Marvel Entertainment released the newest character reveal trailer for the upcoming team-based hero shooter, Marvel Rivals.

Moon Knight, the focus of the trailer, was ??revealed to be among the 25 playable heroes and villains available on ??the game's launch roster. Some of his abilities and their combat utility are on display in the short reveal.

Moon Knight appears to have a damage-per-second centered design that is adept at mid-range skirmishes. His primary fire lacks overall damage output but deals knockback that can push opponents off?? the map for quick kills. Moon Knight's other abilities look useful for dealing burst damage, cleaning up kills on low-health enemies, and using his glide and super jump ?to enter and exit the fray at will.

His ultimate technique is an area-of-effect attack that opens up a portal above a hostile location, raining down massive fists that smash into the ground, dealing damage on the way. For overall strategy, Moon Knight looks to harass enemies from a?? distance, then uses his movement options to get into the fight in a favorable position. From there, he can cause mayhem in the enemy team's back-row and escape unscathed.

Moon Knight's inclusion in Rivals isn't surprising considering the popularity of the hero's TV mini-series starring Oscar Isaac, though Marvel hasn't spoken mu??ch about the character or a follo?w-up season since the show aired in 2022.

Marvel Rivals is free-to-play and officially launches December 6 on Steam, PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and the Epic Games Store. The game's entire 25-character launch roster is also free-to-play and?? won't require players t?o unlock them before use.

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Fragpunk, a new first-person shooter in the Hero Shooter genre, has an ongoing playtest that you can join. Getting access to it is pretty easy, but? if you're unaware, here's how you can g??et your invite.

How to join the Fragpunk beta test

The main way to get into the playtest is to Request Access through the Fragpunk Steam Store page. Using this method, you won't need a code or get into it. Instead, all you need is some patience and luck. The developers are actively inviting players to the test, so you probably won't have to wait?? long to get in (took me about a day). Keep in mind that you are not guaranteed access using this method.

Another method of getting access to the Fragpunk closed beta is by being an Xbox Insider. If you are already a subscribe??r of this service, you do not need to do anything extra. By being an Xbox Insider, you will automatically have a chance to receive an invite/code.

The third way of getting a code for the Fragpunk test is by, ironically, playing the game. Weirdly enough, you can earn a few codes by playing Ranked, which is certainly an incentive if you're looking to play with a few friends. Of course, this method assumes you already have access to ?the playtest, so it may not yet apply to you.

The final way to get into the Fragpunk playtest is to for giveaways. The developers are constantly sharing keys on their Offici??al Discord, so you may be able to snag one this way if you're lucky.

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Concord,?? a hero shooter from developer Firewalk Studios, recently had two betas so that anyone interested in trying the game out ahead of its August 23, 2024 release date could do so. Aside from one map and a game mode, both betas were the same, with all 16 characters from the roster open for anyone to play as from the moment they launched it.

I've seen more than a few content creators and fans out there saying that the world doesn't need another hero shooter and that Concord isn't up to the task of competing with behemoths like Overwatch 2 and Valorant because the concurrent player numbers on Steam weren't that high. Having played a few hours of the game's betas myself, I'm not saying that it can or can't make a dent in the market. But?? the game feels like it has more personality than every other hero shooter out there because of one key and very fleshed-out component: The characters.

As soon as you initially launch Concord, it puts characters front and center. The game's story is told through weekly cutscenes that play before you jump into matchmaking and playing, meaning you'll never miss them. These show how the ragtag group of characters shown in the opening cutscene are doing in t?heir journey to become the greatest Freegunner crew in the galaxy.

Every scene only features a handful of characters, but they feel like the connective tissue between larger plot points that are, ultimately, the matches you play. The scenes everyo?ne in the beta saw were the crew first gaining their Freegunner status. The second expands the universe with a discussion about how the first crew ever became Freegunners and how they made the map, which all crews now use, available for free.

In isolation, this doesn't mean much. Together, these scenes help us learn what this universe is about and give context for every match you play. Getting this information right off the bat without needing to search through menus and read through in-game documents makes it so much more approachable, and the story will grow in th??is way each week, meaning it's going to feel like you're working through a narrative as long as you log in and play at least once per week. Of course, you can go back and access all this informati??on through documents if you'd like.

