biteho.com

Destiny 2‘s Season of the Splicer is wrapping up, and Bungie is preparing to reveal the new season next week. While we know very little about the next season’s content right now, Bungie has given us a taste of some of the changes to come to gameplay with tuning notes about all of the big (and little) tweaks to the game’s weapons.

Perhaps the most immediately obvious change will be to primary weapons. In an effort to eliminate the frustration that can currently come from running out of ammo in a PvP or PvE encounter, Bungie is implementing infinite ammo for all primary weapons. Alongside this, Bungie is also buffing the Inertia Override perk to compensate for fewer ammo bricks on the ground. Destiny fans have speculated that this change was on its way, such as in this post which correctly guessed the change two weeks ahead of time.

The developer is also rolling out its second attempt to correct some issues that arose from its implementation of max power levels on some weapons. Last year, Bungie rolled out this power cap in order to give it a tool to both restrain the total number of usable PvE weapons and to refresh the relevant arsenal of guns in any given season. Some deprecated weapons were “reissued” with higher power limits, but many players chafed at having to seek their favorite perk combinations all over again. Bungie’s original solution was to replace all of the perks on the reissued weapons, but this also didn’t work, as some sets of perks had become strongly identified with particular weapons. The studio’s new solution is to deprecate the 2-3 least useful perks and roll out 2-3 new ones whenever it reissues guns.

The studio will implement a number of weapon archetype-specific changes, too. Breech grenade launchers have become more popular as a result of the current season’s shotgun nerf, and so the launchers are getting slightly diminished power in PvP modes. Machine guns are going to be even more effective in PvE with a 20% damage boost across the board, while hand cannons and scout rifles will be 15% more damaging against minor enemies in PvE.

Fusion rifles have the most extensive (and most granular) changes on the way, all designed to make them better competitors with other classes of weapon. All fusion rifles are having their PvE damage bonuses bumped up by 15%. The rest of the changes are meant to make fusion rifle subfamilies more distinct. High Impact rifles are slower to charge and thus require more deliberation to use effectively; Precision and Adaptive rifles haven’t had much change beyond a slight damage boost; Rapid Fire rifles will charge even faster.

Bungie also gave a hint as to what’s to come for weapons in the future. Linear Fusion Rifles and Caster Frame Swords will be re-balanced at some point, but no details were shared. In addition, the studio will address “spamming high rate-of-fire semi-automatic weapons as fast as possible,” although it’s currently unclear whether it intends to make this easier or harder.

All of these tweaks will be rolled out with Season 15, which launches on August 24. We’ll learn more about what’s coming up for the season at its big showcase event on that date. In addition to details about the season, we also will learn something about the game’s next expansion, The Witch Queen, which launches next year and will be the first expansion since Beyond Light in November 2020.

Destiny 2 Season 15 Weapons Tuning Patch Notes

Global

• Fixed the quickswap glitch.
• All Primary ammo weapons now have infinite ammo.
• Inertia Override has been adjusted to account for there being no Primary bricks (see the 8/5/2021 abilities TWAB).
• Drop Mag’s downside of reducing reserve ammo is now almost meaningless.
  • Reworked to be +reload speed, -magazine size.
• Compact Arrow Shaft’s upside of increasing reserve ammo likewise.
  • Reworked to be +reload, +handling.
• Updated some other perks that refer to reserves in a way that’s no longer accurate.
• All Trials weapons available in Season 15 now have seven perks in each column (was 5).
• Added one or two of the original perks to each column for the Luna weapons reissued in 3.2.1 (i.e. the Lectern weapons only).
  • Since these can be target farmed, we’re ok with increasing the size of the perk pools in this case.
• Added one of the original perks to one or both columns for the Dreaming City weapons reissued in 3.2.1 (Tigerspite, Twilight Oath, Abide the Return).
  • Since these can’t be target farmed (yet), we didn’t want to increase the size of the pools by more than one.

Archetypes

Breech Grenade Launchers

• Reduced blast radius by 0.4m, e.g. max blast radius decreased from 4.55m to 4.15m, min blast radius decreased from 3.80m to 3.40m.
• Reduced splash damage by 20, which reduces total damage for a direct hit from 220 to 200 (before taking spike or proximity grenades into account).
• Increased damage in PvE by 12% (because of the above splash damage change this results in a small overall buff to combined damage).
• Witherhoard is unaffected.

