League of Legends developer Riot is taking security very seriously for its next big game, the team-based shooter Valorant. In an effort to reduce cheating, Riot is ramping up its bounty program and is offering as much as $100,000 USD to those who can find exploits in its anti-cheating technology, Vanguard.
Riot’s HackerOne bug bounty program, which has been running for more than six years, is now going to pay out even more money to help encourage people to find exploits and report them to the developer.
Players who believe they have found an exploit in Vanguard are encouraged to submit a report, and the minimum payout for a confirmed exploit is $250 USD. As part of the expansion of this program, Riot will pay up to $100,000 for “high quality reports” that demonstrate and detail exploits within Vanguard.
To get the money, you must provide a working proof of concept of the issue and a report detailing it. The exploit must also be new, and it must have been found within the latest version of Vanguard.
The Vanguard bounty program also has tiers for lower-level exploits that pay out $25,000, $35,000, $50,000, and $75,000. Go to the HackerOne website to see a full rundown of the program. Riot says it has already paid out more than $2 million USD in bounties since the bounty program began in 2014.
Some have criticized Riot’s Vanguard for taking a step too far due to how the driver component of the software runs in kernel mode instead of user mode. This allows the Vanguard code to access your hardware, and people have raised questions and concerns about this.
Riot acknowledged these concerns but also pointed out that it cannot dive too deep into the technical specifics because doing so would potentially compromise Vanguard.
The developer said if Vanguard were limited to user mode, only “its capabilities would be compromised by a cheat running at a higher privilege level.”
“Vanguard is a solution that will help us achieve the vision of competitive integrity while enabling us to continuously adapt our arsenal in the war against cheaters,” Riot said, adding that Vanguard does not collect or hold onto personal information.
“Players have every right to question and challenge us, but let’s be clear–we wouldn’t work here if we didn’t deeply care about player trust and privacy and believe that Riot feels the same way,” the developer said. “We’re players just like you, and we wouldn’t install programs on our computer that we didn’t have the utmost confidence in.”
For lots more on Valorant, check out GameSpot’s preview of the beta in the video above. The full game is due for release later this year on PC as a free-to-play title.
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It’s been one year since Cuphead, the beloved co-op shooter, made its way to Nintendo Switch. It was the first of two Microsoft-published games to appear on the system, the other being Ori and the Blind Forest, and it’s turned out to be an excellent fit for the system. Now, to celebrate the anniversary of its release, Cuphead has been discounted.
You can grab Cuphead on the Eshop right now for $15, with a 25% discount applied to its standard $20 price. The game has only been discounted on Switch once before, so it’s not one we see pop up regularly in Switch sales. You have until April 25 to pick it up at this reduced price.
How time flies!! One year ago today, Cuphead officially released on Nintendo Switch. To all those who discovered our little animated adventure, or took another trip to the Inkwell Isles: our sincerest thanks. To celebrate, the game is 25% off on the Nintendo eShop until 04/25. pic.twitter.com/EIw72tgBkc
Unfortunately, this discount seems to only apply to the US Eshop–we checked both the UK and Australian stores and found the game was still full price on each.
A new Cuphead DLC is due to release this year. It’s called The Delicious Last Course, and will feature a new playable character, Ms. Chalice. The game earned an 8/10 in GameSpot’s review, and critic Peter Brown described it as “a rare, unique game that truly stands out.” The Switch version was said to be on par with the Xbox One and PC releases.
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Following the success of director Darren Aronofsky’s Requiem for a Dream, Warner Bros. pursued him to direct a new Batman movie in the early 2000s. The movie never happened, but now, Aronofsky has shared some intriguing details about what the film might have offered, including its top talent.
The director told Empire that Warner Bros. wanted Freddie Prinze Jr. for the role of Batman, but he wanted to cast Joaquin Phoenix. This led to an impasse. “I remember thinking, ‘Uh oh, we’re making two different films here.’ That’s a true story. It was a different time. The Batman I wrote was definitely a way different type of take than they ended up making,” Aronofsky said.
Warner Bros. eventually hired Christopher Nolan to direct a new trilogy of Batman movies, with Christian Bale cast as the Caped Crusader. The movies were enormously successful, making around $2.4 billion at the global box office across three instalments: Batman Begins (2005), The Dark Knight (2008), and The Dark Knight Rises (2012).
Aronofsky’s idea for a new Batman movie would have included “nods” to Death Wish, The French Connection, and Taxi Driver, according to Empire. Additionally, Batman comic writer Frank Miller was attached to write the script, but it was not meant to me.
Aronofsky said he was trying to set his Batman movie apart from Joel Schumacher’s poorly received Batman & Robin, featuring George Clooney and Chris O’Donnell in the title roles. Aronofsky said that movie was known as “the famous one with the nipples on the Batsuit,” and that he wanted to try to “undermine that” with his own film and “reinvent” the Batman series.
While Phoenix did not get to play Batman, he portrayed another Batman universe character, Arthur Fleck/The Joker, in Todd Phillips’ Joker; he won the Oscar for Best Actor in a Leading Role.
