Month: March 2020

Ruffalo says there is talk about his Hulk potentially showing up in the #SheHulk series… but talks are preliminary. #C2E2

— LaughingPlace.com (@laughing_place) March 1, 2020

James Lipton, creator and host of Inside the Actors Studio, has died at the age of 93. He died Monday, March 2, in his Manhattan home from bladder cancer, according to The Hollywood Reporter who received the news from Lipton’s wife, Kedakai Mercedes Lipton.

Lipton is best known for Bravo series Inside the Actors Studio, which he created in 1994 as a way to teach students of the Actors Studio Drama School. Lipton hosted the show and spoke with actors about their performances and careers in film during a one-hour one-on-one interview each episode.

Since its conception, Inside the Actors Studio aired on the Bravo television network until it moved to Ovation TV in 2018. Lipton stepped down from hosting the show when it moved to Ovation TV. In the show’s 22-season run on Bravo, Lipton interviewed nearly 300 actors, directors and more. The latest episode of Inside the Actors Studio aired on December 15, 2019, with Lupita Nyong’o of Star Wars: The Force Awakens and Us fame, as the guest.

“I made a vow early on that we would not deal in gossip — only in craft, and Ovation, as a network dedicated to the arts, will continue that tradition with the next seasons of the series,” Lipton told The Hollywood Reporter at the time of the show’s transition to Ovation TV. “I’m excited to see the new hosts engage with the guests and students and continue to entertain viewers in the U.S. and around the world.”

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Wesley LeBlanc is a freelance news writer and guide maker for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @LeBlancWes. 

 

 

You never know when your Xbox One controller or TV remote will stop working. That’s why it’s important to have a stock of batteries you can rampage whenever one of your beloved electronics runs out of juice. Right now Amazon has some great deals on batteries, including rechargeable AAs, as well as a 30% discount on just about every other standard battery size. Let’s have a look.

Eneloop Rechargeable AA Batteries (16 Pack) are 16% Off

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• Get them at Amazon – $28.45 (was $34)

These batteries typically sell for $34, but right now you can save a few bucks on them. They’re great batteries; I’ve been using them for years in my Xbox One controllers. They charge fast and last a long time, which is pretty much all you need in a battery. Plus, they ensure you’re not dumping dead one-time-use batteries into the landfill every week. That’s good for your pocketbook and good for the environment. (When they eventually do die, make sure to dispose of them properly, though.)

Energizer AA Lithium Batteries are $6 Off with Subscribe & Save

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• Get them at Amazon – $25.96 (with Subscribe & Save)

Energizer says these lithium batteries are the longest-lasting AA battery in the world. They even have the Guinness World Record to back up the claim. Care to try them yourself? If so, purchase these using Subscribe & Save, and you’ll get $6 off, saving 18 percent.

Pro tip: You can cancel your subscription any time after they ship. I’m constantly subscribing to Amazon items when I find deals on them, and immediately canceling when I receive them. It’s easy, and it can save you a ton of money.

Save 30% Off AmazonBasics Batteries with Subscribe & Save

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• AA Batteries (48 pack) – $8.76
• AAA Batteries (36 pack) – $6.99
• C Cell Batteries (24 pack) – $13.99
• D Cell Batteries (24 pack) – 16.09

Like the Energizers above, this deal only works if you choose Subscribe & Save. But once you do, you’ll save 30% off the listed price. And while we’ve selected the default quantity packs for each size of battery, some of the other quantity packs are 30% off with Subscribe & Save as well.

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Chris Reed is IGN’s shopping and commerce editor. You can follow him on Twitter @_chrislreed.

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Reggie Fils-Aime might have left his vaunted position at Nintendo in 2019, but he still has plenty to say. In a reply to a tweet speculating about his height, Fils-Aime clarified that he’s actually 6 feet, 2.5 inches, joking that the weight of all of the questions about Mother 3 caused him to shrink.

Mother 3 is the 2006 sequel to the cult role-playing game Mother 2, which is better known as Earthbound outside of Japan. Widely considered one of the best RPGs to never receive an official English translation, fans have clamored for its release for decades now. (An unofficial translation was created by a team of Earthbound fans back in 2008.)

Even though the game is available in English with minimal effort, gamers still lobby for an official translation on occasion. For example, when Mother 3 was re-released on the Wii U Virtual Console in Japan in 2016, fans spoke out. Given the amount of time that’s passed, however, it seems unlikely to happen anytime soon.

