Although it hasn't been officially confirmed by Ubisoft, it appears as if the next game in the Assassin's Creed franchise will take place in a Viking setting. The game is expected to launch in 2020, with 2019 devoted to the release of a remastered edition of Assassin's Creed III and Odyssey's Fate of Atlantis episodic DLC.
Theories that the next mainline Assassin's Creed game will take place in the era of Vikings sprung up with the discovery of odd posters in The Division 2. YouTuber JorRaptor noticed that the numerous Viking posters located in The Division 2's Potomac Event Center seemed to feature a Norse god or traveller holding what appears to be an Apple of Eden. Kotaku has since confirmed from two independent sources "familiar with the game" that the next Assassin's Creed title--codenamed "Kingdom" and scheduled for 2020--stars Vikings.
One of Assassin's Creed's Pieces of Eden, the Apple, has been one of the most prominent ties in the Ubisoft franchise, with versions of it appearing in the original game, Assassin's Creed II, Brotherhood, Revelations, III, Syndicate, and Origins, as well as many of the comics, novels, and the live action movie. These ancient technologies were developed by a fictional race that lived centuries prior to most of the events of the Assassin's Creed franchise, and they--along with the other Pieces of Eden--have been repeatedly used as the main source of power for history's seemingly supernatural or divine figures.
If the next Assassin's Creed does have a Viking setting, it flies in the face of fans' repeated requests for a game in Japan, and discounts the 2016 leak that revealed the franchise's next titles would be a trilogy telling the origin of the Assassin and Templar conflict--set first in Egypt, and then followed by Greece and finally Rome (although getting two out of three settings isn't that bad).
The Viking Age commonly refers to the period of time in Northern Europe between the ninth and eleventh centuries, which could put this next Assassin's Creed game anywhere between 100-400 years prior to the events of the very first game. Both Origins and Odyssey have detailed how forgotten members of history discovered the value of killing key figures as opposed to waging wars, giving rise to the Hidden Ones. But the franchise still hasn't shown how the Hidden Ones become the Assassin Brotherhood seen in the first game, nor how their enemies, The Order of Ancients, become the Assassins' foes, The Templar Order, also seen in the first game.
It's been a great few weeks for deals in the Xbox and Playstation stores, which have offered discounts on high-quality games recently. Now, it's GameStop's turn--the retailer is kicking off its massive spring sale this Sunday, April 7 with significant markdowns on PS4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch games; deals on consoles, gaming accessories, and memberships; discounts on toys and merchandise; and special trade-in offers. The deals will be available online, in stores, and on the GameStop app. Except where otherwise stated, these offers will be available until Saturday, April 20. Here's a quick breakdown of the deals that will be available.
Many of the best game discounts are for PS4 and Xbox One. Of the deals that have been announced so far, notable discounts include Resident Evil 2 for $40, Far Cry New Dawn for $20, and Kingdom Hearts 3 for $40. Red Dead Redemption 2 will be marked down to $40, and its GameStop-exclusive Ultimate edition, which includes exclusive story mode content, bonus online content, additional weapons, an exclusive printed map, and collectible steelbook, will sell for $70. Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle, a turn-based tactics game developed by Ubisoft for the Nintendo Switch, will be discounted to $25.
There will be a ton of console and accessories deals, such as 20% off select Nintendo Switch accessories and up to $60 off select gaming headsets. If you buy an Xbox One X or S from April 7 to 13, you'll receive a $50 GameStop gift card; then starting April 14, you'll receive an Apex Legends Founders Pack and save $50 with any Xbox One purchase.
Be sure to check out the deals on apparel, collectibles, and toys as well. From April 7 to 13, it's buy one, get one 50% off on all apparel, including T-shirts, hats, socks, bags, and wallets. There will also be an Easter deal where it's 25% off all toys, collectibles, apparel, and more that you can fit inside an exclusive Thanos bag (which itself costs $5), making a great Easter gift for young gamers (or to treat yourself, we're not judging).
The discounts will be available starting this Sunday, and we'll keep this post updated with any notable deals. Check out some of the confirmed deals below!
