This Week in Gaming (Week 16)

[TheLostSwede]

As we're about to enter the second half of April, we have a pretty busy week of new game releases to look forward to, many of which are family friendly. This week's AAA title is all about Zombies, but we also have two AA titles, one that's related to Minecraft and the other with Disney. The rest of this coming week's releases are a mixed bag that includes pets, fountains and tin hearts of all things.

Dead Island 2 / This week's AAA title / Friday 21 April
This thrilling First-Person, Action RPG takes players across a brand-new playground - a hellish vision of LA (or HELL-A, as we like to call it). Dead Island 2 is stylish, vibrant and flooded with zombie infection. Explore iconic, gore-drenched Los Angeles. Meet larger-than-life characters. Slay countless foes in exquisitely bloody detail. And evolve to become the ultimate Zombie Slayer! Epic Games Store exclusive, not available on Steam.




Pets Hotel / Monday 17 April
Welcome to Pets Hotel, a place where you can start the business you always dreamed of! Pets Hotel gives you a unique opportunity to build, design, and run a place where pets can feel at home. Cats, dogs, turtles, and many other animals are waiting for you to take care of them!



Disney Speedstorm / This week's First AA title / Tuesday 18 April
Welcome to Disney Speedstorm! Drift into the ultimate hero-based combat racing game, set on high-speed circuits inspired by Disney and Pixar worlds. Master each character's unique skills and claim victory in this thrilling arcade racing experience from the creators of the Asphalt series!



Minecraft Legends / This week's second AA title / Wednesday 19 April
Discover the mysteries of Minecraft Legends, a new action strategy game. Explore a gentle land of rich resources and lush biomes on the brink of destruction. The ravaging piglins have arrived, and it's up to you to inspire your allies and lead them in strategic battles to save the Overworld!



Survival: Fountain of Youth / Wednesday 19 April
Survival: Fountain of Youth is a challenging single-player open-world survival game set on the Caribbean islands. Survive as a shipwrecked 16th-century explorer, craft tools and shelter, and uncover the secrets of both an ancient civilization and your own fate.



Tin Hearts / Thursday 20 April
Behind every brilliant invention, hides a magical story. Guide a troop of tin soldiers through a magical toy-filled world, in this immersive narrative puzzle adventure game from members of the team that brought you Fable.

View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[Verpal]

"My cup of tea is coffee", this heretical choice mean we need to resurrect British Empire and colonize TPU immediately, raise the flag of OnlyTeas!

 

[freeagent]

I like my tea

But right now I am drinking dirty coffee.

This would match my boys build to a tee

 

[Tomgang]

Yes finally Dead Island 2 is coming. Been waiting since the first trailer came back in 2014.

So I really don't hope this is going to be a "the last of us" mess all over again. Please let it be a good optimized game that runs smoothly and great. But I am not so sure of it that I have pre-ordered it. I will wait until reviews and people's first experience is out MD then deside to go for it or not.

 

[ZoneDymo]

Yes finally Dead Island 2 is coming. Been waiting since the first trailer came back in 2014.

So I really don't hope this is going to be a "the last of us" mess all over again. Please let it be a good optimized game that runs smoothly and great. But I am not so sure of it that I have pre-ordered it. I will wait until reviews and people's first experience is out MD then deside to go for it or not.

Honestly the actual gameplay trailer made me sad to see how much of NOTHING has actually been improved, it looks so....outdated, in every way, AI behavior, AI design, voice acting, the "quests", the combat...heck you saw the same animation like 6 times in the gameplay video of 15 min and im already bored with the repetition.

I remember when Dead Island wasnt out yet or even announced, just this vague video techdemo showing what htis company wanted to do and it was this zombie head rotation while layer for layer was removed from this head, basically showing of an incredible detailed anatomy design which would be amazing in gameplay form.
But alas that proved too much AT THE TIME, but we still had a very cool damage system, specifically targeting a zombie's arm, breaking it with a hammer and watching it just dangle there as the zombie still tried to use it with the upper part of the arm.

That is exactly the type of truely moving the bar forward design they could have doubled down on with this but yeah....super disappointed, looks like boring lack of passion and vision, crap.

 

[Tomgang]

Honestly the actual gameplay trailer made me sad to see how much of NOTHING has actually been improved, it looks so....outdated, in every way, AI behavior, AI design, voice acting, the "quests", the combat...heck you saw the same animation like 6 times in the gameplay video of 15 min and im already bored with the repetition.

I remember when Dead Island wasnt out yet or even announced, just this vague video techdemo showing what htis company wanted to do and it was this zombie head rotation while layer for layer was removed from this head, basically showing of an incredible detailed anatomy design which would be amazing in gameplay form.
But alas that proved too much AT THE TIME, but we still had a very cool damage system, specifically targeting a zombie's arm, breaking it with a hammer and watching it just dangle there as the zombie still tried to use it with the upper part of the arm.

That is exactly the type of truely moving the bar forward design they could have doubled down on with this but yeah....super disappointed, looks like boring lack of passion and vision, crap.

I dont need the very latest grafich tech og ai. But what I do demand, is a property running game. If it's crap, I'm out to.

 

[TomasK]

Steam and GOG show Tin Hearts' release date to be May 16, 2023. Wishlisted anyway...

 

[mukumi]

Yes finally Dead Island 2 is coming. Been waiting since the first trailer came back in 2014.

So I really don't hope this is going to be a "the last of us" mess all over again. Please let it be a good optimized game that runs smoothly and great. But I am not so sure of it that I have pre-ordered it. I will wait until reviews and people's first experience is out MD then deside to go for it or not.

Don't expect anything like the first one. This one is no open world. It's a full story via different little maps. A little bit like Homefront the revolution (same developers).

Personally I'm OK with that. I prefer a good 16 hours game to a boring 150 hours one.

 

[TheLostSwede]

Steam and GOG show Tin Hearts' release date to be May 16, 2023. Wishlisted anyway...

My bad, seems like it's a staggered release.
Release date: Nintendo Switch April 20th 2023 / Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One & PC May 16th

 

[Erano.de]

The game Survival: Fountain of Youth looks good. I'm curious to see how it will play. I haven't heard of this game until just now, but it has caught my attention.