Developer Creative Assembly today released the first gameplay trailer for the free-to-play strategy game Total War: Arena.
This weekend, Creative Assembly will also show the first Total War: Arena live match. The developer will stream games from an exclusive ESL eSports event in Cologne, Germany. You can catch the broadcast on the official Total War Twitch channel, starting Saturday May 23, at 5:00 PM CEST.
If you want to try the game before it's released, you can sign up to join the closed alpha, currently available in Europe, with United States servers coming soon.
Total War: Arena is a free-to-play, team-based strategy game where two teams of 10 players engage in large-scale battles. For more on the game, check out GameSpot's preview of Total War: Arena.
On Steam this weekend, you can pick up the three Game of the Year Editions of the Batman Arkham games--Arkham Asylum, Arkham City, and Arkham Origins--for just $5 each.
Microsoft's latest Deals With Gold promotion is on, discounting a handful of Xbox One and Xbox 360 games, such as Dragon Age: Inquisition for $30 and Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes for $10. You can check out all the deals here.
The newest Humble Bundle features Paradox games. Paying any price gets you games like Magicka and Knights of Pen and Paper, while paying $15 or more also gets you Europa Universalis IV, Crusader Kings II, and more. Alternatively, check out the new Humble Weekly Bundle on adventure games.
Get 20 percent off at Green Man Gaming with the promo code: GET20P-ERCENT-OFFNOW
Amazon prices are accurate as of publishing, but can fluctuate occasionally throughout the day.
GameSpot's gaming deals posts always highlight the best deals we can find regardless of retailer. We also occasionally use retailer affiliate links, which means that purchasing goods through those links helps support all the great content (including the deals posts) you find for free here on the site.
The iconic word board game Scrabble has added the word "newb" to its official dictionary along with some other Internet-speak terms most gamers will recognize.
Collins, which publishes the Official Scrabble Words dictionary, has added 6,500 words to the board game overall in its first update since 2011.
Some other words you may have seen during an in-game chat include:
Pwn, meaning to dominate an opponent, is worth 8 points
Thanx, which is only one letter shorter than "thanks," is worth 15 points
LOLZ, "laughs at someone else's or one's own expense," according to Collins, is worth 13 points
WAHH, to express wailing, is worth 10 points
You can find the new Collins Official Scrabble Words dictionary here.
"Dictionaries have always included formal and informal English, but it used to be hard to find printed evidence of the use of slang words," head of language content at Collins Helen Newstead told the BBC. "Now people use slang in social media posts, tweets, blogs, comments, text messages—you name it—so there's a host of evidence for informal varieties of English that simply didn't exist before."
Unfortunately, 1337, n00b, and shrekt have yet to make it into the dictionary. Maybe next time.
Organizers this week announced ten new developers that will appear during the event in some form, including Guild Wars developer ArenaNet and Total War studio Creative Assembly.
The full list of newly confirmed developers is below.
These developers add to the previously announced batch participants, which includes Blizzard Entertainment and Square Enix, along with Gears of War designer Cliff Bleszinski and DayZ creator Dean Hall. Check out this post to see all of the previously confirmed participants.
The first-ever "PC Gaming Show" will be held Tuesday, June 16 at 5 PM PDT. It's being put on by chip-maker AMD and PC Gamer magazine and will be held at the Belasco Theater in Los Angeles. For more on E3 2015, check out GameSpot's roundup of the dates and times for all the briefings.
Iconic gaming console the Nintendo Entertainment System was released in North America thirty years ago in 1985. To mark the milestone, video game museum The Strong has announced that it will host a special exhibit dedicated to the system later this year. The exhibit is being jointly produced by The Strong and the Ritsumeikan University in Kyoto, Japan.
"Japan is home to a rich history of video game culture and pioneering companies such as Nintendo and Sony. This partnership allows for a cross-cultural exchange of ideas about how best to chronicle and conserve this important history," The Strong director Jon-Paul C. Dyson said in a statement.
The Strong's exhibit, called "Playing with Power: 30 Years of the Nintendo Entertainment System," will debut at the Rochester, NY museum this fall. Specifically, the exhibit will offer insight into the console's development and release, including previously unseen interviews with NES hardware developer Masayuki Uemura. A variety of NES games will also be playable at the exhibit, including two of the console's most memorable titles, Super Mario Bros. and Duck Hunt.
In addition, The Strong and the Ritsumeikan University will share research projects, while staff from both organizations may trade places as part of an exchange program.
"This partnership allows researchers and scholars in both the United States and Japan to learn from one another about how best to study and preserve the many contributions video games have had to our shared cultural heritage," Ritsumeikan University program chair Masayuki Uemura said. "Together, we can also help tell the story of the Japanese video game industry to guests of The Strong, beginning with the exhibit about the Nintendo Entertainment System this fall."
Last month, The Strong revealed the finalists for the first wave of inductees for its World Video Game Hall of Fame. See all the games that made the cut here.
Hot Pockets has launched a new, video game-focused ad campaign that offers a funny (and cheesy) prediction for the future of virtual reality games. The ad, called "Hunger Can't Kill My Game," is already airing on TV in 15- and 30-second versions. Check out the 30-second clip below.
