Category: Games

A group of university students who protested in solidarity with a banned Hearthstone player–and then voluntarily quit when they weren’t disciplined for it–have been formally punished by Blizzard.

Blizzard initially harshly punished professional Hearthstone player Blitzchung for speaking out during a post-match interview in support of Hong Kong protesters. This sparked a firestorm of backlash, including a group of American University students holding up a sign during a collegiate tournament. The sign read, “Free Hong Kong, Boycott Blizz.” When the group was not punished for its actions, it dropped out of future tournaments.

Now the group has been banned for six months, a punishment that matches the revised one given to Blitzchung. In an email posted to Twitter, Blizzard stressed that the official broadcast should stay focused on the game. Casey Chambers, one of the players on the AU team, said that he’s pleased the team received equal punishment.

Blizzard’s original ruling against Blitzchung was much harsher. He was banned for a full year and Blizzard rescinded the $10,000 in winnings he had earned during the tournament. In a revised ruling, the company said it acted too hastily, returned his winnings, and reduced the penalty to six months. That means Blitzchung can still compete in Grandmasters tournaments this year if he chooses to, but he says he isn’t sure whether he’ll return to Hearthstone competitive play.

The initial decision faced sharp criticism from a wide variety of sources, including sitting US Senators, Hearthstone casters, and former champion Firebat. A group is planning to protest at BlizzCon, which begins on November 1.

Fortnite isn’t the only battle royale game kicking off a new season this month. The PC version of PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds is set to enter Season 5 with its 5.1 update, which is now live on the game’s test server, and it makes a range of big changes.

Among other tweaks, Season 5 will revamp Miramar. Developer PUBG Corp. is adding a racetrack to the map, as well as ramps, jumps, loops, and signboards. A Gold Mirado has also been added. Just one of these will spawn per match, and the only place you can find it is at the garage in Hacienda del Patron. PUBG Corp. says “some small objects and trash in and around buildings” have also been removed to make it easier to move around while looting.

Miramar is getting another new feature: vending machines. Like those in Fortnite, these will spawn in set areas around the map–namely arenas, gas stations, motels, the casino, and commercial buildings–but their exact locations will vary by match, and they’ll dispense healing items like Painkillers and Energy Drinks.

With a new season comes a new Survivor Pass, Badlands. This one features a new assortment of rewards to unlock as you play PUBG and complete missions. Even if you don’t pick the Survivor Pass up, however, all players can contribute toward an overarching Community mission that’ll unlock special skins and reveal more story details about Miramar.

Other notable changes in Season 5 of PUBG include a few new mechanics. Most notably, you can now throw items to your teammates. If an ally is requesting a healing item or ammo, you’ll see a prompt that allows you to chuck the requested items to them. You can also throw all melee weapons at opponents. Melee weapons also now stack in your inventory, allowing you to carry more than one at a time.

You can read the full patch notes for the 5.1 update on PUBG’s website. As previously mentioned, the update is currently live on the PUBG test server and will roll out to the live game on October 23 (PC) and October 29 (consoles).

The latest update for Sea of Thieves, Fort of the Damned, is now live. The expansion is in line with the theme of the Halloween season, dropping a bunch of spooky-looking content for you and your crew to tackle.

As its name implies, Fort of the Damned is primarily an expansion on Sea of Thieves Skeleton Fort feature (basically the game’s version of raids) by offering a new fort to take on. You’ll have to meet certain in-game requirements to access the new fort–undertake Voyages to acquire Ritual Skulls and then claim the Flames of Fate–but once you do, you can tackle its challenge as many times as you please.

The new fort is guarded by a new type of enemy, Shadow Skeletons, and its many challenges are designed to encourage organizing your efforts with others. If you’re planning on taking on the fort, it might be wise to recruit a crew you can trust to work together. If you claim victory, you’ll be rewarded with valuable loot. Completing the fort will net you brand-new cosmetics as well, which allow you to dress up in the tattered garments of the underworld’s Ferryman (which can be seen in the video embedded in the tweet above).

Speaking of cosmetics, Fort of the Damned offers plenty of other pieces of content other than a new fort. The update introduces additional shirts, skirts, dresses, and undergarments that pirates of any gender can wear. Dyes have been added as well, allowing you to change the color of both your clothing and hair. Special two-tone dyes will be added to the Legendary shop too. And if you’re the resident musician in your crew, rejoice! Fort of the Damned adds the banjo as a playable instrument to Sea of Thieves.

