We are roughly one month away from the release of the major Marvel’s Avengers War for Wakanda update, and while Crystal Dynamics is currently hard at work at preparing it for the next War Table, they have released a few new concept art, along with a slew screenshots to hype the community.
As showcased during the recent Marvel’s Avengers dev stream, Crystal Dynamics have released some brand-new concept art that shows off some of the locations, along with feature such as wall running and new resources cache that players will run into during the new expansion. Have a look below!
Crystal Dynamics promises these will be releasing in higher res next week, most likely with a new blog post.
And finally, the team also showcased a new screenshot during the stream. In the screen below, you see a location just hidden outside of one of the many explorable caves that War for Wakanda will have. There isn’t a whole lot here, but the team did discuss that their approach with level designing differs here as there will be a lot more verticality. They describe the process of rather than building from down up, they started up and worked their way down
You can see a crevice in the image above, and the developers have stated that players can fall down and die in it. The devs also revealed that the outpost featured in the expansion will be placed right in the capital city of Wakanda. While it doesn’t seem like we’ll be able to freely explore the city itself. the outpost will provide a pretty good outlook of it.
There were other tidbits revealed, but that’s pretty much all the major new stuff shown during the stream. As for those wondering if we will see a in-depth War Table for War for Wakanda, the developers did state that it will be coming “soon”. We suspect it’ll be later this month as they always do one the month before the release of DLC. We will be sure to keep you all updated once more details on it are revealed, so stay tuned!
A gamer at heart, James has been working for MP1st for the last decade to do exactly what he loves, writing about video games and having fun doing it. Growing up in the 90's gaming has been in his DNA since the days of NES. One day he hopes to develop his own game.
San Diego Studio has released the MLB The Show 21 update 1.11 July 10 patch, or what the studio calls “Update #11.” For those on PS5, this will show up as MLB The Show update 1.011, and for Xbox platforms, as update 1.0.0.61. This patch includes some bug fixes, which are all outlined in the patch notes below.
MLB The Show 21 Update 1.11 | MLB The Show 21 Update 1.011 | MLB The Show 21 Update 1.0.0.61 Patch Notes
ONLINE HEAD TO HEAD
Pinpoint Pitching adjustments:
The Release timing and direction now have a less lenient criteria for ‘Good’ and ‘Perfect’ pitches. NOTE: This change can also be seen when using competitive gameplay style settings in offline modes.
From the devs: We knew that pinpoint pitching would be a very difficult mechanic to master for some players, and we knew we were going to need to make changes at some point once we got the feedback and the data. Now that we have that data, we agree with the feedback that it is just a little bit too easy right now in a competitive setting. This new change will make the timing window for “Good” and “Perfect” a little bit harder to achieve.
Contact Hitting adjustments:
Contact Swing is now less effective when used by power hitters. The higher the power, the greater the loss in mph when you choose to use Contact Swing. This change should now display a more accurate tradeoff between each swing type for high power batters.
From the devs: Contact swing was implemented to allow for “shortening” your swing and help extend AB’s with 2 strikes, or execute hit and runs at the expense of power. While examining the community feedback this year, we noticed that players with exceptionally high power attributes were not being impacted enough by using Contact Swing. The effects of using Contact Swing should sacrifice exit velocity for an easier timing window, easier check swings, and easier fouled off pitches.
R2 (viewing pitch history):
Batters pressing R2 to view the pitch history will no longer impact the gesture portion of Pinpoint Pitching for the defensive player. If R2 is pressed at the same time or after the pitch motion is started, R2 will no longer interrupt the defensive user. If the batter presses R2 before the pitch motion has started, the motion will not start.
From the devs: We intended R2 to be used in a way to let the batter stop the pitcher from quick pitching and “take a breath” (and of course see the pitch repertoire and pitch history). In real Baseball, it might be equivalent to the batter keeping their foot out of the box, for example. For that reason, we don’t want to simply remove the feature entirely, but unfortunately we’ve seen players misusing it and causing grief for those who use pinpoint pitching. We hope this change alleviates some of that grief going forward.
Other changes and fixes:
Added confirmation a dialog to the friendly quit acceptance flow
Users are no longer able to back out of the bullpen screen following a second mound visit
Fixed a freeze that could happen when a ground ball is hit to second and thrown to first
Fixed a freeze that could happen when the ball was hit to specific areas the outfield
Fixed a freeze that could happen on a very late bunt attempt
MISC:
Darren O’Day no longer tips his pitches after selecting the pitch
Fixed an issue in Franchise and Exhibition the scheduled starting pitcher could not be put into the lineup instead, even after selecting a different starting pitcher
A gamer at heart, James has been working for MP1st for the last decade to do exactly what he loves, writing about video games and having fun doing it. Growing up in the 90's gaming has been in his DNA since the days of NES. One day he hopes to develop his own game.
Big changes are coming to Baldur’s Gate 3 as Larian Studios has finally outlined some fresh new details for the upcoming Baldur’s Gate 3 update, Patch #5.
As revealed during their recent Panel From Hell live stream, Larian Studios showcased some of the new features coming to Baldur’s Gates 3 in the upcoming Patch #5 update. Down below you’ll find the highlights of the stream, and of course the stream itself to see it all in action.
Baldur’s Gate 3 Patch #5 Early Details
The Active Roll System During skill checks, rather than leaving you at the mercy of the RNG gods during skill checks, in Patch 5 we have ensured players now have much more agency. Active Roll gives players the ability to swing the odds in their favour by applying spells and bonuses to their rolls. Additionally, players can now see their modifiers and status effects happen directly within the UI, rather than being calculated in the background.
