Category: Games

Call of Duty: Black Ops developer Treyarch has responded to a Kotaku report in which numerous developers reveal what they describe as a brutal work environment. Studio heads Dan Bunting and Mark Gordon released an email to staff in the wake of the report, informing employees that they are planning “significant improvements” for work-life balance.

The email goes on to state that Treyarch plans to improve working conditions through “better project planning, streamlined production processes, and rigorous decision-making timelines.” Bunting and Gordon added that they are committed to “increased transparency.”

The studio heads encouraged developers to speak with their managers if they have concerns, and if that doesn’t work, they should reach out to Bunting and Gordon.

“Game development is a wildly complex art and it requires a diverse set of people and skill sets to do it successfully. It’s important for all of us to foster a studio culture that treats all team members with respect,” the pair said.

In the report, which is titled “The Human Cost Of Call Of Duty: Black Ops 4,” numerous current and former developers shine a light on how Treyarch’s contract employees, in particular those working in quality assurance (QA), say they are treated as second-class.

The developers say they are informed not to speak with developers from other units and that they have to park in a separate parking lot. They also reported working extended hours; around 70 hours per week.

In addition to complaints about crunch and general workplace conditions, the report reveals key details about the development of Black Ops 4. It’s reported that management decided to cancel the game’s campaign mode in early 2018. This was a tough blow for the developers, as their previous game, Black Ops 3, reportedly saw a big shift in direction, too; a planned open-world design was dropped in favor of a standard linear story.

Black Ops 4’s campaign was to feature a new spin on co-op and multiplayer with two players fighting against a pair of other human characters. One example of a gameplay scenario is one side would try to protect a journalist with the other side trying to kill them.

With the campaign mode canceled, Treyarch decided to release its own spin on battle royale in a mode that would go on to be known as Blackout. Development on the battle royale mode reportedly did not begin until nine months before release. “That mode came together by the seat of its pants. It’s kind of a miracle that it did,” one developer said.

In a change to the normal Call of Duty development schedule, Treyarch is said to be developing 2020’s Call of Duty title which is believed to be a new Black Ops title set in the Cold War. According to Kotaku, other Activision studios Raven Software and Sledgehammer were lined up to take the lead on a Call of Duty title set in Vietnam, but management decided to put Treyarch on the game as its lead and make it a Black Ops title. The title is said to launch in holiday 2020 as a cross-gen release for current and next-gen consoles.

2019’s Call of Duty game is Modern Warfare from developer Infinity Ward. It’s a soft reboot of the series, and it launches at the end of October on PS4, Xbox One, and PC.

A new challenge for Fortnite: Battle Royale players is now available as the 14 Days of Summer event rolls on. Like the first challenge, this involves another summer-themed objective: Epic Games asks you to bounce a giant beach ball in different matches. Here’s where to go to find the locations of the giant beach balls and what to do once you reach one.

Keep in mind, you have the full duration of the 14 Days of Summer event (available on PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, PC, iOS, and Android) to complete these challenges. Despite the name, it will be available in Fortnite for about three weeks, wrapping up on July 16.

Where To Find Giant Beach Balls – All Locations

We’ve discovered three different giant beach ball locations on the map. You’ll be able to see the ball from a far distance, so if you head to the general area you shouldn’t have much trouble tracking one down. You can see the locations and a map below, or check out the video guide above for a walkthrough on how to complete the challenge.

• On the border of D3/E3, south of The Block
• Western part of F6, southwest of Dusty Divot
• On the border of H7/I7, northwest of Paradise Palms

How To Complete The Giant Beach Ball Challenge

As with beach parties dancing challenge, this is simple in theory–all you have to do is make contact with a giant beach ball. But also like the preceding challenge, you’re given zero indication of where to find these giant beach balls or even how many there are. When you do happen upon one, there won’t be any uncertainty–they are quite large, as advertised–and all you have to do to receive credit is run into the ball. That should trigger the pop-up notification letting you know you’ve progressed the challenge.

Particularly if you’re attempting this right away, you’re likely to run into a lot of other people doing the same thing. They could be hostile, or you might find other players camping the area in search of some easy kills. Fortunately, you can complete each step of this challenge without actually landing. As you’re descending with your glider, you can move into the ball and register progress before your feet touch the ground. That should make it a little easier to complete the challenge before you’re killed.

You’ll need to bounce a total of five beach balls to finish the challenge. As the challenge text notes, you have to do this across different matches, so you’ll need to play at least five rounds to get this done. However, you can keep returning to the same beach ball location over and over from match to match.

