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Category: Gamespot

  • New Details on Battlefield Hardline's First Patch

    Electronic Arts has revealed further details of an upcoming patch that will soon be deployed across the PC and console versions of Battlefield Hardline.

    Developer Visceral, writing on the Battlefield community blog, has listed what it considers are the top five changes that the update will deliver. Among the list is a fix to its Punkbuster anti-cheat system, which some PC players had discovered was causing a spike in CPU usage.

    Though the update was first announced in late March, a release date remains unknown. “We’re still working hard every day to improve the gameplay experience to make Battlefield Hardline even more fun,” said Visceral’s multiplayer game designer Thaddeus Sasser.

    Sasser’s list, of what he considers to be the best five changes coming with the patch, can be found below.

    • Punkbuster fixes: We’re addressing some of the heavy CPU usage seen by players
    • Nvidia DirectX driver fixes: We’re working with our partners at Nvidia to create new drivers to prevent the most common crash issues
    • Extended Conquest time: We’ve extended the length of Conquest matches by increasing the number of tickets on both Large and Small
    • Fixed TDM spawns: We’ve adjusted spawn points and the spawn system for better TDM spawning
    • Multiple weapon balance tweaks: We’ve addressed some common complaints with the weapon balance, there will be more coming soon

    Meanwhile, Visceral is also preparing to introduce a “rent-a-server” program to all console versions, which will allow players to customize their multiplayer matches as well as invite friends to play.

    Found below is a detailed list of changes that the patch will deliver:

    BUG FIXES:

    • Fixed a server crash in Rescue
    • Increased the character limit in the MapList to support up to 150 maps in a rotation
    • You can now set the time limit to 0 and it disables the time limit instead of instantly ending the round in Blood Money
    • Various fixes for server crashes with rental servers (multiple issues addressed)
    • Fix for the timer in Conquest freezing when the user set the time limit higher than 800
    • Fix for MP squad join issue where after the squad leader gets disconnected, a new leader cannot kick members or disband
    • Fix for the patch awarded in released game for reaching Rank 10 in the Beta
    • Fix for Derailed Levolution where players were teleported to origin of Point B and killed in some circumstances
    • Fix for crash if the UI is disabled in the .cfg file
    • Fix for Bloodmoney exploit in HH where players could access the money pile through the floor/roof
    • Fix on XB1 for players using invite/join on friend after Quickmatching
    • Fix for the Uzi’s weapon license cost, setting it to the correct value of $50,000
    • Fix for X360 players being unable to invite friends while playing Rescue
    • Fix for a rare crash in the Customize screen
    • All platforms, miscellaneous low frequency crash fixes

    GAMEPLAY CHANGES:

    • Conquest tickets increased (CQL 999, CQS 600)
    • Greatly decreased nearby bullet impact flinch; your aimpoint will not shift from rounds striking the environment near you
    • Fixed some issues with FLIR/IRNV
    • RPG reduced to 1 ammo from back of cars, with smaller explosion radius overall thus requiring more skill to use effectively
    • TDM friendzones have been adjusted for better spawning
    • Rescue / Crosshair exploit where players could skip the round start time by hitting START or ESC has been fixed
    • Couch health reduced and repair rate decreased to a miniscule amount, making the Couch the one-off it was intended
    • Player should no longer Quickmatch into servers with unsupported numbers of players
    • K10: Reduce max damage to 33 and min damage to 8
    • Saiga and PTR: reduce recoil to bring more in line with Cop faction DMRs
    • HCAR and HK51: reduce recoil to bring more in line with SCAR-H and SA-58
    • .410 Jury: Increase damage per pellet to become more effective
    • FMG-9: increase damage per round to 25 and push out falloff start range to make these weapons more effective
    • Battlerifle min damage increased to 25 across the board
    • AKM min damage reduced to 24

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  • Destiny's Commendations Feature Getting Removed

    Bungie has released more details on an upcoming Destiny update which will remove Commendations from the game. As detailed on the Bungie site, update 1.2.0 will remove the Commendations feature.

    Players who have a surplus of Commendations will be able to “burn them for reputation” which helps players progress to their next promotion, earning an additional reward package. Commendations were first introduced in Destiny’s previous downloadable content pack, and were needed to buy armor and weapons.

    The patch notes also revealed that next Iron Banner event will take place on April 28 starting at 10AM Pacific Time. The event will introduce helmets for the first time, allowing players to complete the set. Bungie also announced when they would reveal the Trial of Osiris on a livestream, which will take place on April 29 at 11AM Pacific Time.

