Heroes of the Storm is winding down. Blizzard is moving staff from Heroes of the Storm onto other projects. While the studio assures fans that they will continue to support the game by adding new heroes, and staging community events, the “cadence will change” from this point onward. Presumably, that operational pace will not be getting faster.
“Ultimately, we’re setting up the game for long-term sustainability.”
With the resource changes, there’s bad news for competitive players. Blizzard will not be holding the Heroes Global Championship or the Heroes of the Dorm tournaments in 2019.
From now until the first week in January, you can experience Rising Storm 2: Vietnam the way a child would with the free Green Army Men Christmas Special event. The serious jungle and rubble aesthetic of the hardcore multiplayer shooter has given way to green and blue plastic army men, Christmas decorations, and a giant living room. It’s one of those goofy toy maps, but even the players are transformed into playthings. The scattered presents, model train, and furniture allows a lot more verticality than the normal realistic Rising Storm maps, and the vibrant colors and oversized props give everything a humorous flair, even when soldiers are screaming and grenades are cracking near you.
The special event Green Army Men concept comes from the team that won a Rising Storm 2 modding contest in April.
Epic Games has pulled the Infinity Blade trilogy of mobile games from the Apple App Store. All three games are no longer available to new users. If you have them in your account already, then you may download and play them again, (albeit without the in-app purchases) but you’re out of luck if you didn’t grab them before the removal. According to Epic’s post, the studio needs to concentrate on other projects like Fortnite, Spyjinx, and wooing indie developers to their new PC gaming store.
It’s not all bad news for fans of the series. Epic has put the Infinity Blade into Fortnite, so in a sense, it’s finally come to mobile platforms outside of Apple’s.
Capcom has announced the Iceborne expansion for Monster Hunter World. The snowy expansion adds new locations, more beasties to hunt, and a sleighful of new weapons. It will also increase the highest possible level for players. It’s what Monster Hunter vets call a “G Rank” expansion. Monster Hunter World: Iceborne is coming in autumn 2019 for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, with the PC version launching sometime later.
If autumn 2019 is too far off for you, how about stalking Monster Hunter World’s baddies as the witchiest Witcher ever a bit earlier? You’ll be able to become Geralt of Rivia in a special collaboration between Capcom and CD Projekt Red starting in early 2019. The free update promises to blend Monster Hunter gameplay with “Witcher-inspired” quests, all while luxuriating in the smooth tones of Doug Cockle, the voice actor for Geralt in english.
The Game Awards 2018 had all the awkwardness, pomp, and marketing one would expect of a video game industry celebration. Between Christoph Waltz going to bat for keyboard and mouse, and Joel McHale not embarrassing everyone, there were premieres for lots of new games. Obsidian’s The Outer Worlds put a thumb in Bethesda’s eye. Ubisoft is actually continuing the story from Far Cry 5 with Far Cry: New Dawn. There was a hint of the next Dragon Age product. BioWare finally showed off some of the story bits from Anthem. The Stanley Parable is coming to consoles with new meta gameplay. Supergiant announced Hades. Avalanche and id’s Rage 2 now has a release window and a map filled with Ubi-stuff. It was all fine.
Buried in the middle of the show was Ashen. Now available on the Epic Games Store. The same being true of Hades and Hello Neighbor: Hide & Seek. Announced as coming first to the Epic Games Store were Rebel Galaxy: Outlaw, Journey, Maneater, and Satisfactory. Epic will also be giving away Subnautica for free starting on December 14th. In short, Epic let everyone know they mean business with their store.
As a bonus, Red Dead Redemption II did not win game of the year.
Terrence “2 Milly” Ferguson, a popular New York rapper, is suing Epic Games over the inclusion of a dance in Fortnite. Ferguson alleges that the “Swipe It” emote in Fortnite is an unauthorized copy of the “Milly Rock” dance from his 2014 music video. Fortnite, like many games with a cosmetic element, cashes in on culture by turning memes and pop references into emotes, gestures, and skins. Ferguson is not the first person to complain about the lack of credit or compensation from Epic, but he is probably the most high-profile personality to file papers. “Scrubs” actor Donald Faison similarly accused the studio of swiping his moves as seen in this clip from the show.
Fortnite has drawn ire from many dance creators because of the massive amounts of money involved, as well as the sting of having the dances “appropriated” by the game. For example, many younger Fortnite players call this the “Fortnite Dance” due to it being one of the original emotes, despite it being more properly known as “The Floss” by its creator.
You can copyright “pantomimes and choreographic works” but it’s unclear if the Milly Rock, The Shoot Dance, or any of the other moves used by Epic would qualify under these rules due to the length of the routines.