Machine Guns

• Increased damage in PvE by 20%.

Scout Rifles and Hand Cannons

• Increased damage vs. minors by 15%.

Fusion Rifles

• Increased PvE damage bonus such that all subfamilies have a 15% PvE bonus (previously high impact was 0%, precision and adaptive were 10% and rapid-fire was 12.5%).
• Pushed subfamilies further apart, adjusting charge time, shots fired per burst (was seven for all subfamilies) and damage (note that the “base” below means without battery perks, a charge time masterwork or the Adept Charge Time mod):
  • High Impacts charge slower, and while still strong require more planning to use effectively.
    • Base charge time increased from 0.86s to 1.0s.
    • Shots per burst reduced from seven to five.
    • Reduced total damage per burst.
    • In playtesting, we’ve found that charging these in the open is super risky, but pre-charging around corners or otherwise in safety is very effective.
    • With the reduced shots per burst, these are now less reliant on stability, so can stack a bit more range.
  • Precisions and Adaptives are close to unchanged.
    • Base charge time is unchanged.
    • Shots per burst is unchanged at seven.
    • Very slightly increased total damage per burst.
    • In playtesting, we feel that these are very effective all-around, without stepping on the niches of High Impacts and Rapid Fires. (I’ll be keeping a good PLUG ONE.1 for PvP).
  • Rapid Fires charge faster, allowing them to be used reactively against charging enemies, or aggressively when pushing forward.
    • Base charge time decreased from 0.54s to 0.46s.
    • Shots per burst increased from seven to nine.
    • Increased total damage per burst.
    • In playtesting, we’ve found that these are very effective against Shotgun-rushers. The combination of them needing to be closer, and you having a shorter charge time work well together, and if you have good enough timing, you can fire two bursts with a rapid fire before a high impact user finishes charging their first.
    • With the increased shots per burst, these are now more reliant on stability, but with the increased damage they’re less reliant on range.
• Parts of this work required adjusting several Fusion Rifle perks, and one mod:
  • Backup Plan’s implementation was incompatible with the Fusion Rifle changes, and we felt like the perk could use a rework anyway.
    • Removed +100 to charge time stat, adjusted charge time multiplier from 0.85 to 0.7, now scales damage by 0.8.
  • Liquid Coils and Accelerated Coils needed a rework for similar reasons.
    • Both converted to scale charge time and damage instead of modifying the charge time stat.
    • The final effect is much the same as before, but these are now more robust, however they won’t visibly change the charge time stat in the inspection screen.
  • The Adept Charge Time mod felt pointless, and we felt like it would still be balanced against other mods if it didn’t reduce damage.
    • Changed functionality to scale charge time directly instead of changing the charge time stat, without adjusting the damage.
  • A note on the Charge Time Masterwork:
    • A Fusion Rifle’s damage is determined by its charge time stat, similar to how most others weapons’ damage is determined by their rate of fire stat. Masterworks can only increase weapon stats for performance reasons, so it’s not possible to change how charge time maps onto damage without big changes to how the charge time stat works.
    • We investigated doing this by making the Masterwork a perk, but this would cause Fusion Rifles to exceed the perk budget, resulting in Bad Things Happening (as mentioned in a prior TWAB).
    • With the Fusion Rifle rework, we feel that this Masterwork is more viable; it now rarely reduces bolts to kill, so may feel not feel like a downgrade in the same way as before.
    • We’ll be watching to see how this plays out and have some options to address the issue if that’s still needed.
• Adjusted the Fusion Rifle stat order so it matches other weapons (stability and handling were out of order).

VFX

• Updated all Grenade Launcher and Rocket Launcher VFX.
• Legendary Fusion and Linear Fusion Rifles now have distinct damage type charge VFX.

