Welcome back to the latest edition of Re-Spawn where GeekMoms and GeekDads share video gaming news that caught our eye in the last week and let you know what we’ve played recently.
- The Museum of Art and Digital Entertainment (MADE), is re-introducing Habitat, from Lucasfilm Games. In collaboration with Chip Morningstar and Randy Farmer who created it, MADE is bringing the game back after more than 30 years. Habitat was the first graphical massively multiplayer game. Habitat introduced the concept of avatars as online representations of actual players. As of 06/, 2/2017 the server ports were opened and those interested in playing can find instructions to use a Commodore64 emulator to sign in on the Neohabitat website.
- Microsoft Xbox‘s latest:
- Xbox Game Pass is now available for $9.99/month after a 14-day free trial period. Game Pass gets you unlimited access to over 100 Xbox One and 360 games, including one of their most popular titles Halo 5. You can download the games right to your console and if the game supports offline play you can play it offline. Game Pass will also offer discounts on games not in the list that you purchase if you are a pass holder. You should probably let Danny McBride explain it to you. Dude is hilarious.
- Xbox will be at E3 and their briefing is scheduled for 06/11/2017 at 2:00 pm PT/5:00 pm ET. If you want to watch online tune in at this link.
- Current Games with Gold are Speedrunners (06/01 – 06/30), Phantom Dust Multiplayer Content Pack (06/01 – 06/30), and Assassin’s Creed III (06/01 – 06/15).
- You can check out the games on sale right now on the Deals With Gold page.
- You can always view current and upcoming releases on the Nintendo Games Store page but the highlights are:
- Nintendo Switch Online, a paid service similar to Xbox Live and Playstation Plus was just announced 06/01/17. The service begins in 2018 and gameplay online will remain free for Switch players until that time. There are 1-month, 3-month, and 12-month tiers and the 12-month tier will run you $19.99.
- Nintendo will be revealing new details on Super Mario Odyssey and Switch games coming out this year at E3. You can watch the livestream of this Nintendo Spotlight at this link at 9 am PT/12 pm ET 06/13/17. Super Mario Odyssey takes our favorite cartoon plumber/carpenter into a vast open-world concept world as detailed in this trailer Nintendo shared earlier this year.
- The Splatoon 2 tournament is coming 06/13/17 at approximately 2:30 pm PT/5:30 pm ET. Follow the same link for more information about this E3 event.
- ARMS for Switch is having an E3 tournament 06/14/2017 at approximately 3:30 pm PT/6:30 pm ET, as well.
- Playstation has announced several upcoming releases for the PS4 since my last update.
- The old format is back! The Drop on the Playstation blog is the place for a detailed list of all the games coming out for Playstation platforms in the next week. Each game in the list has a brief synopsis and a link to more details, often with videos, for each.
- WipEout Omega Collection drops 06/06/2017 and gathers all the content from WipEout HD, WipEout HD Fury, and WipEout 2048. Available on PS4 and Vita.
- Cladun Returns: This is Segnoku! is a fun, retro 8-bit dungeon crawler that drops 06/06/2017.
- Playstation will be at E3 on 06/12/2017 starting at 5:00 pm PT/8:00 pm ET. If you tune in to watch live at live.playstion.com you will be entered for a chance to win E3 exclusive prizes.
- The old format is back! The Drop on the Playstation blog is the place for a detailed list of all the games coming out for Playstation platforms in the next week. Each game in the list has a brief synopsis and a link to more details, often with videos, for each.
- STEAM has lots of one-day or weekend sales and you should bookmark their News front page so you can keep up on them. Here is a link to the Specials section of the STEAM store as well.
- The new releases page highlights items that have recently become available on STEAM.
- Then the upcoming releases page shows you a list of games coming as far as the eye can see. Well, as far as 30 pages of listing can show you, I guess.
- Oxygen Not Included is now open for early access. Early access is where you pay now and can play the game while it is still in development and help the devs fine tune the final product. This game is from the same company, Klei Entertainment, the makers of Don’t Starve. In this game, you work with a crew on a space colony and in order to survive, you have to face alien life forms, learn new technology, and probably find some oxygen to survive.
- Ark: Survival Evolved has new DLC with Ark: Scorched Earth. In this expansion pack, players will go to a new land that contains six desert areas. Each of the six areas will have a theme of dunes, high desert, mountains, canyons, badlands, and oasis. This game has some pretty intense blood and graphic violence. Be aware before watching the video.
GeekMoms and GeekDads often write about video games and this week we want to remind you about the GeekDad-sponsored Southern-Fried Gameroom Expo in Atlanta 06/09 – 06/11/17 at the Marriott Renaissance Waverly. You can play more than 250 arcade, pinball, and console games. They have tournaments, a vendor expo, movie features, and many other events. GeekDad’s own Preston Burt is one of the main dudes responsible for this expo so say hi to him if you spot him next weekend! Z. won’t be able to make it but he gave y’all a preview of the expected awesome with his “Play a Piece of Nintendo History at SFGE 2017” article.
Below are the video games some of the GeekMom and GeekDad crew have been playing lately.
- Dr. Gerry Tolbert:
- Overwatch and Heroes of the Storm (PC)
- Jaipur (iOS)
- Will James: Star Wars: Force Arena, Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes, and Transformers: Forged to Fight (iOS)
- Anthony Karcz: Hearthstone, Skullgirls, and Marvel Puzzle Quest (iOS)
- Mike LeSauvage:
- Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Has-Been Heroes (Nintendo Switch)
- Overwatch, Heroes of the Storm (PC)
- Z.:
- ARMS (Switch)
- Fire Emblem Heroes and Onirim (Android)
- Super Dimension Fortress Macross: Scrambled Valkyrie (Super Famicon/SNES)
- Ryan Hiller: Pathfinder: Kingmaker (PC Demo)
- Michael Harrison: Overwatch (PC)
- Joey Mills: Portal Knights (PC)
- Stephen Clark:
- Marvel Puzzle Quest (Android)
- Firewatch and Gone Home (PC)
- Samantha Fisher:
- Starcrawlers, Overwatch, Splendor, and World of Warcraft (PC)
- CardShark (Android)
- Minecraft (Xbox)
Have you played any new games this week? Send me a comment or hit me up on Twitter (@samanthafisher) to let me know what you’ve been playing.
