You can get to the battle royale a little faster in Fortnite, thanks to a buff of sorts to the Battle Bus. Epic has rolled out an update that makes it move 25% faster while flying, so you can start jumping out and heading for the fray that much quicker.
Epic didn't give a specific reason for letting the Battle Bus driver hit the gas. Presumably as the audience has grown more accustomed to dropping onto the battlefield, Epic feels it can speed up the process slightly. A 25% increase is substantial enough to be felt, but not so fast that it will be too disorienting. Maybe it can be attributed to people thanking the bus driver.
In a follow-up tweet, Epic noted that demand for the Alpha Tournament was high, and made a cheeky joke about running out of Battle Buses. It then wrote that a small patch was being deployed to help tournament crashes and Android issues.
The Battle Bus is test driving an engine upgrade and now travels 25% faster while flying. Remember, always buckle up and thank your driver!
The Alpha Tournament is the official kickoff of the new in-game tournament feature introduced in the 6.10 patch. A separate tournament called Friday Night Fortnite will be held every Friday night through the end of November. Tournaments are in a testing phase right now and the pins you can earn are mostly for bragging rights. Epic has said that in the future those pins may serve as your entry fee for higher-tier tourneys.
If you need a leg up on earning your challenge rewards once you've touched ground, check out our ongoing challenge guide for the latest.
PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds matches on PC are about to get even crazier starting today, with the kickoff of the game's 50v50 game mode event. Dubbed Platoon Mode, it sees the usual crop of 100 players, usually set against each other to see who can be the last player or the last squad standing, into a huge gunfight.
Players are divided into five 10-player squads to make up each platoon--and one can only assume that the in-game voice channel completely unusable at that point. Battle royale competitor Fortnite has a similar mode that pops up periodically as a timed event.
Platoon Mode kicks off today, October 18, at 7 PM PT / 10 PM ET (and 3 AM BST on October 19) for the PC version of the game. Platoon Mode also supports both third-person perspective and first-person perspective games.
You might be fighting with an army at your back in Platoon Mode, but that's the only big change to your normal PUBG match. The usual objectives of looting buildings, finding better gear, avoiding the closing circle, dodging explosive red zones, and killing other players (or spending the whole match hiding in a bathroom) still apply. All that's different is the size and scope of the teams in the match.
You'll know the other players in your platoon in-game by the blue circle that appears over their heads. While having 50 players on a team might sound like chaos, friendly fire is disabled, so players won't have to worry about accidentally shooting other friendly squads.
This isn't the first time PUBG made an attempt at a take on the 50v50 mode. It briefly ran the mode back in May, when it was dubbed "Desert Knights," but server issues and crashes led to the mode's discontinuation within 24 hours.
Players pulled into PUBG to check out the 50v50 mode will have a surprise waiting for them if they haven't played the game in a bit, also. Developer PUBG Corporation is offering players a free in-game item, plus 20,000 Battlegrounds Points, its in-game currency, as an apology for some recent matchmaking and server issues. Players have until 5 PM PT / 8 PM ET on October 23 / 1 AM BST on October 24 to claim their items.
It was over 35 years ago that John Carpenter had what he thought would be his final word on the Halloween franchise. After directing the original film, co-writing the first two, and co-producing Halloween II and III, he was ready to move on with his life. And he did, directing films like Christine, Big Trouble in Little China, Escape from LA, and Village of the Damned.
Yet, somehow, 40 years after the first film, John Carpenter is right back where he started in the fictional town of Haddonfield, once again haunted by the ghost of Michael Myers. It might be a place he never expected to be, but it's one that probably wouldn't exist without him in 2018.
Speaking to GameSpot, producer Jason Blum said he wasn't interested in making a new Halloween movie without Carpenter. "When we went to Miramax and said they wanted us to do the movie, I did not want to make the movie unless John was going to be involved," he admitted.
According to Blum, Miramax thought it would be impossible to get the original film's director interested. "They said to me, 'We've asked John, and he's not interested,'" he recalled.
In the end, though, Carpenter became interested, and it was all due to a simple conversation. "I went to his office, and I sat with him, and I made my pitch, and he politely listened," Blum explained. "And I said 'Well, let me put it another way. They're gonna make it with or without us... because if you don't do it, I'm not gonna do it, so why don't we join them and see if we can make it well and make something that we're proud of.'"
As the story goes, that's all it took to convince John to return to the one property his career is most synonymous with. And fans should be glad that's how it all played out. As Blum told GameSpot during the film's junket, without him it's possible Jamie Lee Curtis might not have returned as Laurie Strode.
