Home > Title Updates and Patches

Diablo IV Update 1.061 Brings Promised Changes in Version 2.0.3

  by   Alex Co  
October 15, 2024 1:44 pm in Title Updates and Patches

While Blizzard released a patch to fix some of the issues from the Diablo IV Vessel of Hatred 2.0 patch last week, the studio promised that version 2.0.3 is set to be released in the coming week (which is this week), and the download is live now. Those on consoles will be able to download Diablo IV update 1.061, and this is to bring the game to version 2.0.3.

Diablo IV Update 1.061 Official Patch Notes:

User Interface and User Experience

  • The crafting notification for Runes now displays what’s being crafted instead of the Runes used.
  • The recipes for crafting random Runes at the Jeweler now include what Runes are needed for each recipe.
  • The tooltip for swapping Runes and Gems in sockets now says “swap” instead of “socket” when in that context.
  • Tooltips for Runes and Runewords have been updated to better communicate their effects.
  • The tooltip for Masterworking now indicates that the item must be Tempered twice before it can be Masterworked.
  • Various tooltips and icons for crafting materials have been updated for improved readability.
  • Infernal Hordes and Kurast Undercity will now be at the top level of activities in the Party Finder menu, alongside activities such as the Pit and Dark Citadel.
  • The icon for Glyph Sockets has been adjusted to make it more visually distinct in Paragon Boards.
  • The Non-Physical damage stat has been removed from the Character Stats window.

Developer’s Note: The Non-Physical Damage stat consists of separately listed stats of all included elements, such as Fire Damage. This stat was also incorrectly listed as a standalone entry and has been removed. Its impact on the individual elements has not changed.

  • Combat text for damage numbers are now abbreviated.
    • e.g. 10000 damage now displays as 10k damage.
  • New Nahantu-themed loading screens will now appear in-game.

Kurast Undercity

Developer’s Note: These updates aim to improve the overall value of rewards in the Kurast Undercity while reducing unnecessary friction for leveling players.

  • Rewards from successful Kurast Undercity runs have been improved.
    • More random items will drop.
    • Now at least 1 Legendary Item is guaranteed to drop.
    • Gold drops have doubled.
  • Minions with the Extra Health monster Affix will no longer spawn.
  • The health pools for bosses and greater afflicted monsters have been reduced to achieve closer parity with similar dungeon content.
  • The spawn frequency between afflicted super Elites and afflicted regular Elites has been slightly adjusted.
  • The number of normal monster mobs spawned from the Spirit Beacon encounter has been slightly reduced to improve clarity for the objective.
  • Timer adjustments
    • The starting time for a base run—with no Tribute applied—has been increased from 100 seconds to 120 seconds.
    • Afflicted regular Elites now grant a 10 second time bonus, increased from 8 seconds.
    • Afflicted super Elites now grant a 15 second time bonus, increased from 14 seconds.
  • Tribute of Titans can now drop outside of defeating bosses.
  • Increased the drop rate of Rare Tributes throughout the game, other rarities are unaffected.

Season of Hatred Rising

  • The following changes have been implemented for the Realmwalker event:
    • Realmwalker no longer reduces spawns if only one person is following it.
    • Increased max spawns allowed at a time to 20, previously 15.
    • Increased the base movement speed of the Realmwalker by around 15%.
    • Every time you kill a wave of Bloodbound Guardians, the Realmwalker’s movespeed increases by 10%. For example: If you kill all 3 waves of Bloodbound Guardians, the Realmwalker will move 30% faster, in addition to the 15% base increase.
  • The Realmwalker now has a low chance to summon a Treasure Goblin.
  • Removed 1 Hatred Spire from the Ritual phase of the event in Nahantu. Three Hatred Spires will still spawn when the event occurs in Estuar, the continent home to the 5 Regions of Diablo IV’s base game.
  • Removed the Hatred Rising icon from the map. Players will now find the Realmwalker via the event icon.
  • Various miscellaneous changes to make the event progress quicker.

Balance Updates

Sorcerer

  • The Overheating Aspect now scales with Incinerate Skill Ranks.
  • The Charged Flash Aspect now scales with Charged bolts Skill Ranks.

Mythic Unique Items

Doombringer

  • All Stats increased from 114 to 160.

Shattered Vow

  • Life increased from 444 to 1,200.

The Grandfather

  • Life increased from 662 to 1800.
  • All Stats increased from 150 to 220.

Shroud of False Death

  • Life increased from 222 to 800.
  • All Stats increased from 111 to 160.

Nesekem, the Herald

  • Life increased from 464 to 1200.

Harlequin Crest

  • Life increased from 465 to 800.

Andariel’s Visage

  • All Stats increased from 77 to 110.

Tempering

  • The minimum damage values on Legendary Elemental Surge Tempering Affixes have been increased from 300 to 900 damage. The maximum values remain unchanged.

Miscellaneous

  • New graphics options have been added
    • Chromatic Aberration Toggle
    • Ultra setting for Ray Tracing Reflections
  • The number of Scrolls of Restoration reward from the Dark Citadel Weekly cache has been increased. Previously, the reward was 1-2 on all Torment Difficulties.
    • Torment I: 1-2
    • Torment II: 2
    • Torment III: 2-3
    • Torment IV: 3
  • The following Items were not available during Patch 2.0.2 and have now been enabled with Patch 2.0.3
    • The Aspect of the Agile Wolf
    • Azurewrath
    • Frostburn
    • Shroud of False Death
  • A new whisper objective for completing a Dark Citadel wing has been introduced.
  • A new mount trophy has been added as a reward for reaching Paragon 300.
  • Super Elite monsters will now drop even more loot.
    • Previous: Super Elites drop 1-2 times as much as Elites.
    • Now: Super Elites drop 3 times as much as Elites.
  • Elite monsters with the Waller affix now cast less walls, and the walls now last 3 seconds, reduced from 5.
  • The amount of barrier Varshan gains when summoning additional monsters and during the cone waves attack has been reduced.

Bug Fixes

Accessibility

  • Fixed an issue where the Screen Reader on PlayStation™ 4 had a distorted voice.
  • Fixed an issue where the Screen Reader did not function within the Reinforcement tab in the Mercenaries menu.

Season of Hatred Rising

  • Fixed an issue where the Tier 3 reputation reward from the Zakarum Remnants granted the wrong item type.
  • Fixed an issue where the Tier 7 reputation reward from the Zakarum Remnants granted Sigil Powder instead of Artificer’s Stones.
  • Fixed an issue where the Slight Challenge Objective could reward favor upon completion before Chapter 3 of the Season Journey was unlocked.
  • Fixed an issue where consuming a Seething Opal would always guarantee a drop from the first monster killed, instead of only guaranteeing a drop the first time a Seething Opal was consumed.
  • Fixed an issue where destroying an object right after consuming a Seething Opal would immediately remove the buff.
  • Fixed an issue where Bloodbound Guardians spawned during the Realmwalker encounter could still damage the boss after it was defeated.
  • Fixed an issue where no additional monsters would spawn if a full wave of Bloodbound Guardians were killed.

Dark Citadel

  • Fixed various issues where tooltips and map icons did not display properly in the Dark Citadel.
  • Fixed an issue where characters could become invisible if they evade while the Faeroc monsters were in the air.
  • Fixed an issue where multiple Counterspell Elites could exist at the same time.
  • Fixed an issue where missed cosmetic items dropped in the Dark Citadel would not be sent to the missed equipment tab of the Stash.
  • Fixed an issue where using the Town Portal while in the Dark Citadel took the player back to their preferred town instead of to the Ancient Nexus.
  • Fixed an issue where the player could enter the Dark Citadel without completing the Crater of Lost Souls Quest.
  • Fixed an issue where the visual effects for Soul Bombs cast by Gorshak did not follow the player after they used a movement ability such as Dash or Leap.

Developer’s Note: Soul Bombs are the explosion effects that appear as dark and red circles under the player during the encounter.

  • Fixed an issue where the objective to obtain a Ward Stone wouldn’t properly update if a Soul Siphon was charged while carrying a Ward Stone.
  • Fixed an issue where players were stuck in the Citdael Wing when both Hurstt and Vorshok bosses were in the Realm of Oblivion. Now, a Teleporter Elite will spawn as intended, which can then be killed to transport you to the Realm of Oblivion.
  • Fixed an issue where the Death’s Debuff Icon and Siphon Symbol Icon would overlap each other when in the Realm of Oblivion.
  • Fixed an issue where traveling into the Realm of Oblivion with a Ward Stone during the encounter with Gorshak would prevent the Realm Guardians from spawning.
  • Fixed an issue where the player would get instantly teleported out of the Seething Realm if Gorshak died while the player was in the Realm of Oblivion.
  • Fixed an issue where using an immunity effect—such as Blood Mist—when Zagraal uses the Soul Entanglement wipe could cause the player to become stuck at 1 health.
  • Fixed an issue where Kubal could be damaged from outside the Boss arena.
  • Fixed an issue where defeating Kubal too quickly could block progression.
  • Fixed multiple miscellaneous visual issues with cosmetic rewards from Dark Citadel.

Kurast Undercity

  • Fixed an issue where the time limit could be avoided by teleporting to the next floor just as the timer expired.
  • Fixed an issue where the progress bar did not display the accurate time needed to complete the channel when teleporting to a new floor.
  • Fixed an issue where moving did not cancel teleporting between floors.
  • Fixed an issue where Flesh Cultivators wouldn’t pursue the player.
  • Fixed multiple instances where certain UI elements were not indicated as unusable when the player did not have enough materials.
  • Fixed an issue where players could avoid damage during the Vortex portion of the Longtooth encounter.
  • Fixed an issue where the Undercity Trailblazer achievement could not be earned as expected.
  • Fixed an issue where destroying structures could spawn lesser afflicted enemies instead of an Elite Monster

[Source: Blizzard]

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Alex Co

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Home > Title Updates and Patches

Diablo 4 Update 1.63 Brings Build 2.0.3 and Here Are the Changes

  by   Alex Co  
1:38 pm in Title Updates and Patches

As promised by Blizzard from last week’s patch announcement, Diablo 4 just got a new update today on all platforms that brings various fixes. Those on consoles will see this as Diablo 4 update 1.63 and this is tagged as version 2.0.3 by the studio.

Diablo 4 Update 1.63 Complete Patch Notes:

User Interface and User Experience

  • The crafting notification for Runes now displays what’s being crafted instead of the Runes used.
  • The recipes for crafting random Runes at the Jeweler now include what Runes are needed for each recipe.
  • The tooltip for swapping Runes and Gems in sockets now says “swap” instead of “socket” when in that context.
  • Tooltips for Runes and Runewords have been updated to better communicate their effects.
  • The tooltip for Masterworking now indicates that the item must be Tempered twice before it can be Masterworked.
  • Various tooltips and icons for crafting materials have been updated for improved readability.
  • Infernal Hordes and Kurast Undercity will now be at the top level of activities in the Party Finder menu, alongside activities such as the Pit and Dark Citadel.
  • The icon for Glyph Sockets has been adjusted to make it more visually distinct in Paragon Boards.
  • The Non-Physical damage stat has been removed from the Character Stats window.

Developer’s Note: The Non-Physical Damage stat consists of separately listed stats of all included elements, such as Fire Damage. This stat was also incorrectly listed as a standalone entry and has been removed. Its impact on the individual elements has not changed.

  • Combat text for damage numbers are now abbreviated.
    • e.g. 10000 damage now displays as 10k damage.
  • New Nahantu-themed loading screens will now appear in-game.

Kurast Undercity

Developer’s Note: These updates aim to improve the overall value of rewards in the Kurast Undercity while reducing unnecessary friction for leveling players.

  • Rewards from successful Kurast Undercity runs have been improved.
    • More random items will drop.
    • Now at least 1 Legendary Item is guaranteed to drop.
    • Gold drops have doubled.
  • Minions with the Extra Health monster Affix will no longer spawn.
  • The health pools for bosses and greater afflicted monsters have been reduced to achieve closer parity with similar dungeon content.
  • The spawn frequency between afflicted super Elites and afflicted regular Elites has been slightly adjusted.
  • The number of normal monster mobs spawned from the Spirit Beacon encounter has been slightly reduced to improve clarity for the objective.
  • Timer adjustments
    • The starting time for a base run—with no Tribute applied—has been increased from 100 seconds to 120 seconds.
    • Afflicted regular Elites now grant a 10 second time bonus, increased from 8 seconds.
    • Afflicted super Elites now grant a 15 second time bonus, increased from 14 seconds.
  • Tribute of Titans can now drop outside of defeating bosses.
  • Increased the drop rate of Rare Tributes throughout the game, other rarities are unaffected.

Season of Hatred Rising

  • The following changes have been implemented for the Realmwalker event:
    • Realmwalker no longer reduces spawns if only one person is following it.
    • Increased max spawns allowed at a time to 20, previously 15.
    • Increased the base movement speed of the Realmwalker by around 15%.
    • Every time you kill a wave of Bloodbound Guardians, the Realmwalker’s movespeed increases by 10%. For example: If you kill all 3 waves of Bloodbound Guardians, the Realmwalker will move 30% faster, in addition to the 15% base increase.
  • The Realmwalker now has a low chance to summon a Treasure Goblin.
  • Removed 1 Hatred Spire from the Ritual phase of the event in Nahantu. Three Hatred Spires will still spawn when the event occurs in Estuar, the continent home to the 5 Regions of Diablo IV’s base game.
  • Removed the Hatred Rising icon from the map. Players will now find the Realmwalker via the event icon.
  • Various miscellaneous changes to make the event progress quicker.

Balance Updates

Sorcerer

  • The Overheating Aspect now scales with Incinerate Skill Ranks.
  • The Charged Flash Aspect now scales with Charged bolts Skill Ranks.

Mythic Unique Items

Doombringer

  • All Stats increased from 114 to 160.

Shattered Vow

  • Life increased from 444 to 1,200.

The Grandfather

  • Life increased from 662 to 1800.
  • All Stats increased from 150 to 220.

Shroud of False Death

  • Life increased from 222 to 800.
  • All Stats increased from 111 to 160.

Nesekem, the Herald

  • Life increased from 464 to 1200.

Harlequin Crest

  • Life increased from 465 to 800.

Andariel’s Visage

  • All Stats increased from 77 to 110.

Tempering

  • The minimum damage values on Legendary Elemental Surge Tempering Affixes have been increased from 300 to 900 damage. The maximum values remain unchanged.

Miscellaneous

  • New graphics options have been added
    • Chromatic Aberration Toggle
    • Ultra setting for Ray Tracing Reflections
  • The number of Scrolls of Restoration reward from the Dark Citadel Weekly cache has been increased. Previously, the reward was 1-2 on all Torment Difficulties.
    • Torment I: 1-2
    • Torment II: 2
    • Torment III: 2-3
    • Torment IV: 3
  • The following Items were not available during Patch 2.0.2 and have now been enabled with Patch 2.0.3
    • The Aspect of the Agile Wolf
    • Azurewrath
    • Frostburn
    • Shroud of False Death
  • A new whisper objective for completing a Dark Citadel wing has been introduced.
  • A new mount trophy has been added as a reward for reaching Paragon 300.
  • Super Elite monsters will now drop even more loot.
    • Previous: Super Elites drop 1-2 times as much as Elites.
    • Now: Super Elites drop 3 times as much as Elites.
  • Elite monsters with the Waller affix now cast less walls, and the walls now last 3 seconds, reduced from 5.
  • The amount of barrier Varshan gains when summoning additional monsters and during the cone waves attack has been reduced.

