How Hearthstone’s New Boomsday Project Keyword Was Inspired By Voltron

Hearthstone‘s next expansion, The Boomsday Project, brings Mechs back to the forefront for the first time since the tribe was introduced in Goblins vs Gnomes. A big part of the refreshed Mech focus is the new Magnetic ability, which allows you to stick Mechs together to build your own bot. Lead designer Mike Donais shared some design insights and gave a hat-tip to a classic giant robot in the process.

“We wanted to do something different for Mech, something we hadn’t done before,” Donais told GameSpot. “And we really liked the idea of you assembling some kind of Voltron-type deal where you’re stacking Mechs on top of each other to make the ultimate Mech.”

This wouldn’t even be the first time the classic anime series has been referenced in regards to Hearthstone. A Legendary card called Mimiron’s Head from Goblins vs Gnomes would reward you for keeping three Mechs on the board with the powerful “V-07-TR-0N”–a minion that boasted the rarely used “Mega-Windfury” ability. Mimiron’s Head never saw much serious play, but for the return of Mechs, Blizzard has handed the fantasy of building your ultimate weapon over to the players. It also, not coincidentally, supports the tone of this expansion.

“It really captures the flavor of the labs where you’re building science things,” Donais said. “Dr. Boom loves making Mechs, but the thing he loves even more is making even bigger Mechs, so this really follows into his strategy.”

He says the team learned a lot from Deathstalker Rexxar, a Hero card introduced in Knights of the Frozen Throne set that allows him to create “Zombeasts”–unholy fusions of two different Beast minions. This mechanic operates a little differently though. While Zombeasts were naturally kept in check by the randomness of the options presented, the Magnetic ability will let players build a deck specifically to take advantage of particular combinations. That makes balance trickier.

“That’s kind of the fun, combining things together and finding this crazy stuff,” Donais said. “And sometimes it was like, wow, that was really powerful. Let’s leave it in and make it expensive and powerful and let people have that fantasy of doing that because I think it’s really cool. As long as we just cost it right. So there’s going to be a mix of those in the expansion. Sometimes just building a Mech–it has untargetable, and Divine Shield, and Windfury, all those things. Put them all together into this giant, powerful Mech is kind of your fantasy.”

The Boomsday Project launches on August 7. To view all the currently revealed cards, including all the Mechs, check out our gallery of Hearthstone’s Boomsday Project cards.

WWE Announces First All-Women’s PPV, Evolution

On the July 23 episode of Raw, Stephanie McMahon stood in the ring, next to her husband Triple H, and father Vince McMahon to announce to the world that the women of WWE would be getting their own PPV event this fall.

“On October 28, 50 women–then, now, and forever–will participate in an event called Evolution,” Stephanie McMahon told the audience of Raw. “And that event, I am privileged to announce will be the first-ever all-women’s pay-per-view.”

Evolution will air at 7 PM ET / 4 PM PT from NYCB Live, home of The Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum, in New York. Multiple championships will be on the line from Raw, Smackdown, NXT, and NXT UK. Additionally, the finals for the second annual Mae Young Classic will also be included in the show.

In addition to the entire current roster being included–in one form or another–on the show, WWE Hall of Famers Trish Stratus and Lita will be on the show, and there could be more, according to WWE. How all these superstars are going to be included on one card is a mystery, but we’re guessing there will be a battle royal of sorts on the show.

A few years ago, WWE fans became frustrated with how the women’s division was being treated, especially when new talent from NXT–WWE’s developmental program–was called up and not given the chance to showcase their talent. Many times, there was only one women’s match per PPV, and even when they did happen, they were short. The division wasn’t taken seriously, and the proof is in the fact the entire women’s roster were called “Divas,” and the championship belt had butterfly wings on it.

After an outcry on social media, to give these women a chance, WWE took note and began the road to where we are now. In April 2016, the Divas Championship was retired and a new WWE Women’s Championship was revealed. Since then, women have competed in their first Royal Rumble, Hell in a Cell, Elimination Chamber, and Money in the Bank matches. These superstars have main evented PPVs as well, and no longer are fans accustomed to 30-second matches. The talent is on the same level as the men, so it’s about time they are treated that way.

Tickets for Evolution will go on sale on Friday, August 24 at 10 AM ET / 7 AM PT.

Fortnite Playground LTM Returns Very Soon With More Loot

Fortnite‘s much-loved Playground mode will return on July 25, developer Epic Games has announced. There will be a number of new additions this time around, including team select options and the ability to drive the newly released all-terrain kart. Additionally, Epic is promising “lots more loot,” though a specific list of items has not been released yet.

The full list of changes for the new Playground mode will be published in the 5.10 patch notes tomorrow, July 24. Keep checking back with GameSpot for more.