Without Carpenter and Curtis, it's impossible to imagine this movie turning out as great as it did. Now, thanks to them--and everyone involved--Halloween looks ready to rule the box office once again. The new Halloween film is in theaters on October 19.
Ubisoft has issued a new patch for Assassin's Creed Odyssey on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. The 1.0.5 patch weighs in at 0.16 GB on PS4 and 0.1 GB on Xbox One, and focuses on squashing bugs--including fixing one issue that only appeared after a previous patch.
According to the patch notes, it improves stability and fixes an issue that would make the game crash to the dashboard after the release of update v1.0.3. That update itself was aimed at quality-of-life improvements and fixing game-breaking bugs. The two updates were only days apart, though, so Ubisoft is seeing to these issues quickly.
This week Ubisoft cancelled its first planned live event, explaining that a missing mercenary had gone AWOL. The studio still has big plans for live content and expansions, though, promising the "biggest and most ambitious" post-launch support in franchise history. That will include one story, The Lost Tales of Greece, for free to all players, along with paid episodic installments Legacy of the First Blade and The Fate of Atlantis. The studio has already said it doesn't plan to release another Assassin's Creed next year, instead leaning on its post-launch content plans.
If you're just beginning your journey into Ancient Greece, check out some tips for beginners to get started on the right foot. If you've reached far enough in Odyssey, on the other hand, you can start taking on mythological beasts. Of course to do that, you might want to get your hands on some Legendary armor sets.
Update focus:
Improving game's stability
Fixed an issue that led to crashes to dashboard on PS4 and Xbox One after 1.0.3
Crunchyroll has announced that Funimation has decided to break off the two anime streaming services' partnership. Both Crunchyroll and Funimation have been partnered for the past two years, but the two will officially split on November 9.
While partnered, the websites have been working together to simulcast certain anime in both Japanese and English, so that viewers can choose to watch popular series--like My Hero Academia and Attack on Titan--in either language on the same day. Prior to the partnership, most anime released in Japanese with English subtitles first, and anyone who wanted to watch the series in English would have to wait weeks for it to be dubbed.
Crunchyroll has confirmed that all currently-airing "simulcasts and series that premiered during the partnership will continue to be available on Crunchyroll" and "all home video releases will be released as scheduled and all pre-orders will be fulfilled." However, after November 9, Funimation will no longer be offered as a part of the VRV bundle--a service which allows you to subscribe to dozens of animation streaming services such as Crunchyroll, Rooster Teeth, and Machinima.com for a discounted price. Also, certain series will be dropped from Crunchyoll and Funimation.
Although an official partnership with Crunchyroll hasn't been announced, Hidive is joining the VRV family. Smaller than both Crunchyroll and Funimation, Hidive has made a name for itself by streaming some of the best anime exclusives from the past two years--and the website shares series in both Japanese and English. 2017's Princess Principal and Land of the Lustrous are especially memorable, and the currently airing Bloom Into You is one of the most gorgeous anime series we've ever seen. The streaming service is owned by Sentai Filmworks so it also shares anime licensed by the company, like the critically acclaimed zombie ecchi Highschool of the Dead and award-winning Made in Abyss.
Although we reached out, Crunchyroll declined to comment on whether Hidive's induction into VRV would mean the two websites would start sharing their exclusives. Crunchyroll also declined to comment on whether Hidive would start dubbing some of Crunchyroll's shows. However, the streaming service did tease that more announcements will be shared prior to the end of 2018.
If you're looking for anime to watch on Crunchyroll, Funimation, and Hidive, check out our Fall 2018 anime watch guide. It includes every anime debuting on the three websites, as well as Netflix and Amazon, and lists the seven series that you should add to your queue.
As a continuation of the Black Ops subseries, Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 both benefits from and is limited by its past. All three of its major modes--multiplayer, Zombies, and the new battle royale mode Blackout--pull from and build upon previous games. Multiplayer is largely successful in its mix of old and new, while Zombies struggles more with dated elements. Blackout, though, strikes an excellent balance, putting a clever Call of Duty spin on a genre entirely new to the series.
While Black Ops 4 doesn't have a traditional single-player campaign, it does have a helpful set of character-focused tutorial missions. Called Specialist HQ, it introduces you to each of the 10 multiplayer Specialists one by one, taking you through their unique abilities and a practice multiplayer match. It does have a bit of a story and some gorgeous (and gory) cutscenes threading each mission together, but it's all in service of getting you acquainted with the new Specialist mechanics--which is well worth the three or so hours it takes, since some of those mechanics appear in Blackout as well. One mission even weaves in a bit of general Zombies training, an unexpected but welcome touch that helps make the largely separate modes feel a little more cohesive.
