Month: March 2018

Netflix and former President Barack Obama are potentially going to work together on new TV shows. The New York Times reports today that Obama is in “advanced negotiations” with Netflix to create a “series of high-profile shows.” NYT’s report is based on unspecified sources.

As part of the deal, Netflix would pay Obama and his wife, Michelle, an unspecified fee for new TV shows. According to the report, Obama’s shows will focus on “inspirational stories” instead of responding to President Trump or conservative policy.

“President and Mrs. Obama have always believed in the power of storytelling to inspire,” Obama’s former senior adviser Eric Schultz told NYT. “As they consider their future personal plans, they continue to explore new ways to help others tell and share their stories.”

Specifics about Obama’s Netflix shows are under wraps for now, but NYT says one potential idea is for a program where Obama moderates discussions about things like health care, immigration, foreign policy, and climate change. Michelle Obama, meanwhile, could star in a show where she talks about things like nutrition and health, which she worked to promote while at the White House. Additionally, the Obamas might be behind new Netflix documentaries or even fictional shows that line up with their “beliefs and values.”

Apple and Amazon have also reportedly been interested in making shows with the Obamas, according to the report.

Obama has a history with Netflix. He recently appeared in the first episode of David Letterman’s new Netflix show, My Guest Needs No Introduction.

Netflix plans to have around 700 original TV shows by the end of 2018; the company plans on spending around $8 billion on content in 2018. Obama’s new show(s) could be among them.

If you’ve been looking for something new to play, and you happen to enjoy horror games, today’s a good day: The Amnesia Collection is available for free on Steam, and you can keep it forever.

The Amnesia Collection comes with both Amnesia games, The Dark Descent and A Machine For Pigs. Usually $35, you can download the collection for no cost right now. In addition, unlike Steam free weekends, you’ll be able to keep the two games forever.

The Amnesia games are both psychological survival-horror games, so they’re definitely not for you if you don’t like horror. However, they’re both generally well-received, if very different from each other. The Dark Descent was developed by Frictional Games and is known for being extremely scary. A Machine For Pigs, meanwhile, was made by Dear Esther studio The Chinese Room and is more narrative-focused.

Valve didn’t specify when the free period will end, but it definitely is temporary, so you should take advantage soon. You can download the Amnesia Collection here. It’s worth noting, though, that this isn’t the first time the games were free. If you want to read more about Amnesia, you can check out our review of The Dark Descent here and A Machine For Pigs here.

It’s now been six months since Destiny 2 was originally released, and although we haven’t heard anything recently about new DLC, Bungie continues to tweak and improve the game in a number of ways. Today, the company laid out how it’s planning on modifying the game’s competitive multiplayer mode.

Destiny 2’s multiplayer mode, the Crucible, has been a source of consistent player feedback (and sometimes complaints) over the past few months, but Bungie has some significant changes in store. Specifically, the studio aims to make the mode “a faster, more dynamic, and more action-packed experience.”

“There is a lot to get excited about in Update 1.1.4, but something the team really wanted to do was go back and refine the core experience,” Bungie said in a blog post. “Looking at the feedback, it was clear that the community felt there were two key areas for improvement with the Crucible: ‘Time to Kill’ and ‘Team Shotting.’ So we set our sights on re-working systems, mechanics, and values to tackle those two areas.”

To address these issues, Bungie plans on, among other things, reducing the respawn timers for all game modes. All Quickplay modes’ respawn timers have been lowered to two seconds; Survival and Countdown timers are now seven seconds.

In addition, power ammo will also respawn more quickly, meaning that there’ll be substantially more rockets, sniper rounds, and fusion rifle blasts flying around maps. And, perhaps most notably, players will drop unused power ammo upon death.

To address the team shotting issue–essentially, an issue with teams being able to gang up on players too easily–Bungie is tweaking competitive modes to make it harder to clump with your team members. When Update 1.1.4 launches, the teammate tracker will be removed from Trials of the Nine and Competitive matches.

There’s a whole lot more coming in Update 1.1.4, including tweaks to all the player classes. You can see the full list of changes over at Bungie’s website. The update launches on March 27 on PS4, Xbox One, and PC. In other news, Iron Banner is live once again in Destiny 2 along with a bunch of new rewards. Many other changes are coming to Destiny 2, as well, such as an overhaul to how Exotic weapons work.