“I hear Sony is briefing people in Brussels claiming Microsoft is unwilling to offer them parity for Call of Duty if we acquire Activision,” wrote Shaw (via VGC), before claiming that “Nothing could be further from the truth”. He goes on to reference Microsoft’s much-ballyhooed “10 year deal to give [Sony] parity on timing, content, features, quality, playability, and any other aspect of the game”.

That’s an offer that Microsoft’s been dangling in Sony’s face since at least November (opens in new tab), but it hasn’t been taken up yet. Well, not by Sony, anyway. Nintendo inked a basically identical parity deal (opens in new tab) with Microsoft in December, despite CoD’s total lack of presence on Switch.

Shaw goes on to say, well, a lot of things Microsoft has said before across countless tweets, press releases, competition authority filings, and op-eds in the Wall Street Journal (opens in new tab). Shaw says that, since PlayStation is the market leader, it’d be a baffling choice to summarily withhold one of Activision’s biggest series from the platform. And hey, he adds, remember how generous Microsoft has been with Minecraft? If the company didn’t lock up one of the biggest and best-selling games of all time, why would it do it with CoD?

To be fair to Shaw, he has a point, and if Sony really is whispering to EU regulators that Microsoft wants to keep CoD all to itself, that’s definitely dirty pool. But a 10-year deal isn’t quite full parity, and even if Phil Spencer says Microsoft will put CoD on PlayStation “as long as there’s a PlayStation out there (opens in new tab),” Sony would be remiss not to focus on what the company is actually willing to put to paper.

Plus, surely EU regulators are well-aware of the saga up to this point? Microsoft has been trumpeting its 10-year offer to anyone who will listen and several people who won’t, so it’s hardly a secret. I can’t imagine there are many high-powered Brussels politicos who would actually fall prey to untruths about what Microsoft is willing to offer Sony, wouldn’t they all be well-aware of the proffered deal by now?

I suppose we’ll see. The conflict over Activision doesn’t look set to abate any time soon, but Microsoft certainly seems to be in a bit of rough patch at the moment. It reportedly faces an antitrust warning from the EU (opens in new tab), laid off 10,000 people a couple of weeks ago, and to top it off, it recently had to sheepishly walk back accusations of unconstitutionality (opens in new tab) it made in a filing to the FTC. Who knows what the future holds?

The official announcement (opens in new tab) kind of buries this under the news that new missions will be arriving in season two and optimistically calls the wipe “a refresh of your current Faction mission progress and an inventory (Contraband and Keys) reset.” This comes alongside a major rebalancing of the mode’s AI and an acknowledgement that the difficulty curve of the faction missions “was too aggressive for many players” and is being smoothed-out.

But it’s the progress wipe that’s caught the attention. There is nothing to start off your week like a CODbro sending an angry tweet about such changes saying “casual players are going to fucking lose it!”

Those filthy casuals, always losing it. Grizzviollent, meanwhile, somberly warns that (opens in new tab) “Infinity Ward’s reputation may never recover from this decision.” Some players were more precise about why this might be annoying. “To be clear, your plan for CoD Season 2 is to reset our DMZ faction mission progress, which means about 300-400 hours wasted by my friends and I to unlock a 2nd insured slot,” writes Duke Skymocker (opens in new tab). “This feels like a ‘fool me once’ situation. We’re not grinding missions to unlock the same shit again.”

It should be said, however, that it’s always easy to find COD players complaining about something, and there’s plenty of more reasoned reaction too: Not least because server wipes are common in games that are like DMZ, the most obvious example being Escape from Tarkov which resets everything roughly twice a year. It’s always been clear that DMZ was modelled on the likes of Tarkov, and an attempt to make what’s good about that game more accessible to more players. In Tarkov’s case you have a somewhat more hardcore playerbase who tend to play it as their primary game though, and mostly welcome the opportunity to do it again but better (Tarkov also has a player hideout at its core which is fun to start over with, and DMZ has no equivalent).

Warzone does have a much broader appeal than Tarkov and so the consequences here are going to be more widespread and, arguably, will hit the players who aren’t obsessives harder. I haven’t completed the faction paths in DMZ, for example, but it is kind of annoying that what I have done will soon be gone.

Horses for courses. These games are huge time sinks and, if a group of players get invested, a decision like this loses an enormous amount of collective time. Some may well have the time to play games over and over again but others don’t.

I can’t speak for others, but the difference for me is that Tarkov wipes tend to re-ignite my interest, because the nature of that game makes repeat playthroughs different every time. Hearing this about DMZ doesn’t quite pull me back in the same way, but then perhaps that’s why it needs such an overhaul of missions and difficulties. Either way the wipe is coming February 15, so get ready for much wailing, gnashing of teeth, and Youtubers with aghast faces asking “Greedy Activision did WHAT?!?”

