In 2020, when leaving the house and being with friends and loved ones has been harder than usual because of the COVID-19 pandemic, socially distanced game nights have become part of many people’s social routine. The newly released Jackbox Party Pack 7, and the six earlier games in the series, are excellent games to play with friends–and doing so through Twitch just got a little easier.
Twitch has announced the Jackbox Audience Kit, an extension for streams that makes it possible to join Jackbox games without needing to open a separate browser. This extension lets audiences join the game through the Twitch app, making it easier to join in on games.
As long as the Twitch streamer has installed and enabled the extension, joining a game is a simple process of following the on-screen instructions.
Right now, the extension is supported by the majority of Jackbox games, although some cannot be played with an audience. Monster Seeking Monster currently does not support the extension, but support is “coming soon”; The Devils and the Details and You Don’t Know Jack: Full Stream will not work with it, now or in the future.
Hopefully this means that your next friendly game of Quiplash 3, Trivia Murder Party, or Mad Verse City will be easier to set up and play than before. All 7 Jackbox games are available on PC, Switch, PS4, and Xbox One.
Click To Unmute
Size:
Want us to remember this setting for all your devices?
It’s been far too long since Cobra Kai’s season 2 finale left us hanging after a traumatic high school karate riot. But, season 3 is finally on the horizon, so let’s take a look at everything we know so far.
First and foremost, the most important question of all – what’s the release date? Season 3 of Cobra Kai will premiere on January 8, 2021, and this time it’s exclusively on Netflix. All episodes of the new season will be available that day, so get ready to binge.
Before we get into what to expect, here’s where we left off: Four words: High school karate riot. The end of Season 2 saw the tensions between the Cobra Kai and Miyagi-Do dojos finally boil over, leading to an all-out war between the two groups in the middle of the high school. Ultimately, Robby delivered a kick to Miguel that saw him fly over a balcony, landing spine-first on the rail of a staircase below. As a result, Miguel ended up unconscious in a hospital, with Robby on the run.
Meanwhile, Kreese assumed control of Cobra Kai, ousting Johnny and turning his students against him. If Cobra Kai is Star Wars, this season was definitely The Empire Strikes Back, leaving all of the show’s heroes down and out, with the evil grasp of the Empire (a Kreese-led Cobra Kai) growing in power.
2020 is the year of consoles battling for supremacy, and China is another arena for the big three–Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo–to duke it out. The country, however, is a complicated place for gaming corporations to distribute their products officially due to its strict and opaque media regulations. Consoles were banned in the country until 2013, though they were available through unofficial channels even before then.
But with the aid of native multimedia giant Tencent, Nintendo Switch gained a sales edge in China. Market tracker Niko Partners estimated that over 1.3 million Switch units sold this year through both formal and informal channels (via Bloomberg), a number bigger than the combined sales of the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One in the same timeframe. In lifetime sales, Niko Partners reported that the Switch has sold almost 4 million units in China since the end of 2019, more than either of Xbox One’s and PS4’s lifetime sales in the country. The PS4 and Xbox One both launched in China in 2014.
Bloomberg cited the popularity of certain Switch IP’s and incorporation of widely-used apps in China as reasons for the console’s current popularity. Tencent integrated Wechat functionality into the Switch, making payment systems and social functions familiar and easier-to-use. Two Switch titles also became immensely popular this year: Ring Fit Adventure and Animal Crossing.
Tencent’s partnership with Nintendo extends to creating games together as well. The two companies are collaborating on a new Pokemon game that will run on both smartphones and the Switch. This MOBA title will let players choose a Pokemon they want to battle as and compete in 5v5 rounds.
