“I was under the assumption that organic meatbags such as yourself enjoyed such forms of address.”
IN THE NEWS
Weekend in review:
Uh oh. ZeniMax Media is being sued because the singer of a song used in a live-action ad for Fallout 4 in 2015 thinks the ad is “morally indefensible.” The ad uses a song called “The Wanderer,” and singer Dion DiMucci is not a fan. “He’s asking publisher ZeniMax Media to take them [the ads] down — and pay him a million dollars in damages,” Polygon’s Allegra Frank reports.
“The court documents detail his extreme displeasure with how ‘The Wanderer’ was used to underscore Fallout 4’s violent, mutant-filled landscape,” Frank writes. Here’s a portion of what the complaint says: “Defendant’s Commercials were objectionable because they featured repeated homicides in a dark, dystopian landscape, where violence is glorified as sport. The killings and physical violence were not to protect innocent life, but instead were repugnant and morally indefensible images designed to appeal to young consumers.”
The Xbox One store is getting game gifting. Xbox vice president Mike Ybarra tweeted that they’re “not far” from being able to implement the feature, Tom Warren at The Verge reports.
Developer Dean “Rocket” Hall is not happy that Ark: Survival Evolved hiked its price to $59.99 prior to its full release in August. He shot off a multitude of tweets, PC Gamer’s Christopher Livingston and Evan Lahti report.
PC Gamer reached out to Hall about what he thinks Ark needs to improve upon before a price hike from $30 to $60 can be justified. Here’s a snippet of what he had to say: “I believe Ark, like DayZ or any other Early Access game, should remain in Early Access until it achieves the expected performance and bug standards of it’s price. I play the game exclusively on permadeath so the bugs killing you are just so much harsher for me!”
Summer Games Done Quick has done it again. The charity broke last year’s record and raised $1.7 million for Doctors Without Borders. “The final tally should rise slightly as more donations filter in, but $1,760,857.89 was raised from 30,041 donors over the weeklong extravaganza, which is more than half a million dollars over the previous year,” Polygon’s Owen S. Good writes.
Mass Effect: Andromeda’s Denuvo anti-tamper tech has been removed from the game, according to DSO Gaming’s John Papadopoulos. “The 1.9 version of Mass Effect: Andromeda is not powered by the Denuvo anti-tamper tech (though the game is still protected by ORIGIN) … Mass Effect: Andromeda joins a number of games for which the developers/publishers have removed the Denuvo anti-tamper tech once their games got cracked. These include DOOM, HITMAN, RiME and Homefront: The Revolution.”
Is Super Senso the game that will make turn-based strategy popular in esports? Unclear, but it’s going to try. Venture Beat’s Stephanie Chan described it as “a kaleidoscope of colors and explosions.” “Super Senso features XCOM-esque turn-based gameplay between two players. Players can swap out available units and unlock high-powered ‘hero’ units called Sensos.”
Voice actors for Middle-earth: Shadow of War include Troy Baker and Westworld’s Alastair Duncan reprising their roles as Talion and Celebrimbor, Laura Bailey voicing Eltariel and Kumail Ninjiani and Pollyanna McIntosh. “Warner Bros. revealed it will host a panel at San Diego Comic-Con later this month where some of the voice actors will appear to discuss their roles,” GameSpot’s Eddie Makuch reports. The panel will be July 21.
Don’t panic. Microsoft is in the process of laying off “thousands” of employees. Cuts “fall largely on the technology giant’s sales force,” The Seattle Times’ Matt Day reports. “The cuts are expected to total thousands of workers, the company said, without giving specifics. The vast majority of the affected employees are located outside the United States.”
GameSpot is partnering with “Star Trek® Online, Star Trek: The Cruise and WizKids to give away the ultimate fan experience for Star Trek lovers … You and a guest will embark on a six-day mission to Honduras, Belize and Mexico alongside legendary Star Trek crew members, including George Takei, Levar Burton, Michael Dorn, Brent Spiner and more.” Good luck!
Looks like we know who Street Fighter V’s next character is. “A hidden page on the Capcom website all but confirms that Abigail from the Final Fight series will be the next character added,” Steve Jurek from Dot Esports reports. “The page comes from the character data section of the Capcom Fighters Network webpage.”
LEAGUE LAND
Congratulations to Team SoloMid, and the NA LCS, who defeated Unicorns of Love 3-0 in the Rift Rivals finals over the weekend.
If you missed it, Urgot’s new champion rework is live. Check it out here.
Interviews: Peter “yellowpete” Wüppen, Dennis “Svenskeren” Johnsen, Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok and KT Rolster coach Lee Ji-hoon.
The European Challenger Series is ongoing for the next 5 weeks.
The 2017 EU and NA LCS Summer Splits are ongoing.
Tickets are on sale for the EU LCS Finals. Get them here.
Return of the Legends starts Aug. 4.
Champion and skin sale July 7-10: Hillbilly Gragas, Ironscale Shyvana, Mafia Jinx and Battleborn Kayle. Aatrox, Brand, Karma and Zyra.
Weekly free champions: Ahri, Anivia, Blitzcrank, Darius, Jarvan IV, Jayce, Jinx, Nidalee, Sivir and Zyra.
OVER/UNDER WATCH
Jeff Kaplan posted a long piece on the forums Saturday about “feedback regarding the current metagame and a general desire for ‘radical’ balance changes to mix things up.” He stressed that he knows his post will become the “official” viewpoint, even though it isn’t because he works on a team of many people with many ideas. “The most controversial thing I’ll say here (hopefully) is that I believe the game is currently balanced. What I mean is that I don’t feel like there are any heroes who are way too strong to the point of breaking balance.”
