World Of Darkness PAX Panel Will Dig Into Three Big Tabletop Universes And Feature Giveaways

Three titles in the connected “World of Darkness” series, all set within tabletop RPG universes, will be shown off and discussed in-depth as part of a PAX Online panel. The panel, which will air on September 15 at 8 AM PDT/ 11 AM EDT 4:00 PM BST, will feature three games: Vampire: The Masquerade: Shadows of New York, Werewolf: The Apocalypse – Heart of the Forest, and Wraith: The Oblivion – Afterlife.

The team has released a trailer for the panel, which you can watch below.

While Shadows of New York and Heart of the Forest are visual novels, Wraith: The Oblivion – Afterlife is a VR title, with supernatural horror elements and an array of powers that the player can tap into. It’ll be more of a stealth title.

During this panel, the developers will discuss the different approaches of each game, and how they work within the wider tabletop RPG world they’re based in. There will also be key giveaways for each developer’s previous games, so you can potentially win things by watching.

Vampire: The Masquerade – Shadows of New York will actually be out before the panel happens–it releases on September 10 for PC, Switch, PS4, and Xbox One. GameSpot is currently working on a review.

A special collected edition of both Vampire: The Masquerade visual novels has also been announced for Switch, PS4, and PC. Both games, based on the 5th edition of Vampire: The Masquerade, will be included, along with an art book and a vinyl soundtrack. It’s due for release in spring 2021.

Vampire: The Masquerade Coteries of New York and Shadows of New York
Vampire: The Masquerade Coteries of New York and Shadows of New York

Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines 2 is also coming out in 2021, if you want to dive even deeper into the Vampire: The Masquerade universe. It’s coming to PS5, Xbox Series X, and current-gen systems. That game is now available for pre-order. A Werewolf action game, Werewolf: The Apocalypse: Earthblood, is also in the works, and it’ll release in 2021 too.

7 Games That Were Something Else Entirely

Games are hard to make and, often, don’t always get released with their original vision intact. From a gameplay pivot here, to a character swap there, most go through some pretty big changes throughout their development. But then there are some games that change course completely.

BioShock originally began life as a very ambitious game about a cult deprogrammer, with an asymmetrical multiplayer mode that would see you play as a monster in another player’s story mode. Assassin’s Creed was originally a follow up to Prince of Persia: The Sands Of Time, and its name used to be Prince of Persia: Assassins, before the Prince was dropped completely.

There are countless more examples, and the video above explores 7 games that were something else entirely.

The Sims 4’s Star Wars Expansion Is Out Now, Here’s What You Need To Know

It’s a big day for The Sims 4, as the immensely popular life-management game has added its newest expansion, Journey to Batuu. The Star Wars add-on takes players to the planet of Batuu and brings characters like Rey and Kylo Ren to the game.

There are a variety of popular Star Wars locations you can visit, too, including Oga’s Cantina which plays music from the robot DJ R-3X. Players can also create their own lightsaber and build a droid of their own who will travel with them.

Throughout the expansion, players will meet up with other NPCs from The Resistance, the First Order, and various scoundrels, all of whom are trying to take control of the Black Spire Outpost.

“Players can pledge allegiance to the group of their choice and complete missions to earn their trust and some galactic credits along the way,” EA said in the description. “As Sims take on new challenges and critical missions, they’ll increase their reputation and unlock new rewards like starfighter access, new clothing, artifacts, and equipment, and eventually meet the leaders of the forces on Batuu.”

Players can choose to align with Rey and Vi Moradi in the Resistance or embrace the dark side with Kylo Ren and the First Order. Hondo Ohnaka, a character from Star Wars: The Clone Wars and Star Wars Rebels, is the leader of the scoundrel faction.

What’s more, players can bring some of the Star Wars items with them back to their home worlds. Specifically, you can fight against others with your lightsaber, play sabacc with friends, or even bring your droid around with you.

The Journey to Batuu expansion is available for $20 across all platforms.

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Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare, Warzone Playlist Updates, New Operator, And More

Activision has detailed everything coming to Call of Duty: Modern Warfare and Warzone this week on PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One. This includes a new Operator, playlist updates, the return of a massive battle royale mode, and more.

New Modern Warfare Operator And Playlist Updates

The newest Operator to join Modern Warfare is the famous Italian rapper Fabio Rovazzi, playing a sharpshooter named Morte who loves Spaghetti Westerns. In the Morte Operator Bundle, players get the brand-new character, his “Sentenza” skin, and two Legendary Blueprints. Alongside Morte’s bundle is the Devourer package, which includes a Legendary Assault Rifle Blueprint.

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On the multiplayer side, Modern Warfare received a playlist update filled with party games. Dubbed the Party Mode Moshpit playlist, players can experience a curation of more casual game modes like Gun Game. An additional playlist, titled 2v2 Gunfight, is also live and features the standard version of the mode and Gunfight On-Site Procurement (OSP). The latter disables the loadout, instead forcing players to rely on weapons found at random spots around the map.

