At this totally not E3 Week, there are a lot of things happening at once: Playstation games got announced to the PC, Starfield got a disappointing, and very dry-ish gameplay reveal, and the lack of any Gears of War 2 and 3 collection has me punching my fists into the air and shouting “Damn you, Microsoft! Why don’t you get it?”. At least Marvel’s Midnight Suns is coming quite nicely and looking rather impressive. I wasn’t a big fan of their card-based skill system but after reading (can’t remember where) that it was because the developers don’t want to underpower the superheroes -it makes sense- and are designing the game by having in mind that players might create ridiculous and overpowered combos and they’re willing to indulge on that I actually got pretty excited for it. but that might as well be my lower expectations talking. Oh, and also! Diablo is looking rather impressive too. Anyway, here’s what going on this side of the pond.

Steam Next Fest Starts Today

Finding yourself out of games to play or too tired to go look for new ones under the scorching sun of the summer? Steam Next Fest is live, starting from today and running all the way until the 20th of June. There are a lot of new games to try and appetize on before their final release a couple of months down the line. Here’s what yours truly will be sampling during the next couple of days:

• Terra Invicta: The first commercial effort from the creators of XCOM’s Long War, but instead of going down the more tactical route, Terra Invicta is a grand-strategy title akin to those of Paradox. An interesting take, to say the least, so I’m extremely excited to see how this one turns out. There is no precise release date yet, but it’s set to come out in 2022.
• Cult of the Lamb: Anything published by Devolver Digital is sure to be… bizarrely interesting. Cult of the Lamb appears to be no different, its this sort of awkward mix between a management sim with dungeon crawling aspect, with its goal being to have players start their own cult to build a loyal community of worshippers(critters?), all the while laying waste those pesky non-believers. It’s out on August 11th.
• Gunner, HEAT, PC!: Is an up-and-coming simulation game about modern vehicular combat. To be fair, I’ve played Gunner, HEAT, PC! way before it came to Steam, a couple of years ago when it was an aspiring and young project at Itch.io. It’s one of those games that actually gets what simple controls mean, all the while keeping the most relevant parts of the simulation (damage modeling and tank physics armor). This creates a fantastic mix between a game that doesn’t burden players with small details that add nothing to the gameplay experience other than stroking the egos of a couple of hardcore, die-hard fans, but if you want some of that, Steel Beasts has been available for years. With all the recent news of Russian tank turrets taking off better than their missiles, it’s as good as time as ever to give this one a go. It’s set to come out during the Summer of 2022.

Victoria 3 Gameplay Revealed

I’m both excited and sad at the prospect of seeing Victoria 3 come out. On one hand, I’m certain it’s going to be a great and complex game that will take Paradox’s less-loved child to a whole new level of quality. Sad in the same measure because I already know I’ll probably never get that much into it. One thing is for certain, the Victoria 3 map should be imported to every other game because it’s looking absolutely stunning: it’s colorful, informative, and period-authentic. My God, what a treat.

WDS Summer Sale Announced

The Wargame Design Studio Summer sale this year is going to be active from June 17th to July 4th, 2022. All titles are going to be reduced by 25% to $29.95 from the usual pricing. For the first time ever, Panzer Campaigns – Kiev ’43, a title that was released in May 2021, will be discounted for the first time. The only exceptions are the two titles released in the last twelve months, Civil War Battles – Forgotten Campaigns and Naval Campaigns – Kriegsmarine, that remain at full price.

As always, bulk orders over 199$ will apply the discount to all titles, no matter the release date of a given game.

I personally recommend Battles of Normandy, my favorite game in all the JTS catalog.

Starship Troopers Out This Week

While I’m not allowed to give my final word on Starship Troopers: Terran Command while I’m reviewing it- and by the way- I’m totally not making any critical judgment about the game itself, I must say that, for the last couple of days, and for some totally (!) unrelated reasons to the game discussed in the previous sentence, I’ve been enjoying myself quite a lot while killing those pesky bugs, because you know, it’s the Summer and all the mosquitos come out and all that.. Allegedly!

Starship Troopers: Terran Command is out this week on the 16th.

You Can Join The Beta of Order of Battle: Allies Victorious

Order of Battle just celebrated its 7th birthday in April, who could know a traditional beers and pretzels kind of wargame could run for so long and still have an active player (and payer) base? Oh, the base game is also free to play, so there’s that. However! That’s not why I’m writing this, I’m letting you know that Slitherine is looking for volunteers to test their soon to be expansion, Order of Battle: Allies Victorious. If you’re willing to tighten your boots and jump to the cold, weary shores of northern france, then this might be what you’re looking for.

Here’s how to get into the beta.

Gates of Hell: Talvisota Out Now

It’s probably the third time in a row Gates of Hell shows up in the weekly Strategy and Wargaming News update. Last time, because the developers were planning to launch a massive update alongside the Talvisota expansion. Talvisota is now out, having released last week on June 8th. The DLC will take World War 2 head-honchos to the Sisu of Finland, introducing said nation and its weaponry. Three distinct campaigns (Winter War, Continuation War and Lapland War) will feature in this addition, having been “researched and depicted to a high standard of detail and quality. The tactics, foritications and equipment used in the northen theatre of operations are once again based on history and real locations”.

Talvisota will set you back 14,99€ or your regional equivalent.

If there’s something I might have missed, please let me know down below!

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