So about an hour and half ago, at 1pm EST, the Web App for EA Sports FC 25. Just as in the last two years this marks the very first opportunity for players to jump in to the Ultimate Team game mode for the new release. Ultimate Team is accessible through the web app, through the Companion mobile app, and of-course in game. But as the game itself does not release officially for another week, and the Companion mobile app will not update from last year to this years for another two days, the Web App is the only way to connect to the new game as of today. 

Only issue is: it has been a nightmare for players to be able to log in so far. This is somewhat expected with a global release of a favorite franchise, and things should settle shortly. As for myself, it took about an hour of absent mindedly refreshing the page every once in a while. Probably 4-5 tries overall, once every 10-15 minutes, but eventually I hit my starter squad and started digging into the opening of some new packs and a new year. 

EA Sports FC 25 releases September 27th for all. Those that have pre-ordered the Ultimate Edition get early access starting this Friday, September 20th. You can find the web app to try your luck at:

https://www.ea.com/ea-sports-fc/ultimate-team/web-app/ 

HTC, one of the original PC VR innovators, have just announced a new VR headset that's going to be both stand-alone and PC connected. The HTC VIVE Focus Vision looks to take on the likes of Meta Quest 3 and Pico, but also looks like it's going to be useful for those that want full resolution PC VR via connection with a DisplayPort as well.

Spec wise, there's some things that look really good. The screens are 2448x2448 per eye, which is better than the Quest 3, but shy of the resolution on something like the Pimax Crystal Light. It will initially only support a 90Hz refresh rate, but plans are to enable 120Hz in the near future.

Internally, there's a Snapdragon XR2 SOC, which is the same that's in the Meta Quest 3.  There will be 12GB of LPDDR5 memory and have an onboard storage capability of 128GB with an expandable microSD slot for up to 2TB cards.

What's interesting about the VIVE Focus Vision is the inclusion of four eye tracking cameras. That's something that many people have been clamoring for in more VR headsets and the VIVE Focus Vision will have that onboard like the old HTC VIVE Pro and the Meta Quest Pro.

Another thing I'm not that excited about though is that it looks like it uses Fresnel lenses. That's the old style lenses seen in many older HMDs like the Valve Index and HTC VIVE Cosmos for example. Nowadays, I've been spoiled with the clarity and large sweet spot of pancake lenses and even aspheric lenses. so seeing what looks like Fresnel lenses is a tad disappointing. But, the Fresnel lenses can offer a higher FOV, which is sorely needed in the industry and here HTC says it's up to 120 degrees. That would put it up there at one of the highest available for the consumer market. It's a trade off it seems, but we'll see how it goes.

Like the Quest 3, there's a depth sensor on the front so it can be used for such things as mapping out a room easily. Two 16MP full color cameras are also on the front for pass through. That should be better than what the Quest 3 has, but again, something we'll have to experience first hand before we know for sure.

Controls for the VIVE Focus Vision look to be the standard ring type controllers seen in many VR headsets. I would've liked to have seen a ring-less design like the Quest 3, but I don't think it'll be that big of a deal.

There's a hot swap-able battery on the battery on the back of the headset and HTC says you should expect about two hours of usage before you need to change it out. I do like that the battery is placed in the back of the headset to help balance it out and the hot swap option is great as well.

Price wise, it's $1000, which puts it much higher than a Quest 3 and on the higher end of a consumer VR cost. You can pre-order right now if you would like and it'll include some goodies if you do. You'll get the Wired Streaming Kit, which is something us PC VR users would take advantage of, and a set of games.

This is an intriguing VR headset and I'm excited to show well this one compares to the few I've been reviewing lately. More options is always good and hopefully, HTC can come back strong in the VR scene with this one.

The big year two expansion for Mortal Kombat 1, Khaos Reigns launches next week and NetherRealm was released a launch trailer showing off everything that is included. 

The Khaos Reigns expansion includes six new fighters including Cyrax, Sektor, Noob Saibot, Ghostface, T-1000 and Conan The Barbarian. It also includes a new story expansion, Animalities (which are free for everyone), new skins, and what looks like a new game mode as we saw a bunch of towers so I am wondering if the Towers of Time mode from MK11 is making it's return. 

Mortal Kombat 1 Khaos Reigns launches on September 24th.  

