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.

E3 is Dead

That’s it.

Last week we reported that things weren’t looking good for the iconic video game trade show and mere hours later it was announced the show was cancelled. At this point it’s hard to imagine its return after years of turmoil.

Brisbane boy made big and Reedpop’s Business Development Director for E3 Expo, Guy Blomberg posted on the eve of his birthday.

            “I’m sorry. We genuinely tried.”

April the 1^st is very clever and not terrible at all

It was April Fools this week. The holiday which has become the commercial equivalent of
“Wouldn’t it be funny if we kissed?! Haha that would be so funny unless you want to? Just kidding?”. While the normal dreck of market testing and audience pandering was fully at play some audience pandering stood above the rest.  Primarily there was a surprise drop of a new Sonic game!  In ‘The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog’ players will attend Amy Rose’s murder mystery party where Sonic is the victim. Uncover the mysteries and other such happenings in this short but fun official Sonic Visual Novel available on Steam.

Ark 2 delayed and Ark Survival Evolved shuts down

‘Ark 2’, the sequel to the popular dinosaur themed survival game ‘Ark: Survival Evolved’ has been officially delayed until next year.  Out of the kindness of their hearts however developer Studio Wildcard has announced that a remaster of the original game will be released having been ported to Unreal Engine 5. Despite stating as recently as January that the upgrade will be free, the remaster will be released as part of a bundle with ‘Ark 2’ for $50 USD on Xbox and PC and as a standalone title on PS5 for $40 USD.

They also announced they will be shutting down the official servers for the first game and any DLC purchased for the original game will need to be repurchased for the remaster once they are made available. When the official servers shut down the player data will be made available for players to rehost themselves.

‘Ark: Survival Ascended’ will be available in August while ‘Ark 2’ staring Vin Diesel will be released late in 2024. Maybe.

PSVITA? I hardly knew her

Sony is reportedly developing a new PlayStation handheld device, codenamed the Q Lite. Unlike previous handheld consoles, this device will require constant internet connection and will utilize Remote Play with the PlayStation 5 rather than cloud-streaming. It features an 8-inch LCD touchscreen and adaptive triggers for haptic feedback, similarly to the PlayStation 5 controller. The Q Lite is currently in the QA phase and is expected to release in 2024 alongside other PlayStation offerings including a PS5 with a  detachable disc drive, wireless earphones and a wireless headset.

Access for everyone

Sony is rolling out Accessibility Tags on its online storefront to help identify features in available products. More than 50 tags will be available covering visual and audio accessibility, online communication, caption, control and gameplay options. For full details check out the PlayStation blog.

Release Schedule

April 7 – EA Sports PGA Tour (PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, PC), Curse of the Sea Rats (PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Switch, PC)

April 12 – Sherlock Holmes: The Awakened (Remake) (PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Switch, PC), Tron: Identity (Switch, PC)

April 13 – Ghostwire: Tokyo (Xbox Series X/S)

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.

Even more companies bow out of E3 2023

Assassins’ Creed Developer Ubisoft announced in a recent statement that it would not be attending E3 later this year, despite having shared their intentions to attend as recently as February.

“While we initially intended to have an official E3 presence, we’ve made the subsequent decision to move in a different direction and will be holding a Ubisoft Forward Live event on 12th June in Los Angeles. We look forward to sharing more details with our players very soon.”

Ubisoft was the first major company that had confirmed their attendance and them dropping out seems like a significant blow considering that Nintendo and Microsoft had already stated they would not be attending.

In the days following Ubisoft’s revision, two more companies publicly confirmed they would not be part of E3 2023. Sega, in response to questions from IGN, said “After careful consideration, we have decided not to participate in E3 2023 as an exhibitor. We look forward to sharing more information on announced and unannounced projects in the future.”

In previous years Devolver Digital wouldn’t be present on the show floor, but would setup in a nearby parking lot, has confirmed it wouldn’t be part of the show in any capacity this year.

