Category: Gamespot

Call of Duty: Black Ops 4‘s first big content update, Operation Absolute Zero, has expanded to other platforms. Following its release on PS4 last week, the big update is now available on Xbox One and PC, bringing a new playable character, Blackout area, and more to the online shooter.

Among the additions to the game is the new Specialist, Zero–a hacker who can use her skills to “disrupt and distract enemies.” Players can unlock her by completing tier 1 of the newly revamped Black Market, which now features 100 “clearly defined” tiers to streamline progression. Treyarch has also added a new batch of weapons and “more diverse content” to unlock in the Black Market, including Reactive Camos, Epic Outfits, Reticles, and Mastercrafts.

On top of the new Specialist, Operation Absolute Zero introduces a new area to Blackout mode: Hijacked, which is inspired by the fan-favorite Black Ops II map of the same name. It can be found in the northwest quadrant of the map. Additionally, a new armored vehicle–the ARAV–has been added to the battle royale mode as well.

Players who’ve purchased the Battle Pass on Xbox One or PC can access additional content, including two new multiplayer maps: Elevation and Madagascar. Reaper from Black Ops 3 has also been added to Blackout mode for Battle Pass holders, as has a new Zombies chapter: Dead of the Night, which features a cast of big-name celebrities including Kiefer Sutherland and Helena Bonham Carter.

Along with Operation Absolute Zero, Treyarch has rolled out some changes to all version of Black Ops 4. Among them, the developer has made some balance tweaks to the aforementioned new Specialist, Zero. Treyarch has also updated the featured playlist in multiplayer and introduced Custom games for Blackout mode, which let players start a private match and “explore the map at their own pace.” You can find the full patch notes on Reddit.

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The Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences (AIAS) has announced that Bonnie Ross, a 24-year Microsoft veteran perhaps best known for her work on Halo, will be inducted into the group’s Hall of Fame. She joins an esteemed group of game developers, including 2017’s recipient, Bethesda’s Todd Howard, along with Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto, Metal Gear designer Hideo Kojima, and Valve founder Gabe Newell, among others. Ross will be the first woman in the AIAS Hall of Fame.

“It is thanks to Bonnie’s vision and drive for combining art and technology that has allowed the Halo universe to flourish within so many different mediums and platforms,” AIAS president Meggan Scavio said in a statement. “That along with her deep passion to expand diversity in gaming and encourage STEM education amongst women as well as all young people is truly inspirational. Her positive legacy and leadership have helped advance interactive entertainment and will impact game makers and aspiring game makers for generations to come.”

Xbox boss Phil Spencer will present Ross with the Hall of Fame award at the 22nd DICE Awards ceremony on February 13, 2019 in Las Vegas.

In his own statement, Spencer said it’s been a privilege to work with Ross for more than 20 years. “I have continually been impressed not only by her passion for merging art and storytelling, but also her equal passion for creating teams and technical breakthroughs; solid foundations that will set the direction of Halo and Xbox for years to come,” he said.

Ross joined Microsoft in 1994 and some of her first work in games was on Microsoft’s sports games for PC, beginning with NBA Full Court Press. She rose through the ranks and later held roles such as producer, lead producer, and executive producer, before becoming a general manager for Xbox where she oversaw pretty much everything from Microsoft Studios.

In 2007, her work on Halo expanded when Halo creator Bungie and Microsoft split off. Ross founded Microsoft’s new internal Halo team, 343 Industries, and today she holds the title of Microsoft Corporate Vice President and Head of 343 Industries.

Outside of the Halo series, Ross co-founded Microsoft’s Women in Gaming program that aims to help women get into science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) careers.

Halo franchise manager Frank O’Connor wrote a nice blog post about Ross, and in it he talks about what makes Ross such a great person and professional colleague.

“To see Bonnie recognized for her career and her passion is gratifying, but even more so knowing that the recognition itself will inspire future creators, engineers and world-builder and continue the work and the mission she started on her first day at Microsoft,” he said. “On Legendary difficulty, obviously.”

The next Halo game, Halo Infinite, is currently in development for Xbox One and PC.

