Month: January 2020

Though Arma 3 originally released back in 2013, developer Bohemia Interactive has provided consistent support for the open-world military shooter ever since. The most recent expansion released just last summer, and it’s never hard to find people online waging war across the huge sandboxes. For those who haven’t given the realistic shooter a go, Steam is hosting a free trial until Sunday, January 19 at 10 AM PT / 1 PM ET.

To take advantage of the free trial, all you need to do is head over to Arma 3’s Steam page and click the “play game” button. The free trial includes the base game and the Apex expansion. All told, you’ll have access to a substantial suite of PvP only multiplayer and a pair of campaigns. The base game includes the single-player campaign, which clocks in around six hours, and the Apex expansion includes a co-op campaign for one to four players.

In GameSpot’s 8/10 Arma 3 review, writer Kevin VanOrd praised the game’s clever tactical combat and its emphasis on giving users the ability to create their own scenarios. Though the review was written more than five years ago, Arma 3’s fine-tuned mechanics have kept it chugging along as a formidable multiplayer shooter. The wealth of new content released in the past few years has helped as well.

Arma 3’s free Steam trial runs until January 19

If you like what you play, you can purchase Arma 3, its two expansions, and 10 DLC packs for steep discounts at Steam until January 20. The base game drops from $30 to $9, while the Ultimate Edition, which compiles the entire Arma experience, is slashed from $150 to $49.40. Individual DLC packs are all 66% off, so it’s the perfect time for Arma 3 fans to pick up the content they’re missing.

Pokemon Sword and Shield are getting two big expansions this year, each of which takes players to a new portion of the Galar region that’s home to many new and returning Pokemon to collect. In all, more than 200 familiar Pokemon will be added to the Switch games this year, and you don’t need to own the expansions to obtain them–all players will be able to collect the Pokemon through trading or by transferring ones you’ve captured in previous games via the Pokemon Home service.

During the recent Pokemon Direct, developer Game Freak gave us a glimpse at some of the new and returning Pokemon coming to Sword and Shield with each expansion. We’ve listed all the Pokemon mentioned during the presentation below. Each expansion will also introduce some new versions of familiar Pokemon, such as Gigantamax forms of the Sword and Shield starters and Galarian Slowpoke, the latter of which you can catch now thanks to a recent Sword and Shield update.

Sword and Shield’s first expansion, Isle of Armor, is slated to launch this June. According to Game Freak, the theme of this expansion is “growth,” and it’ll take players to the eponymous island where they’ll encounter a new rival character and an old man named Mustard, Galar’s longest-reigning Pokemon League Champion and Leon’s former mentor.

The second expansion, The Crown Tundra, will follow sometime this fall. Its theme is “exploration,” and it introduces a new co-op gamplay feature that allows you to explore Pokemon Max Raid dens together with other players. Lurking within these dens are a variety of Legendary Pokemon from previous games, as well as a handful of new ones.

The Pokemon Sword and Shield expansion pass costs $30 USD and is available to pre-purchase now. If you do pick it up, you’ll receive a Pikachu uniform and Eevee uniform for your trainer as a bonus. You can catch up on all the other news from the Pokemon Direct in our recap.

Isle Of Armor Expansion

Returning Pokemon

• Bulbasaur
• Ivysaur
• Venusaur
• Squirtle
• Wartortle
• Blastoise
• Horsea
• Seadra
• Kingdra
• Fletchling
• Fletchinder
• Talonflame
• Larvesta
• Volcarona
• Dedenne
• Rockruff
• Lycanroc

New Pokemon

• Galarian Slowpoke
• Galarian Slowbro
• Kubfu
• Urshifu

Crown Tundra Expansion

Returning Pokemon

• Nidoran (M)
• Nidorino
• Nidoking
• Nidoran (F)
• Nidorina
• Nidoqueen
• Spheal
• Sealeo
• Walrein
• Gible
• Gabite
• Garchomp
• Amaura
• Aurorus

Returning Legendaries

• Mewtwo
• Entei
• Raikou
• Suicune
• Ho-Oh
• Lugia
• Regirock
• Regice
• Registeel
• Latios
• Latias
• Groudon
• Kyogre
• Rayquaza
• Azelf
• Mesprit
• Uxie
• Heatran
• Cresselia
• Dialga
• Palkia
• Giratina
• Tornadus
• Thundurus
• Landorus
• Reshiram
• Zekrom
• Kyurem
• Xerneas
• Yveltal
• Zygarde
• Tapu Koko
• Tapu Lele
• Tapu Bulu
• Tapu Fini
• Solgaleo
• Lunala
• Necrozma

New Pokemon

• Galarian Slowking
• Calyrex
• Galarian Articuno*
• Galarian Zapdos*
• Galarian Moltres*
• Unnamed Regi 1
• Unnamed Regi 2

* Name currently unconfirmed

The latest event for Apex Legends, Grand Soirée Arcade, has officially begun. The limited-time event will continue through to January 28, offering seven brand-new modes to play and several new legendary character skins to unlock. The event launched with an accompanying update, which implemented several nerfs and buffs for different characters, bug fixes, and hints to Season 4 content.

