Tag: blizzard

Crows & Kids

This week Paul and Rani talk big news and review Death’s Door and Ender Lilies: Quietus of the Knights

Activision Blizzard Served, Amazon’s New World Bumps Through Beta & An Aussie Takes Independent Games Festival’s Grand Prize

Activision Blizzard Served
On July 20^th the State of California filed a lawsuit with the Superior Court against Activision Blizzard after an investigation beginning in 2018 into the company’s “frat boy” culture. The lawsuit alleges many sexist workplace issues, as well as several itemised accounts of serious allegations of sexism and harassment against women and people of colour.
In response Activision Blizzard released a statement calling the lawsuit “irresponsible behaviour from unaccountable State bureaucrats…” this was mirrored by Blizzard’s Chief Compliance Officer Fran Townsend’s internal email calling the lawsuit “distorted and untrue… factually incorrect, old and out of context…” However, since the release of the lawsuit Activision Blizzard employees have come out corroborating with the events described in the lawsuit.
The fallout of which has resulted in a petition signed by over 3200 current and former Activision Blizzard employees calling for recognition of the seriousness of the allegations, repercussions to those who dismissed them, and a safe space for people to speak out. Current employees are also staging a walkout to demand changes in the current leadership.
In response Activision CEO Bobby Kotick issued a public statement apologising for their behaviour and hiring an external law firm for confidential reporting and to review their workplace policies.

Amazon’s New World Bumps Through Beta
After delaying the release for over a year, this week Amazon opened its new game New World for the closed beta testing to those that either pre-ordered the game or were invited through a sign-up. Amazon celebrated with New World’s real-time combat MMORPG managing to accumulate over two hundred thousand concurrent players during weekend play and fairly positive feedback, but was hampered by some severe teething issues.
The most major of these was the reported bricking of EVGA RTX 3090 graphics cards. The bricking was theorised to be caused by frame rate spikes in menus and the resultant voltage spikes that fried the card. While Amazon stated that “We have seen no indication of widespread issues with 3090s…” they did release a patch to cap the frame rate of menus within 24 hours of the first reported issue. EVGA has also confirmed it will be replacing affected cards, with return forms reportedly already containing a specific “New World” category.
The beta of New World is scheduled to end August 2^nd with the release date set for August 31^st2021.

Aussie Takes Independent Games Festival Grand Prize
The IGF took place on the 21^st of July to celebrate the achievements and innovations of independent game developers. This year there were over 500 entries for the 8 major awards with over 60 games shortlisted for the awards and more than half of those nominated for one or more of the eight award categories. This year’s winners were:

Arrog, the hand-drawn enigmatic adventure puzzle game from Hermanos Magia and Leap Game Studios, won the Audience Award.
Vessels, the space narrative adventure from Local Space Survey Corps, LLC., won Best Student Game.
Teardown, the destructible voxel world game from Tuxedo Labs was awarded for its Excellence in Design.
Blaseball, an online absurdist-horror fantasy baseball league game from The Game Band, took the Nuovo Award.
Genesis Noir, an explorative adventure game, was developed by Feral Cat Den, with sound design by Skillbard, took out the awards for both Excellence in Audio and Excellence in Visual Art.
And finally, Umurangi Generation, created by Lismore developer Origame Digital, is a first-person photography game and took both the award for Excellence in Narrative and the Seumas McNally Grand Prize.

Now for some upcoming game releases.
Scare yourself silly with Draft of Darkness, a roguelike horror deck builder, or reflect with No Longer Home, an indie game about letting go and saying goodbye, both coming to PC on July 30^th.
On August 3^rd, grab some friends for Rocket Rumble, a space racing brawler, coming to PC. Or try your hand at the 25 second time looping FPS Lemnis Gate, also being released on the 3^rd and coming to PC, PS4 & 5 and Xbox One and Xbox Series X.
Lastly Starmancer, the interstellar construction and management sim from Chucklefish, is coming to PC on August 5^th.

Blizzcon Turns 30 & Nintendo Direct

Nintendo Direct

Earlier this week Nintendo Direct also showered us with announcements for upcoming games, updates, and events. The 2011 Legend of Zelda game, Skyward Sword, originally released on the Nintendo Wii, is being remastered for the Switch. It will release on July 16th this year, accompanied by new joy cons modelled after the Master Sword and Hylian Shield. Nintendo also announced the 3^rd game in the Splatoon series, this time setting the bright colourful characters in a vast barren wasteland. The game will be released early 2022. As part of Super Mario’s 35^th Anniversary Celebrations, a Mario-themed DLC is coming to Animal crossing, featuring costumes, decorations, and furniture. This free update can be downloaded from Feb 25^th. Smash hit rogue-like Hades will get a physical release for the switch on March 19^th. There are far too many announcements to list them all, but we can’t leave out a new title in everyone’s favourite Nintendo series, Miitopia. This title boasts an entire kingdom for your Miis to explore, after you’ve dressed them up with the new makeup and wig features that is!

