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The fatal shooting at Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida where 17 people were killed put the gun control debate on the national stage again and sparked widespread protests from the survivors and fellow students across the country.
By Gunner Masters The fatal shooting at Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida where 17 people were killed put the gun control debate on the national stage again and sparked widespread protests from the survivors and fellow students across the country. Almost a week later, President Trump brought the violent video game debate back to life with his comments discussing school safety at the White House on February 22. “We have to do something about maybe what they’re seeing and how they’re seeing it, video games,” Trump said. “I’m hearing more and more people say the level of violence on video games is really shaping young people’s thoughts.”
The President and CEO of the National Retail Federation said the retail industry is only going to change its appearance and that statement couldn’t be more true for Muncie.
In recent years, gaming and eSports have exploded onto computer screens across the world with audience growth projected to reach 589 million by 2020 according to Newzoo’s 2017 "Global Esports Market Report." The same report also projects total revenue to reach $1.5 billion the same year.
By Gunner Masters In recent years, gaming and eSports have exploded onto computer screens across the world with audience growth projected to reach 589 million by 2020 according to Newzoo’s 2017 "Global Esports Market Report." The same report also projects total revenue to reach $1.5 billion the same year. However, a large contribution to the expansion of eSports (particularly in Western countries) is a group often dissociated from mainstream gaming—women. Newzoo’s report broke down the overall viewership by age and gender into two categories: “Esports Enthusiasts” and “Occasional Viewers” with both being male dominated, but each had significant female viewership with 29 percent of Esports Enthusiasts and 39 percent of Occasional Viewers being female. Among both men and women, the largest percentage of viewers fell into the 21-35 age range. Nielsen studied eSports audiences in the United States, United Kingdom, France and Germany for their Esports Playbook and broke down male and female livestream viewers across the four markets into “weekly or more often” and “monthly”. Livestream Viewers Men Women Weekly or more often 36% 23% Monthly 30% 26% Renee Human, the esports faculty advisor for the Cardinal E-Sports Club at Ball State University, says that the growth of esports is due to generational shifts. “We have a generation that’s always played video games, it’s not just young people anymore. There’s people in their 30s that are gamers” Human said. “We may not have the time or inclination, but we still want gaming in our lives.” In August 2017, Tony Estanguet, co-president of the Paris bid committee, confirmed that he would speak with the International Olympic Committee and eSports representatives about including eSports as an event at the 2024 games. “We have to look at it because we can’t say ‘It’s not us, It’s not Olympics.' The youth are interested in eSport and this kind of thing. Let’s look at it. Let’s meet them. Let’s try if we can find some bridges” he told the Associated Press. There has been criticism from sports purists when it comes to sports despite the consideration the Olympic Committee is giving eSports. “A lot of people don’t want it because it’s not physically athletic and want a physical component,” Human said. There are some popular female teams and competitors within eSports such as Team Dignitas’ female CS:GO team, Katherine Gunn and Sasha Hostyn, but there is some controversy surrounding female players in eSports and gaming in general. Zach Sexton, a Ball State University graduate student whose research involves eSports and the community, says the resistance to women in eSports is related to how gamers are portrayed. “When we say ‘gamer’ what does ‘gamer’ mean? And people get a picture in their head and it’s a male, usually teenaged or early 20s” Sexton said. “When you add these kinds of stereotypes it can be a little off-putting.” The stereotype of a gamer being a boy or young adult male is related to the early placement of consoles such as the Super Nintendo in the boy’s section of toy stores and marketing around many games like Call of Duty or Devil May Cry targeted at a male audience. Sexton cited an article from the Feminist Forum that said, “Women aren’t in it because we keep defining a gamer as a male, specifically a white male, and that’s something we have to do away with to open it up with more audiences.” The introduction of all female teams such as the now folded Frag Dolls, helped boost the growth in female