TCL’s Alto 8+ Soundbar With A Built-In Subwoofer And Fire TV Is Down To $75 Today

If you’re looking to upgrade your home theater experience, you’ll want to consider adding a soundbar to your setup–a TV’s built-in speakers can only do so much. Good soundbars can cost you hundreds of dollars, but you can get your hands on a really solid one for less than $100 today. The Amazon-owned online store Woot is running a steep markdown on the TCL Alto 8+ 2.1 channel soundbar, dropping its price to $75. That’s $125 off its usual $200 list price. Amazon itself has the same soundbar on sale for $157, as a point of comparison.

The deal is available for the next 8 days or until it sells out, and the latter is more likely–Woot’s hottest deals usually disappear fairly quickly. It comes with free standard shipping for Prime members with estimated delivery between March 15 and March 17.

The TCL Alto 8+ 2.1 channel soundbar comes with a Fire TV 4K streaming player built-in, so you can use it in place of having a smart TV to access thousands of channels and apps, including Netflix, YouTube, Prime Video, and more. Of course, you can use it with a TV that’s already “smart”–as CNET points out, you might even prefer the TCL Alto 8+ interface to the smart UI that comes built into your TV. The Alto 8+ also comes with a voice remote that lets you use Alexa to control the soundbar and compatible TV functions like power, volume, and navigation, which is pretty handy.

TCL Alto 8+ 2.1 channel soundbar (Fire TV edition)
TCL Alto 8+ 2.1 channel soundbar (Fire TV edition)

The Alto 8+ is also notable in that it comes with a built-in subwoofer, delivering rich, powerful bass to enhance the overall audio experience. Three different sound modes for movies, music, and news are available as well, letting you choose the most optimized audio experience for what you’re playing.

Though we haven’t tested the TCL Alto 8+ ourselves, it’s a popular pick with Amazon reviewers, with over 1,285 ratings and an average 4.3 out of 5 stars. For only 75 bucks, the TCL Alto+ seems more than worth it, especially for someone looking to upgrade with a soundbar for the first time.

Nintendo’s Animal Crossing: New Horizons Island Got A Mario Makeover

Nintendo has given its official Animal Crossing: New Horizons Dream Island a Mario makeover. Following the arrival of Mario-themed furniture and clothing to the game, Nintendo has added a dedicated Mario section to its Animal Crossing island, complete with a small obstacle course that leads to a flagpole (with a confetti machine ceremoniously spewing confetti behind it).

The redesign is related to one of Nintendo’s Super Mario 35th anniversary My Nintendo missions, which asks you to simply visit Nintendo’s Dream Island between March 9-24. To visit the island, all you need to do is lay down on any bed in your house, select Search by Dream Address when prompted by Luna, then input 6382-1459-4417. You’ll get credit for completing the mission within seven days of the event ending.

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The aforementioned My Nintendo missions are tied to the special Super Mario 35th anniversary pin set. You’ll need to purchase Super Mario 3D World + Bowser’s Fury and complete at least 14 other My Nintendo missions to be eligible for the pins. If you’re still a few missions short, visiting Nintendo’s Dream Island is an easy way to put yourself closer to the total.

Animal Crossing’s Super Mario furniture arrived as part of the 1.8.0 update, which also introduced a handful of new seasonal items to the game. Right now, you can purchase a Pi Day pie from Nook Shopping until March 14. A variety of Shamrock Day items will also be available to order later this month.

Animal Crossing’s next update is slated to arrive around March 18. The update will introduce a variety of Sanrio-themed content to the game, including furniture, clothing, and even new villagers that you can invite to live on your island. You can get the villagers and items by scanning the Animal Crossing Sanrio Amiibo cards, which will go on sale in the US at Target stores starting March 26.

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Humble Bundle Raised More Than $30 Million In 2020, Including $8.1 Million For COVID-19

The Humble Bundle video game store, which donates a portion of sales to charity, had a gigantic year in 2020. The company announced that it raised more than $30 million in 2020, supporting 224 charities in total.

Of the $30 million, Humble Bundle raised more than $8.1 million for COVID-19 campaigns that supported charities like Direct Relief, Doctors Without Borders, Partners in Health, and the International Rescue Committee, according to GI.biz.

