Games

New Game Releases 02/11/25 – 02/17/35

Top Releases:

  • Civilization VII (PC/PS4/PS5/Switch/XBone/Series X|S) – Releases Feb. 11th
  • The Legend of Heroes: Trails Through Daybreak II (PC/PS4/PS5/Switch) – Releases Feb. 14th
  • Urban Myth Dissolution Center (PC/PS5/Switch) – Releases Feb. 12th
  • Recall: Empty Wishes (PC/PS5/Switch/Xbox One/Series X|S) – Releases Feb. 13th
  • Terry’s Other Games (PC) – Releases Feb. 13th
  • Afterlove EP (PC/PS5/Switch/Series X|S) – Releases Feb. 14th

Happy Tuesday, welcome to New Game Releases, the best weekly column about new game releases on The Avocado and, quite possibly, the world. That’s what I’m hearing, at least, please don’t fact check that. This week’s big titles are both grand epics that will certainly take up hours and hours of your life to play, but in different ways.

Civilization VII (PC/PS4/PS5/Switch/XBone/Series X|S) – Releases Feb. 11th

Developed by: Firaxis
Published by: 2K

Civilization VII will consume your daily life in a way no other game probably has (or will), if its previous entries are anything to go by, as you tell yourself “I’ll just do one more turn and then get back to my job of overseeing the nation’s electrical grid“, but you won’t, only stopping when you fail to prevent a power outage that plunges the U.S. into darkness & chaos, forcing us to go back to using two sticks to make fire. Are you happy, Dennis? Did you really need to have the Aztec Empire, ruled by Abraham Lincoln, take over the city of Boston in the nation of France, ruled by Genghis Kahn?

The other title, The Legend of Heroes: Trails Through Daybreak II, is a massive RPG from a series that has enough entries in it to last you your literal lifetime (probably). Actually, looking up how long it takes to finish the game, if you only stick to the main story content you’re looking at roughly 50 hours. Completionists, however, are looking at something closer to 100 hours. As someone who just spent 85 hours with Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth, I’m not dying to jump on this anytime soon. What about you? Are you dying to jump on this? Let me know in the comments!!!!!!!!!!!!11!1!!!11!!!111111!!!!!!

The Legend of Heroes: Trails Through Daybreak II (PC/PS4/PS5/Switch) – Releases Feb. 14th

Developed by: Nihon Falcom
Published by: NIS America

Up next, we’ve got two narrative adventure games. First is Urban Myth Dissolution Center, which has players taking on the role of a psychic detective who must solve mysteries involving cursed relics, haunted buildings, interdimensional portals, and the horrific fiends that come along with such madness.

Second, we’ve got Recall: Empty Wishes, another psychological thriller set all the way back in the 2010’s, the most psychosocially thrilling decade since the 2020’s. In Recall, players take on the role of Yonny, a young woman who is investigating the mysterious disappearance of her brother. What horrors await her? I DON’T KNOW!!!

Urban Myth Dissolution Center (PC/PS5/Switch) – Releases Feb. 12th

Developed by: Hakabaunko
Published by: Shueisha Games

Recall: Empty Wishes (PC/PS5/Switch/Xbox One/Series X|S) – Releases Feb. 13th

Developed by: Puff Hook Studio
Published by: DANGEN Entertainment

Rounding things out, we’ve got a couple of interesting indie titles. First up is Terry’s Other Games, a collection rare titles and oddities from game developer Terry Cavanagh. You might know Terry from his 2010 indie hit VVVVVV, a brutally difficult, but incredibly satisfying Commodore 64 inspired platformer. All of the games in this collection have a similar aesthetic and penchant for brutal difficulty. It might not be everyone’s cup of tea, but it does stand as an interesting document of some games you’ve probably never heard of.

Last up is the indie rhythm game Afterlove EP. Playing as a young musician named Rama, Afterlove EP deals with the feeling of loss & grief Rama goes through following the death of his girlfriend Cinta. The theme is made even more poignant due to the death of the game’s creator Mohammad Fahmi, who passed away in 2022, during production of Afterlove EP.

