Category: Gamespot

Update: Bungie has replaced this week’s Nightfall Strike due to issues players were experiencing with Exodus Crash. For the remainder of the week, you can try your hand at the Nightfall version of Pyramidion. Along with that change, there are also new modifiers in place: Timewarp: Zero Hour (which prevents you from extending the time limit) and Torrent (increasing the rate at which your skills recharge).

Original Story: Every seven days, Destiny 2’s weekly reset changes a bunch of variables within the game, from the activities on offer to the rewards available to the items on sale in shops. This week’s Nightfall Strike, Exodus Crash, is set in Arcadian Valley, while Eververse have some new gear on offer.

Two modifiers are active in Exodus Crash this week, one of which again offers a way to earn additional time. Timewarp: Rings presents a set of large white circles throughout the mission for you to jump through; each one provides an additional 30 seconds of time to finish the Strike. The other modifier, Prism, rotates through each of the three elements, with the chosen element doing additional damage (and the others doing less than usual). Following the release of a Destiny 2 update last month, this now functions correctly, as the message indicating the chosen element no longer lasts for just a brief moment. Additionally, an on-screen effect helps to highlight when the element changes from one to the next.

In terms of Challenges, Speed of Dark is active as always, which requires you to finish the Strike with at least five minutes remaining. Unbroken tasks you with completing the Strike with fewer than three deaths. And finally, Faster Than Lightning asks your Fireteam to kill nine Shanks with melee attacks before defeating Thaviks.

Exodus Crash in Arcadian Valley has a recommended Power level of at least 240. If you haven’t made it to that point, you may want to consider waiting until after you’ve raised your Power level before grabbing the Nightfall reward, which is Powerful gear. This Nightfall will be available until Destiny 2‘s next weekly reset, which occurs at 2 AM PT / 5 AM ET / 10 AM BST / 8 PM AET on Tuesday, October 24.

Away from the Nightfall Strike, you can grab a new bundle from Eververse. Costing 2000 Silver, the legendary Golden Sevens bundle contains seven bright Engrams, seven shaders, 500 Bright Dust, and a unique Nothing Gold ship. Take a look at the ship for yourself below. [Update: It appears this bundle is no longer for sale on the Eververse store.]

Plenty more has likely changed for the week, with previous resets offering new Milestones, Challenges, and treasure maps to buy from Cayde. Sadly, the weekly reset also means last week’s Iron Banner event is now over. However another event, the Leviathan Prestige Raid, goes live tomorrow, October 18, after it was delayed last week.

We’re still digging deep into Destiny 2, but there are some basic things you should know (and habits from the first Destiny you might need to break). Those include not waiting to decrypt Engrams and saving some of your Upgrade Points. You can check out more in our Destiny 2 beginner’s guide or our roundup of Destiny 2 guides, tips, and tricks.

In other Destiny 2 news, Bungie has removed the Monty Python-inspired, high-kicking walk emote. Although the developer hasn’t officially said why this has been removed, it may have something to do with the emote letting players get into some walled-off, unfinished areas.

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Today during a livestream event, Microsoft made some big announcements about the Halo franchise, including new Xbox One X patches and ongoing support for Halo 5. We already knew that Halo 5 will receive an Xbox One X update, and today developer 343 confirmed that Halo Wars 2 is also getting patched to unlock “visual upgrades” on the new console. Halo: The Master Chief Collection is also getting an Xbox One X update, while players can also expect updates that include bug fixes and improvements.

Overall, 343 wants to “bring [Halo: MCC] forward and modernize many of the game’s systems to take advantage of Xbox platform advancements since its original launch.” The game had its share of serious struggles at launch, so it’s nice to see support continue in this way, years after release.

As part of this, 343 is launching a “flighting” program for The Master Chief Collection whereby players can test new patches. This is scheduled to begin in Spring 2018. More details on the specifics will be announced later.

The other big news about Halo Wars 2 is that it’s adding support for the Xbox Arena system. This feature, which debuted in May, allows players to create their own tournaments. Additionally, 343 is adding cross-play support between the Xbox One and PC versions of Halo Wars 2. All of these new features are scheduled to launch in “late October.”

