Tag:

Edge

The Longest Minecraft Journey Ever Just Reached The Edge Of The Map

by admin October 6, 2025

A man completes an absurd but humanity-affirming journey in Minecraft. Control finally gets Hideo Kojima’s voiceover on console. And the first indicator of Ghost of Yotei sales is a potentially impressive one. Welcome to the latest Morning Checkpoint, Kotaku‘s daily roundup of gaming news and culture. My co-author, Zack Zwiezen, is out on vacation to parts unknown for a while so in the meantime, you’re stuck with me. The good news is that I’m closer than ever to getting the Platinum in Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles. The bad news is the Birds blew their chance to go 5-0 this weekend. I’m glad I only looked up to watch occasionally while grinding the Deep Dungeon. The Eagles might not cruise to another Super Bowl, but at least I did get Ramza to learn Zodiark.

A record-breaking Minecraft hike has finally been completed

Streamer KurtJMac’s “Far Lands or Bust Marathon Subathon” finally saw its goal of reaching the glitched edge of the Minecraft map realized over a decade later, Polygon reports. The Far Lands is the infamous end of the game that appears as a bizarre swiss-cheese wall of stone and dirt reaching up to the sky. It’s no small task for people playing in survival mode without cheats. While not the first person to reach this milestone, KurtJMac’s virtual hike holds the record for longest Minecraft journey ever.

It’s also raised over $525,000 for charity since he started streaming the trek back in 2011. The stream is currently trying to raise $50,000 for UNRWA USA which provides aid to Palestinian refugees. You can see KurtJMac’s reaction to finally reaching his journey’s end at around 3:43:00 in the video below, when the Far Lands suddenly appear out of an ocean-y mist as he’s sailing.

The original Crysis has joined the GOG preservation library

“We’re thrilled to announce that the Crysis Remastered Trilogy has joined our catalog, and the original Crysis is now part of the GOG Preservation Program, ensuring it will always run hassle-free on modern systems,” the storefront announced. “Each remastered title is available separately as well, DRM-free and at great discounts, so that you can experience the evolution of one of gaming’s most iconic shooters, from the jungles of the Lingshan Islands to the streets of New York City, in their definitive modern form.”

Battlefield 6 promises a 120fps mode

MP1st reports that an email EA sent to currently registered players is promoting an extra-responsive framerate on PS5 and Xbox Series X/S. “Up to 120FPS or high-fidelity visuals,” it reads, indicating the higher frame rate will be linked to the game’s Performance Mode.

An Interplay cofounder and the first video game champion ever needs your help

Rebecca Heineman won the national championship Space Invaders tournament in 1980 and later cofounded RPG powerhouse Interplay (The Bard’s Tale, Fallout) with Brian Fargo and others. She’s credited on dozens of games, from Wasteland to Heroes of Might and Magic IV, and she’s now trying to crowdsource funds for medical treatment following a diagnosis of an aggressive form of cancer.

“This is the fight for my life. Please help me,” Heineman wrote on her new GoFundMe page (via PC Gamer). “I want to keep creating games and comics and I need your help to beat this cancer.”

Ghost of Yotei was number one in the UK last week for boxed copies sold

That’s via Game Business author Chris Dring who said Sony’s open-world samurai adventure beat out the second week of EA Sports FC, traditionally the best-selling game across all of Europe every year. It also sold three times what Super Mario Galaxy 1 & 2 did on Switch, but was still 40 percent behind where Ghost of Tsushima was in 2020. Reasons for that drop-off could be the busier release calendar right now, and the fact that there are fewer PS5 units out in the wild at this point than there were PS4s when Tsushima was released.

The Control Ultimate Edition free update is finally out on console

The new content includes the mission “Dr. Yoshimi Tokui’s Guided Imagery Experience” which features a voiceover by Death Stranding director Hideo Kojima. Players also get access to costumes that were originally pre-order bonuses, as well as new performance settings for both PS5 and Xbox Series X/S including uncapped framerates, VRR and 120Hz display, and HDR support.

ICYMI:

Watch this:

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October 6, 2025 0 comments

NFT Gaming

Pi Network price on edge ahead of a 139m unlock

by admin September 30, 2025

Pi Network price has crashed for four consecutive months and hit a record low in September as investors remained on the sidelines.

Summary

Pi Network price has crashed in the last four consecutive months.
It will unlock 139 million Pi tokens in October this year.
Technicals point to a drop, but a rebound cannot be ruled out.

