Tag Archive

Gear Club 2 To Receive 1.4 Update and New DLC

Posted on June 6, 2019 by Rae Michelle Richards

Simulation racing title Gear Club Unlimited 2 is set to receive three band new DLC packs alongside a brand new game version update. One of these new DLC packs is completely free and features the Ford Mustang GT 2015 and the Dodge Charger Shark Fin. Two additional paid packs are also coming – the “Arrow Pack” and the “Checker Pack”.

Gear Club Unlimited 2 version 1.4 includes brand new radio stations, a brand new “bumper” camera angle option, 16 different horn styles to customize your favourite vehicle. This update also includes changes to A.I car trajectory to make them feel more responsive.

All and all this seems like a solid update to Eden Game’s current racing title: I wouldn’t want to use the police car, even in a simulated race because fuck the police – why would I want to ride around in a symbol of systemic oppression? Changes to the game’s A.I system seem like a good choice, given that in racing games sometimes A.I can become predictable after so many hundreds of races.

Below are the official details and trailer for the update as provided by Eden Games PR. A copy of Gear Club 2 was also provided for Editorial Purposes.

New features:

• New camera view:

On top of the three current camera angles available in the game, discover the new breathtaking “bumper” view, specially added in this update for a more immersive driving experience!

• New radio stations:

Many players requested more variety in the soundtrack and we heard them! It will now be possible to listen to the radio and even to change it while racing. Two radios are also added to the game; Rock and Electro, alongside a third one called Shuffle, which is a mix of both!

• New horn feature:

Discover more details on the new DLCs below:

◦ Free Pack (these two cars will be added to the garage for free)
▪ Dodge Challenger Shark Fin
▪ Ford Mustang GT 2015 GT 300

◦ Arrows Pack (paid DLC)
▪ Ford Mustang Police
▪ Alfa Romeo 8C Competizione Ahoy
▪ Jaguar F-Type R Elite GTS
▪ Stickers Board “Arrows”

◦ Pack Checker (paid DLC)
▪ BMW M4 Coupe Wave
▪ Dodge Challenger Menthol Green
▪ Lotus Exige S English Racing
▪ Stickers Board “Checker”

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Fortnite Brings Back Popular LTMS With ‘The 14 Days of Fortnite’

Posted on December 18, 2018 by Rae Michelle Richards

14 Days of Fortnite

Epic Games will be rotating classic, brand new and fan favorite Limited Time Modes in both the individual and team varieties every 48 and 24 hours respectively from December 19th until Jan 1st. We don’t exactly know what modes will return but honestly I’m hoping for Team Terror, Squad Terror and Gliding 50s returning during this event. The “terror” series of LTMS was honestly the most fun I had in the game during Season 6 – the addition of PVE zombies made it feel like a slice of STW crossed over into BR. Gliding 50s is a regular event at this point, so it is sure to return.

From the Patch Notes:

The 14 Days of Fortnite event will feature both new and returning LTMs. Large team modes switch every two days and small team modes rotate every 24 hours.

Starting December 19, log in each day at 9 AM ET(1400 UTC) to find out which modes are available to explore. Let us know which LTM is your favorite on our social channels!

New Additions To Creative Mode

Season 7’s Creative Mode gets a whole set of new pre-fabs that give the creative minded builders among us a touch of Winter Wonder with the “Winter Village” set.

From the Patch Notes:

Islands

  • Added 4 new Winter Islands –
    • Selectable from the player Rift on the starter island
  • Players now have 2 total “The Block” Islands instead of 1.

Bug Fixes

  • Fixed multiple issues with Island Rift Portals not behaving as expected.
  • Fixed an issue that could cause Featured Island Rift Portals not functioning when more than 8 players joined a server.
  • Fixed player animation issues occurring after the “Reset Island” feature is used.
  • Fixed an issue that allowed players to build above the height limit, causing them to become stuck.
  • Fixed an issue that could cause a visiting player to lose the ability to select a Rift location if they leave and return to a host’s server.
  • Fixed issues with editing structures and placing Traps on other player’s Islands.
  • Fixed an issue that could cause Switch players to be removed from a server when one or more players max out their available Island memory

Save The World – Winter Llamas + Survival Mode

For players who enjoy the P.V.E exerpience of Save The World Mode – this latest update doesn’t disappoint. For the holidays Epic Games have added a brand new survival mode called “A Long Winter Night”. During Frostnite players will have to keep a burner alight so that they stay warm while fending off increasing waves of husks and other frozen baddies.  During this brand new mode players will earn double the amount of resources they normally due from most sources. Also you don’t keep the items you’re crafting to survive so legendary schematics are recommended for this new experience. Surviving long enough in Frostnite will reward “Winter Tickets” which can be traded in for a chance at event exclusive heroes.