As for Halo 5, 343 announced an “Overtime” program for the game. This includes a number of new features, content, and support, starting with an Xbox One X update for the game that “takes advantage of the extra power of Xbox One X to deliver higher visual fidelity for players who have compatible hardware.”

In terms of new content, 343 is rolling out the Oddball gametype, featuring new medals and voice cover. Additionally, there will be a big November update for Halo 5 that introduces a series of weapon balance changes. What’s more, 343 is launching a new app for Windows 10 that lets players host a local server on the same network as their Xbox One that should ideally allow for a low-latency experience.

In other news, 343 has confirmed that the Halo World Championship event is returning in 2018, and as part of this the developer is launching team skins. There will also be skins based on some of the major countries and regions in the tournament, including the United States, Canada, and Mexico.

No new Halo games have been announced, but Halo 6 is surely on the way and it sounds like it will have split-screen, thankfully.

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Electronic Arts has announced some major news regarding one of its most anticipated upcoming games, as well as one of its oldest studios. EA revealed it will shut down Visceral Games, the studio responsible for the Dead Space series, among many other titles. Additionally, the single-player Star Wars game it had been working on will be overhauled and moved to a different EA studio, leaving a major name’s future uncertain with the company.

“Our Visceral studio has been developing an action-adventure title set in the Star Wars universe,” said Patrick Soderlund, executive VP of EA worldwide studios, in a post on EA’s website. “In its current form, it was shaping up to be a story-based, linear adventure game. Throughout the development process, we have been testing the game concept with players, listening to the feedback about what and how they want to play, and closely tracking fundamental shifts in the marketplace. It has become clear that to deliver an experience that players will want to come back to and enjoy for a long time to come, we needed to pivot the design.”

The untitled project will now be developed by EA Vancouver, which had already been working on the game. Soderlund says it will “maintain the stunning visuals, authenticity in the Star Wars universe, and focus on bringing a Star Wars story to life. Importantly, we are shifting the game to be a broader experience that allows for more variety and player agency, leaning into the capabilities of our Frostbite engine and reimagining central elements of the game to give players a Star Wars adventure of greater depth and breadth to explore.”

However, as an unfortunate side effect of this change, Soderlund said EA “will be ramping down and closing” Visceral. It doesn’t sound as if its entire staff will be laid off, as EA is “the midst of shifting as many of the team as possible to other projects and teams at EA.” But this still marks the end for Visceral as we know it.

Visceral has been around for the better part of two decades, starting out life as EA’s Redwood Shores studio. Its name was changed to Visceral in 2009 following the release of the first Dead Space in 2008. (Subsequently, general manager Glen Schofield and COO Michael Condrey left for Activision, where they remain as the leaders of Call of Duty: WWII developer Sledgehammer Games.) Its catalog of games is extensive, covering everything from Tiger Woods golfing games to Army of Two: The Devil’s Cartel. It also developed a number of licensed games, including those based on Lord of the Rings, The Godfather, and James Bond (such as the surprisingly good Everything or Nothing). With the Dead Space series seemingly put on ice, Visceral has spent its recent years working on Battlefield DLC and the spin-off Battlefield Hardline.

Due to the changes the game is undergoing, it has been delayed. It had been due out in EA’s 2019 fiscal year, which runs from April 2018 through March 2019. Soderlund said, “We’re now looking at a new timeframe that we will announce in the future.” He also added, “We look forward to answering more of your questions, and sharing more on our plans and timeline for this new Star Wars experience, in the months to come.”

The Star Wars game Visceral had in development was being headed up by Uncharted veteran Amy Hennig. When she spoke about it last year, she said it may be “spiritually similar” to Uncharted but that it will also be its own thing. It’s unclear how or if she is still involved.

Update: It seems Hennig may no longer be involved with the project. Contacted for comment about her status, an EA spokesperson told GameSpot, “[W]e’re in discussions with Amy about her next move.” It declined to share any additional information beyond that.

