Month: June 2020

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John Boyega’s Black Lives Matter Speech and Lucasfilm’s Response

Star Wars’ John Boyega delivered an impassioned speech Wednesday in London during a Black Lives Matter protest over the recent killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police officers. During his speech, Boyega noted that his activism might hurt his career but that it’s a price he’s willing to pay. However, Lucasfilm has since come out in support of their Star Wars lead, declaring him a “hero” that they stand with.

“Look, I don’t know if I’m going to have a career after this, but f*** that,” Boyega shouted to a crowd of fellow protestors assembled in London’s Hyde Park.

Hoarse and deeply moved, Boyega declared, “I need you to understand how painful it is to be reminded every day that your race means nothing — and that isn’t the case anymore, that was never the case anymore. We are a physical representation of our support for George Floyd.”

Boyega’s most recent employer, Lucasfilm, declared him “our hero,” promising that “Lucasfilm stands with John Boyega.”

John Boyega isn’t the only Star Wars actor to take to the streets and join the protestors. The Mandalorian’s Pedro Pascal participated in a march in Los Angeles this past weekend, documenting it on his social media accounts.

Check out this overview of ways you can donate, contribute, and support Black Lives Matter, such as contributing to the NAACP Legal Defense Fund.

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Path Of Exile’s Harvest Expansion Will Be Released On June 19

Path of Exile‘s latest expansion, Harvest, has been announced. It will be available to PC players from June 19, and Xbox and PlayStation players from June 24. This expansion will introduce a new challenge league, feature extensive balance changes to the existing game, and also visual improvements on top of other additions.

Harvest will revolve around an area called the Sacred Grove, which will provide players with both rare items and formidable foes to face down. Exploring new areas will grant you with items called Seed Caches, and their contents will have to be planted by players within the Sacred Grove. Planting rare seeds will grant you with rarer monsters to fight or harvest, and each will have specific rewards. Players will be able to use the Grove to their advantage to customize their builds and to obtain beneficial items that suit their individual needs.

This June expansion for Path of Exile will also introduce changes to the current crafting system. The Sacred Grove will allow players to have more control over directed crafting in the game by allowing you powerful crafting options upon defeating any monster in the area. Players will also have to tend to the Grove in order for it to dispense rewards to its fullest potential; think building pipes, systems, and other things to keep your harvest healthy.

Continue Reading at GameSpot

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Lovecraft County Teaser Trailer Shows A Mix Of Supernatural And Very Real Horror Elements

HBO has released a trailer for Lovecraft Country, the new series from Misha Green (Underground). The trailer shows the show’s main character, Atticus Black (Jonathan Majors, a story-loving young man who goes looking for his “birthright”–a seemingly haunted house in Lovecraft Country.

The show, which is set in Jim Crow-era 1950s America, is executive produced by Jordan Peele (Get Out).

The trailer below shows off the spooky tone of the show, as well as its stellar cast, which includes Abbey Lee, Jurnee Smollett-Bell, Courtney B. Vance, Michael K. Williams, and Wunmi Mosaku. This is the show’s second trailer–here’s the first.

It also shows that the show will mix imagined demons with realistic portrayals of racism and police violence. You can watch the full trailer below.

The show is scheduled to debut in August, although an exact date has not been set. It’s definitely on our to-watch list.

GameSpot would like to encourage readers to donate to Black Lives Matter, and to seek out black voices in media.

Continue Reading at GameSpot

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LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga Gets a Special Steelbook Case

LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga doesn’t have a specific release date (though there’s been some confusion on the subject), but it will be available sometime this year for PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and PC. The game is already available for preorder at number of retailers, and it comes with a bonus at one of them. Read on for the goods.

Preorder Bonus

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No universal preorder bonuses come with the game, but if you purchase it at Best Buy, you’ll get an exclusive steelbook case for free. It’s designed to look like a LEGO Han Solo encased in carbonite, which it pretty neat.

Preorder LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga

PS4

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Xbox One

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Nintendo Switch

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PC

LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga is the biggest game yet in the sub-series. It lets you play through the stories of all nine main films, with overhauled levels from the previous games. You don’t have to play them in order, either. The whole thing is laid out in an open-world format, and you can hop around from planet to planet at will, dropping into whatever scene you feel like playing from any of the films.

You take control of characters like Luke Skywalker, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Rey and Finn, as well as villains like Darth Vader and Kylo Ren. Combat has been upgraded with a combo system, as well as enemy health bars replacing the old one-hit-kill fights.

Since LEGO Star Wars: The Force Awakens was the last game in the series, The Skywalker Saga represents the first time The Last Jedi and The Rise of Skywalker have appeared in playable LEGO format. Check out our LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga preview for more details.

Other Preorder Guides

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Chris Reed is IGN’s shopping and commerce editor. You can follow him on Twitter @_chrislreed.

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Activision Blizzard Shareholder Calls Out CEO’s Excessive Pay

Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick is one of the highest-paid executives not only in video games, but across the entire entertainment media industry. He made more than $30 million in 2019. One of the company’s shareholders, The CtW Investment Group, is now calling on other stakeholders to vote against a measure that gives the company freedom to pay Kotick high rates.

In a filing with the United States government, The CtW Investment Groups’ director Dieter Waizenegger called on other stakeholders to vote against the “Say-On-Pay” proposal during Activision Blizzard’s upcoming annual meeting scheduled for June 11, 2020.

“Despite repeated low approval votes from shareholders, Activision Blizzard maintains multiple, overlapping opportunities for its CEO to earn outsize equity awards, even when performance-related vesting thresholds have not been met,” the note says. “Despite failing to disclose pertinent information on performance targets for its Short Term Incentive Plan, Activision Blizzard’s proxy statement reveals significant human capital management challenges.”

Continue Reading at GameSpot

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Wasteland 3 Shows Off The Consequences Of Your Choices In New Dev Diary

Wasteland 3‘s third dev diary is here, and it’s focused in on the consequences of player choice. The video below delves into how player choices will impact the world of Wasteland 3, and what kind of role-playing is possible.

InXile Entertainment studio head Brian Fargo says that reactivity is “the hallmark of a great roleplaying game,” and that a lot of work has been put into making sure that the reactions of the word are “telegraphed”–so you know that events that play out are a direct result of your actions, minor and major.

An example is shown of a scene where you can steal a gun from a poor couple–the gun is going unused, as it has sentimental value to them, but it could be very useful to the player. As Fargo points out, “most players won’t do it”–but the option is there, if you don’t mind being evil in-game.

Continue Reading at GameSpot