The second season of Stranger Things comes out on Netflix this month, but you don't have to wait that long to get back into the series. An official Stranger Things game is now out for free on iOS and Android devices, and it's dripping in show lore and '80s nostalgia.
The pixelated, retro-inspired side scroller puts you in the shoes of Hopper and the other Stranger Things kids. You travel around Hawkins, Indiana and other locations from the show, dodging and battling enemies and solving puzzles to advance. Developer BonusXP says each character has their own unique abilities. For example, Lucas can nail anything with his Wrist Rocket and Nancy has an entire collection of bats to swing.
In addition to exploring and solving mysteries, you're also tasked with collecting Eggos and Gnomes. While Stranger Things: The Game is completely free (with no microtransactions), collecting these items will unlock more of the game. You can also speed run levels to try to beat other players' times on leaderboards and on social media.
The PlayStation 4 version of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt has received an update enabling it to benefit from the extra horsepower in a PlayStation 4 Pro. Developer CD Projekt Red has said that, with the patch, The Witcher 3 and "all additional content feature support for 4K resolution" and also get a "slight boost to performance."
No further details have been revealed on which areas of performance specifically benefit. It's unclear whether the game runs at native 4K or is upscaled. GameSpot will put the update through its paces and report back with more details on how the The Witcher 3 runs on PlayStation 4 Pro.
The Witcher series recently reached its 10th Anniversary and, to celebrate, CD Projekt Red released a very wholesome video featuring main character Geralt looking back on his memories. He's shown among friends at a birthday party where people are playing Gwent, so we know he's doing well, bless him.
Another game that recently joined the venerable ranks of GameSpot's 10/10-worth titles was Divinity II: Original Sin.
"From lonely farmhouses through pitched battles with gods in far-flung dimensions, Divinity: Original Sin 2 is one of the most captivating role-playing games ever made," said critic Brett Todd. "Its immaculately conceived and emotion-wrought fantasy world, topped by brilliant tactical combat, make it one of the finest games of the year thus far, and it has to be regarded as an instant classic in the pantheon of RPG greats."
Ahead of its release next month, EA has launched the beta for Star Wars: Battlefront II. It's not available to everyone currently but will soon open up to include all players across PS4, Xbox One, and PC.
Beginning today, anyone who pre-ordered Battlefront II by September 30 (or otherwise obtained a beta code) can begin playing. Everyone else receives access beginning on Friday, October 6, with the beta running until October 9.
However you get in, you'll have access to four total modes: Galactic Assault, Starfighter Assault, Strike, and Arcade. The first three are all online multiplayer modes, while Arcade is a 1-2 player mode that can be played locally in split-screen. You can check out our previous coverage for more details on what's in the Battlefront II beta.
The Fast and Furious series has evolved from a set of relatively niche films about car racing to one of the biggest franchises in Hollywood. The inevitable sequel has now been confirmed with a release date, but the wait for it will be longer than we've become accustomed to.
Fast and Furious 9, or whatever it ends up being called, will release on April 10, 2020, the series' official Twitter account revealed today. It posted only the image below, which features the hashtag #F9 and a date.
With the most recent movie, The Fate of the Furious, having released on April 14, 2017, this will be a three-year wait for the next entry. There were only two years in between each of the last five films, and that was despite the fact that Furious 7 had to deal with the death of Paul Walker during production.
Amid its roaring success and popularity, PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds has recently encountered a variety of server issues that have kept players from getting online. Developer Bluehole has now addressed the situation, explaining, "It has become increasingly difficult to manage servers during peak times," and vowing to continue working on improvements.
In a blog post, Bluehole opened with an apology, saying, "We would like to sincerely apologize to everyone for the recent server issues which resulted in long waits and any inconveniences. Our development team has been continuously upgrading the service architecture to address the increasing concurrent player numbers and tackle any emerging issues. Despite our daily efforts, there were some unexpected issues during peak times and we were unable to resolve some of the issues as fast as we would have wanted to."
When designing PUBG's lobby server, Bluehole expected to have to deal with about 1 million concurrent players during Early Access. As has been well documented, PUBG has smashed Steam records, surpassing Dota 2 and setting new all-time records for peak player count. (Just today, its peak topped 1.65 million players online at once.) The company began developing new server architecture in late June, but it's been unable to keep up with the explosive growth of the game.
"To alleviate the above, our development team will prepare our servers far more in advance so that they can handle a much larger number of concurrent players," it said. "This is something that we plan to continuously improve on."
