Sniper rifles have a rocky history in video games like Call Of Duty, Battlefield, and other multiplayer shooters. The complex physics of real-world long-range shooting is fundamentally too difficult to translate to video games, leading developers to both simplify sniper rifles and also exaggerate their drawbacks to keep them balanced.
In this video, we’re going to look at what sniper rifles are, how they are used in games, the extreme compromises used to balance them, some things developers aren’t trying to make easier, and what happens when they are forced onto small maps. We’re also just going to marvel at the skill of some players who can quickscope and even do 360 no scopes.
If you love multiplayer shooters, make sure to head over to GameSpot’s YouTube page to watch our Firearms Expert Reacts series, our coverage of Call Of Duty: Cold War’s mid-season 3 update that includes Rambo, and ongoing coverage up to the release of Battlefield 6.
Memorial Day sales are starting to kick off this week as the US holiday approaches once more, and you can count on being able to take advantage of steep discounts on games and peripherals, among other products. Though some Memorial Day sales won’t kick off until Friday or even this coming Monday, many of the best deals are already live now, making Memorial Day a week-long affair for many retailers. For gamers, one of the biggest Memorial Day sales to check out is GameStop’s, which has brought a slew of discounts on games, collectibles, and PC peripherals. You can also take advantage of Memorial Day deals at Walmart, Amazon, and more. We’ll be updating this story throughout the week as more sales start to go live, but for now, check out the best discounts floating around ahead of the upcoming holiday weekend.
Memorial Day sales 2021
Practically every major retailer is getting in on the action this Memorial Day–if you’re just looking to browse everything on offer or shop specific retailers, check out some of the biggest Memorial Day sales happening now below.
HP Memorial Day Sale: Deals on laptops, monitors, and PCs, with limited-time deals each day
Best Memorial Day game deals
GameStop’s Memorial Day sale is really leading the way in terms of game deals this year. Below, we’ve highlighted some of the best games on sale and checked those prices against Best Buy, Walmart, and Amazon, linking to other retailers for the best price where available. While some retailers are price-matching, GameStop’s offering the best price on a lot of games going into Memorial Day weekend, including first-party Switch titles like The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Splatoon 2. You can pick up some recent game releases at a discount for Memorial Day, including Little Nightmares II for $30, Persona 5 Strikers for $33, and It Takes Two for $30. PS5 and Series X owners can also snag the next-gen physical editions of games like Devil May Cry 5: Special Edition ($30) and Assassin’s Creed Valhalla ($30) on sale.
There always seems to be some promotion on preowned games running at GameStop, but the Memorial Day selection is worth checking out. Right now, preowned games under $20 are eligible for a buy two, get one free promotion–add three preowned titles to your cart, and you’ll see the full price of the cheapest title slashed off your total cost. Of course, preowned titles are usually cheaper in general at GameStop, so you can end up saving a nice chunk of change if you find any games on your wishlist. Notably, you can snag preowned copies of Little Nightmares II for $19, Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order for $18, and Resident Evil 7 for $13.
This neat Nintendo Switch case features a golden Hylian Crest on the front and a gray Guardian-esque design on the side. With a sturdy outer shell, soft interior lining, and a padded cover that protects your Switch’s screen, this is an excellent case for traveling with your Switch that should protect it from scratches and other damage. It’s on sale for 50% off for Memorial Day.
Razer’s DeathAdder V2 Pro wireless gaming mouse is popular for a reason, featuring a 20K DPI optical sensor for fast response times and reduced cursor drift. It can go for up to 70 hours of gaming and has a lightweight design at just 88g. The DeathAdder V2 Pro is on sale for $90 at Amazon ahead of Memorial Day, $10 cheaper than you’ll find it at GameStop.
HyperX is getting in on this year’s Memorial Day sales with accessory deals of its own. Notably, the Cloud Alpha S wired headset is now at an even $100, $30 off the usual list price. With 7.1 surround sound, adjustable bass, a detachable noise-cancellation mic, and an audio control mixer, the Cloud Alpha S comes with everything you need for an excellent audio experience while gaming on PC.