In addition to Requiem for a Dream, Aronofsky is known for directing the movies Pi (1998), The Fountain (2006), The Wrestler (2008), Black Swan (2010), Noah (2014), and Mother (2018).
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Paul Haddad, the voice actor who brought Leon Kennedy to life in 1998’s Resident Evil 2, has died. The actor, aged 56, had recently posted a GoFundMe for a neurosurgery procedure, and is understood to have been ill for some time.
Haddad, a resident of Toronto, Canada, and a regular stage performer, had only credits on two other games–Hype: The Time Quest (1999) and retro throwback Daymare: 1998 (2019). The news of his passing came via the Twitter account of Invader Studios, the developer of Daymare.
Paul Haddad, our dear friend and an icon among the RE community, has passed away recently. We’ve been truly honored to have the chance to meet and work with such a great man and a brilliant professional that He was. Rest in Peace Paul… You will live forever in our hearts. pic.twitter.com/o6gkMqX7SI
In a way, this makes his performance as Leon Kennedy all the more significant–he played a lead role in one of the most important horror games ever made despite his relative obscurity, and his voice has been heard by millions of players.
Haddad never played Kennedy again after this first appearance. In later games he was voiced by Paul Mercer, Christian Lanz, Matthew Mercer, and eventually Nick Apostolides in the Resident Evil 2 Remake. In fact, Resident Evil 2 had a whole new cast due to the SAG strike in effect during the game’s development.
Apostolides paid tribute to Haddad on Twitter, calling him a “kind soul” and saying that he will “always be our Leon”.
You likely aren’t going outside very much right now, but when normalcy returns, you’re going to need to keep yourself dry in the rain. The Death Stranding Bridges jacket from Acronym lets you do so in style and even promises to be “Timefall-proof” in case you’re worried about rapidly aging in the water.
The jacket also features a multi-position storm collar, several pockets for storing your items from the harsh environments of post-apocalyptic America, and a storm hood with a redesigned visor compared to older models. We don’t recommend trying your luck against “BTs” with it, though.
Wearing the jacket, you’ll certainly look like Sam Porter Bridges from the game, particularly if you carry a few tons of equipment on your back and a baby in a pod. Death Stranding is an extremely odd and polarizing game, but Sam’s fashion sense is undeniable. With all the zippers and pockets in your jacket, you’ll be stocked up on enough snacks, hand sanitizer, and gum to weather any storm.
Death Stranding is currently available exclusively on PS4. A PC version will arrive on June 2. You can pre-order it from Steam for a selection of digital goodies alongside the game.
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Seinfeld’s final episode aired well over two decades ago, but it remains one of the most popular television shows in history. Its lasting pop culture presence inspired developers Jacob Janerka and Ivan Dixon to create an adventure game pitch, and it’s better than a chocolate babka.
Created as an unofficial pitch with no involvement from the show or a network, the Seinfeld Adventure introduction shows off what a classic point-and-click game would look like with Jerry, Elaine, George, Kramer, and Newman.
It would feature an inventory system that includes some of the show’s famous items, including Junior Mints candy and a black-and-white cookie, and Jerry’s apartment was faithfully recreated for the video. There’s even a marble rye loaf on his table, which he likely stole from an elderly woman on the streets of Manhattan.
Janerka and Dixon want to get the proper license to develop the game for real, and decided the pitch would be the best way to prove their talent.
“We want to do this the official way. However, we believe that pitching to the internet will show the demand for such a game, which will provide a better chance of this becoming a thing than us just sending a cold email,” the duo said.
Should the game become a reality, it would be fairly short–around the length of an episode of the show, with room for more episodes as DLC. The game would feature slightly modernized plot beats, including email, which was still fairly new when the show aired.
The developers encourage using the hashtag #seinfeldgame on Twitter in order to show support. If they’re given permission to move forward, they’ll next turn to funding development, yada yada yada, then a game will come out.
Competitive gaming has changed over the last few months, with in-person events canceled, but Riot Games’ new Valorant aims to inject some new life into the scene with a high-profile event. The ESPN Esports Valorant Invitational starts tomorrow, April 20, and it includes professional players from some of the biggest games on the planet.
The tournament will last until April 22, and it should be interesting to see how the different games’ professional players adapt. Most of them are shooters already, with the only exception being League of Legends, but the tactical gameplay style could give the CS:GO and Rainbow Six Siege teams an advantage.
Valorant includes a “show blood” toggle in its settings in order to make the game more suitable for broadcasts. Riot Games mandates that broadcasters disable blood during competition.
Valorant is currently in closed beta testing, and you can get into the beta using a key by watching streams. It will officially release on PC later this summer, with its final launch date still unannounced.
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The Stalk Market is Animal Crossing: New Horizon’s produce-based equivalent to Wall Street. Every week turnip-selling boar Daisy Mae will visit your island and can sell you turnips which will either appreciate or depreciate in value as the week goes on.
