Author: Trafficblast

For the first time in the history of the NBA 2K franchise, there will be an Australia-specific cover athlete. 2K Sports announced today that Philadelphia Sixers forward Ben Simmons, who was born in Melbourne, will grace the NBA 2K19 cover in Australia, as well as New Zealand.

Alongside an image of Simmons, the cover features words that have special meaning to the athlete, including “Loyalty,” “Family,” “Melbourne,” “Unstoppable,” and “Triple Double.” In a statement, Simmons said it is a “huge honour” to be selected as the first-ever Australian cover star for the NBA 2K series.

“The Aussie fans are super passionate about basketball and specifically NBA 2K, so it’s very cool to be an ambassador for both,” Simmons said.

Simmons, who was also a standout footy player, moved to the United States and played one year of college basketball at LSU before entering the NBA Draft and going as the No. 1 overall pick. He recorded more than 1,000 points, 500 rebounds, and 500 assists in his first season with the Sixers and earned the 2018 NBA Rookie of the Year award.

Copies of NBA 2K19 in Australia and New Zealand will come with a double-sided inlay that shows Simmons on one side and global cover star Giannis Antetokounmpo on the other. A 20th Anniversary edition of the game has LeBron James on the cover.

NBA 2K19 will be available September 11 for PC, PS4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch. The 20th Anniversary Edition will launch a few days earlier, on September 7. You can download “The Prelude” starting on August 31 for PS4 and Xbox One, to get a jump on the MyCareer mode. Check out our pre-order guide for all the details.

Every year, one of the most exciting parts about the new Madden instalment is learning about player ratings. We’re still waiting for the full picture, but EA Sports has now announced the first group of 99-rated players for Madden NFL 19, and they include some very big names in the NFL.

The first wave of 99-rated players include New England Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski, Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers, Denver Broncos’ linebacker Von Miller, and Carolina Panthers linebacker Luke Kuechly. You can click each player’s name to read what EA Sports had to say about its rating determination for each player.

A video that emerged out of E3 2018 back in June has ratings details for many other players across a variety of positions. However, the version of the game shown at E3 last month is not final, so the numbers may not be accurate. PastaPadre has a breakdown of the top-rated Madden 19 players based on that video, and you can read the full post here.

A full rundown of player ratings for each position is expected to be announced in the coming weeks and months before launch in August, so keep checking back for more. And as usual, player ratings will change on a week-by-week basis based on real-world performance once the season begins.

Madden 19 launches in August for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, while the game is also coming to PC in a move that marks the franchise’s first time back on PC in a decade. In other news, the game will deliver graphical improvements, not the least of which are advancements to how sweat looks.

The first trailer for Bethesda’s much-anticipated Fallout 76 featured a cover of John Denver’s “Take Me Home, Country Roads.” A stirring rendition of the classic, done by the band Copilot, the song was thematic fit. The lyrics mention West Virginia, which is Fallout 76’s setting. You can now buy the song on iTunes, and what’s even better is that 100 percent of proceeds from the 99-cent song go to Habitat for Humanity.

Head to iTunes here to buy the song for yourself.

Habitat for Humanity is a charity that that supports the creation of improvement of houses for people who need them. The theme of Fallout 76 is rebuilding America, and as it happens, Habitat for Humanity was founded in…’76.

Copilot’s “Country Roads” launched on iTunes on July 4. Before now, we did not know for sure which band or artist was behind the track.

Fallout 76 launches on November 14 for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC. Unlike previous entries in the acclaimed RPG series, Fallout 76 is an always-online, multiplayer-focused game, so it will be interesting to see how the community responds. A beta will be held prior to launch, and you can guarantee yourself a spot by pre-ordering.

EA Sports has outlined some of the improvements being made to Madden NFL 19‘s graphics, and one area of focus this year is on player sweat. This is being done as part of EA’s effort to make players look “as real as possible” in gameplay scenarios. Thanks to high-definition cameras, you see player sweat all the time on NFL TV broadcasts, but capturing this sweat has been somewhat lacking in the Madden games of late. It’s a good move for Madden 19 to get with the program, as other sports games such as NBA 2K have been making strides in the perspiration department for years now.

EA provided an example of how player sweat looks in Madden 19 with an image of New York Giants standout WR Odell Beckham Jr. Have a look for yourself:

Last year’s Madden 18 was the first title in the series to run on EA’s own Frostbite Engine, and that game looked very good. Madden 19 looks like it will go even further. Beyond the new player sweat, EA said it focused on making skin tones and general player likenesses look more true to life. Additionally, EA says it has made advancements towards the amount of detail around the skin and eyes in general for player likenesses in Madden 19.

What’s more, there are new player models in Madden 19 that aim to more closely match the real-world players they are based on. “We added new player models to Madden 19 that get us closer than we have ever been to the actual representation of the players currently on the field this year in the NFL,” EA said. “This helps Madden deliver an unseen sense of realism to the franchise.”