Another major focus for 2020 was the Australian bushfire crisis, and Humble raised $2.2 million to support the firefighting efforts there.

Humble also released a Fight for Racial Injustice bundle in June 2020 following the death of George Floyd; this bundle raised $4.6 million in one week. The storefront, which is owned by IGN, also pledged $1 million to help release new games from Black developers.

Since its founding in 2010, Humble Bundle has donated more than $176 million to charity.

HTC Vive Is Getting A Facial Tracking Accessory To Let You Be More Expressive In VR

HTC has announced two new accessories for its HTC Vive VR headset, iterating on an existing add-on while introducing a new one for an entirely new way to interact in a virtual space.

The first is the third iteration of the Vive’s VR Tracker, which you can use to add tracking to additional parts of your body or bring in new items into your virtual space entirely. Previous versions were rather big and heavy, making multiple attachments to your limbs challenging. HTC says this latest version is around 33% smaller and 15% lighter, with the benefit of improved tracking, too.

The VR trackers are roughly four inches smaller than the previous iteration, released back in 2018. Despite this, HTC says that the battery will last around 75% longer, with charging now handled with a new USB-C port instead of the old microUSB one. The device is also backwards-compatible with other VR Trackers you might have, as well as the full suite of HTC Vive accessories, making it an easy replacement or addition to your current setup.

The more interesting announcement is the HTC’s new Vive Facial Tracker. The device is like a small sensor and camera array that clips onto the front of the Vive headset, allowing you to capture facial movements from your eyes down. HTC says it tracks 38 facial movements across the lips, jaw, teeth, tongue, chin and cheeks, which developers can then map onto characters for increased immersion.

It’s clear that HTC sees the potential of shared spaces in VR, with the need for more realistic and expressive avatars for VR users. Microsoft might not be working on a VR headset, but it’s addressing this need too with its new AR platform, Mesh, which is looking at ways to make objects and people persistent in multiple virtual spaces at a time.

Both the VR Tracker and Facial Tracker will retail for $129 each, with HTC teasing that they are “coming soon.”

Now Playing: HTC Vive Pro Review: Paying For The Privilege

Stay at Home Sale: Massive Discounts on Secretlab Gaming Chairs

Secretlab has a brand new sale on its premium gaming chairs to check out, with up to $100/ £100 off our absolute top choices for gaming chairs at the moment. We’ve included the links to our very favourite deals in the sale below, but make sure to check out the entire collection as there are some sweet designs up for grabs at a great price.

Not only that, but there’s completely free shipping during the promotion as well. This sale won’t last forever, however, so take full advantage while you can. It’s live right now, all the way until the end of play on March 18, 2021.

Absolute Best Deal on Gaming Chairs Right Now

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Robert Anderson is a Commerce Editor and deals expert for IGN. Send him awesome gaming screenshots @robertliam21 on Twitter.

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Call Of Duty: Mobile Patch Notes For Season 2 Day Of Reckoning Update Released

Call of Duty: Mobile changes in a big way with the launch of the game’s first major update of 2021. The Season 2: Day of Reckoning update has landed on iOS and Android, bringing with it a new Operator, Charly, along with new maps and more battle pass content.

Charly comes to Call of Duty: Mobile as a free unlock for everyone–all you have to do is log into the game and she will appear in your inventory. Activision said there are no restrictions or time limits for the new Operator.

Also of note, the Day of Reckoning update introduces two more maps that may be familiar to players. Shoot House from Call of Duty: Modern Warfare is now in the game, along with the Modern Warfare classic Shipment map that is among the smallest Call of Duty maps ever. This leads to some fast and frenetic gameplay.

The Day of Reckoning update also adds new battle pass rewards to unlock, including weapon blueprints and calling cards. Additionally, the Napalm Strike scorestreak has been added as an unlockable bonus in the battle pass.

A new mode, Gunfight: Sniper, has been added to multiplayer with the update. As its name suggests, this mode challenges players to take down enemies and capture objectives with only a sniper rifle.

