This week on Zed Games Maylee, Peter, and Caroline organise boardgame nights before Tobi brings us the week in Gaming News, Caroline gets not so clicky in the the idle farmer games Plantera 1 and 2 developed by VaragtP. Peter does an elevator pitch of Leaderboard. Then Zahra channels their inner deity and embraces the carcinization within while reviewing of Crab God developed by Chaos Theory Games.
Gamescom, Wukong, The Bytes, and Some Game Releases.
Gamescom 2024
On the morning of August 21 here in Australia, Gamescom 2024 went live. And dropped a Santa sack of goodies onto the web. Here’s a highlight reel of what happened…
In the 30-minute preshow we got; Dave the Diver crossovers with Balatro and Potion Craft coming October, life sim Inzoi, and game announcements for Sniper Elite Resistance.
Then in the actual main show a teaser for Borderlands 4, Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 coming October, Goat Simulator Remastered coming later this year, Persona 3: Reload DLC – Episode Aigis pitting you against Joker from Persona 5 coming September, Kyle Crane returns in Dying Light: The Beast, Arc Raiders got a price tag and release for 2025, Path of Exiles 2 is coming to early access in November, Xbox mecha fans are getting a closed beta in August for Mecha Break, Little Nightmares creators are returning in Reanimal, while Supermassive Games is continuing the series in Little Nightmares 3 coming 2025, more info into the upcoming survival MMO Dune Awakening, Marvel Rivals will release December, Civilization 7 is coming February 2025, be the Batman in VR with Batman: Arkham Shadow, Indiana Jones and The Great Circle is coming to Xbox and PC December, and Peter Molyneux took to the stage to announce Masters of Albion
“So I’ve looked at Dungeon Keeper – I’ve taken some things that I’ve wanted to explore further with Dungeon Keeper. I did the same with Black & White – I’ve taken some things from Black & White. I’ve done the same with Fable.”
The Monkey King Rises
The highly anticipated action RPG, Black Myth: Wukong, has officially launched. Based on the classic Chinese novel “Journey to the West,” the story follows the transforming Monkey King as he is faced with regrets, sacrifice, and fate all while seeking redemption. Developed by Chinese studio Game Science, the game is filled with Chinese folklore and mythology and has garnered a massive hype.
Since its release, Black Myth: Wukong has quickly climbed the charts, and at the time of writing Steam’s second biggest game ever with 2.2 million concurrent players.
However, the release has not been without controversy/ragebait. A leaked streaming agreement explicitly prohibits content creators from discussing politics, China, or feminist topics. While this was not extended to journalists who did not receive the same brief, it has raised concerns about censorship and the influence of the developers’ guidelines on free speech.
Now for some Gaming Bytes
Nerfs ahoy with Sorcerers in Diablo 4’s Season of the Infernal Hordes getting buffed… a little too much. The Fractured Winterglass item was causing so many Splintering Energy procs in one build it was causing server lag. A nerf was quickly released halving the procced spell numbers but doubling the damage. This still halved the damage output of the sorcerers and you’re only hearing about it because it is the build I play and I’m salty.
Helldivers 2 released a new update full of “balancing” nerfing flamers and more. The backlash has led to players purposely failing Major Orders, traitorous player killing, and more generally – uninstalling the game.
A PSA to Counter Strike players: Don’t go out and get the Razer Huntsman V3 Pro or Wooting’s Snappy Tappy keyboards for that sweet SOCD strafing because Valve has just banned them and if you use them, you too can get hit with the ban hammer.
And at Devcom 2024 those attending were surveyed and 90% of the devs say that games don’t need microtransactions and games can be “…financially successful just by being Buy-to-Play.”
And finally some game releases
Hey look, it’s another power up team-based shooter called Concord coming to PC and PS5 Friday August 23. Then on Monday August 26 World of Warcraft’s newest expansion The War Within releases. Tuesday August 27 why not chase taxes and collect debt in Debtors Club on PC. And Wednesday August 28 clean up the cutest afterlife as a cat in Crypt Custodian coming to PC and all major consoles. And in more cat themed adventures, why not become a giant monster cat and destroy cities in Monster Run: Downfall of the Empire on PC. Or you can shout PARKOUR in Supermoves coming to PC.
Radiothon 2024 and Indie Dev Night at Netherworld
This week Hazel and Peter scream from the rafters talking the Indie Dev Night going on at Netherworld and spruik 4ZZZ and the Radiothon Subscriber Drive. But first Zahra brings us the highs and lowes in the week in Gaming News, and Paul gets real in a review The Crush House from Nerial.
