Natalie Turner

SOUTH of the Circle is a compelling narrative gaming experience taking place in Cold War-era Antarctica. https://youtu.be/Qk5VoKBZ5xw?t=4 Originally released on Apple Arcade, for IOS and MAC, the game is now available on Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation 4/5, and Xbox. This review is focused on the experience of this game on the Nintendo Switch. Set in the 1960’s during the Cold War, South of the Circle explores themes that are relevant to current times; war and propaganda, love and loss, and determination in the face of uncertainty. You follow Peter, a Cambridge academic, who has a disastrous beginning to his research…

Here are all the key announcements from PlayStation State of Play from June 2022! Resident Evil State of Play opened with the date – 24th of March, 2023. Resident Evil 4 will be coming next year to PlayStation 5 (PS5), with the narrator for State of Play announcing that the game will include PlayStation VR 2 content. PlayStation VR2 It was also announced that Resident Evil Village is being developed for PlayStation VR2. Lady Dimitrescu returns on PlayStation VR 2 Three other titles were also announced to be coming to PlayStation VR2: The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners Retribution (Chapter…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-b07ikpA8gk&t=245s&ab_channel=%E3%82%B9%E3%82%AF%E3%82%A6%E3%82%A7%E3%82%A2%E3%83%BB%E3%82%A8%E3%83%8B%E3%83%83%E3%82%AF%E3%82%B9 KINGDOM Hearts IV was announced today during the 20th anniversary celebrations for the Kingdom Hearts franchise. Disney and SquareEnix shared a video trailer for the game during the anniversary event, as well as a press release with all the details. Kingdom Hearts IV is currently in early development along side a new mobile game for the series, Kingdom Hearts Missing-Link. Sora returns! Screen capture shared from Square Enix. Sora will be returning in Kingdom Hearts IV along side his usual squad – Donald Duck, and Goofy. The announcement also revealed a new character, Streelitzia, and a sprawling new city,…

Shared in an announcement today – Tencent has become the majority investor of game development studio Tequila Works. You may not know the game developer Tequila Works by name, but you have probably played on of their recent indie hits. Tequila Works is most famously known for titles like RiME, and The Sexy Brutale. Some of their other bigger releases include Deadlight, GYLT, and the Invisible Hours. In the announcement from Tequila Works today, CEO Raul Rubio shared that while he is proud of the work the company has produced, “But there’s a limit to how much you can grow…

Fortress Melbourne will be the official host partner for the Counter Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO) Blast Premier league in 2022. The partnership brings one of the largest CS:GO competitions, and biggest prize pools, to Oceania (OCE). The Fortress OCE Masters – A BLAST Regional Qualifier initial competition will take place online. The top four teams from the event will travel to Fortress Melbourne for a LAN grand final in the Alienware Arena. A live crowd will cheer on at the event, with the winners advancing to the BLAST Premier Fall Showdown. https://youtu.be/X-4dReD9Rzk Blast Premier, established in 2020, currently run seven…

https://youtu.be/szm_LoRMNhQ Hell Architect brings dark humour and netherworld themes to traditional colony / base builder simulation gameplay. Developed by Woodlands Games and published by Leonardo Interactive, Hell Architect lets you take on the roll of hell manager where you can design your own little slice of hell. Inspired by games like Dungeon Keeper and Oxygen Not Included, your first job is to gather resources such as dirt, coal and metal, and build items to care for your sinners (ie labour force). Beds, food production, water processing, and toilets are all required to keep your sinners busy working for you and…

https://youtu.be/31rnGkbKxPY Point and click adventure Pants Quest has a new trailer and release date. Pants Quest will be available from the 1st of March on Steam. Pants Quest is about a man called Dave who is trying to track down his lost pants. Dave’s cat follows him around the house while he works through puzzles and inconveniences. Retro pixel art and gloomy weather set the scene for this early morning adventure. The devs share on the steam page for Pants Quest that “the tone is funny but also kind of introspective, following the kind of crappy morning that makes you…

Wordle has taken the world by storm. For those unfamiliar with the web browser game, Wordle is a word guessing game. Board game aficionados may recognise this gameplay, as it is similar to Mastermind – but using letters instead of colours. Players have six guesses to uncover the five letter word answer. Letters from guesses will highlight green or yellow if they are in the answer word to help guide players to the solution. In December 2021, the Wordle site had over 250k unique visitors per day (data by Semrush) and if Twitter is any indication, that number is still…

In a huge announcement today, ESL and FACEIT shared that they would be merging to create the new ESL FACEIT Group. Included in the announcement was the information that Savvy Group will be purchasing the new ESL FACEIT Group. This is an emerging news story. The $1.5 billion purchase price for the ESL FACEIT Group was initially reported by Handelsblatt, translated by Sports Business Journal. The merger and purchase has now been confirmed by ESL and FACEIT through press releases. The purchase price currently can not be confirmed by another verified source and this detail will be updated when available.…

The Witcher fans can finally wear their fandom on their sleeve – literally. Black Milk Clothing has a new collection of The Witcher inspired designs available from December 14th. The collection is inspired by the characters and themes of CD Projeckt Red’s The Witcher video game series. Gamers can choose from a range of designs featuring spells, logos, and character images. People like to invent monsters and monstrosities – and thankfully they also like to invent gaming inspired merch! The collection of over 50 items includes dresses, shirts, overalls, robes, leggings, capes, shirts, shorts, belts, pants, bodysuits, playshirts, harnesses, and…

