Blog

Halo: The Master Chief Collection‘s next update will be available within the next few days, potentially a little later than initially planned, 343 Industries has announced.

343 Industries said that the content update is undergoing further testing, but for now it has released detailed notes on what the update will include. As it previously said, the update will focus on UI, matchmaking, game-specific multiplayer and campaign, controls, and stability.

“We continue to work on additional content updates that will include added improvements for matchmaking, parties, and other top community items,” 343 Industries said.

Below are the content update notes as written by 343 Industries.

MATCHMAKING:

• Improved matchmaking search success rates.
• Made an update to reduce instances of “Awaiting Privileges” matchmaking errors.
• Made an update to ensure player counts more reliably match the expected numbers for each playlist.
• Fixed an issue where player would sometimes appear to be searching in an incorrect “FIND GAME” screen.
• Added countdown sound effect to the voting timer.

GENERAL MULTIPLAYER:

• Made several improvements to party joining through the in-game Roster.
• Made an update to ensure that the mute icon is visible while in Matchmaking.
• Fixed an issue in Halo 4 where players could equip the same weapon as their primary and secondary weapons.

GENERAL CAMPAIGNS:

• Made several improvements to stat tracking for Halo: CE, Halo 2, Halo 3, and Halo 4.
• Made changes to Halo 3 and Halo 4 scoring to ensure that players are not penalized for destroying empty vehicles.

GENERAL MENU:

• Lowered the music volume level in multiplayer menus.
• Fixed an issue where friend emblems in roster would show up as default when exiting a game session.
• Made updates to UI and menus to improve multiplayer status messaging, such as when a player joins your lobby.

CONTROL LAYOUTS:

• Made an update to the Halo 2 Anniversary “Legacy” Stick Layout.

STABILITY:

• Made stability improvements across multiple titles for campaign and multiplayer.

The Master Chief Collection launched in November, and immediately faced a number of networking issues that made the game near-unplayable for some. 343 has worked consistently since then to fix the game’s online woes, which have now been largely eradicated. In a bid to make it up to fans, Microsoft is giving Master Chief Collection owners a free copy of Halo 3: ODST and more.

Got a news tip or want to contact us directly? Email news@gamespot.com

Powered by WPeMatico

It appears that Blizzard Entertainment is sending some players who have been World of Warcraft subscribers for 10 years the statue you can see in this picture.

“The orc statue is a constant presence in our life at Blizzard entertainment. It’s where we meet to talk, to eat, to celebrate,” a note on the bottom of the base of the statute reads. “As we celebrate ten years of World of warcraft, we present this token of appreciation to you, stalwart adventurer. Thank you for being a constant presence in our lives as we adventure together.”

According to mmo-champion, Blizzard said that to be eligible for this gift, a player must have created a World of Warcraft account within 60 days of the game’s release in America or Europe. Players who are eligible should have received an email at the address listed on their Battle.net accounts. If you did not receive that email by now, you’re probably not getting the statue.

World of Warcraft recently celebrated its 10 year anniversary. GameSpot marked the occasion as well with a 10-part video series, featuring 10 interviews with the real-life citizens of Azeroth.

For more on the game, check out our previous coverage of World of Warcraft.

Image credit: Battle.net forum user Smitti.

Got a news tip or want to contact us directly? Email news@gamespot.com

Powered by WPeMatico

Hatred, the controversial massacre simulator, has received an Adults Only rating from the Entertainment Software Rating Board, the organization that rates games in North America.

“Well, I’m not quite convinced why Hatred got AO rating while it lacks any sexual content, but it’s still some kind of achievement to have the second game in history getting AO rating for violence and harsh language only,” a Destructive Creations developer said on the game’s official forum. “Even if this violence isn’t really that bad and this harsh language is not overused. The guy from ESRB (by the way – very nice, polite and cooperative one) told me it’s all about ‘the context’ which people they’re testing gameplay video on will see.”

The Adults Only, or AO rating, is the harshest rating the ESRB has for content. It’s rarely used, and is described by the ESRB as suitable for ages 18 and up for prolonged scenes of intense violence, graphic sexual content, and/or real money gambling. All three major console manufacturer—Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo—have a policy that forbids publishing Adults Only-rated games on their platforms, so unless Destructive Creations changes to content in Hatred, we won’t see it released on the Xbox One and PlayStation 4.

Hatred was pulled from Steam Greenlight recently and then reinstated a little more than a day later, following an intervention by Valve managing director Gabe Newell. However, Valve has never made Adults Only-rated games available for sale on Steam before.

“I would prefer to get a standard M+ rating, because with AO we will have problems to get to consoles in the future, but on the other hand I think you guys (our fans) would be disappointed with it,” the Destructive Creations developer said.

For more on the game, check out GameSpot’s previous coverage of Hatred.

Got a news tip or want to contact us directly? Email news@gamespot.com

Powered by WPeMatico

Facebook Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg thinks that virtual reality is still in its early stages of development, but that it could replace our smartphones and computers in the future.

“You guys all remember the first mobile phones were terrible, and that’s kind of the stage where we are now with virtual reality and augmented reality,” Zuckerberg said during a Q&A in Bogotá, Colombia. “It’s extremely early stage and the early stuff is very rough still, but I think that’s going to be a really important trend.”

Zuckerberg added that it could take between 10 to 20 years, but that eventually another computing platform will replace our smartphones and computers.

“We’re really excited about that as well,” he said. “We’re building that with Oculus which I think is by far the leader in virtual reality and it’s going to be very exciting to see how that develops.”

Facebook acquired Oculus Rift maker Oculus VR in March of last year for $2 billion. At CES 2015, Oculus VR’s vice president for product Nate Mitchell said that the company doesn’t know what Oculus Rift’s “killer app” is yet.

In November 2014, Oculus said that the consumer model of the headset is “months, not years” away, and that it will cost between $200 and $400.

You can watch the Q&A in the video below. Zuckerberg starts discussing virtual reality around the 46 minutes in.

Got a news tip or want to contact us directly? Email news@gamespot.com

Powered by WPeMatico