CoD: Warzone Gets Mixed Reviews For Godzilla And Kong Event, As Some Are Left Disappointed

Call of Duty Season 3’s Operation Monarch event went live in Warzone on May 11, bringing Godzilla and King Kong to Caldera. Some players are finding enjoyment with the Monsterverse event, but others are disappointed and feel misled with Operation Monarch’s use of the titans.

Operation Monarch is a limited-time mode, which lets players take part in a mostly typical battle royale experience with a Monsterverse twist. Godzilla and King Kong are both active on the map, but many players are upset that the two titans never actually clash or approach each other. Instead of the titans battling each other, players can choose to attack Godzilla and King Kong to earn additional gear in the match. Players can even use Godzilla’s heat ray breath or King Kong’s ground pound attack as a killstreak.

“So this part was just complete clickbait,” says one Redditor user, who posted a screenshot from the Operation Monarch trailer that suggested Godzilla and King Kong would actually be fighting during the event.

This Warzone event is awful. Maybe we’re spoiled from the Fortnite ones, but damn bro. King Kong & Godzilla don’t even fight 😂

— FaZe Nickmercs (@NICKMERCS) May 11, 2022

Notable streaming personalities criticized the event on Twitter, with NickMercs calling the event awful and also pointing out the two titans don’t even battle. Activision never expressed that Godzilla and King Kong would be fighting each other, but some players clearly felt the trailers suggested a fight would occur.

While some high-profile streamers and players are criticizing the event, others are finding the fun with Operation Monarch and capturing some entertaining clips. Twitter user CharlieH411 shared gameplay of their plane getting a swift aerial kick by King Kong.

I never thought I would be in a place being absolutely STOMPED on by big MONKÈ KONG 😂😂😂😂 @CallofDuty @CallofDutyUK @charlieINTEL @PrestigeIsKey 😂 pic.twitter.com/MVBRUYgVWO

— CharlieH411 (@TAG__411) May 11, 2022

“Operation Monarch delivered on what they set out to do, which is a W,” says YouTuber JGOD on Twitter. “Godzilla and Kong feel present on the map for all players throughout the match. Biggest drawback I am seeing is that they don’t interact even in a cutscene after a win. Better than the train event 100%.”

Of course, JGOD also tweeted his agreement that the biggest issue seems to be the marketing of the event had set false expectations. “Every trailer hyped a battle, but that just didn’t happen.”

On the bright side, Operation Monarch is at least restricted to a limited-time playlist, and players can still choose to play regular matches of battle royale on Caldera. For last year’s Festive Fervor holiday event, the Krampus mini-boss was unavoidable in all playlists. Additionally, this is a great playlist for players to level up their weapons, as double weapon XP is currently active in the Operation Monarch playlist.

The Operation Monarch event is set to run until May 25, and here we break down the full details of Operation Monarch and the event rewards. Season 3’s mid-season update is just around the corner, and here is everything we know about the upcoming updates for Warzone and Vanguard.

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Sony Has Reportedly Registered A New PS5 Model

Sony appears to have registered a new PlayStation 5 model in Japan, as the company received construction design certification in April for a CFI-1200 device that uses updated radio equipment. This approval is likely for the PS5, as the Sony console uses a CFI-1XXX model numbering scheme.

Having received the certification in April from Japan’s Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (via VGC), the new hardware is designed to conform to the latest radio and wireless communication equipment standards. This isn’t the first time that Sony has changed the PS5 internally, as the first revision shaved some weight off the console and added a thumbscrew to the base stand. This CFI-1102A version also included a smaller heatsink.

Last year it was reported that a PS5 internal redesign was in development, while Sony confirmed that it was thinking seriously about an architecture change to alleviate supply chain issues caused by the global semiconductor shortage. Since it launched in November 2020, the PS5’s external appearance has remained the same and this looks to be the case again with the CFI-1200 model.

This also ties in with Sony’s plans to make PS5 consoles more readily available this year, as the company has projected that it will sell many millions more PS5 units in the current fiscal year that began April 1 and runs through March 31, 2023. As part of Sony’s latest investor briefing, the company said it projects to sell 18 million PS5 consoles during this financial year, with this number based on the company’s current visibility into parts procurement.

