Author: Trafficblast

The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air’s Alfonso Ribeiro, who starred as the show’s Carlton, is suing Epic Games. Ribeiro’s law firm said the the actor is accusing the studio of stealing his dance–commonly referred to by fans of the show as the Carlton dance–for the “Fresh” emote in Fortnite.

According to TMZ, Ribeiro is currently in the process of filing for the copyright for the dance. This announcement comes on the heels of another lawsuit filed against Epic. Terrance Ferguson accused Epic of stealing his Milly Rock dance for Fortnite’s “Swipe It” emote, an act he describes as a pattern the studio has for “exploiting African-American talent in particular in Fortnite by copying their dances and movements.” Ribeiro is mentioned as another example of this in Ferguson’s lawsuit.

Epic has seen several legal disputes when it comes to Fortnite. PUBG Corp., the creators of PlayerUnknown Battlegrounds, sued Epic over a concern “that Fortnite may be replicating the experience for which PUBG is known.” However, the lawsuit was ultimately dropped. Epic hasn’t always been on the receiving end of a lawsuit either. The studio sued a QA tester who leaked Fortnite Season 4 secrets, as well as a few streamers for advertising Fortnite cheats.

When it comes to outside the court room, Epic has been enjoying the growing success of Fortnite–which is the number one searched game on Google in 2018. After finding success with cross-platform play on Fortnite between Xbox One, PS4, Switch, PC, and mobile devices, Epic Games is sharing its technology with other developers looking to do the same. The studio also launched its own PC game store that offers an enticing alternative to Steam.

The latest chapter of the Battlefield V TTK drama has unfolded. DICE has announced that it’s backtracking on the controversial changes it made to the multiplayer shooter’s time-to-kill values that made the game more forgiving for new players and angered veteran players in the process.

In a post on Reddit, DICE said it made the choice to roll back the changes after listening to player feedback and reviewing internal statistical data. The TTK changes were released in an update that came out last week, so they really didn’t last very long at all.

DICE reiterated that its aim with the TTK changes was to make the game “more enjoyable for new players.” Veteran Battlefield fans took issue with this, and in response, DICE released a “Core” playlist for the Conquest mode with the original TTK values. Fans commented that a single playlist wasn’t enough, and DICE later announced that it would release more “Core” playlists.

“Clearly we didn’t get it right,” DICE said about the TTK changes. “Veteran players didn’t ask for the change, but as game developers, we took it upon ourselves to make those changes based on extensive data and deliberation. It truthfully wasn’t an easy decision for us,” DICE said.

The developer added that it is an ongoing challenge to make Battlefield a more enjoyable experience for new players. Indeed, the game has a very different feel than its main competitor, Call of Duty, which is often regarded as a game that is relatively easier to get into.

“It’s been a challenge across our games for a long time, as many will know, and becomes even more important for us to improve upon our post-launch experience with consistent updates to the game through the Tides of War,” DICE said. “Our desire to service a game that caters to old and new players will continue. How we get it right isn’t easy, nor will it be quick, and we appreciate when the community comes together and helps us on this journey.”

While DICE is rolling back the TTK changes, the developer said it continues to work on new updates to “improve the experience” for all players–new and veteran.

Battlefield V’s TTK will revert to its original value through an update coming December 18 at 4 AM PT / 7 AM ET / 1 PM CET. The “Core” playlist for Conquest will be removed at this time, while the previously announced additional “Core” playlists are not going to be released.

Unlike previous Battlefield games, all of Battlefield V’s expansions are free as part of the game’s Tide of War live service element. The first major post-release expansion, Chapter 1: Overture, is out now, and it adds a new map and the single-player War Story where you play as a member of a German tank division. On a longer timeline, Battlefield V will introduce a battle royale mode called Firestorm in March.

GameSpot’s Battlefield V review scored the World War II shooter an 8/10. The game is available now on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC.

Transformers has been around for over 30 years, and since its inception, there have been hundreds of different Autobots, Decepticons, and other transforming robots throughout the TV series, movies, comic books, and toy lines. Knowing all of these characters’ names and transforming abilities is a job in its own right and quite the impossible task for even the average fan of the property.

So GameSpot did what anyone would do when tasked with interviewing upcoming Bumblebee star John Cena. We quizzed the actor on whether or not the Transformers we presented him were real or something we just made up. As you can see in the video above, this was no easy task.

The next Transformers movie is actually a spinoff from the main series. Bumblebee takes place in the late-’80s, prior to the Michael Bay franchise, and follows the titular character, who has landed on Earth, alone. Cena’s role in the movie is Agent Burns, a high ranking military man who sees Bumblebee as a threat. However, Cena is not the main villain of the movie, as there are other Transformers Bumblebee must take on during the film.

In his review, GameSpot’s Mike Rougeau said, “Bumblebee hits a perfect tone with a great mix of action, humor, and heart. The soundtrack strikes all the right chords, the action is mostly clear and easy to follow even when two massive robots are rapidly grappling and transforming into various forms, and the characters are instantly relatable, without screenwriter Christina Hodson relying too much on cliches. The homages to Spielberg, Hughes, and other ’80s filmmakers may not be subtle, but they are a lot of fun, and Bumblebee pays tribute in smart ways that don’t feel out of place or forced.”

You can check out all the transforming action for yourself when Bumblebee comes to theaters on Friday, December 21.

