Category: Gamespot

There are new skins coming to Playerunknown’s Battlegrounds coming on August 3, so you’ll soon have several more options for customizing your character. However, you’ll have to pay to get access to some of them.

All of the skins are inspired by Battle Royale, the film that features a competition structured much like PUBG. They come in three crates, each of which can be bought with in-game currency. The first two contain one skin each (along with other cosmetics) and can be opened for free. The third, however, contains five skins, and it requires a key to unlock. You can buy this key for $2.50.

Developer Bluehole says that the proceeds from sales of the key will partly go toward funds for the organization and prize pool for PUBG’s first big tournament at Gamescom; part of the proceeds will also be given to charity. You can read more about the tournament here.

This group of skins is meant to be a first taste of a larger cosmetic system that Bluehole plans to implement following the game’s full launch. “We’re aware that many of you want new in-game skins to further customize your character,” the developer stated in a Steam post. “While we won’t be rolling out the full system until we move out of early access, we would like to provide more content as well as test the basic crate and key system we want to implement in the final version of the game.”

The addition of paid cosmetics comes sooner than Bluehole has said in the past; previously, it has said that it wouldn’t implement it until the game leaves Early Access. However, in an interview with GameSpot, the developer explained that it might need to roll out the system early to test it.

Battlegrounds’ next big update comes on August 3, as well, and it adds dedicated first-person servers. Bluehole is also patching in a field-of-view slider for the first-person perspective and a new rifle.

If you’ve been looking forward to trying out the new maps that are in development for the game, you’ll have to wait a while longer: Bluehole said recently that the maps are still early, and it’ll take several more months before they’re playable.

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Nintendo has detailed its financial performance for the three month period April 1 to June 30, 2017, and reported a significant increase in sales when compared to the same period in 2016. Nintendo cited sales as $1.3 billion, which is a 148% increase over 2016’s $553 million.

Operating profit was also shown to be an improvement over 2016’s, reaching $144 million, compared to $45 million last year. In a statement released alongside the financial report, Nintendo confirmed Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, which launched in April, has sold 3.5 million units worldwide.

Arms, which launched in April and has only been on sale for around two months, was described as being “off to a good start with 1.18 million units sold globally.” The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild was released in March (the previous financial quarter) and “continued to perform well, selling 1.16 million units.” Cumulative sales of the game have reached 3.92 million units.

Nintendo has not clarified whether the The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild sales mentioned above are just for Switch, or if they also include sales of the Wii U version.

In total, the Nintendo Switch hardware sold 1.97 million units for this three month period, while software sales were at 8.14 million units. You can read further analysis of Nintendo Switch sales here.

Nintendo 3DS title Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia was highlighted as being “popular” in Japan and overseas, but specific sales numbers for the game were not provided. The Nintendo 3DS hardware, meanwhile, was 950,000 units, representing a 1% increase over the same period in 2016. 3DS software sales were 5.85 million units, a year-on-year decrease of 31%.

Nintendo launched mobile titles Super Mario Run and Fire Emblem Heroes in its previous financial year and noted that “smart device and IP related income was around $80 million, which it says is a 450% year on year increase.

Looking ahead, Nintendo highlighted Splatoon 2, which is out now, and Super Mario Odyssey, which launches in October, as two of its key titles. The New Nintendo 2DS XL was also mentioned, alongside the releases of Pokemon Ultra Sun/Moon and Hey! Pikmin for that platform.

Of course, the eagerly-anticipated launch of the Super NES Classic Edition was also factored into its future performance, alongside “new [mobile] game applications and continued operations” of existing ones.

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Ubisoft’s pirates-themed naval warfare game Skull & Bones sounds like it won’t be coming to Nintendo Switch. Creative director Justin Farren told GameSpot that Skull & Bones has a rich and beautiful world, something that might not be possible to replicate on Switch.

“Our world is pretty rich in terms of the world that we’re bringing to life,” Farren told GameSpot from developer Ubisoft Singapore’s office this week. “We haven’t really talked too much about the Switch, but if that becomes a reality then we would maximise the strengths of the Switch.”

Although Skull & Bones may not come to Switch, Ubisoft is bringing titles such as Rayman Legends, Steep, and Just Dance 2017.

We also quizzed Farren about Microsoft’s highly anticipated Xbox One X console, which comes out in November. He said he couldn’t say much about Ubisoft’s plan for the console, but he stressed that the company is platform-agnostic, so you can expect to see Ubisoft make the most of the super-powerful console.

“There’s not too much I can say about any specific console, but I will say that we’re targeting [PC and consoles]—every bit of the technical team is focused on making sure we maximise the strength of the consoles we’re targeting,” Farren explained. “So when you read about more memory or rendering, those are things we’re leveraging.

“The platforms themselves—our approach is fairly agnostic. [We want to] make sure that if you own a particular platform , you feel like you’re getting the best Skull & Bones experience possible.”

Skull & Bones, which was announced at E3 in June, is an intriguing-looking naval warfare battle game where players try to sink their enemies in the Indian Ocean. Developer Ubisoft Singapore made the naval battle sequences in Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag. The studio has contributed to many Assassin’s Creed games over the years as a co-developer; and it also made the canceled Ghost Recon: Phantoms. Skull & Bones is the studio’s first title as a lead developer since then.

Keep checking back with GameSpot for lots more on Skull & Bones, including details on the narrative elements and more.

