Prepare your senses as Zed Games hosts Paul, Caroline, and Peter talk Gaming News and PSVR 2 incoming, Paul feels the beat to review Hi-Fi Rush, and the crew talk best of their experiences in Steam Next Fest 2023.

World of Warcraft Player Maxed Out Without Playing

World of Warcraft players, and those who tried to become a WoW player, are probably familiar with the tutorial boat that takes players to the starter zone. And yet, despite there being absolutely no quests, enemies, or even resources to harvest on the boat, a player has managed to level up their character to the recently increased level 70. How?

Pets.

Cheatcho has a number of account-wide pet battle quests, meaning that they can be done on separate characters, while allowing Cheatcho to redeem the quest rewards on a completely different character, namely the one on the ship. Apparently if you have a level 25 Chrominius pet on your account, you can use an ability called arcane explosion that can wipe out the quest giver’s pets quickly.

This method took 200 days to achieve max level.

Xbox is now Aware (of carbon)

A new Xbox firmware update brings changes to power management, where every Xbox console defaults to energy-saving mode, reducing console power consumption when the console is off. This change won’t affect performance or how updates install, but you won’t be able to remotely wake your console, and it boots up a little more slowly. It is optional, and players can opt for ‘Instant On’, although this uses up more energy.

In addition, your Xbox can schedule game, app, and OS updates at specific times to help reduce carbon emissions, by connecting to the internet and using the available regional carbon intensity data.

You can also hide game art when choosing tiles for the home page, letting you change game art to blocks of solid colour, helpful if you find yourself overwhelmed with visuals.

Massive Trans Witch Games Bundle

In response to Hogwarts Legacy, and the rising interest in games centred around magic whilst being trans-friendly, itch.io has a bundle of 69 (nice) items made by indie queer artists.

24 of the games are digital, with a further 41 titles being physical tabletop games. Some notable mentions include a witchy dating sim called Casting Hearts, and my personal favourite, a game about a skateboarding witch in Magic Trick.

VRChat Sex Worker Denied Entry to US

VRChat is a form of chat room where attendees are present in virtual reality, allowing them to interact, talk, and play together in a virtual room despite being countries apart. It’s not uncommon to enter a room with a dozen skeletons, 3 furries, and a lot of chaos. Everything ranging from concerts to birthdays to just about anything can exist. Humans being humans, sex, and consequently sex work, also has a place.

The VRChat sex worker, Hex, resides in the United Kingdom, however attempted to visit the United States to visit some friends. She was denied entry and explained how her work was done in a ‘virtual game’. However, according to Hex, the woman interviewing her didn’t quite understand. Despite not technically meeting the legal definition for prostitution in U.S. immigration laws, she was issued an official letter stating that she was denied entry due to ‘prostitution’.

And now for some upcoming games!

February 16

• Theatrhythm Final Bar Line (PS4, Switch)
• Wild West Dynasty (PC)

February 17

• Gigantosaurus: Dino Kart (PC, PS5, XSX, PS4, XBO, Switch)
• The Settlers: New Allies (PC)
• Tales of Symphonia Remastered (PS4, XBO, Switch)
• Wild Hearts (PC, PS5, XBO)

February 18

• The Dreams in the Witch House (PC)

February 21

• Atomic Heart (PC, PS5, XSX, PS4, XBO)
• Like a Dragon: Ishin (PS5, PS4)
• Ninja JaJaMaru: The Great Yokai Battle+Hell Deluxe Edition (PS4, Switch)
• Ninja JaJaMaru: The Lost RPGs (PS4, Switch)
• Ninja JaJaMaru: The Legendary Collection (PS4, Switch)

February 22

• Digimon World: Next Order (PC, Switch)
• After the Fall (PSVR 2)
• Fantavision 202X (PSVR 2)
• Gran Turismo 7 PSVR 2 upgrade (PSVR 2)
• Horizon Call of the Mountain (PSVR 2)
• Job Simulator (PSVR 2)
• Jurassic World Aftermath Collection (PSVR 2)
• Kayak VR: Mirage (PSVR 2)
• Kizuna AI – Touch the Beat! (PSVR 2)
• The Last Clockwinder (PSVR 2)
• The Light Brigade (PSVR 2)
• Resident Evil Village (PSVR 2)
• Song in the Smoke (PSVR 2)
• Star Wars: Tales from the Galaxy’s Edge – Enhanced Edition (PSVR 2)
• Synth Riders (PSVR 2)
• The Tale of Onogoro (PSVR 2)
• Tentacular (PSVR 2)
• Tetris Effect (PSVR 2)
• What the Bat (PSVR 2)
• Zenith: The Last City (PSVR 2)
• Zombieland: Headshot Fever Reloaded (PSVR 2)

