Red Dead Online Beta Launches Today, Includes Battle Royale Mode

The first Read Dead Online beta has launched, with those who own the Red Dead Redemption 2: Ultimate Edition being the first eligible players to join the beta.

Details of what Red Dead Online will entail has finally been revealed by Rockstar, and one thing they are pushing already is player feedback so they can continually improve the experience. The beta period will include additions and updates as time goes on, and is meant to be a mode that has the ability to expand.

In Red Dead Online, players will be able to do everything from riding around with friends in a Posse and setting up camp together to completing co-op story-based missions or competing against one another. Just like in the solo game, exploring the world to assist strangers – or to go up against them – will be a common activity, as well as hunting, fishing, Free Roam challenges, and more.

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Walking Dead Midseason Finale Ratings Are the Lowest Yet

The Walking Dead’s Season 9 mid-season finale was officially the lowest rated mid-season finale in series history.

Per Variety, Sunday’s “Evolution” episode netted 5.1 million viewers and a 2.0 Nielsen rating in the key adults 18-49 demographic. This is down from Season 8’s mid-season finale, which brought in 7.9 million viewers and a 3.4 rating: this marks a 35% decrease in total viewers, and 41% decrease in the demographic.

The highest mid-season finale ratings are held by the Season 5 episode, which brought in 14.8 million viewers, and earned a 7.6 rating.

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Fortnite Surpasses 200 Million Players

Fortnite now has more than 200 million players, making it among the most-played games in the history of the medium.

The new statistic, which comes from Bloomberg, represents a 60 percent increase in players since Epic Games shared information back in June. The following month, Epic Games was valued at up to $8 billion, and a new investment deal made back in October valued the company at nearly twice that number.

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Nintendo Gets Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Pirates Banned from YouTube

Nintendo has responded to widespread Super Smash Bros. Ultimate piracy by issuing copyright strikes resulting in multiple YouTube takedowns and bans, according to reports from USGamer and Newsweek.

YouTube channels Dystifyzer and Crunchii were banned entirely from the platform after being hit with a number of copyright strikes by Nintendo. The channels had been spreading leaked tracks from Super Smash Bros. Ultimate’s soundtrack and reached YouTube’s three-strike threshold that results in full terminations of channels and accounts associated with the strikes.

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Fortnite Item Gifting Now Live for a Limited Time

Fortnite will be adding the long-requested option to send gifts to your friends with the release of the 6.31 update, but only for a limited time.

Announced by The Fortnite Team, item gifting will be available on all platforms for one week following the update, except for iOS devices because “Apple’s policies prohibit it.”

Sending a gift to a friend is as simple as choosing an item in the Item Shop and selecting “Buy As A Gift.”

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The LEGO Movie 2 Videogame Announced for 2019

Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment today announced The LEGO Movie 2 Videogame for PlayStation 4, Switch, Xbox One, and PC. It will arrive digitally and in stores on all platforms on Feb. 26, 2019, except for the Switch retail version which will follow on March 26, 2019.

“The alien monster invaders have left Bricksburg in ruins,” reads the game’s official description. “It is now up to Emmet and a host of heroic characters to go beyond their world and save their friends from the strange inhabitants of the Systar System. Journey into outer space, discover new worlds, and test your Master Building skills.”

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Fortnite Patch 6.31 Detailed: Team Rumble LTM, Epic Shotgun, And More

Epic Games is rolling out Fortnite update 6.31 and has detailed the tweaks, changes, and new additions in the patch notes. The headliners in the Battle Royale mode are the Team Rumble Limited Time Mode and Epic and Legendary Pump Shotguns. For the save the world, meanwhile, there’s a new Constructor called Airheart, who arrives with a Rotating Omni-directional Sentry Integrated Exoskeleton (R.O.S.I.E).

Team Rumble, as you may have guessed, involves two teams of 20 players battling each other, with the first to reach 100 eliminations crowned the victor. To spice things up players will respawn five seconds after they are killed and will keep their inventory when they re-join the battle. Furthermore, eliminated players spawn a random type of ammo and a random stack of either 120 Wood, 90 Stone, or 60 Metal materials when they’re taken out.

The new Epic and Legendary Shotgun, meanwhile, does 105 / 110 maximum damage, and is available from floor loot, chests, Supply Drops, and Vending Machines. There have been various other changes to the way other weapons work, and their availability. Take a look at the full patch notes for Battle Royale below, and click here for more on the Save The World mode.

Limited Time Mode: Team Rumble

Summary

Two large teams fight for the Victory Royale in an action-packed mode where the first team to get 100 eliminations wins!

