Amazon’s Lord of the Rings TV series has resumed filming in New Zealand, and now one of the stars has spoken about how enormous of an undertaking the production is.
Morfydd Clark, who is rumored to be portraying a young Galadriel, told NME that she has been blown away by the sheer scale of the production. Not only that, but the production team is reportedly going very deep on the details.
“The amount of [people working] on this show is continually mind-blowing. One guy’s job consists just of seeing how dust reacts to footsteps and breath!” Clark said. “That would never have even crossed my mind before. Other than something like Marvel, I don’t think things could get much bigger than this.”
With that date rapidly approaching, Activision has now shared all of the key details for the alpha, covering how to get in, what maps and modes are available, and more. We’re rounding up all the key details here in this post, beginning with the dates.
Black Ops Cold War Alpha Dates And Pre-Loading
The alpha kicks off on September 18 at 10 AM PT, and it’s scheduled to end at the same time on September 20. As mentioned, this alpha is free on PS4, and a PS Plus subscription is not required, except in Germany.
A lot of changes are coming with the Beyond Light expansion to Destiny 2 that’ll make your Guardian look cooler. Bungie already outlined how transmogrification will allow you to change the look of any piece of armor when its next expansion drops. Now it turns out that you’ll soon be able to customize your Ghost sidekick to make it more useful as you play, and give you a chance to show off a little more.
In its This Week at Bungie blog post, the developer outlined alterations it’s making to Ghost shells, the customizable looks you can add to your robotic Ghost pal. Right now, Ghost shells are largely cosmetic, and while you can earn some through different gameplay activities, most are purchased through the premium currency Eververse store. Shells offer a bunch of different looks for your Ghost and often have themes–there are some for the Festival of the Lost Halloween event, for instance, while others align with the story underpinnings of certain seasons, or just have cool animations and styles.
Each Ghost shell currently comes with a set of random perks that make using certain shells useful in specific situations. A Ghost shell might give you boosts to Glimmer or resource gains on a specific planet, make your Sparrow load faster, or give you extra experience boosts. Since perks are random, you’ll often find yourself switching Ghosts for different activities, which might saddle you with a shell you don’t particularly like to get the perks you need. Bungie is changing that in Beyond Light so that Ghost shells become more customizable, provided you’re willing to put in a little work.
Rocket League goes free-to-play on September 23. Along with this transition, developer Psyonix has confirmed that Season 1 will begin that same day. Season 1 introduces a new Rocket Pass, competitive season reset, and several in-game changes.
The new Rocket Pass (Rocket League’s version of a battle pass) is the main attraction of Season 1, introducing over 70 tiers of items to unlock, most of which are inspired by Rocket League’s five-year history. Like previous Rocket Passes, the premium track of the Season 1 Rocket Pass begins with a new battle car. Buy the pass and you’ll immediately unlock the Harbinger, which can be seen in the trailer embedded below.
The competitive season reset officially begins a little bit after 3 PM PT / 6 PM ET on September 22, so you can actually get a bit of a head start on working your way up through the ranks if you buy Rocket League or already own it ahead of the game going free-to-play.
Fortnite, including both the battle royale and the Save the World modes, is no longer receiving updates on Mac computers. Epic Games said that Apple isn’t letting it push updates to the platform.
“Apple is preventing Epic from signing games and patches for distribution on Mac, which ends our ability to develop and offer Fortnite: Save the World for the platform,” Epic Games said in a post on their official site. “Specifically, our upcoming v14.20 release will cause bugs for players on v13.40, resulting in a very poor experience. Since we are no longer able to sign updates and release fixes for these issues, beginning September 23, 2020, Fortnite: Save the World will no longer be playable on macOS.”
Fortnite’s battle royale mode will still be playable on Mac devices, but Epic said that it will “no longer [receive] version updates due to Apple’s actions.” Mac players will be stuck playing in the v13.40 Fortnite build.
Dauntless has received a major update, adding new content to the free-to-play action game on Switch, PS4, Xbox One, and PC. The new update is called Untamed Wilds, and it adds several new challenges and items to the game.
The major addition is the Terra Escalation, which will be added to the Hunt screen. This takes players to the Arbourhome island chain and takss them with battling their way to–and then defeating–the Agarus Behemoth. You’ll want a good squad to take this beast out, because it’s good at isolating and poisoning Slayers.
The first time I beat the final boss in Hades, I felt an enormous sense of relief. I’d been fighting to see this ending for hours (months, technically, if you count my time in early access), and in roguelikes, it feels better than usual to see an ending. But while I was definitely a little too proud of putting together a set of abilities and perks that shredded the boss after they wrecked me just a few tries ago, that wasn’t why I felt tears welling up. I’d gotten so caught up in the story of my character, Zagreus, and the heroes, villains, and gods that had helped him here that I was elated to have finally gotten him to the end of his journey. What sets Hades apart isn’t just that it’s a great roguelike with the kind of repeatable depth that makes it engrossing to play for hours, but also how it uses its structure to tell an ongoing story about family, secrets, and resolution.
That Hades’ narrative is so entwined with its combat is nothing new for the developers at Supergiant Games, who’ve established themselves as masters of putting your actions in sync with the stories they tell. In a roguelike such as Hades, it means playing as Zagreus, a god of rebirth. Tired of living under his father Hades’ thumb and seeking answers about where he comes from, he sets out to escape to the world of the living, battling various undead monsters, living creatures, and mythological figures on his way out.
Hades captured on Nintendo Switch
Your godliness justifies the endless runs through the depths of the underworld, since dying and coming back to life is par for the course in Greek myth. One of the best parts of Hades, in fact, is returning to the House of Hades time and again after you die. It’s not just a pit stop on the way to the next run–it’s the centerpiece Hades hinges on. There, figures such as Achilles, Hypnos, and Nyx console you after your deaths, praise you for making progress, and confide in you about one another. You chat with them, undertake side quests, and exchange gifts to deepen your relationships. Eventually, they become vital allies on your quest, even if they’re not in the thick of combat with you.
Hyper Scape, the new battle royale game from Ubisoft, is offering a double XP promotion this weekend. Now through Sunday September 20, players on all platforms will be doubly rewarded with experience, so it’s a good time to check out the game or return to it.
Ubisoft also confirmed that the newly revealed Turbo Mode, which speeds up matches by making all loot max level and increasing the speed of health regeneration, will be available throughout the double XP weekend and beyond. The limited-time mode will be available until Tuesday, September 22.
Developer Ubisoft Montreal has been steadily supporting the PS4, Xbox One, and PC game with extra content and new events, and you can check out the mid-season roadmap here to find out what will be available through the start of October.
