From December 17 to 24, base 1TB Slim model will be on sale for $250. At the time of publication, this deal hasn't been confirmed to roll back prices on any Slim bundles like the PS4 Pro deal has for the last week.
This deal joins last week's PSVR discount, which knocked $100 off bundles for Sony's virtual reality headset. The PSVR bundles will remain on sale until December 24. But today is the final day of the PS4 Pro sale, so make sure to grab that last-second gift fast.
After completing the first Champions' Ballad DLC challenge in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, four new trials open up in different regions of Hyrule that are each associated with one of the four Champions. By approaching each trial's respective pedestal, you'll trigger a quest where you observe three obelisks that point the way to special challenges scattered across the world that unlock the shrines.
While you're free to complete these challenges in any order, the hard part is actually finding them. To help guide you, we've detailed the locations of each challenge and how to complete them to unearth their respective shrine for Mipha, Daruk, Revali, and Urbosa.
Mipha's Song: Map Location Of "Find What The Light's Path Shows"
How To Complete The Challenge
This shrine is located between Ankel Island and Knuckel Island. Set up shop at the nearby cliffside where Mzu is and wait until morning; you'll spot a faint glowing blue portal in-between the islands. Glide down to it to unearth Kee Dafunia shrine.
Mipha's Song: Map Location Of "Conquer The Ancient Foes"
How To Complete The Challenge
Make your way to Toto Lake, and you'll spot some Guardian Skywatchers flying over Upland Zorana. Defeat all the guardians in the area and Sato Koda shrine will appear.
Mipha's Song: Map Location Of "Chase The Rings Of The Waterfall"
How To Complete The Challenge
From Ne'ez Yohma Shrine at Zora's Domain, Head to Mikau Lake to find a glowing blue portal. Equip your Zora Tunic and walk through the portal to trigger a challenge where you must chase goal rings up three waterfalls. If you succeed in passing through each one, Mah Eliya shrine will appear.
Daruk's Song: Map Location Of "Stop A Titan Of Molten Stone"
How To Complete The Challenge
Kami Omuna shrine can be found at the northern shore Lake Darman, northwest from the Death Caldera. A large Igneo Talus will rise from the magma to do battle; destroy it to unearth Kami Omuna shrine.
Daruk's Song: Map Location Of "Follow The Rings Of Light Alone"
How To Complete The Challenge
Warp to the Divine Beast Vah Rudania and head East along the volcano rim until you spot another blue ring challenge. This time you have to glide through various rings up and around the peak of Death Mountain. Naturally, complete the challenge and the Sharo Lun shrine will emerge.
Daruk's Song: Map Location Of "Survive Lava's Fiery Fate"
How To Complete The Challenge
Proceed to Darb Bond, which is located south of Death Mountain and southeast of Gorko Lake. Once there, you'll spot a blue ring right above the lava. To fall through the ring, grab the two metal boxes or any large rocks found along the shore of Darb Pond. Use them as stepping-stones to get to the blue ring. The Runi Honika shrine will appear upon successful completion of this challenge.
Revali's Song: Map Location Of "Shoot The Flame Dragon's Horn"
How To Complete The Challenge
Warp to Hebra tower and go to Tanagar Canyon, which is located south of Tabantha Hills. Drop down onto the large ledge on the north face and wait for flame dragon Dinraal to appear (at around 1 AM; use a campfire). Once he spawns, shoot an arrow at his glowing horns and the Shira Gomar shrine should emerge on the south side of the canyon ridge.
Revali's Song: Map Location Of "Race Down A Peak Rings Adorn"
How To Complete The Challenge
Head to the west face of Hebra Peak, just down below the mountain's summit. You should spot another set of blue rings. To complete this challenge, you'll need to shield board down the mountain through all the rings. Shred the gnar successfully and the Kiah Toza shrine will emerge.
Revali's Song: Map Location Of "Shoot Four Targets To Win"
How To Complete The Challenge
Head to the Flight Range where you first met Teba (North of the Sha Warvo shrine). You'll notice the targets there now sport a blue glow. Hitting one while falling isn't enough; rather, float around until you have four targets in sight and shoot them all in one go before you come out of focus. Succeed and the Noe Rajee shrine will reveal itself at the bottom of the Flight Range pit.