Bluehole also discussed server crashes in Asia, saying it did not sufficiently test the cloud service it enlisted when its existing one could not meet demand. This resulted in servers being overloaded, and thus the "frequent crashes." The developer said it's "investigating the issue in order to prevent it from happening in the future."
"The entire development team is doing their best to make sure all PUBG players in the world can play PUBG smoothly whenever they want," it said. "Again, we would like to sincerely apologize to all the players who experienced any inconveniences due to server problems or connection errors. Please rest assured that we have doubled our efforts to improve the quality of the service. On a side note, we have been continuously working on optimization and doing our best to make gradual improvements.
"Our team will not be content with the status quo and will do our best to improve your experience. Thank you for your patience and understanding."
Ridley Scott's Blade Runner changed the world of cinema when it premiered in 1982. Not only did Scott's big-screen adaptation of Philip K Dick's novel cement Harrison Ford as a versatile action star, the movie created a new sci-fi subgenre known as "tech noir."
As audiences prepare to re-enter the world that Ridley built with Blade Runner 2049 this Friday, it feels like the perfect time to take a look at the many works of entertainment the classic has inspired. From a time-traveling cyborg hell-bent on stopping the apocalypse to a futuristic old west theme park crumbling under the weight of its technological innovations, here are 10 of the best movies and TV shows inspired by the one and only Blade Runner.
The Terminator
The Terminator hit theaters just two years after Blade Runner. James Cameron's action thriller was not only inspired by Ridley Scott's sci-fi epic, it had a huge impact on the genre--and Arnold Schwarzenegger's career--as well.
Cameron's film threw an innocent young woman by the name of Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton) into the midst of a pre-apocalyptic battle between human and robot. Exploring the potentially dangerous connection between society and technology--proposing the demise of civilization as we know it--the film defined itself as much more than just a futuristic looking action movie. The Terminator built on the cyberpunk aesthetic created by Blade Runner, bringing themes of a misunderstood AI threat to the rain-soaked, neon backdrop of 1980s Los Angeles.
Gattaca
Andrew Niccol's directorial debut put society into two main categories: the Valids and the In-Valids. Vincent Freeman (Ethan Hawke) is an In-Valid striving for a better life, no matter the price. Taking on the identity of a Valid named Jerome (Jude Law)--practicing a daily routine of scrubbing and clipping away any sign of his real DNA--Vincent's struggle unfolds as a murder investigation puts intense scrutiny on his professional and personal life.
Exploring the concept of genetic manipulation, class warfare and the dangers of humanity's loss amid booming technological advancements is ever present in Niccol's 1997 film. Mix in a bit of Blade Runner's film noir style, and a killer performance by Uma Thurman, and you've got yourself a sci-fi gem definitely worth a watch.
The Fifth Element
The Fifth Element put a different spin on the sci-fi/noir genre by adding some intergalactic Star Wars-style flash into the mix. The film stars Bruce Willis as New York cab driver Korben Dallas, who is unexpectedly thrown into a humanity saving mission when the enigmatic Leeloo (Milla Jovovich) falls into his life.
Luc Besson's 1997 action flick took a fair share of style notes from Blade Runner. From the intricate world-building to the Asian culture that permeates these 23rd century New York streets, it's hard not to see Ridley Scott's influence here. And if you look closely, you'll find actor Brion James--better known as replicant Leon Kowalski--making a cameo as General Munro.
The Matrix
Playing on the notion that the reality people see isn't the truth, The Wachowskis took science fiction entertainment to another level when the first installment of the Matrix trilogy hit theaters. Sure, the story of "chosen one" Neo (Keanu Reeves) follows through on a very clear Jesus Christ metaphor, but without Blade Runner's influence, The Matrix would probably never have seen the light of day.
Neo's battles against the ever-growing army of Mr. Smiths and his trip into the Underworld present dystopian themes of classism where artificial intelligence has gotten the upper hand against humanity. While The Matrix doesn't dwell in the familiar film noir stylings of its sci-fi predecessors, Blade Runner's stylistic and thematic DNA is very much present throughout the 1999 film and its sequels.
Dark City
Alex Proyas' Dark City took the world-building of Blade Runner to--for lack of better words--a darker level. The story follows John Murdoch (Rufus Sewell), a man without memory trying to prove he's innocent of murder. As he furthers his investigation, Murdoch discovers an underworld where alien beings with mind-altering powers--known as "The Strangers"--control the world above.
The noir stylings and German Expressionism that informed Blade Runner are on full display here. Dark City gives the vibe that citizens of this foreboding place live nowhere and everywhere at the exact same time. Steeped heavily in dystopian existentialism as it is, it's hard not to put this film in same category as Ridley Scott's classic.
