Weekly Video Game News: The Week Of May 21-28

Another week gone, another batch of video game news generated!

No Man‘s Sky Delayed

No Man‘s Sky, the procedurally generated space exploration game, has been delayed. Previously, it was supposed to come out on June 21st. Now, outlets have been set stickers to cover up release date with big COMING SOON signs. Rumour has it that the game might have been delayed up to August. This is understandable considering that there had been some ramblings that the game has problems running on PlayStation 4.

Nokia Is Going Down?

The days of the Windows Phone are numbered, as Microsoft announced 1,850 layoffs in its phone sector, followed by a $950 million write-off ($200 million of which is going into severance pay). 1,350 of those layoffs will be happening in Finland, effectively killing Nokia, which Microsoft had bough some years ago for $7,2 billion.

"We will continue to develop new devices and adapt Windows 10 for small screens, support Lumia Phones such as the Lumia 650, Lumia 950 and Lumia 950XL, and phones from our OEM hardware partners like Acer, Alcatel, HP, Trinity and Vaio, where we’re seeing good traction," read the statement from Microsoft.

Goat Simulator Goes To Space

The unlikely success story of Goat Simulator continues as the game goes where every long lasting franchise goes eventually: to space! “Goat Simulator – Waste of Space” is the newest expansion pack that was announced via a trailer that featured an Arnold Schwarzenegger impersonator, a crowdfunded space colony, space battles and #makespacegreatagain. It is developed by the Gone North Games team, who have already made the GoatZ expansion.

New Titanfall 2 Gameplay Details Leak

Leaks happen, and some of them can be really good at building hype. Recently, some rascal had anonymously uploaded details on the Titanfall 2 game. One of the biggest new things is the addition of the grappling hook which might be used for movement, getting into your Titan and snatching enemy mid-air. Also, players can expect bigger matches and bigger maps, since the game is no longer being held back by Xbox 360’s hardware.

New Unreal Tournament Map

Not only is Unreal Engine 4 open for everyone, but the new Unreal Tournament is accessible to everyone, too. And now, it has a new map that everyone can try out! Underland looks like ruins of a temple located either underground or in a deep ravine. The trailer features a lot of killing and wonderful ragdoll animations. Flak cannon is still perfect for gibbing friends and foes at close range, and there are some kills with both heavy pistols and the chem launcher! Sweet!

Oculus Piracy Backfire

DRM bites the hand that feeds it once again! Recently, Oculus has released v1.4 patch, which was supposedly to disable the Revive hack, which allowed people to play Oculus game on other HMDs. The added security step now checks if you have a Rift connected. However… "The original version of Revive simply took functions from the Oculus Runtime and translated them to OpenVR calls..." Revive creator Libre VR told Motherboard. "The new version of Revive now uses the same injection technique to bypass Oculus' ownership check altogether. By disabling the ownership check the game can no longer determine whether you legitimately own the game."

"This is my first success at bypassing the DRM," Libre VR added. “I really didn't want to go down that path. I still do not support piracy, do not use this library for pirated copies." This is extremely hilarious since as recently as January, Oculus founder Palmer Luckey claimed that Oculus will not try to lock users into a particular brand of hardware. Ooops.

Sister Location Reveal

Indie horror game sensation Five Nights At Freddy’s has revealed a new game, FNAF: Sister Location. This one seems even spookier and before, taking place somewhere underground and featuring a renewed cast of horror animatronics. And their faces keep reforming, too, oh, the horror! Hopefully, this will help the series regain the good will lost with FNAF World.