Bug Fixes

Accessibility

  • Fixed an issue where the Screen Reader on PlayStation™ 4 had a distorted voice.
  • Fixed an issue where the Screen Reader did not function within the Reinforcement tab in the Mercenaries menu.

Season of Hatred Rising

  • Fixed an issue where the Tier 3 reputation reward from the Zakarum Remnants granted the wrong item type.
  • Fixed an issue where the Tier 7 reputation reward from the Zakarum Remnants granted Sigil Powder instead of Artificer’s Stones.
  • Fixed an issue where the Slight Challenge Objective could reward favor upon completion before Chapter 3 of the Season Journey was unlocked.
  • Fixed an issue where consuming a Seething Opal would always guarantee a drop from the first monster killed, instead of only guaranteeing a drop the first time a Seething Opal was consumed.
  • Fixed an issue where destroying an object right after consuming a Seething Opal would immediately remove the buff.
  • Fixed an issue where Bloodbound Guardians spawned during the Realmwalker encounter could still damage the boss after it was defeated.
  • Fixed an issue where no additional monsters would spawn if a full wave of Bloodbound Guardians were killed.

Dark Citadel

  • Fixed various issues where tooltips and map icons did not display properly in the Dark Citadel.
  • Fixed an issue where characters could become invisible if they evade while the Faeroc monsters were in the air.
  • Fixed an issue where multiple Counterspell Elites could exist at the same time.
  • Fixed an issue where missed cosmetic items dropped in the Dark Citadel would not be sent to the missed equipment tab of the Stash.
  • Fixed an issue where using the Town Portal while in the Dark Citadel took the player back to their preferred town instead of to the Ancient Nexus.
  • Fixed an issue where the player could enter the Dark Citadel without completing the Crater of Lost Souls Quest.
  • Fixed an issue where the visual effects for Soul Bombs cast by Gorshak did not follow the player after they used a movement ability such as Dash or Leap.

Developer’s Note: Soul Bombs are the explosion effects that appear as dark and red circles under the player during the encounter.

  • Fixed an issue where the objective to obtain a Ward Stone wouldn’t properly update if a Soul Siphon was charged while carrying a Ward Stone.
  • Fixed an issue where players were stuck in the Citdael Wing when both Hurstt and Vorshok bosses were in the Realm of Oblivion. Now, a Teleporter Elite will spawn as intended, which can then be killed to transport you to the Realm of Oblivion.
  • Fixed an issue where the Death’s Debuff Icon and Siphon Symbol Icon would overlap each other when in the Realm of Oblivion.
  • Fixed an issue where traveling into the Realm of Oblivion with a Ward Stone during the encounter with Gorshak would prevent the Realm Guardians from spawning.
  • Fixed an issue where the player would get instantly teleported out of the Seething Realm if Gorshak died while the player was in the Realm of Oblivion.
  • Fixed an issue where using an immunity effect—such as Blood Mist—when Zagraal uses the Soul Entanglement wipe could cause the player to become stuck at 1 health.
  • Fixed an issue where Kubal could be damaged from outside the Boss arena.
  • Fixed an issue where defeating Kubal too quickly could block progression.
  • Fixed multiple miscellaneous visual issues with cosmetic rewards from Dark Citadel.

Kurast Undercity

  • Fixed an issue where the time limit could be avoided by teleporting to the next floor just as the timer expired.
  • Fixed an issue where the progress bar did not display the accurate time needed to complete the channel when teleporting to a new floor.
  • Fixed an issue where moving did not cancel teleporting between floors.
  • Fixed an issue where Flesh Cultivators wouldn’t pursue the player.
  • Fixed multiple instances where certain UI elements were not indicated as unusable when the player did not have enough materials.
  • Fixed an issue where players could avoid damage during the Vortex portion of the Longtooth encounter.
  • Fixed an issue where the Undercity Trailblazer achievement could not be earned as expected.
  • Fixed an issue where destroying structures could spawn lesser afflicted enemies instead of an Elite Monster.
  • Fixed an issue where monsters could enter the safe area in the Undercity Ziggurat.
  • Fixed an issue where dying while channeling the portal to the boss room could block progression.
  • Fixed an issue where Attunement chests were granting identical loot for all party members.

Developer’s Note: The intent is to reward individualized loot of the same quality, not identical loot.

  • Fixed an issue where the rewards for successful runs was of lower loot quality than intended.

Runes

  • Fixed an issue where the Overflow effect for the Que Rune did not affect the duration of Druid’s Earthen Bulwark.
  • Fixed an issue where the buff from the Qax Rune could be lost unexpectedly.
  • Fixed an issue where the following skills would be cast by the Rune effect as the base skill without any enhancements when the skill was upgraded.
    • Rogue – Ner Rune casting Concealment
    • Druid – Que Rune casting Earthen Bulwark
    • Barbarian – Ohm Rune casting Warcry

Developer’s Note: Automatic casts from Runes will count as if they were cast by the player. For classes that the skill is not native to, this casts as the base version of the skill. For classes that can learn the skill, apply skills ranks, and upgrades to it, the skill that’s cast with a Rune’s effect will behave as if the player cast the skill themself.

  • Fixed an issue where the Yom Rune tooltip was inaccurate.
  • Fixed an issue where tooltips did not properly communicate the functionality of Overflow effects.

Mercenaries

  • Fixed an issue where the Bastion ability had a longer duration than what was displayed in the tooltip.
  • Fixed an issue where Mercenaries could attack Bloodmarked players in town.
  • Fixed an issue where the Wire Trap ability did not contribute to stagger on bosses.
  • Fixed an issue where Raheir Rapport Caches did not always drop a legendary item.
  • Fixed an issue where Mercenaries could be unable to ride a mount if the player died while mounted.
  • Fixed an issue where buff icons would appear over Mercenaries’ heads.
  • Fixed an issue where the Mercenary Skill tree would display improperly when viewed in 16:10 aspect ratio.
  • Fixed an issue where Raheir’s Passive Armor and Resistance Bonuses would be removed upon mounting but would not be properly reapplied when dismounting as intended.

Infernal Hordes and Strongholds

  • Fixed an issue where Infernal Horde waves spawned in Torment I and II at a slower pace than Torment III and IV.
  • Fixed an issue where certain items that should drop more commonly from Infernal Hordes were not doing so.
  • Fixed an issue where enemies in the Chakhir Stronghold were stronger than intended.
  • Fixed an issue where first-time rewards for completing Nahantu based Strongholds could be acquired multiple times if the Malnok Stronghold had not been completed.
  • Fixed an issue where the boss could disappear in the Kichuk Stronghold.

Dungeons and The Pit

  • Fixed an issue where progression in the Seaside Descent Dungeon could be blocked if more monsters were slain before activating the gate release.
  • Fixed an issue where the Vesicator enemies were unable to be targeted in the Hallowed Stones in certain circumstances.
  • Fixed an issue where the boss fight in the Betrayed Tomb Dungeon could become reset if the player moves around the arena entrance.
  • Fixed an issue where players could become stuck if removed from a party while in the loading screen for transitioning in and out of Dungeons.
  • Fixed an issue where the Shoreside Shack Dungeon could be completed without killing all enemies inside.
  • Fixed an issue where enemies could keep spawning even after clearing a Cellar.
  • Fixed an issue where the Drifting Shade affix would not apply daze while in the boss encounter in the Ruined Wild and Iron Cenotaph Dungeons.
  • Fixed an issue where the Blood Boiling affix often did not function properly.
  • Fixed an issue where Pit Bosses in Tiers 137 and above had less health than intended.
  • Fixed an issue where placeholder names displayed for certain monsters.

Quests

  • Fixed various issues where quest pins and quest objectives did not display properly.
  • Fixed an issue where quest progression could be blocked for The Blind Eye if the cutscene was skipped.
  • Fixed an issue where the “Claim a reward from the Tree of Whispers,” objective could be immediately completed upon starting the Deeds of The Champion quest.
  • Fixed an issue where only one player in a party would get credit for objective completion for multiple quests in the Kurast Undercity.
  • Fixed an issue where Zarshala could be invisible during the Butchers of the North Quest.
  • Fixed an issue where some enemies would not attack the player during the Pursuit of Justice quest.
  • Fixed an issue where the Wayward Friendship quest could have progression blocked by not being able to taunt villagers.
  • Fixed an issue where the Banshee spirit didn’t appear during The Keening Spirit quest.
  • Fixed an issue where the player could get stuck in the Corrupted Cavity cellar if they waited too long inside during the A Flickering Light quest.
  • Fixed an issue where the debuff applied during the A Flickering Light quest could persist after the quest was complete.
  • Fixed an issue where the poison cauldrons during A Flickering Light quest were difficult to hit, especially as melee characters.
  • Fixed an issue where The Beast could fail to respawn if the player died during the boss’ second phase during The Sacred Hunt Spiritborn Class quest.
  • Fixed an issue where The Pit of the Artificer quest did not grant any rewards upon completion.
  • Fixed an issue where the Deeds of a Champion quest had a duplicated quest objective for completing Tenets of Depravity and Slaying the Terror of Five Hills.
  • Fixed an issue where party members could be unable to join the encounter in the Cellar during the Living Memory quest.
  • Fixed an issue where lighting in Gea Kul would abruptly change during the Enmity Rising quest.
  • Fixed an issue where the introduction quest for the Dark Citadel could be given to the player before entering a Torment Difficulty tier.
  • Fixed an issue where the clones spawned during the Ah Bulan encounter could freeze and prevent progression if staggered at low health.
  • Fixed an issue where Ah Bulan could fail to navigate to the player.
  • Fixed a rare issue where the Harbinger of Hatred could get stuck and block progression of the encounter.
  • Fixed an issue in party play where only the player who initiated the conversation with Ormus would activate the Fundament of Faith quest.
  • Fixed an issue where quest progression could be blocked during the Forgotten Gods Quest if another player in the party remained inside Hesa Si while the quest continued.
  • Fixed an issue where the Nangari Deathworker during the Thrust into the Dark Quest could get stuck in the fog wall.
  • Fixed an issue where the player could respawn in a blocked area during the Way Out is Through Quest.
  • Fixed an issue where the Fog Wall could malfunction for other players in a party during the All Good Things Quest.
  • Fixed an issue where the cutscene could fail to trigger for all players in the party when talking to Neyrelle during the Perspective Quest.
  • Fixed an issue where the party could have quest progression blocked during the Perspective Quest if interacting with multiple statues at the same time.
  • Fixed an issue where several challenges associated with the Vessel of Hatred campaign could not be unlocked as expected.
  • Fixed an issue where the Sacred Hunt Spiritborn class Quest could have progression blocked.

Events

  • Fixed an issue where the event where a Stalker spawns when trying to save someone from a bear trap wouldn’t spawn the Stalker, which could prevent future instances of this event.
  • Fixed an issue where the Legion event Of Souls and Spirits would end if the Basins were destroyed while collecting the souls.
  • Fixed an issue where certain companion skills such as The Devourer or Shadow Clone did not function properly during the Of Souls and Spirits Legion event.
  • Fixed an issue where Mastery could not be completed for the Impromptu Investigation event because Subo wouldn’t call out killers if enemies were slain too quickly.
  • Fixed an issue where certain events—such as Blood Siphon—spawned more Super Elites than intended.
  • Fixed an issue where Flayer ambush events occurred less frequently than intended.

Gameplay

General

  • Fixed an issue where fewer automatically granted crafting materials were received in higher difficulty tiers than intended.
  • Fixed an issue where Angelbreath was not dropping as often as intended.
  • Fixed an issue where some items could only drop in higher world tiers than intended.
  • Fixed an issue where the Blacksmith cache contained lower quality gear than intended for lower-level characters.
  • Fixed an issue where Treasure Goblins and The Butcher did not guarantee a Legendary item drop at level 1.
  • Fixed an issue where the Revenge Paragon Glyph didn’t work in certain contexts of Thorns damage being applied.
  • Fixed an issue where Cat mounts could move and behave erratically in certain conditions.
  • Fixed an issue with The Shroud of False Death in which some passives required to be learned before they granted their benefit.
  • Fixed an issue where Grindebor the Harvester dealt far more damage than intended.
  • Fixed an issue where some items could not be equipped after seasonal migration.
  • Fixed an issue where defeating the Echo of Lilith did not reward a Resplendent Spark.

Developer’s Note: Players that have already defeated Echo of Lilith this season will be rewarded with a Resplendent Spark soon after logging in once this patch is live.

Barbarian

  • Fixed an issue where Mighty Throw Pulse size tempered affixes did not display in the character stats panel.

Druid

  • Fixed an issue where active Ravens would persist indefinitely after unequipping Stormcrow’s Aspect.
  • Fixed an issue where Stormcrow’s Aspect did not mark Ravens as a nature skill.
  • Fixed an issue where automatic casts from Nature’s Fury would count as a Rune Offering.
  • Fixed an issue where bonus casts from Nature’s Fury did not get properly marked as Werewolf or Werebear skills when using Tempest Roar or Vasily’s Prayer Unique items.
  • Fixed an issue where the 4th Shred attack from the Aspect of the Agile wolf did not dash into enemies as intended.
  • Fixed an issue where Chance for Storm Strike to Hit Twice affix on the Greatstaff of the Crone could not be a Greater Affix.
  • Fixed an issue where Fierce Maul did not stack with Maul Size affixes.
  • Fixed an issue where Perfect Storm Key Passive was not working.
  • Fixed an issue where only the first instance of Druids Raven active attack was doing Lightning Damage while the Stormcrow’s affix is equipped.

Necromancer

  • Fixed an issue where the Shademist Aspect would occasionally not deal damage from a Minion if it was equipped after that Minion was summoned.
  • Fixed an issue where changing an upgrade for the Golem before entering a new area could prevent future Golems from spawning.
  • Fixed an issue where Black River’s Corpse Skill Ranks affix did not increase as a Greater Affix or through Masterworking.
  • Fixed an issue where additional Bone Storms spawned by Lidless Wall would cause an active Bone Storm with increased duration from the Aspect of Osseous gale to not do damage.

Rogue

  • Fixed an issue where Preparation didn’t reset Dance of Knives charges.

Sorcerer

  • Fixed an issue where casting Familiar while using both the Elemental Constellation Aspect and Sidhe’s Bindings would always cast a Fire Dagger, regardless of the expected element of Familiar.
  • Fixed an issue where the tempering affix for increasing Familiar duration did not function properly.
  • Fixed an issue where casting Familiar while Unstable Currents was active couldn’t trigger any additional spell casts.
  • Fixed an issue where stacks of Enlightenment weren’t consistently being granted.
  • Fixed an issue where Free Duration effects—such as from tempering—did not function correctly.
  • Fixed an issue where the Tempering affix for Chance for Lightning Spear to deal double damage wouldn’t function.
  • Fixed an issue where Chance for Teleport to Deal Double Damage affix was not working.
  • Fixed an issue where the Aspect of Tenuous agility effect didn’t function while in town.
  • Fixed an issue where the Aspect of Exhilaration could allow the player to evade without a cooldown.
  • Fixed an issue where the Charged Flash aspect did not apply the full benefits of the Enhanced Charged Bolts upgrade.
  • Fixed an issue where the Energy Focus passive would not generate barrier up to the maximum cap.
  • Fixed an issue where companions—such as quest followers or Mercenaries—could trigger Enchantment effects.
  • Fixed a bug where a line would appear while in certain content when using Ball Lightning.
  • Fixed an issue where Deep Freeze would cause much of the screen to turn white when cast in the Field of Giants area.

