Boom Tasmania batsman Ben McDermott will head on his first international T20 tour with some priceless wisdom gleaned from perhaps Australia's greatest batter in the game's shortest format, David Warner. McDermott played alongside and under Warner during his stint with the Winnipeg Hawks in the Global T20 Canada competition based in Toronto in July. Warner, who is serving a 12-month suspension from international and Australian domestic cricket for his involvement in the Cape Town ball-tampering scandal, captained the Hawks in the latter stages of the tournament and made a huge impression on youngster McDermott. "Exceptional, he was awesome," McDermott told cricket.com.au at the start of the summer when asked what it was like playing with Warner. "Couldn't have been better. He was really helpful and just a really good guy to be around as a young player looking up to him throughout my whole career. "It was good to just be around him, let alone playing with him." There is perhaps no batsman in the country in better form than McDermott, who in five one-day innings this summer has posted scores of 56, 117, 28, 102no and 76 for Tasmania in the JLT One-Day Cup. That sparkling form has seen him picked as part of Australia's 14-man T20 squad for the three-match series against Pakistan that follows two Test matches. While he hasn't played a top-flight 20-over match since Canada, the 23-year-old will travel to the UAE with some tactical tips from Warner, Australia's leading T20 international run-scorer. "He didn't change anything technically in such a short space of time, he didn't want to say anything there," he said with regards to advice offered from the experienced left-hander. "More tactical stuff around T20 cricket and how to go about different scenarios. "I batted with him once and (we) just (spoke) tactical stuff with my batting." Along with his suspension, Warner can no longer hold a leadership position in Australian cricket. But in foreign competitions the dynamic left-hander is free to lead, and his captaincy nous is highly regarded around the world. "He's had a lot of success with (Indian Premier League franchise) Sunrisers Hyderabad," McDermott said of Warner, who won the 2016 IPL title with Hyderabad as skipper, having also won eight from nine matches in charge of the Australian T20 team. "Everyone's ears prick up when he speaks.

A daring captain, a charming personality and a marvellous commentator, the late Richie Benaud OBE traversed generations to become one of the most influential figures in cricket history. An icon of the game, the man simply known as ‘Richie’ will be posthumously honoured as the 40th Legend of Australian sport at the Sport Australia Hall of Fame’s 34th Induction and Awards Gala Dinner in Melbourne on Thursday, October 11. The announcement coincides with what would have been his 88th birthday (6th October) - Benaud passed away in 2015. An inaugural member of the Sport Australia Hall of Fame in 1985, Benaud was unanimously recommended to receive this award in 2008 but requested that the honour be postponed until he retired from his work within the media. The Sport Australia Hall of Fame’s annual elevation of one member to “Legend” status is the most prestigious sporting honour that can be bestowed. Only the third cricketer to become a Legend, Benaud is honoured alongside Sir Donald Bradman AC (1993) and Keith Miller AM MBE (2004). Richie’s widow, Daphne Benaud, says he would be proud to sit among such company as he had the utmost admiration for them. “Knowing he is up alongside those two would have made him extremely thrilled and honoured because he had such respect for both of them,” she said. “The family is most honoured by it too. We’re delighted and very much looking forward to the evening.” Benaud was a colossus of cricket, and a magnificent man. As a respected captain he never lost a series. As a comforting commentator Benaud defined the craft and provided the audible backdrop in countless living rooms across the country for decades. The finest leg spin bowler of his era, Benaud proved himself a match winner on numerous occasions. He made his Sheffield Shield debut at the age of 18 and played his first Test aged 21 in the 1951-52 series against the West Indies. In first-class cricket, he was an aggressive lower-order batsman, scoring 11,719 runs - including 23 centuries - while taking 945 wickets. He played in 63 Tests, scoring 2201 runs - including three centuries and nine half centuries - and also took 248 wickets and 65 catches. His greatest bowling performance came when he took 6-70, giving Australia victory against England and retention of the Ashes at Old Trafford in 1961. In 1962 he was named Wisden Cricketer of the Year and was made a member of the Order of the British Empire before defending the Ashes again at home in 1962/63. At state level, Benaud captained New South Wales 32 times. His state career with NSW spanned 73 matches and included 3749 runs, 266 wickets and 92 catches. Retiring in 1964, Benaud's records in the game speak for themselves. He is one of a rare group of Australian cricketers to have scored both 10,000 runs and taken 500 wickets in first-class cricket. In 1963, he became the first player in the history of the game to achieve the Test match 'double' of 2000 runs and 200 wickets. Like he was on the field, Benaud was sharp, decisive and authoritative in his journalistic work. Sliding comfortably into the role of commentator, Benaud would become the ‘voice of cricket’ for both Australia and England for nearly half a century. With class and style, Benaud won many admirers, and the decision to elevate him to “Legend” status was beyond doubt according to Sport Australia Hall of Fame Chairman John Bertrand AO. “Richie transcended the sport of cricket,” Bertrand said. “He was the oracle of the game. A champion of the game, captained Australia 28 times over 63 Tests, he went on to become our most trusted and influential cricket broadcaster over a career spanning an incredible 48 years. He was the man.” It is a sentiment echoed by Selection Committee Chairman Rob de Castella AO MBE. “Our Sport Australia Hall of Fame Legends are very, very special,” de Castella said. “They must stand out and shine above the best of the best. This year, we have the opportunity to elevate Richie Benaud to this esteemed position in Australian sporting history. Richie was a household name and an icon of sport, with humility, talent, class and amazing insight which he shared with the world, leaving a legacy that continues to teach and inspire generations. As our 40th Legend, Richie Benaud joins an illustrious group of our country’s greatest.” To successive generations of cricket followers, Richie Benaud was held in the highest esteem. With his signature “off-white” blazer and a genteel expression, “two for two hundred and twenty-two”, Benaud was a doyen of the game. “I always smile to myself if I see that score appear,” Mrs Benaud said. “I think they exaggerate his voice a bit, but it’s just one of those fun things. I think about him when I see that score.” A true gentleman of the gentleman’s game, successive generations of Australians often felt like they knew Richie at a personal level. Not by accident, Mrs Benaud recalls.

