With sports around the world put on hold as we continue to fight the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, competitors are getting creative in order to still enjoy their favorite events. The esport event ACC SRO Championship 2020–part of the E-Sport GT Pro Series–takes place in the game Assetto Corsa Competizone, and Round 2 will be available to watch for free across CBS services.
Streaming on CBSSports.com, the CBS Sports app, and other CBS platforms, Round 2 will run on May 10 at 4:45 AM PT / 7:45 AM ET, and features three different categories: Pro, Silver and AM. The Silver is made up of professional simulation drivers while the AM is available to the public. For the Pro category, there are 50 real professional drivers competing. The races take approximately one hour each, so sit back with a snack and a drink and enjoy the virtual action. Check out Round 1 below.
Thirty drivers in total will move on from the three categories for the final event, and the races run every two weeks. For the finale, all racers will be grouped together into a single race to determine the ultimate Assetto Corsa Compeitzone player.
The ACC SRO Championship 2020 includes vehicles from manufacturers like Bentley, McLaren, Lamborghini, and Ferrari, so you won’t want to miss the chance to see them (virtually) speeding down the track.
Disclosure: ViacomCBS is GameSpot’s parent company
On this episode of Good News Gaming, we take a look at the footage of a canceled Prince of Persia game that’s been making the rounds online this week, even though it was uploaded… eight years ago. We also cover an incredible gesture from the Fallout 76 community, which has rallied to help out one of its most famous role-players in their time of need.
We also delve into that fake Animal Crossing Direct (and hope that Nintendo is taking notes), as well as watch a very good video essay about horror game soundtracks. There’s a couple of excellent memes and funny gaming moments thrown in for good measure.
As always, if you have any uplifting news stories you’d like to see mentioned next week, leave them in the comments!
It’s been a long week but let’s end on a high note with some more fun, cool, and quirky things from around the video game world. If you’re new to this, Good News Gaming is a show that brings you positive and uplifting stories from gaming, so you can start the weekend with a spring in your step.
This week we’ve got a sweet story about the Fallout 76 community coming together to help one of their own. In the land of Animal Crossing: New Horizons, one fan has put together a fake Nintendo Direct that we really wish was real. It’s full of amazing quality of life improvements that the game really needs, so we hope Nintendo is paying attention.
As a fun aside, Facebook has been cracking down on one group that it has identified is talking about “weed.” More specifically, weeds from Animal Crossing, but we all know that Facebook isn’t smart enough to make that distinction. Still, a weird little moment for a bunch of New Horizons fans nevertheless.
We’ve also got a fantastic photography series from Richard Parry, who tears apart video game controllers to give us an up-close look at the innards–it’s really cool. There’s also a video essay about soundtracks in horror games and a canceled Prince of Persia game that has been sitting out in the open for years, going unnoticed–wild.
We hope you enjoy watching this week’s Good News Gaming and if you have any positive news from the world of video games that you’d like to share, let us know in the comments. We’ll be keeping an eye on what you’re saying, and it may show up in a future video.
Horror fans had quite a bit to chew on during the Inside Xbox stream that showed off a slate of games coming to Microsoft’s next-gen console–one of which is the Xbox Series X-console exclusive The Medium. Before the reveal, we spoke with the developers at Bloober Team (known for Layers of Fear, Observer, and Blair Witch) about their upcoming game, and we had to ask: how did Akira Yamaoka get involved?
Yamaoka is best known for his work as the composer and sound director for the Silent Hill franchise. He created a tremendous blend of heavy industrial rock and downtempo alongside the horrifying and suspenseful sound design; and now he’s lending his talents to Bloober Team’s next game. Lead designer for The Medium, Wojciech Piejko, told us the quick story of how the partnership came to fruition, prefacing, “We have been raised on Silent Hill. So when we got in contact with Akira Yamaoka, I was super excited and super nervous.”
“We met after the Tokyo Game Show. Akira-san came to meet [with us] and he was without any agent, so I was thinking, ‘Okay. This will be a great evening.’ And we showed our game to Akira-san,” Piejko told us. He continued, “Back then we were developing The Medium and Blair Witch. And we said to him that we were working on the two projects and we would really love to show The Medium to him. And of course, we asked if he wanted to create the music and score for our game.”
