The week in words.

Hello there! Welcome back to another weekly news roundup, covering the stories of the week that you need to know about. There’s a fair few stories knocking around this week, with new gameplay of Red Dead Redemption 2 to exposes of the culture at Riot Games. So, let’s get to it.

The truth will out: rampant sexism at Riot Games bought to surface

Kotaku standout expose bought to light the rampant sexism that runs through the culture at Riot Games this week. The company, who created the now iconic League of Legends (an innovative MOBA for some and “that game that’s always on my YouTube ads” for others) has had a harsh spotlight shone on it this week; with the integrity of the company’s attitude towards women in particular being the main focus.

According to the article, Riot Games leadership have cultivated a fraternity-like workplace where women are either discouraged or purposefully omitted from management roles for a mixture of vague, often non-sensical reasons.

The report goes on to highlight the zealous attitude towards gaming that Riot’s recruiting page had at been one point before being changed when Kotaku’s investigation became apparent. The allegations put forward in the article are indeed damning- but more importantly, they’re worrying.

In response, a Riot Game’s spokesperson, speaking to GamesBeat, di not avoid the allegations, instead saying that the company must own up to it own failures to confront its missteps. Yet, considering the weight of the allegations put forward by Kotaku’s investigation it may take more than an admission of mistakes to earn Riot Games is reputation back. And off the back of similar accusations made against both Quantic Dream and Naughty Dog, it’s an investigation that underlines the persisting cultural issue in the games industry.

Necessary News: we finally get Red Dead 2 Gameplay

Thursday saw the long awaited revel of our first look at actual gameplay footage from Rockstar’s upcoming Western prequel, Red Dead redemption 2. The surprises kept coming even after the trailer wrapped up, with the fairly surprising new that everything we’d jut seen was in-game footage – an idea that many of us here are still trying to wrap out heads around.

But, we were full on board with the various features of the game; Rockstar showed off a world in the midst of transition, mixing that classic Old West with the industrial age of America. Along with that came the reveal of new gang hideouts, small hubs that change location as the story unfolds – whilst offering players a chance to learn more about their fellow outlaws and the chance to fleece them over a game of poker, being one of the man features that got us pretty hyped for t he game.

Vibrations from Quakecon: Quake Champions goes Free to Play

Whilst the Doom Eternal gameplay trailer was the biggie from Quakecon, the news that the PC exclusive Quake Champions has gone free to play might be something that goes over a few heads.

Being the first Quake title since Quake 4, Champions isn’t something to be missed- especially if you have the hardware to back the game up. And what’s even better is that this isn’t simply a timed promotion, the game is now fully free to pick up, either through Steam or Bethesda.net.

If you haven’t paid much attention to Quake Champions – or if you’ve missed several of our What We’re Play Wednesday Segments and want to know what Quake Champions has in store for you, keep an eye on our YouTube channel this week as John will be showing off a couple of the game modes all whilst being murdered over and over again.

And Finally… Ben Schwartz is set to play Sonic in the upcoming film

Ben Schwartz, perhaps best known for his role in Parks and Recreation is stepping up to the big leagues soon as he fills the point shoes of Sonic the Hedgehog.

Starring alongside Jim Carrey as Doctor Robotnik, the new Sonic film will arrive in 2019, hopefully giving the film enough time to buck the trend of being a terrible smudge on yet another beloved videogame franchise.

But, with the like of Schwartz and Carrey on board the project already, the film seems to have gotten off to a good start, so we’ll do our best o hold back our judgements until next year.

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