This week Paul leads the team with Zahra, Peter and Special Guest Tom from Netherworld to talk punching purple people in the new Prince of Persia roguelite in this weeks Gaming News. Paul praises new shooter Bears In Space from local dev team Broadside Games. Tom plays his cards right in a deck building review of Balatro from LocalThunk. And then Paul takes aim at speed run cult sniper Children of the Sun from René Rother.
In a recent developer update, Riot Games announced that a brand-new PVE game mode will be released later this year. They’ve pitched it as a bullet-heaven, where you can mow down hordes of enemies with friends, or solo. We didn’t get many more details, but the mode is set to release during the League of Legends summer event (that’ll be our winter), so expect more details as we get closer.
In the early hours of April 11th, at 3AM AEST, we saw the first Triple I Initiative showcase stream live on Youtube, Twitch, bilibili, IGN and Steam. The Triple I initiative was spearheaded by Evil Empire, the studio behind Dead Cells, but was a collaborative effort from a huge number of indie studios. We were given over thirty announcements and here are some of the highlights:
• The showcase kicked off with the announcement of a sequel for the deckbuilding roguelike Slay the Spire. The short teaser didn’t show off much, but did say the game will be released in early access next year.
• Never Alone 2, was announced back in 2022 and we’ve heard very little about it since then, but this morning we saw the first official trailer.
• They showed a teaser trailer for Dinolords, a real-time strategy game with a medieval setting where you get to ride around on Dinosaurs. It’s coming to steam in early access, but we don’t know when.
• And there was the announcement of RKGK, an anime-esque graffiti platformer from Wabisabi Games and Gearbox. The trailer showed off bright, bold graphics, and a release for mid-2024.
You can watch the livestream here, or read a complete rundown here.
In emails obtained by Windows Central, Microsoft discussed its plans to deliver “the biggest technical leap in a generation ever” with the next Xbox hardware. They aren’t just looking to the future though. The emails also revealed that Sarah Bond, the current president of Xbox, has formed a team to focus on game preservation and backwards compatibility. “We are building on our strong history of delivering backwards compatibility to our players, and we remain committed to bringing forward the amazing library of Xbox games for future generations of players to enjoy.” Sarah wrote in the email.
Deck Nine, the studio behind Life is Strange: True Colors, and the remastering of the first two games, has been called out for creating a toxic workplace. The accusations, which were made to IGN by more than a dozen employees, claim that sexual harassment, discrimination, and hate speech are commonplace and that management wouldn’t address these issues for months, if at all. Employees found multiple racist memes and hate symbols that had been spread throughout the game. At first, things were subtle enough that staff assumed they were simple mistakes,
however as weeks went by, they found more and more. This issue was also met with a snailpace response from management.
Another shocking part of the report was a claim that publisher Square Enix suppressed discussion of the game’s diverse themes. The protagonist of Life is Strange: True Colors is bisexual, but this wasn’t mentioned in any press before release because Square Enix didn’t want it “to be known as the gay game.” I would have thought anyone who’s played any of the Life is Strange games, or just vaguely heard about them, could tell you they are gay games. But what do I know?
On the 15th of March, Retrowave World is releasing on the PC.
On the 16th of March Europa is releasing to PC and Harold Halibut is coming to PS4, PS5,
Switch, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, and PC. Also, on the 16th Grounded is coming to Switch.
On the 18th of March, Pine Harbor is releasing on the PC and No Rest for the Wicked is releasing
in early access
Hazel and Zara take control this week talking AI controlled Doc Oct armchairs from Razor and the week in Gaming News, and a rundown of the great prizes available in this years April Atonement at 4ZZZ. Paul digs deep in the indi game Pepper Grinder from Ahr Ech, and Zahra starts the carcinisation process in Fight Crab 2 from Calappa Games.
