California’s Disneyland and Disney California Adventure have both been closed since March, due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. While the company’s Disney World theme parks in Florida reopened in July with limited capacity, theme parks are still closed throughout California. Now, Disney is making massive reductions to the workforce in its Parks, Experiences, & Products division, citing the ongoing closures in the state.
The news was revealed in a statement from Disney Parks, Experiences, and Products chairman Josh D’Amaro. “In light of the prolonged impact of COVID-19 on our business, including limited capacity due to physical distancing requirements and the continued uncertainty regarding the duration of the pandemic–exacerbated in California by the State’s unwillingness to lift restrictions that would allow Disneyland to reopen–we have made the very difficult decision to begin the process of reducing our workforce at our Parks, Experiences and Products segment at all levels, having kept non-working Cast Members on furlough since April, while paying healthcare benefits,” the statement reads.
The reduction means the company is laying off roughly 28,000 domestic employees, 67% of whom are part-time workers. Disney says it’s discussing the layoffs with the employees impacted, as well as the unions representing certain employees.
As for when Disneyland or other California theme parks could potentially open, that remains to be seen. Previously, Disney announced a set of guidelines that would see the parks open in July. However, that didn’t happen after the infection rate in the state grew. Currently, indoor shopping and outdoor dining are acceptable in Orange County, where Disneyland is located, meaning the Downtown Disney District shopping complex next to the park is open for business.
In this video, Persia talks about new details that were revealed about Pokémon Sword & Shield’s second expansion, Crown Tundra. You can team up with three other players for new Dynamax Adventures that feature raid dens home to many Legendary Pokémon. You can also team up with gym leaders and trainers from the base game and Isle of Armor to compete in 2v2 battles in the new Galarian Star Tournament. Later this year, you will be able to bring your Pokémon from Pokémon Go to Sword & Shield via Pokémon Home.
Persia also talks about the release date of EA Play on Game Pass, coinciding with the launch of the Xbox Series X and S on November 10th. EA Play will be available on the PC version of Game Pass in December.
Lastly, Persia talks about the release date of Torchlight 3 being announced for October 13th. Originally Torchlight: Frontiers during early access, Torchlight 3 was retooled from the ground up to be a proper sequel and follow the hack-and-slash style of the two previous games.
This is your Save State for Tuesday, September 29th.
Timestamps:
00:00 – Intro
00:18 – Lots Of Pokémon Sword & Shield Crown Tundra Details
The Xbox Series X and S are slated to launch on November 10, and while Microsoft has new controllers on the way to accompany the next-gen consoles, some third-party peripheral makers are launching their own lines of accessories this holiday. Hori USA revealed its new line of controllers, headsets, and other accessories that work with Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, and PC.
All of these products launch in November, and unfortunately, there are no preorder links available at the moment. If you’re interested in accessories you can buy right now, then check out our best Xbox controller guide. There are a lot of great options that you can use right now on Xbox One and PC, and they’re ready to go for Xbox Series X and S when they release this holiday.
The Horipad Pro controller features customizable sensitivity for its analog sticks, dead zones, and triggers, as well as input mapping for its triggers and shoulder buttons. You can save up to four different profiles with the Companion App and swap them with the on-board profile button.
The Fighting Commander Octa is Hori’s latest fightpad for Xbox consoles. It features micro-switch buttons, a short-throw analog stick, and adjustable D-pad sensitivity. Like the Horipad Pro, you can save up to four profiles and switch between them on the fly.
If you’re a fighting game fan, Hori’s new Fighting Stick Alpha is compatible with the Xbox Series X and S. It features a Hayabusa joy stick and button set as well as easy customization options. You can open the chassis to access the parts as well as the top artwork, which you can swap out to whatever design you like.
The 3D Surround gaming neckset rests on your neck, providing you audio up close without distracting you from the outer world. It also features a microphone, which will work with voice chat.
The Gaming Headset Pro is an affordable headset that works with Xbox consoles. It features a retractable microphone and on-board audio controls as well as ear cushions that move to fit the angles of your face.
The Force Feedback racing wheel DLX is a full-size wheel that comes with pedals and metal paddle shifters. The marquee feature for this wheel is the force feedback, which you’ll feel as you take corners and race for first.
The Racing Wheel Overdrive is Hori’s budget racing wheel, and while it doesn’t have force feedback, it’s still optimized for sim racing. It allows you to customize a number of settings, such as dead zone and pedal sensitivity.
The Dual Charge Station comes with two battery packs that you can insert into the back of your Xbox Series X/S or Xbox One controller. These battery packs can be charged by sliding up to two controllers on this station. Hori reports the battery life is up to 20 hours.
