Author: Trafficblast

An upcoming Super Smash Bros. Melee tournament has broken a record in the game’s competitive scene for the largest prize pool. Smash Summit 11, hosted by Beyond the Summit, currently has a singles prize pool of over $140,000.

The tournament, which will run from July 15 to July 18, is the first in competitive Melee history to boast a prize pool of over $100,000. At the time of writing, the tournament’s singles prize pool is $140,686. Competitive Melee’s second-largest prize pool was doled out by Smash Summit 5 according to Esports Earnings, with a total of $83,758.

A vast majority of Smash Summit 11’s prize pool, 93%, was crowdfunded, according to the tournament’s website. However, that money wasn’t just donated to the game’s prize pool. Instead, fans were incentivized to throw cash at the event by turning them into votes for players. Fans could donate cash, but could also purchase merchandise or subscribe to the tournament’s Twitch channel for votes they could then put towards getting their favorite competitors into the tournament.

A long list of Melee’s top players will be participating in Smash Summit 11, including:

• Nick Yingling
• Egard “n0ne” Shelby
• Juan “Hungrybox” Debiedma
• Jeffrey “Axe” Williamson
• Joseph “Mang0” Marquez
• Zachary “SFAT” Cordoni
• Justin “Plup” McGrath

Smash Summit 11 will also be competitive Melee’s first major in-person tournament since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic. While spectators will have to watch matches on the event’s Twitch channel, players will be sitting next to each other and playing for the first time since 2019. Competitive Melee has continued throughout the pandemic though, mostly thanks to a mod for the game called Slippi that added rollback netcode to the 20-year-old game.

Crowfall, the new fantasy MMO from ArtCraft Entertainment, is now available for PC. The new MMO focuses on player-versus-player gameplay with constantly changing worlds in different campaigns, with different maps, politics, and rule sets.

With a heavy focus on PvP battles, both individual and large-scale, the game features a fast advancement curve allowing players to get competitive in hours. While the advancement system allows for numerous combinations between race, class, class promotion, and subclass disciplines that could provide deep gameplay, developer ArtCraft doesn’t want players to feel like they are just grinding to get to the endgame.

“Crowfall represents a new frontier of online gaming,” creative director J. Todd Coleman said in a press release. “It was designed to be a constantly changing, dynamic feudal world. The story of Crowfall will be written by the players. They will claim territory, build massive fortifications, lay siege to their neighbors, forge alliances and topple empires. Their deeds will become the history of this world.”

Coleman said that Crowfall is taking a different approach to the MMO genre, shortcutting the work needed by players to reach the endgame and that “the endgame is the game.” Crowfall is available now on PC and costs $40 USD, but it does not require a monthly subscription, allowing players to “buy now and play forever.”

Amazon Studios is denying a report that the set of its upcoming Lord of the Rings series is unsafe and called the claims “completely inaccurate,” Variety reports.

The New Zealand Herald reported on July 2 that at least three stunt performers on Amazon’s Lord of the Rings series had been seriously injured, with one case resulting in a $500,000 payment. The Herald also reported sources on the set saying they don’t feel Amazon is taking their concerns about safety standards seriously.

In March, stuntwoman Dayna Grant suffered a head injury on The Lord of the Rings set, which the Herald says was not reported to WorkSafe — New Zealand’s workplace safety regulatory body. Another injury requiring surgery was reportedly not disclosed to WorkSafe, either.

In a statement to Variety and the Herald, Amazon Studios said that their safety regulations comply with New Zealand’s standards.

“Amazon Studios takes the health, physical and emotional welfare of our cast and crew extremely seriously,” a spokesperson for Amazon Studios says. “As a top priority, the production team continues to be in full compliance with the mandated WorkSafe New Zealand Safety and Security government regulations. Any allegation or report that activities on set are unsafe or outside of regulations are completely inaccurate.”

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Variety reports that, according to a source close to production, Grant’s injury was recorded as a mild concussion which isn’t a “notifiable event” by WorkSafe’s regulations. WorkSafe classifies a “notifiable event” as an injury requiring a person to be admitted to a hospital for immediate treatment.

NZ Herald reports that Grant was diagnosed with an 8mm brain aneurysm, which the American Association of Neurological Surgeons classifies “should be seriously considered for treatment.”

Variety’s source states that Grant was not diagnosed with the brain aneurysm until June and had been cleared to work on other projects between then.

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Another stunt performer named Elissa Caldwell reportedly suffered an injury in February, which also wasn’t reported to WorkSafe until the Herald reported on it. The injury resulted in Amazon paying Caldwell $500,000 to return home and receive care, but was explicitly not an admission of guilt by Amazon.

Surrounding the whole situation are multiple reports of stunt performers feeling unsafe or unnecessarily pressured by a stunt supervisor. 

“He [the senior stunt worker] applies a weird kind of pressure which just makes you feel uncomfortable all the time,” one stunt worker told the Herald. Other examples include one stunt performer leaving production in March after injuring his rotator cuff, saying he was required to perform backflip stunts with an improperly rigged support wire system. Another stunt performer said a colleague tore a ligament, but the injury was not made public, and that “it’s a different league being hushed up” from normal injury rates on film sets.