Of course, the manner in which the ad depicts VR games isn't exactly how things work right now--but it was always meant to be over-the-top and ridiculous. And it certainly delivers on those fronts.
Gears of War creator Cliff Bleszinski, an early-round investor in Oculus Rift, responded to the new Hot Pockets VR ad recently on Twitter. Linking to the video, he wrote: "You go, marketing guy who read a CNN article about VR, you go."
First there were free-to-play games, but are "view-to-play" games next?
That's the goal of a new Finnish studio called Futureplay Games, which is staffed by former Electronic Arts, Remedy, and Rovio veterans. The team defines "view-to-play" as: "entertainment with a natural integration of broadly accessible gameplay and ad-based monetization." That definition may not be very catchy, but Futureplay says "view-to-play" could represent the next era of mobile gaming.
Futureplay founder Jami Laes, the former executive vice president at Angry Birds developer Rovio, said "view-to-play" has the potential to revolutionize the mobile market. "It's faster, cheaper, and more fun to watch an ad than pay for an in-app purchase," Laes said in a statement.
"We believe in F2P and ads--both done right can be great, you will see," the company said. "We want to develop fast and have fun launching multiple games per year and not work multiple years per game."
The developer has not yet announced any games, or further information about how the ads will work. However, he said people can expect these details and more in the coming months.
Futureplay's other founders include former Remedy Entertainment executive producer Kai Auvinen, as well as other ex-Rovio employees Mika Rahko and Arttu Maki. The fifth Futureplay founder is Tuomas Huhtanen, who worked at Finnish software consultancy Reaktor for a decade.
Would you prefer to watch an ad instead of making an in-app purchase? Let us know in the comments below.
Capcom has released a new trailer for the PS4 exclusive re-release of Ultra Street Fighter IV, ahead of its digital release on May 26. Additionally, Sony has confirmed the PS4 version will be compatible with PS3 sticks.
Posting on the EU PlayStation Blog, Sony's director of third party productions, Gio Corsi, confirmed the compatibility drivers, which were created by Skullgirls developer Lab Zero, had been included.
"Ultra Street Fighter IV will support PS4 FightSticks, of course," said Corsi. "But we've also included Lab Zero's drivers so that USFIV will support licensed PS3 FightSticks as well."
Lab Zero's drivers allow any arcade stick that identifies itself as a Generic USB GamePad or Joystick to work. This means the MadCatz's officially licensed line of controllers and sticks, which are incredibly popular among fighting game players, will be supported.
Some smaller brands and custom builds such as GodLike Controls' Cthulhu boards will also work. However, it must be noted that milage may vary for other sticks, particularly those that identify themselves as a DualShock input.
It is advisable to consult Capcom Unity or the Lab Zero's site after Ultra Street Fighter IV launches on PS4 for further compatibility details.
Corsi also confirmed the game will run at 1080p and 60 frames per second. The minor input lag PS3 players of the previous Street Fighter IV titles have endured has also been eliminated.
Ultra Street Fighter IV for PS4 will include all previously released costume DLC. Recently released content such as the Vacation and Wild costumes will also be included, as well as the Omega Mode.
The PS4 edition of Ultra Street Fighter IV was originally announced in December and is due to launch sometime this spring. Pricing has not been announced.
Video game collector Mahmut Saral has posted a new video and more images for his ever-growing Doom video game collection, showing off all manner of new items, including some specially branded Nutella.
Watch the video below or check out an image gallery on Facebook to see everything Saral has collected over the years. His collection includes games, clothing, accessories, figures, movies, coffee mugs, and more.
Visually, Codemasters says F1 2015 will "act as a significant step forward in the game's visuals and physics-based handling model."
Enhancements and additions in more than 20 areas are being included, with big improvements to transmission, aerodynamics, fuel tank, force feedback, and suspension.
Red Dead Redemption developer Rockstar San Diego is setting its sights on "state-of-the-art" graphics for its next project. That's according to a job listing for a Graphics Programmer, which spells out the ways in which Rockstar San Diego is hoping to push things forward with whatever its next game turns out to be.
A successful candidate will "develop new and enhance existing graphics technologies (rendering, lighting, shadows, shaders, culling, scene management and others) to help achieve state-of-the-art visuals." This person will also "work with others to expand our next-generation graphics pipeline including advanced lighting and rendering techniques, and special effects."
Another line from the job ad states, "This is an exciting opportunity to develop cutting-edge graphics and visual effect systems, working together with the art department to create optimal, attractive solutions for our games."
In addition, text from another job ad for a Network Programmer specifically mentions "open-world game elements." The person chosen for this job will be tasked with integrating "dynamic multiplayer into all areas of gameplay." What's more, a job ad for an Animation Programmer specifically mentions Xbox One and PlayStation 4.
Yet another requisition, this one for a Gameplay Programmer, calls for a person who can help bring the mystery game to life with "densely populated worlds" and the "best combination of realism and responsiveness." Check out the key points from the job ad below.
Artificial Intelligence
Bring our worlds to life by creating believable behaviors and routines for their inhabitants.
Navigate across varying terrain types, avoiding obstacles efficiently.
