Author: Trafficblast

Spoiler Warning: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare has surprised fans of its campaign with its third multiplayer season with the reveal that Alex is still alive. The campaign protagonist, who seemingly sacrificed himself at the end of the game, apparently lived, although he lost a leg. Now, the game’s narrative director has responded to a fan worried that the game is wasting potential set-up for a sequel not to worry, as there’s plenty more for them to explore.

This article discusses some story details from Call of Duty: Modern Warfare’s campaign and contains spoilers for its ending.

Responding to a player who expressed that they wished that the series would “save some of the characters and story for the next game,” narrative director Taylor Kurosaki tweeted that they aren’t “stealing from whatever comes next,” and that there’s still plenty to be explored in any potential sequels.

Kurosaki is not confirming a sequel here, to be clear–the phrase “whatever is next” certainly hints at a sequel being likely, though, especially since Modern Warfare has sold incredibly well.

In the same thread, he confirmed that players will get to experience Farah’s reaction to Alex’s survival within Modern Warfare.

Here are the full patch notes for Season 3 of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, which is now live. Call of Duty fans are spoiled for choice at the moment–a standalone free-to-play Call of Duty battle royale, Call of Duty: Warzone, released recently, as did Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Remastered.

Project xCloud continues to grow and evolve. Today, the team is excited to announce that the Project xCloud preview will expand to 11 Western European countries. Find out more: https://t.co/wrKeJ8522c

— Xbox Wire (@XboxWire) April 7, 2020

It’s been awhile since we covered what will be coming in the next installment of World of Warcraft, so here is a roundup of some of the latest blog posts from Blizzard on the Shadowlands class changes.

All twelve classes will be having some abilities, spells, and talents changed to balance out the play experience for everyone at launch and to reflect the new chapter of the story.

Below is the summary for each class and the specializations, outline all the changes that will be made once Shadowlands drops.

Death Knight

Death Knights will be able to desecrate the ground around them with Unholy magic to deal damage to enemies with Death and Decay and neutralize incoming attacks with Anti-Magic Zone. Players will be able to turn themselves undead with the Lichborne ability and summon a ghoulish servant with Raise Dead for a temporary companion.

Sacrificial Pact is a new ability that enables Death Knights to perform a forbidden ritual, sacrificing one of the Raise Dead minions in return for an AOE attack where the minion explodes, causing damage to enemies in range. Chains of Ice has been restored, with the chains once again binding enemies for a set period of time.

Blood

• New abilities Blood Tap, Rune Tap, and Relish in Blood will be added.

Frost

• Ability to choose between two 1-handed weapons or one 2-handed weapon.
• Frostwyrm Fury will be removed from the talent tree, instead being added as a base ability for the sub-class.
• Hypothermic Presence added as an ability.

Unholy

• Summon Gargoyle will be removed from talents, instead being added as a base ability for the sub-class.
• Army of the Damned will include a new minion, Magus of the Dead.
• Death Coil and Epidemic will reduce the Army of the Dead cooldown.
• Apocalypse will summon Magus of the Dead to fight alongside the Death Knight.
• Master: Dreadblade will benefit both the shadow damage of the Death Knight and minion.

Demon Hunter

Fury will be the only resource Demon Hunters use, with Immolation Aura being available for both subclasses instead of just Vengeance.

Havoc

• New passive Unending Hatred, expanding the maximum capacity of Fury.
• The talent Dark Slash will become Essence Break, dealing chaos damage and increasing the damage done by Chaos Strike and Blade Dance for a short time.

Vengeance

• Demonic will be added as a talent option.
• Fel Devastation will now be a part of the Vengeance specialization baseline abilities.
• Metamorphosis form will be activated following a Fel Devastation.
• Multiple talents have been combined.
• Bulk Extraction will be added to the talent tree, ripping a soul fragment from up to five enemies at once and consuming them.
• Ruinous Bulwark will be added to the talent tree, increasing the healing properties of Fel Devastation, converting all overhealing into an absorption shield.

Druid

Ferocious Bite, Barkskin, Cyclone, Stampeding Roar, and Ironfur will be available for Druids regardless of specialization. Each specialization will also gain an additional utility ability.

