News editor Imran Khan recently got the chance to play with the SNES Classic Edition, explore its menus, listen to its music, and try out some of its games.

In first video below, you get a good look at the menus and get to see how quickly games can be loaded and shut down. You also get to hear Imran Skype in and give his impressions of the system as he tries out Super Mario World, Super Ghouls ’n Ghosts, Contra III: The Alien Wars, Yoshi’s Island, and Mega Man X.

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And in the video below you can hear the brand new, original Super Nintendo-stye music that has been composed for the game's menu. We weren't sure what footage to use for the music, so we used a three-second loop of kittens looking at a banana.

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Along with all this coverage, Imran also played nine minutes of the unreleased Star Fox 2. You can see that gameplay footage here.

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Uncharted: The Lost Legacy is available to play right now! We couldn't think of a better way to celebrate this occasion than spoiling 30 minutes of the adventure for you. We actually do our best to avoid the spoilers, but kick off the video by showing a solution to a tricky puzzle. We spend most of our time exploring the open world, taking in the sights and sounds, and a few bullets along the way. This brief look at the game should give you a good idea of what to expect from this new standalone adventure.

If you like what you saw, but still need to know more, check out our review, in which we gave the game a 9 out of 10, and say Chloe and Nadine make a hell of a team, and should return for another game.

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In Splatoon 2, if you have a finger, you have a megaphone.

In the central hub area of the game, players are sprinkled in from all regions to show off their fresh styles and equipment. Players can also choose to add a small little picture, aided by the Switch touchscreen, about whatever is on their mind, as long as it's not lewd or harassing. Most people use this space for memes, funny jokes, cute pictures of dogs, whatever. It is, theoretically, what the internet would be like if everyone were nice.

Recently, Splatoon's Inkopolis has become about the topic of trans men and women. It started off small, with a few messages of trans positivity, celebrating that people are people and a game like Splatoon can reinforce that. Predictably, this also lead to people stating the opposite, often in harassing and aggressive ways complaining that mentioning trans pride is inappropriate, sometimes with slurs slipping through. While a lot of the counter-messages were quickly deleted, many still filtered in, leading to an actual turf war within the streets of Inkopolis.

"I think I'm done with this community," said one Splatoon 2 player. "I enjoyed Splatoon 2, but there are too many people who think I'm not a person that my enthusiasm has kind of fallen out."

It is decidedly difficult to change the culture of a game, but despite the hate, Splatoon 2 players have been trying to drown it out with positivity.

I CAN'T DRAW
Trans squids
are squids too
STOP SPREADING HATE

People aren't politics!
Nor are LBGT people "inappropriate!"
Let squids be proud!

Help make Splatoon a safe
space for LBGTQ players!
Report all anti-LBGTQ posts
as Harmful/Bullying!
Thanks!

PUBLIC SQUID ANNOUNCEMENT
YOU CAN JUST BE A GIRL
OR BOY
OR NEITHER
OR ANYTHING

After checking Inkopolis off and on for a few hours, it seems like the positive messages are far more prevalent than any other kind. Splatoon is no stranger to trends, as the game is designed to get people talking about events, preferences, and make dumb jokes about sequels to PlayStation 4 launch games before moving on to new jokes, like any kind of social media. This may be the first time Splatoon's community is using that ability to reinforce a message of positivity to steer messaging away from hate.

Our Take
It won't last forever, but in this one moment, Splatoon's community is using the game's tools to have their own pride parade and state that they won't be driven off by an increasingly irrelevant voice.

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We’re just one short week away from what is one of most hyped sporting events of all time: Floyd Mayweather vs. Conor McGregor. It’s the biggest name in boxing versus the biggest name in MMA, and even if you’re not into sports, you’ve likely heard at least a hot take or two.

Fans often turn to video games to predict major sporting events like the Super Bowl, and for us, Mayweather v. McGregor is no exception. We wanted to find out who would win the boxing bout, so we simulated the highly anticipated fight inside the most recent boxing video game we could find. But given the short supply of prizefighting video games (and the overall one-sidedness of the contest), we didn’t stop there. We pit Mayweather against McGregor inside an MMA ring, a professional wrestling ring, the Soulcalibur universe, and finally, an MLB ballpark to see who is the greatest of all time.

Note: Some statistics like reach and weight are not accurate given each game’s restrictions on weight class and custom character creations. 

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Round 1: Boxing
Given that Mayweather vs. McGregor is a boxing match, you’d think this would be the most important round of our contest. But the latest professional boxing title, Fight Night Champion from 2011, is a less-than-adequate simulation.

