Tag: radio

Stare Into The Sun: Some things you can’t explain, but you can feel


SURPRISE EARLY PODCAST!
In celebration of our collaboration with Netherworld for the Indie Dev Night we’re releasing this weeks podcast EARLY! So listen in as Maylee, Hazel, & Paul talk gaming news, this years not E3 announcements and Hazel does a special In Memoriam for the online phenomenon Blazeball.
So gather your salutes, gird your tear ducts, and open your ear holes.

Vision On, Blaseball Off, Pride In, Corporate Jokes Out

Apple Vision Pro is Vision… Oh…

Apple has unveiled their newest creation, their first spatial computer! What does this mean? Well, it’s a headset much like your typical VR headsets that is supposed to seamlessly blend digital content with the world around you. Imagine, being able to project your workspace onto a wall, while still being totally aware of the world around you thanks to the ability to see through the headset. It features 23 million pixels across two displays, and it tracks your eyes, hands, and voice.

Your monitor and keyboard can be set up anywhere, at any time, effortlessly, so you can partake in hustle culture for the low price of $5,250 or so for Aussies.

Speaking of Corporate Greed…

Eric Covington, a former Activision Blizzard designer, wrote a few cheeky lines for a World of Warcraft Venture Co. loot goblin. The lines were approved and implemented into the game, and the jokes were promoted on the official World of Warcraft Twitter account, but uhh, that doesn’t stop you from getting fired for allegedly “inserting inappropriate non-game related content into a game”.

The lines this Venture Co. loot goblin had? “Let’s call this a cost of living adjustment.” “No profit sharing!” and “Looks like another yacht for me!”

Blaseball is Done

Blaseball, best described as a ‘cultural event’, was a game that looks like a baseball stat-tracking page. You could pick your favourite team, such as “Kansas City Breath Mints”, bet with fake money, and even partake in voting for rule changes.

With weather events such as ‘jazz’, players being able to die and be resurrected, and something about a peanut god, it is clear that Blaseball will be missed. Unfortunately it was just too costly in terms of finances, time, and resources, meaning that the developer The Game Band has had to make the difficult decision to bring it to a close after 3 years of joy, heartbreak, and absurdity.

Duke Nukem Remastered: AI Art

Blaze Entertainment has revealed a remaster for Duke Nukem 1 and 2, including some album art with some… weirdness going on with the fingers, a typical sign that it was generated using an AI tool.

AI generated art has been facing a lot of controversy recently, as the tools often use original artists’ works to train, and are considered ‘lazy’ and ‘cheap’, whilst AI artists claim that it is nothing more than utilising a unique set of skills to create something ‘new’.

Blaze Entertainment initially double-downed, but has posted a statement acknowledging that the original image was AI-generated, and that they would be commissioning a new piece of art to replace it.

Gays? In My Overwatch?

Not if you’re in countries with intolerant laws towards the LGBT+ community. All Pride content will be opt-in, giving players control over how they want to express themselves, or if they’re rather not express themselves at all.

In selected countries, the option won’t be available at all, with Pride content being blocked.

“Our values are to protect players… You can equip a cosmetic in one country and travel to somewhere else with different rules and get in trouble. So we feel like it’s our responsibility to help protect people like that” says Aaron Keller, an Overwatch 2 developer.

And now for some upcoming games!

June 8

  • Harmony: The Fall of Reverie (PC, PS5, XSX, Switch)
  • Mask of the Rose (PC, Switch)
  • Pro Cycling Manager 2023 (PC)
  • Speed Crew (Switch)
  • Tour de France 2023 (PC, PS5, XSX, PS4, XBO)

June 9

  • Greyhill Incident (PC, PS5, PS4)

June 14

  • Black Desert Online: Land of the Morning Light expansion (PC)
  • WWE 2K23: Race to NXT Pack DLC (PC, PS5, XSX, PS4, XBO)

Volvy


Time to gather your infinite multiverse everything everywhere spider selves around the sparking gigabyte motherboard that is Zed Games.

