Author: Trafficblast

The frenzied mobile MOBA hit Vainglory is about to get more chaotic. Developer Super Evil Megacorp has just launch a major new update dubbed Vainglory 5v5, expanding team sizes from three to five. This change marks a fundamental but welcome addition to the mobile blockbuster, without sacrificing the three-lane-map experience, online performance, and frame rate. Note that this updates will still allow for 3v3 matches.

While other 5v5 MOBA games have long existed in the mobile space, Vainglory has sustained its popularity since its debut in 2015, thanks in large part to its expansive roster of over 25 heroes and variety of match times. Super Evil Megacorp is commemorating this 3.0 update with a Lunar New Year event, running from February 15 to 22, where players will have a chance to win in-game and New Year-themed skins.

For game music aficionados, Vainglory will feature a new 5v5 score by Joris de Man, whose credits include music for the Killzone franchise and Horizon Zero Dawn. Moreover, 5v5 will have adaptive music that changes based on how the match unfolds.

Super Evil Megacorp isn’t wasting any time integrating 5v5 into its esports program. The April 2018 preseason plus the regular season of Vainglory Premier League (formally Vainglory8) will shift to the 5v5 format. Season 1 will be set on the new Sovereign’s Rise map, built specifically for Vainglory 5v5. The format will be a double-round-robin with midseason with end-of-season playoffs, along with a single relegation tournament and regional championships will determine which teams qualify for the World Championship.

Vainglory is available free to play for iOS and Android devices.

Dead Space, the acclaimed 2008 sci-fi horror game from the now-defunct developer Visceral Games, is now completely free on PC. It is the newest “On the House” game from publisher Electronic Arts, and you can grab it right here from Origin.

As with the previous On the House titles, once you download Dead Space it is yours to keep forever. The only catch is that EA doesn’t say when On the House titles cycle out, so if you’re interested, you may want to grab the game right now instead of putting it off until later.

Dead Space was already in the Origin Access free game library on PC, so if you subscribe to that service you have been able to play the game at no cost for a while now. The game was also released on Xbox 360, and it is playable on Xbox One through backwards compatibility. The Xbox 360 edition is in the Xbox One EA Access library.

Dead Space was in fact the very first EA On the House freebie, kicking off the freebie campaign back in 2014. It appears to be the first title to have two runs in the On the House hopper.

In Dead Space, you play as a space engineer named Isaac Clarke who must fight all manner of ghastly creatures on a spaceship. Sequels Dead Space 2 and Dead Space 3 were released in 2011 and 2013, respectively. Glen Schofield and Michael Condrey, who now lead Call of Duty studio Sledgehammer Games, worked on Dead Space before starting their own studio.

Dead Space 3 failed to meet EA’s sales expectations. However, despite that, the publisher said in 2013 that the brand remains one that is “close to Electronic Arts’ heart.” However, with creator Visceral Games now shuttered, it remains to be seen if the franchise has a future at EA.

Need a new DualShock 4? Amazon is currently selling the PlayStation 4 controller for only $36, which is a nice markdown from its normal $60 price point. The standard jet black DualShock 4 is on sale, but none of the other colors are marked down as substantially.

However, the silver, blue, gold, and camo, controllers are discounted to around $45 instead of their normal $65 price points. These are all Amazon Prime items, so subscribers get free two-day shipping (or faster in some areas). Go to Amazon’s DualShock 4 landing page here to buy any of the controllers if you’re interested. Right now, it looks like this deal is only available in the US, and other retailers do not appear to have matched Amazon’s prices.

In other PlayStation 4 news, a recent report claimed that Activision is making a Spyro the Dragon HD remaster compilation that will be exclusive, at least temporarily, to PS4. Additionally, in a unique marketing move, Sony projected God of War footage on the hardwood at an NBA game over the weekend.

What’s more, this week’s PSN deals have now become available. Now through February 20, a lot of 2K Games titles are marked down, including games in the Borderlands and XCOM franchises. Check out GameSpot’s rundown of all the deals here.