Work on strategies to produce fun and challenging combat encounters.
Character Mechanics
Create blend trees that combine animations, which are driven from both player and AI input.
In conjunction with animators, finely tune and polish systems to produce the best combination of realism and responsiveness.
Gameplay Mechanics
Weapon and damage systems.
Create the illusion of densely populated worlds.
Rockstar San Diego has a total of 36 open positions, across a variety of disciplines, which suggests the studio is staffing up for a major project. The studio's most recent game, Red Dead Redemption, was released five years ago this week.
Mojang has released a new update for the PC version of its popular sandbox game Minecraft that fixes some "reported security issues" and makes various other bug fixes, among other things.
The developer writes on its website that, although you don't need to, it is highly recommended that you download 1.8.5 "as soon as possible."
The top fixes, courtesy of Mojang, are listed below.
[Bug MC-79632] – Phantom Custom Player in Scoreboard / UUIDs of non-player entities on scoreboards truncated after relog
[Bug MC-75630] – Exploit with signs and command blocks
[Bug MC-80478] – Better server validation for movement packets
[Bug MC-80479] – Invalid beacon effects are not validated
[Bug MC-80480] – Certain attribute values are not bound
Today's Minecraft update follows another security-themed update, 1.8.4., which was released last month. That update addressed a user-discovered vulnerability that allowed anyone--quite easily--to crash a server hosting Minecraft.
A 17-year-old Canadian teen has pleaded guilty to 23 charges relating to online harassment.
Picture supplied by Polk City County Sherriff's Office
The teenager, who cannot be named due to his age, appeared in court to face charges of public mischief, criminal harassment, and extortion.
According to Ars Technica, the teen has previously identified himself as a member of hacker group Lizard Squad. Many of the acts he perpetrated can be classed as swatting.
Canadian news outlet TC News reports prosecutor Michael Bauer described how he focused on young female gamers and their parents in British Colombia, Minnesota, Utah, Arizona, Ohio, and California.
The teen contacted online gamers, many of which were League of Legends players, by sending them friend requests. When they declined, he would shut down their Internet access, post their personal information online, and call them repeatedly late at night.
He would also contact the police in his victim's area and tell them he was holding a family hostage, had weapons, or had killed someone in the house.
Other activities include ordering SWAT teams to a location, demanding a ransom of $20,000, and threatening to kill law enforcement officers if they interfere.
In one particular case a young woman that had rejected him was forced to drop out from her semester at the University of Arizona as a result of anxiety caused by his relentless pursuits and threats.
He also called the Tuscon police to her home by claiming he had shot his parents with an AR15 rifle, was armed with explosive, and would kill the police if he saw marked vehicles.
The unidentified teen later bragged about the events on Twitter. He also streamed himself swatting and harassing victims on YouTube. Police responded when they were alerted by viewers of the stream.
The Judge has ordered a psychiatric assesment of the teen, who was charged with 40 crimes in total and remanded on Wednesday for 169 days. The sentencing will continue on June 29.
[UPDATE] CD Projekt Red has released a statement regarding the exploit. It's sourced to fictional in-game characters, so make of that what you will.
"Nilfgaardian representatives are currently investigating the issue and exploring ideas to address the rapid influx of cow hides on the marketplace of White Orchard."
"Sustained cow slaughter may influence local economy and job market by allowing an unnaturally fast accumulation of goods, and also produces an undesirable effect of breaking gamer immersion," Said Bobbe Malinka, Senior Scribe, Nilfgaard Press Department. "All instances of poaching will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of Nilfgaardian law, so cow exploiters better be on the lookout. We don't want any beef, but we have zero tolerance for such behavior," Malinka adds.
The original story is below.
Just days after the game's release, a new Witcher 3: Wild Hunt infinite money exploit has been discovered--and it involves mercilessly killing cows over and over and over.
YouTube user WhatsMyGame reveals that the trick--which is an exploit, not a glitch--is really quite simple. All you need to do is find some cows (White Orchard is a good place), kill the cows there, and then harvest their hide for a nice fee of 27 gold. Next, mediate for two hours and the cows will re-appear, thus allowing you to repeat the exploit as many times as you want.
There are only a couple drawbacks. First, the cow corpses don't vanish, meaning your heartless bovine slaughter will be an inescapable reality, weighing on your conscience (if you have one). Also, local shopkeepers don't have enough money to pay you once you turn in a certain number of hides.
This isn't such a big deal, however, as you can always travel to another shopkeeper or simply hoard the cash to spend later. And on the plus side, this exploit can be triggered very early in the game, affording you the nice benefit of being flush with cash from the onset.
We have contacted developer CD Projekt Red to see if the team plans to address this exploit in a future patch.
Sony UK has released a new PlayStation 4 TV ad that does not hold back in boasting about the company's new system, touting it as the "world's most powerful console."
Ahead of E3 next month, Sony has filed a new trademark application for something called "The Player."
The company made the filing May 18 with the United States Patent & Trademark Office. The trademark application is registered to Sony Pictures Television, but also appears to be tied to gaming.
It covers two good/services, the first of which is "downloadable electronic game software; video game software." While the second specifically mentions "entertainment services in the nature of a dramatic television series."
