Tag: video games

Bayonetta Again, Console Crash, and some Tid-Bytes

Bayonetta Controversy Continues
In the most recent evolution of former Bayonetta voice actress Hellena Taylor’s vendetta against Bayonetta 3’s developer PlatinumGames Inc, Taylor doubled down on her call to boycott the recent release and asked fans to instead donate the money they would have used to purchase the game to a list of possible charities. While this call to action may seem innocuous, several of the charities listed have strong anti-abortion stances. So far, Taylor’s controversy seems to have only had minimal effects on the sales of Bayonetta 3 with reviews marking it an overwhelmingly positive success.
In other good Bayonetta 3 news, Anna Brisbin announced they voiced playable character Voila and would be doing a charity stream of her playing Voila while also raising money for the charity Trans Lifeline! The stream went on to raise over $5000 USD.


Console Crash
With the Xbox versus PlayStation console wars of 2022 starting to come to a close, announcements for the subscriber numbers for Games Pass and PS Plus have been released in financial filings, and things aren’t great for either team. On one side, Microsoft have announced that they are losing up to $200 per console purchase and that Game Pass subscriber growth has fallen around 50% short of the company’s projections, but still exceeds the last announced numbers of 25 million subscriptions. This is theorised to be due to the lack of major releases and appeasing competition watchdogs after the acquisition of Activision. Since then, Xbox boss Phil Spencer has announced the indefinite Call of Duty support for PlayStation, with the pledge that Call of Duty would come to the console “as long as there’s a PlayStation out there to ship to”.
On the other side, after PlayStation’s rather rocky revamp of the PS Plus subscription model, the recent financial release of subscription numbers have estimated a drop of over 2 million subscribers. Sony CFO Hiroki Titoki does not blame this drop on the new system, but rather, and I quote

“More people are now going outdoors…”

Yep, you heard it here folks, PlayStation gamers have been accused of touching too much grass.

And now for some Tid-Bytes;
You asked for it, now it’s time to eat your cake! It has been confirmed in a recent Q&A that God of War: Ragnarok will have a transmogrification system. Design Lead, Mihir Sheth confirmed the system saying “The short answer is yes. There is a way to do it…it’s there in the game.” So finally you can dress up your own God of War as prettily as they will permit you.
The Store is Closed has seen litigation even before its Kickstarter finished its countdown. After this co-op survival horror was pushed online by press as a horror game set in IKEA, developer Jacob Shaw received a letter from lawyers representing IKEA. This letter gave him 10 days to “change and removed all indicia associated with the famous Ikea stores.” The game is currently in a working pre-alpha and is populated with packs of generic furniture assets.
Lastly here’s some Overwatch 2 Titbits;
Did you know that there is system in World of Warcraft where you can sell in-game items for WoW Tokens to other players via the in-game auction house, and that these tokens can then be used to charge your Battle.net account. This means that while completing challenges within Overwatch 2 may be satisfying, if you’re just grinding for Overwatch Coins, your time could be better spent in World of Warcraft.
Want that new Pachimari in-game charm? Did you know it’s cheaper for you to buy it in real life than on the digital store for your in-game character? Buy it once, have it in your hands forever.

Now for the week in gaming releases.
Thursday November 3rd is the big day this week with horror survival The Chant coming to PC and next gen consoles. 1v1 one-hit-kill fighter Die By The Blade, aperture-esque puzzle shooter The Entropy Centre, and racer WRC Generations are all coming to PC, PlayStation, and Xbox. Indie hoard chibi shooter From Space comes to PC and Switch. Live your inner horse owner’s dream with Horse Tales: Emerald Valley Ranch coming to PC, PlayStation, and Switch. And finally, indie puzzler How to Say Goodbye, tactical arena brawler Kingshunt, arcade typing runner Outshine, and robot maker sandbox RoboCo all come to PC.
Friday November 4th is Switch Day with Square Enix’s new life sim/RPG Harvestella coming to PC and Switch. And Aeterna Noctis and It Takes Two both get their own Switch ports.
Monday November 7th, smite and raise your enemies in The Unliving and another indie survivor game Soulstone Survivors, both coming to PC.
Tuesday November 8th, cosy indie puzzler A Little To The Left comes to PC, Football Manager 2023 comes in various forms to PC, PS5, Xbox, and Switch. And Sonic Frontiers comes to PC, PlayStation, Xbox, and Switch.
And last, but not least, Wednesday November 9th, God of War: Ragnarok comes to PlayStation.

Spoopy Game News

New content for Cult of the Lamb!

The Blood Moon Festival: Cult of the Lamb’s first seasonal event is underway and will go until the 10th of November.  For the duration of the festival a new ritual is available to perform, giving players the opportunity to unlock 3 new forms to spook up your followers and 4 new creepy decorations.  In the same announcement, Massive Monster announced that they are working on a major content update that will be available to players for free.

Disco Elysium writer files lawsuit against ZA/UM

Earlier this month it was revealed that Disco Elysium’s lead designer and author of the book the game is based on Robert Kurvitz, lead artist Aleksander Rostov and the main writer of the game Helen Hindpere had no longer been working at ZA/UM due to what was described as an involuntary departure since late 2021.  Robert Kurvitz has been revealed to have filed a lawsuit against ZA/UM although at this point the exact details of this lawsuit are unknown.  There is speculation that Kurvitz is looking to gain control of the rights to the game in order to produce a sequel.

