News Raven Software QA team forms Game Workers Alliance union [UPDATED] The formation of the GWA comes during an ongoing strike by Raven Software workers. Updated at 10:10 a.m. PT: According to a Bloomberg report, Activision stated that it's "carefully reviewing the request for voluntary recognition from the CWA, which seeks to organize around three dozen of the company’s nearly 10,000 employees." The rest of the story remains as it was originally published. Raven Software, developer of Call of Duty: Warzone, has been embattled with parent company Activision Blizzard following the decision to deny contracts for several members of its QA team. Many QA testers have been on strike since December, protesting for their voices to be heard. Now, Raven Software workers have formed Game Workers Alliance, the first union under Activision Blizzard, and are requesting recognition from the parent company. Game Workers Alliance announced their unionization with the creation of a new website. Here, the group, which is currently composed of 34 workers, published an open letter to Activision Blizzard leadership. We, of Raven Quality Assurance, are reaching out today to announce the formation of our Union, the Game Workers Alliance, and request official voluntary recognition to join CODE-CWA / Communications Workers of America. With leadership’s constant reiteration of investment in the best interests of the employee-base, we offer the opportunity to demonstrate this now by willingly acknowledging the Union composed of those same workers. Our Principles: -Solidarity: The voices of workers should be heard by leadership. By uniting in solidarity, we can ensure our message is further reaching, and…

If you're a pet owner, you've been there before. You've gone through the phase where you can't help but want to take as many pictures of your furry little loved one as possible. We recognize that here at Shacknews. Heck, we centered an app around it. (Shackpets! Download it today!) That's why we were immediately drawn into the premise for Pupperazzi from Kitfox Games. Taking pictures of dogs? We're so in! In practice, it proves to be a relaxing, if slightly limited, experience. Shutterbug The main idea of Pupperazzi, as implied by the title, is to take photos of dogs that are wandering about all over the game's world. It's almost overwhelming how many different types of dogs there are, as players are presented with dozens of different breeds, as well as dogs that are dressed up or playing around. Pupperazzi tasks players with completing various photography-based objectives, such as snapping a picture with a certain lens or catching a specific dog doing a certain activity. This helps players increase their social media follower count and helps unlock new items in the shop, like additional lenses, extra rolls of film, and different photo filters. Completing objectives also unlocks new locations, though there aren't a lot of them. There are five maps total, so much of the unlocks center around unlocking these areas at different times of the day. Even then, there isn't much noticeable difference between the boardwalk in the morning and the boardwalk at night, other than a nice change in background. As nice as it is to have…

Guide How to do a Charged Shot - Windjammers 2 Charging up for a massive Curved or Custom Shot in Windjammers 2 is when the game gets really intense. Here's how to do it! When it comes to playing a match in Windjammers 2, there are a ton of offensive and defensive tools at your disposal, but opportunities to charge your shots are when you get to give it everything you’ve got. You may have already been doing this without knowing about it, but strategically planning a Charged Shot on the fly might be what you need to close out a match with an explosive goal. We’re here to make sure you know how to do it! How to do a Charged Shot A Charged Shot in Windjammers 2 comes from any moment the disc has airtime and you can get set to catch and deliver it with explosive force. Whether you counter a throw just before it hits you, it hits a partition on the court, or it bounces off your back, there are plenty of times you’ll see the disc catch air. This is a key moment. You will see a crosshair on the ground and you should aim to position your character on that crosshair as fast as possible. At that point, your character will begin charging until the disc falls and they catch it. If you charge enough, you will be able to deliver a variety of Charged Shots. Ideally, you will want to get a disc up into the air by countering with a Toss,…

News Ghostwire Tokyo PlayStation Store leak suggests a possible March release The PlayStation Store listing of Ghostwire Tokyo was updated with a date that was hastily removed soon after. The current efforts of The Evil Within developer Tango Gameworks are being put towards Ghostwire Tokyo, but there’s been little word on when the supernatural martial arts game will arrive on PlayStation 5 and PC. That changed recently, but probably not when it was supposed to. A recently pulled listing on the PlayStation Store suggested that Ghostwire Tokyo might be coming in late March. The alleged details regarding Ghostwire Tokyo’s launch date were spotted on its PlayStation Store listing before they were quickly removed. That said, the folks at MP1st were able to snap a screengrab of what was there before it was removed. According to the screenshots taken, Ghostwire Tokyo may have an alleged launch date of March 24, 2022. That said, there’s little reason to believe it’s a concrete date until Tango Gameworks or Bethesda make an announcement on the matter. There’s no telling why the date was posted and pulled and it could have very well been a placeholder or a mistake in data entry, just to name a few reasons why it’s not there anymore. Ghostwire Tokyo will feature a blend of supernatural enemies and powers, as well as physical combat akin to martial arts. Ghostwire Tokyo has been an interesting game to watch in its development since it was first revealed at the E3 2019 Bethesda Showcase. With a mix of paranormal activity and the powers…

