Infinity Ward has rolled out a quick Call of Duty: Modern Warfare playlist update, though it doesn’t really change anything much. There’s no download required, and the only changes made are for overlapping text in the Call of Duty: Warzone menu, and the studio moved BR Solos into its own playlist button.
We deployed a quick update to adjust some overlapping text in the #Warzone menu. We also moved BR Solos into its own "Playlist" button!
In addition to Modern Warfare playlist update, Infinity Ward held a poll to ask gamers what game mode they want to see in Modern Warfare next week, and the winner is, Deathmatch Domination, which is also my personal choice.
The results are in! Looks like we'll be turning on Deathmatch Domination in next week's playlist update! Thank you to everyone who voted! https://t.co/Lt0JrFO4Kv
Those who haven’t tried Modern Warfare’s multiplayer mode, you can do so now, and for free! If you’ve already downloaded the free-to-play battle royale mode Warzone, you’ll instantly gain access to it for a limited time. Read up on all the details regarding this free weekend multiplayer trial right here.
In addition to that, Infinity Ward announced the start of Modern Warfare Season 3, and it’s next week! We also posted a rumor that surfaced stating Infintiy Ward has plans for more Modern Warfare sequels, and it’ll focus on the other horsemen.
Everyone’s favorite assassin is coming to PS4! Publisher Good Sheperd Entertainment and developer Bithell Games have announced the John Wick Hex PS4 release date, and it’s on May 5! There’s a new trailer which shows scants footage of gameplay.
According to the press release, Bithell Games has collaborated with Ant Workshop to “resdesign” John Wick Hex for the PS4 DualShock 4 controller.
John Wick Hex is fight-choreographed chess brought to life. It expands on the John Wick universe with a new storyline, unique graphic noir art design, and the world-class voice talents of Ian McShane, Lance Reddick and Troy Baker. The game also includes a riveting original score by Grammy-nominated composer Austin Wintory (Journey, Flow, the Banner Saga series).
John Wick Hex is fight-choreographed chess brought to life. It expands on the John Wick universe with a new storyline, unique graphic noir art design, and the world-class voice talents of Ian McShane, Lance Reddick and Troy Baker. The game also includes a riveting original score by Grammy-nominated composer Austin Wintory (Journey, Flow, the Banner Saga series).
John Wick Hex will be available on the PlayStation Store for $19.99, and it’s currently out now for PC. Hopefully, this port makes good use of the DualShock 4 that people won’t wish for a keyboard and mouse setup.
Activision has today announced the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Season 3 release date and it’s on April 8, which next week! This was announced along with a new image teasing the new Operatores coming to Seasons 3!
This Modern Warfare Season 3 release date announcement and double XP is perfect since there’s a free multiplayer weekend happening today until April 6.
For details on Season 3, a bunch of stuff about it such as the maps, weapons and more have been leaked! While chances of those changing are still a possibility, we don’t expect that to happen, as these stuff were seen in the game’s data files.
Let’s hope the download isn’t that big for Season 3, no? Will you be taking part in it or are you busy with Call of Duty: Warzone?
Same as always, once a new patch drops, we’ll be sure to let our readers know.
It’s Friday, and regardless if you’re tucked away in your home or not, Xur is back! MP1st is once again back for your weekly Destiny 2 Xur today post, which points out where he is and what he’s selling for April 3, 2020!
Destiny 2 Xur today – location and items for April 3, 2020:
Those looking for something new in Apex Legends, you’re about to get it next week! Respawn has announced a new Apex Legends event called the “Old Ways Lore,” and this time, the focus is on Bloodhound.
The event starts April 7 and will run until April 21. Respawn will be bringing back Duos, as well as King’s Canyon come April 7, which includes a new Event Prize Track, and more.
Apex Legends “Old LWays Lore” Event details:
New Town Takeover – Bloodhound’s Trials
Exclusive Event Prize Track
Direct Purchase Shop
New Event Limited Cosmetics
Return of Legendary Hunt Skins
New Town Takeover – Bloodhound’s Trials
When the Apex Games came to World’s Edge, large predators vacated the area, leading to an explosion in the prowler population. Most were traced to a nest in the northwest portion of the arena, and here, Bloodhound saw an opportunity: maintain the ecosystem by pitting humans against beasts.