Multiplayer
Multiplayer is the most straightforward of the modes, and Black Ops 4 attempts to be more tactical than previous entries. The wall-running and thrust-jumping of Black Ops 3 is gone, replaced with weighty, grounded movement, and healing is now manual and on a cooldown timer. The combination forces you to be more thoughtful about your positioning, since you can't just jet and dodge enemy fire until your health regenerates--you need to make sure you have adequate cover and time to heal yourself in your immediate vicinity. This encourages a slightly slower, more cautious pace on an individual level, and it's refreshing to play it smart instead of just fast. But time-to-kill is still low and respawning still near-instant, ensuring that matches don't stagnate.
The more tactical feel extends to the Specialists, which build upon those introduced in Black Ops 3. Each has a unique weapon and equipment with a specific combat focus, like area control or high damage output. Each Specialist's weapon is tied to a longer cooldown and functions as a superpowered attack (or defensive ability, in some cases), while their equipment varies from a special grenade to trip mines and other gear with a clear strategic purpose. This includes roles other than offensive ones--there's even a pseudo-healer Specialist, Crash--and it's a change that gives multiplayer more variety.
Certain Specialists and strategies are more useful in some game types than others, though. Area control is best for objective-based modes like Domination, for example, and far less effective in the more scattered Team Deathmatch. Generally, your choice of Specialist and your team's composition won't matter in any mode if you aren't skilled in basic shooting and positioning, even if you're in a more defensive or supporting role. This means you can play selfishly and still emerge victorious, which works well for those of us who often solo queue and would rather not risk trying to communicate with randoms. But it can also make playing support-focused Specialists less rewarding if you aren't working as a team, since your efforts are useless if your teammates don't take advantage of them. It's a surprisingly good balance overall, though, giving you the flexibility to be only as tactical as you want or are able to be and enjoy the match regardless.
The map design, too, facilitates that flexibility. Each map has areas perfect for different Specialists to take advantage of, like blind corners where Nomad's trip mines can take enemies by surprise or high ceilings where Recon can shoot and hide his Sensor Dart that reveals enemies on your radar. But the long and narrow three-lane structure each map is built on is a strong foundation for more traditional shooting as well, with both long sightlines good for sniper and tactical rifles and tight spaces for close-range automatic weapons.
The Specialist strategies are best showcased in the new Control, an objective-based mode in which each team, one attacking and one defending, shares 25 lives. You win by either exhausting all of the enemy team's lives or gaining or maintaining control of the two objectives. A defensive Specialist like Torque, who has Razor Wire perfect for placement under windows and a Barricade "weapon" for extra cover, is a great option if you're trying to hold an objective, for example. An offensive Specialist, on the other hand, can aim to wipe out the enemy team.
Zombies
Black Ops 4's Zombies is as broad as it is deep, with two separate storylines across three maps (or four if you have the Black Ops pass included in the game's special editions). The first two, IX and Voyage of Despair, are part of the brand-new Chaos story, while Blood of the Dead and Classified round out the selection of maps to make up the returning Aether story. All of them follow the familiar Zombies formula--fighting waves of the undead, saving money to access better weapons and new areas, and uncovering wacky secrets and puzzles along the way--but each has its own quirks that take time and effort to discover.
The Chaos maps are strong aesthetically, with rich level design and clever puzzles to match--draining water that has seeped into the Titanic's depths so you don't drown while searching for other secrets, for example. Like previous Zombies maps, a lot of the fun comes from figuring out how the map ticks while also trying not to die, and both IX and Voyage of Despair have the complex layouts that lend themselves to thorough yet hectic exploration. Voyage is a personal favorite, with narrow, creepy hallways and presumably drowned zombies that have water gushing from their heads.
On the Aether side, Blood of the Dead is based on Black Ops 2's Mob of the Dead, while Classified is a reimagination of Black Ops' Five. Although they're definitely familiar, there are still surprises to entertain returning players--some puzzles don't unlock what you expect them to unlock, for example. However, the Ultimus crew hasn't aged particularly well, even considering that each of them is stereotyped to the extreme. The jokes just don't land anymore, especially Takeo's overdone Japanese accent where Ls are replaced with Rs at every opportunity. In Blood of the Dead it's distracting, but in Classified, lines about the Emperor and eating sushi are just plain offensive. You'll also hear these same lines every time you start a new run, which doesn't help.
On top of the already hefty amount of Zombies content, Black Ops 4 introduces a new mode of fighting the undead, Rush. It's a much faster-paced version of Zombies where you don't have to do any thinking or puzzle-solving; you're just there to kill them horde-style. There's no money, so you don't need to save up to buy a weapon or unlock a door. You're instead told which area will have the next Rush wave, and you're directed from room to room as you go. It's too intense to be a tutorial, per se, but it's a great way to familiarize yourself with the map, test weapons, and plan where to go next if you get stuck in Classic mode.
