Play This: Your Guide To This Week's Best Video Game Downloads

Here's something new for your download queue.

January 19, 2013

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Though actual releases are pretty light, trying out a couple of anticipated games on iOS seems like your best bet (horror fans are in for a treat, too). Here’s this week’s top picks.

Temple Run 2

Platform: iOS
Price: Free

Remember all that endless running in Temple Run? Yeah, 170 million people downloaded it. Expect more of that.

Fire Emblem: Awakening (Demo)

Platform: 3DS
Price: Free

As you’d expect from Nintendo’s venerable strategy RPG series, Awakening gives you more turn-based Ogre Battle-style gameplay. The art direction pairs stylishly chunky Suikoden III aesthetics with character designs from No More Heroes’ Yusuke Kozaki, and this time around the game allows for in-tandem attacks to add another layer of strategy. If the localization hits that medieval sweet spot as well as Square Enix, this one could be a winner.

Dead Space 3 (Demo)

Platform: iOS
Price: Free

Congrats, 360 owners! You get to try out Dead Space 3 a week before anyone else (at least if you like the official page on Facebook). Isaac exploring the blood-soaked winter wonderland of Tau Valantis looks promising enough, though the really interesting (and almost completely ignored) aspect of the game is that when not playing in co-op the PTSD-stricken engineer apparently talks with his fractured psyche. Sold.

Siren

Platform: PS3
Price: $10

Taking place in a remote Japanese mountain village with a strong focus on episodic stealth gameplay over action, Siren was a pretty unique survival horror game in the PS2’s heyday. The high difficulty makes this one about as hardcore as you’d want a horror game to be, so you’ve been warned.

Riven

Platform: iOS
Price: $7

As the sequel to the quintessentially important Myst, Riven can easily stand on its own design, though in its original form it's probably a bit dated at this point. This overhauled iPad-exclusive version is the definitive one, with remastered sounds and HD graphics and a redone interface tweaked to best suit tablet play. Can't do anything those obtuse puzzles, though.