Strange Days
Strange Days was a product of the '90s, achieving a sort of cult status over the years. The story follows ex-cop Lenny Nero (Ralph Fiennes), who gets by hocking discs containing other people's memories for the sole purpose of living out fantasies of the virtual kind. Nero eventually receives a disc containing a murderer's gruesome memories and finds himself seeking out the killer, diving deep into the underworld of this near-future L.A.
Written by James Cameron with Kathryn Bigelow in the director's chair, Strange Days provides a bleak outlook on a familiar society's not so distant future. With a recognizable noir detective story as its overarching concept--Nero kind of feels like a '90s Frank Deckard (Harrison Ford)--the film explores themes of virtual voyeurism and the negative effects technology has on society.
Total Recall
In Total Recall, construction worker Douglas Quaid (Arnold Schwarzenegger) is plagued with dreams of visiting a fully colonized Mars. To quell these desires, Quaid visits "Rekall," a company that sells false memories with the goal of fulfilling any and all fantasies. Instead of living out his Mars-inspired dreams, though, a mishap in the implanting procedure reveals that Quaid's entire life had been based on false memories.
Themes of identity and humanity's dwindling relevance amid a dystopian tech-heavy environment are prevalent here. The most common connection between Blade Runner and both Total Recall films--1990's Arnold Schwarzenegger-starrer and Len Wiseman's drab 2012 remake--is Philip K. Dick. The science fiction author penned the novels Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? and We Can Remember It for You Wholesale, which inspired these big-screen adaptations.
Ghost in the Shell
Mamoru Oshii's 1995 anime is a landmark achievement in the genre and one that owes its existence to Ridley Scott's film. The story, based on the manga written and illustrated by Masamune Shirow, follows a cyborg cop and her partner as they hunt an elusive cyber-criminal known as "The Puppet Master."
The manga and movie--both the original and live action remake--tread similar ground, exploring the pros and cons of existing in a world where technology has rapidly advanced beyond humanity's evolution point. Not to mention, Ghost in the Shell's big bad does feel a bit reminiscent of Blade Runner's replicant bad boy Roy Batty (Rutger Hauer).
Ex Machina
Ex Machina tells the tale of Caleb Smith (Domhnall Gleeson), a coder who wins a week away from his day job to hang out with billionaire programmer Nathan Bateman (Oscar Isaac). It's only when he arrives at Bateman's underground bunker/estate that Caleb learns he's been brought there to test the consciousness of Ava (Alicia Vikander), an attractive artificial intelligence that Nathan created.
Alex Garland's directorial debut is a layered tale that explores the progress of human/robot interaction--and the potentially life-threatening dangers that come with it. While Caleb never engages in sexual relations with Ava, it's hard not to think of Blade Runner's blurred lines between human and replicant. Deckard's romantic involvement with replicant Rachael (Sean Young) most definitely comes to mind.
Westworld
Instead of focusing on the outside industrialized world, HBO's TV remake of Michael Crichton's 1973 film turns its focus on the inner workings of Westworld, the technologically advanced Wild West-themed amusement park populated by robot cowboys, android prostitutes, and synthetic savages. The high concept series may have been inspired by its movie predecessor, but it's hard to deny Blade Runner's effect on the remake.
The series delved deeper into the social and psychological ramifications of a park that gives high-paying clientele the opportunity to live out their darkest desires. From the awakening consciousness of hosts Dolores (Evan Rachel Wood) and Maeve (Thandie Newton) to the tortured existence of tried and true guest the Man in Black (Ed Harris), themes of classism, human rights and identity politics flourish amid the slow-building chaos.
By Anonymous on Oct 04, 2017 09:38 pm The Lobby crew gets ready for the most exciting month of the year, and discusses recent Star Wars: Battlefront 2 story revelations, along with Cuphead difficulty nightmares.
A new gameplay trailer for Marvel Vs. Capcom: Infinite has been released, showing upcoming DLC characters Black Panther and Sigma duking it out. Capcom has also released images of new premium costumes for those characters, as well as Monster Hunter, another fighter that'll be added to the game.
According to Capcom, "Black Panther is a melee fighter who utilizes quick slashes with his claws to win the fight. T'Challa can also cling to walls as well as jump from one to another in a matter of moments, allowing him to escape pressure, but to also pounce on an opponent from multiple angles."
In the gameplay trailer he can be seen quickly moving around the stage, slashing his enemy on both the ground and in the air. He also calls in Sigma to extend combos and do devastating damage.
