2022 Game Awards Nominations Revealed

Geoff Keighley, CEO of The Game Awards, has recently announced the nominees for the 2022 awards show. The nominees for the top prize of Game of the year are:

• A Plague Tale: Requiem (Asobo Studio/Focus Entertainment)
• Elden Ring (FromSoftware/Bandai Namco)
• God of War Ragnarök (Sony Santa Monica/SIE)
• Horizon Forbidden West (Guerrilla Games/SIE)
• Stray (BlueTwelve Studio/Annapurna)
• Xenoblade Chronicles 3 (Monolith Soft/Nintendo)

God of War has dominated these nominations with several nominations beyond Game of the year, including Best Game Direction, Innovation in Accessibility, Best Art Direction, Best Audio Design, and more!  The massively popular Australian game Cult of the Lamb has been nominated for Best Indie where it’s up against Neon White, Sifu, Tunic, & Stray.

With 31 Categories, it’s impossible for us to list them all here but you can check the official site for a complete list. On that site you’ll also be able to have your own say by lodging your vote online.  If you just want to find out the winners, you’ll have to wait until December 9^th when the event will be livestreamed from LA via Youtube & Twitch.

Screen Queensland Launches Game-Changing Residency Program

Recently Screen Queensland announced they would be launching a residency program designed to support skill development and growth in early-career games developers. The Screen Queensland Games Residency offers 10 games developers (individuals, duos, or trios) access to a yearlong program including a dedicated co-working space, access to leading industry experts, business mentoring and income support through Self-Employment Allowance. It is the first program of its kind in Australia and is part of Screen Queensland’s commitment to championing local talent and fostering the growth of our games industry. For more information about the program and how to apply, please visit the Screen Queensland website.

Overwatch 2 Patch Delayed

Free to play shooter Overwatch 2 had a rocky start when it launched last month, and it’s still dealing with some significant problems. More than 2 weeks ago, Blizzard removed Mei from the hero roster so they could fix a crucial issue in her gameplay. This came not longer after two other heroes had been readded from their temporary detention. The Mid-Season patch was scheduled for November 16^th to return Mei to the game, remove several other bugs, introduce a slew of balance updates, and release more cosmetics in the store. Hours before it would go live, then update was delayed when Blizzard discovered a ‘critical issue’ that has not been specified but seems to have threatened the integrity of the game. The only thing that wasn’t put on hold was a new selection of cosmetics to the in-game store – including a new ten USD skin for the still-unplayable Mei. It’s unclear yet if this is part of the game finding its feet or a sign of a consistently tumultuous future.

Upcoming Games Releases:

17^th November –

Goat Simulator 3 – Playstation 5, Xbox Series X/S, Windows PC

18^th November –

The Dark Pictures Anthology: The Devil In Me – PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, Windows PC

Pokemon Scarlet/Violet – Nintendo Switch

22^nd November –

Evil West – PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, Windows PC

Just Dance – PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch

Gungrave G.O.R.E – PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, Windows PC

And that’s all, this week, in gaming news.

This week on Zed Games, Paul winds us up over the Playdate, and Zahra & Caroline talk Games for the Holidays!

PSVR 2 Release Details

The Australian release date and price for the PSVR 2 have been announced. For a kingly sum of $879.95 AUD, which is $80 more than the console itself, you can pick yourself up a headset and sense controllers on February 22^nd, 2023. Pre-Orders will open on November 15^th. Together with the details there was an announcement of 11 games coming to the platform during the release window along with the previously announced Horizon Call of the Mountain. Most titles are already available on other VR platforms, but a new Dark Pictures game was announced as well as a new game in the Crossfire series subtitled Sierra Squad.

If you die in the game, you die in real life

Oculus founder Palmer Lucky has decided to commemorate the date of “the SAO Incident” from the fictional series Sword Art Online in which players were trapped in a virtual world with very real consequences, by creating a VR headset that can kill you.

“I used three of the explosive charge modules I usually use for a different project, tying them to a narrow-band photosensor that can detect when the screen flashes red at a specific frequency, making game-over integration on the part of the developer very easy. When an appropriate game-over screen is displayed, the charges fire, instantly destroying the brain of the user.”

Palmer posted the headset on his blog also noting that he considered it an art piece to provoke thought and did not intend to try it out.

Disco Drama

Former leads at Disco Elysium studio ZA/UM have released a statement accusing the current ownership, Ilmar Kompus and Tõnis Haavel of gaining control of the developer via fraudulent means.

“Needless to say, it has been a very difficult time for us. After five years of gruelling work we released Disco Elysium, a game beloved by millions. As our reward, we were summarily fired and cut off from our life’s work — the world of Elysium. The company we built has been looted, while our own earnings are insufficient even to cover legal fees.

Until now, we’ve refrained from speaking out. This has been entirely voluntary, out of consideration for the people still working at ZA/UM — and for our own mental health. But given the severity of our suspicions — and the seriousness of the evidence we have — we think it’s time people knew what has transpired at the company.”

Robert Kurvitz and Aleksander Rostov who acted as Game Director and Art Director respectively on the hit game along with Writer Helen Hindpere were fired from the company last year. The current owners have fired back claiming the creative leads were fired due to toxic behaviour.

