Are you happy with the Microsoft’s output of exclusive Xbox One games? If not, you might be changing your tune later this year. According to Microsoft’s Executive Vice-President of Gaming Phil Spencer, the roadmap of Xbox One games coming down the line has “never been stronger.”
In a video interview in the latest IGN Unlocked (#437), Phil Spencer was asked by Ryan Mccaffrey whether the Microsoft first-party studios will “empty both barrels,”and if we’re going to see some “further out stuff” to get an idea of what the new portfolio of Xbox Games Studios looks like this year.
The roadmap has never been stronger as I look forward…I mean even over like the next six months it’s a little crazy how many games are coming out. And the diversity of those games; you go from an Ori to a flight sim and to Gears Tactics. I mean, it’s…Minecraft Dungeons, Tell Me Why…it’s a strong line up. – Microsoft Executive Vice-President of Gaming Phil Spencer
Following yesterday’s April Fool’s playlist update for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, Infinity Ward has rolled out an unannounced Modern Warfare playlist update for April 2, and as one might expect, it takes out the April Fool’s playlists (both of them), and replaces it with something players might be familiar with, Flotation Oxidation.
For those unaware, Flotation Oxidation is a playlist which houses Rust and Shipment maps, along with moshpit modes (different mix of modes that rotate at random). Personally, I call these maps and modes “chaos,” given how chaotic and random everything is given the small maps and spawns.
Aside from that, there’s no news from Infinity Ward yet whether this playlist update includes gameplay-related changes or bug fixes as some server-side updates did previously. Once we get wind of anything about it, we’ll update the post.
In other Call of Duty news, former Sledgehammer Games (Call of Duty: WWII) boss Michael Condrey spoke out regarding SBMM (skill based matchmaking) and server issues in Call of Duty games, and says it’s all on Activision.
Microsoft’s Executive Vice-President of Gaming, Phil Spencer, talks about the infamous would-be Xbox exclusive Scalebound, and the company’s relationship with studio Platinum Games, and what led to the Scalebound canceled confirmation.
Speaking in an hour-long video interview with IGN’s Ryan McCaffrey, Spencer spoke briefly about their now-canceled project Scalebound, and how he has learned from the experience.
Tons of respect for Platinum, Kamiya-san, and the team. I feel no ill will, and we talk to those guys, there’s no animosity between the teams. We try to go do something and it didn’t work. I regret that we were as public about what we went to go try and do. I did some learning around Fable Legends, I did some learning around Scalebound about being public about things before I kind of know, that we got a real believable plan, something that I felt in my hands that’s gonna be there. We just didn’t get there with Scalebound with the team. And I say that with both teams.
That’s good to hear and certainly matches with previous statements made by Platinum Games. Still, despite Scalebound cancellation, Platinum Games seems more than up to giving the title another go, as they confirmed to Eurogamer earlier this year that they would love to return to it. Sadly, the decision was entirely up to Microsoft, since they owned the IP, and from the very same interview with IGN, it doesn’t appear that Microsoft has any plans at the moment to go back as they have moved on.
I think with what you hear, we love some of the ideas that we were trying to go do, and obviously we wanted to ship a great game to our customers. So, of course, we are going to be a little upset that we weren’t able to deliver on our goals with that title. We’re not working on it, I’m not at Platinum today, but I’m almost positive they’re not working on it. It’s something we’ve all moved past, and it’s not a moment I see as a high point for me in my role of having to cancel a game that we talked about for years. For the people out there that are thinking there’s still something in the works, there’s not.
Of course, this could very well change down the road, but for now, the possibility that Microsoft may have been working on it secretly can be put to rest.
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.
While we got the big TU8.4 (Title Update 8.4) for The Division 2 just last week, Ubisoft has revealed that The Division 2 next patch release date is set for sometime next week! Not only that, but we got a preview of TU8.5! This and more have been revealed in today’s State of the Game devstream.
This is a long list, though we’re not sure if this is the full The Division 2 TU8.5 patch notes.
The Division 2 next patch release notes TU8.5:
Bug Fixes
Fixing an issue causing graphic issues and crashes on PC due to corrupted shader cache files.
Fixing an issue causing the loss of the “Striker’s Gamble” stacks or not being able to acquire them.
Fixing an issue causing agents to be unable to revive team mates.
Fixing an issue causing the League UI to completely reset.
The League challenges will still reset for week two which will allow players to continue their progress.
Gameplay Changes
Control Points can now be reset by changing Global Difficulty.
Changing Directives will not reset Control Points.
Balance Changes
NPCs
BTSU Support Station
Reducing tick rate of Support Station healing.
Elite Support Stations will only provide overheal once per NPC.
Capping the heal amount a NPC can receive from the Support Station.
Warhounds
Increasing intention icon duration to allow players more time to react to the windup
Reducing the 360 spin from Warhound Minigun to 2 spins (down from 3)
Increasing windup warning of triple shoot of Warhound Grenadier.
Increasing after shoot delay of triple shoot of Warhound Grenadier.
Slightly increasing the cooldown of moving shoot of Warhound Grenadier.
Tank archetype reaction to Hive / Turret
Adding more distance checks so Tanks don’t rush at a hive next to a player.
Reducing threat limit so Tanks don’t switch targets too suddenly.
Outcast Incendiary / Molotov
Reducing duration and tick damage slightly.
Developer comment: Grenades were very strong compared to other factions’ grenades and this will bring them closer in line.
Pentagon Bosses
Reducing Drone Helicopter health and damage.
Slightly reduce health and armor for Brenner.
Reducing Brenner’s mortar damage.
Decreasing armor of John ‘Architect” Figgs.
Mortars
Reducing damage of mortars in Coney Island.
Increase delay between UI warning and explosion damage of mortars in the Washington National Zoo.
Fixing general damage scaling issues with mortars.
Skills
Assault Turret
Improving auto-targeting of Assault Turret to better prioritize NPCs it can shoot, and which are close to it.
Assault Drone
Improving behavior to prevent the Drone from becoming stuck.
