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Archives for 2017

December Releases

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I almost didn’t post this month’s releases, because honestly, there isn’t anything that sets my pants on fire. Ok, PUBG on the Xbox One is a maybe, but the fact that it’s “Game Preview Edition” edition makes me very wary. I’ve successfully avoided Battle Royale hype wave so far (but I did read the book!) so I’m in no hurry to hop on a preview version on a console.

On to this month’s releases:

Microsoft Xbox One

Week of December 4th

Week of December 11th

Week of December 25th

Nintendo Switch

Week of December 25th

Nintendo 3DS

No new releases for the Nintendo 3DS this month.

PC

Week of December 4th
Hello Neighbor
SpellForce 3
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Portal Power – TMNT tactics? Color me intrigued.
Nine Parchments
Star Wars: Imperial Assault – Legends of the Alliance

Week of December 11th
Neverwinter Nights: Enhanced Edition
Wild Buster: Heroes of Titan

Week of December 18th
I fell from Grace

Sony Playstation 4

Week of December 4th

Week of December 25th

Sony Playstation Vita

No new releases for the Playstation Vita this month.

What are you picking up this month?

(Note: As always, all Amazon.com links have our affiliate code embedded in them. If you purchase something through our link, we get a little commission. It’s appreciated.)

Weekend Gaming Takes a Breath

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It’s the first weekend of December. Here at Buttonmashing HQ, the weather hasn’t quite turned cold yet, but we’ll probably still be found nice and cozy indoors while we do a little gaming this weekend.

Zelda: Breath of the Wild is still taking up the majority of my gaming and I imagine a large chunk of my time this weekend will be spent exploring the vast world of BotW. I recently freed one of the Divine Beasts which puts me at a quarter of the way to my end goal of defeating Calamity Ganon. But everytime I look at all the unexplored regions of my map, I get overwhelmed. It doesn’t feel like I’m 25% of the way there.

I also recently downloaded the Animal Crossing iOS game, Pocket Camp, but haven’t really had a chance to poke around much past the initial introduction to the game, so I plan to spend a little time with Animal Crossing, as well.

Other than that, I’m not sure. I’m toying with the idea of going back to The Division, for old time’s sake. With the game being set around the holiday season, it just feels right.

What are you playing this weekend?

November Releases

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Normally, November brings a barrage of triple-A games to get on shelves before the holidays start, but this month is not like other months. Besides Sims 4 and Star Wars Battlefront 2, there isn’t a whole lot to be excited about. Skyrim on the Switch might be tempting to some, but I think I’m going to pass. On to this month’s releases:

Microsoft Xbox One

Week of November 6th

Week of November 13th

Week of November 27th

Nintendo Switch

Week of November 13th

Nintendo 3DS

Week of November 6th

Week of November 13th

Week of November 20th

PC

Week of November 6th
Nioh: Complete Edition
Onimod Land
Football Manager 2018

Week of November 13th
World of Warships
LEGO Marvel Super Heroes 2
Harvest Moon: Light of Hope – What’s that, you say? A Harvest Moon game? On PC? Time to break out the time-honored tradition of linking my favorite post I’ve ever written, a review of Harvest Moon on the Gamecube.
Skein

Week of November 20th
Midnight Quest
Golem
WORLD OF FINAL FANTASY
Family Jewels – GOTY, 2017

Week of November 27th
Apocryph
Seven: The Days Long Gone
STAR OCEAN – THE LAST HOPE

Sony Playstation 4

Week of November 6th

Week of November 13th

Week of November 20th

Week of November 27th

Sony Playstation Vita

Week of November 13th

Week of November 20th

What are you picking up this month?

(Note: As always, all Amazon.com links have our affiliate code embedded in them. If you purchase something through our link, we get a little commission. It’s appreciated.)

