World of Warcraft has historically charged players to change their avatar’s gender, but that is set to change with the new expansion. Right now, it costs $15 to change your character’s gender, but Shadowlands will remove this charge entirely.
In an interview with Eurogamer, executive producer John Hight has talked about this mechanic, and promised that in the future you will be able to change your gender along with your appearance at the barber shop. “As we were adding things up in Shadowlands, we realised, ‘Gosh the only way you can change your gender in World of Warcraft is to go through this paid service,'” he says. “And we felt like that’s not the right message.”
This change will not arrive until the next expansion does, as it’s difficult to implement. “That’s not something we can easily hotfix – unfortunately we can’t do that right now,” Hight explains.
It’s not clear if this feature will be added for all players, including those who don’t buy the expansion, with the Shadowlands update–but hopefully this will be the case.
This answer came from a question Eurogamer posed about Pelagos, a character discussed in a July 2 Blizzard forums post who many believe is Blizzard’s first transgender character. According to Hight, it’s likely that other characters designed in-house at Blizzard are trans, even if it is not explicitly stated in-game: “knowing some of our designers and having conversations with them, I’m sure that was the intent.”
Here are some more insights from GameSpot’s own interviews with World of Warcraft game director Ion Hazzikostas.
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Nintendo has announced a new livestream for tomorrow, July 10. While it’s not a new Nintendo Direct, the company will show off a couple of titles as part of its Nintendo Treehouse Live broadcast, which is scheduled to begin at 10 AM PT / 1 PM ET.
Specifically, Nintendo says it will broadcast gameplay of the upcoming Paper Mario: The Origami King, which is set to release for Switch next week. On top of that, the company will reveal at least one new title from developer WayForward, the studio behind the Shantae series and other beloved 2D adventure games.
What’s most curious about the game reveal is the wording Nintendo used to describe it. The company says the game will be “in a franchise new to developer WayForward,” which seems to suggest that whatever the studio is developing is part of an already-established IP that it hasn’t worked with before. What that could be remains to be seen, however, and Nintendo hasn’t shared any other details beyond that.
The Nintendo Treehouse Live broadcast will be streamed on the company’s website, YouTube, and Twitch channels. You can also tune in right here tomorrow and watch the stream via the video embed below.
The Big Show has had a long career in wrestling, debuting back in 1995 with WCW, and the larger-than-life athlete had many landmark moments throughout his career. From being a member of the New World Order to his numerous championship reigns in WWE, the Big Show is quite the big deal. While his in-ring career has slowed down a bit, Show has been on a roll starring on the new Netflix series The Big Show Show, in which he plays a fictional version of himself that’s retired from professional wrestling.
The move from the ring to the screen in a scripted series is something Show has wanted to do for years. He told us that being on Saturday Night Live with The Rock, Mick Foley, Triple H, and Vince McMahon–to promote Wrestlemania 2000–was something he really enjoyed. “And I started driving Vince nuts back then about it,” said Show. “I wanted him to know that I could [be on a TV show]. This is something within my wheelhouse; this is in my gut. I can do this. And I think I drove him nuts for probably 14, 15 years.
“And when the partnership came up, Netflix had this idea of a retired WWE superstar, readjusting to being home all the time. And they wanted to do a comedy show. So when they partnered up with WWE, I had aggravated everybody so much, that I think WWE was just happy to give me this opportunity, to shut me up, I think.”
However, the reality of filming The Big Show Show was much different than he was originally told. “It’s been an incredible experience. I’m really good friends with Kadeem Hardison (A Different World, K.C. Undercover). And when I’d asked Kadeem about it, he was like, ‘Oh man, it’s so great. You go in about 10:00, and you learn your scripts. There’ll be a couple of walkthroughs. You’re out by two. If it’s on shoot days, you’re out in two hours.
“Well, he lied. He lied right to my face because it was nine in the morning until eight o’clock at night, every day, and Friday is usually 10 until midnight. But that being said, I don’t think I’ve ever had any jobs where I’ve had more fun and more pressure because this is really outside of my learning curve, like I had to really step up my learning curve a lot, and I didn’t have time for mistakes.”
