Category: Gameinformer

Black Mirror is a show about the dark side of technology, so it only makes sense that it has put video games in the spotlight a few times (including one episode that is practically overflowing with gaming Easter eggs). But the latest installment, entitled Black Mirror: Bandersnatch, brings the show closer to being a game itself.

The new episode (which released on Netflix today) is a piece of interactive fiction; it allows viewers to make choices that affect the events and outcome of the story. Depending on your decisions, you see one of five possible endings. You can watch the trailer for the episode below, or experience it for yourself right now if you subscribe to Netflix.

Click here to watch embedded video

Minecraft: Story Mode also recently released on Netflix, so Black Mirror: Bandersnatch is just the latest in the company’s expanding experiments with choice-driven narrative.

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It was not that long ago that former Gears of War developer Cliff Bleszinski said he was retiring from the gaming industry following the closure of his studio Boss Key games. Now we officially know where he’s taking his talents to: Broadway.

NEWS!
I’m officially co-producing this show.
That’s my next gig!
(Crazy, eh?!)
It’s on Spotify, give it a go. It’s fantastic! https://t.co/Ew7Tr1QsHA

— Cliff Bleszinski (@therealcliffyb) December 26, 2018

Hadestown is the first production that Bleszinski is co-producing, currently scheduled to release in April. The show’s official site describes it as follows: “Hadestown follows two intertwining love stories – that of young dreamers Orpheus and Eurydice, and that of King Hades and his wife Persephone – as it invites audiences on an epic journey to the underworld and back. Mitchell’s beguiling melodies and Chavkin’s poetic imagination pit nature against industry, faith against doubt, and love against fear. Performed by a vibrant ensemble of actors, dancers and singers, Hadestown delivers a deeply resonant and defiantly hopeful theatrical experience.”

Bleszinski retired from gaming when Boss Key Production’s first game, Lawbreakers, sunset after a tepid audience response and first year. The studio released a second game titled Radical Heights, a battle royale title with thematic twists, but had to end production when the early access release failed to gain any traction.

Hopefully Bleszinski will find more satisfaction on Broadway.

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There’s rarely a week where there’s not some news about Fallout 76, Bethesda’s online multiplayer take on the Fallout universe, for better or worse. It seems the holidays aren’t providing any respite to Bethesda, as a story about an alleged customer service interaction is one more log to throw into the fire.

According to Variety, a YouTube video purporting that Bethesda has been banning users for using mods for Fallout 76 has been making the rounds. Banning for mods in general is kind of a strange thing, as some are used just for getting better accessibility or performance out of software. When these modders tried pleading this case to Bethesda’s customer service however, the representatives apparently assigned them homework instead.

The video, created by YouTuber JuiceHead, explains that people who were banned received an email back from Bethesda support asking for an essay about why mods are bad. Allegedly, the email sent back says “If you would like to appeal this account closure, we would be willing to accept an essay on ‘Why the use of third party cheat software is detrimental to an online game community’ for our management team to review.”

While it’s always possible the email could be fake, Juicehead says that he spoke to other banned players who backed up the wording and sentiment of the email asking for essays in exchange for being unbanned. It’s certainly a unique take on discouraging online cheating.

Recently, Bethesda announced that they’ll be gifting Fallout classic to owners of Fallout 76 as recompense for the game’s rocky launch. You can also find our review for the game right here.

[Source: Variety]

A long time ago, I used to edit essays as a side gig. I am not sure I would ever willingly ask people to give me essays to read on a thing they don’t want to do.

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If Santa left a PlayStation 4 or some PlayStation Plus cards under the tree for you yesterday, you might be eager to find out what games you can download with the subscription starting in January. The monthly service, which is also required to play online multiplayer on the system, lets you download and play a number of free games per month, letting you keep them as long as your paid subscription remains active. 

Whether you have snow this season or not, Ubisoft is about to dump a mountainload on your PS4 with Steep. The game has a number of events designed to make the most of its open world by having you compete in various sports in different ways. Ski down the mountain, don a squirrel suit to fly through rings, snowboard over a sick ramp, and more. The PlayStation Plus version does not include Steep’s expansion content, Road to the Olympics. You can find our review of the game right here.

The other PlayStation 4 game is Portal Knights, which is probably best described as a Minecraft-like with more action-RPG trappings. The game was quite popular on Steam Early Access and eventually made its way to consoles last year.

For non-PS4 offerings, Sony is also putting up Amplitude (PS3), Fallen Legion (Vita), Super Mutant Alien Assault (Vita), and curiously Zone of the Enders HD Collection (PS3). The last one is strange because it seems like they could have also offered the PS4 version of Zone of the Enders 2, which includes a new VR mode.

As a reminder, the clock is ticking on PlayStation 3 and Vita games on the service. Sony announced in March that they would be ceasing non-PlayStation 4 games on the service in March 2019, but they would not be increasing the number of PS4 games a month to compensate.

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This has been a big year for gaming, with a slew of fantastic games. Heavy weights like Red Dead Redemption II and God of War are only scraping the surface. Insomniac delivered the gift of giving Spider-Man a game worthy of his exploits. Square Enix’s Dragon Quest series came back to much fanfare. Super Bros. Ultimate got us competitive with our friends again. Assassin’s Creed Odyssey took us to Ancient Greece, using its RPG mechanics to its advantage. I’m sure you’re in the camp of someone who either wanted one of these games or gave them to someone else. After all, the holidays are bursting with generosity.

