November 2019 – Page 55

Calling all Death Stranding fans! This is your chance to take home a free PlayStation 4 Pro and set out on an adventure to put America back together again.

Hideo Kojima’s latest game launched on November 8 and we have a full Death Stranding review. We’ve also got very handy guides to help you throughout your adventure, which you can check out in our in-depth complete Death Stranding coverage hub.

The grand prize package includes a custom 1TB PS4 Pro system and a custom DualShock wireless controller inspired by the game, as well as a copy of the Death Stranding on Blu-ray disc. But that’s not all, we’ll also award a first prize winner a Death Stranding collector’s edition bundle that comes with the full game, a steelbook case, a full-sized BB pod statue, a Ludens keychain, and a Bridges cargo case.

To enter the giveaway read the official rules found in the form below, accept the terms and conditions, and then proceed to fill out the form. You also have the option of increasing your chances of winning by doing extra actions like following us across social media.

Remember to check your email and junk mail on November 21 because we will be emailing the winners after 12 pm PT. Head over to the comment section and tell us what was the first thing that got you excited about Death Stranding. Good luck, everyone!

Diablo 3 Patch Starts Season 19, Adds New Sets

Diablo IV might have been announced at BlizzCon 2019, but Blizzard is far from done with Diablo III. Seven and a half years after release, the latest patch for Diablo III has launched season 19, which will give returning players a new way to play. Major changes have also come in this update for the Crusader and Monk classes, as new class sets are now available for the game’s two holiest classes. These changes, which we’ve got the patch notes for, have arrived on the PC, Switch, PS4 and Xbox One versions of the game.

The notes for Patch 2.6.7. explain the new season in full. As they point out, Season 18‘s buff displeased some players, as the Triune bonus didn’t stick with their adventuring characters. Blizzard is doing things a little differently for the 19th season with the new Pandemonium buff, which introduces “new mechanics to add an element of both chaos and power to the battlefield”. This buff focuses on kill streaks, giving you different rewards as your consecutive kill count rises higher and higher.

Here are the notes for Pandemonium:

For the duration of the Season, all players will have a stacking buff that that persists as long as you have hit or killed a monster within the last 5 seconds
Each stack gives .005 movement speed and .001% bonus damage. This bonus caps at 50% movement and 100% damage (1000 stacks)
In addition, after reaching a certain number of kills in a row, a power is unleashed, dealing an amount of scaling damage based on player level and difficulty or Greater Rift level:
- 15 Kills: Exploding Chickens seek and destroy
- 30 Kills: A wide Frost Nova freezes enemies
- 50 Kills: Corpses rain from the sky
- 100 Kills: Five massive energy twisters are unleashed
- 150 Kills: Dark Geysers form beneath enemies
- 200 Kills: Treasure chests fall from the sky
- 300 Kills: A ring of fire engulfs everything
- 400 Kills: Meteors hail from above
- 500 Kills: Angels descend upon the battlefield to fight for your cause (Angels should no longer one-shot Rift Guardians).
- 1000 Kills: ?????

Because powers are being tracked at a group level, only one can be active at a time, regardless of how many players you’re rolling with, and it’ll be interesting to see what happens when a player manages to stack 1000 kills. Two new rewards are available to players who complete the season, too: the Valor Portrait Frame and the Angelic Treasure Goblin pet.

This patch also sees some new class sets roll out for the Crusader and Monk, including some new and returning Legendary powers. The new Crusader set, Aegis of Valor, brings in Heaven’s Fury as the development team believes that it “matches the theme and adds more gameplay complexity.” Here are the notes for the Crusader set:

2-Piece Bonus: Attacking with Fist of the Heavens empowers you, allowing Heaven’s Fury to deal 100% increased damage for 5 seconds. Stacks up to 3 times (multiplicative).
4-Piece Bonus: Hitting with Fist of the Heavens generates 5 Wrath and reduces damage taken by 1% for 5 seconds. Stacks up to 50 times
6-Piece Bonus: Increase the damage of Fist of the Heavens and Heaven’s Fury by 20,000%

The new Monk Set, Patterns of Justice, seeks to incorporate extra damage reduction and better integration of the Temple Rush skill.

2-Piece Bonus: Sweeping Wind gains the effect of every rune and movement speed is increased by 5% for each stack of Sweeping Wind.
4-Piece Bonus: Attacking with Tempest Rush reduces your damage taken by 50% and increases Spirit Regeneration by 50.
6-Piece Bonus: Hitting with Tempest Rush while Sweeping Wind is active will temporarily increase the size of Sweeping Wind after hitting over 30 times within a short period. Sweeping Wind damage is increased by 15,000%

Further changes and bug fixes have been made in this patch, and they’re detailed in the full notes. It’s been promised that the other classes will receive similar treatment in future updates, with new sets being planned for all of them. Blizzard has also promised more themed seasons in the game’s future, and Diablo IV is still a long way away, so expect plenty more seasons and updates for Diablo III.

