Bungie and Activision worked together on the Destiny franchise up until the two companies split up earlier this year, with Bungie self-publishing the sci-fi series going forward. Bungie’s David Dague has now discussed the split-up in more detail, notably dispelling the idea that Activision was a “prohibitive overlord.”
“I think we need to dispel the notion Activision was some prohibitive overlord that wasn’t letting us do awesome things,” Dague told Eurogamer. “We launched this franchise with Activision, naturally and over the course of time we both decided we had different goals for what we wanted it to be, so we both went our separate ways. It was amicable, and here we are making this game on our own, doing what we think we need to do to make it awesome.”
In addition to funding and offering a deep network of resources in publishing, sales, marketing, and more, Activision put some of its own studios, High Moon and Vicarious Visions, to work on Destiny content to help spread the development load. Those studios will no longer be working on Destiny, so how does Bungie plan to fill that gap?
“By doing all the work ourselves!” Dague said. “We’re committed to doing all the things we’re doing right now–Solstice of Heroes is ours, Moments of Triumph, Shadowkeep, Season of the Undying and three more seasons after that… There’s really nothing more to say but we’re on our own now and Destiny will be what we make of it.”
“Working on the game was starting to wear people down,” Smith said. He added that all of the work that went into creating the new content “put the team into an unsustainable development cycle.”
Going forward, and now with Activision no longer having a say, Smith said Bungie has developed a “more systemic, standardized set of mechanics for progression to keep our teams healthier.”
Going back to Dague, he told Eurogamer that the day-to-day development on Destiny hasn’t changed that much following Bungie’s split with Activision. “Things aren’t that different, really,” Dague said.
Discussing the Activision-Bungie break-up earlier this year, Activision management said the Destiny franchise was failing to meet its commercial projections. “Destiny is highly critically acclaimed, high quality content, but it was not meeting our financial expectations,” executive Coddy Johnson said.
Destiny 2’s next big expansion is Shadowkeep, and it launches in October. Ahead of that, Bungie has rolled out cross-save support–and it’s pretty great.
The upcoming biopic about Richard Montanez, the creator of Flamin’ Hot Cheetos, has found its director. Desperate Housewives star Eva Longoria will direct the film, according to Deadline. The movie is being produced at Fox Searchlight, the movie studio that made Oscar-winning movies like Slumdog Millionaire, 12 Years a Slave, Birdman, and The Shape of Water; the company is now owned by Disney.
According to Deadline, there were multiple contenders for the Flamin’ Hot job, and Longoria won out after wowing Fox and producer Devon Franklin with her “authentic approach to portraying” the story.
A movie about Flamin’ Hot Cheetos might sound pretty out-there, but the story of Montanez is so compelling that it was likely only a matter of time before it became a movie. Montanez was a janitor at Frito-Lay before creating the snack and amassing untold wealth.
Montanez is the son of an immigrant and worked on farms picking grapes in southern California. He later got a job as a janitor at Cheetos manufacturer Frito-Lay, and during his time cleaning toilets there in the ’70s, he came up with the idea for a new variety of Cheetos.
According to a report, Montanez got the idea for a hot variety of Cheetos while he was eating a cup of corn. “I see the corn man adding butter, cheese, and chile to the corn and thought, ‘What if I add chile to a Cheeto?'” he recalled.
According to the report, Montanez bolted into his mother’s kitchen and whipped up some spices for a test version of the snack. He apparently called the president of Frito-Lay to propose his new flavour and was given two weeks to prepare a presentation. The president apparently loved the idea, and the Flamin’ Hot variety is now among Frito-Lay’s best-selling products worldwide. Montanez is currently an executive at PepsiCo, which owns Frito-Lay.
The Flamin’ Hot movie is being written by Lewis Colick, who previously wrote October Sky and Ladder 49. There is no word yet as to who will play Montanez in the Flamin’ Hot movie or when it will release.
It appears Epic Games is teasing some kind of collaboration or crossover event between the massively popular battle royale game Fortnite and Gearbox’s shooter-looter Borderlands 3.
The Fortnite Twitter account posted a mysterious image that says, “When you see it…” The message used the hashtag #FortnitexMayhem.
This hashtag, combined with an image of a Psycho bandit from the Borderlands series makes it pretty clear this is in all in reference to some kind of crossover event between Fortnite and Borderlands. The most obvious possibility is that Borderlands skins are coming to Fortnite, but nothing is confirmed at this stage.
