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'Westworld' season three teaser brings us to Silicon Valley
While the first two Westworld seasons were centered around the use of AI and robotics technology at a sort of vacation getaway, the teaser revealed tonight turns the lens back toward Silicon Valley tech giants. In a promotion linked to the Wired 25 event, the trailer links to a company "Incite Inc." that will apparently feature somehow in the show's third season, which is scheduled to air on HBO in 2020 -- just in time for the launch of HBO Max. The fictional company follows previous Westworld promos we've seen at events like SXSW by having a booth at the event and sponsoring a rooftop cocktail reception.
Netflix's 'The Crown' season 3 trailer shows off the new cast
With less than a month until the premiere of The Crown season three, Netflix has shared its official trailer. Set to a cover of Bob Dylan's "The Times They Are A-Changing," the two-minute teaser ushers in a new cast and a new political climate in Britain.
HBO teases 2020 return for 'Westworld' with a new trailer
While everyone figures out what they think of the Game of Thrones finale, HBO has pitched a reason to stick around with its first trailer for the third season of Westworld. This one doesn't take us back to the Old West, India or an age of Shoguns and samurai warriors, instead it focuses on Breaking Bad star Aaron Paul walking around in a futuristic -- and maybe real -- city. Tessa Thompson is returning to the show this season, and Evan Rachel Wood makes an appearance in the trailer. Otherwise, Lena Waithe and French actor Vincent Cassel are joining the cast, but we'll have to wait until next year to see how it all (probably) goes wrong again.
Season three Hearthstone card back announced
Hearthstone's third official Ranked Play Season kicked off this morning and the accompanying unique card back has since been announced. The rainbow themed card back had been shown off before, but it was unknown what exactly would be required to unlock it. All you'll need to do to obtain it is make rank 20, similar to both the Pandaria and Black Temple themed card motifs. If you haven't made the grind to rank 20 before, it's not too hard. You just need to win a few games, especially because it's possible to gain a double-star-win-streaks after winning three straight ranked games. Conversely, it's actually impossible to lose stars up to rank 20. If you earned enough stars last season to start below rank 20, you'll still need to log in and play at least one match in order to secure the rainbow card back.
League of Legends kicks off third season of e-sports
League of Legends is about ready to begin its third season of the League Championship Series, and this time Riot Games is bringing a few interesting changes to the field. Season 3 goes live on February 7th for North America and Europe and features four-days-per-week of streamed e-sports as teams battle to become the best -- and bring home the dough. For Season 3, Riot is fiddling with the structure to make a new league ranking system that should offer a "greater sense of progression." Players will battle it out in six tiers of similarly matched teams until the cream rises to the top. To help all players understand the changes, Riot's provided a handy infographic and FAQ covering the pertinent points. There's also a goofy promo video of players running around an empty stadium in slow-motion, and you know you want to see that. It's after the jump. Thank us later.
Dragons gone wild: Might and Magic: Heroes Kingdom's third season reveals all
The browser-based strategy MMO Might and Magic: Heroes Kingdom (winner of the "We want to write that title in a completely different order" award) has cracked a peek into its third season, and soon the doors will be flung wide open for all to see. Season three launches on Thursday, September 15th, and will introduce a host of new challenges for both PvE and PvP players. It appears that the air dragon Ylath has aroused from his slumber looking for a good meal while those nasty Dark Elves are on the prowl for an unprepared hero or two. Runic fortresses also have appeared out of thin air, begging players to battle over these swanky summer homes. Finally, fans of the title should enjoy the enhanced character customization coming with the update. The free-to-play title will add an in-game store with this update to help monetize the game. You can check out what we thought of the title with our First Impressions series.
Star Trek Online: Deep space exploration on a budget
It's never been a better time to be a fan of the final frontier, particularly with Star Trek Online's recent Season 3 update. But if you've been biding your time on STO, just waiting for that perfect deal, today might be your lucky day. Amazon is selling the digital download version of STO for a mere $2.50 -- and that includes a full month of gameplay. Seeing as how a month's subscription runs around $15, it's quite a steal. But we'd advise you to go for the deluxe edition of STO on Amazon instead. For $5, you not only get the game and 30 days of play, but also a classic series uniform set, the Joined Trill race and a handful of other goodies that would cost you well over $10 to buy separately on the C-Store. Speaking of Cryptic's in-game store, the company has announced that all C-Store items (excluding the two newest additions) are 20% off from now through January 3rd, 2011. Since a wise starship captain is frugal with his ship's budget, this seems like the perfect time to snatch a few bargains without worrying about breaking the bank. [Thanks Omali!]
Replay episodes or make your own with STO's Season Three
It's fitting that Star Trek Online's third major update is entitled "Genesis," because in several ways, it feels like a new beginning for the game. In a preview of December's Season Three, Cryptic reveals a trio of significant re-dos: a revamp of the visually lackluster sector space, the ability to replay your favorite episodes, and the beta of STO's player-created mission feature, The Foundry. While Cryptic is uncertain whether The Foundry will go live by Season Three, the studio does promise that players will at least be able to tinker with it on the test servers by then. The Foundry is one of Cryptic's answers to STO's perceived lack of playable -- and original -- content, allowing gamers to construct their own stories and episodes using STO's robust editor. "Using The Foundry, you can construct Episodes and share them with your friends. If you're not interested in designing missions, you'll still benefit from The Foundry: Player-created missions will be available to you to play and enjoy, right alongside the Episodes you know and love today." Cryptic has a number of other features on deck for the game following Season Three, including customizing Gorn characters, new uniforms and ships in the C-Store, ground combat improvements, and Klingon-specific updates.
