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If you had told me at the beginning of the week that I would follow as Xbox faced the Federal Trade Commission And Watching Mario transform into a bipedal elephant, I would have taken the day to lie down. Don’t even get me started on the part where someone apparently piloted an underpowered submarine using a tiny Bluetooth Logitech controller – I’m still trying to process that. In fact, I would like to say that it has been a whirlwind of a week.
Let’s start with the Nintendo Direct from the middle of the week. Nintendo held the Direct to show off the games coming to the Switch in the second half of 2023, and it didn’t disappoint. It showcased Detective Pikachu 2, the Super Mario RPG remake, Pikmin 4, and Super Mario Bros Wonder (featuring the aforementioned Elephant Mario). The show featured a few smaller but equally interesting announcements, such as cozy titles Palia and Fae Farm coming to Switch, WarioWare: Move It, and a Princess Peach title due out sometime in 2024. At least it made that giant cup of coffee I drank before watching worth it.
The Xbox FTC sessions began this week, with the console maker defending Activision Blizzard’s acquisition before the skeptical committee. Among the show’s other popcorn-worthy moments so far, Microsoft has now told the figurative face of a federal body that it’s lost the console wars. It also implied that part of the motivation for the acquisition was fear that Sony would make Starfield PS-exclusive, following the Deathloop and Ghostwire: Tokyo contracts. Sarah Bond admitted that most players don’t use XCloud and that the upcoming Indiana Jones game was originally supposed to be multiplatform. And those are just the basics – I could take a deep dive into all the specifics of this crazy show.
Personal news: it’s Final Fantasy XVI time! I’ve heard mixed reviews about the full game, but I see the fast-paced gameplay and it seems like it’s exactly my problem. Watching my husband play the demo (he’s by far the bigger FF fan) and let’s just say that Logan Hannah – aka Hugo from A Plague Tale and Joshua Rosfield in this game – still has the power to give me a ailing big sister… and damn it, it only now occurs to me that Square Enix probably knew that and was counting on it. If I have time, I would also like to play Dordogne, which I have been looking for for a while.
What to play this week
What’s new:
- Final Fantasy XVI
- Aliens: dark descent
- Crash Team Rumble
- The evil meat machine of Dr. Fetus
- The bookmark
- Trepang2
- Air forever
New on subscription services:
- Need for Speed Unbound (Xbox Game Pass)
- Far Cry 6 (PlayStation Plus Extra+Premium)
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge (PlayStation Plus Extra+Premium)
- Rogue Legacy 2 (PlayStation Plus Extra+Premium)
- Encryption (PlayStation Plus Extra+Premium)
- Soulstice (PlayStation Plus Extra+Premium)
- Tacoma (PlayStation Plus Extra+Premium)
- Deus Ex: Mankind Divided (PlayStation Plus Extra+Premium)
- Killing Floor 2 (PlayStation Plus Extra+Premium)
- Lonely Mountain: Downhill (PlayStation Plus Extra+Premium)
- Vampire: The Masquerade – Coteries of New York (PlayStation Plus Extra+Premium)
- Hundred Days: Winemaking Simulator (PlayStation Plus Extra+Premium)
- A Hat in Time (PlayStation Plus Extra+Premium)
- Carto (PlayStation Plus Extra+Premium)
- Forager (PlayStation Plus Extra+Premium)
- Dodgeball Academia (PlayStation Plus Extra+Premium)
- The Wild at Heart (PlayStation Plus Extra+Premium)
- Redout 2 (PlayStation Plus Extra+Premium)
- Thief (PlayStation Plus Extra+Premium)
- MX vs ATV Legends (PlayStation Plus Extra+Premium)
- PAW Patrol Mighty Pups: Save Adventure Bay! (PlayStation Plus Extra+Premium)
- My Friend Peppa Pig (PlayStation Plus Extra+Premium)
- DC League of Super-Pets: The Adventures of Krypto and Ace (PlayStation Plus Extra+Premium)
- The Talos Principle: Deluxe Edition (PlayStation Plus Extra+Premium)
- Elex 2 (PlayStation Plus Extra+Premium)
- Conan Exiles (PlayStation Plus Extra+Premium)
- Killzone: Liberation (PlayStation Premium)
- Worms (PlayStation Premium)
- Herc’s Adventures (PlayStation Premium)
- Encrypted Soul (PlayStation Premium)
- Neverwinter Nights: Enhanced Edition (Prime Gaming)
- Autonauts (Prime Gaming)
- Revita (first gaming)
- Age of Empires III: Definitive Edition (GeForce Now)
- AVA Global (GeForce Now)
- Bloons TD 6 (GeForce Now)
- Conqueror’s Sword (GeForce Now)
- Layers of Fear (GeForce Now)
- Park Beyond (GeForce Now)
- Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Extraction (GeForce Now)
- Fire Emblem Blazing Sword (Nintendo Switch Online)
- Retro Bowl+ (Apple Arcade)
- Retro Target+ (Apple Arcade)
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