“He just put the headphones on and watched our gameplay there. And I was sitting there, waiting and nervous. I was like, ‘I hope he will like it, I hope he will like it!'” Piejko recalled. Following the suspense came a great sense of relief as he continued, “Then Akira-san put the headphones down and said something like, ‘You guys mentioned that you’re making two games. I want to make both of them.’ I was like, ‘Yes, yes, yes!'”
Akira Yamaoka returns to the horror genre with The Medium (credit: Xbox from the May 7, 2020 Inside Xbox stream).
The partnership came to fruition specifically for The Medium, and with the official reveal during the Inside Xbox stream, you actually got to hear some of the new tunes Yamaoka made for the game. Yamaoka also appeared in some behind the scenes footage, publicly confirming the partnership.
Bloober Team CMO Tomasz Gawlikowski also chimed in to express his hype and said, “For us also, it’s a great story, but also because Yamaoka-san is really getting back to the horror genre with our game. We are huge fans of Silent Hill, too, we even use those fixed camera angles [in The Medium].” He also wasn’t afraid to let his fandom show, telling us, “It’s really come together. We’re super excited to have him on board. Just to be able to make a game that Akira is making music for, that’s, for us, really a dream come true.”
On the note of fixed camera angles, The Medium is a bit of a departure from Bloober Team’s previous works, which have used the first-person perspective. And when it comes to new perspectives, it’s a theme that The Medium is also centered around. You play as a medium who is haunted by visions and investigates the death of a child by navigating two distinct worlds: the real world and the spirit world. That distinction will also be made clear in the game’s music. Piejko told us that the work is being split; Bloober’s composer Arkadiusz Reikowski is taking on the music for the real world while Akira Yamaoka is leading the composition for the spirit world.
Teaser image for The Medium.
It seems that the collaboration is pretty tight as well, as Piejko told us that Yamaoka has visited the studio in Poland on three different occasions to play the game with them. But while this professional partnership is a big deal for all involved, it hasn’t prevented Bloober from fanning out with Yamaoka. Piejko concluded the anecdote, saying, “He also let us turn into fans and ask him for autographs on a lot of games, and vinyl records, and stuff like that.”
We have more coverage of this upcoming Xbox Series X-console exclusive horror game, and in case you missed it, we also have the first reveal trailer above. Be sure to read our full interview with Bloober Team about how The Medium is taking full advantage of next-gen hardware (with a brand-new feature that they still can’t tell us about) and how they created the premise for the game.
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Predator, the 1987 film, is defined by its cheesy dialogue, testosterone-filled cast, and tense cat-and-mouse action between its platoon of soldiers and a crafty alien hunter. Predator: Hunting Grounds seems to, at first, hit all of those notes. There are cringe-worthy one-liners that are initially worth a chuckle, a host of customization options to make your gun-toting hero as ridiculous as you like, and streamlined gameplay that lets you play both sides of the hunt with ease. The problem isn’t with the initial impression Hunting Grounds makes, but rather how quickly it loses its appeal.
Predator: Hunting Grounds is an asymmetrical multiplayer game, pitting a team of four human soldiers against a single roaming Predator across three almost indistinguishable maps set in dense jungle environments. When you’re playing as part of the human fireteam, you have a string of objectives to complete before a timer expires, shuffling you from one AI enemy-filled camp to another. When you’re the Predator, your objective is even simpler: Hunt down the fireteam and take them all out before they’re able to complete their mission and extract, while avoiding confrontation with AI enemies and using the chaos they create to your advantage.
Playing as the titular Predator is the most appealing part, and while its mechanics often allow for smooth, fun, and engaging moments, Hunting Grounds’ framework doesn’t adequately support them. The brutish assassin is as fast and nimble as you’d expect, with an easy-to-use parkour system letting you effortlessly navigate the twisting mazes that the canopy of trees create. A single button press sends you scampering up a tree, after which you can automatically move between branches and adjacent trees by moving in any direction. It lets you focus on hunting your prey instead of having to focus on intricate navigation, while also making you feel empowered through the sheer speed at which you’re able to traverse the map. The press and release mechanic for the Predator’s leap is less elegant, however, and tricky to use when you really need to get some distance between you and your enemies.
