Month: November 2019

It’s now been over a month since Martin Scorsese stated his opinion that Marvel movies were “not cinema,” opening up a larger debate about the state of show business and causing folks like James Gunn, Natalie Portman, Samuel L. Jackson, and Disney CEO Bob Iger to defend the MCU.

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Where The Water Tastes Like Wine, a narrative-focused game in which you work your way around the 1930s American Dust Bowl, hearing and trading stories, is come to consoles later this month. The game, which released on PC in 2018, is coming to Switch, PS4, and Xbox One on November 29.

The game’s impending release was announced by publisher Serenity Forge on Twitter. It’s now available to pre-order on Switch.

The game also received a new launch trailer ahead of its console release.

The game, which contains a guest appearance from Sting, struggled at launch, with creator Johnnemann Nordhagen publicly discussing the difficulties developer Dim Bulb Games faced following the game’s release. “At the end of the day it’s astounding that a game that got this much attention from the press, that won awards, that had an all-star cast of writers and performers, that had a bizarre celebrity guest appearance(!) failed this hard,” Nordhagen wrote. Perhaps the game’s console release can recoup some of the costs of development.

We gave the game a 6/10 in our original review, stating that “if the basic premise of gathering folk stories across a version of 1930s America strongly appeals to you, then Where the Water Tastes Like Wine is worth a look, but it’s probably not worth finishing”. Since launch, the game has been updated with Chinese-American tales. It’s currently discounted by 70% on Steam.

Blizzard has come under fire lately for their harsh treatment of Hearthstone Grandmaster pro Blitzchung, who was banned from the game and had his winnings taken away for expressing a pro-Hong Kong sentiment during a post-match interview. Although eventually his prize money was reinstated and his ban was reduced to six months, the fallout from the incident was immense: the game’s developers spoke out against the way Blitzchung had been treated, sponsor Mitsubishi cut ties with the Hearthstone esports scene, and numerous protests were held, which led to further bans.

Blizzard president J. Allen Brack addressed the decision directly during BlizzCon, but it’s clear that many within Blizzard remain unhappy with how things have played out. Now Jeff Kaplan, director of Overwatch, has added his own voice to the discussion. Talking to The Washington Post, Kaplan has said that he would personally like to see Blitzchung’s suspension reduced further. “I was relieved when they reduced his suspension…and I think the suspension should be reduced more or eliminated. But that’s just me.”

“I’m obviously a huge supporter of free speech,” Kaplan said. “It’s something that’s very important to me…it got to me personally. I think the punishment was too harsh and I was greatly relieved when they gave his money back. I think that was extremely important.” Kaplan talked about his own experience in Overwatch, where decisions like this typically take “four or five days” to get settled. He said that it was surprising to see a punishment like this get metered out so quickly: “I was actually shocked that such a harsh penalty was levied.”

For now, Blitzchung’s suspension remains in place. For more on this, watch our interview with Freedom Hong Kong organizer Dayton Young about Blizzard’s action here, and why change is important.

Warning: Full spoilers for the episode follow….

First thing to mention here out of the gate: I’m surprised at the overall lack of Michonne this first half-season. I guess I figured she’d be featured a little bit more given it’s star Danai Gurira’s final season on the show. Related, I’m also taken aback a little by how much Negan we’re getting in place of Michonne.

But it makes sense. Negan’s more or less following his comic arc while also stepping up as more of a main character who could replace Michonne on the show’s marquee (not in a spiritual sense, but in a “grown up who also loves Judith” sense). And with this week’s episode, “Bonds,” the show’s finally figured out the best thing to do with him since he helped Judith with her math homework. And that’s annoy the ever-loving s*** out of Beta.

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This review contains spoilers for Watchmen episode 4, titled “If You Don’t Like My Story, Write Your Own.” Check out our recap of Watchmen episode 3 here.

With its fourth episode, titled “If You Don’t Like My Story, Write Your Own,” HBO’s Watchmen finds itself in a major way. While the show’s central mystery remains vague — as it did in last week’s Brecht-laden entry “She Was Killed By Space Junk” — lingering questions of what and why (and malformed political mechanics) fade into the backdrop. Instead, the focus falls on characters we know, and their respective inherited traumas. It’s with this episode, written by showrunner Damon Lindelof along with Christal Henry, that the series’ emotional scope finally begins to crystalize.

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Activision is planning another update for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare to address one of the military shooter’s most controversial weapons. In a tweet, multiplayer co-director Joe Cecot said developer Infinity Ward is planning another change for the 725 shotgun that should address how effective the weapon is at a distance.

Specifically, the update will “massage out” instances where the 725 is seemingly too effective at range, Cecot said. As you can see in the video below, the 725 is still very, very effective at a distance, which many have remarked makes the shotgun far too powerful.

The 725 is a break-action shotgun that carries only two rounds. It’s also not a standard shotgun. The weapon has a cylindrical choke that keeps the projectile spread tight. This is what makes the 725 effective at long ranges unlike other, more standard shotguns.

