Rocket League hosts Halloween event 'Haunted Hallows'

Shaun Grimley | Gaming | Oct 17, 2017 7:34 AM CDT

Rocket League are introducing their first themed-event for Halloween, Haunted Hallows. The timed event introduces new crates, in-game items and a new form of currency, Candy Corn. Haunted Hallows begins tomorrow- October 16 and runs through to November 6.

Rocket League hosts Halloween event 'Haunted Hallows'

Candy Corn is Haunted Hallows limited-time currency and is earned by completing Online Matches. The Candy Corn currency can be redeemed for Halloween items, Decryptors, and locked "Haunted Hallows" crates. Candy Corn won't expire on November 6 when Haunted Hallows is finished, you will still have the option to spend remaining currency for one-week post-Halloween Hallows.

Decryptors are the latest way to unlock crates and can only be purchased using your precious Candy Corn. Decryptors can open any crate in Rocket League, including Event Crates, not a bad item to stock up on.

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Team Liquid wins SL i-League Invitational Season 3

Shaun Grimley | Gaming | Oct 17, 2017 6:22 AM CDT

The road towards The International 8 is officially underway, with the first minor tournament of the new Dota 2 season completed. The group stage saw six teams from six regional qualifiers join Team Liquid and Newbee as direct invites to StarLadder i-League Invitational Season 3, with the top 4 of the group stage progessing to the Playoffs.

Team Liquid wins SL i-League Invitational Season 3

StarLadder i-League Invitational Season 3 featured a total prize pool of $300,000 with $135,000 going home with the eventual winners, Team Liquid. The International 7 winners were too strong for the resurgent Mineski, who had just an impressive performance to make it to the grand final only dropping two games to Team Liquid in the group stage and one to compLexity in the semi-finals. It would take until game one of the grand final before Team Liquid would even drop a game in the tournament with Mineski drawing first blood, but the defending SL i-League Invitational and TI7 champions would have the last laugh.

Game one saw Mineski surprise the TI7 winners with early pressure and early kills. Team Liquid were able to recover and force Mineski into teamfight after teamfight with Liquid gaining some momentum. It was short-lived success however, as once Mineski's BKBs were online it was all over for Team Liquid.

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Ex-Naughty Dog developer claims he was sexually harassed

Shaun Grimley | Gaming | Oct 17, 2017 5:26 AM CDT

Former Naughty Dog employee David Ballard has claimed that he was sexually harassed by one of the studio's leads and that when he reported this situation he was fired because the company was going in a different direction and his position was no longer required.

Ex-Naughty Dog developer claims he was sexually harassed

The incident occurred in late 2015, originally Mr Ballard was too ashamed of the situation but has been inspired by other TV/Film individuals speaking of their experiences. Ballad took to Twitter over the weekend to deliver his account of events.

"In late 2015, I was sexually harassed at Naughty Dog by a lead. My work environment became extremely toxic afterward," Ballard said in a series of posts. "In February 2016 I had a mental breakdown at work & Sony PlayStation HR became involved. When I told them about the harassment they ended the call and fired me the next day. They cited the company was moving in a different direction and my job was no longer needed. They tried to silence me by offering $20,000 if I signed a letter agreeing to the termination as well as to not discuss it with anyone. I declined to sign."

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H1Z1 Pro League to kick-off in 2018

Shaun Grimley | Gaming | Oct 17, 2017 4:30 AM CDT

Following up from the successful H1Z1: Fight for the Crown tournament earlier this year, Developer Daybreak Games in partnership with Twin Galaxies, have announced the launch of the H1Z1 Pro League. The H1Z1: King of the Kill based professional esports league will feature 15 teams competing in a 20-week season, followed by the first-ever league championship in late 2018.

H1Z1 Pro League to kick-off in 2018

With esports rapidly expanding, we've seen Blizzard announce the Overwatch League along with Dota 2, CS:GO and League of Legends already well established in esports. H1Z1 is next to enter into the esport scene with The H1Z1 Pro League. "Our goal with the H1Z1 Pro League is to create a world-class experience worthy of our incredibly competitive community," said H1Z1's general manager Anthony Castoro as he recently spoke with Polygon. This will ensure a "player-first" approach, includes a guaranteed minimum player salary of $50,000, a governing committee and a well-defined revenue sharing model.

H1Z1: Fight for the Crown featured a $300,000 prize pool and had an estimated 390,000 viewers when it aired on CW Network in April, this success has opened the door for the inception of the H1Z1 Pro League. "We were the first to do a battle royale esports [event] with the H1Z1 Invitational in 2015," Castoro said. "Over the past couple of years, we've really started to develop best practices and learned how to run this kind of large scale event. ... We had really great success with the commercial broadcast of Fight for the Crown on the CW. I think our ratings were right up there with the NHL, the playoff game that was happening the same night." Anthony Castoro said with Polygon.

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Blizzard ban World of Warcraft cheaters

Shaun Grimley | Gaming | Oct 17, 2017 3:25 AM CDT

Following Epic Games stance on cheaters, Blizzard have been busy themselves with regards to punishing cheaters, specifically targeting World of Warcraft players who use third-party software to cheat.

