The Call of Duty Twitter account said Black Ops Cold War’s beta was the most downloaded in franchise history. There are no statistics to corroborate this. The statement also echoes what publisher Activision said in 2019 about Modern Warfare‘s beta being the “biggest ever in franchise history.”
Activision recently detailed Black Ops Cold War’s new 40-player game mode called Fireteam. It puts four teams of 10 against each other to complete objectives and engage in skirmishes. Upon death, players can respawn on a teammate, parachute into the map, or spawn in the seat of a teammate’s car. This makes it sound reminiscent of the Battlefield 1 mode Conquest.
Sucker Punch Productions revealed today that the Ghost of Tsushima: Legends raid will be released on October 30 and revealed the requirements players will need to meet to take part in ‘The Tale of Iyo’. The studio also announced that starting tomorrow, and every Friday after, Ghost of Tsushima: Legends will feature a two-player story mission and four-player mission survival mission with specific weekly modifiers.
“This is the culmination of the story in Ghost of Tsushima: Legends, bringing the fight directly to Iyo’s realm,” the announcement blog post reads. “This Raid is divided into three chapters and requires a full team of four Ghosts, as well as excellent coordination and communication.”
The Tale of Iyo raid will not support matchmaking, according to Sucker Punch, so players wishing to participate will need to arrange their raid team ahead of time. It’s also recommended that everyone’s gear be at KI level 100 as an “absolute minimum.”
Sucker Punch recommends completing all story missions and replaying story and survival missions on higher difficulties to obtain higher gear before the raid. If players complete all of the new weekly challenges and all bonus objectives, they’ll receive max-level gear perfect for the raid. Doing so won’t be easy because the weekly challenge missions will be Nightmare difficulty, “intended to put you and your team to the test.”
Phasmophobia is one of the latest breakout games on Twitch and for good reason. This thrilling early access horror game puts you and up to three other players in the role of paranormal investigators, equipping you with an arsenal of ghost-hunting items and letting you loose in a haunted location. Your goal is to monitor supernatural activity and gather up essential evidence to aid in identifying the ghost before it kills everyone.
But that’s easier said than done.. While understanding what each tool in your ghost hunting arsenal does is important, you’ll also have to consider other key factors and behaviors to follow as you explore and try to work out the ghost’s identity. Below, we’ve detailed some essential ghost-hunting tips to help you survive a job.
Keeping In Communication
First, we highly recommend using in-game voice chat once you and your team have found your footing. Discord is nice when you’re first starting, but it can make things a bit too easy and far less terrifying. The game does some fun stuff with audio implementation that makes the experience more immersive and tense.
For in-game communication, use V for proximity chat and B for global chat, courtesy of your handy walkie-talkie. Keep in mind that your walkie-talkie isn’t always super reliable, though. During high activity, your signal could get scrambled, and if you aren’t near your crew, you’ll have no idea what could be happening to them.
Keep An Eye On Ghost Activity Levels
You can alway check the ghost activity levels from the monitor in your van. Usually, it’s good to let your team know if there are any spikes. Low amounts of activity could mean flickering lights or moving objects, moderate spikes could mean direct contact with the ghost, and level 10 spikes often means the ghost is hunting.
It’s always good to let your team know if there are any spikes in ghost activity.
What You Need To Know About Level 10 Spikes And What To Do
If you’re in the van and see a level 10 spike, global communication will cut off, and your team will be on their own. At this point, the best thing you can do for them is to pray. If a level 10 spike just occurred and a question mark replaces someone’s sanity percentage, it means they’re dead. If you are using the in-game chat, deceased team members can’t communicate with you.
If you are in the house during a level 10 spike, your flashlight will start to flicker, the front door will lock, and you may see the ghost appear and disappear. If the ghost is weak to crucifixes, you can stop them from hunting by throwing it on the ground. If not, hide in another room, turn off the lights, and stay quiet. Closets work nicely for this.
If you’re dealing with a shy ghost, you can try using their name. Typically ghosts will get annoyed the more you say it. Before you head into the house, check the whiteboard in the van to see the ghost’s name and if they respond to everyone or just those who are alone.
