Nintendo has pushed a patch to Super Smash Bros. Ultimate that removes the unintentionally NSFW victory pose used by Minecraft Steve.
The Mojang mascot arrived in-game on October 13, and shortly after fans made the internet aware of his provocative victory animation. If Steve triumphs over his Nintendo colleagues, he will start eating a piece of steak in the endgame screen and then hold the steak slab at waist height, creating an image rife with potential innuendo for those of us with a dirty mind.
However, Nintendo has now made it so that the steak vanishes after he eats it, removing its promiscuous potential. You can see Steve’s new victory pose in the video above, uploaded by Twitter user Plun_Yu. This is one of the many tweaks introduced in the Ver. 9.0.1 update, issued on October 21. As well as getting rid of Steve’s slab, the patch has fixed a few issues with the Minecart and Anvil moves used by the new suite of Minecraft characters.
Microsoft’s head of gaming Phil Spencer was shown the image in an interview with Kotaku’s Stephen Totilo last week. After a long pause, Spencer responded “Yeah. Who did that?” before being told it was a real screenshot for the game, and saying, “I assume that will be fixed.”
Director Dexter Fletcher has confirmed that Sherlock Holmes 3 is currently “on the back burner” after facing new “issues” due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic this year.
Appearing as a guest on the Celebrity Catch Up Podcast, Fletcher, who is taking over the franchise from Guy Ritchie, shared an update on the third Sherlock Holmes installment, as he admitted that the project had been put on hold indefinitely whilst they try to figure out a plan of action that will enable them to move forward with production.
“Sherlock’s hit its own issues on and off,” Fletcher said. “That’s sort of sitting on the back burner at the moment until it becomes clear where the world is at and what’s going to happen. The same is with The Saint. I’m pushing ahead with both of them, and that’s always part of the challenge.”
Fletcher explained that The Saint, his reboot of the 1997 action thriller that starred Val Kilmer, had faced the same challenges as Sherlock Holmes 3, as he cited COVID-19 travel bans and social gathering restrictions as the main “dilemma” for film productions.
“They’re both up against the same dilemma,” he confirmed. “[It’s] the same issue that we all [have]: How do you get large groups of people together to create something and then shift them all around the world? And what do you do with actors that are in a love scene? It’s complicated.”
The project might currently be stalled, but Robert Downey Jr. has already revealed that he has some very big plans for the sleuthing series. He recently outlined his intentions to spin a new cinematic universe out of Sherlock Holmes 3, which is currently scheduled for release on December 22, 2021, after being pushed back from its original 2020 release date.
A raft of updates were announced for Hearthstone today, including a brand new mode, a brand new expansion, and a complete overhaul of the game’s progression system. Let’s go through them.
Hearthstone Duels
First up, the new mode is called Hearthstone Duels and it takes the build-as-you-go deckbuilding gameplay that has been so popular across many of Hearthstone’s Solo Adventures of recent years and lets you take on other players. If you’ve played Dungeon Run, Monster Hunt, Rumble Run, The Dalaran Heist or Tombs of Terror, you’d have some idea of the format, but a key difference here is that Duels is structured like Arena, so players are striving for 12 wins, while three losses ends the run.
At the start of a run, players choose a hero, each of which has a bespoke hero power, and then builds their own starter deck of 15 cards to take into the run. These cards can be anything from the current legal pool for the mode, but instead of the usual limit of one copy of each legendary and two copies of each card of other rarities, Duels only allows one copy of each card, regardless of rarity. With each win, players can choose between different options to add cards to their decks, and – as anyone who has played the Solo Adventures would expect – powerful treasures will also be a fixture of the mode, allowing players to make truly over-the-top plays.
With each season, the heroes, hero powers, treasures and card pool will change. The debut season’s theme is Wizard Duels, so the ten heroes are pulled from the Scholomance Academy expansion. And in terms of the cards players can use, Season 1 will include the Basic and Classic sets, as well as Scholomance Academy, Curse of Naxxramas and One Night in Karazhan.
Duels will be a free game mode, although there will also be a Heroic Duels option for 150 gold or a Tavern ticket, with rewards based on how well you perform. The Duels beta officially launches on November 17, but there will be ample opportunities to play it before then. Players who pre-purchase a Madness at the Darkmoon Faire bundle (yes, that’s the next expansion – we’ll get to it in a sec) will get early access to Duels. How early? It’s running right now. And once November 12 rolls around, early access will open up for everyone.
The Hearthstone team also announced the game’s next expansion, and it’s a doozy. Welcome to Madness at the Darkmoon Faire, so named because The Old Gods have chosen WoW’s iconic Darkmoon Faire as the site of their return. Yes, all four Old Gods are back as new legendary cards, and are packing game-swinging power. Not only that, but the set will also include four Old God Artifacts – powerful spells inspired by the original Old God card designs from Whispers of the Old Gods.
