Ultima creator Richard Garriott no longer plays Pokemon Go.
Asked on Twitter to explain why he quit the popular free-to-play game, Garriott said there are a number of reasons, including the game’s “grind” and a lack of compelling content.
Time to grind level went past weeks, lack of new/varied content, realization of “steady state end game” saw no real differentiated strategy. https://t.co/qekkhhWV17
Sony’s new God of War game for PlayStation 4 won’t show up at the PlayStation Experience event in November. This is according to game director Cory Barlog, who said on Twitter that he “won’t be showing anything of the game at PSX.” He will be at the event, but only to “hang out with PlayStation fans and play games.”
In another tweet, Barlog said the wait will be worth it. “I promise we will be showing something really awesome when it is ready,” he said.
Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare developer Infinity Ward has outlined the changes it’s making to the game following the game’s two multiplayer betas earlier this month.
In a lengthy post on Reddit titled “What We Learned from the Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare Beta,” Infinity Ward talked about changes to weapons, modes, and more. In terms of weapons, the consistency of shotgun damage has been increased, while shotgun damage at longer range has also been increased.
Snipers are changed as well, as the game has been updated to have “more flinch” when snipers are shot. Additionally, sniper weapons no longer have aim assist until the optic “fully reaches the player’s eye.”
Outside of weapons changes, health regeneration time has been reduced. As for matchmaking tweaks, Infinity Ward said its “potential player evaluation” was “too strict,” leading to longer waits for matches. The developer already addressed this in the beta, “leading to shorter matching times.”
Additionally, the developer has fixed a geolocation problem that caused some players to be categorized as being in a region where they weren’t. Another thing that got fixed in the beta was a problem where queueing into a join-in-progress match was taking too long.
You can see all the Infinite Warfare beta changes below.
Infinite Warfare launches on November 4 for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC. A remastered version of Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare also launches that day, but the only way to get it is to buy one of the premium versions of Infinite Warfare, which start at $80.
We received a ton of great data from the Beta, allowing us to take a hard look at all of the guns and we will make changes as needed. Here are some of the immediate tweaks we will be implementing.
• Shotguns
o Increased the consistency of shotgun damage
o Shotgun damage at longer range has been increased
o Slightly increased the one shot kill range.
o Both the Reaver and Banshee have received a slight bonus to their 1 trigger pull kill range
• Snipers
o Bullet spread at the hip no longer gets smaller as the player ADS’s. Once the scope reaches the player’s eye, the bullet spread goes instantly to zero.
o Sniper aim assist was reduced slightly for the KBS Longbow and the other bolt action snipers. Our turn rate while Aimed Down Sights is still slowed to help with precision aiming.
o Sniper-class weapons no longer have any Aim Assist until the optic fully reaches the player’s eye.
o For the ELO and Scout optics on snipers, the idle sway while ADS has been increased along with the player’s view bounce when moving. Because these optics are less zoomed in, the view bounce and the sway are felt less. These changes are to promote more stationary aiming and firing with these optics.
o The Tracking Chip optic’s visuals have been improved
o Reduced bonus of the Quickdraw attachment on snipers
o Updated snipers to have more flinch when getting shot.
• Launchers
o The Howitzer Grenade launcher can now be fired from the hip instead of requiring full ADS
* • SMGs*
o The RPR Evo epic variant (Ripper) has had a tuning pass to increase recoil given its bonus fire rate
PERKS & RIG TRAITS
• Marksman – We fixed a bug where, in addition to reducing flinch, it was also reducing recoil. This would then stack with Gun Perks and the Foregrip Attachment. This bonus reduction has been removed.
• Momentum – Fixed issues with speed not being retained
• Marked Target – The temporary red marker on the victim has been toned down
HEALTH REGEN AND SPAWNING
• Health Regen time has been reduced
• Infusion bonus reduced
• Continuing to refine spawn system on beta maps, will assess remaining launch maps in live environment
ECONOMY
• Increased salvage gain in mission teams.
• Changed currency value in supply drops.
• Increased drop rate of keys in round-based modes.
SCORESTREAKS AND RIGS
• AP-3X
o Increased health, bullet damage, and weapon accuracy up close to help with target acquisition
• RC-8
o Increased health, increased weapon accuracy to help with target acquisition, slight increase in fire rate, and slight damage increase on splash damage
• T.H.O.R
o Increased speed of tracking rockets
o Increase damage of both tracking and straight fire rockets
• Bombardment
o Slight decrease in both time to the initial drop and the time between each subsequent drop
o Updated area damage to be consistent inner to outer
• Rigs
o Refining payload balance
o Slight tweaks to gameplay balance across rigs
MODES
• Defender: When carrying the Drone, the score-per-second bonus has been bumped from 5 score per second to 10 score per second. Scorestreak carrier bonus is unaffected.