Always Monitor Your Sanity
With each paranormal occurrence you witness, your sanity will drop. You can monitor your sanity in the truck. The lower it goes, the easier it is for a ghost to target you. You can regain sanity by using sanity pills, which are available to purchase before a job.
Be Careful Using Fancy New Gear
As you complete jobs, earn money, and level up, you will unlock new maps and new gear to test out. Additional equipment purchased and taken out into the field will be lost if you die, so be extra careful if you want to hold onto gadgets like thermometers, strong flashlights, and motion sensors. You do get an insurance payout, though, so it’s not a complete loss.
Additional equipment purchased and taken out into the field will be lost if you die, so be extra careful if you want to hold onto them.
Split Up When Playing The Bigger Maps
The bigger maps, such as the high school and asylum, may also force you to change your tactics. The best way to go about these jobs is to split into groups and clear out rooms methodically. Study the map in the van before you leave, come up with a game plan, and designate a regroup point for your team. If someone gets lost, you can check their location via the van’s map and guide them to safety using the walkie-talkie. Sanity pills are typically a must on these maps as they usually take much longer than most jobs. When you find the affected room, leave a glowstick outside of the door or have someone make a mental note of it on the map in the van.
When All Seems Lost, Check The Journal For Clues
There might be cases where it feels like you can’t find the third piece of evidence no matter how hard you try. If you’re struggling, you can check the ghost descriptions in your journal. This isn’t always the most accurate way to solve a case, but if you’re low on supplies and completely stumped, there’s no harm in checking the journal to see if there are any familiar patterns.
The Apex Legends Fight or Fright event is back. The Halloween-themed event brings back the Shadow Games (Revenant’s twisted version of the Apex Games), but instead of Shadowfall, this year’s limited-time event is Shadow Royale. Fight or Fright also adds a few rare, epic, and legendary skins–some that you can only buy and others that you can earn.
If you missed out on securing the Fight or Fright skins from last year, a few have come back. For a limited time, you can spend Apex Coins to get Bloodhound’s legendary Protector of the Patch, Crypto’s legendary Deadly Byte, Caustic’s legendary The Last Laugh, Mirage’s legendary Old Town, and Lifeline’s epic Green Widow.
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There are some new skins too. With Apex Coins, you can buy recolored variants of Bloodhound, Crypto, and Caustic’s legendary skins–respectively named Wicked Harvest, Midnight Cipher, and Sweet Dreams. Loba is also getting a Halloween-themed skin this year, the epic Banshee Queen.
It’s not all about the legends, either. Flatline’s epic Hallows Eve, Longbow DMR’s epic Pumpkin Parlor, Prowler’s legendary Wild Ride, Wingman’s legendary Loudmouth, and Mastiff’s legendary Boom Stick all return.
Not looking to spend any Apex Coins this Halloween? Fight or Fright has a few rewards you can earn as well. Playing games, dealing damage, and placing in the top 10 will earn you points towards unlocking rewards–exclusive stat trackers for Gibraltar, the Long John Nessy weapon charm, Pathfinder’s rare Wrapped Up skin, the Sentinel’s epic Swamp Creature skin, and XP boosts. Plus, just logging in during the event will unlock the new Shadow Royale music pack.
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There are also four exclusive badges that you can unlock by playing in the Shadow Royale mode. In Shadow Royale, death isn’t the end–you respawn as a shadow as long as one of your teammates is still alive. Like in Shadowfall, shadows can’t use weapons or equip armor, but they can run faster, climb higher, and melee hit harder. Additionally, this time around, shadows can wallrun, like Pilots in Titanfall and Titanfall 2. The final squad to have at least one living teammate is the winner. Completing certain tasks in Shadow Royale allows you to unlock three different badges. If you nab all three, you’ll earn a special fourth badge that advertises how much you kicked ass in Shadow Royale.
Fight or Fright runs from October 22 to November 3, which may be Season 6: Boosted’s new end date. The final week of the battle pass has been removed, so the final day to complete challenges and get your battle pass rewards is now November 3, not November 10. Season 7 and the introduction of new playable character Horizon may be happening a lot sooner than we thought. And if you’ve been completing all of the “A Wee Experiment” challenges to unlock the Season 7 and Horizon teasers, then you better jump back into Apex Legends because there’s now a few more.