Background Goals Players have always been able to select a ‘Background’ at the Character Creation screen – Folk Hero, Acolyte, Urchin, and so on. Now every character will have their own series of secret miniquests based on these roles, called Background Goals. So, whenever a Folk Hero does something Folksy and Heroic or an Urchin does something Urchiny, they’ll be rewarded. It’s a new way to encourage role playing, with players directly benefiting from acting as their character would in any given scenario.
Camp Supplies Camp Resources are a new feature that will make you think a little more strategically about when to activate a Long Rest. Now in order to make camp, you first need supplies. You know all the food and scraps you find around Baldur’s Gate 3? Well from now one, you’ll need that to set up for a full rest. Finally, a use for your giant hoard of dead fish! Also coming this patch are Mini Camps, context-dependent environments that offer an alternative to returning to your HQ by the river. From the Chapel near the Ravaged Beach to the Underdark, we’ve recreated every landmark as its own isolated location that can be accessed when you’re ready to hunker down for your Long Rest.
And there’s more!
We’ve given the AI a serious tune-up, with enemies now being far more intelligent and resourceful than before. Watch as unarmed enemies pick up discarded weapons! Gasp at a group of goblins tossing health potions to each other! Wonder as your NPC companions make sensible, self-preserving decisions! There are a huge number of other improvements we’ve made for Patch 5, including Non-Lethal Attack Mode, old-school point and click dialogue, and some very intriguing new story content around a certain party member…
As always, if you are playing on Patch #4 or earlier, your saves will be incompatible with the new update. So fi you wish to continue playing your current save, you will need to be sure you stick with the old branch build, otherwise you run the risk of losing your saves entirely. Steps to keeping your old saves can be found below.
How to keep playing on Baldur’s Gate 3 Patch #4 or earlier:
The secondary branch will be the previous version, but the primary branch (default download) will be the latest version. To access the secondary branch, do the following:
Right click on the game in your Steam library
Select properties
Click the BETAS tab
In the list under “Select the beta you would like to opt in to”, select patch4 or older.
Close the properties menu
As always, we will have the full patch notes available here on the site once it goes live on July 13, so stay tuned!
A gamer at heart, James has been working for MP1st for the last decade to do exactly what he loves, writing about video games and having fun doing it. Growing up in the 90's gaming has been in his DNA since the days of NES. One day he hopes to develop his own game.
Zombie fans prepare to rejoice, as it has been confirmed that the upcoming Black Ops Cold War update will indeed see the release of the next chapter in the Dark Aether, Mauer Der Toten.
As part of the Black Ops Cold War Season Four Reloaded update, players will see some fresh, long awaited zombie content in the form of a brand-new map (and lore) called Mauer Der Toten. Activision released a short trailer, giving us a glimpse of what we should expect next week.
Black Ops Cold War Season 4 Reloaded Update – Mauer Der Toten Trailer
Of course, like with all past season reloaded updates, expect to see plenty of more content to drop for both Black Ops Cold WEar and Warzone. Down below you’ll find a brief highlight of some of the new content coming with the update.
Black Ops Cold War & Warzone Season 4 Reloaded Content
Payload mode for Warzone – Teams of 40 will be tasked with escorting a payload.
Capture the flag will be available in Black Ops Cold War.
Mauer Der Toten Zombies map (trailer above)
New weapons – Mace (melee), and the OTs 9 will debut.
New Maps – Black Ops 2 Rush map will be added as a 6v6 map in Black Ops Cold War.
NATO faction operators, Salah and Weaver are expected to drop with this update.
Much more!
Of course there will be loads of bug fixes, balancing, and other content that’ll be included in the Black Ops Cold War & Warzone season 4 reloaded update, though we won’t know the full details until Treyarch and Raven Software post the full notes. Those should all be going up just right before the patch is live on July 15, so stay tuned!
A gamer at heart, James has been working for MP1st for the last decade to do exactly what he loves, writing about video games and having fun doing it. Growing up in the 90's gaming has been in his DNA since the days of NES. One day he hopes to develop his own game.
Prepare to dive further back before the adventures of Geralt of Rivia, as WitcherCon just revealed that the anime film The Witcher Nightmare of the Wolf streams this August 23 on Netflix!
Here’s the date announcement trailer that was revealed at WitcherCon.
Acting as a prequel adventure that focuses on Geralt’s mentor, here is the synopsis of Nightmare of the Wolf.
Long before mentoring Geralt, Vesemir begins his own journey as a witcher after the mysterious Deglan claims him through the Law of Surprise.
From the official Witcher wiki, here’s a little background info on who exactly Vesemir is.
Vesemir was the oldest and most experienced witcher at Kaer Morhen in the 13th century and acted as a father figure to Geralt and the other witchers. Like many of the other witchers, he spent each winter in the fortress and set out on the path when spring arrived.
He was one of the few members of the School of the Wolf to survive the assault on Kaer Morhen. By the 1260s, he was the sole old witcher remaining; however, as he was only a fencing instructor, he didn’t possess the knowledge necessary to create new mutagens in order to mutate more disciples into witchers.
Also revealed during WitcherCon, The Witcher Season 2 premieres on Netflix this December! Read about the details here.
If you ever wanted to play as cute animals in a fight to the death, then Pixile’s Super Animal Royale might be just the thing for you! On the surface, it looks like a cute, cartoon-y platform, but underneath lies a frenetic, 64-player, top-down battle royale. It’s definitely an intriguing premise, and we were given the chance to speak to Pixile Studios’ co-founder Michael Silverwood regarding the idea behind the game, the battle royale landscape and more.
MP1st: Tell us about yourself and the history of the studio.