The MCU is about to delve into a brand new corner of Marvel mythology with the release of Eternals. This new movie will introduce the rest of Thanos’ race, immortal beings who have lived among humanity since its earliest days and who inspired many of the heroes and legends of myth. Richard Madden, Kumail Nanjiani, Lauren Ridloff, Brian Tyree Henry, Salma Hayek, Lia McHugh, Don Lee and Angelina Jolie will star in the film, which will also introduce the ancient enemy of the Eternals – the fearsome Deviants.

We’ve already explored the comic book history of the Eternals themselves (check that out here). But with the Deviants now confirmed to be the main villains of the new movie, it’s time for a closer look at this sister species to the Eternals. Let’s explore why the two groups hate each other so much and more…

Be sure to watch the latest trailer for Eternals here, or check out our video explainer about the bad guys known as the Deviants below. Or just keep reading!

Eternals Villains The Deviants: The Basics

In the Marvel Universe, Earth is full of mutants, Inhumans and other genetically unique superhumans. The origins for that genetic diversity date back more than a million years, when the enormous, godlike beings known as the Celestials first came to the planet. The Celestials experimented with early primate life, creating three distinct new species – humans, Eternals and Deviants.

For a time, Deviants were the dominant lifeform on the planet. But after their kind was slaughtered when the Celestials returned a second time, they went into hiding and have plotted against the Celestials and their favored creations, the Eternals. That rage and pain has only festered over the years, culminating in one of the worst villains the Marvel Universe has ever seen – Thanos of Titan.

Powers, Abilities, and Is Thanos a Deviant?

No two Deviants are alike, but all share certain common characteristics. They’re far stronger and more durable than frail humans, and they tend to live for many thousands of years. Deviants are far more monstrous in appearance than either humans or Eternals, making it that much harder to live in polite society.

Many fans have wondered: Is Thanos a Deviant? The answer is… complicated. Each Deviant is physically distinct and has their own superhuman abilities, be it shape-shifting, fire-breathing or matter transmutation. Thanos, raised by the Eternals but carrying the Deviant gene, is a particularly special case, as centuries of cybernetic augmentation and experimentation have transformed him into one of the strongest villains in the known universe.

The Deviants: Origin and Background

The Eternals and Deviants both debuted in 1976’s The Eternals #1. The series was created by Jack Kirby, who at the time was making his return to Marvel after a period spent crafting the Fourth World saga at DC. Because Kirby was never able to properly finish his Fourth World comics, he brought many of the same concepts to his work on The Eternals. Think of the Deviants as the Apokolips to the Eternals’ New Genesis.

Kirby quickly established a mythology for the Eternals and Deviants, revealing both to be created alongside humanity by the Celestials in one of many acts of cosmic gardening. The series established that the Celestials have visited Earth several times in the past, events known as the First Host, Second Host, Third Host and so on. The Deviants initially became the rulers of prehistoric Earth following the First Host. They ruled humanity and established an advanced civilization on the continent of Lemuria. However, the Celestials destroyed Deviant civilization when they returned in the Second Host, sinking Lemuria and forever ending the Deviants’ grip on power.

The survivors have existed underground ever since, plotting revenge on both the Celestials and their favored creations, the Eternals. The Deviants now believe they were created merely to serve as food for the Celestials. They worship the Dreaming Celestial, a slumbering giant who until recently lived beneath San Francisco.

As with his Fourth World comics, Kirby was never able to wrap up his Eternals story before the series was canceled. However, the characters have continued to play a role in the Marvel Universe, both in follow-up Eternals comics and in appearances in other comics like The Mighty Thor and The Avengers. Marvel also retroactively established that both the Titans and the Skrulls are connected to the Eternals. The Titans are an offshoot of the Eternals that established a colony on Saturn’s moon. Thanos himself is a rare Deviant raised among Eternals, which resulted in the unhappy childhood that made him the genocidal tyrant he is today.

As for the Skrulls, it turns out they’re all shape-shifting Deviants. Unlike their Earth cousins, they managed to completely eliminate their Eternal counterparts and become one of the dominant space empires in the Marvel Universe.

The Deviants in the MCU

While Thanos and the Skrulls have previously appeared in the MCU and many other Marvel projects, the Deviants as a whole have yet to appear outside the comics. That will finally change with the release of The Eternals. This upcoming MCU film will introduce both the Eternals and the Deviants, with the latter serving as the main villains as the Eternals finally make their existence known to mankind.