Now that the pandemic has all but subsided, working from home is off the table for most of us. That means it’s more important than ever for those of us unhappy with our jobs, but lacking the motivation or energy to search job listings for something better, to develop some foolproof tactics—ways to fool your boss into thinking you’re working when you’re actually playing games at work (opens in new tab). 

Even those of us still working from home have to employ certain methods to make our bosses think we’re working, and your company’s monitoring software is going to make that much more difficult. We made a separate listicle on how to survive working from home (opens in new tab), if you’re still in isolation, but the following is a combination of work from home and office tactics that will help you to look busy when you’re really not.

With these under your belt, you should be able to get away with putting in the minimal effort necessary, for the minimal pay you’re getting. 

Work from home tactics

 Set yourself to “in a meeting”

Seriously, just start a meeting with yourself and talk to no one. Depending on your settings and whether you’re using Google or Microsoft teams, your status should automatically be set to “in a meeting,” which should stop people from harassing you. You can set it to display as your status on the messaging software, Slack, too, if you click your profile. You can do this either manually, or with integrations.

Just be prepared to make up the purpose of the meeting in case your boss asks what it was about. And remember that unless you set the meeting to private, anyone can see who joined and what it’s about (see right for how that appears in Google calendar).

Check for monitoring software

If you’re using a company issued laptop or desktop PC, there’s a good chance it’ll come with pre-installed spyware of some description. Some monitoring software, such as Sophos for example, will flag random game updates and refuse to launch them, which is utterly disheartening when you have an hour to kill and your gaming PC is out of action.

Of course, it’s in a company’s best interest to keep an eye on the stuff you’re clicking and downloading, especially when a virus could breach the security of the entire company and its clients. But there are a few things you can do to avoid getting caught out at least. 

First off, make friends with the IT department so they can unblock certain apps for you. No seriously. They know everyone plays games in their spare time and will likely understand if you want to get a bit of gaming in on your break. Just let the people in IT know the software that’s being blocked and they may well be able to unblock it for you. Maybe don’t ask them to unblock your long list of dating sims though, or risk losing a lot of rep.

Of course, there’s always the option to flash your boot drive and reinstall Windows (opens in new tab) to get rid of that monitoring software, but you’ll need a Windows key for that—maybe IT will throw you a bone? 

Although, the likelihood of getting fired when they find out what you’ve done, or a scammer takes over your company accounts and robs it blind increases exponentially in that case.

Keep work and personal accounts separate

This advice echoes in every corner of the web: don’t cross-pollinate. Do not log into your work account on your personal devices browser or apps, and similarly don’t log into your personal accounts on company devices. Your employer will be able to access and even download your browsing history to use against you, and going incognito is unlikely to make a difference. Be vigilant either way.

Use Steam’s offline mode 

If you have your boss added to Steam like I do, there’s a necessary method for keeping your gaming private: switch to offline mode, or at least appear offline—though the latter doesn’t work when you’re sharing a company Steam account. 

Either way, your manager may well have been logged in automatically to their Steam account so never assume they’re offline or not paying attention. This may even have been what gave away one gamer who got a verbal warning for playing games (opens in new tab) on their break.

In the same vein, make sure to play games you can actually pause during work hours, because you’ll undoubtedly get caught out with an impromptu meeting. Which brings me to my next tip…

Make sure your notifications are on 

In Windows 11 at least, you can turn off Game mode or play around with Focus Assist to ensure you get notifications about that upcoming meeting. I can’t count how many times I’ve been testing a game (What? Sometimes that is my job) only to discover I’m ten minutes late for a meet. Either way, here are the settings you need to check to make sure it doesn’t happen to you.

First go into Start, and type Settings. Then go to Gaming > Game Mode and turn it off. This way you should get notifications even in full screen mode. If that doesn’t work, in Windows 11 under Settings go into Notifications and check off “Turn on do not disturb automatically” for “playing a game” and “using an app in full screen”. 

For Windows 10, the same settings can be found under Focus Assist > Automatic rules.

Mouse jigglers

Coming in both physical (opens in new tab) and software form (opens in new tab), a mouse jiggler will move your mouse around in order to not only keep your PC from going to sleep. They’re essentially for fooling time tracking software.

With one of these you can appear online when you’re actually off playing the Steam Deck. Some can even be programmed to open and close different apps which can make it look like you’re flicking through all your different responsibilities in a flurry of productivity.

OlderGeeks (opens in new tab)‘ Randy tells me a lot of tracking software can tell the difference “between a mouse making the same movement over and over again and more random movement”. That means you may want to play around with other methods if you’re on time tracking.

“You can also hang a mouse from a string next to a wall (very close) and have an oscillating fan blow on it”, says Randy. Though he warns that “the bazillion companies who make this monitoring software are constantly monitoring the Internet looking for ways people are bragging about tricking the software. It doesn’t take them long to change their software to recognize these tricks.”

