A reversal of fortune! A week lacking in new Blu-ray releases is made up for by the biggest game release week of the year (so far). Check out what’s new in our weekly Amazon roundup!
As we the first full week of January (and the first LT production week with Trump as Prez), we can overcome the blues with some sweet content, both on Amazon store shelves and on this here site. We’ve got a fun new Laser Time about mergers that changed pop culture, a Fantasy Fight battle of all thirty Royal Rumble winners, and an upcoming Monday Night Movie for Black Dynamite. Looking ahead, you can bet on some fun game streams and plenty of Vidjagame Apocalypse chatter thanks to the new games buoying this week’s Amazon slate. Said games are even more enticing thanks to the fact that they come with a 20% discount via Amazon Prime. Also, any purchase you make on Amazon in the same visit after clicking a Laser Time link helps out the hosts of the fourth leading pop-culture podcast. You can literally buy ANYTHING that visit, just be sure to click one of these products before making your merry way to your intended purchase. Got it? Good.
Talk about a franchise re-inventing itself! If you’ve been watching our Resident Evil 4 PlayStation 4 playthrough (or have played the influential game yourself), you know how it made drastic changes to the Resident Evil formula (or RE4-mula, as it were) and successfully revived the undead franchise. Resident Evil 7 may have had a bigger zombie to slay, as Resident Evil 6 was detracted by many for being overburdened and recent REs (like Revelations 2 and the new-gen remakes) while decent, were not big-enough events to signal major change in the series. However, RE7 looks to have found yet another new direction for the franchise, integrating creepy first-person action, but giving the proceedings a bigger-budget feel than recent first-person horror games like Outlast. RE7 has been garnering good reviews thus far, and you can bet we’ll be talking about the new direction on this week’s VGA and on a launch-day stream (in the meantime, watch three grown men in their thirties get frightened by Resident Evil 7’s demo below). One thing that won’t be scary? The price tag, as Amazon Prime members get 20% off RE7 during its launch window!
ALSO AVAILABLE: XBOX ONE
Now this here is “Dave Rudden’s Lock of the Week!” While I’ll definitely give RE7 a shot sometime soon, I’ve really liked the Yakuza series since it jumped to HD consoles with Yakuza 3, though that comes with a large gap in knowledge of the franchise’s early years. That’s why I’m super-excited to play this prequel set in 1980s Japan, which is my favorite time period mixed with my favorite international country. Even though I adore the first two Shenmue games, Yakuza feels like the refined version of Sega’s old open-world series, mixing in more combat and insanity with the ability to do mundane day-to-day Japanese activities. Hopefully I’ll be able to get some time in on Y0 to report back for this week’s VGA, but since the reviews are already pretty positive, you might do well to buy Yakuza on Amazon and save 20% via Amazon Prime, a savings far greater than zero!
Alright… let me see if I can crack this nut. Even though this game has the number 2 in it, Kingdom Hears 2 is NOT a part of Square Enix’s first Kingdom Hearts PlayStation 4 compilation. Neither is KH1 for that matter. Instead, KHHD2.8FCP upgrades the formerly 3DS-exclusive Dream Drop Distance to shine in HD, while adding a new chapter to Birth By Sleep (but not BBS itself) and a KH cinematic movie. THEN IN MARCH, the PlayStation 4 compilations featuring the two tentpole KH games will release. I’m sure there’s chronological reasons for the collections releasing in this particular order and each with specific content, but I think I’ve already given myself an aneurysm trying to figure it all out. That’s not to mention that Chris and Brett spent six months deciphering the original Square-Disney crossover, which would probably make my brain melt. You can watch that below, but if you want to get started on Kingdom Hearts’ PlayStation 4 exploits ahead of the not-very-imminent Kingdom Hearts 3, you can do so now, and with a 20% discount should you have an Amazon Prime membership!
With the world going gaga over every new Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest release, it’s a bit sad that Bandai-Namco’s “Tales of” series doesn’t really get attention nowadays. Granted, with sixteen main entries and a handful of spin-offs that aren’t quite Square-Enix quality, it’s fallen by the wayside (not to mention that eschewing standard numbering makes it difficult to keep up with the franchise’s chronology), but Berseria seems to be a return to fine form for the series if early reviews are any indication. If you’ve already Platinum’d Final Fantasy XV and have some time to kill before Persona 5 releases in the US this year, you could do far worse than Tales of Berseria. You can also tell a Tale of Savings, as this new game release comes with a nifty 20% Amazon Prime discount!
Normally I’d pave over a non-descript racer like this on such a high-profile release week, but there’s a few factors making Moto Racer 4 a big more attractive than usual. One is plastered right there on the box, as PlayStation VR seems tailor-made to showcase the insanity of first-person motorcycle racing. We also have Michael Michael Motorcycle Grimm on tap for Vidjagame Apocalypse this week, so you can expect good old Pseudobread himself to potentially talk about ACTUAL first-person motorcycle riding. While already at a lower price than most new releases, Moto Racer 4 also comes with a 20% Amazon Prime discount, making this ride all the more sweet!
With all of the attention given to Marvel, Star Wars, and assorted Vin Diesel franchises, it’s easy to forget about the mammoth success of the Da Vinci code franchise. When he’s not busy hosting the best SNL of 2016, Hanks has continued his box-office dominance as he hunts historical mysteries across the globe in this Ron Howard-helmed series. Outside of Transformers, a billion-plus-dollar franchise has to have something going for it, and I’m game to check out Tom “America’s Dad” Hanks in anything that doesn’t involve him adopting an awful accent (see Gump, Forrest and Terminal, The). It seems as though this is the end for this literary-turned-cinematic franchise, so if you want to catch up on the entire Hanks mysteries saga, you can now procure all three movies on Blu-ray!
Ah, British television. The Brits may make television at a glacial pace, but when they do, they pretty much redefine the genre. In the past, we’ve seen the likes of The Office, Spaced, and Black Mirror become overseas sensations, and Sherlock might be the biggest BBC pond-hopper this decade. Sherlock Holmes is one of the oldest adapted stories, but the sheer talent of the cast has made each movie-length episode a minor event. Granted, getting Doctor Strange and Scotty Bilbo together in the same production is already a minor miracle, but you know the Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman bring the acting in a big way every time they don the guises of Sherlock Holmes and John Watson, it’s a big event. Chris recently extolled the virtues of Sherlock on a recent Patreon-exclusive Bonus Time (bemoaning the fact that he didn’t mention it during Laser Time’s most anticipated movies and TV of 2017 episode, so you can bet these eps will warrant discussion on upcoming podcasts.
UPCOMING VIDEO GAME PRE-ORDERS!
SPECIAL ALERT! IF YOU HAVE AMAZON PRIME, YOU GET 20% OFF MOST PRE-ORDERS! KEEP THAT IN MIND WHEN BUYING THROUGH US!
Kingdom Hearts III
Red Dead Redemption 2
Persona 5
Mass Effect Andromeda Deluxe Edition
Halo Wars 2
South Park: The Fractured But Whole
Death Stranding
Final Fantasy VII Remake
Spider-Man