#was looking things up about the game and the early access was on stadia

[egirl-vrissy]

No way did google stadia die before actually getting the full release of baldurs gate 3 💀

[bltngames]

So I guess I’ve started getting press releases from game companies, now. I’ve never posted news to this blog before, but I got pinged about this, so I might as well post it.

Today, Amazon announced their own game streaming service called “Luna.” For $6 a month, you get access to the entire Luna library, streaming at 1080p 60fps. Just like with Stadia, they’re really pushing the “no download, no install” pretty hard.

One of those games will be Sonic Mania Plus, which is where the press release I received comes in. Speaking of which:

Sonic Mania Plus™ Spin-Dashes to Amazon Luna

Fans of the Blue Blur rejoice! Sonic Mania Plus™, SEGA’s 2018 definitive version of the critically acclaimed platformer game, Sonic Mania™ is heading to Luna — Amazon’s cloud gaming service designed for the love of play: removing the frustrations of gaming today, and inviting everyone to an experience that makes it easier and more fun to play — anywhere, anytime they like.

Developed by Hyperkinetic Studios in collaboration with Sonic Team, Sonic Mania Plus™ builds off the momentum of the critically-acclaimed platformer, Sonic Mania. Players can jump back into one of the best platform games of 2017, with two new playable characters from past Sonic games, Mighty the Armadillo and Ray the Flying Squirrel, and a new Encore mode that provides a fresh look to familiar zones with new challenges and layouts for new and veteran players alike.

Luna subscribers can stream high-quality, immersive games to their Fire TV, PC, Mac, web browsers, iOS phones and tablets straight from Amazon’s game servers, powered by AWS. For a seamless and low-latency gameplay experience, players can grab the Amazon Luna controller, the service’s native game controller, which connects players directly to Luna servers.

To stay current on Amazon Luna news, follow @amazonluna on Twitter, and subscribe to Amazon Luna on YouTube.

For more information, please visit amazon.com/luna.

Further information at the Luna website makes it seem that, just like with Google Stadia, you can go from watching a livestream to playing the game yourself -- but whereas Stadia promised to do that with Youtube, Luna will use Twitch. As of yet, I don’t think that feature works on Stadia right now. (Luna hasn’t launched yet, so I guess it doesn’t work there yet, either).

There’s also a Luna controller. Whereas the Stadia controller adopts the Playstation symmetrical design, Luna replicates the Xbox button and stick layout. In truth, it’s vaguely similar to that Amazon Fire Controller they used to sell, but with purple accents now.

My experience with these streaming services hasn’t been too negative -- I was a beta tester for Microsoft’s Project xCloud and it actually seemed to work pretty well with minimal delay. But I also basically live across the street from my ISP’s maintenance office, which means my internet is probably better than most. (We pay for 80mbps, but since we live so close, we usually get closer to 110mbps with some pretty low ping latency to boot).

My time with xCloud wasn’t all sunshine and roses, though. For as well as it worked, I couldn’t use the internet for anything else while I was streaming a game, or else the stream would begin to stutter and the controls would feel noticeably sluggish. It brought back memories of early broadband internet, or even dial-up, where you just didn’t have enough bandwidth to do more than one thing at a time. Even a simple Youtube video would completely destroy the gameplay stream. I had to focus exclusively on the game and nothing else, which wasn’t something I always wanted to do.

Luna’s pricing structure does seem a bit more friendly than Google Stadia’s at the very least, but there’s no changing the fact that these game streaming services feel like they’re made for rich people who can afford to have nice enough internet for this to make sense. Those same people could also afford to just have the hardware on site to play these games with the settings maxed out, too, without dealing with video compression artifacts, control latency, service outages, or anything else. Sort of defeats the purpose, if you ask me.

You can sign up to be a beta tester for Amazon Luna, but if it’s anything like Microsoft’s Project xCloud, you won’t be compensated for your services. After the lengthy beta period, Microsoft emailed me a PNG and said I could use it to “print out my own badge.” Labor sure is cool when it’s free, huh?

If any of this sounds like I’m bitter, you’ll have to forgive me for feeling morose over a future where you have even fewer ownership rights than you do right now. $5.99 a month sounds like a really good deal when you’re only considering the raw value of the money itself, but what else are you giving away in exchange for that? Does "no install time" really sound so good when you're signing away the freedom of user-made customizations and mod support? What if some day you go to play Sonic Mania Plus on Amazon Luna and it isn’t available, because Sega struck an exclusivity deal with some other streaming platform? Some very rich people are very excited about forcing you to make choices about that kind of stuff over the next ten years, and it all starts here. Are you okay with that?

Personally, I’m not. But that’s just me. Anyway, it sounds like Luna will launch with Sonic Mania Plus, so stay tuned for that, I guess.

[zerohour1974]

The Grumpy Git Returns 2

Why is the Tech world so fundamentally broken?

Hello readers I’m back after a major hiatus.  What on earth is going on in the world of technology.  It’s all going to hell.

You might think what the hell am I on about.  It seems things in the industry are completely broken and for all the complaints out there no one seems to do anything about it.

Here are just a few examples...

1) Apple releases Mac Pro with a basic price tag of £5000

What on earth, I would understand such a price point if this was an amazing all singing all dancing machine, but its not.  The basic system is an i5 system.  Seriously then everything else can be upgraded by Apple or exclusive dealers or it invalidates your warranty and the machine locks you out using the T2 security chip.

Now Apple have been on shaky ground regarding tech for a number of years which problems such as lowering sales of iPhones because by the time they release them they have already been superseded by the competition.

Apple used to be seen as the innovative company of the world, the kings of aesthetic and cool.  Now even the hipsters of the world are thinking Apple products are too expensive and not really giving much to the world.

It doesn’t help that every MacOS version is now more like iOS and they are locking you further and further into the Apple Garden.  What i mean by that is blocking anything that is not in the Apple Play Store, not supporting hardware (Nvidia graphics cards, Wi-Fi etc.) and now preventing upgrades.  Which is alienating their customers...

No one is going to buy the Mac Pro one because the price is ludicrous.  Two everyone is speculating Apple is going to change to using ARM processors so the whole system is probably about to change.   People got bitten with PPC, only for Apple to switch to Intel and abandon PPC.  So they will not get away with it twice.

Apple admit too being a $1 trillion company but how long will it last considering you are further and further alienating your own customers.    Now don’t get me wrong there will always be a hardcore group of loyal Apple consumers, but you have to wonder is it enough to keep Apple where it stands.

Personally given their listed losses it looks like the bubble is starting to burst.  But equally getting back to the point who seriously believed a £5000 desktop would be seen and thought wow that’s a good idea.  The mind boggles.

A lot of people are now building Hackintosh machines because one its cheaper to do so and two for less money you probably get more power than the Mac Pro.  Crazy.

2) Software companies putting out totally broken games as full releases at full price.

This one is pretty obvious I can site many examples her but of course probably the biggest known was of course Bethesda’s Fallout 76.  Now I’m not going to reiterate its story there has been plenty of coverage about it on YouTube.

Now before anyone starts yes I accept there is Early Access programs on Steam and the likes but they at least admit up front that the item you are purchasing is not the final game and may be subject to change.

However we are seeing more and more companies putting out games that require huge day one updates of several gigabytes.  DLC breaking game elements in major ways and live services either not working or not being able to cope with the loads.

Now I admit I am not a programmer and maybe someone who is in the game will be able to shed a better light, but it seems these major corporations such as EA, Ubisoft, Activision Blizzard and more are making millions off the backs of programmers who are expected to deliver higher and higher standard stuff in less and less time.

These guys are being forced into working extraneous “crunch” hours being put under immense stress and not really seeing much in the way of benefits.  They seem to take a lot of abuse if the programmer refuses.

2019 showed many cases of ex-employees reporting abuse.  Now I know some could be put down to sour grapes but there is a lot to be said about there is no smoke without fire.

It seems many programmers are complaining about their immense pressure to perform.  As I said I’m not a programmer so I can’t really say I know.  They seem to have no representation in their corner to help them such a union and because a lot of them are freelance many corporations see them as disposable.

This to me is ludicrous.  Without these programmers most of these corporations would not have a product to sell and equally wouldn’t exist.  So why treat them like dirt, you are cutting off your nose to spite your face.

Also for all things like Fallout 76 proved for all they released a half arsed game and took controversy.  Not once has someone said that this practice is unacceptable.

If you bought a Television and when you turned it on it showed BBC1 and BBC2 only and the rest was coming later in a software patch update.  You would complain vehemently and take back the television for your money back.

So why can software companies get away with releasing a half finished product.... Which moves us on to...

3) New Linux phones been released unfinished

Linux phones are the latest and “greatest” thing since sliced bread if you believed the hype.  Security conscious phones that don’t report everything about you, kill switches to disable base bands so you can’t be monitored at all times and of course its Linux based so the operating system is free.

All sounds good and hence why Purism Librem 5 and the Pine phone both have had a major interest shown in them.

Given all the concerns raised recently regarding Google and how it uses its data and problems such as the many data leaks of various sites.  Privacy regarding your data is being raised.

Ironically Microsoft who have admitted they are having Windows 10 report back data are not in these investigations.  But hey ho.

However its not the fact its Linux that’s a problem for me.  I like Linux but what i don’t get is this new concept of the phone is taking longer than we thought and people are worried.  SO what we will do is supply you your phone but most of the software doesn’t work but in the next few months we will implement various features to get it working.

They even give them titles such as the Pine Phone Braveheart Edition or the Librem 5 Spring.  Basically a broken p[hone which you have paid money for hoping that eventually it may work.

Once again these phones are hardly cutting edge so even if they do get it working.  Half of the tech is at least a generation back.

Now I understand creating a phone and its OS from scratch is hard work     and such processed take time.  However giving you a shell of a phone and leaving you to wait for the rest is a bit much.

This is similar to the TV but in this case because Linux is open source.  Your TV now only has two channels and they want you to write the next bit of the code to sort the programs out.  They say it’s a learning experience.

I’m waiting for someone to build a house and then if you want any windows, heating or electric you have to have to either build it yourself or wait for an upgrade.  Madness.

4) Live services...

When I started in computing my first machine was a ZX Spectrum 48K it wasn’t amazing but it was a computer.  You bought games, you could program it and it was yours to do with as you pleased.

Modern day systems both in the computing world and console world you are signed into agreements that no matter what the machine is.  The code involved is the property of X company and although you physically own the machine you can not amend it, alter it,  complain about it or they can withdraw your rights to said systems and lock you out.

What? I own a machine but if I do anything beyond your limitations you will sue me.  How did this become a thing.

It was bad enough with Intellectual Copyright bullshit but this is getting ludicrous.

They have since took it one step further in games now several of them will not allow you to play them unless permanently connected to their servers or pay an ongoing subscription fee.

Which equally they can close at a moments notice because they decide they don’t like it and you have no recompense.  How many games have we heard have been just abandoned by their publishers.

Especially in the MMORPG genre.  Games are no longer purchased like tapes with physical medium as now most are download codes in physical cases.  If you actually get a physical DVD you are lucky.

However it doesn’t mean squat if you buy the game and the servers no longer exist.  Several games have managed to allow people to have their own private servers but many of them don’t exist.

How is this allowed to exist.  How are the computer industry allowed to sell products which have no guarantee.  Also why is no one questioning this...

If Valve decide enough was enough, they were sick of being blamed for the controversial games been stuck on its site by asset flippers etc., and decided to close down the service.

Sure they would have to give people notice but beyond that they have no obligation to make sure you have access to the games you bought.  This to me seems a dodgy game.

And with more services such as the Epic Games Store, UPlay, Origin,  and Google Stadia this is only going to get worse.

We need some form of legislation to prevent this from happening.  We are losing more and more data everyday on the internet due to leaks, server closures and companies just going out of business.  Very little of this software and data is being archived so is lost.

This is a problem.  Now I understand people saying it’s my game. But equally you have been paid for said game and now they are saying we cant use it or access it.

Something is fundamentally wrong here.

I could go on with further points such as large corporations closing Software Studios making games and complaining they sold 7 million copies and didn’t sell 10 million copies. Major tech companies refusing to pay taxes but want tax breaks from major governments but that can be the topic for another day.

As I said the tech world is fundamentally broken and needs a shake up.  Why are we paying the price for their inability to sort out their problems.

Until next time ...

[thesevenseraphs]

Bungie Weekly Update - 6/20/19

This week at Bungie, we prepare for Calus’s new challenge.

