Some Easter eggs and secrets aren’t actually that hard to find. Sometimes they are even connected to achievements or trophies in-game, making them very easy to locate. But some secrets are much harder to find and honestly make me wonder how anyone ever finds these things.
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Washington D.C. is still under siege, and fans of The Division 2 are getting a huge content update sooner rather than later. Ubisoft announced today that the next wave of paid downloadable content for The Division 2 will be launching next week, October 15, for players who’ve purchased the Year 1 Pass.
Title Update 6 includes two new story and Classified Assignments missions, a new character specialization, a player-versus-player mode and multiplayer map, along with other cosmetics and in-game fixes.
The Division 2’s story mission, Pentagon: The Last Castle, centers around the agents’ mission to take back the iconic building from Black Tusk terrorists and stop them from further spreading the lethal outbreak. On top of the story missions, pass holders can also delve into the exclusive Classified Assignments side missions to thwart the attempts of the Outcasts from gaining a greater foothold in the United States Capitol.
Each piece of new content provides the perfect playground for players to test out the new Technician Specialization, which comes fully equipped with EMP Grenades, a new skill variant, the Maxim 9 sidearm, and the P-017 Launcher, which targets up to six enemies before blowing them away with a devastating missile barrage.
Unfortunately, it’s not all good news for Division 2 fans, as it was also announced that the game’s second raid would be delayed, giving developers more time to polish the endgame event. As of now, Ubisoft has yet to announce when the raid will become available other than to say it’s coming in 2020.
If players are interested in the new content but don’t have the Year 1 Pass, fear not, as each piece of content will become available to everyone (outside of the Classified Assignments) a week later on October 22. And for players who haven’t yet picked up the game, Ubisoft also announced that it is hosting a free-to-play weekend across all platforms later this month, along with a sale of the game.
[Source: Ubisoft]
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On the official Doom twitter account today, id Software announced a delay to the upcoming Doom Eternal. The game is now expected to launch on March 20, 2020 on Xbox One, PS4, and PC. The Switch version is slated for a future release with no specific date and time given.
An update on DOOM Eternal: pic.twitter.com/2LWrfh6e4Z
— DOOM (@DOOM) October 8, 2019
In addition to the delay news, the account stated that Invasion mode is going to be a free update shortly after launch. Invasion mode lets players hop into other people’s games as a demon, so that should be interesting!
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“dissapointing overall”.
Earlier this week, we got a scary surprise when Capcom released demos for Resident Evil 5 and Resident Evil 6 on the Switch eShop, ahead of the big release later this month. So, how do they hold up compared to existing versions? The experts over at Digital Foundry had a look and found the Nintendo iterations to be rather disappointing in terms of performance.
Resident Evil 5 was found to have an unlocked frame rate – resulting in unsteady performance, and the removal of motion blur really changes the look of the game – to the point, it doesn’t hold up to the Xbox 360 version. The load times are also worse on the Switch.
Read the full article on nintendolife.com
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Spooky stuff.
First 4 Figures has officially revealed its first PVC statue in its Luigi’s Mansion 3 line of collectibles.
Read the full article on nintendolife.com
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Fair play.
As good as the online component is in Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled, it’s no fun if you can’t keep up with the competition. If you own this game, you might have found yourself struggling to cross the finish line from time to time when you are racing against other players. That’s why Beenox has now decided to roll out skill-based matchmaking.
This follows on from the release of last week’s Spooky Grand Prix. The bone-chilling Halloween update adds a new track, new characters, new items and a new challenge type to the game. It also makes a number of finer adjustments, which you can be seen in our previous post.
Read the full article on nintendolife.com
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Are you ready for next-gen?
For the second time, Sony dropped a PlayStation 5 info bomb out of nowhere earlier this week. The company confirmed that the console will indeed be called the PlayStation 5, and that it’ll release in late 2020. It even detailed the machine’s next-gen controller, and discussed its user interface. If you somehow missed the news, be sure to check out our recap through here.
Read the full article on pushsquare.com
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Reddit rescue.
Reddit user SmokeinPeace2516 was eating in his dining room a few days ago when a fire broke out on the floor above. Caused by a wiring defect, the fire brought down the ceiling, but fortunately no one was injured, and all are reportedly okay.
