Chaos Theory
Edition 44 - October 4th to 10th
Good morning gamers. Always put dual authentication on your accounts.
It was the week of the leak and the breach as several social media platforms had outages on Monday which caused some chaos. Speaking of chaos, Twitch, Battlefield 2042 and the International 10 didn’t have the best weeks.
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Twitch - Huge Data Leak
On Monday, Twitch poked fun at Facebook for being down. Karma came around as a couple days later, an anonymous hacker was able to hack and post a 125GB torrent link to 4chan that contained Twitch’s source codes, user payouts and more.
According to the hacker, the purpose of the leak was to cause disruption and to help create more competition in the online video streaming space. The leak also contained an unreleased Steam competitor, codenamed Vapor, from Amazon Game Studios.
Twitch confirmed the leak and said the data was exposed due to an error in a Twitch server configuration. Twitch claims that login credentials were not compromised. In a second statement, Twitch announced they reset all stream keys as a precaution.
The top 5 highest paid Twitch Streamers since August 2019 are:
Critical Role - $9,626,712
xQc - $8,454,427
Summit1g - $5,847,541
Tfue - $5,295,582
Nickmercs - $5,096,642
Nickmercs announced that he signed a new contract to exclusively stream on Twitch. After losing Dr Lupo and TimTheTatman to YouTube Gaming, Twitch was finally able to hold on to one of their own.
Battlefield 2042 - Beta and Beyond
In September, Battlefield 2042 was delayed to November 19th. The delay also pushed back the Beta, which was released earlier last week. The Beta has received mixed reviews so far but EA Dice says the build is a few months old.
According to Tom Henderson, the Beta build date is from September 20th, meaning that the Beta was in fact a few weeks old. Despite the date on the build contradicting EA’s statement, they doubled down on Saturday saying they’ve implemented numerous improvements since they branched off into this Beta. Feedback on their Battlefield forums, social media, Discord and Reddit is also being monitored.
Our thoughts? The Beta has that typical Battlefield feel and it will definitely be better come the full release. However, the huge map sizes and the skill of the AI soldiers remain a concern leading up to the full game release.
Although the full game is not yet released, there are already cheaters in the Beta. According to IGN, there are three different cheat providers offering cheats that start as low as $2 a day. The hacks seen so far in the Beta range from wallhacks to aimbots.
The Future of Ghost Recon
Last week Ubisoft celebrated the 20th anniversary of Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon with a 25-minute special Anniversary Showcase. In doing so, they’re offering the original Ghost Recon, as well as the Fallen Ghosts DLC for Ghost Recon Wildlands and the Deep State Adventure DLC for Ghost Recon: Breakpoint, for free until October 11 (hurry, that’s today!). Ubisoft also revealed a small teaser for the upcoming Ghost Recon: Breakpoint expansion “Operation Motherland” (arriving November 2).
On to the big news now. There's a NEW Ghost Recon game coming!
Ghost Recon: Frontline is a free-to-play, tactical-action, massive PvP shooter grounded in the renowned Ghost Recon universe. The game has been in development for 3 years at Ubisoft Bucharest and will offer players a new take on the battle royale genre. It sees Ghost Recon return to the first person perspective with multiple game modes available at launch.
The games flagship Battle Royale mode features 100 players in teams of three who will have to work together to complete dynamic objectives across a massive map with no converging circles. Once players are done collecting intel, they will have to head to the drop zone and call for an extraction while the other players try to intervene. Ghost Recon Frontline features an advanced class system and large set of tactical support tools allowing for complete freedom in strategic gameplay.
Ghost Recon: Frontline is expected to launch sometime in 2022 and it will be available on all major consoles and PC, including full cross-play support.
Esports Corner
Major Tournament, Major Problems!
The International 10 is underway but it is once again facing some issues. Last month there was a sudden location change from Stockholm (Sweden) to Bucharest (Romania) and in last week's edition, we highlighted it’s record-breaking $40 million prize pool distribution. Well, things have gone a little south after all members of Team Aster, and a few members of Invictus Gaming tested positive for COVID-19. In response to the positive tests and reports suggesting the safety measures at the event were lacking, Valve cancelled all in-person audience attendance and has started to issue ticket refunds. The event is still moving forward as scheduled despite the setback and even peaked at more than 1 million concurrent viewers on the first day.
Pokémon Is Back!
Attention trainers, competitive Pokémon is finally back after taking more than a year off due to the ongoing worldwide pandemic. The 2022 Play! Pokémon season will include the Pokémon TCG, Pokémon video games, Pokkén Tournament DX and Pokémon Go. The official announcement confirmed that all players who earned points in the 2020 season will have their points transferred to this upcoming season. In addition to the traditional Pokémon events, Pokemon Go is getting its own Championship Series with trainers able to participate through in-game qualification (via the Go Battle League), external qualification events or by invitation. More details regarding all the Pokémon events will be released closer to the start of the 2022 season.
Game Review - Far Cry 6
Far Cry 6 is packed with action and exploration, and it surpasses its predecessors in both visual aesthetic and world-design but it lacks story creativity. Being able to square off against Giancarlo Espositio, or should I say “El Presidente'' Antón Castillo”, is definitely really cool (on the rare occurrence he gets some screen time) but it leaves much to be desired once you get through the game's familiar objectives. It offers an exciting take on the war against oppressive regimes but fails to put gamers through any unforeseen twists or difficult decisions. Overall, Far Cry 6 is an enjoyable experience that is in line with what you come to expect from the Far Cry franchise. We give Far Cry 6 a score of B.
Gaming Roundup
Nintendo announced that Sora from Kingdom Hearts will be the final Super Smash Bros. Ultimate DLC fighter. Sora will be available in the Challenger Pack 11 on October 18th.
Rockstar Games officially announced that GTA: The Trilogy - The Definitive Edition is coming to current generation platforms later this year. It will feature massive updates and will be available on mobile in 2022.
Sony released the official trailer for Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City arriving in cinemas on November 24th. The movie will focus on the origin story of Resident Evil based on Capcom’s first two games.
Eidos-Montreal is the first AAA video game studio to switch to a four-day work week. The company is making the shift to allow for their employees to have a better work-life balance and to create even more innovative games.
Infinity Ward, the video game developer known for their work on Call of Duty titles, is opening a new studio in Austin, Texas. The new studio will reportedly be making a sequel to Call of Duty Modern Warfare (2019) set to launch in 2022.
Electronic Arts is exploring whether or not to drop the FIFA brand name from their EA Sports football games. According to EA, their partnership with FIFA is separate from their partnerships and licences across the football world.
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