Like Call of Duty: Warzone, Activision’s Call of Duty Mobile is getting in the spooky spirit with its own Halloween events. The game’s Halloween events are available right now, and they seem pretty great.
First off, a new game mode called “Pumpkin Confirmed” is available. This is the standard Kill Confirmed mode, but the twist is that players must collect jack-o-lanterns instead of dog tags. An eerie new map variant, Halloween Standoff, has also been added to the mix for the event.
Finally, zombies are coming to the battle royale mode on October 30 to mix up the gameplay in a scary way. You can check out a teaser for the Halloween events below.
Call of Duty Mobile has reached more than 300 million downloads since launch in October 2019. On Android alone, the game reached 850 million hours of playtime during a “peak month” globally.
The most popular gun in the game is the AK-47, and it’s been used 11.4 billion times across all modes. Another notable number for the first year is 23, which is the number of multiplayer maps in the game currently, which is up from 11 at launch. There are also now 182 playable characters in Call of Duty Mobile, including Russell Adler from Black Ops Cold War.
Here are some other first-year stats from Call of Duty: Mobile.
Top 3 Primary Weapons Used In All Modes:
AK-47 assault rifle – used 11.4 billion times
RUS-79U SMG – used 11.1 billion times
DL Q33 sniper rifle – used 9 billion times
Top 3 Scorestreaks Used (non-default):
Predator Missile – used 2 billion times
Sentry Gun – used 1.5 billion times
Shock RC – used 1.3 billion times
Top 3 Battle Royale Classes Used:
Mechanic – used 1.4 billion times
Scout – used 1 billion times
Media – used 936 million times
Top 3 Primary Weapons Used In Ranked MP Mode:
PDW 57 SMG – used 958 million times
RUS-79U SMG – used 834 million times
DL Q33 sniper rifle – used 793 million times
Top 3 Operator Skills Used (non-default):
Sparrow – used 4.7 billion times
Gravity Spikes – used 4.3 billion times
H.I.V.E. – used 3.4 billion times
Click To Unmute
Size:
Want us to remember this setting for all your devices?
One More Level and Slipgate Ironworks’ fast-paced, cyberpunk first-person parkour slasher Ghostrunner is out now on PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One. With the game’s one-hit-kill mechanic, those interested in Ghostrunner may be curious about what some reviewers are saying about the dystopian adventure. Read on to find out what critics think of Ghostrunner.
Most reviews land on the same consensus: Ghostrunner is a thrill to play. The game’s fast-paced mechanics, mixed with the breakneck pace of combat and platforming, make Ghostrunner an edge-of-your-seat experience with a relatively brisk six-hour campaign. It’s also a game critics say speedrunners will enjoy–and not just because “runner” is in its name.
In our own Ghostrunner review, we scored it a 7/10. Critic Mike Epstein called the game “exhilarating,” saying Ghostrunner is a “high-risk, high-reward” experience. We’ve compiled reviews down below to give you a glimpse of what critics think. And head over to GameSpot sister site Metacritic for more reviews of Ghostrunner on PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One.
Game: Ghostrunner
Platforms: PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One
Developer: One More Level, Slipgate Ironworks
Release date: October 27
Price: $30 / £23 / $42 AUD
Ghostrunner is also available on the Epic Games, PlayStation, and Steam stores. On Steam, Ghostrunner is 20% off (down to $24) until November 3. The same discount is offered on the Epic Games Store until November 5.
GameSpot – 7/10
“When Ghostrunner rips, it really rips. Wall-running, jumping, sliding, and cutting through enemies as you go is empowering and impressive. For a good portion of the game, you’ll only experience how impressive it feels to dart around a room in short bursts, but even that’s enough motivation to keep you pushing forward to master the art of robot ninja parkour. There’s bound to be a lot of frustration along the way, so it isn’t all smiles, exactly, but the rush you feel in the moment as you perfectly run a room is worth the grit.” — Mike Epstein [Full Review]
Eurogamer – Recommended
“It’s optimisation like this that speaks to how impressive Ghostrunner is as a production overall. I wondered how it would sustain itself over several hours but it does–over a dozen, if you’re asking. It trickles in new enemies, sprinkles in a few boss encounters (bear with them–they’re mostly agility puzzles), and gives you a few new toys to play with along the way (some of the temporary power-ups are wonderful). And all the while it tells you a story of revenge and revolution in your ears, which I haven’t mentioned before because it’s only ever a backdrop to the game. But it’s nice enough to listen to and it never slows you down, and it helps ground the game in a time and place. You get a sense of a wider cyberpunk world out there, beyond the massive tower you’re climbing.