Blackout
The third and most exciting of Black Ops 4's three main sections is, of course, Blackout. Like other battle royale games, Call of Duty's take puts 100 players on one map with the goal of being the last person or squad standing, and a collapsing circle of death forces you in closer and closer proximity. It's unlike anything Call of Duty has done before, and slight alterations to its mechanics, like the addition of bullet drop on some weapons, help it adapt to the very different gameplay style.
Brilliantly, experience in both multiplayer and Zombies benefits you in Blackout. Perks and Specialist equipment can be looted during a match, and knowing how to both use and counter them can give you an advantage. There are also zombie-infested areas that offer powerful loot at the risk of attracting human players to your position, and that PvE twist in particular helps distinguish Blackout from the likes of PUBG. A successful Blackout round can last over 20 minutes, so if you're impatient or more used to Call of Duty's shorter multiplayer formats, seeking out zombies and causing a ruckus mid-match is a great way to see more action.
The map itself is also distinctly Call of Duty, filled with references to previous games, including the fan favorite Nuketown. Vibrant and varied design makes each region stand out from the next, and the map as a whole is easy to navigate as a result. That in turn facilitates the strategic movement and positioning necessary to succeed; it's easy to pivot if a lot of other people are nearby, for example, if you know where you are in relation to the next-best loot area.
The combination of Call of Duty-specific mechanics with PUBG-style health, loot, and shooting systems is executed well, with quality-of-life improvements to UI--notably, you can quick-equip weapon attachments without going into your menu. The twists are balanced, too, and the Specialist equipment in particular doesn't make things feel unfair. Like in multiplayer, you can ignore anything you don't want to bother with, and survival ultimately comes down to your situational awareness, your skill with various weapons, and a bit of luck with looting and the circle. That makes victory feel earned and, as a result, immensely gratifying--Blackout definitely captures the tense, shaky excitement that makes battle royale such a popular genre.
Black Ops 4 isn't short on content, and its three main modes are substantial. Multiplayer introduces more tactical mechanics without forcing you into them, and it largely strikes a good balance. Zombies has multiple deep, secret-filled maps to explore, though its returning characters don't hold up and prove distracting. Finally, Blackout pushes Call of Duty in an entirely new direction, making use of aspects from both multiplayer and Zombies for a take on the battle royale genre that stands on its own. Sure, there isn't a traditional single-player campaign, but with the depth and breadth of what is there, Black Ops 4 doesn't need it.
October is almost over, and November is almost here. That means Amazon Prime Video will have plenty of new movies, TV series, and original programming for its subscribers to watch. On top of the traditional fair, Amazon is also offering NFL games, streaming live on Thursday nights.
Easily the best movie coming to Amazon on November 1 is the 1985 classic Weird Science. In the John Hughes film, a couple of high school nerds use computer technology to create what they think is the perfect woman. Somehow, their creation comes to life, but she ends up making them better and more confident people. While the technology in the movie may not speak well to a younger, contemporary audience, the themes of fitting in and being cool still hold true today.
Speaking of coming-of-age movies, the 1991 feature My Girl is also headed to Amazon on November 1. Anna Chlumsky plays Vada, a young girl who is about to become a teenager and living with her widowed mortician father. She learns a bit about life and relationships with her friend Thomas, played by Macaulay Culkin. Sure, it's more of a family drama, but there are still some fun, comedic moments that make this a classic flick.
If horror is your thing, there are a few solid choices for November. On November 1, Candyman: Day of the Dead, Hostel, and Child's Play all arrive to Amazon. Yes, it's a weak month for horror, but you may want to mark your calendars for November 15 when Season 3 of Syfy's The Expanse hits Amazon, as it is a spectacular series.
