Once you get off the tutorial track, there are some activities you should consider doing first in RDR2 to get an early advantage.
Author: Trafficblast
Mayans Ends Season 2 With Huge Sons Of Anarchy Twist
If you thought the second season of Mayans MC was going to end with any sort of peace, you couldn’t have been more wrong. As per usual in this universe of shows that began with Sons of Anarchy, the Season 2 finale ended in a hail of bullets and blood, leaving fans on the edge of their seats as they wait for the next season to premiere. At the very least, we now know there will be a Season 3 of the series, even after the firing of co-creator and showrunner Kurt Sutter.
Warning: The following contains spoilers for the Mayans MC Season 2 finale, titled “Hunahpu.” If you haven’t seen the episode yet and don’t want to be spoiled, avert your eyes now. Otherwise, keep on reading as we dig deep into that massive cliffhanger.
There’s a lot to dissect from the episode, whether it’s the deal EZ (JD Pardo) and Angel (Clayton Cardenas) made with Potter (Ray McKinnon), or the Mayans going rogue against the rest of the club to exact revenge for the death of Riz in the last episode. The thing we need to talk about, though–and the thing that will surely be a massive focus next season–is what happens now that the Mayans have accidentally killed a member of the Sons of Anarchy.
One of Jax Teller’s (Charlie Hunnam) final acts on Sons of Anarchy was to finally put the long war between the Sons and the Mayans to rest. Since then, the two clans have had an alliance that has been very useful to the Mayans. After carrying out an assault on a Vatos Malditos gathering–behind the backs of the Mayans kings–the Santo Padre chapter realized that among those they gunned down was someone with a Sons patch.
We don’t see who was killed or what charter they’re from. It doesn’t really matter, though. To the Sons of Anarchy, this is practically a declaration of war–and it’s one that is sure to be bloody.
While EZ may have finally earned his patch in the finale, he now finds himself in a very dangerous place. His charter went against the wishes of the club to kill a rival gang and also managed to spark what will likely become a war with their greatest allies.
Dangerous times are ahead for the Mayans. However, it’s an exciting time to be a fan of this universe. A war with the Sons likely means even more Sons of Anarchy guest stars next season. Perhaps, at long last, we’ll get to see the return of Tig (Kim Coates), who was SAMCRO’s vice president by the time Sons of Anarchy came to a close.
Mayans will most likely return in 2020 on FX.
Fortnite Has Added A Strange New Weapon That’s Great For Both Fishing And Attacking
Fortnite‘s second chapter has introduced many changes, including a new map, new challenges, and a new fishing mechanic that lets you catch and eat fish that will boost your stats. And now, in the latest update, there’s a new multi-purpose weapon that’s equally good for catching fish and killing other players.
As Polygon has noted, a new harpoon weapon has been added to Fortnite as of the latest patch, and players have had access to it since Tuesday morning. The harpoon can be used to grab fish or loot from a distance, and while you need to wait for the fish to snag your line with the rod, you can fire the harpoon off and snag sealife right away. This will make it easier to nab those healing Slurpfish.
You can also use the harpoon to shoot other players, and it’s quite an effective weapon. If you shoot a harpoon into an enemy it’ll do 75 damage, and it also pulls them towards you–make sure they don’t have a shotgun equipped, or that your squad mates are ready to fire their own. Players will no doubt learn which combat scenarios the harpoon is and isn’t good in as they test it out in live matches.
Epic does not publish patch notes for Fortnite, so the new harpoon has been a surprise for players. In fact, Fortnite has been full of surprises since its launch–even Fortnite Chapter 2 was kept under wraps before it launched.
While you’re exploring the bodies of water throughout the map in Fortnite, be sure to look out for all the motorboat locations as well.
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Lord Of The Rings MMO Adds Seventh Expansion, Featuring New “Visions” Feature
Just like Blizzard’s World of Warcraft, the Lord of the Rings MMO continues to receive new expansions many years after release. The newest expansion for The Lord of the Rings Online is called Minas Morgul, and as its name suggests, it takes players to the dark and scary Dead City.
Intriguingly, the expansion’s narrative focuses on discovering untold “secrets and visions of the Second Age.” That’s curious because the Second Age is also when Amazon’s Lord of the Rings TV takes place, though the game and the show do not appear to be connected (more on that later).
“Players will infiltrate the city and visit other places of lingering evil in the region, such as the Houses of Lamentation,” reads a line from the press release. “With the defeat of Sauron and destruction of the One Ring, the remnants of Mordor’s armies struggle in the power vacuum, and it will be up to players to help ensure that the last traces of evil are routed from Middle-earth.”
When players visit the “Mordor Besieged” location, they can use Isildur’s shade to “participate in the visions of the Second Age.” In these visions, players will take on the role of a hero in a similar class to their own as they experience the events of the Second Age.
The new Minas Morgul expansion also raises LOTRO’s level cap to 130 and adds seven new instances. A new 12-person raid featuring Shelob the spider as the enemy is also included, as are 250 new quests. The Stout-axe Dwarf is being added as a new playable race.
