Original link: https://markonreview.com/2023/07/25/2023-jul-upcoming-games/
Starting from this issue, after introducing the new games released that month, a section will be added to talk about the games (if any) that have been played recently and are worth mentioning according to the situation. Welcome to refer to them.
New this month
OXENFREE II: Lost Signals
2023.07.12 / PS4, PS5, NS, Desktop, Mobile
“OXENFREE II: Lost Signals” (“OXENFREE II” for short) is the second work in the “OXENFREE” series. It continues to be produced by the previous developer Night School Studio, and the publisher is Netflix, which will acquire the studio in September 2021.
The story of “OXENFREE II” took place five years after the previous game. The protagonist of the story is named Riley. She and her colleague Jacob came to her hometown to study the anomaly of radio waves; the official confirmed that it is not necessary to clear the previous game before playing this game. Like the previous game, the core gameplay of this game is to take a narrative adventure through dialogue choices. The choices in the dialogue will affect the protagonist’s image, relationship and story direction. A major feature of the series is a very large number of natural daily life dialogues, which make people think of some movies or episodes that contain a large number of life dialogues. The developer also mentioned that “OXENFREE” was influenced by some teen movies; an important background for the birth of the previous game was that the development team wanted to make a story-driven game without broadcasts, and the “OXENFREE” series naturally showed such dialogue characteristics.
The difference between the second generation and the previous work is that “OXENFREE” tells the story of a teenager, while “OXENFREE II” five years later is a story about adults, but from the preview of “OXENFREE II”, it can be speculated that the sensitive and emotional atmosphere in the previous work will continue.
EXOPRIMAL
2023.07.14 / PS4, PS5, Xbox (Smart Distribution), Desktop
A PvPvE third-person design game from Capcom, first released in early 2022, developed using RE Engine. In the game, players will transform themselves into future mecha warriors, and a team of 5 will fight against the tide-like dinosaurs and complete tasks such as occupying points or pushing carts. According to the official announcement, the current battle situation of “EXOPRIMAL” is divided into two parts, PvE first, and then PvP. The first party to complete the PvE link can enter the PvP link first (start pushing carts in advance and take the lead); in the battle situation, players can choose from more than ten characters belonging to output, tank, and auxiliary occupations, and they can be replaced midway.
Players who are familiar with Capcom’s works may instinctively associate this work with Capcom’s early survival horror series “Dino Crisis” (Dino Crisis), but in an interview with IGN , the game director of this game, Takuro Hiraoka, denied this connection. He said that the development team’s own philosophy is to hope to produce refreshing action content that is different from Capcom’s previous works.
Little Sticker Shop/ Sticky Business
2023.07.17 / Desktop
“Little Sticker Shop” is a simulation business game developed by Spellgarden Games. By operating your own online sticker store, you can operate the store, make stickers, package and mail, and listen to customer stories. The specific gameplay of this work is that players can call and stitch dozens of basic pattern materials built into the game into sticker patterns (the pattern of the called materials can be zoomed in and out, adjust the direction, add special effects, etc.), then typeset and print them into stickers, and finally ship them to customers with packaging materials.
The built-in basic materials of this work have a very cute and simple art style, and the production process of stickers is highly customizable. The interface of the online store and the choice of packaging materials also give players a certain amount of freedom to play. It is a very relaxing game that can also stimulate players’ creative desires.
Viewfinder
2023.07.18 / PS5, Desktop
“Viewfinder” is a first-person space puzzle game developed by Sad Owl Studios. The flagship feature is that players need to find ready-made photos in the game, or take photos with Polaroid, and then “reverse project” the 2D photos into the 3D space, connect or expand the existing scenes, let the players set foot in the space “stored” in the photos, find the objects needed to pass the level, and finally activate the teleportation device at the bottom of the level to go to the next level. Although this work is a level system (according to the developer, there are about 70 levels, and there are some optional levels), but each level is connected together through the storyline throughout the whole story; in each level, players can see many interactive items (notes, answering machines, etc.), and get story clues.
According to the development team , the game as a whole is influenced by series such as Portal, The Talos Principle, Outer Wilds, and Superhot, and has similarities with The Witness, Superliminal, and Antichamber in terms of gameplay. Another major feature of this work is the excellent environment design. Most of the small scenes where players act are exquisite small buildings floating in the air. The architectural styles are different, which is a bit like a “Hakoniwa game”. The development team thoughtfully arranged chairs where players can sit and enjoy the surrounding scenery. As a special reminder, when playing this game on the PS5 platform, the DualSense’s adaptive trigger feels impressive when taking pictures.
Pikmin 4 / Pikmin 4
2023.07.21 / NS
Many years after “Pikmin 3” landed on WiiU in 2013, the action decryption series created by Shigeru Miyamoto finally ushered in a new work, which was developed using Unreal Engine 4 (the engine was first used by Nintendo’s planning and production department).