Improving the consistency of firing and pathing.
Poison Status Effect
Reducing tick interval, damage and duration.
Developer comment: Event with the damage reduction to enemy NPCs poison continues to be extremely strong, this nerf will alleviate this further.
Additionally, we are planning another update that is currently scheduled for a later time in April but please keep in mind that we might need to adjust that schedule. We will keep you updated if there are any changes.
Exotics and Talent Changes:
Sawyer’s Kneepads – Reworked
Cannot be staggered by explosions.
Increase total weapon damage by 3% each second you are not moving. Stacks up to 10x and stacks are lost when moving.
This exotic only provides defensive attributes and no brand bonus, so now has potential for high damage and makes it appealing to both red and blue builds. Developer comment: The old version didn’t provide enough engaging gameplay; this change should help with that.
Imperial Dynasty – Buff
Reduced cooldown to 35s (down from 40) Developer comment: This buff is to better compensate for the lack of brand bonus.
Dodge City Gunslinger
Reduced charge up time 30s (from 50s) Developer comment: This buff is to better compensate for the lack of brand bonus.
Diamondback – Reworked
Now Grants all shots guaranteed crits for 5s after hitting a mark. Developer comment: The Diamondback is underperforming, and this change should make the bonus a bit more exciting.
Merciless/Ruthless – Buff
Explosion damage increased to 1200% (up from 900%)
Tag Team – Reworked
The last enemy you have damaged with a skill is marked.
Dealing weapon damage to that enemy consumes the mark to reduce active cooldowns by 6s.
Cooldown: 4s
Does not consume mark if no skill is on cooldown.
Reassigned – Buff
Killing an enemy adds 1 round of a random special ammo into your sidearm.
Reduced cooldown to 15s (down from 20s).
Tamper Proof – Reworked
Enemies that walk within 3m of your hive, turret, or remote pulse are shocked.
Arm time: 2s.
Increased cooldown per skill to 10s (up from 5s). Developer comment: Even though we are adjusting NPCs not rushing towards skills as much this talent gives players the ability to be more lenient when placing their skills to gain the effect, without turning themselves into a grenade.
Empathic Resolve – Buff
Repairing an ally, increases their total weapon and skill damage by 3-15% for 20s (up from 10s). 1-7% if self. Developer comment: Currently it is difficult to keep a high uptime in 4-man content as non-tank players try to be as safe as possible and NPCs have higher lethality, so chip damage is less frequent. This also buff is also meant to make Empathic Resolve able to better compete versus the True Patriot debuffs.
Creeping Death
When you apply a status effect, it is also applied to all enemies within 8m (up from 5m) of your target.
Reduced cooldown to 15s (down from 20s).
Also talked about during The State of the Game, the studio touched upon build diversity, exotic items, and more.
Finding edge Cases
They are addressing and monitoring the overall balancing of the game and looking into certain outliers.
Warhounds, Status Effects and things like Poison, Fire or gas are among them.
The goal is to avoid mechanics that instantly kill a player with full health and armor.
When instances like that are found, they try to address them.
General NPC Balancing going forward
They are pretty happy where things have landed
Now they are looking at the mentioned edge cases where they can’t just work with armor, health and damage values.
Like True Sons and explosive ammo (they should not tear down 1.6 million armor players in seconds)
M1A, Crusader Shield and Focus are not working as intended, you should only get the Focus buff when you are aiming through a scope.
The fix to that will be dropped after TU8.5. They are currently working on the exact fix because it is difficult to balance around precision, damage and the usage of a shield.
In essence, even though the builds have low armor, they have the safety of a shield and that is not the intended setup of a sniper.
They are also aware of the discussion that there seems to be a low build variety.
Some of that has to do with some overtuned named items.
They are ok with best in slot items, but in some cases the numbers are wrong.
Foxes Prayer / Contractors Gloves and the Hollow Man are examples.
They will still be powerful but they also work very well with the meta guns, so that will be addressed.
Assault Rifles
Damage to Health rolls will be buffed.
Punch Drunk will do about 20% Headshot Damage
Claws Out will get a Skill Tier Core Attribute, Pistol Damage, and about 500% Melee Damage.
Build Diversity
At the moment there is the narrative, that there are only MG5 and M1A builds around.
But based on their big data, there is a lot more diversity within the builds.
Skill builds, for example, are quite popular and useful.
Hard Wired, for example, is in the top 5 of Gear Sets and what players use.
Unbreakable is still at the top and not everybody runs Vigilance and Glass Cannon.
The LMG / M1A combo is very powerful, and they are looking into that, but they also have no issues with best in slot items
But they also want to support different playstyles with bringing up the underperformers and address the high fliers.
Exotics
They acknowledge that some exotics are underperforming and with TU8.5 they drop the first balance pass over the Exotics.
They could not address all exotics in TU8.5 but more changes will follow.
Raid Gear Sets will join the general loot pool
In an update down the road (not TU8.5), the Raid Sets will join the general loot pool completely and you can get the Chest and the Backpack from the Dark Hours Raid sets in the general loot pool.
Ubisoft Massive says that this patch will drop in early April, and mentions in the latest State of the Game it’s due next week, though without a specific date just yet.
I’ve always had my suspicions with every trailer released for this game, but given there’s a demo for Predator: Hunting Grounds, I was ready to give it the benefit of the doubt. If you’re curious about my time spent with the demo and what it felt like, read on for our Predator Hunting Grounds demo impressions! Being upfront here, the demo has proven to me that Predator: Hunting Grounds is far from ready for next month’s release.
Lets cut to the chase: This trial demo of Predator: Hunting Grounds is an absolute mess. Outside of the long queue times that Illfonic has already confirmed to be working on, the game is plagued with a plethora of issues. Matches are laggy, the framerate dropping, graphical bugs in a not so demanding title, T-pose enemies, balancing, awkward traversal, and more. There is just too much going wrong to comfortably say it’s ready for launch.