The Alloy FPS is a highly customizable gaming keyboard with RGB-backlit keys and dynamic lighting effects, perfect for gaming in dim areas. It features Kailh Silver Speed mechanical switches, an excellent option for competitive gamers who need the fastest response times. The Alloy FPS is both compact and portable with a detachable cable, and its solid steel frame is built to last. You can also save up to three customized profiles to your onboard memory and can take advantage of the keyboard’s Game Mode, 100% anti-ghosting, and N-key rollover.
Custom PC brand CLX Gaming is slashing prices on some of its prebuilt gaming PCs for Memorial Day with free upgrades for certain parts, including the Intel Core i3, i5, and i7 processors; the Ryzen 5 3600X (to the 5600X); and more. The sale also offers a way to get your hands on new and hard-to-find graphics cards such as the Nvidia RTX 3070 and 3090, which you can incorporate into your builds. You can either purchase CLX’s pre-built PCs as is or make customizations to the chassis, core components, and more.
Pick up Apple’s fourth-gen smartwatch for $30 off at Walmart during Memorial Day. Available for $169, the Apple Watch Series 3 comes with a built-in GPS and barometric altimeter for tracking your distance and altitude, a particularly helpful feature for those planning to do some hiking or camping this year. You can track various aspects of health and fitness, including your daily workouts, heart rate, and sleep schedule. The Series 3 also allows you to pay using Apple Pay, ping your iPhone during those times when you lay it down and just can’t find it, and ask Siri anything just by raising your wrist.
We expect Best Buy’s full slate of Memorial Day deals will kick off later this week, but you can already shop a sale on cheap 4K smart TVs at the retailer. This 43-inch Insignia F30 Series 4K Smart TV is down to just $280 in the sale, and while you’re likely not buying a TV like this purely for gaming, it’s a great budget option for a kids’ room or gym. It comes with the Amazon Fire interface built in with access to all the top streaming apps like Netflix, Hulu, Disney+, HBO Max, and more.
Lenovo’s Memorial Day sale features a $45 discount on the Legion K500 mechanical gaming keyboard, which has a minimal, “no-frills” design that’s packed with gaming-centric features, including red linear mechanical switches, anti-ghosting, programmable per-key RGB lighting, a tangle-free braided cable, and more.
Amazon’s beating the price on this monitor featured in Lenovo’s own Memorial Day sale, dropping the 34-inch curved display to just $338. The Lenovo G34w-10 is a 1440p, 144Hz monitor with AMD Radeon FreeSync to prevent screen tearing and input lag. If you’re looking for heightened immersion from your games, this ultrawide (21:9) curved display will help draw you in by enveloping your entire peripheral vision, and its low blue light / flicker-free certification may help protect your eyes over long periods of play.
Call of Duty’s Season 3 has been one of the best seasons of content since the integration of Black Ops Cold War. A lackluster Season 2 is in the rearview, and players are currently racking up kills as Rambo and John McClane in the ’80s Action Heroes event. However, as we look to what could come in Season 4 and beyond, we can see there are still some interesting things potentially on the horizon for Warzone.
Map Changes
Even though Season 3 just nuked the modern Verdansk map, introducing the new Cold War-era Verdansk ’84, we’ve already seen some nice map changes with the mid-season Reloaded update. There’s the arrival of Nakatomi Plaza from Die Hard, which has its own unique missions and lootable vault. There are also smaller additions of Rambo’s survival camps and the CIA Outpost, but it’s uncertain if any of these locations will stick around post-Season 3, as Rambo and McClane’s bundles are set to disappear June 18.
Regardless, Activision already gave a subtle tease for future map changes to Warzone in Call of Duty’s blog that arrived with the launch of Verdansk ’84, specifically around the Salt Mines.
