The country, one of the hardest hit in the Middle East, has also seen a spike in Covid-19 infections.
Pham Doan Trang: Vietnam arrests leading pro-democracy blogger
Pham Doan Trang is accused of anti-state activities, which could see her jailed for years.
CoD: Black Ops Cold War Adds Ping System, FOV Slider On All Platforms
Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War is adding a useful ping system to all of its multiplayer modes. Warzone already had the ping system, but this will be the first time it has appeared in regular Call of Duty multiplayer.
“For the first time in Black Ops Multiplayer, we’re adding a locational Ping system as a feature across all MP modes, allowing you to ping objectives, loot, locations, and enemies for your teammates during a match.” Treyarch wrote on its official site. “From Team Deathmatch to Fireteam: Dirty Bomb, you can use the Ping system to communicate non-verbally with your teammates for increased coordination.”
Ping systems have become increasingly popular after Respawn brought it to Apex Legends. It lets players communicate with button presses instead of voice chat. Call of Duty: Warzone and Fortnite added it after Respawn received praise for the feature.
John Wick Hex Takes Aim At Nintendo Switch And Xbox One In December
After debuting on PC via the Epic Games Store in October 2019 and then making its way onto PlayStation 4 back in May, action strategy game John Wick Hex is coming to PC via Steam, Nintendo Switch, and Xbox One on December 4.
Directed by Mike Bithell, John Wick Hex blends deep strategy with the trademark action of the film trilogy that stars Keanu Reeves as the deadly assassin and noted dog lover.
An ESRB listing for the Xbox One and Nintendo Switch versions of the game was first spotted in April, although Bithell and the game’s publisher, Good Shepherd Entertainment, didn’t confirm at the time that it was headed to other consoles.
The Biggest Anti-Prime Day Sales We Know About So Far
Though delayed several months by the coronavirus pandemic, Amazon Prime Day 2020 is set to run a full 48 hours again this year starting next week on Tuesday, October 13. As usual, Amazon’s biggest competitors have started to announce major sales of their own to compete with Amazon’s yearly blowout sale for Prime members, and with the holiday shopping season coming up fast, it’ll be a great opportunity to save some serious cash on games, tech, and more.
As of right now, we’ve only learned about a few of the Prime Day-adjacent sales happening next week, and we’ve detailed what we know about them below. We expect to add more stores to this list in the coming days, as we also saw competing sales from Best Buy, Ebay, GameStop, and Fanatical last year. In the meantime, catch up on the latest Amazon Prime Day 2020 details, including early deals available now, tips for getting the best discounts, and more.
Walmart Big Save Event
October 11 through October 15
Walmart is getting the jump on Amazon by launching its big sale a couple of days before Prime Day. Walmart’s “Big Save” event kicks off this coming Sunday, October 11 at 4 PM PT / 7 PM ET and runs through Thursday, October 15, ending a day after Prime Day. The Walmart sale will bring steep discounts across all of its categories, including games and electronics. Though we don’t know most of what will be on sale, Walmart did tease a few upcoming discounts, including Super Mario Party for $40, the JVC 55-inch 4K Roku Smart TV for $248, and the Roku Ultra LT streaming device for $69. Walmart promised “Black Friday-like savings” during the Big Save event, so it’ll be worth checking out what games, accessories, and more are on sale.
Target Deal Days
October 13 and 14
Target’s annual Deal Days sale overlaps directly with Amazon Prime Day on October 13 and 14, and it marks the beginning of Target’s holiday shopping season, the retailer said in a press release. The sale will feature online discounts on hundreds of thousands of items, more than double the number of deals last year. The vast majority of deals will be available with contactless Drive Up or Order Pickup if you want to pick up your order that day, and many of them will be eligible for same-day delivery as well–no membership required.
Early deals are starting to go live at Target, just as they have at Amazon, though the pickings are currently slim. The best deals, according to Target, will only be available to Target Circle members, the retailer’s free loyalty program, so you may want to sign up for that before Target Deal Days starts.
Newegg Fantastech Sale
October 13
Newegg’s Fantastech sale is coming back this year to compete with Amazon Prime Day and offer steep discounts on tech and electronics. A countdown is live on Newegg’s website for the sale, which begins October 13 at midnight PT / 3 AM ET. The sale page doesn’t say how long the sale will last, but it’ll likely run through October 14 to span a full 48 hours as it has in the past. As with other sales on this list, no membership is required to shop the Fantastech sale. If you’re a PC gamer, you’ll definitely want to check this one out, as Newegg tends to offer some of the best deals on graphics cards, SSDs, gaming desks, ergonomic chairs, and more.
Rainbow Six Siege Tachanka Overhaul Detailed
One of Rainbow Six Siege‘s most infamous operators is getting a major revamp, and Ubisoft has now detailed what and when to expect the rework. Tachanka has been a regular subject of memes, but he has a few new tools to make sure he’s no longer the butt of jokes among the other operators.