This week in gaming news
The I’s Have It
The Developers of Slay the Spire, Darkest Dungeon and Dead Cells have announced an new showcase event to help give a platform to larger indie titles. Benjamin Laulan, co-founder of Evil Empire who took over development of Dead Cells back in 2019 had this to say:
“on one side there are the big showcases such as the Game Awards, which are more for triple-A games and games with really huge budgets. And on the other hand, there are showcases that may be more focused on [smaller] indies. And we couldn’t really identify ourselves as a studio, I mean, between those two. We felt that there was this in-between spot that needed to be filled somehow.”
Slay The Spire’s Studio co-founder Casey Yano and Darkest Dungeon director Chris Bourassa talking to Gamers Social Club spoke of the difficulty in game funding currently with the “gold mine” of funding like Epic Store deals becoming far more difficult to acquire. Helping boost the Indie scene was one of the main motivations behind the new initiative.
The event is named the Triple-I Initiative and will air 3:00am on April 11th AEST. Be sure to check out the Zed Games Event Calendar on our website.
What could be announced at such a showcase? It’s been revealed that Evil Empire has been working on a new Prince of Persia Roguelite due to enter early access this year and is likely the title the studio has alluded too. But… what.. ELSE!!!!!!!!!!?
SILKSONG ALERT! SILKSONG ALERT!
Are you ready to have you hopes raised before being dashed spectacularly? On April 1st a store page was made for the much-anticipated Hollow Knight Silksong on Xbox. The game is now visible on Nintendo eshop, PSN, Steam, GOG and Xbox Live. But that’s not all, the title has been officially rated by the ESRB, PEGI, the USK in Germany and the The Game Rating and Administration Committee in South Korea. All this leads to the inevitability it that Silksong will release sometime in the future, just like it could have any time in the last 5 years.
Fashion For your Dragons
If you’re into video games there is a non-zero chance that you also like Dungeons and Dragons and have at some point in your life been a consumer. If inclined you can embrace those two elements with some fashion crossovers releasing in the next week.
Converse will be releasing their Converse x Dungeons & Dragons Collection on April 11th including all sorts of clothing including dungeon appropriate shoes. Black Milk Clothing however will be launching their Dungeons & Dragons lineup on April 9th.
Game Release Schedule
Botany Manor (Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, Switch, PC), Children of the Sun (PC), Gigantic: Rampage Edition (PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC) – April 9
House Flipper 2 (PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S), Slave Zero X (Switch) – April 11
April Fools
Before we wrap the news, here are some of the funniest gaming jokes and pranks from April First this year
That’s all this week in Gaming News.
This week on Zed Games, Maylee, Paul, and Peter talk couch party games. Then the team chats the week in Gaming News where Paul talks Xbox Layoffs, Pepper Grinder release, and other new releases. Then Paul goes to the MAX in VR to talk Max Mustard developed by Toast Interactive, before Maylee tries to romance the big bad as a bard in Bard Harder! from indi developer Shark and Pelican Games.
NASA has developed and launched a tabletop roleplaying game called ‘The Lost Universe’, which is available for free.
“A dark mystery has settled over the city of Aldastron on the rogue planet of Exlaris. Researchers dedicated to studying the cosmos have disappeared, and the Hubble Space Telescope has vanished from Earth’s timeline. Only an ambitious crew of adventurers can uncover what was lost.”
The mystery supports 4-7 players using level 7-10 characters, and is supposed to be easily adaptable to your preferred TTRPG system. It is available on NASA’s website.
GTA 6 Might Be Delayed
Grand Theft Auto 6 is set to release in early 2025, and might be one of the most highly anticipated games in history, with fans desperate for any scrap of news. Unfortunately, the initial release date may no longer be possible, with a late 2025 or 2026 release looking more likely, allegedly due to production slipping behind.
Employees have reportedly been mandated to return to work five days a week in April, rather than allowing employees, including those hired remotely, to work from home. This shift in policy has been attributed to improving security and quality. There are rumours however that this change is also to help avoid production slipping further behind.