E3 has not held a proper physical event since 2019, and many are questioning if it still has a place in the industry. There are still many developers who haven’t said they aren’t attending, but their silence is noticeable. Whatever the case for E3, with only 3 months until this year’s grand return, it won’t be long until we have a more concrete idea.

3DS and WiiU eShops have closed their doors for good.

Earlier this week Nintendo took the eshop offline for both the 3DS and WiiU consoles. It’s no longer possible to make any purchases from those online stores. This was announced over a year ago and gamers have had plenty of time to grab anything they still wanted.

If this is the first you’ve heard of it, and you still had plans to pick up something for your collection, I’m sorry to be the bearer of bad news. While you cannot make new purchases, you are still able to redownload content you own and download software updates.

Changes to the National Classification Scheme could be on the Horizon.

The Albanese Government has proposed stronger measures to protect vulnerable individuals from gambling-related harm by introducing a mandatory minimum classification of R 18+ for games with simulated gambling and M for computer games with paid loot boxes. The proposal responds to the fact that current regulatory arrangements for classification are incompatible with digital media, leading to non-compliant online content.

The government plans to expand options for self-classification for the gaming industry in line with Australian classification guidelines, making it simpler and more cost-effective for the industry to classify their content. The proposed changes will help set the National Classification Scheme on the right path forward and ensure Australian families and consumers can benefit from trusted and reliable information to guide their media choices.

MultiVersus is going offline, will return 2024.

Player First Games has announced that the open beta for their 2022 fighting game Multiversus is coming to an end, and the game will shut down until early 2024. It’s being pulled from digital stores on April 4 and will go offline sometime in June. Multiversus released on the 19^th July 2022, which means it will have been live and playable for about a year before it goes offline.

Many players have voiced their frustration with the announcement, claiming the developer was not transparent with these plans. Especially upset are those who spent money on cosmetics or the founders pack and will not have access to these purchases, some costing more than a hundred dollars, until the game returns.

Upcoming Game Releases

April 4th –

• Meet Your Maker (PC, PS4, PS5, XBO, XSX/S)
• Road 96: Mile 0 (PC, PS4, PS5, XSX/S, XBO, Switch)

April 5^th –

• Moviehouse – The Film Studio Tycoon (PC)

April 6^th –

• Curse of the Sea Rats (PC, PS4, PS5, XSX/S, XBO, Switch)
• Everspace 2 – official launch (PC)
• Ravenswatch – Steam Early Access (PC)
• The Library Of Babel (PC)

And an extra shout out to 2 big names in gaming coming out with a movie this week!

Dungeons & Dragons on March 30^th and The Super Mario Bros Movie on April 5^th

01110111 01110010 01101001 01110100 01110100 01100101 01101110 00100000 01100010 01111001 00100000 01100011 01101000 01100001 01110100 01100111 01110000 01110100
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.

Games are Weird.

https://www.kotaku.com.au/2023/03/new-peppa-pig-games-tribute-to-the-queen-has-players-losing-it/

Peppa Pig’s latest video game World Adventures has a bizarre memorial to the departed monarch Queen Lizzy.  Why is the dead queen jumping in muddy puddles with small children? Why is she a human talking to a talking pig? Why is there such an abrupt tonal shift from this to the in memoriam, which includes Peppa Pig herself in the photo? Is Peppa Pig super sad that her BFF The Queen kicked the bucket?  The internet seems baffled by this inclusion.

PAX AUS

https://aus.paxsite.com/en-us/info/news/pax-2023-badges-available-today.html

PAX Australia is the biggest gaming convention in Australia and is happening from the 6th to the 8th of October 2023 in Melbourne and tickets are on sale now!  It’s the 10th anniversary of PAX Aus so if that sounds like something you want to get in on, a limited amount of early bird tickets are available now.

