Ready your titans, pilots. Titanfall 2 is joining EA's Origin Access PC subscription service this coming Tuesday, August 1.
The action packed shooter is finally making its way onto Origin Access after an announcement made earlier this month that it, along with Battlefield 1, would be available on it and EA Access by September.
Much like EA Access on Xbox One, Origin Access is EA's version of a sort-of Netflix for games. Pay a flat fee of $4.99/£3.99/€3.99 a month and get access to a wide library of different EA favorites to download and play. The service has expanded from 15 launch titles to over 70 now, and will continue to expand over time.
If you haven't gotten your hands on this one yet, it might be a good time to give it a go. Unlike Titanfall, Titanfall 2 has both a single-player campaign and the same high-octane multiplayer the first game was known for. New titans, new abilities, new maps--you cant go wrong.
A new update for Niantic's popular mobile game Pokemon Go has arrived. The newest update fixes a number of bugs, including those related to freezing and crash scenarios. This update also fixes a "motivation decay bug" for Pokemon who have less than 3000 CP.
Additionally, the new Pokemon Go update brings back Team Instinct leader Spark. As Polygon explains, Spark had gone missing, and fans petitioned for him to return.
With the new update applied, you should see version 0.69.1 for Android and 1.39.1 for iOS. You can see the full patch notes below, as posted on Niantic's website.
Assassin's Creed publisher Ubisoft isn't the only big company that has something to say about Rockstar's decision to delay Red Dead Redemption 2 until 2018. During a recent earnings call, EA CFO Blake Jorgensen said the delay for Rockstar's hugely anticipated Western provides "a little bit of opportunity" for EA and others in the industry. At the same time, Jorgensen pointed out that big games can help grow the entire industry, including hardware as well.
"What we've found historically, we've had many times where we've gone into quarters that looked daunting because of the competition," he said (via SeekingAlpha). Think back to [Grand Theft Auto V] when it came out, and what we actually found is it grows the overall market. It drives console sales. Oftentimes, many of those titles get bundled to help drive or reduce the price of a console for the consumer, and it drives excitement in the marketplace, and we like that. It benefits the consumer and it benefits us because it generates a lot of buzz around games."
Jorgensen pointed out that EA has always competed against the biggest titles in the industry, and this does not both the publisher much. "So I don't think it bothers us, but it excites us, I'd say instead. And you might remember, no [Red Dead Redemption 2] that was originally in the plans for our third quarter, fourth quarter of the calendar year, so that does open up a little bit of opportunity, I think, for everybody."
Ubisoft CFO Alain Martinez said earlier this year that Red Dead Redemption 2's delay is "clearly" a positive for Ubisoft. "The absence of that game is of course giving us a better window for the launch of some of our games."
Red Dead Redemption 2 is coming out in Spring 2018 for Xbox One and PlayStation 4. Regarding the delay, Rockstar said earlier this year that it needed more time to "deliver the best experience possible for our fans."
DICE's World War I shooter Battlefield 1 continues to be a huge hit. Publisher Electronic Arts announced this week that the game reached 21 million players as of the end of June. Here is EA's exact wording on the milestone: "Battlefield 1 had more than 21 million players joining the game as of quarter end." This is up from 19 million a few months ago.
Games sales and revenue from add-on content stands to grow further still, as DICE will launch the next expansion pack, In The Name of the Tsar, coming out for everyone to buy in September. Overall, EA said it believes Battlefield 1 will "continue to evolve as a content-rich live service."
And at Gamescom in August, EA said it will reveal some kind of new ... thing for Battlefield 1--and it sounds pretty ambitious.
"At Gamescom, we will detail our plans for a new offering that will bring the richest Battlefield 1 experience yet--including the all-out warfare, epic multiplayer battles and War Stories campaign that have defined the game, plus new maps, deeper progression, and additional fan-favorite game modes, all in a single package," CEO Andrew Wilson said in prepared remarks.
For more on the next Battlefield 1 expansion, watch the video above. And for more on EA's earnings call, check out the linked stories below:
Electronic Arts is one of the biggest and best-known video game publishers in the world, with numerous projects in the works at the same time. Don't expect the company to slow down its release schedule, however; the publisher is sticking with what works. During a recent earnings briefing Q&A, an analyst asked if EA has the opportunity to space out its non-sports games (titles like Madden and FIFA are released every year), and EA CFO Blake Jorgensen said no way.