No further information about The Player is available in the filing, though the document also includes the image you see below.
Sony has used the word "Player" before in marketing materials for the PlayStation 4, as you can see here. We've followed up with Sony, asking for more details about The Player.
Blizzard has released new gameplay videos for its upcoming team-based shooter Overwatch.
Unlike previously released footage, the four new gameplay videos show unedited matches running at 1080p 60 frames per second.
Each of the videos focuses on a specific character. The first, Hanzo, is a Japanese mercenary and assassin that wields a bow and arrow. The second character, McCree is a wild west bounty hunter and outlaw that uses a revolver. Mercy, a guardian angel, functions as the games medic class, while Zenyatta is a mysterious cybernetic monk.
Take an in-depth look at them in the videos below.
Overwatch is Blizzard's first new franchise in 17 years, with development on the PC title being led by Jeff Kaplan, a former World of Warcraft game director.
Blizzard has described Overwatch as a "pick-up-and-play" FPS that throws players together and makes them battle in futuristic maps in places such as London and Egypt. The company's overall goal with the game is to bring the developer's "easy-to-learn, hard-to-master" mantra to the FPS space.
"With every new Blizzard game, we look at our favorite aspects of a genre and put our own spin on things," Blizzard CEO Mike Morhaime said when Overwatch was first announced.
"Our goal withOverwatch is to create an awesome FPS experience that's more accessible to a much wider audience while delivering the action and depth that shooter fans love."
Square Enix's version of Thor comes with the the Norse god of thunder's trademark hammer (of course), as well as a lightning effect and a plastic cape.
Also included are some interchangeable parts, including various hands and even a second face that depicts a much angrier Thor. There's also a figure stand.
According to Toy Ark, which obtained the photos in the gallery below, the Play Arts Variant Thor will launch in September. The figure will be priced at ¥14,800 (about $122).
For more on Square Enix's re-imagining of other popular media franchises, check out the stories below.
Over the years playing through Codemasters' popular Dirt series, I thought I came to understand how to race rally cars, that I could strap into a Subaru Impreza and hurtle through the rapid twists and turns of any white-knuckle rally stage. I mastered the techniques, perfecting the hairpin turn and the Scandinavian flick, travelling from muddy field to arid desert as I conquered all before me and took my place atop one podium after another.
Try to play it like Dirt 3 and you'll be halfway up a tree on the very first corner.
Then Dirt Rally snuck onto Steam Early Access and hastily revealed the stark reality that I, like Jon Snow, know nothing. Because, unlike its seminal predecessors, Dirt Rally is not an accessible approximation of the lauded motorsport, but a merciless simulation. This marks a drastic shift for the series, with it now being more akin to the decade-old Richard Burns Rally than anything Codemasters has ever done before. It strips away Dirt's penchant for American flavour, ditching the gymkhana events, destruction derbies, and the extreme sports theme, returning to basics to celebrate the unbridled purity of rally.
And it works. By God does it work. Whether you're darting through the dense, drizzled forests of Wales and its rolling countryside, careening around a sun-swept dustbowl in southern Greece, or skidding across the undulating roads of Monaco's snow-capped mountaintops, Dirt Rally captures the essence of its chosen motorsport in a way very few have before. This is a game all about the crucial relationship between drivers, their car, and the road. It's a game about adapting to a deluge of variables, and of contending with a phenomenal new physics engine that makes your chosen vehicle, the weather, the time of day, altitude, and driving surface all crucial components to each and every stage.
Subtle details, such as a camera drone flying overhead, litter every stage.
Try to play it like Dirt 3 and you'll be halfway up a tree on the very first corner. These aren't the floaty cars you could throw across the road in previous Dirt games: They're tight, responsive, and weighty--the wheels digging into the mud and gravel, creating grooves through narrow bends as the road resists your hefty momentum.
Each of the 17 cars currently available is a joy to drive, yet taming them is a great challenge; You're teetering on the verge of disaster at all times, engaged in a furious battle just to keep the car on the road. You have to be precise and manage each corner, transferring weight to flick out the backend and drift around a tricky bend. You must know when to be careful and when to push the car to its absolute limits, always reminding yourself that one wrong move could irreparably harm your stage time or put you out of action altogether. There's no margin for error here, with Dirt's rewind feature conspicuously absent.
With no tutorials to speak of, this level of difficulty may prove frustrating for some. It can be hard to figure out where you're going wrong, and while various online forums are helpful, with people usually willing to lend a helping hand and share tips, this is one aspect of the game that will hopefully be rectified either in the coming months or by the time it's fully released.
With no tutorials to speak of, this level of difficulty may prove frustrating for some.
During my first few hours, it felt like an accomplishment just to finish a stage, narrowly avoiding the sorts of catastrophic crashes that would put an end to any prospective run. The more I played, however--and I know this sounds simple--the more I unearthed a tangible sense of progression. Not just because I was setting quantifiably better split times, but because of the way I was driving, too.
