1. With the world of professional e-sports climbing in popularity, it seems players are willing to do everything and anything that they can in order to be crowned champions and to gain notoriety and fame…and of course the prize money is pretty sweet too. Unfortunately one of the dark little secrets in the world of e-sports is that players are taking PEDs (performance enchanting drugs) in order to win competitions by give them an edge over other players.
Earlier this month a professional Counter Strike: Global Offensive player, Kory "Semphis" Friesen, claimed in a video interview that he was using Adderall during an Electronic Sports League (ESL) event back in March: “We were all on Adderall…I don't even give a fuck. It was pretty obvious if you listened to the comms.” Although Semphis probably isn’t the first professional gamer to openly admit his use of PEDs in a tournament, he proves that there is a larger problem around substance abuse in the world of e-sports. In response, the ESL announced on Thursday that they have decided to begin implementing new policies that will randomly test players for taking PEDs:
"In order to maintain the fair play spirit of our sport, ESL has partnered with NADA (Nationale Anti Doping Agentur, located in Bonn, Germany) to help research and determine an anti-PEDs policy that is fair, feasible and respects the privacy of the players, whilst simultaneously providing conclusive testing results."
The ESL may be cracking down on the unfairness in the professional gaming circuit, but the health and well-being of these professional players is still the larger concern here. The press release went on to further explain how the ESL will aim to “ensure players are provided with information and structural support to help them manage the physical and emotional pressure that the highest level of competitive gaming puts on many of them…"
By attacking this issue head on we make the professional e-sport community not only a safer and healthier place, but we eliminate the social pressure on other players to take PEDs in the first place just to keep up with the competition. According to the ESL they will begin drug testing at the ESL One Cologne event in Germany next month, and will be testing players via some sort of skin test.
2. Fighting fans received a good deal of information regarding the development of Street Fighter V last weekend during the Evo 2015 fighting competition. For starters Capcom announced an entirely new character for the game’s franchise named Necalli. The fighter seems to be a heavily offensive character utilizing a moveset comprised of grapples, throws, furious slashes, and aerial dive-attacks. The character is also sporting some devilishly red hair, which begins to flow with energy when activing the character’s V-trigger.
Furthermore, Capcom also announced that Street Fighter V will be released with a total of 16 characters, 4 of which will be newcomers to the franchise. Additional fighters will be released after the game's launch on PS4 and PC, but these characters will be unlockable through both normal gameplay and microtransactional DLC options; this means that you can just unlock content by playing the game instead of paying for it. Huh, crazy idea right? Capcom believes that by adopting this method for unlocking characters all players will be able to interact and play with everyone by not alienating certain players who don’t have the same DLC. Street Fighter V will be released for PS4 and on PC during March 2016.
And finally the beta for Street Fighter V went live on Thursday, but unfortunately isn’t working properly. Players are getting stuck on the game’s first screen, which is preventing them from playing the game. Due to these technical errors Capcom says they will be extending the length of the beta, but we do not know for how long or when it will be back online. But that’s what a beta is for right? The beta was scheduled to end on the 28th, and is available to those who preordered the game.
3. Heartstone: Heroes of Warcraft is much more than just a card game based on Blizzard’s immensely popular MMO, World of Warcraft- it’s a card game that’s getting its second expansion! On Thursday Blizzard announced The Grand Tournament expansion, which is based on WoW’s Argent Tournament world event- but with a much sillier twist! The set will introduce 130 new cards to the game, along with the new “inspire” mechanic on some cards. Inspire will activate whenever a player uses his or her Hero Power. The set will be available for pre-order next week, and will become officially available to all next month in August. Those who do pre-order will also receive an exclusive card back. Check out the expansion’s official trailer right here:
4. Sony and PC fans should be happy to hear that the Xbox One timed exclusive, Rise of the Tomb Raider, has officially been confirmed for PS4 and PC by next year. The developer Square Enix announced on Thursday that the game would come to Steam “early 2016”, while the PS4 version will be released during the “holiday 2016” season. Rise of the Tomb Raider is the follow up sequel to Square Enix’s 2013 Tomb Raider reboot, which set Lara Croft on her first adventure. The game will be released for Xbox One and Xbox 360 November 10. There is no confirmation if the game will be released on PS3 at this time.
5. If you’ve somehow missed the opportunity to play any or every (hey no judgement…) Fallout game ever made, don’t fret because Bethesda wants everyone to be completely prepared for Fallout 4. Thursday at Quakecon, Bethesda unveiled the Fallout Anthology and it’s as complete as it sounds. The Fallout Anthology collection will include: Fallout, Fallout 2, Fallout Tactics, Fallout 3: Game of the Year Edition, and Fallout New Vegas: Ultimate Edition. Best of all the collection comes packaged in an adorable mini nuke! Although the Anthology doesn’t come with Fallout 4, the mini nuke is designed specifically to fit it in the case. The Fallout Anthology will be released on September 29 for PC for $49.99.
6. If you love your horror games (and I know you do) then you should be pleased to know that the wildly popular franchise Five Nights at Freddy’s fourth installment (ironically called Five Night’s at Freddy’s 4) has been released much earlier than expected. Scott Cawthon, the franchise’s developer, initially said that the game would be released around Halloween, but published a message on Steam: “Ok, so as many of you already know, I'm bad with release dates. The game is finished. :) Enjoy!” The game is currently on sale for $7.99 on Steam, and is expected to be the finale for the series. Check out the game’s trailer below:
