In the fight against cheating in online multiplayer games, permanent account bans are a powerful tool for maintaining a level playing field. However, the black and white nature of banning can create controversy, and even prompt legal action. As in the case of professional Finnish Counter Strike: Global Offensive player Jamppi, who filed a lawsuit against Valve earlier this year after a previous account of his received a Valve Anti-Cheat (VAC) ban....
Consoles and cartridges aren’t the only relics in the crosshairs of retro gaming enthusiasts. Manuals, printed walkthroughs, and magazines from the 80s and 90s are also treasures to be found. Video Game History Foundation is currently offering the latter in exchange for subscriptions, which has caught the eye of keen collectors. The “Blind Box” video game magazine subscription has begun shipping and offers a great gift to nostalgia chasers. Customers can cash in on the “one-time purchase” option for $20, or choose to subscribe monthly for a 25% discount....
Filming resumed this week on Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, with director Ryan Coogler overseeing what is said to be another four weeks of work at Marvel’s Atlanta-area production complex before the film wraps principal photography. This last stretch picks up where the project left off in November, which is when it shut down for an extended, nearly two-month break. Said to be in attendance and working on this last round of shooting is star Letitia Wright, who plays Shuri, the sister of T’Challa and Wakanda’s brilliant technological innovator....
Ubisoft developers, Lathieeshe Thillainathan (Live Producer) and JP Cambiotti (Online Director) held an AMA on the Watch Dogs subreddit answering a bunch of questions the community had for Watch Dogs games, specifically Watch Dogs: Legion. With the next-gen consoles now released, there were a lot of comments on whether Watch Dogs: Legion will get a 60FPS next-gen console update or not. Good news for all Watch Dogs players on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series S/X, Watch Dogs: Legion will be getting a 60FPS update in the future....
After a bit of a rocky start to Season 1, Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War is finally hitting its stride, and the recently launched League Play in multiplayer is likely to draw a number of players in, given that League was huge in Black Ops 4. While good weapon balance and varied game modes are making the Call of Duty experience fun, the game can’t quite shake bugs popping up, and a new one is being reported in multiplayer....
For most gamers, it’s a no-brainer. 2015 is easily the year of Fallout. As a matter of fact, ever since Bethesda showed up at the annual Electronic Entertainment Expo and formally showcased Fallout 4 during their first-ever press conference, fans of the franchise have been trawling practically every source possible to find even the tiniest scrap of news related to the title. Excitement for Fallout 4 is certainly no surprise. With so many refinements and fresh additions to the game, such as the ability to craft and customize weapons, armor, and settlements, as well as the genre-defying inclusion of voice acting being provided for the main character, there’s no doubt that the latest entry in the post-apocalyptic RPG series will turn plenty of heads upon release....
If you enjoyed the dark and twisty first series of BBC drama The Pact last year, you’ll be pleased to know it’s just returned for series two, this time with a brand new cast and a fresh bucketful of secrets ready to be spilled. BAFTA-winning Rakie Ayola (who, among many other things, played the Hostess in Doctor Who episode ‘Midnight’) played DS Holland in series one, but this time she’s The Pact’s’ Executive Producer and also takes centre stage as protagonist Christine, a social worker whose family is still recovering from the recent death of her 22-year-old son Liam....
Danish Netflix show The Rain has returned for its third and final season in the middle of a very real global pandemic, and has landed in a landscape that’s suddenly thinking a lot more about what might happen to the world a few years after a deadly virus has wiped out most of humanity. A cheery thought? Absolutely not, but a concern that surely permeated the late-stage creation and marketing of the show....
Look, I take no pleasure in simping for the most successful video game movie franchise ever made. It’s not cool or particularly subversive to sit here and try to act like I’m the only one that loves Resident Evil - the highest-grossing zombie franchise of all time and, until 2017, the highest-grossing horror franchise of all time. Other people obviously enjoy these movies, they’ve made over a billion dollars. But in gaming circles, these movies are universally reviled....
