Welcome to The Reticule’s Sunday spectacular, Our Week in Games. This has been a surprisingly busy week in the games industry, while I haven’t come across any Games Industry Dramas, there have been some serious goings on. The new Doom was revealed at QuakeCon while Microsoft announced drastic job cuts and the closure of the Xbox Entertainment studios. Big things to muse over while we talk about what our past week in games involved. …
Welcome to The Reticule’s definitive roundup of gaming releases throughout September 2013. All release dates stated are for the EU, across all currently available platforms. Keep this page bookmarked for easy access, as we will link all previews and reviews when we post them on the site.
Still catching up with this months games? August’s release schedule can be found here.
3rd Total War: Rome II
PC
Become the world’s first superpower and command the most incredible and vast war machine of the Ancient world. Dominate the enemies of your glorious empire by military, economic and political means. Your rise will bring admiration from your followers but will also attract greed and jealousy, even from your closest allies. Will betrayal strike you down, or will you be the first to turn on old friends? How much are you ready to sacrifice for your vision of Rome? Will you fight to save the Republic, or plot to rule alone as Dictator — as Emperor?
Diablo III
PS3, Xbox 360
Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons
PS3
Rayman Legends
PC
4th Killzone: Mercenary
PSV
6th Farming Simulator 2013
PS3, Xbox 360
Dead or Alive 5 Ultimate
PS3, Xbox 360
Football Director
PC
Final Exam
PC
I Am Alive
PC
10th The Sims 3 Movie Stuff Pack
PC
11th DuckTales Remastered
Xbox 360
12th Arma III
PC
ARMA 3 is set in the near-future during the mid-2030s, where NATO forces deployed in the Greek islands of the Aegean Sea are trying to hold off a massive Iranian military offensive from the east. During the singleplayer campaign, the player will take the role of a British Special Forces soldier, Captain Scott Miller. Initially, the player must survive on their own after friendly forces are defeated in a failed NATO operation. During the campaign, the player will face everything from lone wolf infiltration missions to the commanding of large scale armored operations. The player will also be able to choose different objectives and weaponry (such as UAVs, artillery, and air support) according to their play style.
Los Santos: a sprawling sun-soaked metropolis full of self-help gurus, starlets and fading celebrities, once the envy of the Western world, now struggling to stay afloat in an era of economic uncertainty and cheap reality TV. Amidst the turmoil, three very different criminals plot their own chances of survival and success: Franklin, a street hustler looking for real opportunities and serious money; Michael, a professional ex-con whose retirement is a lot less rosy than he hoped it would be; and Trevor, a violent maniac driven by the chance of a cheap high and the next big score. Running out of options, the crew risks everything in a series of daring and dangerous heists that could set them up for life.
MechWarrior Online
PC
18th Dragon’s Prophet
PC
19th Angry Birds Star Wars II
iOS
20th Pro Evolution Soccer 2014
PS3, Xbox 360
Recovery: Search and Rescue Simulation
PC
24th Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows
PS3
25th Pac-Man Championship Edition DX+
PC
26th Train Simulator 2014
PC
27th FIFA 14
PC, PS3, Xbox 360
Career mode in Fifa 14 has been revamped. Additions include a Global Scouting Network through most countries, which allows hiring a scout to search for talent all season from various clubs globally. The Career Mode hub navigation has also been redesigned, with fewer interruptions and live scouting reports. Managers are now able to develop, build and refine their network of scouts, gathering details on the attributes and traits of players. This way of playing Career Mode also moves away from the concept of player overall rating as an on-demand metric of a player’s abilities. Instead, communication with scouts determines what type of player is wished.
Before the inevitable zombie plague swept the planet, ArmA 2 was a place of peace and security. Ok, perhaps that’s not altogether true, but there were definitely less dead people. Less dead people still wandering about, that is. Beyond the mad success of its mod-child, DayZ, the ArmA franchise has long existed as a niche product. Foregoing the CoD approach in favour of long walks followed by even longer periods of being dead, ArmA has always valued realism over accessibility. Now, with ArmA3 rapidly approaching from the front, a surprise flank attack from ArmA 2 has been released on Steam in the form of the Army of the Czech Republic DLC.
I’m a grizzled veteran of many fictional wars. Chernarus, Everon, Takistan, I’ve fought across them all through a long campaign that’s lasted from Operation Flashpoint to Arma-2. When Iron Front: Liberation 1944 was announced, I was happy to accept the call to relive the enormous and ferocious battles of the eastern front.
As an ArmA veteran, I had a fair idea what to expect: a complicated interface hiding a detailed simulation of large scale combat. What I wasn’t expecting was just how disappointing Iron Front would turn out to be.
It is quite impressive to see a relatively realistic game like ARMA 2 find itself on the receiving end of work from the Project Reality mod team. These are the guys who have been working on the very impressive Battlefield 2 mod, and they have very recently released the first beta for their Project Reality mod for ARMA 2. …