Category: Games

Start thinking up your own Vault Hunter’s backstory: Borderlands is getting its own official TTRPG based on Tiny Tina’s favorite game, Bunkers & Badasses. The game is up for pre-order now, either as the sourcebook by itself, or a deluxe package of game board, screen, miniatures, a dice set, and more.

While Borderlands fans have been playing Bunkers and Badasses homebrew campaigns presumably since it was first introduced to the series, you can now play an official, Gearbox-sanctioned game of B&B. A blend of high fantasy and classic Borderlands, the game will see you exploring Pandora through a different lens.

The sourcebook includes Tiny Tina’s own Assault on Dragon Keep campaign for players who want to experience the Borderlands 2 DLC in actual tabletop form, as well as a one-shot called Marcus’ Quest For The Wizard’s Wand designed to get players and aspiring Bunker Masters accustomed to the rules. There’s also a new Tiny Tina-authored campaign called Butt Stallion’s Hunny Heist which is, in her own words, “about gettin smooches and blowin stuff up and talkin about feelings but mainly blowin stuff up.”

The sourcebook and deluxe package are available to pre-order now. The final release date hasn’t been announced, but pre-order emails suggest the game will be available in early 2021.

Microsoft’s pirate game Sea of Thieves has added new DLC that supports the Stand up to Cancer charity. The “Sails of Union” cosmetic pack is out now, and it includes a new cosmetic option for your ship’s sails.

As you can see in the trailer below, in the daytime, the Sails of Union show off the Stand up to Cancer’s arrow-themed logo, with a yellow background and small holes. At night, the sails take on a different look, with the moonlight streaming through the holes to give off a starry nightsky vibe.

The majority of the proceeds from the Sails of Union will go to Cancer Research UK in support of the Stand up to Cancer campaign, which helps support research toward finding a cure and other charitable efforts. 100% of proceeds from the Sails of Union made through the Microsoft Store outside North America will go to charity, while 75% of the purchase price on Steam will be given to the charity. For purchases made in the USA, the donations will go the US version of Stand up to Cancer. The campaign runs until November 6.

You can grab the DLC right now through the links below.

CD Projekt Red, the studio behind upcoming open-world RPG Cyberpunk 2077, has reportedly instituted a mandatory six-day work week that will be enforced until the launch of the game on November 19. Bloomberg reports that an employee, speaking under conditions of anonymity, has indicated that some staff have been working nights and weekends for over a year.

Additionally, Bloomberg states that, in an email, studio head Adam Badowski told the entire team that this was required to polish the game. “Starting today, the entire (development) studio is in overdrive,” the email reportedly reads. This means that developers are required to commit to a normal work week of five days, along with an additional paid day (required by Polish labor laws) on the weekend, bringing the work week to six days.

Badowski also reportedly addressed a previous position stated by the studio that mandatory overtime would not be part of Cyberpunk 2077 development process. “I take it upon myself to receive the full backlash for the decision,” he allegedly wrote.

“I know this is in direct opposition to what we’ve said about crunch. It’s also in direct opposition to what I personally grew to believe a while back–that crunch should never be the answer. But we’ve extended all other possible means of navigating the situation.”

Crunch in video game development has been a big area of concern and discussion lately. CDPR previously stated that it wanted to avoid situations where developers are asked to put in extended periods of overtime towards the end of a project.

Speaking to Kotaku in June 2019, CDPR boss Marcin Iwiński was asked if the studio’s employees could expect to have reasonable, eight-hour workdays while making the game. “We’ve committed to that already,” he replied.

In another interview from 2019, however, CDPR Krakow boss John Mamais said the studio does its best to limit crunch, but it isn’t always possible, indicating the no-crunch policy may not be as enshrined as previously suggested. “You sacrifice some things to do that and be part of [the development process]. There are a lot of people who come into the industry that are fresh; they don’t really understand what it takes to do it,” he said.

“So we get a lot of new guys coming in, and they go, ‘Oh god, this is like too much.’ But then we have other guys come in from Rockstar Games, and they’re like, ‘This is not even crunch!’ We’re doing the best we can to keep the work under control. But sometimes when you’re doing some big-ass game like this, it’s not always possible to do that. It takes really hard work to make it really awesome.”

As part of a press conference in January of 2020, the studio seemed to further qualify this promise. CEO Adam Kicinski was asked in a Q&A session whether the team would need to crunch to finish Cyberpunk 2077. “To some degree, yes–to be honest,” Kicinski said. “We try to limit crunch as much as possible, but it is the final stage. We try to be reasonable in this regard, but yes. Unfortunately.”

Crunch, and the resulting mental and physical burnout associated with it, is an ongoing issue, as are the ethical concerns that arise alongside them. These are all familiar to CDPR as, in 2014, it was accused of asking its developers to crunch for over year while working on The Witcher 3. At the time, the studio didn’t outright deny the accusations.

