Author: Trafficblast

Treyarch has another update on the way for Call of Duty: Black Ops 4. This week, the developer will be rolling out patch 1.12, which will make some big changes to the way armor works in Blackout mode, add classic weapons to Zombies, and kick off another limited-time event on PS4.

In a post on Reddit, Treyarch outlined the biggest tweaks and additions that are coming in this week’s update. Among other things, the developer will be making further tuning changes to armor, concussions, and cluster grenades in Blackout mode.

The full list of changes will be detailed in this week’s patch notes, but Treyarch says it is reducing damage protection for armor “across the board.” On top of that, the developer is raising the number of armor plates it takes to repair level 3 armor, while the time it takes for cluster grenades to detonate is also being increased.

In Zombies mode, this week’s update will introduce five weapons to the Mystery Box across every map, as well as to the Zombies Armory: the MP 40, Grav, Daemon 3XB, SWAT RFT, and KAP 45. Treyarch says the MP 40 and Grav “will be unlocked by default in the Armory.” The PS4 version is also getting its second Zombies Gauntlet beginning January 29: “Vini, Vidi, Zombie!” for the IX map.

Also on PS4, Treyarch is kicking off another limited-time mode in Blackout. This one is called Ambush. It’s set to replace the current Down But Not Out mode and only features sniper rifles, melee attacks, launchers, and a continuously collapsing circle. Down But Not Out mode will remain available on Xbox One and PC for one more week.

The Super Bowl is this Sunday, marking one of the biggest events in professional sports. As usual, EA has run a simulation game in its annual football release, Madden NFL 19, and concluded that the Los Angeles Rams will defeat the New England Patriots.

The final score of the simulated game was 30-27, showing a high-scoring game with tons of offensive play. The Patriots led in the first half 17-3, but the Rams came back big in the second with three touchdowns and two field goals. The simulation also pegged Aaron Donald for the MVP award, given a record four sacks in a single Super Bowl game.

EA has used Madden to predict every Super Bowl game since 2004. While the simulation is never bullseye-accurate on the exact score or game-winning plays, the simulations have come away with a pretty solid 10-5 record of success in predicting the winner. One of those misses was just last year, however, when the game showed the Patriots winning against the Philadelphia Eagles. The Eagles ended up winning in an upset, and QB Nick Foles received the MVP award instead of Patriots QB Tom Brady.

“Madden 19 is an excellent football game that improves on last year’s entry in almost every way,” critic Eddie Makuch wrote in GameSpot’s review. “There are problems, but there has never been a football game that more authentically represents the NFL than this in terms of presentation, controls, and depth.”

It’s your last chance to complete Fortnite‘s ongoing Ice Storm challenges before the world event officially wraps up. Developer Epic Games confirmed the event will end on all platforms tomorrow, January 29, with the release of Fortnite’s 7.30 update, which looks set to introduce another new weapon and more to the battle royale game.

Downtime for the update is scheduled to begin at 1 AM PT / 4 AM ET / 9 AM GMT, Epic confirmed on Twitter. As usual, the developer hasn’t estimated how long this maintenance period will last, but it has given fans a peek at a new item that will presumably be arriving with the update: the Chiller Grenade.

The Grenade is advertised as “coming soon” in Fortnite’s in-game News feed. Continuing the season’s wintry theme, it fittingly resembles a snowman’s head and sounds like it will function similar to the vaulted Chiller Trap. “Give your enemies cold feet with this winter blast,” its accompanying description reads.

You have until downtime begins to finish any outstanding Ice Storm challenges. The event began earlier this month when the mysterious icy sphere in Polar Peak burst opened and revealed the Ice King, who blanketed the entire map in fog and snow and summoned the zombie-like Ice Legion. Throughout the event, Epic offered new daily challenges to complete and rewards to unlock; you can find the full list in our Ice Storm challenges roundup.

We’re also nearing the end of Season 7. Epic hasn’t shared any details on what awaits in Season 8, although some strange objects have begun appearing in the game ahead of the new season. In the meantime, you still have a few more weeks to complete this season’s challenges. You can find tips for the trickier ones in our complete Season 7 challenges guide.

BioWare has shared thoughts on the weekend’s Anthem VIP demo, and outlined bug fixes it has in the works before the public demo kicks off. It also sought to assuage concerns about the final release, which will include fixes not seen in either demo.

In the blog post, BioWare’s Chad Robertson says that entitlement bugs, server performance updates, platform bugs for Javelin unlocks, and client bugs were either addressed over the weekend, or will be addressed before the public demo begins. It also notes that it will be doing more scale testing to prepare for the influx of new players coming on Friday, and it plans to especially focus on the frustrating infinite load problem. The public demo will run February 1-3.

