Author: dpugh007

Season 7 of Fortnite rolls on with a new set of challenges to complete on PS4, Xbox One, PC, Nintendo Switch, and mobile devices. As usual, if you manage to finish all of the tasks from a given week, you’ll complete a corresponding Snowfall challenge–this season’s equivalent of the Hunting Party challenges from Season 6. In turn, you’ll unlock a special loading screen, which not only features a cool piece of artwork, but also a subtle clue pointing to a free item hidden somewhere in the game.

Just as in Season 6, the item in question is either a free Battle Star (which levels your Battle Pass up by one tier) or a Banner (which you can use as a profile icon) depending on how many weekly sets of challenges you’ve completed. If you’ve finished three weeks’ challenges, you’ll be rewarded with the loading screen pictured below. It depicts a group of characters standing in the hangar of Frosty Flights, one of the new areas introduced to Fortnite’s map at the beginning of the season.

If you look closely at the furthest hangar, just to the right of Sgt. Winter, you’ll be able to make out the faint silhouette of the Battle Star atop a stack of boxes, giving you a clear indication of where you need to go. Head to Frosty Flights at the beginning of a match, find the easternmost hangar, and the Battle Star will appear inside. Collect it as you would any other item to level your Battle Pass up by one tier, putting you one step closer to unlocking the new Ice King skin.

As is the case with other free Battle Stars, the usual caveats apply. You won’t be able to find the item unless you’ve completed three weeks’ sets of challenges and unlocked the aforementioned loading screen. The Battle Star won’t appear on the map if you haven’t first finished all of the necessary steps, so you won’t simply be able to go to the right location and collect it unless you’ve done the required work.

Developer Epic Games recently rolled out Season 7’s Week 3 challenges. This particular batch of tasks is fairly straightforward, although the one that may give you the most trouble if you aren’t familiar with Fortnite’s map asks you to search between three ski lodges. You can find all of our tips and guides in our complete Season 7 challenge roundup. You can also find our guides on this season’s free Battle Stars and Banners below.

Fortnite Season 7 Snowfall Challenge Guides

• Fortnite Secret Battle Star Location: Week 1 Snowfall Challenge Guide
• Fortnite Secret Banner Location: Week 2 Snowfall Challenge Guide
• Fortnite Secret Battle Star Location: Week 3 Snowfall Challenge Guide

Powered by WPeMatico

For all its mechanical issues, there is one very crucial reason why Skyrim, another major game that got an after-the-fact VR port, worked so well: It was breathtaking to be in that world. There were dragons and dangers and perils, naturally, but there was also peace, serenity, beauty, and an undeniable sense of grandiosity. These are all things that, unless you’re specifically making a horror game, make a virtual experience worthwhile. The biggest problem, then, with porting Borderlands 2 to VR is that right from its first minutes, Pandora is such an ugly, cruel, obnoxious place that immersion works against it.

That’s the tip of the iceberg as far as Borderlands 2 VR goes, however. By and large, it’s still the same game, with all the problems it’s always had. Story-wise, every aspect of the game either actively insulting you or trying to kill you at every turn with little to no respite can get grating. Gameplay-wise, it is still very much the old MMO-inspired shooter it’s always been, where the goal is more about increasing your stats and collecting better loot than the sheer thrill of killing maniacal wastelanders ad nauseum. Even still, the game has its charms: the sheer variety of weaponry and enemies, the wild comic cel-shaded art style, and a sense of humor that, when it lands, lands big. These are the things that Borderlands 2 VR maintains.

Having said that, Gearbox giveth and Gearbox taketh away for this port. The big loss here is that co-op is entirely gone, which is the one thing that made the grind of Borderlands 2 tolerable. Borderlands 2 solo is a frustrating experience the deeper you go, and this exacerbates that problem. On top of that, Borderlands 2 VR is just Borderlands 2–as in, the Pre-Sequel and the DLC are nowhere to be found. Combine all that with the fact that the game’s cutscenes haven’t been rendered in VR, meaning frequent and jarring shifts to Theater Mode, which makes this feel more like a protracted experiment rather than a well-curated, definitive experience meant to stand on its own.

