Game Bites: Pokemon Legends Arceus, Horizon Forbidden West, And More
Hello, Nerd Caliber fans, and welcome to the first ever weekly video game roundup. This is a place where you can find all things (OK, many things) video games from the previous week, and this week was pretty jam packed. With E3 coming on the 12th of June, developers and studios have started to tease some of their upcoming titles which makes us wonder how much more we can expect at the E3 virtual conferences this year.
The first news we had was on May 26th with a Monster Hunter Digital event from CAPCOM where we got more teasers of the upcoming Monster Hunter Stories 2 as well as an update coming to the already released Monster Hunter Rise.
That same day Square Enix held a Dragon Quest 35th anniversary event. During the live streamed event it announced the new Dragon Quest 12 that will have some changes to the traditional turn-based battle system and will be more directed at adults. No platforms, nor a release date, have been announced for the game yet. Square Enix also announced a remake of Dragon Quest 3. This retro-inspired remake is going to adopt the art style we’ve seen in games like Octopath Traveler. There were also some mobile games announced and an expansion for the currently Japanese only Dragon Quest MMO.
We also received early news about some Pokémon titles. The Pokémon Company will release Pokémon Shining Diamond and Pokémon Brilliant Pearl on the Nintendo Switch on Nov. 19. Pokémon Legends Arceus will come a few months later, on Jan. 28, 2022.
Then there was yet another report — this time from Bloomberg — talking about the mysterious Switch Pro, a system that has not been officially announced by Nintendo yet, but rumors of which have been making waves in the gaming community.
On the 27th we had another beloved franchise having its anniversary, Sonic. Sega’s Team Sonic held an event where they announced a remake of Sonic Colors, now called Sonic Colors Ultimate that will release on Sept. 7th to PC, PS4, Xbox One, and Switch. Team Sonic also touted its collaborations with Two Point Hospital as well as a collection of classic sonic titles. After Team Sonic we had news from Techland, the studio behind Dying Light, featuring the long awaited Dying Light 2 Stay Human which will launch on PS5, Xbox Series X, PC, PS4, and Xbox One on December 7, 2021. There is also a collector’s edition up for the game. If you are into zombie games it’s one to look out for this holiday season.
Sony also had a State of Play event that day in which they showed us 14 minutes of game play on the PS5 for Horizon Forbidden West, the sequel to Horizon Zero Dawn. Unlike the other previously stated games, this is one that will be exclusive to PlayStation 4 and 5. The game is slated to come out later this year but with no confirmed release date yet.
The 28th was our last day of trailers for upcoming games. Ubisoft held a presentation on their new addition to the Far Cry series with Far Cry 6, launching Oct. 7. The game had the internet going wild with the new weapon of a gun that shoots CDs with the song The Macarena on them, however that is not the only reason Ubisoft was in the news this week. Charlie Guillemot and co-lead of the Ubisoft studio Owlient Remi Pellerin both resigned in order to pursue new opportunities. Charlie Guillemot is the son of Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot. This comes after Ubisoft released the Owlient-made game Tom Clancy’s Elite Squad in the summer of 2020, which drew a storm of criticism over the use of the Black Lives Matter raised fist symbol for its evil terrorist main villain group. Ubisoft gave no reason for the departure beyond the stated desire to “pursue new opportunities,” according to an internal email as reported by Axios. Ubisoft is also still trying to deal with its internal issues following multiple sexual assault allegations and reports of harassment.
CD Projekt Red announced a new director for Cyberpunk 2077 this week, Gabriel Amatangelo, following former quest director Mateusz Tomaszkiewicz who left CD Projekt Red entirely. This hopefully brings much needed change to the company, since Amatangelo has previous experience on Dragon Age: Inquisition and Star Wars: The Old Republic.
In terms of video game releases we had a few this week. On the 25th we had the long awaited Biomutant for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC. Final Fantasy XIV came out on the PlayStation 5. King of Seas released on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Switch and PC. Maneater came to the Switch and Shin Megami Tensei III HD Remaster came to PlayStation 4, Switch and PC. On the 26th, Maid of Sker came out on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S. On the 27th we had Earth Defense Force: World Brothers come out on PlayStation 4, Switch and PC. Oddworld: Collection came out on Switch. The Longest Road on Earth came to PC, and finally, on the 28th, Wonder Boy: Asha in Monster World came to the PlayStation 4, Switch, and PC. Also released to the Switch was the new title World’s End Club.
Look forward to our next video game news roundup next week, and every Monday. Don’t forget to stay safe this Memorial Day and check your favorite video game sellers for some sales.