The post also mentions that preparations for the full launch have been in the works for a while, and as a result, “that version of the game already has a long list of things that are already fixed that won’t make the public demo weekend.” That includes weapons with 0% infusions, changes to Javelin unlocks, fixes to XP loss at the end of missions, stability and performance issues, and more. It promises a look at Anthem’s future to come on Sunday afternoon.

“As I shared on Saturday, it started rocky, but we stabilized that afternoon and maintained it until we turned servers off Sunday evening,” Robertson wrote. “We learned a ton about our game, our service, and you, our community. We’re working hard to ensure everyone can enjoy the game exactly as we’ve designed it.

“We had an extended look at Anthem and passed along what we learned, including some insights about the end-game. There’s no teacher like experience, though, and the VIP test was the first chance many players had to try it out. Unfortunately it was plagued by server issues, and the fixes that rolled out to mitigate them didn’t seem to solve the problem for everyone. BioWare has been communicating throughout, though, so its promise of more bug fixes to come over the weekend and then prior to launch should ease some worries.

February 3 is Super Bowl Sunday, where the L.A. Rams will take on the New England Patriots to determine who is the best in the NFL. Will Tom Brady’s Patriots or Jared Goff’s Rams come out on top? Regardless of the outcome, plenty of people watching the game are not football fans, and they’re more interested in things like commercials and what’s happening during halftime. While you could watch Maroon 5’s halftime show, WWE would rather have you tune in to its show, Halftime Heat.

In a video where Maroon 5 gets Roman Reigns-level boos, WWE proclaims it’s bringing back its halftime show, which only happened once before in 1999. It’s called Halftime Heat, and WWE knows how to get the attention of its fanbase, by bashing a pop rock act that wrestling fans probably would have skipped watching anyway, and you can see the promotional video for it below.

WWE has tried this before, in 1999, when Mankind fought The Rock in an empty arena for the WWF World Heavyweight Championship. Personally, I have very fond memories of this and remember it being a big success, but it hasn’t happened since then. 20 years later, WWE looks towards the future by focusing on its NXT brand.

Revealed during the Royal Rumble Kickoff Show, this year’s Halftime Heat will be a six-man tag team match featuring Aleister Black, Velveteen Dream, and Ricochet vs. Tommaso Ciampa, Johnny Gargano, and Adam Cole. The show will air during halftime at the Super Bowl on the WWE Network, WWE.com, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. Hopefully, this time around, the area will have an audience. (But the empty arena match was pretty cool)

This is a really smart move for WWE, as these six competitors are some of the best in the company’s developmental brand. Both Aleister Black and Johnny Gargano were surprise entrants into the men’s Royal Rumble match on January 27 and both proved they are ready for the main roster–a roster that’s already a bit too crowded. Regardless, this will be a fantastic match, and it’s nice to see WWE put the focus on the best wrestling in the company, NXT.

You can watch Halftime Heat on February 3 on the WWE Network during the Super Bowl halftime, and for more on Royal Rumble, check out the results and our review of the show.

Despite very mixed reviews, M. Night Shyamalan’s Glass held onto the top slot on this week’s US box office, with an estimated $19 million taken over three days. This brings the movie’s US total to $79 million, off a modest, self-funded production budget of $20 million. While it is unlikely to hit the heights of its 2017 predecessor Split, which made $138 million in the US, it’s still another hugely successful movie for Shyamalan.

The week’s new movies did not fare nearly as well. The family adventure The Kid Who Would be King entered the chart at No.4, making $7.2 million, while the thriller Serenity fared even worse, grossing just $4.8 million to debut at No.8. Serenity, which stars Matthew McConaughey and Anne Hathaway, was hit by particularly bad reviews and currently has a Rotten Tomatoes score of 21%.

Elsewhere, the comedy The Upside and DC’s Aquaman remained at No.2 and No.3 respectively. Aquaman has now grossed $1.09 billion worldwide, which makes it the most successful DC movie ever made, eclipsing Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight Rises, which made $1.085 billion. The season’s other big superhero hit, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, maintained its position at No.5.

In the lower half of the chart, the drama Green Book returned to the Top 10 on the back of its Oscar nominations, rising to No.6. A Dog’s Way Home dropped one place to No.7, while the horror movie Escape Room is at No.9.

You can see the full Top 10 list for the January 25-27 US box office below, as compiled by Box Office Mojo.

January 25-27 US/Canada Box Office:

1. Glass — $19.0 million
2. The Upside — $12.2 million
3. Aquaman — $7.3 million
4. The Kid Who Would be King — $7.2 million
5. Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse — $6.1 million
6. Green Book — $5.4 million
7. A Dog’s Way Home — $5.2 million
8. Serenity — $4.8 million
9. Escape Room — $4.2 million
10. Dragon Ball Super: Broly — $3.6 million

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