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In a recent interview with IGN’s Ryan McCaffrey, Todd Howard discussed several points relating to his longtime involvement with Bethesda, including the once-controversial inclusion of “Horse Armor” DLC for The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. Oblivion has gone down in history as one of the greatest open-world RPGs ever made and has a fiercely loyal and active modding community that continues to release updates and new add-ons thirteen years after the initial launch of the game....

Back in the golden era of action cinema, otherwise known as the 80s, muscular heroes dominated the big screen and absolutely flooded the burgeoning straight-to-video market. While the likes of Schwarzenegger and Stallone had broken into the mainstream and became household names, there was no shortage of up and coming younger actors keen to follow in their footsteps. I’ve never understood the criteria by which Hollywood decides which actors will become breakout cinematic stars, and if they do, for how long....

Magic and adventure await in the hottest fantasy book releases in October 2021 … with some spooky horror flavor. Tis the season. Flowers for the Sea by Zin Rocklyn Type: NovellaPublisher: TordotcomRelease date: Oct. 19 Den of Geek says: This hotly anticipated horror-fantasy has created both discomfort and wonder in early reviewers. We’re enjoying the emergence of the “Black mermaids” subgenre. Publisher’s summary: Survivors from a flooded kingdom struggle alone on an ark....

Update: with Treyarch gearing up for tomorrow’s celebration of Call of Duty Zombies, they’ve announced the name and release date for the new map. Original: Treyarch isn’t shying away from zombies this year, as following the New Year’s reveal of the Tombstone perk’s return, they dropped a teaser for the new map, with the note “More soon, - R” attached. Following Die Maschine, players will be venturing into Omega Outpost 25, although no release date has been announced....

In the second round of today’s UMG Friday Fortnite tournament, during the highly anticipated Ninja/Pewdiepie vs. DrDisrespect/Arkhram match, Twitch chat crashed for nearly an hour. In response, Twitch Support tweeted “We are looking into the issue causing the site not to load, we’re very sorry for the trouble!” Crashes and temporary outages on Twitch are not unheard of, however what makes this situation notable is that UMG Friday Fortnite has a weekly $10,000 prize awarded to viewers for actively participating in chat during the tournament....

Earlier this month, Twitch outlined major updates to its community guidelines. The new guidelines were designed to address harassment and sexual content and aimed to make it clear how streamers and users on the platform should and shouldn’t behave. However, right as the new guidelines are set to go live, Twitch has announced that they have been delayed. In a tweet posted to the official Twitch Twitter account, the live-streaming platform confirmed that it is “pushing back” enforcement of the guidelines until March 5....

Twitch is practically a household name for gamers the world over, and the live-streaming video platform is sometimes known for its inconsistency when it comes to issuing bans. That said, permanent bans are a thing on Twitch, and they have been used in cases like when MrDeadMoth assaulted his pregnant wife. While the verdict is still out, Polish streamer Pajalockk, who recently made an IRL stream while recklessly driving, may also find himself with a permanent Twitch ban....

Two players found themselves on the same planet within No Man’s Sky, and began an organized effort to cross paths and form an unlikely meetup. Now that No Man’s Sky has released after being stuck in development for a very long time, countless intrepid space explorers have been logging on to venture for the stars (and the center of the galaxy). By sheer chance, two players happened to arrive at the same planet at the same time, something that was previously stated had chance of ‘pretty much zero’ to happen....

Following a stellar debut at E3 2013, Tom Clancy’s The Division garnered plenty of early praise. Keen to keep that hype train rolling, publisher Ubisoft today unveiled a detailed Q & A session with the game’s in-house development team Massive Entertainment. According to the games creators, The Division marks a unique opportunity to explore a seldom seen type of catastrophe, the so-called “mid-crisis.” Rather than task players with preventing a global emergency or rebuilding in its immediate aftermath, The Division will instead place gamers at the very epicenter of anarchy....

If there’s one dormant Ubisoft IP that fans have been clamouring for a new entry in, it’s Splinter Cell (sorry Rayman, I’ll keep praying). The series’ blend of pure stealth gameplay combined with the feeling of being a world-class spy is something that only Hitman even starts to match up to, and with Solid Snake taking a snooze as well, all eyes are on Ubisoft to revive Splinter Cell. The funny thing is, despite not releasing a mainline game in close to a decade, Splinter Cell hasn’t been especially absent - Sam Fisher’s been in bloody everything that Ubisoft can possibly shove him into, and it’s making the wait for a true solo adventure infinitely worse....

