EA Sports has delayed the NHL 21 closed beta and postponed the announcement of more news about the game in a show of solidarity for athletes’ strikes regarding racial injustice.
Writing on Twitter, EA announced that it has postponed the start of the closed beta, which was scheduled to begin on August 28. The company also said it won’t be releasing new details on the World of Chel mode for NHL 21 today as it had planned to.
“Out of respect for much more important conversations around social injustice, today is not the day. We stand with the African American / Black community in solidarity against racism,” EA said.
EA’s announcement came after the NHL announced that all of Thursday’s Stanley Cup playoffs games were postponed in solidarity with the protests regarding the police shooting of Jacob Blake.
Those of you excited about seeing Christopher Meloni finally return to the Law & Order franchise aren’t going to like this. Law & Order: Organized Crime, the limited series that will see Meloni reprise his role as Elliot Stabler, has been delayed.
The news comes from GameSpot sister site TV Guide, which reports the project has been pushed back to sometime in 2021, instead of the planned 2020 release. It’s possible this has something to do with the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, given that most TV shows have yet to begin production again. Those that have are working with many new procedures and rules, as was revealed by the cast of The Goldbergs.
Organized Crimes centers around Stabler’s return to the NYPD, as he heads up the city’s organized crime division. However, according to a series description, “the city and police department have changed dramatically in the decade he’s been away, and he must adapt to a criminal justice system in the midst of its own moment of reckoning. Throughout the series, we will follow Stabler’s journey to find absolution and rebuild his life, while leading a new elite task force that is taking apart the city’s most powerful criminal syndicates one by one.”
In addition to organized Crimes, Meloni is also scheduled to appear once again on SVU. Originally, he was expected to reprise his role in the show’s Season 22 premiere, before the debut of Organized Crimes. It remains to be seen if that plan will change now that the spin-off has been delayed.
Frank Herbert’s Dune is arguably one of the most famous sci-fi novels of all time. The sprawling epic about spice and sandworms (among other things) has been adapted to live action not once, but twice–the first by director David Lynch (yes, that David Lynch) back in 1984 and the second as a mini-series on the SyFy channel back in 2000. There was even a failed attempt by surrealist auteur director Alejandro Jodorowsky (Tusk) which never saw the light of day–but was turned into a much-loved documentary back in 2013.
Neither were particularly well received by fans–though the memes, particularly of Lynch’s version–which included musician Sting in a sci-fi thong–still hold up.
Now, director Denis Villeneuve (Blade Runner 2049, Arrival) is hoping that the third time will be the charm. He is directing his own adaptation consisting of two movies to cover the first Herbert novel, starring Timothee Chalamet, Oscar Isaac, Rebecca Ferguson, Zendaya, and Josh Brolin. The production has been kept closely under wraps thus far, with only a small handful of stills and images from set making their way onto social media–but that’s all about to change. The first trailer for Villeneuve’s Dune is set to land online on September 9.
Dune follows the story of a 16-year-old chosen one named Paul Atreides (Chalamet), son of the powerful Duke Leto Atreides (Isaac), as he and his family move from their temperate home planet Caladan to the harsh planet Arrakis, AKA Dune. There, Paul learns that he may be more than just a duke’s heir, and finds himself deeply embroiled in the spiritual and political struggle surrounding the galaxy’s most precious resource: Spice.
Fortnite: Chapter 2’s Season 4 is finally here. There is one secret challenge that ties into the season’s overarching Marvel theme. Baby Groot, one form of the super tree, is hidden somewhere on the map, and if you find him you’ll get a special back bling. This guide will help you locate him quickly.
Where is Baby Groot?
Baby Groot is hidden in the nursery at Holly Hedges. Holly Hedges is a named location, so it shouldn’t be hard to find. Dive into that location and head to the southwest corner area where a fence of hedges surrounds a little outdoor shopping area. Baby Groot will be surrounded by three potted plants. Simply walk up to them and pick him up.
Some players have reported that Baby Groot is not spawning every match, so be prepared to try this several times. Hopefully Epic Games has a fix for that bug soon.
Fortnite Season 4 Baby Groot Location
What Do I Get For Finding Baby Groot?
You’ll get the Sapling Baby Groot Back Bling when you find and collect Baby Groot. It’s a throwback to the Guardians of the Galaxy movies where Groot sacrifices himself to save his friends. He doesn’t die–he becomes a little baby tree instead.
Ubisoft China and the clothing company Sheepedia recently teamed up for a series of products related to the gaming company, but something went very wrong with one of them.
Sheepedia created a nice-looking Ubisoft coffee mug, but, due to a “bug” in the manufacturing process, the handle came out on the inside. It’s not exactly the best way to enjoy your morning coffee. You can see the defective mug below.
