This Week in Gaming (Week 31)

[TheLostSwede]

Welcome to the last week of July and another fairly packed week of new game releases. We kick off the week with a cosy trip to the shire, which is swiftly followed by some vehicular combat, some insect action, a virtual rebellion, a bit of law and order and finally landing in a post-apocalyptic world. We also have a few more new games that didn't quite make the list this week.

Tales of the Shire: A The Lord of The Rings Game / This week's major release / Tuesday 29 July
Welcome home, Hobbit! Live the cosy life of a Hobbit in the wonderfully serene landscape of the Shire. Discover, decorate, & share in this idyllic corner of Middle-earth. Join friendly Hobbits & familiar faces awaiting your arrival in Tales of the Shire: A The Lord of the Rings Game. Steam link




Fumes / Monday 28 July / Early Access
Arm your vehicle with deadly weapons and roam endless wastelands in this fast-paced single-player car combat game. Collect upgrades for your car to melt enemies and giant bosses in this bizarre world. Retro vibe. Retro cars. Retro gamepla. Steam link



Grounded 2 / Tuesday 29 July
Shrunk again, but the world is much larger. In this open-world, single-player or co-op survival adventure, craft weapons and armor, build your base, and traverse the playground on your buggy. But something else is out there—and it hasn't forgotten you. Steam link



Terminull Brigade / Wednesday 30 July
Dive Into The Nullverse, Master Your Rogueteers to make the last stand against unfolding shadow algorithms. Choose your Rogueteer, unite in the virtual realm, and participate in the rebellion to free enslaved digital worlds. Steam link



SWAT Commander / Thursday 31 July / Early Access
Join the Special Weapons and Tactics Unit in SWAT Commander! Issue orders to your squad in single player or create one with up to 5 players in co-op. Configure equipment, study briefings, deploy on missions with various environments and objectives. Use your tactical skills to restore law and order. Steam link



SCP / Friday 1 August / Early Access
Welcome to "SCP," an intense open-world survival-craft experience set in a post-apocalyptic realm where the enigmatic SCP entities roam freely. Brace yourself for a relentless struggle for survival as you navigate through a desolate landscape filled with anomalies. Steam link



Also launching this week: Recharge, Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound, Frosthaven and Mecharashi.

View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[Onasi]

Grounded is seemingly the one reason MS hasn’t completely gutted Obsidian yet. No way mediocrity like Avowed is what keeps them going.

Oh, and judging from the demo, Ragebound is actually great. Absolute treat for fans of older NGs.

 

[Space Lynx]

won't get it at launch, will wait for discounts, but tales of the shire is going to be a great Steam Deck game I expect @Nordic not sure if you are into lord of the rings, just fyi

 

[Sithaer]

Recharge instantly made me remember Re-Volt from my childhood, loved that game back then.

 

[dgianstefani]

Grounded is seemingly the one reason MS hasn’t completely gutted Obsidian yet. No way mediocrity like Avowed is what keeps them going.

Oh, and judging from the demo, Ragebound is actually great. Absolute treat for fans of older NGs.

Grounded 1 was pretty fun for a while. The grind gets a bit stale if you're not regularly playing with a team of friends, and progression is unbalanced if you don't have same playtime.

 

[Event Horizon]

I just wishlisted 5 of those. I don't do early access so I'll wait to try most of them.

 

[the54thvoid]

Thread cleaned. Stay on topic.

 

[bl4C3y3]

Thx for the weekly list, always nice to check. Will keep an eye on Mecharashi ... 'turn-based mech combat'
After finishing Phantom Brigade, and the occasional Into the Breach, i'm currently doing another run of BattleTech ... curious how this will stack up.

 

[FreedomEclipse]

Recharge instantly made me remember Re-Volt from my childhood, loved that game back then.

I was thinking Micro Machines. Fond memories I have of playing it on the Sega Genesis.

 

[Sithaer]

I was thinking Micro Machines. Fond memories I have of playing it on the Sega Genesis.

Had to google that and I think that mostly an American thing no?
In my case I've used to collect Bburago cars but then I've stoped cause they were just too expensive for me.