Dive into Bloodhound’s Trials, where you and your squad battle against a hoard of prowlers and claim high-tier loot as your reward. But beware the most dangerous game: fellow Legends who want to scavenge those goods for themselves. In moments of quiet, don’t forget to explore the enclosure, especially with a certain hunter at your side.
The Old Ways Exclusive Event Prize Track
As with the System Override Event, you’ll be able to earn up to 1000 points per challenge set and the challenge set will refresh at a daily rate. Plus, you’ll still be able to complete your battle pass challenges at the same time too.
Direct Purchase Shop
The Old Ways event will also see the return of the Legendary Hunt Skins! All eight of the original skins will be available for direct purchase, in addition to two recolored variants of the Wraith and R-301 skins that were previously exclusive to Battle Pass owners.
Finally, there’s a new trailer out as well, whcih is a new entry in the “Stories from the Outland” series. This one is titled “The Old Ways.” and puts the focus on Bloodhound.
Same as always, once the patch is out, we’ll make sure to let our readers know ASAP.
With Infinity Ward kicking off a soft reboot of the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare saga with last year’s Modern Warfare, it seems the studio has more games planned in the series, and it won’t strictly be rehashes of past Modern Warfare entries, but will be different Modern Warfare sequels.
Over on Twitter, reliable Call of Duty leaker TheGamingRevolution dropped the news that four more Modern Warfare games are being planned, and each story will give more story to each “horseman.”
Same as before, treat this news with a bit of salt, as the info above is in no way confirmed. That said, TheGamingRevolution has been spot-on with his leaks, which means he does have someone in the inside giving him info.
Speaking of Modern Warfare and sequels, Modern Warfare 2 Campaign Remastered got released earlier this week! If you’d rather watch it than play it, go check out our video walkthrough of the entire game. Stay tuned to our official review of it hitting the site soon.
Would you want more Modern Warfare sequels or should Infinity Ward just follow the franchise’s past campaign stories?
While it’s been a rough week for Battlefield 5 in terms of news given we now know that double XP isn’t possible given it’s a tech issue, it seems another tech problem isn’t getting fixed again, and these are the Battlefield 5 Ribbons issue.
For those not familiar with Ribbons, it’s a standard award given in almost every Battlefield game. While it was originally featured in Battlefield 5 acting like they did in previous installments of the franchise, there was a Battlefield 5 Ribbon issue that made it so that it didn’t display the proper image or criteria when awarded, nor could they be viewed in a match’s post-action report, which prompted DICE to just remove them from the game entirely. Unfortunately though, we just got confirmation that DICE won’t be able to fix Ribbons at all.
Over on the Battlefield 5 subreddit, a fan asked if Ribbons are coming back, to which DICE Global Community Manager PartWelsh mentioned it’s “very unlikely,” and shared that there’s a “nasty bug in the code” which prevents it from coming back.
There’s a nasty bug in the code that governs it. Prior to 5.0 (where we killed it) the system was active but only worked on the first grant of the Ribbon. We could not convince the system to repeatedly recognise that you were due to receive a ribbon in multiple instances.
Eventually we identified that the resulting error was unresolvable without rebuilding the system. We asked ourselves how long it would take to completely rebuild it and what else we could do with the time instead. Given that we’d been without it pretty much since everyones very first round of Battlefield, we accepted that the time was better spent elsewhere.
It’s a shame. We designed Battlefield V to have the system and we’d rather it had it than not.
Aside from that, there’s another thing that players want that can’t be done, and that’s limited time modes (LTM) playlists. Reddit user Blothbather suggested that DICE adds Outpost, Grind, Rush & Frontlines game modes as part of the remainder of Chapter 6, and tagged Battlefield US Community Manager Jeff Braddock if it’s that possible. Well, the short answer is: it’s not.
Despite “multiple record-setting milestones” for Borderlands 3 sales, it seems not all is well in developer Gearbox Software. A new report has surfaced stating that Gearbox has refused to pay the entire amount of royalty bonuses to employees.
In a new report by dependable industry reporter and leaker Jason Schreier, it mentions that there are six Gearbox employees who came forward anonymously with info. Apparently, Gearbox employees who were promised bonuses will still get paid, but with smaller bonus checks. The report states it’s “nothing close” to the tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands that the employees were expecting.
For more context, Gearbox, which is based in Frisco, Texas, offers employees below-average salaries per industry standards. To make up for this, the studio provides a unique profit-sharing scenario. Royalties from all of the developer’s games are split 60/40, with 60 percent going back to the company (and its owners), and the other 40 percent is distributed to employees in the form of quarterly bonuses. Well, that’s not the case with Borderlands 3, it seems.
