New Year, New Games - Go!

Here we are just before Christmas for January's games and goings on. Will you be keeping back any of that Christmas cash for these in the month of Masuary?  

Retail Games:

20th
Atelier Shallie Plus VITA
Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King 3DS
Fate/Extella: The Umbral Star PS4, VITA
Gravity Rush 2 PS4

24th
Kingdom Hearts 2.8 HD Final Chapter Prologue PS4
Resident Evil 7 Biohazard PS4 (PSVR), ONE, PC
Yakuza 0 PS4

27th
ABZU PS4, ONE
Digimon World: Next Order PS4
Earthlock - Festival of Magic PS4, ONE, PC
Tales of Berseria PS4

31st
Hitman: The Complete First Season PS4, ONE, PC

My thoughts:
What a great month to start 2017 with, what I think will be one of best years in gaming for a long time with what seems to be a big title every month along with new hardware to come from both Nintendo and Microsoft.

On the 20th three out of the four games I’m interested in as I’m still yet to play an Atelier game which seems to be a series with much love but with what’s coming up the rest of the month I can’t justify buying it or even asking for it for my birthday.  When DQVII came out, I said I’m not getting it because a better DQ game is coming and here is DQVIII. The last one that takes my fancy from the 20th is Gravity Rush 2 which I played at EGX and dam does it look good and I have enjoyed what I’ve played of the first but I do need to go back and finish that before this comes out.

Moving on to the 24th, I want all three games and KHII.8HD I’ve already got preordered as I want that dumb Disney badge.  Resident Evil seems to be returning to its survival horror roots with this seven mainly entry which to me is January's big game. Yakuza I’ve never played and people keep telling me it’s the spiritual successor to Shenmue, that I want to give the series a go and what better way than this prequel.

The 27th sees two series I like Digimon and Tales of, I’m still yet to play Cyber Sleuth and Zestiria because of that unless both these get amazing reviews, I shouldn’t really get them.

As it’s my birthday on the 28th, I’m only going to be buying Kingdom Hearts II.8HD and asking for Dragon Quest VIII, Gravity Rush 2, Resident Evil 7 and Yakuza 0 for my birthday and hope my Uncle, Dad and Grandparents all get me one each and I’ll just miss out on one of them and the few games I like the look of in January, as their all going to take a good while to play and finish.  

Best of the Rest:

1st
Assassin's Creed Cinema

6th
Silence Cinema

13th
Dead Effect 2 XBL
La La Land Cinema
Manchester By The Sea Cinema
Nintendo Switch Reveal Event
Underworld: Blood Wars Cinema

16th
Ben-Hur Blu Ray, DVD
Kubo And The Two Strings 3D Blu Ray, Blu Ray, DVD

17th
Siegecraft Commander XBL

23rd
The Magnificent Seven 4K UHD, Blu Ray, DVD

24th
GNOG PSN (PSVR)

27th
T2 Trainspotting Cinema

29th
WWE Royal Rumble 30 PPV

31st
Final Fantasy 30th Anniversary Event

My thoughts:
Not much for me here this month part from the Royal Rumble, I may see Underworld as I’ve seen the rest of them. January for films seems to be mainly Oscar bait meaning they could be good but nothing I’m rushing out to see for entertainment.

However, I can’t wait to learn more about the Switch and the 30th Anniversary of Final Fantasy.

Dragon Quest VIII and Nintendo Switch Details Event, please.

New Year, New Games - No! I might hold back on even DQVIII after being severely burned by DQVII. These days a JRPG needs to be more than simply charming and big to get my attention.

We all know that there's one big gaming-related thing happening in December, and it's not a release.

I might be tempted by Resi, but probably not. To be honest, I can't see myself picking up any new releases before Switchmas.

Boring looking month looks boring. At best it's a pile of reminders that being a poor loser is about as fun as it sounds. I suppose I'll have to waste yet more money on a console that does literally nothing for games that its predecessor didn't already do in 2017. Blegh.

Balladeer wrote:

New Year, New Games - No!  I might hold back on even DQVIII after being severely burned by DQVII.  These days a JRPG needs to be more than simply charming and big to get my attention.

I did say wait for the better DQ game.

@Zero one of your gaming resolutions is to play in 4K buy more 3rd party games on Switch, now I know you were a fan of Batman on Wii U which isn't very Nintendo but just wondering if any of these games this month came to Switch would you pick any of them up?

masofdas wrote:

@Zero one of your gaming resolutions is to play in 4K buy more 3rd party games on Switch, now I know you were a fan of Batman on Wii U which isn't very Nintendo but just wondering if any of these games this month came to Switch would you pick any of them up?

Good, if slightly bizarre, question! I might be persuaded into Resident Evil 7 (non-VR) and Yakuza 0 (got to have half an eye on any game with a Zero in the title ).

I was just intrigued on what you would get if the Switch got everything the PS4 gets from 3rd parties.

