News::'Titanfall 2' multiplayer tech test is now open to all

Jon Shiring, the lead engineer for Titanfall 2 at Respawn Entertainment, announced via Twitter on Friday that the game's first "Multiplayer Tech Test" session is now live. The open event (no pre-orders or game codes necessary) which runs through the weekend will give players the chance to try out the game's first two mechs (Ion and Scorch). Players will also be treated to five new competition styles: Bounty Hunt, 5v5, Pilots vs. Pilots and 8v8.

In another tweet, Shiring describes this test version as a pre-alpha build with known bugs, so don't be surprised if the gameplay isn't quite polished yet. The whole point of letting anyone interested play is so Respawn can road test the game's new server setup and hopefully avoid problems at launch. Next weekend phase two of the testing will occur with different maps, game modes, titans and more. The full game is slated for release on October 28th.

Via: Daily Dot, Gamespot

Source: Jon Shiring (Twitter), Titanfall 2 Tech Test details

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News::Niantic vows to ban 'Pokemon Go' cheaters

Niantic is trying to make Pokemon Go more fair for its millions of players across the globe, this week officially confirming that it will ban any account that appears to be cheating.

"After reviewing many reports of in-game cheating, we have started taking action against players taking unfair advantage of and abusing Pokemon Go. Moving forward, we will continue to terminate accounts that show clear signs of cheating," Niantic said.

Source: Pokemon Go

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News::Blizzard built a World of Warcraft cafe

World of Warcraft is an institution. After 12 years, Blizzard's seminal MMO is still running, and although player counts have fallen since its 2010 peak, there were still 5.5 million active accounts last September. Germany has always been a key market for the company, consistently ranking among the top five countries, and to celebrate the game's sixth expansion, Legion, Blizzard has given players a treat. In the heart of Cologne, Germany, home to the annual Gamescom convention, the developer has transformed the 14th century festival hall Gürzenich into a WoW locale.

At the venue's launch event on Wednesday, fans were invited to wander around a recreation of "The Fel Hammer," a starting zone in the new expansion. Inside, they were treated to heavy metal renditions of WoW music, face painting, photo booths, and WoW-themed food and drink (including Alliance and Horde cocktails, of course). Cosplayers were everywhere, and there was even a quest giver with an exclamation point above their head, who directed attendees to another "NPC" with a question mark who gave out free prizes. As well as being great PR for Blizzard, it's a nice way to give something back to the fans that pay the bills.

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News::Beautiful indie game 'Below' is delayed once again

If you're eager to play Super Time Force developer Capybara Games' latest title, Below, you're going to have to wait a bit longer. The atmospheric and ethereal indie game has been delayed once again, this time with no new release date. Below was originally supposed to come out this summer for Xbox One and PC, but Capy needs a little more time to make sure it meets the studio's high standards.

Source: Capybara Games

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News::'Battlefield 1' will challenge your preconceptions of WWI

Battlefield 1 is shaping up to be a return to form for DICE, the EA-owned development studio behind the famous first-person-shooter series. After handing the franchise keys to Visceral Games for Battlefield Hardline, the studio is back at the helm, and returning to historical warfare with its first game set in World War I. The announcement was met with mostly positive reactions, especially in the face of Activision's continued focus on jetpacks and other future tech with the Call of Duty series.

I'm not a massive fan of either of the big FPS franchises. I don't look down on Call of Duty or Battlefield games: They're expertly crafted multiplayer experiences that millions of gamers love. They're just not for everyone. My colleague Timothy Seppala, a long-time Battlefield fan, spent most of E3 explaining to me just how impressed he was with what he'd seen so far. "I haven't loved a Battlefield game since 2010's Bad Company 2," he wrote back in June, "but during a single round of Conquest set on a map in northern France, I caught a glimpse of the game that had me smitten five years ago."