Video Unboxing & review: Pokemon Fusion Strike Elite Trainer Box We're back with more exciting Pokemon Trading Card pack openings! There’s a great joy in acquiring a fresh set of Pokemon Trading Cards, opening the packs and carefully going through each individual card in hopes of scoring a rare pull. We here at Shacknews are no strangers to that phenomenon and regularly open Pokemon Card packs on our YouTube channel. That’s exactly what we’re doing in our latest video, as The Pokemon Company was kind enough to send us a Pokemon Fusion Strike Elite Trainer Box. In the video, Shacknews head of video and resident Pokemon TCG expert Greg Burke opens up a brand-new Fusion Strike Elite Trainer Box, based on Pokemon Sword and Shield. The large box is pink and blue and features the legendary Mew on the cover. Inside the box, there’s a lot of goodies to check out. The box comes with a bunch of Energy cards, which are necessary for using different Pokemon moves in battle. There’s also markers and a handful of dice, making it a great pack for beginners looking to get into the Pokemon TCG. As for the cards, the Fusion Strike Elite Trainer Box comes with eight booster packs, which Greg opens all of in the video. Be sure to watch the full video to see if Greg is lucky enough to pull any rare cards in this round of card pack openings. If you’re into this sort of content, we’ve got loads of more Pokemon TCG videos over on the Shacknews…

News Life is Strange: Remastered Collection delayed on Nintendo Switch All other versions of the Life is Strange: Remastered Collection are on track for February, but the Nintendo Switch version will take longer. One of the more enticing upcoming games this year are the remastered editions of the original Life is Strange games. The Life is Strange: Remastered Collection is set to arrive on most platforms come February and the Nintendo Switch was originally included in that. However, it looks like the devs aren’t going to be able to make that happen on schedule. The rest of the platforms are on track, but the Nintendo Switch version of Life is Strange: Remastered Collection has been delayed past the original release date. Deck Nine, the developers behind the remastered collection, announced the delay on the Nintendo Switch version in a post on the game’s Twitter on January 20, 2022. According to the post, while everything else is on track for the original release date on February 1, the Nintendo Switch version is going to take longer. As such, the team made the decision to delay the Switch version and give it more time as they work out the kinks. There was no new release date shared at this time, but it’s still coming later in 2022. An update from the Life is Strange team pic.twitter.com/gLx8uK0e4v — Life is Strange (@LifeIsStrange) The Life is Strange: Remastered Collection is a bundle of both the original Life is Strange and Life is Strange: Before the Storm. It’s been delayed before, but was set to…

News Raven Software QA team forms Game Workers Alliance union The formation of the GWA comes during an ongoing strike by Raven Software workers. Raven Software, developer of Call of Duty: Warzone, has been embattled with parent company Activision Blizzard following the decision to deny contracts for several members of its QA team. Many QA testers have been on strike since December, protesting for their voices to be heard. Now, Raven Software workers have formed Game Workers Alliance, the first union under Activision Blizzard, and are requesting recognition from the parent company. Game Workers Alliance announced their unionization with the creation of a new website. Here, the group, which is currently composed of 34 workers, published an open letter to Activision Blizzard leadership. We, of Raven Quality Assurance, are reaching out today to announce the formation of our Union, the Game Workers Alliance, and request official voluntary recognition to join CODE-CWA / Communications Workers of America. With leadership’s constant reiteration of investment in the best interests of the employee-base, we offer the opportunity to demonstrate this now by willingly acknowledging the Union composed of those same workers. Our Principles: -Solidarity: The voices of workers should be heard by leadership. By uniting in solidarity, we can ensure our message is further reaching, and more effective. (1/8) — Game Workers Alliance 💙#WeAreGWA (@WeAreGWA) The workers go on to cite the December 2021 layoffs, calling the current work environment “untenable.” According to the letters, the 12 employees that were laid off were top performers, and were reassured throughout last year that wage increases…

