Oh yeah I said I’d still do this. Yay! I’ve not been playing that much recently. I’m going through Trinity Trigger right now, it’s okay. Otherwise, playing lots of mahjong and pokemon tcg live. I’m almost done with Mega Man Battle Network 2 from Volume 1 of the MMBN collection, good shit mostly (almost to the point of getting a rant out of me… I’m thinking about it). And I got the Advance Wars thingo, that’s great though a bit more barebones than I was expecting after a year delay. I’ve been skipping games left and right, though some seem to be a good thing to skip right now. Maybe I’ll get the Jedi game later after there’s a few patches. And review coming? I dunno. I’m thinking I’ll do micro-reviews or something.
So for May 2023 we’ve got: 9 multiplats, 3 Switch games and 2 PC games. Seems like not a lot (and there’s all sorts of STUFF that don’t seem interesting enough to be worth highlighting), but there’s a few big games, including THE BIGGEST GAME OF THE YEAR. As for what I’m buying… there’s one very obvious one, which I do have pre-ordered using NSO vouchers. There’s 2 others I’m pretty sure I’ll get. And there’s a few maybes too. One of them will get a review for almost sure, we’ll see about the rest.
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.
…I forgot to put the PS4 and Xbone releases of Hogwarts Legacy. Oh well.
MULTIPLATFORM RELEASES
Redfall 05/02 (PC, Xbox X/S)
This is a new game by Arkane, which TBH I find to be kinda overrated (Death Loop was pretty meh). Redfall is what feels like a pretty generic semi-open-world thing with RPG elements, and the usual Arkane stealth stuff. Doesn’t look bad, but I’m not convinced that it will be anything special. I may give it a try if I can find a cheap game pass subscription deal.
Age of Wonders 4 05/02 (PC, PS5, Xbox X/S)
I’ve never actually played Age of Wonders. Looking at gameplay for this one, it looks very Civ-like, but also it has what looks like a Heroes of Might and Magic-style battle system at a much larger scale. It looks really fucking cool. I’ll never play this, but it does seem like it will be quite great.
Ravenlok 05/04 (PC, Xbone, Xbox X/S)
This looks to be some Zelda-like action-adventure game with a pretty confused visual style. Looking at gameplay, it actually looks pretty fucking fun, with big bosses with crazy attacks. Maybe if I get a cheap month of Game Pass for Redfall I’ll also try this one out.
Fuga: Melodies of Steel 2 05/11 (Switch, PC, PS4, Xbone, PS5, Xbox X/S)
I never played the first one, but it looked pretty interesting. You seem to manage and control a single really powerful unit, which is a big fuck-off tank, and equip it with a ton of guns and crew it and stuff, in a turn-based battle system. This does look super interesting, I should check it out.
Amnesia: The Bunker 05/16 (PC, PS4, Xbone, PS5, Xbox X/S)
It’s a new Amnesia, but it seems a bit different from the previous ones. It’s semi-open world according to videos I watched, features guns (though it seems it’s meant more for puzzle-solving than combat, even if you CAN use it for combat). I’ve not heard great stuff about Amnesia after the first one, but I think this is an interesting take, placing it in WW1 trenches. I’m probably gonna watch Gura play this or something.
Monster Menu: The Scavenger’s Cookbook 05/23 (Switch, PS4, PS5)
This is a new Nippon Ichi game. They’ve been very hit or miss as of recent. Seems to be some dungeon-crawling game where you find ingredients to make different recipes, and combat is done in an SRPG way (and it seems to feature some Disgaea monsters). I’m not really sure what to make of this based on the trailers.
Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun 05/23 (Switch, PC, PS4, Xbone, PS5, Xbox X/S)
This is a classic-style shooter where you play as an Ultramarine. It has pixel sprites for the guns and enemies, in a 3D environment. The gameplay is really fast and frantic, there’s some cool movement you can do, the weapons look fun to use. This looks fucking good.
Bat Boy 05/25 (Switch, PC, PS4, Xbone, PS5, Xbox X/S)
This is a side-scrolling pixelated platformer where you play as someone hitting the shit out of enemies with a bat. The bat functions a lot like the shovel in Shovel Knight, as it can deflect projectiles and bounce on enemies/obstacles in addition to being a regular weapon. Looks quite fun, though some of the screenshots I saw looked a LOT like Shovel Knight. It looks really fun.
The Lord of the Rings: Gollum 05/25 (PC, PS4, Xbone, PS5, Xbox X/S)
I’ve written things about this game in preparation for these posts for a while, because it keeps getting fucking delayed. Either way, the game looks pretty meh graphically and the gameplay doesn’t look fun at all.
SWITCH RELEASES
Dokapon Kingdom: Connect 05/09
This is an RPG… multiplayer… dice-based movement board game? Yeah. I know a lot of people really enjoy this game, it was on Wii and some other platforms before… but it’s not my thing.
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom 05/12
Zelda 2: The Zeldaning. Yeah this is probably the biggest game of the year. It’s a sequel to Breath of the Wild specifically. I only watched up to the second trailer that was made for this and have ignored everything else, so I only heard about small things, but what I can tell about it from those trailers is that this will use the original area of land from BotW, but changing it a bunch since it gets messed up by a bunch of it floating up into the air, clearly causing damage on the ground. There’s new powers and what looks like (based on screenshots) a bunch of new vehicles to move around which could be maybe fun. BotW was pretty great, this should be good too. Excited to see what’s new compared to the first one, and how they’ll handle progression this time around.
Puzzle Bobble Everybubble! 05/23
I dunno, I saw this and figured I’d add it to the list. I don’t think people really care about Puzzle Bobble/Bust-a-move that much anymore (since these kind of games are a dime a dozen nowadays on mobile), but whatever.
PC RELEASES
Darkest Dungeon II 05/08
I thought this was out already TBH, but I guess it was still in early access. I played a bit of it recently since I have the early access and thought it was out. It’s very different from DD1, this one being closer to a take on Slay the Spire, minus the cards. Permadeath functions differently (where DD1 lets you keep characters that don’t die, here if you fail a run everyone dies anyways, so you start every run with “new” characters), though you do keep unlocking upgrades and stuff so later runs have you a bit better equipped. It still has a lot of stuff that is similar to the original like characters randomly getting stressed out for no reason. It’s decent, I just think the first is probably the better game.
System Shock 05/30
It’s the System Shock remake. Finally! I feel it’s been in development for so long. I actually like the look of it, it respects the original style and colors, as well as the purposely pixelated textures if you look at things up-close. I’d wait for reviews, see if fans of the original are happy with it, but if it is, definitely worth checking out.
Leave a reply