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Clearly Tifa is the favorite, but then again, are we really surprised? Has any other Final Fantasy character come close to the popularity that Tifa has?

At New York Comic Con, Insomniac and Sony announced that Spider-Man 2 would be coming to PC on January 30, 2025. This is just the latest Playstation exclusive coming to PC, while it also joins the other two Spider-Man games that previously came to PC. Insomniac also announced that there was no additional content planned for the game.

Last year Insomniac Games data had been breached and a lot of confidential information was leaked. That information included DLC for Spider-Man 2, Spider-Man 3, a Venom game that was supposedly aiming for a 2025 release date, and a multiverse game. Given that the third and final Venom movie is coming in a few weeks, NYCC would be the perfect time to officially announce the Venom game. It’s possible that the game isn’t coming in 2025 or that it is cancelled all together, like the DLC appears to be.

Also in the leak was the Wolverine game that was announced years ago. If the rumors are true, then Insomniac is gearing up to officially show more of the game relatively soon. Speculation has been that it will be shown at the Game Awards in December, if not before hand. If true, then Wolverine could be the next game from Insomniac Games and one of the next Sony games to be published to the Playstation 5. Given that the Playstation 5 Pro is set to be released in a few weeks, maybe Wolverine will get an early 2025 release date to bring more interest to the upgraded console.

Are you excited for the Wolverine game? What about Spider-Man 2 coming to PC?

Spider-Man 2 is coming to PC

It’s been announced that future Halo games will be using Unreal Engine. Up until now, Halo games were on a custom engine. First it was the Blam engine from Halo Combat Evolved to Halo 5: Guardians and then it was rewritten to be the Slipstream Engine for Halo Infinite. Rumors of 343 Industries using Unreal have been around for a few months now, specifically that Halo Combat Evolved would be remade using the engine and will be released on Xbox Series X, PC, and PS5. So far we don’t know what the next Halo game will be or if it will be released on Playstation at all.

While a Halo Combat Evolved Remake inside of Unreal Engine could be a good start for the next batch of Halo projects, it would make more sense that Halo 3 would be the next game to get a remake. The original Halo as well as Halo 2 were both remade on Xbox One, with the latter coming with the Master Chief Collection. If they were going to continue the tradition, then Halo 3 would be the next in line for a remake.

Halo won’t be the only game using Unreal. Gears of War has been using Unreal since the beginning, though that makes sense, considering they were both initially products of Epic Games. Sea of Thieves has also been using the Unreal Engine since its release.

The new engine wasn’t the only thing announced recently, at the same Halo World Championships that the new engine was announced at, they announced that 343 Industries would be rebranded as Halo Studios.

While Halo Infinite’s launch was less than spectacular, it has evolved into a great multiplayer experience. Every few weeks game modes are added or replaced, playlists are mixed up, and new maps are put up. While initially 343 Industries was reluctant on releasing older maps, the community created older maps in Forge and the company has since embraced them. The future of Halo certainly does look bright.

Are you excited for the future of Halo?

New Halo projects will be using Unreal Engine

People are waiting for the Switch successor to be announced, but what does Nintendo do instead? They announced a clock. That’s right, Nintendo is making an alarm clock called Alarmo. Below is the trailer for it.

In a time when Xbox had a refrigerator and a toaster, this doesn’t seem too weird and actually has some unique features to it. I like that it tracks your movement and the music is more intense the longer that it takes you to wake up. This year it seems Nintendo is giving us everything we want and even some things we didn’t even know we wanted, as is proof with Alarmo. Question is, does Nintendo have other surprises up its sleeve before the Switch 2 (or whatever it will be called) is officially announced?

We know that it is set to be announced before April 1, 2025 and that it will more than likely be released in 2025. We also know that Call of Duty will be coming to the new console. Not much else is known about it. This is the first console that will be released without Satoru Iwata’s involvement in a while. The last one was the GameCube and ever since that, the consoles have focused more on fun aesthetics rather than raw power. The GameCube was the most powerful console of its generation, could the Switch 2 be more powerful than the PS5 and Xbox Series X? Some rumors say yes, but others say it will be as powerful as the Xbox One and Playstation 4. Could Nintendo have other hardware surprises between now and the announcement for the Switch 2?

