Activision Blizzard has announced that its holiday charity campaign was very successful, with its employees collectively giving more than $1.6 million to thousands of charities.In December, Activision Blizzard kicked off the Holiday Giving Initiative, which gave every employee $200 to donate to a charity of their choice. More than 8,000 employees took advantage of the offer, donating to more than 3,200 charities and raising $1.6 million.Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick and COO Daniel Alegre released a statement on the initiative:Continue Reading at GameSpotInfo from Gamespot.com

YouTuber and "hardware hacker" Mike Choi has combined an exercise bicycle, Mario Kart 8, and the Ring Fit Adventure controller to create a fantastic way to get in shape. The Labo Fit Adventure Kart Kit, as he calls it, lets you control your favorite Mushroom Kingdom character by pedaling, squeezing, and working your butt off."This kit allows you to control your kart by pedaling on the Bike-Con and steering and using items with the Ring-Con," Choi said in a tweet. "This is a fully-functional concept product that I developed myself."The Labo Fit Adventure Kart Kit is powered by the TAPBO module, a small wireless robot that hugs the Joy-Con and presses buttons when it receives signal from the Bike-Con and Ring-Con. Here’s a video explaining how it works: pic.twitter.com/Joz4Q5z67q — Mike Choi (@mechachoi) January 14, 2021Choi uploaded a video to YouTube and Twitter where he can be seen huffing and puffing as he showcases his home brew creation. The "full-body exercise experience" gets extra difficult when he picks up a golden mushroom and has to squeeze the Ring Fit controller every time he wants a boost. "Even when you lose in the game," Choi said in the video. "You're winning at exercise."Continue Reading at GameSpotInfo from Gamespot.com

When it comes to gaming hardware, 'big' is the description that most often applies, whether it's the original Xbox or the latest Nvidia RTX 3090 card. High-fidelity gaming takes a lot of horsepower, which often means you'll also be dealing with large hardware. But Intel is trying to change our minds at CES 2021 with its next set of laptop processors, enabling gaming on the thinnest and lightest laptops yet.Intel hopes to do this with its 11th-gen Tiger Lake-H CPUs and Intel's own Xe graphics tech. Intel has three chips on the way that will make up this segment of its market: The Core i7-11375H Special Edition, i7-11370H, and i5-11300H. These are four-core, eight-thread CPUs that each draw 28-35W of power, compared to 35-45W for the 10th-gen laptop processors. The four-core count is a reduction from the previous generation's six-core models, which Intel says was necessary to fit the chip into the same space.These chips are built on Intel's Tiger Lake H35 10nm architecture, which means that they support Thunderbolt 4 connectivity, Intel's Xe graphics architecture, Wi-Fi 6/6E, PCIe Gen 4, and Resizable BAR. If you follow PC tech, you may have come across this with AMD's Smart Access Memory. Similarly, Resizable BAR allows the CPU to allocate an optimal amount of video memory instead of having to do it in smaller 256MB chunks. That lets the CPU and discrete GPU move data around more quickly, which translates to better graphics performance and loading times. Nvidia recently announced its plans to support Resizable BAR, too. The Core i7-11375H SE also features Intel Turbo Boost 3.0, which lets the CPU shoot up to 5GHz frequency on a single core.Continue Reading at GameSpotInfo from Gamespot.com

Developer Respawn Entertainment has rolled out a new patch for Apex Legends on PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S that stabilizes the game.The patch comes after numerous players reported errors while playing the game on all platforms. Specifically, players were getting caught in infinite loops that freeze the game or the game would crash entirely. Respawn said that while it couldn't replicate whatever's causing the hiccups, the new patch "improves stability and (hopefully) fixes the freezing issues."In addition to trying to address technical issues on the server side, the latest patch for Apex Legends fixes a variety of other problems. This includes issues with Fight Night event skins like Haute Drop and Gold Standard getting in the way of the reticle when aiming down sights, errors with selecting the Steam Friends list, and other problems related to clubs and text chat.Continue Reading at GameSpotInfo from Gamespot.com

2014's Tom Cruise and Emily Blunt action movie Edge of Tomorrow--or, Live Die Repeat as it was rebranded--was a critical success and as a result, fans have been calling for a sequel. Director Doug Liman has now provided an update on how it's coming along.He told Collider that, if indeed a sequel is made, he would want it to be a smaller-scale movie. Sequels often go for bigger action and more explosions, but Liman said this pales in comparison to giving Cruise and Blunt more screen time because they are such great actors."I've always been interested in the idea of a sequel being more character-driven than the first film, because that's not how things are normally done," he said. "That's been my approach when developing the sequel and because Tom Cruise and Emily Blunt are such phenomenal actors. I get sometimes the sequel just has to have more firepower or more explosions but no visual effect is going to top what you're going to get from a great scene performed by Tom Cruise and Emily Blunt."Continue Reading at GameSpotInfo from Gamespot.com

