Epic has been giving away free PC games on a weekly basis since December 2018, but the distraction feels needed more than ever these days. The latest pair of free games—The Stanley Parable and Watch Dogs–are available to claim now, but Epic has also revealed the two games we can look forward to snagging next week. Figment and Tormenter x Punisher will be free starting March 26 at 8 AM PT / 11 AM ET until April 2. To claim any Epic free games, you just need a free account, and afterward, they’ll be yours to keep.
Figment is a gorgeous action-adventure game with hand-drawn environments and a fantastic soundtrack. It takes you on a trip through the human mind, which is illustrated with trippy, colorful visuals reminiscent of M.C. Escher and Dalí. You’ll take control of a mopey drunk named Dusty, who must navigate this strange world fighting nightmarish enemies who aim to spread fear and overcome mental obstacles, growing into a heroic guardian by the end. The game earned a 7/10 in GameSpot’s Figment review.
“Figment is at once lighthearted and deep. It reminds us that dark things may lurk underneath otherwise pleasant surfaces, that grumpy egos may populate the shuttered houses of an otherwise beautiful mind,” wrote critic Leif Johnson. “Sometimes Figment seems a little too silly for its ambitions, but that frivolity never manages to fully drown out its overarching message–that if we persevere and have a little faith in our abilities, things will likely turn out well in the long run. Or, at least, we’ll learn how to live with the pain.”
You’ll also be able to snag Tormenter x Punisher, which is great if you like to let out stress by playing a chaotic, fast-paced video game. Tormenter x Punisher is a top-down action game where all enemies can be killed in one hit–including bosses and yourself. You’ll have to survive the onslaught of enemies, which adapt to your play style, and get new upgrades by killing demons in creative ways. We haven’t reviewed this one, but it currently has a Very Positive 9/10 rating on Steam, so it’s worth grabbing while it’s free next week.
Following the reveal of Overwatch‘s newest Damage hero Echo, game director Jeff Kaplan said Blizzard has “multiple tanks and supports in development,” addressing concerns relating to role availability.
Kaplan made the comment in a recent developer livestream, where he noted the number of Damage characters Overwatch has when compared to other roles. As it stands, there are 17 Damage heroes, eight Tanks, and seven Supports in total. Overwatch’s roster, with the inclusion of Echo, is 53% damage-focused.
“I know a lot of people are going to be like, ‘Oh my gosh, she should have been a support,'” Kaplan said. “We have multiple tanks and supports in development. So we know that more Tanks and supports are needed, and we want to deliver on those too.”
Lead designer Geoff Goodman added: “The original idea was to keep her support, and then you’d be able to do this full clone ability that she has now. But then, pretty quickly, we realized that ultimate is really cool, but it’s not really going to work as a support, because I don’t think you really want your healer to suddenly become a tank or DPS, and now you don’t have a healer. Whereas somebody in the DPS role is much more flexible. Now you have a tank, now you have a healer. So it feels like, if we’re going to do that kind of thing with swapping roles, you probably should start in the damage category. So that’s when we started going down to the damage route and developed the rest of her kit to support that.”
With Overwatch now using a role queue system in its main multiplayer modes, those seeking to play Damage face much longer wait times than those playing Support or Tank as the game searches for roles to fill out. Blizzard is testing out an experimental card with modifiers that “might be awesome or might not ever make it past the ‘Experimental’ stage,” according to community manager Josh Nash. This could be used to alleviate issues with team and role composition. The first experiment being tested, which went live on February 25 on all platforms, is a “Triple Damage” mode that sees the current 2-2-2 hero queue system replaced with one Tank, three Damage, and two Support.
Blizzard had been teasing Echo for a while now, using the name “Liao” as a means to set up Overwatch’s 32nd hero. Since her announcement, we’ve learned that Mina Liao is an artificial intelligence researcher who programmed Echo to help the world and battle alongside the Overwatch team. We went hands-on with her during an Overwatch preview event, where we discovered that even though Echo is a Damage hero, she can fit just about any situation with devastating effect.
It’s unclear when these new Tank and Support characters will make it into the game, particularly as Blizzard continues development on Overwatch 2. Around the time the sequel was announced, Kaplan confirmed another hero that is in development: Sojourn. With Overwatch 2 development underway, Blizzard said the two games will share DNA, meaning most of everything will carry over between Overwatch and Overwatch 2. Further, Overwatch will continue to receive new content alongside Overwatch 2.
