Posted in: Movies, Recent Updates, Video Games | Tagged: activision, Akiba's Trip: Undead & Undressed, Double Fine, entertainment, Geometry Wars 3, Goat Simulator MMO, Massive Chalice, Persona Q, Steam, video games

Sweet Release! Massive Chalice, Goat Simulator MMO, Geometry Wars 3, Akiba's Trip: Undead & Undressed, Persona Q

By Jared Cornelius

Welcome back to Sweet Release! Bleeding Cool's one stop shop for freshly released video games.  It's hard to believe the end of the month is here already and the seasonal holidays are at our doorstep.  You should be reading this a day or so before American Thanksgiving so I'm sure our friends at retail are battening down the hatches for the impending marketplace onslaught.  With that in mind we've more or less hit critical mass for the year's biggest titles, being that publishers want the triple A tent pole games out for Black Friday.  This week I'm coasting to the finish line, pulling a couple of releases that slipped through the cracks and supplementing it with a couple of niche anime games, a revived favorite from last gen, and another Kickstarter success from Double Fine leading us off.

First up this week is Double Fine's take on the strategy genre, with Massive Chalice.  Another of their crowd funding success stories, Massive Chalice is one part Game of Thrones, one part Fire Emblem wrapped up in the loving embrace of Double Fine's cartoonish sensibilities.  Taking place over the span of 300 years, players control the game as an immortal king choosing a set of characters and building their army around their warriors unique "Bloodlines".  Heroes will age over the course of the story and will eventually be paired with other characters to start a family, ensuring the next generation of your army.  With a 300 year time span, players are asked to look at the long term ramifications of their actions, including strategy staples like perma-death and includes hooks like weapons becoming treasured heirlooms and relics.  The games currently in Steam Early Access, so don't expect all the features to be available yet.  Massive Chalice is available right now on Steam and is getting some very positive feedback early on despite not being finished.

Way back in April, I wrote a tiny blurb on a little game called Goat Simulator from  Coffee Stain Studios.  Well to my sheer joy, Coffee Stain have released a free downloadable content update for the title called, Goat Simulator MMO.  The original game tasks you with destroying the world as a goat, chaining destruction together like a weird barnyard Tony Hawk, but this version is poking a little fun at the recently released World of Warcraft expansion.  Goat Simulator MMO features 5 different character classes, including microwave!  A level cap of 101, barnyard animal warfare, and best of all is totally free if you own Goat Simulator classic.  It's totally bananas in all the right ways and you should go get it right now because it launched last week on Steam.

Activision is reviving a revered launch title this week with Geometry Wars 3: Dimensions.  The twin stick shooter is being branded under their new Sierra "indie games" initiative with Activision truly testing the boundaries of the word indie.  The games keeping with the series classic sensibilities while adding a ton of new functionality, including 50 challenge stages, boss battles, and online competitive co-op.  The series is also showcasing 3D arenas that operate similarly to Super Mario Galaxy with the levels being presented in different maneuverable plains.  Geometry Wars was a huge hit for the Xbox 360 and was considered a killer app when the system launched, so relive the golden age of 2006!  I should note that it's not being made by series originators Bizarre Creations, but is being worked on by developers from the defunct studio.  Geometry Wars 3: Dimensions released Tuesday for PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, PC, Xbox 360, and Xbox One.

If stripping anime people is your thing, Akiba's Trip: Undead & Undressed may be for you.  Taking place in a Japan of all places, you get turned into a vampire called a "Synthesizer" and do battle with other "synthesizers" by tearing off their clothes.  Besides that weird mechanic the game does feature a fleshed out Akihabra district of Japan, with real life shops recreated in game.  The games combat is brawling based and does feature a large array of weapons to start the stripping.  While Akiba's Trip has been available on the PlayStation 3 and Vita for a few months, the PlayStation 4 release does come with a few exclusive features including a toy-box mode, and visual editor.  I'd been informed when this came out last time that you can choose your gender, not sure if that makes it any less creepy but I figured I'd through it in.  Akiba's Trip: Undead & Undressed released Tuesday for PlayStation 4, and is also available on PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Vita.

In other incomprehensible anime games, Japanese role playing game publisher Atlus is releasing Persona Q: Shadow of The Labyrinth.  I should just link to the Wikipedia page, but I'll give it my best summary.  High school age kids can summons familiars called "Personas" to help them do battle with an ongoing demon invasion at their school.  Persona Q is supposedly less ridged than its console counterparts with players being  granted control over the entire party and the ability to switch between Personas.  The art style is making the most of the handheld hardware by using the popular "chibi" or tiny and cute version of the characters from Persona 3 and Persona 4.    The series was a hit on the PlayStation 2 and PlayStation 3 and has developed a bit of a cult following on  American shores spawning sequels an anime series, even a fighting game so there's plenty of Persona to go around.  Persona Q: Shadow of The Labyrinth released Tuesday on Nintendo 3/2DS.

A bit of housekeeping news, next week will likely be the last new release calendar for the year, but Sweet Release! will return in the new year.  Look for some supplementary end of the year content to tide you over until then.  My other regular column, Typing on The Dead: Bleeding Cool's Walking Dead recap, will continue on schedule and got a new entry a few weeks ago.  You should also go read the All-New Live From The Comic Shop written live every Wednesday by our very own Christine Marie at Conquest Comics in Bayville NJ.

Jared Cornelius is some guy from New Jersey's coast who's looking forward to some down time.  If you'd like to get down, contact him on Twitter @John_Laryngitis

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