The Minas Morgul expansion costs $40 USD for the standard version. The Collector’s Edition costs $80 while the Ultimate Fan Bundle runs you $130. Go to the LOTRO website to learn more about the various bundles.
LOTRO is developed by the Boston-based Standing Stone Games, which took over development on the game from WB Games Boston (formerly known as Turbine Inc.).
Amazon’s own game development studio is developing a free-to-play Lord of the Rings game that is based on the Lord of the Rings books. The game is separate from the Amazon show, despite Amazon working on both the game and the TV program. It remains to be seen what impact, if any, Amazon’s Lord of the Rings MMO will have on LOTRO.
Minas Morgul is the seventh expansion for LOTRO. It follows Mines of Moria (2008), Siege of Mirkwood (2009), Rise of Isengard (2011), Riders of Rohan (2012), Helm’s Deep (2013), and Mordor (2017).
In addition to this new MMO, Daedelic Entertainment is making a Lord of the Rings game that focuses on Gollum.
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Arrow’s Deathstroke Homage Misses the Point
Warning: this review contains full spoilers for Arrow: Season 8, Episode 4! If you need a refresher on where we left off, here’s our review for Season 8, Episode 3.
In addition to being a Crisis on Infinite Earths prelude, Arrow’s final season is both a greatest hits album and a way of tying up all the remaining loose ends from Season 7’s finale. The season premiere balanced all three needs surprisingly well, thrusting Ollie into an unfamiliar world and providing him with a taste of the cosmic disaster to come. Unfortunately, none of the subsequent episodes have managed to live up to that standard. “Present Tense” comes the closest so far, but it still squanders a golden opportunity to dust off one of the Arrowverse’s greatest villains.
The Flash Proves It Doesn’t Always Need Barry Allen.
Warning: this review contains full spoilers for The Flash: Season 6, Episode 5! If you need a refresher on where we left off, here’s our review for Season 6, Episode 4.
The Flash would definitely have viewers believe Barry Allen won’t make it out of Crisis on Infinite Earths alive. That outcome seems unlikely, especially without a potential replacement speedster waiting in the wings, but stranger things have happened in the Arrowverse. And whether or not Barry is doomed to die in two months, “Kiss Kiss Breach Breach” serves as a test case. Can The Flash function without its lead hero? As it turns out, the answer is “potentially.”
Frozen 2 Has Already Broken A Major Ticket Sales Record
Frozen 2, which will hit cinemas on November 22, has hit a major ticket sales milestone on the first day tickets went on sale.
Deadline is reporting that Frozen 2 has the highest first day ticket sales for an animated movie ever for ticket presellers Fandango and Atom Tickets. Toy Story 4 held the record for Fandango previously, followed by Incredibles 2, Finding Dory, and Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. Atom Tickets has said that the only film releasing over the holiday period outpacing Frozen 2 is Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.
Specific sales numbers have not been released, but Deadline is saying that sales have “eclipsed” the previous record. It bodes well for the sequel, which will follow Elsa and Anna on a new journey three years after the events of the first film. Disney has successfully kept many details about the film’s plot beyond this under wraps.
Previous record holder Toy Story 4 earned $118 million on its opening weekend, which was lower than anticipated but still very high, and the best opening for the Toy Story franchise. It went on to gross over $1 billion at the international box office, and Frozen 2 is expected to do the same; the original film earned $1.274 billion internationally.
This is not the first record that Frozen 2 has broken: its initial teaser trailer had 116.4 million views over its first 24 hours, which is the most ever for an animated movie.
Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare Weapon Tuning Update On The Way
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare got off to a great start with record-breaking sales and generally positive review scores. However, some players have remarked that the weapon balance isn’t exactly where it should be. Specifically, players are reporting that the M4 rifle and 725 shotgun are currently too powerful, and are negatively affecting the experience.
Modern Warfare’s multiplayer co-director, Joe Cecot, wrote on Twitter to confirm that “weapon tuning” changes are coming to the game in a future update. He did not say which weapons specifically will be addressed, but given the volume of feedback regarding the M4 and 725, it seems likely those weapons will be nerfed or changed in some capacity.
Some players have discovered that the 725, when augmented with special equipment, can actually act as a sniper rifle. Cecot replied to a video documenting this with the eyes emoji, which suggests the 725 may get nerfed in the new update to come.
There is no word yet on when the weapon tuning update will be released, but keep checking back with GameSpot for the latest.
Modern Warfare launched on October 25, and it needed just three days to bring in more than $600 million in sales. Its sales over its first three days were better than every other Call of Duty released during this generation of consoles.
Looking forward, developer Infinity Ward has plans to support Modern Warfare for a long time to come, beginning with a Battle Pass system that will add new cosmetic rewards on a regular schedule. The Battle Pass isn’t available yet but Activision says it will be live later in 2019.
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Martin Scorsese Clarifies His Controversial Comments On Marvel Movies
Martin Scorsese made waves when he said Marvel movies are “not cinema.” The famed Oscar-winning director has now clarified his remarks as part of an opinion piece for The New York Times–and he isn’t backing down.