"Never too much product," he said with what sounded like a laugh (via SeekingAlpha). "I think we like our regular cadence. I think we've found a good cadence obviously with Battlefield and with Star Wars Battlefront. We're trying to make sure that we're leveraging our relationship with Disney on the Star Wars property, so aligning those where possible with their theatrical release schedules. So right now, our plan is not to change our cadence schedule."
Jorgensen added that it's too early to talk about the release schedule for BioWare's new IP Anthem or any projects from Motive Studios. Right now, EA is feeling "pretty comfortable" as it relates to its release schedule and its pipeline of in-development games.
"We believe it creates a nice top line growth that's all organic from our teams, and we're very focused on making sure that it's very profitable along the way," he said. "So we want to continue to drive both the top line and the bottom line through new IP, existing IP, new live services, and margin expansion across all of those."
EA's next big shooter game is Star Wars: Battlefront II, which comes out in November. Before that, EA will launch the latest instalments in the juggernaut FIFA and Madden franchises.
With just a few days left in July, streaming giant Netflix has announced all of the movies and TV shows coming to the service for August, along with a list of what's leaving next month.
Some of the notable additions for August 1 include The Matrix trilogy, Quentin Tarantino's Jackie Brown, and the Will Smith movie Wild West West. Also due out in August is the Michael Keaton McDonald's movie The Founder (August 2), the third season of the Netflix original Voltron (August 4), and the card-counting movie 21 (August 15).
Other high-profile new releases include the Netflix originals The Defenders (August 18) and Death Note (August 25).
As for what's leaving Netflix, movies that leave the service on August 1 include Babe and Zack and Miri Make a Porno, while Superbad leaves Netflix on August 4. American Dad seasons 1-4 are leaving on August 15, while seasons 1-7 of The League leave on August 30.
You can see the full rundown of what's coming to and leaving Netflix below for the US specifically, as rounded up and compiled by GameSpot sister site CNET. Check out the stories linked below to see the coming and going lists for Hulu and Amazon.
Blizzard has revealed base salaries, benefits, and more details for players looking to sign with the Overwatch League for its first season.
Teams will be able to sign players to one-year contracts within the August 1 to October 30 signing window. The minimum salary for players is $50,000 per year.
In addition to a base salary, players will receive health insurance, retirement plans, housing for the season, and at least 50% of prize pool winnings (distributed among a team). The total bonuses in Season 1 will amount to $3.5 million, and at least $1 million of it will be awarded to the Season 1 champion team.
Addressing roster and team composition questions, Blizzard also clarified that teams can have between six and 12 players with no "region locking" on the basis of players' home countries or nationalities. You can find all the details on the Overwatch League website.
Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment recently announced that Silicon Valley and The Big Sick actor Kumail Nanjiani has been cast in Middle-earth: Shadow of War as an Orc. Today, we got a new look at what Nanjiani's Orc will be like.
In a new trailer, Nanjiani discusses his role and talks about the personality of the Orc that he plays. The Agonizer, as the Orc is called in-game, is a pretty fierce-looking monster--but he doesn't act the part. Check it out above.
"He wants to be badass, he wants to be cool, but he really second-guesses himself and he overthinks everything," Nanjiani says in the video. "He writes these insults, and then in the moment he's not sure if they're good or if he can commit to them."
Honestly, The Agonizer sounds pretty much like one of Nanjiani's other characters, such as Dinesh Chugtai from Silicon Valley or his various appearances in Portlandia.
Shadow of War launches on October 10 for PS4, Xbox One, and PC. WB recently released another trailer that showed the infamous character Shelob as a human. You can see that video here.
No matter how you choose to spend your time at San Diego Comic-Con--whether you're waiting hours in line for a panel, or braving the show floor in search of a Spider-Man fidget spinner--you're almost always going to be overheated, exhausted, and malnourished. The Titmouse RV is a traveling oasis for overworked journalists, where you can crack open a beer or two with Chris Prynoski, the ubiquitous animation company's co-founder, and shoot the breeze about cartoons for an hour.
"We might go to this area that looks like we're going to kill you and dump you on the railroad tracks," Prynoski says, as the RV begins to lumber away from the convention center. "It's because we can't park anywhere around Comic-Con. So we found this weird deserted dirt road near the train tracks. It's the standard murder-yard."
So what's new with Titmouse? "We just keep trying to make these cartoons," he says.
