Month: March 2021

Ready to start streaming on Twitch but not sure where to begin? Don’t worry—we’ve got you covered. From must-have gaming gear to pro-level Twitch tips, we asked streamers what they wished someone had told them before they started streaming.

Essential Streaming Gear

Aside from a computer and a game to play, there are three essential pieces of gear you need to start streaming: a microphone, a webcam and some streaming software.

Nothing sends viewers clicking off to another stream faster than distorted or muffled sound. That’s why it’s so important to use a mic that delivers professional on-stream sound.

With a catalog of broadcast-quality microphones, it’s no surprise that Blue is the top choice of gamers and streamers around the world. From USB to XLR, Blue offers a wide range of pro streaming microphones to suit any budget or gaming aesthetic.

When you’re first starting out, it’s best to go with a USB microphone like the Yeti or Yeti X, which plugs directly into your computer and works seamlessly with all of your favorite software. Best of all, Yeti X includes Blue VO!CE audio software, a suite of broadcast vocal effects that give you total control of your sound.

TattedPoodle: “Your mic is going to be the key factor to your success. The way you sound is important because people come for the games but they stay for your entertainment. Blue Yeti was my first mic and it was amazing to use! User friendly, budget friendly, and the quality sounds great.”

As gamers, we tend to geek out over graphics. That’s why it’s important to use a webcam that captures professional-quality video. Logitech offers a variety of pro-grade webcams that streamers love—like StreamCam, which streams and records in full 1080p HD resolution at 60 fps for sharp, natural video with smooth motion and crisp details.

MegKaylee: “Having a webcam can make your stream feel more personable. The Logitech StreamCam gives you a number of options to give your stream a clean and professional look. ”

Finally, you’ll need a live streaming software like Streamlabs to combine your audio, webcam feed and gameplay video into a simple, all-in-one streaming solution. With Streamlabs, you can also personalize your stream with overlays, customize on screen alerts, and multistream to multiple platforms like Twitch, Facebook and YouTube.

Upgrading Your Setup

After you gain some streaming experience, it’s time to level up your equipment. For PC gamers, upgrading your mouse and keyboard can be a great way to improve your performance.

Logitech G’s Wireless Collection features innovative Lightspeed technology, which uses super-fast processing to deliver reliable, low-latency performance. Plus, Lightspeed technology gives you the freedom to move around while streaming without getting tangled up in wires. Lightspeed gaming mice like the G502 and keyboards like the G915 TKL are built for pro-grade performance with features like low-latency connectivity, precision sensors and continuous charging.

SNOWLIT: “I absolutely love my Logitech G502 LIGHTSPEED mouse. There’s no latency, which is great when I play competitively off-stream. It’s still hands-down my favorite mouse.”

SNOWLIT’s streaming rig

As your streaming rig grows, you may want to introduce multiple microphones to accommodate different setups, or even use professional audio equipment like EQs and compressors to enhance your sound. For that, you’ll need a microphone with an XLR connection, like the Blue Blackout Spark SL.

Blackout Spark SL brings Blue’s legendary studio sound to your space. With a professional XLR connection and versatile switches, Blackout Spark SL gives you that broadcast studio voice that will instantly grab your viewers’ attention.

PLEASANTLYTWSTD: “I didn’t consider upgrading my mic and cam until I had more viewers and a steady community, at which point I felt like I owed it to them to get something a little nicer.”

Showing Your Personal Style

According to Streamlabs quarterly report, in 2020, streamers broadcasted a total of 761 million hours of content to Twitch, which can make it difficult to stand out from the crowd. Thankfully, you have something to set yourself apart that no one else has—your personality.

Comfort, style and self-expression are key to being noticed on stream. Logitech G’s Color Collection makes it easy to show off your personal style with gear that combines high-performance tech with fun, vibrant colors. Like the G733 Headset, which features personalizable LED lighting via the free Logitech G HUB app and is ready to customize with a selection of colorful accessories like headband straps and mic covers.

KarimCheese: “When it comes to my setup and personality I enjoy a dark, slick and clean look. Logitech always provides that with their awesome mouse, headset and keyboard designs. It also makes me feel professional and keeps me comfortable on camera when I stream.”

SAMZORZ’ streaming rig.