 

[SomeOne99h]

Recharge instantly made me remember Re-Volt from my childhood, loved that game back then.

I was thinking Micro Machines. Fond memories I have of playing it on the Sega Genesis.

From the trailers and screenshots, Recharge doesn't seem to have weapons and nasties to collect from the road to use against other cars. That kills the fun of the game. It is just plain race, thats it

 

[Kwadratowicz]

Fumes added to wish list, and demo I will play personally It looks nice, and reminds Me a little of Interstate 76 ^^

 

[agatong55]

Grounded is seemingly the one reason MS hasn’t completely gutted Obsidian yet. No way mediocrity like Avowed is what keeps them going.

Oh, and judging from the demo, Ragebound is actually great. Absolute treat for fans of older NGs.

Crazy that Obsidian is dropping 3 games this year.

Avowed was good just needed about another year to cook.
Grounded 2 will be good in about 2 years or so after it exits Early Access and goes into 1.0
Outer World 2 will be the wild card since they took most of the teams from all the other games the last couple of years to help out, but I am excited for this I liked 1 and 2 looks like its going back to old Fallout New Vegas days.

 

[cfenton]

Mecharashi looks cool, but it's free to play, so I'm sure it's designed to be annoying to play unless you dump endless money into it. I hate seeing potentially cool games ruined by bad business models.

 

[colossusrageblack]

Recharge definitely reminds me of ReVolt from Dreamcast. I am interested in Fumes, kind of reminds me of Carmageddon with guns. I'll show Tales of the Shire to my wife, maybe it'll move her off of Hello Kitty Island Adventure.

 

[Space Lynx]

4/10 on IGN... tales of shire...

i don't give a damn what they say, I am still going to get it when it hits deep discount, i think i will like it, so w.e can't always go on reviews

Tales of the Shire: A The Lord of the Rings Game Review - IGN

A promising idea that turned out dreadfully boring and extremely buggy.

www.ign.com

 

[L'Eliminateur]

4/10 on IGN... tales of shire...

i don't give a damn what they say, I am still going to get it when it hits deep discount, i think i will like it, so w.e can't always go on reviews

Tales of the Shire: A The Lord of the Rings Game Review - IGN

A promising idea that turned out dreadfully boring and extremely buggy.

www.ign.com

4/10 is more than i would have expected, when i heard about the game i was mildly interested, then i saw the development team and their absolute disrespect and blatant insult for the source material so it became blacklisted to me.

The other games/series i've never heard of and don't really pick my fancy

 

[Space Lynx]

4/10 is more than i would have expected, when i heard about the game i was mildly interested, then i saw the development team and their absolute disrespect and blatant insult for the source material so it became blacklisted to me.

The other games/series i've never heard of and don't really pick my fancy

hmm, I will look into it more... thanks for the heads up.

 

[TheinsanegamerN]

A couple of them look interesting, but so much launches into early access these days.

I'll just follow them, in 3 years when the games are actually finished and about $10 i'll look at them again.

Crazy that Obsidian is dropping 3 games this year.

Avowed was good just needed about another year to cook.
Grounded 2 will be good in about 2 years or so after it exits Early Access and goes into 1.0
Outer World 2 will be the wild card since they took most of the teams from all the other games the last couple of years to help out, but I am excited for this I liked 1 and 2 looks like its going back to old Fallout New Vegas days.

Disagree. Avowed was utterly forgettable slop, if it wasnt for the political controversy nobody would even know the game existed.

OW2 isnt going to be back to New Vegas days. OW1 made it very clear that all the clever writing talent is long gone from the studio, all that's left is a shell imitating the actions of the host. It'll be yet another game chock full of millennial writing and irony poisoned performance with no substance. There's a reason MS cut the price and no, its not because they suddenly started caring about their image or the consumer.

4/10 is more than i would have expected, when i heard about the game i was mildly interested, then i saw the development team and their absolute disrespect and blatant insult for the source material so it became blacklisted to me.

The other games/series i've never heard of and don't really pick my fancy

Agree. Wrote this game off a while ago. I hope it bombs, if you dont like the source material, STOP ADAPTING IT. Just leave it alone!