We now know that the Deviant Kro will play a major role. This shape-shifter is the ruler of the Deviants in the original comic series, and he also has a romance with the Eternal known as Thena that dates back 20,000 years. Judging by the film’s trailers, that romance looks to continue in the Marvel movie too!

For more on the Eternals movie villains, check out our explainer on Kro and Arishem the Judge. What do you think of the Deviants as the villains of the film? Is there more going on here than meets the eye? Let’s discuss in the comments!

August 19, 2021: This story has been updated with the latest information about Marvel’s Eternals.

Jesse is a mild-mannered writer for IGN. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on Twitter.

The Feast made its World Premiere at Fantasia International Film Festival. IFC Midnight will release the film in the U.S. on Nov. 19.

The alluring nightmares within folk horror are born of the timeless collision of the modern with the ancient. In this subgenre, a modern man of reason is often brought low by forces ancient and mystical, who do not play by the rules of society or logic. Works like this usher us into the surreal with magic, blood, and a scathing social commentary about the sins of our society. In The Feast, these sins are against Mother Earth, whose riches are plundered by a wealthy Welsh family that has lost touch with the land. Her sweet revenge makes for savagely satisfying horror that is as beautiful as it is brutal.

Written by Roger Williams, The Feast is a fable with familiar figures reinvented into contemporary characters. Instead of a king and queen with a towering castle, a Member of Parliament (Julian Lewis Jones) and his socialite wife (Nia Roberts) rule over their sprawling country estate from an eyesore of a mansion. A smudge of grey brick and glass against the horizon, the house’s muted colors and harsh lines make it look like a prison, not a home. Within, the family’s princes of privilege are a golden boy (Sion Alun Davies), who trains obsessively for triathlons, and the screw-up (Steffan Cennydd), who favors rock music and hard drugs. Despite some bubbling resentments, theirs is a charmed life of luxury. That is, until a spooky stranger appears on their doorstep.

Local girl Cadi (Annes Elwy) has come to serve an opulent three-course feast for some very important guests. However, there’s something off about her. Clashing with her black-and-white server’s uniform is her sopping wet hair, eerie silence, and a gaze so distant it’s as if she’s looking right through this family and deep into the woodlands beyond their walls. These and more bizarre omens go ignored because the family cannot imagine what horror they’ve invited in. How could they? This clan has bought into the modern myth that wealth builds an impenetrable wall against all forms of peril. Family secrets whispered — or screamed — reveal it has worked well enough before. But before this night’s out, there will be a gloriously bloody reckoning for their greed. Their palace will become a prison. Their pain will be our delicious schadenfreude.

With a methodical pace, The Feast is about mood more than big moves. Perhaps this is why Williams’ dialogue can prove grating. Some is successfully subtle, hinting at dark backstories. However, when it comes to his environmentalist messaging, the script is achingly blunt, crudely dumping exposition in overlong conversations about mining and sacred land. If only he’d relied on his visual storytelling, which powerfully unearths elements mysterious yet menacing, like a broken bottle employed as a bawdy booby trap.

Director Lee Haven Jones brings these unsettling scares to vivid life with a clever color story and chilling gore. The muted hues of the family home are contrasted by the bold greens that lie outside it. As Cadi stalks within, more color creeps along with her, the rich browns of dirt, the popping purple of flowers, the yellows of rot, and — of course — the blossoms of blood. Also blooming are spectacles of body horror, from a nasty cut or a gurgling gag to stomach-churning reveals too sick to spoil. Yet, Jones shows surprising restraint in his slaughter; the violence often occurs out of frame. Nonetheless, the suggestion of it and the gruesome evidence this violence leaves behind prove deeply chilling.

Making this graphic mayhem all the more unnerving is the icy tone the family maintains even as they are ripped to shreds. If they screamed or fled or fought back, viewers might enjoy the relief of action or a rush of adrenaline. The Feast slyly declines such rewards, pulling us deeper into its trippy tension. The subdued performances from a riveting cast enhance the surreal mood, which is bolstered in the edit by abrupt cuts from jaw-dropping horror to a remote moment of eerie calm. The pacing of the story is at an amble, while the cuts between scenes are jolting jumps. This funky flow is smartly jarring. Altogether, Jones’ execution assures his audience can never feel truly grounded in this world as its rules grow slick with superstition.

