Author: Trafficblast

Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick says the company is taking some big steps in dealing with the coronavirus pandemic, including one surprisingly personal one. In an interview with CNBC, Kotick said he gave out his personal cell phone number to the entire workforce.

“About a month ago we sent out an email, from my email address, with my phone number and we encouraged every single employee that has a concern that relates to their health care to just contact me directly,” Kotick said. “So far that’s been working well, we’ve gotten a lot of attention, a lot of good care from all of our providers.”

Kotick went on to say that “a few hundred” have reached out to him directly, but that fortunately very few employees have tested positive for coronavirus. He also mentioned a few other initiatives Activision Blizzard is taking, including financial support for clinical trials and local hospitals near employees.

The coronavirus pandemic has interrupted distribution channels and slowed development as studios adjust to a work-from-home structure, resulting in game delays including high-profile ones like The Last of Us 2. It also forced the cancellation of E3 2020, so there may be other unannounced games that have also been impacted. The ESA has stated it won’t be coordinating a digital show, so individual publishers will be making their own announcements on their own schedules.

Animal Crossing players have applied their creativity to recreating some of their favorite video game words on their tropical islands, and the world of Pokemon is the latest to get the treatment. Japanese Twitter user @hinopika showed off an impressive recreation of Johto, the region that trainers explore in Gold, Silver, and Crystal, as well as their remakes.

The island includes an impressive amount of spritework from the original game, as well as recreations of Johto’s towns and open areas for training and catching Pokemon. It also features illustrations of Poke Balls, NPCs from the games, and even a few Pokemon, like Snorlax.

Pokemon isn’t the only game to receive a detailed Animal Crossing recreation. Twitter user @koumepo recently shared a tribute to EarthBound’s Onett, which garnered a large response on social media. Another player molded their island in the image of Zelda: Link to the Past. As for Pokemon Sword & Shield, your opportunity to catch baby Pokemon such as Pichu and Togepi in a Max Raid is coming to an end soon, on April 15, so get on it if you’re interested.

One of the next big Microsoft exclusives, the XCOM-style strategy game Gears Tactics, launches at the end of April. Ahead of that, pre-loading for the game is now available.

You can follow the links here to pre-load the game for Xbox Game Pass for PC, Windows 10, and Steam right now ahead of its April 28 release date. Also worth noting is that everyone who either pre-orders the game or subscribes to Xbox Game Pass for PC before May 4 will get the Thrashball Cole character pack. This includes the fan-favorite Gears character Augustus Cole–AKA Cole Train–dressed in his Thrashball gear to join your squad. Like the other characters in Gears Tactics, Thrashball Cole also has unique abilities.

An official canon entry in the Gears franchise, Gears Tactics takes place 12 years before the events of the original Gears of War game. You play as Gabe Diaz, the father of Gears 5 protagonist Kait Diaz, and the story is said to delve into some of the mysteries about the Diaz family tree.

For more on Gears Tactics, check out the launch trailer here that spotlights some of the new game mechanics and more. The franchise is sure to live on after this game, and narrative designer Bonnie Jean Mah recently discussed some of the possibilities.

Gears Tactics will release on Xbox One later this year–free for Xbox Game Pass subscribers–but an official release date has not been announced as of yet.

Mortal Kombat Legends: Scorpion’s Revenge is releasing soon, and the official Mortal Kombat Twitter account has released an exclusive clip to build up hype. The footage introduces Sonya Blade, showing off her past and her snot-beating abilities as she takes on a punk.

Sonya Blade was infamously voiced by Ronda Rousey in Mortal Kombat 11; in this movie, she’s played by Jennifer Carpenter (Dexter). Other actors appearing in the film include Joel McHale (Johnny Cage), Kevin Michael Richardson (Goro), Steve Blum (Sub-Zero), and Patrick Seitz (Scorpion, who will, presumably, get some revenge in the movie).

The animation style will likely be familiar to anyone who has seen a recent animated DC film, like Batman: The Killing Joke. The film is directed by Ethan Spaulding (Batman: Assault on Arkham, Mike Tyson Mysteries).

Mortal Kombat Legends: Scorpion’s Revenge releases digitally on April 14, and then on Blu-Ray on April 28. It’s not the only Mortal Kombat film fans have to look forward to, either: a live-action Mortal Kombat film is in post-production. Meanwhile, the developers of Mortal Kombat 11 recently live-tweeted a viewing of the cult-classic 1995 Mortal Kombat movie, which is now on Netflix in the US.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare is bringing back one of the franchise’s most chaotic game modes. This week’s playlist update will bring back the Drop Zone mode, which first debuted in 2011’s Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3.

