Welcome back to This Week in Games Australia! This week: an anomaly. For whatever reason, every major publisher with a game to release in the last week of July has taken interest in Friday, July 29th. In fact, this coming Friday is so overloaded with games that it’s hard to remember the last time it was this week. heavy in the background From Xenoblade Chronicles 3 to Valve Index hardware supplies, this week has it all.
July 28
Blastronaut (PC)
Blastronaut is a 2D building and exploration game along the lines of Rimworld or Terraria, but with what appears to be a lot more lasers. This one hadn’t crossed my radar before today, but it’s definitely piqued my interest. I’ll pick this one up to check it out over the weekend I think.
Valve Index (VR)
A PSA in case you want to secure one: Valve Index shares are back at EB Games this week. You can get the headphones alone, the headphones with a spare controller, or the complete kit with base station.
July 29
Digimon Survive (NS, PS4)
As entries in the series go, Digimon Survive is a bit of a different beast. A genre mash-up of visual novel elements with grid-based tactical brawls, it’s a title the Digimon faithful have been waiting for for some time.
Lawn Mower Simulator: Landmark Edition (PS5, PS4)
If PowerWash Simulator made you want to work harder in the digital garden, Lawnmowing Simulator: Landmark Edition is here to scratch your lawn care itch. The Landmark Edition contains two DLC packs: the Ancient Britain Pack and the Dino Safari Pack. However, if you’d rather try the base game, it’s out for free on the Epic Games Store on Friday. The base game is also available on Game Pass for console, cloud and PC.
Sweet Transit (PC)
I played the Sweet Transit demo during the recent Steam Next Fest. What I found was a game that looked a lot like Anno 1800, if the main means of transportation (and indeed interaction with the world) was via rail infrastructure. It’s an interesting premise, and I’m looking forward to digging into it a bit more.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge (NS, PS4, XBO) (Retail)
While the game has been out digitally in Australia for a few weeks now, TMNT: Shredder’s Revenge is also getting a local retail release. If you want a boxed copy for posterity, you can grab one now.
The Sims 4: High School Years (PC)
You might be thinking “this sounds like something Ruby will absolutely love” and you’d be right. My understanding is that Ruby intends to use this expansion to create horrible goblin teenagers and send them off to boarding school so someone else can treat them. We look forward to hearing about your adventures on the site in the near future.
Xenoblade Chronicles (NS)
Whether it’s accurate or not, I’ve always thought of Xenoblade Chronicles as a series with a small but dedicated fan base. Xenoblade Chronicles 3 looks like it might be the game that finally gets it because I’m seeing a lot of interest in this game. JRPG lovers just need to apply.
Yacht Mechanic Simulator (PC)
You know I love an unnecessarily detailed job simulator, and oh, we got to pay this week. We’re going to take some yachts apart, take them apart and put them back into service for the kind of obscenely rich people who would own a huge yacht. I’ll do my part by sabotaging every yacht I’m asked to fix and send them back into the water hoping they’ll sink in minutes. I’m going to turn this game into Billionaire Just Desserts Simulator or die nobly trying.
And that’s it for this week on Games Australia! See something you like this week? Are you taking anything? Did we miss something that you think we should have included? Are you a local Australian developer with a game we could list? Let us know in the comments below.