#60: The Entire World, is ours to Command and Conquer!

Top Story

Mortal Kombat 11 roster reveals Terminator and Joker (for real)

Earlier this year, eager fans rooting around in the Mortal Kombat 11 executable found evidence that seemed to reveal all the upcoming characters. Aside from classic Mortal Kombat characters like Nightwolf, the list also featured a few notable guest characters.

Now, following a leak on the official MK YouTube channel, Warner Bros has – finally – confirmed the line-up for the first Kombat Pack.

It includes Shang Tsung and Nightwolf, who have already been released, as well as a character release schedule stretching well into 2020. The Terminator will make his appearance on October 8th, Mortal Kombat veteran Sindel arrives on November 26th, Joker is turning up on January the 28th and finally Spawn will join the fray on March 17th – and that’s not even all!

Put on a happy face

The most interesting new additions are the T-800, based on the old-school Terminator model, complete with the likeness of Arnold Schwarzenegger. His appearance coincides with the launch of the latest Terminator movie, Dark Fate, which is out in October.

Batman’s old nemesis Joker is also starring in his very own film, but his Mortal Kombat apperance doesn’t seem to have anything to do with Joaquin Phoenix’ more clownish interpretation of the character. It looks closer to Heath Ledger’s character from The Dark Knight, or the Injustice 2 version.

The previous leak and the last trailer also hinted at Ash from Evil Dead making an appearance. Ash recently showed up in the multiplayer horror game Dead by Daylight, and should be out in 2020 unless he fits into one of the gaps in the release schedule.

Weekly Giveaway

UnderMine!

Time for another great giveaway from your pals at DailyBits! Like the idea of an action-adventure rogue-likes that mixes Legend of Zelda, Binding of Isaac and Rogue Legacy? Then you’ll love exploring the rich subterranean world of UnderMine – launching tomorrow – and we’ve got 10 Steam codes to hand out to 10 lucky readers!

Please head here to enter this week’s giveaway – and at the end of the week you could be one of the lucky ones to receive a free Steam code!

“UnderMine is an action-adventure roguelike with a bit of RPG tossed in. Blending combat and dungeon crawling from traditional roguelikes like “The Binding of Isaac,” with the progression of roguelites like “Rogue Legacy,” UnderMine delivers a fresh new entry to the genre.

Mine gold on each run and increase the peasant’s power by finding powerful relics. Rescue NPCs and return them to the hub where they will open up shop and offer powerful upgrades for future runs. Delve deeper, exploring each new area, discover its many secrets and ultimately defeat its powerful boss. ”

Time For A Quick Daily Quiz?

How did Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2 villain Yuri meet his end?

• He was blown up in his Psychic Dominator
• He was executed in a Psychic Isolation Chamber by the Allies
• He was eaten by a T-Rex after his time machine was hacked
• He disappeared in an alien portal, never to be seen again

The answer will be revealed at the end of this issue!

News Bits

Secret dinosaur levels in Command & Conquer Remastered

There’s a remake of the original Command & Conquer coming next near, and the developers just shared a screenshot of the mission select screen on Reddit. While that might not sound terribly exciting in itself, fans quickly noticed the dinosaur icon.

The three first icons represent the GDI, Nod and Covert Operations missions – while the fourth one seems to confirm that the spectacularly silly dinosaur missions are included too. Mammoth tanks versus dinosaurs? Whoever wins, we have already won!

Daily Fact

The two main Command & Conquer series were supposed to be connected

The Command & Conquer series features two distinct stories: The tiberium wars were fought in the future, while Red Alert was set in an alternate history where Hitler never rose to power, and the Soviets started World War II instead.

The two storylines were always separated, but did you know they were supposed to cross over? Command & Conquer introduced the enigmatic villain Kane – the leader of the Brotherhood of Nod – while Red Alert was launched a year later and featured Stalin as the villain.

The Soviet ending of Red Alert revealed that the USSR was controlled by the Brotherhood of Nod all along, and Stalin is murdered by Kane. This unexpected twist was occasionally referenced in later games, but no more attempts were made to merge the timelines afterwards. Probably because the second and third Red Alert games really, really messes with time.

Daily News

Blair Witch team not counting out PS4 and Switch versions

There’s a new game based on classic found-footage horror movie The Blair Witch Project coming out on August 30th, simply titled Blair Witch – developed by the creators of the Layers of Fear series, two of the best horror games ever made. Blair Witch is certainly in good hands, and if you read our preview this week you know it’s playing well too – but there’s one dark cloud on the horizon: The game’s only appearing on PC and Xbox One.

If you’re a proud owner of either of those two platforms, then great, you’ll hopefully enjoy what’s shaping up to be the horror game of the year. But what about horror hounds looking for their next fix on Switch or PlayStation 4? Layers of Fear is available on every platform, and there’s no official exclusivity agreement keeping Blair Witch on the Xbox One.

I want to apologize to Josh’s mom, because she only plays Switch

During our recent playtime with the Blair Witch demo, we sat down with developer Maciej Glomb and asked him whether we could expect the game on more platforms: “Yeah, so right now we are focusing on the Xbox and PC, just like we said,” he explained, “but it’s not like we are purposely counting out other options. But just right now, we are focusing only on Xbox One and PC.”

In short, there are no plans to release the game on other platforms at the moment, but Bloober Team isn’t exactly ruling out the possibility either. They probably have some kind of deal with Microsoft, since Blair Witch will be available via Microsoft’s Xbox Game Pass from day one. Oh, and for anyone worried that Epic Game Store might be sizing up another exclusivity deal, Maciej confirmed that Blair Witch is definitely launching on Steam.

