New Releases for the Week of May 13th, 2012

From surmounting a new evil that has sprung up in Sanctuary, politicking via swords across the continents of Westeros and Essos or sweeping the streets of São Paulo clean of thugs, this week’s new releases offer players a variety of locales. Yet, where Diablo III, Game of Thrones, and Max Payne 3 will be transporting gamers into exotic realms, PixelJunk 4am aims to do the inverse- bringing the energy and hypnotic rhythms of an all-hours nightclub into our game rooms.

360
Akai Katana
Asura’s Wrath: Lost Episode 2: The Strongest vs. the Angriest (DLC)
Battleship
Dragon’s Lair (XBLA)
JAM Live Music Arcade (XBLA)
Game of Thrones
Max Payne 3
Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode II (XBLA)

PS3
Asura’s Wrath: Lost Episode 2: The Strongest vs. the Angriest (DLC)
Battleship
Dungeon Defenders: Quest for the Lost Eternia Shards – Part 3: Aquanos
JAM Live Music Arcade (PSN)
Game of Thrones
Max Payne 3
PixelJunk 4am (PSN)
Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode II (PSN)

Wii
Battleship

3DS
Battleship
Chronicles of Vampires: The Awakening (eShop)
Kirby’s Block Ball (eShop)

DS
Battleship

Vita
New Releases posted 5/15

Mac
Diablo III

PC
Diablo III
Game of Thrones
Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City
Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode II

DesertEagle’s Pick: When the original Xbox was released, I went on a serious Halo binge, mostly steering clear of middling launch titles such as Fuzion Frenzy and Mad Dash Racing. A month later my passion for unloading magazines full of hollow-point hell was reignited by the release of Max Payne, which beguiled me so much I marathoned my way through three consecutive play-throughs. While work will likely prohibit a trio of trips through Max Payne 3‘s campaign, a mix of Man on Fire-styled vengeance and non-stop barrage of bullets is just the escape I’m looking for. São Paulo, here I come.

SeanNOLA’s Pick: I want to pick Max Payne 3. I know, looking at that list, that Max Payne will be the game that I’ll enjoy the most. I know myself well enough to know that, come Tuesday, I will be playing Sonic 4: Episode 2. I know what you’re thinking: “Sean, wasn’t Episode 1 terrible? Didn’t you learn your lesson?” Yes and no. The pull is too strong. I’ve already convinced myself that the physics will be fixed and the music will be better than Chinese water torture. Somebody save me from myself.

Samurage’s Pick: This Monday at midnight the minions of hellspawn will be screaming as I mow them down with a mighty Monk roundhouse kick. Though the beta didn’t blow me away, I’m willing to give the full version of Diablo III a chance to redeem itself.  With some friends to party with, I’m hoping the hand holding will fade away into a joyous symphony of slaying and rampage. Really, really hoping.

BlueSwim’s Pick: The clear pick of the week for me is Cave’s Akai Katana. Shmups are niche games, especially “bullet-hell” shmups like this and Deathsmiles, but they are video games in the purest sense. It’s you against the game with the prize at stake being a spot on the high scores leaderboard. Akai Katana is a landmark shmup for Cave because it’s their first HD,16:9 widescreen horizontal shooter. That means no ugly, distracting borders on the sides of the screen to draw your attention away from the action. Even better is the fact that the game will be launching for the budget price of $40.

About Robert Allen

Since being a toddler, Robert Allen has been immersed in video games, anime, and tokusatsu. Currently, his days are spent teaching at two southern California colleges. But his evenings and weekends are filled with STGs, RPGs, and action titles and well at writing for Tech-Gaming since 2007.

36 comments

  1. Someone tell me where they are selling CE editions of Diablo 3 at retail. PLEASE!

  2. SO what will be worse..Battleship the movie or Battleship the game?

    • Battleship the Soundtrack as sound by the cast of Glee, of course.

      Is Asura’s Wrath: Lost Episode 2: The Strongest vs. the Angriest the last bit of DLC? I heard someone raving about it, and saying this was the real ending.

  3. @SeanNOLA Man, life’s heard for a Sonic fan these days. Did you play Generations at least? That was…kind of good.

  4. I really want Max Payne 3, but I should be saving for a new CPU+card that can handle Diablo 3.

    Is is still supposed to come to console.

  5. I’ll let you guess what my pick this week is:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PBeU2utihwM

  6. Oh, I’ll be grabbing Max Payne.

    Sean, you know you want it.

  7. Bring the Payne, but just spare the season pass.

    I was thinking you know would would be awesome- Max Payne physics in GTA’s world. Please mull over it, Rock*

  8. No one picked Akai Katana? But why? it’s the Japanesiest game this week.

    Sage, I hope you like D3. I thought the demo was kind of meh, too.

    • I’ve got Akai Katana’s back. 🙂

      • Yeah, Blue I didn’t know you like shmups. What are some of your favorites?

        • Off the top of my head (and I’m sure I’m forgetting something), my favorite/most-played shmups are Deathsmiles, Triggerheart Excelica, Ray Storm, and Raiden Fighters Aces, in that order. Deathsmiles is the one I go back to the most often. I love its gameplay, level design, Halloween theme, soundtrack, and bosses. It’s just plain fun to play. It’s also a pretty cheap game nowadays. Amazon has it for $12 and change and at Newegg it’s $10.

          If we use a looser interpretation of “shmup”, than the crown goes to Star Fox 64. Much of my youth was spent playing through that game again and again and again. I have a vivid memory of reciting the opening dialog of Star Fox 64 to my friends, complete with a deep, dramatic voice. Speaking of friends and Star Fox 64, three of my friends and I would spend hours on-end playing the four-player battle mode on the projector I had in my basement. Those were the days.

          • Thanks for the tip Blue. Just grabbed Deathsmiles.

            I also put way too much time with Star Fox 64. No 4 player games though.

          • Very nice! I hope you have as much fun with it as I do. 😀

  9. I’d love to play D3, but I don’t think my rig is up to it. I want a good framerate not chop-chop to go with my axe chopping.

  10. Akai Katana for me. Send me to bullet hell.

  11. Where’s Mr. Blue’s pick?

    Max Payne for me.

  12. I’d never buy it, but I’m curious as to how Dragon’s Lair with Kinect will work. Just move your arms to select directions?

  13. How much will PixelJunk 4am be?

  14. I want to see how the Game of Thrones reviews are. Videos make it look good.

  15. Sean, we’ll TRY Sonic together. I think we both deep down want to game to be good. But I also think we know how it will end up.

  16. You might think I’m crazy but the Battleship trailer didn’t look half bad.

  17. Is the top pic Diablo 3? Man, that looks so different (and brighter) than the past games.

  18. Akai Katana for me. Localized Cave shooters always get my money.

  19. May Payne 3 tonight. Just got the call for a midnight release for this and D3.

  20. I per-ordered Game of Thrones but now I am skeptical about getting it. I’m not sure I am going to like it. :/

  21. The PC or the console one. The PC version is supposed to not be good. The console one which is an RPG, is better.

  22. Here it is 35 mins after the game opened up and I’m not playing because the blizzard servers crashed three mins after they opened up. I’d laugh if it wasn’t so sad.

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