Valheim’s Wholesome Community Establishes Body Recovery Squad To Retrieve Lost Items

Valheim players are combating the frustration of losing everything after death by establishing and dispatching a Body Recovery Squad that ventures out to retrieve all lost items.

The Body Recovery Squad was recently set up through a dedicated Discord server. Their goal is for community members (or operators) to aid players in recollecting everything they lost after dying. This is done by players joining the server, entering a channel called #assistance-application, and pressing the “SOS” button. Once the message has been received, an operator will get in touch with that player in question to organize and execute the item recovery effort.

There are no stipulations for the assistance and it doesn’t matter where a player’s tombstone is located. The Body Recovery Squad, once mobilized, will complete the mission at all costs. Players aren’t required to compensate the Body Recovery Squad; the group does it all for free.

The Body Recovery Squad founder Lucas (aka Rim Jaynor) detailed the rationale behind the group in a brief interview with Eurogamer. After nearly encountering a similar fate–losing everything when battling a deathsquito–but being lucky enough to have “a portal close by,” Lucas thought of the other players who might not escape death and are forced to start over. This thought caused him to establish the Body Recovery Squad as a way to help other players.

“That singular moment, losing everything, can be so detrimental to players and has caused some to quit playing the game entirely,” Lucas said. “I thought to myself, what if it didn’t have to be that way? What if there was a lifeline out there that helped players keep going?”

The Body Recovery Squad currently has 15 operators willing to assist players less fortunate. That number is likely to grow, as Lucas said he received over 50 new operator applications last week. Through the Body Recovery Squad, Lucas is hoping to “foster a great community.”

“We aren’t doing this to make money, we aren’t doing this because we want some reward–we are doing this to help foster a great community,” Lucas said. “It has been such a pleasure so far being able to help other players and give them a lifeline when they get into trouble.”

Any Valheim player can sign up to become an operator through a Google form, though the Body Recovery Squad currently is no longer accepting applications at this time.

GameSpot may get a commission from retail offers.

Call Of Duty: Warzone Celebrates First Birthday By Letting You See Your Kills, Wins, And More

Call of Duty: Warzone was released one year ago this week, and to celebrate, Activision created a new stat-tracking tool that lets you see your stats over the first year.

You can get your own “Warzone Report” by replying to the Call of Duty Twitter account with your gamertag/handle and the hashtag #WarzoneReport. Do that and it will spit out a personalized breakdown of your kills, deaths, kill/death ratio, hours played, games played, and wins over the past year. All of this information is already available in the game itself, but the Twitter system provides a graphic that shows all of the key information in one place that you can share.

Also be aware that your results will be posted publicly, in case that matters to you.

Activision also released a celebratory blog post that runs down the key moments and events from Warzone’s first year. There is an interesting line at the end about Warzone’s latest update that brought Zombies to the Vodianoy ship off the coast of the island.

The blog post said:

“It seems that after a year of smooth sailing, Warzone may have to prepare for a threat never before seen in Verdansk, and any Operators who wish to survive might need to save the celebration for another time and get back in the fight before it’s too late.”

Also in the blog post, Activision said it is eager to share more details on what’s to come in the future. However, the company said, “It’ll be better for you to experience it for yourself.”

This sounds like it could be a tease for the rumored nuke event in Warzone that is reported to destroy the map before it gets re-launched with a Black Ops theme. This is supposed to happen in March or April, so hopefully we learn more soon.

Now Playing: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare – Official Season Two Gameplay Trailer

GameSpot may get a commission from retail offers.

American Horror Story Season 10: First Look At Macaulay Culkin Revealed

American Horror Story series creator Ryan Murphy has unveiled a first look at new cast member Macaulay Culkin on Instagram alongside fellow actor Leslie Grossman for the upcoming tenth season of the FX horror anthology series.

Murphy captioned “something wicked this way comes.” This will be Culkin’s AHS debut, and details about his character are being kept strictly underwraps, but knowing AHS, it’s likely to be equal parts gruesome and bizarre. Take a look at the photo below.

Other confirmed cast members for Season 10 are returning AHS favorites like Sarah Paulson, Evan Peters, Kathy Bates, and Billie Lourd. Production initially saw delays thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic but resumed in October of 2020. An official release date has yet to be set, but if it follows the traditional AHS pattern of a fall debut, we can likely expect to see it hit FX in September or October.

The subtitle for Season 10 has yet to be announced and details have been kept top secret. But for AHS fans who want to spin up some theories, it looks like both Culkin and Grossman are dressed to the nines in glamorous furs on what looks like a beach. Murphy’s tagged location is Provincetown, Massachusetts. Murphy has also posted other clues on social media including a set of needle-sharp teeth and a poster with the AHS10 logo tattooed onto a tongue. Use this information as you will.

