The State of Games

BLUEY!

Whether you’re a parent to a child who is obsessed with the blue puppy, or you’re an adult with some form of emotional damage, you’ll be pleased to know that there is a video game coming out in November based off the cartoon!

Outright Games, a UK-based publisher, has officially announced Bluey: The Videogame, for the Nintendo Switch, PlayStation, Xbox, and PC. The game has been developed by Artax Games with a lot of input from Ludo Studio, delivering a game that features a new four-part storyline that can support four-players, allowing you to play as the entire Heeler family.

The game will feature the voices from the English cast of the show, and you can expect to see some of your favourite characters, as well as existing and original music. It promises to be an “interactive sandbox adventure” with “story-driven, episodic gameplay”.

Sony’s State of Play

Sony recently had their little showcase, and here is a really quick summary of it:

The remake of Resident Evil 4 will get an update with playable Ada Wong and Albert Wesker, along with PSVR2 support on the way.

Avatar fans (the blue people) can experience a whole new part of Pandora, revealing the Western Frontier in Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora. It is to be set between the first and second movies.

Foamstars, the Splatoon-style shooter by Square Enix, will be getting a playable open beta from September 29th to October 1st, but only for PS5 players in North America. Tragedy.

The second chapter of the Final Fantasy 7 remake project is on its way, and it’s bringing back something weirdly nostalgic for older gamers: experiencing a game across two discs! Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth comes out 29th February, 2024.

Spider-Man 2 by Insomniac Games expands out to Brooklyn and Queens! So you can patrol every single neighbourhood I guess.

Aaaaaand NINTENDO DIRECT TOO

Tis the season for game announcements and rumours. There’s some speculation about what a new Switch would look like, how much it would cost, blah blah blah.

In more exciting, tangible Nintendo news, we got to see Princess Peach: Showtime, where Princess Peach attempts to save a theatre from the Wicked Grape and the Sour Bunch.

F-ZERO 99 has come to Nintendo Switch Online, allowing you to race against 98 other players.

Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD will bring spooks in more definition, Mario vs. Donkey Kong will have the plumber facing off against the primate yet again, and detective pikachu returns in Detective Pikachu Returns.

We also got to see the Splatoon 3: Side Order expansion, Another Code: Recollection, from the DS and Wii, will be coming to the Switch, WarioWare: Move It! Was announced to be released on 3rd November, 2023. Exciting times for Nintendo fans.

And now for some upcoming games!

September 21

  • Days of Doom – PC, PS5, XSX, PS4, XBO, Switch
  • Hellsweeper VR – PC VR, PSVR 2
  • Payday 3 – PC, PS5, XSX
  • Resident Evil 4 Remake: Separate Ways DLC – PC, PS5, XSX, PS4
  • Super Adventure Hand! – PC, Switch
  • Warhaven – PC

September 22

  • Cyber Citizen Shockman 2: A New Menace – PS5, XSX, PS4, XBO, Switch
  • Shuyan Saga – PS5, XSX, PS4, XBO, Switch
  • Slaps and Beans 2 – PS5, XSX, PS4, XBO, Switch

September 25

  • Project Planet – Earth Vs Humanity – PC
  • Relic Hunters Legend – PC
  • These Doomed Isles – PC

September 26

  • Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty expansion – PC, PS5, XSX
  • Mineko’s Night Market – PC, Switch
  • My Time At Sandrock – PS5, XSX, Switch
  • Paleo Pines – PC, PS5, XSX, PS4, XBO, Switch
  • Truck Driver: The American Dream – PS5, XSX

September 27

  • Astronimo – PC

That’s it this week in gaming news!

4 Reviews

This week Paul, Zahra, and Peter go all out bringing you not only the freshest in Gaming News, but not one, not two, not even three, but 4 REVIEWS!!!!
Paul and Zahra tag team reviewing Gunbrella (ella, ella), “A Nice Little Game” Zahra with – Fern Flower, “Films Are Bigger For Me Than Games” Paul with – It’s a Wrap, and finally, Zahra again with a review of Fishing and Life.

Starfield Hype, Unity Meltdown, E3 is Dead, Long Live E4, and some extra tasty Gaming Bytes

Starfield Hype
This week marked the launch of Todd “it just works” Howard/Bethesda’s shiny new RPG, Starfield. Starfield went supernova, instantly becoming the biggest Bethesda launch of all time, and since its release it has hoarded over 6 million players, with over a million concurrent players shooting into the stratosphere when counting over all platforms. With official mod support coming next year, PC players have had the hardest time since release, with Intel and Nvidia systems copping the brunt of the issues. Todd Howard’s response for people with PCs?

