Author: dpugh007

Thanks to Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales, many of you are likely swimming in new games to play. Just don’t forget to download your free Xbox games for the remainder of this month, and set a reminder to get your free haul of titles in the month ahead.

Xbox’s next offering is decidedly retro, with the biggest games falling on Xbox 360. If you want to take a stroll down memory lane, you can download Dragon Age 2 between December 1 and 15, and Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction between December 16 and 31. Both titles work on Xbox One via backward compatibility.

Game Informer’s Joe Juba enjoyed Dragon Age 2, but says in his review that it’s a step back from Dragon Age: Origins. “The new battle system is fun, but not nearly as satisfying or rewarding as Origins’. Since you don’t even have a main antagonist until the final hours, the story pales in comparison to the original. If you put those complaints aside and remove Dragon Age II from the impressive shadow of its predecessor, you’ll find an engaging action/RPG experience that still retains BioWare’s trademark clever dialogue, cool characters, and detailed lore.”

Mercenaries is a fun open-world experience from defunct studios LucasArts and Pandemic. You can watch us play through the game’s opening act in our Replay episode.

Xbox One’s free games offer up radically different experiences. From December 1 through 15, players can download C.U.B.E. 2, a puzzle game in which you awaken on an alien world, and must figure out the mysteries of a monolith to get home. You’ll need to manipulate the monolith’s architecture using state-of-the-art gloves to see the secrets it hides.

The month of free games concludes with Never Alone, a side-scrolling adventure that explores the culture of the Iñupiat people. Juba also reviewed this one for Game Informer, saying “the care with which the Iñupiat culture is represented is wonderful, and I loved learning about its customs and history. As an educational tool, Never Alone is a great success, but the gameplay does more to burden than bolster that achievement.”

Never Alone will be available from December 16 to 31.

[Source Xbox Wire]

Powered by WPeMatico

Following the problematic launch of Fallout 76, developer Bethesda Game Studios today outlined plans for two stability patches. The first patch will be available on December 4, and offers fixes for respawning when over encumbered, players getting stuck in power armor, boss loot drops, and cryolator effects. This patch also increases the stash limit from 400 to 600. Bethesda says this increase is “somewhat conservative,” yet plans to increase it again at a later date.

On December 11, a second patch addresses C.A.M.P. placement issues on login, allows players to Respec SPECIAL points after level 50, and adds a new bulldozer option that can remove small trees, rocks, and other objects when trying to build.

Both updates will also focus on fixing bugs and stability issues. Bethesda also will continue tweaking the balance of play.

In a Reddit post, the studio’s community team also offered an apology for not offering information on potential fixes sooner. “We know you’re frustrated and angry at the state of things right now, whether it’s the issues you’re running into in the game, or the lack of communication about fixes, updates, or news,” Bethesda wrote. “Yesterday we posted to let you know that we’re still here gathering your feedback and, more importantly, working to get info from the team we can share. We didn’t want you to think the silence meant nothing was happening. We’re sorry and understand this was not the right approach, and we’ll work to make a better bridge between you and the dev team at BGS.”

Powered by WPeMatico

After the positive reception enjoyed by Destiny 2: Forsaken, Destiny 2 is about to receive its next big batch of content. Season pass owners can expect the launch of Black Armory beginning on December 4, and the content drop has a number of new activities to access and rewards to win.

Black Armory includes content that rolls out beginning next week, but players can expect the focus on this new location to be the main in-game focus through March 4, 2019.

The narrative of the new content focuses on an Exo named Ada-1, who invites you to a lost armory created by three Golden Age families from different cultures (French, Japanese, and Norse). She sends you out to reignite four distinct lost forges, and thereby gain access to forging a number of new weapons, including the return of the heavy machine gun weapon class. Weapons gained from the Black Armory carry new weapon mods, and those can be installed on any Forsaken weapons.

The Lost Forges are a new game mode which can be tackled in a three-person matchmade fireteam, and it appears to be a variation on horde mode. Each of the forges appears to be in a different locale, and during the game mode you are literally acting as the blacksmith to forge your new weapons.

Black Armory is also rolling out with a new raid entitled Scouge of the Past, which is set in the ruins of the Last City (presumably ruined through the events of the Red War in the base Destiny 2 game).

Beyond those details, Black Armory is said to feature new quests, triumphs, and collections to pursue. Check out the graphic below from Bungie to see the breakdown of when different elements will launch throughout the season pass. 

Click on the image to get a closer look at the calendar

In addition, we’ve learned that Black Armory will feature at least five new exotic weapons. Anarchy is a grenade launcher for which the grenades stick to surfaces and chain arc bolts to other mines. Le Monarque is a bow that (on a perfect draw) inflicts damage over time using its pestilence arrows, and if that perfect draw is a precision hit, all enemies in a cloud of void energy receive damage over time. Last but not least, Izanagi’s Burden is a sniper rifle with an unusual perk; hold reload to consume the magazine, and load a round with additional range and damage. Jotun is a new fusion rifle that fits on your hand like an arm blaster, which shoots a fireball slug that sets the ground aflame. In addition, while it wasn’t explicitly mentioned, various hints strongly suggest that Black Armory will see the return of The Last Word hand cannon. 

Check out the ViDoc below that released today for more information regarding what is on the way in Black Armory, and throughout the rest of the Season Pass. 

Our Take
Black Armory represents something of a new approach to content roll-out for the Destiny franchise. Previously, most major new characters and game modes would be delivered as part of a full expansion. Black Armory seems to be positioning itself differently, as just one part of the ongoing season pass for this year of Destiny 2. Time will tell if the new roll-out model will meet with approval from the community, but the game has built up some good will in recent months through the strong release of Forsaken, so I’m hopeful about what comes next.

Powered by WPeMatico

Rare and Microsoft have revealed the fourth and next major content for their high-seas piracy game Sea of Thieves. Players can look forward to Shrouded Spoils, which brings a host of new features and additions to the game.

Shrouded Spoils brings fog to the game as a weather effect, turning the occasional boat journey into a N64 first-person shooter in terms spookiness and visibility. This means that danger can come out of nowhere for both you and enemies.

Other changes include visual changes for the megalodon, six new skeleton forts to raid, new ship customizaition items, new mermaid statues, faster improvements for Krakens, and more. The update goes live on November 28, which is tomorrow, so you won’t have to wait too long to get your mega-piracy on.

Sea of Thieves is available for Xbox One and PC.

Powered by WPeMatico