Balance

• Starfall will be reverted back to the previous design, with the Druid no longer having to telegraph the area first.
• Solar and Lunar Empowerments will be strengthened and updated into Eclipses.
• Wrath and Starfire will grant alternatinging Lunar and Solar Eclipses for longer, with Celestial Alignment allowing both to appear.
• Starsurge will extend the current Eclipse.
• Starfall will extend your current Moonfire and Sunfire effects.

Feral

• The Bloodtalons talent is being reimagined, when Shred, Rake, and Ferocious Bite is used in quick succession, the damage of their next Rip will be increased.

Guardian

• Berserk will be added, reducing the cooldowns of Mangle, Thrash, Growl, and Frenzied Regeneration and halving the cost of Ironfur.
• Renewal will be brought back as a talent option.

Restoration

• Swiftmend will be reverted to the heal-over-time effect on target, but with a reduced cooldown and cost.
• Nature’s Swiftness will allow a Regrowth, Rebirth, or Entangling Roots to be cast instantly.
• Nourish will be added as a talent option, allowing an ally to be healed for a significant amount.
• Nourish will also triple the boon from Mastery: Harmony.

Hunter

Hunters will be able to use Arcane Shot, Eyes of the Beast, Hunter’s Mark, Kill Shot, Scare Beast, and Tranquilizing Shot regardless of specialization. Stables will be increased to allow for new beasts to be tamed in the new zones.

Beast Mastery

• Bloodshed will be added as a new talent, with beasts tearing into enemies and causing bleeding damage.
• The Scent of Blood talent is being reimagined, with the passive activating when Bestial Wrath is used.
• Spitting Cobra is being renamed to Venomous Bite, which will now summon a cobra to fight by the Hunter’s side following the Bestial Wrath ability ending.

Marksman

• Dead Eye will be added as a new talent, allowing Hunters to store two changes of Kill Shot, along with recharging Aimed Shot faster whenever Kill Shot is used.
• Binding Shackles will be added as a new passive talent, causing enemies that are rooted to deal less damage for a short time.
• Volley will be added as a new talent that enables the Hunter to rain down arrows in a small area for a short period of time. Aimed Shot and Rapid Fire abilities will ricochet and hit up to five additional targets for half the damage during the Volley.

Survival

• Hydra’s Bite, Bitchery, Steel Trap, Tip of the Spear, and Flanking Strike will all have an increase in damage.
• The Focus cost of Chakrams will be reduced.

Mage

Arcane Explosion, Fireblast, Frostbolt, and Mirror Image will be available to all mage specializations. Fire Ward and Frost Ward have returned for Mage defences. Alter Time has also been brought back, with Mages able to return back to their initial location, with the same health and mana, after using it for a second time.

A new talent called Focus Magic will grant an ally a bonus to their spell critical hit chance. When the ally gets a crit with a spell, Arcane Mages will receive the same boon for a short period of time.

Arcane

• Clearcasting will have an additional stack.
• Mastery: Savant will extend the damage increasing properties of Arcane Blast and Barrage to all spells.
• Touch of the Magi has been moved from the talent tree, instead it will be added as a baseline Arcane ability.
• Enlightened will be added as a new talent, empowering all Arcane damage done while the caster has mana above a certain threshold, switching to mana regeneration when the caster’s mana drops below this point.

Fire

• Mastery: Ignite will be redesigned for more control over Ignite.
• Fireblast will serve as a catalyst, spreading to up to eight enemies when cast on an Ignited enemy.
• Blast Wave will do more damage, with an increased slow duration added on.
• Kindling cooldown reduction will be increased.
• Pyroclasm damage bonus will also be increased.

Frost

• Flurry’s Winter Chill debuff will have a much longer debuff, causing the next two spells to treat the target as frozen and increasing the critical hit chance for the mage and allies.

Monk

Expel Harm, Fortifying Brew, Spinning Crane Kick, and Touch of Death will be available for all Monks to use, regardless of specialization. All specializations will be able to summon their Celestial with Invoke Xuen, the White Tiger; Invoke Niuzao, the Black Ox; and Invoke Yu’lon, the Jade Serpent.

