Fire Up The BBQ!
Redfall, the co-op first person shooter that has you fighting off legions of vampires, has teamed up with Smokey Q, an Australian business that specialises in all things BBQ seasoning, to bring the ‘Bite Back Spice Rub’, a unique blend of spices and seasonings to celebrate the game’s release.
The spice rub is supposed to capture the taste of slain vampires, with ingredients such as charcoal powder for added smoke, paprika, and a touch of heat from chipotle. It is gluten-free and vegan-friendly.
The founder of Smokey Q, Paul Lange, described the challenge of making vampire ash sound delicious as exciting, so if you have a very specific craving, it may be worth checking out. In addition, all net proceeds will be going towards Cure Cancer’s blood cancer research. Very appropriate!
Vampire Survivors!
In more vampire news, Vampire Survivors, a game that is heavily influenced by the choices you make, has an animated show on the way! The studio will be teaming up with Story Kitchen, who has members that have worked on John Wick, and the Sonic movies.
The studio has said “… the most important thing in Vampire Survivors has always been the story, so we are very excited for this and we hope you are too! It’s still early days for the show, but I can already say that we will be involved so that we can ensure it doesn’t have any vampires (probably)… This won’t affect game development in any way.”
FIFA’s Iffy Body Scans
Sydney Leroux, an olympic gold medalist, and a member of the United States women’s national soccer team, isn’t thrilled with her character’s appearance in the newest FIFA release.
She’s not alone, in that many other footballers are criticising their characters’ appearance in FIFA ‘23.
“Please tell me I did not do an entire body scan for that…” Leroux tweeted, before looking back at FIFA ‘16 where her appearance was significantly more accurate. “They had the headband, the braid, the neck tattoo, the overly plucked brows… deflate my boobs a bit and put a different jersey on. I’ll keep the brows at this point.”
Introducing to the Court of Duty…
Rumor has it that Kevin Durant, NBA champion and a former MVP, will be slam-dunking into the operators lineup for Warzone 2 and Modern Warfare. The official Call of Duty twitter posted a little clip showing an operator parachuting down, mid-dunk, with ‘Easy Money Sniper’ spray painted on the side of a building in the image, notable for being Kevin Durant’s Instagram handle.
Nothing is confirmed yet, but internet sleuths have dissected the few details and the profile of the operator, and it would hardly be the first time an NBA crossover happened.
And now for some upcoming games!
May 4
May 5
May 12
That’s it this week in gaming news!
Grab your notebook, cheese, wine, and accoutrements as the crew talks news, Zahra gives us the run down on the history of Tetris in the lead up to the movies release, and everyone unloads chatting the worst pet peeves in games.
Suicide Squad isn’t Squadding Just Yet
Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League will be taking a little while longer than originally anticipated, with the May release being pushed back to ‘later this year’. Why? Well, after the release of new gameplay footage just last month, the game has been hit with criticism, even by fans who have been looking forward to the Rocksteady game since it was first revealed in August 2020.
Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League has traditionally villanious characters such as Harley Quinn and Captain Boomerange ganging up to take care of some more… ethically murky missions. It wasn’t stated that the reason for the delay was the criticism, but fans have been warned that it’s unlikely to revamp the game, but rather make some tweaks to hopefully make it more enjoyable for players.
This isn’t the first delay for this game, with the originally early 2022 release being pushed back to May this year.
No More Fortnite
… if you use Windows 7 or 8. Future seasons of Fortnite, the massively popular battle royale, will no longer be natively supported on older operating systems. Live service games, examples including Destiny 2, Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn, and Genshin Impact, tend to require a lot of maintenance and constant updates, a task that just isn’t feasible anymore for older operating systems.
This change has been attributed to Epic wanting to ‘grow our technology and expand the game to fulfill our vision of Fortnite’s future’, which prompted Chapter 4 to be launched on Unreal Engine 5.
It is recommended that players upgrade their operating system, however it is possible to stream it via NVIDIA’s GeForce Now cloud service.
Second Life, New (Mobile) Life
Remember Second Life? The web browser game that allowed users to host rooms and spaces that were fully customisable, using online avatars that were also fully customisable. VRChat before VRChat if you will. It’s no secret that Second Life is responsible for relationships, marriages, break ups, thousands of hours of joy and heartbreak. And now it’s coming to mobile, with the life simulator currently in development.
The Last of Us Influence
With the TV series, The Last of Us, based off the video games by Naughty Dog, there is more interest than ever in the universe, especially as the show introduced new elements that didn’t feature in the games. And now it appears that some of those elements will make their way into future games! This of course depends on whether another game in the series will be introduced, but Neil Druckmann, co-president of Naughty Dog, has found some inspiration in the show, which may introduce some new levels of horror or lore to the universe!
And now for some upcoming games!
March 16
March 17
March 21
March 22
In our not so special 666th episode Rani, Paul, and Caroline talk news. Rani flips open the gaming book Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin to regale us with another book review. Followed by the patented DOUBLE review from Paul, who plays mix and match with body parts in Birth, and afterwards mix and match with souls in My Lovely Daughter.
This week Hazel is in control, taking Rani and The Temporarily Returned Tobi on a journey through the musical influence video games had on their lives, while Zahra tells us about the cuddly cat game Calico, and Maylee delivers the freshest of video game news.
This week in Zed Games Zahra is in control with Maylee and Cam as crew, guiding us through the relaxing and interesting world of SEASON: A letter to the future in their review, Cameron tells us all about the Commodore 64 and it’s very vibrant and inventive community who still love this piece of gaming history, and Paul keeps us all up to date with the news.
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
February 17
February 18
February 21
February 22
Listen in as Paul, Peter, and Rani expose their experience with their balls in this weeks Pinball themed show. Rani mixes magic with paddles in a review of Pinball Wizard, and Paul reveals his ball handling experience with a look into his history of Pinball-like games.