The Big Show and his championship title on the Netflix series
Given the setup for the show, it’s only natural that there was going to be some WWE memorabilia around the house that documents his career, of course. One of those items that’s seen a few times in the first season is a WWE Championship title, next to the staircase. And Show wanted it to be authentic. “That actually was one of my belts at home,” the WWE superstar told GameSpot. “So when we were originally doing that they had gotten a replica belt offline. I said, ‘What the hell is this?’ Our fans will know the difference. Absolutely not. And then I had that one FedEx’d out and that one’s 30, almost 32 pounds.”
Show is used to having a championship coming with him on the road. During his time in WWE, he’s been WWE Champion twice, ECW World Champion, World Heavyweight Champion twice, Hardcore Champion three times, and Tag champ a total of eight times, just to name a few. However, many people get very excited to see a championship in person. “Everybody was freaking out that day,” Show said. “And trust me, you carry this thing in your bag, all over the world, and every X-ray machine you go through. If you could see it in the X-ray machine, everybody has to pull it out and hold it up.”
When it comes to his house, Show may have a lot of wrestling memorabilia, but only a few things are on display. “The only [Championship] I have up, which I have one from competing against Brock Lesnar in Madison Square Garden. When I beat Brock in the garden when Paul Heyman did this big turn. Paul Heyman put that into a nice trophy case, took a picture. And that’s the only one I have up. I have two things, wrestling memorabilia-wise, hanging up. I have that title hanging up, and I have a picture of myself, John Cena, Undertaker, and Shawn Michaels. That I have on my desk.”
Show isn’t ready to put out the rest of the things he’s collected throughout the years though. “I don’t want to put all that stuff up because I think you put that stuff up when you’re ready to sit down and bask in it,” he explained. “So right now I’m ready for what’s today. What’s tomorrow. I’m still moving forward and still accomplishing goals. So, who knows? I may never put that stuff up in my lifetime, and they go to a very small Big Show museum someday. That would be the irony of it. The world’s smallest museum for the world’s largest athlete.”
You can check out The Big Show Show on Netflix, as Season 1 debuted earlier this year. At the time of this writing, it has not been picked up for a second season, but the show’s star remains optimistic.
Team Rocket balloons have begun appearing in Pokemon Go, giving you a new way to battle the villainous group, and the team’s most infamous duo have joined the fight. Jessie and James, Ash’s recurring antagonists from the Pokemon animated series, have arrived in Pokemon Go, giving you a chance to challenge them.
True to form, Jessie and James can be found piloting a giant Meowth-shaped hot air balloon. The duo will appear randomly in the game and only for a limited time, so there’s no telling when you’ll encounter them. If you do spot their distinctive balloon, however, simply tap it to initiate a battle with them.
Coinciding with their debut, new avatar items inspired by Jessie and James have been added to Pokemon Go’s in-game shop, letting you dress your trainer in their signature Team Rocket uniforms. The second weekly set of Pokemon Go Fest challenges also arrives this week, and this one focuses on battling Team Rocket, making Jessie and Jame’s appearance quite timely.
Pokemon Go isn’t the only game Jessie and James have invaded; the duo are also appearing in Pokemon Masters as part of a special Double Trouble event. Right now, you can recruit Jessie and Arbok as a Sync Pair. James isn’t yet available in the game, although it’s heavily implied he’ll likewise debut soon, presumably alongside his Weezing. You can read more about the Double Trouble event on the Pokemon Masters website.
Despite being some of the series’ most well-known characters, Jessie and James have seldom been featured in actual Pokemon games, making this a special occasion. Prior to their arrival in Go and Pokemon Masters, the duo only appeared in Pokemon Yellow and its 2018 Switch reimagining, Pokemon: Let’s Go, Pikachu and Let’s Go, Eevee.
Niantic has many other events lined up for Pokemon Go this month, including Pokemon Go Fest 2020, which takes place on July 25 and 26. Before then, the studio will hold July’s Community Day, which features Gastly. The Legendary Kyurem is also available in Raids right now, and there’s a new batch of Field Research tasks to complete this month.