Further playlist updates include Standard Ground War replacing Boots on the Ground War and Demolition being moved from the Quick Play menu to the Feature Playlist spotlight. Meanwhile, Shoot the Ship hasn’t gone anywhere.

Warzone Rumble And Vehicles Returns

Warzone sees some changes this week as well, including the return of Warzone Rumble. The massive 50v50 mode is back and will feature an experience based around Verdansk Stadium. Additionally, classic Battle Royale and Plunder modes will rotate throughout the week; King Slayer Trios and Plunder: Blood Money has been removed, while Plunder Trios was added.

Developer Infinity Ward confirmed that, alongside the playlist updates across both Modern Warfare and Warzone on all platforms, vehicles have been readded to the battle royale title. Vehicles were previously removed because of a game-breaking bug, in which they caused server crashes and booted players from Warzone matches by driving them into specific out-of-bounds areas on the map.

Call of Duty Mobile gets a brand-new map this week–though it’s not “new” to long-time Call of Duty fans. Terminal, from Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, will join the game’s map rotation. And at the same time, a cooperative, hoard-based game mode called Attack of the Undead will also go live.

In other Call of Duty news, the multiplayer reveal for Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War is scheduled to go live on Wednesday, September 9 at 10 AM PT. Details on how to get into the game’s beta have been sparse, but we’ve rounded up everything we know about it so far. And check out our Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War pre-order guide to learn about the editions and bonuses available, and how to get the next-gen version.

Now Playing: Call Of Duty: Black Ops Cold War Story So Far

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Zelda: Breath Of The Wild Champions Amiibo Are Getting A Reprint

While the Zelda: Breath of the Wild sequel is still a ways off, Nintendo is releasing a prequel to the game in the form of Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity this November. Alongside the new spin-off, a handful of Breath of the Wild Amiibo will be getting another printing.

Figures of Hyrule’s four Champions–Daruk, Urbosa, Mipha, and Revali–will be re-released on November 20, the same day that Age of Calamity launches for Switch. The figures will presumably interact with the game in some capacity, although Nintendo has not yet announced what they will do or unlock.

Set during the Great Calamity that befell Hyrule 100 years before the start of Breath of the Wild, Age of Calamity is a Dynasty Warriors-style action-adventure game developed by Koei Tecmo, the studio behind the original Hyrule Warriors. As in that title, players will be able to control a variety of different Zelda characters–Link, Zelda, and the aforementioned four Champions–and battle against swarms of Ganon’s minions.

Age of Calamity launches exclusively for Switch on November 20. The game is available to pre-order now at various retailers and on the Nintendo eShop. Those who spring for the digital edition will get a free bonus weapon in the game: the Lucky Ladle. You can learn more in our Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity pre-order guide.

As for the Breath of the Wild sequel, series producer Eiji Aonuma says that the team is still hard at work developing the game, but fans will have to wait “a bit longer” for an update on it. “Regarding the sequel, in order to make the vast world you enjoyed exploring in the original game even more impressive, the team is working hard on its development so you’ll have to wait a bit longer before we can provide more updates,” Aonuma said in a video message. The Breath of the Wild sequel does not yet have a release date.

Now Playing: Hyrule Warriors: Age Of Calamity – Official Announcement Trailer

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Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Series Gets New Details, Will Be Episodic

While contemporary television series typically take a whole season to tell a story, the upcoming CBS ALL Access Star Trek show Strange New Worlds will be taking a different approach, by utilizing episodic storytelling.

During the Star Trek Day panel for the show, the cast and crew of Strange New Worlds discussed what we can expect from the new series. “It’s a ship, and it’s traveling to strange new worlds, and we’re gonna tell big ideas, science fiction adventures, in an episodic mode, so we have room to kind of meet new aliens, see new ships, visit new cultures,” explained executive producer Henry Alonso Myers.

However, while the show will be episodic, there will still be carryover from one episode to the next via character arcs. An example Myers uses is if someone falls in love, but that all falls apart by the end of the episode, that will still weigh on him in future episodes, bringing “modern character sensibility to the classic episodic storytelling.”

The show, which was announced back in May, will focus on the characters Captain Christopher Pike, Spock, and Number One. It was given a full season order and will be set a decade before the original Star Trek series and will star Anson Mount, Ethan Peck, and Rebecca Romijn–all reprising their roles from Star Trek: Discovery.

“We’re turning to a more episodic model, so that the storytelling is more contained with episodic values, while the character arcs are stretched in more serialized continuity,” added executive producer Akiva Goldsman. “Unlike the new shows–Discovery or Picard–this exists in its own space. In a space where it is both imagined generally by those who came before us but never has actually been delved into specifically. “

There is already one specific plotpoint for the show that will carry over between episodes, according to co-executive producer Akela Cooper. “While we’ll have like individual, one-off plots, the character arcs are what’s going to carry us through in a more serialized fashion,” she said. “I will say there is one plot point that we will be sprinkling through the series until we actually get to the episode, and that’s all I can say about that.”

