Get Your Game On: Tacoma, Overwatch Summer Games, Telltale New Releases

Happy Wednesday! What games have you been playing lately? I’ve been continuing A Normal Lost Phone, which is available for mobile and on Steam. Without giving spoilers, it celebrates queerness and focuses on very personal stories of queer characters. I wholeheartedly recommend it. I’m also playing Final Fantasy XV and Horizon Zero Dawn. Here’s a quick rundown of some news in gaming that we’re thinking about this week:

Tacoma

I loved Gone Home, the brief (~2.5 hours) mystery game where you explore a massive house and piece together what happened to your sister. Last week, the makers of Gone Home released Tacoma. Its setting is an abandoned space station in the year 2088. The game is again fairly brief, with the developers saying it takes around 2 to 5 hours to complete. Here’s a thorough review of the game. Another review echoes some of the letdown experienced after playing it. Have you played Tacoma or plan to play it? Let us know in the comments or on Twitter!

Uncharted: The Lost Legacy

Uncharted: The Lost Legacy releases on PS4 on August 22nd. The game focuses on Chloe Frazer and Nadine Ross. Here’s nearly 14 minutes of gameplay:

Here’s a short behind-the-scenes video from the developers.

Life is Strange: Before the Storm

If you know me, you know there’s nothing I’m looking forward to more than the first episode of Life is Strange: Before the Storm, which releases on August 31st. You can pre-order the game on Steam, PS4, and Xbox One. The Deluxe Edition includes not only Before the Storm‘s three episodes but an exclusive bonus episode where you play as Max.

Eurogamer got to play some of Before the Storm and has a new video filled with their insights and observations:

Here’s a new video from Deck Nine of some of that same gameplay, but without commentary, of Chloe looking around her bedroom and talking with David.  The developers released a behind-the-scenes video featuring Ashly Burch, who served as a writing consultant, and Rhianna DeVries, who voices Chloe. Also, Waypoint updated its interview with the game’s lead writer, where the interviewer tried to ask more about the game’s queer relationships.

More releases this month

• Sunless Skies, the sequel to Sunless Sea from the makers of Fallen London, will release on Steam and GOG on August 30th.
• The first episode of Batman: The Enemy Within released on August 8th from Telltale Games. The game will be five episodes total.
• Overwatch‘s Summer Games event returns this week with competitive Lucioball and new skins.
• Hearthstone: Knights of the Frozen Throne releases on August 10th. The expansion includes a series of free single-player missions and a total of 135 new cards.
• Final Fantasy XIV has a new event this month called Moonfire Faire, beginning August 8th.

Upcoming releases

• In addition to Batman: The Enemy Within, Telltale Games had two other recent announcements: The Walking Dead: The Final Season and The Wolf Among Us: Season Two will both release in 2018.
• Dragon Quest Builders 2 is coming to PS4 and Nintendo Switch. No release date announced yet. Dragon Quest XI, which released last month in Japan, will release elsewhere in 2018.
• There’s an upcoming VR game called Moss where the hero, Quill, is a mouse who uses American Sign Language!
• Stardew Valley‘s multiplayer mode is coming in beta “at the end of the year” for Steam users per the developers, and will be released as a patch in early 2018.
• Destiny 2, while currently out in beta, has an official release date of October 24th.
• Pokemon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon, which releases on November 17, includes a new form of Lycanroc called Dusk Form Lycanroc.

News and links

• More details have emerged about Mass Effect: Andromeda‘s development, including reports of racism and sexism. Ugh.
• The Last of Us: Part II is rumored to have scenes set in Seattle.
• CNET made a list of its picks for the 43 best Android games of 2017.
• The creators of Dream Daddy discussed why you can’t have the romantic outcome with every dad that many players might want. As one of the creators stated, “Saying exactly what somebody wants to hear until they kiss you is what a sociopath does.”
• Amazon acquired GameSparks, a company which provides services for developers to build various features into games.
• One of my favorite posts I’ve read in a while: Kelly Cardigan’s “Overwatch’s Zarya Got Me To Start Lifting Weights.” Cardigan writes, “In real life I am a whopping 5’4” woman with anxiety problems. In video games, I tend to play huge Amazon women. …Playing as musclebound women in games is one thing, but actually being a big buff woman wasn’t something I ever entertained in real life.”

Let us know what games you’re currently playing, thinking about, or looking forward to!