The job listings on Naughty Dog’s career site run the gamut from animators to programmers to lighting artists and everything in between. While it’s unclear if Naughty Dog is working on a new project, a job post for a Tools Programmer confirms the studio is looking for someone to “work on our next-generation graphics analysis, profiling and debugging tool in conjunction with our sister technology group.” If Naughty Dog is working on another game already, it seems likely it will arrive on PlayStation 5.
Another listing for a Melee/Gameplay Animator says this hire will “help us create compelling gameplay for our future project(s),” with work possibly including “helping shape the hand-to-hand combat system” and more. It suggests that whatever Naughty Dog is prototyping may be some sort of action-adventure experience.
While none of these listings make it explicitly clear what Naughty Dog’s intentions are or whether there is another game in development, the studio confirmed two years ago that The Last of Us Part II would have a multiplayer component with the return of The Last of Us‘ Factions mode. This Factions mode, however, was scrapped in 2019, with the studio stating that its scope outgrew game and will become its own experience.
The job posts come not long after Naughty Dog said The Last of Us 3 is not out of the question. However, with the ending of The Last of Us Part II, the studio is undecided on what’s next for the series or ND.
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It’s been a long, long road for CrossCode to finally hit consoles. The 16-bit throwback RPG started life as a widely praised 2012 tech demo, enjoyed a super-funded 2015 Indiegogo campaign, and then arrived on Steam in 2018. Two years later, it’s hard not to feel that all this runway has caused CrossCode to be overly ambitious and complicated–even for veteran genre players. As I was sailing into my 20th hour and still trying to not second-guess my shaky strategy for the vast amount of stats that can be customized and stacked, the game was still unspooling tutorials and rolling out new wrinkles. CrossCode is a lot of game to wrap your head around, and one whose expansive menu screens and tutorials double as a mechanically overbearing strategy guide that cannot be skimmed to even start to get your bearings. Playing CrossCode can be a bit like going on a road trip without GPS: Every few miles, you have to pull over and unfold an unwieldy road atlas.
CrossCode, at its heart, is not a retro-styled hollow homage to Super Nintendo titles like 1993’s Secret of Mana and 1995’s Chrono Trigger. Instead, it’s something more like a full-throated continuation of their tradition of exploring massive worlds full of side quests, puzzles, colorful characters, and gear to collect–while also building on their thornier, more tactical contemporaries. CrossCode’s fondness for this era of action role-playing games is clear out of the gate: Both the opening menu screen and introductory sequences set the tone with plaintive piano, chiming bells, and an oozing chiptune soundtrack that wouldn’t be out of place on one of those “lofi beats to relax/study to” YouTube playlists that lean more heavily into nostalgia. The pixel art style doubles down on all this.
The above is in sharp contrast to the game taking place in a fictional, modern MMORPG called CrossWorlds. That is, CrossCode is a single-player game taking place in an in-game MMO where other characters speak and behave either as other players or NPCs. It’s a world filled with guilds, griefers, and other player characters running through, too busy questing and level-grinding to hold still and talk with you. And just like in a real MMO, the other players you make your way on with will chat and open up about their lives–and give you due notice when they feel they’ve been playing way too long and need to log out and take a break.
There’s a layer to the story above and zoomed out from this, which is that your character, Lea, is not a player but an AI based on the memories of a woman named Shizuka Sakai, who tried and failed to rescue her dying brother. A man named Sergey Asimov tells Lea she must play CrossWorlds to regain those memories–and once you start playing, CrossCode’s dominant note is more often meta commentary and jokes about MMOs and their players rather than making sense of the schemes and conspiracies pointing to what the hell is really going on.
However true these in-game jokes and critiques ring, they unfortunately continue a legacy of games mistaking a self-awareness of tropes as license to get away with deploying them. Not that there’s anything inherently wrong with tropes in themselves, but CrossCode repeatedly features characters you can overhear complaining about aspects of CrossWorld that legitimately are worth complaining about. The result isn’t quite Westworld-style provocative questions on the nature of existence, but rather telegraphs a game developer who is apologetic about aspects or entire chunks of a game it fully expects people to groan through.