Eventually I found myself feathering the accelerator to glide around modest corners, as opposed to jamming on the breaks, and pointing my car at just the right angle to ensure that pulling on the handbrake would gracefully slither the vehicle around a tricky hairpin corner. Such a learning process was as intuitive, and it provided me the confidence to take more risks, believing that I was better equipped to deal with the consequences. Before long it wasn't just about simply finishing in one piece, but about setting competitive stage times, improving on those times, and eventually earning a place on the podium.
This contemporary tale, of triumph over adversity, ended the moment I arrogantly bought the fastest car I could afford. I was back to square one: Skirting off the track, crashing into trees, rocks and whatever else was nearby. The disparity between each vehicle is really quite staggering, and at first I could only fail miserably in my shiny new ride. Going from the relatively meagre 1960s Lancia Fulvia to the blisteringly fast Peugeot 205 T16 Evo is genuinely terrifying. Not only is the rate of acceleration and speed difference profound, but the handling model is completely different. I had to learn how to drive a new car while re-learning each stage, differing my approach from corner to corner to compensate for the adverse shift in power and weight.
Click on the thumbnails below to view in full-screen.
Crashes are nothing to make light of either. Damage is persistent in Dirt Rally, so if you mash your car down to half its size, ruin the radiator, and break the gearbox during the first stage, you're going to suffer for it the rest of the tournament. Fortunately, you can often repair your car between stages, which trades vehicle performance for time added onto your overall tally--which can then be shortened by hiring better engineers. Go too far, however, and even the best engineer in the business won't be able to help you.
Heading onto the track with this in mind makes those moments when you skirt a sheer drop completely nerve wracking. One wrong move and it could be calamity. It doesn't matter if you're mere seconds away from finishing an eight-stage tournament--if you wreck your car, it's all over. That's exactly zero points and a lonely spot at the leaderboard's nadir. Of course, you can always just restart the stage (and suffer a monetary loss) but then you lose the thrill of this persistent threat, of knowing that one mistake could cost so much. It's like playing XCOM: Enemy Unknown by fully embracing its permadeath, constantly forging ahead rather than reloading a previous save back when your top sniper was still alive and well.
Night time excursions are particularly perilous. Just don't smash those headlights.
Dirt Rally still has room for improvement in terms of production values, but it more than makes up for this with a robust and in-depth driving model that's as exhilarating as it is rewarding. The stiff challenge it presents won't be for everyone, but the prospect of mastering its many intricacies is a tantalising proposition I'm sure many will gladly tackle. This is not the Dirt we once knew, but a reinvention of the series that's going in all the right directions. You should consider getting in on the ground floor.
What's There?
There's a career mode that progresses through tournaments, from grass-roots rally to professional championships. Daily, weekly, and monthly challenges are also included that task you with beating other people's stage times, while online leagues let you create your own tournaments to play with friends. All of these modes utilise the 36 stages spread across 3 countries, and the 17 cars ranging from 1960s classics to modern vehicles.
What's to Come?
Famous Pike's Peak will be added later in May, and a Hill Climb mode is already being teased in the menus. There will also be new cars and stages added over time, including those from the 2015 FIA World Rallycross Championship.
How Much Does it Cost?
$35 (£25) on Steam at of the time of writing, but Codemasters says this price will rise throughout Early Access. All updates to the game will be free.
When Will it be Finished?
Scheduled to go gold by the end of 2015.
What's the Verdict?
Dirt Rally is proving to be a merciless and rewarding rally sim so far, and we're confident it can get even better.
Hitboxes, which are an invisible part of character models that register collision with bullets, have been a point of criticism for many playing the latest iteration of the popular first-person shooter.
Global Offensive's hitbox issues were more recently thrust into the spotlight when a video emerged of a player firing directly into a defenceless enemy at point blank range and doing no damage.
The video reached the top of the Counter-Strike subreddit and generated much discussion from incensed members of the community, who decided to send it to Valve employees.
Unexpectedly, Valve coder Matt Wood responded by saying hitboxes are "being worked on" but added that the company currently did not have any specific release window for updates that would enact the improvements.
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive was co-developed by Hidden Path Entertainment and has become a popular title in eSports tournaments. Recently, the professional Global Offensive circuit has been plagued with match fixing.
In The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, some of the most important tools you have at your disposal are Geralt's special Witcher potions. While they are not necessary for your survival in the beginning of the game, they definitely become more vital as the game progresses. This is why it's a good idea to start farming items in the game's first area, which is filled with an abundance of ingredients you can find and use to craft the game's earlier potions.
So What are Witcher Potions?
Witcher potions are items that can grant you enhancements to your statistics, give you special abilities, and even nullify the effects of status ailments. They can be bought or found in the world of The Witcher, but you ideally want to craft them yourself.
In order to craft Witcher potions, you need each of a potion's required ingredients. These are specified in the game's crafting screen and mainly consist of herbs and other assorted items, such as alcohol and monster body parts.
Witcher potions can be used anytime, but they are best used before the beginning of a fight for maximum efficiency. In order to equip them, you must go into the items menu and assign them to their quick-action consumable slots. Keep in mind, only two can be equipped and be actively used during a battle at a given time.
Each potion has something called a toxicity amount indicated in its stats. Taking a potion will contribute this amount of toxicity to Geralt's overall toxicity level, which totals 100. If you take too many potions and exceed Geralt's toxicity level, he will be poisoned and his vitality will start to gradually decrease. A way to cure this is by taking the White Honey potion, which will reset your toxicity level to zero. Regardless, always be mindful of how many potions you consume to avoid getting poisoned!
Quick Tips
Collect all the herbs: Using your Witcher senses will help you spot any nearby herbs in the environment. As a rule of thumb, you should always do your best collect as many herbs as you possibly can.
The Herbalist's stash: There is a goldmine of free herbs that you can collect just outside of the herbalist's cottage. Seriously, don't hesitate to pilfer everything she owns. She won't mind it at all.
Farm the farmer's crops: Another solid location to pick herbs is the farmland in the village located to the left of the Woesong bridge. Same rule from the herbalist applies. Nobody will care.
Secrets always hold rewards: Make sure to scour the area for any secret caches or treasure chests as they will usually contain high priced ingredients, such as Dwarvin Spirit and Water essence. These are typically marked on the map and are often located under bridges or found in secret bandit hideouts.
Drunk Restoration: If you meditate and have any kind of hard liquor in your inventory, any low stock of potions you have will fully replenish. Doing this also replenishes any oils or bombs in your inventory. This is a good way to reduce how much you need to go back and farm crafting materials.
Craft your own booze: You can buy a manuscript from the herbalist for 62 coins that gives you the ability to craft Dwarven spirit, an item that is essential in crafting Witcher potions. It's a handy way to save your coins. Its ingredients appear below:
White Myrtle Petals (1): A super common herb that can be found all throughout the environment. It can also be bought from the herbalist for five coins.
Empty bottle (1): Can be bought from the herbalist for three coins.
Mahakaman Spirit (2): This can only be bought by the Tavern merchant for 19 coins.
List of Potions
A list of all the potions you are able to craft in the beginning of the game and their required ingredients appear below:
Swallow
Main Function: Accelerates Vitality regeneration. Vitality regeneration pauses for 2 seconds upon receiving damage.
Description: Swallow is an essential potion to take into battle when you are caught in a sticky situation. Its effect lasts for 20 seconds and it has 20 toxicity. You get a stock of three upon crafting.
Here's what you need:
Drowner brain (1): This ingredient can be found by killing Drowners, which are blue humanoid sea monsters that are usually be found near water. Common locations in White Orchard include the southern shoreline near the ransacked village, the swamp lands to the south of the Nilfgaardian garrison, and along the shoreline to the left of the Ford signpost.
Dwarven Spirit (1): This alcohol can usually be found in Smuggler caches and treasure chests or bought from any White Orchard merchant for 149 coins.
Celandine (5): This herb is super common and can be easily found in the environment. An easy place to find them is outside the herbalist's cottage. They can also be bought from the herbalist for 5 coins each.
Cat
Main Function: Grants complete sight in darkness.
Description: Cat doesn't serve any particular use in the beginning but the sooner you can stockpile ingredients for it, the better. Its effect lasts for 240 seconds and it has 15 toxicity. You get a stock of three upon crafting.
Here's what you need:
Dwarven Spirit (1): This alcohol can usually be found in Smuggler caches or bought from any White Orchard merchant for 149 coins.
Berbecane fruit (4): This is a common herb you can find around the environment. A key location is nearby the herbalist's cottage. They can also be bought from the herbalist for eight coins.
Water Essence (2): You can find some in the Smuggler cache under the river bridge just southwest of the ransacked village. You can also locate some in treasure chests just south of the Nilfgaardian garrison. And you can purchase some from the herbalist for 149 coins.
Thunderbolt
Main Function: Increases Attack Power.
Description: You are granted access to crafting Thunderbolt right before the Griffin fight. It is a handy potion that gives a nice added offensive edge against any foe. Its effect lasts for 30 seconds and it has 25 toxicity. You get a stock of three of them upon crafting.
Here's what you need:
Cortinarius (2): Mushrooms can be found mostly anywhere. There are some growing outside the tavern by a fence. You can buy some from the herbalist for 13 coins.
Dwarven Spirit (1): This alcohol can usually be found in Smuggler caches and treasure chests or bought from any White Orchard merchant for 149 coins.
Endrega Embryo (1): You receive one upon being given the in-game tutorial of how to craft potions. It's not clear if this item can be found in White Orchard during this segment of the game.
White Honey
Main Function: Clears Toxicity and cancels all active potion effects.
Description: White Honey will basically clear you of all built up toxicity resulting from drinking too many potions. The more potions you consume, the more essential it becomes. It has no toxicity and you get only one upon crafting.
Here's what you need:
Dwarven Spirit (1): This alcohol can usually be found in Smuggler caches and treasure chests or bought from any White Orchard merchant for 149 coins.
Honeysuckle (1): You can buy these from the herbalist for 20 coins a piece.
Destiny's 3v3 Trials of Osiris multiplayer event--introduced to the shooter through the House of Wolves expansion--will begin tomorrow, May 22, Bungie has confirmed. As part of the developer's latest Bungie Weekly Update, the studio revealed that the event will kick off at 10 AM PDT / 1 PM EDT / 6 PM UK.