This isn’t the only time that Fils-Aime has referenced the sheer number of times people asked him this question. During a 2014 Nintendo digital event for E3 in the style of the animated comedy show Robot Chicken, Fils-Aime toasted a fan who asked about the game with a Fire Flower.

Hinterland Studio, the developer behind survival game The Long Dark, has pulled its game from Nvidia GeForce Now because the streaming service never asked for the studio’s permission to host it in the first place. The Long Dark is just the latest game to be removed from the service.

Game director Raphael van Lierop explained the decision on Twitter, saying, “Sorry to those who are disappointed you can no longer play The Long Dark on GeForce Now. Nvidia didn’t ask for our permission to put the game on the platform so we asked them to remove it. Please take your complaints to them, not us. Devs should control where their games exist.

“Nvidia admitted they made a mistake releasing without our permission, apologized, asked us if we’d like to stay on the platform, and we said ‘not at the moment,'” van Lierop continued. “Today’s world is getting complex for devs, with lots of platform changes and shifts to streaming, so devs have to be able to plan a strategy for how their games will appear and where, as a means of running a business. All the platforms acknowledge this.”

The decision was an oversight on Nvidia’s part, and van Lierop says The Long Dark might return to GeForce Now in the future. However, the director admits that controlling your own content is key to running a sustainable business and supporting games and their customers.

Hinterland isn’t the first developer to remove its games from GeForce Now. Activision Blizzard pulled its library from the service last month, causing it to lose the likes of Overwatch, Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, and World of Warcraft. Nvidia responded to the removal, stating that it’s working with Activision Blizzard to resolve the matter. “While unfortunate, we hope to work together with Activision Blizzard to reenable these games and more in the future.”

Bethesda also removed most of its library from the service, pulling games such as Doom and The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. The one exception is Wolfenstein: Youngblood, which will remain available for GeForce Now subscribers.

Despite this, over 1 million people have signed up for GeForce Now and Nvidia has teased that over 1,500 games are coming to the streaming service in the future.

Half-Life: Alyx will be the first game in the series in more than 10 years, and as a result anticipation is high for the VR-only game. Valve has released a trio of gameplay videos to prepare players for what they’ll find when it releases on March 23.

The trio of trailers show a variety of environments, lots of dialogue, and some enemy encounters. One aspect that’s particularly notable is the fine motor control for Alyx’s hands, which is a feature used to show the manipulation of pretty fine motor controls. That’s one advantage of the VR controls that isn’t quite analogous to a standard controller or keyboard and mouse setup.

Valve only recently announced the release date, and the game is still offered at a 10% discount pre-order price through the Steam page. We knew it would be coming in March, and the company had said it didn’t expect delays since the game was essentially already finished. As the name suggests, this is a full-Half-Life game starring the popular character Alyx Vance, set between the events of Half-Life and Half-Life 2.

Though Valve sells its own VR equipment, it has announced Alyx will work with multiple VR headsets. You can read up on the best VR headsets to get in advance of the release, and make sure your PC system specs are up to snuff. For more details, read our pre-order guide.

The Division 2‘s latest expansion, Warlords of New York, arrived earlier than expected on PC, PlayStation 4, Stadia, and Xbox One. With the sudden launch of the looter-shooter’s first major piece of DLC, Ubisoft has shared a long list of changes coming to all platforms. You can check out the full patch notes below.

Of course, the main draw of the Warlords of New York expansion is the return trip to the Big Apple. Warlords of New York opens up several locations within the city for you to explore, including Battery Park and the Financial District. As you’re combing these added areas, you can take on some new main missions that task you with hunting down rogue Division agent and first wave responder Aaron Keener. There are also new side missions to undertake, a level cap increase from 30 to 40, an additional base of operations, and more.

The new locale and mission objectives aren’t the only additions in Warlords of New York. The new update also reworks all weapons in what Ubisoft is calling “gear 2.0.” There are only a handful of attributes now, with all brand bonuses, talents, mods, gear sets, exotics, and skills being overhauled. Also, loot drops have been reduced and will now scale “more strongly with difficulty,” according to the patch notes.

The patch notes are quite lengthy and include a bunch of quality of life tweaks as well, such as adjustments to crafting, non-player characters, the Dark Zone, an added difficulty to the Operation Dark Hours raid, and much more.

Full Division 2 Patch Notes

Warlords of New York Campaign

Travel to New York City to hunt down Aaron Keener. To find him you will need to investigate his Lieutenants activities, find clues and gain the trust of the Peacekeepers, local militia defending the public.

