Silly physics-based games like Fight Crab and I Am Bread can be a lot of fun. Watching people flail around in said games is sometimes even better than actually playing. We wonder whether that will be the case for the upcoming Steam release Simple Fish Adventure from LostVolBytes. The whole game is about flopping around on land as a fish, and it even features cooperative flopping!
The Tetris Effect: Connected Beta Test just wrapped up last week, providing the developers and publisher Enhance with useful cross-play data. While Xbox and Windows 10 gamers have been enjoying the 'Connected' version of Tetris Effect for almost a year now, players on other platforms have had to wait. The wait will soon come to an end, as Tetris Effect: Connected will officially launch on PlayStation and Steam on August 18, with cross-play coming to all versions simultaneously.
Samurai Warriors 5, the latest installment in Koei Tecmo's long-running feudal Japan-based hack and slash series, launches on July 27. Waiting can be tough, though, especially given that fans have already been waiting seven years since Samurai Warriors 4 (we won't count the iterations on 4). To tide us over until then, Koei Tecmo has kindly released a free trial version on all major platforms. Making it even more of a must-download, progress in the demo will carry over to the full game.
Back 4 Blood, sequel to the little-known "Back 3 Blood" (not really), is only a few months away from release. Turtle Rock Studios' spiritual successor to Left 4 Dead promises lots of co-op zombie-slaying thrills when it arrives in October. Before then, an open beta will take place in August. In the meantime, today's new PC trailer provides plenty of savory footage to salivate over while the days of the calendar slowly pass by.
Rainbow Six Extraction, the co-op title that started as a spin-off mode for the popular competitive FPS Rainbow Six Siege, has gotten pushed back a little bit. During E3 last month, Ubisoft announced that the game - which was previously known as Rainbow Six Quarantine, and Rainbow Six Parasite before that - would launch on September 16 this year. A few days ago, though, Ubisoft announced that they would need just a little more time to get it done.
The latest Zombies map to be added to Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War is called 'Mauer der Toten,' meaning "Wall of the Dead." The Black Ops Cold War Zombies maps are surprisingly story-heavy, and this one sees the members of peacekeeping force Requiem forced to build a warhead to close the Dark Aether portal that was opened in Berlin by traitorous scientist Aleksandra Valentina. We played several co-op games on 'Mauer der Toten,' and we even found out how to unlock the robot, Klaus.
In this post-Left 4 Dead 2 world, numerous clones and spiritual successors like the upcoming Back 4 Blood and Evil Dead: The Game are left to make up for the absence of an official L4D sequel. Warhammer: Vermintide 2 from Fatshark is the best of what's actually out right now, so we're naturally looking forward to the sequel/spin-off Warhammer 40,000: Darktide. Unfortunately, we'll need to wait a while longer because Darktide's release has been delayed to 2022.
Warframe, the free-to-play action/shooter RPG, has been trucking along since 2013. Gamers can download the MMO-like space ninja game on all the big platforms, including PC, Xbox, PlayStation, and Switch. As multiplayer-focused games age, though, playerbase becomes an issue. It's hard to make war on the frames if you can't find anybody to play with. Thankfully, that will soon become less of an issue when Warframe gains cross-play and cross-save before the end of the year.
September is primed to be a busy month for gamers who dig feudal Japan, with games like the ninja stealth title Aragami 2 scheduled for release. That game isn't much about combat, though, which is where Hanako: Honor & Blade from indie developer +Mpact comes in. This one lets teams of samurai and ninja hack it out in both co-op and large-scale PvP battles. After years in Steam Early Access, it will finally launch in full on September 15.
Streets of Rage 4 is a fantastic revival of Sega's classic beat 'em up series, with gorgeous hand-drawn artwork, a memorable soundtrack, challenging gameplay, and both local and online co-op. The only less than stellar thing about the game has been the long wait for new post-release content. Today, Streets of Rage 4 fans can finally take on new challenges as both a free update and the premium 'Mr. X Nightmare' DLC have arrived on consoles and PC.
Borderlands is a fantastic "loot shooter" series, but it's also a first-person shooter. What are gamers who can't enjoy FPS games to do? Enter Flying Wild Hog and publisher Jagex, whose new early access co-op game Space Punks looks just like Borderlands but with a third-person perspective. The game is Epic Games Store exclusive but will eventually come to consoles as well. Also, it will probably be free to play at some point.
Last night Jason and I checked out one of the five new co-op missions in Age of Empires 2: Definitive Edition. We settled in on the Battle of Hastings which took place in 1066 between the French-Norman army led by William, Duke of Normandy and the English king Harold. Of course like any good historical strife, it's not as cut and dry as a two way battle for the throne.
