Category: News

When The Outer Worlds came out it was a game that was enjoyed, but not loved, by most people. It was in many ways the spiritual successor to Fallout: New Vegas, but it never quite reached the same level of praise or popularity among fans. And despite a major expansion for the 2019 action RPG, a sequel is apparently coming soon.

In a rather humorous and self-aware trailer, The Outer Worlds 2 was announced to the world during Xbox’s E3 showcase. The trailer itself was very entertaining because it couldn’t help but make jokes about how similar E3 trailers are to one another. It’s also perfect for a tongue-in-cheek game like Outer Worlds.

Unfortunately, while the trailer was comedic and fun, that was all it ended up being. It was completely cinematic so we know nothing about gameplay, but it’s probably a pretty safe bet that it’s going to play extremely similar to the first The Outer Worlds. We’ll eventually hear about whatever new things they plan to offer, but for now, we’ll just have to settle with what they give us.

What’s more surprising is just how quickly a sequel has been announced. Of course, this trailer was just an announcement so this may have just been telling us they’ve entered development and nothing else. Either way, more The Outer Worlds is good for fans of Xbox and the Obsidian RPG experience in general.

Microsoft Flight Simulator has been a beloved PC game for years and on Sunday, during the Xbox Bethesda E3 event, they showed a new trailer to announce that it is coming to Xbox Series S/X this summer. That was exciting as is for folks like me who are very much into hyper-realistic games that are equally serene and soothing with beautiful views and wildly frustrating because, well, it’s a crazy realistic flight simulator and flying a plane is hard.

However, not only is Flight Simulator coming to console but it’s bringing a familiar face with it.

Oh yes, that is Maverick from Top Gun, who you can fly around as in an expansion pack coming this fall to Microsoft Flight Simulator, which is even more exciting. At first it looked like a full on Top Gun game was getting announced with how they ran this trailer after the Flight Sim trailer, but while that was a bit disappointing, it still looks incredible — as all Flight Sim things do — and as long as you can fly around while the Top Gun music plays, it’ll be worth it. This is obviously some spon-con with Top Gun Maverick on the way in November, but whatever gets us more Top Gun content.

The new Microsoft Flight Simulator will release on Xbox Series X/S and Windows 10 PC on July 27, 2021 (and on Xbox Game Pass), with the Top Gun expansion coming later in the fall.

Halo‘s multiplayer is legendary, which is why the news that the latest game in the franchise will have free-to-play multiplayer is a big deal indeed.

Many longtime gamers have memories of long nights with bloodshot eyes playing through another round of capture the flag, or slayer, on Xbox Live into the wee hours of the morning. Entire LAN parties were set up just to play the original Halo multiplayer together on Xbox, and multiplayer in Halo 3 was the big selling point of the Xbox 360.

Halo Infinite was always going to have multiplayer: It was one of the many reasons people have been anticipating a new game ever since it was announced all the way back in 2018. During the Xbox E3 presentation, however, we got the latest Halo Infinite trailer along with some multiplayer updates. Not only is the game going to have the traditional multiplayer modes, but it’s going to be free-to-play and allow crossplay between PC gamers and consoles.

In one sense, free-to-play Halo is just following a common trend in gaming today. Massive multiplayer experiences like Fortnite, Call of Duty: Warzone and Apex Legends are all free to play. But that doesn’t change just how big a deal this is for longtime Halo fans. There are plenty of people that love the Halo campaigns, but multiplayer is a unique experience, one that will come at no real cost at launch.

Of course, it’s likely that means there will be microtransactions hidden somewhere inside. No free-to-play game is completely free, but that’s a sacrifice plenty will be willing to make if it means we can frag with our friends just like in the old days. And while we don’t have an exact launch date just yet, Holiday 2021 will have to do for now as we wait to see what else is in store for Infinite.

This article originally appeared on August 27, 2015

Oh, society! We have such a complicated relationship with relationships.

It starts early, with the movies we are plopped in front of as toddlers.

GIF from Disney’s “Beauty and the Beast.”

And continues through adolescence, still through entertainment.

“I’d rather die than stay away from you.”

GIF from “Twilight.”

