Month: June 2020

The NASA astronauts aboard SpaceX’s Crew Dragon ventured into space in suits custom-made by the same artist who helped suit up and armor many big screen superheroes, from Batman and Wonder Woman to Captain America and Wolverine.

Ironhead Studio’s Jose Fernandez created the very cool and elegant flight suits worn by the SpaceX astronauts, which you can check out below:

Tomorrow, @NASA astronauts @AstroBehnken and @Astro_Doug will fly from their home base at @NASA_Johnson to @NASAKennedy aboard an agency Gulfstream aircraft.

Tune in to NASA TV at 4 p.m. ET on May 20 for the crew arrival news conference: https://t.co/w152mMNVra pic.twitter.com/bsxWTHFIHE

— NASA Commercial Crew (@Commercial_Crew) May 19, 2020

Fernandez applied what he learned creating form-fitting but flexible garb on superhero movies to the Daft Punk-esque SpaceX suits. (The Daft Punk resemblance is no accident, as Forbes points out, since Fernandez has made some of the musicians’ signature helmets.)

Fernandez credits SpaceX founder Elon Musk with the visual formality of the flight suits. “He (Musk) kept saying, ‘Anyone looks better in a tux, no matter what size or shape they are,’ and when people put this space suit on, he wants them to look better than they did without it, like a tux. You look heroic in it,” Fernandez explained to Forbes.

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But the SpaceX flight suits weren’t just designed for style but for function and safety. As an expert in joinery, Fernandez was able to build suits made of different materials which have to meet up perfectly and also be air proof. Fernandez was also able to address an issue that’s dogged NASA since the era of the Apollo missions: astronauts not being able to move their heads thanks to their bolted-on helmets and thus having an obstructed field of vision.

As the artist who sculpted the cowl that allowed Ben Affleck’s Caped Crusader to turn his head in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, Fernandez’s helmets have an articulated neck piece among other features that make these flight suits lighter and allow better vision for the astronauts.

In the tweet seen below, NASA astronauts Robert Behnken and Douglas Hurley praise the suits for their comfortability and ease in getting in and out of in a zero gravity environment:

“Bob and I have had a ton of time in those suits. I bet you we’ve donned and doffed those suits a couple hundred times.” @Astro_Doug discusses the custom-fit @SpaceX suits they wore as he and @AstroBehnken launched into space: pic.twitter.com/mtyDAWGFI4

— NASA (@NASA) June 1, 2020

In addition to Batfleck’s cowl, Fernandez’s Ironhead Studio also created that film’s Bat-mech suit. He previously worked on Batman Returns, Batman Forever, and Batman & Robin. Fernandez also worked on Wonder Woman’s armor in BvS. Fernandez has also lent his skills to plenty of Marvel movies, sculpting the helmets for Captain America, Thor, Loki, and Magneto. Ironhead also built the Black Panther helmet from Captain America: Civil War.

Fernandez also designed and sculpted the makeup, helmet, and armor for Thanos in Marvel’s The Avengers, and worked on The Amazing Spider-Man 2, Abe Sapien in Hellboy, and The Thing in the original Fantastic Four movies. He also designed and constructed the specialty costumes in X2: X-Men United, including Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine.

You can view Fernandez and Ironhead’s many comic book movie designs on Instagram.

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Pokemon Sword and Shield‘s first DLC expansion, The Isle of Armor, arrives this month, and we’ll learn more about it very soon. The Pokemon Company has announced it will share some new details about the upcoming expansion tomorrow, June 2.

The news will be revealed at 6 AM PT / 9 AM ET / 2 PM BST. The Pokemon Company hasn’t shared any more information beyond that, so it’s unclear exactly what we’ll see. Given that Isle of Armor is slated to launch sometime this month, however, we’ll presumably learn its release date.

Isle of Armor is the first of two paid expansions coming to Sword and Shield this year. This one takes players to the eponymous Isle of Armor, where they’ll train under a former Pokemon League Champion named Mustard and receive the new Legendary Pokemon Kubfu. At some point in the expansion, your starter Pokemon–Rillaboom, Cinderace, or Inteleon–will also gain the ability to Gigantamax.

The second DLC expansion is called The Crown Tundra, and it’s slated to release sometime this fall. This one takes place in an arctic region and likewise introduces many new elements to the games, including a new Legendary Pokemon named Calyrex and a new co-op mode that lets you explore Pokemon dens with other players.