• Why Skull And Bones Is Not An Assassin’s Creed Spinoff

Ubisoft paid for GameSpot’s travel and accomodation to Singapore and Shanghai.

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Felmyst, a private World of Warcraft server developed by fans and designed to emulate Blizzard’s MMO as it was in 2007, when its Burning Crusade expansion launched, has been shut down. The server launched on July 21, but was shut down just a few hours later.

Gummy52, a developer on the project, posted an image of a cease-and-desist letter from Mitchell Silberberg & Knupp LLP, a legal firm representing World of Warcraft developer Blizzard. The letter stated that the server constitutes an infringement of Blizzard’s intellectual property.

“We understand that through your involvement with Felmyst, you are engaged in the development, distribution, and hosting of so-called ’emulated server’ software (hereafter, the ‘Infringing Services),’” the letter reads. “Among other things, [these] Infringing Services allow users to play altered and/or illegitimate copies of WoW online [without] the need for a legitimately-purchased copy or subscription.”

ArsTechnica has further details on the letter, which goes on to state that “Blizzard has never authorized and, in fact, expressly prohibits the forgoing activity.”

It continues: “Our client’s copyrights are extremely valuable and Blizzard takes this matter very seriously. As you can appreciate, your activity causes serious and irreparable injury to the value and integrity of our client’s products and intellectual property.”

In an accompanying post, which now replaces the Felmyst website and forums, Gummy52 said the server was the culmination of four years of work. He added that a muscular dystrophy condition prevents him from moving to another country as “an alternative means to host the server.”

Part of the issue seems to be the amount of people that have suddenly taken an interest in the legacy server. The intention was to have a small community of players enjoying a classic version of the game, but this hasn’t been possible. Gummy52 said he is unwilling to hand off the project to someone else as, given the increased attention the server has received, “the market to wrongfully profit from this stuff is much too lucrative to hand it out on a whim.”

“I am sad that things didn’t turn out the way I’d hoped but I don’t think I’d change any of the decisions I made,” he continued. “I gambled that we could cap the servers at 3k and enjoy a close community. Sadly, I did not win that gamble, though on some level it was nice to see so many people eager to enjoy something I worked on. This project gave the last four years of my life a sense of purpose that I thoroughly enjoyed.”

Last year, Blizzard shut down a popular legacy server called Nostralrius that rolled the game back to its vanilla version. Following that, Blizzard met with the developers of Nostralrius. The server’s project manager said, at the meeting, the Blizzard team appeared to be in favor of having legacy servers in the game.

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The new Pokemon Go update allows you to catch Legendary Pokemon, Lugia and Articuno. To catch them, you need to participate in each Pokemon’s accompanying Raid.

Below you can find details on what Raids are and what you need to do to find and catch the game’s first two legendary Pokemon.

What is a Raid?

For the uninitiated, Raids are special limited-time encounters where you can team up with friends to simultaneously fight powerful Pokemon at Gyms. Each Raid has its own special Pokemon you fight, which upon defeating it, allows you the opportunity to catch it. Raids are graded from one to five: a level one is a relatively weak Pokemon, a level four is powerful Pokemon, and a level five is a Legendary Pokemon.

Keep in mind, Raids are only active for as long as their designated timer indicates. In addition, Raids are only available at select Gyms for Trainers over level 5.

How To Access a Raid

Raids can only be accessed via a Raid Pass, which you can acquire from gyms or purchase from the shop for 100 PokeCoins. You can only receive one Raid Pass per day; though, if you’ve got cash to spare, you can also purchase additional with real money. Up to 20 players are allowed to enter a Raid together. And similar to Gym fights, you can take six Pokemon with you. Here are directions on how to spot a Raid:

1. When a Raid is about to begin, an Egg will appear at a Gym with a countdown. After it hatches, the Gym transforms into a Raid and you will be given an allotted time to clear it. If there are no Raids in direct sight, you can track ongoing Raids using your tracking radar.
2. After spending a Raid Pass, you’ll be put into a lobby where you can adjust your team. Once a Raid begins, you have five minutes to defeat the Pokemon. If you fail to defeat the Raid Boss, you and your allies can keep retrying without spending another pass until the time is up.
3. When you complete the Raid, you receive 3,000 XP, 1,000 Gym Badge XP, additional items, and a chance to catch the Pokemon. Once the countdown is over, the Raid location will transform back into a Gym and all Pokemon originally assigned to it will return.

How To Catch Lugia and Articuno

Both Lugia and Articuno can only be found in what are called Legendary Raids. While these special Raids normally require a Legendary Raid Pass, they are currently accessible with a normal pass. Take advantage of the opportunity while you can.

Like normal Raid bosses, Legendaries have a five-minute timer, and after you defeat them, you’ll be rewarded with 13,000 XP. To best these two powerful foes, make sure to bring a roster of your strongest Pokemon. In addition, round up at least 10-12 people to fight alongside you; you’re going to need as much as help as you can get.

During the capture phase, make smart use of the Golden Razz Berries you just earned from the battle (pull up your berries list and swipe to the left to find them) to make it easier to land your Pokeballs. They don’t guarantee you’ll catch the legendary creature, but every little bit helps! After all, you’re only given five balls to capture a Legendary, so make it count.

Have you discovered any additional tips or tricks to landing these elusive catches? Let us know in the comments below.

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