Image credit: Getty Images/Steve Granitz/Contributor

Batman: Arkham Knight Enhancements Potentially Teased For Xbox Series X

Microsoft might be teasing an upcoming enhancement for Rocksteady’s Batman: Arkham Knight based on an image in the latest Xbox Wire post.

The post, which relates to a new feature allowing you to see which games support your chosen language, feature a screenshot of the Xbox Series X dashboard with a handful of games on it. One of the tiles is for Batman: Arkham Knight, and features a logo for Xbox Games Pass and another indicating it has been enhanced for Xbox Series X|S.

Batman: Arkham Knight is on Games Pass, and none of the other games featured in the screenshot have been incorrectly labelled either. This suggests that Microsoft, accidentally or not, has leaked a potential upgrade releasing in the near future.

No Caption Provided

Batman: Arkham Knight hasn’t received any enhancements for both Xbox One X and the PS4 Pro, so even with the Xbox Series X you’re still stuck playing at its native 900p resolution. An upgrade to that would be a nice treat for those wanting to play the game on a 4K display, or perhaps with a framerate beyond its current 30 fps.

Rocksteady is currently working on Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League, its first game since the launch of Batman: Arkham Knight in 2015. It is expected to launch sometime in 2022. Gotham Knights, a new take on the Batman universe, is currently in development at WB Games Montreal and is expected to release later this year.

Now Playing: Gotham Knights – Official Reveal Trailer

GameSpot may get a commission from retail offers.

Check Out Mortal Kombat’s Striking New Poster Here

The upcoming Mortal Kombat movie has just released a new poster showing off Kabal, Mileena, Shang Tsung, Sub-Zero, Scorpion, Jax Briggs, Sonya, and Cole Young–a character created for the film who so far seems to be the movie’s lead. The film, which is due both in theaters and HBO Max on April 16, is based on the video game franchise of the same name and is intended to serve as a bit of a reset and reboot of previous movie adaptation entries, and the poster helps convey the decidedly not-cheesy tone it’s shooting for. Check it out below.

The film recently got its first red band trailer, which is only appropriate for a franchise that is pretty much synonymous with tastefully gratuitous blood and guts. Even if you’ve already seen the trailer and the poster doesn’t come as a huge surprise, you should absolutely check out our breakdown of the footage, which is loaded with Easter eggs–and watch our comparison between the trailer and the original 1995 Mortal Kombat movie. The trailer, and this new poster, confirm the presence of many familiar and popular fighters, but as our digging shows, other characters have already been subtly confirmed or signposted.

Mortal Kombat is directed by Simon McQuoid and produced by Aquaman director James Wan. It was previously set to be released in January, but was moved back to April. As with all other Warner movies this year, it will be released in theaters and made available to HBO Max subscribers on the same day. Subsequently, it will then stay on HBO Max for one month before then being available on other on-demand streaming services.

This is the third Mortal Kombat movie, so far. The first was released in 1995 and was directed by Paul W.S. Anderson, who would go on to make the Resident Evil series and also direct the recent Monster Hunter movie.

Roblox CEO Just Got $3 Billion Richer

Roblox Corp. CEO David Baszucki’s own net worth is projected to rise by $3 billion on Wednesday thanks to his company going public. Yahoo Finance estimates that Baszucki made $3 billion thanks to the direct listing, which is in addition to the “hundreds of millions” he might have made by selling Roblox Corp. shares to third-parties in the lead-up to the direct listing this week.

Baszucki put about half of his 12% stake in Roblox in the Baszucki Family Office in California, which he registered in 2020.

The executive could get even richer, as Baszucki will get 11.5 million more Roblox shares if the company is able to reach long-term share price targets. A filing also mentions that Baszucki will not draw a salary or receive any equity-based compensation as Roblox’s CEO until 2027. It’s also stated that the executive will make charitable donations from his windfall.

Roblox Corp. as a company is expecting to continue to grow in the future, but the company–like many others–is expected to have a more challenging year to come. That’s because gaming saw massive spikes during the height of the pandemic as people stayed home and played more games and spent more money on them. With the vaccine becoming more widely available and case numbers dropping, companies that benefitted from the pandemic may begin to see their results fall back to down Earth.

In fact, Roblox CFO Michael Guthrie acknowledged that the company expects its rate of growth to be “well below” the numbers for 2020 as restrictions ease.

Roblox, which is trading as RBLX, started at $45 and is up by more than 12% at press time to around $72.

GameSpot may get a commission from retail offers.

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.

No Caption Provided

Gallery

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.

GameSpot may get a commission from retail offers.

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