Pi Coin (PI) fell to a record low around $0.186, down 95% from its all-time high. This crash brought its market capitalization to $2.1 billion, down from nearly $20 billion in February. One reason the Pi Network price has slumped since mainnet launch is that it has become one of the most inflationary cryptocurrencies in the industry.

Pi has a supply limit of 100 billion tokens and a circulating supply of 8.2 billion. This means over 91 billion tokens will be unlocked or mined over time.

According to PiScan, Pi Network will unlock 138 million coins, currently valued at over $35 million in October. It will then unlock 103 million tokens in November and 171 million in the following month.

Token unlocks are typically bearish for a cryptocurrency because they increase the amount of tokens in circulation. An increase in supply when demand is limited tends to pressure an asset’s price.

Pi Network has also plunged for other reasons. For example, it has not achieved its goal of creating an active ecosystem where Pi Coin acts as the currency. While there are dApps in the ecosystem, none have gone mainstream.

Still, there is hope that the coin will rebound in the fourth quarter. The main reason for this is that one whale has accumulated millions of tokens in the past few weeks. While the identity is not known, there is speculation that this is an insider who knows that something like an exchange listing or a token burn announcement.

Pi Network price technical analysis

Pi Coin price chart | Source: crypto.news

The eight-hour chart shows that the Pi Coin price has been in a freefall in the past few months. It crashed to a low of $0.1856 in September as the crypto market plunged.

Pi has moved below the lower line of the descending triangle pattern (shown in orange). It remains below the triangle and all moving averages.

Therefore, the coin will likely stay under pressure in October amid the token unlocks. However, there is a possibility of a short squeeze, particularly if a major announcement, such as an exchange listing, hits the tape.

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September 30, 2025 0 comments

Esports

Good Boy review: Doggie horror that’ll have you on the edge of your seat

by admin September 29, 2025

Good Boy is a haunted house movie quite unlike any ever made, as the slight story is told through the eyes of a dog, which makes for an unbearably tense viewing experience.

They say you shouldn’t work with children or animals on film, and while there isn’t a single kid in Good Boy, the entire movie revolves around a cute canine called Indy.

That dog belongs to co-writer (with Alex Cannon) and director Ben Leonberg, and he draws a remarkable performance out of his pet pooch – also called Indy – who appears heroic one minute, and terrified the next.

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And while the story itself doesn’t quite live up to the furry star’s central turn, that clever conceit – and the brilliance with which it’s executed – makes Good Boy one of the most unique and original horror movies of the year.

What is Good Boy about?

IFC Films

The movie begins with Indy stressing over master Todd, who has clearly fallen ill in his apartment. Todd survives the medical emergency, but decides to move to the country for the sake of his health, so the pair of them up sticks and head to his late grandfather’s isolated house in the woods.

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They arrive on a dark and rainy night, and it’s clear that Indy immediately has a problem with the place. You can’t blame him either. There’s plastic on the furniture, taxidermy on the shelves, plus creaky doors open of their own accord, to a creepy attic and even creepier basement.

“The cursed family house is a great place to relax,” jokes Todd’s sister Vera. But Todd seems blissfully unaware that something might be very wrong, even asking Indy “Am I crazy? It’s nice here, right?”

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The dog doesn’t answer, for obvious reasons, but Indy starts witnessing shadows move, as well as a four-legged phantom only he can see roaming around the house.

The mystery deepens

IFC Films

While Indy is dealing with that paranormal threat, red flags also come Todd’s way, which he ignores, but we can use to try and piece the puzzle together.

Through old home movies – and conversations between the siblings – we learn that grandpa had a bunch of dogs, but they kept running away.

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We also discover that no one ever stayed in the house for more than a few weeks aside from him, while a neighbor expresses surprise that Todd is staying there, after the way his grandpa died. Which Vera describes as “rotting from the inside out.”

The rest of the family hasn’t fared much better either, as the clan is buried in a nearby cemetery with one thing in common; they all died young. So what does it all mean?

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Don’t expect every question to be answered

IFC Films

Unfortunately, while Good Boy poses multiple questions about the history of Todd’s relations and their cabin in the woods, the film is less interested in answering them.

There are useful details buried in throwaway lines, but just as much remains ambiguous, meaning those hoping for explanations and resolution will be frustrated by the third act.

But Good Boy is less about plot specifics, and more concerned with creating a mood. Human faces are rarely seen, being kept in the dark, or just out of frame.

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Meaning it’s just us and the dog for most of the movie, a truly unique point-of-view from which to view events, and one that put me on the edge of my seat for the duration.

