Author: Trafficblast

The White Lotus Renewed for Second Season with New Cast

The White Lotus will return for a second season with a new cast in a new location.

HBO announced on Tuesday in a press release. No other details were given regarding the cast, location, or premiere date, but series creator Mike White is confirmed to return.

The press release says The White Lotus has grown in viewers each week and is currently the most popular TV series on HBO Max.

Francesca Orsi, the executive vice president for HBO Programming, praised White in a statement and expressed enthusiasm for his return.

“Mike has once again delivered a quintessential HBO show, and it’s the talk of the town,” Orsi said. “We were thrilled to hear where he wanted to go next, after closing this epic chapter in Hawaii and can’t wait to keep following him wherever he takes us.”

The White Lotus stars Murray Bartlett, Connie Britton, Jennifer Coolidge, and Alexandra Daddario. The show is a satirical look at a group of vacationers in Hawaii over the course of a very troubling week. Every episode is written and directed by White, who previously wrote School of Rock and co-wrote Nacho Libre.

IGN’s The White Lotus premiere review said the show, “mixes satire and farce for a sharp, but awkward, look at posh resort guests longing to be seen.”

Here’s a full list of what’s new on HBO Max for August 2021.

Petey Oneto is a freelance writer for IGN who is still waiting for HBO Max to upload the missing Ed, Edd n Eddy episodes.

Free Pokemon For Sword And Shield, Pokemon TCG Online Card Available This Weekend

The Pokemon Players Cup 25th Anniversary Invitational takes place this weekend, and The Pokemon Company has a couple of free gifts for those who tune in. During the competition, the company will share download codes for a free Coalossal in Pokemon Sword and Shield, as well as a free card for Pokemon Trading Card Game Online.

The free Coalossal is based on the one used by Wolfe Glick, winner of the Pokemon Players Cup II. The Pokemon has a Modest nature and knows the moves Heat Wave, Meteor Beam, Protect, and Solar Beam. Once the download code has been revealed, you can claim the Coalossal by firing up your copy of Sword or Shield and following these steps:

Now Playing: Pokemon – Official 25 Years Of Memories Trailer

  • Open Mystery Gift
  • Select Get with a Code/Password
  • Follow the prompts to connect online
  • Input the download code

The free Pokemon TCG Online card, meanwhile, is the Quick Ball, a “secret rare” card that has been used prominently in the Pokemon Players Cup IV competition. Quick Ball lets you search your deck for a basic Pokemon and put it in your hand after you discard another card from your hand.

The Pokemon Players Cup 25th Anniversary Invitational runs from August 13-15 and features top players competing in Pokemon Sword and Shield and Pokemon TCG. The competition will be streamed on Pokemon’s Twitch channel, with the aforementioned download codes to be revealed sometime during the broadcast. You can read more about the competition on the official Pokemon website.

In other Pokemon news, the Switch spin-off New Pokemon Snap recently received a free update that added three new areas and 20 additional Pokemon to photograph. Remakes of Pokemon Diamond and Pearl are also on the way to Switch this November, while a brand-new game set in ancient Sinnoh, Pokemon Legends: Arceus, is coming early next year on January 28.

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How I Met Your Father Starring Hilary Duff Announces Full Cast

The cast of How I Met Your Father, a spin-off of the comedy series How I Met Your Mother, has been announced.

Hilary Duff has already been revealed as the lead of the series. She’s the parent explaining to her son how she met his father. The Hollywood Reporter announced on Tuesday that she will act alongside Veronica Mars actor Chris Lowell, Grown-ish actress Francia Raisa, The Royals actor Tom Ainsley, Space Force actress Tien Tran and Life of Pi actor Suraj Sharma.

Lowell will play a musician named Jesse who helps pay the bills as an Uber driver. Sharma plays Jesse’s roommate and best friend named Sid who owns a bar. Tran will play Jesse’s adopted sister who has recently moved from quiet farmland to the bustling New York City.

Raisa will play Valentina, a stylist and the roommate of Duff’s character. Ainsley will portray Charlie, a wealthy model who moved to New York after falling in love with Valentina.

10 episodes of the series will premiere exclusively on Hulu. There is no release date yet, but a post from Duff’s Instagram story indicates the show is currently in production.

Duff was in the news in late 2020 following the cancelation of a new season of her old Disney Channel series Lizzie McGuire. She said in an interview from early 2021 that the show was too mature for Disney+.

“I think [Disney is] really trying to figure out what kind of content they want living on Disney+,” Duff said. “That doesn’t totally align with where I see Lizzie right now. I’m like very protective of her, and they’re very protective of her.”