Brewmaster

• Ability to choose between two 1-handed weapons or one 2-handed weapons.
• The passive ability Shuffle will be returning.
• Celestial Brew will be added as a new ability, which will absorb damage based on the imbiber’s attack power.
• Brewmaster Monks will be able to use Nuzao, the Black Ox.
• Touch of Death will instantly kill any creature with less health than the Monk.
• Celestial Flames will be added as a new talent, increasing the Breath of Fire’s damage reduction and spreading the periodic damage effect to all targets hit with Spinning Crane Kick.
• Exploding Keg will be returning as a talent tree option, immolating enemies on impact and blinding them for a brief period of time.

Mistweaver

• All Mistweaver Monks will be able to use Invoke Yu’lon, the Jade Serpent.
• Touch of Death will instantly kill enemies with less health than the Monk, spawning Healing Spheres for allies.
• The Invoke Chi-Ji, the Red Crane talent will be redesigned, strengthening the Monk’s physical damage and healing allies for a part of the damage inflicted on enemies.
• Chi-Ji also makes Monks immune to movement-impairing abilities.

Windwalker

• Ability to choose between two 1-handed weapons or one 2-handed weapons.
• All Windwalker Monks will be able to use Invoke Xuen, the White Tiger.
• Touch of Death will instantly kill enemies with less health than the Monk, spawning Chi Spheres that the Monk can consume to perform devastating blows.
• Dance of Chi-Ji will be added as a passive talent, adding a moderate chance to make the next Spinning Crane Kick free to use and deal a significant amount of extra damage to all its strikes.

Paladin

Blessing of Sacrifice, Hammer of Wrath, Sense Undead, Shield of the Righteous, Turn Evil, and Word of Glory will be available for all Paladins to use, regardless of specialization. Crusader Strike and Hammer of Wrath will grant Holy Power on use. Crusader and Devotion Auras will be available to all Paladins.

Paladins will have access to more talents, allowing them to manipulate and spend Holy Power. Divine Purpose Talent will be available for all Paladins to select in the talent tree. Holy Avenger and Seraphim talents will focus on the creation and spending of Holy Power for Paladins.

Holy

• Glimmer of Light will be moved to the Level 50 talent tree options.
• Holy Paladin’s Aura talent will be replaced by Aura Master, giving Paladins the ability to give any Aura a special empowerment.

Protection

• Protection Paladins will exude Shining Light, a new passive that will make the next cast of Word of Glory free whenever Judgment critically strikes a target.

Retribution

• Wake of Ashes will be removed from the talent tree, instead becoming a standard ability for the Retribution specialization.
• Empyrean Power will be added as a talent, adding a moderate chance for Divine Storm to cost no Holy Power and deal more damage.

Priest

Mind Blast, Mind Soothe, Power Infusion, Shadow Word: Death, and Shadow Word: Pain will be available for all Priest specializations. It will also be possible to cast Power Infusion on allies.

Discipline

• Light’s Caress will be added as a new talent, allowing Priests to heal their allies with Power Word: Barrier, and healing them again if they’re still under the barrier when it expires.
• Shadow Covenant has been reimagined, with up to five allies in a small area being healed and the damage of the Priest being increased for a short amount of time. During this period the Priest cannot use Holy spells.

Holy

• Circle of Healing will become a baseline spell for Holy Priests.
• Prayer Circle will be added as a talent option, empowering Circle of Healing and reducing the cast of Prayer of Healing when cast.

Shadow

• Death and Madness will be added as a new talent, granting the Priest a substantial amount of Insanity after a target is killed with Shadow Word.
• Surrender to Madness will return. Shadow Priests will gain a large spike of Insanity and cast Void Eruption on a target on use. Over a period of time, Insanity-generating abilities will grant 100% more Insanity and grant the Priest the ability to cast spells while moving. If the Priest fails to slay the target enemy during the buffs, they will die.

Rogue

Subtlety and Outlaw will once again be able to coat their blades with Instant, Crippling, and Numbing Poisons. The Pick Pocket ability will uncover new ingredients for the Rouge’s Crimson Vial to consume.