viewers and competitors, but Sexton says that there’s more to be done. “I think it was really beneficial a few years ago and it did introduce that there are these women who are very good, who are content creators and show you can do this too,” Sexton said. “But, and that’s a big but, we [society] have an issue of putting women in their own league. For example, we have men and women’s soccer, but the women only get paid if they win and the men get paid even if they lose, so this creates barriers for them.” Human said that much of the backlash against women in gaming is related to the Gamergate controversy in 2014, where the hashtag: #Gamergate criticized game developer Zoe Quinn for rumors about cheating on her boyfriend with five other men who worked in gaming or gaming journalism. “Because of that there was a lot of misogynistic rhetoric and to counter that, we need male gamers who aren’t misogynistic to support women and bring them in,” Human said. Kora Wilson, a senior Ball State student, watches and participates in the eSports and the general gaming community, but has also dealt with misogyny. “I’m more of a distance person when it comes to eSports. I try to get into it, but because I am a female, I’m more so in the shadows” Wilson said. “I like to sit back and observe because in the past I’ve had some backlash when trying to talk to community members that are mostly male.” One of those instances came when she offered up her comment on a League of Legends match between Samsung Galaxy and Team SoloMid. Wilson explained that SoloMid’s Bjergsen got close to Samsung’s gate and alerted his team to their chance at winning the match. However, one of his teammates jumped over a wall, revealing their position to the enemy team and caused the loss for SoloMid. “I was discussing on a message board about how it wasn’t Bjergsen, it was the Jungle that messed them up and, if it wasn’t for the Jungle, then they probably would’ve at least gotten farther or won that game because of Bjergsen’s strategy” Wilson said. “And I was basically told that because I was female: my opinion didn’t really matter, I should get off the board, I didn’t play League anyway, why did I care and that I was wrong because Bjergsen was awful.” Wilson has been playing video games since she was nine years old and played League for the last three years. “It was like I was invalidated because I am a girl and ‘girls don’t play League,’ when most of the people I know are women that play League” Wilson said. “I decided to stop posting about things. I stopped engaging with other community members that I didn’t know personally.” Despite the backlash, female competitors like Sasha Hostyn, who won the Starcraft II tournament in February this year and ranks at the top of the most successful women in eSports show that skill is what matters according to Human and Wilson. “It doesn’t matter if you’re male or female; what matters is if you’re good or not and the audience wants good gameplay” Human said. Wilson said that male gamers often view women as being outsiders in gaming, especially at eSports events. “When women go to eSports events, most think they’re there with a boyfriend or a brother and there’s backlash like, ‘why is a woman here?’” Wilson said. “Some women flock to challenge and there’s this attitude that we can do what they can do” Wilson said. Images: Fortune, Supreme Tech News, team-dignitas, Newzoo Sources: Newzoo, Nielsen, BBC, Benjamin Passen
Muncie, Indiana is like many other cities throughout the Midwest. With booming industries from the late 19th century into the 20th century, with the founding of natural gas mining, the Ball Corporation and the auto industry made it a blue-collar town with hard-working individuals.
Fans and motors whir and lights blink on as a subtle beep confirms the machine’s coming to life. A game is booted up and worlds and universes of infinite possibility open upon a screen, a window into the digital realm. Perhaps a story of a legendary warrior imbued with mystical powers or a fast-paced multiplayer shooter with friends and strangers set in the battlefields of the World Wars.
With all the different ideologies in the Star Wars universe, two have always stood out and have become the center for basically any and all things that happen in that universe: the Sith and the Jedi. Jedi represent all that is good and Sith represent all that is evil. However, in between those two ideologies is a grey area that takes the best of both worlds and creates the ideology of the Grey Jedi.
The first Star Wars film released in 1977 catapulted the franchise into a multi-billion-dollar empire that covers media from film, T.V., books and gaming. With Battlefront 2 nearing release and fans hyped to once again battle across famous planets and The Last Jedi just around the corner, perhaps it’s time to reflect on the past games that gave players so many hours of enjoyment.