Giant Beach Ball Challenge Reward

Finishing the giant beach ball challenge will earn you an Uncommon rarity loading screen called Soak It Up that shows various Fortnite characters lounging on the beach. This is also one step toward earning the Smoothie back bling, which you’ll get for doing all 14 challenges from the 14 Days of Summer event, which kicked off with the release of Fortnite’s 9.30 content update patch. You can get a look at the smoothie in the hands of the character on the right side of the loading screen above.

14 Days of Summer Challenges

Annapurna Interactive has announced What Remains of Edith Finch is coming to the Japanese Nintendo Switch eShop on July 4. As the announcement lists that the English version will be supported, it can be assumed the port will be released worldwide. However, that hasn’t been officially confirmed. Regardless, the Switch can access multiple regions, so even if the port remains exclusive to Japan, you’ll still be able to buy it.

According to Japanese Nintendo, What Remains of Edith Finch will release on Switch in Japan for ¥2,200, which is just over $20 USD / £16. The game requires a 2.2 GB download.

What Remains of Edith Finch is one of the best games of 2017, receiving universal critical praise. You play as the titular Edith Finch, who returns to her family home after her mother’s death. Over the course of the game, you visit the rooms of each member of Edith’s family–all of whom are deceased–to learn about the lives and ultimate demise of each person. You also begin to unravel the truth behind the curse supposedly haunting the Finch family, which dictates that only one member of each generation will live a normal life. All the others are doomed to die in a strange or unusual way.

In GameSpot’s What Remains of Edith Finch review, Justin Clark gave the game a 9/10, writing, “Developer Giant Sparrow managed to strike the delicate balance between joy and sorrow in 2012’s The Unfinished Swan, but What Remains of Edith Finch transcends even the latent sadness of that game, finding the beauty–even sometimes the fun–in what’s always fundamentally a tragedy. It’s not often that a game’s plot slips past the bitterness of grief to finally get to the acceptance, but that’s the triumph in What Remains of Edith Finch. Ultimately, if the game has any resemblance of a moral, it’s that the bravest, most beautiful thing every one of us does is choose to keep going, despite knowing what’s coming.”

If you just cannot wait until next week and want to buy What Remains of Edith Finch right now, the game is 55% off during the Steam 2019 Summer Sale–which continues through July 9. You can see the game’s discounted price in the US, UK, and AU below.

What Remains Of Edith Finch Steam 2019 Summer Sale Prices

Upgrading your Chalice of Opulence in Destiny 2‘s Season of Opulence is something of a tall order. Luckily, Emperor Calus’s emissary on Nessus, Werner 99-40, offers weekly bounties that can help speed you along on that path–but to complete them, you need to go on a treasure hunt. The Golden Experience bounty is one of the easier ones to clear, requiring you to earn a bunch of experience points in other activities to unlock its Treasure Map.

Where To Find The Treasure

Once you have the Golden Experience map, your search will send you to Earth’s EDZ. This one isn’t too tough to locate, but you might be thrown off by the name of the location in question: Maevic Square. This is the area where you hit the first encounter when running the Lake of Shadows Strike.

From the Trostland landing zone, head north to the eastern side of the area, the same way you’d go for Lake of Shadows. The road should take you through a couple of ruined, blasted-out buildings. As you come through on the other side, you’ll enter Maevic Square, an overgrown town center where Fallen and Taken enemies like to hang out.

Look over to the line of storefronts and buildings on the right side of the square. There’s an elevated platform here you can leap up onto, and you should see the chest glowing there as you arrive. As usual, the chest will dispense a few Imperials, a Powerful gear drop, and some Runes for your Chalice of Opulence.

It might seem like the fighting game market of the current day is crowded with games looking to stand out, but it’s nothing compared to the early ’90s. While Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat ruled the roost, everyone was trying to find a way to set their game apart. Among the competition was SNK’s Samurai Shodown, a weapons-based fighting game that emphasized careful movement, high damage, and rewarding patient, careful reading and reacting to your foe’s attacks–along with some fountains of blood from downed opponents for good measure. Over 25 years later, history is repeating itself as a new Samurai Shodown draws its blade, offering many of the same things that made it great all those years ago–only now it feels even fresher.

The Samurai Shodown series is one of SNK’s most beloved properties, but also among its most inconsistent; the series has had some very high highs (Samurai Shodown II, Samurai Shodown V Special) and extremely low lows (Samurai Shodown III, Samurai Shodown Sen). Thankfully, the developers at SNK have understood the franchise’s mixed legacy, and worked to really focus on what makes Samurai Shodown special in the world of fighting games: the thrill of being in a high-stakes, life-or-death struggle where one wrong step could take you from a comfortable lead to lying on the ground with a sword in your gut.