If you’re reading this at the moment of publication, we’re currently live on the GuardianCon Charity Marathon Stream hosting a Bungie Bounty. We’re being hunted on all three platforms while a menagerie of hosts reads off donations to support a great cause! We have a list of incentives, ranging from releasing the TWAB early to showing off a few Legendary weapon concepts from our upcoming Destiny 2: Shadowkeep release. For more information about the GuardianCon charity stream, make sure to check their website. If you’d like to join the fun on stream, we’ll be live from 1–5 PM PDT (4–8 PM EDT).

Watch live video from GuardianCon on www.twitch.tv

Now, let’s get down to business on your weekly roundup of Destiny- and Bungie-related news.

Challenge Fit for a Guardian

Season of Opulence is full steam ahead. You’ve scoured the depths of the Menagerie, begun your quest for Truth, and taken the Crown of Sorrow. Our next stop on the roadmap begins June 25 with Menagerie Heroic mode.

So, let’s dig in. What does Calus have lined up for our most powerful Guardians?

Increased Power Difficulty: Starts at 750, increases to 770

Matchmaking is disabled; you must form a fireteam to enter

Weekly curated gameplay modifiers, rotating per boss

Unlike normal mode, Guardians can hit a failure state

Extinguish is active; if your team wipes, Calus will send you to orbit

Encounters never repeat; if you fail to reach 100% progress toward the boss after completing each encounter once, you will be returned to orbit

Heroic-mode-specific Triumphs, rewards, and challenges await you

Though we’ll be watching, this won’t be a race. We’re excited to see how players customize their experience with various challenges to show off their skill. Can you defeat Heroic mode with fewer than six players? Maybe with specific loadouts? Only time will tell.

Take Pride

June isn’t the only time when we live our values as a company, but it’s a great opportunity to celebrate them. Here is an important message from the Bungie Diversity Committee on how you can join us in expressing your pride, along with the people who make the games you play.

Pride Month is an exciting time of year, when we can all unite under a rainbow flag and celebrate our LGBTQIA+ family. Bungie has come together this month to do more than we've been able to accomplish before.

We have a Pride pin for sale on our Bungie Store, with all proceeds going directly to the It Gets Better Project (a nonprofit organization with a mission to uplift, empower, and connect lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer youth around the globe). This year, not only will Bungie continue its tradition of marching in the Seattle Pride Parade as an official sponsor, but we have also teamed up with other nearby dev studios to create a more united game industry alliance. While we celebrate this month, it’s vital that we stay centered on what Pride is truly about; the equal rights and representation of the LGBTQIA+ community, People who deserve to be celebrated and recognized for their role in making our community as amazing as it is.

“For me, Pride means being able to be visible to someone who needs representation (even when they may not realize it), as opposed to how it used to be where visibility only meant being a target.” —Jayce D., Designer

We on the Bungie Diversity Committee are committed to improving Bungie’s work culture, practices, and policies in order to make this community a more welcoming and inclusive space for our LGBTQIA+ employees and fans around the world. This work does not start and end in June; rather, it’s a series of challenges that we work on every day, month after month. Here at Bungie, we know there are still a lot of ways we could be doing better. We also know that our industry sometimes drags its heels when it comes to necessary change. However, we must keep moving forward for the sake of our own teams, coworkers, families, and players who need to know that they are seen, accepted, welcomed, and loved for exactly who they are.

“One of the most empowering things I’ve experienced is the acknowledgement that I exist in a world that generally pretends otherwise. This was the greatest gift games have ever given me, and one of the most important things I want to do as a developer is give that gift to players.” —David S., Engineer

We look forward to celebrating Pride Month with all of you. Let’s keep our eyes up, and do our part to forge a brighter future. —Bungie Diversity Committee

Please note: If the Pride Collectible Pin shows “Currently Unavailable” on the Bungie Store, this indicates that the item is currently out of stock. We plan to have these available through Pride month, and beyond. If you’re interested in snagging one of these pins, but it’s not available, make sure to click the “Email when available” option on the portal to be notified the moment they’re back in stock!

Preserving the Truth

The members of Destiny Player Support navigate the help forum daily, spreading helpful tips on how to work around issues or collecting data on any newly surfaced problems within Destiny 2. This week, they have some super good advice on how to keep your Truth quest on the right track.

This is their report.

Fall 2019 FAQ Update

This week, we’re making some updates and revisions to our Fall 2019 FAQ. See below for this week’s additions:

Q: What is included with Bungie Store purchases of physical editions of Destiny 2: Shadowkeep?

A: Digital products delivered via email before September 17, 2019: 

Digital code for Destiny 2: Shadowkeep Digital Deluxe Edition with Digital Deluxe Edition in-game bonuses

Digital Destiny 2: Shadowkeep Original Soundtrack

Players who selected and purchased the “No Game Code” option for Destiny 2: Shadowkeep will not receive any codes leading up to the September 17, 2019 release date.

Collector’s Edition exclusive physical collectible bundle contents delivered on or before September 17, 2019:

Collector’s Edition Exclusive In-Game Emblem Code: An exclusive in-game emblem code printed inside the physical collectible bundle.

Hive Cryptoglyph Replica: Follow clues in the Collector’s Edition to unlock the Hive Cryptoglyph and its secret contents. Dimensions: 7.8”L.

Metal Luna Mission Container: A metal Luna mission folio that holds esoteric relics and records. Dimensions: 8.6”L x 5.9”W.

Luna Mission Handbook: Containing 40 pages of schematics and design documents.

Luna Journal: A 160-page journal featuring additional story content that is bound with the mysterious charms and talismans of Eris Morn.

Artifacts from the Golden Age.

Q: When should players expect Destiny 2: Shadowkeep to ship from the Bungie Store?

A: Physical editions of Destiny 2: Shadowkeep will ship to players on or before September 17, 2019. Included digital codes will be delivered by email to players on or before September 17, 2019. Players should be aware that Bungie Store codes included with Shadowkeep physical edition purchases will arrive only by email, and that no versions include any codes in the box.

Players who selected and purchased the “No Game Code” option for Destiny 2: Shadowkeep will not receive any codes leading up to the September 17, 2019 release date.

Q: Who should players contact with concerns regarding their Bungie Store physical edition purchase of Destiny 2: Shadowkeep?

A: Customer service concerns related to physical editions ordered from BungieStore.com, to include the delivery of Bungie Store digital product codes, should be directed to orders@bungiestore.com.

Customer service concerns related to physical editions ordered from eu.BungieStore.com, to include the delivery of Bungie Store digital product codes, should be directed to bungiesupport@brandaccess.com.

Additionally, we’ve revised the following questions for clarity in response to player feedback:

Q: Do players need to repurchase Destiny 2 on each cross-save platform separately?

A: Destiny 2 will be accessible to players on all available platforms for free as Destiny 2: New Light.

However, players will need to purchase Destiny 2 expansions (Forsaken, Shadowkeep) for each connected platform in order to access that expansion’s content. Cross save will preserve all gear, character, and items across all platforms regardless of expansion ownership.

Q: Can players merge different characters, items, or Triumphs from different accounts?

A: Cross Save does not feature any form of account, character, or progress merging. Selecting a set of characters for Cross Save does not delete or alter the data of any other character sets. Other character sets will be inaccessible for use as long as Cross Save is active.

Q: Will Stadia feature cross-play with Steam or other platforms?

A: Cross-play will not be available for any platform in 2019. We are investigating this feature for Destiny 2, but we have no official announcements to make at this time.

Destiny 2 Season of Opulence Known Issues

Listed below are the latest player-impacting issues discovered in Season of Opulence:

Not Getting Truth from the Ascendant Chest: We’re investigating an issue where players may not receive Truth after they open the Ascendant Chest if they aren’t on the quest step “Candy from a Baby.” Players should ensure they are on the appropriate quest step before opening this chest.

Refer-a-Friend Linking Issue: We’re investigating an issue where new players can’t accept links from veteran players.

690 Gear for Alternate Characters: We’re investigating an issue where players don’t receive 690 gear on all of their characters after completing “The Invitation” quest.

Vestian Dynasty: We’re aware that Vestian Dynasty is dropping for players after Update 2.2.1.

Rune Bonus II Not Refunding: We’re investigating an issue where players who have this node active in their Chalice of Opulence don’t always receive a rune back when opening the Menagerie chest.

Double Rune Drops: We’re investigating an issue where players receive only one rune when two runes of the same type drop at the end of an activity.

Infamy Points and Bounty Issues: We’re investigating an issue where Gambit Prime “Civic Duty” bounties are not counting toward player Infamy ranks.

Crystals in Eater of Worlds and Crossroad Public Event: We’re investigating an issue where these crystals don’t transition correctly and it becomes difficult to shoot them.

Raid Witches Vessel Swappers Not Spawning: We are investigating an issue where the swappers do not spawn during flawless runs of the Crown of Sorrow raid, resulting in players being unable to complete the flawless run.

Static Shock Emote: We’re investigating an issue where players have a hard time interacting with this emote prompt.

Sturm and Drang Audio: We are investigating an issue where Sturm plays the reload audio on every kill when paired with Drang or Drang (Baroque), even when Drang’s magazine is full.

[aion-rsa]

Resident Evil Village Demo Start Time for PS5, PS4, Xbox, PC, and Stadia

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

If the recent Resident Evil Village showcase left you excited but confused about when you’ll be able to play the game’s upcoming demos, you’re not alone. Capcom chose a…unique way to release these upcoming demos that has left fans scrambling for clarification.

The very good news is that you will be able to play more of Resident Evil Village ahead of its May 7th release date in the very near future. When, exactly, you’ll be able to play those demos, though, greatly depend on your region, preferred platform, and ability to race against a couple of strange clocks.

Here’s what you need to know about the current download times and restrictions for Resident Evil Village‘s upcoming demos:

How Many Resident Evil Village Demos Are There?

Capcom is releasing two additional Resident Evil Village demos: one that takes place in the game’s village area and one that takes place in Lady Dimitrescu‘s castle. To keep things as simple as possible, we’ll be referring to each as the “Village” and “Castle” demo from here on.

Unlike the game’s previously released “Maiden” demo, Village and Castle will seemingly be pulled from the main game, meaning that what you see in them is what you’ll eventually experience when Resident Evil Village is released on May 7.

How Long Do I Have to Download and Play The Resident Evil Village Demos?

Here’s where things get weird.

PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 gamers will receive early access to the upcoming demos, but the demos will initially only be available for a limited amount of time during those early preview sessions. Specifically, you’ll have eight hours to download those demos from the time they’re released, and once you have download them, you’ll only have 30 minutes to explore the available areas.

Xbox, PC, and Stadia players will also be able to play those demos, but they’ll be released on those platforms on May 1st as a 60-minute demo that will apparently combine the content from the separate 30-minute demos. PlayStation gamers will also be able to access that combined demo in case they missed the release of the separate Village and Castle demos.

Confused yet? Well, hold on tight, because we’re about to look at when you’ll actually be able to download all these demos.

When Does the Resident Evil Village “Village” Demo Download Time Start?

Here’s when you’ll be able to download and play the “Village” demo if you’re a PS4 or PS5 owner:

8pm EST on April 17 until 4am EST on April 18

For our friends in the UK and Europe, these are the download times you’re looking for:

6pm BST on April 18 until 2am BST on April 19 7pm CEST on April 18 until 3am CEST on April 19

Remember that those times account for the eight-hour window you’ll have to download the demo and that you’ll only have 30 minutes to play it once you’ve downloaded and started it.

cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530", }).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796"); });

When Does the Resident Evil Village “Castle” Demo Download Time Start?

Here’s when you’ll be able to download and play the “Castle” demo if you’re a PS4 or PS5 owner:

8pm EST on April 24 until 4am EST on April 25

For our friends in the UK and Europe, these are the download times you’re looking for:

6pm BST on April 25 until 2am BST on April 26 7pm CEST on April 25 until 3am CEST on April 26

Just as with the Village demo, you’ll have eight hours to download the Castle demo and 30 minutes to play it once you have downloaded and started it.

When Will the 60-Minute Resident Evil Village Demo Download Be Available for PlayStation, Xbox, PC, and Stadia?

Everyone with a platform that supports Resident Evil Village will be able to access the 60-minute version of the Village and Castle demos at the following times:

8pm EST on May 1 until 8pm EST on May 2 1am BST on May 2 until 1am BST on May 3 2am CEST on May 2 until 2am CEST on May 3

As you can see, that demo is available to download for 24 hours rather than just eight hours. I’ve heard some speculate the demo may actually end up being available for longer than that, but since Capcom is listing a 24 hour download time limit on their website and Twitter page, that’s what we’re going with until they share something different.