Meet Zheng Jiang. Fierce warrior, rebel, and bandit leader. She’s one of eleven playable warlords in Creative Assembly’s upcoming Total War: Three Kingdoms. According to her character profile, victory with her depends on playing a relentlessly offensive strategy. She needs infamy to succeed, and she gains infamy by capturing territory and winning battles. Infamy slowly trickles away with inactivity, so resting on her laurels is not an option. “Attack is the secret of defense; defense is the planning of an attack.”
Owners of the Power Armor edition of Fallout 76 will be getting their missing canvas bags. Rest easy big spenders! According to Bethesda’s support team, they’re going to make it right as soon as they can. With the replacement canvas bags added back to the deal, it looks like you lucky folks just got 500 Atoms added to your $200 collector’s edition packages for free!
Clothing makes the man, as they say. You want to feel like a cowpoke? You had better dress for the part. You could buy a wide-brimmed Stetson, some Levis, a bandanna, shirt, and a pair of boots for a reasonable sum, but how do you let everyone know that you specifically want to be part of the Van der Linde Gang? Put on some official Barking Irons Red Dead Redemption 2 clothing, and no one will doubt your pretend desperado bona fides. That Gunslinger Jacket (Field Tan) is only $250 and comes with “A. Morgan” printed on the collar, just like an honest-to-gosh rough rider. Barking Irons started in 2003 in New York City, so you know they know cowboys. New York City!
Battle Brothers, the 2017 tactical fantasy brawler from Overhype Studios, just got an expansion. The Beasts & Exploration DLC is the first substantial bit of additional content for one of my favorite strategy games of last year. It adds 25% more world to the map, crafting, armor customization for your little mercs, and the titular beasts. Five of the loot-filled creatures, to be exact. Get your merry band of ne’er-do-wells out there and slowly whittle down your ranks until only a sickly, raggedy squad of survivors remain!
The Xbox Adaptive Controller is a product intended for a limited audience. At $99 a unit, it’s not cheap, but according to the creators, it isn’t meant to make money for Microsoft. Presumably, the return on investment comes from widening their gaming audience and therefore gaining additional Xbox Live Gold subscriptions, Game Pass memberships, and any other purchases for their Xbox ecosystem. Still, the idea is commendable, and we hope the company continues experimenting with niche products that bring more folks into gaming.
There is always a compromise between being historically accurate and serving the needs of a game. Soldiers did not resolve battles via capture-the-flag in World War II. Pirates did not ballroom dance to further their careers. Rey did not fight Boba Fett on Naboo.
Ubisoft dares to ride that line between history and gaming consistently by having their marquee Assassin’s Creed franchise bounce around time like a sightseeing tour. They even released a standalone version of Assassin’s Creed Origins that was essentially an educational virtual museum romp through Ptolemaic Egypt.
How accurate is Assassin’s Creed Odyssey? Did Ubisoft get their rivet counts right on their staue of Achilles? Our very own forum member, Josho Brouwers, editor-in-chief of Ancient World Magazine, is taking an academic look. In his latest article, he comments on the game’s depiction of Cephalonia, the plausability of Kassandra being a freewheeling mercenary, and notes inspirations from Clash of the Titans. It’s as accurate as it needed to be to offer “exotic” travel while depicting a recognizably popular version of ancient Greece. Good enough for me, except I’m still bitter that Kassandra can’t pick up a shield.
Ubisoft is reversing course on cosmetic changes to Rainbow Six Siege. Earlier in the month, Ubisoft had announced that they were making some minor aesthetic adjustments to the game to conform to the Asian market’s censorship rules. Images of skulls, map assets like slot machines and pole dancer signs, and objectionable interface icons were all being removed or swapped with less culturally offensive alternatives. This did not sit well with current fans. A review-bombing campaign resulted in accusations of Ubisoft “pandering” to censors or even facilitating China’s draconian government.
Now, the developers are backing away. Ubisoft is rolling back the adjustments and returning to the “original artistic intent” of the game. Players can have their go-go dancing neon stripper signs and enjoy the blood-splashed paintings that existed previously.
That’s Milla Jovovich and Tony Jaa filming the live-action Monster Hunter movie. If you’re wondering why Milla Jovovich looks like she just stepped out of a Resident Evil movie instead of being wrapped in monster scales, that’s because director Paul W.S. Anderson’s movie will take some liberties with the franchise’s story. In this take, a team of our Earth’s modern hardened combat vets get magically sucked into the Monster Hunter universe. Wacky shenanigans ensue. We just need Ryan Reynolds to voice the Palico and we’ll be all set.
Zombies, energy drinks, and Xtreme city traversal. It’s Sunset Overdrive, and it will be available on the Windows Store and Steam tomorrow for PC players.