On Zed Games this week Maylee, Zahra, & Rani talk the week in Gaming News, Rani plays spin the bottle in Raptor Boyfriend: A Highschool Romance, and the team plays Kiss Marry Kill based on their video game crushes.

https://www.screenaustralia.gov.au/sa/media-centre/news/2023/02-07-1-million-for-11-digital-games

Games Getting Funded!

Screen Australia has announced 11 games that will each receive a part of 1.5 million dollars in funding through what is called the Games: Expansion Pack fund.  The fund is targeted at emerging or small to medium independent game studios with budgets below $500 000.

CEO of Screen Australia Graeme Mason said, “There are huge opportunities for growth in the local games sector. The Government’s $12 million investment to support digital games developers and small and medium independent games studios will enable Screen Australia to support more Australian developers to create original games, build sustainable businesses and attract local and global audiences.”

The Games: Expansion Pack is open for applications on an ongoing basis until 4 May 2023.

https://www.ea.com/games/the-sims/the-sims-4/news/update-01-31-2023

The Sims 4 News

In the latest Sims 4 update Maxis has added a variety of customization options in create-a-sim, with medical wearables and trans-inclusive cosmetics.  The update (1.95.207.1030 on PC and version 1.69 (nice) on console) includes hearing aids, glucose monitors, top surgery scars and binders and shape-wear.

Oh and they added a light switch too.

https://www.kotaku.com.au/2023/02/nintendo-announces-10-per-cent-pay-raise-for-devs-despite-lower-profits/

Nintendo is decent.

Nintendo has announced a 10 percent pay rise for its game developers, in spite of their reported 20 percent drop in switch sales, stating that securing their workforce is important to their long-term growth.

This is in line with Nintendo’s history of being actually pretty decent to their employees (barring crunch but that’s a different kettle of fish) such as in 2011 when faced with the poor sales of the Nintendo 3DS, Nintendo president Satoru Iwata took a 50 percent pay cut.

I suppose in the wake of all the layoffs in the gaming industry (last month Microsoft announced 10 000 job cuts) it’s nice to see a company taking care of the people who actually make the games they sell.

Releases!

February 9

Monster Outbreak – Switch

February 10

Go! Go! PogoGirl – PC, Playstation, Xbox and Switch

February 14

Blanc – PC and Switch

Journey to the Savage Planet: Employee of the Month Edition – PS5 & Xbox Series X

Outzone – PC

Ten Dates – PC, Playstation, Xbox and Switch

Toaplan Arcade Shoot ‘Em Up Collection Vol.1 – PC

Truxton – PC

Twin Cobra – PC

Wanted: Dead  PC, Playstation and Xbox

Zero Wing – PC

February 15

Pharaoh: A New Era – PC

Returnal -PC

And that’s all this week in gaming news!

Zed Gamers gather close and listen as Rani, Paul, & Cameron press buttons and banter while chatting gaming news, Paul pretends to review Vampire Survivors while ranting about the Steam Deck, and Cameron feeds his mafia pigs in a review of Adios.

Microsoft starts the year boldly

Microsoft held an event called the “Xbox + Bethesda Developer Direct” covering 5 upcoming titles. A 4v4 PvP mode for the upcoming Minecraft Legends was shown off mixing up action, base building and strategy. Arkane’s upcoming multiplayer vampire survival game Redfall got a release date of May 2, the next Forza Motorsport showed off the goods with 500 cars included and The Elder Scrolls Online got a timeframe of June for its next expansion based in Morrowind titled Necrom. But perhaps the biggest announcement of the event was the simultaneous reveal and release of Tango Gameworks’ new game. The Evil Within and Ghostwire Tokyo developer surprised viewers with Hi-Fi Rush a bright and colourful 3^rd person character action game crossed with a rhythm game. The environment and action all operates at the beat of the music player that has been mistakenly embedded in the protagonists chest.