While Niko Partners’ research shows that the Nintendo Switch edges out PS4 and Xbox One sales in China, it’s unclear if the Switch will be more popular than the PS5 or Xbox Series X / Series S in the long-run. Both next-gen consoles are not officially released in China yet, with no release date announced. Unofficially, however, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S are both circulating in China due to the powers of the enormous Chinese shop Taobao. It’s not easy to track these transactions, since most of them are imports from Hong Kong, Taiwan, and other countries. We’ll have to see if any market researcher can put some numbers to these unofficial sales in the future.
Click To Unmute
Size:
Want us to remember this setting for all your devices?
Depending on what country you’re in and where you bought the game, however, this might not be the easiest task. In a tweet, CD Projekt Red admitted that the game had performance issues on PS4 and Xbox One, and recommended seeking a refund at your point of sale. “For copies purchased digitally, please use the refund system of PSN or Xbox respectively. For boxed versions, please first try to get a refund at the store where you bought the game.”
As Lifehacker reports, online retailers like Amazon and Walmart have extended their returns periods for the holidays, which may be a bonus for unhappy Cyberpunk 2077 players. However digital storefronts like Steam, the PSN Store, and Microsoft store often have more restrictive refund policies.
Reports say customers have nevertheless been successful in getting refunds from both Sony and Microsoft, though some players have had to spend over an hour on the PlayStation support line to get one. PC players unhappy with how the game performs on their computers can also submit refund requests through Steam even if their gameplay has passed the two hour limit, while CD Projekt’s GOG platform will also allow refunds.
Getting a refund from physical stores may be more difficult depending on the individual store’s policy, though reports from Australia–where customer protections explicitly entitle players to a refund when a game is broken or buggy–say multiple game stores are honoring refunds.
With all these refund methods, it’s worth mentioning game crashes and game-breaking bugs in your refund request, just as you would if you were returning a faulty piece of hardware. If all else fails, CD Projekt Red has set up the dedicated email address [email protected] for players looking for help refunding its game.
Click To Unmute
Size:
Want us to remember this setting for all your devices?
The Hong Kong Massacre, a stylish, brutal, difficult top-down action game that hit PS4 and PC in early 2019, is coming to Switch. The shooter, a tale of revenge that wears its Hotline Miami influence on its sleeve, will release on the Nintendo Switch Eshop on December 26.
The reveal trailer below shows off how the game looks on Switch–and it looks very much like the PS4/PC versions of the game. The game will cost $20, but it can be preordered at a discounted price of $16.
Warning: the trailer below is very violent, as is the game itself.
While this version of the game won’t add any new features, it’s the only way to play the game on a portable system. In the meantime, you can get yourself a free digital copy of the game’s soundtrack by signing up for the developer’s mailing list through the game’s website.
In GameSpot’s 7/10 review of The Hong Kong Massacre, it earned praise for its stylish action. “It’s a game that sticks with you when you’re not playing it, as you think through different approaches to the room you died in last time,” the review states. “You’ll fail frequently, and the repetition can wear you down, but it’s hard to resist the temptation of bursting through a window and perfectly lining up three kill shots.”
The Lord of the Rings Trilogy director Peter Jackson has revealed that his favorite scene from the three films was not written or directed by him.
As reported by IndieWire (via The Independent), Jackson was speaking to Stephen Colbert and was asked to pick his favorite scene. While there are many iconic choices, it wasn’t Helm’s Deep, it wasn’t Sam helping Frodo climb Mount Doom, but it was Gollum’s monologue where he was having a conversation with himself as Sméagol from The Two Towers.
“We were shooting ‘Two Towers’ and it was introducing Gollum,” Jackson said. “A key thing with Gollum is that most people know he’s Sméagol and he’s Gollum, it’s like a split. But we hadn’t got a scene where you really got the idea of it…‘This guy is two people.’ So we knew that we needed it but we had no time to shoot it.”
Jackson was busy with other parts of production at the time, and had asked his co-writer and co-producer Fran Walsh to create this scene where the two halves of Gollum were interacting with each other. Not only did Walsh write the scene, she also went on to direct it.
