Gaming News for the Week of July 12, 2018

Top Story: 'Fortnite' season five starts today and Epic went hard to promote it.

The time travel-themed season of Fortnite popped off this morning after a week of mysterious teasers, both in-game and in the real world. Last week, a massive rocket launched causing massive rifts in the map's sky, which kicked off a slew of minor map changes and hints across social media about what season five would comprise of. In the real world, though, the iconic llama piñatas began appearing all over Europe. There are seven in total in cities like Paris, Warsaw, and two in London. As of recording, it is unclear what significance the llamas have and if anything about them changed with the arrival of season five.

Back to the game though, with the new update, Epic has detailed the plethora of changes that are contained within version 5.0. Updates include nerfs to shotguns and SMGs, a golf cart vehicle large enough to fit the whole squad, and a new desert biome to the southeast portion of the map, to name a few. Troll on over to Epic’s patch notes to check out all the granular updates.

'Overwatch' League signs multi-year deal with Disney to stream on ESPN, ABC, and Disney XD.

Disney and Blizzard Entertainment have announced that they have reached a deal to bring the Overwatch League to televisions near you if you still watch those things. The playoffs of season one were streamed on ESPN 3 last night and the championship later this month will be streamed on the flagship ESPN channel, along with the entirety of season two, when that comes around. This deal “amounts to hundreds of hours of live and highlight programming across four networks,” according to ESPN, which will provide an unprecedented amount of cultural awareness for the title. The full schedule for the finals of season one can be found in the ESPN article linked in this write-up.

'Far Cry 5' DLC takes players to Mars next week.

Ubisoft is continuing to add varied content to their marquee shooter next week by taking players to Mars to rescue stranded friends in the Lost on Mars expansion. The add-on looks to retain its midwest charm while moving to a more sci-fi genre, at least according to the reveal trailer.

'Hearthstone’s' Newest Expansion, Titled ‘The Boomsday Project’, revealed

Blizzard’s popular card building title will continue to grow next month with a new expansion. The expansion revolves around a mad-science theme, with Dr. Boom taking the spotlight. Players will be able to take advantage of a slew of new mechanics, including class-specific legendary spells, spells that affect both players equally called Projects, and Omega cards, which offer additional perks if you play them when you have maxed out your mana.

Bethesda will stop porting 'Skyrim' when you stop buying it.

“Millions of people every month” are playing Skyrim, according to Todd Howard at Gamelab in Barcelona last week. “That’s why we keep releasing it. If you want us to stop releasing it, stop buying it.” To that, I say touché. By all metrics, Skyrim has done gangbusters for Bethesda, so it isn’t particularly surprising that Skyrim has released on everything under the sun, including Amazon’s Alexa.

Nintendo Switch is getting 'Warframe,' another port from Panic Button.

A popular free-to-play co-op game is coming to the Nintendo Switch, although we aren’t sure when. Warframe looks to be a sci-fi action game featuring space ninjas. The port comes via Panic Button, who has brought Bethesda’s Doom and Wolfenstein II and Psyonix’s Rocket League to Nintendo’s hybrid. The game is currently available on PC, PS4, and Xbox One.

'Darksiders 3' gets a release date.

Darksiders 3 will be coming to a console near you this fall on November 27, developer Gunfire Games has told IGN. Also revealed were the Collector’s and Apocalypse editions, which cost $150 and $400 respectively, if that’s your cup of tea.

Games Out This Week

Shining Resonance Refrain (July 10) - PS4, Xbox One, PC, Switch

Warhammer: Vermantide 2 (July 11) - Xbox One

Games Out Next Week

Octopath Traveler (July 13) - Switch

Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker (July 13) - Switch, 3DS

Pool Panic (July 19) - PC, Switch