"Using his energy sword, Sigma is able to control the battle by opening up dimensional rifts that linger around the screen, hindering his opponent's movement options," Capcom says about the character. "Armed with a command grab and a counter teleport, he has options to deal with overly aggressive teams that may try to take advantage of his slower but imposing move set."
Black Panther, Sigma, and Monster Hunter will be available on October 17 at no additional cost to those that purchased the 2017 Character Pack. Alongside the characters will be the costumes you can see below. Capcom has said it also has "premium costumes for the full roster coming soon."
In GameSpot's Marvel Vs. Capcom: Infinite review, it was awarded an 8/10. "The mechanics underlying Marvel Vs. Capcom: Infinite make it an outstanding fighting game," reads the review. Capcom has understood what caused the stagnation of Marvel Vs. Capcom 3's competitive scene and, to some extent, the issues Street Fighter V currently faces.
"In response it has created a fighting game focused on individuality and expression, with deep systems that reward studious players but also accommodate casuals. As someone who both plays and watches fighting games, I am excited to see what the future holds for Marvel Vs. Capcom: Infinite."
While the PC is a great gaming platform that can deliver beautifully rendered games with high-end hardware, its potential is sometimes held back by shoddy ports of console games. We're going to highlight the worst, most notable offenders.
In the following gallery, you'll see ports that were locked at 30 FPS, feature low-resolution assets, game-breaking bugs, and more. While many of these issues have been ironed out over the years, either by subsequent patches or fan-made mods, let this be a reminder for you to do some research and check out PC-specific reviews before you dive into a multiplatform game.
Resident Evil 4
The original PC port of Resident Evil 4 (done by Ubisoft) was arguably scarier than the game itself. To start off, it was a port of the PlayStation 2 version of the game, which was inferior to its GameCube counterpart. In addition, there were missing lighting effects, but its biggest sin was that it didn't support mouse aiming. It also had really awkward keyboard mappings. For instance, left shift equipped your knife, right shift equipped your gun, and you had to use enter to attack. While you could remap your buttons, the QTE actions in the game did not take into account your newly remapped controls. This meant you had to engage in an unnecessary memorization meta game on top of dealing with the already mediocre controls. Fortunately, the subsequent Resident Evil 4 HD port from Capcom itself addressed these issues.
Saints Row 2
The PC version of Saints Row 2 was developed by CD Projekt's localization team and suffered from a row of problems. The original game was designed with the Xbox 360's specs in mind, and PCs that drastically deviated from Microsoft's hardware paid performance consequences. Yes, this meant even powerful rigs would suffer from poor framerate issues. Often, the game ran at 15 frames per second, no matter what settings you ran it at. The port also crashed a lot, had broken VSync issues, and exhibited spurts of speed changes. Fans did eventually create their own patches for the game, which fixed many of these issues.
GTA IV
While GTA V is a technically sound PC port, its predecessor didn't fare as well when it launched in 2008. Its biggest issue was that it was poorly optimized. Even the most powerful PCs at the time had trouble running it smoothly. This would be forgivable if it looked dramatically better than its console counterparts, but it didn't. Rockstar has since released a patch for the game, which has mitigated some of the performance issues.
Dark Souls: Prepare To Die Edition
When Dark Souls first came out on PC, it featured intrusive Windows Live DRM and controls that weren't tailormade for keyboard and mouse. It was so bad that you couldn't even move the mouse cursor away from the middle of the screen. Talk about annoying. To make things even worse, the game was locked at 720p. Fan-made tweaks have since solved many of the port's original issues, however.
Bully
The game featured long load times, missing textures, and controls that weren't optimized for keyboard and mouse at launch. In addition to being locked at 30 FPS, it wasn't optimized very well and ran poorly. Luckily, Rockstar has since patched the game so that it runs more stable now.
Need for Speed: The Run
In addition to speed, this port really needed more graphics options on PC. Not only was it locked to 30 FPS, but it lacked simple features like anti-aliasing. The game ended up looking quite jaggy as a result. On top of that, the controls were designed for console controllers and people had issues remapping the controls. This became a particular pain for those who wanted to use a PC racing wheel.
Enslaved: Odyssey to the West
Enslaved: Odyssey to the West suffers from some of the biggest and most common PC port sins: it's locked at 30FPS and runs at 720p. While the menu supposedly allows you to bump it up to 1080p, it actually doesn't do anything. You have to edit the game's .ini file to make any actual resolution changes. In addition, the game forces motion blur and had issues effectively using more than 2GB of RAM.
Splinter Cell: Double Agent
It suffers from mediocre keyboard and mouse support, crashes, game-breaking bugs, messed-up shadows, and audio bugs that would omit gun sound effects. (Not all guns have silencers, Double Agent!) The game would also only scale up to 900p, though you could tweak it by editing the game's .ini file.