At the time of this writing, no release date has been set for the show, as it is still in pre-production.

New Xbox Console Exclusive Sees You Spend The Day With The Hitman Who Plans To Kill You

Developer Mischief has released the first official trailer for Adios, an upcoming first-person adventure game about a pig farmer who used to dispose of bodies for the mob but decides he doesn’t want to anymore. The game is scheduled to launch for Xbox One and PC.

Adios doesn’t have a release date yet, but in a tweet, the developer says that players can expect the game will come out “very soon.”

As seen in the trailer, embedded above, the game begins with the pig farmer telling a mob hitman that he no longer wants to participate in the organization’s dirty dealings. Knowing he’ll be forced to kill his friend if he no longer works for the mob, the hitman tries to convince the farmer to keep feeding bodies to his pigs. The two of you spend the day together completing odd jobs and exploring the farm–both knowing that the hitman will kill you if he can’t convince you to stay with the mob.

It looks like a fairly interesting premise. Mischief writes on the Adios Steam page that your choices will “determine the rest of your life,” implying there may be some agency in how the narrative ultimately ends.

The minimum PC requirements for Adios are listed below.

Adios PC Requirements

  • OS: Windows 8/10 (64-bit OS required)
  • Processor: Intel Core i5-750 2.68Ghz / AMD II x4 945 3.0Ghz or equivalent
  • Memory: 4 GB RAM
  • Graphics: NVIDIA GTX 560 2GB/AMD Radeon 6870 HD 2GB or equivalent (Integrated graphics not supported)
  • DirectX: Version 11
  • Storage: 5 GB available space
  • Sound Card: Yes.

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Apple Seeks Damages From Epic In Newest Court Filing

In Apple’s September 8 court filing, the tech company is now seeking damages from Epic over breach of contract. “Although Epic portrays itself as a modern corporate Robin Hood, in reality it is a multi-billion dollar enterprise that simply wants to pay nothing for the tremendous value it derives from the App store,” the company stated in the filing.

In addition to wanting Epic’s external payment system permanently stopped and removed, Apple wants all earnings and profits generated as a result of Epic making it possible for players to bypass the App store’s payment system. Apple also claimed that it has been “injured in its business and has suffered damages, loss of goodwill and product image, and other harm.”

Apple’s filing is in response to Epic’s preliminary injunction against Apple to get Fortnite back on the App store. Epic’s Apple developer account was terminated on August 28, and prior to that, Epic’s appeal for a restraining order was partially denied. The judge ruled that Apple will not be forced to put Fortnite back in stores, but also that Apple cannot touch Epic’s Unreal Engine, which is used by many other developers.

After Apple terminated Epic’s development account, the company told GameSpot, “We are disappointed that we have had to terminate the Epic Games account on the App Store. We have worked with the team at Epic Games for many years on their launches and releases. The court recommended that Epic comply with the App Store guidelines while their case moves forward, guidelines they’ve followed for the past decade until they created this situation. Epic has refused. Instead they repeatedly submit Fortnite updates designed to violate the guidelines of the App Store. This is not fair to all other developers on the App Store and is putting customers in the middle of their fight. We hope that we can work together again in the future, but unfortunately that is not possible today.”

Both Apple and Epic are not backing down, and it’s likely that Fortnite will not be on an iOS device anytime soon. You can read GameSpot’s full explanation on what is exactly going on in Apple and Epic’s lawsuit.

Now Playing: Fortnite Drama Heats Up: Epic To Lose Apple Dev Accounts | Save State

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Jason Momoa Stands With Justice League Co-Star Ray Fisher Amid Warner Bros. Battle

Jason Momoa has just expressed his solidarity with Justice League co-star Ray Fisher, who over the summer made allegations of “gross, abusive, unprofessional, and completely unacceptable” mistreatment while filming with Joss Whedon on that movie. In a tweet back in July, Fisher said Whedon was “enabled, in many ways, by [producers] Geoff Johns and Jon Berg.”

Momoa posted an Instagram story on Tuesday with a photo of Fisher bearing the caption “IStandWithRayFisher.” Whedon has not yet publicly commented on the accusations, nor has Fisher elaborated on what conduct comprised the above patterns of behavior, but Berg told Variety that it was “categorically untrue that we enabled any unprofessional behavior.”

Over the weekend, Fisher tweeted about his meeting with a Warner Bros. investigator, and how he wants to “ensure a fair and protected process for all witnesses.”

This is not the only recent reason that Justice League has been making headlines again: Momoa (Aquaman) and Fisher (Cyborg) are among those returning for Zack Snyder’s cut of Justice League–a director’s cut of the comics adaptation that Whedon wound up stepping in and completing when personal issues on Snyder’s part prevented his involvement in completing the production. The four-part series is expected to hit HBO Max in 2021.