Just like clockwork, we’re back with another rundown of what’s been happening in the world of gaming news this week, and thanks to Gamescom’s opening night, it’s a packed one indeed.
While some have called the Gamescom show lacklustre or low on major announcements, it did have several new games to show off, and we’ll run down some of our highlights later on.
Even if Gamescom wasn’t your thing, though, there’s still plenty to pore over this week as usual, so without further ado, let’s look at what’s been going on in the gaming news world!
Final Fantasy XVI finally gets a PC release date
One of Square Enix’s worst-kept secrets was finally revealed this week, as big hitter Final Fantasy XVI finally got a PC release date, as well as a demo to download.
As revealed in an announcement on Monday, Final Fantasy XVI will land on PC on September 17th, and you can download the demo for the game right now to see if your PC will run it.
As you might expect from a modern AAA game, you’re going to need a pretty decent computer if you want to play it at the highest specs, so bear that in mind before you buy!
Producer Naoki Yoshida also suggested this week that future Final Fantasy games could arrive day-and-date on PC, and if you ask us, that’s a decision that simply makes complete sense, so we’re happy to hear it.
Black Myth: Wukong has some weird streaming stipulations
If you were wanting to stream recent action RPG hit Black Myth: Wukong, then you’d probably run into some slightly odd streaming specifications, as a document released by the developers revealed this week.
Said document prohibits streamers from including “feminist propaganda” in their streams, as well as “politics”, “fetishisation”, and “other content that instigates negative discourse”.
Streamers were also told not to discuss “content related to China’s game industry policies”, as well as “trigger words” like “quarantine”, “isolation”, and “COVID-19”. Very odd indeed.
It’s a shame, because the game has clearly proven a hit with players; Black Myth: Wukong also sold ten million copies within just a few days of its release this week, indicating that it’s a runaway success.
Nintendo says no Switch 2 news during museum Direct
Soon, Nintendo will open a museum dedicated to its history in Kyoto, and this week, the gaming giant held a livestream showing off some of the things you can expect from that museum.
Of course, this being the internet, Nintendo also felt the need to remind viewers that there would be no Switch 2 news whatsoever during the livestream, nor would there be any new game reveals.
One would think such a stipulation wouldn’t need stating outright, but then again, livestreams for all kinds of things have been bombarded with Hollow Knight: Silksong predictions for years now, so perhaps Nintendo is in the right.
If you’re interested in the actual museum livestream (which you should be, because it offers a fascinating slice of Nintendo history), then you can see it here.
Gamescom Opening Night Live doesn’t quite wow
This week saw Gamescom Opening Night Live airing on Tuesday evening (or in the daytime for US readers), bringing new game announcements and more in its wake.
Those announcements included a new Mafia game in the form of Mafia: The Old Country, as well as a Civilization VII gameplay reveal, an announcement for Borderlands 4, and a new game from controversial auteur Peter Molyneux, as well as confirmation that Xbox’s Indiana Jones and the Great Circle will launch on PS5.
There arguably wasn’t anything that constituted a “slam dunk” for the industry, but there were a few rock-solid reveals that should keep us going until December’s Game Awards ceremony.
We got a new look at Little Nightmares developer Tarsier Studios’ new game, for instance, and we also got a reveal for a new project from The Dark Pictures and Until Dawn studio Supermassive.
Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 has been delayed again
Troubled RPG Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 was once again delayed this week, this time to an unspecified point in the first half of next year.
To developer The Chinese Room and publisher Paradox’s credit, they were frank about the need to add extra polish to the game in their announcement; the companies said they could have released the game on its intended October release date, but chose to add extra polish instead.
Hopefully, the game we eventually get after all of these delays will have been worth the wait, or else we can kiss any chance of a Bloodlines 3 goodbye. Still, given the extended development time on Bloodlines 2, perhaps a third game is a fantasy anyway.
Classic Marathon Infinity completes Bungie’s ambitious trilogy
Right now, whether or not Bungie’s upcoming Marathon reboot will actually see the light of day is in doubt, but what isn’t in doubt is that the full, original Marathon trilogy is now available on Steam.
This week, Bungie released Classic Marathon Infinity on Steam, completing the trilogy and ensuring that everyone can now check out Halo’s precursor entirely for free.
You won’t even need a souped-up PC to check out these games, either; they’re pretty old by modern standards, so they should run perfectly on most machines.
Amazon’s Lord of the Rings MMO still a ways off
In an interview with IGN this week, Amazon Games head Christoph Hartmann said that the company’s Lord of the Rings MMO is still trying to find its unique gameplay hook.
He said that he wants to differentiate the game from other MMOs out there, and that in order to do so, the team was currently trying to figure out what could make the Lord of the Rings project different from its peers.
We also got an insight into how development on Tomb Raider at Crystal Dynamics is going (it’s a “huge, huge task”, apparently), as well as some…interesting comments about AI.
