Month: March 2018

When a game gets big and popular, that success catches the eye of people who want to do bad things. This is no different for Epic’s popular shooter Fortnite. In recent weeks, many Fortnite players have posted on places like Reddit and the Epic Games forums to complain about their accounts getting compromised. The posts detail different kinds of fraud, where charges for things like V-Bucks (Fortnite’s in-game currency) and the paid base game Save the World were showing up despite players not having purchased those things.

In one instance, as reported by Kotaku, someone noticed charges of $150 and $100 on their account. This person says they do not know how this happened. This person’s credit card data was stored on his Epic Games profile, though it is not clear if the breach took place there. Whatever the case, Epic refunded this person’s money.

In a statement, Epic said it is aware of Fortnite accounts getting hacked using “well-known hacking techniques.” Epic is working with affected players and will presumably offer refunds to players who can show their accounts were compromised. If you think you’ve been hacked, Epic says you should contact player support right away.

Additionally, it’s a good idea to have two-factor authentication enabled on your account–here’s how to do that. Epic’s general Account Security page covers more of what you can do to keep your account safe such as never sharing passwords, use anti-virus software, and keep your PC up to date.

In other Fortnite news, the 100-player Battle Royale is coming to mobile devices soon–you can sign up for the iOS test right now. For more, check out this video to see how Fortnite looks on iOS.

With the Blu-ray and digital release of Star Wars: The Last Jedi drawing close, Disney has released a sneak peek at one of the movie’s most exciting special features. The Director and the Jedi is a feature-length documentary that takes fans behind-the-scenes of the film. If you don’t want to wait until the documentary is made available digitally on March 13, you’re in luck. The first 12 minutes can be watched right now.

In The Director and the Jedi, filmmaker Anthony Wonke follows The Last Jedi director Rian Johnson throughout the entire process of writing and directing the latest Star Wars film and reveals some very interesting secrets along the way–including concept art for a droid that never made it to the big screen.

In the clip, which you can watch above, Johnson and his team study the concept art of another ball droid, which is more mechanical than BB-8, before deciding it doesn’t work for their movie. “I feel it looks too much like a droid. Too complicated, too robot-y, too Doctor Who,” the director says of the unnamed droid that looks like some sort of space-age disco ball. “I feel like they gotta be classier.”

While it’s not confirmed in the film, it’s entirely possible this particular droid was reworked in BB-9E, which was the Empire’s BB-8 counterpart in The Last Jedi. With its all-chrome look, it certainly looks quite cold and colorless–unlike BB-8’s white and orange paint job.

Elsewhere in the preview, Johnson rehearses dialogue with Daisy Ridley (Rey) and Mark Hamill (Luke Skywalker), choreographs lightsaber battles with his stunt team, and gives a peek at a much bigger scene involving the Caretakers on Ahch-To. In that particular moment, numerous Caretakers are seen dancing. It could be that this was simply done to entertain the cast and crew but it would have been nice to see more of the bizarre species in The Last Jedi–especially if they were dancing. Perhaps, that would give this new trilogy its own version of the Ewoks.

The Director and the Jedi will be included with both the digital and Blu-ray release of Star Wars: The Last Jedi. You’ll be able to but the movie digitally on March 13, but it won’t land on Blu-ray until March 27.

Epic made a surprising announcement recently when it revealed that it was bringing Fortnite‘s incredibly popular Battle Royale mode to mobile, complete with cross-play. With a beta test coming up on iOS and sign-ups now live, Epic has provided us with our first look at the game running on mobile.

The mobile reveal trailer above showcases gameplay that Epic says is from the mobile version, though it doesn’t specify exactly what hardware it’s running on–iPhone 6S/SE, iPad Mini 4, iPad Air 2, iPad 2017, iPad Pro, or a newer Apple device with iOS 11 is required to play. Regardless, you can get a sense for both how it may look on your device of choice and what it’s going to play like.

