Prime Gaming – July 2024

I’m not even going to entertain the idea that I care at this point, Jeffrey can fly his ship into the eye of the sun for all I care. I would say as always but that seems to be coming to an end, you can pick up the tripe for Lost Ark (still a horrible logo), Madden NFL 24, EA Sports FC 24, Battlefield 2042, Apex Legends, and EA Sports UFC 5. If you’re looking for other forms of tripe, you can get Prime-exclusive daily challenges for Waffle, Nerdle, Framed, and more. Oh well, nothing was lost. Let’s talk about Prime Gaming in the weeks ahead!

With the new mid-monthly refresh it seems we’ve got a lot to cover, some of which has already been available for a couple of days. We’ll start with Tripwire and Sweet Bandits Studios’ 2023 multiplayer ’em up, Deceive Inc. One part social game to another part hero shooter, there is an attempt to blend the two as you and twelve players all seek the game goal, get the golden briefcase, and get out. Available through the Epic Games Store, you’ll need to have the patience of a saint or swear like a child as Deceive Inc. is obviously online PVP only.

Do you want to be like Rishi Sunak in a couple of weeks? That is to say jobless but still be richer than royalty. Well, that’s the point of Power Struggle Games and Fellow Traveller’s 2021 satirical title, The Invisible Hand. You are effectively a stockbroker at a company called FERIOS, which is legitimate and not actively trying to trickle down economic death and destruction of the planet. Available through the Amazon Games App, you can pick The Invisible Hand right now.

Also available now but you won’t pick up is Tearstone: Thieves of the Heart. My Total Biscuit senses are tingling and I think he’s right, it might just be a cheap hidden object game available through Legacy Games. “The Heart of Tearstone has gone missing! Climb aboard and hold on tight for a challenging and enchanting Puzzle Adventure game for the ages!,” the Steam page notes. My questions are, “aboard what?” and, “are you on meth?” The only thing challenging and enchanting is my ability to get a full paragraph out of this.

GOG this time for what is also available right now in the form of Call of Juarez. Before making Dead Island and Dying Light, Techland’s 2006 title didn’t really come across my radar at the time of its release and I don’t think it crossed many, releasing after the poor Red Dead Revolver from Rockstar. Having moderate success, the series spawned two bland sequels and the 2013 release which everyone knows the series for because it was stylized and amazing.

The Steam description notes, “The highly popular and quirky ‘idle game that you want to actively keep playing’.” HopFrog’s Forager is available from the 27th of June. While I remember being somewhat interested in Forager at some point, the top-down 2D survival-crafting title with heavy influences from Stardew Valley and Zelda really isn’t as exciting as it was in 2019. Build, craft, and explore, as you always do in these games. Available through GOG, you’ll have to wait until the 27th for this one.

I’ve spoken about Nerial a lot lately, though not talking about The Crush House this time I’ll get to talk about the studio’s 2022 title, Card Shark. Stylized up the rear end, you play as a tongue-less vagrant in a group of characters seeking to cheat the riches out of 18th-century French nobility.

You do so by playing card games. Well, technically you don’t play the card games, you do the mini-games to cheat as Card Shark skips past the actual playing of the card games. Mostly through quick-time events and other timed/skilled ways of shuffling decks, shifting blame, and otherwise. Available from the 27th through Epic, Card Shark seems the most interesting of the offerings.

“Heaven Dust 2 is a love letter to classic survival horror games featuring exploration, action, puzzles, and resource management.” That’s what we’re calling Resident Evil now, classic? More isometric and a hell of a lot more cartoonish, Heaven Dust 2 is the 2022 sequel to 2019’s Heaven Dust. Coming from developer One Gruel Studio and Chinese publisher Indienova, if anything is making me second guess Heaven Dust 2 it is its strange art direction making everyone look like a child in their parent’s clothes. Available through the Amazon Games App, this is the penultimate game of the 27th.

Previously available through Epic late last year, the hack-and-slash tale of “two sisters in a coming-of-age dark fantasy” is available again for those who missed it. As I said last time when I covered Soulstice, “Combat is supposedly the highlight, but if you are not a fan of Devil May Care violence, it is broken up with not-so-interesting platforming and secret hunting.” For a more in-depth set of thoughts, you are probably best to check out Mike’s review of Reply Game Studios’ 2022 title here.

Shifting to a Wednesday now (because sure, why not), the world has gone to pot and you have to dig for resources starting July 3rd. No, that’s not a dismal outlook on the UK General Election, in Wall World all of humanity has shifted to live on the side of a massive wall, only leaving the community to explore and gather resources in spider tanks. Part Rogue-like to part tower defense, you’ll “fight off hordes of monsters, and discover exotic biomes in-between attacks.” Available through the Amazon Games App, Alawar’s 2023 title has interesting ideas going for it.

From interesting ideas to thoughts that should never have been released for public consumption, Hitman: Absolution. I don’t have to say much else, this was the Hitman that was so gritty and utterly crap that it had the series die and return in an episodic fashion. To say I hate Hitman: Absolution would be an understatement, I take childish glee kicking it in the ribs as it falls down a flight of stairs I’ve pushed it down. Available with a GOG code from the 3rd of July, I’d rather print a barcode on my head and be cavity searched by the security in Tesco.

Oh please tell me in the next round I get to talk about the very 2011 brand of sequel set around Mexican drug cartels that followed Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood. Also available through GOG on the 3rd, you can pick up the 2009 title Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood, a paint-by-numbers sequel that does just enough to keep going in the direction the original game set out on but also is enough to be moderately entertaining. Of course greatly superseded a year after its release by Red Dead Revolver‘s own sequel, Grand Theft Horse.

Are you stuck in the 80s, hate modern gaming conventions, and like mutated Red-Eared Sliders? From the 11th you’ll be able to claim Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge for Epic via Prime. I said it a lot during this year’s faux-E3, but I’ve never been one for the 2D side-scrolling beat ’em up genre, and if you were ever going to do a TMNT game that’s exactly what you’d make. I’m not saying Tribute Games’ 2022 title is bad or you shouldn’t be interested, but it certainly isn’t my go-to title for the 11th of July.

Oh yippie, I need to figure out what to talk about when it comes to a 2004 Xbox title from the then-new studio Obsidian, STAR WARS Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords. Built around the Dungeons and Dragons D20 system, it is yet another Obsidian-made and Chris Avellone-written title that will feel extremely dated, especially after getting used to Baldur’s Gate 3. If you’re a Star Wars fan, you’ll have a blast, and if not, you can find more modern examples that have done the RPG genre much more favor. Available from the 11th through the Amazon Games App.

If that wasn’t your brand of nostalgia, a remake of the 1986 platformer from Kotaro Hayashida might be in the form of Alex Kidd in Miracle World DX. At one point described as “Sega’s answer to Mario,” I can burst your bubble and say you won’t be “glued to your screen for hours on end.” On average it is a whole three hours you’ll be there for, and arguably better platformers have come along since. Claimed through Epic via Prime, you can pick up Merge Games and Jankenteam’s remake of Sega’s classic from the 11th.

Finally, a Rogue-lite action game that looks interesting and we’re ending on it, Samurai Bringer. Playing as the kami (god/goddess in Japanese mythology), Susanoo-no-Mikoto, you have to build up Susanoo’s powers as you have challenged the eight-headed hydra Yamata no Orochi in order to save fellow kami, Kushinadahime. Released under the radar by ALPHAWING inc and PLAYISM in 2022, Samurai Bringer could be a sleeper hit for a lot of people who didn’t know about it before, and not just for its use of Japanese mythology. You can pick up Samurai Bringer from the 11th through the Amazon Games App.