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The latest Call of Duty from Infinity Ward shipped without an answer to Black Ops 4’s Blackout, but it has since been supplemented by Warzone–a completely standalone battle royale built off of the backbone of Modern Warfare. Not only is it a smarter way to ensure it’s not tied to each annual release in the series, but Warzone gives the series its own identity within the competitive genre.
It might not be apparent at first, though, especially when you take into consideration how much Warzone borrows from other popular battle royale games. It incorporates a ping system similar to the one in Apex Legends, letting you tag enemy positions, points of interest, and loot for teammates at the press of a button (albeit mapped to a button that’s harder to reach quickly, mitigating some of its convenience). It plays out on a massive map akin to PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, where large swathes of open land are ripe for snipers while dense suburbs make for exhilarating and chaotic close-quarters skirmishes. And like the ones in Fortnite, color-coded chests overflowing with loot are easy to hunt down when you are within earshot of their signature emanating jingle.
None of these competitors are defined solely by the elements Warzone borrows from them, and Warzone isn’t defined by the sum of their parts. Instead, Warzone uses them to establish a solid foundation for its own distinct elements. It starts with a larger player count than the aforementioned battle royale games, with Warzone currently supporting up to 150 players per match, with modes for three-person squads or solo play. Having so many players active at once keeps you constantly on alert, but also increases the odds that you’ll at least have some action (and likely a handful of kills) each match. This makes even some of the least successful drops feel worthwhile–even if your entire match lasts only a handful of minutes, you’ll likely get some valuable time in with some weapons, better preparing you for another fight in the next match.
You’re likely to feel right at home with many areas of Warzone’s map, too, if you’ve already been playing Modern Warfare. Many of its named areas use identical layouts as those in Modern Warfare proper as well as previous installments, so you can navigate them using muscle memory–and they’re intuitive enough to learn from scratch, too. Breaking up large swathes of dangerously open fields are dense and cramped suburbs filled with tall high-rises or mazes of storage rooms. It’s easy to lose pursuers in the twisting streets of Downtown or hide in the large industrial factories of the Lumberyard, rewarding your memory of their respective layouts as you turn an ambush into an opportunity to attack. Large buildings can get frustrating with their long stairwells as loot is only hidden on the ground and top floors, but even these force you to think about what advantages you might reap with the extra elevation against the disadvantages of trapping yourself in a narrow hallway to get there first.
Warzone minimizes downtime, encouraging you to get into a fight with an aggressively fast closing circle and streamlined mechanics governing your loot. Unlike most other games in the genre, Warzone doesn’t task you with micro-managing items in a limited-space backpack. Instead, you have pre-defined slots of ammunition types, armour-plating, and cash. The rest of your loadout works identically to a standard Modern Warfare multiplayer match–you have two weapon slots, one lethal grenade and one utility grenade slot each, and one slot for field equipment (perks like FMJ ammunition, recon drones, and more).
Weapons drop with attachments already equipped based on their overall rarity (this ranges from the stock white drops to fully kitted-out orange ones), and there’s no option to customize them outside of what they already feature. This makes early looting extremely quick. It’s easy to find two suitable primary weapons and stockpile some ammunition early on, which lets you focus more on hunting other players than staying out of sight in pursuit of attachments to your gear. It also feeds into Warzone’s changes to both an in-game economy and its principles around respawning, both of which benefit from allowing you to go from your starting pistol to battle-ready in a few minutes flat.
Cash is central to Warzone’s spin on the genre. You earn cash by looting it, killing other players, or completing small optional objectives (such as hunting down another player or securing an area for a short time). Buy stations are littered around the map, and if you have the cash, you can spend it on useful killsteaks like UAVs, airstrikes, and shield turrets–but also on useful gear like additional armour-plating and self-revive kits. The most expensive purchase is a full loadout drop, letting you airdrop in a crate and equip your squad with their own handcrafted loadouts and perks from their own inventories.