Goodbye Misty, Goodbye Roblox, Hello Borderlands 3, Goodbye Chess Opponent
Misty’s Voice Actor Passing Away
Voice actress Rachael Lillis, has passed away at the age of 46 due to breast cancer. She was most well-known for her roles as Misty and Jessie in the English dub of Pokemon, before the cast was changed in 2006. She also voiced Utena in the English dub of Revolutionary Girl Utena, some Pokemon, including Jigglypuff in Pokemon Detective Pikachu, and Princess Charlotte in the English dub of Beserk.
In May 2024, her sister had created a GoFundMe to help raise money for her care, a campaign that many of her fellow voice actors contributed to.
Turkey Bans Roblox
Roblox, the very popular free-to-play online game, has recently been banned in Turkey over concerns of child exploitation.
Roblox has faced some criticism since launching in 2006, with reports suggesting that the game isn’t safe for minors. Bloomberg reported that in July, Roblox submitted over 13,000 reports to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children in 2023, and an executive suggested that perhaps the game could “provide jobs to kids living in slums”. The company had released a statement claiming that the majority of creators are over 18, and the company has never hired teenagers.
Turkey’s ban was largely driven by reports of alleged child exploitation, as well as reports of in-game sexual content.
A Roblox spokesperson has stated “We respect the laws and regulations in countries where we operate, and share local lawmakers’ commitment to children. We look forward to working together to ensure Roblox is back online in Turkey as soon as possible.”
Well, Borderlands 3 Is Doing Well
Borderlands: The Movie, hasn’t had the easiest time at the box office, with a 9% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, and only pulling in $8.9 million USD in its first weekend. However, Borderlands 3 has had an increase in players with the movie’s release, peaking at 12,379 players, a significant increase for a 5 year old game.
Borderlands 2, Borderlands, and Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel has also had an uptick in players, at least according to Steam.
Gearbox did launch a feature for Borderlands 3 that allows the player to skip the main campaign with a new character, as long as you’ve previously beaten the campaign once and have a max-level character, so returning players will have an easier time getting to the endgame, so that works out well.
Toxic Chess
Amina Abakarova, a Russian chess player, has allegedly attempted to poison an opponent using mercury, a famously toxic element. Chess, like any game, can get pretty heated, and extremely competitive, but normally these heated interactions fall within the realm of fair play.
In this case, a chess tournament in Dagestan was cancelled when one of the players, a European champion named Umayganat Osmanova, became very unwell quite suddenly. After an investigation which revealed the presence of mercury on her table. Footage supposedly shows Amina spreading the metal across the table.
Umayganat is in stable condition, and Amina has been temporarily suspended from participating in all competitions until the conclusion of the investigation. She is likely to face legal consequences.
News Nibbles!
We still don’t know when the Switch 2 will launch, but it is not coming before April 2025. We don’t even really know if it’ll be called the Switch 2, nor do we know much about its specs, but we should receive an official announcement during the company’s current financial year, which wraps up in March 2025.
Cult of the Lamb now has local co-op in its most recent update, Unholy Alliance. The update has also added new items, quests, buildings, chores, and more. For local co-op, you just need to plug in a second controller and set up co-op through the pause menu.
Tango Gameworks, the publisher for Hi-Fi Rush, has been adopted by Krafton, welcome news after the studio was set to be shut-down by Microsoft.
And now for some upcoming games!
August 15th
- Dredge: The Iron Rig (DLC) – PC, Xbox, PS5, Nintendo Switch
- Kena: Bridge of Spirits – Xbox
August 16th
- Madden NFL 25 – PS4, PS5, Xbox, PC
- Rugrats: Adventures in Gameland – PC, Xbox, PS5
August 20th
- Black Myth: Wukong – PC, Xbox, PS5
- Dustborn – PS4, PS5, Xbox, PC
August 21st
- Enotria: The Last Song – PC, PS5
That’s it this week in gaming news!
GLOCK: if it FLOCKs like a GLUCK it’s a F#k
This week on ZED GAMES
Maylee brings us this week’s #GamingNews while Paul, Rani, and Zahra banter wildly and mourn the loss of the glossy mag Game Informer. Paul distracts Zahra and confuses Rani while they yearn for the mines in a review Gluck. Then Paul takes over in the autocorrect special talking relaxation and discovery of garbles, giggles, and squibs in a review of Flock from @AnnapurnaInteractive. And Zahra spruiks the packed and annual INDIE DEV NIGHT at @netherworldarcade with us from Zed Games, coming next week on Thursday August 15!