Ms. Marvel confirmed for Marvel’s Avengers … along with Goose the cat!

The upcoming Marvel’s Avengers for PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC is due next year, featuring an epic, evolving story that can be enjoyed from the perspective of several different Marvel characters. Not to be confused with Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3, which … offers pretty much exactly the same thing, and is out now for Switch.

At the moment, the roster of heroes featured in Marvel’s Avengers is a bit small: Only Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, Hulk, Black Widow and Ant-Man have been revealed so far. However, eagle-eyed fans have pored over the latest gameplay footage from Gamescom and noticed someone standing out in a crowd on the helicarrier: A young girl wearing a Captain Marvel shirt – could this be another playable character?

Embiggen!

Fans speculated that the girl could be Kamala Khan, better known as Ms. Marvel. It didn’t exactly seem like a long shot, but Comicbook.com decided to ask Square Enix for confirmation – and got it: “Yes, that was a young Kamala Khan on the bridge of the helicarrier during the attack,” it reads. “We’ll have more details on how she’ll fit into the game at a later date.” She also seems to be the one narrating the trailer.

And that’s not all! Fans also noticed a cute exchange between SHIELD agent Maria Hill and Tony Stark, which confirms the appearance of another wildly popular character: Yes, Marvel’s Avengers will feature Goose the Cat! The orange tabby appeared in the recent Captain Marvel movie, where it was revealed to be an alien in disguise. No confirmation on whether the game’s version can eat Cosmic Cubes.

eSports Roundup

The International 2019 Highlights So Far

In case you have been living under the world’s largest rock, Valve are hosting the biggest DOTA 2 esports event in history right now. The tournament has reached the stage where there are only eight teams left, so it’s not long until a champion is decided.

We want to bring two highlights to your attention: Arteezy’s genius play, and OG’s blatant disrespect. Arteezy defied all odds by taking down a full team all by himself, pretty much winning the game for EG and keeping them in the tournament. Meanwhile, OG was dominating former champions Newbee so hard that they started killing their own teammates for fun.

If you want to watch some of the mayhem, be sure to watch Evil Geniuses versus OG later on today at the official DOTA 2 Twitch channel.

eUnited win Call of Duty League Championship

The CWL Championship in Los Angeles finished on Sunday, and eUnited secured the $800,000 prize after beating 100 Thieves 3-2. The finals were an exciting back-and-forth, starting out with eUnited defeating 100 Thieves 250-126. 100 Thieves then bounced back, winning the next two rounds and bringing the score a 2-1 in their favour.

eUnited won the next round, leading to a tense winner-takes-all match on Arsenal Search & Destroy. This means eUnited have rounded off their season with back-to-back victories after becoming champions in the July Pro League Finals.

CouRage drops out of Twitch Rivals Tournament due to Fortnite Mechs

Popular Twitch streamer Jack ‘CouRage’ Dunlop dropped out of the Twitch Rivals Tournament, where he was playing in a duo team with Timothy John ‘TimTheTatman’ Betar, following a frustrating encounter with another player using one of the game’s mechs.

Dunlop tweeted the Twitch clip highlighting his in-game death. After an angry outburst, he apologised to his teammate, saying he didn’t want to continue playing Fortnite that day, promptly switching to a different game.

The B.R.U.T.E mech vehicles have been criticised by a number of popular streamers and high-level esports players. Many have claimed that they are too powerful and have asked Epic to improve the game balance. Epic responded to the community’s concerns in a recent blog post, explaining that the B.R.U.T.E was added to level the playing field and ensure that players of all skill levels have fun.

Since adding the mech to the mix, Epic claim that they “have seen players who had previously struggled with getting eliminations acquiring more, while the number of eliminations earned by more experienced players remained steady”.

The developer went on to say that the “B.R.U.T.E. encounters should feel like a unique engagement and not be the dominant experience during a game. We made adjustments to the B.R.U.T.E within Arena, in line with that goal. Specifically for Arena we made the change to spawn rate in order to reduce late-game encounters”.

News Bits

Two Point Hospital storms Area 51 with the Close Encounters expansion

The latest expansion for amazing hospital management sim Two Point Hospital is alien-themed, and even references the “storm Area 51” meme. It will include 34 new illnesses, three amusing new cure rooms and three new hospital levels, including the secret military base Chasm 24.

The DLC will be out on August 29th, and will hopefully be included when the game releases on PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Switch later this year.

Quiz Answer - Did You Get It Right?

How did Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2 villain Yuri meet his end?

Answer: He was eaten by a T-Rex after his time machine was hacked!

You might have noticed that the quiz is a Nod to the news that the Command & Conquer remake will feature dinosaur missions, and we figured it’s a perfect opportunity to test your knowledge about dinosaurs in Command & Conquer. So yes, Yuri – the villain of Red Alert 2 – was indeed eaten by a T-Rex after his time machine goes haywire at the end of Yuri’s Revenge. Best villain demise ever.

Admittedly, there’s a proviso – that’s the Soviet campaign ending! The Allied campaign ends with him locked away in the Psychic Isolation Chamber, and then time basically goes completely off the rails – which suggests that the T-Rex ending is the real one. As for the alien portal, that was the ultimate fate of Kane, the leader of the Brotherhood of Nod and the villain of the other Command & Conquer timeline, in Command & Conquer 4. Protip: Don’t play that one.

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