Easter Stuff & Save Bag - toys, collectibles, drinkware, board games, statues, and apparel -- 25% off everything you can fit in an exclusive Thanos bag (begins April 14, excludes discounted products, bag itself costs $5)
Special trade-in offers:
$250 trade credit for any PlayStation 4 Pro or Xbox One X consoles
$200 trade credit for Original or Slim PlayStation 4 or Nintendo Switch consoles
$150 trade credit for Xbox One S console
50% extra credit on any games traded (only April 7-13)
By Anonymous on Apr 05, 2019 11:36 pm Xur is back with Forsaken exotics! Grab some Year 2 armor and old favorites in Destiny 2: Forsaken. Check out this guide to see where to go, and what exactly he has in store.
We've reached Week 6 of Fortnite Season 8, and there's a new set of challenges to complete across PS4, Xbox One, PC, Nintendo Switch, and mobile. Clear this week's missions and you'll earn Battle Stars, leveling up your Battle Pass and bringing you one step closer to unlocking this season's secret Legendary skin, Ruin.
As usual, there's an extra incentive to complete as many challenges as you can besides unlocking the new Season 8 Battle Pass rewards. If you manage to clear all of the objectives from a given week, you'll in turn complete one of this season's Discovery challenges, earning you a special loading screen that hides a subtle clue pointing to a free Battle Star--which levels your Battle Pass up by one tier--or a Banner--which can be used as a profile icon--waiting somewhere around the island.
Clear six weeks' worth of Season 8 challenges and you'll receive the loading screen pictured below. This one depicts Master Key trying to retrieve one of his keys from a shadowy figure. The key, it turns out, is the clue that'll lead you to this week's secret Banner. Look closely at its handle and you'll see a set of coordinates: E2, E3, F2, F3.
The secret Banner will appear where those four coordinates converge, just west of Lazy Lagoon. We've circled the exact location on the map below. Glide to the area at the beginning of a match and you'll be able to find the Banner beneath a tree. Pick it up then finish the match and it'll be yours to use as a snazzy new profile icon. If you need more help finding it, you can watch where we go in the video above.
Like other secret Banners and Battle Stars, there are a few caveats to be aware of before setting out to find the item. Most important, this particular Banner won't appear unless you've completed six weeks' worth of challenges and unlocked the above loading screen; you won't simply be able to go to the right area and pick it up unless you've done all of the necessary steps. Fortunately, we have tips and guides in our Season 8 challenges roundup if you need help completing any of this season's missions.
Epic recently rolled out Fortnite's 8.20 content update. This time, the developer introduced a new weapon called the Boom Bow to Battle Royale mode. What makes this particular bow unique is that its arrows are outfitted with shotgun shells, which will explode on contact. Epic also kicked off another Sniper Showdown LTM and made a few other changes to the game, such as buffing peppers. You can find the full patch notes on the official Fortnite website.
If you've attempted to purchase tickets to what's arguably the biggest movie this spring, there's a decent chance you clicked away disappointed. Tickets for Avengers: Endgame were snapped up quickly, with many unable to even look at seats on ticketing sites like Cinemark and Fandango. Demand has led to listings on eBay that purport to be selling the highly coveted tickets, but at astronomical prices.
According to a CBS News report, scalpers on eBay are attempting to sell them for upwards of $25,000 on the high end. On the low end, a set of five tickets is being offered for $600. The five ticket package even comes with a financing option: $29 USD for 24 months through PayPal. Two tickets to a 3D showing of Endgame in Newport are going for $400.
As it stands, it's unclear whether the tickets are actually being purchased at these ridiculous prices. The listing for two tickets to a New York theatre for $5,000 has ended, but the original item listing states, "This listing was ended by the seller because there was an error in the listing." Another two tickets that were priced at $10,000 is also no longer available, and a message reads, "This listing was ended by the seller because the item is no longer available."
Reports suggest that Endgame could debut at an estimated $200-250 million during its opening weekend. It's possible Endgame could surpass this estimate, as Avengers: Infinity War pulled in $257 million in its opening weekend, well over its estimated $180-225. Avenger: Endgame hits theatres on April 26.
Ahead of its release, Disney and Marvel released a new trailer. We've taken a close look at it and have an Avengers: Endgame trailer breakdown that analyzes every bit of new information it offers. A small slice of Avengers: Endgame was also shown at CinemaCon, but behind-closed-doors. While the general public won't be able to see it, details of what it includes have been published.