November is only a few days away, and Pokemon Go developer Niantic has outlined a number of events for the popular mobile game next month. The studio is hosting a variety of activities over the next few weeks, from new Pokemon Spotlight Hours to a new Limited Research event and more. You can catch up on all the biggest Pokemon Go events happening in November 2020 below.
November Research Breakthrough Encounter: Togetic
As usual, Niantic is rolling out a new batch of Field Research tasks and rewards on the first of the month, and they coincide with a new Research Breakthrough encounter. Each time players achieve a Research Breakthrough in November 2020, they’ll earn a chance to catch the Fairy Pokemon Togetic.
Legendary Raids
A few more Legendary Pokemon will also return to Raids throughout November 2020. Following Darkrai’s departure on November 5, Niantic teases that “a familiar Pokemon” will reappear as a Raid boss, and subsequent weeks will bring back Terrakion, Cobalion, Virizion, and more. You can see the full Legendary Raid schedule for November 2020 below:
October 23 – November 5: Darkrai
November 5 – 16: A “familiar Pokemon”
November 16 – 24: Terrakion, Cobalion, and Virizion
November 24 – 30: TBA
Terrakion
Pokemon Spotlight Hours
Every Tuesday evening in November, Niantic will spotlight one specific Pokemon and bonus for one hour. These spotlight events will all run from 6-7 PM local time. You can see the full schedule below:
Date
Spotlight Pokemon
Special Bonus
November 3
Cubone
2x catch Stardust
November 10
Jigglypuff
2x catch XP
November 17
Meowth
2x catch Candy
November 24
Barboach
2x transfer Candy
GrubHub Special Weekend
Niantic and GrubHub are partnering to host an exclusive Special Weekend event for GrubHub+ members on November 2, from 11 AM to 2 PM local time. Throughout the event, players will be able to complete exclusive Timed Research tasks that reward various items, including three Incense, a Star Piece, and 100 Charizard Mega Energy. Incense will also remain active for an hour when used during the event and will lure out the following Pokemon:
Bulbasaur
Charizard
Squirtle
Pikachu
Unown G
Unown H
Sableye
Patrat
Minccino
Ferroseed
Shiny Ferroseed
Verizon Special Weekend
In addition to its partnership with GrubHub, Niantic is teaming up with Verizon for another exclusive Special Weekend event. The Verizon Special Weekend takes place on November 7, and it likewise features exclusive Timed Research tasks that give out various rewards, including Charizard Mega Energy and encounters with certain Pokemon such as Chansey, Absol, Bronzor, and Gible. The following Pokemon will also appear when an Incense is used during the event:
Bulbasaur
Charizard
Squirtle
Pikachu
Unown V
Unown Z
Sableye
Patrat
Minccino
Ferroseed
Shiny Ferroseed
Limited Research
Niantic is holding another Limited Research event on November 28. No further details have been announced yet, but we’ll update this roundup with more information as it’s shared.
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Everything that made The Boys Season 1 such an excellent new show when it premiered in 2019 is dialed up even further for Season 2, with an even more ambitious story from showrunner Eric Kripke. This second run of the dark superhero satire is filled with memorable, nuanced characters and plenty of that stylized and irreverent drama we’ve come to expect. While there’s plenty of shock and awe sprinkled throughout, including but not limited to unexpected head explosions and aerial sexcapades, Kripke and his talented team of writers never forget to take time to develop their characters on a more relatable level. And even though some storylines aren’t as impactful as others and the series struggles to keep its frenetic action-packed pace following the three-episode premiere arc, Season 2 is an overall roaring success that concludes with tantalizing possibilities for Season 3.
Of the many high points from Season 2, perhaps none is more memorable than the debut of Aya Cash’s Stormfront as the series’ devious new social media-literate member of The Seven. Cash’s charisma shines through in every scene, especially when she’s paired with Homelander – first as a manipulative rival and then as a partner in crime and messed-up love interest. Antony Starr also gives a riveting performance alongside her as the two actors shared uncanny chemistry throughout. One of their best scenes had to be their awkward but also hilarious encounter that gave “eyeing her chest” bizarre new meaning.
