Looking for something new to play that you can finish in a weekend? Sassy non-violent shooter Fashion Police Squad might be your cup of tea. “The Fashion Police Squad has been mobilized, as things in Trendopolis are DIRE! Baggy pants, dull suits, sightings of socks with sandals?!” Fashion Police Squad is a first-person with a twist. Instead of hurting your targets you show them how to get a better fit and come out looking gorgeous. The idea of a weapon being called the 2DYE4 Carbine Elite seems funny. There’s also a weapon that acts as a whip, in order to tie a belt around saggy pants. Fashion Police Squad can be finished in three to four hours, perfect to play in one big sitting, or over the weekend.

Fashion Police Squad is out now for PC, Xbox, PlayStation and Switch.

I can not get enough of the HD-2D games. I’ve been lucky too that most of the ones I’ve played have been good. I’m hoping Wandering Sword will carry on that trend. Publisher Spiral Up Games has just released a new trailer and demo of wuxia-style RPG, just in time for February’s Steam Next Fest. “Transform into a young swordsman caught up in a deadly feud between rival sects in ancient China. Traverse across scenic locations, charming towns and dangerous terrains. Make friends with like minded pugilists and go on quests to help the weak while honing your martial arts to become a kung fu grandmaster.”

One of the features that intrigued me with Wandering Sword was the replayability. Different choices you make will lead to different endings for the game. There are also a great number of side quests you can opt to take on besides the main quest, which will provide many hours of adventure time.

Players can Wishlist Wandering Sword on Steam right now. A free demo will launch on the platform on February 6th, during the upcoming Steam Next Fest. Look out for Eric's review of Wandering Sword next week.

Developer Black Salt Games and publisher Team17 have announced a release date for their upcoming eerie fishing adventure game DREDGE and it's coming soon! You play as a fisherman who is down on his luck and explores a series of remote islands trying to find valuable fish to catch. Embark on quests and sell your goods to nearby towns while you upgrade your ship to reach further more secluded lands. Be careful though, because something sinister lurks the further out you venture.

Here are some key features you can expect:

• Venture across different islands that feature drastically different inhabitants with unique stories to tell
• Explore the vast sea for treasures and gain access to special abilities
• Upgrade and maintain your ship to catch rarer fish and reach farther areas
• Sell your discoveries t learn more about the world and earn some cash

DREDGE is coming to PC via Steam, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, Xbox Series S|X, PlayStation 4, and PlayStation 5 on March 30, 2023. The game will be priced at $24.99 on Steam and consoles while the Digital Deluxe Edition will cost $26.99 on Steam and consoles. The Digital Deluxe Edition includes the Blackstone Key DLC item, which grants players access to a workshop on Blackstone Isle and all pre-orders get an exclusive custom fishing rod that helps players get a jumpstart to their fishing career. A playable demo is coming soon to Nintendo Switch as well.

Check out the reveal date trailer below:

Derek "The Captain" Jeter was revealed as the cover athlete for the collector's editions of MLB The Show 23. Jeter announced the news on The Jimmy Fallon Show of all places, followed by an official PlayStation Blog post by Sony San Diego Studio. The New York Yankees legend and Hall of Famer was a five-time World Series champion and the Most Valuable Player of the 2000 World Series.

There will be two collector’s editions of MLB The Show 23 – a physical Collector’s Edition and a Digital Deluxe Edition. The Collector’s edition will include a limited edition New Era MLB The Show 9FIFTY Cap, a limited edition Steel Book case, and a number of in-game items. The Digital Deluxe Edition essentially includes a larger haul of in-game goodies, such as more packs and Stubs (in-game currency), in place of the hat and steel book case. Both versions will cost a cool $99.99 and include four days of early access, which begins on March 24^th.

San Diego Studio also announced that a technical playtest would be taking place starting on February 15^th, ending on February 21^st. There is no need to sign-up for the test, as it will be available as a free download to anyone on the PlayStation Store, Microsoft Store, and Nintendo eShop.

THQ Nordic’s hunting sim Way of the Hunter is getting its first map expansion with the newly announced Aurora Shores DLC, which will take players to the stunning Alaskan frontier. As a rookie Wildlife Trooper, players will help control the population of 14 new species, from Kodiak Bears to Roosevelt Elks. The Aurora Shores hunting ground also features a variety of habitats, from grasslands to mountaintops and even rainforests (honestly did not know Alaska had those).

