You’ve almost certainly played some weird games in your time, but have you played a game in which you attempt to escape a town where everyone thinks you’re a criminal, and your every move is watched by a gigantic policeman who towers over the horizon? That’s the premise of Militsioner, a delightfully strange immersive sim from Russian developer TallBoys.
Oh, and you can talk to the policeman with your actual voice. Just in case it wasn’t strange enough for you yet.
TallBoys has released a new gameplay trailer, which you can watch above, that demonstrates the voice mechanics and shows off the world and tone. The immediate vibe is Half-Life 2’s City 17; it’s drenched in a communist dystopian atmosphere, and has a giant face in the sky watching you at all times. The difference, though, is that in City 17 you couldn’t answer back to Dr. Breen, but in Militsioner you can get snarky with your massive parole officer. You can even tell him to eff off, if you’re brave enough to face the consequences.
The city itself seems to be freely explorable, with NPCs to talk to using the real voice communication system. The townsfolk, at least in the trailer, do seem to hate you for the crimes you’ve been accused of, though. It seems that finding help in the town may not be easy.
While Militsioner seems to be a haunting comment on the police state, it looks to be really quite funny in its bizarre methods. The giant policeman isn’t chasing you with pepper spray or guns, and seems open for a chat. And, of course, that chat comes through your actual voice, which lends it a sense of potential absurdity.
The developers are working on making sure the voice system is as natural as possible. “In order for the policeman and the environment to understand the player correctly, we are working on a system that will correctly process the player’s responses based on the context,” a dev blog from TallBoys says. “It is important that it does not make stupid mistakes or create obstacles, as the answers will influence the mood and attitude of the Militsioner towards the player.”
For anyone who would rather not shout at their own computer, Tallboys is looking at “alternative text input as an option and possibly even a classic dialog system” according to a post on Twitter.
For more immersive sim style games, check out the upcoming System Shock remake, as well as our reviews of Dishonored 2 and Prey. None of these involve giant police officers, though. Sorry.
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Matt Purslow is IGN’s UK News and Entertainment Writer.
Just as it did back in 2009, the announcement of the new version of the Iraq War game Six Days in Fallujah this week caused a stir online over its subject matter. A FAQ on the game’s website contains some responses to questions people might have regarding whether or not the US government is involved, if it’s being used as a military recruitment mechanic, and if the deaths of certain US Marines will be depicted.
The US government is not involved in the development of Six Days in Fallujah, the FAQ states, and there are no plans for the game to double as a recruiting tool officially. “The Marines, Soldiers, and Iraqi civilians who’ve helped us participated as private citizens, and the game is being financed independently,” the page says.
People wondered about these points specifically due to the involvement of Peter Tamte, the head of new publisher Victura. Tamte previously ran Six Days in Fallujah’s original developer, Atomic Games, which also created training simulations for the US military. The company was funded in part by In-Q-Tel, the venture capital firm funded by the CIA. As the FAQ says, the new game is financed independently.
Also in the FAQ, it states that a portion of the sales from Six Days in Fallujah will be donated to organizations that help service members affected by war. “Our focus will be on those whom traditional relief efforts are not yet reaching. Marines, Soldiers, and civilians who’ve helped us create the game will be deeply involved in directing these donations,” the page says.
The FAQ page goes on to state that Six Days in Fallujah will not recreate the death of any specific soldier, unless their family gives consent. The game will, however, display video interviews with real service members who speak about their experiences in the war.
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You won’t always play as an American in Six Days in Fallujah, either, while there will be missions in the game where you play as an un-armed Iraqi civilian.
”Multiple countries had forces in the city, not all of which have been acknowledged publicly. Additionally, the single-player campaign includes some high-intensity stealth missions in which you play as an un-armed Iraqi civilian,” the page says.
Players will never take on the role of an insurgent, however, either in single-player or multiplayer.
The developers of Six Days in Fallujah don’t agree with the idea that video games should stay away from depicting real-life events.
“Throughout history, we’ve tried to understand our world through events that happened to somebody else,” the studio said. “Six Days in Fallujah asks you to solve these real-life challenges for yourself. We believe that trying to do something for ourselves can help us understand not just what happened, but why it happened the way it did. Video games can connect us in ways other media cannot.”