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A division of Sony is to publish video games for, among other consoles, Switch, the company has announced. Sony Music Entertainment has launched a new publishing label called Unties, whose upcoming projects include a game, titled Tiny Metal, that’s coming to Nintendo’s hybrid console as well as PC and PS4.

Unties has so far revealed three more projects: one for PS4 and two listed for “PC / TBA,” hinting they could come to other platforms later on. Sony Music says the label has been set up “to unearth high-quality [indie] titles … and utilize SME’s vast entertainment business wisdom in order to expose them to as many consumers as possible.” It went on to say it intends “to free creators from the myriad ties that bind them when it comes to publishing their games” and “make free, limitless publishing a reality.”

This isn’t the first time Sony has published games on non-PlayStation consoles: Sony Online Entertainment previously published games such as PlanetSide 2 and Payday: The Heist on PC. SOE, which was separate to the PlayStation brand and Sony Interactive Entertainment, was later sold off and renamed Daybreak, no longer a part of Sony.

It’s interesting, then, to see Sony–albeit, again, not the PlayStation or SIE division–entering the multiplatform publishing business once more, this time on a rival company’s console. For more, check out some images of Tiny Metal above or a trailer here.

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Every seven days, Destiny 2’s weekly reset changes a bunch of variables within the game, from the activities on offer to the rewards available to the items on sale in shops. This week’s Nightfall Strike, Exodus Crash, is set in Arcadian Valley, while Eververse have some new gear on offer.

Two modifiers are active in Exodus Crash this week, one of which again offers a way to earn additional time. Timewarp: Rings presents a set of large white circles throughout the mission for you to jump through; each one provides an additional 30 seconds of time to finish the Strike. The other modifier, Prism, rotates through each of the three elements, with the chosen element doing additional damage (and the others doing less than usual). Following the release of a Destiny 2 update last month, this now functions correctly, as the message indicating the chosen element no longer lasts for just a brief moment. Additionally, an on-screen effect helps to highlight when the element changes from one to the next.

Exodus Crash in Arcadian Valley has a recommended Power level of at least 240. If you haven’t made it to that point, you may want to consider waiting until after you’ve raised your Power level before grabbing the Nightfall reward. This Nightfall will be available until Destiny 2‘s next weekly reset, which occurs at 2 AM PT / 5 AM ET / 10 AM BST / 8 PM AET on Tuesday, October 24.

Away from the Nightfall Strike, you can grab a new bundle from Eververse. Costing 2000 Silver, the legendary Golden Sevens bundle contains seven bright Engrams, seven shaders, 500 Bright Dust, and a unique Nothing Gold ship. Take a look at the ship for yourself below.

Plenty more has likely changed for the week, with previous resets offering new milestones and challenges; we’ll let you know when we know more. Sadly, the weekly reset also means last week’s Iron Banner event is now over. However another event, the Leviathan Prestige Raid, goes live tomorrow, October 18, after it was delayed last week.

We’re still digging deep into Destiny 2, but there are some basic things you should know (and habits from the first Destiny you might need to break). Those include not waiting to decrypt Engrams and saving some of your Upgrade Points. You can check out more in our Destiny 2 beginner’s guide or our roundup of Destiny 2 guides, tips, and tricks.

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Assassin’s Creed Origins launches very soon, and to celebrate publisher Ubisoft has revealed a line of ultra-rare new Yeezy sneakers. The trainers have been designed in collaboration with renowned sneaker artist Dominic Lowman, and only 16 pairs will be made worldwide.

Two color schemes have been produced: a black design in addition to a white one. Ubisoft says none will be made available to buy, and will instead only be made available in free giveaways. The company stated, “Details will be announced across Ubisoft and partner social media channels shortly.” Check the designs out for yourself below.

Just last week, Ubisoft revealed Origins’ Free DLC and season pass details. The game will receive two major expansions after its October release date in addition to a number of smaller add-ons, some of which will be free.

In other news about the huge open-world title, Ubisoft recently revealed Assassin’s Creed Origins’ PC specs and system requirements in addition to a new live-action trailer. For more on the series, check out our look back at every Assassin’s Creed game or some sniping gameplay. Origins launches for PC, Xbox One, and PlayStation 4 on October 27.

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