Virtual Reality Is Very Real (and so is Hacking)


Record VR Sales Across The Holidays

The 2021 holiday season was a big one in terms of virtual reality systems and games, with the Oculus app topping the Apple App Store on Christmas, beating TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram.

Meta doesn’t release sales numbers for Quest headsets, so we can only piece together how popular it is through unofficial data points. So the Oculus app being at the top indicates a strong uptick in new headset usage. But that’s not all, Rec Room, a free social virtual reality experience has reported record numbers over the holidays, with over 1 million VR players logging in over a 60 hour period.

Apps such as Hand Physics Lab, Golf+, Eleven Table Tennis, and Loco Dojo Unleashed, have also reported a similar spike in new users.

 

PS5 Explains Their New VR2 System

PlayStation have announced the names for their new virtual reality system for the PlayStation 5 console. PlayStation VR2, and the new virtual reality controller, PlayStation V2 Sense controller.

PlayStation VR2 promises to take virtual reality gaming to a new level of presence and escapism, with new hardware features, greater depth of immersion, and new worlds being built. PS5 VR2 offers the following:

4K HDR 110-degree field of view, combined with an OLED display, means a display resolution of 2000×2040 per eye and smoother frame rates.

Inside-out tracking, with the player and their controller being tracked through cameras embedded in the VR headset, eliminating the need for an external camera.

Brand new sensory features, combining eye tracking, headset feedback, 3D audio, and the VR2 Sense controller to pull you deeper than ever into virtual reality. The most significant hardware feature being the motor in the VR headset that can vibrate to offer tactile feedback.

VR2 will detect the motion of your eyes, allowing the player to interact more intuitively with their environment.

PlayStation has announced that Horizon Call of the Mountain will be coming to the PlayStation VR2, making it one of the biggest franchises for the potential lineup available for the VR2.

Activision Sues Call of Duty Cheat Maker

Activision has asked a court to take action against EngineOwning, a cheat maker selling cheats to Call of Duty: Warzone players. This latest case is another battle in Activision’s war against hackers in their online battle royale, accusing EngineOwning for causing “irreparable damage to its goodwill and reputation”.

Activision alleges that the cheat maker has hurt sales through the distribution of aimbots, triggerbots, and other cheats. Other than allegedly ruining the online experience for thousands of players, Activision says that EngineOwning has infringed on their copyright, and violated its terms of service, and claims that “tens of thousands’ of players have been caught using EngineOwning’s tools over the past year.

And now for some upcoming game releases!

January 10:

  • Super Sami Roll (XSX)

January 12:

  • PUBG: Battlegrounds Free to Play (PC, PS4, XBO, Stadia)

January 13:

  • The Anacrusis (PC, XSX, XBO)
  • Mushroom Wars 2 (PS5, XSX, PS4, XBO)

Riot Settles, FFXVI Delayed, Steam Confusion and Tesla Troubles

Riot Games Settles Gender Discrimination Suit  

Riot Games has agreed to pay the equivalent of 138 million Australian dollars in a settlement with members of a class action lawsuit over cases of gender discrimination against women employees. The class action suit was first filed in 2018 by former employees Melanie McCracken and Jes Negrón after a Kotaku investigation into Riot’s sexist workplace culture, and includes all current and former full-time and temp employees in California. Riot also agreed to third-party monitoring of pay equity and internal reporting for the next three years. The plaintiffs’ counsel Genie Harrison released a statement saying “We appreciate Riot’s introspection and work since 2018 toward becoming a more diverse and inclusive company, its willingness to take responsibility for its past, and its commitment to continued fairness and equality in the future.”

Final Fantasy XVI Reveal Delayed

Final Fantasy XVI’s Producer Naoki Yoshida has issued a statement via the game’s official Twitter account apologising for pushing back the game’s “next big reveal” that was previously announced for this year. Yoshida wrote that “FINAL FANTASY XVI has amassed a sizeable team composed of talented creators from around the world. However, in an effort to offset the effects of COVID-19, we’ve had to decentralize that workforce … This has unfortunately hampered communication from the Tokyo office which, in turn, has led to delays in … asset deliveries.” He further stated that that “next big reveal” would come in Autumn next year for us in Australia.

