Games

New Game Releases 08/05/25 – 08/11/25

Top Releases:

  • Mafia: The Old Country (PC/PS5/Series X|S) – Releases Aug. 8th
  • Demon Slayer -Kimetsu no Yaiba- The Hinokami Chronicles 2 (PC/PS4/PS5/Switch/Xbox One/Series X|S) – Releases Aug. 5th
  • The House of the Dead 2: Remake (PC/Switch) – Releases Aug. 7th

While it may seem like a massive week for new releases, with nearly 40 titles highlighted today, there’s really only one major release of note, Mafia: The Old Country. Set in Italy during the “1900s”, players will take on the role of Enzo Favara, who joins up with the Torrisi crime family after a childhood spent working in sulfur mines. The Old Country aims to show players the origins of the Sicilian Mafia which, by the way, doesn’t exist; you got that!

Mafia: The Old Country (PC/PS5/Series X|S) – Releases Aug. 8th

Developed by: Hanger 13
Published by: 2K

Our other big release of the week is Demon Slayer -Kimetsu no Yaiba- The Hinokami Chronicles 2, a…fighting game (?), which features over 40 characters from the popular anime, and allows players to relive the stories told in the Entertainment District Arc, the Swordsmith Village Arc, and the Hashira Training Arc. Players who have save data from the first Hinokami Chronicles game and/or Sweep the Board will receive in-game bonuses and unlockables.

Last (and probably least) is The House of the Dead 2: Remake, an updated take on the arcade classic. The previous House of the Dead remake was pretty poorly received by critics, I can’t imagine this one will be received any better. If it’s any consolation, the game did seem to hit well with players, with a decent Metacritic user score and a “Mostly Positive” rating on Steam.

Demon Slayer -Kimetsu no Yaiba- The Hinokami Chronicles 2 (PC/PS4/PS5/Switch/Xbox One/Series X|S) – Releases Aug. 5th

Developed by: CyberConnect2
Published by: Sega

The House of the Dead 2: Remake (PC/Switch) – Releases Aug. 7th

Developed by: MegaPixel Studio
Published by: Forever Entertainment

Ports and Expansions:

House of the Dead isn’t the only retro release this week (even if it is a remake), as we also have two classic game collections vying for your attention. First up is Operation Night Strikers, which bundles four arcade games from Taito; Operation Wolf, Operation Thunderbolt, Night Striker, and Space Gun. Second, from Konami, we have Gradius Origins, which collects seven titles; Gradius, Gradius II: GOFER no Yabou, Gradius III: Densetsu kara Shinwa e, Life Force, Salamader, Salamader 2, and Salamader III. Between these, there are a whopping 18 different versions, and the collection features three games never released in North America.

Finally, Apex Legends is coming to Switch 2 because how else is EA going to get microtransaction money from you pleebs?

  • Apex Legends (Switch 2) – Releases Aug. 5th
  • Operation Night Strikers (PC/Switch) – Releases Aug. 6th
  • Gradius Origins (PC/PS5/Switch/Series X|S) – Releases Aug. 7th

Everything else:

There’s so many games coming out (mostly on PC), so there’s gotta be at least one thing on this list that interests you, right? I’m particularly intrigued by 1000 Deaths, as well as Toyland Tussle which is clearly inspired by Cuphead. It looks like the game only contains one level/boss fight, but it has three phases. I guessing it’s really short, but it looks gorgeous.

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

Games:

In notable releases, 2015 gave us the mysterious adventure game, Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture. Developed by the same team that did Dear Esther, Rapture is considered a spiritual successor to that game. Rapture slots neatly into the “Walking Simulator” genre and, while the game received generally positive reviews (as well as a copious amount of awards & nominations), it felt, by some critics, to be the epitome of the “Walking Simulator”. While the story was engaging, there was nary a thing for players to do as they moved through the game world, only having brief interactions throughout Rapture’s roughly 6 hour playtime.

From 2005, we’ve got the action/adventure game Darkwatch, from San Diego developer High Moon Studios. Development on the game began in 2002, when High Moon was a Sammy Studio subsidiary, and was initially conceived as a campy, almost humorous romp through the Old West in which players took on the role of a vampire named Jericho who fancies himself a card shark. There was to be shades of Blade, Maverick, and Men in Black but, over time, the humorous tone was gutted, leaving the game with a more serious vibe.

Just before launch, High Moon was able to gain their independence from Sammy but found themselves without a publisher. Japanese studio Capcom came in and (possibly jaded by their dropping of Red Dead Revolver) agreed to publish High Moon’s supernatural Western. There were big expectations from Capcom about Darkwatch, with the company seeing it as one of their next flagship properties. However, mixed reviews and lackluster sales doomed the franchise, with High Moon abandoning future installments in order to focus on established IP like Transformers and Deadpool.

From 1995, we’ve got one of my all-time favorite games and a likely contender for greatest video game of all-time, Chrono Trigger. The seminal RPG was created at Squaresoft by what some dubbed the “Dream Team”; Final Fantasy’s Hironubo Sakaguchi and Dragon Quest’s Yuji Horii & Akira Toriyama (also of Dragon Ball fame). Along with several other veteran team members at Square who had worked on Final Fantasy and Secret of Mana (among others), Chrono Trigger would be the culmination of nearly ten years of the studio perfecting the RPG. What we, as players, got was nothing short of a masterpiece.

