Doom Eternal is scheduled to officially launch on Friday, March 20, but retailer GameStop will start selling it early. The company has confirmed it will begin selling the new id Software shooter on March 19 in an effort to keep customers and employees safe amid “social distancing” protocols.
This is all happening because Doom Eternal and Animal Crossing: New Horizons are both officially releasing on March 20. These are two of the biggest games of Spring, and GameStop is expecting a lot of foot traffic of shoppers coming in to grab one or both of the games. The CDC is recommending against gatherings of 50 or more people, and this would seemingly impact GameStop on big launch days like March 20.
To help separate the crowds, GameStop has chosen to sell Doom Eternal a day early. New Horizons will go on sale as scheduled on March 20. This kind of move is seemingly unprecedented.
To ensure we adhere to CDC-recommended social distancing guidelines, we will be selling DOOM Eternal a day early on Thursday, 3/19 as a safety precaution for our customers and associates. Animal Crossing will release on Friday 3/20 to further help separate the crowds.
Steam has added a new tool today for recommending games to users. Steam Interactive Recommender uses machine learning to predict which games you’ll enjoy based on what other people with similar taste have played.
The Interactive Recommender started as a tool within Steam Labs back in July 2019, but has now become a proper feature of the store.
The announcement digs into how all of this works. You can interact with the recommender by specifying that you want popular or niche games, or whether you want older or newer titles, and it’ll give you a list of titles based on other Steam users’ playtime histories.
Tags and reviews are not taken into account, and it’s based purely on what people are actually playing. “The basic idea is that if there are other players with similar play habits to you, who also play a game that you haven’t tried yet, then that game is likely to be one you’ll enjoy too,” the announcement reads.
Judging on my own taste, it seems very accurate–it recommended me several games that I have played and enjoyed on consoles.
The Interactive Recommender isn’t replacing any of Steam’s other recommendation methods, but will exist alongside them.
While Black Desert on PS4 and Xbox One is still far behind the PC’s Black Desert Online in terms of content updates, big steps are being taken to catch these versions up. The latest of these updates brings the Maehwa class, which is focused on a combination of melee and ranged combat, to Xbox One and PS4 for the first time.
The Maehwa was an orphaned child, raised by a high-ranking military official. Under his eye she trained her whole life to become a deadly fighter, eventually mastering the legendary blue flames of the Crescent Petal. Wielding the Kerispear, a long polearm, she fights with a mix of close range melee and ranged combat, using her blue flames for ranged attacks.
The Maehwa will be launched with both her original and Awakening skills:
The Divider Skill – A charge attack where the Maehwa rushes forward and cuts down her enemies.
Chaos: Red Moon – Embodies the Maehwa with the power of the Red Moon, allowing her to evade enemy detection and attack an enemy flank.
Petal Bloom – The Maehwa can channel an icy aura into her Kerispear, launching the aura into an enemy with a strong thrust.
Frost Pillars – Maehwa causes her enemies to become slowed with an ice attack.
The Maehwa is currently available on Xbox One and PS4 as a free update. Players can play as the Maehwa on the all new cross-play servers as well, which means that friends with different consoles can start a new campaign together.
Stanley starts his evil plan to make money off the Freak Show but thankfully he doesn’t quite get away with it. Meanwhile, Maggie is having seconds thoughts and even tries to warn Jimmy.
As for Jimmy, he’s still recovering from Meep’s death and surviving his encounter with Twisty and Dandy in the woods. He’s hailed as a hero in the town but he doesn’t quite see it that way. He would eventually hook up with Desiree but he was a bit too hands on.
Desiree finds out that she had a miscarriage and she eventually gets the courage to stand up to Dell. The strong man has been spending much of his time at a local gay bar and hasn’t come to grips with what he truly wants in life.
Now that Twisty is gone, Dandy goes full Patrick Bateman and his mother Gloria is left to cover up his horrendous murder. Unfortunately for the Motts, Dora’s daughter Regina is looking for her mother and she won’t be letting up anytime soon.
Finally, Elsa Mars performs another David Bowie song but gets booed off the stage. By the episodes end, she takes Richard (actually Stanley) up on his fake proposal to become a TV star. What he really wants, much like the Freak Show audience, is the Tattler twins.
In lieu of a traditional GDC talk, PS5 lead architect Mark Cerny presented some of the next-gen console’s key specs on a livestream. While the talk did include a lot of jargon, there are some key takeaways for gamers to note.