This week Hazel wrangles Maylee and Tobi through the week in gaming news, and swings through the everything bagel that is a review of the movie “Spider-Man: Across The Spider Verse”. All while Paul spends some time exploring not quite inside of “Planet of Lana”.

Zelda Tumbles, Amazon Doubles Down, & Activision-Blizzard Again?


More in Activision-Blizzard-Microsoft News

The EU Commission into Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision-Blizzard has been approved after an extensive investigation. Microsoft has agreed to provide free licenses for the next 10 years to cloud streaming services allowing residents in the European Economic Area to stream Activision-Blizzard games on any cloud platform, addressing the competition concerns identified by the Commission. However, the merger still faces challenges with the FTC filing in the US and continues to be blocked pending appeal in the UK. 1-4


https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_23_2705

In other Activision Blizzard News, the company has abandoned its original plans for Overwatch 2’s separate co-op PvE mode… a major selling point that got players to move somewhat objective free from Overwatch 1 to 2. Now the game will incorporate co-op gameplay and experiences into the live-service model, disappointing fans who had been eagerly anticipating the depth and progression of the original vision.5-7 These views have been best summarised by user Uchihagod53,

“The f**k was the point of [Overwatch 2] then?”

Zelda: The Good, Bad and … ooo look at the pretty colours…

Fans have been disappointed at the release of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, with a player finishing the game in just over an hour and a half (speed runner gymnast86),8 the inability to pet dogs,9 and lack of unlimited bombs.10
Despite this, Tears of the Kingdom has received overwhelmingly positive reviews with around 97 on Metacritic and OpenCritic, making it the highest-rated game of 2023 and the highest-rated Switch game to date. The critical success of Tears of the Kingdom has made it the biggest Zelda game launch in the UK and is expected to be one of the biggest and best-selling games of the year worldwide.11, 12 Players can also look forward to more in the future with Eiji Aonuma (the series manager and producer of Tears of the Kingdom) stating that future Zelda series games will continue to embrace the open-world format introduced in Breath of the Wild. Aonuma compares this shift to how Ocarina of Time established a format for subsequent Zelda games in the late 90s.13

Amazon Doubles Down on Lord of the Rings MMO

After talks broke down between Tencent and Amazon in 2021, Amazon decided to abandon their stake in a Lord of the Rings MMORPG.14 However, the rights for the franchise recently reverted to Middle-Earth Enterprises leading to new discussions with Amazon and the eventual partnership between Amazon’s New World team and the Embracer Group. The game is currently being pitched as an MMO separate from the Lord of the Rings projects, rather aiming for gameplay experiences over faithful adaptation with an over 10-year lifespan.15-17
However Lord of the Rings Online fans are not worried about this game taking over the franchise even in the face of potential server shutdowns and resource allocation, instead pointing to the lacklustre performance of Amazon’s MMO New World.18

And Here’s Some Tasty Gaming Bytes

  • You can finally 100% The Burning Shores DLC of Horizon Forbidden West, now that they’ve added the ONE Brimshine Sliver so that you can finally buy and upgrade everything.19
  • In a new acquisition to the gaming community Sea Lions have become gamers, with US Navy’s Spike traversing mazes WITHOUT fishy bribery and showing delight when winning games.20
  • And finally the relaxing, co-op-able game Powerwash Simulator has hit 7 million users,21, 22 making us ask the question,

“Why meditate when you can simulate?”

https://twitter.com/PowerWashSim/status/1656646241353101320?s=20

And now for some upcoming games.