Blizzard Entertainment Celebrates 30 years at this year’s BlizzConline.

With this came a slew of announcements of things we have to look forward to. More and more information is coming out about the development of Overwatch 2, like character updates, new maps and details of the leveling system. Diablo II is getting a remaster which will arrive later this year on both PC and Console. PC players interested in public testing for this game can sign up for the chance here. Word of Warcraft will be getting a huge content update for the recent Shadowlands expansion called Chains of Domination. And Hearthstone fans can expect a new expansion “Forged in the Barrens” and an entirely new mode of gameplay called Mercenaries coming later this year.

Unfinished Nintendo 64 Game

An online group of game preservationists Forest of Illusion have recently shared a leaked build of Dinosaur Planet. This game never made it to release but was repurposed for the GameCube as StarFox Adventures. This copy of Dinosaur Planet was obtained from a private game collector and dates back to December 2000. It is a late build of the game and fully playable but has a fair few bugs throughout and will need hacking to play all parts of it in an emulator. Strangely, this is not the first cancelled game from Rare to be released online this month. Earlier an unreleased build of the XBLA remake of Goldeneye was also shared.

Games this week:

The 25^th of February sees the release of Ghost n’ Goblins Resurrection and Lawnmower Game: Racing, both on the switch.

Bravely Default 2, sequel to the popular JRPG, gets its worldwide release for the switch on February 26^th.

Zed Games Podcast – Episode 275

In studio: Razor, Lee, Candi Payne and Jody Macgregor.

This week, we’re joined by Olga Varlamova of Lucid Level Games. We talk about the sci-fi/noir adventure game Space Sleuth and her involvement with the Brisbane independent game development community.

The lads talk about Blizzard’s new “Hero brawler”, Heroes of the Storm (PC).

Giveaway! if you want to check out Space Sleuth, we have codes to give away! Get in touch via FB or email (or leave a comment) if you want one.

Aired 24 June 2015.

Subscribe to the Zed Games Podcast on iTunes

Zed Games Podcast – Episode 252

In studio: Jody Macregor, Candi Payne, Razor and Sean “Minion” Mccarthy.

This week, Sean reviews the latest expansion to World of Warcraft: Warlords of Draenor.

The three amigos review Metrocide, an open world stealth game by indie studio Flat Earth Games.

We hear an interview with Alex Hutchison, creative director of Far Cry 4. Thanks to 2RRR’s Big Head Mode for the recording.

Aired 14 January 2015.

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Zed Games Podcast – Episode 236

In studio: Razor, Lee and Sean Mccarthy

Our new intern Sean Mccarthy gives us a preview of Heroes of the Storm, the upcoming MOBA by Blizzard.

Lee reviews The Sims 4.

We discuss the surprise announcement of the New 3DS.

Aired 10 September 2014

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Zed Games – Episode 215

In this episode, Razor returns to Middle Earth to review LEGO The Hobbit. Available for PS4(reviewed)/XBONE/PS3/360/Wii U. 3DS/PSV version also available (not tested).

Guest reviewer Sean Mccarthy (the devil’s favourite minion) provides first impressions of Diablo 3: Reaper of Souls (PC).

The crew have an impromptu discussion about whether it’s better to play alone or with strangers.

Aired 16 April 2014

Zed Games Podcast – Episode 215

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Friday News

A video released by Sony on their blog today has hinted that the PS4 may be unveiled as early as the 20th of February. The date has been set aside for a Playstation conference event to be held in New York City. While the video only mentions a date and not much else, text attached to the video reads “see the future” and “be the first to know”, so we can be forgiven for jumping to conclusions here!

The World of Warcraft film adaptation now has a director attached to it. Duncan Jones, director of Source Code and the son of David Bowie, will direct the film which has been scripted by Blood Diamond writer Charles Leavitt. The film has a budget of $100 million.

Blizzard has released a video demonstrating the social features of the upcoming Starcraft 2: Heart of the Swarm. The game has a release date of the 12th of March 2013.

Rockstar has today announced the official release date for Grand Theft Auto V. Originally expected in April 2013, the revised date is the 17th of September 2013. GTA V will be available for the PS3 and 360, PC and Wii U versions are yet to be announced. Below is the official statement from Rockstar’s website:

Dear all
Today, we have an official release date to share with you: Grand Theft Auto V will arrive in stores on September 17, 2013.
We know this is about four months later than originally planned and we know that this short delay will come as a disappointment to many of you, but, trust us, it will be worth the extra time. GTAV is a massively ambitious and complex game and it simply needs a little more polish to be of the standard we and, more importantly, you require.
To all Grand Theft Auto fans, please accept our apologies for the delay, and our promise that the entire team here is working very hard to make the game all it can be. We are doing all we can to help ensure it will meet if not exceed your expectations come September – we thank you for your support and patience.
Yours,
The GTA Team