And then guess what happens? We’re peddled some more of what we’re supposedly meant to be aiming for when we’re adults.

“I was the one girl he chose from 20 other girls to be with. Now I know I’m special!” — me, mocking probably very sweet people.

GIF from “The Bachelor.”

There are so many examples of this, it’s difficult to narrow them down. Not to mention all the social cues coming in all stealth-bomber-like to beat one’s psyche into submission. Like when single people go to weddings, their family members casually ask them, “When will YOU settle down?” And when a friend goes through a breakup, it’s almost instinctive to reassure them that there’s someone out there for them.

But what if not everyone is supposed to pair off? What if some people are — wait for it — happier when they’re single?

It’s kind of a radical notion in this culture, where pairing off is treated more as a foregone conclusion and universal life goal.

A study in 2014 from the National Bureau of Economic Research said that married people rated higher in happiness measurements than single people did.

You might have taken that study at face value.

But hold the phone! There’s another recent study from University of Auckland’s School of Psychology that tells a more complete story by comparing happiness levels among a very specific group of singles and marrieds.

How? Well they looked at something called “avoidance goals” and “approach goals.”

What are avoidance and approach goals?

Well, what motivates each person is different. Some people are motivated by going after what their desired outcome is. Some people are more concerned with avoiding undesirable outcomes. People are often mixed bags, displaying some traits of avoidance and some traits of approach, and where they’re at with it can change with other factors in life. But on the entire spectrum, some people fall on one distinct end or the other.

In the new study, it held up that low-avoidance singles were a little bit less happy than low-avoidance married people. In other words, people who were more approach-goal motivated and married DO experience a bit more happiness.

But, interestingly, researchers found that singles who fall more on the high-avoidance side of the spectrum showed the same level of happiness as high-avoidance marrieds.

And theoretically, for those happy high-avoidance singles, they could very well find themselves miserable in a relationship for whatever reasons they avoid them in the first place. In individual circumstances, singlehood may be the best choice for some.

What does it all mean?

Some people love love and want to find their happily ever after. There’s nothing wrong with that, and society supports that model. More power to them!

GIF from “Ellen.”

But for those of you wondering if you’re weird or broken because you seem to prefer single life, there’s nothing wrong with you. Don’t let society pressure you into doing things their way, you magnificently beautiful lone wolf!

This article originally appeared on 03.08.16.

I got a promotion a few days ago, so I decided to stop for a drink on my way home — just me and my sense of accomplishment.

I ended up alone in the bar, running defense against a bouncer who held my ID hostage while he commented on my ass (among other things) and asked me vaguely threatening questions about my sex life.

Photo via iStock.

This is not a Yelp review. It’s not an angry rant, and it’s definitely not something women need to be reminded of.

As far as I can tell, there is only one good lesson to pull out of this otherwise shitty and all-too-familiar interaction: In my experience, a lot of thoroughly decent men are still having trouble understanding this.

I have a friend who once joked that it was all right for him to catcall women because he’s good-looking. I had another ask me in faux outrage why it was OK for me to describe a cupcake (as in an actual chocolate baked good) as a “seven,” but not OK for him to rank women the same way. I was recently at a house party where a group of guys referred to a soundproofed recording studio in the basement as the “rape room” 45 times.

Some of these jokes were a little funny. Some of them really weren’t. But they were all endemic of something more sinister, and I honestly don’t think the men in question even realize it.

So to the generally well-intentioned men in my life, please consider this:

No matter what I accomplish or how self-assured I am feeling, the aforementioned dickhead bouncers of the world will still believe they have a right to demand my time and attention, even when I want to be alone.

They will still insist I be polite and cheerful, even while they make me uncomfortable and afraid.

They will still comment about my body and allude to sexual violence and then berate me for being “stuck up” if I don’t receive it with a sense of humor.

They will still choose to reinforce their dominance with a reminder that they could hurt me if they wanted to and that I should somehow be grateful if they don’t.

Photo via iStock.

This has made me defensive. It has put me more on my guard than I would like to be.

Decent male humans, this is not your fault, but it also does not have nothing to do with you.