More than 100 Marines, soldiers, and Iraqi civilians spoke with the developers to share their experiences, including a corporal who was on the ground kicking down doors and the Deputy Prime Minister of Iraq.
“Based on their stories, we’ve invested more than three years building technologies to explore specific parts of the combat experience more realistically than other games have so far,” the studio said. “We hope that participating in these real-life ‘moments of truth’ will give each of us a new perspective into events that have already shaped so much of our century. Perhaps now, more than ever, the best way to understand what’s actually true is by experiencing reality–for ourselves.”
Six Days in Fallujah’s creative director, former senior Halo developer Jaime Griesemer, said on Twitter that the stories in Six Days in Fallujah are worth being told. His comment came in response to a former soldier on Twitter who said they have PTSD and would not be able to play the game due to the trauma of it.
“The stories are worth being told, and our medium can tell them in a unique and powerful way. Although the realism may well be too much for you and I would encourage you to be cautious,” Griesemer said.
The stories are worth being told, and our medium can tell them in a unique and powerful way. Although the realism may well be too much for you and I would encourage you to be cautious.
Call of Duty Warzone appears to be teasing a Zombies crossover, with out-of-place trial machines and screen distortion being reported by players.
As spotted by Eurogamer, an unfinished version of the Cold War Zombies Trial Machine has cropped up in the Verdansk Hospital in Warzone’s Rumble playlist. You can see the machine in this tweet from EricMaynardII. When approached, the player is given a prompt which reads ZAI/ACTIVATE_ZOMBIES, but it does nothing. The script for the prompt is clearly not what it should be – it feels like players weren’t supposed to find this yet, or maybe it’s part of a wider easter egg or ARG.
Soooooo…. There’s a Cold War Zombies Trial Machine in Hospital On Warzone…
Other Warzone players have noted in-game screen distortion, which operates a bit like a jumpscare except with TV static and morse code. CaberCC triggered the morse code pop-up, which has chanting in the background. Over on Reddit, user Soggy_nugget86 posted a similar video on the recently added Rebirth Island, which seems to be an extended version of the scare, which contains a few voice lines in Russian. In the comments, user Wolf-of-icewrack has seemingly translated what is being said.
-Dispatch, this is russian ship “Vodyanoy” channel 1-2, over
-This is dipatch, requesting shipping permit to Verdansk, over
-Dispatch, cargo secured, all systems are fine. Get ready to go. Over.
You can actually see the ship Vodyanoy in Warzone, as spotted by KStidge on Twitter. But what is it transporting? The community thinks it’s Nova 6, given that Rebirth Island is where the chemical weapon was developed, and the gas appears throughout Black Ops lore, and in the game’s Zombies mode. The Warzone lore is looking very interesting right now, so expect more news and easter eggs in the coming days. All signs point to zombies.
Nvidia has worked with Epic Games to bring native Deep Learning Super Sampling (DLSS) support to Unreal Engine 4, allowing any studio to download it from the UE Asset Store.
DLSS is Nvidia’s proprietary AI scaling solution, allowing games to run at lower internal resolutions and then utilize powerful AI-specific cores in Nvidia GPUs to accurately scale them back up. The result is often an image that is indiscernible from a natively rendered one (and in some cases, better) that also runs far more efficiently, allowing you to play at higher resolutions with much higher framerates.
The first iteration of DLSS required the AI model to be trained for each game specifically, which hampered some of its early adoption at studios. But DLSS 2.0 removes that limitation, letting developers implement the technology with little fuss. And now with it being included in Unreal Engine 4–one of the world’s most widely used game engines–you’ll likely see it supported in more games, too.
AMD is working on its own version of AI scaling for its recently released desktop GPUs, which all run on the latest RDNA 2 architecture. This is the same architecture used in both the Xbox Series X|S and PlayStation 5, but AMD hasn’t yet confirmed if its solution will make it to consoles. Considering the massive performance advantage it has given Nvidia with its products, it’s unlikely that AMD want to take too long to get its own version out.
Nvidia is reportedly launching its latest desktop GPU, the RTX 3060, on February 25. It will join the growing RTX 30-series family of products, although you’ll likely still have issues buying one for the foreseeable future.
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Dave Chappelle has announced that Chappelle’s Show is now streaming on Netflix again.
