Category: Gaming

  • Gaming News for Tuesday 27th February 2024

    Gaming News for Tuesday 27th February 2024

    I regularly post gaming news for some friends in a Discord server. Now I will bring it to my blog. But the difference is, I just get to the point. Game has X happening on Y date. Simple. Not everything will be covered. My main sources are VGC and Eurogamer, but I look at other sites and Twitter accounts for content.

    • Arrowhead Studios (Helldivers 2) are set to be impressed by the increased concurrent user cap (Set at 800,000 players) and how the servers were handled over the weekend. Now they are updating their content roadmap, now that the server issues have been mostly subsided.
    • Stardew Valley 1.6 update is set to release on PC on March 19th with a console and mobile update later.
    • SuperMassive (Until Dawn) has announced that the layoffs of 90 employees.
    • Tekken 8 has hit 2 million sales in just 1 month.
    • Larian Studios (Baldur’s Gate 3) are working on mod support and have condemned the “threats and toxicity” against developers.
    • Video game music legend Nobuo Uematsu (Final Fantasy) has revealed that he doesn’t think he’ll compose a full game ever again. Uematsu last credit would have been for the main theme of FINAL FANTASY VII REBIRTH
    • A new game is being teased in the Bravely Default series.
    • Yoko Taro has teased a possible 3rd Nier game. Yoko tweeted ‘r3incarnationan’ which is in reference to the mobile game, but nothing official has been revealed.
    • PlayStation is cutting 900 staff (About 8% of its workforce) and will close its London Studio. Firesprite Studio will see reductions too. Other studios affected: Insomniac Games (Spider-Man, Ratchet & Clank), Naughty Dog (The Last of Us, Crash Bandicoot, Uncharted) and Guerrilla Games (Horizon: Forbidden West, Killzone)
    • Firesprite’s new Twisted Metal live service game has been cancelled due to the layoffs. The game was supposed to release around the same time as the TV Show.
    • POKÉMON DIRECT NOTES: 2 new games have been revealed
      Pokémon Legends Z-A which takes place in Lumiose City, a city from Pokémon X & Y – The game is set to release in 2025.
    • Pokémon Trading Card Game Pocket, a mobile card game based on the real life Pokémon TCG is coming to iOS and Android devices later this year.
    • F1 24 has been revealed. It will release on PS5, Xbox Series S|X, PS4, Xbox One and PC via EA, Epic & Steam on May 31st.
    • Reynatis, an action-RPG is going to be released in the west after it was shown at the Nintendo Direct last week, but only in the Japanese version. It was not shown anywhere else. The game will be releasing this Autumn for Switch, PC, PS4 and PS5.
    • Nintendo is suing the creators of the popular Switch emulator Yuzu, saying their tech illegally circumvents Nintendo’s software encryption and facilitates piracy. They are also seeking damages for alleged violations and a shutdown of the emulator.
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  • PlayStation State of Play – January 31st, 2024 Notes

    PlayStation State of Play – January 31st, 2024 Notes

    PlayStation State of Play Notes – 31st January 2024

    • Kicking off with a trailer for Helldivers 2 – Releasing February 8th for PS5 and PC.
    • New extended gameplay trailer for Stellar Blade – Releasing April 26th for PS5.
    • New Sonic game. Looks like a new version of Sonic Generations. It’s SHADOW! Sonic x Shadow Generations – Releasing August 2024 on PS5 and PS4
    • New trailer for Zenless Zone Zero from Hoyoverse (Genshin Impact, Honkai Star Rail) officially in development for PS5, but still no god damn release date…
    • New trailer for Foamstars (What would happen if Sony made Splatoon?) – Releasing on the 6th February on PS5 & PS4
    • Dave The Diver is coming to PS5 in April with Godzilla DLC coming in May
    • New trailer from Stunlock Studios – V Rising is coming to PS5 later this year
    • New extended gameplay trailer from Konami and it’s for a new original title in the Silent Hill franchise. Silent Hill: The Short Message a full storied free-to-play game coming to PS5 and it’s available today!
    • A new gameplay trailer for Silent Hill 2 now in development for PS5
    • New trailer from the creators of Bioshock – Judas – In development for PS5
    • New trailer from VertigoGames in collaboration with Deep Silver – It’s a PSVR2 game – Metro Awakening VR – Available later this year
    • New game from Urbanwolf Games for PSVR2 – Legendary Tales ARPG – Releasing on February 8th
    • New trailer from Capcom – Dragon’s Dogma II – Releasing March 22nd for PS5
    • New extended gameplay trailer for Rise of the Ronin – Releasing March 29th on PS5
    • New trailer from Ballistic Moon, a game rebuilt and enhanced for PS5 and PC – Until Dawn – Releasing later this year
    • New extended trailer for Death Stranding 2: On The Beach – Releasing in 2025
    • And a new IP from Kojima, in the ‘Action Espionage’ genre titled Metal Ge Physint – No trailer or anything… Just that Kojima and Sony are working on it.
    • Another PlayStation State of Play is coming on February 6th, focusing solely on FINAL FANTASY VII REBIRTH ahead of it’s release on the 29th February
  • Toothless Dance Mod for FFXIV

