Welcome to the Weekly Recon!
Welcome to the Weekly Recon!
Edition 1 - November 30th, 2020 to December 6th, 2020
Welcome day one readers. At some point in the last 6-months you signed up for our Skyline Network gaming newsletter. Guess what?! The Weekly Recon is finally here. Our goal is quite simple – every Monday morning we send you 10 minutes worth of last week's best gaming and esports news for free. Life is busy, spend whatever extra time you have playing video games and we’ll take care of keeping you in the loop.
FORTNITE - Galactus Sized Game Update
The end of Fortnite Chapter 2 Season 4 marked the end of the Nexus War and with that came the Galactus live event, the biggest live event in Fortnite’s history. Season 4 was the first season to be entirely themed after another franchise seeing the arrival of many Marvel characters.
Players had to team up and send the battle bus rigged with explosives into the mouth of Galactus in order to defeat him and save the Fortnite planet. Galactus then disappeared into a rift, which led gamers to believe that he may return.
Chapter 2 Season 5
The new season of Fortnite is called Zero Point, where Agent Jones (the main character) has to hire famous hunters from different realities to keep the players in check across the Fortnite planet.
The Fortnite planet underwent some changes this season as popular locations such as “Tilted Towers” returned under the name of “Salty Towers”. Also, Fortnite added NPCs you can interact with to purchase items, activate bounties, level up weapons or to start quests.
Mandalorian and Baby Yoda: This season Fortnite teamed up with Disney for the tier 100 battle pass reward to feature a fully loaded Mandalorian skin with a Baby Yoda accessory.
Kratos: Fortnite also teamed up with Sony and Playstation this season to bring Kratos from God of War into the game as a playable skin.
Master Chief: Another playable skin rumoured to be coming to Fortnite is Master Chief from the Halo series. This has yet to be confirmed, but fans are excited at the possibility.
DOOM ETERNAL - Update 4
Id Software has released the Doom Eternal Update 4 that adds a Free Master Level called Super Gore Nest. According to the official Bethesda patch notes, it has an entirely new combat experience, unique environmental hazards and conditions and tons of new player rewards to earn. Master Levels in Doom are bonus levels separate from the main game that challenges players in ways that the campaign does not. The Super Gore Nest Master Level brings players to a familiar part of the story but pins them against hordes of demons that act in ways not yet experienced.
The new Doom update includes other changes too, such as;
New Difficulty Modes: Classic Mode, Extra Life and Ultra Nightmare.
Gift Wrap and Tear Event: Brand-new holiday event starting on December 10th to January 14th which includes tons of candy-striped cosmetic collectibles.
Xbox Enhancements: Increased resolution on the Xbox Series X to 4k at 60 HZ and on the Xbox Series S to 1080p at 60 HZ (through dynamic resolution scaling).
General Update and Improvements: Added Quick Swap loading screen tip for Battlemode and Campaign, added a third Live Tile on the main menu and added an End of Level Event Preview functionality.
CALL OF DUTY: BLACK OPS COLD WAR - Season One
Treyarch announced this week that Season 1 of Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War has been moved from December 10th to December 16th. The much anticipated Season 1 also brings an update to Warzone and the largest free content drop in Black Ops history.
The new changes coming to Warzone include:
A new warzone map and mode
A new Gulag experience (pray for me)
Over 30 Black Ops Cold War base weapons and blueprint variants
Multiplayer update: Season 1 will include 1,000 new season levels to go through, the return of the 2vs2 Gunfight mode with four maps, a brand-new map and the return of Raid from Black Ops 2 multiplayer.
To prepare...updates can be downloaded for Black Ops Cold War multiplayer on both December 8th and December 15th, while the Warzone update will be available for download on December 16th.
CYBERPUNK 2077 - More Problems in Night City
Let’s start by saying no, Cyberpunk 2077 has not been delayed for a fourth time this year and is still releasing on December 10th. However, some people have received early copies of Cyberpunk 2077 before the release day. CD Projekt Red released a statement asking players who receive an early copy not to stream until December 9th, 12 PM CET / 3 AM PST or they will have their content taken down.
As the early copies have been received by several people, they’re obviously going to play the game. Players began to post on social media that the game already requires a Day 1, 43.5 GB update causing the CDPR public relations manager Fabian Mario Döhla to reply to a tweet saying: “It’s an update but - fun twist - not the update we’ll have for launch”.
Looking ahead...The game itself is a 70 GB download, with a 43.5 GB update already and another update on December 10 make sure to leave some space on your console and PC hard drives.
ESPORTS CORNER
Microsoft (or rather, MSN Esports) announced that it has acquired video game tournament platform smashgg for an undisclosed amount. An announcement via the smashgg website stated that they will continue to operate “as a self-service esports platform” but their team will benefit from the additional resources and support from the Microsoft Content Service team. The website is already integrated within MSN’s Esports Hub under the “Compete” tab.
Epic Games has canceled the 2021 Fortnite World Cup due to the on-going pandemic and its associated health risks. In their official blog post they stated that “with so much still unknown about what is practical and safe, we do not plan to hold in-person events in 2021 [...] our priority with any such event is the health and safety of our players and staff”. Epic also promised that the Fortnite Champions Series will continue through 2021 in addition to many more online tournaments.
The Wuhan Government has reportedly declared their plans to host the 2021 League of Legends World Championship Finals. The city made major news headway in 2019 being known as the world epicentre for the COVID-19 pandemic but with China’s impressive ability to keep the virus under control, the Chinese Government has been able to host major in-person Esport events like the LoL 2020 Worlds in Shanghai just a few months ago.
THE ROUNDUP CALLOUT
Sony celebrated the 26th anniversary of the PlayStation on Thursday, December 3rd. The PS1 was the first “computer entertainment platform” to sell more than 100 million consoles within a decade.
Microsoft began rolling out the Xbox Series X|S and Xbox One November 2020 update.
Rocket League Season 2 starts on December 9th and will introduce a new music theme by partnering with music label Monstercat and producer Kaskade.
Genshin Impact has earned close to $400 million in mobile player spending in its first two months.
Super Nintendo World is scheduled to open in early February at Japan’s Universal Studios.
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