If a woman is frosty or standoffish or doesn’t laugh at your joke, consider the notion that maybe she is not an uptight, humorless bitch, but rather has had experiences outside your realm of understanding that have adversely colored her perception of the world.

Consider that while you’re just joking around, a woman might actually be doing some quick mental math to see if she’s going to have to hide in a bathroom stall and call someone to come help her, like I did three days ago.

Please adjust your mindset and your words accordingly.

Marco Rubio is no stranger to taking a tragedy and coming to an extremely wrong conclusion, and the latest example of this involves a bizarre way to tackle student loan debt.

The Florida senator shared a plan to help Americans besieged by billions of dollars in student loan debt that essentially amounts to a temporary pause in payments if they happen to survive an act of terror. According to The Guardian, Rubio has introduced the Terrorism Survivors Student Loan Deferment Act, which would give victims of terrorist attacks a “one-year pause” to help them “get back on their feet.”

“We should do everything in our power to help those who survive a terrorist attack to get their life back on track,” Rubio said in a statement. “Giving survivors some time to regroup by delaying their student loan payments is just common sense.”

The reaction to the proposal wasn’t nearly as positive as Rubio would have liked. That’s for a variety of reasons, starting with the fact that everyone could use student loan debt relief, but the potentially life-changing legislation is instead narrowly being applied to a very small subset of people. And the description of what a “terrorist attack” is remains extremely vague in the bill.

The other part that irked some people is that the legislation, which apparently dates back to 2016, is a response to the Pulse Nightclub shooting from the same year that left 49 people dead and more than 50 injured. Rubio has framed the Pulse shooting not as an attack against the LGBTQ community or a sign of the urgent need for gun control in America, but as a religion-fueled terrorist attack by a fundamentalist. As The Guardian pointed out, the number of terrorist attack victims are increasing in America, but that pales in comparison to the 40 million who currently hold student loan debt. And advocates for gun control bashed the proposal on Saturday, calling it a “gimmick.”

In recent years, the number of victims killed annually in US domestic terrorism attacks has ranged from 22 to 66 people, according to data assembled by the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

“This is nice, but if Senator Rubio were actually seriously interested in safety and giving relief to survivors, he would back commonsense gun legislation like HR 8,” Christopher Zoeller, 19, the Florida state director for March for Our Lives, a youth gun violence prevention group, said in a statement to the Guardian.

“He didn’t do it after Pulse, he didn’t do it after Parkland, and he still hasn’t done it today. We can see right through this gimmick.”

Even if the legislation is passed, it would (hopefully) help an extremely small amount of people. And make the millions of people who have not suffered through an act of terror wonder why it would take one to get help with an ever-growing American crisis.

[via The Guardian]https://www.theguardian.com/money/2021/jun/10/marco-rubio-student-loan-terror-attack-bill

Game 3 of the Bucks-Nets series saw Milwaukee finally get a win in an 86-83 rock fight in which the defenses dominated and it was all about shot-making down the stretch, with the Bucks out-lasting the Nets to make it a 2-1 series with a chance to tie things up on Sunday afternoon.

There was plenty to discuss after, including the kerfuffle between longtime friends PJ Tucker and Kevin Durant that saw Durant’s security guard who works for the Nets come barreling in to push Tucker away. Tucker was, understandably, not thrilled about being shoved by Nets security and both he and the Bucks head of team security took issue with how things went down.

On Sunday, prior to Game 4, word emerged from The Athletic that Durant’s security guard had been suspended from being courtside with the team for the rest of the series — and won’t be allowed to work at all in Milwaukee — following a league investigation into the matter. It isn’t a huge surprise that he would face discipline for the way he handled the Tucker-Durant situation, in which it was pretty clear the two were just jawing and nothing significant was going to happen.

The way he came running in and pushed his way through Tucker only proved to escalate the situation, which is the opposite of the job of security in such an instance. In any case, this will hopefully put this situation to rest and the focus moving forward can be on the basketball in the series and not security guard shenanigans.

When Sea of Thieves first released to the Xbox it was considered a huge disappointment for a lot of gamers. This was a game that was supposed to make many of our dreams of exploring the vast oceans as a pirate come true. Unfortunately, it was a little shallow with not much to do after the first few hours. However, everyone that stuck with the game has praised it for its post-launch support. These days there’s plenty to do and see in Sea of Thieves and it’s even better when you have a group of friends to play with.