Trials of Osiris is a Crucible multiplayer mode where two teams of three players duke it out with no respawns, though you can revive fallen teammates for a certain period of time. The first team to win five rounds wins the match. For lots more on Trials of Osiris, watch the video below.
There is no matchmaking support for Trials of Osiris. Also, Trials of Osiris is a limited-time event, running every Friday through the weekly reset on Tuesday.
From GameSpot's previous coverage: In order to enter the Trials of Osiris, you will need a Trials Passage. You'll be able to earn some by accepting quests that involve talking to NPCs on the Reef. But after that's completed, Trials Passages will cost 100 Glimmer each. In addition to earning you admittance into Osiris, the Trials Passage tracks your wins and losses. Once you lose three times, that specific Trials Passage is done and you can turn it in. Your rewards are based on the total number of wins you accumulate.
Here are the rewards in Trials of Osiris:
Two to three wins -- A blue package that can contain Motes of Light, Passage Coins, and other items
Five wins -- Ability to purchase the weekly armor
Six wins -- A legendary package
Seven wins -- Ability to purchase the weekly weapon
Eight wins -- Ability to buy a legendary package (Bungie did not disclose the packages rewards, but they did mention that it will not contain Exotics or Trials of Osiris armor)
In addition, Twitch has announced a Trials of Osiris Challenge where winning teams can earn cash to donate to the charity of their choice. Bungie's own Bungie Foundation will match the total purse. More information about Twitch's tournament is available here.
In addition, Bungie today reminded fans that its charity drive to support people affected by the earthquake in Nepal ends this coming Sunday, May 24.
Stardock today released the first post-launch patch for Galactic Civilizations III, and we have the full patch notes for you below.
Gal Civ III was released just last week, and this patch brings it to version 1.01. This is primarily an update that deals with bug fixes, but it does add more than a dozen new achievements and allows for custom factions to be used in multiplayer.
Some improvements have been made to AI, and tying into that, bonuses the AI previously received have been toned down to account for this increase in intelligence. This patch also promises "major" improvements to the amount of time it takes to process turns late in the game on large maps.
As for the bug fixes, various crashes have been resolved, multiplayer should be more stable, and typos have been rectified. On that latter point, the patch notes even claim to have not added "any new typos," which just feels like a jinx waiting to happen.
It's possible you may have already downloaded this patch before today--Stardock allowed players to opt-in to receive it earlier this week on Steam, but it will now be released to all players. Another patch, 1.1, is "due out in the coming weeks" and "will add Steam Workshop support among other things."
Read on for the full patch notes, and check out GameSpot's review of the game here.
Galactic Civilizations III 1.01 Patch Notes
Features
Enabled Custom Factions in multiplayer (with fixed to make this stable)
Added new Steam achievements for:
Survey an anomaly in a dust cloud/nebula
Declare war before you have Universal Translator
Destroying an enemy Faction
Using a wormhole
As the Iconians, take back Iconia (the Yor homeworld) from the Yor
Control all relics on the map
Survey 15 anomalies in a game
As the Yor, destroy the Iconian faction
Have 12 or more trade routes
Use Core Disruption invasion 10 times in one game
Be at war with 5 different factions at the same time
Win a battle
Destroy more than 15 enemy ships in a battle
Destroy more than 7 pirate bases
Unlock all the Benevolent ideology traits
Unlock all the Malevolent ideology traits
Unlock all the Pragmatic ideology traits
Fixes
Fixed the malevolent Mining Accident colonization event choice (it was giving +50% growth instead of -50%)
Fixed a bad adjacency bonus on the Preparedness Center (it was giving +95% resistance for each level!?!)
Fixed a crash if you hover over an out-of-bounds tile while using the teleport cheat
Fixed the "Win the Campaign" cheat
Fixed an issue causing ships to go off the screen in the battle viewer
Upgraded the version of Miles (the sound system) to fix sound issues and memory leaks
Many multiplayer fixes around lobbies and restored sessions
Fixed an issue where multiple simultaneous invasions would show the wrong info in the results window
Fixed a crash when attacking a planet with two fleets in the same action
Fixed a crash if a transport tried to invade a planet at the same time that it was joining a fleet
Fixed a crash if you fought 2 battles against one defender with spawned fighters and canceled the first battle in the same turn
Fixed an issue that would cause you to not be given ships by ideological events and anomalies if you obsoleted those ship designs in your ship lists
Fixed an issue where the planet keeps spinning in the battle viewer even if the simulation is paused
Fixed an issue where the old minimap border stuck around if you started a game within a game (only noticeable if you changed map sizes between those 2 games)
Fixed lots of typos
Didn't add any new typos!
