Category: Games

Pokemon Go developer Niantic has outlined some of the events it will be holding in the Pokemon mobile game in August. The studio has a number of activities lined up for next month, including new Spotlight Hours, a two-day Community Day, a new Research Breakthrough encounter, and three Ultra Unlock events. Below, you can read more about everything happening in Pokemon Go in August 2021.

August Research Breakthrough: Chimecho

Niantic is refreshing Pokemon Go’s Field Research tasks and rewards beginning August 1, including a new Research Breakthrough encounter. Each time you achieve a Research Breakthrough in August 2021, you’ll earn a chance to catch the Steel/Psychic Pokemon Chimecho. On top of that, you’ll earn double the usual XP each time you achieve a Research Breakthrough.

Legendary Raid Schedule

As part of its two Ultra Unlock events, Niantic is bringing the Legendary Pokemon Dialga and Palkia back to Raids during August 2021. Dialga will appear until August 6, while Palkia will be available immediately afterward until August 20. Niantic says it will share more details about which Legendary will appear after that at a later date.

• July 23 – August 6: Dialga
• August 6-20: Palkia
• August 20: TBA

Mega Raid Schedule

Niantic is also shaking up the Mega Raid boss rotation for August 2021. The current Mega Raid boss, Mega Charizard X, will continue to appear until August 6, after which point it will be replaced by Mega Ampharos. Mega Beedrill will follow starting August 20, and Mega Pidgeot will round out the month beginning August 26. You can see the full Mega Raid schedule below:

• July 23 – August 6: Mega Charizard X
• August 6-20: Mega Ampharos
• August 20-26: Mega Beedrill
• August 26 – September 1: Mega Pidgeot

August Spotlight Hours

Every Tuesday evening in August, Niantic is spotlighting a different Pokemon and bonus for one hour from 6-7 PM local time. You can see August’s full Spotlight Hour schedule below.

Date	Spotlight Pokemon	Special Bonus
August 3	Magnemite	2x catch Stardust
August 10	East Sea Shellos	2x catch XP
August 17	West Sea Shellos	2x catch Candy
August 24	TBA	2x transfer Candy
August 31	TBA	2x evolution XP

August 2021 Community Day

August’s Community Day will take place across two days rather than one. The event will be held on August 14-15 and features the Evolution Pokemon, Eevee. Eevee will appear in the wild much more frequently than usual during the event, giving you more chances to catch it and stock up on Eevee Candy. On top of that, each of its evolved forms will also learn a special Community Day-exclusive move if you evolve them between August 13-16.

Ultra Unlock Events

As a reward for completing enough Global Challenges during Pokemon Go Fest 2021, Niantic is holding three special Ultra Unlock events throughout August. Ultra Unlock Part 1: Time is underway until August 3 and features Pokemon from different eras, including Shiny Dialga. Ultra Unlock Part 2: Space will follow from August 6-17 and will feature Pokemon from different regions, as well as Shiny Palkia. The final Ultra Unlock event is slated to run from August 20-31, but Niantic hasn’t shared any further details on that yet.

Go Battle Night

Niantic is hosting another Go Battle Night on Thursday, August 26. From 6 PM to 11:59 PM local time, you’ll be able to earn triple the usual amount of Stardust for winning battles, completing sets of battles, and increasing your rank in the Go Battle League. You can read more details on the Pokemon Go blog.

A 2010 clip of a fan asking a panel of Activision Blizzard employees at BlizzCon for better representation of body shapes in World of Warcraft has gone viral over the past few days. Now, one of the panelists in the video has apologized for the comments, stating that the panel did not take her question seriously and that the clip itself “hasn’t aged well.”

In the clip, a woman notes the “very strong female characters” in World of Warcraft before asking when the developers plan on introducing some women that don’t look like they’ve “stepped out of a Victoria’s Secret catalog.” The woman’s comments immediately receive applause from fans in attendance, followed by an overwhelming wave of boos and jeers. The panelists then offer dismissive responses to the question.

One panelist asks, “what do you mean?” and another says, “which catalog would you like them to step out of?” Even after the woman steps away from the microphone, the panelists continue to poke fun at the question. One of the panelists is J. Allen Brack, the current president of Blizzard. Another is Alex Afrasiabi, a former creative director for World of Warcraft who has been accused of harassing female employees.