Is Good Boy good?

IFC Films

When Good Boy is a mystery movie about a house filled with secrets, it doesn’t really work, due to the scarce information on offer, and the amount that’s open to interpretation.

But when the movie focusses on Indy and that unseen force, it’s remarkable, thanks to superb framing, sound design, and shot choice, as well as that magical canine performance. I’ve never been more fearful for a character in jeopardy, and I’ve never been more proud when Indy does something selfless or brave.

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Good Boy score: 4/5

Indy is a very good boy, and when the action revolves around him, Good Boy is a very good film.

Good Boy is out on October 3 in the US and October 10 in the UK, while you can head here for our list of the best horror movies ever made.

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September 29, 2025 0 comments

Esports

The cutting edge performance capture technology behind Squadron 42

by admin September 27, 2025

Cloud Imperium’s much-delayed multiplayer space-trading title Star Citizen has been in development for well over a decade, but now it is seemingly nearing completion, after having raised more than $867 million through crowdfunding.

In a recent interview with La Presse (via PC Gamer), Cloud Imperium’s CEO Chris Roberts said Star Citizen is aiming for a 2027 or 2028 launch window. Its single-player spin-off title, Squadron 42, is expected to release next year.

Squadron 42 features a superstar cast, including Gary Oldman, Gillian Anderson, Mark Hamill, Andy Serkis, and Henry Cavill – to name a few.

To create digital replicas of these actors, as well as player characters and other NPCs, Cloud Imperium utilised new 4D technology created by a unique partnership which included a Hollywood VFX company.

Clear Angle Studios specialises in utilising scanning technology for films and television, including its head scanning system Dorothy, which features 76 cameras and 1,500 lights to capture both 3D and 4D textures.

Last August, it partnered with 4D facial performance capture service DI4D and post-production company TexturingXYZ to launch a new 4D facial mocap service.

As part of this collaboration, Clear Angle was involved in the custom character creation and NPC scans, but were not involved in scanning the talent; this was an additional provider.

GamesIndustry.biz visited Clear Angle’s headquarters at Pinewood Studios to learn more about this collaboration, including a hands-on look at Dorothy.

The interview below has been edited for brevity and clarity.

How did the companies come together to create the Dorothy setup?

Dominic Ridley, Clear Angle founder and director: We did the capture and the processing of raw data, which was passed along to DI4D for mesh tracking. After DI4D was done with it, the data came back to us. It was textured, then sent to Jeremy Celeste at TexturingXYZ, who did the map enhancements and the texture work.

The three companies worked pretty seamlessly, we all got on really well. We all had defined sections that we wanted to showcase to the world. All in all, it took around a month to put the video together.

The end visuals are largely down to TexturingXYZ and their render pipeline. The data was ours, the render pipeline and enhancements were from them.

Dominic Ridley, Clear Angle founder and director

How did each company combine their areas of expertise?

Ridley: We’ve worked with and alongside DI4D regularly over the years. We have our scanning system on set, and DI4D had theirs on set next to ours.

But since we developed Dorothy and we do the 3D and 4D scanning, the collaboration we’d like to pursue with DI4D is that we capture and process the data, and they do the mesh tracking.

So if they have jobs that come up in LA or London, they get us to do the capture, and then they do the processing. It’s a very synergistic way of working together as two companies. And then, as part of that, if people want data enhancement, it then goes to TexturingXYZ.

Everyone stands to gain, and at the same time the client stands to gain as well, because they get an end product whose barrier to entry is quite high to hit.

Jordan Fisher, Clear Angle training manager: Everyone’s piece of work is neatly defined, we don’t do any of the stuff that DI4D does.

Ridley: It’s a harmonious relationship. No one’s treading on each other’s toes in any part of the process. It works really, really well. We have no intention of doing mesh tracking, and there’s no way we can do what [TexturingXYZ CEO] Jeremy Celeste does. And Jeremy has no interest in doing scanning, and neither does DI4D. All we want to do is the scanning, so it’s a great partnership.

Clear Angle Studios’ head scanning rig, Dorothy | Image credit: Clear Angle Studios

What’s it like working with Cloud Imperium?

Ali Ingham, Clear Angle producer: [Cloud Imperium] are very much at the forefront of what they’re doing.

It was fantastic working together. It’s really nice seeing how much collaboration there can be between these companies who do different things. Everyone’s much more open these days about their tech and trying to work together, rather than keeping everything secret.

