How to Create a Custom Map in Google Maps
You don’t need any special software to create a custom map for yourself or others. Google Maps is all you need, allowing you to add your own pinpoints, shapes, and directions to a custom map. Here’s how.
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Last year’s Saints Row received a rough reception, leading developers Volition to become part of Gearbox and to pledge that they were “supporting Saints Row for the long-term.”
That pledge bears fruit on May 9th with the release of the Sunshine Springs update, which includes a new district, a combat overhaul, and many quality-of-life improvements.
A Finnish newspaper is celebrating World Press Freedom Day today by walking the walk. Helsingin Sanomat, Finland’s biggest daily paper, created a Counter-Strike: Global Offensive map containing a secret room. Inside the hidden blood-red chamber, players find real-world multimedia storytelling about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine — sneaking some much-needed journalism into a country inundated with propaganda.
The developers that the newspaper worked with on the map left some clues for Russian players to find it. First, it takes place in an unnamed battleground location imitating “a Slavic city.” Additionally, the map’s name, de_voyna, is a reference to the Russian word “voyna,” which translates to “war.” (That description is prohibited in Russia when describing the invasion; Putin’s government insists on calling it a “special military operation”).
The obscured room also has several hints to help Russian players find it: It’s located near an eternal flame monument (a burning car), a traditional practice commemorating WWII (or “the Great Patriotic War” as it’s known in Russia) that will be familiar to Russians. A light also hangs above the entrance, another breadcrumb indicating the dark passageway may differ from others nearby. Finally, players can spot the room by moving the camera around after an in-game death.
After walking down the stairway entrance, players see a darkly lit room with red lights hanging from the ceiling, casting a foreboding crimson tone over the space. Next, players see a headline on the wall opposite the entrance, reading: “Counterstrike of the Free Press.” Nearby, a map reveals civilian targets hit by Russian armies. Additionally, three walls are covered with images from real-life news stories showing some of Russia’s atrocities: the Bucha massacre (where the Russian military executed Ukrainian civilians in the street and buried them in a mass grave), a story of a man whose family was killed by a Russian cruise missile and a count of the estimated 70,000 Russian soldiers killed in the war. Finally, a Russian-language radio voice-over tells each story when moving closer to a news item.
The unnamed (to avoid harassment or worse) game designers that Helsingin Sanomat worked with had experience designing hundreds of CS: GO maps. They pitched in “to be able to be involved in making such a map with a humanitarian purpose connected to the real world,” they told the publication. “Russia’s senseless aggression on Ukraine has killed tens of thousands of civilians, including children. The least we can do is to bring Putin’s war crimes and Russian propaganda to light.”
Helsingin Sanomat editor-in-chief Antero Mukka toldReuters that his paper didn’t ask for publisher Valve’s permission to include the map since the game encourages user-created content. “If some young men in Russia, just because of this game, happen to think for a couple of seconds what is going on in Ukraine then it’s worth it,” he said.
If you want to assist with the cause, Helsingin Sanomat recommends playing the de_voyna map, which should help increase its in-game visibility. Although it’s hard to imagine the locale remaining playable for long after Putin’s government learns about it, it’s an inspiring — and highly creative — way of defying the authoritarian regime’s free-press restrictions.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/finnish-newspaper-hopes-to-pierce-russian-propaganda-with-a-cs-go-map-182944369.html?src=rss
Wondering how to get the Star Wars Jedi Survivor map upgrade? Star Wars Jedi Survivor is filled with countless upgrades, ranging from Essence crystals that give HP, Force, and XP boosts to perks that provide passive boons that can be equipped. Still, it can be quite a hassle to try and find them all. Thankfully, there’s a way to ease the whole process. Our guide discusses how to acquire a map upgrade that will reveal all of those that you might have missed.
This particular Star Wars Jedi Survivor map upgrade isn’t the only one of its kind. You’ll also acquire a few of these later in the game. For instance one particular terminal reveals all echoes and BD-1 Scans.
MORE FROM PCGAMESN: Star Wars Jedi Survivor lightsaber colors, Star Wars Jedi Survivor review, Star Wars Jedi Survivor system requirements
Blizzard has released its first-ever community-made map in Overwatch 2, available now across all platforms. The news comes from the official Overwatch Twitter account, as the team has revealed that the map will be playable in the game’s Arcade suite of modes.
Your ideas 💡
Your design ✍️
Your creation 🤩
Introducing Talantis, the first-ever community-made map 🌊🐟
Live now in the Arcade ✨ pic.twitter.com/7RcAoD4S2e— Overwatch (@PlayOverwatch) April 25, 2023
In the tweet, a video is shown off, and we’re given a good look at the map. From what was seen, it’s clear that Talantis is an underwater-themed map with giant fish swimming around the edges. It has a unique visual style not normally seen in the game.
Talantis is a 5v5 map that plays similarly to other Overwatch 2 maps, with each team being tasked with taking control of the center. Players can take a lift to get to the objective. The first team to capture the objective twice wins the match, and all three rounds are played in the same location.
There’s a pretty sick new Fortnite Creative 2.0 map that’s gotten a lot of traction this week, and for good reason–the Lucky Block Arena free-for-all map by Rafa To Ja is a refreshing remix of an old Creative formula.
Fortnite’s Creative 2.0, powered by the Unreal Editor for Fortnite, is still so new that creators are continuing to figure out what exactly they can do with it. For now, that means most Fortnite Creative maps made with UEFN are mostly the same kinds of things creators were making before, but with new bells and whistles that weren’t possible previously. In other words, Creative 2.0 is more evolution than revolution so far. The Lucky Block Arena is a high-quality example of that kind of thing.
You and the other players will spawn on your own floating platforms above an arena, a format that Fortnite creators love to use for all sorts of different games. Usually these involve building, but the Lucky Block Arena does not.
Dota 2, one of the world’s most popular esports titles serving over 300,000 concurrent players on Steam as I write these words, has just dropped a massive update called New Frontiers that will likely change the free-to-play game forever. And the biggest difference by far is real estate: the game’s entire map is now 40 percent larger, letting you explore around the edges.
“The core objective of the game remains the same,” assures Valve — “your lanes aren’t further away from each other, and everything you need to win is still in the center of the map.”
But Valve goes on to describe “meta-defining new features,” new locations, new Tormentor mini-bosses, vision-granting…