This is the largest twist in Warzone in terms of its effect on the overall focus of the mode. Other battle royales force you to make do with what you can scavenge, but Warzone shifts that focus on collecting as much cash as you can and getting the loadout of your choice. Despite being the most expensive purchase right now, it’s incredibly easy for a team of three players to collectively gather enough money within the opening moments of a match to secure their premade loadouts. It’s already common to find players using thermal scopes and the Cold-Blooded perk to combat it, but generally, the inclusion of a loadout drop dilutes the dynamism of matches by making loot count for a lot less. It’s no longer a scrappy rush to try and equip yourself with what you can find, but a brief interlude before hunting other players with weapons you’ve specifically chosen for Warzone and its structure.
I found more fun in matches where I was playing on the edge, forced to make do with average-rated weapons with poor scopes that forced me to pick my battles wisely. There’s opportunity for this not only at the start of a Warzone match, but throughout one, too, thanks to a liberal respawn system that frequently feeds you back into the game. When you’re killed for the first time, you’re transported to the Gulag and forced to face off against one other player to secure your freedom and respawn into the match. Set in a cramped shower room in a derelict prison, these bouts are quick and messy, rewarding fast reflexes and pinpoint aim. It feels great to earn your place back in a match after a disappointing death, but it also places you immediately on the backfoot as you’re spawned back in without any of your loot. This is especially challenging to overcome when playing solo, where you can’t rely on your teammates to secure your landing or help you find new weapons with some security.
If you fail in the Gulag, or subsequently die after having respawned, you can still be revived indefinitely by teammates at buy stations (if you’re playing with a squad, of course). There’s a hefty fee attributed to each respawn, but it’s low enough to encourage your squad to seek out your revival without giving up on it entirely once you’ve gone down. It also redefines what a death means in battle royale. Warzone doesn’t let you linger after a successful skirmish, forcing you to hurry through your opponents’ dropped loot and prepare for the possibility of retaliation. It keeps you looking over your shoulder at all times, scanning the horizon for a vengeful scope taking aim at your head. It’s equally exhilarating to lose to a squad and deliver retribution after a quick visit to the Gulag. Fighting back from nothing to overcome your rivals is incredibly rewarding whether you’re playing with a team or solo, though in squads you have more opportunities to do so.
In addition to Warzone’s standard battle royale mode is Plunder, which is far less noteworthy than the main attraction despite being a new game mode entirely. Set on the same map and with the same 150 players split into teams of three, Plunder shifts the objective from survival to looting. The overall goal is to hoard as much cash as you can, depositing your personal stashes at helicopter drop points similar to those in The Division’s Dark Zone. Squads currently leading the standings are marked on the map, giving you a clear view of your competitors and attracting players to common areas for largely chaotic fights. Respawns are unlimited in Plunder too; dying only penalizes you by resetting your carried cash and forcing you to sit through a lengthy respawn timer.
Plunder is sound mechanically, but it’s simply unexciting. The matches take far too long, limited to either 30 minutes or until a squad has collectively banked $1 million. For the most part the majority of players are centralized on one part of the map, all fighting over the same pool of money in firefights where bullets are coming from every direction. Even though rattle royale lacks a strict structure, its closing circle does move players in a common direction, which forces dynamic skirmishes that can lead to exciting and unexpected gameplay stories. Plunder’s static nature lacks the same excitement.
Warzone is a great sophomore attempt at a battle royale from Call of Duty, which finally manages to carve out its own identity with interesting spins on the existing formula. Its subversion of death and the nail-biting Gulag duels give you more ways to stay in a match, while also forcing you to be aware of your surroundings even after wiping a rival squad. Its looting is streamlined enough to make early moments feel fast, but Warzone also loses some of the messy magic from hobbled together loadouts by letting you drop in prebuilt ones far too easily and frequently. Still, if you’re comfortable with Call of Duty’s latest iteration of multiplayer antics and thrive in the stressful setting of battle royales, Warzone is a strong contender for your attention.
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All hail the King(s Canyon) 👑 Squad up and drop in on Season 2 Kings Canyon starting tomorrow, March 20, through March 23. See you Legends there. pic.twitter.com/BTvsKunl5h
Since the move to World’s Edge at the start of Season 3: Meltdown, Apex Legends has seen the return of Kings Canyon several times for limited-time events or weekends. Given Respawn’s desire to present more options to players when playing Apex Legends (like adding Solos or Duos as permanent modes) in the future, it’s possible the developer could be using these temporary returns to the battle royale game’s original map to test how to best implement two maps at the same time.