Rockstar are still aiming for an early 2025 release, a late 2025 release seems more plausible, with the 2026 release being a “fallback plan”.
How Many Playdates Are Missing??
Two pallets of the handheld yellow consoles have reportedly gone missing from a shipping centre in Las Vegas. A simple stocktake revealed that $400,000 worth of Playdates aren’t where they’re supposed to be.
FedEx claims that they were delivered but “we have no trace of them”. A few weeks later, a different set of pallets of Playdates were delivered to the construction site next door to the shipping centre.
Those pallets were successfully recovered, which is good, as Playdate aims to start earning a profit this year.
More Help For Game Help
The PlayStation 5 has a feature called Game Help, that developers can use to provide hints for various games, assisting players who might be struggling with a game. Community Game Help will be added as a feature, allowing users to submit gameplay that is automatically captured during specific activities in the game. Once this footage is approved, it will be published as a hint.
This means that players who are stuck can easily access the relevant footage to use as a guide. Players can rate the quality of the hint, so only the most helpful hints are used.
News Nibbles!
A trailer for Sonic Toys Party, an unannounced battle royale party game from Sega, has been leaked, and it looks uncannily like Fall Guys. The trailer got taken down due to a copyright claim however.
Elder Scrolls 6 is playable and sounds fun, according to Bethesda. Yay.
And now for some upcoming games!
March 28 – that’s today!
That’s it this week in gaming news!
This week, Zahra, Hazel & Maylee talk Stardew Valley REVOLUTIONARY updates in Gaming News, Tobi and Peter double battle The Shroud™ in a review of Enshrouded from Keen Games, and Zahra relaxes while getting their life in order in A Little to the Left developed by Max Inferno.
.-.-.-.-.
Apex Legends Live Hacking
During the regional finals of the Apex Legends Global Series two of the players (Genburten and ImperialHal) were hacked live, right in the middle of the tournament.
ImperialHal was given an aimbot (a cheat which helps a player aim more accurately) and Genburten was able to see the positions of all players. Rumors abound as to who or what caused this but there has been no definite source as of writing.
Due to this incident the finals of the tournament have been postponed and on the site formerly known as Twitter the Apex Legends Esports account has stated that they will have more information on the state of the finals soon.
Changes to Overwatch 2
At the time of writing this, Overwatch 2 is sitting as the 3rd worst-reviewed game on steam, with an average score of 1.71, possibly due to the scrapping of the promised PVE mode, the prevalence of microtransactions (with some skins costing the in-game currency equivalent of around $39), the downsizing of PVP teams from 6 to 5 and perceived issues with the balancing. Possibly also contributing to its poor reputation is the required purchase of the battle pass or intense amounts of grinding to unlock new heroes, unlike the original, where any new heroes were simply available to everyone.
Blizzard has announced with their most recent Developer Update Stream that they’ll be making several changes to the game, one of them being the return to having all heroes available for play. All new heroes introduced to the game will be free to play and any heroes that could be purchased or unlocked will also be made available. Blizzard has also stated in an interview with GamesRadar that there will be no compensation for players who previously spent money to acquire these characters.
Stardew Valley 1.6 Update!
And the greatly anticipated 1.6 update for the farming time sink that is Stardew Valley has been released on PC, and to tell you the truth I’m writing this here news as my character is standing outside Sebastian’s door waiting for him to wake up so I can give him this sardine he wanted. The update went live on the 20th of March at around 4.50 in the AM’s for us Australians and has already received a patch to fix a variety of bugs that came with it.
The update has added an extensive list of new content, balance changes, visual improvements, quality of life changes and bug fixes (alas now you can no longer equip a staircase to your pants slot to receive trimmed lucky purple shorts). New festivals, dialog, crops, items, fish, achievements, quests, secrets and a new farm type are just a small fraction of the content that is packed into this update.