Early on, another character will praise the game’s combat but vent, “The puzzles on the other hand… sometimes they’re just a thorn in the side, don’t you think? Especially in those dungeons.” It’s hard to disagree. But it would be unfair to say we weren’t warned: Curiously, the game’s Indiegogo advertised five years ago that “the essence of CrossCode is throwing balls at everything.” Again, it’s hard to disagree.
These balls come into play in combat as projectiles, but are pivotal for the many, many puzzles ahead: Well-timed and precise aim is required to throw switches, move boxes, and to hit certain things in a specific and required sequence. The dungeons further complicate this by making certain puzzle facets elemental-themed–you’ll need the flame power to get through the ice dungeon, for example, but won’t know this until after you’ve gotten stuck, hung in way longer than you thought you should across multiple levels of a dungeon, only to earn a new power you’re expected to instantly have mastery over to manipulate puzzle elements.
The unveiling of this elemental side to everything, while familiar to RPGs overall, can make progress halting and confusing–particularly because of how expansive CrossCode is, and how often you will find yourself fighting enemies who have an obvious element weakness but with no clue where to find the necessary weapon to make advancement more within your grasp. Before you start playing the game, a warning appears that CrossCode was “designed with challenge in mind for both combat and puzzles,” and, boy, they weren’t kidding. The sheer number of puzzles is comparable to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild’s shrines, but unlike those puzzles, these ones aren’t optional.
In some ways, while CrossCode clearly is wearing its appreciation for games like Secret of Mana on its digital sleeves, that creates a skewed expectation for what the game really is. Yes, there is combat and leveling. But in many ways, CrossCode is much more like the more recent top-down hack-and-slash pinball-inspired dungeon crawler Creature in the Well. CrossCode’s dungeons are full of puzzles, and its overworld map is, too: Pretty much every screen you traverse has at least one to two puzzles in it as well. Overworld puzzles are more about hunting for roundabout ways to jump from higher ground ledge to ledge to find a chest–only to discover the solution begins two screens back and the chest is locked with a key you’ve never heard of and have zero clue where to find. These puzzles are in the background, there to notice and take on if you feel like it–except for the times when they’re mandatory. Those with little patience for either combat or puzzles can breathe a slight sigh of relief: The options screen has difficulty sliders to change enemy damage, enemy attack rate, and puzzle timer speed. The emphasis there is on “slight,” because while these sliders can make winning tough boss fights and solving puzzles easier, they aren’t a magic bullet–you’ll still need to deduce their winning strategies.
Fortunately, just as the previously mentioned in-game critics say, the combat is strong and the staggering amount of skill trees you can unlock and invest in only makes it deeper. There is a learning curve to adjust to, but you will eventually (more through patient trial and error than anything else) get used to tossing balls for ranged attacks, melee for nearby enemies, dashing to dodge attacks, guarding to block, and juggling on-the-fly elements-gated strategies unique to each. Despite being a top-down action RPG, CrossCode often can feel like playing a fighting game in combat–especially when you unlock certain abilities deep in skill trees. This isn’t a game where you can just mash buttons during combat. To survive, you need to become adept at parrying and dodging at just the right moments. And because the game boasts 120 enemy types and 30-plus bosses, there’s no relying on simple muscle memory to get by; each has their own behavior and requires their own unique strategy. This all gets further compounded by each of the elemental powers being accessible at any moment–depending on how you’ve leveled, each elemental could instantly switch you into the equivalent of another character class like tank, damage dealer, etc.
Combat has even further complexity to it with a ranking system–the more enemies you fight and kill without stopping, the higher your grade will climb, which increases the likelihood for enemies to drop rare items. And while you can stock up on healing items, the combat rank system rewards you for taking bigger risks as the higher your grade climbs, the more you will automatically heal during a cooldown. Relying on this healing system frees you up to stock up on non-healing items and partake in the game’s item-shop barter system. Though you can just buy items, CrossCode has a whole in-game economy where you can swap items for other items to build a collection of merchandise that will hopefully become valuable down the road, allowing you to trade for something you could really use. But, honestly, the barter system is complex. Unless you know what you’re saving up for, it’s mystifying what individual trades will add up to–and why they’re worth it. More often than not, I felt more inclined to brute force my way through with the gear I could find independently of these many storefronts with limited wares dotting the land.