News Bites

• In what might be the longest gap between release and DLC the Tomorrow Corporation has announced a holiday themed expansion to their 2012 burning-things-in-a-fireplace game Little Inferno. The expansion called Ho Ho Holiday will launch of November 19^th.
• For all you fans of pocket monsters… watch out! The upcoming Pokémon Scarlet & Violet has leaked, and the internet is awash with spoilers. If you’re sensitive to such details, it might be advisable to avoid certain platforms until the games release.
• Dark Souls Remastered for the PC has finally had its online features returns. The online was originally taken down in January along with the rest of the series due to a hacker exploit. The two sequels returned in October, but the original Prepare to Die Edition is not set ever have its online restored.
• Animal Crossing: New Horizons is now Japan’s highest selling game ever at 10.45 million copies pulling ahead of the previous front runner Pokémon Red / Green / Blue.
• Nintendo streamed an Indie World event to show off a few upcoming indie titles coming to the switch. The event ended with a announcement of the release window for Queensland’s own Sports Story the follow up to the hit sport rpg Golf Story. The game will be available on the Nintendo Switch this December.

Release Schedule

Tactics Ogre: Reborn (PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Switch, PC), Valkyrie Elysium (PC) – November 11

Floodland (PC), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge (PlayStation 5) , Pentiment (Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, PC), Somerville (Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, PC) – November 15

Listen while the ZedGames crew talks gaming news, Rani attempts to pat chickens in The Stillness of the Wind, and Maylee speed runs a review Kaichu!

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.

Stream has ended! You raised an amazing $5,170.69!! 😭 So proud. Thank you all SO much for your huge support for the game, for me, & the cause. 🥲💜 This game is incredible.

Can’t wait to play more TOMORROWWW around 11am. Next time in Bayo cosplay. 😘https://t.co/22WBhXO2vt pic.twitter.com/X2FXNpl7NH

— Anna Brisbin 🐈‍⬛ BAYONETTA 3 OUT NOW (@BrizzyVoices) October 29, 2022

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 3^rd 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 4^th 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 7^th, smite and raise your enemies in The Unliving and another indie survivor game Soulstone Survivors, both coming to PC.
Tuesday November 8^th, 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 9^th, God of War: Ragnarok comes to PlayStation.

This week the Zed Crew talk spoopy news, Zahra plays with dolls in Yuoni, then the team summons this years Haunted PS1 Demo-Disc and Paul from beyond the veil.

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

This week we explore the satisfaction of patience and sometimes our lack thereof. Zahra, Hazel, and Tobi talk news, Paul slows down with a review of Wayward Strand, and Zahra powers through a review of Powerwash Simulator.

Bayonetta Voice Actor Scandal

Hellena Taylor the English voice actress for Bayonetta 1 and 2 has taken to twitter regarding her absence from the 3^rd game. She claims developer Platinum Games had only offered her $4K to reprise her role in the game and called for fans to boycott it in response to her treatment.  Since the claims, Bayonetta’s new voice actor Jennifer Hale (of Mass Effect fame) released a response after receiving abuse online for taking the role. While light on details due to her NDA she stated:

“As a longtime member of the voice acting community, I support every actor’s right to be paid well and have advocated consistently for this for years. Anyone who knows me, or has followed my career, will know that I have great respect for my peers, and that I am an advocate for all members of the community.”

Jason Schrier of Bloomberg filled a report on the situation in which, according to multiple sources, Taylor was actually offered $3K-$4K per recording session of which each lasts a maximum of 4 hours and was in fact offered at least a $15K contract for the Job.

Silent Hill Transmission

Konami held a streaming event to cover the future of Silent Hill. A slew of games were announced including the rumoured remake of Silent Hill 2 for PS5 and PC by Bloober Team. Silent Hill Townfall being developed by No Code in Scotland who have previously made the acclaimed Stories Untold and Observation and interestingly being published by Annapurna. Silent Hill Ascension from Genvid and Bad Robot games which will be an interactive online series where the community will make decisions that don’t just affect the story but the overall cannon of Silent Hill and finally a reveal of the mysterious Silent Hill ƒ by Neobards who have recently worked on RE: Reverse and the Resident Evil Remakes.

Additionally new silent Hill film was also revealed.   “Return to Silent Hill” is an adaptation of Silent Hill 2 and will be directed by Christopher Gans who headed the first live action film.

PS5 Jailbroken

The PS5’s security has been compromised and it is now possible to get access to the PS5’s kernel. While these methods only apply to PS5’s with firmware under 4.03 and do not yet allowed for the playing of pirated games they have led to a major victory  for the PlayStation community, Overcoming the security on the PS5 that specifically blocked Kojima’s P.T. from running on the console. Not only can the game be run on the hacked console it is then possible to transfer the game to a non-modified PS5. Game hacking aficionado Lance McDonald posted a video of the game running on PS5 on the cusp of the 2 year anniversary of news that P.T. would be deliberately blocked from ever running on the hardware.

He’s Swinging in Heaven Now

Prolific Voice actor Jan Rabson most notably known as the voice of Larry Laffer in the comedy adventure series Leisure Suit Larry has passed away. His other game credits include King’s Quest: Mask of Eternity, Sacrifice, and Thimbleweed Park. Additionally, he voiced Tetsuo in the 1990 English dub of Akira. He was 68 and the cause of death has not been released.

Upcoming Game Releases

Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope (Switch), Second Extinction (Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, PC), The Jackbox Party Pack 9 (PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 4 , Xbox One, Switch, PC, iOS, Android) – October 21

Gotham Knights (PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, PC), New Tales from the Borderlands (PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC), Persona 5 Royal (PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, Switch, PC) – October 22

This week Zed Games is helmed by Zahra, Hazel, and Caroline while they talk gaming news, this years Australian Game Development Awards, and the recent AND local SpringCon 2022!