Author: Trafficblast

After Endgame

Valve has announced it’s revisiting user reviews on Steam in order to combat review bombing. In a blog post, Valve wrote it will now “identify off-topic review bombs, and remove them from the Review Score.”

“We define an off-topic review bomb as one where the focus of those reviews is on a topic that we consider unrelated to the likelihood that future purchasers will be happy if they buy the game, and hence not something that should be added to the Review Score,” Valve continued. The company admits there’s still a bit of a grey area with this definition, so it’s developed a tool that “identifies any anomalous review activity on all games on Steam in as close to real-time as possible.”

After the tool has identified possibly troublesome reviews, it will inform Valve and the company will then begin an investigation. If Valve decides the user reviews are an off-topic bomb, the company will inform the developer that every review within the time period of the review bomb will be removed from the game’s overall Steam score. At this point, however, the user reviews will still be live. It will be up to the developer’s discretion over which are deleted.

The downside to this process is that every user review during an off-topic review bomb will be removed from a game’s overall Steam score, even the good ones. “But as we mentioned back in our first User Review post, our data shows us that review bombs tend to be temporary distortions, so we believe the Review Score will still be accurate, and other players will still be able to find and read your review within the period,” Valve wrote. Plenty of negative comments that focus on DRM or EULA changes will also be considered off-topic review bombings as well.

Developers who don’t want this new tool combing through their games’ comments and Valve declaring when an off-topic review bomb is happening can opt out of the process by going into their Steam Store options. Valve is working on a few more changes to user reviews as well, but they’ll be shipped out at a later date.

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As Game of Thrones Season 8‘s April 14 premiere date quickly approaches, one question dominates all others: Who will sit on the Iron Throne when all is said and done? This is the show’s final season, after all, and unlike George R.R. Martin’s forever-in-progress books, the HBO production will actually have a conclusion.

We had that all-consuming question in mind when we recently got the chance to sit down with Harry Lloyd, who’s set to play Charles Xavier–Professor X–in the third and final season of FX’s X-Men adaptation Legion. Game of Thrones fans, however, will probably know Lloyd better as Viserys Targaryen, Daenerys’s abusive brother from back in Game of Thrones Season 1.

Lloyd couched his opinion in the fact that he’s “not quite up to date, shamefully,” though he plans to catch up before Season 8 arrives. But his nomination for Ruler of the Seven Kingdoms, King or Queen of Westeros, and Warmer of the Iron Throne is nevertheless perfectly valid: nobody.

“I kind of want no one on it, to be honest,” the actor said, grinning. “I just want it to become a really nice, kind of democracy.”

He did offer one more alternative, though: “I’ll tell you what, I always wanted Hodor to be in charge,” he continued, laughing–clearly aware of the character’s fate in Season 6. “But, yeah–maybe with some time travel?”

With this line of questioning begun, we couldn’t stop at one. To this day, Viserys’s gruesome death at Khal Drogo’s hands in Season 1–with a pot of molten gold poured over his dome–stands as one of the show’s best. We asked Lloyd whether there’s been another since then that topped it. Surprisingly, he went all the way back to another Season 1 death.

“You know what one of my favorite deaths has always been, was just a couple of episodes after mine, in Episode 8 of Season 1, when Khal Drogo rips that guy’s tongue out,” Lloyd said. He remembered discussing the scene with Jason Momoa, who played Khal Drogo (and, of course, went on to portray Aquaman in Justice League and his own standalone movie). According to Lloyd, the scene was written as a more straightforward sword fight, but Momoa had other ideas.

Momoa apparently got involved personally, asking the art department to whip up a convincing tongue that looked like it had been ripped out root and stem. “And it’s Game of Thrones, so the art department, you know, they rustled one of them up–they probably had a couple already on file,” Lloyd recalled.

“I just thought that was a wonderful little sequence, and the fact that it was so collaborative,even in that first [season],” he continued, “I always liked that.”

Game of Thrones Season 8 premieres April 14 on HBO. Check out our favorite fan theories, the full season’s episode run times, and what author George R.R. Martin knows about Season 8.

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As long as WWE has been around, so has the opportunity to buy merchandise emblazoned with the images of your favorite wrestlers. Whether it’s a T-shirt, foam finger, or those really cool Bret “Hitman” Hart sunglasses, wrestling fans have always had ways to show allegiance to their favorite sports entertainer–at a price.

That said, sometimes WWE takes things a bit too far with its merchandising plan. While it’s entirely possible you owned an Austin 3:16 T-shirt, can you say the same for WWE’s line of festive holiday nutcrackers? Did you actually spend money to own edible pictures of WWE superstars that were meant to be put on pizzas? Hopefully not, because both of these are ridiculous ideas.

