In the entertainment world, it doesn’t get much bigger than Star Wars. Likewise, in the gaming world, The Sims is another massive, enduring franchise. So, I can’t say I’m shocked to hear that those world are colliding with The Sims 4 Star Wars: Journey to Batuu. It’s a new game pack for The Sims 4 that arrives on September 8th.
Based on the trailer, familiar Star Wars characters, droids, spaceships and the universe’s distinct visuals have been lovingly translated to work in The Sims 4 — it actually looks pretty good. Naturally, your Star Wars Sim will have his own home you can decorate as you wish, and you can socialize throughout Batuu. You’ll find missions to advance a story set there that unlock various collectibles for your Sim, and eventually you can earn a lightsaber and droid of your own. As for other characters you might meet, this looks like it is set during the most recent film trilogy — Rey and Kylo Ren were in the trailer, and you have to figure there will be more familiar characters as well.
World of Warcraft fans will be able to play Shadowlands, the eighth expansion for Blizzard’s massively popular online role-playing game, starting on October 26th. Depending on where you live, you’ll get access to the expansion either on the 26th or t…
The wording suggests that multiple artists will be able to embody Ahri, Evelynn, Akali, and Kai/Sa, much like the British virtual band Gorillaz. That flexibility will allow K/DA to “embrace a more global pop sound,” Riot Games teased, that centers around the fictional champions “instead of the vocals of any one individual talent.” The company hasn’t said whether K/DA will perform on stage again. The band debuted with a live rendition of “POP/STARS” at the 2018 League of Legends World Championship that included both the real-life artists and, using AR, their digital counterparts.
K/DA isn’t the only virtual band that Riot has come up with. In 2014, the company created a fictional metal six-piece called Pentakill with League champions Karthus, Kayle, Mordekaiser, Olaf, Sona and Yorick. Then, last November, the company unveiled another virtual act called True Damage. The hip hop group’s debut single, “Giants,” has over 100 million views on YouTube and was performed using holo-projection at last year’s League of Legends World Championship. True Damage members include K/DA’s Akali — once again performed by Soyeon — Ekko, Senna, Qiyana and Yasuo.
Gamescom’s Opening Night Live event was chock-full of announcements, with BioWare fans getting a treat early on in the livestream: a look at the next Dragon Age game, though at this point we have neither a full title nor release window.
Despite being announced almost two years ago, the game is still at an early point in its production cycle, according to GM/VP Casey Hudson. Most of the stream featured staff talking about their work at BioWare, but we did get a look at some of the concept art like castles on cliffs and underwater fights. Features that were teased include deeper, more involved NPC interaction. Voiceover recording for characters has commenced as well, including Solas (voiced by Gareth David-Lloyd), Bellara (Jee Young Han) and Davrin (Ike Amadi).
The Ancient Gods: Part One, the first campaign expansion for Doom Eternalcomes out on October 20th. Developer id Software shared a full trailer showing off the upcoming DLC during Gamescon 2020 earlier today.
Your war is not over… DOOM Eternal’s first campaign expansion, The Ancient Gods: Part One – available October 20, 2020. pic.twitter.com/IjtM8RORGk
The trailer shows Doomguy up to his usual hijinks, taking out demons with Eternal’s fun arsenal of weapons, including the Super Shotgun and Meat Hook. For players who didn’t like Eternal’s emphasis on platforming, it doesn’t look like The Ancient Gods dials that aspect of the game back. And if you weren’t a fan of the Marauder, you may not want to watch the end of the clip. That’s because it looks like you’ll have to fight two of Eternal’s most divisive enemy at the same time. Good times.
Next we skipped over to “Interdimensional,” a virtual game show where we had to team up to solve a virtual puzzle. My guide hopped into a room with a large block in the middle, while I stood outside, looking through a window with an array of buttons in front of me. His job was to assess the room, and tell me which button to hit to move the block into its final goal spot. Our back and forth reminded me of completing escape rooms with friends in real life, and I could easily imagine more complex Horizon environments pushing that idea even further.
As we wound down my visit, we spend some time in Horizon’s creation mode, an empty space where you can build entire environments from scratch with your friends. In many ways, it reminded me of the white void from The Matrix — a room filled with limitless potential and creativity. Within a few minutes, my guide turned the empty space into a virtual beach, complete with sand, water and a golden sunset horizon. All the while, I spent a few minutes trying to create a palm tree. Creation mode unlocks even more menu options on your Oculus joysticks, and you can also make yourself giant or tiny to build out individual components. I’m not much of an artist, but the variety of tools available, and the deep amount of customizability per item, could lead to some truly interesting environments.