Because most of the Predator’s abilities and weapons are governed by energy, you have to constantly manage your energy bar. Cloaking, for example, drains the resource as you move, while your shoulder-mounted Plasma Cannon will require a significant chunk of it with each shot. Energy replenishes quickly when not in use, but also leaves you entirely vulnerable at the same time. It’s satisfying to juggle this resource while on the hunt, choosing opportune times to remain hidden and ensuring you’re safe to move around uncloaked so that you can be ready for your next attack.
The sum of the Predator’s parts work well together, but it’s frustrating that the nuances aren’t adequately explained in Hunting Grounds’ brief and mostly useless tutorial. Beyond explaining what buttons to press for some of the Predator’s basic functions, the tutorial doesn’t prepare you for how you’re meant to play against other human players. Instead it lets you run rampant on AI enemies that don’t react convincingly to your movements or pose a credible enough threat to you to help you understand your limitations. Whole gameplay mechanics for both the Predator and human characters aren’t tutorialized, and instead only found in separate text descriptions buried in the game’s options menu. If you happen to miss those, you’re left with having to learn crucial mechanics through online play alone, which is especially difficult as the Predator.
The problem isn’t necessarily having to learn how to play the Predator effectively, but instead how few opportunities you have to do so. Hunting Grounds lets you search for a match with a team preference–either as part of the human fireteam or as the Predator. As you might expect, searching for the latter increases your wait time for a game exponentially. I personally waited close to 15 minutes for a game as the Predator on a few occasions, and I sometimes ended up in empty lobbies with no hopes of starting a match. It makes your initial games that much more frustrating. Not only did you have to wait a long while to even have the chance to play as the Predator, but it takes numerous attempts to finally get the hang of the character’s flow. And by the time I started feeling comfortable with it all, I was just about ready to not play again.
Playing as a part of the human fireteam is far less exciting in comparison to the Predator. Here, gameplay follows a routine first-person shooter template, with a small pool of weapons to choose from and lightly customize with attachments. The gunplay overall is serviceable–it’s not overtly bad but doesn’t ever feel snappy and as accurate as you’d want it to be. It’s not helped by the cannon-fodder AI enemies you’re mostly shooting at in camps scattered across each map. These foes only pose a challenge in large numbers, and they never react intelligently to your squad’s actions. At their worst they feel broken at times, taking a long time to react to you at all and routinely getting stuck running into walls or appearing out of nowhere in front of you.
Matches present you with a string of objectives you need to complete before being able to call in a helicopter and extract, with each having a thin and entirely inconsequential narrative tied to them. The brief story beats only serve to lightly contextualize your actions, but mechanically they all amount to the same thing. Most of the time you’ll be moving to a camp to either interact with a marked objective, destroy some marked environmental objects, or protect an area for a limited time. The goal of these objectives is two-fold. It gives you a chance to always have something to do when playing as part of the fireteam, while also forcing you to create chaos that a good Predator player can exploit. The objectives themselves are repetitive and mundane, and your overall enjoyment of each match is largely dependent on the skill level of the Predator hunting you.
Without a player who understands how to utilize the Predator’s weapons and attributes, many of Hunting Grounds’ matches fall flat. It becomes far too easy to rush through missions and end a match with an extraction when playing against a Predator that’s unable to find you, and it’s just as easy to turn the tables and actively hunt the alien player when they’re not skilled enough to pose a credible threat. Matches where you’re playing against someone who has clearly spent time understanding the intricacies of the Predator are rare, but they are an exhilarating treat when you happen upon them. I found that the majority of my favorite matches were played with a full group of five players, where we took turns being the Predator player. Playing alone online is much more inconsistent, especially given how shallow gameplay feels when you’re not playing an even match.
It also doesn’t help that Predator: Hunting Grounds lacks any real variety to each match. There’s a single mode to play, and each match doesn’t last much longer than 10 minutes at a time. Without changing objectives or the variety of alternative modes, the shallowness of Hunting Grounds’ gameplay loop quickly becomes apparent. Levelling up grants you access to more weapons, perks, and equipment for both the Predator and human characters, but without any changes to the matches that you use them in they provide little more than momentary reprieve from the same routine. None of Predator’s higher-tier weapons necessitate certain strategies from human players, and similarly the loadouts of the fireteam don’t influence the strategies a successful Predator needs to employ to win, both of which make victories and losses feels equally inconsequential.