Justice League Mortal will forever be known as one of the great superhero movies that never was. But now we have a slightly better idea of how that movie would have looked, as a new image of Armie Hammer’s Batman cowl has surfaced online.
Here’s a color-corrected image that gives a slightly better idea of how the finished product would have looked:
This art suggests Hammer’s Batsuit would have been more heavily comic-inspired than that of fellow Batman actor Christian Bale. Whether Hammer would have been able to turn his head in this costume is another matter entirely.
In fact, the long ears, sculpted browlines and generally sleek quality of the mask hearken very closely to the painted art of Alex Ross:
This isn’t the first time Unicomb has given fans a glimpse of this canceled Justice League movie. In 2019 he posted another piece of concept art showing a very different take on Hammer’s Batsuit. While retaining the classic gray, black and yellow color scheme of the comics, the execution was much different in this case.
Unicomb wrote, “The costume was a mixture of Kevlar and chain mail with a kind-of robotic exo-skeleton under his arms, legs and back designed to help Bruce fight crime even when his body was in its most broken state. Reflective paint over the eyes and chest would catch any available light, heightening his intimidating figure in the darkness. Thick padding around the neck would make sure no blows to the neck or throat would incapacitate him during battle. This was a concept that never went [past] this initial ‘discovery stage’ during development.”
This abandoned suit sounds like it was inspired more by Ross’ design in 1996’s Kingdom Come, which featured an older Bruce Wayne wearing an exoskeleton to support a body battered by years of fighting crime. That comic also inspired the look of Kevin Conroy’s live-action Bruce Wayne in the Arrowverse’s recent Crisis on Infinite Earths crossover.
For those who don’t remember, Justice League Mortal would have been directed by George Miller (Mad Max: Fury Road) and was set to star Armie Hammer (Call Me by Your Name) as Batman, D.J. Cotrona (From Dusk Till Dawn series) as Superman, Adam Brody (The O.C.) as The Flash, Santiago Cabrera (Transformers: The Last Knight) as Aquaman, Megan Gale (Mad Max: Fury Road) as Wonder Woman, Hugh Keays-Byrne (Mad Max: Fury Road) as Martian Manhunter and Common (Suicide Squad) as Green Lantern. Fans got a small glimpse of the entire Justice League Mortal cast in 2018, when Collider acquired a very low-res costume test photo featuring all seven League members.
A new set of Fortnite Season 2 challenges is now live. Week 5 brings us the first batch of Meowscles Mischief challenges, and while a number of them have you doing cat-like things like consuming fish and surviving high falls, one of the more involved missions asks you to visit three different locations: Shipwreck Cove, Flopper Pond, and the Yacht. If you’re not sure where those are located, we’ve put together this guide to help you out.
Where Are Shipwreck Cove, Flopper Pond, And The Yacht Locations?
Unlike Week 5’s other location challenge (which asks you to visit Coral Cove, Stack Shack, and the crash site), the three areas you need to visit for this mission are spread out all over the island. The easiest to find is the Yacht; it’s the giant boat in the middle of grid square H1.
The other two areas are a bit more obscure. Shipwreck Cove is in the lower southeast corner of the map in grid square H7, while Flopper Pond can be found just northeast of Holly Hedges, in grid square C5. We’ve marked down where all three areas are on the map below.
Fortnite Shipwreck Cover, Flopper Pond, and Yacht locations
How To Complete The Challenge
Once you know where all three areas are located, all you need to do is make your way to each one and you’ll complete the challenge. Fortunately, you don’t need to visit all three within a single match, although you might be able to if you manage to snag one of the new Choppas. These can be found at helipads around the island, one of which is located on the Yacht, so you can land there, hop in a Choppa, and try to fly to the other two locations to complete the challenge quickly.
Season 2 of Fortnite is slated to end in April, so there are still a few weeks’ worth of challenges on the way. If you need help completing any, we’ve rounded up all of our maps and guides for this season’s trickier missions in our Fortnite Season 2 challenges hub. Be sure to also check out our Fortnite Season 2 roundup to catch up on everything that’s new in the game this season.