The main feature of the “Pikmin” series is that players will collect and command creatures named “Pikmin”, use their different characteristics – such as red fire resistance, blue can walk underwater, and winged ones can grab items to fly – to solve environmental puzzles and try to defeat all kinds of powerful enemies that are more reminding of Pikmin. According to the official disclosure, “Pikmin 4” has introduced two new categories, freezing and luminous, on the basis of retaining the existing Pikmin types. The introduction of the new types is also accompanied by the improvement of the player’s freedom of movement. In the new work, players can finally take risks at night (instead of going back to the safe house when it gets dark like in the previous game). There are also two new multiplayer modes that can be played by two players: one is to play the main story cooperatively, and the other is a battle mode called “Dandori Battles”, which requires players to compete for loot in the arena.
If you want to know more behind-the-scenes information, when the game is about to be released, Nintendo also published a behind-the-scenes interview of the “Pikmin” series on the website. The founder of the series, Shigeru Miyamoto, and Nintendo creators who are closely related to “Pikmin”, such as Kammon Yushi, Hino Shigefumi, Abe Masamichi, and Mori Junji, had a dialogue.
The Expanse: A Telltale Series / The Expanse: A Telltale Series
2023.07.27 / PS4, PS5, XS X|S, Desktop
First officially released at The Game Awards 2021, the third-person adventure game co-produced by Deck Nine and Telltale Games is based on the TV series “The Expanse” which premiered in 2015. It chose the popular original character Camina Drummer as one of the core characters, telling the prequel story of the TV series. This work, like previous Telltale productions, focuses on using dialogue choices and QTE to advance the story, and will be released in chapters according to Telltale’s habit. The first chapter will be launched on July 27, and the subsequent four chapters will be released every two weeks.
Three Volts / Sanfu
2023.07.28 / Desktop
“San Fu” is a thrilling puzzle game developed by Shiying Studio. The story took place in a mountain city in China in 2000 (from the details in the demo, it may be Chongqing). Step by step to solve the mystery.
A article released in March last year mentioned that the source of inspiration for developers Moonlight cockroaches to create “Three Volumes” was two social hot events. One was a “quantum fluctuation quick reading” video he saw on the Internet, and the other was a popular paper about “cooked eggs”. These two things impacted him very much and made him decide to create a work about special function chaos. Later, he touched the vine, and traced back to the “qigong fever” that appeared in the 1990s in the 1990s, and finally created “San Fu”. Moonlight Cockroach also mentioned in the article that he is keen to reflect social reality in his works, which mainly stems from the mystery novels he read in college, especially social works.
Judging from the demo of this work, the game is mainly promoted by interacting with various clue items and text dialogues. At present, there is no option for dialogue branches. It is not clear whether there are plot branches or multiple endings. It can be seen from the demo that the writing of the dialogue text in the game is relatively plain and ordinary, some dialogues are slightly deliberate and blunt, and the overall flow is relatively smooth. Although there may not be too many surprises in the writing of the text, in my opinion, “San Fu” is still exciting: psychological horror games (rather than horror games driven by “Jump scares”), horror ghost stories or ghost stories can make people talk about it, gain a lot of attention, and be spread quickly. One of the important reasons is that they can evoke a certain common emotion or common memory that is hidden in our memory or difficult to clearly perceive; a large number of cultural symbols in the late 1990s appear in “San Fu”, whether it is experiencing a memory again or exploring for the first time A certain experience of others is a process of maintaining us and healing together.
Disney Fantasy Island / Disney Illusion Island
2023.07.28 / NS
The first game released by Disney itself was developed by Dlala Studios, which participated in the 2020 reboot of “Battletoads”. It uses horizontal platform jumping and Galaxy City gameplay. Players will play well-known Disney characters such as Mickey, Minnie, Donald Duck, and Goofy. Adventure in a world called Monoth.
According to Game Informer, this work has done a lot of work in audiovisual aspects: in terms of art, this work is between the classic “Tootown” aesthetics of the series and the recent Mickey animation short films, making the game screen look like Mickey cartoons; in terms of soundtrack, the music of “Disney Fantasy Island” was created by well-known musician David Housden, which fits Disney’s iconic style very well and is impressive.
The Veneba Family / Venba
2023.07.31 / PS5, Xbox (Smart Distribution), NS, Desktop
A cooking simulation narrative game from Visai Games, players will play the mother of the family, a woman named Venba (Venba), and experience the life of an immigrant family from India to Canada from her perspective, spanning from the 1980s to 2010 when the son came of age.
The core gameplay of this work is the simulated cooking of Indian dishes, and the second is to advance the narrative through dialogue. It is not clear whether the branch options in the dialogue have a significant impact. From the Demo point of view, the cooking part focuses on Indian cuisine, which is still difficult for Indian food beginners (because of the incomplete state of a large number of recipes in the game); the development team mentioned in an interview with IGN that there are a large number of Indian dishes, and different regions have different practices. They feel that it is difficult to systematically introduce Indian cuisine to players around the world. Therefore, they decided to use the dishes in the game as an introduction to get started and stimulate players’ interest in exploring on their own. At the same time, the process of the game has spanned decades from Winieba’s pregnancy to the child’s adulthood, and the dishes that appear in different game stages have also changed to match the changes in ingredients in the real world. In addition, in order to allow players to truly feel the characteristics of Indian cuisine through images, the developers have also worked hard on graphic design and cooking sound recording.