If you’re somehow unaware of Chrono Trigger, players take on the role of a young swordsman named Crono. At a fair, celebrating the world’s 1,000th year, Crono, his friend Lucca, and a mysterious girl named Marle, are accidentally transported 400 years into the past by a teleportation machine that Lucca has created. From there, Crono, Lucca, and Marle met up with an eclectic cast of characters from across time, going back to the age of dinosaurs and far into the future where robots reign supreme.

Chrono Trigger was universally praised by critics upon release and, as I mentioned, the love & praise for the game has not subsided, with it regularly being named among the greatest video games ever made. There have been a few ports over the years, first to the PlayStation, then the DS, and most recently on PC. I am beyond shocked that we have not seen a modern remake or re-release, I wish I could be a fly on the wall at Square Enix and see just what the hell is keeping this beloved classic from us. Until then, I guess I’ll plug my SNES cartridge into my Retron 5.

Movies:

In notable films, 2015 saw the release of Fox’s reboot of Fantastic Four, a critical dud and box-office bomb that is one of the likeliest reasons why the company was eventually sold to Disney (plus X-Men). Directed by Josh Trank, who had the surprise hit Chronicle, Fantastic Four was doomed from the start, with Trank (on only his second film) re-writing the original script, taking the tone to a darker more Batman Begins-esque place. Trank, who didn’t seem interested in comic books, wanted to make a body horror film that grappled with what it would be like to have super powers in the real world, i.e., how bad would the government fuck with you.

While there are some interesting ideas to be explored there, this concept doesn’t work in a Fantastic Four movie, which is a team often associated with joy, hope, and optimism, through the lens of a dysfunctional, but loving family. Fox, apparently, hated the movie Trank was making and took it away from him, by all accounts, excising whole scenes, reshooting much of the film, and picking the editor’s cut over Trank’s cut. What came out was, like any good body horror film, something so grotesque and inhuman that only the most devoted David Cronenberg film fan could appreciate. In the end, Fantastic Four sucked, Trank kind of disappeared from Hollywood, and Disney was able to put out an FF movie in 2025 that people actually enjoyed. Hey, fun fact, there has been a new Fantastic Four movie every ten years since 2005.

From 2005, we have the documentary Grizzly Man, a profile on conservationist Timothy Treadwell, a bear enthusiast who, along with his girlfriend Amie Huguenard, was killed by the very animals he loved. Directed and narrated by Werner Herzog, Grizzly Man is a fascinating, moving, and infuriating film. While the film was universally acclaimed by critics and cited one of the best films of 2005, Grizzly Man was NOT nominated in the Best Documentary category at the Academy Awards. There is only speculation as to why, as far as I can tell, which basically amounts to the fact that Herzog’s narration and editing tell a one sided story, as opposed to allowing the subject peak for itself. In any case, the more family friendly, “nature is good” documentary, March of the Penguins, took the Best Documentary award instead.

From 1995, we have the Mishelle Pfeifer drama Dangerous Minds, in which an affluent, suburban raised, white woman uses her magical powers to help ethnic minorities do good in school, or something. I don’t know, I don’t really give a shit. I’m sure there were good intentions in the making of this film, but these white savior movies are just so infuriating, sometimes. Pat yourself on the back, white America, you went to a movie about empowering minorities while making sure you’re seen as the hero. At least it gave us “Amish Paradise”.

Albums:

In notable albums, 2015 saw the release of Abyss by Chelsea Wolfe. This was the fourth album by Wolfe and was also her most commercially successful, at the time, peaking at #130 on the Billboard Top 200 and #1 on the Billboard Heatseekers chart. The album received positive reviews from critics who felt it was her darkest, most “metal” album so far; tight. From 2005, we got the album The Fuse from punk band Pennywise. This continued a hit streak for the band, with the album peaking at #78 on the Billboard chart, despite not really doing any press or receiving heavy radio-play or MTV video rotation. Sometimes all you need is a solid fanbase.

Closing things out this week, we’ve got the self-titled debut album, Ben Folds Five. Arriving at a time where folksy, pop-rock was just starting to overtake the depressing grunge sound that enveloped the early 1990’s, Ben Folds Five was touted as a “breath of fresh air” by music pundits before its release. Strong reviews did not, however, translate to strong sales, but that didn’t matter to the record companies who all started an intense bidding war to sign the band and put out their next album (thew winner, Sony Music, the album, Whatever and Ever Amen).

Despite its failure to chart, Ben Folds Five spawned five singles, helping lead to the group’s organic growth and rise in popularity over the next two years. Despite the praise and popularity, there were detractors who felt that the band trafficked too much in pop-rock cliches, and that the sound of Ben Folds Five was not revolutionary or unique. Those people, are assholes, and they are wrong. Ben Folds Five rules.

Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture (PS4) – Released Aug. 11th, 2015

Notable Film Release: Fantastic Four – Starring Miles Teller, Michael B. Jordan, Kate Mara, Jamie Bell, and Toby Kebbell
Click here to watch the trailer
Notable Album Release: Chelsea Wolfe – Abyss
Click here to listen to the album

Darkwatch (PS2/Xbox) – Released Aug. 16th, 2005

Notable Film Release: Grizzly Man – Featuring Timothy Treadwell; Narrated by Werner Herzog
Click here to watch the trailer
Notable Album Release: Pennywise – The Fuse
Click here to listen to the album

Chrono Trigger (SNES) – Released Aug. 11th, 1995

Notable Film Release: Dangerous Minds – Starring Michelle Pfeiffer
Click here to watch the trailer
Notable Album Release: Ben Folds Five – Ben Folds Five
Click here to listen to album

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