New Updates, New Games, New News!
Game Informer shuts down:
After 33 years of publishing, the iconic magazine Game Informer has announced it is closing its doors for good. The decision was made by the parent company GameStop in response to increasing financial issues and market changes. It was a complete surprise to the staff who were “about 70% done” with the next issue when they found out. To make matters worse, GameStop quickly shut down the Game Informer website erasing decades of content from the internet.
Civ VII Updates:
If you’re excited about the upcoming Civilization VII game, I’ve got a date for your calendar. Three weeks from now, on August 28th, 2K is promising a first look at new features, civilizations,
and gameplay mechanics.
THQ Nordic Showcase
The showcase, which aired in the early hours of August 2nd, was packed with announcements for upcoming games.
- The showcase started with the announcement of Wreckfest 2, a demolition derby racing game that builds off the gameplay from the original with new modes, new features, and more customisation. There’s no release date yet, but you can wishlist it on steam to stay up to date.
- Another highlight was a new gameplay trailer for Titanquest 2, unfortunately, there wasn’t a release date for this one either, but it still showed off the build system and some shiny visuals.
- We also saw more of Epic Mickey: Rebrushed, a remake of the 2010 game with major visual upgrades. This one will be released later this year on the 24th of September 24.
- Finally, we got a teaser for a not-yet-named game from Tarsier. It featured a giant pig with intestines falling out of its stomach, who warned “They’re coming”. Who are they? Who knows! But I doubt they’re friendly
Dead by Daylight gets spooky
During its 8th anniversary stream earlier this year, Dead by Daylight teased a crossover with Castlevania, and we’ve finally received confirmation of its release. DBD’s 33rd chapter will release on August 30th and will let players play as (or against) iconic characters like Trevor Belmont or “the Dark Lord” Dracula. While there’s no map coming with this DLC, you might be able to see his iconic castle looming on the horizon.
Adding to the excitement, Dead by Daylight has also announced a crossover with Five Nights at Freddy’s. This is something fans of both games have been asking for for years and came as part of FNAFs 10th anniversary. Unfortunately, there’s a bit of a wait until Freddy Fazbear makes it to the mists since the DLC isn’t set to release until the northern hemisphere’s summer 2025.
Upcoming game releases
Arcade Paradise VR – August 8th
Cat Quest III -August 8th
Steam World Hesit 2 – August 8
Sam and Max: the devils playhouse remastered – August 14th
Glitch P
This week on Zed Games, Maylee, Caroline, and Peter talk news, reviews, popular culture, life, love, and nerdy glasses and things. BUT FIRST! The week in Gaming News from Paul, and the team talks the sadness of the delay to Frostpunk 2, Terraria and holes, and the Future of World of Warcraft. Paul gets rocking and swinging in the roguelite twin stick shooter Galactic Glitch from Crunchy Leaf Games, Peter gets social in a review of bulletheaven online co-op with friendly fire The Spell Brigade from Bolt Blaster Games. And then a return of Paul in another review taking it easy vibing out in space as a pig in Astro Pig from Garoa Studios. Then for no reason (other than Chaos) the crew gets sidetracked by bodily functions in games.
It’s 2008 Again. XBLA is alive and Activision is good.
XBLA is Dead. Long Live XBLA
This week saw the final closure of the digital marketplace for the Xbox 360 and XBLA after 19 years of operation. The service was a major part of the mainstream popularisation of independent digital games. Fans spent the last days trawling for deals and titles that will now become unavailable for purchase. Personally, I nabbed Suda 51’s action baseball game for Kinect, Diabolical Pitch and if hearing that makes you think you’ve missed out the meta critic is 56.
The spirit of the XBLA lives on though and this year particularly is paying quite the tribute to 2008 with the release of the Anniversary addition of Braid, World of Goo 2 got a new release date of… TOMORROW! (That’s August 2nd) and perhaps the most unexpected announcement of all… Castle Crashers is getting new DLC 16 years after launch! Painter Boss Paradise gives the game a new coat of paint, a new official character and officially Steam workshop support which allows for custom content. The DLC will not be available for the original 360 release. For reasons why, see the start of this news story.
Activision… don’t worry it’s good news!!!
