News (169296)
Thursday, 18 March 2021 15:52
More Xbox Series X Games Get Quick Resume Functionality
Written by Dalton Cooper
As part of the latest Xbox Insider update, Microsoft adds six more games to the list of titles that support Xbox Series X Quick Resume.
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Thursday, 18 March 2021 15:50
The Best Potential WWE 2K22 Cover Stars | Game Rant
Written by Paul Mason
Many WWE superstars have graced the cover of the WWE 2K series, and several wrestlers have the potential to appear as 2K22's cover wrestler.
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Thursday, 18 March 2021 15:31
Destiny 2: Deep Stone Crypt Eyes Of Tomorrow Drop Rate And Damage Is Getting Fixed
Written by Liana Ruppert 
Bungie has confirmed that all of those conspiracy theories and rants about Destiny 2 and its drop rate for the Exotic rocket launcher from the Deep Stone Crypt raid being bugged were right on the nose. In a new update, the studio has outlined what went wrong concerning Eyes of Tomorrow in Destiny 2 and how Bungie is planning on fixing it. They're also adding in a little buff as well to fix the issue regarding lowered damage.
Eyes of Tomorrow damage changes
First, let's break down the changes. Following update 3.1.0, players were reporting a noticeable change (for the worse) in damage output. Bungie looked into it after saying that any changes felt were not intentional. Upon further investigation, the studio found that incorrect modifier placement accidentally nerfed damage done with Eyes of Tomorrow regarding miniboss combatants both in and out of the raid. This is being fixed on March 23, no fear.
You may be asking, "But what about the changes seen with raid boss damage?" Unfortunately, after numerous tries, Bungie has stated that the devs just couldn't replicate the issue and found no changes made to the damage output against the tougher foes of Deep Stone Crypt. Bungie even tried various alterations of buffs and debuffs and still found no noticeable change.
Eyes of Tomorrow drop rate
After running this raid a billion times, I am definitely among the players that have gone all-in on conspiracy theories that Deep Stone Crypt doesn't want to drop this highly coveted rocket launcher. While I've seen some players I've helped run the raid land this Exotic on their first try (I hate them), others like myself have run it into the ground with no luck. It turns out this wasn't just one-off bad luck or all in our heads; the drop rate really is messed up! The good news is that this has been confirmed with the studio and a fix for this is also on the way in the coming update on March 23.
Following an investigation into this particular issue, Bungie stated that it "delivered that bad luck protection was mistakenly being applied on a per-character basis instead of across the entire account." This also explains why players encountered this drop rate issue even when running multiple characters through the raid.
So what's changing? Bungie is collapsing all of a player's account raid completions into a single value in the upcoming update. This will make the bad luck protection work the way it is intended, no matter which character you're running on.
For those curious, Bungie broke down what bad luck protection means in this particular instance, further explaining the issues attached to the Eyes of Tomorrow drop rate. According to the latest blog post, "The original design intent of bad luck protection for Eyes of Tomorrow was to increase your chances of obtaining it with each weekly clear on your account, eventually reaching a 100 percent guaranteed to drop if RNG had been particularly unkind to you. The goal was to reward folks for raiding consistently week over week rather than binging dozens of runs in a single week. Another goal was to ensure single-character players were not at a huge disadvantage, as we didn’t want the benefits of bad luck protection to require raiding across three characters."
Because of this, Bungie set it up so that each character on a player's account has a weekly chance at the desired Exotic. The caveat is that the bad luck protection count only "accumulates" once per week across the account as a whole. "This meant that players raiding on three characters have three times as many chances at the Exotic, but that the increase in drop chance only increases once each week and applies equally to everyone who runs the raid, regardless of if you are running one character or three," the blog post said.
Unfortunately, this didn't go as planned, and the bad luck protection ended up working on a per-character basis. "That resulted in each character having individual protection counts," the post said. "That would be fine, but only the first character you ran the raid each week would add to their protection count. Left unfixed, this would have made it take up to three times as long to see the benefits of bad luck protection for people raiding across different characters each week."
Luckily, all of that is being repaired in time for the next update, and account harmony will once more be in balance. To learn what else is new in the coming Destiny 2 update, check out the full patch notes right here.