Can You Pre-Download the Resident Evil Village Demos for PlayStation, Xbox, PC, and Stadia?

Yes you can.

If you’re a PlayStation owner, you can actually start downloading both demos on April 15 at 4:00 7:00 p.m. EST. You’ll have to wait until the times noted above to play each demo, but you can have both ready to go starting now.

If you’re downloading the 60-minute demo for Xbox, PC, or Stadia, you’ll need to wait until April 29 at 8:00 p.m. ET to start your download. It seems that the version of the demos that PlayStation owners can download now essentially “includes” that 60-minute demo, but it’s possible that they may need to download an additional update on the 29th.

The post Resident Evil Village Demo Start Time for PS5, PS4, Xbox, PC, and Stadia appeared first on Den of Geek.

from Den of Geek https://ift.tt/3e8QBCn

[entergamingxp]

Marvel’s Avengers Beta Preview — Destiny Arrives All the Same

August 5, 2020 9:00 AM EST

The Marvel’s Avengers beta features quite a lot of content for you to get your hands on, but none of it has sold me on the game’s final product just yet.

I’ve been pretty critical of Marvel’s Avengers since Crystal Dynamics and Square Enix fully unveiled the game last year at E3. Part of why I’ve been so disappointed in the game thus far is because I’ve been reading Marvel comics since I was a little kid. My expectations for projects that are set in this universe have always been quite lofty, and that’s true now more than ever before in a post-MCU and Marvel’s Spider-Man world.

After over a year of watching Marvel’s Avengers from afar, however, I have now finally played the game itself. Square Enix recently gave us early access to the upcoming beta for the game that is set to go live initially on PS4 later this week. Now that I have played Avengers though for myself, am I less pessimistic about it than I was before? Well, sort of. But also, not really.

Likely my biggest complaint with what I’ve played of Marvel’s Avengers remains that each character still looks and feels too similar to one another. The beta primarily lets you play as Iron Man, Hulk, Black Widow, and Ms. Marvel, each of whom has their own unique abilities and animations to offer up. That said, the core mechanics of each character are still far too homogenized. Basic combat inputs for every hero are all the same with each also having three abilities at their disposal to go along with a ranged attack of some sort. Because combat has to remain so similar in structure across all playable characters, it never seems to reach the same level of depth and engagement that can be found in other action games.

The more that I played Avengers, the more that I really began wishing each character had additional small tweaks to set them apart from the rest of the team. One example of this, for instance, could see Hulk, who is arguably the strongest member of the Avengers, being able to deal far more damage to enemies than he does. Instead, his damage output is nearly identical to someone like Kamala Khan, while having far less range with his attacks. While there are some character-specific qualities, such as being able to fly as Thor and Iron Man, the changes when swapping between different playable heroes never felt vast enough.

One area of Marvel’s Avengers that I know many people have been looking forward to involves the game’s wholly original story that is set in a different iteration of the Marvel universe. Even if you’re not hot on how Square Enix opted to go in a games-as-a-service model for Avengers, you might be holding out hope that the initial campaign itself will be great. For me, though, I actually found the single-player aspect of the Avengers beta to be its weakest part.

Essentially, the lone campaign level that you play as sees you swapping between both Hulk and Kamala Khan within a fairly confined and linear environment. By comparison, many of the other War Zone missions in the game are pretty open-ended which makes this level feel far too cramped. Being funneled down bland corridors to fight off masses of AIM robots was just never very fun. This mission concludes with a boss fight against Hulk’s nemesis Abomination, but even this bout felt pretty bland, too. I’m hoping that this campaign mission that the beta lets you try out just happens to be one of the weaker levels in its story, but I can’t say it wowed me by any means.

Speaking of the games-as-a-service model that Avengers is styled after, there are a lot of aspects of the experience that I’m still a bit questionable on. For starters, and while I’m not certain just yet, the beta seems to indicate that each character will have its own separate battle pass, which is kind of strange. I’m also not really sure how the in-game currency for Avengers, which will allow you to buy variant costumes and such, will be doled out. The aforementioned battle pass seems to give you some of this currency every now and then, but otherwise, I’m not too sure how monetization is going to work here.

I also have to say that the gear system, which is the primary means by which you upgrade each character’s power level in the game (similar to Destiny) really looks to have no reason to be in Avengers other than being a general carrot on the stick to keep the player engaged. The gear that you acquire within Avengers seems pretty pointless, especially since it doesn’t even make cosmetic alterations to each character. Basically, the only reason it seems to have even been tacked-on is to keep you returning to the game over and over and making sure you keep replaying missions to then acquire more gear which will make your power level go up. At least in a counterpart like Destiny, the act of acquiring new gear or guns brings with it visual or gameplay changes. That doesn’t really seem to be present with Avengers.

The best thing I can likely say about Marvel’s Avengers based on my own time with it is that it’s pretty darn fun to play with friends. Being able to use each heroes’ abilities in tandem with one another to take down massive hordes of enemies is satisfying and makes for a good time. However, I’m not sure if the game itself is drastically better in multiplayer because Avengers itself functions much more effectively as a co-op experience, or if that enjoyment was derived simply from the fact that nearly any game is more enjoyable to play with close friends. That said, the game itself absolutely seems to have been designed with multiplayer in mind first and it seems like this will be where the experience shines the most.

There’s also a whole lot of content to check out in this Avengers beta as well, which is pretty nice. Honestly, if you’re still a bit on the fence with this game as a whole, I’d encourage you to check out one of the upcoming beta phases over the course of the next few weeks. Between the game’s opening tutorial, a single-player mission, access to the HARM room, and a variety of War Zones to run through, you could spend a fair amount of time playing this beta to see where you land for yourself.

Strangely enough, even though I still don’t sound too hot on Marvel’s Avengers as a whole, this trial I played does have me looking more forward to its release. Part of that is simply because I’m morbidly curious to see how the game’s final product actually pans out. At the same time, though, I do see myself playing this game with friends over the coming months and I’m always down to clown around with my buddies in any video game.

Marvel’s Avengers isn’t terrible by any means based on what I’ve played so far, but it also isn’t blowing me away by any means. To partially borrow a quote from the late Dennis Green, Avengers is what we thought it was. Whether or not that style of game is more up your alley or not is for you to decide. As for me, I’ll continue to hope that the launch iteration of the title ends up being more enticing than what I’ve played at this point.

Marvel’s Avengers is set to launch next month on September 4 for PS4, Xbox One, PC, and Stadia, with next-gen iterations on PS5 and Xbox Series X coming later this year. As for the beta itself, those who pre-order on PS4 will be able to gain access from August 7 until the 9th. The following weekend, Xbox One and PC players will then be able to hop in before the beta then goes open to everyone between August 21 through the 23rd.

August 5, 2020 9:00 AM EST

from EnterGamingXP https://entergamingxp.com/2020/08/marvels-avengers-beta-preview-destiny-arrives-all-the-same/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=marvels-avengers-beta-preview-destiny-arrives-all-the-same

[gamerszone2019-blog]

Why You Might Want To Play Borderlands 3 More Than Once

New Post has been published on https://gamerszone.tn/why-you-might-want-to-play-borderlands-3-more-than-once/

Why You Might Want To Play Borderlands 3 More Than Once

All four playable Vault Hunters in Borderlands 3 bring their own distinct flavor to the game, and not just in terms of their unique skill trees. In comparison to the Vault Hunters in previous games, Borderlands 3’s Zane, Moze, Amara, and FL4K talk a lot, constantly speaking their minds and responding to NPCs during conversations. Your choice of Vault Hunter won’t impact the final outcome of the main story at all, but it will influence how you perceive certain events and understand the relationships of specific characters–encouraging you to play through Borderlands 3’s campaign more than once.

“We wanted to make sure that if people said, ‘I want to play through this game all over again with a different character,’ that they would then feel rewarded,” co-lead writer Sam Winkler said in an interview with GameSpot. “Not just in terms of different mechanics but also a slightly different interpretation of some of the stories.” The emphasis on Sirens in Borderlands 3’s plot means Amara has a vested interest in the story’s events, for instance, and FL4K–a nonbinary AI–explores their growing sexual attraction to Ellie by flirting with her every chance they have.

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Borderlands 3 – Breaking Down FL4K’s Skill Tree

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Having played as all four of the Vault Hunters now, I love how much each one changes how many of the interactions go. Previous Vault Hunters have rarely felt like carbon copies of each other–their unique abilities mean each one handles in a distinct way. But within their respective stories, each one typically reacts to every event in a similar way to their teammates. There’s no new insight playing as Brick instead of Mordecai or Maya instead of Zer0. So it’s a nice change of pace in Borderlands 3, and I’m already eager to see how each Vault Hunter uniquely responds to the streamer-like banter and violent habits of the Calypso Twins–especially Tyreen, a Siren whose curse-like Phase Leech ability and horrifying backstory (if true) write her as somewhat of a tragic figure.

To also encourage replayability, several side quests in Borderlands 3 contain choices, allowing you to impact the game in different ways. Don’t expect world-changing events but, for example, you can influence how certain characters will appear depending on what you do. In Borderlands 3’s prologue, for instance, Claptrap loses his antenna, and–for the rest of the game–he’ll just wear whatever you decide to give him as a replacement. “Maybe it’s a tin foil hat, or a human arm, or something else,” Winkler said.

Aside from the more vocal protagonists and additional agency in how certain side quests conclude, the story of Borderlands 3 is fundamentally the same character-driven tale of crass humor, murderous mayhem, and silly puns that defined Borderlands, Borderlands 2, Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel, and Tales from the Borderlands. Almost every major character from the previous four games returns in this newest installment, though many have changed in the seven in-game years since the events of Borderlands 2. Because there’s been so much history in the franchise, Gearbox wanted to avoid making any of the previously established characters–such as Tiny Tina, Sir Hammerlock, or Ellie–into playable Vault Hunters. It was important that players were forced to use characters who had never interacted with Pandora and its inhabitants before so the story would then have to reintroduce the franchise’s lore, helping out series newcomers.

“There’s that wonderful cadence of Borderlands where the previous rounds of Vault Hunters become characters in the world, and that allows you the opportunity to learn more about them and where they’re from,” co-lead writer Danny Homan said. “But as a result, with Borderlands 3, you need a new generation of Vault Hunters because you need to see an old world through a new perspective. It’s so useful when you have a new cast who have just made their way to Pandora and they’re asking all the [expositional] questions that the players may be asking, like, ‘What the heck is a Vault? What am I doing here? Who is Lilith? Why is this robot trying to insult me and also give me stuff?'”

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Borderlands 3 Gun Manufacturers Explained

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“We never want Borderlands 3 to feel like you have to know everything about the franchise in order to understand why a character is important,” Winkler added. “We want it to be accessible to both new and old players.” Not every bit of information in regards to past events could be fit into Borderlands 3’s early chapters though. As a result, Borderlands 2–which hasn’t seen a story expansion since 2013’s Tiny Tina’s Assault on Dragon Keep–got new DLC earlier this summer, just ahead of Borderlands 3’s release.

“Our biggest goal with [Commander Lilith and the Fight for Sanctuary DLC] was to canonize some stuff from [Tales from the Borderlands],” Winkler said. “A lot more people played Borderlands 2 than Tales, and so we didn’t want people to ask, ‘Where’s Helios?’ when they picked up Borderlands 3.”

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The First 20 Mins of Borderlands 2 DLC: Commander Lilith & The Fight For Sanctuary

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Tales from the Borderlands is an outlier in the franchise, the only game in the series that doesn’t star Vault Hunters as the main characters and also isn’t a first-person shooter. However, it took Borderlands’ ludicrous humor to new heights, and it’s this level of ridiculousness that Borderlands 3 strives for.

“A lot of people would say ‘Don’t do an extended five-minute gunfight without any guns,'” Winkler said. “And yet Tales did it and I still see that [finger gun fight] all the time on the internet. That’s the energy we want to bring to Borderlands 3. Have people say, ‘Did you play that one thing? It’s insane.'” In this, Borderlands 3 certainly seems to fit the bill. On Eden-6 (one of the new planets you’ll visit in the game), you meet an Ice-T-voiced AI that’s been trapped in a teddy bear by its angry ex-girlfriend. The jokes that follow in that particular chapter go to places that are as shocking and unsettling as they are morbidly amusing. Borderlands 3’s story is definitely closer to the creative weirdness and pretty-much-anything-goes tone of Tales, as opposed to the unhinged attitude of the previous mainline games.