The feeling that the game is just throwing ideas about how Borderlands should operate in VR at the wall to see what sticks extends to the way it controls. There’s only two ways to control the game: the DualShock 4 or the PS Move controllers, which means yes, once again, the often-neglected PS Aim controller has gone ignored in a game that could have been better for its inclusion. Between the two, weirdly enough, the advantage goes to the DualShock, which is mostly using the same control scheme as The Handsome Collection, save for jump and crouch. The PS Move, on the other hand, is a convoluted mess of commands where the only button that adheres to logic is the trigger to fire your guns.

Movement is handled by holding down the Move button and tilting the left controller whichever way you want to move, which is fine for simple traversal, but Borderlands’ enemies are hectic and know how to use cover; a weapon’s accuracy has never been more crucial, and it’s the stat you find at acceptable levels in new guns the least. The DualShock scheme is superior here as well, with aiming handled entirely with the PSVR headset by itself instead of the controller, which surprisingly feels far more intuitive than aiming with your hand. Much of that has to do with how wonderfully comprehensive the options are in terms of customizing your VR experience to scale with your personal level of VR sea legs. If there’s any one thing Borderlands 2 VR gets 100% right, it’s this.

The one other major change to the game is a rather fundamental one: the addition of a slo-mo mechanic called BAMF Time that allows you to slow time to a crawl for a brief period. It’s balanced just well enough so that it doesn’t break the game, and it does make up for VR’s shortcomings, especially in the early, clumsy stage. More than this, it turns out to be just the tool the doctor ordered to deal with some of the more frustrating areas–read: any place where there’s Threshers involved–without having a rage-induced heart attack.

Thing is, even with the net positives, Borderlands 2 isn’t necessarily better with the PSVR involved. The things that make Borderlands appealing mostly boil down to the humor and the meticulous management of your arsenal, neither of which are easier or prettier in VR–Borderlands is still best experienced with the Handsome Collection, which also includes co-op and and hours hours more of Tiny Tina. The things Borderlands 2 in VR brings to the table are all things we’ve seen better executed elsewhere. Pandora ain’t no place for a hero. Even with slo-mo, and the ability to point and shoot with your own eyes and hands, it still isn’t.

Powered by WPeMatico

Sure, you could peruse the Steam Winter Sale for big discounts on PC games. Or you could hop on over to the Humble Store and grab a copy of Lego The Lord of the Rings for free. All you need is a Humble account and a willingness to subscribe to the Humble newsletter (you can always unsubscribe later), and you can add it to your library. No other strings are attached. Get your copy here.

The only problem is that the deal doesn’t last long. It goes away December 22 at 10 AM PT (1 PM ET). It’s also possible codes for the game will run out, so head to the Humble Store quickly to secure your freebie.

As for the game itself, like the book and film trilogy it’s based on, it follows the adventures of Frodo Baggins, an unlikely hero who ends up transporting a ring of great power into the realm of the enemy to see to its destruction. The big differences are that many parts of the game are made of destructible Legos, and it’s suffused with the Lego franchise’s signature brand of humor.

In GameSpot’s 8.5/10 Lego The Lord of the Rings review, Jason Venter wrote, “TT Games and Lego struck gold when they united for Lego Star Wars in 2005, and that rich vein is still yielding worthwhile results. Lego The Lord of the Rings is perhaps the finest treasure that the partnership has yet produced, a compelling mixture of cooperative gameplay, secrets galore, and a story that remains one of the most fantastic that Hollywood has ever captured on film. If you haven’t given the Lego games a chance yet, there has never been a better time to start.”

Grab your copy before the game goes back to regular price.

Powered by WPeMatico