Category: Video Games

Talking Point: Who Did You Marry In Fire Emblem: Awakening?

Fire of love.

For better or for worse, Fire Emblem today is a different beast to what it was a decade ago. Fire Emblem Engage brought back the weapons triangle, a combat-first focus, and the wonderful Engage mechanic, but at what cost? The social aspect (one of the biggest selling points in previous games) takes a tumble in the most recent entry. The central hub (The Somniel) is much smaller, character interactions are lessened and, most importantly of all, there is no marriage.

Ten years ago, Fire Emblem: Awakening came to the 3DS (in the US, at least) and opened our eyes to the prospect of in-game marriage. Evolved from the ‘Love System’ which debuted in the Fire Emblem: Geneology of the Holy War on Super Famicom, no longer was the game’s romance something that you had to read into, oh no; this time around it was front and centre and came with a number of genuinely beneficial perks based on who you decided to partner up with.

Read the full article on nintendolife.com

Talking Point: What Are You Playing This Weekend? (February 4th)

Game on!

Well folks, we made it through January and the upcoming months are looking bright (in gaming, at least). It’s now fewer than 100 days until the release of Tears of the Kingdom so the countdown is well and truly on.

This week at Nintendo Life, we had a chance to get hands on with Theatrhythm Final Bar Line, and we also looked ahead to The Super Mario Bros. Movie after the recent trailer had us wondering which other suits we’d like to see pop up. It was also, unbelievably, the 15th anniversary of Super Smash Bros. Brawl, and a group of us got together to discuss the oft-overlooked game mode ‘The Subspace Emissary’.

Read the full article on nintendolife.com

Square Enix Planning “Multiple New Titles” And New IP

Following a slump in sales.

Square Enix has had a solid run on the Nintendo Switch over the past year with releases such as Live A Live, NieR:Automata, Tactics Ogre: Reborn and more recently Crisis Core, but it seems it’s not been enough. The Japanese publisher and developer has reported a drop in net sales in its latest financial results period (up to 31st December 2022).

Despite net sales falling to 255 billion yen (down by nearly 7% YoY), it’s still got some big plans moving forward – teasing “multiple new titles” including games featuring brand-new IP.

Read the full article on nintendolife.com

Among Us Shares Its Roadmap For 2023

Nothing sus here.

It’s a new year and that means there’s a new roadmap for the popular multiplayer indie hit Among Us. So, what’s on the agenda for 2023?

Coming soon are user interface and user experience updates. This includes “cleaning up the account merging flow, updating the store to be easier to navigate, making it easier to see how you can report a toxic player” and more.

Read the full article on nintendolife.com

Activision Blizzard Charged $35 Million By the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission

Activision Blizzard has been charged $35 million by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for “failing to maintain disclosure controls related to complaints of workplace misconduct and violating whistleblower protection rule.”

The SEC shared the news in a press release, stating Activision Blizzard agreed to pay the $35 million to settle its violations, and the charges stemmed from issues dating back to 2016.

“According to the SEC’s order, between 2018 and 2021, Activision Blizzard was aware that its ability to attract, retain, and motivate employees was a particularly important risk in its business, but it lacked controls and procedures among its separate business units to collect and analyze employee complaints of workplace misconduct,” The SEC wrote.

Between 2016 and 2021, the SEC stated Activision Blizzard also “executed separation agreements in the ordinary course of its business that violated a Commission whistleblower protection rule by requiring former employees to provide notice to the company if they received a request for information from the Commission’s staff.”

As a result, Activison Blizzard was said to have violated Exchange Act Rules 13a-15(a) and 21F-17(a). The company did not admit or deny the SEC’s finding, instead it just “agreed to a cease-and-desist order and to pay a $35 million penalty.”

“The SEC’s order finds that Activision Blizzard failed to implement necessary controls to collect and review employee complaints about workplace misconduct, which left it without the means to determine whether larger issues existed that needed to be disclosed to investors,” said Jason Burt, Director of the SEC’s Denver Regional Office. “Moreover, taking action to impede former employees from communicating directly with the Commission staff about a possible securities law violation is not only bad corporate governance, it is illegal.”

The SEC confirmed it was investigating how Activision Blizzard handled allegations of sexual misconduct and workplace discrimination in September of 2021. The SEC’s search followed the two-year investigation by the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing that led to a lawsuit against the company for fostering a “frat boy” culture in which female employees were allegedly subjected to unequal pay and sexual harassment.

This settlment also comes at a time when there is extra scrutiny regarding the $68.7 billion deal that would merge Xbox and Activision Blizzard. Most recently, the merger spurred a formal antitrust warning from the European Union.

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Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on Twitch.

Soapbox: Gaming Superstitions And Rituals Might Not Work, But They Matter

We’re crossing our fingers.

The God of Random Numbers is real, and he’s in your house right now, sniffing all your dice. If you don’t pray to him, you’ll never see a natural 20 again, and all of your card decks will be stacked against you for the rest of time.

Or… RNG is exactly what it sounds like. Random. Mashing B, or A, or whatever button you fancy when the Poké Ball is tick-tocking to one side and another isn’t going to influence the outcome in any way. It’s a placebo, a meaningless ritual that keeps you busy while waiting for the game to arbitrarily decide the result.

Read the full article on nintendolife.com

Sons of the Forest Will Now Launch in Early Access to Avoid More Delays

Sons of the Forest developer Endnight Games has announced it will be changing the game’s February 23 release date to an early access release date to prevent further delays and to allow fans to jump in and help the studio reach the finish line.

Endnight Games revealed its plan for the Sons of the Forest’s release and development going forward via a post on Steam, and shared it very much wants the community’s help as it did for the original game.

“It’s been a long journey since we first started ‘Sons of The Forest’ development and it’s grown into the biggest most complex game we have ever made,” the post reads. “There is still so much more we want to add; items, new mechanics, gameplay balance and more. We didn’t want to delay again so have instead decided to involve the community in the continued development of this project and keep our February 23rd release date but instead release in Early Access.

“‘The Forest’ turned out to be a massive success, due mostly to the awesome community and the suggestions, feedback, and bug reports the players shared with us,” the post continues. “We are really excited and hope that players want to come on this new journey with us to make this the ultimate survival horror simulator.”

After its initial announcement in 2019, Sons of the Forest, which is a follow-up to 2014’s The Forest, was delayed twice in 2022 to accommodate for the game’s large scope.

We previewed Sons of the Forest in January 2023 and praised its vast improvements to its predecessor’s gameplay, which include sophisticated AI enemies and an impressively responsive ecosystem.

“Sons of the Forest appears to evolve and build on every aspect of its predecessor with a focused goal of realism and developing a flexible ecosystem, and it feels like the building blocks are there to create something truly special,” IGN’s Dale Driver wrote. “But its killer feature is the addition of impressively sophisticated and smarter AI enemies and companions that could not only provide a huge leap forward for the series, but the survival game genre as a whole.”

Amelia Zollner is a freelance writer at IGN who loves all things indie and Nintendo. Outside of IGN, they’ve contributed to sites like Polygon and Rock Paper Shotgun. Find them on Twitter: @ameliazollner.