From the Patch Notes:

Missions + Systems

  • Frostnite is a new experience in 7.10, testing player’s survival in a long winter night.
    • Frostnite introduces a new objective. Keep the Burner filled with scavenged BluGlo. When it runs out, so does the heat. That means a whole bunch of frozen Heroes.
    • As the burner health decreases the Storm Shield shrinks, so keep that thing filled!
    • Survive as long as you can without your gear or resources, using your survival skills, schematics, and basic starting weapons.
      • Get double the resources from searching and harvesting objects.
      • Watch for Airdrops between waves for some much-needed supplies.
      • You don’t keep any weapons or traps when the experience concludes, so use those Legendary weapons and traps as if your life depends on it!
    • Keep an eye out for the Krampus Smashers who dwell in these cold regions. They’re dangerous but drop some much needed BluGlo.
    • When a player is knocked out they enter spectator mode until the remaining players complete the wave.
    • The longer you survive the more Snowflake Tickets you will earn! Tickets can be spent on the new Winter Llama.
    • Added several event quests that can be completed by playing Frostnite.
    • Be on the lookout for weekly challenges in the coming weeks!

[Source]

 

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Major Quake Champions Patch Makes Fundamental Changes To Loot System, Adds Bots

Posted on June 8, 2018 by Rae Michelle Richards

Sabre Interactive and Bethesda released a brand new patch for Quake Champions yesterday that adds many features that the community have been asking for since the Open Beta last summer. Bots, further Champion adjustments and a fundamental redesign of how the tribolt weapon works. Despite all of the positive additions the one thing that’s been widely panned by the QC community is how skins are crafted and what “shards” can be spent on. 

Positive: Bots Now Exist But Not Like You Think 

Veterans of previous Quake games have always had offline bots as a fallback option for when a stable internet connection isn’t available or to spend countless hours practicing against in order to hone those twitchy fragging reflexes. QC’s developers have spent a lot of time working on the fundamentals of QC and while bots have always topped the list of requested features, only now nearly 12 months after the Open Beta are we seeing playable progress on them. 

For those hoping for offline bots to practice against will be disappointed that not only is Quake Champions still not playable without a connection to the central server but the first stage of QC bots cannot be used in custom games or parties. 

On the positive side, Quake Champion’s bots are pretty challenging. You can face off against one of them in the brand-new tutorial. Bots wil also be used fillout the roster of games where another player disconnected or there isn’t a high enough population to fill out a team roster. Bethesda has promised that adding bots to Custom Games with selectable difficulty levels will come in a future patch. 

Here’s Bethesda’s official description of bots:

BOTS GALORE – Want to hone your skill? Did some quitter bail from a game mid-match, leaving your TDM crew a bit short? Well, now Bots are here to save you. That’s right, the same kind of AI that will soon reach singularity and grow into our apocalyptic overlords now powers (optional) enemies in-game! Featuring a scalable skill level to help players practice and improve in training mode, Bots will also automagically fill slots in live games where needed. This small, first phase of the impending robo-pocalypse – in Quake form – supports Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, and Instagib modes. More exciting updates on our road to Matrix-style Armageddon are scheduled to come soon!

Positive: Champion Stats Are Now Aligned 

Individual champion statistics are no more! Instead all of the available characters are divided into Light, Medium and Heavy and the heroes within these categories will share the same armor, health and speed statistics. 

Here’s the rundown: 

Balance Changes: In addition to the more on-the-surface improvements, Quake Champions is receiving some under-the-hood tweaks to improve the overall balance of the game. These changes include alterations to movement speed, health and armor stacks for Light, Medium and Heavy Champions as well as changes to certain weapon statistics and specific Champions abilities. 

Negative: Skins Can No Longer Be Crafted, Shards Are Only Usable For Loot boxes 

Oh dear… so this change is not “controversial”, it’s downright removing player’s ability to choose what kind of rewards that they want to work towards. Prior to yesterday’s update duplicates found within Backpacks or Chests (loot boxes) would reward players with “shards”. Saving up between 300 – 600 shards players could purchase pieces of a given skin set. While very grindy and still reliant on RNG loot boxes – which are predatory – did provide players with some agency on the type of things they could unlock through play. 

Under the newer system duplicates no longer provide shards at all and individual pieces cannot be crafted at all as well. Want that really cool Scalebearer skin or want to relive Quake III with the classic machinegun skin? Better hope it drops from a chest which you can only get with real money or by leveling up after a couple of hours. It’s all RNG.

Are you enjoying this latest Quake Champions patch? I’d love to hear thoughts on this latest update to Bethesda’s soon to be free-to-play online shooter in the comments. 

 

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Final Fantasy XIV Patch 4.3 Details Further Unveiled During Letter From The Producer Live

Posted on May 14, 2018 by Rae Michelle Richards

FFXIV’s next big update Patch 4.3: Under the Moonlight will be delivered to players on May 22nd it has been revealed during the latest entry in the Letter From The Producer Live live-streams. During the show with Producer / Director Naoki Yoshida, a special guest joined the show in the last half – none other than the creator of Italic himself – Yasumi Matsuno, to further discuss the second tier of the Return to Ivalice raid series.