And you can now drink mayonnaise.
https://steamcommunity.com/app/413150/allnews/
GAME RELEASES
March 22
Dragon’s Dogma 2- PC, PS5, Xbox Series X
Rise of the Ronin- PS5
Princess Peach: Showtime! – Nintendo Switch
March 26
South Park: Snow Day! – PC, PS5, Nintendo Switch, Xbox Series X
And that’s all this week in gaming news!
(I’m going to go water my crops now)
This week on Zed Games the team covers the week in Gaming News including a tribute to the late Toriyama. Cameron then old man drools over the retrospective game Llamasoft: The Jeff Minter Story from Digital Eclipse Studios, and Paul clowns around in Penny’s Big Breakaway developed by Private Division.
Thank you, Toriyama.
This week the world of manga and gaming bids farewell to a creative luminary. Akira Toriyama, the writer and illustrator most known for his beloved Dragon Ball series, has passed away. However, Toriyama’s legacy extends far beyond the pages of this iconic manga. His artistic genius also leaves an indelible mark on the gaming industry. From the legendary Dragon Quest series where he worked on every instalment of the series, to the time-traveling epic Chrono Trigger. Toriyama’s character designs breathed life into the pixelated heroes we have grown with and love.
On the 8th of March Toriyama’s production company, Bird Studio, published the sad news that he had suffered a subdural hematoma earlier this month that claimed his life. Fans worldwide will remember Toriyama for his boundless creativity, his iconic art style, his Saiyan warriors, and the Dragon Quest slime.
Layoffs and Shutdowns
This week Deviation Games, a company which was working on a new AAA IP in partnership with PlayStation, has been caught in the wake of SIE’s downsizing. The company is trying to find jobs for the roughly 130 employees who are now added to the 900 odd employees searching for work that were cut late last month by PlayStation. In stranger news, Warner Bros. Discovery has reached out to developers of their Adult Swim Games to tell them that their Adult Swim titles will be removed from digital services. While the developers desperately search for ways to keep their games online, Warner reps state they are unable to transfer ownership to the developers due to “logistical and resource constraints.” Developers of games such as Soundodger+ and First Puncher have been advised that the games will be removed from sale within the next 60 days. For a full list of games that may be affected, click here.
And now for the Gaming Bytes
In the wake of the monetarily successful release of The Super Mario Bros. Movie, it would behove Nintendo to do another one. So, they are. On March 10, or MarIO day, Miyamoto announced on Nintendo’s X account that a new “bright and fun” Mario movie will be coming to the big screens April 3rd, 2026.
Earlier this week Dragon’s Dogman 2 released its character creator ahead of its March 22nd release date, and it’s got more sliders than sense… in a good way. People have moulded characters in their own likeness and some more famous ones, such as; Emo Spiderman Tobey Maguire, Walter White, Scooby’s Shaggy , William Dafoe, Handsome Squidward, and even a cursed Pikachu. Click through to see them… if you dare.
In an interview with GAME FILE, CD Projekt RED’s Game Director Gabe Amatangelo confirmed that Cyberpunk 2077’s development cycle after the disastrous 2020 release is finally over with the recent 2.12 patch. And now the team is ready to move onto bigger and better things.
And now finally, some upcoming game releases.
Friday March 15, save some future aliens in Outcast: A New Beginning coming to PC and next gen consoles.
Tuesday March 19, farm the future in Lightyear Frontier on PC, and Xbox Series S & X, or alternatively, play and manage a baseball team in MLB The Show 24 coming to consoles.
Wednesday March 20, play as your favourite horror daddy (David Harbour) in a Lovecraftian horror love letter to the original Alone in the Dark, coming to PC and next gen consoles
And Thursday, March 21st, grab your mobile because Call of Duty Warzone: Mobile is coming to iOS and Android, and speaking of ports, Horizon Forbidden West: Complete Edition is coming to PC.
Midnight Ghost Hunt for PC is coming out of early access. And lastly, facing horror with a faithful doggo Shines Over: The Damned is coming to PS5.