Noteworthy February 2016 Game Releases

With the shortest month of the year right around the corner, February doesn't seem to be lacking for interesting game releases, especially for PC. I remember a time when the first three or four months of the year were nothing but tumbleweeds rolling by as game web sites licked their wounds from having to review dozens of games in short succession in the run-up to Christmas. Memories...

Anyway, looking at the games due out next month there are quite a few that stick out for me. As much as I'd like to play them all, time and my wallet won't be having any of that. Nonetheless, let's take a moment to look at some of the stand out titles due out then, at least the ones I'm interested in and know I should probably avoid so to whittle down my backlog instead.

Tales of Symphonia

While I've not religiously followed the series, I do enjoy picking up Tales of games every now and then. They have nice, light stories that feel like something out of an anime series and tend to sport fairly interesting combat systems. Missing out on Symphonia was something that I'd always regretted, especially when the Wii game's price started going up on auction sites as folks realized it was a bit rare and in-demand. Now, with it getting ported to PC there's a chance at getting the thing at a reasonable price, assuming Bamco doesn't get greedy.

Arslan: The Warriors of Legend

An anime where big armies face off against one another? Sounds like the ingredients for a musou game. Tecmo Keoi certainly seem to think so. Musou's gonna musou, so I suspect fans of the genre will keep an eye on this one while the haters will keep on hating. It looks pretty nice visually, and the folks at Famitsu rated it reasonably well with all eights, so I guess it plays reasonably well. I'm not in a rush to pick up the game myself having recently binged on some Dynasty Warriors, but could see myself being tempted by it at a Steam sale.

XCOM 2

Part of me is genuinely a bit annoyed that this game broke with tradition and put a number after "XCOM". That's just not how these things are done. We've had Enforcer, Interceptor, Terror from the Deep, and a bunch of others. Those are interesting. Engaging. Sexy. "2"? Not so much. I'm sure this won't be enough to stop folks from grabbing this day one and embarking on another adventure to save earth from an alien threat, marveling at just how bad some of their units aim is. "The thing is right in front of you! Why do you keep missing?!?"

American Truck Simulator

Before Euro Truck Simulator 2, I had no idea that I could fall in love with big rigs and drive them like proper semis. Previously, the only time I'd play a game with such a vehicle in it was in GTA or Twisted Metal because the things were big, heavy, and could wreck carnage with ease. As it turns out, these mighty vehicles can also haul freight across vast distances and the whole process can be extremely relaxing. I even developed a new found respect for backing up trailers and roundabouts while playing that game. Soon, we'll be heading to the even vaster, though less roundabout-intensive, United States where the highways are numbered and roll on for miles. Will there be opportunities of raunchy rendezvous in remote rural restrooms as players embark on long, transcontinental hauls? Only time will tell, but even if there isn't maybe someone can patch it in with Steam Workshop or something.

Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc

This has been out for ages on the Vita, but it's heading to the PC in February, which has caught my attention. A visual novel that combines Battle Royale and Phoenix Wright, high school students try to get away with murder in order to escape the facility they've been trapped in by a sadistic robot bear. You don't see a premise like that every day.

Street Fighter V

After several years of dominating the fighting game scene, it's finally time to put Street Fighter IV out to pasture and bring in number five. It's Street Fighter, so most people have a pretty good idea of what to expect here and those in the know have been playing the beta for months now. I'm just happy to see a mountain man Ryu skin. There will also be a lot of other outfits, as that's the thing folks demand in a fighting game nowadays. So, if you want to see Chun Li, Laura, and the gang oozing out of their clothing, that'll be an option. Personally, I'm holding out for a Rufus outfit that does this.

Disgaea PC

Miss console strategy RPGs of the early 2000s? Like grinding out hundreds of levels on each of your characters? This may be a game to consider. Disgaea getting a PC port is quite the pleasant surprise, as it's something that I don't think anyone was expecting, but here we are. It's a solid game with a fun, lighthearted, and often rather humorous story. What I want to know is if we'll see more of these games if this one does well. There are tons of Disgaea games, as well as stuff like La Pucelle, Phantom Brave, and Makai Kingdom. I'm kind of hoping that this game succeeds and opens the flood gates for other titles in the genre.