Will you be buying an Alarmo? I am tempted and I don’t even understand why, it just seems like a cool different kind of clock.

I love gaming, I always have, but growing up there was no game streaming like Xbox Game Pass or Playstation Plus, so the games I played were either rented from Blockbuster Video or bought from Game Stop. This meant that I played a lot of the same video games over and over again, but also that I missed out on a lot of games. Now between Steam sales, subscription services, free games, etc. I have access to a lot more games I couldn’t play before. While this is great in theory, it also means that my backlog has grown exponentially. Now the biggest problem is having enough free time to play them all.

To combat the lack of free time, I decided to bundle my time playing games and streaming. That is why I stream games like Banjo-Kazooie and Crash Bandicoot. I get to have a recorded playthrough of the game as well as create different kinds of content for my site and social media with it. It’s also nice because while I love single player games, it can be hard to focus on them, streaming helps maintain that focus for me.

I have a large list of games on my backlog. They games that I play aren’t in any particular genre and also don’t make much sense sometimes. Currently I am playing Banjo-Tooie, but also on the list are games like the Final Fantasy VII remake, the Metal Gear Solid series, and a bunch of others. They range from Steam games to Xbox to Playstation. While I have a preference for Xbox for a variety of reasons, a good game is a good game.

While there are tons of games that I want to play, I know the amount of time it would take to finish them all is improbable. It sucks, but that is life. I will keep at it though and will have a blast doing it.

It’s been years since we got a new Fable video game. I played the original game a lot on Xbox. Fable Anniversary and the first two sequels I only recently played a few years ago, but I loved them. I loved 2 so much that I was in the middle of a massive heart attack and tried playing through it. They were great for their time, but a lot has changed since then and I think it could really benefit from the changes. This time around it won’t be Lionhead Studios making the game, but Playground games, who are known for the Forza Hotizon series.

First of all modding it on PC could be great. Chicken kicker? What about Barney the Dinosaur kicker? How about raptor kicker? The possibilities are endless for what a chicken can be modded into. The visual mods for this game are going to be a game changer for the series.

Second is the upcoming cast. I love the IT Crowd, so when Richard Ayoade was in the first Fable trailer, I was excited. I wish he would have been the main character, but him being a giant could make his character even better. We never really saw giants in the original series, so their addition could be a really interesting change to the world. I am dying to know if they will be designated to one area or if there will be times a giant just is randomly walking down the road or through a town.

Finally, with Richard Ayoade coming into the series, it’s bound to take the humor to a new level. Even the trailer he appeared in was hilarious and I am hoping we see a lot more of him in the game. His humor could be a game changer and maybe it will be a more humorous game than the previous ones. Either way, it’s sure to have a lot of laugh out loud moments.

Fable is set to be released in 2025 published by Xbox Game Studios for the Xbox Series X/S and PC. It should be on Game Pass on day 1. Are you excited for the new Fable at all?

The 2023 Xbox Game Showcase trailer

The 2024 Xbox Game Showcase trailer

Call of Duty is a game that has a new version every year. At one point in time I would buy it every year. It’s weird that I would do that because I never played the campaign modes and I barely ever played the core multiplayer modes. I would play the horde modes though. Ghosts had aliens which was a lot of fun, but every other COD had zombies for the most part and I played a lot of them. Some years zombies might have been the only game I played.

I tried the Zombies mode in Modern Warfare 3 and it seemed like a giant open world, it reminded me more of Day-Z or 7 Days to Die more than the traditional mode I was used to. Black Ops 6 is supposed to have zombies again and I have been playing the beta for the game, but so far zombies has been locked. From what I have seen with this year’s game, it looks like the mode will be more like the classic mode I used to love.