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Thursday, 18 March 2021 15:26
New Phasmophobia Update Lets Ghosts Touch You, Adds New Objectives
Written by Liana Ruppert 
Phasmophobia is an incredibly creepy ghost-hunting experience that will have you either laughing at the hilarious glitches or screaming in terror because that freaky demon thing is convulsing in the middle of the room. At the same time, your friend's corpse hangs lifelessly on a nearby chair. So when a new update comes out, it's interesting to see what changes are made to the Early Access game. The latest Phasmophobia update not only fixes quite a few bugs and adds new objectives, but it also lets ghosts touch you. Like. Touch you. Like, actually touch you to where your real-life body feels it.
I'm not scared. You're scared.
The team over at Kinetic Games took to the game's official Twitter account to share some of the updates that players can expect in the PC title. The usual bug fixes can be found, such as fixing how certain items interact with characters, the glitch where photo evidence wasn't showing up, VR tweaks, and more. However, the part that stood out to me is the thought of those creepy ghosts I keep running manically from can now touch me. This may not sound scary, but try playing this game in VR. I dare you. I double-dog-dare you.
So how can a digital ghost say "catch these hands?" That has to do with the new changes made to add support for bHaptics suits and face covers. What this change means is that if a ghostie comes a little too close, especially with the candle changes listed below, the haptics will trigger a sensation in real life. This is designed to emulate a feeling that something is on you. It's like the Neil Diamond song "Sweet Caroline" except the lyrics are more like "Reaching out. Touching me. Touching you. SWEET MURDERLINE."
The new save files are for the beta build only until this update is on the main build. This means save files will not convert back to the main build so progress will happen separately on the main build and beta.
— Phasmophobia (@KineticGame) March 18, 2021
The most notable new features that are arriving include a ghost's ability to blow out candles if they are close enough and the lights are off. Since the new objectives added include candles, this is a pretty big deal. It also just sounds spooky as all heck.
Regarding the new objectives:
- Detect a Ghost presence with a candle
- Detect Ghost footsteps with a parabolic mic during a hunt
- Intermediate and Professional: Escape the Ghost during a hunt with zero deaths
- Professional: Use a smudge stick while the ghost is hunting a player
- Multiplayer: Get average sanity below 25% (Yikes)
To see the full list of fixes, fine-tuning, and new additions, you can check out the full patch notes right here.
Thoughts on the latest Phasmophobia changes? What would you like to see this team add next? Weigh in with those oh so brave thoughts in the comment section below! I'll gladly read them while I hide behind you during the hunt.
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Thursday, 18 March 2021 15:11
The Mortal Kombat Movie Gets A Line Of Funko Pops
Written by Marcus Stewart 
The upcoming movie Mortal Kombat has a line of Funko Pops on the way. The figures were previously unveiled back in January but now we have images of our pint-sized live-action kombatants. There's no word yet on when they'll be available for sale, but you can pre-order them now and they'll each run for $11.
Get over here because first up is Scorpion, who comes in both masked and unmasked versions. Meanwhile, the crouching variant featured in the header at the top of the article is a Walmart exclusive. Whichever model you choose, you’ll probably want to pick it up sooner than later as Scorpion is sure to be a hot commodity. You know, since he uses fire. Because he is a ninja from hell. Moving on.
You can’t say Scorpion’s name without mentioning his frenemy Sub-Zero in the same breath. He wields an ice blade and sports matching, icy white eyes. You’ll need to stay frosty to grab one before they sell out as it’s sure to make a cool addition to anyone's shelf. It sure would stink if your browser froze while you were adding this to your online cart. I've got ice puns for days, folks.
Case in point, if you'd like to add a more chill vibe to your home after dark, this glow-in-the-dark variant is exclusive to Entertainment Earth. Okay, I think I've got them out of my system.
It must be kombat time because here comes Sonya Blade. The tough-as-nails defender of Earthrealm wields her signature pink energy rings, which are likely aimed squarely at Kano. Personally, I think this figure’s best feature is the lack of a Ronda Rousey voiceover.
Lastly, here’s Cole Young.