Possible Steam ban in China

News outlets this week reported that some Chinese Steam users were unable to log into the global version of Valve’s digital game store Steam. Steam monitoring website SteamDB was quoted as saying that access to the service was cut off in a way consistent with the Chinese government’s efforts to block other websites, but users were still able to access Steam China, a restricted version of the platform with less features and a limited library of games which are approved by the government. Rumours have circulated on Twitter that some users in China were still able to access Steam without a VPN and some have speculated that the apparent block was the result of a DNS poisoning attack. Without official statements from the government or Valve the exact nature of the situation remains unclear.

Tesla Disables Passenger Play Under Regulatory Pressure

Finally we have an unsurprising update to the story about Tesla’s new in-car gaming feature known as Passenger Play. Tesla appears to have caved to regulatory pressure, confirming that an automatic update has rolled out to Tesla vehicles that forcibly disables Passenger Play while the car is in motion. The move came just one day after the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration announced a formal investigation into whether the feature would be a hazardous distraction to drivers. NHTSA has stated that they are working with Tesla but will continue the investigation into whether the manufacturer’s infotainment screens are a distraction hazard despite the changes.

Stalking NFTs, Winning Games, and Gaming Bytes

Stalking NFTs
With big brands like Nike and Adidas jumping on Non-Fungible Tokens, or NFTs, it would seem like a mistake for game developers not to do the same. However, Ubisoft’s experimental NFT sales for Ghost Recon Breakpoint appear to have sold just 15 NFTs since their release on the 9th of December.
Jumping on this bandwagon, GSC Game World, developer of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chernobyl, announced on the 15th of December their intention to introduce NFTs via auction in January of 2022 and later. These NFTs would range from “genesis” collectables to the rights to be scanned using photogrammetry and inserted into the game as an NPC “metahuman”. Within 24 hours after the publication went live, GSC Game World was hit with community backlash and responded with a tweet saying, “Based on the feedback we received, we’ve made a decision to cancel anything NFT-related in S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2.” but not before doubling down in a now deleted tweet attempting to reason with the community.
It must be noted that in the third quarter of 2021, NFT games such as Sky Mavis’ Axis Infinity reportedly generated about 2.32 billion US dollars in revenue, paving the way as further incentive for future developers to integrate NFTs into games.

Winning Games
In an unprecedented year for games, Hades now sits alongside Oscar-winning Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond’s Colette for being the first game to win a prestigious industry award in 2021.
In this year’s Hugo Awards, the World Science Fiction Society used its bylaws to create the one-off 2021 Best Video Game award. Many games were nominated with Spiritfarer from Thunder Lotus Games and Animal Crossing: New Horizons from Nintendo coming runners-up to the award winner Hades from Super Giant Games. While Super Giant Games were unable to be there, Greg Kasavin, Creative Director and Writer of Hades had the following to say on twitter.

“We are incredibly honoured to be the first-ever recipient of a Hugo award in the category of best video game. We, myself included, grew up experiencing these classic works of science fiction and fantasy, from Ursula K. Le Guin to Philip K. Dick, what have you. That’s when we first came across the Hugo Awards name, of course, as kids.
“To have earned this distinction all this time later, especially alongside such an incredible slate of nominees, games of all shapes and sizes, from teams big and small, it really means the world.”

Keep an eye out in the future as there are rumours floating around online that this gaming category may become an annual Hugo event.


Now for some Gaming Bytes:

Finishing First
HowLongToBeat’s stat breakdown of game releases in  2021 show that Resident Evil Village is the most completed game this year with 2.6 thousand completions of the game so far narrowly beating Metroid Dread with 2.2 thousand completions.

CD Projekt Settles
CD Projekt has settled with suing investors over the release of Cyberpunk 2077 to the tune of 1.85 million US Dollars. The lawsuit accused CD Projekt of misleading investors over the release quality of the game and suing for damages incurred by this.

North America Unionises
North America finally has its first ever video game studio union, formed at the Vodeo Games Studio, developers of Beast Breaker that released for PC, Mac, and Switch this year. The Vodeo Workers United union formed to protect independent contracted workers and salaried staff to maintain a fair and equitable workforce and lock in some of the perks they love… like the 4-day work week they currently enjoy.

Sony Faceplates Finally
After exerting legal pressure to stop the creation of personalised faceplates for the PS5 late 2020 and more recently against dbrand in October of this year, Sony has finally released their own personalised faceplates with 5 different colour offerings of Midnight Black, Cosmic Red, Nova Pink, Starlight Blue, and Galactic Purple.