Epic promised that Fortnite on mobile would be the full experience, and from what little we can glean, that appears to be the case. Graphics quality is, as you’d expect, lower than what many Battle Royale players are likely accustomed to, as it runs at a noticeably low resolution in some sections (such as when a player parachutes down into the Dusty Depot area). That said, Fortnite’s cartoonish style seems to lend itself well to this kind of downgrade.

More importantly, we also get a brief glimpse at the controls and user interface. The map is relegated to the upper-left corner, while your inventory is listed along the bottom of the screen and touch buttons are located on the left and (primarily) right. We don’t yet know how much freedom you’ll have to customize these controls; while not as complex as the control scheme in PUBG, Epic does face a challenge in adequately mapping controls meant for a keyboard and mouse or controller to a touchscreen.

As noted above, you can now sign up to participate in Fortnite’s upcoming mobile test. It will only be available on iOS initially, although Android will come later. Players can opt-in for cross-play with PS4, Xbox One, and PC, allowing them to squad up with friends on other platforms–provided you want to.

Players who have yet to catch Pokemon Go‘s latest Legendary, Rayquaza, will have to act fast if they hope to add one to their teams. The Sky-High Pokemon will only be available for a few more days, making this your last opportunity to capture one before it leaves the game.

Rayquaza will appear in Raid Battles at Gyms until Friday, March 16. Like all other Legendary Pokemon, players will first have to team up with other trainers to battle it; only after it has been defeated will you have a chance to capture one. While powerful, Rayquaza’s dual Dragon and Flying typing makes it particularly susceptible to Ice-type attacks, so players should bring Ice Pokemon such as Piloswine and Lapras to battle it.

Rayquaza is the third Gen 3 Legendary to appear in Pokemon Go, following Groudon and Kyogre, who each appeared in Raid Battles earlier this year. The two temporarily returned to the game in February as part of Legendary Week, a 10-day event that would be followed by a different set of rewards based on which Legendary players defeated the most.

As a result of Legendary Week, Pokemon that typically spawn in windy conditions, such as Bagon, are more likely to hatch from Eggs until March 16. In addition to that, Raid Battles likewise feature Pokemon that prefer windy weather. Players will also receive double XP as an added bonus from now until March 16.

The third Pokemon Go Community Day event takes place later this month, on March 25. As before, it will run for a three-hour window of time, during which players will have a chance to capture a rare Pokemon that knows a move it cannot typically learn in the game. Niantic has yet to reveal what the move will be this month, but the featured Pokemon is the Red and Blue starter Bulbasaur.

Blizzard has announced its first Hearthstone expansion for the Year of the Raven, titled The Witchwood. The new expansion will pack 135 cards and a new single-player adventure and it’s slated to release in April.

The team debuted six cards today, with more planned reveals coming on March 26 livestream and then steadily leading up to the release. The six shown today give a taste of this expansion’s flavor, including two new keywords. The first is Echo, which allows you to play the same card multiple times in the one turn, as long as you have the Mana to pay for it. The second is Rush, which works similar to the existing Charge mechanic but disallows attacks toward the opposing Hero on their opening turn.

Some cards have already been printed that utilize similar mechanics. The Shaman’s Unstable Evolution allows multiple plays in the same turn, and cards like Charged Devilsaur have had Charge but disallowed attacks on Heroes as a Battlecry. Clever plays can find ways around the Battlecry, though, so making a new keyword like Rush should allow the card designers some more flexibility.

Other cards have similarly big effects, like upgrading or reducing the cost of your Hero Power from the start of the game, copying your opponent’s hand, or flip-flopping health and attack while still in your hand. We have a more detailed breakdown of the new Hearthstone cards here.

The lovably goofy reveal trailer ended with a glimpse, but only a glimpse, at a new Warlock Hero card. Hero Cards were introduced in the Knights of the Frozen Throne expansion, and they replace your Hero with an entirely new and powerful effect. We can see the name “Hagatha” and the Mana cost (8) but the tease didn’t reveal further details about what this Warlock Hero actually does.