Streaming Tips From The Pros

Finally, we asked streamers what they wished they would have known when they started streaming. Here are a few of our favorite responses:

SAMZORZ: “The most important piece of advice I’ve always given to those interested in streaming is to have fun. Your audience picks up on everything from your tone, expressions, and mood. If you aren’t having fun, your viewers won’t be either.”

TattedPoodle: “Eat proper meals. Learn to meal prep instead of ordering food all the time. You’ll save a lot of money by cooking. I wish someone would have told me that the majority of my paycheck would be going to UberEats and DoorDash.”

PLEASANTLYTWSTD: “You don’t have to do everything right away. Ease into what you want your channel to become, take your time and build up!”

MegKaylee: “I would pay someone money to time travel back to warn me about the importance of work/life balance. I always heard the ‘If you love what you do, you’ll never work a day in your life’ phrase and thought it was true when I started creating content. I eventually learned that if you work all the time, even if you love it, you can become drained and burnt out. Burnout feels like it just sucks the creativity right out of you, and dealing with it is really frustrating, so I always urge others to avoid it at all costs by making sure to take time for themselves.”

For more streaming tips and advice on how to start your Twitch channel, check out BlueMic.com.

Fortnite Season 6 Week 3 challenges go live on April 1 at 6 am PT / 9 am ET, and one of them requires you to put down your guns and go fishing for a while. You’ll need to collect five fish across Camp Cod, Lake Canoe, or Stealthy Stronghold. As two of those places aren’t written on the map, you might be stuck. Here’s where you can find all three fishing locations for this week’s Fortnite quest.

Catch Fish At Camp Cod, Lake Canoe, Or Stealthy Stronghold

Camp Cod is at the southeastern corner of the map, south of the snowy weather station. You can find fishing poles on the docks on the far right of the landmark.

Lake Canoe is the lake southwest of Dirty Docks. You’ll find many fishing poles there in addition to, appropriately, lots of canoes.

Stealthy Stronghold is easiest, as it’s already named on the map up in the northwestern region of the island. Like Lake Canoe, there are ample fishing poles all over this enclosed jungle region.

To fish, simply cast your fishing pole into the water. It’s usually quickest and most fruitful to do so at the rippling spots in the water, as these indicate a higher likelihood of loot being caught.

If you happen to pull out something other than a fish, simply re-cast your pole until you’ve nabbed five fish in total. It wouldn’t be so tough to find all five at one location assuming you’re not being hunted by other players or chased away by the Storm.

For more Fortnite Season 6 Week 3 challenges, find out how to Eliminate Raptor, Zenith, or Blackheart.

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Netflix is reportedly working to secure a deal with Rian Johnson (Star Wars: The Last Jedi) on turning Knives Out into a proper franchise with two more sequels, according to Deadline. The sequels would see Daniel Craig reprise his role as protagonist detective Benoit Blanc, and unnamed sources are indicating the deal could be at least $400 million–likely more–therefore making it “one of the biggest streamer movie deals in history.”

While the payday is eye-catching, the real big news here is Knives Out potentially turning into a trilogy. Until this news, only one sequel was expected. Of course, as most of the information on this is coming via unnamed sources–and none of the principals yet offering a comment–it’s still unknown what release dates, potential plots, and production start dates might be.

Johnson is doubling down on the mystery genre. Earlier this month, it was announced that Johnson had inked a deal with another streaming service, Peacock, for a 10-episode order for Poker Face. The show would be Johnson’s first television series, and all that’s known so far is it will be an hour-long series starring Natasha Lyonne (Russian Doll, Orange is the New Black). Maya Rudolph (Saturday Night Live) and Danielle Renfrew Behren (Kurt Cobain: Montage Of Heck) will co-executive produce along with Lyonne.

“I’m very excited to dig into the type of fun, character driven, case-of-the-week mystery goodness I grew up watching. It’s my happy place,” said Johnson in a release. “Having Natasha as a partner in crime is a dream, and we’ve found the perfect home at Peacock.”

Discord has launched its own version of Clubhouse, called Stage Channels, that allows users to host audio conversations to a room of listeners. The feature is now available wherever Discord can be downloaded, including mobile devices and the web.

