It’s been less than a week since WWE has implemented its Thunderdome, which turns the once-empty arenas into a sea of glowing screens with WWE fans on them, via their own computer at home. However, it only took a few days before some “fans” to abuse the system.
So far there have been screens displaying the last known photo of Chris Benoit, a KKK rally, a video of a beheading, somebody flashing their behind, and Sonya Deville’s stalker’s mugshot during the Sonya/Mandy match at Summerslam–just to name a few.
There have been some funny moments like the fan sleeping and somebody with their stuffed Pikachu, but it’s not worth having those if fans are going to abuse the system.
“This abhorrent behavior does not reflect WWE’s values and we have zero tolerance for these unacceptable acts,” WWE told GameSpot in a statement. “We are working to ban those involved from future events and per our policies, any inappropriate actions result in the removal from the live stream.”
While some fan’s heinous actions have been highlighted online, it should be noted that these people–like the man in the KKK robe–were removed almost immediately and that there are thousands of people moving throughout the Thunderdome system.
When you try to map the world, you find some weird things. A Redditor recently discovered a bizarre skyscraper jutting out of the Italian countryside, casting long shadows onto the rolling fields of bucolic bliss. What gives? Well, as it turns out, Microsoft Flight Simulator’s world-mapping technology is quite impressive, but it can also come along with some minor mistakes.
In Microsoft Flight Simulator a bizarrely eldritch, impossibly narrow skyscraper pierces the skies of Melbourne’s North like a suburban Australian version of Half-Life 2’s Citadel, and I am -all for it- pic.twitter.com/6AH4xgIAWg
A similar monolith was discovered in Melbourne, Australia. According to Twitter user @liamosaur (embedded below), these mistakes are due to typos in OpenStreetMap, the technology that Microsoft Flight Simulator uses for its mapping technology. Apparently, a user typed that their building has 212 floors instead of 2, which led to the creation of the thin monstrosity.
The error was later corrected by another @openstreetmap user, BUT, in the interim, Microsoft took an export of the data and used it to build Flight Simulator 2020. The result… this incredible monolith (2/2) pic.twitter.com/wXKBK03Gcd
That’s not the only strange sight that you might find in the game. Flight Sim accidentally turned Buckingham Palace into a nondescript block of offices, and also reduced Edinburgh Castle to a number of apartment buildings. As the game gets updated, some of these oddities and mistakes might get fixed, but I hope that the obelisks stay, a digital reminder of how important a typo can be.
Microsoft Flight Simulator has garnered an ecstatic response from fans and critics like. In GameSpot’s 9/10 review, critic Edmond Tran called the game a unique blend of technical prowess and out-and-out fun. “Being encouraged to dive into the rabbit hole of learning how to operate genuine, complex machines to perform amazing feats of science is giddying, as is being able to journey across a realistic, mostly accurate depiction of our entire, beautiful planet. Microsoft Flight Simulator is a spectacular technical achievement and a deeply inspiring experience filled with glorious possibilities.”
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Update: A leaked snippet from Call of Duty: Warzone appears to confirm that Sergeant Frank Woods from Call of Duty: Black Ops will be arriving in the game as a ‘Demon Dogs’ Operator.
According to Call of Duty Tracker, the Frank Woods Operator will be a pre-order bonus available to players who purchase the ‘Ultimate Edition’ of Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War, which will also apparently give players early access to the Call of Duty Black Ops Cold War Open Beta, and provide a set of in-game cosmetics.
Game files found in a new Call of Duty: Modern Warfare update seem to have revealed that Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War is a direct sequel to 2010’s Call of Duty: Black Ops.
As spotted by COD Tracker, the game’s description has been found in the datamined files following an update that arrived to Call of Duty: Modern Warfare on August 24. The description notes that Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War is “the direct sequel to the original and fan-favorite Call of Duty: Black Ops.”
“Black Ops Cold War will drop fans into the depths of the Cold War’s volatile geopolitical battle of the early 1980s,” reads the leaked description. “Nothing is ever as it seems in a gripping single-player Campaign, where players will come face-to-face with historical figures and hard truths, as they battle around the globe through iconic locales like East Berlin, Vietnam, Turkey, Soviet KGB headquarters and more.
As elite operatives, you will follow the trail of a shadowy figure named Perseus who is on a mission to destabilize the global balance of power and change the course of history. Descend into the dark center of this global conspiracy alongside iconic characters Woods, Mason and Hudson and a new cast of operatives attempting to stop a plot decades in the making.
Beyond the Campaign, players will bring a Cold War arsenal of weapons and equipment into the next generation of Multiplayer and Zombies experiences.”