Lance Reddick Passes

And sadly Lance Reddick passed away on March 17 from natural causes at the age of 60.  Known and loved for his acting and video game voicing, appearing in Horizon Zero Dawn, Payday 2, Quantum Break, 50 Cent: Blood on the Sand, an unreleased Hellboy game and maybe his most well known role, Commander Zavala from Destiny.

And now for the game releases

March 24

Resident Evil 4 Remake- PC, Playstation, Xbox Series X

The Crown of Wu- PC Playstation and Xbox

EA Sports PGA Tour- PC, PS5 Xbox Series X

March 27

9 Years of Shadows- PC

March 28

Crime Boss: Rockay City- PC

Drop – System Breach – PC

Kana Quest- Switch

The Last of Us Part 1- PC

Shattered Heaven – PC

Sifu- Xbox

Simon the Sorcerer – Origins- PC

March 29

Forza Horizon 5: Rally Adventure DLC- PC, Xbox Series X

March 30

Anyaroth: The Queen’s Tyranny – PC, Switch

Dredge – PC, Playstation, Xbox and Switch

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

• The Dark Pictures: Switchback VR (PSVR 2)
• River Tails: Stronger Together (PC)

March 17

• Bayonetta Origins: Cereza and the Lost Demon (Switch)
• The Guise (PS5, XSX, PS4, XBO, Switch)
• Peppa Pig: World Adventures (PC, PS5, XSX, PS4, XBO, Switch)
• WWE 2K23 (PC, PS5, XSX, PS4, XBO)

March 21

• Deceive Inc. (PC, PS5, XSX)
• Remnant: From the Ashes (Switch)
• Tchia (PC, PS5, PS4)
• The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners – Chapter 2: Retribution (PSVR 2)

March 22

• Have a Nice Death (Switch)

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.

With more scoops than a big bowl of ice cream, here’s this week’s gaming news!

More Sims Than The Sims

During a recent announcement showcase, Paradox Interactive has hinted at a new game called Life By You, which is very much in the style of The Sims. The reason this news is turning heads is that it’s being developed by Rod Humble, the former head of Sims and CEO of Second Life studio Linden Labs, so there’s a lot of excitement about how this could be a real contender for the crown of virtual life simulators. 

However, only a short teaser trailer has been released and there is currently limited information available about the game. A full trailer and further details are expected in the coming weeks.

eShop Shutdown

Everybody loves shopping on the Nintendo eShop, which is especially bad news for 3DS and Wii U owners. Nintendo are shutting down access to this service for these systems on March 27. Apparently the little hamster that powers the server is being retired and taken to a nice farm (SFX: Gunshot). So you have a few short weeks to go on eShop and buy those 3DS games you’ve always wanted. Or just hack the machine and download whatever you want forever. Wait, did I say that bit out loud?

Oh speaking of Wii U, word is floating around the internet that Wii U devices are prone to bricking – or terminally failing to turn on – if they’re not used for extended periods of time. Like, several years worth of time. And let’s be honest, that’s pretty easy to do with the Wii U. So if you’re one of the dozens of Wii U owners out there, maybe check in on it and see how it’s doing?

Cheating’s a drag, man

Battlestate Games, the developers of the tremendously popular war simulator Escape From Tarkov, have done something unusual about people who cheat in their game. Not content with just banning them outright, they’ve released the names of over 6,000 players who they say are using mods to cheat and otherwise make legit players’ lives worse. I’m sure the parents of cooldude69 are just dying from the shame their son has brought upon their family. It’s an interesting use of time from the developer who once claimed that adding female characters to their game would just be too much work.

And now, get your credit cards ready for these upcoming game releases!

March 9
Fatal Frame: Mask of the Lunar Eclipse [PC, PS5, XSX, PS4, XBO, Switch]
Tiny Troopers: Global Ops [PC, PS5, XSX, XBO, Switch]
Train Life: A Railway Simulator [Switch]
Accuse [C64] 

March 14
Escape From The Red Planet [PC] 

March 17
Bayonetta Origins: Cereza and the Lost Demon (Switch)