Tag: Video Games

Fortnite’s ‘Recon Expert’ skin is back in the item shop and that’s just fine

Calling anything OG after three years is dumb. Those are the rules.

Epic Games has never really shied away from being edgy when it comes to Fortnite.

I mean, this is the game that blew up its entire universe and created another one. Nothing is off the table when it comes to Fortnite, and its audience knows that.

That’s why it was so weird to see some people wasting five minutes of their life getting mad online about the “Recon Expert” skin being back in the item shop for the first time in forever.

To quickly recap what’s going on, when some gamers fired up Fortnite on Wednesday, they probably saw the “Recon Expert” skin available for purchase.

Honestly, it doesn’t look like anything special. It’s just a soldier woman with a hat. Pretty cool. But, again, nothing special.

The real reason why this is a big deal is because, back when Fortnite was in its infancy, people were calling it a children’s version of PUBG, the Recon Expert was one of the game’s most popular skins.

If you have a kid that plays this game, they’ve probably asked for your credit card a few times to buy some “skins” and you were probably like “WHAT?!?” Don’t worry. That’s what this is. Skins are simple. They’re basically characters that you can play as on Fortnite.

Recon Expert started off as a normal, beginner skin. But, eventually, as the game grew it disappeared and never appeared in the item shop again. So, basically, the only way to have the Recon Expert skin was to have played the game when it first dropped in 2017. It turned into a badge proving one’s “OG” status on Fortnite.

Until today, anyway.

With the OG skin back in the item shop, newer players had a chance to buy it and play in it. Which is great! Unless you’re an OG. Because now, apparently, people can’t tell if you’re special.

Lots of tears were flowing online. And, if I can be quite honest, for no good reason.

Again, it’s just a skin. If I can be honest one more time, skins are mostly dumb. On this particular game, most of them don’t have special abilities or give you a competitive advantage. You just…wear ’em. That’s it. You wear them.

Being upset about someone else using a skin on your game is the same thing is being upset about seeing someone, randomly on the street, with the same shirt as you. And not, like, a special shirt either. Just a regular, blue t-shirt that went out of stock 3 years ago and is now back.

It’s totally fine for new people to be able to wear this totally normal skin — especially if they’re paying actual money for it. Sorry.

Plus, calling anything OG after three years is dumb. Those are the rules.

Gamers are fed up after another massive Call of Duty: Warzone patch dropped

A huge 30 GB patch was just released, and many people are running out of room on their hard drives.

As we near the end of the PS4 and Xbox One generation, games have gradually gotten bigger and better over the years – for better and worse. Gamers have dozens of massive Triple-AAA quality games to choose from, but as graphics have improved and games have gotten bigger, so have the download sizes. Unless you’re using an external hard drive to help solve storage issues, it’s likely that you can’t keep all of the games on your hard drive that you’d like to, as there simply isn’t enough space.

Call of Duty: Warzone, a megapopular free-to-play hit, isn’t helping things. Since releasing in March, Warzone has seen regular updates that have improved the game – but that also have caused the file size to balloon. On Tuesday, players discovered a new 1.21 update patch to download – adding another 30 GB of data to an already massive game.

Many players were understandably annoyed.

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Chris Jones has a reputation in video games among his Chiefs teammates

The Chiefs Kingdom might need to help Chris Jones level up his video games skills.

Kansas City Chiefs DT Chris Jones is getting into video games a little more seriously this offseason. He shared his PSN ID on Twitter this week, announcing that all PS4 players should add him. He also created a Twitch.tv account, and in a quick 16-second video, let fans know what games he’ll be playing.

“Make sure you guys follow me,” Jones said in the video. “There’s about to be a lot of ‘Call of Duty’, a lot of ‘Madden NFL 20′, a lot of 2K, a lot of action and adventure games.”

Following Jones’ announcement we also learned that he has a little bit of a reputation among his teammates. It appears that Jones isn’t very good at the video games that he plays.

Jones refuted Hill’s comment saying that Hill has only beaten him once in four tries. At what game, is unclear. On Friday, a few more teammates went in on Jones for his poor video game skills.

Both Anthony Hitchens and Patrick Mahomes gave Jones a hard time about his video game skills. But the only way to get to the bottom of this mystery will be to watch Jones play games on Twitch. Be sure to follow his channel and turn on notifications to see when he goes live.

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How to get Grand Theft Auto V for free on PC this week

One of the biggest games of the generation is now free on PC this week.

With stay at home orders being extended in certain areas of the country, there’s no better time to start a massive video game that can keep you occupied for the next few weeks. We’ve rounded up our best picks for single-player and multiplayer games in 2020, and one of the titles that made both of those lists is now free to download on PC for the next week.

Grand Theft Auto V is this week’s free game on the Epic Games Store, and all you’ll need to do is create an EGS account and enable two-factor authorization. Many users have reported problems with either the Epic Games Store or the Rockstar launcher over the last day as people rushed to unlock the game, but you have until 11:00 a.m. ET on May 21st to pick up the game for free. Note that you’ll need quite a bit of free hard drive space (94 GB!) and a PC capable of running the game, so if you’re using an old laptop, you might be out of luck.

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Trailer: Justin Thomas on the cover of PGA Tour 2K21, available August 21

Check out the official trailer and some more information on PGA Tour 2K21, available August 21, 2020.

If we’re all still being forced to quarantine in three months, at least we’ll have a new golf video game to play.

With 12-time PGA Tour winner Justin Thomas on the cover and a roster of officially licensed pro players, courses and gear inside, PGA Tour 2K21 is currently scheduled for worldwide release on Friday, August 21, 2020. The game will be available on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Windows PC via Steam, Nintendo Switch and Stadia.