Epic and Gearbox are already working together, as Gearbox is releasing Borderlands 3’s PC version on the Epic Games Store as a timed exclusive through April 2020. A promotional event for Borderlands 3 within Fortnite would likely be kicking off soon, as the game releases on September 13.
Whether you’re on the red team or the blue team, you need a solid motherboard for your next gaming rig. Here are our choices for the best motherboards for both Intel and AMD systems at every price point.
Fortnite and Borderlands have collided as Claptrap, Psycho, Pandora Rift Zones, and more have entered the world of Fortnite in its Fortnite X Mayhem event in celebration of the upcoming release of Borderlands 3.
Announced by Fortnite, the Fortnite X Mayhem even runs from today through September 10 and allows players to “shoot and loot your way through the Pandora Rift Zone, take on themed Challenges for free rewards, and pick up the Psycho Bundle from the shop.”
World of Warcraft Classic, the re-release of Blizzard’s MMO, brings players back in time to replicate the WoW experience as it was more than a decade ago–and that includes warts and all.
Blizzard has now published a “not a bug list” that covers things that appear to be a bug but are actually accurate and representative of WoW as it was years ago. “The nature of WoW Classic sometimes invokes different memories for different players, and this leads to certain misconceptions for some about what is or isn’t working as intended,” Blizzard said in a blog post.
One example of something that might look like a bug but is actually working as intended is how pet aggro works–the aggro radius very inconsistent, and that’s exactly how it was in the vanilla WoW. Additionally, WoW Classic players may notice that available quests don’t appear with a “!” on the mini-map, and that’s not a bug. Additionally, quests with long descriptions don’t have text wrapping, and that’s how it’s supposed to be. On top of that, quest objectives and points of interest are not shown on maps, but that’s the way it was for the original WoW.
You can see the full “not a bug” list below, as written by Blizzard.
WoW Classic does have some real bugs, however, and these span almost all aspects of the game. These issues were detailed by Blizzard in a separate post, and you can see a roundup of all the known WoW Classic issues here.
Tauren’s hitboxes and their melee reach is slightly larger than other races.
Being critically struck while using /sit to sit does not cause abilities like Enrage, Blood Craze, and Reckoning to activate.
Using the “Automatic Quest Tracking” option does not auto-track newly accepted quests. (It instead will start to track an existing quest once progress towards an objective is started.)
Warrior health Regeneration is working at the expected rate.
Quests objectives and points of interests are not tracked on the map or minimap.
Completed quests are marked on the minimap with a dot. (and not a “?”)
Feared players and NPCs run fast.
Standing on top of other players while facing away allows spells and attacks to be used.
Creature respawn rates are much slower than in Battle for Azeroth.
NPCs which offer multiple quests may inconsistently display them as a dot or a “!” on the available quests list. They were inconsistent in 1.12, and we’ve reproduced the exact inconsistency they had back then.
Quests that are too low level for do not show up as a “!” in the game world.
Available quests do not display a “!” on the minimap.
On level up, the message: “Your skill in Protection increased to 15” was added in 1.12.1, and we’re intending to keep that.
You are unable to Polymorph enemy targets that are tapped by players with whom you are not grouped.
At all levels of player characters and enemies, aggro radius is set to the intended distance.
Long quest objectives don’t have text wrapping.
Fall damage is equivalent to expected and verified values.
Broadcast text can be seen multiple times if multiple players interact with the same NPC.
WANTED signs do not have “!”, and are also not highlighted.
Player characters do not animate when looting/interacting with quest objects (e.g. collecting pumpkins).
Gnomes and Taurens are the correct size.
“Melee leeway” is working as intended in both PvE and PvP.
Cone of Cold is behaving consistently with the reference client.
Arcane Missiles does not put the caster in combat .
A Hunter’s Frost Trap ground effect will break Rogues out of stealth.
The Berserking Troll racial ability is behaving as expected and matches the reference client.
The pet that a Warlock has when initially logging into the game world does not restore a Soul Shard when dismissed by taking a flight path or moving out of range.
The trigger range on Hunter’s traps are reduced by Stealth when the stealthed player is a similar or higher level than the Hunter.
Soul Link cannot be dispelled by dispelling the Warlock’s pet.
A Warlock’s Succubus and Felhunter pet cannot cast spells if they are out of line of sight of the target.
Manually cancelling Stealth after using Vanish will remove the Vanish buff as well as the Stealth buff.