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A new Legendary Pokemon has arrived in Pokemon Go. Heatran, another rare monster originally from the series’ fourth-generation titles, Pokemon Diamond and Pearl, has begun appearing in Raid Battles around the world following Cresselia’s departure, and it’ll remain as a Raid boss until January 15.

As usual, in order to catch Heatran, you’ll first need to visit a Gym where a Heatran Raid is taking place, then team up with other players to battle the Legendary Pokemon. Once Heatran has been defeated, you’ll be rewarded with a handful of Premiere Balls along with an opportunity to capture the Legendary.

Heatran is unique in that it is the only Fire- and Steel-type Pokemon in the entire series. This type combination gives it a resistance to Dragon and Psychic attacks, but it also makes the Pokemon very susceptible to Ground-types like Rhyperior and Groudon. Water and Fighting Pokemon such as Kyogre, Swampert, and Machamp will also be effective against the Legendary.

In addition to Heatran, a handful of new Gen 4 Pokemon have also begun appearing in Go. In addition to the previously teased Snover and Munchlax, Pokemon fansite Serebii is reporting that Skorupi, Bronzor, and a handful of other Sinnoh Pokemon have been added to the game.

Heatran’s arrival also coincides with the start of Pokemon Go’s third annual holiday event. From now until January 2, Ice-type Pokemon will spawn more frequently in the wild, and players will have another chance to catch Delibird and Santa hat Pikachu. Niantic is also offering different bonuses every few days throughout the event; from now until December 22, for instance, players will receive twice the usual amount of Stardust for catching Pokemon.

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Like PlayStation, Spotify, and others before it, Microsoft has released a neat little “Year In Review” website that reveals your most-played games and other cool stats from 2018.

Go to this website and sign in with your Microsoft account to get started. The page displays a number of stats, beginning with how you stack up with the wider Xbox community when it comes to your gamerscore, number of hours played, and achievements earned.

The page also gives you a 2018 “mood.” Mine was “Fighting for something greater than yourself in shooter games” because I played a lot of shooters this year on Xbox One. Additionally, it shows off your most-played games and asks questions about what felt like a bigger accomplishment: earning specific achievements or total number of hours played.

The Year in Review site also displays how many new friends you made on Xbox Live during the year, how much gamerscore you earned, how many hours you played across all games (presumably this excludes media app usage time), and how many hours you spent in multiplayer games versus single-player titles.

Additionally, the page reveals that Xbox Live players collectively earned more than 3 billion achievements during the year. The Year in Review page gives you little trinkets to collect in the process, and at the end they come together to form a holiday snowglobe with all of them. Onc you’re done, you can download your results or share them on social media.

There appear to be a few oddities with the website, specifically as it relates to the number of hours played in some games, but the page should give you a generally good idea about what titles you played the most in 2018.

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The Mythical Psychic Pokemon Deoxys made its debut in Pokemon Go earlier this year as the game’s second EX Raid boss, replacing Mewtwo. Up until now, the DNA Pokemon has only appeared in the mobile game in its Normal Forme, but a new variant of the Pokemon is set to arrive soon.

Developer Niantic has announced that Attack Forme Deoxys will be available in EX Raids later this month. Along with taking on a different appearance, Attack Forme Deoxys has a much higher attack stat than its standard form, and Niantic warns that it will be a “difficult challenge that requires Trainers to take advantage of every opportunity.”

The new form of Deoxys is set to arrive with the next cycle of EX Raid invites, which are scheduled to go out beginning December 20. Unlike standard Raid Battles, you can only participate in EX Raids if you’ve received an invitation. In order to get one, you’ll first need to have recently won a Raid Battle at a “qualifying” Gym. These are denoted by an EX Raid tag in the upper righthand corner when you look at the Gym’s details.

In the meantime, players still have a little more time to catch Pokemon Go’s latest Legendary, Cresselia. The Psychic Pokemon is scheduled to leave standard Raid Battles on December 18, just before Attack Forme Deoxys is set to arrive in EX Raids. Niantic hasn’t announced when the game’s next Legendary Pokemon will arrive, although the developer has teased that Azelf, Uxie, and Mesprit–three more Legendaries originally from Pokemon Diamond and Pearl–are on the way.