With Modern Warfare 3 on Game Pass, I decided to try out the other modes and I got hooked, especially on PC. First person shooters just feel so much better to me with a keyboard and mouse. This was the first time in any COD that I got to level 55 and had the ability to play ranked. From what I see with Black Ops 6, I will probably play a combination of multiplayer and zombies. The new movement where you can run and dive in any direction is fun and taking people hostage (or being taken hostage in my case) is just hilarious. The maps also look great, personally I am very excited and October 25 cannot come soon enough.

If you’re a fan of Call of Duty or have Game Pass and not a fan of Call of Duty, I suggest checking out the beta and the game, it might surprise you. Are you excited for this year’s COD? I know I am.

For a while now, Towerborne was being touted as a day one on Game Pass game. It was set to release in 2024 and it would launch on the service when it did. The plan has since changed to launching on Steam in 2024 with Xbox launching in 2025. According to Xbox Era, <a href=”https://xboxera.com/2024/08/27/why-is-towerborne-launching-on-steam-before-xbox/” target=”_blank”>one of the main reasons why is because it does not require certification to push out builds</a>. Even though Xbox has an early access program, each update needs to be certified and that can take up to a week to process. My question is, should Xbox be more like PC?

Yes, when a game is fully released then maybe there should be a certification process to ensure that it will work, but early access games are basically in beta. A game that isn’t fully released yet is going to have bugs, so isn’t it better to push updates as fast as possible and not have to wait for them to be certified? Some games will release updates on console and they will run worse than before the update, so what does the certification process even do? The idea behind them is that the update will not disrupt the existing game. I’d argue that having the game run worse, would be disrupting the game. Xbox isn’t the only one that has them, Playstation and Nintendo does too, but they don’t typically have early access games on their systems.

If Xbox allowed patches to be uploaded, then they could have multiple updates a week or even in a day, getting the game to be updated and fixed faster. Microsoft has always wanted a PC in the living room and with Xbox being their living room PC, then maybe it’s time they start treating it more like a PC and less like a console when it comes to game updates.

What do you think about the way Xbox handles game updates? Should they forego the certification process for early access games?

Gamescom has come and gone. There were some really exciting announcements, including a remaster of Goat Simulator, Dying Light: The Beast, and Mafia: The Old Country. I haven’t played the Mafia games yet, but it is a series I am looking forward to playing. Goat Simulator can be hours of mindless fun, so that is something I will probably be playing. It will be on Game Pass on day 1, so it will be included in my Ultimate subscription.

What about those rumors? Well Final Fantasy 16 did not get announced for Xbox. There was an Xbox game announced for Playstation though. Indiana Jones will be coming to Playstation 5 a few months after it comes out on Xbox. Xbox has been adding games to Playstation starting earlier this year and it has had some mixed reactions. Some say it’s a sign of things to come for Xbox, that all exclusives will be going to Sony’s platform. Others say that it is going to bring in more money for Xbox so they can keep Game Pass affordable. Personally, I think that Disney had something to do with Indiana Jones not staying exclusive. Sony and Microsoft are opening up to putting their games on other platforms. The industry seems to be changing, so it may look completely different in 5 years than it does now. Only time will tell.

Next up for sure is Tokyo Game Show. Death Stranding 2 is expected to be shown off, but the big question on everyone’s mind is what about the Playstation 5? There is rumored to be a separate State of Play in September, some say September 12th, so it’s possible that we could be seeing the rumored device sooner rather than later.

Are you excited for TGS? What about the potential State of Play?

We are days away from Gamescom 2024, which takes place Wednesday August 21-25. On August 20th, there will be an opening night live stream starting at 11AM PT / 2PM ET / 8PM CEST. For those that don’t know, Gamescom is a yearly video game trade fair and event held in Cologne, Germany. It’s considered one of the world’s largest gaming events. Every year the games industry head to Germany to showcase some of the biggest upcoming games and developments.