While practically every movie has deleted scenes, few of them are as sought after as moments cut out of Star Wars films. That’s why a simple birthday greeting from Star Wars: The Last Jedi‘s Mark Hamill to his co-star in the film Laura Dern is getting so much attention. Warning: The following contains spoilers for Star Wars: The Last Jedi.

In the message, which Hamill posted to Instagram, he writes, “SHOUT OUT to [Laura Dern] for no particular reason other than being one of my all-time favorite actors & for being a genuinely nice person. It was nice almost working with you. xoxo from your deleted-scene partner.”

A deleted scene featuring both Hamill’s Luke Skywalker and Dern’s Vice Admiral Holdo could dramatically change so much about The Last Jedi. After all, by the time Skywalker uses the Force to project himself to the Resistance, Dern’s Holdo had already sacrificed her life to destroy Snoke’s ship. Sharing a scene means either Holdo was meant to survive longer or Luke was originally supposed to join the fight much sooner–perhaps in person.

While Hamill has yet to explain exactly what that scene entails, the implications are that it would have led to a very different movie. While it’s entirely possible that the scene–and maybe others-could end up on the Blu-ray or digital release of the film, it will be impossible to know how much the movie changed without director Rian Johnson’s input.

As it stands, Johnson has been very vocal about the version of the movie fans saw in theaters. Whether it was the identity of Rey’s parents, the missing Knights of Ren, or whatever happened to Han’s funeral, Johnson has an answer for it all. Of course, he can’t talk about The Last Jedi forever. He’s also developing another trilogy of Star Wars movies.

As the first stage of Overwatch League drew to a close, it represented a major milestone for Blizzard’s big gamble on esports. The London Spitfire faced some setbacks during the final day of Stage 1, but after coming back from an earlier defeat against their rivals the New York Excelsior, they were able to secure victory and earn $100,000 in prize money. During a chat with Overwatch League commissioner Nate Nanzer at the finals, he spoke about how event organizers plan to refine their approach to the competition, while also reflecting on how things have transpired so far.

“I think we’re off to a good start,” said the commissioner. “There’s tons of things we want to continue to iterate on and improve, but right now we’re just really focused on figuring out how to continue to evolve and improve the show throughout the year, and have all of that culminate in the awesome finals event. That’s the focus right now, and it’s really awesome that people are happy with it. Nothing is broken, so right now we’re just focusing on making it better.”

With Stage 2 set to begin on February 21, there’s already some notable changes coming up that could potentially alter the dynamic for the 12 teams. In addition to ongoing gameplay balances and tweaks for the base game, which included some notable changes to one of the most useful healer characters in Mercy, the league will also see an influx of new talent coming in to shake up the current roster.

The Stage 1 finals, while engaging and dramatic, ended up being a perfect storm of scheduling and scoring issues that resulted in many players feeling the heat after extended periods of play–and the organizers agreed. Taking place over the course of 12 hours–making the show itself somewhat exhausting to sit through–it forced the London Spitfire into playing several consecutive matches during the semi-finals and finals. While the London Spitfire were able to secure the win for the finals after a total of 14 games during the day–a testament to their team coordination and composure–this still made for a rather exhausting experience for all involved.

Immediately after the end of Stage 1, League commissioner Nate Nanzer took to Twitter after the finals to state their plans for addressing how the Stage 2 finals will work. He stated, “Let me save you some time from tweeting @ me about the schedule: we are looking into playing Stage Finals games on Sunday starting Stage 2. That and other schedule news soon.”

For the teams that had a hard time during the month, Stage 2 represents a clean slate for many players, allowing them to change the narrative surrounding their group. The Shanghai Dragons, featuring some of China’s top esports talent, have struggled throughout their games in Stage 1. While they had some successful matches, they ultimately placed last. However, things could be be looking up for the Dragons. Reportedly, three new players are set to join the Shanghai Dragons in Stage 2, which includes Lee Eui-Seok from Element Mystic, MVP Space flex Cheon “Ado” Ki-hyun, and Kim “Geguri” Se-yeon–who will be the first female player for Overwatch League.

