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Following on from leaked reveals of both Overwatch’s next set of limited edition lootboxes and an upcoming comic, it seems that someone has managed to leak the current holy grail of Overwatch – they’ve posted what seems to be part of an internal Blizzard communication containing a picture of new character Sombra.
For those not in the know, Sombra has been the subject of an ongoing ARG Blizzard’s been running over the last few months, teasing clues about her. The trail which involved a lot of skull motifs and code-breaking eventually led to the site at URL amomentincrime.com which featured a countdown timer in the form of a ‘download’ that seems set to end on October 18th. What she looks like and will do has been the subject of much speculation and if this leak is genuine some of those answers might very well now be revealed – although equally it’s going to cause more speculation but isn’t that half the fun of these things?
As well, seen along the top there is a little information about a new brawl, which will involve players having to “protect the castle doors from Zomnics and Dr. Junkenstein’s evil allies”. This probably means that the brawl will see a type of horde mode with robotic attackers and whatever Dr. Junkenstein (Junkrat as a mad scientist as we saw from the comic leak) can summon. There will also be three modes of difficulty with more points earned for harder levels.
Either way, this has been a good time to be an Overwatch fan with all this exciting news emerging from the Internet. Halloween should be good fun with all this new content coming this month!
I was one lucky fox, when I read that Sony have arranged a Playstation VR UK tour, that was coming to my neck of the woods. I quickly booked my slot at Meadow Hall Sheffield for Saturday 8th October at 9:30am. It meant I wouldn’t have to wait as long as the walk-ins, and guaranteed a thirty minute trial. I was early and the lovely chap at the desk asked me what I wanted to play.
When I stated Batman, I saw him inwardly cringe. “Oh yes Batman. EVERYONE wants to just play Batman. At the moment it is a forty minute wait for Batman.”
“Who doesn’t want to be Batman?” I smirked. I explained I didn’t mind waiting, as I was doing coverage for a gaming site.
The young chap (I am sorry, I forgot your name) was really helpful and offered for me to play Farpoint, whilst I waited on Batman. I was given a little card with the Farpoint artwork on, and once it was called, I was lead to the booth.
There was another lovely chap (again so sorry, forgot your name too), who asked if I had tried VR before. I explained I hadn’t, and that I was intrigued by it. He explained how the headset would feel. I asked if it would be uncomfortable with glasses, and he confirmed it wouldn’t be. Which was good, as I am short sighted and need my glasses for gaming. He then picked up the Playstation VR gun, with its glowing ball end (Heheheh). He explained that the gun was an exclusive to the tour, and no one from the public had tried it yet.
There was an analogue stick to control movement, the trigger to shoot, and another button under the glowing end for grenades. He showed me how to move the gun to change weapons, and how to collect new items etc. So the headset came on, and with a button on the back it moved the eyepiece in a comfortable position for me. Oh my fox ! It was comfortable! Even with my glasses on, I couldn’t even tell I was wearing it. It was very light weight and it didn’t move when I moved my head. He then put on the surround sound headphones on. Then the game began.
I was teleported to a desert looking world, devoid of life, but beautiful. I had to keep telling my legs not to move, as it was controlled by the analogue stick. Honestly this was a struggle. I felt I was really there, my brain kept trying to make my legs move. Then I heard the noises, the scuttling of many legs on rocks. I look around not seeing anything, then a screech sound in front of me. I gasped as I saw a huge spider and shot its face off. Foxy the spider slayer! Good job I am not scared of spiders. I carried on exploring this world, shooting more spiders. There were some annoying ones, who spat green acid from their arses. I had to shoot the balls before they hit me. Moving my head around and seeing the game, as I do the real world was an experience. The technology has come so far, since I tried it as a kid. I unlocked a shotgun, which was great fun. Heard the chap laughing at my comment about foxing kneecapping time, I must have come across as crazy. I got quite far before I was swarmed and died. The gun will become over heated and cool down, before you can use it again. I got trigger happy, my own fault. I then respawned and saw two NPC’s walking through a cave, talking about the discovery. Then the screen went to black and I walked up to a large cave opening. A HUGE spider came out, screeching its head off. At this point I must have actually stepped back, because I felt the chap’s hand on my back. That was the end of the session though, and those thirty minutes flew by. He took the headset off (my hair was a mess), and I saw that I nearly walked into the wall behind me. “Yeah you stepped back a lot there, I had to stop you.” *Insert blushing* “You did really well though, best I have seen so far.” Then I noticed the camera filming me….oh great.
At this point I was quite impressed, and couldn’t wait to try Batman. I went back to the chap at the desk and he gave me a card for Batman, and said it was only a ten minute wait. At this point it was getting really busy. I sat and watched the PS4 Pro gameplay of Horizon: Zero Dawn on a huge 4K TV, which looked very impressive. I was disappointed they didn’t have the PS4 Pro set up, so people could play on them whilst they waited for their VR turn. I feel this was a missed opportunity for Sony, personally.
Batman was called out, and off I skipped to try it out. Now I remember this chap’s name, as he was really lovely and enthusiastic. Matt explained that Batman VR was an introduction into VR itself. He was delighted by the fact that my headphones had bat ears on. (Yes, like Batman’s cowl, they had bat ears.)
