From what I can gather, there are folks out there wishing for a solo or duos mode in the latest free-to-play battle royale game Call of Duty: Warzone. Both modes, Warzone and Plunder, are built around three-player squads and can have up to 150 players in each match as of the game’s launch. But if you select “Don’t Fill” in the Squad Fill option on the bottom left corner of your lobby screen before going into matchmaking, you can drop in solo or with one partner. So while, yes, you can go into matches alone or with one other friend, we wouldn’t recommend it.
Be warned, Warzone isn’t as fun solo against squads. But I’ll let you be the judge of that.
Of course, going solo or as a duo against full squads of three is going to be tougher, because that’s how math works–you won’t have anyone watching your back or providing extra firepower in combat. But it’s also because this isn’t just Modern Warfare with more players and on a huge map, there are some fundamental changes to mechanics that make it harder for the lone wolves out there.
Namely time-to-kill has changed drastically because of the armor system, which has a big effect on how even the sharpest of shooters will fare in firefights. Sometimes it’s not enough to catch an enemy off guard–if they’re armored up, they’ll probably have time to escape death and find cover. Even then, you can expect their teammates to be on the lookout or fire back, unless they’re really bad teammates.
This isn’t to say it’s impossible to win all by your lonesome in a squad-centric battle royale game. The in-match currency system can give you an upper hand with killstreaks and gear that’ll help you survive, and getting kitted with perks and your best weapons/attachments set up through loadouts certainly helps. The Gulag respawn system may also alleviate the woes of solo players–if you die in an early stage of a match, you can enter a phase where you battle one other dead player in a 1v1 Gunfight-style battle to earn a respawn in that particular match.
Just don’t expect to run wild and rack up kills in Warzone like you could do in Modern Warfare or any other Call of Duty game. If you’re wishing for solos or duos in Warzone, this is your only option right now. Good luck, I guess?
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E3 2020 will no longer go ahead, multiple sources have told GameSpot. Rumors swirled today that the consumer and trade show would soon be officially canceled amidst dwindling support from video game publishers and platform holders, as well as ongoing safety concerns due to coronavirus. Several sources have confirmed the news to GameSpot, but the ESA has still not officially announced the cancellation.
The first rumblings came from a tweet made by publisher Devolver Digital that encouraged people to cancel their E3 plans, flights, and accommodation. Since then, Ars Technica also published a report stating the cancellation is imminent. Speaking to GameSpot, multiple sources with knowledge on the matter have also indicated this to be the case.
This would mark the first time the annual event skipped a year. GameSpot has reached out to the ESA for an official statement.
Even before it became clear that the coronavirus was likely to lead to the event’s cancellation, E3 2020 looked to be in bad shape. PlayStation was not planning on attending, Geoff Keighley had dropped out of hosting the E3 Colosseum, and iam8bit had stepped away from its creative director position.
Here are lists of every publisher that was attending E3 2020. The cancellation of E3 2020 will have a major impact on how these companies announce and market their games.
We’ll continue to update with more details–including how announcements scheduled for E3 will be delivered–as they become available.
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Super Smash Bros. Ultimate continues to expand the reach of its Spirit Board, this time with the heroes–and the villain–of Ring Fit Adventure. With Nintendo’s fitness RPG flying off shelves, it makes sense to see it represented in Smash Bros. While none of the game’s characters are being added as fighters anytime soon, you’ll be able to level up their Spirits if you grab them in the next event.
The Spirit Board event “Spirits Fit for a Fight” will run from March 13 to 18, adding three new spirits to the board. Both of the Ring Fit Trainees, Ring, and Dragaux are all pictured–it’s not clear if the two Trainees will constitute one spirit, or if one of these three characters will not make the cut.
If we had to guess, we imagine you’ll have to fight the Wii Fit Trainer to get your hands on those Trainees. It might be your best chance to meet these characters until stock of Ring Fit Adventure settles.
The DLC Pack includes the Yegor Operator Skin ‘Trackstar’, the Shotgun Blueprint for ‘Showstopper’, the ‘Skilltrack 56’ Watch, the ‘Covert Operation’ Calling Card, a ‘Shredded’ Weapon Charm, and a 60-Minute Double XP Token.
Most of these are just cosmetic and accessory unlocks that don’t affect the gameplay whatsoever, aside from the 60-minute double XP token. The Operator Skin unlocks the playable Allegiance character Yegor as an option to play as in the new battle royale mode, the first of what seems like many optional character skins to unlock.
Operator Yegor
The shotgun blueprint unlocks the Model 60 shotgun, a full black camo shotgun that has blue tape on the grip. This is purely cosmetic and only seen when holding the shotgun in the game.
Model 60 Shotgun ‘Showstopper’
While the gold and blue Skilltrack 56 watch in this pack is pretty cool, nothing will beat the tomogunchi watch–the virtual pet that grows with your in-game kills.
