Tag: radio

Emulators & Mods Under Fire
Easter weekend has been an interesting time for emulator enthusiasts, mod makers and enjoyers alike.
This weekend saw the quiet removal of Universal Windows Platform apps, UAP’s, utilised by Xbox Series S|X owners to run emulators for older PlayStation 2 and GameCube titles¹. Those users are now facing an error code stating that they are running software that “violate[s] Microsoft Store policy.” This continues the crackdown started in mid-2022 after UWP’s were removed from the storefront. However, those with developer mode active are still able to run this software, skirting the issue.
In more mod news, YouTuber PointCrow, a Nintendo speed racer and content creator, has released the mod he offered a $10,000 bounty for in late 2021. The mod to make Zelda: Breath of the Wild multiplayer.

While the mod is still available and works through the emulator Cemo, Nintendo has copyright striked every single video where the mod is featured or utilised. So if you and up to 31 friends want to run around Hyrule together, you now can (with limitations).²
Lastly in modding news, are you a Half-Life fan, but can’t run a virtual reality headset? Well, now you too can jump into the world of Half-Life Alyx. While the mod has been available for a while, the creators are finally confident enough that you can play the game from start to finish to tag a 1.0 on the release. So, grab your gravity gloves with your mouse and keyboard and get at em!³

E3 is Dead! Long live everybody doing their own thing
So while E3 cited developer disinterest for the gathering, there’s been a remarkable turnout of developers running their own shows.

Xbox has announced they will be platforming an Xbox Games Showcase & Starfield Direct on June 11, 10-12 Pacific time. Yep, that’s two whole hours of nothing but Xbox games; however, it’s rumoured that at least 30 minutes of that could be dedicated to Bethesda’s new IP Starfield.⁴
Nintendo is pulling out all the stops, with the first convention outside of Japan coming to Seattle in September. Nintendo Live 2023 is promising live stage performances, tournaments, photo ops, and “…a new way to experience the games and worlds of Nintendo…”. With similar shows in Japan sporting live concerts including holographic performances of Splatoon 2 and KK Slider, this could be one worth keeping an eye on.⁵
Lastly, QuakeCon 2023 is returning to FPS, and by that I mean first person suitable… as in it’s their first in-person even since before … since 2019. This is a fan favourite BYOC event (bring your own computer) with gaming, esports, and meetups. Think huge LAN party and you’ve got the right idea. Wish I could go.⁶

Capcom Continues Charging for Nostalgia.
The recently released remake by Capcom of Resident Evil 4, came out of the gate with flying colours with a Metacritic score of 93 and the promise of a free update/DLC in the works. Well, this dropped with The Mercenaries Mode and a sprinkle of microtransactions that Capcom have been seasoning into recent Resident Evil releases. This monetisation of nostalgia fast tracks weapon-exclusive upgrades allowing you to max out weapons faster. While still available in base games, the grind requires you to level all the item’s stats as well as in-game currency to purchase the upgrade. Or shell out near 5 bucks for ONE weapon’s upgrade.⁷

And now for the Upcoming Game Releases
Friday April 14^th, explore the afterlife in De-Exit, a voxel puzzle, platformer coming to PC, PlayStation, and Xbox. Ultra Pixel Survive, a mobile game trying to take the microtransactions OUT of the pixel adventure genre, coming to Playstation, Xbox, and the Switch. And Mega Man Battle Network Legacy Collection coming to PC, PS4, and the Switch.
Monday April 17, float around in this roguelike twin stick shooter in Beyond the Long Night, or suffer the night in the first-person horror game Suffer the Night. Both coming to PC.
Tuesday April 18, delve into the tactical roguelike Desktop Dungeons: Rewind coming to PC. Put on your boxing gloves and dance shoes to get your beat on in the rhythm-based fighter God of Rock, race with your favourite Disney or Pixar character in Disney Speedstorm, or you could play Minecraft Legends. All coming to PC, PlayStation, Xbox, and the Switch.
Wednesday 19^th, Final Fantasy 1-6 Pixel Remasters and its Collection coming to PS4 and the Switch. Horizon Forbidden West: Burning Shores DLC coming to PS5, and become a shipwrecked conquistador in Survival: Fountain of Youth, coming to PC.
And finally on Thursday April 20^th, go insane in the Lovecraftian co-op Eresys coming to PC, go kill things with a witty companion in Stray Blade coming to PC and next gen consoles, or get your lemmings… I mean tin soldiers in line in Tin Hearts, coming to Switch.

This week the Zed Games team unhinges their lower jaw and sanity to bring you the week in gaming news, and a run down on the new “The Super Mario Bros. Movie”… all while sending mind control rays to invite you to the Video Game Trivia Night.

Games podcast, where Paul, Hazel, and Tobi talk gaming news.
However, it doesn’t stop there… In an exclusive double reviewer special Hazel and Paul rejuvenate destroyed ecosystems in the game Terra Nil, then Paul risks his sanity by fishing for a review of Dredge.

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Zed Games is a podcast that covers gaming news, reviews, community and culture. In this episode, Caroline reviewed Journey to the Savage Planet: Employee of the Month Edition which includes both the base game and the expansion pack, Hot Garbage DLC. The team also discussed ChatGPT which is an AI chatbot that can generate human-like responses.

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.

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 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.

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.