So, here’s a little peek behind the curtain here at Last Word on Gaming. As a general rule, if an article revolved around a specific month, it’s good practice to publish said article on the first of that month.
Oops.
Fortunately, our Technicality stat is +4, because the first entry on this list of notable, interesting, or eye-catching games for July doesn’t release until July 15.
HAH! Take THAT, sticklers for minutiae like being on time and stuff! Time was just a pre-COVID construct, anyway.
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The Great Eight Upcoming Video Games of July 2024
The Crust – July 15
PC
Good for Gamers Who Like: – SimCity, Mass Effect
Bad for Gamers Who Don’t Like: – Being reminded of cool stuff that wasn’t in Starfield
When gamers heard that Bethesda’s new IP Starfield would include base-building, people envisioned Todd Howard in a space suit learning from his Fallout 4 and 76 mistakes, and making things “just work” all day long. In practice, bases were… basic at best. Veom Studios took Bethesda’s C-grade project and put some extra credit into it. Bases are huge and every inch of the base players build feels absolutely necessary to continue your outer space expansion in this strategy and simulation mash-up that will fly you to the moon and back.
Flock – July 16
PC, PS4, PS5, XB1, XSX|S
Good for Gamers Who Like: – Journey, Flower
Bad for Gamers Who Don’t Like: – wide swaths of land where nothing is shot
Sometimes games are created to evoke a feeling or a sense of something. The pair of detectives that gum all the shoes in Disco Elysium also lead the way into a world of futility. The action in Doom (2016) is so intense, the demons’ blood practically generates adrenaline.
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With their latest title, Hollow Pond’s Flock, like Journey and Flower before it, intend to flood your feel censors with the feeling of zen. The player is tasked with collecting aviary creatures and herding the flock (GET IT??) where they need to go. It’s the most peaceful you’ll feel since Ben & Jerry made you Imagine Whirled Peace. (Don’t get that joke? Don’t worry. It’s absolutely irrelevant.)
TMNT Splintered Fate – July 17
Switch
Good for Gamers Who Like: – The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Hades
Bad for Gamers Who Don’t Like: – playing with knockoffs of the REAL 1987 Turtles
Okay, so technically Paramount Global’s TMNT Splintered Fate is a platform-jumper that’s been out since last year. However, the counterargument is that it was only on Apple devices, and we all know that mobile games barely count as games. So just pretend that this is brand-new on the 17th and “oooh” and “aaah” at its radical power-ups, the combos each Turtle can make with each other, and the multiplayer modes that come in both the online and the couch variety. It’ll be our little secret.
Bo: Path of the Teal Lotus – July 18
XSX|S, PS5, Switch, PC
Good for Gamers Who Like: – Okami, Hollow Knight
Bad for Gamers Who Don’t Like: – the barrel levels in the Donkey Kong Country series
As players meet Bo, the titular character in the upcoming Bo: Path of the Teal Lotus, they’ll quickly note two thing: (1) that Bo is an accessory ICON, and that (2) he appears notably similar in appearance, art style, and even play elements as another highly-regarded indie darling, 2017’s Hollow Knight.
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Both games feature flowing, curving lines, with Bo finding its influences in Japanese folklore, while Hollow Knight takes its cues from the Art Nouveau at the end of the 19th century which emphasizes round, circular movements in its style as wel. Both features classic “Mentroidvania” maps, but while Hollow Knight focuses on pixel-perfect platforming, Bo adds a dash of the barrel stages from Rare’s Donkey Kong Country series, requiring our Celestial Blossom to traverse explosive sky transportation to fly through the stages with the greatest of ease. With ancient Japanese styings finding its way into the art, soundtrack and even the enemy design, Bo: Path of the Teal Lotus will surely be able to blossom next to other indies that proved their worth.
Get it? “BLOSSOM??”
(I’m not above picking low-hanging fruit once in a while.)
Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn – July 18
PC
Good for Gamers Who Like: – Souls-like games, The Order: 1886
Bad for Gamers Who Don’t Like: – that “Souls-like with guns” is becoming a subgenre of a subgenre
A44 Games knows Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn as the “future hit follow-up to smash debut title Ashen.” Fans will come to know Flintlock as another entry into the newly-birthed subgenre of “Souls-Like With Guns.” Most accurately, however, it should probably be categorized as “Souls-Like With Gunpowder.” But don’t forget about the swordplay, reputation systems, and magic infusion. Garnish with a lime to counteract all the salty tears that will be produced by the punishing and often-fatal challenges, if predecessor Ashen is any indication.
Conscript – July 2
PS4, PS5, XB1, XSX|S, Switch, PC
Good for Gamers Who Like: – Valiant Hearts, Darkest Dungeon
Bad for Gamers Who Don’t Like: – Any chance at being happy
Conscript is the latest title from indie developer/publisher Catchweight Studios. It is also the first game from indie developer/publisher Catchweight Studios. We basically know that the game involves a French soldier scavenging for supplies and trying to solve challenging puzzles while searching and discovering what has happened in the towns and trenches in this region of the nation.
Oh, and it’s also World War I, so, there’s a big yellow sunshine sticker on top of everything. If you like games like Stardew Valley and Flower are your types of fun, well… we’ve got seven other titles on this list, don’t we?
Thrasher – July 25
Meta Quest 2, Meta Quest 3, Meta Quest Pro, Apple Vision Pro
Good for Gamers Who Like: – Fantasia: Music Evolved (2014), always being the make-believe character with the mystic martial arts
Bad for Gamers Who Don’t Like: – admitting they’ve lost their Groove.
Back in the good ol’ days of what Matt McMuscles would call the “Playstation Double-Ballin’” there was a little game that earned minor recognition called Fantavision. The Japan Studio Y2K release was at its core a puzzle game, but today we would say that it “borrowed heavily” from the rhythm genre, with players that had a fair sense of rhythm – a subset of gamer commonly categorized as “absolutely not me” – able to rack up bigger and prettier fireworks combos. It intertwined the rhythm elements into the core gameplay mechanic so that while the signs were there, but in 2000, rhythm wasn’t particularly big in gaming. Hell, the DK Rap hadn’t even been out for a year.
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Thrasher takes Fantavision’s concepts, and… well… vision, and firmly implants those mechanics into the world of virtual reality. Now, I confess, I’m still not quite yet on the hype train for VR like other people have been, but damn if Puddle’s offering ALMOST makes me want to go out and buy a VR headset with the zero dollars I currently have to spend.
I said ALMOST.
Supernatural – July 23
PC
Good for Gamers Who Like: – Phasmaphobia, actually talking to people instead of texting
Bad for Gamers Who Don’t Like: – Paranormal Activity 1 thru 248
The information we have is that it will be released on July 23, though a Google search will tell you it’s July 15, and IGN doesn’t even have a firm date on the release. But the settings feature one of the scariest environments in the world – trying to own a home in America. And there’s a really creepy lady who’s essentially a cross between Lisa from P.T. and the cleaning lady in the Capeside Apartments from Disco Elysium, so I was basically in from Jump Street. Unfortunately, very little is known about the upcoming horror title from Hitori de Productions, but for what it’s worth, the trailer is a pretty damn creepy start.
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