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Xbox Live Deals With Gold And Spotlight Sale For November 12-18–Here Are This Week’s Bargains

This week’s Xbox Live Deals with Gold and Spotlight Sale discounts are now live for Xbox One and Xbox 360, serving up plenty of savings on digital titles. The Xbox One list contains a lot of indies this week, with the big headliner being Cities: Skylines, which is currently discounted by 75%. There are certainly some other interesting titles in here though, including The Count Lucanor and Yonder: The Cloud Catcher Chronicles.

The list of discounted Xbox 360 titles is shorter, but no less interesting. Curio RPG Resonance of Fate is half off, as are several Sonic the Hedgehog titles, just in time to celebrate the blue blur’s new movie trailer. If you want to finally pick up Sonic CD, now’s the time.

Prices will vary between regions, but below are the discounts and store links for this week’s titles.

Xbox One

Xbox 360

These deals will remain up until November 18, so you’ve got a week to take advantage. If you’re after more bargains, check out our Black Friday hub for all the best savings on games out there right now.

Death Stranding Walkthrough: Episode 7 – Clifford

Episode 7 – Fighting In The Streets

Whoa! At the end of the last episode, we were just about to meet up with Guillermo Del Toro at his cabin and have a nice night in together, and now we’re… here? What happened?

Well, no time to sit around and soak in the atmosphere, time to go to the sewers!

You’ll notice that all the cargo you were carrying will be scattered across the street ahead (and potentially behind you). Move briskly from cover to cover and grab your stuff.

If you still have access to the armor plates you got from the Photographer last episode, equip them. If you need to leave some stuff behind, choose stuff that isn’t useful for combat because, surprise, you’re in a warzone.

Mario Kart Tour Microtransactions “Off To A Good Start,” Nintendo Says

Nintendo expects big things from the newly released mobile racing game, Mario Kart Tour. President Shuntaro Furukawa said in a recent earnings Q&A that the Japanese gaming giant expects the mobile game to have great results. It has big shoes to fill, as Super Mario Run has been downloaded more than 300 million times, but things are going well already.

Mario Kart Tour released at the end of September, and Furukawa said the game got off to a “very good start” compared to Nintendo’s previous mobile games. “Continuing on from Super Mario Run, which more than 300 million consumers are enjoying, I think we can expect remarkable results with Mario Kart Tour,” Furukawa said.

Despite the millions of downloads, Nintendo went on record to say that Super Mario Run was a disappointment as it relates to revenue. That game is free-to-start, and players need to spend $10 to unlock the full game.

That’s a different payment model than Mario Kart Tour, and the shift seems to be paying off. Mario Kart Tour is a free-to-play title supported by microtransactions. Furukawa said of the game’s profitability so far that “earnings are also off to a good start.”

The microtransactions in Mario Kart Tour come in the form of random items and the Gold Pass subscription package. “By including these mechanics and multiplayer functionality, we want to make it an attractive application that will be enjoyed by consumers in the long-term,” Furukawa said.

Also during the Q&A, Furukawa was asked if Nintendo would release Mario Kart Tour in China, but the executive declined to say. He said only, “I cannot say anything at this time about the mobile business in China.”

According to SensorTower, Mario Kart Tour had more than 120 million downloads in its first month, with players collectively spending more than $37 million.

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Overwatch Reveals Mercy’s Past In Valkyrie, A New Short Story–Here Are The Lore Highlights

A new official, canon Overwatch short story has been released. Valkyrie, written by the game’s senior lore and story designer Michael Chu, is a first-person story about Mercy coming to terms with the role she performed in the Overwatch organization after it has disbanded. The short story appears to be set shortly before the beginning of the game, and ties in to an in-game story event that can net you a new Mercy costume.

We’ve gone through the story and summed up the lore highlights from it below–stop now if you’d like to read it yourself without spoilers.

The story begins with Mercy remembering her parents, who were volunteering at a hospital in Switzerland during the Omnic Crisis, and were killed by an airstrike one day when she was still young. The story jumps forward to Mercy as an adult, working at an aid camp just outside Cairo. She’s been there for two years removed, having ended her tenure as head of medical research for Overwatch when the organization collapsed sometime earlier. Her reputation was in tatters when Overwatch was disbanded, and she headed to Egypt to help out because Overwatch was “responsible for much of the country’s suffering.”

The story then cuts to Mercy being reunited with Soldier 76 and Ana, who have tracked her down as 76 badly needs healing. Mercy and 76 have a heated discussion about the state of things–76 is out for revenge, especially against Reaper, and the two don’t see eye to eye.

The story flashes back to Mercy and 76’s first meeting, sparked by Mercy’s research into nanobiotic healing (which is, the story assures us, not related to nanobot technology). We’re given some insights into Mercy’s research background, and how she was brought on bought with the promise of letting her develop healing technologies for use off the battlefield–which is, of course, not exactly what happened.

Back in the present, the trio is jolted by an explosion at the nearby Anubis facility, and a reluctant Mercy straps into her Valkyrie suit alongside the other two to go help fend off Talon forces. In the heat of battle, Mercy finds Hanan, a young girl trapped by rubble, who recognizes her as Mercy when she uses her healing staff. She soon finds herself having to rescue Hanan’s brother, too, who is trapped in a collapsing building.

