Naturally not every week can be filled to the brim with huge scale AAA releases. I subsequently have to sometimes venture to the more obscure titles in order to fill these articles, but the reward is that I get to discover new games along with you guys. With that in mind, this Tuesday sees the latest release in something called the Halo series. Refreshingly for a lesser known indie game, the Halo series has managed to cross over several generations of console, despite a lack of significant media coverage. Halo 5: Guardians marks the franchise’s next-gen debut. The game keeps the focus on the series signature gun-play and vehicular combat, whilst adding in larger, much less linear level design to mix things up. On the other hand, the game is being released without any form of local multiplayer, because… reasons. Anyway, here’s hoping that the little game that could will become a surprise hit.
Also released on Tuesday is Darksiders 2: Deathinitive Edition. A small amount of confusion struck me upon discovering this, seeing as I’m sure I covered this one a couple of weeks ago (and I’d remember, given that moronic title). Anyway, I apologize for potentially lying to you. I just hope we can get past it and that we’ll continue to have a stable relationship built upon a foundation of trust. Damn Darksiders 2 for coming between us like that. Nothing’s really changed from the last time I talked about this. It’s still a pointless re-release. It still looks totally perfunctory. It’s still a generic hack and slash. The title is still ghastly.
On a more positive note, Friday sees the on-disc release of Minecraft: Story Mode. The first episode of the multi-installment game is already available online, but this physical copy grants you season-pass access to all future episodes as well. Developed by Telltale Games, the folks behind Back to the Future: The Game, and both The Walking Dead and Game of Thrones adaptations, Story Mode is very much in-keeping with their established formula. So expect point and click adventuring, numerous QTEs and dialouge trees. More family friendly than their more recent offerings, the game is also a kind of comedy- fantasy, with new characters and a fresh storyline. This is the kind of concept that is usually worthy of preemptive derision, however Telltale have had a good streak recently when it comes to turning what look like cash-ins into great games. The game will be available on near enough every platform known to man.
Rounding off the week is WWE 2K16. Incidentally, and this has been bothering me for a while, why is it that these publishers insist on writing “2K16” instead of “2016”? It isn’t an abbreviation. It doesn’t look shorter. Or take any less time to write. In fact it takes longer! The numbers are all next to each other on the keyboard, whereas K is all the way down by J! Do they think it’s clever? Because it’s not! I don’t have much else to say on this one, even the gameplay section on the wiki page sounds like it can’t be bothered. So here’s the short version: It’s wrestling. Graphics have probably improved. AI might have been rejigged. Someone somewhere might care. The game is released on Friday for PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360 and Xbox One.