Pakistan captain Sarfraz Ahmed has warned his ace leg-spinner Yasir Shah will attack a new-look Australian side when they meet in the first of two Test matches starting in Dubai from Sunday. But Pakistan look set to be without Yasir's leg-spinning partner Shadab Khan, who is expected to miss at least the first Test due to injury. Australia face a trial by spin as has so often been the case on their tours to Asia. In the space of six years, they have lost 12 of their 15 Tests with only two wins and one draw on tours of India (twice), one each to Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and United Arab Emirates. They lost 2-0 to Pakistan in UAE in 2014, with Yasir taking 12 and left-arm spinner Zulfiqar Babar 14 wickets. But Yasir will now be the lone experienced bowler after Babar faded last year and Sarfraz says he wants him to aggressively hunt for wickets. "When we played Australia in 2014 we played some attacking cricket," said Sarfraz. "Yasir is our main bowler so we will want him to attack and get us wickets to win the series. "But similarly, we will not put extra pressure on him and will not want him to go in a defensive mode, so other bowlers will have to support him." But Shadab, Pakistan's second leg-spinner, is unlikely to feature in Dubai having not fully recovered from a groin injury, according to a ESPN report. Sarfraz will instead be able to call on 33-year-old off-spinner Bilal Asif, who played three one-day internationals in 2015 but has yet to play a Test, and potentially recalled allrounder Mohammad Hafeez, who will turn his arm over as a back-up off-spinner if selected. Hafeez's action was cleared as legal in May this year and could prove dangerous for Australia's left-handers. Sarfraz admitted Pakistan's batsmen will also face challenge against Australia's veteran spinner Nathan Lyon, who took 8-103 in the drawn tour game in Dubai earlier this week. "We attacked him four years ago and at that time we had great batsmen in Younis Khan and Misbah-ul-Haq," said Sarfraz of the 2014 series when Lyon got only three wickets in two Tests. "Four years on he is a better bowler, so he will be their main bowler and a challenge for us." Australian captain Tim Paine admitted Yasir will pose a challenge for his team. "Yasir is clearly a world-class bowler who's got a phenomenal record at this ground in Dubai," he said. "We're going to have to take everything we've been working on. "We've faced a hell of a lot spin, there's no doubt about that and Australian touring sides always do." Pakistan did not include any frontline spinners in Australia's warm-up game last week, allowing Mitchell Marsh to score a brilliant 162 while Aaron Finch, Shaun Marsh and Travis Head all posted half-centuries to tune up for the Test.

Mitchell Starc says he'll have to tone down his naturally attacking approach to bowling during Australia's Qantas Tour of the United Arab Emirates as part of a fine-tuned strategy for the subcontinent. Australia are yet to reveal who will partner the left-arm speedster for the first Test against Pakistan in Dubai, with recalled veteran Peter Siddle and uncapped Queenslander Michael Neser the contenders for the second fast-bowling berth. Siddle and Starc bowled together in the nets during Friday's final major training session ahead of the series-opener, but Neser was picked ahead of Siddle for the recent tour match against Pakistan A and bowled well despite picking up just one wicket. Whoever gets the nod, Starc says Australia's quicks have a new mandate to play second fiddle to spinners Nathan Lyon and Jon Holland. Which will be a significant change of approach for the prolific left-armer, who has 182 wickets from just 43 Tests and is one of just five current bowlers in the world with a strike rate of less than 50. "We've changed the roles of the fast bowlers over here, it's a little bit more of a supportive role and the spinners come into the game a lot sooner," Starc said on Friday during a visit to a labour camp on the outskirts of Dubai as part of a Cricket Cares initiative. "I've had conversations with JL (coach Justin Langer) and a few other guys about potentially changing my role slightly to these parts of the world. It's not like Australia where you can blast guys out on fast, bouncy wickets." After a brutal introduction to Test cricket in the subcontinent, Starc has since proved his pace and late movement can be a weapon regardless of how flat the pitch. His first three Tests in Asia yielded four wickets at 85, including Australia's most recent match in the UAE where Younis Khan blasted a double-century and Misbah-ul-Haq hit the equal-quickest Test hundred. But the 2016 Test series in Sri Lanka, while miserable for Australia in that they suffered a 0-3 whitewash, saw Starc take 24 wickets at 15, the greatest haul by an Aussie quick in a three-Test series. "In the past, perhaps that Test match I played here last time (in Abu Dhabi), I was stuck in that Australian mindset of attack, attack, attack," explained Starc, who will be without fellow Ashes-winning quicks Josh Hazlewood and Pat Cummins for this tour. "I went for runs and didn't really take too many wickets. "I've progressed my game to play many different roles and I have to shape that role to this part of the world and watch the world's greatest (spinner) do his thing from the other end in Nath (Lyon). "In that (Sri Lanka) tour I think I sort of realised when to attack and when to have to sit back, still not go for too many runs. When the ball was reversing, that's when I could attack. "But at the same time, it's making sure you're building that pressure by not going for runs and earning the right to take those wickets and bowling attacking. "Here where the wickets are probably even flatter and it's a bit warmer as well, you have to change that role again slightly, but I'll be definitely taking a bit of that (Sri Lanka series) blueprint into this tour as well." Having played together in that Abu Dhabi Test back in 2014, Starc backed Siddle to perform if he wins an international cap for the first time in nearly two years. "He's got over 200 Test wickets, so he's got a lot of experience in international cricket," he said. "He's been away from the international game for a little bit but taken a lot of wickets in cricket in Australia and then over in England (in county cricket with Essex this year) as well. "(He's) a guy with a huge amount of experience. The ball seems to be coming out really well, he's in a very happy place. "If he suits up for us on the weekend I'm sure he'll do a fantastic job as he has done in the past."