By Gunner Masters The first Star Wars film released in 1977 catapulted the franchise into a multi-billion-dollar empire that covers media from film, T.V., books and gaming. With Battlefront 2 nearing release and fans hyped to once again battle across famous planets and The Last Jedi just around the corner, perhaps it’s time to reflect on the past games that gave players so many hours of enjoyment. Star Wars Battlefront’s name first entered households in 2004 and the arcade-style 3rd person shooter produced by Pandemic allowed for players to conquer several planets in both the Clone War and Galactic Civil War eras in the famous Galactic Conquest and create quick matches in Instant Action either alone, with a friend or to compete in online instant action. Its sequel, Battlefront 2, came in 2005 and expanded in every aspect of the game. There were more planets, space battles, playable heroes and a small, but enjoyable campaign that followed a Clone-Trooper of the 501st Legion, the eventual Vader’s Fist, from the Battle of Geonosis to Order 66 and beyond. I can’t fathom the hours I spent conquering the Galaxy as the Empire or defending the beaches of Kashyyyk, the Wookie home-world, as the Republic. Or when my cousin used a leader bonus as the CIS on Polis Massa, allowing him to play as Darth Maul, and the terror I felt as his red dual-bladed lightsaber cleaved through swathes of clones, including me. I eventually got my revenge as Obi-Wan on Utapau and turned the tide of that PvP Galactic Conquest, which culminated in the Republic’s victory. This nostalgia is what hyped Star Wars fans like myself and my cousins because the films, books and games were a large part of our childhoods and having a new film and a Star Wars Battlefront series stirred up excitement to once again travel to a galaxy far, far away. However, nostalgia can only hold a fan base’s attention for so long before cracks and flaws begin to appear in the once perfect image of a renewed childhood experience. A principal complaint of EA Games and Dice’s version of the franchise was the lack of content for a full-priced game. Namely, the first Battlefront lacked Galactic Conquest, space battles or any real campaign mode and there was a small number of maps. Single-player and co-op was lacking as well by comparison with only a few modes such as Battles and Survival. Another complaint was the size of the multiplayer matches capped at 20 vs. 20 in whereas the original Battlefront 2 allowed 32 vs. 32. However, EA’s Battlefront 2 seems to have taken some of these complaints into account and added all eras from the Clone Wars to the New Trilogy with 11 heroes/villains, space battles and single-player campaign that tells the story of Iden Versio, an Imperial Special Forces pilot, after the destruction of the Death Star II. All of this is exciting, but there are still missed opportunities that EA and Dice could have taken advantage of to expand the depth of Battlefront such as adding in single-player/co-op Galactic Conquest, perhaps even online Galactic Conquest and allowing battles to be seamless between space and land with larger match lobbies and maps. I imagine two fleets orbiting a planet, the attacker sends down landing craft and vehicle support, while the garrisoned defenders do their best to set up their positions. Meanwhile, waves of fighters and interceptors engage in space and the skies while the capital ships and their frigates start pounding each other with heavy cannons and missiles. The destroyed fleet would crash into the map, much like the Jakku map on EA’s Battlefront, and change the landscape. Perhaps even the hero combat could be more fluid like the highly acclaimed Jedi Knight series’ where lightsaber moves and force powers were controlled by button presses, positioning and direction the player faced and moved. These mechanics would make EA’s Star Wars Battlefront series a great successor to the originals and appeal to new and old players with more depth than a rushed product that lacked most of the components that made the franchise great. It might even revolutionize the idea of sci-fi multiplayer shooters as more focus is given to gameplay and being player and consumer friendly with a fully fleshed out game. Perhaps it is time for gamers to start demanding finished products with compelling expansions instead of sections of a game being stripped out and resold in season passes. And perhaps what gamers want is long-form stories that show characters interact with the galaxy and change over the course of a conflict rather than a 6-8 hour campaign that just offers a sliver of what could be a ground-breaking narrative with amazing multiplayer to boot. Images: YouTube, starwars.com, WCCFTech, Game Axis
This review is based on the PlayStation 4 version of Middle-earth: Shadow of War.
