If you have followed gaming news this week, then you know there has been one main topic: Nvidia. DLSS 5 has been shown off, and is basically an AI–Instagram filter for gaming. I forgot we all kept asking for that. Happily, there has been better news too, so the Wayward Roundup won’t be all about AI slop.
Nvidia unleashes DLSS 5 on a world that roundly decries it
We, of course, had to start with DLSS 5. Nvidia refers to it as an AI-Powered Breakthrough for graphics. They have been absolutely hammered by the gaming industry for it. This is another show that Nvidia is ditching consumers to cozy up to AI, effectively.
There are a myriad of good reasons to dislike this new technology. General AI concerns: it makes churning out slop easier, infringes on artists’ work, and the list goes on. Whilst I certainly do share those concerns, my main issue is a lot more superficial; the images I have seen of it look crap.
Let’s just take the image of Grace Ashcroft from Resident Evil Requiem. It is the one Nvidia chose to show this off, and it is just rubbish. The best way to sum it up is just that it looks completely fake. Nvidia was going for photorealism, but I genuinely think this “upgraded” version looks like plastic, for want of a better description. I hope this dies off quickly, and Nvidia is left picking up the pieces of its shattered reputation.
Final Fantasy 9 animated series is reportedly back in production
Spoiler alert for a 26-year-old game, we are about to discuss Final Fantasy 9’s ending. RPG Site has reported, based on a post on Eurovisual, that the Final Fantasy 9 animated series is back on track. The Black Mages’ Legacy will be set about a decade after the events of the games, and will center on Mel, Koln, Luciola, Théa, Fala, and Doc, the children of Vivi.
They are the last Black Mages in the world and have settled in Alexandria. It is a peaceful life, until one day Koln heads to the Inn where they work, and discovers a frozen Mel. Perhaps crystallized, according to the art. Black Mages have a limited life span in this universe, so perhaps this will be a story about siblings trying to undo their fate. Or they are l’Cie, and it is a Final Fantasy 13 crossover.
At the end of Final Fantasy 9, we are presented with two facts: Vivi is dead, and the Iifa Tree is gone. The first obviously means we won’t see him, but we might see Zidane and co. The second is more interesting. No Iifa Tree means no Mist, which means no way for anyone to create Black Mages. So, where did these kids come from? I shall be watching just to get that answer. There will be one series of ten, 22-minute-long episodes, with a prospective release date of 2027.
Duet Night Abyss suffers its second Malware attack in a month
When it was released, I was a big fan of Duet Night Abyss’ gacha model, which was “we are a gacha, but our character and weapons are free”. Excellent, I don’t need to experience FOMO every month. However, this apparently has the trade-off of the developers not being able to afford a cybersecurity team.
Players who updated their game via the launcher on March 18 found themselves infected by Malware. To be specific, it was the Trojan:MSIL/UmbralStealer.DG!MTB, an old Trojan that most antivirus software can protect against. This is obviously bad; however, it is compounded by the fact that there was another Malware attack about a month ago.
Last time, all players got was a message telling them to play Genshin Impact instead, which is objectively amusing. This does mean that the developers had weeks to patch this hole, though, and chose not to. It seems that these two have just been warnings, and the ten free gacha pulls offered as compensation aren’t enough to soothe any worries. Pan Studio needs to sort their security out ASAP.
Starfield reveals its biggest update yet landing April 7th
I have written before about how I brought an Xbox specifically for Starfield, and I don’t regret that decision at all. It was a very fun game, although it certainly has its flaws. To their credit, Bethesda has still been working on it, and April 7th will see perhaps the biggest upgrade yet.
This drop has two prongs. First is Terran Armada, a new piece of DLC for about £10.00. Members of the United Colonies and Freestar Collective who disappeared during the Colony Wars are back, and they have brought an army of robots. They will pop up in incursions around the map for you to engage with or avoid. Plus, you get a cool robot companion and a bunch of new items to collect.
The next part of this update is the Free Lanes, distributed to everyone for nothing. The biggest edition is the ability to fly between planets in a system yourself, giving us that proper deep space feel. There will also be increased encounters to make flying actually worthwhile. I am also excited for the X-Tech system, which gives more customisability to weapons, gear, and ships. I love tinkering with my loadout. Add this to the PS5 launch on the same day, and the Starfield universe has just got a whole lot bigger.
A few wins from the gaming world
We are going to round off the Roundup with three wins from the gaming sphere. First up, if you are making an indie game, move to Japan. The government has launched IP360, a grant of up to $60k to help indie developers create their projects. Obviously, this is a huge boon to the industries. Indie games are fantastic in the sheer diversity of what gets released, and I can’t wait to see more of them.
Next, in an industry that is being hammered by layoffs and cancelled games, one of my favourite developers proves this doesn’t need to be the norm. Atlus, creators of the Shin Megami Tensei and thus the Persona series, is raising salaries and base pay by 15%. You could argue that against inflation, that is not a lot, but I imagine the workers are pleased.
Finally, Krafton has been forced to reinstate Ted Gill as CEO of Unknown Worlds, developers of Subnautica 2. This comes after a long saga of Krafton firing Gill, along with Charlie Cleveland and Max McGuire, to supposedly get out of paying a $250 million bonus. This would have been due if Subnautica 2 sold well enough in early access, a release Krafton promptly pushed back at the time to avoid the bonus deadline. In a final, hilarious twist, the court also ordered Krafton to extend this deadline. A win against shady business practises is one of the best wins.
