Games

New Game Releases 03/04/25 – 03/10/25

Top Releases:

  • Split Fiction (PC/PS5/Series X|S) – Releases Mar. 6th
  • Carmen Sandiego (PC/PS4/PS5/Switch/Xbox One/Series X|S) – Releases Mar. 4th
  • Two Point Museum (PC/PS5/Series X|S) – Releases Mar. 4th
  • Suikoden I & II HD Remaster (PC/PS4/PS5/Switch/Xbox One/Series X|S) – Releases Mar. 6th
  • Fragpunk (PC/PS5/Series X|S) – Releases Mar. 6th
  • Memory Lost (PC/PS4/PS5/Switch/Xbox One/Series X|S) – Releases Mar. 6th

Welcome to another week of brand new games! It’s almost like they never stop coming out, which means this column will never end and I will be forced to do this until my inevitable death; oh god.

Split Fiction (PC/PS5/Series X|S) – Releases Mar. 6th

Developed by: Hazelight Studios
Published by: EA

Our top game of the week is Split Fiction, the latest co-op game from developer Josef Fares who, if you aren’t aware, is very cool because he said “fuck” at The Game Awards one time. Meanwhile, I say “fuck” once at my daughter’s school and suddenly I’m no longer welcome at the annual Halloween carnival; fucking assholes. Anyway, Split Fiction tells the story of two authors, one does sci-fi and the other does fantasy, who are trapped in their own creations and must work together, across genres, to escape.

If co-op isn’t your thing, there are two single player games that might interest you, espeically if you’re a classic PC gamer. First up is Carmen Sandiego, a modern take on the old school PC education/puzzle game. This time, instead of being an ACME detective, players take on the role of Carmen herself and must use all of her resources & wits to outsmart her former cohorts at VILE.

Carmen Sandiego (PC/PS4/PS5/Switch/Xbox One/Series X|S) – Releases Mar. 4th

Developed by: Gameloft
Published by: Gameloft

Point & Click sim games were a PC gaming staple back in the 1990’s, and developer Two Point Studios is keeping the tradition alive with their enchanting Two Point series. Following Two Point Hospital and Two Point Campus, we now have Two Point Museum, where players can build the wackiest museum in the world. I really hope I can put up some crazy work of art and make a rich person’s monocle fall into their glass of champagne.

Two Point Museum (PC/PS5/Series X|S) – Releases Mar. 4th

Developed by: Two Point Studios
Published by: Sega

It isn’t a week of new games without some kind of retro re-release/collection, with this week’s entry being Suikoden I & II HD Remaster. Originally released on the PSX in 1995 & 1998, the Suikoden games have carved a nice little place for themselves in the history of RPGs, with a major cult following. The games were considered popular enough that an initial remaster collection was released in Japan in 2006 on the PSP. However, sales of the collection were abysmal, moving only about 21k units, perhaps this is why it has taken 19 years for it to finally come to North America.

Suikoden I & II HD Remaster (PC/PS4/PS5/Switch/Xbox One/Series X|S) – Releases Mar. 6th

Developed by: Konami
Published by: Konami

Rounding things out, we’ve got yet another 5v5 online multiplayer hero shooter hitting the market, FragPunk. Now, I don’t want to be a dick and just immediately write this off…but…was anyone asking for this? I’ll be incredibly shocked if the servers for FragPunk are still online in a year, good luck to them.

On the indie side, it looks like our most prominent “small” title of the week is Memory Lost, a top-down shooter set in a dystopian, cyberpunk world. This appears to be the first game from Magic Hazard, an independent studio based in Russia, and it looks like the team has been in production on the game for a few years now, showing it off in various build states at tradeshows around the world. It looks neat, might be worth a shot if the reviews come out positive.

FragPunk (PC/PS5/Series X|S) – Releases Mar. 6th

Developed by: Bad Guitar Studio
Published by: Bad Guitar Studio

Memory Lost (PC/PS4/PS5/Switch/Xbox One/Series X|S) – Releases Mar. 6th

Developed by: Magic Hazard
Published by: ESDigital Games

Expansions:

We’ve got some expansions this week, wow! First up is Immortal Pillars for Age of Mythology: Retold, which adds in gods & myths from Chinese legend. New units, new powers, and a brand new campaign await players.

Our other expansion, just in time to celebrate their Oscar nomination, is the Wallace & Gromit Special Pack for PowerWash Simulator. My daughter recently became enthralled with the two characters after watching their recent Oscar nominated film, so I’m super excited to show her this. Children love power washing things, right?