A mortar hits the building during the rescue attempt, and Mercy’s suit is badly damaged. She manages to save both children as the building collapses, getting trapped as the building collapses around her. But 76 comes back for her, and ultimately everyone survives. In the aftermath, 76 and Ana tell Mercy that they’re leaving to continue hunting Reaper, who was responsible for what happened that day. Mercy does not go with them, but as she continues her work, and as she reflects on saving the two children and how excited they were to meet Mercy, she starts to reassess the value of her work with Overwatch.

If you’re hungry for more Overwatch lore, the recently announced Overwatch 2 promises to deliver much more.

American Horror Story: The Best of Frances Conroy

This week we are putting the spotlight on Emmy-nominated and Golden Globe-winning actress Frances Conroy. In Season 1 – Murder House, we first met her as Moira O’Hara, the housekeeper and maid at the Murder House. In season 2 – Asylum, Conroy played Shachath, the Angel of Death. Her most iconic AHS character is Myrtle Snow, from Season 3 – Coven, and Season 8 – Apocalypse.

In Season 4 – Freak Show, Conroy played Gloria Mott, the wealthy and widowed mother of Dandy Mott. After taking a season off of American Horror Story, Frances returned to the show for Roanoke’s reality-show reenactment of Mama Polk. Here she played an actress playing the part of the Polk family matriarch in “My Roanoke Nightmare.” For AHS Season 7 – Cult, Frances appeared as Bebe Babbitt in a pair of episodes.

Ryan breaks down each one of Conroy’s AHS roles in the video above. You can check out last week’s spotlight on The Best of Lily Rabe. And if you’re watching AHS:1984, don’t miss our latest breakdown of episode 8, “Rest In Pieces”.

Major New Ghost Recon Breakpoint Patch Resolves Some Of Its Issues

Ghost Recon: Breakpoint’s 1.0.3 title update patch is available from today on PC, PS4, and Xbox One, and the full patch notes have been released. The patch weighs in at 7GB on both PS4 and Xbox One, and a slightly slimmer 6.7GB on PC. It includes a number of bug fixes, tweaks, and improvements, as well as a few basic gameplay updates.

Some major issues have been addressed–drones will now deploy reliably, and players should no longer respawn under the map. The “Mission Completion” tutorial pop-up won’t display after loading screens anymore, and mission interactions are now prioritized over vehicle interactions. These are just a few examples, with the full patch notes listing many more.

Some controls and mechanics have changed too to make for a more enjoyable experience. Players can now do a camera shoulder swap in cover, which was not possible before. Your character’s base stamina has increased by 66% and regenerates 75% faster than before, while sliding now only consumes half the stamina it used to. This should make for a less frustrating game.

The full patch makes multiple changes to the enemy and NPC AI, as well as animation, audio, camera, chat, loot, and menu updates. Missions and general gameplay have also seen multiple improvements. The patch notes detail over 100 changes that have been made as of 1.0.3, which will hopefully go some way to improve the experience.

Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Breakpoint has had a difficult launch period, and the game’s middling-to-negative reviews have disappointed Ubisoft, especially as the game has not sold as expected. In the wake of this disappointment, Ubisoft promised that the game would become a more “gritty and authentic military experience” in the future, and promised two major updates for November; this is the first of those.

If you’re jumping back in post-patch, make sure you check out our guide for dealing with drones in Breakpoint.

Avengers: Endgame Deleted Scene On Disney+ Reveals Emotional Katherine Langford Moment

13 Reasons Why actress Katherine Langford filmed a scene for Marvel’s Avengers: Endgame, but it was left on the cutting room floor. Langford never shared any official details about what the scene was, but now we know. Those who booted up Avengers: Endgame on the just-launched Disney+ streaming service might have noticed an “Extras” tab on the Endgame page which features a deleted scene: “Tony at the Way Station.” This scene reveals all the details–SPOILERS FOLLOW BELOW.

Tony Stark, in the wake of his fatal hero moments, enters a “metaphysical waystation” where he meets a young woman named Morgan. After a period of uncertainty, he recognizes her as the daughter he had with Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow).

Morgan tells Stark that she “got to live [and] grow up,” according to GamesRadar. She later says to her father, “I’m proud of you” for sacrificing himself and saving humanity with this selfless and courageous act. The scene ends with Morgan telling her father, “I love you.” Stark then leans in and plants a kiss on her cheek; he replies, “I love you 3000.”

It’s a nice scene, but it’s not hard to see why it was cut. After all, the surviving members of The Avengers assembled for Stark’s funeral which wrapped up his story in an emotional and impactful way.

Directors Joe and Anthony Russo spoke about the deleted scene back in May and why they decided to cut it.

“What we realized about it was we didn’t feel an emotional association with the adult version of his daughter. It wasn’t resonating with us on an emotional level, which is why we moved away [from] it,” the Russos said. “The intention was that his future daughter forgave him, and gave him peace to go. And the idea felt resonant, but there were just too many ideas in an overly complicated movie.”

This scene, and the entire Endgame movie, are now available to stream on Disney+. The film was initially expected to come to the streaming service in December, but Disney moved up the release to launch day.