Though of course not the most important thing in the world in these situations, SmokeinPeace2516 posted about his situation on the PS4 Reddit page. Sadly, his PlayStation 4 was caught in the incident. As you can see in the image, his console’s outer shell has partially melted, exposing the machine’s insides. Surprisingly, it’s apparently still working as normal.
Read the full article on pushsquare.com
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There’s no doubt about it: we love our pets, and many of us would do anything to look after our companions, whether you have a tabby, a golden retriever, a goldfish, or a boa constrictor.
Pet cameras, though a relatively recent addition to the smart security camera market, are a great way to do this when we’re away from home, helping us to keep a watchful eye over our furry friends from the office, the gym, or on vacation.
Not only do the best pet cameras let you watch your pet in real time on your smartphone or tablet, but many also feature nifty extras, like treat dispensers, remote toys, and two-way audio – so you can interact with your pet away from home.
Choosing the right pet camera for your home, budget, and your pet can be tricky – that’s why we’ve put together this handy guide to the best pet cameras you can buy in 2019.
The Petcube Bites 2 is the ultimate pet camera for anyone who wants to interact with their furry friend, as well as keep an eye on them. It’s undoubtedly pricey, but its impressive spec list and smooth operation makes it an attractive proposition for any animal lover.
With a sleek, modern design, the Petcube Bites 2 lets you watch your pet live in 1080p HD video, which you can be zoomed in on up to four times via the PetCube app. The built-in camera gives you a 160-degree view of your room.
You can either save videos and photos to your phone for free, or sign up to Petcube Care for the ability to watch up to 90 days of video history, all saved securely on the Cloud. Subscriptions start at $3.99 (around £3 / AU$5.80).
Built-in sensors mean that you get alerts any time the Petcube detects movement or noise, so you’ll be the first to know if your dog is barking at an intruder or your cat is meowing for her dinner.
Two-way audio is available via the app, so your pet can hear your voice via the PetCube’s built-in speaker, while a four-microphone array lets you hear everything your pup gets up to.
Perhaps most exciting, is the addition of a treat dispenser that allows you to fling treats to your pet by swiping your finger in the app – you can control the amount of treats as well as the distance, making feeding a fun game for your pet (as well as yourself). If you want to stick to a regular feeding schedule, you can also set the PetCube Bites 2 to Autoplay mode.
For smart home enthusiasts, there’s Alexa built-in, which means you can ask the camera to fling treats and even reorder more supplies, without the need for a separate Amazon Echo speaker.
The Petcube Play 2 is a great solution for cat owners, as it comes with a built-in laser toy that you can control through the Petcube app – all you have to do is swipe your finger to control where the laser points, letting you play with your cat while you’re away from home.
Worried you’ll forget to play with your kitty? You can set the laser to autoplay, while motion and sound sensors will alert you anytime your cat needs attention.
While it’s smaller than the PetCube Bites 2, the PetCube Play 2 has all the same smart features, including 1080p HD video, a 160-degree view, two-way audio, and Alexa built-in.
It may be called the Furbo Dog Camera, but this smart pet cam could be used for your cats too.
It’s the most stylish camera on the list, with a sleek white body and wooden lid, with built-in LEDs that indicate its connectivity status.
Like the Petcube models, the Furbo Dog Camera boasts HD video and gives you a 160-degree view of your room; the camera feed does have a slight lag, but it’s only a matter of seconds behind real-time. It also has night-vision, allowing you to see your pet in the dark – handy if you’re leaving your pet at home for a night out.
The treat dispenser works in a similar way to the Petcube Bites 2, allowing you to fling treats towards your pet by swiping your finger in the Furbo app.
Two-way audio lets you speak to your pets while out and about, while real-time barking alerts send notification to your smartphone or tablet any time the camera detects the sound of barking.
There’s no smart home integration here, and you won’t find built-in support for voice assistants like Alexa and Google Assistant, but this is still a feature-packed pet camera that should suit any dog owner looking for a stylish solution.
The Hive View is the latest camera from the smart home manufacturer behind the well-regarded range of heating control kits – and while it’s not exclusively marketed as a pet camera, it’s flexible design makes it ideal for keeping an eye on your best friend.
Made in collaboration with designer Yves Béhar, the Hive View is one of the few security cameras we’ve ever seen that actually looks stylish, coming as it does in a choice of ‘champagne gold’ or black and ‘brushed copper’ finishes.