Plus, after watching Homelander bully pretty much every other member of The Seven around (minus Black Noir, of course), Season 2 offered a welcomed change of pace as we begin to witness his already fragile mental state deteriorate even further as he first seeks to recreate and then rejects his relationship with the late Madelyn Stillwell (Elisabeth Shue).
Sure, Kripke likes to give the fans a bit of gratuitous drama, like watching Homelander’s “I can do whatever the f*** I want” moment; however, from a character development perspective, it all makes total sense. The throughline of Homelander’s disturbing hyper-dependence on strong female figures in his life is a strong indicator of how unstable he really is and hints that Homelander will become an even more dangerous character moving forward. And though Stormfront’s final fate was left uncertain the last time we saw her, Homelander’s comments during the finale hopefully mean that we’ll get more of this dynamic pair when Season 3 arrives in 2021.
While Homelander and Stormfront’s story soared for most of Season 2, some members of The Seven were given less memorable adventures. Queen Maeve (Dominique McElligott), for example, was mostly relegated to Homelander’s emotional punching bag as he attempted to sabotage her relationship. Watching him push her to the breaking point eventually resulted in Maeve going into full “I don’t give a s*** mode,” but it quickly became tiresome, and Maeve didn’t get her time to shine until the finale. And even though McElligott delivers a redeeming performance in those final moments, her eventual heroics come a bit too late in the story to land their desired punch.
Chace Crawford’s The Deep and Jessie T. Usher’s A-Train fall into a similar camp, as their dealings with the Scientology-like Church of the Collective to help them get back into The Seven never felt truly substantive. To be fair, The Deep gave us some great comedic moments, including his search for a Church-approved wife and his lamentations over the death of a beloved aquatic friend. Known for playing the cocky pretty boy in shows like Gossip Girl, it was fun to see the Texas-born actor play such a frequently humiliated character. Even so, it felt as though The Deep and A-Train’s storyline was part of another show and had very little bearing on what was happening with the rest of the ensemble.
In terms of The Boys themselves, Karl Urban’s Billy Butcher stole most of the show. Urban has proven over the years that he can successfully portray hardened individuals in Dredd, Lord of the Rings, and even Star Trek, but one of the most unexpected aspects of Season 2 is the powerful character-building moments sprinkled throughout as he reunited with his wife Becca (Shantel VanSanten), who’d been presumed dead until last season’s finale. One of Butcher’s best scenes happens when he confronts his estranged father (expertly portrayed by Lord of the Rings and Fringe alum John Noble). Here, we get a glimpse at the source of Butcher’s anger, and even though the scene lasts just a few minutes, it carries a lasting impact on Butcher’s character moving forward. His big-brother/little-brother dynamic with Hughie is another endearing plot thread in Season 2, as well as his newfound responsibility to Becca’s son, Ryan.
Silent but deadly, Kimiko (Karen Fukuhara) gets an intriguing arc of her own in Season 2 after a tragic event sends her into a fit of vengeful rage. Even without the ability to speak, Fukuhara is able to successfully communicate what her character is feeling with emotive expressions and body language. Her overprotective companion, Frenchie (Tomer Capon), also gets some needed character development as well. Like Butcher, Frenchie’s past is also explored in Season 2, and those scenes offer context for his relationship with Kimiko. Frenchie and Kimiko’s evolving friendship is complicated, but also endearing as the two learn to face overwhelming odds as a team instead of going off alone on suicide missions.
Looking ahead to Season 3, Kripke has set up a few fascinating stories that are begging to be explored down the road. Chief among them is the mind-blowing reveal at the end. I’m especially looking forward to seeing how the pairing of Victoria Neuman and Hughie plays out in Season 3, or what will become of the numerous new supes that were set loose.