‘Skilltrack 56’ Watch
The Combat Pack isn’t the only free content Playstation users can enjoy, with Call of Duty: Warzone not requiring a Playstation Plus subscription to play online. Usually a subscription is necessary to play any online content on the PS4, but some games like Fortnite and Apex legends do not require an PS Plus account either; Call of Duty: Warzone is just the latest exception. Xbox users will still need a current Xbox Live Gold subscription to play Warzone online.
Call of Duty: Warfare is available to play on PC, PS4 and Xbox One to those who own Modern Warfare. The Call of Duty: Warzone Combat Pack is exclusive until October 1, 2020
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Actor Mark Wahlberg is creating a new show that focuses on one person in particular: Mark Wahlberg. HBO Max, the new streaming service scheduled to launch in May, has ordered an eight-episode series focused on Wahlberg called “Wahl Street,” according to Variety.
The show will follow Wahlberg as he balances his acting life and growing his businesses. The show’s official description adds that “viewers will learn about his successes and failures and glean powerful business and life lessons while also getting to know the cast of colorful characters that make up Wahlberg’s real-life entourage.”
On top of focusing on Wahlberg’s own life, Wahl Street will feature other entrepreneurs pitching Wahlberg on a new business idea in each episode.
“We’re documenting the ups, the downs, the hits and the misses. It’s all the real stuff that’s happening while I’m growing my businesses,” Wahlberg said. “We’re pulling back the curtain and hopefully it’s an opportunity to inspire other entrepreneurs.”
Wahlberg earned Oscar nominations for The Fighter and The Departed. He is also known for his roles in the Transformers franchise and Seth MacFarlane’s Ted movies. His newest film is Spenser Confidential, which debuted on Netflix earlier this month. Looking ahead, Wahlberg will play Sully in the Uncharted movie alongside Tom Holland as Nathan Drake.
In terms of his business ventures, Wahlberg is a co-owner of the burger chain Wahlburgers with his brothers, Donnie and Paul. The restaurant also spawned a TV show, Wahlburgers. Additionally, Wahlberg owns a stake in the fitness company F45, while he has also co-founded a sports nutrition company called Performance Inspired.
With Call of Duty: Modern Warfare‘s standalone free-to-play spin-off, Warzone, Activision is pushing deeper into the battle royale space, and the impact for the publisher could be massive. Not only that, but if successful, Warzone could potentially have implications for the entire video game industry.
Battle royale is not a fad. It started strong with PUBG, which paved the way for making battle royale games a household name and a viable business category for developers to pursue, and the genre has only grown in size and popularity since. Fortnite built upon that success and elevated the genre to incredible new heights inside of gaming and out. Apex Legends helped the category grow even further with its unique innovations and refined gameplay and gunplay.
For its part, Activision was already in the battle royale business prior to Warzone thanks to Black Ops 4’s Blackout mode, but that was just a baby step. Blackout was locked behind the paywall of having to already own Black Ops 4–despite the fact that, it was arguably the game’s major selling point. But with Warzone, Activision is opening up Call of Duty for everyone. It’s a very big deal because, up until this point, the Call of Duty franchise (on console, at least) relied on the annual $60 releases. Warzone subverts that tried-and-true model with a new take.
This is potentially a significant step forward for Call of Duty and the entire gaming industry. If Warzone becomes successful, it could represent a way for publishers to have their cake and eat it too, argues Atreides Management’s Gavin Baker. In essence, Activision can make money from the upfront sales of new Call of Duty games every year, and stack even more money on top of that from Warzone.
Activision’s mainline Call of Duty franchise is not going anywhere. The publisher already announced that it plans to launch a new frontline release this fall, and rumors peg it to be Black Ops 5 from developer Treyarch. Even though 2020’s Call of Duty isn’t expected to sell as many copies as the record-breaking Modern Warfare, Call of Duty is always a money-maker. In fact, Call of Duty has been the No.1 best-seller in the US every year this decade except for 2010 and 2013 when Red Dead Redemption and GTA 5 were released respectively. The franchise is a sales juggernaut.
Whatever 2020’s Call of Duty turns out to be, Activision will likely sell this new game alongside ongoing development and support for Warzone, creating yet another Call of Duty revenue stream for the company. Free-to-play games have the lowest possible barrier of entry, so they are risky in that Activision is giving it away for free, but also potentially lucrative if they spark. Free-to-play games, when done right, can generate mountains of money through their microtransactions. Just look at Fortnite and Apex. It’s also worth mentioning that Activision already operates the free-to-play Call of Duty Mobile, which is steamroller with 150 million installs and a battle royale mode of its own that brings in many millions of dollars every month from microtransactions.