Online Connectivity and Balancing Issues
The lack of dedicated servers in favor of peer-to-peer connection really hurts it for being an online-focused game. Being in the US, it’s easy to tell when you are connecting to someone from the other side of the world. Ping levels are significantly higher for everyone but the host, and if they have a bad connection or happen to just be a world away, well, expect lag — plenty of it. We found ourselves constantly being placed in these bad connected rooms, with pings averaging between 50 – 100 for the host, and ours soaring as high as 300 in matches at times. And to make the experience even more frustrating, on top of laggy players, the NPCs that spawned during objectives would also experience the very same lag that the host was having. PvP mixed with PvE elements is just a disaster if you build it around a peer-to-peer connection.
Even when we did manage to get into a room where our ping was considerably low, the game itself suffered from massive frame-rate drops. On the Predator side of things, this was seen mostly around the crucial parts such as climbing trees or encountering enemy soldiers. However, the soldiers had it worse as simply just sprinting would cause jitters and it was easier to run into more bugs due to the NPC’s spawning in objective zones. The frames would constantly dip from the soldier’s perspective, making it just unbearable at times.
Let’s talk about balance. Innocently enough, there wasn’t a whole lot wrong when I first started. Some games I’d win as the Predator, others as a soldier. For the time, it seemed pretty even as long as I played smart. However, because the matchmaking system doesn’t have any kind of filtering, such as by levels, you could easily find yourself in some pretty unfair situations. While the first day of the beta was met with frustrating long queue times, the second day showcased some major level disadvantage. I found myself getting into matches with my lowly level below 10, against players that were maxed beta rank, which I believed this was at 22.
As a soldier, going against the Predator felt as much as it should feel — underpowered despite having numbers on my side. Some may see that as a bad thing, but I enjoyed that part since it was in line with how it has always been in the films. Playing smart gets you through it all. It’s when I got control of the Predator as a low level going against the higher ranks that proved problematic. The grenade launcher is extremely overpowered and playing as the Predator shouldn’t make the player feel scared of its target. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything so unbalanced in my life as the grenade launcher in Hunting Grounds, as not only does it stagger the Predator and other enemies, but it also has an obnoxious explosion effect. Dealing with one is pretty bad, but confronting a whole team with them? Well, just watch this video (not ours) down below and tell me what you think.
Does that honestly look fun to anyone? I know it certainly wasn’t for me. It also makes the objectives that players are tasked with completing a bit more pointless if they can quickly win the match by ridding it of the main threat.
So What Did I Like?
You know, if these issues weren’t so consistent and the game played buttery smooth, I think this would be a great title overall. I found the Predator gameplay to capture what one could expect from playing as the Predator. In fact, I’d be more than happy with what they did with the gameplay for the Predator if it were featured in a full-length single-player game. He’s loaded with weapons, has the iconic thermal vision, is extremely fast and terrifying. Basically, everything the original Predator was. It’s damn near perfect. And this here is where developers Illfonic truly shine, as while their previous title, Friday the 13th: The Game, was also pretty buggy, they offered a fine amount of details that stayed true to the source material. The same is here, and I even found myself chuckling at some of the callbacks, such as the memorable handshake scene or the Predator self-destructing. That last bit could use some changing though as I would have preferred it if players couldn’t disarm (don’t ask how they can) it but were instead pitted against time to escape the radius zone.
I feel there is a lot to still like in terms of details that any Predator fan will appreciate, it’s just that in its current state the game is clearly not ready. The bugs presented in the trial build most likely won’t be ironed out in the 20 odd days till launch. And unless this build was one from months back, we anticipate a very rough launch that will most likely see a very small community to accompany it.
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.
Microsoft has announced the Xbox Games With Gold April titles, and it’s a mixed bag. Xbox Live Gold members will get Project CARS 2. Knights of Pen and Paper Bundle for the Xbox One! Xbox 360 games are part of the list too, which you can check out below.
Xbox Games With Gold April titles:
Project CARS 2 ($59.99 ERP): Available April 1 to 30 on Xbox One
Over 180 elite vehicles are available for your choosing to compete on a variety of track surfaces including ice, dirt, and mud. Featuring dynamic weather physics on 140 tracks, true-to-life handling, and multiple game modes, the ultimate driver journey begins at the wave of the checkered flag.
In this collection of the award-winning game and its sequel, inhabit a world of chivalry, class warfare, and semi-appropriate cultural references — while complaining loudly to the Game Master. It’s all the fun of pen and paper RPGs and none of the lost dice!
Fable Anniversary ($39.99 ERP): Available April 1 to 15 on Xbox One & Xbox 360
All new textures, models, and lighting were used to retell the story of the pioneering game where every character choice has a direct consequence. This is the definitive Fable experience for faithful fans and new players alike.
Toybox Turbos ($9.99 ERP): Available April 16 to 30 on Xbox One & Xbox 360
Collect and customize 35 vehicles on 18 crazy tracks in a game that reboots the classic table top racing experience. With six gaming modes available and amazing power-ups, it’s the perfect family game for those competitive “just one more” sessions.
Following yesterday’s bad news that double XP isn’t possible in Battlefield 5 due to technical reasons, those playing in the Middle East and South Africa are in for another disappointing bit of news. DICE has confirmed today that Battlefield 5 Middle East servers and South Africa servers have been “retired.”
This was confirmed by DICE Global Community Manager PartWelsh today, where he also confirmed that Battlefield 5 South African servers have also been retired, with both player base now connecting to EU instead. This was made after “careful review” of “player behaviour.” We’ve screengrabbed PartWelsh’s conversation with a player, and have quoted it below as well.
Our Dubai site for hosting Servers was retired today and players in the region will instead be matchmade to our servers in EU.
This is a decision that was not made lightly, and followed careful review of player behavior from the region. We see that the absolute majority of players connecting from the Middle East play on EU servers and so will find that all of their connections are now routed here.
On the Battlefield 5 subreddit, PartWelsh also confirmed that the Battlefield 5 Middle East servers (and South Africa) reroute are for all platforms (PS4, Xbox One, PC).
Sony has once again launched a new PlayStation Store sale this week and it’s live! Called the “Spring Sale,” it features discounts of up to 50 percent off!