The tragedy of Pet Sematary's Creed family, and how the loss of a kid destroys the entire family once the barrier between the living and the dead evaporates, is well established, thanks to Stephen King's original novel and the successful 1989 adaptation. So when the second trailer for the newest adaptation of Stephen King's Pet Sematary, fans were quick to notice a major deviation from the novel.
That trailer showed that it would be 8-year-old Ellie, and not the adorable 3-year-old Gage, who would bite the dust thanks to a speeding truck. This means no cute toddler chasing people with a knife and making the audience think about whether they should scream or go "aww." But according to the cast and crew of Pet Sematary, this change allowed them to go darker and deeper than even the previous film.
It was originally Matt Greenberg, who wrote the first draft for the new Pet Sematary, who came up with the idea, and at first, it raised a few eyebrows among the cast and crew. "It took me 24 to 36 hours before I finally started coming to terms with the change," writer Jeff Buhler told GameSpot the day after the film's world premiere during SXSW. "By then the initial shock wore off and I started getting excited about the implications of the change and all the things you could do with it."
Jason Clarke, who plays Louis Creed, is a self-proclaimed Stephen King fan, and he was also surprised by the change in the script. "That's always the litmus test," Clarke told GameSpot. "They tell you they changed some things and when you read it you can't believe what they did. But I loved what they did with Ellie. I don't want to be working with a doll, or a stand-in or a tennis ball. I love that I get to work with a real actress that does a great job, and that change makes it easier to establish that father-daughter relationship, which is the core of the story. I thought it was a very smart move."
The change opened some big doors for the filmmakers, and directors Dennis Widmyer and Kevin Kölsch think they got to have a more adult conversation about death than if it was a toddler that returned from the grave. "You have a character that now is the older child and has the presence of mind to know what's happening to her and talk about it," said Kölsch. "We always find the psychology of this movie the most terrifying of things, and having this child, [who asks] about death earlier in the movie, now asking about her own condition, makes you see instantly why this change works."
Buhler also added a new dimension to the story that wasn't present in previous versions: Ellie's relationship with her neighbor Judd. In the book, Judd, now played by John Lithgow, acts as a surrogate father to Louis, but Buhler saw an opportunity to do something different. "He's just so likable," the writer explained. "So by having him interact with Ellie, it makes you ask yourself if you really trust him or not. He acts like a sympathetic old man, but you get a sense that he's hiding something. And because it's an 8-year-old, she instantly trusts him, even if her parents don't."
Amy Seimetz, who plays Rachel Creed, thinks the character switch makes sense for a new adaptation. "Horror only works with the unexpected," she told GameSpot. "You can't just make a word-for-word remake of the book or the film, because it's so well known." Her co-star, Jason Clarke, agrees. He drew an interesting comparison: "You have to be bold with an adaptation," Clarke said. "I love The Shining, and Kubrick made that movie his own. We're not making this to read at home alone, we're making this to watch in a room with hundreds of people."
The Dark Humor
Along with the changes in plot, Pet Sematary has another trick up its sleeve: its humor. As our review points out, the film has a morbid humor that makes you laugh even in the bleakest of scenes. "It's the absurdity of it all," Clarke told us. "And you just have to play with that. There's a scene where we're arguing about telling Ellie about death, and Rachel doesn't want to say anything and suddenly Ellie says 'but mom, what about your sister?' and it's just like 'Oh my God!' It is just built in there naturally."
The directors agree that it's not meant to be just comedic, but a darker, more morbid humor. "I think the laughs serve as decompression," Dennis Widmyer said. "The movie has a lot of anxiety, and these moments let you nervously laugh and enjoy the movie a bit more than if it was utterly bleak the whole way through."
Buhler, on the other hand, was surprised to even hear people laughing during the film's world premiere. "We played everything really straight," Buhler explains. "I was surprised that people were really yacking it up last night and I thought 'what is wrong with people?' I think what happens is that the movie is so messed up and absurd, you're laughing because you can't believe what is happening onscreen, as opposed to an actual comedy like Shaun of the Dead that has built-in jokes."