Urbosa's Song: Map Location Of "Fight The Brute Of Sand"
How To Complete The Challenge
To unlock the Keive Tala Shrine, you must track down and defeat the Molduking, a more powerful version of the Molduga that can kill you in a single hit. The creature can be found wandering the East Barrens. Defeat it and the shrine will emerge from the sands.
Urbosa's Song: Map Location Of "Chase The Rings Upon The Land"
How To Complete The Challenge
Between the West Barrens and Gerudo Town, you'll find another blue ring challenge. However, you can't complete this challenge by yourself; grab a Sand Seal and blast through all the blue rings to reveal the Takama Shiri shrine.
Urbosa's Song: Map Location Of "Throw The Orb Underground"
How To Complete The Challenge
This last shrine requires you to head back to the Yiga hideout. Go to the giant hole in the back where you fought Master Kohga, and at the back entrance, you'll find treasure hunters that inform you that there's an orb in the hideout's second floor storage room (the one filled with bananas). Sneak into the hideout to grab the orb and bring it out to the back entrance. Toss it into the giant hole and the Kihiro Moh shrine should appear briefly after.
Slipping back into Breath of the Wild is typically a painless process; spirited moments are never far away, and tranquil scenery makes the time between finding treasure and hard-fought battles consistently captivating. With so many things vying for your attention, it's fair to say that the game doesn't need to be expanded. But as the Master Trials DLC showed us earlier this year, there are still pieces of this lost chapter in Hyrule's history to uncover.
For the game's final act, The Champions' Ballad, Link's ancient allies (Revali, Daruk, Mipha, and Urbosa) get their chance to retake the spotlight. The result is less impactful to the overall story that we're already familiar with, but the accompanying quests and new gear do a lot of heavy lifting, delivering over a dozen new stages to test your problem-solving skills in ever more interesting ways. They alone make a return trip to Hyrule worth getting excited about.
A big part of this new journey involves walking in the champions' footsteps, re-enacting feats they performed prior to the fall of Hyrule, to unlock long-forgotten memories--but you must first prove yourself worthy of the opportunity. Upon returning to the Resurrection Chamber, the cave where Link awoke from his 100-year slumber, you're given a weapon known as the One-Hit Obliterator. As the name implies, this short-range weapon allows you to kill an enemy in a single blow; but with your health consequently whittled down to a quarter heart, you're also more vulnerable than ever.
Similar to how you may have felt when tackling Eventide Island or the Trials of the Sword, the threat of an easy death when wielding the Obliterator is stressful, and it takes time to acclimate to being such a fragile warrior. You may have shrugged off an occasional bee sting before, but it's little incidents like these that teach you to think twice about every move during this phase of The Champions' Ballad. Sadly, it's a great setup that ends too soon. After clearing out four small enemy camps and the shrines that emerge from their defeat, the weapon returns to the resurrection chamber having "fulfilled its duty." Even after completing everything the DLC has to offer, the weapon remains unusable, which feels like a missed opportunity.
With this stage of the new journey complete, you're sent to the four corners of Hyrule on a glorified scavenger hunt. The accordion-playing Kass regales you with songs that hint at your objectives without completely spelling out the steps involved. Adding to the mystery are the visual hints that reference a specific part of Hyrule, but these pictures are limited, forcing you to pore over the map in search of your destinations.
In a very pleasing way, the goals set for you take great advantage of Breath of the Wild's numerous mechanics. You will take on a snowboarding challenge that tasks you to pass through rings in a limited amount of time, hunt Hyrule's elusive dragons, and re-engage the banana-loving Yiga clan, among other missions that test the breadth of your capabilities. And for each task you complete, a new shrine surfaces from underground.
The Champions' shrines force you to engage in mindfulness and critical thought. They typically involve a lot of moving pieces, veering away from combat in favor of puzzle-solving. So far removed from a life of shrine-hunting in the main game, returning to these creatively built challenges takes you back to a time when Breath of the Wild was this new and mysterious thing, an experience filled with surprises.