While Marvel’s Ironheart series for Disney Plus is still a way off, fans will be getting their first introduction to the character ahead of the show’s premiere. Ironheart star Dominique Thorne will make her MCU debut as Riri Williams in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever next year, as confirmed by Variety.

Thorne’s involvement with the Black Panther sequel was confirmed by Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige during an interview with Comicbook.com.

“We’re shooting Black Panther: Wakanda Forever right now,” Feige said. “The character of Riri Williams, you will meet in Black Panther 2 first… She started shooting, I think, this week before her Ironheart series.”

Thorne joins an ensemble including returning cast members Angela Bassett, Danai Gurira, Winston Duke, and Lupita Nyong’o. Last month, it was reported that I May Destroy You creator, co-director and star Michaela Coel was joining the project in an unknown role. The film began production in late June and is set to hit theaters on July 8, 2022.

Ironheart, a.k.a. Riri Williams, was created by Marvel comics in 2015. A genius teenage student at M.I.T., Williams creates the most advanced suit of armor since Tony Stark’s Iron Man. The character’s upcoming Disney Plus series has tapped Chinaka Hodge to serve as head writer. Hodge’s previous television credits include Apple’s reboot of Amazing Stories and TNT’s adaptation of Snowpiercer.

While Marvel hasn’t confirmed a release window for Ironheart, the studio has plenty of Disney Plus projects on the horizon. Jeremy Renner’s Hawkeye will return in an original series later this year. Ms. Marvel and She-Hulk will also hit the streamer sometime in the future. For a review on every MCU project on the way, check out our complete rundown of the studio’s upcoming line-up.

J. Kim Murphy is a freelance entertainment writer.

Steven Spohn describes himself as a “twice-over terminally disabled individual” with spinal muscular atrophy who, according to doctors, shouldn’t be alive. He also describes himself as someone deeply dedicated to advocating for people with disabilities who want to play games.

He turned 40 last year and despite feeling the friendly pressure to celebrate it in a big way — “It’s like a rite of passage, right?” — that was never a reality for him. The COVID-19 pandemic threatened his existence, something spinal muscular atrophy was already doing. Instead, he channeled his love of games and advocacy for the disabled gamer community into a charity drive that managed to raise more than $1 million.

“I am extremely grateful right now,” Spohn said. “But you know, I’m someone who’s also never satisfied with what I’ve done. My personality is always looking for what’s next and I’m just someone trying to figure out how to do more good for the world. I’d love to give you the perfect sound bite — ‘I’m going to Disney World’ — but the only thing on my brain right now is, ‘Ok cool, we managed to do this really cool thing, and here’s what this money is going to do. What’s next?’”

How The Charity Drive Came to Be

Spohn became especially interested in a fundraising effort like this after someone he looks up to named Benjamin Lupo (aka DrLupo) raised millions of dollars for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. Lupo showed Spohn that one person can start something that can make a massive difference.

Disabled gamers can face a plethora of challenges when it comes to gaming depending on their disability, such as being unable to use traditional controllers. That’s why AbleGamers works to raise money to purchase items like Microsoft’s adaptive controller for disabled gamers. Spohn himself plays games with a mouse and an infrared hat that uses the pitch and yaw of his head to select preset keyboard buttons.

Many people have a disability like blindness that makes seeing what’s on the screen difficult, or deafness, which can affect one’s ability to hear what’s happening in a game. AbleGamers works directly with developers to help them build options in their games to make them more accessible for people with these kinds of disabilities, and others too.

Spohn’s $1 million charity drive was started to continue all that AbleGamers does, be it remain afloat with paid employees, purchase controllers, create new courses for developers, or hire occupational therapists.

The official fundraising effort began on Spohn’s 40th birthday on September 15 last year and Spohn’s fundraising effort became formally organized under the “#SpawnTogether” hashtag the day the drive began. From there it grew more and more popular throughout the fundraiser.

