Incoming – July Plus

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

Every time I sit down to write Incoming, I think to myself ‘it’s pretty quiet this month’, moments before I look through the release schedule and realise that publishers have managed to load the coming weeks with (considerably) more games than I was expecting. But barring a couple of cool releases, it turns out that this July really is a quiet time for new titles.

Assuming they can be dragged away from their Animal Crossing towns long enough to care, Nintendo 3DS owners do have two role-playing experiences to look forward to. First up is the tactical Japanese RPG Project X Zone, which features an eclectic mix of characters from Street Fighter, Valkyria Chronicles and many other franchises. If that’s a little too out there for you, Nintendo have you covered with Mario & Luigi: Dream Team Bros., the newest title in the long-running series of witty and irreverent RPGs.

PlayStation Plus continues to deliver content to fill the Summer lull, too. Both European and North American subscribers can now download Battlefield 3, the superb multiplayer first-person shooter from DICE and one of Tony’s favourite games of all time. This is joined by the open-world GTA-parody Saints Row: The Third in Europe, while America gets the re-release of Oddworld: Munch’s Oddysee HD, among others.

You may also notice that I’ve linked to Cube World, an indie game I have been following for almost two years and previously reported on in our news feed. The alpha version of the game was actually briefly available for sale on Tuesday, but made it less than an hour before the servers were slammed into submission. It’s early-days yet, but featuring procedurally-generated worlds and events, beautiful voxel-based landscapes, and action-RPG mechanics that mix facets of Zelda, The Elder Scrolls and World of Warcraft, I predict that developer Wollay is going to be a millionaire.

New Releases (UK)

*Assuming Wollay has fixed his shop…

** Partly developed by former Ready Up alumni!

Upcoming “Instant Games” PS+ Changes (EU)

Current EU Instant Games Collection

Upcoming “Instant Games” PS+ Changes (NA)

Current NA Instant Games Collection