Gearbox is offering an in-game Borderlands 3 face mask to players who donate to Direct Relief to provide aid to medical workers responding to COVID-19 through a partnership with the international humanitarian organization.
Anyone that donates $5 or more through Gearbox’s merchandise website will receive a shift code that unlocks the Antisocial head cosmetic for Borderlands 3. The donations go directly to Direct Relief to provide aid and personal protection equipment to medical professionals.
“This campaign and these contributions are coming at a critical time in the pandemic,” Thomas Tighe, president and CEO of Direct Relief said. “While states are opening, we continue to see surges in the spread of Coronavirus and there is still a need to provide PPE for frontline healthcare workers. Direct Relief is deeply grateful to Gearbox for its partnership.”
Borderlands 3’s third DLC, Bounty of Blood, launches on June 25 on PS4, Xbox One, and PC. The DLC features all new characters and a western-style revenge tale.
GameSpot has officially kicked off Play For All–a celebration of all things gaming. Join us as we bring you the summer’s hottest news, previews, interviews, features, and videos, as well as raise money for COVID-19 relief efforts and Black Lives Matter with the help of our friends from around the gaming world. Check out the Play For All schedule for more.
The Lost Treasure Collection Event goes live in Apex Legends on June 23. The limited-time event will implement an update as well, which includes reworks for both Lifeline and Octane. Instead of buffing and nerfing both legends’ abilities, Respawn is outright changing several aspects of their abilities–similarly to how Mirage was reworked at the start of Season 5: Fortune’s Favor.
One of the original eight legends, Lifeline’s abilities are being reworked to make her into a more effective combat medic. Since launch, Lifeline has been a character who can transition back and forth between a healer and a fighter. These new changes allow her to do both at once.
Lifeline’s original passive ability, Combat Medic, is being replaced with Combat Revive. So Lifeline will no longer be able to revive and heal more quickly; instead, she can now use her D.O.C. drone to revive allies while she continues fighting or revives someone else. That’s a pretty substantial adjustment for the character–it makes Lifeline the go-to healer again, as her original passive has become somewhat obsolete in the wake of buffs to Gibraltar.
Octane’s changes aren’t nearly as major, but they also further differentiate the legend from his peers. An aggressive attacker who specializes in pushing on enemy teams like Bangalore and Revenant, Octane has long suffered from being easily slowed down by certain items or legend abilities. It’s also fairly easy to punish an Octane because even though his abilities encourage a reckless playstyle that overwhelms an enemy, there’s no way to counter a squad that’s prepared. These changes should fix that.
You can now double jump in mid-air off an Octane Launch Pad. This allows Octane to do something that no other legend can: give him and his teammates the agency to change direction in mid-air. Loba and Pathfinder can do this for themselves, but neither can provide a way for their teammates to do the same. This provides new avenues of attack for squads that want to aggressively push on another team–it will also make it harder to snipe an Octane and his team out of mid-air. Octane is also now officially the fastest legend. His Stim sprinting speed is increasing 10 percent and while stimmed up, the adrenaline junkie won’t be affected by weapons or abilities that impair movement. Once he gets going, he won’t stop until killed or the Stim runs out.
Due to sexually explicit comments made by AEW’s Sammy Guevara about WWE’s Sasha Banks (real name Mercedes Varnado) four years ago on the Raw’s 4th Hour podcast, AEW has suspended Guevara without pay until further notice.
“AEW insists on doing our part to create a world understanding and respect for humankind,” AEW wrote in a statement. “We therefore strongly condemn the extremely offensive and hurtful words of Sammy Guevara. As such, effective immediately, Sammy is suspended without pay until further notice.”
AEW added that Guevara will be undergoing sensitivity training and then, upon completion, his future status within the company will be re-evaluated. His salary, in the meantime, will be donated to the Women’s Center of Jacksonville.
Earlier today as the comments resurfaced, Sammy tweeted out an apology to Sasha stating that she’s an amazing person and didn’t deserve what he said.
I also want to apologize to @sashabankswwe for my unacceptable comments. She’s an amazing person who didn’t deserve to be the brunt of my offensive remarks. I spoke with her earlier & she helped me learn a gigantic lesson & I thank her for that. Once again, I’m sincerely sorry.
Not long after, Banks replied about having an open dialog with Guevara saying that we have been told to hold ourselves accountable for our own actions and hope this teaches him that.
Guevara is the latest example of the SpeakOut movement that went through professional wrestling over the weekend, calling out performers across numerous companies, both independent and major. It has also led to a several firings and restructurings such as Jack Gallagher being fired from WWE. Progress Wrestling and NWA are both going through company-wide overhauls as well due to allegations involving management.
