Quantic Dream Wins One Libel Case Against French Newspaper, But Loses Another

Quantic Dream, the developer behind Beyond: Two Souls and Detroit: Become Human, has successfully won its libel case against French newspaper Le Monde, while also losing another to Mediapart.

Back in 2018, the Heavy Rain developer took issue after a joint report published in French publications Le Monde, Mediapart, and Canard PC made accusations of inappropriate behaviour, overworked staff and a “schoolboy culture” that allowed for racism, sexism and homophobia at the studio.

The studio won its case against Le Monde earlier this month, on September 9. According to Solidaires Informatique (as translated by Eurogamer) Le Monde’s case was weakened as it could not prove certain factors of its reporting without revealing the name of its anonymous sources. Despite the ruling, neither Le Monde nor Quantic Dream has publicly commented on the judgment.

As part of the same case, Quantic Dream also sued French outlet Mediapart. However, the studio was unsuccessful and Mediapart was subsequently completely cleared. During the trial, which took place in May, a spokesperson for Quantic Dream told GamesIndustry.biz that it had taken the outlets to court for “publishing articles that we felt were not printed in good faith, nor with reasonable research nor evidence, and which drew false conclusions which extensively damaged the reputation and morale of the studio.

IGN covered the reports at the time, relaying claims made about the studio’s leadership as well as reports of a “cache” of controversially photoshopped images that allegedly existed on Quantic Dream’s servers.

At the time, Quantic Dream co-leads David Cage and Guillaume de Fondaumière categorically denied the allegations calling them “ridiculous, absurd and grotesque” before issuing a formal statement with the studio.

In other Quantic Dream news, rumours have recently surfaced that the studio is making a Star Wars game. The studio has also expanded beyond its home nation of France and set up a new Quantic Dream studio in Montreal, Canada.

Jared Moore is a freelance writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter.

Fortnite Season 8 Week 2 NPC Quests – New Wrath NPC

It’s Week 2 of Fortnite Season 8, and there’s a new NPC, Wrath, bringing five new quests to the island for all players. Unlike previous seasons, Fortnite Season 8’s weekly challenge system will largely focus on adding new NPCs and giving each of them five quests every week. In future weeks, there may be multiple new NPCs, but for now, it’s only Wrath that up-to-date Fortnite players will need to meet in order to finish off their punchcards. Here’s where to find Wrath in Fortnite and what’s included in the Wrath NPC quests.

Fortnite Wrath NPC Location

Wrath can be found within Stealthy Stronghold, which is the octagonal jungle encampment east of Coral Castle. Though Stealthy Stronghold isn’t named on the map anymore, it’s still there and intact if you’re looking to scavenge after you chat with Wrath to begin his questline. You can see his precise location on the map below.

Wrath NPC location in Fortnite Season 8
Wrath NPC location in Fortnite Season 8

Fortnite Wrath NPC Quests

Like other NPCs this season, Wrath offers five quests of increasing rarity from Common all the way to Legendary. When you complete all five of his quests the first time, you’ll earn XP and gold bars, though his and other NPC quests are repeatable throughout the season. Note that successive completions of NPC quests only get you the gold, though. Here’s Wrath’s full questline called Escaped Tenant:

  • Spot two players with a recon scanner – 12,500 XP
  • Use a jump pad or jump vent and travel 100 meters before landing – 14,000 XP
  • Get a storm forecast from a character – 16,000 XP
  • Get a bounty from a bounty board – 18,000 XP
  • Complete a bounty – 20,000 XP
Wrath is the 17th NPC to come to Fortnite this season.
Wrath is the 17th NPC to come to Fortnite this season.

To spot two players with a recon scanner, look for one within Stealthy Stronghold, which still contains the remnants of the IO dish station from Season 7. This and other abandoned dish stations still hold IO chests, which in Season 8 are the only place you’ll find IO tech weapons such as the recon scanner. Then all you need to do is fire it near two enemy players so they appear as red outlines on your screen.

If you’re able to complete the first quest without leaving the dish station, you’ll also easily complete the second quest to use a jump pad or jump vent and travel 100 meters before landing. All dish stations have built-in jump pads and each should easily allow you to travel for 100 meters provided you keep pushing forward once airborne.

