Category: Gamespot

For the first time in the history of the Assassin’s Creed franchise, this year’s game, Odyssey, lets you choose to play as a man, Alexios, or a woman, Kassandra. But which was the more popular choice?

Game director Scott Phillips told Game Informer (via Destructoid) that Alexios is currently the more popular choice. Around two-thirds of players chose him. This ratio surprised Phillips because early playtests were closer to 50/50.

“Right now it’s two-thirds Alexios and one-third Kassandra,” he said. “The interesting thing is that, during playtests, it was pretty much 50/50. I was a bit surprised; I was expecting half-and-half or even a little bit more Kassandra.

“The idea of choice being key to our game shows really well in that even we are surprised by some of the choices [players] ended up making.”

It’s unclear if the breakdown between Alexios and Kassandra includes people who played the game more than once and chose a different character the next time. We also don’t know how the player split breaks down by console.

Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey launched in early October, and it enjoyed the franchise’s best start in many years in terms of game sales and microtransactions.

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Two of the year’s biggest games, Fallout 76 and Hitman 2, are currently marked down substantially on Amazon. Bethesda’s open-world multiplayer RPG and the stealth game from Warner Bros. can be had for just $30 USD each right now on PS4 and Xbox One.

Both games were also discounted nicely on Black Friday and Cyber Monday, but if you missed out on those deals, now you have another chance.

Fallout 76 didn’t get the best reviews. If you wanted to pick up the game but not at full price, now seems like a good time to do so. Hitman 2, meanwhile, was generally better-liked by critics. You can read GameSpot’s reviews for each game below.

• Fallout 76 Review / Buy It On Amazon
• Hitman 2 Review / Buy It On Amazon

Bethesda has pledged to support Fallout 76 with new updates in the weeks, months, and potentially years to come. Hitman 2, meanwhile, is getting more content down the road when new locations come to the game through the expansion pass.

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A recent Battlefield V patch made changes to the values of the multiplayer game’s time to kill, or TTK. The changes were aimed at helping new players have a better experience, but as you would expect, some people in the “core” Battlefield community understandably took issue with the changes.

DICE created a “core” playlist for the Conquest mode in an attempt to appease veteran fans who didn’t enjoy the TTK changes. But DICE now acknowledges in a new Reddit post that this one playlist was “clearly” not enough to satisfy core fans.

So now, DICE is adding a “Core” version of every playlist, not just Conquest, and these new versions should arrive next week.

Another part of the issue with Battlefield V’s TTK is that DICE apparently did not address the feedback fast enough. “I’d like to apologize for the silence over the past couple of days on the TTK topic. We’ve seen it’s been a big talking point and causing a divide in the community, which was never our intention. We have been listening closely to what you’ve all been saying,” Battlefield community manager Dan Mitre said.

He added: “Changes to the game carrying this kind of weight needs clearer, earlier communication before getting rolled out. We will improve how we roll out updates in the future and respond more quickly when you have questions or concerns.”

DICE made the TTK changes right away was due in part because the developer knows a number of new players will pick up the game for the holidays, and DICE wanted to try to help them have a good experience. “The intent came from us observing that new players are having a very hard time with the game compared to our core players, and we wanted to see if we could improve this over the holidays so more players can have a great time,” Mitre said.

Battlefield games are known for evolving over time based on community feedback and ideas that DICE itself comes up with. “Battlefield V is no exception,” Mitre said regarding how the WWII shooter will grow and evolve in time.

Unlike previous Battlefield games, all of Battlefield V’s expansions are free as part of the game’s Tide of War live service element. The first major post-release expansion, Chapter 1: Overture, is out now, and it adds a new map and the single-player War Story where you play as a member of a German tank division. On a longer timeline, Battlefield V will introduce a battle royale mode called Firestorm in March.

GameSpot’s Battlefield V review scored the World War II shooter an 8/10. The game is available now on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC.

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(Presented by Oculus) In the final episode of the Change the Game VR Charity Challenge, Magnus Beasticus and Lemming go toe to toe in Creed: Rise to Glory to win $100K for charity. Visit vrcharitychallenge.com for more info!

Learn more about our two awesome charities:

Stack Up Website: https://stackup.org/

Take This Website: http://www.takethis.org/

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(Presented by Oculus) See who’s the fastest in the West. AustenMarie, Panser, Sohinki, and ChilledChaos duel it out in Dead and Buried to win $100K for charity in the third episode of the Change the Game VR Charity Challenge. Visit http://www.vrcharitychallenge.com for more info!

Learn more about our two awesome charities:

Stack Up Website: https://stackup.org/

Take This Website: http://www.takethis.org/

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Niantic has announced a new holiday event for Pokemon Go. The festivities kick off next week and run into the new year, during which time players will be able to earn bonuses, hatch Eggs more easily, and even encounter more Pokemon originally from the Sinnoh region.