Upon completing the three shrines in a given set, you're able to tap into the memories of the relevant champion. You don't get the opportunity to directly control Hyrule's famous defenders, but as Link, you re-enact their battles against Ganon's four blights--the same four bosses you fight at the end of each of the game's Divine Beast dungeons. The difference this time around is that you are limited to a small selection of gear based on what each champion would have carried into battle. Oddly, you retain access to the powers bestowed to you by the champions' spirits in the past, which give you incredible advantages and somewhat negate what would otherwise be difficult battles. You can always turn off these powers if you choose, but given the context of exploring someone else's memories, it would have made more sense had they been disabled by default.
Your immediate reward for beating each blight is the ability to recharge Champion abilities in less time, and new cutscenes for each champion; each one shows a recollection of when they were recruited to join Zelda's anti-Ganon squad 100 years in the past. These vignettes are more playful than serious, which is a little disappointing considering the gravity of the calamity they're up against.
Thankfully, there's a bigger and better reward waiting for you once you've resolved every champion's quests: a new Divine Beast dungeon, complete with a totally surprising boss fight. In a similar fashion to other Divine Beasts, the final station requires you to manipulate the entire structure, rotating major components this way and that, as you work to resolve the four puzzles locking away the final area. It's another reminder of how clever, if non-traditional, Breath of the Wild's dungeons are. While shrines ask you to solve puzzles comprised of compact devices and easily conceivable constraints, the scope of the final Divine Beast (like the ones before it) is delightfully difficult to wrap your head around both for how big it is and how intricate its solutions are.
The parting gift for your efforts is one of the unlikeliest additions to The Legend of Zelda: an ancient motorcycle. Loosely modeled to resemble a unicorn, Link's new bike fits thematically if not logically into Breath of the Wild's mythical tapestry. On one hand, having a bike at the ready overshadows your stable of horses. On the other, tearing through Hyrule on a motorcycle is as ridiculously playful as it sounds. It even makes for a fun snowboard replacement on snowy hills, which helps escalate the sense of speed as you rocket down mountains and look for ramps to catch a bit of air. The only real disappointment: you can't summon the motorcycle in the desert nor travel there if you're already on the go. Attempt the latter, and an invisible wall prevents you from proceeding, exactly the same as if you tried to enter on horseback.
Who knows if Nintendo will continue to surprise us with fanciful new additions to Breath of the Wild down the road, but considering that The Champions' Ballad is likely the final world on this chapter in The Legend of Zelda, it's a bittersweet goodbye. There are so many wonderful quests and beautiful, tiny moments that make revisiting Hyrule's past feel like reliving your own memories, when Breath of the Wild was truly new and surprising. Nintendo certainly could have extended some of the aspects within The Champions' Ballad, such as giving you access to the Obliterator at anytime, and letting you ride your new motorcycle over sandy dunes, but these are minor blemishes on an otherwise great trip down memory lane.
In December of 2015, Ubisoft Montreal's Rainbow Six Siege released to little fanfare. It was a good game, but it relied too heavily on multiplayer modes for many players, its map supply was sparse, and servers weren't always reliable. All in all, it was a mediocre release.
Cut to two years later, and it's hard to believe we've been playing the same game. Ubisoft Montreal has supported its multiplayer shooter throughout the past 24 months, adding content, revamping servers, and listening to player feedback. The player count has increased exponentially, reaching 25 million with the recent release of Operation White Noise, the last content drop of Siege's second year.
It is, to say the least, one of modern AAA gamings' biggest comebacks. Games such as Destiny 2, Star Wars: Battlefront 2, Warframe, and Overwatch follow the ethos of "games-as-a-service," to varying effects. But Rainbow Six Siege is perhaps the best proof that this model can work.
In the video above, Mike Mahardy takes a deep dive into Siege, exploring the various ways it flew under the mainstream radar for so long, how it improved over the past two years, how it supported faithful players, and rewarded players who value complex gameplay.
The first batch of December's Games with Gold titles have returned to their normal price, but a couple of new titles are free right now for Xbox Live Gold members. In addition to the co-op action game Warhammer: End Times - Vermintide, which is available throughout the entire month, Gold members can now pick up a pair of free Xbox One and Xbox 360 games for a limited time.
These two games replace this month's earlier offerings, Telltale's Tales From the Borderlands and the rhythm game Child of Eden. Both of those titles returned to their regular price on December 15. Microsoft has yet to announce January's Games with Gold lineup, though those title will likely be revealed relatively soon.