Assassination

• The Shiv ability will be returning, providing a moment of increased Nature damage on the victim, mirroring the gameplay of Toxic Blade.
• Ambush will be returning as an option for initial attacks from Stealth.
• The Blindside talent will be changed to allow the Rogue Assassin to access Ambush while not in Stealth.
• Shiv can be upgraded to Toxic Blade, reducing the cooldown to provide more frequent assaults of increased Nature damage.

Outlaw

• Roll the Bones cooldown time will be reduced by frantic combat through Restless Blades by spending Combo Points.
• Kidney Shot will be returning, with Between the Eyes making enemies more susceptible to Rogue’s critical strikes instead of stunning them.
• Evasion will return as a defensive ability.
• Riposte will become an upgraded talent option.
• Retractable Hoof will increase the speed of the Rogue’s Grappling Hook, getting them where they need to be faster than ever.

Subtlety

• Find Weakness will be removed as a talent, becoming a basic ability as part of the Subtlety subclass instead.
• Targets struck by Eviscerate will take more Shadow Damage when attacked from Stealth.
• Shadow Vault will be added as an ability that creates an area-of-effect finisher, assaulting targets with their Find Weakness for additional Shadow Damage.

Shaman

Chain Heal, Chain Lightning, Healing Stream Totem, Flametongue Weapon, Flame Shock, Frost Shock, and Lightning Shield will be available for all Shaman to use, regardless of their specialization. Searing Totem will also return as an ability for all Shaman to use, which bombards nearby enemies with fireballs for a short duration.

Elemental

• The Maelstrom resource and accompanying bar will be removed, returning Elemental Shamans to the former cooldown management play-style.
• Echoing Shock will be added as a new talent, blasting targets for significant damage, and making it so the Shaman’s next healing or damage-dealing spell casts a second time shortly afterward without costing additional resources.

Enhancement

• The Maelstrom resource and accompanying bar will be removed, returning Enhancement Shamans to a specialization based on managing a number of cooldown abilities with high points built around repeat casts of Stormstrike
• Maelstrom Weapons will return, giving each attack a chance to grant a stack of a buff that can be used to make your next healing or damage-dealing spell instant.
• It will once again be possible to apply Flametongue Weapon and Windfury Weapon to a Enhancement Shaman’s weapon
• Hailstorm will be redesigned so that it resets the cooldown of Flame Shock and Frost Shock when a Shaman uses Stormstrike.
• Searing Assault will transform into a powerful fire attack, striking the enemy for significant Fire damage and causing Searing Totem to cast incredibly fast, triggering Flame Shock to rapidly dish out its damage-over-time burn effects to melt enemies.
• Overcharge will generate five stacks of Maelstrom Weapon instantly and another stack every second for a short duration.
• Stormkeeper will make your next two Lightning Bolt/Chain Lightning spells instantly cast and deal bonus damage. It will also benefit from Maelstrom Weapon, lowering Stormkeeper’s cast time.
• Elemental Blast will become a talent option, giving the melee-focused subclass access to a powerful spell to attack enemies from a safe distance.

Restoration

• Earth Shield will be available to all Restoration Shaman as a base ability for the specialization, removing it from the talent tree.
• Surge of the Earth will be added as a new talent, expending a few charges of Earth Shield to significantly heal the current Earth Shield target and several nearby allies.

Warlock

Curse of Tongues, Curse of Recklessness, Curse of Weakness, and Curse of Doom will be available to all Warlocks, regardless of specialization. Warlocks will also be able to manipulate space with Demonic Circle.

Tongue Tied will be added as a new talent, empowering spells attacking enemies afflicted with Curse of Tongues, preventing them from receiving healing effects.

Affliction

• The Unstable Affliction will be upgraded to sacrifice its stacking effect in order to torture its victim longer, without consuming a Soul Shard.
• Malefic Rapture will be added as a new ability, allowing Affliction Warlocks to exacerbate the malaise they sow and deal damage to all enemies affected by their periodic spells.
• Sow the Seeds will be added as a new talent, allowing the Affliction Warlock to embed two additional seeds into nearby enemies. When combined with the Malefic Rupture ability enemies will explode.

