Month: August 2020

Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War beta code giveaway

Activision is going all out for the promotion of the upcoming Black Ops Cold War, the latest installment to the Call of Duty franchise. As part of their marketing campaign, the company has announced that it will be giving out beta codes to fans who tune in to the Call of Duty League Championship this weekend.

According to the announcement, there will be a variety of awards given out during the event, including in-game Calling Cards that feature the four championship teams starting on Saturday, August 29th. This will include the teams from Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, and London. On Sunday, August 30th, viewers will also have the opportunity to receive a free knife blueprint emblazoned with the CoD League emblem. Without a doubt, the biggest prize is reserved for Sunday when 10,000 beta codes for Black Ops Cold War will be given out. According to the announcement, the beta codes will be given out randomly, so viewership does not guarantee that one will receive a code.

In order to participate, viewers need to make sure they link their account so they are eligible for the in-game rewards. You can watch the competition at CallofDutyLeague.com.

How to register for a “limited quantity” of PS5 pre-orders direct from Sony

Sony announced earlier today that a select amount of customers will be able to pre-order a PlayStation 5 directly from their company website. The announcement states that a “limited quantity” of PS5 consoles will be available for pre-order and therefore they are only extending this offer to “existing consumers” who register on the PlayStation website using their PSN ID.

The pre-order program will be a first-come, first-served basis, and registrants will be informed via email if selected. According to a PS5 pre-order FAQ posted by Sony, the selection process is “based on previous interests and PlayStation activities.”

The announcement also includes a warning that an invitation to pre-order a PS5 directly from the company does not guarantee that individual a console. It is unclear if this means that only a limited amount of PS5’s will be available at launch, but definitely suggests this may be the case.

Those lucky to receive an invitation will be limited to ordering the following:

1 PS5 Console or 1 PS5 Digital Edition
2 DualSense wireless controllers
2 DualSense charging stations
2 Pulse 3D wireless headsets
2 Media remotes
2 HD Cameras

The announcement also suggests that the offer will be limited to the U.S., as it states that orders that contain a non-U.S. address will be canceled.

At present, there is still no release date or price for the PlayStation 5, however, it is expected to launch sometime this holiday season.

Activision to charge for next-gen upgrades for Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War

With less than a day to go until the full reveal of Activision’s next installment in the Call of Duty franchise, as typical, information has leaked ahead of time thanks in part to the latest update for Modern Warfare.

According to the leak, there will be three versions of Cold War available: Standard Edition, Cross-Gen Bundle, and Ultimate Edition. Most notably, the Standard Edition will not include free enhancements for the PS5 and Xbox Series X.

Those wishing to purchase the game for current-gen hardware will be forced to purchase next-gen upgrades when new hardware arrives or else out in advance for either the Cross-Gen Bundle or the Ultimate Edition. In other words, Activision does not plan to offer free next-gen upgrades for those who purchase current-gen versions of the game and will instead force users to pay extra to get both versions.

Ironically, there will be only one version of the game for PC, which will scale up and down endlessly in quality.

Apex Legends leak hints at ground emotes arriving soon

Season 6 of Apex Legends has introduced many new changes with a plethora of new features and content aside from the usual expected arrivals like weapons and legends. It seems that Respawn Entertainment is adamant this season to bringing new features to game in effort to expand its player base and be as competitive as possible against other titles in the increasingly crowded genre of free-to-play Battle Royale games.

This season alone has introduced a new crafting system along with holo-sprays among other in-game changes. However, it appears that additional changes may also be arriving soon, as a new leak suggests that ground emotes are also on the way. A feature that gained original popularity in Fortnite, it now seems that Apex Legends wants in on the fun too.

The evidence for the emotes was uncovered by data-miners @Shrugtal and @Biast12_ and it appears as though they will work the same way in Apex Legends as they do in Fortnite.

Microsoft joins court battle between Apple and Fortnite maker Epic

In the latest news regarding the legal battle between Apple and Fortnite maker Epic, Microsoft has decided to publicly announce its support for the video game developer. This announcement comes less than a week after the the tech giant decided to revoke Epic’s permissions to develop tools for iOS and Mac which  most notably would impact every game that uses Epic’s Unreal Engine game creation tools. Epic has since filed a motion to stop Apple from revoking their permissions and now Microsoft is backing them in the court battle, claiming that denial of access to Unreal Engine on Mac and iOS “will harm game creators and gamers.”