Concord's characters continue to add more personality to the game over time as you play more and more matches. In most game modes, you can pick and change your character with every respawn. This allows you to see them, ??their abilities, and their cheesy intro l??ines multiple times in every match. While this gets pretty boring if you're playing a specific character each time, these lines are just the tip of the iceberg.

Every character is unique and really stands out from the crowd through the way they? speak, their abilities, and what they wear. Teo might be your average soldier, but his eagerness to jump into battle, rifle effectiveness, and speed tell the tale of a hothead who wants a little more glory from life than guarding stores or working in the military.

1-Off, the giant yellow robot, is obsessed with keeping things neat and tidy. Even his weapon and abilities stick close to this theme. He can hoover ene?mies up or blast them away, sucking ?in fire to flavor his weapon if you time things right. He's a normally gentle soul, though, and you can feel that through his happy-go-lucky attitude and the way he's really just in a match to have a good time. Ultimately, he's good to go as long as everything's kept clean.

Concord is also one of the ??few hero shooters that assigns pronouns to its characters. This might seem small and trivial to you, but small elements like this really do matter and help players identify with each hero on a deeper level. It's hard to know what gender a mushroom creature and a cleaning robot identify?? with, and having that on-screen means you can feel a lot closer to these shells that you wear as you jump into various game modes over the course of what might end up being hundreds of hours.

Even in matches, though, every character just feels like an individual as you play as them. Kyps, a pink secret agent andr?oid with a silenced pistol, is a fast-paced character with simple ab?ilities. She can deploy surveillance drones to detect enemies across the map, but her real strength is sneaking up and defeating them from the shadows.

Lark is my favorite mushroom alien character wh??o uses spore-based abilities to buff allies and debuff enemies. They can drop mushrooms that create areas that will enhance all allied abilities and speed while also buffing any enemies that move through them. Another mushroo??m becomes a respawn point they can teleport to in a pinch. Even their weapon, the Razorpod Launcher, is unique in that it fires off spores that will home in on enemies for devastating damage.

A character's archetype, Anchor, Ranger, Breacher, Haunt, Warden, and Tactician are like guidelines that give you a rough idea of how to play them. ??But in reality, these characters are all very different from one another, and you won't make the most of them until you've learned and mastered their abilities and hidden strengths by exploring them for a few matches.

Finally, it's not just the way these characters look and what's written about them in-game; it's how they act that sets Concord out as a hero shooter with more personality t??han most. In matches, you'll hear them fire off a comment when they do pretty much everything. Reloading, healing, using their abilities, it all comes with a line of dialogue.

The variations on these? all say roughly the same thing, but it's the way they're said that deepens your connection with the characters. Some, like Teo, are ju??st barking, but that's because he wants to be short and to the point with everything he says in battle. He doesn't have time for frivolity in his sentences when he could be shooting other Freegunners and winning the match.

Emari, on the other hand, is a hulking giant with a unique shield ability. She talks about recharging her batteries when it comes to healing and even chuckles about it. These small details are exactly what hero shooters need to h?elp differentiate their characters.

Without them, Teo is the soldier, and Emari is the tank with a shield. I think that it's all too easy to fall into the trap of treating characters like they can only be played in a specific way in hero shooters. With this added personality and the way that each character just has to be played to their own strengths and not only to fit a role, I can see Concord adopting a sizeable fan base who has been looking for a shooter with a?? little more flair than the industry is used to.

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Concord is a team-based hero shooter in which you and a group of other pl?ayers battle it out with an enemy te??am using characters from across a vast and intriguing universe. The action is fun and frantic, but it can be stunted when the character information overlay bug crops up.

When picking your hero in Concord, you can vi?ew information about them and their abilitie??s and get a good idea of how you should be playing to make the most of everything they have to offer. While this is great, it actually just ends up getting in the way if it sticks around when you jump into a match after picking them. Thankfully, there's a pretty easy way to fix this error when it happens to you that doesn't involve restarting the entire game and the platform you're playing on.

How to fix the character information overlay bug in Concord

To fix the character information overlay bug in Concord, you must press the start/menu button and then return to the match. This should remove the character overlay because it'll force the game to load a new overlay and then close that new overl??ay upon your return to the match.