In terms of the playable legend meta, Gibraltar and Crypto have both been buffed while Wraith has been nerfed. Gibraltar now has a third passive: faster squadmate revival while inside his Dome Shield. Crypto’s drone is now much harder to kill–having 30 health instead of 1–and the EMP it creates no longer affects squadmates’ traps or slows them down. Friendlies will still take shield damage, though.

When activating both Into the Void and Dimensional Rift, Wraith will now only move at the combined speed of both abilities without the added boost she had before. The cooldown to use Into the Void has been increased from 25 seconds to 35, which will make it harder to rely on the ability multiple times in the midst of a firefight or when escaping the zone wall.

As stated before, the update also addresses several bug fixes–the majority of which are outlined in the full patch notes below. However, of note, is a fix to the bug that was causing the character select screen to only display your own skins, not that of your teammates. The community has been vocal about the issue since prior to the Holo-Day Bash event, so it’s nice to see it finally addressed.

The most interesting change in the update is the removal of extended energy mags, taking away the option to expand the overall clip size of the Triple-Take sniper rifle, Havoc assault rifle, and Devotion light machine gun. Though the Triple-Take’s default clip size is unchanged, the Havoc’s magazine is now 32 shots and the Devotion’s magazine is 44. In the patch notes, Respawn writes “that the removal of energy mags seems a bit odd, but it will make much more sense with the release of Season 4,” before going on to admit the change went live by mistake and wasn’t supposed to until the start of the next season.

Though it doesn’t confirm it, the removal of extended energy mags does seem to support the rumors that the Volt submachine gun is coming to Apex Legends in the near future, continuing the trend of repurposing Titanfall 2 weapons for the battle royale. In Titanfall 2, the Volt is one of the best weapons for use on the move, as it has the best hip-fire accuracy of any firearm and excellent range. If the Volt is added to Apex Legends, it likely will be as an energy weapon. Having an option to extend its clip size could possibly make the gun too powerful, especially when used by characters that can fight while moving at high speeds through the air, like Octane and Pathfinder.

Apex Legends January 14 Update Patch Notes

General Bug Fixes

• Fixes for various script and code errors that were causing crashes.
• Fixed a bug where the out of bounds timer would not display when perching on top of some buildings in Capitol City.
• Fix for cases we saw where players would receive a client error when fighting Wattson.
• Fixed issue with Octane’s Laughing Fool skin blocking player vision when using the 1x Holo Sight.
• Fixed issue where players could get into unintentional hiding spots in the Train tunnels and around multiple buildings on the map.
• Fixed bug where the minimap was showing an incorrect view of the landscape east of the Sorting Factory and Capitol City.
• Fixed bug where the trajectory line wouldn’t appear when trying to aim ordnance.
• Fixes for cases where the final circle was ending in a bad location.
• Fixed an issue with the Ghouls and Ghost Peacekeeper skin not displaying the correct animation in-game.
• Fixed the bug where a squadmate selects a character in Legend Select and the Legend is not displaying the skin that is currently equipped by the player.

Legend Bug Fixes

• Fixed a bug where if anyone picks up gold shields while inside of a Gibraltar dome shield they will receive 63% faster healing when it should stay at 50%
• Fixed a couple of bugs with Bloodhound Passive skill: players could not see timers when looking at enemy tracks [clues] and tracks would expire 30 seconds sooner than expected.
• Fixed bug where Wraith could take damage from Thermite ordnance while using her Tactical or Ultimate abilities.
• Fixed visual bug for when Crypto first drops into game, the Drone UI reports that it is “recharging” (as if it has been destroyed pre-drop), but progress does not complete / progress.
• Fix for Wattson’s Ultimate to prevent being able to deploy an Interceptor Pylon through walls.

Legend Meta

• Gibraltar
  • Passive: Gibraltar revives squadmates faster while inside the Dome Shield.
• Wraith
  • Removed the bonus move speed Into the Void and Dimensional Rift at the same time. Wraith will now move at their combined movement speed when they are both activated.
  • Increased cooldown for Into the Void: 25 seconds -> 35 seconds.
• Crypto
  • Drone and EMP improvements.
  • Surveillance Drone increased the health 1 -> 30.
  • EMP no longer affects friendly traps/deployables.
  • EMP no longer slows friendlies.

Change To Energy Mags

• Extended Energy Mags removed
• HAVOC mag size: 32
• Devotion mag size: 44
• Designer Notes: We know that the removal of energy mags seems a bit odd, but it will make much more sense with the release of Season 4! It takes a while to make the bigger changes you see in the new season updates, and we generally make sure to filter out these changes from preceding mid-season updates. This time we made a mistake and shipped a change that wasn’t intended to go live until Season 4.