Alan Moore has often seen his iconic comic book creations—be it Watchmen, V for Vendetta or The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen—get adapted as big screen efforts that typically end up being the focus of his own critical wrath, but an upcoming passion project film, bearing the deceptively-generic title, The Show, will likely avoid that fate, since he not only penned the script, but actually fields an onscreen role. Mitch Jenkins directed The Show off Moore’s script, continuing behind-camera work he did for three shorts from Moore’s 2014 anthology fantasy film, Show Pieces, to which this film bears a thematic connection, and similarly features Moore’s onscreen reverie-riding character named Frank Metterton....
Over the last few months, The Sims 4 community has been voting to create the second community Stuff Pack. After helping to select the theme, style, assets, icon, and name, the time has finally come to see the trailer and it’s worth the wait. The most notable part of the trailer even takes knitting to a whole new level, with a rocking chair on the roof. While we know a reasonable amount about the pack, due to the collaboration during development as well as SimGuruConor’s blog updates, the trailer was no less exciting....
Warning: contains spoilers for The Sister What a sweet story. The baddie was dealt with. Poor Holly finally got closure on Elise’s disappearance, and she and loving husband Nathan had the baby they’d been trying so hard for. Yes, granted, he’s now haunted by her dead sister, but what else is new? The important thing is that it all ended well. Togetherness. Baby. Lovely. Except, hang on, what? Unlovely. There was nothing sweet about The Sister’s ending....
The ongoing coronavirus pandemic has led to a huge number of delays as much of the entertainment industry, particularly in the United States, continues working from home. One big, recent video game delay was 343 Industries’ Halo Infinite, meant to be a flagship title for the Xbox Series X in November. That announcement was parodied today when The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe announced its own delay to Q1 2021. The Stanley Parable is a 2013 game that leaned heavily into metatextual narrative experiences with tons of alternate endings, existentialism, and jokes — famously including an achievement that took five years of not playing Stanley Parable to unlock....
In The Legend of Zelda series, Link’s most trusty weapons include his sword and shield. While the shield serves to protect him against weak projectiles, beginning with Link’s Awakening, it gained more uses. Link could use his shield to move enemies out of his way and protect himself from close-ranged attacks. Over the course of the series, Link’s standard shields have undergone numerous designs. Moreover, it gained even more purposes for battle and exploration alike....
For the most part, Telltale Games’ The Walking Dead series received critical and fan acclaim, in no small part due to the continuing story of its main protagonist, Clementine. While Clementine’s story came to a close in The Walking Dead: The Final Season, there’s a chance that she may appear again after all. Skybound Entertainment picked up the rights to develop and publish Telltale Games’ The Walking Dead after the studio abruptly shut its doors halfway through the final season’s development....
Many shows use their series finale as an opportunity to bring back characters from the past and “Rest in Peace,” the last episode of The Walking Dead, was no exception. The zombie drama’s final hour indeed brought back some familiar faces both in flashback form and in the present. You can read about that particularly thrilling latter passage over here so you don’t get spoiled in this space. But the finale came with some other cameos that you may have missed....
Geralt’s main goal throughout most of The Witcher 3 is to find Ciri. It’s a long and difficult quest that continually tests the resolve of the protagonist. Thankfully, though, he doesn’t spend his entire adventure on his own. The Witcher has a litany of allies that aid him on his journey. They all lend a hand in different ways, from helping in battle to providing intel that’s vital to the hero’s search....
CD Projekt Red might have shifted its focus off of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, but that hasn’t meant a complete halt to the support the game receives from its developer. The Witcher 3 is arguably the best example of how studios can support games for years after they have released, and according to an official statement from CD Projekt Red, that excellence has continued well beyond what was expected from it....
Matthew Vaughn’s X-Men: First Class is making its premiere on Disney+ this week. Normally, content that’s being added to a massive streaming service doesn’t need to be singled out. And yet, when looking back at that now 10-years-old and still groovy superhero adventure, it feels worthy of the spotlight, not least of all because there’s a whole new generation of superhero fans who’ve probably never seen what is quite arguably the best X-Men movie ever made....
I will give you this warning right off the bat—if you’re looking to read over a standard GOTY piece, this will not be it. Why? Because I’ve spent almost all of 2020 playing games that came out before 2020. Here’s the thing. Like many others, I grew up loving video games. But unlike most people, I am reluctant to change. Whether it’s movies, TV shows, new foods, board games, or video games, I struggle with starting something new—especially if there’s already a long list of stuff I am still enjoying anyway....
