Month: September 2020

Marvel’s Avengers will launch for everyone on September 4, but many players have already had a chance to experience the game thanks to its beta program, culminating in an open weekend beta in late August. As it turns out, this was a big success–the biggest in the history of the PS4, in fact.

Square Enix has announced that the Marvel’s Avengers beta was the biggest ever on PS4. Or, more specifically, it was the “most downloaded,” meaning that a lot of people installed it onto their system.

While the tweet does not provide numbers, Gamesradar estimates a figure close to 5 million people across PS4, Xbox One, and PC by extrapolating play data. The actual figures remain unknown–especially since there would be some who installed the beta and did not get a chance to play it, and this likely combines players across the earlier access beta and the open beta.

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Amazon has taken down two job listings for intelligence analysts that generated controversy over their anti-union/labor organizing language. The positions were charged with gathering information on threats to Amazon and reporting that data. One of the alleged threats these positions were meant to monitor was “labor organizing.”

These analysts were also going to be set to monitor “sensitive topics that are highly confidential, including labor organizing threats against the company,” “funding and activities connected to corporate campaigns (internal and external) against Amazon,” as well as briefings on “dynamic situations” including protests, geopolitical crises and other topics “sensitive to human resources and employee relations,” as reported by CNBC.

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We all know Avatar: The Last Airbender’s opening credits. The four elements–air, earth, fire, and water–come together to retain the balance between their respective kingdoms before the Fire Nation attacks. It’s an iconic intro, one that has been recreated multiple times over. As cliche as it might seem to use Pokemon to replace the elemental benders of the story, an animator took the obvious and made it adorable in this recreation.

An animator named Kay took the Avatar intro and smashed four Pokemon in the place of the benders. This premise had been something Kay thought about for over 10 years and was “a long time coming.” In the delightful recreation, the four elements are replaced by Charmander, Pidgey, Sandshrew, and Squirtle. What we get is a fluid, if short, animation showcasing the devastating power of these four pre-evolutions. Check it out below.

Earlier this year, Netflix gained the streaming rights to the Avatar franchise. You can stream both The Last Airbender and its sequel series, The Legend of Korra, on the streaming platform right now. A live-action adaptation that was announced by Netflix back in September 2018 has stalled after the show’s creators, Bryan Konietzko and Michael Dante DiMartino, quit the production due to creative differences.

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Marquee first-party games don’t usually get discounts until long after release, but PS4 users can now snag The Last of Us Part II at a great price, thanks to its first major markdown since launch. You can buy The Last of Us Part II for $50 from Amazon. The deal is also available through Best Buy and GameStop–if you’re a PowerUp Rewards Pro member, you can get it for $45 from GameStop today only.

It’s unclear how long this deal will last for, so you’ll want to order as soon as possible if you’re interested. All retailers offer free shipping and can arrive by the end of the week–though you’ll need Prime for two-day shipping if you’re buying from Amazon. Best Buy and GameStop also offer in-store pickup if you’d rather grab it in person.

The Last of Us Part II (PS4)

$50 (was $60)

See at Amazon

See at Best Buy

The story from the first game continues in The Last of Us Part II, as we follow Ellie and her partner Dina on their hunt to find a group of survivors that have wronged them. It’s a dark story about revenge and anger, but it’s also about companionship and what we’d do for those we love. The combat is also very tense and quite violent, so if you’re into stealth action, you’ll likely enjoy it.

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Developer Pysonix has confirmed that once its soccar game Rocket League goes free-to-play later this summer it won’t require online memberships on Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4 systems.

A patch for Rocket League will be arriving “around mid-September,” with the free-to-play update following “shortly after.” While an exact date for when Rocket League will go free-to-play has not been disclosed yet, Psyonix made it clear that Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4 players will not need active NSO and PS Plus subscriptions in order to participate in online matches against other competitors. This is just one of the many changes coming to Rocket League once it’s free-to-play.

Some other adjustments include the addition of a new difficulty for bots, the removal of the Solo Standard Playlist following Competitive Season 14’s conclusion, Heatseeker being playable in private matches, tweaks to Rocket ID friends and Quick Chats, and more.

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Plants vs. Zombies: Battle for Neighborville, the latest 3D shooter iteration of the franchise, will get its last update at the end of the month. EA announced what’s coming through this final month of content, which will culminate in an appropriately harvest-themed Fall Festival event.

According to the announcement, this month will add two new characters: Wildflower and TV Head Zombie. Those were previously exclusive to weekly events in August, but you can pick them up with Coins in late September. You can use your Prize Bulbs in the Fall Festival map to score cosmetics like epic hats, victory slabs, emojis, and special costumes for Chomper, Imp, and Z-Mech. The Ranked Battle Arena will return to an unranked mode and away from the seasons.

Moving forward, the game will begin rotating previous Festivals and their associated Prize Maps, so you can collect any cosmetics that you missed out on at the time. What’s more, each of the Festival Prize Maps will remember your progress from the last time it came around, so you can just pick up from where you left off.

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