Predator: Hunting Grounds also suffers from poor performance and technical issues all around. Playing on a PS4 Pro, I routinely encountered momentary freezes every time the Predator attacked or when engaging large numbers of AI foes. Textures often take longer to load in, and the frame rate is inconsistent enough to make first-person gameplay stutter. Outside of gameplay, my loadout configurations often didn’t save between sessions and my characters had been reset to their default appearances, both of which were annoying.
It’s difficult to come to terms with Predator: Hunting Grounds being nothing more than a single game mode with shallow gameplay and abundant technical issues. It works when you’re navigating the tree line as the Predator and hunting down a team of players, but these moments are fleeting. For the most part, you’re going to be running through the same types of missions as one of four human players, with unskilled Predator players not providing the ample tension required to make the undertaking worthwhile. And even if you do find yourself playing enough to be matched against some of Hunting Grounds’ best players, there’s not enough depth to sustain it for much longer.
The COVID-19 global pandemic has led major sports leagues to cancel or postpone their seasons, and the world of esports has been impacted as well. One league that has adapted to the new challenges is the Call of Duty League. The current season is continuing, albeit with some significant changes. The change is dramatic–all on-site matches have been transitioned to an online format.
The move has not been without its own set of challenges and new considerations under the strictly digital format. To get an inside understanding of this transition, GameSpot spoke with various professional gamers, team owners, and casters to hear directly about this change. These interviews were conducted just ahead of the Florida Mutineers Home Series event, which runs May 8-10.
View From The Top
Eric Sanders, the general manager of OpTic Gaming Los Angeles, one of the participating teams this weekend, remarked that the Call of Duty League is being proactive in ensuring that online play is “as fair as possible.” This includes analysing player connections and evaluating the best servers to use to ensure an optimal experience.
Sanders admitted that the new online-only tournament setup will mean that the “feel” of the competition will be different with no in-person crowds cheering on the action. But he’s confident his team is up to the challenge of competing in this new environment.
“Not having a live crowd will definitely impact the feel of the tournaments, but I try to look at the silver lining–traditional sports can’t compete at the moment and we are lucky enough to continue to still be competing in the game we love,” Sanders said. “Even though a crowd will not be there, the matches are just as important, so the players will bring the intensity.”
As the general manager of OpTic Gaming, Sanders puts a big emphasis on connecting with his players and forging relationships. However, this is not as easy in the new setup. “The biggest challenge is simply not being able to be with the team each day. I truly believe in building a relationship with any player I’m managing, and that gets more difficult to do without face to face interaction,” he said.
He added: “We are carrying on with business as usual but utilizing voice servers / video chat to communicate with each other. We work in an industry that is based in the digital world outside of live events, so other than location, we haven’t had too many changes.”
With Call of Duty League matches moving to a strictly online setup, that puts a huge premium on network connections (under a normal setup, Call of Duty League matches are played on LAN connections). Sanders said he’s worked with Activision’s Call of Duty League organizers to ensure his team has the “best competitive environment possible.”
A scene from the Call of Duty launch weekend, pre-coronavirus. Photo Credit: Call of Duty League
Minnesota Rokkr boss Brett Diamond, tells GameSpot that he’s extremely proud of his entire team–staff, coaches, players, and fans–for rallying together during this difficult time.
“In our last in-person meeting, we reminded the staff that everything we’ve achieved in building this brand has been from making the best of what we have to work with every step along the way,” he said. “Family and health should be everyone’s priorities. Beyond that we’re going to keep hustling, creating content and building the community one fan at a time.”
Diamond also said it’s been important for him to remember and consider that everyone has a unique circumstance. “This situation is stressful for everyone, and we want to be part of the solution, not part of the problem for our staff and players,” he said. “Our coaches and players have a level of professionalism that sets them apart. Their mindset and competitive nature fuels them in this challenging environment.”
In terms of logistics, Diamond said he’s spent time recently upgrading his team’s at-home internet situation and giving his players and staff the necessary equipment to keep the business moving.
