Category: Games

Mortal Kombat 11 is gruesome in all the ways we’ve come to expect from NetherRealms’ organ-shredding fighter, but what if you could witness all that viscera from a more intimate perspective? Well, stay away from me you weirdo; and also, you can!

Modder Ermaccer (via DSOgaming) has released the Custom Cameras mod on Github. It includes both first-person and third-person modes, the latter of which places the camera behind your back similar to what you might find in a third-person action game. The first-person camera is really the draw, though, letting you see your opponent straight-on.

A video shows the mod in action, and it seems to run pretty smoothly on the whole. Be sure not to use this in any competitive modes, though, because as a mod it could be determined to give you an unfair advantage.

Mortal Kombat released in April 2019, but it’s been getting a steady stream of updates that has added new characters and even an epilogue story. An Ultimate Version release came alongside new DLC characters Rambo, Mileena, and Rain. A recent skin pack included skins based on the cult 1995 film.

Marvel Studios boss Kevin Feige’s Star Wars film project has taken a significant step forward. Michael Waldron, writer and executive producer of Marvel’s Loki series, has been tapped to write the screenplay according to Variety.

Waldron also wrote the upcoming Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness. Waldron got his start in Hollywood working for Dan Harmon on Community, eventually winning an Emmy for his work on Rick and Morty. He also co-wrote and executive producer Starz’s wrestling drama Heels.

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Waldron’s deal is also expected to bring him back for season two of Loki.

Understandably, there’s still no major details about Feige’s Star Wars film, although Feige has said that he is interested in exploring “new people and new places in that universe.” Disney has played its Star Wars lineup closer to the chest than its Marvel properties, but a slate of new movies have been announced in the past year. Wonder Woman director Patty Jenkins is slated to direct a Rogue Squadron movie covering the titular ace pilots, and a second untitled film is being directed and co-written by Thor: Ragnarok’s Taika Waititi and 1917’s Krysty Wilson-Cairns.

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As for now, Star Wars fans are probably eager for more Star Wars with the conclusion of the Mandalorian season two. You can check out what season two’s dramatic ending means for the inevitable season three and see details on the upcoming Book of Boba Fett series.

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Joseph Knoop is a writer/producer/dorksaber for IGN.

Call of Duty: Warzone players have been using a companion app to cheat the battle royale’s competitive matchmaking system. The creators of Warzone Companion, an app that helps players avoid cheaters by displaying K/D ratios before a game, was forced to adjust the stats it displays in pre-game lobbies. Some players were using the stats to back out of lobbies that had players with high K/D ratios.

“Cheaters are one of the worst problems of Warzone and online gaming overall,” Dmitry Shymko, the CEO of COD Stats, the company that runs the app, told Eurogamer. “We wanted to help the community and highlight those players that are having extremely high metrics in their previous matches and at the same time give an instrument for players to see that they just might die to the lucky shot.”

The app was designed to help players check pre-game lobbies to see if anyone had stats that are only attainable through cheating. Players ended up using the app to avoid unfavorable lobbies altogether. COD Stats issued a patch that now displays the K/D ratio information after the pre-game warmup, among other changes, earlier this week. Now the app can no longer serve its original purpose of helping players avoid Warzone’s rampant cheating problem.

Overwolf, an engine for gaming mods where Warzone Companion was available, asked COD Stats to patch the app.

SBMM, or skill-based matchmaking, has been criticized by a number of players for putting them in lobbies with players of equal skill. A trend of “reverse-boosting,” where players intentionally die to end up in lobbies with lower-skilled players, has spread around shooters like Warzone.

Call of Duty: Warzone has seen a number of significant problems since the Black Ops Cold War integration. Players have been upset about balance issues with the dozens of new weapons that were added all at once, including the overpowered DMR. A new patch nerfed the gun and added a new playlist for both Warzone and Black Ops Cold War earlier today.

PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds‘ 10.2 patch is now live on the game’s test servers. Several changes are coming with it, including in-game TVs streaming esports events, a new car, a reputation system, and an update to ranked mode.

First up for the patch is the new PGI.S (PUBG Global Invitational.S). This event pits teams from around the globe against each other in weekly tournaments. Each week these teams will fight it out for placements, and will earn prize money as the overall tournament continues. If you want to watch these skirmishes play out, you can do so in-game as PUBG will now have 10 displays set up around the Miramar and Erangel maps which will livestream the tournaments while they’re happening. There will also be an event called PGI.S Pick’em where players can earn PGI.S gear for correctly predicting tournament winners. If you don’t want to see the livestreams in your game, you can opt to turn the TVs off in your settings menu.

Now for what this patch is bringing to the regular game. A new vehicle is entering the arena, the Coupe RB. It’s a vintage two-seater sports car that can hit a top speed of 150km/h. Be warned, it only spawns on the Miramar, Sanhok, and Erangel maps.

Also, in an attempt to keep player interactions healthy, the 10.2 patch is introducing a reputation system. You will be assigned a reputation rank from 0-5 based on how you treat other players. This ranking will be visible in the Team Finder, so other players will have an idea of what kind of teammate you are. As long as you’re not exhibiting behavior the game deems toxic, your rank will increase on its own as you play. Doing things like repeatedly leaving matches and failing to return, being reported for negative behavior, and being reported for suspected cheating could all cause your reputation rank to drop.

Speaking of leaving early, a tweak to ranked mode in this patch is altering penalties for leaving matches early to give players some leeway to bail on a match without being punished for it. These “leaver penalties” should be waived if you are still alive and exit the plane within five minutes of take off, with these caveats: You will need to have been queued for a squads game and be looking for teammates in the matchmaking system. Additionally, the plane will have needed to leave without a full team (less than four players), and no one in your premade squad can leave the game before the plane arrives.

And finally, for those who love to flex on their opponents, six new stunt emotes have been added for mid-air action on dirt bikes. The horn has been replaced with these, and they can only be triggered while in mid-air, on a dirt bike, when you’re not about to crash into something.

To see all these changes for yourself, check out PUBG’s test servers.

PUBG 10.2 Patch Notes

Livestream screens

10 digital screens have been constructed across Erangel and Miramar to display LIVE esports events.

• PGI.S will be the first event live streamed directly onto these displays while in-game and in the lobby (main menu).
• When the stream is offline, the screens will display PGI.S trailers.
• You can choose to turn off the livestreams in Settings > Gameplay > Functions.

PGI.S Lobby Update

• The lobby has been updated and is now PGI.S themed for normal matches, along with some kickass BGM. PGI.S themed lobby has been updated for the normal match with kickass BGM.
• A livestream display as been added and is displayed in the lobby. It functions the same as those now found across multiple Battlegrounds.

Other PGI.S related updates

• PGI.S logo graffiti has been painted around buildings on Erangel and Miramar.
• The starting plane is now flying PGI.S promo banners on Erangel, Miramar, Sanhok, Vikendi and Karakin
• New PGI.S loading screen splash art has been added

Coupe RB

• Max capacity: 2 (Driver, Passenger)
• Max speed: 150km/h
• Spawns only on Erangel, Miramar and Sanhok

Reputation system

• Reputation level will be displayed in the Team Finder and team member list next to player’s names.
• Reputation levels are indicative of perceived player behavior. Are you friendly, or are you toxic? Let’s hope the former.
• Reputation levels range from 0 to 5, for a total of 6 levels.

Reputation level is affected by the following factors:

• Player’s reputation level will naturally increase through normal gameplay in Normal and Ranked Mode Battle Royale matches.
• Leaving matches repeatedly and failing to return may lead to your reputation level decreasing.
• Reports received for certain negative behavior (obstructing gameplay, verbal abuse, team killing, etc.) may lead to your reputation level decreasing.
• Being reported for the suspected use of cheats does not affect reputation level. With that said, reputation levels will be affected greatly after receiving actual bans.

