Hey, you’re great.
Fellow internet dwellers, we’ve made it to episode 8 of the Gaming News.
The end.
Just kidding, let’s talk some gaming news. Before I start, I hope you all have been doing well. We seem to be slowing down with video game releases, minus this week, and March is literally almost over..
Wait what?
March 24th… okay..
I’m behind, and I’m just gonna start talking about games now.
Gaming
The next Witcher title is in the works
By now, I’m pretty sure you’ve heard, but if you haven’t the next title in The Witcher is in the works. CD Projekt Red announced on Monday that the next project is happening but gave no other details on the title.
However, that’s not the only thing they announced. They announced that the next installment will be using the Unreal Engine 5 in a “multi-year strategic partnership with Epic Games” that covers licensing, technical development and access to future versions of Unreal Engine 5. Business wording aside, this is pretty cool to see since Unreal 5 was used to show off the tech demo that eventually became Forspoken and is supposed to be a huge help with lighting and other variables. CDPR also mentioned that the upcoming Cyberpunk expansions will be developed on the current engine they’re using not Unreal Engine 5.
That being said, I’ll be the bad guy, but I’ve never been a fan of The Witcher games (I’ve only played The Witcher 3 since that was the only one to come to PlayStation). I am excited for the fans who love this series, but do remember, the last game CDPR let out was Cyberpunk 2077. While I loved the game, it wasn’t the most well received due to the state of its release. Not trying to be a “Debbie Downer” just keep your heads on a swivel.
Nobody knows when this new title will drop, but my guess is in 2024-2026 range. Maybe I’m just being generous though!
Grand Turismo 7 isn’t looking too pretty
I don’t know about you guys, but I’m not much of a racing/driving simulator fan. I’ve always admired what Gran Turismo has done as far as making the game look real and awesome, but I’ve skipped them. Gran Tursimo 7 launched earlier this month, and while it started off with good reception due to good gameplay, the reception has seen a complete 360 due to everything else.
From what I’ve seen, a lot of the ire and review bombing stems from these core issues:
- The game is only playable online so if you don’t have good internet, any internet, or if the game goes down for maintenance for two days, you cannot play it.
- The game is also heavily filled with microtransactions.
- It’s also been said that the developers have removed features that were in previous titles such as selling your cars.
That’s not the full story at least, but given the nature of what’s going on, the game has been heavily review bombed making it one of Sony’s worst rated exclusives to date of a 2.8. I mean who could’ve anticipated forcing microtransactions into your full priced game and removing features that were in previous titles would make your player base happy.
Not I.
One thing that I wanted to mention also is the thought of “live service” games going forward. Gran Turismo 7 is clearly a live service title, and if this is how it’s going to be handled, how should we feel about Sony’s live service plans going forward?
God of War turns 17
I’m crying right now.
The God of War series is one of my favorite series of all time. I remember playing God of War 2 a thousand times over. This series, in my opinion constantly redefined the hack and slash genre as we saw many games try to emulate the formula that Santa Monica perfected. What makes this even sweeter is seeing how they went and reinvented God of War in 2018, and it’s freaking incredible. Hell, it might be even better than the originals (okay I’ll slow down).
I will say the story lost luster after the first game, but who cares? You literally have to turn your brain off and enjoy the violence.
Thank you Santa Monica, and I cannot wait for God of War Ragnarök.
Ubisoft Update
Okay I kind of toyed with the idea of putting this news at the end, but there’s a decent amount of info to cover so I’ll be nice.
Alright first up, Ubisoft announced that they will be using a new cloud based system called Scalar. This new tech will allow their teams to make bigger worlds while “providing new possibilities for game development and player experience.”
Yeah because making big worlds was the problem in the first place.
Secondly, industry insider Tom Henderson has the inside scoop on games that Ubisoft are that in development including:
- Skull & Bones
- Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora
- The Division Heartland
- Immortals Fenyx Rising sequel
- Assassin’s Creed Rift
- Assassin’s Creed Infinity
- Ghost Recon Frontline
- XDefiant
- Prince of Persia: Sands of Time Remake
- Prince of Persia (unknown title)
- The Crew 3 (Project Orlando)
- Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope
- Roller Champions
- Beyond Good and Evil 2
- Splinter Cell Remake
- The Division Mobile
- Other Mobile Games
I’m pretty sure most of what’s on this list has been made aware of minus The Division Mobile (yuck) and the other Prince of Persia game which according to Tom is supposed to be a 2.5D experience. While I never finished my playthrough, Immortals Fenyx Rising was fun, and I don’t think I saw any negative feedback for it so a sequel is a good thing.
Will these games use the new Scalar tech? No idea, but again, bigger worlds has never been the problem with Ubisoft games.
Ghostwire: Tokyo, Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands, and Kirby and the Forgotten Land release on the same day
Seriously who keeps doing this to us?
In case you missed it, Ghostwire: Tokyo, Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands and Kirby and the Forgotten Land release tomorrow. This week is yet another crazy week for releases, and from what I’ve read and seen from reviews so far, reception has been good across the board for all three titles.
Personally, I’m most excited for Ghostwire: Tokyo because it looks like such a unique experience. That being said, Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands looks incredible as I’ll take any excuse to play a new Borderlands game. Also, since I have a Switch, I should probably play the new Kirby game.
As always, remember to trust your instincts and trust your favorite reviewers. I will probably get them all, but reviews won’t see the light of day until Christmas….
I’m that far behind.