The instant messaging app already allows for voice channels, rooms where all users present can talk freely with a mic connected. Stage Channels are more akin to public events like panels or town halls. In a Stage Channel, only certain people permitted can talk while everyone else is designated a listener, making for a more structured chat. The feature, however, is relegated to Community servers for now.

An invitation-only audio app that’s currently exclusive to iOS devices (though an Android version is in development), Clubhouse lets people setup conversations with a few individuals to be broadcasted to as many as 5,000 people. The app gained popularity throughout 2020 in large part because of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, reaching a valuation of $1 billion and exceeding over three million users.

Discord is just the latest company to try emulating Clubhouse’s success. Twitter launched Spaces in December 2020 to eke out its own segment of the audio-only app space. Other companies, including Facebook, LinkedIn, Slack, and Spotify are all reportedly in the process of developing their own live audio-only applications.

Fortnite Season 6 Week 3 challenges go live on April 1 at 6 am PT / 9 am ET, and among them is a challenge that asks you to defeat one of three particular NPCs: Raptor, Zenith, or Blackheart. The Fortnite map features dozens of NPCs that gift you items, assign additional quests, and trade you Gold Bars, but this challenge doesn’t require anything like that. You just need to defeat one of them. Here are the locations for Raptor, Zenith, and Blackheart.

Where To Find Raptor, Zenith, And Blackheart

Raptor can be found at the Crash Site, a landmark on the eastern cliffs beside Coral Castle. He’s wearing a yellow ski mask standing among plane wreckage.

Zenith is located at the Weather Station, a landmark atop a snowy mountain south of Catty Corner. He’s dressed appropriately for the cold with a winter jacket and face mask.

Blackheart can be found at the Viking longboat just west of Holly Hedges. He’s usually on the top deck but he does walk around the ship at times. Though it’s a Viking ship he resides in, Blackheart is dressed more like a traditional pirate. You can always find these NPCs at their respective locations seen in the map below.

For more Fortnite Season 6 Week 3 challenge guides, learn how to catch fish at Camp Cod, Lake Canoe, or Stealthy Stronghold.

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Comcast’s NBCUniversal is reportedly weighing pulling its own movies from non-Peacock streaming services and bringing them home to its own platform, according to Bloomberg. Such a move would likely also bring with it a guarantee that future film releases from the company would be on Peacock either exclusively or for an initial window of exclusivity.

According to unnamed sources, NBCUniversal hasn’t yet made a final decision, and senior executives there “are open to new deals with third parties like HBO Max and Netflix,” in deals that would be expected to generate hundreds of millions of dollars a year. As Bloomberg correctly points out, this strategy indicates a fair bit about Peacock’s thinking moving forward and also its assessment of its success so far since launching last July. While the nearly year-old service has amassed roughly 33 million accounts, it’s also yet to make original programming as big of a budget priority as some rivals. However, Peacock has invested in and also planted flags with WWE content and streaming PPV events, and it will also have the Olympics streaming as well.

Of course, the pandemic has been a huge unpredictable wrench in whatever plans NBCUniversal may have had for Peacock. Back in December, Warner Bros. made a bold move to potentially change movie-going as we know it when it suddenly announced it would put its entire theatrical line-up onto streaming in 2021–a first move that’s set into motion many dominoes finding many major players in the space both rethinking and doubling down on betting which way streaming’s future might go. As of this writing, a top Netflix executive said they think exclusive theatrical windows will go away; Warner Bros., intriguingly, still thinks they’re important.

While The Office’s return to Peacock was met with much fanfare–and a reboot may happen, as well–something that’s been noticeably absent from discussion of Peacock is its original content. Peacock ended its first year in the business very much in the red with a $914 million loss in 2020, and reclaiming its other content may demonstrate a lack of understanding that as streaming services increasingly snatch up the expiring rights to the same movies and TV shows, an expectation of the strategy with all platforms to be worth paying to be a member is their ability to cultivate a healthy ecosystem of original content.

The next film installment in the Resident Evil franchise, titled Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City, has had its release date pushed back to November 24, 2021.

The new release date is a two-month delay, as the movie was originally going to hit theaters on September 3. The new November 24 release means the film will hit theaters the day before Thanksgiving in the United States.

GameSpot has reached out to Sony for further information about the delay. We’ll report back with any additional details we receive.

