Hello! Welcome to the latest Geeky Brummie Gaming Roundup!

This week, The Last of Us leaks, Assassin’s Creed reveals, and all the latest releases!

The Leaks of Us

The Last of Us Part II was recently announced to be delayed indefinitely due to the COVID-19 pandemic, although that delay is now a lot more definite now. It’ll now be out in June, a month after its last date, which isn’t too bad. Fellow PS4 exclusive Ghost of Tsushima is also moving back a month to accommodate.

Of course, this announcement seemed to happen in reaction to a major leak this week, where videos and plot summaries of The Last of Us 2 showed up online, allegedly revealing the entire plot of the game. I tend to avoid spoilers, but people have been particularly vicious with sharing this one, so I have seen them. I won’t repeat them here because I’m not awful, but what I have read suggests this game is making some choices that won’t be making too many people happy.

That said, I haven’t looked too deeply into this, so I don’t know how much evidence there is for these alleged plot beats, nor is there a lot of context for how this stuff plays out. As such, I’m reserving judgement for the final release, and I advise everyone to do the same.

It’s yet another stumbling block for what’s turned out to be a turbulent development cycle for The Last of Us 2. The leaks follow a series of stories of alleged mistreatment of employees at Naughty Dog, with the reports of crunch and abuse that’s becoming uncomfortably common in AAA development lately.

It’ll certainly be interesting to see how the final game ends up when it finally lands next month.

Assassin’s Creed Revealed Using the Medium of Photoshop

After what seems like months of rumours, Ubisoft have now confirmed that the next Assassin’s Creed game will be called Valhalla. As you might have guessed, it’s confirmation that the rumoured Viking setting is indeed the time period we’ll be slipping back to in the Animus this time around.

This was revealed earlier this week via a stream where artist Bosslogic spent much of the day crafting a stunning piece of artwork that gradually revealed a Viking longboat, a raid on a medieval castle and a gruff-looking man who is presumably the new protagonist.

A cinematic trailer followed, and as usual with cinematic trailers, it’s very pretty but doesn’t really tell you a lot about the game. Statements from Ubisoft following the trailer have suggested the game will revolve around a Viking settlement in Britain, you can once again play as a male or female protagonist, and the game will still feature Layla, the modern-day protagonist who appeared in Origins and Odyssey.

It’s set to release across current and next-gen consoles at the end of the year.

New Releases

In smaller releases, we have WarriOrb, available on Steam, which is a tricky platformer about a demon summoned into an orb-shaped body and instructed to bring a girl back to life for a wizard. Dread Nautical is a tactical RPG about survivors on a cruise ship beset by Lovecraftian forces, and it’s out on PS4, Switch, Xbox and on PC via the Epic Games Store. Snowrunner (Steam, PS4, Xbox One) is a game about off-road truck driving so if you like the challenge of driving a tanker out of a snowdrift, boy do we have the game for you!

Do you like revivals of ferociously anime Saturn game? Good news! Sakura Wars got released on PS4 this week! Sakura Wars is a series that’s been around since the Saturn, and mostly based in Japan. It’s set in 1940s Japan and features an all-female division of mech pilots who battle supernatural threats to Japan. Oh, and you can date them all. It’s a dating sim crossed with a mech battler. Look, I told you this was ferociously anime, okay? Just go with it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y3-V1Ex6tu0

Moving Out is Overcooked but you’re a removal company, not chefs. That’s genuinely the premise, and it looks like a fun concept. It’s the co-op chaos of Overcooked but now you’re moving sofas around increasingly ludicrous settings, like shifting furniture off a plane onto a moving truck driving beneath it. It’s out now on Steam, PS4, Switch and Xbox One. But if you prefer to play on Stadia (no, come on now, there’s like two of you, I’m sure) you don’t get to play Moving Out, but you do get to play the suspiciously similar Get Packed, which is also Overcooked-style chaos with a removal company.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oziTQgMdXi4

There’s a new major title from Xbox this week, although oddly it isn’t yet on the Xbox One itself. Instead, Gears Tactics is a (for now) PC-based title. As you can probably guess from the title, it’s Gears of War, but now it’s a strategy game and not a third-person shooter. It’s a prequel set before the main series, and you’re a squad hunting down the mastermind creating the monsters who’ve ravaged the planet. It’s basically XCOM in the Gears of War universe.

Game of the Week

This week’s Game of the Week is the long-awaited Streets of Rage 4, the return of Sega’s iconic Mega Drive brawler. And it looks like more of the same. It’s a side-scrolling beat-em-up featuring the classic characters from the past with a few new additions like the rad-looking rock chick Cherry Hunter.

I loved the first two Streets of Rage games, and this looks set to elevate the formula to the modern era. It even has a suitably rave-like soundtrack to retain that classic 90s vibe. 100% on board with this return.

And that’s it for this week! I’ll be back next with more from the world of gaming!