If you only need one battery pack, this Hori’s solo charge station is the option for you. It allows for a single controller to be charged, and compatible controllers include those for the Xbox Series X/S and Xbox One.
Most of the time in Among Us, you’ll have the tough job of identifying which of the people you’re playing with can’t be trusted–ideally before they kill you or sabotage your spaceship and kill everyone aboard. Figuring out who’s an imposter and who’s just nervous is your main job in Among Us, while also scrambling around the ship to repair systems and bank points on your own. But spotting someone’s murderous intent can be very difficult, especially since you can’t always tell whether another player on your ship is actively helping you, or just pretending to.
Luckily, there are a lot of things players do that can give you clues as to whether they’re on your side or just waiting for a chance to snack on your brains. We’ve compiled a quick list of things that can tip you off to an imposter’s identity. Keep your wits about you, watch everyone around you, and identify the telltale signs of the monster among you and you might just make it out of Among Us alive.
The Person Nearest A Body Usually Did It
This is an easy one, but worth mentioning: if you pass someone leaving a room and find a body right afterward, the chances are extremely good that the fleeing party is responsible. Anybody who spots a body and isn’t the imposter would, in most cases, immediately report it, and if you’re not the imposter, you have an incentive to check every room you enter for lurking enemies–so you would probably have spotted the body if you were in the same room as it. This isn’t a foolproof piece of evidence, but the vast majority of the time, the person closest to the scene is your culprit, so at least keep an eye on them.
Keep Track Of Who You See And Where
In big games of Among Us–the best kind–you can have up to 10 total players and as many as three imposters. You’ll have to rely on yourself for information about their activities and behaviors, especially if the rules are set so that you aren’t notified if the player you vote to space is a human or a thing. The best thing you can do is try to keep track of who you see moving around the ship, in what general area, and what they seem to be doing. Use the map if you have to.
When you have a sense of where everyone is, or are, at least, aware of the last time you saw them, you can make educated guesses as more information comes in. If a body gets reported near the Navigation section and you saw two players headed that way, you might know who to keep an eye on. You don’t necessarily have to share that information, either–don’t give imposters any more to go on than you need to. But if you can keep a running roster in your head of who your most likely suspects are based on their movements, you’ll gather evidence much more quickly.
Learn The Tasks As Much As Possible
Players who go hard on Among Us learn the game inside and out, because knowledge is power here. Imposters don’t complete tasks, but they often pretend that they’re doing so. If you know what tasks are in which rooms and about how long they take (or whether they have multiple steps), you can use that information to trip up someone in cross-examination. Put on your Perry Mason hat and go to work.
Imposters Will Try To Get People Alone
In most games of Among Us, the best way to neutralize any suspected imposter is just to stick near them or to keep yourself in groups of three or more. You’ll notice pretty soon that imposters don’t like being observed; anybody who seems to bounce from a group just as soon as it becomes too large to carry out a successful murder warrants further investigation. And if you’re worried about someone following you, you can often expose them by seeking out other people and getting close to them–if your tail leaves as soon as you’re no longer a tasty target, you’ve probably got your monster.
In general, you want to stay within sight of other players but far enough away from them that they can’t easily murder you without approaching with intent. If anybody seems like they’re chasing you, it’s usually a good guess that they think they have a chance at killing you. I’ve had situations in which imposters have chased me through the ship, hoping to take me down before I had an opportunity to alert anyone. If someone is doggedly pursuing you–or another player–ask yourself why, and then call an emergency meeting.
People Who Wander Off By Themselves Are Suspect
Imposters don’t have to be afraid of getting murdered by other imposters, and that will often unconsciously embolden them. Crewmate players know they have to be worried about who they share a room with, how far they can see down a hallway or into a room, and what might be waiting for them if they’re alone–imposters don’t. If you see someone heading off on their own, you might be seeing someone who doesn’t have a great Among Us strategy, or you might have just spotted an imposter executing a plan.
If you’re trying to observe suspected monsters, however, note that canny imposters might identify you as their top threat, and use your curiosity against you. I found myself playing Columbo in most of my Among Us games recently, and at least once a suspicious-looking imposter managed to turn my suspicions against me, luring me into a dark room to kill me before I quite realized what was happening.
Imposters Seem To Get Bored Easily
Every crewmember character in Among Us has a list of tasks to perform to win the game. These all require walking around the ship and interacting with different panels, where you complete some mechanical action or solve a simple puzzle to get the ship going again. Everyone has different tasks, though, so you’re not going to see someone else completing your tasks. That means you’ll often see people standing at panels as they use them.
