Final Fantasy XIV‘s next seasonal event is set to kick off next week. The MMO’s Valentine’s Day and Little Ladies’ Day celebrations are being combined into one event this year, and it’ll feature a new questline to complete and seasonal rewards to unlock.
The event begins at 12 AM PT / 3 AM ET on February 10 and runs until 6:59 AM PT / 9:59 AM PT on March 8. To participate in the event quest, A Delivery of Love, you’ll need to speak to Lisette de Valentione in Old Gridania. You’ll also need to be at least level 15 and have completed the Gridanian Envoy, Ul’dahn Envoy, or Lominsan Envoy story quests before you can participate.
You’ll be able to earn two special items as part of the event: the Lovely Moogle Cap headgear and the Stuffed Kupka Kupp tabletop decoration, both of which you can take a look at below. You’ll have until the end of the event to complete the seasonal quests and unlock these items. You’ll also have another chance to purchase some items from past years in the Seasonal Shop.
As usual, cities will be adorned with seasonal decorations throughout the event. This year, however, Square Enix says the decorations will vary between cities. Each town’s residential district will also have different decorations as the event progresses. Valentine’s Day decorations will be up from February 10-21, while Little Lady’s Day decorations will be up from February 21 to March 8.
In the meantime, Square Enix will be hosting a Final Fantasy XIV Announcement Showcase this Friday, February 5. Although the publisher hasn’t shared many details about that broadcast yet, it’s likely to give us our first look at the MMO’s next expansion. The broadcast begins at 5:30 PM PT / 8:30 PM ET.
Sacha Baron Cohen has been nominated for three Golden Globe Awards. This distinction puts the actor in intriguing company who share rarefied air–previously, Helen Mirren earned three nominations in 2007, and Jamie Foxx as well in 2005.
Cohen has been nominated for his work separately as an actor and a producer to last year’s surprise release (but unsurprising hit) Borat Subsequent Moviefilm, a follow-up to its 2006 shock comedy tightly laced with satirical content. Additionally, Cohen has been nominated for his supporting role in The Trial of the Chicago 7, a polar-opposite role where he played Abbie Hoffman, the political and social activist. On Twitter, Cohen said he was “shocked and humbled” by the news.
Wawaweewah! I’m shocked and humbled to be nominated for 3 Golden Globes, and congratulations to the incredible @MariaBakalova96 too! We’re so honoured–and just in case we don’t win any, I’ve already hired Rudy Giuliani to contest the results. pic.twitter.com/CSligPsmI8
Cohen faces stiff competition in each category–Lin-Manuel Miranda in Hamilton for the best performance by an actor in a motion picture category, for example. But Cohen’s Borat Subsequent Moviefilm co-star Maria Bakalova has also garnered a nomination for best performance by an actress for her American debut as Tutar Sagdiyev–very nice.
The Trial of the Chicago 7 can be watched on Netflix; Borat Subsequent Moviefilm can be viewed on Prime Video.
The 78th Golden Globes, airing February 28, 2021, and will be hosted by Tina Fey and Amy Poehler.
Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings series is returning to US theatres this week for a special engagement that will bring the movies to IMAX screens for the first time in 4K. Whether or not you want to or feel comfortable going to a cinema, however, is a decision you’ll have to make for yourself.
The screenings begin on February 5 in select markets–you can see if your local cinema has the movies on this website. Right now, it appears this event is only for The Lord of the Rings and not The Hobbit.
For the first time in IMAX, experience the magic of Middle-Earth. The Lord of the Rings trilogy is making its debut on the BIG screen. Remastered by Peter Jackson in stunning 4K, experience the epic in IMAX theatres Feb 5. Reserve your seat: https://t.co/LBzdw8tML0pic.twitter.com/Q9wexUkRAx
Jackson has said the Lord of the Rings films (and his Hobbit movies, for that matter) lacked consistency in their coloring and other elements, due to the evolving way in which the movies were shot. Updating them for 4K gave the team an opportunity to go back and address this.
“It was interesting going back and revisiting these films because I realised how inconsistent they were,” he said. “And that’s really due to the way in which the Lord of the Rings trilogy was shot first, about 20 years ago. The lord of the rings was shot on 35mm. The color timing was done on an old-fashioned mechanical way for the first Lord of the Rings movie. Then we switched to digital color timing for the 35mm negative for the next two,” he said.
Jackson also said that the process was not solely about increasing the crispness of the picture–the director said it was important to preserve the “cinematic look” of the films, while also boosting the overall fidelity.
“Great to be able to have all the films looking like they were shot at the same time, finally,” Jackson said.
When updating the Lord of the Rings for 4K, the team noticed that imperfections in the visual effects were more pronounced. Some of the shots did not hold up, Jackson admitted. So with the re-release, the team went back and removed or painted out some of these oddities and imperfections.
To be clear, however, the VFX are not upgraded or enhanced. But Jackson said of them, “They look like they were done today, not 20 years ago” as was the case for the first Lord of the Rings movie.
If you can’t or don’t want to visit a cinema to watch the movies in 4K, you can now do so at home thanks to the remastered versions. Another set is coming this year that will bundle The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, as well as some new bonus features.
Michael Burry, the hedge fund manager portrayed by Christian Bale in The Big Short, has made a fortune on GameStop’s stock after holding it for years.
MoneyWeb reported that Burry’s company, Scion Asset Management, purchased 3 million shares in GameStop back in 2019, which were worth $16.56 million at the time. He’s now turned that into $271 million thanks to the meteoric rise of GameStop.
According to reports, Burry made $800 million from the bets he made during the 2008 financial crisis, and now he’s even richer thanks to his investments in GameStop.
In a since-deleted tweet seen by Business Insider, Burry said the situation going on around GameStop’s stock price is “unnatural, insane, and dangerous.”
“If I put $GME on your radar, and you did well, I’m genuinely happy for you,” he said. “However, what is going on now–there should be legal and regulatory repercussions. This is unnatural, insane, and dangerous.”
Without knowing the specifics of Burry’s holdings and positions, we can’t say for sure how well he’s done with GameStop, but clearly he’s made big money, at least on paper.
As part of his investment in GameStop, Burry is said to have called on the retailer to make changes to its business to improve results. Ryan Cohen, the billionaire founder of Chewy, made an even bigger investment in GameStop with a 10% stake late last year and he has now joined the board of directors at GameStop. Cohen would have made even more money than Burry based on the size of his initial investment, at least on paper.
Keith Gill, an investor who is famous on Reddit as DFV recently lost $13 million on his GameStop investment due to the cratering share price. But he reportedly continues to hold the stock, believing it will bounce back. Gill is credited by many with helping to kick off the short squeeze on GameStop’s stock that contributed to driving the price up.
GameStop is currently trading at around $100 per share at press time, which is down from more than $400 last week.
The ongoing tug of war between retail investors and hedge funds over GameStop stock has seen many highs and lows, with the latter resulting in a massive loss for one of the early investors in the short-sold market.
Keith Gill, better known as DFV on Reddit, has lost $13 million after GameStop’s stock plummeted throughout the week, settling in at just $100 per share at the time of writing. Gill, who is widely credited with noticing the massive short sells on GameStop stock and instigating the short squeeze that took place this month, hasn’t sold any of his shares and is still holding for more profits in the future.
Gill reportedly owns 50,000 shares in GameStop, with over 500 open call positions in the company. This had led to a valuation of over $33 million earlier in January, according to multiple posts on Reddit. This was at the current height of the squeeze, where GameStop stock soared past $400 before coming down in the days and weeks after.
Since his positions aren’t closed, Gill hasn’t made or lost any money yet, and his insistence to hold onto the shares and not take profits at such a high price might speak to his confidence for it to soar once again. But this week has been tough on GameStop investors, with the share price dropping over 70%.
A jury has voted unanimously against Valve in a trial over a patent infringement case focused on the Steam Controller. The verdict awarded $4 million in damages to SCUF and Ironburg Inventions, four years after the original complaint was filed in a Washington court.
Both SCUF and Ironburg Inventions are subsidiaries of Corsair, which is known for its specialization in computer and gaming accessories and customized gear. According to its website, SCUF holds 105 patents for its designs, most of which pertain to its unique trigger and back paddle mechanisms. This is what the case was actually about, with opening arguments in the trial citing “rear-side control surfaces” as the source of the tension. From SCUF’s point of view, Valve wrongfully replicated its controller body back paddles.
Companies licensing these back paddle designs for their own controllers isn’t a new thing. Both Microsoft and Sony have partnered with SCUF in the past to create controllers with the signature back paddles and trigger extenders. But that’s the problem: According to SCUF’s lawyers, Valve didn’t go through the proper channels to use SCUF paddles and triggers on their controllers, and willfully disregarded both the patents and SCUF’s warnings about the infringing Steam Controller.
