News:: Everything you need to know about the Overwatch League's upcoming inaugural season

Even if you aren't remotely interested in eSports, the Overwatch League is a big deal. Instead of trying to run multiple tournaments with varying sets of rules, Blizzard is uniting the entire Overwatch banner under their league, which operates a lot like the NFL or the NBA.

There's set teams in different divisions, there's a more visible schedule throughout the year, and players earn salaries ($50,000 minimum yearly with benefits), bonuses, and are held to higher scrutiny -- the most infamous of which is that since there's travel involved, they need to be at least 18 years of age.

After BlizzCon's Overwatch World Cup concluded this weekend a few finalized details came out surrounding the league, so here's a quick recap.

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News:: Veteran wows great-grandkids with story of receiving loot box on the beaches of Normandy (Fauxclusive)

Slack-jawed with eyes of wonder, the great-grandchildren of World War II veteran Clyde Hussley listened closely as he recalled his time with 29^th Infantry Division and the day his life was saved thanks to a loot box. Hussley, who was just 19 at the time, explained to the kids that his life would have likely ended on D-Day had he not spent the $3.99 beforehand.

“It was a cold and wet morning,” he said, his voice cracked from old age. “The noise of the battle is indescribable. As we got off the boat and stormed the beach, I watched as my best friend Johnny was shredded by Nazi artillery fire. I would have died too, but thankfully my loot box parachuted down which doubled my armor and gave me a flamethrower. You should have seen the kill streak I racked up with that bad boy.”

At the end of that battle, where more than 4,400 of his brothers in arms died, Hussley said he honored their sacrifice with the traditional practice of tea-bagging his enemies.

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News:: World of Warcraft's upcoming expansion is the culmination of 20 plus years of lore

In 1994, Warcraft started with a simple premise -- Orcs versus Humans. It was an age old idea that built off the precepts from classic fantasy novels and tabletop games, and one that endured for decades into the zeitgeist MMO iteration that played off of the classic RTS series.

23 years later, Blizzard would announce World of Warcraft: Battle for Azeroth, an expansion that once again sees the horde and alliance battling it out for supremacy. While it's an obvious ploy to play up the whole "faction battle" mentality that seeps through the meta, Blizzard also maintains they've been building up to the idea for years.

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News:: Nintendo's Super Mario Odyssey launch event was really special

Last week, before Super Mario Odyssey launched, Nintendo concluded a nation wide tour in promotion of the game at its New York City store. Rich and I were in attendance, but we had no idea what to expect. We figured this was going to be some stuffy, stuck up presentation with a typical demo and people guiding us through the game. That couldn't be further from the truth.

Leave it to Nintendo to throw a launch event where you could possibly dance with a guy in a Mario costume while munching on Honey Bunches of Oats and doing jump rope in Rockefeller Plaza. It was certainly a spectacle and definitely worth the trip into the city.

While Rich and I didn't have a real game plan for recording footage (or even the thought of introducing ourselves on film), there is plenty of joy to be had in watching us get soundly trounced by a little girl in jump rope. We also got a quick glance at the museum inside of Nintendo NYC and a close up of the bombed-out Game Boy from the Gulf War.

If Nintendo does another event in the future, I'd recommend making the trip. I had previously gone to an Animal Crossing: New Leaf event and it was similarly filled with childlike joy.

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News:: What are your experiences with arcade gaming?

Like roughly 90% of the rest of the world, I spent the days leading up to Halloween watching the second season of Stranger Things, which takes place in 1984. Nintendo didn't hit North America until 1985, so kids like the Stranger Things crew spent a good chunk of time in arcades playing games like Dig Dug and Dragon's Lair. Back in those days, multiplayer meant crowding around an arcade cabinet watching someone rack up a high score or button-mashing against a friend one-on-one.

Almost forty years later, Finnish studio Housemarque is giving up on the arcade genre. This week, they announced they will no longer be releasing arcade-style games like Resogun or their magnus opus, Nex Machina, declaring that arcade is dead and they're moving on to more modern, more relevant gaming styles.

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News:: Upcoming Shantae DLC will see you playing as Rottytops and pals

It has been announced by WayForward that there is a new DLC mini-adventure coming to Shantae: Half-Genie Hero, one that will see players take control of the adorable protagonist's pals Bolo, Sky and Rottytops.

The DLC, titled Friends to the End, is considered canon, and takes place during the small moment in the main game which features "Nega-Shantae". The side-adventure will see the trio of chums venture into Shantae's head, in order to cast out the dark magic that is taking her over.

The player will switch between the friends on the fly, utilising each character's very particular set of skills to overcome Shantae's twisted memories (essentially a darker take on the main game's stages) in order to help the half-genie find her true, fun-loving self once again. How cute!

The content has already finished development and has been submitted to Sony, Microsoft, et al for approval. WayForward expects Friends to the End to release in time for the Holidays, where it will be made free to Shantae backers and available as paid DLC for everyone else. Be sure to check out the gallery for some screens as well as some fun concept drawings.

Friends to the End DLC adventure [Kickstarter]

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News:: EA's 'UFC 3' takes the fight beyond the Octagon

EA has a penchant for sports games whose stories go beyond the actual match, and that now includes the UFC series. The publisher has unveiled UFC 3, and its centerpiece is a GOAT Career Mode where your choices outside the Octagon determine the fights you'll have inside. You have to make "promotional choices" to grow your fan base, generate hype and score big contracts. There's even a social networking element. You can be the quintessential smack-talker (ahem) or the calm-and-collected fighter who only proves themselves in the ring.

Source: EA Press Room

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News:: Ys VIII's new localization won't be ready until 2018

While Ys VIII is a pretty accomplished game, one of the biggest complaints fans had with the title was its localization. Names for specific locations were simplified to a hilarious degree and the voice acting was generally subpar, unless you opted for the Japanese VO. As such, NIS America vowed to rework any lacking parts of the localization with a patch that was slated for later this month. That patch was a much larger undertaking than the publisher previously thought.

In a blog post on the company's official website, Alan Costa (the Senior Associate Producer for NIS America) stated, "This is going to come as no surprise to many of you, but after beginning this revision, we have realized that due to the scope of this undertaking, we will unfortunately not be able to release by the end of this month as we had originally intended. I don't want to throw out a hard date then have to backtrack again, but, barring any unforeseen issues, we are currently looking to get this out early next year."

As some of you may remember, the PC version of Ys VIII was delayed at the last minute to polish up the port. While that probably wasn't because of any localization woes, that port is now being pushed back as well. Costa also brings this up, saying, "On that note, as we want this version to be the definitive release of the title, we will be holding the PC version back to coincide this this release as well. While this does constitute a further delay of the PC version, please rest assured that this time will be used to further optimize the game."

While this will be a bit of sad news for PC fans looking to finally get Adol's latest adventure, at least the company is being vocal about the process. I can accept a delay based on quality assurance better than a game having 15 patches over the course of its life. That being said, I'd definitely understand if console fans were a bit cheesed off about this.

Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of DANA Localization Update - Entry One [NIS America]

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News:: The cosplayers of BlizzCon never cease to impress

Every year Blizzard's stable of characters grows a bit. I mean we've had over 10 characters alone in Heroes of the Storm, several in Overwatch, multiple Hearthstone expansions with unique cards, Diablo III's Necromancer, a few Starcraft co-op commanders, and the ongoing World of Warcraft storyline.

Once again Overwatch dominated the cosplay scene at BlizzCon 2017, but you have to appreciate just how far some people are willing to go when it comes to derivatives of existing ideas. You really get to see how deep the community will dive when roaming the halls. I'm talking like, a D.Va outfit that's an exclusive Heroes of the Storm (and not Overwatch) obscure. Or in terms of dedication, like a Junkrat dressed as a Heroes devil skin who put his leg up against a tree to really make his peg leg prop pop.

Click the gallery to peruse a few of our favorites!

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News:: Review In Progress: Call of Duty: WWII

I've never been a part of the "Call of Duty sucks because it still exists" crowd. Aside from a few missteps, I've generally found the never-ending CoD series to feature quite a few interesting, high-quality titles. I think Modern Warfare 1 & 2 are both uniformly excellent, and Black Ops II has a clever and gripping single player campaign, one of my favourite shooter stories. I also find the multiplayer oddly addictive, perhaps due to its very high levels of tension and non-stop action.

But I've been out of the loop for some time. Other than some brief time spent with Black Ops III, I'm a little behind on the franchise. It's after this break from the million-selling series that I come to Activision's Call of Duty: WWII, ironically at a time where the publisher is essentially resetting the series, replacing jet booted wall-running with crawling through the mud, and interstellar space battles with a grim charge up Normandy beach... again.

Here are my brief thoughts on the new game, seeing as I have somehow become Destructoid's resident Nazi-smasher. 

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News:: The Morning After: Weekend Edition

Hey, good morning! You look fabulous.

Welcome to the weekend. Did you get the iPhone X? Our full review is up if you need help making a decision, but first, we'll take a look back at some of the week's biggest stories, including the latest updates on House of Cards.

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News:: ‘Overwatch’ gets a new healer hero and another map

At last year's Blizzcon, Blizzard introduced a new character for its hero shooter, Overwatch — but community excitement was subdued after the months of teasing, hints and puzzles leading up to the announcement. Perhaps that's why Blizzard chose to announce a new hero today on the Blizzcon stage -- in the midst of its ongoing Overwatch World Cup, check out the final four matches later today starting at 12:30 PM ET -- without dropping any hints to the community. Finally, Overwatch players are getting another healer with Moira.

Source: Blizzard

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News:: GameCenter CX - Episode 226 - Shikoku Special

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News:: BlizzCon's World of Warcraft diorama featuring real players is an incredible feat

To celebrate the new World of Warcraft expansion Battle for Azeroth, Blizzard nonchalantly built "the largest videogame diorama ever," as per the Guinness Book of World Records. Why they didn't announce this during the keynote is anyone's guess, as I randomly just happened upon it while wandering the showfloor after the Heroes of the Storm HGC semi-finals. 

But it's not just a re-creation of the Battle for Lordaeron with random figures colored blue for the Alliance and red for Horde -- it features actual player characters based on World of Warcraft users. If you're an attendee you can see if your character is one of the 10,000 included right here (I wasn't chosen, sadly), and what zone of the diorama you're in.

Yeah, this is a hell of a way to promote an expansion, and a decidedly Blizzard thing to do.

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