Month: January 2019

It’s the beginning of a new month, which means new Field Research tasks are now available in Pokemon Go. Just as with December’s Field Research, if you complete enough tasks to achieve a Research Breakthrough, you’ll have a chance to encounter one of several different Legendary Pokemon, including two new possibilities: Ho-Oh and Lugia.

Following their brief return for a special Raid weekend event last month, the Pokemon Gold and Silver cover monsters are now among the Legendaries you can catch when you achieve a Research Breakthrough, joining the previously available Articuno, Zapdos, Moltres, Raikou, Entei, and Suicune. You’ll have an opportunity to encounter these Pokemon through the end of February.

In contrast to Special Research quests, which are assigned by Professor Willow and typically lead to an encounter with a Mythical Pokemon such as Meltan, Field Research tasks are acquired by spinning the Photo Disc at Poke Stops. You’ll earn a stamp for the first Field Research task you complete each day; collecting seven stamps will lead to a Research Breakthrough.

On top of the new Field Research tasks, another Legendary Pokemon, Heatran, is still available in Go. The Gen 4 Legendary debuted as a Raid boss last month immediately following Cresselia’s departure, and it’s scheduled to appear in Raid Battles until January 15.

Pokemon Go’s first Community Day of 2019 is also just around the corner. The event takes place next Saturday, January 12, and will feature the final Gen 2 starter Pokemon, Totodile. Players will also be able to hatch Eggs at a quarter of their typical required distance during the Community Day.

It’s a new month and a new year. And because we’ve breezed passed the first Tuesday in January, a fresh set of six games is available for free to all PlayStation Plus subscribers. So whether you have a PS4, PS3, or PS Vita, you can head to the PS Plus page to add the freebies to your library. Just make sure you do it before Sony changes them out for next month’s games on February 5.

PS4 owners can grab the Ubisoft extreme sports game Steep, which takes place on an open-world version of the Alps that you can descend using skis, a snowboard, or wingsuit. The other PS4 game is Portal Knights, a co-op RPG that incorporates Minecraft-like building mechanics.

If you have a PS3, you can pick up the trippy music-rhythm game Amplitude (also playable on PS4) and the robot battling bundle Zone of the Enders HD Collection. January’s games for Vita owners are the action-RPG Fallen Legion: Flames of Rebellions (playable on PS4 as well) and the arcade action-platformer Super Mutant Alien Assault.

If you use PS Plus mainly to fill out your PS3 or PS Vita game libraries, here’s a friendly reminder: starting in March 2019, Sony will no longer give away free PS3 and PS Vita games for PS Plus members. It’s unclear if anything will replace these freebies, but if you subscribe to PS Plus primarily for those free titles, consider turning off your subscription’s auto-renewal option or canceling it by then.

PlayStation Plus Games For January 2019

PS4

• Steep
• Portal Knights
• Amplitude (also on PS3)
• Fallen Legion: Flames of the Rebellion (also on PS Vita)

PS3

• Zone of the Enders HD Collection
• Amplitude (also on PS4)

PS Vita

• Fallen Legion: Flames of the Rebellion (also on PS4)
• Super Mutant Alien Assault

Monster Hunter World is welcoming another crossover from a fellow franchise, this time bringing in characters and costumes from the Assassin’s Creed series. You can earn one of two signature looks straight out of the assassin’s guild wardrobe, as long as you have the chops to take down some monsters first.

A new event quest SDF: Silent, Deadly, and Fierce drops you into an arena against some fierce monsters: Odogoron and Deviljho together, followed by Lunastra. Taking down all three will grant you a Senu’s Feather item, which Assassin’s Creed fans will recognize as a reference to Bayek’s eagle from Assassin’s Creed Origins. You can trade two feathers for a layered armor that makes you appear as Bayek himself. An Assassin hood gives you a speed boost to running, climbing, and croaching, and deals extra damage if you attack from stealth.

Capcom released a trailer showing off the special duds, complete with a (sort of) leap of faith. This is an event quest, so you’ll have a limited time to take part and earn your rewards.