You can get a storm forecast from one of several other NPCs around the island, including J.P. Chimpanski, Pitstop, and Torrance. Use our Season 8 NPC locations guide for a reminder of where these characters reside.

For the last two quests, you’ll need to get a bounty and then complete a bounty. You can pick up bounties from any bounty boards around the island, like those within Believer Beach, Sludgy Swamp, or Catty Corner among others.

A bounty will give you the vague location of an enemy player, and hunting them down and eliminating them is all you need to do to complete it. Should your target be eliminated by another means, no worries, that will count too–you’ll just get less gold as a reward. The XP will still be yours if it’s your first time completing the quest.

If you’re just jumping into Fortnite Season 8, don’t miss the new Marvel-inspired symbiote weapons and learn all that’s new on the Fortnite Season 8 map.

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Halo Infinite Dev Explains Multiplayer Challenges to Ease Worries About Progression

Halo Infinite developer 343 Industries has addressed player concerns about the game’s challenge-based multiplayer progression, stating that it “it should take a player 16 to 18 hours of playing” before they run out of daily challenges.

On the latest Inside Infinite post on Halo Waypoint, 343’s community manager John Junyszek outlined how Halo Infinite’s progression will work. Rather than progressing through Infinite’s Battle Pass system with traditional XP granted for kills, assists, and wins, XP will instead be provided for completing weekly and daily challenges. Players have previously voiced concern about how this system time-gates progression, as if you run out of challenges then there’s no way to push forward through the Battle Pass. However, 343 states that it will take many hours for that to happen.

“At launch, we anticipate that on average, it should take a player 16 to 18 hours of playing, and eventually winning, before they run out of Daily Challenges,” said Junyszek.

“While we understand the community’s feedback around wanting a steady drip of match XP and more ways to earn XP for the battle pass, we are optimistic that the system available at launch will give players adequate means of continually having something to accomplish and a means to progress,” he added. “Looking further ahead beyond launch, we expect these systems to evolve in direct partnership with player feedback.”

The Inside Infinite post also goes into great detail to break down how Halo Infinite’s daily and weekly challenges work, which is notably more complex than most games that use a similar system. Infinite has a three stage approach, in which the first challenges provided on any given day will be “easy tier”, such as simply playing a match. After this “large pool” of challenges are completed, you’ll progress to a second stage of challenges that hand out slightly more XP but are slightly more difficult (and must be played against real players, not bots). Completing all these challenges moves you up to the more valuable stage three, in which winning matches is a requirement. This system resets each day, starting again at stage one.

Daily challenges are said to be “strictly engagement-focused” and appear to be more about simply playing matches. Weekly challenges, meanwhile, are more directed. 343 has offered some examples, including ‘Stay Off My Yard’ which requires you to kill an enemy Spartan who is attacking a friendly zone, or ‘Grapple-jack’, which demands you grapple to and hijack three enemy vehicles in PvP. Each player will be given approximately 20 of these each week, and they are randomised per player to avoid everyone chasing the same goals.

Completing all weekly challenges unlocks a “Capstone” challenge, which is the same for all players each week, and grants a coating or emblem as a reward for completion. An example is ‘Tactical Precision’, which requires 15 headshot kills.

There are still elements that could cause contention, though. Players can only have three challenges active at any one time, although this can be increased to four by purchasing a Battle Pass. It means those who spend money can complete challenges a little quicker than those who don’t. But 343 point out that it is still exploring progression options.

“We have heard community feedback around wanting more progression options including things like ‘match XP’ to feed into the battle pass and an entirely separate, incremental system along the lines of earning SR152 in Halo 5: Guardians,” said Junyszek. “Expanding multiplayer progression offerings is something the team is actively exploring, and we look forward to continuing to evolve the experience in future seasons post-launch.”

To get an idea of how this system works, you can try out the Halo Infinite multiplayer test, which takes place across two weekends starting September 24. Following the previous test, 343 has made some improvements, including alterations to the radar. Halo Infinite will release on Xbox on December 8, as well as on PC. You can check out the Halo Infinite PC system requirements if you plan to play on computer.