All that’s left for me now is to go back and replay the individual levels, collecting the things I missed, and beating my time to completion and amount of deaths along the way. And I’ll do it, not because I’m fussy about that kind of thing, but because, simply, Ghostrunner is a joy to play.” — Robert Purchese [Full Review]
IGN – 8/10
“With its breakneck pace and skill-heavy gameplay, Ghostrunner is a speedrunner’s dream. But even beyond that demographic, this is a great first-person action game that feels punishing but fair. You may die hundreds of times, but instantaneous respawns and generous checkpointing ensure that Ghostrunner’s challenging combat and platforming never become a chore. More than all of that though, Ghostrunner is jam-packed with a great variety of enemies, mechanics, and special powers that constantly changed up how I approached its many unique encounters. That meant it always felt fresh, and by the end of its six to eight-hour campaign, I was all too eager to jump back in for seconds.” — Michael Saltzman [Full Review]
PCGamesN – 8/10
“Ghostrunner never lets you settle. Its main story is a breathless, adrenaline-fuelled race to the top of the tower. There are collectibles to hunt down and endless appeal for speedrunners who want to master every level like a racing circuit, but Ghostrunner left me spent and totally satisfied–six hours of slicing through nondescript cyberpunk goons to nosebleed techno will do that to you. Ghostrunner’s smart level design and rich array of enemies are a joy to blitz through, but it’s all underpinned by some of the slickest parkour mechanics of any game. Ever.” — Jordan Forward [Full Reviw]
Polygon – Recommends
“There’s something extra special about hurtling through space from one wall or platform to the next in first person. Compared to a 2D platformer, the motion seems faster, the timing is tighter, and the penalty of missing a jump–that feeling of the ground rushing toward you as you fall–is way more intense. Ghostrunner is a perfect example of what happens when a developer works within the limitations of an underappreciated genre and pulls the absolute best from it.” — Austen Goslin [Full Review]
Rock Paper Shotgun – Unscored
“As a simple one-and-done campaign run Ghostrunner isn’t at its best: the handiest tricks coming too late in the day and the towering death spikes overshadowing the good times around them. I couldn’t, for example, tell you anything of the story, as it’s delivered over comms during moments of intense concentration. I think it involves someone called Mara, but only because that’s the name on one of the boss fight health bars.
But take that initial pass as a warm-up lap, inuring yourself to some frustrations to come, and what follows finally delivers on the fun of the cyber ninja fantasy. Death number 1424 beckons.” — Matthew Castle [Full Review]
The products discussed here were independently chosen by our editors. GameSpot may get a share of the revenue if you buy anything featured on our site.
Click To Unmute
Size:
Want us to remember this setting for all your devices?
Setting the tone for how 2020 was destined to go, CDPR announced its first (real) Cyberpunk delay in January. This is still the biggest of its delays, pushing the game from a spring release to the fall. The new date was set for September 17, where surely it would remain.
In a statement explaining the move, the studio chalked up the delay to the massive scale of the game and its vision:
“We are currently at a state where the game is complete and playable, but there’s still work to be done. Night City is massive–full of stories, content, and places to visit, but due to the sheer scale and complexity of it all, we need more time to finish playtesting, fixing, and polishing. We want Cyberpunk 2077 to be our crowning achievement for this generation and postponing launch will give the precious months we need to make the game perfect.”
This is not looking cool, Joker. The beloved Persona series has received many spinoffs over the years, from fighting games to dance-offs, and many fans expressed excitement for the musou-style follow-up Persona 5 Scramble. However, there’s a new wrinkle: Publisher Koei Tecmo released its new financial results recently, and a Western localization of Scramble isn’t mentioned at all.
A previous financial report from Koei Tecmo mentioned a Persona 5 Scramble back in July. However, as spotted by Siliconera, that report has now been replaced with a revised version that removes any mention of such a release. This latest financial information indicates that the company is focusing on its other major musou spin-off, Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity, which will receive a simultaneous worldwide release on November 20.
