Gaming News - Page 1652

Gabe Newell has fired the production company and host of the $3 million DOTA 2 Shanghai Major competition, with host James "2G" Harding taking to Twitter announcing he'd been dismissed of his hosting duties, and that it was "Valve's decision".

The reason? There were several major technical issues, and questions raised over the dismissal of Harding for the English-language coverage of its group stages. This forced Valve boss Gabe Newell to step in and address it directly. As for the issues, it included major technical issues both on-set, and in-game. The hosts had mic levels that were either too quiet to hear or were cut completely. Harding was reportedly looking awkwardly at the wrong camera, and speaking to the on-set director to get the camera pointed where he wanted.

Harding "rambled self-deprecatingly about how little he knew or understood about Dota 2's current balance and accepted strategies, or meta, and sometimes insulted teams participating in the major or the players on them", reports Polygon. It gets worse, though. During the live match coverage, it was interrupted for various reasons. Medical reasons caused delays, with others going for hours at a time without explanation. The competition had multiple complete connection failures for the English-language streams, on both Twitch and DOTA 2's official website.

Cyberpunk 2077 is a long way towards being finished, but the CD PROJEKT Red has already decided to bring back the composer who made the great soundtrack for The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt.

Speaking to Gamepressure, Marcin Przybylowicz revealed that he's already been playing around with ideas for the music for Cyberpunk 2077, because well, that's apparently his in his job description and being the house sound designer, he's just the man to do it. "My superiors already force me to do it, because I spend most of my time with Geralt; however, some first attempts with Cyberpunk were already made."

Aside from being "forced" by his superiors, he's incredibly talented and his unique style and methods will probably make for a great soundscape in the upcoming game. He was not, however, the only composer to work on The Witcher 3 though. Pedro Macedo Camacho composed the main theme, and is also the Star Citizen soundtrack composer as well.

A new cinematic trailer for The Descendant was just released and it shows how horrifying and terribly difficult life could be in the future should we seal our own fate with a man-made extinction-level event.

But never fear, because we're put people in stasis so they can live on and sustain the human race once everything boils over. This narrative-driven point-and-click adventure is rife with a story and a vast mystery that has to be solved. You're one of the Descendants, supposedly chosen to carry the torch for humanity in the future, and when you awake to explore the Ark you've been placed in cryogenic storage in, there's a lot of unanswered questions to seek the truth to.

The first of five total episodes is set to go live on March 24th with the rest being released gradually throughout the year. So you'll be exploring Ark-01, where you wake up, with plenty of puzzles to solve and try to rescue survivors as Donnie. You'll get to experience events in the past as well as "current" day events while you investigate. An incredibly fascinating concept, to be sure.

EA's Vault in their Origin Access program has just grown by one as they added Torchlight II to the family. That makes 16 games in total that can be played as part of the monthly subscription service.

Last month EA brought their Origin Access subscription service to the PC, something that was previously exclusive only to the Xbox One. You can pay $4.99 and get the privilege of being able to play all 16 of the games in the vault and you also get early access to EA games a few days before they're available to anyone else.

The full list of games that're now available in their EA Access program.

Armored Warfare lets you take command of a number of modern Main Battle Tanks and duke it out amongst your friends. The newest update puts in a number of great new features, a new intricate close-quarters map and new Chinese tanks, like the feared Type-98.

To sell you the new tanks there's a new Arms Dealer known as Zhang Feng who has some of the best deals on Chinese tanks around. His inventory is available to everyone who wishes to try out something new. A new Tier 5 premium tank has also been added, the WZ-1224, a 44-ton masterpiece with a 120mm smoothbore main gun.

The new Coastal Threat Map is a 1.2K square map with a mixture of open-spaces that allow for huge arcs of fire and a small city with its tight quarters to test your skills appropriately. For those that prefer PvE, the reward system has been modified so that it's almost as lucrative as playing strictly PvP. That way you'll be able to get some of the better loot while you practice and improve.

It's the weekend, there's a good chance that it'll be cold and dreadful outside in the majority of the world, so you might be looking for something new to play. And even though Call of Duty tends to get its fair share of criticism, Call of Duty: Black Ops III is having a free weekend. You can play the multiplayerr-centric Starter Pack for free until the 29th of February.