“Fran wrote a scene where Sam and Frodo are asleep, so they can be just lumps in the bed, we don’t even have to have Elijah [Wood] and Sean [Astin],” Jackson said. “We didn’t have anyone to direct it, so I said to Fran, ‘You wrote it, you should shoot it.’ So she went in for a day and she wrote and directed a scene which has become pretty famous now.”
Cyberpunk 2077 is a huge game, and part of what makes the size of Night City compelling is the number of options you’ll have to go through many of its missions. When working your way through the territory of gangs, corps, or other enemies, you can go in guns blazing, pick a stealthier approach, or even often talk your way out of conflicts altogether. Having more options allows you to tune Cyberpunk 2077 to your playstyle.
Apart from the character attributes you choose to invest in, one of the biggest ways you’ll unlock new paths for yourself is through your cyberware. These are the cybernetic augmentations you can install in your body, enhancing your strength, vision, hacking capabilities, and more. But there’s one piece of cyberware you should absolutely get, even if you ignore all the others–it’ll change the way you play Cyberpunk 2077 and open up a whole lot of possibilities, from how you approach missions to how you get around the world.
That piece of cyberware is the Reinforced Tendons upgrade for your legs, and it unlocks an extremely useful ability: double jump.
Why You Want Double Jump
Lots of video games offer you the ability to double jump–to jump once, and then jump again in mid-air. But in Cyberpunk 2077, double jump is a complete game-changer. Having the ability allows you to reach new heights in what is already an extremely vertical city. Most of the missions you play that have any kind of action component will usually have you entering a hostile area full of enemies, leaving up to you how you want to traverse that area. Usually, your options are to go stealthy or to fight your way through, but you’re stuck on the ground, meeting enemies wherever they are.
With double jump, you suddenly can reach rooftops, high ledges, and open windows. You can leap straight over fences in a lot of cases, or circumvent enemy defenses. You can get above patrolling bad guys and scope out their patterns, or just bypass them altogether. Double jump opens up a huge number of alternative paths you can’t otherwise get at in Cyberpunk 2077–in fact, without the upgrade, you might not even know those paths are there. Double jump is especially useful if you plan to be a stealthy mercenary who prefers to sneak past conflicts or take down your prey without being seen. The pathways you can access by jumping over defenses or onto rooftops make sneaking a whole lot easier and, often, much more effective.
You can also double jump your way out of a lot of bad situations. Accidentally wandering into gang territory or passing too close to criminals engaged in illegal activity can trigger combat, but with double jump, you can usually high-tail it out of an area and bounce right over obstacles that would otherwise doom you. You can also hop over roads to avoid traffic or cut across the tops of some buildings, lowering your travel time as you try to navigate Night City. Double jump makes just about everything easier and more efficient, and you’ll save a lot of time once you have it.
How To Get Double Jump
You can obtain the cyberware to give yourself Mario-like jump capabilities from a number of locations in Night City, but it’s going to cost you. Most Ripperdocs–the physicians who will sell you cyberware–offer the Reinforced Tendons augmentation (you can find it most easily from Vik, the first Ripperdoc you meet during the story). The trouble is the cost: You’ll need some 45,000 Eurodollars (or “eddies”) in order to afford the chrome.
This is a hefty sum, especially early in the game, but definitely worth the investment. Earning the money can be tough, though. The best way is to complete certain side gigs like Cyberpsycho Hunts and the Epistrophy quest line, while also hawking just about everything you can find in the game. Check out our guide to making money in Night City for some useful shortcuts to procuring eddies.
It might take you a bit to open up the ability to double jump, but you’ll be glad you did. The extra verticality will allow you to explore parts of Night City you’d otherwise never get a chance to see.
When Justice League hit theaters in 2017, it didn’t do very well. In fact, it kind of bombed. Now, though, it seems that the movie may get a second chance, and not just on WarnerMedia’s HBO Max streaming service, but to theaters, too.