Australian Government to re-establish Interactive Games Fund

The National Minister for the Arts, Tony Burke, has announced the return of the government’s Interactive game fund.

‘All forms of storytellers now – whether it’s narrative, visual art, music, acting – are finding themselves jobs in the video games industry. Screen Australia, when you’ve got an industry expanding like this around the world, shouldn’t be left trying to check if there’s some spare change back in the lounge to fund this rapidly growing, AU $4 billion sector.’

‘So we’ll restore the Games Fund for Screen Australia that was abolished nearly 10 years ago.’ – Tony Burke

Labor hopes the fund along with the previously announced Digital Game Tax Offset will help support and establish new Australian Developers for years to come.

E3 Still Ain’t Coming Back

The big three Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft will not attend this year’s planned return of E3. Xbox’s Phil Spencer has said Microsoft plans to hold their regular Showcase at the same time but will not be officially part of the expo.  Sony dropped out of E3 back in 2019 and Nintendo have been unpredictable with their announcements in recent years. It’s a big blow for event organizers Reedpop who have taken over the event to shape into something more suitable for the current climate of the industry.

Tomb Bag? Or perhaps Flea Raider?

Amazon have announced plans to develop a Tomb Raider television show with Phoebe Waller-Bridge who is perhaps most well known for her Emmy Winning series Fleabag which she wrote, produced, and starred in. Waller-Bridge is positioned to write and produce the series but alas will not be filling the shoes of Lara Croft herself.

Goodbye Tess

At a time when The Last of Us TV show is gaining much praise and attention came the sad news that actor Annie Wersching who played Tess in the original game and remake has passed away from cancer. She was 45 years old.

Upcoming Game Releases

Deliver Us Mars (PlayStation Platforms, Xbox Platforms, PC), Life Is Strange 2 (Switch), Tails: The Backbone Preludes (PC), Your Only Move is Hustle (PC), The Pathless (Xbox Platforms, Switch) – February 3^rd

This week Zed Games goes the whole hog with news, reviews, community, and culture as CAMERON brings in the hottest in this week’s gaming news! CAROLINE gives us the quick and dirty in a review of The Fantastic Kitty Rue, AND the entire team makes sure YOU ALL ARE INFORMED on the latest in Sonic culture with a discussion of the recently released Sonic Prime series.

Coming in hotter than a Blue Shell from eighth place, here’s this week’s gaming news!

WOW guy says “wow”… after he got fired

Brian Bermingham, lead engineer on World of Warcraft Classic, has been fired from Activision-Blizzard, reportedly for not participating in the controversial ‘stack ranking’ process. Stack ranking asks team leads to mark 5% of their teams as not suitable to receive promotions, royalties or even continued employment, and it’s a pretty cold way to evaluate team members. Bermingham says he’d be willing to rejoin the team if he was asked to. In completely unrelated news, joining the Game Workers of Australia union is cheap and easy. 

343’s trial separation from Halo

Halo Infinite developers 343 Industries are reportedly stepping back from their committed relationship with Halo. The company will allegedly still have a supervisory role on future Halo game development, allowing other developers the opportunity to actually release a Halo title that makes people happy for the first time since Bungie went off to make Destiny games. 343 has reassured us that they still love us, this is just something grown ups do sometimes and it’s not our fault. However, 343 Industries studio head Pierre Hintze debunked this rumour on Twitter over the weekend: 

“Halo and Master Chief are here to stay. 343 Industries will continue to develop Halo now and in the future, including epic stories, multiplayer, and more of what makes Halo great.” 

Justin Roiland sucks

In news surprising nobody who’s ever had to deal with him, it turns out that Rick and Morty co-creator and main writer of the recently released Squanch Game’s High on Life has been fired from Squanch Games, Adult Swim and anyone else who doesn’t want his stink on their shoes. I really don’t feel like submitting us all to his creepy crap, but rest assured we’re all better off without predators like him in the industry. 

Breaking News: Unpacking is still awesome.

There’s no real news here, just a gentle reminder.

