An interesting stop-motion game and Amazon’s TV adaptation of Fallout both drop this week.
Fallout fans are going to have to contend with a lengthy leave of absence for the game franchise, seeing as Bethesda’s already getting knee-deep in making Elder Scrolls 6. Fortunately, Amazon Prime Video’s TV adaptation of Fallout drops this week, and it’s going to be a wild, violent ride if it turns out anything like the games it’s based on.
Here’s what we’re playing and watching this week.
What are we playing?
First up is a game that looks like a more wholesome version of What Remains of Edith Finch: Botany Manor (April 9). In this first-person gardening game, you play as Arabella Greene, a retired botanist living in a stately home in 19th century England. Here, you will explore the estate and read books to learn about forgotten flora, while caring for strange plants in the name of science.
We’ve also got our eye on Harold Halibut (April 16), a handmade narrative game set in a city-sized spaceship submerged in an alien ocean. By handmade, we do mean handmade - the game uses puppets and real-life dioramas to bring its locations and characters to life. That’s certainly not something you see every day!
Also worth mentioning is Grounded, Obsidian Entertainment’s multiplayer survival game that happens to be one of the few Xbox exclusives to quit being exclusive this year. Its shrunk-down survival hijinks will move to PlayStation 5 and Nintendo Switch on April 16.
What are we watching?
Amazon Prime Video’s TV adaptation of the RPG franchise Fallout drops its entire eight-episode first season on April 11. In case you’re unfamiliar with the games, the series is set in the aftermath of a worldwide nuclear war. A select few survivors were shuttled into bunkers called Vaults during the nuclear apocalypse, and the series follows one such survivor who has only ever known the walls of her Vault: Lucy MacLean. When Lucy leaves the Vault to explore the dangerous wasteland outside, however, she learns that things up top operate on a very different set of rules than what she’s used to.
HBO’s The Sympathizer also premieres on April 14, following a North Vietnam plant in the South Vietnam army. After fleeing to the United States with his general towards the end of the Vietnam War, he continues to secretly spy on the community and report back to the Viet Cong. Hoa Xuande stars as the protagonist while Robert Downey Jr. stars as not one, not two, not even three, but multiple different antagonists.
