Author: Trafficblast

Activision is honoring National Military Appreciation Month with a new piece of DLC for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare and the battle royale game Warzone, as well as a real t-shirt you can buy.

The new DLC is called the Call of Duty Endowment Fearless Pack, and all proceeds of the $10 add-on will go to Activision’s charity that helps military veterans find careers after leaving the service.

The Fearless pack contains 10 items, and the offering was created in partnership with Captain Florent “Flo” Groberg, who earned the Medal of Honor for his combat career. The DLC comes with a new operator skin inspired by what Groberg wore in combat, as well as the blueprint for an assault rifle called “For the Cause.” The weapon features an engraving of the date–August 8, 2012–that Groberg attempted to stop a suicide bombing in Afghanistan. Groberg was successful in tackling the bomber, but the bomb exploded, killing four of his squad members. President Barack Obama awarded Groberg with the Medal of Honor in 2015 for his actions.

“People died for me–people made the ultimate sacrifice–and for me, it’s an opportunity–a duty–to make sure I earn it, pay it forward, and that I stop thinking about myself,” Groberg said in an interview with Activision. “I learned all that on August 8, 2012, because in eight seconds, my life completely changed, and earning the Medal of Honor gave me the platform and opportunity to help our community.”

The DLC also includes a new watch, weapon camo, and a boonie weapon charm. The Fearless pack also comes with two calling cards and two emblems, as well as a special spray for the Call of Duty Endowment logo. You can see more of the new content and hear directly from Groberg in the video below.

Activision is also selling a new t-shirt that was created specifically for this new Call of Duty Endowment campaign. All proceeds from the $32 USD shirt will go to the charity.

According to Activision’s latest numbers, the Call of Duty Endowment has so far helped more than 69,000 military veterans find new careers in the civilian world. The charity aims to help fund the placement of 100,000 veterans by 2024.

Following the game’s initial, limited announcement during the Xbox Series X event earlier this month, Electronic Arts is seemingly preparing to reveal Madden NFL 21 in full very soon.

The official Madden Twitter account has posted a teaser referencing June 1, which may be when more details are announced. The tweet also contains the line, “So much more than a name…”

Whatever this “first look” is, it will be followed by yet another EA event on June 11. That’s when EA Play 2020 takes place, and with Madden 21 being one of EA’s biggest games of 2020, you can expect it to be featured during the show. You can watch EA Play 2021 live on GameSpot.

Madden 21 features Baltimore Ravens standout QB Lamar Jackson on its cover. The game is expected to release around August, ahead of the start of the NFL season (which is scheduled to go forward despite ongoing COVID-19 concerns). Madden 21 has so far been confirmed for release on Xbox One and Xbox Series X, while it’s also expected to come to PS4 and PS5, as well as PC.

Everyone who buys Madden 21 on Xbox One by December 31 can upgrade to the Xbox Series X version for free until March 31, 2021. Since the game hasn’t been properly announced for PS4 and PS5 yet, it remains to be seen if there will be a similar free upgrade promotion for Sony’s system.

Starting June 1, GameSpot will be hosting Play For All–a celebration of all things gaming. Join us as we bring you the summer’s hottest news, previews, interviews, features, and videos, as well as raise money for COVID-19 relief efforts with the help of our friends from around the gaming world.

Riot’s new team-based shooter Valorant is nearing the end of its beta, with only a few days of downtime before its full release. A new blog post from Riot has discussed this transition, and what differences beta players will find upon release–most notably with its Vanguard anti-cheat system.

When developing its new online FPS, Riot chose to take a hard stance on cheaters and griefers, with the cornerstone of this decision being the launch of its own proprietary anti-cheat software. When the closed beta of Valorant released with this software, Vanguard, it immediately caused concern among players for being far too aggressive in blocking drivers–even when the game wasn’t active.

Thanks to the closed beta, Vanguard’s powers have been scaled back, but one big change is in the works when it moves to full release. For the duration of the beta, while Vanguard was used to identify cheaters, those reports were still manually reviewed and ban decisions made by a human team (with this process still resulting in thousands of bans).

With the full release, and the much larger player base it will bring, Vanguard will now be handed the ability to ban without human oversight. “Come launch, we will be more aggressive, widespread, and automated in our ability to detect and ban cheaters,” the blog post reads.

Valorant will launch on June 2 on PC. Check here to see if your PC meets minimum requirements.

News of foul play has hit the Formula E esports racing scene. Daniel Abt, racing under ABT Schaeffler Audi, was disqualified after cheating allegations against him were substantiated over the weekend.

Suspicions were raised about whether or not Abt was actually the driver behind the wheel for Saturday’s Formula E Race at Home Challenge, with his competition being the first to raise the red flags. Fox Sports reported that two other racers, Jean-Eric Vergne and Stoffel Vandoorn, echoed each other’s concerns about Abt when his performance in the Challenge appeared markedly different from previous results.

The organizers of the Formula E Race at Home Challenge investigated the allegations from Abt’s competitors and after cross-referencing IP addresses, were able to confirm that the esports racing driver had not been driving at the time in question.

Formula E’s official ruling on the matter has resulted in the withdrawal of Abt’s sixth-place position in the Formula E Challenge Grid competition. As Round 5 of the Race At Home Challenge was being held in support of UNICEF as per the tweet below, Abt has also been hit with a compulsory €10,000 donation.

The esports racing driver owned up to the cheating and responded by releasing a statement reported by The Race as follows:

“I would like to apologize to Formula E, all of the fans, my team and my fellow drivers for having called in outside help during the race on Saturday.

“I didn’t take it as seriously as I should have. I’m especially sorry about this because I know how much work has gone into this project on the part of the Formula E organization. I am aware that my offence has a bitter aftertaste, but it was never meant with any bad intention.”

(img source: Audi)

The driver assisting Abt during this debacle was Lorenz Hoerzing, another professional racing sim driver, and Hoerzing has since been banned from competing in future Formula E Challenge rounds as a consequence of what happened this past weekend. ABT Schaeffler Audi has not commented independently on Abt being disqualified after cheating.

Formula E fans who want to contribute to UNICEF’s appeal to raise money for children affected by the coronavirus can do so using this Tiltify link here. With £50,610 raised so far and counting, hopefully the next round of the Race at Home challenge will be just as fruitful when it goes ahead this week without Abt’s participation.

Cloudpunk, the neon-heavy cyberpunk taxi game from Ion Lands, is getting a first-person mode. The game, which is available now for PC and will come to Switch, PS4, and Xbox One in the future, will allow players to explore and collect fares from a new perspective soon.

This new camera option was announced and previewed on Twitter by Marko Dieckmann, studio head at Ion Lands. You can see the new first-person camera in action below.

In a follow-up tweet, Dieckmann stated that players will be able to switch between first-and-third perspective as they play, depending on their preferences. You’ll also be able to unlock the camera after this update.

The first-person camera is currently in beta, but will be added to the main game soon.

Cloudpunk scored a 7/10 in GameSpot’s review. “Cloudpunk is a game with a single core strength so powerful it alone is sufficient to make it an easy game to recommend,” reviewer David Wildgoose wrote. “Thanks to the rare beauty and rich atmosphere of its voxel-driven cityscape, Cloudpunk is a constant joy to explore.”

Call of Duty: Mobile has a battle royale mode, but it’s not quite the same as Call of Duty: Warzone. In particular, Call of Duty: Mobile doesn’t feature Warzone’s most unique and exciting features, the Gulag. It seems that’s going to change very soon. Or it could be something else entirely.

The official Call of Duty: Mobile Twitter account posted a teaser video for what is very clearly the Gulag. The tweet says it’s “coming soon.”

This alert was posted not long after the Call of Duty: Mobile test servers were updated with references to the Gulag. Additionally, entire gameplay videos have been posted on YouTube that appear to show that Gulag will be a new map in Call of Duty: Mobile.

In Warzone, players who die are sent to the Gulag where they face off in 1v1 matches for a chance to re-deploy. It remains to be seen, however, if this feature will also come to Call of Duty: Mobile or if the Gulag is only being added as a new multiplayer map.

Developer TiMi Studios updates Call of Duty: Mobile regularly, most recently adding a new class and more challenges for Season 6. With more than 150 million downloads worldwide, Call of Duty: Mobile is a juggernaut.