“Valve did know that its conduct involved an unreasonable risk of infringement, but it simply proceeded to infringe anyway,” SCUF lawyer Robert Becker stated during the trial, which was held via Zoom as reported by Law360. “The classic David and Goliath story — Goliath does what Goliath wants to do.”
But like in the story Becker is referencing, David managed to come out on top during this trial. Tuesday, Corsair announced that it had won the lawsuit after a unanimous decision from the jury that Valve’s infringement was “willful.” This means that Corsair may actually be owed more than the original $4 million fine. This is all coming on top of Valve being hit with a potential class action lawsuit over the company’s alleged violation of antitrust laws, and a €7.8 million fine issued to Valve and five game publishers by the European Commission also related to antitrust laws and “geo-blocking.”
Mass Effect: Legendary Edition compiles almost everything from the Mass Effect trilogy into one enhanced package, with just a few notable exceptions. The multiplayer mode from Mass Effect 3 won’t be included, but the lone piece missing from the single-player components is the Pinnacle Station DLC from the original.
The Pinnacle Station was famously missing from the PS3 version of Mass Effect as well, and Mac Walters told GameSpot that in both cases, it’s because the data was corrupted sometime after the original Mass Effect shipped. Even so, he said, the studio tried its best to retrieve the data for this compilation.
“We got so close. It was probably more than half-way past development, halfway through development. And we got in touch with someone from Demiurge and they said, ‘We might have a backup, we might have a backup.’ They carefully did the backup. They sent it to us on a thumb drive. We got it.
“We could open a map, sort of, but the data was, unfortunately, so corrupted. We were looking at it and was like, okay, well this is going to take us so much time to rebuild it from scratch. And when you think of what it’s like rebuilding versus remastering, it’s a different set of skills, different set of people required, everything like that. And ultimately we just said, ‘No, we might as well just rebuild it from scratch at that point.'”
The Legendary Edition does include every other piece of DLC across all three games in the trilogy, along with visual enhancements. It’s releasing on May 14 for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC. It will be playable on the new generation PS5 and Xbox Series X|S as well, which will likely improve load times. For more details, check out everything we know about Mass Effect: Legendary Edition.
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Following the strong debut of the Apple Arcade in 2019, Apple’s core mobile platform has exponentially increased its suite of high-profile games for users to play. With titles like the first-person surrealist adventure game Manifold Garden, and the AR-focused puzzle game Spek that leans heavily on the modern iPhone’s advanced camera and rendering features, numerous games that have launched on iPhone and iPad go beyond just the standard mobile games releases. While 2020 saw Apple adjust the scope of the Apple Arcade, the hardware and software publisher still aims to keep the momentum going with new games for iOS, and a key part of the company’s plans is to leverage big brands for its mobile audience.
GameSpot recently had the chance to check out an early look at the latest games coming to iOS and the modern iPhone; League of Legends: Wild Rift, Crash Bandicoot: On The Run, and the new update for Marvel: Realm of Champions. In preparation for their respective North American launches this year, we had the chance to hear from the devs behind each title, and they explained what the games will offer iPhone and iPad users. The demos showcased were played on the iPhone 12, which possesses the proprietary A14 Bionic chip. However, all these games will still be playable on current Apple devices. Below, you can check out our rundown of each game and when you’ll be able to play them.
League of Legends: Wild Rift
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Since its debut in 2009, Riot Games’ League of Legends quickly cemented itself as the quintessential MOBA experience, and in 2021, the competitive area brawler remains one of the most popular games in the world. While the core game and its spin-offs have stayed on the PC, Riot Games’ will be launching the mobile spin-off, Wild Rift, in North America this March. First revealed in 2019, Wild Rift brings LoL’s style of team-focused MOBA gameplay on-the-go, offering quick matches and a more accessible way to play League.
Wild Rift isn’t a port of the standard League of Legends, but rather a standalone game built from the ground up for mobile. In addition to a more streamlined experience, using a twin-stick style control scheme, it also runs on a new graphics engine that renders much of the action and its unique roster of 40 champions (mixing new and old characters) in more detail. According to executive producer Michael Chow, he stated that “Wild Rift is the most high fidelity [League of Legends] experience you can get on any platform–including the PC.” While it is a spin-off, Chow also stated that Wild Rift is a core pillar for the League of Legends franchise, offering a solid entry point into the series’ infamously challenging community.