by Gunner Masters This review is based on the PlayStation 4 version of Middle-earth: Shadow of War. Middle-earth: Shadow of War is the anticipated sequel to Monolith’s Shadow of Mordor that released in 2014. The games follow the story of Talion, a Ranger of Gondor who is stationed at the Black Gate with his family. Sauron’s forces attack the fortress and his servants (the Hammer, the Tower and the Hand of Sauron) sacrificing Talion along with his wife and son to resurrect the wraith of Celebrimbor, the maker of the Rings of Power. Instead of heeding their call to return to Sauron’s side, Celebrimbor possesses Talion and the pair set out on a quest to conquer Mordor and defeat Sauron. Story The story in Shadow of War follows where the previous installment left off, with Talion and Celebrimbor forging the New Ring within Mt. Doom and eventually waging the all-out war the elven wraith desires. Talion’s motives are different in this installment. Instead of vengeance for his family, the Ranger seeks to save the remnants of Gondor’s holdings in Mordor and to keep the Dark Lord’s forces at bay long enough to give the rest of the world hope for survival. There are also various characters that Talion and Celebrimbor meet, fight alongside, and rescue. These characters include Idril, the young daughter of General Castamir in Minas Ithil, the last Gondorian bastion in Mordor. She tends to the various artifacts held within the fortress, but that doesn’t mean she spends all her time in a library. Idril is a brave and persistent fighter who leads raids against the Orc invaders. Another compelling character is Shelob the Spider, who appears as a woman in a black dress for most of her scenes and gives Talion grim visions of the future he seeks to prevent. The story, while mature most of the time, has lighter comedic moments that break the tension caused by Shelob’s visions and the constant fighting and dominating of Orc captains and fortresses. These moments serve to present a human side to Talion and some of the Orcs he works with during the conflict. But it isn’t Mordor without betrayal and darkness, and this sequel presents those elements in spades throughout the various quest-lines. These elements lead to utter surprise on Talion’s part at a crucial moment and build to a grim fate for him. At one point in his bewilderment, Shelob visits him again and says, “You pitiful man. I gave you sight, yet you did not see.” Gameplay Gameplay in Shadow of War is much akin to its predecessor with combat and climbing, but it has slight improvements to speed and accuracy for both Talion and the mobs of Orcs he fights. However, these mechanics become cumbersome during massive battles where Talion is surrounded by enemies and allies alike. Sometimes the game suffers from input lag during an attack combo, failing a block and resulting in lost health and Might, the meter that allows you to do executions and other abilities. At other times, Talion will end up auto-targeting the wrong enemy or ally when you are in the heat of battle trying to attack or heal. This can make the fort assaults and defenses frustrating. However, when actions work they really work. An intentional domination or execution that lands when it’s supposed to can turn the entire battle in Talion’s favor. Another minor complaint is the addition of microtransactions. These leave a bad taste in the game as it and other single-player titles have taken a step toward the pay-to-win system often seen on free mobile games, but it is avoidable altogether as Orcs and loot already in-game are more than sufficient to complete the game. Shadow of War also adds new upgrades to familiar abilities from Shadow of Mordor, such as the Wraith Blast ability which can send out waves of poison or frost instead of fire, or the Attract ability which can be charged up to send out a physical wraith to kill or brand an enemy. Some of the new abilities in the game allow for Talion to tap into Celebrimbor’s power to summon a Spectral Glaive, a type of halberd/spear, to slash and sweep enemies around him, or allow him to use stealth kills on enemy animals such as the vicious Caragors. Next up is the series’ most famous distinction on enemy and story development: the Nemesis System. Shadow of War improves vastly on the previous incarnation of this system that procedurally generates enemies based on looks, weapons, armor, personality, strengths and weaknesses. In the previous game, each enemy was somewhat unique, but later they started to feel similar in terms of strengths and weaknesses. Here each enemy captain, war-chief and overlord has even more listed strengths and weaknesses that cover everything from fear of Caragors, hatred of betrayal, to commanding a gang of warriors and using war banners to rally their allies to attack harder. There are also more cosmetic features to the various Orc leaders that depend on their clan such as Dark or Mystic. Dark Orcs tend to wear hoods and darker clothing and use cursed