Spohn says it was always going to be a grassroots effort because he wanted the wider industry to see that people care about people with disabilities.

Today is my 40th birthday!

For my 39th birthday, I made friends with @TheRock

To celebrate this milestone, I’m going to raise $1,000,000 for charity.

But I’m going to need your help. pic.twitter.com/bu1t9KKRg1

— Steven Spohn (Spawn) (@stevenspohn) September 15, 2020

Before the first 24 hours were up, more than $130,000 had been raised. By the next day, other content creators had raised over $10,000 under the #SpawnTogether Tiltify effort. By the end of that month, almost $150,000 had been raised. The number continued to rise and then on November 14, during GlitchCon, Dr. Lupo informed Spohn that Twitch was donating $1 million to AbleGamers.

Technically, Spohn had hit his $1 million goal at that point, but during the excitement and happiness of the moment, he decided right then and there that he wanted to raise another million.

“I said, ‘thank you for the million and now I’m going to go out and raise another,’ and then we raised $1 million from the community,” Spohn said. “Because here’s the thing: Let’s say I live for another 20 years, or maybe I die in three months. Either way, the charity is going to go on. I knew that it couldn’t be as simple as just convincing a big conglomerate owned by Amazon that they need to hand over a million dollars every year. I needed to show people that it’s something we can all do together.”

I am so shook.@Twitch donating $1,000,000 to @AbleGamers is going to *literally* change the lives of thousands of people with disabilities.

To you who supported me, my work, AbleGamers, and our lofty dream of enabling everyone to play: Thank you

They did this because of you! pic.twitter.com/pxtYXs5lQX

— Steven Spohn (Spawn) (@stevenspohn) November 14, 2020

Spohn’s Riders of Rohan

And show people #SpawnTogether did. Sure, some bigger names helped out, including game developer Alanah Pearce, streamers Bruce Greene and BloodyFaster, and even State Farm and Felicia Day. Spohn, who had received support from people like actors Dwayne Johnson and Ryan Reynolds in the past, saw his fundraiser reach the likes of actor Brie Larson, too. But Spohn is just as proud of the hundreds of other names that helped out by donating, streaming for the fundraiser, or even sharing a link.

All told, about 250 streamers and 50 teams joined Spohn’s fundraising effort through Tiltify. Whether they donated a dollar or $10,000, partners urged their communities to donate or helped people learn what AbleGamers is about. They pushed forward Spohn’s mission to prove that making gaming more accessible is a cause worthy of the world’s attention.

Spohn said steamer Lilsimsie was one of his main rocks throughout the effort. He called her his Pikachu, always there when he would say, “I need you,” much in the same way Ash Ketchum relies on Pikachu to pull him through the toughest of challenges.

The toughest challenge of all was actually raising $1 million — which is no small sum. Lilsimsie raised $150,000 alone for #SpawnTogether. Halfway through the year-long goal, #SpawnTogether had raised $300,000 since the $1 million donation from Twitch. That topped Spohn’s wildest expectations, but with just six months to go until his next birthday on September 15, there was still a lot of work to be done. Hundreds more, however, helped him smash past that goal, weeks before the year was up.

Then, there’s also the extra attention the fundraiser brought to Spohn, his disability, and AbleGamers as a whole. There were positives, of course. Namely, people learned more about video game accessibility and what AbleGamers is trying to do. Unfortunately, it also led to people mocking Spohn, but he saw those moments as teaching opportunities, sometimes successful, sometimes not.

“We’ve [disabled gamers] kind of become masters of taking a negative and turning it into a positive because people with disabilities have been so looked down on in our society,” Spohn said, reflecting on how his disability led him to a place in life where he can do something like raising $1 million. “All of this was a grassroots effort. This was a Steven Spohn thing at first because this was not an AbleGamers-sanctioned event, there was no marketing budget put into this, nobody was paying me to do anything…this was about people doing something out of the goodness of their hearts and simply helping out one another.”