In the meantime, Gigantamax Meowth is currently appearing in Max Raid dens until June 2, giving you another chance to add the special Pokemon to your collection. The games’ next Max Raid event will kick off immediately after and bring back every previous Gigantamax Pokemon. You can also claim a free Galarian Ponyta with its Hidden Ability until June 4.

Starting June 1, GameSpot will be hosting Play For All–a celebration of all things gaming. Join us as we bring you the summer’s hottest news, previews, interviews, features, and videos, as well as raise money for COVID-19 relief efforts with the help of our friends from around the gaming world. Check out the Play For All schedule for more.

After a lengthy closed beta, Riot’s popular online shooter Valorant will be widely available for the first time on June 2. However, the actual scheduled launch of the game depends on your region. In the Americas, the game will become available at 8 AM Eastern / 5 AM Pacific on June 2. According to the tweet announcing the time, the game will be available 7 hours earlier in Europe, and 13 hours earlier in Asia.

Valorant is a 5 vs. 5 competitive shooter that bears a strong resemblance to Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, albeit with the addition of character-specific powers a la Overwatch. Following the official release of the game, Riot has indicated that it will release a bundle of new content for the game, including maps, game modes, and characters. Throughout the open beta, Riot continued to fiddle with the game’s balance, with the most recent update nerfing powerful characters like Sage and Cypher and adjusting rifle accuracy to make tap-firing more effective.

Over the past week or two, Riot has issued some further announcements for the game, revealing that it will sponsor tournaments through Twitch Rivals as part of Valorant’s launch. The studio also clarified how the game’s anticheat program Vanguard will work, as well as releasing a blog post that explains how the team crafts its premium skins.

We’ll get more details on Pokemon Sword and Shield’s Expansion Pass tomorrow, June 2 at 6am Pacific / 9am Eastern / 2pm UK / 11pm AEST.

Revealed in a tweet by the Japanese Pokemon Twitter account (below), no details were given of what could be revealed. However, with the first expansion for the latest Pokemon games – The Isle of Armor – due to arrive by the end of June, it seems likely we’d get a release date.

6月2日（火）22時より、Nintendo Switchソフト『ポケットモンスター ソード・シールド エキスパンションパス』に関する新情報の公開が決定！
ぜひチェックしてね！https://t.co/6D0tsz56JB #ポケモン剣盾 pic.twitter.com/YRiHwV3c8W

— ポケモン公式ツイッター (@Pokemon_cojp) June 1, 2020

The Pokemon Sword and Shield expansions will include The Isle of Armor and The Crown Tundra (due this Fall), and each will add a new open area to explore. They’ll also add new legendary Pokemon, new regular Pokemon, new Galarian forms, and dozens of returning Pokemon that were previously unavailable to catch.

It marks a new step for the Pokemon franchise – which has previously preferred to release new versions of the same game, or semi-sequels. We think this is a very good next step.

We awarded Pokemon Sword and Shield a 9.3 review, and since named it one of the best Nintendo Switch games.

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Joe Skrebels is IGN’s Executive Editor of News. Follow him on Twitter.

In a new update for League of Legends esports, Riot has added the equivalent of stadium signage to Summoner’s Rift. A feature called SR Arena Banners will allow LoL esports leagues to customize how their viewers see the Rift, with the potential to display major sponsors and league details.

The new feature will roll out for the Summer Split, and will only be visible to those watching on official League of Legends broadcasts. “In the future, you can expect to see leagues begin to experiment with unique approaches that will more deeply integrate our partners to engage local and regional fan bases,” the blog post details.

Notably, the new banners will only be visible to spectators, with players seeing the same standard Rift they are used to practicing on. “This will ensure that a new visual model won’t impact their ability to practice and compete on an identical Rift,” the post adds.

“Our aspiration is to create an environment that exudes the energy found in traditional sports, and we’ll continue to work towards that goal,” Riot said of the new update.

While traditional sports have been cancelled or postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, esports has moved in to fill that gap, seeing more interest from traditional sports networks. By bringing more of that sport-like experience into the game itself, League of Legends can future-proof in the case of tournaments needing to be played within social distancing guidelines.

Developer 343 Industries has been remarkably thorough and transparent throughout the process of porting the Halo: Master Chief Collection to PC, often releasing in-depth blog posts about the process. This week, community manager Tyler “Postums” Davis has posted an update on how the team handles bugs, from reporting to patching, after a bug-riddled release of Halo 2 Anniversary wreaked havoc on the Master Chief Collection.