Cyberpunk 2077 is being developed by CD Projekt Red’s Krakow and Warsaw studios. Although the exact nature of the work arrangements isn’t clear, it’s likely the team is still working from home as part of the social distancing measures required to combat the spread of COVID-19.

GameSpot has reached out to CDPR for clarification and comment on the matter. At the time of publishing, it has not provided a statement.

Cyberpunk 2077’s release date has been set as November 19, following multiple delays. After the last delay, the studio committed to the current release date, saying it would not be delayed again. It will be available on PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series S/X, and PC.

Most of the time in Among Us, you’ll have the tough job of identifying which of the people you’re playing with can’t be trusted–ideally before they kill you or sabotage your spaceship and kill everyone aboard. Figuring out who’s an imposter and who’s just nervous is your main job in Among Us, while also scrambling around the ship to repair systems and bank points on your own. But spotting someone’s murderous intent can be very difficult, especially since you can’t always tell whether another player on your ship is actively helping you, or just pretending to.

Luckily, there are a lot of things players do that can give you clues as to whether they’re on your side or just waiting for a chance to snack on your brains. We’ve compiled a quick list of things that can tip you off to an imposter’s identity. Keep your wits about you, watch everyone around you, and identify the telltale signs of the monster among you and you might just make it out of Among Us alive.

The Person Nearest A Body Usually Did It

This is an easy one, but worth mentioning: if you pass someone leaving a room and find a body right afterward, the chances are extremely good that the fleeing party is responsible. Anybody who spots a body and isn’t the imposter would, in most cases, immediately report it, and if you’re not the imposter, you have an incentive to check every room you enter for lurking enemies–so you would probably have spotted the body if you were in the same room as it. This isn’t a foolproof piece of evidence, but the vast majority of the time, the person closest to the scene is your culprit, so at least keep an eye on them.

Keep Track Of Who You See And Where

In big games of Among Us–the best kind–you can have up to 10 total players and as many as three imposters. You’ll have to rely on yourself for information about their activities and behaviors, especially if the rules are set so that you aren’t notified if the player you vote to space is a human or a thing. The best thing you can do is try to keep track of who you see moving around the ship, in what general area, and what they seem to be doing. Use the map if you have to.

When you have a sense of where everyone is, or are, at least, aware of the last time you saw them, you can make educated guesses as more information comes in. If a body gets reported near the Navigation section and you saw two players headed that way, you might know who to keep an eye on. You don’t necessarily have to share that information, either–don’t give imposters any more to go on than you need to. But if you can keep a running roster in your head of who your most likely suspects are based on their movements, you’ll gather evidence much more quickly.

Learn The Tasks As Much As Possible

Players who go hard on Among Us learn the game inside and out, because knowledge is power here. Imposters don’t complete tasks, but they often pretend that they’re doing so. If you know what tasks are in which rooms and about how long they take (or whether they have multiple steps), you can use that information to trip up someone in cross-examination. Put on your Perry Mason hat and go to work.

Imposters Will Try To Get People Alone

In most games of Among Us, the best way to neutralize any suspected imposter is just to stick near them or to keep yourself in groups of three or more. You’ll notice pretty soon that imposters don’t like being observed; anybody who seems to bounce from a group just as soon as it becomes too large to carry out a successful murder warrants further investigation. And if you’re worried about someone following you, you can often expose them by seeking out other people and getting close to them–if your tail leaves as soon as you’re no longer a tasty target, you’ve probably got your monster.

In general, you want to stay within sight of other players but far enough away from them that they can’t easily murder you without approaching with intent. If anybody seems like they’re chasing you, it’s usually a good guess that they think they have a chance at killing you. I’ve had situations in which imposters have chased me through the ship, hoping to take me down before I had an opportunity to alert anyone. If someone is doggedly pursuing you–or another player–ask yourself why, and then call an emergency meeting.

People Who Wander Off By Themselves Are Suspect

Imposters don’t have to be afraid of getting murdered by other imposters, and that will often unconsciously embolden them. Crewmate players know they have to be worried about who they share a room with, how far they can see down a hallway or into a room, and what might be waiting for them if they’re alone–imposters don’t. If you see someone heading off on their own, you might be seeing someone who doesn’t have a great Among Us strategy, or you might have just spotted an imposter executing a plan.

If you’re trying to observe suspected monsters, however, note that canny imposters might identify you as their top threat, and use your curiosity against you. I found myself playing Columbo in most of my Among Us games recently, and at least once a suspicious-looking imposter managed to turn my suspicions against me, luring me into a dark room to kill me before I quite realized what was happening.