Talking to EW this week, Snyder elaborated on the work he’s doing on the re-shot, re-cut Justice League.
“This movie is so insane and epic and is probably rated R,” he said. “That’s one thing I think will happen, that it will be an R-rated version for sure. We haven’t heard from the MPAA, but that’s my gut.”
“There’s one scene where Batman drops an F-bomb. Cyborg is not too happy with what’s going on in his life before he meets the Justice League, and he tends to speak his mind. And Steppenwolf is pretty much just hacking people in half,” Snyder explained, adding that the rating would be due to both violence and profanity.
That’s not all, though. On top of all that, Snyder says the movie might head back to theaters.
“I’m a huge fan and a big supporter of the cinematic experience,” Snyder said. “We’re already talking about Justice League playing theatrically at the same time its coming to HBO Max. So weirdly, it’s the reverse [of the trend].”
The trend Snyder refers to is the recent decision made by WarnerMedia executives to debut all 2021 Warner Bros. movies on the HBO Max streaming service day-and-date with their theatrical releases in hopes of bolstering the still-young streaming service. Directors like Denis Villeneuve, Christopher Nolan, and Patty Jenkins have all spoken out about the decision to varying degrees. Theater chains like AMC and Regal have been even less kind.
With Snyder’s movie being pushed as a big reason for people to subscribe to HBO Max, it’s a bit of a surprise to hear that the movie might show up in theaters. Justice League is being re-imagined as a four-hour limited series, too, and theaters are notoriously averse to long movies, since they cannot schedule as many sessions as they can with shorter films. Finally, the first COVID-19 vaccines are only just this week being administered in the United States, suggesting that a theatrical release in the first quarter, as previous hinted by WarnerMedia boss Jason Kilar, would be difficult for the already unique movie to navigate.
Click To Unmute
Size:
Want us to remember this setting for all your devices?
There are many ways in Cyberpunk 2077 to deck out your V and improve their capabilities. Along with a massive arsenal of guns, including a talking gun that fancies the songs of Rhianna, there is also an extensive array of cybernetic upgrades for you to acquire. Given the scope of the game’s Cyberware system, we wanted to single out some of the best upgrades in the game that you should invest in.
Along with breaking down some of the most powerful upgrades, we also explain where to find them in the game. We also highlight some notable upgrades that you might be better avoiding in order to save time and your hard-earned eddies.
Night City’s Best Cyberware
Reinforced Tendons (Double Jump):Biomechanical connective tissue supporting leg muscles.
These leg upgrades will allow V to perform a double jump, a video game staple across many different action games and platformers. If your character is particularly agile, this upgrade is a must if you want to reach some of the harder reach areas around Night City, or just want to put some extra finesse into different combat encounters.
Requirements: This particular upgrade is a common one among the different Ripperdocs across Night City. The vendors in City Center, Watson, and Santa Domingo all have access to the rare variants of the Reinforced Tendons upgrade, which will set you back about 45,000 eddies.
Gorilla Arms:Classic and reliable replacements for natural limbs, suited for all kinds of hard labor.
The Gorilla Arms are an unarmed-focused cyberware upgrade that greatly strengthens your punches. Along with that, it can also amplify V’s strength to rip open doors and pull guns off automated turrets.
Requirements: If you want a low-end version of the Gorilla Arms, you can find it from the first Ripperdoc Viktor in the Watson district. However, if you want the legendary version of the Gorilla Arms, you can find it at another Ripperdoc shop in the west side of the City Center. This variant is a massive upgrade compared to the base versions, but you’ll need to have 45 Street Cred in order to purchase it at a high price.
Kerenzikov:A classic reflex booster.
This nervous system cyberware upgrade will slow down time by 90% for up to 3.5 seconds when blocking, aiming, or attacking during a dodge or slide maneuver. The Kerenzikov is useful for combat encounters when you’re facing multiple foes or elite enemies, and want to slow down the pace to deal extra damage.