Good evening, Shacknews, it's nighttime, which means it's time for Evening Reading. Let's officially close out our day of posting. Please take a look. In case you missed it at Shacknews: Windjammers 2 review: Big swingin' discs 10 questions about Microsoft's purchase of Activision Blizzard Total War: Warhammer 3 is going all-in on player immersion Everything changing with Destiny 2 in Season 16: The Witch Queen GDC survey suggests most game developers aren't interested in NFTs Facebook and Instagram to enter NFT market with profile & minting features Destiny 2: The Witch Queen Raid release date Hitman 3 Version 3.100 patch notes launch Year 2 content, VR, and Elusive Target Arcade Twitter introduces hexagonal NFT profile pictures Rocket League's Neon Nights event gets dirty with Grimes next week And now... Other Stuff From The Internet!!! Your daily dose of sudoku For Simon's daily sudoku challenge, he tackles one that features a rather incredible construction. Dunkey checks out Spider-Man I still have fond memories of playing Spider-Man 2 on my OG Xbox. Bringing trees back from extinction This is a rather neat look at the date trees in Israel and what it took to bring them back. The ultimate skateboarding trick this goes raw 🛹 pic.twitter.com/xxAamT7rhG — Roll7 is HIRING! 🛹 (@Roll_7) Twice as cool! A look at how a bullet would move through the universe Adding to @duetosymmetry discussion of expansion - here’s our universe (in conformal coordinates - copied from @tamarastro) - the max a bullet can travel is the inside the shaded red area. Whilst it will “travel”…

News GDC survey suggests most game developers aren't interested in NFTs A poll of 2700 industry insiders reveals that interest in NFTs may not be as widespread as it seems. You likely won’t be able to spend more than a few minutes online these days without running into news or controversy surrounding NFTs. The buzzworthy digital items have been making headlines for months and have begun to appear in plans for upcoming video games. This has sparked some concern from the consumer side of the industry, but a GDC poll reveals that NFTs aren’t as wildly popular amongst game developers as they are on social media. Each year as a part of the annual Game Developer Conference (or GDC), the organizers arrange a poll of attendees to produce a report dubbed State of the Game Industry. In the 2022 survey report, only twenty-eight percent of developers who responded expressed interest in integrating NFTs into their projects as a revenue source. Only twenty-seven percent of those who responded were favorable towards using cryptocurrency as a payment method. In recent months, we’ve seen NFT-related happenings from a wide variety of game publishers, even when such an implementation feels at odds with game design. Others have shied away from the NFT hype, citing environmental concerns along with the potentially exploitative financial implications. How NFTs fit into the overall gaming landscape is still yet to be seen, but if this year’s GDC survey tells us anything, it is that the folks responsible for creating the games we love to play are still unsure at…

Video ShackStream: Fighting for our lives in Rainbow Six Extraction Join us as we dive into Ubisoft's latest tactical co-op shooter and try to rescue our operators that we so carelessly lost in previous missions. On today's stream, we'll take a brief departure from flying, farming, and trucking, and instead head into the dangerous world of Rainbow Six Extraction. Several of our operators desperately need rescuing after having been encased in stasis during prior failed missions. For those unaware, Rainbow Six Extraction is Ubisoft's latest tactical online PVE co-op experience that pits three operators against an unknown alien threat. The consequences of mission failure are real, as we'll undoubtedly demonstrate in today's stream. For more details and to see what we thought about it, check out the Shacknews Rainbow Six Extraction review. If you're looking forward to the next time Shack Air takes to the skies, you'll be happy to know that we'll head take our very first look at the Aerosoft DHC-6 Twin Otter next week. Until then, join us to watch us slaughter some aliens, or scream like little girls, whichever happens first. You can join Jan tonight at 6 p.m. PT/9 p.m. ET on the Shacknews Twitch channel. If you can't make it tonight, don't fret; Shack Air flies every Thursday evening between 6 p.m. and 8 p.m. PT/9 p.m. to 11 p.m. ET. Want to support the work we're doing? Make sure you do it for Shacknews and subscribe with your Prime Gaming sub to help support the show!