Axiom Verge Publisher Donating 75% of Share to Dev’s Son
BadLand Games is donating 75 percent of its share of sales of Axiom Verge to a special fund dedicated to the ongoing healthcare costs of Tom Happ's son, Alastair.
Happ, the developer of Axiom Verge, opened up in a blog post with a shoutout to BadLand, during his celebration of the physical release of the game.
Happ's son, Alastair, was born healthy, but due to a failure to treat a case of jaundice when he was days old, he now has a life-long condition called Kernicterus. The condition is characterized by severe neurological damage, brought on by a high level of bilirubin in the blood, resulting in a loss of much of Alastair's motor control and hearing.
October 27’s Winners and Losers
October 27 may have been the year's craziest day in pop culture — well, one of them, anyway — with three major game releases, a huge Netflix return, and the revival of a modern horror film franchise. But how successful were they?
Assassin's Creed Origins, Super Mario Odyssey, Wolfenstein 2: The New Colossus, Stranger Things 2, and Jigsaw all debuted on the same day last month. IGN ran down all of those releases previously, but now that they've had some time, we're taking a look at how all those releases performed. Did the rush of releases cause none to really succeed, or did some find success amidst the clutter? Check out the gallery below for a breakdown of the releases and whether they succeeded.
What DC’s Deathstroke Movie Needs to Succeed
Full spoilers follow for all the DCEU movies to date, including Justice League.
Slade Wilson, aka Deathstroke the Terminator, is one of DC’s most dangerous characters and debatably the deadliest mercenary in the publisher’s universe – sorry, Deadshot. The one-eyed foe made his debut in 1980’s The New Teen Titans #2 and was co-created by two icons in the comic book industry: Marv Wolfman and George Pérez. Since making his action-packed debut against the young heroes, Slade’s become immensely popular. The tactical terminator has received multiple ongoing comics, appeared in several animated shows and movies, and challenged Batman in video games like Arkham Origins, Arkham Knight and Injustice: Gods Among Us. He’s also been brought to life by actor Manu Bennett on Arrow.
You Can Now Hire Professional Gamers to Play CoD For You
A new service lets you hire professional players to play Call of Duty for you.
PC Games Insider reports UK company Bidvine lets you hire professional gamers for £15/$20 an hour for various services like helping you rank your characters up, unlock extra features within the game, improve your kill/death ratio, and more.
These professional players are required to provide identification and prove their abilities before being hired. Bidvine claims it is the first company to offer such a service.
“The Call of Duty game franchise is one of the biggest in the world, and every time they release a new game it’s a race to unlock the best weapons, characters and camos – as well as seeing who can prestige first," said Russ Morgan, Bidvine co-founder.
SOMA Developer Reveals How Upcoming Safe Mode Will Work
SOMA will receive a Safe Mode on December 1 on PC and Xbox that turns the game's murderous monsters into largely cautious observers, allowing for a less stressful experience.
Director of SOMA and Frictional Games founder Thomas Grip spoke with PC Gamer about the decisions surrounding the update - even going so far as to say that, in retrospect, it makes him question if this is the way the game should have been released.
Safe Mode is an official version of the popular Wuss Mode, a fan-made mod for SOMA that removes the killing instinct from the game's monsters. It is currently the SOMA Steam Workshop mod with the most subscriptions, and developer Frictional Games took note.
2 New Weapons Coming to PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds
PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds will be getting two new weapons.
VG24/7 reports the weapons in question are the DP-28 LMG and the AUG A3 assault rifle. They're now available on the game's test servers, which went live earlier this morning. However, it's not yet known whether these weapons will make it out along with version 1.0 in December, or be released separately.
The DP-28 LMG, image via VG247.
Rashida Jones Drops Out of Toy Story 4 Citing ‘Philosophical Differences’ With Pixar
Rashida Jones and writing partner Will McCormack have dropped out of their positions as co-writers of Toy Story 4, citing a culture at Pixar that marginalises women and people of colour.
As reported by EW, the co-writers released a statement saying that "we parted ways because of creative and, more importantly, philosophical differences. There is so much talent at Pixar, and we remain enormous fans of their films. However, it is also a culture where women and people of color do not have an equal creative voice.”
The duo points out that only one of Pixar's 20 films have been directed by a woman, and another by a person of colour. The statement adds that "we hope we can encourage all those who have felt like their voices could not be heard in the past to feel empowered.”
Gwent Single Player Campaign Delayed to 2018
Gwent's single player campaign has been delayed to next year.
Developer CD Projekt RED announced the news today, saying it needs more time to work on the campaign's increased scope. As such, the story-driven mode, called Thronebreaker, will no longer launch this holiday season as originally planned.
"Shifting release windows is always something we approach seriously, however, we’ll never hesitate to do it if we feel you’ll get a better game as a result," Marcin Iwiński said, co-founder of CD Projekt RED.
Additionally, with Gwent coming out of beta in 2018, the game will be getting a lot more multiplayer updates next year more frequently. Players can expect content additions like cards, challenges, vanity items, game patches, and balance tweaks.
Classic Rare Soundtracks Getting Vinyl Release
Rare is teaming up with iam8bit to release classic game soundtracks for Battletoads, Conker's Bad Fur Day, and Viva Pinata.
Just in time for the holidays, Rare has revealed a new slate of vinyl soundtracks for the classically inclined. Each album will come with a digital copy for easy on-the-go listening and will be available for pre-order on Black Friday. Shipping begins in the second quarter of next year.
The soundtrack to Battletoads in Battlemaniacs, with music by David Wise, is being released for the first time ever, 25 years after the release of the 16-bit brawler.
Vinyl records for the classic, Conker's Bad Fur Day, with music by Robin Beanland, will also be available in a double-LP that includes unreleased music as well as classic tracks from the game.
Monster Hunter World: 47 Changes Only Fans Will Notice
Capcom is doing a lot to get fresh players into the new installment of its long-running series, but it's arguably doing even more for those who’ve played Monster Hunter before.
If you’re already a fan, here are 47 changes we spotted in our many, many hours with an early build of Monster Hunter World.
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1. Armour Skills Have Changed - This is probably the most fundamental change in World. Previously, skills were awarded for wearing multiple pieces of armour, but things are a little simpler (and possibly more exciting) than before. Every armour piece now offers a single skill. However, better armour begins to offer set bonuses on top of that, meaning the best sets will offer six or more abilities for coordinating your outfit. It means a lot more mixing and matching than experienced players will be used to, but it’s a great way to diversify your hunter’s build.