As teased in the ‘Know Your History’ trailer, it looks like the Black Ops Cold War campaign will be grounded in history, featuring “historical figures and hard truths” while also bringing back fan favourite characters like Woods, Mason and Hudson, who will join a new cast in tracking down Perseus.
The description also appears to confirm that there will be a Zombies mode present in the game and that Cold War weaponry will be brought to the next-generation of Multiplayer. Given Black Ops Cold War’s ties to Call of Duty: Warzone, perhaps this is suggesting that Warzone will benefit from some of the new weapons and items introduced in this year’s Call of Duty.
Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War was officially confirmed last week, with the vibrant cover art revealed in tandem. The game is set to be fully revealed by Activision on August 26.
Frogwares, the developer behind the horror game The Sinking City, has revealed why the game was removed from several platforms recently. In an open letter, the developer has accused publishers Bigben Interactive and Nacon of withholding royalties, several contract breaches, and even attempting to imply that the studio was merely a “technical partner” on the game.
When development on The Sinking City began in 2017, Bigben and Nacon signed a licensing agreement that would give the companies the right to sell and commercialize the game on Xbox One, PS4, and PC through the Epic Games Store and Steam. In exchange, Frogwares would receive financial contributions towards development and still own the intellectual property. Frogwares would receive payments whenever production milestones were completed, as well as a share of the revenue once The Sinking City was released.
Not long after the deal had been signed, Frogwares claims to have encountered its first problem. Money owed for completed production milestones usually came in later than the agreed date, with payments being halted entirely for 4 months after the publishers allegedly demanded that the source code for The Sinking City be handed over to them.
“Once BBI/Nacon bought out a competing studio working on another Lovecraftian game, they dictated that we give them our source code for The Sinking City,” Frogwares explained. “Once again, BBI/Nacon does not own the IP – they are a licensee. They sell the game – not develop and co-create it. After we refused to comply, we stopped receiving financial contributions for over 4 months.”
Development continued on The Sinking City, with Frogwares encountering new obstacles along the way that allegedly included being kept in the dark with regards to sales forecasts and a retroactive cancellation on the agreed upon milestone payments that were still owed, meaning that the studio receive any profit from the sales of the game.
Frogwares filed a lawsuit against Bigben and Nacon in August 2019, which only raised more questions. Income reports that the studio received were allegedly incomplete and undocumented, resulting in the developer being unable to see if the revenue was correctly calculated or how many units of the game had been sold. There was also the curious case of a statement claiming that a console manufacturer had not paid royalties for more than five months, which Frogwares found curious as payments for their other games had always come in on time.
The studio also claims that the publishers attempted to create a false perception that the developer had very little input on the game, which included removing the Frogwares logo wherever possible, purchasing Sinking City domain names without informing the studio, and even creating a tabletop RPG based on the game while keeping Frogwares in the dark.
“Our Frogwares logo was removed from some of the PS4 and Xbox One game’s cover and other marketing materials and we only were mentioned on the reverse side with the technical partners, again, creating a perception that we were neither the authors, nor the owners of the game,” the studio explained. “Dozens of domain names for our Sherlock Holmes and The Sinking City brands were bought by Bigben/Nacon without notifying us. A tabletop The Sinking City RPG was created without even informing us, and distributed freely, featuring the wrong copyright notice.”
Claiming it is now owed roughly 1 million euros in royalties, Frogwares has decided to formally terminate its contract with Bigben and Nacon. To reverse the perception that the publishers own The Sinking City and retake control of its intellectual property, Frogwares requested removal from several stores so as to prevent the profits of any remaining sales from going to the publishers.
“To all the players that wish to buy The Sinking City – we are more than willing to have the game be present everywhere and we will inform you as we reappear on more platforms on our social channels,” Frogwares explained.
Frogwares ended its letter on a more optimistic note, saying that the studio hopes that the transparency behind its actions will result in creating a more ethical video game industry.
GameSpot has reached out to Nacon for comment, and will report back when they reply.
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John Carpenter has revealed that he is currently in the process of remaking or rebooting his 1982 sci-fi horror classic, The Thing. Speaking on a panel over the weekend at Fantasia International Film Festival, the director was asked during the Q&A portion whether he has any new directing projects currently in the pipeline with production partner Jason Blum of Blumhouse Productions.
“[That] I have? I don’t know about that,” Carpenter said (via Variety). “But we’ve talked about–I think he’s going to be working on The Thing, rebooting The Thing. I’m involved with that, maybe. Down the road.”
This quote confirms rumors from back in January, when producer Alan Donnes’ posted to Facebook: “It’s official! I received my signed contract and first check! I am executive producing a remake of The Thing.” Details remain scarce about the project, but reportedly the movie could be another crack at adapting the source material. Whereas 1982’s The Thing was based on the 1938 John W. Campbell Jr. novella Who Goes There?, this upcoming new version will draw inspiration from Frozen Hell, the unabridged version of Campbell’s earlier work.