“18 million units is what we feel very comfortable we can get the parts and components for [during FY22],” Sony CFO Hikori Totoki said during an earnings briefing. “We feel that there is a little bit higher demand than that, so if the question is if we can meet the demand, I think we’re still short somewhat.”

Sony has sold more than 19 million PS5 units so far since the console launched, and if you’re looking to grab one for yourself, check out GameSpot’s PS5 restock page to learn when fresh supplies are available.

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Does Diablo Immortal Have Cross-Play Or Cross-Progression?

When it was first announced, Diablo Immortal was only confirmed for mobile devices. However, that has now changed as we approach its June 2 release date, with Blizzard confirming the free-to-play dungeon-crawler will also be available on PC. But with a game like this, which relies heavily on multiplayer interactions, it’s important to keep the community together. So, does Diablo Immortal have cross-play? And does Diablo Immortal have cross-progression so you can switch platforms on the fly?

Diablo Immortal cross-play support

Blizzard hasn’t shared many specifics yet, but it has confirmed that yes, Diablo Immortal supports cross-play between mobile and PC. If you’re on PC and your friends are on a mobile platform, you’ll be able to play the game together, and because there is controller support on both mobile and PC, no one should feel like the weak link if they aren’t by a keyboard and a giant monitor.

Because it’s launching on mobile at the same time that open beta hits PC, the team wanted the interface to be almost exactly the same on both platforms. It will scale up from mobile, and though you’ll see some on-screen buttons that can be used in the PC version, there will also be hotkey support for “all major functions.”

Diablo Immortal cross-progression support

Blizzard has said very little about the specifics here, but Diablo Immortal will support cross-progression. This almost certainly means the character you play on PC will also be available to play on mobile, letting you go back and forth between the two platforms without losing any experience or loot.

Because the original mobile version of the game allowed for simultaneous moving and attacking, this feature was also carried over to the PC version–as such, you will have the choice of using the WASD keys for movement and mouse-clicking for attacking, though traditional mouse movement will also be an option for those who are used to previous Diablo games.

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Apple Upsets Developers By Removing Games That Haven’t Been Updated In A While

Apple has begun cracking down on apps and games on its App Store that have not been updated in a handful of years, angering numerous game developers who have stopped supporting their products on the platform.

Several game developers started sharing messages that Apple had sent out last week, indicating that their games needed to be updated within the next 30 days or risk being taken off the App Store entirely. Robert Kabwe of Protopop Games, creator of the free puzzle game Motivoto, shared the email he received from Apple while airing his frustrations about having to update a finished title and risk breaking it.

“This is not cool,” Kabwe tweeted. “Console games from 2000 are still available for sale. This is an unfair barrier to indie devs.”

Emilia Lazer-Walker, another game designer with games on the App Store, echoed the sentiment over receiving the same notice from Apple. “Games can exist as completed objects! These free projects aren’t suitable for updates or a live service model, they’re finished artworks from years ago.”

The problem that arises with updates is that they can incur big-time investments from developers, especially if a game was built on older versions of popular game engines or build environments that Apple provides through its IDE, Xcode. This means that developers must take away time from current projects or, worse yet, risk breaking existing games to comply with a rule that many think Apple is applying arbitrarily.

It should be noted that Apple isn’t the only company doing this. Google applies an identical rule to apps on the Play Store, removing any app that hasn’t been updated in over two years. This is despite older apps still being downloaded and functioning as intended, making it even more challenging for smaller developers to maintain a presence on either store.

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Mario Strikers: Battle League Overview Trailer Details New Mechanics, Strikers Club, And More

Nintendo has released a new overview trailer for Mario Strikers: Battle League, laying out the game’s rules and giving players a few tips for how to play the Mushroom Kingdom’s style of soccer.

The trailer shows the game’s high-action take on soccer, including team tackles that let players push a teammate down the field, the Hyper Strike special shot that can score two goals at once, and the Strike Orb that activates the Hyper Strike.