Weekend Gaming

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2017 has been a pretty decent year for gaming with a lot of good games already out and even more on the way, including a couple very big releases that have a surprising thread running through the two of them:

Seriously, though, in the Buttonmashing household, this is going to be a great weekend (minus some funeral stuff, but that’s neither here nor there). We’ve got Super Mario Odyssey downloading on the Switch, a HUGE OSU Football game on Saturday and STRANGER THINGS 2!! (Oh, and the Buttonwife is auditioning to be on Family Feud with other members of the family including fellow Buttonmasher James). It’s a cornucopia of good content waiting to be consumed.

Pile on top of that the Steam Halloween Sale, and you’ve got yourself quite the gaming weekend.

Steam Halloween Sale

I think I’ll be spending the majority of my time with the Switch playing Super Mario but I’m sure we’ll sprinkle in some Dota 2 and other PC gaming.

What are you playing this weekend?

October Releases

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October is usually when the ball starts rolling on the big-time releases and this year is no different. A bunch of premier titles coming out this month, with a little something for everyone — Forza 7 and GT Sport for racing fans, WWE 2k18 for wrestling heads, Shadow of War for all your orc-head-chopping needs, Assassin’s Creed for your human-stabbing-needs, Call of Duty for those of us who can’t get enough of shooting Nazis and of course Super Mario Odyssey for those of us who know what real video games are. On to this month’s releases:

Microsoft Xbox One

Week of October 2nd

Week of October 9th

Week of October 16th

Week of October 23rd

Week of October 30th

Nintendo Switch

Week of October 23rd

Week of October 30th

Nintendo 3DS

Week of October 2nd

Week of October 16th

PC

Week of October 2nd
Damned Hours
Battle Chasers: Nightwar
EMPYRE: Lords of the Sea Gates
Omega Strike
JYDGE
Civil War: 1864

Week of October 9th
Middle-earth: Shadow of War
Forgotten Land
Raiden V: Director’s Cut
Dungeons 3

Week of October 16th
The Jackbox Party Pack 4
Rogue Trooper Redux
ELEX
South Park: The Fractured but Whole
WWE 2K18

Week of October 23rd
Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus

Week of October 30th
Spintires: MudRunner

Sony Playstation 4

Week of October 2nd

Week of October 9th

Week of October 16th

Week of October 23rd

Week of October 30th

Sony Playstation Vita

Week of October 2nd

Week of October 9th

Week of October 23rd

I’ll definitely be getting Super Mario Odyssey. What are you picking up this month?

(Note: As always, all Amazon.com links have our affiliate code embedded in them. If you purchase something through our link, we get a little commission. It’s appreciated.)

September Releases

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We’re getting to that time of year, where the releases start piling up as companies start releasing marque games, hoping to get in on the upcoming holiday shopping sprees. There are a few games of note for this month, including Destiny 2 (not necessarily for me) and Cuphead (necessarily for me). On to this month’s releases:

Microsoft Xbox One

Week of September 4th

Week of September 11th

Week of September 18th

Week of September 25th

Nintendo Switch

Week of September 18th

Nintendo 3DS

Week of September 4th

Week of September 11th

PC

Week of September 4th
Beat The Game
Age of Gladiators II
An Occasional Dream
Time Golf Squad
Blood Bowl 2 – Official Expansion
Hexlide
DAMN!
Twisted S

Week of September 11th
Dishonored: Death of the Outsider
NBA 2K18
Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of DANA

Week of September 18th
Steampunk Syndicate 2
The Coma: Recut
Ancient Frontier
Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite
ECHO

Week of September 25th
Cuphead
Kaet Must Die!
Total War: WARHAMMER II
Hob
RAID: World War II
RUINER
Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony

Sony Playstation 4

Week of September 4th

Week of September 11th

Week of September 18th

Week of September 25th

Sony Playstation Vita

Week of September 4th

Week of September 11th

Week of September 18th

Week of September 25th

What are you picking up this month?

(Note: As always, all Amazon.com links have our affiliate code embedded in them. If you purchase something through our link, we get a little commission. It’s appreciated.)

Games on my Radar

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Each month, as I assemble the list of new titles releasing, I earmark a couple of them (usually adding them to my Steam Wishlist) to keep an eye on. Sometimes they are no-brainers that I am going to pick up as soon as I can (Resident Evil 7 and Breath of the Wild, for example). Others usually stay on my wishlist for months, until the Steam sale rolls around and I get the email deluge of 50 “An item on your Steam Wishlist is on sale!” and I remember “oh yeah, that game”.

One of those games was Agents of Mayhem, an open world game cut from the Saint’s Row cloth but gunning for the Crackdown throne. Being the loyalist I am, I was worried that AoM would be the death knell of the Crackdown franchise.

After reading a couple of reviews, it looks like I can take AoM off my wishlist and still be hopeful for Crackdown 3 to bring back that original Crackdown Magic.

Justin McElroy (whose opinion I trust) sums up his review succinctly with

Agents of Mayhem heaps theoretical fun on you. Characters, powers, upgrades, tons of missions — it’s desperate for the player to just have fun. It’s a noble impulse, but one that it’s depressingly incapable of consistently delivering on.

While John Walker (who I haven’t read enough to know if I can trust just yet) comes to pretty much the same conclusion at RPS:

I was, immediately, really excited. The game begins with your controlling three different characters, each in a different part of an underground bunker, jumping between them as you learn their distinctive combat styles in this enormously elaborate third-person shooter. The writing was incredibly funny, the character mix interesting, and the action fine enough – I was delighted! Volition doing their thing. The process of playing since this opening scene has been one of disappointment after disappointment, until I’ve come away from what is undeniably a huge and complex game with very few positive feelings about it at all.

Agents of Mayhem is no longer on my Steam wishlist.

Pyre from Supergiant Games was another I have been watching, as well. Steve Brown at GameCritics praises its lore and art style while souring on the actual gameplay, going as far as saying

… Pyre could have easily been a visual novel, and I would have honestly preferred that instead of being forced to suffer through the tedious magic-balling.

So this doesn’t necessarily strike the game from the Wishlist, but definitely moves it into “when there’s time” territory (Spoiler Alert: there’s never time).

Finally, after hearing mention of Oxygen Not Included on an episode of Idle Thumbs, I have added it to the Wishlist. With its combination of the Don’t Starve pastiche and the gameplay of Fallout Shelter, it has earned a spot on my radar.

Any games blipping up on your radar? Or any comments on the games mentioned here? Share them in the comments!

August Releases

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Getting a new console always gives me a new perspective when I put this monthly release post together, but unfortunately Nintendo has nothing coming out this month on the Switch. There are still some solid titles this month, including Agents of Mayhem, aiming for that Crackdown Throne. On to this month’s releases:

Microsoft Xbox One

Week of August 7th

Week of August 14th

Week of August 21st

Week of August 28th

Nintendo Switch

No August releases for the Nintendo Switch.

Nintendo 3DS

No August releases for the Nintendo 3DS.

PC

Week of August 7th
– Occult Raise –
Batman: The Enemy Within – The Telltale Series
LawBreakers
Sine Mora EX
Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice
Law Mower – I don’t think I’ve ever been more convinced I needed a game after watching a trailer than I am right now, having watched the Law Mower trailer multiple times.
Sudden Strike 4
Mega Man Legacy Collection 2

Week of August 14th
Agents of Mayhem
Sonic Mania
Nidhogg 2
Original Journey
Night Trap – 25th Anniversary Edition
Promethium

Week of August 21st
Project Remedium
F1 2017
Distrust
WESTSLINGERS

Week of August 28th
Bannerman – Getting a Prince of Persia vibe from this one. Also: Historically Accurate Bloodshed!
Tiny Echo
WARRIORS ALL-STARS
Absolver
Hello Neighbor

Sony Playstation 4

Week of August 7th

Week of August 14th

Week of August 21st

Week of August 28th

Sony Playstation Vita

No August releases for the Playstation Vita.

What are you picking up this month?

(Note: As always, all Amazon.com links have our affiliate code embedded in them. If you purchase something through our link, we get a little commission. It’s appreciated.)

In My Digital Hands

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I’m pretty much an expert now and making onion soup and hamburgers, while my wife was killing it on the cutting board and my son was slinging dishes as fast as we could.

Seriously, this is a GREAT party game.