Scorsese started off by stating that he does not detest Marvel, he just doesn’t see those types of superhero movies as “cinema” as he defines it. He said many franchise films are “made by people of considerable talent and artistry.” He doesn’t watch or enjoy Marvel movies because they do not personally appeal to his “taste and temperament.”
“I know that if I were younger, if I’d come of age at a later time, I might have been excited by these pictures and maybe even wanted to make one myself,” he said. “But I grew up when I did and I developed a sense of movies–of what they were and what they could be–that was as far from the Marvel universe as we on Earth are from Alpha Centauri.”
Scorsese–who won an Oscar for The Departed–said Marvel movies do in fact contain “many of the elements that define cinema as I know it.” However, he says he can’t call Marvel movies true cinema by his definition because they lack “revelation, mystery, or genuine emotional danger.”
“Nothing is at risk” in Marvel movies, Scorsese added. “The pictures are made to satisfy a specific set of demands, and they are designed as variations on a finite number of themes.”
The director went on to say Marvel movies are effectively remakes in spirit in part because they have gone through a process that removes a semblance of personality.
“Everything in them is officially sanctioned because it can’t really be any other way. That’s the nature of modern film franchises: market-researched, audience-tested, vetted, modified, revetted, and remodified until they’re ready for consumption,” he said.
Scorsese singled out directors like Kathryn Bigelow (Zero Dark Thirty, The Hurt Locker), Ari Aster (Hereditary, Midsommar), and Paul Thomas Anderson (There Will Be Blood, Punch-Drunk Love) as movie-makers who create experiences that deliver “something absolutely new.” Their movies take Scorsese to places of “unnameable areas of experience.”
The director said he’s sharing his opinions about Marvel movies, superhero movies, and franchise films because he sees them as a threat to the traditional movie-going experience. Movie theatres only have so many screens, so they choose to run sequels and franchise films, while independent theatres are losing ground.
“In many places around this country and around the world, franchise films are now your primary choice if you want to see something on the big screen,” he said. “It’s a perilous time in film exhibition, and there are fewer independent theaters than ever.”
“If you’re going to tell me that it’s simply a matter of supply and demand and giving the people what they want, I’m going to disagree,” he added. “It’s a chicken-and-egg issue. If people are given only one kind of thing and endlessly sold only one kind of thing, of course they’re going to want more of that one kind of thing.”
You can–and should–read Scorsese’s full piece at NYT to better understand the context of his comments, and gain a full understanding of what he’s saying and why.
Scorsese’s original comments inspired other directors to speak out as well. The Godfather director Francis Ford Coppola took things further, saying Marvel movies are “despicable.”
“I don’t know that anyone gets anything out of seeing the same movie over and over again. Martin was kind when he said it’s not cinema,” Coppola said. “He didn’t say it’s despicable, which I just say it is.”
Deadpool creator Rob Liefeld said Scorsese and Coppola are entitled to their opinions, while pointing out that Marvel, DC, and others will not stop making superhero movies just because Scorsese and Coppola don’t like them. Guardians of the Galaxy director James Gunn, meanwhile, said in a post on Instagram that no one should be surprised by the comments made by Scorsese and Coppola.
Scorsese’s next movie is The Irishman, starring Robert DeNiro, Joe Pesci, and Al Pacino. It is playing in select theatres now and debuts on Netflix on November 27.
Everspace 2 Surpasses Funding Target, Will Get Challenging Endgame Content
Everspace 2 has achieved its funding goal in the final two days of its crowdfunding campaign, ensuring that the sequel will get made.
The development team has thanked the community that supported Everspace 2’s Kickstarter in a blog post, stating that because of the support of backers they can now “make Everspace 2 the way we always wanted to: together with you, our fans and without having to cut important features or content from our core vision.”
The Kickstarter, which is now closed, made €503,478 from 7,979 backers, flying past Rockfish Games’ goal of €450,000 in the final 48 hours of the campaign. The campaign managed to clear its first stretch goal of €500,000 as well, which promises to add an area known as The Ancient’s Rift–“complete different rift challenges, survive as long as you can and unlock precious rewards, loot and experience.” This is an endgame zone that will challenge expert players.
The original Everspace released in 2016 on PC, and eventually made its way to consoles. Everspace 2 has been announced for PC, PS4 and Xbox One. While the original came to Switch, Nintendo’s console is not mentioned on the Kickstarter page, and on the Kickstarter’s FAQ Rockfish Games explain that the sequel is too technically advanced for Nintendo’s system. The sequel will offer a persistent open world, a 20-hour campaign, and a story that continues on from the first game. The team is estimating a Steam Early Access release in September 2020, and a full release for all platforms by the end of 2021.
Everspace 2 was playable at PAX West earlier this year, where we compared it to “Diablo in space“. It combines space shooting with some more terrestrial combat, and all your shooting and scavenging is in service of securing the best loot. A prototype demo will be sent out in December to backers who pledged €40 or more.
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