Prime Gaming – January 2024

New year, same tripe Jeffrey? Well, I had hoped that there would have been something worth picking up during December to make up for whatever we’d get this month, but did it happen? No. Of course, you can pick up all the stuff from WoW, Overwatch 2, F1 23, Cyberpunk 2077, Dead by Daylight, and many other piles of absolute crap that are made Prime exclusive as a result of FOMO. You have to be a special brand of stupid to be excited by a “free-to-play” NFT game like My Pet Hooligan, but here we are.

We go from dullards to eco-conscious adventure titles, i.e. the indie game Daily Special. Endling – Extinction is Forever is another one of those games where you push in whatever direction you are told and avoid the dangers, this time with a fox and her cubs. Taylor was far more favorable with his take on it than I have been. Despite its overwhelmingly positive reviews, I’m still left to be sold on yet another story-driven “press right to continue” adventure even if the art is very nice and the story is something we should all care about.

Both Endling and our next game are available through the Amazon Games App. This next one is available from the 11th, and hopefully, I can stop getting press releases every two weeks now for Apico? It could be argued that Apico is another eco-friendly thing as it is all about conserving bees, one creature we truly do need to conserve. A bit more sandbox/management, Apico sets you loose to beekeeping in a laid-back style, researching and nurturing many forms of bees. Great stuff!

At this point, we’re effectively digging under the barrel because we’ve scraped it far too much. The next game is Atari Mania. Available from the 18th via the Epic Games Store, this rather rushed-looking title from 2022 is an Atari (SA) grab-bag of “look, we’re the same Atari as the one you heard about, don’t go looking, we’re being honest.” No, this Atari is the one that used to be called Infogrames, and in recent times dove head-first into blockchain, free-to-play, and stated that Atari would return to the console market. The game itself is a trite look at the Atari of the 70s-80s.

Ok, I’ve calmed down. I’m sure the month will end on a high, something big and interesting to stop me from swearing in French. Yars: Recharged is another remaster of an Atari classic from 1982– pour l’amour de Dieu! Available via the Epic Games Store, you can pick up this attempt for Atari SA to gain good favor by remastering old stuff from the 25th. I’m sure you won’t because you’ll have forgotten it and won’t care by then, which is a sane decision.

To save some of us from bashing our skulls off of brick walls in frustration as Jeffrey raises his prices for Prime in some places, you might want to head over to the Epic Games Store. As I write and for a few days after this article is published, the “ghost train ride” that is Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy is free on the Epic Games Store. In recent years post-whatever is going on with the MCU, this is about as much favor as Marvel has gotten for a while. It is also generally favored by fans of the Marvel brand and Guardians of the Galaxy.