Month: November 2020

Pokemon Go‘s big Go Beyond update is now live, which means a new generation of Pokemon are soon making their debut in the mobile game. Niantic is introducing the first wave of Gen 6 Pokemon to Go this week as part of the new Kalos Celebration event, which kicks off tomorrow, December 2, at 8 AM local time.

Throughout the week-long event, a handful of Pokemon originally from the Kalos region will appear in the wild and hatch from eggs, including the Gen 6 starters Chespin, Fennekin, and Froakie. On top of that, players will be able to encounter some Kalos Pokemon in Raids. Among them will be the Psychic type Espurr, which will be appearing throughout the event in one-star Raids.

In addition to increased Pokemon spawns, there will be event-exclusive Field Research and Timed Research tasks to complete during the event. The Kalos Celebration runs until 10 PM local time on December 8. You can read more about the event on the official Pokemon Go website.

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Activision’s Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War is finally here, and one part of the military FPS that people are particularly enjoying is the campaign and its story. The Black Ops brand has always had a special flavor to it. It is less serious–remember this?!–and more narratively open-minded than the ripped-from-the-headlines storylines in the other historical and modern Call of Duty games.

With Black Ops Cold War, the game’s story plays with history and covers real historical events, but with a healthy amount of conspiracy theories and deniable operations baked in.

With that in mind, we connected with former Australian Security Intelligence Organisation operative David Callan (who has since become a comedian, but more on that later), who told us about his experience as a counterintelligence officer. Callan worked for the ASIO in the ’80s and ’90s, which was a stormy time for international politics and clandestine operations. Callan shared stories and insight from his time in the service, and he also discussed what he thinks Black Ops Cold War, which is set in early 1980s, gets right about its depiction of the era.

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Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War marked a return to the incredibly popular Zombies mode after it wasn’t included in Modern Warfare. The mode, which is a big part of the Treyarch-developed Call of Duty games, is the reason many players purchase every edition of the yearly franchise.

The new Zombies mode only has one map, though. Treyarch has said that more maps and other additions to the mode are coming, but players already want more. If it’s just more content they want, they’ll find a wealth of options–and a very active community–in the five-year-old Call of Duty: Black Ops 3, which now features hundreds of player-made maps, skins, and other content.

Treyarch offers official modding tools to Black Ops 3 via the Steam Workshop, so players can create their ideal fight-til-you-die experience. Maps and other new additions include everything from My Little Pony skins to neon-lined diner levels. There are even recreations of movie locations like Shaun of the Dead’s Winchester bar and levels from other games like the Skeld in Among Us.

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Most of us are still stuck indoors for this long winter, and Sega is putting together some amusing videos in the style of a college lecture that teach you the history behind the former console giant. In the first talk, Sega producer Hiroyuki Miyazaki showed a prototype for the handheld Sega Nomad for the first time publicly.

As Miyazaki reveals in his lengthy lesson, Sega referred to many of its hardware projects by planet codenames, a trend that was first established by the release of the Sega Saturn in 1994. When Sega was working on the Nomad–which is a portable version of the Sega Genesis/Mega Drive that you could take on the go–it was called the Sega Venus, and its prototype looked a bit different than the final product. This video series is promoting the Sega Test, an event that celebrates the 60th anniversary of Sega, which will challenge fans on their knowledge of the long-running gaming company.

The Sega Nomad was arguably one of the best portable systems of its day thanks to the fantasy library of games on the Genesis, though it did have one fatal flaw: It required six AA batteries to play, and the console would eat them up in two to three hours. That’s a lot of juice for not a lot of game. (The Nomad did have a rechargeable battery pack that you could purchase, and some intrepid fans have even modded their Nomads to install more modern battery cells.)

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Halo’s community director has responded to a new rumor about Halo Infinite, and he’s shut it down. Recently, a rumor appeared that claimed one part of Microsoft’s long-term vision for Halo Infinite would be to add a battle royale mode in 2021.

Brian Jarrard, the community director at 343 Industries, responded to this scuttlebutt with a tweet. “Nothing gets a post-holiday Monday going like fresh unfounded Halo Infinite rumors,” he said.

Jarrard doesn’t mention battle royale by name, but it’s clear that his tweet is in response to the latest conjecture about the long-in-development game. In a follow-up tweet, Jarrard said he understands that fans are eager for more information about Halo Infinite. To that end, 343 is planning to release a “year-end update” that will have some new details.

