Month: January 2021

Over the years, Grinding Gear Games’ Path of Exile has steadily improved its core hack-and-slash gameplay as it incorporates significant new features that spice up the flow of the game. While the developers are still working on its sequel, Path of Exile 2, the original game isn’t showing any signs of slowing down. As revealed during a livestream, the latest expansion, Echoes of the Atlas, will upgrade the action-RPG’s extensive endgame, and will launch on PC January 15, and for Xbox One and PS4 on January 20.

Just before Grinding Gear Games’ reveal stream, we had a chance to speak with managing director Chris Wilson about Echoes of the Atlas, how it will change the endgame and incorporate gameplay from previous expansions. Along with his thoughts on the state of the game, he also explained how work on Path of Exile 2 has improved the original for the better.

The Echoes of the Atlas expansion features a whole suite of changes coming to the game, which includes rebalances, new endgame content centered on the Atlas of Worlds world map, and new pinnacle boss fights that can open up pathways for more powerful loot. While previous expansions like Harvest, Delve, and Heist was available to all players, the core content from the Echoes of the Atlas expansion is catered more towards high-level players with decked out character builds. The expansion will also add in new passive skill trees that can be unlocked from completing high-end challenges from the new NPC known as the Maven, who appears after clearing bosses on the world map.

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Facepunch Studios is trying to capitalize on the recent wave of new players that has flocked to its popular game Rust by quickly providing updates and new features. The studio announced that it had enabled Twitch drops, increased its server capacity, added streamer-specific rewards, and more, all via its monthly update.

“We’re expecting to see huge player counts over the coming days, server capacity is something we’re keeping a close eye on and proactively bringing more servers online,” the studio wrote in a post on its official site. “We’re already boosting the official server count by 13 servers preemptively today.”

Rust cracked the 1 million viewer threshold in 2021 thanks to a number of big-time streamers picking the game up. Facepunch enabled Twitch drops for those who are watching streamers play the survival game. A couch, industrial door, and “hobo barrel” can be unlocked for watching eight hours of Rust content on Twitch.

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Although Netflix is no longer The Office’s streaming home in the U.S. (that honor now belongs to Peacock), people sure got their mileage out of the popular sitcom’s final days on Netflix according to the latest U.S. streaming numbers from Nielsen. The information, data, and measurement firm synonymous with TV ratings clocked the mockumentary sitcom about the fictional paper company in Scranton, Pennsylvania as a staggering 1.3 billion minutes for the period of December 7 to 13.

This is, it should be noted, also the seventh instance of The Office taking the top spot since the company started charting streaming last summer. And given the relative lag time on these numbers being reported, it would be reasonable to expect The Office (on Netflix, anyway) continued to carry weight through to the end of December.

The only spot on the top 10 not belonging to Netflix is the second place with another obvious entry: The Mandalorian, on Disney+, got nearly an even 1 billion minutes across the measured week in mid-December. With a massive amount of new Star Wars TV shows and movies making their way to Disney+ in the future, something Star Wars is likely to make repeat appearances on these Nielsen lists. Meanwhile, Schitt’s Creek, which took the top spot in a recent ratings list, is still holding strong with 621 million minutes–ranking at 10 overall.

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Following a riot at the US Capitol building, Twitch has followed the lead of other notable social media companies and disabled Trump’s account. A statement from Twitch cites the president’s “incendiary rhetoric” as the cause.

“In light of yesterday’s shocking attack on the Capitol, we have disabled President Trump’s Twitch channel,” the statement reads. “Given the current extraordinary circumstances and the President’s incendiary rhetoric, we believe this is a necessary step to protect our community and prevent Twitch from being used to incite further violence.”

Twitch is the latest in a string of tech companies that have taken action against President Trump’s accounts, following riots that he helped to instigate. Twitter temporarily disabled his account for 12 hours, while Facebook banned him from both the social media platform and Snapchat for at least the next two weeks, “until the peaceful transition of power is complete.” Shopify also removed branded Trump stores.

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Fortnite saw the return of X-4 Stormwing planes with the Operation Snowdown holiday event. Despite that now being over, some of these planes are still available on the map, but a change compared to their original launch has rendered them far less attractive

They no longer have infinite fuel. They, like cars and boats, have to get filled up at a gas station (or with a gas canister) after a short time behind the wheel. One boost in the plane eats nearly a quarter tank of gas.

“I wouldn’t even mind the fueling so much if it was actually possible to land the damn plane at a gas station,” said Redditor NickEggPlant in a thread about the planes. “The plane was actually fuel efficient instead of burning through a full tank in 30 seconds.”

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The newest Funko Pop is available now, and it’s aimed at fans of The Office. The new one is called the Pop Dundie Award and it features a customization plaque where you can write the name of a person or the accomplishment in permanent marker or dry erase marker.

The Office – Customizable Dundie Funko Pop

$13

This 5.5-inch Funko Pop is exclusive to Amazon, where you can buy it for $13.

See at Amazon

For those just catching up, a Dundie is the award that Michael Scott (Steve Carell) gives to his employees during Season 2, Episode 1, “The Dundies.” The awards ceremony took place at the local Chili’s, and it was a cringeworthy event. You can watch some highlights in the video below.

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Sony’s Bravia XR TVs in 2020 were marketed alongside the company’s PlayStation 5, despite a range of them failing to support many of the new HDMI 2.1 features that the console shipped with. In 2021, Sony has learnt from that mistake, announcing its latest range of Bravia TVs ahead of CES next week.

Irrespective of which of the new Bravia sets you purchase in 2021, every single model will support the full suite of HDMI 2.1 feature out of the box; no future firmware updates required. This goes for the new premium Z9J Master Series 8K down to the X90J 4K. This includes Variable Refresh Rate, eARC, 120Hz support at 4K, and more. Additionally, the entire range will support Dolby Vision HDR.

Unlike Samsung, Sony isn’t drastically changing its display technology in 2021. The range of new sets still consists of a mix between OLED and LCD panels, with the Master Series Z9J 8K, A90J 4K, and A80J 4K range making use of the former. LCD sets will benefit from more local dimming zones to reduce blooming, especially with HDR content, but Sony hasn’t specified exactly how many.

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