There’s a similar hesitation I felt in the 100-plus side quests and challenges you’ll come across. You will wind up organically accomplishing many of them–say, to kill a certain number of enemies in an area or to procure a certain number of an item. But because of the game’s sprawling map and the huge, huge cast of characters you’ll come across, good luck remembering who gave you the quest in the first place and where to go to collect your reward. Despite the game’s many patient tutorial screens, you could be forgiven for not even realizing there even is an in-game map–though its usefulness is questionable, especially as you wander deeper and deeper into the game.
Like Owlboy and Iconoclasts before it, CrossCode is the latest in a long line of longer-gestating labors of love that emerge with varying degrees of cohesion. The best thing that can be said about CrossCode is it doesn’t feel at all dated or clunky on the other end of a prolonged development time. The biggest knock against it is that CrossCode can and often does wind up feeling both bloated and inspired simultaneously.
Every year, Destiny 2 provides players with a chance to celebrate some of their biggest achievements in the game with Moments of Triumph. Since last year, the event has become an even bigger deal, with players unlocking an exclusive seal for their efforts, and getting aspect to real-world merchandise they can purchase to reflect their in-game achievements.
This year’s Moments of Triumph is notable because it’s very much related to the upcoming Beyond Light expansion, which is going to reshape Destiny 2 in a lot of ways. Most notably, four current Destiny 2 locations will be removed from the game indefinitely, and a lot of the content in the current Season of Arrivals revolves around getting ready for those locations to disappear. A lot of their related activities are going to, as well as five current raids: Leviathan, Spire of Stars, Eater of Worlds, Crown of Sorrows, and Scourge of the past. A big part of Moments of Triumph this year is about revisiting those raids.
The good news is, if there’s anything you want from the expiring raids, now is the time to get it–all five are now “farmable,” meaning you can play them over and over again for their unique rewards, without their weekly limitations. And Moments of Triumph will intermix with more Destiny 2 content coming this season, including the Solstice of Heroes summer event that is also about celebrating your Destiny 2 accomplishments. Best of all, you’ll have plenty of time to play through the raids, and everything else, to get your Moments of Triumph rewards–the event runs until September 22 when the Beyond Light expansion unlocks.
The Ruinous Effigy exotic quest has gone live in Destiny 2. The energy trace rifle has some novel features attached to the weapon that strays from previous exotic abilities. In the gameplay video above we show the Ruinous Effigy in action across various activities both in the open-world PvE environments, as well as in the Crucible against other guardians.
The way the rifle works is fairly simple. You defeat enemies using the trace rifle beam, which will then convert the enemy into a purple orb that can be picked up by you or any member of your fireteam. Grabbing this orb will give you three different options in how to wield it: You can swing the weapon as a melee attack; use the orb to leap up in the air and slam the ground causing a massive area of effect ring of damage that will destroy most minor enemies and can one-shot enemy guardians; or create a massive void wall around you which will siphon enemy life and restore your health.
Exotic weapons in Destiny 2 usually have some neat mechanic that allows it to shine, but the Ruinous Effigy–alongside the seasonal exotic Witherhoard–showcase there’s a renewed effort from Bungie to create novel exotics. Although they might not be the new DPS meta, they’re certainly a lot of dang fun to use, which is always welcome.
Twitch has received backlash on Twitter after sharing a Black Lives Matter video that featured very few Black streamers. The video, which Twitch has since deleted, featured mostly white streamers, primarily DrLupo, talking about Black Lives Matter. Twitter User @2leftjoycons reuploaded the video.