As reported by Variety, Chappelle posted an Instagram video on Thursday from a recent standup performance at Austin venue Stubb’s. Partway through the 10-minute clip, which he titled “Redemption Song,” the comedian summarized his past dispute with Comedy Central and its parent company, ViacomCBS, which resulted in him requesting the removal of his show from Netflix late last year.
At the time, Chappelle criticized ViacomCBS for licensing the Chappelle’s Show streaming rights to Netflix without compensating him, but now he says that the issue has been resolved. In the candid clip posted this week, Chappelle confirmed that he was able to renegotiate a deal with the involved parties, which meant that his hit sketch-comedy show could return to Netflix on February 12.
“I asked you to stop watching the show and thank God almighty for you, you did,” Chappelle said in the video. “You made that show worthless because without your eyes, it’s nothing. And you stopped watching it. They called me and I got my name back and I got my license back and I got my show back and they paid me millions of dollars. Thank you very much.”
Chappelle then thanked Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos for listening to his request and having the “courage” to remove his show from the platform in November at “a financial detriment to his company.” He also extended his gratitude to Chris McCarthy of ViacomCBS for having “an interest in making the past right,” and doing something the was “very courageous.”
The comedian ended the clip with one final shoutout, saying, “And finally, after all these years, I can finally say to Comedy Central: It’s been a pleasure doing business with you.”
Chappelle’s Show originally aired on Comedy Central from 2003 to 2006. The series ranked number 19 on IGN’s Top 100 TV Shows of All Time. Though he signed a lucrative $50 million contract with the network for two more seasons, Chappelle famously left the series in 2005, citing creative burnout and describing himself as sometimes being a “difficult dude.”
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Adele Ankers is a Freelance Entertainment Journalist. You can reach her on Twitter.
If the first thing you look at on a game’s Steam page is the aggregated review rating, you might want to check that rating a little closer. One Steam developer has discovered that the “developer” and “publisher” fields can easily masquerade as review scores if your studio’s name is “Very Positive.”
The quirky developer name was picked up on the GameDiscoverCo newsletter and later tweeted by Patrick Klepek, with a screenshot showing the game Emoji Evolution by developer Very Positive.
While the actual game has mixed recent reviews and mostly positive overall reviews, you could be fooled into seeing “Very Positive” ratings for both at a glance. “Emoji Evolution is a new look at the alchemy game where you have to combine different elements to find a new one,” the description reads. “Find all recipes and solve the main dilemma of humanity.”
This seems to be the only game developed or published by Very Positive, and it doesn’t look like any other studios have cottoned onto the cheeky strategy–no one is using the more impressive “Overwhelmingly Positive” rating as a developer name yet, for example.
It’ll be interesting to see if Steam thinks this cheeky little workaround is worth doing something about, whether that means taking action against developer Very Positive individually or simply changing the way developer names are displayed. Given this trick wouldn’t change the way games are ranked or displayed from the store page however, it’s probably not giving Emoji Evolution too much of an unfair advantage.
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In the three years since its release, Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery has occasionally allowed players to ask characters of their choice out on dates as part of limited events. Now, in response to overwhelming demand, the feature is becoming permanent, and just in time for Valentines Day.
The dating feature was first introduced in 2019’s Celestial Ball event, and has since been brought back for four other events. Now, the feature will be added permanently to the game, with a whole new system around it.
Players will be able to accumulate “relationship levels” through their in-game actions, with high enough levels unlocking the ability to begin a relationship. Characte relationships will progress through different milestones, with different date activities and locations unlocking based on the relationship level. Players will be able to either make relationships official and exclusive, or end them if they’re just not working out.
The new feature will roll out on February 16, along with a new Valentine’s Day Dance limited side quest available to all players who have reached Year 5, Chapter 9. The quest will see players helping Madam Pince arrange a romantic Valentine’s event–while also encouraging a spark of love between her and Mr. Filch.
Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery is a free-to-play mobile-based RPG available on Android and iOS.
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WandaVision Episode 6 has arrived on Disney+, just in time for an early aughts Halloween in Westview, New Jersey–and, naturally, things are just as weird and creepy as ever. At least this time the spooky vibes are also part of the intentional set dressing as everyone gets dressed up in their costumes, decorate their homes, and prepare for the Halloween festival in the town square.
