Monthly Archives: November 2017
Sea of Thieves Technical Alpha Sign-Ups Close Next Week
Sign-ups for Sea of Thieves' Technical Alpha will end next week on December 1.
As detailed by Rare in a post on Xbox Wire, players will have until December 1 to join the Insider Programme and be invited to the game's next play session, which Rare promises will be the "biggest and best yet."
The programme grants access to other perks and bonuses, as well as regular communication updates on Sea of Thieves' development. Rare will provide more details about the next play session in December.
More Changes Coming to Need for Speed Payback
In response to player feedback, Ghost Games is making more changes to improve progression in Need for Speed Payback.
An upcoming patch for Need for Speed Payback will introduce the changes, which, according to a post on EA's official site, include:
- Tune-up shops now stock higher quality parts.
- Improved quality of cards from targeted rolls in the Tune-up Shops.
- Increased the level on parts awarded from winning events.
- Multiple fixes to Improve stability.
- Improved game performance.
Evidence Suggests There Might Not Be Water on Mars
New evidence suggests that water may not play as big a role in the dark streaks on Mars' surface as previously thought.
The new findings published in Nature Geoscience (via CNET) reference the recurring slope lineae (RSL), dark streaks on the planet's surface, which had previously been thought to be caused by seasonally shifting liquid water, but now seem to be caused by shifting sand and dust.
NASA/JPL-Caltech/UA/USGS (via CNET)
Axiom Verge Publisher Donating 75% of Share to Dev’s Son
BadLand Games is donating 75 percent of its share of sales of Axiom Verge to a special fund dedicated to the ongoing healthcare costs of Tom Happ's son, Alastair.
Happ, the developer of Axiom Verge, opened up in a blog post with a shoutout to BadLand, during his celebration of the physical release of the game.
Happ's son, Alastair, was born healthy, but due to a failure to treat a case of jaundice when he was days old, he now has a life-long condition called Kernicterus. The condition is characterized by severe neurological damage, brought on by a high level of bilirubin in the blood, resulting in a loss of much of Alastair's motor control and hearing.
October 27’s Winners and Losers
October 27 may have been the year's craziest day in pop culture — well, one of them, anyway — with three major game releases, a huge Netflix return, and the revival of a modern horror film franchise. But how successful were they?
Assassin's Creed Origins, Super Mario Odyssey, Wolfenstein 2: The New Colossus, Stranger Things 2, and Jigsaw all debuted on the same day last month. IGN ran down all of those releases previously, but now that they've had some time, we're taking a look at how all those releases performed. Did the rush of releases cause none to really succeed, or did some find success amidst the clutter? Check out the gallery below for a breakdown of the releases and whether they succeeded.
What DC’s Deathstroke Movie Needs to Succeed
Full spoilers follow for all the DCEU movies to date, including Justice League.
Slade Wilson, aka Deathstroke the Terminator, is one of DC’s most dangerous characters and debatably the deadliest mercenary in the publisher’s universe – sorry, Deadshot. The one-eyed foe made his debut in 1980’s The New Teen Titans #2 and was co-created by two icons in the comic book industry: Marv Wolfman and George Pérez. Since making his action-packed debut against the young heroes, Slade’s become immensely popular. The tactical terminator has received multiple ongoing comics, appeared in several animated shows and movies, and challenged Batman in video games like Arkham Origins, Arkham Knight and Injustice: Gods Among Us. He’s also been brought to life by actor Manu Bennett on Arrow.
You Can Now Hire Professional Gamers to Play CoD For You
A new service lets you hire professional players to play Call of Duty for you.
PC Games Insider reports UK company Bidvine lets you hire professional gamers for £15/$20 an hour for various services like helping you rank your characters up, unlock extra features within the game, improve your kill/death ratio, and more.
These professional players are required to provide identification and prove their abilities before being hired. Bidvine claims it is the first company to offer such a service.
“The Call of Duty game franchise is one of the biggest in the world, and every time they release a new game it’s a race to unlock the best weapons, characters and camos – as well as seeing who can prestige first," said Russ Morgan, Bidvine co-founder.
SOMA Developer Reveals How Upcoming Safe Mode Will Work
SOMA will receive a Safe Mode on December 1 on PC and Xbox that turns the game's murderous monsters into largely cautious observers, allowing for a less stressful experience.
Director of SOMA and Frictional Games founder Thomas Grip spoke with PC Gamer about the decisions surrounding the update - even going so far as to say that, in retrospect, it makes him question if this is the way the game should have been released.
Safe Mode is an official version of the popular Wuss Mode, a fan-made mod for SOMA that removes the killing instinct from the game's monsters. It is currently the SOMA Steam Workshop mod with the most subscriptions, and developer Frictional Games took note.
2 New Weapons Coming to PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds
PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds will be getting two new weapons.
VG24/7 reports the weapons in question are the DP-28 LMG and the AUG A3 assault rifle. They're now available on the game's test servers, which went live earlier this morning. However, it's not yet known whether these weapons will make it out along with version 1.0 in December, or be released separately.
The DP-28 LMG, image via VG247.
Rashida Jones Drops Out of Toy Story 4 Citing ‘Philosophical Differences’ With Pixar
Rashida Jones and writing partner Will McCormack have dropped out of their positions as co-writers of Toy Story 4, citing a culture at Pixar that marginalises women and people of colour.
As reported by EW, the co-writers released a statement saying that "we parted ways because of creative and, more importantly, philosophical differences. There is so much talent at Pixar, and we remain enormous fans of their films. However, it is also a culture where women and people of color do not have an equal creative voice.”
The duo points out that only one of Pixar's 20 films have been directed by a woman, and another by a person of colour. The statement adds that "we hope we can encourage all those who have felt like their voices could not be heard in the past to feel empowered.”