Starting tomorrow, Azeroth is getting a makeover for the holidays. World of Warcraft's Christmas event begins soon, and it'll bring a whole bunch of festive decorations and items to discover.
The highlight of the update is the Feast of Winter Veil, which brings decorations across Azeroth but centers on the major cities. Giant snow globes will appear in Ironforge, Ogrimmar, and Dalaran. It'll run from December 16-January 3.
In addition, if you're hanging out in Azeroth on New Year's Eve and Day, you can check out some in-game fireworks. According to Blizzard, from December 31-January 1, the capitals of every race will have firework shows every hour for the whole night.
Finally, as in past years, the Abominable Greench will return to WoW as part of the Feast of Winter Veil, with rewards to earn if you defeat him. There's also a Finely Tailored Holiday Hat that can be found in Legion dungeons and raids.
The holiday events are just a couple of parts of a bigger December update; you can read all of the additions and events happening this month over at the Blizzard blog. In other news, the Battle for Azeroth expansion is in the works right now, and we recently sat down with Blizzard to talk about what's in store.
If you still haven't tried out Overwatch, now you have a chance to jump in cheaply. Right in time for the holidays, Blizzard has discounted the PC version of Overwatch by 50%--bringing the price down to $20. And if you're looking to get a bunch of cosmetic items, too, you can grab the Game of the Year Edition for $30--bringing it in line with the PS4 and Xbox One versions.
These are some of the better deals we've seen on the game since its release, especially $20 for the base game. If you're just looking to jump in and don't need a handful of skins and Loot Boxes, then this is the way to go.
However, if you do want some of the extras, the Game of the Year Edition is on sale for $30 across all platforms. Blizzard has discounted it on PC on Battle.net, while the physical console versions are available at Best Buy and Amazon. If you happen to have Gamers Club Unlocked at Best Buy, you can get an additional discount to bring the price down to $24. The digital version on PS4 is also $30 through the PlayStation Store. The Game of the Year Edition comes with the base game as well as 10 Loot Boxes, 5 Hero skins, and digital items for Heroes of the Storm, World of Warcraft, Diablo III, and Starcraft II.
By Anonymous on Dec 16, 2017 08:30 am *MAJOR SPOILER warning!* The Last Jedi left us with a LOT of questions. Ryan and Chastity offer their answers and theories about the latest Star Wars film, and look ahead to Episode IX!
In honor of Star Wars: The Last Jedi, we're giving away a Chewbacca with Porg Funko Pop! One (1) winner will be chosen after the giveaway closes on Friday, December 22 at 11:59PM PT.
Open to US residents only, void where prohibited.
Enter below (the additional entries are optional to increase your chances of winning):
PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds has become a major hit largely because it has such a high skill ceiling. It's a game you can spend a lot of time learning, and with plenty of mechanics and weapons master, it's possible to get very good at it.
As you're advancing from beginner to experienced player in PUBG, there's much to keep in mind when trying to maximize your in-game potential. Here are 12 expert-level tips that aren't immediately obvious as you play, but can help you up your PUBG game even further.
PUBG launched in Early Access this year and has been extraordinarily successful. PUBG launched on Xbox One via the Game Preview program on December 12, while it launches fully on PC on December 20. If you're new to the game, check out our PUBG beginner's guide for Xbox controls, tips, and more to get you started.
Your Jump Destination Is Incredibly Important
The first thing you do in every PUBG game is decide where you want to start, and you shouldn't sleep on this choice. The places you can reach out of the plane are determined by its trajectory as it crosses the island, but you can potentially reach destinations as far as two grid squares or more away from your starting point if you know what you're doing.
Most players hop out of the plane and try to fall as fast as possible, which is useful when you know you're jumping into a spot with a lot of other people. But a better decision might be to identify a good spot away from the beaten path, where you can get solid weapons without fear of being attacked. Mark your intended location during the flight and make your way there--if you tap the W key (on PC) or forward on the left stick (on Xbox One) as you fall from the plane, you can do a sort of "swim" motion that gives you a little more horizontal distance. The same is true when you release your chute--tapping forward rhythmically can give you more distance away from the plane, rather than sending you down quicker. Opening your chute higher can help you get more distance (at the expense of speed).