• Gun Game: Now features all classic weapons. In future updates, weapons with alternate functions will retain their state upon spawn.
• Domination: When you step off a flag, the current capture bar progress starts to decay. The rate of this decay has been halved from the Beta. This allows players to hop off a flag to defend it and then get back on the flag with less progress loss
MATCHMAKING
• Potential player evaluation was too strict. We were doing some very thorough testing of your connection to other players before placing you in a lobby with those players. This turned out to be a bit too thorough, and eventually was relaxed, leading to shorter matching times.
• Incorrect geographic categorization. There was an issue in our geolocation system which was causing some players to be incorrectly categorized. This was also resolved during the beta, improving matchmaking times.
• Dead lobby cleanup. The process which cleans up unused or dead lobby information from our back end was taking too long. This was causing a number of slowdowns when searching for a match.
• The matchmaker was always quite good at generating new lobbies, but one thing we noticed was that queueing into a join in progress situation was taking much longer. This was due to some issues in the way we track information about the lobbies that are currently playing a match. These issues were also addressed during the beta, and sped up the join in progress case immensely.
TTK (TIME TO KILL / ENGAGEMENT)
• We know a lot of you had different experiences with TTK during the Beta. With the above adjustments to dedicated servers, matchmaking, and weapon tuning, we think you’ll find that the TTK will be more balanced at launch, both on the attacking and receiving end. We’ll continue to monitor and balance throughout the year as need and would love your feedback in the process.
• We’re always looking at TTK and will continue to balance and monitor
DEDICATED SERVERS
• One of the major infrastructure changes we made this project was how dedicated server allocations work. We’re using a new load balancing system on the servers themselves, as well as pretty heavily changed how the game chooses a datacenter to use, and requests a dedicated server from that datacenter.
• At the start of the Beta, you may have noticed some host migrations and some poorer quality matches. We discovered some issues where the new system was dropping our dedicated server utilization numbers way below target. After some tweaks and fixes we were able dramatically improve our dedicated server utilization for the second weekend and beyond.
A crowdfunding campaign for what’s being called the “ultimate gaming deodorant” has gone live on Kickstarter. Creator Tim L Cooley says in the announcement video that, “I wanted to do something for the community that we really needed. So we came up with a deodorant line. Because we know it’s something in this industry that’s a really big need.”
He’s asking for $25,000 to get the project off the ground. As of October 29, funding stands at $1,162. The campaign wraps up on November 24, so there is still a lot of time left. Check out a video for the deodorant, called Plus Five, in the video below (via Kotaku).
You might be wondering what Plus Five smells like. “It seems like many gamers they feel like it should smell like a combination of Mountain Dew, Cheetos, and pizza, but it actually smells really nice,” Cooley said. He specified that it’s a “blend of lavender, coriander, and orange flower.”
Some Pokemon trading cards are rare, but then there’s the Pikachu Illustrator promo hologram card from 1998. Only 39 are believed to have been ever released.
So it’s not a total surprise, then, that an auction for one of these is expected to fetch top dollar. According to IGN, auction site Heritage Auctions believes the card will bring in $50,000.
“What makes it so rare is that it was not sold, but awarded as a prize in an illustration contest through CoroCoro Comic,” reads a line from its description.
Three first place winners got the card, along with 20 second place winners. Cards were given out in other contests that year, meaning there are a maximum of 39 copies ever released. Heritage Auctions notes that this card is certified authentic, “a very important note because there are many counterfeit copies.”
Welcome to another weekend. Here’s a recap of some of the week’s biggest stories and others you may have missed.
The Big Stuff:
The waiting is the hardest part, but wait we must. Nintendo confirmed this week that it will hold a presentation in January 2017 where it will reveal the Nintendo Switch’s price, system specs, and launch lineup. Don’t expect any other big news about the console until then, at least not from Nintendo. [Full story]
Sega may never make an open-world Sonic game, but that doesn’t mean no one will. One fan has started a fan project for an open-world Sonic game and the early results look pretty promising. See the footage and get the details at Kotaku.
What’s being called Cuba’s first independent video game has launched a crowdfunding effort. The game is called Savior, and it’s a 2D platformer in which the characters discover they’re actually in a game. The campaign was launched by Cuban multimedia artist Josuhe Pagliery, the founder of Empty Head Games. The team is looking for $10,000 on Indiegogo to get the project off the ground.
The hunt is on for a Battlefield 1 Easter egg involving headphones and Morse code. DICE is known for its elaborate Easter eggs, and it looks like this could be just the latest one. Read more at GamesRadar.
Nintendo’s iconic platformer has loads of coins to collect. But you will never collect this one coin. Check out this in-depth video to learn more about the unobtainable coin and the story behind it.