The Day of Reckoning update also makes some changes to the battle royale mode of Call of Duty: Mobile. A new vehicle, the cargo truck, has been added to the mix. It has two seats for a driver and a co-pilot, while the bed of the truck can accomodate multiple soldiers standing on it. Additionally, the Tank Battle mode has been added as a “featured” mode in battle royale.

The update also makes a number of bug fixes and tuning changes. One very notable-sounding change is that ADS accuracy for all weapons in the game has been increased. Additionally, horizontal recoil control for all weapons has been increased as well.

You can see the complete patch notes below, as posted by Activision on Reddit.

Call of Duty: Mobile Season 2 Day Of Reckoning Patch Notes

New Premium Battle Pass Rewards

  • New epic Blueprints: AS VAL – Judgement, M4LMG – Checkpoint, KRM-262 – Eagle Claw and BK57 – Data Miner
  • New epic Soldiers: Mace – Back For More, Mara – Awakening, Alex and Special Ops 2 – Brute
  • New Legendary Calling Cards

New Free Battle Pass Rewards:

  • New base weapon: AS VAL. A special rifle with high fire rate as well as damage, the subsonic design creates a silencing effect. However, the price is paid with slow bullet speed with obvious bullet falling trajectory. Soldiers will need a lot of practice to master it.
  • New Scorestreak: Napalm. Scorch nearby enemies and fill the battlefield with smoke.

New Events Rewards:

New challenges and missions with new rewards:

  • New base weapon: SP-R 208, a bolt-action marksman rifle with relatively high damage and mobility. With the special attachment Bolt, the weapon will increase in accuracy and range, but also decrease chambering speed.
  • New Perk: Recon. After an enemy is killed, nearby enemies will be scanned and displayed on the mini map.

New Rank Series

  • Rank Series resets to Series 1. The new Series 1 starts from 2021.3 – 2021.5
  • New ranked mode rewards:
    • New epic Blueprint: QXR – Roaring Steel
    • New epic Soldier: Kreuger – Ruptured Steel

MULTIPLAYER

New Maps

  • Shoot House: The popular Modern Warfare map is now available in CODM! The map features a military training ground located in the middle of a desert, including the classic 3-route design. Join the fierce combat with your best maneuvers!
    • Available for Team Death Match, Domination, Hard Point, Kill Confirmed, and more!
  • Shipment – Modern: This classic map in Modern Warfare series has been renovated! The WWII style shipment port has been is now in modern style. While fighting fiercely between containers, don’t let down the guards towards threats from above.
    • Available for Team Death Match, Domination, Hard Point, Kill Confirmed, and more!

New Featured Game Modes!

  • Gunfight: Sniper
    • Eliminate or capture objectives by using only acquired sniper rifles. Kilo-Bolt Action, SKS and NA45 are also available in this mode.
    • Available on Cage, Shipment, Pine, King, and more!

Loadout New Features

  • Blueprint Overview: Players can select and change blueprints in the Loadout conveniently by clicking the OVERVIEW icon.
  • Recently Acquired Items: The Notification clearing icon (the exclamation mark with a slash) now shows all new items player recently acquired, including weapons, attachments, soldiers, camos, and others.
  • Blueprints Available: Players now can see new blueprints available in Loadout.

BATTLE ROYALE

New Featured Game Modes!

  • Tank Battle: Also Available for Ranked Mode.
    • Collect five components to assemble your tank. You can also assemble Tank via blueprint in the airdrop. Multiple soldiers can fight in tanks.
    • Components making up the tank include: Chassis, Engine, Armor, Primary Weapon, Secondary Weapon.
    • Anti-Tank weapons include: Delay Bomb, Proximity Mine, Anti-Tank Sticky Grenade,
    • Anti-Tank Sniper, Anti-Tank War Machine.
    • Tank repair tools: Welding Gun.
    • There are three types of tank blueprints.

New Vehicle

  • New Vehicle: Cargo Truck. The truck has only two seats for the driver and the co-driver, but the body can accommodate multiple soldiers who can move freely. The acceleration is lower, but has high durability and provides good protection the riders.

New Custom Airdrop Weapons

Soldiers now can equip pistols as custom airdrop weapons.