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Borderlands 3 – Sanctuary Ship Tour Gameplay

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If nothing else, the story told in Borderlands 3 seems to be somewhat of an apotheosis for the franchise up to this point–rewarding fans with the answers to many of the series’ most long-standing questions. You shouldn’t expect to have everything laid bare though, as Borderlands 3 expands upon the franchise’s lore with brand-new concepts as well. “There are definitely events from previous Borderlands games that kind of reach an interesting culmination in certain ways,” Homan said. “The focus on Lilith from Borderlands 1 to Borderlands 3–there are some interesting stories that we’re telling there. People love the Borderlands universe and there are always more stories out there, and so when we’re trying to wrap up a story, we’re always trying to see new stories.” Winkler added, “Whatever Borderlands ends up looking like after Borderlands 3, I think that people will be able to look back and see one, two, and three as maybe a trilogy. But not necessarily with walls on either side of it.”

Borderlands 3 is scheduled to release for Xbox One, PS4, and PC on September 13. On PC, Borderlands 3 has a limited-time exclusivity deal with the Epic Games Store that lasts until 2020. Borderlands 3 will also be a day one title on Google Stadia, a cloud-based game streaming service scheduled to launch in November 2019.

Source : Gamesport

[aion-rsa]

How Xbox One Shaped the Future of Console Gaming

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I never owned an Xbox One, and to be honest, I’ve never really regretted that decision, even as I prepare to get my hands on the Xbox Series X.

In some ways, the legacy of the Xbox One is defined by shortcomings. Microsoft’s infamously botched reveal of the console was lowlighted by the console’s investment in the now-defunct Kinect peripheral as well as its apparent dependence on a constant internet connection. And even though Microsoft addressed most of these issues over time, the tech company faced one problem it never entirely solved: an inability to consistently deliver compelling exclusives.

From Sunset Overdrive to Forza Horizon 4, there are definitely Xbox games from the last generation that you need to play that you can’t on a PlayStation 4 or Nintendo Switch. The problem is that there just never seemed to be enough Xbox One exclusives released in any given year. The GameCube suffered from a similar problem, but that console is at least fondly remembered for gifting the world with some all-time great games. It’s highly debatable whether there are any Xbox One console exclusives worthy of that honor.

All of these problems — and other factors, such as Microsoft’s continued struggles in certain international markets — led to what many see as a sound defeat for the Xbox One in the console war against the PS4. The numbers are never quite as bad in that area as some fans would lead you to believe, but the fact remains that current tallies suggest that PlayStation outsold Xbox in the last console generation at an almost a 2:1 ratio. When you’re talking about a margin as substantial as that, it’s easy to argue that something went wrong.

That’s the fascinating thing about the Xbox One’s legacy, though. It’s the rare video game console that deserves to be remembered as much for how it benefited those who owned it as it benefited those who did not.

The reason I can tell you about the Xbox One’s great exclusives despite never owning an Xbox One is that I got to play most of them on PC. While Microsoft has always had a closer relationship with PC gaming than other console manufacturers, the Xbox One was the console that broke down nearly every barrier that kept certain titles on consoles in the apparent hope of tempting PC gamers to purchase a new device for just a handful of games. It’s not a stretch to suggest that Microsoft’s success in the current PC market is a big part of the reason why studios like Sega and even the PlayStation team are supporting PC gaming in ways they never did before.

Remarkably, Microsoft’s continued support of the PC platform may be the least impressive example of the company’s two greatest virtues during the Xbox One generation: accessibility and consumer-friendly ways to play on the platform. 

When I say accessibility, I’m of course talking about the Xbox team’s initiative to develop devices, such as the Adaptive Controller, that allow gamers with various disabilities to enjoy the titles they love with as few restrictions as possible. This is something that Microsoft doesn’t always get enough credit for (likely because it’s another measure of success that can’t be measured in sales figures alone), but it’s arguably a big part of the reason why we’re seeing so many developers work to include expanded accessibility options in their games. 

But I also want to use the word in a broader sense. The fact remains that Microsoft championed accessibility during the Xbox One generation in ways that Nintendo and Sony often did not. 

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Microsoft began supporting cross-play at a time when Sony was arguing that the feature wasn’t good for its userbase. Sony eventually relented, especially as cross-play games like Fortnite and Call of Duty Warzone grew more popular, and gamers now expect nearly every multi-platform multiplayer title to have some kind of cross-play functionality.

The Xbox team also began developing cloud gaming technology when many still rightfully believed it was a pipe dream. But with services like Google Stadia, Amazon Luna, and NVIDIA GeForce Now, it’s clear Microsoft was ahead of the curve on this one. Even Sony confirmed in 2019 that it has partnered with Microsoft to further the advancement of cloud gaming on the PlayStation platform.

Microsoft also championed the importance of backward compatibility at a time when players had surrendered to the idea that the only way to play classic games on modern consoles was to purchase remastered re-releases. The company’s efforts in that field may be part of the reason why the PS5 will feature a (comparatively limited) backward compatibility system that the PS4 infamously lacked. With extensive backward compatibility options on Xbox Series X, Microsoft remains at the forefront of innovation in terms of finding new ways for more people to play more games than ever before. 

Of course, you can’t talk about Microsoft’s consumer-friendly innovations without mentioning Xbox Game Pass. A “Netflix for gaming” has always been a hollow talking point, but Microsoft has made great strides in offering a service that almost replicates the streaming functionality of Netflix, especially with the cloud-based Xbox Game Pass app on mobile devices. Game Pass has cleared many of the hurdles of starting a gaming subscription service while also proving their growing necessity. Thanks to Game Pass, the idea of buying one $60 (or more) game at a time is beginning to feel archaic.

Game Pass wasn’t the first video game subscription service, but it was one of the first to feature the right combination of features and compromises. No, it doesn’t let you stream game on consoles, but it does let you download them with the option of purchasing them later at a reduced price. It even debuted for under $10 a month even though similar services proved that Microsoft could have easily charged more and few would have batted an eye, which is still a highly competitive price point when compared to other services.

From the very beginning, Game Pass was designed to be functional and accessible. Microsoft’s philosophy was that if you got people to try it, they wouldn’t want to go back. From there, the company grew Game Pass in ways that nobody anticipated. Who would have thought that Game Pass would eventually include day one Xbox exclusives at no additional cost? Who would have thought that Game Pass would grow to feature titles from EA’s own subscription program? It’s no wonder the service now boasts 15 million subscribers across all compatible platforms. The service is simply one of the best deals in gaming, even if you don’t own an Xbox and want to use it on PC.

If you break down all the ways that Game Pass eventually grew into the greatest subscription service in gaming, you’ll find that nearly every milestone was something that was ultimately good for Game Pass subscribers. Game Pass has proven to be valuable for Microsoft in ways that the Xbox One hardware never really was. It’s a big part of the reason why the next-gen console wars likely won’t be measured purely in terms of hardware sales. As the industry becomes increasingly reliant on engagement as its primary metric, it becomes harder to deny the long-term value of a service such as Xbox Game Pass. Even PlayStation Now has struggled to compete, largely due to Sony’s hesitance to port day one exclusives to the service. 

That isn’t to say that Microsoft has been perfect or that it’s making all the right moves across the board. The Xbox Series X’s limited launch library shows that Microsoft hasn’t quite remedied its software shortcomings. And while the company’s acquisition of Bethesda might seriously beef up the next-gen console’s first-party lineup, the deal has also left gamers with serious questions regarding whether Microsoft will do the “consumer-friendly” and make future Bethesda titles available on competing platforms. When it comes to the games, Microsoft has to figure out how its going to balance accessibility and exclusivity in a way that makes sense for the fans and (let’s be honest) the shareholders.

When I think back on the legacy of the Xbox, it’s difficult not to view the mistakes Microsoft made through the lens of how it learned from those same mistakes. You could argue that the early version of the Xbox One was a little too forward-thinking for its own good, but I’d say that the biggest problem with the early days of the Xbox One was Microsoft’s inability to convey what it was trying to achieve. With its eyes on the future, Team Xbox overlooked what people wanted in the present. It would have been easy for Microsoft to stubbornly stay the course, but the company instead opted to admit what it did wrong, take a step back, and make sure the issues were addressed before it tried to take a bold leap forward again.

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You may not have owned an Xbox One, either. You may have no real desire to purchase an Xbox Series X based on its current library of games. Yet, when we look back on the evolution of console gaming, it’s going to be hard to deny that the Xbox One paved the way for a more exciting path forward that will continue to unfold in the next generation. 

The post How Xbox One Shaped the Future of Console Gaming appeared first on Den of Geek.

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[breakingarrows]

Discourse Conversations During E3 2019

Watching press conferences and livestreams of various talking heads discuss whatever video game thing they saw that day is only part of E3. Another major part is the social media discussions that unfold faster and accumulate more conversation than any ten hour IGN livestream could. However, like any form of discourse being developed on Twitter and elsewhere, it can be easily lost if you aren’t in the moment, and nearly impossible to find due to some of the best commentary coming indirectly. This is a small attempt to capture some of that discourse that unfolded during this week of E3 2019.

Before E3 even started we already had a large social media argument about “spoilers” for the press conferences. Essentially: people went back and forth on whether or not to share/publish/promote leaks of things like, “This game surprise is going to happen!” While things like Breath of the Wild direct sequel being announced is a fun secret to watch live, a headline report spreading online beforehand isn’t something to condemn. The sort of corporate love-fest E3 already is will only continue when gamers are actively antagonistic to anything other than the publisher message being put out. As many of these discourse conversations will go, this is the same old song and dance we have seen for over a decade. If you don’t want to see anything before a corporation hits “go” on a press conference, just stay offline and don’t bitch about it at whoever it is that’s publishing details earlier than the publisher dictated commercial. People trying to frame this as hurting developers feelings should redirect that energy towards unionization and fair pay advocacy, not, “Please don’t publish details early, these people worked really hard to sell me this game.”

Perhaps the biggest thread-spawner was the reappearance of Cyberpunk 2077 from CD Projekt Red at the Microsoft press conference. Developer CDPR also owns GOG, which has previously tweeted a gamergate related gif of Postal 2, a, “did you just assume their gender?” response tweet from the Cyberpunk account, and using the #WontBeErased for GOG games. Eurogamer has a rundown of it all here. Then this week, you have Keanu Reeves making a surprise appearance in the game Cyberpunk 2077 as well as on the Microsoft stage to announce the release date. The internet goes wild, fueled by post-John Wick 3 hype and long-lasting Keanu love. Then an advertisement in-game for ChroManticore appears, bearing the image of a presumably trans-female with a large erect dick and the phrases, “Mix It Up,” and, “16 flavors you’d love to mix.” CDPR’s explanation via Polygon was: “This is all to show that [much like in our modern world], hypersexualization in advertisements is just terrible,” Redesiuk continued. “It was a conscious choice on our end to show that in this world — a world where you are a cyberpunk, a person fighting against corporations. That [advertisement] is what you’re fighting against.” Responses were generally critical of the ads message, intentional or not, as well as critical due to CDPR’s past actions. “Also, as a note, and this is all i'm gonna say: in proper context, that ad could absolutely be a meaningful statement in a cyberpunk world, and we don't know the context. But also, sadly, CDPR has burned all their trust and have given us little reason to take them in good faith.” [source] That about sums up most of the opinions coming from trans critics, CDPR has failed to properly respect them in the past, why should this be treated in good faith?