Across its 135 new cards, Madness at the Darkmoon Faire will also play host to a new keyword – Corrupt. Cards with Corrupt can be upgraded in hand by first playing a card of a greater cost than the corruptible card. In a neat touch, the corrupted card then gets a new, twisted version of its original artwork. This feels like a thoughtful new mechanic that should make for interesting deckbuilding, not to mention plenty of decisions within matches.
Madness at the Darkmoon Faire (MDF) will launch on November 17 (or Nov 18 in ANZ), but there are two pre-purchase options available now. The first bundle is $39.99 USD ($53.95 AUD) and contains 45 Madness at the Darkmoon Faire card packs, one random MDF legendary card, the N’Zoth card back and early access to Hearthstone Duels.
The Mega Bundle, meanwhile, costs $79.99 USD ($109.95 AUD) and includes 80 Madness at the Darkmoon Faire card packs, five golden MDF card packs, one random golden MDF legendary card, the playable N’Zoth Warlock Hero, the N’Zoth card back, Battleground perks and early access to Hearthstone Duels.
The new game board.
Making Progress
Last but by no means least, the team has also announced the biggest overhaul to Hearthstone’s progression system ever, and it’s coming on November 12. The change includes an achievements system, a central Reward Track, a quest revamp and an updated profile page. Let’s run through these.
Achievements have been requested since the very beginning of Hearthstone and they’re finally coming! The system will include a broad set of stats across every game mode, will let you chase in-game accomplishments by class, and will even let you easily keep track of your card collection and ranked milestones.
Another huge change is the shift to an experience-based reward system. Yes, with each new expansion, players will be able to earn experience by completing quests, unlocking specific achievements and simply playing the game, and in doing so make their way through a 50-level Reward Track. Along the way you’ll be given gold, card packs, cards and cosmetics. And hitting level 50 will earn players one of ten all-new hero skins. Purchasing a Tavern Pass can also add bonus earnable items to the Reward Track, including XP boosts and extra cosmetics.
As mentioned, completing quests now rewards players with XP to push them along their Reward Track. There will, however, be even more quests to complete, with daily quests being joined by all-new weekly quests. You’ll get three at the start of each week, and like daily quests, one weekly quest can be re-rolled each day.
Lastly, as of November 12 each player will now have an in-game profile page with lifetime stats for their accounts. Nice.
Ghostrunner is running onto next-gen consoles in 2021.
The official Ghostrunner Twitter account announced today that owners of the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One versions of the game will receive a free upgrade to next-gen versions of the game. Those upgrades will come in 2021 when the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X versions of the game are released.
Owners of the @PlayStation 4 & @Xbox One versions of Ghostrunner will receive a free upgrade to the next generation versions when they release in 2021!
As you can see in the tweet above, there isn’t any elaboration as to when players can expect to receive this next-gen upgrade or when people can purchase the PS5 and Series X versions of the game.
You might notice the asterisk note at the bottom of the picture in the tweet above. It reads, “buy the digital version of Ghostrunner for PS4 or Xbox One and download the PS5 or Xbox Series X version at no extra cost when it launches in 2021.” If you’re wondering why there’s no mention of physical version upgrades, it’s because Ghostrunner is digital-only.
Developed by One More Level and Slipgate Ironworks, Ghostrunner is a cyberpunk parkour game set in a neon-drenched metropolis where you basically play as a ninja wielding katanas. If that sounds cool, you can pre-order the game on PS4 as a PlayStation Plus subscriber or on PC to get a 20% discount. There’s a 10% pre-order discount on Xbox One. Ghostrunner will be released on October 27, 2020.
Update: The first image of Tom Holland as Nathan Drake has been released, and he looks exactly how you’d expect. Posted by Holland himself to Instagram, the photograph shows him in a tan-coloured shirt and cargo pants, a get-up that’s practically identical to his in-game counterpart.
“It’s nice to meet you, I’m Nate,” Holland wrote in the post’s caption.
Original story: The first images from the Uncharted movie have been released, giving us a first look at not just some props, but also TWO Nathan Drakes.
The images, published by Naughty Dog on the studio’s Twitter account, show Nathan Drake’s original voice actor, Nolan North, talking to live-action Nathan Drake, Tom Holland. The photograph was taken when North was visiting the set of the video game adaptation.
Additionally, Naughty Dog also posted another two images: an artifact slotted into a dusty wood-and-metal surface almost like a key, and a book featuring an image of Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan. The tweet is accompanied by a quote from Magellan: “Meet the shadowy future without fear and conquer the unknown.”
We know that the film will be a prequel to the Uncharted series of video games, with a young Nate Drake accompanied by a young Victor Sullivan (played by Mark Wahlberg). Perhaps we’ll see them investigating the travels and discoveries of Magellan, the first circumnavigation of the Earth during his Spanish expedition to the East Indies between 1519 and 1522.
Netflix has released the official trailer for its new animated World War II epic, called The Liberator, which premieres on the streamer on Veterans Day, November 11, 2020.
Here’s how Netflix describes the upcoming four-episode historical drama: “(The Liberator) tells the riveting true story of the bloodiest and most dramatic march to victory of the Second World War: the battlefield odyssey of maverick U.S. Army officer Felix Sparks and his infantry unit as they fought for over five hundred days to liberate Europe.”
