By Nelson Schneider - 11/28/15 at 02:33 PM CT
Ah, December… the month that shall be known as “X-Mas” to future generations (at least if “Futurama” has any kind of prescience). To contemporary humans – and especially contemporary human gamers – it is a month for piling on a bunch of purchases and acquisitions-via-gifts to make our backlogs grow as fat as free-range Hobbits. Ironically, December is usually a weak month for new releases, and this year is no exception.
There isn’t much in the way of new shovelware dropping on our heads as the year comes to a close. In fact, the only scheduled release of licensed garbage we have to look forward to this month is a delayed release from last month: “Kung Fu Panda: Showdown of Legendary Legends” (seriously, if publishers are going to produce barely-playable licensed garbage, they could at least be bothered to release it on time… it’s not like the delay will suddenly make this type of game suck less).
There are two new ‘legit’ multi-platform releases coming in December, but unfortunately we’re falling back into the dismal pattern of “AAA” releases that started in the 7th Gen where every damned one of them is an uninspired First-Person Shooter. In December, Ubisoft is bringing us a new ‘Tom Clancy’ game entitled “Rainbow Six Siege,” which is some sort of online PvP-centric pile. The other December title is “Just Cause 3,” brought to us by Square-Enix… and I will NEVER get used to what was once the two best RPG developers publishing mainstream-pandering schlock like this.
Exclusives are looking strong-ish for December, but only on certain platforms. PC is getting “Tick: The Time-Based Puzzle Game” (mercifully not based on “The Tick” comic character), and of course all of the gobs and gobs of unpredictable Indie releases that always end up making my Steam wishlist grow. Sony is giving some attention to all of its platforms. The PS4 is getting a new ‘Earth Defense Force’ title (and so is the Vita, but I think the Vita one was due for release a while back), while the PS3 and Vita are getting “The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel,” a follow-up to the multi-platform “Trails in the Sky,” and a shocking development for a platform cluttered with terrible RPGs while nearly devoid of good ones. The XBONE is getting NOTHING as it deserves. The WiiU, on the other hand, is getting probably its last two non-Nintendo releases, Monolith Soft’s “Xenoblade Chronicles X” and Valhalla Games’ “Devil’s Third” (both, of course, published by Nintendo).
And that’s it! Not many releases this month, but two that I will likely be picking up. I wasn’t a huge fan of the original “Xenoblade Chronicles,” and I doubt I’ll like “Xenoblade X” much more, but it’s better than a sharp stick in the eye. Likewise, I won’t know if “Trails of Cold Steel” is worth picking up until I’ve had a chance to (buy and ) play through “Trails in the Sky” and “Trails in the Sky: Second Chapter” on Steam/GOG, but I’ll be keeping an eye on it (for PS3) regardless.
Backlog Embiggened: +2