The third annual winter event begins on Tuesday, December 18, and once again, it brings back the festive hat-wearing Pikachu for a limited time. On top of that, Niantic says that more Ice-type and Gen 4 Pokemon will appear during the event; the promotional image the developer shared features Snover and its evolution Abomasnow, along with Munchlax, Chingling, and Croagunk.

Even more interestingly, the image also features three Legendary Pokemon from the Sinnoh region–Azelf, Uxie, and Mesprit–suggesting the trio will make their debut in Pokemon Go soon. On top of that, Niantic says the rare Ice Pokemon Delibird will also be available during the winter event, as will its Shiny variant.

Along with the new Pokemon, Niantic will offer a number of bonuses throughout the event. These will be metered out every few days. From December 18-22, players will earn twice as much Candy for catching and transferring Pokemon; from December 22-26, they’ll receive twice the usual amount of Stardust for catching monsters; from December 26-30, players will get double catch XP; and from December 30 to the end of the event on January 2, Incubators will be twice as effective as normal.

Rounding out the bonuses, Niantic is giving players one Incubator each day when they spin their first Photo Disc. The developer also says that more types of Pokemon will be able to hatch from 7 km Eggs, and players will have a better chance of hatching monsters like Smoochum and Azurill. You can read more about the event on the official Pokemon website.

Before the holiday festivities begin in Pokemon Go, Niantic will host a special Raid weekend event from December 14-17. During that time, Ho-Oh and Lugia will reappear in Raid Battles at Gyms. Players will also have a chance to encounter their Shiny forms.

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Need a good reason to return to Dishonored 2 and its standalone DLC episode, Death of the Outsider, over the holidays? Bethesda has one–fire up the games and you’ll unlock free new content, plus an old preorder bonus from before Dishonored 2 was released.

Publisher Bethesda announced the release of new content for Dishonored 2 and Death of the Outsider in a blog post. It runs down the two new offerings for both Dishonored 2 and Death of the Outsider. First is a Black and White mode that can change the feel of the game pretty significantly. Only one thing maintains its color when you turn on the black and white filter: blood. Sounds suitably noir, and as Bethesda puts it, extremely moody.

The second content addition is a Mission+ mode. Fire that up, and you can revisit any of the missions from either Dishonored or Death of the Outsider with all weapons and powers unlocked. The idea is to let you mess around with the full compliment of killing abilities available in the game, so you’re free to experiment as you see fit with no constraints.

Finally, you can also get the Imperial Assassin’s Pack in Dishonored 2, which was originally offered as a preorder bonus that comes with various in-game goodies:

• Duelist’s Luck bone charm
• Void Favor bone charm
• In-game Antique Serkonan Guitar for Emily or Corvo to interact with
• In-game book: Goodbye, Karnaca – A Musician’s Farewell
• 500 bonus coins

While the new stuff in Dishonored 2 and Death of the Outsider is free, it does require a step to unlock. You’ll need to login to a Bethesda account from the main menu screen of both games to get your new content. If you don’t have one, you can register for a Bethesda account on the publisher’s website, Bethesda.net.

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(Presented by Oculus) In the second episode of the Change the Game VR Charity Challenge, MissesMae and STPeach live their worst nightmares in Face Your Fears. Will they be able to stomach the terror to win $100K for charity? Visit http://www.vrcharitychallenge.com for more info!

Learn more about our two awesome charities:

Stack Up Website: https://stackup.org/

Take This Website: http://www.takethis.org/

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With Christmas rapidly approaching, Bandai Namco Entertainment’s asked Santa Claus to deliver a gift early. He’s obliged, and on December 18 the company’s 3D fighting game, SoulCalibur VI, will add NieR: Automata‘s 2B to its growing list of playable characters.

The announcement comes via the company’s official UK Twitter account. As noted by Comic Book, no price for the additional character has been revealed yet, but there’s speculation that she could cost an estimated $5.99 (or free for those who purchased the Deluxe Edition).

Bandai Namco initially revealed the addition of Yoko Taro’s character back in October. The official SoulCalibur Twitter account posted a video of the announcement to the social media site, confirming that “2B from @NieRGame joins the battle of souls and swords in #SOULCALIBUR VI!” This came just seven months after The Witcher‘s Geralt of Rivia was confirmed as a playable character.

2B, whose full name is YoRHa No.2 Type B (with “B” standing for Battle), is the game’s third DLC character. The game’s season pass includes five DLC packs–three additional characters, two sets of creation parts–and Tira as a bonus playable character.

In our SoulCalibur VI review, we called it “a fighting game that’s easy to recommend” with “a low barrier to entry and high skill ceiling” that has “some of the most substantial single-player content in any fighting game today.” Soul Calibur VI is available now on PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One.

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