Ridley: Cloud Imperium are quite happy to tell people what they’re doing, because they feel like what they’re doing is quite unique. Whereas companies like, for instance Epic Games, other companies like that – they’re a lot more protective.

Cloud Imperium were fantastic collaborators, because they were super open. They told us exactly what they wanted, and although it was challenging getting to the high level that they were demanding, it was clear and concise. We could do that because we had good instructions, but they’ve got a very strong leadership team. They know what they want – they’re very focused on their goals, and it was nice to have that clarity and to work to a very high level.

How much further can photorealistic graphics go in a way that’s noticeable and affordable for consumers?

Sean Tracy, Cloud Imperium senior director of tools, tech and content: The potential for photorealistic graphics is far from exhausted. While the industry has achieved astonishing results, especially with the use of photogrammetry, there’s still room for innovation – particularly in performance capture.

What’s just as important as visual fidelity, however, is representation. Ensuring the diversity of human experiences and appearances is authentically captured. This goes beyond pure realism; it’s about empowering players to see themselves accurately reflected in the game world.

In short, there’s still a path forward in advancing photorealism, inclusivity, and accessibility, all while keeping the technology affordable for players.

Will all players be able to benefit from this technology? Will they be able to see this level of detail on base-price consoles in comparison to the PlayStation 5 Pro and high-end PCs?

Tracy: Absolutely. This technology is designed to benefit all players, regardless of their platform. We’ve developed a system that other companies license to other developers, but instead of offering a third-party solution, we integrate it directly into Star Citizen and Squadron 42.

Players gain full access to these advanced capabilities within the game itself, ensuring everyone can experience the level of detail, no matter their setup.

Gary Oldman in Squadron 42 | Image credit: Cloud Imperium Games

How has Cloud Imperium implemented this technology?

Ingham: For what Cloud Imperium is doing with Star Citizen, it’s having a range of people because everyone’s faces move differently.

Ridley: A lot of what they do in games is that they’ll capture a 3D scan in Dorothy, and then they’ll do a 4D capture and use head mounted camera data. That camera would track the way the face moves and it would [also] move the 3D scan.

The high-res scan would be driven by the performance from the head mounted camera. Because there, you can run around with a gun. You’ve got this thing on your head, but at least you’re free to move and jump around, and your face will jiggle depending on how you’re moving which drives the high-res scan – that’s often how it works.

How affordable is performance capture becoming for smaller or indie studios, or is it still in the realm of AAA devs only?

Tracy: Performance capture is more accessible now than ever. Advances in technology have led to more affordable hardware and software options, making it viable for smaller studios. While high-end setups for large-scale shoots with multiple actors can still be costly, there are scalable solutions available for indie developers.

Tools and software have been democratised to work across a wide range of configurations, meaning mocap is no longer exclusive to AAA studios. For most developers, it’s now easier than ever to integrate this technology into their projects, regardless of budget.

Would Clear Angle like to collaborate with more games studios in the future?

Ridley: That would be the goal. We do a lot of collaborations across all the productions we’re on.

It’s certainly what we’re trying to do, advancing more into the gaming side of things. If there were more games companies interested in this type of high level scanning then yes, we’re up for it. We want them to know about us, that’s the key here.

That’s the kind of narrative that we would like the world to have about us, so that we can open up this tech to everyone, even, with environment scanning.

This article has been amended to specify that Clear Angle were involved in custom character creation and NPC scans, but were not involved in scanning the talent of Squadron 42

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September 27, 2025 0 comments

Game Updates

Reach feels like Blood & Truth meets Mirror’s Edge – until it suddenly doesn’t

by admin September 18, 2025

The prologue chapter to nDreams’s upcoming ‘cinematic action adventure game’, Reach, is an absolute banger. It kicks off with some fluid parkour action as you learn to leap over boxes and clamber up walls inside a volumous warehouse. Then it gives you a magical bow and asks you to take out multiple armed enemies all whilst a helicopter spits missiles and machine gun fire at you from overhead.

It’s exhilarating stuff and the high adrenaline climax to the level features a full speed sprint through exploding buildings and across roof tops. To me it felt like a heady mix of Blood & Truth and Mirror’s Edge. But as soon as that section ends (with a lovely, unexpected twist, I might add) the game becomes something different, and it feels like it might be to its detriment.