Duff likely can’t say too much about her relationship with Disney as How I Met Your Father is made through Disney’s 20th Century Television, according to THR. Duff recently promoted How I Met Your Father at Disneyland.

IGN ranked eight popular streaming services and placed Hulu below the likes of Disney+ and HBO Max.

Hulu recently premiered the new comedy Reservation Dogs co-created by Taika Waititi. IGN’s review of the first episode calls it, “an enjoyably unique look at life on a Native American Reservation through the eyes of four lightly devious teen crooks.”

Anybody looking for comedy recommendations should check out this updated list of the best comedies on Netflix.

Petey Oneto is a freelance writer for IGN who is still rooting for an R-rated continuation of Lizzie McGuire. That’s what dreams are made of.

Future Halo Infinite Tests Will See Significant Improvements To PC Performance

Halo Infinite’s first technical test, which generally seems to have made a good first-impression, left something to be desired among certain players on PC who noted various performance issues even on higher-end machines. That is something developer 343 Industries is now assuring fans will be significantly improving for future tests and in the game’s full release.

In statements to IGN as part of a new video breaking down Halo Infinite’s still-in-progress performance across both PC and consoles, 343 said PC players in future tests “will see a lot of things fixed.”

Now Playing: Halo Infinite Technical Alpha Gameplay Livestream

“We’re continuing to work on improving performance and compatibility across all hardware configurations, and have been seeing some really great gains there,” 343 said. “We’ve solved the issue that was impacting players running the GTX 900 series, have reduced CPU load and improved overall GPU performance.

The developer went on to say that “PC performance had a misconfiguration and we expect significant PC performance improvements in future builds.”

When it comes to performance on older consoles like the Xbox One, which runs at a stable 30 frames-per-second but with scaled back image quality and lower-resolution textures, 343 says there have already been stability improvements since the technical preview. “Our team is very focused on finding the best balance possible between frame timing and latency, and we’ll continue to adjust and fine-tune as we get player feedback to ensure the most fair, competitive experience possible.”

While Halo Infinite’s first technical test has come and gone, it won’t be the last. 343 will be conducting more tests in the future, and is encouraging players interested in participating to sign up via the Halo Insider program. One unforeseen issue arising from the first tech test was the leak of Halo Infinite campaign spoilers datamined from the game’s files, something that future tests will hopefully make sure doesn’t happen again. Halo Infinite still does not have a firm release date, but is slated to release this holiday season.

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Dr Disrespect Starting Game Studio, Focused On Working With ‘Mega Influencers’

The infamous streamer Dr. Disrespect, also known as Herschel “Guy” Beahm, is starting his own video game development studio. In a job listing on Beahm’s website titled “Life Changing Opportunity,” it says that Beahm in partnership with BoomTV is looking to take on the video game industry by making a AAA/AA studio.

The studio is not directly named in the job listing but the Google form application is titled “BoomTV Game Studio Head Application.” The studio plans to work with “mega influencers” to help them to launch their dream games. The studio plans to either develop games internally or co-develop them with other established studios. Beahm is looking for a studio head with 5+ years of producing experience and has experience launching games to audiences of over 100,000. The position offers a co-founder position, high equity, and a competitive salary.

The job listing also states that the studio head “will work within a fast-paced environment spearheading design, art, core gaming loops, meta, viral and retention loops and iterate monetization, go to market, integrated esports and influencer marketing,” implying a focus on multiplayer games that appeal to competitive players and streamers.

From the description, it seems like Beahm is in the early stages of starting a studio, hiring a studio head to help hire and build out the rest of the studio. While Beahm has a record of questionable behavior as a streamer, including being permanently banned from Twitch, Beahm was previously video game developer working on Call of Duty. Considering plenty of games use influencers in marketing or make them into skins, like Ninja in Fortnite, making video games based on influencers’ ideas seems like the next step. Based on this job listing, it seems like Beahm’s studio hasn’t started developing any games, so any potential release could be years out.

Avatar: The Last Airbender – Zuko and Korra Actors Answer Biggest What-If Questions

Avatar: The Last Airbender and Legend of Korra voice actors Dante Basco (Prince Zuko) and Janet Varney (Korra) have teamed up for an epic podcast called Avatar: Braving the Elements. Every Tuesday, the dynamic Avatar duo revisits old episodes, where they discuss notable battles, break down key themes, and even share behind-the-scenes trivia. In this week’s episode, Dee Bradley Baker (the voice of Appa) is the featured guest.