As one of the top Zarya players in the world, Geguri could prove to be an effective player to round out a team that’s in need of stronger defensive and support play. Many fans of competitive Overwatch have been clamoring for Geguri to have a spot in the League, and her placement on the roster could just be the shot in the arm that a team like the Dragons need to make it out of the bottom tier.

One thing that’s common for an online game is for the developers to roll out gradual updates and tweaks for the game. Recently, both Junkrat and Mercy, two of the most used characters in the League, received some tweaks that toned down some key abilities that the developers felt could be easily exploited by players. Mercy became the go-to healer for teams thanks to her ability to resurrect dead players, along with her speed and healing range. However, the upcoming nerf will make the time to revive players last a bit longer, lower the speed boost from her Guardian Angel buff by 50%, and remove the bonus buff from her Resurrect skill. In addition to Mercy, Junkrat–a popular character for quick offensive strikes thanks to his Ultimate ability–will also see a nerf for one of his support abilities.

During a post-game press conference after losing to the London Spitfire, Jacob “JAKE” Lyon of the Houston Outlaws spoke about the changes to Junkrat, who is his signature character.

“I think it’s interesting, actually,” said the Houston Outlaw’s top assault player. “The character is way weaker against dive, because the 120 AoE was really especially powerful against characters like Genji and Tracer–dodging Genji’s reflect and still doing 120 and obviously one-shotting Tracer with damage boost is still a very powerful ability–but I think you’ll still see the character a ton if people are running Reinhardt because he’s still the faster shield-breaker in the game. Junkrat’s RipTire is still the best ultimate in the game, so I think we’ll still see Junkrat as viable, but it will be more situational. And it’ll be more map dependent.”

While Stage 2 will still largely keep the same flow and dynamic of its previous phases, the organizers are already looking to the future of the league given its immediate success. Overwatch League has kept a steady audience over the last month, and with the finals earning solid viewership, the organizers are confident that their audience will only grow from here. During a recent Activision-Blizzard investor call, the company already confirmed that the League was a solid success, and that the buy-in cost for new sponsors for Season 2 will increase–which is expected to add new teams and additional players. For now, Stage 2 is already looking to show more growth for the league, and what players can expect for Blizzard’s rapid increase in esports.

For more content on our coverage of Overwatch League, check out our additional interviews with Nate Nanzer and Game Director Jeff Kaplan about the making of the League, and how Overwatch can be the game to push esports into the mainstream.

Valentine’s Day is nearly upon us, and a lot of video games are celebrating the holiday by holding special Valentine’s Day-themed events for a limited time. That includes Pokemon Go, which has now kicked off its own Valentine’s event, giving players a chance to capture some very rare pink Pokemon and earn extra bonuses.

From now until February 15, Pokemon Go players will encounter increased spawns of the heart-shaped Pokemon Luvdisc, one of the many Gen 3 Pokemon that were recently added to Pokemon Go. Chansey will also appear more frequently for the duration of the event. Players will be rewarded with triple the usual amount of Stardust for each Luvdisc and Chansey that they catch.

Valentine’s Day also marks the end of Kyogre‘s run as a Raid Boss, making this your last opportunity to capture the Legendary Pokemon. Another Gen 3 Legendary, Rayquaza, is also available right now in Pokemon Go; the Dragon-type will appear in Raid Battles until March 16. Rayquaza arrived alongside another batch of Gen 3 monsters, which primarily consisted of Flying- and Dragon-types such as Altaria, Salamence, and Tropius.

Beyond the Valentine’s Day event, players also have the next Pokemon Go Community Day event to look forward to this month. That event takes place on February 24. Like the first Community Day in January, players will have a chance to capture a rare Pokemon that knows a move it cannot typically use during the event. Niantic hasn’t revealed what that exclusive move is yet, but the Pokemon in question this time is the Dragon-type Dratini.