Spiritborn

  • Fixed an issue where the unique power of Jacinth Shell did not interact properly with skills that use charges.
  • Fixed an issue where the Acceleration passive would cause the Attacks Reduce Evade’s Cooldown affix to not function.
  • Fixed an issue where Acceleration could be consumed by non-damaging abilities.
  • Fixed an issue where the affix for Soar granting Barrier did not increase as a Greater Affix or through Masterworking.
  • Fixed an issue where the Scorn of the Earth Unique boots did not grant the correct amount of bonus damage to Soar.
  • Fixed an issue where stacks of Supremacy could be granted from automatic casts of Ultimate abilities, such as from the Yom Rune.
  • Fixed an issue where Shard of Verathiel could drop for Spiritborn characters.
  • Fixed an issue where Rod of Kepeleke would make Payback have no cooldown when the Poised Upgrade was not selected.
  • Fixed an issue where Spiritborn Unique Items could not drop from Flayer Ambushes.
  • Fixed an issue where Spiritborn could cancel the Evade animation mid-evade.

Developer’s Note: Spiritborn’s Evade could be cast more rapidly than normal depending on the input method and speed. It is now normalized to the standard Evade cast rate in all scenarios.

Party Finder

  • Fixed an issue where Kurast Undercity did not require Level 15 to be selected.
  • Fixed an issue where the highlight on controller could disappear when scrolling to the bottom of a drop-down menu in the Party Finder window.
  • Fixed an issue where Quick List was not an option for the following activities
    • Legion Events
    • Realmwaker
    • Helltide Activities
  • Fixed an issue where controller navigation could malfunction after attempting to join a full party.
  • Fixed an issue where selecting Kurast Undercity and Infernal Hordes always required completion of the introduction quest to the activity.
  • Fixed an issue where description labels didn’t properly function when first opening the Party Finder menu.
  • Fixed an issue where a label for Vessel of Hatred was present in the Party Finder menu.
  • Fixed an issue where Controller focus could be lost after joining a party through Party Finder, impacting cursor navigation.
  • Fixed an issue where the search would be reset to Any after using the Expansion dropdown.

User Interface and User Experience

  • Fixed an issue where the Pit Tier selection tooltip displayed outdated information.
  • Fixed an issue where the tooltip did not convey that Torment difficulties unlocked Pit Mastery.
  • Fixed an issue where Campaign Progress didn’t display correctly in the Hall of Fallen Heroes.
  • Fixed an issue where the visual effect for several incenses would persist after the incense wore off.
  • Fixed an issue where the tooltips on possible affixes when enchanting an item displayed inaccurate information.
  • Fixed an issue where the Spree Killer’s set items did not display properly for Spiritborn characters.
  • Fixed an issue where items with all Greater Affixes, maximum tempering affixes, and items that have been socketed would have non-functional item links in chat.
  • Fixed an issue where the Journal could not be re-opened with the appropriate keybind after being closed.
  • Fixed an issue where bonuses from several Glyphs did not display in character stats when in town.
  • Fixed an issue where the appearances for Flameweaver and Midwinter Dirk did not appear in the Wardrobe.
  • Fixed an issue where city names in the map could appear in offset locations when viewing the map while inside a dungeon.
  • Fixed an issue where the Lock Cursor option did not function.
  • Fixed an issue where the Exceptionally Attuned Challenge did not properly display a progress bar.
  • Fixed an issue where interacting with the Purveyor of Curiosities or the Dark Citadel Vendor when playing on controller would default your cursor to the inventory instead of the Vendor window.
  • Fixed an issue where the controller highlight would be missing when navigating through tiers in the Pit Menu.
  • Fixed an issue where the initial cinematics upon starting the Vessel of Hatred campaign did not display a Skip prompt.
  • Fixed an issue where the warning about missed glyph experience would display when failing mastery in a Pit run.
  • Fixed an issue where Controller triggers did not switch tabs in the Stable Master Menu.
  • Fixed an issue where the Exceptionally Attuned achievement did not display a progress bar.

Miscellaneous

  • Fixed an issue where buying a Mace from the Purveyor of Curiosities could result in acquiring an Axe.
  • Fixed an issue where Pets could be attacked by enemies. No power in the deepest of Hells’ depths would save you from that swift and brutal retribution.
  • Fixed an issue where the player could get stuck if trying to leave the game while changing difficulty.
  • Fixed an issue where equipping the Urivar’s Shattered Face appearance could remove a character’s hairstyle.
  • Fixed an issue where various 2-handed weapon appearances for Necromancers would clip through the player’s body.
  • Fixed an issue where all Spur charges could be consumed at once when using the Ash Knight’s Destrier Mount Armor.
  • Fixed an issue where Emotes did not play when previewed in the Battle Pass.
  • Fixed an issue where Material caches would drop the materials in small amounts over a long period of time. They now drop more quickly in a large pile.
  • Fixed an issue where some users couldn’t toggle certain advanced graphics options.
  • Fixed an issue where the model for the Spiritborn class could be missing on the main menu when first logging in.
  • Fixed an issue where the Urivar’s Charred Sword cosmetic could not be unlocked as an appearance by a Spiritborn character.
  • Various performance, stability, UI, audio, and visual improvements.

We should be getting smaller patches in the coming weeks, so stay tuned.

[Source: Blizzard]

Tags: diablo diablo iv
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Alex Co

Father, gamer, games media vet, writer of words, killer of noobs.

Home > Title Updates and Patches

WWE 2K24 Update 1.22 Adds New Wrestler Models This October 15

  by   Alex Co  
1:28 pm in Title Updates and Patches

2K has released WWE 2K24 update 1.22 on last-gen and current-gen consoles and PC, and this unannounced patch brings new wrestler models to the game and more. Read on for a glimpse of the new added wrestlers and more details below.

What’s New in the WWE 2K24 Update 1.22 Released Today?

While Visual Concepts hasn’t released the official patch notes just yet, members of the community have confirmed that there are new models included in the patch! We have a list of the new models added via the gallery below (via WhatsTheStatus).

New Models Added:

  • Booker T ’01 From WWE 2K23
  • CM Punk (S.E.S)
  • CM Punk ’10
  • CM Punk ’10 (Masked)
  • King Booker From WWE 2K22
  • Rhea Ripley (Crown Jewel)

Alongside this, 2K has announced that the Faction Wars exchange has been updated and now includes Diamond cards for Alexa Bliss, Bray Wyatt, Shotzi and The Boogeyman.

The Bray Wyatt Edition will be released tomorrow, and if you already own the game, you can buy it standalone which will include the following items:

  • The Fiend ’23
  • Mattel Elite Series 112 Bray Wyatt
  •  Bo Dallas as Uncle Howdy
  •  MyFACTION cards of Fiend, Bray, Howdy
  •  Firefly Funhouse Friends MyFACTION Manager Card
  • 15K VC
  • The Fiend Championship Title

Hopefully, Visual Concepts does release the official patch notes, and once that’s out, we’ll update the article. If you see a changelog without a proper source, please don’t believe anything that doesn’t come from verifiable sources.

For those on PlayStation, don’t forget, WWE 2K24 is free for PlayStation Plus subscribers for this month.

Tags: WWE WWE 2K WWE 2K24
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Alex Co

Father, gamer, games media vet, writer of words, killer of noobs.

Home > Title Updates and Patches

WWE 2K24 Update 1.022 Released; Adds New Models and Bray Wyatt Edition

  by   Alex Co  
1:18 pm in Title Updates and Patches

Visual Concepts has sprung a surprise patch for WWE 2K24 on all platforms, and this brings new character models. Note only that, but 2K also has the Bray Wyatt Edition launching tomorrow, and it will also be available standalone for existing owners as well. Read on for what’s new in the WWE 2K24 update 1.022 download for October 15.

WWE 2K24 Update 1.022 Patch Notes and What’s New:

While Visual Concepts hasn’t released the official patch notes just yet, members of the community have confirmed that there are new models included in the patch! We have a list of the new models added via the gallery below (via WhatsTheStatus).

New Models Added:

  • Booker T ’01 From WWE 2K23
  • CM Punk (S.E.S)
  • CM Punk ’10
  • CM Punk ’10 (Masked)
  • King Booker From WWE 2K22
  • Rhea Ripley (Crown Jewel)

Alongside this, 2K has announced that the Faction Wars exchange has been updated and now includes Diamond cards for Alexa Bliss, Bray Wyatt, Shotzi and The Boogeyman.

The Bray Wyatt Edition will be released tomorrow, and if you already own the game, you can buy it standalone which will include the following items:

  • The Fiend ’23
  • Mattel Elite Series 112 Bray Wyatt
  •  Bo Dallas as Uncle Howdy
  •  MyFACTION cards of Fiend, Bray, Howdy
  •  Firefly Funhouse Friends MyFACTION Manager Card
  • 15K VC
  • The Fiend Championship Title

Hopefully, Visual Concepts does release the official patch notes, and once that’s out, we’ll update the article. If you see a changelog without a proper source, please don’t believe anything that doesn’t come from verifiable sources.

For those on PlayStation, don’t forget, WWE 2K24 is free for PlayStation Plus subscribers for this month.

Tags: WWE WWE 2K WWE 2K24
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Alex Co

Father, gamer, games media vet, writer of words, killer of noobs.

Home > News

Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero Review – Full Ki Charge

  by   Dean James  
12:19 pm in News

There have been numerous games based on the Dragon Ball franchise over the years, including more recent games such as Dragon Ball FighterZ, Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot, and Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2. Even with these very well-received games, fans have been asking for a return of the Budokai Tenkaichi series. After 17 long years, the series has finally made its triumphant return with the release of Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero.

A Long Time Coming

The naming structure of the Dragon Ball games has often been a bit off, especially when the English and Japanese releases differed in name. For instance, Dragon Ball Z: Ultimate Tenkaichi from 2011 was not part of the Budokai Tenkaichi series, but rather a follow-up to the Raging Blast series. Also, the Budokai Tenkaichi series in Japan was instead called Sparking, Sparking! Neo, and Sparking! Meteor of simply Budokai Tenkaichi 1, 2, and 3. Now with Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero, the Japanese name has been used for the worldwide release for the first time.

As mentioned with the different series within the Dragon Ball franchise above, there have been many different genres even within the fighting genre that the series has taken on. The Budokai Tenkaichi series is a large arena fighter where two fighters face off against one another complete with destructible environments, which Sparking! Zero continues with both it’s great features and also its flaws that always pop up.

Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero is truly a bigger and better version of what we’ve seen in the past with a similar gameplay style. Do you want to melee the opponent into oblivion with physical combos? You can do that. Would you rather focus on powering up your ki and doling out super moves and ultimate attacks? You can do that too. That’s one of the great things about this game and series in the past is that you can really go about playing in your own way, though there are some limitations.

In total, Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero has 182 playable characters at launch including the pre-order bonus of Goku (Mini) from the new Dragon Ball Daima series. This is a new record for the series and just shows how much time and effort the developers put in to one up the large roster of Dragon Ball Budokai Tenkaichi 3 even. This number does count the numerous transformations and forms, so that means 19 of them are Goku and 14 are Vegeta for example. However, this is still an incredible roster with characters spanning Dragon Ball Z, GT, Super, and even the non-canon movies. I was so glad to see some of my favorites like Tapion weren’t cut just because we had a lot of new Dragon Ball Super characters added. Original Dragon Ball really got the biggest shaft in the game character wise, but I have no doubt DLC will shore that up later with guaranteed adds like General Tao and Demon King Piccolo being shoo-ins in a dedicated Dragon Ball DLC pack.

Something else I really appreciated in Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero was the fact that you actually have to work to unlock everything. Too many fighting games now have everything unlocked from the get go, which really takes away something from those games. Not only do you have a large number of character to unlock, but also alternate costumes and more throughout the game. This adds a lot of replayability into the mix from the start, as it will take you quite awhile to unlock everything in this game.

Often one of the most key elements of any fighting game is for the roster to be balanced so that players do not have unfair advantages. That is not how Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero works though, but it is for a good reason. Having Super Saiyan 4 Gogeta and Mr. Satan be on an even playing ground in a fight makes no sense, so the game actually makes it more unbalanced to where you have to strategize with who you are using in teams or in solo combat. This does sadly make the lower tier characters harder to use in online competition most of the time, but people will always find the better characters and always use them anyways online. Instead, you may have to work harder with these lower level characters to win, but it makes the victories you get all the more satisfying too. I’m glad they at least include characters like Mr. Satan and even others like Yajirobe to really provide us with the largest and more versatile Dragon Ball roster ever. Hopefully the DLC will fill in some of the other gaps from the original Dragon Ball and GT as well.

Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero features stellar animation that feels based on the gorgeous Dragon Ball Super: Broly film from a few years ago, which looks just as good in action here. Seeing the massive character roster in action on the stages that look ripped straight from the anime is pretty amazing and moves fluidly in combat.

The combat system in Sparking! Zero offers players two options, Standard and Classic, though there are only a few changes between the schemes. For Classic, guarding, flying up or down, and ki charge are all done just as they were in the previous entries in the series, while Sparking! Zero’s new Standard control scheme moves them around a bit.

Combat in Sparking! Zero is just as you would expect too, which is great to see for longtime fans of the Budokai Tenkaichi series. Regardless of the control scheme, you can attack using Square on PS5 and then combo by mixing in Triangle as well. Pressing Triangle by itself will shoot ki blasts as well. There are also buttons to dodge, guard and charge ki. This is the same for every character, but where things vary are the techniques that each character has available.

Every character in Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero has five total techniques, two Skills, two Blasts, and one Ultimate Blast. These are all tied into your ki gauge. The ki gauge is made up of five mini bars that you can fill up by charging your ki and then expend a certain amount to unleash either of your Blast attacks. Next to this bar is your Sparking gauge that gradually fills up throughout the match with a number counter showing for each time it has filled up. Based on the Skills that you have available for that character and the number next to them, you can activate them as long as the Sparking gauge number is that number or higher.

Once the counter has reached at least one, you can then go into what is known as Sparking Mode. When it is at least one, charge your ki to maximum and it will then start filling up again, this time with a blue sparking design until it fills up entirely again and turns purple. This means your character has entered Sparking Mode, where you can hit your opponent with much longer combos and even be able to hit stronger enemies with launching combos that normally might be much more difficult to execute.

Most important to Sparking Mode is the ability to unleash your Ultimate Blast attack. By doing this, it will instantly take you out of Sparking Mode after, so make sure to use up the full meter as much as possible before going into the Ultimate Blast. These are some of my favorite parts to watch in the game, as you get to watch character’s signature move in action, dealing massive damage to the opponent and the arena itself. I will never grow tired of seeing each game’s take on Majin Vegeta’s Final Explosion, which is one of my favorite moments in the entire franchise. Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero also has 12 stages to choose from, with each of them having destructible environments ready to be taken out by your Ultimate Blast techniques just like you would see in the anime.

