Very few publishers are willing to go up against the juggernaut that is Call of Duty, and as such this week’s new release line-up is filled with a bunch of odds and sods. If you’ll excuse that expression.
Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare is in fact the only game out this week on PS4 and Xbox One. As our review round-up shows, Activision’s latest entry in the long-running series is a return to form that bodes very well for the future of the franchise.
It received 9/10s from Polygon, EGM and GameInformer, as well as 91% from IGN and half-a-dozen 8/10s from other renowned outlets.
The PlayStation 3 only Tears to Tiara II: Heir of the Overlord might be of interest to fans of strategic JRPGs. “At the end of the day I was pleasantly surprised by this little gem of an SRPG, and while the poor graphics and pacing holds it back from true greatness, it certainly has the heart of what could be a cult classic†said ZTGD.
Providing it doesn’t slip yet again, Tropico 5 should sailing onto Xbox 360 right about now. The banana-republic building sim has received several delays in the past with the PS4 version now pushed into 2015. Regular readers will know that we have a soft spot for the Tropico series, which is partly due to the dry sense of humour and jaunty musical score. The controls usually work surprisingly well in these console iterations too.
Would you believe there’s a new Wii-exclusive out this week? That game is PSA World Tour Squash from Alternative Software. The studio has worked on numerous sport sims over the years, so we’re confident in saying that this’ll be ‘good’ at the very least. A squash game for the Wii – could it be any more niche if it tried?
Over on the handhelds there’s Muppets Movie Adventures on PS Vita and Ultimate NES Remix on 3DS. Featuring touch-screen based puzzles, Muppets Movie Adventures looks like it’ll offer slightly more than your typical side-scrolling platformer.
As for Ultimate NES Remix, chances are you’ll already know what to expect – the NES Remix series has been around on the Wii U for a while. This handheld rendition takes the best bits from both games, adding online leaderboards and a few other new elements. GamesRadar gave it 4/5 earlier this week.
Football Manager 2015 on PC and Mac is the final retail release to look at. Eurogamer wasn’t impressed with the new additions, yet they still found themselves putting the hours in. Have a read of their review of you’re currently sat on the bench (read: fence) about this one.
On Friday we can expect Pure Pool to magically appear on the Xbox One store for £9.99. Speaking of magic, card battler Magic 2015 appeared out of the blue earlier this week, priced at £7.99.
Over on PSN meanwhile there’s The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth (PS4/PS Vita), The Hungry Horde (PS Vita) and Frozen Synapse Prime (PS3) all of which are free via PS Plus. Subscribers can also get 20% off the abstract ‘bullet hell’ puzzler Minutes, bringing the price down from £6.19 to £4.95. A similar game to try is Don’t Die, Mr. Robot! on PS Vita. That’ll set you back £6.19 and quite possibly a new pair of eyeballs.
Next week: Halo: The Master Chief Collection (Xbox One – out Tuesday), PES 2015 (PS3, PS4, Xbox One, 360, PC), World of Warcraft: Warlords of Draenor (PC, Mac), Assassin’s Creed: Rogue (PS3, 360), Assassin’s Creed: Unity (PS4, Xbox One, PC), Digimon All-Star Rumble (PS3, 360), LEGO Batman 3: Beyond Gotham (Everything), Tales of Hearts R (PS Vita), Disney Planes: Fire and Rescue (Wii U, Wii, 3DS), Shape Up (Xbox One), The Last of Us – Game Of The Year Edition (PS3) and Tetris Ultimate (3DS, PS Vita). Phew!