Tachanka’s rework comes in two key areas: a new primary weapon, and a new primary gadget. His turret is no longer locked down to the floor, but he still packs a lot of power with the DP27 LMG. Now he’ll carry it around with him, giving him more mobility. He’s still slow, but his portable LMG can be used to cut through soft walls easily and deal heavy damage.
He also gets a second new tool, the Shumikha launcher. This grenade launcher can be used to launch fire grenades which will suppress entry points with a temporary fire effect. One round can shut down a single door, and you can quickly pivot to others for multiple entry points. Plus the grenades bounce, so you don’t necessarily need a line-of-sight to an entry point or enemy.
Apex Legends’ Latest Patch Removed Wraith’s Naruto Run, And Fans Aren’t Happy
Apex Legends’ latest update made many changes to the game, including adjusting the cooldown on Pathfinder’s tactical ability and adding cross-play. However, one change in particular has resulted in a lot of controversy: Respawn’s decision to adjust Wraith’s iconic Naruto run to a more standard run animation.
“This patch, we’re introducing a new set of sprint animations for Wraith,” the patch notes read in part. “These are much more upright and expose a larger area of her body to gunfire. Now we know her old sprint was iconic and we hate to see it go as well, but we believe this is the best way by far of bringing her in line without having to hit her abilities again. Depending on what we see after these animations go live, we may even be able to put some power back into her abilities (no promises though).”
This shift was designed to bring Wraith’s pick-rate down to acceptable levels without further nerfing her Legend abilities. However, some fans are quite upset about the change. One Redditor suggests just making Wraith taller rather than adjusting the animation. A particularly popular post sees Wraith Naruto-running around Apex’s shooting range in third-person as a tribute. Another compares the changed animation to a power-walking competitor.
New Lord Of The Rings And The Hobbit 4K Gift Set Contains Extended And Theatrical Trilogy
October is barely underway, but the holiday season is well within view: Amazon has nonchalantly posted–and later removed–a new listing for a Lord of the Rings gift set of the full Peter Jackson trilogy in 4K UHD and digital available for $140. The set is currently up for pre-order but does not yet have a release date. There was also a standard 4K set available for $90. Both sets contain both the extended and theatrical cuts of The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, and The Return of the King.
The links are gone now, but they may reappear on Amazon Prime Day, which takes place on October 13. Sean Astin, who played Samwise Gamgee in LOTR announced the release of the three films along with all The Hobbit movies in a recent video.
As is usually the case with Amazon pre-orders, if you’re at all interested it would be wise to pre-order sooner rather than later as pre-orders automatically get locked into whatever the lowest price before release might wind up as. Either set up on Amazon currently would be ideal for fans who have been holding out for the ultimate version. However, you’ll more than likely have to wait until next week for them to go live again, but we’ll keep you updated.
CoD: Black Ops Cold War PC Requirements Revealed Ahead Of Beta
Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War is gearing up for launch next month with two beta weekends across all of its launch platforms. If you’re planning on getting some multiplayer in on PC you’ll have to wait until next weekend, but in the meantime, you can check out Cold War’s PC requirements to make sure you’re prepared.
It’s unlikely that you’ll be hard-pressed by the requirements too, which list generations-old processors and graphics cards as recommended, and even older ones for the minimum requirements. Nvidia’s GTX 970 was one of the most popular GPUs years ago, while Intel’s Haswell CPUs are hardly new in the current Comet Lake age.
What you will need is a decent amount of hard drive space, which shouldn’t be surprising if you’ve been keeping up with recent Call of Duty releases. For the beta alone you’ll need 45GB of space to play, which might be a bit more than you expected. Still, it’s a way off from the 250GB that Call of Duty: Modern Warfare has ballooned to on PC.
2020: The Year That Changed Movies, And What Happens Next
The recent announcement that another two of this year’s big movies–Dune and No Time To Die–were moving to 2021 might not have been surprising, but it did feel like the final confirmation that 2020 was dead in terms of blockbuster entertainment. At the time of writing, Pixar’s Soul and DC’s Wonder Woman 1984 are still set for November and December releases, but there’s every chance that they will move into 2021 as well.
The impact of almost every major movie scheduled since March being delayed has been huge. With very few films left to show for many months, Cineworld, the world’s second-biggest theater chain and the owners of Regal Theaters in the US, has decided to temporarily shut all its US and UK sites. AMC, the world’s biggest chain, is staying open for now, but the titles it will be screening over the winter are a lot lower in profile than we’d expect in any normal year.
When the first few movies were delayed back in March, there was every expectation that we’d still see them in 2020. No Time To Die and A Quiet Place: Part II shifted from the spring to the fall; at that stage only F9: The Fast Saga was moved all the way into 2021, a decision which seemed dramatic at the time. And while a few other films also jumped back an entire year (Jungle Cruise, Halloween Kills), the predominant pattern initially was spring and early summer movies moving by a few months. Black Widow, Candyman, The New Mutants, Soul, and Wonder Woman 1984 were all delayed, but stayed on course for 2020.