Monster Hunter World has received lots of continued support, including an anniversary event coming this month. Another planned crossover will bring in Geralt, the famed monster hunter from The Witcher 3, into the game. Its first big expansion, Iceborne, is coming this fall. The user-friendly revisions paired with a lot of continued support helped earn it a spot among our favorite games of 2018.

You might have been enjoying a rare break over the festive period, but Fortnite definitely was not. Epic Games has been continuing to expand its battle royale phenomenon, and its latest update adds a new item, the Boom Box.

A specialist structure-counter, the Boom Box delivers “blasts of music that deal structure damage in a large area,” according to Epic. “Newly built walls in the radius of the box are destroyed with every blast.” Boom Boxes are discoverable in chests, and they are destroyed when shot. They deal no direct damage to players, but completely stop buildings and structures from forming and destroy them if already built.

Elsewhere, two new weapons have been added to Save the World. The Pain Train Assault Rifle has a slow rate of fire but high damage, and it’s available in the weekly store until January 9. The Tree of Light Sword, meanwhile, is available as a weekly challenge reward, and is also a high-damage weapon–it does take a while to swing, however. Check out the full patch notes below, via Epic.

Fortnite is currently in Season 7, which offers a bevy of new cosmetics for those who complete the Battle Pass. You can check out our challenge guide for tips on how to complete the various tasks and earn your stars. Meanwhile, Epic is fending off legal challenges from the most unexpected of places: various celebrities and viral video stars suing over the use of their dances.

Fortnite 7.10 Content Update 2 Patch Notes

Battle Royale

Limited Time Modes

• The 14 Days of Fortnite event will feature both new and returning LTMs. Large team modes switch every two days and small team modes rotate every 24 hours.
  • Log in each day at 9 AM ET(1400 UTC) to find out which modes are available to explore. Let us know which LTM is your favorite on our social channels!

Weapons And Items

• Boom Box
  • Activate to create powerful blasts of music that deal structure damage in a large area!
  • Newly built walls in the radius of the box are destroyed with every blast.
  • Shoot the Boom Box to stop its effects.

Creative

What’s New?

• Ice Castle Prefabs: Sculpt your masterpiece in Creative with 8 new Ice Castle Prefabs!

This is an early release so you may experience client crashes, loss of progress, or other unexpected errors.

Weapons And Items

• Boom Box added to Creative Inventory Consumables
  • Activate to create powerful blasts of music that deal structure damage in a large area!
  • Newly built walls in the radius of the box are destroyed with every blast.
  • Shoot the Boom Box to stop its effects.

Prefabs

• 8 Ice Castle Prefabs
• 5 Ice Castle Galleries including with and without snow

Save The World

What’s New?

• Pain Train Assault Rifle: Bring the pain with this heavy hitting assault rifle, available in the Weekly Store.
• Tree of LIght Sword: Chop down Husks and stun enemies with the light from this melee weapon! Unlock this reward from Frostnite Weekly Challenges.

Missions And Systems

• Weekly Frostnite Challenge Missions:
  • Each week during the Frostnite event, there will be a new Weekly Challenge mission in the Frostnite zone.
  • These zones include specially crafted challenges to push player’s skills using a variety of modifiers
  • Weekly Frostnite Challenge 1: Slip Out
    • Touching snow or ice will cause players to slide. Use building to your advantage!
    • Weekly Frostnite Challenge 1 Quest rewards include:
      • Challenge Banner 1
      • Tree of Light Sword
      • Snowflake Tickets

Heroes

• Crackshot Soldier available as a quest reward from 14 Days of Fortnite.
  • A Legendary variant of the Rescue Trooper subclass.

Weapons And Items

• The Pain Train Assault Rifle will be available on the Weekly Store
  • Assault rifle with a slow rate of fire that packs a punch per shot. Slow and steady wins the race!
  • Available in the Weekly Store from January 2 at 7 PM ET until January 9 at 7 PM ET.
• The Tree of Light Sword will be available as a Frostnite Weekly Challenge reward
  • A slow, edged weapon with high damage per hit.
  • Includes a new 6th perk that stuns nearby enemies after 8 hits.