That, uh, does not seem to be working as intended. You can negate Doomfist’s attacks by using the sit emote.
Doomfist’s Rocket Punch appears to have been nerfed. The distance of the punch has been reduced, according to Reddit user TanzNukeTerror, who posted side-by-side comparisons. “In the gif, it looks like Doomfist is launching himself about nine meters shorter than he originally was. There was an update pushed to the PTR some time on Friday night, but no patch notes are available yet,” Dot Esports’ Scott Duwe reports.
OUT: Chris “Kophee” Mehlhoff is no longer with EnVision eSports.
Adam “Waffletastic” Sydnor is out at Counter Logic Gaming.
Lee “Twilight” Joo Seok and Yeong-jin “Gamsu” Noh are both out at CONBOX Spirit.
The Collegiate Star League is ongoing through Aug. 26.
The TESPA Summer Series is today through Aug. 20.
The Overwatch Cooler Master Invitational is July 15-16.
Overwatch World Cup tickets are on sale for China (7/14-7/16), Australia (7/21-7/23) and Poland (8/4-8/6), but not America (8/11-8/13).
OGN Overwatch APEX Challengers Season 3 is ongoing through July 15. The finals will be held in Busan Haeundae Beach, South Korea, July 29.
Afreeca Freecs Blue defeated EnVyUs in the Bronze Final. Lunatic-Hai will face Kongdoo Panthera in the Grand Final July 15.
DOTA-THON
Congratulations to LGD Gaming on winning Mars Dota 2 League 2017 over the weekend. LGD.Forever Young came in 2nd, followed by Newbee in 3rd and OG in 4th. Prizes in order were $112,500, 50,000, 31,250 and 18,750.
Congratulations to Zheng “MidOne” Yeik Nai on being SEA’s first 10,000 MMR player.
DreamHack Atlanta 2017 is July 21-23.
The Battle Pass is at $20.6 million for The International 2017.
Dota 2 is hosting a short film competition. Submissions are open through July 25.
There are 2 matches today.
Yesterday’s match results can be found here.
WAKE ME UP BEFORE YOU CS:GO
Congratulations to SK Gaming, who defeated Cloud9 in ESL One Cologne 2017’s Grand Final Sunday.
Despite winning the grand final, SK are going to be fined because they illegally used a technical timeout to discuss strategy. A portion of the total amount will be redistributed among the other teams that participated, Dot Esports’ Jamie Villanueva reports.
Jake “Stewie2k” Yip got some hefty compliments from Nathan “NBK-” Schmitt on Twitter Saturday. NBK- tweeted out, “.@Stewie is leading, kills everyone, entry frags, AWPs, can lurk against the best teams. AND HE IS 19 ONLY. Legend in the making for sure.”
Stewie2k quickly tweeted back, “ty nathan 😭.”
OUT: Jacob “Pimp” Winneche is no longer with Team Liquid after his contract ended.
DreamHack Valencia 2017 is July 14-16.
PGL Major Krakow 2017 is July 21-23. Reddit has an overview thread here.
Intel Extreme Masters World Champions is Nov. 18-19 in Oakland, Calif.
Mapcore and FACEIT have $10,000 for the top 4 bomb defusal and hostage-rescue maps CS:GO players can create. The contest entry deadline is Oct. 31, 2017, and winners will be chosen in December.
There are 0 matches today.
Yesterday’s match results can be found here.
WINS AND FAILS
It’s important to laugh. That’s why TheDW has compiled some of the best wins and fails of the last 24 hours, delivered to you in a convenient gif package.
Did you see something better? Shoot TheDW an email at katie@thedailywalkthrough.com with the subject line GIF. If we like it, we’ll throw it in tomorrow’s walkthrough!
SECRET UNLOCKED
Polygon’s Chloe Reznikov posted some great sales going on right now:
Lawbreakers is free to play on Steam until Aug. 8 when it’s released for $29.99.
UPCOMING RELEASES AND EVENTS
RELEASES
Hello Neighbor is out on Steam Aug. 29, and looks as creepy as you’d imagine.
Gigantic will be available on Steam. It’s out July 20. “Gigantic is a free-to-play strategic hero shooter developed by Motiga. Gorgeously rendered, light-hearted and charming, Gigantic is for all types of gamers, pitting teams of five heroes and their massive Guardians against each other in epic battles across a variety of maps,” the announcement thread reads.
Elder Scrolls Online: Horns of the Reach, the newest DLC for Elder Scrolls Online, is out in August.
Fable Fortune has been delayed until July 25 for Xbox One and PC.
Destiny 2’s open beta is July 21-23 for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. Those who preordered will be able to play starting July 18 on PS4 and July 19 on Xbox.
Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age is out tomorrow for PlayStation 4.
Orcs Must Die! Unchanged is out on PlayStation 4 July 18 and is free to play.
Gigantic is out July 20 on Steam.
Namco Museum is out July 28 for $29.99 on the Nintendo Switch.
Secret World Legends is out July 31 on Steam.
StarCraft Remastered releases Aug. 14 for $15.
EVENTS
Thursday: Dreamhack Valencia and WCS Valencia.
Friday: EVO and Wizard World Albuquerque.
Niantic is hosting Pokemon Go Fest in Chicago July 22.
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
IGN took Destiny fans through a tour of The Farm, Destiny 2’s “new social space.” Check the video out here.
COMMENTS AND SUGGESTIONS
Whether you hate it, love it, miss it or want it, send TheDW an email at katie@thedailywalkthrough.com.
Thanks for reading!