Founded in 2000 by Prynoski and his wife Shannon as a t-shirt printing company, Titmouse has animated some of the most influential shows of the last two decades, like Metalocalypse, Superjail!, and The Venture Bros. Their most recent projects include Amazon's Niko and the Sword of Light (which won an Emmy for Outstanding Children's Animated Program), various virtual reality music videos, a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles short film, character animations for a Jay Z music video, and that bonkers Rick and Morty season 3 "exquisite corpse" trailer that had everyone talking a couple of weeks ago.
The one thing that's consistent among all Titmouse's work is the quality, while everything else is up in the air on each new project. Take the Rick and Morty trailer. That show's creators, Dan Harmon and Justin Roiland, told GameSpot recently that they felt guilty they were getting credit for it. In reality, it was all Titmouse.
"That was so fun," Prynoski says. "Justin [Roiland] was mostly involved in a couple, like, vague ideas at the beginning, then bringing him in to do voices. And the animators wrote all the dialogue."
The concept--the "exquisite corpse"--came from a French style where multiple artists contribute to a whole piece without seeing one another's work. "It was like a parlour game, when you're like, drinking absinthe in a French cafe, smoking and getting a b****** from a hooker, if you're like, [French artist] Toulouse Lautrec or something," Prynoski says. At Titmouse, they have the freedom to experiment.
Prynoski's look--unkempt hair, graying beard, goofy Budweiser bucket hat--is distinctive. In the air-conditioned, dimly lit RV, he offers two types of beer: Fancy, or not fancy. He cracks a couple of Buds.
"It's a weird thing that happens when you become a business, that in order to keep it going you have to keep taking jobs to keep doing more, which makes you have to make more," he says. He's not complaining. "It's like a never-ending cycle, which is cool and fun, because we like making cartoons."
That also means expanding. "When we were making Metalocalypse, we were maybe like 40 people, and it was mostly, you know, we'd be doing one series and then maybe one or two small projects, like working on the Guitar Hero cutscenes or something," Prynoski says. Titmouse now has offices in LA, New York, and Vancouver, and around 500 employees. And people are coming to them for bigger and bigger projects, like the Jay Z music video for "The Story of O.J."
"They didn't tell us who it was, and they were like, it's super high pressure because it has to be high quality, it has a very fast schedule, and we were like, 'I dunno if we can do it,'" Prynoski says. "And then Ben [Kalina, Titmouse's COO] pressed 'em on the creative, and we found out who it was for, and kind of saw the creative and like, alright, we'll do this one. This is cool."
"That one was in super lockdown when we were in production on it," Prynoski explains. "Not only because it's Jay Z, but because if one of those images leaked out of context, man, that would not be good."
"We couldn't even have the song on our server. We got like, chunks of it," Kalina, sitting across the RV, adds.
The Emmy for Niko and the Sword of Light was a nice surprise. Kalina said they get nominated regularly, but rarely win anything: "You kind of just get used to like, OK, this is the part where I'm going to pack my bag, and finish my drink, and we'll lose, and we'll just go."
"It's way more fun to win," Prynoski says.
Cartoons have changed a lot in the past few decades. Prynoski reminisced about compromising with the Standards and Practices (S&P) department to push the envelope as much as possible on shows like Metalocalypse, which portrayed a metal band so big they made up a large chunk of the world's economy, and whose wealth and popularity was matched only by their depravity.
"I don't know if you remember this one, where they're all trying to learn how to suck their own d***s, and it was like, we were really trying to figure out how to stage that and still get it past S&P," Prynoski says. "You had to do these like, side views where you can't see anything, but it's just all implied."
Titmouse's repertoire definitely includes plenty of cartoons for people of all ages, but their reputation has also limited them occasionally. Potential clients tell them they want to do a show like Metalocalypse, but Prynoski can often tell when they don't really know what they're asking for.
"I was like, 'We did an episode of Metalocalypse where they're all trying to learn how to suck their own d***s. Would you do an episode like that?'" he recalls of one specific instance. "And there was silence on the other line, and they just said, 'No.' And we never did another phone call with them after that. But clearly, I think we got to the 'no' faster that way. Because we could have worked with them for six months, and then figured out they don't want anything like this."
Prynoski got his start working on MTV shows like Daria, Celebrity Deathmatch, Beavis and Butthead, and The Head. "It felt like how Adult Swim feels, and it didn't last that long. That only really lasted like, six years, seven years, and it was over," he says. "Adult Swim really started to kick into gear in like the mid to early 2000s, like 2004, 2005, 2006, you know. It was like, oh, this is becoming something big. And it's f***ing not dipped since then. It just continues to be cool."
