Welcome to our video game news for week 35. Labor Day Weekend is often a 3-day weekend for folks and that is the case for me and mine. I have Monday off from work and my son has it off from school. No big surprise we’ve decided to pack the extra long weekend full of video games! I’ve picked up several new games to play by myself, such as PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds and we also picked up Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle to play together. Now, let’s see what else happened this week in the world of video games.
Video Game News Recap
Blizzard’s Latest Video Game News
Overwatch
Overwatch has added two modes to their ever-popular Arcade options. Deathmatch and Team Deathmatch. Kill the most, win the game. I’ll let Jeff Kaplan give you the details below.
Now available on PTR, the new escort map located in the Australian Outback called Junkertown has arrived.
Xbox’s Latest Video Game News
Upcoming Games on Xbox
Smaller offerings this upcoming week from Xbox, with only 3 games listed in their upcoming release post. Like pretty much everyone else, they are releasing Destiny 2 along with the following:
Squish and the Corrupted Crystal
Cleanse the guardian crystal and save the world in this side-scrolling platformer game. You’ll collect crystals, open new areas, solve puzzles and oovercome obstacles.
Don’t Knock Twice
This 1st person VR horror game is based the urban legend of the same name. Play as a mother trying to save her estranged daughter with the tagline “One knock to wake her from the bed, Twice to raise her from the dead.” Creepy.
Current Games with Gold are Trials Fusion (08/16 – 09/15), Forza Motorsport 5: Racing Game of the Year Edition (09/01 – 09/30), and Hydro Thunder Hurricane (09/01 – 09/15)
You can check out the games on sale right now on the Deals With Gold page.
Nintendo’s Latest Video Game News
Nintendo’s Game News from Gamescon Show
ARMS will be getting a new character called Lola Pop. Lola Pop is a colorful street performer clown who can blow herself up like a balloon animal for higher defense. There is also a new stage with this update.
Splatoon 2 is getting new free DLC soon. A new stage will be added to Turf War and Ranked Battle stages with Manta Maria. Lost Outpost will join Salmon Run right away, and both stages will be available for local multiplayer. They also announced a new special weapon type, the Forge Splattershot Pro coming in September.
Super Nintendo Entertainment System: Super NES Classic Edition will include a Rewind feature to allow players to roll back to parts to retry them, grab something they missed, or to just try again to see if they can do better without replaying an entire area. How this works will depend on the game but in pretty much all cases it lets you go back less than 60 seconds.
Miiverse Ends
As of November 7th Miiverse will cease to exist. This means you will no longer be able to access it, even in a static state. If you would like to obtain a download of all content posts you created you can make a request via the Miiverse website. You can also access the announcement for the end of service at the top of the website landing page.
Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle = Hilarious Hit
We picked up Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle this weekend at my house and it has been a lot of fun. Rabbids are the perfect comic relief for this game. You can play as 8 different characters, several of which are Rabbid versions of classic Mario characters. You get to explore 4 different lands and each is rife with homages to old Mario games. And you get to do all of this with over 250 unique weapons. So much fun! Learn more about what this game offers on the announcement page of the Nintendo website.
Nindies Showcase Summer 2017
Watch the video below to learn about all the new indy titles coming to Nintendo Switch. They include:
- Super Meat Boy Forever – 2018
- Shovel Knight: Treasure Trove – Early 2018
- Mom Hid My Game! – Late 2017
- Golf Story – September 2017, Switch exclusive
- Floor Kids – Holiday 2017
- Wulverblade – September 2017
- Polly Bridge – Holiday 2017
- Kentucky Route Zero: TV Edition – Early 2018
- Earth Atlantis – Fall 2017
- Next Up Hero – Early 2018
- SteamWorld Dig 2 – September 21, 2017
- Mulaka – Early 2018
- Yono and the Celestial Elephants – October 12, 2017
- Dragon: Marked For Death – Winter 2017
- Battle Chef Brigade – Holiday 2017
- Moprhies Law – Winter 2017
- Sausage Sports Club – Fall 2017
- Light Fingers – Early 2018
- Nine Parchments – Holiday 2017
- Travis Strikes Again: No More Heroes – 2018
PlayStation’s Latest Video Game News
PAX Sale
PlayStation is having a PAX Sale that can net you up to 70% off some titles. There are too many to list here when you can view the full list, complete with sale versus original prices right on the PlayStation Blog. Some examples:
- Borderlands – $3.99 ($9.99)
- Borderlands 2 – $3.99 ($9.99)
- Deadpool – $11.99 ($39.99)
- Final Fantasy VII – $4.99 ($9.99)
- Skullgirls Encore – $1.99 ($9.99)
This week’s The Drop highlights 13 new releases in the upcoming week. Check out the blog entry for the full list but here are a couple that caught my eye:
Antiquia Lost
Antiquia Lost is a 2D turn-based battling RPG game featuring a girl made of slime.
Hole New World
Hole New World is a 2D platformer where you battle against monsters from the Upside Down World. The game boasts that there is no tutorial and no Easy Mode so you have to rely solely on your companion and your potions to beat the game.
STEAM’s Latest Video Game News
Steam Link on Samsung Smart TV
Samsung released a free app for the 2016 and 2017 Smart TVs that will allow you to link your tv with your home network where it will discover any computers running Steam. Once the link is made you can use your own controller (Steam Controller, Xbox 360 wired and wireless, Xbox One wired, or Logitech F510/F710) to play your existing Steam titles from your living room. Read about the announcement on Steam’s Community or get even more details with the Samsung press release.
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.
Last Day of June Special Launch Pack
Last Day of June is now available on Steam for 10% off plus you get a free copy of Brothers – A Tale of Two Sons. The offer lasts until 09/15 so I suggest you don’t dilly-dally. And you definitely don’t want to pussyfoot either.
ARK: Survival of the Fittest
Do you feel ARK is missing something? Have you been hungering for more of The Hunger Games? Well, hunger no more my friends, the mash-up of your dreams has arrived. Think I’m exaggerating? Watch the trailer video below. They don’t even try to hide the cross-over aspects, in fact, they ham them up quite nicely.
GeekMom and GeekDad Recent Video Game Articles
GeekMoms and GeekDads often write about video games and related items. It has been a quiet week for video games on the site, but here is what we have since I last recapped things:
- GeekDad Z. – “A GeekDad Guide to Nintendo Switch Accessories“
Below are the video games some of the Geek Parents have been playing lately.
Samantha Fisher:
- Overwatch (PC)
- PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds (PC)
- Simon’s Cat (Android)
- Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle (Nintendo Switch)
- Hey! Pikmin (Nintendo 2DS XL)
Ryan Hiller:
- Minecraft (OSX)
Dr. Gerry Tolbert:
- Bottom of the Ninth (iOS)
- Miracle Merchant (iOS)
- Legendary DXP (iOS)
- Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (Nintendo Switch)
Will James:
- Star Wars Galaxy of Heroes (iOS)
- Star Wars Force Arena (iOS)
- Transformers Earth Wars (iOS)
- Assassin’s Creed Origins (Xbox One)
Michael Harrison:
- PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds (PC)
- Nidhogg 2 (PC)
- Crawl (PC)
Randy Slavey:
- Mortal Kombat X (Polycade)
- Tapper (Polycade)
- PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds (PC)
Chris Wickersham:
- Fortnite (PS4)
- Elite Dangerous (PS4)
Jonathan Liu:
- The Way (Steam)
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.