If you happen to get sucked in and enjoy the experience, Activision is selling the standard edition for 33% off the regular price, and the deluxe edition for 20% off. That's not a bad deal considering it unlocks the max level, which is capped at 55 in the starter pack, and gives access to the weapon paintshop, the gunsmith, emblem editor, arena, freerun mode, theater and the ubiquitous black market.

But you have only until the 29th at 1PM PST to try it out for yourself. Call of Duty has evolved considerably, making turns into new paths that some didn't quite like after Call of Duty 4, but Black Ops 3 might surprise you with the agile, fast-paced gameplay. Then again, you might completely hate it. But it's free.

You can already pre-order Battlefield 5, among other unreleased games, from an online retailer based in Switzerland already. On their site they've placed details that seem to presume what the game will be about, with no actual evidence to back up their claims.

While we know that that another Battlefield is coming this year, as sure as the wind blows in a storm, no details have been released and it's likely that this particular retailer doesn't actually have any real information from EA. Any details are assumptions based off of previous games. It's a safe bet to think that it's going to be an online, multiplayer shooter, and it's not a stretch to think that it could be set in an era we haven't visited in awhile, or at all, to keep it fresh.

Apparently the description has been changed since it was first reported by PCGamesN, and it no longer says anything about WW1. Though it would be quite refreshing to have something new, even if it isn't true to the actual combat style. Trench warfare, while deadly, frightful and not fun in real-life, probably wouldn't translate to a game very well. Verdun is a fascinating game, but it also takes some creative liberty to make it more interesting for gamers to play.

Ubisoft might be in financial danger, and in their weakest moment the French multimedia powerhouse, Vivendi, is attempting a hostile takeover to acquire the game company and add it to their extensive portfolio.

To stop the buyout from happening, Ubisoft is trying to appeal to the Quebec provincial government and even the national Canadian government to help keep from being absorbed. They're calling for investors around the world to help them in their endeavor.

"We want to increase the number of Canadian shareholders in Ubisoft to have better control over the capital. ... We feel it's a good defense." Yves Guillemot said in a statement about the current attempt by Vivendi to buyout their company.

DLC can be a precarious thing for all types of games, but it can be utterly terrible for those that focus on multiplayer and sharing the experience, tearing a rift in the community and causing a host of problems and issues that might push people away from the game, instead of drawing them in.

Major Nelson is no stranger to speaking his mind as part of his duties at Microsoft. DLC is a point of contention with many gamers, and he happens to agree that it isn't always a good idea. Particularly when it's paid. DLC, and Season Passes can be "really dangerous when it comes to multiplayer, because what happens is it fractures the community," he said during the latest Podcast Unlocked episode. "You have the maps, I don't have the maps, I didn't buy that map but you bought that map,' so when we all get together, 'Oh, you couldn't play the map."

It makes it difficult to have a coherent community that can actually enjoy the game together. And prohibiting those that already own the game from playing with their friends that own other parts that you don't have can potentially have the effect of diminishing the player-base completely. Free DLC, even if the content is small, can add significant value. A new map occasionally, new weapons, new skins. Those can bring people into the fold and keep them there, but making people pay for what might be considered (even though development time and cost of the items might be significant) trivial items can alienate users.

Although the recent leaks spoiled the surprise, The Pokemon Company proudly revealed the next generation of pocket monster action: Pokemon Sun and Pokemon Moon.

The latest Pokemon-centric Nintendo Direct didn't exactly reveal many details about Pokemon Sun and Moon, but we do know that the duo is slated to arrive in Holiday 2016 for the Nintendo 3DS. The reveal trailer (seen above) shows a few tidbits at the end, but we didn't get any new screens or actual in-game footage teases. Pokemon Sun and Moon will also feature online components across the 3DS like Pokemon X & Y.

Both games will be playable in nine different languages including English, Italian, Spanish, Korean, French, German, Japanese and Traditional and Simplified Chinese. "We hope that, through Pokemon, players can overcome langauge barriers and interact with other players from around the world," said Tsunekazu Ishihara, CEO president of the Pokemon Company.