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Developer 343 Industries has been remarkably thorough and transparent throughout the process of porting the Halo: Master Chief Collection to PC, often releasing in-depth blog posts about the process. This week, community manager Tyler “Postums” Davis has posted an update on how the team handles bugs, from reporting to patching, after a bug-riddled release of Halo 2 Anniversary wreaked havoc on the Master Chief Collection.

While a lot of the discussion around game bugs is usually centered around the technical aspect of fixing them, Postums also goes into detail about how the community team is involved. As the first line of contact with the players, Halo’s Community Team usually hear about bugs first, and often has to triage the seriousness of a newly reported issue. While this process also happens through Halo Support, the official tool for tracking and reporting bugs, players are just as likely to report bugs through forums, Discord, or in public social media posts.

Once identified, there’s still a big process to go through before a bug can be fixed–one that ensures resources are assigned in the most efficient way. Testers look into details of a bug, finding out how and where it can be reproduced. When bugs are logged, they require details including “an outline of area, severity, description, reproduction steps, impact, expected results, media, and an assignment.”

The bug is then reviewed by someone in the testing team called a ‘Redliner’, who either sends the bug back to testing for more information, or forwards it to Triage. “Triage is a meeting where a collection of individuals from across the teams discuss a bug and help determine what happens with it,” the post explains.

Triage can then send the bug to different teams depending on how it needs to be handled–either going to Design, Production, Engineering or back to Testing. The most severe bugs are sent straight to Production when they’re identified, skipping the extra steps. Tricky bugs can come back through Triage multiple times, if more information from testers is required.

Bugs are then either assigned to be fixed on a set timeframe, or designated as “By Design” or “Won’t Fix” where they’re left as is.

Once a bug has a fix applied, it’s assigned back to the original tester, who has to confirm both that the original bug has been fixed, and that no new bugs have been created as a result.

In the case of games in the Halo series that have been released multiple times, it can take longer to deal with a bug, as the developers must look through other releases of the game to see if these bugs have cropped up before. “Currently, Halo 2 takes the most time to check as we sometimes need to look back at previous MCC builds, H2V, and H2 Back Compat for a single issue,” Postums elaborates.

The original post contains even more exhaustive detail on what happens to a bug–and helps to understand why they can’t always be addressed straight away. After 343 community director Brian Jarrard literally had to ask fans to stop yelling at the team, hopefully this update will help shed some light on the hard work happening behind the scenes at 343.

Halo 3 is the next game scheduled for release on PC, with Halo Insiders previews beginning in June.

F1 2020 has unveiled a new track that has only recently been constructed in real life. The game will take players to Vietnam to compete on the Hanoi Street Circuit track for the first time. This route was completed in February 2020 and is expected to debut in the next F1 season (which is currently suspended due to the COVID-19 pandemic).

In the trailer below, you can see Scuderia Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc race around the digital track. It’s 5.613km long (3.488 miles) and features 23 turns per lap, with a short pit lane and two long straights. The track is inspired by some other beloved F1 tracks, including Monaco and Nurburgring.

In the press release sent out alongside this trailer, F1 franchise game director Lee Mather said that the track “delivers both thrills and challenges, set against the backdrop of the stunning city skyline.” He also warned that the track will “punish anyone who doesn’t respect the walled sections.”

This is the second new circuit unveiled for the game–you can also check out the game’s recreation of Circuit Zandvoort, a Netherlands track with a famously satisfying final corner.

F1 2020 releases for PS4, Xbox One, Stadia, and PC on July 10, and seems increasingly likely to release ahead of any races in the real-life F1 2020 season happens–if the F1 season happens at all this year.

The iconic Call of Duty character Captain Price is being added to Call of Duty: Modern Warfare‘s multiplayer and the battle royale game Warzone with its new Season 4 update. To promote the release, Activision is giving people a chance to get a video message from Price himself, or at least the closest thing to him.

The actor who plays Price in the new Modern Warfare–Barry Sloane–will record a personalized video message for you on Cameo if you win a contest. You can enter the sweepstakes here for a chance to win one of 50 messages. Everyone who enters gets a free Modern Warfare calling card, so you get something even if you don’t win.

Activision is launching this sweepstakes following the successful run of paid-for Cameo appearances where people could pay $141–referencing Task Force 141–to get Sloane to record a message. The allotted supply ran out, and Activision is now launching the sweepstakes for 50 more.

All proceeds from the original paid Cameo messages went to the Call of Duty Endowment, which provides funding to help military veterans find civilian jobs after leaving the service.

In the 2007 original Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, Price was voiced by Billy Murray. However, Activision replaced him with Sloane, a move that rubbed some fans the wrong way. Defending the move, Infinity Ward developers said Price is like James Bond–he’s not limited to one actor alone.