PlayStation Store sale – “Spring Sale” – Ends 4/28/20:
If you’re a regular reader of MP1st (if not, it’s OK, you’ll want to bookmark us for the breaking news), you’re probably aware wha the PlayStation Plus April free games are, since it was accidentally leaked last week.
For those that don’t, it’s a good month as gamers are geting Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End, and Dirt Rally 2.0!
Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End
Naughty Dog’s critically acclaimed adventure epic arrives on PS Plus! Several years after his last adventure, retired fortune hunter, Nathan Drake, is forced back into the world of thieves. With the stakes much more personal, Drake embarks on a visually stunning globe-trotting journey in pursuit of a historical conspiracy behind a fabled pirate treasure. Nathan Drake’s greatest adventure will require quick wits, fast fists and inventive use of weaponry while testing his physical limits, his resolve, and ultimately what he’s willing to sacrifice to save the ones he loves.
Dirt Rally 2.0
Perfect precision driving and develop nerves of steel as you roar through a selection of iconic rally tracks from across the globe in search of championship glory (and ever-faster lap times) in this realistic race sim. Dirt Rally 2.0 embodies the best venerated British development studio Codemasters has to offer: challenging courses, race-altering weather systems, in-depth car customizations and much more. In all, this is a masterclass in off-road racing.
Just yesterday, Activision (kinda) surprised the gaming population by releasing Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Campaign Remastered on the PS4 first. As the title implies, there is no multiplayer component to it, and Activision doesn’t plan on releasing it at all. If you want help or just want to watch what unfolds, we have the full Modern Warfare 2 Campaign Remastered walkthrough in video form below!
Possibly the best part of this Modern Warfare 2 Campaign Remastered walkthrough? There’s no commentary! You don’t need to mute the volume at all since there’s no screaming person or dubstep music playing. As one might expect, there are spoilers within! So if you haven’t played Modern Warfare 2’s campaign yet, prepare for the plot to be ruined!
There you go! That’s hours of entertainment right there, in case you just want to see what changes were made to the original.
Are you picking up this remaster? Stay tuned to our full review hitting the site soon.
Media Molecule has released a new patch for its game creating, er, game, Dreams! Dreams update 2.08 is out, and once again, there’s a bunch of new stuff and gameplay improvements included! Check the Dreams update 2.08 patch notes below.
Dreams update 2.08 patch notes:
What’s new?
Welcome Garden Character Pack – Our Welcome Garden Character Pack introduces two new playable characters, a non-playable character, and a handful of enemies. Enjoy using them in your creations – they mix perfectly with our Welcome Garden Art Pack!
New Blank Puppet – Our first new Blank Puppet is designed for platforming gameplay, and is the basis for our Welcome Garden characters.
Directional Button Controls for Dreamiverse – You can now navigate the Dreamiverse using the directional buttons on your controller.
Other improvements
New Tweak: On tweaking a stroke, you’ll find the Sun Shadow Scale vs Detail tweak. This lets you adjust sunlight shadows for the right balance between detail near the camera, and how far away from the camera shadows are cast.
Updated: Changes to audio recording. Recording time has been reduced to 15 seconds per clip.
Other minor tweaks and improvements.
In addition to that, there’s also one thing missing from the notes that’s in the final version’s patch notes and that’s:
New: Added demo functionality to the game
That’s basically it. If we spot anything else, we’ll update the post.
During the mid-moring, Infinity Ward has released a new Call of Duty: Modern Warfare playlist update, and it’s a doozy! Rolled out just in time for April Fool’s is Gunfight 3v3 Snipers, and a few “secret” playlists! Note that this is a server-side refresh, and players will automatically download the playlist update when connecting to the game.
Tonight's playlist update for #ModernWarfare is rolling out now across all platforms! Check out Gunfight 3v3 Snipers, Cyber Attack Pro, and more….😏
As you can see, Infinity Ward has announced it though they didn’t exactly tell people what they’re getting.
Firing Modern Warfare up, players will see the following as today’s (April 1) Modern Warfare playlist update:
Gunfight 3v3 – Snipers Only
Cyber Attack Pro
I Have Trust Issues
COD Players Only Want One Thing…
For the “I Have Trust Issues” playlist, it mentions it’s “Totally Shipment,” but in reality, it’s Picaddilly — hence, the title. Think of it as Infinity Ward’s April Fool’s prank for the community. As for the “COD Players Only Want One Thing” one, it’s Shipment 24/7, which includes 10v10 modes! Yes, that’s 10v10 matches in Shipment!
With Call of Duty: Warzone being a free-to-play game that offers crossplay on platforms that include PC, the inevitable cheating issue is bound to happen, Infinity Ward anticipated it. According to the studio they have permabanned more than 50,000 Call of Duty Warzone cheaters.
Infinity Ward says they have “zero tolerance” for cheating, and since day one of Warzone, they’ve been actively going through data with their security teams to ensure Warzone is free of hackers and whatnot. Here are some of the counter-measures the studio is doing round the clock to combat Call of Duty Warzone cheaters.
Our security teams monitor 24/7 to investigate data and identify potential infractions.
· The teams review all possible cheats and hacks, this includes identifying use of aimbots, wallhacks and more.
· We’re working to improve our in-game system for reporting potential cheating. Plans are underway to streamline the UI for a more seamless reporting experience.
· For all reports that are received in-game, they are both analyzed and filtered based on key data.
· Once investigations are complete, we will continue to work as quickly as possible to ban.
In addition to that, Infinity Ward states that they will aim to provide a regular count on the latest numbers of bans issued as needed.
While there’s no single solution and sure-fire way to combat cheaters and cheating, what Infinity Ward is doing is definitely a step in the right direction.
Hopoo Games has released the big Risk of Rain 2 Artifacts update on PC! As expected, there’s new content, a new stage, new music tracks, and loads more! Check out the Risk of Rain 2 Artifacts patch notes below.