Do you dislike Skill Based Matchmaking? Well statistically you’re probably wrong. Activision have release a white paper revealing they have been doing extensive AB testing with Call of Duty’s player base where they would gradually turn down the feature for some of the player base. The results were clear with players without skill based match making playing less and quitting more often.
Activision didn’t stop there however and have also released a huge data set for Call of Duty: Warzone’s Caldera map for academic use. The data includes data on how players move throughout the map giving opportunities for game design research and AI training.
News Bytes
In this week’s layoff news. Bungie will reduce its workforce by 17%.
The International Olympics Committee ended their relationship with Nintendo and Sega for Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games series to explore NFT’s and eSports.
After a 36% price drop PSVR2 sales spiked by 2000%. Additionally, the steam PSVR2 app will be released on August 7th.
Game Release Calendar
World of Goo 2(Switch, PC), Operation: Tango (Switch), Thank Goodness You’re Here! (PlayStation, Switch, PC), Tomba! Special Edition (PlayStation 5, Switch, PC), The Mortuary Assistant (PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 4, Xbox One) – August 2
Fields of Mistria (PC) – August 6
Pepper Grinder (PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 4, Xbox One), Volgarr the Viking II (PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S) – August 7
Creatures of Ava (Xbox Series X/S, PC) – August 8
TEAL 🤬 – AKA: You and me baby ain’t nothing but animals so let’s hue it like they cue it on the discovery channel
Dynamic duo Zahra and Maylee take the reins in this weeks episode of Zed Games. Tobi brings us an extended look into the week in #GamingNews, Maylee talks teal in a review of the board game Hues and Cues, designed by @wscottbrady and published by @theopgames. Then Paul gets intrigued by the mysteries in Animal World by game engine designer Billy Basso and published by Big Mode.
Busy-ness in Games, Esports, and a smorgasbord of Gaming Bits and Bytes
This week in gaming news. Busy-ness in Games, Esports, and a smorgasbord of Gaming Bits and Bytes.
Let’s start this week’s news with a run down on what happened in the back rooms of game development this week.
On Tuesday Humble Games Business Development Manager Nicola Kwan announced via LinkedIn that all 36 employees “…were being let go and that the company is shutting down.” Humble quickly released a press statement saying it was not shutting down, but it would be restructuring the operations of Humble Games. The statement continues, saying that this would not impact on the releases of upcoming games, or the operations at Humble Bundle.
Warner Brothers is also doing the game dev shuffle this week. With the announcement that NetherRealm’s mobile team was shutting down through LinkedIn job asks came earlier this week with around 50 staff being affected by the cuts. This was speculated to effectively close the live services to Mortal Kombat Mobile, Injustice 2, and Mortal Kombat Onslaught, however Warner has clarified that Mortal Kombat Mobile and Injustice 2 will continue to receive support. Possibly with the recent acquisition of the developer of MultiVersus, Player First Games. With WB Games President stating that the new team will add “… to our extensive development capabilities.”
In better news, Bethesda now has a wall-to-wall union with all 241 either signing up to or indicating the desire for representation with the “Communications Workers of America” or CWA. The union has been recognised by their benevolent overlords at Microsoft, even after their most recent layoffs by closing down Zenimax Studios. And in more studio news, staff from the Pixelberry Studio layoffs earlier this year have rallied to create Candlelight Games and are looking at announcing their debut project soon.
This week also saw gamers voting with their wallets, with 2.2 million people buying the Deluxe pre-order of EA Games College Football 25, and all for the juicy bonus of playing the game three days early. And Comscore’s 2024 State of Gaming Report has revealed that 82% of US gamers purchased some sort of in game content in freemium titles in the 23-34 financial year. They also speculated that over 80% of Gen Z and millennials consumed esports content.
Speaking of Esports content last weekend was Evo 2024, the biggest in the Evo history, where 10 thousand of the best fighting gamers congregated in Las Vagas. Some notable events of the weekend were when “Punk” defeating “Bigbird” to bring home the first Street Fighter for America in over 20 years, 41-year-old Hayao performing physical stunts of celebration as well as an “astounding” parry in the losers quarterfinals of the Street Fighter IIIL Third Strike, with some now referring to the moment as “Evo Moment 38.”
“WHAT JUST HAPPENED!?” #Evo2024 pic.twitter.com/FKlprooTFT
— Evo (@Evo) July 21, 2024
And it was announced the thrown into a volcano he definitely is dead villain Heihachi Mishima from Tekken that will be resurrected in the next instalment, even though producer Katsuhiro Harada has previously confirmed his permanent demise. That’s not all, but it’s all I have time for, click here to learn more!