The Main Scenario Continues
As with every major patch released for Final Fantasy XIV, the Main Scenario revolving around the player character and the Scions of the Seventh Dawn continues for yet another instalment full of twists and turns. Patch 4.3 will see the storyline regarding the far eastern land of Doma come to a dramatic conclusion as the newly installed leader of Doma, Hien, grapples with a tense prisoner exchange with the Gatlean Empire. Can we trust the Empire’s intentions at face value? For a faction that has invaded Eorzea and caused a devastating calamity five years ago, there isn’t much reason to trust them.

Job Adjustments
Several jobs will receive adjustments as part of Patch 4.3, it was noted that the Tank role of Dark Knight could be due for a complete redesign but we shouldn’t expect it during this patch series – as this redesign would take at least six months of development time. Dark Knight, Monk, Astrologian, Black Mage, Samurai and Scholar will all receive adjustments with this patch.

• Samurai – Potency increases, Basic combo potency to be increased, possibility of empty control (remove empty like Machinist / Bard?) to be included with these adjustments.
• Dark Knight – Potency increase across the board, animation cool downs to be reduced, defence buffs.
• Astrologian – Cast times for Attack Spells reduced across the board, Lightspeed MP cost of affected spell reduced from 50% to 25%, Danage reduction effect currently on this spell to be removed.
• Scholar – misc Pet adjustments.
• Monk – Skills that allow Monks to reduce the amount of Emity they generate will be introduced.
• Ninja – Unspecified adjustments for use with the Deep Dungeon Heaven on High.

New Deep Dungeon: Heaven on High

Remember the Jenga tower in the Ruby Sea that the camera focuses on for a long dramatic pause before never being mentioned again? Players were correct in their assertion that this will be the new Deep Dungeon – similar to Palace of the Dead – with a focus on quick experience gain and it’s own levelling system. Rather than contain 200 floors of challenging MOBS, Heaven on High will feature 100 floors with the really hard content beginning on floor 31. It was also mentioned that a “grand summing” system will become available in Heaven on High, but what this actually entails is currently unknown.

Forbidden Land of Eureka: Pagos (To be introduced several weeks later in Patch 4.36)

Our last expedition to the Forbidden Land of Eureka seems like it has been a success with the announcement of the commencement of the Pagos expedition expected to be released sometime in June. This snowy region of the misplaced island of Val could very well focus on the Blizzard aspected aether that players use to defeat some of the Notorious Monsters across Val. Once players locked down the pattern of knowing the NM spawn times, moving as a cohesive “train” from Monster to Monster and power-levelling. The obvious problem with this system was that lower level characters could contribute to the battle against the stronger NMs like Pazuzu. Here’s hoping the vague promise of ‘new gameplay elements’ can make our time in Pagos engaging and entertaining.

Final Fantasy XIV Under The Moonlight will be released next Tuesday, May 22nd. Alongside everything outlined above it also brings a brand new 24-person raise, a new Extreme Trial, a mysterious unannounced Story related trial (it’s Zenos.. come it has to be) and the Ultima Weapon’s Refrain (Ultimate) – the next segment of the ultra-hard content for the top % of players. For further coverage check out my post from last month.

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Quake Champions Next Update Brings Quake 2’s Strogg and a New Arena

Posted on April 9, 2018 by Rae Michelle Richards

Bethesda and Sabre Interactive has released a brief tease about future content coming to Quake Champions. Future patches will that bring forward a classic Quake enemy – the baddies of Quake II, The Strogg – as a playable champion.  Also introduced in this latest patch is a brand new map called Awoken – this ruinous labyrinth is sure to be home to many bloodbaths when it is finally released.

Here is the official description of the upcoming champion the Strogg and its drone companion, Peeker:

Half metal, half decaying flesh, and 100% ready to rage, the primary enemy of Quake II and Quake 4 is back as Strogg fights to be freed from the Dreamlands and reestablish contact with his ruthless warlord, Makron.

Players will also be able to take control and fight as Strogg’s drone sidekick, Peeker, who can fly around the battlefield, shoot at enemies and deal damage with its explosive self-destruct attack. Enemy kills are turned into a nutritional paste called Stroyent that provides 25HP, but players need to act fast – other Strogg players can steal your Stroyent!

New Weapon: The Plasma Cannon

Quake III’s face melting Plasma Cannon will finally find its way into Quake Champions in a future update. For many Q3A Veterans the lack of a proper Plasma Canon has made the available arsenal feel a bit bare.

Here’s the official description:

A blast from the past, the Plasma Gun from Quake III Arena finds its new home in Quake Champions! This high-powered cannon melts unwitting foes with bursts of pure energy and is sure to shake things up when it joins the Quake Champions arsenal later this month!