The original The Thing, a cult classic, starred Kurt Russell as an American helicopter pilot working with a team of scientists to research bizarre events and explosions occurring at a research station in Antarctica. It featured a soundtrack from Ennio Morricone (A Fistful of Dollars, The Hateful Eight), and also starred Keith David (Platoon, Community) and Wilford Brimley (True Grit).
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Running for my life in Fall Guys‘ Tail Tag is already frustrating. Getting my tail stolen by a hot dog-wearing buffoon on the red team, who I thought was on my team because of my partial color blindness, is downright aggravating. Fall Guys doesn’t have a color blind mode, so players like me have to deal with the problem until Mediatonic implements an accessibility feature that makes team colors more distinct. It’s something the studio says it’s working on, but it is one of several accessibility issues that need to be addressed.
“The biggest game I have difficulty with is Team Tail Tag,” said Redditor DVDN27, who has a type of color blindess called Protanopia. “I’ve been informed by my brother that the colors of the teams in the game are Yellow, Blue, Red, and Green. However, I am unable to tell any difference between the Green and Yellow teams yet I am more often than not in one of these colored teams.”
Players with disabilities have had mixed experiences with Fall Guys. Those who are hard-of-hearing and who have mobility issues have praised the game for its simple button inputs and approachable gameplay design. Others have called Mediatonic out for a lack of basic features that help all disabled players.
“No. Fall Guys is *not* the most accessible Battle Royale, you cannot even remap mouse 1 & 2 without third-party software,” said AbleGamers founder Steven Spohn in a tweet. “It’s a popular game accessible to some. But [the studio] still need to add more accessibility features…”
Because I keep being asked: No. Fall Guys is *not* the most accessible Battle Royale. you cannot even remap mouse1 & 2 without third-party software. It’s a popular game accessible to some. But they still need to add more accessibility features and I look forward to when they do.
Mediatonic has acknowledged the issue, responding to Spohn by saying the studio has been “talking a lot” about various accessibility issues. “We’re scaling up the team at the moment and are all actively working on new content/fixing things/improving the game,” the official account said in a tweet. “We 1000% want to improve accessibility as part of that too!”
Mediatonic did not respond to GameSpot’s questions about what sort of specific accessibility features it has planned. Players have made suggestions, including things like adding a toggle option for grabbing, letting players lock the camera behind their player character, and increasing the size of text on screen in order to make the game easier for everyone to play.
“Even within the constraints of the genre there’s still a lot of of pretty straightforward sensible stuff that can be done, including things that are just good design for all players, and some things that could be quick wins,” accessibility specialist Ian Hamilton tells GameSpot. “Even when trying to retrofit post-launch, which is is generally harder than early in development.”
Mediatonic is a moderately-sized studio with more than 230 employees, although we don’t know how many developers are working on Fall Guys. When developing a games-as-service title, especially one with new mini-games, cosmetics, and gameplay improvements happening regularly, adding accessibility options becomes a game of priorities. It can be difficult to decide what comes first.
Hamilton cites Rare and it’s ongoing development of Sea of Thieves as a prime example of how service-like games should handle accessibility over time. The studio has had 16 updates with new accessibility features since the game launched in 2018. The UK-based studio has done things as small as adding an auto-float feature to help players with a fear of water. Rare and Mediatonic have a similar employee headcount, although Rare has backing from Microsoft.
So just to be clear, here’s a list of which Sea Of Thieves updates have included accessibility upgrades: 2.0.15.1 2.0.15 2.0.14 2.0.13 2.0.12 2.0.8 2.0.5 2.0.3 2.0 1.4.5 1.4.4 1.4.2 1.2.4 1.1.2 1.0.8 1.0.4
Mediatonic can look to other battle royales for ideas to help make Fall Guys more accessible, including the addition of a practice area that gives players the chance to practice movement in a non-competitive setting and the ability to access settings without having to quit your session, for two things that experts say would make the game a lot better.
“Mediatonic clearly cares deeply about the experience of players across the whole spectrum, as can be seen from [the studio’s] incredible fundraising initiative for SpecialEffect,” Hamilton said. “And while games development can be a tough gig of ideas and dreams left on the cutting room floor, the financial success that [the studio has] had with the game should help open a few doors.”
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Revealed formally last week as the future of the Xbox UI, the August 2020 update for Xbox One has begun rolling out with the new Xbox Experience for Microsoft’s consoles.