Try to pick spots you know well, where the loot is abundant and, ideally, where you know vehicles spawn. Towns and big buildings are usually a good bet, and if you can reach one where other players aren't likely to be, all the better to let you get set up before you go hunting for opponents. You'll also want to check around you for other players as you fall by holding the Alt key or RB and panning the camera. Mentally log where nearby players land so you know where to go (or avoid).
Spend Time Learning How To Kill
Eventually, if you intend to win at PUBG, you'll need to kill someone. It's easy to dedicate tons of your play time in the game to stealth and survival, which often can get you to the top 10 in a given match. But in those last few moments, combat experience becomes essential. You need some.
It's a worthy investment to spend some PUBG matches just getting into fights, which is possible when you jump into dense areas where other players are likely to congregate (on the island map, Pochinki and the school are hot spots). Getting a gun fast and getting used to player tactics in a fight will make you much more effective when a chicken dinner is on the line. Some players try jumping, others will hit the dirt and go prone when threatened, and many get panicky. Experience will help you avoid flailing and missing shots, and will teach you what to expect from your guns. Spend some time seeking out fights and not necessarily trying to win to get important practice rounds in.
Use Space Effectively To Outmaneuver Players
Your best weapon in PUBG is the ability to anticipate what other people will do in a given situation. If you're ambushing someone approaching your building, for instance, you don't want to set up directly in their line of sight as they open the door — you're risking your life if they get a lucky shot off, especially with a shotgun. When attacking players in the open, try to catch them in spots where they can't easily run for cover. And if you lose track of someone in the middle of a fight, don't stand still hoping they'll lose you because you're not generating sound; find a better vantage point or better cover to avoid them flanking your previous position.
Buildings with multiple stories offer you some opportunities to literally get the drop on people when you're stuck fighting them, too. You can survive a pretty high fall at full health, even off three stories, and you'll take no damage from falling from a second-story balcony or rooftop. Use that verticality to your advantage by leaping down to ground-level, then catching your enemy as they go looking for you or when they come back down. You run a good chance of confusing an opponent by jumping to a lower level.
Never Assume You're Alone
In PUBG, death can come from many angles, even from places you'd never think to look. The good news is, you can learn from these situations to keep yourself alive that much longer, as long as you pay attention.
If you approach every situation, from running from the blue force field to approaching a new building, as if someone is waiting to kill you, you'll start to see how you can stay alive. Avoiding lines of sight from windows, checking corners, and staying close to cover will help you avoid getting picked off no matter what situation you're in. But just because a building or field looks empty doesn't mean that it is. Your best bet is to assume there's always someone potentially zeroing in on you, and to take only calculated risks, like running from cover to cover to minimize your exposure and identifying potential lines of sight where people might be hiding. It's also important to pick up on key signs of presence, such as open doors and missing loot.
Use All Your Tools
There are a huge amount of items and capabilities in PUBG that you might forget you have open to you. For instance, there are frag grenades, but you also have flashbangs and smoke grenades. Flashbangs can potentially help you get the drop on a player, and smoke can hide your movements or distract opponents. In addition to throwing grenades overhand in the default style, you can also toss them underhand--perfect for slipping one into a room where a player is currently holed up. The right mouse button (or right on the D-pad on Xbox) lets you toggle between grenade throws.
You've got a lot of potential tools at your disposal, from different grenade throws to your ability to lean around corners to take shots, as well as inventory items and weapons that are good in different scenarios. Remember to use everything at your disposal to be an effective player, from items to special controls.
Use Your Compass To Keep Track Of Enemies
The compass at the top of your screen tells you the cardinal directions you're facing, but it's also covered with numbers. Use these to get a better idea of where enemies are, specifically at range, as you're engaging them. If you take shots at an enemy at a distance, who then pops behind cover, you'll probably want to move so that your opponent doesn't catch on to your location. It can be easy to lose track of where they were hiding once you start moving around, though, especially if they're taking cover behind one of several trees. The compass provides you with extra information to try to keep track of where people are in relationship to you. Learn to use it to give yourself maximum information about where enemies are.