Weapon Lists Updated

  • Common: AK117 / SKS / M4LMG / GKS
  • Uncommon: AK47 / Man-O-War / M21 EBR / Chopper / RUS-74U / BY15 / KRM-262
  • Rare: AK117 / BK57 / FR .556 / HVK-30 / Peacekeeper MK2 / AS VAL / LOCUS / SP-R 208 / M4LMG / Razorback / QQ9 / QXR / KRM-262
  • Epic: Type 25 / ICR / DRH / BK57 / KN-44 / AS VAL / Man-O-War / Peacekeeper MK2 / HVK-30 / DL Q33 / SKS / Chopper / RUS-74U / GKS / QQ9
  • Legendary: M4 / Man-O-War / AS VAL / HVK-30 / SP-R 208 / M4LMG / QXR / GKS

IMPROVEMENTS & OPTIMIZATIONS

Multiplayer

  • Increased MSMC’s OWC Marksman barrel attachment horizontal recoil control.
  • Increased S36, UL736, RPD, and M4LMG’s YKM combat stock attachment ADS time reduction.
  • Decreased HBRA3’s OWC Marksman barrel attachment’s negative effects.
  • Increased DL Q33 damage to 90 and grants it higher wall-penetrating damage.
  • Increased DRH’s the No Stock attachment ADS time reduction to 12%.
  • Decreased DRH’s No Stock attachment hit flinch to 15%.
  • Slightly decreased ICR’s No Stock attachment and YKM Combat Stock attachment accuracy.
  • Slightly increased ASM10’s No Stock attachment hit flinch.
  • Decreased Arctic .50’s wall-penetrating damage and MIP Stopping Power Reload attachment’s damage ratio to legs. Now a wall-penetrating leg shot will not be lethal.
  • The capacity of blocking fire bullet for Arctic.50 is decreased from 20 to 15 and its maximum capacity is decreased from 40 to 30, ADS time increased from 12% to 25%,and shot interval from 40% to 50%.
  • Decreased the explosion range of War Machine.
  • Decreased the damage reduction of War Machine operator.
  • Decreased Gravity Spike damage range.
  • Slightly decreased the damage of Annihilator dealt to: Stealth Chopper, XS1 Goliath, VTOL, Shield Turret and Transform shield.
  • Solders equipped with Dead Silence Perk no longer hear the footstep of themselves, and the audible range of running has been decreased.
  • Players now can jump while moving alongside a wall.
  • Optimized the speed adjustment when moving alongside a wall/obstacle,
  • Optimized the server tick rate.
  • Optimized player’s hit box when switching among standing, crouching and prostrating.
  • Increased characters’ FPS. Enemy’s movements and actions are more precise and smooth.
  • Optimized sound effects based on different scenes so that players can locate their enemies more accurately.
  • Fixed an issue that players might get stuck in window frames when climbing through.
  • Fixed an issue that Soldiers will be stuck for a while after crossing the shortcut of LAUNDRY SIDEWALK in Raid.
  • Fixed an issue that some wrong collisions in the scene in Takeoff.
  • Fixed an issue that some wrong collisions in the scene in Tunisia.

Battle Royale

  • Increased ADS accuracy for all weapons.
  • Increased horizontal recoil control for all weapons.
  • Popular weapons such as AK47 and AK117 have much lower control increasing than other weapons.
  • The locking time for FHJ18 is changed to 1 second.
  • The launching speed of projectiles from FHJ18 is decreased to 110m/s and accelerates to its maximum speed.
  • Significantly increased SMG and SHOTGUN hip-fire accuracy.
  • Significantly increased SNIPER rifle recoil control.
  • Increased Tempest’s damage and damaging radius.
  • Increased Annihilator range. It now can eliminates enemy in all range with 2 shots
  • Increased projectile distance of all lethal and tactical weapons.
  • Cluster Grenade now has an alarm when it sticks to an object, and directions of small grenades will be shown on the screen.
  • Discarded guns no longer show amount of remaining ammo.
  • Optimized wing suit landing action.
  • Optimized the server tick rate.
  • Optimized player’s hit box when switching among standing, crouching and prostrating..
  • Increased characters’ FPS. Enemy’s movements and actions are more precise and smooth.
  • Optimized sound effects based on different scenes so that players can locate their enemies more accurately.