Matt Purslow is IGN’s UK News and Entertainment Writer.

Activision Blizzard Responds To SEC Investigation, Says It’s Making Changes

As it faces ongoing scrutiny and a new investigation from the US government, Activision Blizzard released a statement on Tuesday saying it is committed to working with regulators to change its workplace policies to become more inclusive.

CEO Bobby Kotick said in a statement that the gaming giant is “deeply committed to making Activision Blizzard one of the best, most inclusive places to work anywhere.” He added that “discrimination, harassment, or unequal treatment of any kind” have no place at Activision Blizzard.

“While we continue to work in good faith with regulators to address and resolve past workplace issues, we also continue to move ahead with our own initiatives to ensure that we are the very best place to work. We remain committed to addressing all workplace issues in a forthright and prompt manner,” Kotick said.

Activision Blizzard is working with the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the National Labor Relations Board, and the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing with the aim of “improving its workplace policies and procedures and ensuring compliance.”

The US Securities and Exchange Commission recently served subpoenas to Activision Blizzard management, including Kotick. In response to this, Activision Blizzard said that the company is “confident in its prior disclosures and is cooperating with the SEC’s investigation.”

Activision Blizzard also said in its statement that it has already taken action to improve its workplace by firing certain employees, or “exiting” them, in the term used in the news release. Activision Blizzard also noted that it is “expanding compliance resources” and “refreshed” its HR organization. What’s more, the company pointed out that it just recently hired Disney’s Julie Hodges to become Activision Blizzard’s new Chief People Officer, while it has done more in the way of providing “training, performance management, and anti-harassment resources.”

The SEC is asking Activision Blizzard to turn over board meeting notes since 2019, personnel files of six former employees, and other documents. The SEC is also calling on Activision Blizzard to release Kotick’s own notes with senior executives pertaining to complaints about sexual harassment and discrimination.

The SEC primarily deals with financial matters, and the government group in this case is attempting to learn if Activision Blizzard acted properly with regards to the disclosure of allegations of harassment, discrimination, and gender-pay issues with investors and other key stakeholders.

The case against Activision Blizzard took off earlier this year when the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing sued the company for sexual harassment and discrimination against women. California updated its lawsuit in late August, accusing Activision Blizzard of shredding evidence related to the investigation.

Deathloop’s Lack of Accessibility Options Is Disappointing Players

Arkane Studios’ Deathloop has received a lot of praise since its launch. However, its lack of accessibility options has become an important, and disappointing factor for a number of players.

The issue of accessibility was raised in a thread of tweets created by user @CyclopediaBrain, which discussed further some of the issues experienced by players in Deathloop – cursor-based menus, a lack of button remapping, small text sizes, hard-to-read fonts, and an inability to customise UI indicators were all mentioned. The thread also highlighted some of the possible changes that Arkane could make to the game to make it easier to access for a number of its players.

Accessibility advocate and YouTube reviewer Steve Saylor added to the argument around Deathloop’s level of accessibility by mentioning not just its lack of customisability, but its gameplay design. In an accessibility review, Saylor spoke about how he believes that a lack of accessibility is more deep-rooted within Deathloop.

After praising Arkane’s customary level design and ingenuity, Saylor say, “The problem with the design of this is that this game forces you and relies on your ability to play first-person shooters. Now when I say that, I mean specifically that you have to have a specific skill level for first-person shooters in order to be able to make this game fun and enjoyable otherwise it’s a struggle to get through it.”

The primary issue for Saylor is the harsh penalties for failure in the game, primarily the 3-life limit players are given before having to restart their current loop having made no progress. For those who have difficulty controlling the game, it adds a barrier to progress that many games don’t have. Saylor compares Deathloop to other FPS games, and their contrasting approach to failure: “I play Destiny all the time. I play Halo all the time. I love those games, but those games allow me to make mistakes and respawn without feeling like I’m losing anything along the way.”