The Taiwan Digital Game Rating Committee revealed the rating for Ubisoft’s Immortals: Fenyx Rising, which appears to be the new name for the delayed Gods & Monsters, which was due out this past February. In a statement to Kotaku, Ubisoft, headquartered in Montréal, had referred to “the game formerly known as Gods & Monsters” when an older demo was briefly leaked on Stadia. The company promised to update fans towards the “end of summer....

Our quick take Ultimate Ears Wonderboom 2 - 5.0 / 5 Designed for the great outdoors Measures: 105mm tall, 95mm diameter IP67 protection against dust and water Comes in a range of colours Great compact design Great 360-degree sound Plenty of bass Distortion free at higher volumes Stereo pairing Exploring that outdoor mode Outdoor EQ preset Wonderboom vs Wonderboom 2 To recap This second iteration Wonderboom is every inch as good as the first model....

Valheim has inspired players to make some incredible builds, recreating popular cultural icons like the Millennium Falcon, but tasks like these take time, resources, and a mastery of the building process. It also takes a lot of time transporting resources around the map to get everything players need to make these impressive creations. Portals, which can be made from fine wood and connected together to allow players to fast travel, are a great way to move resources around the map rapidly....

Riot Games’ new first-person shooter VALORANT takes off in closed beta this week, opening the gates for those who have access. VALORANT is a tactical game, featuring playable characters, called agents, each with unique abilities. Hailing from South Korea, Jett is an impressively agile agent with some scary accurate knives at her disposal. As with all of VALORANT’s agents, Jett has four abilities. Two are basic abilities, purchasable at the start of a round....

WandaVision ended with a bang this week, but not before it squeezed in one more niche comic book reference that might have left some fans scratching their heads. Scarlet Witch has some of the most interesting lore in the comics, and typically the more fantastical elements of her character have been underused by the MCU pre-WandaVision, so it’s great to see the show not only put her in the spotlight, but also put her front and centre....

One of the most difficult scenarios in Warzone is a one versus four gunfight. Casual gamers will have trouble dealing with multiple enemies and surviving. There are several strategies that skilled players use to juggle four enemies and get a squad wipe. No player can kill four enemies at once, and fighting low man is a learned skill. Most Warzone players are not prepared for an outnumbered gunfight, and many of the tactics professionals use are not easy to employ in-game....

With Mass Effect: Andromeda’s March 21 launch date drawing closer, developer Bioware continues to release new information about the game and the latest reveal is pretty substantial. BioWare has teamed up with IGN to release footage of the first 13 minutes of the game on YouTube. There aren’t any major surprises in the early going, but if you want to start the game on March 21 completely spoiler-free, turn back now....

Pop quiz: what does almost every marquee Ubisoft game since 2012 have in common? Answer: they’re all the same fucking game. The player gets a big map, most of which is covered up, and is given places to go “liberate” to unlock more of said map. As the player discovers more map, they organically stumble upon side missions that range from “easy” to “controller is in chunks on the floor.” Then the story missions get harder, and you’re forced to do the side missions - but only certain ones, because other ones are literally impossible....

LGBTQ+ representation in games is still something that needs to be improved. A few major studios here and there are beginning to meander at a steady pace toward bettering their own writing and expanding talent behind the scenes, but indies are primarily serving as the pioneer for this shift. Blockbusters often boil down romantic interactions and queer representation to playersexual characters galore. This is mostly in RPGs where love interests are little more than a sensual distraction from the looming main quest....

Our quick take Wharfedale Vista 200S soundbar - 4.5 / 5 Keeping a low profile Soundbar (2 x 30W): 900 x 62 x 92mm Sub (60W): 120 x 409 x 300mm Available in black only Connections and controls 1x HDMI input with ARC Bluetooth 4.2 (wireless) Optical and coaxial digital audio input; 3.5mm analogue audio input A great performer at an even better price To recap An affordable and impressive soundbar and subwoofer combination from the iconic British brand....