A ruthless all-round performance delivered Australia a nine-wicket win in Canberra The result: New Zealand 103 (Perry 4-21, Molineux 3-11) lost to Australia 1-104 (Healy 67) by nine wickets The match in a tweet: Rachael Haynes reels in an absolute stunner as Perry and Molineux dismantle the White Ferns for 103 before a Healy blitz secured the clean sweep with 45 balls to spare. Perry, Perry good: Ellyse Perry was not needed with the bat in the entire series so she had no choice but to make an impact with the ball in Canberra. Starting off with the key wicket of Suzie Bates, Perry clattered the stumps of Amy Satterthwaite, found the leading edge of Jess Watkin and had Amanda Kerr caught behind to collect her third four-wicket haul in T20 internationals. Out with the old, in with the Molineux: Sophie Molineux might not be playing had Jess Jonassen been fit, but as it stands the left-arm spinner has taken her chance with both hands. Darting the ball into New Zealand's right-hander's from around the wicket, Molineux claimed 3-11 from four frugal overs. Her strategy of targeting the stumps was evident in her wickets: two lbws and one bowled, and she was on a hat-trick before being taken out of the attack by skipper Lanning. Brutal! When she did have a chance at the hat-trick, she fumbled a certain run out much to her visibly frustration. In the end it didn't matter. Healy hammering: Set a modest target, Alyssa Healy did not rein in her stroke play. Hitting over, through and around New Zealand's infield, the dynamic opening batter struck 12 fours and a flat six over mid-wicket. Her 50 came up in 35 balls, with 42 runs in boundaries. The right-hander shared a 98-run first-wicket stand with Beth Mooney to put the result and whitewash beyond doubt. Fielding – the good: Rachael Haynes take a bow! Running around from cover, Haynes flung out a left hand in desperation and clung on to Jess Watkins' ballooning leading edge between thumb and forefinger. The stunning effort was matched by her wild celebrations, sprinting away from her swarming teammates before she was eventually rounded up. The instant classic gave Perry two wickets in two balls, but it wasn't a perfect night in the field for Haynes or the Australians. Fielding – the bad: The Aussies had a horror night in the field last time they played at Manuka Oval, dropping four routine catches in a record-breaking loss to England in last summer's Women's Ashes. Friday night started in similar fashion when Mooney got in an awkward position and put down a dolly one-handed catch at cover, one that would have been scooped up by skipper Meg Lanning. Haynes, before her brilliant effort, dropped a sweetly-timed cut shot from Maddy Green at point. Fortunately for both Mooney and Haynes, each spill would not hurt the hosts.

A group of Mass Effect modders are working on a project that will entirely overhaul the finale of the original trilogy. Priority: Earth – Overhaul Mod aims to fix not just the existence of the game’s controversial Catalyst, but the entirety of the climactic London mission. Fair warning, this article contains spoilers for Mass Effect 3. I spoke with one of the mod’s creators, who goes by Orikon on Reddit and YouTube, about the motivation behind the project. They said that “like most people, I had issues with ME3’s ending. But when I say ‘ending’, I don’t mean just the Catalyst. It’s the final mission too.” That mission takes players to London, UK, but it’s an experience that let many fans of the series down. Orikon says that “ME3 is a spectacular game […] and for the entire game, you’re building up to this big, large, battle. The whole story, everything you do, all the missions, decisions, allies…..it was all supposed to culminate in London.” Sadly, that didn’t really come off – Orikon says that “the problems with London are wide as an ocean. Story-wise it’s very poor, with a minimal amount of dialogue, almost no exciting custscenes, lazy writing, and plot holes so big you could fly Harbinger [a massive Reaper character] through them.” “In terms of mission design, it’s even worse. The whole mission lacks any sense of excitement, urgency or closure. The two action scenes that do exist, are wasted due to a lack of music or ambient effects. Visual design is equally as bad. Due to console restrictions, Bioware had to chop London into a bunch of small parts, and load them separately as the player is moving through the city […] which resulted in the city feeling like several small, unrelated areas, connected together only through loading screens. Orikon states that London is so disappointing that it retroactively impacts the entire trilogy. “When you start ME1, you know that London is going to be exactly the same” no matter what choices you make throughout all three games. That feeling of “boredom and confusion” led Orikon to join forces with another Mass Effect modder – Kinkojiro, the creator of the Expanded Galaxy Mod, before they eventually began solo work on the mod in September 2017. The mod now aims “to improve upon Mass Effect 3’s final mission as much as technically possible.” Fixes range from tackling bugs and restoring cut content all the way up to recording brand-new dialogue and building new cutscenes into the level.