Best Buy is back with another big sale this week, although instead of its usual one-day sale, you’ve got four days to take advantage of this one. Many deals are returning from previous sales, including a ton of discounts on Apple products like iPads and MacBooks, but there’s also a selection of game deals available along with some 4K TVs, monitors, wireless earbuds, and more. The deals end Thursday, but there’s a chance the most popular discounts could sell out before then.
If you’re looking to upgrade to a 4K TV, this 55-inch option from Sony is down to $600 (normally $800). The X750H 4K UHD TV includes all major streaming services, works with Google Assistant, and is a great option for gaming as well.
We covered this deal when it first appeared at Best Buy last week, and it’s back in the latest sale (albeit $10 more than previously), selling for $110 instead of its usual $160. Considering you’re still saving $50 on what’s already an affordable monitor, we think this Acer 23.8-inch gaming monitor with FreeSync technology is still worth it. It features Full HD 1920 x 1080 resolution and a 75Hz refresh rate, enough for some light PC gaming and general office work.
Normally $170, this highly rated Samsung SATA SSD is down to $140 in Best Buy’s sale. Featuring 1TB of memory and data transfer rates of up to 600 MB/s, Samsung’s 860 Evo Series SSD makes it easy to quickly upgrade your PC, and it’s one of the best SSDs you can buy right now.
iPad 32GB latest model (available in Rose Gold, Space Grey, and Silver)
The latest model of Apple’s iPad is down to $250 (was $330) and is a great option for mobile gaming, especially if you subscribe to Apple Arcade, which offers unlimited access to some of the best mobile games around. This iPad features front and back cameras, a 10.2-inch Retina display, stereo speakers, and up to 10 hours of battery life. It also comes with four free months of Apple Music for new subscribers along with a free month of iCloud storage and six months of internet security software.
Apple AirPods might be the most popular wireless earbuds out there, but luckily there are plenty of affordable alternatives that won’t cost you an arm and a leg. Skullcandy’s true wireless earbuds are discounted to $60 from $85 today and feature up to 16 hours of battery life, a built-in microphone, and sweat and water resistance.
GameStop’s latest batch of weekly deals are live now with some nice discounts on Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, Borderlands 3, and 2K Sports games. But the most notable aspect of this week’s ad is the looming Pro Day Sale. Once again, GameStop will be offering exclusive discounts to PowerUp Rewards Pro members this Saturday, June 27. None of the one-day-only deals have been revealed just yet, but you should mark your calendars and bookmark this page, as we’ll be rounding up all the best deals as usual.
In the meantime, you can save on some great games all week at GameStop. Two of 2019’s most popular games, Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order and Borderlands 3, are discounted to great prices on PS4 and Xbox One. Fallen Order is down to $35, while Borderlands 3 is only $20. Basketball fans can save $10 on NBA 2K20 for PS4 and Xbox One and $5 on NBA 2K Playgrounds 2 for Switch. For those looking for a family-friendly game on Switch, Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 is on sale for $40.
If you’re looking for a way to relive your childhood, the excellent Sega Genesis Mini is $60, down from $80. Though we’ve seen it for $50 before, this is still a great price. The Sega Genesis Mini comes with two controllers and is loaded with 42 classic games.
Lost Treasures also implements several notable balancing changes, as listed in the patch notes. Of note, Revenant, Crypto, Loba, and Mirage all receive buffs, Gibraltar and Caustic are nerfed, Wraith and Wattson get both buffs and nerfs to their abilities, and Lifeline and Octane are reworked–both of their changes are similar to Mirage’s transformation at the start of Season 5: Fortune’s Favor.
The Lost Treasures update makes a rather interesting change to ziplines as well, applying a cooldown to re-grabbing ziplines without touching the ground. Jumping off and back on ziplines while riding them has been a popular strategy for avoiding gunfire since Apex Legends launched. This new cooldown will make it more difficult to constantly implement this strategy–which should make it far easier to snipe someone off a zipline.
The full patch notes for the Lost Treasure Collection Event are listed below.
Apex Legends Lost Treasure Collection Event Patch Notes
Armed & Dangerous Evolved
The Armed & Dangerous Limited time mode has evolved. In this LTM, only Shotguns and Snipers are allowed. You’ll also start with a Mozambique and Evo armor. All other armor has been removed from the loot pool. But that’s not all. Respawn beacons will also be removed and all players will start with the Mobile Respawn Beacon in their inventory.