Michael Silverwood: My co-founder Chris Clogg and I have known each other since we were 3 and grew up on the same street together. As kids we were really into games, film, and animation. We learned to make animated videos in Flash and maps/mods for games like Warcraft 3 and Team Fortress 2. In university Chris went into Computer Science and I did a Combined Major in Business and Computer Science, both at UBC. We had been doing freelance work building websites and mobile apps for companies and always wanted to build a full game, so for 2 years while at UBC we worked on our first game, Stratosphere Defense, and released it on the App Store in 2013. It was a critical success and got lots of featuring from Apple, but didn’t generate enough income to turn into a full-time business. As such, I got a job working in venture capital helping early stage tech startups build their first products and launch their businesses, and Chris worked with us building mobile apps for the companies. All the while we kept prototyping on the side and knew we wanted to build another game someday, whether it could become a full-time career or not. By October 2017 the prototype for Super Animal Royale had become fun enough that we knew we wanted to turn it into a full game, so we quit our jobs in December 2017 and began building a team. By December 2018 we had assembled our core team, a healthy Discord community and were ready to launch the game into Early Access.
MP1st: I understand the studio is doing remote work, was this always the case even before COVID-19? How do you think it has impacted the industry as a whole, working from home versus being in an office space? Do you think more companies will start offering this as a full option?
Michael Silverwood: We’ve been remote from the beginning since I was living in San Francisco and Chris was living in Vancouver when we first started. We were used to working together remotely so we decided to build a distributed team since that made it a lot easier to find the best people to join us without needing to worry about location. There are certainly both pros and cons to working remotely, but we’ve found that it works great for us. I do think it’s easier for teams who start remote from the beginning than those who need to transition from working in-person to remote. Matt Mullenweg’s writing and speaking on this subject has been a big inspiration, and we’ve seen first-hand how distributed, asynchronous work can be effective. Even though working as small team is very different than running a huge organization like Automattic fully distributed, we’ve experienced many of the benefits he describes at level 4 and level 5 of his pyramid of “Distributed Work’s Five Levels of Autonomy” (https://ma.tt/2020/04/five-levels-of-autonomy/).
MP1st: What is behind the idea of Super Animal Royale? Why go with the Battle Royale genre?
Michael Silverwood: Chris and I were big fans of some of the early battle royale games like H1Z1 and PUBG so we were curious about whether the genre would be able to translate well to top-down. At first it didn’t, and our first prototypes weren’t promising, but eventually with the line-of-sight fog-of-war mechanic it started becoming really fun even in prototype form so we knew we were onto something. The emergence of the battle royale genre was a pretty big moment for shooters in general, similar to how much Counter-Strike or Battlefield 1942’s Conquest modes changed what a multiplayer shooter can be, and battle royales are especially unique in how they weave in mechanics from the survival genre so seamlessly. We wanted to contribute something unique to the genre, and I think SAR does that with its top down perspective, line-of-sight shadows, short match length, and streamlined mechanics that make it relatively friendly to learn for a battle royale, while still having a high skill ceiling and surprising depth in its mechanics. Despite it being a multiplayer game, we also wanted to build a deep world and characters, so from the beginning we developed a backstory document with the history of the world, and everything we do has to be consistent with that.
MP1st: I’m sure the team went through plenty of different prototypes during development, it’s always interesting to hear about ideas/concepts that didn’t make it, care to share?
Michael Silverwood: Our first game, Stratosphere Defense, was a Tower Defense game, so we had lots of prototypes for what sequels or expansions of that world could look like. It’s a genre we love, but none of those prototypes ever reached the point where we felt as confident about them as we did with Super Animal Royale. Our first top-down battle royale prototype was built in early 2016, but before we had the line-of-sight fog-of-war most of the fighting would end up happening on the edges of the screen which wasn’t very fun.
MP1st: About the “light bulb” moment? At what point did the team all look at each other and say they had something really special here?
Michael Silverwood: The first light bulb moment was the moment when we implemented the line-of-sight fog-of-war system and immediately combat became far more interesting since you could get similar moments of surprise to 3D games where you breach a building or come around a corner and find yourself face to face with an enemy. The second light bulb was when we finished establishing the framework for what the world and characters would look like, and implemented the first prototype art and got to run around forests and towns as angry, weapon-wielding animals. At that moment we knew it was a world we wanted to keep exploring and expanding upon.
MP1st: Do you feel that there is some pressure in the Battle Royale Space when looking at say Apex Legends or Call of Duty Warzone? Were they used as references in terms of what worked or what didn’t?
Michael Silverwood: I think the biggest challenge in games is just designing something that is itself fun and engaging enough to be worth a player spending their time in it. There’s a lot competing for people’s attention these days. We play a wide variety of different games across genres and our favorites can be very inspiring, but we try not to get hung up on comparing ourselves to other games aside from noticing specific smart mechanics or design details that solve similar challenges we face in trying to design the best game we can. In terms of the battle royale genre, we probably still have the most hours in the early games like H1Z1 and PUBG, but Fortnite, Apex Legends and Call of Duty: Warzone have all taken the genre in interesting directions and made significant contributions by refining and improving upon it.
MP1st: Lore is often overlooked in Battle Royale games, that’s generally the nature of multiplayer games. You guys have an animated show to do that, how big of an influence will it have on the game itself and vice versa?
Michael Silverwood: We were inspired by the way that epic fantasy writers craft their worlds before writing their first stories, and felt that the same approach could work great for a multiplayer game since players spend so much time exploring the open environment. As a result, we’ve made lore and worldbuilding a central part of the game since the very beginning. Even if the story isn’t told linearly or explicitly most of the time in-game, players can piece together what they find in the world to understand the context they find themselves in. We find that this style of storytelling is such a great fit for the interactive nature of the medium. During the design of each new environmental set piece, character and mechanic we refer to and expand upon the lore bible to make sure that the world continues to feel consistent. As the world has kept expanding, it has become more and more natural for us to imagine what would make sense within it, and what would motivate the characters within it.