  • Age of Mythology: Retold – Immortal Pillars (PC/PS5/Series X|S) – Releases Mar. 4th
  • PowerWash Simulator – Wallace & Gromit Special Pack (PC/PS5/Series X|S) – Releases Mar. 4th

Everything else:

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

It’s now time to move away from new releases and look at the games that made their debut 10, 20, and 30 years ago; it’s Notable Releases!

Games:

Starting off in 2015, we’ve got the city building simulator, Cities: Skylines. After the debacle that was 2013’s “always online” SimCity, the demand for a proper, offline single-player city building game was evident. Developer Colossal Order had already made a splash with their public transportation sim, Cities in Motion, and were poised to release a full city building sim.

However, developer Paradox Interactive were worried that any city builder would inevitably be compared to, and likely dominated by, Maxis’ popular SimCity franchise. Well, after the failure of the 2013 game, those fears turned into optimism, as Paradox and Colossal Order knew they had a product that could really shine in the wake of Sim City’s disastrous launch.

As you can imagine, Cities: Skylines is, well, a city building simulator. Players build their city from the ground up, placing homes and businesses, building roads, adding in emergency services, and must maintain a robust power grid & mass transit system (which is basically an offshoot of Cities in Motion).

The critical response to Cities: Skylines was overwhelmingly positive, with many critics calling it an improvement over SimCity, setting a new standard for city building games. The response from players was overwhelmingly positive as well, with the game hitting massive sales numbers, making it the best selling game in the entire Paradox library and, with over 12 million copies sold since launch, Cities: Skylines is the best selling Finnish-developed game of all time.

From 2005, we’ve got the game Devil May Cry 3: Dante’s Awakening, for the PS2. Set ten years before the events of the first Devil May Cry, players once again take on the role of Dante as he attempts to stop his brother, Virgil, from opening a portal to the demon world.

After a lackluster response to 2003’s Devil May Cry 2, the team at Capcom decided to reexamine the series and figure out where it went wrong. The consensus was that the team strayed too far from the first game’s style and decided to “return to form”, so to speak. This meant going back to the smaller, more confined spaces for the game’s level design, making the game more challenging/difficult and, most importantly (they thought) was to make Dante a wise cracking, smart ass again.

The reception to Devil May Cry 3 was far better than that of its predecessor, with critics heaping overwhelming praise on the game. Players were also satisfied and made DmC 3 a best seller for the PS2, with over 1 million copies sold worldwide. The game received favorable comparisons to the latest Ninja Gaiden and Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones, both considered the pinnacle of third person action games at the time.

Over the years, DmC 3 has been regarded as one of the greatest PS2 games of all-time. A subsequent “Special Edition” version would release in 2006 which tweaked the gameplay and added new content. In 2010, IGN would rank the game 18th on its list of greatest PS2 games, while GamePro would rank it 28th. The game would be ported to seventh generation consoles in 2012, and would hit current modern consoles in 2018 and 2020.

Out notable release from 1995 is the Sega Genesis title Crusader of Centy, a Zelda-esque action/adventure game. Developed by the Japanese company Nextech, Crusader of Centy tells the story of a young man named Corona. Due to “reasons”, Corona loses his ability to communicate with humans and, instead, is only able to talk to animals. As the game progresses, Corona is able to team up with various animals and use them to accomplish various tasks.

Crusader of Centy was conceived as a way for Sega to try and break into the RPG market that was sweeping Japan and, to a smaller extent, North America & Europe. At the time, Nintendo was dominating the genre, with the Super Nintendo receiving the lion’s share of classic RPGs. Nextech was tasked with creating a game that felt like an RPG but could be picked up by players of any skill level, thus, Crusader of Centy copied one of the best RPG-like games the SNES had to offer, A Link to the Past.

Played on a large overworld with a top down view, Centy was, according to critics, less of an homage and more of a straight rip-off of LttP. However, critics noted that, if you were going to rip-off a game, then Zelda was perfect, as that game’s style was already pretty perfect. This led to Centy receiving major kudos for its gameplay. When it came time to release the game in the West, Sega opted to localize a different RPG “lite” game, Beyond Oasis, leaving Atlus USA to pick up Crusader of Centy’s North American distribution.

While not a major seller in its day, the demand for Crusader of Centy remained high in the retro collector market, often going for astronomical sums of money. In 2023, the game would become available on the Nintendo Switch through the consoles online service, playable through the Sega Genesis app. Take that, scalpers!

