If there’s one thing the internet loves, it’s spreading misinformation for the memes. In the midst of news flooding (sorry) through the internet about the OceanGate Titan submersible implosion, Five Nights At Freddy’s ended up becoming a part of the story on TikTok. It’s all thanks to a viral audio clip from the games…
This weekend is a weird one: We’ve got Saturday, Sunday, then a normal workday for most of us, and then a holiday here in the States with July 4. And if you find yourself lacking any barbecue or other outdoor activity plans, that means it’s time for more games.
Here's a move I pull in most gunfights in Trepang2: slidekick into an enemy, grab them out of mid-air, briefly hold them in front of me as a human shield, only to pull the pin on their vest's grenade and hurl them into a group of their pals, who do try to scatter before this meaty bomb bursts but sadly forget that they also need to avoid me and my shotgun. Often this is all in slow-motion. Trepang2 is unashamedly aiming to be a new F.E.A.R. and does a pretty great job of it for a game made by a core team of only four people (plus external artists and such). Give me a shotgun, a slidekick, and slo-mo, and I'm happy.
With the second instalment of Toby Fox's reportedly seven-part "nonviolent" RPG Deltarune steadily approaching its second anniversary, fans are understandably eager to hear when more will be on the way, and while Fox mightn't be ready to divulge that particularly bit of information yet, he has now offered a development update.
Deltarune - which charts the adventures of human teenager Kris and their lizard friend Suzie in the mystery Dark World - launched its first chapter toward the end of 2018 as a free download. A second instalment - also free - arrived in September 2021, followed by the news a third, fourth and fifth chapter will all launch simultaneously at a later date.
The big question for Deltarune fans, though, is when, and the answer, if Fox's latest progress report is anything to go by, still sounds very much like 'not any time soon'. Fox does reveal, however, the team is currently working on Chapter 3's last overworld area - and once that's done, "the chapter will finally be playable all the way through".
Everyone who attends the Final Fantasy XIV Fan Festival in Las Vegas gets a goody bag, and it turns out that will include the infamous Endwalker grapes. Square Enix revealed the contents of the bonus given to all attendees. A squishable recreation of the polygonal fruit will be among the six items in the bag.
Here’s the full list of all of the physical items that will be in the Final Fantasy XIV Fan Festival 2023 goody bag. If someone was able to purchase a ticket and attend, they will get one.
Here's a closer look at the smaller items.
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Image via Square Enix[/caption]
With so many skill trees and loot combinations, Diablo IV has no shortage of ways to eviscerate your foes and make them fear your mathematical superiority. Players are still finding all sorts of incredible Unique-rarity items, and certain of these weapons and armors are proving to be exceptionally worth hunting down.
If Microsoft could make a video game that was as successful and beloved by gamers as Call of Duty, it wouldn’t have been in court in late June. That’s the core of the issue, according to economists, the San Francisco judge, and onlookers who await the judge’s decision with baited breath.
“We wouldn’t be here if Microsoft had created Call of Duty,” Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley said to lawyers representing Microsoft and the FTC. The law wants people to make their own creative video game smash hits, rather than purchasing them, according to the judge last Thursday.
San Francisco judge says that we wouldn't be here if Microsoft made Call of Duty itself, we're here because it wants to buy Call of Duty. We don't benefit from buying, we want to incentivize people to make their own COD-sized hits. Microsoft lawyer disagrees.
— Shannon Liao (@Shannon_Liao) June 30, 2023
Corley is poised to make a decision within two weeks on whether Microsoft can acquire Activision Blizzard for nearly $70 billion. Most experts IGN spoke to think that Microsoft is likely to win its case against the Federal Trade Commission, though a vocal minority disagree. The FTC and Microsoft declined to comment.
Much of the FTC’s case hinges on Call of Duty, or “a shooter video game,” as the judge put it, and that Microsoft did not make a video game that shot its way to success by itself but is looking to buy one.
Xbox recently took the wraps off Playground Games' Fable reboot at the Xbox Games Showcase, revealing a fun and whimsical take on the classic franchise. The trailer was well-received, but some observers criticized its lack of gameplay.
Peter Molyneux, who helped design the original Fable and has more recently been dabbling in NFTs, agrees.
"Like you, I would have loved to see more gameplay, but I loved when the hero threw the fireball. I loved the sensation of the impact. I thought it was truly promising. So yes, my expectations are high," Molyneux told GameReactor in a recent interview.
He went on to praise the IT Crowd's Richard Ayoade as a "perfect choice" for the game, and that "making him be obsessed with vegetables was very Fable-like."
The original Fable was an early hit for Xbox thanks in part to Molyneux's big promises of a constantly-evolving world; one where players could plant an acorn and watch it grown into a mighty oak tree. Molyneux departed Lionhead in 2012, and the studio was shuttered in 2016.
Recalling his work on the original Fable, Molyneux says that Playground Games' trailer captures
"You know, the thing you have to remember about Fable — I remember sitting down when we were originally designing Fable and saying 'I think we all agree that Fable would be fun because of what the players do. Its not fun because it has a ton of jokes.' In reality, it didn't have any jokes, but it was funny because we let the players react in absurd ways, and that ridiculous energy is there in the trailer," Molyneux said.