Jan 2023 New Games Thread

[Violentvixen]

Thread concept:
The basic idea is to list new games that you are interested in, as well as games you are potentially curious about or want to give wider attention to. You can briefly describe them or ask other people to help fill you in. The hope is that regular threads like these can act as a collective filter/discovery mechanism to help people decide what is worth checking out.

"New games" means any new title that is being released or ported this month in any capacity (not "backlogs/what you are playing this month"). The angle here is sharing your anticipation and promoting game discovery (as opposed to sharing comments about a first playthrough in progress - that belongs elsewhere).

• If you want a handy list that covers most of the major upcoming games of the month, here's a few text lists of upcoming games:
  • Giant Bomb
  • Game Informer
  • Wikipedia

Here are the subscription service lists for January:

Games with Gold

• Bladed Fury Dec 16-Jan 15
• Iris Fall Jan 1-31
• Autonauts Jan 16-Feb 15

Gamepass

• Persona 3 Portable – January 19 (Console, PC, Cloud)
• Persona 4 Golden – January 19 (Console, PC, Cloud)
• Monster Hunter Rise – January 20 (Console, PC)
• Age Of Empires 2: Definitive Edition – January 31 (Console, Cloud)
• Inkulinati – January 31 (Console, PC)
• Roboquest – January TBA (Console)

PS+

• Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order | PS4, PS5
• Fallout 76 | PS4
• Axiom Verge 2 | PS4, PS5

Feel free to post other lists or list videos that you find useful.
If there is already a thread on TT about a game, please add a link to it.
Final request: If you are the first person to mention a game please provide (at minimum) a short sentence description. (If it is a very big AAA release though, then don't worry about it.) This is a good convention that makes the thread more useful as a discovery mechanism, and especially helps out anyone who doesn't follow the news as closely as you.

 

[Violentvixen]

A reminder that the Steam Winter sale goes through Jan 5th.

I don't own a PS4 or 5 but those PS+ offerings seem pretty nice.

Gamepass

• Persona 3 Portable – January 19 (Console, PC, Cloud)
• Inkulinati – January 31 (Console, PC)

I need to renew my Gamepass but excited for both of these in that format. I played P3 FES on PS2 and P3P on the Vita but trying it on the Xbox as part of the gamepass package sounds fun. I played the Inkulinati demo when it was on Steam and liked it but not enough to purchase. It sounds like they've done a couple updates since that demo so excited to try it again.

A Space for the Unbound is another one where I liked the Steam demo but not enough to purchase for sure. Interesting story and definitely the first game I've played set in rural Indonesia in the 1990s. The art is gorgeous too, just some odd/confusing things with the controls and translation if I remember correctly. I'll wait for reviews but have a feeling this is one where I'd enjoy watching a Let's Play rather than playing it myself.

Bubble Bobble comes to Switch in early January, having trouble finding an exact date. I've never actually played this and sounds like co-op will be preserved on the Switch release so that should be fun.

Season: A Letter to the Future, ride a bike around! Take photos and record sound! The world is about to change but no one seems to quite be clear what is happening or why, yet the change is expected so your character needs to make the historical record of everything before the change. Definitely seemed like other things are going on or to be revealed but the demo was short. Either I'm way excited for this one.

Other than that Fire Emblem Engage for Switch. It's Fire Emblem but a lot of wacky additions. My guess is that I won't enjoy it as much as other games in the series but will still have a good time. There's no specific thread for it but we've been talking about it in the main Fire Emblem thread.

 

[Octopus Prime]

Fire Emblem Engage, full stop, no room for debate

I guess both Persona 3 and Persona 4 warrant being played at some point; see what all the fuss is about

 

[Juno]

Probably just Fire Emblem.

 

[WildcatJF]

Fire Emblem Engage and that's about it for me. Possibly Vengeful Guardian Moonrider, the latest from the devs behind Blazing Chrome. It looks fantastic:

Bubble Bobble comes to Switch in early January, having trouble finding an exact date. I've never actually played this and sounds like co-op will be preserved on the Switch release so that should be fun.

It's out today!

 

[Violentvixen]

It's out today!

Oh dang, thanks for the heads up!

 

[Bongo]

I, too, will be there for Fire Emblem Engage, and I'm grateful that's all the new stuff I'll be trying to fit in (that I know of).

 

[Voncaster]

Interested in Dead Space and Persona 3 & 4. Will not pick anything up in January.

I'm waiting to play Hogwarts Legacy in February!

 

[Violentvixen]

Goldeneye is out on Gamepass and Switch today! I am not clear if you need the online expansion thing to play it on Switch though.

 

[WildcatJF]

You do need the expansion pass.

 

[ozacrot]

Microsoft did a surprise release of Hi-Fi Rush, a rhythm action game that looks fantastic. It's on Gamepass so I'll probably try it out later today!

 

[madhair60]

Dead Space remake is good

 

[Bongo]

I'm also going to play Pizza Tower this month. This indie platformer was not on my radar until I randomly saw the trailer somewhere, but it is the most Wario Land 4 ass looking game since Wario Land 4 and there are glowing reviews of pre-release versions.

The sudden release of Hi-Fi Rush may be what tips me over the threshold into deciding "It makes sense to get an XBox now" (for various reasons, I don't want it on PC). That game looks like the kind of corny we should have more of, and the incredible thoroughness with which they made aligned every element of the game to the beat tells me that the overall design is operating at a high level. Seems more accessible than other games in either of its hybridized genres. However, it seems like I've got no chance of actually securing one in January, and anyway Fire Emblem Engage is eating my life, so there's no rush.