Except if they’re the imposter, that is. If you watch a player wander into a room that’s full of other people going about their tasks, keep an eye on them. Imposters don’t have anything to do in these rooms, so you’ll often see them walk into one full of other players who are busy, stand around for a bit, and then take off. Why would they walk into one of these rooms if they didn’t have anything to do there? They were hoping for murder targets, didn’t find any, and headed away to find someone more vulnerable.
Impatient imposters will give themselves away by not committing hard enough to their con. If it looks like someone is in a room for no reason, their reason is probably to try to murder someone. It’s definitely not to fix the ship, anyway.
Anyone Who Moves Too Fast Is An Imposter
If you’re trying to identify an imposter in Among Us, you’ll spend a lot of time following other players around, especially if you’re trying to keep a suspect from getting a chance to kill one of your teammates. Occasionally, you might be following someone only to have them vanish around a corner–one minute, they’re just ahead of you, and the next, they’re gone. If it seems like someone suddenly found a way to outpace you as you pursue them, they’re very likely an imposter.
You probably already know that imposters are the only characters who can use the ship’s vents to get around, Alien-style. Spot a person jumping into or coming out of a vent and you should immediately report them, because they’re evil. But just because you didn’t see someone use a vent doesn’t mean you can’t make an educated guess that they did. It comes down to movement speed: all characters in Among Us move at the same rate. That means it should be impossible for someone to straight-up lose you in most cases if you’re following them. But if someone suddenly vanishes while you’re in pursuit, there’s a good chance they slipped you by hopping into a vent just out of sight.
The Taskbar Can Reveal The Truth
The imposter described above will find nothing to do in a room full of people working to repair panels and might just walk away, looking for someone who’s alone and an easy target. A more canny imposter will play the part of crewmember, however–they’ll stand still next to panels, pretending to complete tasks. The smart ones might even try to remember which tasks take place at which panels so they can describe them to you.
However, you can often pick up on a crewmember who’s actually completing tasks as compared to an imposter who’s pretending to complete them. The trick is to watch the green taskbar at the top of the screen, which slowly fills up as crewmembers complete their jobs and fix up the ship. The taskbar is pretty reliable; when a crewmember completes a task, the bar fills in real time. When someone is faking it, the taskbar won’t react. This isn’t always completely foolproof, of course, since other players might be completing other tasks elsewhere on the ship, which can give you false negatives. But watching the taskbar is one of the most reliable ways to spot an imposter who is trying to throw you off.
You Don’t Have To Be An Imposter To Lie In Wait
Imposters aren’t the only ones who lie in wait, hoping to catch people unawares. There are places in the Among Us maps where you can stand behind objects and basically become invisible, such as behind the radar dish in the comms array. These spots you can use to try to give imposters the slip if you’re being pursued, or where you can hole up and wait if you suspect someone. Sure, hiding behind an object and waiting for an imposter to reveal themselves will likely get another teammate killed, but if you can use the trick to win the game, their sacrifice might be worth it.
By the same token, if you’ve proven yourself a diligent investigator, you might also turn yourself into a target for imposters. After all, if you’re out there dropping elementary dear Watsons every round, you’re going to be a murder monster’s natural enemy. Use that to your advantage and turn yourself into bait–carefully. Anybody who seems like they really want to get close to you and follow you around a lot may really be looking for a break in your concentration to get you alone.
Lots Of Information Is Unreliable
Everything mentioned above can give you clues about who the imposter is, but rarely the full picture. Sometimes, a crewmate really does just bumble past a dead body without spotting it (I’ve had the imposter leave bodies next to me while I’m working on ship systems, in fact). Sometimes, someone behaving suspiciously is just suspicious of everyone around them. Sometimes, a crewmate didn’t disappear into a vent, you just lost track of them. Be careful not to overestimate the evidence you have when trying to identify the evil among you.
There are also a few items that aren’t useful for determining who the imposter is:
Reporting a body
Fixing sabotage
Accusing an actual imposter of being an imposter
In all three cases, anybody can do these things. An imposter can create sabotage and then fix it themselves to engender trust; anyone can report a body, and smart imposters will often do so. Some of the most dastardly imposters are the ones who are willing to sacrifice teammates to secure a win.
The best way to win in Among Us is to pay attention to how other players behave, especially over the long term, and look for patterns and breaks in those patterns. Use what you know of your friends. And most of all, trust your gut; if you have reason to suspect someone, chances are pretty good that you’re right. And if you happen to blow the wrong person out of the airlock, well hey–there’s always next round.
