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Writer's pictureMelvyn "STARfisher"

[Games Around the Corner] Week 17, 2021 – Warring Romans, Roguelike Shooting, and Pokémon Snap

This week, Total War: ROME REMASTERED remasters 2004’s Rome: Total War and adds a bunch of new factions, while 1999’s Pokémon Snap gets a sequel called New Pokémon Snap. For one that isn’t a remaster or sequel, Returnal is here to provide third-person roguelike shooting on the PS5.


Total War: ROME REMASTERED

2004’s Rome: Total War is making a return in the form of Total War: ROME REMASTERED.

The updated version of the turn-based strategy/real-time tactics game will feature support for modern features like 4K, ultra-widescreen, and native UHD resolution, and will include improved visuals like remodeled units and buildings as well as gameplay refinements like an improved camera in Campaign and a new tactical map in Battle.

Total War: ROME REMASTERED will include the Alexander and Barbarian Invasion DLCs, and those on Windows can also enjoy the original ROME: Total War Collection, which comes with the package. There will also be 16 more factions for a total of 38 and a new Merchant agent type. Additionally, Windows, macOS, and Linux players can battle each other in cross-platform multiplayer.

Total War: ROME REMASTERED will be released on April 29.


Returnal

A third-person roguelike horror-shooter, Returnal is set on a shape-shifting world from which protagonist Selene has to escape after crash-landing. Selene restarts every time she dies, and the map and its enemy placement will change with each new attempt, with the developers promising “extreme replayability”.

The enemies in Returnal include a variety of monsters with different movesets, and to battle them, Selene has guns with obtainable alt fire modes, dashing, and can receive weapons, upgrades, and consumables from devices that can be found on the map. The combat is described as being “bullet hell-fueled”, while the narrative portion will see Selene exploring and putting together her memory fragments.

Returnal will be released on April 30 on PS5.


New Pokémon Snap

A sequel to 1999’s Pokémon Snap, New Pokémon Snap is a rail-shooter style game in which you travel in your NEO-ONE travel pod and take pictures of Pokémon in their natural habitat, which you can then edit and customize. Brightness, blur, zoom, and more can be tweaked, while the personalization features include stickers, frames, and filters. The pictures can then be shared with family and friends in-game. Additionally, scores for the photos will be given based on several factors, including the Pokémon’s poses, facing, how large they appear in the photo, and whether you catch rare behaviour, with in-game rankings to compare your photography skills with others.

The game will take place in the Lental region, with locations including beaches, “dense jungles”, and “vast deserts”. The premise involves you and Professor Mirror researching some Pokémon that have a special glow of sorts. “Your observations of Pokémon thriving in the wild may help unravel the truth behind the Illumina phenomenon,” says the game’s Nintendo store page. “The Pokémon pictures you take will be used to build your very own Pokémon Photodex!”


New Pokémon Snap will be released on Switch on April 30.


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