Tag: included
Minecraft 1.20 features are now included in the latest game version as an experiment toggle
Try our new interactive map tool (bonus Tom’s house included)
![](https://asset.vg247.com/sotf-cannibal.jpg/BROK/resize/1920x1920%3E/format/jpg/quality/80/sotf-cannibal.jpg)
You like new features, do you? Can’t get enough of them? Need them to feed your insatiable desire for things and stuff? Oh, Ok then. Here’s some info on a cool new thing that we’ve built for you.
At VG247 – and at ReedPop more widely – we are continually thinking about ways to improve your gaming life. Whether that’s by providing recommendations on what to (and not to) play, or guides for games you might be stuck on, we’ve got your back.
Today I am excited to tell you about our latest helpful tool: interactive maps for games. Like Google Maps (sort of), but for video games.
Starbucks sold 2,000 NFTs in 20 minutes — coffee not included
![Starbucks Odyssey logo over a glitchy, multi-colored background](https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/pynzxjsLiEDv02yo71L0XzLqVbU=/176x0:1226x700/1310x873/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/72057607/SBX20220909_Starbucks_Odyssey_Feature_Image.0.png)
It’s been more than a year since NFT sales peaked — and then collapsed — but that’s not stopping enterprising multi-billion dollar corporations from trying to get in on the action.
Starbucks launched its first paid collection of NFTs today, a group of 2,000 digital “stamps,” each priced at $100. Starbucks calls its NFTs “Journey Stamps,” a less technical-sounding term that the uninitiated might use as a way to explain what they just spent money on. And people did buy them — CoinDesk reports that the “stamps” sold out in under 20 minutes.
The coffee company first launched its NFT and Web3 push in December, when it opened up a new membership program called Starbucks Odyssey. An extension of the existing Starbucks rewards program that gives…
Overwatch 2’s One-Punch Man collab goes live, here’s what’s included
![A screenshot from Overwatch 2 featuring heroes dressed as One-Punch Man characters, including Genji as Genos, Kiriko as Terrible Tornado, Doomfist as Saitama, and Soldier: 76 as Mumen Rider.](https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/fYG4S63QNuzILxkCeCV93jHQpSQ=/0x0:3840x2160/640x360/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/72048368/FqkBDllXgAA9Nu3.0.jpeg)
Blizzard is going full anime for Overwatch 2’s first major crossover
Soul Hackers 2 and Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty included in the next batch of Game Pass additions
![](https://assets2.rockpapershotgun.com/Soul-Hackers-2_PNeUH38.jpg/BROK/resize/1920x1920%3E/format/jpg/quality/80/Soul-Hackers-2_PNeUH38.jpg)
Time is flying by a little too fast in 2023, although it’s not all bad news as a new month means new Game Pass additions. Microsoft have announced the next four games hitting the service before March 3rd, alongside Atomic Heart which releases today. I was interested in the steely Soviet shooter until I read James’ review and saw that the protagonist yells “Crispy critters,” more than once – I think I’ll skip.
Here are the next batch of Game Pass titles:
- Merge & Blade (Feb 28th)
- Soul Hackers 2 (Feb 28th)
- F1 22 (March 2nd)
- Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty (March 3rd)
This is my first time hearing of Merge & Blade, not to be confused with Mount & Blade which is also on Game Pass. Merge & Blade is a hybrid between puzzle games and auto-battlers. Rounds will start with a Tetris-like mini-game, but instead of shapes, you’re guiding different unit types and merging them together. You then use your completed party to raid castles and kill monsters. Mixing – or merging – Tetris into a new genre is a recipe for success, so I’ll definitely be downloading this one.
Witcher 3 Next-Gen Accidentally Included Some NSFW Community Mods
Wine 8.0 Released — and Plenty of Improvements are Included
Developers have just uncorked a brand new release of Wine, the open source compatibility layer that allows Windows apps to run on Linux.
A substantial update, Wine 8.0 is fermented from a year’s worth of active development (roughly 8,600 changes in total). From that, a wealth of improvements are provided across every part of the Wine experience, from app compatibility, through to performance, and a nicer looking UI….
Notable highlights in Wine 8.0 include the completion of PE conversion, meaning all modules can be built in PE format. Wine devs say this work is an important milestone towards supporting “copy protection, 32-bit applications on 64-bit hosts, Windows debuggers, x86 applications on ARM”, and more.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
‘The Last of Us’ almost included a scene from Tess’s past
![Tess from](https://helios-i.mashable.com/imagery/articles/06m48bqMnweZoz8lE5lrwLh/hero-image.jpg)
Missing smuggler Tess (Anna Torv) after episode 2 of The Last of Us? Craving more information about the character? Well, you’re in luck. The Last of Us co-creators Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann dig into their scrapped plans for showing Tess’s past on HBO’s official The Last of Us podcast. While the discussion is devastating, it is also illuminating.
“There is something we had talked about, and we wrote it but never shot it. It was a little bit of the backstory of Tess, and the fact that Tess had a kid,” Mazin reveals. “She had a husband and she had a son, and they were infected, and she had to kill them. She killed her husband, but could not kill the son.”
In this backstory, Tess locked her infected son in her basement rather than kill him outright. “Theoretically, he’s still a Clicker,” Mazin says.
“We had a cold open where the camera pushed on this door and you hear this pounding coming from this basement, and then we cut out,” explains Druckmann. “Later, Tess would tell the story of how she couldn’t kill her son.” Mazin and Druckmann ultimately decided that the scene didn’t fit, but even the knowledge of Tess’s backstory informs her arc in episode 2 in a powerful way.
Tess spends much of episode 2 protecting Ellie (Bella Ramsey), whose immunity to cordyceps may lead to a vaccine for everyone else. While Joel (Pedro Pascal) is cynical and believes Ellie will succumb any day now, Tess is “brave enough to dare to hope,” says Mazin. For Tess, if Ellie is the key to the cure, there’s a chance no one will have to lose people in the way that she did again.
For this reason, Mazin says, Tess goes into “mother mode” in this episode — a description that hits harder with the knowledge that Tess had a child. With hope in sight, she will do whatever it takes to keep Ellie alive. As we see at the end of the episode, this includes sacrificing herself to a horde of Clickers so that Joel and Ellie can escape.
Right before she dies, Tess tells Joel, “Save who you can save.” As Mazin and Druckmann point out in the podcast, she’s reminding him that he can’t save his daughter, Sarah (Nico Parker), who died at the very start of the episode. However, he can save Ellie. Perhaps there’s an extra layer to this as well: Once she’s infected, Tess realizes she doesn’t have much time left. She chooses to save who she is able to save — Joel and Ellie — by sacrificing herself. And in saving them, she still has some hope that maybe, just maybe, they can save the world.