Dang it, I have nothing clever for #14.
This week was a busy week… for cinemas!
I saw Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness twice already, and I have to watch every single breakdown to discover the infinite timelines and how this impacts the MCU so short post. Also, James Cameron’s love of water continued as the trailer for the next Avatar movie dropped after 13 years of rumors. Listen, I was in 9th grade when the first movie took the world by storm….
I’m 28 now and still in 9th grade.
GG let’s talk video games.
Gaming
Only Ponyboy can save Outriders
Any fans of The Outsiders?
Not sure if you lovely readers remember but Outriders, Square Enix and People Can Fly’x next big project, released last year. The release didn’t go as planned as the game was marred by a ton of technical issues, and while player count was high in the beginning, it died down pretty quick.
Turns out it got way worse than that for People Can Fly as new reports have come out that Outriders may never be profitable and that PCF (I’m feeling lazy guys) never received royalties for their time working on the game which backs up the claim that this game didn’t make enough from sales.
You’re probably wondering why any of this is relevant, and I just want to reference back to last week when Square Enix sold their soul for JPEG monkeys (aka NFTs and blockchain) to the collective known as the Embracer Group. When Outriders was releasing, Square was confident that this title was going to be their next big franchise, and these reports are painting a very different picture. The next Outriders content drop, Worldslayer, is releasing next month but even that might not save the finance boat from sinking even further.
Gotham Knights looks…. Eh
I was toying with the idea of throwing this in the “Trailers” section and moving on, but I found I had quite a lot to say about this game.
Gotham Knights, the next game coming out in the Batman universe not connected to the Arkham series, follows the Bat family as look to keep Gotham safe after Batman dies. Starring Batgirl, Robin, Red Hood and Nightwing, the Gotham Knights will take on the Court of Owls: a secret society of rich people who have had their way for Gotham for quite some time. A new gameplay trailer came out on Tuesday and, in my opinion, ….
it’s not looking too hot.
When they first announced the game back in 2020, it looked good but I had plenty of questions with the direction of the game as there will be light RPG elements and story wise. I moved on as the first gameplay trailer (link to the 2020 gameplay trailer) looked pretty good. Fast forward to Tuesday, and the game looks pretty outdated with stiff animations in and out of combat, and Jason Todd looks crazy.
I think part of what makes the outdated feeling so prominent in the trailer is the fact that they announced the PS4/Xbox One versions have been cancelled, but what they showed in the latest trailer looked like last generation footage. As the trailer progresses, they go deeper into the RPG elements, and somebody in the comments made a good point that the implementation of co-op/RPG features might move them into the direction of microtransactions. Also, I believe the game is only two player co-op instead of four (four characters you’d think it’d be a possibility), which if true, is a huge L.
I’m probably coming off as overly negative and scatter brained so I apologize, but given how well the Arkham series performed, it’d be a shame to have Batman games take a step back in quality if this game does shit the bed. I’m still going to try it, but I’m scared man. The game is set to release October 25, 2022 and I honestly wouldn’t be surprised if it got delayed again.
Trailers
Wildcat Gun Machine
I have no idea what I just watched, but this has me hyped for absolutely no reason. Wildcat Gun Machine is out now!
Unreal Engine 5 Subway demo
This is freaking incredible. A 3D environment artist, Lorenzo Drago recreated the Etchū-Daimon train station in Toyoma, Japan. Again, this is incredible and truly shows the power of Unreal 5. I thought this was real.
“Ravenholm” Arkane Studios’ cancelled Half-Life game
This caught me off guard, but Arkane Studios was working on their own proper entry in the Half-Life series that was eventually cancelled. This is an hour long piece of footage, but it goes in depth into a lot of features that Arkane would later implement in their newer games Dishonored and Prey. I still have yet to play the Half-Life series, but this would’ve been cool to see.
Esports
Big money orgs and Regi gone wild
I love making stupid headings for these sections.