Game Mode Optimization

Going Dark

  • Battery limitation feature has been added to night vision devices, with an exception for the undeads in Attack of the Night.
  • EMP can temporarily paralyze night vision devices.
  • Scorestreak items and trip mines show team color even when night vision device is on.
  • Fixed the issue that visual effects of weapon blueprints and firing effects were overexposed when night vision device is on.
  • Fixed the issue that the touch screen of controlling Scorestreaks is blurred when night vision device is on.
  • Optimized the lighting of related maps.

Hardpoint HQ

  • New scoring rule added to Hard Point: continuous capturing. Soldiers continuously capturing the Hard Point will earn extra scores.
  • Fixed the issue that soldier revives too far from the objective.

Prop Hunt

  • New maps available: Tunisia.

Ranked Mode

Multiplayer

  • Optimized the algorithm of evaluating players’ strengths and abilities in every rank, especially legendary players. Legendary players around 6500 scores won’t match up with high score legendary players frequently.
  • Optimized the UI of ranking lobby.

Rattle Royale

  • Optimized rank point calculating algorithm. Players get more rank points in the new season in total.

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Assassin’s Creed Valhalla Hits $28 On Amazon, Its Lowest Price Yet

Assassin’s Creed Valhalla has fallen steadily in price since it launched alongside the PS5 and Xbox Series X|S last November. Now, it’s finally fallen below the $30 mark at Amazon, which has Valhalla on sale for just $28 today. This is a pretty awesome deal on one of the best games currently available for PS5 and Xbox Series X, and for PS5 owners, you can even pick up the PS5-specific physical copy at that price. As usual with Amazon, there’s no telling how long this deal will be available, and it’s possible some versions will sell out soon.

Assassin’s Creed Valhalla is set in the ninth century and follows a Viking leader named Eivor, who leads their clan to England after being driven out of Norway. It received an 8/10 in GameSpot’s Assassin’s Creed Valhalla review. “Despite its strong connection to past games, Assassin’s Creed Valhalla is more than capable of standing on its own,” wrote editor Jordan Ramée.

“It takes a little while to build momentum, but when it hits its stride, Valhalla is a confident Assassin’s Creed title that takes a few narrative risks which, as a whole, pay off. Eivor is a good hero with an identity that drives the mystery behind the main narrative, and she shines in the self-contained arc structure of Valhalla’s story. The supporting cast may not shine as brightly, but it’s easy to forgive that when exploring England and discovering new nuggets of worldbuilding is so rewarding.”

Check out more of the best deals today, including a bunch of discounts on Switch games for Mario Day. Plus, see our guide to the best games to play on PS5 right now.

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Animal Crossing Build-a-Bears Are Moving In

Have you ever wished you could cuddle a big stuffed animal of Tom Nook, and then dress him up in a bunch of cute little outfits? Build-a-Bear may be about to make that a reality.

In a tweet today, Build-a-Bear announced it had partnered with Nintendo for an Animal Crossing collection:

Unfortunately, there are no further details at the moment as to which Animal Crossing characters will be turned into cute stuffed animals. Based on past promotions, it seems very possible we get at least one or two bears based on or inspired by main characters from the game such as Tom Nook or Isabelle, as well as a handful of outfits that can be worn by any bear. It’s also possible that, like other collections, this is one that grows over time to include more and more characters.

Build-a-Bear has previously released numerous collections based on popular entertainment properties including Super Mario, Doctor Who, Pokémon, Frozen, How to Train Your Dragon, Batman, Wonder Woman, The Mandalorian, and Sonic the Hedgehog.

Meanwhile, Animal Crossing has seen plenty of interesting crossovers lately, including a partnership with ColourPop for a make-up line and an upcoming crossover with Sanrio to add six new villagers based on Sanrio characters, as well as a ton of new furniture items, to the game.

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Rebekah Valentine is a news reporter for IGN. You can find her on Twitter @duckvalentine.