Most of the linear storytelling we do takes place in our animated series, Super Animal Royale Tonight, and we time new episodes to release alongside major updates so that we can sync up the storytelling with new content in the game. The show takes place entirely on the island in locations you can visit. After you see new environments and animals in the show, you can jump in and play in those same spots and unlock those same animals in the latest update to the game. In many cases, the aftermath of specific events seen on the show can be seen on the in-game island too, like the rat prisoner and makeshift rebel-made SAR Tonight set in Superite Mountain from Season 1 Episode 4.
MP1st: I also notice the show is used as a community highlight for top plays. That to me is pretty f’ing amazing, and I always feel more developers should do stuff like that. It’s a great way to really push for community interaction. What made you want to do this?
Michael Silverwood: The pilot episode of SAR Tonight also served as our launch trailer for Early Access, so it’s an idea we had early on that we hoped we could turn into a full animated series. We were so impressed by the level of skill of some of the early players and the funny things that they’d capture in-game so we wanted to find a way to showcase them. At the same time, we had the concept of Super Animal Royale being a show as part of the backstory, so we decided to develop the in-world show into an actual show. As the game has grown and the series has progressed we’ve become more and more ambitious with the storytelling and production values of the show and it has become a great storytelling medium in its own right. In addition to the animated sequences, we also started blending in-game sequences into the storytelling of the show, which we coordinate and record online with our “Animal Army” Discord community members. We were also seeing so much amazing fan art from our community that we decided to start hosting art contests that get their own segment on the show in addition to a website (https://artcontest.animalroyale.com/) and an in-game art museum (the Super Museum of Modern Art).
For context of how Super Animal Royale Tonight’s story weaves into the story of the game itself, I’ll provide a brief summary of some of the backstory of the game below. I’ll keep it brief though since we mostly let players piece the story together for themselves (there’s actually a popular community Discord server that is dedicated to figuring out the details of the backstory through exploring the island).
Super Animal World (S.A.W.) was originally a safari theme park designed to showcase the genetic engineering breakthroughs of its parent company, Pixile Industries. At amusement parks of the past, guests would interact with humans in animal costumes, but at Super Animal World, the mascots were the result of a creative DNA combination of animal, human and heavily protected intellectual property.
Super Animal World was a big hit amongst guests, but less so amongst the Super Animals themselves. Before long, the Super Animal Super Resistance (S.A.S.R.) was formed. Details on what happened next are tightly guarded by the Super Animal World higher ups, and so, what became known as “The Incident” is still shrouded in rumor and hearsay (but a key moment is viewable in SAR’s recent musical trailer
The resulting damage and financial losses caused by “The Incident ” left Super Animal World’s parent company, Pixile Industries, in ruins. The park was too physically and reputationally damaged to re-open, and the company was left with few options.
“The Incident” itself, however, presented an opportunity. The Super Animals had proved themselves ferocious fighters, and Pixile’s creative leaders recognized a potential market for that sort of thing. Super Animal Royale was devised as a way to recoup their investment. Super Animals would be pitted against each other in a winner-take-all island-wide brawl, televised for human entertainment. Super Animal Royale Tonight, hosted by the intrepid (and S.A.W. loyalist) Donk Patrick and Howl Michaels, showcases the top moments from the island.
MP1st: Adorable, but violent, would you say that’s an accurate description of Super Animal Royale? What made the team want to go with that kind of approach? Love the humor by the way.
Michael Silverwood: Completely accurate! We’re big fans of absurd humor. The juxtaposition of cute animals who are surprisingly angry and violent was just really funny to us as a baseline, and the only thing more absurd than that was the process of asking ourselves how and why they would have been created in the first place, and developing the world around that.
MP1st: The game started on PC, and eventually made its way to Xbox and soon PlayStation and Nintendo Switch. That must be pretty exciting for the team to accomplish such a feat.
Michael Silverwood: It’s extremely exciting and surreal to be releasing our first game on the platforms from the companies we grew up with! We’re also really thrilled to be able to support cross-play matchmaking and cross-save since they’re both such new developments in the industry and so player friendly. We’ve also been very lucky to have great partners in Modus to help us navigate releasing on so many platforms at once, which isn’t easy for an indie studio.
MP1st: With the team as large as it is and the game coming to basically every platform, what kind of preparations are being made so the team can deliver updates and content in a timely manner without feeling spread apart?
Michael Silverwood: The Pixile team is only 11 people currently, so it’s definitely ambitious, but Early Access has done a great job at preparing us for it. The game has been live for players in Early Access for 2.5 years now, and through that time we’ve experimented with multiple update cycles from every 1-2 weeks to 3-4 week larger updates. Last year we also released a major update in November that took us more than 3 months to build. We found over time that spacing updates a bit further apart allows each update to feel more significant and allows us the time to do longer term thinking about what we’re headed, but we wanted to find a sweet spot where it wasn’t making players wait too long. Moving forward we plan to settle into a roughly 6 week update cadence that we think will strike a good balance between being frequent, but also allowing each update to feel significant.
MP1st: How has the development process been in terms of porting the game over to console? Any major hurdles?
Michael Silverwood: The porting process has been surprisingly smooth! The game already supported controllers on PC, and Modus’s porting team is very talented.
MP1st: Can PS5 and XSX owners expect any hardware perks, such as improved performance, loading, etc?