If you absolutely cannot get enough of Star Wars’ The Mandalorian and, more specifically, its adorable Baby Yoda, Hot Toys and Sideshow have revealed a new articulating figurine that you might not be able to resist–if you have both the money and patience.
Hot Toys creates remarkably screen-accurate figures in multiple sizes and already has multiple figures of The Mandalorian on his own. Now, there are new collectible sets inspired by The Mandalorian, and they look fantastic. The new deluxe set features The Mandalorian in his new armor and a tiny replica of Baby Yoda for you to have him watch over. It’s adorable, but it sells for a whopping $313.
The Mandalorian and The Child (Deluxe Edition) | $313
The Deluxe version includes a host of additional extras for you to find that perfect pose, whether you want Mando to be flying through the air with his magnetically attached jetpack, taking aim with his signature rifle, or just chilling out with The Child in his floating carriage.
The Mandalorian and The Child (standard set) | $259
There’s also a standard version of the set (which includes only Mando and The Child with fewer accessories) that retails for $259. You can pre-order both the standard and Deluxe collectible sets today, but you’ll have to wait until April 2021 at the earliest to get them.
The latest Call of Duty from Infinity Ward shipped without an answer to Black Ops 4’s Blackout, but it has since been supplemented by Warzone–a completely standalone battle royale built off of the backbone of Modern Warfare. Not only is it a smarter way to ensure it’s not tied to each annual release in the series, but Warzone gives the series its own identity within the competitive genre.
It might not be apparent at first, though, especially when you take into consideration how much Warzone borrows from other popular battle royale games. It incorporates a ping system similar to the one in Apex Legends, letting you tag enemy positions, points of interest, and loot for teammates at the press of a button (albeit mapped to a button that’s harder to reach quickly, mitigating some of its convenience). It plays out on a massive map akin to PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, where large swathes of open land are ripe for snipers while dense suburbs make for exhilarating and chaotic close-quarters skirmishes. And like the ones in Fortnite, color-coded chests overflowing with loot are easy to hunt down when you are within earshot of their signature emanating jingle.
None of these competitors are defined solely by the elements Warzone borrows from them, and Warzone isn’t defined by the sum of their parts. Instead, Warzone uses them to establish a solid foundation for its own distinct elements. It starts with a larger player count than the aforementioned battle royale games, with Warzone currently supporting up to 150 players per match, with modes for three-person squads or solo play. Having so many players active at once keeps you constantly on alert, but also increases the odds that you’ll at least have some action (and likely a handful of kills) each match. This makes even some of the least successful drops feel worthwhile–even if your entire match lasts only a handful of minutes, you’ll likely get some valuable time in with some weapons, better preparing you for another fight in the next match.
You’re likely to feel right at home with many areas of Warzone’s map, too, if you’ve already been playing Modern Warfare. Many of its named areas use identical layouts as those in Modern Warfare proper as well as previous installments, so you can navigate them using muscle memory–and they’re intuitive enough to learn from scratch, too. Breaking up large swathes of dangerously open fields are dense and cramped suburbs filled with tall high-rises or mazes of storage rooms. It’s easy to lose pursuers in the twisting streets of Downtown or hide in the large industrial factories of the Lumberyard, rewarding your memory of their respective layouts as you turn an ambush into an opportunity to attack. Large buildings can get frustrating with their long stairwells as loot is only hidden on the ground and top floors, but even these force you to think about what advantages you might reap with the extra elevation against the disadvantages of trapping yourself in a narrow hallway to get there first.
Warzone minimizes downtime, encouraging you to get into a fight with an aggressively fast closing circle and streamlined mechanics governing your loot. Unlike most other games in the genre, Warzone doesn’t task you with micro-managing items in a limited-space backpack. Instead, you have pre-defined slots of ammunition types, armour-plating, and cash. The rest of your loadout works identically to a standard Modern Warfare multiplayer match–you have two weapon slots, one lethal grenade and one utility grenade slot each, and one slot for field equipment (perks like FMJ ammunition, recon drones, and more).
