Top New Games Out On Nintendo Switch, PS4, Xbox One, And PC This Week — November 4-10
This episode of New Releases is all about re-releases like The Forest and World of Final Fantasy Maxima, but leading that pack is Tetris Effect, a re-imagined version of one of the biggest video games of all time. It’s not the only VR title dropping this week either, as From Software’s Déraciné arrives too. Meanwhile, zombie lovers looking for a co-op experience can get their fix with Overkill’s The Walking Dead.
Déraciné — November 6
Available on: PS4
Looking at the screenshot above, you probably wouldn’t guess that this PlayStation VR exclusive comes from the team behind Dark Souls. From Software’s VR debut couldn’t be more different from the Souls series, though: you control a fairy flying around a boarding school frozen in time. You’ll piece together the mystery of what happened there as you find clues and meet the schoolchildren.
Further Reading:
Overkill’s The Walking Dead — November 6
Available on: PS4, Xbox One, PC
Overkill is the team behind the Payday series, and it’s bringing the same cooperative craziness to the world of The Walking Dead. Set in a zombie-filled Washington, DC, this shooter has you choose from one of four heroes, each with unique abilities. From there, you’ll have to work together with the others if you hope to survive.
Further Reading:
The Forest — November 6
Available on: PS4
The Forest may have already left Early Access on PC, but it’s landing on PS4 this week. A father and son crash land on a forest island that happens to be home to a cannibalistic tribe. This survival game challenges you to gather resources, build shelters and weapons, and hold off the tribe if you want to make it out alive.
Further Reading:
World of Final Fantasy Maxima — November 6
Available on: PS4, Xbox One, PC, Switch
This re-release of the 2016 game is still all about capturing Final Fantasy monsters and summoning fan-favorite heroes into battle, but this time protagonists Reynn and Lann can actually transform into those champions via the new Avatar Change feature. There are more monsters, dubbed Mirages, to capture Pokemon-style too.
Further Reading:
Tetris Effect — November 9
Available on: PS4
Re-imagining an all-time classic like Tetris isn’t easy, but this project is directed by Tetsuya Mizuguchi, the mind behind the Rez and Lumines series. Tetris Effect brings a ton of new modes and features, including a Zone mechanic that allows you to clear over 18 lines at once for a “perfectris.” You can experience all the effects in PSVR too.
Further Reading:
November has barely begun, and the next episode of New Releases is one of the most loaded of the year. We’ll take a look at Hitman 2, Fallout 76, Pokemon Let’s Go Pikachu / Let’s Go Eevee, and more.
RDR2: How to Find the Legendary Panther
Outlander Season 4 Premiere Review
This is a spoiler-free review of the Outlander Season 4 premiere, titled “America the Beautiful,” which premiered Nov. 4 on Starz.
After the rip-roaring high seas adventure of Season 3, Outlander gets off to a slower start in its Season 4 premiere – although fans can still expect a few signature gut-punches (and a prerequisite sex scene) during the scene-setting hour.
The Season 3 finale found Claire (Caitriona Balfe) and Jamie (Sam Heughan) washed up on a Georgia beach after a storm thoroughly wrecked their ship, and the new season picks up four months after their unintended arrival to the New World, with the Frasers and their extended family – including their nephew Ian (John Bell), surrogate son Fergus (César Domboy), and his wife, Marsali (Lauren Lyle) – now in North Carolina in 1767, attempting to raise enough money to buy passage back to Scotland.
Amid Serious Australian Drought, Farming Sim Dev Steps Up With A Big Donation
Farmers in Australia are suffering through an extended drought, and the developers of the Farming Simulator franchise are stepping up to make a significant donation to the relief efforts.
The game’s distribution partners around the world, including Five Star Games and Focus Home Interactive, as well as developer Giants Software, have combined forces to donate $50,000 to the charity Drought Angels to support the relief campaign.
Mean temperatures for Australia as a whole were the 4th-highest on record for #October. Overall it was a wetter-than-average month, however many areas experiencing serious or severe rainfall deficiencies missed out on decent falls. October climate summary: https://t.co/UnAz2i8pUU pic.twitter.com/tqQgmfAdOE
— Bureau of Meteorology, Australia (@BOM_au) November 1, 2018
The money will go towards giving practical assistance to farmers and the communities surrounding them.
“Sadly unlike in our game the effects of the drought are real,” Giants Software marketing boss Martin Rabl said in statement. “Working with Drought Angels allows us to give something back to the Aussie farming community for which we have the deepest respect.”
Relief campaigns like this are incredibly important, especially because there is no end in sight for the drought. Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology released its climate outlook report for November to January this week, and it predicts a hotter-than-average summer for much of the country, along with lower-than-average rainfall.
“Farmers would have preferred to see an above average rainfall forecast, and we wish we could have provided one too,” bureau manager of long-term forecasts Dr. Andrew Watkins said (via The Guardian). “Unfortunately what the farmers need is several months of above average rainfall to catch up. Usually about three months at least. It will take a while to get out of the drought.”