Beyond the base versions of the characters, you can also customize the characters with ability items. Each character can be equipped with up to seven ability items, which range greatly in what they can do. These include ones that raise your health or your Ultimate Blast Attack power, lower the count required for fusions or transformations, and many more that you can purchase in the shop. You can also select which outfit they will wear as well as add accessories to them. These costumes often show different degrees of battle damage, some of which can be altered in battle too. I also like that you can set music tracks for each character, though these are very limited unless you buy the Anime Music Packs that are available as DLC as of launch.

As soon as Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero released, all you could read online was about people complaining about the difficulty, but that’s something that has always been a part of this series. The enemies often are punishing and will beat you into submission, requiring you to adapt and change your strategies. The one battle most often mentioned is the fight against Great Ape Vegeta, but I personally only took two tries to beat him the first time and then was able to move on. There were other fights I had much greater difficulty with, but also just had to try to find a new method to beat that certain opponent and win. I can see the difficulty turning some people off from the game immediately, but I highly recommend sticking it out and you’ll eventually start to get the hang of things and know better ways to survive against these tough opponents.

Back when the original Budokai Tenkaichi games were out, the multiplayer focus was on local play, even though the third entry did have online play for Wii that didn’t work very well at all. Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero is in a very different era and obviously has the ability to players to go online and fight opponents from all over the world. This is great and works very well in my experience, but the major downside though is that offline multiplayer has been nerfed greatly. In fact, the only place you can do offline multiplayer in the game is on the Hyperbolic Time Chamber stage, while the remainder of them are not allowed. This is pretty disappointing, but not all that surprising in today’s gaming landscape. Perhaps we’ll see an update later add more maps to the offline multiplayer options, but for now it’s limited to just the one.

Dragon Ball games have had various method of telling the story of Dragon Ball over the years, with Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero taking a more character-based focus. In the game’s Episode Battle, you can play the story mode of Goku, Vegeta, Gohan, Piccolo, Future Trunks, Frieza, Goku Black, and one more unlockable story mode for another character I’ll let you discover for yourself. During that character’s story mode, you will only play as that one character except during very specific circumstances like being able to switch out or have someone come in to finish a fight for story reasons.

For anyone that played the most recent Naruto: Ultimate Ninja Storm game, Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero takes a similar approach with the game’s cutscenes. I was hoping for more fully animated cutscenes like we’ve seen in some Dragon Ball games over the years, especially with how amazing the game’s visuals look, but here it is a mix. Sometimes you will get some animated sequences and fights, but then it will very quickly transition into a series of screenshots. It might have been a little more tolerable if the screenshot sequences had voice acting as well, but those are left only for the fully animated sections.

While it would have been nice to have full animation for this entire game with the cutscenes, it is somewhat understandable considering how much story is being told here between the characters and the series as a whole. However, due to the sort of scattershot way of storytelling and story sequences, this definitely is not the type of game for a newcomer to Dragon Ball as a whole to play and have any idea what is actually happening due to how much is glossed over or skipped entirely. Even so, it features enough of the story beats and important moments that fans of the series will have no problems at all keeping up with the method of storytelling.

Not only do you get to play through the main story beats of the selected characters that you know from the series already, Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero also has a number of alternate what if scenarios. Some of these are just different endings where someone else defeats the main boss, such as Gohan defeating Dabura in the Majin Buu saga and Majin Buu never being resurrected, complete with a new ending sequence of screenshots or animation.

The much more involved what ifs though are known as Sparking Episodes, which are multi-stage scenarios for you to explore. Every Episode Battle character has at least one Sparking Episode available, with Goku, Vegeta, and Future Trunks having multiple. I will probably never grow tried of playing through the classic story of Dragon Ball Z, which was made even better by having the story of Dragon Ball Super here as well, but getting pretty involved what if stories too are a great addition to the game. The Sparking Episodes are varied in their stories too, such as Goku going Super Saiyan against Vegeta for the first time instead of Frieza or Gohan managing to beat Golden Frieza when he returns. The latter one sets a chain reaction that also introduces a new variant of a character we’ve never seen before in the franchise, but I’ll leave that one for you to find out yourself since it’s a really cool surprise that I did not see coming at all.

There is one aspect of Episode Battle that can be really frustrating though, which is the battles where the default condition is to just survive and not win. For instance, the next to last fight on Goku’s Episode Battle against Goku Black and Zamasu has two win conditions, the default of surviving and the alternate of winning quickly. My first time playing I did it quickly and unlocked the dead end video showing they won and then couldn’t move forward in the story. Instead, I had to go back and find a way to drag out the fight longer while still staying alive just to get the survive completion to advance the story to the next arc. The whole point is so you don’t defeat them in battle and have to fuse with Vegeta with the Potara earrings to become Vegito. It makes sense for the story, but completing it fast like this really should unlock both paths and allow you to just continue on the other path. Even if they were better about providing a timer of how long you have to take in the battle would be helpful, especially for the other alternate ones as well.

Beyond Episode Battle, you also have Custom Battle to play with even more variety at your fingertips. Custom Battle is similar to that of Super Mario Maker in that you can create your own custom battles with specifications and must be able to beat it yourself before being able to upload it for others to use online. There are two options to start with Simple Edit and Normal Edit, with the former being based on auto-selected effects and events.

To start, you have to select the lineup of characters that will be fighting, with up to five being available for each of the two teams. From there, you can select character settings like whether to allow transformations or having any switch limit rules or a time limit. You can even set free slots to allow the person who will be playing to pick the character that will be used in that slot. Then, you pick the stage from the list of all the ones available in the game.  You also can set trigger conditions for how to win or having other things happen in the battle, such as unlocking the ability to use certain moves or forcing characters to switch out. There is so much you can setup here to where every battle can feel totally different from the next.

Setting up the battle is far from all that Custom Battles entail, as you get to create the entire scenario as if it was something in story mode. This means you get to create the cutscenes surrounding it, albeit without voice acting, from the pre-existing options in the game. This includes an opening title screen, the opening sequence, and even ending sequences for if you win or lose. The title screen even allows you to change the background, music, and text for the “episode” on it. The only downside here is that you are limited in the titles of the battles that you can use, though you can unlock more through collecting the Dragon Balls. I do wish you could just input whatever text you wanted, but I also understand why they probably didn’t include that option.

After setting up your Custom Battle and beating it yourself, you can upload it for others around the world to try out. Naturally, this means there are countless available for you to play that others have uploaded as well in the World Library. Not only are those available, but Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero also has a Bonus Battles library full of Custom Battles created just for this game by the developers. Not all of these are available from the start either, so you’ll have to work to unlock more of them by finishing other Bonus Battles. I absolutely loved how much customization was available here and having a feature like this adds so much more longevity to a game that is already destined to have a lot of DLC coming that will only bolster this mode even further.

Verdict

Like past entries in the series, it may take a little while for Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero to really click with you due to the perceived difficulty at the start. Once it does click though, you are in for a real treat with easily one of the best Dragon Ball games to date. With a massive character roster and high flying combat that perfectly emulates the series, Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero delivers a Kamehameha of gratification for fans of the series and is something that would have made series creator Akira Toriyama very proud.

Score: 9/10

Pros:

  • Most extensive roster in Dragon Ball game series history
  • Gameplay feels like more polished version of the previous entries
  • Episode Battles span much of the series
  • Unique Sparking Episodes
  • Beautiful visuals

Cons:

  • Frustrating vague win conditions in Episode Battles occasionally
  • Use of non-voiced screenshots at times instead of fully animated cutscenes
  • Local multiplayer limited to one stage

Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero review code was provided by the publisher. You can read MP1st’s review and scoring policy right here.

Tags: Dragon Ball Z Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero
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Dean James

Home > News

Report: Bandai Namco Laying Off Hundreds of Employees; One Piece and Naruto Games Canceled or Paused

  by   Taha  
11:34 am in News

Bandai Namco is reportedly laying off hundreds of employees and has either canceled or paused development on several games. This news comes as a surprise, given the recent strong sales of Dragon Ball: Sparking Zero, which sold over 3 million units in just 24 hours and had a launch day player count surpassing 120,000 concurrent players.

As reported by Bloomberg (paywalled), Bandai Namco is allegedly using a tactic known as “Oidashi beya” or “expulsion rooms” to pressure employees into resigning voluntarily. In these rooms, employees are reportedly given little to no work-related tasks, while knowing that poor performance could be used as grounds to reduce severance when they leave. Many employees often use this time to look for other jobs. So far, about 200 employees have been moved to these rooms, with around 100 having already resigned.

However, a Bandai Namco representative denied these claims, stating:

Our decisions to discontinue games are based on comprehensive assessments of the situation. Some employees may need to wait a certain amount of time before they are assigned their next project, but we do move forward with assignments as new projects emerge. There is no organization like an ‘oidashi beya’ at Bandai Namco Studios designed to pressure people to leave voluntarily.

Alongside the layoffs, Bandai Namco has reportedly canceled or suspended development on several titles, including a game commissioned by Nintendo and two major projects tied to the One Piece and Naruto franchises.

These developments coincide with the cancellations of Blue Protocol and Tales of Rays, raising more questions about the company’s future. With so many layoffs and projects being halted, it remains to be seen how Bandai Namco plans to recover.

While these reports have yet to be fully confirmed, layoffs are never a good thing to see within our industry, but they’re also unavoidable given the ever-changing landscape. We here at MP1st wish the best of luck to those affected by the layoff, and hopefully, they’ll be able to quickly land back on their feet.

More MP1st Reading:

Tags: Bandai Namco Bandai Namco Entertainment layoffs
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Taha

Television kills your vision.

Home > News

Destiny 2 Servers Pulled Down for Maintenance and Patch 8.1.0.1 Release This Oct. 15

  by   Alex Co  
9:31 am in News

Guardians looking for some Destiny 2 game time, you’ll have to pause that for a few hours today, as Bungie has taken the game’s servers down and offline for maintenance, where a new patch (version 8.1.0.1) will be released.

Update: Destiny 2 Version 8.1.0.1 Patch Notes

Why Are the Destiny 2 Servers Down and Not Working? (October 15):

Tuesday, October 15, 2024 – Update 8.1.0.1
6:00 AM PDT -7 UTC
    • Destiny 2 will undergo maintenance.
    • Sign-on and game integration features will be unavailable on web, mobile, third-party apps, and the Bungie Store.
    • Players who observe issues should report to the #Help forum.
6:45AM PDT -7 UTC
    • Destiny 2 will be brought offline for expected maintenance.
    • Players will be removed from activities and won’t be able to log back in until 10 AM PDT.
    • Ongoing Destiny maintenance is expected to conclude at 12 PM PDT.
10:00 AM PDT -7 UTC
    • The latest Destiny 2 update will be available across all platforms and regions.
    • Players will be able to log back into Destiny 2.
    • Players logging into the game may be placed in a queue and may experience sign-on issues as background maintenance is still ongoing.
    • Clan features may remain offline until maintenance is complete.
12:00 PM PDT -7 UTC
    • Destiny 2 maintenance is expected to conclude.
    • Console players who encounter issues updating should restart their console and try downloading the update.
    • Players who observe issues should report to the #Help forum.

Once the official patch notes are out, we’ll be sure to let our readers know. In case you didn’t know, Vesper’s Host Dungeon Race just concluded this past week and we should hear more about that soon. The mobile version of the game titled Destiny: Rising has also been announced yesterday in case you’re interested.

[Source: Bungie]

Tags: Destiny Destiny 2
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Alex Co

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Home > Title Updates and Patches

DayZ Update 1.71 Sleds Out for Frostline Expansion and Stable Patch 1.26

  by   Alex Co  
9:25 am in Title Updates and Patches

Bohemia Interactive has today released DayZ update 1.71 on consoles, and this is for the Frostline paid DLC, as well as for Patch 1.26! There is a lot to take in here, so read on for the changes, new content and more for both consoles and PC.

DayZ Update 1.71 Patch Notes and What’s New for Frostline:

Console Stable 1.26 Update 1 – Version 1.26.158777 (Release on 15.10.2024)

NOTES

FROSTLINE DLC

  • Added Sakhal terrain
  • Rubber Boat
  • Ice Axe
  • Yellowfoot Mushroom
  • Reindeer
  • Winter-themed infected types
  • Winter-themed variants of existing clothing items
  • Budenovka
  • Snowstorm Ushanka
  • Ski gloves
  • Navy uniform jacket and pants
  • OMK jacket and pants
  • Walleye Pollock
  • Steelhead Trout
  • Shrimp
  • Scientific briefcase and keys
  • Canned crab
  • Down jacket
  • Ski goggles
  • Glass bottle

GAME

ADDED

  • Brown Hare
  • Red Fox
  • Wolf trophy headdress
  • Shemag
  • Fishing jig
  • Wooden fishing hook
  • Consuming scorching hot items now slows consumption and causes damage
  • It is now possible to climb onto ledges while swimming
  • Some items can now freeze if exposed to low temperatures
  • Grass now bends under animals and infected
  • Terrain and object visibility settings
  • In-game server browser now verifies all official servers before displaying them
  • In-game server browser can now filter for maps
  • In-game server browser now allows sorting for maps in a separate column
  • Description field for servers, displayed in the server browser
  • Support for stick dead zones

FIXED

CHANGED

  • Updated official server naming conventions in coherence with the server browser update
  • Reworked character heat comfort and how it is influenced
  • Rebalanced the insulation values of most clothing items
  • Reworked fishing action and its chances, including audio and particle effects (let go of LMB to reel in a fish when caught)
  • Fishing bait is no longer crafted, but an attachment of hook
  • Slightly rebalanced the nutrition values of fish
  • Eating raw fish now causes food poisoning instead of salmonella
  • Worms are now stackable
  • It’s now possible to dig multiple worms at once with certain tools
  • Reworked the common cold into stages, added pneumonia
  • Codeine pills and morphine now suppress common cold and influenza symptoms
  • To tackle animal predators being an easy source of food for highly geared players, we have infected predator meat with a disease
  • All edible items can now be added to cooking slots
  • All edible items can now be heated up to warm up the character when consumed
  • Tweaked water gain from food items, decreased the gain from cooked items
  • Removed rough and precision soft skills
  • Firewood can now be stacked up to 3 times in the inventory
  • Tweaked the minimum and maximum temperatures of items
  • Players now gain temporary immunity to the common cold after beating it or any of its later stages
  • The flare gun ammunition now spins slightly on descent
  • Active rain/snowfall now decrease the hearing of infected
  • Force feeding is now only possible when facing the player
  • Sitting in a vehicle with running engine will now set your character’s heat comfort to neutral
  • Heat packs cool down over a longer period and give drastically more benefit
  • Traps now require bait and might catch different animals depending on the bait
  • Traps now play a sound when they aught an animal
  • Traps in water not play a particle effect when they caught an animal
  • Reduced damage taken by traps on catch
  • Increased chance of catching animals via trap
  • Reduced time required for traps to catch an animal
  • Significantly increased the weight of animals pelts
  • Terrain detail video settings are now hidden and set to one value that corresponds to the multiplayer settings (it was always forced to one value by the server anyway)
  • Optimized world loading for respawning players (PC only)
  • Reduced the AI alertness from pistol shots
  • Strongly reduced the AI alertness from shots of the Sporter
  • Heat buffer (+ symbol) now shows progression on HUD and its behavior has been slightly altered
  • Reduced size of the cargo on most jackets, pants and vests
  • Adjusted inventory sizes of various items
  • Many continuous actions have now their camera view angle limited to the general area, where the action is conducted
  • It’s not possible to construct garden plots below certain environment temperatures

