TGO Daily | Tuesday July 13, 2021 | Final Fantasy 14 On The Rise
In the news: Final Fantasy 14 raking in the new players, FIFA 22 changing up dual entitlement, the Judgement series may be going away, and an indie update.
TGO Daily | Tuesday July 13, 2021
✏️ From the Author
In my time working for Xbox Support I took many calls from parents about unauthorized charges (a.k.a charges made by their child without their knowledge/consent). The most common charges I’d see? FIFA Points & Shark Cards (GTA).
One of the higher amounts I ever dealt with was from FIFA Points. A Father called in and said he didn’t quite know what was going on. He had just gotten a call from his Wife, who had been on the phone with their bank. The bank was saying something about a lot of charges coming from Xbox, but he didn’t have the full details. I searched the account and then proceeded to count around 50 charges over the previous few weeks that totaled over $2,000.
The moral of the story? Secure your accounts, monitor your transactions, and maybe keep an extra close eye on those games that make most of their money from microtransactions if others have access to your gaming accounts.
Until next time,
Brandon
Final Fantasy 14 Getting Flooded with Players
The MMORPG, Final Fantasy 14, has been inundated with so many new players recently that they’ve stopped selling digital copies temporarily. There has been no official confirmation what led to the cause - whether it be actually running out of codes or them trying to keep the servers from being overloaded.
We do know the cause of the influx of players is related to a large exodus of longtime World of Warcraft players, spearheaded by big content creators from the game. This exodus was caused by the launch of patch 9.1 in World of Warcraft, which has been generally poorly received among players. The exodus led to the servers in Final Fantasy 14 being filled up rather quickly with new players, as it’s considered one of the direct competitors with WoW in the MMORPG genre.
If you’re interested in trying Final Fantasy 14, you can play the free trial up to level 60 in game. There are some game features that are disabled while playing a free trial, but you’ll be able to get a solid idea of the game and how it plays through it.
Brandon’s Thoughts: I’ve played every WoW expansion, save for one, ever since Burning Crusade released. As someone with a lot of experience in the game, I can truly say I totally understand the exodus and dissatisfaction with the current state of the game. I have 309 hours in FF14, so nothing tremendous for an MMO, but I have gotten a fair idea of how it plays from that time. The biggest difference you’ll notice in it versus WoW is that the combat has a slower feel. It takes some getting used to at first, but I don’t consider it a bad thing. You’ll find the story so much more engaging as well. I highly recommend you give the game a try if you’re looking for something else beyond WoW.
FIFA 22 Gets Trailer and Release Date
Along with the first trailer for the latest FIFA title, we also now have a release date of October 1, 2021 for new and old gen consoles. FIFA 22 will release two different versions, standard (previous gen $59.99 USD / latest gen $69.99 USD) and ultimate ($99.99 USD) edition.
The standard version for previous gen consoles will not be upgradable to next-gen, only the ultimate edition will - if you plan to purchase the game make sure you consider this. If you have the standard edition on previous gen and want to move over to next-gen, you will have to re-purchase the game. This has changed since FIFA 21, where all titles were originally upgradeable.
On the latest gen consoles, EA is introducing ‘HyperMotion’ gameplay, which they say combines machine learning with 11v11 motion capture to improve how players move during a match. They expanded on the effects of this technology:
“[It’s] a cutting-edge proprietary machine learning algorithm [that] learns from over 8.7 million frames of advanced match capture, then writes new animations in real time to create organic football realism across a variety of interactions on the pitch.”
It’s important to know that ‘HyperMotion’ will only be available on next-gen consoles and Google Stadia. Previous gen consoles and PC will not have this ability.
Lost Judgement May be Last Game in Judgement Series
A dispute regarding a PC release for Lost Judgement has seemingly led to the end of the Judgement series, a spin-off from the Yakuza series. The dispute is between Sega and Takuya Kimura’s talent agency.
Takuya Kimura voices the main character in the series. Kimura is a very famous celebrity in Japan, formerly part of a popular boy band in the country. Kimura’s talent agency, Johnny’s, is the one spearheading the dispute. The agency has a noted dislike of PC and the internet in general. To such an extent that the talents they host, namely boy bands, are not allowed to have social media. They even go as far to not allow pictures of the groups be posted online from press conferences. Sega, however, contends the game would sell better if it was also sold on the PC platform. According to the Japanese Entertainment publication, Nikkan Taishu, the inability for both parties to come to an agreement is what is ending the series.
According to Nikkan Taishu, Kimura is an avid gamer and expressed interest in continuing the series. Ultimately though, the decision comes down to Sega and the talent agency.
Brandon’s Thoughts: It’s sad to see a series come to an end from a dispute like this, but nothing is written in stone as of yet. Perhaps Lost Judgement performing well, or simply time passing, will change the minds of the decision makers.
🔮 Indie Update | What the Golf?
A certainly unique and zany title, What the Golf? is releasing their latest free update, ‘A Hole New World’ on PC and Switch in the next few weeks (no specific date as of yet). Developer Triband says the update will include a new campaign, music tracks, 50 new levels, and 1,000 new holes.
The game really has that look of those older browser games with the utter wackiness tied to it. The game sat pretty positively with most critics as well.
I’d recommend you check out the trailer to get an idea of how the game plays if you’re into more wacky indie titles.
🔦 Video Spotlight
A really interesting documentary on the Demon’s Souls remake and BluePoint Games (the studio behind the remake of Demon’s Souls, Uncharted, and Shadow of the Colossus):
💡 Read More
Zelda: Skyward Sword HD footage shows a free-moving camera has been added.
Kojima disagrees with Death Stranding: Director's Cut title. Kojima makes a good case for why “Director’s Cut” doesn’t fit the latest release.
Sealed copy of Super Mario 64 sells for record-breaking $1.56 million USD.
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Thanks for the read <3