Tag: video games

This week Zed Games levels up its social standing talking this week in gaming news, the marathon effort in a recap of Netherworld‘s Mario Kart Speedway Event, and Zahra betrays the fan within in a review of Sonic Dash.

The week Paul and Zahra pull in Tom from Netherworld to talk the Mario Kart 8 Tournament happening this weekend! The crew also chats Gaming News and Paul takes to time weaving radio waves in a review of Oxenfree II: Lost Signals.

Who Wants Activision’s Transformers on Game Pass?

Does anyone remember those Transformers games for the Xbox 360 developed by Activision? The ones you can no longer buy digitally? Well, Hasbro has expressed an interest in bringing it up for the Game Pass. The problem? Hasbro initially claimed that it was because, “apparently Activision’s not sure what hard drives they’re on in their building. When a company eats a company that eats a company, things get lost…”

They did also follow-up with an apology for saying that Activision lost its Transformers games, stating that the comments were “made in error”.

Hasbro do really want Transformers on the Game Pass however, “Hope is that now that the deal is moving forward with Microsoft and Xbox they’ll go through all of the archives and every hard drive to find it all because it’s an easy Game Pass add.”

So, who knows?

The Last Of Us Knockoff Is Dead

A budget Switch game called The Last Hope: Dead Zone Survival, bore a striking resemblance to Naughty Dog’s The Last of Us, down to the gruff-dad character with an Ellie-like companion. And as you can imagine, it did not last long, with the game being pulled from the Nintendo eShop, and the game’s trailers disappearing from YouTube.

The game’s trailers were less than awe-inspiring, and for those who decided to give The Last Hope a try found their hopes dashed when the entire game is around 20 minutes long and horribly buggy.

While the trailers being pulled can be clearly attributed to Sony submitting copyright claims, The Last Hope’s disappearance from the eShop might be due to caution from the developers, Sony themselves, or Nintendo covering their six o’clock.

Mutant Turtles Invade Minecraft

No no don’t worry, the sea turtles in Minecraft are fine. But our favourite Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles will be crossing over with Minecraft, which includes a special DLC texture pack featuring Leonardo, Donatello, Raphael, and Michelangelo, special maps for exploring the turtle’s favourite haunts, and you’ll even be able to battle enemies such as Shredder and Krang.

This is of course on top of the pizza-scented Xbox controllers we mentioned the other week. All leading to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles film coming out in a few weeks. Hype!

Zoom Zoom Guardians

If you’re participating in this year’s Solstice in Destiny 2, you will be thrilled to learn that you can now use Sparrows in the European Aerial Zone, so you can get to the bad guys really, really quickly, and beat them up quicker than it took me to finish this story. Happy Solstice!

And now for some upcoming games!

August 3rd

• Adore (PC, PS5, XSX, PS4, XBO, Switch)
• Flutter Away (PC)
• Tiny Thor (Switch)

August 4th

• Death Becomes You (PS5, XSX, PS4, XBO, Switch)

August 8th

• Gord (PC, PS5, XSX)
• Tower of Fantasy (PS5, PS4)
• WrestleQuest (PC, PS5, XSX, PS4, XBO, Switch)

August 9th

• Legend Bowl (PS5, XSX, PS4, XBO, Switch)

August 10th

• Atlas Fallen (PC, PS5, XSX)
• Stray (XSX, XBO)
• Stray Gods: The Roleplaying Musical (PC, PS5, XSX, PS4, XBO, Switch)

That’s it this week in gaming news!

The Queensland Games Festival (formally known as Game On/GO 423) is the biggest celebration of games made right here, in sunny Queensland. Held on the 22nd of July at the Brisbane Powerhouse, this year Zed Games got to witness more games, more developers, more teams, and more interest in this wonderful event.

Our role? To host the Game Dev Hot Seat throughout the day, interviewing devs live on stage so that they may tell us all about their projects. With a massive variety of games, from narrative to first person shooters, to VR games to board games, and games that blend the borders between them all, at this year’s Queensland Games Festival we got to see it all! And after a long day of gaming, it was a tonne of fun to wrap up with an End Game session, with notable figures in the games industry duking it out against the game-master (with a bit of help from the audience!).

On top of that there were also a number of workshops, and discussions, such as the Emerging Developers Room, for those taking their first steps into the industry, and Gameloft Creative Kids, where children had the chance to meet the artists behind My Little Pony, and create some art of their own.

Missed out? Want to know what was shown? Got there and had so much fun and want to check out the games? Here you go:

Sea of Survivors by Nah Yeah Games

Verbal Void by EnderLost Studios

Crash Course Builder by Wombat Brawler

Go-Go Town by Prideful Sloth

Sumorbit by Tournameta

Frogreign by Arkanpixel

Fire Noodle Eating Champs by Jason Tam

Knight by Mark Baker

Isle of Feathers by Daniel and Juno

Ribbet

My Little Pony: Mane Merge by Gameloft

Bears In Space! by Broadside Games

AND Metal Evil, Halloween Cat-tastrophe, On Point VR, Maiwar VR, Curses and Covens, Gem Hunters, Battlemage vs MechaDinos, Scarlet Pages, and Fossil Diggers VR!