CENTRAL ECONOMY

  • Fixed: The restock value was not properly considered when restocking items (https://feedback.bistudio.com/T177835)

CHERNARUS

  • Fixed: A glitched military convoy position at Dubrovka
  • Changed: Morning fog behavior, there is always morning fog around the coast and in the low altitude valleys. The density is randomized, it can be too thick sometimes
  • Changed: Wind direction and speed is giving clues about how the upcoming overcast will be
  • Changed: Large-scale rebalancing of clothing items and firearms

LIVONIA

  • Changed: Morning fog behavior, there CAN be a morning fog which is on the river and around its bed. The density is randomized
  • Changed: Livonia now has sudden overcast changes. The sudden change always ends with a bad weather and the duration of it shorter compared to normal overcast changes
  • Changed: Wind direction and speed is giving clues about how the upcoming overcast will be
  • Changed: Default date reset interval moved from Aug-Sept to July-Aug
  • Changed: Large-scale rebalancing of clothing items and firearms

SERVER

KNOWN ISSUES

  • The server browser might not display servers – a fix is in the works – THIS CAN BE SOLVED BY RESETTING FILTERS
  • Dying while having the inventory or quick-wheel open can result in the respawn menu not functioning and requiring a restart, a fix is in internal testing
  • Respawning from unconscious might result in disconnect from the server
  • We are investigating a possible performance decline on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One consoles
  • There might be issues with vaulting over fences, a fix is in internal testing
  • Weather can be desynced for players after server start – a fix is in internal testing
  • Thawing frozen items in cookware is too slow – a fix is in internal testing
  • Heavy Metal Poisoning Screen effect is present after respawn – a fix is in internal testing, can be solved by reconnect
  • Vehicles or boats behave weirdly next to rocks (https://feedback.bistudio.com/T183992, https://feedback.bistudio.com/T183617) – a fix is in internal testing
  • Character is stuttering while passing doors
  • Camera twitches after vaulting over fences/walls (https://feedback.bistudio.com/T185237)
  • Sakhal map doesn’t have translated name and description – a fix is in internal testing
  • Alarm sound of Warhead bunker entrance can play permanently after server restart
  • Some ice sheets cannot be climbed on
  • Tents can clip into ice sheets after being packed
  • Grass shortly disappears when driving boats close to a beach
  • Boats and players in them are not getting any damage in crashes
  • Small stutters can happen when walking/sprinting into the sea
  • Climbing on boat, especially with no or low stamina, can cause animation glitches
  • Some food can clip into fireplaces and ovens when added to cooking slots – a fix is in internal testing
  • Inconsistencies with the cfgweather.xml (https://feedback.bistudio.com/T183730) – a fix is in internal testing
  • Thawed snow area around fireplaces is not visible at night
  • PC server descriptions do not support new line characters – a fix is in internal testing

DayZ Stable Update 1.26 for PC Patch Notes:

PC Stable 1.26 Update 1 – Version 1.26.158898 (Release on 15.10.2024)

NOTES

  • Consider using the Steam client option to verify the integrity of the local game cache to avoid corrupted data after downloading this update.
  • Consider de-fragmenting your HDD after downloading large updates.
  • In case of problems, please check the Bohemia Interactive support F.A.Q., DayZ F.A.Q., or BattlEye F.A.Q.
  • You can help us to further improve the game by posting your feedback on the Feedback Tracker.

 

FROSTLINE DLC

  • Added Sakhal terrain
  • Rubber Boat
  • Ice Axe
  • Yellowfoot Mushroom
  • Reindeer
  • Winter-themed infected types
  • Winter-themed variants of existing clothing items
  • Budenovka
  • Snowstorm Ushanka
  • Ski gloves
  • Navy uniform jacket and pants
  • OMK jacket and pants
  • Walleye Pollock
  • Steelhead Trout
  • Shrimp
  • Scientific briefcase and keys
  • Canned crab
  • Down jacket
  • Ski goggles
  • Glass bottle
  • Heavy Metal Poisoning

GAME

ADDED

  • Brown Hare
  • Red Fox
  • Wolf trophy headdress
  • Shemag
  • Fishing jig
  • Wooden fishing hook
  • Consuming scorching hot items now slows consumption and causes damage
  • It is now possible to climb onto ledges while swimming
  • Authentication for official game servers
  • Some items can now freeze if exposed to low temperatures
  • Grass now bends under animals and infected
  • Terrain and object visibility settings
  • In-game server browser now verifies all official servers before displaying them
  • In-game server browser can now filter for maps
  • In-game server browser now allows sorting for maps in a separate column
  • Description field for servers, displayed in the server browser

FIXED

CHANGED

  • Updated official server naming conventions in coherence with the server browser update
  • Reworked character heat comfort and how it is influenced
  • Rebalanced the insulation values of most clothing items
  • Renamed “bad” insulation to “worst” for better understanding
  • Reworked fishing action and its chances, including audio and particle effects (let go of LMB to reel in a fish when caught)
  • Fishing bait is no longer crafted, but an attachment of hook
  • Slightly rebalanced the nutrition values of fish
  • Eating raw fish now causes food poisoning instead of salmonella
  • Worms are now stackable
  • It’s now possible to dig multiple worms at once with certain tools
  • Reworked the common cold into stages, added pneumonia
  • Codeine pills and morphine now suppress common cold and influenza symptoms
  • To tackle animal predators being an easy source of food for highly geared players, we have infected predator meat with a disease
  • All edible items can now be added to cooking slots
  • All edible items can now be heated up to warm up the character when consumed
  • Tweaked water gain from food items, decreased the gain from cooked items
  • Removed rough and precision soft skills
  • Firewood can now be stacked up to 3 times in the inventory
  • Tweaked the minimum and maximum temperatures of items
  • Players now gain temporary immunity to the common cold after beating it or any of its later stages
  • The flare gun ammunition now spins slightly on descent
  • Active rain/snowfall now decrease the hearing of infected
  • Force feeding is now only possible when facing the player
  • Sitting in a vehicle with running engine will now set your character’s heat comfort to neutral
  • Heat packs cool down over a longer period and give drastically more benefit
  • Traps now require bait and might catch different animals depending on the bait
  • Traps now play a sound when they aught an animal
  • Traps in water play a particle effect when they caught an animal
  • Reduced damage taken by traps on catch
  • Increased chance of catching animals via trap
  • Reduced time required for traps to catch an animal
  • Significantly increased the weight of animals pelts
  • Terrain detail video settings are now hidden and set to one value that corresponds to the multiplayer settings (it was always forced to one value by the server anyway)
  • Optimized world loading for respawning players (PC only)
  • Reduced the AI alertness from pistol shots
  • Strongly reduced the AI alertness from shots of the Sporter
  • Heat buffer (+ symbol) now shows progression on HUD and its behavior has been slightly altered
  • Reduced size of the cargo on most jackets, pants and vests
  • Adjusted inventory sizes of various items
  • Many continuous actions have now their camera view angle limited to the general area, where the action is conducted
  • It’s not possible to construct garden plots below certain environment temperatures

CENTRAL ECONOMY

CHERNARUS

  • Fixed: A glitched military convoy position at Dubrovka
  • Changed: Morning fog behavior, there is always morning fog around the coast and in the low altitude valleys. The density is randomized, it can be too thick sometimes
  • Changed: Wind direction and speed is giving clues about how the upcoming overcast will be
  • Changed: Large-scale rebalancing of clothing items and firearms
  • LIVONIA
  • Changed: Morning fog behavior, there CAN be a morning fog which is on the river and around its bed. The density is randomized
  • Changed: Livonia now has sudden overcast changes. The sudden change always ends with a bad weather and the duration of it shorter compared to normal overcast changes
  • Changed: Wind direction and speed is giving clues about how the upcoming overcast will be
  • Changed: Default date reset interval moved from Aug-Sept to July-Aug
  • Changed: Large-scale rebalancing of clothing items and firearms

SERVER

LAUNCHER

  • Added: Launcher now verifies all official servers before displaying them

MODDING

  • Added: ‘CGame.ReloadShape’ to reload an objects p3d through script (diag only)
  • Added: Support for NoiseSystemParams::shotVolExponent in Infected.hpp config file, which affects volume fall off shots heard by infected
  • Added: Diag Menu: “Enfusion World > Bullet > Simulation” to pause and step through physics simulation
  • Added: GetAimingHandsOffsetLR, GetAimingHandsOffsetUD script API
  • Added: Ability to define a texture layer with a certain projection vector into Multi and Super shader (documentation coming soon, Adam Franců)
  • Added: Script functions IsPointInPolygon, IsPointInPolygonXZ, IsPointInTriangleXZ, TriangleWindingXZ
  • Added: Exposed various getters for Car wheel contact
  • Added: Configuration of the sea – parameters MaxTide and MaxWave in cfgWorlds. Diag menu option to set the sea level to maximum or minimum
  • Added: Script function GetAdditionalHealthTypes
  • Added: CGame.SurfaceGetSeaLevelMin() and CGame.SurfaceGetSeaLevelMax()
  • Added: dBodyGetWorldTransform and dBodyGetDirectWorldTransform to EnPhysics
  • Added: ‘Human.PhysicsGetPositionLS’ and ‘Human.PhysicsGetPositionWS’
  • Fixed: ‘DbgUI.SliderFloat’ not accepting inputs or rendering
  • Fixed: A bug that could be abused to obfuscate files
  • Fixed: EntityOverlapSingleBullet had incorrect parameter count
  • Fixed: FindFile script method did not handle the pattern correctly on linux (https://feedback.bistudio.com/T179707)
  • Fixed: FileMode.WRITE was not truncating the file on Linux (https://feedback.bistudio.com/T180210)
  • Fixed: ‘Human.PhysicsGetPositionWS’ and ‘Human.PhysicsGetRotationWS’ would ignore enfusion parent
  • Changed: Vertex limit in a single p3d model has been increased from 32 thousand to 65 thousand – requires binarize.exe in DayZ Tools to be updated to take advantage, which will occur later
  • Changed: The vehicle UI has been refactored to allow for more extendability. In the current version (1.26), both the old and new solution are present to give time for mods which would use the vehicle UI scripts to change to the new version without pressure. With version 1.27, the old solution will be removed completely. By default, the old UI solution is used.  In order to switch to the new version, run the game with startup parameter -scrDef=VEH_UI_REFACTOR. The relevant changes are present within IngameHud.c
  • Changed: SurfaceGetType(3D) now returns the Y position the surface was found
  • Changed: Tree and grass material property `perlinDirAffection` will now have square reduction of its magnitude below the value of 0.5, resolving some visual noise of trees and grass
  • Changed: Clutter generation speed has been significantly increased on higher cell size terrains
  • Changed: Surfaces can now define a ‘stepParticle’ and ‘wheelParticle’
  • Changed: Some minor documentation improvements around physics getters for Human
  • Changed: ‘Human.PhysicsGetTransformWS’ now returns the true world space with enfusion hierarchy
  • Tweaked: Debug shots trace now outputs speed of projectile upon exiting a surface

TERRAIN BUILDER

  • Added: Template library filtering
  • Fixed: Export Shapes to Imagery functionality now continues to work even after invalid path is specified
  • Fixed: Renaming an object/shape layer works now, instead of creating a new layer
  • Tweaked: “Remove + Delete from HDD” from Object layer window has been replaced with “Remove” option which does NOT delete the corresponding file
  • Tweaked: Removed various unused options from Terrain -> Preferences
  • Tweaked: Generate layers process has been optimized and is now faster
  • Tweaked: Improvements to the mass conversion of PNG to PAA for layers (you can select parallel conversion)

KNOWN ISSUES

  • The server browser might not display servers – a fix is in the works – THIS CAN BE SOLVED BY RESETTING FILTERS
  • Respawning from unconscious might result in disconnect from the server
  • Weather can be desynced for players after server start – a fix is in internal testing
  • Thawing frozen items in cookware is too slow – a fix is in internal testing
  • Heavy Metal Poisoning Screen effect is present after respawn – a fix is in internal testing, can be solved by reconnect
  • Vehicles or boats behave weirdly next to rocks (https://feedback.bistudio.com/T183992, https://feedback.bistudio.com/T183617) – a fix is in internal testing
  • Character is stuttering while passing doors
  • Camera twitches after vaulting over fences/walls (https://feedback.bistudio.com/T185237)
  • Sakhal map doesn’t have translated name and description – a fix is in internal testing
  • Alarm sound of Warhead bunker entrance can play permanently after server restart
  • Some ice sheets cannot be climbed on
  • Tents can clip into ice sheets after being packed
  • Boats and players in them are not getting any damage in crashes
  • Small stutters can happen when walking/sprinting into the sea
  • Climbing on boat, especially with no or low stamina, can cause animation glitches
  • Some food can clip into fireplaces and ovens when added to cooking slots – a fix is in internal testing
  • Inconsistencies with the cfgweather.xml (https://feedback.bistudio.com/T183730) – a fix is in internal testing
  • Thawed snow area around fireplaces is not visible at night
  • PC server descriptions do not support new line characters – a fix is in internal testing

Don’t be surprised to see a follow-up patch released to fix any issues that surface from this one.

[Source: Bohemia Forums (1, 2)]

Tags: DayZ
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Alex Co

Father, gamer, games media vet, writer of words, killer of noobs.

Home > News

Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 Uses Up to 180 Mbps of Internet Bandwidth While Flying Over Populated Areas

  by   Taha  
9:16 am in News

If you’re excited about Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024, you might want to make sure your internet connection can handle it. The game aims to bring incredible graphics and a very realistic flying experience. However, with this level of realism comes a big demand on your internet. Players might want to check their connection, as this open-world simulator could use more data than you’d expect.

According to Compusemble on YouTube, Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 can use up to 180 Mbps of internet while flying over populated areas. Since 1 byte = 8 bits, 180 Mbps equals 22.5 megabytes (MB) of data being used per second. Over one minute, this adds up to around 1.35 GB of data per minute. This is why the game can use close to 80 GB per hour when running on high settings.

This much data can be a problem for players with slower internet speeds or limited data plans. The game’s heavy reliance on Microsoft’s Azure cloud service is largely responsible for these high bandwidth requirements, as it streams a large amount of real-time data to keep the game’s visuals incredibly detailed.

Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024
Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 uses up to 180 Mbps of internet bandwidth while in flight.

Despite the high data consumption during gameplay, the base installation of Flight Simulator 2024 is surprisingly small. The base installation is only about 30 GB, which is much smaller compared to the 130-400 GB needed for Flight Simulator 2020. This smaller size shows how the game is now leaning more on cloud-based streaming, which helps deliver better visuals while keeping the file size on your device much smaller.

Players will have to wait and see how well the game performs across different platforms and internet speeds. For those with fast internet, the experience should be seamless, but others might face challenges.

Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 will launch on November 19, 2024, for Xbox Series X|S and PC, with day-one availability on Xbox Game Pass.