If you haven’t played Samurai Shodown before, the first thing you’ll notice is the relative simplicity of the game’s controls. You have four attack buttons (three strengths of weapon attacks and a kick), each of which has a very distinct feel when pressed; you’ll really feel the weight of a heavy slash’s slow, powerful arc as opposed to the quick hilt-smash of a light slash. Combinations of the buttons allow you to perform dodges, overhead slashes, and throws and even a special desperation-style mode. Special moves vary for each character, but are almost all easy-to-perform semi-circle, half-circle, and Dragon Punch-style inputs.

Playing around with the various characters and seeing their unique moves and abilities really establishes just how good everything feels to control. The various attack weights feel substantial, and even basic standing, crouching, and dashing moves are a lot of fun to see executed onscreen as blades whoosh around in beautiful arcs–to say nothing of the flashy special moves. Simply doing things with your chosen fighter feels inherently enjoyable, even if you’re just getting the grasp of their moveset.

Pressing buttons mindlessly might feel good, but you’ll soon discover that restraint is of the essence. Samurai Shodown was known in its heyday for extremely high damage, and if you’re coming off other fighting games, you’ll have a bit of a shock once you see how much life a well-placed heavy sword strike can chop off. Strong moves hit hard, and if you leave an opening for your opponent to take advantage of, you can very quickly find your life bar melting like butter in a frying pan under the pressure of their blade. If you try to go in furiously swinging, you’ll likely find yourself left open to a very, very painful counterattack as you’re stuck recovering from that heavy sword slash you just whiffed.

To offset the high damage, there are a lot of defensive options that you can utilize. There’s good old-fashioned high and low blocking, but there’s also a special “Just Defend” block you can execute right as the opponent’s attack is about to hit that will very briefly stun them. There’s also a dodge attack, a universal parry, and multiple means to disarm your foes, leaving them weaponless and at a severe disadvantage. (Be careful, though–some characters are more capable when disarmed than others!) You also have forward/backward recovery when knocked down, allowing you to avoid a lot of pressure when getting up if used well.

The big, flashy attacks and myriad defensive options combine to make a game with a much different focus than most other fighting games currently out there. Rather than mixups and combo strings (you’ll only rarely see double-digit combo hit counts), Samurai Shodown heavily emphasizes pacing, carefully reading and reacting to your opponent, and patiently waiting for the ideal opportunity to capitalize on your foe’s vulnerability. There’s not a lot of complex layered-on systems here, but that doesn’t matter; this isn’t about lengthy combos or executing multiple super attacks, this is about finding out how to make your opponent dead in the most effective way possible.

The core gameplay, great as it is, is only part of a bigger package–one that might be a bit disappointing to those looking for a strong single-player experience. The roster is small in comparison to some other fighters, but it offers a lot of variety. Fans will appreciate seeing old favorite characters like wild-haired samurai Haohmaru, determined Ainu warrior girl Nakoruru, and even somewhat more obscure picks like the multi-sword-wielding Yoshitora and ethereal trickster Shiki. The game also introduces new characters to the franchise: hard-drinking, razor-sharp shipwright Darli Dagger, clumsy but deceptively cunning Wu-Ruixiang, and the bird-themed, aerial-attack-heavy Yashamaru.

The big, flashy attacks and myriad defensive options combine to make a game with a much different focus than most other fighting games currently out there.

But even though there’s plenty of characters, the story mode is pretty weak, giving each character only an intro, ending, and few simplistic cutscenes, along with a final boss who doesn’t seem to have anything to do with a lot of the cast. (Said final boss can also be incredibly challenging if you don’t find an AI exploit with your chosen character–the term “SNK Final Boss Syndrome” exists for a reason.) There are training modes, along with gauntlet (fight every character) and survival (fight a bunch of characters on a limited lifebar), but beyond that, you’re going to need to either invite a friend over or hop online to truly enjoy what Samurai Shodown has to offer.

[Editor’s note: As of this writing, the online is just going live, so we’re currently trying out network combat and the online-enabled Dojo mode. We’ll be finalizing this review once we’ve had more time with the online offerings.]