What’s Next for Spohn and AbleGamers

Spohn hasn’t quite figured out what’s next. He knows how the money will immediately help AbleGamers, where he’s the chief operating officer. It’ll help purchase more accessible controllers for the organization to give to disabled gamers. It’ll allow AbleGamers to hire occupational therapists and more to help the organization reach the 46 million disabled gamers in America. It’ll help AbleGamers continue to teach developers how to develop games with accessibility in mind. But for Spohn, looking five years into the future isn’t easy.

“Where we’ll be in five years, I have no idea,” Spohn says. “I couldn’t have told you I’d be doing this interview even a year ago. However, I’m always somebody who wants to figure out how to help the most people in the most efficient ways and I think we’re slowly figuring out how to do that. I think in five years, you’ll see an organization that is raising millions of dollars, an organization that the industry respects because of how transparent we are with where our money goes and…generally, how we don’t leave any ambiguity as to what’s going on behind the curtain.”

WE DID IT

WE DID IT

WE RAISED $1,000,000 FOR DISABLED GAMERS

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU pic.twitter.com/VlIrrBYMVo

— Steven Spohn (Spawn) (@stevenspohn) August 16, 2021

Spohn said he’s incredibly grateful for all of the congratulations and buzz around the $1 million achievement, but he doesn’t want people to think of the achievement as his. He just wants to be known as the person that lit the fire. He’s the person that lit the beacons of Gondor, he says. Every single person that donated to his cause is a Rider of Rohan.

“I think that’s my general advice for anybody out there who’s currently looking at me as their inspiration to do something like this,” Spohn says. “Move forward. When we join this world, there’s a lot wrong with it and there’s a lot of things that can be done better, and we can’t fix everything. But you can pick a couple of things and you can make them just a little bit better.”

“Now we can say to the industry, ‘people with disabilities are important, and they’re so important that we banded together to raise a million dollars.’ That validation of gamers with disabilities is important…and the games industry needs to keep paying attention to it.”

The #SpawnTogether charity drive for AbleGamers is still live and if you’d like to donate, you can do that here.

Wesley LeBlanc is a freelance news writer and guide maker for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @LeBlancWes. You can also follow Steven Spohn on Twitter @stevenspohn and AbleGamers on Twitter @AbleGamers.

Creating a seasonal ladder character in Diablo 2 often meant having access to powerful, exclusive items that could only be obtained in ladder play. As detailed by Blizzard in a new forum post, that won’t be the case in Diablo 2: Resurrected.

In Diablo 2’s upcoming remaster, formerly ladder-exclusive unique items, runewords, and recipes will be included in non-ladder multiplayer and single-player for the first time. Ladder seasons usually last around six months and require new characters to be created, and there are ladders for both normal and hardcore (permadeath) characters. Characters are converted into non-ladder characters at the end of each season.

“We understand these items complement prominent builds and playstyles cherished by the community,” Blizzard writes. “Furthermore, we have heard the community ask to include these items into the single player experience for quite some time. Now players playing solo can also partake in the metas that have become popularized from the original multiplayer Ladder experience. Furthermore, single player will now also include access to the Pandemonium Event and Uber Diablo content.”

Blizzard writes that in order to ensure server stability at launch, the game’s first ladder season will come shortly after the game’s release, but won’t be available on day one.

Diablo 2: Resurrected just concluded its early access beta, with an open beta set to take place starting August 20. One small change coming in the open beta due to early access beta feedback is that the method for purchasing skills has been changed to require separate button presses. This was done in order to help prevent players from accidently assigning skill points, as outside of one free re-spec players earn in the game’s first Act, reassigning skill points can’t be done until far later in the game and with far more difficulty.

Diablo 2: Resurrected will release on consoles and PC September 23. The game’s release comes as Blizzard continues to deal with the fallout from a state of California lawsuit alleging a workplace culture of discrimination and harassment towards women. Following California’s investigation, multiple high profile developers have left the company, including former Blizzard president J. Allen Brack and Diablo 4 game director Luis Barriga. Diablo 4 is currently in development and doesn’t yet have a release date.

Fans have known for a while that Arkane’s upcoming PlayStation 5 timed console exclusive Deathloop would include a PvP mode, but what exactly that all would entail has been kept under wraps. Thanks to a new QuakeCon panel, new details on how PvP will work in the time loop focused shooter have been revealed, including the fact that there will be rare loot in store for players who manage to defeat an invader.