Michael Silverwood: Our main focus right now is bringing Super Animal Royale to as many players as possible. Since the game is constantly evolving and growing this is already a big undertaking, but we’re extremely interested in the potential of leveraging current-gen hardware features in the future.
MP1st: Now being on consoles and this being a Battle Royale filled with all kinds of cosmetics, can we expect to see any kind of IP crossover skins, or platform specific ones? You know, say like Toro Inoue, AKA Sony Cat?
Michael Silverwood: We would absolutely love to do some cross-overs that fit well with our world, and have begun investigating a few interesting options, but don’t have anything to announce quite yet. If players want to see anything specific though we love to hear it!
MP1st: I suppose this is a never say never kind of question, but do you think Super Animal Royale may one day evolve (with a sequel) into a full 3D game? This is being asked from someone who loved what Hopoo Games did with Risk of Rain, going from 2D to a 3D space.
Michael Silverwood: That’s certainly something interesting to think about, but we still have a lot left to explore in Super Animal Royale for the foreseeable future before we consider anything like sequels. I haven’t actually played Risk of Rain myself but might just have to add it to the list. I was a big fan of Metroid Prime after enjoying the 2D Metroid games.
MP1st: Anything you would like to add?
Michael Silverwood: Thank you so much for the thoughtful questions. I fear I might have been too long-winded, so I’ll be mindful of your time and not add anything more, but I hope you keep enjoying the game and I’m happy to chat more in the future!
That concludes our interview with Pixile Studio. Once again, we would like to thank Michael Silverwood for taking the time out of his busy schedule to chat with us.
Super Animal Royale is now available on Xbox, with the PS4 and PS5 version coming later this year. We will have more Super Animal Royale news coming to you all shortly so stay tuned!
A gamer at heart, James has been working for MP1st for the last decade to do exactly what he loves, writing about video games and having fun doing it. Growing up in the 90's gaming has been in his DNA since the days of NES. One day he hopes to develop his own game.
Crytek is giving players some juicy new content to try out, as Hunt: Showdown DeSalle map launches on PC test servers — where players can test it out before it’s rolled out to everyone,
You can check out the trailer for this new map below.
If you’re not familiar with what the new DeSalle map has to offer, here’s the details via press release.
The new map is the first to launch for Hunt: Showdown in three years and expands the roster of Hunt: Showdown maps to three, joining Still Water Bayou and Lawson Delta as settings for the game’s high risk, high reward, competitive match-based gameplay.
A foreboding new autumn theme sets the tone in DeSalle, where players will hunt for clues as well as monsters, each other, and new Miner Grunt enemies who are equipped with blinding helmet lights.
DeSalle features 16 distinct new areas across the decayed urban sprawl of two Wild West towns alongside expansive mountainous, industrial, and farming regions. New urban settings in the map include a prison, church, bank, and a saloon. Players will also hunt and fight through a shipyard, watermill, fort, quarry, coal mine, and the new farmyard areas.
If you missed the last update for Hunt: Showdown, read the patch notes for update 1.28 here.
The DeSalle map for Hunt: Showdown is now available on PC test servers, and will be launching on live servers for PC, PS4, and Xbox One later this summer.
Get ready to return to The Continent and reunite with Geralt of Rivia and friends, as The Witcher Season 2 release date has been revealed at WitcherCon and premieres this December 17 on Netflix.
Revealed during the inaugural event celebrating the fandom, the show will finally stream its long awaited set of new episodes on Netflix before the year ends — two years after the first season premiered no less.
Update: Here’s the just released season 2 teaser trailer!
Picking up where the last season left off, The Witcher season 2 will once again see Henry Cavill reprising his role as Geralt of Rivia — the titular Witcher who is a monster hunter and is on a quest to fulfill his destiny. That so happens to be in the form of the Cintran princess Ciri — a role that will also be reprised by actress Freya Allen as she and Geralt finally met at the end of season 1. Their adventures will also involve Yennerfer of Vengerberg — a sorceress and former hunchback who is played by Anya Chalotra.
If you’re new to the whole Witcher experience then it’s a great time to enter as WitcherCon is happening — and you can find out the schedule and details right here.
The Witcher season 2 is set to premiere with 8 new episodes on Netflix this coming December 17.
With Battlefield 2042 confirmed to be following the foosteps of Battlefield V in terms of being a “live service” game, some might be worried that we’ll get the same experience as DICE’s previous shooter. It looks like DICE has learned a thing or two on how the Battlefield 2042 live service model should work, and they’ve learned from their co-EA studio, Respawn Entertainment.
In the Future of First-Person Shooters panel held this week, DICE General Manager Oskar Gabrielson said that the studio has “tricks” up their sleeves when it comes to Battlefield 2042’s live service, and that “many learnings” came from Respawn’s Apex Legends.
So we have a couple of tricks up our sleeves as we get to the live service for Battlefield 2042 and of those learnings actually came from Apex Legends, and all the great work Respawn team has done with that game. – Oskar Gabrielson, DICE GM
Gabrielson also referenced the work DICE LA (now known as Ripple Effect Studios) with the post-launch content of Battlefield 4, as well as DICE’s learnings from the post-launch content from Star Wars Battlefront 2.
Hopefully, this means we’ll get a steady stream of content, and better communication from the on-set on. Apex Legends is in a good place in terms of events and updates, and I’m definitely looking forward to see DICE apply the same stuff to Battlefield 2042.
In the same chat, Ripple Effect Studios GM Christian Grass confirmed that we will see “fan-favorite” maps make a return in Battlefield 2042.
