Author: Trafficblast

It looks like Steam is changing how user reviews work, and is now asking long-term players if their opinions have shifted over time.

It’s been a big year for Steam. In the face of increased competition from the Epic Games Store, Steam has started beta testing a visual overhaul for the service, and is looking to improve its curation services by recommending games that customers are less likely to already be familiar with.

Now it seems that Steam is trying to improve user reviews by recommending that players revisit their words once they’re deeper into games. Over on Steam’s Reddit page, user PunnyCasual has posted a screenshot of a Steam notification they received for Destiny 2. It reads: “You’ve played an additional 93 hours. Would you like to revise the review?”

This option will potentially encourage users to change reviews that were based on only the game’s initial hours, or which were critical of the launch state of a game that has since improved. Steam also recently added the option to filter user reviews by playtime, making easier to see the reactions from players who have spent a lot of time with the game you’re looking at.

Hopefully this will lead to an improved slate of user reviews on the service. Right now on Steam, several great horror games are discounted as part of the store’s Halloween sale. You can save on the Resident Evil 2 remake, Soma, Alan Wake, and more.

Game of Thrones showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss are no longer working on a new Star Wars trilogy.

As reported by Deadline, Benioff and Weiss “cited their historic deal with Netflix” and explained that “their enthusiasm for Star Wars remains boundless but, regrettably, their schedule is full up.”

“We love Star Wars,” Benioff and Weiss said. “When George Lucas built it, he built us too. Getting to talk about Star Wars with him and the current Star Wars team was the thrill of a lifetime, and we will always be indebted to the saga that changed everything. There are only so many hours in the day, and we felt we could not do justice to both Star Wars and our Netflix projects, so we are regretfully stepping away.”

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The Mandalorian received a brand new trailer today and it was filled with Star Wars goodness and hints of what is to come in the new series headed to Disney+.

We’ve gathered together 37 of the best images from the trailer and put them in a gallery with a bit more information on each each one. The images include everything from Pedro Pascal’s Mandalorian, Gina Carano’s Cara Dune, aliens in carbonite, Trandoshans and Quarrens, the Razor Crest ship, a cantina, IG-11, and even Bill Burr.

You can see all the best images from The Mandalorian’s new trailer below!

The Mandalorian will begin streaming on Disney+ on November 12, 2019, and the first impressions of this new Star Wars series are very positive.

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Death Stranding is nearing its release, and now it’s been confirmed that the launch trailer for the much-anticipated PlayStation 4 and PC game is coming very soon soon.

Hideo Kojima announced on Twitter that the launch trailer will be published sometime this week as part of the Paris Games Week event. He also confirmed that he personally edited the trailer. A still from the trailer shows dead whales, while another picture of the editing timeline suggests this may be a lengthy trailer. For comparison, the launch trailer for Kojima’s last game, Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, was 5 minutes in length.

A tweet from PlayStation France says Kojima will deliver some kind of “surprise” at Paris Games Week. The event runs October 30-November 3 in Paris.

In other news about Death Stranding, a PC version has been announced. It will be published by 505 Games, the Italian company behind games like Control, Payday 2, and the physical version of No Man’s Sky for Xbox One. Fans will have to wait a while, however, as Death Stranding for PC won’t launch until summer 2020.

The Death Stranding review embargo lifts on November 1, so that is when more detailed thoughts on Kojima’s latest game will start to appear online.

The game features a number of celebrity and developer cameos, the latest to be revealed being comedian and talk show host Conan O’Brien. Gears of War designer Cliff Bleszinski says he passed on the opportunity.

Microids has released an extended gameplay video of Blacksad: Under the Skin ahead of its release next week.

The game is a spin-off from Juan Díaz Canales and Juanjo Guarnido’s beloved ongoing French comic, and will cast players as the titular John Blacksad. It’s an adventure game, but it will not feature an inventory or a point-and-click interface. Instead, Blacksad: Under the Skin will give you direct control over the character and focus on observation and conversational choices, as well as your success or failure in quick time events.

The trailer below is an extended gameplay sequence, although it’s not clear whether this is from the final version of the game, due to release digitally on November 5 for PC, PS4 and Xbox One–there’s a distinct lack of sound effects throughout the footage.

John Blacksad will be able to use his heightened senses to hunt down clues in the game, which will be integral to forming conclusions and working through the game’s mysteries.

