Posts

It’s a remake of Black Ops 2’s Express, and it’s due out on 4th February. Express is known for its hi-tech train station. It’s a roughly U-shaped map with two train tracks looping around the main hall. The focus is mainly on close-quarters combat in the hall, but the glass ceiling means scorestreaks can have an impact inside. There’s room for some long-range combat across the train tracks. The high-speed trains bolt by the station on one of the tracks, and they will kill you if you get in their way....

Activision’s battle royale has for months now come under fire for a particular skin for operator Roze, which many consider “pay-to-win”. Last year the “Rook” skin for Roze was sold as part of the Season 5 premium battle pass (it was a tier 100 unlock). The issue has to do with the way the outfit looks: it’s entirely black without any reflective surfaces, which means it’s very difficult to spot in dark areas of the game....

“We have the utmost respect for creativity and content creation,” an Activision spokesperson said in a statement, published first by Polygon. “We love the Loyal Samoyed, but regrettably we erred in our process and have removed this imagery from the game. We apologise for the misstep.” It sounds like the Loyal Samoyed skin has now been locked up for good. ORIGINAL STORY 1/8/22: A fluffy dog skin set to release in Call of Duty Warzone has been hit by a claim of plagiarism, and Activision has now pulled imagery of the upcoming pooch from its website....

Monthly active user data published by Activision shows player numbers have dipped over the past 12 months - from 127 million in June 2021 to just 94 million this year. The details are part of a tough round of financial results for Activision Blizzard this quarter, despite the recent and highly-profitable launch of Diablo Immortal. Overall figures for Activision Blizzard saw revenue down 28 percent year-on-year to $1.64bn, and overall total monthly active users down 12 percent despite growth from the Blizzard side of the business....

If you’re taking a break from the campaign and regular multiplayer matches, Zombies introduces a brand new mode for you to explore. In it, covenants will make themselves present as a station you’re gonna want to pay attention to. With multiple covenants to get to know, it’s best to prepare yourself beforehand. This guide explains how to unlock covenants and the complete covenants list to best fight against the never-ending undead hordes....

Activision and the community has responded with some solutions - including how to complete the social-specific Commend a fellow soldier challenge - as well as general troubleshooting tips you should attempt to help get you back online. Otherwise, be sure to check server status to see whether the game is currently online at all. Otherwise, here are several official and community suggestions for specific error codes. Error code 103295 - Activision described this as a connectivity issue....

Released on 25th January 2018, the story of Celeste - that of overcoming impossible odds to climb the titular mountain - resonated with plenty of people, none more so than Thorson herself. In a previous blog post from 2020, Thorson answered the question: “Is Madeline canonically trans?”. “During Celeste’s development, I did not know that Madeline or myself were trans,” she wrote. “During the Farewell DLC’s development, I began to form a hunch....

In January last year, chess was averaging 3298 concurrent viewers over 24 channels on Twitch, peaking at 29,820 viewers. This month, that average is 24,048, with around 132 channels streaming chess at any one time - reaching a peak viewership of 161,968 on 16th January (via TwitchTracker). That was thanks to the efforts of siblings Alexandra and Andrea Botez, whose BlockChamps event - a crossover tournament with popular Minecraft streamers like Pokimane, LilyPichu and Fundy - pulled in over 91,000 concurrent viewers and over 1m unique views, breaking the chess viewership record for a single stream (via Chess....

Choo-Choo Charles is an open-world horror game in which you fight an evil spider train named Charles with an old train of your own. You upgrade your train over time as you navigate an island. The only problem is Charles is a constant threat. The announcement trailer is below: According to Choo-Choo Charles’ Steam listing, you need to do things like clear your path on foot or switch the direction of the tracks as you plan your route across the island....

She’s just the latest in a string of popstars playing Nintendo. Remember Beyoncé having a blast with Rhythm Heaven on the DS? Or when Girls Aloud battled it out playing Mario Kart? Now it’s the turn of the Lady Marmalade singer to show us how she Nintendos, here playing along with her family. First up she plays some Pokémon Legends: Arceus with her daughter, which does give a glimpse of the game’s graphics on the slick OLED display....

