Tag: cod

Fire Up The BBQ!

Redfall, the co-op first person shooter that has you fighting off legions of vampires, has teamed up with Smokey Q, an Australian business that specialises in all things BBQ seasoning, to bring the ‘Bite Back Spice Rub’, a unique blend of spices and seasonings to celebrate the game’s release.

The spice rub is supposed to capture the taste of slain vampires, with ingredients such as charcoal powder for added smoke, paprika, and a touch of heat from chipotle. It is gluten-free and vegan-friendly.

The founder of Smokey Q, Paul Lange, described the challenge of making vampire ash sound delicious as exciting, so if you have a very specific craving, it may be worth checking out. In addition, all net proceeds will be going towards Cure Cancer’s blood cancer research. Very appropriate!

Vampire Survivors!

In more vampire news, Vampire Survivors, a game that is heavily influenced by the choices you make, has an animated show on the way! The studio will be teaming up with Story Kitchen, who has members that have worked on John Wick, and the Sonic movies.

The studio has said “… the most important thing in Vampire Survivors has always been the story, so we are very excited for this and we hope you are too! It’s still early days for the show, but I can already say that we will be involved so that we can ensure it doesn’t have any vampires (probably)… This won’t affect game development in any way.”

FIFA’s Iffy Body Scans

Sydney Leroux, an olympic gold medalist, and a member of the United States women’s national soccer team, isn’t thrilled with her character’s appearance in the newest FIFA release.

She’s not alone, in that many other footballers are criticising their characters’ appearance in FIFA ‘23.

“Please tell me I did not do an entire body scan for that…” Leroux tweeted, before looking back at FIFA ‘16 where her appearance was significantly more accurate. “They had the headband, the braid, the neck tattoo, the overly plucked brows… deflate my boobs a bit and put a different jersey on. I’ll keep the brows at this point.”

Introducing to the Court of Duty…

Rumor has it that Kevin Durant, NBA champion and a former MVP, will be slam-dunking into the operators lineup for Warzone 2 and Modern Warfare. The official Call of Duty twitter posted a little clip showing an operator parachuting down, mid-dunk, with ‘Easy Money Sniper’ spray painted on the side of a building in the image, notable for being Kevin Durant’s Instagram handle.

Nothing is confirmed yet, but internet sleuths have dissected the few details and the profile of the operator, and it would hardly be the first time an NBA crossover happened.

And now for some upcoming games!

May 4

• Jected – Rivals (PC)
• Mia and the Dragon Princess (PC, PS5, XSX, PS4, XBO, Switch)
• Propagation: Paradise Hotel (PC VR, Quest)
• Space Gladiators (PS4, XBO, Switch)

May 5

• Duru – About Mole Rats and Depression (PC)
• Hometopia (PC)
• These Doomed Isles: The First God (PC)
• Another Fisherman’s Tale (PC VR, PSVR 2, Quest 2)
• TT Isle of Man – Ride on the Edge 3 (PC, PS5, XSX, PS4, XBO, Switch)

May 12

• The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (Switch)

That’s it this week in gaming news!

The switch finally adds folders

After 5 years, Nintendo has released a software update that allows users to create folders and sort their software into groups. It doesn’t sound like much, but for Nintendo fans, Christmas has come early. Unfortunately, it’s not perfect. It doesn’t replace the home screen, which still just shows your last 10 opened games. Instead, it gives you the ability to go into your groups from the home screen using another button. Not ideal for those who wanted a cleaner look when they opened up their console. Still, it’s something!

Sony purchases Haven Studios

Sony made an interesting purchase on March 21st, acquiring Haven Studios before their debut title has even been announced! Haven was founded by ex Ubisoft/EA/Google lead Jade Raymond last year in partnership with Sony. They also announced that they were working on a new multiplayer IP for the PlayStation. Clearly Sony is happy with their progress so far! It will be interesting to see what this new AAA game is. Fingers crossed the extra resources Haven gets from Sony help them develop something amazing!

