Originally published on Trevor Trove on July 24, 2016
I missed doing a rundown of the July releases last month (mainly because there wasn’t really a whole lot that came out this month that warranted me making one). But with August around the corner, let’s see what big titles are vying for our attention next month.
Batman: The Telltale Series Episode 1 – Realm of Shadows – August 2nd
Telltale kicks off a new series focused on one of the most popular superhero figures: Batman. Featuring an all-star line-up of the usual Telltale voice actors, the story-driven focus presents an opportunity for the kind of Batman game we rarely get: one focused on Bruce Wayne and the “detective” side of Batman.
Excitement Level: Willing to brave the stuttering of the Telltale engine out of 10.
Gal Gun: Double Peace – August 2nd
UPDATED 7/25/16: Your computer didn’t fail to load the image above, I’m just updating this article at work and know better than to try and search for anything related to this game if I want to keep my job. If you’re into video games where you shoot shoot waves of Japanese school girls with some sort of innapropriate love arrows, this is apparently the game for you.
Excitement Level: I’m not Xyger out of 10.
Blade Ballet/Brut@l – August 9th
This two-fer of smaller indie titles stand out on a personal level. Blade Ballet because when I went to PAX East, they were the only developer to reach out to me about trying their game. Unfortunately, the timing didn’t work out (i.e. I was bouncing from panel to panel too much to really play anything). And Brut@l has given a lot of love to my friends over at KnerdsOnline.
Blade Ballet is a competitive multiplayer game that features ice-skating robots in battle arenas. And Brut@l is a Gauntlet-inspired title built in an ASCII-themed world.
Excitement Level: Giving some love to the fellow little guys out of 10.
No Man’s Sky – August 9th
At long last, it is here. My number 4 most-anticipated game of 2016 finally shows the world what it is made of. Likely more about being an achievement in modern game design than anything else, No Man’s Sky looks to be a nice “unwind before bed” game that I imagine I’ll enjoy in small doses in PS VR, even if they still haven’t announced any sort of formal PS VR release (there’s always “Cinematic Mode”).
Excitement Level: Two and a half years of hype fatigue but I’m still hopeful out of 10.
Read Only Memories (PS4/Vita) – August 16th
While this game has been available on Steam for nearly a year, I enjoyed my hands-on time with this retrofuturistic narrative-driven point-and-click adventure game at PlayStation Experience last year enough to have kept an eye on it for it’s PlayStation release). And they announced a pretty cool voice cast for the game last month.
Excitement Level: It’s still a point-and-click adventure game but I’ll try it anyway out of 10.
Metroid Prime: Federation Force – August 19th
The Metroid Prime game nobody wanted.
Excitement Level: Nope out of 10.
Deus Ex: Mankind Divided – August 23rd
Deus Ex has always been a series I’ve admired from the outside. I enjoyed everything I heard about the original game in 2000 but I was in high school and focused on stupid stuff like grades so I didn’t get to play every title out there that I would have liked to try. But the themes and setting have continued to intrigue me, even if I’ve never really gone hands on with it (outside of maybe the original being one of the last games I rented from a Blockbuster Video…that feels like a real memory, at least).
Excitement Level: I’d like to dive in but realistically recognize that I probably won’t and also there was that whole bullshit pre-order scheme they tried to pull on this out of 10.
Madden NFL 17 – August 23rd
Scoff all you want, but this is going to be the number one best-selling game in August.
Excitement Level: I mean, I’m not going to play it but a crapton of people will out of 10.