Shock and awe in the Arena
In all of my many Arena matches, I've never had the pleasure of running into a multiboxer. I've never even seen them around the battlegrounds. Sure I've seen them around the environment, and they're always impressive. Aelli of Smolderthorn may well be the first to multibox four Elemental Shamans to Gladiator status in arena season three. The four Elemental Shamans, Aelli, Aellei, Aellii, and Aellie, are joined in Team Bubbanaught by Resto Shaman Bubbajingles, controlled by another player. The Shamans are flying high on their freshly-acquired Nether Drakes. The original poster has less than humbly declared that he plans on an even better showing in season four. Along with many words of congratulations, this thread has its fair share of negativity toward multiboxing. Multiboxers in PvP are often a source of contention. Now, I know that not everyone loves this style of play. But you've got to give credit where credit is due, and this is pretty cool. Congrats Aelli, and good luck! Check after the break for some video footage of the team.
Season three: The reckoning
We have now experienced three full seasons of Arenas in World of Warcraft. The numbers are being crunched and we shall see the winners of end of season rewards shortly. Most of this season has been plagued, like others with dishonesty among some of the players. Blizzard took action a few weeks ago to combat win-trading and point selling with temporary account bans, personal rating requirements for match-ups, and penalties for queue dodging. It seems Blizzard is not quite done meeting out their punishment. On an alt named Wtfkalgan, a player noted:A team recently got reset to 1500 (questioning the judgment of the GM involved isn't the purpose of this thread). The email states, "Note: This also disqualifies the above player from any end of season rewards." Does this mean the player involved is completely ineligible for any end of season rewards, or just from the end of season rewards for the team that received the action? Belfaire, a CM , clarified that this does exclude the character from receiving all end-of-season rewards. This may be an isolated incident, or it may be the beginning of another wide-spread crackdown on arena cheating. This may also include stripping honor from battleground afkers. I can't wait to see how this plays out tomorrow and when rewards are handed out. I'm thinking it's going to be epic. Thanks for the tip, Feller.
Holy Paladin! A 3,000 team/personal rating
While many people enjoy Arena play, for both fun and gear, some teams really stand out from the crowd. DonLolo z Wladem, a 2v2 team from Burning Legion EU has topped the arena charts with a 3,000 team rating. Not only does this team have no need to worry about rating requirements for Season four gear, but they will have plenty of arena points to spend once it is released. This rating yields 1,140 points per week at the 2v2 level. The team is led by Noksil a Human Paladin. Noksil is the first player to reach a 3,000 personal rating. The build for this mighty combatant consists of 44 points in holy and 17 points in Protection. This build reflects the versatility of hybrid classes in DPS and healing. The team roster also contains two Subtly Rogues: Mnius with a personal rating of 2,883 and Tatus; who carries a rating of 1965 for the 15 games he's completed this season on the team. Congratulations DonLolo z Wladem. Welcome to the Arena Hall of Fame.
No incoming fix for long arena queues
With the popularity of the new arena season, queue times across the servers are getting pretty long. This is especially noticeable in the 2v2 bracket, which is the most popular team size. When a player posted his complaints about the long queues today, Drysc chimed in to give indication that there will be no quick fix incoming. Instead, the devs are going to wait to get the big picture on the influx of PvPers instead of making rash decisions.I don't know what your experiences have been like lately, but the queues on my main server seem to be getting longer and longer rather than diminishing. The new season has only been out for about a week now, so perhaps it's too early to expect interest to be fading, but I hope there is some sort of solution soon. I've contemplated moving up to the 3v3 bracket, but I've heard via word of mouth that those queues are getting pretty lengthy as well. Perhaps it's time to give 5v5 a chance once again, if I can corral some of my guildmates to chose a specific time to do our matches and stick with it.What has your experience with the arena queues been like since the new season began?
Armory updated for Season 3
Recently, Blizzard updated their Armory page with information pertaining to the new arena season. The addition that will likely be most helpful for players is the new listing of personal arena ratings which can be found in both the character and team profiles. The other changes include the listing of the new titles from last arena season. These will appear on character profiles, but only if they have already been selected in game. Additionally, all the new arena and honor loot has been added to the item database. Finally, the update page informs us that the Arena Hall of Fame will soon include the winners from Season 2.If you'd like to check out the full listing of changes for yourself, be sure to click on the "Read" link below.
Making money from Season 3
Tomorrow morning Arena Season 3 is scheduled to start up and, among other things, this will bring a lot of new loot into the game. I'm sure many of you are like myself and have been hoarding up honor and arena points in order to buy the new gear as soon as it appears on the vendors. This season, due largely to the new rating requirements placed on some of the new items, I've decided to actually put forth effort to be competitive in the arena. With that in mind, picking up the new PvP gear becomes a priority, and I imagine other people are going to be in a similar position. Gone are the days of dying in the arena week after week in order to finally pick up that amazing weapon. Of course, for many players, there's a much more important aspect to preparing for Season 3: making money on the auction house.
Lost: The Complete Third Season headed to Blu-ray Dec. 11
According to Home Media Retailing Magazine, Disney representatives confirmed that one of our favorite HDTV shows, Lost, will make its Blu-ray debut day-and-date with the DVD set of season three December 11th. No word on possible HD special features or price, but we can expect more details soon.[Via MovieWeb]