Watch me play through 15 minutes of the Reach demo in this episode of VR Corner!Watch on YouTube

Before I get into that though, it’s worth pointing out that Reach is a brand new game from publisher nDreams’s new development studio nDreams Elevation. nDreams has previously release one of my favourite ever VR games, Synapse, along with Fracked, a short-lived action game that I also really enjoyed. This meant that I went into Reach with high expectations so perhaps, in hindsight, I was setting myself up for a little fall. Which I guess is appropriate seeing as there’s loads of climbing in Reach…

In terms of visuals, Reach starts off with an impressive vista that stretches across a mountainside littered with tall buildings and shack-like slums. We see cable cars trundling off towards some snow capped peaks in the distance, teasing an action epic that takes place across this busy landscape. But tease is the operative word here because that never actually happens. Or at least didn’t in the four chapter demo I played. The prologue does have some of this in there, but as soon as it ended I was skipped forward a level or two to find our protagonist, Rosa, trapped underground after a mysterious earthquake sent gravity on a weird one.

Time slows when you activate your grapple so, with a bit of practice, you can chain together pulls so you can fly between green grapple points without touching the ground.

This section features some really cool, Uncharted-style moments of perilous climbing, and a few fun moments where you can play with floating props, but it was clear that the pace established in the first chapter was slowing down slightly. Visually, it was interesting but never highly polished. Collapsed buildings gave way beneath me and crumbling roads dropped cars on my head, but they were all fairly simple models, with basic flat textures. That’s not to say that non-photo realistic graphics look bad – Synapse had about three colours and minimal textures, but it was still super stylish. Reach however just looks fine.

After this section, Rosa ends up in an underground city, built by a race of ‘Living Statues’, and it’s here where the pace really falls off a cliff. Upon reaching a level called The Workshop, I brought one of these Living Statues back to life. He was a jaunty, bearded chap called Atlas and he proceeded to exposition at me for about fifteen minutes, inbetween teaching me about some new, magical kit that he’d gifted me. This included an, admittedly, very cool Captain America style shield that you can use to hit enemies or lodge into specific sections of walls in order to clamber up them, a pair of gauntlets that show your health and items on your wrist and a chest-mounted healing device powered by mushrooms.

Following this, things picked up a little and I encountered a fun puzzle section that combined climbing and bow shooting in order to unlock a door. It was a great showcase of Reach’s physicality – climbing is precise and responsive, movement is smooth and fluid and the archery feels nice and accurate. It was a very satisfying puzzle to solve, as was another later on that featured a huge rotating statue which utilised another new gadget, a sci-fi style grappling hook.

In my review of Synapse, I said it made everything you do in it feel effortlessly cool. In Reach you definitely still feel cool but everything, including jumping, takes a bit more effort to master.

These puzzle rooms added a much needed bit of variety into the underground city which, judging by the trailers only, seems to be where the bulk of this game is set. And that’s my main problem with Reach. Instead of being an action epic set above ground in a big city, over jagged mountain tops and on wobbly cable cars as the introduction suggested, the bulk of the game looks to takes place in a series of really quite bland and beige underground tunnels. Repetitive structures and barely furnished rooms give the game a generic, Xbox 360 era sci-fi shooter look to it, and none of this is helped by some really boring enemy encounters.

In the final level I played in the demo, which featured a few combat arenas and areas for stealthly takedowns, my foes were an assortment of cut-and-paste robot warriors. They sucked up arrows with minimal reactions to their impact and then just flipped and faded away once their health hit zero. Compared to way the human enemies in the prologue collapsed onto the floor, slammed into scenery or dramatically tumbled from windows, killing the robot enemies felt weightless and slow. Even with the added ability to fling myself around the level like a Poundland Spider-man with my new grapple hook power, I soon became bored by the grind.

Bouncing the shield around was a lot of fun, but fighting these robots was not.

Here’s hoping that later levels in Reach can bring back the excitement that I felt during the prologue because, by the end of my hour long demo, I was already tiring of the underground location and the enemies within. I still enjoyed my time with the game, don’t get me wrong, but after playing through the thrilling opening and the nail-biting anti-gravity climbing section, the rest of the demo felt like an anti-climax that plodded along. I’m slightly worried that it might retain that pace right up until the ending.

With October 16th listed on Steam, and with the game releasing on Quest 3/3s and PlayStation VR2, at least it won’t be long until we Reach its release date and find out.

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September 18, 2025 0 comments

Game Updates

Want a French-made RPG that takes inspiration from Japanese RPGs and was actually made by a team of 30? Edge of Memories should scratch that itch

by admin September 2, 2025

We’re all still recovering from Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 fever, right? Whilst the dev has revealed there’s more set in the world of Maelle and pals to come, I can only imagine I speak for a fair few of us when I say: I want more French-made role-playing game goodness. To that end, I booked in some time at Gamescom 2025 to play something that may not be on your radar – a follow-up to 2021’s underrated Edge of Eternity curio, Edge of Eternity.