Honestly, though, those are some of the more tame of WWE’s most ridiculous products. How do I know that? Because I went and found 20 of the craziest things WWE ever came up with. So sit back and let’s take a ride through the Shopzone as we look at the most bizarre pieces of WWE merchandise ever released.

Image: WWE

The Guardians of the Galaxy will, indeed, live to fight again with director James Gunn at the helm. Well, at least some of them probably will. Who knows what’s going to happen in Avengers: Endgame? However, the news that Disney has rehired James Gunn to direct Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 after firing him last summer has been met with unabashed positivity by fans of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, as well as Gunn himself.

In his first tweet since he was fired in July 2018, Gunn shared a message on the heels of his being hired once again by Marvel Studios. “I am tremendously grateful to every person out there who has supported me over the past few months,” he wrote. “I am always learning and will continue to work at being the best human being I can be. I deeply appreciate Disney’s decision and I am excited to continue making films that investigate the ties of love that bind us all. I have been and continue to be incredibly humbled by your love and support. From the bottom of my heart, thank you. Love to you all.”

Gunn was first removed from the project after years-old tweets surfaced, in which he made jokes about rape and pedophilia. At the time, Gunn apologized and noted that he had apologized in the past. At the time, Walt Disney Studios chairman Alan Horn explained the director’s dismissal, saying, “The offensive attitudes and statements discovered on James’ Twitter feed are indefensible and inconsistent with our studio’s values, and we have severed our business relationship with him.”

His return to the project–and the Marvel Cinematic Universe–was celebrated by Gunn’s fellow MCU directors. Ant-Man and the Wasp director Peyton Reed tweeted, “Welcome back, James.” Meanwhile, Doctor Strange helmer Scott Derrickson offered up a “GLORY HALLELUJA” to the news.

With Gunn back in the driver’s seat, it’s now believed Guardians Vol. 3 will go into production following the director’s commitment to the Suicide Squad sequel he’s signed on for. The Suicide Squad sequel, which is reportedly eyeing Idris Elba as a replacement for Will Smith in the role of Deadshot, is expected to begin filming later this year.

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Out of nowhere, a new type of item–jump pads–have appeared in Apex Legends near Market. And these are not just any jump pads either; they’re the ones the rumored new Legend Octane places as his Ultimate ability, suggesting that developer Respawn Entertainment could be teasing what’s coming to the game soon.

We’ve stumbled upon it ourselves (as you can see in the video above), and we aren’t the only ones, as evidenced by posts on Reddit. Other players are reporting they’ve found Octane’s jump pads as well. Respawn is just leaving coy-looking emoji comments in response, which implies this is a purposeful tease of what’s to come, and not a mistaken leak on the developer’s part.

Prior to this, Octane has leaked a few times, which is why so many people believe he’s the next scheduled character for Apex Legends. The first mention of the Legend was a leak that showcased the character’s ability page. The leaked image stated Octane’s Passive allowed him to heal over time while not in combat, his Tactical caused him to move 30 percent faster for six seconds at the cost of 10 percent of his health, and his Ultimate deployed a jump pad to launch Legends into the air.

After that leak, another one–this time detailing the upcoming battle pass for Apex Legends–also showcased Octane, seemingly confirming he’s the next playable character in the battle royale game. In this second leak, the Origin landing page had accidentally changed early, promoting the battle pass with a picture of the Borderlands-looking Legends. “Survive the the [sic] arena, meet the Apex Games’ latest Legend, Octane, wield new weapons, and score unique loot. The Season 01 Battle Pass is here, purchase it at the in-game store for 950 Apex Coins,” the launch page said.

After these leaks–and a few other less credible ones–Respawn responded, clarifying the battle pass would not launch on March 12 like some data miners had suggested and that not everything on the internet should be taken at face value. “There’s lots of stuff that has been datamined from Apex since launch and is swirling around the Internet,” Respawn community manager Jay Frechett wrote. “We know this stuff is fun to dig up and speculate about, but you should not treat any of that info as a source of truth. There’s stuff in there that is very old, or things we’ve tried in the past and cut–remember our design process is to prototype and play lots of ideas–and some of it may be things we’re still building for Apex Legends.”

There seems to be some semblance of truth to Octane at least. Respawn hasn’t clarified whether his launch pads will stick around near Market or eventually be removed from the game when the Legend does officially release–which is due this month. Apex Legends is available for Xbox One, PS4, and PC.