    Destiny’s upcoming House of Wolves expansion is set to launch on all platforms on May 19. We’ve listed a breakdown of the biggest changes the expansion will introduce, which includes a new social space, tons of new ships, weapons, and armour, and raises the level cap to at least 34.

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  • Warcraft Movie Delayed By Three Months

    Warcraft Movie Delayed By Three Months

    The upcoming Warcraft movie from Blizzard Entertainment and Legendary Pictures has had its theatrical release date pushed back three months later than its previous release date of March 11, 2016. The new release date of June 16, 2016 was announced by the Legendary Pictures official Twitter account.

    Shooting for the Warcraft film wrapped up in May last year, taking 123 days for principal photography to finish. Post-production work will be handled by Industrial Light & Magic, who has garnered awards for its work on the Star Wars films. The studio will be creating the Orcs for the film, who will be portrayed by real actors.

    The Warcraft movie was originally slated for release in December 18, 2015, but Blizzard decided to delay the film’s release after Disney announced that Star Wars: Episode VII would also be released on the same date. Last year Blizzard revealed some of the characters who will be appearing in the film, as well as the actors who will be portraying them.

    During a special presentation at Blizzcon, Warcraft director Duncan Jones said the movie will feature a lot of special effects he described as “Avatar and Lord of the Rings at the same time.” Jones has said that he hopes the film will be released in 2D and 3D.

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  • PS4 Price Slashed to £290 Following Xbox One Discount

    UK retailers have begun selling the PlayStation 4 for an all-time low price of £290, a little more than a week after Microsoft discounted the Xbox One RRP to £300.

    On shopping sites such as Tecsco, Amazon, and Argos, both black and white PS4 units are listed at £289.99, down from the previous standard price of £330 (the official RRP remains £350). Meanwhile, retailer GAME is offering a PS4 bundle with Minecraft for £290.

    These retailer deals were not enacted independently from Sony; The platform holder has even promoted the offers on its official Twitter account.

    For a limited time grab a #PS4 for £299.99 at participating retailers! -> http://t.co/0Z7qZTURB6 pic.twitter.com/JmHpRfbtjM

    — PlayStation UK (@PlayStationUK) April 22, 2015

    The deal arrives nine days after Microsoft reduced the price of the Xbox One from £330 to £300. Both platform holders say their respective discounts are a “limited time” offer; Sony states its promotion will cease April 28, while Microsoft has not yet provided a clear date for when its deal will end.

    Such offers also arrive during a seasonal reduction in video game sales, as Britain crawls into the summer months. According to NPD data, total game retail sales across the US declined 20 percent in February.

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  • H1Z1 Adding Female Character Models

    H1Z1 Adding Female Character Models

    Daybreak Game Company’s PC zombie MMO H1Z1 is aiming to introduce female characters models in the next two weeks, CEO John Smedley said in a post on Twitter. Once female avatars arrive, H1Z1 will catch up with another popular zombie title, DayZ, which already has female avatars.

    “Hoping to get the female model into H1Z1 in the next two weeks,” he said. “Trying for late next week.”

    Development on female H1Z1 character models began in March as part of a wider effort to overhaul the look and diversity of both male and female avatars. As you can see in the image below, Daybreak has designed its female characters to look “relatively typical,” if not somewhat athletic.

    “The female model will be relatively the same height as the male model, so there will be no advantage in terms of hit target space,” Daybreak art director Sebastian Strzalkowski said. “We are also creating male and female equivalent clothing. If you find a pair of jeans in H1Z1 as a male PC and wear them, you’ll have the male version visually; if you find that same pair as a female PC, you’ll have the female version visually.”

    Strzalkowski added that in-game H1Z1 clothes will be “basically” the same, though modified slightly to fit each gender. “Nothing will be restricted to either gender and there will always be a 1:1 equivalent for each one,” he explained.

    H1Z1 released through Steam Early Access back in January. Though the game experienced some server woes at launch, it has since gone on to sell more than 1 million copies in its unfinished state.

    The game is also coming to PlayStation 4, though a release date for that version has not been announced. And, although Daybreak has broken free from Sony and is eyeing Xbox support, the company has not announced any plans to bring H1Z1 to Xbox One.

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  • Batman: Arkham Knight PC System Requirements Reveal Minimum RAM is 6GB

    Batman: Arkham Knight PC System Requirements Reveal Minimum RAM is 6GB

    With just two months to go before Rocksteady Studios releases Arkham Knight, the final entry in its Batman trilogy, the developer has now revealed the game’s PC system requirements.

