Activision’s Call of Duty-branded military veterans charity, the Call of Duty Endowment, has announced the details for this year’s C.O.D.E. Bowl event, which will be expanded from last year.
Held on December 11 and sponsored by USAA, the C.O.D.E. Bowl sees a big change this year in that all five branches of the US military will participate through their own eSports squads, while international military organizations will take part as well.
Both of these RC vehicles will be sent to the moon in October 2021 aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. SpaceX has enlisted Frank Stephenson, who is best known for his design work at Ferrari, BMW, McLaren, and more, to design the cars, as reported by Business Insider.
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“This is a project helping to develop the innovators of the future, allowing them to dream big and realize that nothing is impossible,” Stephenson said in a Moon Mark press release. “Space is a fascinating place, remaining untapped for budding designers and I’m very much looking forward to sharing some of my knowledge to those involved in this innovative project.”
Stephenson will design the cars with two teams of high school students. After eight weeks of qualifying challenges by high-schoolers from around the world, six teams of five members will compete to become the final two that race on the Moon, according to Moon Mark, which is a multimedia education company helping to make this race happen. It’s those two teams that will work with Stephenson.
“Their adventures will be captured, produced and globally distributed by Moon Mark,” the company said in a November 17 press release. “The final two teams will complete their racer designs in Houston, Texas, before being loaded onto the lander that will transport them to the Kennedy Space Center, and then to the moon.”
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The two vehicles that the teams and Stephenson have yet to design and build will be carried in a Nova-C lunar lander created by Intuitive Machines aboard the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. Intuitive Machines is working with Moon Mark and Lunar Outpost, which is a space technology firm, to bring this off-world idea to life.
“Moon Mark’s mission of getting young people involved in aerospace and working toward utilizing space for the betterment of humanity is something that resonates with us,” Lunar Outpost CEO, Justin Cyrus, said. “We look forward to enabling racers on the Moon and being part of the journey to bring space to the world.”
For more off-world science, read about how the Moon is rusting and then check out possible signs of life on Venus that date back to the 1970s. After that, why not take a look at IGN’s Top 100 sci-fi movies.
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Wesley LeBlanc is a freelance news writer and guide maker for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @LeBlancWes.
Watching movies in 2020 is, simply put, weird. Here in the US, the continued spread of the COVID-19 pandemic means that theaters have, with few exceptions, stayed empty. Theater chains like AMC are hurting. That means we’re doing most of our watching at home on services like Google Play. Despite the shift, Google’s best-seller list is a mix of this year and last year’s releases similar to last year’s list.
Along with the few movies that released in 2020, up of some of our favorites from 2019, including films like Knives Out, Parasite, and 1917. Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker is also on there.
Here’s the top 15:
The PlayStation 5 has finally arrived, ushering in the next generation of gaming from Sony. The console is selling very well, and stock has sold through at most retailers. As such, this video we’re about to share might be difficult to watch for those who remain in the hunt for a next-gen system.
Someone has acquired a PS5 only to place it into one of those machines that destroys everything. It is a terrifying video, with the cracking and crunching sounds standing out as particularly painful to hear as the console gets literally shred to pieces. Have a look:
So who’s trying to get the shredded parts and build a PS5? 🤦♂️(Via u/cheeseinmya**) pic.twitter.com/8ie9qlSsVf
— SLAM Gaming (@SLAMftw) December 2, 2020
Sony has promised that more PS5 units will be available for purchase later this year, so if you’ve been shut out thus far, there is still hope. You can follow GameSpot’s PS5 ordering page to stay up to date on how to get a console for yourself when they become available.
As 2020 comes to an end, stores and outlets are starting to release their game of the year lists. Both Google Play and the Apple App Store have weighed in and announced the game of the year on their platforms, and the same game has taken top honors for both storefronts–Genshin Impact.
Google Play has given the game top honors, citing the game’s size and enjoyable combat as factors “Genshin Impact blew us away with its sheer scale and ambition,” the description reads. “Combat is fast and fluid, with each fight a spectacle to behold. Quite simply, this is the best game we’ve played this year.”
Apple did not delve into their reasoning, but also selected the game as the year’s best. Several other games were honored in their app awards, too. Legends of Runeterra was declared the year’s best iPad game, Disco Elysium took the Mac award, Dandara Trials of Fear claimed the Apple TV top spot, and Sneaky Sasquatch was declared the best game of 2020 on the Apple Arcade service.
Genshin Impact, which recently added Zhongli as a playable character, has certainly made a strong impact this year, with a visual look reminiscent of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and deep gameplay complemented by its free-to-play mechanics. The game will add the Dragonspire region later this month.