It’s Friday, and for guardians in Destiny 2, it’s another chance to earn new loot in Trials of Osiris! Another exciting week of trails, which means a new batch or rewards! As always, MP1st is here to bring you the new Destiny 2 Trials of Osiris rewards this week July 9,2021!
New Destiny 2 Trials of Osiris Rewards This Week July 9, 2021:
Don’t forget that we’ll be updating the rewards list as they are known, so make sure to check back on this post from time to time. Once it’s finalized, we’ll post an “update” in the headline and let our readers know it’s final.
Trials of Osiris Map
Javelin-4
Rewards
Rotation not known yet, please let us know!
3 Wins (Powerful): Chest Piece!
5 Wins (Powerful): Eye of Sol! (Legendary Sniper Rifle)
It’s Friday and for Destiny 2 players, this means Xur is back to sell his wares! If you’re asking what Xur is selling in Destiny 2 this week and where he’s holed up, we’re here to help! The MP1st Destiny 2 Xur location today July 9, 2021 post is live, and you can check out Xur’s list of items this week.
Xûr, Agent of the Nine, is a strange vendor who randomly appears in a Public Sector on one of the Worlds. Xûr sells Exotic equipment and only takes Legendary Shards in exchange for them.
TL;DR: He’s the Santa Claus of Destiny and every weekend is Christmas. Sometimes he brings you what you want, sometimes he brings you coal. Mostly it’s coal.
When does Xûr visit?
Xûr visits every Friday at 17:00 UTC and departs at Weekly Reset (Tuesday 17:00 UTC). If you would like to see all the live conversions of Time Zones, please follow this link here.
In case you didn’t know, Respawn Entertainment’s online games Apex Legends and Titanfall 2 have been targeted by hackers in order to raise awareness of the current state of Titanfall on PC. Unfortunately, while Apex Legends’ server issues has been sorted out within the day, the same can’t be said for Titanfall, with the game’s subreddit even posting and pinning a post explaining why gamers can’t play the two games (Titanfall 1 and Titanfall 2) currently.
Apparently, there are only 1-2 people left at Respawn Entertainment working on Titanfall, while the rest are working on Apex Legends. This was revealed by Jason Garza, Community Coordinator for Respawn. In a video (arond the 11:25 mark), Garza mentioned that Respawn hasn’t abandoned the Titanfall community, and said that there are 1-2 people left in the studio working on the game, with the rest focusing on Apex Legends.
All I can say is that we’re working on it (Titanfall), and that’s why I stopped talking about things like that, and you guys aren’t…the Titanfall community is not forgotten or abandoned or anything like that. We’re still working on it, it’s just we can’t telegraph our moves, and we only have like one or two people on it because the rest — everybody else is on Apex, so don’t feel bad. It’s something we do work on just that these things take time, you can’t just press a button and everything’s fixed magically.
Hopefully, this issue with Titanfall is sorted out soon. Perhaps Respawn might want to allocate more people in order to sort it faster? Outside of this, let’s hope we don’t get anymore hacks or attacks for any games. I mean, the intention behind the “Save Titanfall” campaign might be a good one, but attacking and ruining people’s fun? Yeah, not a fan of that.
While Sony has the big “Planet of the Discounts” PlayStation Store sale currently on-going, there are also other sales launched this week! There’s another “Games Under $15” sale, as well as one just for DLCs and the like! Head on below for the full list of titles and add-ons.
PlayStation Store Sale “Games Under $15” – Ends 7/21:
Given how big maps are in every Battlefield game, some gamers might be wondering just how long it takes the team over at DICE to create one. Apparently, it varies, and it can be as short as six months, or as long as a full year (12 months).
This was revealed by DICE in yesterday’s “Future of First-Person Shooters” dev panel where DICE General Manager Oskar Gabrielson took part in. When asked how long it takes to develop a new Battlefield map, here’s what Gabrielson had to say:
Somewhere between six and 12 months based on size (and) complexity, is it a new biome? New gameplay opportunities? It’s a bunch of time to pull that off especially our big player counts. It’s just a massive challenge really balancing everything there. – DICE GM, Oskar Gabrielson
In the same panel, Ripple Effect Studios (formerly DICE LA) GM Christian Grass confirmed that the new (and still unrevealed) mode in Battlefield 2042 will be featuring fan-favorite maps. This same mode, when presented to Lars” Father of Battlefield” Gustavsson who has been with the franchise for over two decades (since its inception), was “jumping around on the zoom chair” and was “really happy” with what he saw . Gabrielson commented that this is a testament to what players can expect in EA Play Live this July 22 where the new BF 2042 mode will be revealed in full.
Six to 12 months is quite some time for just one map; let’s hope that DICE has as few ready in waiting for release when Battlefield 2042 ships, so players won’t have to wait super long for a new map to be rolled out.
Anyone who has ever sat down at a computer with a bit of time on their hands has opened up a little game of Solitaire and wasted at least 5 minutes trying to complete a single game. For some people, this is the only game they ever play, whiling away the hours every evening trying to improve their score or lower the number of moves they’ve had to make. It can be a seriously addictive pastime, much like any video game. There’s a reason this game comes pre-installed with almost every Windows machine and that it’s been added to a museum. It’s the most iconic PC title of all time.
Two years ago, Microsoft Solitaire was inducted to the World Video Game Hall of Fame at the Strong Museum of Play. the game was inducted because it’s been played by over 500 million people in the last three decades. In addition, it’s been localized in 65 languages and played in more than 200 markets, including Antarctica. No other game can say the same, even The Sims, which I’m sure is close to hitting those numbers.