Overwatch’s Play of the Game system is one of the game’s most iconic features. It picks a pivotal play from the match to highlight an MVP after the action, and it feels real nice to have your actions highlighted. But the algorithm isn’t perfect – in fact, it’s often broken, and a particularly egregious example just hit Reddit. The ‘highlight’ opens from the perspective of a dead Genji player, waiting out the respawn timer while watching teammates contest the objective in overtime at a distance. Genji respawns, dashes toward the action and – er, that’s it. Death and a little walk toward where things are happening. Not even a failed Dragonblade attempt. There are plenty of bad plays of the game out there, but they rarely open with a corpse and end with nothing. The clip – which you can see here – is goofy enough fun, but it does highlight that the system could be better. Blizzard knows it, too, and despite attempts to patent Play of the Game detection methodology the developers have frequently over the years noted that they want to improve the tech. Judging by this, though, there’s still a way to go. But hey, Blizzard has more important things to focus on like now – like giving Doomfish the name and respect that he deserves. Gotta make sure those priorities are straight when it comes to allocating very important development resources.

The latest Humble Monthly Bundle has gone live, and November’s early unlocks include some real stars. Exquisitely dark Metroidvania Hollow Knight is part of the selection, as is survival horror sandbox 7 Days to Die. But this month’s headliner is Hitman – an excellent game in its own right, but it’s especially worth picking up as we head toward the launch of the sequel. As always, the bundle is available for $12, and you’ll get access to those three titles as soon as you pick it up. A further batch of mystery games will be announced and made available to purchasers on November 2, after the next bundle goes live. If you’re looking forward to the Hitman 2 release date, you’ll likely also want the previous game in your collection. Owners of the original game will get all six maps remastered for free as Hitman 2 DLC, doubling the amount of content available in Agent 47’s next outing. This is the best deal we’ve seen yet for Hitman 2016, so if you’ve been waiting now is probably the time. You can grab the November Humble Monthly Bundle here. For posterity, October’s bundle included Overwatch, Dungeons 3, American Truck Simulator, Gremlins Inc, Hidden Folks, Old Man’s Journey, We Were Here Too, and the exclusives Wandersong and Ollie & Bollie: Outdoor Estate. A Humble Monthly subscription also includes a 10% discount on store purchases and access to dozens of great indies and classics in the Humble Trove collection. Plus 5% of the proceeds go to charity, so you can assuage some of the guilt of seeing your backlog continue to grow.

The Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 Blackout beta offered one disappointment for PC power users – a frame rate cap. The 90fps cap was well beyond the 60Hz refresh rate offered by most displays, but it wouldn’t let you take advantage of the highest-end PC gaming monitors. Thankfully, the full game won’t have that restriction – but you’ll have to wait a bit at launch. There will be no frame rate cap for Zombies or standard multiplayer. Blackout will be capped at 120fps at launch, and that cap will increase to 144fps “as soon as the servers are stable.” Pending further stability checks, uncapped frame rates will be enabled “within the first few days” after launch. “During the Blackout beta,” Treyarch says on Reddit, “we made the decision to cap it at 90fps to monitor performance and online stability. The reason for this approach was that as a beta we had a lot of testing to do. It made sense for getting the game right for the whole community, and we were happy with the end result and the data we pulled from this approach.” While stability has apparently progressed since the beta, the developers “still want to roll things out carefully.” It’s worth noting that we’ve seen excellent performance across the board – at E3, we saw Black Ops 4 running at over 160 frames-per-second on Activision’s demo PCs.

No Man’s Sky continues its path of free updates years after release, and the latest brings a major overhaul for terrestrial exocraft vehicles. That includes the addition of the Pilgrim, a high-speed motorcycle that lets you tear around planetary surfaces on two wheels, and you can now customize the handling and look of your vehicles. You can pick up the Pilgrim Geobay blueprint as usual from the Blueprint Analyser. The whole vehicle summoning process has streamlined, too. A new Exocraft Summoning Station be built, which allows you to call up your exocraft with unlimited range anywhere on the planet – meaning you now only have to build Geobays once. Upgrade modules are now available for exocraft, giving you the chance to increase speed, boost, and other stats. These can be purchased with Nanites at the Exocraft Technician, assuming you’ve completed the appropriate quest chain. A separate new technology allows you to customize handling to prefer grip or drift. Vehicles also have bigger inventory sizes across the board. You can also get into visual customisation, altering colours, decals, and flame effects as you wish, with separate options for each element of the vehicle. Asymmetric nonsense rainbows? If that’s what you want, you’ve got it. The official patch notes detail further improvements, including fixes for multiplayer races and improved PC performance for tessellation. We’ve gotten new stuff like Quicksilver in other recent updates, and regular rotation of new events and content updates has helped to keep No Man’s Sky alive.