For one, backwards compatibility is a priority for Sony. You’ll be able to play PS4’s most popular games at launch; nearly 100 titles will be playable out of the box. The PS5 also sports proprietary 3D audio tech, meaning you’ll be able to hear that horror monster coming up behind you and identify the source of the sound.
These are just two of the takeaways noted in the video above. Of course, we still have lingering questions about the console’s look and price. That said, the PS5’s targeted release date is still holiday 2020.
As more and more people stay home from work or school amid the COVID-19 crisis, Microsoft is unlocking double XP for Halo: The Master Chief Collection and Halo 5.
Not only will players in those games earn double XP, Microsoft is giving everyone who logs into Halo 5 free XP boost packs for Arena and Warzone every week.
To help make your time inside a little more enjoyable, we’ve turned on Double XP globally for MCC and Halo 5. Additionally, logging in to Halo 5 will also earn you free Arena and Warzone XP Boost Packs weekly. Please remember to wash your hands and keep it clean. pic.twitter.com/CDekx8aETj
According to US telecom giant Verizon, gaming usage is up 75 percent due to “social distancing” protocols that are keeping people away from work and school.
For its part, Microsoft announced that Xbox Live usage had increased in the wake of COVID-19 as people stay home. It’s expected that PlayStation Network and Nintendo Switch Online are also experiencing surges in demand.
Everyone is trying to make the best of the current social distancing situation we find ourselves in as a result of the coronavirus. WWE’s events are ongoing, but with a major change: arenas for shows like Raw and Smackdown are empty–and they’re taking place at the Performance Center, which will even be the case for Wrestlemania. The result is a distinctly different vibe; we’re used to watching wrestling with raucous crowds that will cheer or boo whatever they wish (even if goes against what a company like WWE necessarily wants in a given situation). We’ve already seen “Stone Cold” Steve Austin deliver a memorable moment on WWE television with an empty arena, and now one fan has done their best to improve upon WWE’s product.
On Twitter, user SIDEEYEmusic took a clip of a standard promo featuring Bray Wyatt and John Cena and made it into something truly magical. The lack of any crowd noise during a promo like this lends the proceedings the feel of a soap opera–which wrestling already is. So what makes this better? Why, the memorable music of a deeply soap opera-inspired TV show: Twin Peaks.
While there might be all sorts of rights issues that would render such an idea untenable, this clip provides a glimpse of what would make for a terrific WWE Network feature. You can still have the normal broadcast, but offer up a secondary feed that overlays the hauntingly beautiful music of Angelo Badalamenti.
Yes, I know it’ll never happen, but if more of these segments were to make their way online, I know how I’d be spending some of my newfound free time.
Recently, a Chrome extension came along called Netflix Party, and it allows you to watch Netflix content with friends, at the same time, without having to be in the same room. It does this by syncing your streams and providing a chat room, where you can talk to each other and mock movies and TV shows to your heart’s content. After testing it with some coworkers, I decided to host my own streaming party.
Right now, it’s tough for a lot of people. Our routines are shaken up because of the COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic, and many people are forced to work from home or are not working at all. In order to flatten the curve of infections, so hospitals aren’t overwhelmed, it’s good we’re all staying inside. However, not talking to other people sucks. Not being able to see other people sucks.
Talking to myself
In order to kick off this Netflix party, I decided to pick a movie I was sure no one had ever seen before. I found myself searching through Netflix and somehow, I stumbled upon a movie called Undercover Grandpa. The film stars James Caan, Jessica Walter, Louis Gossett Jr., and a teenager with a helmet-head haircut. It’s from 2016 and is kind of a family comedy. It’s a very, very weird movie. The film is about a teenager whose girlfriend is kidnapped, so he enlists the help of his grandfather who was in World War II as a secret operative or something–ignore the fact that Undercover Grandpa is way too young to be in WWII. There are also a bunch of Russian bad guys around too. I could not tell you why.
While talking to people on Twitter about this idea, they seemed excited. However, they seemed less excited when they found out what the movie was–because no one had ever heard of it. After the party started, I found myself talking to, well, myself just to fill the void of being momentarily friendless. Luckily, this didn’t last long.
Great hair, all around
As the movie went on, a few people dropped in and out of the movie. I met a person from France, who enjoyed chatting but hated the movie so much that they left. To be fair, Undercover Grandpa is not a groundbreaking movie by any means. It is fun, in the same way that watching baby ducks cross a road is fun–it’s slow, kind of cute, and has its moments of you yelling, “They’re trying!”
Eventually, a few friends popped in that stayed for the whole film. Occasionally, there were others, but again, Undercover Grandpa is not a good movie, so they left after a few minutes. This Netflix party was quickly becoming a revolving door get-together, where once people realized I wasn’t giving out free beer, they left.
However, some people that came in actually stayed, and everything began to slowly click, as we all watched Undercover Grandpa slowly become an A-Team revival–I’m not kidding. All four of us in the chat were noticing the same things, and all cracking jokes together. We started enjoying each other’s company, and strangely enough, the movie as well.
I still have no clue what was happening here
As for Undercover Grandpa itself, it is a delightful mess of madness I hope everyone takes the time to watch. However, you’ll probably want to watch it with friends, so you can all make the same jokes together about the cast’s hair, James Caan’s hat secretly being a Phoenix Down, and the kid turning into Daredevil at the end of the movie. At least, that’s what I think happened.
Having this Netflix party made everything feel a bit normal again. Sure, none of us were in the same physical room, but there was a sense I was actually hanging out with other people, taking part in a shared experience. Sure, it’s just a bunch of people in a chatroom doing their best version of Mystery Science Theater 3000/Rifftrax, but that’s what makes it so much fun. It’s an escape for a couple of hours from the isolation. While I watched most of the movie, I don’t remember much of the plot because I was sharing a fun experience. Also, I was working, but that’s besides the point.
How the MCU was born
Netflix Party was a nice way to spend the day, so much so that we talked about doing it again, and I have already made plans to do so. And if you want in, the more, the merrier. Come join a viewing party of a weird movie and just chat along with some people.
If you’re interested in joining the next Netflix Party, follow me on Twitter. Viewings happen at 1 PM ET / 10 AM PT on Tuesdays, and I tweet out a link before it all begins. We’ll keep doing this once a week until everything returns to normal.
However, during Microsoft’s Game Stack Live presentation, Twitter user @MasyerGaming spotted an S/PDIF optical audio output above the storage expansion port.
IGN reached out to Microsoft to clarify if the final version of the console would include this optical audio port, to which it responded, “No. Xbox Series X will include ports for Networking (Ethernet), HDMI out, Seagate Storage Expansion Card and three USB 3.1 ports.”
Without an optical audio output, it seems audio will only be available through the HDMI port. HDMI has the benefit of carrying audio and video through a single cable, and we know that Xbox Series X will be utilizing the latest HDMI 2.1 standard.
HDMI 2.1 has more bandwidth for information and can carry signals up to 8K as well as Dolby Atmos, simultaneously.
Additionally, considering that HDMI has become the standard for most, it seems Microsoft has gone the convenience route with this decision as most modern sound equipment utilizes HDMI.
Earlier today, Sony finally revealed what the architecture of the upcoming PS5 looks like. During the presentation, PlayStation’s lead system architect Mark Cerny spoke at length about how PS5 will utilize the custom Tempest audio engine and will feature “3D audio” allowing for deeper, more immersive experiences.
Sony Pictures and Columbia Pictures are making Vin Diesel’s Bloodshot available On Demand on March 24 in response to the COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic.
Bloodshot was released in theaters on March 13, and due to COVID-19 causing theaters around the world to close or limit capacity, Bloodshot will be made available for $19.99 USD with all leading digital retailers. International digital sales dates will be revealed in “the days ahead with territory-specific COVID-19 impact considerations.”
“Sony Pictures is firmly committed to theatrical exhibition and we support windowing,” said Tom Rothman, Chairman of Sony Pictures Entertainment’s Motion Picture Group. “This is a unique and exceedingly rare circumstance where theaters have been required to close nationwide for the greater good and Bloodshot is abruptly unavailable in any medium. Audiences will now have the chance to own Bloodshot right away and see it at home, where we are all spending more time. We are confident that — like other businesses hit hard by the virus — movie theaters will bounce back strongly, and we will be there to support them.”
In our review of Bloodshot, we said it “is unapologetically a popcorn movie of the switch-off-your-brain-and-kick-back variety. Diesel and company soldier through a wonky plot to deliver glowers, superhero poses, and loads of action.”
If you want to know how to stay safe and help others during the coronavirus outbreak, please see our guide.
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Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on Twitch.