weapons to disrupt your wraith abilities, who Mystic who wear silver armor and masks. The Nemesis System also more accurately portrays personalities and makes each enemy unique. One might be called the Screamer because instead of speaking he will let out loud and obnoxious cries in and out of battle, while another might be called the Collector because he has a penchant for absorbing the strengths of his vanquished foes by claiming trophies from them. By extension, their titles and looks can change based on their interactions with Talion. An orc captain could be cleaved in half only to return encased in metal armor from head-to-toe a la Darth Vader, identifying as “the Machine” and saying, “My brothers put me back together, but it was you who created me.” Talion can also shame Orc leaders to reduce their level, with a possibility of making them either deranged (weaker) or maniacs (stronger). Their minds will be broken and they will become shells of their former selves, making Talion into something of a Sith Lord on top of the desire to conquer Mordor. One such Orc is a proud Olog-hai (a smarter type of troll) who calls himself Ar-Benu the Bludger and crushes every one of his enemies with his mace. Talion decides to dominate this Olog and make him his bodyguard, but a sudden betrayal leads to Ar-Benu being too strong-willed to be taken back into Celebrimbor’s influence. After repeated shaming, Ar-Benu’s mind collapses with fear and loathing, causing him to mutter gibberish and cry in despair, then erupt with cackling laughter. Talion kills the broken Olog out of mercy by cutting his head off to end his suffering quickly. Overall, this game is a worthy installment in an awesome franchise that has far-reaching effects on the larger Tolkien lore of Middle-earth. It expands on the world by exploring the Second Age exploits of Celebrimbor, Sauron and others. It also adds in sprinkles of lore for lands outside the borders shown on the maps of Middle-earth, such as Rhun, the Heradrim and Numenor. Fans of the series and the Lord of the Rings trilogy will enjoy it for its 50- to 60-hour campaign and its pages of lore that describe things not well-known outside the books. Featured image from LOTR Wiki
Martial arts is a term synonymous with combat and spirituality that every person has heard about through one media source or another. Often the arts are portrayed in movies, anime and art as a path to enlightenment and supernatural abilities. However, while the former is true to a degree unfortunately there is no way for a person to fly or shoot Kamehameha waves from their hands.
By Gunner Masters Martial arts is a term synonymous with combat and spirituality that every person has heard about through one media source or another. Often the arts are portrayed in movies, anime and art as a path to enlightenment and supernatural abilities. However, while the former is true to a degree unfortunately there is no way for a person to fly or shoot Kamehameha waves from their hands. Knowledge and discipline are the spiritual goals of martial arts, especially in Kung Fu, Karate and other Eastern styles. The same can be said of those from the West that focus on chivalry and honor. And the martial artists from these areas trained for the battlefield or duels. In modern times, martial arts have become more combat sport than battlefield focused. This can be seen in Boxing and the UFC and where recently Floyd Mayweather won his 50th straight victory against Conor McGregor in a boxing match. The referee called the match in the 10th round when McGregor showed signs of fatigue and took several good shots to the head and body to ensure his own health and safety. The fight was portrayed as a clash of titans from different worlds and they payout ran into the hundreds of millions. In film and television, martial arts take on another form as heroes and villains fight using flight, Ki-blasts and god-like speed. In the case of Bruce Lee, he was phenomenal at Kung Fu and used his fighting abilities to take on multiple opponents at one and some wielding everything from swords, pipes and nunchaku. However, these battles include graceful and flashy moves because of choreography and movie magic. Reality is far quicker and often brutal. Jeff Glant, 36, is a 4th Dan Blackbelt and Head Instructor at Muncie Mudokwan with over twenty years of training experience and some of that time spent fighting in the cage in smaller MMA circuits. “Fictionally, there’s nothing wrong with it. It’s just storytelling,” he said as he began to unbind his knee brace from his leg in the changing room at Mudokwan. “Obviously, what works on movies doesn’t work in real life.” “You see a lot of things that are pretty and high-flying, but it’s not real,” Glant said. Glant’s experience in the dojang and elsewhere taught him what works for real life and what doesn’t. Those skills that he built over years came in handy when he had to defend himself for real. Glant was on break from working the kitchen