World of Warcraft’s Classic edition is out now, and it’s helping World of Warcraft in general have a massive day on popular game-streaming site Twitch.
World of Warcraft is far and away the most popular game on Twitch today, August 26, and the release of WoW Classic undoubtedly played a major role in that. The game topped 1 million viewers on Twitch today, which is multiple times bigger than all other games.
Twitch’s public stats show that right now, at 10 PM ET, World of Warcraft has 593,000 viewers, which is well ahead of the No. 2 game, Fortnite, which has 120,000 viewers. It’s not surprising that the launch of a much-anticipated game would lead to a huge surge in viewers, and it will be interesting to see if World of Warcraft can continue to stay popular in the days and weeks ahead.
Fans have called on Nintendo to release Mario Kart on mobile devices for a long time, and it’s finally happening soon. Following a limited closed beta testing period, Nintendo’s next big smartphone game, Mario Kart Tour, will release on September 25. The release date was announced via the game’s brand-new Twitter account. Pre-registration for the game is now available, but it’s unclear if there are any benefits to doing so.
Like Nintendo’s previous Mario mobile games, Dr. Mario World and Super Mario Run, Mario Kart Tour is a free-to-start title that offers optional microtransactions. It’s not clear just yet how the microtransaction system works, but keep checking back with GameSpot for more on that.
Some people who got into the Mario Kart Tour beta, including Ethan Gach of Kotaku, said the microtransaction system brings down an otherwise enjoyable game. All of the previews so far for Mario Kart Tour are based on the unfinished beta that was always subject to change, so it’s possible Nintendo will tweak the in-game economy and microtransaction system for launch.
Mario Kart Tour features a number of familiar courses from previous Mario Kart games, including Choco Island 2 from the SNES game and Dino Dino Jungle from Double Dash for GameCube. You steer your kart by moving your finger left or right. You can also drift to get speed boosts.
There are 30 racers to choose from, while Mario Kart’s iconic items are also in the game. The beta period only featured single-player, and it remains to be seen if the final release will add real-time multiplayer. There were also reports about Mario Kart Tour being locked to vertical screen orientation on iOS and Android devices; it’s unknown if this will continue to be the case for the full launch.
Mario Kart Tour was originally expected to launch by the end of March, but Nintendo later delayed the game to Summer 2019. The game’s new September 25 release date is actually two days after Summer ends in the northern hemisphere on September 23, so this is technically another, albeit small, delay.
Mario Kart Tour will be released on iOS and Android devices on September 25, 2019.
Pre-orders are now live on iOS, and the game’s page gives further details as to what Mario Kart fans can expect when they play Nintendo’s beloved racing franchise on mobile devices.
Mario and friends will be racing around “courses inspired by real-world cities in addition to classic Mario Kart courses,” which will rotate every two weeks. Some characters will even have outfits that match the “local flavor of cities featured in the game!”
World of Warcraft’s Classic edition is out now, and those playing the up-to-date version are getting a special treat to celebrate the release and the 15th anniversary of the genre-defining MMO.
Blizzard is planning a host of celebrations for the coming months in the regular WoW, the first of which is an in-game event in WoW’s latest expansion, Battle for Azeroth. The event is a “special raid” that challenges players to go up against some of WoW’s most fearsome bosses.
Players must have reached WoW’s current level cap, 110, to take on the raid. Those who successfully take down the bosses will earn the Obsidian Worldbreaker mount. Blizzard said this creature was inspired by the mighty Deathwing the Destroyer.
For those looking for something simpler, Blizzard is giving away a series of “limited-time bonuses” simply for logging into Battle for Azeroth. The items include the Lil’ Nefarian pet, a special in-game achievement, and other bonuses; the full list will be announced in the upcoming weeks.
World of Warcraft Classic is available now, but players are finding it rather difficult to get into the game’s servers. Apparently, the virtual line to get in is very, very long.
With only a few hours to go before WoW Classic’s launch, a large number of the available servers are full. Given World of Warcraft‘s popularity, a quick look at Twitch reveals over 900 thousand people logging in to watch the game, it’s not surprising that so many people want in on WoW Classic. However, it is impressive that so many of the game’s servers filled so quickly–especially since Classic’s servers hold thousands more than the original WoW’s servers did. For an idea of just how long it’s taking, look at the image below. It’s taken from our attempt to get into WoW Classic.
Even with queue times so long–and getting longer–Blizzard isn’t in a rush to add more servers to the game. Instead, the studio is aiming to create a successful groundwork from which WoW Classic can expand. “Our top priority in planning for WoW Classic’s launch has been ensuring that we are laying the groundwork for strong realm communities that will endure over the months and years to follow, which is why we’re cautiously opening new servers to meet demand,” Blizzard told Polygon.