The Queensland Games Festival is made possible with government support through Screen Queensland’s Culture Funding program.

It’s a new week, so lets go #Glorbo
This week Zahra, Hazel and Caroline go (hedge) hog with gaming news, a recap over the who, what, where, when, and that of this years Queensland Games Festival, and then the team talks of the sadness that the lackluster new series of Sonic Prime brought them.

Government backs Aussie gaming.
Screen Australia has announced the backing of Aussie games to the tune of $3 million AUD through it’s “Games: Expansion Pack” fund and “First Nations Games Studio” fund. The First Nations Games Studio fund awarded AU$600,000 to two studios, Guck, & Awesome Black, both working on projects related to First Nations storytelling and talent development. Additionally, the Games: Expansion Pack fund provided AU$2.4 million in funding to 21 different studios across the country. The funded games cover a wide range of genres and platforms and aim to accelerate skills and creativity within the Australian games industry. Additionally, the Federal Government has introduced the Digital Games Tax Offset, providing a 30% refundable tax offset for projects with budgets over $500,000. Click the following for a list of all the projects funded and their synopses.

Smell Like a Gamer
In recent news, Xbox is going a bit crazy with the themed sweepstakes with both a Barbie movie tie in with a Barbie Dream House Custom Console, and Barbie and Ken controller face plates. But they pulled out all the stops for the game release of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge. This release not only has a sweepstake for four controllers designed after each of the turtles themselves, but the can also “…come with a built-in scent diffuser shaped like a slice of delicious New York ‘za.” Smell-O-Vision at it’s finest. If you’re interested in the TMNT Mutant Mayhem Controller this giveaway will be running till August 13 this year, where you will need to retweet the Xbox Game Pass sweepstakes tweet or whatever they will end up being called with the X rebrand.

the pizza party never stops with these guys🍕

follow @XboxGamePass & RT this post with #XboxTMNTMoviesweepstakes for a chance to win these TMNT-inspired controllers!

be sure to see @TMNTMovie in theatres 8/2/23 in the US!

ages 18+. ends 08/13/23. rules: https://t.co/C2Pjfi7yru pic.twitter.com/h6P3sjcvu7

— Xbox Game Pass (@XboxGamePass) July 24, 2023

AI in the News Goes Glorbo
This week the World of Warcraft Reddit community tricked an online publishing AI by feeding it false data about a made-up character, Glorbo, it’s mandatory item Klikclac, and their nemesis Quackion, the Aspect of Ducks, resulting in the generation of fake content presented as actual news under the pseudonym Lucy Reed. This account is credited to writing near 80 articles a day with potentially little to no oversight. This incident raises questions about the validity of AI automated publishing and the potential impact on the increased value of human generated, or at least human moderated, content.

Now in Activision Blizzard News
Sigh… Look I’m just as sick as you that these guys keep being in the news. TL;DR is basically, they screwed up the Diablo 4 season release and people are complaining that company’s being cheap, of unfair nerfing, that the menu design is tricking people into buying the season pass, of new items causing nausea, and that some player’s characters butts are out in the open. Also, that the FTC has backed out of the whole merger with Microsoft blockage, and Overwatch 2 is coming to Steam. To read more about these stories, check out the links in the news post on our Facebook page @ZEDgamesau.

And now for a couple of quick bytes:

• Mods have given your favourite NPCs in Stardew Valley AI Brains, yep, think about that like Jordan Gerblick of GamesRadar;

“…when you know those video game characters had to have their existing inner-workings hollowed out and replaced with the increasingly ominous power of AI, I can only imagine those interactions feeling incredibly creepy – as if it’s not really them anymore.”

(Image credit: Eric Barone)

The mod is Talk to Inworld’s AI Villagers and is now available on NexusMods.

• And the US Entertainment Software Rating Board wants to scan you and child’s face to validate age with digital purchases. The proposal to the FTC would have you upload a photo into a system controlled by Yoti – an Epic Games subsidiary, with collaboration with company SuperAwesome, which would be analysed and then deleted. They go on to claim the system poses no substantial risk to parents’ privacy.

And now for some of the upcoming game releases.
On Friday July 28, Disney Illusion Island is coming to Switch. Monday 31^st, F1 Manager 2023 is coming to PC, PlayStation, and Xbox. Wednesday August 2^nd, Ninja or Die: Shadow of the Sun is coming to PC. And lastly on Thursday August 3^rd, explore nature, relax, and take photos in Flutter Away coming to PC.

Neopets has gone independent.

Dominic Law is the new CEO of The Neopets Team after a management buyout deal was made, allowing Neopets to become independent after its old owners Jumpstart Games was shut down on June 30th 2023.

In a blog post the newly formed team outlined its goal to shift away from NFT’s and crypto and revitalize the website, as well as the creation of a new mobile app, World of Neopets.

