Category: Games

Tonight’s episode of the long-running TV game show Jeopardy featured a “Video Games” category, and the contestants struggled. In the hard-to-watch clip below, the contestants get almost every single question wrong or don’t answer at all, as they do their best at coming up with answers about video games.

Before watching the clip, test yourself and see how you would do. Here are the questions:

• “This company’s ‘Infinity’ allowed you to play characters from The Incredibles and Cars, to name a few.” (For 200)
• “Morrowind and Skyrim are iterations of this ‘venerable’ set of games.” (For 400)
• “A big gaming story of 2018 is Fortnite: This genre of game where the winner is last shooter or last team standing.” (For 600)
• “In the classic video game Joust, contestants were placed upon these birds.” (For 800)
• “Make your future fighting Ghaul, leader of the Red Legion in the second iteration of this Bungie game.” (For 1,000)

Host Alex Trebek jokes about the contestants not doing so well, which draws laughter from the audience. The fact that the Video Games category was chosen last probably says something about the contestants’ confidence in their video game knowledge.

The cringe-worthy clip can be seen below.

This year’s Assassin’s Creed Odyssey allows players, for the first time in franchise history, to choose to play as a man, Alexios, or a woman, Kassandra. Game director Scott Phillips said in a new interview that he hopes future games developed by Ubisoft Quebec, the lead developer on Odyssey, will also offer players the ability this kind of choice.

“I think it would be a mistake to limit our players, limit our fanbase from as many people as possible,” Phillips told GI.biz. “I don’t know why we would go back. We should continue pushing in this direction, bring in more players, more fans to enjoy this experience and make it their own experience.”

Ubisoft Quebec’s last Assassin’s Creed game, Syndicate, also featured male and female protagonists, but not on the level of Odyssey. That older game featured brother and sister assassins Evie and Jacob Frye with a character-swapping setup throughout. In Odyssey, you get to choose right at the start if you want to play as Alexios or Kassandra.

Playing as either Alexios or Kassandra does affect the story or gameplay. However, both characters have different voice actors and character models, similar to how the male and female Commander Shepards were treated in Mass Effect.

The spinoff Assassin’s Creed III: Liberation features a female protagonist, Aveline.

At E3 2014, Ubisoft made headlines for stating that none of the playable characters in Assassin’s Creed Unity are women because it would have doubled the workload.

The quote from Scott Phillips, the director of Odyssey, seems to suggest that he’s talking about future games from Ubisoft Quebec and not necessarily Ubisoft overall. Development on Assassin’s Creed games is headed up by one studio with Ubisoft’s other teams globally acting as support teams. For example, Ubisoft Montreal led development on last year’s Assassin’s Creed: Origins.

Odyssey launches on October 5 for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC. The game is also coming to Nintendo Switch, but only as a streaming title in Japan.

WildStar developer Carbine Studios is shutting down, and as part of this, the game is also coming to an end. Today, Carbine announced exactly when the shutdown will occur.

WildStar will end on November 28, 2018, Carbine announced in a blog post. “It’s never easy to say goodbye to something, especially something that has meant so much for so many,” the studio said. “It has been our great privilege to share those adventures with all of you over the last four years.”

The studio added that its ambition for WildStar was to make “something special that presented a different kind of MMORPG experience.” Carbine said it was happy with the game it launched back in 2014, but unfortunately it failed to find a big enough audience.

Carbine has disabled the ability to spend real money in WildStar, while refunds for real-money purchases made since July 1, 2018 are available. You can read more about the refund process here on WildStar’s website.

To help the remaining WildStar players have the best time possible between now and the shutdown, Carbine updated the game today to make it more enjoyable and accessible. The update gives all players Signature status, while gear drops have their base level increased. Additionally, all seasonal store items are now available to purchase with in-game credit. Additionally, WildStar will offer a number of in-game events faster than normal, starting today with an event that offers double XP and more.

Be sure to read the full “Signing Off” blog post to get all the important details on WildStar’s forthcoming shutdown.

“We are truly grateful for the vibrant community that grew around WildStar, and for all of your support throughout the life of this game,” Carbine said. “Our hope is that in these last couple months we can all celebrate the great adventures you’ve had on Planet Nexus–and have some fun along the way.”