More MP1st Reading:

Thanks, Tom’s Hardware!

Tags: Microsoft Flight Simulator Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024
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Taha

Television kills your vision.

Home > Title Updates and Patches

Lords of the Fallen Update 1.053 Drops for Minor Patch This Oct. 15

  by   Alex Co  
8:42 am in Title Updates and Patches

HexWorks has pushed out Lords of the Fallen update 1.053 on all platforms this October 15, and this is a minor patch that doesn’t bring in any new content. Note that this title update has been released during the game’s server maintenance, so if you’re encountering server issues, that’s the reason why.

Is There Anything New in Lords of the Fallen Update 1.053?

As far as we know, there’s no new content or any player-facing changes made with today’s patch. Here’s what HexWorks had to say about it:

Greetings Lampbearers,

Please find below details on today’s maintenance update for Lords of the Fallen.

As always, if you’re enjoying your adventures through Mournstead, we’d greatly appreciate it if you could leave us a review on Steam.

In light, we walk.
The HEXWORKS Team

Improvements
  • Optimized multiplayer connectivity for improved performance.
  • Fixed minor issues.

Yep, that’s about it. We got a minor patch that introduced a few fixes four months ago, but in terms of new features and content, I think we’re past that now given the studio is hard at work on a sequel that’s set for release in 2026. We’re not expecting any major patches from the game moving forward, and neither should you. If that changes, we’ll be sure let our readers know.

Tags: Lords Of The Fallen
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Alex Co

Father, gamer, games media vet, writer of words, killer of noobs.

Home > Title Updates and Patches

Helldivers 2 Update 1.001.104 Completes 60-Day Plan, Here’s What’s New

  by   Alex Co  
5:42 am in Title Updates and Patches

Back in August, Arrowhead Game Studios outlined the studio’s plans to roll out fixes and improvements to Helldivers 2 in a span of 60-days. Well, that culmination of that is today with Helldivers 2 update 1.001.104! The download is out now on PC and PS5, and the complete patch notes and dev details are available below.

Helldivers 2 Update 1.001.104 Patch Notes – What Got Changed?

Overview

The final part of our 60 day commitment is here! This patch marks the last set of changes we aimed to implement for the 60 day community commitment while also addressing issues we previously didn’t have time to fix. So what does this patch contain? We have made changes to the remaining weapons and stratagems we weren’t able to finish for the patch on September 17th, ensuring they’re now more interesting and effective. We have also dedicated some time and we’ve looked over some key core systems like enemy spawning as well as targeting and vision for the Automatons. Based on your feedback, we’ve fine-tuned the Automaton experience to hopefully make them feel less frustrating to play against. Additionally, we have also adjusted the Helldivers durability to make your armor choices feel more impactful.

Finally, we’ve introduced new functionality to certain items to give players more depth in mastering their equipment. For example, the GR-8 Recoilless Rifle and the AC-8 Autocannon now have programmable ammunition, and drones that come with backpacks can be toggled on or off for added control.

We hope you enjoy these changes! The team at Arrowhead has been thrilled to work on this 60-day commitment for you, our community and players and seeing your reactions to the work we’ve done! Together, we aim to ensure Helldivers 2 delivers on its core fantasy and remains a game we all love to play.

Balancing

General changes

  • Additional Supply Items are now visible on the minimap
    • Exosuits
    • Support Stratagems
  • Removed ricochets from Orbital Stratagem projectiles, Eagle-1 bombs and FAF-14 Spear missiles
    • They can no longer ricochet off of targets
  • Helldiver armor tweaks
    • Both Heavy and Light armor are now more effective
    • Heavy armor reduces damage taken by 25%, up from 20%
      • 5% more damage reduction
    • Light armor increases damage taken by 25%, down from 33%
      • 8% less damage taken
    • Stratagems and Weapon tag description updates
    • They now show more information and are also categorized:
      • Armor penetration 2 is classified as Light armor penetrating
      • Armor penetration 3 is classified as Medium armor penetrating
      • Armor penetration 4 is classified as Heavy armor penetrating
      • Armor penetration 5+ is classified as Anti tank

Primary Weapons

Plasma projectile behavior

  • We’ve standardized the behavior of Plasma projectiles, which previously had varying characteristics in how they traveled through the air. Now, all Plasma projectiles experience high drag, causing them to slow down faster. However, each plasma weapon still fires projectiles at different speeds and calibers, so their effective ranges will remain distinct. For most weapons, this change won’t be very noticeable
  • With the SG-8P Punisher Plasma you’ll see a less pronounced arc in its projectile path. Instead, it will start off faster and lose speed more rapidly, keeping its effective range about the same

PLAS-101 Purifier

  • Projectiles can now be charged up with a damage multiplier that scales:
    • Minimum charge of 0.1 sec gives a 50% damage multiplier
    • Maximum charge of 1 sec gives a 100% damage multiplier
  • Maximum charge projectile damage increased from 100 to 200
  • Maximum charge projectile durable damage increased from 50 to 100
  • Maximum charge explosion damage increased from 150 to 300
  • The explosion doesn’t scale, but a fully charged shot has a different explosion effect:
  • Minimum charge (0.1–0.99 sec): Inner radius 1m, outer radius 2m, explosion damage 75
  • Maximum charge (1 sec): Inner radius 2.9m, outer radius 3m, explosion damage 300

PLAS- 1 Scorcher

  • New weapon function: Auto fire mode
  • Fire rate increased from 250 to 350
  • Magazine capacity increased from 15 to 20
  • Spare magazines decreased from 6 to 5

SG-8P Punisher Plasma

  • Reduced recoil
  • Fire rate increased from 80 to 100

AR-23 Liberator

  • Horizontal recoil reduced by 30%

AR-23P Liberator Penetrator

  • Horizontal recoil reduced by 30%
  • Increased magazine capacity from 30 to 45
  • Spare magazines decreased from 10 to 7

AR-23A Liberator Carbine

  • Horizontal recoil reduced by 30%
  • Ergonomics increased from 65 to 70
  • Reload duration decreased from 3 to 2.5 sec

BR-14 Adjudicator

  • Horizontal recoil reduced by 30%
  • Projectile damage increased from 80 to 90
  • Projectile durable damage increased from 16 to 23
  • Magazine capacity increased from 25 to 30

AR-61 Tenderizer

  • New weapon function: 600/850 RPM

JAR-5 Dominator

  • Moved from the Explosive weapon category to the Special weapon category

Sidearms

P-113 Verdict

  • Armor penetration increased from 2 to 3
  • Projectile durable damage increased from 13 to 32
  • Stagger strength increased from 13 to 15

P-4 Senator

  • Armor penetration increased from 3 to 4
  • Projectile damage increased from 175 to 200
  • Projectile durable damage increased from 35 to 70

P-11 Stim Pistol

  • Spread decreased from 30 to 5
  • Muzzle velocity increased from 80 to 200

Throwables

K-2 Throwing Knives

  • Uses increased from 8 to 20

G-12 High Explosive Grenade

  • Damage increased from 400 to 800

G-6 Frag Grenade

  • Damage increased from 250 to 500

G-10 Incendiary Grenade

  • Damage increased from 150 to 300

Stratagem Support Weapons

AC-8 Autocannon

  • New weapon function: Programmable ammunition now allows you to switch between normal projectiles and flak projectiles
    • Flak projectiles are proximity triggered shrapnel explosions with a larger explosion radius

GR-8 Recoilless Rifle

  • New weapon function: Programmable ammunition now allows you to switch between normal projectiles and High Explosive rounds
    • High Explosive rounds have a larger explosion radius, deal more explosion damage, less projectile damage and are less effective against tanks

RL-77 Airburst Rocket Launcher

  • Reload duration reduced from 7 to 5 sec

M-105 LMG Stalwart

  • Ergonomics increased from 25 to 40

MG-43 Machine Gun

  • Magazine capacity increased from 150 to 175
  • Starting spare magazines increased from 1 to 2

MG-206 Heavy Machine Gun

  • Magazine capacity increased from 75 to 100

Backpacks

LIFT-850 Jump Pack

  • Cooldown reduced from 20 to 15 sec
  • Stronger thrust force
  • Thrust vector has been tweaked
    • Will have a slightly higher jump and more forward momentum

AX/AR-23 “Guard Dog”

  • Switch from AR-23 Liberator rounds to AR-23P Liberator Penetrator rounds
    • Armor penetration increased from 2 to 3
    • Damage decreased from 70 to 60
  • Magazine capacity increased from 30 to 45

Drone Backpacks now has a new toggle drone function

  • Activate: The drone leaves the backpack and starts to perform its tasks
  • Deactivate: The drone returns to the backpack into a passive standby state

Stratagems

Eagle Strafing Run

  • Explosion radius slightly increased
  • Explosion damage increased from 250 to 350

Orbital Airburst Strike

  • Salvoes increased from 3 to 4
  • Duration between salvoes increased from 3 to 4 sec

A/MG-43 Machine Gun Sentry

  • Magazine capacity increased from 125 to 175
  • Cooldown reduced from 120 to 90 sec
  • Life time reduced from 180 to 150 sec

A/G-16 Gatling Sentry

  • Magazine capacity increased from 400 to 500
  • Cooldown reduced from 180 to 150 sec
  • Life time reduced from 180 to 150 sec

A/MLS-4X Rocket Sentry

  • Cooldown reduced from 180 to 150 sec
  • Life time reduced from 180 to 150 sec

A/AC-8 Autocannon Sentry

  • Cooldown reduced from 180 to 150 sec
  • Life time reduced from 180 to 150 sec

MD-17 Anti Tank Mines We are working on changes to the Anti-Personnel and Incendiary Mines, however we are not yet happy with the fixes, as we feel they introduced too many new problems. We will continue working on these changes and include them in a future patch

  • The mines are now only triggered by heavier enemies like Chargers, Bile Titans, Impalers, Hulks
  • Damage increased from 800 to 2000
  • Explosion radius decreased

A/ARC-3 Tesla Tower

  • Reduced charge-up shots cooldown from 3 to 1 sec
  • Cooldown reduced from 150 to 120 sec
  • Lifetime reduced from 180 to 150 sec

FX-12 Shield Generator Relay

  • Removed charge delay between damage taken
  • Increased charge rate from 300 to 400 health/sec
  • Radius increased from 8 to 15m
  • Once the shield is down, it will no longer regenerate

Gameplay 

Patrol Spawning:

  • Previously, once the mission was completed but before extraction, we significantly increased patrol spawns across the entire map. Now, the increased patrol spawns are concentrated around the extraction site, with more patrols appearing the closer you are to it. This change should make patrol spawning feel more logical and reduce the penalty for players who complete the mission but still want to explore the map or collect samples. Please let us know if you still experience issues with the patrol spawning!

Terminids

Bile Spewers

  • Legs health reduced from 300 to 200

Nursing Spewers

  • Legs health reduced from 300 to 200

Hunters

  • Have a short shared area cooldown for their pounce ability
  • Can now totally blow up if affected with enough damage

Scavengers

  • Can blow up if affected with enough damage

Automatons

Automaton Targeting

  • Some enemies were able to shoot at you without needing proper line of sight, which caused them to fire into or through walls, track you even when hidden, and ignore smoke effects. We’ve addressed these issues, so now you should be able to use stealth more effectively against the Automatons, and they won’t be able to shoot through walls or see you when they shouldn’t. Please let us know if you still encounter issues like these!

Automaton projectiles

  • Normal small projectiles damage reduced from 40 to 35
    • Used by enemies like the Devastators, Emplacements and Conscripts
  • Heavy projectiles damage reduced from 65 to 60
    • Used by enemies like the Heavy Emplacements and Scout Striders

Hulk Bruiser

  • In response to their disapproval of a newly installed cannon on the Automaton Hulk Bruisers, Super Earth High Command sent a crack commando to sabotage their production facilities. The skilled operative promptly escaped into the shadows after completing their mission. Today, still wanted by the Automatons, they survive as a soldier of fortune. If you have a problem, if no one else can help, and if you can find them, maybe you can enlist… John Helldiver
  • As a result the Automatons had to revert back to using rocket launchers for their Hulk Bruisers

All Devastators

  • Head armor decreased from 2 to 1
  • Head health increased from 100 to 110

Berserkers

  • Head health decreased from 125 to 110

Heavy Devastator

  • The pause between their salvoes has been slightly increased, providing Helldivers with a better opportunity to counterattack

All Tanks

  • Front armor reduced from 6 to 5
    • Our previous tweak didn’t have the intended effect on gameplay that we expected so we’ve reverted this back
  • The rear weak spots of the Tank’s body now have their own health pool, which matches the Tank’s previous total health. Once this health pool is depleted, the Tank will be destroyed. Additionally, these weak spots also deal 150% damage to the Tank’s main health

Annihilator Tank Turrets

  • The rear weak spots of the Tank’s body now have their own health pool, which matches the Tank’s previous total health. Once this health pool is depleted, the Tank will be destroyed. Additionally, these weak spots also deal 200% damage to the Tank’s main health

Shredder Tank Turrets

  • The rear weak spots of the Tank’s body now have their own health pool, which matches the Tank’s previous total health. Once this health pool is depleted, the Tank will be destroyed. Additionally, these weak spots also deal 200% damage to the Tank’s main health

Barrager Tank Turret

  • The Turret is now destroyed if the Tank body is destroyed

Fixes

Resolved Top Priority issues:

  • Not enough enemies spawn to complete Eradicate missions
  • Some enemies were able to shoot at you without needing proper line of sight, which caused them to fire into or through walls, track you even when hidden, and ignore smoke effects
  • Patrol Spawning should now feel more logical and reduce the penalty for players who complete the mission but still want to explore the map or collect samples

Crash Fixes and Soft-locks:

  • Fixed crash that could occur when getting knock backed while wearing the energy shield backpack
  • Fixed potential crash when a peer leaves with unique armor customization
  • Various crash fixes

Miscellaneous Fixes

  • Fixed bug where helldivers wearing heavy armors would be immune to gas status effect
  • General Brasch returns from holiday retreat in foggy hillside town.

What Issues Are Left With Helldivers 2 After the October 15 Update?

Known Issues

These are issues that were either introduced by this patch and are being worked on, or are from a previous version and have not yet been fixed.

Top Priority:

  • The hive breaker drill may be inaccessible when called in
  • Players may not receive Friend Requests sent from another platform
  • Terminals may lose functionality blocking completion of a mission
  • Social menu is stuck on ‘Please Wait Democratically’ for some players
  • Title may crash during intro cinematic or title screen
  • Friends “Invite only” games can still be seen on the Galactic War Map but cannot be joined

Medium Priority:

  • Players are unable to shoot properly while in the air using a jetpack
  • Stratagem balls bounce unpredictably off cliffs and some spots
  • Some Eagle Stratagems may not drop when deployed on a swamp planet
  • Reinforcement may not be available for players who join a game in progress
  • Pelican-1 may sometimes be launched away if hit with an impaler tentacle
  • Supply packs may be incorrectly used if pressing down on a controller while calling in a stratagem
  • High damage weapons will not detonate hellbombs already present on the map
  • Some enemies that bleed out do not progress Personal Orders and Eradicate missions
  • QWERTY keyboard numpad bindings does not save correctly after the Title restart

We will be sure to let our readers know when the next update is released soon.