Ubisoft China and Chinese clothing brand Sheepedia recently collaborated on some joint products. Today the company issued an apology that it would no longer be releasing the Ubisoft x Sheepedia mug due to a “bug” during the production process which caused this… pic.twitter.com/2wYK3AbvO7
According to analyst Daniel Ahmad (via GamesRadar), Sheepedia apologized for the problem and pulled the mugs from sale. Ahmad pointed out that consumers got very excited about the broken mugs and asked Sheepedia about bringing them back as a novelty item. Sheepedia is said to be communicating with Ubisoft’s corporate owners in France to see if they’ll allow it.
Ahmad believes this might have all been a purposeful marketing stunt for Sheepedia to promote its clothing line. Whatever the case, it’s a pretty excellent gag or gaffe.
In other Ubisoft news, the company is holding its next E3 replacement event, Ubisoft Forward, in September. The company has promised “tons of game news” for the event.
Set for release on August 28 for PC, PS4, and Xbox One, Project CARS 3 is shaping up to be the most robust entry in the series to date. While it stays true to the series’ sim-racing foundations, the third entry in the franchise shakes things up to offer something more approachable for the general racing fan base.
During GameSpot’s Play For All event, we had the chance to interview esports Manager Joe Barron and production director Pete Moorish about the third game’s revised approach to sim-racing. In addition to fleshing out the game’s customization, the career mode will also highlight more of the experience being an up-and-coming driver who’s a part of a global racing league. Along with this, rival drivers will have more advanced AI and attributes, aiming to make for more engaging races.
Before the release of Project CARS 3, we had another remote correspondence with Barron about what’s to come with PC3 and how it will evolve following its launch.
“Project CARS 3 is certainly a big step for us as a studio. The previous games were praised for their graphics, simulation, weather conditions, and so on, but we had ambitions to make the franchise a more personal and rewarding experience,” said Barron. “You can really see that reflected in Project CARS 3 with the introduction of experience systems, the customization options for car and driver, and the shared progression between the single-player and multiplayer modes. It’s certainly the most engaging progression of a player’s climb from weekend warrior to racing legend of any game in the franchise, and you really feel that progression all across the game. Since the first game, we’ve said that it’s about the ‘ultimate driver’s journey,’ and we feel we’re really delivering that in a way that is more rewarding and personal with Project CARS 3.”
A common criticism of the series, which the developers wanted to address with the third game, was its challenge and accessibility. While the previous games were aimed at gear-heads, Slightly Mad Studios wanted to streamline some of the systems while also including some assist options and other revisions for new drivers. For instance, tire and fuel management has been dropped from the game. This is intended to focus more on the core driving experience as you weave past other drivers and make tight turns around the track. With that said, it is a part of the sim-driving experience that is missing from the game.
In our chat, Barron explained that the the revised racing-sim experience is to make Project CARS 3 more approach for newcomers, but it doesn’t lose sight of what makes the series a fixture in the racing game genre.
“Along with a better sense of progression [and] more assists, one of the biggest changes is that we completely rebuilt gamepad handling,” said Barron. “It’s now much easier to jump in with a standard controller and quickly get a nice feel for the driving, and there’s no need to spend time adjusting stick dead-zones, etc. It works brilliantly right out of the box, and we can’t wait for more people to try it.”
“These assists are intended to onboard new drivers, and we encourage players to gradually turn off the assists by offering bigger XP rewards the fewer assists you have turned on. With all that said, we’ve not forgotten about serious racers either, though. We’ve made some great strides with improvements and detail in force feedback for steering wheel users. If you want to jump straight in with all the assists off, you will still find the challenging, authentic simulation experience that millions of fans expect from Project CARS.”
According to the devs, the experience of being a driver will feel more tangible than previous games. Along with the inclusion of more realistic weather, seasons, and visual/haptic feedback during racing, Project CARS 3’s approach looks to highlight more of the in-the-moment experiences of being a driver.
Slightly Mad Studios has stated that Project CARS 3 will see some changes post-launch. Though Barron couldn’t go into specifics, he said that along with new tracks and cars, players should expect to see some additional updates for Project CARS 3 in the months ahead.
For more on Project CARS 3, including our full review in the future, check back with GameSpot. Along with that, take a look at our roundup of games shown off during Gamescom 2020 so far.
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According to actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt, it’s going to be video games–not feature films–that will push storytelling forward in new and exciting ways. Appearing on the latest episode of Hot Ones, Gordon-Levitt said he sees more room for growth in storytelling in video games than film.
