays its welcome. Much like the first game I’ll put it on the maybe list and never get it.
PC RELEASES
Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered 08/12
Bad Spuderman game comes to PC. Yay?
Scathe 08/31
Actually a pretty cool-looking bullet-hell FPS. Fast-paced gameplay, lots of bullets, lots of demons to kill, looks cool. Might check it out.
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