Since it’s such a massive showcase, it brings about some massive rumors. We already know that Xbox will be showing off Indiana Jones and Age of Mythology, but some rumors have come up that Forza Horizon 5 or some other big Xbox title will be heading to Playstation and is set to be announced during the conference. Another rumor is that Final Fantasy 16 is going to be announced for Xbox, we already know that they have been working on a PC port of the game, so an Xbox announcement would make a lot of sense.

Xbox will be doing live coverage of their booth on August 21-23 starting at 6AM PT. Playstation has opted to skip Gamescom this year, for the third time in a row. Playstation will be at the Tokyo Game Show next month though, an event they also have skipped the last few years. It’s rumored that they will be announcing the Playstation 5 Pro during it.

Twitch and Youtube streamers will be co-streaming the event, so be sure to check if your favorite streamer will have a Gamescom livestream. Some may only do Gamescom opening night, some may do live from the floor if they are lucky to be there.

If you don’t have a favorite streamer, IGN will be live during Gamescom for you to check out all the announcements.

I am hoping that we get some release dates announced. They have said that Indiana Jones and other games will be coming this year and while there are some great games coming in the next few months, like Star Wars Outlaws and Age of Mythology, there are still games set to be released in 2024 without any official release date yet. I am hoping that will change.

What are you hoping for?

There was a point in time when movie video games, video games based on films, were pretty common. Years ago we had games like the “Disney’s The Lion King”, “Disney’s Aladdin” and “Toy Story” that used the movie to make a video game adaptation and expand on the movie’s story. As years went on, video games took longer to develop and they would be forced to be made in the same production window as the movie. This time constraint meant that the games would not always be great, while others are amazing.

Spiderman 2 is often listed as one of the best movie video games of all time. Some even list it as one of the best video games period, movie tie in or not. It was the first game that had an open world New York to swing around in. You had a combination of original elements as well as the movie plot tied in nicely together. Die hard fans of Spiderman and video game players in general loved it.

The “Superman Returns” video game had an interesting take on the movie, but even though it shared a name with the movie, it had very little to do with the movie. The game had you fighting robots and saving the city from tornadoes. Probably the most interesting aspect of that game was that you couldn’t actually die, instead Metropolis had a health bar and you had to ensure that the city didn’t take too much damage.

Some games go a different route when trying to make movie franchise games work. In “Enter the Matrix” it takes place during Matrix Reloaded and expands on the story using other characters and ships, while not changing the movie’s story at all. The game was produced alongside “The Matrix Reloaded” and “The Matrix Revolutions” and features original footage written and directed by the Wachowskis. “Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora” did the same thing with James Cameron’s universe, though created separately, the game world and the movie world are one in the same. Tron Evolution was used as a prequel to Tron Legacy, using it to fill in some backstory and bridge the gap between movies.

Tron Evolution filled in backstory and events that happen between Tron and Tron Legacy

Games like “DC League of Super-pets: The Adventures of Krypto and Ace” and “Mad Max” tie into the movie’s franchise, but are not directly connected at all. These games may never be officially canon and the events may never be referenced in the movies and they don’t need to be. Not everything needs a giant universe that ties together all sorts of different media. It works for the MCU, it works for King Kong and Godzilla, but some things can just be standalone.

Speaking of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, there is another type of movie game that is often not considered to be movie games. They are Lego games. Warner Bros has made Lego games out of Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, Harry Potter, and more. Star Wars had multiple games, there were prequel games, sequel games, a game with the whole saga. With Lego characters you could play from the Phantom Menace to Return of the Jedi to Rise of Skywalker. The Lego Marvel Avengers games took sound clips from Iron Man to the Avengers movies and tied it all in together. The Lego games are now branching out to make games based on video games with Horizon Zero Dawn.