IGN chatted with Basco and Varney about some of the biggest “what-ifs” from the franchise, as well as what might be in store for the future of Avatar: The Last Airbender on Nickelodeon.

Read on or watch the video below or at the top of the page to check out our full interview with Zuko and Korra:

Could Princess Azula Have Been Redeemed?

The battle between Zuko and his sister, Azula, in the Avatar: The Last Airbender finale was one of the most epic animated fight sequences ever! While Azula’s story has continued in the comic books, we wanted to know if Basco believes there’s still hope for her character to be redeemed.

“I have brothers and sisters in real life, so I’m always the one rooting for my siblings,” Basco told IGN. “And so of course, I would love to have seen Azula be redeemed as Zuko has been redeemed. Zuko is a great redemption arc, who doesn’t want to see that in his family member. So who knows as the stories go on? I know she went down a different kind of place in the comic books, but I think there’s always room for hope.”

Would Korra Have Let Fire Lord Ozai Live if She Was in Aang’s Situation?

We all know Korra can be quick to anger when she’s pushed to her emotional limits, so would she have been as merciful to Fire Lord Ozai as Aang was in the Avatar finale?

“I would like to think that by Season 4 she would have — well, in Season 4, she was so scared and shell-shocked from everything,” Varney explained. “But moving past that into the future, I do think she learned. But had it happened in Season 3, I don’t know. I do not know. And that’s one of the things that’s been so fun about doing the podcast together, is that we’ve had fans and our fellow actors who play characters in the show, we’ve had a handful of people really point out it actually really makes sense that Korra and Zuko would end up on a podcast together.”

The Future of Avatar: The Last Airbender Universe on Nickelodeon

Back in February, the Paramount+ streaming platform and Nickelodeon announced a new division dedicated to creating new series and movies based in the world of Avatar: The Last Airbender, which will be led by creators and executive producers Michael DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko. While nothing official beyond that announcement has been revealed, we wanted to know if the former Avatar stars could shine some light on what’s to come.

“Fully sworn to secrecy,” Varney exlaimed. “I can’t even remember the context of why I found out a few things. But it is one of those things where, as much as people want to know, and I totally understand, I understand that fandom that wants to steal the Game of Thrones script from the set and leak it because everyone’s so passionate about it. I get it. But at the same time, I love knowing that I respect and have so much faith, and I know [Dante] does too, in what Mike and Bryan do. I don’t need to know anything because I’m supremely confident that the stories that they’re going to tell, whatever they are from whatever era, whatever it is, I’m going to be on board for.”

You can listen to the Avatar: Braving the Elements podcast on iHeartRadio, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever else podcasts are heard every Tuesday.

David Griffin still watches DuckTales in his pajamas with a cereal bowl in hand. He’s also the TV Editor for IGN. Say hi on Twitter.

Call Of Duty Pro Players Were Put In the Hot Seat For Special Hot Ones Episode

Pro players were put to a different kind of Call of Duty test in a special episode of Hot Ones with Sean Evans. In this episode, three of Call of Duty’s pro players are in the hot seat, featuring Attach of the Minnesota ROKKR, Asim of the New York Subliners, and Apathy of the Los Angeles Guerrillas in a head-to-head “Dab of Duty” challenge.

Normally, celebrities would be sitting across from Sean Evans, eating the hottest wings and trying to answer his spiciest questions. Instead, these popular Call of Duty pros had to eat wings doused in Hot Ones’ The Last Dab Apollo hot sauce, and then proceed to compete against each other in Call of Duty.

The players were served a plate of hot wings in the spiciest Last Dab Apollo sauce. They were challenged to first eat the wings, and they were then given five minutes to see who can get the most kills in a match of Black Ops Cold War using only a knife or tomahawk. I think this was a missed opportunity to ask some of the spicy questions about their teams and some behind-the-scenes pro league drama, but it was still fun to see them sweat it out in a match of Call of Duty, quite literally.

Apathy seems to be struggling the most with the heat, announcing that his “tongue is sweating,” but the Guerrillas pro player was still able to secure the win. He finished the Dab of Duty challenge on top with 27 kills, Asim trailed with 16, and Attach finished in third place with 15.

This special Call of Duty episode of Hot Ones is a lead up to the biggest Call of Duty League tournament of the year. Call of Duty League’s Championship Weekend will run from August 19-22. Eight of the top teams from the regular season will fight for the year’s biggest prize at the Los Angeles’ Galen Center, which is the championship trophy and a hefty $1.2 million cash prize.