“Denying Epic access to Apple’s SDK (software development kit) and other development tools will prevent Epic from supporting Unreal Engine on iOS and macOS, and will place Unreal Engine and those game creators that have built, are building, and may build games on it at a substantial disadvantage,” said Kevin Gammill, general manager for gaming developer experiences at Microsoft, in a filing shared Sunday by Xbox boss Phil Spencer.

Halo Infinite dev shuts down rumor about splitting up campaign and multiplayer

A recent report claiming to offer some inside information regarding the development of Halo Infinite kicked the rumor mill into high gear. More specifically, there is a rumor stemming from this report that due to some of the issues going on behind the scenes, Microsoft was considering the idea of splitting up Halo Infinite’s campaign and multiplayer components and releasing them separately.

Halo’s community director, Brian Jarrard, took to Reddit to address this rumor:

“[The] unsubstantiated ‘report’ in late July was 100% false and no such plan or discussion had ever happened. Campaign was never going to ship without MP, period,” Jarrard said. “More recently, as it became clear that the project needed more time, part of that assessment did entail trying to see if perhaps just MP could launch as planned but was deemed a non-starter. So even if that would’ve been the outcome, it’s the opposite of what was reported in late July.”

Jarrard said he doesn’t normally comment on rumors, but since he was being “personally implicated” he decided to weigh in.

“People can, and will, make up whatever stories they want but I have to draw the line at being personally implicated as being dishonest with the community,” Jarrard said. “I may not always be allowed to say what I want to say (for example I’m probably not allowed to really get into a point by point response to this article), but I will always speak the truth.”

Halo Infinite is set to release on an unspecified date in 2021 for Xbox Series X, Xbox One, and PC with the multiplayer portion of the game being free-to-play.

Happy Gilmore’s Shooter McGavin stars in the new PGA Tour 2K21 trailer

With less than 24 hours to go until the release of PGA TOUR 2K21, the hype is at its peak and the latest trailer for the online multiplayer certainly keeps the momentum with a star-studded cast. The trailer includes four celebrities in the comfort of their own homes going at each other with some trash talk over a few holes in the new PGA Tour 2K21.

The four celebrities included in the commercial are Professional Golfer Justin Thomas, WWE Star The Miz, Rapper Schoolboy Q, and the most infamous golf villain in history, Shooter McGavin from the hit film Happy Gilmore — portrayed by actor Chris McDonald. Interestingly enough, the commercial seems to portray Shooter as he would have naturally aged since the original release date of the movie. Nonetheless, this short cameo gives fans enough to enjoy.

You can watch the teaser trailer for PGA Tour 2K21 below:

PGA Tour 2K21 releases tomorrow, August 21st, on Playstation 4, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, Google Stadia, and PC via Steam.

Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War confirmed

It’s official: Activision has now confirmed the next title in the series of Call of Duty games will be Black Ops: Cold War. The news comes via an official teaser video with a full reveal being promised for next week. The teaser video, which confirmed most rumors, uses the same “Know Your History” language as previous in-game teasers, and leaves viewers with the promise of a worldwide reveal coming August 26th within Verdansk, the current setting of the battle royale game mode Call of Duty: Warzone.

Post Malone’s gamertag and Warzone stats revealed

Austin Richard Post, known professionally as rapper Post Malone, has enjoyed much success recently in the music world. It turns out, however, that the rapper has another alias in the gaming world where he goes by the gamertag PostMaloneSucks on Xbox Live. Although he’s only played one game of Warzone at the time present, it seems that his success transcends music as he currently boasts a 2.0 kill/death ratio for the game.

Apex Legends new map leaked

Season 6 of EA and Respawn’s Apex Legends may have a big surprise for Xbox One, PS4, and PC players, as a new map has seemingly leaked online. Per usual, most of the content that comes to the free-to-play battle royale game is revealed ahead of schedule via datamining leaks. The latest of these leaks seems to reveal a brand new map known as “Tropic Island” will soon be coming to the game soon. While some believe this name is too generic, and suspect it to be a temporary placeholder for the real name that is yet revealed, only time will tell if this is indeed the newest map to be joining the game’s previous two maps, King’s Canyon and World’s Edge.