In the fifteen (aww, so close) months since Final Fantasy XVI (16) has launched for the PS5, one constant refrain we’ve heard is that the soundtrack is loaded with banger tracks by the talented composer Masayoshi Soken. I count myself amongst one of the people championing this soundtrack. To me it is full of tracks that can instantly take me to various moments throughout the game, much in the same way One-Winged Angel can take me to moments of Final Fantasy 7, or Dancing Mad can instantly take me to the final boss atop the World of Ruin in Final Fantasy 6. And I believe I can confidently say that Soken is the new standard bearer when it comes to the level of excellence expected of a new Final Fantasy score, now that Nobuo Uematsu has decided to enter his twilight years. With the release of Final Fantasy XVI on PC, now is the perfect time to revisit the soundtrack, and it can now be found on streaming services, arriving side-by-side with the PC port. All eight (yes eight) discs of the original soundtrack (and DLC soundtrack) can be streamed on various streaming platforms, whether your preference is Spotify or Youtube, Square Enix has you covered.

Original Soundtrack
DLC Soundtrack

Throughout the course of Final Fantasy XVI, from start to finish, Soken’s score was a perfect companion to the storytelling. I found myself constantly hyped to hear ‘Find the Flame’ to get that Ifrit blood pumping as I toppled the massive Eikons on Clive’s quest for vengeance. A tough boss fight coming up? ‘No Risk, No Reward’ is there to accompany you into battle and help drive that sense of urgency that you must not lose. But I think what’s most surprising about the soundtrack is the wide range of genres that Soken managed to touch over the course of the game. Though a lot of that variety was already on offer with the myriad soundtracks to Final Fantasy XIV (side note: really looking forward to that Dawntrail soundtrack release), so I already knew what Soken was capable of, but still the surprising shift in style and tone when I’d hear tracks like ‘Do or Die’ or ‘Heavensbound - Reverie,’ would provide the necessary shake-up and prevent things from feeling too familiar. There’s so much more to this soundtrack than meets the eye, especially when you get into the DLC, where it looks like Soken decided he wanted to make music that was intended for arcade music games like ‘Groove Coaster’ or ‘Beatmania IIDX.’ What was also an interesting include, the ‘unused’ tracks, are also a part of the offer on streaming, and it gives an interesting look at what might have been early tracks as part of the game’s initial development.

One of the best Easter Eggs throughout this soundtrack have been the crossovers with Final Fantasy XIV, especially when it comes to the aforementioned DLC soundtrack. I think it goes without saying that the collaboration between Final Fantasy XVI’s director, Naoki Yoshida, and Final Fantasy XIV’s director, Yoshi-P has been a resounding success. The fact that both products were able to share Soken and still generate over a hundred new tracks for a mainline Final Fantasy game is nothing short of impressive.

If you consider yourself a fan of good video game music, then you would be doing yourself a disservice by not listening to this soundtrack, and having listened to it front to back multiple times, there’s no better time than now to enjoy this soundtrack alongside the PC release of Final Fantasy XVI, you won’t be disappointed.

Another month and another batch of classic games have been added to the Nintendo Switch Online service and this month is a pretty good one. Some months you have to wonder who is even picking these games as it seems like they are scrapping the bottom of the barrel but Battletoads Double Dragon makes this update among one of the best. 

Here are the four games coming to the service. 

• Battletoads Double Dragon
• Big Run
• Cosmo Gang the Puzzle
• Kunio-Kun no Dodgeball da yo Zen'in Shugo!

All four of these games are available to play now. 

I loved the PSVita and I still use mine every once and a while and if you were a fan of visual novels like I was, this system was almost like a portable e-reader. Or vn-reader I guess. The system also had some really cool exclusives as well and one of those was Freedom Wars. An action arcade game where you are sentenced to 1,000,000 years in prison and have to fight enemies known as "abductors" to get years knocked off your sentence.

The game was originally released in 2014 and sadly has remained on the PSVita, until now that is. Bandai Namco has announced the game is getting a remaster with Freedom Wars Remastered and will be released on consoles and PC early this next year. The remaster will have all of the features of the Vita version including online co-op and the deep character creation system. The HD remaster includes updated game balance and new difficulty settings, updates to the weapon crafting system and improved visuals, 60FPS and 4K resolution. 

Freedom Wars Remastered launches on January 10th 2025 for PS4, PS5, Switch and PC. 

I can't wait for Slay the Spire 2. The original is the best deckbuilding game I've ever played and I think it's safe to say simply one of my favorite games of all time. I have played it across at least four different systems and still jump into a game now and then. After all, the Playstation was the final platform I took up the game on and I still haven't reached Ascension 20 to complete that platinum trophy. Stupidly, I focused on the Silent and am really hitting a wall around levels 17 and 18. I've got time though, because even though Mega Crit announced the coming sequel a few months back, there aren't any plans for it to release this year. 