Sharp-eyed viewers will also notice a little nod to another famous Stephen King story in Pet Sematary. Dennis Widmyer thinks it was just natural to include something, but they made sure they did it right. "Stephen King does that himself in a kind of multiverse," Widmyer said. "Even in the Pet Sematary book there's a reference to the dog from Cujo, so we already had the groundwork done for us, we just didn't want to be cute about it. The production design team really got excited and started pitching things like a Danny Torrance hardware store, and we decided against it because Danny would never have a hardware store. What we did was to think about things that could exist within this book. If Rachel Creed is driving up I-95 from Boston to Ludlow, on Stephen King's map of Maine she would pass Derry at one point, so we could do that as long as it doesn't go beyond the reality of this story."
The Ending Changes
Of course, while the Ellie/Gage switch is a huge departure from the book, Pet Sematary doesn't stop there. The film's ending, in which both Creed parents and Ellie are seen walking out of the sematary and towards a defenseless Gage, is different than the book and the previous film--and it is also a bonkers and fun way to end such an absurd and dark film. Thing is, this was nowhere near the original ending.
According to Buhler, the production tried "every ending imaginable," Buhler told GameSpot, with different characters coming out of the sematary and others being left behind, dead. The ending we got was sort of a surprise. "Someone suggested it as a joke on a roundtable discussion, and I thought that it sounded like a weird but maybe fun idea, so we shot it and played it with the movie. That's when we realized that this ending worked best, because it made the movie fun again. After such a bleak story, you want to go out of the theater and get pizza with your friends, and this ending makes you want to do just that."
While Buhler wouldn't give up details on the other endings they tried, we did get some information on a couple of finished scenes that were cut from the theatrical version of the film. Producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura told us that they should make their way into the Blu-ray. "The first scene is between Jason Clarke and John Lithgow, where they talk about family and what's happening in the town," di Bonaventura said. "It was a nice scene that gave some insight into John's character, but it got cut because you already knew what the conversation was about before you got there, so it felt repetitive."
The second one sounds super interesting, and we are bummed that it got cut. "The other was about Rachel when she goes back to her parents' house," explains di Bonaventura. "When she sees the blood coming out and her kid starts crying. We had her parents come down and they sort of fight, because Rachel's parents think she is hysterical. She's saying she knows something is wrong with Louis and she has to go back, and they try to calm her down while Gage is crying. She tells her parents to give her back her kid, and they say 'not in your state'. Then she finally gets mad at them and yells 'I'm not going to be like you, you pretended that Zelda never existed. Ellie did.' It's a heavy scene, and a great scene, and there's not really another scene that duplicates what it tries to say. Unfortunately the place that scene is in, it just gets in the way of the movie's flow, so it got cut."
Toys-to-life as a concept infiltrated the games industry toward the end of the last console generation. Production of the plastic figurines has significantly slowed down since then, with a few heavy-hitters--such as Disney Infinity and Lego Dimensions--discontinuing production altogether. Ubisoft's open-world game, Starlink: Battle for Atlas, is following suit, as the developers have announced that the game won't get any more toys.
In an update posted to the official Starlink website, the Starlink development team confirmed that physical toys will not continue to roll out. "Despite the immense and continuous support from our players, the sales for Starlink: Battle for Atlas fell below expectations. Consequently, we recently made the decision to not release any additional physical toys for the Spring update and in the future."
While the news is saddening for fans, the Starlink team isn't done with with the game altogether, as it's preparing to release the "biggest update to the game so far."
"Starlink: Battle for Atlas has been a passion project for us from the start, and we are incredibly proud of the modular Starship technology we have developed, and how well players have responded to it," it said.
The update the team is referring to was announced during Nintendo's February Direct. Along with Fire Emblem: Three Houses, Super Mario Maker 2, and Tetris 99 reveals, the rest of the Star Fox team--Falco Lombardi, Peppy Hare, and Slippy Toad--will join Fox McCloud in a new series of missions in Starlink on Switch. Each pilot comes with their own special abilities and skill trees and can be used to play any mission available in the game. In addition to the inclusion of the Star Fox team, Starlink will receive more content in this forthcoming update, such as Starship Races, Factions Missions, and more. The update is planned for this April, but no specific release date has been given.