A notoriously tricky "ultra-shortcut" in Mario Kart Wii has been performed by a human, after years of attempts. The shortcut is on the final track, Rainbow Road, and though players have known about its theoretical existence for almost five years, no one has been able to pull it off.As noted on Reddit, streamer @ArthuurrrP is the first person to have performed the shortcut. You can see it in the streamed video below: The racer stops and turns their kart just after the starting line, then rides the railing and hops over to a piece of the track, bypassing most of Rainbow Road and going straight to the finish line. Total lap time: 22.5 seconds. Doing this successfully is said to have taken thousands of hours.This is one of the "ultra-shortcuts" in Mario Kart Wii, and a 2018 video from Summoning Salt explains what makes it so rare and tricky. Mario Kart Wii uses a series of checkpoints to load in and make sure you've finished the entire track in sequence, so if you find a shortcut, you need to trip those markers or it won't count your progress. This particular shortcut was discovered in March 2016, and had been recreated with bots, but there wasn't yet a record of a person actually performing it.Continue Reading at GameSpotInfo from Gamespot.com

Fans of real time strategy games can pick up Bomber Crew, a game about managing the inner workings of a World War 2 bomber, for free by subscribing to the Humble Bundle newsletter. The offer is only around for the next three days, so players will need to act quickly if they want to grab this freebie.Visit Humble Bundle's official website, click on the banner on top, create an account, and enter your email in order to receive a copy of Bomber Crew. This offer will end on January 17, 2021 at 10 AM PT / 1 PM ET.Bomber Crew puts you in charge of various crews flying missions at the height of World War 2. You'll act as their invisible leader, giving engineers, gunners, and other crewmate's orders. The graphics may look charming, but there is a real challenge hidden behind Bomber Crew's colorful visuals.Continue Reading at GameSpotInfo from Gamespot.com

Nintendo has added a couple of new physical rewards to its My Nintendo loyalty program. My Nintendo members can now spend their points on a Super Smash Bros. Ultimate greeting card set or a Splatoon 2 keychain set.The Smash Bros. greeting card set costs 400 Platinum points and is designed to resemble the series' signature invitation letter. The Splatoon 2 keychain set, meanwhile, costs 350 Platinum points and comes with keychains of the Super Mushroom and Super Star, the two Mario power-ups featured during this weekend's Mario-themed Splatfest.Smash Bros. invitation greeting card setGallery Continue Reading at GameSpotInfo from Gamespot.com

Looking for something new to play but don't want to spend any money? Microsoft has announced the latest additions to the Free Play Days promotion, and they include some big-name titles. Now through Sunday, January 17, Xbox Live Gold and Game Pass Ultimate members can play Star Wars: Squadrons, Dragon Ball FighterZ, and Yooka-Laylee for the low, low price of $0.00.To get started, you can queue up a download of each game through the Xbox website. You can also download the games on your Xbox by visiting the Subscriptions tab of the Xbox Store and then navigate to the Gold member area to find the Free Play Days library.Continue Reading at GameSpotInfo from Gamespot.com

As of January 12, the online servers for the open-world action-RPG Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor have shut down, publisher WB Games confirmed on the game's support page.WB Games cited "changes with our network" as the reason for Shadow of Mordor's servers to have gone offline. As a result, several online features, like Nemesis Forge and Vendetta missions, are no longer available on PC (via Steam), PlayStation 4, and Xbox One.Players familiar with the game's sequel, 2017's Middle-earth: Shadow of War, may recall the Nemesis Forge. A featured added to Shadow of Mordor shortly before Shadow of War launched, Nemesis Forge allowed players to import their most-hated nemesis and most-loyal ally from Mordor into War. This feature is offline now that the servers have shut down.Continue Reading at GameSpotInfo from Gamespot.com

Blizzard is launching a major update for Battle.net, representing the biggest front-facing upgrade to the PC platform in years, according to the developer.The upgrades, which have been available to beta testers for some time already, include things like an improved layout and navigation tools. Specifically, you can now "favorite" games and select how you want them to appear in your library.Battle.net 2.0 looks a lot cleanerThe Battle.net 2.0 update also includes a "much more expansive layout" to help you catch up with news about your games more easily. The social plane has also been updated for greater visibility, while there are a number of accessibility improvements so you can quickly access many things on Battle.net with just the keyboard. The color contrast has been improved as well, as screen support has been updated, Blizzard said.Continue Reading at GameSpotInfo from Gamespot.com