Call of Duty’s Season 5 is arriving on August 12 to Black Ops Cold War and Warzone, bringing new weapons, operators, and more. You can get a better look at some of the new cosmetics coming to Call of Duty in today’s Season 5 battle pass trailer.

GameSpot may get a commission from retail offers.

Heels Star Stephen Amell Is Itching To Wrestle Again, So WWE And AEW Should Give Him A Call

With Arrow behind him, Stephen Amell is ready to hit the wrestling ring in his new series Heels, which premieres Sunday, August 15 on Starz. The show is set in a small Georgia town and finds the actor as the promoter and star of a local professional wrestling group. Of course, Amell is no stranger to wrestling, having previously performed for WWE, Ring of Honor, and at All In. After training for Heels, though, he’s ready to make his return to the industry he loves.

Speaking to GameSpot about the series, Amell admitted that the wrestling training he did for Heels has prepared him for being an actual pro wrestler than anything he learned for his previous matches. “When we trained for SummerSlam or for the Ring of Honor show or for All In, you know, I was faking it,” the actor said. “It was so scripted and so controlled that it was really all about, like, ‘Just sort of fake it. See what you can get away with.’ And I had such great opponents for that.”

After months of training for Heels, plus a plethora of wrestling scenes in the series, he now feels more ready than ever for his squared circle return. “This time I got to put in the time in the gymnasium that they built for us on our soundstages,” Amell explained. “We had a ring and every day that I went to the gym, my warm-up would be–even if I wasn’t doing work in the ring that day–my warm-up would be running the ropes, and just bumping for five minutes, 10 minutes, to get a little bit of sweat going. And just doing that, just working on the basics like, like punching and locking up, that just that that just makes you better? Period.”

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It also doesn’t hurt that he and the rest of the Heels cast initially got to train with Chavo Guerrero in Los Angeles. When production moved to Atlanta, Georgia, Guerrero didn’t make the trip, but thankfully there were plenty of other wrestlers to help them out.

“When we weren’t in the gym, we were in the wrestling ring being trained by pros that were currently wrestling in the south and they were on our stunt team as well–Luke Hawx, Brady Pierce… it was just an incredible group of people,” he said.

So while it was exciting to see Amell wrestle in front of crowds before, wrestling companies should take note that he’s been training and is ready for a comeback–and if the show’s a success, Ludwig wants to get booked with him. “If this show blows up and we get invited to do a match, there’s no way we could even say no,” he admitted.

Heels airs Sundays on Starz.

New Apex Legends Patch Implements Much-Needed Prowler SMG Nerf

Later today, Respawn will release a patch for Apex Legends that implements a much-needed nerf for the Prowler SMG, a powerful firearm that rotated out of care packages and into ground loot at the start of Season 10: Emergence.

The patch reduces the damage of each individual Prowler bullet from 15 to 14. Though that may seem small, it’s actually a fairly significant adjustment. Since the Prowler fires in five-bullet bursts, this reduces each burst from 75 damage to 70.

Now Playing: Apex Legends Emergence – Everything You Need To Know

That means a level 2 blue body shield (which can absorb 75 damage) can no longer be broken on a single Prowler burst. And though it will still only take two bursts to break level 3 purple (100 damage), level 4 gold (100 damage), and level 5 red (125 damage) body shields, that second burst won’t chew into an enemy player’s health bar (100 hit points) quite as much.

To break that down, those with level 3 or level 4 armor will now be left with 60 health instead of 50, and those with level 5 armor will now have 85 health instead of 75. That last number is especially notable–you will no longer be able to knock a player with a level 5 body shield in three Prowler bursts. You’ll now at least need to hit four full bursts and then get two more bullets from a fifth burst to hit.

“We considered hitting the [Prowler’s] hipfire a bit, but after over-correcting with the Hemlok, we’ll take the conservative approach here,” Respawn associate live balance designer John Larson tweeted.

“Prowler has the same hipfire properties as the [R99 SMG], and SMGs should be reliable at close range. I think there are smarter ways to further adjust if it still proves to be the de facto [close-quarters combat] option.”

At the end of the patch notes for this update, Respawn writes that the planned nerf for Seer is scheduled for next week.

“We considered putting something out today, but we figured it’s worth taking the time to assemble a more complete set of changes [for Seer],” Larson tweeted. “Be on the lookout next week.”

The full list of changes coming in today’s patch are listed below.

Apex Legends August 10 Update Patch Notes

  • Reduces Prowler damage from 15>14
  • Reduces speed while ADSing with the L-Star
  • Fixes a map hole near Climatizer
  • Raises prices for the Prowler and L-Star in Arenas

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Daily Deals: The First Ever Herman Miller 15% Off Gaming Anniversary Sale, Includes Herman Miller x Logitech G Embody Chair

One year ago, Herman Miller launched their “Herman Miller Gaming” lineup, which includes gaming versions of their high end ergonomic chairs and desks. To celebrate the one year anniversary, Herman Miller is offering a 15% off coupon on all their gaming products, as well as free shipping. Since there have been no online discounts on any of these items up to now, this is your best chance to save on the highest end gaming chair on the market. In other deal news, all sizes of the the WD SN850 solid state drive with heatsink are back in stock. This is the best SSD to get for your PS5 upgrade. More deals below.

Herman Miller Gaming Sale: 15% Off Gaming Chairs, Including the Herman Miller x Logitech G Embody

Herman Miller makes the best ergonomic chairs in the industry. They’re also not cheap, with several of their models easily topping over $1000 in price. Penny pinchers might find it a waste of money, but honestly, in this case you get what you pay for. Many of us could spend a majority of our lives stuck to our chair, it makes sense that this would be one of the most important purchases we make. Today, Herman Miller is offering 15% off their top-of-the-line gaming collaborations with Logitech. This is the first time we’ve seen a substantial discount on these outside of Sample Sales and employee-only offers. If you’ve got deep pockets, then you’ll save on what is probably the best gaming chair on the market.

Back in Stock (Including 1TB Model): WD Black SN850 M.2 SSD with Heatsink

The Western Digital official storefront has all models of the SN850 SSD with heatsink in stock right now, and that includes the extremely hard to find 1TB model. This is currently the most popular (and probably the best) SSD to get for your PS5 storage upgrade. It’s blazing fast drive with transfer speeds rated at up to 7,000 MB/s and a PCIe Gen4 interface and it comes preinstalled with a heatsink. It’s also confirmed by Western Digital themselves to be compatible with the PS5.

Apple AirPods Pro Noise-Cancelling Earbuds

If you regret not picking the Airpods Pro up on Amazon Prime Day at 24% off, here’s your chance to get it today at the same price. The AirPods Pro is considered one of the best truly wireless noise-cancelling in-ear headphones you can get, especially for under $200.

2021 Apple iPad Pro 11″ 128GB WiFi

Save $100 off the latest and most powerful iPad Pro on the market. This iPad is the newest generation model released earlier this year. It boasts the powerful Apple M1 chip, which is significantly more powerful than any of the previous processors. The 11″ Liquid Retina display with ProMotion, True Tone, and P3 wide color is better than just about other tablet or phone screen out there; the only way to get a better screen is to upgrade to the 12.9″ model.

ASUS ROG RTX 3080 Gaming PC

Scoring an RTX 3080 gaming desktop PC for only $1999.99 is already a great find, but if it’s an ASUS ROG desktop, which generally boasts great build quality and sleek gaming-inspired aesthetics, it’s an outstanding deal. At the time of this post, you can order it now at Best Buy and receive it within 2 weeks. That’s a much better proposition than waiting months for a standalone RTX 3080 video card.

Arcade1Up Ms Pac-Man Arcade Cabinet

Save 15% off the rarely discounted Ms Pacman arcade cabinet from Arcade1Up. This is a 3:4 scaler replica that measures 4 feet tall. A themed riser is also included that raises the cabinet by an additional 1 foot, so you can choose to play comfortably while sitting or standing. Games included are Ms Pac-Man, Pac-Mania, Pac-Man Plus, and Galaxian.

Available: Nintendo Joy-Cons Skyward Sword Edition

After a long haitus, these special edition Skyward Sword themed Joy-Cons are available for order again on Amazon. They Joy-Cons are made over in a royal blue color with white accents. The right Joy-Con controller is themed after the Master Sword and the left controller features a Hylian Shield motif. Get it now before it goes out of stock again.

Best Ultra-Wide Gaming Monitor: Samsung Odyssey Neo G9 49″ 5120×1440 Mini LED Monitor

Preorder the Samsung Neo G9 gaming monitor (out on August 23), and get the JBL Quantum One Gaming Headset for free. That’s a $300 headset. This is the first Mini LED gaming monitor we’ve seen and easily the best monitor in Samsung’s “Odyssey” series. Mini LED technology is pretty new. You’ll see them in the highest end Samsung and TCL TVs as well as the newest Apple iPad Pro 12.9″ XDR display. The cost keeps 99% of us gamers at bay, but for those who can afford it, you currently won’t find a better ultra-wide monitor.

More Daily Deals for August 10