Ranked mode

We’re updating Ranked Mode leaver penalties to allow players some leeway to leave without punishment in certain situations. You can check out all the details around the system and how it works below.

Leaver penalties should be waived for players who are still ALIVE and leave within 5 minutes after the plane takes off if the player :

• (1) Queued for Squads, requesting matchmaking find them additional teammates AND
• (2) the plane then takes off with an incomplete team (team of less than 4 players in Ranked Squad Mode), AND
• (3) a member of the player’s premade team hasn’t left the match before the plane leaves.

If a player qualifies to have their leaver penalty waived by leaving the match, then the match is considered to be competitively invalid for that player. This means:

• No stats are recorded on their Career page
• No change is made to their RP
• No matchmaking penalties are issued
• Players will be granted any Pass XP and BP they would have earned as normal

Stunt Emotes

• New Stunt emotes exclusive for the Dirt Bike have been added.
• 6 new default stunt emotes can be used.
• The Stunt Emotes are triggerable only mid-air wile on a Dirt Bike – and when the player is not about to hit something.
  • Hold LMB to trigger a random stunt emote
  • Release LMB to stop emote
• Please note that the Horn functionality has been replaced with the Stunt Emotes for the Dirt Bike.

QoL Improvements

Alarm System

• Click on the top right notification center icon to see stacked notifications.
• When acquiring an item or a currency from out-game event etc. will toggle an notification.
• A message will be shown in the notification center to let you know if an item or currency is soon to expire.

Store QoL Improvements

• Opening crates upon purchase
  • Players now can open purchased crates (Set, crate, random rate items) right way in the “Purchase complete” pop-up screen.
• 'Move to store’ button has been added when browsing an empty item category in the Customize Tab.

Lobby Chat system QoL Improvement

• Some cases of reports has been received that when using certain language input in our lobby chat system, client would minimize preventing the use of chat system.
  • We have added a new message to guide players to change their display settings to Windowed or Borderless mode in order to use IME.

Performance

• Improved CPU performance by reducing physics calculation costs of invisible physics actors (vehicles, characters)
• Improved cases of hitching and FPS drops occurring when loading maps (and when entering and maneuvering the world)
• Reduced hitches occurring when updating a character.

Skins & Items

• Graffiti themed skin: 4 set items, 12 individual items (Sales period: 2021-1-13 Live server maintenance ~ 2022-1-12 Live server maintenance)

Bug Fixes

Gameplay

• Fixed the issue where some pass missions could not be completed on Haven.
• Fixed the issue where player could respawn in TDM with a Ghillie Suit equipped.
• Fixed an issue which caused foliage to clip through vehicles on certain maps while in FPP mode.
• Fixed the case where character’s body equipping a ghillie suit could be invisible to others.
• Fixed the issue where player could change perspective to TPP when spectating other players in FPP game mode.
• Fixed the awkward POV when viewing a Death Cam of a character equipped with a Ghille suit.

Sound

• Fixed the UMP-45 audio sounding strange when heard from a distance.
• Fixed the duplicate click sound played when pressing on the preview button in the customize screen.

World

• Fixed the issue where players could clip through a certain building in Abbey on Vikendi.

UI/UX

• Fixed the issue where incorrect RP changes were displayed in the match history section during placement matches.
• Fixed the issue where starting plane’s seat UI were sometimes displayed as empty.
• Fixed the issue where some pages of the store page not be loaded when entering store page after restarting the lobby.
• Fixed the issue where profiles of players located in ‘Unassigned’ ‘Observer’ section of custom match session cannot be loaded.
• Fixed the issue where the center screen pointer was not displayed in replays.

Skins & Items

• Fixed the issue where the visor of Mad’s Motorcycle – Helmet (Level 1) was not displayed when equipped by a male character.
• Fixed the issue where the nose of the Killer Clown Mask could clip through face coverings.

Activision has rolled out the newest playlist updates for Call of Duty: Warzone and Black Ops Cold War, adding new multiplayer modes and, in Warzone’s case, removing a few as well. Additionally, wider patches for both games are now available.

Starting January 7, playlist updates for both titles will go live on Thursday. You can find what’s new in each title, as well as what’s been removed from Warzone, in the list below. Read on for the full patch notes.

Call Of Duty: Warzone January 7 Playlist Update

Added:

• Plunder – Quads
• Rebirth Island – Mini Royale Duos, Resurgence Trios

Removed:

• Plunder – Blood Money Trios
• Rebirth Island – Mini Royale Quads

Call Of Duty: Black Ops Cold War January 7 Playlist Update

Added:

• Raid + Crossroads Strike 24/7
• Gunfight Blueprints
• Dirty Bomb Duos

As for the wider game updates, the Warzone patch includes the previously announced weapon nerfs, while the Black Ops Cold War update fixes a few exploits and other issues. You can see the full patch notes below, as posted on Treyarch’s website.

In other news, Warzone co-developer Raven Software delivered a message to fans informing them that the studio is “consistently monitoring feedback” in an attempt to make Warzone the best experience it can be. “A big piece of that is constructive thoughts from you, the player, so please keep sharing!” the developer said.

This statement does not appear to be addressing any one issue in particular, but it comes just a day after Raven released an update that nerfed the DMR 14 and other weapons after players spoke out. With the launch of Season 1, Black Ops and Warzone have in essence become combined, with Black Ops weapons now available in Warzone, and the experience isn’t landing just right with everyone.

In other news, Warzone recently added its newest Operator, Bulldozer, who wields a giant sledgehammer and is now available to buy in a new bundle.

GLOBAL

Daily Challenges

• Addressed an issue that could prevent new Daily Challenges from appearing.
• Addressed issues preventing the following Daily Challenges from tracking properly:
  • “Team Deathmatch Challenger”
  • “Hardcore Challenger”
  • “Hardcore Champion”

Season Challenges

• Addressed an issue that could prevent progress from tracking for the “Mass Casualties” Challenge when using a Cruise Missile.

MULTIPLAYER

Featured Playlists

• Raid + Crossroads Strike 24/7 [NEW]
  • Includes TDM, Domination, Kill Confirmed, and Hardpoint on Raid and Crossroads Strike.
  • Hardcore version also available in Quick Play.
• Gunfight Blueprints [NEW]
  • 2v2 Gunfight matches using new randomized Weapon Blueprint-based loadouts.
• Fireteam: Dirty Bomb Duos [NEW]
  • Fireteam: Dirty Bomb played with 20 players (10 teams of Duos).
• Nuketown 24/7 [UPDATED]
  • Nuketown ’84 Holiday replaced with Nuketown ’84.
• Face Off
• Prop Hunt
• Fireteam: Dirty Bomb

Modes

• Gunfight
  • Added extra models and collision to prevent being able to kill enemies at their spawn in Game Show at the start of a match.
• Combined Arms
  • Adjusted time in Combined Arms: Assault when a zone is captured.

Scorestreaks

• H.A.R.P.
  • Addressed an issue in Hardcore modes where Spy Planes exiting the map could override the mini-map being active, even if a H.A.R.P. was still active.
• Care Package
  • Fixed a rare crash that could occur when calling in a Holiday Care Package.

Operator Missions

• Adjusted XP values for Operator Missions.

ZOMBIES

Stability

• Added various stability fixes.

Gameplay

• Closed various map exploit areas.
• Addressed an issue that prevented the Ammo Mod from appearing on the player’s weapon immediately after using the Pack-a-Punch.

Dead Ops Arcade 3

• Addressed an issue where the player could load into Dead Ops Arcade with the wrong Operator Skin.
• Addressed an issue where the player could be downed by walking underneath a spike trap.
• Addressed different effect issues occurring when transitioning from solo play.
• Addressed various particle effect issues.