In our Starlink review, we called it "an interesting and enjoyable open-world game," but lamented that "if you're interested in the physical models, you'll have to spend more to get the same experience as the digital version."
Starlink: Battle for Atlas is available now for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One.
Shazam! May be a fun, kid-friendly blast of positive energy for the DCEU that stands well on its own, but that it also sets up some big things to come in the future--after all, for all the jokes and the bright colors, this movie is introducing a whole new corner of DC's long and complicated comic book history into the mix for the movies.
And its post-credits scene just takes it all one step further with even more vintage comic book insanity brought to life on the big screen.
Shazam Spoilers below, so proceed with caution.
The movie leaves us off with a clear set up for a sequel--not only does Billy successfully battle both Sivana and the seven deadly sins, he also empowers his foster family in the process. The newly formed team establishes their very own lair within the Rock of Eternity, where they'll probably make more than a few messes in the process of keeping the magical world safe from evil. C'mon, who could blame them? They're kids set loose in an extremely dangerous (and wonderful) candy store--and there are some pretty major threats looming just over the horizon.
Meet Mr. Mind
Alright, I hope you're ready to get weird, because we're about to get really, really weird. The first post-credits stinger features an incarcerated Dr. Sivana--looking a whole lot more like the original comic book Dr. Sivana of the 1940s, stooped over, wearing glasses, and so on. He's frantically trying to find his way back to the Rock of Eternity by endlessly scribbling on his cell walls and apparently having absolutely no luck.
But just as his pencil breaks and he feels all hope is lost--a voice. A computer generated voice that just so happens to be coming from a worm. A worm with a plan to break Sivana out of jail.
So, OK, those words together in that sentence probably seem like nonsense even in a movie as goofy as Shazam. But don't worry, it's not a gag or even a punchline. This is all real-deal comic book stuff. Remember back at the beginning of the movie when young Sivana was first transported to the Rock of Eternity, and there was a brief shot of a tiny caterpillar in a glass case? And later, when Billy was transported to the Rock, the caterpillar's case was broken and the caterpillar itself was missing?
Well, we found him. Or rather, he found Sivana. Mr. Mind may not look like the most intimidating supervillain in the world--he's, well, a bug, no beating around the bush there--but he's actually got a pretty devious track record in the DC Universe. There's a reason the wizard had him locked up like a magical trophy.
Mr. Mind got his start back in the 1940s, when superhero comics were just getting their start, as an intentionally goofy threat. He was a non-threatening, easy-to-understand pastiche of fascism--something that the kids reading comics in the Golden Age would have definitely heard their parents talking about, even before Pearl Harbor, but probably didn't completely understand. He was a megalomaniacal worm from outer space with a genius level intellect and "the conscience of Hitler" (no, really.)
Of course, he was largely made to be pretty easily dispatched by Billy and friends--but that didn't stop Mind from constantly trying to scheme his way into world domination. As part of said schemes, Mind actually founded one of the first ever supervillain team ups in comics history: the Monster Society of Evil, an extremely goofy name for a pretty goofy group of ne're-do-wells with a revolving roster that traditionally included both Mind and Sivana alongside some of Billy's other frequent foes.
Obviously the post credits scene here--Mind breaking Sivana out of prison--is implying the formation of a live action Monster Society in one way or another, but the group's goals (and other members) are still largely mysterious. As with most of the vintage comics campiness that has persisted to the modern day, Mr. Mind and the Monster Society have been overhauled a few times over to make them less hilarious and more genuinely scary--including a reveal that Mind's worm form was merely his larval stage, prior to his metamorphosis into a giant cosmic moth capable of eating the space time continuum.
So, what we're saying is there are a lot of potential avenues a live action Monster Society could take. We might see Mr. Mind turn into a silly gag villain, or we might see him destroy the entire DCEU. Your guess is as good as ours.
Talking To Fish
The final post credits sequence is considerably less jam packed with foreshadowing. We get to see yet another of Freddy and Billy's super power tests--this time to check out whether or not Billy can talk to fish--an obvious wink to Aquaman.