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Despite all this, the head security officer on the production, Willy Heatley, says the injury rate is low across the board.

“We have had 16,200 stuntperson days worked since we started production,” Heatley told the Herald. “That is an incredible amount. And our injury rate across all studios is 0.065 percent. Most of these injuries are common stunt-related sprains, bruises and muscle and soft tissue strains.”

Amazon’s Lord of the Rings project was one of 2020’s most prominent casualties of the COVID-19 pandemic, with production delayed early on in March last year. Production has reportedly been so long that not even a primary actor knows when filming for season one will finish.

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Joseph Knoop is a writer/producer for IGN.

Codemasters’ CEO, Frank Sagnier, and CFO, Rashid Varachia, are departing from the company just four months after EA’s acquisition.

Don’t be alarmed, though, as EA told GamesIndustry.biz, which first reported the news, that their departures have “always been part of the plan.” However, their departure from Codemasters was sped up after EA acquired the company and integrated it into its pool of studios.

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“We are incredibly thankful to Frank and Rashid for everything they have done for Codemasters and Electronic Arts, and we all wish them the very best,” EA said in a statement. “We know the culture they have created and their innovative spirit will very much live on at the studio through their outstanding leadership team.”

Both Sagnier and Varachia will step down from Codemasters at the end of this month. GamesIndustry.biz reports that Codemasters will join the EA Sports umbrella currently led by Cam Weber.

Codemasters will be led by Senior Vice President of Product Development, Clive Moody, and Senior Vice President of Publishing, Jonathan Bunney.

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Codemasters is the studio behind games like Dirt 5, Project CARS, and the F1 series, and it was acquired by EA earlier this year for $1.2 billion. With this acquisition complete, EA aims to release a new racing game every year, although Codemasters will remain as an “independent group” within EA’s repertoire.

Codemasters’ next game will be F1 2021. It was announced back in April and is set to release on July 16. It will feature an all-new story mode that Codemasters calls “a proper journey.”

Check out our thoughts on last year’s F1 game in IGN’s F1 2020 review and then read our thoughts on Codemasters’ latest release in IGN’s Dirt 5 review.

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Wesley LeBlanc is a freelance news writer and guide maker for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @LeBlancWes.

Developer Crystal Dynamics has confirmed that Marvel’s Avengers players on all platforms will be able to select multiple of the same hero later this month when the feature gets permanently added as an in-game option.

The game’s official Twitter account said this is in response to community feedback. Though a date has not been specified, Marvel’s Avengers players will soon be able to double up on heroes in multiplayer matchmaking. This means if your favorite (or highest-leveled) hero is Black Widow but she was picked at the character selection screen before you could choose her, you can still choose her. She won’t be greyed out once the feature is turned on.

Based on the language, however, it sounds as if players will be unable to toggle the duplication feature on and off. When reached for comment, a Square Enix representative clarified that the feature will be a permanent addition going forward and something players can’t change at will from now on.

“Due to community feedback, we’ll be permanently turning on the ability to play multiple of the same Hero in multiplayer and matchmaking later this month,” a Square representative said in an emailed statement to GameSpot. “This is not something that players are able to turn on or off–this is a system feature that will permanently be a part of the game going forward.”

The duplicate hero feature was introduced in April 2021 with Marvel’s Avengers’ Tachyon Anomaly event, which wrapped up on May 3. The LTE introduced some new missions and world events for players to participate in.

The reception has been mixed. Some players praised Crystal Dynamics on Twitter for making the feature permanent. Meanwhile, others suggested the ability to duplicate heroes should be a separate mode. And of course, plenty of people are asking when Spider-Man will get added to the roster.

Marvel’s Avengers is steadily approaching its one-year anniversary. Crystal Dynamics still has content planned for the action-adventure RPG, including the upcoming Black Panther DLC.

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Warframe’s big new Sister of Parvos update is now live on all platforms, and it adds a lot of new content to the game. The update adds a new antagonist in the form of the titular Sisters of Parvos, who are elite hunters who will track you down and take you out if you aren’t careful. Check out the trailer here.

You have to follow a precise series of events to eliminate the Sister that will pursue you once and for all, including eliminating the mechanized Hound that accompanies her. You can choose to kill her in order to obtain her loot, or you can convert her to your side in order to get her as a crew member on your Railjack.

The Sisters of Parvos each have one of eight new weapons, so you’ll have to grind hard if you want to get them all. This update also adds a new Warframe to the game in the form of the water-themed Yareli, who you can research after obtaining her main blueprint from challenges in the Orb Vallis. She rides a very cool bone fish called Merulina, who can also absorb incoming damage.

The update also streamlines the ways that players can confront Kuva Liches, which will make grinding for their loot that much easier. You can now revert your Kubrow or Kavat to their juvenile state with an option on your incubator, so that will give you more options on how to build your companions. For more details on the update, check out the blog post on Warframe’s website.

Ubisoft has joined forces with publisher Behemoth Comics to release a new series of comics based on iconic gaming franchises like Watch Dogs. IGN can exclusively reveal the first of these books, a limited series that spins directly out of 2020’s Watch Dogs Legion.

Also titled Watch Dogs Legion, this four-issue series is designed to operate as a standalone story while still focusing on the resistance organization known as DedSec and the conflicts of the game. The series is written by Sylvain Runberg (The Girl Who Danced With Death) and drawn by Gabriel Germain (Silencio). Germain and Alberto Massaggia will both provide covers for the series.

Get a closer look at the cover art for Watch Dogs Legion #1 in the slideshow gallery below:

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Here’s Behemoth’s official summary for the series:

London Calling! Mass surveillance, private militias bringing order to the streets, organized crime… the city of London has become a symbol of widespread oppression, and only its people can free it. A resistance movement bringing together genius hackers and insurgents ready for combat, DedSec stands up to free the city from the yoke of these profiteers. While investigating mysterious disappearances in Kennington Oval Camp, journalist Louise Hartford will cross paths with Adam Logan, known as “Spiral”, a London DJ whose music has become a symbol of revolt. Together, and with other companions in misfortune, they will have to infiltrate the spheres of power to unravel the truth.

Look for Watch Dogs Legion #1 to hit stores on November 3, 2021.

IGN’s Dan Stapleton gave the Watch Dogs Legion game an 8 when it released in 2020, saying, “Watch Dogs Legion takes Ubisoft’s open-world hacker series in an interesting new direction by letting you swap between the inhabitants of a near-future London almost at will. There’s enough variety in the way different characters play to make that a good tradeoff for not having one traditionally progressing character with a fleshed-out personality, and playing with permadeath enabled ratchets up the tension of infiltrating heavily guarded areas. On top of that, the map is detailed and loaded with environmental puzzles to solve with a little help from your drones. Legion is technically a little rough, but its sandbox-style approach is a good idea that sets Watch Dogs’ moment-to-moment gameplay even further apart from the GTA series.”

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Legion is getting new content in 2021, including a “Performance Mode” for the PS5 and Xbox Series X versions and a zombie-themed expansion dubbed “Legion of the Dead.”

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Jesse is a mild-mannered staff writer for IGN. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on Twitter.

Just Cause developer Avalanche Studios is bringing its next game, Contraband, to Xbox Game Pass on day one, and now the studio has elaborated more on that decision.

CEO Pim Holfve told GI.biz that it “made a lot of sense” to work with Xbox on the game “because of the grandness of [the project].” He added, “It’s not a concept we would pitch to every publisher.”

Not much is known about Contraband, but we do know it’s a multiplayer title of some sort. Part of the appeal of working with Xbox, and bringing the game to Game Pass, is that doing so gives Contraband a potentially massive audience on day one.

“Our main key objective is growing our userbase… even if it’s not ours directly–in this case, it’s going to be Xbox’s,” Holfve said. “But we know that if we grow the userbase, we know that the money and revenue will come. The main motivator for us as a company is not cash, it’s entertainment–we’re entertaining vast numbers of people.”

Avalanche already put Just Cause 3 and 4 on Game Pass, in addition to The Hunter: Call of the Wild. In the case of the hunting game, Holfve observed that Xbox Game Pass was “fantastic” for the title–which is self-published by Avalanche–and that it helped the game reach “so many more players.”

Contraband doesn’t have a release date yet, and Holfve wasn’t ready to share any insight on how long fans will have to wait to play it. He did say, however, that the announcement trailer at Xbox’s E3 showcase had “a lot of clues,” so fans may want to dig in and poke around.

Contraband is set in the 1970s in the fictional country of Bayan. The announcement trailer used Steely Dan’s “Do It Again,” which debuted in the early ’70s.

In related news, Microsoft just recently announced some of the games coming to Xbox Game Pass in July and those that are leaving this month.

HBO has released a new trailer for the highly-anticipated Season 3, which will finally air sometime this fall on HBO Max. Given this new clip, fans will be in for a treat when the new season finally hits the streaming service.

In a little over a minute, a rapid-fire series of snippets demonstrates how each and every member of the dysfunctional Roy family, which runs the global media and hospitality empire Waystar RoyCo–are done being two-faced behind each other’s backs. As the future of the corporation stands in wavering balance during an all-out war, new calculating alliances are coldly suggested. For some reason, Sarah Snook’s character Siobhan literally spits into a book. Logan can’t even muster a coherent insult against his dad. The clip is much better to watch than read about, so check it out below.

Thankfully, all of the show’s regular actors will be returning this season, including Brian Cox, Jeremy Strong, Kieran Culkin, Alan Ruck, Nicholas Braun, Matthew Macfadyen, J. Smith-Cameron, and Snook. This season looks to pick up directly after Strong’s character Roy betrayed his faith, Cox’s Logan, by staging a coup for control at a press conference where he was supposed to take the fall for company misdeeds.

Succession is co-executive produced by showrunner Jesse Armstrong, who won seven Emmys for the show’s second season, including Outstanding Drama. Also among the executive producers is Adam McKay, who is working to adapt the Oscars hit Parasite into another HBO series.