Unfortunately, things are not going well for Vision as he tries to get to the bottom of the mystery. Neither are they going that great for Darcy, Jimmy, and Monica outside of the Westview “hex” as they realize that SWORD may not actually be on their side. Meanwhile for everyone else in Westview, things seem to be breaking down faster than ever as citizens seem to glitch and freeze in place the further away from Wanda they get–so, really, not great all around.
But thankfully, Pietro is here to be the fun uncle, even if he’s got an entirely different face and may or may not be from a new reality.
We gathered 24 Easter Eggs, references, and things you’ll definitely want to pay attention to for this episode. Let us know your favorites–and your favorite theories–in the comments. And make sure to check out our Easter egg guides for the rest of the episodes below.
1. You’re not the boss of me now
This week’s opening credits–and the format of the sitcom, itself–borrowed heavily from Malcolm in the Middle, which ran for seven seasons between 2000 and 2006.
2. Billy in the Wiccan costume
It’s Halloween in Westview and everyone’s getting into the spirit, some a little earlier than others. Billy’s already in costume, a direct nod to his comics counterpart’s Wiccan uniform.
3. Dance Dance Revolution
The Maximoff twins have their own home copy of Dance Dance Revolution. It’s not entirely clear which version of the game they have, but the first DDR game released on home consoles in North America was Dance Dance Revolution Disney Mix, which was released on the PlayStation in 2001.
4. Sokovian fortune teller costume
Naturally, Wanda’s outfit is her vintage ’60s comic outfit, which she calls a “Sokovian fortune teller.”
5. Multiverse memories
A brief, extremely ’90s cut-away flashback to Wanda and Pietro’s childhood causes some confusion–the memory isn’t what Wanda expected and isn’t something she can recall at all. We get a handful of these moments as the episode continues, where Wanda isn’t quite sure how things with Pietro are fitting together–likely because there’s some multiversal weirdness going on. After all, this Pietro isn’t the Pietro from the MCU.
6. The OG Vision outfit
Vision’s costume is, of course, made to look like ’60s Vision, which he calls a “Mexican wrestler.”
7. Quicksilver and Speed costumes
Both Pietro and Tommy’s Halloween costumes are based on their comics outfits–and if they look similar, that’s by design. Tommy and Pietro both have speedster abilities. The incredibly stupid looking hair is, unfortunately, part of the look.
8. “All you people who left”
In case you forgot, Monica was one of the people snapped away, leaving her with a 5 year gap in her experiences.
9. Yo-Magic
This week’s disturbing commercial break featured a yogurt style product and, uh, death, called “Yo-Magic.” It’s difficult to say exactly what this may mean in the bigger picture but it seems like the implication is that “magic” is dangerous, even fatal. This is specifically interesting because Wanda’s powers in the MCU have never been magic–they stemmed from her time as a HYDRA experiment and the Mind Stone.
10. What a double feature
Playing at Westview’s movie theater on Halloween seems to be a double feature of The Incredibles and The Parent Trap. So, technically, Pixar exists within the MCU. It’s also worth noting that those two movies did not come out the same year (The Parent Trap was 1998 and The Incredibles was 2004). They both oddly make sense as being shown within this world. The Incredibles is about a family of superheroes, while The Parent Trap sees a pair of long-lost twins reuniting. Also, both movies are Disney movies–although Disney bought Pixar in 2006, two years after The Incredibles came out, Disney still co-produced the movie.
11. The accents
Wanda’s ever-evolving accent has been something of a joke among fans of the Marvel movies and now the MCU is poking fun at it. “What happened to your accent?” she asks her brother. He quickly counters with, “what happened to yours?”
12. “Shot like a chump in the street for no reason”
We’re going to call this a direct shot fired at the weirdest choice the MCU has ever made: killing Pietro with a couple of regular, non-superpowered bullets back in Age of Ultron. What a way for a person whose whole deal is running faster than sound to go.
13. Tommy’s speed
The twins are developing their comic book powers in this episode, starting with Tommy’s super speed.
14. Is SWORD trying to rebuild Ultron?
Darcy notes that SWORD and Hayward have a way to track Vision within the Westview bubble specifically, thanks to his Vibranium body–and they’ve been keeping everyone in the dark on this little side project of theirs. Being a government body specifically formed to observe “sentient weapons,” this is a bit concerning, since Vision’s body was originally intended to be the shell for the MCU’s biggest sentient weapon: Ultron.
15. The boundaries of Wanda’s powers
As Vision ventures to the edges of Westview, he encounters a number of people frozen in place, some of them crying. It seems, for the moment at least, that perhaps Wanda isn’t using her power to control the entire town, but instead just the parts she and her family are in. That said, given what comes later in the episode, that may be changing.
16. Agnes is a witch
Notably, Agnes’s Halloween costume is a pretty standard looking witch. If the pattern here is anything like the other characters, this could be our biggest confirmation that Agnes is indeed a version of the comics character Agatha Harkness.
17. “What’s an Avenger?”
With that line, we now realize Vision likely has no memories pre-Westview. Why is that, though? Is Wanda suppressing his memories or were they erased when he died? Or is this not even really Vision at all?
18. Agnes is driving a ’90s Volvo wagon
Agnes is driving one of the sickest cars ever made, the Volvo 940 wagon, first introduced in 1990. It’s not as sick as a Volvo 240, but it is still pretty sick. Good Easter egg.
19. “All is lost.”
Agnes’s whole exchange with Vision is pretty suspect, from the way she directly implicates Wanda–last episode, Norm didn’t mention any names–to the way she immediately seems to have some sort of psychotic, cackling breakdown. Of course, she’s going through some pretty traumatic stuff, like all of Westview, so it could be that–or it could be something else.
However, it should also be noted that if Agnes is supposed to be Agatha Harkness, Agatha has never been an outright villain. She may not be the nicest lady around, but she’s never been evil.
20. The “hex” re-writes people on a molecular level
Monica’s cells have been literally re-written by her trip in and out of the Westview hex, which could be something to pay attention to for Monica’s future, perhaps as superhero Photon.
21. Pietro’s in on it
Pietro makes it clear he knows Wanda has created this reality–and that he should be dead, for that matter. The conversation between the two, though, shows Wanda isn’t entirely sure how she’s doing it.
22. Zombie Pietro
Sure, Pietro knows what Wanda has done, but is he also dead? Much like when Wanda saw the dead version of Vision earlier this season, she briefly sees her brother with a chest riddled with bullet holes, which he got in Age of Ultron.
It’s also worth noting that Vision doesn’t seem to fare too well after breaking free of the Westview hex, which might not bode well for Pietro’s future if the hex ever comes down.
23. Billy’s powers
Like Tommy, Billy also manifests his superpowers in this episode–he takes after his mom (kind of). Like Wanda herself, Billy’s abilities, “reality warping,” have always been a little difficult to pin down or explain. Here we see that he definitely has some form of telepathy that can connect him to his father, but we don’t get much more. If he can completely alter the fabric of reality like his mom, though, Westview might be in trouble.
24. Westview’s not so small anymore
The climax of the episode saw Wanda dramatically enlarging the size of Westview, completely overtaking the military installation outside of its borders. Clearly, this makes her a much bigger threat to pretty much everyone, depending on how much bigger she can actually make it.
The Epic Games Showcase stream has come and gone, with news on upcoming games like Chivalry II, Oddworld: Soulstorm, and Axiom Verge 2 as well as the announcement of the Kingdom Hearts series coming to PC. In addition to the livestream, the Epic Games Store has kicked off a new sale that lasts almost the entire month of February. That’s right, a heck ton of games are discounted by up to 75% until February 25.
There are also a number of games that are much cheaper and more affordable. The exquisite roguelike Hades is down to $20, the fast-paced action game Ghostrunner is $21, and The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt GOTY Edition is only $10. There are plenty of other deals available during the Epic Games Showcase sale, so be sure to head over to the Epic Games Store to see the full selection.
In past sales, Epic Games gave every user a $10 coupon that could be used on games that cost $15 or more. After using it, users would get another $10 coupon. Unfortunately, the Showcase sale doesn’t seem to feature any kind of coupon.
If you’re looking for more PC game sales, there are a lot of them right now. Steam’s Lunar New Year sale is live now, discounting a huge number of games as usual–you can also check out our choices for the best Steam Lunar New Year deals. Both Green Man Gaming and Fanatical have Lunar New Year sales as well, both of which discount Steam keys.