[Source: Helldivers 2 Discord]

Tags: Helldivers helldivers 2
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Alex Co

Father, gamer, games media vet, writer of words, killer of noobs.

Home > Title Updates and Patches

Skull and Bones Update 1.000.018 Out for Patch Y1S3.2 This October 15

  by   Damien Seeto  
4:16 am in Title Updates and Patches

Ubisoft has released Skull and Bones update 1.000.018 today, and this is for patch Y1S3.2. One of the main new features is that the game has increased the warehouse inventory space by 50 so players can now have a maximum cap of 300. Several other improvements have been made to please the game’s community. Read on for the October 15 patch notes down below.

Here’s What’s New in the Latest Skull and Bones Update Version 1.000.018:

Update 3.2 introduces multiple gameplay improvements, including a further increase to the warehouse space. This update also sees plenty of bug fixes, addressing many of the key issues reported by the Skull and Bones community.

Highlights

Warehouse Inventory Increase

  • Increased warehouse space by 50, to a maximum cap of 300.

Gameplay Updates

Activities & Events

  • Staggered countdowns for World Events.
    • World Events will now start at different times.
  • Added Seasonal Event rewards and Smuggler Pass rewards as a possible option to the Recommended Activities pop-up.

Refinery

  • Added Sinew String for crafting at the Refinery.

Contracts

  • Increased Silver reward of the job board contract “Sink Merchant Convoys“.
  • Reduced the difficulty of the job board contract “Hunt Phoenix Talon” from the range of 8-12 Phoenix’s Talon warships down to the required range of 5-8 Phoenix’s Talon warships.
  • Rebalanced rewards of Telok Penjarah job board contracts to be proportional to the difficulty of each contract.

Improvements and Bug Fixes

Voice and Text Chat

  • Added an option for small text size in chat settings.
  • Disabled the chat button in the main menu when the player is not in a group.
  • [LUNA] Increased voice chat volume on the Luna platform.

UI for Mouse and Keyboard Controls

Dev note: Following the PC/Mouse & Keyboard changes released as part of Season 3, we observed a slight difficulty increase in navigation while hovering over items. Previously, players could preview tooltip information by simply hovering but were now required to click on the item before they could view its details. With this change, we hope to reduce the friction needed to access key information while still retaining the PC/Mouse & Keyboard improvements released in Season 3.

  • Added the ability to preview tooltips in various menus when hovering over the mouse in the Cargo and Warehouse menus.
    • Clicking on an item will continue to “lock” the tooltip in place.

Bounties

  • Fixed an issue where bounties were automatically accepted and immediately failed.

Ship Upgrade

  • Fixed an issue where the Hulk unlocks the auxiliary slot at level 2 instead of level 3.
    • Players who currently have a weapon equipped on the auxiliary slot of a level 2 Hulk will have the weapon returned to their inventory.

Combat

  • Fixed an issue where the Battle Junk’s “Endure” perk did not correctly reduce the damage of incoming attacks while bracing.
  • Fixed an issue where the “Immortal Vessel” armour perk did not fully charge after a player disembarks or respawns.
  • Fixed an issue where the player’s ship accelerates beyond the acceptable speed limit after being rammed by Li Tian Ning’s ship.
  • Fixed an issue where the repair mortar does not heal another player when both players have PVP mode enabled while not being in a group together.
  • Fixed some cases where players were occasionally unable to shoot cannons or execute crew boarding in combat.

Contract

  • Fixed an issue where contracts obtained from Blackwood can only be submitted at the Telok Penjarah den.
  • Fixed an issue where players were able to submit the contract “Procure Croc Skins” to the Hawker at Sainte-Anne instead of delivering the items to a Rempah settlement.
  • Fixed an issue in the contract “Flaming Quarry“, where players were able to sail around in the contract Battle Junk ship when attempting the contract as a group, before the other group members have swapped to the contract Battle Junk.
  • Fixed an issue where players who have the contract “Flaming Quarry” were not able to progress if other players destroyed the intended target.
  • Fixed an issue where the text for the objective “Swap to the stolen Battle Junk at Sitrana” in the main contract “Flaming Quarry” was unclear.
  • Fixed an issue where the interaction prompt to dig up treasure chest was missing in certain cases while participating in multiple contracts, including “Engulfing Storm” and “Scarlet Heist“.
    • Please reach out on our Bug Reporter platform if you continue to encounter issues with retrieving treasure after Patch 3.2.
  • Fixed an issue where the second clue for the “Burning Tower” was located outside of the designated search area for the contract “Trail of Ashes“.
  • Fixed an issue in “Trail of Ashes” where objectives of shared contracts were not updated for some group members, despite the group members meeting the objectives.
  • Fixed an issue where seasonal contracts were not available after completing “Calming Cadence“.
  • Fixed an issue where the contract “Breaking It Down” is completed after accepting “Lost and Haunted” contract from Blackwood.

Achievements

  • Fixed an issue where players were unable to claim the reward for the seasonal event achievement “Ghoul’s Bane“.

UI

  • Updated various text descriptions of furniture.
    • Note – The functionality remains unchanged.
  • Fixed an issue where the icons for “Flooding Demi-Cannon I” and “Sloop Blueprint” rewards were not present after completing the main contract “The Devil’s Gambit“.
  • Fixed an issue where the icons for “Restoration Kit” and “Cutter Blueprint” rewards were not present after completing the main contract “Unwelcome Aboard“.
  • Fixed an issue where the icon for Bedar were not present after acquiring the ship from the main contract “A Seaworthy Ship“.
  • Fixed an issue where the “Smuggler’s Mark earned” notification is displayed before the player unlocks the Smuggler’s Pass.
  • Fixed an issue where the UI icon for “Phoenix’s Crest blueprint” reward was not present after completing the main contract “Engulfing Storm“.
  • Fixed an issue where some tutorial pop-ups overlapped with the Recommended Activities screen upon entering the Indian Ocean.
  • Fixed an issue where the selected indicator in the vendor filter was overlapping with the text “Time-Limited Items” when language changed to Arabic.
  • Fixed an issue where placeholder text was displayed on the contract Battle Junk ship inventory while participating in the contract “Flaming Quarry“.
  • Fixed an issue where the Smuggler’s Mark counter did not update.
  • Fixed an issue where the previews of multiple weapons were displayed in low resolution while crafting at the Blacksmith.
  • Fixed an issue where ship customization screens displayed separate stacks of the same equipment when the same equipment was present in both Cargo and Warehouse inventories.
  • Fixed an issue where players were unable to quit the interaction or were missing certain interaction prompts after interacting with NPC William Blackwood at the Smuggler’s Network.
  • Fixed an issue if the player already owns the manufactory that is being rewarded, the reward details will no longer display the owned manufactory as part of the available reward.
  • Fixed an issue where the “select” prompt was not displayed when the player has less than three items in the Cargo Hull.
  • Fixed an issue where the “Manufactory Buyout” opportunity was displayed as a multiplayer event under “Recommended Activities“.
  • Fixed an issue where the subsequent accepted Bounty contract description is not displayed after accepting a Bounty contract.
  • Fixed an issue where the world event description is not displayed when player press “view in map” button from notification.
  • Fixed an issue where the health bar of the Shadowbeast is displayed for players that are not participating in the event and are outside the event zone.
  • Fixed an issue where the infamy reward is not displayed on the target’s tooltip when a player uses the spyglass on the Rogue Ship.

Vanity

  • Fixed an issue where the light emitted from the ornament “Stranglehold” vanished when the camera moves.

When a new patch is released soon, our readers will be alerted when it’s coming.

[Source: Ubisoft]

Tags: Skull and Bones Ubisoft

Damien Seeto

Home > News

Lies of P Update 1.005.001 Released for PS5 Pro Enhancement

  by   Alex Co  
2:23 am in News

Those who own rogue-like game Lies of P on PS5, you should have gotten a file download today. This is a relatively small download, and this is primarily to bring added new graphical enhancements to the game for PS5 Pro owners.

What’s in Lies of P Update 1.005.001?

Download Size: 800MB

We can confirm the patch is only for the PS5 version of the game, as even the PS4 version didn’t get patched. The only acknowledgement about this from the devs is the announcement today:

While not outlined yet, odds are this update should bring the game some much-needed frame pacing, and for the game’s Performance mode, better resolution. Once we know more about it, we’ll update the article with more info.

Expect a lot more PS5 games to get a PS5 Pro enhancement patch in the coming weeks and months, as more of these games get a performance bump thanks to the added horsepower of the PS5 Pro.

In terms of gameplay bug fixes and the like, the latest patch for the game released that affected that was back in February, which you can read about here.

The PS5 Pro will be available this November 7.

More PS5 Pro Reading:

Tags: Lies of P
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Alex Co

Father, gamer, games media vet, writer of words, killer of noobs.

Home > News

Throne and Liberty Review – A Solid and Free Start

  by   Paulmichael Contreras  
October 14, 2024 7:50 pm in News

NCSoft is no stranger to the MMO genre, with both Guild Wars and Lineage under the developer’s belt, among other notable series. Indeed, their latest MMO, Throne and Liberty, has been out in the Korean region since December of last year, and in the Asia/Southeast Asia regions since July 24 2024. It’s now finally been released in North America, Euope, and Japan. We’ve spent some time in Solisium these past couple of weeks, and have our Throne and Liberty review ready to let you know if this free-to-play MMO is worth your time.

Stop Me If You’ve Heard This Before

The story for the single-player campaign is a bit blasé, with common tropes such as a big baddie and their army of undead soldiers, with your custom character standing in as the only hero who can save the world of Solisium. Despite this, it is an entertaining campaign which serves its purpose as an extended tutorial of sorts. Though characters are well-voiced, both the lip syncing on the models and the subtitle text often don’t match what the character is saying. Sure, the overall point still comes across, but it leaves the cutscenes feeling a little unpolished. For instance, when you first meet a majestic, mythical beast, they refer to you as a “Starchild,” while the subtitle (and, in fact, the rest of the game) reads Star-born. It breaks immersion just a little bit.

Throne and Liberty Update 13.800.565

Outside of the cutscene awkwardness, a couple of other issues crop up from time to time. In busier parts of the world, the frame rate can take a hit. With this release, NCSoft has targeted the current generation of consoles, along with Windows. On PS5, the Unreal Engine 5 keeps things running pretty well, but even it has issues with large player counts. That being said, Throne and Liberty looks very nice, with well-detailed environments, especially when it comes to the game’s many buildings. Dynamic weather and time of day effects are a nice touch, though talking to a vendor who is simply standing there, unfazed by the pouring rain that would no doubt render some of their goods unsellable is unintentionally hilarious.

This is also where Throne and Liberty feels a bit old school, for better and for worse. While there is a marketplace that has premium currency and things you can buy with it, none of it is really necessary unless you are gearing up for endgame content or fighting against equally-leveled players. The game’s mission system also seems to award copious experience points, as you’ll find yourself leveling up and earning new skills and perks on a regular basis. It doesn’t feel grindy, which is awesome to see with a free-to-play model that couldn’t be blamed too much if it were a tad grindy as a subtle way to encourage making a run to the in-game store. Throne and Liberty also uses regular old waypoints to show you exactly where you need to go next on your currently-selected quest. Some players will be annoyed at the hand-holding, though there is an option to disable your HUD entirely if you really want to test your navigation skills. I for one appreciate the simple navigation, because as a reviewer I’m often juggling multiple games, and usually can’t remember exactly where I am at on a given map.

Become Your Own Mount

A lot of MMOs offer mounts as buyable accessories, whether through premium or freemium currency, or simply finishing a particular mission. In Throne and Liberty, however, mounts are simply built into your character. Rather than riding atop a best, you transform into them. You start with a wolf-like creature for overland traversal, an eagle-like bird for aerial transport, and an otter-like being for swimming along bodies of water. Transforming into these creatures is as simple as pressing L3, double-jumping with a high enough jump, or automatically upon entering any body of water. This seamless mount mechanic is pretty unique, but most importantly it’s also very quick. Naturally, there are other creatures you can unlock, but functionally everything remains the same no matter which animals you choose to transform into. As a bonus, you can also transform into enemy characters, which allows you to blend in if you don’t want to fight a particular group of creatures but still wish to travel through a pack of them.

Combat in Throne and Liberty allows you to equip two separate weapons, with different move sets, skills to unlock and level up, and weapons to strengthen and upgrade. The currently-equipped weapon will cause your character to repeatedly perform a basic attack so long as an enemy is targeted. You are then free to pepper in any equipped special moves, which are executed by holding a shoulder trigger and pressing the corresponding face or directional button.

Guilds make up a significant portion of the online aspects of Throne and Liberty. While technically an optional activity, joining a guild is all but necessary for anyone looking to make the most progression. Simply joining any guild unlocks no fewer than five additional game modes, including the largest 48-vs-48 inter-server wars that only occur every other Friday, and only active guilds that have earned a particular resource can even join in the first place. Those kinds of requirements may limit player counts somewhat, however, those that do join at least know what they are doing, so the fights can be dynamic and engaging, with all kinds of action leading to an epic finish.

Verdict

Throne and Liberty is off to a strong start, especially with a price of free. The campaign may be derivative, but it does serve as a great intro for the game’s various systems. Transforming into other creatures is a versatile ability that offers a unique way to play. Whether turning into a four-legged beast as essentially a free mount, or an otter-like creature to traverse bodies of water, or even as defeated enemies to blend in or bosses for extra power in battle, the options are numerous and each change the game in interesting ways. With such a heavy focus on guild warfare, the best time to play the game is probably now, when the crowds are largest. NCSoft isn’t new to the MMO genre, though, so provided a healthy gamer population remains in place, then this game should be supported for a while to come.

Final Score: 7.5/10

Pros:

  • Not very grindy
  • Campaign serves as a decent tutorial for the game’s mechanics
  • Involved guild gameplay
  • Free!

Cons:

  • Main campaign feels a bit phoned-in
  • Some performance issues on PS5 (also reported on other platforms)
  • Hand-holding feels like much older games at times

Throne and Liberty bonus review code was provided by the publisher. You can read MP1st’s review and scoring policy right here.

Tags: Amazon Games NCSoft Throne and Liberty
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Paulmichael Contreras

Paulmichael has been writing in the gaming industry since 2008. Living just outside of Los Angeles, he has been lucky enough to attend numerous gaming events around the world, including the last ten E3 shows (RIP)! A thoughtful reviewer, every game you see scored by PmC has been given careful attention. Paulmichael is also an aviation fan and an avid snowboarder. Favorite games include: No Man's Sky, Gran Turismo 7, skate., CloverPit.

Home > Features

PSVR2, PCVR, and Quest VR Are About to Have Some of Their Best Months for Games

  by   James Lara  
5:09 pm in Features

Things are looking really good for virtual reality (VR) owners right now, as an onslaught of major IPs, both established and new, are set to release from now until the end of this year. Though we can’t predict how well each of these titles will fare in terms of reviews, we certainly can tell you that you’ll have plenty of new games to look forward to before the year ends, whether you game on the PSVR2, Quest, or PC.

What Games Can VR Players Look Forward to in 2024:

Arizona Sunshine Remake – Quest, PCVR, PSVR 2 – October 17

Did you know that the original Arizona Sunshine is getting a remake? Well, now you do, and it’s releasing this week! The remake comes with a handful of improvements, most notably the visual upgrades, which you can see in the reveal trailer.