Risk of Rain 2 Artifacts patch notes:
Added System: Artifacts
The hunt is on! Be the first to explore the planet and find the secret to unlock 16 powerful and mysterious Artifacts that will dramatically change the way you play. We expect Artifacts to be the biggest feature to date in terms of replayability to all players.
Added 16 Artifacts
New Artifact: Artifact of Honor
New Artifact: Artifact of Enigma
New Artifact: Artifact of Spite
New Artifact: Artifact of Soul
New Artifact: Artifact of Death
New Artifact: Artifact of Vengeance
New Artifact: Artifact of Metamorphosis
New Artifact: Artifact of Dissonance
New Artifact: Artifact of Chaos
New Artifact: Artifact of Frailty
New Artifact: Artifact of Kin
New Artifact: Artifact of Sacrifice
New Artifact: Artifact of Evolution
New Artifact: Artifact of Glass
New Artifact: Artifact of Command
New Artifact: Artifact of Swarms
Added System: UI Overhaul
This is something we have been looking forward to doing since the launch of Early Access. We primarily wanted to improve the visuals of the UI and finally get rid of the on-screen cursor for gamepad users. There are about a million changes with this change. Did anyone ask for this? No. Did it take a bunch of time? Yes. Was it worth it? No. Am I writing the patch notes? Yes. Is it at the top so you have to read it? Yes.
Updated System: Unity 2018.4.16f1
Update project to Unity 2018.4.16f1. This will help with a bunch of things, but the major reason for upgrading was to fix late game crashes. It may also be our imagination, but we’ve also noticed general performance improvements.
Added New Stage
New Stage: Sky Meadow
Added 2 New Music Tracks
New Stage Track: The Rain Previously Known as Purple
New Boss Track: Antarctic Oscillation
Added New Hidden Realm
New Hidden Realm: ???
Added 5 Skill Variants
New Skill Variant: Commando Utility
New Skill Variant: Huntress Primary
New Skill Variant: Acrid Utility
New Skill Variant: Acrid Passive
New Skill Variant: Engineer Utility
Added New Skin
New Skin: Engineer Skin
Added 2 New Monsters
New Monster: Mini Mushrum
New Monster: Parent
Added New Boss
New Boss: ???
Added 6 Items and 2 Equipment to the game
New Item: Repulsion Armor Plate
New Item: Squid Polyp
New Item: Death Mark
New Item: Interstellar Desk Plant
New Equipment: Sawmerang
New Equipment: Recycler
New Lunar Item: Focused Convergence
New Boss Item: ???
Added New Chest
New Chest: Equipment Triple Shop
Added 5 Character Challenges to the game
New Commando Challenge: Godspeed
New Huntress Challenge: Finishing Touch
New Engineer Challenge: Zero Sum
New Engineer Challenge: Engineer Mastery
New Acrid Challenge: Easy Prey
New Acrid Challenge: Bad Medicine
Added 3 Challenges to the game
New Challenge: Automation Activation
New Challenge: Cleanup Duty
New Challenge: Never Back Down
Added 3 New Environment Logs
New Environment Log: Sky Meadow
New Environment Log: A Moment, Fractured
New Environment Log: ???
Added 8 Lore Entries to the game
New Item Lore Entry: Repulsion Armor Plate
New Item Lore Entry: Squid Polyp
New Item Lore Entry: Death Mark
New Item Lore Entry: Interstellar Desk Plant
New Item Lore Entry: Sawmerang
New Item Lore Entry: Recycler
New Item Lore Entry: Focused Convergence
New Item Lore Entry: Ghor’s Tome
Gameplay Changes:
General
Initial Monster Spawns
? Allow initial monster spawns on the first stage
Update spawn logic so initial monsters spawns aren’t nearby players
Update spawn logic to allow elite monsters
? Update how AOE falloff is calculated to be more accurate
Developer Notes: This affects AOE attacks that did less damage at the edges, like Commando’s Grenade and MUL-T’s Scrap Launcher. They should now do full damage with a direct impact – however, this also affects enemies as well!
Characters with damage interrupt thresholds like Lesser Wisp and Lemurian now use total damage received instead of incoming damage with a crit modifier when determining whether or not they should be interrupted when hit. This makes these interrupts more likely when using items that modify damage like Crowbar and Focus Crystal.
Survivors
Huntress
Add 1 New Skill Variant
Improve Huntress tracker visuals to be a bit more clear
Arrow Rain / Ballista
? Cooldown: 17s ⇒ 12s
Strafe
Fire Rate: 0.6s ⇒ 0.5s
Travel Speed: 60m/s ⇒ 120m/s
Improve VFX
Commando
Add 1 New Skill Variant
Phase Round
? Damage: 200% ⇒ 300%
REX
Bramble Volley
Cooldown: 2.0s ⇒ 5.0s
Proc Coefficient: 0 ⇒ 0.5
Developer Notes: Cooldowns aren’t displayed anywhere in character select, and are generally a lame way to balance Skill Variants
Mercenary
Slicing Winds
Cooldown: 7.0s ⇒ 6.0s
Developer Notes: Cooldowns aren’t displayed anywhere in character select, and are generally a lame way to balance similar Skill Variants
Acrid
Add 2 New Skill Variants
Improve Acrid’s poison VFX
Caustic Leap
The damage from the acid pool is no longer non-lethal
Engineer
Add 1 new Skill Variant
Add 1 new Skin
? Update animations on falling, landing, sprinting, walking and jumping
Bubble Shield
Increase shield warning flash by 0.5 second and tweak visuals to be softer
Now displays selected mine and turret variants in the Character Select screen
Items
Infusion
Max Health per kill: 1 hp ⇒ 1 hp (+1 per stack)
Developer Notes: The cap remains unchanged, but it will fill up faster.
Medkit
Heal: 15 hp (+15 per stack) ⇒ 25 hp (+25 per stack)
Heal delay: 2.0s ⇒ 3.0s
Royal Capacitor
Lightning now strikes where the target was 0.3s before the strike lands, instead of where they currently are.
