Welcome to our video game news for week 29. I had a whirlwind of a week this past week, so this weekend I’m kicking back with lots of coffee and reading up on all the changes in the video game world. From a wonderful trip with a good friend (Happy birthday, GeekMom Shiri!) to the agony of finding my new 4k tv arrived broken the real world has been somewhat chaotic. I’ve been practicing hard for my Overwatch tournament at GenCon 50. And by practicing hard I mean playing with great folks and having a grand old time. But enough about me, let’s see what else happened this past week.
Video Game News Recap
General News Updates
Pokémon Go Fest
Pokémon Go players lost their collective patience during Niantic’s Pokémon Go Fest in Chicago this past Saturday. According to Brendan Morrow at heavy. the event was a disaster of game crashes and failures to connect via cell services resulting in most participants paying for entry into an event that they couldn’t even participate in. Granted the entry fee was only $20, and ultimately Niantic refunded everyone’s ticket price, but one would think Niantic would have set up some wifi service for attendees, right? Nope. The entire event was relying on cell coverage. Hopefully, they learned their lesson this time and the future events go a bit better. You can find details on the future events on the Pokémon Go Events page. Want to see just how bad it was? Verlisify’s YouTube channel did a really good recap with footage you can check out.
Battlefield 1 Premium Trials
From 07/20 – 07/27 non-pass holders can try out all the currently available maps that are normally only available for Battlefield 1 Premium Pass holders for free. The kicker is you don’t get experience (XP) for playing in the free trial. According to the update note on the Battlefield website, they’ll keep track of that XP though and apply it to your account if you buy a Premium Pass. So, if XP is really important to you, you may not want to do the trial but if getting to experience otherwise unavailable content is then you should definitely check out the maps while you can. And maybe you’ll decide to buy a Premium Pass.
Fortnite Early Access
My son is extremely disappointed I didn’t get him a code for this, but I keep telling him, “you’re gonna live, kid.” For those that do have access, like fellow GeekDad Joey Mills, the response has been very positive. This game release from Epic Games is available for PC, Mac, PS4, and Xbox One and for those that pre-order a Founder’s Pack access started on 07/21. For regular pre-order, it starts 07/25. It is a collaborative base building, resource gathering, monster smashing adventure game. Check out the gameplay trailer video below.
Planet Coaster New DLC Packs
Want to create a Knightrider area in your theme park? How about The Munsters? Maybe Back To The Future is more your style? Perhaps you’re into all of the above? You’re in luck, my friends. For $2.99 each, you can download these skins for Planet Coaster and make your retro dreams a (virtual) reality.
Blizzard’s Latest Video Game News
DoomFist Arrives in Overwatch
Ok, this isn’t from last week but I have to give it a mention ahead of time. Doomfist hits Overwatch player servers on July 27th. Want a rundown of his skills? I gave you the skinny in a Re-Spawn article earlier this month. Want to catch up? Here’s the developer update video I shared in that article.
Xbox’s Latest Video Game News
This Week on Xbox: July 21, 2017, is a quick way to grab the latest news you may have missed from Xbox last week. I love this format where you can get little snippets about the recent chatter and they even embed a video if you’d rather watch and listen than read the news. Do you think I should do that format for Re-Spawn at some point? Perhaps, but I digress. This article will give you more info on Star Wars: Battlefront II, the new update and free weekend for Doom, and a closer look at some of the new cars for Forza Motorsport 7 among other exciting updates.
A full list of the new releases coming up next week shows 12 new games coming out this week can be found on the Xbox news page. Here are a couple highlights from the list, which includes Fortnite as mentioned above:
Fable Fortune, Xbox Console Exclusive
Fable Fortune releases 07/25 and the only console you’ll find it on is Xbox. This is a digital collectible card game based in the Fable game world. You’ll choose sides (Good or Evil), compete in leagues, and fight big baddies collaboratively with your friends. As someone who as played a wee bit of Blizzard’s Hearthstone I have to admit, it looks very similar in format. See what I mean below.
Syndrome
No, not the bad guy from The Incredibles. In this game, you awaken to find that most of the people on your ship have been killed and those left behind are not… normal. Get your adrenaline pumping with the trailer for the game.
Current Games with Gold are Runbow (07/16 – 08/15) and LEGO Pirates of the Caribbean (07/16 – 07/31).
You can check out the games on sale right now on the Deals With Gold page.
Nintendo’s Latest Video Game News
As always, you can view current and upcoming releases on the Nintendo Games Store page. I think the one causing the biggest stir is Splatoon 2, for the Switch. I haven’t gotten to play this one but it is the first game we’ve bought for the Switch that is arriving next week. I’ll be sure to share my thoughts after we play it.
PlayStation’s Latest Video Game News
This week’s The Drop highlights 23 new releases in the upcoming week. Check out the blog entry for the full list but here are a couple that caught my eye:
Theseus for PlayStation VR
Theseus is a new VR take on the legend of the Minotaur. Which now has me thinking what a cool possibility VR could be for teaching mythologies to kids in school. I’ll get to work on that idea as soon as I get a few minutes to spare.
Leaving Lyndow
The beautiful exploration island adventure game is finally coming to console. Get the visual experience below.
PlayStation Plus includes free games. Currently available are Until Dawn, Tokyo Jungle, Darkstalkers Resurrection, Don’t Die, Mr. Robot!, Element4, and a whole lot of Game of Thrones games. They don’t refresh these very often, do they?
STEAM’s Latest Video Game News
New releases and upcoming releases are available on the Steam Games page.
Current pricing specials can be found on the Specials page. This page is updated frequently so check back often.
GeekMom and GeekDad Recent Video Game Articles
GeekMoms and GeekDads often write about video games. Here is a list of all the video gaming related articles from the blogs from this past week:
- Dakster Sullivan – “‘Sudden Strike 4’ Review“
- Z. – “GeekDad Review: ‘Splatoon 2’ Leaves an Indelible Mark on the Nintendo Switch“
- Jena Burne – “Necromance Brings ‘Diablo III’ Back From the Dead“
Below are the video games some of the Geek Parents have been playing lately.
Z.:
- Splatoon 2 (Switch)
- Miitopia (3DS)
- Hey! Pikmin (3DS)
- Doctor Who: Legacy (Android)
Randy Slavey:
- Battlefield 1 (PS4)
- Mario Kart 8 Deluxe (Switch)
Michael Harrison:
- Sunless Sea (STEAM)
- Splatoon 2 (Switch)
Samantha Fisher:
- Overwatch (PC)
Anthony Karcz:
- Hearthstone (iOS)
- Marvel Puzzle Quest (iOS)
- Transformers: Forged to Fight (iOS)
For more gaming news, or to share your love of video games with me, please follow @samanthafisher on Twitter.