Mortal Kombat premieres on April 16 in theaters and HBO Max, and many of us at Game Informer are pretty excited about it. Editor Brian Shea is especially pumped after he got to watch the movie’s first 13 minutes. You can read his impressions here. We also recorded a reaction to the film’s trailer, which you can check out here. Finally, given that this is the latest adaptation of the popular fighting game, I applied years of MK fandom by ranking every Mortal Kombat adaptation to date.
So Funko Pop collectors, will you be making room to add these figures to your roster? Let us know in the comments!
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Dead Cells is one of those indie roguelikes that's an enchanting mixture of various elements, coming together to forge an experience that keeps you coming back even as you get sent back to zero time and time again.
Click here to watch embedded mediaWith that in mind, it's hardly surprising that the title has just hit 5 million copies sold. You can even bring your friends and audience in on the action with Twitch integration options, something that makes the runs a lot more entertaining as you hang out with your bird companion and take on chat-fueled bosses. Big chunks of DLC have continued to add to the experience since release, so Dead Cells has remained relevant and fresh even as oodles of new roguelike metroidvanias pop up.
In Dead Cells, players navigate through a number of heavily stylized areas that have pixel pop to them. While it is in most respects a traditional roguelike where every run is completely fresh, there are aspects of meta progression from run to run as well, meaning you accumulate more options and power over time. Not only do you become stronger, but unlocking additional traversal tools means you can engage with the game in different ways, finding secrets and shortcuts as you gain abilities that let you handle aspects of each environment differently. Perhaps you can climb up on a previously unscalable wall or teleport from node to node. All of this blends in with serious ability and weapon selection that allow you to approach the dangerous areas on your own terms, while still pushing variety from attempt to attempt.
"Dead Cells is one of the more approachable and rewarding roguelikes I’ve encountered," said Andrew Reiner in the Game Informer review. "Dying is never fun in games of this ilk, but the well-designed reward loop softens that blow and bolsters all subsequent runs, making the experience more about exploration and time committed than just player skill." Dead Cells scored a big 9 on its initial release.
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Thursday, 18 March 2021 14:59
Fortnite Season 6: New Bosses and Mythic Weapons | Game Rant
Written by Jonathan Sayers
New bosses to fight and mythic items to claim are awaiting players who are eager to get the most out of the latest season in Fortnite.
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Thursday, 18 March 2021 14:25
Everything You Need to Know About Civilization 6's Portugal Pack DLC
Written by Patrick Kirk
Civilization 6's last installment in the New Frontier Pass is Portugal, led by Joao III, so here's everything you need to know about the DLC.
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Thursday, 18 March 2021 14:21
Call of Duty: Warzone Players Are Protesting Against The Roze Skin
Written by Joshua Goodpastor
Fans are taking it upon themselves to protest the Call of Duty: Warzone Roze skin after one fan makes a call to action with a compelling video.
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Bungie has a very love/hate relationship with Destiny 2 Trials of Osiris, much like the player base itself. Earlier this month, the highly competitive PvP mode was disabled when win-trading was discovered, only to have it restored and taken out once more. Now it's back again, confirms the studio, but for how long?
In the most recent Destiny 2 blog update, a plethora of fixes and updates were revealed. With Trials having been removed once more earlier this week, Guardians were wondering if it would make its way back into the game in time for PvP reset. At this time, it looks like everything is green across the board.
"Last Saturday, it was discovered that an issue with match re-joins in the Trials of Osiris playlist that we thought we had fixed earlier in the week didn't fix the issue," explained the studio. "With update 3.1.1, this issue should no longer occur, so Trials is scheduled to start at its regularly scheduled time this week."
So what's the love/hate relationship about? The biggest issue that Trials of Osiris faces, from the community side, is that it's teeming with cheaters. This is especially true for PC players. That, and many feel that Bungie hasn't been the most consistent in terms of messaging regarding the purpose of this PvP instance. A common sentiment among Guardians is that, in an effort to increase the player count for Trials, Bungie switches up the experience in an effort to drawn in new players. The problem with that, however, is that this Pinnacle PvP activity is hard. Not "Oh, this is a challenge" hard, but hard. It's meant to be, that's the point, but the rolls have been underwhelming and many feel that the rewards do not match up with the overall experience. That, and the new players that are drawn in? It doesn't take long before they are smashed into little smithereens.