Devil May Cry 3
Devil May Cry 3 on PC has some of the weirdest quirks on our list. When you open up the game, it defaults to windowed mode. To move around with an Xbox controller, you use the right stick. The PC version also suffered from performance issues, which you could mitigate by deleting some of the music and menu sounds within the game's directory.
Metal Gear Solid 2
Metal Gear Solid 2 was far from a solid port on PC. The game had flicking textures with missing shadows and effects. The PC version was also prone to crashes and featured glitchy audio. In addition, it wasn't optimized for keyboard and mouse very well, since the PlayStation 2 counterpart it was based on relied on pressure-sensitive controls, which keyboard and mouse controls lack.
Watch Dogs
The PC version suffered from framerate issues, bad physics, and broken save files that required players to restart the game. Luckily, the port did get better with patches after launch.
The Evil Within
The PC version of The Evil Within suffered from crashing and graphical glitches. The fact that the game was locked at 30 FPS at launch and featured an annoying letterbox view that you couldn't get rid of was also pretty annoying. Thankfully, the frame rate cap and letterbox issues were resolved with patches.
Dead Rising 3: Apocalypse Edition
When Dead Rising 3 launched on PC, it had super long load times, poor performance that was locked at 30 FPS, crashed a lot, and featured shoddy online support.
Batman: Arkham Knight
While the previous Arkham ports didn't have any major issues, Batman: Arkham Knight was a mess on the PC when it first launched. It had trouble running on anything less than 12GB of RAM. Even moderately powerful systems encountered stuttering frame rates and crashes. To make things worse, the game featured a 30 FPS cap. While the port is in much better condition today, it was initially so bad that WB had to pull the game from Steam after droves of fans complained about the port.
PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds has become a major hit largely because it has such a high skill ceiling. It's a game you can spend a lot of time learning, and with plenty of mechanics and weapons master, it's possible to get very good at it.
As you're advancing from beginner to experienced player in PUBG, there's much to keep in mind when trying to maximize your in-game potential. Here are 12 expert-level tips that aren't immediately obvious as you play, but can help you up your PUBG game even further.
The first thing you do in every PUBG game is decide where you want to start, and you shouldn't sleep on this choice. The places you can reach out of the plane are determined by its trajectory as it crosses the island, but you can potentially reach destinations as far as two grid squares or more away from your starting point if you know what you're doing.
Most players hop out of the plane and try to fall as fast as possible, which is useful when you know you're jumping into a spot with a lot of other people. But a better decision might be to identify a good spot away from the beaten path, where you can get solid weapons without fear of being attacked. Mark your intended location during the flight and make your way there — if you tap the W key as you fall from the plane, you can do a sort of "swim" motion that gives you a little more horizontal distance. The same is true when you release your chute — tapping forward rhythmically can give you more distance away from the plane, rather than sending you down quicker. Opening your chute higher can help you get more distance (at the expense of speed).
Try to pick spots you know well, where the loot is abundant and, ideally, where you know vehicles spawn. Towns and big buildings are usually ideal, and if you can reach one where other players aren't likely to be, all the better to let you get set up before you go hunting for opponents, giving you the upper hand in gear. You'll also want to check around you for other players as you fall by holding the Alt key and panning the camera. Mentally log where nearby players land so you know where to go (or avoid).
Spend Time Learning How To Kill
Eventually if you intend to win at PUBG, you'll need to kill someone. It's easy to dedicate tons of your play time in the game to stealth and survival, which often can get you to the top 10 in a given match. But in those last few moments, combat experience becomes essential. You need some.
It's a worthy investment to spend some PUBG matches just getting into fights, which is possible when you jump into dense areas where other players are likely to congregate. Getting a gun fast and getting used to player tactics in a fight will make you much more effective when the game is on the line. Some players try jumping, others will hit the dirt and go prone when threatened, and many get panicky. Experience will help you avoid flailing and missing shots, and will teach you what to expect from your guns. The best PUBG players don't run from fights, they seek them out.
Use Space Effectively To Outmaneuver Players
Your best weapon in PUBG is the ability to anticipate what other people will do in a given situation. If you're ambushing someone approaching your building, for instance, you don't want to set up directly in their line of sight as they open the door — you're risking your life if they get a lucky shot off, especially with a shotgun. When attacking players in the open, try to catch them in spots where they can't easily run for cover. And if you lose track of someone in the middle of a fight, don't stand still hoping they'll lose you because you're not generating sound; find a better vantage point or better cover to avoid them flanking your previous position.