Samurai Shodown is a great reboot. It captures what made the original fun and unique, but also at a time when high-damage, high-stakes fighters like this are a rarity, making its combat feel both fresh and familiar. Its accessibility and easy-to-grasp gameplay belie a lot of strategic depth that makes for very intense, bloody struggles. While the single-player experience is a bit lacking, it doesn’t drag down the whole significantly. We’ll update soon with more about the online experience, but for now, Samurai Shodown is a fighting experience well worth taking up the sword for.

Some moviegoers want to experience everything a film like Annabelle Comes Home has to offer without a hint of knowledge ahead of time. Others would rather know: Does the movie have an after-credits scene?

Here’s your answer: No, when we saw Annabelle Comes Home, there was no extra scene during or after the credits. We stayed through the movie’s premiere until the lights turned on to make sure.

It’s a fair question, though–as part of the Conjuring connected universe of horror movies, Annabelle Comes Home has tons of connections to other Conjuring movies. With The Conjuring 3 and The Crooked Man still to come, it’s not a stretch to guess that Annabelle Comes Home might have included a teaser for future Conjuring films.

Unfortunately, that’s not the case–once the credits start rolling, what you’ve seen is all you get. Thankfully, Annabelle Comes Home is a fun ride on its own; in our review, we said that “Annabelle Comes Home has just the right mix of horror and humor, predictable structure and shocking jump scares, terrifying ghouls and relatable characters that a scary summer blockbuster should. It doesn’t break the mold–Midsommar, this is not–but it’s not trying to. And if you’re a fan of the Conjuring series, you’ll walk out of the theater satisfied.”

Annabelle Comes Home hits theaters today, June 26. Let us know what you thought of the latest Conjuring spin-off in the comments below.

Is a horror movie spin-off series still a spin-off when it has more films than the original franchise, and the latest entry features the stars of the main series? Or have the Annabelle movies surpassed the actual Conjuring movies as the brightest star in the Conjuring-verse with the latest entry, Annabelle Comes Home?

Annabelle Comes Home follows Ed and Lorraine Warren, as well as their daughter Judy, and Judy’s babysitter and friend as they contend with the evil unleashed in their own home by the now-iconic Annabelle doll. The first Annabelle movie was a prequel, while Annabelle: Creation, which showed the doll’s origin, was a prequel to that. Both movies took place before the events of the Conjuring 1 and 2 occurred.

Where does the new Annabelle movie fit within the larger Conjuring universe? The Conjuring timeline has become pretty convoluted between the Annabelle movies and the main Conjuring films, and that’s before you even begin to take into account the other spin-offs, like The Nun, The Curse of La Llorona, and the still-in-production Conjuring 2 spin-off The Crooked Man.

Luckily, we had a chance to chat with Annabelle Comes Home writer and director Gary Dauberman about the latest Conjuring movie, and we asked him exactly how it all fits together.

The In-Between

Warning: Minor Annabelle Comes Home spoilers to follow.

The opening scene of Annabelle Comes Home takes place shortly after the prologue of the first Conjuring movie, when Ed (Patrick Wilson) and Lorraine (Vera Farmiga) Warren take possession of the Annabelle doll for the first time. However, a one-year time jump shortly after Annabelle Comes Home’s opening muddies things up a bit.

Thankfully, Dauberman was able to clear it up for us. “The first Conjuring happens in between them bringing the doll home and this movie,” the writer and director said. So while ACH’s cold open occurs before the first Conjuring movie, the rest of the movie takes place after.

That makes the Warrens’ portrayal at the start and the end of Annabelle Comes Home particularly interesting. At the beginning of the movie, Ed and Lorraine have yet to experience the horrors at the Perron house in Harrisville, Rhode Island. When the Warren parents reappear later in the film, they’ve been through quite a lot, although their demeanors don’t seem to have yet been changed by their horrific experiences as paranormal investigators.

Yes, Ed and Lorrain Warren are still the most wholesome couple in horror. Annabelle Comes Home was Dauberman’s first turn in the director’s seat, but far from his first time writing for the screen–his pen was responsible for several previous Conjuring spin-offs, including Annabelle, Annabelle: Creation, and The Nun (not to mention It and It Chapter Two, the Swamp Thing TV show, and more). Although this was his first time writing Ed and Lorraine, Dauberman said he wanted to show the Warrens’ everyday dynamic in this movie, rather than the mortal terror in which we typically find the couple.

“We show them in the beginning of the movie finishing up an investigation, and while they have their own scare and stuff, I really was excited to show them just as a husband and wife and a mom and dad, and just what that sort of downtime conversation they would have in a car driving back from an investigation,” Dauberman said. “I mean, they’re talking about, ‘Hey, it’d be nice to get together and take a family vacation.’ Just normal, everyday stuff, because they’re not normal, everyday people, I thought would be an interesting juxtaposition.”