Thankfully, as much effort has gone into the substance as the style, and the Hive View comes with some really cool features. Most notable is its detachable head, which allows you to temporarily move the camera – with its HD 180-degree field of vision – to anywhere you’d like in the house for as long as the on-board battery lasts, which is about an hour.
The Hive View works as a standalone unit and with the wider Hive ecosystem, so if you’ve already got the Hive thermostat and sensors everything will work seamlessly together in the same app.
Read our full review: Hive View
It may not be purely designed for watching your pets, but the intelligently-designed Nest Cam IQ’s ability to differentiate between humans and animals means it can double up as both a pet cam and an indoor security camera.
Not only can it notify you if there’s movement in your home, but it can even identify if unfamiliar people should you ever have an intruder.
The Nest Cam IQ also has the best image quality of any of the cameras we’ve tested, shooting in 4K and HDR (high dynamic range).
The main drawback with the Nest Cam IQ is its price. Not only is it fairly expensive to start with, to use its full range of functions you’ll have to purchase a subscription to Nest Aware. But if you want the best quality, and are prepared to shell out for it, the Nest Cam IQ is probably the camera for you.
Read our full Nest Cam IQ review
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Cast your mind back to the year 1999. Ricky Martin was Livin La Vida Loca and the millennium was just around the corner. 1999 also gave birth to one of the most beloved and short-lived videogame consoles in history, the Sega Dreamcast, with its release acting as a bitter-sweet endeavor for Sega as a hardware developer.
20 years later and the Sega Dreamcast is still held in high regard by fans and retro enthusiasts alike, due to its innovative features and iconic library of games.
So, for those of you who want to keep the dream alive, there’s a lot to consider when it comes to what Sega’s final console has to offer in 2019 – which starts with getting the little white box up and running.
You might be wondering where you’d even find a Dreamcast console in 2019, since they’ve been discontinued since 2001. Well, one might be closer to you than you think, with many people finding their original hardware stuffed into dusty boxes in attics or basements. If, however, you didn’t have a Dreamcast back in the day or got rid of it, there are plenty of ways to obtain one using your hard-earned cash.
When it comes to the second-hand market, eBay is where most people gravitate to first. Unfortunately, retro gaming hardware is extremely hard to find on the electronic marketplace at a low price, with Dreamcast prices averaging out at around $60 (£50/AU$90). That being said, it’s worth keeping your eye on the ball when it comes to eBay, as clever bidding tactics can go a long way in achieving a bargain.
Brick and mortar shops such as CEX in the UK and Gamestop in the US also price their stock at around this price, with the difference being the bonus of a warranty. If you’re feeling especially thrifty, then your best bet is to put some graft into good old fashioned charity shopping, which means you can contribute to a good cause while feeding your money to the nostalgia monster.
For those of you who checked out our previous guide to playing the best retro games, you may be aware of the caveats involved when using retro consoles today. While some consoles can be extremely difficult to get working with modern TV’s and monitors, the Dreamcast offers various solutions that stand the technological test of time.
Out of the box, the Dreamcast comes armed with a standard composite cable (red, white and yellow phono connectors) which can easily be plugged into displays from the time. This type of cable offers a quick and easy way to get things up and running, with the main drawback being the muddy picture quality of a composite video signal.
If your TV has a traditional scart socket, there are various cables available that will provide you with a high-quality video signal. These scart cables range from cheap and cheerful generic cables priced at around $10, to higher quality products from the likes of retrogamingcables.co.uk, starting at around $43 (£35/AU$63) – ouch.
“While some consoles can be extremely difficult to get working with modern TV’s and monitors, the Dreamcast offers various solutions that stand the technological test of time”
Depending on how new your TV is, you might find that traditional sockets are completely absent, which is becoming the norm to make new displays slimmer. If this is the case then fear not, as third party companies such as Pound Technology offer cables that add HDMI functionality to the Dreamcast.
Pound’s HD Link cable enables the console to be simply connected to modern displays via an HDMI port, with no additional hardware required. The cable retails for around $29.99, making it far from the cheapest available option. Users may also experience incompatibility with certain Dreamcast games, which is due to the fact they don’t support the high resolution the cable uses.
