Games of April 2014

April is here, and with the month of tomfoolery and mythical bunnies comes some great games.

The Elder Scrolls Online
PC, Mac

After a 7-year development phase, Bethesda is finally releasing its much-anticipated Elder Scrolls MMO to the world.

As with other games in The Elder Scrolls franchise, the game will be set in the continent of Tamriel and feature a storyline indirectly connected with the other games. The game will be set a millennium before the events of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim and around 800 years before The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind and The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, with the Daedric Prince Molag Bal appearing as the main antagonist as he attempts to pull all of Tamriel to his realm of Coldharbour.

The gameplay will be mostly nonlinear with a mixture of quests, random events, and encouragement for players to simply explore the world. The game has no offline mode, although the developers have stated that there will be “plenty of content” designed to accommodate players who prefer to play solo.

Goat Simulator (1 April 2014)
PC

If you’ve become tired of the typical simulation titles out there, you’ll be glad to know that you can now embrace your inner goat with Goat Simulator, releasing Tuesday, 1 April.

Goat Simulator is a third-person perspective game in which the player controls a goat. There does not appear to be any kind of storyline or plot. The player is free to explore the game’s world as a goat, destroying things in the environment, running, jumping, and licking. “Goat Simulator is like an old school skating game, except instead of being a skater, you’re a goat, and instead of doing tricks, you wreck stuff,” explained the game’s creators.

The game boasts the fact that various glitches and bugs have been intentionally left in the game, as to add to the light-hearted entertainment value. Another gameplay feature is the ability to “lick” objects with the goat’s absurdly long tongue, which will then stick to the goat’s tongue and can be carried and swung around to provide an alternative method of wreaking havoc on the game environment.

Dark Souls II (25 April 2014)
PC

The follow-up to one of the hardest games of all time is hitting PC after releasing on consoles last month.

The game features a whole new world with many weapons that are used to fight the monsters within the game. It has also been noted that the player can create a character. Covenants, a feature in Dark Souls that allowed the player to align with different factions, are making a reappearance, though they will be easier to understand and more accessible.

The game world is going to be roughly the same size as Dark Souls though content density will be much richer and will also give players more freedom in how to progress, with the beginning of the game made more accessible to newcomers.

2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil (17 April 2014)
PS3, Xbox 360

To get you in the mood for the world’s biggest footballing spectacle, EA is releasing the official 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil game this month.

Gameplay improvements from FIFA 14 include dribbling, an increased accuracy in passing and first-touch mechanics.

The game will feature Road to the FIFA World Cup, a mode where players can choose from 203 national teams and play through qualification and the actual FIFA World Cup. For the first time in the history of World Cup video games the entire qualification series will be playable. The 2010 version only presented the UEFA and CONMEBOL groups in their true to life form. Another mode, Road to Rio de Janeiro, will allow players to compete in an online tournament across the 12 venues of the 2014 FIFA World Cup.

Fan celebrations have improved, including cut-ins of fans (of the player’s national team) watching the game back home celebrating if the player scores.

The Captain Your Country, Online FIFA World Cup, Story of Qualifying, and Story of the Finals modes (the latter two integrated with EA Sports Football Club) from the 2010 edition will be returning.

Trials Fusion
Xbox One, PS4

Trials Fusion melds the classic, proven Trials formula of simple yet addictive competition with the social and visual breakthroughs of the next generation of gaming.

Trials Fusion promises to deliver more chaos, challenges and physics-based puzzles to keep you kicking and laughing with frustration and joy.

The Amazing Spider-man 2
PC, PS3, PS4, Wii U, Xbox 360, Xbox One

The game takes place alongside the events of the film, as Spider-Man searches for Uncle Ben’s killer and retains the layout and gameplay style of the previous game, but features new elements, such as web upgrades, a larger city, and even portions where you’ll take control of Spidey’s alter-ego Peter Parker in order to do some detective work.

The game will feature an all-star villain cast from Spider-Man’s universe, and will feature both new and old characters. The game will feature prominent villains such asKraven the Hunter, Electro, Kingpin, Black Cat, Green Goblin, and Carnage.

Other releases:

Daylight (PC, PS4)
Child of Light (Win, PS3, PS4, WiiU, X360, XBO)
The Wolf Among Us – Episode 3: A Crooked Mile (PC, Mac, XBLA, PSN)
Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn (PS4)
Don Bradman Cricket 14 (Xbox 360, PS3)