Mobile Respawn Beacons
Need to Respawn on the go? Use the new Mobile Respawn Beacons! In the Armed and Dangerous LTM, players will start the match with one in their inventory. Then from the inventory screen, deploy it anywhere on the map and save your fallen teammates. But beware, calling in a Respawn Beacon takes time, giving your enemies time to find you, take you out, and use that Beacon you just deployed. So find that safe spot before you call it in.
Crypto Town Takeover
Crypto is taking over and providing some recon to Kings Canyon. Located at the south-east of the map (under Repulsor), lies Crypto’s Map Room. Use his tech to get the location of all Legends on the map and check the screens scattered around the room to see how many enemy squads are nearby.
Heirloom – Mirage’s Trophy
Isn’t that a handsome guy! Yes, it’s true, your man Mirage is getting his Heirloom! The gorgeous statue is one of a kind (sort of) and will ensure you look good in the arena.
Legend Updates
Lifeline
Passive
Combat Revive now replaces Combat Medic.
Deploy D.O.C to revive teammates. D.O.C. will deploy a shield and revive Lifeline’s teammate, leaving Lifeline free to defend or revive someone else.
This fully replaces Lifeline’s old passive, including Fast Heal
Tactical
Lifeline’s Tactical cooldown is now 45 seconds (was 60 seconds).
Ultimate
Lifeline’s Care Package now contains more items
Care Package will contain 3x more small healing items, when it decides to spawn small healing items
Care Package will contain 2x more attachments, when it decides to spawn attachments
Octane
Tactical
Upon activation, Stim will remove movement impairing effects.
Stim sprinting speed is increased by 10%
Ultimate
Players can now double jump in mid-air after using Octane’s Launch Pad
Players can change direction easily from the double jump.
Revenant
Tactical
Will now cancel:
Pathfinder mid-grapple
Wraith mid-Phase Walk attempt (before Phase Walk activates)
Burglar’s Best Friend will no longer be intercepted by Watton’s Interception Pylon.
Ultimate
Black Market Boutique (ultimate) will now only pick up 1 stack of ammo (rather than 1 stack + the amount that was required to fill whatever partial stack you had in your inventory).
Ultimate Accelerants now give 20% ult charge (up from 17.5%).
Mirage
Tactical
You can now hold the tactical button, and release to auto-control decoys
Decoys will now say lines when shot
Passive
When cloaked, Mirage’s holo emitters will be visible to players that are less than 5 meters away
Skydive
Will now create decoys for the entire squad when skydiving when still diving with your squad.
Gibraltar
Fast Heal granted inside the Dome Shield, slowed down: 25% faster -> 15% faster
Caustic
Enemies can cancel Caustic’s barrel by shooting it before it is fully inflated.
Wattson
The intent of these changes is to create openings where enemies can breach Wattson positions. It is still possible for Wattson players to hold a position with a trophy indefinitely, but that should come at the cost of using Ultimate Accelerants.
Wattson’s Pylons now last for 90 seconds
Wattson can now have up to 3 pylons out at a time
Wattson can stack 2 Ultimate accelerants per inventory slot
Wraith
Increasing Wraith’s tactical cooldown has proven to be ineffective at curbing her exceedingly high win rate and kill rate. These changes are meant to disincentivize Wraith players from using Phase Walk as a “get out of jail free” card, and move it into more of a repositioning and scouting ability.
Phase Walk
Phase Walk now takes 1.25 seconds to enable (was 0.4 seconds). During this time, Wraith will receive a 20% move slow
This does not affect Phase Walk while placing a Phase Portal
While in Phase Walk, Wraith now gets a 30% move speed boost
While in Phase Walk, Wraith can now see other players while in the Void.
Phase Walk now lasts 4 seconds (from 3 seconds)
Phase walk cooldown is now down to 25 (from 35 seconds)
Phase Tunnel
Decreased distance for portal placement by 25%.
Weapons/Loot
Ziplines
A cooldown will be applied to re-grabbing Ziplines without touching the ground
The cooldown will increase with each time a player disconnects and re-grabs the zipline
The cooldown will reset when the player touches the ground
HAVOC Rifle
Greatly increased horizontal recoil in the initial shots of a burst
Decreased magazine size from 32 to 28.
Sentinel
Rechamber time 1.75 -> 1.6
Energize duration 90 -> 120
Quality Of Life
Teammates can now ping a friendly Caustic Trap.
New health bar for when users are in Revenant’s Shadow form.
Map rotation times are now even between Kings Canyon and World’s Edge
Bug Fixes
General
Fixed an issue with some railing not being climbable.
Fixed an issue with being unable to mute squad before the Legend select.
Removed more exploitable spots against Prowlers in Bloodhound TT
Fixed issues with loot spawning in unreachable places in both Kings Canyon and Worlds Edge.
