Month: July 2020

The Atari VCS didn’t make its original launch date of March 2020, but thankfully, the console has a new release window. The Indiegogo-funded system will ship out to backers this fall, which is also when it’ll be available at retailers. The classic-inspired console is still available for pre-order at many locations, so if you haven’t snagged one yet, you still have time.

VCS stands for Video Computer System, a nod to Atari’s 1977 console bearing the same name. Revealed in 2017, it’s styled to look like the original Atari consoles and features both modern and older games. One of its launch titles is a reimagining of the Atari classic, Missile Command. Missile Command: Recharged is already available on a number of platforms and will launch alongside the Atari VCS this fall. The VCS also supports the ability to download, stream, and play games through a Linux-based operating system.

As for its specs, it’s unclear exactly what hardware the Atari VCS is packing. It’s powered by an AMD Raven Ridge 2 processor and Ryzen GPU, but other than that, we don’t know many details. The VCS comes in two different models, the 400 and 800, which boast 4GB DDR4 RAM and 8GB DDR4 RAM respectively.

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The third week of Fortnite Chapter 2 Season 3 is nearly here with a number of new challenges that will have you clicking heads all over the map. A particularly tough challenge will take you to Steamy Stacks, the flooded factory located in the upper corner of the map. You’ll need to land a choppa at the bottom of Steamy Stacks. This guide will show you how to get to Steamy Stacks with a helicopter and help you land it right in one of those stacks. After you do that, you can take on other Season 3 challenges and get ready for Aquaman.

This challenge leaked early so check back on July 2nd to try it for yourself within Fortnite.

Where is Steamy Stacks?

Steamy Stacks is located in the top right corner of the map. It’s flooded after The Device event so you can no longer explore most of it. There are still some upper floors as well as rooms in both stacks that contain weapons. It’s separated from the rest of the map by water.

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During the first quarter of this year, Twitch broke 3 billion total hours watched for the first time. The momentum has continued from April through June as it surpassed 5 billion total hours watched for a single three-month span.

A new report from Streamlabs showcases just how popular Twitch has gotten during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic as it previously averaged 2.7 billion hours watched last year. None of its competitors came close to matching its viewership as YouTube Gaming hit 1.5 billion hours and Facebook Gaming maxed out at 822 million, which is triple the amount it had last year. Microsoft’s now-defunct Mixer service came in fourth with only 106 million hours watched during the second quarter. Prominent streamers such as Shroud and Ninja, who reportedly made over $20 million to move to Mixer, could be switching back to Twitch and help boost it further. Twitch led in other key analytics, as well. Nearly 10 million unique channels streamed 192 million hours of content, which is more than double the previous quarter.

The most-watched game was Valorant, which set a single-day viewership record back on April 8. Riot Games’ competitive shooter is still going strong as it had 534 million hours watched, which was more than PUBG Mobile‘s 237 million. Fortnite came in third with 174 million views.

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Like it or not, Death Stranding is a tremendously bold game. We recognized it as one of the best of 2019 and reviewer Kallie Plagge spoke to its qualities in the full review from last year. But why talk about the game in 2020? For one, it’s quite, uh, timely with its theme of being an essential worker during a catastrophic event that leads to nationwide quarantine. It’s also one of the few PS4 exclusives getting a proper PC port. I have been playing the PC version ahead of its July 14 launch day and I’m here to report that so far in the early hours, it remains a superb game enhanced by the fact that it looks and runs much better than it did on PS4 Pro, if you have the right PC specs.

For those living under a rock (and not to avoid Timefall), here’s the short of it: Death Stranding is Metal Gear creator Hideo Kojima’s latest. You’re a delivery man played by actor Norman Reedus amid a deadly paranormal phenomenon called the death stranding that forces the surviving population to seek refuge in underground bunkers. While the game has a fair share of third-person stealth and action, it’s also quite literally a walking-hiking simulator where balancing your cargo and traversing harsh terrain are core elements. It’s all wrapped around a heavily cinematic and somewhat bizarre story about human connection.