Lego Star Wars the Skywalker Saga is a Lego game where you play through all the Star Wars movies

Personally, I find movie games to be a lot of fun. I love when franchises continue on and with these games I can keep playing even if a series is done. A few weeks ago I played Robocop Rogue City and absolutely loved it. I even went back and rewatched the movies after (I couldn’t get through Prime Directives though) and saw details that the game had that I didn’t even remember from the movies. I think movie games can be a great way to experience a movie again for the first time. There’s just something great about playing Lego Return of the Jedi for the first time, no matter how many times you saw the movies.

Dying Light has captivated players with its exhilarating blend of parkour and zombie horror. You might be wondering if this thrilling action-adventure game allows you to team up with friends across different platforms. In this blog post, we will explore the crossplay capabilities of Dying Light, answering your questions and helping you understand how to maximize your gaming experience. Prepare to explore the details and enhance your gameplay by knowing whether you can join your friends, regardless of their chosen platform.

Understanding Crossplay in Gaming

To grasp the concept of crossplay, it’s crucial to understand its basic definition and relevance in gaming today.

Definition of Crossplay

Crossplay refers to the capability of players on different gaming platforms—such as PC, Xbox, PlayStation, and mobile devices—to play together in the same online game. This allows you to team up or compete against friends regardless of the device they are using, breaking down the barriers that traditionally separated gaming communities.

Importance of Crossplay in Modern Gaming

Modern gaming has evolved significantly, and the importance of crossplay cannot be overstated. It enhances your gaming experience by allowing you to connect with a broader player base and fosters more inclusive communities.

This capability is critical for several reasons. First, it dramatically increases the player pool, making it easier for you to find matches and enjoy a more vibrant gaming experience. Second, crossplay promotes inclusivity by ensuring friends can play together, regardless of their chosen platform. Finally, it can prolong a game’s lifespan as developers focus on engaging a wider audience, enhancing updates, and improving game balance, ultimately benefiting you as a player.

Dying Light Overview

Little did you know that Dying Light offers a unique blend of survival horror and action-packed gameplay. Set in a post-apocalyptic world, you must navigate the treacherous urban environment while fending off hordes of zombies. With an engaging storyline and dynamic day-night cycle, the game keeps you on your toes, offering countless hours of thrilling adventures.

Game Mechanics and Features

One of the standout features of Dying Light is its fluid parkour mechanics, allowing you to traverse the city with agility and speed. You can engage in intense combat, utilize crafting systems, and develop your character through an RPG-like progression system, all while facing the ever-present threat of the undead.

Platforms Available for Dying Light

Game platforms for Dying Light include PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S, making it accessible to a wide range of players. This diverse availability enables you to choose your preferred gaming device while experiencing the thrill of the game.

Plus, if you’re curious about upgrades or improvements, Dying Light has received several expansions and remastered versions on newer consoles. This means that regardless of the platform you choose, you can enjoy enhanced graphics and additional content, ensuring your experience remains fresh and exciting as you dive deep into this thrilling world.

Crossplay Capability in Dying Light

The crossplay capability in “Dying Light” has been a point of interest for many gamers wanting to join their friends despite platform differences.

Current Crossplay Status in Dying Light

To date, “Dying Light” does not support crossplay between different gaming platforms. This means if you’re playing on PC, you can only team up with other PC players, and the same goes for console players on Xbox or PlayStation.

Future Updates and Possibilities

Current trends suggest that crossplay functionalities are becoming increasingly popular among game developers, raising questions about whether “Dying Light” will ever incorporate this feature.

It is worth noting that Techland, the developer of “Dying Light,” has not officially announced any plans for enabling crossplay in the future. However, given the positive community feedback regarding cross-platform play in other titles, it’s possible that they might consider introducing this feature in future updates or sequels. Staying connected with community news will help you stay informed about any potential developments.

To wrap up

So, if you were hoping for crossplay functionality in Dying Light, it’s imperative to understand that while the game does provide some multiplayer options, full crossplay is not available. This means that you’ll be limited to playing with others on the same platform, whether that’s PC, PS4, or Xbox. Knowing this can help you make informed decisions about who to play with and how to maximize your gaming experience. Stay connected with your platform’s community for the best co-op sessions!