    As listed on Nvidia’s website, Arkham Knight will require at least 6 GB of RAM and 45 GB of hard drive space for the minimum settings, while players will need 8 GB of RAM and 55 GB of space to run the game at the recommended or ultra benchmark.

    The full minimum, recommended, and ultra PC system requirements for Arkham Knight are listed below.

    After multiple delays, the new Arkham Knight release date is has been set for June 23 on PC, Xbox One, and PlayStation 4. Arkham Knight may not be the only new Batman game coming to consoles this year. A new report claims that Batman: Arkham Asylum and Batman: Arkham City will be re-released for Xbox One and PS4 this fall.

    BATMAN: ARKHAM KNIGHT PC REQUIREMENTS

    Minimum System Requirements

    • OS: Win 7 SP1, Win 8.1 (64-bit Operating System Required)
    • Processor: Intel Core i5-750, 2.67 GHz | AMD Phenom II X4 965, 3.4 GHz
    • Memory: 6 GB RAM
    • Graphics Card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660
    • Graphics Memory: 2 GB
    • DirectX: 11
    • Network: Broadband Internet Connection Required
    • Hard Drive Space: 45 GB

    Recommended System Requirements

    • OS: Win 7 SP1, Win 8.1 (64-bit Operating System Required)
    • Processor: Intel Core i7-3770, 3.4 GHz | AMD FX-8350, 4.0 GHz
    • Memory: 8 GB RAM
    • Graphics Card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 760
    • Graphics Memory: 3 GB
    • DirectX: 11
    • Network: Broadband Internet Connection Required
    • Hard Drive Space: 55 GB

    ULTRA System Requirements

    • OS: Win 7 SP1, Win 8.1 (64-bit Operating System Required)
    • Processor: Intel Core i7-3770, 3.4 GHz | AMD FX-8350, 4.0 GHz
    • Memory: 8 GB RAM
    • Graphics Card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980
    • Graphics Memory: 3 GB
    • DirectX: 11
    • Network: Broadband Internet Connection Required
    • Hard Drive Space: 55 GB

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  • Assassin's Creed Creator, Patrice Desilets, Reveals New Project

    Assassin's Creed Creator, Patrice Desilets, Reveals New Project

    Patrice Desilets resigned from Ubisoft in 2010, rejoined the publisher in 2013, and was dismissed by the company several months later.

    Patrice Desilets, the man credited with creating the first Assassin’s Creed game, has revealed first details of his new independent project since his departure from Ubisoft two years ago.

    His new game, Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey, appears to be an episodic series based on various milestones in human progress and evolution. On Thursday, during his speech at the Reboot Develop conference in Croatia, Desilets aired a trailer showcasing key breakthrough moments in human history. No game content was shown, but the trailer showed a message that appears to explain the purpose of the project.

    Blockbusters won’t die. Triple-A won’t die. They will transform and change themselves.

    Patrice Desilets

    It read: “The minds that made you jump from rooftop to rooftop. Climb a campanile with your brother. Run on walls to avoid traps. And rewind time for your love. After having fought millions of templars, hidden in haystacks, and chased a pope, it is time for something new. For the greatest adventure of all is our own.”

    This message contains many references to the Assassin’s Creed and Prince of Persia series, though it’s unclear how closely Ancestors will resemble these flagship Ubisoft series. Desilets’ new studio, Panache Digital Games, currently employs about half a dozen developers, meaning it’s highly unlikely that Ancestors will retain the scale of the Assassin’s Creed series.

    According to the game’s description on the Panache website, Ancestors is a “third person action-adventure survival episodic game.”

    It adds: “Through each episodes, we want the player to relive the greatest moments of mankind with a documentary twist. Our civilisation is one idea away from extinction… or evolution.”

    So far, the only official art for the Ancestors project is the logo

    The Long Journey

    Desilets’ path to this point in his career has involved many sudden changes and set-backs. In 2010, Desilets left Ubisoft to found a new THQ studio in Montreal, but that publisher’s decline into bankruptcy led to Ubisoft purchasing the Montreal studio, as well as its assets and talent.

    Why do games need to be 35 hours?

    Patrice Desilets

    When back with Ubisoft, Desilets’ relationship with the publisher appeared to have broken down. In May 2013, several months into his new role, Desilets claimed he was fired by Ubisoft, and went on to sue the company.

    Hinged on that lawsuit was the ownership of a game project called 1666, which Desilets had been working on at THQ and then Ubisoft. It is believed that Ubisoft still owns the IP, but has suspended work on the project. In November 2014, Desilets announced the formation of Panache.