Terry’s Other Games (PC) – Releases Feb. 13th

Developed by: Terry Cavanagh
Published by: Terry Cavanagh

Afterlove EP (PC/PS5/Switch/Series X|S) – Releases Feb. 14th

Developed by: Pikselnesia
Published by: Fellow Traveller

Ports and Re-releases:

I typically shy away from highlighting PC games making their way to consoles, but Tiny Terry’s Turbo Trip looks completely insane, in a fun way, and I would feel bad if I didn’t give it a shout out. We’re also getting the three worst Tomb Raider games, with remastered versions of the 4th, 5th, & 6th entries in the franchise, including the absolutely terrible Angel of Darkness.

  • Tiny Terry’s Turbo Trip (PS5/Switch) – Releases Feb. 13th
  • Tomb Raider IV – V – VI Remastered (PC/PS4/PS5/Switch/Xbox One/Series X|S) – Releases Feb. 14th

Everything else:

Notable Releases from 10, 20, and 30 years ago:

Moving away from the games of today to the games of yesterday; it’s NOTABLE RELEASES! Yes, folks, it’s time to look back, over the past three decades, at all of the games we were playing. movies we were watching, and albums we were listening to. Let’s go!

Games:

Starting us off, from 2015, we’ve got the game Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate, for the Nintendo 3DS. Originally released in 2013 over in Japan, the “Ultimate” version would get a Japan release in 2014, followed by the rest of the world in February of 2015. The game’s release would also coincide with the release of the New Nintendo 3DS, Nintendo’s mid-cycle console update. The New 3DS was not required to play Monster Hunter 4, the game would be nearly unplayable without an analog stick, meaning you would either have to purchase the New 3DS or the analog stick attachment for the original 3DS.

Monster Hunter 4 is, for the most part, a Monster Hunter game; if you’ve played one then you’ve played them all. While the game remains largely the same as previous entries, the localization team for North America and Europe, led by Andrew Alfonzo, worked closely with the Japanese development team to incorporate things that were more appealing to the West. This included less tedious tutorials, “tips” being displayed on loading screens, the option to skip certain dialogue, among other tweaks.

The localization team also wanted to avoid using internet memes in their translation, as they didn’t want to date the game in any way. The team also ran a strong, targeted social media campaign to try and draw in new players and, based on sales, it must have worked, as Monster Hunter 4 was the first game in the series to sell over 1 million copies in NA and EU, going on to sell over 4 million copies worldwide.

Critics had high praise for Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate, calling it the most polished entry to date. They praised the game for finding the right balance when it came to grinding, as the game did require a lot of your time but never felt like it was wasting it, necessarily. While there were some critics who felt Monster Hunter 4 was too similar to its predecessors, it was still the best release in the series to date.

In 2005, we were all treated to Gran Turismo 4, the second, and last, game in the series released on the PS2. Like Monster Hunter, Gran Turismo’s gameplay doesn’t differ much from entry to entry, the main selling points are the new cars to drive, and new tracks to race on, as well as technical upgrades such as more realistic controls, fancier graphics, and improved sound.

Still, there were a couple of new modes added to the game. In Driving Missions, players take on a series of driving challenges, such as overtaking a driver, using drafting, passing a multitude of cars in a single lap, and are rewarded with in-game credits to spend on new cars or mechanical upgrades, as well as a prize car for completing a sets of challenges. The other new mode was Photo Mode, which allowed the player to take pictures of their car in exotic locales, such as the Grand Canyon. These photos can then be downloaded to a USB drive for personal use.

One of the greatest video game intros of all time.

Gran Turismo 4 was a smash with both critics and players, including Top Gear’s Jeremy Clarkson who attempted to get the same lap time at the Laguna Seca Raceway in both the game and real life, to determine just how realistic Gran Turismo 4 was. He ended up getting a slower time in real life which he attributed to, mostly, the fear of dying, as you are far more likely to make risky moves in a video game than you would in the real world.

As far as sales go, Gran Turismo 4 moved a whopping 11.76 million copies, worldwide, making it the fourth best selling PS2 game of all-time. That puts it behind GTA: San Andreas (17.33M), Gran Turismo 3: A-Spec (14.89M), and GTA: Vice City (14.2M). Funny enough, the fifth best selling PS2 game of all time is…GTA III (11.60M). It’s pretty nuts that the top five best selling PS2 games come from two different franchises.