Onslaught (PS4/PS5)

• Addressed an issue where a player could lose their Bronze chalice after a private match.

And from Raven Software:

WARZONE

Featured Playlists

• Verdansk
  • Verdansk Quads – 152 Players
  • Trios – 150 Players
  • Duos – 150 Players
  • Solos – 150 Players
  • Plunder Quads – 100 Players
• Rebirth Island
  • Resurgence Trios – 45 Players
  • Mini Royale Duos – 40 Players

Weapons

• DMR 14
  • Reduced headshot damage.
  • Increased recoil.
• Type 63
  • Reduced headshot damage.
  • Increased recoil.
• Mac-10
  • Decreased headshot damage multiplier.
• Handgun Charlie (Akimbo Only)
  • Decreased damage range.
  • Increased hip-fire spread.

In a move that is seen as the biggest removal ever in a single day, Apple has deleted some 39,000 mobile games from its Chinese app store, according to Reuters.

The mass removal comes as Apple initiated a year-end crackdown on unlicensed games by Chinese authorities. As a result, including the 39,000 pulled games, the company took down a total of 46,000 apps from the Chinese iOS app store on New Year’s Eve. As cited by Reuters, the research firm Qimai said only 74 of the top 1,500 paid games made it through the purge.

Publishers had until December 31, extended from end-of-July initially, to submit a government-issued license number allowing the use of in-app purchases in their games. The titles affected include the mobile-exclusive Assassin’s Creed Identity and NBA 2K20, according to Qimai. It’s unclear which others games have been removed from the app store.

A law has been in place in China since 2016 that mandated all paid games with in-app purchases must be approved by the country’s National Press and Publication Administration, the government body that approves game releases. Android stores have enforced this law for years, but loopholes on the iOS market let games launch in China without license numbers. Apple warned developers by deleting over 8,000 games in a single week in early July 2020.

Over the years, Grinding Gear Games’ Path of Exile has steadily improved its core hack-and-slash gameplay as it incorporates significant new features that spice up the flow of the game. While the developers are still working on its sequel, Path of Exile 2, the original game isn’t showing any signs of slowing down. As revealed during a livestream, the latest expansion, Echoes of the Atlas, will upgrade the action-RPG’s extensive endgame, and will launch on PC January 15, and for Xbox One and PS4 on January 20.

Just before Grinding Gear Games’ reveal stream, we had a chance to speak with managing director Chris Wilson about Echoes of the Atlas, how it will change the endgame and incorporate gameplay from previous expansions. Along with his thoughts on the state of the game, he also explained how work on Path of Exile 2 has improved the original for the better.

The Echoes of the Atlas expansion features a whole suite of changes coming to the game, which includes rebalances, new endgame content centered on the Atlas of Worlds world map, and new pinnacle boss fights that can open up pathways for more powerful loot. While previous expansions like Harvest, Delve, and Heist was available to all players, the core content from the Echoes of the Atlas expansion is catered more towards high-level players with decked out character builds. The expansion will also add in new passive skill trees that can be unlocked from completing high-end challenges from the new NPC known as the Maven, who appears after clearing bosses on the world map.

Chris Wilson explained the developer’s reasoning for re-examining the endgame, and why the team wanted to give players more freedom in how they want to progress and improve their characters.

“We typically modify aspects of the endgame in a big way at least once per year, we find that that’s a reasonable cadence and things don’t change too much, and it gives players a chance to tackle the new content and master it, and by the time a year comes up, they’re ready for new content,” said Wilson. “What we wanted to achieve with Echoes, both by the Atlas [passive trees] concept and the Watchstones that can be acquired in the Atlas, was to give endgame players more control in what type of content they can get from it.”

Gallery

As with previous expansions, Echoes of the Atlas not only has a core focus, but it also features a set of quality-of-life improvements and the start of a new challenge league called the Ritual League. Here is a quick rundown of the expansion key new features, changes, and upgrades based on our impressions.