Last week, PQube was under fire once again from a developer (Corecell) releasing a damning statement against the publisher. It followed earlier accusations from Coffee Talk developer Toge Productions that left the team “feeling manipulated and exploited”. With regards to its game AeternoBlade 2, Corecell claimed that PQube “only paid a small part of the minimum guarantee of the signing milestone by the time we sent them the game and they never paid the remaining milestones”, among other issues over publishing control....

Announced back in 2020, Happy Game is the brainchild of artist, animator, and designer Jaromír Plachý - who also created Amanita’s whimsical garden adventure Botanicula and brash comedy caper Chuchel - and tells the story of a young boy trapped in his nightmares. “Endure and escape three unforgettable nightmares,” explains Amanita on Happy Games’ Steam page, “solve deeply disturbing puzzles in (not so) charming environments”, and “deal with suspicious smiley faces and pink bunnies”....

But that’s not the entirety of it. Really it’s just the start. Because in Cursed to Golf you’re dead - is it a spoiler to say you die halfway through the tutorial? - and your mission is to play your way out of golfing purgatory. This is a clever game, I reckon. A spin on a platformer that feels nothing like a platformer. It turns out that purgatory golf holes are tough....

Heavily rumoured last month, studio Neon Giant has confirmed the game will arrive on PS4 and PS5 on 24th March. The announcement comes with a brand new launch trailer you can watch below. “We’ve been blown away by how amazing the response to The Ascent has been so far on Xbox and PC, so we are thrilled to be bringing the game to a new audience of PlayStation players,” said Arcade Berg, co-founder and creative director of Neon Giant....

“Recently we’ve been exploring how to make Dead Cells as accessible as possible,” Motion Twin - or rather, subsidiary Evil Empire, which now handles Dead Cells’ development - revealed on Twitter. “We’re doing our own research, but the best way to figure out what we’re missing is an open dialogue with the players.” Following some preliminary investigations, Evil Empire says it’s already considering the likes of adjustable font size and colour, adjustable colour palettes to assist colour blind players, options to increase UI and background contrast, alongside features such as auto-hit....

Death Stranding Director’s Cut initially launched for PS5 last summer, introducing new story elements, a photo mode, expanded combat, new gadgets - including a laser gun and mounted machine guns - plus a variety of other tweaks to the original. Oh, and it threw in a fully featured racing mode too, because why not? The new PC version, incidentally, also features Xe Super Sampling and ultra-wide monitor support. The end result of the spruce-up was a pleasing expansion of Kojima’s 2019 original - which Eurogamer called a “baffling, haunting, grand folly” in its review - and Digital Foundry even dubbed the Directors Cut a “beautifully-tailored PS5 experience” that was worth the money....

The standard and keyring editions of the game will be available to buy from 1st October. The physical release of Sonic Colours: Ultimate was delayed in Europe due to “unforeseen logistical issues”, Sega said back in August, which suggested the company ran up against the impact on global shipping and distribution during the pandemic. The game went on sale as planned from download stores this week. The remaster hit the headlines after its various graphical problems emerged on social media....

Also described as cryptic notes, there’s a new Captain’s Log available each week, helping you complete several objectives - including Bound in Memory and Graven Scrawl. They also open the way to smuggling compartments, which are hidden areas dotted throughout the ship, which are also time gated for each week. And no - the Captain’s Logs are unfortunately not at all related to Star Trek. On this page: Captain’s Logs are dropped automatically on each completion of Presage once you have completed it the first time....

It’s an energy-slot Solar bow with an intrinsic perk that allows its arrows to track enemies when firing with the weapon through a ‘Guidance Ring’, created by landing precision hits and final blows against combatants and Guardians – final blows on Guardians generate more energy to build up the Guidance Ring charge. Shooting through this ring will boost the weapon’s damage based on the distance of which the arrow travels....

It’s broken nature is so notorious, in fact, that Destiny developer Bungie has now added an Easter egg to the game where Telesto fails to properly fire - and instead sends its projectiles floating lazily into the sky while the weapon itself fizzes and sparks. (A simple reload clears the Easter egg, and the gun can then be used as normal.) But while this appeared at first to be just a fun nod to Telesto’s oft-bugged state, fans are now suggesting the Easter egg may hint at a further secret, as Destiny 2 heads towards the end of its current season....