at J.D.’s Bar in Decatur, Ind. He sat at the bar while his friend, Michelle, worked the bar. The bar was empty besides them and two couples that went out for a few drinks. Then three men walked in and were visibly buzzed and ordered drinks from Michelle. She gave them their orders and they drank the alcohol away and became more inebriated. “Fictionally, there’s nothing wrong with it. It’s just storytelling,” he said as he began to unbind his knee brace from his leg in the changing room at Mudokwan. “Obviously, what works on movies doesn’t work in real life.” They started harassing the couples at the pool table and tried to flirt with the women and became belligerent. Their boyfriends asked Glant, who was exhausted from working in a hot kitchen for most of the night to step in, but he told them, “You guys tell ‘em to stop, it’s not my problem.” The boyfriends confronted the drunks and they apologized, but they got loud and belligerent again. “All right guys. We warned you and you’re doing it again. So, please leave,” Michelle said. One of the men yelled, “I ain’t going anywhere!”, then slapped Michelle and knocked her down. Glant jumped out of his seat, ran up to Michelle’s attacker and pushed him into tables and chairs. “Out of the corner of my eye, I saw something moving and something told me to kick,” Glant said. He shifted slightly and picked up his leg, then launched his heel into another man’s chest. He toppled backward and fell over the pool table. Glant then turned his attention to the final man who immediately put up his hands in surrender. However, the first man recovered from being thrown into the tables and tackled Glant to the ground. “We kinda rolled around and got into a wrestling match on the steps leading up to the bar,” Glant said. They fell down the stairs bound up in combat. “Somehow, I turned in the air and pin him to the stairs. Then I just pushed his jaw into one of the stairs,” he said. The police arrived moments later and broke up the fight. Western martial arts like Rapier Fencing are portrayed in films like The Princess Bride and the Three Musketeers as fast paced footwork and flourish-filled bouts where heroes and villains seem to dance back and forth and around each other. While the moves and footwork are real, an actual duel would usually be over quickly as stabbing an opponent’s lung, heart or face with a powerful thrust would be certain death and wounds could also render an opponent incapable of continuing a fight. Kaitlyn Sims, a senior at Ball State and President of Ball State’s Fencing Club, has years of experience fencing with the Epee, which is a foil with a heavier blade and larger hand-guard. “The biggest discrepancies that I always see is all the witty banter and all of the swooshing noises that happen. Anytime you hear a sword making a swishing noise in a movie, I can almost guarantee you it’s somebody recording a Foil swiping through the air,” Sims said pretending to slash the air with an invisible sword.“I love to see it because it’s flashy and cool and it’s why I’m interested in the sport to begin with,” she continued, “but it is fairly inaccurate.” The reality of Fencing, like any other martial art is that everything is learned gradually with great effort. Stances, footwork, strikes and parries are all broken into separate movements then blended together over time until they become instinctual. “When I first came to club, I wanted, I KNEW I was going to do Sabre because I wanted to either be a Jedi or be a pirate!” Sims said, laughing. “And it’s not at all like that.” Despite this, Sims continued to practice with her Epee so she could get as close to true Rapier Fencing and her desire to be a pirate as possible. In Birth of the Dragon, the fight between Bruce Lee and Wong Jack Man was shown to be a huge affair born out of old tradition versus street fighting and Lee’s instruction of Caucasians in the art of Kung Fu. The fight in the movie is blown up into an epic battle between these opposing ideologies, yet the actual fight, as told by Lee’s friends and wife who witnessed it, Bruce chased Wong Jack for a few seconds, tackled him and finished him with a UFC style ground-and-pound. His opponent surrendered and Lee walked away free to teach and spread Kung Fu to whomever he wished. Following this, he starred in the Green Hornet T.V. show and several classic movies such as Enter the Dragon. Martial arts and their portrayal in media isn’t a bad thing, however it creates misconceptions of what they teach and what training and fighting are really like. Whether it’s movies, TV or anime, they all spread awareness in the martial arts and lead to people to explore that inspiration. However, the reality is that martial arts are among the most difficult things to do because of the physical and mental demands that cause many to drop out before they realize their potential. As Bruce Lee said, “There are no limits. There are only plateaus and you must not stay there, you must go beyond them.”