A new Witcher game on the horizon

CD Projekt has confirmed that a new Witcher game is in the works! In partnership with Epic, they’ll be making use of Unreal Engine 5 instead of their own REDengine, which was used for the development of Cyberpunk 2077. They have also assured fans that despite their plans for a long-term partnership with Epic, the new game is not planned to be an Epic Games Store exclusive. Fan theories are already running wild, is the hinted medallion a Cat? A Lynx? Who will we be playing?

Snoop Dogg officially in COD

Soon enough, you’ll be able to play Call of Duty Warzone, Vanguard, and Mobile as none other than Snoop Dogg himself! It was announced that on April 19th you’ll be able to purchase the Snoop Dogg Operator Bundle, with a full operator progression track for Snoop. He’ll arrive earlier on mobile, arriving April 1st through the lucky draw system. The full details for what’s included in the bundle haven’t been released, but it’s an exciting time nonetheless.

Upcoming Gaming Releases

March 24th

• The Ascent (PS4, PS5)
• A Memoir Blue (PC, PS5, XSX, PS4, XBO, Switch)
• Expedition Zero (PC)

March 25th

• Kirby and the Forgotten Land (Switch)
• Ghostwire: Tokyo (PC, PS5)
• Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands (PC, PS5, XSX, PS4, XBO)

March 29th

• Crusader Kings 3 (PS5, XSX)
• In Nightmare (PS4)
• WRC 10 (Switch)

March 31st

• Coromon (PC, Switch)
• FixFox (PC)
• Pirates of Gravitae (PC)
• Weird West (PC, PS4, XBO)

Record VR Sales Across The Holidays

The 2021 holiday season was a big one in terms of virtual reality systems and games, with the Oculus app topping the Apple App Store on Christmas, beating TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram.

Meta doesn’t release sales numbers for Quest headsets, so we can only piece together how popular it is through unofficial data points. So the Oculus app being at the top indicates a strong uptick in new headset usage. But that’s not all, Rec Room, a free social virtual reality experience has reported record numbers over the holidays, with over 1 million VR players logging in over a 60 hour period.

Apps such as Hand Physics Lab, Golf+, Eleven Table Tennis, and Loco Dojo Unleashed, have also reported a similar spike in new users.

PS5 Explains Their New VR2 System

PlayStation have announced the names for their new virtual reality system for the PlayStation 5 console. PlayStation VR2, and the new virtual reality controller, PlayStation V2 Sense controller.

PlayStation VR2 promises to take virtual reality gaming to a new level of presence and escapism, with new hardware features, greater depth of immersion, and new worlds being built. PS5 VR2 offers the following:

4K HDR 110-degree field of view, combined with an OLED display, means a display resolution of 2000×2040 per eye and smoother frame rates.

Inside-out tracking, with the player and their controller being tracked through cameras embedded in the VR headset, eliminating the need for an external camera.

Brand new sensory features, combining eye tracking, headset feedback, 3D audio, and the VR2 Sense controller to pull you deeper than ever into virtual reality. The most significant hardware feature being the motor in the VR headset that can vibrate to offer tactile feedback.

VR2 will detect the motion of your eyes, allowing the player to interact more intuitively with their environment.

PlayStation has announced that Horizon Call of the Mountain will be coming to the PlayStation VR2, making it one of the biggest franchises for the potential lineup available for the VR2.

Activision Sues Call of Duty Cheat Maker

Activision has asked a court to take action against EngineOwning, a cheat maker selling cheats to Call of Duty: Warzone players. This latest case is another battle in Activision’s war against hackers in their online battle royale, accusing EngineOwning for causing “irreparable damage to its goodwill and reputation”.

Activision alleges that the cheat maker has hurt sales through the distribution of aimbots, triggerbots, and other cheats. Other than allegedly ruining the online experience for thousands of players, Activision says that EngineOwning has infringed on their copyright, and violated its terms of service, and claims that “tens of thousands’ of players have been caught using EngineOwning’s tools over the past year.

And now for some upcoming game releases!

January 10:

• Super Sami Roll (XSX)

January 12:

• PUBG: Battlegrounds Free to Play (PC, PS4, XBO, Stadia)

January 13:

• The Anacrusis (PC, XSX, XBO)
• Mushroom Wars 2 (PS5, XSX, PS4, XBO)