Why players are hearing racial slur in Back 4 Blood

Unintentional racial slurs in Back 4 Blood

Back 4 Blood beta testers are reporting that the zombie enemies known as Ridden are throwing around a particular racial slur, and some streamers have even managed to record it on stream.

WB Games have responded, saying that it has been "made aware of offensive language that can be heard when playing the game. This was not recorded or ever intended to be part of our gameplay. The audio is a result of two different Ridden growls that are playing simultaneously and when heard together sound like that word."

• Back 4 Blood is developed by Turtle Rock
• Spiritual successor to Left 4 Dead
• Scheduled for full release on October 12th
• Early access for pre-order customers on August 5th until 9th
• Anyone can give it a whirl between August 12th and 16th

Overlap mishap: It appears that two of Ridden's sound effects are playing simultaneously, which then sounds eerily a racial epithet. WB Games claims it's just a groan-worthy audio mixing mishap, but we do wonder how it managed to slip past the QA teams.

Blame it on the boogie: “We are working diligently to fix this issue,” said WB Games, promising that the offending audio will be replaced before launch.

What FMV game was Burgess Meredith’s last acting credit?

a) Ripper
b) Phantasmagoria 
c) SWAT
d) Under a Killing Moon

The answer will be revealed at the bottom of today's issue. Join up with our community on Twitter and Facebook to discuss what the answer could be.

Google considered buying Epic Games

Ariana Grande just appeared in a string of virtual concerts in Fortnite, performing five shows over the weekend to a rapt audience.

Players are prevented from fighting during the concert, which is presented as a mix of minigames and interactive music videos.

Ogled by Google: At the same time, court filings have revealed that Google expressed an interest in buying Epic Games, which develops Fortnite in addition to the Unreal Engine and is making inroads into the digital distribution market with Epic Games Store.

Sideloading threat: Epic claims Google was so threatened by plans to side-step Google Play and distribute Fortnite by alternative means that Google referred to Epic's plan as a “contagion” and wondered how they could “squelch this threat.”

Breath of the Wild map made in Minecraft

A particularly diligent Minecraft builder has built a facsimile of the huge world from The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. Creator Dinaeh will most likely share the work online unless Nintendo objects.

The terrain was based on a heightmap extracted from the game, but all the detail work is done entirely by Dinaeh.

More to come: Dinaeh plans to add towers, shrines, and NPCs to fill out the blocky Hyrule and bring it as close as possible to Nintendo's fantasy world. Better grab yourself a Link skin and get ready to explore!

Help wanted: “I need people to help make item textures, message me if you would like to do so!” says the latest update on the project, so here's your opportunity if you want to help out.

Secure your online privacy with NordVPN

If you care about online privacy, or just need to pop over to another territory for a bit, have you considered using a virtual private network, or VPN?

NordVPN offers a 3 months free deal at 69% off right now, with over 5,600 servers around the world and unlimited bandwidth. It’s ideal for keeping your data to yourself while you work, watch streams or play games.

• Intellivision Amico has been delayed for a third time due to “unprecedented” global component supply issues
• Crazy Taxi restoration mod brings back brands, re-enables classic cheats, and fixes analog input issues
• Bulbasaur appears in the Pop! Diamond Collection with a limited edition 2021 Summer Convention vinyl figurine
• 3D printing engineer recreates entire Grand Theft Auto V map, piecing together a scale version of Los Santos
• Microsoft announces Gamescom 2021 showcase scheduled for 10:00am PT/6:00pm BST/7:00pm CEST on August 24th

What FMV game was Burgess Meredith’s last acting credit?

ANSWER: Ripper!

Games have lost a little bit of its impressive sense of heft over the years. Take Ripper, for example, which launched on no less than six CD-ROMs in 1996 and represented the epitome of FMV excess. Set in 2040, Ripper is a cyberpunk murder mystery where you must hunt down a serial killer and was developed by Take-Two Interactive, just a few years before they set a new standard for excess with Grand Theft Auto 3.

Ripper featured a surprisingly star-studded cast, including David Patrick Kelly, Karen Allen, Paul Giamatti and even Christopher Walken. The game also features the final performance by acclaimed character actor Burgess Meredith, who plays twin brothers somehow connected to the titular Jack the Ripper copycat. It’s not easy to get the game to run on modern computers though, so don’t expect any 25th-anniversary re-release.

Today's issue of DailyBits was written by Gavin Herman, Erlend Grefsrud, Simon Priest, and Jamie Davey. If you have any feedback or news tips for the team, please email us!