If you’ve ever sat down on a Windows PC, you’ve thought about playing Solitaire. That’s how iconic it is. No other machine has an association with a game that runs so deep. PlayStation and Xbox have several brands you might leap to, and Nintendo comes down to a toss-up between Mario and Zelda. A PC, though, will always be associated with Solitaire. It’s a game anyone can enjoy, whether you’re just starting to learn to use a computer or you’re trying to fill your days of retirement while sitting in a chair in your garden.
The fact that the game is based on an even older card version only adds to how impressive it is. Solitaire is a part of human culture. It’s known by almost every adult, and those who don’t know it are able to pick it up pretty quickly. Of course, a huge part of why it’s so well known is the PC version, a game that you get for free with any Windows machine you purchase.
Even games like Red Dead Redemption have Solitaire. Without that fun little card game that still keeps people occupied when they have a few minutes or hours today, the game wouldn’t have spawned the hugely successful sequel. Red Dead Redemption proved to developers that it’s worth putting these tiny activities in their games because players want a distraction. This continues to be true in real life, and it certainly won’t ever change in open-world games like Assassin’s Creed Valhalla or Red Dead Online.
The next time you sit down at a Windows PC, try to find Solitaire. If you’ve played it before, you’ll know exactly what you’re doing. Microsoft has the file path ingrained in your brain, meaning that you’ll always know how to do something on a computer, regardless of the version of the OS. Online versions of the game are just the same, and you can use them to connect with every other Solitaire player in the world. So don’t neglect this iconic game and load it up right now to remind yourself of why it’s so great.
Fans of the Naughty Dog’s epic survival horror action game franchise The Last of Us will be happy to know the upcoming TV adaptation will be as long as Game of Thrones, as The Last of Us HBO series will be 10 episodes long — with the episode count revealed by the showrunner himself!
Discussing the show in his Scriptnotes podcast with John August, Craig Mazin revealed that the show will run ten episodes — which is twice longer the episode count than his last project which was the critically acclaimed history drama series Chernobyl. Like that series, The Last of Us was given a straight-to-order series order — meaning they can work without having to screen a pilot to get the approval of the network before continuing work with the rest of the series.
As it stands, production has already begun for The Last of Us TV series — which stars Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey as the game protagonists Joel Miller and Ellie respectively. In fact both Pascal and Ramsey both starred in HBO’s popular Game of Thrones TV series — albeit in different seasons as as fan favorite characters Oberyn Martell and Lyanna Mormont.
We reported that The Last of Us TV series will cover the events of the first game, so a 10 episode run seems good enough to tell the story.
Ubisoft has released another Operator showcase for its upcoming PvE shooter, Rainbow Six Extraction! This new Rainbow Six Extraction Lion Operator showcase trailer gives us a quick look at his skills, and what he can contribute to the team.
Lion’s got your six in #R6Extraction. Detect all moving archaens in the vicinity and help your team see the enemy through walls, allowing them to land preemptive strikes
ABOUT TOM CLANCY’s RAINBOW SIX EXTRACTION:
Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six® Extraction is a 1 to 3-player cooperative tactical first-person shooter. Assemble your elite team of Rainbow Six operators to launch incursions into the unpredictable containment zones and discover the mysteries behind the lethal alien threat called the Archæns. Knowledge, cooperation, and a tactical approach are your best weapons. Band together and put everything on the line as you take on an unknown enemy.
CROSS-BENEFITS
The game will support cross-play and cross-save between all platform families on day one. Owners of both Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege and Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Extraction will instantly unlock the entire roster of 18 operators in Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege and will get the United Front cosmetic bundles in both games.
FEATURES:
LEAD ELITE RAINBOW SIX OPERATORS IN CO-OP OR SOLO PLAY
Squad up and create a team of up to three Operators or go solo. Pick from 18 of the Rainbow Six Operators that are best adapted to survive incursions. Each Operator has a specific set of weapons, gadgets, and abilities to master. The uniqueness and different playstyles of each Operator allows for limitless options to customize your roster. Striking the right balance on your team will be the key to success.
Complete missions to level up your Operator, boost their stats, and gain access to new loadout options and powerful combat perks.
RISK IT ALL IN UNPREDICTABLE CONTAINMENT ZONES
Set in four regions across the US, containment zones are dominated by the parasite, creating an unstable ecosystem within their walls. Incursions into these hot zones will challenge your team every time. Use gadgets and the Operators’ abilities to overcome the situation to accomplish your objectives, and above all, extract from the containment zone. With a selection of 12 uniquely designed maps featuring procedurally generated challenges, enemies, infestation, and increasing difficulty, the dangers are unpredictable, but the rewards are richer the deeper you go.
If an Operator fails to get to an extraction point, you and your team will have a choice: Leave your Operator behind to push on for bigger rewards or head back to mount a daring rescue. Those who don’t make it will find their operator MIA, making them temporarily unavailable for future missions. The only means of recovering an MIA Operator is to extract them before the parasite takes them over completely.
FIGHT A LETHAL AND EVOLVING ALIEN THREAT
The Chimera parasite and its evolving Archæns are highly lethal sentient organisms that are consuming and reshaping the landscape. The Rainbow Exogenous Analysis & Containment Team (REACT) hopes to learn from this unique but deadly phenomenon, and you will count on teammates and your instincts to face 10 parasitic archetypes such as: the vicious Spiker, the elusive Tormentor, and the summoning Apex. Survive the Sprawl, a flow of self-aware parasitic tissue that spreads over the containment zone and alters the ecosystem. Areas that were previously infested may be clear, while previously safe zones could be ravaged by the Sprawl and other deadly enemies. Work together to leverage the destruction technology from Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege to reinforce walls against attacks or tear them down to create offensive opportunities.
You can check out more gameplay for Rainbow Six Extraction right here.
