The Arcade Vol.5: Cardi B fails to secure the ‘CoD’ bag as horror IKEA game floors players

By Sam Wareing

Published Oct 6, 2022 at 03:09 PM

Reading time: 5 minutes

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Images by Cardi B from Instagram and ZiggGameDev from Kickstarter

Good to see you again, fellow netizens! As for those of you who are new here, let me bid you a warm welcome to the Arcade: a space for you to soak in all the quirkiness and intrigue the world of video games has to offer. Why don’t you take a seat, save your progress, and download the latest gaming news with us? Oh, and enjoy your stay while you’re at it.

Back in the 90s, Pokémon’s slogan was the infamous “Gotta Catch ‘Em All!” and at that point in time, it was a reasonable feat, with only 151 of the critters in existence. Fast forward to 2022, and with the imminent release of Pokémon Scarlet and Violet, we’re about to head into the thousands—making that iconic tagline not so achievable anymore.

But for two Pokémon super fans, this daunting task didn’t stand a chance. Back in 2018, Redditor SpacebornKiller and his friend started what is known as a living master dex—physically owning every single Pokémon in existence.

A mere four years later—and thousands of trades, transfers, and a little hacking here and there—the living master dex of every Pokémon ever created was complete, and the two real life Pokémon masters suited up to celebrate. With tenacity like this, these two should definitely take up shiny hunting. Don’t worry lads, give it a couple of months and you’ll have even more Pokémon to catch. A trainer’s work is never done…

Many games have gone viral over the years. From Undertale to Among Us, sometimes all it takes is a simple idea and clever marketing to get your creations out there in the market. And this is exactly what has happened with the newest indie hit, Trombone Champ. As a delightfully silly game, it sees you wield a trombone and try your darndest to play a variety of tunes using only your brass instrument. Think of it as Guitar Hero’s wacky cousin.

Created by a mostly one-person company, Holy Wow Studios, the developers gave a bunch of game keys to YouTubers and Twitch streamers upon its release and, in just one week, it has gained a huge amount of momentum on Steam, the world’s leading PC game platform.

The studio has since tweeted about how much Trombone Champ’s success means to them, and that it’s going to take a while to get everything in order as running the studio isn’t even their primary job. They have hence asked the community to be patient with them. Take all the time you need, Holy Wow.

Everyone likes to pretend that they live in the wonderful displays on a trip to IKEA. But what if you got trapped in there overnight with hoards of monsters dressed as employees and the building was never ending? Well, that’s the premise of the new indie horror game, The Store is Closed.

Inspired by the SCP Foundation—a collaborative writing project which combines thousands of stories, documents, and more of supernatural creatures and entities, all into one shared universe—specifically, the story of SCP-3008, which refers to an ex-IKEA building that teleports visitors to an alternate world where the map is endless and full of monsters, players will explore an IKEA-like store either alone or with friends, and must craft weapons and defences from the furniture they find.

The Store is Closed is currently on Kickstarter and has raised over $21,677, smashing its original goal of $11,377. It aims to release in 2024.

We all know that if you fail your driving test in real life, it’s best not to get behind the wheel of a car. Well, for Redditor MotorDesigner, the same applies to video games. Say what now?

After failing the San Andreas driving test, the Redditor reached out to the Grand Theft Auto (GTA) subreddit and asked for legal ways to get around the city without a car. Ironic, considering you can do pretty much anything, legal or illegal, in GTA.

Well, to be honest, the in-game driving test doesn’t look too taxing. Questions include when it’s permissible to run a red light, what the correct driving position is, and how best to drive when “getting serviced orally by a girl while driving.” Lovely. Despite having rock-bottom standards, MotorDesigner failed to pass the San Andreas Department of Motor Vehicles’ test, and therefore cannot drive legally in the city.

Users were quick to respond to his plea, with suggestions including hopping on the bus, or riding the subway. One person responded “This test really explains the NPC traffic lol.” I hope you pass next time, buddy.

If you don’t know what Google Stadia is, then I don’t blame you. The streaming-only console released in November 2019, and just over three years later, it’s now being discontinued.

But for the people who have actually invested in Stadia, this disruption is posing a huge problem. Once their servers go down in January 2023, all games, characters, and progress they have amassed to date will cease to exist. Simply put, they’re on track to face a gamer’s worst nightmare.

Thankfully, Ubisoft and Bungie, the companies behind Destiny and The Division, are putting in the work to rescue gamers’ save data by porting them to PC. Heroes, indeed.

Unfortunately, there is no clear plan as of yet laid out by Ubisoft and it is having to work the specifics out on the fly. The same can be said for Bungie, a heavy Stadia supporter, with Destiny 2 effectively being the system’s flagship game, and it also used Stadia internally to test its creations as the studio has increased its development from home.

We all know the drill by now—a new Call of Duty game comes out and Activision rolls out the big guns to advertise it. Fans have seen the likes of Paul Davidson, Steve Aoki, and TimTheTatman this year but one major star missed out on the big promotion.

Hip-hop icon Cardi B has stated in recent tweets that, due to scheduling conflicts, she was “missing out on a multi-million dollar deal.” 

Due to a court hearing regarding two misdemeanour assault charges stemming from a 2018 incident involving her and two other women who worked at an adult entertainment club, the rapper had to miss the 15 September shooting of the advert, much to her dismay.

If you haven’t heard of The Last of Us by now, you really need to sort your priorities out. With two remasters, a sequel, and a brand new TV show coming out next year, it might just be developer Naughty Dog’s biggest franchise to date.

However, after a recent job posting, it seems that the Uncharted creator might be kicking work off on a brand new post-apocalyptic game. While there’s a lack of details at this point, the posting states that Naughty Dog wants an artist who is able to create assets for an AAA title, including realistic skin textures using shading techniques.

There have been no game specifics mentioned, and it could be for a myriad of things, from continued production of content for The Last of Us 2 to working on an entirely new game, but one thing’s for sure—Naughty Dog is working on something, and fans should be excited.

When Overwatch 2 was announced, everyone knew it was only a matter of time before the highly-popular team-based shooter would shut down, making way for its new and improved sequel. And on Monday 3 October, the time had come.

Many recorded their last few plays and the shut down of the servers, although for a game with such prestige and a huge fan base that was loved by millions, Blizzard mercilessly pulled the plug without any kind of formal goodbye, leaving players with a simple “disconnected from server” message. Although it resulted in a sad day for many, the move was a necessary evil in order to make way for the franchise’s shiny new sequel, Overwatch 2, which is available now.

Mere days after its release, Overwatch 2 is already running into problems. Primarily, the issues are originating from Blizzard’s two-factor authentication system, which requires players to have a phone number linked to their account in order to play.

Sounds simple enough, right? Well, not quite. For some reason, the security system isn’t recognising mobiles on a prepaid phone plan, meaning only phones on a contract can be accepted.

Rightly, this is leaving fans furious, with one netizen, Redditor malcaster taking to the Overwatch subreddit to complain by comparing it to other real-life situations. “Imagine walking into a bank and them refusing to allow you to open up an account with them just because of what type of phone service you use (i.e., or provider, such as MetroPCS),” they wrote. “It’s oppressive, and it’s honestly disgusting. Blizzard, fix this.”

Since this issue arose, Blizzard has issued a statement regarding the problem and will be loosening phone number requirements for a majority of existing Overwatch players. However, new accounts will still have to meet the SMS Protect requirements.