Another one of the panelists, Greg Street, recently said on Twitter that he wishes he had said “something better then,” and that it was a “shitty answer.” He claimed that it was difficult to see the woman’s face from the stage. He apologized to the player who asked the question, as well as all others who were disappointed with the answer. He also stated that he finds the video embarrassing on a personal level.

This clip circulated in part due to the high-profile lawsuit filed against Activision Blizzard by the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing due to the company’s alleged “frat house culture” of serial harassment, discrimination, and sexism. More than a thousand current and former employees of the company signed an open letter condemning the company’s response to the lawsuit, stating that they will not be silenced.

Psyonix has announced that the rewards for Season 3 of Rocket League will be universal animated decals. In a blog post, the developer revealed all of the rewards to be given to ranked players when Season 3 ends on August 11.

The rewards are given to players who win 10 ranked matches after reaching that tier–so a player would need to win 10 ranked matches once they are ranked bronze to qualify for bronze rewards, as an example. Players will receive the animated decal for their max competitive rank as well as the decals for all ranks below that.

Players who reach either Grand Champion or Supersonic Legend will receive a special title depending on which game mode they achieved that rank in. Tournament credits will be reset once Season 3 ends as well, with all tournament credits converted into All-Star Cup rewards. Players will receive one reward if they have between 0 and 12,000 credits, two rewards for 12,001 to 24,000, and so on.

You can see a full breakdown of the Rocket League Season 3 ranked rewards below:

Season 3 Rewards

• Bronze I or higher – Season 3 – Bronze Decal
• Silver I or higher – Season 3 – Silver Decal + lower Decal
• Gold I or higher – Season 3 – Gold Decal + lower Decals
• Platinum I or higher – Season 3 – Platinum Decal + lower Decals
• Diamond I or higher – Season 3 – Diamond Decal + lower Decals
• Champion I or higher – Season 3 – Champion Decal + lower Decals
• Grand Champion I – Season 3 – Grand Champion Decal + lower Decals
• Supersonic Legend – Season 3 – Supersonic Legend Decal + lower Decals

Grand Champion Title Rewards

• Competitive Grand Champion: “S3 GRAND CHAMPION” in Crimson text
• Rumble Grand Champion: “S3 RNG CHAMP” in Crimson text
• Hoops Grand Champion: “S3 DUNK MASTER” in Crimson text
• Snow Day Grand Champion: “S3 BLIZZARD WIZARD” in Crimson text
• Dropshot Grand Champion: “S3 FLOOR DESTROYER” in Crimson text

Supersonic Legend Title Rewards

• Competitive Supersonic Legend: “S3 SUPERSONIC LEGEND” in Titanium White text
• Rumble Supersonic Legend: “S3 RNGENIUS” in Titanium White text
• Hoops Supersonic Legend: “S3 LEGENDARY BALLER” in Titanium White text
• Snow Day Supersonic Legend: “S3 ICE TITAN” in Titanium White text
• Dropshot Supersonic Legend: “S3 TILE ANNIHILATOR” in Titanium White text

The Rocket League Summer Road Trip event is currently in its final week. Players have until July 28 to acquire Jurrasic World cosmetics and play the limited-time mode, 3v3 Loophole Live.

One’s company, two’s a Crowd Play!
It’s audience participation like you’ve never seen it before. Crowd Play allows your friends and viewers to jump into the game and play alongside you as you stream!
Want to check it out? Apply to join the beta program: https://t.co/GHV6HyFxgN pic.twitter.com/G7K8aiSjnp

— Stadia (@GoogleStadia) July 23, 2021

The Coalition has released two videos showcasing its own tests with Unreal Engine 5 and the results are quite stunning.

The Coalition is the Xbox-owned studio behind Gears of War 5, and while that game looks really good (especially on the Xbox Series X), what the team is able to do in Unreal Engine 5 looks, well, unreal. During GDC, we got a glimpse of The Coalition’s Alpha Point developed using Unreal Engine 5, which we last saw in the Lumen in the Land of Nanite PS5 Unreal Engine 5 tech demo.