“We focused on the basics: upgrading home internet, getting portable hard drives, lighting, web cams, back drops, etcetera to everyone that needed them. Long term we’re looking at investments in more remote production resources,” he said.
A Player’s Perspective
Practicing and training is a pivotal part of any athlete’s preparation for competition, and esports are no different. Professional player Maux of the Florida Mutineers tells GameSpot that he and his teammates are training from separate locations in adherence of social-distancing guidelines. Normally, everyone is in the same physical location for practice sessions.
“Other than all of us being home, practice sessions haven’t changed. We still practice in scrims every day and have coaching sessions to go over strategy,” Maux said. “With no social distractions, I feel it’s been easier to focus on the game so yes I’m still competing on the same level as before.”
Another Florida Mutineers player, Havok, pointed out that one of the benefits of competing in an online environment is that he and his teammates can focus better during stressful moments, but he also commented that there are issues as well. “The lack of crowd makes the game easier to control when matches get hectic but also gives matches a less authentic feel to them so it’s hard to get into the right mindset before the match,” he said.
Another team competing this weekend is the Minnesota Røkkr. Justin “Silly” Fargo-Palmer tells GameSpot that, after a rocky start with the new format, he’s been impressed to see the League respond with positive changes. “The league is doing a great job of adapting to these new issues. Things may have started off a little rocky, but things are getting better and better as the days go on,” he said.
Given the global pandemic that’s causing suffering and hardship around the world, players might have more on their minds than before. Silly said he’s trying to do his part to keep himself and those around him safe by staying home. “I do absolutely feel like I’m still competing at the same level even with everything going on. I’m lucky enough to be able to do what I usually do,” he said.
Another player, Obaid “Asim” Asim, said he feels a new sense of camaraderie with his teammates. “We all treat each other like brothers. Luckily, most of our families have been safe. Anytime anyone on the team has something they have to deal with, we completely respect and give them all the time and support they need,” he said.
No Home Field Advantage
One of the more unique and compelling elements of the Call of Duty League is its city-based structure, just like more traditional sports. The idea of “home field advantage,” however, goes away when tournaments are held online. Asim tells GameSpot that he and his teammates have been trying to make up for this by getting extra pumped up during practice sessions and in matches to try to capture some of the energy of an in-person event.
“What we’ve been doing to make up for the lack of that home field advantage is treating every day of practice like it’s game day,” he said. “Any time any of us makes a big play, we hype each other and try to get everyone super energetic and encouraged to take over. As much as we miss the crowd and the big stage, winning is all we want and need to accomplish.”
Another Røkkr player, Adam Jerome “GodRX,” shared a similar sentiment. “Without the ‘home field advantage’ we are making sure that whenever our teammates do something on the map, we let them know and try to gas them up so that they and the rest of our team have good energy throughout the match to keep it rolling so we can pull through with the W,” he said.
He added: “There is a big difference being able to hear the crowd compared to online matches. When you make a play, you feed off of the crowd’s energy and it gets you fired up. Online, you make a play and it’s not the same. Yeah, you get fired up but you don’t have that ‘6th man’ to hear and get you going.”
Casting Considerations
Commentating is a critical part of any professional sport, and this of course includes gaming. The commentators bring expert knowledge of the game and engaging commentary to help viewers stay informed and entertained. But what happens with casters are commenting on the action remotely?
“Initially, it was bizarre!” Call of Duty League caster Miles Ross tells GameSpot. “We quickly discovered how much we relied on non-verbal communication when working together. My co-commentator Philip ‘Momo’ Whitfield and I found ourselves making little mistakes that felt so alien to our work style, and we quickly realized we had to develop new signals. This gave us a great chance to work on some new tricks, to reset and review how we prep and find our groove.”
Ross is now calling Call of Duty League matches from his bedroom. He explained this unique setup to us (and why he’s not winning any brownie points with this neighbors).
“My bedroom has been turned into a studio. I’ve been sent headsets, microphones, a backdrop, a seriously powerful PC and a ring light setup to make sure the show goes on as well as leveling up my selfie game. It’s like the caster’s box in an event studio is now in my home. Just like at matches, I have a screen with the match on in front of me, a camera and a bright light, and a director’s voice comes into my headset to count us in, reminding us to go big and blow the roof off–much to my neighbor’s contempt.”