“The future of storytelling, it’s going to be video games,” he said. “I don’t think it’s going to be filmmakers who figure out how to do that. But feels like kind of the most groundbreaking storytelling. Storytelling that’s completely in a whole different realm than anything we’ve seen before, I don’t think it’s going to necessarily be the feature film form.”
Gordon-Levitt didn’t have anything more to share on the subject, and even this response was broken up by the actor trembling due to the heat of the hot wings he was eating.
Gordon-Levitt runs a media company called HitRecord, and he partnered with Ubisoft on Beyond Good & Evil 2 and Watch Dogs Legion to allow people to create custom content for those games.
Parks and Recreation is one of NBC’s most successful and memorable TV shows, and it’s still bringing in money through syndication and streaming deals, but it appears the cast are not always benefitting from those profits at a level they would have wanted.
Actors Rob Lowe and Nick Offerman, who played Chris Traeger and Ron Swanson on the show, recently spoke about this on the newest episode of Lowe’s podcast.
Offerman said the union representing the Parks and Rec cast was not able to get them a lucrative deal at the beginning of the show. Offerman also suggested that the union “bargained away” the cast’s residual payments as part of the negotiations.
“The Office and Parks and Recreation are these crazy juggernauts that make me sorry that our union was at a very weak place when we started Parks and Rec,” he said. “So they gave us these ‘shrug’ deals where they were like, ‘You know, you have no leverage. You should just take what they offer. And also, we’re going to bargain away your residuals. Have a good day. See ya.'”
Lowe chimed in to say that Parks and Rec and The Office together bring in “hundreds of millions” of dollars in revenue, and people might be “shocked” to learn how little the cast of Parks and Rec makes in residuals.
“We do fine. Nobody needs to hold a benefit for either one of us. But I think people would be shocked to know that, for the most part, Ron Swanson and Chris Traeger are not really participating [in the revenue share],” Lowe said.
Offerman went on to say that the landmark collective bargaining deals that the casts of Friends, Everybody Loves Raymond, and Will & Grace signed together instead of individually might have scared network executives who were looking to save on costs.
“The famous deals that came out of the casts negotiating together with Friends and Everybody Loves Raymond, and even Will & Grace, the networks said, ‘Whoa! These actors are getting paid way too fairly,'” Offerman said.
Parks and Rec is currently available to stream on Netflix, Amazon, and Hulu, but that won’t be the case for much longer. In October, the show is moving to NBC’s streaming platform, Peacock. NBC Universal, which owns the company, reportedly paid a fee in the nine-figure range, which is $100 million and above, to get the rights for this.
Notably, Deluxe editions and other bundles are marked down in the weekend sale, netting you the game along with various DLC. Persona 5 Royal Deluxe edition, for example, is down to $45.49 from $70, the cheapest we’ve seen this version of the game. It gets you the base game (the definitive version of the acclaimed JRPG) along with the Kasumi Costume Bundle that unlocks four sets of cosmetic items for the new character. Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order Deluxe edition is just $35 (normally $70) and gets you cosmetic skins for BD-1 and the Mantis ship, a digital art book, and a director’s cut with 90 minutes of behind-the-scenes footage.
If you haven’t picked up last year’s excellent remake of Resident Evil 2 yet, the Deluxe edition is down to $25 and comes with the Extra DLC Pack that includes more costumes for Leon and Claire, a new weapon, and the option to play the game with the original RE2 soundtrack.
Nameless XIII, a new studio from co-founder of Dontnod (Life Is Strange, Vampyr) Hervé Bonin, has revealed Cendres, a ‘non-linear narrative survival sim’ due for release on Steam in 2021.
Revealed at Gamescom 2020 and published by Dear Villagers, Cendres aims to cross over the decision-making and narrative focus of Choose Your Own Adventure books with the more direct control of a classic adventure game.
The result is a game that sees you leading a party of four characters through a ravaged world, on the search for safe haven. Along the way you’ll need to scavenge and manage supplies, choose between moral dilemmas, and work your way to one of 16 different endings. Check out a reveal trailer below:
Cendres is set 200 years after a volcanic apocalypse destroyed the game’s planet, and sees a captain, Petra, a warrior, Sinh, a scholar, Kali, and a scout, Nadir attempting to find a safe home. Nameless XIII promises to let you get know each party member, and their relationships and conflicts with the rest – as well as protecting them from madness, despair and starvation.
The bleakness of the trailer, and the fact that we see a varying number of party members throughout, suggests the game won’t shy from killing off your party members, and a press release explains that the game will provide different paths to its many endings based on your choices along the way.
There’s much, much more to come from Gamescom 2020 on IGN – check out our full Gamescom schedule to find out what else is on the way.
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Joe Skrebels is IGN’s Executive Editor of News. Follow him on Twitter. Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to [email protected].