Now, if you just want more of the same turn-based catnip present in Sandfall Interactive’s emotional tour de force, I’m sorry to disappoint you: Edge of Eternity is more action-RPG than anything else. In a 30-minute demo at Gamescom, it felt more like a mix-up between Devil May Cry and Xenoblade Chronicles than the Final Fantasy X-aligned turn-based system we saw in Expedition 33. But that’s no bad thing: the modern take on old Japanese role-playing game tropes, all realised through a jaunty French lens, is more than worthy of at least a sliver of your attention.

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Let’s start with the pedigree: though the core team making this peculiar sequel is mostly French, there is some serious, well-established talent propping up the plucky young studio. Whether you’re looking at Chrono Trigger composer Yasunori Mitsuda (with NieR lyricist Emi Evans), Xenoblade Chronicles character designer Raita Kazama, orFinal Fantasy XV combat designer Mitsuru Yokoyama, there is storied talent everywhere you look in the game, and the collective work of these veteran devs actually melds really comfortably into a gorgeous, watercolour double-A title that is as refreshing as it is off-beat.

The game is set in the same world as the previous game, named Heyron, where a malignant presence called ‘the Corrosion’ has either killed or transformed the denizens of the planet into “misshapen abominations.” In just 30 minutes, I was privy to some cutscenes that reminded me of the darker moments in, say, Full Metal Alchemist Brotherhood – all family trauma, death, and hopelessness – that set a contrasting tone to the bright, airy world of Heyron.

From what I can gather, the world is standard RPG fare (this isn’t a bad thing: sometimes, you can feel very at home in a trope, especially in this genre). You play as Eline, aided by Ysoris and Kanta in your party, as you set out on a quest to cure the Corrosion-afflicted continent of Avaris from its unnatural plague. You control Eline for the most part, but quick commands can be thrown out to your erstwhile companions so that they can modify your attacks and generate combos with you (I can see the influence of Final Fantasy XV, here, for sure).

Their bark is worse than their bite. | Image credit: Midgar Studio

There are elements (fire, ice, and thunder) and related abilities, of course, that allow Ysoris and Kanta to stack effects up on enemies, letting Eline swoop in with berserker rage and pile on the DPS. That Devil May Cry reference comes back with a vengeance here, because as Eline dishes out the hurt, she can charge up what we’d know as a ‘Devil Trigger’ and start to tap into the power of ‘the Corrosion’ in order to dispatch foes with prejudice.

The demo ended with a boss fight against some sort of malignant mass that was heaving with body horror limbs, claws, and all manner of grizzly bolt-ons. Timing commands to the support characters whilst hopping, attacking, and dodging – it felt great. There are times when you can tell the game is developed by a small team of about 30 (the world is quite sparse, and the zones you’re corralled through are simple in their layout), but when the combat is firing on all cylinders… well, I can see myself slurping this one up greedily.

If I’m being completely honest, the game has a PS3/360-era feel to it. But I’m not saying that as a pejorative: some of my best non-mainstream RPG experiences came from bizarre RPG efforts in the seventh generation of consoles. Titles like The Last Remnant, Eternal Sonata and Infinite Undiscovery became totems of the mid-2000s era for me, with the likes of Lost Odyssey and Tales of Vesperia representing the ‘high tide’ of the era.

Here’s a proper look at the game’s comabt.Watch on YouTube

I came away from my time with Edge of Memories thinking about those misspent months of my life (laughing with pals at Gamescom about the appalling ‘dinner dance’ in Infinite Undiscovery, especially). I think your mileage with Edge of Memories will vary drastically depending on how sugary your soft spot for that aggressively mid-era of role-playing games is, but I honestly found this game juicing on the nostalgia glands for a period of gaming history I didn’t realise I missed so much.

The game, coming to PS5 and Xbox Series and PC, is currently listed for a 2026 release, and carrying a £31.99 price tag. I think that’s the sweet spot; you’re not going to get a full, premium experience out of this, but at the right price point, it’s definitely going to be more than just a forgettable romp. I’ll be checking out the full release next year.

