Good morning gamers. We’d like to start off by wishing you all a wonderful holiday season!
The holidays are upon us so on behalf of the entire Weekly Recon team, thank you for reading our newsletter and for making this past year amazing. We’re looking forward to big things in 2023, and we can’t wait to continue this journey. That said, this will be our last edition for 2022 so stay healthy and be safe. Let’s get right into the news!
Hogwarts Legacy Gameplay Showcase 2
Hogwarts Legacy is less than two months away and to every Harry Potter fan's delight, the Avalanche Software team (Alan Tew, Mekenzey Toner and Andrew Corum) released their second gameplay showcase. During the 34-minute deep-dive, players got a first look at three incredibly exciting features coming to Hogwarts Legacy including the Dark Arts Battle Arenas, Broom Flight and the Room of Requirement. ICYMI, here’s the details.
Battle Arenas: There are two available combat areas where players can go to test their dueling prowess. Players who order the Digital Deluxe edition of Hogwarts Legacy will also get access to the Dark Arts Arena - a place to practice Unforgivable Curses and use Ancient Magic (including Avada Kedavra). These arenas serve as a practice environment where everything is unlocked so players can decide what path they want to take in the main storyline.
Broom (and Hippogriff!) Flight: Players can travel outside of Hogwarts, and across the Scottish highlands using their broom (which is upgradable during visits to Hogsmeade). This allows players to discover other communities, and the opportunity to meet other witches and wizards with their own stories and side-quests.
Room of Requirement: Players get their own Room of Requirement where they can completely customize the architecture and/or decor. It serves as a place to upgrade your gear and arsenal, learn new recipes and even examine foreign items to figure out what they do. There's also a green area right outside the Room of Requirement where players can meet and look after magical creatures. You can pet them, feed them, extract materials from them and even play with them.
Movies and TV Series
Warhammer 40,000 is in the final stage of becoming a television series by Amazon Studios. After announcing that he will no longer return to his role as Superman, Henry Cavill is set to star in and executive produce the series. There are currently no writers or showrunners announced. Roy Lee and Natalie Viscuso from Vertigo Entertainment, and Andy Smilie and Max Bottrill from Games Workshop will also executive produce the series alongside Amazon Studios. Warhammer 40,000 is considered one of the most popular miniature wargames in the world.
God of War is officially getting a television series co-produced by Sony Pictures Television and Amazon Studios in association with PlayStation Productions. It will be a live-action series that will have Cory Barlog, the Santa Monica Studios creative director of video game development, serve as an executive producer. Series development began in March 2022, and it is being written by Mark Fergus (Children of Men) and Hawk Ostby (Iron Man). Rafe Judkins (Wheel of Time) will serve as the showrunner.
Death Stranding developer Hideo Kojima and Kojima Productions are working on a film adaptation of the game. The film will reportedly be produced in partnership with Alex Lebovici’s Hammerstone Studios. Kojima says that the film adaptation will introduce new elements and characters within the “Death Stranding” universe.
Esports Corner
🥇Congratulations to G2 Esports for winning the BLAST Premier: World Final 2022 and congratulations to the New York Subliners for winning the Call of Duty League 2023: Stage 1 Major.
Ubisoft has announced their new Rainbow Six Siege Esports Global Circuit for 2023 in collaboration with BLAST Esports. Set to debut in March 2023, the new circuit will feature closed leagues and open qualifiers across 9 total regions. Stage 1 (concluded by a Six Major) will run from March to May and Stage 2 (concluded by a Six Major) will run from September to November, leading to the Six Invitational in February 2024. Each of the stages will serve as qualifiers for the Six Invitational and will use a revamped points system where teams earn points based on regional and international performances (the more points you earn, the better).
With the 2022 League of Legends season behind us, the 2023 season details are finally starting to unfold. The League of Legends European Championships finals (LEC) are reportedly set to take place in Montpellier, France with a new format that will crown a champion for the entire season. Additionally, the League of Legends World Championships might be making a return to South Korea, a location that’s only hosted the event twice, and from where teams have won the title 7 times.
According to a surprise announcement by Blizzard, the Overwatch World Cup will be officially returning in 2023 after a three-year hiatus. 36 teams across 36 countries and regions will fight it out for the title of World Champions. February will host Open Trials (open tournaments where anybody can try to earn a tryout), Team Tryouts in March (where rosters are finalized) and then an online World Cup Qualifier in June to finalize which 16 teams will duke it out on LAN in the Fall.
The 2022 Esports Awards took place last week where some of the biggest organizations and personalities in the industry came together to celebrate all things esports. Congratulations to all of the winners, but here are a few of the major awards.
Esports Team of the Year: LOUD
Esports Org of the Year: OpTic Gaming
Esports Game of the Year: Valorant
Esports Player of the Year: S1mple (PC), FormaL (Controller), Order (Mobile)
Esports Host of the Year: James ‘Dash’ Patterson
Gaming Roundup
The Last of Us Part III is reportedly the next game in production at Naught Dog. Neil Druckmann (Studio Co-President) has an outline for the game.
Guerrilla Games has confirmed that The Horizon series is getting an online game featuring a new cast of characters and a “unique stylized look”.
Microsoft has reportedly offered Sony the rights to include Call of Duty on their PlayStation Plus subscription service for 10-years.
Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 from developer Insomniac Games will release on the PS5 in Fall 2023.
Tomb Raider’s next game by Crystal Dynamics will be published by Amazon Games. It is a multi-platform, single-player game built on Unreal Engine 5.
Dragon Age: Dreadwolf will have Hans Zimmer composing the music according to Dragon Age: Inquisition (2014) composer Trevor Morris.
Ubisoft Massive is looking for players that live in or near Malmö, Sweden to test their upcoming Star Wars open-world game.
Take Two Interactive and Private Division have announced a publishing agreement with Bloober Team, they’re working on a new survival horror IP.
Payday 3 from developers Starbreeze Studios and Overkill Software is currently in development.
Game Review - High On Life
High on Life is a hilariously bizarre first-person shooter that for some, will deliver an extremely fun gaming experience, and for others, miss the mark. You don’t have to enjoy the Rick and Morty humor to love the game, but watching the show also doesn’t guarantee you won’t hate it. The game doesn’t do anything fancy or complex, it’s a simple shooter with smooth-ish mechanics, great graphics, lots of humor and some good ol’ chaotic fun. The gunplay can be choppy at times, and the jokes don’t always hit the mark, but the storyline is well written, the boss fights are complex, there’s tons of areas to explore and every character offers a hilarious interaction.
High on Life offers a unique element that other video games don’t usually explore; comedy. It’s not fancy in design, or innovative in mechanics but it does give players the option to kick their feet up and enjoy a game much more casually. Taking into account all the times we literally burst out laughing, we give High on Life a score of B-.
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