With the new Fort of the Damned update, Sea of Thieves gets some gameplay changes as well. You can now battle it out in the Arena in the new Duo Sloops match type, and Skeleton Captains and their crew now just appear in the world during everyday exploration–offering the possibility of being ambushed and getting a nasty surprise while you’re looking for treasure. This update also adds new Xbox Achievements to earn.

All of the aforementioned details are permanent updates to Sea of Thieves, but Fort of the Damned introduces some limited-time Halloween-themed goodies too. From now until November’s update, you can buy the Skeleton Cockatoo and Skeleton Marmoset as pets from the Pirate Emporium.

Taco Bell is partnering with Microsoft for another promotion, this time giving you a chance at a shiny new Xbox One X, along with an Xbox Elite Series 2 controller before it’s widely available. Oh, and the Xbox makes that signature Taco Bell “bong” sound again. You know the one.

From October 17 through November 23, ordering a Double Chalupa Box will get you a code to enter for a a chance at an Xbox One X Eclipse bundle. The bundle includes a limited edition Xbox One X Eclipse console with a white-to-black fade design and the Taco Bell ring at startup, plus an Xbox Elite Wireless Controller Series 2, and a six-month subscription to Xbox Game Pass Ultimate.

The Series 2 controller is releasing on November 4, so if you win early enough in the promotion you just get a controller before anyone else can even buy it. The prize bundles will be awarded every 10 minutes on average, and the companies promise a quick turnaround time for winners–possibly as fast as 48 hours after redemption.

Meanwhile, you can also score some Game Pass Ultimate time just by ordering your food. Ordering a Double Chalupa box online or through the Taco Bell app will get you a code for a 2-week Xbox Game Pass Ultimate membership. You can stack two codes on top of each other for roughly a month of Ultimate. Check the full rules for all of the contest details.

Xbox Game Pass Ultimate is the top tier of Microsoft’s all-you-can-eat subscription service, combining Game Pass for console, Game Pass for PC, and Xbox Live Gold into a single subscription. It usually costs $15 per month, as opposed to $10 per month for each Game Pass tier individually.

The products discussed here were independently chosen by our editors. GameSpot may get a share of the revenue if you buy anything featured on our site.

When it comes to PC gaming, there’s no shortage of deals and discounts on great games. Steam has its weekly sales, Epic has its free games, and now PC game store Fanatical has a great sale of its own. The Insanity Sale discounts a heck ton of great games for a limited time, including Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night and Middle-earth: Shadow of War Definitive Edition, and they’re available to redeem on Steam.

Over the course of Fanatical’s Insanity Sale, new flash deals will go up at a fairly constant pace. These deals won’t last long–most discounts are available for 24 hours, while some only last a few hours. Of course, we’ll update this article with the best game deals as each flash deal comes and goes, so keep your eyes on us as the Insanity Sale progresses.

The first set of deals feature the Castlevania spiritual successor Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night, the Lord of the Rings spinoff Middle-earth: Shadow of War Definitive Edition, and the management sim Project Hospital, in addition to real-time strategy game Grey Goo: Definitive Edition and the first-person classic Deus Ex: Game of the Year Edition.

The Insanity Sale is scheduled to end on October 18 at 2 PM PT / 5 PM ET. You can check out the table below for an overview of the best deals available now. Fanatical is also giving a sneak peek at upcoming deals over at its homepage.

See all current deals at Fanatical

Best Insanity Sale deals so far

In addition to the constant flash deals as part of the Insanity Sale, quite a few Ubisoft games are discounted, including Far Cry: New Dawn, Far Cry 4: Gold Edition, and Far Cry 5 as well as Assassin’s Creed Odyssey and Assassin’s Creed Origins. Watch Dogs 2, Ghost Recon Wildlands, and Rainbow Six Siege are also on sale, in addition to their various deluxe editions–Siege’s various editions grant access to a certain portion of the game’s DLC operators, depending on the edition.

Bandai Namco also has a good selection of deals right now, with Dark Souls Remastered and Dark Souls III – Deluxe Edition on sale. Fighting game fans can take advantage of discounts on SoulCalibur 6 and Tekken 7, while others can grab Ni No Kuni 2: Revenant Kingdom and Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown at reduced prices. The popular Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 is also on sale.