“So do I hope that this game is going to be accessible in the future? No, I don’t.” Saylor summarises. “Because the problems I have can’t be fixed in a patch, can’t be fixed in an update […] I desperately want to roll credits on this. It is fun, and I feel like I’m missing out. I feel like I’m really missing out on an amazing experience that everyone loves, but I can’t play it. I can’t enjoy that same experience – I and many other disabled players won’t be able to play this game.”

A number of other disabled gamers have shared similar thoughts to Saylor across their own social channels. As a motor-challenged person, YouTuber Dynamic Reactions argues that Deathloop’s aim assist options do little to help counter the difficulties presented for some members of the community when playing first-person shooters. Although the game has a number of auto-aim options, Dynamic Reactions argues that these don’t necessarily work as well as they should.

“The snapping only really worked if the enemy got real super close-up on you and by then you’re already halfway dead,” says Dynamic Reactions. “There were multiple times that I wanted to stealth and use my silencer gun and be happy-go-lucky and I could not get those perfect shots that I needed.”

Meanwhile, Steve Spohn, the Chief Operations Officer and Community Outreach Director for the charity AbleGamers said that it only took him twelve minutes to figure out that he couldn’t play Deathloop as a disabled gamer. Spohn’s charity acts as a non-profit organization that promotes accessibility and inclusive communities for disabled gamers throughout the games industry. Once he’d discovered that the game didn’t live up to expectations in terms of accessibility, Spohn said that he’d tweeted about his experience as a warning for other players who face similar challenges to him.

Whether or not Arkane will look to patch some of the easier-to-fix issues faced by players in Deathloop remains to be seen. However, it certainly seems that for a number of players within the community, Deathloop may never feel truly accessible.

Accessibility in games has made good strides in recent years, with The Last of Us Part 2 setting a new gold standard and Xbox Series X becoming much more accessible in and of itself. EA recently released five of its accessibility patents freely, allowing developers to use them in their own games. While Deathloop was mostly developed before Arkane became an Xbox studio, the developer now has access to Microsoft’s in-house accessibility feedback panel, which will hopefully help future games.

Jared Moore is a freelance writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter.

Y: The Last Man Season 1 Episode 4 Review: “Karen and Benji”

Spoilers for Y: The Last Man’s “Karen and Benji,” which aired Monday, Sept. 20 on FX on Hulu, follow.

Y: The Last Man’s fourth episode steps away from President Jennifer Brown’s D.C.-based turmoil to follow her children, Yorick and Hero, as they separately navigate the harsh and cutthroat world outside. “Karen and Benji” is a better and more focused entry than the show’s previous ones, though the poor, childish choices made by both Yorick and Hero (particularly Yorick) continue to make the series a frustrating trek.

There’s something about Yorick’s flighty goofball qualities that worked on the pages of the comic, but just doesn’t easily translate over to this series. What was once quasi-charming comic relief is now an absolute abhorrent attribute. Yorick has gone full “apocalypse teen,” meaning the whiny character in the midst of world-collapsing chaos who’s still selfish and unhelpful. Normally, you’d find this quality in poorly written teenage characters who somehow find a way to still get stubbornly furious with their mom and dad while meteors are falling from the sky.

Here, it’s a full-grown man who’s being a baby. That makes sense given Yorick’s man-child qualities, but “Karen and Benji” literally shows him blowing his cover and endangering everyone around him because he thinks he spots Beth — a woman he’s convinced he needs to save, but in reality, she’d all but broken up with him right before the world fell because he’s a cloying clown. Now, he just watches old videos of her on his phone, as if he somehow lost a thriving relationship.

Pairing Yorick with Agent 355, who’s been the bright spot of the series (and carrying a heavy load), is a fun dynamic. He’s all nonsense and emotion and she’s all practicality and logic. And she’s ruthless in a way that he can’t fathom because, as she notably schools him this week, he’s never had to feel small or unseen. Now that he is literally the genetic nuclear football, he can’t handle it. His privilege bought him a life of being important without anything asked in return. As a result, Yorick and 355 inherently make for a sublime odd couple — less so, though, when she’s warming up to him.