“Being chosen to be the first-ever cover athlete for the premiere PGA Tour 2K game is a tremendous honor,” said Justin Thomas via a press release. “I’m excited to join the 2K family and challenge players everywhere on the digital links.”

Fifteen licensed Tour courses were scanned with cutting-edge technology to bring your favorite tracks to life. Tired of playing the same old courses? Use the Course Designer feature with thousands of custom options.

Screenshot of PGA TOUR 2K21, available August 2020. (Photo: 2K Sports)

Thomas will be joined by 11 additional PGA Tour players, each of whom will present a challenge in the game’s PGA Tour Career Mode. Players can also create and personalize their MyPLAYERs with equipment and apparel from licensed brands including: adidas, Polo Ralph Lauren, Malbon Golf, Callaway Golf, Bridgestone Golf, TaylorMade Golf and more.

The game will be anchored by broadcaster Luke Elvy and analyst Rich Beem.

Never played a golf video game before? No problem. Real-time tutorials, tips and shot suggestions, as well as Pro Vision, Distance Control, Putt Preview and other innovations make the game playable for everyone.

Can’t play an actual round with friends who live far away? Take your game to online matches, including Alt-Shot, Stroke Play, Skins and 4-Player Scramble. On top of that, Online Societies encourages players to invite their squad to hit the clubhouse and run full seasons and tournaments.

So, is it August yet?

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See the first look at next-gen Madden on Xbox Series X

Patrick Mahomes introduced a teaser of Madden NFL 21.

Gamers got their first look at a few next-gen releases coming later this year during the Xbox Series X games showcase on Thursday, and Madden NFL 20 cover star Patrick Mahomes made an appearance during a video package for Madden 21.

The preview was mostly filled with footage from past Madden games and focused on the evolution of the series, from John Madden Football in 1988 to the upcoming version on next-gen hardware. We did get a very brief glimpse of what Madden could look like on Xbox Series X, with a clip of Mahomes spinning through an attempted tackle and diving for the pylon to score.

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Golf fans are thrilled about the announcement of ‘PGA Tour 2K21’

The PGA Tour is back in video game form.

The PGA Tour is on hiatus until June due to the coronavirus crisis, but in the meantime golf fans do have some good news to celebrate.

The PGA Tour has another video game on the way. 2K announced it would be dropping PGA Tour 2K21, a followup to The Golf Club 2019.

The game was excellent, but it was released under the radar. It was 2K’s first foray into golf, but didn’t make massive improvements from HB Studios’ The Golf Club 2. They’re taking another shot at things with PGA Tour 2k21.

They released a mini teaser trailer, featuring the iconic island green at TPC Sawgrass, on Wednesday along with the announcement. More details are coming on May 14.

Golf fans were thrilled with the news.

Rejoice, golf fans. You’ve finally got a game again.

This pick-your-quarantine-player Tik Tok is getting so many laughs on the internet

What’s your quarantine player?

There’s a small conundrum during these quarantine mornings: What to wear.

Of course, there are bigger issues at hand. But for those of us that aren’t leaving the home, we have to decide whether to wear normal office attire, whether to hop into workout clothes or whether to enjoy the comforts of our sweats. That decision could help determine our ambitions for the day. Will we get down to work, enjoy a workout or binge a Netflix movie?

A video is making rounds on Twitter and Tik Tok that encapsulates our in-home outfit (and activity) choices during the quarantine. It’s called: “Pick your quarantine player.” It’s a play on moment in video games when you’re picking your player. Here’s a look:

So… which one are you?

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How to use Jackbox to play virtual games over video chat with your friends

A good way to have fun while you’re doing social distancing.

The other day, while on a video chat with a pair of my friends, one of them mentioned that we could totally do a night of trivia for our next conference call by using something called Jackbox (which made it to our super-helpful list of 34 video games you should be playing to get through quarantine).

I had so many questions, and it seems like a lot of other people do, and that’s where this comes in.

It’s a series of trivia games put out by Jackbox Games that you can play, and by using Jackbox TV, you can actually connect and have the host screenshare the game on a video meeting service like Zoom or Google Hangouts. Here are the steps:

1. Someone needs to have purchased a Jackbox title

Let’s call that person the “host” to make it easy to describe. That person should launch the game on their computer.

2. The host should share their screen on their favorite video meeting service

Hangouts, Zoom, Microsoft Teams, whatever. If you’re the host, find the button that shares your screen with the other people on your call.

3. Go to Jackbox.TV and enter the code you see

It’s a four-letter code for your specific room, and you enter it using your phone.

4. Start playing!

That’s it!

And if none of that made sense, well, fine, here’s a video from Jackbox Games:

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NFL and 2K Sports announce partnership to produce video games

The NFL and 2K announced a partnership to produce new non-simulation NFL video games, with the first game set to release in 2021.

After a 16-year hiatus, 2K Sports is making a comeback to the NFL. The league and video game maker announced a multi-year partnership on Tuesday that encompasses multiple games.

The games will be non-simulation, with 2K announcing in a news release that they are in early development and are expected to launch in 2021. Because the games will be non-simulation, they will not compete with the “Madden” franchise.

“We’re thrilled to be back in business with the NFL in a partnership that will span multiple video games centered on fun, approachable and social experiences,” said David Ismailer, president of 2K. “It’s exciting to bring together 2K’s expertise in creating award-winning sports games with the NFL’s renowned status as a world-class entertainment and sports organization.”

2K published the “NFL 2K” franchise from 1999-2004. It currently produces the “NBA 2K” franchise as well as “WWE 2K,” “BioShock,” The Golf Club” and “X-COM.”

“It’s an exciting time for 2K and our fans,” said Ismailer. “We’re growing our s​ports offerings and building on our core games with new [intellectual property], as well as continued support of award-winning franchises, all with the goal of giving our fans more amazing games and entertainment for years to come.”

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