With so many new games and movies coming out, it can be hard to keep up. Lucky for you, IGN is here to help with a weekly round-up of the biggest releases each and every week. Check out the latest releases for the week of October 14, 2013, and be sure to come back next Monday for a new update.
Note: The prices and deals compiled below are accurate at the time we published this story, but all are subject to change.
Hometown Story
Release Date: Tuesday, October 22, 2013
From our Weekly Round-up:*The latest from Yasuhiro Wada, the creator of Harvest Moon, Hometown Story seems to be a cross between Wada’s own series and the item shop management stylings of a game like Recettear. The emphasis is on learning about the town around you and the stories of the people who live in it. It’s light on farming, but heavy on human interaction. If you like this sort of game, then when you emerge from your Etrian Odyssey and Rune Factory hangover, Hometown Story will be waiting here for you, smiling with creatures created by a Pokémon character designer.
The Internship
Release Date: Tuesday, October 22, 2013
From our Review:*Though extremely formulaic and not about to amaze anyone, The Internship is just so much fun to watch. That’s mainly thanks to the reunion of Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson, who play their positive underdogs with more heart and less raunch than expected. The characters are stereotypes, but the jokes are quite fresh, making The Internship just a good fun time.
LEGO Marvel Super Heroes
Release Date: Tuesday, October 22, 2013
From our Preview:*The forthcoming LEGO Marvel Super Heroes is similarly playing it safe, following closely in the minifig footsteps of its predecessors. According to game director Arthur Parsons, though, what his team’s latest might lack in game-changing innovation, it more than makes up for in Marvel fan service. “The whole game revolves around personality. It’s basically our excuse to bring as many Marvel super heroes and super villains onto the screen and to a videogame as we possibly can. In effect, it’s equal to a kid having all these LEGO figures in a toy set and just playing.”
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Release Date: Tuesday, October 22, 2013
If you haven't been watching Nickelodeon's latest animated series starring the heroes in a half-shell, you've been missing out – it's arguably the best version of the Turtles characters ever cartoonized. This new game captures the Nick show's precise look and feel, and will be especially welcomed by those fans who were put off by the odd, ugly art style of TMNT: Out of the Shadows from earlier this year.
Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Dual Destinies
Release Date: Thursday, October 24, 2013
Batman: Arkham Origins
Release Date: Friday, October 25, 2013
From our Preview:*During a recent Batman: Arkham Origins demo in New York City, I often felt as though I was receiving a pre-fight pep talk rather than a gameplay preview. “It’s not enough to just mash the buttons and counter once in a while…we want you to be doing quick-fire gadgets, dodges, grapples, slams, the works; we want you to be getting 50-60 hit combos.” began Ben Mattes, senior producer of the franchise’s forthcoming prequel chapter.
While the enthusiastic developer made me feel like a pressured prizefighter before a big bout, he was really just trying to prepare me for the title’s fresh take on the series’ satisfying free-flow combat system.
Batman: Arkham Origins Blackgate
Release Date: Friday, October 25, 2013
From our Preview:*Judging from what I played, all hope is not lost for Batman Arkham Origins: Blackgate. In fact, I feel there's still plenty of reasons to stay interested. But it's unfortunate that some of the later features described to me weren't represented in the build shown at NY Comic-Con. But let's bear one thing in mind: Early tutorials don't always represent the final product well. And we are talking about a team that understands Metroid's style and structure better than a lot of developers. Apply that experience to Batman's world, and this game could be something special after all.
Wii Party U
Release Date: Friday, October 25, 2013
Our picks above are the most notable game and movie releases for this week, but if you look just a bit further into the future, you'll find plenty more gaming goodness coming along in the month ahead. Hit up these links in Pre-Order Corner to go ahead and put your money down on these surefire hits, scheduled to arrive within the next month:
Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag
Release Date: Tuesday, October 29, 2013
From our First Look:*. . . at this point, Assassin’s Creed IV has the staff a bit divided. Greg, as you can tell from the Up at Noon video above, loves the game. Goldfarb and McCaffrey, meanwhile, loved some parts and were concerned about others. We’ll have a much better picture of exactly what kind of Creed this is – the ACII kind, the ACIII kind, or somewhere in between – when we get the final (current-gen) review version very soon.