It’s unclear if this means that Persona 5 Scramble’s Western release will be delayed or outright cancelled. Considering the outsized popularity of Persona 5, it would seem hard to believe that the game won’t make its way to North America and Europe, but stranger things have happened. (I guess you could say we never saw it coming.) Scramble may come out under the title Persona 5 Strikers in English-speaking territories, based on a Sega trademark filing. The game is expected to come to Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4.
Click To Unmute
Size:
Want us to remember this setting for all your devices?
Netflix has announced that it plans to produce more anime content after noting an exceptional uptake in anime streaming on the platform.
Variety reports that Netflix’s investment in anime has been going well in terms of viewership, with its mainstream popularity bringing new audiences to the medium in bigger numbers than ever before. According to new statistics, over 100 million households globally watched at least one anime title on the platform between October of last year and September of this year, which is a noted increase of more than 50% on the previous year’s figures.
With anime titles appearing in top ten lists in almost 100 countries so far this year, the streaming giant has revealed its intentions to expand its anime content by recently signing new production deals with Anima & Company, Science SARU, and MAPPA from Japan, together with Studio Mir in Korea. On the back of these new partnerships, Netflix has announced five new original anime projects to join the 11 other projects that are already in various stages of development.
The latest wave of anime projects includes Rilakkuma’s Theme Park Adventure, a stop motion series directed by Kobayashi Masahito; Thermae Romae Novae, a new adaptation of the popular manga by Yamazaki Mari; High-Rise Invasion, a survival story based on the manga by Miura Tsuina and Takahiro Oba; Thus Spoke Kishibe Rohan, a four-episode series based on a story by Hirohiko Araki; and The Way of the Househusband, a new series spun from the award-winning manga by Kousuke Oono.
Netflix has been investing in original anime programming since 2017, allocating significant portions of their content budget to work with high-profile studios like Production I.G in a bid to “be the most compelling and attractive home for anime fans, creators and production studios.” In 2020, it has pushed this commitment further by partnering with even more influential creators to produce new shows under the Netflix Originals banner.
With dozens of new shows each season and a robust back catalogue that’s yet to be fully explored, anime has quickly become one of the streaming market’s most popular content categories. For more on the ever-changing streaming landscape, read all about why we think anime is the next streaming frontier and what this could mean for the future of these services. Also, be sure to check out our picks for the five best new anime of 2020 so far.
[poilib element=”accentDivider”]
Adele Ankers is a Freelance Entertainment Journalist. You can reach her on Twitter.
Sony Interactive Entertainment CEO Jim Ryan says PlayStation 5 demand appears to be “very considerable” based on the number of pre-orders in the United States.
Ryan spoke to Reuters about the consumer demand for the PS5 on October 27 and said: “The demand as expressed by the level of pre-order has been very, very considerable.” Ryan said that Sony pre-sold as many PS5s in the first 12 hours of preorders in the United States as were sold in the first 12 weeks of preorders for the PlayStation 4.
While Ryan wouldn’t talk any specific numbers as it relates to PS5 preorders, one can infer that the number must be quite high. Exact PS4 preorder numbers aren’t known but we know it surpassed 1 million pre-orders worldwide by July 2013, which is four months before the console’s launch, and over 1 million PS4s were sold within the console’s first 24 hours after launch. If the PS5’s pre-order numbers in the first 12 hours match the first 12 weeks of PS4 pre-orders, we wouldn’t be surprised if the PS5 pre-order number is nearing or past 1 million in the US.
Ryan said that it may end up that not everybody who wants to purchase a PS5 on launch day will be able to actually find one to purchase. There will be, however, more PS5s at launch than there were PS4s at launch, according to Sony. He said Sony is “working as hard as we ever can” to get PS5s on store shelves for holiday shopping near the end of the year.
The SIE CEO also told Reuters that it will continue to grow its staple of first-party studios organically and that Sony will add to its lineup “where we can bolster our in-house capability with selective M&A (merging and acquisition) that might be possible.”
Xbox is doing great heading into the launch of the Xbox Series X and S consoles in November. Microsoft announced its earnings for the July-September period, and Xbox was a bright spot.
Gaming revenue rose year-over-year by $550 million, or 22 percent, due in part to increased spending on games and services. The content and services department of Xbox specifically saw its revenue rise by 30 percent, which works out to a whopping $649 million increase.