Ahead of WoW Classic’s launch, Blizzard warned that the queue times would be a lot longer than most people may think, and outlined ways for players to avoid having to wait too long. “We urge players on realms marked Full or High to plan to play on one of these new realms to avoid the longest queues, and to help spread the player population as evenly as possible and provide the best play experience for everyone,” the studio said.
WoW Classic is basically a remake of the original WoW, featuring the same character models, combat mechanics, and skill trees of the original game as they were at launch 10 years ago. A standard WoW subscription fee is needed to access WoW Classic.
The full trailer for the new season of American Horror Story is here. The ninth season of the popular anthology horror series is titled American Horror Story: 1984 and, as the title suggests, pays homage to scary movies of the 1980s.
Unlike the trailer released last month, this one sets out the show’s story. That said, anyone who has seen any slasher movies from the ’80s could guess it in advance–a group of partying teens head to a summer camp, where they are picked off by an escaped maniac. But in the hands of AHS creator Ryan Murphy, it looks like gloriously campy fun, with amazing ’80s fashions, faux film scratch marks, and a hooded killer called Mr Jingles. Check it out below.
The cast of the new series includes Emma Roberts, Cody Fern, Gus Kenworthy, Billie Lourd, Matthew Morrison, Angelica Ross, DeRon Horton, and Zach Villa. American Horror Story: 1984 premieres on September 18 on FX.
While Roberts, Lourd, Fern, and Grossman have all appeared in previous seasons of the show, one series regular who won’t feature much–or possibly at all–is Sarah Paulson. As reported by Variety, Paulson won’t have “a significant role” in Season 9, and the most we can expect to see her in is a cameo.
The upcoming standalone Joker movie is set to be a little different from previous DC movies. It’s an R-rated movie that has been compared to the gritty crime films of Martin Scorsese, and it’s set to hit theaters this October. The second trailer is expected this week, and ahead of that we have a series of short clips from the movie.
The clips were posted on Instagram by the official Joker account. They are all extremely short, but provide some footage that wasn’t in April’s first trailer, including a weird one where Arthur Fleck (Joaquin Phoenix) climbs into a fridge. There are also some almost subliminal flashes of text that appear on each clip. Reddit user leos-rdt has pieced these together, and they reveal when we will see the new trailer–Wednesday, August 28. Check the first clip out below and the others over at the Joker Instagram page.
Joker also also stars Robert De Niro, Zazie Beetz, Bill Camp, Shea Whigham, and Marc Maron, and it releases on October 4. In a recent interview, director Todd Phillips revealed that the movie’s storyline has no connection to any comic books. “We didn’t follow anything from the comic books, which people are gonna be mad about,” Phillips, said. “We just wrote our own version of where a guy like Joker might come from. That’s what was interesting to me. We’re not even doing Joker, but the story of becoming Joker. It’s about this man.”
Joker is the latest of several movies on the way over the next couple of years from DC. It will be followed by Birds of Prey in February 2020, which sees Margot Robbie reprise her Suicide Squad role as Harley Quinn, with Wonder Woman 1984 is set to hit theaters in July next year. Ahead of that, There are also 2021 dates for the standalone Batman movie and James Gunn’s Suicide Squad reboot, while Aquaman 2 will be with us in 2022.
If you love Jim Henson movies or puppetry in general, you’re probably pretty excited for this week’s Netflix selections, mainly one series that’s a prequel to a movie from 37 years ago.
As for your non-puppet options, Netflix has some new originals headed your way like Season 2 of the Million Pound Menu on Tuesday. The competition series is like Shark Tank for restaurants. Also, Season 2 of Droppin’ Cash arrives on Friday. That series is about musicians and athletes spending way too much money on items no one would ever need. Even though that series sounds entirely unappetizing, it’s actually pretty funny–which is completely unintentional.
The main course for this week is none other than The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance. This is a prequel–of sorts–to the 1982 Jim Henson movie The Dark Crystal. The Netflix series uses a mixture of puppets and CG to bring the world of Thra to life. This show follows three elf-like Gelfings who discover a secret behind the power of the Skeksis–horrifying bird-like creatures. But does this new series live up to the hype?
In his review of The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance, GameSpot’s Chris E. Hayner said, “Puppetry is an art that isn’t quite as prevalent or as popular as it once was, which makes me afraid that seeing this art form from days gone will turn some off within the opening minutes of the series. Rest assured, however, if you can make it through the first 15-20 minutes of Episode 1, The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance should hook you in with its fantastical storytelling and incredible world. So give it a chance to work its magic on you. You won’t regret it.”
The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance arrives on Friday. Below, you’ll find everything coming to Netflix this week. And make sure to check out what’s coming in September for Netflix as well.