Fixed an issue with players being able to move at walk speed when downed.
Fixed an issue with Prowlers not killing Mirage Decoys in one swipe.
Fixed issues with Ninja controller layout and deathboxes.
Fixed an issue with the “You got a treasure pack” message appearing after each match.
Crypto
Fixed an issue with Crypto’s Drone flying without input if the user started to sprint by use of double tap to sprint option.
Lifeline
Fixed an issue with Lifeline able to drop her care package on a Quest Artifact location, preventing users from picking up the artifact.
Fixed an issue with Lifeline’s Drone getting stuck in the air after collision with an Octane Jump pad.
Loba
Fixed issues with Loba being able to get to out of bounds areas using Burglar’s Best Friend (tactical).
Fixed an issue with Loba’s Burglar’s Best Friend (Tactical) being blocked by invisible collision at the entrance of Firing Range.
Fixed an issue with Loba’s Black Market Boutique (Ultimate) not showing the correct range.
Loba’s Black Market Boutique (Ultimate) now shows correct ammo count for care package weapons.
Fixed an issue with Loba’s tactical not functioning on certain surfaces. You should now be able to recreate the trailer moment!
Loba’s Ult is now refunded if it gets caught between two doors.
Mirage
Fixed an issue with Mirage’s decoy not being able to ping correctly under certain conditions.
Fixed an issue with Mirage Decoys not being able to crouch walk through certain areas.
Fixed an issue with Mirage Decoys playing the fall animation when the player is falling.
Fixed an issue where Mirage can still control his decoy after being silenced by Revenant.
Octane
Fixed an issue with Octane bounce pads deleting other Legends abilities.
Fixed an issue with Octane’s Jump Pads disappearing when other legend’s tactical interacts with it.
Fixed an issue with Octane’s Jump pads falling through the floor on hover tanks
Pathfinder
Fixed an issue with Pathfinder’s Grapple not allowing running if a failed deployed occurred.
Fixed an audio issue with Survey Beacons being too loud when used.
Revenant
Fixed an issue with Revenant’s death totem not being rendered from over 200 meters.
Fixed an issue with Revenant’s audio for his tactical cutting off half way through its playback.
Wraith
Fixed an issue with not being able to heal after getting knocked and going through a Wraith portal
Apple TV+ is one of several new streaming platforms to launch over the past year, alongside HBO Max, Peacock, and Disney+. The service has now released an early trailer for one its big upcoming original shows, the sci-fi series Foundation.
The show is based on the novel series of the same name by Isaac Asimov, the legendary sci-fi author also known for writing I, Robot. The story focuses on the institute of the title, run by a “psychohistorian” known as Hari Seldon, and an attempt to save the Galactic Empire from destruction. The trailer itself looks incredibly impressive, with an epic scale, lavish visual effects, and an intense performance from Jared Harris as Seldon. Check it out below:
Foundation also stars Lee Pace, Lou Llobell, Laura Birn, and Terrence Mann. The showrunner is David S. Goyer, the veteran DC screenwriter whose credits include Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy, Man of Steel, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, and the show Krypton. Foundation arrives sometime in 2021.
Apple TV+ launched in November 2019. The streaming service was initially made up entirely of original content, but Apple has since started attempting to fill out its catalog. The World War II drama The Greyhound, starring Tom Hanks, was set to hit theaters in June, but will now be released straight to Apple TV+ on July 10. In addition, the company has paid $25 million for a Billie Eilish documentary set to air sometime later this year.
For the last few years, Apple’s iOS updates have mostly happened behind your home screen. The display you see as soon as you unlock your phone as remained largely unchanged, but with iOS 14, announced at WWDC, it’s getting a shake up.
In a way, it’s the most radical redesign of iOS in years, but also not the most innovative one in the grander scheme of the industry. Front and center in iOS 14 are widgets–larger app icons that display more information at a glance, and change up the composition of your home screen drastically.
Apple also announced new features to automatically help group similar applications and sort them into folders, which will also be surfaced in groups when an app theme is searched for. Siri, Apple’s own digital assistant, is also being reworked so that it doesn’t take up the entire screen when dealing with a query. This lets you do more on your display at once than ever before, including new picture-in-picture support (which was introduced on the iPad a few years ago).
iOS 14 home screen
Perhaps one of the biggest changes might be one Apple should’ve introduced years ago. In iOS 14 you’ll finally be able to set your default web browser and mail apps to ones other than Apple’s in-house versions, meaning you can have Gmail or Microsoft Edge open when you tap on links instead.
