Category: Gamespot

Pokemon Sun and Moon players have another chance to get their hands on some rare items. Nintendo is distributing another batch of free Mega Stones via Mystery Gift right now.

As before, this set is available to players around the globe through a universal code. The four Mega Stones Nintendo is giving away this time are for Gardevoir, Gallade, Lopunny, and the mythical Pokemon Diancie. However, none of the aforementioned Pokemon can be found in the wild in Sun and Moon, so players hoping to use the items in battle will need to transfer their corresponding Pokemon from a previous title or obtain them through trading.

To claim your Mega Stones, select the Mystery Gift option from the game’s menu screen and choose to receive your gift “via code/password.” Input the code “POYONG” when prompted and you’ll be able to pick up the items from the deliveryman waiting inside any of the games’ Pokemon Centers. Nintendo hasn’t announced how long this distribution will run, so players should act fast and download the Mega Stones while they can.

Nintendo has been giving away a wealth of items for Sun and Moon recently; last month, the company distributed Mega Stones for Tyranitar, Abomasnow, Manectric, and Aggron. Sun and Moon players also still have a chance to add a rare shiny Tapu Koko to their team. The Legendary Pokemon is available as a free Mystery Gift until August 14. On the day that distribution ends, GameStop stores around the US will begin giving away a free code for a “battle-ready” Salazzle until September 4.

The next installments in the series, Pokemon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon, are scheduled to release for 3DS on November 17. The pair are again set in the Alola region but tell an “alternate story” and feature some Pokemon that couldn’t be found in Sun and Moon, including at least one new monster that was revealed last week: Dusk Form Lycanroc.

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No Man’s Sky might have been out for over a year, but developer Hello Games is still supporting it in a big way. A huge new update, dubbed Atlas Rises, is coming to PS4 and PC today, adding “joint exploration,” a “graphical overhaul”, and 30 hours of new story content.

Multiplayer was a much-requested feature after No Man’s Sky launched in 2016, and finally you can play with other humans–sort of. You’ll be able to see, communicate, and “explore the universe” with up to 16 other players, but they’ll be represented simply by glowing orbs, and Hello Games admits that “interaction with others is currently very limited.” It sounds like the developer is planning on taking this further, however, as it calls the move “an important first step into the world of synchronous co-op in No Man’s Sky.”

The company also says the 1.3 update introduces 30 hours of new story content. Included in this is a new quest system and a branching narrative, along with “double the lore and interactions of the existing game.” New NPC guilds have also been introduced, while the economic, trading, and crafting systems have been expanded.

You can now edit the terrain of the world around you, meanwhile, using a new item called the Multi-Tool. This allows you to sculpt landscapes as you see fit, to help customize and enhance your base. In addition, the diversity and visual quality of planets have been improved, and ancient portals allow you to revisit previous worlds. Finally, space combat and low flight have received a bunch of small enhancements, and there are now more ships available to buy.

You can read all the details here, or check out the patch notes at the bottom of this article. Previous No Man’s Sky updates have also been substantial, adding features like base-building and land vehicles.

Hello Games founder Sean Murray said earlier this week that it had been “an exciting, intense, and emotional year for us at Hello Games.” He added: “We have been quiet, but we have been listening intently. We’ve spent that year working hard on free updates for this game our team cares about so much.”

No Man’s Sky Update 1.3 Patch Notes

Generation

• Increased variety in weather, planet, and structure names
• More base building parts have unique names
• Prevented trees spawning on sheer cliffs
• Improved object placement on slopes
• Improved grass placement and density
• Changed the default starting ship model
• Regenerated galaxy to remove differences between survival, normal, and creative game modes
• Improved building distribution
• Increased distribution of heridium deposits
• Improved generation of beaches along shorelines
• Repositioned player bases to accommodate generation changes

Exploration

• Improved balance of hazards between planets
• Improved settings for hazard damage and strength
• Reduce cave hazard recharge times
• Added Shielding Shard to the starting player inventory
• Limited the depth at which buildings can spawn underwater

Gameplay

• More tech available in tech shops
• Balanced tech shop standing requirements
• Standing lights have a proper name when you interact with them
• Increased robustness of systems for locating buildings
• Increased number and types of objects which can be scanned
• Increased information available about scanned foliage and creatures
• Improved planet resource lists
• Craftable products now sorted by most recent use
• Improved differentiation of weapons
• Fixed pinning product recipes and technology guides
• Continued story unlocked through abandoned buildings
• Added interactions and dialogue options for many structures and characters
• Overhauled secondary character interactions
• Joint exploration has been introduced allowing 16 players to see visual representations of each other in game. Joint exploration does not require PS Plus, and is not currently available on GOG Galaxy.