Requirements: To get this upgrade, you’ll need to have 18 points in Reflexes for your character. Once you meet that requirement, you can find this upgrade from the Ripperdoc in Santa Domingo, on the west end of the district. This is a legendary upgrade costing upwards of 35000 eddies, so make sure you have enough money saved up.
Second Heart:Corrects one of nature’s greatest flaws by giving you a second lease on life.
This circulatory system cyberware upgrade will restore 100% of your max health when your HP falls to zero. Essentially it’s Cyberpunk 2077’s take on the extra life. Once activated, it goes on a two-minute cooldown.
Requirements: For starters, to use this upgrade you’ll need to at least have 16 points in the Body core stat. Once you do, you can purchase this cyberware upgrade from the Ripperdoc in Haywood, located near the western side of the district.
Syn-Lungs:Synthetic tissues designed to increase functional lung tissue surface area.
Another circulatory system upgrade, this piece of cyberware will boost your character’s stamina regeneration. This particular upgrade is useful if you want to focus on a melee oriented build, using swords or your fists.
Requirements: Just like the Second Heart upgrade, you’ll need 16 points in the Body stat to equip this piece of cyberware. Along with Second Heart, it can also be found from the Ripperdoc in Haywood.
Projectile Launch System (Arm Cannon):A missile launcher in the palm of your hand (more or less literally).
This arm cyberware upgrade stands as the most powerful attachment you can apply to your character. As the description says, you can transform V’s arm into a missile launcher, which will deliver heavy explosive damage to enemies at a distance. The tradeoff, however, is that this cyberware upgrade will replace your traditional grenades, though you may not miss them once you get used to using this upgrade.
Requirements: You can actually find this arm upgrade from different Ripperdocs around Night City, including Viktor in Watson. However, in order to activate this upgrade, you’ll first need the Smart Link cyberware, which enables many of the more advanced pieces of cyberware for V. To get the Smart Link, you’ll need to buy the upgrade from the Ripperdoc in Watson, north of Kabuki. Once you have the Smart Link enabled, you can use the arm cannon.
Dynalar Sandevistan MK.4:Dynalar’s greatest achievement to date. This implant boasts lightning fast connection speeds, combat system flexibility and optimized combat perceptiveness.
Similar to the Kerenzikov, this upgrade slows down time. Unlike the other upgrade, this piece of cyberware can be activated at will. Once engaged, it will slow down time by 25% for 16 seconds, and it will also boost damage you dish out by 15%, along with adding a 15% critical hit chance as well. This can be a fantastic upgrade if you use it for tactical purposes, and it helps make some of the more elite enemies in Night City pushovers.
Requirements: Firstly, this upgrade will require 16 points in reflexes. Once you meet that requirement, you can purchase this legendary cyberware upgrade from Viktor in Watson, which will cost 35,000 eddies.
Upgrades You Might Want To Avoid
We’ve shown you a list of cyberware upgrades to track down, but while visiting the shops, you may notice some other ones that may catch your eye. We want to take some time to single out some upgrades that may seem enticing, but we’d recommend you avoid some of the following.
Mantis Blades: While these upgrades have been shown off numerous times in the many trailers and gameplay demos for the game, the actual Mantis Blades in the game are somewhat underwhelming. They can do what was advertised, which is slicing and dicing enemies, but you’re better off just sticking with a katana or another melee weapon in order to save on cyberware slots.
Charge Jump: An alternative to the Double Jump is the Charge Jump. By holding down the jump button, you can launch V up into the air at a significantly greater height. However, the Double Jump is actually much more of a useful upgrade due to its flexibility. The Charge Jump’s static boost upward can feel a bit unwieldy when compared to the greater sense of control you have with the Double Jump, so we suggest you just invest in the latter instead.
Click To Unmute
Size:
Want us to remember this setting for all your devices?