The PS5 hasn't stayed on store shelves long, with stock depleting almost as quickly as it goes up. However, if you're a Sony Rewards member, you have another opportunity to snag the new console soon. Starting tomorrow, a limited number of PS5 units will be made available through the Sony Rewards website. The Sony Rewards Twitter account says it'll tweet out the direct link tomorrow, and we'll be sure to update this story when that happens.It's free to sign up for Sony Rewards, though if you're a new user, you won't be able to get one of the consoles tomorrow. Every product on the Sony Rewards site is exchanged with points, meaning you'll need to have built up enough to claim one. To earn points, there are a number of things you can do. The first is make purchases with your Sony or PlayStation Visa credit card. You can also earn points by registering specific DVD and Blu-ray discs and uploading select movie tickets through the Sony Rewards app.* taps microphone *A limited number of PS5 consoles will be available tomorrow. Stay tuned & we'll let you know when they are live on the site. You might want to turn on post notifications. 👀⚡️ pic.twitter.com/ek25thJ3QN — Sony Rewards (@SonyRewards) January 14, 2021 Continue Reading at GameSpotInfo from Gamespot.com

Dungeons & Dragons is filled with larger-than-life characters, mystical elements, and out-of-the-ordinary items. And while WizKids has been producing collectibles based on content from D&D books for years--like these two dragon miniatures--it's now moving into items that won't help your campaign but will look great on your shelf. And arriving this February is the Hand and Eye of Vecna, which is--simply put--a severed hand holding an eyeball.For a little background from D&D lore, Vecna was a powerful wizard who used dark magic to create a horrific empire. Fearful of his eventual death--as he was a mortal--Vecna learned from the demon prince of undeath, Orcus, how to live on after death as a lich. Vecna became the greatest of all liches, but his lieutenant, Kas, found a way to defeat him. And all that remains of Vecna is his left hand and eye--both coveted items with magical abilities. WizKids sent us the collectible a bit early to check out, and you can see the photos of it below.Gallery The WizKids collectible comes with the hand, the eye, a glass jar and wooden stand, a metal wire mount, and a piece of cloth to cover the mount. The eye fits between the fingers of the hand, with a little help from a magnet. How much does something like this cost? $130, and while it is available for preorder on Amazon, there isn't an official WizKids Store listing at the time of this writing.Continue Reading at GameSpotInfo from Gamespot.com

With the release of the Beyond Light expansion, Bungie removed several of Destiny 2's destinations. One of the major issues the game has faced since then, however, is that some of its remaining destinations aren't really worth visiting thanks to changes to its weapons system. Luckily, the next season of Destiny 2 will see that changed, with Bungie reworking its loot system to make the Dreaming City and the Moon into places you're going to want to go to shoot aliens.Bungie ran down a bunch of changes to its loot system in its This Week at Bungie blog, detailing the changes it'll make to two of its destinations, and the high-level activities you can complete there. As it stands right now, weapons and armor earned from the Dreaming City and the Moon have caps placed on their Power levels, the numbers that determine how strong those pieces of gear can be (and, when averaged with the rest of your gear, how strong your character is overall). Not too long ago, Bungie instituted a time-based system to cap the Power levels of weapons and armor, so that it can slowly phase out old gear in favor of new stuff. Since the loot from the Dreaming City is from the Forsaken expansion and the Moon loot is from the Shadowkeep expansion, it's all old enough that it has reached its cap, thus making it effectively obsolete.In its next content season, Bungie is tweaking rewards from those locations to make them viable again. Armor sets from the Dreaming City and the Moon are getting reissued, along with four guns from both locations. One of those guns at each location will only be accessible through dungeons, the Pit of Heresy and the Shattered Throne. Here's the rundown of loot changes:Continue Reading at GameSpotInfo from Gamespot.com

Gearbox Software has released the full patch notes for the latest update for Borderlands 3, now live in the game. The update adds a new limited-time mini-event called Supercharged Crystals and makes a few in-game quality-of-life adjustments.Supercharged Crystals ensures that all the crystals in the Takedown of the Guardian Breach, an optional endgame mission, do not lose their charge after you move away from them. Normally, these crystals lose their charge when no one is charging them--only maintaining their charge once you've capped them off--and if any become completely empty, then you have to restart from a checkpoint.So basically, this mini-event ensures you can't be wiped during the crystal charging parts of this Takedown, allowing you to more easily reach the next phase. For folks who haven't managed to beat Takedown of the Guardian Breach, this mini-event is the ideal time to try again. Supercharged Crystals ends on January 21 at 9AM PT / 12PM ET.Continue Reading at GameSpotInfo from Gamespot.com