Call of Duty: Modern Warfare is officially out, but you may have noticed that not all of the new multiplayer modes are live–noticeably NVG and Ground War. The former was removed from Modern Warfare’s multiplayer rotation ahead of launch in an update. The latter, Ground War, is scheduled to release on all platforms tonight.

“Jump into Campaign, Special Ops, and Multiplayer, and starting Friday night grab your friends for Ground War,” Infinity Ward tweeted. “And, for the first time ever, you can earn XP and unlock exclusive gear for Multiplayer and Special Ops through Campaign.”

Currently, the option to select Ground War isn’t even available. When playing multiplayer, you can queue for Quick Play, Gunfight, Cyber Attack, Realism, and Private Match. Infinity Ward did not provide a more specific time for when Ground War would go live other than “tonight.”

For those unaware, Ground War feels like Call of Duty’s answer to Battlefield, putting you on massive maps where huge teams of players–up to 100 or more–fight it out. The maps aren’t just large horizontally either, as they feature plenty of vertical spaces to climb up in to. And to help get around, there are vehicles. Your strategies for Call of Duty’s traditional 6-on-6 or 10-on-10 modes aren’t likely to be very effective in Ground War. You need to play a bit differently to excel.

If Modern Warfare is your first Call of Duty game, don’t worry. We’ve compiled a list of essential beginners tips to best help you succeed. Modern Warfare also sees the return of several characters from the Call of Duty franchise, so if you need a refresher on who’s important and what they each mean for the future, we’ve got you covered.

In GameSpot’s Call of Duty: Modern Warfare review, Kallie Plagge wrote, “The pitfalls of Spec Ops don’t detract from what Modern Warfare does well. Realism mode is an excellent addition to the slate, and although not all the new multiplayer modes are great, Gunfight and the Night Vision playlist are refreshing standouts. And while the campaign ends up playing it safe in the end, it’s still a memorable one, and it lays a strong foundation for where the Modern Warfare series could go from here.”

from GameSpot – Game News https://www.gamespot.com/articles/ground-war-in-call-of-duty-modern-warfare-will-go-/1100-6470902/

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare is out now, bringing the series back to a gritty modern-day theater of war. The campaign tells the story of moral compromises and civilian damage. But how long does it take to see it through?

Before release, Infinity Ward promised that the campaign would last about as long as you’d expect from a Call of Duty game, but that it could vary greatly. In our experience, a playthrough of the campaign lasts 4-5 hours. That was the case regardless of difficulty, so play on the mode that you feel most comfortable with.

Reviews have been hitting right alongside the release of the game, and so far the critical consensus seems fairly positive–if not effusive. That’s also the case in GameSpot’s Call of Duty: Modern Warfare review-in-progress, which gave it a score of 7/10. Kallie Plagge said the campaign raises interesting questions but fails to take them to a deeper level.

“Just when it could really make a point about any other aspect of modern war, it pulls back,” the review states. “Modern Warfare makes old observations and presents them with new flourishes. Those new flourishes do make for a good campaign and solid multiplayer. But it’s when Modern Warfare asks you to think harder that it falls short.”

For more on Modern Warfare, check out our essential tips to get you started, and keep in mind that Ground War will go live later tonight.

from GameSpot – Game News https://www.gamespot.com/articles/how-long-does-call-of-duty-modern-warfares-campaig/1100-6470901/

On GameSpot After Dark episode 12, Jake, Kallie, Lucy, and Jean-Luc are joined by Mat Paget, GameSpot’s official Canadian, and talk about Modern Warfare, The Outer Worlds, Parasite, their favorite Pokemon regions and starters, and also Fallout 1st.

But we all know what the most important topic of discussion was: Lightning McQueen. Prompted by a listener email, the group try and figure out what kind of health insurance the sentient race car needs. As you can imagine, the conversation goes places.

Below you’ll find all the necessary links to find us on iTunes, Spotify, SoundCloud, and Google Play. We’ve also included an RSS link so you can put that into your podcast application of choice.

Where You Can Listen

• RSS Feed
• Spotify
• Soundcloud
• iTunes
• Google Play

Ka-Chow

Jake: “Hi, all. Does Lightning McQueen have to buy car insurance or life insurance? Thanks, Sam.”

Lucy: This is my favorite email of all time.

