Category: Gamespot

The latest chapter in the Great Fallout 76 Canvas Bag Fiasco Of 2018 has unfolded. Those who received a nylon bag instead of the promised canvas bag in the $200 Power Armor Edition will indeed receive a canvas bag, the publisher confirmed in a statement.

“We are finalizing manufacturing plans for replacement canvas bags for the Fallout 76: Power Armor Edition,” the publisher said.

Those who bought the special edition can submit a ticket here to request a canvas bag. Bethesda did not say when the bags will be ready, but you need to submit a ticket by January 31.

The controversy began when purchasers of the Fallout 76 Power Armor Edition noticed the bag delivered was nylon instead of canvas as advertised. One fan reached out to Bethesda support, and received a succinct reply that the company was “not planning on doing anything about it.” The company subsequently apologized for that response, and blaming the change on “unavailability of materials.”

Bethesda initially announced it would compensate purchasers with 500 Atoms for Fallout 76, but players quickly roasted Bethesda for this, as it only amounts to $5 worth of compensation.

It is good to see Bethesda do right by players over the collector’s edition issue, but Bethesda isn’t exactly out of the woods yet as it relates to public perception. The game had a rocky launch, and reviewers generally did not like the game. What’s more, a law firm is investigating Bethesda over its Fallout 76 refund policy. Bethesda has acknowledged some “frustrating issues” surrounding the game and has committed to supporting it long-term. It has already laid out a roadmap of upcoming changes.

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The first instalment in Battlefield V‘s free DLC campaign will not make it out on schedule. Developer DICE said on Twitter that it found an unspecified “issue” with the first Tides of War content, Chapter 1: Overture, and as such, the release is being held back beyond its announced December 4 launch.

“Rather than create issues in the game, we’re holding the update for the time being,” DICE said. The studio added that it will report back with an update as soon as possible, but for now the developer said it does not anticipate “a long delay.”

The new Panzerstorm map

Whereas previous Battlefield games charged money for extra content, Battlefield V is giving it away for free through the live service element known as Tides of War. Chapter 1: Overture adds a new map, Panzerstorm, which is set in 1940 Belgium. As its name suggests, it is a tank-focused map–and DICE says up to 17 tanks can duke it out at once on the map.

The Overture update also adds the fifth War Story single-player chapter, The Last Tiger. This missions sees you playing as a Nazi soldier who is fighting not only Allied forces but also “their own doubts about doubts about the ideology that led them to their now-inevitable defeat.” You can see a brief tease for the campaign in the video below.

What’s more, Overture introduces a new training mode called Practice Range, a tutorial mode of sorts that teaches you the basics of weapons and vehicles. Additionally, the update introduces new challenges that reward players with things like soldier outfits and weapon skins, while the game also adds cosmetic customisation options for tanks and other vehicles.

On a further-out timeline, Battlefield V will introduce a battle royale mode called Firestorm in March.

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Red Dead Redemption 2‘s multiplayer mode, Red Dead Online, launched in late November as a beta–and Rockstar had said from the start that players should expect bugs and other oddities. Players have indeed discovered the experience to be less-than-optimal in some areas, one of which is the in-game economy. Players quickly found out that baked beans are more valuable than gold rings, based on Red Dead Online’s economy–and that’s probably not right.

Rockstar has now acknowledged the problems with Red Dead Online’s economy, stating on Twitter that it is working on getting the economy in a better place “to ensure all activities are appropriately rewarding and fun.” The studio needs more time to work on balancing to get this right, it said.

Outside of the in-game economy, Rockstar is also planning to address some of the “persistent bugs” related to players getting kicked out of sessions.

“The game has been developed so that we will be able to quickly make any adjustments like these,” Rockstar said. The first updates for Red Dead Online are expected to launch at the end of the week at the soonest, with more updates coming next week.

You can send feedback about Red Dead Online directly to Rockstar here. There is no word on how long the game will remain in beta form, but keep checking back with GameSpot for the latest.

Red Dead Online features new story missions set before the events of the single-player campaign that can be played solo or with others. It also features a variety of co-op and PvP modes, including Red Dead’s own battle royale mode.

Rockstar says to expect “lots more updates to the Red Dead Online beta in the coming weeks and months.” It hasn’t shared much about what to expect in terms of future updates to the game, though Grand Theft Auto V‘s extensive array of free GTA Online expansions suggests there’s plenty in store.

A future update for Red Dead Online will add the ability to purchase the in-game currency gold with real money. Gold can also be earned by playing, and it’s used to buy certain weapons and other items, as well as a shortcut to lower your Honor level.

If you pre-ordered the game or bought a special edition, here’s how to access your bonus content.

For more on Red Dead Online, check out GameSpot’s recent opinion piece, “Red Dead Online’s Beta Misses What Makes RDR 2 Great.”

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[Update] Service has been restored. [Original Story] PlayStation Network services are currently offline, which means online gaming, shopping, and communication is currently unavailable on the PS4. The PlayStation Network service status page states account management, gaming and social, PlayStation Now; Vue; Video; Store; and Music are all inaccessible.