Moving to 1995, we’ve got the Sega Genesis game X-Men 2: Clone Wars. The sequel to 1993’s X-Men, also for the Genesis, Clone Wars features six playable X-Men (Beast, Cyclops, Gambit, Nightcrawler, Psylocke, & Wolverine) as well as their arch-nemesis, Magneto. The game’s story is taken from the Phalanx saga of the mid 90’s, in which the alien race comes to Earth and tries to take over by overtaking humanity with technologically advanced clones.

X-Men 2 wasn’t really a big hit with critics, receiving mixed reviews at release. The most common complaint was that it was not different enough from its predecessor, while other critics felt the game wasn’t paced very well. There was praise, however, given to the game’s graphics, particularly its large boss sprites, as well as the way each stage was designed in a way to highlight each characters unique abilities.

In retrospective reviews, X-Men 2 gets a bit more praise than it did at launch and it is mostly due to a greater appreciation for the things that it was initially praised for (graphics, gameplay). It is often listed among the greatest Sega Genesis games of all-time, which is surprising because, frankly, I had no idea this game even existed. One final fun fact, X-Men 2 is one of the few Genesis games that came shipped in a cardboard box instead of the classic clamshell case that we’re all used to.

Movies:

Stepping into the world of notable films, while 2015 did give us the erotic thriller Fifty Shades of Gray this week, 10 years ago, it was another “erotic thriller” that piqued my interest, What We Do in the Shadows. Alright, so maybe it isn’t quite a erotic thriller in the same way that Fifty Shades is, but it’s certainly a hell of a lot better of a movie. Co-directed by Taika Waititi and Jemaine Clement, Shadows is a comedic mockumentary about a group of vampires in New Zealand that are being followed around by a documentary film crew.

The film’s plot initially centers on four vampires, Viago (Waititi), Vladislav (Clement), Deacon (Jonathan Brugh), and Petyr (Ben Fransham). Shortly after we are introduced to the characters and their life, a young man named Nick (Cori Gonzalez-Macuer), who is transformed into a vampire by Petyr and the film then starts to focus on his transformation and disruption into the lives of the four other vampires.

While the film was shown around at film festivals, it was difficult to secure US distribution. Clement took to Kickstarter to ask fans to help get the film played in a handful of movie theatres, asking for $400k dollars, eventually receiving $446,666. After reaching its funding goal, Kickstarter announced that the film would be part of its 5th annual film festival, playing the movie in 32 theatres. It would eventually get a wider release in the US thanks in part to Unison Films, The Orchard, & Paramount Pictures through a deal with Funny or Die and Paladin Pictures.

What We Do in the Shadows is so good, just absolutely hilarious, with perfect performances by the entire cast, though Waititi and Clement are the true breakouts. While a sequel was proposed, one that would focus on the werewolf community, it ended up in development hell and doesn’t seem to be moving forward. The film did, however, spawn a successful television series on FX, under the same title.

2005 gave us the comic book film Constantine, starring Keanu Reeves in his first big role after the conclusion of The Matrix trilogy didn’t really set the world on fire, earning a bunch of negative reviews, though it did manage to gross $230 million at the box office. I saw Constantine in theatres back when it came out; enjoyed it, instantly forgot about it. The only thing I remember about Constantine was its panel at Comic-Con.

Two things come to mind about this panel. First thing was that, all throughout the Q&A portion, people kept congratulating Djimon Honsou on his Oscar nomination for the film In America and then would immediately ask Keanu a question (he literally got all the questions). Second thing is that a woman who was a huge Keanu fan, had brought a gift for him and asked if she could bring it up to the stage. The crowd, which hates this kind of thing, immediately tore into the woman with a barrage of boo’s. Keanu, being the fucking class act that he is, immediately said “yes” and told the woman to come up on stage. He took her gift, gave her a big hug, and thanked her.

From 1995, we’ve got the comedy The Brady Bunch Movie, a satirical take on the 1970’s TV show which sees the titular Brady family living in 1995 while they are still living like it’s 1975. That premise is, well, the catalyst for all of the gags in the film. The Brady teens go to a modern high school and have trouble fitting in (well, except Marcia, of course), but are completely oblivious to it. The family are seen as bizarre by the rest of their neighborhood who can’t understand how they can be happy all of the time and love each other unconditionally.