Collider has a great interview with Westworld star Jimmi Simpson. Among other things, he talks about how Episodes 1-4 of the HBO sci-fi/western are just a “warm up” for what’s to come. Read the interview here.
It’s almost Halloween. Sony is celebrating with a “Sale of the Dead” on the PlayStation Store, offering discounts on spooky games for PS4, PS3, and PS Vita. See all the deals here.
World of Warcraft’s new 7.1 patch for the Legion expansion came out this week. Return to Karazhan, as the patch is called, adds a new raid and makes PvP changes, among a long list of other things. Get all the details on WoW’s 7.1 patch here on Blizzard’s website.
The next expansion for Cities: Skylines is called Natural Disasters. As the name suggests, this add-on is all about horrible things that can happen to your city, like an earthquake, a flood, a fire, or a tornado. Publisher Paradox has now released a trailer for the expansion–and it looks great.
You might not have asked for it, but someone has launched a Kickstater campaign for the “ultimate gaming deodorant.” They want $25,000 to make it a reality. Read all about it at the page here.
What’s it going to take for Alan Wake 2 to happen? According to Xbox boss Phil Spencer, developer Remedy has to want to make it. He said that in an interview with Stevivor recently, suggesting that Remedy may be looking at other ideas instead.
Now that Destiny’s Halloween event is underway, people have recreated the music video from Michael Jackson’s Thriller using the new content. Very cool.
Each week we search and gather up the coolest comic book art you won’t see in actual comics. The reason you won’t is because professional artists often draw sketches for fun or commissions and post them on their websites, blogs, and Tumblrs. Some artists even arrange commissions through their sites so be sure to check them out. This is a way to see the artists working on one book draw characters from other comics or publishers.
Marcio Takara has been taking commissions and posted some on his Tumblr.
Todd Nauck posted new sketches on his Tumblr this week.
Michael Walsh has been posting sketches this month for Inktober on his Instagram.
Mahmud Asrar posted more pre-show commissions from NYCC on his Tumblr.
Mike Henderson posted new sketches on his Instagram. You can buy his original art here.
Ryan Ottley posted sketch covers he did for a comic opening in Modesto, California on his Tumblr.
Marcus To posted commissions from Paris Comicon on his Instagram.
Denis Medri posted a couple new sketches on his Deviant Art page.
Chris Giarrusso has a David S. Pumpking/Walking Dead sketch cover for sale here. He also put up sketch cards on his website.
Remasters are commonplace at this stage, but when a game as beloved as Skyrim is revamped, people take notice. The 2011 hit thrived on PC thanks to powerful hardware and a flood of user-created mods. Skyrim was popular on consoles as well, but the Xbox 360 and PS3 ports were far and away inferior, with muddy visuals, diminished frame rates, and extended load times.
With the new Special Edition release, console players are almost on equal footing now—the one exception being Bethesda is controlling which mods are available on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. Platform parity aside, Skyrim Special Edition is a significantly improved console version of the now-classic game.
If you’ve always wanted to give Skyrim a try, there’s no time like the present, but beware: it’s easy to lose yourself in the game. In his 2011 review, Kevin VanOrd wrote: “The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim doesn’t rely on sheer scope to earn its stripes. It isn’t just that there’s a lot to do: it’s that most of it is so good. Whether you’re slashing a dragon’s wings, raising the dead back to life, or experimenting at the alchemy table, Skyrim performs the most spectacular of enchantments: the one that causes huge chunks of time to vanish before you know it.” (GameSpot’s The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Review)
Revisiting Tamriel
For players who’ve already sunk 100 hours into Skyrim, are the remastered elements in the Special Edition reason enough to jump back in? Here’s what GameSpot Editor, Scott Butterworth, has to say after six hours on PlayStation 4:
If you’re booting up The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Special Edition expecting to be overwhelmed by transcendent visual splendor, you’re much more likely to be disappointed than blown away. Skyrim’s visual upgrade is noticeable but by no means incredible, and many of its uglier elements–like its off-putting character models–persist. But here’s the thing: That’s totally OK.
The PS4 and Xbox One versions’ visuals are now on par with the game PC players have been enjoying for years. The brighter colors and crisper textures make the experience more immersive than ever for console owners. Where previously, for example, enemies in dark caverns might momentary blend into their blurry, muddy backgrounds, lighting and textures are now improved to a point where visual sloppiness no longer impacts the gameplay.
And that’s the key: Skyrim is, without question or caveat, one of the greatest RPGs ever made. The fact that console gamers can now enjoy the experience even more as a direct result of the remaster’s visual updates is a positive turn of events. Yes, it’s somewhat disappointing that even this updated version of Skyrim can’t match modern graphics (or even certain recent remasters like Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare HD). But the game looks objectively better–as if a blurry, gray filter has suddenly been lifted–and the new visuals allow for an even deeper appreciation of Skyrim’s rich leveling, multifaceted combat, vast open world, and deep well of side content.