Everything Coming To Amazon Prime In November 2018
November 1
Live Sports
Thursday Night Football: Oakland Raiders vs. San Francisco 49ers
Movies
21 (2008)
2001 Maniacs (2005)
Alice (2016)
Assault on Precinct 13 (2005)
Candyman: Day of the Dead (1999)
Child's Play (1988)
Christmas with the Kranks (2004)
Cruel Intentions (1999)
De-Lovely (2004)
Desperate Hours (1990)
Die Another Day (2002)
Duck, You Sucker (A Fistful of Dynamite) (1971)
Excalibur (1981)
Guns of the Magnificent Seven (1969)
Hostel (2005)
Hostel: Part II (2007)
Jacob's Ladder (1990)
Leaving Las Vegas (1995)
Like Water (2011)
Little Man Tate (1991)
Little Odessa (1994)
Lord of War (2005)
Made (2001)
Making Contact (Joey) (1985)
Michael Clayton (2007)
Mr. Bean's Holiday (2007)
Mulholland Falls (1996)
My Girl (1991)
Terms of Endearment (1983)
The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert (1994)
The Adventures of Tintin (2011)
The Birdcage (1996)
The Living Daylights (1987)
The Magnificent Seven Ride! (1972)
The Mexican (2001)
The Motorcycle Diaries (Diarios de motocicleta) (2004)
The Red Violin (Le violon rouge) (1998)
The World Is Not Enough (1999)
Tyler Perry's Boo 2! A Madea Halloween (2017)
Weird Science (1985)
November 2
Series
Homecoming (Prime Original series), Season 1
Movies
Wonder (2017)
November 3
Movies
Kick-Ass (2010)
November 6
Series
The Durrells in Corfu, Season 3
November 8
Live Sports
Thursday Night Football: Carolina Panthers vs. Pittsburgh Steelers
November 9
Series
Beat (Prime Original series), Season 1
Little Big Awesome (Prime Original series), Season 1b
Patriot (Prime Original series), Season 2
November 10
Movies
The Children Act (2017)
November 15
Live Sports
Thursday Night Football: Green Bay Packers vs. Seattle Seahawks
Series
The Expanse, Season 3
Movies
Gotti (2018)
November 16
Series
Gymkhana Files (Prime Original series), Season 1
Kung Fu Panda: The Paws of Destiny (Prime Original series), Season 1a
Movies
Coldplay: A Head Full of Dreams (Prime Exclusive; available on Prime Video shortly following the theatrical release) (2018)
November 17
Movies
McQueen (2018)
Siberia (2018)
November 18
Movies
Condemned (2015)
November 20
Series
Creative Galaxy: Arty's Holiday Masterpiece (Prime Original series), Special
Pete the Cat: A Very Groovy Christmas (Prime Original series), Special
Little Women, Season 1
November 21
Movies
Box of Moon Light (1996)
Loving Pablo (2017)
November 22
Movies
Wild Kratts: Creatures of the Deep Sea (2016)
November 24
Movies
Downsizing (2017)
November 29
Live Sports
Thursday Night Football: New Orleans Saints vs. Dallas Cowboys
Challenges for Season 6, Week 4 of Fortnite: Battle Royale are now live, and you can read about what you'll need to do to complete them in this challenge list. Of them, there are a couple that look like they're going to be trickier than the rest, most notably the Battle Pass challenge that asks players to "get a score of 3 or more at different Shooting Galleries." The difficult part is actually finding the galleries' locations if you're not very familiar with the island, so we've put together a guide to point you in the right direction. Here's where to go and what to do.
The actual objects you're looking for in the environment are red targets that appear when you stand on pressure-sensitive plates. You'll be able to spot the locations by the more obvious scoreboard and signs that are placed nearby. There are a total of five spots that you'll need to hit, and you need to shoot at least three at each one. We recommend having a precision weapon like an assault rifle, as the targets can be quite small. You'll be able to find these targets at the areas below, so head to these locations, stand on the pressure plate, and gun down those targets--that's all it takes. You can use the map below for specific locations and watch the video above to see us complete the challenge.
Fortnite Season 6, Week 4 Shooting Gallery Locations
Outside Viking Village
Slightly east of Risky Reels
West of the race track by Lonely Lodge (look for the hill)
West of Fatal Fields
East side of Wailing Woods (amongst the trees)
The latest Fortnite update, 6.10, is now available across all platforms and introduces the Quadcrasher, a two-seater vehicle with a boost function that allows it to destroy structures. If you're playing Fortnite on a PS4 Pro connected to a 4K TV, the patch also enables the game to display at 1440p instead of 1080p. The other big addition is the new "Events" tab, and this serves as an in-game hub for tournaments. If you haven't already done them, we've got guides for previous weeks of Fortnite's Season 6 challenges here.
Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 is off to a big start. Activision announced that it achieved $500 million in sell-through in the first three days, along with high player counts that show the franchise's popularity is still going strong. That estimate includes retail and digital sales along with season passes. This follows word that in the UK, it broke digital sales records even as physical sales were down.
In the first three days, Activision boasts that Black Ops 4 set a new franchise record on current-gen consoles for most combined players, average hours per player, and total number of hours played. That figure may imply that a prior Call of Duty had higher numbers on the last generation, or when the generations were split, but it's still an impressive achievement.