In a recent newsletter on Steam, the developers did expound on details about the coming sequel and even some reasons why it had to be a sequel in the first place rather than an extension of the original. As for the details the devs "have high confidence that we'll be entering Early Access with a PC, MacOS, and Steam Deck(tm) compatible build." And as for the reasons, orignal dev Casey Yano basically explains that pushing out the first was under such a time and resource crunch that the codebase is riddled with all the things they commented out and patched over. Starting afresh should really give the new iteration a solid foundation to be more performant, expand on more difficult themes and new ideas they want to try, and be able to expand into more platforms. 

I'm happy to wait on Slay the Spire 2 so that it will be the best it can be whenever that 2025 Early Access get's nailed down. The Steam page for the game is probably the easiest way to keep up to date on details of when that will eventually be.

Let’s face it: we’re in the era of remakes. Everything old is new again, in some way or another as so many games get brought back again and again for each console generation. Mickey Mouse is no different and later this month, he’s coming back in Disney Epic Mickey: Rebrushed.

However, there is a lot that can go into bringing an old game back to life. Developers Disney Games and THQ Nordic have released a deep-dive video detailing not only what to expect with the new release, but what sort of work has gone into making the game fresh and new for an entirely new generation of gamers.

Disney Epic Mickey: Rebrushed is launching on September 24, 2024 for the Switch, PC, PS4/5, and Xbox family of systems.

Today marks the beginning of Logitech's annual Logi PLAY, a celebration of all things Logitech. This annual event has Logitech showing off their devices, new and old, and is just a great time for all. With this year's PLAY, Logitech have a few new mice and keyboards to offer up to gamers looking to upgrade their gear.

In the mice range, we first have the Logitech G PRO X Superlight 2 DEX. It's the next iteration of the Pro X Superlight 2, which improves upon that mouse by shaving off 1gram from its predecessor in the internal skeleton alone. The bottom piece of the mouse also got a weight reduction of .85 grams and reduced thickness by .3mm. All told, the mouse weighs in at about 60 grams and Logitech states that studies show more people grip the mouse tighter when he mouse weighs under 60 grams. Hence, Logitech's aim at keeping the Pro X Superlight 2 DEX at around 60 grams.

The HERO 2 sensor in the mouse can track up to 44k DPI at 888 IPS/88G acceleration. Of course, you don't have to run at the highest performance of the sensor, but you're going to get a very high quality sensor for this mouse.

Five programmable buttons are on the mouse and they are using optical switches. Even though they are optical, you'll still get that click sound that all who use mice are familiar with.

It's a wireless mouse so you're going to be free from cords. Logitech says you can get up to 95 hours of usage in a single charge. For those with a Poweplay mat, you can use a Powerplay puck for continuous wireless charging.

Also about the DEX name, if you play Dungeons & Dragons like I do, you'll be pretty familiar with that. DEX is short for Dexterity and it's one of the six core attributes of a character. Logitech actually used the DEX moniker in reference to D&D in the name of the mouse, which I thought was pretty cool.

The Logitech G Pro X Superlight 2 DEX is available now for $159.

Another mouse that's going to be available is Logitech G PRO 2 Lightspeed. The ambidextrous mouse also features a HERO 2 sensor rated for up to 32,000 DPI and 500+ IPS. It's not as high as the sensor in the PRO X Superlight 2 DEX, but it's still solid nevertheless.

There's hybrid optical switches in the G PRO 2 Lightspeed and connects to your PC wirelessly with an option to upgrade the receiver for $30 more later on that upgrades the polling rate from 1kHz to 8kHz. Battery level is rated at 95 hours and you an also use a Powerplay mat as well. This one will cost you $129 and is now available.

For keyboards, there's two interesting options coming out. First up is the Logitech G PRO X TKL RAPID Wired Gaming Keyboard. Something really cool about this one is it features analog magnetic switches. That allows for user selectable actuation points and multiple actions per key. It's basically hall effect sensors on every single key on the keyboard.

Key priority is a feature that's been pretty controversial in gaming these days. It allows for really quick movements depending on how it prioritizes multiple keys being pressed. The implementation for some of the competitors have been banned from competitive gaming.

The PRO X TKL RAPID is made with an aluminum backplate and several layers to help dampen sound. It should amount to a solid feeling keyboard with no flex and be quiet in action. And of course, there's RGB lighting should you want your keyboard to exhibit some flair with LIGHTSYNC technology.

Coming in at $169, the PRO X TKL RAPID Wired Gaming Keyboard will be available in November in Black, White, and Pink.

A keyboard that is available now though is the Logitech G915 X Gaming Keyboard. This thin gaming keyboard comes in both a wired and wireless configuration and is the successor to the G915 LIGHTSPEED RGB. New galvanic switches top the keyboard allows for better, more stable typing while maintaining the ability to let you install your own low profile keycaps. Actuation point has been reduced from 1.5 mm to 1.2 mm.