Escape Artist has a very small chance to fail when used to escape an effect that has a decreased chance to be dispelled (e.g. a Rogue’s Vile Poisons talent).
Rogues are not broken out of stealth by Blizzard until they take damage.
Taunting Hunter pets that are set to Aggressive or Defensive mode will cause them to attack the taunting player.
The threat generated by Battle Shout is not capped at 5 party members and is increased when affecting targets such as Hunter and Warlock pets within the same party.
The chest at the end of the encounter with The Seven in Blackrock Depths does not prompt a loot roll. Beware of Ninjas!
Other players do not see a Hunter’s quiver on their back.
Shield Slam and other off-hand abilities does not proc extra attacks from Windfury.
Logging into World of Warcraft: Battle for Azeroth while playing WoW Classic on the same game account will disconnect you from WoW Classic. This is true in reverse as well.
Hunter concerns:
Hunter “dead zone” is working as expected and is consistent with the Reference Client.
A wolf pet’s Howl buff is consumed by anything that causes damage, even if it does not benefit from the buff.
A Hunter pet’s Bite and Claw ability damage will not change in the tooltip based on the happiness of the pet. The tooltip will always display the damage as if the pet were Content (yellow). This is consistent with the Reference client.
Traps can sometimes not be triggered if a player moves over them very quickly (i.e. a Warrior’s Charge ability). This behavior is consistent with the Reference client.
Auto Shot does not make a sound when cast during the animation of Hunter’s Mark and certain other abilities.
Scatter Shot, Wyvern Sting, and Freezing Trap share diminishing returns.
A Hunter’s Frost Trap ground effect will break players out of stealth.
The rate at which pet focus regenerates is not always consistent.
Note: While the actual amount of focus that can be generated per tick is inconsistent, the total amount generated over time is flat and consistent. There are slight variations in the time between ticks that cause this to display inconsistently.
Pet aggro radius is working properly and as expected. This is to say, it was extremely inconsistent in original WoW, and it remains inconsistent in WoW Classic.
Pets “remember” targets that they have been instructed to attack previously and when sending a pet to attack a different target, the pet will return to attack any remaining targets they were previously instructed to attack when the currently engaged target dies.
Pets that have been instructed to attack dead targets with a special ability or attack will attempt to approach and attack the dead target, but will return to the hunter’s side when the ability fails.
Other players do not see a Hunter’s quiver on their back.
Hunters can sometimes experience a slight delay before recasting Auto Shot after moving.
Note: There is a hidden “retry” timer that occurs if the hunter is moving when the normal swing timer finishes. This timer checks for hunter movement before trying to resume auto shot, and this timer refreshes every 500ms when the hunter is moving. This means that if a Hunter is moving and stops moving just after this timer refreshes, you need to wait until the retry timer checks again to validate that you are no longer moving and can resume casting auto shot. This is not a result of spell batching or server heartbeats, and is specific to the functionality of a Hunter’s Auto Shot. This is consistent with Auto Shot functionality on the Reference client.
World of Warcraft‘s much-anticipated “Classic” edition–which lets you experience the MMO as it was a decade ago–has finally arrived. The release wasn’t without problems, however, as Blizzard has now disclosed a long list of “known issues” for launch.
In a blog post, Blizzard said it hopes to fix these problems in due course, but the company also acknowledged that it can’t say when or even if any individual bug will be addressed. The known issues span a number of different aspects of WoW Classic, including art, animation, and sound; combat; creatures and NPCs; UI; and spells, buffs, and talents.
You can see a list of all the known issues below; they’re accurate as of August 26. Additionally, Blizzard said the list is not comprehensive, but instead it is a “sampling” of some of the issues it anticipates players may experience “with some regularity.”
Importantly, this list of known issues for WoW Classic is separate from another list of “not bugs,” which are things that might look like bugs but are actually accurate to the Classic experience.
Launch is just the beginning for WoW Classic, as Blizzard plans to release new features and activities including the raid Blackwing Lair, the PvP battleground Warsong Gulch, and server-wide events like the Scourge Invasion, among other things.