I’m sorry, but this is maddening to me. Twitch talks about the importance of #BLM YET STILL 1. Has 90% of the talking done by white/nonblack people 2. Doesn’t promote any black streamers/content creators Share and promote Black Twitch content, here or in retweets! pic.twitter.com/fMJ8DNq7yU
Twitch followed up with an apology stating that the video was supposed to be focused on allyship, a message Twitch said it “didn’t make clear.” People took issue with the video promoting the message of supporting Black Twitch streamers without showcasing and promoting more of them.
We hear you. Our goal was to demonstrate the importance of allyship – a message we didn’t make clear. Only by working together can we create a positive change.
BlissKai and ZombaeKillz, two Black Twitch streamers featured in the video, expressed their feelings on Twitter.
It sucks that Twitch deleted the tweet but it had to happen.I want to see black gamers succeed & make a difference as well. My first ever huge thing from Twitch & I’m glad I even got a opportunity to see myself up there. Disappointed but Twitch just delivered the wrong it the way
why im not mad at that twitch video… it didnt show the same 5 black partners that hate being used as tools for diversity.. twitch dug around. it also celebrated the actual and very real allyship of some creators during this time. AND AND… white people listen to white people.
If you’re looking for more gaming content from Black creators, check out this roundup, featuring articles, videos, podcasts, and streamers.
Twitch dealt with controversy earlier in the week when it tweeted out a video celebrating LGBTQIA+ content creators that said “When the G in LGBTQIA+ also stands for gamer.” Twitch has deleted the tweet and put out a version without that graphic, but did not address the change.
Twitch put out a video on pride and this was one of the tag lines. People are already confused about what each letter means. It was deleted pic.twitter.com/1H7FwE8F7G
GameSpot has officially kicked off Play For All–a celebration of all things gaming. Join us as we bring you the summer’s hottest news, previews, interviews, features, and videos, as well as raise money for COVID-19 relief efforts and Black Lives Matter with the help of our friends from around the gaming world. Check out the Play For All schedule for more.
Blizzard has announced another set of balance changes coming to Hearthstone, and like the last few updates it focuses mostly on the new class, Demon Hunter. Though the update also packs balance changes for some other powerful decks currently dominating the meta, one class is clearly the biggest target.
Of the eight cards getting balance changes in the 17.6 update next week, three of them are Demon Hunter class cards. Those include Metamorphosis, Kayn Sunfury, and Warglaives of Azzinoth–all reliably aggressive Demon Hunter tools that have helped the class remain strong.
Other big changes are coming to strong cards used in popular Warrior, Mage, and Druid decks. And similar changes are coming to the neutral legendary Dragonqueen Alexstraza and the Rogue Galakrond. Rather than generating or drawing cards that cost 0 Mana, both of their effects will instead bring cards that cost 1 Mana. That retains the strong effect but keeps them from being played all at once or in conjunction with strong combo effects.
Heads up! Next week’s 17.6 patch will include balance changes for a handful of cards in Standard. Full patch details will be shared July 14.
Blizzard had said it designed Demon Hunter cards to be a little stronger than most on average, in part because it had some catching up to do with other classes that have amassed a much larger card pool over the years. It seems the developer may have overdone it, because Demon Hunter has been nerfed repeatedly in the few months since its release–including the fastest balance adjustments ever, just one day after release.
That initial rebalancing nerfed four Demon Hunter cards. Since then it’s readjusted six more Demon Hunter cards, mostly nerfs, and this will include three more. Despite the number of rebalanced cards, the class has remained competitive in the meta.
Check below for the full list of upcoming balance changes.
Hearthstone 17.6 Balance Adjustments
Dragonqueen Alexstrasza
Old: Battlecry: If your deck has no duplicates, add 2 other random Dragons to your hand. They cost (0). → New: Battlecry: If your deck has no duplicates, add 2 other random Dragons to your hand. They cost (1).
Corsair Cache
Old: Draw a weapon. Give it +1/+1. → New: Draw a weapon. Give it +1 Durability.
Metamorphosis
Old: Swap your Hero Power to “Deal 5 damage.” After 2 uses, swap it back. → New: Swap your Hero Power to “Deal 4 damage.” After 2 uses, swap it back.