Imposters Seem To Get Bored Easily

Every crewmember character in Among Us has a list of tasks to perform to win the game. These all require walking around the ship and interacting with different panels, where you complete some mechanical action or solve a simple puzzle to get the ship going again. Everyone has different tasks, though, so you’re not going to see someone else completing your tasks. That means you’ll often see people standing at panels as they use them.

Except if they’re the imposter, that is. If you watch a player wander into a room that’s full of other people going about their tasks, keep an eye on them. Imposters don’t have anything to do in these rooms, so you’ll often see them walk into one full of other players who are busy, stand around for a bit, and then take off. Why would they walk into one of these rooms if they didn’t have anything to do there? They were hoping for murder targets, didn’t find any, and headed away to find someone more vulnerable.

Impatient imposters will give themselves away by not committing hard enough to their con. If it looks like someone is in a room for no reason, their reason is probably to try to murder someone. It’s definitely not to fix the ship, anyway.

Anyone Who Moves Too Fast Is An Imposter

If you’re trying to identify an imposter in Among Us, you’ll spend a lot of time following other players around, especially if you’re trying to keep a suspect from getting a chance to kill one of your teammates. Occasionally, you might be following someone only to have them vanish around a corner–one minute, they’re just ahead of you, and the next, they’re gone. If it seems like someone suddenly found a way to outpace you as you pursue them, they’re very likely an imposter.

You probably already know that imposters are the only characters who can use the ship’s vents to get around, Alien-style. Spot a person jumping into or coming out of a vent and you should immediately report them, because they’re evil. But just because you didn’t see someone use a vent doesn’t mean you can’t make an educated guess that they did. It comes down to movement speed: all characters in Among Us move at the same rate. That means it should be impossible for someone to straight-up lose you in most cases if you’re following them. But if someone suddenly vanishes while you’re in pursuit, there’s a good chance they slipped you by hopping into a vent just out of sight.

The Taskbar Can Reveal The Truth

The imposter described above will find nothing to do in a room full of people working to repair panels and might just walk away, looking for someone who’s alone and an easy target. A more canny imposter will play the part of crewmember, however–they’ll stand still next to panels, pretending to complete tasks. The smart ones might even try to remember which tasks take place at which panels so they can describe them to you.

However, you can often pick up on a crewmember who’s actually completing tasks as compared to an imposter who’s pretending to complete them. The trick is to watch the green taskbar at the top of the screen, which slowly fills up as crewmembers complete their jobs and fix up the ship. The taskbar is pretty reliable; when a crewmember completes a task, the bar fills in real time. When someone is faking it, the taskbar won’t react. This isn’t always completely foolproof, of course, since other players might be completing other tasks elsewhere on the ship, which can give you false negatives. But watching the taskbar is one of the most reliable ways to spot an imposter who is trying to throw you off.

You Don’t Have To Be An Imposter To Lie In Wait

Imposters aren’t the only ones who lie in wait, hoping to catch people unawares. There are places in the Among Us maps where you can stand behind objects and basically become invisible, such as behind the radar dish in the comms array. These spots you can use to try to give imposters the slip if you’re being pursued, or where you can hole up and wait if you suspect someone. Sure, hiding behind an object and waiting for an imposter to reveal themselves will likely get another teammate killed, but if you can use the trick to win the game, their sacrifice might be worth it.

By the same token, if you’ve proven yourself a diligent investigator, you might also turn yourself into a target for imposters. After all, if you’re out there dropping elementary dear Watsons every round, you’re going to be a murder monster’s natural enemy. Use that to your advantage and turn yourself into bait–carefully. Anybody who seems like they really want to get close to you and follow you around a lot may really be looking for a break in your concentration to get you alone.

Lots Of Information Is Unreliable

Everything mentioned above can give you clues about who the imposter is, but rarely the full picture. Sometimes, a crewmate really does just bumble past a dead body without spotting it (I’ve had the imposter leave bodies next to me while I’m working on ship systems, in fact). Sometimes, someone behaving suspiciously is just suspicious of everyone around them. Sometimes, a crewmate didn’t disappear into a vent, you just lost track of them. Be careful not to overestimate the evidence you have when trying to identify the evil among you.

There are also a few items that aren’t useful for determining who the imposter is:

• Reporting a body
• Fixing sabotage
• Accusing an actual imposter of being an imposter

In all three cases, anybody can do these things. An imposter can create sabotage and then fix it themselves to engender trust; anyone can report a body, and smart imposters will often do so. Some of the most dastardly imposters are the ones who are willing to sacrifice teammates to secure a win.

The best way to win in Among Us is to pay attention to how other players behave, especially over the long term, and look for patterns and breaks in those patterns. Use what you know of your friends. And most of all, trust your gut; if you have reason to suspect someone, chances are pretty good that you’re right. And if you happen to blow the wrong person out of the airlock, well hey–there’s always next round.