Movies:

In notable films, 2015 gave us Chappie, the third feature film from director Neil Blomkamp. Like his previous films, District 9 and Elysium, Chappie is a dystopian sci-fi film that features heavy use of CGI. The movie revolves around a robot named Chappie who is created to be the first robot police officer. Fully autonomous, Chappie is a threat to the human controlled robots deployed by Hugh Jackman’s character, Vincent. The film follows Chappie and his creator, Deon (played by Dev Patel), as they try to stay alive.

Unlike the critical acclaim of his previous films, Chappie was hated by critics, with only a 32% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes. The overall consensus was that Chappie was full of unappealing, one-note characters, with a poorly written script that went nowhere. This was seen as furthering the downward trend of Blomkamp’s career, one that seemed so promising after the sensational District 9. As such, his next film, 2021’s Demonic earned the worst reviews of his career and things did not get much better with his tepid adaptation of the video game Gran Turismo in 2023.

From 2005, we’ve got the animated film Robots from Blue Sky Studios, the creators of the Ice Age franchise. The studio’s second film, Robots was a decent hit, opening at #1 and grossing $262 million worldwide. Despite the financial success, Robots would not receive a sequel, with Blue Sky focusing on the far more financially successful Ice Age.

Moving on to 1995, our notable film is the thriller Outbreak, in which a monkey is responsible for unleashing a deadly disease on a small town in California. In response, the government sends in the military to forcibly quarantine the town while a group of scientists, led by Dustin Hoffman’s character, Col. Sam Daniels.

While the idea of a deadly virus wiping out humanity was only science fiction in 1995, we found ourselves near the brink, 25 years later, with COVID. Thankfully, we survived that pandemic and Donald Sutherland wasn’t able to kill us with his bombs.

Albums:

In notable albums, 2015 gave us Rebel Heart, the 13th studio album from pop icon Madonna. Seen as a “return to form” for the singer, Rebel Heart found Madonna going back to her pop roots and, according to critics, contained some of her best singles in years. While all four singles would chart on Billboard only one, “Bitch, I’m Madonna”, would crack the Hot 100. The album’s bizarre cover art, featuring Madonna’s face wrapped up tightly with a black string, became somewhat of a meme in 2015, showing that the queen of pop could still influence popular culture.

From 2005, we’ve got Employment, the debut album from UK indie rock band Kaiser Chiefs. Following a music trend that was starting to gain footing in the US and UK, Kaiser Chiefs were able to capitalize on the craze and saw Employment reach #2 on the British OCC charts. While the album would not chart in the US, the single “I Predict a Riot” would reach #34 on the US Alternative chart and would be featured in several video games, including Rock Band 2, Guitar Hero III, We Sing, and Singstar.

Finally, from 1995, we’ve got The Presidents of the United States of America, the band’s self-titled debut album. Straddling the line between grunge and punk, PUSA was able to hit across multiple quadrants, appealing to a wide range of disaffected youth with singles “Kitty”, “Dune Buggy”, “Peaches” and, of course, “Lump”.

While “Lump” is likely the album favorite, it was “Peaches” that caught the attention of critics, earning the band its a Grammy nomination in the Best Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal (Grammys, you gotta get these category names under control). Unfortunately, the band would lose to some group called The Beatles, a retro outfit who got back together to release a new song.

Aside from the aforementioned “Best Performance…” Grammy, the band also received a nomination for Best Alternative Performance, which is based on the overall album. The band would lose this award as well, with the top honor going to Nirvana’s MTV’s Unplugged in New York. While their debut would hit major highs, PUSA (as they are also known) never managed to reach the level of success that their debut brought.

Cities: Skylines (PC) – Released Mar. 10th, 2015

Notable Film Release: Chappie – Starring Sharlto Copley, Dev Patel, Hugh Jackman, Sigourney Weaver, and Ninja & Yolandi Visser (collectively known as Die Antwoord)
Click here to watch the trailer
Notable Album Release: Madonna – Rebel Heart
Click here to listen to the album

Devil May Cry 3: Dante’s Awakening (PS2) – Released Mar. 1st, 2005

Notable Film Release: Robots – Starring Ewan McGregor, Halle Berry, Greg Kinnear, Mel Brooks, Amanda Bynes, Drew Carey, and Robin Williams
Click here to watch the trailer
Notable Album Release: Kaiser Chiefs – Employment
Click here to listen to the album

Crusader of Centy (Genesis) – Released Mar. 1995

Notable Film Release: Outbreak – Starring Dustin Hoffman, Rene Russo, Morgan Freeman, Cuba Gooding Jr., Kevin Spacey, and Donald Sutherland
Click here to watch the trailer
Notable Album Release: The Presidents of the United States of America – The Presidents of the United States of America
Click here to listen to album

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