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Assassin's Creed Valhalla ended up being one of the best games of 2020 thanks to its immersive world, satisfying combat, and compelling narrative that propelled the Assassin's Creed lore forward in meaningful ways. Despite coming out of the gates strong, Ubisoft has continued to update the experience through patches and in-game events, like the Yule Season content, which has been running since December. A new title update for Assassin's Creed Valhalla, set to hit all platforms tomorrow, adds even more content to the ongoing event, including a new and highly replayable mode.

River Raids mode allows you to ready your raiding crew for previously unexplored parts of England. Storm the shores to claim enticing loot and rewards, and take on new challenges. River Raids joins Assassin's Creed Valhalla as a part of the ongoing Yule Season content, free to all players through Title Update 1.1.2.

This update also adds three new abilities: Berserker Trap, Battle Cry, and Shoulder Bash. Berserker Trap is activated by movement, attaches to your arrow, and spreads a hallucinatory powder. Battle Cry gives Eivor a rage-induced strength boost that also causes nearby enemies to stumble and stop attacks out of fear. Shoulder Bash is, fittingly enough, a strong bash of the shoulder that can push enemies back and destroy objects.

In addition, players can expect new skills, like automatically carrying bodies after a successful assassination, a slide move that knocks enemies off balance, a long-ship speed boost, better arrow looting, starting every fight with an adrenaline-filled slot, and synchronized bracing on the long ship. If you're looking for more about the overall improvements (like how runes and resources now return to your inventory when an item is lost or the ton of bug fixes), check out the official Ubisoft post on the update.

The Title Update 1.1.2 download is a hefty one: Xbox Series X/S players get the worst of it, with their download hitting nearly 20GB. Xbox One players can expect a download of just over 15GB, while PlayStation 5 and PlayStation 4 players range from 10 to 12GB. Those playing on PC should expect an 18GB download when the patch is deployed across all platforms tomorrow around 4 a.m. Pacific / 7 a.m. Eastern.

For more on Assassin's Creed Valhalla, be sure to check out our review. To learn about the direction the game is heading (as well as some questions about the game's design), check out our interview about the reception to and post-launch plans for Ubisoft's 2020 blockbuster here.

[Source: Ubisoft]

Published in News

Sunday, 14 February 2021 21:05

Animal Crossing: New Horizons Festivale Event Starter Guide

Written by Liana Ruppert

The Animal Crossing: New Horizons Festivale event is now live and for those taking to those islands once more to get into the celebratory spirit, we threw together a handy little guide to get you started. From feathers to fun, here is what you need to know about the new Animal Crossing: New Horizons event.

The event itself is based on Carnival and allows players to purchase Festival-themed furniture, new clothes from the Able Sisters shop, and craft some quirky new DIY items to deck out for a good 'ol time. For those looking to be the island hostess with the mostess, you're going to want to get really familiar with feather gathering in-game.

When you jump into your island once more, you'll notice colorful feathers afloat in the sky. You can catch them in the air while using your net, but the Rainbow Feather (which you will want) will require you to talk to Pavé in order to craft one. You can find this character over by Resident Services.

Click here to watch embedded media

Gather as many feathers as you can to trade them in. You'll need to trade in the colored feathers nine times in order to craft Rainbow Feathers. Craft three and you'll be able to get a recipe for the Festivale Float.

To craft a Rainbow Feather, here's what you need:

1 Red Feather
1 Blue Feather
1 Green Feather
1 Purple Feather

If you find yourself having too many of one color and not a lot of luck finding what you need, chat with your villagers too! Some of them will have their own feathers that you can trade for.

If you want to craft all three, make sure to have three of each to bring to Pavé. Once you've traded in three Rainbow Feathers to their intended destination, it's time to craft the Festival Float, which will only be available during this time.

The Rainbow Feathers are awesome. Not only can you create a killer float but you can also use them to tweak the colors of Festivale furniture for your humble abode.

The latest event is a vibrantly colored good time as Nintendo continues to provide new ways to keep tuned into that island life. Have you jumped into Animal Crossing: New Horizons to get started on your own festive adventure? Sound off with your thoughts on Festivale in the comment section below!

Published in News

Sunday, 14 February 2021 20:56

Ratchet & Clank: Life Of Pie Is An Animated Short Film That You Probably Didn't Know Existed

Written by Marcus Stewart

Some might remember the animated Ratchet & Clank film from 2016. It didn’t exactly light the world on fire, but it was definitely a thing that happened. If you want more of that, the same animation studio behind the movie, Mainframe Studios, created a new Ratchet & Clank short film. The catch? It’s available only on Canada’s Crave TV streaming service and apparently not a ton of people knew it even existed.

As VG24/7 points out, Ratchet & Clank: Life of Pie is a 23-minute short film that, according to its credits, was created in 2019 and features the voice cast from the games. Despite being officially licensed, it seemingly launched without any prior promotion or fanfare. Apparently, Reddit users happened upon the film, with several commenters pondering how it could have gone unnoticed for this long. As previously stated, Crave seems to be the only official home for Life of Pie, but the film has also been uploaded to YouTube in its entirety, so there you go, curious fans. As for what you’re getting into, here’s the official synopsis below.

“While on an inter-galactic pizza run, Ratchet and Clank discover that the diabolical Dr. Nefarious has developed an interdimensional portal device that would allow him to rule the entire multiverse! The intrepid duo springs into action, liberating the "Portalizer" from Dr. Nefarious and then racing off to securely lock it away in a weapons museum. But along the way, they run into bumbling Captain Qwark, who uses the weapon to accidentally unleash a sentient-pizza-topping mob upon the citizens of Galactic City. It's up to Ratchet and Clank to battle the savory horde and keep the Portalizer out of Dr. Nefarious' evil hands before he uses it to destroy the galaxy!”

If you’re wondering how Life of Pie fits into the grander Ratchet & Clank mythos, IGN posted a statement from PlayStation stating the film is neither canon nor related to Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart. Still, if you don’t want to wait until June to get your R&C fix, Life of Pie could act as a fun appetizer until then.

[Source: Reddit via VG24/7]