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“First look at the #AlphaPoint demo,” a tweet from The Coalition made today reads. “An insight into what’s possible with #UE5, from its next-gen features such as Nanite, which allows for unlimited triangle budget, and Lumen, which allows real-time lighting with none of the traditional overheard tasks.”

As you can see in the video above, the Alpha Point technical demo demonstrates a lot of next-gen visuals from ray-tracing to realistic textures and more. It’s yet another example of how games are pushing their graphical benchmarks, with the line between real-life and what video game visuals are capable of growing even blurrier.

The Coalition released a second test video alongside the first that focuses more on character rendering. It demonstrates an ultra-realistic face with facial hear, belts and belt buckles (just imagine what Kingdom Hearts 4 might look like in Unreal Engine 5), and more.

The team also shared a real-time character rendering test on #XboxSeriesX and their discoveries on what’s possible with next-gen character creation using #UE5. Here at The Coalition, we’re excited to be on the leading edge of the future of next-gen gaming. https://t.co/MeUu1SNl8r

— The Coalition Studio (@CoalitionGears) July 26, 2021

We first got a taste of Unreal Engine 5’s capabilities in last year’s PS5 tech demo. Shortly after that, we learned that Xbox studio InXile would be using Unreal Engine 5 for its next-gen RPG. Then Sony spent $250 million to acquire a minority stake in Epic Games, which is the team behind Unreal Engine 5.

Earlier this year, Epic Games released Unreal Engine 5 alongside a new tech demo in Early Access and a day later, a developer used the tool to render 10 billion polygons of his dog having a nap.

The Coalition formally announced back in May that the Gears of War series would be moving to Unreal Engine 5 for “multiple new projects” and then two months later, The Coalition announced that it would soon show off its Unreal Engine 5 demo. Now the wait to see what else the studio does with the engine begins.

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Wesley LeBlanc is a freelance news writer and guide maker for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @LeBlancWes.

Almost 1,000 former and current Activision Blizzard employees have signed an internal letter criticizing the company’s public response to the recent discrimination lawsuit.

Bloomberg reports that a letter circulated among staff vocally criticizes Activision Blizzard’s public statements regarding a recent lawsuit by the state of California for gender discrimination. The letter calls the company’s internal responses to the lawsuit “abhorrent and insulting.”

The letter is in response to a lawsuit filed last week by the California Department of Fair Housing and Employment which accused the company of fostering a culture in which women and women of color were paid less for equal work, and placed in lower positions than their male counterparts.

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The lawsuit also says Activision Blizzard had a culture of sexual harassment where male colleagues would engage inappropriately with female colleagues during work hours and events.

The letter pushes back against an official company statement that called the claims in the lawsuit “distorted, and in many cases, false” especially given how current and former employees are coming forward in recent days with their own stories about their experiences with harassment. The undersigned employees say they “no longer trust” that the company’s leaders “will place employee safety above their own interests.”

Co-founder and former Blizzard president Mike Morhaime published a statement telling employees “to the Blizzard women who experienced any of these things, I am extremely sorry that I failed you.”

You can read the full details of the lawsuit here and read the full letter published by Activision Blizzard staff on Vice.

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Hardware outlet Digital Foundry has concluded that the new Resident Evil Village patch fixed the stuttering issues caused by the game’s anti-piracy technology. However, editor Rich Leadbetter stopped short of praising the move, saying that fans deserve an explanation for the shift.

Capcom faced heavy criticism from players earlier this month when Digital Foundry concluded that the cracked version of Resident Evil Village actually runs better than the official version on Steam. The inferior performance included stutters when zombies lunge at player character Ethan Winters, as well as a particularly noticeable series of hitches during an early boss fight with one of Lady Dimitrescu’s daughters.

In the video, Leadbetter states that the patch has mysteriously fixed all of the stuttering issues on the PC version of the game, but he also wonders why Capcom didn’t fix this issue prior to the game’s release, given how obvious the stuttering is. Digital Foundry also weighed in on the FidelityFX Super Resolution added in that same patch, opining that it mostly works as an upscaling solution for lower-end rigs, but that most people won’t be able to notice the difference.

In other Village news, we recently learned that Village has sold more than 4.5 million copies in just a few months. Capcom has delayed the multiplayer game that was supposed to accompany Village, Re:Verse, until 2022 due to unfavorable reception from fans.