• Upgraded Atlas Gameplay: The Atlas of Worlds is currently an endgame focused world map that allows players to travel to different areas to explore isolated dungeons clearing monsters, and gathering loot. With the Echoes expansion, endgame level players will modify regions of the map to increase the difficulty and add more rewards. The Atlas expansion adds new Watchstones, items that upgrade the map, that introduce more persistent changes. These new Watchstones from the Echoses expansion can also be traded and crafted for other players. With these new stones and other changes to the map, you can now optimize and alter the Atlas gameplay to your liking.
• Maven’s Challenge And Atlas Passive Skills: The new Maven NPC can be summoned by the player with beacons, allowing you to summon the character to watch your battles. If you complete dungeon runs, she will invite you to her domain to engage in more challenging fights. After you clear fights, you not only get greater rewards, you can also fight the Maven herself. Completing her challenges will give you new skill points to spend in the Atlas passive trees. The skill trees are located on the map, and they can increase drop rates or add the chance for special monsters to appear in specific regions.
• New Maps: The expansion will introduce 11 new maps layouts. What makes these maps different from PoE’s current suite of locations is that they feature dynamic camerawork and more intricate level design. According to Wilson, the developers’ work on Path of Exile 2 influenced the changes map to the current game’s current map designs.
• Reworked Ascendancy Classes: PoE’s ascendancy classes are special subclasses that open up new skills and perks. The Echoes expansion will update four classes–The Slayer, Deadeye, Inquisitor, and Elementalist–with buffs, rebalances, and other upgrades that will make them more defined and viable for longterm play.
• Harvest and Heist gameplay reworked: The farming and stealth action gameplay introduced in the Harvest and Heist expansions respectively are set to be introduced into the core loop of Path of Exile. Both pillars are presently experienced in isolation, but with the new expansion, they will be a part of the story progression and included in the Atlas endgame, presenting them more organically in the experience.

Path of Exile’s next expansion looks to be just the endgame refresher that the hardcore players in the community want to see, and its core content is certainly meaty enough to dive into. Our previous looks at the game’s other expansions made it clear that support for the game is still going strong, and it doesn’t look like that’ll stop any time soon. Echoes is an undoubtedly dense update for the game, yet it feels totally appropriate for a robust and customizable game as Path of Exile.

Facepunch Studios is trying to capitalize on the recent wave of new players that has flocked to its popular game Rust by quickly providing updates and new features. The studio announced that it had enabled Twitch drops, increased its server capacity, added streamer-specific rewards, and more, all via its monthly update.

“We’re expecting to see huge player counts over the coming days, server capacity is something we’re keeping a close eye on and proactively bringing more servers online,” the studio wrote in a post on its official site. “We’re already boosting the official server count by 13 servers preemptively today.”

Rust cracked the 1 million viewer threshold in 2021 thanks to a number of big-time streamers picking the game up. Facepunch enabled Twitch drops for those who are watching streamers play the survival game. A couch, industrial door, and “hobo barrel” can be unlocked for watching eight hours of Rust content on Twitch.

The studio has also added streamer specific rewards for the following people: Auronplay, Jacksepticeye, lilypichu, ludwig, Myth, pokimane, shroud, Sykkuno and xQc. Tune in to these specific channels to receive one of the items below while logged in to your Twitch account.

Other new additions include server save backups, centralized banning, and a complete blueprint wipe. Blueprints let players craft new items and act as the main source of progression in Rust. Wiping the blueprints of all players is a big deal, but Facepunch wants all players to be on the same level now that tech trees have added more structure to the game.

“For the first time in years we are force-wiping blueprints across all rust servers,” the studio wrote. “Due to the recent introduction of tech trees we feel as though this is the right move to get everyone on equal footing once again. Don’t expect another blueprint wipe for a long, long while!”

You can check out more details from the update on the studio’s official site. If you’re looking to play Rust on console, then you might be in luck. The ESRB has published a rating for Rust on Xbox One and PS4, indicating that the game might not be too far away from launch.