Look Out, Switch: New Smartphone Doesn’t Shy Away From Pinpointing Its Competition

Chinese networking and mobile giant Huawei introduced a new smartphone this week that it claims is a competitor in the video game space to the Nintendo Switch. The Mate 20 X is a 7.2-inch smartphone that CEO Richard Yu boasted as “the best portable mobile gaming machine.”

Variety reports that the event was ostensibly to debut two new phones, but Huawei finished its presentation with the surprise announcement of the Mate 20 X as well. After comparing its performance to phones like the Galaxy Note9, Yu showed a gamepad add-on and began comparing the Mate to the Switch, complete with side-by-side comparisons.

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Yu said the Mate 20 X has a larger screen than the Switch at 7.2 inches, higher resolution with a 1080p OLED screen, and a larger battery. It features a vapor chamber and graphene film designed to keep the chips working at lower temperatures. As a phone, it comes equipped with a 40 MP camera. And it comes in two colors, Phantom Silver and Midnight Blue. You can check out the full specifications here.

“We bring you an extra display, extra power and also extra performance,” Yu said.

The Mate 20 X is priced at €899 or around $1,040. That makes it significantly more than a Nintendo Switch, and aligned more with the price of higher-end iPhone models.

The Switch has provided a financial boom for Nintendo, joining its mobile and console markets. It’s clear enough why a mobile manufacturer would want to position its latest device as a direct competitor. Some of Nintendo’s success, though, comes down to Nintendo’s own first-party games and third-parties getting on-board with specialized software. Huawei is a huge name in China, so it may use that leverage to attract its own development community.

Sean Bean, Who Definitely Never Dies, Is Hitman 2’s First Elusive Target

IO Interactive has announced its first Elusive Target mission for Hitman 2, and it stars none other than the man of many lives (and deaths), actor Sean Bean. Bean plays Mark Faba, an MI5 agent gone rogue as a freelance assassin. Faba has gained a reputation for faking his death, even earning the nickname “The Undying.” Agent 47 might have a thing or two to say about that.

The Undying will release as the first Elusive Target on November 20, one week after the release of Hitman 2. The mission takes place in Miami, where Faba is trying to complete his own contract at the Global Innovation Race event in Miami. You’ll have ten days to complete it. As with the first Hitman, Elusive Targets are free, temporary missions that you’ll only have one chance to complete.

A live-action trailer accompanying the announcement stars Bean as Faba, talking with a therapist about his life as an assassin and describing the various ways he’s eluded death. The role as an expert in faking his own death serves another purpose as a meta-joke, as Sean Bean has become known for playing characters who ultimately die. This is similar to the last Hitman game, which set actor Gary Busey as an Elusive Target.

Hitman 2 adds a new Sniper Assassin mode, which lets you take down targets from a distance solo or paired with a partner. You can gain access to that instantly by pre-ordering, or pre-order a Silver or Gold Edition for more bonuses like extra gear. The Gold Edition also includes four days of early access to the game. You can read more details in our pre-order guide.

Taco Bell Is Giving Away 5,000 Xbox One X Consoles With A Special Twist

Microsoft is once again teaming up with Taco Bell to give away a frankly absurd number of Xbox One consoles as prizes. This year, though, the special edition Xbox One X consoles are customized to remind you of Taco Bell with the restaurant’s bell “ring” sound whenever you power on your console.

Yes seriously.

Purchasing a $5 Double Chalupa Box between October 18 and November 21 will enter you to win the Xbox One X Platinum Limited Edition Bundle. That includes the Taco Bell branded Xbox One X, a white Elite Wireless Controller, and three months of Xbox Game Pass and Xbox Live Gold. To sweeten the pot, the prizes will be given out approximately every 10 minutes throughout the promotion, and they’ll be distributed to the winners a zippy 72 hours after winning. That translates to roughly 5,000 Xbox One X consoles altogether.

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The Double Chalupa Box includes the oversized double chalupa or spicy double chalupa, a crunchy taco, cinnamon twists, and a beverage. It also includes a code you can text to the number provided to check if you’re a winner. You can check the official rules for the fine print and to enter the contest with no purchase necessary.

“We are excited to partner again with Xbox, but this time on a collaboration that is entirely exclusive to fans of both Xbox and Taco Bell,” said Taco Bell brand officer Marisa Thalberg in the announcement. “It delights us to delight our fans with unique experiences, and what better way in this case than through the best in ‘boxes.'”

Black Ops 4 Update Patch Notes Detail New Tweaks

Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 (read our review) has issued a new patch aimed at stability and crash fixes, but it still has some new gameplay tweaks to try out that will make a substantial difference. The biggest change is to Blackout, which is testing different player counts in a few of its modes.