I know, playing courier with the occasional action sequence may not sound enticing, but trust me and my friends when we said last year that it’s a stunning experience, if you have the time and patience. Its broader message of human connection is made manifest in the asynchronous multiplayer component in which the actions of others–such as laying down ladders, bridges, and roads–will affect your own game world. Everyone’s just helping each other make their deliveries, stay alive on a hostile surface, and chug their oddly placed Monster energy drinks to keep on keeping on. Even though you never see your fellow players, giving them a few “likes” for their work, and getting a few in return, is sort of uplifting.

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Sam Neill has revealed that the original trio’s involvement in Jurassic World: Dominion is substantial to the plot of the third film.

In an interview with Yahoo Movies UK, Neill, who is set to reprise his iconic role as palaeontologist Dr. Alan Grant, said he can’t wait to reunite with his “dear friends” Jeff Goldblum and Laura Dern on set. In fact, he said he’s “raring to go” on the shoot, with his fellow cast members who are also gearing up to restart production after an almost four-month hiatus due to the coronavirus outbreak (COVID-19).

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When asked whether he would be featuring in a “couple of scenes” or a “more substantial role,” Neill revealed that his character plays a sizeable part in the next installment, together with Goldblum’s Dr. Ian Malcolm and Dern’s Dr. Ellie Sattler.

“We’re all the way through the film, Jeff [Goldblum], and me, and Laura [Dern],” he stated, adding that he “probably won’t be running quite as fast” as he did 27 years ago, as he referred back to his first appearance in the blockbuster franchise.

Jurassic World 3 director Colin Trevorrow previously admitted that he had always wanted the original franchise stars to appear in the Jurassic World trilogy in some capacity, but he first needed to figure out the best way to continue their legacy in “an organic way.”

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The original trio will be joining returning franchise stars Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard, who are reprising their respective roles as Owen Grady and Claire Dearing, alongside Jurassic World stars Jake Johnson and Omar Sy, both of whom did not make it into the sequel. Fallen Kingdom stars Justice Smith and Daniella Pineda will return as well.

Jurassic World: Dominion is currently scheduled for a release on June 11, 2021, though that date could change in light of the production shutdown.

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Adele Ankers is a Freelance Entertainment Journalist. You can reach her on Twitter.

Sony’s Shuhei Yoshida has announced the PlayStation Indies initiative, which will spotlight new games from smaller developers. During the course of today, 9 new indie games for PS4 and PS5 will be revealed (you can see an evolving, full list at the end of this story).

In a post on the PlayStation Blog, Yoshida writes, “With PlayStation Indies, we hope to spotlight and support the best of the best indie games being published on PlayStation and the entire indie community as a whole. Our goal is to make PlayStation the best place to develop, find, and play great indie games.”

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How exactly that will manifest itself is yet to be confirmed, but Yoshida confirms that a new indie game will be added to the PlayStation Now service every month, beginning with Hello Neighbor this month. Perhaps most importantly, Yoshida also confirms that he, like all of us, has not been able to stop singing the Bugsnax song (which you can listen to above, if you too want to succumb to the curse).

We will update this story with the games announced today, with Yoshida writing that they will be “nine imaginative and exciting titles coming to both PS4 and PS5.”

Full List of PlayStation Indies Revealed

F.I.S.T: Forged In Shadow Torch (PS4) – This 2D action-platformer sees an anthropomorphic bunny with a giant metal fist fight his way across a dieselpunk-inspired Metroidvania map. It launches for PS4 “soon”.

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Maquette (PS5, PS4) – A first-person puzzle game from Graceful Decay (and published by Annapurna Interactive) bound to garner comparisons to The Witness, Maquette has you manipulating objects in simultaneously simulated, recursive worlds to create solutions to progress. It’s hard to explain without seeing it in action, so here’s a walkthrough trailer:

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Where the Heart Is (PS4): A narrative adventure game coming this winter, the new game from Armature follows a family throughout their lives.

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Joe Skrebels is IGN’s Executive Editor of News. Follow him on Twitter. Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to newstips@ign.com.