This week in gaming: Sony celebrates Marvel’s Spider-Man, Australian media rights get boosted, Valve drops the ban hammer, and more!
In the spirit of keeping our readers up-to-date with what’s going on in the video game industry, the Doublejump Digest is a brief collection of the major news stories that happened in the past week. Keep an eye out for the Digest every Sunday night, and head into the archive if you’ve missed any!
From Doublejump:
- Alex was disappointed by Square Enix’s showing at E3 2018 and decided to take a look back at how the Japanese publisher has fared in previous years.
- Phil kicked off our new “Rapid Fire” series by writing about the best games that deserve a follow-up, including gems like PlatinumGames’s Vanquish and Rockstar’s Bully/Canis Canem Edit.
Major news releases:
Sony unveils Marvel’s Spider-Man-themed PS4s and new story trailer:
Late last week, Sony unveiled a pair of scarlet PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 4 Pro console bundles to commemorate the release of Insomniac Games’ take on Peter Parker. The PS4 Pro bundle will retail for AU$659.95, however, Australian retailers have yet to post listings for a the PS4 Slim equivalent.
In related news, Sony also released a new story trailer at San Diego Comic-Con over the weekend that looks quite, quite epic:
Liberal Democrats introduces new senate bill that expands journalistic rights:
Party leader Senator David Leyonhjelm has announced that he has successfully introduced the “Freedom of Speech Legislation Amendment (Censorship) Bill 2018”, one of three new bills, which will remove the Federal Government’s ability to ban games (as well as films and television shows) “based solely on the grounds that they might offend against standards of morality, decency and propriety”. He also noted that exceptions include both child pornography and content that incites or otherwise instructs criminal activity.
This could mean that titles such as Compulsion Games’ We Happy Few, which was recently given an R18+ rating, may not be immediately banned simply due to them not upholding traditionally conservative values.
Report: Valve bans more than 90k users in one day:
According to Steam data tracker SteamDB, the publisher banned 61,423 accounts due to Valve Anti-Cheat System (VAC) infringements and 27,402 from individual game bans on July 19. This marked the largest daily total of bans in the company’s history and came less than a day after it issued 28,512 VAC and 31,047 game bans on July 18.
Destiny 2 players rush to discover new weapon:
Early on Saturday morning, players discovered an “anomaly” during the Taken Blight public event on Io that resulted in a secret timed mission. Upon completing the maximum level mission, players would be gifted with The Whisper of the Worm, which is a reworked version of the Black Hammer sniper rifle from the original game. The new weapon, which has been upgraded to an exotic, has turned out to be one of the best in the game and can grant players unlimited ammo if they land Precision Shots.
The Culling 2 developer apologises, refocusses development efforts on the original game:
Xaviant Director of Operations Josh Van Veld took to the developer’s official YouTube channel to formally announce that it has opted to scrap The Culling 2 following the community’s poor response to the game. Van Veld noted that the company has already worked with Microsoft, Sony, and Valve to offer full refunds to everyone who purchased the sequel.
Xaviant has refocusses its development efforts to the original multiplayer survival title, which only left its early access period just over nine months ago.
Notable game releases:
- Hand of Fate 2 (Switch)
- Life Is Strange (Android)
- Mothergunship (PC, PS4, and Xbox One)
- Sonic Mania Plus (PS4, Switch, and Xbox One)
- Tempest 4000 (PS4 and Xbox One)
Major video releases:
No Man’s Sky – NEXT Trailer
After almost two years, Hello Games is finally adding multiplayer to its much-maligned game:
Destiny 2 – July Update:
Some of our favourite exotics are even more powerful than before!
Spyro Reignited Trilogy – New and Original Music Option:
Gotta love the attention to detail in this video.
SOULCALIBUR VI – Voldo Announcement Trailer:
The gimp-like gladiator is returning for some more awkward fighting action.
Sonic Mania Plus – Sonic Mania Adventures:
It looks like Sonic fans are actually impressed by this set of animated shorts.
Just Cause 4 – Apex Power
Travel back to the late ‘90s with some very cheesy b-roll.
The Walking Dead – The Final Season – Comic-Con Teaser:
Not long left to go, folks!
Other news:
- Nintendo has taken legal action against ROM website LoveRETRO: PC Gamer
- NERF is going to release a toy replica of Reaper’s Hellfire shotgun: Business Wire
- Crytek is finally shutting down Crysis’s multiplayer servers: Kotaku
- Titan Comics has written a comic series based on Diablo: DualShockers
- Mario Tennis Aces’s latest patch removed Bowser Jr’s charge shot advantage: Nintendo Life
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