The Salt Mines location sits in Verdansk ’84’s northeastern corner of the map, and Activision gave the location this description: This sprawling space has two large (and currently sealed) entrances, numerous old mine conduits, and a large, craggy hillside to explore about the containment ponds and factories.
The wording “currently sealed” suggests that at some point those old mining tunnels are likely to open up. Maybe this adds something like a brand new point of interest for Warzone, and it’s possible that there’s a bunker or some sort of underground facility waiting to be explored.
And speaking of mines, there’s also a teaser mentioned for the tunnels at the Old Mine, which is located in the northwest portion of Verdansk. If you visit Call of Duty’s Warzone official strategy guide, the Tac Map gives a description for the Old Mine a14 location, but the details on how to access the mine’s interior are partially redacted. This looks similar to when the Tac Map listed redacted info for the bunkers used in Warzone’s previous bunker Easter egg. This could mean that something opens up the mines for new underground playable areas, or maybe this is going to lead into a new Easter egg hunt.
It’s all speculation, but maybe this brings back the return of Buried, the underground western town from Black Ops 2’s Zombies mode. Buried was also added in as a map location on Black Ops 4’s Blackout map. We’ll just have to wait and see.
There could also be lighting changes coming to Verdansk ’84 in the near future, as a visual effects artist from Raven Software has said the studio could adjust the unpopular sun lens flare effect in Call of Duty: Warzone. This would be a great visual improvement for Verdansk, as certain areas of Warzone experience blinding rays of sunlight that can instantly impact your game. Warzone’s smaller map Rebirth Island already received a lighting update that was mostly positively received by the community.
Fast Travel
As previously reported by Charlie Intel, Activision sent out a survey on April 28 asking players which parts of the new Verdansk ’84 map that they most enjoyed. The options on the survey mentioned typical features like lighting changes and updated points of interest, but it also referenced a “Red Doors” fast travel system that actually hasn’t been introduced into Warzone.
A subway fast travel system was introduced to Warzone with Modern Warfare’s Season 6, but the trip back to 1984 removed the subway transit from the game. Something like the Red Door could work as a means to fast travel in the Black Ops Cold War-themed Warzone map, as the Red Door serves as a trippy part of the campaign’s storyline. Certain buildings around Verdansk could have these special red doors that could teleport you to a different section of the map.
This could be a feature that got scrapped during planning stages for Verdansk ’84, but the travel system could still be on the table for a future season, as the Red Door was also teased in the Verdansk ’84 cutscene.
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COD Warzone Verdansk 84 Cinematic Cutscene
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Earlier this month, Activision confirmed during its earnings call that the next Call of Duty game will be led by Call of Duty: WWII developer Sledgehammer Games. No other details or release date were announced, but leaks suggest it’s going to be a World War II setting called Call of Duty: Vanguard.
It’s possible we’ll see a Warzone event to officially announce the title, similar to the Know Your History reveal event for Black Ops Cold War, especially since Activision’s Call of Duty CEO, Robert Kostich, suggested that a potential Warzone reveal event could happen again.
Next-Gen Update
Developer Raven Software confirmed a PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S update is in development for Call of Duty: Warzone. We don’t know when this update is coming, but it’s set to include support for the console’s SSD to allow for faster load times, along with 120Hz support. This would also likely allow support for the PlayStation 5’s DualSense controller’s adaptive triggers and haptics.
Hopefully we’ll get some official announcements or teasers for Warzone’s Season 4 soon, which according to the end of Season 3’s battle pass, should be sometime in June. Also, expect Black Ops Cold War’s new baseball bat melee weapon to arrive in Warzone for Season 4.
EA’s new “dodgebrawl” game Knockout City is out now, and it’s run into an issue for EA Play and Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscribers. In a social media post, the developers at Velan Studios said not everyone is receiving their promised rewards for taking part in the ongoing Block Party event.