Due to COVID-19 restriction pressures, today the Supanova Comic Con team have announced that the upcoming Adelaide convention has been cancelled. The event was scheduled to go ahead this coming weekend – the 11th and 12th of December. South Australian pop culture, gaming, and comic fans looking forward to the return of conventions have been disappointed by this announcement. Information from the Supanova website and shared across their social media accounts provided some insight in to the challenges the Supanova team were facing. Supanova’s Announcement on Twitter “As many of you will be aware, major changes to state border restrictions…

In a shock tweet today, Geoff Keighley, announced Activision|Blizzard would not be included in the 2021 Game Awards. The string of tweets from the producer and host of the game awards, Mr Keighley, shared that he believed his decision would help to shape a more inclusive environment. “Beyond its nominations, I can confirm that Activision|Blizzard will not be a part of this year’s #TheGameAwards” Geoff Knighley’s announcement on Twitter The tweet thread continued: “#TheGameAwards is a time of celebration for this industry, the biggest form of entertainment in the world. There is no place for abuse, harassment or predatory practices…

In the last few days, there has been a whirlwind of announcements following the early release of the multiplayer beta for Halo Infinite. To add to the good news for Halo and esports fans, Australia and New Zealand (ANZ) has been included as a competing region for the inaugural Halo Championship Series (HCS). Leading ANZ tournament provider, ESL Australia, has partnered with 343 Industries to facilitate the long-term development of the Halo esports scene across the ANZ region. ESL Australia has a long history with Halo, as one of the first games they were running tournaments for across the Australia.…

Ubisoft has announced the 2022 Rainbow Six Invitational will be hosted in Montreal, Canada. The Invitational will take place 8-22 February 2022. The event features the best teams from around the globe, with 20 teams and four regions represented. Teams earn their place at the Rainbow Six Invitational by earning points at regional league and Six Majors events. Points earned over 2021 add to the official Global Standings. Due to their performance over 2021, 16 teams have already qualified for the event. The Asia-Pacific (APAC) region has three teams who have already qualified for the event; Elevate, DWG KIA, and…

OZ Comic-Con 2021 will be returning to the east coast this year! December dates have been confirmed for Sydney and Melbourne. The Australian Esports League (partner for the event), will be bringing a gaming zone – ready for gamers to battle over the weekend at both locations. Oz Comic-Con is booked for Sydney, December 4-5, at the Sydney Showground. The Melbourne Convention Centre and Exhibition Centre will be the hub for the Melbourne event, taking place December 11-12. Cosplay Central is always a highlight at Oz Comic-Con Oz Comic-Con events are always pop-culture packed with events, guests, and exhibitors. With…

To say I have some history with Age of Empires (AoE) is an understatement. I’ll never forget playing Age of Empires II at LANs in my friends garage – lively late night games with pizza and Pepsi. Two decades on, in a time where LANs are on hold, I find myself writing a review for Age of Empires IV. My expectations for AoE IV are, probably unfairly, extremely high. Age of Empires IV brings much of what I love about Age of Empires II into the modern era. Despite my fun experience with AoE IV it lacks the special ingredient…

https://youtu.be/1t1jQwe5YWM?t=862 The Pentanet team ran a Beta for GeForce Now for 3 weeks. During the testing period, Aussie gamers played over 3 million minutes and 100,000 unique gaming sessions utilising GeForce Now. Beta players, including GOA members, were lucky to have hands on experience before the official launch of GeForce Now. Nividia GeForce Now, powered by Pentanet, brings the power of cloud gaming to Aussie players. GeForce Now transforms most modern laptops, desktops and mobile devices, connecting gamers to premium graphics and performance through the cloud based platform. A complete list of compatible devices is available on the cloud.gg website.…

https://youtu.be/L-q6Gz_4Yqc Crowd favourite Sora from Kingdom Hearts has been announced as the final character to join Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. From an initial cast of 70 characters on launch – Sora joins a diverse roster of 89 fighters in Smash Bros. Ultimate. Every character has their own lead developer assigned to them to bring the vision of the character to Smash. Sora is no exception. Sora’s normal moveset is derived from the original game series. While his attacks are slightly slower than many characters, his attack window is slightly longer to balance this weakness. Sora’s biggest weakness is his height…

Denis Yoon, aka Escha, surprised many to make it to the final day of play for Teamfight Tactics Reckoning World Championship. The Oceanic region (OCE) is often considered an underdog region in international esports. Escha proved that OCE can bring it at the highest level of competition. The TFT Reckoning World Championship took place over four days – 1-4 October 2021. Escha, OCE’s representative at Worlds, faced a gauntlet of the best TFT competitors. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vg_QOYb2Ij0 Format explainer for the TFT Reckoning World Championship The format for the world championship required Escha to place in the top four in the Qualifiers,…

https://youtu.be/SbVAFaV24bA SteelSeries have a mouse to meet every need and budget, from 15-button marvels for MMO gamers, to multifunction RGB-lit beauties. The Prime line of peripherals from SteelSeries is focused on precision and performance, designed with esports in mind. I was struck by the design simplicity and poise of the Prime+ Precision Esports Gaming Mouse. When I cradled the mouse for the first time I felt the textured matte black finish create slight surface tension against my palm. Compared to my current slick mouse, which I have to hold on to tightly when my palm starts to sweat, the Prime+…