We all appreciate the seasonal Steam sales and all give our thanks to Gabe Newell in some way – mostly by emptying our wallets in tribute – but Valve has taken it to another level and has gone all out with a giant screen of the Gaben Steam sale meme, Lord Gaben, in its office. The floor-to-ceiling display featuring Newell’s face was spotted at the end of a Valve office tour and a photo was posted on Reddit. In the same Reddit thread, a Valve employee has confirmed that the studio has not one, but two of these displays and that “they are both huge.” Whether these displays go through a reel of different images or just Newell’s face on loop isn’t clear. From the photo, this display looks to be facing the office’s cafe or cafeteria meaning that Gabe can gaze at you whilst you eat your sandwich at lunch. While this may seem strange to some, our office also has creepy pictures of our bosses staring down on us as we work. Just one of the many similarities between us and valve – we also aren’t making Half-Life 3. For those who aren’t familiar with our Steam sale massiah, Gabe Newell is the co-founder of Steam and so is responsible for the platform’s seasonal sales with the meme popping up whenever there are Steam sale discounts. A bit of meme history for you, the meme can be traced back to Uncle Grim’s video TONIGHT’S THE NIGHT and further back to DeviantArt user freddre’s image. If you want to see the Gaben wall shrine then Valve offer office tours which can be organised through their website

Soulcalibur VI skews toward the characters of the earliest games in the series, and today Bandai Namco has confirmed that Inferno, the original boss character, will join the character list. In keeping with those old appearances, he’ll take moves from all over the rest of the roster and outpower every other character – which is why he can’t be used online. Inferno dates back to the original game, Soul Edge (Soul Blade in the West), where he shared a name with the titular demonic blade. The Inferno name was coined in the first Soulcalibur, and it’s been with him ever since – though he hasn’t officially appeared since 3. He’s a move thief, taking on the fighting styles of other characters and swapping between them at will. Based on the reveal trailer below, Inferno looks to have a more unique fighting style this time around, though it appears to be largely based on moves from Nightmare. Either way, he’s a properly cheap boss character, and the trailer confirms he can’t be used online. Reports from early builds of the game suggest he’s the final boss of Soul Chronicle, and will be unlocked by progressing through that mode.

Because of Dead or Alive, we have the term ‘jiggle physics.’ The series has a crass history of marketing itself in large part with the improbable physics applied to its female combatants, but Dead or Alive 6 aims to change that. Maybe. Early marketing for the latest in the series has toned down the sex appeal, but director Yohei Shimbori wants fans to know “breast movement” is still here. Default outfits in DOA6 show a bit less skin than they have in the past, and some – like Kasumi’s – are made of a rigid material that doesn’t allow for much freedom. “We look at the way the body moves,” Shimbori says, “not just the breasts, but other elements, too. We are really looking to show more natural body movement.” “It’s not something that we’re trying to put in people’s faces, ‘Oh, look at the breast movements!’ or anything,” he tells Game Informer. “However, it is an element of the game that fans of the series do tend to be geared toward. We’re working within our fan expectations, and we do want to dispel any rumors that there is no movement whatsoever. That’s been a misunderstanding.” The first Dead or Alive 6 trailer showed a new vision for the series, with more realistic characters and less exaggerated sex appeal. But despite the suggestion that this game would be “less sexualized,” the marketing has been quite different in Japan, where a pricey special edition comes complete with boob mouse pads and saucy body pillow cases. Whether this game follows through on its somewhat tamer promise, or if it’ll end up matching DOA5’s endless, expensive piles of bikini DLC, remains to be seen. Answers will come some time after the Dead or Alive 6 release date. In any case, Shimbori hopes you don’t focus on the breasts too much. “We also hope people don’t just focus on a specific body part because we are putting a lot of effort into the entire character, right down to facial animations, bruises, scratches, and sweat.”

Super Micro Computer may have been the prime target in a hack allegedly carried out by the Chinese military. Tiny chips, no bigger than the tip of a sharpened pencil, reportedly allowed complete access to bugged machines through nefarious code, and many companies, even US government contractors and a major bank, are said to be affected by the supply chain attack. The chips are said to have been planted on server motherboards made by Super Micro during the manufacturing process in China – the tech manufacturing hub of the world. It’s said that a branch of the People’s Liberation Army that specialises in computer attacks were responsible for the dangerous chips being implemented on motherboards that would eventually make their way into servers of some of the largest corporations in the world. Some of the companies believed to have purchased the modified motherboards include Amazon and Apple. The implanted chip was discovered back in 2015 by the US intelligence services, however, both tech giants are said to have made discoveries of the chips at a similar time. Super Micro, a US-based hardware company, is one of the largest server suppliers in the world, accounting for 5.1% of the worldwide server shipments made in Q3 2017. The company has denied the claims made in the extensive report by Bloomberg Businessweek, however, that hasn’t stopped a share price onslaught. The company has nearly lost half of its value since yesterday, plummeting 43.93%, and counting, in just a day. “We remain unaware of any such investigation,” a Super Micro representative says in response to the claims. Amazon and Apple have also denied the report from Bloomberg, both claiming they are unaware of any malicious chips planted within their servers. The Chinese government also indirectly denied the reports findings. “Supply chain safety in cyberspace is an issue of common concern,” a statement put out by the Chinese government says, “and China is also a victim.” The report claims that six current and former national security officials let slip the details on the investigation and its implications. Further confirmation was received from workers at Amazon Web Services (AWS) who confirmed how the chips were discovered during Amazon’s acquisition of Elemental, a software company that works on multiscreen video. Apple insiders, too, offered information regarding the hardware attack that Apple reportedly fell victim to. The supply chain from China to the US has already been a point of contention between the two economic superpowers. The US government recently implemented far-reaching tariffs on Chinese goods, some of which could increase PC component pricing considerably. Pricier graphics cards for us gamers is one thing, but secret chips allegedly implemented by foreign spies in server motherboards is a whole other deal.