It also found that the combined number of players across all three of its modes during those initial three days tops the same period for Call of Duty: WW2 and Call of Duty: Black Ops 3. That's a favorable comparison for the direction of Black Ops 4, which traded a traditional single-player campaign for the new Blackout mode. This serves as solid basis to believe the trade-off was worth it.
Activision's move towards Blizzard's Battle.net is showing signs of growth too, as PC players more than doubled year-over-year in the first three days. This is the first Call of Duty to use Battle.net, after Activision opened the door of the partnership Destiny 2. Finally, it set a new day one record for digital full game sales on the PlayStation Store and a record for the best-selling Activision digital game on Xbox One.
Black Ops 4 presents three multiplayer modes--traditional competitive multiplayer, Zombies, and the new battle royale Blackout, without a traditional single-player campaign. The decision was an experiment for the series, but critics on the whole seem to either appreciate the change or don't mind the missing mode. In GameSpot's Black Ops 4 review, Kallie Plagge addressed the change. "Sure, there isn't a traditional single-player campaign, but with the depth and breadth of what is there, Black Ops 4 doesn't need it," she said.
Carol Danvers' origin story has never been what you would call simple. She's not an orphan from an alien planet or the victim of a radioactive spider bite. Instead, since her '60s debut, it's been explained she was a human who was caught in a terrible accident, which--thanks to the miraculous powers of comic book science--fused her DNA with alien Kree genetic code and granted her superpowers.
We've been assuming that Brie Larson's live-action version of the character will be taking a similar path. However, the first Captain Marvel trailer, which implies Carol might not even remember her time as a human at first and recent developments on the comic book side of Carol's life, have given us a pretty good indication that that will not be the case. Carol's got a brand new origin story to work with, and it's likely setting the stage for her MCU debut.
The Life Of Captain Marvel by Margaret Stohl and Carlos Pacheco is a five issue miniseries designed to shed some new light on Carol's early years--not necessarily by revisiting them directly but by allowing modern Carol to return home and unbury some "skeletons" in her closet. It just so happens that some of these skeletons aren't quite ready to be laid to rest.
In this week's issue #4, Carol learned in no uncertain terms that her mother has been keeping a secret from her for her entire life, and it changes everything Carol thought she knew about the origins of her powers. It turns out that the accident was never at fault. Instead, Carol's mother, Marie, has secretly been a Kree soldier on Earth this entire time. Marie--or rather, Mari-Ell--had been on a routine detail canvasing Earth for the Kree empire when she was blown off course and crashed into Boston harbor, where she was rescued by Carol's human father, Joe. The two fell in love and, despite the Empire's strict rules against such a union, were married.
Life of Captain Marvel #4, art by Carlos Pacheco
The explosion and accident still happened when Carol was growing up, but rather than infuse her with Kree DNA, it "activated" her innate half-Kree abilities which Marie explains come about in times of extreme stress or danger as a self defense mechanism. Most young Kree are just aware that their powers are there from birth and are made to activate them deliberately, whereas Carol had been kept in the dark and did it by mistake.
Oh, and it turns out "Carol" is just her human name--like Marie is actually Mari-Ell, Carol is actually Car-Ell. So, that's a whole thing, too.
All things considered, Carol takes this revelation pretty well. As Marie puts it, the only real change (you know, aside from the massive family secret coming to life) is that Carol gets to know her powers actually belong to her now. They weren't an accident or a fluke, they weren't borrowed from someone else, and they were in her from the beginning. It's a pretty hopeful message to take away.
Life of Captain Marvel #4, art by Carlos Pacheco
So what does that mean for the MCU version of the origin story? Well, while it's still too early to call whether or not there will be a direct adaptation for the big screen, we can assume that Larson's Captain Marvel is probably not going to get her powers from an accidental radioactive explosion. This is actually more of a revelation than you might expect. The original explosion linked Carol directly to the original Captain Marvel, Mar-Vell, who had been uncover on Earth at the time. He and Carol had become close, which eventually resulted in Carol getting wrapped up in all the secret Kree goings on at the time. Had she and Mar-Vell never met, Carol would have never been near the accident site and, likely, never become a hero.
Even after she'd been empowered, in the original version of events she spent a considerable amount of time working with Mar-Vell under the code name Ms. Marvel, before she eventually took over the Captain title.
Without the need for Mar-Vell's direct involvement in Carol's early life, it seems likely the MCU is going to bypass the Ms. Marvel phase entirely and, most likely, deal with Carol's abilities awakening on their own--or via some other unrelated stress. However, whether or not that means we're going to learn Carol's mom was secretly a Kree soldier is still up for debate. It certainly does seem like a much less scientifically dubious way to explain things than inadvertent genetic modification, but when has dubious science ever stopped a Marvel movie?