Learn To Predict The Circle's Movements
The playfield-restricting white circle is a constant concern for players, but it has features that you can learn and predict and use to your advantage. For instance, it's important to know that the circle doesn't continually shrink toward the center of the circle before it — meaning that just because you're in the center of the circle now doesn't mean you're going to be in its center on the next restriction. Because of that, you don't necessarily want to make a break for the middle of the circle every single time. You're more likely to run into other players there, for one thing, and you aren't guaranteeing your safety by doing so. Sometimes it's better to wait at the edge of the circle where it's safe and see where it goes before moving too far.
Use The Circle Against Other Players
Avoiding the circle is a huge part of PUBG, and you're going to want to know how to contend with it in a variety of situations. Even after you're experienced with the game, you're going to encounter the circle and potentially die from it if you're not careful. You can also use it to your advantage.
The play field will constrict a number of times during a given match, and each time it does, the blue force field that moves across the island will do more damage to players caught outside it. That means that being outside the first circle isn't a death sentence--you can even counteract most of the damage you'll receive with a boost item or two--but later in the game, the blue field can be devastating. Also note that when the blue circle catches up to the white circle on your map, the field's damage is increased significantly. Use that information to gauge whether you can hold your ground or to inform you whether you should move, and whether you can use the circle to force other players to move so you can better take them out. While avoiding the blue field and staying inside the white circle are important parts of the game, high-level strategy often takes the circle into consideration for how it'll affect the movements of other players.
Smart Use Of Vehicles Can Be A Game-Changer
Your first instinct might be to avoid cars because of how noisy they are, but a car early in the game can help you get into the best possible position for the entire match. Especially as the circle moves and changes, you can use a car to avoid having to spend much time in the open, and get to the best loot buildings early, ahead of other players.
Knowing where cars spawn and landing near one is a good idea just for safety's sake, and in the early game, players are often spread out so much that driving isn't especially dangerous. Grab a car and you can use it in several ways as well--it can get you quickly into the circle and to a good position to loot, for a start, and then you can either hide it or position it as a trap for other players, which can help you set up an ambush for anyone who follows you. If you can secure a car early, it's worth it to do so (and you can often speed away with minimal damage if someone does hear you and starts shooting).
By the same token, you'll likely want to abandon a car once you've gotten into a good position toward the middle to later parts of a match. The smaller the circle becomes, the more a car is a liability that gives away your position and makes you a major target. You can use a car effectively for the first few circle constrictions, but around the middle of the match, it's probably best to ditch it--and maybe don't leave it too close to the buildings you intend to loot around this time, so that you don't broadcast your presence to other players.
Never Stand In Front Of Doors As You Open Them
Most of the time when you're killed in PUBG, it won't be in a straight fight — it'll be when you didn't realize someone was waiting for you and gets the drop on you. One easy way to give yourself at least a little reaction time is to be careful about how you open doors.
Doors in PUBG can be triggered even if you're not dead on in front of them. You can open a door if you stand a little to its left or right, which means you can actually take a bit of cover while the door swings open. Walls can't be penetrated by bullets in PUBG, but doors can. So if you're approaching a door, stand to the side to open it. You might avoid getting a shotgun blast to the face as you walk into a building, you'll be able to see more of the interior than you could before you opened the door (in third-person view), and you'll have at least a little bit of extra protection. There's no reason to make yourself vulnerable if you can avoid it.
Listen For What You're Up Against
Sound in PUBG is more important than sight in many cases. It'll give you lots of information, particularly when you're using headphones, since the game is really good about directional audio. Not only can you often hear footsteps and vehicles at a large distance, you'll also hear gunshots, both from people shooting at each other and people shooting at you.
Gun sounds in PUBG are pretty distinct from one another, and the information you can glean from listening can be very useful. Echoing single rifle shots, for example, can usually give you an idea of where snipers are located--and snipers are probably your biggest danger in the game for most of a given match. Knowing where sniper fire is coming from can help you avoid walking into a killzone. By the same token, identifying what another player might be trying to use against you can give you an idea of how to deal with it. If you're taking shots from a quick-firing Uzi but from a decently long range, you probably have time to figure where it's coming from and might even be able to return fire. As with everything in PUBG, knowledge is power and can keep you alive.