The team-based mode challenges players to hold objectives to win, with teams earning points by staying inside the designated…drop zone. The first team to reach the goal point total wins the match. The hook with Drop Zone is that killstreaks continually fall from the sky while you’re holding the zone, which leads to some particularly turbulent gameplay.

A blog post by Activision offers a number of tips, tricks, and strategies for succeeding in Drop Zone, which is played across a variety of maps such as Crash, Arklov Peak, and Granza Raid.

Drop Zone originated in Modern Warfare 3, and it was subsequently featured in other Infinity Ward-developed titles such as Call of Duty: Ghosts and Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare. The mode will come to Modern Warfare at some point during the week of April 13 across PS4, Xbox One, and PC.

It’s a big week for Call of Duty, as Warzone introduces a new way to play, while Infinity Ward will offer double XP for the weekend. Modern Warfare’s Season 3 is currently underway, and you can check out the new maps in a dedicated playlist right now.

It didn’t take long for Animal Crossing: New Horizon‘s extensive in-game economy to escape into the real world, with social networks filling up with requests for rare recipes, or invitations to islands where turnips are selling high. A new site called Nookazon takes this to the next level, offering Animal Crossing players a platform to buy and sell in-game items for bells and materials.

The site acts as a go-between where players can find each other for transactions, though most of these sales seem to be organized over Discord once the two players have connected. Nookazon also operates a Discord server to make setting up a sale even easier.

Not just limited to items and recipes, Nookazon also seems to be doing a roaring trade in villagers, catering to players who are very specific about who they want to live with.

Nookazon isn’t the first site looking to help players make economic connections outside their normal circles. There’s also a Turnip Exchange, where players looking to play the Stalk Market can find islands where turnips are selling high–for a price. To visit one island listed at the time of writing as having a turnip sell price of 615 bells, for example, the island’s owner asks for a 99,000 bell fee.

These online marketplaces are likely to cost you a lot more than just trading with a friend would, but for those who have their heart set on a particular item or villager to complete their aesthetic, it’s an option to look into.

Although New Horizons has cut down on ways players can grief others in game, as always it’s worth using caution when inviting strangers to your island!

Check out GameSpot’s review of Animal Crossing: New Horizons, which concluded, “New Horizons has a slower pace even than other Animal Crossing games, and at times, that can feel unnecessarily restrictive. But there’s still plenty to do, and each of those activities feeds into the next brilliantly for a rewarding and relentlessly cheerful experience.”

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare and the battle royale game Warzone will offer double XP this weekend, developer Infinity Ward has announced.

The studio will turn on double XP beginning April 17 at 10 AM PT, and it will stay activated until April 20 at the same time. The double XP applies to standard multiplayer, the Spec Ops co-op mode, and Warzone. It’s also worth noting that this is standard progression XP, not weapon XP.

This double XP event comes at the start of Modern Warfare’s Season 3, which introduces a new Battle Pass and more maps. The double XP bonus will help you rise through the Battle Pass tiers faster, while you can check out the new maps in the Season 3 Moshpit playlist. It includes Hovec Sawmill, Aniyah Incursion, and Talsik Backlot, featuring a few different objective-based and standard deathmatch modes.

In other news, Infinity Ward is releasing a new Warzone variant featuring only shotguns and snipers. The mode arrives as Infinity Ward cracks down further on Warzone cheaters, with even more systems coming in the future to thwart offending players.

Set in a future world filled with as many vices as technology can satisfy, age rating was always going to be a big step in Cyberpunk 2077‘s release. While we don’t know yet what ratings it has received, CD Projekt Red head Adam Badowski has shared that Cyberpunk 2077 has now been rated in most countries.

The tweet comes as a follow up from an update made on March 11, when Badowski said that Cyberpunk 2077 had been submitted for classification, as the team worked to refine and polish.

Cyberpunk 2077 is still a while out from its new release date of September 17, after being pushed from the original date of April 16. Classification is an important step in releasing a game, however–games can’t be released on Sony, Nintendo, or Microsoft’s digital stores without a rating, while physical releases also require games to have a rating. Steam doesn’t require games to be rated, however.

Notably, Cyberpunk 2077 doesn’t appear to be rated with the Australian Classification Board yet, which has always been particularly strict on games, and especially those with drug-related content. Japan has also closed its rating agency for at least a full month due to the COVID-19 pandemic, though it could have already rated Cyberpunk 2077 prior to the closure.

With five months still to go until its September release date, there’s still plenty of time. Cyberpunk 2077 will be released for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Stadia, and PC–and potentially the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X.