The story is set between the second and third books in the series, and will see John Blacksad investigating the death of a boxing club owner who died under mysterious circumstances. And, yes, the entire cast is made up of anthropomorphic animals.

In his preview of the game earlier this year, Jordan Ramée said that the game will have a heavy focus on morality, and examining the reasoning behind your own choices.

okemon Sword and Shield will invite players into the new Galar region next month. The location is packed with both brand new and returning Pokemon (albeit not all of them). It marks the beginning of the eighth generation of Pokemon games, and some fans might be wondering where these new games fit within the nebulous Pokemon timeline.

It’s never been properly clarified how much overlap there is between the various games in the series. While Gold/Silver are a direct sequel to Red/Blue, the timeline gets more confusing the longer you think about it. But according to the team at Game Freak, you shouldn’t look too deeply into how they all fit together.

In an interview with Game Informer, producer Junichi Masuda admitted that there’s no definite timeline for the Pokemon series, and that it’s best not to get too caught up trying to untangle it. “It starts to get a little complicated if you pay too much attention to timelines,” he said. “Like, there might be a professor that appears and it wouldn’t make sense at all if we applied that kind of timeline logic. So we try not to apply it too rigorously.”

Masuda says that the world of Pokemon has grown, even if a strict linear narrative across the series is hard to land on. “The approach that Pokemon takes is expanding the world, like what the regions are, and making it richer as we go. Rather than a timeline, it’s more of a physical space thing.”

In that same interview, Masuda and director Shigeru Ohmori spoke about the game being of comparable length to past entries in the series. Meanwhile, in our own hands-on report, Kallie Plagge found that picking a starter Pokemon in Sword and Shield is a surprisingly emotional experience.

Pokemon Sword and Shield launch for Nintendo Switch on November 15. Check out our preorder guide to ensure that you get your hands on the version you want on day one.

The brand-new trailer for Disney’s new Star Wars TV show, The Mandalorian, showed off more of the sci-fi world and offered tantalizing teases for what to expect. The trailer also provided the first look at comedian Bill Burr’s character–and he looks fearsome.

Burr can be seen near the end of the trailer as the character who is firing not one, but three blasters at some enemy in front of him. He is dual-wielding blaster pistols, while he has a third blaster attached to his shoulder. We don’t know who his character is, but he looks fierce.

This is not Burr’s first acting gig, as he had a recurring role on AMC’s award-winning drama Breaking Bad where he played one of Saul Goodman’s henchmen.

Burr’s involvement in a Star Wars show may come as a surprise to many as the comedian and actor has been open about how much he does not like Star Wars. In 2015, Burr spoke to Conan O’Brien about his disdain for Star Wars, saying the movies feel like a “cheesy self-help book put in outer space with, like, Muppets.”

He also made fun of people standing in line for Star Wars movies. He’s a comedian so he’s definitely hamming it up for laughs, but whatever the case, he’s now officially in a Star Wars movie–and that’s a dramatic turn of events.

How did it happen? In an appearance on the Rich Eisen Show, Burr said he happened to meet up with The Mandalorian creator Jon Favreau, who asked if he would be interested in joining the project. Burr said he wondered why Favreau might want him given his stance on Star Wars. But according to Burr, Favreau thought it would be funny for Burr–a man who does not like Star Wars–to be in a Star Wars show.

When Burr got to set, he saw that The Mandalorian was being filmed like a spaghetti western and he was “immediately so psyched to be a part of it,” he recalled.

Burr was actually in the first big trailer for The Mandalorian back in August, but seemingly no one noticed. He’s the bald guy in the shot below.

Bill Burr’s bald head

The Mandalorian follows the titular character, played by Pedro Pascal, a lone gunfighter working outside of the authority of the New Republic. The series also features Gina Carana as Cara Dune, Carl Weathers as Greef Carga, and Taika Waititi as IG-11.

Disney+ is also working on an Obi-Wan Kenobi series where Ewan McGregor will reprise his role as the Jedi Master. And if you’re looking for more Star Wars adventures in the real world, Disney is launching some Rise of the Skywalker content to their parks starting this December.

Star Wars: The Mandalorian arrives on Disney+ on the streaming service’s launch day, November 12. That’s just a few days before Apex Legends developer Respawn releases its new Star Wars video game, Jedi Fallen Order.