Fixed an issue with ridiculously wide monitors (we were scoffing at the 3000 x 1080 resolution until we got a monitor to test it on, it looks pretty awesome)
Fixed an issue where you could build infinite resource requiring ships by using continuously build (When a ship is set to continuously build in a shipyard, and it requires a specific resource, it now checks if the player has enough of that resource before building. If not, it gets removed from the shipyard's queue and sends an Alert/Notification to the player to let them know)
Fixed a crash when going from the campaign to a multiplayer game
Fixed a stuck turn when the AI invades two planets at the same time
Fixed weekly treaty income not showing up in the production sub window
Fixed an issue allowing the player to get peace with the AI in scenarios (like the campaign) where peace isn't allowed
Fixed the jitterbug (AKA ships no longer wiggle when moving on large maps)
Fixed the Kinetic Accelerator to correctly boost the range of Kinetic weapons
Fixed the Quantum Leap ideological trait (it wasn't applying its +5 research per colony bonus)
Fixed the missing icon for Barrier System Focus
Fixed an issue allowing Food Distribution to be buildable while Xeno Irrigation was already built
Fixed the High Output Mining techs
Fixed the prereqs on the Biomass Resequencer
Fixed an issue where decay wasn't being applied for synthetic life. Decay is the process where population shrinks if you have more people than your population cap supports.
Fixed an issue where if a players faction power got high enough it would overrun and flip to 0, causing the AI to surrender
Balance
Canceling an improvement rush will now refund the player the cost of rushing the item and re-enable the Buy button.
AI
General AI strategy improvements
Reduced bonuses given to the AI due to the AI being smarter
Performance
Removed some release level debug
Major late game turn time improvement on large maps (from the AI calculating paths across the entire map for pirates)
Razer today announced a new premium mousepad that needs to be plugged in to fully function, as it comes equipped with LEDs along three of its sides.
Called the Razer Firefly, this "hard gaming mouse mat" features customizable lights along the left, right, and bottom borders. The Firefly uses the same Chroma lighting feature seen in a handful of Razer devices that allow them to sync up with each other.
"The Razer Firefly opens up a new category for the Chroma family," Razer CEO Min-Liang Tan said in a press release. "We've designed the Razer Firefly with the best components for a gaming mouse mat, along with the new, fully-customizable Chroma lighting. No one said you can't win with style."
You will, however, have to win with $60 less in your pocket, the suggested retail price for the Firefly. That's the price to pay for its 16.8 million color options and "optimized reflective surface ensur[ing] mouse movements translate to precise cursor movements and rapid in-game responsiveness."
The pad is approximately 14 inches by 10 inches, and is 0.16 inches thick (355 mm x 255 mm x 4 mm). It weighs just under a pound and comes with a seven-foot USB cable for powering the lights. It's set for release in June.
Razer's Chroma tech is still fairly new, having only been announced last year. It's currently available only in the newest versions of the BlackWidow keyboard, DeathAdder and Naga Epic mice, Kraken 7.1 headset, and now the Firefly.
With the release of an SDK earlier this year, game developers can use Chroma to sync up the lights in these devices to events in a game--for instance, flashing them red when you're killed. It remains to be seen how widely the tech is adopted, though, considering how few devices currently support it.
Microsoft will soon add a number of new features to the Windows 10's Xbox app, including game hubs, new Game DVR options, and more.
The Xbox app, which remains available only to those in the Windows Insider program that provides testers with an early version of Windows 10, aims to offer a number of Xbox One-style features on PCs/Windows 10 devices for free. This includes the aforementioned Game DVR, which was added last month and, following the latest update, can now be called up with a keyboard shortcut of your choosing. You can also set up customized shortcuts for specific Game DVR features, like taking a screenshot or recording gameplay.
Also new following the latest update are hubs for each game (much like on Xbox One) where you can view your achievements, see who's been playing, and check out a game-specific activity feed.
This update makes the Avatars app directly accessible from the Xbox app, though it will still be something you'll download separately. From here, you can customize your avatar's looks and equip it with new items and clothes.
Other minor new features include the ability to designate Xbox Live friends as favorites (giving them priority over others when looking at your friends list) and allowing you to turn on and off your Xbox One from the Connect menu as long as you're connected to the same network.
One last addition is a way to send diagnostic information to Microsoft about your Xbox One streaming connection. Specifically, you'll be offering "information about your PC's performance and connectivity characteristics as we prepare to enable game streaming from Xbox One to Windows 10 PCs." Microsoft insists this is all anonymous and will simply help its team to deliver the much-anticipated feature that was announced back in January.
Developer Harebrained Schemes has released the first trailer and screenshots for its upcoming role-playing game, Shadowrun: Hong Kong. The studio has also published a Steam page, where you can pre-purchase the game for $20, a 33 percent markdown from the $30 launch price.
The images and trailer show off Hong Kong's varied environments, ranging from busy city streets to what appears to be a restaurant where people are having a very violent food fight. You can check out the trailer below and the new screenshots at the bottom of this post.
In addition, Harbrained Schemes announced that Hong Kong is approaching a critical milestone--feature complete--ahead of its release this summer. A developer explains in an update to the game's Kickstarter page that the underlying code is basically finalized, and all that's left to do is make various bug fixes and tweaks, and apply polish for the duration of development.
On top of that, Harebrained Schemes has announced a sale for the developer's two previous games, Shadowrun Returns and Shadowrun: Dragonfall. They are available now on Steam for $3 and $4.50, respectively. The sale is good through Monday, May 25.
Pre-buying Hong Kong on Steam right now also automatically upgrades you to the Deluxe Edition. This comes with an .mp3 soundtrack and an Art of Shadowrun: Hong Kong digital book.
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