Blizzard ban World of Warcraft cheaters

No figure of how many accounts were suspended, but repeat offenders were dealt with bans up to 18 months while first time offenders were given 6 months. Blizzard have developed a method to detect cheaters using WoW bot software Honorbuddy as the 'ban section' of their forums have been FLOODED with posts. Honorbuddy released a statement via their forums confirming that their 'bot/tool' had been detected.

It appears as if Honorbuddy isn't the only software that was detected, with several other third-party software also being detected. These programs allow players to instantly teleport around the map, scripts to help them in combat and even fully automated bots which operate on behalf of the player.

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Qualcomm the first to test 5G, debuts 5G reference phone

Qualcomm is at the absolute bleeding edge of connectivity technology, with the world's first tests of 5G connections on a mobile device now completed.

Qualcomm the first to test 5G, debuts 5G reference phone

The company tested the 5G internet connection on their own X50 5G modem, using the 28GHz millimeter wave frequency band. Qualcomm adds that they reached over 1Gbps with the test, but 5G is capable of much higher speeds of 5Gbps once the 5G deployments are complete.

Qualcomm also unveiled the world's first 5G smartphone reference design, which the company will use to test 5G modems, radios, and networks with smartphone makers over the next 1-2 years, as we get closer to companies releasing 5G-capable smartphones. 5G smartphones are expected in the first half of 2019, while Qualcomm's new 5G reference smartphone rocks an edge-to-edge display, and is just 9mm thick.

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Overwatch now has over 35 million players

Anthony Garreffa | Gaming | Oct 16, 2017 11:07 PM CDT

Overwatch has hit yet another milestone, with Blizzard announcing there are now over 35 million players since the game launched back in May 2016.

Overwatch now has over 35 million players

We don't know which platforms have the most users, but I'd dare say the PC version of Overwatch has the lion's share of gamers. Blizzard hit 20 million players in Overwatch back in November 2016, and then 30 million in April this year. PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds continues to pummel other games into the ground, so it'll be interesting to see how Overwatch's numbers get affected as PUBG continues to grow.

Blizzard hasn't revealed any other details about the 35 million Overwatch players, so we don't know if the free weekends count (they probably do). No matter what, 35 million gamers is a big milestone for Overwatch.

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Battlegrounds' update adds vaulting, climbing to testers

Anthony Garreffa | Gaming | Oct 16, 2017 10:18 PM CDT

PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds is racing towards v1.0, but Bluehole has a lot of work to do before we get there. The developer has talked about some updates that gamers have wanted since PUBG launched earlier this year: vaulting, and climbing.

Battlegrounds' update adds vaulting, climbing to testers

Bluehole has said that climbing and vaulting have a massive impact on gameplay, which means they need to be tested "for at least a month" before they go live. The developer adds: "The content and features that will be in test servers need to be tested for at least 2 to 4 weeks. It will be very difficult for us to provide a stable service if we rush updates to live servers after short bursts of testing. As we would like to go through rigorous testing to prepare for official launch, we will not be updating new content to live servers and run test servers for a longer period of time instead".

PUBG will receive climbing and vaulting in "late October or early November", but personally... I think Bluehole need to work on hitting 100% optimization on Unreal Engine 4 for the game.

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DOOM will be out on Nintendo Switch on November 10

Anthony Garreffa | Gaming | Oct 16, 2017 9:40 PM CDT

Nintendo has just announced that DOOM will be coming to their Nintendo Switch console on November 10, which will include all of the updates and post-launch content.

DOOM will be out on Nintendo Switch on November 10

The physical copy of DOOM will include just the single-player campaign, with the multiplayer side of things needing to be downloaded due to its size. The digital version of DOOM for the Nintendo Switch will include the entire package, as there's no limitations with digital downloads.

In the video above, id Software's Creative Director Hugo Martin, and Executive Producer Marty Stratton talk about what gamers will expect in DOOM on the Nintendo Switch. They also talk about working with developer Panic Button to make sure that DOOM on the Nintendo Switch was "fast, brutal, and true to the experience gamers have loved on other platforms".

Continue reading: DOOM will be out on Nintendo Switch on November 10 (full post)

AMD Ryzen APU spotted with Radeon Vega M graphics

Anthony Garreffa | CPU, APU & Chipsets | Oct 16, 2017 8:23 PM CDT

AMD launched their new Radeon RX Vega series of graphics cards last month, but it looks like we will see a mobile variant sooner, rather than later.

AMD Ryzen APU spotted with Radeon Vega M graphics

HP looks to be the first with Radeon Vega M mobile graphics, powered by AMD's upcoming Ryzen 5 2500U 'Raven Ridge' APU. HP's upcoming Envy X360 15-BQ101NA will be the first Zen APU-powered laptop, with a Ryzen 5 2500U @ 2GHz, with up to 3.6GHz Turbo frequency.

Inside, HP's new Envy X360 will feature 8GB of DDR4-2400 RAM, 256GB NVMe SSD, 1080p Full HD touch-enabled display, and Vega Mobile. AMD could provide Vega 8 or Vega 10, with 45W of power consumption for the entire laptop.

Continue reading: AMD Ryzen APU spotted with Radeon Vega M graphics (full post)