Discussions about cyberpunk weren’t limited just to the one game, as it also extended a previous conversation about the origins of cyberpunk as a genre and if the genre has any inherent themes no matter its adaptation or usage. One thread making the rounds argued that cyberpunk is inherently xenophobic, playing on fears of Eastern Asian cultures spreading and taking over the world. Other pushed back against this, citing early Japanese media that heavily influenced western cyberpunk fiction, not the other way around. The opinion I most agreed with was, “Maybe I'm being naive, but everyone keeps saying ‘Cyberpunk is good’ or ‘Cyberpunk is bad’ or ‘Cyberpunk is X’ as if cyberpunk is a cohesive, monolithic thing. It's a genre that has been around for decades which countless different creators have contributed to, and all of those creators were trying to say different things within the genre.” [source] “I am beginning to feel like strongly emphasizing genre as an acting force is kind of formalist nonsense? Like, cyberpunk or whatever isn't any *thing*--it's just a set of ideas some people have used, and other people can take or not take or use or not use.” [source]

Another big topic was the continuing saga of games as non-political and the back and forth between media and developers/publishers/PR in the lead up to a game’s release. Games have messages, but their creators, whether intentionally or due to PR, won’t engage with those ideas during pre-release coverage most of the time. Those sorts of conversations don’t happen until post-release, because the previews are generally focused on the gun-feel or summarizing slideshow pitches. There is also a disconnect between what “political” even means. “They think ‘political’ means being explicitly literalist about what every single moment means instead of being in any capacity complex or open to audience interpretation, for better or worse.” [source] Chris Avellone, longtime games writer, had a statement in a VG247 article about whether stories can be apolitical. “If you’re purposely pushing an agenda or point of view in your game – especially a real-world one that’s clearly divorced from the game world – and you’re dictating that perspective as correct vs. asking a question or examining the perspective more broadly, then it’s left the gaming realm and the ‘game’ has become a pulpit.” However, in an example like Far Cry 5, a game that doesn’t “push an agenda,” actively, still promotes a specific perspective or viewpoint as valid with its endings, as I detailed before. “But, another (very reasonable group, to which I largely subscribe) would say that ‘asking questions that emerge from perspectives in the fiction’ is *exactly* what being political is--interrogating our relationships to each other and the world.” [source] This topic also seemed to collapse in on itself when Watch Dogs Legion was announced, playing on the fears of a post-Brexit London and an authoritarian surveillance state, and coopting the “welcome to the resistance” which is mostly mocked by leftists online whenever someone from the right is kicked out of their group. Definitely not political.

This is also a very tired subject. Ubisoft for years, and other publishers as well, have avoided talking about their games messages relating to the current events during events like E3. Continually the press laments and pushes back against it on social media and sometimes in previews, but the cycle continues. “You know how I've argued ‘We need to stop debating if games are art and just do the job of treating them like art?’ It's also time to move past ‘Can games be apolitical?’ and just focus on continuing critical cultural analysis. Do the work, make it unavoidable, shift the frame. To be clear, I think we needed to spend some time on that earlier debate just to have a mass-level, stakes-setting conversation. But at this point, the best way to push back on ‘No, no, we just make games just ask questions’ is to show how those games actually offer answers.” [source] This is true, but it’s also something others (mostly non-staff people) have been saying for years now.

The annual, “E3 is weird huh?” conversation also happened, like it has for at least the past five years. In May it begins with, “Man what is E3 going to be like this year?” Then E3 happens, everyone does their shit, and at the end they go, “Boy what’s next year going to be like?” The major difference this time was Sony’s complete absence from the show. Despite not having a press conference or show floor presence with demos and presentations, games media still had plenty to talk about, including E3’s relevance. It seems to be the same old song and dance, with the ending statement being, “Well I guess we’ll wait and see what next year is like.”

Another repeated conversation was that of video game streaming platforms, with Stadia having another presentation pre-E3 and Microsoft coming out with console and internet streaming plans for later this year. No real advances were made in this conversation other than confirmation that, yeah, Stadia streaming for those with data caps on internet or smartphone use are going to be fucked if they want the best presentation, which of course they would. Not a ton of talk about the details behind how developers would be paid, though going by how streaming has been slowly killing the movie and music industries, it is not going to be good. Of course the usual access and archivist arguments continue, which I am 100% behind.

New game details sparked lots of speculation, mostly in regards to a direct sequel to Breath of the Wild, one of the few good Zelda games. Being a direct sequel to a previous entry and having a trailer with a darker tone, mean Majora’s Mask became a recurring subject in regards to what this follow up could be. The inclusion of visuals and audio cues seemingly from Twilight Princess also fueled the “darker” Zelda sequel. Some also speculated about a playable Zelda, which, don’t get your hopes up people, this is Nintendo after all.

A game closer in release and in my heart is Final Fantasy VII Remake, which looks to be a big fucking hot mess. Broken up into parts, each seemingly equivalent to a mainline Final Fantasy game in content, this first one releasing next March (we’ll see about that) will only cover the Midgar section of Final Fantasy VII. You know, that section that takes about five hours to complete in the original release. Now that’s going to be extended into probably 30+ hours, which means lots of new original content coming from Square Enix, who are great at adding great new content to the already existing universe of Final Fantasy VII! Despite that I’m still very interested in getting my hands on it and playing through it all. I really like the opening hours of Final Fantasy VII, I just have little faith that they are going to do anything interesting with the new content and not make it feel like filler. It appears Jessie will have a much more expanded role, but still no word on the crossdressing or squats minigame. Combat has been very much changed, and everything is super overproduced in terms of visual flairs, which might explain why there will be TWO blu-ray discs! TWO! Red Dead Redemption 2 is the only other game to do this!

Back to Nintendo, Animal Crossing will now allow players to choose their skin tone, something that has been asked for a very, very long time now. They also confirmed they will let you use whatever hair type you want, which some people took and ran with as equivalent to them saying trans rights, which, no? “You guys please these are fucking table scraps. This is not pro-trans this is just a bare minimum feature for thee love of god.” [source] “Not only is that animal crossing thing a bare minimum there weren't hair restrictions in new leaf anyway???” [source] This was giving me flashbacks to when Soldier 76 was shown to be gay in a tertiary comic from Overwatch and people went nuts despite it not being represented in the game at all. Also, “quick reminder that nintendo fired a support team member bc of ppl making trans flag stages in smash bros” [source] [source]

There was some good news, Ikumi Nakamura came out and presented her new game Ghostwire to rapturous reception. A female creative director, a visually interesting trailer, and an excited jump at presenting her game made her the darling presenter alongside the likes of Keanu Reeves. She was previously an artist on Bayonetta, The Evil Within and its sequel, and made her own Twitter account during E3 to celebrate with her fans. Some of the reaction is probably rooted in how Asian women are treated as adorable and infantilized when compared to others, but she’s been having a good time gathering all the fan art of herself on Twitter, so for now it’s a nice break from the usual depressing nature of AAA publisher presentations.

Lastly, this wasn’t so much a part of the discourse but just an amazing moment, Dr Disrespect was banned from Twitch and thrown out of E3 after he live streamed in a bathroom without censoring other people’s faces, violating a California privacy law. As Alex so wonderfully stated, “this is our generation’s version of Capone going down for tax evasion.”

There was probably a lot of other conversations going on and this isn’t even the full depth of what I tried to find but boy does going back on timelines and searching for threads and responses and quote tweets and subtweets take way too much time. Anyway hope this proves to be a good time capsule for E3 2019 discourse and can’t wait for next year where a majority of these topics are readdressed again and again and again. Video games!

[mrhotmaster]

Beta Opinions Of Avengers: A Chaotic Journey By Marvel

Avengers Beta Viewpoints: A Chaotic Marvel Adventure

The Avengers game is fantastic but test gameplay is faulty. (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); The dispatch of the Avengers game beta was intended to be an energizing time for Marvel fans. More than three years after it was first declared, gamers could at long last experienced what it felt like to play as their most loved superhuman in what's promising to be a super-yearning experience. In any case, at that point prior this week, Marvel's Avengers engineer Crystal Dynamics soured that by uncovering that Spider-Man would be a selective character to PlayStation, a bewildering move for a game not made by a Sony-possessed studio. What could have been extraordinary news — Spider-Man in the Avengers game! — wound up 'til now another arraignment of Sony's enemy of customer conduct. (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); Take the beta's underlying accessibility — just for PS4 pre-orders this end of the week — as additional confirmation. Sony has not just utilized its relationship with Marvel to confine Peter Parker to its support stanza, yet it additionally hit an arrangement with Marvel's Avengers distributer and individual Japanese gaming mammoth Square Enix. Despite the fact that PC and Xbox One proprietors have paid forthright for the Avengers game, they don't gain admittance to the pre-request beta for one more week. All things considered, when the Avengers beta opens up to all stages, it has different issues. Precious stone Dynamics needs Marvel's Avengers to be a community experience, yet it will not remark on the chance of cross-stage play. (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});

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All the more critically, the Avengers game experiences an instance of tactile over-burden. There's such a great amount of occurring at some random second in Marvel's Avengers that it's for all intents and purposes difficult to process every last bit of it. Also, when that occurs, the normal propensity for people is to freeze. In gaming terms, that implies crushing all the catches. But Marvel's Avengers isn't intended to work that way. It expects you to not just receive an alternate system against various kinds of foes, yet in addition, organize and center around the correct adversary at the ideal time. On the off chance that you don't, you'll discover your superhuman losing a great deal of wellbeing to particular extended shots, and thus, driving you to re-try some portion of the level again and again.

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What's more, that is not by any means the only ongoing interaction configuration issue. The superheroes on Marvel's Avengers can be updated in various manners; you can show them new aptitudes, you can open new outfits, and you can win a new apparatus. While some of it is battle driven, some are tied in with obliterating arbitrary articles. No, we're dead serious. Marvel's Avengers feels like a Lego game now and again as you approach breaking everything in nature to procure assets that you'll require for overhauling your apparatus. It appears to be an exercise in futility. Without a doubt, superheroes have greater things to concentrate on than plunder? (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); Indeed, even with new apparatus, it's not connected to character movement but instead covered up in cartons inside structures. Attributable to this, during missions, I was more tried searching for cases and crushing everything in my sight, than center around the job needing to be done. (Add to that the silliness of Hulk calmly opening a carton, and not simply crush it to pieces, as you would anticipate that he should.) There are better approaches to this, as has been appeared by endless different games, including widely praised hero passages in the Batman: Arkham arrangement and the PS4-selective Marvel's Spider-Man. (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); Where the Avengers game sparkles is in the sheer assortment that is on offer. The beta drops you into a monster set-piece on San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge — the one appeared in the early trailers — as the Avengers are gone up against by Taskmaster and his goons. It fills in as an extraordinary method to present the list and their capacities. Thor has Mjolnir, Cap has his shield, Black Widow is coordinated, Iron Man can fly and shoot "repulsor impacts", and Hulk, well, crushes. You can feel the contrasts between the Avengers, be it the manner in which they move or the collection of assaults. A few combos and uncommon moves are particularly cool to see, including Kamala Khan's wrestling-propelled takedown that includes her getting enormous and afterward arriving on an adversary sideways with her mammoth clench hand. (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); Gracious right, Kamala. The Pakistani-source high schooler — otherwise called Ms. Marvel — is at the core of Marvel's Avengers, however, it's not as definitely felt in the beta as her story has been cleaved to pieces to not ruin the full involvement with dispatch. Be that as it may, all the more significantly, Kamala's consideration in the Avengers game is a decent advance for minority portrayal and ponders well Crystal Dynamics, given it's assumed control longer than 10 years for the Marvel Cinematic Universe to bring Ms. Marvel into the fold. In such a circumstance, this may be criticized, yet Kamala's grip of her local language isn't on point now and again. Rather than saying "um-me", she articulates the Urdu word Ammi — it implies mother — as it's written in English. Unusual when they've a second-gen migrant voice entertainer (Sandra Saad) on board. (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});

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Being a beta, Marvel's Avengers has bugs and execution issues, expectedly. Flying foes or those kicked by a hero stalled out in lifeless ecological items now and again. They couldn't fire at us any longer yet we were unable to harm them either. For movement purposes, we needed to bounce and show them out of the article they were stuck in before we could execute them. What's more, during especially serious minutes — the Avengers game is stuffed with bodies all in all, yet certain minutes are heavier because of extraordinary moves — Marvel's Avengers beta incidentally solidified and afterward dropped a few edges. Ideally, these worries are restricted to the beta and will be resolved by full dispatch September.

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The illustrations are nothing to keep in touch with home about, however we concede that the PS4 is apparently the most fragile framework Marvel's Avengers will be accessible on. Notwithstanding the previously mentioned PC and Xbox One, the Avengers game is likewise accessible on the half-gen updates PS4 Pro and Xbox One X and coming to cutting edge supports PS5 and Xbox Series X. (It's likewise on Google's cloud-driven Stadia, however that is not in India.) We can hardly wait to perceive how Marvel's Avengers looks like on the new consoles; it's a dispatch title and will be a free update for those moving across ages. What's more, in spite of its disorderly nature, we are anticipating invest more energy with the beta over the three days of its accessibility. See you in the game, Avengers. (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); Wonder's Avengers beta is accessible August 7–9 for PS4 pre-orders, August 14–16 for PS4, Xbox One, and PC pre-requests, and open to everybody between August 21–23. The game is out September 4.