WoW Classic Known Issues (as of August 26)
Art, Animation, and Sound
The Warlock’s Imp pet is using an incorrect spell casting animation
Some belts are displaying extra textures on non-belt areas of the body
There are multiple display issues with the Egan’s Blaster quest item
The quiver model is not displaying on the Hunter’s back if you have an ammo pouch in your bags
The player character’s upper torso/head is locked forward while strafing left and right with something targeted
Players can become stuck in a ready animation when activating Shoot or Auto Shot more than once in rapid succession
Characters will rotate their lower body too responsively while in the combat ready stance
Food and drink objects do not fade correctly when a stealthed character is eating or drinking
Casting Shoot immediately after casting another spell can cause the wand animation to become delayed
Noggenfogger Elixir does not retain the skeleton model on a shapeshifted Druid
A Hunter’s Auto-Shot does not animate, display a missile, or play a sound when it fires immediately after Aimed Shot or Multi-Shot
Several spell visuals for Hunter, Warlock, and Paladin abilities will incorrectly continue to loop after the initial spell cast or impact
A Hunter’s Freezing Trap is missing a ring visual above the trap
The Warrior skill Recklessness has a persistent visual throughout its duration, which did not occur in Original WoW
Several player spells and abilities can occasionally play additional overlapping sound effects when used
Sheathing and unsheathing weapons does not play a sound.
Combat
Hunter Pets may occasionally get stuck on Follow if the command is issued during Feign Death
Extra attacks stored by Reckoning do not expire when the player mounts
A Hunter’s Multi-Shot ability can chain more than 10 yards from the primary target
A Warlock’s Drain Soul spell does not appropriately deal damage when the channel time is shortened via spell pushback
Creatures and NPCs
Loot sparkles do not scale up with creature size
Creatures that are affected by a Rogue’s Distract ability do not turn quickly enough
Creatures that are affected by a Rogue’s Gouge ability will occasionally turn to face a different direction
Battle Companions such as the Battle Chicken may occasionally become frozen after combat and fail to follow the player
Gordo may occasionally wander through the side of a bridge and get stuck inside of a tree in Tirisfal Glades
The dragon Gyth has multiple animation issues during the Rend Blackhand encounter in Blackrock Spire
Taking a flight path from Nethergarde Keep to Morgan’s Vigil will cause the taxi to clip through a building shortly after taking off
Engine and User Interface
When within detection range of a friendly stealthed unit, the stealthed unit’s name is incorrectly visible
SSAO does not render correctly in Windows 10
Macro tooltips do not load in when you first load into the client
Some area of effect debuffs like Explosive Trap do not display a duration
Several ranks of Warlock and Shaman spells do not display damage variance in their tooltips
If Dual Wield is known, One-Hand weapons may be erroneously equipped to the Off-Hand slot if dragged into the Main Hand slot while a Main Hand weapon is equipped
The default raid frames do not hide long-term buffs like Power Word: Fortitude while in combat
Macros that cast Pet abilities without specifying the rank do not update when the Pet learns a new rank of the ability
There is a conflict with some overlays such as Discord and Shadowplay that causes the client to crash when some video settings are adjusted
The chat messages that indicate a player’s inebriation level are incorrect
Spells, Buffs, and Talents
Players can mount on transports
Cleansed Songflower, Cleansed Whipper Root, and Cleansed Night Dragon cannot be simultaneously looted by multiple players
Players are not forced to re-purchase ranks of talented abilities that they have bought at least once before
Marvel Studios took to Disney’s D23 Expo to give fans a first look at several new costumes for Natasha Romanoff in her upcoming solo movie, Black Widow, as well as our first sneak at two new MCU characters in costume for the first time. A poster handed out on the show floor featured both Florence Pugh’s Yelena Belova and David Harbour’s Red Guardian, suited up for the very first time.
We’ve covered where Yelena fits into the Black Widow pantheon, so that leaves Red Guardian. Who, exactly, is he? Why does he matter in Natasha’s story and, more importantly, what will his introduction mean for the MCU?
The answer to these questions are, unsurprisingly, pretty complicated, given Natasha’s strange comic book past as well as her current position within the MCU, and how both of those things play into real-world history. Let’s break it down.
Meet Alexei Shoskatov
Originally introduced back in the early 1960s, the second Red Guardian, known in his civilian life as Alexei Shoskatov was, unsurprisingly, a pretty stereotypical product of the Cold War era in superhero comics. Marvel, specifically, was heavily reliant on current events to bring a sense of realism to their stories, so themes that revolved around a cartoonishly overblown Russian threat to the American Way were more than just commonplace, they were Marvel staples–especially where Natasha, the Avengers own Russian femme fatale, was concerned.
But naturally, comics needed more than just spy-vs-spy style action, especially when superheroes were involved, so these topical stories were often peppered with healthy servings of soapy melodrama. Alexei’s first appearance features a real bombshell: He’s actually Natasha’s long lost husband! Gasp!