The developers also mentioned in the interview that most of the previous descriptions of immigrant families focused on the perspective of children, but this time they chose to focus on the situation of parents in immigrant families. This creative consideration and narrative perspective seems to have some similarities with last year’s hit movie “The Instant Universe”.
recently played
Coffee Talk Episode 1 & 2 / Coffee Talk Episode 1 & 2
The first generation of “Coffee Heart Talk” will be released in January 2020, and the second generation will be released in April 2023. The basic gameplay of the game is similar to “VA-11 Hall-A: Cyberpunk Bartender Action” (VA-11 Hall-A: Cyberpunk Bartender Action). Players play the role of the coffee shop owner, making drinks for the guests, listening to and participating in the chats of the guests, and promoting the development of the plot. The main differences or highlights between the second generation and the first generation are: first, the types of ingredients and drinks have been added, as well as the interaction of giving certain items to customers (or not), and new characters have been added at the same time; second, the plot has different branches through the difference between whether the drinks they need are prepared for customers, and whether they are given to customers.
The background of the “Coffee Heart” is set to a world of multi -ethnic coexistence. Human, elves, charm, wolves, vampires, etc. exist as parts of society, but the story of the game implicitly impressed by the plot corresponding to the real world, such as large epidemics, race opposition, immigration, capitalism, etc. There is no deeper discussion, but the guests in the game are chatting and complaining. That’s all, so it gives people a sense of preaching.
Exo One / Exo One
“External One” is a sci-fi adventure game released in November 2021. The author saw that it was about to withdraw from Game Pass, so I took the time to play it on the XSX console (it has withdrawn at press time). This is a level system, and each level is a planet in the solar system—not designed according to reality, and contains a large number of surreal creations. Players will control a sphere that can roll at high speed on the ground or climb into the air to fly, explore the planet without a clear target, find the orbital launcher, and eject to the next planet.
According to the developer’s self-report, it was influenced by works such as “Tiny Wings” and “Journey”, so the similar action mechanism and scene atmosphere design in “Outsider No. 1” were born. After playing it, I feel that it has similarities with Chen Xinghan’s “Flower”. What is significantly different from the reference objects of this work is that the post-apocalyptic desolation of this work is quite prominent. With the shaping of the alien scene, the intermittent NASA instruction information (I don’t know the time and space to which these information belong), and the broken memory screen when the level is switched, it is easy for players to feel lonely and even horrified.
Pastoral / Dordogne
“Pastoral” is a game released in June 2023. It tells the story of the protagonist returning to the old house in his hometown in France after the death of his grandmother, regaining the memory of spending summer vacation here in his childhood, and reconnecting with others. The main gameplay of the game is that by interacting with various objects, the protagonist will gradually recall childhood memories, and after touching key objects, he can immerse himself in the memories and play himself as a child. At the same time, the game provides a lot of collectibles, which can be used to make notebooks. The most impressive thing about this work is the watercolor art style. Although the modeling in the game is a bit rough, it still shows the beautiful scenery of Dordogne, France. But the gameplay is a bit clumsy.
The touch left by “Pastoral” comes from the response to real memory and life. Although it has not been verified, it can be guessed that most of the content of “Pastoral” should come from someone’s real life experience, rather than deliberately fabricated stories. Although the whole story is simple and there is no deliberate lyrical or preaching throughout the whole process, it still made me think a lot about family, memory, childhood and childhood playmates when the game ended. Maybe this is the magic of true stories and emotions.
GWENT: The Witcher Card Game
The author is an old player of Gwent since the test in 2017 (as evidenced by the title of “Pioneer”). He has been obsessed with building the spy empire routine all the year round. Finally, when the career ladder was launched, the spy empire was changed beyond recognition and gradually faded out of this game. In the first half of this month, I rekindled some interest in “The Witcher: Gwent Cards” because I played a few physical versions of Gwent cards according to the rules of “The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt” when I was gathering with old friends, so I logged in to see this old friend who was dying.
Since the game was generously compensated in the major changes in the previous versions, I quickly used the piles of cards to make materials and copied two sets of control-type empire decks suitable for the current environment. I stepped directly into the ladder and tried to quickly understand the environment through actual combat. The final results were not bad. This return (I don’t know how long it will last) has allowed me to review the unique charm of “Wizard Gwent Cards” in the current electronic card market-“judging the winner by comparing the size” and maximizing the use of almost every card in the deck. Therefore, if you have enough resources to make cards and are interested in such interesting rules, the current version is really worth playing.
“Gwent The Witcher Cardboard” just launched a new card expansion pack this month. After this year, the game will no longer release new cards. CD Projekt RED will distribute the Gwentinfinite tool for adjusting the balance of card values to the community. I don’t know where the future of this game will go. Will it usher in a new life after the release of “The Witcher 4”? let us wait and see.
(The pictures in this article are from the Internet, some are screenshots of the author)
This article is transferred from: https://markonreview.com/2023/07/25/2023-jul-upcoming-games/
This site is only for collection, and the copyright belongs to the original author.