Pokemon Go’s annual holiday celebration is also set to return again soon. This year’s event kicks off on December 18 and will introduce another handful of Gen 4 Pokemon, including Snorlax’s pre-evolved form, Munchlax, as well as Snover, Abomasnow, and Croagunk. Festive hat Pikachu and Delibird will also return, and different bonuses will be meted out throughout the event until it ends on January 2.

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One of the reasons why DICE updated Battlefield V to make it easier for new players was specifically to help the game appeal to new players–this did not go so well. After a wave of criticism from veteran players, DICE announced that it is rolling back the time-to-kill changes to restore the values to their original state. The Swedish developer has now also acknowledged that it has been a struggle for years now to get people into Battlefield games.

“It’s important to acknowledge that we have a challenge bringing new players into Battlefield V and onboard them to become more experienced Battlefield players,” DICE said in a Reddit post regarding the TTK changes. “It’s been a challenge across our games for a long time, as many will know.”

DICE’s overall ambition with Battlefield V is for it to appeal to new and veteran players alike, and the developer will continue to try to do this even after the TTK changes are undone. “How we get it right isn’t easy, nor will it be quick, and we appreciate when the community comes together and helps us on this journey,” DICE said.

The Battlefield franchise is generally understood to be relatively more difficult for new players compared to the series main competitor, Call of Duty. Activision’s franchise regularly outsells Battlefield. Back in 2013, EA management said it hoped Battlefield 4 would outsell that year’s Call of Duty game, Ghosts. It did not.

Other established franchises face the same challenge as Battlefield: drawing in new players while also appealing to veterans, and pleasing everyone. As DICE frankly said in its Reddit post and as evidenced by the rollback to the original TTK values, this can be a tough nut to crack. Marcus Lehto, who co-created the Halo franchise, recently said he believes Halo is in a no-win scenario now as it tries to appeal to new players and do right by veterans.

For its part, DICE has pledged to continue to listen to fan feedback and try to make Battlefield V appealing to everyone. How this works in practice remains to be seen.

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The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air’s Alfonso Ribeiro, who starred as the show’s Carlton, is suing Epic Games. Ribeiro’s law firm said the the actor is accusing the studio of stealing his dance–commonly referred to by fans of the show as the Carlton dance–for the “Fresh” emote in Fortnite.

According to TMZ, Ribeiro is currently in the process of filing for the copyright for the dance. This announcement comes on the heels of another lawsuit filed against Epic. Terrance Ferguson accused Epic of stealing his Milly Rock dance for Fortnite’s “Swipe It” emote, an act he describes as a pattern the studio has for “exploiting African-American talent in particular in Fortnite by copying their dances and movements.” Ribeiro is mentioned as another example of this in Ferguson’s lawsuit.

Epic has seen several legal disputes when it comes to Fortnite. PUBG Corp., the creators of PlayerUnknown Battlegrounds, sued Epic over a concern “that Fortnite may be replicating the experience for which PUBG is known.” However, the lawsuit was ultimately dropped. Epic hasn’t always been on the receiving end of a lawsuit either. The studio sued a QA tester who leaked Fortnite Season 4 secrets, as well as a few streamers for advertising Fortnite cheats.

When it comes to outside the court room, Epic has been enjoying the growing success of Fortnite–which is the number one searched game on Google in 2018. After finding success with cross-platform play on Fortnite between Xbox One, PS4, Switch, PC, and mobile devices, Epic Games is sharing its technology with other developers looking to do the same. The studio also launched its own PC game store that offers an enticing alternative to Steam.

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The latest chapter of the Battlefield V TTK drama has unfolded. DICE has announced that it’s backtracking on the controversial changes it made to the multiplayer shooter’s time-to-kill values that made the game more forgiving for new players and angered veteran players in the process.

In a post on Reddit, DICE said it made the choice to roll back the changes after listening to player feedback and reviewing internal statistical data. The TTK changes were released in an update that came out last week, so they really didn’t last very long at all.