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OtherSide Entertainment has issued a mea culpa for the rough launch of Underworld Ascendant, and explained how it plans to improve the game going forward. In a lengthy blog post, the studio acknowledges it was buggy and flawed at launch, and that players may have expected something more similar to Ultima Underworld. Underworld Ascendant was released in November following a successful crowdfunding effort.

“Despite the game’s flaws at launch, we believe there is a core of goodness to Underworld Ascendant,” the studio said. “Our job now is to address the concerns players have expressed and improve the game; making what is good about the game shine through more brightly.

The studio mentioned that it’s “evident some our fans wanted a game that played much closer to the original Ultima Underworld. It’s been painful to hear these players describe how we missed expectations. Although we tried to be clear with press and fans during the development of the game, in hindsight we could have done a better job communicating what Underworld Ascendant was and what it was not.”

In a roadmap, the studio laid out a plan for upcoming improvements. Coming next week, the studio plans to fix the save system to be more flexible and retain all of your quest and equipment data. It will also adjust combat in regards to how directional attacks, weapon damage balance, and some AI improvements. A few select quests are being improved, and items and gear will show wear. Finally, player movement is being adjusted along with some other minor tweaks like saved key binding preferences, and skill UI improvements.

A second update, coming next February, will include more improvements to combat and AI, adjustments to leveling and quests, and other UI improvements. The studio also says it is also looking into ways to improve the overall metagame and “reduce the complexity around what players are supposed to be doing to stop Typhon.”

The blog also goes into detail about the development process and how the game went out in the state it did. “With 20/20 hindsight we were overly optimistic,” it states. “We convinced ourselves that the game was in more robust shape than it actually was. Had we been more objective, we would have held off the launch and worked on the game longer. Instead we pushed hard and hit the planned November launch date.

“As a consequence, the game went out rougher than it should have. None of the challenges the project faced are an excuse. We should have done better.”

The issues led to a poor reception in GameSpot’s Underworld Ascendant review, which scored it a 2/10. That review specifically mentioned the poorly implemented save system as a problem. However, the review criticized the game’s problems as much more deeply ingrained.

“For many players, especially the time-poor, the save system alone will be enough to render Underworld Ascendant unplayable,” said critic David Wildgoose. “But even if it were addressed, and a more conventional system patched in, it would be impossible to recommend this game to anyone. Framed as a spiritual successor to Ultima Underworld, Underworld Ascendant misses the mark with almost every shot, much like my aforementioned hapless archer. At the same time, even freed from the expectations its historical baggage brings, it is a clear failure. The spirit of Ultima Underworld lives on elsewhere.”

Update 2: Fortnite’s 7.10 update will be arriving a little later than originally planned. Epic Games announced that it has delayed the rollout of this week’s patch “due to last minute issues discovered within the build.” It’s unclear if the update is still slated to arrive on December 18, but Epic says it will provide further details on the timing of the update once it has more information.

Update: Epic has delayed Fortnite’s new Driftboard vehicle. While the developer had teased that the snowboard would arrive in the game this week, it has now announced it is postponing the vehicle in order to make further quality-of-life improvements to it.

“We know we set the expectation for the Driftboard to release in the coming update,” Epic wrote on Reddit. “Unfortunately, we’ve decided to hold the release of this new vehicle to make some final quality of life changes and other polish improvements.

“We want to get you out there carving up the slopes as soon as possible. However, our goal is to make sure that your experiences on the Driftboard are up to our expectations. We still have tons of quality of life and balance improvements on the way in v7.10.”

The original story follows.

Like clockwork, a new update is on the way for Fortnite. Developer Epic Games confirmed that this week’s 7.10 patch will roll out for all platforms–PS4, Xbox One, PC, Nintendo Switch, and mobile devices–tomorrow, December 18, and it looks like it’s set to introduce the recently teased snowboard to the title.

According to the official Fortnite Twitter account, the 7.10 update is scheduled to go live at 2 AM PT / 5 AM ET / 10 AM GMT. Among other things, it’ll likely add the Driftboard, a brand-new type of vehicle. As its name implies, the Driftboard is a high-tech snowboard; it holds a single player and allows the rider to boost around the map.

Epic hasn’t detailed what else will arrive with the 7.10 update, but it will presumably also mark the start of a new limited-time mode. Until then, players still have a little more time to jump into the game’s current LTM, Team Rumble, which pits two teams against each other in a race to get 100 eliminations.

This will mark the third update Fortnite has received since the start of Season 7 earlier this month. Last week’s update, v7.01, introduced a new Mythic weapon to the game: the Infinity Blade. Much like Thanos’s Infinity Gauntlet, the Infinity Blade grants its wielder an immense power boost. However, the sword was improperly balanced, and as a result, Epic has vaulted it.

“We messed up and rolled out the Infinity Blade overpowered / without good counters, especially in the end game,” Epic said when it announced its decision to remove the sword. “The Infinity Blade has been Vaulted and we are re-evaluating our approach to Mythic items. Thanks for calling us out on this!”

Meanwhile, the next set of Fortnite’s weekly challenges is slated to arrive later this week, on December 20. If you need help completing any of the current challenges, you can find tips in our Season 7 challenges roundup. Clearing these will level your Battle Pass up and unlock the new Season 7 skins and rewards.