“Again, a most heartfelt thank you goes out from all of us to you for sharing this wild, intergalactic ride with us, and to helping make WildStar an experience that truly could not have been possible without you. Thank you.”

50 people are losing their jobs as part of Carbine’s closure.

WildStar launched with a subscription-based business model before switching to free-to-play as part of a major update in 2015. The studio was working on and hiring for “a number of exciting new projects,” but that’s all over now.

Joaquin Phoenix’s turn to play Joker looks to be a very different one. Judging by the official photos released so far, this version of the iconic supervillain is a much more human character, complete with a backstory that appears to include time as an actual circus clown. We saw some circus-style make-up, and now a new photo shows the rest of the outfit.

Director Todd Phillips released the photo on his Instagram, with the caption “Work.” It shows star Joaquin Phoenix in full and much cleaner clown make-up, including a frizzy-green bald wig, plaid jacket, and oversized red and blue shoes. It appears to be a set photo with film equipment laying around rather than a production still from the actual movie.

The first official look at Phoenix in the upcoming film was similarly unconventional. Rather than the menacing villain you may expect from a supervillain story, we got a greasy-haired sad sack. That would appear to take cues the Joker’s origin story in some of the comics, in which he’s a pathetic failed comedian who bungles his way into the industrial accident.

Meanwhile, a second movie featuring Joker is in production as well. It’s a Suicide Squad spin-off featuring a love story between Joker and Harley Quinn, which the directors describe as Bad Santa meets This Is Us. They also say that Harley kidnapping Dr. Phil will be a major plot point. Another Quinn movie, Birds of Prey, is slated for February 7, 2020.

A former employee of Telltale Games has filed a class action complaint against the company in California federal court. The complaint alleges that the developer was obligated to provide 60 days notice of the impending termination, in compliance with the state’s WARN Act.

Kotaku reports that the complaint filed by attorneys for Vernie Roberts, Jr., is seeking missed wages, salaries, 401K contributions, and any other compensation that would have been earned during the 60-day WARN Act period. The suit also names “all other persons similarly situated” who could join the class action, which could be as many as 275 employees who were fired from Telltale last week.

As the report notes, companies have some wiggle room with exceptions to the WARN Act, such as if the company is seeking to acquire new capital and can’t risk the information of pending layoffs becoming public. It’s unknown how many employees will join or if the lawsuit will ultimately be successful.

The closure was sudden and surprised employees, who were left with no severance and only nine days of remaining health benefits. The reported rationale for the lack of severance was that this was being classified as a business closure rather than partial layoffs. Telltale has now said that The Walking Dead, currently in its final season, may continue with “potential partners“–which could raise legal questions about the studio closure.

The next PAX event is PAX Australia, and it’s coming up soon. PAX Aus 2018 takes place October 26-28 in Melbourne, and now the event’s panel schedule has been released. There are more than 125 panels and events in all, while GameSpot again has its own theatre.

GameSpot’s theatre, the GameSpot Dropbear Theatre, will have programming running Friday through Sunday. We’ll be hosting panels on Fortnite’s coverage in the mainstream media, voice acting featuring actors from Telltale’s The Walking Dead and Fallout 4, and hacking a video game, among other topics. You can see the full programming lineup for the GameSpot Dropbear Theatre here, while a full list of every PAX Aus panel can be seen here.

Outside of panels, PAX Aus will include a show floor featuring juggernauts like Xbox, PlayStation, Ubisoft, Nintendo, and Bandai Namco. A list of playable games hasn’t been announced yet, however. Also new for this year is that PAX Aus and another big-time Australian gaming show, the EB Expo, are joining forces.

PAX Aus kicks off on October 26 with a keynote address by Rhianna Pratchett, who worked on the Tomb Raider reboot and its sequel, Rise of the Tomb Raider. She also wrote Mirror’s Edge, Heavenly Sword, and the Overlord series. During her PAX Aus keynote, she’ll be engaging directly with fans, answering questions about any number of topics.

PAX Aus three-day tickets are sold out, but you can still buy single-day tickets for Friday, Saturday, and Sunday here on the event’s website.