New Releases: November 17th-23rd, 2022

This week, Evil West, Gungrave G.O.R.E, and the PC remasters of Crysis 2 and Crysis 3 supply the firepower, the fourth installment of The Dark Pictures Anthology provides the scares, while Hoshizora no Memoria -Eternal Heart- HD (pictured) conveys the cuteness. Here’s a list of everything else arriving over the next seven days:

PlayStation 4
Adventure Academia: The Fractured Continent (physical & digital, $39.99)
Evil West (physical & digital, $59.99)
Gungrave G.O.R.E (physical & digital, $49.99)
My Fantastic Ranch (physical & digital, $39.99)
Prison Architect: Future Tech Pack (DLC, $2.99)
Saint Kotar (physical & digital, $34.99)
Starsand (digital, $19.99)
The Dark Pictures Anthology: The Devil in Me (physical & digital, $39.99)

PlayStation 5
Evil West (physical & digital, $59.99)
Fishing: North Atlantic: Enhanced Edition (physical & digital, $49.99)
Goat Simulator 3 (physical & digital, $29.99)
Gungrave G.O.R.E (physical & digital, $49.99)
Just Dance 2023 (digital, $59.99)
Medieval Dynasty (physical & digital, $39.99)
My Fantastic Ranch (physical & digital, $39.99)
Saint Kotar (physical & digital, $34.99)
The Dark Pictures Anthology: The Devil in Me (physical & digital, $39.99)

Switch
8Doors: Arum’s Afterlife Adventure (physical, $34.99)
Chompy Chomp Chomp Party (digital, $9.99)
Dead Station (digital, $4.99)
Extinction Eclipse (digital, $14.99)
Finding Paradise (digital, $11.99)
Happy Animals Mini Golf (digital, $4.49)
Heidelberg 1693 (digital, $13.49)
In Extremis DX (digital, $4.99)
Just Dance 2023 Edition (digital, $59.99)
My Fantastic Ranch (physical & digital, $39.99)
New Tales from the Borderlands: Adventure Capital Pack (DLC, $4.99)
Oddworld: Soulstorm (physical & digital, $49.99)
Pid (digital, $19.99)
Pixel Game Maker Series VERZEUS (digital, $11.99)
Pokémon Scarlet (physical & digital, $59.99)
Pokémon Scarlet and Pokémon Violet Double Pack (physical & digital, $119.99)
Pokémon Violet (physical & digital, $59.99)
Puzzle Games Bundle (digital, $15.99)
Q Remastered (digital, $4.55)
Quantum Storm (digital, $4.99)
Heidelberg 1693
Saint Kotar (physical $34.99, digital, $31.49)
Sifu: Vengeance Edition (physical, $49.99)
Slime’s Journey (digital, $4.99)
Starsand (digital, $19.99)
Succubus With Guns (digital, $7.99)
Super Toy Cars Collection (digital, $29.99)
The Awakening of Mummies (digital, $2.99)
The Closed Circle (digital, $7.99)
The Lost Labyrinth (digital, $19.99)
Wobbledogs Console Edition (digital, $19.99)
World Class Champion Soccer (digital, $10.99)
Ultimate ADOM – Caverns of Chaos (digital, $19.99)

Xbox One
As Far as The Eye (digital, $22.49)
Babol the Walking Box (digital, $6.99)
Dead Station (digital, $4.99)
Evil West (physical & digital, $59.99)
Finding the Soul Orb (digital, $TBA)
Gungrave G.O.R.E (physical & digital, $49.99)
Heidelberg 1693 (digital, $13.49)
Jelly Brawl (digital, $9.99)
Medieval Dynasty (physical & digital, $39.99)
Prison Architect: Future Tech Pack (DLC, $2.99)
Saint Kotar (physical & digital, $34.99)
Starsand (digital, $19.99)
Super Rebellion (digital, $4.79)
The Dark Pictures Anthology: The Devil in Me (physical & digital, $39.99)

Xbox Series S/X
Goat Simulator 3 (physical & digital, $29.99)
Just Dance 2023 (digital, $59.99)

PC
Climber: Sky is the Limit ($TBA)
Crysis 2 Remastered ($29.99)
Crysis 3 Remastered ($29.99)
Evil West ($49.99)
Frozen Flame ($TBA)
Gungrave G.O.R.E ($49.99)
Hoshizora no Memoria -Eternal Heart- HD ($TBA)
Lonn (VR, $TBA)
Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales ($49.99)
Nobody – The Turnaround ($TBA)
Please Be Happy ($TBA)
The Dark Pictures Anthology: The Devil in Me (digital, $39.99)

