Overwatch Storm Rising Event Announced, And Possible New Hero Teased

Blizzard has started teasing its next limited-time event for Overwatch, called Storm Rising. On April 7, a clipping from the fictional newspaper Havana Sun was posted on Overwatch’s main website. Blizzard followed up the next day with a tweet detailing classified Overwatch information–both revealing the story for Storm Rising and possibly teasing a new playable hero called Sojourn. Said tweet can be seen below.

The Havana Sun newspaper clipping is written in Spanish, with an English translation provided beneath it. The article details the unknown corporate takeover of Don Rumbotico, a popular distillery with a “controversial” history. Apparently, after Don Rumbotico founder Clara and Basillo Diaz refused to sell the Havana distillery to an “anonymous financial group,” they were met with repeated hardships and eventually had to sell their company regardless. The article goes on to list that Don Rumbotico isn’t the only Havana icon to be bought by this mysterious group, and ends with a weather warning for an approaching storm. What this all means for Overwatch isn’t completely clear until the follow-up tweet is also taken into account.

The tweet contains a decrypted audio recording for an archived mission briefing in the Overwatch team’s database. The message is to Commander Morrison, putting the date of the recording prior to the fall of Overwatch and Morrison’s transformation into Soldier: 76. The briefing admonishes Morrison for trying to track down Doomfist, as going after the villain’s accountant Maximilien and connecting them back to Doomfist would prove a much easier task. The voice then states Tracer will lead the team tasked with tracking Maximilien down, and she’ll be joined by Winston, Genji, and Mercy. The briefing ends with the voice identifying themselves as Sojourn.

The trailer then ends with the tease that Storm Rising will occur April 16 through May 6. Though Maximilien has never appeared in-game, he’s been a part of Overwatch’s lore for a while as a council member in Doomfist’s villainous group, Talon. Most likely, he’s the one behind the financial group buying up the local icons in Havana, and Tracer and her team will attempt to investigate his holdings under the cover of the fierce storm that’s approaching the city. This story will presumably be told over the course of a four-person co-op PvE mission. Blizzard has not confirmed this, but this style of storytelling has been used in Overwatch’s previous April limited-time events, Retribution and Uprising, before.

What’s most compelling is the introduction of Sojourn, as she’s never been mentioned before but she sounds like someone who possesses great authority either within or over Overwatch. Whether she’s an upcoming playable hero remains to be seen, but it sounds like she’ll play a substantial role in the upcoming limited-time event.

Overwatch is available for Xbox One, PS4, and PC.

from GameSpot – Game News http://bit.ly/2Gas5RI

from Blogger http://bit.ly/2VE6aaw

Apex Legends Accidentally Adds Leaving Early Penalty, Disables Temporarily

Apex Legends developer Respawn recently set live, then quickly disabled, a penalty on players who leave a match early. The studio says that while the feature is in the works, it accidentally went up before it was ready, prompting the temporary fix.

In an update on the Apex Legends subreddit, community manager Jay Frechette said the studio has been working on the feature, but “it wasn’t our intention or plan to have it go live with the [April 4] update.” He says the penalty turned on early due to a piece of missing script, and the studio has since fixed it to disable the penalty. He states he doesn’t have an ETA for “if or when” it will be released.

The 1.1 update included some quality-of-life changes, like allowing you to invite a member of your last squad into your party, and the addition of squad invites to the Friends menu. You can also mute from the Leegends select screen, so altogether it seemed aimed at making the game easier to connect with good teammates and ignore bad ones.

Still, the quit early penalty has been one of the most requested features among the community, since revolving around three-person squads means that a single premature exit can be a crippling blow to your team composition. The admission that the team doesn’t know if the feature will be implemented at all suggests that it is still weighing the idea, possibly against other ways to deal with team composition issues.

from GameSpot – Game News http://bit.ly/2D4Ax2C

from Blogger http://bit.ly/2D5b6OF

Bethesda’s The Elder Scrolls: Blades Is Now Available For All

Bethesda has announced The Elder Scrolls: Blades is now open to all. The game is free to download. You still need a Bethesda net account in order to play, though.

Now that Blades is available for all, Bethesda is looking towards the game’s future. “Next up: We’re looking at all your feedback and rebalancing the most difficult enemy in the game… the silver chest,” the studio tweeted.

Blades is the first mobile installment in The Elder Scrolls series, although Bethesda still describes the title as a “pure Elder Scrolls game” with “console-quality graphics.” Unlike The Elder Scrolls games on PC and consoles, Blades doesn’t have an open world, though. Instead, the game is composed of a series of interconnected environments–some of which are still “very large,” according to Bethesda.

“We could do it,” Bethesda director and executive producer Todd Howard said, when asked about implementing an open-world in Blades. “We’ll see how people interact with it. Because it’s mobile, we know people may play… We need you to get something meaningful done in 10 or 15 minutes. Do you know what I mean? Even though you could sit down and play it for as many hours as you want.”

Originally scheduled to release on Android and iOS devices in Fall 2018, Blades was delayed. Although there are plans to port the game to both PC and consoles, Bethesda hasn’t announced any planned release window for those versions.

The next mainline The Elder Scrolls game was first teased during E3 2018. Currently only titled The Elder Scrolls VI, Bethesda has announced that the game will not be shown off at E3 2019. Neither will Starfield, which is currently scheduled to release prior to the upcoming The Elder Scrolls game.

from GameSpot – Game News http://bit.ly/2FXRBIt

from Blogger http://bit.ly/2DfgOOb

Borderlands 3 Studio Head, Steam Respond To Review Bombing

The reveal of Borderlands 3 didn’t go without its share of controversy. As part of the announcement, developer Gearbox and publisher 2K revealed that it would be exclusive to the Epic Games Store until April 2020. This led to a backlash in the form of review bombing older Borderlands games on Steam. Now Gearbox head Randy Pitchford has stepped in to let offenders know they may actually be making things worse for themselves.