We found a pretty solid stand-in for Mayweather with the community-created boxers, and we made… someone vaguely reminiscent of McGregor. The one advantage McGregor has in this bout is that when creating a character in Fight Night Champion, there’s not an adjustable slider for technique or experience, meaning that McGregor’s biggest weakness isn’t going to be represented in-game. So, is it enough of an edge to take down one of the greatest boxing talents of all time?

Ultimately, our Conor stand-in proved too inexperienced. He wildly threw punches that rarely connected, and Floyd (appropriately) counter-punched the green McGregor to victory. Floyd scored a knock-out early in the fourth round, winning the opening leg of our Mayweather v. McGregor match-up.

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Round 2: MMA
Few people are giving Conor a shot to win the bout on August 26, primarily because boxing and mixed martial arts are two different sports. On the flip side, many wonder how long Floyd would last inside an octagon with McGregor. The answer (according to our simulation): longer than you’d think.

In the much more current UFC 2 game, we created a Floyd Mayweather from scratch. Giving him the benefit of the doubt, we gave him maximum punching power and technique, but made his foot and grapple game practically nonexistent. We also gave him a fair amount of stamina because he’s still a professional fighter, albeit in a different sport.

So, did a debilitated Floyd keep up against one of the game’s cover athletes?

To Floyd’s credit, he gives McGregor a run for his money. An early knockdown by Mayweather signaled that the boxing champion wasn’t going down without a fight. He even staggered McGregor at a few points in the match, but never capitalized. This came back to bite him, as McGregor knocked him out in the third round with a few hard head kicks. Unsurprisingly, Conor won our contest inside the MMA ring.

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Round 3: Professional Wrestling
Now, with both fighters out of their element, this is where things begin to shake up. Utilizing the hyper-realistic WWE 2K17, we downloaded two community creations and adjusted their stats to better reflect what Mayweather v. McGregor would look like inside a pro wrestling ring.

It's a hardcore, anything-goes grudge match between Floyd Mayweather and Conor McGregor at WWE SummerSlam 2017. Floyd enters the ring with a cocky confidence, followed by some furrowed-brow guy who kind of looks like Conor from a distance. Following their lengthy entrances, the two square off in front of tens of thousands.

In what was a true bloodbath, the two gave their all in a back-and-forth match that left all in attendance speechless. After establishing himself as the villain, Floyd gained heavy momentum by delivering some cheap, classless blows to a defenseless Conor midway through the match. He fed on the crowd’s boos and jeers, but made the mistake of leaving McGregor time to recover. Conor came back, utilizing weapons and his raw MMA talents to take down the boxer.

Round three went to McGregor.

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Round 4: Soulcalibur V
We've seen these two fight within the realm of reality, but what about the world of fantasy? For this round, we reimagined the two athletes inside of Soulcalibur V, providing them with anime-esque personas. 

We gave "God Emperor of Las Vegas" Floyd Mayweather regal armor and a ridiculously over-the-top greatsword to tap into his identity as an insanely wealthy, lavish businessman/boxer. We also gave him a crocodile-skin cape that you'll never be able make out on the Xbox 360.

Conor "Demon Wolf of the Four Realms" McGregor has a much simpler design, with only two shoulder guards to protect himself. As a mischief-making assassin, he likes to retain his mobility, which gives him more options to attack. He can also summon a green spirit wolf who, since he's green, obviously has something to do with Ireland.

After three seasons of build-up and 30+ episodes of filler, the armies of Mayweather and McGregor meet on a moonlit battlefield. McGregor leads his battalion of rebels to overthrow Emperor Mayweather, whose soldiers have decimated his homeland for generations. Both armies are slain violently and epically until just the two leaders remain.

Even with the power of his demon wolf, Conor was kept at bay by Floyd's far-reaching cleaves. It didn’t take much to destroy McGregor’s weak armor, and Mayweather effortlessly overwhelmed the young rebel leader. In the sixth round, McGregor barely landed a blow before Mayweather summoned the ancient power of his ice blast, freezing Conor alive and sending his spirit to the Shadow Realm for the rest of eternity.

Floyd wins Round four in true anime fashion.

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Round 5: Home Run Derby
Tied up two rounds to two, it all comes down to this. Bases loaded. Bottom of the ninth. World Series on the line. How many home runs can each competitor hit in 5 minutes?

It's the Red Sox centerfielder Conor McGregor versus the New York Yankees first baseman Floyd Mayweather in MLB The Show 16.

First up to bat, Floyd had a slow start, not hitting a homer until a minute in. But around the 3:30 mark, he began to find his stride, and earned bonus time for nailing three home runs of 440 feet or greater.

With 2 minutes left, Floyd had 5 homers, and doubled that by the end of his regular time. He finished with 14 home-runs on the scorecard. For some reason, perhaps confident in the lead he’d established, he let the final pitch of his at-bat go, a decision he would come to regret.

Next up was Conor. Unlike Mayweather, McGregor came out swinging. He was less picky with what he swung at, and while he still maintained a similar level of production, it ultimately made the difference in the contest. At the two-minute point, Conor was neck-and-neck with Floyd, both having five home runs plus a minute-and-a-half of bonus time.

Conor ended regulation with 12 home runs, and Floyd began to sweat. Conor needed just three home runs in a minute and a half to win our contest. After 60 seconds of bonus time, Conor tied it up by crushing one 491 feet (our longest of the competition). Then with 20 seconds left on the clock, Conor sealed the deal.

A 490-foot rocket into right field made Conor the winner of our competition. In the end, Conor's strike-first, fearless attitude overcame Floyd's calculated patience. So, given McGregor's victory in our five-round exhibition, is this an accurate predictor of who's going to come out the victor the night of August 26? We'd like to think so.

Custom characters were adapted from community creations made by the following users: iantheguitar (Xbox Live), I-28GRAMZ-I (PlayStation Network) and UGoinGetDisWork (PlayStation Network).

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Far Cry 5 changes things up for the series by bringing the setting to the United States in the fictional Hope County, Montana. Rather than battling a ruthless dictator, you take on an extreme and hostile group of cultists who have been causing trouble for the area. Today, Ubisoft released an extended gameplay demo with a walkthrough from the development team.

The video starts innocently enough with the protagonist hopping into a tractor with his loyal dog Boomer running alongside. However, things get violent quick as the tractor rams a group of cultists, sending blood flying and starting a gunfight. The rest of the video has fishing, stealth, bobbleheads, and much more.

You can see the full walkthrough video below.

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Far Cry 5 hits PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC on February 27.

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Greetings Citizens

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Gamescom is here! The Community Team is all hands on deck this week both on the showfloor and back in the studio. Don’t worry if you are not attending in person, we have a wide array of events starting on Wednesday that we will be streaming live on Twitch! Head over to this page to see our full schedule.

With that, lets take a look at this week.

Earlier today, we published a new episode of Citizens of the Stars! This week, the Citizen Spotlight is on musician and composer Matthew Fossa. Then it’s John Crewe’s chance to make a run at the top of the Quantum Questions leaderboard.

On Tuesday, the Lore Team will have a new weekly Lore Post to read. These weekly updates help give life and depth to the universe of Star Citizen. You can also check out previously published lore posts here.

On Wednesday, Loremaker’s Guide to the Galaxy is back! A member of the Lore Team takes on a journey to learn about the rich mysteries and detailed history of a system in the ‘Verse.

On Thursday, we are releasing a standalone version of Burndown to keep you in the loop on our progress to 3.0. Around the Verse will resume it’s weekly schedule on August 31st!

And last but certainly not least, we close out the week with a bang! Be sure to check out our Fifth Annual Gamescom Presentation streamed live at 9PM UTC, 12pm PDT on Twitch.tv! We have a lot to show you, so you won’t want to miss it!

That’s all for this week, we’ll see you in the ‘Verse!

Tyler Nolin
Community Manager

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The Weekly Community Content Schedule

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MONDAY, AUGUST 21ST, 2017
            Citizens of the Stars   (https://www.youtube.com/user/RobertsSpaceInd/)

TUESDAY, AUGUST 22ND, 2017
            Weekly Lore Post   (https://robertsspaceindustries.com/comm-link/spectrum-dispatch)

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 23RD, 2017
            Loremaker’s Guide to the Galaxy   (https://www.youtube.com/user/RobertsSpaceInd/)

THURSDAY, AUGUST 24TH, 2017
            Burndown   (https://www.youtube.com/user/RobertsSpaceInd/)
            Vault Update

FRIDAY, AUGUST 25TH, 2017
            RSI Newsletter
            Gamescom Presentation   (https://www.twitch.tv/starcitizen/)

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Community Spotlight: August 21st, 2017

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We are constantly amazed by the contributions made by the Star Citizen community. Whether it’s fan art, a cinematic, a YouTube guide, or even a 3D print of your favorite ship, we love it all! Don’t forget to submit your content to our Community Hub for a chance at seeing it here!

RC Origin 300i

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Black_Hawk has spent several months working on combining his passion for Star Citizen and RC with a custom Origin 300i! The model is very well done, and really hope we get to see some shots in their air soon!

Community Hub post here

Pirate Radio by Paladin

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Pirate Radio is the first in a series of Clan VEMOD’s best pilots showcasing their skills.

Community Hub post here

UEE Propaganda Posters by The Titan

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The Titan took some time to create a few Propaganda posers of some of the UEE’s biggest heroes.

Community Hub post here

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