100-Player Duos and 88-Player Quads are now in the playlist under Blackout, in an effort to prod at different formulations of the player count. Some other multiplayer maps have gotten updates as well. The TDM playlist now supports parties of 6 up from 5, and the Featured multiplayer playlist has changed to Heist. Activision says these will regularly rotate and more details on how the Featured playlists will work are coming soon.

Custom games have been fixed to conclude after one team wins six rounds, and the studio has fixed a crash caused by earning multiple Medals in a single match. Plus in Zombies mode, a fix has been issued to a UI error caused by a loss of Internet connection in split-screen play. The PC version has gotten a few bug fixes of its own as well.

In the immediate future, the studio says it’s keeping an eye and working on the Easter Egg quests in Zombies mode, reports of multiplayer audio volume bugs, and teammate names disappearing. On PC it’s investigating a crash associated with the Hellion Salvo launcher, and on Xbox it’s looking into some user reports that their Shadowman and Classified content isn’t showing up.

If you’re just cracking into Black Ops 4, check out our tips for beginners. Or if you’re still on the fence, you can make sure your PC is up to snuff and read all about how it compares to battle royale competitors Fortnite and PUBG.

Blizzard Casts Doubt on Diablo 4 BlizzCon Announcement

BlizzCon 2018 is almost here, but a new post from Blizzard strongly suggests we won’t see any new Diablo projects announced.

“We’ve seen a lot of rumors flying around about our plans for Diablo at the show,” reads a post on the Blizzard forums. “These are very exciting times—we currently have multiple teams working on different Diablo projects and we can’t wait to tell you all about them . . . when the time is right.”

The post goes on to say that “good things come to those who wait, but evil things often take longer”. While Blizzard may not be ready to share all its projects, the company promised that it does intend to share “some Diablo-related news” at the show.

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Taco Bell Giving Away Limited Edition Platinum Xbox One X Bundle

Microsoft has partnered with Taco Bell to give fast food lovers the chance to win an Xbox One X Platinum Limited Edition Bundle.

In addition to an exclusive color scheme, the bundled console features a unique power on sound: the recognizable “ring” regularly heard at the end of Taco Bell commercials. The bundle also includes three months of Xbox Game Pass, three months of Xbox Live Gold, and a white Xbox Elite Wireless Controller.

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Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 Patch Changes Blackout Mode’s Player Counts

A patch released for Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 has increased the player count for Blackout’s Duos mode to 100, while also dropping the player count for Quads mode to 88.

In an update post on Reddit, Treyarch explained that it was still testing out maximum player counts across its modes, and encouraged players to give feedback regarding the extra enemies they’d soon see roaming the battlefield in Duos. The previous Quads maximum player count was 100 — the only mode in the game to support that number of players.

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Hunter Killer Review

Considering all the ludicrous moments in Hunter Killer, I was longing for the film to lean into Roland Emmerich-esque self-awareness. But through po-faced monologues, intense eye-acting and gung-ho theatrics, Hunter Killer remains resolutely serious, and misses the opportunity to have a little fun in among the action.

Based on the 2012 novel Firing Point by Don Keith and George Wallace, Hunter Killer centres on a mission commandeered by US submarine Commander Joe Glass (Gerard Butler) to rescue the Russian president, held hostage by his own Defence Minister Dmitri Durov (Mikhail Gorevoy) on Russian soil.

Aiding the central mission are a group of Navy Seals on the ground led by Bill Beaman (Toby Stephens), and National Security Agency senior analyst Jayne Norquist (Linda Cardellini), Rear Admiral John Fisk (Common), and Admiral Charles Donnegan (Gary Oldman) at the Department of Defence back in the USA. Hunter Killer spends most of its time flitting between the three American groups, giving only a cursory glance toward the Russians, who are mostly shorthanded as evil thanks to Gorevoy’s scarred, reddened face.

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2006’s Prey Was Portal Before Portal

The 1998 E3 trailer for 3D Realms’ Prey was quick to tout its use of ‘portal technology,’ but it ultimately never panned out for the developers, who ended up releasing a considerably different version of the game in 2006. 3D Realms co-founder Scott Miller sat down on this month’s IGN Unfiltered to share behind-the-scenes details on the development of Prey, as well as the cancellation of Prey 2.

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Red Dead Redemption 2: Physical Edition Could Come on 2 Discs

What seems to be Japanese packaging for Red Dead Redemption 2 has appeared online and, if genuine, it shows that the PS4 physical edition is spread across 2 discs.

On the game’s back cover, a symbol indicating the double-disc format is shown:

Double-disc games are more familiar from older generations of console, when games could far outstrip the storage capacity of optical discs.

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