Last week, Forbes did a round up of the most valuable esports companies of 2022 and they are:
Insane to see how much the esports world has grown especially since the last time this study was done was in December 2020. I mean look at how much 100 Thieves has grown narrowly beating out long standing teams like Team Liquid and jumping over FaZe Clan, whom have been rumored to be going broke (probably because they’ve been shady for some time now). At the top sits the king, Team Solo Mid (technically TSM FTX), who have been in headlines for a bit now most notably due to their CEO TSM Reginald.
This has been a news piece for quite some time, but TSM CEO Andy Dinh has quite the reputation of being a jerk. Over the last few years, Dinh has gotten into a war of words with former LCS player Yiliang “Doublelift” Peng over the departure of Doublelift from the team. Since the public feud, verbal and video accusations have started piling in on Reginald labeling him as abusive and toxic. Riot Games launched an investigation into Reginald’s behavior, and the reports did not come out clean as it further cosigned Reginald’s abusive behavior.
The Washington Post dropped an article last week with interviews from inside TSM and Blitz (the gaming app TSM owns) detailing firings and how employees avoided one-on-one meetings with Reginald due to the fear of no witnesses being around. There’s also details of how employees that were hired were actually misclassified as contractors inside of full time workers which is important due to the difference in rights both groups have.
There’s a lot here, and all of the above information is even before Riot has concluded their own proper investigation into the situation. I don’t wish bad on anybody, but if Reginald isn’t held accountable for his actions, it may very well spell the end for this org.
Around the freaking platform (I’m sorry I was really hype when I wrote this)
Another recap of what’s happening around the scene!
- The groups for VCT Stage 2 have been set, and it’s probably the clout heaviest group of teams I have ever seen. TSM, Sentinels, 100T (LET’S GO BOYS WE’RE IN) and many more will be facing off for a chance to make it to Masters 2. Pretty stoked for this!
- Splitgate‘s esports scene is picking up steam with the announcement of a new summer season, Amazon Prime Gaming as a new partner and six new teams joining the fray.
Yo I’m sorry, I thought I had more to cover….
Keep on scrolling guys.
Winner’s Circle
Last week, two champions were crowned in their respective esports.
G2 Gozen win Game Changers EMEA Series 2
G2 Gozen continued their dominance in the EMEA Game Changers scene with a 3-0 win over GuildX. Very cool to see, and we need that LAN event to see how the top Game Changers teams matchup!
Also, if my bracket reading skills are correct, I don’t think G2 Gozen dropped a single map. Absolutely absurd.
NYSL Subliners win the Pro-AM
Not going to lie, I didn’t really pay too much attention to this event as the absurdly long break between Major 2 and the Pro-AM killed my competitive hype. Negativity aside, the Subliners took the win in the pros vs amateur matchup with a 3-1 win over LA Thieves.
This team has been through absolute hell this season yet they might have found some new life in their four man core of Paco “HyDra” Rusiewiez, Ian “Crimsix” Porter, Paul “PaulEhx” Avila and Matthew “KiSMET” Tinsley. The Major 3 Qualifiers kickoff this week, and I pray to the gaming gods that I can attend one of the Major 3 LAN events in Foxborough or Brooklyn.
Memes and Wholesome Stuff
Other News
- There seems to be a new Mafia game in the works. The new title is rumored to be totally developed on the new Unreal Engine 5 and is targeted to be a prequel detailing the rise of the Salieri family. Big news if true as I generally like the Mafia games.
- The Day Before, that promising MMO survival game, has been officially delayed until 2023. Very disappointing given the original release was scheduled for next month, but the delay is giving the team time to develop the title in the Unreal Engine 5.
- District 9 Director, Neill Blomkamp, has announced that he is working on a new game titled Off the Grid. It’s supposed to be a 150 player battle royale (yay) set in a cyberpunk-style third-person setting that heavily focuses on story. That being said, I was scrolling Twitter, and supposedly this game is going to have NFT’s in it but the team behind the game is trying to hide that fact and issued a DMCA strike on YouTuber BigfryTV (link to Fry’s video) who’s trying to shed light on this story. JPEG monkeys are taking over.
- The Division 2 is getting a new season on May 12th bringing new modes and enemies. I didn’t even know this game still got content support, but it’s very nice to see the support and fans seem to be happy.
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