One of favorite parts is how people go out of their way and get creative, or give us that one thing that makes us jump for joy like we’re a kid again. Sometimes it’s as simple as getting something we’ve been pining for but can’t afford, like a video game or a console; other times people go to extremes to hunt down crafty video game memorabilia for fans, such as a special plush, figure, or t-shirt that’s hard to find. Either way, we thought it’d be cool to share a special gift you gave or received and discuss why you’re excited about it.

Share your favorite gifts and why in the comments below!

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My grandma can hear about as well as a redwood pine tree, so I’m not surprised that she misheard me when I said that I wanted Red Dead for Christmas, but why did she think I wanted Bed Head styling wax? She got my cousin Super Smash Bros., but she got me a bottle of Bed Head styling gel. This just doesn’t seem fair.

Have you heard of Red Dead Redemption II? It’s only the biggest game of the year. It’s full of amazing cowboy shootouts and train heists and horse races across stunning vistas. It’s got over 100 hours of amazing content, and it’s probably the perfect gift for a gamer this year. But I did not get Red Dead Redemption II for Christmas. I got a head full of crusty hair.

Honestly, she makes these kinds of mistakes a lot, so I’m almost surprised she didn’t give me a Lead Shed or a Bread Spread. I don’t even know what bread spread is exactly, but I think I would have liked it more than this bottle of Bed Head styling wax. She didn’t even give me a gift receipt! I don’t think I can return this.

Of course, I know she didn’t hear me correctly when I asked for Red Dead. She had said, “Ned’s Dead?!” Then I told her, “No grandma, it’s a video game. It’s called RED DEAD!” When she nodded like she understood, but clearly she didn’t, and now I wish that I had let her believe that Ned actually was dead. I mean, Ned got me a dumb lamp.

I opened my bottle of Bed Head. According to the packaging it has “relentless hold,” and it will help me achieve an “edgy, workable style.” That’s fantastic! Now my hair can be as hard as grandma’s head! Are you listening, Grandma? Your gift sucks!

But you know what’s actually kind of funny? I was just at the store on Sunday and I bought styling gel, so now I have two containers full of hair product and zero copies of Red Dead Redemption II.

Ultimately, I feel like a sucker, because I got her a new iPad. Why did I even bother with that? Do you know how much a new iPad Pro is? Don’t Google it. It’s $800. That means I could have bought a dozen copies of Red Dead Redemption II for myself and still had enough money left over to buy grandma a nice mug. The mug would have read, “World’s Greatest, Deaf Grandma.”

Things are actually a little awkward between us now. I mean, I bought her a freaking iPad and she got me a bottle of sticky hair gel, so I guess I’m not surprised that she can’t look me in the eyes when I passed her the rolls at dinner.

And the strangest part is, my grandma died three years ago. I don’t even know this woman that Dad keeps calling mom.

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Blizzard is celebrating the season of giving with five free winter loot boxes for all Overwatch players. All you have to do is turn the game and you’ll be alerted that you have five boxes to open. The boxes are tied to Overwatch’s annual Winter Wonderland event. The contents include new sprays, emotes, victory lines, and rare skins. The skin everyone is talking about is Junkrat’s Krampus look, which we’ll set you back 3,000 gold if you don’t get it in a box. The Winter Wonderland boxes will be available through January 2.

The image above shows what we want to see from loot boxes. The image below shows what we usually get. If you’re wondering what I got from my five free winter boxes, you’re looking at the best of my haul above. I mostly got voice lines and sprays. Let us know if you score the Junkrat skin in the comments section below!

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Although the above photo may look like 24 characters on a giant piano in Fortnite, it’s actually just one person using different skins. With careful timing and some good editing, one player created a Fortnite rendition of All I Want For Christmas and spliced together each recording.

While his post on Reddit is a little deceiving, saying that it’s 24 players playing the song, the video is nonetheless pretty cool. It starts off with just music from the piano, but later incorporates sounds from Fortnite’s weapons to emphasize parts of the song.

You can watch the whole thing below:

For more on Fortnite, read about the recent lawsuits filed by Alfonso Ribeiro and Backpack Kid.

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The first Watch Dogs often received criticism for its bland open world, but a modder who goes by the name The_Silver hopes to change that.

With the mod Living_City, you can experience additional custom missions, the ability to enter areas at will that were previously exclusive to story missions (including inside certain buildings), random events, and ambushes. This mod even restores some cut content that didn’t make the final game.

You can watch the trailer for the mod below:

You can download the mod, as well as read its detailed features, here. For our review on the sequel, Watch Dogs 2, click here.

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The platformer Celeste is getting new levels in early 2019, which creator Matt Thorson teases will be “very hard.” He shared the news on Twitter after expressing gratitude to those who bought the game, since it’s sold over 500,000 copies since release.

If you haven’t picked up Celeste yet, we highly recommend it. Ben Reeves scored it a 9 in his review, saying that, “Celeste is filled to the brim with exciting moments.” It’s also going to be part of Xbox Games With Gold’s lineup starting January 1. This means that if you have a paid subscription with Xbox Live Gold, you can nab Celeste for free.

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