Trade and Farming

• Alloys, farm products and new gas products now form separate branches of a larger craft tree
• Added new valuable higher tier craft products
• Added new harvester to harvest atmospheric gases
• Added new trade specific products
• Added new farmable Star Bramble plant
• Added larger 4 plant hydroponic tray
• Increased contrast between picked and unpicked resource plants to more easily tell them apart
• Balanced priced of alloys, farm products and gases
• Improved distributions of resources on planets
• Improved scan ranges for resources on planets
• Added scan markers on more smaller plutonium crystals to aid resource gathering

Freighters

• Balanced freighter prices
• Fixed collision on freighter bridge
• Added freighter classes
• Added ability to warp in your freighter
• Fixed floating turrets on capital freighters

Space

• Improved space heavy air
• Added requirement to scan planets in order to reveal their names
• Improved planet name display as you enter orbit
• Fix for massive carve radius when mining asteroids

Galactic Map

• Updated galactic map UI
• Improved galactic map controls
• Improved star names gathered in galaxy map flythrough
• Improved distribution of different coloured stars
• Added interstellar scan events

STARSHIPS

• Added ability to summon your ship from the quick menu
• Refined ship reticules
• Added new holographic cockpit HUD elements: mini map, pulse drive warning and target ship
• Added new ship technology
• Balanced space combat
• Balanced ship weapons and technology
• Updated ship weapon projectile effects
• Updated ship hit direction markers
• Improved flare graphics on ships
• Improved loot containers dropped by AI ships
• Improved effects on damaged AI ships
• Balanced crashed ships broken slots and repair costs
• Added a more convenient swap inventory button for moving items between new/crashed ships and storage units
• Updated design of Atlas pass icons
• Added ability to look around the cockpit when landed
• Allowed player to remain in ship cockpit after landing
• Improved spawning and distribution of AI ships
• Improved ship altimeter
• Added in-ship communicator
• Added button prompt for ship zoom
• Fixed a bug where your ship could become invisible by visiting the galactic map
• Improved Pirate systems including the ability to negotiate or call in support
• Added low flight mode
• Improved landing code

UI

• Divided options menu into several pages
• Revised Journey page
• New Gek, Korvax, and Vy’keen medals
• New medals for the merchant, mercenary and explorer guilds
• Revised log page
• Fixed animation on markers as they are removed
• Improved binocular UI
• Updated journey milestone icons
• Overhauled discovery log
• Added cardinal directions to compass
• Added distance markers to compass
• Fix for “redeem content” showing twice on Steam menu
• New trade and product icons
• Revised combat ship markers
• Improved ship tracking arrows when flying away from targets
• Overhauled conversation interface

Graphics

• Improved HBAO filtering around edges
• Improved TAA handling of grass blade edges
• Introduced depth of field effect during interactions
• Added LOD meshes and imposters to various props
• Fixed texturing on the buildable door
• Reduced HBAO shimmer
• Reduced shadow acne
• Fixed artifacts with imposter shadows
• Improved double-sided normals for foliage
• Improved terrain texturing and texture blending
• Improved grass colour blending and integration with terrain
• Improved grass and leaf materials
• Improved colour palettes across several biomes
• Improved planet night skies
• Fixed z-fighting on small glowing plants
• Various graphics optimisations and fixes
• Visual improvements to Atlas stations
• Replaced all terrain textures with higher detail and quality variants
• Added new higher detail foliage variants to several biomes
• Upgraded textures on several cave props

Audio

• Four new sets of soundscapes by 65 Days of Static
• Reworked space combat audio
• Reworked space explosions
• Added new ship weapon sounds
• Added weird biome soundscape
• Added new music and sound effects for story mode
• Lots of new UI sounds
• Minor mix changes and optimisations