The UI update is part of Microsoft’s continuing effort to improve the interface on its consoles while also integrating it with new clients across PC and smartphones, following the launch of Xbox Games Pass for PC and xCloud for Android respectively. The UI has subtle visual changes that align the look of the Xbox ecosystem across the three platforms, while also now offering unlimited sign-ins across devices to make transitions between them a lot smoother.
The Guide, which Microsoft has already drastically changed recently, is getting more refinements as part of the update. This includes a slightly tweaked layout that lets you get to games and notifications as soon as you open it, as well as a more intuitive guide to help new users navigate it for the first time. One of the biggest changes is to party chat, which now allows you to set volume levels for each member of the party individually.
Changes have also been made to the Activity Feed, with enhancements to Community and Club pages to make them feel a lot faster to navigate. This is helped by changes to content blocks, auto-playing video clips, and the amount of data being processed on the tab to help cursor movement feel snappier. It also helps highlight content in identically sized windows, which makes parsing it all more intuitive.
Other small changes, like new animated backgrounds, have also made the cut, but some features are still being tested in the coming weeks. This includes subtle font and color enhancements that Xbox Insiders will see rolled out to testing rings soon, as well as new Profile Themes that set the mood for your profile across all devices.
The August 2020 Update is rolling out in waves and should start arriving on your Xbox One soon. It, along with any enhancements in the near future, will be the UI on Microsoft’s Xbox Series X later this year, as the company pushes forward with a consolidation of hardware underneath the Xbox brand.
The world of Sherlock Holmes is about to get a little bigger. The upcoming Netflix movie Enola Holmes follows the legendary detective’s little sister, played by none other than Stranger Things star Millie Bobby Brown, and the first trailer has arrived.
Based on a book by Nancy Springer, director Harry Bradbeer–who won two Emmys for his work on Fleabag–brings the story of Sherlock Holmes’ lesser-known family member to life. Enola Holmes arrives on September 23, and you can check out the first trailer for the movie below.
“England, 1884–a world on the brink of change. On the morning of her 16th birthday, Enola Holmes (Brown) wakes to find that her mother (Helena Bonham Carter) has disappeared, leaving behind an odd assortment of gifts but no apparent clue as to where she’s gone or why,” reads the official synopsis. “After a free-spirited childhood, Enola suddenly finds herself under the care of her brothers Sherlock (Henry Cavill) and Mycroft (Sam Claflin), both set on sending her away to a finishing school for ‘proper’ young ladies. Refusing to follow their wishes, Enola escapes to search for her mother in London. But when her journey finds her entangled in a mystery surrounding a young runaway Lord (Louis Partridge), Enola becomes a super-sleuth in her own right, outwitting her famous brother as she unravels a conspiracy that threatens to set back the course of history.”
The upcoming film also features Adeel Akhtar (The Big Sick), Fiona Shaw (Killing Eve), Frances de la Tour (Outlander), and more.
As for Brown’s starring role on the hit series Stranger Things, production was put on hold due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but creator Ross Duffer did reveal some things about the future of the series. “Season 4 won’t be the end [of the series]. We know what the end is, and we know when it is. [The pandemic] has given us time to look ahead, figure out what is best for the show. Starting to fill that out gave us a better idea of how long we need to tell that story.”
Gearbox has been teasing the next Borderlands 3 DLC featuring the Psycho character Krieg, and now has officially announced it. Psycho Krieg and the Fantastic Fustercluck will launch on September 10 and includes a free level cap increase for all players.
The DLC has Patricia Tannis testing a theory that Psychos were driven mad by the knowledge of the mythical “Vaulthalla,” and the key is in the mind of Krieg. So she sends in the Vault Hunters to investigate. A launch trailer shows the interior of Krieg’s psyche, with all the chaos you may expect from such a premise. The announcement promises that exploring Krieg’s mind will ultimately lead to the treasures of Vaulthalla, so you can certainly expect to go home with some loot.
The trailer also includes an unexpected appearance from Maya, which the announcement notes is a product of seeing the world through Krieg’s eyes and perceiving characters like Maya as he does. You’ll be able to claim loot like Vault Hunter heads and skins and, of course, new guns, all of which are usable outside of Krieg’s brain.
The same date that the DLC drops, all players will get access to the final planned level cap increase. This one will raise the level to 65. A prior cap increase gave access to two capstone skills, and this one will let you further develop your Vault Hunter into a wrecking machine. Mini-events leading up to the release will give you easier Mayhem modifiers and lots of extra cash.
This fourth DLC will be the final addition covered by the Borderlands 3 Season Pass. Previous expansions have included the heist film-inspired Moxxi’s Heist of the Handsome Jackpot, the Lovecraftian Guns, Love, and Tentacles, and the western Bounty of Blood.
