Incoming – To August and Beyond

Welcome back to our feature where we aim to highlight the new releases that that our readers might be interested in!

After the traditionally quiet Summer months of June and July, August usually ups the release rate as we move into the holidays. This year is no exception; in fact, there’s so many new games coming out that it’s hard for me to recommend something for everyone! To start with, Nintendo fans have new Pokémon and Mario games to play on their shiny 3DS XLs, which has made its debut here almost a full month before the USA. At the other end of the spectrum, we have Sleeping Dogs, the spiritual (and at one point literal) successor to True Crime, arriving on the 17th of August courtesy of Square-Enix London and United Front Games.

The Summer resurgence of Xbox Live Arcade titles concludes with a trifecta of original games, all of which will be out by the middle of August. There’s the post-apocalyptic, survival-horror platformer Deadlight; first-person shooter Hybrid, from the same studio who brought us Scribblenauts; and Dust: An Elysian Tail, an action-RPG which originally started as a one-man indie project and has blossomed into a full XBLA title.

Finally, role-playing fans will be absolutely spoiled for choice come the end of the month. The sequel to Zelda/God of War homage Darksiders should be hitting most platforms on the 21st, while on the 24th we have an updated version of Dark Souls arriving on the PC. For some players, though, all of this will pale in comparison to the release of Guild Wars 2, the follow-up to 2004’s subscription-free online RPG. Having been blown away by the “dynamic event” elements of the game during the final beta event weekend, I can see why everyone is so excited!