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[componentplanet]

Microsoft Kills Mixer, Will Transition Users to Facebook Gaming

Microsoft announced today that it would kill its Mixer streaming service and transition users to Facebook Gaming. The announcement both is and isn’t a surprise. On the one hand, it’s been rumored that Microsoft might make a move with Mixer and shake things up in the process. On the other, Microsoft has spent a tremendous amount of time and money building Mixer in the first place — and integrating it as the automatic streaming solution for the Xbox One.

When Microsoft bought Mixer (formerly Beam) in 2016, it explicitly set about integrating streaming as a push-button feature. It’s still possible to configure other alternatives, like Twitch, but there’s currently no way to duplicate the exact functionality Microsoft offers you with Mixer integration. If you’ve purchased Embers or Sparks, you can award them to your favorite Mixers through the month of June (they’ll receive double credit), but after June 30 you won’t be able to buy them. You’ll get an Xbox Gift Card of “similar value,” automatically applied to your Microsoft account, but only have until September 30 to spend the money.

This is an odd deal. Facebook Gaming has no method of directly streaming from consoles. Microsoft refers to plans to bring that feature out in the future but had nothing ready for this announcement. This about-face also comes less than a year after Microsoft announced it had signed Tyler “Ninja” Blevins to a multi-year Mixer contract — and Blevins wasn’t the only streamer who moved to the platform.

We didn't know this was coming. We found out right before you.

— Tara Voelker Wake (@LadieAuPair) June 22, 2020

The sudden announcement caught even Mixer staff off-guard. Tera Wake, who worked at Mixer and was chairing an accessibility committee that had “barely gotten started,” announced that staff had found out about the project shutdown right before the announcement was made public. Mixer has had some noted morale problems, as reported by OnMSFT, but there was still no sign the service was being canceled.

Polygon reports that in exchange, Microsoft is getting something it wants — Project xCloud support on Facebook Gaming. Again, this is something of an odd deal. Why would Microsoft need to tap Facebook’s gaming leverage when it has so many methods of reaching its own customers directly?

My guess is that this is about extending xCloud to a group of users who might not encounter the service another way. Microsoft doesn’t need Facebook to reach Xbox gamers, but it could use Facebook’s social reach to try and appeal to people who don’t fit the standard core gaming demographic. That makes sense, as far as it goes, but Microsoft’s entire business approach to gaming is that it attempts to cater to what I’d call the “core gaming demographic.” The idea of reaching people over Facebook with the appeal of games they might not have considered seems like the sort of thing that would play more to Nintendo’s strengths, with family-friendly titles like Animal Crossing (if, of course, Nintendo was interested in that kind of cloud gaming service).

Microsoft is spinning this idea as a way to help its Mixers find larger audiences. Mixer, unlike Facebook, was known for robust moderation tools and cultivating non-toxic fan communities. Facebook is, shall we say, not known for these things.

It’s not clear if anyone actually benefits from this. Mixer isn’t a big enough platform to make Facebook Gaming look appealing. Facebook Gaming still has the word “Facebook” in it, which makes it a non-starter. Microsoft gets to put xCloud on Facebook Gaming, but whether it’ll actually provide any kind of meaningful market for the product is another question entirely. Oh — and it’s not clear how content creators will themselves be impacted, though Microsoft has made some mouth noises about trying to help them establish themselves on equivalent terms with Zuck and Co.

As of now, it’s likely the Xbox Series X will either feature streaming integration with a service like Twitch or will simply allow users to set their own service without a preset default. The feature has become too important to imagine consoles leaving it off altogether.

Now Read:

Xbox Chief: Amazon, Google Are the Greatest Threats the Xbox Faces

Microsoft Is Accepting Sign-Ups for xCloud Game Streaming Preview

Early Microsoft xCloud Demo Shows Lower Latency Than Google Stadia

from ExtremeTechExtremeTech https://www.extremetech.com/gaming/311974-microsoft-kills-mixer-will-transition-users-to-facebook-gaming from Blogger http://componentplanet.blogspot.com/2020/06/microsoft-kills-mixer-will-transition.html

[entergamingxp]

Here’s All the Announcements From Today’s Stadia Connect

July 14, 2020 1:00 PM EST

Google has announced a plethora of brand new games at today’s Stadia Connect, including Stadia exclusive titles and partnerships.

The latest Stadia Connect today was perhaps the best yet, showing off a handful of brand new titles — some of which are Stadia exclusive, along with several new additions to the Stadia roster of games. Here’s the quick breakdown for all of Google’s biggest announcements:

Exclusive on Stadia:

Outcasters is a new competitive multiplayer title from developer Splash Damage, where you will face off in battles of up to eight players. With millions of customization options at your fingertips to make your Caster all your own, Outcasters looks like an exciting multiplayer-focused addition to the Stadia lineup:

Orcs Must Die! 3 is the latest entry in the long-running series, and claimable exclusively on Stadia Pro right now. This new game adds in the brand new War Scenarios that will pit players and friends against the largest and most fearsome army of orcs.

The last of the exclusive news came from the reveal that several well-known game developers are signed on to create Stadia exclusive games. Included in the reveal are Harmonix, Uppercut Games, and Supermassive Games. What will come out of this partnership remains to be seen, but as these developers are known for the quality, I’m sure whatever they make will be good gets for Stadia.

New Games Announced:

Some brand new games that aren’t necessarily exclusive to Google’s platform were announced too!

Coming first to Stadia this fall, bombs will be exploding with Super Bomberman R Online, as the series gets its own battle royale experience. In Super Bomberman R Online, 64 players will be able to battle while decked out with new customization options, including existing items from the original Super Bomberman R along with new ones, such as (for the first time) Bomb Skins. These unique cosmetics will affect both the bomb and the blast, too.

One Hand Clapping, now in early access if you have Stadia Pro, is a unique puzzle platformer where you have to sing into your headset to complete puzzles. You can work on your singing skills and your puzzle-solving skills at the same time while exploring its charming musical world.

The famous horror multiplayer game Dead by Daylight is also heading to Stadia in September along with cross-play functionality with all platforms and special cross-progression between the Nintendo Switch and PC versions. If you aren’t familiar with the game, a team of friends work to survive and escape from a monstrous horror that works to kill you off, one-by-one.  The Stadia version will come with two new features that are exclusive to Stadia: Crowd Play and Crowd Choice. These will let YouTube streamers host a community vote that will influence the match, giving viewers the power to choose the role that the streamer will play. Crowd Play will let the influencer even invite their communities to join in a game via a trial with just a touch of a button.

Stadia will be dropping into PLAYERUNKNOWN’S BATTLEGROUNDS on July 30 with Season 8, allowing users to experience all of the new features coming with update 8.1.

Next on the list, Agent 47 is hopping on the Stadia train on September 1 with the first two Hitman games in the World of Assassination Trilogy, with the promise of the third and final game in January.

Serious Sam 4 will be launching for Stadia alongside the PC release in August, taking place as a prequel to the series. This new entry will serve up the same one-liners, explosive arsenal, and intergalactic violence the series is known for.

Square Enix’s Outriders will be available holiday 2020 to stream. To get a good idea of what you can expect from this upcoming co-op RPG shooter, check out our recent preview of the game.

Sports fans have some news to be happy about, as NBA 2K21 (this fall), PGA Tour 2K21 (August 21), and WWE 2K Battlegrounds (September 18) are joining Stadia’s library. With NBA and PGA, players will get to play the latest updates to the longtime series, while Battlegrounds is a brand new arcade-style wrestling game that will be fun for casual and passionate wrestling fans alike.

Last year’s critical ninja darling and winner of the Game of the Year at Video Game Awards, Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, is coming this fall too, letting Stadia users die over and over again wherever they go. We loved the game, giving Sekiro a 9.0 in our review when it released last year.

The last of the game reveals at today’s Connect was that Hello Neighbor and Hello Neighbor: Hide & Seek will both be playable with Stadia Pro at launch later this year. That means Pro subscribers will be able to sneak around their neighbor’s houses, wherever they are, on any of the Stadia compatible devices.

Leaving Stadia Pro:

In slightly less cool news, it was revealed that The Elder Scrolls Online is leaving Stadia Pro on July 16. But with all these new announcements, this brings the Pro’s library up to 20 games. Enough to keep most busy on the subscription service.

This was a big Stadia Connect for the platform. It addressed two of the biggest critiques of the platform that critics and players alike have: there aren’t any standout exclusives, and there aren’t any new games. With developers like Harmonix and Supermassive locked in for some exclusive titles, things may be starting an upswing, but the success of the Stadia hinges on if they can keep this momentum up.

July 14, 2020 1:00 PM EST

from EnterGamingXP https://entergamingxp.com/2020/07/heres-all-the-announcements-from-todays-stadia-connect/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=heres-all-the-announcements-from-todays-stadia-connect

[gamerszone2019-blog]

You Might Want To Replay Borderlands 3 With Different Vault Hunters

New Post has been published on https://gamerszone.tn/you-might-want-to-replay-borderlands-3-with-different-vault-hunters/

You Might Want To Replay Borderlands 3 With Different Vault Hunters

All four playable Vault Hunters in Borderlands 3 bring their own distinct flavor to the game, and not just in terms of their unique skill trees. In comparison to the Vault Hunters in previous games, Borderlands 3’s Zane, Moze, Amara, and FL4K talk a lot, constantly speaking their minds and responding to NPCs during conversations. Your choice of Vault Hunter won’t impact the final outcome of the main story at all, but it will influence how you perceive certain events and understand the relationships of specific characters–encouraging you to play through Borderlands 3’s campaign more than once.

“We wanted to make sure that if people said, ‘I want to play through this game all over again with a different character,’ that they would then feel rewarded,” co-lead writer Sam Winkler said in an interview with GameSpot. “Not just in terms of different mechanics but also a slightly different interpretation of some of the stories.” The emphasis on Sirens in Borderlands 3’s plot means Amara has a vested interest in the story’s events, for instance, and FL4K–a nonbinary AI–explores their growing sexual attraction to Ellie by flirting with her every chance they have.

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Borderlands 3 – Breaking Down FL4K’s Skill Tree

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Having played as all four of the Vault Hunters now, I love how much each one changes how many of the interactions go. Previous Vault Hunters have rarely felt like carbon copies of each other–their unique abilities mean each one handles in a distinct way. But within their respective stories, each one typically reacts to every event in a similar way to their teammates. There’s no new insight playing as Brick instead of Mordecai or Maya instead of Zer0. So it’s a nice change of pace in Borderlands 3, and I’m already eager to see how each Vault Hunter uniquely responds to the streamer-like banter and violent habits of the Calypso Twins–especially Tyreen, a Siren whose curse-like Phase Leech ability and horrifying backstory (if true) write her as somewhat of a tragic figure.

To also encourage replayability, several side quests in Borderlands 3 contain choices, allowing you to impact the game in different ways. Don’t expect world-changing events but, for example, you can influence how certain characters will appear depending on what you do. In Borderlands 3’s prologue, for instance, Claptrap loses his antenna, and–for the rest of the game–he’ll just wear whatever you decide to give him as a replacement. “Maybe it’s a tin foil hat, or a human arm, or something else,” Winkler said.

Aside from the more vocal protagonists and additional agency in how certain side quests conclude, the story of Borderlands 3 is fundamentally the same character-driven tale of crass humor, murderous mayhem, and silly puns that defined Borderlands, Borderlands 2, Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel, and Tales from the Borderlands. Almost every major character from the previous four games returns in this newest installment, though many have changed in the seven in-game years since the events of Borderlands 2. Because there’s been so much history in the franchise, Gearbox wanted to avoid making any of the previously established characters–such as Tiny Tina, Sir Hammerlock, or Ellie–into playable Vault Hunters. It was important that players were forced to use characters who had never interacted with Pandora and its inhabitants before so the story would then have to reintroduce the franchise’s lore, helping out series newcomers.

“There’s that wonderful cadence of Borderlands where the previous rounds of Vault Hunters become characters in the world, and that allows you the opportunity to learn more about them and where they’re from,” co-lead writer Danny Homan said. “But as a result, with Borderlands 3, you need a new generation of Vault Hunters because you need to see an old world through a new perspective. It’s so useful when you have a new cast who have just made their way to Pandora and they’re asking all the [expositional] questions that the players may be asking, like, ‘What the heck is a Vault? What am I doing here? Who is Lilith? Why is this robot trying to insult me and also give me stuff?'”

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Borderlands 3 Gun Manufacturers Explained

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“We never want Borderlands 3 to feel like you have to know everything about the franchise in order to understand why a character is important,” Winkler added. “We want it to be accessible to both new and old players.” Not every bit of information in regards to past events could be fit into Borderlands 3’s early chapters though. As a result, Borderlands 2–which hasn’t seen a story expansion since 2013’s Tiny Tina’s Assault on Dragon Keep–got new DLC earlier this summer, just ahead of Borderlands 3’s release.

