The Legend of Zelda's next mainline installment finally drops a huge gameplay showcase, The Last of Us' latest iteration launches on PC to a terrible reception, and the Sonic franchise receives an April Fool's Day surprise. Today, Game ZXC’s weekly recap takes a look at some of the most notable headlines from the past week.
The Resident Evil 4 remake features a new voice actor for one of the franchise's most iconic characters, but they have been harassed to the point of a social media blackout. Meanwhile, Octopath Traveler 2 releases with more of the same retro-RPG goodness that fans have come to love. All that and more in this week’s roundup of games industry news.
Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom Shares 10 Minutes of New Gameplay
After a considerable spell when all The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom had to offer was vague, tonal teasers, it has finally been given a serious spotlight. Tears of the Kingdom recently shared 10 minutes of gameplay that highlighted creative abilities players will have in the Breath of the Wild sequel, demonstrating what core mechanics will likely revolve around in puzzle-platforming.
E3 2023 Officially Canceled
E3 2023 has been canceled after developers and publishers spent weeks pulling out of the annual gaming conference. The event has been on the outs for a while now, and with other pressers like Summer Game Fest still being held online, it is not entirely surprising that E3 has been dropped this year. This may or may not be a sign that E3 is coming to an end for good; fans will have to wait and see what the future holds.
The Last of Us Part 1’s PC Launches to a Disastrous Start
The Last of Us Part 1’s PC port has finally arrived, barely in time to capitalize on the success of its HBO adaptation. However, The Last of UsPart 1’s PC launch has been awfully received thus far thanks to glitches and bugs that show how poorly it is optimized, leading to visuals tarnished with odd defects. Steam has even begun issuing refunds.
Resident Evil 4 Remake’s New Ada Wong Actor Harassed Online
Resident Evil 4’s remake deserves praise as it hits an impressive early milestone of over three million units sold. Unfortunately, that success has been marred due to fans harassing Ada Wong’s new voice actor on social media for what they perceive to be a poor performance. This has led Lily Gao to delete almost all posts that were previously up on her Instagram account.
Sonic’s Murder is The Subject of a New Game Available Now on Steam
In what was advertised as a potential April Fool’s gimmick, Sega simultaneously announced and shadow-dropped The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog, a point-and-click whodunit exclusive to Steam. This would seem like the perfect fake game to advertise around a day committed to telling innocuous lies, but fans can play through the entire visual novel now for free.
Features
Horizon Forbidden West’s DLC expansion arrives later this month, and with it comes a new machine mount that will allow players to traverse the clouds and seas on command. Hogwarts Legacy itself does not have any presently announced DLC, but could surely take advantage of omitted gameplay features with its own expansion.
- Horizon Forbidden West’s Burning Shores DLC Rekindles Hope for Underwater Combat
- Hogwarts Legacy Hasn’t Closed the Book on Quidditch Yet
Movies & TV
The Last of Us’ HBO adaptation receiving a sequel seemed like a done deal as soon as the pilot demonstrated how faithful the series would be. That initial promise of remaining faithful to the IP caused it to excel on HBO Max, and it will be interesting to see which story beats are recreated from The Last of Us Part 2.
Guides
Knowing which games are arriving on which system has never been particularly easy unless a game is marketed solely as a platform-exclusive, and PC titles typically have the issue of only ever being associated as the ‘PC-port’ editions of most games. Therefore, it is great to know which games will be available on PC in the coming months.
Game ZXC Exclusives
Retro-RPG fans may rejoice based Game ZXC’s recent review for Octopath Traveler 2, which stills offer a unique genre experience even if it does not do quite enough to excel as a sequel and its own installment.