On Friday 19th, build your own racer in Lego 2K Drive coming to everything.
Monday May 22nd, multiplayer tactical roguelike Inkbound comes to PC.
Tuesday May 23rd, save the post-apocalyptic world in the tactical RPG in Miasma Chronicles or save it as a platforming pixie preservationist in After Us, both coming to PC and Next Gen Consoles. Or lighten up with a cartoonish platform shooter Glitch Busters: Stuck on You coming to PC, PS4 and Switch. Explore the hand-painted puzzle platformer Planet of Lana coming to PC and Xbox. Hit the nostalgia nerve with Puzzle Bobble Everybubble! on the Switch. And Star Trek: Resurgence is coming to PC, PlayStation and Xbox.
And next week on Thursday May 25th, the sequel to Do Not Feed the Monkeys, Do Not Feed the Monkeys 2099 is coming to PC and Switch. The Lord of the Rings: Gollum is coming to PC, PlayStation, and Xbox. And lastly Tennis Manager 2023 is coming to PC.

 

References;

  1. https://www.gameinformer.com/2023/05/15/european-commission-approves-microsofts-activision-blizzard-acquisition
  2. https://www.gamesindustry.biz/european-commission-approves-microsoft-activision-blizzard-deal
  3. https://www.gamesradar.com/microsofts-activision-blizzard-deal-approved-by-european-union/
  4. https://www.gamesradar.com/the-eu-will-require-microsoft-to-bring-activision-games-to-its-cloud-competitors-if-the-buyout-is-successful/
  5. https://www.destructoid.com/overwatch-2-pve-pivoting-from-original-plans-news/
  6. https://www.gamesradar.com/the-death-of-overwatch-2-pve-is-hitting-players-hard-after-years-of-waiting-overwatch-1-died-for-this/
  7. https://www.gamesradar.com/overwatch-2-is-killing-the-pve-mode-it-was-supposed-to-be-built-around/
  8. https://www.gamesradar.com/just-hours-after-launch-the-speedrun-record-for-zelda-tears-of-the-kingdom-sits-at-just-over-90-minutes/
  9. https://www.gamesradar.com/i-just-found-out-that-you-cant-pet-the-dog-in-zelda-tears-of-the-kingdom-so-now-im-never-playing-it/
  10. https://www.gamesradar.com/the-legend-of-zelda-fans-are-mourning-the-lack-of-remote-bombs-in-tears-of-the-kingdom/
  11. https://www.destructoid.com/tears-of-the-kingdom-metacritic-opencritic-score-nintendo-zelda/
  12. https://www.gamesradar.com/zelda-tears-of-the-kingdom-is-officially-the-uks-biggest-zelda-launch-in-history/
  13. https://www.gamesradar.com/expect-more-open-world-zelda-games-after-tears-of-the-kingdom-series-producer-confirms/
  14. https://www.gamesindustry.biz/amazon-cancels-lord-of-the-rings-game
  15. https://www.gamesindustry.biz/amazons-second-attempt-at-making-one-mmo-to-rule-them-all
  16. https://www.gamesradar.com/amazons-lord-of-the-rings-mmo-is-a-game-first-a-reflection-of-the-books-second/
  17. https://www.ign.com/articles/lord-of-the-rings-mmo-coming-from-new-world-developer-amazon-games
  18. https://www.gamesradar.com/new-world-was-a-success-for-a-month-lord-of-the-rings-online-fans-arent-scared-of-amazons-new-lotr-mmo/
  19. https://www.gamesradar.com/horizon-forbidden-west-adds-a-single-missing-crystal-so-players-can-finally-100-the-dlc/
  20. https://www.dexerto.com/gaming/the-us-navy-is-using-video-games-to-train-sea-lions-and-dolphins-2141633/
  21. https://www.gamesindustry.biz/powerwash-simulator-hits-7m-players-news-in-brief
  22. https://www.destructoid.com/powerwash-simulator-has-seen-7-million-players-scrub-up/

Kiss, Marry, TRIVIA!


Time for some Kiss, Marry, TRIVIA! this week on Zed Games
This week Zahra leads the charge pulling in Cameron, Maylee, and Tom from Netherworld to talk Trivia, play a couple of rounds of Kiss Marry Kill gaming style, and chat this week in gaming news.
Click the play button to listen in, or find us at any reputable podcast deli in the freezer section.