Players looking to go on the hunt will take on the role of Julianna, who can choose to invade a random player or a friend currently playing Deathloop. Julianna can choose her weapons and powers from a hub area before going hunting in search of the game’s main character, Colt.

While Julianna can be deadly, she does have one disadvantage as an invading player– the inability to respawn. While Juliana will only get one chance at taking out her target, those playing as Cole will be able to come back to life a limited number of times using his reprise ability. This lets Cole play a little more aggressively than his female assassin counterpart, with Arkane saying Juliana may want to employ traps and other tools to stay out of harm’s way.

Those playing as Cole don’t have to engage with Julianna, and can instead look to run away or hide should they wish. But Arkane is making it so defeating an invader could be worth a player’s time, thanks to the loot she will drop when killed. Arkane says defeating Juliana will score players rewards ranging from high quality weapons to power upgrades, trinkets that work as character perks, and the game’s primary resource, Residium.

Why, exactly, does Juliana as a character seem so determined to kill Cole as many times as possible? As Julianna and Cole are the only two people who can remember their previous loops before they are reset, she’s looking to get Cole to challenge her at “her level.”

Deathloop will release on PlayStation 5 and PC September 14. Players who preorder the game will score a trinket, character skin, and weapon as a bonus, with PlayStation Plus subscribers saving 10%.

If you didn’t think it was possible, developer Bethesda Game Studios is re-releasing The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, and it’s even introducing a new piece of content. This 10th Anniversary Edition of the game will be available on PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S.

10 years of content isn’t all that’s in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim 10th Anniversary Edition. There is also a brand-new mechanic that’s been added to the open-world action-RPG: fishing. Yes, fishing will be included as a free mini-game when Skyrim’s 10th Anniversary Edition drops on November 11.

The 10th Anniversary Edition of the game comes with other new features, but Bethesda didn’t outline these during the latest QuakeCon virtual event. One thing Bethesda noted, however, was the the Skyrim’s 10th Anniversary Edition will include some new conte from the Creation Club.

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Special Edition owners on PlayStation 5 or Xbox Series X|S will get access to a free next-gen enhanced version on the same day. Everyone else who has the Special Edition of Skyrim can purchase the Anniversary Edition upgrade for a currently undisclosed amount.

This new edition of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim also marks the 10th version of its release, making it one of the most ported games currently on the market.

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim 10th Anniversary Edition drops on November 11.

In other Skyrim news, bits of the behind-the-scenes of development is starting to trickle out, like how the opening sequence was ruined by a pesky bug (literally) and why foxes have been accidentally leading players to treasure.

Call of Duty: Vanguard has been officially revealed and it looks like it could require less storage than the most recent games in the series. Over on the Microsoft Store website, the Xbox Series X|S version of Call of Duty: Vanguard is listed as only requiring 95 GB of storage, although this might be missing some required content packs.

The two previous Call of Duty games have had the option to uninstall portions of the game, like the campaign, to make the file size smaller, which is possibly where the 95 GB file size comes from. If viewed in the Microsoft store on an Xbox Series X, the file size is listed as 90 GB without the content packs. The content packs may need to be installed to play certain modes in Vanguard, increasing the overall install size. The full size for the Ultimate and Cross-Gen editions–which include the content packs–are listed at 270 GB of storage, although this appears to be counting the beta, Xbox One version, and Series X|S version, only one of which you’d likely have installed at a time. The web page lists Vanguard’s upcoming beta as a 50 GB install.

The Xbox One Version of the game takes up 70 GB, but again, that also doesn’t include the content packs. Call of Duty games have had large file sizes in recent years, with last year’s Call of Duty Black Ops Cold War currently taking 215 GB of storage on Xbox Series X. In addition to that Warzone is its own install, adding to the amount of storage Call of Duty requires.

These file sizes are potentially subject to change since Call of Duty Vanguard doesn’t launch until November 5. Both the PC and the PlayStation store pages don’t currently include file sizes for the game. The full reveal of Call of Duty Vanguard comes as Activision Blizzard is being sued by the State of California for discrimination.