Project X Zone 2

Sometimes when franchises crossover we can be in for a fun ride as popular characters team up. I was hoping this would be the case in the original Project X Zone, but found it got bogged down by trying to introduce too many characters. It got to the point where the first few hours of the game felt like the fight scenes from the Anchor Man movies with its cavalcade of cameos. By the sound of things, the sequel will be addressing this with a more fleshed out story which happens to focus a lot on Ryo from the Shenmue series. On top of this, the game will still have the interesting team-based combat system of the first PxZ, so it could be one to watch.

Fire Emblem: Fates

It's finally almost time for a new Fire Emblem game (February really is a great month for fans of strategy games and RPGs). Combat is shaping up to be what one would expect from the series with characters gaining an affinity for one another, permadeath, and all that good stuff. Interestingly, or expensively depending on how you look at it, the game is being split into separate editions. Each of these will focus on a different country in the game as war breaks out. There will be a lot to do in each version of the game, as they clock in at around 30 hours each, but it'll be interesting to see how sales do for the game with Nintendo trying this unconventional means of release out.

Spike Chunsoft Planning More PC Ports: Speculation Time!

The other day word got out that Danganronpa would be coming to PC via Steam in February and people were rather taken aback / pleasantly surprised by the news. It's a well-regarded visual novel that is a cross between Battle Royale and Phoenix Wright where students are trapped in their high school and the only way to escape is to kill one of their classmates and get away with it. First debuting on the Vita, the series has quite the cult following now, so this port is happy news indeed.

Now, word is getting out that the game's developer, Spike Chunsoft, are planning to bring more of their games to PC. The question, though, is which ones because they have a lot of them and many are quite good.

I suspect most folks will be clamoring for Zero Escape since that's the company's other big series. These had people trapped in a facility trying to escape as well, with a pronounced split between the visual novel and adventure elements of the games. If these games do come to PC, one of the questions on a lot of people's minds will be whether the 999 port is of the DS or iOS version of the game. If it's the latter, I can see some people having mixed feelings about it, but this is all idle speculation at this point.

After this, it's a hodgepodge of titles that seem plausible for release on Steam given that they mostly had Vita versions and that platform has been seeing a lot of PC ports over the last year or so. Games of this ilk that could come over include Exist Archive, a JRPG with some rather charming art, Shiren the Wanderer 5, which would make a lot of sense given how popular rogue-likes are these days, and the two Conception games.

It's really starting to look like Japanese developers are throwing the doors wide open for getting their games on Steam with all of these announcements of late, and now Spike Chunsoft expressing enthusiasm for it. My gut tells me that Zero Escape will be the other series that they focus on bringing over, but it's tough to say for certain given some of the very unexpected PC ports we've been getting. I'm not complaining, though, as I love these sorts of games. The more Japanese games we get on Steam, the better.

Interesting Leaks from the Steam Help Desk (FFX / FFX-2 HD, Guilty Gear Xrd -SIGN-, Half Life 3)

Some folks have managed to get their mitts on some interesting data from Steam's Help Desk, suggesting a number of titles that may be coming to the platform in the not so distant future. Some of the more interesting games to appear on it include the HD remakes of Final Fantasy X and X-2, Guilty Gear Xrd - SIGN -, and Ty the Tasmanian Tiger 1-3. Both Danganronpa games also appear to be getting ports to PC.

Of course, the big stand out was data suggesting Half Life 3, but this just makes me question the validity of the whole leak. It just sounds too good to be true with this on it. Who hasn't wanted a new Half Life for the better part of forever as we patiently wait and watch Valve seemingly work on anything and everything but this. It's like the old poster Agent Mulder had in his office that read "I want to believe" except we replace the UFOs with Gordon Freeman.

Still, I'll at least raise an eyebrow and watch to see what happens here. Most of the other stuff sounds completely plausible. Square-Enix haven't been squeamish about bringing all of their Final Fantasy games to Steam, and I've been wondering when Guilty Gear Xrd would come along (Battle Fantasia is on Steam now for crying out loud), Danganronpa would make sense when one considers how many Vita ports have hit Steam of late, and Ty the Tasmanian Tiger, while unexpected, certainly doesn't seem like an unusual title to transition over.

The only big question mark is Half Life 3. So, all we can do is take a wait and see approach, watching whether any of these games really do appear on Steam or if it was all just a poorly informed rumor.