Another area of visual improvement for Madden 19 comes in the form of lighting. Specifics are unclear at this stage, but EA said it has tweaked the lighting to “make things pop and help bring a next-level realism…” Here is an example of what that looks like:

Madden 19 launches in August for Xbox One and PlayStation 4, while a PC edition is also coming for the first time in a decade. The game is not coming to Nintendo Switch, however. In other Madden news, EA Sports told us to that Madden 19 will not address the NFL’s controversial new kneeling policy.

Back in May, Australia’s Classification Board announced that the BioShock-inspired adventure game We Happy Few was refused classification in the country. That meant it was effectively banned, which is a big bummer for Australians hoping to play the game. At the time, developer Compulsion Games said it was upset and frustrated by the decision, adding that it planned to work with the classification board to have the decision overturned.

That has now happened, with a three-person panel at the Classification Review Board unanimously stating that We Happy Few will be classified R18+ in Australia. That is Australia’s highest rating level, with the official word being that “the content is high in impact,” and specifically restricted to adults. Retailers may ask consumers to provide a proof of age document to purchase R18+ games in Australia.

We Happy Few’s R18+ rating will come with a content description noting that the game has “fantasy violence and interactive drug use.” The drug use appears to have been the sticking point in the Board’s original decision to refuse the game for classification. In its original ruling, the Board specifically mentioned the in-game drug, Joy, which players take throughout the game. In some parts of the game, taking the drug reduces the difficulty and makes the game appear more colourful and vibrant. The Board said “the game’s drug-use mechanic making game progression less difficult constitutes an incentive or reward for drug-use” and was therefore refused classification.

In its decision to overturn the ban, the Board said it determined We Happy Few’s drug use elements were actually “no greater than high.” The Board said it considered Australia’s Classification Act 1995, the National Classification Scheme, the National Classification Code, and the Guidelines for the Classification of Computer Games when making its decision to give We Happy Few a classification.

Bethesda’s Fallout 3 was banned in Australia due to its depiction of drug use as well.

We Happy Few is published by Borderlands studio Gearbox, which is the company that asked the Board to reconsider its ruling. Compulsion Games said in its own statement that it went through a “great deal of effort” to get the decision overturned. Another big part of this announcement is that Compulsion Games was not forced to modify We Happy Few to meet the Classification Board’s guidelines. That’s a big deal, as other big-name games like Call of Duty: WWII, Saints Row IV, and South Park: The Stick of Truth were all edited to make it through the classification process in Australia.

“We are extremely pleased with the decision of the board and excited that our Australian fans and new players will be able to experience We Happy Few without modification,” Compulsion Games said in a statement. “We want to thank everybody who got involved in the discussion, contacted the board and sent us countless messages of support. Your involvement made a huge difference.”

Compulsion producer Sam Abbott told Kotaku that the Board’s original decision to refuse We Happy Few for classification made sense based on the information it had to go on at time. He added that the studio could have done more to make sure it provided the right context for the drug-related scenarios in the game when submitting it for classification. Abbot went on to thank publisher Gearbox for its help with the appeal process as it relates to the advice it gave Compulsion and the money it provided for the effort to overturn the decision.

GameSpot has reached out to Compulsion in an attempt to get more details about this situation. Keep checking back for more.

We Happy Few has been announced for PS4, Xbox One, and PC. It was already playable on PC (and Xbox One) through Early Access, but in January when the game was delayed to summer 2018, Compulsion removed the ability to pre-buy the game.

The game is set in an alternate-history version of 1960s England in the fictional town of Wellington Wells. Players take on the role of characters who refuse to take their mind-altering happy pills and must find a way to escape from the town without being caught by its citizens.

Loot boxes are a hugely controversial element of modern video games, dividing opinion between those who like the fun of opening a random drop of skins, items, or new weapons, and those who hate not knowing what they’re getting. Of course, they often come hand-in-hand with microtransactions, too, which divide opinion in a similar way.

We decided to sit down and have a lighthearted but passionate debate about whether loot boxes are the devil’s tool or if they’re a welcome addition to video games in the modern age. Fighting for loot crates and alpha packs is Will Potter, who has spent far too much money on Overwatch loot boxes since the game’s 2016 launch. Fighting against them is Oscar Dayus, who hates loot boxes in everything except FIFA Ultimate Team, because he’s a hypocrite.

Watch the video above to see how the debate turned out. The discussion begins with the pair talking about the pros and cons of loot boxes in general, before they go on to talk about two shining (or egregious) examples of the random containers. Alongside the serious analysis from each side, there’s also some friendly fun-making and jokes at each other’s expense. Be sure to watch till the end to see the quickfire round, which gets a little goofy.

Last week we put two legendary shooter series against one another: Doom vs Wolfenstein. In that episode, Jean-Luc’s Doom argument defeated Kallie’s case for Wolfenstein. Make sure to get your voice heard this week by voting for who you think won the debate on YouTube or by commenting down below. Check back next week for another episode of Versus; new episodes drop every Wednesday at 6 AM PT / 9 AM ET / 2 PM BST / 11 PM AET on GameSpot.com and YouTube.