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News::Duel your friends 'Tron' style in 'Project Arena' VR

Project Arena is a full-body VR game that pits two players against each other in a Tron-esque light disc battle. It was born from Icelandic developer CCP's "VR Labs," an initiative of experimentation and iteration, where teams are free to create lots of working concepts before working out which can become full games. Project Arena has already passed the first test -- it morphed from the concept phase last year (when it was called Disc Arena) into the "project" phrase this year.

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News::Crafting a story for 'Titanfall 2'

Titanfall 2 represents a huge opportunity for Respawn Entertainment. When the first game launched in 2014, the Xbox One was still in its infancy, and struggling from Microsoft's disastrous messaging. Titanfall received plenty of accolades for its human-versus-robot combat, but never found an audience befitting a veteran Call of Duty developer. The follow-up could be different, however, because it's headed to the PlayStation 4 in addition to the Xbox One and PC. The game will also feature a full-blown campaign -- a first for the franchise and something the original was criticized for not having.

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News::Invite all your Twitch friends to a stream or broadcast

Twitch's social network-like Friends feature just got more useful if you want more company for streaming or broadcasting. A new feature called "Activity Sharing" will notify your entire Friends list if you're doing something interesting so they can join in. Conversely, you can check your Friends list to see what others are doing and join in, as shown in the GIF below. Users can keep broadcasts or streams private, if they prefer, by un-ticking the "share my activity" box.

Source: Twitch

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News::Claymation puzzler 'Armikrog' comes to the PS4 on August 23

There's no rule that game animations must be done in a computer. The creators of Armikrog elected to use claymation, the painstaking stop-motion process beloved in such movies as Wallace and Grommit. The title raised $974,000 on Kickstarter and was released for PC, Mac and Linux last September, following several delays. The PS4 version was further held up, but we finally have a release date and price on the console: August 23rd for $9.99.

Source: Sony

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News::'Overwatch' test patch turns troll talk into funny lines

Blizzard has rolled out an Overwatch test patch that could make playing on the game's Public Test Realm (PTR) either hilarious or infuriating, depending on which camp you're in. A bunch of Reddit and NeoGAF users have noticed that when you type in "gg ez" in chat, the game automatically changes it into either very polite messages or hilarious ones that insult the user. The term "gg ez," as you might know, means "good game, easy win" that's meant to insult the losing party in an online match. Well, Blizzard isn't having any of that behavior.

Via: Kotaku

Source: Reddit, NeoGAF

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News::Listen to Groove Music while you play 'Forza' on Xbox One

One of the cooler features from the Anniversary Update for Xbox One is Background Music. As the name implies, you can use music from practically any source as your soundtrack for a lot of different activities on the console. If you're a fan of Groove Music, there's an update rolling out that adds the service to the list of Background Music sources. It's a feature that's been available to folks in the Dashboard Preview Program for awhile, but Xbox's Mike Ybarra says that the update, version 3.6.2395, will be available for everyone today.

Source: Mike Ybarra (Twitter), Microsoft

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News::The 2016 Pokemon World Championships kick off today

The 2016 Pokemon World Championships are being taken to the next level as they kick off today. This year, the event is to be closed to the general public, so if you're not actually competing in the tournament, the only way you're going to be able to watch it is via official online streams.

Source: Pokemon

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News::Kick Cancer's ass and raise money for sick kids in 'I, Hope'

Nazis, like zombies, are pretty much the perfect video game enemy because there are zero redeemable qualities about them. But those might have some competition now that there's a game where you fight cancer. Not literally, but an enemy named "Cancer" an in the Xbox One's forthcoming I, Hope from indie studio Arconyx. Lead developer Kenny Roy's mission with the ID@Xbox project is to help kids who are actually battling cancer in hospitals around the world to have a cathartic, figurative way to do it as well. More than offering therapy to kids, when it goes on sale next year, 100 percent of the profits generated from the game will go toward helping kids with life-threatening illnesses and their families.

Source: Microsoft News Center

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