Velan is currently working on a fix, but it might take “another day or two,” or potentially longer for those who haven’t logged in yet. “We’ll get these bonuses added to your account, hang tight!” the studio said.
If you have EA Play / Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, we’re working on a fix to get you your Block Party Rewards. This may take another day or two (and could take extra time if you haven’t yet logged in for the first time) 1/3
but we’ll get these bonuses added to your account, hang tight! If you have bought either the Standard Edition or the Deluxe Edition and aren’t seeing Block Party (and Deluxe if you bought the Deluxe Edition) rewards, that’s another known issue that we’re working on a fix for. 2/3
Additionally, some people who bought the standard or deluxe edition of Knockout City aren’t having the Block Party or deluxe content added to their inventories. This is another known issue that Velan is currently working to address.
“It could take a few days, but everything will be fixed. Thanks for your patience,” the studio said.
Knockout City’s Season 1 kicks off today, May 25, and it adds a new map, Jukebox Junction, as well as more contracts and new playlists. Check out the Season 1 trailer below to learn more about what’s coming to the game today.
Inspired by dodgeball, Knockout City is a multiplayer game where players try to knock out other players using a ball, which can have all different types of special properties. The game is developed by Velan Studios, which is the team that made Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit.
Knockout City is off to a great start, attracting 2 million players. The game is currently free as part of the Block Party event, but the trial period ends May 30. Xbox Game Pass Ultimate members can keep playing for free after the Block Party event ends, it seems.
One of the stars of Destiny 2‘s Season of the Splicer has been the new Hunter Exotic boots, Star-Eater Scales. They quickly became a favorite for PvE content and were so powerful that Bungie disabled them for the World’s First competition for the Vault of Glass raid. But apparently, Star-Eater Scales were too powerful, and with its latest update, Bungie has patched the Exotic to bring its perks down to where they were intended to be.
Bungie shared the full patch notes for its new update, Hotfix 3.2.0.2, on its website. The update fixes a bunch of bugs and issues with the way certain elements were interacting and, for the most part, boosting Guardians’ power more than they should have.
Star-Eater Scales is the biggest of these; the new Exotic allows you to gather extra Orbs of Power to overcharge your Super ability, making it do more damage. It also fires off a healing burst when you cast your Super, and if you power it up fully with four extra Orbs, you receive an overshield as well. The trouble was, Star-Eater Scales wasn’t just boosting Super damage, it was also giving a huge boost to regular weapon and grenade damage, essentially making Hunters into damage powerhouses, especially in raids.
Hotfix 3.2.0.2 reels in Star-Eater Scales pretty significantly. First, it removes the damage boost to regular weapons and grenades, which Bungie says the Exotic shouldn’t have had anyway. Next, it also makes powering up the Exotic to its full damage bonus power a little tougher–instead of picking up four extra Orbs of Power, you now need to pick up eight Orbs. That’s going to make Star-Eater Scales significantly less cool than it was a day ago, and although it’s still pretty powerful, it remains to be seen whether this will continue to be the new go-to Exotic for Hunters in PvE activities.
Other changes include Bungie fixing another new damage-boosting element in Season of the Splicer: Energy Accelerant. This mod, found on the Seasonal Artifact, increases the power of perks like Firefly, Chain Reaction, and Dragon Fly–and it had the side effect of making the Exotic fusion rifle Telesto about twice as powerful as it should have been. That mod has been fixed so that Telesto does the right amount of damage.
The release of the new update coincides with the launch of the Destiny 2 cross-play beta. You can read the rest of the patch notes below.
GAMEPLAY AND INVESTMENT
ARMOR
Fixed an issue where Recovery-focused Umbral Engrams would sometimes not award armor with a sufficiently high Recovery stat.
Fixed issues where some Common, Uncommon, and Rare armors would provide stat bonuses when used as ornaments as a part of Armor Synthesis.
Energy Accelerant mod:
No longer increases damage against players.