During Xbox’s E3 showcase, Rare and Microsoft unveiled a new Sea of Thieves expansion that is going to make this the ultimate pirate game. A Pirates of the Caribbean expansion. Now players can explore the seas with Captain Jack Sparrow and maybe even save the world from curses, Davey Jones, and some original Rare specific plots — pretty impressive for a game that was considered a major disappointment at launch.

Sea of Thieves is an example of how we can no longer judge a video game at launch the way we used to. These titles are constantly under development and changing. Any game can become great with the proper support behind it and we’re all lucky that Xbox and Rare never gave up on Sea of Thieves.

This is also a great sign for Disney fans. Universes like Pirates of The Caribbean have largely been kept in the Disney sphere only. Allowing other franchises to use worlds like Pirates is great for video game fans as a whole because it creates infinite potential. There are so many cool and fun universes that video games can work with through Disney. Hopefully, this Sea of Thieves expansion is a success so we can see more like it in the future.

When The Walking Dead last left off, the Whisperers had been defeated, Daryl and Carol were on the outs (although Daryl also has an estranged love interest), Gabriel and Aaron had bonded, Maggie was being trailed by the Reapers, and Negan had fully redeemed himself (except in the eyes of Maggie).

Meanwhile, there are eleven weeks until the 11th and final season of The Walking Dead kicks off in August, and as such, AMC will be dropping new photos, trailers, and more each week ahead of the 11th season premiere. The promotion begins with the first images from season 11, which are not particularly revealing but do remind us that Rosita (who was not a part of the bonus episodes) is still around despite actress Christian Serratos headlining a Selena series for Netflix.

It appears that Carol, Maggie, Rosita and Lydia will square off against a horde of zombie soldiers, while Negan — sans the leather jacket — will take care of some forest walkers.

Meanwhile, AMC also announced The Walking Dead: Origins, a series of specials that explores the lives of the four most popular and long-running characters remaining on The Walking Dead: Daryl, Carol, Maggie, and Negan. They’re essentially “Best Of,” episodes that mix clips from the most pivotal moments of their journeys so far with interview footage with the actors. The episodes, which will debut every Thursday starting with Daryl’s story on July 15th, are essentially repackaged material designed to promote the season 11 premiere and continue building up a subscriber base for AMC+, where The Walking Dead: Origins will air exclusively.

The Walking Dead, meanwhile, will return on August 22nd with the first eight episodes of the final, 24-episode season.

Migos made their grand return on Friday with their fourth album, Culture III. The project arrived as a 19-track effort with contributions highlighted by Drake, Cardi B, Future, DaBaby, Justin Bieber, Polo G and Juice WRLD. It’s also the Atlanta trio’s first project together since their 2018’s Culture II. Social media opinions of the new album seemingly prove that the rap group has returned to the excellence they displayed earlier in their career with projects like No Label II and Culture. As fans continue to enjoy the new project, Quavo recently revealed another project that sadly never came to fruition between himself and another artist.

During an interview on Los Angeles’ Real 92.3, Quavo spoke about adding posthumous features from Pop Smoke and Juice WRLD on Culture III, revealing that he actually hoped to make a full album with the former before his death.

“That was important, know what I’m saying,” he said. “I had a relationship with Pop Smoke, we had a relationship with Pop Smoke, and it was just, important. We had so many records, me and him was bout to make an album. So I just felt like I had to put Pop on there.”

He added, “Rest in Peace to my dawg Pop, we just made so much good music. Us on a New York drill beat is just like, magic.”

Pop Smoke and Juice WRLD appear on “Light It Up” and “Antisocial,” respectively, on Culture III. While it was the Migos’ first official collaboration with the two rappers, Quavo previously worked with Pop Smoke on “Aim For The Moon,” “Snitching” and “West Coast Sh*t” from the rapper’s posthumous album, Shoot For The Stars, Aim For The Moon.

You can watch the Migos’ interview on Real 92.3 above.

Cardi B is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.