Add new visuals warning before lightning strikes
Add glow and improve visuals so it’s more noticeable (hmm…)
Spectral Circlet
? Is no longer invisible and missing an icon
Stun Grenade
Chance to trigger now scales by proc coefficient
Gasoline
Now checks against hurtboxes in a sphere instead of against root-level character positions, resulting in it hitting more often
Stages
Scorched Acres
?’Radar Towers’ will now properly appear
Can now spawn ‘Equipment Triple Shop’
Siren’s Call
?’Radar Towers’ will now properly appear
Improve overall stage performance
Update rock formations in certain caves
Stage Variant: Distant Roost
Improve overall stage performance and monster pathfinding
Stage Variant: Titanic Plains
Improve overall stage performance and monster pathfinding
Hidden Realm: Void Fields
? Time is now stopped in ‘Void Fields’
? Update ‘Cell Vents’ to only charge while the player remains inside the bubble
? Fix health degeneration not running on the final round of Cells
Enemy item indicator on the HUD now displays the number of item stacks
Abandoned Aqueduct
? Disable Ice & Fire Elder Lemurians from spawning if the gate isn’t legitimately opened. We see you, Mr Streamer.
Monsters & Bosses
LesserWisp
Improve performance
Increase size of fire effect so they look fuller
Lemurian
Update mesh and textures
Imp Overlord
Improve performance
Greater Wisp
?Base Armor: 1 ⇒ 0
BighornBison
Max Health: 600 (+180 per level) ⇒ 480 (+144 per level)
Developer Notes: We aim for monsters to have, depending on their role, an approximate “health per director point” ratio. Some outliers had significantly higher health for what they cost to spawn, so we’re aiming to normalize these outliers
Beetle Guard
Max Health: 600 (+180 per level) ⇒ 480 (+144 per level
Developer Notes: We aim for monsters to have, depending on their role, an approximate “health per director point” ratio. Some outliers had significantly higher health for what they cost to spawn, so we’re aiming to normalize these outliers.
Imp
Max Health: 200 (+60 per level) ⇒ 140 (+42 per level)
Developer Notes: We aim for monsters to have, depending on their role, an approximate “health per director point” ratio. Some outliers had significantly higher health for what they cost to spawn, so we’re aiming to normalize these outliers.
Alloy Vulture
Max Health: 200 (+60 per level) ⇒ 140 (+42 per level)
Developer Notes: We aim for monsters to have, depending on their role, an approximate “health per director point” ratio. Some outliers had significantly higher health for what they cost to spawn, so we’re aiming to normalize these outliers.
Beetle
?Change bullseye hurtbox from the chest to the head so Huntress can attack earlier during the spawn animation
Void Reaver
Nullifier Bomb
?Proc Coefficient: 0 ⇒ 1
Delay Time: 2s ⇒ 1s
Add missing animations and elite displays
Change AI movement behavior
Grovetender
? Improve accuracy of hurtboxes
? Fix corpse continuing to play idle sound loop after death
Clay Dunestrider
?Improve accuracy of hurtboxes
Scavenger
? Can no longer spawn with Ceremonial Daggers
Developer Notes: We’re comfortable with Scavengers being a bit BS at times – as long as it’s fun. Preon Accumulator, Capacitor, Disposable Missile Launchers, etc are crazy strong but still fun and have moments of cooldown. Ceremonial Daggers had no downtime, had infinite range, and had no cooldown.
Twisted Scavenger
Max Health: 3800 (+1140 per level) ⇒ 3230 (+969 per level)
Now properly spawns with unique boss health and damage scaling (Aurelionite, Alloy Worship Unit)
Developer Notes: This is an enormous change, but was always intended. Expect the Twisted Scavengers to be SIGNIFICANTLY more challenging – Beads of Fealty should now be a significant risk vs reward. They should be treated as a powerful optional boss.
Twiptwip the Devotee
Remove 3 ‘Tougher Times’
Remove 3 ‘Personal Shield Generators’
Add 2 ‘Gasoline’
Add 3 ‘Chronobauble’
Add 3 ‘Lens-maker’s Glasses’
Prismatic Trials
? Now spawns with a random selection of Artifacts!
? Fix stage object rotation randomization not being seeded
Achievements
Huntress: Piercing Wind can now also be achieved on Scorched Acres
Sound & Music:
Fix Foreign Fruit not playing its activation SFX correctly over the network
Fix The Back-up equipment not playing activation SFX correctly over the network
Fix Engineer Bouncing Grenades firing SFX and effects not playing for anyone but the client playing as the Engineer
Fix Mercenary Whirlwind not playing SFX for anyone but the client playing as Mercenary and not applying forward self-force when playing as a non-host client
Clean up explosion sound setups for several projectiles allowing them to play their explosion SFX correctly over the network
Update SFX setup for several effects that could fail to play if the VFX budget is exceeded
Quality of Life:
? Update AI so they don’t strafe off cliffs as much
Update AI pathfinding so they are less likely to backtrack to positions along their path that they overshot
? Move ‘Unlimited’ option to far right of FPS limit in settings
Add optional MSAA (Default to 2x) in Options menu for UI ‘jaggies’
Add a new death visual effect for players so it’s clearer when they die
Update Quickplay icon
Update Ally Indicator to make it more useful when trying to find allies
Update Boss position indicators to show a fading marker when reentering the center of the screen to help locate bosses behind objects
? Update ‘Time Crystals’ and ‘Explosive Pots’ to have proper character model setup and proper strings so they are highlighted and named when pinged
? Update ‘Cell Vent’ safe icon to a shield so it’s not the same as the Void Reaver’s debuff
? Add new glyphs for DualShock controller from PEW’s PS4 Port (woo!)