Last month’s March Update also brought a number of new modes and enhancements to Quake Champions, which unfortunately I did not have time to write about at the time of release. That patch saw the implementation of the much requested insta-gib mode where players are killed in a single hit as well as a brand new 2 Vs. 2 Ranked Mode.

Here’s the official description from those two features from last month’s patch:

NEW GAMEPLAY – Everyone, meet Instagib – The fast-moving, gib-tastic classic will finally make its way to Quake Champions, introducing a fun, fast and casual game where every shot is a one-hit kill. Players will start each match with the only weapons available – the Rail Gun and the Gauntlet – and there will not be weapon, health, armor, or power-up pickups. Champions will still be able to use active and passive abilities, and cool-down hourglasses will spawn on the map.

NEW RANKS – Introducing 2v2 TDM Ranked Mode – In addition to the head-to-head intensity of Duel mode, players will be able to grab a buddy and face off against teams from around the world in deadly 2v2 showdowns. Finding the right Champion and ability combinations will make the difference in the fight for the top spot on the leaderboard.

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FFXV / Tekken 7 DLC Featuring Noctis Now Available On Console & PC

Posted on March 20, 2018 by Rae Michelle Richards

Tekken 7 patch version 1.12 is now available on both PlayStation 4 and Xbox One as well as on Windows PC.  General improvements to be found in this latest patch include better stability for online matches, across all platforms and automatic capture of Shadowplay highlights for Windows PC using Geforce graphics cards when certain conditions are met.

FFXV Noctis Lucis Caelum Pack includes the playable Noctis fighter, a fighting arena based upon the Hammerhead Station from Chapter 1, 5 unique costumes for Noctis to wear and the “Apocalypsis Noctis Remix” BGM track.

Check out a video of all of Noctis’ moves and combos which I’ve embedded below.

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Mod Support Available In Xbox Box One Version of Cities Skylines

Posted on February 21, 2018 by Rae Michelle Richards

City simulator Cities Skylines has received at least one major free patch full of features with the release of every expansion. For owners of the Xbox One version of Paradox Interactive’s municipal management game today’s patch could be one of the best yet – adding something that only PC players have enjoyed up until this point, mod support. 

Brand new buildings and in-game items will be added for free through the addition of mods. Both Paradox Interactive and Tantalus Media will be curating through community submitted modifications to bring new content to the Xbox One version of Skylines. From their official press release it doesn’t look like some of the additional features available to PC players for the longest time, like auto bulldoze and automatic tax adjustments, will be making their way to Xbox. 

Sandra, a Product Manager with Paradox had this to say about collaborating with the Xbox Product Team to bring mod support to Cities Skylines: 

“We’ve been working together with Tantalus to see if there was a way to bring mods to our console players that was as enjoyable as it has been on other platforms, and with help from the Xbox team, we’re ready to let our fans give mods a try in Cities: Skylines. If things keep going well, we’re eager to see which mods may appear in the future as we keep testing and working on this content!” 

In addition to the free patch released today that brings mod support to Xbox One, a new pack of premium DLC that includes styles and buildings for resident and commercial districts, the Content Creator’s Pack, will be released on Xbox One and PlayStation 4 next month on March 6th. Season Pass holders and owners of the Premium Edition of Cities Skylines on Xbox One will receive the Content Creator’s Pack for free. 

Pictured Above: The PC Version of Cities Skylines Circa 2015.

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Bungie Addresses Destiny 2 Community Concerns Before New DLC Launches

Posted on November 30, 2017 by Rae Michelle Richards

Destiny 2 developer Bungie canceled today’s promotional live stream for the upcoming Curse of Osiris DLC and instead addressed several of the concerns that the community has had. There’s been a lot of activity both within the Destiny 2 subreddit /r/DestinyTheGame and within the gaming enthusiast press surrounding the tacit XP throttling that Bungie was doing under the hood; as well as the subsequent doubling of XP required to level up once throttling was removed. 

Regarding Experience Points 

The devs admit that the newly introduced 160,000 XP requirement per level is too high to grind some activities and that Bungie are collecting data so that they can make further adjustments faster. More communication with the community about the inner workings of experience point in the future was also promised towards the end of the XP Points section of today’s blog post. 

“We were able to disable the system with a server-side change, but a new solution is now needed to rebalance XP in Destiny 2. We have begun that work, and will continue to provide updates to you about timelines and specifics…We already see that the newly adjusted 160K XP per level value means that leveling is too slow for some activities, and we have begun the process of collecting data and recalibrating XP earn rates to improve them as quickly as possible.” 

New Rarity For Weapons: Masterwork 

A brand-new tier of rarity for weapons beyond Legendary and Exotic is being added to Destiny 2 with the December patches, called Masterwork. This new class of rarity will have kill tracking as a baseline feature and will generate orbs for allies and the player upon scoring kills. Destiny 1 veterans asking for the return of randomized bonuses will be happy to learn that re-rollable Masterwork Traits are part of this new rarity. Unlike the traits in Destiny 1, Guardians won’t be fully healed or receive massive amounts of sniping damage like some D1 weapons provided but they should help differentiate the Masterwork weapons from regular legendaries. 