Modern Warfare/Warzone Season 4 begins on June 3, so it won’t be much longer until Price joins the game as a new Operator. Activision has yet to announce the full contents of the Season 4 update, but keep checking back with GameSpot for the latest.

Terra Battle, a 2014 mobile game from developer Mistwalker and producer Hironobu Sakaguchi–best known as the creator of Final Fantasy–will soon shut down all services. An upcoming termination of service has been announced, which will effectively end support for the game.

Service for the game will terminate on June 30, at midnight UTC. The in-game Energy currency has already been discontinued, so you cannot spend money on it in-game. On June 15, players will be unable to transfer or recover game data, and at the end of the month the game will end.

Sakaguchi wrote a note to fans alongside the announcement, expressing his “deep regret” that Mistwalker has to terminate services for the game. “I am so grateful for all the fans who played Terra Battle for nearly six years,” his statement reads. “I personally learned a lot from this experience, and am constantly reminded that ‘there are no paths that aren’t worth taking.’ I am very thankful to have had such an experience.”

Mistwalker is currently working on Fantasian, a new game for Apple Arcade. They also previously released Terra Battle 2 in 2017, but it proved less successful than its predecessor, and was shutdown one year later.

Mistwalker is also the developer of several console RPGs, including the excellent Wii game The Last Story and the Xbox 360 classic Lost Odyssey. In 2014, GameSpot interviewed Sakaguchi about Terra Battle and developing games for mobile–you can check that out here, and it’s still well worth a read.

The latest Sea of Thieves update, Lost Treasures, is live and offers brave pirates more bang for their booty-seeking buck. It dropped on May 27, boasting a host of changes to the story elements in the game as well as Daily Bounties to ensure that you’re always flush with cash.

The official patch notes for the Lost Treasures update mention a host of quality-of-life improvements, but front and center is the improvement to the Tall Tales system: an optional set of narrative experiences that players can use to better explore the world of Sea of Thieves through challenges and more.

Most notably, Tall Tale adventures will now benefit from checkpoints, so that you’re not pressured to complete entire adventures in one sitting if you’re too busy.

The Lost Treasures update has also made a change to the frequency of regular in-game events, included new Ruby Splashtail cosmetics for the Pirate Emporium, and introduced Daily Bounties. These Daily Bounties are yet another avenue for pirates to pick up Doubloons, and depending on the task of the day, can be completed solo or will require the participation of another crew.

The Sea of Thieves update also brings a special event called the Blighted Bonus. Described as a “joint effort between various Trading Companies,” players will be able to get Blighted themed cosmetics for their ship by participating in this event when it goes live. However, don’t fret; if you miss out on this event during the Lost Treasures season, you will be able to buy the rewards from the Pirate Emporium once they go on rotation there.

Other cosmetics introduced in the Lost Treasures update extend to new ship customizations and pirate outfit options. On top of that, there will also be a Sale tab introduced as part of this update to the Emporium, enabling you to keep on track of the latest deals. Finally, there have been accessibility improvements as part of this patch—text sizes and prompts have been increased for better visibility.

With Sea of Thieves’ content landscape changing once again, it’ll be exciting to see what limited-time events players will have to encounter in the wake of Lost Treasures’ implementation.

According to a community update from Activision, Call of Duty Mobile will be expanding its battle royale map in the next update, bringing not only new areas for combat but also things like new vehicles. This update is currently scheduled to fall around June 4, around the same time that a Ranked Mode season will kick off.

The upcoming update was announced on the official Call of Duty Mobile subreddit on May 29 by the Activision team. A Ranked Mode refresh and the new battle royale map are expected to be implemented in the game in early June. The Reddit post specifically notes that fans will “probably be seeing something somewhere around June 4th” based on previous event dates.

So far, the month of May has been home to a number of other season events such as the Ride Off Into the Sunset event and the currently active Gun Game Team Fight. Rapid Fire Mode is also now available in Multiplayer on Call of Duty Mobile and will be until June 4, with the team promising that it is likely to return based on feedback from the community.

Call of Duty Mobile is reportedly adding the gulag from Warzone soon, so it may be that the new battle royale maps have that feature incorporated into it on launch—this has not yet been confirmed by Activision. The new season is officially launching next week according to the Call of Duty Mobile Twitter account, and a number of those aforementioned locations have already been confirmed in a teaser video as being:

• Black Market
• Downtown
• Frigid Wetland
• Harbor
• Heat
• Sanitarium
• Ski Town

The Call of Duty Mobile team noted in its original Reddit announcement that more details would follow on social media over the next few days, so players wanting to get the drop on more information to do with these new battle royale maps, vehicles, and locations should keep their eyes peeled.