? Update Game End Report to use special strings and icon if no killer is found
? Update Fusion Cells and Explosive Pots so they can detonate each other
Add portrait icon for Newt
? Change mouse sensitivity from 1-10 instead of 0.01-1
Change ‘Steam Build ID’ string to ‘ver’ string so its smaller
Change “Killed by” text to be right-aligned so it can fit longer names
Change ‘Exit’ in Title Menu to ‘Quit to Desktop’
Update ping functionality to use the same method of raycast modification used for object interaction to make it more likely to hit what you’re looking at
Bug Fixes:
? Fix for “black screen” issue by preventing a host player from trying to connect to itself when lobby ownership is somehow lost
? Fix ‘Alloy Worship Unit’ boss event not beginning if multiple eggs are destroyed in 1 frame
? Fix 1-frame flash when changing loadout panels from different survivors
? Fix inverted checkmark/no checkmark on Fullscreen setting in SettingsPanel
? Fix issue which caused blast attacks to calculate hit distance based on the center of the hit hurtbox instead of the closest point. The overall effect of this is that blast attacks with falloff will do more damage since objects will now be considered closer than they were, especially against monsters with large hurtboxes like the Stone Titan.
? Fix ‘Cosmic Explorer’ not counting the portal to the Void Fields
? Fix ‘Old Guillotine’ item not checking if the victim body is immune to executes (no more instantly killing yourself with Old Guillotine, Wake of Vultures, and Glowing Meteorite/Helfire Tincture)
? Remove stray backslash from Lunar Dagger description English string
Fix issue where running up against walls would cause the camerato get extremely close
Fix some sprites being on the wrong z-plane in the Game End Report causing weird distortions
Fix ‘Disable HUD’ setting not saving when closing the game
? Fix Scavenger gaining a permanent armor buff if interrupted while searching its bag for an item, like when activating Volcanic Egg
Unhook window flashing on dedicated servers, which causes a weird window to be created
? Fix spectators earning achievements
? Fix MUL-T’s dash impact with heavy enemies not stunning and dealing bonus damage for clients
Fix MUL-T’s dash impact with heavy enemies not triggering on-hit effects
? Fix Scavenger Backpack not dropping items if it’s activated too quickly
Fix Loadouts being lost when reconnecting to an online game
Fix missing borders on some Commando skill icons
? Fix REX: Mastery achievement icon using old Smoothie skin colors
? Clarify description of Suppressive Fire to be a bit more accurate
? Clarify REX’s passive description to be a bit more accurate
Fix dithering on a variety of materials so it fades if the camera gets very close
Fix wrong death sound on Acrid
? Fix a variety of effects still showing when using Volcanic Egg and Strides of Heresy
? Fix Chunked! challenge granting on non-teleporter boss kills
Fix Teleporters not using the correct decal layer
? Fix Magma Worms and similar monsters from spawning as an elite version in Prismatic Trials. Goodbye Overloading Overloading Worm.
? Fix a variety of typos in logbook descriptions
Fix Genesis Loop area indicator being half the actual size of the blast
Ghosts with curse no longer have shortened lifespans
Fix monsters always spawning facing the same direction
Interactables that spawn outside the Teleporter radius after it begins charging (like destroyed drones) now become locked until the end of the Teleporter event
Fix Stun Grenade being able to stun certain characters with stun immunity (mainly survivors)
Fix non-Teleporter boss encounters counting toward the Keyed Up achievement
Fix characters hidden by Spectral Circlet still being visible to AI
Fix being able to ping the sky
Fix description of Spinel Tonic incorrectly providing the effect duration as 15 seconds instead of the 20 seconds it is in-game
Fix a variety of other bugs we probably forgot…
Known Issues:
Votes on difficulty and artifacts are reset for non-host players when returning from a run to the character select screen
‘MUL-T: Pest Control’ doesn’t grant the achievement despite completing the requirements
The first monster chosen for Void Fields will not be shown on the HUD until starting the second cell
Artifact of Vengeance may not work if too many monsters are on the map
Console games should be getting this patch soon-ish, and once it’s out, we’ll be sure to let our readers know.
Those wondering why DICE hasn’t flipped the switch on some sweet Battlefield 5 double XP goodness now that a lot of people are stuck at home, it seems it’s a tech issue and not just the studio not wanting to do it.
This was revealed by DICE Community Manager Jeff Braddock over on the Battlefield 5 subreddit when a fan asked exactly that, and why there are no community events happening as of the moment.
Well, the good news here is, something Battlefield 5-related is planned, which means added incentive to play Battlefield 5, just don’t expect any XP boosts. In case you want to read Braddock’s answers, we’ve quoted them down in text form below.
The team is working on it – we had something planned for last week but after testing the user flow, it didn’t work correctly (meaning you couldn’t tell if you got the thing or not). There’s talks going on about more playlists, login rewards – but we want it to work.
As soon as it’s locked, tested, and tested again and ready to roll, we’ll let you know. I definitely understand what you mean and totally agree.
Re: 2XP, it just doesn’t work for BFV (even though we had it for the last 4 BF
Humble Bundle Conquer COVID-19 bundle is the latest Humble Bundle package, promising over $1000 of goodies for a low price of $30.
The Humble Bundle Conquer COVID-19 bundle will be available for just one week, and the company promises that 100% of all purchases will be donated to organizations in pursuit of fighting the virus.
This special one-week bundle features $1,071 worth of games and ebooks for just $30. 100% of the proceeds from your bundle purchase go to support organizations responding to COVID-19. For example, delivering protective gear to safeguard healthcare workers and providing medical care to infected patients.
The bundle will include 45 PC games and about 26 E-books, comics, and audiobooks. You can find the full list of games down below, but if you are interested, make sure to purchase the bundle here: Humble Bundle COVID-19 Support
Into The Breach
UNDERTALE
Hollow Knight
Wizard of Legend
Totally Accurate Battle Simulator
The Witness
SUPERHOT
Tilt Brush
LEGO® Batman™ 3: Beyond Gotham
Killing Floor 2
Fahrenheit: Indigo Prophecy Remastered
Darksiders II Deathinitive Edition
Darksiders Warmastered Edition
Sniper Elite 3
This Is the Police
The Jackbox Party Pack 2
Stick Fight: The Game
Brothers – A Tale of Two Sons
Party Hard
Worms Revolution
Europa Universalis IV
Tropico 4
GNOG
Broken Age
Brütal Legend
Psychonauts
Double Fine Adventure
PAC-MAN™ CHAMPIONSHIP EDITION 2
Pikuniku
World of Goo
Super Hexagon
VVVVVV
Hacknet
A Mortician’s Tale
A Good Snowman Is Hard To Build
Magicka
Rebuild 3: Gangs of Deadsville
Agents of Mayhem
DUCATI – 90th Anniversary
Speed Brawl
HIVESWAP: Act 1
Alien Spidy
Stealth Inc 2: A Game of Clones
LostWinds
Zombotron
Not a bad list of PC titles at all for that price. At 45 games (not counting the E-books) you are getting each title for less than $1, all while fighting for a good cause.