“You might need to upgrade your PC.”

Unity, no longer for the gamer
Unity, the game engine behind Rust, Hollow Knight, and Pokémon Go, and the controversial Creative AI Unity Muse and Unity Sentis, has introduced a controversial new fee for developers. The Runtime Fee, set to take effect in 2024, is a per-install fee that will apply to games that reach a previously established annual revenue threshold and a lifetime install count. Indie developers are concerned that this new policy will kill smaller games with the new system severely affecting their bottom line, and leading devs of free-to-play games questioning if they’d end up owing hundreds of thousands of dollars or more under the new system. Unity’s attempts to provide clarity have so far only fueled devs’ frustration and spawned more questions from those with both currently active and in-development games using the engine. This has led to warnings from industry professionals such as creative director at Necrosoft Games, Brandon Sheffield, stating in an op-ed for Insert Credit, “But now I can say, unequivocally, if you’re starting a new game project, do not use Unity,” and “If you started a project 4 months ago, it’s worth switching to something else. Unity is quite simply not a company to be trusted.”
After regrouping on the evening of September 12, Unity clarified their previous statement, claiming that they will only charge for the initial installation of a game, reversing their previous stance that multiple charges would be made for reinstalls. Unity also stated that the fee will only apply to monetized titles and that charity games and bundles are exempt; however, the announcement has raised further questions about the impact on the free-to-play genre, as well as demo installs. Further, concerns remain about how installs will be tracked, with the potential for abuse by bad actors, and devs concerned about the need to implement third party DRM (Digital Rights Management) in their games.

E3 is Dead, Long Live E4?
With the earlier announcement this week that PAX organiser Reedpop and E3 had cut ties, it may come as unsurprising news that E3 2024 is in doubt. The Entertainment Software Association or ESA who runs E3 have also informed the longstanding home of E3, the LA Convention Center, they will not be there in 2024. However, according to news site GamesIndustry.biz they are “working on a complete reinvention of the E3 show for 2025.” We live in hope.

And now for some Gaming Bytes.
About to load up Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty DLC? Best check your system with Lead Scene Programmer CD PROJEKT RED Filip Pierściński imploring gamers via tweet to check system stability and to “please check conditions of your cooling systems in PC.”
And feeling old? Well Steam turned 20 on the 12th of September , and 25 year old fansite AtariAge has been acquired by Atari.

Now for some upcoming games.
Friday September 15, Baby Shark: Sing & Swim Party comes to Pc, PlayStation, Xbox, and Switch, and tech themed 3D platformer Boti: Byteland Overclocked comes to PC.
Tuesday September 19, start your week with an open-world high-fantasy strategy RPG Dragonheir: Silent Gods, coming to PC. Or, race to your parking space in You Suck At Parking coming to PS4 and Switch. Can you become a real boy in the Pinocchio soulslike Lies of P, coming to PC, Xbox and PlayStation. And lastly for Tuesday, Mortal Kombat 1 comes to PC, PS5, Xbox Series X and Switch.
Wednesday September 20, kick animal butt in the brawler/party game Party Animals, coming to PC, and Xbox. And, put the shooting or spell slinging in the S of FPS in the dark fantasy roguelite shooter Witchfire, coming to PC.
And finally, Thursday September 21st brings free-to-play medieval warfare PVP Warhaven to PC. Want to release your inner Addams family Thing within to defeat some feet? Then play Super Adventure Hand! coming to PC and Switch. And to finish, Payday 3 is coming to PC and next gen consoles.

Anti-Toxic AI, Good Bye Volition, and Stray Movie!

Call of Duty Uses AI To Find Toxicity

Call of Duty is no stranger to less-than-pleasant behaviour from players, like many massively popular games with an online component. What is Activision doing now to combat it? Activision is now teaming up with Modulate, an AI program developed specifically to filter through voice chat in order to flag, and deal with, problematic behaviour.

It’s still in its early stages, with ToxMod, the tool being used, entering beta testing on North American servers. The tool is already used in a number of online games, but Call of Duty would certainly be a large task.