Demonology

• Dark Pact will scale with Spell Power to absorb more damage than before.
• The Dark Fury talent will have a new effect, it will empower Shadowfury by increasing the area-of-effect of the spell as it crashes down on the battlefield.

Destruction

• Fire and Brimstone will generate two Soul Shard Fragments for each additional enemy struck by the Destruction Warlock’s empowered Incinerate.

Warrior

Execute, Hamstring, Ignore Pain, Shield Block, Shield Slam, Slam, Spell Reflection, and Whirlwind will be available to all Warriors, regardless of their active specialization. Challenging Shout and Intervene will be returning to the Warrior class. Shattering Throw will also be returning, but with a new devastating damage boost against enemies protected by an absorption shield.

Double Time and War Machine will be able to be picked as a talent for all Warrior subclasses.

Arms

• Piercing Howl will be added to the Arms Warriors abilities, dazing enemies and causing a slow effect for a short period of time.
• The Cleave talent will be redesigned, with Cleave hitting all enemies in front of the Warrior after hitting three targets with Whirlwind, inflicting Mastery: Deep Wounds–a scaling bleeding effect.
• The Deadly Calm talent will be redesigned, with the Rage cost for the next four abilities being removed and a passive effect that increases the Warrior’s maximum Rage by a large margin being added.
• Dreadnaught will be adding on the Seismic Wave Azerite Trait, empowering Overpower to deal damage to enemies in a line. When Overpower hits two targets with Sweeping Strikes, Dreadnaught causes two devastating seismic waves.

Fury

• Fervor of Battle will be added as a new talent, where the Warrior loses themselves to their bloodthirst during Whirlwind and also Slams their primary target, gaining additional Rage.
• Onslaught will be added as an ability, allowing Enraged Warriors to brutally attack an enemy for a large amount of damage and generate Rage.
• The Frothing Berserker ability will be reimagined, when the Warrior reaches 100 Rage, they gain Haste and movement speed over a few seconds.
• Wrecking Ball will be returning as a talent, providing the Warrior a chance for their next Whirlwind to deal a high amount of damage.
• The Fresh Meat ability will cause Bloodthirst to always Enrage the Warrior the first time they strike a target with Bloodthirst.
• Protection
• Best Served Cold will increase the damage of revenge, with the damage bonus increasing after a successful dodge or parry.
• Menace will also be redesigned, empowering Imitating Shout to cause all enemies to cower in fear for a substantial amount of time, knocking back any that are not targeted.
• Indomitable will be changed to passively increase the Warrior’s maximum health by a moderate amount, spending Rage while the ability is active will heal the Warrior.
• Never Surrender will increase Ignore Pain by a different amount depending on the Warrior’s missing health.

All of these updates and changes are subject to change before the release, with the Alpha release launching soon to test these changes. World of Warcraft: Shadowlands is scheduled to release this year on PC, with no official date announced as of yet.

The Nintendo Switch has brought a myriad of older game series onto the current generation, Tsunku. The creator of Rhythm Heaven, is hoping his game will be added to the list.

Known as Rhythm Paradise in Europe and Rhythm World in Korea, the Rhythm Heaven series originally began on the Gameboy Advance and continued through to the Nintendo DS. The single-player party game has a small cult following, like many other Nintendo developed titles in the past.

Players must beat a randomized set of the fifty rhythm minigames that make up the game. To beat a level, the player must achieve at least a ‘Just OK’ or ‘OK’ rank, or replay the level until they do so.

Each level has its own rules and required using a stylus to tap on the touch screen in time to the music. For the series to move onto the Switch, some system and gameplay changes will need to be made.

Tsunku has called out to fans to “Raise your voice together” in support of the series being picked up by Nintendo for a re-release or new title. Ultimately, the choice is up to Nintendo.

Recently, Nintendo announced Disco Elysium will be ported for a Switch release, after the huge success the series had on PC. Here at GameSpot, we gave the game a 10/10. Hopefully Rhythm Heaven is next on the list to be ported.

