Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3 developer Sledgehammer Games has removed several multiplayer maps from rotation due to spawning issues. The game has been suffering from teething problems since the campaign was released in early access, and the multiplayer modes seem to be following suit on its official release day.
Which Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3 multiplayer maps have been removed?
Quarry, Rundown, and Scrapyard are the three maps that have been removed from Hardpoint playlists. Many players have taken to Twitter to complain about the spawn issues, particularly on Quarry; here players were spawning in exactly the same spot repeatedly, leaving them to be cannon fodder for the opposition.
Later on in the day, Karachi was “temporarily removed” from the Cutthroat playlist as players were spawning alongside their enemies. Sledgehammer Games is currently investigating all of the issues with these four maps, but there is no estimate of when a fix will be applied.
A day-one update was released earlier today that fixed numerous crashes and loading issues, as well as a long list of other problems with the game’s campaign and multiplayer modes. Since then, another hotfix has been released that contains the following bug fixes:
Fixed an issue where loading into MW2 from MW3 could result in longer load times than intended
Fixed an issue that could cause a crash when entering the Weapons tab when cross-launching from MW3
Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3 has been poorly reviewed by critics and gamers, although the latter also review-bombed the wrong game. Many of the complaints have been aimed at the game’s short campaign. Reports had suggested that the development time for Modern Warfare 3 was less than 1.5 years, significantly shorter than previous entries in the franchise, although Sledgehammer Games has since refuted this, saying the game was “years in the making.”
Yong Yea, the voice actor and YouTuber who will be portraying the English version of Kiryu in Sega’s Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth, showed off some of the work he’d done on the character and faced some criticism online in the process.
Yea recently took to Twitter to share a brief comparison video of the Japanese voice for Kiryu in the upcoming game (portrayed by Takaya Kuroda) and himself. In the tweet, Yea notes that it’s “some of the first stuff” that was recorded for the game and that his performance became “more refined” as they went along.
Here is an official look at Kiryu in English. Did a side-by-side with J for those wanting to hear the difference. This is some of the first stuff we ever recorded a year ago, performance got more refined as we went further along. Excited for y'all to experience the full games! pic.twitter.com/xAzxdtXbHY
Like a Dragon fans divided over English voice-acting performance
While plenty of fans did have positive things to say about Yong Yea’s portrayal, many fans also voiced their criticisms (both constructive and not) about the performance. Namely, fans pointed out that Yea’s voice didn’t carry the same gruffness that the Japanese voice actor did, with many noting that it sounded too much like the content creator to their ears.
Other complaints also noted that the Yea simply sounded too young for the role. In the game, Kiryu is a 51-year-old man, while Yea, 28, is significantly younger. However, the actor did note in a follow-up tweet that it was “kinda strange” hearing his own voice in the role at first and said that fans should pick the one that’s right for them.
Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth is set to launch on January 26, 2024, and will be available on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and PC.
Despite what the creative team at Square Enix would have us think, Destiny and Fate probably still have a major role to play in Final Fantasy VII Rebirth and beyond. Even though SOLDIER Zack Fair seems to have escaped death and joined the rest of the cast in a new timeline, the most likely outcome is a totally…
Meta hasn't been in China since Facebook was blocked way back in 2009, but that may be about to change. The company is reportedly planning to release an all-new, lower-priced version of its virtual reality headset in the nation via an exclusive deal with video game giant Tencent, The Wall Street Journal has reported. Sales are tentatively set to begin in late 2024, but some details must still be finalized.
The new headset would be more powerful than the Quest 2, but use lower-quality optics than the Quest 3, according to the report. The more budget-oriented headset may also be sold in other regions. Meta would reportedly take a larger share of headset sales, while Tencent pull in more of the content and service revenue, "like software subscriptions and game sales."
The deal would open up a huge market for Meta's VR division, which has been hemorrhaging money and could certainly use the boost. However, it's not clear whether Tencent would require government approval to sell the devices. Gaming is a popular VR activity, but China's strict rules have already had a significant impact on Tencent, the world's largest video game company.
China may not be a panacea for Meta's weak VR division, either. TikTok owner ByteDance is China's virtual reality leader with its Pico headset, but is struggling with sales in China just as Meta is elsewhere. And Tencent itself was reportedly on the brink of disbanding its own VR division, but supposedly built it back up once the Meta deal seemed inevitable. Headset sales across the globe fell nearly 45 percent this quarter compared to the same period last year.
If the deal goes through, Meta would regain a foothold in China after 14 years with no direct presence there. The company has a 50 percent worldwide share of the VR market, with Sony's PlayStation VR2 and Pico's VR headset in second and third place. Apple is about to enter the market with its $3,500 Vision Pro headset, but isn't likely to have a serious presence until it releases a cheaper version down the road.
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Microsoft temporarily prohibited its employees from using ChatGPT "due to security and data concerns," according to CNBC. The company announced the rule in an internal website and even blocked corporate devices from being able to access the AI chatbot. While several tech companies had prohibited — or had at least discouraged — the internal use of ChatGPT in the past, Microsoft doing the same thing was certainly curious, seeing as it's OpenAI's biggest and most prominent investor.
In January, Microsoft pledged to invest $10 billion in ChatGPT's developer over the next few years after pouring $3 billion into the company in the past. The AI-powered tools it rolled out for its products, such as Bing's chatbot, also use OpenAI's large language model. But Microsoft reportedly said in its note that "[w]hile it is true that [the company] has invested in OpenAI, and that ChatGPT has built-in safeguards to prevent improper use, the website is nevertheless a third-party external service." It advised its employees to "exercise caution," adding that it goes for other external services, including AI image generator Midjourney.
ChatGPT's Microsoft ban was unexpected, but it was also swift. CNBC says that after it published its story, Microsoft quickly restored access to the chatbot. It also reportedly removed the language in its advisory, saying that it was blocking the chat app and and design software Canva. A company spokesperson told the news organization that the ban was a mistake despite the advisory explicitly mentioning ChatGPT and that Microsoft restored access to it as soon as it realized its error. "We were testing endpoint control systems for LLMs and inadvertently turned them on for all employees," a spokesperson said. They added: "As we have said previously, we encourage employees and customers to use services like Bing Chat Enterprise and ChatGPT Enterprise that come with greater levels of privacy and security protections."
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Developed by Samsung Research, Gauss (named after mathematician Carl Friedrich Gauss) powers several on-device AI technologies across Samsung products. It will have a few different facets but will do a lot of the same stuff we’ve seen from other generative AI (GAI) models.
Gauss Language will handle tasks like translations and summarizing documents, while Gauss Code is a coding assistant. There’s also Samsung Gauss Image for all your image-generating needs. The latter can create images based on prompts and handle edits like style changes and additions. It will be able to upscale low-resolution images too.
Gauss, the human, in the 1800s, formed the normal distribution theory, a major component of what grew into machine learning and AI. Generating a picture of a cat writing at a desk is what he would have wanted, I’m sure.
It’s easy to be cynical about Samsung’s efforts here, as the company tends to forge its own path for innovation’s sake. It made its own voice assistant, Bixby. It hovered around its devices for a few years as a flagship feature, with the company even dedicating hardware buttons on some of its Galaxy S phones to launch the voice assistant. (There were only four buttons on the Galaxy S9, Samsung, and one was for Bixby?!)
But there’s some reasoning: Running generative AI features on-device could give Samsung an advantage over ChatGPT, which, for now, requires cloud connectivity. Qualcomm’s new Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chipset supports on-device GAI operations and will likely be part of next year’s Galaxy S24 phones.
Samsung is already teasing Galaxy AI in its incoming translation feature, pictured here.
— Mat Smith
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Amazon acquired One Medical last year for $3.9 billion.
Amazon Prime subscribers can now access a deeply discounted One Medical membership for primary care services. Prime members can sign up for just $99 a year (typically $199) or $9 per month. Prime members who sign up can add up to five other people for $6 each. It offers all the basic health services, from annual physicals and maintenance for chronic conditions to same-day sick visits. One Medical also offers round-the-clock virtual care, or telehealth visits, and drop-in lab services. The membership doesn’t cover the cost of visits, though.
Blizzard is ‘evolving competitive Overwatch in a new direction.’
The Overwatch League (OWL) appears to be no more after six seasons. A Blizzard spokesperson told Engadget “We are transitioning from the Overwatch League and evolving competitive Overwatch in a new direction.” That’s not to say the publisher is pulling out of Overwatch esports altogether. The future of the professional Overwatch scene is unclear, but reports suggest that a return to a more open format could be next.
The writing has been on the wall for OWL for some time. The first two seasons of OWL matches happened almost exclusively in a California studio. Weeks after Blizzard started on its grand plan to run matches in each team’s city every week, but COVID-19 lockdowns forced it to shift to an online-only format.
Sometimes, a company creates a truly cutting-edge device, even if its books take a hit. The latest example: HP’s Spectre Fold. HP’s take on a flexible-screen laptop is thinner, lighter and more polished than before. The Spectre Fold represents a true leap forward for next-gen hybrid design to the point where you might even want to buy one — until you see that $5,000 price tag. Engadget’s Sam Rutherford breaks it down.
Sony has had a blockbuster quarter when it comes to PlayStation 5 sales. The company has sold 4.9 million PS5 units in its second financial quarter ending on September 30, bringing the total number of consoles sold to 46.6 million. It didn't quite reach last year's holiday figures, but it still moved 1.6 million units more than the same period in 2022. To note, Sony couldn't keep up with the demand for the console for quite some time due to the supply chain issues that plagued the tech industry, but it was finally able to ramp up production last year after the shortages had eased up. By July 2023, it announced that it had already sold more than 40 million PS5 consoles since the model came out in November 2020.
To be able to reach its sales target of shipping 25 million PS5 units for this financial year, however, Sony will have to sell 16.8 million more units. That's a massive figure, considering it only sold 19.1 million PS5 consoles for the whole financial year of 2022. But according to Reuters, Sony President Hiroki Totoki is confident that the goal is something the company "can attain very easily." The company is likely expecting a boost in sales when its smaller PS5 models come out this month, just in time for people's holiday shopping sprees.
In addition to its hardware sales, Sony has also reported that it sold 67.6 million games in the second quarter, though only 4.7 million are first-party titles. It will most likely post much higher first-party sales in the next quarter, though, seeing as Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 sold 5 million units within its first 11 days, eclipsing the performance of its prequel that sold 9 million copies in 80 days.
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