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The Xbox Series X / Series S finally launched earlier this month to much fanfare, and Microsoft is already rolling out a major update for both these new consoles and the Xbox One. The November Xbox system update will bring some features that fans have requested, including more backgrounds, an auto HDR indicator, and the ability to pre-load games from Xbox Game Pass. The update is already available for some Xbox Series X owners, and it clocks in at 701 MB.

These dynamic backgrounds allow you to personalize your home screen with different colors or animations. The update will bring six new options, including several that are based on previous generations of Xbox consoles for that nostalgic rush. More backgrounds will be added in the future. The update also adds a new tag that lets users know when a game is using the console’s Auto HDR feature. Auto HDR uses a specially-tuned algorithm that attempts to add HDR to older games that don’t already have it. It’s displayed in the upper right of the screen when you bring up the Guide menu, and not every game can harness it.

The system update introduces an “Optimized for Series X/S” badge to games that have been updated to take advantage of the platform’s additional resources. Other minor additions include a Game Activity tab that tracks achievements–replacing the old Achievements tab–the ability to add family member accounts during setup, and the ability to pre-load games that are coming to Xbox Game Pass. Not all games are available for pre-install, but those that aren’t can be queued to install first thing on day one using the Xbox Game Pass mobile app.

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Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla players have found a way to skirt the system in Ubisoft’s latest open-world adventure. Using a script editor, they’ve managed to add any cosmetic item they want to their inventory, including those you’d normally have to pay real-world money for. They’ve even managed to unlock as-of-yet unreleased premium items.

A user detailed how to pull the digital heist off over on Nexus Mods, as originally reported by Eurogamer. The method has players use memory scanning software to access cosmetics like the Berserker, Valkyrie, Draugr, and Huldufolk packs on PC.

Premium packs are normally purchased with an in-game currency called Helix Credits. Players will need to spend at least $20 to get enough credit to unlock one of Valhalla’s premium cosmetic packs. Some players have used this unofficial method to get around that cost.

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Black Friday had one of the best gaming keyboard deals we’ve seen in quite a while, with an $85 discount on Razer’s BlackWidow Elite. And while that has since expired, Cyber Monday is bringing some more great keyboard deals. One of the best Cyber Monday deals features the Corsair K70 RGB Mk. 2 gaming keyboard for $100, down from its regular price of $160. This deal is only available today, November 30. If you want a great gaming keyboard, the Corsair K70 is a great choice, but supplies likely won’t last long, so you’ll want to act quickly.

Corsair K70 RGB Mk. 2 gaming keyboard

$100 (was $160)

The Corsair K70 RGB Mk. 2 gaming keyboard comes with light and tactile Cherry MX Brown switches, textured keycaps for FPS and MOBA players, and dedicated media controls. It also boasts three profiles that you can store customizations on–including for macros and lighting–through Corsair’s iCUE software.

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Some of the K70’s other features include a Windows key lock mode to prevent you from tabbing out of games accidentally, a detachable soft-touch pad that helps with wrist support, and a USB passthrough port that you can plug USB 2.0 devices into, such as gaming headsets, mice, and more.

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If you’re looking to watch the Arizona Cardinals face off against the San Francisco 49ers on December 26, you are going to need access to Amazon Prime or Twitch. Though the early and late games that day–the Tampa Bay Buccaneers vs the Detroit Lions and the Miami Dolphins vs the Las Vegas Raiders, respectively–will still be broadcasted on TV the usual way, that middle game is Amazon and Twitch only. It’s a bit confusing though, since viewers should also be able to catch the game via other NFL, Yahoo Sports, 49ers, and Cardinals platforms.

Though it sounds a bit funky, this definitely is not the first time the NFL has played around with giving different platforms streaming and broadcasting rights. Previous games have streamed on Twitter and Yahoo, sometimes exclusively. Additionally, the NFL previously announced a Wild Card playoff game in January will give streaming rights to NBCUniversal’s streaming platform Peacock, with NBCU’s Telemundo gaining control of the broadcasting rights.

Amazon has already been a streaming partner of the NFL for Thursday Night Football, with a multi-year contract allowing it to stream games concurrently with Fox’s linear television broadcasts. According to The Deadline, initial data has shown that these football streams have not done huge numbers, but since many viewers are cutting the cord and moving towards streaming this seems to be a future-proofing move on the NFL’s part.

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