Pokemon’s gone to the dogs

Just in time for Halloween Nintendo has revealed yet another new Pokemon from the upcoming Pokemon Scarlet and Violet and it’s a heccing spoopy pupper.  Greavard has the internet in raptures despite the fact that the Pokemon company has said that it drains the life from you.

“Greavard is so affectionate that paying it any attention will make it so happy that it’ll follow you wherever you go,” The Pokémon Company tweeted. “However, Greavard will slowly and inadvertently absorb the life-force of those around it.”

Amazon is doing the least

Finally in celebration of Fallout’s 25th birthday, amazon has released a single screenshot of the upcoming live action fallout TV show.  Very little is known about the show, with no news on when it is supposed to be released or what can be expected from the story.

Upcoming game releases

October 27:

Brewmaster- Playstation, Xbox and Switch

Horse Club Adventures 2 – Hazelwood Stories PC, Xbox and Switch

Moonshine Inc. – PC

Paper Cut Mansion PC, Playstation, Xbox and Switch

The Pinball Wizard- PC and Switch

Star Ocean The Divine Force – PC, Playstation, Xbox and Switch

Warhammer 40,000: Inquisitor – Martyr -Playstation 5 and Xbox Series X

October 28:

Bayonetta 3 – Switch

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2- PC, Playstation, Xbox

Live by The Sword: Tactics – Xbox One, Switch

Resident Evil Re:Verse PC, Playstation 4, Xbox One

Resident Evil: Village: Shadows of Rose DLC PC, Playstation and Xbox

October 31

The Unliving – PC

In with the NEW – Overwatch 2 Overwhelmed, CD Projekt Goes Big & Dream Reveals

 Overwatch 2 has replaced Overwatch 1
Love it or hate it, Overwatch has had a huge impact on multiplayer gaming since it was first announced. It released to huge acclaim, continued strong for some years before losing a fair part of the player base recently. Blizzard, still embroiled in scandal, hopes to win back those players, and more, with the recent launch of Overwatch 2.
Overwatch 1 officially died on October 4th when Blizzard turned the servers off to prepare for the sequel’s launch shortly after. Leading up to the shutdown many players declared ceasefire so they could come together and celebrate the game they all enjoyed.
Servers for Overwatch 2 went live in the early morning of October 5th. Huge amounts of players logged on to try out the game but were unfortunately met with long queues and error messages caused by the surge in popularity and a DDoS attack. Blizzard president Mike Ybarra was quick to assure the community that “Teams are working hard on server issues with Overwatch 2,” he tweeted. “We are humbled by the excitement of players and will continue to focus on issues and get players into the fun! Thanks for your patience.
Thankfully these hiccups are slowly being smoothed out and fans should soon be able to explore the game more freely. It’s still too early to know how Overwatch 2 will be and energy it has received already could be a good sign for the IP.

CD Projekt Red Announces Ambitious Plans
CD Projekt Red – the developer behind Cyberpunk 2077 and the Witcher Games- has released a strategy document outlining their direction for the future. Notable was a sequel to Cyberpunk 2077, currently codenamed “Project Orion” that is promised to “prove the full power and potential of the Cyberpunk universe.” There isn’t much more information on the game at this point but it’s safe to assume it won’t be complete for many years. In the meantime, Cyberpunk fans can look forward to the upcoming expansion “Phantom Liberty” which is currently in its final stages of development.
If you’re yet to be convinced that the Cyberpunk name is turning a corner, or perhaps it’s just not for you – CD Projekt Red has also announced big things coming for the world of the Witcher. There are multiple games in production including:

  • Project Polaris: A story-driven open-world RPG built on the legacy of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt.
  • Project Canis Majoris: Story-driven, single player open-world RPG set within The Witcher universe.
  • Project Sirius (Developed by The Molasses Flood): An innovative take on The Witcher universe telling an unforgettable story for existing Witcher fans and new audiences.

On top of expanding their current IP’s, CD Projekt Red also announced they are working on an entirely new addition – codenamed “Hadar” still currently in the concept phase. The strategy document also promised the studio would be “Introducing Multiplayer to most of our new games to enrich the single-player experience”. CD Projekt Red has a rocky past for development, but they seem to be looking to the future with unshakeable enthusiasm. It’ll be interesting to see how it all plays out.

Dream Face Reveal
Hugely popular youtube creator “Dream” revealed his face on October 3rd after many years hidden behind a digital smiley-face mask. The 23-year-old boasts over 30 million subscribers and owes a lot of that popularity to Minecraft videos & streams. In the video he revealed the move was necessary for him to branch out as a content creator and meet some of the friends he’s made online. He also spoke about the stress of people constantly trying to uncover his appearance and that he was looking forward to no longer being “bunkered up”.
Many fans were excited to see his face after so many years, many others like me, had no real knowledge of the streamer but were drawn to the spectacle of the event. As of writing, the face reveal video has over 4 million views.
There was no great shock or revelation- just a normal regular face. Still, he has faced an onslaught of cruel comments that’s all too common for similar content creators. #PutTheMaskBackOn trended on twitter, flooded with comparisons to cartoon villains and cruel mockery.
In contrast, Dream ended his face reveal with positivity. “Anyone can be under the mask, and I don’t want my face reveal to take away from that fact,” he said. “Dream could have been anyone from anywhere.”