Rob’s Pick: Undoubtedly, my Poké-passions have been waning lately, due to GameFreak’s adherence to convention. Yes, they have been offshoots like Pokémon Legends Arceus, but the core series still shares much of the DNA of 1998’s Pokémon Red and Blue. Still, I’m eager to see how Pokémon Scarlet and Pokémon Violet handle open-world exploration as you ride the game’s Legendaries across the not quite Iberian Peninsula. Nostalgia can be indulgent, but I’m heading into Scarlet more skeptical than I should be. I’m really hoping GameFreak proves me wrong.

Although I couldn’t run Crysis when the game first debuted in 2007, I grew to appreciate the franchise. Most first-person shooters of the era forced a narrow approach from players. But Crytek’s FPS and its sequels injected autonomy into the action, allowing you to vigilantly hunt down enemies or just head through a checkpoint with guns blazing. I’m hoping the PC ports of Crysis 2 and 3 fare better than the lackluster remaster of the original game. And if my Steam Deck can run Crysis 2, I’ll be a happy cyber-huntsman.

Ryan’s pick: I really enjoyed the original Crysis and when I wasn’t worried about my GPU temp (which was quite often) I did really enjoy myself. I found a lot of the sneaking in the game to be pretty fun, but the search parties always seemed to find me anyway. This then led to gunfights and the cycle repeated. I have been getting this same experience in the Sniper Elite series which is equally a really fun stealth game to play. I only played a few levels in Crysis 2, but I do recall stealth being equally as engaging, with that gruff voice, “Cloak engaged,” emoting each time you enter stealth.

One other game that I was also interested in is Evil West. While it does seem like a mashup of a bunch of different genres, I can see myself enjoying this one as well. It does give me a bit of a Shadows of the Damned feel in terms of the over-the-shoulder perspective as you play, but I’m not quite sure if the main character will be on the same level humor wise as Garcia Hotspur. I’ll never forget the harmonica boss in that game. I did notice that there is just as much melee battling in this game as shooting, so I am a bit curious if players will have to balance between the two to be successful or if they can pick a particular style and stick with it. The mixture of supernatural weapons, cowboys, and vampires is more than enough of a reason for me to give a small tip of my hat in this game’s direction this week.

Matt R’s pick (editor, Shindig): I’m rather curious about Pokémon Scarlet and Violet, especially since it’s been less than a year since Pokémon Legends Arceus touched down. Arceus carved a very different path for the series, one there were more than a few suggestions that new main-series games should follow in its footsteps. Scarlet and Violet don’t look like they’re going quite as far as that, with a return to more classic Pokémon battle and catching mechanics, but it still looks like a substantial departure from previous generations in a lot of other ways, both big and small.

With an open-world structure comes a new level of freedom in exploring the Pokémon world and deciding how to tackle its various challenges. The new Terastalising gimmick could potentially have a dramatic impact on type relationships in combat, with Pokémon able to effectively change their type for short bursts. Things like TM crafting and a way to let your partner Pokémon battle automatically while you continue exploring should make raising Pokémon a little more convenient. Sure, it might not be write the dramatic reimagining that Arceus was, but Scarlet and Violet nonetheless have the potential to push Pokémon in welcome news directions.

Matt S’ pick (editor, DigitallyDownloaded): I have been a hardcore Pokémon fan since back with the very first generation. I’ve seen the series go through its highs and lows, but overall it has been some of the most consistent values I have derived from gaming for almost as long as I’ve been playing games. So. of course, I’m looking forward to Scarlet and Violet. I’m looking forward to carefully assembling a team of all-duck monsters and wiping the floor with the lot of you.

The other big release for me this week is The Devil In Me. Overall I don’t think that Supermassive Games has quite delivered on its promise. To me an “anthology of horror” means a series of distinct horror experiences, like what Del Toro delivered with the Cabinet of Curiosities TV series. Supermassive Games, meanwhile, really struggles to break beyond “the formula” for this series, and The Devil In Me isn’t any different in this regard. It’s a sequel, not an anthology entry.

Putting the hair-splitting aside, however, I have greatly enjoyed this series as narrative-driven horror, and while the consistency is part of the reason The Dark Pictures anthology has been disappointing, it is also why you can go into The Devil In Me knowing that you’re getting something reliably entertaining. Who doesn’t want to explore the murder home of the first great serial killer in American history, after all?