Get Your Game On: Animal Crossing for Mobile, Super Mario Odyssey

Happy Wednesday! What games have you been playing this past week? I’ve been immersed in Life is Strange: Before the Storm episode 2 emotions since its release. After playing it twice and watching many playthroughs from different streamers, I’m impressed with its wealth of gameplay and dialogue choices.

Besides the heart-stirring development of Chloe and Rachel’s relationship, this latest episode gives supporting characters like Victoria, Steph, Drew, and Mikey more consequences based on your decisions. See for yourself:

Let us know in the comments and on Twitter what recent and upcoming games you’re excited about. Here’s some news and links on our radar this week:

Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp

Few game announcements have been met with such universal excitement as Animal Crossing‘s latest game, Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp. Pocket Camp will release in late November for iOS and Android.

You manage your own campsite, have your own camper RV, and a multiplayer feature lets you visit other people’s campsites. One feature that’s new to Animal Crossing is the Stardew Valley-like “friendship level” system, where certain interactions with local campers influence how often they visit you. Another new feature is you can adjust the skin tone of your character.

The game is currently testing in Australia. If you’re not in Australia, you can get Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp to work on iOS via a workaround.

New The Last of Us Part II trailer

Speaking of highly anticipated games, The Last of Us Part II just dropped a brand new trailer at Paris Games Week:

The trailer leaves us with so many questions! Who are all these new characters? Why is one called an “apostate?” Is this a flashback revealing Ellie’s mom? Where are Ellie and Joel?? There’s still no release date announced for The Last of Us Part II but we’ll keep you updated.

Night In The Woods on mobile announced

Night In The Woods is coming to mobile in 2018:

Night In The Woods on Steam is currently on sale for $16.66 until November 1st.

Super Mario Odyssey

Super Mario Odyssey just released on Nintendo Switch. The game encourages hours of exploration in various kingdoms (Woodland Kingdom, Snow Kingdom, etc.). In each kingdom, you find two types of collectibles: power moons and coins. Here’re some tips on collecting moons, and here are more thoughts on how Super Mario Odyssey prompts you to uncover solutions.

Assassin’s Creed: Origins

Adding to last Friday’s impact as a release date for Super Mario Odyssey and Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus, Assassin’s Creed: Origins released for PS4, Xbox One, and PC. Here’s a round-up of tips if you’re playing it.

More links

• Jennifer Unkle’s post on transphobia in South Park: The Fractured But Whole is a must-read.

• Grand Theft Auto Online added a Batmobile. It’s called the Vigilante but it’s definitely the Batmobile.
• PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds is adding vaulting and climbing on its test servers.
• Danielle Riendeau wrote about queer women characters in 2017 games, including Prey‘s main quest storyline, Dishonored: Death of the Outsider, Life is Strange: Before the Storm, and Butterfly Soup.
• Here’s an interview with Gabby DaRienzo, game designer and artist of A Mortician’s Tale.
• Genji and Hanzo are getting their own Nendoroid figures. You can pre-order them now and they will ship in June 2018.

• Destiny 2‘s developers detailed the improvements they will be bringing to the game.
• For those playing Life is Strange: Before the Storm, you can get another exclusive outfit for Chloe by linking a Square Enix account.

Stranger Things fans, these links are for you.

• Minecraft now has Stranger Things skins.
• Dragon’s Lair, the cult classic game that’s featured in Stranger Things season 2 (and The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants!), has an interesting history.

It’s still Halloween, right?

• Halloween sales are running now (but ending very, very soon) at Steam, Humble Bundle, and Green Man Gaming.
• This is fun: a list of spooky games for those who may be more sensitive to horror games.

Upcoming releases

• Xbox One X releases on November 7th. The new console, which offers 4K resolution and a lot more processor power, is able to play all games that the Xbox One plays.
• Also that day, Horizon Zero Dawn‘s DLC, The Frozen Wilds, releases for PS4.

• Star Wars Battlefront II releases on November 17th for PS4, Xbox One, and PC. Here are some notes and spoilers on the first two hours of its single-player campaign.
• Call of Duty: WWII releases on November 3rd for PS4, Xbox One, and PC.
• Pokemon Ultra Sun and Pokemon Ultra Moon, both for 3DS, release on November 17th.
• A short film based on the popular game Papers, Please is coming in 2018.
• Spider-Man fans, you’re getting a new PS4-exclusive game in 2018.
• Middle-earth: Shadow of War is adding an expansion pass.
• Mass Effect: Annihilation is a new novel releasing in 2018 that expands on Mass Effect: Andromeda.