Target leaked the sequel to the 2014 game Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor via their website today. As of now the listing was removed from the website.
by Gunner Masters Target leaked the sequel to the 2014 game Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor via their website today. As of now the listing was removed from the website. However, it revealed the story will continue with Talion’s skills and Celebrimbor’s wraith magic in their quest for revenge against Sauron. The game’s official description said: “Go behind enemy lines to forge your army, conquer Fortresses and dominate Mordor from within. Experience how the award winning Nemesis System creates unique personal stories with every enemy and follower, and confront the full power of the Dark Lord Sauron and his Ringwraiths in this epic new story of Middle-Earth. In Middle-Earth: Shadow of War, nothing is forgotten.” The target listing claims the game will be released on August 22nd for Xbox One and PlayStation 4, however it is expected to be officially announced at GDC 2017 this week. Sources: The Verge, Kotaku Images: PC Games N, Game Reactor
Niantic announced a new update this week that will add 80 new Pokémon from the second generation of games for players to collect and battle. The update will offer cheaper storage expansion for the next two weeks.
by Gunner Masters Niantic announced a new update this week that will add 80 new Pokémon from the second generation of games for players to collect and battle. The update will offer cheaper storage expansion for the next two weeks. New Pokémon from Pokemon Gold, Silver and Crystal coming to the game such as Chikorita, Espeon, and Umbreon will be found in the wild. New evolutionary items and berries will be added to enhance collections and increase challenge during battles. Additional features include Nanab Berries and Pinap Berries, which trainers use to slow Pokemon to prevent them from running away and collect double the candy on successful catches respectively. There will be additional customization features for trainers as well. Buying storage space will cost 50 percent less than normal, making upgrades 100 Poke Coins or 99 cents per purchase. The discount will begin from afternoon PST on February 16 and continue through February 28. Currently maximum capacity is set to 1,000 Pokémon and each upgrade will give players 50 more slots. It will cost player around $15 to get maximum capacity. All Pokémon Go players will have access to the update by the end of the week. Sources: Eurogamer, Polygon Images: Flickr, Sensacionalista
by Gunner Masters Pokemon Go players who have found themselves wanting more content for the game are in for pleasant news. The Silph Road dug through the code in the v0.45.0 update to find any hints at new content or features, and found that Niantic placed 100 new Pokemon in the metadata. The Pokedex references in the code include #152 (Chikorita) to #251 (Celebi), however no moveset has appeared in the data and The Silph Road website says that “a server and client-side update will be required for them to begin appearing in-game.” However, the Silph Road also notes that Ditto’s signature move, “‘Transform’ is in the ‘GAME_MASTER’ file and APK (android application package) code itself.” Taking into account the momentum that Niantic has right now with the catch bonuses, gym improvements, the Halloween event and daily bonuses, and the incoming holiday season there will most likely be new Pokemon released to the game in the following days or weeks. Sources: The Silph Road, BGR Images: Pokemon World, The Bit Bag