Fortnite’s last patch brought custom options to tweak your Playground matches – at least in theory. Custom games were quickly disabled after the initial launch, but now they’ve returned for real. You can tweak everything starting health to gravity, and even remove fall damage if you find yourself a little too accident-prone. You can get into a custom game by selecting Playground as normal from the game mode menu. Once you do, you’ll find a new box that opens up the custom options menu. Tweak those settings to your liking, hit accept, and you’re good to go. Starting shields can be set to empty, half, or full. Starting health can be full, half, or one. You can toggle whether items drop on death. Fall damage can be turned on and off. Gravity can be set to normal, low, or very low. You can lock time to day or night, or leave it on a cycle. You can also decide whether names are displayed for teammates or everyone, or disable them altogether. While the default options are your best bet for Playground’s primary purpose as a practice mode, the ability to tweak those parameters for unique shenanigans is much appreciated. If you’re looking to get those weekly challenges done, check out our guides to Corrupted Areas locations or the week 2 secret banner location. There’s plenty of time left in season 6, but you don’t want to start falling behind on that Battle Pass progression.

Total War developer Creative Assembly has just unveiled the latest, much-anticipated campaign pack for Warhammer II. Curse of the Vampire Coast will flesh out the existing Vampire Coast faction with four new Legendary Pirate Lords and a roster of undead horrors, but despite the maritime theme, it will not add naval battles. There will, however, be a change to how naval fights are resolved. The news comes in an FAQ published just as the Vampire Coast announcement went live. CA says it “would be a vast undertaking and certainly beyond the scope of a DLC pack” to “build a system that adds full naval battles to the game.” However, a free update alongside the Vampire Coast DLC will add the option to fight naval encounters manually rather than autoresolve them. Doing so will drop both armies “on a nearby island”, so you can fight the battle as if it were a typical land-based encounter. There will also be a special map for attacking a Black Ark at sea, with a land-based battle taking place on the Ark itself, beneath menacing Dark Elf architecture. CA notes that this is basically the same idea that modders Maruka and Marthenil had, and says “we were somewhat surprised (and more than a little impressed)” to see the same idea emerge from the community last week. Here’s the FAQ, which offers plenty more exciting tidbits about the Vampire Coast and its accompanying update. It sounds like the approach will be similar to that taken with May’s Queen and Crone DLC, in that another free Legendary Lord will arrive alongside the Vampire Coast, and there will be an update for a Warhammer 1 faction. This time, it’s the Vampire Counts who get a lick of paint, “empowering them with new mechanics and revised skills and abilities.” Could this mean that we’ll see the old vampire bloodlines, such as Necrarchs and Lahmians, arrive in a meaningful way? Curse of the Vampire Coast is out on November 8 and pre-orders are live on Steam now. As is Sega’s wont, pre-ordering the game will get you a 10% discount off the usual price of £13.99 ($18.99). You’ll also find more information and screenshots at the Steam page.

It’s been a decade since since CD Projekt launched GOG, its DRM-free storefront. The store is celebrating the occasion as any retailer might – with giveaways and big sales. Votes for the promotion’s free game have been tallied, and you can now get a free copy of Shadow Warrior 2. The reboot sequel competed with the terrific likes of Superhot and Firewatch, but GOG users decided they wanted videogame killing in its most traditional form – and really, who can blame them? You can claim Shadow Warrior 2 for the next 48 hours, and it’ll remain DRM-free in your GOG library forever. You can pick it up on GOG.com, and check out the anniversary sale while you’re at it. It includes current greats like Frostpunk, Battletech, and Divinity: Original Sin 2, and plenty of good old games including Doom II, Morrowind, and the classic Fallouts. But you can find the best deals among a set of three 10th anniversary collections. The Timeless Essentials package combines Theme Hospital, Dungeon Keeper 2, Another World, and System Shock 2 for $5. The Art of Aging Gracefully brings together Dragon Age: Origins, Owlboy, and the Homeworld: Remastered Collection for $10. The Modern Classics collection gets you Kingdom Come: Deliverance, Battle Chasers: Nightwar, and Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun for $25. GOG’s also taking the opportunity to make some big debuts alongside the event. The excellent space 4X Stellaris has gone DRM-free on the store, and Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine has emerged from the LucasArts archives. If you’re a regular GOG user, you’ll also note some visual changes to the store, and some upcoming changes to the review system and how games are presented aimed at making it easier to discover titles of interest.

Those of you who have had more than half an eye on PUBG over the past year or so will know that region locking has been quite a hot topic for months now. Lots of players have been almost literally clamouring for region locking (limiting players to matchmaking within their own region) for months now. And now that it’s here, they’re not happy. The calls for region locking stemmed in part from the massive influx of Chinese players playing on North American servers. These players were labelled by both the larger community and PUBG’s anti-cheat service, BattlEye, as responsible for the “vast majority” of cheating within the game’s entire community. PUBG Corp and Bluehole had held out against those community demands for a long time, with Brendan Greene himself stating at one point that region locking “just doesn’t work.” Last month, however, they changed their tune, stating that the game would begin locking players to their own region, unless they were playing with a friend from another region. That change made its way to the game in its latest update, which went live earlier this week. Sadly, it would seem, PUBG players didn’t really want region locking at all, because plenty of them are very angry. A look at the game’s Steam discussion forums show that some players are facing issues with their ping. Others are finding it difficult to find games, and yet more are reporting that they’re being matchmade with cheaters again. My personal favourite post is titled “Regional Lock is most stupid thing so far.” A reminder that this is a game for which the devs will have seen nearly every update post drowned out with dozens of messages demanding they “region lock China.” Obviously it’s a shame that the game isn’t working as intended, but there’s a delicious irony to the whole situation.