Kallie: Ka-chow.

Jake: He tweeted at me and was like, “I just sent an email, sorry if it’s a little weird. You guys don’t have to read it.” I was like no. This is [good].

Lucy: No, we’re reading it. I love this email.

Mat: I’m going to make this real easy for everybody. In the world of cars: there is no health insurance; there’s no car insurance. It’s all free. All the cars are taken care of, medicare for all.

Lucy: It’s the NHS.

Jean-Luc: Do they feel pain when they get wrecked?

Kallie: I really like the socialist utopia version of Disney’s Cars. That reading of cars, yeah.

Jean-Luc: I’ve only seen the first Cars, and I haven’t seen a very long time, but…

Lucy: Yeah, I haven’t seen Cars in years.

Kallie: I’ve never seen Cars, but I did recently go to Disneyland and I went to Cars land.

Lucy: Oh yeah, I went to that a couple of years ago. Lightning McQueen was there.

Jake: But you don’t need to see multiple Cars movies to understand this question, right? Does a living car need life insurance or car insurance?

Kallie: I think life insurance. I think life.

Jake: This is an ethical question here.

Kallie: I think life because … no actually, well…

Jean-Luc: Because if it’s car insurance than what qualifies as life insurance.

Lucy: Is this like the Disney thing of how Mickey and Minnie are mice and Donald’s a duck and Goofy’s a dog and then for some reason Pluto was an actual dog to the dog. Where does it end Disney? WHERE DOES IT END?

Kallie: Hello Kitty does the same thing. Hello Kitty is a cat, but she has a pet cat. Well, Hello Kitty isn’t a cat. She’s supposed to not be a cat, but she has a pet cat. Anyway, I think they need both. I think they need car insurance for the kinds of accidents we cover. Like that’s what car insurance covers for us, right? Then, I think they need life insurance for if they get totaled.

Mat: I’m going to disagree with you. So the thing is in the Cars universe they have life insurance for the cars because they are the living things in that world.

Jake: You keep saying in the Cars universe. But do you have proof?

Mat: Yes. I wrote a book about it. I did extensive research. The life insurance is for the living cars cause they are living, and then instead of car insurance, they have human insurance because they get on the humans, and ride them to work every day like we get into cars.

Jean-Luc: No. Humans do not exist in the universe.

Mat: They exist. They absolutely do. They exist. They have human insurance and life insurance, end of question.

Jean-Luc: Okay. I think it’s the same thing. Like their version of life insurance is just called car insurance because they’re cars. So, they would call it car insurance but it’s just life insurance. They don’t have…

Kallie: But, does it cover accidents?

Jean-Luc: Yeah, because like they wouldn’t need to separate the two because there’s no reason to have them separate.

Kallie: What if they have no insurance?

Jean-Luc: Oh shit, well that’s a whole different thing. Worker’s Rights.

Lucy: I Googled this, okay. This is incredible. So someone on Quora has asked this very question. Craig Anderson, chartered insurance professional has answered. “I would suggest that Mr. McQueen and his cohorts would likely be better off with life and health insurance. Automobile insurance policies are written to indemnify the owner of a vehicle for loss or damage to the vehicle or legal liability.” This is insane. “As I recall, the vehicles in the Car story universe are free beings, not slaves. Thus they have no owner. Subsequently, there would be no insured person under any automobile policy they took out without knowing it to be indemnified for any loss of damage to the quote on quote vehicle and no owner to be liable for the loss of damage resulting from the use or operation of the quote on quote vehicle. The policy would never pay and therefore be of absolutely no use.” I suppose Lightning could get around this problem by forming a legal entity brackets, Kachow holdings and then leasing himself.

Mat: Well, no offense, Craig. That’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard in my life.

Kallie: Craig actually raises a great point. Craig mentioned health insurance and that’s what we’re ignoring. The question posits car insurance or life insurance, but in the car’s universe, car insurance would be health insurance. In our universe, health insurance and life insurance are distinct. So cars have to buy car insurance which is health insurance and life insurance but they don’t need life insurance because you’re not required to get health insurance. I mean life insurance, but you also aren’t required to get health insurance but you should be, but you’re required to get car insurance.

Lucy: There is a worrying amount of people who work in the financial services who have replied to this Quora.

Mat: I guarantee you that there is a joke in one of the Cars movies where there is a mafia car talking to another mafia car about taking out a different car and saying “be sure to take out a car insurance policy before we make the hit.”

Kallie: Why did you make him British, that was not a mafia accent.

Jake: What is a mafia accent?

Kallie: Like New Jersey.

Lucy: Like Donbot from Futurama.

Kallie: Yes like Donbot from Futurama thank you, Fat Tony, let’s go.

Mat: Be sure to take out a nice car insurance policy, on this mate.

Kallie: You got British. You start fine and then you go into British.

from GameSpot – Game News https://www.gamespot.com/articles/does-lightning-mcqueen-need-car-insurance-or-life-/1100-6470897/

Usually when Xur visits Destiny 2‘s solar system on the weekend, you’re lucky to see him carrying one Exotic from Year Two–everything included with the Forsaken expansion and the annual pass that followed it. Hunters and Warlocks are lucky this week, though: Xur has two Year Two Exotics, and they’re both pretty solid. Picking up some new top-tier weapons and armor is a great way to hold yourself over between the Leviathan’s Breath Exotic quest this week and the Xenophage Exotic quest next week, and while you wait for the start of Destiny 2’s Halloween event, the Festival of the Lost.

Where Is Xur?

Head to the Tower to find Xur this week. You’ll need to go down to the Hangar; turn left at the door and take the stairs up to the catwalk near the edge of the area where Xur is waiting.

What Is Xur Selling?

For his weapon this week, Xur is packing Suros Regime, an auto rifle that packs a serious punch when you get near the bottom of the magazine and can even heal you. It’s great for both PvE and PvP thanks to its adjustable fire and damage rates. Both Hunters and Warlocks can grab Year Two Exotics–Liar’s Handshake and Geomag Stabilizers–which can give you some powerful build options for each class if you don’t already have them.

If you want some other Year Two Exotics to fill out your collection, try Xur’s Fated Engram. It awards you one Exotic you don’t already have per week, which now can include all the random Year Two Exotic drops from the Annual Pass. That means Exotic armor from last season, the Season of Opulence, is now available from the expensive engram. If you’re a PC or Xbox One player taking advantage of cross-save, you can now potentially get Wavesplitter from the Fated Engram as well.

Xur Item Lineup (October 25-29)

• Suros Regime (Exotic Auto Rifle) — 29 Legendary Shards
• Synthoceps (Exotic Titan Gauntlets) — 23 Legendary Shards
• Liar’s Handshake (Exotic Warlock Gauntlets) — 23 Legendary Shards
• Geomag Stabilizers (Exotic Hunter Leg Armor) — 23 Legendary Shards

Suros Regime

An old Exotic, Soros Regime is another of those guns that’s pretty useful in the Crucible. The auto rifle does extra damage with the bottom half of its magazine, and scoring kills has a chance to give you health back. You can also set the gun to increase its rate of fire the longer you hold down the trigger, or to slow down when aiming down the sights for extra damage.

Synthoceps

Titans who love punching things can snag a set of Synthoceps. The gauntlets give you increased melee lunge range–great for taking people down with a shoulder charge in the Crucible–and gives you additional melee and Super damage when you’re surrounded.

Stats:

• Mobility: +10
• Resilience: +11
• Recovery: +3
• Discipline: +6
• Intellect: +6
• Strength: +12
• Total: 48
• 1 Energy

Liar’s Handshake

In terms of newer Exotics, it’s Hunters who luck out this week. Liar’s Handshake is from the Season of Opulence, and it’s great for melee-heavy builds. The gauntlets give you a second, more powerful punch when you follow up your Arc melee attack, or after you take a melee hit from an enemy. The counterpunch has an added bonus as well: It heals you. Try getting in close and wailing on a few bosses with it.

Stats:

• Mobility: +12
• Resilience: +6
• Recovery: +6
• Discipline: +6
• Intellect: +6
• Strength: +12
• Total: 48
• 1 Energy

Geomag Stabilizers

The Warlock Super Chaos Reach is greatly improved thanks to Geomag Stabilizers. The leg armor extends the duration of the Super as you deal damage with it, which makes it great in a lot of situations. You also can top off your Super energy when it’s almost full by sprinting, allowing you to zap more people more often with Chaos Reach.

