If you haven’t tried the latest Call of Duty – set in the futuristic wars of space, then perhaps it is time to hop in for free this weekend. Activision is giving Steam users the chance to download the game’s multiplayer client for free and frag their way to prestige until Sunday at 1PM PST. If you hurry it isn’t too late to get 36 hours of free game time in, as long as you don’t mind the substantial 62GB download (and that’s just for Multiplayer, the single player adds an additional 30+ GB).
As of writing Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare is sitting at 1,300 players online. According to Steam Charts this is a substantial jump as the game pulled in just an average of 926 players at any given time during the month of June. Multiplayer for 2015’s Call of Duty: Black Ops III appears to be a lot healthier with an average of 1,600 players during June and 3,178 players online at press time.
Alongside the free weekend, Activision also discounted the standard version of Infinite Warfare by 50% and the Digital Legacy Edition that includes Modern Warfare Remastered.
Overwatch’s 25th hero, Doomfist, has finished his testing phase on the PTR and is now live on the PC and console versions of the game. Alongside the release of Doomfist – who has been adjusted considerably since his initial reveal – this latest patch brings a number of changes to player mobility across a number of heroes and voice lines for both D.VA and Genji.
Doomfist
I’ve covered Doomfist in the past two weeks a couple of times. So to get a quick impression of what he is capable of, here is a summary of his abilities that I posted a few weeks back. Primarily his adjustments on the PTR involved how far his rocket punch and uppercut abilities launched opponents and moved. The actual functionality of the moves hasn’t really changed.
Doomfist Abilities:
Hand Cannon – Fires short ranged projectile from the knuckles of his smaller hand. Ammunition is automatically regenerated over time. Seismic Slam – Doomfist leaps forward into the air and smashes down to the ground affecting any foes below him. Rising Uppercut – Launches enemies that are in front of Doomfist into the air. Rocket Punch – A powerful charge forward that completes with a massive blow from Doomfist’s mechanical arm. Meteor Strike (Ultimate) – Leap into the sky and then come crashing down to deal damage and stun opponents. The Best Defense (Passive – Gain a temporary shield when dealing ability damage to opponents.
Movement Changes
Mcree’s flash bang now slows targets considerably faster than before. This means that a swift striking Genji can’t dodge the slowing effect of the Flash Bang’s stung.
Graviton Surge, Zarya’s ultimate ability, now stops all hero movement for those in the affected area. This means that using Genji’s Swift Strike or spending all of Tracer’s blink charges are no longer viable strategies to escape the Gravity well. Ditto for Mercy’s shift ability which allows her to fly towards a friendly target.
Highlight System
Remember that highlight system that Jeff Kaplan talked about during a recent developer update? It is now live on PC! Overwatch will now curate your top 5 daily clips and store them for a full 24 hours. Players are also now able to generate 12-second clips by using a new bindable record button. One thing to remember about these highlights is that they are only valid until the next patch – regardless if it is a major or minor addition to the game. Make sure to export your highlights often!
“The game will continue to automatically generate highlights for you based on your recent gameplay. These auto-generated highlights—now categorized as “Today’s Top 5”—will be surfaced on a daily basis and persist for a full 24 hours (or until the game client is patched, whichever happens first).
Players can now generate their own highlights! The ability to capture 12 seconds of your own gameplay has been added to the game, and can be bound to a single button of your choice (or a button per highlight slot) in the Options menu under “Request Highlight.” These player-generated highlights will be saved under a new section called “Recently Captured” and will persist until the game client is patched. Players can have up to 36 recently-captured highlights stored at one time.
With the above, players can now record any of their “Top 5” or “Recently Captured” highlights, exporting them as a video file to their gaming platform’s designated media library (on console) or directory (on PC). On PC, players will also have the option to select the quality at which these highlights are exported, supporting up to 4K for Windows 8 or higher operating systems, and up to 1080p on Windows 7.”
Get A Video Rundown
Want to know more about the latest Overwatch Patch? Check out the handy video recap in the player below or read the official notes on Blizzard’s site.
Miitopia – Since the dawn of ever, warriors have banded together to fight evil. Now … Mii characters based on your favorite people must unite to do turn-based battle and save Miitopia! Cast them in roles across the kingdom, manage friendships and give them jobs with distinct stats, abilities, gear and custom looks. The Miitopia game will be available on July 28.
Hey! PIKMIN – Captain Olimar has crashed on an unknown planet inhabited by Pikmin. Get a new perspective on his adorably fierce partners as you fight to fuel his ship in his first 2D platformer. Hey! PIKMIN is also the first Pikmin game for the Nintendo 3DS family of systems. The 2D game will be available on July 28.
The Walking Dead: A New Frontier has finally concluded and closed out Season three of the Telltale Walking Dead series. The fifth episode, From The Gallows, closes the story of Javier and his time with Clementine. While the Walking Dead episodes have been mostly good so far, how will the end hold up? With this season end with a whimper, or a bang? And what could this ending mean for future seasons?
This episode does answer some questions for us regarding Javier’s past. We learn how his father got sick and with what. We learn that Javier had promised his father, Salvador to stick with his brother and that the family would take care of eachother no matter what after the Salvador was gone, or not depending on your choices. I chose to respect Salvador’s wishes as the fight that happened between Javier and David seemed to quite upset him.
After the game is done in the past, we return back to a chaotic Richmond that is being overtaken by the dead. There is a lot of guilt between the group over what happened, and a lot of anger in Richmond, which Javier is mostly blamed for. Depending on past choices, some characters may show up again and others may not be able to escape from death. Javier’s trust will be tested as well as your morals. Will the group understand and stand by you? Or will anger and resentment rise? Who will stay and who will leave? That remains ultimately up to the player.
There are no significant changes to the gameplay in this episode. There are some exciting areas, such as rooftops of building and an instance where you need to climb across helicopter blades to get across a gap in a bridge and having to get across a group of walkers undetected. The main appeal of this episode is really the choices you have to make and concluding the story with the outcome you feel is best. I think this episode had some of the most impactful moments that showed you the results of earlier choices and had you make significant new choices. Because I was quite attached to these characters, who ended up with me by the end and some of the choices I had to make regarding certain characters made me feel a bit emotional, which meant Telltale was certainly doing a good job. I feel while the story almost went in a ridiculous, convoluted direction for a bit, that this episode took it back a bit and let us be with just a select few characters and give us some strong family moments. I was satisfied with the endings, especially the one I got my first play through that involved staying with Kate to save Richmond. I felt it was the best ending, that gave the most hopeful ending for future seasons in which Clem might be the controllable, lead character again, but your milage may vary depending on how you played the game and how attached you became to the group.
Overall, I feel this was a very strong end to a good season of Telltale’s The Walking Dead. I would recommend this to anyone who hasn’t played it in full yet, especially since it is available on disc now as well as for download at a reasonable price. I feel this series has not overstayed its welcome yet and out of all of Telltale’s series, this is probably my favorite next to Sam and Max. I can’t wait to see what Telltale has in store for the Walking Dead next, especially for Clem and her journey to reunite with her only family.