IGN can exclusively reveal the new trailer in the video below or at the top of the page:
The Liberator’s unique animation is called “Enhanced Hybrid Animation,” which is a new patent-pending technology that uses a combination of CGI and live-action performances. The series is based on the book “The Liberator: One World War II Soldier’s 500-Day Odyssey” by Alex Kershaw and created for television by Jeb Stuart (Die Hard, The Fugitive).
IGN spoke to Stuart (via email) about why the use of animation was important for The Liberator’s production. “Trioscope’s hybrid animation allowed us to tell a massive W.W.2 drama on a scale we could only dream about in live-action,” Stuart said, adding, “without sacrificing any of the story’s emotional nuances.”
Be sure to check out all four parts of The Liberator when it premieres on Netflix on Wednesday, November 11, 2020.
There is no better time than now to be a gamer, and that’s simply because we have a lot of options for what we play and how we play it.
But with options, comes the need to make decisions, and to make decisions you need to be as informed as possible on questions like what is the PlayStation Plus Collection? Or PS Now? Is it like Xbox Game Pass? Are they the same and what service is right for my gaming needs?
PS Now offers the ability to stream over 700 games, 400 of which are downloadable, and thankfully Bloodborne is available for both options. But what about The Last Of Us? You may be surprised to know it’s only streamable. In comparison to PS Now’s huge library, Game Pass has a little over a 100 games, but does more games mean it’s better for you?
In this video, Kurt Indovina goes through what each service is, what they cost, and exactly what it is they offer. He also lists details some of the hottest games for each service, and compares what games are available on both PS Plus Collection and Game Pass, like Batman: Arkham Knight, Resident Evil 7, and more.
2K has unveiled the first batch of updated player ratings for NBA 2K21. And as is appropriate for how the season turned out, this starts with members of the NBA Champions, the Los Angeles Lakers, as well as other top performers from this year’s unusual, pandemic-impacted playoffs.
This first group is headlined by LeBron James, who comes in at a whopping 98, making him the top-rated player in 2K21. That might be thanks in part to winning yet another NBA Finals MVP, but whatever the case, it gives him a clear edge over his teammate, Anthony Davis, who will have a 96 rating. The regular season MVP, Giannis Antetokounmpo, comes in at a 97, apparently not being heavily impacted by the Bucks’ underperformance in the post-season. Despite his young age, Dallas’ Luka Dončić isn’t far behind these big names, earning himself a 94 rating.
Other members of the Lakers to receive new ratings so far include Danny Green (76), Kentavious Caldwell-Pope (76), and Alex Caruso (75). Their opponent in the NBA Finals, the Miami Heat, have seen Jimmy Butler come in at a 93, which is unsurprising given how well he played in the playoffs.
Another breakout player from the playoffs, Denver’s Jamal Murray, jumps to an 87, which is a great rating and yet somehow feels low after that stretch in the Utah series where it seemed like he couldn’t miss. That ties him with one Jazz opponent, Rudy Gobert, but puts him a point behind his more direct opposite, Donovan Mitchell, who will be an 88.
More ratings will continue to be shared on the NBA 2K Twitter account throughout the day. You can see a roundup of all the confirmed ratings below so far. These will be reflected in both the current-gen versions of 2K21 as well as the upcoming PS5 and Xbox Series X/Series S versions. Those next-gen versions will come at a premium, costing $70 unless you opt to buy the even pricier Mamba Forever edition that goes for $100 and includes access to both current- and next-gen versions.
Updated NBA 2K21 Player Ratings
LeBron James — 98
Giannis Antetokounmpo — 97
Anthony Davis — 96
Luka Dončić — 94
Jimmy Butler — 93
Jayson Tatum — 90
Donovan Mitchell — 88
Devin Booker — 88
Rudy Gobert — 87
Jamal Murray — 87
Kemba Walker — 86
Jaylen Brown — 86
Danny Green — 76
Kentavious Caldwell-Pope — 76
Alex Caruso — 75
NBA 2K21 has received some negative press recently as the game was briefly home to an unskippable ad–something many felt had no place in a $60 game. 2K apologized and explained the ad didn’t function as intended, though it doesn’t sound as if ads will be going away altogether. For more on the game itself, check out our NBA 2K21 review.
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Fortnite has finally added Wolverine’s stripped-down Logan skin, but you’re going to have to complete a lot of challenges in order to unlock him. If you’ve been following along with our weekly challenge guides, however, that shouldn’t be an issue.
Wolverine Logan skin
Available to unlock after completing 60 weekly challenges and six challenges from the Wolverine Battle Pass, the Wolverine Logan skin shows the hero wearing a tank top with a large tear in the front. Presumably, his healing factor allowed him to repair any damage that happened under the shirt.
Logan is the third skin available for Wolverine in Fortnite this season, with the gold and classic skins being released in weeks 5 and 6. Other weapon skins and back bling were previously made available. You can even swap from using a pickaxe to his Adamantium claws.