Of course, it’s important to remember that in the 1960s, virtually everything about Natasha, from her origin story to her character design, would be basically unrecognizable to modern fans. This was before the concept of the Red Room had been introduced and the idea that Natasha was anything more than a somewhat duplicitous Russian spy who worked for SHIELD and that the mantle of Black Widow was anything more than an arbitrary code name was still a long, long ways off.
Using what little backstory Nat had in those early days as a very loose framework, it was explained that Alexei was a famous Soviet World War II hero who had married Nat during her very successful ballet career in the USSR. However, not long after their marriage, and as the Cold War began to roll in earnest, the KGB decided that Alexei’s skills as a soldier were too useful to waste. He was sent out on a mission where he was forced to fake his own death and sever all contact with his private life so that he could dedicate himself to becoming a symbol of Soviet power and prosperity as Red Guardian, similar to the way Captain America functioned as a symbol for the USA.
Naturally, Natasha was predictably distraught to hear that her husband had “died,” and in this early version of her origin, her mourning actually inspired her to join the KGB as well, to train as a spy–which is how she became Black Widow. You know, like you do.
All told, Alexei’s early days in Marvel lasted a scant two issues before he was defeated by Captain America and “died” under a heap of molten lava. In the years following his death, he became a sort of staple of Natasha’s ever-shifting backstory as she mourned for her late husband. Despite the fact that he went out a villain, she still believed him to be a good person at the core.
He came back a few times–both as a faux-zombie (don’t ask) and as a life-model decoy robot, or LMD, before being officially resurrected in the early 2000s. By then, however, Natasha’s origin story and circumstances had drastically changed into something we’d consider more familiar, so the story of a fake-dead KGB brainwashed husband didn’t quite land the way it did back in the 1960s.
With the emotional stakes of his story significantly downgraded, Alexei was largely downgraded to C or D list villain after that, taking on the mantle of Ronin for a time and working as an ultimately forgettable villain for Natasha to fight every now and again. The fact that he’s still, technically and despite all the origin story changes, Natasha’s ex-husband rarely comes up.
So, he’s a super soldier?
It’s tempting, given the Captain America comparisons, to assume that Alexei had his own knock-off version of the super soldier serum we associate with Steve Rogers–but that’s actually not the case. Alexei’s origin took place in an era of Marvel before Steve Rogers was given the backstory we now consider ubiquitous with him–back in the 60s, Steve was just a regular guy who got very strong the regular way. That was the case with Alexei as well–no powers, no healing factor, no abilities outside what the Marvel Universe considered “standard” for human superheroes.
What Alexei did have, however, was his own answer to Cap’s shield. Sort of. He wore a circular, magnetized belt buckle that he could throw and have return to him.
No, really. That was his main weapon.
Alexei never actually got the origin story overhaul that Steve did–he had long since faded into relative obscurity by the time the idea of the serum had really crystalized into Steve’s history–so even in his more modern appearances, he remains just a very fit but ultimately totally normal guy.
Other characters to take on the Red Guardian name in Alexei’s wake got less ridiculous weapons, including their own full-size Captain America style shields (usually solid red with a white star) and powers that were more in line with Steve’s modern incarnation.
How will this work in the MCU?
That’s the real question. It’s difficult, given just how much the MCU has modified or otherwise updated Natasha’s story, to see just how a relic of her oldest comic book past will fit into the puzzle. It’s unlikely that their marriage will cross over, given the way MCU Natasha has canonically been trained in the Red Room since birth–though her time between the Red Room and joining SHIELD remains mysterious, so maybe there was time for a brief affair in there somewhere.
Also, given how the timeline of events works in the MCU, and the fact that Alexei has never been known to be frozen, cryogenically or otherwise, it seems very likely that the World War II components of his past are going to be modified. David Harbour is 44-years-old, so it would be tricky to justify him as a vet of any Cold War-era conflicts, much less a hero of the USSR. However, there’s plenty of cryo-tech laying around the MCU–just ask Bucky Barnes–so maybe he’ll be getting a major update to his backstory that way, rather than a proper modernization.
In fact, given how the MCU incarnation of Steve Rogers features the super serum so prevalently, and how organizations like Hydra were definitely trying to duplicate it during the 1940s, it’s totally possible the live-action version of Alexei could be more of a Captain America clone than ever before, borrowing more from the other Red Guardians in Marvel history rather than Alexei himself. That could certainly make things interesting.