    Toothless Dance Mod for FFXIV

    Mod by The Mighty Punion: https://www.xivmodarchive.com/modid/96515

    Support them on their Ko-Fi post: https://ko-fi.com/post/Toothless-Dance-G2G2T2068

    Inspired by the meme that is making the rounds at the moment.

    Song: Driftveil City from Pokémon Black & White

  • Final Fantasy XIV: Dawntrail fully revealed

    Final Fantasy XIV: Dawntrail fully revealed

    Early this morning, the Final Fantasy XIV Fan Festival in Japan kicked off with the 3rd, final and full trailer for the upcoming expansion Dawntrail.

    A new ranged, magical DPS job called Pictomancer was revealed (to go alongside the already revealed Viper that was announced at the London Fan Fest) and will be used by Krile in the upcoming expansion/story

    Krile as the new Pictomancer

    Pictomancer was introduced in Final Fantasy VI (1994) by the character Relm and has been featured in other Final Fantasy games such as ‘Record Keeper’ and Brave Exvius. The job will be available on Dawntrail launch from Gridania and will begin at Level 80.

    Relm from FFVI

    They also revealed the final race to be added to the game (for now), Female Hrothgar.

    Male Hrothgar was introduced in Shadowbringers in 2019, but due to the pandemic, they couldn’t get the female variant out until now.

    Female Hrothgar

    They also announced new areas, but didn’t delve too much into them, including the new futuristic/cyberpunk ‘Solution Nine’

    They also touched upon some information about travelling to other planets in the future for content, similar to Ishgard restoration and possibly Island Sanctuary but we’ll find out closer to its release.

    Beastmaster was also announced as the new Limited Job (Blue Mage) but it won’t be releasing until the latter part of the expansion.

    As part of the new graphics update that they are carrying out, they had comparison shots of the races in the game. This is just one mere example.

    Female Elezen. Left is the original (currently in the game) and the Updated looks for Dawntrail.
    • ‘The Arcadion’, the new 8-man raid series, was announced that appears to be in the same area/style as Solution Nine.
    • A new Ultimate Raid was announced, ‘Futures Rewritten (Ultimate)’ which is the same title as Patch 5.4 released back in December 2020.
    • New ‘Field Operations’ were confirmed (Similar to Bozja/Eureka) but no details were made available.
    • Xbox Open Beta Test is happening in mid-February.
    • Final Fantasy XIV x Final Fantasy XVI Crossover Questline is planned for early April.
  • The Xbox Series S Toaster

    The Xbox Series S Toaster

    A very real thing that would go well with the Xbox Series X Mini-Fridge

    If you are living in the US, you can buy one from Walmart. It’s not available elsewhere… just yet.

  • Free Trial in Final Fantasy XIV Online Expanded

    Free Trial in Final Fantasy XIV Online Expanded

    This past Tuesday, Patch 6.5 for Final Fantasy XIV Online was released titled Growing Light

    While I won’t be spoiling anything story-wise, there was an entry into the patch notes that is quite good for new players.

    The following additions and adjustments have been made to the free trial:

    The level cap has been raised to 70. Players will now have access to the expansion data of Stormblood.

    * Ultimate raids are not included in the free trial.

    This is huge. That means new players will have access to 16 battle classes including 2 new classes introduced in Stormblood, Samurai and Red Mage.

    And on top of that, you get access to another 2 years worth of content for free. That is 6 years’ worth of stories, side stories, battles and more.

    The only minor downside is that no Ultimate tier is available, which is understandable. They are for the very upper echelon of FFXIV players and require a high degree of organisation which wouldn’t be available via the Free Trial.

    If you want to try out the free trial, go to https://freetrial.finalfantasyxiv.com/gb/

    (I am not paid for this shilling, but if Square Enix is reading this… Hi 👋)

    Follow me on Mastodon – @padraig@mastodon.ie

    Check out my /now page – pf.ie/now