Good morning, or good afternoon, or good whenever you are reading this. Kotaku’s Morning Checkpoint is back once more to share some news and other stuff with you. Today, that includes a wild story about a gaming convention gone wrong, more information on maps in Battlefield 6, a new union at Blizzard, a look behind the scenes on Superman, and an interview with the madman who hosts Dropout’s Game Changer.
A gaming convention in Tampa, Florida was a complete shitshow
The National Gaming Expo, held last week, sounds like it was a horrible and mostly empty experience, according to a new IGN report. According to many who attended, the convention was poorly managed, had very little to offer, and inside the convention center were animals to pet instead of new games to play. Seriously. IGN reports that fans paid $40 for a single-day ticket or $90 for the weekend, and now everyone wants their money back. Also, the guy allegedly in charge of running the whole event has a history of putting on crappy conventions and recently got out of prison in the Dominican Republic. You should read the full report because it’s truly a wild story.
Battlefield 6 dev says bigger maps are included in the full game
The lead producer on Battlefield 6, David Sirland, replied to a fan complaining that the maps featured in the recent beta were too small and confirmed that the game contains bigger maps beyond what was featured in the playtest.
“Speed is a factor of map size,” said Sirland on Twitter. “We picked these maps to make sure we hit the full-octane version of Battlefield on the head – and made everyone see we can handle that too. Large maps exist, and the tempo scales accordingly; you’ll be able to see soon enough!” The BF6 beta returns August 14 for one final weekend.
Over 900 Blizzard developers are now unionized A new version of the GTA: The Trilogy arrives on Switch
Stalker 2 is upgrading to a new version of Unreal Engine 5
On August 12, Stalker 2 developers GSC Game World announced plans to update their popular post-apocalyptic open-world shooter to a newer version of Unreal Engine 5, which should help the game run better and be more stable on more PCs.
“Our main mission in the near future is upgrading the game to Unreal Engine 5.5.4,” said the devs in a Steam post. “This will bring new features and tools to make the Zone an even better place, but more importantly, bringing the latest Unreal Engine 5 optimizations will lead to better stability and performance.” Other changes mentioned in a new road map include tweaks to the game’s “A-life System,” new missions, a reworked stamina system, and new night vision devices. GSC is aiming to bring these changes to Stalker 2 by the end of the year, but admits that upgrading to a new version of UE5 could cause some delay.
A new version of the GTA: The Trilogy arrives on Switch?
Rockstar Games may have quietly released a new version of its controversial Grand Theft Auto remaster collection for the Nintendo Switch. Previously, the collection required users to download Vice City and some updates for GTA III and San Andreas. Now, however, people have spotted what could be a new physical version of the GTA Trilogy that appears to lack any warnings on the front indicating you’ll need to download the games. However, until people actually get their hands on this supposedly new version, we won’t know for sure.
ICYMI:
Watch This:
I’ve seen some people suggest this is two guys with big egos fighting, but I don’t see that. To me, this is two people who care a lot about what they are making, who don’t agree on a point about it, and both are passionately trying to solve the problem. I love it. In a time when so many movies feel sterile, it’s nice to see some passion behind the camera.