Baker observes that, should Warzone become successful, it could become a model for other developers to follow as they look to expand the profitability of their franchises across multiple releases in the same franchise. It’s not a stretch to imagine other shooter series following suit with their own standalone battle royale offerings.
But Warzone also raises some interesting questions about the future of Call of Duty, including what threat of cannibalization might exist. That is to say, if Warzone becomes the next bona fide battle royale phenomenon, could this impact the sales of 2020’s Call of Duty? Activision is emphatically marketing Warzone with the tagline “Free Call of Duty” and this raises questions about how players view the franchise. Will the expectation be, going forward, that Call of Duty is a free game like Fortnite or Apex?
Beyond that, Activision has now released a battle royale game or mode for the latest two Call of Duty games. So should fans expect 2020’s Call of Duty and those beyond it to also include battle royale modes? There are no answers to these questions yet, and that makes sense.
Activision is clearly experimenting with Warzone, both in terms of creative design and business strategy, so it’s too early to say what the impact will be long-term for Activision and the wider industry. What is clear is that Activision is finally delivering on what fans have been asking for: a multiplayer-only, standalone Call of Duty release on console, and that’s a very big deal.
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A new Spider-Man spin-off movie is coming, but it’s not going to be part of the MCU. According The Wrap, Sony has hired Amazing Spider-Man 2 writer Roberto Orci to write a new spin-off. There is no word on which character the movie will focus on, however.
The key thing to know here is that this movie will be part of Sony’s own Spider-Man universe, and not the MCU. Sony’s Spidey universe also includes Venom and Morbius, among others.
Orci is a Hollywood veteran. He co-created the TV shows Fringe and the Hawaii Five-O reboot, while he also wrote the new Star Trek movies and Mission: Impossible III.
As for Sony’s comic book hero universe, the next movie on the way is Morbius, which stars Jared Leto and opens in theatres this July. The Tom Hardy-starring Venom 2, directed by Andy Serkis, will follow in October. 2018’s Venom was bashed by critics but it made $856 million worldwide, making it one of the year’s most successful movies at the box office.
Teamfight Tactics, an Auto Chess spin-off from League of Legends, is having a huge month. Along with making a full debut on Android, Riot is shaking things up in the next big patch, Galaxies.
Similar to the previous re-haul, Rise of the Elements, Galaxies is replacing everything. The new set will include all-new champions, traits, skins, boards, Little Legends, and whole new mechanics. These changes have been made with the previous sets in mind, as the developers are looking to learn from each change and make every game feel a little bit different.
Each game will take place in a different galaxy and feature a randomized set of rules. These rules can be as small as changing the number of items players can buy initially, up to allowing players to purchase four-star champions on round one. How these small or big changes will affect the gameplay is completely random, with no two games playing out the same way. Players will have to decide how to play based on the rulesets and galaxy boards they are presented with at the start of each game.
New classes, traits, and boards also add to the chaos of Galaxies, with new traits on champion characters meaning that veteran players will have to consider new tactics. Some classes will also receive subclasses with this update, and champions will gain new abilities that can shake up the gameplay in a major way. Elemental hexes have also been buffed, with additional hexes being added to the game boards alongside the ones from Rise of the Elements.
Teamfight Tactics: Galaxies launches mid-March on PC with the Galaxies Pass+, a season pass that grants access to the Galaxies set. The free Galaxies Pass will feature some rewards and missions as well.
With Modern Warfare’s standalone free-to-play game, Warzone, Activision is pushing deeper into the battle royale space, and the impact for Activision could be massive. Not only that, but if successful, Warzone could potentially impact and influence the entire video game industry.
In a new video, Eddie Makuch looks into how Activision is trying to have its cake and eat it too with Warzone. Activision will continue to release big new Call of Duty games that it charges $60 for every year, on top of making even more money from Warzone (and this is to say nothing of the huge amount of money that Call of Duty: Mobile brings in every month).
But some questions remain. If Warzone sparks fire and catches on, is Activision running the risk of cannibalizing future Call of Duty games? Will Warzone’s free-to-play label change how fans view the franchise? Will Activision release a new battle royale game for the franchise’s yearly instalments? Check out the full video above to learn more about the situation.
Yokai powers are the most significant new addition to combat in Nioh 2. As a half-Yokai human known as a Shiftling, you can leverage your supernatural abilities in a couple of ways to give you an edge during the game’s toughest battles. But all of this may be confusing to you early on. After all, Nioh 2 isn’t shy about throwing a ton of tutorials your way the moment you begin.
Below we break down the essential things you need to know about Yokai powers in Nioh 2, including details about Yokai Shift forms, Spirit Cores, and Guardian Spirits. For more Nioh 2 tips, be sure to read our essential beginner’s guide. Also, be on the lookout for our Nioh 2 review in the coming days.