It’s possible she’s playing nice, at the end of this chapter, as a way to “manage” him. Knowing she can’t bark orders at Yorick because he has to feel like his actions are his own idea, 355 suffers through Yorick abracadabra-splaining to her why card tricks are beneath him (“I’m an escape artist,” ugh) just to let him know that she’ll help him find Beth… after the geneticist stuff. As if he’ll be just free to leave.

Yorick and 355 inherently make for a sublime odd couple.

Hopefully Yorick grows up sooner than later, because he’s practically unbearable right now. He doesn’t want anyone to get hurt or die, but he’ll put everyone in immediate harm’s way when it suits him and his insane whims. Then, it somehow becomes 355’s fault if bodies drop.

To the show’s benefit, it’s difficult to make creepy dystopian hellscapes boring. The gloomy and foreboding quality of apocalyptic aftermath, with everyone willing to turn on each other, is usually fraught with tension. Y: The Last Man has the added anomalous element of all these badlands crimes, from muggings to murders, being committed by women. Yorick and 355 have a run-in with some would-be thieves and Mafia-style “Staties Wives” while Hero and Sam, after picking up Nora and her injured daughter, Mackenzie, have their own harsh episode with the armed remnants of a women’s shelter. Despite a close call, it seems to end okay for all of them, especially Hero and Sam, as they’re brought into what seems to be a giant warehouse/market full of food and supplies.

That doesn’t make up for Hero’s own myopic motivations, of course. While not as juvenile as Yorick, Hero is an absolute mess who all-but refuses to head to her mom for safety. She argues, plots, sabotages a car, and even tries to seduce Sam as a way to prevent, or even just delay, seeing her mother again. Like Yorick, her wants and needs are a really tough sell in the face of everything else happening. We understand that she and her mom fell out, and have horrible history between them, but to shirk the President’s help in the face of a global catastrophe, where finding a safe haven means the difference between life and death, is an oversized pill.

355, as a woman of action and a seeker of straightforward purpose, is still a boon for the show. Most of her interactions with Yorick work, as she’s tasked with this escort mission from hell, and at the same time we’re also getting small peeks inside her psyche. “Karen and Benji” begins with 355 imagining herself in a glitzy cabaret number, singing Ella Fitzgerald’s “Taking a Chance on Love” as she seemingly sleepwalks toward the edge of a cliff. She’s an expert at compartmentalizing her emotions, but it would seem that the events of the previous weeks are enough to crack even the toughest of nuts. The show would benefit from showing more layers to her (without forsaking her edge) while also infusing Yorick with basic survival smarts (and maybe even a smidgeon of personal responsibility).

Apex Legends Patch Targets Ongoing Server Issues

Apex Legends has been having some problems lately. While the game isn’t plagued by an unending wave of cheaters and hackers like Call of Duty: Warzone, it’s been seeing a lot more server stability issues. However, those problems should be addressed, at least somewhat, by the game’s latest patch according to the developer.

On Twitter, Respawn explained that players should now see fewer incidents of server instability, including teleporting, packet loss, and of course, lag. The developer also noted that it found a secondary issue with the game that would cause crashes that ties back to the game’s animated poses. That issue, along with others, will be addressed in yet another patch coming this Wednesday. For the time being though, Respawn is simply advising that players unequip any animated poses they have unless they’re comfortable with risking a game crash.

Even with the latest patch for Apex Legends rolled out, some players are still experiencing issues that can be traced back to the game’s servers. Numerous posts on r/ApexLegends show that players are still running into connection problems with the game, most of which result in teleporting and lagging, making the competitive title nearly unplayable. It’s not clear how much Wednesday’s upcoming patch will affect the game’s still-troubled servers.

Apex Legends’ patches by themselves have been a point of contention for players recently, with Respawn promising to remove tap-strafing, a piece of PC-specific movement tech from the game. The developer then walked back that promise, citing “unexpected side effects.”

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Amazon’s Wheel Of Time Set To Recast Mat Cauthon In Season Two – Report

It looks like the second season of Amazon’s Wheel of Time series is not for Barney Harris, who was cast as troublemaker and ladies man Mat Cauthon, one of the main characters of the series. Deadline is reporting that the role will be recast with The Witcher’s Dónal Finn taking up the dice.