Outside of the occasional t-shirt, Freddy makes no mention of Arthur Curry in his superhero fan collections, so this moment is actually the only real Aquaman reference in Shazam. He's probably still too new on the scene for Freddy to have found much real life merch, right? After all, the whole Atlantis thing did just happen.
Who knows, maybe someday Arthur will show up at Fawcett High to impress all of Billy and Freddy's friends like Clark did at the end of the movie--though we probably shouldn't get our hopes up for that one.
Following 2015's sleeper-hit Her Story, creator Sam Barlow initially wasn't keen on making a similar game right after. However, as the framework for his follow-up took shape, the writer/director found his past's game approach to storytelling as a compelling hook for his new tale. In Telling Lies, you'll investigate the lives of four strangers over a period of two years; each of them has their own secrets and personal trauma. By witnessing brief glimpses of their lives from private videos, you'll uncover the larger story that connects them all together.
We spent some time talking with the game's writer and director during GDC 2019, where he gave us the rundown on what to expect with his return to the interactive video drama. In essence, Telling Lies takes Her Story's foundation of an interactive drama and expands its scope. Featuring a larger cast of characters, portrayed by film and TV actors such as Logan Marshall-Green, Kerry Bishé, Alexandra Shipp, and Angela Sarafyan, it puts more of a focus on the private moments that individuals have alone with their devices, and how relationships are affected when filtered through a personal phone or webcam.
With an air of voyeurism similar to films like Steven Soderbergh's Sex, Lies, and Videotape and Francis Ford Coppola's The Conversation, the overarching story unfolds on a modern desktop with access to an NSA database. Playing heavily to the modern paranoia surrounding increased surveillance, this conceit allows you to search through hours of recorded footage taken from phones, computers, and dashboard cameras, revealing plenty of personal and raw moments. According to Barlow, when the larger story begins to form, you'll come to understand why you're examining these characters in the first place.
Similar to Her Story, Telling Lies will have you comb through footage looking for the key information that fills in the blanks of a fractured timeline. Moving away from Her Story's '90s-era tech, the player interface in Telling Lies--another desktop--is more modern, allowing for greater flexibility in how you can interpret and piece together the story. By searching keywords, you'll be able to find clips that include the use of that word. Engaging the clip will start you at the point where the keyword is spoken by the person of interest. From here, you'll be able to play the video for its duration, even if you landed on the last word spoken in the clip, or scrub it back to see what came before--possibly unearthing a new clue.
Barlow explained that Telling Lies not only examines intimacy in the modern age but also plays with the concept of context and what you bring with your perspective. In Her Story, it became apparent over the course of the game that figuring out the crime that Hannah was suspected of wasn't necessarily the true goal. Rather, it was more of a character study and an exercise in fostering empathy for her, faults and all. According to Barlow, Telling Lies is about "exploring the larger story through the negative space," an idea that stuck with him during the making and ensuing reception of Her Story.
"It's kind of doubling down on the sense of narrative I had with Her Story," Barlow said. "People would play that game and one of the big positives they came away with was they felt like they had an intimate experience when spending that time with that character, listening to her talk, and it felt like they had a connection and empathized with her in a way. Despite it being essentially a computer interface, it all felt quite organic and human in a way. You get to explore [the story] through these more character-driven and intimate moments, which is a very different texture to most video games."
Some clips will show various characters during some mundane moments, without anything of consequence happening. However, another video might show a pivotal, and likely serious, event, which can give previous clips new meaning. Discovering the context of many of these clips can add new layers to the key characters, which can affect your perception of their relationships with others. Though it all seems to be in a similar vein as Her Story, and Barlow said that Telling Lies hits something more social than its predecessor could.
"I think it's an interesting question when you make something that is as different and weird as Her Story," said Barlow. "I deliberately did not immediately want to make a sequel with Her Story, and I gave myself some distance from it. Once I came back to it and I was like, 'What was interesting to me about that game that I think I could do more with? What direction can I take it in?'"
One of the more remarkable things about Her Story was the way it used its detective conceit as a means to examine its key character. Thanks to its non-linear approach, you could unearth details about the lead at your own pace. Barlow seems to be aware of what made the original work, reinforcing the flow of the narrative and the sense of distance from a story that's long since past. However, the new focus on a larger cast can make for a more intriguing plot, which may play out in its most raw and intimate forms.