Titmouse's continued success feels inevitable to anyone paying attention to animation today. Prynoski says he wants to slow the expansion down for now. He's just happy he gets to keep making cartoons. "I'm kind of encouraged by how long this has lasted," he says.
Anyone who's ever enjoyed an episode of Metalocalypse or The Venture Bros.--who's currently binging Niko and the Sword of Light, who wants to watch music videos in virtual reality, who marveled recently at "The Story of O.J." or the Rick and Morty exquisite corpse trailer, or who's enjoyed an hour in a roving oasis during Comic-Con--would no doubt say the same.
A new Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain update was just revealed, and it includes quite a bit of content. Konami is adding several new outfits, new ways to use the Wormhole Generator, and Revolver Ocelot to the game's FOB mode.
The highlight of the update is the addition of Revolver Ocelot. You'll now be able to take control of the well-known MGS boss to infiltrate other players' Forward Operating Bases. According to Konami, he isn't customizable, but he does feature several perks: he has slightly better camouflage and faster reload and weapon draw times. In addition, Ocelot can dual-wield pistols and use ricochet bullets on marked enemies.
The update also comes with several new swimsuits for FOB staff, and they can wear them when defending your base or attacking others. Diamond Dog soldiers get two new outfits, as well, both of which increase movement speed. You can see the outfits at the bottom of this article.
Finally, the Wormhole Generator will receive new features that make it more useful. The Grade 9 Generator can now extract players automatically when they get into critical situations. They also cannot be moved after being placed, but they're harder to destroy.
Konami's blog post states that the update is slated for release around August 1. This is the first update in a long time for the game; Konami's last published patch notes are from August 2016.
Close beta testing for Escape From Tarkov, the upcoming PC-exclusive first-person shooter, has now begun. To kick off the beta, developer Battlestate Games has released a new trailer that showcases the game's current build.
Escape from Tarkov has been in alpha since December of last year, but that was only accessible to select players who purchased the game's Deluxe edition. The closed beta will be available to "all owners of early access packages." Battlestate says that invitations to the beta will be distributed in waves, but "as soon as reasonably possible." As the developer explains on the game's website, "Within a week, every package owner shall receive an invitation email. Players who have purchased early access packages earlier than others will be allowed into testing first."
Battlestate has made a number of changes and updates to the game going into the closed beta. The developer has outlined these tweaks on the game's website, but they include:
Reworked balance of existing locations and new spots to explore
More useful items, medicines, and equipment
Advanced arsenal of weapons and weapon modifications
Balanced economy and insurance system
General chat to search for info or raid companion
Escape from Tarkov is an ambitious online shooter that also combines elements of MMOs and RPGs. The game is set in the fictional Russian city of Tarkov, which has been sealed off from the outside world. Players join one of three factions and must gather resources and customize their own weapons and skills. You can find GameSpot's full coverage of Escape from Tarkov here.
As a proposed "indie-AAA" title, Ninja Theory's next game focusing on the emotional journey of a tormented young adventurer looks to channel the studio's strengths in storytelling and visual fidelity in a number of interesting ways. With Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice set for release on August 8, Ninja Theory shared news on Twitter that the game has completed development, marking the end of the studio's experiment into the development of an affordable mid-tier title--which it chronicled in a YouTube series for nearly three years. In addition, Ninja Theory detailed a newly announced Photo mode and released a new trailer
Coming from the same studio behind DmC: Devil May Cry, Enslaved: Odyssey To The West, and Heavenly Sword, this story driven adventure game for PC and PS4 is looking to channel the same focus on character drama to go with its rich and intriguing presentation. In this new trailer, we see more of the central protagonist's anguish and despair as she attempts to reconcile her mental strife with the world around her--which appears to be in some rather deep turmoil of its own. Hellblade's story is told from her perspective, with her inner demons plaguing her at every turn, making every combat encounter and puzzle sequence a deeper struggle. The team at Ninja Theory have shown a lot of the game's visual style, and it's easy to see that the presentation will definitely be one of the highlights of this game.
To go along with this, the developers also included a Photo Mode for the game. Much like other games that use a Photo Mode, such as Horizon: Zero Dawn and Uncharted 4: A Thief's End, you'll be able to pause and freely move around the camera to find the perfect shot--which can then have various filters and adjustments applied to it. It'll be interesting to see what sort of content comes up from the Photo Mode, as many players had fun messing around with ones from other titles. Hellblade looks to be a visual feast for the eyes, even if the adventure itself looks to take us on an emotional rollercoaster. Be sure to check back with us on August 8 for our full review.