If You Can't Win, Run
Retreat is an important tool in PUBG, and one you shouldn't discount. If you're losing a fight or feel like you're on the back foot and having a hard time pinning down and finishing someone, sometimes cutting and running is the best option. You can often break line of sight, and the further away you get from someone, the tougher it is for them to see and hear you in order to pursue you--and PUBG is a game with a huge amount of space to cover and lots of potential places to run and hide, even if it's just getting a little way away from your opponent and ducking behind a tree. Your goal generally isn't to kill, but to survive, so make that your top priority. If you can get away when a fight isn't going your way, it can be worth it to do so.
The same goes for places you think other players have been. You might pass a building that looks promising but has open doors. Your best-case scenario for those places are that they've been looted; worst case, there's someone waiting for you inside, and it's better to keep moving. The best way to win PUBG is not to put yourself in bad or sticky situations, even when playing aggressively. You want to have the upper hand as often as possible. That means playing smart and living to fight on later.
It's the last GameSpot News Roundup of the week with Jess McDonell and Dan Crowd, for better or worse. Here's what we cover:
Battlefield: Bad Company 3 Is Rumored To Be In The Works
YouTuber AlmightyDag doesn't have a lot of videos on his channel, but he's notable for correctly revealing details on DICE's Battlefield 1 months before it was officially announced. Now, he's claiming that DICE's next project is the long-awaited Battlefield: Bad Company 3. Get the scoop in today's episode!
Disney Acquires 20th Century Fox For $52 Billion Dollars
It's finally happening. Disney has confirmed that they're buying up Fox's entertainment assets for a huge amount of money. It's a move that gives them a huge advantage in the online video streaming space, but it also means that Marvel properties like X-Men and Fantastic Four can finally hang out with the rest of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. For more details, stay tuned to the video.
PUBG Finally Launches on Xbox With Mixed Results
Battle royale phenomenon PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds finally launched on Xbox One this week, but its performance across the three different available versions of the console is, unsurprisingly, all over the place. It's still fun, though! We explain our experiences with it in the episode.
That's all for GameSpot News this week, let us know what you thought about today's stories in the comments and have a great weekend!
After the mountain ranges of Kyrat and the tropical charm of the Rook Islands, Far Cry 5 could not have picked a more divergent locale than the state of Montana. Yet if you've never driven by a farm or don't know zen-like serenity of fly fishing, it takes little to no time for any Far Cry fan to get acquainted with Hope County.
If you've retained some muscle memory from forays in Far Cry 4 or even Far Cry Primal, you should be able to make small work of many of the initial missions in Far Cry 5. As before, it's largely about studying enemy patrol patterns, knowing how to read alert meters, and mastering stealth takedowns. But unless you're a Far Cry stealth savant, being able to switch gears and go in guns blazing is an equally useful skill.
Your adversaries--the followers and leaders of the Eden's Gate cult--will make sure that the further you go to retake the land from them, the stronger their fanatical pushback. Every bit of territorial takeover gets you closer to the showdown against Joseph Seed, "The Father", and leader, of Eden's Gate. But first, you have to take out his three siblings who control various regions of Hope County. This pathway to the final boss feels like a less ambitious version of the route to El Sueno in Ghost Recon: Wildlands. That doesn't imply Far Cry 5 will be a lesser experience, though between the abundance of helicopters and means to infiltrate bases from the skies, it's hard to avoid comparisons to Ubisoft's early 2017 hit. Both games even have a helicopter shooting puzzle.
Incidentally, our most recent hands-on session shed little new light on Eden's Gate, aside from the affirmation that their followers are some of the most rage-filled enemies in series history. Their idea of cleansing the land means poisoning the water system, even if it results in drugged out animals. It also means getting rid of Hope County's history, right down to its gravesites. It makes for a suitable introductory bonding session between you and optional Gun-For-Hire Grace Armstrong. You can win her over by helping fend off cultists attempting to destroy graves around her church. Whether you follow Grace's lead and snipe followers from the church tower or take the fight to ground level, there are a lot of weapon options in Far Cry 5, provided you can find or afford them.