Weapons drop with attachments already equipped based on their overall rarity (this ranges from the stock white drops to fully kitted-out orange ones), and there’s no option to customize them outside of what they already feature. This makes early looting extremely quick. It’s easy to find two suitable primary weapons and stockpile some ammunition early on, which lets you focus more on hunting other players than staying out of sight in pursuit of attachments to your gear. It also feeds into Warzone’s changes to both an in-game economy and its principles around respawning, both of which benefit from allowing you to go from your starting pistol to battle-ready in a few minutes flat.
Cash is central to Warzone’s spin on the genre. You earn cash by looting it, killing other players, or completing small optional objectives (such as hunting down another player or securing an area for a short time). Buy stations are littered around the map, and if you have the cash, you can spend it on useful killsteaks like UAVs, airstrikes, and shield turrets–but also on useful gear like additional armour-plating and self-revive kits. The most expensive purchase is a full loadout drop, letting you airdrop in a crate and equip your squad with their own handcrafted loadouts and perks from their own inventories.
This is the largest twist in Warzone in terms of its effect on the overall focus of the mode. Other battle royales force you to make do with what you can scavenge, but Warzone shifts that focus on collecting as much cash as you can and getting the loadout of your choice. Despite being the most expensive purchase right now, it’s incredibly easy for a team of three players to collectively gather enough money within the opening moments of a match to secure their premade loadouts. It’s already common to find players using thermal scopes and the Cold-Blooded perk to combat it, but generally, the inclusion of a loadout drop dilutes the dynamism of matches by making loot count for a lot less. It’s no longer a scrappy rush to try and equip yourself with what you can find, but a brief interlude before hunting other players with weapons you’ve specifically chosen for Warzone and its structure.
I found more fun in matches where I was playing on the edge, forced to make do with average-rated weapons with poor scopes that forced me to pick my battles wisely. There’s opportunity for this not only at the start of a Warzone match, but throughout one, too, thanks to a liberal respawn system that frequently feeds you back into the game. When you’re killed for the first time, you’re transported to the Gulag and forced to face off against one other player to secure your freedom and respawn into the match. Set in a cramped shower room in a derelict prison, these bouts are quick and messy, rewarding fast reflexes and pinpoint aim. It feels great to earn your place back in a match after a disappointing death, but it also places you immediately on the backfoot as you’re spawned back in without any of your loot. This is especially challenging to overcome when playing solo, where you can’t rely on your teammates to secure your landing or help you find new weapons with some security.
If you fail in the Gulag, or subsequently die after having respawned, you can still be revived indefinitely by teammates at buy stations (if you’re playing with a squad, of course). There’s a hefty fee attributed to each respawn, but it’s low enough to encourage your squad to seek out your revival without giving up on it entirely once you’ve gone down. It also redefines what a death means in battle royale. Warzone doesn’t let you linger after a successful skirmish, forcing you to hurry through your opponents’ dropped loot and prepare for the possibility of retaliation. It keeps you looking over your shoulder at all times, scanning the horizon for a vengeful scope taking aim at your head. It’s equally exhilarating to lose to a squad and deliver retribution after a quick visit to the Gulag. Fighting back from nothing to overcome your rivals is incredibly rewarding whether you’re playing with a team or solo, though in squads you have more opportunities to do so.
In addition to Warzone’s standard battle royale mode is Plunder, which is far less noteworthy than the main attraction despite being a new game mode entirely. Set on the same map and with the same 150 players split into teams of three, Plunder shifts the objective from survival to looting. The overall goal is to hoard as much cash as you can, depositing your personal stashes at helicopter drop points similar to those in The Division’s Dark Zone. Squads currently leading the standings are marked on the map, giving you a clear view of your competitors and attracting players to common areas for largely chaotic fights. Respawns are unlimited in Plunder too; dying only penalizes you by resetting your carried cash and forcing you to sit through a lengthy respawn timer.
Plunder is sound mechanically, but it’s simply unexciting. The matches take far too long, limited to either 30 minutes or until a squad has collectively banked $1 million. For the most part the majority of players are centralized on one part of the map, all fighting over the same pool of money in firefights where bullets are coming from every direction. Even though rattle royale lacks a strict structure, its closing circle does move players in a common direction, which forces dynamic skirmishes that can lead to exciting and unexpected gameplay stories. Plunder’s static nature lacks the same excitement.