This growth was driven in part by third-party games, Microsoft said, though it did not mention any by name. As a platform-holder, Microsoft gets a 30% cut of every game sold on Xbox, and with games overall flourishing right now during COVID-19, Microsoft is making big profits. The growth was also fueled by an increase in Xbox Game Pass subscriptions, along with first-party game sales.
It wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows, however, as Xbox hardware sales dropped by 27 percent due to fewer systems being sold. That makes sense given that the Xbox One is many years into its lifecycle and the Xbox Series X and S consoles are right around the corner, so people may be holding off on purchasing a new Xbox right now.
Xbox is just one division of Microsoft, of course. Overall, Microsoft is crushing it right now, with the company posting revenue of $37.2 billion (+12 percent) for the period and a profit of $13.9 billion (+30 percent).
The Xbox Series X and S consoles will launch on November 10, priced at $500 and $300 respectively.
For its part, Sony will also report its latest quarterly earnings this week, so it won’t be long until we find out more about how PlayStation is faring in the lead-up to the PS5 launch in November.
The MCU got it all wrong: Black Widow is the source of the Hulk’s gamma-induced transformation, not anger. (This is a joke.)
While that might not be true in comics or on the silver screen, that’s the case in space where scientists recently discovered the culprit behind mysterious gamma radiation in the Milky Way to be that of a Black Widow star, as reported by Science Alert. This source of radiation has been tracked since as far back as 1999, but scientists who determined the gamma rays were coming from a binary system that simply could not find the second star in the equation. The answer has now been found and it turns out the binary system is a Black Widow system, as reported by Science Alert and according to a scientific journal published on October 22.
“In binary systems like the one we have now discovered, pulsars are known as ‘black widows’ because, like spiders of the same name, they eat their partners, so to speak,” Colin Clark, astronomer at Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics at the University of Manchester said.
While the black widow answer might sound simple, it was anything but and that’s due to how difficult it was to actually detect the black widow star. Scientists searched through gamma radiation data from the years 2008 to 2018 and used that data to pin down the location of the black widow star.
“The binary star system and the neutron star at its heart, now known as PSR J1653-0158, set new records,” Lars Nieder, Albert Einstein Institute Hannover astronomer said. “We have discovered the galactic dance of a super heavyweight with a flyweight: At slightly more than twice the mass of our Sun, the neutron star is extraordinarily heavy. Its companion has about six times the density of lead, but only about 1 percent the mass of our Sun.”
Knowing how small the black widow star was compared to its larger companion star in the binary system, it’s easy to see the difficulty in finding this unique black widow star. Scientists said this heavyweight-flyweight duo orbited every 75 minutes, which is faster than all other known similar binary systems. Scientists believed that the system they were looking for would have been produced by a gamma-ray pulsar and things heated up when in 2014, x-rays and other observations of the gamma radiation source led to an answer: a variable star with a 75-minute period.
So scientists had discovered the smaller companion star but they couldn’t find the larger neutron star at this point. The neutron star was thought to have been a pulsar star, which is a rapidly-rotating neutron star that beams radiation to and fro from its poles as it spins. From an observer’s point of view, those beams, which are rotating due to the star’s rotation, would appear like that of the spinning light found at the top of a lighthouse.
Scientists looked into decades of gamma radiation collected by the Large Area Telescope of NASA’s Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope. Two weeks of research led to the discovery of the pulsar star they were looking to find. This pulsar rotates extremely fast, more than 500 times a second. In fact, this polar is one of the fastest rotating pulsars ever seen. It’s also in the bottom three for weakest magnetic fields ever detected in a pulsar star.
Scientists believe this pulsar star cannibalized its smaller, black widow, companion star that we mentioned earlier, leaving behind a remnant of what is thought to be a helium white dwarf star.
“The remnant of a dwarf star orbits the pulsar at just 1.3 times the Earth-Moon distance in only 75 minutes at a speed of more than 700 kilometers per second,” Nieder said. “This unusual duo might have originated from an extremely close binary system, in which matter originally flowed from the companion star onto the neutron star, increasing its mass and causing it to rotate faster and faster while simultaneously dampening its magnetic field.”
Basically, the smaller Black Widow star’s matter continuously flowed to the larger neutron star while the two rotated through space together and the neutron star’s mass grew as a result. Over time, the system became what it is today: a giant neutron star with a mass twice as large as our Sun’s and a much smaller, Black Widow star that’s about 1% the mass of our Sun.