“Our biggest goal with [Commander Lilith and the Fight for Sanctuary DLC] was to canonize some stuff from [Tales from the Borderlands],” Winkler said. “A lot more people played Borderlands 2 than Tales, and so we didn’t want people to ask, ‘Where’s Helios?’ when they picked up Borderlands 3.”

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The First 20 Mins of Borderlands 2 DLC: Commander Lilith & The Fight For Sanctuary

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Tales from the Borderlands is an outlier in the franchise, the only game in the series that doesn’t star Vault Hunters as the main characters and also isn’t a first-person shooter. However, it took Borderlands’ ludicrous humor to new heights, and it’s this level of ridiculousness that Borderlands 3 strives for.

“A lot of people would say ‘Don’t do an extended five-minute gunfight without any guns,'” Winkler said. “And yet Tales did it and I still see that [finger gun fight] all the time on the internet. That’s the energy we want to bring to Borderlands 3. Have people say, ‘Did you play that one thing? It’s insane.'” In this, Borderlands 3 certainly seems to fit the bill. On Eden-6 (one of the new planets you’ll visit in the game), you meet an Ice-T-voiced AI that’s been trapped in a teddy bear by its angry ex-girlfriend. The jokes that follow in that particular chapter go to places that are as shocking and unsettling as they are morbidly amusing. Borderlands 3’s story is definitely closer to the creative weirdness and pretty-much-anything-goes tone of Tales, as opposed to the unhinged attitude of the previous mainline games.

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Borderlands 3 – Sanctuary Ship Tour Gameplay

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If nothing else, the story told in Borderlands 3 seems to be somewhat of an apotheosis for the franchise up to this point–rewarding fans with the answers to many of the series’ most long-standing questions. You shouldn’t expect to have everything laid bare though, as Borderlands 3 expands upon the franchise’s lore with brand-new concepts as well. “There are definitely events from previous Borderlands games that kind of reach an interesting culmination in certain ways,” Homan said. “The focus on Lilith from Borderlands 1 to Borderlands 3–there are some interesting stories that we’re telling there. People love the Borderlands universe and there are always more stories out there, and so when we’re trying to wrap up a story, we’re always trying to see new stories.” Winkler added, “Whatever Borderlands ends up looking like after Borderlands 3, I think that people will be able to look back and see one, two, and three as maybe a trilogy. But not necessarily with walls on either side of it.”

Borderlands 3 is scheduled to release for Xbox One, PS4, and PC on September 13. On PC, Borderlands 3 has a limited-time exclusivity deal with the Epic Games Store that lasts until 2020. Borderlands 3 will also be a day one title on Google Stadia, a cloud-based game streaming service scheduled to launch in November 2019.

Source : Gamesport

[sheminecrafts]

What to expect in digital media in 2020

As we start 2020, the media and entertainment sectors are in flux. New technologies are enabling new types of content, streaming platforms in multiple content categories are spending billions in their fight for market share and the interplay between social platforms and media is a central topic of global political debate (to put it lightly).

As TechCrunch’s media columnist, I spoke to hundreds of entrepreneurs and executives in North America and Europe last year about the shifts underway across everything from vertically-oriented video series to physics engines in games to music royalty payments. Looking toward the year ahead, here are some of the high-level changes I expect we will see in media in 2020, broken into seven categories: film & TV, gaming, visual & audio effects, social media, music, podcasts and publishing.

Film and TV

In film and television, the battle to compete with Netflix continues with more robust competition than last year. In the U.S., Disney is off to a momentous start with 10 million Disney+ subscribers upon its launch in November and some predicting it will hit 25 million by March (including those on free trials or receiving it for free via Disney’s partnership with Verizon). Bundled with its two other streaming properties, Hulu and ESPN+, Disney+ puts Disney alongside Amazon and Netflix as the Big Three.

Consumers will only pay for so many subscriptions, often one, two, or all of the Big Three (since Amazon Prime Video is included with the broader Prime membership) then a smaller service that best aligns with their personal taste and favorite show of the moment.

AT&T’s HBOMax launches in May with a $14.99/month price tag and is unlikely to break into the echelon of the Big Three, but could be a formidable second tier competitor. Alongside it will be Apple TV+. With a $4.99/month subscription, Apple’s service only includes a small number of original productions, an HBO strategy as HBO gets bundled into a larger library. CBS All Access, Showtime, and NBCUniversal’s upcoming (in April) Peacock fall in this camp as well.

Across Europe, regional media conglomerates will find success in expanding local SVOD and AVOD competitors to Netflix that launched last year — or are set to launch in the next few weeks — like BritBox in the UK, Joyn in Germany and Salto in France. Netflix’s growth in coming from outside the U.S. now so its priority is buying more international shows that will compel new demographics to subscribe.

The most interesting new development in 2020 though will be the April launch of Quibi, the $4.99/month service offering premium shows shot for mobile-first viewing that has already secured $1 billion in funding commitments and $150 million in advertising revenue. Quibi shows will be bite-size in length (less than 15 minutes) and vertically-oriented. The company has poured hundreds of millions of dollars into commissioning established names to create dozens of them. Steven Spielberg and Guillermo del Toro each have Quibi programs and NBC and CBS are creating news shows. The terms it is offering are enticing.

Quibi, which plans to release 125 pieces of content (i.e. episodes) per week and spend $470 million on marketing this year, is an all-or-nothing bet with little room to iterate if it doesn’t get it right the first time; it needs hit shows that break into mainstream pop culture to survive. Billionaire founders Jeffrey Katzenberg and Meg Whitman have set expectations sky-high for the launch; expect the press to slam it in April for failing to meet those expectations and for the platform to redeem itself as a few of its shows gain traction in the months that follow.

Meanwhile, live sports remains the last hope of broadcast TV networks as all other shows go to streaming. Consumers still value watching sports in real-time. Streaming services are coming for live sports too, however, and will make progress toward that goal in 2020. Three weeks ago, DAZN secured the rights to the 2021/22 season of Germany’s Champions League, beating out broadcaster Sky which has shown the matches for the last 20 years. Amazon and YouTube continue to explore bids for sports rights while Facebook and Twitter are stepping back from their efforts. YouTube’s “YouTube TV” and Disney’s “Hulu with Live TV” will cause more consumers to cancel cable TV subscriptions in 2020 and go streaming-only.

The winners in the film & TV sector right now are top production companies. The war for streaming video dominance driving several of the world’s wealthiest companies (and individuals) to pour tens of billions of dollars into content. Large corporations own the distribution platforms here; the only “startups” to enter with strength — DAZN and Quibi — have been launched by billionaires and started with billion-dollar spending commitments. The entrepreneurial opportunity is on the content creation side — with producers creating shows not with software developers creating platforms.

Gaming

The gaming market is predicted to grow nearly 9% year-over-year from $152 billion globally in 2019 to $165 billion in 2020, according to research firm Newzoo, with more than two billion people playing games each year. Gaming is now widespread across all demographic groups. Casual mobile games are responsible for the largest portion of this (and 45% of industry revenue) but PC gaming continues to grow (+4% last year) and console gaming was the fastest growing category last year (+13%).

The big things to watch in gaming this year: cross-platform play, greater focus on social interaction in virtual worlds and the expansion of cloud gaming subscriptions.

Fortnite enticed consumers with the benefits of a cross-platform game that allows players to move between PC, mobile and console and it is setting expectations that other games do the same. Last October we saw the Call of Duty franchise come to mobile and reach a record 100 million downloads in its first week. This trend will continue and it will spread the free-to-play business model that is the norm in mobile games to many PC and console franchises in the process.

Gaming is moving to the social forefront. Many people are turning to massively multiplayer online games (MMOs) like Fortnite and PUBG to socialize, with gameplay as a secondary interest. Games are virtual worlds where players socialize, build things, and own assets much like in the real world. That results in an increasingly fluid interplay between socializing in games and in physical life, much as socializing in the virtual realms of social apps like Instagram or Twitter is now viewed as part of “real world” life.

Expect VCs to bet big on the thesis that “games are the new social networks” in 2020. Large investment firms that a year ago wrote off the category of gaming as “content bets” not fit for VC are now actively hunting for deals.

On this point, there are several startups (like Klang Games, Darewise Entertainment, Singularity 6 and Clockwork Labs) that raised millions in VC funding to create open world games that will launch (in beta at least) in 2020. These are virtual worlds where all players exist in the same instance of the world rather than being capped at 100 or so players per instance. Their visions center of digital realms where people will contribute to in-game economies, create friendships and ultimately earn income just like their “real-world” lives. Think next-gen Second Life. Expect them to take time to seed their worlds with early adopters in 2020 before any of them gain mainstream traction in 2021.

Few are as excited about social interaction in games as Facebook, it seems. Eager to own critical turf in the next paradigm shift of social media, Facebook will accelerate its gaming push this year. In late 2019, it acquired Madrid-based PlayGiga — which was working on cloud gaming and 5G technology — and the studio behind the hit VR game Beat Saber. It also secured exclusive rights to the VR versions of popular games like Ubisoft’s “Assassin’s Creed” and “Splinter Cell” for Oculus. Horizon, its virtual world for social interaction within VR, is expected to launch this year as well.

Facebook is betting on AR/VR as the paradigm shift in consumer computing that will replace mobile; it is pouring billions into its efforts to own the hardware and infrastructure pieces which are several years of R&D away from primetime. In the meantime, the consumer shift to social interaction in virtual worlds is occurring in established formats — mobile, PC, and console — so it will work to build the bridge for consumers from that to the future.

Lastly, cloud gaming was one of last year’s biggest headlines with the launch of Google Stadia and you should expect it to be again this year. By moving games to cloud hosting, consumers can play the highest quality games from lower quality devices, greatly expanding the market of potential players. By bundling many such games into a subscription offering, Google and others hope to entice consumers to try many more games.

As TechCrunch’s Lucas Matney argued, however, cloud gaming is likely a feature for existing subscription gaming platforms — namely Playstation Now and Xbox Game Pass — more so than the basis for a new platform to differentiate. The minor latency inherent in playing a cloud-hosted game makes it unattractive to hardcore gamers (who would rather download the game). Next to Sony and Microsoft’s offerings, Stadia’s limited game selection fails to stand out. The competition will only heat up this year with the entry of Amazon. Google needs to launch the Stadia integration with YouTube and the Share State feature that it promoted in its Stadia announcement to really drive consumer interest.

Visual and audio effects

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[aion-rsa]

Baldur’s Gate 3 Early Access: An Excellent Return to D&D’s Forgotten Realms

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Larian Studios and Wizards of the Coast have teamed up to bring fans the long-awaited Baldur’s Gate 3, which hits Steam early access today. Over the weekend, I spent 18+ hours with a pre-release early access build of the game, and so far I’ve found this RPG sequel to be absolutely addicting. Even in early access, I’m really looking forward to sinking dozens upon dozens of more hours into Baldur’s Gate 3.

The early access only features Act 1 of the game’s full narrative, but this is still a very generous taste of Larian’s take on the Forgotten Realms, with over 20 hours of content to experience, according to the studio. In general, I think most longtime Baldur’s Gate fans as well as newcomers will be really impressed with the modern flourishes and new story Larian has put in place.

This shouldn’t be too surprising, though. After all, Larian’s Divinity: Original Sin and Divinity: Original Sin 2 are two of the best fantasy RPGs of the last decades. Those enamored with Larian’s catalog will be pleased to find that Baldur’s Gate 3 takes the DNA of DOS and entangles it with Dungeons & Dragons tabletop mechanics in a way that feels organic and balanced. The main components that make up DOS–combat, exploration, branching narratives–are all represented in Baldur’s Gate 3 in a familiar way, with 5th Edition D&D rules organically folded into the experience. A particularly brilliant D&D-inspired addition is the excellent narrator/DM voiceover you’ll hear throughout your adventures.

At the story’s outset, your character wakes up on a Nautiloid, a sinister-looking flying vessel piloted by mind flayers, who have captured you and a slew of hapless souls and implanted tadpole parasites into your brain. When the ship is attacked by dragons, the mind flayers teleport the vessel smack dab in the middle of the eternal Blood War being waged between devils and demons in Avernus, the first layer of hell. This gives you a chance to escape.