So far, the most engrossing aspect of Ubisoft's vision of a cult-occupied county in Montana is the illusion that its creatures and citizens live and exist independent of your involvement, for better or worse. You can emerge from a forest to find a bear and a bull in a life-and-death struggle on a farm or you can drive by a couple of cultists on the road ready to execute a pair of non-believers. Obviously, and with a quick enough draw, you can affect the outcome of these conflicts--just be aware that cultists, bears, and bulls will reciprocate your hostility. If the heart of Far Cry is the cycle of recognizing, acting upon, and creating opportunities, what we've played of Far Cry 5 is a promising sample of this continuing trend of rich emergent gameplay.
It remains to be seen whether there'll be a meaningful take-away from Far Cry 5's provoking premise of religious fanaticism. This interpretation of rural America could be inviting enough to make up for the lack of a meaningful message. Even with all the cultists roaming Hope Valley, this could be the first Far Cry worth spending time in "just to hang," whether that means going fishing or taking a tractor for a spin. It's even gratifying to take a plane up and discover landmarks that are impossible to see at ground level. We didn't exactly spot Nazca Lines, but there were landmarks that could be interpreted as extra-terrestrial in nature. We're curious to see what those mean.
By Anonymous on Dec 16, 2017 05:30 am Disney acquires Fox properties, resulting in great implications for the Marvel universe, and PUBG launches on Xbox One with mixed results.
The wildly popular Playerunknown's Battlegrounds (commonly called PUBG) is set to officially release on December 20 on PC, but Nvidia jumped ahead and did its own internal performance testing of the game. Based on the pre-release test server that's said to be optimized, Nvidia ran hundreds of benchmarks on both maps to get framerate data with the goal of getting a 60 FPS average.
At the resolution of 1920x1080 (1080p) and "High" graphics quality settings, a GeForce GTX 1060 is recommended. Nvidia claims to hit an average of 70 FPS while never dipping below 60 FPS. If players wish to play at "Ultra" quality settings at 1080p, a GTX 1070 is recommended.
For players that want to bump the resolution up to 2560x1440 (1440p) with "High" quality, Nvidia suggests a GTX 1070, which netted a 72 FPS average and a 61 FPS minimum. Pushing "Ultra" settings at 1440p would require a GTX 1080 to stay above 60 FPS. And the ambitious folk running 3840x2160 (4K) and "High" settings, a GTX 1080 Ti is said to do the trick; the top-tier video card ran a 60 FPS average. 4K "Ultra" quality is quite the feat, but a factory overclocked GTX 1080 Ti is best suited for the task.
All benchmark tests from Nvidia were done on a system equipped with an Intel Core i7-6700K CPU, 16GB of DDR5-2133 RAM, and the Windows 10 64-bit operating system.
PUBG continues to grow, and it's already sold over 20 million copies on PC during its early access phase. With vaulting, new weapons, and a new map included in the final version, players are getting more features on top of performance optimizations. The Xbox One version went into an early access phase earlier this month; it's even bundled with the Xbox One X for a limited time. However, technical performance has been unstable for the early console version.
The phenomenally popular battle royale game PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds made its console debut earlier this week when it released on Xbox One, and it's already proven to be very popular on the system. Those who may be looking to jump in to PUBG but don't own an Xbox One yet will soon have a chance to pick up both at once, as Microsoft is bundling the game with its new Xbox One X for a limited-time.
Beginning December 17, those who purchase an Xbox One X in participating regions will get a copy of PUBG (which contains a download code for the game) right out of the box at no additional cost. The promotion only runs through December 31, however, so you'll have until the end of the month to score a free copy of the popular survival game with your new Xbox One X.
PUBG is available in early access on Xbox One via the Xbox Game Preview program. It costs $30 to purchase the game--the same price as the early access version on PC. However, the game doesn't perform quite as well on Xbox as it does on PC. Despite its early rough patches, PUBG already drew more than 1 million players on Xbox One in its first 48 hours.
Xbox One X launched around the world back in November. It's the most powerful console to date and costs $500. A growing number of games have been updated with 4K support and other enhancements when played on Xbox One X. Xbox One players can also purchase exclusive cosmetic item packs for PUBG, the second of which is only available from December 14-17. A new desert map called Miramar will also be added to the game in the near future.
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Disney acquires Fox properties, resulting in great implications for the Marvel universe, and PUBG launches on Xbox One with mixed results.
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