The expansion will also bring a new single-player adventure, called Monster Hunt. It will launch two weeks after The Witchwood expansion. It will work similarly to the Dungeon Run mode introduced in Kobalds & Catacombs, but it appears players will choose a new hero rather than one of the existing ones.

As usual, Blizzard has opened pre-purchases of a large card bundle with an exclusive card back for those who purchase it. This time, though, the bundle is a full 70 packs instead of the usual 50. Also as usual, logging in near launch will get you some freebies: three packs plus one random Class Legendary.

Today Blizzard announced its next Hearthstone expansion, the spooky haunted forest theme titled The Witchwood. And though the company has only revealed six cards so far, those six pack a lot of flavor and implications for this expansion’s direction–especially thanks to the introduction of two new keywords. Let’s take a closer look.

Pumpkin Peasant – This card is actually represented as a pair, because as it sits in your hand it will shift from a 2/4 minion to a 4/2 and back again. Hearthstone has certainly toyed with similar effects before, with cards like Molten Blade or Shifting Scroll changing to randomized cards from a pool of weapons or Mage spells, respectively. This represents a different type of shifting, though, because it occurs in a predictable pattern. That means you can plan several turns ahead, knowing exactly what it will be when you need to drop it. It wouldn’t be surprising to see Blizzard continuing this idea with more cards that shift in your hand in a clockwork pattern.

Phantom Militia – This is the first of two new keywords introduced in this expansion. The Echo keyword allows you to play a card multiple times in a single turn. While Blizzard has executed a similar idea in the Shaman’s Unstable Evolution card, giving it a keyword suggests the developer has much bigger plans for this mechanic, in this expansion and beyond. Keywords can also signal interactions with other cards that may let you perform tricks like reducing costs or increasing effects.

The card itself is a fine utility staple, giving you a decent Taunt minion that can be doubled or tripled up as necessary. It’s not the most exciting inclusion, so the introduction of a keyword is really the more interesting element here.

Milita Commander – The only class card introduced so far in this set is a Warrior card that debuts the other new keyword, Rush. Rush is essentially Charge, which allows a minion to attack on the turn it is played, but it’s limited only to other minions. We can already see how this new keyword is opening up additional design space for Blizzard. This minion would be way too powerful if it could attack the enemy Hero, but as limited to other minions it seems pretty fair.

The studio has tried to implement a similar limitation before with Charged Devilsaur, which inserted the minions-only limitation as a Battlecry. It was possible to cheat around the Battlecry though, so devoting a new keyword should avoid that problem altogether.

Azalina Soulthief – One of the neutral Legendary cards already revealed, Azalina Soulthief could allow for some huge gameplay moments. If you’re running out of cards against an opponent with a full hand, it’s an easy way to swing the game back in your favor. Alternatively, if you suspect your opponent is putting together a wicked combo, you can take their pieces and try to pull it off yourself. It’s easy to see how this could become a tech card against powerful decks, since it has such an immediate effect to answer whatever your opponent has coming.

Genn Greymane – This is one of a pair of cards with similar effects that are vitally incompatible. In the past, Hearthstone has printed cards that upgrade your Hero Power, and cards that reduce the cost of your Hero Power. With the ability to use both together, players have put together combo decks like Shadowreaper Priest that were too powerful and subsequently needed to be nerfed. Greymane gives the power-reduction effect, but only if you construct your deck with even-costed cards. That could be a serious disruption to your play tempo and limit your options, but as a trade-off, the impact is available right from the start of the game.

Baku the Mooneater – The mirror image of Greymane is Baku, which upgrades your Hero Power from the very start by building a deck of only odd-cost cards. These upgraded powers will presumably be similar to the ones introduced by Justicar Truehart, which rotated out of Standard a long time ago. Greymane’s cost-reduction will likely make its limitations easier to deal with, but having an upgraded Hero Power from the very start of the game could see you through.

Most importantly, since it’s impossible to build a deck out of only even and only odd cards, you can’t use Greymane and Baku together. Forcing players to choose a lane should make for more diverse strategies.