Here are some of the features of Masterwork weapons as provided by Bungie’s blog: 

  • Masterworks will have a few advantages over the baseline Legendary weapon: 
  • Track and display the number of kills with that weapon (with choice between total count or Crucible-only count) 
  • Generate orbs for you and your allies on multi-kills 
  • Add weapon stat bonuses that are selected randomly from a small pool and are re-rollable 
  • Masterworks drop from any source of Legendary weapons for characters above 250 Power 
  • Unwanted Masterworks can be dismantled into materials that can upgrade an existing Legendary Weapon into a Masterwork 
  • Raid and Trials of the Nine Weapons will have a very high chance to be Masterworks 
  • We have future plans to extend Masterworks to other gear and expose your kill counts in more places (e.g. Crucible kill screen) 

Vendor Changes 

Quality of life updates for Destiny 2’s various vendors is another big focus with the December 5 and December 12th patches. Once completing the game Guardians will be able to purchase exotic quality engrams for legendary shards. Common tokens that drop in all of the major hub worlds are having their drop rates increased by 100%. Also of note are changes to Xur – he will now decrypt exotic level engrams and once per week players can purchase a single Fated Engram that guarantees them an exotic weapon or piece of gear they don’t already own. Also returning from Destiny 1 is the “Three of Coins”, which has been simplified from its initial incarnation. The three of coins will boost the chances of finding an exotic for 4 hours and can be purchased from Xur during weekends. 

  • For players chasing a world Legendary or looking for Masterworks, Master Rahool will sell some of his rumored hoard of Legendary Engrams for Legendary Shards 
  • Common quality Destination Resource Tokens will have their drop rates increased to 100%, and values per Token increased as well (by 50% for common quality Tokens and 250% for rare quality Tokens) 
  • For players wanting to clear some Mod inventory space, Rare quality Mods will dismantle into Gunsmith Materials and have a chance to produce Legendary quality Mod Components 
  • Every week, you’ll be able to acquire one of the new Fated Engrams using Legendary Shards from Xur that will decrypt as Exotics that aren’t already in your collection 
  • A simpler Three of Coins that boosts Exotic drop rates from any source for 4 hours 

So Much More 

I highly recommend that any interested guardians (or potential guardians) head on over to Bungie’s recently released blog post and read all of the changes coming to the game themselves. Some of them are minor, like being able to dismantle mods at the gunsmith. Other changes, like the introduction of Masterwork weapons and changes to tokens, are going to have a much larger impact on Destiny 2’s end game. 

Is all of this enough to sate the hardcore fans who want D2 to be their forever game? I’m not sure. What I do know is that aside from the December 5th and 12th quality of life updates, Destiny 2 is also going to get a whole lot of new content with the release of Curse of Osiris on 5th alongside the first patch. 

News & Some Images Soured Froom Bungie.net

 

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Huge Splatoon 2 Update Splashes On To Nintendo Switch Tomorrow

Posted on November 22, 2017 by Rae Michelle Richards

Nintendo is going to unleash possibly the largest post-release update to Splatoon 2 tomorrow that brings with it new stages, an increased level cap, holiday themed weapons and so much more. 

Like with previous content drops the four brand new stages won’t be immediately available once tomorrow’s patch goes live. Instead they’ll be drip fed to players over the course of several weeks to give Squid Kids something to look forward too through the early winter. Splatoon 2’s first brand new stage is the shopping mart styled MakoMart which will go live on Black Friday, November 24th. Walleye Warehouse and Arowana Mall will make a return from the original Splatoon on Wii U sometime in the future. 

Other quality of life improvements coming to the game include the ability to swap out weapon and clothing loadouts between matches without having to exit the lobby screen – in my opinion this is one of the biggest ones. While going back to Inkopolis Square is fun, especially to look at the memes, it does break the flow a bit. For all those max level squids out there, the maximum ranking is being increased to 99 with this patch as as well. 

With over 140 pieces of gear coming in tomorrow’s patch – which include some fashionable new winter gear and a new mode coming in the December Patch, it looks like there is a lot of life left in Splatoon 2! 

Check out some screen-grabs from the trailer below, as well as Nintendo’s official descriptions of the major additions coming with the November and December updates.  

Some action shots from inside the shopping center map. Get your black friday deals on fresh INK!

