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What to play this weekend: South Park, Gran Turismo, Fire Emblem Warriors

Sean gets a little help from Sean this week.

Sean Hollister Senior Editor / Reviews
When his parents denied him a Super NES, he got mad. When they traded a prize Sega Genesis for a 2400 baud modem, he got even. Years of Internet shareware, eBay'd possessions and video game testing jobs after that, he joined Engadget. He helped found The Verge, and later served as Gizmodo's reviews editor. When he's not madly testing laptops, apps, virtual reality experiences, and whatever new gadget will supposedly change the world, he likes to kick back with some games, a good Nerf blaster, and a bottle of Tejava.
Sean Buckley Social Media Producer
Sean Hollister
4 min read
2893787-ctured

South Park: The Fractured But Whole. Say it out loud. Say it fast. Say it proud.

Ubisoft

Did you know CNET has *two* Seans who love games? I'm the other one... wait no that's not right, I'm the one who's been here longer. Though other Sean is technically older. Whatever.

Anyhow, I'm the Sean who's a huge Fire Emblem fan (perhaps you've noticed?) and today marks the release of Fire Emblem Warriors -- a game that lets some of my favorite Japanese anime-inspired sword-and-sorcery characters slice through entire armies. So I'm a little bit excited. I mean, realistically I'll probably just go home tonight and throw myself into PUBG's "Hunger Games"-like murder island instead, like I have nearly every night for the past four months.

But I might pick up the new Jackbox Party Pack 4, honestly. My friends and I have spent many a Friday night spinning hilarious lies and answering inane trivia questions with the previous games in the series, and Fibbage 3 might be worth the price of entry alone.

Plus I'm not a South Park fan. Because the new South Park game is out this week too.

New releases (Oct. 15 to 22):

  • Xbox One Fall Update -- In case you didn't know, Microsoft rolled out a huge new dashboard update to the Xbox One on Monday that lets you customize your homescreen by moving icons wherever you want, flick through the UI more easily and prep for the new Xbox One X (by downloading 4K content ahead of time, and transferring games to an external drive) so you'll be ready to upgrade on day one.
  • South Park: The Fractured But Whole (PS4, Xbox One, Windows PC) -- South Park: The Stick of Truth was essentially an interactive episode of the cartoon, and every bit as well-written as the show's best work. It was offensive, crude and low-brow, but also hilariously thought-provoking. Fractured But Whole promises more of the same, but trades the traditional RPG gameplay for a more tactical battle system. Oh, and this one is about super heroes.
  • Gran Turismo Sport (PlayStation 4) -- Gran Turismo arguably popularized the I-can't-believe-how-realistic-it-is racing genre, and it's finally coming to a modern game console. The last release was in 2013 for the PlayStation 3. Early reviews are mixed, but here's why you might want to take them with a grain of salt.
  • Fire Emblem Warriors (Nintendo Switch, New Nintendo 3DS) -- Most Fire Emblem titles are strategy games where you move unique heroes (each with their own beautiful character art, backstory and relationships) across a game board, one at a time, to outwit the enemy commander and save the world. This one, however, lets some of those fan-favorite characters carve through entire armies (hundreds of foes on screen at a time) themselves. I tried it at E3; it was fun!
  • The Jackbox Party Pack 4 (Nintendo Switch, PS4, Xbox One, Windows PC) -- Tired of games that top out at four players? Jackbox might be the answer -- your phone or tablet is the controller (you just log into a website) for each of five different party games. Previous Jackbox Party Packs had players come up with plausible lies, answer wacky trivia or just invent hilarious responses to prompts. This one comes with four new games and one sequel.
  • Megaton Rainfall (PlayStation VR) -- You're basically Superman. Invincible. Fly through the air. Shoot laser beams from your eyes. Faster than a speeding bullet. The whole damn thing. The catch: you've gotta protect huge fully destructible cities from an alien invasion while minimizing collateral damage. In VR. 
  • Time Recoil (iOS) -- Did you enjoy the heady, brutal Hotline Miami or time-only-moves-when-you-move shooter Superhot? Time Recoil kinda-sorta combines the ideas into a single 2D shooting game where time slows down as you rack up the kills. Like predecessors, it's quite bloody but also slightly cerebral, as figuring out a safe path through each level is like solving a puzzle. (Protip: Don't run and gun; tap on enemies to aim.) Previously available on PC and consoles. 
  • Icey (iOS) -- One part 2D side-scroller, one part cryptic, meta-humor laden mystery. Icey earned itself a small, but adoring bullpen of fans on PC and PS4, and now it's debuting on iOS for the first time. The mobile version is by far the cheapest version of the game... but if you buy it on PC this week, you can pick up a Steam Link in-home streaming device for just $1. 
  • Pokemon Go (iOS, Android) -- It's not a new game, but we thought you'd like to know: some of the very first Gen 3 Pokemon should now be available to find and capture in the wild.