The report also states that Gearbox management promised employees six-figure bonuses following the launch of Borderlands 3, with the offer that the longer the employee has been with Gearbox, the larger the check will be.
Apparently, at yesterday’s studio meeting, Gearbox head honcho Randy Pitchford told employees that Borderlands 3 sales bonuses would be significantly lower than what they’d hope, and stated that the game (Borderlands 3) had been more expensive to make than expected, how the company is bigger now (there’s a second studio in Quebec, Canada), and how the sales projections were off-base.
When pressed for a comment, here’s what Gearbox’s statement was concerning the Borderlands 3 sales bonuses:
Borderlands 3 represents an incredible value to gamers and an incredible achievement by the team at Gearbox Software. Our studio is talent-led and we believe strongly in everyone sharing in profitability. The talent at Gearbox enjoys participation in the upside of our games – to our knowledge, the most generous royalty bonus system in AAA. Since this program began, Gearbox talent has earned over $100M in royalty bonuses above and beyond traditional compensation.
In the most recent pay period Gearbox talent enjoyed news that Borderlands 3, having earned revenue exceeding the largest investment ever made by the company into a single video game, had officially become a profitable video game and the talent at Gearbox that participates in the royalty bonus system has now earned their first royalty bonus on that profit. Additionally, a forecast update was given to the talent at Gearbox that participates in the royalty bonus to set expectations for the coming quarters. Gearbox is a private company that does not issue forward looking statements to the public, but we do practice transparency within our own family.
Lastly, it’s mentioned that Pitchford told Gearbox employees that if they weren’t happy with the royalty system, they were welcome to quit.
Given the global COVID-19 pandemic happening worldwide, this couldn’t have come at a worst time for Gearbox employees. While this is all from anonymous sources within Gearbox, Jason Schreier leaks are always spot-on. Let’s hope this gets resolved one way or another.
While we were all looking forward to The Last of Us 2 this May, it seems we’re going to have to wait yet again. Naughty Dog has announced The Last of Us 2 delayed news today.
Over on Twitter, Naughty Dog announced that while they are the midst of fixing the game’s final bugs, and that they are facing logistic issues beyond their control.
As you’ve likely just seen, the release of The Last of Us Part II has been delayed. We’re sure this news is just as disappointing to you as it is to us. We wanted to reach out to all of you in our community to give you a little more information.
The good news is, we’re nearly done with development of The Last of Us Part II. We are in the midst of fixing our final bugs.
However, even with us finishing the game, we were faced with the reality that due to logistics beyond our control, we couldn’t launch The Last of Us Part II to our satisfaction. We want to make sure everyone gets to play The Last of us Part II around the same time, ensuring that we’re doing everything poissible to preserve the best experience for everyone. This meant delaying the game until such time where we can solve these logistic issues.
We were bummed about this decision but ultimately understood it’s what’s best and fair to all of our players. We’re hoping that this won’t be a long delay and we’ll update you as soon as we havenew information to share.
We wish you all, your families, and your friends the best of health. Thank you for being amazing fans and your continued support.
Stay safe!
Naughty Dog
Unfortunately, there’s no date or timeframe when we should expect the game to ship. That said, given they are in the final stages of bug fixing, it shouldn’t be that long.
With Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Remastered released earlier this week, most gamers should be familiar with the game’s highly controversial campaign. It seems there’s one company not a fan of the game, and that’s Sony Russia as Modern Warfare 2 Remastered Russia sales have been blocked by Sony.
This was announced over on the official Russian Call of Duty Twitter account:
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Campaign Remastered – полностью вымышленная кампания 2009 года, воссозданная в HD качестве. SIE решили не продавать игру в российском PS Store. Мы с нетерпением ждем выхода игры в цифровом варианте для ПК в https://t.co/44Pv8h7lHL и на консолях Xbox
“Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Campaign Remastered is a completely fictional 2009 campaign, recreated in HD quality. SIE decided not to sell the game in the Russian PS Store. We look forward to the release of the game in digital form for the PC in http://Battle.net and on Xbox consoles”
If you’ve played or completed the Modern Warfare 2 campaign, or just a video game fan in general, then you know there’s a highly sensitive and controversial chapter in the game titled “No Russian” that has the player doing rather unpleasant thing to people. It would make sense why Modern Warfare 2 Remastered Russia sales would be blocked.
