Month: June 2019

The Game Critics Awards has announced the winners of its 2019 E3 awards. Square Enix’s Final Fantasy VII Remake took home the overall Game of Show award, while the PlayStation game also won Best Console Game and Best Role-Playing Game. It was the only title with three wins; Bethesda’s Doom Eternal followed with two wins; one for Best PC Game and Best Action Game.

Looking by publisher, Square Enix led the way with three overall wins, with Bethesda and Activision following with two each. By platform, PlayStation 4 led the way with 12 wins, while Xbox One and PC had 10 each, and Google Stadia with 4.

The Outer Worlds won Best Original Game, while the Xbox Elite Series 2 controller took home the away for Best Hardware/Peripheral. John Wick Hex won for Best Strategy Game, while Cyberpunk 2077 picked up a special commendation for best graphics.

Watch Dogs Legion won Best Action/Adventure Game, while Call of Duty: Modern Warfare won for Best Online Multiplayer. Destiny 2, meanwhile, won the award for Best Ongoing Game.

The winners were decided by a vote from a judges panel that include games media outlets from around the world, including GameSpot. To be considered, a game must be shown in a playable state at E3 2019 for a minimum of five minutes.

Go to the Game Critics Awards website to see a full list of categories and nominees, while the complete list of winners can be seen below.

2019 Game Critics Awards winners

Best of Show

Final Fantasy VII Remake

Best Original Game

The Outer Worlds

Best Console Game

Final Fantasy VII Remake

Best VR/AR Game

Phantom: Covert Ops

Best PC Game

Doom Eternal

Best Hardware/Peripheral

Xbox Elite Wireless Controller Series 2

Best Action Game

Doom Eternal

Best Action/Adventure

Watch Dogs: Legion

Best RPG

Final Fantasy VII Remake

Best Racing Game

Crash Team Racing

Best Sports Game

Pro Evolution Soccer 2020

Best Strategy Game

John Wick Hex

Best Family/Social Game

Luigi’s Mansion 3

Best Online Multiplayer

Call of Duty Modern Warfare

Best Independent Game

12 Minutes

Best Ongoing Game

Destiny 2

Special Commendations for Graphics

Cyberpunk 2077

Players have discovered a neat new Battlefield V Easter Egg, but it has a horrifying twist.

Players recently came across “finger gun” Easter Egg in the World War II shooter, and it’s just what you’d expect. It’s a “weapon” where the player’s hands come together to mimic the look of a pistol. The Easter Egg is quite robust. Fire the weapon and your character will yell “ka-pow!” and “pew-pew!” as comic book-style graphics appear on screen.

But then it takes a turn for the worse. You might have even seen it coming. How does one reload a finger gun? The answer is in a truly disgusting manner. The reload animation shows the player’s finger snapping with bone-crunching noises and all. Then, to pull back the “hammer,” the animation shows your thumb becoming dislocated and broken in multiple places.

You can see it in action in the video below from YouTube user DannyonPC (via PCGamesN). Someone named zhpete reportedly was the first to discover the Easter Egg.

As for how you can find the finger gun for yourself, it’s not exactly clear. You apparently need to find a box with a shovel on it. If the light is green, the shovel points to an area where you can dig up the weapon. DannyonPC says they jumped around to 20 different servers to find it. The map in the video appears to be Hamada.

In other news, Battlefield V was recently updated with yet another free map. The new map is called Al Sundan, and you can play it right now.

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It’s a big day for Battlefield V, as the World War II shooter’s next free map has arrived. The map Al Sundan came to Battlefield V today through the Chapter 4: Defying the Odds update.

Al Sundan is set in the North Africa desert, and players may note that it looks familiar. That’s because it is pulled from the single-player mission, Behind Enemy Lines, from the Under No Flag chapter of the campaign.

Al Sundan is described as a “versatile map” that supports numerous different play-styles. The map features a number of different vehicles and planes, while there are six different capture points. The map contains big, open areas, so DICE advise players to never run in straight lines and use smoke screens to stay hidden.

The map supports two modes–Squad Conquest and Team Deathmatch. However, developer DICE said it encountered some “stability issues” with the map, so “not every game mode intended for Al Sundan” will be available. It’s not immediately clear what other modes might be planned for it, but looking at the servers in-game right now, only Squad Contest and Team Deathmatch are available.

Go to the Battlefield website to learn more about Al Sundan.

Battlefield V’s next free map is Marita, which is set in Greece; it arrives in July. After that is Operation Underground, which takes place in an underground subway system and releases in October. Following that, Battlefield V heads to the Pacific theatre with a new Iwo Jima map later in the year. All post-release DLC maps for Battlefield V are free.

Ahead of Season 2’s launch on July 2, Apex Legends is already beginning to undergo changes. Next time you drop in Kings Canyon, head on over to Repulsor Station and you’ll notice the once dormant facility has reawakened.

First noticed by Reddit user RozenFroh, the IMC Repulsor Tower at Repulsor Station has begun to spin. Titanfall and Titanfall 2 fans may remember the huge towers from Respawn’s popular shooter franchise. When the towers spin, they emit a painfully loud sound at a frequency that’s inaudible to humans. However, it’s excruciating to animals, and so the IMC (the antagonists of the Titanfall franchise) use the towers to keep the alien Flyers and Leviathans away from important structures.

Since Apex Legends’ launch, the Repulsor Tower has remained inactive. The tower is most likely being turned on now in response to the growing Flyer population, which have begun invading Kings Canyon. However, as we know from Apex Legends Season 2’s launch trailer (embedded above), a mysterious hacker–most likely the rumored character Crypto–is about to destroy that tower. With its destruction, there’s nothing keeping the Flyers and much larger Leviathans at bay, and their invasion of Kings Canyon will make huge changes to the battle royale game’s map.

The start of Season 2 is right around the corner, and it introduces a bunch of new content and features in Apex Legends. The most notable change is the aforementioned transformation of Kings Canyon, which sees the destruction of several landmarks and the creation of a few new ones. Titanfall 2’s L-Star is also being added as a Legendary Gold energy-based weapon, randomly dropping in Supply Drops like the Kraber and Mastiff. The Season 2 battle pass offers more Legend cosmetics and weapon skins to unlock, as well as brand-new Skydive Emotes. You’ll also gain access to a ranked playlist with the launch of Season 2, giving you the chance to climb the six-tiered ladder between Bronze and Apex Predator. Finally, just like Season 1, Season 2 introduces a brand-new Legend for you to play: Wattson, the daughter of the man who built the Kings Canyon arena.

In GameSpot’s Apex Legends review, Phil Hornshaw wrote, “Apex Legends is a mix of smart shooter ideas that makes for a competitive, team-based game that gets at all the best parts of battle royale while addressing a lot of the weaknesses. Respawn’s intense focus on team play makes Apex more than just a worthy addition to the genre; it’s an indicator of where battle royale should go in the future.”