Square surprised us all today with a version of Chrono Trigger up on Steam for Windows. No announcement before the release, just up on the shop it goes. What would be more surprising than that? What if it turned out that this is really a not-so-hot port of the mobile game? Expectations tempered. It’s $15 if you’re missing an emulator or would like to justify your download of the ROM. Recommended follow-up reading, this thread from Jason Scott.
That sounds like a morning breakfast show, doesn’t it? Well, Windows Today isn’t a thing, but Puyo Puyo Tetris is out for Windows via Steam, today, it’s $20. I played a short bit and it felt just as good as it does on the Switch, which reviewed well as we discussed previously. It is very odd to have a lot of visual novel cutscenes that take forever to tell their story inbetween levels of the single-player campaign, but those are easily skipped if you’re not interested in anime characters screaming at each other about how their worlds have been ripped asunder to bring Puyo Puyo and Tetris together.
There’s something special to free games on the web. Luke Rissacher (via Tom Francis)has this quick game, Battleship Solitaire. It is a “mindless podcast companion” as he describes it. I like that it is simple callback to a beloved board game, and has elements of sudoku, minesweeper, and picross. Fun.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f4JqCmt9hzE
Electronic Arts announced a remastered version of Burnout Paradise coming to the PlayStation 4, and the Xbox One on March 16th for $40. The Windows version will be on Origin “soon” but doesn’t have a release date yet.
This version will include all of the original Paradise’s DLC, like the Big Surf Island expansion and cars that look like close to famous rides (KITT, Ecto-1, and more) from movies and TV. Big Surf Island and all were never on Windows before, but you can still get another version of Burnout Paradise on Steam (or Origin) for $20. The Xbox 360 game is also backwards compatible on the Xbox One.
Paradise is a fine game, and this version’s mainly boasting about updates to the graphical fidelity with a 4k resolution and 60 frames-per-second on the PlayStation 4 Pro and Xbox One X, but I’ll always miss a real crash mode from the older Burnout games. It’ll be good to read impressions once this update is out.
The Fall was a fantastic, short, adventure about an AI combat suit that activates when it crash lands on an unknown planet, its duty was to protect the unconscious human pilot inside. That was Part 1, things are different in Part 2, and you can see a bit of that in the gameplay footage above where ARID tries to convince her friend that he isn’t train.
I absolutely loved part 1 of The Fall, it was a genuinely surprise when it was released almost 4 years ago, and it has been a terrible wait for part 2. If you haven’t played part 1 then you are in luck as (temporarily) you get both for the price of the second part at $17 on Steam or Humble for Windows, macOS, and Linux. The developers point out that you don’t have to play part 1 first, but, with this deal you don’t have much to lose in getting 2 and playing them in order or going at 2 first and playing 1 as a prequel. They equate it to being like the Mass Effect games, they’re fine standalone, with maybe the exception of the third game… and Andromeda, which I’ve never unwrapped.
The Fall Part 2: Unbound is also out separately for the Nintendo Switch, without part 1 (which is on the Wii-U).
It’s also on the Xbox One, where you can get the same bundle as on Steam but for 54 cents more. If you already have part 1 and want to save 54 cents, here’s the link to the regular Xbox One version of part 2.
There’s a PlayStation 4 listing but the game isn’t up there yet, I’ll update this post with a link there later on.