New to Netflix this week:
Tuesday, August 27
Million Pound Menu: Season 2 — NETFLIX ORIGINAL
Trolls: The Beat Goes On!: Season 7 — NETFLIX FAMILY
Thursday, August 29
Falling Inn Love — NETFLIX FILM
Kardec — NETFLIX FILM
Workin’ Moms: Season 3 — NETFLIX ORIGINAL
Friday, August 30
The A List — NETFLIX ORIGINAL
CAROLE & TUESDAY — NETFLIX ANIME
The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance — NETFLIX ORIGINAL
Droppin’ Cash: Season 2 — NETFLIX ORIGINAL
La Grande Classe — NETFLIX FILM
Locked Up: Season 3
Mighty Little Bheem: Season 2 — NETFLIX FAMILY
Styling Hollywood — NETFLIX ORIGINAL
True and the Rainbow Kingdom: Wild Wild Yetis — NETFLIX FAMILY
The World of Warcraft Classic servers are now live. That is, if you haven’t been caught by the long queues.
World of Warcraft’s highly anticipated Classic servers were set to go live today, August 26, 2019 at 3 PM PT/6PM ET/11 PM BST. However, Blizzard warned that server overpopulation is very real, just based on the username claims that have been made so far.
If you’re one of the lucky ones to get into a World of Warcraft classic server, congratulations. If not, you may be waiting awhile depending on where in the queue landed.
Blizzard warned players that the Herod server was already overpopulated, and that players should consider moving to another server before Blizzard decides to raise any population caps. And that’s on top of the increased server sizes Blizzard has already implemented into World of Warcraft Classic servers.
Star Wars Battlefront II design director Dennis Brännvall feels that the first-person shooter is in a good place. Having been the subject of a major loot box controversy when it launched in 2017, Battlefront II has slowly been regaining its player base over the past two years thanks to well-received updates and much-needed patches. In 2019, Battlefront II is almost a completely different game–on the multiplayer side anyway–and Brännvall believes players are truly beginning to see it.
“We hit rock bottom in terms of player sentiment but now it’s climbing every month,” Brännvall said in an interview with GamesIndustry.biz. “We’re delivering more content this year than we did in the first year, which is also a sign of a healthy game. The community’s happier than it’s ever been, especially with the big announcement yesterday. I think we had to take a step back, the team had to look at itself in the mirror a little bit, pick ourselves up from a really rough Christmas for everyone and then just get back to work.”
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The announcement Brännvall is referring to is the massive series of content updates that are scheduled to hit Battlefront II before the end of 2019. This month, Republic Venator and Separatist Dreadnought warships are being added to Heroes vs. Villains. Changes are also being made to the interior of capital ships in Capital Supremacy–the 40-person game mode that combines land and space battles in the same arena. In both Capital Supremacy and Instant Action, you’ll also gain the option to spawn on command posts as well, not just squadmates or respawn points. Droids are also getting new cosmetics appearances to earn and unlock.
In terms of larger changes coming later in the year, Battlefront II is getting Republic Commandos as playable characters, a brand-new planet to play on, and a new co-op focused PvE experience that’s similar to 2005 Battlefront 2‘s beloved Galactic Conquest mode. There are a few more things scheduled for 2019 as well and, surprisingly, DICE is looking at more Battlefront II content in 2020 as opposed to moving production towards a new Battlefield.
“DICE has been on the sequel treadmill for quite a while, and I think the industry is changing rapidly,” Brännvall said. “We felt that, and we know that we want to build communities rather than customers. That’s been a change in our approach. We want to stick with our games a lot longer, and we want our communities to feel like they’re well taken care of.”
“It makes no sense to constantly try to stop them playing the game they like and make them play the new game they also should like just because we don’t want to work on the old game anymore. It’s not good for the community, and in this age, if it’s not good for the community it’s probably not going to be good for business either. That’s why we’re sticking with it.”
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Battlefront II’s redemption is one of the most well-earned comebacks in the game industry in the past few years. Though the single-player story campaign still isn’t very good, the multiplayer has seen huge updates that have drastically changed the game for the better. All of Battlefront II’s updates have also been free and on a near-constant monthly basis as opposed to the costly quarterly updates seen in the first DICE Battlefront. In respect to the community, DICE has structured many of these updates around the most beloved aspects of the recent Star Wars lore, such as The Clone Wars, and fan-favorite games like Republic Commando. As someone who dropped Battlefront II within a month of its release, the past year of content drops has completely changed my opinion on the shooter. If you haven’t played Battlefront II in a while, you should reconsider trying it again.
“Not a week goes by without us thinking, ‘Imagine if we hadn’t launched with loot boxes the way we did,'” Brännvall said. “We would have been a different place, that’s for sure, because we truly believe the game is a worthy sequel to Battlefront 1 and lives up to the legacy of the Battlefront franchise.”
Battlefront II is available for Xbox One, PS4, and PC. The game comes included in an EA Access/EA Play subscription on Xbox One/PC.