Season Two already began production and filming, with the reason behind the recast still unclear or announced. The long-awaited adapted series from Robert Jordan’s books was renewed before the first season hit the streaming platform back in May, with the first season premiering November 19.

Even in the first trailer, we see Harris as Mat picks up a bejeweled dagger from the forbidden land of Shadar Logoth. It’s still uncertain how much of the first season will cover what with showrunner Rafe Judkins saying that “Season 1 will cover Book One, plus some of Book Two and even Book Three. But also not all of Book One, as some of it is in Season 2.”

The Wheel of Time follows Moiraine (Rosamund Pike), a wielder of the mysterious One Power called an Aes Sedai. She arrives in the small town of Two Rivers and from there, embarks on a dangerous journey with young men and women, one of whom is predicted to destroy the world.

Family Guy’s COVID-19 PSA Encourages Everyone To Get The Vaccine

Seth MacFarlane has revealed a new Family Guy-themed COVID-19 vaccine PSA featuring Stewie and Brian encouraging people to get the vaccine. In the clip, which debuted on Jimmy Kimmel’s late night show, Stewie runs through the reasons why it’s important to follow CDC guidance and take the vaccine.

“The common side effects from the COVID vaccines are generally mild and last a few days. But do you know what can have serious long-term side effects? COVID,” Stewie says to Brian, who is playing the skeptic in the video.

Then Brian asks Stewie about what people could say to a person–namely, Peter–who doesn’t feel the need to get the vaccine if everyone else around them does.

“Getting the shot not only protects him but also the people around him. But even more importantly, if the virus is allowed to spread through an unvaccinated population, it could mutate into a variant that the vaccine might not protect against,” Stewie says, as the shot cuts to Meg depicted as a horrible virus. “And then we’re right back to where we started: Gal Gadot singing ‘Imagine.’ We cannot let that happen!”

This is not the first Family Guy vaccine PSA, as the show ran a PSA of sorts in April featuring Stewie performing the “Mom, Mum, Momma” scene from the Season 5 episode remixed with Stewie shouting “get the vaccine” when Lois finally answers him. Before that, there was a fake podcast with Stewie and Brian talking about COVID in general.

Wheel of Time Hasn’t Started Yet, But a Character Has Been Recast for Season 2

Amazon’s Wheel of Time has recast one of its lead roles for the show’s second season.

According to Deadline, Barney Harris, who is portraying Mat Cauthon in the first season of The Wheel of Time, will not be returning to his role for the show’s second season. The reasons for Harris’ departure are presently unclear, though a replacement is already being lined up, with The Witcher actor Dónal Finn reportedly tapped to take over the role.

Cauthon is one of five young heroes who will be travelling with Rosamund Pike’s Moiraine on a “dangerous, world-spanning journey” in season one, which is set to premiere on Amazon Prime Video this November. He’ll be joined by Egwene Al’Vere (Madeleine Madden), Perrin Aybara (Marcus Rutherford), Nynaeve (Zoë Robins), and Rand Al’Thor (Josha Stradowski).

Although the first season hasn’t premiered yet, Amazon ordered a second season of The Wheel of Time earlier this year. The early season renewal coincided with the first season wrapping production. Both seasons, co-produced by Amazon Studios and Sony Pictures Television, will be available to stream in more than 240 countries and territories worldwide.

The first three episodes of the upcoming series, which is based on Robert Jordan’s much-loved fantasy novels, will arrive on Amazon Prime Video on November 19, with a new episode dropping every Friday from thereon in, leading right the way up to the season finale on December 24. The first season has eight episodes in total, the same as the second season.

Amazon’s The Wheel of Time follows a character called Moiraine, a member of the Aes Sedai, a powerful all-female organization of magic users, as she takes a group of five young people on a journey around the world, believing one of the five might be the reincarnation of the Dragon, a powerful individual prophesied to save the world or destroy it.

Want to know more? Here’s a guide to everything you need to know about The Wheel of Time.

Adele Ankers is a freelance writer for IGN. Follow her on Twitter.