Telling Lies is set for release sometime in 2019 and will be published by Annapurna Interactive.
It's the weekend, which means for Destiny 2 players, it's time to party with Xur. That means accepting his Invitation of the Nine, and purchasing some Exotic weapons and armor from the Agent of the Nine to fill out your collection.
Head out to Titan to find Xur this week--he's hanging out on The Rig. Head to the north end of the platform and check inside a low building near its edge to find him. This week, you can pick up D.A.R.C.I., a sniper rifle that offers a bunch of targeting perks. Its Personal Assistant gives you information about enemies when you aim at them through the gun's scope, and using the perk gives you better target acquisition and extra precision damage.
While there was a dearth of Forsaken Exotics in Xur's bag last week, this week is a little less disappointing. Hunters can grab the Gwisin Vest chest armor from Forsaken, which gives back Super energy for the kills you make with Spectral Blades in between activating the Super's invisibility. For Titans, there's the Antaeus Wards leg armor, another Forsaken Exotic. The boots let you reflect incoming projectiles when sliding, and using the reflection perk gives you Super energy. Warlocks aren't as lucky--they're stuck with Winter's Guile from the Year One collection, which boosts your melee damage for every melee kill you rack up.
Here are all the Exotics Xur offers this week and what they'll cost you:
You can also buy a Fated Engram, if you can afford it. Dropping 97 Legendary Shards on the item will grant you one Year One Exotic you don't already have for that character. Xur also offers the Five of Swords challenge card for free, which allows you to add difficulty modifiers that increase your score in Nightfall runs.
Xur brings another Invitation of the Nine this week, a weekly bounty that gives you a Powerful gear drop, a bit of story about the Nine, and a new Lore entry. If you've been keeping up each week, this one will send you to Io to complete The Pyramidion strike. You'll also need to kill Cabal, Taken, and Vex enemies.
We're more than halfway through Season 8 of Fortnite now, which means players who have been keeping up with the game's weekly challenges should be getting close to unlocking this season's secret Legendary skin. In an uncharacteristic move, Epic Games has given fans an early glimpse at the outfit, and it looks very cool.
Battle Pass holders who manage to complete eight weeks' worth of challenges in Season 8 will unlock the Ruin skin. Epic revealed the ominous-looking outfit on Twitter, and while it didn't share any further details about the character or how it ties into the game's lore, it will presumably have something to do with the impending Season 9.
Battle Pass Owners… Prepare for Ruin. The Week 8 Battle Pass Outfit has been revealed! Complete your Weekly Challenges now to unlock Ruin in Week 8. pic.twitter.com/5iokGrqbQp
Fortnite's 8.20 content update arrived earlier this week. The highlight of the update was another new weapon: the Boom Bow. Unlike a typical bow, this one has shotgun shells on its arrow tips, which will explode on impact. Epic also brought back the popular Sniper Showdown limited-time mode and made a few other tweaks to the game, such as buffing peppers, one of the new scavenged items recently added to the game.
By Anonymous on Apr 05, 2019 08:30 pm We've turned Red Dead Redemption 2's protagonist into one irredeemable, low-down piece of trash over the last few months. Here are some of his worst moments and some of your best creations.
Xbox Live Gold subscribers will soon need to pay more for their membership, as Microsoft confirms it's raising the price of its premium service across the UK. The new prices will take effect from May 8.
"To ensure gamers have consistent pricing for Xbox Live Gold across Europe we are making changes to UK pricing from May 8," a Microsoft spokesperson told GameSpot. "Prices will rise by £1 a month for our monthly subscriptions, £3 for our quarterly subscriptions, and by £10 a year for an annual membership. This new pricing is aligned to the changes we made in [Europe] in 2016 as we strive to offer our members premium gaming and entertainment services at a fair price. We have notified members whose accounts are on recurring billing in the UK so they are aware well in advance."
Taking the rise into account, the new cost for a month of Gold will be £7, while a quarterly subscription will set you back £18. A yearly subscription, which Microsoft says is its best-value option, will cost £50. The company did not state if its 6-month option, currently priced at £30, will see a price hike.
Xbox Live Gold pricing is now approximately in line with that of PS Plus in Europe. Other regions will seemingly not be affected by the changes.