While a lot of the discussion around game bugs is usually centered around the technical aspect of fixing them, Postums also goes into detail about how the community team is involved. As the first line of contact with the players, Halo’s Community Team usually hear about bugs first, and often has to triage the seriousness of a newly reported issue. While this process also happens through Halo Support, the official tool for tracking and reporting bugs, players are just as likely to report bugs through forums, Discord, or in public social media posts.

Once identified, there’s still a big process to go through before a bug can be fixed–one that ensures resources are assigned in the most efficient way. Testers look into details of a bug, finding out how and where it can be reproduced. When bugs are logged, they require details including “an outline of area, severity, description, reproduction steps, impact, expected results, media, and an assignment.”

The bug is then reviewed by someone in the testing team called a ‘Redliner’, who either sends the bug back to testing for more information, or forwards it to Triage. “Triage is a meeting where a collection of individuals from across the teams discuss a bug and help determine what happens with it,” the post explains.

Triage can then send the bug to different teams depending on how it needs to be handled–either going to Design, Production, Engineering or back to Testing. The most severe bugs are sent straight to Production when they’re identified, skipping the extra steps. Tricky bugs can come back through Triage multiple times, if more information from testers is required.

Bugs are then either assigned to be fixed on a set timeframe, or designated as “By Design” or “Won’t Fix” where they’re left as is.

Once a bug has a fix applied, it’s assigned back to the original tester, who has to confirm both that the original bug has been fixed, and that no new bugs have been created as a result.

In the case of games in the Halo series that have been released multiple times, it can take longer to deal with a bug, as the developers must look through other releases of the game to see if these bugs have cropped up before. “Currently, Halo 2 takes the most time to check as we sometimes need to look back at previous MCC builds, H2V, and H2 Back Compat for a single issue,” Postums elaborates.

The original post contains even more exhaustive detail on what happens to a bug–and helps to understand why they can’t always be addressed straight away. After 343 community director Brian Jarrard literally had to ask fans to stop yelling at the team, hopefully this update will help shed some light on the hard work happening behind the scenes at 343.

Halo 3 is the next game scheduled for release on PC, with Halo Insiders previews beginning in June.

F1 2020 has unveiled a new track that has only recently been constructed in real life. The game will take players to Vietnam to compete on the Hanoi Street Circuit track for the first time. This route was completed in February 2020 and is expected to debut in the next F1 season (which is currently suspended due to the COVID-19 pandemic).

In the trailer below, you can see Scuderia Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc race around the digital track. It’s 5.613km long (3.488 miles) and features 23 turns per lap, with a short pit lane and two long straights. The track is inspired by some other beloved F1 tracks, including Monaco and Nurburgring.

In the press release sent out alongside this trailer, F1 franchise game director Lee Mather said that the track “delivers both thrills and challenges, set against the backdrop of the stunning city skyline.” He also warned that the track will “punish anyone who doesn’t respect the walled sections.”

This is the second new circuit unveiled for the game–you can also check out the game’s recreation of Circuit Zandvoort, a Netherlands track with a famously satisfying final corner.

F1 2020 releases for PS4, Xbox One, Stadia, and PC on July 10, and seems increasingly likely to release ahead of any races in the real-life F1 2020 season happens–if the F1 season happens at all this year.

The iconic Call of Duty character Captain Price is being added to Call of Duty: Modern Warfare‘s multiplayer and the battle royale game Warzone with its new Season 4 update. To promote the release, Activision is giving people a chance to get a video message from Price himself, or at least the closest thing to him.

The actor who plays Price in the new Modern Warfare–Barry Sloane–will record a personalized video message for you on Cameo if you win a contest. You can enter the sweepstakes here for a chance to win one of 50 messages. Everyone who enters gets a free Modern Warfare calling card, so you get something even if you don’t win.

Activision is launching this sweepstakes following the successful run of paid-for Cameo appearances where people could pay $141–referencing Task Force 141–to get Sloane to record a message. The allotted supply ran out, and Activision is now launching the sweepstakes for 50 more.

All proceeds from the original paid Cameo messages went to the Call of Duty Endowment, which provides funding to help military veterans find civilian jobs after leaving the service.

In the 2007 original Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, Price was voiced by Billy Murray. However, Activision replaced him with Sloane, a move that rubbed some fans the wrong way. Defending the move, Infinity Ward developers said Price is like James Bond–he’s not limited to one actor alone.

Modern Warfare/Warzone Season 4 begins on June 3, so it won’t be much longer until Price joins the game as a new Operator. Activision has yet to announce the full contents of the Season 4 update, but keep checking back with GameSpot for the latest.