Buildings with multiple stories offer you some opportunities to literally get the drop on people when you're stuck fighting them, too. You can survive a pretty high fall at full health, even off four stories, and you'll take no damage from falling from a second-story balcony or rooftop. Use that verticality to your advantage by leaping down to ground-level, then catching your enemy as they go looking for you or when they come back down. You run a good chance of confusing an opponent by jumping to a lower level.
Never Assume You're Alone
In Battlegrounds, death can come from many angles, even from places you'd never think twice to look. The good news is, you can learn from these situations to keep yourself alive that much longer, as long as you pay attention.
If you approach every situation, from running from the blue force field to approaching a new building, as if someone is waiting to kill you, you'll start to see how you can stay alive. Avoiding lines of sight from windows, looking for open doors, checking corners and staying close to cover will help you avoid getting picked off no matter what situation you're in. But just because a building or field looks empty doesn't mean that it is. Your best bet is to assume there's always someone potentially zeroing in on you, and to take only calculated risks, like running from cover to cover to minimize your exposure and identifying potential lines of sight where people might be hiding. It's also important to pick up on key signs of presence, such as open doors and missing loot.
Use All Your Tools
There are a huge amount of items and capabilities in PUBG that you might forget you have open to you. For instance, there are fragment grenades, but you also have flashbangs and smoke grenades. Flashbangs can potentially help you get the drop on a player, and smoke can hide your movements or distract opponents. In addition to throwing grenades overhand in the default style, you can also toss them underhand — perfect for slipping one into a room where a player is currently holed up. The Right Mouse Button lets you toggle between grenade throws.
You've got a lot of potential tools at your disposal, from different grenade throws to your ability to lean around corners to take shots, as well as inventory items and weapons that are good in different scenarios. Remember to use everything at your disposal to be an effective player, from items to special controls.
Use Your Compass To Keep Track Of Enemies
The compass at the top of your screen tells you the cardinal directions you're facing, but also is covered with numbers. Use these to get a better idea of where enemies are, specifically at range, as you're engaging them. If you take shots at an enemy at a distance, who then pops behind cover, you'll probably want to move so that your opponent doesn't catch on to your location. It can be easy to lose track of where they were hiding once you start moving around, though, especially if they're taking cover behind one of several trees. The compass provides you with extra information to try to keep track of where people are in relationship to you. Learn to use it to give yourself maximum information about where enemies are.
Learn To Predict The Circle's Movements
The playfield-restricting white circle is a constant concern for players, but it has features that you can learn and predict, and use to your advantage. For instance, it's important to know that the circle doesn't continually shrink toward the center of the circle before it — meaning that just because you're in the center of the circle now doesn't mean you're going to be in its center on the next restriction. Because of that, you don't necessarily want to make a break for the middle of the circle every single time. You're more likely to run into other players there, for one thing, and you aren't guaranteeing your safety by doing so.
Use The Circle Against Other Players
Avoiding the circle is a huge part of PUBG, and you're going to want to know how to contend with it in a variety of situations. Even after you're experienced with the game, you're going to encounter the circle and potentially die to it if you're not careful. You can also use it to your advantage.
The play field will constrict a number of times during a given match, and each time it does, the blue force field that moves across the island will do more damage to players caught inside it. That means that being outside the first circle isn't a death sentence — you can even counteract most of the damage you'll receive with a boost item or two — but later in the game, the blue field can be devastating. Also note that when the blue circle catches up to the white circle on your map, the field's damage is increased significantly. Use that information to gauge whether you can hold your ground or to inform you whether you should move, and whether you can use the circle to force other players to move so you can better take them out. While avoiding the blue field and staying inside the white circle are important parts of the game, high-level strategy often takes the circle into consideration for how it'll affect the movements of other players.
Smart Use Of Vehicles Can Be A Game-changer
Your first instinct might be to avoid cars because of how noisy they are, but a car early in the game can help you get into the best possible position for the entire match. Especially as the circle moves and changes, you can use a car to avoid having to spend much time in the open, and get to the best loot buildings early, ahead of other players.
Knowing where cars spawn and landing near one is always a good idea just for safety's sake, and in the early game, players are often spread out so much that driving isn't especially dangerous. Grab a car and you can use it in several ways as well — it can get you quickly into the circle and to a good position to loot, for a start, and then you can either hide it or position it as a trap for other players, which can help you set up an ambush for anyone who follows you. If you can secure a car early, it's worth it to do so.