Language

• Various minor language fixes and improvements

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Although the plan to shoot the third and fourth Avengers movies back-to-back was changed last year, it doesn’t mean that directors Anthony and Joe Russo are having any downtime. Avengers: Infinity War wrapped last month, and now the Russos have already started production on the currently-untitled Avengers 4. They marked the occasion by posting an image of a gloved hand raising four fingers, with the caption, “Beginning the end.” Check it out below:

Avengers 4 will be released in May 2019 and won’t just conclude the story of Thanos and the Infinity War–it will wrap up the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe to date. “By the time we’re at Avengers 4, 22 movies will have encompassed the first three phases of the Marvel Cinematic Universe,” Marvel boss Kevin Feige said April. “And what happens after that will be very different. I don’t know if it’s Phase 4, it might be a new thing.”

Although it is unknown what shape the next phase of the MCU will take, veteran Marvel stars such as Chris Evans (Captain America) and Robert Downey Jr (Iron Man) have hinted that they may not continue in their roles for much longer.

In an interview in June, Evans said, “I could have [left] after the third Avengers, but they wanted to make the third and fourth films as a two-parter. It’s going to wrap everything up.” Downey Jr, meanwhile, told Australia’s News that he wants to “hang up my jersey before it’s embarrassing.”

Avengers: Infinity War hits theaters on May 4, 2018, and will feature a huge number of heroes from the MCU. A first teaser was screened at San Diego Comic-Con in July, but it is yet to be released online.

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Xbox One‘s Insider Program–the scheme that allows players to test system updates ahead of their full release–is now open to all, Microsoft has announced. Until now, only select Xbox Live members have been able to take part in the program, but now anyone can sign up and take advantage of early updates.

In a blog post, Microsoft explained it’s “simplifying entry” into the program, which also grants occasional early access to upcoming Xbox titles. In addition, you can now choose to move between the program’s four tiers, provided you attain enough Insider XP. Some of those four tiers have been renamed–here’s what they’re now called and a description of each, via Microsoft:

New Group Name	New Ring Description	Old Group Name
Alpha	Invite-only access ring reserved for Xbox Insiders that provide the most customer feedback, report problems with clear repro steps, and are especially active on Xbox One consoles. From time to time, our best Beta and Delta users will get invited to join the Alpha group.	Alpha
Beta	Now open to Xbox Insiders with a tenure (time in Program) of three or more months and an Xbox Insider XP of Level 4 or higher.	Beta
Delta	The new Delta group is open to any Xbox Insider with a tenure of one or more months that has reached Xbox Insider Level 2 or higher. Members of the Delta group may also receive builds earlier in the release schedule to test service scalability and feature acceptance. This means that not all users in the Delta group will have access to the same features at the same time.	Ring 3
Omega	Anyone can join the Omega group, which will be used to test minor changes made to the previously released monthly updates. Additionally, the Omega group will usually get early access to an upcoming monthly update before the general availability release date.	Ring 4

Moving upwards through the tiers is simply a case of providing helpful feedback and being an active Xbox One owner, Microsoft says. The upper tiers gain the biggest updates earlier, though be warned that they are also subject to more frequent updates (between 15 and 20 in the Alpha ring), so you may want to remain at a lower level to save your bandwidth.

Flight Ring	Number of updates/month	Bandwidth usage/month
Alpha	15-20	60-80 GB
Beta	8-15	32-60 GB
Delta	Varies. Select users can get around three updates per week.	Varies. Around 12 GB per week.
Omega	1-8	4-32 GB

Finally, Microsoft says it’s “working closely with multiple first and third-party game studios” to bring more playtests of unreleased games. Recent Xbox One Insider playtests include Paladins and upcoming multiplayer pirate game Sea of Thieves. To join the scheme, just download the Xbox Insider Hub from the Xbox Store.

In other Xbox news, Microsoft says it’s still working on bringing old Halo games to Xbox One via backwards compatibility, though there’s still no word on when the games will actually be available. Xbox Achievements will also be receiving “fundamental changes” soon, according to Xbox corporate vice president Mike Ybarra.

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Warner Bros. has announced when the Blu-ray/DVD version of the box office smash Wonder Woman will arrive and what bonus features it will contain. Starting with the release date, the home video version will arrive first, coming out on digital stores on August 29, before coming to Blu-ray and DVD on September 19, according to Collider.