It will be interesting to see if Trials of Osiris makes it through the weekend. Who knows? Maybe this is the time for the PvP mode to shine. Doubt it, but we can dream.
As for what's next, Bungie has outlined a few known issues that they are planning on tackling soon. For those curious about future updates, here's what the team is looking at:
- Previewing Ghost Projections can crash the game if players don’t have a Ghost Shell equipped.
- The fifth feather in the Harbinger mission isn’t spawning during week three, and the fourth feather isn’t spawning during week two.
- The Postmaster screen displays an opaque screen when trying to collect you missing items. Players can press the Cancel button or Escape key to remove it.
- Locus of Communion sometimes teleports around the final area in the Presage mission.
- Turning on the PS5’s 3D Audio can make the Destiny 2 audio sound muffled.
- Ultra Combatants’ health bars are displaying in colors inconsistent to their icons and to other more powerful enemy types in multiple colorblind modes.
- We’re continuing to investigate PC FPS and crashing issues.
- It’s intentional that the Weekly Strike Playlist singe is randomized, meaning that some singes may not appear as often as others.
- The Insight Terminus Nightfall Triumph isn't counting progress.
- Random lines appear on Awoken character faces where shadows should be when on the PS5.
- Heavy ammo spawns under the Distant Shore map.
- Sola's Scar is translated as "Solar Scar" in Spanish-ES.
- Guardian Games’ class items no longer honor 2020 placements.
- The Gambit PGCR can’t show the second screen of stats.
- A player’s entire stack of Legendary Shards appears to be added to their account when removing/socketing Runes in the Hammer of Proving.
Thoughts on the "will they, won't they" surrounding Destiny 2's Trials of Osiris? Sound off in the comment section below!
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Thursday, 18 March 2021 14:07
Marvel's Avengers DLC Line-Up: Black Panther, Spider-Man, and She-Hulk?
Written by Richard Warren
After the Square Enix Presents showcase, Marvel’s Avengers fans finally know for sure which hero they will have the chance to play as next.
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Thursday, 18 March 2021 14:06
Animal Crossing: New Horizons Nature Day Event, What To Expect
Written by Liana Ruppert 
It feels like every week there is something new in Animal Crossing: New Horizons, which is pretty awesome for fans of the adorable sim game. The latest update centers around the Animal Crossing: New Horizons Nature Day event and what sort of related content players can expect.
Nature Day is an event that is a global celebration every April, and New Horizons is aiming to celebrate that in the way it knows how: new festivities.
What to expect with Animal Crossing: New Horizons Nature Day event
While Nature Day in the real world doesn't kick off until April 22, Nintendo starts off the environmentally-focused celebration at the beginning of next month. In a recent tweet, Nintendo of America says that April 5 is "a day for planting trees and caring for our forests called 'Singmogil' in South Korea." To commemorate this day, island-owners can plant Forsythia on their islands between April 1 and April 10.
From April 15 to April 22, players can order an exclusive Nature Day-inspired Cool Globe from Nook Shopping as a way to "show their support for the environment."
Nature Day is celebrated around the world on 4/22. On this holiday many show their support for the environment. Inspired by this event, a Cool Globe will be available for order in Nook Shopping between 4/15 - 4/22. #AnimalCrossing #ACNH pic.twitter.com/aHxsEbKVUq
— Nintendo of America (@NintendoAmerica) March 17, 2021
It wouldn't be a new Animal Crossing: New Horizons event if there weren't other activities planned. Next month, players can look forward to various Nature Day-related objectives and a special visit from Leif. It will be interesting to see what sort of DIY recipes will be available for Nature Day, especially since the Cool Globe was a gift in past games.
Nature Day isn't the only thing players can look forward to. Bunny Day is also making its return, including those eggs that haunt our nightmares. Pranks are also on the way, including the addition of the whoopie cushion, starting on April 1.
More seasonal items, a special Sanrio crossover, and the limited-time-only feature with the new Island Tour Creator are also on the way. To learn more about everything coming to Animal Crossing: New Horizons (that we know about so far) in the coming month, check out our previous coverage here.
What are your thoughts on how Animal Crossing: New Horizons had evolved since its launch last year? Has this game been a source of peace for you during lockdowns like it has been for us? Sound off with your islander thoughts in the comment section below! Isabelle would want you to.
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