No longer increases the base damage of Symmetry, Telesto, Black Talon, and Deathbringer.
Telesto has also received another sternly worded lecture.
Sundering Blast no longer causes Overload champions to exit their stun state when damaged by the explosion created by the mod.
Fixed an issue where Star-Eater Scales was erroneously applying its damage bonus to weapons and grenades instead of only Supers as intended.
Increased the maximum number of stacks required for the full damage bonus from four stacks to eight stacks.
Fixed an issue where players could spawn too many noble seekers with Boots of the Assembler by stepping in and out of a Rift.
When Warlocks wearing Boots of the Assembler are extending the duration of a Rift, class ability regeneration pauses.
Design note: The reason for this change was both to prevent game crashes caused by too many rifts being placed in a single activity, and to restore some of the advantage to running Sanguine Alchemy over Boots of the Assembler.
WEAPONS
Fixed an issue where the catalyst for Cryosthesia 77K was incorrectly accruing progress from energy weapon kills.
Fixed an issue where the catalyst Triumph for Cryosthesia 77K was being displayed in the wrong weapon category.
Fixed an issue where Cryosthesia 77K could fire multiple freeze shots without losing the charged shot buff.
Fixed an issue where existing drops of THE SWARM with Unrelenting switched to Bottomless Grief.
This fix only works in cases where players didn’t select the Bottomless Grief node.
ACCESSORIES
Fixed an issue that prevented the Vie for Glory Sparrow from taking shaders.
POWER AND PROGRESSION
Fixed an issue where the reward for completing the weekly Vendor Challenge on the Splicer Servitor did not reward Pinnacle gear as advertised.
Upon completion, the weekly Vendor Challenge should now reward a Pinnacle piece of Seasonal gear.
Fixed an issue where completing Presage as a weekly Activity Challenge was not rewarding Pinnacle gear.
UI/UX
Fixed an issue where the Armor Synthesis ornament creation tutorial does not show up for Titan characters when reaching the armor ornament creation step.
GENERAL
Players will no longer be able to claim the 150 Synthstrand from Ada-1 during the NUX quest if their inventory is full.
This will prevent players from losing the material and they will need to clear out inventory space to claim their Synthstrand.
The Xbox Store has kicked off its Super Saver Sale, featuring big discounts of at least 50% off loads of games. The sale primarily includes older games, but if you’ve waited on some to hit the right price before jumping in this may be the time. This sale runs through May 31, so you have all week to decide.
The first trailer for the new action movie Gunpowder Milkshake has arrived, showing Lena Headey (Game of Thrones) and Karen Gillan (Guardians of the Galaxy) as a mother-daughter assassin duo who are out for blood.
Headey plays Scarlet, a professional assassin who had no choice but to ditch her daughter Sam (Gillan) to escape with her life. Growing up without a mom, Sam became a hitwoman herself and, after a “high-stakes mission spins out of control,” she eventually reunites with Scarlet to save an eight-year-old girl (Chloe Coleman). Together with Paul Giamatti, they seek revenge on those who have wronged them.
“There’s not a single person on Earth I’d rather kill people with,” Scarlet says to Sam in the trailer. Sam replies, “Thanks, Ma.”
Gunpowder Milkshake also stars Michelle Yeoh (Crazy Rich Asians), Carla Gugino (Watchmen), and Angela Bassett (Black Panther). It’s directed by Navot Papushado (Rabies, Big Bad Wolves).
The movie will come to theaters in worldwide markets like the UK, France, Germany, Australia, and New Zealand, while Netflix paid an eight-figure fee ($10 million or more) to acquire the rights in the US. It will debut in the US on Netflix on July 14.
Dead By Daylight is getting a Resident Evil crossover to celebrate its fifth anniversary. The asymmetric multiplayer horror game has welcomed characters from other hit horror franchises before, perhaps most notably Silent Hill. However, this is the first time that Resident Evil characters like Jill Valentine and Nemesis (aka The Tyrant) have joined the fray.