As for the bonus features, one of the coolest-sounding ones is an epilogue. Titled “Etta’s Mission,” this scene will follow Etta Candy as she “gets the boys back together for a secret mission that could impact humanity’s future.”

The home video version of Wonder Woman also includes a feature called “Crafting the Wonder,” in which the producers “explore the journey to create an adventure worthy of DC’s greatest warrior.”

There are also numerous videos featuring director Patty Jenkins; these include:

• A Director’s Vision: Themyscira: The Hidden Island
• A Director’s Vision: Beach Battle
• A Director’s Vision: A Photograph Through Time
• A Director’s Vision: Diana in the Modern World
• A Director’s Vision: Wonder Woman at War

Below is a list of some of the other bonus features, with descriptions from Warner Bros:

• Warriors of Wonder Woman – Witness the creation of the Amazon army as the women of “Wonder Woman” transform emotionally and physically into the world’s most powerful and heroic warriors.
• The Trinity – Filmmakers and comic book creators explore the legend of Wonder Woman and how she stands shoulder to shoulder with Superman and Batman to create the pillars of the DC Universe.
• The Wonder Behind the Camera– Meet the women behind the wonder as they welcome a group of aspiring filmmakers on set for an exclusive, once-in-a-lifetime experience.
• Finding the Wonder Woman Within – Feel the power of Wonder Woman as award-winning poets and inspiring public figures reveal the impact and importance of DC’s greatest heroine.
• Extended Scenes
• Blooper Reel

Wonder Woman, which stars Gal Gadot, made more than $795 million at the global box office. Unsurprisingly, a sequel is on the way, and Jenkins is reportedly coming back to direct.

This story has been updated and corrected.

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Earlier this year, Microsoft announced that Halo 3, Halo 3: ODST, Halo 4, and Halo: CE Anniversary are coming to Xbox One through backwards compatibility. We still don’t know when they’ll be added to the catalog, but fans can rest assured that Microsoft is still working on it. In the latest Halo weekly update, developer 343 gave an update on how it’s coming along, starting off with, “Good news: back-compat is still a thing!”

The backwards compatibility team continues its efforts, “churning away on getting the titles prepared for public consumption on Xbox One hardware,” 343 said. People internally at Microsoft have been play-testing the games in the past week.

However, there is still no word on when the games will actually be available.

Not only are all of those Halo games coming to Xbox One via backwards compatibility, but all the map packs are, too. The only issue is that the Noble Map Pack for Halo: Reach is not free as it should be. 343 is working with the Xbox Store team to fix this.

The Halo games are all already playable on Xbox One via The Master Chief Collection, which includes Halo: CE Anniversary, a Halo 2 remaster, Halo 3, and Halo 4 all running at 60 frames per second. Halo 3: ODST was also released into the package.

In other Halo news, 343 is working on a 4K update for Halo 5: Guardians on Xbox One X. Microsoft’s super-powered console launches in November.

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Entertainment giant Disney is being sued over claims that some of its gaming apps collect personal information about young players and shares it illegally with advertisers. Disney says it doesn’t believe the suit has any merit and will defend itself in court.

As reported by The Washington Post, Disney is listed as a defendant in the suit, alongside three other tech companies, including Upsight, Unity, and Kochava. Specifically, the plaintiffs in the class-action suit allege that Disney and is violating the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), which protects children’s privacy through online sites and apps. An injunction that stops Disney and its partners from disclosing the information without parental consent is what the plaintiffs are seeking. They are also looking to collect punitive damages and legal fees.

A Disney spokesperson told The Washington Post that this lawsuit is based on a “fundamental misunderstanding” of how COPPA works.

“Disney has a robust COPPA compliance program, and we maintain strict data collection and use policies for Disney apps created for children and families,” Disney said. “The complaint is based on a fundamental misunderstanding of COPPA principles, and we look forward to defending this action in Court.”

According to the lawsuit, games like Disney Princess Palace Pets and Where’s My Water 2 have “trackers” inside their code that allows Disney to “exfiltrate that information off the smart device for advertising and other commercial purposes.”

In 2014, Family Guy: The Quest for Stuff developer TinyCo. agreed to pay a $300,000 fine to settle charges brought against it from the FTC over claims that it violated COPPA standards.

We’ll report back with more details on the Disney case it new information becomes available.

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