Stay tuned for our Modern Warfare 2 Remastered review hitting the site soon, and remember: it’s just the campaign, as Activision has already confirmed it has no plans to release a remastered version of the multiplayer.
If you’re jonesing for a military shooter, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (2019) is getting a free weekend starting tomorrow! Read up on that here.
While Soulcalibur 6 gamers just got the big v2.10 patch earlier this week that brought in Samurai Shodown’s Haohmaru, Bandai Namco has released Soulcalibur 6 update 2.11 on PS4.
According to the Japanese website, Soulcalibur 6 update 2.11 is a PS4-only patch that has been rolled out to optimize network function. Yep, basically that’s it. We’ve included bits of the earlier 2.10 notes below just in case anyone needs a reminder.
Battle System
Version 2.10 will see guest character Haohmaru added to the roster. Use his incredible destructive power to cut down foes with one powerful hit! With the addition of a new character, we have implemented the following fixes. - Made behavioral adjustments to the new battle mechanic added in Season 2. - Fixed unintended issues that occurred on certain stages. - Adjusted character behavior, mainly hitboxes and tracking. When a short custom character uses a tall regular character’s move, the opponent’s attack would sometimes unintentionally miss. To help prevent this from happening, we mainly extended the lower hitbox of certain high attacks and middle attacks that were most likely to have this issue. In Version 2.02, custom characters using Kilik’s or Grøh’s fighting style could destroy their own equipment at will when entering soul charge. Since this has been very well-received, we enabled this function for all fighting styles and added an option to select which part of the equipment will be destroyed.
You can check the rest of the 2.10 patch notes which includes a balance pass on fighters here.
Got nothing better to do while stuck at home? Perhaps you want to test out the multiplayer in the latest Call of Duty game, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare? If so, now’s your chance to do it for free! Activision has announced the Modern Warfare free multiplayer weekend!
Starting April 3 at 10 a.m. PT, and running until April 6, those who have already downloaded Call of Duty: Warzone can jump into Modern Warfare multiplayer for free! Would-be players can check out the multiplayer lobby and join the “Stocked Up, Locked Down” 24/7 playlist, which features a moshpit of modes (Team Deathmatch, Domination, Hardpoint, and more) in Atlas Superstore and Shoot House.
Aside from that, Activision has also given a set of tips to newcomers.
Modern Warfare Multiplayer: General Tips
Totally new to Modern Warfare Multiplayer modes? First, learn about the core game modes in a Modern Warfare Moshpit before you hop into a Multiplayer match.
Team Deathmatch: Straightforward, but deadly. Teams of six go toe-to-toe to collect the most kills. The manner of death doesn’t matter, so shoot, launch, and toss grenades to your hearts’ content. The first team to reach 70 kills takes the victory!
Kill Confirmed: Team Deathmatch gets a high-stakes twist, where killed players drop dog tags. Collect teammates’ dog tags to deny your enemies’ kills and pick up your enemies’ dog tags to earn points for your team. The first team to earn 70 points (collect 70 dog tags), also collects the W.
Domination: Three flags are set on the map, each in a static location. Players compete to “capture” each flag for their team by occupying the flag zone for 10 seconds. Flags can be highly contested and captured often, especially on smaller maps. Always check your six.
Hardpoint: Like Domination, players must “capture” a location. However, instead of a flag, the objective is a rotating map zone, or ‘hardpoint,’ that moves to a different area every 45 seconds. Hold down the hardpoint and get a point for every second your team occupies it. If members of both teams are in the hardpoint, the zone becomes contested and no one scores. First team to 250 points wins.
Headquarters: Similar to Hardpoint, teams rush to “capture” a rotating objective – the headquarters. Capture and hold the headquarters to earn points for your team. The team the holds the HQ doesn’t respawn. The first team to 200 points wins.
PLUS: This weekend is the perfect opportunity to experiment with Killstreaks, perks, and Field Upgrades at a deeper level. Get to know these loadout components as you deploy them in Multiplayer, and you’ll soon handle them with ease in Warzone. Use this weekend to become a Cluster Strike master, an ‘Overkill’ perk powerhouse, or a badass boss with a ‘Deployable Barrier.’
In other Modern Warfare news, Infinity Ward launched a new playlist update earlier today.
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:
