Gaming Checkpoint: Preview for Next Week in Video Games (February 9-15)

Gaming week-in-preview! More hadoukens, RPGs, and a spirit-successor to LittleBigPlanet?

This time next week is Valentine's Day. For those of us with significant others or romantic plans, good on you! But if you want a little escapism, a little adventure, a little fun next week—video games are there for you. Below is a quick run-down of some gaming news and releases you can chew on next week!

But, before we get started, don't forget to check out our gaming podcast, Permission 2 Game, with hosts Evan and Aaron! You can watch Permission 2 Game on the Our Community Now YouTube Channel and follow them on Instagram and Facebook for additional gaming news, reviews, and more!

Hot and Out Now! Week of 2/9-2/15:

Metro Exodus: Sam's Story DLC [PC, PS4, XBO, Stadia] – February 11

A downloadable expansion to last year's first-person survival-horror shooter based on Dmitry Glukhovsky's novels, Metro Exodus.

Yakuza 5 (The Yakuza Remastered Collection) [PS4] – February 11

Bundles together remastered versions of Yakuza 3, 4, and 5—action-adventure beat-'em-ups that strive to capture the way of life of the Japanese crime syndicate, the Yakuza.

DAEMON X MACHINA [PC] – February 13

The bombastic third-person mech shooter, previously released for the Nintendo Switch, comes to Steam.

Necronator: Dead Wrong [PC] – February 13

This comedic little real-time-strategy game, with a "deck-building twist", comes out on Steam in early access with "a good chunk of content".

Darksiders Genesis [PS4, XBO, Switch] – February 14

The Darksiders games take a departure from their third-person roots for something a little more like a hack-n'-slash Diablo—can hop on with a buddy for some top-down RPG action.

darksiders genesis, new video games — *Join in with a buddy to play as War and Strife, Horsemen of the Apocalypse in Darksiders Genesis, courtesy @darksiders Twitter.*

Dreams [PS4] – February 14

This is a wild one from the same devs that made LittleBigPlanet. Dreams is a "game creation system" that lets you create and share puzzles, music, paintings, and whole games.

Street Fighter 5: Champion Edition [PC, PS4] – February 14

In Capcom tradition, Champion Edition is a rerelease of Street Fighter 5 that combines all the bonus content they've released for the game so far—a total of 40 characters, 34 stages, and 200+ costumes.

Snack World: The Dungeon Crawl - Gold [Switch] – February 14

Customize an adventurer and explore randomly-generated dungeons to find rare treasures in this RPG. Team up with up to three other players local or online!

dreams ps4, new video games — *The is the kind of content you can make in Dreams for PS4, courtesy Media Molecule, Sony Interactive Entertainment*

Biggest Hits You Might've Missed:

Tokyo Mirage Session #FE Encore [Switch] – January 17
The Walking Dead: Saints and Sinners [PC] – January 23
Journey to the Savage Planet [PS4, XBO, PC] – January 28
Kentucky Route Zero (consoles) [PS4, XBO, Switch] – January 28
Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire (consoles) [PS4, XBO] – January 28

kentucky route zero — *The beautiful art of point-and-click adventure game Kentucky Route Zero, courtesy Cardboard Computer, Annapurna Interactive.*

Stuff to Get Excited for:

Doom Eternal [PC, PS4, XBO, Stadia] – March 20
Half-Life: Alyx [PC VR] – March TBD
Animal Crossing: New Horizons [Switch] – March 20
Resident Evil 3 (remake) [PC, PS4, XBO] – April 3
Final Fantasy 7 Remake [PS4] – April 1
Minecraft Dungeons [PC, PS4, XBO, Switch] – April TBC
The Last of Us Part II [PS4] – May 29

A touching reunion ⚔️ #FF7R pic.twitter.com/llYC95fXao
— PlayStation (@PlayStation) February 4, 2020

From the News Ticker-Tape:

Gaming titan Blizzard Entertainment released Warcraft 3: Reforged, a remastered edition of the 2002 real-time strategy game Warcraft 3. Problem is, almost everyone is disappointed. It's garnered the worst reviews of any Blizzard game ever. Good news if you bought it—they're offering refunds.

If you played online flash games back in the day, it might be sad to you that Adobe is ending Flash support this year. But archivist and programmer "Blue Maxima" has already saved 38,000+ of these historic games and you can play them all on their new launcher, Flashpoint.

Google Stadia, the forerunner in the new "Netflix for games" model that released last November to a lukewarm reception, has a new competitor in Nvidia's GeForce Now. Will it run where Stadia stumbled?

And to round it out—girl gamers are on the rise! UK’s communications regulator, Ofcom, released a report (pdf) that says 48 percent of British girls age 5 to 15 now play games online, up from 39 percent in 2018. Previous polls suggested that girls tended to spend more time on social media, while boys spent more time with video games, but it seems like those differences might be converging.

What do you think? Which video games are you excited to see come out this week? Let us know in the comments below.