The DLC will run you $9.99 and will require the base game ($39.99) to play it, but there will also be a new weapon class added free of charge for all players – crossbows. Way of the Hunter is available now on PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S, and you can check out a first look at the Alaskan hunting ground in a new trailer:

Asymmetrical multiplayer horror action game Evil Dead: The Game is trying its hand at the popular battle royale mode in a free update available today across all platforms. Affectionately named “Splatter Royale”, this new mode lets up to 40 players choose Deadite versions of any Survivors or Demons from the game as they attempt to be the last person standing.

The Splatter Royale update also adds two new weapons: the long-range grenade launcher and the scythe melee weapon, as well as a new Immortal Power DLC pack.

The update arrives just in time, as Evil Dead heads to PlayStation Plus next week as one of February’s Essential tier free games on PS4 and PS5, but the game is also available on Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, and PC via the Epic Games Store.

Check out a new trailer for the battle royale mode below:

Simulation specialists FreeMind have announced Restaurant Builder, their next game in a string of other titles based on hobbies and occupations. It is planned for release sometime later this year on Steam, and today they’ve shared a new announcement trailer for the game:

In Restaurant Builder, players equip themselves with a variety of tools such as pressure washers, jackhammers, and paint sprayers to build the restaurant of their dreams. Get destructive and perform demolition on your restaurant, re-build it, paint it, and decorate it as you see fit. Once you're open, hire staff and attract customers to earn as much cash as possible and re-invest it in your eatery. If you feel like you’ve done enough, sell up and purchase a brand new project.

FreeMind are also the developers of other sims such as House Builder, Restaurant Renovator, and Forest Ranger Simulator. There really is a simulator for almost anything, isn't there?

In Knight vs Giant: The Broken Excalibur a shocking turn of events has occurred. The once-prosperous kingdom of Camelot has been banished to the Astral Dimension by the wizard Merlin. The kingdom was destroyed by giant creatures that came out of nowhere, causing chaos and destruction. Merlin, in a desperate attempt to save the world, tried to seal the Void Giant back to the Astral Dimension, but he inadvertently banished the entire kingdom along with it. Now you, a legendary hero have emerged to restore the kingdom to its former glory.

Brian Blessed, the acting legend, lends his voice to the role of Merlin to help bring life to the story. The hand-drawn maps are randomly generated, adding an element of unpredictability to the game. Players will also encounter various NPCs along the way who might be able to aid them or even be recruited and sent back to Camelot.

The medieval fantasy roguelite offers players an opportunity to save the kingdom and restore it to its former glory. Knight vs Giant: The Broken Excalibur is coming to Steam, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S & Nintendo Switch. A demo is now available on Steam.

Shadow Warrior 3 is an insane first person slasher/shooter with a quipping hero named Lo Wang taking on hordes of different beasts and monsters. Sometimes you can slice them up with your katana. Sometimes you can shoot them with one of your special weapons. And sometime you can walk up to them, and perform a fatality-esq special kill, that will give you their powers. Larger than life bosses, hilarious banter, and off the wall weapons and arena kills are in this Devolver Digital blood fest, on the back of a story about restoring a previous foe/friend to his former demonic glory. It's a LOT, and I gave it an 8.5 in my review, because though it was hard, I was thoroughly entertained. 

Now, because you need more chaos, Shadow Warrior 3 is getting that good next gen upgrade treatment. Shadow Warrior 3: Definitive Edition will be released on Xbox Series, PS5, and PC on February 16th, and if you already have a copy, you get the upgrade for the free free. 

New modes include Survival Mode, which opens three battle arenas, and plenty of foul beasts for you to carve through. Enduring this will net you 3 weapon skins. Also added is a chapter select mode, so you can go back and get any missing upgrades. There's even New Game+, a hardcore difficulty, and a limited respawn mode called "Hero Mode".

Other enhancements include haptics and controller speaker support for the PS5, and your choice. 60fps mode, or 4k/30 fps, for you cinematic freaks out there. Check out the video below, and pull Wang back out on February 16th. Devolver would appreciate that last line. 

After three years of running between the raindrops, juking and jiving, Covid-19 finally caught up with me this week. I had been avoiding it for so long that I was starting to feel as though Covid was a thing that happened to other people, and I was immune. Turns out, not so much. As I type this, I'm on day four of active symptoms. I'm sitting at my desk, sweating and shivering at the same time, sucking on a cough drop, wondering if my wife is out of the kitchen so I can sneak in there and grab a cup of coffee. She just had Covid, but we've still decided we're best off avoiding each other. Nobody wants that crap twice in a row.

So I've been stuck in my bedroom for four days now. The first two days I was so sick, the only thing I could do was lay on my side and stare blankly at my tablet. I watched a bunch of movies on a tiny screen - which I hate doing - and the entire first season of Sheridan and Stallone's Tulsa King (waaaaay better than I thought it would be).

I tried to play some 3DS games, but it turned out that the 3D was making me nauseas, or was at least exacerbating a Covid symptom enough that I started associating them together. I know I could turn the 3D off, but after a day spent throwing up, I was kind of "off" of Fire Emblem - kind of like the time I ate too many butterscotches on a canoe trip as a kid, ended up hurling them into the river, and didn't touch them again for ten years or so. I love you deeply, Fire Emblem Awakening, but I'm afraid that we're going to have a somewhat Pavlovian relationship for a while.

Yup, even the trailer makes me feel a little gross. And I deeply love this game.

Yesterday, on day three, I was feeling a little more like I might be able to focus on things. The world was spinning a little less. I was still way too sick to sit on Zoom calls for work, but I figured I could use some more concentrated form of distraction. I spotted my Quest 2, which I tend to use in spurts, sitting in dust at the far end of my dresser. Hoping it wouldn't make me feel sick like the 3DS did, I strapped it to my face and sat down on the bed.

That's when I discovered something somewhat miraculous. The Quest 2 actually makes me feel better. Or rather, it distracts my brain so completely from the fact that I'm sick that I completely forget about it for hours at a time. Of course, it probably doesn't hurt that I'm kind of slow and stupid right now.

At first I thought I would just watch some movies. I dabbled around in Big Screen for a while, but didn't really feel like being around so many people (I am a bit like a cat when I'm sick; I want to go off by myself somewhere and hide until I'm better). So I settled on Netflix, which allowed me to paint a giant screen above my head so I could lay flat on my back in bed and watch Brad Pitt beat people up in Bullet Train. Could be the movie, could be the device, but I was so engaged that I completely lost track of time, and was astounded when I pulled off the headset to discover that it was dark in the room. Bullet Train took me from day to night, and I didn't even notice.

After that I started fiddling with other games and apps I have on Quest 2. Many of them are far too active for me to enjoy just yet, but Zen Studios' Star Wars Pinball fit the bill just right. I mostly played the original release on PSVR, leaving me a very fresh basement to decorate on my Quest 2 copy. I had forgotten just how delightful that game really is, and I spent several hours playing through many of the challenges to unlock statues and posters for my new virtual man-cave. I didn't think about being sick even once.

But then I started hankering for something new, and after browsing around a bit, I stumbled on Red Matter 2. The original Red Matter was one of my top five PSVR games (and it has one of the best video game soundtracks of all time), and I've always regretted not getting around to playing the sequel. This is the perfect opportunity; I'm locked away from my primary consoles, I don't feel up for starting anything new on my PC, and I have nothing but time on my hands. So immediately after I post this article, I'm jumping into Red Matter 2, off to the moons of Saturn to explore whatever mischief those alternative universe cold warriors have gotten up to this time.

It's frankly remarkable how much better the Quest 2 makes me feel, or rather, how completely it allows me to ignore the fact that I'm very ill. I know its a psychological effect of some kind, a form of brain trickery, but whatever. I'll take it. If a device can talk my brain into convincing my body that everything is cool for a couple of hours, what's the harm in that?

Having Covid-19 is no vacation, as almost everyone knows by now. But if I can squeeze a little bit of fun out of the experience, or at least dam up the river of suffering for a while, then I'm going to consider this a win. And thank goodness I spotted that Quest 2 sitting there and that I decided to stick it on my head. There are far worse ways to spend 10 days in quarantine than playing pinball and exploring space.