You have to have the latest black & white filter to STAY FRESH

Check out some of the brand new apparel coming with tomorrow’s update: 

Official Nintendo Provided Patch Notes:

Nov. 23 Update

  • Four New Battle Stages: While four new battle stages are coming to Splatoon 2, they won’t all be available immediately after downloading the update. Like with previous additions, the stages will roll out over the subsequent weeks, giving players new surprises as they play throughout the holiday season and beyond. The first new battle stage, MakoMart, will be available to play on Black Friday, Nov. 24, with Shellendorf Institute, Walleye Warehouse and Arowana Mall coming soon. The new MakoMart stage is a giant superstore-style stage, so what better time to play than on Black Friday! Shellendorf Institute is new to the series, while Walleye Warehouse and Arowana Mall are popular stages returning from the original Splatoon game.
  • New Salmon Run Stage: Fan-favorite multiplayer mode* Salmon Run is getting a new stage. After downloading the update, Salmonid Smokeyard will be added to the stage rotation. In Salmonid Smokeyard, a wide gap on the beach divides two upper platforms, with fan lifts being the quickest way to traverse the two platforms. Teamwork is required to use the fan lifts effectively.
  • New Gear: Approximately 140 pieces of gear are being added to Splatoon 2. These include shoes, headgear and clothes, like a motocross mask, and additional winter clothing (perfect for the cold weather!), as well as returning items from the original Splatoon game.
  • New Battle Music: Two new bands have been gaining popularity in Inkopolis! The punk-flavored Bottom Feeders and classically trained avant-garde-style Ink Theory are contributing new songs to the already music-rich game.
  • New Hairstyle: When customizing an Inkling, four new hairstyles will be available to choose from – two each for female and male characters.
  • Higher Level Caps: Currently, players are maxed out at Level 50. After downloading the update, the new maximum level will be raised to 99. If players talk to Judd when they reach Level 99, they’ll have the option to reset their level display to Level ★1 so they can continue raising their level.
  • New amiibo Functionality: Tapping a compatible amiibo figure after the update will let players take and share in-game photos in preset locations in Battle Stages, in addition to being able to take photos in Inkopolis Square. Players can also add fun filters to their images.
  • Convenient Gear Swapping: Players that want to change gear between battles in Regular Battle, Ranked Battle and Splatfest Battle (Solo) won’t have to exit to the lobby anymore! After downloading the update, gear can be swapped out without leaving the match room, making it quicker to get back to splatting. For Regular Battle, this also means players can play the next battle with the same players.

Mid-December Update

  • Clam Blitz: In Clam Blitz, competing Inklings are tasked with collecting clams scattered around the stage. After one is picked up, the clam follows the player. The objective is to throw the clam into the basket near the opponent’s base. The first team to score 100 points wins! But, of course, this being the fiercely competitive world of Splatoon 2, things are not as easy as they seem. The baskets are protected by a barrier, which much be destroyed first. After collecting 10 clams, the player will earn a Power Clam. These super-powered clams are the key to breaking the barrier, so strategy will definitely be involved in which clams are used to destroy the barrier and which are used to earn points. Not to mention the extra-satisfying opportunity to steal opponents’ clams by splatting them…

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Advanced Wars Inspired ‘Tiny Metal’ Delayed Until December 21st

Posted on November 20, 2017 by Rae Michelle Richards

Tiny Metal a Japanese developed turn-based strategy game heavily inspired by Nintendo’s own Advanced Wars series has been delayed and will no longer be releasing tomorrow. Fans looking forward to some chibi tactical strategy on PC, PS4 and Nintendo Switch will have to wait until the game releases on December 21st. 

The official announcement was made on the Tiny Metal twitter account and was originally posted in Japanese. Roughly translated for clarity it states: 

“[TINY METALdelivery delay announcement] decided today, [we] determined to postpone the delivery [until] 12/21. We look forward to the release we apologize.”

Tiny Metal passed through Steam’s Greenlight program back in September of 2016, which is when the developers also raised over $32,000 to bring the project to life. The final version of Tiny Metal is expected to include a 10-hour single player and according to the Canadian Switch e-shop will be priced at $24.99 CDN. 

Nintendo’s own Advanced Wars series began in 2001 with its titular entry and would also see two sequels on the Nintendo DS – Advanced Wars: Dual Strike and Advanced Wars: Days of Ruin. It has been a number of years since we’ve had an original entry in the now dormant franchise with the most recent activity being a re-release on the Wii U E shop in 2014. 

[Source]

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H1Z1 Receives Major Update That Includes New Map and Daily Challenges

Posted on November 20, 2017 by Rae Michelle Richards

Daybreak Studios’ long running battle royal title H1Z1 (formally H1Z1: Just Survive) received a major update late last week that adds a brand-new combat focused map called Combat Zone, new daily challenges and a whole lot of miscellaneous bug fixes / quality of life improvements that may help players climb the ranks and be the last one standing. 

Combat Zone differs from the regular wide open forest area map in a number of ways: first and foremost there is no parachuting into position. Instead all players start already on the ground with a full loadout of equipment, so there’s no more rushing to find a shotgun, pistol or rusty work.. You know whatever happens to be lying around. Combat Zone also has a smaller size (2KM by 2KM) with a reduced player count of 56. 

Also added in the November 17th update to H1Z1 are daily challenges which provide players with tasks of varying difficulty. They’ll come in three different flavors – Easy, Medium or Hard. One challenge can be discarded per day and daily quests do not need to be completed within a single match. 

