Gaming News of the Week: Surprise Microtransactions??

Plus: a Marvel cinematic trailer appears!

Author

Robert Scarpinito
March 22, 2024 • Estimated Reading Time: 6 minutes

The community’s astir, and like many years past, microtransactions and performance issues are to blame. Dragon’s Dogma 2, the sequel to an arguable cult classic, hit storefronts today. Two days ago, the review embargo lifted, showering it in praise. Today, the Steam user review score sits at Mostly Negative with 13,000+ reviews.

After launch, Capcom added microtransactions to Dragon’s Dogma 2, giving players the option to pay for things that they could already earn in game the old fashioned way. These things include fast travel and editing your character after making them. There’s also only one save file, for what it’s worth.

Beyond that, when there are too many NPCs on the screen, the game puts a lot of stress on the CPU, causing lots of performance issues for PC players. All of these factors combined to give an otherwise stellar-looking game a rocky launch. Capcom released a statement on Steam, telling players it’s working on those performance issues. It also clarified that you can earn those microtransactions through gameplay. That should make it all better, right?

Anyway, here’s some other news from this week in case you missed anything!

ConcernedApe’s been cooking for two years now, and this week we were graced with the fruits of his labor. The huge 1.6 update for Stardew Valley released on Steam on Tuesday, and with it, 100,000+ players concurrently hopped on to start a whole new farm because they’ve kinda forgotten what was going on in their last 200-hour save. But also, the new Meadowlands Farm sounds pretty nice.

The patch notes are over 7,300 words, but highlights include the new farm, more NPC dialog, and winter outfits. There are also new festivals, including the three-day Desert Festival. Is it basically Coachella? The only way to find out is to get to spring after repairing the bus.

Mod-focused farmers will also see some quality-of-life updates, as this patch includes fixes and support targeted at modded versions of the game, hopefully reducing crashes and errors.

Harvest Who?

It’s been an unbelievable eight years since Stardew Valley first launched. For comparison, Harvest Moon (or Story of Seasons) has been around for 28 years, yet Stardew Valley holds so much cultural relevance today that it’s practically the de facto face of the farming sim genre. We’ve even seen some mechanics and ideas that Story of Seasons may have potentially implemented after Stardew’s success.

When we spoke with Eric “ConcernedApe” Barone three years ago, he said he built Stardew Valley because of his love for Harvest Moon. With recent entries declining in quality, he took matters into his own hands.

Reading Between the Headlines

Epic Games Store Officially Announced for iOS and Android

A third-party market, on my good Christian Apple-controlled iPhone??? It’s true! At GDC 2024, Epic Games announced that the Epic Games Store is coming to iOS and Android by the end of this year.

Apex Legends Global Series Regional Finals Postponed After Bizarre Hacking Incident

It’s not every day you see a red flag on the play in esports. Since the hack, Respawn has released a series of updates to address the hacking issue that derailed the regional finals. You can read more about it here.

Watch the (Marvel) Cinematic Trailer for Marvel 1943: Rise of Hydra

Do you still have Marvel fever? We got more information for the previously teased Marvel project helmed by Amy Hennig of Uncharted fame. It looks like it’ll be full of intrigue and superhero action, though hopefully it fares better than recent superhero games (and movies).

Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero Reveals New Gameplay Mechanics and Characters

The Budokai Tenkaichi series paved the way for anime arena fighters like Ultimate Ninja Storm and Hinokami Chronicles, and it’s back with new (and familiar) gameplay. Featuring at least 12 Gokus and 12 Vegetas (and more characters), this week’s showcase looked beautiful. I haven’t been this excited for a Dragon Ball game since FighterZ.

Overwatch 2 Will No Longer Lock Heroes Behind Battle Pass

Overwatch has had a rough past couple months, but if you’ve been looking for a reason to try it out, you can play all the new heroes for free starting in Season 10. Blizzard’s also adding a mythic skins shop, which won’t be as free.

What’s New This Week?

Featuring a rich world filled with plenty of old-school RPG stylings and lots of fun adventures, Dragon’s Dogma 2 is a meaty game you could chew on for weeks. Directed by Hideaki Itsuno, of Devil May Cry fame, it’s a sequel to a cult favorite from 11 years ago.

Does it have what it takes to give Capcom another successful franchise feather in its cap? Read our review to find out! And don’t worry—we won’t have any surprise microtransactions on our page, and it loads at more than 60fps.

Rise of the Ronin — Baku-meh-tsu

Shoutout to our writer Isaac Todd for the most clever subheadline of the week. You should still read the rest of his review, though, because the combat sounds pretty sick.

Lightyear Frontier - The Smoothest Survival Game of 2024

Lightyear Frontier hit Early Access last week, and for all you survival game fans, it’s looking like one to keep an eye on, especially with its unique mech-based premise.

Alone in the Dark – Southern Gothic Hospitality

THQ Nordic and Pieces Interactive manages to revive the classic horror series with a Southern Gothic twist.

Podcast: How Helldivers 2 Is Giving You The Early 2000s MMO Experience

Collaboration is a big theme in this week’s podcast. We collaborate every week to put on a good show, but Austin and millions of others collaborated for years in World of Warcraft.

Now, hundreds of thousands are collaborating in Helldivers 2, being a living, breathing part of its narrative in taking down the antidemocratic scum that plague the galaxy.

Listen now on YouTube, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts!