IT’S FRIDAY (shh, yes we know it’s actually Thursday)! Do you know what that means? Another #FreeShowFriday, that’s what! Just enough to give you a taste of what our Insiders get daily, along with some other cool perks that you can get here…

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Blizzard is selling a Lego Bastion model right now

With the power of Lego and Blizzard Entertainment combined, some hot new Overwatch merchandise is upon us. Blizzard is now selling the Lego Omnic Bastion set, which has 182 pieces. Lego Omnic Bastion is $25, and you can order it now through Blizzard’s online store. If you are attending the upcoming BlizzCon fan gathering, you’ll also have the option to purchase it at that time as well. BlizzCon begins November 2 and runs through November 3 at the Anaheim Convention Center.

Sony Is Finally Allowing PSN ID Changes, But There’s A Catch

Sony is finally giving in to the PlayStation community on a long-held request by throngs of gamers who made a big mistake when they first chose their PlayStation Network IDs: Soon, gamers will be able to change their PSN IDs for the very first time. Once it’s rolled out to all PS4 users next year, gamers will be able to change their PSN ID as many times as they’d like. Here’s where the catch comes into play, however. The first time is free but after that you’ll need to pony up $9.99 for each subsequent change or $4.99 for PS+ subscribers.

PC market flat, as Surface becomes a top-5 computer brand in the US

Microsoft was the fifth-biggest PC maker in the US in the third quarter of this year, according to industry advisory firm Gartner. The top spot in the US belongs to HP, with about 4.5 million machines sold, ahead of Dell at 3.8 million, Lenovo at 2.3 million, and Apple at 2 million. The gap between fourth and fifth is pretty big—Microsoft sold only 0.6 million Surface devices last quarter—but it suggests that Microsoft’s PC division is heading in the right direction, with sales 1.9 percent higher than the same quarter last year. The company pushed down to sixth place was Acer.

Razer Built the Phone Gamers Deserve (It Has RGB Lights)

The first time you test something, you check out its design, you try all the new features, but even after an hour or more, the device still doesn’t feel as familiar as something you own and use every day. And yet, the first time I sat down and played a round of PUBG Mobile using the Razer Phone 2, I finished with a chicken dinner. Was it me or was it the phone? I’m still not sure, but here’s how Razer’s gaming phone has evolved for its second tour.

Pokémon Go nerf doesn’t look good for ol’ Blissey

Competitive Pokémon Go players are anticipating a major, upcoming upheaval in the battle scene, thanks to Niantic’s announcement that it intends to rebalance the game. The developer has already hinted at what kinds of changes it plans to make — and it sounds like they’re aimed at kicking the best gym defenders out of their top spots.

Call Of Duty: Black Ops 4 Release Date, Pre-load, Blackout, Zombies, And Everything We Know

Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 continues the franchise’s history of explosive multiplayer, first-person shooter combat. Old mechanics and features return, such as the fan favorite Zombie mode, but the game implements several changes to the Black Ops formula. We’ve compiled everything we know about Black Ops 4 so far, and will continue to update this post as we discover more about the game.

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I miss being surprised by technology

Google’s 2018 launch event was a piece of corporate theater, like so many before it, to unveil a new smartphone. I’ve watched and attended a lot of product launches in my time, dahlink, but this one was the least engaging for ages. Not because of the products, or the presenters, but because it lacked one key ingredient: surprise.

Essential is reportedly working on an AI phone that operates through voice commands

While Essential’s first device has a cult following among those who prioritize quick Android updates, it became clear in May that it would never see a follow-up. A report from Bloomberg revealed that the company had canceled a second Essential Phone and put itself up for sale. However, over the past several months, the company has quietly chugged along, continuing to push out lightning-fast security patches. Now, a new report from Bloomberg states that the company is indeed working on a second device — but it’s not at all like its first product. According to the publication’s tipsters, the handset is an anti-smartphone with a small screen that relies primarily on voice commands.

Pre-order ASUS’ ROG gaming phone on October 18th

ASUS Republic of Gamers (ROG) announced the release date of its gaming-oriented smartphone today. The ROG Phone will be available for pre-order on October 18th for a starting price of $899 for the 128 GB version. The 512 GB model will cost $1,099. There isn’t any word on ship date yet, though accessories for the device will be available starting in Q4.

Nasty WhatsApp Bug Left Users Vulnerable to Attack by Simply Answering a Video Call

On Tuesday, a researcher for Google’s Project Zero security team published a report revealing how WhatsApp users could lose control of their account just by answering a video call from a bad actor. Natalie Silvanovich ‏published her findings on Google’s Chromium blog and explained that the vulnerability was discovered in August and was promptly reported to WhatsApp’s parent company Facebook. Project Zero hunts down vulnerabilities and companies are given 90 days to fix them before the findings are made public. In this case, Silvanovich said that a patch rolled out for Android on September 28 and was applied for iOS on October 3.

Take A Look At Fallout 76’s Full Map

Fallout 76 is a major new evolution for the long-running series, as we got to find out in our recent hands-on session. It takes the nuclear war ravaged wasteland that we’re accustomed to exploring in isolation and turns it into an always-online multiplayer game, opening it up for players to come together. Fallout 76 will enable dozens of players to explore and adventure together–either as friends or enemies, so naturally, the game world will have to be big enough to accommodate them. On top of that it also needs to have enough activities to keep them engaged for hours on end.

Just Cause 4 story trailer

Now rogue from the Agency, in Just Cause 4 Rico Rodriguez travels to the South American inspired Island of Solís, hell bent on uncovering the truth behind his father’s death. Solís is a place ravished by powerful storms and tornados, it’s in a state of unrest and on the brink of war. The ruthless Black Hand militia, led by the dangerous Gabriella, is using everything they have to keep the situation under control. Rico soon forms an alliance with Mira, a rebellious dissident before finding himself leading an army as he fights, grapples and wingsuits his way through conspiracies and chaos.

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Why People Are Putting Fitness Trackers on Toilet Paper in China

It all started with a mystery: Why would a fitness tracker detect a beating heart on a roll of toilet paper? As Chinese tech site Abacus reports, toilet paper is having a bit of a viral moment in China after fitness tracker owners discovered the Xiaomi Mi Band 3 would display a heart rate when attached to a roll. Users of the social media platform Weibo posted numerous images documenting the phenomenon. They also tested other cylindrical objects, such as bottles, cans, and even the appendage of a stuffed animal—all of which showed the mysterious phantom heart rate.

Sony confirms it’s working on the next PlayStation console

With the five-year anniversary of the PlayStation 4’s debut approaching, Sony has confirmed that it is developing a successor to the console. “At this point, what I can say is it’s necessary to have a next-generation hardware,” said Kenichiro Yoshida, Sony’s president and CEO, in an interview with the Financial Times. Yoshida did not name the console, so there’s no information yet on whether it will officially be called the “PlayStation 5.” There’s also no word on a release window, although John Kodera, the CEO of Sony Interactive Entertainment — that’s the official name of the company’s gaming division — suggested in May that the next PlayStation is at least three years away.

Project xCloud: Gaming with you at the center

Minecraft for Apple TV Discontinued Due to Lack of Players

Effective from Monday, 24 September, the Apple TV version of Minecraft will no longer be updated or supported. We’re grateful to the Apple TV community for their support but we need to reallocate resources to the platforms that our players use the most. Don’t worry though, you can continue to play Minecraft on Apple TV, keep building in your world and your Marketplace purchases (including Minecoins) will continue to be available.

Sources: Microsoft Is Close To Buying Obsidian

This would be a huge move for the company behind Xbox, which has been on a shopping spree this year, snapping up four game studios including Playground (Forza Horizon) and Ninja Theory (Hellblade). Its most recent notable game studio purchase before that was Mojang, the maker of Minecraft. Microsoft has kept Minecraft multiplatform, even enabling cross-play between Switch and Xbox One players, but console makers usually buy studios with the intent for those studios to make games for their consoles, not the competition. Microsoft’s biggest weakness this generation has been its stable of first-party developers, and with Obsidian, the company now has an RPG-focused studio that can help it compete against the PlayStation’s strong lineup.

Fortnite Battle Royale bundle heads to stores this fall

Fortnite Battle Royale is getting a special physical release next month, Epic Games announced. With publishing partner Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment’s help, a bundle of the game that includes V-bucks, skins and weapons will be available at retail stores. The $29.99 set is called the Fortnite: Deep Freeze Bundle, named after the winter-themed content that comes with it. There’s the Frostbite Outfit, for starters, as well as a glider, pickaxe and “back bling,” each named after some cold weather-related pun. Also included is 1,000 V-Bucks, so that players can go buy more items or the Battle Pass.

LEFT ALIVE – State of the World Trailer

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Google hid major Google+ security flaw that exposed users’ personal information

Google exposed the personal information of users of its Google+ social network, the company announced in a blog post this morning. The news, originally reported by The Wall Street Journal ahead of Google’s announcement, means that Google+ profile information like name, email address, occupation, gender, and age were exposed, even when that data was listed as private and not public. However, Google says that it has no evidence to suggest any third-party developers were aware of the bug or abused it. The bug appears to have been active between 2015 and 2018.

Facebook’s Portal Is the Jetsons Videophone That We Thought Humanity Skipped

Facebook announced its new Portal hardware today, a limited-purpose device that allows users to video chat on Facebook almost exclusively. And there’s something strangely retro about the concept: This is the standalone videophone device that George Jetson had in the 1960s and that AT&T imagined in the 1990s—the device that we were supposed to skip over.

Sony patent hints at PlayStation 5 backward compatibility

A Sony patent suggests the company is looking to make the PlayStation 5 backward-compatible. The US Patent and Trademark Office published the patent “Remastering by emulation” on Oct. 2. Sony filed the patent, which was previously published in May, in November 2016 — suggesting this idea has been around for at least two years. The 14-page document outlines a process by which textures from old games are remastered “on the fly” for higher-resolution displays, as previously noted by Eurogamer. This could mean games from previous console generations will look slightly improved on HD and 4K displays when played on the PS5.

‘Assassin’s Creed Odyssey’ Weapons Get Made In Real Life Thanks To Man At Arms

The episode, which you can see above, covers the creation of the weapons in just over 20 minutes and really gives you an idea of what went into their detail. The team goes over each step, starting with some exploration of Greece, combining steel bolt edges with iron, and talking about other parts that would help put the weapons together. It’s really something — and totally makes us want to open a workshop so we could try building. It’s a complex effort by several of Man At Arms’ staffers, even going as far as to manually craft certain parts so they match what’s included in the game. And it’s a process that comes together beautifully, with the weapons finally being completed around the [18:30] mark.

Telltale’s Walking Dead Final Season Will Continue After Massive Layoffs

The Walking Dead creator Robert Kirkman’s company, Skybound Entertainment, has announced it has partnered with Telltale Games to finish the studio’s Walking Dead: The Final Season. “We’ve successfully negotiated with Telltale Games for our company Skybound to come in and see Season 4 of the Telltale game to completion,” Kirkman said during an appearance at New York Comic-Con this weekend. “We can’t lose Andrew Lincoln and Clementine in the same year.” Skybound has been involved with Telltale’s The Walking Dead franchise since the start. After Telltale announced it was winding down last month, many wondered about the fate of The Walking Dead: The Final Season. Telltale announced that it was working with multiple potential partners to finish the series, and it appears Skybound was among them.

Hands-On With Fallout 76, A Very Different Type Of Post-Apocalyptic RPG

Ever since Bethesda first revealed its newest game in the Fallout series, it’s been difficult to get a sense of what Fallout 76 is all about. While the concept of an online Fallout experience is enticing, it also comes into conflict with the series’ typical brand of role-playing. Though Fallout 76 does lessen those traditionally single-player details to a noticeable degree, it offers up an alluring opportunity to explore uncharted, irradiated territory with other players online. With the pivot to multiplayer, Fallout 76 focuses a lot more on exploration and survival in West Virginia’s Appalachia, with all its regional oddities and newfound horrors coming in large doses. Recently, Gamespot played three hours of the game ahead of the game’s upcoming October beta, and spoke with developers from Bethesda Game Studios about the particular challenges of making a different kind of Fallout.

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Top October 2018 Video Game Release Trailers

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