Farming Simulator 19 launches on November 20 for PS4, Xbox One, and PC.
Three Walking Dead Movies Are Coming
Andrew Lincoln, who plays Rick Grimes on The Walking Dead, is leaving the show, but he’s not done playing his character in the wider universe. According to EW, AMC is working on multiple new Walking Dead movies, and Lincoln is set to play Grimes in at least one of them.
Walking Dead chief content officer Scott Gimple told EW that AMC Studios is producing the movies for TV, not theaters, and they’re “most probably” going to air on AMC.
MEGA SPOILERS FOR THE WALKING DEAD TV SHOW FOLLOW BELOW
The final episode of AMC’s The Walking Dead featuring Lincoln aired tonight, and in it, Grimes barely survives a series of dramatic events. The new movies are focused on Grimes, and they’ll pick up after we last saw him on the TV show.
“These are going to be big, epic entertainments,” Gimple said of the movies. “Each are quality films. That’s what’s been happening in the industry. We’ve seen Netflix make these, basically, studio films for people to watch in their homes, and we’re going to be doing the same sort of thing here.”
Gimple went on to say that he is “extremely hard at work” on the first of the new Walking Dead movies; it should start filming in 2019, though nothing is locked in at this stage.
The new Rick Grimes movies will take place in a “very new situation with its own history” that is “very, very different from what we’ve seen before” on The Walking Dead, Gimple said.
The character Jadis (Pollyanna McIntosh), who is on the helicopter with Grimes, is also going to be in the new Walking Dead films, Gimple said.
In a press release, Gimple explained that the movies will tell an “epic story told over years.”
In addition to the films, there will be other specials and digital series starring characters who may have died on the TV show. “You’re going to see characters that are dead and gone…we’re going to see different stories of future characters…we’re going to see all around the world. We’re going to see the past, the future…”
For lots more on tonight’s episode of The Walking Dead and what it all might mean, check out GameSpot’s in-depth rundown and analysis here.
In addition to the new Walking Dead movies, Telltale’s The Walking Dead: The Final Season is getting finished by a new studio after Telltale fell apart, while Payday developer Overkill Software is working on a new Walking Dead shooter.
Overwatch Has Six New Heroes Planned, Probably Won’t Switch To Free-To-Play Model
At BlizzCon this weekend, Blizzard announced Overwatch‘s next hero, Ashe, and teased another one, Echo, to come sometime later. Now, game director Jeff Kaplan has now shared further specifics about how many new characters are coming, stating in a new interview that Blizzard has six new heroes planned. Ashe and Echo are apparently counted in this figure, and that’s a lot of new ones. t’ll take “years” before they’re all released, the game director said.
“We have our next six heroes planned out right now which, for us, is years,” Kaplan told Eurogamer. “[Echo], tentatively, is one of those heroes.”
Overwatch launched with 21 heroes. Ashe, a gunslinger damage character, is the 29th. Echo could follow Ashe, but Kaplan said nothing is decided regarding the timeline at this stage. You can watch the Ashe announcement trailer in the video embedded above.
Overwatch remains popular, and one of the ways Blizzard gets new players is with the shooter’s free weekends. The game could theoretically draw in even more new players if the game becomes a free-to-play title, but would Blizzard ever do that? Kaplan said the game was not designed to be free-to-play (it’s been a paid title since launch), but he pointed out that the free-to-play model “should always be a consideration.”
That being said, Kaplan stressed, “We haven’t given serious thought to putting Overwatch free-to-play at this time.”
Back in May, Blizzard announced that Overwatch had reached 40 million players, so it is clearly a massive success. Regarding its commercial fortunes, one of the ways the game makes money beyond the initial sticker price is through the microtransaction-fueled loot box system. Loot boxes are controversial, and in Belgium, Blizzard removed them to comply with the country’s rules. Still, Kaplan said Blizzard believes in loot boxes as a business system.
“We’re sticking with loot boxes. Obviously we don’t agree with the decision in Belgium but we’re also respectful of the country’s laws and we want to adhere to those,” Kaplan said.
Overwatch’s loot box system is “player-friendly,” Kaplan said. You can only spend money on loot boxes that contain cosmetic items; they never feature items that actually impact gameplay. The money that Blizzard makes from loot boxes helps the studio fund development of things like new heroes and other parts of the live service.
Epic’s battle royale game Fortnite found a lot of success with its Battle Pass system–which other big-name games are now adopting–but Overwatch is sticking with loot boxes over a battle pass.
“It would be a tremendous amount of work to switch Overwatch from loot boxes to Battle Pass, or even to just add a Battle Pass,” Kaplan said. “The Battle Pass is really elegantly done in Fortnite and they should be commended for the job they did on it, but it’s no trivial amount of work. Even if we thought it was the best idea and wanted to do it tomorrow, it’s very unlikely at this time. But it’s a brilliant game design, separate from all business considerations.”