The program isn’t capable of banning players, but instead will monitor voice chat in real time, flag problematic behaviour depending on context, and then provide this information to moderators to take action. In theory, you can still cuss out your friends when they’re taking their sweet time getting to you, so players shouldn’t be worried about being boisterous.

Goodbye Volition

The game developer company, Deep Silver Volition, developer of titles like Saints Row, and Red Faction, has closed its doors after 30 years of development. It hasn’t been a smooth journey for the company, with Volition’s Saints Row reboot facing negative criticism upon reveal. After a transfer from Embracer, and a multi-billion dollar deal collapsing, Volition has been shut down while Embracer goes through some pretty significant restructuring.

IPs including Saints Row and Red Faction will be transferred to another subsidiary, Plaion.

“For 30 years now you have played our games – sometimes you’ve loved them, sometimes you’ve been disappointed with them, but you’ve always been there… We can’t thank you enough for sticking with us throughout this time.” Volition says in a letter to its community.

STRAY MOVIE

Did you like that cat game that came out last year? The one where you’re a little kitty cat in a futuristic city populated by robots? Well, it’ll be hitting the big screen! Annapurna Animation, who developed the film Nimona, will be developing an animated film based off of the game.

“It’s a buddy comedy about a cat and a robot, and there’s such a hilarious dynamic. So, there’s comedy inherent in this, but there’s not one human being in this movie. I think it’s one of the reasons why the game was incredibly popular,” says Robert Baird, Annapurna Animation boss.

Annual Diablo Expansions

Blizzard will be releasing multiple expansions for Diablo IV on an annual basis, with each year being broken up into quarterly seasons, with long-term storylines promised.

This roadmap isn’t unusual for developers, to space out new content on a regular basis. The 11 year long gap between Diablo III and Diablo IV has also been cited as a reason, and it’s hoped that this approach will help rectify that.

Season 2, Season of Blood, has been announced as part of GamesCon opening night.

Arcane Season Two!

Season two of Arcane, the Netflix animated series based off of Riot Games’ League of Legends game, will be premiering in winter 2024 (or summer for us Aussies). Woohoo!

 

And now for some upcoming games!

September 7

  • The Dragoness: Command of the Flame – Switch
  • Toss! – PC VR, Quest, PSVR 2

September 8

  • Fae Farm – PC, Switch
  • NBA 2K24 – PC, PS5, XSX, PS4, XBO, Switch

September 12

  • Eternights – PC, PS5, PS4
  • The Isle Tide Hotel – PC, PS5, XSX, PS4, XBO, Switch

September 13

  • Heretic’s Fork – PC
  • Super Bomberman R 2 – PC, PS5, XSX, PS4, XBO, Switch

September 14

  • Ad Infinitum – PC, PS5, XSX
  • AK-xolotl – PC, PS5, XSX, PS4, XBO, Switch
  • The Crew Motorfest – PC, PS5, XSX, PS4, XBO
  • Heavy Duty Challenge – PC, PS5, XSX
  • Sugar Shack – PC

 

That’s it this week in gaming news!

Deview

This week join the Zed Games crew of Zahra, Hazel & Peter, as they discuss the news hot from the News Press of Paul. Peter makes their Deview (debut review) with a review of musical shooter City of Beats, and Zahra takes second fiddle to a Lobster with a review of Frog Detective The Entire Mystery.

Thirty Five Percent and Other Fun Stories

BG3 is coming right at ya

Baldur’s Gate 3, one of this year’s run-away hits, has launched on PC and PS5 is coming this week but the Xbox release was not expected until next year. That is now changed after the developer Larian Studios managed to secure permission from Microsoft to release the game without feature parity between the Series X and the weaker Series S. There had been great difficulty getting the split screen co op working on the weaker console and, in what will surely be a start of things to come, the Series S version will launch without the feature. Otherwise, the game will remain the same and feature cross save so you can still take your save to Series X, PC or even PS5. You can now expect the game on Xbox platforms by the end of the year.

Speaking of cross save the long running hit online action game Warframe has also announced robust cross save allowing players to play their games seamlessly across PS4/5, Xbox One/Series X/S, PC and Switch by year’s end.

Playstation Portal

Previously know as Project Q, Sony’s new handheld device has been revealed as the Playstation Portal. A handheld streaming device with a 1080p 8-inch 60hz screen between two halves of a Dualsense controller. The devices’ sole function is to stream PS5 games inside the home with no native software.