The film is written and directed by Johannes Roberts (47 Meters Down) and will star Kaya Scodelario (Crawl), Hannah John-Kamen (Ant-Man and the Wasp), Robbie Amell (Upload), Tom Hopper (Black Sails), Avan Jogia (Zombieland: Double Tap), and Neal McDonough (The 100).

Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City takes place in the titular midwestern town which was once home to the pharmaceutical company the Umbrella Corporation. The company left and the city is a wasteland, and there is a “great evil brewing below the surface.” Of course, said evil is unleashed upon the town and a group of survivors is trying to uncover the mystery behind it all–which leads back to Umbrella. The goal of the movie was to add a lot more depth to these characters fans are familiar with.

The official title of the movie was revealed this past month, and we learned that Welcome to Raccoon City will be a grounded story, according to Roberts. There is a lot coming down the pipeline for RE fans, with Resident Evil Village arriving in May, an animated RE Netflix series following Leon and Claire, and a live-action Netflix series that follows the Wesker family

One of PSN’s biggest annual sales has kicked off once more on PS4 and PS5 to celebrate the start of a new season. This year’s PlayStation Store Spring Sale is truly massive, with 700+ PS5 and PS4 games marked down. The PSN Spring Sale is so big that PlayStation is breaking the sale into two parts, the first of which includes discounts on a wide variety of titles like Ghost of Tsushima, FIFA 21, and Grand Theft Auto V. The second wave of deals will be added on Wednesday, April 14.

In addition to those games, the primeval survival game Ark: Survival Evolved is on sale, along with Doom Eternal, Fallout 76, PUBG, and The Last of Us: Part II. EA’s Star Wars: Battlefront II is also marked down nicely for its Celebration Edition, while No Man’s Sky–which just got a big new expansion–is available for half off. Rockstar’s Red Dead Redemption II, GameSpot’s 2018 Game of the Year, is marked down by 50%.

The Spring Sale wraps up on Wednesday, April 28. Sony also warned that some games will leave the sale before then, as part of the second wave of deals going live, so you’ll want to check a game’s store page for its specific end date. We’ve highlighted a handful of the most notable deals below, but you can check out the full list of 700+ games on sale on the PlayStation Blog. We’ll also be updating this story once the new batch of deals goes live at the midway point on April 14.

Best Spring Sale deals on PS4 and PS5

• Ark: Survival Evolved — $10 ($50)
• Assassin’s Creed Valhalla — $40.19 ($60)
• Battlefield 1 — $6 ($20)
• BioShock: The Collection — $10 ($50)
• Borderlands 3 — $25 ($70)
• Call of Duty: Modern Warfare — $39 ($60)
• Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy — $20 ($40)
• Dark Souls III — $15 ($60)
• Day Z — $30 ($50)
• Destiny 2: Beyond Light — $26.79 ($40)
• Doom Eternal — $24 ($60)
• Dreams — $13 ($20)
• Fallout 76 — $13.19 ($40)
• FIFA 21 — $25.19 ($60)
• Ghost of Tsushima — $40.19 ($60)
• God of War: Digital Deluxe Edition — $20 ($30)
• Grand Theft Auto V — $15 ($30)
• Madden NFL 21 — $24 ($60)
• Mafia: Definitive Edition — $30 ($40)
• Metro Exodus — $12 ($40)
• No Man’s Sky — $30 ($60)
• The Last of Us: Part II — $30 ($60)
• PUBG — $9.89 ($30)
• Red Dead Redemption II — $30 ($60)
• Star Wars: Battlefront II Celebration Edition — $12 ($40)

In addition to all the Spring Sale deals, you can take advantage of a new batch of PS Plus games for April starting on April 6. Days Gone and Zombie Army 4: Dead War will be available to claim on PS4 and PS5, while Oddworld: Soulstorm will be available exclusively for PS5. In the meantime, you can still claim March’s PS Plus games, including Final Fantasy VII Remake, Maquette, Remnant: From the Ashes, and Farpoint (PSVR).

Best PS Plus deal

You can snag a 12-month PS Plus code for $31 via eBay.

See at eBay

For more recommendations of games to play next, be sure to check out our guides to the best PS4 games of all time (some of which are included in the Spring Sale) and the best PS5 games to play right now.