Battlefield 4
Release Date: Tuesday, October 29, 2013
From our Preview:*With the arrival of PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, EA and DICE have promised to bring the Battlefield PC experience to consoles, including massive scale maps, 64 player matches, and 60 frames-per-second gameplay. But up until now, all of the demos we've seen of Battlefield 4 have been running on supercharged PCs, producing jaw-dropping, unsurprisingly gorgeous results. This week at Gamescom, however, I had an opportunity to play Battlefield 4 on a PlayStation 4 development system, and the resulting experience has me worried.
Sonic Lost World
Release Date: Tuesday, October 29, 2013
From our Review:*Much like a good sports car receives praise for the predictability of its grip and braking performance, the best 3D platformers are similarly praised for the predictability of their jumping and movement, which create a sense of rhythm and control. While 2011’s Sonic Generations understood this perfectly well, Sonic Lost World does not, making the Blue Blur’s latest outing a clumsy, ungainly 3D platformer that doesn’t do Sega’s mascot the justice he deserves.
Call of Duty: Ghosts
Release Date: Tuesday, November 5, 2013
From our Blitz Mode Hands-On:*Blitz is a creative play on Capture the Flag, but instead of having to capture and ferry a flag from the enemy team to areas on opposite sides of the map, players must fight there way into small capture points. When a player scores by entering the opposing team's zone, they are immediately warped back to their spawn. In order to prevent the scoring team from cycling players through a portal to rack up points quickly, the capture point goes into a brief cool down, giving a defending team an opportunity to clear the area.
Be sure to check back at the beginning of every week for a round-up of the week's hottest game and movie releases.
You can follow Lucas M. Thomas on Twitter, @lucasmthomas.
More...
Note: The prices and deals compiled below are accurate at the time we published this story, but all are subject to change.
Hometown Story
Release Date: Tuesday, October 22, 2013
From our Weekly Round-up:*The latest from Yasuhiro Wada, the creator of Harvest Moon, Hometown Story seems to be a cross between Wada’s own series and the item shop management stylings of a game like Recettear. The emphasis is on learning about the town around you and the stories of the people who live in it. It’s light on farming, but heavy on human interaction. If you like this sort of game, then when you emerge from your Etrian Odyssey and Rune Factory hangover, Hometown Story will be waiting here for you, smiling with creatures created by a Pokémon character designer.
The Internship
Release Date: Tuesday, October 22, 2013
From our Review:*Though extremely formulaic and not about to amaze anyone, The Internship is just so much fun to watch. That’s mainly thanks to the reunion of Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson, who play their positive underdogs with more heart and less raunch than expected. The characters are stereotypes, but the jokes are quite fresh, making The Internship just a good fun time.
LEGO Marvel Super Heroes
Release Date: Tuesday, October 22, 2013
From our Preview:*The forthcoming LEGO Marvel Super Heroes is similarly playing it safe, following closely in the minifig footsteps of its predecessors. According to game director Arthur Parsons, though, what his team’s latest might lack in game-changing innovation, it more than makes up for in Marvel fan service. “The whole game revolves around personality. It’s basically our excuse to bring as many Marvel super heroes and super villains onto the screen and to a videogame as we possibly can. In effect, it’s equal to a kid having all these LEGO figures in a toy set and just playing.”
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Release Date: Tuesday, October 22, 2013
If you haven't been watching Nickelodeon's latest animated series starring the heroes in a half-shell, you've been missing out – it's arguably the best version of the Turtles characters ever cartoonized. This new game captures the Nick show's precise look and feel, and will be especially welcomed by those fans who were put off by the odd, ugly art style of TMNT: Out of the Shadows from earlier this year.
Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Dual Destinies
Release Date: Thursday, October 24, 2013
- See it in the 3DS eShop for $29.99
Batman: Arkham Origins
Release Date: Friday, October 25, 2013
From our Preview:*During a recent Batman: Arkham Origins demo in New York City, I often felt as though I was receiving a pre-fight pep talk rather than a gameplay preview. “It’s not enough to just mash the buttons and counter once in a while…we want you to be doing quick-fire gadgets, dodges, grapples, slams, the works; we want you to be getting 50-60 hit combos.” began Ben Mattes, senior producer of the franchise’s forthcoming prequel chapter.
While the enthusiastic developer made me feel like a pressured prizefighter before a big bout, he was really just trying to prepare me for the title’s fresh take on the series’ satisfying free-flow combat system.
Batman: Arkham Origins Blackgate
Release Date: Friday, October 25, 2013
From our Preview:*Judging from what I played, all hope is not lost for Batman Arkham Origins: Blackgate. In fact, I feel there's still plenty of reasons to stay interested. But it's unfortunate that some of the later features described to me weren't represented in the build shown at NY Comic-Con. But let's bear one thing in mind: Early tutorials don't always represent the final product well. And we are talking about a team that understands Metroid's style and structure better than a lot of developers. Apply that experience to Batman's world, and this game could be something special after all.
Wii Party U
Release Date: Friday, October 25, 2013
- See it on Amazon for $49.96 (Wii U Disc + Wii Remote Plus Controller + Wii U GamePad Horizontal Stand)
Our picks above are the most notable game and movie releases for this week, but if you look just a bit further into the future, you'll find plenty more gaming goodness coming along in the month ahead. Hit up these links in Pre-Order Corner to go ahead and put your money down on these surefire hits, scheduled to arrive within the next month:
Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag
Release Date: Tuesday, October 29, 2013
From our First Look:*. . . at this point, Assassin’s Creed IV has the staff a bit divided. Greg, as you can tell from the Up at Noon video above, loves the game. Goldfarb and McCaffrey, meanwhile, loved some parts and were concerned about others. We’ll have a much better picture of exactly what kind of Creed this is – the ACII kind, the ACIII kind, or somewhere in between – when we get the final (current-gen) review version very soon.
Battlefield 4
Release Date: Tuesday, October 29, 2013
From our Preview:*With the arrival of PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, EA and DICE have promised to bring the Battlefield PC experience to consoles, including massive scale maps, 64 player matches, and 60 frames-per-second gameplay. But up until now, all of the demos we've seen of Battlefield 4 have been running on supercharged PCs, producing jaw-dropping, unsurprisingly gorgeous results. This week at Gamescom, however, I had an opportunity to play Battlefield 4 on a PlayStation 4 development system, and the resulting experience has me worried.
Sonic Lost World
Release Date: Tuesday, October 29, 2013
From our Review:*Much like a good sports car receives praise for the predictability of its grip and braking performance, the best 3D platformers are similarly praised for the predictability of their jumping and movement, which create a sense of rhythm and control. While 2011’s Sonic Generations understood this perfectly well, Sonic Lost World does not, making the Blue Blur’s latest outing a clumsy, ungainly 3D platformer that doesn’t do Sega’s mascot the justice he deserves.
Call of Duty: Ghosts
Release Date: Tuesday, November 5, 2013
From our Blitz Mode Hands-On:*Blitz is a creative play on Capture the Flag, but instead of having to capture and ferry a flag from the enemy team to areas on opposite sides of the map, players must fight there way into small capture points. When a player scores by entering the opposing team's zone, they are immediately warped back to their spawn. In order to prevent the scoring team from cycling players through a portal to rack up points quickly, the capture point goes into a brief cool down, giving a defending team an opportunity to clear the area.
Be sure to check back at the beginning of every week for a round-up of the week's hottest game and movie releases.
You can follow Lucas M. Thomas on Twitter, @lucasmthomas.
More...