Sony unveil PSVR2 lineup

Sony have announced a swathe of new titles designed to get us excited about their second generation VR headset. The new hardware includes eye tracking and 4K displays, but what will make it really worth buying are the game experiences that are coming in the next few months. A new Horizon game called Horizon Call of the Mountain heads the lineup, followed by VR updates to Gran Turismo 7 and Resident Evil Village. I personally can’t wait to buy Tetris Effect for the sixth time and declare it game of the year for the sixth time. 

Upcoming Releases

Get your wallets ready folks, because there’s a-heapin’ of games coming our way, including:

Jan 26 

Castle Shadowgate (C64)

Jan 27

Dead Space (PS4, PS5, PC, XSX) 

Jan 31
Spongebob Squarepants: The Cosmic Shake (PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, XS)

Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition (Xbox One, XS)

Hitman: World of Assassination [PC, PS5, XSX, PS4, XBO, Switch] 

Powerwash Simulator [PS5, PS4, Switch] – and the Powerwash Simulator Tomb Raider DLC…wait, what?

DnD OGL Update Aftermath
In the aftermath of the Open Game Licence 2.0 leak, Wizards of the Coast have struggled to claw back their fanbase as DnD Beyond servers suffer under the load of mass subscription cancelations. Additionally, several big third-party publishers who would be affected by the new royalty system have tabled their intention to either jump ship or create their own licensing system. Kobold Press teased “Project Black Flag”, Matt Colville’s MCDM Productions is working on both a new OGL as well as a new TTRPG, and Paizo/Pathfinder looking to collaborate on an open RPG license.
In response, a statement was released insisting “It was never our intent to impact the vast majority of the community.” They also tried to clarify stating that any future revisions “…will not include the license back provision that some people were afraid was a means for us to steal work. That thought never crossed our minds.”

Activision Blizzard… when will it end?
As the saga continues, here’s the current headlines coming out of the company that can’t stop making waves.

• Activision Blizzard has refused to acknowledge the union that formed late December. Management at Proletariat issued the statement that leadership “…has always been pro-worker“ and that employees “…deserve some time to process (sic) and to better understand its potential impacts.”
• The Microsoft Activision Blizzard merger that was announced in January 2022 has had new challenges with the European Union filing an antitrust challenge and Google parent Alphabet Inc, and Nvidia are filing for unfair advantages in the gaming market. These join other objections placed with the US Federal Trade Commission to be investigated by the Competition and Markets Authority, and finalised in April.
• In some hearsay arguments Activision Blizzard claims that it was Netease that rejected the six-month extension of their partnership. Various sources cite irreconcilable differences including Netease president referring to an Activision Blizzard executive as a “jerk”. Because of these, after January 23^rd several titles will no longer be accessible in China, most notably World of Warcraft, Diablo 3, Starcraft, and Overwatch 2.

Doors Close on Stadia
As the curtains close on the experiment that was Google Stadia, refunds have been processed for everything but Pro subscriptions… but payments were also paused the day shutdown was announced. But what about all that hardware you don’t have? Well, if you did manage to get the controller, Google has pushed a self-serve tool to enable Bluetooth connections with the gamepads. Meaning, your Stadia Gamepad may be obsolete, but at least you can still use it on the hardware you didn’t get because you used Stadia.
Oh! Remember that guy who had 6000 hours in Red Dead Online on the Stadia who was pleading for a character transfer? Well, not only did Rockstar organise a transfer, he also got a gift box from the company. Unfortunately, Rockstar has announced they will no longer be releasing any major content for Red Dead Online, instead focusing on the upcoming GTA6.

And finally, a moment for the death of Google Stadia…

And now, for some upcoming games.
On Friday January 20^th, the next instalment in the series Fire Emblem Engages and its Wave 1 DLC are coming to Switch. World War 1 horror survival Trenches emerges from Steam early access onto PlayStation, Xbox, & the Switch.
Tuesday January 24^th, the RAM-hungry, RPG, fantasy shooter Forspoken is coming to PC & PS5, and deckbuilding & strategy boardgame mashup Mahokenshi comes to PC.
And on Thursday January 26^th, for that nostalgia hit Wonder Boy Anniversary Collection is coming to PlayStation and Switch. The strange Hitman: World of Assassination hodgepodge that collects Hitman 1 to 3 as well as Hitman 3: Freelancer Mode are all coming to PC, PlayStation, Xbox, and Switch. Fight the nightmares of a girl in the twin stick shooter NeverAwake, coming to PlayStation and Switch.