Read the full patch notes including details surrounding the quality of life improvements after the video break. 

New Feature: Combat Zone

This is an all-new game mode designed for practicing combat mechanics.

  • Spawn in with a full kit ready to go.
  • Respawn after death, no parachuting.
  • Game takes place on a small, more intimate map that highlights various elements of The Arena.
  • Max number of players per game is 55, and games end after one hour.
New Feature: Daily Challenges

We’ve added a Daily Challenge system to the game which primarily rewards Skulls.  You’ll be given three Challenges per day; one easy, one medium, and one hard (harder Challenges reward more Skulls). You’ll be able to discard one Challenge per day and get a replacement. Challenges don’t necessarily need to be completed in a single match and won’t be replaced until you complete or discard them.

A few examples of Daily Challenges:

  • Halfway There – Place in the top 75 of a Solos match (easy)
  • Domed – Destroy 10 helmets worn by other players (medium)
  • One Shot.  One Kill. – Kill an opponent with the .308 Hunting Rifle (hard)

With the introduction of Daily Challenges, the Bounty System has been removed and the Skull Store has been updated[www.h1z1.com] with several awesome new rewards including the first ever animated Helmet!

Combat & Gameplay Tuning

We’ve made a number of weapons adjustments based on player feedback.

  • Slightly decreased AR-15 recoil reset time to give the user more responsive 2-taps.
  • Reduced AK-47 fire rate to help alleviate close-quarters spammability.
  • Added a fixed, non-rotating pattern for Shotgun blasts including a center pellet.
  • Shotgun damage and fall-off damage have been increased to increase its close-quarters reliability.
  • Bullet drop has been reduced for pistols and rifles.  The values are now much closer to what they were before the Combat Update in August

In addition, there are several quality of life gameplay improvements in this update.

  • Fall damage should be significantly more consistent now.  Height is now the only determinant of fall damage, so forward velocity will not affect you.  You should also no longer take 1-2 points of damage randomly when running and jumping over small objects.
  • Explosive arrows are now very effective against vehicles.
  • It is now possible to loot while reloading.
  • The fifth passenger in a vehicle can now reload and shoot (careful!).
  • Fuel is now consumed slightly faster than before when using turbo boost.
Match Pacing & Tuning
  • First safe zone is now revealed after 45 seconds, instead of 2 minutes.
  • Gas begins moving after 2 minutes and 15 seconds, instead of 4 minutes and 30 seconds.
  • First phase Gas moves slightly slower over 5 minutes and 27 seconds, instead of 5 minutes.
  • The first phase will be 2 minutes and 30 seconds shorter but it should be easier to outrun the gas in a vehicle.
  • The toxicity mechanic has been removed.
  • The gas mechanic has had its damage retuned due to the removal of the toxicity mechanic.
  • The airdrop plane and drop itself now move slightly faster.
  • The loot distribution system has been tuned on a per mode basis. Item spawns have been increased in Duos by approximately 15%, and Fives by approximately 25%.
  • Slightly increased AR-15 spawn rate.
  • Slightly decreased AK-47 and Hellfire 4-6 spawn rate.
  • Slightly increased Medkit spawn rate in residential areas.
  • Increased crossbow spawn rate and decreased long bow spawn rate.  There will be roughly the same number of total bows (including both types) as before.

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December Quake Champions Patch Detailed: New Champion Incoming

Posted on November 20, 2017 by Rae Michelle Richards

The next update to id Software’s competitive shooter, Quake Champions is set to arrive sometime before the holidays. In a livestream last week developers from id outlined a lot of the bigger changes coming to the fast-paced arena shooter with the next update. Players can look forward to the reveal of a brand new playable Champion, increases to health and armor for better player uptime and a major adjustment to how the Tribolt weapon works. 

Below is a brief summary of the changes mentioned in the stream based upon community input. Please note that this is a summary only and not official patch notes from id or anything like that. 

December’s patch should include: 

  • Customizable crosshairs with different color options. 
  • 2 Vs 2 Team Deathmatch support. 
  • Small armor packs will respawn faster. 
  • The inclusion of a currently unrevealed champion. 
  • Tribolt’s rounds will no longer explode when hitting the ground. They will instead stick to walls and detonate as if they were proximity mines, giving players area of effect control. 
  • All champions will receive an armor/health increase to allow for longer survivability. 
  • Player selections for starting weapon (shotgun / nailgun / machinegun), as well as their preferred datacenter, are now saved client side. 
  • Anarki and Slash max speed reduced slightly. 
  • Doom Slayer’s berserk ultimate ranged reduced. 
  • Frames per second cap will officially be supported, alleviating issues with game upload speeds being tied to high framerates. 
  • A new, smaller map, similar to Lockbox coming for Duel Mode. 
  • Capture the Flag supporting coming in 2018. 
  • Character mesh/hitbox fixes coming in January or Feb 2018. 