If you somehow missed Skyrim when it originally launched five years ago, you owe it to yourself to play the game, and Special Edition is unquestionably your new best option to do that.
That appreciation is further deepened by another crucial improvement: shorter loading times. Previously, ducking into a shop or entering a dungeon would trigger an oppressively long loading screen. Now, however, those same instances pass in maybe a quarter of the time. Given how frequently you’ll encounter loading screens in Skyrim, that’s actually a more meaningful improvement than the upgraded graphics.
Skyrim’s infamous glitches seem to have subsided as well, at least to some degree. I did notice some characters clipping through objects and my companion randomly spawned at the bottom of a cliff when I walked out of a particular dungeon. But I didn’t encounter any floating mammoths or broken objectives, and my companion–when he wasn’t busy spawning in weird locations–did a decent job of staying out of the way during combat.
Admittedly, my time with the game thus far has been brief. I’ve played roughly six hours on PS4, which is a drop in the bucket compared to the 150 hours I spent in the original Skyrim. There’s still a chance I’ll encounter more bugs as I progress further into the game. On the flip side, however, I also still need to explore Skyrim’s three major DLC packs–all of which are into Special Edition–as well as the healthy collection of mods already approved and available for console players.
If you somehow missed Skyrim when it originally launched five years ago, you owe it to yourself to play the game, and Special Edition is unquestionably your new best option to do that. And if you did play Skyrim, you now have an valid excuse to return to Tamriel’s snowy northern region and complete all those guild missions you missed. The core game feels just as engrossing and exhilarating now as it did back in 2011. Frankly, the only players who don’t stand to gain anything from Special Edition are PC players who’ve been consistently modding and playing the game for the past five years. If that’s not you, Skyrim Special Edition is an easy recommendation.
When Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare was revealed, developer Infinity Ward talked to GameSpot about how its futuristic shooter’s story inspiration comes from war as opposed to sci-fi. Now, lead concept artist Thomas Szakolczay tells us that the studio wanted to recapture the feel and “grit” of World War II.
“We didn’t want [sci-fi] to be the focus,” he said. “We still wanted it to feel like war was happening and it was almost like we wanted to have the grit of a World War II game; that same kind of character development, that same progression of comradery, the same sort of visceral feel, but with the addition of space.
“It’s our origins and the best war stories were told during World War II,” Szakolczay continued. “There was a clear enemy and a clear heroic force and we just wanted to capture that again.”
Going to World War II stories to borrow elements and retell battles in a different context are some of the ways Szakolczay says Infinity Ward is using that inspiration to make Infinite Warfare feel like a military game. He told us the intergalactic setting was decided on early in development, and it would have been easy for the developer to go “really hardcore” towards science-fiction, neglecting that military feel it wants to communicate.
“We really had to rein ourselves in at all times, just so we made sure that it felt like a war game,” he explained. “There were points where it just wasn’t feeling military and we just had to check ourselves, go back to the drawing board, start redesigning stuff and then really identify what makes something feel like an authentic piece of military hardware.”
Szakolczay praised James Cameron’s Aliens for its ability to retain a military feel in a sci-fi setting, adding that he wanted to find a middle-ground between war and space in a similar way.
At launch, the remastered game’s multiplayer will only feature 10 of the original Modern Warfare maps. Activision plans to release the other six by the end of 2016.
The Legend of Zelda spinoff Hyrule Warriors‘ final DLC is just days from release, and Nintendo has released a new video that gives us a look at how its two new characters will fight on the 3DS.
The first to be showcased is Yuga and his magic wand, which he uses to mess up a whole bunch of Stalchildren in both up-close and ranged fashion. Then it’s the silly shopkeeper Ravio’s turn, who wields a hammer that’s just a little too heavy for him. He also uses a boomerang, ice rod, and bombs in some interesting ways. You can check both characters out in the trailer above.
The DLC also comes with a new map for the game’s Adventure mode based on Lorule, the dark world version of Hyrule from The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds. It features additional hearts and high-ranked weapons for Ravio and Yuga, among other things.
In addition to all this, 17 costumes and 15 Fairy Wear outfits will be released as well. Some of these include new costumes for Kid Link, Midna, Ruto, Agitha, and Fi. You can check these out, and the rest of the DLC, in the image gallery below.
In GameSpot’s review, Hyrule Warriors scored an 8/10. Critic Miguel Concepion praised its “delightful Legend of Zelda fan service,” “rhythmic combat,” and successful blend of “Dynasty Warriors map management with Zelda-style objectives.”