Downloading software like this straight onto your work PC might be a bad idea as they are likely to be tracking that too—the trick is to have it running off a USB stick (opens in new tab) in a lot of cases. That way, if you get caught, you can just act all confused and claim to be the victim of a work prank.

When it comes to physical mouse jigglers it’s important to remember that some extremely anal employers have the ability to monitor what’s plugged into your machine. Get one that plugs into an external power source in that case.

Tactics for the office

Decoy apps and double monitors 

Keeping your assigned task open on the monitor that’s most easily spotted across the office is always a good tactic, that way nothing looks out of the ordinary. You’ll also have a bit of time to close down those NSFW tabs before anyone gets too close.

There are also a bunch of apps with safe for work modes, making them look like spreadsheets from afar so as not to arouse suspicion, such as the one travel company Kayak (opens in new tab) came out with a few years back.

Get the look, or get the hook 

Something I’d never considered is how not stressed I come across at work. Bubbly, always smiling and making comments about weird aspects of a story I’m researching. But therein lies my issue. My boss sees that I’m enjoying myself and reaslises, “hey, she looks like she could do with more work.” When you look visibly stressed, nice bosses at least are less likely to load you down with more work.

The trick is to appear overworked even when you’re not. Roll up your sleeves, undo that tie a little, and keep up that “I’m working on a problem” expression going for as long as humanly possible. You can even spice things up by pacing around with a pen and notepad, sighing heavily while rubbing your temples. Just remember there’s a fine line between looking overworked and looking like you just rolled out of bed.

If all else fails, there’s always the absolutely shocking tactic of actually working hard. But who am I kidding? It’s 2023.

While she’s performed in movies like Solo: A Star Wars Story and will be appearing in the next Indiana Jones, Waller-Bridge apparently won’t be playing Lara Croft, though The Hollywood Reporter doesn’t say who will be following Angelina Jolie and Alicia Vikander in the role.

That’s not all. Amazon has a movie coming as well (opens in new tab), which will be tied to both the series and the game “to build out a connected world of Tomb Raider”. Basically, a Lara Cinematic Universe then. (MGM lost the rights to Tomb Raider when a planned sequel to the Vikander movie fell through.) 

To complicate things, Netflix also has a Tomb Raider series in the works, having announced an anime version with Powerhouse, the studio who animated Castlevania. It’ll feature Hayley Atwell, who played Peggy Carter in various Marvel projects, as the voice of Lara Croft. It’s likely to run this year, and has been described as an attempt to unify the timelines of the existing versions of the character. Something that’ll only get messier if Amazon’s projects reboot her again.

Amazon currently has a TV series based on the Fallout games in production, which began filming in July of 2022. That one will star Walton Goggins from Justified, who coincidentally played an archaeologist in the 2018 Tomb Raider movie. Amazon’s Fallout series isn’t retelling any of the games, instead being an original story, though who knows which direction they’ll go with Tomb Raider. Based on Waller-Bridge’s previous work, hopefully it has a sense of humor.

In a recent quickfire interview with Game Informer (opens in new tab) (via the NME (opens in new tab)), Dambuster’s lead narrative designer Khan and creative director James Worrall answered 86 questions about Dead Island 2, covering its Los Angeles location, attention-grabbing trailer, and how the skill system will work, among other things.

The original Dead Island had skill trees for each character, with three branches covering Combat, Survival, and Fury abilities. Asked if the sequel would also have a skill tree, Khan replied, “There’s a skill deck, which is even better.”

Expanding on that, Worrall described the skill deck as, “A collection of slots that represent all kinds of different abilities and you swap the cards in and out on the fly, however you want, whenever you want.” Don’t expect something like Midnight Suns then, where you’re randomly dealt cards from your deck of abilities, but rather a card-like visualization for a set of special kicks, punches, ground slams and so on that you swap between when, say, a boss turns out to be immune to the one kind of attack you’ve specialized in.

Khan chose the cards as her pick for one of the most exciting additions to Dead Island 2, saying, “The art is amazing, they’re fun to look at and all of that, but they’re just really fun to play with. [You can] change skills midair. You can take off, change your skill, and land with a different loadout, and that’s just amazing.”

“And you can take some real risks with your loadout as well,” Worrall added. “It really pays off and sometimes goes horribly wrong.”

Sam Greer played a demo of Dead Island 2 last year, and enjoyed the precision of its combat, which is all about simulating where you aim and what happens to the exact lump of zombie you hit. “All that is thanks to a system for rendering zombie bodies called F.L.E.S.H.,” she wrote, “or Fully Locational Evisceration System for Humanoids. It took a decade to create the perfect acronym but by god, they’ve done it. What it means is that much like the recent Resident Evil Remakes, zombies have an absolutely disgusting level of detail as you hack or shoot at them. It’s gross and grimy, the kind of excess that makes you feel like you need a shower after playing.”

Dead Island 2 will, if all goes to plan, be available on the Epic Games Store (opens in new tab) from April 28.