Posted in: Games, Movies, Video Games | Tagged: arkham city, arkham knight, Batman, Devil May Cry 4, Final Fantasy, Heavensward, Metal Slug, planetside 2, rocksteady

Sweet Release! Batman Arkham Knight, Devil May Cry 4: Special Edition, Final Fantasy XIV, Metal Slug, Planetside 2

By Jared Cornelius

Welcome back to Sweet Release!  Bleeding Cool's look at the new video games hitting store shelves this week.  You probably didn't notice, but I got a day off last week from my regular writing duties thanks to the biggest video game trade show of the year.  While I'm always happy to take a bit of time off, I'm even more pleased at the volume of announcements, (backwards compatibility anyone?)  After such a big week you'd think that maybe the industry would take a few weeks for a break but that's not the case as we hit the ground running with one of the summer's biggest games.
The Dark Knight Returns in one of his most anticipated games yet, Batman: Arkham Knight.  After the less than spectacular Batman: Arkham Origins, series originator Rocksteady is back on the job finishing the 3^rd person combat exploration game the way they want.  Set after the events of Arkham City, Scarecrow launches a terror attack that conveniently clears Gotham of innocent bystanders and leaves Batman's rogues gallery free to plot his demise.  The wrinkle is a mysterious new character, the titular Arkham Knight who may be friend or foe to Batman.

Arkham Knight continues the series' open world with an environment purportedly five times larger than Arkham City, and features the Batmobile as a prominent form of transportation and puzzle solving.  Players will get an extra taste of the Bat-family, with the introduction of "duel play" where you can switch between Robin, Nightwing, and Catwoman during combat.  The early word on Arkham Knight is it's great, however I would encourage fans to maybe wait on this one as publisher Warner Bros. has become increasingly notorious for "Game of The Year" editions six months down the line.  With a full blown $40 dollar season pass, retailor exclusive Harley and Red Hood missions, and costume packs, Warner is looking to charge you an arm and a leg for the complete experience.  (*According to Rocksteady the retailor exclusive DLC will be included in the season pass.*)  Batman Arkham Knight released Tuesday for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC.

It wouldn't be a Sweet Release! without a high definition re-release.  This week's entry is Devil May Cry 4: Special Edition from Capcom.  The last "traditional" Devil May Cry, it arrived on last generation consoles back in 2008, making this less offensive than Square Enix re-releasing Final Fantasy X again.  The story is over the top and revolves around Nero, a teenage swordsman in a weird angelic cult church thing.  Don't fret as series regular Dante is playable for a large chunk of the game as well as two familiar unlockable characters, Trish and Lady.  The hook for DMC4 was the addition of the "Devil Bringer" mechanic that launched a huge spectral demon arm at you enemies making for a fun push and pull style of gameplay to go with the break neck sword combat.  The first half of this game is great, but kind of falls off somewhere in the middle, it also fell prey to Capcom's  digital only initiative so no physical copies here in the states.  Devil May Cry 4: Special Edition released Tuesday on PlayStation 4 and Wednesday on Xbox One.

Want to drive your spell check crazy?  Then try writing about the latest expansion to Square Enix's Final Fantasy XVI MMO, entitled "Heavensward".  That's not a typo, it's really called "Heavensward".  Sward being a long field of grass.  (Don't feel bad, I had to look it up)  The massive multiplayer role playing game is getting the standard set of expansion overhauls, including a bumped up level cap, new classes, and areas.  The lore is nigh incomprehensible to the uninitiated but here's the story blurb from Square Enix, "The previously sealed gates to Ishgard open to the inhabitants of Eorzea as the Dragonsong War worsens. This bloody thousand-year conflict between the dragoons of Ishgard and the sentient dragons of Dravania seeks the support of new adventurers to bring an end to the struggle."  If you're curious and looking to go into the series fresh, Square is also releasing a complete edition with both expansions and a thirty day subscription for $60.  Both Final Fantasy XVI Online: The Complete Experience and Heavensward released Tuesday on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3, and PC.

I've been on a real Neo Geo kick lately so I figured I'd tell you about SNK's Metal Slug coming to PC on Tuesday.  The pixelated, squat, shooter neatly mixes elements of Contra, bullet hell, and huge over the top enemies for a delightfully retro experience.  Metal Slug is kind of like fungus, it's everywhere but no one really talks about it all that much.  You can pick up the original on PC this Tuesday or PlayStation 4 and Vita where it was released a few weeks ago.

Finally this week if you don't want to spend any cash and still get a big console release, Planetside 2 comes to PlayStation 4.  The massive multiplayer online game mixes elements from Battlefield, Warcraft, and Team Fortress into the sci-fi first person shooter.  A sequel to the 2003 game, Planetside 2 is abandoning the subscription model in favor of free to play elements.  There's no telling how well it will work at launch, or how gross the microtransactions will be, but the developers claim they're not shooting for pay to win.  Planetside 2 released Tuesday on PlayStation 4.

That's all for this week folks.  You can check out my interview with Chris Warner in the latest issue of Bleeding Cool Magazine.  I also do a Walking Dead recap called Typing on The Dead, where I run down the latest issue.  Finally I wrote a new column called The Torture Rack, where I review terrible comics for your amusement.

Jared Cornelius is some guy from the Jersey coast who's waiting on the sprinkler guy.  If you can get him to my house faster, contact my @John_Laryngitis on Twitter.

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