Warzone is a great sophomore attempt at a battle royale from Call of Duty, which finally manages to carve out its own identity with interesting spins on the existing formula. Its subversion of death and the nail-biting Gulag duels give you more ways to stay in a match, while also forcing you to be aware of your surroundings even after wiping a rival squad. Its looting is streamlined enough to make early moments feel fast, but Warzone also loses some of the messy magic from hobbled together loadouts by letting you drop in prebuilt ones far too easily and frequently. Still, if you’re comfortable with Call of Duty’s latest iteration of multiplayer antics and thrive in the stressful setting of battle royales, Warzone is a strong contender for your attention.
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The European Union has urged Netflix and other streaming services to restrict users from streaming in high definition to help to ease bandwidth strain amid concerns of surges in online traffic during the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic despite there being no reports of outages or adverse affects at this time.
As reported by CNN, European Commissioner Thierry Breton has asked streamers to switch the quality of its movies and TV shows from high definition to standard definition in order to manage the increased demand from users who are at home due to forced lockdowns.
In a tweet on Wednesday, Breton confirmed that he had spoken to Netflix CEO Reed Hastings about the issue, as he encouraged people and companies to “switch to standard definition when HD is not necessary” to avoid putting infrastructures “in strain” and ensure that everyone has “secure internet access.”
In a secondary statement on Thursday, Breton stressed the importance of streaming platforms, telecom operators, and users taking the necessary action to reduce congestion and to safeguard the “smooth functioning of the internet during the battle against the virus propagation.”
A Netflix spokesperson told CNN, “Commissioner Breton is right to highlight the importance of ensuring that the internet continues to run smoothly during this critical time. We’ve been focused on network efficiency for many years, including providing our open connect service for free to telecommunications companies.”
The streaming giant also confirmed that it already takes measures to reduce the consumption of bandwidth by adjusting stream quality based on available network capacity and using a special network to deliver its library of content. Further, there have been no reports of outages or adverse affects as a result of the increased usage so far.
At the moment of writing, cities in the USA have been following the lead of many in Europe with mandatory lockdowns. San Francisco and Los Angeles, California both announced lockdowns that include mandatory work-from-home policies, and shutting down bars and other high-risk gathering spaces. The most recent World Health Organization confirmed over 200 thousand cases globally, though that number increases every day.
Consequently, people have been looking for ways to connect with their friends without having to leave the comfort of their sofas, with many turning to Netflix Party, a Google Chrome extension that allows multiple users to stream a Netflix show or movie together at the same time. This in itself shows a shift in behaviour as more and more people move towards indoor activities and creative connectivity at this unprecedented time.
For a list of recommendations on how best to help, and stay safe, during the Coronavirus pandemic, please read our resource guide.
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Adele Ankers is a Freelance Entertainment Journalist. You can reach her on Twitter.
A teaser trailer features the infamous agent conversing with a member of the Ghosts present on Auroa–the fictional island that is home to the armed-drone nightmare of Breakpoint’s main campaign. Fisher also mentions Terminators, which references a limited-time event that was previously live in Breakpoint where players could hunt down a T-800. You can watch the teaser below.
This isn’t the first time Splinter Cell and Ghost Recon have crossed over. Sam Fisher previously appeared in Ghost Recon: Wildlands for a similar purpose, giving players an additional mission to undertake with the night-vision goggles wearing soldier.
It’s a pity that this is really the only time we get to see Sam Fisher too, considering how long it’s been since Ubisoft developed a new entry in the Splinter Cell franchise. The last one, Blacklist, launched in 2013, and was pretty great. Critic Kevin Van Ord praised the stealth action and improvements over the hit or miss Conviction in our 8/10 Splinter Cell: Blacklist review. Its director, Jade Raymond, left Ubisoft shortly after it launched, going on to found EA Motive before also leaving and joining Google Stadia. Ubisoft’s CEO has previously explained why the wait for a new Splinter Cell has been so long.
Ghost Recon: Breakpoint has been far less well-received critically. Although Ubisoft is continuing to support it, critic Richard Wakeling found little to love in our 4/10 Ghost Recon: Breakpoint review, saying, “It’s essentially every Ubisoft open-world game rolled into one, failing to excel in any one area or establish its own identity. Breakpoint is a messy, confused game and a ghost of the series’ former self.”