The game features 10 playable characters, each with their own customization options through stat-boosting equipment that can be added to the head, body, arms, and legs. Character stats that can be boosted with gear include speed for dribbling the ball, strength for tackling, and shooting power. The 10 playable characters are as follows:

MarioLuigiPeachRosalinaToadYoshiDonkey KongBowserWarioWaluigi

The video also covers the game’s multiplayer offerings, with both local and online multiplayer available at launch. Up to eight players can join a game locally, so long as each player has their own Joy-Con controller. Online matches include 1v1 and 2v2 options, with two local players able to jump online together. Finally, the Strikers Club online mode lets up to 20 players join a club together and rise through the ranks by playing online matches.

Mario Strikers: Battle League is the latest in the Mario soccer franchise, the most recent previous game being Mario Strikers: Charged for the Wii back in 2007. The game will launch June 10 on Nintendo Switch.

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Warner Bros. “Smashlike” MultiVersus Closed Alpha Coming May 19, 2v2 Tournament Announced For Evo 2022

Warner Bros. Games and Player First Games have announced a closed alpha test for MultiVersus–the Smash Bros-esque platform fighter starring Superman, Shaggy from Scooby-Doo, and more–for May 19-27.

The announcement came with an 18-minute Devs vs. Pros video showing gameplay of four of the game’s characters: Superman, Tom and Jerry, Wonder Woman, and Shaggy. In the video, game director Tony Huynh and principal developer Daniel Kraft face off against professional Smash Bros. players Tyrell “NAKAT” Coleman and James “VoiD” Makekau-Tyson.

The closed alpha test will be available on Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, and PC, featuring rollback netcode via dedicated servers and full cross-play between systems. Players interested in joining the test can sign up at the game’s official website.

Along with news of the closed alpha, Warner Bros. also announced a 2v2 tournament for Evo 2022, which will take place August 5-7 in Las Vegas. Evo is the largest fighting game tournament event in the world, and will return to live in-person events for the first time since 2019 this year.

MultiVersus is a free-to-play platform fighter starring characters from across the Warner Bros. portfolio, from Bugs Bunny and Tom and Jerry to DC Comics superheroes like Batman and Superman. The game is slated for release sometime this year.

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Starbreeze Working On New IP, Looking To Expand Beyond Payday

Payday developer Starbreeze has outlined its plans to develop a new intellectual property, which the company is aiming to launch in 2025. In the interim Q1 report for 2022, CEO Tobias Sjogren explained that the studio was currently evaluating several opportunities to grow its portfolio of games and diversify its business.

“During the quarter, we launched a project to develop a new game in-house with a view to release in 2025,” Sjogren said in the interim report. “This game might be based on a licensed brand, but we are also working on developing new IPs internally. Our strategy for new games is to use our experience in games as a service, and our ability to build strong communities that create long-term entertainment value for our players and long-term revenue for Starbreeze.”

The core goal for Starbreeze with its development of new IPs is to create a long-term and differentiated revenue model to help strengthen the studio, Sjorgen added. Payday still remains a valuable series for the studio, although its current earnings have seen a decrease of 32% year-over-year in net sales, according to GamesIndustry.Biz.

Payday 2 is carrying the company as it accounted for nearly all revenue earned during Q1, but PC sales during the quarter declined from $2.26 million last year to $2 million this year due to a variety of factors Sjogren added.

As for Payday 3, the game is still expected to release in 2023 and will feature a dynamic version of New York City to explore and rob blind. One interesting twist on the game’s reactive sandbox will be that the in-universe media will cover the Payday heist team of Dallas, Hoxton, Chains, and Wolf’s exploits, which could lead to a few surprises.

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AMD Prepares New “Raise The Game” Bundle – Rushing to Counter Falling Card Prices

As retail video card prices drop back down to more normal prices following 18 months of cryptocurrency-fueled madness, AMD and its partners are quickly finding themselves with a new concern: AMD video card prices are dropping too much. As Ethereum mining profitability has plummeted, so has the price on video cards, especially the highest margin cards at the high-end of AMD’s product stack. As a result, the company is undertaking a rapid effort to shore up video card prices by bringing back game bundles with a new Raise The Game campaign.