The Witchwood will launch in mid-April with 135 new cards. Blizzard has opened pre-purchases of a bundle that includes 70 packs, with a few packs and a free Class Legendary available as a login bonus near launch. It will kick off the Year of the Raven, which will also mean older sets will be cycled out at the same time.

It’s been several months since we’ve last heard about Ready or Not, the ambitious Rainbow Six-like shooter from developer Void Interactive. Despite this lengthy silence, the studio assures that development is progressing steadily, and now it has shared some more progress details about the game.

Like the Rainbow Six and SWAT series, Ready or Not is a tactical police shooter that puts players in the role of an “elite SWAT team tasked with defusing hostile situations in intense, claustrophobic environments.” Void hopes to set it apart from similar titles with its emphasis on realism, which extends to all facets of the game, particularly its animation and AI.

“For the last year, we’ve been writing Suspect and SWAT AI that will challenge the player and act realistically,” Void said on its blog. “Our suspect AI can be surprisingly spontaneous and very lethal. For example, failure to restrain a suspect may result in them getting up when the SWAT are no longer around, and finding something to defend themselves with. Players will have to be strategic and mindful of their surroundings, and use the tools provided to ensure rooms are safe before and during entry.”

Void also shared several brief gameplay clips of Ready or Not, showcasing the game’s animations and various systems. Most notably, the developer has expanded the reload system; on top of being able to swap magazines by pressing the reload key, players will be able to double-tap the same key to perform a quick-reload. “This will quickly eject the mag to the floor and allows players to quickly resume combat in the event they can’t afford to waste time replacing magazines in their kit,” Void says.

In terms of the kinds of items players will find in their kits, Ready or Not features four types of grenades: the Flashbang, CS-Gas, Stingball, and the Nine-Bang. Void says that each one fills a particular role and can be thrown both overhand and underhand. Some grenade effects can also be mitigated if players have a particular item equipped.

You can read the latest details about Ready or Not on the game’s blog. Void hasn’t announced a release date for the title or the full list of platforms it will support, but it is at the very least coming to PC. The developer has teased it will show off more features from the game in an upcoming gameplay trailer; in the meantime, you can watch Ready or Not’s initial reveal trailer at the top of this story.

Epic recently announced that it is bringing the massively popular free-to-play game Fortnite: Battle Royale to iOS and Android devices. Prior to its official mobile launch, however, it will conduct a test on iOS to put the game through its paces. This won’t be open to everyone, but sign-ups for the invite-only trial are now open on Epic’s official website.

Both iOS and Android users can sign up for the trial, but only those with the former devices will be able to participate for the time being; Epic says Android support will follow “in the next few months.” Players will need an internet connection and an iPhone 6S/SE, iPad Mini 4, iPad Air 2, iPad 2017, iPad Pro, or a newer Apple device with iOS 11 in order to play the game. For an idea of what to expect, you can check out the first Fortnite mobile gameplay video.

If you’re selected to take part in the test, you’ll receive an email that contains a link to download the mobile version of Fortnite: Battle Royale shortly after signing up, as well as codes to share with your friends. Even if you aren’t initially chosen to participate, you’ll still have a chance to get in at a later date. Epic says it will send out more invites “as the servers can handle more players.”

Epic says the mobile version of Fortnite: Battle Royale will be the same 100-player experience currently available on PS4, Xbox One, and PC. The game will boast the “same gameplay, same map, same content, same weekly updates,” Epic explained in a forum post on its website. “We believe this is the future of games. The same game on all platforms. Console quality graphics and action. Play when you want, where you want.”

Along with featuring the same content, the mobile version of Fortnite: Battle Royale will also support cross-play and cross-progression between PS4, Xbox One, PC, Mac, iOS, and (eventually) Android. Players will have the option to opt-in for cross-play and squad up with their friends on other platforms, meaning you won’t be forced into teaming up with someone on mobile if you’re on console or PC.