DICE reiterated that its aim with the TTK changes was to make the game “more enjoyable for new players.” Veteran Battlefield fans took issue with this, and in response, DICE released a “Core” playlist for the Conquest mode with the original TTK values. Fans commented that a single playlist wasn’t enough, and DICE later announced that it would release more “Core” playlists.

“Clearly we didn’t get it right,” DICE said about the TTK changes. “Veteran players didn’t ask for the change, but as game developers, we took it upon ourselves to make those changes based on extensive data and deliberation. It truthfully wasn’t an easy decision for us,” DICE said.

The developer added that it is an ongoing challenge to make Battlefield a more enjoyable experience for new players. Indeed, the game has a very different feel than its main competitor, Call of Duty, which is often regarded as a game that is relatively easier to get into.

“It’s been a challenge across our games for a long time, as many will know, and becomes even more important for us to improve upon our post-launch experience with consistent updates to the game through the Tides of War,” DICE said. “Our desire to service a game that caters to old and new players will continue. How we get it right isn’t easy, nor will it be quick, and we appreciate when the community comes together and helps us on this journey.”

While DICE is rolling back the TTK changes, the developer said it continues to work on new updates to “improve the experience” for all players–new and veteran.

Battlefield V’s TTK will revert to its original value through an update coming December 18 at 4 AM PT / 7 AM ET / 1 PM CET. The “Core” playlist for Conquest will be removed at this time, while the previously announced additional “Core” playlists are not going to be released.

Unlike previous Battlefield games, all of Battlefield V’s expansions are free as part of the game’s Tide of War live service element. The first major post-release expansion, Chapter 1: Overture, is out now, and it adds a new map and the single-player War Story where you play as a member of a German tank division. On a longer timeline, Battlefield V will introduce a battle royale mode called Firestorm in March.

GameSpot’s Battlefield V review scored the World War II shooter an 8/10. The game is available now on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC.

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It appears one of the Street Fighter V announcements coming at the Capcom Cup event today has leaked ahead of time. An image of a brand-new character named Kage has appeared online; you can check out the image below from Twitter user @DaFeetLee.

EventHubs reports that Kage started appearing in Street Fighter V’s character-select menu when you apply a new update that some people are getting already. An image of a darkened character appears in the character-select menu, and hovering over it reveals his name. Kage looks quite evil, with spiky black hair, red eyes, fangs, and horns.

The Capcom Cup 2018 professional gaming event is taking place right now, and you can follow along with the action here on Twitch.

It is rumoured that there may be multiple new character announcements pegged for the end of the event, so keep checking back with GameSpot for the latest.

In other Street Fighter V news, the game recently introduced advertisements on loading screens and other places that are toggled on by default. You can turn them off, but some people are still unhappy about it.

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Pokemon Go developer Niantic Labs began its life as a Google subsidiary, but the company spun out in 2015, and reached a new stratosphere of success with the launch of Pokemon Go in July 2016. The San Francisco-based developer is growing still, with a new report claiming the company is working to secure a $200 million round of funding.

According to The Wall Street Journal‘s sources, the further $200 million would raise the company’s total valuation to $3.9 billion. The latest round of funding is expected to be led by venture capital firm IVP, with more money coming from Samsung and aXiomatic Gaming.

There is no word on what the rumoured round of $200 million in funding would go toward at Niantic, but the studio has a new Harry Potter game in the works, in addition to ongoing support for Pokemon Go. The WSJ report says Niantic could be working on games for “other franchises,” but none were named.

Niantic’s new Harry Potter game, Wizards Unite, was initially expected to launch in 2018 but it was later delayed to 2019. Not much is known about the game, but it’s said to use a similar augmented reality set-up that Niantic struck gold with for Pokemon Go.

Pokemon Go is free, and it makes money through in-game microtransactions. While the game might not be as popular as it once was, it still makes a lot of money. In November, the game pulled in $80 million worldwide from its microtransactions on iOS and Android, according to a report from SensorTower.

In other news, Pokemon Go’s latest winter event kicks off this week. Among other things, it lets you earn bonuses, hatch Eggs more easily, and encounter Pokemon from the Sinnoh region. You can learn more about the event in our coverage here.

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