The tried and true tool for boosting the value of video cards in slower times, game bundles are a favored tactic of video card makers to improve the value of their product, allowing them to improve their competitiveness or value to the consumer without changing the hardware itself. With the street value of a new AAA PC game going for $60 – and video card makers paying far less than that via bulk purchases and in-kind advertising – video game bundles are a relatively cheap way to boost the value of a product or otherwise stave off a more painful price cut. And while game bundles are a common fixture in more normal times, there hasn’t been a need for them in the past year as video cards have been quickly selling out without the additional help.

But as normalicy returns to the video card market and demand for new cards from miners has all but dried up (Ethereum mining profitability is now back to its pre-2021 levels), video card sales have dropped significantly. And so have their prices: in the last 2 days alone, the cheapest Radeon RX 6900 XT on Newegg has dropped from $949 to $849, which now puts it a good $150 below AMD’s original MSRP.

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Listen To The Elden Ring Theme In 15 Different Musical Styles

Can’t get enough of Elden Ring or its soundtrack? Music producer and YouTuber Alex Moukala has put out a cover of the Elden Ring main theme that cycles through 15 different music styles, ranging from classical Spanish guitar to dark synth, symphonic metal, and more.

Moulaka has said that the video was inspired by Marvel’s Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, with the musician mashing together two of 2022’s biggest pop culture moments to ask “what if Elden Ring took place in a multiverse where the game’s genre (and its soundtrack) kept changing?”

The result gives us 15 very different takes on the theme, though as commenters have pointed out, some of them need to be made into much longer versions than the short snippets played in the video.

On Twitter, Moulaka said that the video was also inspired by a 2021 video by producer Aurora Australis, who did a similar cover of the classic Final Fantasy VII track One-Winged Angel in 32 different musical genres.

After years of anticipation, Elden Ring has become one of 2022’s most successful games so far, with more than 13 million units sold as of the end of March.

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Call Of Duty: Warzone Mobile Game Codenamed “Project Aurora” Revealed

Activision has revealed a new Call of Duty game is coming to mobile devices. Nicknamed “Project Aurora,” the upcoming title is a battle royale that aims to deliver “a fresh new way to play.” The studio announced the big news on its website, writing this would be the first of regular updates as the game is being developed.

While the game was rumored earlier this year following Activision posting a hiring ad on the official Call of Duty website, this is the first confirmation of the game by the studio. The upcoming project seemingly aims to bring the Call of Duty: Warzone experience to mobile devices. The team claims their mission is to unite “a global community of diverse players with a fast-paced, precise, and high-quality battle royale action experience that delivers a fresh new way to play.”

According to the post, the Project Aurora team has already begun play testing the game, but don’t expect to see or hear anything about the game any time soon. The closed alpha is reportedly “limited in size,” and the select few who are playing are prohibited from sharing any details about the game publicly.

“The closed alpha is limited in size and with it we are looking to simply start to improve tuning, stress test matches, identify and fix bugs, as well as collect feedback and insights on all aspects of the game as new features come online,” the Project Aurora team wrote. “Participants in the closed alpha will not be sharing details publicly, but we will begin to post updates here. As development ramps up, so will the frequency of posts.”

The post then goes on to say more people will be added as the game hits certain developmental milestones. Right now, however, the content within the alpha is still heavily subject to change. According to the team, the current test is mostly a way for them to assess the game’s “large-scale battle royale gameplay mechanics on mobile devices.”

For those of you who are in the closed alpha (lucky you!), the Project Aurora team offered a few updates. First and foremost, be aware that your progress will not carry over to the finished game and is subject to deletion “at any time.” Additionally, if you are having any technical difficulties, the team says to use the game’s in-game channels for providing feedback.

In Call of Duty: Warzone news, the game’s limited-time King Kong vs. Godzilla event–Operation Monarch–has just begun. In addition, the game just received a patch that changes the sounds your operator makes while moving, among other things.

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