Rainbow Six Extraction is set for release Sept. 16 for the PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and PC.
First Watch Games has released the Rogue Company update 1.63 July 8 patch, following issues brought in by the Switchblade update released earlier this week. This turns Ranked Demolition back on, along with a host of other fixes.
Rogue Company Update 1.63 July 8 Patch Notes:
Rogue Company has applied a hotfix to address a few outstanding issues players have reported:
Turned Ranked Demolition back on
Fixed an issue that would prevent the round from ending when a player was downed defusing the bomb.
Changed the bomb timer from 35 to 50 seconds as intended.
Fixed an issue where the Round would not end after running out of time when a player planted the bomb and cancelled it.
Fixed an issue where teams could receive 2 Victory points after halftime/side swap in Demolition.
Fixed and issue where Secondary and Melee weapons would not count towards and maximum upgrade objective
Fixed an issue that prevented an Arms Dealer Event mission from being repeatable.
Fixed an issue with matches ending early and not getting rewards
That’s about it. Thankfully, First Watch is on the ball with these updates.
Tribes of Midgard is looking to have some beefy post-launch support as developers Norsfell have revealed the first season, the wolf saga. Get a look at the first half of Tribes of Midgard season 1 roadmap now!
As revealed on the PSBlog and during today’s State of Play event, developers Norsfell published a new trailer highlighting the very first season available in Tribes of Midgard come launch later this month.
To further expand on this, here’s a look at the Tribes of Midgard roadmap, which details all the content in the first half of season 1, along with dates for the other seasons.
Tribes of Midgard Season 1 Roadmap
Tribes of Midgard Season 1 – The Wolf Saga – Content
New boss
New level rewards
New rune system – There will be a totla of 30 available runes at launch.
Events
Roosters of Ragnarök Event: Gullinkambi and its siblings Fjalar and the famous (ok, maybe not) Unnamed Rooster have crowed! And when these roosters of legend crow, it is said to be the first sign of Ragnarök. Find those roosters and don’t be afraid to resort to “fowl play” if you must.
Prisoner Event: The Dark Elves have taken prisoners and you can free these captured souls from their nefarious clutches. Keep a particular eye out for Ottó the Adventurer, who has ambitions to become a true Viking. To help him get there, you need to stage one of the oldest traditions in Viking lore, a prison break. Free him, and event fragments are yours.
World Tree Stags Event: Some event fragments are brought to you as you protect your village. Four Magical stags live in the branches of Yggdrasil: Dáinn, Dvalinn, Duneyrr and Durathrór. You’ll get an alert when they descend from the World Tree to visit this Realm. Track them down and commune with them, then consider it your lucky day!
Tribes of Midgard will launch on July 27 for both the PS4, PS5, and on Steam for PC.
A gamer at heart, James has been working for MP1st for the last decade to do exactly what he loves, writing about video games and having fun doing it. Growing up in the 90's gaming has been in his DNA since the days of NES. One day he hopes to develop his own game.
People Can Fly has given an outline on just when the Outriders next patch is set to drop, as well as what gamers can expect to be included! The developers are aiming for the patch to be released next week, Tuesday (July 13), though given the certification process for Sony and Microsoft, nothing is set in stone yet.
Outriders Next Patch Preview of Changes:
Release Date (tentative): July 13 (Tuesday)
Improved and faster Xbox Sign in Process
Improved Matchmaking to reduce the chance of matching with an AFK player
Players that are AFK (not interacting with the game) for more than 2 minutes will be automatically removed from the matchmaking queue.
Interacting with NPCs or configuring skills, mods or builds is not considered AFK behaviour (though being inactive for 2 minutes+ while being in menus or dialogue options is).
Improved the visibility of Brood Mothers’ “Surge” AOE Attack (Blue flames)
Fixed a bug whereby Scrap Grenade would stop working after a cinematic or when re-joining a session
Resolved an issue with the Technomancers Borealis Set and changed its description to match its new behaviour
The New Description is:
Increase damage on Frozen enemies by X. Also, Critical Hit Damage is increased by Y for all party members for Z seconds after Cold Snap usage.
The Old Description was:
Increase Weapon Damage on Frozen enemies by X. Also, Critical Hit Damage is increased by Y for all party members for Z seconds after Cold Snap usage.
Fixed a bug that could cause the Tricksters Hunt The Prey to get stuck on activating
Fixed a bug whereby Bleed status from the armor mod ‘Bloody Crush’ would not be inflicted on enemies hit with the ‘Gravity Leap’ skill
Fixed a bug whereby the Devastator’s “Blood Donation” class node wouldn’t work if the player didn’t have other active “skill life leech” nodes or mods.
Clarified the description for the Ravenous Locust Mod
Fixed a bug whereby dismantling an item might not have displayed the mod preview
Fixed an issue that would cause the “In Sync” accolade to not properly unlock for Client players
Fixed an issue that could cause players to not get the proper reward if they completed an Expedition during the final second of the reward tier.
Other bug and crash Fixes
This patch will also include the below tweak which can be considered a small rebalance. Please note that this is just a small tweak that required code work and was already ready to be rolled into this patch. Our next patch after this one is intended to have more buffs for all classes.
[REBALANCE] Changed the Pyromancers Healthy Lifesyle Mod and changed it’s description to match it’s new behaviour.
This change should improve survivabilty while channeling this skill
The New Description is:
F.A.S.E.R Beam: Boosts your Health Regeneration X for the skill duration.
The Old Description was
F.A.S.E.R Beam: Boosts your Health Regeneration by X for Y seconds after the skill ends.
Once the patch is out, we’ll let our readers know about it.