Quake Champions was released this past August from open beta into paid Early Access. Since then the game has struggled a bit, especially with the previous October Update which brought significant performance issues early on that were fixed with a series of hotfixes throughout last month.  

December’s patch will bring a new injection of content with the new duel map, small group TDM support and Frames Per Second tied to upload fix. Hopefully, this will entice some new players as well as those who might have left the game to come back and check it out. 

Quake Champions is expected to enter free to play sometime in 2018, it is currently available to play for free on the Bethesda Launcher for anyone who participated in the Closed or Open beta phases. According to Steam Charts Champions averages about 550 players per hour during any given 24 hour period. 

Watch Developer Stream w/ Tim Willits and Adam Pyle from QuakeChampions on www.twitch.tv

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Reminder: Horizon Zero Dawn’s Expansion DLC – The Frozen Wilds – Is Out Today

Posted on November 7, 2017 by Rae Michelle Richards

Just a friendly reminder to all of Aloy’s fans that might read our site that the expansion DLC, Horizon Zero Dawn: The Frozen Wilds is out today on the PlayStation Network. 

The Frozen Wilds offers players a completely new winter to explore, an expansion specific main questline, several side quests, new mechanical monsters and three new weapons. For experienced players who might have completed all of the content offered in the original game, The Frozen Wilds offers a chance to learn more about the Banuk tribe outside of the single tribe encampment found within the main game.  

I thoroughly enjoyed Horizon Zero Dawn when I played it through with my wife this past summer. Aloy is a relatable and fully fleshed out character and as we played I found myself wanting to learn as much as I could about the mysterious machines, our protagonist and the world she lives in. My wife enjoyed the game so much that when she played through the campaign, she told me about bits and pieces of it, and then joined me for a second 100% playthrough so I could see for myself what made Horizon Zero Dawn so special. I have high hopes for The Frozen Wilds when we get around to it. 

Horizon Zero Dawn: The Frozen Wilds is priced at $26.99 CDN, is available on the PlayStation Store and requires the base version of Horizon Zero Dawn to be played, it is not a stand alone expansion.  

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Rise of the Tomb Raider Gets Xbox One X Enhancements With New Patch

Posted on November 7, 2017 by Rae Michelle Richards

Square Enix has released a patch for the Xbox One version of Rise of the Tomb Raider that adds additional visual fidelity and graphic options for the newly released Xbox One X. If you’re on the bleeding edge and scored one of Microsoft’s brand new 4K console you can enjoy full native 4K support, Hight Dynamic Range support, three different performance profiles and so much more. 

Developer Nixxes Software handled the Xbox One X enhancements for ROTR – previously they worked on the 20th Anniversary edition of ROTR for PS4, the Tomb Raider Enhanced port for PS4 and one of the ports of Deus Ex: Mankind divided as well.  Owner of Microsoft’s latest console also get all of the additional content originally included with the 20th Anniversary Edition for free as well.  

Here is a breakdown of all of the Xbox One X exclusive enhancements as well as a trailer provided by Square: 

Xbox One X players can choose from one of three visual modes:

  • Native 4K: (full 3840 by 2160) for the highest fidelity resolution
  • Enriched Visuals for stunning graphic upgrades
  • High Frame Rate for the smoothest possible gameplay

New Xbox One X tech enhancements for Rise of the Tomb Raider include:

  • HDR display support for more vibrant and accurate color representation
  • Spatial audio support, including Dolby Atmos®, for true 3D audio
  • Enhanced texture resolution for Lara Croft®, NPCs, and environments for even more immersive and realistic details

Additional visual enhancements include:

  • Improved volumetric lights
  • Improved reflections
  • Enhanced foliage
  • Upgraded polygonal detail
  • Improved anti-aliasing
  • Amplified texture filtering

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Starcraft II Is Going Free To Play Later This Month

Posted on November 4, 2017 by Rae Michelle Richards

Starcraft II’s Wings of Liberty Campaign will be available in its entirety for free alongside the complete unranked & AI multiplayer suites Blizzard announced today during their Blizzcon keynote. Later this month a major patch will be released for SCII that unlocks  more content for free users that was previously only available to owners of Wings of Liberty, Heart of the Swarm or Legacy of the Void. Previous to the upcoming patch the free version of SCII, called Starter Edition, was limited to the Terran faction only and with a small selection of multiplayer maps.

Here is a breakdown of the features of the brand new Starcraft II: Free to Play edition:

  • Access to the complete 12 hour “Wings of Liberty” campaign for all players.
  • Previous owners of “Wings of Liberty” will be gifted “Heart of the Swarm” by Blizzard.
  • Access to the complete unified multiplayer (Vs AI) suite with units from across all 3 campaigns right away for all players.
  • F2P commanders can earn access the Ranked mode after earning 10 daily “First Win of the Day”.
  • All Co-Op Commanders available up to level 5, no more rotation!

Starcraft II’s Free to Play patch will go live on November 14th.

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