A Whole New World

Annabelle Comes Home doesn’t only spend time with the Warrens. The bulk of the movie follows their daughter Judy (McKenna Grace), her babysitter Mary Ellen (Madison Iseman), and her friend Daniela (Katie Sarife) as they contend with the horrors unleashed in the Warrens’ house. Besides the doll herself, those horrors don’t include any of the familiar entities we’ve come to know over the course of these movies–unless you count the many evil knick-knacks hanging around the Warrens’ infamous artifact room. But ACH does add several new spooks and spirits to the mix, from one called “the Ferryman” to a bonafide Hellhound.

Dauberman said it was important to include some new scares and not continue to rely on existing ones already introduced in the Conjuring movies, like the demon Valak and its many forms.

“It was important only because it felt like that was the promise of the premise,” he said. “While I would have loved to have the Nun in it, it just felt like a unique opportunity to start exploring other artifacts within the artifact room. I wanted to have a lot of fun there and see what inspired me as I mentally walked around the artifact room.”

And, of course, introducing a host of new Conjuring apparitions paves the way for potential future Conjuring spin-offs–although Dauberman said that’s beside the point.

“We’re always listening to the conversations that we’re having with the audience. If they really want to see something, we hope to deliver on that.”

“They were specifically designed for this story, and if people respond to them, great,” he said. “[Series producer] James [Wan] and I have had a lot of conversations about what those movies could be, but it’s not like we went into this going like, ‘Oh, this could be the launch pad for a whole other set of spin-offs.’ We always keep our focus on the movie we’re making, as opposed to, ‘Hey, let’s set something up here, because we have these slots to fill and these years,” or whatever. There’s none of that. It’s always a creative discussion as opposed to a business one.

“That said, James and I, when we’re sitting around the edit suite and all that stuff, we’ve had a lot of fun thinking about what those stories could be–but that was not the initial reason why they’re in there.”

Besides, there are still more Conjuring movies to get through first–including the Crooked Man spin-off, and, more importantly, the long-awaited Conjuring 3. This all begs the question: Is there a bigger plan for the Conjuring universe, the way the Marvel Cinematic Universe all seemed to follow one grand design (at its best, at least)? Dauberman said as far as he knows, the Conjuring movies and their various spin-offs are, at their heart, more reactive.

“From what I understand, there’s not a larger grand plan. It’s always a conversation between us, as the filmmakers and the storytellers,” Dauberman said. “Of course, we have the Warren case files to…use as a resource for how best to tell these stories. And then, you know, we’re always listening to the conversations that we’re having with the audience as well. If they really want to see something, we hope to deliver on that. And we’re hopefully not going to give them something that no one’s asking for.”

“We don’t have a room with a bunch of charts and, ‘Here’s where we’re going to be,’ and all that stuff,” he added.

Regardless, the world of the Conjuring has become one of the most fun cinematic universes to watch, and the latest entry, Annabelle Comes Home, is no exception. Annabelle Comes Home is in theaters now.

The Steam 2019 Summer Sale is in full swing, featuring huge discounts on thousands of PC games across a variety of genres, including some of this year’s biggest releases like Devil May Cry 5 and Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice. Indie publisher Devolver Digital, which has a reputation for doing some silly things (as evidenced by its strange annual E3 press conferences), is also offering deals on a variety of titles during the sale, including one that’s an absolute steal.

From now until the Steam Summer Sale ends, you can snag Devolver Bootleg for 1% off. That amounts to a whopping five cents off its standard price of $4.99 USD. Devolver Bootleg is a compilation that consists of “eight original rip-offs of Devolver Digital games.” The full game list (and the titles they rip-off) includes:

The Devolver Bootleg collection launched earlier this month and was similarly available for 1% for early adopters, so if you missed out on this generous deal the first time around, you have another chance to take advantage of it. You can pick up Devolver Bootleg on Steam here. Of course, a number of other Devolver games are also on sale for more conventional discounts, including Katana Zero for $11.24, Enter the Gungeon for $7.49, The Messenger for $14, and Gris for $11.38.

The Steam Summer Sale runs until July 9, and as previously mentioned, it offers deals on tons of PC games. You can browse the full offerings on the Steam Store. This year, Valve has a Grand Prix-themed minigame that will let you pick a team and then earn various rewards and even free games on your wishlist. You can track each team’s rankings on the Grand Prix page.