Sunday, June 8th 2025
This Week in Gaming (Week 24)
Welcome to the second week of June and boy is it a crowded week of big new releases after a week of mainly Switch 2 games. It's almost as if every game publisher out there decided that this is the week to release a new game and it all kicks off with a dusty game full of worms for this week's major release. First out in the regular line-up is a retro top down arcade game, followed by a futuristic third-person shooter, an MMORPG, a long time coming Korean ARPG and a sci-fi survival game. Make sure to check out the additional release this week as well.
Dune: Awakening / This week's major release / Tuesday 10 June
Dune: Awakening is an open world, multiplayer survival game on a massive scale. More than just survival, Dune: Awakening offers a large-scale, persistent and highly immersive world with social hubs bustling with other players, server-wide politics and intrigue, and a cinematic storyline that will leave you at the edge of your seat. The Fremen have vanished. Paul Atreides was never born. Lady Jessica obeyed the Bene Gesserit and gave birth to a girl. Duke Leto Atreides survived the assault on Arrakeen and is now locked in a brutal conflict with the Harkonnen over Arrakis and its precious spice. Steam link
Hopeless Sea / Monday 9 June
Hopeless Sea is an arcade-inspired STG with roguelike elements. You pilot a ship to cut your way through hordes of procedurally generated, merciless sea monsters. Choose wisely from a variety of ships, weapons and traits since conquering this hopeless sea is the only option to survive. Steam link
MindsEye / Tuesday 10 June
MindsEye is a narrative driven, single-player action-adventure thriller set in the near-future fictional desert city of Redrock. Featuring best-in-class cinematics, high octane driving, and explosive combat from game director, Leslie Benzies. You'll play as Jacob as he fights to uncover his truth in a world where AI, hi-tech experimentation and unchecked military power shapes every encounter. What starts as a personal quest quickly becomes a mission that's critical to all of humanity's survival as sentient robots rise, propelled by human greed. Steam link
4Story: The Original / Wednesday 11 June
Between Berkilious, the God of Destruction, and Lea, the Goddess of creation, long-lasting antagonism has repeated numerous creations and destructions. In the name of the Goddess Lea, exists the world of Iveria. In this world of chaos, will there be a hero to end this war once and for all? Steam link
Stellar Blade / This week's second major release / Thursday 12 June
Save humanity from extinction in post-apocalyptic action-adventure Stellar Blade. Experience blistering combat and a twisting storyline as you unravel the mysteries of Earth's downfall. Steam link
The Alters / Friday 13 June
Explore an emotional sci-fi game with a unique blend of survival, adventure, and base-building elements. Help Jan Dolski—the sole survivor of an ill-fated space expedition—create alternative versions of himself to escape a hostile planet and tackle personal turmoils with this unconventional crew. Steam link
Also launching this week: Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine - Master Crafted Edition, Ertugrul of Ulukayin, Heroes of Valor and Five Nights at Freddy's: Secret of the Mimic.
Dune: Awakening / This week's major release / Tuesday 10 June
Dune: Awakening is an open world, multiplayer survival game on a massive scale. More than just survival, Dune: Awakening offers a large-scale, persistent and highly immersive world with social hubs bustling with other players, server-wide politics and intrigue, and a cinematic storyline that will leave you at the edge of your seat. The Fremen have vanished. Paul Atreides was never born. Lady Jessica obeyed the Bene Gesserit and gave birth to a girl. Duke Leto Atreides survived the assault on Arrakeen and is now locked in a brutal conflict with the Harkonnen over Arrakis and its precious spice. Steam link
Hopeless Sea is an arcade-inspired STG with roguelike elements. You pilot a ship to cut your way through hordes of procedurally generated, merciless sea monsters. Choose wisely from a variety of ships, weapons and traits since conquering this hopeless sea is the only option to survive. Steam link
MindsEye is a narrative driven, single-player action-adventure thriller set in the near-future fictional desert city of Redrock. Featuring best-in-class cinematics, high octane driving, and explosive combat from game director, Leslie Benzies. You'll play as Jacob as he fights to uncover his truth in a world where AI, hi-tech experimentation and unchecked military power shapes every encounter. What starts as a personal quest quickly becomes a mission that's critical to all of humanity's survival as sentient robots rise, propelled by human greed. Steam link
Between Berkilious, the God of Destruction, and Lea, the Goddess of creation, long-lasting antagonism has repeated numerous creations and destructions. In the name of the Goddess Lea, exists the world of Iveria. In this world of chaos, will there be a hero to end this war once and for all? Steam link
Save humanity from extinction in post-apocalyptic action-adventure Stellar Blade. Experience blistering combat and a twisting storyline as you unravel the mysteries of Earth's downfall. Steam link
Explore an emotional sci-fi game with a unique blend of survival, adventure, and base-building elements. Help Jan Dolski—the sole survivor of an ill-fated space expedition—create alternative versions of himself to escape a hostile planet and tackle personal turmoils with this unconventional crew. Steam link
21 Comments on This Week in Gaming (Week 24)
Heroes Of Valor looks interesting. Is it just me or was Jaime Hyneman in that trailer?
It's by the same studio as Conan Exiles, and carries over a lot of mechanics from there.
From what I have seen, it isn't PvP (which is good) but there is not really a lot of interaction between players. Mostly it just makes it easy to wander in behind a higher-level player and get a bunch of loot without too much effort.
They monetized in an interesting way - public servers only, unless you want to rent a private one. The public ones have been so far very crowded - not quite desert suburbia but getting there.
Other than that, it looks like a great game.
CE started as a great game, and ended up far from there.
The absence of the custom servers is a great mistake. If you already pay full price for a game, then why to be forced to play on the official servers, which always were and are garbage by default for these kind of games.
Custom servers are a thing that kept games like ARK:SE, Rust, etc, alive for so many years. Locking them behind a paywall, with a questionable modding freedom and uptime is the worst choice possible.
Less so since it is based on existing IP, but still not so great.
Honestly, without a P2W monetization, what is the real benefit to anyone?
The huge problems this game is facing right now (at its release) are obvious, but beware of the fanboys! :D
Only a few of these reveal some major issues:
steamcommunity.com/app/1172710/negativereviews/?browsefilter=toprated&snr=1_5_100010_
I really like sandbox games, but this implementation is the worst I've seen/heard of so far.
As for Dune ... I'd like to try but I honestly don't know when I'll have the time. Lack of modding I'm indifferent to, but the lack of private servers suck.