“You may have some difficulty launching games, applications, or online features,” a message on the site reads. “Our engineers are working to resolve the issue as soon as possible, and we thank you for your patience.”

Based on messages directed at the various PlayStation support accounts on Twitter, it looks like the outage is widespread, with users both in the US and Europe reporting issues with connectivity. Sony has not provided a timeframe for when it expects services to be up and running again. The actual cause of the issue has also not been detailed.

With any luck, the problems won’t be severe and the service should be up and running again soon. Of course, outage at this time of the year immediately sparks memories of 2011, when PlayStation Network was severely compromised by hackers. In that situation, services were not restored for a significant length of time.

Downtime is fairly common with online network services, however, so as mentioned previously in most cases issues are resolved fairly quickly.

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Calling all Xbox One owners who either don’t have Gold subscriptions or have let them lapse. If you’re a Fortnite fan who wouldn’t mind having three months of Xbox Live Gold, here’s a fantastic deal that’s available right now. You can get a three-month subscription to Xbox Live Gold, plus 1,000 V-Bucks in Fortnite, for just $10 / £6. The only catch is that the deal is only open to new subscribers, or anyone who canceled their Gold membership prior to October 1, 2018. You can take advantage of the deal on Xbox.com.

Assuming you’re eligible, this deal can save you a heap of money. Normally, a three-month Gold subscription costs $25 on its own, and 1,000 V-Bucks costs $10. But instead of dropping $35 on this collection of digital goodies, you only have to pay $10.

The deal is even better in the UK, where it will only set you back £6, because 1,000 V-Bucks normally runs £7. That means you get the Fortnite cash and the Gold subscription for less than the V-Bucks would regularly cost on their own.

Now is a particularly great time to get those V-Bucks as well, because Fortnite Season 7 starts on December 6. Assuming the pricing stays the same, buying Season 7’s Battle Pass–which comes with in-game seasonal items and unlocks new challenges each week–will cost 950 V-Bucks. That will leave you with 50 V-Bucks to spend on in-game outfits, emotes, or other cosmetics.

As for Xbox Live Gold, not only does the service let you take your paid games online, but it also gets you free Xbox One and Xbox 360 games each month. This is a fantastic deal, so consider taking advantage if you’re eligible.

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For the first time in E3’s history, Sony is skipping the annual big-time gaming show next year. Microsoft, meanwhile, will attend the event. Now, Xbox boss Phil Spencer has shared some insight into why Microsoft remains committed to E3 after its biggest competitor dropped out.

According to Twinfinite, during Microsoft’s Extra Life livestream event, Spencer acknowledged how E3 has changed over the years. E3 began as a very business-focused event that retailers would attend to determine how many games to order for the holidays. That still happens, and E3 remains important for business reasons, but show is now open to the public and overall it’s taken more of a consumer and press focus in recent years. Spencer said Microsoft continues to enjoy and support E3 is because it’s a “celebration” of gaming that helps bring people today.

He admitted that Microsoft could host its own gaming event outside of E3 or a “direct” in the fashion of Nintendo. But Microsoft won’t do that because “it’s an awesome and frankly convenient way for the fans to experience video games. I think we do it because it’s a U.S. celebration in L.A. It’s easy for people in the U.S. to come to one place and just share their love of video games.”

Spencer went on to say that he hopes E3 grows bigger still in the future, while at the same time acknowledging that he also expects the show to change “in some ways” in the future.

In addition to E3, Microsoft recently resurrected its X018 event, holding the show in Mexico City last month where it announced the acquisitions of Obsidian and inXile, among other things. Spencer said in the new livestream that Microsoft is “really happy” with how X018 went, and while he stopped short of confirming a 2019 show, he said, “We want to do it again.”

Explaining its decision to not attend E3 next year, a Sony representative said, “We are exploring new and familiar ways to engage our community in 2019 and can’t wait to share our plans with you.”

The company added: “As the industry evolves, Sony Interactive Entertainment continues to look for inventive opportunities to engage the community. PlayStation fans mean the world to us and we always want to innovate, think differently and experiment with new ways to delight gamers. As a result, we have decided not to participate in E3 in 2019.”

There won’t be a PlayStation Experience event this year, either.

The major gaming companies–Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo–have all adjusted their E3 plans in recent years. In 2018, Microsoft notably moved nearly its entire presence offsite to the Microsoft Theater, with only Mixer present on the showfloor, while Nintendo has forgone live press conferences in favor of pre-recorded video presentations for the past several years. Sony, too, tried something different with its E3 2018 showing by focusing primarily on four of its upcoming games and presenting them through a “guided experience,” which garnered a mixed reaction from viewers.

While Sony is skipping E3 2019, Microsoft and Nintendo, as well as Ubisoft, Activision, Take-Two, and other notable gaming companies are confirmed to attend the event.