In another tweet, Cecot said Infinity Ward is being careful to make sure that whatever changes it plans for the 725 do not impact the “soul” of the weapon. He also confirmed that Infinity Ward has no plans to simply remove the 725 from the game. “No,” he said.

The video below shows the 725 killing someone in one shot, from across the map. Cecot said this video shows a “rare” situation where one of the shotgun pellets lands. That being said, Cecot added that there are “changes still to come,” presumably for instances like this.

Modern Warfare launched at the end of October, and it generated $600 million in revenue right away. The game is expected to sell as many as 27 million copies this quarter, while it will bring in even more money when the first Battle Pass launches in December.

In other Call of Duty news, the Call of Duty Mobile game is racing up the charts with more than 140 million downloads and $50 million in revenue over its first month.

Diablo IV was announced during BlizzCon 2019, and while it’s still a very long way from release we’ve already gotten quite a lot of information about it. In our hands-on time with the game, we found its shared world and dark vibes intriguing. Now, in the wake of BlizzCon, more information is coming out from interviews conducted during the show.

We know that Diablo IV will feature mounts and character customization, but now we’ve heard that there are plans to let you spend money on cosmetic items for your characters. This comes via an interview by Twitch streamer Quin69 with lead designer Joe Shely, where Shely discusses monetization plans for the upcoming loot RPG.

The video is quite long, but PCGamesN has nabbed the highlights. After confirming that the base game will get expansions, Shely said that, “you also will be able to acquire cosmetics in the game.” Asked directly if that means the game will have microtransactions, Shely says that it will. While the game will not let you spend money to improve your build or become more powerful, this seems to confirm that you’ll be able to spend money on skins.

According to Shely, “it’s also an opportunity to have more options available than you would otherwise.” It’s likely that we won’t know more details about this system for some time yet, and with the game so far away, there’s always the possibility that Blizzard’s plans will change.

Diablo IV was announced alongside Overwatch 2, but neither game was given a release date.

This review contains full spoilers for Batwoman: Season 1, Episode 6. If you need a refresher on where we left off, here’s our review for Season 1, Episode 5.

Batwoman may not have given viewers a lot of incentive to keep watching early on, but the series is slowly but surely coming into its own now, and seems to be finding its groove in Episode 6. Not only is this episode more cohesive in its approach and its ability to balance the ensemble cast, it even manages to counter one of the most common flaws in the Arrowverse.

I’m surely not the only one disappointed the series doesn’t stick closer to the comics in terms of the Kate/Jacob dynamic. It’s hard not to pine for a leaner, more efficient series that focuses simply on Kate the vigilante soldier and Jacob the battle-scarred handler. For better or worse, that’s not what we’re getting with the show. But at least this episode makes some significant strides with the two characters and their strained relationship. Having moved past that initial hurdle of Jacob confronting the truth about Beth/Alice, this episode is free to explore the fallout and the true reasons behind Jacob’s hatred of all things Bat. That all pays off nicely in Kate and Jacob’s emotional reconciliation scene.

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The new Call of Duty mobile game is doing very well. Research company SensorTower reports that the game has accumulated around 148 million downloads across iOS and Android since its release on October 1. That makes it the second most successful mobile game in history in terms of first-month downloads; it’s only behind the wildly popular Pokemon Go on that front.

Call of Duty Mobile was developed by Chinese company Tencent in partnership with Activision. The game is a “greatest hits” title of sorts, featuring some of the most popular and memorable maps, modes, and characters from Call of Duty history.

In terms of comparisons against other games in the shooter category, Call of Duty Mobile’s 148 million first-month downloads is more than four times Fortnite‘s first-month downloads (35 million). However, that game was only available on iOS at launch. The mobile version of PUBG had 60.7 million downloads in its first month, according to the report.

SensorTower’s data shows that Call of Duty Mobile had around 4.9 million downloads every day across iOS and Google Play, starting with 24 million downloads on the first day. In terms of geographic breakdown, the US made up the lion’s share of downloads with 23.6 million, or 16 percent of the total, followed by India with 16.2 million downloads (11 percent of the total).

Looking at spending, Call of Duty Mobile made around $53.9 million from its various microtransactions during the first month. The busiest single day was October 5, on which players collectively spent $3.1 million. The US leads the way in terms of spending with $22.8 million so far; Japan was second with $7 million.

The report says downloads were spread almost evenly between iOS and Android, but iOS players are spending more, making up 60 percent of all revenue.

Call of Duty Mobile features two main multiplayer modes: a traditional 5v5 head-to-head mode and battle royale game type for up to 100 players. The game features a number of iconic Call of Duty maps, including Nuketown 2, Crash, Hijacked, and Firing Range. Familiar characters are also featured, including Captain Price, Alex Mason, and Simon “Ghost” Riley.

Given the massive success of Call of Duty Mobile, fans can expect even more mobile games from Activision. Just recently, the company said it is considering every one of its franchises for a mobile game.

It’s not just Call of Duty Mobile that’s performing well. This year’s new console game, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, generated $600 million in revenue at launch and is expected to sell as many as 27 million copies during its launch quarter. Activision will make even more money from the game when the Battle Pass goes live in December.