Dead By Daylight’s Resident Evil chapter launches on June 15, and it includes many elements that will be familiar to fans of Capcom’s storied horror franchise. Resident Evil stalwarts Jill Valentine and Leon S. Kennedy will be added to the ranks of playable survivors, and the many-tentacled antagonist Nemesis from Resident Evil 3 will join the game’s gallery of horror villains.
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Now Playing: Dead by Daylight – Official Stadia Announcement Trailer
The Resident Evil chapter also includes a new map, the Raccoon City Police Station featured heavily in Resident Evil 2. The Police Station map will feature AI-controlled zombies that help the player-controlled killer track down the survivors, which is a first for the franchise. It also includes vaccines that prevent survivors struck by Nemesis’s tentacles from succumbing to the monster’s influence. All-in-all, it sounds like a familiar experience for fans of the series.
Gwent fans aching for a new set of cards are about to pay the price as the game’s first-ever Expansion Set, The Price of Power, has been officially announced.
The Price of Power is a set of three upcoming story expansions, each coming with its own new cards and features, releasing between June and October 2021. The first expansion–titled Once Upon A Pyre–will bring 26 new cards with new abilities and game mechanics when it releases on June 8.
Expansion Sets are unique to Gwent in that each tells an overarching story across its three expansions, as opposed to previous additions with smaller, more insulated tales. The Price of Power centers around “the main theme of magic and how different factions seek out, fight for, or exploit its power,” according to the official release.
A limited-time Expansion Pass is also available for $60, which will give players access to everything offered in the individual expansions, premium versions of each card, as well as an special in-game coin that can be used immediately after purchase.
Gwent: The Witcher Card Game is the standalone version of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt‘s popular minigame. It was first released in October 2018 for PC and has seen six expansions since the initial launch, with The Price of Power being the seventh. Gwent is available on PC, Mac, and mobile devices, with the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 versions being discontinued in June 2020.
June 23 marks Sonic the Hedgehog‘s 30th anniversary, and Sega will celebrate Sonic’s legacy and the franchise’s multiple spin-offs with a fan appreciation video and a virtual event called Sonic Central.
Taking place on May 27 at 9 AM PT / 12 PM ET, Sonic Central will feature Sega’s Sonic team, special guests, and new announcements about future Sonic projects, partnerships, and more. Viewers can access the stream on the official Sonic the Hedgehog YouTube and Twitch channels. Ahead of Sonic Central, Sega also released a celebratory video titled Unstoppable–a fan appreciation video that takes a trip down memory lane.
From the original 1991 game with the iconic golden rings to the 2020 Sonic the Hedgehog movie, the franchise featuring the super fast blue hedgehog has been going on strong for decades. The Sonic the Hedgehog movie achieved the best opening weekend for any game-to-movie adaptation, surpassing Pokemon: Detective Pikachu’s opening earnings.
The sequel to 2020’s movie, Sonic the Hedgehog 2, is slated to come out in 2022. According to a leaked copyright listing, Knuckles will make a villainous appearance and Sonic’s human friend, Tom (James Marsden), might pretty much be absent for most of the film.
In other recent Sonic the Hedgehog news, the franchise is getting both a card game and an animated Netflix show. Titled Sonic Prime, the Netflix show will be in 3D animation and isn’t coming until 2022. Man of Action, the studio behind Big Hero 6 and Mega Man: Fully Charged, is working on the title in conjunction with Sega and Wild Brain Studio. As of now, details like plot beats are sparse, but it’s likely that we’ll see more information about Sonic Prime in the upcoming Sonic Central showcase.
Details around Sonic the Hedgehog’s card game are also unknown as of this time. Steamforged Games, a company that made Resident Evil 2, Devil May Cry: The Bloody Palace, and both a card game and board game for Dark Souls, is in charge of producing Sonic the Hedgehog’s card game.