Stats:

• Mobility: +12
• Resilience: +7
• Recovery: +8
• Discipline: +6
• Intellect: +10
• Strength: +6
• Total: 49
• 1 Energy

from GameSpot – Game News https://www.gamespot.com/articles/where-is-xur-today-destiny-2-exotic-location-weapo/1100-6470895/

Usually when Xur visits Destiny 2‘s solar system on the weekend, you’re lucky to see him carrying one Exotic from Year Two–everything included with the Forsaken expansion and the annual pass that followed it. Hunters and Warlocks are lucky this week, though: Xur has two Year Two Exotics, and they’re both pretty solid. Picking up some new top-tier weapons and armor is a great way to hold yourself over between the Leviathan’s Breath Exotic quest this week and the Xenophage Exotic quest next week, and while you wait for the start of Destiny 2’s Halloween event, the Festival of the Lost.

Where Is Xur?

Head to the Tower to find Xur this week. You’ll need to go down to the Hangar; turn left at the door and take the stairs up to the catwalk near the edge of the area where Xur is waiting.

What Is Xur Selling?

For his weapon this week, Xur is packing Suros Regime, an auto rifle that packs a serious punch when you get near the bottom of the magazine and can even heal you. It’s great for both PvE and PvP thanks to its adjustable fire and damage rates. Both Hunters and Warlocks can grab Year Two Exotics–Liar’s Handshake and Geomag Stabilizers–which can give you some powerful build options for each class if you don’t already have them.

If you want some other Year Two Exotics to fill out your collection, try Xur’s Fated Engram. It awards you one Exotic you don’t already have per week, which now can include all the random Year Two Exotic drops from the Annual Pass. That means Exotic armor from last season, the Season of Opulence, is now available from the expensive engram. If you’re a PC or Xbox One player taking advantage of cross-save, you can now potentially get Wavesplitter from the Fated Engram as well.

Xur Item Lineup (October 25-29)

• Suros Regime (Exotic Auto Rifle) — 29 Legendary Shards
• Synthoceps (Exotic Titan Gauntlets) — 23 Legendary Shards
• Liar’s Handshake (Exotic Warlock Gauntlets) — 23 Legendary Shards
• Geomag Stabilizers (Exotic Hunter Leg Armor) — 23 Legendary Shards

Suros Regime

An old Exotic, Soros Regime is another of those guns that’s pretty useful in the Crucible. The auto rifle does extra damage with the bottom half of its magazine, and scoring kills has a chance to give you health back. You can also set the gun to increase its rate of fire the longer you hold down the trigger, or to slow down when aiming down the sights for extra damage.

Synthoceps

Titans who love punching things can snag a set of Synthoceps. The gauntlets give you increased melee lunge range–great for taking people down with a shoulder charge in the Crucible–and gives you additional melee and Super damage when you’re surrounded.

Stats:

• Mobility: +10
• Resilience: +11
• Recovery: +3
• Discipline: +6
• Intellect: +6
• Strength: +12
• Total: 48
• 1 Energy

Liar’s Handshake

In terms of newer Exotics, it’s Hunters who luck out this week. Liar’s Handshake is from the Season of Opulence, and it’s great for melee-heavy builds. The gauntlets give you a second, more powerful punch when you follow up your Arc melee attack, or after you take a melee hit from an enemy. The counterpunch has an added bonus as well: It heals you. Try getting in close and wailing on a few bosses with it.

Stats:

• Mobility: +12
• Resilience: +6
• Recovery: +6
• Discipline: +6
• Intellect: +6
• Strength: +12
• Total: 48
• 1 Energy

Geomag Stabilizers

The Warlock Super Chaos Reach is greatly improved thanks to Geomag Stabilizers. The leg armor extends the duration of the Super as you deal damage with it, which makes it great in a lot of situations. You also can top off your Super energy when it’s almost full by sprinting, allowing you to zap more people more often with Chaos Reach.

Stats:

• Mobility: +12
• Resilience: +7
• Recovery: +8
• Discipline: +6
• Intellect: +10
• Strength: +6
• Total: 49
• 1 Energy

from GameSpot – Game News https://www.gamespot.com/articles/where-is-xur-today-destiny-2-exotic-location-weapo/1100-6470895/