Be sure to read the full Eurogamer interview, as it touches on a number of other big topics like the possibility of a Nintendo Switch version, cross-play between competing systems, and more.
In other BlizzCon news, Blizzard announced a new Diablo game for mobile devices, and some people are not happy about it.
Walking Dead TV Movies to Explore Rick’s Fate
Warning: this article contains spoilers for tonight’s Walking Dead episode!
While Andrew Lincoln’s time on The Walking Dead came to an end tonight, this isn’t the end of Rick Grimes’ story. On tonight’s Talking Dead follow-up special, Walking Dead chief content officer Scott Gimple revealed that Rick will be the focus of several “AMC Originals” films that continue where Rick’s story left off in tonight’s episode.
This news comes as tonight’s episode “What Comes After” defied expectations in a major way. Just as it seemed Rick was sacrificing himself to save the Hilltop from a massive zombie invasion, Rick survived what seemed like certain death and will remain a part of the Walking Dead franchise.
How The Walking Dead Wrote Andrew Lincoln Out And What That Final Shot Means
It’s the end of the road for Rick Grimes on The Walking Dead… right? Andrew Lincoln’s final episode of the AMC series has come and gone. After that conclusion, though, you might be wondering just how final Rick’s fate is.
Throughout the episode, it was clear that the former sheriff was at death’s door. After falling onto some rebar, which ripped through him, he spends the majority of his last hour on the show bleeding out and trying to escape a herd of zombies, while having hallucinations of those he’s lost in the past, including very short returns of Shane (Jon Bernthal), Hershel (Scott Wilson), and Sasha (Sonequa Martin-Green). That is until he blows up a bridge he and the walkers are on, sending them into a raging river below.
As Daryl (Norman Reedus) and the rest of our heroes looked on, distraught, it seemed as though Rick had really gone out with a bang. The episode didn’t end there, though.
Instead, the show went back to Anne (Pollyanna McIntosh), the former Jadis. After seeing the plume of smoke from the explosion in the distance and heard commotion over the radio, she spots Rick’s body washed up on the side of the river as that mysterious helicopter reappeared. “I have a B,” she says into her radio. “Not an A, I never had an A. He’s hurt, but he’s strong. Can you help him?” From there, we quickly shift to the chopper taking off, with Anne and Rick safe and sound as “Spacejunk” by Wang Chung plays–no, seriously.
“You’re still here,” she tells Rick on the helicopter. “You’re going to be okay. They’re going to save you.”
Who is they? That’s the big question we’re left with or at least one of them. The answer is most likely the Whisperers. This isn’t the first time we’ve heard the terms “A” and “B” thrown around. While we can’t be sure, this is most likely a reference to alphas and betas. As fans of the comics know, the Whisperers are led by a woman named Alpha, with her second-in-command named Beta.
While they have yet to arrive on the series, we know they are coming and are going to be a major antagonist later in the season. That doesn’t necessarily bode well for Rick, though.
Still, this is Lincoln’s final episode, and it ends with him alive, which could lead to two outcomes. Either this is how the series is leaving the door open for his possible return one day or the Whisperers are going to make an even more fierce introduction.
For those that don’t follow the comics, the Whisperers travel through herds of walkers by wearing the skin of the dead over their own. It’s disgusting and actually makes perfect sense in this disturbing world. If the show was looking for a way to really make an impact when they finally show their faces, wearing the skin of Rick Grimes would certainly create a lasting and haunting image. For now, though, this is the last we’ll see of Rick Grimes–until he potentially comes back.
That wasn’t the only thing that left jaws on the floor at the end of this episode, though. There was also a flash forward to an older Judith Grimes. While she’s still young–clearly no older than 10–this Judith was walking, talking, and killing zombies. It would make her dad proud, but he’s definitely probably dead.
When a group of people are saved from a small herd, they find this little girl with a sheriff’s hat and a katana strapped to her back is their savior. While this short moment does give hope for the future of the Grimes name, it raises a lot of questions. How did this little girl end up on her own and, more importantly, where’s Michonne? With her surrogate mother’s weapon over her shoulder, it definitely leaves you wondering if she, too, has become just another victim of this horrible world.
As much as this was theoretically the end of a major chapter in The Walking Dead, the story of Rick Grimes, it certainly feels like a new beginning. It will be interesting to see where the show goes from here.
The Walking Dead: Rick’s Final Episode Review
Warning: Full spoilers for Rick’s final episode of The Walking Dead follow…
Hey, that was pretty damn good! And what a nice bit of misdirection during those final minutes too.
Look, I have a lot of questions, as I’m sure you all do too. Most of them have to do with the massive time jump that came at the end. What was that leap? Like, five or six years? That’s the sort of time jump this show needed. But I’ll dive into the jump at the end.
Yes, little did we know that this episode wasn’t just Rick’s farewell, but also a ghostly goodbye to this entire storyline of Walking Dead in general. Because the jump at the end basically, when you break it all down, equals the entire numbers of years we’ve spent in the zompocalypse with all these characters.