Apple has not announced a release date for iOS 14, but typically reserves it for launch around September in conjunction with annual iPhone launches. For more on WWCD, check out GameSpot sister site CNET for even more on iPadOS, Apple WatchOS, and MacOS updates.
Microsoft has announced that it is shutting down Mixer, its streaming competitor to the likes of Twitch. The Xbox owners will be transitioning over to Facebook Gaming instead, partnered streamers having the option to be included with the move or return to Twitch. As of July 22, Mixer sites and apps will redirect users to Facebook Gaming.
Mixer, which was known as Beam.io before Microsoft purchased it, struggled to gain the viewership of its competitors since launch. Big streamer acquisitions such as deals with Ninja and Shroud might have initially drawn viewers in, but it’s lacked the mass appeal Microsoft, and Xbox specifically, need leading up to the launch of the Xbox Series X and xCloud, Xbox’s on-demand streaming service.
“Ultimately, the success of Partners and streamers on Mixer is dependent on our ability to scale the service for them as quickly and broadly as possible,” Xbox boss Phil Spencer explained in a post on Xbox Wire. “It became clear that the time needed to grow our own livestreaming community to scale was out of measure with the vision and experiences we want to deliver to gamers now, so we’ve decided to close the operations side of Mixer and help the community transition to a new platform. To better serve our community’s needs, we’re teaming up with Facebook to enable the Mixer community to transition to Facebook Gaming.”
Spencer explained in a statement to The Verge that the decision wasn’t so much about how to recoup a return on investment, but rather what will work for Xbox’s future strategies. “When we think about xCloud and the opportunity to unlock gameplay for 2 billion players, we know it’s going be critically important that our services find large audiences and Facebook clearly gives us that opportunity,” explained Spencer.
To achieve that, Xbox is looking to Facebook Gaming–another alternative to Twitch that has gained far more popularity with Facebook’s wide user base, and has far more reach than Mixer. Spencer says that xCloud will integrate with Facebook Gaming to allow you to launch games from streams you’re watching–a feature Google Stadia advertised before launch, but one that hasn’t yet materialized.
Microsoft says it won’t abandon the Mixer technology entirely, as it will be put to use for Microsoft Teams.
Where Are Ninja, Shroud, And Others Going?
Sources familiar with the deal have informed me that while Facebook did try and negotiate to keep their big partners both Shroud and Ninja opted out. They have received their full payments and as of midnight yesterday were free to engage in talks with other platforms. Game on.
While Mixer partnered streamers are free to transition over to Facebook Gaming, two of Mixer’s biggest acquisitions have reportedly opted not to move there, opening the door for a return to Twitch. Ninja, who left Twitch for a rich exclusive deal at Mixer, wrote in a statement on Twitter, “I love my community and what we built together on Mixer. I have some decisions to make and will be thinking about you all as I make them.” Another Mixer partner, Gothalion, has chosen to stay with Microsoft and make the move to Facebook gaming.
I love my community and what we built together on Mixer. I have some decisions to make and will be thinking about you all as I make them.
Xbox xCloud doesn’t have a release date yet, but is expected to launch later this year alongside the Xbox Series X as Microsoft continues to push into more service-based products. The hardware powering xCloud will also be upgraded in 2021 to support Xbox Series X titles and possibly PC games streaming.
GameSpot has officially kicked off Play For All–a celebration of all things gaming. Join us as we bring you the summer’s hottest news, previews, interviews, features, and videos, as well as raise money for COVID-19 relief efforts and Black Lives Matter with the help of our friends from around the gaming world. Check out the Play For All schedule for more.
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Crossfire X, the Xbox One version of the massively popular PC FPS game Crossfire, has a closed beta right now, with an open beta running this weekend. The open beta begins Thursday, June 25 and runs through Sunday, June 28.
Xbox Insiders (a free program anyone can sign up for) can register to join the closed beta now through June 23 through the Xbox Insider Hub. A limited number of people will be granted access to the closed beta, with the number increasing as it continues.
The beta features three game modes: Spectre Mode, Team Match, and Point Capture. Players who complete a match during the beta will receive the X-B.C. Axe weapon skin when the game launches.
Crossfire X was announced at Microsoft’s Xbox E3 2019 press conference, advertised as launching first on Xbox in 2020. Crossfire is massively popular around the world, with more than 650 million players on PC.
GameSpot has officially kicked off Play For All–a celebration of all things gaming. Join us as we bring you the summer’s hottest news, previews, interviews, features, and videos, as well as raise money for COVID-19 relief efforts and Black Lives Matter with the help of our friends from around the gaming world. Check out the Play For All schedule for more.