Players looking for a new game to play have yet another option to choose from. Titanfall 2 is free to play on PS4, Xbox One, and PC this weekend.
Beginning today, players will be able to try a sample of the game's single-player and multiplayer modes for free. The trial lasts until July 30 and coincides with the game's bonus XP weekend, during which players will earn twice as much experience as normal in all the game's modes. The Double XP event ends on July 31.
PS4 players who'd like to purchase a copy of Titanfall 2 have a chance to do so at a discount. The standard version is currently on sale in the PlayStation Store for $20, while the Deluxe Edition runs for $25. Both versions will be on sale until August 1. The game is also coming to EA and Origin Access at some point before September.
This week saw the release of Titanfall's latest DLC pack, Operation Frontier Shield. In addition to two new maps, the DLC introduced Frontier Defense, a cooperative horde mode that pits players against increasingly challenging waves of enemies. The Operation Frontier Shield pack is available to download for free. Developer Respawn is also offering a range of Titan and Weapon Warpaints that players can purchase for a limited time. These grant merit boosts and other benefits when equipped to your Titans and weapons. You can learn more about the Warpaints at the developer's blog.
The number of hours I've spent obsessing over minute details in the NBA 2K games' GM modes is hard to even contemplate. The series offers the only opportunity virtually all of us will ever have to manage and run an NBA team, but the experience breaks down when you can't properly simulate real life due to some missing rule or option. Expanding the breadth of tools at your disposal in NBA 2K18's MyGM mode appears to be a major point of emphasis, according to developer Visual Concepts.
In terms of rules, many of the key things we've seen impact the NBA landscape recently are now in place. This includes elements introduced in the latest Collective Bargaining Agreement and other tweaks to more accurately reflect the real-life NBA: Super Max contracts (Designated Veteran Contracts, Designated Veteran Extensions, and Rookie Scale Extensions); changes to minimum and maximum salaries, the Mid-Level Exception; cap holds; the Over-38 rule; the Stretch Provision; new timeout rules; trading draft rights; the G-League and two-way contracts; new analytics tools; a way to stash international prospects; and more. Much of this is described in further depth in Boenisch's post, but this list alone is the kind of thing to get die-hard fans drooling. I'm just hoping this is the year the game stops treating my last name as profane (a bizarrely common problem for some people).
Boenisch also shared details on some of what's new for MyLeague mode. When playing online, players can customize their team's uniforms, courts, location, and more. There's also a way to add created players to a team--even mid-season--without having to start a completely fresh MyLeague save file.
Despite its relatively short time on the market, there has been no shortage of impressive custom Nintendo Switch designs. Now, one enterprising Pokemon fan has customized the system's Joy-Cons to resemble one of the series' most iconic items.
On Reddit, user BostianALX shared images of their custom Joy-Cons, which have been painted red-and-white to look like Poke Balls. Bostian outlined the process that was taken to paint the controllers on the image-sharing website Imgur. We've shared some of the photos below, but you can find the full post here.
Lost to some degree in the excitement surrounding Doomfist's release in Overwatch yesterday was a change to respawn timers. The patch notes mention the adjustment, but the exact phrasing left something to be desired, as players were left with no real idea of what was now different.
"Adjusted the respawn timing to limit defensive stalling strategies when the offensive team has a clear advantage and plays aggressively," the patch notes proclaimed while offering no further insight into what this means. This prompted calls for an explanation, which Blizzard has now provided on its official forums.
"There was an existing system that slowly increased the defender respawn time in the case where there are more attackers than defenders on an objective for 30 seconds," principal designer Scott Mercer wrote. "The defender respawn time then increased in a linear fashion up to a maximum when the attackers held an advantage for 90 seconds."
The change in this patch causes the defender respawn times to increase after only 15 seconds of "attacker advantage." Additionally, the maximum possible increase is now reached after 75 seconds.
Mercer added that temporarily surrendering the objective doesn't reset this timer. The timer instead begins counting backwards to 0.
"Example: If attackers have an advantage for 10 seconds, then defenders regain it for 5 seconds, the 'attacker advantage timer' is now at 5 seconds," he explained. "If the attackers then get a few kills to regain advantage then after 10 more seconds the 'attacker advantage timer' reaches 15 seconds and defender respawn time begins to slowly increase.
"The end result is that stalling tactics involving defenders trickling in one at a time into the waiting weaponry of an entire enemy team on the objective should be less effective than before."
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