Continuing the Esports news. The International Olympics Committee has partnered with the National Olympic Committee of Saudi Arabia to create the First Olympic Games to take place in Saudi Arabi in 2025. The media release from the IOC states that the reason for this is to support “our young people” and the game titles will be chosen to promote “… gender equality and engagement…”, however the gaming community are not so happy. While Saudi Arabia does have the money to support this endeavour (and the prizes to attract players), it’s treatment of the women, migrants, and the LGBTIQ+ community are a genuine concern to the safety of players seeking to participate.
@dailymailgaming After taking first-place prize in Mortal Kombat 1 at EVO 2024, SonicFox made a statement to encourage more minorities to break into the games industry. #sonicfox #evo #lasvegas #mortalkombat #gaming #esports #evosesports ♬ original sound – Mail Gaming
Warframe’s Tennocon also happened over the weekend with a few announcements. Firstly, the prequel Warframe; 1999 is coming and is hitting some nostalgia notes. With romancable team members through archaic Instant Messenger CRT Screens and an alternative earth-based timeline. Basically, Warframe in all-new earthy environments, plus a 90s styled infected boyband called On-Lyne. Coming this (northern hemisphere) winter
They also announced the upcoming new title Soulframe. This game will utilise magic instead of the space magic we’re used to from Warframe in what some are calling the baby of Warframe and Elden Ring.
I think it’s now time to start of that smorgasbord of gaming bits and bytes
The FTC have taken to arms over the recent tier and price changes to Microsoft’s Xbox Game Pass, Labelling the new plan a “degraded product” and claims it constitutes “exercising market power post-merger”, this the FTC claims is in direct opposition to Microsoft’s arguments during the merger trial last year. In rebuttle Microsoft states that “The FTC barely mentioned subscription at trial, instead focusing on the theory that Microsoft would withhold Call of Duty from Sony’s console.” Not mentioning that day-one access to first-party titles – like Call of Duty – would no longer be included in the new “Standard” tier.
Bloomberg has reported that workers at Roblox Corp do not feel satisfied with the child safety protections the platform has, and is now the “de facto spot for predators.” Roblox Corp disputes these claims, and that safety is “foundational” to Roblox.
A new study has pointed to steam CS:GO trades as being used for money laundering. The study looked at the anonymous trading and found significant market manipulation and trading frequency of top traders warranted suspicion.
ConcernedApe has reassured players of Stardew Valley via twitter that “…on the honor of my family name, i will never charge money for a DLC or update for as long as I live.”
Paramount has killed the Halo TV adaptation after its second season. But Xbox will not rest quietly and is already shopping for a new network.
Fortnight is getting the Tesla Cybertruck and players have already announced their intention to either take aim through the huge windscreen or just destroy it on sight.
Get your retro on because in a recent shareholder meeting at Capcom one attendee asked what their plans were for Mega Man, their response? “Mega man is one of our highly-valued IPs and we are considering how to create games for it on an ongoing basis.”
And if you have Netflix and haven’t checked out their game list, now is the time. In their latest earnings call Netflix Co-CEO Gregory K Peters called games a “big market” and even with the “over 100 games launched so far” they have over 80 games currently in development and from this month are planning to release “about one new title per month.”
And now it’s finally time for some game releases!
Friday, July 26, the 2022 Kickstarted indie RPG Wéko the Mask Gatherer is coming to PC
On Monday, July 29, grab a friend and get cooperating in the action roguelite Deathless, coming to PC.
Tuesday, July 30, get multitasking in the tower defence cross match three mashup Cats on Duty, coming to PC, and Consoles. Or get cyberpunky in the FPS roguelite Deadlink on PC. Or maybe you need to relax in a hand drawn cozy life sim? Then grab The Garden Path coming to PC and Switch.
And to round out the month, Wednesday July 21, Save the dog in indie platform shooter Biogun coming to PC. And sci-fi interactive fiction Minds Beneath Us is finally coming to PC
Starting us off in on Thursday August 1st is the remake of Star Wars: Bounty Hunter coming to PC, and Consoles. Dive into the depths and find the answers in Thalassa: Edge of the Abyss also for PC. And lastly get slappy in Thank Goodness You’re Here! from the developers of Untitled Goose Game, coming to Mac, PC, PlayStation and the Switch.