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September 2, 2025 0 comments

Product Reviews

Delays to escape the shadow of a launch like Silksong are about way more than just day 1 players: ‘Every game has to fight and use whatever edge they’ve got available to stay visible’

by admin September 2, 2025

The number of games that have scurried away from Silksong’s surprise September 4 launch date in the past week have given it the air of a mini GTA 6: an event seemingly so all-consuming that no game stands a chance of competing. But what does competing mean, exactly, when the game in question is a 2D platformer sequel with a cult-like following?

Of the delayed games, you can easily see why 2D adventure RPG Faeland would be sweating; same with metroidvania sequel Aeterna Lucis. But what about the games that are less obviously aimed at the same exact players? Shouldn’t they be fine even if Silksong’s a mega hit, considering there are more PC gamers than ever?

“You can go to the likes of GameDiscoverCo and look at data for past high-performing titles with similar release dates until your corneas crumple to try and discern the material effects of ‘audience overlap,'” says Brian Kwek, the head of Demonschool’s indie publisher Ysbryd Games. On Monday, Kwek was the one who posted that “after much anguished consideration,” Demonschool was being delayed to November 19 to give it a better shot at success. He elaborated on that decision-making process for PC Gamer to explain how much rides on getting a release date right beyond where players will dedicate their time first.

“With Demonschool and Silksong both being multi-platform simultaneous releases, we have to consider more than ‘just’ the Steam algorithm, so this ultimately requires us to consider the impact of Silksong on the console gamer audience and how they’re hearing about games like Demonschool through broader coverage from content creators and press,” Kwek says. Streamers are a key avenue for indie games like Demonschool to get noticed, and as with other Ysbryd published games like World of Horror, it’s more likely to be noticed by “variety” streamers who bounce between games rather than focusing on a particular genre or live service titan.

“Unless said creator is known to be a fiend for Shin Megami Tensei or tactics games, we would directly have to compete against Silksong for those creators’ time and attention,” Kwek says. “Ultimately, at least for the first week of Silksong’s release, we think a good majority of creators/streamers and press are going to feel incentivized to meet the demand for Silksong discourse. Even if it’s just a week, that’s a week that Demonschool—or any game still holding on to the September 3/4 release date—would have been cut off from building their own critical mass of discourse about their own game. I think that can be fatal in this saturated market, where every game has to fight and use whatever edge they’ve got available to stay visible.”

Ysbryd and Demonschool developer Necrosoft Games’ choice of September 3 was based on careful consideration of more than just competing games: it followed the news deluge of Gamescom and PAX West in late August, but predated an extremely busy October that includes the remastered Final Fantasy Tactics, a Steam Next Fest and loads of spooky stuff timed to Halloween.

(Image credit: Square Enix)

Despite Steam Next Fest being a prime opportunity for developers to get eyeballs on their upcoming games, it can be “a black hole of visibility for game launches,” Kwek says, “that is maybe almost as deadly (if not more deadly) than launching next to Silksong.”

Publishers like Ysbryd know that delays come with their own downsides, though, including disappointing or angering players who had their expectations upended; those reactions make him feel “miserable.” There’s also a load of stress that comes with reaching out to partners like PlayStation, Nintendo and Xbox to see if a last-minute delay is even feasible.

“I’ve spent the last week with my guts twisted up in anxiety when seeing notes from gatekeepers who were one step from telling us ‘no, the release date change actually can’t be done due to policy X,'” he says.

“Of course, marketing plans and activations have to be delayed; if you’ve arranged for streams from content creators who’ve blocked time for you, those all have to be rearranged on their schedules. As I mentioned in our public statement, review keys had gone out to press and creators, who all have to agree to reorganize their time with the game and when to file their stories and video coverage. This delay is a massive inconvenience for nearly everyone involved (and probably took a couple years off my life in the process); if we didn’t see value in pursuing it, we’d have just stayed put!”

(Image credit: Team Cherry)

Any time a game with a previously announced release date is delayed, you can bet a similar degree of hand-wringing went into the decision, says Adam Lieb, the founder and CEO of game marketing platform Gamesight.

“When I see backlash, I’m like—[the studio] sat in a room and sweated about this for two weeks,” he says. “This is a really important decision, could be the difference between success and failure, and oftentimes it’s a really expensive decision. I think that’s one thing that often isn’t considered by, like, Reddit: You build a game to launch on a certain date, and build to how much it costs to make that game. When I delay a game a month, I have to pay that entire team a whole extra month with zero revenue coming in the door. That’s really fucking expensive.”

And the bigger the game, the costlier the move: triple-A games that buy TV commercial slots or billboards in advance have to pay a fee to move those ads or even forfeit the money altogether.