Now in upcoming games:
On the 23rd of December the 3D platformer puzzler Scarf released by Uprising Studios has you forming an unbreakable bond with your dragon who is also your scarf on PC and Stadia. Teratopia and Tunnel of Doom are releasing their Switch ports on the 23rd.
On the 24th Tunnel of Doom is also porting to the Xbox One and releasing on the 28th of December, the Switch port of Lacuna.

Witch It – Review

Title card for Witch It. It features a green witch wearing purple robes in a cutesy art style, riding a broom next to the title Witch It!

Developer: Barrel Roll Games
Publisher: Daedalic Entertainment
Music: Barrel Roll Games
Platforms: Steam (PC)
Released: 22 October 2020
Genre: Multiplayer, Hide and Seek

You’re walking down a seemingly empty street, on edge. Mundane objects catch your attention, a candle, those barrels, maybe even that broken teapot. They’re not doing anything, but that doesn’t ease your nerves. Instead, you launch a chicken at a pile of crates. The chicken starts to crow.

One of the crates moves.

The hunt begins.

Witch It is a fast paced game of hide or seek, where the hiders are witches who can turn into any object within the world, and the seekers are hunters who are determined to save their village from dangerous magics. With an array of abilities, features, maps, hundreds of objects strewn across each map, and a fair amount of chaos, combined with a chunky and colourful art style, Witch It is a bit intense, a bit funny, and a lot of fun.

Witch It is a pretty simple concept. If you are a witch, you’ll have a bit of time to find a hiding spot. But not only that, you can also transform into any object you find. A painting? Book? Rock? Rose? A boat? No problem! You’ll just want to make sure you blend in.

If you’re a hunter, you must use potatoes to find and defeat witches.

But the game throws in a few mechanics that makes this game of hide and seek a bit more… hectic.

As a witch, your health bar changes depending on what you transform into. The bigger the object, the more health, but bigger objects are more difficult to hide naturally. Witches can of course fly on broomsticks, allowing them to reach high areas. But they are also capable of casting spells, one of which is to create a decoy object to fool the chicken.

Hunters also have a range of abilities. I’ve mentioned the chicken. If you find yourself in a library full of books and you don’t have enough time to throw a potato at each one of them, you can throw a chicken, and it will hone in on a disguised witch within a certain distance. It’s funny when you’re a hunter, it’s infuriating if you’re a witch.

In addition, you can utilise a ground pound attack that will damage any witches within a short range. If you’re facing a pile of identical jewels, it’s pretty handy. And of course you can unlock a grappling hook to allow you to reach those hard-to-reach places.

With these mechanics, a very cluttered map, half a dozen players, and a limited amount of time, a match can get pretty intense. As a witch, not only do you have to find the perfect object and the perfect spot, and place yourself perfectly to look as mundane as possible, you’ll need to time the use of your abilities to keep hunters away from you. And if you get caught, you need to think quickly. You might just be able to escape and hide again.

As a hunter, you only have so much time to find all the witches, and the maps you play in are very cluttered. You can run around hoping to spot something that looks out of place, or maybe even move just in the corner of your vision, or use your abilities to hone in on the witches. When there’s only a few seconds left, and the witches are taunting you, well, I ended up throwing a lot of potatoes.

The games are quick and engaging, whether I’m a hunter or a witch. It can be intense, stressful, exciting even. And with a variety of maps, including the ability to create custom maps using their in-game engine, it’s hard to get bored. And there are multiple game modes as well, as variations of the hide-and-seek premise, like trying to collect specific objects before the time runs out, or if you’re found as a witch you join the hunters to find the other witches. And you unlock cosmetic items to make your witch and hunter your own.

It’s not a perfect game, but the flaws aren’t stopping me. I would prefer a more immersive tutorial that wasn’t just video clips and an explanation. And it took me a bit of poking around to figure out how servers work. But these were things I ended up figuring on my own anyway with a bit of trial and error.

The music is a bit goofy, with sort of silly, spooky music that just adds to the fact that this is just hide and seek. And the sound of chickens clucking, witches cackling, hunters body slamming, it’s a lot, but it also becomes a bit scary when you’re hiding and you hear that chaos get closer and closer. But if I’m entirely honest, I wasn’t paying that much to what I was hearing. I was too busy holding my breath because I can see a hunter passing the shelf I’m hiding on.

Look, I enjoyed Witch It. I wish I could play it with friends because I just know that the banter, the good-natured teasing, and the outbursts would be just so much fun to listen to and experience. It is definitely a game with a lot of game night potential, with it being easy to learn, and creative ways to hide and keep yourself hidden, or coordinate your hunts. But even on my own, braving those servers by myself, it was still a lot of fun. I got to play some custom maps with no problem, join servers with a dozen players and servers with just a few.