Originally released at the start of July, Playground is intended to be a “low-pressure environment” that acts much like a private server. It allows players to explore the map and play around with up to three friends, free from the risk of being eliminated by other people. The mode was removed a couple weeks back, with Epic saying at the time it would bring it back with some changes at a later date.

July 24 marks the first anniversary of Fortnite’s release, and Epic is celebrating the occasion with a limited time event that lets you take on a set of special quests to unlock birthday-themed cosmetics and an XP bonus. There will be three different quests to complete, each of which offers a different reward. Players who manage to complete all three of the quests before the event ends on August 7 will receive a Birthday Cake Back Bling.

What We Learned About Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse & Venom at SDCC 2018

You need a javascript enabled browser to watch videos.

Please use a html5 video capable browser to watch videos.

This video has an invalid file format.

Sorry, but you can’t access this content!

No Man’s Sky Designer — “I Made Mistakes”

No Man’s Sky launched for PS4 and PC back in August 2016, and at the time it was criticised for a perceived lack of content. The game has grown since, and it gets another big update this week when true multiplayer comes to the game in the No Man’s Sky Next expansion. Part of the problem with the game was that some players felt they were promised more than what was delivered. Sony management has gone on record to say the PR strategy “wasn’t great.”

Now, the face of No Man’s Sky–designer Sean Murray–has released a message to the community in which he acknowledged that he made “mistakes.”

“Whilst I couldn’t be prouder of the team, I personally made mistakes,” Murray said in a blog post. “I could talk all day about things I personally would change. Certainly one regret is that the intensity and drama of launch left no room for communication with the community.”

Murray said the team at Hello Studios wanted to focus on “development rather than words,” which might have been part of the problem. He also pointed out that Hello Games is a very small team; there were never more than 15 people working on the game, he pointed out.

No Man’s Sky Next, which launches on July 24, is just the latest free update for the sci-fi game. It follows previously released updates such as Foundation, Pathfinder, and Atlas Rises.

The game remains immensely popular, it seems, as Murray pointed out that around 1 million people played No Man’s Sky on the day that Atlas Rises launched. Everyone who purchased the expansion played for 45 hours on average, Murray said, while 20 percent of players reached 100 hours and 5 percent passed 1000 hours. All up, people have spent more than 200 million hours playing No Man’s Sky to date.

“One day I hope to reach a point where I feel No Man’s Sky is ‘finished,’ but luckily there’s still so much more we want to do,” Murray said. “Working on NEXT feels important to us, but I know it’s not the end of the journey. We know the journey would be more fun together.”

No Man’s Sky is currently available on PS4, Xbox One, and PC.

Pokemon Go Adds “Lucky Pokemon” In New Update

Niantic is rolling out another new update for Pokemon Go. The update is available now for both iOS and Android devices, and along with a handful of bug fixes and performance improvements, it introduces another new feature to the mobile game: Lucky Pokemon.

According to Niantic, some Pokemon will now become “Lucky Pokemon” when traded to another player. These special monsters will be denoted by a sparkling background, and what makes them particularly desirable is that they require less Stardust to power up, meaning players can raise the Pokemon’s Combat Power much faster than normal.

It’s unclear what other variables factor into whether or not a Pokemon you receive in a trade will become a Lucky one. However, Niantic notes that the longer a Pokemon has been sitting in a player’s storage, the higher its likelihood is of becoming a Lucky Pokemon.

In addition to Lucky Pokemon, the latest Pokemon Go update adds another incentive to send Gifts. Now, players who send Gifts to their friends will be rewarded with XP. The Gifts themselves also now have a chance of containing Stardust, in addition to their usual assortment of items (including special Eggs that hatch into Alolan forms of certain Pokemon).

Trading and Gifting were first introduced in Pokemon Go earlier this summer, along with the much-requested friends system. Players can now register each other as friends by exchanging numerical friend codes. Once registered, they can then send Gifts to other trainers on their friends list. Players can also trade Pokemon with friends, but that can only be done in-person.

A new Legendary Pokemon, Registeel, recently began appearing in Pokemon Go. Players will be able to encounter the Legendary Steel-type in Raid Battles until August 21. Niantic also recently shared details for the game’s next Community Day event, which this time takes place on two days–August 11 and 12–and features Eevee.

Backblaze Review

Be sure to visit IGN Tech for all the latest comprehensive hands-on reviews and best-of roundups. Note that if you click on one of these links to buy the product, IGN may get a share of the sale. For more, read our Terms of Use.

Backblaze is one of the most popular cloud backup services around right now, and it’s easy to see why. It costs only $5 a month per PC or Mac with unlimited storage, making it one of the most affordable services available, and it takes almost no time to set up (See pricing details on the Backblaze site). In just a few clicks, all your important files will be protected not only from hard drive crashes, but theft, fire, and other disasters.

Continue reading…