Image: PlayStation Studios
We’re looking forward to playing Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 this week. How about you?
The wheel of time has turned, and it is Monday once more. Last week saw a lot of excitement in the games industry as Microsoft acquired Activision Blizzard and Steam Next Fest returned with hundreds of game demos. This week looks to continue that trend, with the launch of two big games I’m very much looking forward to, and some cool little TV shows I really want to check out. Here’s the kicker: most of them are coming out on the same day!
New games out this week
Truly, it’s an embarrassment of riches. Everything kicks off on October 20 when the first and arguably most anticipated of these titles finally reaches our hands: Marvel’s Spider-Man 2. Good grief, I am pumped to play this game. Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart was a gorgeous dimension-hopping adventure, but I’m eager to get back into the swing of things (heh) with Pete and Miles as they take on the Lizard, Sandman, Mysterio, Kraven and Venom as New York comes close to destruction once again.
I have to be honest, though: I’ve never been a fan of the symbiote storyline. Venom as a character certainly has its merits, but I’m talking about Peter getting infected, aggravating his friends and then having to do an apology tour for acting under the influence of an alien symbiote. I feel like I’ve seen this storyline play out a hundred different ways in a hundred different TV shows, movies, comicbooks and games, so I’m not too excited to see this version of Peter go through the same thing. Still, I have confidence that Insomniac has more up its sleeves when it comes to the main campaign.
What else? Oh yes, there’s Super Mario Bros. Wonder, also out on October 20. This weird return to the era of side-scrolling Mario games manages to be weird in a very appealing way. Mario and friends explore the Flower Kingdom on yet another quest, with the red-costumed plumber taking heaps of psychedelic Wonder Flowers along the way that have strange effects on the environment. They can cause pipes to come alive, spawn mobs of enemies and even change the way other characters look. They’re drugs, basically. Mario is taking drugs.
More TV shows out this week
In the words of Wong in She-Hulk: “We’re really in an era of peak TV.” On October 19, an animated series called Scavengers Reign hits HBO Max, following a crew of a damaged deep space freighter who are stranded on a beautiful but dangerous planet. The series takes inspiration from the surrealistic art of comics creator Jean ‘Moebius’ Giraud, whose work you might also find traces of in games like Sable. It’s not just the gorgeous art and animation that draws me in however, but the melancholy tone and sci-fi imagery seen in its trailer. Animation really knocks my socks off sometimes.
On October 20 (an increasingly packed day), Upload returns to Amazon Prime Video for a third season, following a man who uploads his consciousness to a digital afterlife upon death - only to discover his new virtual reality is not at all what it seems. If you’re not into that, you might as well check out Captain Laserhawk: A Blood Dragon Remix on Netflix the preceding day. This animated series is a loose adaptation of Ubisoft’s Far Cry 3 expansion Blood Dragon, with cyberpunk imagery to spare and also Rayman, for whatever reason.
That’s all the new stuff coming out this week, but that doesn’t mean I’m not indulging in weeklies too. The Boys’ spin-off Gen V seems to get better and bloodier each week, Loki Season 2 is shaping up to be the best series Marvel Studios has put out in ages, and Jujutsu Kaisen Season 2 is just mandatory watching at this point. I get pelted with spoilers whenever I miss an episode!
… And yes, I’m still playing Baldur’s Gate 3. It never ends! What about you? What are you playing and/or watching?