The ship eventually crash-lands somewhere between the cities of Elturel (which, in a cataclysmic event, has just been dragged into hell and back again) and Baldur’s Gate. You and the companions you meet–all infected by the same wriggly mind flayer tadpoles–set out in search of a way to extract the meddling parasites, which grant you strange psychic abilities that may actually come in handy during your quest should you choose to employ them.

That’s truly the beating heart of any good RPG–choice. Above all else, what I was most impressed with in my time with Baldur’s Gate 3 was the extent to which my choices as a player affected the experience.

The first choices you make, of course, are in character creation. The game currently offers six classes: Cleric, Fighter, Ranger, Rogue, Warlock, and Wizard, with each class boasting at least two subclasses. As for races, the game lets you choose from eight: Human, Githyanki, Drow, Elf, Half-Elf, Dwarf, Halfling, and Tiefling (certain races include subrace options as well). You can also customize your skills and abilities, choose your background (like Charlatan, Soldier, Thief, etc.), and even customize what the romantic partner of your dreams looks like.

Character customization is robust, but that’s just scratching of the surface as far as choice and player agency is concerned. Not long into exploring the continent of Faerûn and meeting, fighting, and questing for its inhabitants, it became abundantly clear that it’s going to be impossible to see everything in the game in one, two, or three playthroughs. Each encounter, conversation, and quest can be approached in myriad ways, with wildly different outcomes that will no doubt make each player’s experience unique.

The dialogue options alone are insanely varied and dynamic. For example, there’s an early encounter in which you encounter one of the game’s main companions, a warrior Githyanki named Lae’zel, who has been captured by a band of Tieflings. In one playthrough, my character, a Githyanki fighter, was able to intimidate the Tieflings into fleeing (most risk-based dialogue options lead to a d20 roll, which decides their success or failure). But in my playthrough with a Dwarf Ranger, I wasn’t able to talk my way out of the situation and had to go toe-to-toe with the captors. To complicate matters, I had a Half-elf companion Shadowheart with me the second time around. Needless to say, she and Lae’zel basically hated each other’s guts from the get-go, which made the conversation far spicier on the second playthrough. In total, I tried three classes and races for this article–a Githyanki Fighter, Dwarf Ranger, and Half-Elf Wizard–which resulted in some very interesting variations.

Every conversation plays out differently depending on your race, class, who’s in your party, promises you’ve made to other characters prior to the conversation, and so on. There’s far more variety to the branching narrative here than what was on offer in Divinity: Original Sin 2, which makes the game feel more like an open-ended tabletop adventure than anything else Larian has ever made.

Read more

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Because there are so many characters to meet with so much to say, Faerûn feels dynamic and exciting. The setting is an absolute blast to explore because you truly never know what ridiculousness is lurking around the next corner. I partied with goblins in a blighted village, tamed an owlbear cub I found in a cave with my fauna-friendly ranger (in another playthrough I watched it do something unspeakable to its mother…), and met a healer named Nettie who employed, let’s say, “objectionable” methods to extract the tadpole in my brain.

Now, onto the thing Larian does best: combat. Baldur’s Gate 3 is built on the same turn-based system the studio is known for but with a few new features that streamline combat and make it feel more fluid. There’s an initial roll at the beginning of each encounter, which determines the turn order of your party and the enemies’. If your characters wind up next to each other in the queue, you can shuffle them around and dispatch them in any order that you like. The turn order can completely change the flow of any battle, and in general, combat ensues at a faster clip than Larian’s previous games, and it feels great.

Verticality, positioning, and environmental awareness also play a big role in combat. The battlefields I encountered almost always had a vertical element to them, and I learned quickly that fighting to get my ranged fighters to higher-ground positions made winning a lot easier. A lot of the environments have destructible elements as well. In one fight inside crumbling ruins, I saw that an enemy was standing atop a vulnerable looking floor, so I shot at a rock suspended above her, which broke the floor beneath her feet and sent her into an underground room where she was no longer able to engage in battle. I then proceeded to shove a few of her friends in there with her, to my delight.

All of this is really just scratching the surface of what Baldur’s Gate 3 has to offer. I could go on and on about the brilliant voice acting and writing, the improved character animations, the wide variety of spells that let you conjure familiars, charm enemies, have telekinetic conversations with animals and dead people…this is a staggeringly deep RPG, even in Early Access.

Most of the drawbacks have to do with performance and presentation. I encountered several visual glitches throughout my playthroughs, and it’s clear that this is an unfinished product, but Larian was working to patch the game even as press were going hands-on. Hopefully, players will be able to jump into a much smoother experience at launch. Overall, I can’t wait to play (and replay) the game some more and delve deeper into the rich world Larian has created.

cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530", }).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796"); });

I still haven’t tried the game’s multiplayer functionality or reached some of Act 1’s later sections, so stay tuned for my updated impressions of the game as I continue to play in early access.

Baldur’s Gate 3 is out on early access on Steam and Google Stadia now.

The post Baldur’s Gate 3 Early Access: An Excellent Return to D&D’s Forgotten Realms appeared first on Den of Geek.

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[computer-basics]

As we start 2020, the media and entertainment sectors are in flux. New technologies are enabling new types of content, streaming platforms in multiple content categories are spending billions in their fight for market share and the interplay between social platforms and media is a central topic of global political debate (to put it lightly).

As TechCrunch’s media columnist, I spoke to hundreds of entrepreneurs and executives in North America and Europe last year about the shifts underway across everything from vertically-oriented video series to physics engines in games to music royalty payments. Looking toward the year ahead, here are some of the high-level changes I expect we will see in media in 2020, broken into seven categories: film & TV, gaming, visual & audio effects, social media, music, podcasts and publishing.

Film and TV

In film and television, the battle to compete with Netflix continues with more robust competition than last year. In the U.S., Disney is off to a momentous start with 10 million Disney+ subscribers upon its launch in November and some predicting it will hit 25 million by March (including those on free trials or receiving it for free via Disney’s partnership with Verizon). Bundled with its two other streaming properties, Hulu and ESPN+, Disney+ puts Disney alongside Amazon and Netflix as the Big Three.

Consumers will only pay for so many subscriptions, often one, two, or all of the Big Three (since Amazon Prime Video is included with the broader Prime membership) then a smaller service that best aligns with their personal taste and favorite show of the moment.

AT&T’s HBOMax launches in May with a $14.99/month price tag and is unlikely to break into the echelon of the Big Three, but could be a formidable second tier competitor. Alongside it will be Apple TV+. With a $4.99/month subscription, Apple’s service only includes a small number of original productions, an HBO strategy as HBO gets bundled into a larger library. CBS All Access, Showtime, and NBCUniversal’s upcoming (in April) Peacock fall in this camp as well.

Across Europe, regional media conglomerates will find success in expanding local SVOD and AVOD competitors to Netflix that launched last year — or are set to launch in the next few weeks — like BritBox in the UK, Joyn in Germany and Salto in France. Netflix’s growth in coming from outside the U.S. now so its priority is buying more international shows that will compel new demographics to subscribe.

The most interesting new development in 2020 though will be the April launch of Quibi, the $4.99/month service offering premium shows shot for mobile-first viewing that has already secured $1 billion in funding commitments and $150 million in advertising revenue. Quibi shows will be bite-size in length (less than 15 minutes) and vertically-oriented. The company has poured hundreds of millions of dollars into commissioning established names to create dozens of them. Steven Spielberg and Guillermo del Toro each have Quibi programs and NBC and CBS are creating news shows. The terms it is offering are enticing.

Quibi, which plans to release 125 pieces of content (i.e. episodes) per week and spend $470 million on marketing this year, is an all-or-nothing bet with little room to iterate if it doesn’t get it right the first time; it needs hit shows that break into mainstream pop culture to survive. Billionaire founders Jeffrey Katzenberg and Meg Whitman have set expectations sky-high for the launch; expect the press to slam it in April for failing to meet those expectations and for the platform to redeem itself as a few of its shows gain traction in the months that follow.

Meanwhile, live sports remains the last hope of broadcast TV networks as all other shows go to streaming. Consumers still value watching sports in real-time. Streaming services are coming for live sports too, however, and will make progress toward that goal in 2020. Three weeks ago, DAZN secured the rights to the 2021/22 season of Germany’s Champions League, beating out broadcaster Sky which has shown the matches for the last 20 years. Amazon and YouTube continue to explore bids for sports rights while Facebook and Twitter are stepping back from their efforts. YouTube’s “YouTube TV” and Disney’s “Hulu with Live TV” will cause more consumers to cancel cable TV subscriptions in 2020 and go streaming-only.

The winners in the film & TV sector right now are top production companies. The war for streaming video dominance driving several of the world’s wealthiest companies (and individuals) to pour tens of billions of dollars into content. Large corporations own the distribution platforms here; the only “startups” to enter with strength — DAZN and Quibi — have been launched by billionaires and started with billion-dollar spending commitments. The entrepreneurial opportunity is on the content creation side — with producers creating shows not with software developers creating platforms.

Gaming

The gaming market is predicted to grow nearly 9% year-over-year from $152 billion globally in 2019 to $165 billion in 2020, according to research firm Newzoo, with more than two billion people playing games each year. Gaming is now widespread across all demographic groups. Casual mobile games are responsible for the largest portion of this (and 45% of industry revenue) but PC gaming continues to grow (+4% last year) and console gaming was the fastest growing category last year (+13%).

The big things to watch in gaming this year: cross-platform play, greater focus on social interaction in virtual worlds and the expansion of cloud gaming subscriptions.

Fortnite enticed consumers with the benefits of a cross-platform game that allows players to move between PC, mobile and console and it is setting expectations that other games do the same. Last October we saw the Call of Duty franchise come to mobile and reach a record 100 million downloads in its first week. This trend will continue and it will spread the free-to-play business model that is the norm in mobile games to many PC and console franchises in the process.

Gaming is moving to the social forefront. Many people are turning to massively multiplayer online games (MMOs) like Fortnite and PUBG to socialize, with gameplay as a secondary interest. Games are virtual worlds where players socialize, build things, and own assets much like in the real world. That results in an increasingly fluid interplay between socializing in games and in physical life, much as socializing in the virtual realms of social apps like Instagram or Twitter is now viewed as part of “real world” life.

Expect VCs to bet big on the thesis that “games are the new social networks” in 2020. Large investment firms that a year ago wrote off the category of gaming as “content bets” not fit for VC are now actively hunting for deals.

On this point, there are several startups (like Klang Games, Darewise Entertainment, Singularity 6 and Clockwork Labs) that raised millions in VC funding to create open world games that will launch (in beta at least) in 2020. These are virtual worlds where all players exist in the same instance of the world rather than being capped at 100 or so players per instance. Their visions center of digital realms where people will contribute to in-game economies, create friendships and ultimately earn income just like their “real-world” lives. Think next-gen Second Life. Expect them to take time to seed their worlds with early adopters in 2020 before any of them gain mainstream traction in 2021.

Few are as excited about social interaction in games as Facebook, it seems. Eager to own critical turf in the next paradigm shift of social media, Facebook will accelerate its gaming push this year. In late 2019, it acquired Madrid-based PlayGiga — which was working on cloud gaming and 5G technology — and the studio behind the hit VR game Beat Saber. It also secured exclusive rights to the VR versions of popular games like Ubisoft’s “Assassin’s Creed” and “Splinter Cell” for Oculus. Horizon, its virtual world for social interaction within VR, is expected to launch this year as well.

Facebook is betting on AR/VR as the paradigm shift in consumer computing that will replace mobile; it is pouring billions into its efforts to own the hardware and infrastructure pieces which are several years of R&D away from primetime. In the meantime, the consumer shift to social interaction in virtual worlds is occurring in established formats — mobile, PC, and console — so it will work to build the bridge for consumers from that to the future.

Lastly, cloud gaming was one of last year’s biggest headlines with the launch of Google Stadia and you should expect it to be again this year. By moving games to cloud hosting, consumers can play the highest quality games from lower quality devices, greatly expanding the market of potential players. By bundling many such games into a subscription offering, Google and others hope to entice consumers to try many more games.

As TechCrunch’s Lucas Matney argued, however, cloud gaming is likely a feature for existing subscription gaming platforms — namely Playstation Now and Xbox Game Pass — more so than the basis for a new platform to differentiate. The minor latency inherent in playing a cloud-hosted game makes it unattractive to hardcore gamers (who would rather download the game). Next to Sony and Microsoft’s offerings, Stadia’s limited game selection fails to stand out. The competition will only heat up this year with the entry of Amazon. Google needs to launch the Stadia integration with YouTube and the Share State feature that it promoted in its Stadia announcement to really drive consumer interest.

Visual and audio effects

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