In the online-era, Animal Crossing players have discovered ways to bend the system in their favor. A network of Stalk Market tracking has made it so that anybody with an internet connection can usually find a good deal on turnips that can yield millions in Bells.
But if you want the best deals, you would do well to remember your manners.
What is the Stalk Market?
The Stalk Market is supposed to emulate the real-life Stock Market and all its fluctuations. The goal is to buy your Turnips at a low price then sell them at the highest possible price for a nice profit. But because both the Stalk and Stock Market are governed by arcane rules, it’s hard to predict how the market will grow or fall over the course of a week.
Normally, this would mean that there’s a good chance you buy turnips only to have a lousy week and are forced to sell your stalk for a loss.
How to Get Turnips
If you’re interested in getting into the turnip trade, you’ve got to make sure you’re available on Sunday mornings. The turnip seller, Daisy Mae, will be somewhere on your island every Sunday from 5 AM to 12 PM so long as you’ve unlocked Nook’s Cranny. Then, you can buy as many turnips as you can afford. If you don’t see her, she may be hiding behind some trees. She’s small and can be easy to miss!
Daisy Mae only sells turnips in bundles of 10. This means Bells go fast when you’re shopping with her, so be sure to save plenty before she comes around on Sunday morning. And remember, you cannot plant turnips and you definitely shouldn’t eat them.
For more information on the Animal Crossing turnip trade, like suggestions on how to store all your new turnips, be sure to visit IGN’s turnip guide.
The two most popular turnip tracking apps online are turnipprophet.io and Turnip Calculator. They basically use the same information, so it really depends on which UI you prefer. But in both cases, players can plug in the price in they bought their turnips on Sunday, then plug in the selling price on their islands twice each day for a price prediction.
The algorithm calculates what kind of trend your Stalk Market is on and gives you a range of potential sale prices for the week. With these tools, you can tell as early as Monday whether your turnip prices are headed for the high hundreds or set to drop below market value.
You Can Make It So You Never Sell Your Turnips for a Loss
Knowing your turnip prices for the week is just half the battle. It doesn’t matter if you know what your sell prices are looking for the week if you’re already on a descending pattern, destined to sell at a huge loss.
Luckily, players can sell their turnips on other people’s islands making it so that anyone can find a good selling price for their turnips, even if their own island is tracking low. Just remember to sell them before the next Sunday rolls in. If you wait until the week is over, all your turnips will rot.
How to Find a Good Turnip Price
Finding a good turnip price is probably easier now than ever. The Animal Crossing subreddit is usually filled with players advertising their high turnip prices, and there are many homegrown Discord servers and Slack channels where players share their turnip prices with friends. Even a quick search for turnips on Twitter can yield results of a generous player who’s open to letting strangers on their islands.
But letting other players onto your island can be a troublesome process because of wait times and a max island occupancy of nine, including the host. That’s why it’s not very convenient to try and get a hundred strangers lined-up to go to your island.
One service called Turnip Exchange does a good job of streamlining the process and is probably the best way to handle strangers trying to get onto your island to sell their turnips. The way it works is that a host can create a queue for their island that will automatically share their Dodo Code with players organized into a virtual line.
The Dodo Code will only be shared with a limited number of players at a time, so there will never be more than the desired number of players on an island at any given time. This gives players time to sell their turnips and leave while preventing too many players from attempting to fly to the island at one time.
Players don’t get any benefits for opening up their islands for turnip sales. So anytime someone offers their Dodo Codes to strangers, it’s at some personal cost. They have to keep their Switch on so players can keep coming to the island, and they’ll need to check in periodically to make sure that their system doesn’t fall asleep. Plus, it’s stressful having potentially hundreds of strangers converge on your island.
As such, there’s some informal etiquette that’s developed among the community. For example, it’s polite to leave a tip whether it’s Bells or materials. Hosts will sometimes specify if they appreciate tips or not, but it’s not a bad idea to leave behind some of your new earnings, especially if you’re potentially making millions from a lucrative turnip selling price. A 10% tip or materials like iron ore are customary.
You may want to consider building a fenced path that goes between your airport to Nook’s Cranny if you’re opening your island to strangers. This will prevent them from exploring your island and will likely help you turnip queue go a bit faster.
How to Make Millions on Turnips… With Some Cheating
If you’re not averse to a bit of time travel in Animal Crossing, you can use a friend’s high turnip prices to make an absurd amount of money quickly.
Turnip prices will always change if you time travel to a day that had high prices in your own game, but an individual’s time manipulation can’t affect games outside their own. That being said, you can set your system clock to early morning Sunday, invest in a ton of turnips, and travel to a island with high turnip prices and sell.
You can keep going back to your Sunday, buying more, and selling, but be sure to get the approval of your friend to make multiple trips or consider visiting different islands. You can see the exact steps to accomplishing this in the video above.
As mentioned in the previous section, it’s highly recommended you leave a tip or some significant compensation if you’re making bank on turnips, especially with this method.