    Speaking to a gathering of games industry professionals on Thursday, Desilets explained that his independent studio wanted to deliver triple-A quality, but not to the scale of his previous projects.

    “What’s too short?” he asked, as quoted by Gamasutra. “These days with my team this is the question, what’s too short? Why do games need to be 35 hours? Right now we’re using big TV shows as examples, so episodic is 2 hours, now. Why is 30 minutes too short?”

    “We’re at a crossroads,” he said. “In fact we’re always at a crossroads. Don’t do what was popular last year. Blockbusters won’t die. Triple-A won’t die. They will transform and change themselves.”

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  • Bloodborne 1.03 Update Now Live, Slashing Loading Times

    A new update to the PlayStation 4 exclusive Bloodborne has significantly reduced loading times, with the wait between deaths now cut by as much as 15 seconds.

    Previously, waiting times in areas such as Central Yharnam lasted between 40-45 seconds, which has proven to be a patience-testing number given the frequency of deaths that players were subjected to. From Software, the Tokyo based studio responsible for the game, announced in March that it was “exploring” possibilities to expedite wait times, the result of which is this new patch that reduces loading screen durations by 5-15 seconds.

    The 1.03 update, which has begun to roll out across North America, Japan, and Europe, weighs 2.7GB and brings a number of other improvements and tweaks.

    Among the new changes is the implementation of text pages displayed during loading screens. Whereas before loading screens used a basic image of the Bloodborne logo, now they cycle through various descriptions of items that players encounter throughout the game.

    Bloodborne’s patch notes can be found below:

    • Reduced loading times (approx 5-15 seconds; May vary by circumstance)
    • Fixed bug that left certain lifts and elevators inoperable
    • Fixed bug that resulted in bosses becoming immobilized
    • Fixed bug that left players unable to advance NPC events during multiplayer
    • When the PS4 is put into Rest Mode during online play, the game will now return to the main title screen upon resuming play. This will resolve matchmaking issues related to Suspend/Resume.
    • Other various bug fixes

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  • Cloud 9's Hai Steps Down From Mid Lane: Retires

    Cloud 9's Hai Steps Down From Mid Lane: Retires

    Less than a week after a second place finish in the North American League of Legends Championship Series, team Cloud 9 has announced the retirement of Mid Laner Hai Lam. Citing health issues related to a wrist injury and team atmosphere as the primary reasons for his departure, the organization has yet to officially announce a replacement.

    While the change does mark the end of his professional run as a player, it will not mean the end of his time on Cloud 9. The former team captain will be staying on to assist owner Jack Etienne with partner management and team expansion.

    Hai has led Cloud 9 since its entry into the LCS in 2013, garnering fame with some of the greatest successes in competitive North American League of Legends history. These include a record 25-3 performance in the 2013 summer split, and qualifications into both the 2013 and 2014 World Championships.

    Despite a shaky start to the 2015 NA LCS Spring Split and a poor placing at IEM Katowice, Cloud 9 managed to finish second in the final standings and in the playoffs. However, the last-minute recovery was not enough to prevent analysts from speculating that roster changes might occur before the start of the summer split, especially following a report from the Daily Dot that famed (and newly unbanned) European Mid Laner Incarnation had been acquired by Cloud 9.

    Hai’s retirement occurs days after the team set the record for the longest unchanged roster in the history of League of Legends esports (via Reddit).

    In the coming days, GameSpot will be interviewing Hai to discuss his career, retirement, and what’s next.

    (Image Credit: Riot Games, Damian Estrada)

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  • Get 13 EA Games for $5

    Get 13 EA Games for $5

    The Humble Origin Bundle 2, a pay-what-you-want package from Electronic Arts that supports charity, has added new games to its ranks. Previously, the package included nine total games, but four more have been added, including SimCity 2000 and Wing Commander III, bringing the total to thirteen.

    Together, the games would cost $155, but you can pay what you want to unlock some, and pay more than the average to get the rest. Below is a breakdown of the games available through the Humble Origin Bundle 2 and what you’ll need to pay to get them.

    Up to 100 percent of proceeds from bundle sales go to charities including Girls Who Code, The V Foundation, and buildOn–EA isn’t taking a penny.

    Buyers get to decide how they want their payment to be split up between those charities, along with the Humble Bundle company itself.

    At press time, more than 426,700 bundles had been sold, generating more than $2.1 million. Games are redeemable for PC on Origin and Steam, while the bundle itself will be available for another six days.

    EA’s first Humble Origin Bundle raised more than $10.5 million for charity in 2013.

    Pay what you want and receive:

    Pay more than the current average ($4.94) and receive:

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