Tournament Mode

This feature is limited to approved partners and allows them to arrange private player matches, record live footage via game client spectators, and view match results. Our goal here is to provide great tools for tournament organizers for setting up teams and matches at events and a better spectating experience for fans.

Few versions of Windows have seen such lasting dedication as Windows 7 has since its release. In the same way so many people refused to upgrade from Windows XP until the last possible moment (and many refused long after WinXP was declared officially dead), Windows 7 usership persists. But the day of reckoning has come for Windows 7: as of January 14, 2020, Microsoft no longer supports the Windows 7 operating system at all.

Technically, Microsoft ended Windows 7 support in 2015. Today marks the end of “extended support,” meaning no more updates or bug fixes. Windows 7 will become more unusable and dangerous the longer you put off upgrading. It’s a ghost now, and you’re merely occupying the empty husk of a once living operating system. It’s time to upgrade to Windows 10.

Windows 10: OEM or Retail?

If you’ve searched around for a copy of Windows 10, you might have noticed some of the less expensive versions are “OEM” or “for System Builders.” At Newegg, the OEM install for Windows 10 is $109, while the retail Windows 10 version lists on Amazon for around $129.99. That price difference is because the retail version includes Microsoft support and can be migrated to a PC with a different motherboard later on, where the OEM version matches itself to one motherboard and one motherboard only.

If you just completed assembling a sweet gaming PC, go ahead and treat yourself to the savings and get the OEM version. If you want instead to migrate the Windows 10 license to a whole new computer later on, and feel like you’d sleep easier with the full weight of Microsoft’s support team, go ahead and get the retail version. You can also find it on Microsoft’s site for $139.99.

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Windows 10: Home or Pro?

Unless you really want to have the best possible sig in forum posts to your favorite PC gaming messageboard, there is absolutely no compelling reason for you to spend the extra money on Windows 10 Pro if you’re a home user. All its professional features are designed for enterprise, not for normal or even power-users. Your PC will not run better or faster with a copy of Windows 10 Pro. [poilib element=”quoteBox” parameters=”excerpt=Your%20PC%20will%20not%20run%20better%20or%20faster%20with%20a%20copy%20of%20Windows%2010%20Pro.”]Pro offers some great features for enterprise users like kiosk mode, support for Azure Active Directory and many more features you will never, ever need. A case could be made for Pro’s encryption features versus Home, but they’re overkill or not well-suited for non-enterprise users. If you want to spend the $40 extra to feel like a Windows champion, I’m not going to be able to talk you out of it. But if you don’t want to waste money for features with no applications for a personal-use experience, just buy and install Windows 10 Home.

Windows 10: 64-bit or 32-bit?

It’s still possible to buy 32-bit versions of Windows 10, and for some specialized computer set-ups, that’s all you’d really need. However, unlike Windows 10 Home versus Windows 10 Pro, you will see a drastic difference in performance with 32-bit over 64-bit. It’s not the OS but the limits a 32-bit architecture has on memory. Most applications and games require at least 8GB of RAM to run, and personally, 8GB is about as low as I’d recommend anyone go when it comes to RAM.

A 32-bit operating system is only able to address a maximum of around 3.5GB of RAM, whereas a 64-bit OS can address 16 exibytes, or 2^64 bytes. We’re a ways off from hitting that ceiling, but the days of 4GB or less are way behind us. Don’t be tempted by a lower price: whatever version of Windows 10 (or any OS for that matter) you get, make sure it’s 64-bit.

Windows 10: Beware of Counterfeits

Since dropping $100 on the least-glamorous part of a PC build is something many of us would rather avoid, there’s a real market for shady counterfeiters to sell used or completely useless Windows 10 installations or keys. Make sure you buy from a trusted source, and even on Amazon it can get a little muddled trying to decipher which Windows 10 sellers are legit and which aren’t (check the reviews, you’re bound to see people bringing it up).[poilib element=”quoteBox” parameters=”excerpt=Make%20sure%20you%20buy%20from%20a%20trusted%20source.”] The best possible place is from Microsoft itself, but if you sort Amazon search results for “Prime” with “Amazon” as the seller, you can find legitimate copies without worry. Other places to check include Newegg, Best Buy, office supply stores, and basically any place you’ve both heard of and trust.

How to Go From Windows 7 to Windows 10 for Free

If you were an early Window 10 adopter, Microsoft let you upgrade free of charge. It was great news for those of us who suffered greatly under the brief, but tyrannical, rule of Windows 8/8.1. Much as Vista made people cling to their beloved Windows XP, Windows 8/8.1 and its crappiness had the same effect for Windows 7 users. The Windows 10 free upgrade program officially ended a while ago, but you might still be able to upgrade from Windows 7 to 10 for free. The process is pretty simple and seems to work for just about everyone who tries it. Certainly worth a shot.

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Seth Macy is IGN’s tech and commerce editor and just wants to be your friend. Find him on Twitter @sethmacy.