“Ironically, that this misuse is possible and that Steam has no interest in correcting this misuse makes me kind of happy about 2K’s decision and makes me want to reconsider Gearbox Publishing’s current posture on the platform,” he said on Twitter.

The threat may have gotten Steam’s attention, as the platform is discounting reviews, for the first time ever, on Borderlands 2. Steam implemented a recently added tool that flags “Off-Topic Review Activity” within a certain date range. The reviews are still present in the system, but aren’t included in the aggregate user score. They’re also accompanied by a note warning readers that the user review section includes “an abnormal set of reviews that we believe are largely unrelated to the likelihood that you would enjoy the product.”

The same policy has since gone into effect for the original Borderlands and Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel. Each of them had undergone heavy review bombing–intentionally leaving low review scores to disrupt an aggregate user score–with many of the comments referencing the Epic exclusivity for the upcoming sequel. Steam’s response has shown that it is able to take action in these cases, but Epic is still making inroads with its digital storefront so we likely haven’t heard the last of these controversies.

from GameSpot – Game News http://bit.ly/2OWynHe

from Blogger http://bit.ly/2WSQfpe

BAFTA Game Awards Dominated By God Of War; Here Are All The Winners

The British Academy Game Awards is one of the most prestigious awards ceremonies in the games industry, and the 2019 event brought a number of wins for Sony’s PS4 exclusive God of War. The epic game was up for 10 awards and won four of them, including Best Game.

God of War also won the awards for Audio Achievement, Music, and Narrative. Other big winners at this year’s event were Return of the Obra Dinn–which won the Artistic Achievement and Game Design categories–and Nintendo Labo, which swept up the Game Innovation and Family awards.

Surprisingly, Red Dead Redemption 2 and Celeste–which were each nominated for six and five awards, respectively–didn’t win a single category between them. The full list of winners is filled with some outstanding games, however, and you can see that list below with the winners highlighted in bold.

The BAFTA Game awards are voted on by members of the British Academy. Only one category, Mobile Game of the Year, is decided by the public, and that went to Old School Runescape.

BAFTA Game Awards Nominations 2019

Artistic Achievement

  • Detroit: Become Human
  • Gris
  • God of War
  • Spider-Man
  • Red Dead Redemption 2
  • Return of the Obra Dinn

Audio Achievement

  • Battlefield V
  • Detroit: Become Human
  • God of War
  • Spider-Man
  • Red Dead Redemption 2
  • Tetris Effect

Best Game

  • Assassin’s Creed Odyssey
  • Astro Bot: Rescue Mission
  • Celeste
  • God of War
  • Red Dead Redemption 2
  • Return of the Obra Dinn

British Game

  • 11-11: Memories Retold
  • Forza Horizon 4
  • Red Dead Redemption 2
  • The Room: Old Sins
  • Overcooked 2
  • Two Point Hospital

Debut Game

  • Beat Saber
  • Cultist Simulator
  • Donut County
  • Florence
  • Gris
  • Yoku’s Island Express

Evolving Game

  • Destiny 2
  • Elite Dangerous
  • Fortnite
  • Overwatch
  • Sea of Thieves
  • Rainbow Six Siege

Family

  • Lego The Incredibles
  • Nintendo Labo
  • Overcooked 2
  • Pokemon: Let’s Go, Pikachu / Eevee
  • Super Mario Party
  • Yoku’s Island Express

Game Beyond Entertainment

  • 11: Memories Retold
  • Celeste
  • Florence
  • Life is Strange 2
  • My Child Lebensborn
  • Nintendo Labo

Game Design

  • Astro Bot: Rescue Mission
  • Celeste
  • God of War
  • Into the Breach
  • Minit
  • Return of the Obra Dinn

Game Innovation

  • Astro Bot: Rescue Mission
  • Celeste
  • Cultist Simulator
  • Moss
  • Nintendo Labo
  • Return of the Obra Dinn

Mobile Game

  • Alto’s Odyssey
  • Brawl Stars
  • Donut County
  • Florence
  • Reigns: Game of Thrones
  • The Room: Old Sins

Multiplayer

  • A Way Out
  • Battlefield V
  • Overcooked 2
  • Sea of Thieves
  • Super Mario Party
  • Super Smash Bros. Ultimate

Music

  • Celeste
  • Far Cry 5
  • Florence
  • God of War
  • Gris
  • Tetris Effect

Narrative

  • Florence
  • Frostpunk
  • God of War
  • Spider-Man
  • Red Dead Redemption 2
  • Return of the Obra Dinn

Original Property

  • Dead Cells
  • Florence
  • Into the Breach
  • Moss
  • Return of the Obra Dinn
  • Subnautica

Performer

  • Christopher Judge as Kratos in God of War
  • Danielle Bisutti as Freya in God of War
  • Jeremy Davies as The Stranger in God of War
  • Melissanthi Mahut as Kassandra in Assassin’s Creed Odyssey
  • Roger Clark as Arthur Morgan in Read Dead Redemption 2
  • Sunny Suljic as Atreus in God of War

Mobile Game Of The Year (Public Award)

  • Brawl Stars
  • Clash Royale
  • Fortnite
  • Old School Runescape
  • Pokemon Go
  • Roblox

from GameSpot – Game News http://bit.ly/2G9yUTA

from Blogger http://bit.ly/2UF7RY1

Design a site like this with WordPress.com
Get started