It’s official. Total War: Warhammer II’s next campaign pack will be Curse of the Vampire Coast, and it’s due for release on November 8. As a campaign pack, the new DLC will add a new race and four Legendary Pirate Lords as their leaders. A new trailer (which you can view below) gives a flavourful taste of their army: there are zombies with guns, giant crabs, flamethrower-wielding constructs made of ship parts, and various undead monstrosities with oceanic mutations. It’s all very Pirates of the Caribbean. It’s possible there will be some overlap with the Vampire Counts, but the unique monsters, wide variety of cannons, and a new lore of magic (the Lore of the Deep) promises a pretty distinct playstyle. The Vampire Coast are a faction in the Vortex and Mortal Empires campaigns right now, so expect to see them fleshed out. A more interesting question is what will happen with Sartosa, the pirate capital of the Warhammer world, which was deliberately added to the Mortal Empires campaign a few months ago. The Rusting Harbour – a Sartosan port – was also mentioned in yesterday’s tease as a base from which “a dealer of antiquities” plies his trade. That fits neatly with the implication in the trailer that we’ll be doing some treasure hunting as part of the new DLC, since the four pirate lords aren’t interested in the Great Vortex at all. They’re interested in what the Great Vortex has awakened: a vast and ancient Merwyrm called Amanar, which is probably the thing you can see at the end of the trailer. Amanar will be terrorising the Vampire Coast, attacking ports and summoning colossal sea storms. The pirate lords’ objective is to find and empower the Star-Metal Harpoon, which is capable of controlling Amanar and thereby dominating the high seas. It’s not totally clear how we’ll do that, but the vampire pirate starring in the trailer seems preoccupied with some Lizardmen artifacts, so item-hunting seems to be on the agenda. That vampire, by the way, is Luthor Harkon, a known figure in Warhammer lore. He was sired by Abhorash, one of the first and most powerful vampires ever, and established the undead enclave that became known as the Vampire Coast. While plundering Lizardmen temples his mind was addled by their protective glyphs – you can see this in the trailer – and his talk of making himself whole again might hint that he has a personal, secondary objective in the game. Regardless, you can bet that Harkon will be one of the four new Legendary Lords. As for the others, no details yet, but we’re betting some may be drawn from Dreadfleet, a specialist Warhammer tabletop game all about naval battles. The titular Dreadfleet was led by another vampire pirate named Count Noctilus, and indeed the trailer description mentions “dreadfleets”.

In keeping with Assassin’s Creed Odyssey’s themes of Greek mythology, Ubisoft allow you to take on plenty of godlike enemies. Medusa, for one, is confirmed. The minotaur is thought to be another. But if you fancy a slightly friendlier take on the mythology, you’ll be glad to know that Alexios and Kassandra are able to ride Pegasus. Pegasus is often portrayed as an all-white, winged horse. In Greek myth, the stallion was born after Pegasus killed Medusa, and then headed up to Olympus to serve Zeus. Later, Pegasus was caught by a Greek hero, Bellerophon, and helped to defeat the Chimera. If you’re more of a pop culture fan, you may remember Pegasus from Disney’s animated Hercules film. In Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, if you head to the store within the game’s menu, you can purchase the Pegasus armor set. That comes with every piece of armour you’ll need, including a breastplate embossed with an image of the mythical horse and a helmet that leaves a trail of feathers in its wake. Of course, it also comes with a Pegasus skin for your horse, Phobos. In almost all portrayals of Pegasus since the days of Ancient Greece, the winged horse has been able to fly. So imagine players’ excitement when they found out that you could buy Pegasus as a mount in the store. The most recent Assassin’s Creed worlds are veritable feasts for the eyes, so being able to fly around them would be a treat. Except, sadly, Odyssey’s version can’t actually fly. Granted, he tries pretty hard, but it’s all in vain. As you can see in the video below, if you ride your new winged mount off a high cliff, the wings on its back will unfurl and offer a few flaps, but it’s not enough to offer any actual lift. I’m not even convinced it’s enough to prevent you (or your horse) from hurting yourself. I can sense your disappointment, but it is of course worth remembering that you can still take to the skies in Odyssey (sort of). Your faithful eagle pal, Ikarios, is always around if you fancy seeing Greece from a bird’s-eye – rather than a horse’s-eye – view.

earlier this week, the initial tweet, which came from Warner Bros Montreal game designer Osama Dorias, has sparked responses from developers (and former developers) from multiple studios across a wide variety of genres, including DICE, Ubisoft, and the recently-closed Telltale Games. You can read Dorias’ original tweet towards the bottom of the article, but they begin by saying that “#AsAGamesWorker, I want to work in an industry that puts the well being of game developers in the forefront.” Tweets so far have focused on the nature of crunch development, but have also focused on the high-profile closure of Capcom’s Vancouver studio, as well as Telltale Games, which closed suddenly last month, costing over 200 of the studio’s 250 staff their jobs. The discussion also touched on the recent reports of a sexist culture at League of Legends developer Riot Games. There are also several tweets about the industry’s treatment and general appreciation of QA workers. You can check out all of the tweets in the hashtag, including those from former Telltale dev Emily Grace Buck, Opaque Space’s Jennifer Scheurle, and Game Workers Unite, here. This is, of course, just a hashtag, and the impact it has could take a long time to be felt (if indeed it ever is). That said, the impact from developers from several major studios is likely to lend some credence to the movement.