Really, the tone and style of the Brady’s were nearly obsolete when it aired in the 1970’s. Their tone-deaf, idyllic family life was a far cry from the horrors of the Vietnam war and the political scandals of the Nixon administration. By 1995, we were self aware enough to know that the ideals of The Brady Bunch were idiotic but, in a way, something we all wanted; love and kindness.

The film was a big hit in its day, debuting at No.1 and earning nearly $100 million dollars. A follow-up, titled A Very Brady Sequel, was quickly greenlit and was released in 1996, though it failed to live up to the success of first film, earning less than half of its total box office.

Albums:

In notable albums, 2015 saw the release of Drake’s fourth mixtape, If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late, which is an apt title considering the recent events at the Super Bowl. Drake, if you saw Kendrick Lamar’s halftime performance, it’s already too late. You’re done, mother fucker.

Moving on, 2005 saw the release of rapper Sage Francis’ second solo album, A Healthy Distrust, to rave reviews and strong showings on both the Billboard US Heatseekers chart and US Independent Album chart. While this was not the mainstream breakthrough that Sage Francis deserved, it did continue to solidify his presence in the independent rap scene and helped bring in a larger audience who put his next album, 2007’s Human the Death Dance, on the Billboard Top 200 chart.

Finally, from 1995, we’ve got Cheshire Cat, the debut studio album from the pop-punk band Blink-182. After releasing three demos, including the commercially released Buddha, Blink found themselves signed to a local San Diego record label called Cargo Music. Initially, the album was recorded over three days at Westbeach Recorders in LA with producer Steve Kravac.

Kravac noted not just how funny & energetic the band was, but also how seriously they took their music, and wanted them to succeed. He pleaded with them to book more studio time to properly overdub and master the album, with Blink eventually finishing the album up at a studio in Santee, CA called Doubletime Studios.

The extra work paid off, as Cheshire Cat was a big hit in the SoCal punk scene thanks to the heavy radio play of the song “M+M’s”. Blink would go on a lengthy tour to promote the album, becoming a well known name in the punk world and, at the same time, becoming somewhat notorious for their “non-punk” sound. In interviews, guitarist Tom DeLonge would sometimes say that Blink didn’t really play punk rock music. They knew they were nothing like the Sex Pistols, they just got kind of lumped into that scene because their music was fast, but they weren’t looking to be a “punk” band, so to speak.

Regardless, Blink continued to tour with punk bands, play in punk clubs, and eventually get signed to a major label because of their punk sound. Listening to Cheshire Cat again after all of these years is interesting because you can tell that this is a group that is trying for a more alternative sound than a punk sound. Compared to their follow-up, Dude Ranch, Cheshire Cat, overall, seems to have more in common with Bush and Stone Temple Pilots than it does NOFX or Bad Religion. Don’t laugh.

Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate (3DS) – Released Feb. 13th, 2015

Notable Film Release: What We Do in the Shadows – Starring Taika Waititi, Jemaine Clement, Jonathan Brugh, Cori Gonzalez-Macuer, and Jackie van Beek
Click here to watch the trailer
Notable Album Release: Drake – If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late
Click here to listen to the album

Gran Turismo 4 (PS2) – Released Feb. 22nd, 2005

Notable Film Release: Constantine – Starring Keanu Reeves, Rachel Weisz, Shia LaBeouf, Tilda Swinton, and Djimon Hounsou
Click here to watch the trailer
Notable Album Release: Sage Francis – A Healthy Distrust
Click here to listen to the album

X-Men 2: Clone Wars (Genesis) – Released Feb. 1995

Notable Film Release: The Brady Bunch Movie – Starring Gary Cole, Shelley Long, Christopher Daniel Barnes, Christine Taylor, Paul Sutera, Jennifer Elise Cox, Jesse Lee Soffer, Olivia Hack, and Henriette Mantel
Click here to watch the trailer
Notable Album Release: Blink-182 – Cheshire Cat
Click here to listen to album

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