By the same token, you'll likely want to abandon a car once you've gotten into a good position toward the middle to later parts of a match. The smaller the circle becomes, the more a car is a liability that gives away your position and makes you a major target. You can use a car effectively for the first few circle constrictions, but around the middle of the match, it's probably best to ditch it — and maybe don't leave it too close to the buildings you intend to loot around this time, so that you don't broadcast your arrival to other players.
Never Stand In Front Of Doors As You Open Them
Most of the time when you're killed in PUBG, it won't be in a straight fight — it'll be when you didn't realize someone was waiting for you and gets the drop on you. One easy way to give yourself at least a little reaction time is to be careful about how you open doors.
Doors in PUBG can be triggered even if you're not dead on in front of them. You can open a door if you stand a little to its left or right, which means you can actually take a bit of cover while the door swings open. Walls can't be penetrated by bullets in PUBG, but doors can. So if you're approaching a door, stand to the side to open it. You might avoid getting a shotgun blast to the face as you walk into a building, you'll be able to see more of the interior than you could before you opened the door thanks to your third-person view, and you'll have at least a little bit of extra protection. There's no reason to make yourself vulnerable if you can avoid it.
Listen For What You're Up Against
Sound in PUBG is more important than sight in many cases. It'll give you lots of information, particularly when you're using headphones, since the game is really good about directional audio. Not only can you often hear footsteps and vehicles at a large distance, you'll also hear gunshots, both from people shooting at each other, and people shooting at you.
Gun sounds in PUBG are pretty distinct from one another, and the information you can glean from listening can be very useful. Echoing single rifle shots, for example, can usually give you an idea of where snipers are located — and snipers are probably your biggest danger in the game for most of a given match. Knowing where sniper fire is coming from can help you avoid walking into a killzone. By the same token, identifying what another player might be trying to use against you can give you an idea of how to deal with it. If you're taking fire from a quick-firing Uzi but from a decently long range, you probably have time to figure where it's coming from and might even be able to return fire. As with everything in PUBG, knowledge is power and can keep you alive.
If You Can't Win, Run
Retreat is an important tool in PUBG, and one you shouldn't discount. If you're losing a fight or feel like you're on the back foot and having a hard time pinning down and finishing someone, sometimes cutting and running is the best option. You can often break line of sight, and the further away you get from someone, the tougher it is for them to see and hear you in order to pursue you — and PUBG is a game with a huge amount of space to cover and lots of potential places to run and hide, even if it's just getting a little way away from your opponent and ducking behind a tree. Your goal generally isn't to kill, but to survive, so make that your top priority. If you can get away when a fight isn't going your way, it can be worth it to do so.
The same goes for places you think other players have been. You might pass a building that looks promising but has open doors. Your best-case scenario for those places are that they've been looted; worst-case, there's someone waiting for you inside. Better to keep moving in such cases. The best way to win PUBG is not to put yourself in bad or sticky situations, even when playing aggressively. You want to have the upper hand as often as possible. That means playing smart and living to fight on later.
The TV version of Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan stories has been in the works for some time, and we finally have some footage. Jack Ryan is produced by Amazon and stars John Krasinski as the CIA analyst; the full trailer will premiere at New York Comic-Con this weekend.
In the meantime, Amazon has released a first teaser. It doesn't reveal much, but it looks very intense and serious, and gives us a first look at Krasinski in the lead role. Check it out below:
The show will debut on Amazon Video in 2018. It comprises eight one-hour episodes, and the entire season will be directed by Morten Tyldum, who helmed the Oscar-nominated The Imitation Game.
Last year, former Office star Krasinski spoke about what would set this show apart from previous screen incarnations. "The line between film and TV has blurred so much over the years," he said. "I think Jack Ryan is a product of that blurring so much that I think that they're not even really considering it a TV show, they're calling it a movie that's being told in [eight] parts.
"[Showrunner] Carlton Cuse's whole plan is we're gonna shoot it on a movie budget, [and] we're gonna have the same stunts as movies. It's gonna feel like a movie but you're gonna watch it every week.
"He just felt that two hours wasn't enough time to tell a Jack Ryan story, because Tom Clancy's books are so detailed and rich. If [Ryan] has a superpower it's his intelligence, so there's a lot of problem solving and things that take time. That's the beauty of the spy genre."
Krasinski will be the fifth actor to play Ryan. The character first appeared in the 1990 thriller The Hunt for the Red October, portrayed by Alec Baldwin. Harrison Ford starred in two Clancy adaptations in the early 1990s, with Ben Affleck and Chris Pine both playing the character since then.
While Krasinski is best known for playing hapless Jim Halpert in nine seasons of The Office, he did take on a more action-packed role in 2015's Michael Bay-directed war movie 13 Hours.