The last method of connecting Sega’s mighty little box up to a display is by using a VGA box, which essentially uses a classic VGA PC style of video connector. This is a great way to get a crystal clear image from the Dreamcast by using a traditional PC monitor set up, with many displays still featuring the interface. Just like its HDMI counterpart, however, it will also be subject to the same incompatibility issues with certain games. Speaking of games, let’s move on to the most important part of the Dreamcast experience.
The Dreamcast may have only been around for a mere two years, but it managed to build itself one of the most impressive gaming libraries in history. From innovative fighting games like Powerstone to beloved action-adventures like Shenmue, the Dreamcast’s repertoire is one that gamers still crave to this very day.
As retro gaming is becoming more and more expensive as time goes by, concerns over how much these legendary titles might cost are completely understandable. Luckily, there are a few tricks you can try to obtain the best of the Dreamcast library, but at a much cheaper price.
As innovative as the Dreamcast may be, there’s one thing Sega dropped the ball with when it comes to the console’s design – region protection. This means that the Dreamcast can be easily manipulated to play any region by simply using a disk with specific software. If you’re lucky, you’ll occasionally find these disks paired with second-hand games on eBay, with the option of making your own by following a tutorial online.
“The Dreamcast may have only been around for a mere two years, but it managed to build itself one of the most impressive gaming libraries in history”
You might still be wondering why you’d want to play games from outside of your region, especially when it comes to language barriers. Well, like most things in life, it boils down to money, with certain games being drastically cheaper than their counterparts in a different country. Of course, Japanese releases are usually always cheaper than their western equivalents, mainly due to the language and hassle of getting them working. Yet, it’s worth mentioning that language issues don’t actually apply to a huge chunk of the Dreamcast library and are negated by the cost savings.
Take Street Fighter: Third Strike as an example, with a UK copy of the game costing upwards of £70, while its Japanese variant only costs around £20. This a huge saving to make considering fighting games aren’t affected by the language difference. Coincidentally, titles like the Resident Evil games on the Dreamcast don’t even use the Japanese language, despite being the Japanese versions, meaning it’s possible to obtain the same game, while still saving money.
A huge part of the fun of the 2019 Dreamcast experience is exploring titles that you might never have played back upon their release. The console’s short lifespan meant that many gamers completely missed out on the Dreamcast experience, with various titles such as Sonic Adventure and Jet Set Radio only being known of due to their various re-releases. To add insult to injury, many gamers missed out on one of the most diverse hardware experiences in videogame history, with whole genres being born out of specific peripherals.
One of the most lovable things about the Dreamcast is its ridiculous amount of peripherals, many of which offer a truly unique gaming experience. Look at even the likes of the VMU memory card – a tiny Gameboy-esque device that could display game-specific content on its microdisplay, with it even going as far as to function as a cyber-pet when used with games like Sonic Adventure.
Having such a high tech memory card isn’t the only mind-blowing innovation Sega had in its arsenal at the time – the Dreamcast was also one of the first consoles to feature proper online gaming. Sure, we’re not talking Xbox Live levels of internet connectivity, but there was certainly a solid online experience for gamers to enjoy, especially considering it was still the early 2000’s. Titles such as Phantasy Star Online act as monumental examples of how Sega pioneered the art of online gaming, progressing it past the simplicity of previous multiplayer experiences.
“Everything seems far from mundane when it comes to the Dreamcast”
Everything seems far from mundane when it comes to the Dreamcast, with even the likes of the Dreamcast’s Keyboard offering an unexpectedly better experience over a lightgun, with parody games such as Typing of the Dead, which has players blast zombies with the power of frantic spelling. Even the tranquil experience of fishing becomes an exhilarating arcade experience when using the likes of the Fishing Rod controller and a copy of Sega Bass Fishing.
It would be a crime to talk about Dreamcast peripherals and not mention the legendary Samba de Amigo and its marvellous maracas, which are objectively the single best thing anyone could bring to a party. Samba de Amigo is a shining example of how the Dreamcast was able to bring almost any arcade experience into the home, which is something that consoles before and after didn’t quite manage to achieve.
In many ways, the Dreamcast is the dream console for anyone who wants to venture into the unknown of gaming. There’s guaranteed to be something that will surprise and please even the most seasoned of gamers, especially now that gaming has moved on from many of the values that the Dreamcast posses. Nevertheless, if you have even the slightest interest in older videogame formats, your path is in no doubt going to cross with the Dreamcast, forever proving itself as one of the most unique pieces of videogame hardware ever.
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