Yokai Shift
As to be expected, your primary Yokai ability is to turn into one! Known as the Yokai Shift, this form grants you devastating power for a limited time. It’s similar to Nioh 1’s Living Weapon form but is greatly expanded. There are three Yokai Shift forms in total–Brute, Feral, and Phantom–and the form you can become depends on the Guardian Spirit you equip.
In terms of capability, none of the Yokai Shift forms have inherent weaknesses. Instead, their abilities suit specific tastes. To quickly summarize each form’s strengths: Brute is proficient for those big on inflicting powerful melee damage, Feral is fantastic for scrappy hit-‘n-run tactics, and Phantom is for more ranged, defensive-minded Onmyo Magic players.
I chose Feral, as it works well with my twitchier Devil-May-Cry-and-Bloodborne-action-game background. So if that sounds appealing, then that Yokai Shift form may be for you. However, if you’re predominantly a heavy-weapon user in Soulsborne games, then I can see Brute’s arsenal of hard-hitting special attacks being ideal. On the other hand, Phantom is all about controlling the space between you and enemies, sporting attacks with more reach, and an ability that allows you to throw a projectile and teleport to your foe–perfect for fans of zoning in fighting games.
Guardian Spirits
At the start, you have the choice between three Guardian Spirits, which each has an associated Yokai Shift form. Your options are Makami the wolf (Brute), Ame-no-Mitori the bird (Feral), or Kagewani the shark (Phantom).
Aside from dictating the Yokai Shift form you take, Guardian Spirits also yield unique Special Effects that buff your character’s stats in varying ways. For example, Makami decreases your melee attack Ki consumption, increases your final blow damage, enhances your Yokai ability damage, and improves your resistance to fire. For a full rundown of a Guardian Spirit’s special effects, hop into the respective menu in the pause screen. During the opening tutorial, you can always backpedal your choices to check out the Special Effects, as well as practice the Guardian Spirit’s Yokai Shift form abilities.
Don’t sweat the choice too much, though. You do get more Guardian Spirits the further you progress, so you’ll ultimately find one that suits you even better. And the more you get, the more Yokai Shift forms you’ll have at your disposal, so you’re not locked into one form for the rest of the game. Though it’s worth considering the impact of choosing the bird Guardian Spirit, Ame-no-Mitori early on.
Yokai Burst Counter
While the abilities of the three Yokai Shift forms subtly vary, they all share one core essential: Yokai Burst. When timed correctly, this technique can interrupt and counter special enemy attacks imbued with red energy, leaving them open to attack. The timing varies withn the enemy, but try to execute it just as its attack is about to hit.
It’s also worth noting that the Yokai Shift form you choose has its own unique Yokai Burst maneuver and timing. Brute form has a backhand attack that covers a small space in front of you, Feral form has a rush attack/quick dash maneuver, and Phantom puts up a shield in a stationary defensive position. Whichever Yokai Shift form you choose, make sure to practice using it often against the different enemy types.
Yokai Burst is a significant pillar of Nioh 2’s combat and can quickly turn the tide of a tough encounter when used correctly. Be mindful that the maneuver consumes Anima energy–the purple gauge below your Ki–so avoid unnecessarily spamming it.
Soul Cores
Aside from Yokai Shift, your Yokai powers also manifest in Soul Cores. Special items collected from bosses and powerful enemy Yokai, Soul Cores grant you powerful attack abilities. You can equip up to two at a time, so long as you have enough capacity to attune it to your Guardian Spirit. Each has a unique attack attached; for example, the Enki Soul Core quickly turns you into the monkey Yokai as you throw a spear at an enemy.
Soul Cores consume a lot of Anima energy when performed, so try to be smart about when you choose to unleash them in battle. Steadily deliver damage, and you should earn another Soul Core use in no time. Soul Core abilities are recommended in the Dark Realm, where you’re Ki regeneration is handicapped, and your Anima recharges faster.
When you obtain any Soul Core, prioritize returning to a nearby Shrine to purify it, as you can lose any in your possession if you die and fail to retrieve your Guardian Spirit grave. It’s possible to collect multiple Soul Cores of the same type, which you can fuse at a shrine to increase the potency of its Special Effects. Like most things in Nioh 2, it’s always good to consolidate, so make sure to use Soul Fusion often to improve your Soul Core power. Otherwise, you can use Resting Rites to dispose of any unwanted duplicates cluttering your inventory.
In Conclusion
Yokai powers seem overwhelming at first, but with enough time and practice, they’ll naturally become a part of your attack repertoire. You’re encouraged to use them frequently, so make sure they are front of mind at all times, especially during a tough encounter. If you’d like to practice using your Yokai powers, I highly suggest jumping into the Training Ground from the Starting Point on the world map. There you can transform and remain in Yokai Shift form to get the hang of its attacks and abilities without worrying about a time-limit.
And with that, I’ve imparted all of my Yokai power wisdom to you. Now, go! Let the legend come back to life!
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