It feels like a lifetime ago when Final Fantasy VII Remake dropped on PlayStation 4 in April 2020. Now, seven months after launch, Square Enix has released the first patch for the action-RPG–and it doesn’t do much according to the patch notes
To be more specific, update version 1.01 simply “fixed various bugs.” That’s the one and only line of patch notes you can see when viewing the game’s update history on PlayStation 4. Square Enix has not expanded on what the “various bugs” are. And both the Final Fantasy VII Remake and Square Enix Twitter accounts have not publicly mentioned this update.
According to Push Square, the update fixes game crashes, addresses freezing and frame rate drops, irons out stuttering and lag, and implements performance and stability improvements. But again, neither the developer nor publisher has said what update version 1.01 does.
Despite whatever update version 1.01 is supposed to do, Final Fantasy VII Remake players are still running into texture issues in which objects look polygonal and assets don’t fully load.
Final Fantasy VII Remake is one of the few games that has received the coveted 10/10 score. In our Final Fantasy VII Remake review, editor Tamoor Hussain said the game is an “astounding achievement,” a title that can be enjoyed by first-time players and returning fans alike.
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The Addams Family just continues to be creepy, kooky, and fertile ground to revisit. According to Deadline, filmmaker Tim Burton (Beetlejuice, Pee-wee’s Big Adventure) is developing a new live-action TV series version of the popular satirical black-comedy series about a wealthy family who delight in the macabre.
Burton is reportedly seeking to executive produce and direct all episodes of his take on the long-running franchise that dates all the way back to 1938 cartoons created by Charles Addams. Incredibly, the family has come back in new versions for new adventures steadily since the ’30s–the most recent being 2019’s CGI film simply titled The Addams Family. (There is a sequel in the pipeline due for 2021.)
For Burton’s version which is still light on details, Smallville developers and executive producers Alfred Gough and Miles Millar are reportedly attached to serve as head writers and also co-showrunners along with Burton. Netflix is among multiple buyers bidding to be the home for the series, and is also among the frontrunners.
Burton directing an Addams Family project seems not only natural but surprisingly overdue. Beetlejuice, Edward Scissorhands, and Corpse Bride are among Burton’s strange and dark classic films he’s come to be known for, and he’s also previously demonstrated an interest in reviving dark comedies from yesteryear: 2012’s Dark Shadows was a horror comedy based on the popular ’70s soap opera, Dark Shadows. Beyond that, he also had experience adapting Beetlejuice to a four-season cult-classic animated series that likely even just by mentioning will invoke all kinds of nostalgia for readers.
The only way this could be construed as bad news is it might possible mean the long-rumored Beetlejuice sequel will have to wait on the shelf a little longer.
Outside of Mortal Kombat 11 for $20, the Warner Bros. Halloween Sale is focused on family-friendly titles. Scribblenauts Mega Pack–a great compilation for kids who are in the early stages of reading–is on sale for $10. There are also a bunch of discounts on Lego games, which are ideal for couch co-op. Lego City Undercover is $9, Lego Harry Potter Collection is $12.49, and Lego Marvel Super Heroes 2 is $9. The Warner Bros. Halloween Sale is live until November 2.
It’s the season to be spooky, with Halloween just over a week away and every game under the sun getting in on the pumpkin-filled action. Recently released Souls-like Mortal Shell is no different, offering you a lot of free content for returning to its dreary world.
If you were a fan of Gorf when playing through Mortal Shell initially, you’re in luck. The enigmatic character has a new small quest waiting for players as part of Mortal Shell’s Rotten Autumn update, which is out now. Complete the quest and you’ll be rewarded with ten additional skins that you can apply to any shells you use throughout the game’s campaign.
You can show off the new skins with the new photo mode that has been added to the game, too, which will include a suite of editing options according to developer Cold Symmetry. In addition to that, you can also download a new soundtrack to switch up the ambiance to each of the game’s boss fights. That download is separate to the Autumn update but will be free to all players as well.
Mortal Shell launched earlier this year on the Epic Games Store, Xbox One, and PS4 after impressing with its initial trailer in early 2020. It’s a great take on the Souls formula too, with our Mortal Shell review stating, “Mortal Shell makes for a strong introduction to Souls-likes, a demonstration for new players of what so many have found so interesting about From Software’s games and those like them.”
