The Tea: Gaming Update

Here's your Gaming Tea for April 2015:

 

1.  Mortal Kombat X came out last week and added a total of eight new characters to the game's roster and another first for the series!  Kung Jin is officially the franchise’s first gay character, and is the descended cousin of Kung Lao.  During a cut scene there is a moment between Kung Jin and the God of Thunder, Raiden, where Raiden suggests Kung Jin should follow in his ancestors’ footsteps and join the Shaolin Monks.  Kung Jin feels that he would not be accepted by the Shaolin Monks, but Raiden reaffirms him by saying “They only care about what is in your heart, not whom your heart desires”.  Shortly after, cinematic director for NetherRealm Studios, Dominic Cianciolo, went to Twitter and said “I see people are picking up on the subtle exposition contained in Kung Jin's flashback. Glad we have observant fans!”  The game is receiving notable praise for its smooth and approachable combat style, and is currently on sale for PS4, PC, and Xbox One.  The PS3 and Xbox 360 versions of the game will be out on June 3.

 

 

 

2.  Hideo Kojima was not actually fired by Konami- well not on any official level.  Recently rumors have been circulating that Kojima was let go by the company and that his two projects Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain and Kojima's joint project with Guillermo del Toro and Norman Reedus, Silent Hills, may have been canceled.  Last week Metal Gear V's voice actress, Donna Burke, originally tweeted that Kojima was let go from the company.  Burke retracted her statements last Monday over Twitter, but is now saying that Kojima wasn't fired and Metal Gear V is still under development. 

 

Concerns regarding Kojima's employment status began a few weeks ago when Konami removed Kojima's name and logo from all current projects.  Since the beginning of the month Konami has re-added Kojima's name and logo back to the Phantom Pain.  As for the more recently announced title, Silent Hills, no new official statement has been released at this time.  In all of this commotion it's important to note that Kojima has a track record of toying with his fans.  So could this all be a publicity stunt or could there be more going on?  Only time will tell.

 

 

3.  Square Enix announced that Star Ocean 5: Integrality and Faithlessness exists and is currently in development for both PS3 and PS4.  In addition Square released a very cool nostalgic trailer along with some screenshots:

 

 

 

 

 

 

4.  Depression Quest's creator, Zoe Quinn, addressed issues of cyberstalking and online harassment by speaking at a Congressional briefing last Wednesday.  You may remember Quinn as one of many women being targeted from last summer’s GamersGate controversy, where members of the so called "movement" attacked Quinn by obtaining and sharing her personal information.  Her home address, email addresses, and phone number were all obtained and released without her consent.  Quinn with also bombarded with constant rape and death threats publicly over the Internet.  

 

The Congressional Briefing was held by the National Task Force to End Sexual and Domestic Violence, the National Council of Women’s Organizations, and the National Organization for Women, in conjunction with Massachusetts Representative Katherine Clark.  "It’s difficult to speak out if you don’t have the support to speak out" Quinn said during Wednesday’s meeting.  According to the briefing: "Cyberstalking and online threats are serious issues in our digital age. According to a recent survey by the Pew Research Center, nearly one in five (18 percent) of all internet users have experienced severe forms of online abuse, including physical threats, stalking, sustained harassment and/or sexual harassment. Young female internet users (age 18-24) experience the most severe online violence.”  You can watch Quinn's talk below:

 

Quinn is also a founding member of the online anti-harassment task force, Crash Override, whose goals are to make the Internet a safe place for all people through a combination of social and legal action.

 

 

5.  Nintendo is releasing Super Smash Brothers' first DLC character, Mewtwo!  The legendary Pokemon is joining the fight in Super Smash Brothers for both the Wii U and 3DS versions of the game.  In addition, if you registered both versions of the game via Club Nintnedo's site before March 31 you would have received download codes for Mewtwo on April 15.  For everyone else though, we're going to have to wait until April 28 where players can pick him up for $3.99 on either system of choice, or $4.99 for both.  You can check out the comparisons between the two versions right here:

 

 

6.  With the release of Bloodborne for the PS4 some of you may have smashed a controller or two over the games intense difficulty and unforgiving nature.  However a recent glitch was discovered by Redditor user meatballz,  which revealed something interesting if you leave your console on for more than 12 hours.  Meatballz claims that the once merciless game bosses become a walk in the park by literally doing nothing at all:

 

"I just tested this yesterday by turning off the PS4 power saving options and leaving Bloodborne running all night. Sure enough, when I played in the morning Logarius had transformed from an intense spell casting maniac into a senile old man who did nothing but attack with his scythe over and over. BSB stops jumping all over the room and doing multi-hit combos and just politely spams his side-swipe, Amelia stops healing, One Reborn stops pooping acid, every boss changes in some way and ultimately becomes much easier."

 

As of right now patch 1.03 will address this boss glitch, along with fixing the games lengthily loading screens.  Check out the footage here to see the drastic difference in these boss fights:

 

 

7.  The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt has officially gone gold!  This means the game has completed its development and is ready to be put onto a disk.  The developer, PC projekt RED, claims that The Witcher 3 will be the largest entry in the series to date, and will take more than 200 hours to complete if you intend to see everything.  In addition The Witcher 3 will also have an additional 30 hours worth of DLC.  The game will launch on May 19th for PS4, Xbox One, and PC.