It has a fun art style and satisfying graphics that scales well when I needed to adjust the graphics, with each game I got just a bit better as both witch and hunter, and I never found myself waiting around for ages for other players.

Witch It is a lot of fun!

Game Awards and FMWC Winners, plus Bungie in hot water

The Game Awards 2021 Winners and Announcements – 

The Game Awards took place on the 10th of December, and showcased the best games released this year! Game Of The Year went to Hazelight Studios’ It Takes Two, which also took Best Multiplayer Game and Best Family Game. Some of the other winners included; Deathloop, Kena: Bridge of Spirits, Life is Strange: True Colors, and Forza Horizon 5.

We also got a look at a bunch of upcoming games, with Star Wars Eclipse by Quantic Dream, the new Sonic game Sonic Frontiers, Alan Wake 2, Slitterhead, and more! We also got to see some more trailers for Senua’s Sacrifice: Hellblade 2, Forspoken, Elden Ring, Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, and Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands. 

 

Financial Modeling World Cup Winners! –

In some exciting news, Australian competitor Andrew Ngai (Nyai) has beaten out Canadian counterpart Michael Jarman in the Financial Modeling World Cup this year. In this competition, participants are required to solve a business case study, answering several questions by creating financial models in a spreadsheet in Excel. Consisting of 128 participants from all around the world, qualifications began on November 13th with the finals taking place on the 12th of December.

Click here to check out the stream!

 

Bungie’s Fight Against Toxic Work Culture – 

IGN recently published an article outlying yet more allegations of “sexism, boys’ club culture, crunch, and HR protection of abusers” within the gaming industry, with Bungie being named and shamed. The article claims that many employees believe that Bungie’s recent initiatives to improve working conditions have come “Too little, too late”. It points to several instances of narrative leaders “making life miserable” for the writers underneath them. Despite these many issues, several of the employees that have spoken out have expressed the belief that the studio is slowly but steadily improving with the new initiatives.

This article comes after several similar stories about an array of studios, including Activision Blizzard, Ubisoft, and Quantic Dream. 

Aussies Unionize, NFTs for AAA, and Gaming while Driving

Australian Video Games Industry gets a Union… Finally.

Game Workers Unite Australia also known as GWUA mostly known for its advisory and support of video game workers is now planning to transition into a full-on union. GWUA intends on becoming Game Workers Australia in 2022 with Professionals Australia which is a larger union that encompasses more than just games industry workers ranging from engineers to scientists. This new found union with GWUA will mean that all games industry employees can join the same union and be afforded all the XP and buffs that joining a union involves plus the added bonus of benefits being specifically tailored towards games businesses. Game Workers Australia will launch in the new year but you can register your interest by clicking here.

Ubisoft bring NFTs to Ghost Recon Breakpoint.

Ubisoft are taking to the unique virtual cosmetic NFTs this week by implementing them as an “experiment.” Digits as they are called, will be the first non-fungible tokens to ever be introduced to a playable triple A game. These NFTs will be brought to Breakpoint’s Windows version of the game through the Ubisoft Connect platform.  Ubisoft said in a statement, “Each Digit is a unique collectible that features its own serial number for others to see in-game, also keeping track of its current and previous owners for years to come, making players an integral part of the game’s history.” Ubisoft went on to say that NFTs will, “provide players the ability to personalize their experience and complete their missions with style.” Ubisoft said that Digit drops will happen on Dec 9th, Dec 12th, and Dec 15th.

Tesla will let you play video games potentially while you drive.

A new feature has been introduced to Tesla vehicles that the company didn’t advertise called video-games-on-the-go according to Motor Trend the games currently installed are Polytopia and Stardew Valley as well as some classics such as Asteroid and Centipede. We are still unclear about whether you can actually play these titles while the car is in motion. So, if any Tesla drivers out there would like to message us in on the Zed Games FB Page to let us know that would be great.

The week in games releases:

  • December 9th Breakwaters and KEO come to PC
  • December 14th Among Us launches on all platforms [PS5, XSX, PS4, XBO]
    • Clockwork Aquario [PS4, Switch]
    • Firegirl: Hack ‘n Splash Rescue [PC]
    • Greak: Memories of Azur [PS4, XBO]
    • One Hand Clapping [PS4, XBO, Switch]
  • December 15th Rogue Invader [PC]