He told me to look down, and handed me the move controllers (I still think they are from Ann Summers), and I was transported into the body of Bruce Wayne. Standing in front of a beautiful piano, Alfred walks up to me, tells me off for not sleeping in my bed, and hands me a key to the piano. I looked around and could see the gorgeous Wayne manor and even looked out into the gardens. Using the move controller I unlocked the piano, as though I was using a real key. Then the floor opens up and I am being lowered via lift into the bat cave. It stops and I am prompted to kit out my batsuit…
Now this feature was really impressive to me. I grabbed the cowl, and moving the move controller up to my face, slid the cowl onto my head. Then I was given a grappling hook, which I tested against a target. To unequip this I looked down at my waist, and could see the utility belt. Using the controller I slid the grappling hook into my belt. Looking down again, I could see my batarangs. Grabbing one and throwing it at the targets. I was starting to feel like Batfox! Then this is where the session ended. Unfortunately due to the high demand of the game, it was cut to fifteen minutes. It was out of the two, the most impressive one.
I would have liked to try some more games, as they were happy to let me. But alas mamma fox (who only wanted to go shopping) was getting impatient. I am convinced by VR now, and really happy I was lucky enough to experience it. Perhaps one day, when the price tag lowers I might buy one.
During the summer while the Olympics were on, Overwatch had some Summer Game limited edition loot boxes in-game. Now it seems that they’re about to do the same with Halloween, as well as releasing a comic to boot.
Caught by a user on Reddit while browsing the Xbox Store, the photograph taken by the user reveals to us a bit about the next big special event in the Overwatch calendar. The end date for it is fittingly on November 1st, at 4pm PT, and if it follows a similar time period of availability as the Summer Games we can expect the boxes to show up sometime next week – possibly on Tuesday when the next patch goes in for the game. The box description seems to be written as such:
“Trick out your collection by picking up Halloween loot boxes, available for a limited time. Every loot box contains up to four cosmetic items, including at least one halloween skin, highlight intro, emote, victory pose, player icon, voice line or credits that you can use to unlock other items. More than 100 halloween items are waiting to be unwrapped!
“If your Halloween loot box contain an item that is already in your collection, you will instead receive coins.”
There’s also another hint to the ongoing Sombra teasing Blizzard have been getting in, with her logo appearing on the purple candy in the background. Whether this means that she’s going to pop up in some form during the Halloween celebrations before becoming an actual character (or maybe even a surprise addition to the game as playable!) before BlizzCon is unknown and probably being speculated on as a type this out.
As for the comic, it was first leaked through digital distributor Comixology’s subscription alert system and will involve Junkrat as a mad scientist, Mercy as what appears to be a witch and a Headless Horseman Reaper. It’s fittingly been named Junkenstein. It’ll be releasing on October 12th.
FIFA 17 came with a lot of things, including a story mode. Unfortunately it seems that in the midst of making this year’s game “the most realistic ever” and adding “intuitive AI”, EA didn’t fully cross-check all the fake social media tags they used in game. One of them is an actual Twitter handle, and the owner’s not impressed.
Story mode involves you playing as a young up-and-coming footballer called Alex Hunter, and includes a social media feed that mimics Twitter’s own. The fake users provide some commentary on performance and use the type of language you’d expect to see on there. Just not quite as filled with colourful language and all spelt correctly. One of these “fake users” has the name of @CalWong – a real-life tag shared with a Cartoon Network director of all people.
Calvin “CalWong” Wong has unfortunately become a target for a Twitter mob because of this, receiving abuse in the style typical of online mobs. Mr. Wong himself has little interest in the game and is not pleased to have found himself suddenly being targeted because of this mix-up and is only receiving more abuse from users who can’t get why he’s not pleased to find himself in the game.
Fortunately EA have agreed to remove his tag from the game, patching him out in a coming update. This is a good example of why it’s a good idea to check these things first before you do it.
The news that Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Remastered was going to be coming with the next Call of Duty game – Infinite Warfare – in a double-game bundle was something that was greeted with a lot of enthusiasm by fans of the series. Remasters seem to be quite popular right now, I myself am really looking forward to getting to try the remastered Skyrim which I’ll be getting for free (Legendary Edition rocks).
However, someone’s noticed a little detail that applies if you decide to get Infinite Warfare on disc. Activision seem to have decided to go against the done thing of giving out a download code in the box and that means that if you want to play Modern Warfare Remastered, you’re going to need to have the disc for Infinite Warfare for your platform of choice inserted before you can run the game.
While this is likely a move to stop people from buying the double-game bundle for just Remastered, it hasn’t gone down so well with gamers. When the bundle was first announced, a lot of people plainly said that they would be getting the double-game bundle just for the Remastered game. The fact that you need the Infinite Warfare disc means that those people who didn’t want that game can no longer try to recoup some of the purchase price by selling on the newer game, and the Remastered version of the classic game is presently not going to be available in any other way. Activision obviously saw these comments about only wanting the Remastered game, and so have made the decision to stop those buying a disc copy selling it on.
What do you think of this move? For or against it? Let us know in the comments.