Basically after running at a loss for over a decade they’ve got a new team and new funding and a whole page of corporate speak saying they’re going to fix up the place.

https://medium.com/@neopetsofficial/a-new-era-for-neopets-fdb5c9ac187e

Baldur’s Gate 3 – Insert Bear Pun Here

Because I’m doing the news I get to choose what to talk about and I want to talk about the fact that in Baldur’s Gate 3 you can get freaky with a bear.

In the “Panel from Hell: Release Showcase” Larian studios was showing off the game’s romance aspects and the internet exploded when it was revealed you can get intimate with one of your party members in their bear form.

I’m sure there’s a deeper conversation here about sex scenes in games and all that but I’m trapped in the news and have no time for that so instead I’m just here to say ‘lol bear seggs’ and leave it at that.

https://panelfromhell.baldursgate3.game/

Queensland Games Festival this Saturday

And it’s that time again friends and enemies, the newly renamed Queensland Games Festival is this Saturday!  Previously known as Game On Festival (or GO423 if you’re nasty) this is a free public event where you can get your peepers on the newest locally made games and meet the people who make them.

The event is on the 22nd of July at the Brisbane Powerhouse from 10am so come on over and support the local Brisbane game industry!

https://www.queenslandgamesfestival.com/

RELEASES

July 20

Homeseek – PC, Killsquard – Playstation, Krzyżacy – The Knights of the Cross – PC, Punch Club 2: Fast Forward – PC, Unholy – PC.

July 21

Pikmin 4 – Switch, Sephonie – Playstation & Xbox & Switch

July 24

Super Catboy – PC

July 25

Remnant 2 PC & PS5 & Xbox Series X

July 26

Rachet & Clank: Rift Apart – PC

Afternoon Zed Gamers, time to plug your ears with the vibrating pressure of the weekly podcast headed by Maylee, and accompanied by Zahra, Hazel and a secret being. This week the team talks lost games in Gaming News, Zahra takes time out for self care in a review of Amaru: The Self-care Virtual Pet. Maylee then brings the magic with a review of the boardgame Flamecraft.

Sonic’s Dad Has Been Sentenced

Yuji Naka, former Sega and Square Enix developer, and co-creator of Sonic the Hedgehog, has now been sentenced after being convicted for insider trading. The punishment? Two and a half years prison time, a probation period of four years, and fines totalling 173 million yen.

However, he has been given a four year suspended sentence due to showing ‘remorse’, meaning that he will not be imprisoned, but will still need to comply with a number of rules presented by the court, and pay the fines.

87% Of Classic Video Games Are Missing

The Video Game History Foundation has revealed a study claiming that the very large majority of older video games are missing or totally unavailable to the public. And the problem may be due to outdated copyright laws.

The Entertainment Software Association claims however that ‘there’s no such thing as an obsolete game’, given that video games are largely digital.

The Video Game History Foundation has argued that ‘in cases where software has become abandoned or when companies are not willing to undertake their own preservation, libraries and other archives should be allowed to preserve and digitally release games’.

VGHF hope that with some changes, future gamers will never have to fondly think back on a childhood game that is just impossible to replay for various reasons, as well as create a more cohesive archive of video games. For historical purposes of course.

Football Rebranded

EA Sports used to be FIFA’s largest commercial partner before the two parted ways. But what is EA Sports to do instead of yet another FIFA game? A new football game, just without all that FIFA branding.

The new game, FC 24, has been revealed with its official announcement trailer, marking the end of an almost 30 year era. It’s rather motivational, although some of the comments seems to expect more of the same. Which isn’t surprising considering that football hasn’t had a major update in around 100 years.

Sega Says Blockchains Aren’t Fun

While ‘what makes a video game a video game’ and ‘what are video games’ and other such questions are often topics for debate among gamers, Sega seems to have figured out that a game should be fun. Shuji Utsumi, Sega’s co-chief operating officer, has reported that although the company were initial supporters of blockchain gaming, have now decided against pursuing it, feeling that it would cheapen their more iconic IPs.

“The action in play-to-earn games is boring. What’s the point if games are no fun?” says Utsumi.

Sega do still plan to allow third parties to use characters from their less popular IPs as NFTs, but it’s unlikely that we’ll be seeing Sonic the Hedgehog NFTs from Sega.

And now for some upcoming games!

July 13

• Manic Mechanics (Switch)
• Testament: The Order of High Human (PC, PS5, XSX, PS4, XBO)

July 14

• Exoprimal (PC, PS5, XSX, PS4, XBO)
• Jagged Alliance 3 (PC)

July 17

• Sticky Business (PC)

July 18

• Murder Is Game Over – Streaming Death (PC)
• Unidentified Falling Objects (PC, Switch)
• Viewfinder (PC, PS5)

July 19

• Blackout Protocol (PC)
• The Repair House (PC)

July 20

• Homeseek (PC)
• Killsquad (PS5, PS4)
• Punch Club 2: Fast Forward (PC)
• Unholy (PC)