Another week of deals and discounts have arrived on the PlayStation Store in the US. There is no game- or publisher-specific sale this week--and thus, far fewer things are on sale--but there are still some worthwhile deals to be had across PlayStation platforms.
Two of the year's best PS4 games are both on sale right now. Most notably, Uncharted: The Lost Legacy, which was only released in August, has dropped from $40 to $30 for everyone. Meanwhile, PlayStation Plus members can get Nier: Automata for $39 ($42 without Plus).
PS3 and Vita owners have almost no options at all. Space Hulk's Vita version is $16, AeternoBlade is $3.74, and Blue-Collar Astronaut is $4 (with Plus, or $7 without it). Beyond that, there is some discounted Pinball Arcade DLC and little else.
Sony's Day 1 Digital offer is still ongoing. Purchasing two select games (from a list of some very good ones) on PSN nets you a coupon for 20% off a future purchase. Additionally, if you're a subscriber, October's free PS Plus games are now available.
Earlier this year, Yahoo announced that 1 billion of its accounts were hacked. That made it the single-largest data breach ever in terms of the number of accounts. Today, Yahoo announced that it was even worse. All 3 billion of its accounts were compromised.
Yahoo said in a news release that it "obtained new intelligence" with the help of of "outside forensic experts." Based on this new information, Yahoo can now say that "all Yahoo user accounts were affected" by the August 2013 breach.
Stolen user account data did not include clear-text passwords, credit card info, or bank details, Yahoo said. Though the hack is not an ongoing situation, Yahoo said it is continuing to work alongside law enforcement on the matter.
Another element at play here is that the disclosure of the massive Yahoo data breach came during Verizon's buyout of Yahoo. As GameSpot sister site CNET explains, Verizon was originally set to pay $4.83 billion for Yahoo but the price was slashed by $350 million following the revelation of the breach. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is reportedly investigating Yahoo to determine if it alerted users to the breach fast enough.
Verizon's chief information security officer, Chandra McMahon said in a statement that Verizon is "committed to the highest standards of accountability and transparency, and we proactively work to ensure the safety and security of our users and networks in an evolving landscape of online threats."
McMahon went on to pledge: "Our investment in Yahoo is allowing that team to continue to take significant steps to enhance their security, as well as benefit from Verizon's experience and resources."
The next DLC character for fighting game sequel Injustice 2 has been announced. The Atom is coming to NetherRealm's Xbox One and PlayStation 4 brawler "soon," according to the announcement video.
The Atom AKA Ryan Choi is armed with "quantum shrinking technology" and the "subatomic power of the quantum bio-belt" to wreck his foes. Check out the video embedded above to see the Atom in action. As you can see in the trailer, the Atom can shift from his super-small size to full size basically instantly in the middle of a fight.
According to ComicBook, the Atom will be available through Injustice 2's third character pack, beginning in December. Injustice 2's second character pack included Black Manta, Hellboy, and Raiden, the latter just being released today.
The Atom's announcement was made tonight during the Chasing the Cup Injustice 2 fighting game TV special on the CW.
Playerunknown's Battlegrounds is one of the biggest games on the planet right now, and it's coming to Xbox One later this year. Microsoft reached a deal with developer Bluehole to bring PUBG to Xbox One first, though it could come to PlayStation 4 later. Now, Bloomberg is reporting that Bluehole is having discussions with Microsoft about "extending their agreement to publish the game exclusively on Xbox."
This information is sourced to people who asked not to be identified due to the private nature of the supposed discussions. The report goes on to say, citing the same sources, that Bluehole is apparently looking to have PUBG be exclusive to Xbox One on console for a longer time period than originally planned.
There are no specifics available regarding the duration of Microsoft's exclusivity deal with Bluehole for PUBG on Xbox One. When the console edition was announced at E3, Microsoft said PUBG would be a "console launch exclusive" for Xbox One, suggesting it could come to PlayStation 4 at some point in the future, not unlike the path of Rise of the Tomb Raider.
Microsoft wouldn't comment on Bloomberg's report when approached by the publication. All it had to say was that, "Right now, the team is solely focused on bringing the best game possible to Xbox One and PC. We have nothing further to announce at this time."
According to Bloomberg, Bluehole is in discussions with "all of the major console companies" about making PUBG available to a "broader audience." The report goes on to specifically state that Bluehole is talking to Sony about bringing PUBG to PlayStation 4 after the exclusivity period on Xbox One ends.
The Lobby crew gets ready for the most exciting month of the year, and discusses recent Star Wars: Battlefront 2 story revelations, along with Cuphead difficulty nightmares.
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