I've heard a lot of good things about Hitman so it's nice to know the complete version will be available at the end of the month. I normally treat January as a month to crack on either with gifts or the backlog and it looks like this year won't make an exception to that.

Nowt for me - I'm trying to stick to my resolution of no games before Switchmas, and this month makes it easy for me. I've got Final Fantasy XV and The Last Guardian to keep me busy now anyway.

And this has also served to remind me to get the Monday off work after the Rumble.

Muss wrote:

I've heard a lot of good things about Hitman so it's nice to know the complete version will be available at the end of the month. I normally treat January as a month to crack on either with gifts or the backlog and it looks like this year won't make an exception to that.

Hitman really is a belter of a game, which reminds me I should play that Christmas bonus episode tonight.

I think I watched some videogamer coverage of it and remember being really impressed by the level design. I also thought the the game struck a pretty good balance for newcomers with the optional assists/directions it gives to players if they want them, without taking out the exploration aspects of Hitman too greatly.

It's just the long load times and lack of money and time that's put me off getting it so far.

Yeah having the assists on doesn't make it a cakewalk either as you still have to execute your kill in a clever way, the load times aren't too bad tbh in fact I only got annoyed about that when I botched an escalation mission (you can't save on these) near the end and had to restart.

I wish a few of us had been picking up hitman during the year. Rinsing levels and comparing times and that with y'all would have been good, whereas I don't know how much I'll enjoy rinsing it on disk.

I'm no picking it up anytime soon, but I'd be interested in doing something like you suggest as an extra little challenge if you ever pick it up too.

It is one that I will have to see real cheap for me to pick up as I've now got a stupid amount of games to play or will have to play.

Gravity Rush 2 is the highlight of this month! That and the excitement of the Switch event, of course. I am tempted by Hitman too, I have been waiting for the full disc release.

On the cinema side I've already seen Assassin's Creed (it's actually decent!), and I want to see T2.

I picked up the season pass for Hitman and it's probably my biggest regret of last year, I absolutely hate that game and didn't make it past the first episode.

I'll be grabbing Yakuza for now, because it's the best and I'll pick up DQVIII when I've finished with Bravely Second.

As for your remote Atelier temptation - don't - the vita versions are awful and starting with the third in a trilogy wouldn't be the best start - pick up Sophie on PS4.

Sorry to hear that Crump, what made Hitman pish?

Crumpy Andy wrote:

As for your remote Atelier temptation - don't - the vita versions are awful and starting with the third in a trilogy wouldn't be the best start - pick up Sophie on PS4.

But everything is better on VITA and it is a very remote temptation with so many great games coming in January and for me still to play.

I think a big part of it was my impatience and lack of love for replaying levels, the game is clearly designed to be played again and again and to come up with new interesting ways to kill, but I just didn't want to go back and go through the whole ordeal again. To make it worse it felt like sometimes I was doing old school point and click leaps of logic to try and do the good kills, then even when I did get it right it never felt satisfying.

It's one of the times I pretty happy to accept this is more an issue on my end than with the game, but I just don't get it.

Mas, if you're going to go with a vita one get the Arland Trilogy, still runs like shit, but they're more basic (plus I just like the Arland trilogy much more).

Crumpy Andy wrote:

I think a big part of it was my impatience and lack of love for replaying levels, the game is clearly designed to be played again and again and to come up with new interesting ways to kill, but I just didn't want to go back and go through the whole ordeal again.

I'm glad someone else feels this way. Seems so often that the entire videogame industry, or at least the entire videogame-judging industry, can't get enough of replaying games. Meanwhile I can't see the changed story beats, because they're obscured by playing the same cocking areas over again.

(Disclaimer: does not in the slightest apply to the Smash series, where I'll joyfully play the same rules with the same characters on the same courses for weeks. )

If there's an interesting enough in-game reason to go back through a level - hello, Metroidvania-likes - then I'm fine with it. Replaying a whole game to experience different story elements is something I don't have time for any more, even if I wanted to. For me, it's play, beat, trade/delete (I'm a poet and I never realised!).

I was going to come in here to say that andy just isnt patient enough but for something like Hitman but he's already admitted that  as for replaying a game over & over Im not normally one to do that either but with Hitman Ive always loved how open its level design is so replaying them has never bothered me & it allows many ways to challenge your skill at the game.

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Zero wrote:

For me, it's play, beat, trade/delete (I'm a poet and I never realised!).

Brother Zero, I knew you'd come.

Here's the thing, it's not replaying games I dislike, I'll happily replay games like Mass Effect and get my own slightly different story each time, it's replaying it so soon, plus the Hitman levels are super long and it's very easy to screw it up and have to start again from the beginning, just didn't feel fun.

I really enjoy quite a few stealth games - the gameplay of MGS5, Splinter Cell, Dishonored, Deus Ex, I just find Hitman to be a chore.