Felicia Day, star of The Guild and Mystery Science Theatre 3000: The Return, has started a new weekly Twitch panel series focusing on women in the entertainment industry. The show is called Women R, and it will run for eight episodes.
The first episode is up now, and it focuses on game streamers.
In the episode below, Day speaks to streamers CupAhNoodle, Anne Munition, Silvervale, and WowGrandma78 about their work and experiences. Future episodes will feature designers, artists, writers, and women in other roles across games, movies, comics, television, and other entertainment fields. Bonnie Ross, head of Halo Infinite developer 343 Industries, is set to appear on a future episode.
Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter about her new show, Day says that she wanted to create the show to make women in these industries more visible. “You never know when you’ll stumble upon someone who really inspires you to take a leap in designing a board game or becoming a voiceover artist,” she says. “It’s so important to be exposed to it, because often ideas don’t occur to us as people unless we sense the possibility of it.”
“This is an opportunity for me to not only highlight, but also learn from other women in different areas, and hopefully inspire other people to pursue careers in those areas,” she continues. New episodes will debut over the next seven weeks.
Elsewhere on Day’s channel, the cast of The Guild has reunited to play Dungeons and Dragons together.
The writing of author George R.R. Martin spawned one of the most popular fantasy TV shows ever with HBO’s Game of Thrones, but Martin didn’t love every scene in the show.
Martin told Entertainment Weekly that his least favorite scene in the show’s eight-season run came at the very start. In Season 1, Game of Thrones was working on a modest budget (for the scale of the production) of around $6 million USD per episode. Due to this, and presumably other factors, the scene were King Robert goes hunting was scaled back beyond Martin’s liking.
“Where we really fell down in terms of budget was my least favorite scene in the entire show, in all eight seasons: King Robert goes hunting,” Martin said. “Four guys walking on foot through the woods carrying spears and Robert is giving Renly s**t. In the books, Robert goes off hunting, we get word he was gored by a boar, and they bring him back and he dies. So I never did [a hunting scene]. But I knew what a royal hunting party was like. There would have been a hundred guys. There would have been pavilions. There would have been huntsmen. There would have been dogs. There would have been horns blowing–that’s how a king goes hunting!”
In the show, King Robert is shown hunting with only three others, and the sequence has minimal props. However, Martin acknowledged that, because Game of Thrones was an unproven project during Season 1, “we couldn’t afford horses or dogs or pavilions.”
You can rewatch the scene below.
Game of Thrones director Alan Taylor previously reflected on the relatively low budget of Game of Thrones Season 1. In particular, he said the scene where Ned Stark has his head chopped off didn’t have nearly enough extras in the background.
“It’s funny seeing how small and rinky dink the scene is because Game of Thrones has gone on to become very well-funded by HBO,” he told Vanity Fair. “But at this stage in season one, no one had seen the show yet, we didn’t know if it had an audience yet and we didn’t have a dime.”
NBA 2K21‘s next-generation edition for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X now has a release date. 2K Sports has confirmed that the next-gen edition will begin its rollout on November 10 as a launch title for the Xbox Series X and S consoles.
The professional basketball game will then arrive for the PS5 as a launch title on November 12 in the console’s launch markets, including the US, Canada, Mexico, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, and South Korea. The game will then arrive in other markets around the world on November 19 when the console is released in those places.
NBA 2K21’s PS4 and Xbox One edition, which launched in early September, will be playable on PS5 and Xbox Series X through backwards compatibility. People who want to upgrade from the current-gen edition to next-gen must buy the $100 Mamba Forever edition.
GameSpot’s review of NBA 2K21 for PS4/Xbox One scored the game a 6/10. “NBA 2K21 shows that the lone basketball sim we have now has largely stagnated. It’s a full package, for sure, but one that demonstrates little-to-no motivation to meaningfully improve upon itself,” reviewer Michael Higham said.
The Orville, Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane’s sci-fi show that is part parody, part homage of Star Trek, has grown and improved since its so-so pilot, and now fans are awaiting news on season 3. Now, MacFarlane has given a brief update on how the next batch of episodes is coming along amid the current COVID-19 pandemic.
In an Instagram chat with Jessica Szohr, who plays Lt. Talla Keyali on the show, MacFarlane said that work on the show is continuing, but there’s not much he can say. As reported by Deadline, MacFarlane said to his co-star, “All I can say is we are working on it. We’re working on it very hard, we got hit by this just like everyone else, but we’re working on it.”
The Orville has not begun shooting its third season yet, so it’s still in pre-production.