To make the keyboard even more durable, the top aluminum plate thickness has increased by .3 mm to 1.5 mm. This should make it more solid and rugged.

Connection for the wireless version is still using LIGHTSPEED or Bluetooth while having wires USB is available when the keyboard needs charging. But if you do go wireless, you can look for about 36 hours of usage with 100% RGB brightness and a lot more as you reduce or not use the RGB lights at all.

It's available now in two different key options and three different variants. The full size keyboard will cost $230. The ten key-less version will come in at $200. Finally, the wired version with just the linear & tactile keys as an option will cost $180. You'll have your choice of black or white on the wireless with black being the only option for wired.

So here's the new input devices from Logi PLAY. We'll have reviews of these products as we get them, so if you're looking for some new gaming hardware for your PC, Logitech's got you covered today.

I reviewed the Logitech Pro Racing Wheel and Pedals about 8 months ago and found the direct drive wheel to be a real joy to use. It was my first experience with a direct drive wheel and Logitech's first foray into that arena as well. It's my current go to wheel when playing any driving games and I was hoping to see more products in the driving line come down to improve upon the experience. Well today during Logi PLAY, we got a whole slew of new announcements for products that you can use with the wheel.

Logitech is partnering with MOMO, a company they've done work with in the past. In fact, a long time ago, I reviewed a MOMO wheel from Logitech and today they're announcing a new multi-year partnership with them again. With this partnership, two new wheels are coming out for the Logitech Pro Racing Wheel.

The SIM GT 320 is a round 320mm wheel hand-crafted wheel with a hand-wrapped microfiber grip assembled and painted in Italy. It's made of anodized aluminum and it's anything like the included wheel for the PRO Racing Wheel, it should feel pretty solid with zero flex. The SIM GT320 fits on the PRO Wheel itself and will turn the D-shape wheel to a completely round wheel for your racing and drifting needs.

For those that like the formula style, there's the SIM GT-RACER 290. A more yoke like design, this racing wheel is 290mm across and 208mm in height. As with the SIM GT 320, the SIM GT-RACER 290 is also hand crafted and features a microfiber grip. If you play more of the formula style of games, this rim is for you.

Both will cost $200 and they become available in January of 2025.

If you want a round wheel rim without spending $200, there will be the Logitech G RS Round Wheel and will set you back $60 and mount on the Pro Wheel base. It features a silicone leather grip and measures at 291mm.

Those that want an formula style wheel, Logitech also has you covered here with the Logitech G RS Track Wheel. Like the RS Round Wheel, this is a less expensive formula style wheel that will fit over the Pro Wheel base. Length is 291mm and height comes in at 185mm. $70 will be what it will cost for this one, $10 more than the round wheel option.

If you want some extra wheel hubs, Logitech is going to be offering them for $130 for the PC version and $150 for the Xbox version. The PC version will also work with the PlayStation while the Xbox version will also work with the PC. The quick release option will let you change hubs quickly if you want to change the type of wheel for the game you're playing.

What if you want to use an aftermarket wheel? Well, it looks like Logitech might have you covered. The Logitech G RS QR Adapter is a quick release adapter that's designed to let you use any 70mm and 50.7mm PCD front or 70mm PCD rear-mounting wheel. This should open up a whole slew of wheels for you to use minus the buttons and will come in at $60.

Finally, we've been asking for a shifter for a while, but Logitech is bringing two options for the price of one here. The Logitech G RS Shifter and Handbrake will let you change the gears of a car or utilize it to drift as a handbrake. You can switch between the two modes, which changes how the handle operates. If you want both options, pick up two and have one set as a shifter and one as a handbrake.

The RS Shifter and Handbrake can mount to a table with clamps You can also adjust how high the handle sits on the shifter as well. It's an interesting design with just one slot and while I wasn't in the meeting to detail the this one, I'm interested to see how it does acting as a shifter.

If you're interested, the Logitech G RS Shifter and Handbrake will cost $150.

So it's been almost a year, but there's plenty of peripherals coming out to add to your Pro Racing Wheel setup. There's plenty to look forward to and Logitech looks like they have a good selection of upgrades to take your driving to the next level.

If you have some of their older wheels such as the G29, don't fret. Logitech hasn't forgotten you guys. You'll be able to update pieces and parts of your wheel as well. Say you want to go to direct drive, but want to keep your pedals. Go ahead. Or if you want to keep the G29 driving base and replace the pedals to the Pro Pedals. You'll be able to do that too. This will let owners of older wheels be able to upgrade their setup with Pro products at their own pace. That's a pretty great move by Logitech.

All in all, a lot of nice options for the racing scene from Logitech and it looks like there'll be plenty of things for racing gamers to choose from. Most of the items detailed here will be available now or in the very near future.