Mode Details

  • Two teams of 20 players.
  • Players will respawn after 5 seconds when eliminated, keeping their inventory.
  • Eliminated players spawn a random type of ammo upon elimination, as well as a random stack of either 120 Wood, 90 Stone, or 60 Metal materials.
  • Only Uncommon weapons (or better) are available.
  • The first team to 100 eliminations wins.

Weapons + Items

  • New Epic and Legendary Pump Shotgun
    • 105 / 110 maximum damage
    • Available from floor loot, chests, Supply Drops, and Vending Machines.
  • Shotguns will now always apply at least 3 pellets worth of damage if only 1-2 pellets hit the target.
    • NOTE: Bonus pellets can never be critical hits.
  • Pump Shotgun maximum damage and fall-off changes.
    • Pump Shotgun maximum damage increased from 80 / 85 to 95 / 100
      • Pump shotguns will do higher damage in shorter range buckets but damage falls off quicker. This means you’ll do more damage to closer targets but less damage to farther targets.
  • Added Stink Bombs to Supply Drops
  • Removed Double Barrel Shotguns from floor loot
  • Mounted Turret
    • Adjusted Mounted Turret collision to make it easier to land shots against anyone occupying it.
    • Removed the ability to repair the Mounted Turret
    • Fixed players being able to clip into turret barrels and get stuck.
    • Supply drops will automatically open if landing on a Mounted Turret
    • Drop rate reduced from 1.719% to 0.915%

Bug Fixes

  • The Mounted Turret can no longer fire through its own floor.
  • Fixed an issue with players not having an audio cue while gliding after respawning.
  • Fixed an issue with Chiller effects not applying properly to players’ feet.

Gameplay

  • Reduced the in-air speed when using the Glider Redeploy feature in supported game modes.
  • Added functionality that allows the placement of map markers in the world without needing to go into the fullscreen map.
    • You’ll be able to look at a position in the world and use the “Place Marker” keybind to place a map marker. This command will only be available by default while in Combat Mode.
    • This command is defaulted to Left on the D-pad for controllers and the Middle Mouse button for PC and Mac.
    • For Mobile players, this command will be bound to an optional button in the HUD Layout Tool.
  • Added the ability to pick up and throw back Dynamite with a lit fuse.
    • To throw the Dynamite with a lit fuse, get near it and use the interact key.

Bug Fixes

  • Increased the Dynamite explosion height against players from 192 units to 300 units.
    • This was done to prevent players from being able to jump over the explosion area on flat ground without taking damage.

Events

  • New Tournament: Alchemist Pop-Up Cup
    • Pop-Up Cups are tournaments testing temporary, Limited Time Modes. Alchemist will continue our testing of several gameplay adjustments and may differ day to day.
    • Initial Mode Settings:
      • A material cap of 500 Wood, 500 Stone, 500 Metal
      • Harvesting Rate Increased by 40%
      • +50 Health on Eliminations
      • Storm Surge
        • If a certain amount of players are remaining by the time the Storm finishes closing, a Storm Surge will activate. This periodically deals damage to players who have the least amount of damage dealt during the match.
          • Circle 1: 60 Players Remaining
          • Circle 2: 44 Players Remaining
          • Circle 3: 30 Players Remaining
          • Circle 4: 20 Players Remaining
          • Circle 5: 16 Players Remaining
          • Circle 6: 14 Players Remaining
          • Circle 7: 12 Players Remaining
          • Circle 8: 6 Players Remaining
          • Circle 9: 2 Players Remaining
          • Your highest score or pin during any event session will now be displayed on the tournament poster in the Events tab.
          • Pins will now reflect tournament colors on the Event Details screen.

Bug Fixes

  • Fixed an issue where players would receive points during warmup island which would be later removed.

Performance

  • Improvements to level streaming performance on Xbox One and Switch (improving building load times during skydiving)

Audio

  • Player in-air falling audio cue volume has been increased.
  • The Mounted Turret overheat audio loop volume has been reduced.

Bug Fixes

  • Fixed an issue where the Glider in-air audio cue wouldn’t play for players who glide in after respawning.

Social

Bug Fixes

  • Fixed a crash on Nintendo Switch that occasionally occurred when logging in for the first time.

Art + Animation

Bug Fixes

  • Fixed an issue where player nameplates disappear after scrubbing a replay.

Mobile

  • Map Marker button added to the HUD Layout Tool

Fortnite is also having another crossover with Disney. While the last one resulted in Thanos appearing on the island, this time it’s Ralph from Disney’s Wreck-It Ralph movie series. He popped up recently in Fortnite as part of an unpublicised Easter egg, likely to help promote the new film Ralph Breaks The Internet.