Gizmos and Gadgets

Very few games elicit an emotional response from me like anything related to Final Fantasy VII does. The original game is undoubtedly one of the most iconic games of all time; I think most people can agree with that at least in some capacity. When the first part of the multi-part Final Fantasy VII Remake project was announced, I was elated – beyond excited that the game that I love would be updated with contemporary design more in line with the other games in its subseries. All of those things were on full display when Final Fantasy VII Remake finally came out for PlayStation 4 in 2020, and it proved that Square Enix was in fact able to pull off such an ambitious release. It’s a good thing too because they’re in it for the long haul. With the announcement of two more entries on the way, fans were left to buckle down and wait for the subsequent sequels to see where Cloud and friends would end up next. Because the Remake project isn’t just a straight-up retelling. There’s plenty fa...

Today Netease Games had a couple of interesting releases to make at Tokyo Game Show, starting with a brand new announcement, Rusty Rabbit. The game is a 2.5D Side-Scrolling Action Adventure game coming for PS5 and PC in 2024.  You play as Stamp, a “cute rabbit with an old soul” living on a planet abandoned by humanity and making a living connecting junk. Yet, one day he crashes down into the open levels and finds a D-Tam, a terminal used to store information. Making use of these terminals he starts looking for his missing daughter in an adventure that may lead him to discover the hidden secret of the planet. One of the elements that make the game definitely interesting is that it’s made in collaboration with Japanese developer Nitroplus and written by Gen Urobuchi. Urobuchi-san is a visual novel and light novel master known for  Saya no Uta, Phantom of Inferno,  and many more.  You can check out the super-cute trailer below. [embedded content] On...

Bandai Namco has announced another new addition to the  Tekken 8  roster in the form of Feng Wei. The martial artist joins other  Tekken  stalwarts like Raven , Nina Williams , and Jin Kazama  on the roster for the fighting game, which is launching in January next year. As you can imagine, Feng Wei is a powerful and intimidating fighter. He’s not too tough to get to grips with, but his moves are powerful nonetheless. As well as Feng Wei,  Tekken 8  is also getting a new closed beta test.  It’s taking place across PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC via Steam, and it’s starting on October 20th. You can register starting from today if you’re interested in trying out  Tekken 8 . Several changes have been implemented since the fighting game’s last closed network test , including some pretty in-depth alterations to various systems and controls, so if you took part in the last test, you should notice some small but significant differences ...

Today the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced that it has started a claims process to provide refunds to Fortnite players who may have been charged for items they did not really want. This follows a settlement achieved in March 2023, ordering Epic Games to pay $245 million for using deceptive methods in order to push players into making unwanted purchases. According to the order,  Fortnite  employed confusing button layouts to mislead players into spending money on the game with the press of a single button. On top of that, the FTC also claimed that Epic made it easy for minors to make purchases without any parental guidance. With today’s action , the regulator has started notifying via email the 37 million people who may be eligible for a refund and is expected to continue with this process for about a month.  Consumers will then have until January 17, 2024, to file a claim on the FTC’s website . Of course, the size of each refund will heavily depend on how m...

Steamforged Games announced a new board game Kickstarter. The tabletop studio is known for high-quality board games based on official licenses like Monster Hunter World and Devil May Cry 5 . Now, they can add Horizon Forbidden West: Seeds of Rebellion to the list. The Horizon Forbidden West: Seeds of Rebellion Announcement In an official post on Steamforged’s blog , lead designer Fraser McFetridge went into detail on Horizon Forbidden West: Seeds of Rebellion . According to McFetridge, his team has worked with Guerilla Games’ Narrative Team to create an official story within the canon of Horizon Forbidden West . Specifically, Seeds of Rebellion is a prequel story, taking place before Aloy’s arrival in the titular Forbidden West. This setup is identical to Steamforged’s official Horizon Zero Dawn board game, which also boasted a canon story scenario set before the events of the videogame source material. Horizon Forbidden West: Seeds of Rebellion will be a board game for 1-4...

Back at EVO 2023, Bandai Namco delighted Tekken 8 fans by revealing the brand new character Azucena , and some may wonder why she was chosen to fill that slot.  Today I asked Bandai Namco’s own Michael Murray during a preview event in Tokyo, and he explained that when the team has a new character slot to fill, they may look at different elements. At times, they may want to include a specific martial art, like Lidia’s Okinawan Karate, while at times, the goal may be to include a certain area as it happened with Shaheen. In Azucena’s case, the primary factor was Peru. The Latin American country has a vibrant  Tekken  scene, a very big tournament every year, and now it’s part of the World Tour.  Due to that, the developers wanted to acknowledge these fans and give them a character to identify with. At the same time, there is also a gameplay reason. The developers wanted to create a tricky character, in fact, Aucena is also nicknamed “Trickster” due to he...

Earlier today, Microsoft was affected by a massive leak of unredacted documents from the litigation against the FTC , and Phil Spencer himself has taken to X (formerly Twitter) to provide some clarity.  Since then, we have learned that the documents were accidentally sent to the court to be published by someone within Microsoft’s organization itself.  The CEO of Microsoft Gaming mentioned that the documents are old, and “so much has changed” since. He also added that Microsoft will share the “real plans” when they’re ready. “We’ve seen the conversation around old emails and documents. It is hard to see our team’s work shared in this way because so much has changed and there’s so much to be excited about right now, and in the future. We will share the real plans when we are ready.” Of course that heavily implies that the plans shared today are outdated and should be taken with a grain of salt, if it wasn’t already clear. It’s also very possible that much of the shared...