E3 2019 takes place June 11-13. It is notably the final show confirmed for the Los Angeles Convention Center–the venue it has traditionally been held in for much of its history. Former ESA CEO Michael Gallagher had previously said the organization may pursue other options if the LACC does not modernize and upgrade the facility.

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The next big patch for Bethesda’s multiplayer RPG Fallout 76 is coming soon, and now developer Bethesda has posted the full patch notes for the December 4 update.

As announced previously, this patch will increase the maximum stash storage to 600 pounds, and it could expand further down the road, Bethesda said. The update also introduces stability improvements to the Fallout 76 client and servers, which in turn should lead to a better experience overall.

In terms of balance changes, the Fallout 76 patch makes bosses drop 2-4 items per boss (depending on difficulty and level), while weapon damage has been increased by 20 percent “across the board,” so it sounds like you’ll feel more powerful right away with this update.

As for bug fixes, on console Bethesda has fixed an issue that could lead to an infinite loading screen when players signed out of their console while playing the game. And on Xbox One specifically, the patch addresses a crash scenario for a specific situation related to team invites. There are UI, Survival, and Perk changes, too, included in this update. You can see the full patch notes below, as posted by Bethesda on their website.

Fallout 76 launched in mid-November, and while it might not have been a hit with critics, the game quickly reached “millions” of players. The game is underperforming GameStop’s expectations, but that doesn’t necessarily mean the game is doing badly.

The December 4 update for Fallout 76 won’t be the last, as Bethesda is planning another one for December 11, while the developer overall plans to support the game for years to come.

GENERAL

• Performance: PC framerates are once again uncapped. However, reaching very high framerates will no longer cause movement speed to increase. This was originally fixed in the November 19 patch.
• Stability: The Fallout 76 game client and servers have received additional stability improvements.

C.A.M.P., CRAFTING, AND WORKSHOPS

• Stash: Maximum stash storage has been increased by 50%, to 600 pounds. This is a conservative adjustment, and we plan to increase the storage cap further in the future once we’ve verified this change does not impact the stability of the game.

BALANCE

• Enemies: XP rewards for killing high-level creatures have been reduced.
• Bosses: Fixed an issue affecting instanced Boss loot. Players should now correctly receive 2-4 items per boss, depending on the creature’s difficulty and level.
• Weapons: Automatic weapon damage has been increased by approximately 20% across the board.

PVP

• Weapon Effects: Hitting another player with a Cryolator now applies a Chilled, Frosted, or Frozen status based on how many times they are hit. The duration of movement speed reductions applied by these effects have been significantly decreased.

BUG FIXES

STABILITY AND PERFORMANCE

• Console: Fixed an issue that could cause the player to encounter an infinite loading screen when signing out of their console account while playing Fallout 76.
• Xbox: Addressed a crash that could occur when sending multiple team invites immediately after exiting Vault 76 to a player who is not a friend.

GENERAL

• Power Armor: Fixed an issue affecting Power Armor frames that could prevent the player from exiting their Power Armor.
• Nuke Silos: Flipboards inside Nuke Silos no longer display portions of launch codes too soon after the codes were reset for the week.

C.A.M.P., WORKSHOPS, AND CRAFTING

• C.A.M.P.: Moving C.A.M.P. locations will now correctly move standalone items built by the player into the build menu’s Stored tab.
• Workshops: On PS4, wires will no longer appear to float in mid-air when attempting connect two or more objects.
• Turrets: Will no longer become invisible if the player is not present at their C.A.M.P. when their turrets are destroyed.

PERKS

• Perk Cards: Ranking up a Perk Card will no longer cause a duplicate card to appear.

SOCIAL

• Teams: Fixed an issue that could prevent a team from being correctly formed in a game world after creating the team on the Main Menu when both players are using new characters.
• Teams: Display durations for social notification have been reduced when many notifications are pending. This should help address an issue in which players did not see that they successfully joined a team.

SURVIVAL

• Mutations: The Electrically Charged and Unstable Isotope Mutations no longer provide the player with bonus Health.

USER INTERFACE

• AFK: Players will now be disconnected from a game world after 10 minutes of inactivity and will be prompted with a timer 1 minute before being kicked.
• Atomic Shop: On PC, cursor position will no longer be disjointed from clicks in the Atomic Shop while using 16:10 resolutions.
• Enemies: Red crosshairs and enemy health bars will no longer persist on-screen when an enemy is no longer in view.
• Localization: Subtitles will now appear correctly, and English voiceover will play, for game clients in languages that do not have their own localized voiceover when listening to a Holotape or interacting with robots.
• Pip-Boy: Fixed an issue that could cause duplicate data to appear in the Pip-Boy’s Stat and Effects interfaces.
• Respawn: Dying while severely overencumbered will no longer remove all map markers when attempting to respawn. Instead, the player can now respawn at the nearest discovered Map Marker.
• Quest Tracker: Quest objective notifications will no longer appear for inactive Quests immediately upon connecting to a world.

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