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.
For those holding out on the possibility of a standalone remastered Modern Warfare 2 Remastered multiplayer, you may be saddened to know that the company has no intention of doing so (at this time) and will instead release classic maps in the newest Modern Warfare entry.
Beginning with Modern Warfare last year, the focus has been to bring players together seamlessly in one unified online multiplayer playground. With cross-play, releasing new post-launch maps, modes, weapons and more content drops for free, and launching Warzone, the Free-to-Play, Free-for-Everyone new Call of Duty experience, the Modern Warfare universe will expand, bringing new experiences to players.
We’ve played iconic Modern Warfare series maps of past returning in the new Modern Warfare, including classic maps like Rust, Shipment, Crash and Vacant. Plus, in Warzone we’ve also experienced classic Modern Warfare series locations like Gulag and Boneyard in new ways.
Rather than release a separate, multiplayer experience as a standalone pack, Activision and Infinity Ward are looking to bring more classic map experiences to new life within the Modern Warfare universe as it continues to grow and build over time.
It does make sense, as Call of Duty: Warzone is already doing just that and releasing the third option this soon could prove to be more harmful. I personally would have loved to see a Modern Warfare 2 remastered multiplayer as Modern Warfare 2019 is an entirely different experience. Still though, remastering some of the classic maps is something to be excited for.
Guess we will have to just settle for the campaign for now and see how well these re-releases of maps do. Modern Warfare 2 Remastered campaign is currently available on the PlayStation 4, with Xbox One and PC release happening next month.
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.
It’s Tuesday, and Guardians, that means a new Destiny 2 weekly reset post here on MP1st! With most people stuck at home due to COVID-19, check out the reset of activities you can do in Destiny 2 this March 31, 2020.
Note that this is a little late this week due to the server maintenance.
Destiny 2 weekly reset – March 31, 2020:
Nightfall – The Ordeal
Warden of Nothing
Legacy Niightfalls:
Exodus Crash
The Arms Dealer
The Scarlet Keep
Nightmare Hunts:
Omnigul
Zydron
Skolas
Heroic Menagerie – Arunak, Hive Ogre
The Reckoning – The Swords
Escalation Protocol – Bok Litur, Hunger of Xol
Raid Challenges
The Leviathan
Challenges:
The Last Wish
Scourge of the Past
Crown of Sorrow
Garden of Salvation
That’s a summary of everything, with the specifics mentioned in the image above. Don’t forget, there’s a small patch released today as well, and we listed the patch notes here.
We’re going to keep an eye out on any new Destiny 2 gameplay-related developments, so make sure to bookmark our Destiny 2 hub! Don’t forget to check back this Friday for the weekly Xur location and items post, which we post super fast the moment we find out where he is.
Are you happy with this week’s reset or disappointed? Let us know your thoughts down below.
As part of today’s Destiny 2 server maintenance, Bungie has rolled out a Destiny 2 update 1.48, or what the studio calls Destiny 2 hotfix 2.8.0.2! This is a relatively small download, and only includes fixes as far as we’re aware.
Destiny 2 update 1.48 patch notes:
DESTINY 2 HOTFIX 2.8.0.2
Fixed an issue where Trials of Osiris challenges were not being reset properly, causing some players to not receive rewards.
Fixed an issue where players were not getting the correct amount of planetary materials from bunker upgrades.
Fixed an issue where Titan Season Pass arms ornament would block first-person view.
Season Pass SMG and Shotgun will now create Warmind cells with Season Pass ornaments equipped.
Fixed an issue where Sentinel Titans were able to extend Sentinel Shield/Banner Shield by suppressing themselves.
Fixed an issue with Raiju’s Harness that allowed players to hold Whirlwind Guard indefinitely.
Also of note, Bungie announced just now that the following issues are NOT included in today’s hotfix.
Due to an issue, the following are not included in today’s hotfix and have been pushed out: – A fix where bunker upgrades on the Season Pass are only unlocked on one character – A fix where the first weekly clear of a Legendary Lost Sector won't award a powerful drop
Due to an issue, the following are not included in today’s hotfix and have been pushed out: – A fix where bunker upgrades on the Season Pass are only unlocked on one character – A fix where the first weekly clear of a Legendary Lost Sector won’t award a powerful drop
We’ll keep an eye out for anything gameplay-related not mentioned in the notes.
As one might expect given the leaks, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Campaign Remastered is now out — but only on the PS4 for now. This was confirmed by Activision in a press release stating that it’s out “first on PlayStation 4 on the PlayStation Network, with other platforms available for pre-purchase.”
The game includes the full campaign with stunning high-definition visuals – up to 4K resolution and HDR support on console; and uncapped framerate as well as ultrawide monitor support on PC.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Campaign Remastered is available now on PlayStation network. Players who purchase will also receive, free with purchase, Underwater Demo Team Classic Ghost Bundle for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare including the UDT Ghost Operator skin inspired by the ‘The Only Easy Day…Was Yesterday’ campaign level that featured an action-packed hostage rescue attempt from an oil rig in in the arctic. Alongside the Ghost Operator skin, players will also receive two weapon blueprints, a weapon charm, new finishing move, voice quip, animated calling card, emblem and two Battle Pass tier skips all for immediate access in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare and the recently released Call of Duty: Warzone*.
We’ve reached out to Activision to clarify which platforms are getting Modern Warfare 2 Remastered, and when. We’ll update the post if we hear anything back.