Trailers
The Quarry
This got announced last week, and is a spiritual successor to Until Dawn. There’s a star studded cast working this title, and the hype seems to be high for this one.
Hogwarts Legacy
I covered this in a post yesterday, but in case you missed it, Hogwarts Legacy got a 14 minute walkthrough in last week’s State of Play. I’m holding my breather, but it looks good honestly.
Soundfall
I never really get around to playing games like these, but when I do, I realize I should play them more. Some of these smaller titles turn out to be better than most triple AAA titles *cough cough* Concrete Genie *cough cough*.
Esports
Clayster benched
Amid their gathering disappointing start to their CDL season, NYSL pulled the plug on their roster moving James “Clayster” Eubanks to the bench.
Not going to lie, this was hard to watch especially when it wasn’t announced until after it was shown during a live match. Like many fans, I share the sentiment that recent Call of Duty games have definitely hurt the competitive side a ton, sending former players to an earlier than expected retirement. Now, I’m not saying this is the end of Clayster, as we’ve seen him rebound time and time again, but in the CDL, opportunities are fewer than they’ve ever been.
100 Thieves VALORANT have assembled the Avengers, Richard Lewis calls out Riot and Wardell is gone
So let me go backwards before I go forward.
Last week, I went over how caster and former IGL Sean Gares stepped (link to his tweet not my post) down from casting due to circumstances that were out of his control with many assuming that this was Riot Games’ doing. Four days later, fellow caster Daniel “ddk” Kapadia followed suit announcing he was hanging up the mic also.
Side note:
For those who are like me, both of the above names are very big names in the CS:GO scene as both were former players/commentators, and them moving over to VALORANT as casters provided years of insight and wisdom that made their casting special especially when they casted together.
End side note.
A day after ddk announced his retirement, Dexerto editor, Richard Lewis, dropped a bomb of an article that I recommend fans of Riot products read. In his article, Lewis talks about Riot’s culture and how the history of Riot Games possibly led to the outing of Sean Gares.
It was crazy; I remember reading it and my entire opinion on Riot has been shifted immensely. Please read it.
Past aside, on Tuesday, 100 Thieves announced that Sean Gares and ddk will be taking control of 100T’s VALORANT team with Sean becoming the head coach and ddk becoming the general manager. Also, 100T announced that Michael “Mikes” Hockom will be joining as an assistant coach.
Now, besides my personal excitement, this is a huge deal. As I mentioned, both Sean Gares and ddk are legends with years of knowledge in their brains. Mikes is no slouch either as he used to coach Team Envy (now known as OpTic Gaming), and he did his job pretty damn well (link to his VALORANT achievements as a coach). The fact that 100T managed to snatch Sean, who fans assumed was going to Sentinels, as they need a coach, and assemble this insanely talented roster of coaching staff is incredible.
I think this is more a testament to 100T founder and owner Matthew “Nadeshot” Haag. He’s been grinding a crap ton of VALORANT, and as a former pro player, you can tell he’s dedicated to making his teams successful. The newly formed Avengers have their work cut out for them, as this roster is talented but roles are all over the place.
Time to wear my 100T jersey everyday until I get signed.
Final bit of VALORANT news, TSM and Matthew “Wardell” Yu have mutually parted ways in a bit of a shocker.
Reports were coming out that this was a possibility after Wardell was not a part of the team for their appearance in the Knights tournament on Tuesday with Johann “seven” Hernandez filling in his spot instead.
One thing I will say is I feel like this is the first time I’ve seen a team directly state what the reasoning is behind a “breakup”. Usually, it’s up to fan speculation, and while we don’t know Wardell‘s reasoning behind not moving to be a part of the team, it’s disappointing that this is the outcome. I’m sure he’ll find a new team, barring contracts and stuff like that, but depending on the reason for him not moving, it might be significantly harder for him to do so.
Memes
Only memes this week, I’m sorry ya’ll.
Other News
- A World of Warcraft streamer, WowGrandma78 had the most wholesome Twitch stream I’ve ever watched. She celebrated her 80th birthday last Wednesday with an uncapped sub-a-thon that is still currently running after CourageJD tweeted support for her. Trainwreckstv donated $10,000 which covered the cost of her dog’s surgery, and I cried while watching her stream. That is the power of gaming folks.
- Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League has officially been delayed until 2023 (pain).
- A Plague Tale: Innocence, that game about billions of rats, is getting a TV adaptation with Inglorious Basterds Assistant Director on board. Holy crap I’m scared just thinking about all of those rats.
- A CS:GO player was cut mid match due to his poor performance. Fans worldwide were wondering what the hell was happening until reports later came out that the player was intoxicated while playing… Yeah don’t do that.
- Fortnite got in trouble earlier this week after a new season launched with the theme being a war which coincidentally is a current issue going on in the world. Epic Games has since apologized and will be donating all in game purchase proceeds from March 20th-April 3rd to humanitarian efforts in Ukraine. They’ve donated $50 million so far, and it’s only been 4 days…
- Dr Disrespect’s new initiative for his next title, which I covered last week, got in trouble after Apex Legends pro, inhuman (we’re buddies on Twitter) discovered that concept art from the Doc’s game actually borrowed art from Cyberpunk 2077. Also Nickmercs responded, and it was pretty funny.
- Halo TV series show runner, Steven Kane, said he didn’t look at any of the games to get inspiration for the show. While clearly that’s not believable since how else did they come up with the show, I will say this is a double edged sword. It could be good as far as stepping outside of the game’s story limitations, but bad because they may go too far off the deep end by creating their own story.
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