He also talked about how much he enjoys writing for the characters on the show. “What I love about the show, about the characters, is that I could pick one of the characters and write a story about them that week…It’s wide open and I think it allows for a lot of longevity.”
The Orville is moving from Fox to Hulu for season 3. McFarlane is also working on a World War II series for NBC, and continues to voice numerous characters on his creations Family Guy and American Dad. Family Guy was recently renewed for two more seasons, and has just begun its 19th season.
Blizzard has revealed a new development update for Diablo IV that details the reworks being done to the game’s skills and talents system.
“We’ve been reading through a lot of the comments from the community and agree that the talent system needs more depth,” Diablo IV lead systems designer David Kim wrote in a blog post. “Similarly, skill system progression felt too simple, which created issues where a player would have no meaningful reason to spend their skill points.”
So now, skills and passive abilities exist in separate sections of the skill tree. By leveling up, you’ll earn skill points that you can then spend to unlock certain skills, additional abilities for the skills you already have, and passive points. With passive points, you can unlock new passive abilities for your character.
“The passive part of this system is where you will find more general upgrades to your character,” Kim writes. “These effects are not specific to particular skills. Therefore, the skill tree will have a good mix of all types of different choices for players to make.”
In Diablo IV, your skill tree is a literal tree–your character’s individual skills make up the branches while their passive abilities are the roots.
Kim also mentions that under this new system, players will likely only be able to earn about 30-40% of a character’s skill tree by the end of Diablo IV’s campaign. This should ensure that all players “can have very distinct, and different ways they build out their character.”
With the launch of both Xbox Series X and PS5 only a little over a month away, the power of next-gen is almost in our hands. While you might be saving your money for your selected console’s respective launch, you might find yourself tempted by the exciting games coming in October. It might not be as big of an October release roster as previous years, but that doesn’t diminish the allure around what might become some of this year’s biggest and best games.
Starting the month are Crash Bandicoot 4: It’s About Time and Star Wars Squadrons–both exciting throwbacks to classic gaming in their own unique respective ways. There’s also Super Mario Bros. 35, an intriguing battle royale-inspired platformer in the style of Tetris 99, as well as the early access launch of Baldur’s Gate III. As the weeks go on, you can expect EA’s FIFA and NHL offerings for this year, as well as the highly-anticipated sequel to cult-favorite Amnesia: The Dark Descent, titled Amnesia: Rebirth.
Below, we’ve rounded up all of the biggest October 2020 game releases for PS4, Xbox One, PC, and Switch. For a closer look at the titles still to come this year, look at our list of game release dates in 2020. Otherwise, check this article throughout the month, as we’ll be sure to update it with more new release dates that get announced.
Crash Bandicoot 4: It’s About Time (PS4, Xbox One, PC) — October 2
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Crash 4: A Bandicoot for a New Generation
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After the massive success of the Crash Bandicoot N-Sane Trilogy in 2017, it only made sense that Activision would commit to a full-blown Crash sequel. Crash Bandicoot 4: It’s About Time aims to pick up where the golden age of the orange marsupial left off with developer Toys for Bob gleefully approaching it with tongue-in-cheek humor and intentionality that looks to expand on the series’ enjoyable, chaotic platforming mechanics.
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Star Wars Squadrons (PS4, Xbox One, PC) — October 2
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Star Wars: Squadrons – “Hunted” Cinematic Trailer
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If you’re big on the Star Wars dogfighting PC games of yore, then Star Wars Squadrons could be your ticket into a world of nostalgia–though anyone with love for the ship combat seen in the films is likely to get a kick out of this upcoming space combat simulator. Regardless, EA is undoubtedly putting in the work to make Squadrons an authentic Star Wars dogfighting experience, including single-player campaigns for both the New Republic and Galactic Empire, competitive multiplayer modes, and even VR support.
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Watch Dogs Legion (PS4, Xbox One, PC) — October 29
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Watch Dogs Legion Full Presentation | Ubisoft Forward 2020
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Watch Dogs Legion is the latest game in Ubisoft’s hacker-centric open-world franchise. It’s set in London, and you’re once again a part of DedSec–a secret hacker organization that is seeking to liberate London from political and corporate corruption. You’re in control of multiple protagonists, who you recruit as you play the game, but one of the most interesting elements of it all is that you can enlist literally anyone in the game’s world into your resistance. While it’s set to release this month for current-generation consoles, you can also expect to play it on Xbox Series X and PS5 in November on their respective launch days.
The products discussed here were independently chosen by our editors. GameSpot may get a share of the revenue if you buy anything featured on our site.