But there is one more layer to the release-date-delay-decisionmaking dance, and that’s the potential benefit from launching in the afterglow of a big, eyeball-drawing launch.

(Image credit: Sandfall Interactive / Kepler Interactive)

“It’s a pretty well-known phenomenon that when the biggest games of the year launch on Steam everyone makes more money,” Lieb says. “There are just more people on Steam in that window; that’s eyeballs on your stuff, on all the algorithmic ranking pages, people in the desktop app, which can lead to more sales.”

To use a crude blast zone analogy, once you’re outside the ‘ground zero’ radius of a game like Silksong landing, a game going after the same target audience could stand to benefit from its impact.

“You’re getting people who are in the mood for this one thing… when Oblivion [Remastered] came out and Expedition 33 came out, you could say ‘Oblivion’s so huge, nobody’s going to play this other game’—I played them both basically at the same time,” he says. “Oblivion definitely is what got me in an RPG mood, and I stayed in that RPG mood. … Sometimes the competition helps you.”

Launching a game at just the right time seems like it’s about as easy as landing a space shuttle in a driveway while wearing oven mitts. Even when you do your best to plan ahead, there’s always a chance things will go comically wrong. Ysbryd and Necrosoft actually did try to account for the possibility of a Silksong surprise launch at Gamescom or a release date announcement, but figured the latter would be at least a month out.

“In this situation, it’s impossible to know what the ‘right’ answer is,” he says. “I just pray that we are able to do our best to get eyes onto Demonschool with the audiences who’ll dig it!”

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September 2, 2025 0 comments

Crypto Trends

Bitcoin (BTC): Goodbye to $120,000, Dogecoin (DOGE) Can Avoid Breakdown, Shiba Inu (SHIB) Price Shock on Edge

by admin August 20, 2025

Dogecoin can avoid it
Shiba Inu: End of symmetrical triangle

Technical indicators now scream the beginning of a wider downtrend, and Bitcoin’s surge toward $120,000 has stopped. Following several tests of the $120,000 resistance, and months of strong momentum, the market has turned bearish, endangering important support levels.

The 50-day EMA had been a reliable support throughout the summer, so its loss is the most concerning thing for the market right now. The inability to maintain this level indicates that the short-term bullish momentum has run its course. Bitcoin is currently trading below this moving average, indicating a definite downward trend bias.

Now focus shifts to the 100-day EMA at $110,500. This level has historically served as a dependable Bitcoin bounce zone during consolidations. However, there is little assurance that the 100 EMA will hold this time around, given the quick decline in momentum.

BTC/USDT Chart by TradingView

The 200-day EMA, which is the next significant structural support, is located around $103,000. A clear break below it would most likely allow for a deeper retracement.

Momentum indicators support the pessimistic assessment. A shift toward seller dominance, and a loss of bullish strength, are what RSI is trying to tell us with a decline below 50. The likelihood of persistent downward pressure is increased if the RSI continues to decline into bearish territory in the absence of a dramatic reversal.

The bearish argument is supported by the trading volume. It appears that bulls are not intervening forcefully to defend important price levels because trading activity has been low despite the pullback. This lack of conviction makes the downtrend narrative even stronger.

Dogecoin can avoid it

After recent downward pressure, Dogecoin is struggling to hold onto important technical levels, putting it at risk of entering the bear market, but there is a chance. There are indications that DOGE might try to recover from its current zone and avoid a more severe breakdown, even though bearish sentiment is beginning to seep into the market.

The fact that the 50-day EMA is still above the 100-day and 200-day EMAs is the key technical indicator in favor of this outlook. This alignment demonstrates that, in spite of the recent price weakness, DOGE is still holding a medium-term bullish structure. The price is also holding onto the 50-day EMA support, which has served as a buffer against more severe drops. There is a good chance DOGE will recover if it can hold this level.

Shiba Inu: End of symmetrical triangle

Shiba Inu’s position at the bottom of a symmetrical triangle pattern that has been compressing over the last few months puts it in a very risky trading position. The peak of the spike in volatility we are witnessing right now is approaching. The breakout’s direction will probably determine SHIB’s next significant move, so the price action at this point is crucial.

SHIB is having trouble close to the triangle’s lower boundary, and the declining trading volume indicates that neither bulls nor bears are very confident. Because traders wait for confirmation before investing, low volume inside consolidation patterns frequently precedes significant swings. It is likely that the final breakout will be more explosive the longer SHIB remains within this narrowing range.