If this doesn't work, try moving around a bit and waiting until someone defeats you. The game should reset to the character select screen. Now, you can find the character you want, but mak?e sure you close the character information overlay before being dropped back into the heat of battle.

If that still doesn't work, something must be drasti??cally wrong. The only so??lution is to close the game completely and start with a fresh launch. This should clear out any caching issues you're experiencing that might be holding that character information overlay up in your game.

What causes the character information overlay bug in Concord?

The character information overlay bug in Concord is caused when a player looks at a character's information in the hero selection screen during a match. It happened to me during the Early Access Beta after I'd been defeated and was looking at the information as I was placed back into the matc????h.

When the bug does occur, you can still move around and fight in the game, but you can't see anything. As you can imagine, this is a pretty big problem and makes the game completely unplaya??ble unless you use the quick fix I've outlined above.

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Baton Rouge studio decimated in shock announcement

Electronic Arts has reportedly fired the testing team for its blockbuster hero shooter Apex Legends �According to a report by Kotaku, the pub??lisher released the entirety?? of its Baton Rouge-based testing team �believed to be some 200 workers �in an 'out of the blue' Zoom call held yesterday.

News of the layoffs came suddenly when affected employees took to social media, understandably stunned and upset at the event. According to other former workers, speaking anonymously with Kotaku, the team was called to an urgent, mandatory call with contracting agency Magnit Global at 08:00 on Tuesday morning, where they were informed that the entire Baton Rogue Apex Legends QA team was being disbanded, ef?fective immediately.

//twitter.com/TopMarx420/status/1630658992??337829890?s=20

Reportedly, QA team management was unaware of the coming events, and thus no preparations had been put in place for the handling of the announcement or the termination of the employees. It is claimed that affected staff were then aske??d to collect their belongings under security supervisi??on and leave the office. Full-time supervisors on the team will be afforded a 60-day severance.

In an email to Kotaku, EA w????as typically mechanical when referencing the sudden layoffs.

"As part of our ongoing global strategy, we are expanding the distribution of our Apex Legends test??ing team and ending testing execution that’s been concentrated in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, impacting services provided by our third-party provider," wrote the publisher. "Our global team, inclusive of remote playtesters across the U.S., enables us to increase the hours per week we’re able to test and optimize the game and reflects a commitment to understand and better serve our growing community around the world."

"Testing games is an integ??ral part of delivering the best experiences for ou?r players."

EA Lays Off Over 200 Apex Legends Testers Over Zoom Call [Kotaku]

The post 200 Apex Legends testers reportedly f??ired in abrupt Zoom call appeared first on Destructoid.

Console users will have to wait for a while

Would-be Gundam pilots will get to show off their skills this month on PC. Gundam Evolution, a free-to-play team-based shooter is going live on Steam on September 21 for North America.

The new Gundam game takes a six-on-six, hero-based approach to the wide, wide expanse of the Gundam universe. It's a little bit of Overwatch mixed in with mobile suits.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=qVWpQDJtxHk

Gundam Evolution will feature mainstays from throughout the Gundam-verse, duking it out on the field of battle. Today's trailer spotlights a melee-configured Zaku with some hefty axe swings, the Mahiroo from Turn A Gundam, and the titular Unicorn Gundam.

These, alongside classics from throughout the series, all have their own weapons an?d abilities they bring to the battlefield. Personally, I'm rooting for the Guntank. He may not be as shiny as something newer like the Barbatos, but darn it, the Guntank is cool.

Matches feature several objective-based modes, including Destruction, Domination, an?d Point Capture.

A new type of Gundam battle

The PC launch of Gundam Evolution is currently set for a global ?la??unch on September 22 in Japan, which puts it at 7 p.m. PDT on September 21 for North America.  The launch will also mark the start of Season One.

There will ??also be cosmetics to purchase, of course. So if you want to deck out your mobile suit to stand out from the crowd, feel free to do so. It worked for Char, ??after all.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=3EFI6v49v68

While Steam players get in on the carnage right away, console players will have to wait. Currently, the team is planning to launch Gundam Evolution on D??ecember 1 in Japan, or 6 p.m. PST on November 30 in North America.

Once the end of November rolls around, Gundam Evolution will launch on both the current a?nd previous generation of PlayStation and Xbox consoles.

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