“The team’s agility during this period has been unmatched, we are on constant tech calls making sure everything is not only streamlined, but uniform across the talent team, with constant collaboration to just make things better and better.”
After a few weeks of competition in this new setup, Ross said he’s responded to the changes positively. He also noted that the viewers are happy that Call of Duty League matches can go on in this new manner, and they’ve been patient and understanding during some of the initial launch struggles.
“They understand that this is a new way of doing everything, it reminded me that we really are all in this together, everyone is working this thing out day by day, whether that’s understanding how to get groceries, celebrate birthdays and weddings, or put on a world class Call of Duty broadcast from basements and bedrooms,” Ross said.
At the same time, Ross said he’s eager to get back to calling games live and in-person where he feels more comfortable.
“Even though production has nimbly adapted where it feels as though not much has changed, I do miss the aura and roar of the crowd so much,” he said. “Pre-COVID, the CDL community demonstrated an incredible passion over the world with crazy energy from London to LA. The lack of an audience is different, but the online format has also created a lovely connection and engagement across YouTube chat, Twitter and Instagram. I’ll never forget the candid approach the audience now has to tweet me to stop breathing into my mic or an Instagram DM that they can hear me thanking my wife for a bottle of water mid-show.”
What’s Next
The Call of Duty League continues this weekend with the Florida Mutineers Home Series event, which runs May 8-10, featuring the Mutineers, Atlanta Faze, Paris Legion, London Royal Ravens, OpTic Gaming Los Angeles, New York Subliners, Toronto Ultra, and the Minnesota Rokkr. As for the long-term plan the Call of Duty League, Activision plans to keep the digital format for the foreseeable future.
The situation surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic is changing every day, and it will be some time before things return to normal. For Sanders, he’s looking forward to getting back to in-person events, but he foresees the growth and expansion of the “metaverse” of digital events, too.
“Live events are special experiences that truly bring a community together,” he said. “I do not think we will see live events going away long term, but I do think there will be more live digital events, in a variety of ways outside of just esports. More publishers are realizing that their game can function as a metaverse so I imagine we will see many different types of activations within games in the future.”
In the screenshots embedded beneath the video below, you can see how Kings Canyon has changed. Loba‘s actions in the Season 5 launch trailer completely destroyed both Skull Town and Thunderdome, revealing a new underground area for squads to explore. Almost on the opposite side of the map, a new installation dominates the previously more rural area of Kings Canyon.
Alongside Loba, Season 5 adds a brand-new battle pass and cosmetics to Apex Legends. The season implements Quests as well, a new story-focused mode that adds a PvE option to Respawn’s battle royale. Like the battle pass and daily/weekly challenges, Quests seems aimed at getting you to play Apex Legends almost every day–the new mode encourages you to drop into matches in order to unlock chapters in the mysterious new The Broken Ghost questline.
“Caught between the Apex Games and Hammond Robotics, Loba is spinning a web of lies and deceit in her personal quest for vengeance–but how far is she willing to go?” Respawn writes in a blog post about The Broken Ghost. “How does the Broken Ghost fit into her plans for Revenant? And what happens when one legend stumbles upon the truth? See a side of the legends’ lives you’ve never seen before–outside of the Games! Alliances will be formed, friendships will be tested, vendettas will be born, and when the dust settles, nothing will be the same again in a mystery that has far-reaching consequences for them all.”
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Fortnite celebrated the launch of its new no-combat Party Royale mode with a big Party Royale Premiere event. It was big in-game concert that took place on May 8 and featured live, back-to-back-to-back performances by three of the most famous DJs around, one of which was Deadmau5.
If you didn’t get a chance to check out the concert live, don’t worry about it, we hopped into the game and captured the event. You can watch a replay of the Deadmau5 Party Royale Premiere set in the video above. For those who missed the concert but still want the Neon Wings back bling, just log into the game before May 11, 7 AM PT / 10 AM ET.
Epic recently rolled out a small update for Fortnite that fixed some bugs and made some minor adjustments to the game’s Squads playlist. Meanwhile, Season 3 of the game is slated to kick off on June 4.