Horizon sounds like a social VR dream. But the reality may be much more difficult than Facebook realizes, especially when it comes to security. We’ve seen this story plenty of times: Give people a public space on the internet, and harassment and abuse inevitably follows. The company says moderators will be alerted if people end up reporting, blocking or muting a specific user, or if they notice any other strange behavior. Those mods will be able to listen in on your VR experiences (remember, everything is public), and they also have access to a buffer of recorded world data (though it’s unclear how much data that entails). They’ll be able to ban users outright if they find any violations.
But, really, that’s all just common sense. The real question is how Facebook could help prevent harassment from happening in the first place. Just like going anywhere in public, entering Horizon is a risk. We don’t know how many moderators Facebook will actually have once the service opens up. And it’s hard to tell if these safety tools will be enough if there’s a huge disruptive event, involving lots of bad actors. Clearly, Facebook is still trying to figure all of this out. And until it does, I don’t expect Horizon to leave beta anytime soon.
Budden’s twice-weekly show has hit the top spot on Spotify’s podcast charts, as Variety noted. It currently sits at number 15, so it clearly has a strong audience. Still, Budden claimed “Spotify never cared about this podcast individually” and that it had been “undermined and undervalued.”
He referenced other podcast deals Spotify has made and suggested it was “actively pitting [these signings] against us.” Spotify bought The Ringer earlier this year, and TheJoe Rogan Experience is moving to the platform exclusively starting next month.
Budden said he didn’t “wanna come off as angry, upset or bitter because the reality of it is we both hit our goals.” However, he suggested the crux of the matter was “wage disparity.”
“It was our desire to keep Joe Budden on Spotify,” the company told Variety. “As Joe referenced on his show, we made him a considerable offer — one that was significantly larger and many times the value of the existing agreement and reflective of the current market and size of his audience. Unfortunately, we could not come to terms and we respect his wishes to find a new home for his show.”
I’m thrilled to join @Halo to help them ship Halo Infinite. As the project lead for the Infinite Campaign, I will be supporting the team’s existing, great leaders and empowering them to do their best work. https://t.co/pQiNPQVBZs
Staten “will be focused on supporting the campaign team’s existing, talented, creative leaders and ensuring they have everything they need to create an awesome Halo game,” according to the latest Halo community update.
As things stand, Halo Infinite, which is also coming to PC and Xbox One, is scheduled for release sometime in 2021. According to Bloomberg, Microsoft brought in Staten to get the game “back on track” and avoid further delays. On the other side of the equation, Pierre Hintze, the head of the Halo: The Master Chief Collection publishing team, is taking over as the project lead for Halo Infinite’s free-to-play multiplayer modes.
The employee immediately informed Tesla, and the company contacted the FBI, which launched a sting operation. Agents arrested Kriuchkov in Los Angeles as he was attempting to leave the US.
As Electrek points out, during the sting operation, FBI agents obtained info about previous attacks led by Kriuchkov’s associates. They didn’t confirm which companies were impacted, but a similar ransomware attack was carried out against CWT Group in July. That company paid a $4.5 million ransom. Tesla could have been in a similar situation if its employee had not acted quickly or thought to inform the company.
The biggest difference between the Osmo Mobile 3 and the OM4 is that the latter lets you attach your smartphone to it magnetically instead of using a traditional clamp mount. The OM4 comes with a magnetic “pop socket”-like attachment that you can leave on the back of your phone as well as a magnetic clip that breaks free from the gimbal and can be left on your smartphone in between uses. These options are much easier to use and more elegant than clamp mounts, even if they require you to keep an extra accessory on your smartphone for a while.
DJI also added some new features to its mobile app with the launch of the OM4, including Dynamic Zoom. However, it’s likely that the Osmo Mobile 3 will gain the new app-based features in due time. So unless the magnetic mounting options will make your life a whole lot easier, you can stick with the Osmo Mobile 3 without missing too much of the OM4 experience.
DJI has the most name recognition in the smartphone gimbal space for good reason: both the Osmo Mobile 3 and the OM4 will cradle and stabilize your smartphone while you take the most cinematic videos possible. The company made huge updates to the device with last year’s launch, making it more compact thanks to its foldable design. It’ll shoot up to 15 hours of video before it needs to be recharged, and it has all of DJI’s sold capture features including Story, Sport, TimeLapse and Slow Motion capture modes, ActiveTrack for keeping a certain subject center in the frame and easy access triggers for zooming and flipping your smartphone around to shoot in selfie view.
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