Much like the Playstation 5 the Portal will also not allow Bluetooth headsets to connect. Sony has you covered though with a head set and earbuds called the Pulse Elite and Pulse Explore respectively, releasing alongside the Portal using special proprietary technology that I’m sure will become as commonplace as the UMD.

A firm release date beyond this year has not been announces and neither have Australian prices but the US prices convert to roughly $310 for the Portal, $230 for the Elite and $310 again for the Explore.  Don’t forget to round up!

BREAKING: Sony has announced it will the increasing the pricing of its online services. The Australian pricing is still to be confirmed but in other regions prices are set to increase 35 percent. This price rise brings with it no additional features.

Headlines have all the info you ever need

With Starfield just days away it is now time to announce that the Elder Scrolls 6, a mere 5 years after it was announced is entering early development!

Following the successful launch of Shadow Gambit two weeks ago developer Mimimi has announced the title will be their last and the studio will close.

Star Citizen has crossed 600 million in crowd funding a number over 8 times more than the budget of India’s recent moon landing.

Upcoming Game Releases

30XX (Switch) – September 2

Chants of Sennaar (PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Switch, PC), Rune Factory 3 Special (Switch) – September 6

Baldur’s Gate 3 (PlayStation 5), Starfield (Xbox Series X/S, PC) – September 7

Final Fantasy VII Ever Crisis (iOS, Android) – September 8

Mario, Movies, & More

Mario is no more.

Nintendo has revealed that Charles Martinet, the original voice actor of Mario who has played the role since 1991 will be “stepping back from recording character voices for our games” and will now serve as a “Mario Ambassador.” The post continued that “With this transition, he will be stepping back from recording character voices for our games, but he’ll continue to travel the world sharing the joy of Mario and interacting with you all!”

Charles Martinet quote tweeted the post, adding “My new Adventure begins!  You are all Numba One in my heart!  #woohoo  !!!!!!!”

 

Slime Rancher on the big screen

A recent announcement, shared by Deadline, revealed that Monomi Park’s Slime Rancher games are being adapted into a feature film.

The first Slime Rancher, released in 2017, is one of the highest-rated games on Steam of all time with a 98% positive average score and has sold over 6 million copies across all platforms with over 15 million players worldwide. In it, you play as Beatrix LeBeau, who moved from Earth to the Far Far Range to become a slime rancher. The second game, currently in early access, also follows Beatrix and features plenty of adorable slimes.

It’s unlikely we’ll get more details on the production anytime soon but that hasn’t stopped excited fans from speculating.

 

Gamescom 2023

Early Wednesday morning we same the opening ceremony of Gamescom 2023 and were treated to a closer look at some upcoming titles and the announcement of several new games. Here are just some of what was there:

Bandai Namco’s Little Nightmares series is getting a 3rd installment, sometime in 2024. It will feature two characters and will be a cooperative game with online multiplayer. The developers came on stage to also reveal The Sounds of Nightmares, a narrative podcast series based on the world, which is available now.

We got a closer look at Black Myth Wukong, in a new trailer featuring gorgeous visuals and intense gameplay. It will be releasing sometime next year.

Dustborn is coming to PS4 & PS5 in early 2024. It looks like a colourful road trip through Americana and in it you’ll use the power of words to shape relationships with your crew, get out of trouble and reach your final destination.

We saw a trailer for Diablo IV: Season of blood, a vampiric expansion dropping in October, promising a new quest line, vampiric powers, and 5 additional endgame bosses.

We also got a trailer for Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty, showing off the numerous features that will be added to the game, like vehicle combat, overhauled combat AI, and a new district to name a few.

 

Upcoming Game Releases

August 25th

  • Armored Core VI Fires of Rubicon (PC, PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One)

August 29:

  • Goodbye Volcano High (PS5, PS4, PC)
  • Sea of Stars (PC, PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, Switch)
  • Samba de Amigo: Party Central (Switch)

Radio Against The Machine


Grab your bootstraps gamers, it’s RADIOTHON!
Join us in our Radio Against The Machine Subathon Special as we pack the studio with Maylee, Rani, Caroline, Cam & Hazel to spruik, hawk, pitch and otherwise tout the prizes, satisfaction, support, and warm inner glow that subbing to 4ZZZ gives you. Not to mention it’s the only reason we have this show, so show up, and show your bling, in this years subathon!