The Witcher and Cyberpunk 2077 developer CD Projekt Red has issued a statement regarding the impact of the COVID-19 global crisis on its business. In the company’s latest earnings report, the Polish company said it does not expect the pandemic to have a significant impact on its business for the upcoming period and beyond, though it could impact how people buy games.

CDPR said it took “preventative action” to try to mitigate the the spread of the disease, which included moving most of its employees to a work-from-home setup (a skeleton crew remains at the office to work on critical tasks on a rotating shift basis), cancelling business travel, and forbidding people to enter the company’s offices who came from overseas.

More specifically, CDPR pointed out that it canceled all of its scheduled appearances at trade shows and conferences, including PAX East and GDC. Additionally, it conducted business meetings virtually instead of in-person. What’s more, before employees were sent home, CDPR installed hand sanitizer stations and increased the air ventilation at its studio.

CDPR also beefed up its technical infrastructure to help its teams work from home. On the subject of working from home, which began on March 16, CDPR management said the teams continue to work efficiently and all projects remain on schedule.

With teams now working from home, CDPR also introduced special safeguards to protect their games. All hard drives are encrypted, and employees are using a VPN that makes use of “specialized hardware” bought specifically for this.

In regards to the impact of COVID-19 on game sales, CDPR said it does not expect to see a material negative impact. The “vast majority” of CDPR’s game sales already are digital, making the business “largely impervious to the current circumstances.”

Physical game sales, however, are expected to be down as local governments order people to stay home. CDPR said it has yet to get reports from its physical distribution partners, but it expects sales of physical games to fall. The upside, CDPR said, is that as more people work from home, they might change their purchasing habits to skew more toward digital and away from physical.

In other news, CDPR announced that The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is approaching 30 million in sales, with PC leading the way as the most popular platform.

CDPR’s next game is Cyberpunk 2077, which is slated to launch in September for PS4, Xbox One, and PC. The company has not announced sales projections for the game, nor did it say if the COVID-19 crisis will have any impact on its plans to release the game on schedule.

Nintendo has partnered up with Levi’s to create an entire line of Mario themed clothing, including some very stylish blue overalls.

These Mario-themed overalls feature a range of motifs from the popular series, including a special golden coin design over the back pocket. The clothing line ranges from subtle to over the top–the Super Mario Levi’s Jeans, for instance, only feature Mario branding on the inseam and inside the waistband. At the other end of the scale are the Super Mario All-Over Print pants, every inch of which is covered with Super Mario characters.

Check out some lifestyle shots of the Super Mario Levi’s range below.

The collection includes apparel featuring Mario, Luigi, Yoshi, Bowser, and Princess Peach, on a variety of t-shirts, hoodies, and denim items. The line doesn’t just include clothing, with tote bags, banana slings, print bandanas, and billfolds all included in the collection.

Nintendo’s partnership with Levi’s is just the latest licensing deal that Nintendo has made with gigantic brands. Just recently, Nintendo and Lego teamed up for new Lego sets. Nintendo also has a Super Mario movie in the works with Universal and construction is still continuing on the Super Mario Land parks in both Japan and Orlando.

Between the subtle homages and the over-the-top items, there is something for any Mario fan. Head over to the site on April 9 to grab these limited clothing items before they sell out.

Stardew Valley is getting a new fruit in its next update, and it’s all thanks to a Twitter user poll. The beloved indie farming game will add banana trees soon, meaning you’ll be able to grow and harvest the fruit in-game.

Bananas beat out mangoes, avocadoes, and passionfruit, although developer Eric “ConcernedApe” Barone noted that mangoes were the runner-up on Twitter in a way that suggests that they, too, could come to the game eventually. It’s not yet clear when this update will launch, or what else it might contain.

We know that a big 1.5 update for Stardew Valley is being planned, but bananas could be added in a smaller, incremental update.

This update comes in the wake of the release of Animal Crossing: New Horizons, a game where harvesting fruit is a huge part of the experience. Notably, New Horizons features none of the fruit in Barone’s poll. Fruits in Stardew Valley can be sold, or turned into preserves or wine.

Barone is currently working on some new projects too, but a Stardew Valley 2 is not planned, even though he is planning games set within the same universe.