Telltale Games laid off a majority of its staff in September ahead of a full studio shutdown. That left well over 200 people without jobs and the studio’s latest project, The Walking Dead: The Final Season, in limbo halfway through its four-episode run. Now, reports from suggest that Telltale wants to finish the series with another studio using the original development team. The company officially said last week that “multiple potential partners have stepped forward to express interest in helping to see The Final Season through to completion.” That statement was met with a great deal of cynicism at the time, since former employees were let go without any sort of advanced notice or severance pay. But two anonymous sources tell Kotaku that Telltale hopes to partner with an outside studio to finish episodes three and four of the season, with former members of the development team working “on a contract basis” to bring out the end of the series. That could mean the entire development team, or it could mean a group as small as possible to get the game out the door. Whatever the case, it would be the partner company footing the bill for the remaining development, rather than Telltale acquiring funds that could be spent on severance. Those sources report that episode three is “essentially finished,” and four was already well into production when the studio closed. However, it seems negotiations are taking longer than Telltale had initially hoped. With affected employees scrambling to find new jobs, continued delays will mean fewer are available for contract work to finish the series.

EA is “closely monitoring” allegations of sexual assault against Juventus and Portugal football star Cristiano Ronaldo. The football player is the cover star of EA Sports’ FIFA 19, having also appeared on the front of the series’ previous game. The allegations against Ronaldo stem from 2009, when the player was still attached to Manchester United. An American woman claims that Ronaldo sexually assaulted her in a Las Vegas hotel in June of that year, and was then paid $375,000 before signing a non-disclosure agreement. Nine years after the alleged incident, the woman has identified herself. In an article published last week by German newspaper Der Spiegel, Kathryn Mayorga says she reported the incident to Las Vegas police the day after it is alleged to have occured. Since the allegations resurfaced, the police have confirmed that they have re-opened the investigation, and that a rape kit collected from a hospital the day after the assault was reported is still in their possession. Mayorga has spoken at length with Der Speigel regarding the allegations, and has now filed a civil complaint against Ronaldo. Ronaldo features on the game’s cover, but also within the game itself. His character appears in the game’s story mode – The Journey: Champions – and he is also a highly sought-after player. Ronaldo is the highest-rated player in the game when it comes to base stats, and can also be acquired as a particularly rare “Ones to Watch” card within the game’s Ultimate Team mode. We contacted EA for comment on the allegations, and asked whether the allegations would impact Ronaldo’s appearance as a cover star in either FIFA 19 or future titles in the series. In reply, a spokesperson said that “We have seen the concerning report that details allegations against Cristiano Ronaldo. We are closely monitoring the situation, as we expect cover athletes and ambassadors to conduct themselves in a manner that is consistent with EA’s values.” According to this Resetera thread, Ronaldo’s image has been pulled from the EA Sports website. While representatives appear for all of the company’s other sports titles, Ronaldo no longer appears on the FIFA branding. There is no direct precedent for EA taking action against cover stars threatened with legal action. Tiger Woods remained the face of the studio’s golf series during multiple controversies in the winter of 2009, but NFL stars have been removed from candidate pools – and from the game altogether – following assault allegations and convictions.

Brian Fargo says he knows which studio is working on Baldur’s Gate 3. In a tweet posted yesterday, Fargo, who founded Baldur’s Gate’s original publisher, Interplay, heavily implied that a third major Baldur’s Gate release is in development. That tweet was posted in a resetera thread last night that claims that Divinity: Original Sin developer Larian Studios has acquired the license to the series and is currently working on Baldur’s Gate 3. Fargo’s tweet by itself doesn’t point to Larian, but the resetera post links to another thread claiming that Larian now own the series’ license. A (currently unsubstantiated) rumour posted to RPG Codex last month states that the original poster’s new colleague is “a former Larian employee.” That post goes on to say that “Swen [Vincke, founder and CEO of Larian Studios] acquired the Baldur’s Gate license.” The post offered no more information about when or even if Larian plans to use the license – let alone what for – but reiterates that the company is currently in possession of the IP. The last game to use the Baldur’s Gate IP was a standalone mobile game. That game was a port of Baldur’s Gate expansion Siege of Dragonspear, which itself was developed by Beamdog and released in 2016. The studio released the mobile version in March this year. That means that the IP was in the hands of another studio at the beginning of this year, but does leave a six month period in which it could easily have changed hands. Beamdog, however, has previously stated that it is keen to develop Baldur’s Gate 3. It’s worth pointing out that Fargo is the founder and CEO of developer inXile Entertainment. The studio is currently working on Wasteland 3 having just released The Bard’s Tale 4, but tends to have two games in various stages of development at any one time. Given their focus on single-player RPGs, it’s possible that Fargo could have been teasing his own studio’s involvement in Baldur’s Gate 3. We’ve reached out to all three studios for comment. A source from Larian says that they are now personally working on a Divinity project (prompting us to wonder about the possibility of Divinity: Original Sin 3), and not on BG3. That said, the size of the company and the success of its previous projects suggests that Larian has the capacity to be working on two simultaneous projects, one of which could be related to Baldur’s Gate (although this is largely speculative). Since this article’s first publication, a Beamdog source has also revealed that their studio is not working on the game. We’re yet to hear back from inXile, but we’ll update when we know more.