Batman: Arkham Shadow – Quest 3 Exclusive – October 22

Up next is the new Arkhamverse title, Batman: Arkham Shadow. Set between Arkham Origins and Arkham Asylum. Batman: Arkham Shadow will once again see players take on the role of Batman as he faces off against a new threat: The Rat King. There’s not much really known about the plot. However, Camouflaj, the project’s developers, promised we’d see plenty of familiar faces, even those belonging to villains before they became villains! The combat will also be played from Batman’s perspective, allowing us to use a wide range of his gadgets, perform takedowns, and engage in hand-to-hand fighting.

This is the second Batman VR title to be released, and it is canon to Arkham Universe for all those Arkham fans looking for more Batman.

Metro Awakening – Quest, PCVR, PSVR 2 – November 5

Two weeks after Batman: Arkham Shadow’s release is Metro Awakening. An entire Metro game built from the ground up for the VR experience and developed by Vertigo Games, the developers behind Arizona Sunshine Remake, Arizona Sunshine 2, and plenty of other big VR titles. Though the studio is very familiar with VR, they seem to take things to the next level with Metro Awakening, as its impressive gameplay.

Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 – PCVR  – November 19

One of the most immersive Flight Simulators out there is about to become even more immersive, as official VR support it coming! Sadly, it’s only on PC, though given that the title isn’t on PlayStation or the Quest, and the Xbox doesn’t support VR, we aren’t surprised. I’ll say this as someone who enjoys playing sims, adding that VR experience on top of it will be an absolute game-changer.

Skydance’s BEHEMOTH – Quest, PCVR, PSVR 2 – December 5

Here’s one that might not be on many people’s radar but should be: an original new IP from Skydance that sees players facing off against, well, behemoths. It looks pretty epic from all the gameplay trailers they’ve shown off, with plenty of physic-based swordplay to be had, though it’s the God of War-like epic fights that’ll see you scaling these massive skyscraper beasts that look to be the game’s highlight.

Alien: Rogue Incursion – Quest, PCVR, PSVR 2 – December 19

BEHEMOTH isn’t the only “behemoth” to come out in December; a new licensed Alien game is also coming to VR platforms. Alien: Rogue Incursion is a new single-player horror game set in the Alien universe with an original new story. Developers Survios says it’s a game,e by fans, made for the fans, and though we’ve only seen short snippets of the gameplay so far, there are some promising things about it that make it note-worthy to keep an eye on.

Hitman: World Of Assassination – PSVR 2  – December 2024

Last up and closing up the 2024 year for VR is Hitman: World Of Association VR, a VR reimaging of the original Hitman World of Assassination game. If you thought all the planning, stealth, and killing in the original game was crazy, the VR version is going to let you relive all of that, from the first-person view, with you in full control. I mean, just take a look at the trailer, it looks absolutely bonkers.

These are just some of the few VR titles that are dropping in the next few months, the biggest ones, but still just a few. That’s not to mention the several that are still planned for this year, like Zombie Army VR and Aces of Thunder, both of which don’t have a release date but are scheduled for 2024.

Regardless, the remaining months of this year are looking to be filled with potentially massive VR hits, the kind of hits that may make you consider getting into VR. I know I’m excited to get my hands on some of these!

More VR Reading:

Tags: Meta Quest PCVR PlayStation PlayStation VR 2 psvr2
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James Lara

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.

Home > News

Destiny: Rising Announced; New Free-to-Play Shooter for Mobile From Bungie and NetEase

  by   Taha  
4:27 pm in News

Bungie and NetEase have officially announced a brand-new mobile game in the Destiny universe—Destiny: Rising. They announced the game today, promising to bring the thrilling shooter experience of consoles and PCs to mobile devices. Set in an alternate timeline of Destiny, Destiny: Rising will explore the post-Dark Ages, a key moment in the lore of the Destiny universe.

The game will be free-to-play and offer a mix of co-op, competitive, and solo modes in a shared world. Bungie has confirmed that Destiny: Rising will feature a unique approach to playable heroes. Unlike the customizable characters we’ve seen in previous Destiny games, this mobile title will introduce pre-made heroes with distinct abilities.

Another notable feature is the ability to choose between first-person and third-person views, which isn’t something you see often in mobile games. The game will also include a variety of modes, such as campaign missions, six-player co-op strikes, and both PvP and PvE options. These additions aim to enhance replayability while still delivering the classic Destiny feel.

While Bungie and NetEase have yet to confirm an official release date or platform details, they have released a trailer on YouTube that shows off some of the game’s features and interviews with the development team. If you’re excited to try it out early, you can sign up for the closed alpha, which starts in November.

Watch the trailer here:

Watch the developer preview here:

More MP1st Reading:

Tags: Bungie Destiny Destiny: Rising netease
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Taha

Television kills your vision.

Home > News

MainFrames Hands-On Preview – The Life of a Floppy Disk

  by   Vitor Braz  
3:11 pm in News

MainFrames is a platformer set inside the windows and desktop of a PC monitor. You control the aptly named Floppy as you jump from window to window, bumping on icons and finding other computer-related applications as a pixelated scene smoothly scrolls in the background. There are many puzzle elements thrown into the mix, meaning that it’s not just about timing and accurate jumping, but also being resourceful with the window movement and having a keen eye to understand how we can adjust the screen in order to reach the exit – or one of them, since you may spot additional gateways in one area.

Drag and Drop

MainFrames Hands-On Preview

If we squint, we can see a little bit of Super Meat Boy in MainFrames, minus the gore and frantic speed. This is shaping up to be a clever, offbeat game, one that regularly throws quite a few different mechanics at the player right when they thought it was all under control. It’s a bit wacky for sure, with some odd characters and transitions reinforcing the idea of a computer where everyone is at work, as Floppy tries to find their place in this world. It’s one of those games with the potential to not only break the fourth wall, but shatter it into pieces, something that we could already experience during this very short playable demo.

For most of the screens or areas, there won’t be anything such as solid ground – you make your way across windows, using wall jumping whenever necessary, until you reach the passage to the next screen. Sometimes it’s as intuitive as making a few jumps; other times, you have to carefully inspect the options and tweak some functions to allow you to reach the exit. When twists like moving windows around or expanding the window’s width or height come into play, things become more complicated and often require some precision jumping and perfect timing. It takes a few minutes to get the hang of some mechanics and understand how they work correctly, such as running to expand the windows, and frustration may be a part of the game here and there, as if you miss a jump, you likely die and reset for that screen. While the game is being described by the developers as cozy, this label does not apply to all the screens, you can be sure of that.

Wall jumping is a recurrent technique that somehow didn’t feel intuitive during our playtime. The potential for unwarranted deaths is huge, both by falling out of the screen or due to touching a glitch that results in insta-kill. Maybe this could be down to a skill issue, but the need for a quick jump and direction press didn’t seem prone to gather consensus here.

MainFrames Hands-On Preview

Other than that, our Floppy is a resourceful little disk. It has no double jump ability – at least so far – but it’s capable of a little spin that works as a short glide, useful to cover a bit more of distance. The bump icons will give it a boost in the indicated direction, often requiring some fast icon switch that balances skill with trial-and-error gameplay. Occasionally you’ll be tasked with rescuing other apps by dragging their characters into an elevator.

There are other mechanics in store for Floppy that we couldn’t try in this short demo, surely things such as vertically flipping the screen or mirror controlling a character, adding to the mix and diversity of what is said to be a short and sweet journey.

A Mainframe With a Few Twists

A retro platformer with some interesting puzzle ideas, MainFrames is unlikely to win game of the year, but could be a fun and clever little romp for those in the lookout for out-of-the-box adventures. Or maybe I should say inside-the-screen adventures? Whatever your preferred label is, and despite some potential frustration with wall jumping, this is shaping up to be a clever little app.

MP1st was given access to a preview build of MainFrames. MainFrames is launching for PC in Q1 2025.

Tags: Assoupi MainFrames Preview The Arcade Crew

Vitor Braz

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GTA Online New Zombie Mode Attracts Over 1.2 Million Players

  by   Taha  
1:51 pm in News

Rockstar Games recently introduced a new Halloween mode in GTA Online, and it’s already breaking records. The limited-time event, called Ludendorff Cemetery Survival, was launched a few days ago and has brought many players back to the game.

According to GTAO Stats, the Ludendorff Cemetery Survival mode has reached 2.7 million total plays, with over 1.2 million of those being unique players. These numbers show that players still really enjoy GTA Online, even after being out for over ten years.

Ludendorff Cemetery Survival stats
Ludendorff Cemetery Survival stats showing over 2.7 million total plays and more than 1.2 million unique players in GTA Online.

The Ludendorff Cemetery Survival mode seems to take inspiration from Red Dead Redemption’s Undead Nightmare, where players face off against waves of zombies. In this new mode, players grab weapons and battle through crowds of the undead in a creepy cemetery. The mix of intense action and Halloween vibes is proving to be a hit, bringing both longtime fans and new players into the game.

This success also explains why Rockstar isn’t in a hurry to release GTA 6. The continued support for GTA 5 keeps players engaged, giving the developers time to focus on perfecting the next game.

To this day, GTA 5 remains the second best-selling game of all time, right behind Minecraft, with over 200 million units sold. The game has also made an impressive $8.6 billion in revenue, further proving its long-lasting popularity. With events like this pulling in millions of players, it’s clear that GTA Online isn’t dying anytime soon.

Looking ahead, with GTA 6 expected to launch in Fall 2025, the success of GTA Online shows just how important the online part of the game has become for Rockstar. There’s a strong chance that GTA Online will carry over into the new game or possibly evolve into a new version, though nothing has been confirmed yet. Given Rockstar’s history, whatever they decide will likely keep players engaged for years to come.

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Thanks, Tez2!

Tags: GTA Online
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Taha

Television kills your vision.

Home > News

Windblown Hands-On Preview – Brush Yourself Off and Try Again, Try Again…

  by   Tyler Nope  
12:26 pm in News

Windblown is the new rogue-lite from developer Motion Twin, famous for their previous game, Dead Cells. Since Dead Cell’s release in 2018, Hades came out and completely upended the rogue-lite market, and Motion Twin took notice. For those curious how the studio’s new project is shaping up, MP1st is here to weigh in on our hands-on preview.

Windblown Is Like Hades and Dead Cells Meet, With the Dial Cranked Up

Not unlike Hades, Windblown offers a hub that you return to between runs. This hub, called The Ark, is where you can purchase upgrades using various currencies gathered during runs. The Ark is a safe haven for anthropomorphic animals displaced by the Vortex, which has created chaos in their world. Each run has you diving into the Vortex to get as far as you can, returning with loot and new citizens of The Ark. Citizens of The Ark unlock new features — sometimes vendors, sometimes for other things, like access to cooperative multiplayer.

I had the chance to explore the first two biomes. Though there are only five or six enemy types in each biome, each enemy does offer unique challenges. Some have simple attack patterns like lobbing grenades, while others are more complex, combining two or three moves that make them harder to deal with. There are also elite variants of some of these enemies, with added health and damage multipliers, though I sometimes found these difficult to differentiate from the standard versions.

Combat is largely inspired by Hades, though Windblown adds some twists to the dodge-and-attack formula. For instance, when wielding two weapons, if you complete a combo you’ll notice a marker above your head. Hitting the button for the other weapon will unleash a devastating finishing move to your enemies. There are also certain weapons that provide you with bonuses should you press the attack button at the right time. When fighting more powerful enemies, you can also pull the left trigger when indicated to perform a finisher which provides bonus loot.

Of course, you’re going to die a lot, and when you die you return to the Ark to spend some of the currency you picked up. Cogs can be spent on certain upgrades that are offered at various intervals throughout the game. Memonite Dust unlocks weapons and trinkets (secondary abilities, think grenades) that can then be discovered during your runs. You also gather Gold Shells, which you’ll spend during runs on things like refilling your health flask, new weapons, and new trinkets.

There are points during runs at which you’re given options on how to proceed to keep you from running from point A to point B. These options are sometimes mandatory – choose one of these two directions based on the reward in each – but sometimes they’re optional. I found these optional paths to be quite intriguing. If I could beat the waves of enemies, I’d have a bonus. These bonuses can be things like +5% damage or +25 max health, and those are tempting, but they often come at the expense of lost health, which, naturally, is something you’ll want plenty of when facing the bosses at the end of the biomes.

Throughout my various runs, I rarely found a reason to go as fast as possible. Windblown does not reward you for going through a biome quickly, at least not in this demo. This was something I’ve always enjoyed about Dead Cells. If you reached certain areas within a time limit, you’d get bonus loot. It provided an added layer of difficulty and choice and is something Windblown should consider taking from Dead Cells.

Those who have played Hades or Dead Cells are going to see both games all over this one. Both of those are amazing experiences, so being a bit of both is far from a bad thing. Motion Twin has done just enough new stuff to warrant giving Windblown a spin. If you’re looking for an entirely new experience, look elsewhere. But if you’re looking for one of the most fun games, then Windblown has you covered. A demo is now available to try out on Steam for those looking to scratch that rogue-lite itch.

Preview key provided by publisher Windblown is available on Steam via Early Access on October 24, 2024.

Tags: Motion Twin Windblown

Tyler Nope

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Call of Duty: Black Ops 6, Modern Warfare 3, Warzone Coming to Xbox Cloud via Game Pass on Oct. 25

  by   Alex Co  
11:22 am in News

Starting October 25, Xbox Cloud Gaming support is coming to three Call of Duty and they are, Black Ops 6, Modern Warfare 3 and Warzone. Those subscribed to Xbox Game Pass Ultimate will be able to load these bad boys up on their consoles, PCs, mobile devices and select Samsung TV, Amazon Fire TV and Meta Quest devices.

Call of Duty Games Coming to Xbox Cloud Gaming on October 25:

  • Launching on October 25, Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 is an action thriller set in the early ’90s, a period of transition and upheaval in global politics. Featuring a mind-bending narrative that is signature Black Ops; Black Ops 6 also provides adrenaline-pumping Multiplayer action and the return of Round-Based Zombies. Post-launch, players can look forward to even more exciting maps and groundbreaking experiences dropping into both Multiplayer and Zombies. Learn more and upgrade to the Vault Edition at CallofDuty.com.
  • Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III will also be available with Xbox Cloud Gaming for Game Pass Ultimate members starting October 25, 2024. Modern Warfare III launched with Game Pass in July 2024 and delivered a single player Campaign, Multiplayer mode, and an open world Zombies experience. Modern Warfare III gives fans access to a full package of incredible content, including a variety of post-launch content.
  • Call of Duty: Warzone is a massively popular free-to-play battle royale experience. Team up, drop in or fly in solo to be the last squad standing to win. Play a variety of game modes including special limited-time modes with friends throughout the year. Game Pass Ultimate members will be able to experience massive battles via streaming with Xbox Cloud Gaming starting October 25, 2024.

For more on how it works, you can check out this tech support page.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 is set to hit the PS4, Xbox One, PS5, Xbox Series X|S and PC this October 25.

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Tags: Call of Duty Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 Xbox Game Pass
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Alex Co

Father, gamer, games media vet, writer of words, killer of noobs.

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