Also, the decreased importance of Mar-Vell in this new origin would further support the steadily growing assumption that Jude Law won't be playing Mar-Vell on the big screen after all. Without the direct need for Mar-Vell as a story catalyst, the door for Law's role is blown wide open, making room for all kinds of new possibilities. And, with Ben Mendelsohn confirmed as Talos, rather than villainous Kree zealot Yon-Rogg as fans had previously guessed, it seems like that could be as good a place as any for Law to land.
Microsoft has announced four Xbox One backwards compatible games have been X-enhanced. This means that these Xbox 360 titles run at a higher resolution and nine times the original pixel count on an Xbox One X.
All four games--Portal: Still Alive, Half-Life 2: The Orange Box, Left 4 Dead, and Left 4 Dead 2--are developed by Valve. When all is said and done, it's technically five games, as Half Life 2: The Orange Box is a combined collection of Half-Life 2, Portal: Still Alive, and Team Fortress 2. You can buy the games digitally from the Xbox Store or use the original Xbox 360 discs. The addition of these four games brings the number of Xbox One backwards compatible X-enhanced titles to 21, a list that also includes games like Red Dead Redemption and Skate 3.
First releasing in 2007--as part of Valve's The Orange Box bundle--Portal: Still Alive is a 3D puzzle platformer that focuses on a battle of wits between the silent protagonist Chell and the psychopathic A.I. antagonist GLaDOS. Half-Life 2 and Team Fortress 2 have had long-standing effects on the video game industry, such as the former playing a huge part in the success of Steam's launch and the latter inspiring titles like Overwatch. The Left 4 Dead series temporarily revitalized interest in zombie video games with campaigns centered around teamwork-based first-person shooter combat and a multiplayer horde mode.
Starting today, four more Xbox One Backward Compatibility titles will be enhanced for Xbox One X. Enjoy playing Half-Life 2: The Orange Box, Portal: Still Alive, Left 4 Dead, and Left 4 Dead 2 with enhanced visuals and higher resolutions on Xbox One X https://t.co/7q7myPS0gCpic.twitter.com/bdUjeDvnhG
All of these games have received near perfect scores on GameSpot for their impressive gameplay and well written stories. In our Portal: Still Alive review, we gave the game a 9/10. In our Half-Life 2 review, we gave the game a 9.2/10. In our Team Fortress 2 review, we gave the game an 8/10. In our reviews for Left 4 Dead and Left 4 Dead 2, we gave the former an 8.5/10 and the latter a 9/10.
When players finally complete the new Haunted Forest event in Destiny 2's Halloween-themed Festival of the Lost, they're greeted by the usual: a loot chest that holds all their hard-earned winnings. The trouble is, the walkway between players and the chest gives out almost as soon as their feet touch it, tossing them into a frightening, blood red pit below. Inside: an unkillable Hive Knight called The Invincible Nightmare.
It's a fighting twist to the horror-themed activity. Instead of getting your loot, you get stuck with an unkillable monster, like that moment in every slasher movie when the killer inevitably isn't actually dead, and gets in one final scare. The trouble with the pit, though, is that at first blush, it seems to rob you of everything you fought for in the Haunted Forest, and makes it seem like there's no way to reach the reward chest.
The good news is, even if you don't open the chest at the end of the Haunted Forest, you still get your winnings. They're automatically sent to the Postmaster, just like the stuff from chests in just about any other activity. Once you've earned rewards in the Haunted Forest, they're yours, no matter what condition you're left in by the Invincible Nightmare.
Just because you fall into the Nightmare's pit doesn't mean you're stuck there, though. There's actually a secret escape out of the pit on one of the walls. Look up about midway to one side of the pit and you'll see a small indentation that marks a hole you players can leap through. It takes you out of the pit and onto the side of the bridge under which it hides. Following the narrow pathway from there allows you to climb back up onto the far side of the bridge and claim your loot chest, while also giving you a second to let your heart stop pounding.
It's also possible to avoid falling into the pit altogether, if you're quick. When the stones of the walkway give out beneath Guardians as they cross, they're pulled down thanks to a sort of suction, but it's possible to jump free with the right timing (or, at least, with the triple jump of the Hunter class). You can also stick to the side edges of the bridge and potentially avoid any tricky cobblestones altogether.
If Bungie is following the usual horror movie script with the Haunted Forest, the question now becomes one of how to kill the Invincible Nightmare, like the characters of a Friday the Thirteenth or Halloween movie might try to do. Like all good slasher movies, though, even if players successfully take the Nightmare down, we'll all still be wondering if it's really dead.
The first season of Netflix's Castlevania show was really more of a teaser than a full season. Over just four short episodes, it established the main characters and conflict and gave us a taste of the action, with the promise of more to come at a later date. In the portion of Castlevania Season 2 sent to press--six of the eight new episodes--that promise has yet to be fulfilled.
Castlevania Season 2 follows characters on two fronts: Dracula's court, and the small crew fighting against him. The latter consists of familiar faces: Trevor Belmont (Richard Armitage), Alucard (James Callis), and Sypha (Alejandra Reynoso), all of whom we met in Season 1. Like much of Castlevania, the chemistry among the trio has potential, but it's yet to bear fruit, even three quarters of the way through Season 2. Unfortunately, they spend almost the entire first six episodes simply sequestered away in a massive library researching ways to take Dracula down.
That probably sounds boring--because it is. And it's made even more so by the distinct lack of action; where Alucard and Trevor clashed blades at the end of Season 1, now they're content to simply trade childish barbs, much to Sypha's (and likely the audience's) frustration. Granted, they are on the same side now, but their dynamic gets old quickly.
Belmont and crew's preparatory storyline is really the B plot so far this time around, as the meat of Castlevania Season 2 follows Dracula (Graham McTavish)--or, more accurately, those in his vampire war council, since the Dark Lord himself does literally nothing in all the episodes we've seen so far. There's one medium length flashback in which he massacres a council of merchants who offended him, but it's not like that moves the story along. Dracula is actually extremely morose and depressed throughout Season 2 so far--an enormous sea change from his force-of-nature rage in Season 1, the reason for which is unclear, since these episodes seem to pick up shortly after the last batch.
Instead, we follow the intrigue in Dracula's court, which includes the bulk of new characters we meet: Godbrand, a hilariously brutish, hard-living, hard-killing vampire lord voiced with relish by the distinctive Peter Stormare; Carmella, a power-hungry female vampire who immediately starts to question Dracula's rule; and the human-hating-humans Hector and Isaac, who Dracula appoints to lead his war effort. This doesn't go over well with Godbrand, and Carmella seeks her own ends, so there's no end of drama among Dracula's generals.
Hector and Isaac are particularly well fleshed out, as we get flashbacks and monologues that describe both why they hate other humans, and how they came to be in Dracula's service. Isaac is a former slave whose master was excessively cruel, while Hector is a "Forge Master" who uses magic to imbue dead things with life, making him the architect of Dracula's demon army. There are other vampires among the war council, and they certainly look cool during the handful of action scenes they take part in during these episodes, but they're not named or fleshed out.
One thing Castlevania Season 2 definitely does have is buildup. All the intrigue and tension is leading somewhere--there's never doubt of that. By the end of the sixth episode, with just two more to go, the pieces seem to finally be falling into place. Belmont is fighting demons, Sypha is doing magic, and Dracula is--well, Dracula is still brooding, but the rest of his forces are finally at war. The action is still creatively executed, and fights look cool.
But with eight episodes instead of just four, there was hope that Castlevania Season 2 would feel like more of a complete thing. Instead, it feels more like Season 1 was the first act, and this is simply a continuation, and the extra room has been spent developing new characters while the old ones tread water. We'll learn for sure whether it will all lead to a satisfying conclusion when Castlevania Season 2 hits Netflix on October 26.
Treyarch has released another update for Call of Duty: Black Ops 4. Whereas the previous patch focused primarily on fixing PC crashes on top of bumping up the player count for Duos and Quads in Blackout, this one is available on all platforms and has to do with Zombies mode.
As Treyarch outlined on Reddit, the new Zombies-related patch makes "significant stability fixes across all Zombies maps." Additionally, it addresses issues with Zombies' Easter Egg quests, although the developer didn't go into any further details beyond that.
Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 has only been available for a few days, but Treyarch is continuing to monitor the game and implement improvements regularly. The developer revealed some other issues it is currently looking into, such as irregular vehicle behavior and a bug that would cause consoles to freeze when looting Death Stashes. You can read more in Treyarch's patch notes.
Despite only launching on October 12, Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 has already proven to be a big success for Activision, breaking the publisher's record for "biggest day-one digital release," a distinction previously held by last year's Call of Duty: WWII. It seems physical sales aren't quite as strong, however; according to GamesIndustry, Black Ops 4's first-weekend physical sales in the UK were the lowest in the series since 2007.
Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 is now available on PS4, Xbox One, and PC. The game has been warmly received by critics. GameSpot awarded it an 8/10 in our Black Ops 4 review, writing, "Black Ops 4 isn't short on content, and its three main modes are substantial."
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