The games industry doesn’t hibernate for very long over the winter and holidays, so there’s already the first stirrings for what looks to be one of the busiest periods in gaming that I can remember. The next few months are jam-packed with game releases, many of which were delayed from the end of last year, and more trailers and announcements are starting to drop. That’s in addition to PC gamers getting a month where they can catch up on some huge games that are being ported to their platform for the first time.
In the News This Week
- Hitman 3 Year 2 starts 20th January – Freelancer mode, a new level and free updates revealed
- All Xbox One consoles were discontinued by the end of 2020
- Take Two purchasing Zynga for $12.7 billion
- Troy Baker backs a voice based NFT site but won’t be selling his own voice
- Deep Rock Galactic gains 6 million players in one week after PS Plus launch
- STALKER 2 hit with massive delay
- More Days Gone sequel plans revealed by game director Jeff Ross
- Overwatch 2 LEGO set delayed due to Activision Blizzard allegations
- PUBG’s free-to-play relaunch is now live on PlayStation, Xbox and Steam
- Techland clarify how long Dying Light 2 takes to complete
Giveaways
We’ve got a great giveaway this week for fans of the RuneScape MMORPG. Celebrating its 20th anniversary, which is mind-boggling for pretty much every game, Jagex created a gorgeous RuneScape: The First 20 Years book looking back of the game’s history. We’ve got five copies of the Deluxe Edition for a giveaway, which you can enter here.
Games in Review and Featured Articles
January seems to be the month of choice for games to get ports to PC, with both Monster Hunter Rise and God of War making the jump to keyboard & mouse. How did they hold up?
- Monster Hunter Rise – PC, NSW – 9/10
- God of War – PC, PS5, PS4 – 8/10
- Battle Brothers – PS4, XBO, PC – 7/10
Elsewhere, we took a good long look at The Anacrusis, a new sixties sci-fi themed take on the Left 4 Dead formula that’s now in Early Access and Xbox Game Preview, while Gareth dove back into the mind of Far Cry 4’s arch villain with the Far Cry 6 – Pagan: Control DLC. His mind is rather similar in structure to Vaas’ from the first DLC…
Over the weekend, we had two features, the first from Eric delving into The Legend of Zelda Second Quest, and the second with Reggie asking what happened to Arena Shooters?
Finally, What We Played featured The Anacrusis, Far Cry 6 and Fantasian.
Trailer Park
We could post trailers for days this week, but here’s a few of the highlights:
Gran Turismo 7 gameplay trailer heads to the Daytona International Speedway
Pokémon Legends: Arceus trailer reveals more gameplay from its Hisuian adventure
Kirby and the Forgotten Land is coming out in March – new gameplay and co-op revealed in trailer
New ELEX II trailer dives into the overhauled RPG combat
Your Achievements
And finally for this round-up, we come to… you!
- MrYd finished of Ghost of Tsushima’s main story and started on the Iki Island expansion. He also enjoyed playing through Life Is Strange 2 and got sucked into the cave-dwelling delights of Deep Rock Galactic.
- And willbuchanan is aiming to finish off Guardians of the Galaxy this weekend. He might even shoot for the platinum, which just depends on getting all of the outfits.
That’s it for this week’s gaming round-up. Have a fun weekend, wrap up warm, and we’ll catch you again next week.