Crash Bandicoot: On The Run
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The Crash Bandicoot series has been one of the most recognizable and iconic platformers in gaming, and the iPhone will see its own take on the zany and challenging gameplay with Crash Bandicoot: On The Run. Reimagining the core Crash platforming gameplay as a runner-style game, On The Run has you maneuver the character around obstacles as he makes a mad dash to get as far as possible in the stage. The main story for On The Run is something of a showcase for all things Crash Bandicoot, bringing back characters from across the entire series–even from the forgotten Game Boy Advance releases. In addition to playing as Crash, you can also play as his sister Coco who has her own set of unlockables to acquire. Along with clearing through stages, you can also help Coco build her base of operations, which can be upgraded throughout the game.
As you play, you can collect resources to spend on new costumes for both Crash and Coco. Most of these are original outfits for On The Run, but others also reference the series’ classic games. During the presentation, producer Robert Woodburn revealed that the game will have a microtransaction system at launch–which wasn’t specified during the demonstration–he explained that the game’s content can be unlocked without spending real money. While Crash Bandicoot: One The Run is out in other territories, the runner game will make its North American debut on March 25, 2021.
Marvel: Realm of Champions
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Released in late 2020, Marvel: Realm of Champions is another game in the long line of Marvel mobile games. Realm of Champions places a deep focus on MOBA-style competitive battles, where you’ll take your squad of customizable superheroes to face off against AI minions and capture territory across the battlefield. You take control of champions with a similar archetype to characters like Spider-Man, Iron Man, Black Panther, or the Hulk, each of whom represent different houses vying for control of the game’s Battleworld. You can customize each hero’s look and character builds, and then take your squad out for online battles against other players.
While the game has already had some time out in the wild, 2021 will mark its next phase with the new 2.0 event. This new update will add Thor to the roster, new gear, and a revised story that adds in comic-book style cutscenes. Moreover, the 2.0 update will also introduce world events and team-focused activities that will expand the competitive elements. Marvel: Realm of Champions is out now Apple devices, and its new 2.0 update will launch sometime this year.
There’s much more in store for games coming to Apple’s iPhone and iPad. For more on what’s to come with the iPhone and with the Apple Arcade, be sure to check back in with GameSpot.
Electronic Arts has stressed that it has no worries about the future of BioWare, despite recent high-level staff turnover and a few “blips” in the company’s development history over the years.
EA CEO Andrew Wilson said during an earnings briefing (via GI.biz) that that BioWare is an “incredible studio filled with incredible people who do incredible work.” He acknowledged that BioWare has had “some blips in their delivery” in recent years (a presumed reference to Anthem), but Wilson suggested that such shortcomings are actually a good thing. He’s proud that BioWare pushed “deeply into innovation and creativity,” even if it didn’t work out completely the way the studio might have wanted.
Wilson went on to say that EA feels “very confident” about BioWare’s future with the new Dragon Age and Mass Effect games it’s working on. In addition to those projects, BioWare just announced the Mass Effect: Legendary Edition, which launches in May and is expected to be a hit.
Regarding the news that BioWare veterans Casey Hudson and Mark Darrah left the company, Wilson said this kind of turnover is only natural in a creative field like game development. Wilson remarked that EA has confidence in the current leadership at BioWare.
For more on BioWare, check out a special episode of GameSpot’s Audio Logs where we speak with BioWare’s Mac Walters about characters who were cut from Mass Effect 2 and more.
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Destruction AllStars is Sony’s first PS5 exclusive of 2021, and having just been released online as a free game with a valid PS Plus subscription, the experience has been smooth sailing, except for one aggravating detail: the game’s decision to enable teamspeak by default through the PS5 DualSense controller.
Without a headset, that turns the peripheral into an input device that regularly shrieks at you from a variety of sources. These range from gung-ho drivers to screaming children, users who don’t realize that nobody wants to listen to their Spotify soundtrack in the background and people whose junk food habits make for some of the grossest sound effects ever transmitted through a microphone.
Destruction AllStars: How to mute random chatter
While Destruction AllStars has no option for turning this online chatter off in its own menus, you can save your eardrums from distress with two other methods on your PS5. The quickest route towards a handy mute is to wait for voice chat to start in the game lobby, then press the PS Home Button, and finally on the Activity card press Square to mute the voice chat.
Of course, this goes both ways as you don’t want to be an audio irritation yourself. You can temporarily mute your own microphone by pressing the button beneath the PlayStation icon, at which point the PS5 will inform you that you have toggled the option.
For a more permanent option, navigate to the Settings menu, make your way down to the “Sound” menu, and then select the “Microphone” option. Select the option “Microphone status when logged in” and you’ll be able to make your microphone mute on default whenever you switch your PS5 console on.
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