Xbox Live Gold prices increased across some parts of Europe in 2016, but it's been many years since the UK (or US) saw its prices rise. Since 2016, however, the British pound has suffered poorer exchange rates with many other countries' currencies.
Halo: The Master Chief Collection has received yet another major update, and this one includes a series of significant changes, one of which should make most multiplayer games run smoother.
The new update available now "upgrade[s] the rate at which network packets are sent by the server" for Halo 2, Halo 2 Anniversary, Halo 3, and Halo. Additionally, the amount of data that individual packets can hold is increased. What this means is that each game should now run more smoothly and reliably. For Halo 3 specifically, the clients previously sent 15 packets per second, with the server sending 30 per second. But with the update, servers and clients send 60 packets per second. That puts it in line with the 60FPS frame rate.
Here's how Microsoft's Dana Jerpbak summed up the changes:
"We've upgraded the rate at which network packets are sent by the server in Halo 2, Halo 3, Halo 4, and Halo 2A. We have also increased limits on how much data each individual packet can contain," Jerpbak said. "This includes data about the position of bipeds, where they're aiming, what projectiles they're firing, etc. The server prioritizes what data is contained in a packet until it reaches a maximum size. In gaps where the client hasn't received a certain type of information from the server (due to latency or prioritization), the client predicts what this information should be based on the last data received. It then corrects its predictions upon receiving new data."
"This can result in cases of rubber-banding' where a biped's position is predicted locally and then corrected by the server. By increasing the allowed size of packets as well as their frequency, we have significantly reduced these gaps. This results in less prediction and correction due to more frequent and more complete updates from the server. In Halo 3, the clients would send 15 packets per second to the server, while the server would send 30 packets per second to all clients. Now both servers and clients will be networking at 60 packets per second, aligning with the framerate."
You may still experience some rubber-banding, as the rate at which packets can be sent depends on your network environment. But overall, Jerpbak said "the increased send rates should generally result in an overall smoother online experience. This improvement affects dedicated servers as well as peer servers in peer-to-peer matches."
Jerpbak said Microsoft conducted "extensive" internet and external testing, and Microsoft has concluded that the changes will have a positive impact.
The new MCC update also comes with makeover themed around Yapyap The Destroyer from Halo Wars 2. You'll immediately notice that the splash screen and the main menu have received a Yapyap-themed takeover, while there is a nice Yapyap game selection option in Social Matchmaking; if you play enough you can earn a Yapyap nameplate and more.
The new MP loading screen
Another big update is that loading screens in multiplayer now display lots more detail, including the map name, the primary starting weapon, the time limit, the score to win, the Gamertags of people in your session, the data center hosting dedicated server of the match, as well as the game type and description and other helpful hints and tips.
For campaign, the new loading screens now display the mission name, the difficulty, and the Skulls you have turned on, among other things.
In other news, Halo: The Master Chief Collection is coming to PC, and the rollout process begins with a beta test for Halo: Reach later this month. A similar beta test, or a "flight" in the Microsoft parlance, will be held on Xbox One.
Halo: Reach is coming to Halo: The Master Chief Collection on Xbox One and PC, and now Microsoft has shared the first image of what the game looks like from the main menu. Microsoft shared a work-in-progress version of Reach in the campaign section of MCC on Xbox One. As you can see, it's left of Halo: CE, as it's a prequel to that game.
Halo: Reach is expected to come to both Xbox One and PC later this month through its first "flight" AKA beta test. To get in to the test, you need to register to become a Halo Insider, which you can do here. For PC, you'll need to upload your DxDiag and link your Steam ID.
The number of people who signed up already "blew away" Microsoft's expectations, the company said, so it further warns that it "simply cannot accomodate everyone."
On PC, each title within the Halo: The Master Chief Collection will be sold individually, but the "flights" are free, if you get in. And in a big change for the series, Halo: The Master Chief Collection will be available through Steam.
Halo: The Master Chief Collection originally launched in November 2014 for Xbox One. It faced serious and significant server issues at launch that made the title basically unplayable for some. Microsoft improved the experience significantly over time, and today the title is mostly stable and highly populated with players thanks in part to its inclusion with Xbox Game Pass.
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