F.I.S.T.: Forged in Shadow Torch is free on Epic, again

Monday, an unnamed Japanese prince is taking a job from Penrod Pooch, and the pre-patch for The War Within is here. Tuesday, I’m old and Guilty Gear -Strive- is confusing in its fourth season. Wednesday, some people are throwing their arms up because the Pat McAfee DLC for WWE 2K24 is a thing, completely ignoring the fact Post Malone was in a recent DLC. Thursday, Autopsy Sim has a new dev ahead of its Autopsy Only Mode coming soon, and Valley Peaks is finally out. Here’s hoping there isn’t anything significant that happens this weekend in the world.

Moving on to the Epic Games Store and what is available this week: Something many of us already have and a free-to-play thing with a free bundle for something “significant” happening tonight. We’ll start with my favorite activity in special clubs, F.I.S.T.: Forged in Shadow Torch, a side-scrolling steampunk Metroidvania with anthropomorphized characters. I could have explained half of the Souls-likes released in the last six months that very same way. Released in 2021, TiGames’ F.I.S.T. does have generally positive reviews, but it fails to really sell itself properly beyond genres you like.

Up next is Olympics Go! Paris 2024. A free-to-play mobile game with over 100K downloads on the Google Play store, from the studios behind Monopoly Tycoon, Roller Coaster Tycoon Touch, Power Rangers: Battle for the Grid and Legacy Wars, and Wreck League. Or rather not the game but the unbelievably stupid and expensive DLC in the form of the “Exclusive Outfits Pack” which is supposedly $54.99. Hold on, what do you get with this add-on to the base game? “11 unique outfits featuring the official mascot!” a mascot that looks like someone took a bloody turd and slapped googly eyes on it.

I’m not done here. This is what passes as the tie-in games now, a mobile phone game ported to PC and featuring a micro-transaction that is almost equal to the price of a full game? Let’s see, do I want to buy Elden Ring or Ghost of Tsushima Director’s Cut, Hades II and Dungeons of Hinterberg, the new Prince of Persia The Lost Crown and Pacific Drive, or anything else for roughly the same price? Hmm, I wonder. Hell, you can get the Premium edition of GTA V and Red Dead 2 on sale right now for this price.

All this week you can pick up F.I.S.T.: Forged in Shadow Torch and the bloody turd emblazoned outfits for an awful pile of tripe until Thursday, the 1st of August. Moving on to next week and speaking of being obscenely angry at some urine expellers, LumbearJack. Released in 2022, this cute, fun puzzle adventure about a very angry little bear sick of all these humans coming in and destroying his living room for their industry, infrastructure, and habitats is ready to wreak havoc. You go little bear, I too would like to Raoul Moat some stupid humans.