• Completely new Open World in lower Manhattan with random world activities, returning factions like the Rikers and Cleaners.
  • 4 new Open World named zones under fog-of-war, with no level-gating, giving you the freedom to tackle the investigation in any way you want.
    • Two Bridges
    • Battery Park
    • Civic Center
    • Financial District
• 5 new narrative Main Missions taking you through lower Manhattan in your hunt for Aaron Keener.
  • The Tombs
  • Pathway Park
  • Wall Street
  • Stranded Tanker
  • A Mystery Location
• 8 interlinked Side Missions to investigate clues that will help players find out more about Keener’s operation and his Lieutenants.
  • Police Headquarters
  • Hugh Carey Tunnel
  • Pier 26
  • JTF Shelter
  • City Hall
  • New York Federal Reserve
  • Castle Clinton
  • Doyers Street
• New level progression from Level 30 to 40!
  • Find out more about your journey in New York from our dedicated article here.
• A new Base of Operation: Haven
  • Haven is a new Settlement led by Paul Rhodes. The inhabitants consist of survivors from Lower Manhattan, former JTF soldiers, and former police officers, with the latter two forming the Peacekeepers.
  • PUPPY!
• Re-imagined New York factions
  • Rikers and Cleaners are back!
  • Both have received upgrades to their AI and are fiercer than ever.
  • New archetypes for both Rikers and Cleaners.
• New, elite variant of the Black Tusk
  • Can be found in legendary difficulty Missions.
  • New archetypes, as the Black Tusk have assimilated parts of the LMB.

New Skills

• Explosive Sticky Bomb
• Incendiary Sticky Bomb
• Trip-wire Tap
• Decoy

New Gear

• A wide array of new weapons, brand and gear sets, exotic and named items.

Gear “2.0”

• All weapons, gear and mods have been reworked.
• All existing items have been converted into the new system.
• Gear has been converted to only contain the following attributes:
  • Weapon Damage
  • Skill Tier
  • Armor
  • Weapon Handling
  • Critical Hit Chance
  • Critical Hit Damage
  • Headshot Damage
  • Skill Damage
  • Skill Repair
  • Skill Haste
  • Armor Regeneration
  • Hazard Protection
  • Health
  • Explosive Resistance
• All Brand Bonuses have been reworked
• Talents
  • All talents have been reworked.
  • Talents will now only appear on Chest and Backpack gear, as well as Weapons.
  • All items can have a maximum of one Talent.
  • Backpack Talents
    • Skill DPS
    • Combined Arms
      • Shooting an enemy increases total skill damage by 25% for 3s.
      • Perfect Combined Arms: 30% skill damage.
    • Energize
      • Using an armor kit grants +1 skill tier for 15s. If already at skill tier 6, grants overcharge.
    • Tech support
      • Skill kills increase total skill damage by 25% for 20s.
      • Perfect Tech Support: 27s.
    • Calculated
      • Kills from cover reduce skill cooldowns by 10%.
    • Shock and Awe
      • Applying a status effect to an enemy increases total skill damage and repair by 20% for 20s.
      • Perfect Shock and Awe: 27s.
    • Heal and Support
      • Safeguard
        • While at full armor, increases total skill repair by 100%.
      • Overclock
        • You and allies within 7m of your deployed skills, gain +25% reload speed and reduces active cooldowns by 0.2s each second.
    • Tank and Bruiser
      • Bloodsucker
        • Killing an enemy adds and refreshes a stack of +10% bonus armor for 10s. Max stack is 10.
      • Leadership
        • Performing a cover to cover grants 12% of your armor as bonus armor to you and all allies for 10s.
        • This is doubled if you end within 10m of an enemy.
        • Cooldown: 10s.
        • PVP: 8% of your armor.
      • Protector
        • When your shield is damaged, you gain +5% and all other allies gain +15% of your armor as bonus armor for 3s.
        • Cooldown: 3s.
    • Weapon DPS
      • Vigilance
        • Increases total weapon damage by 25%. Taking damage disables this buff for 4s.
        • Perfect Vigilance: 3s.
      • Versatile
        • Amplifies total weapon damage for 10s when swapping between your primary and secondary weapons if they are different.
        • 35% to enemies within 15m for Shotguns and SMGs.
        • 35% to enemies further than 25m for Rifles and Marksman Rifles.
        • 10% to enemies between 15-25m for LMGs and Assault Rifles.
        • At most once per 5s per weapon type.
      • Opportunistic
        • Enemies you hit with shotguns and marksman rifles amplifies the damage they take by 10% from all sources for 5s.
      • Unstoppable Force
        • Killing an enemy increases total weapon damage by 5% for 15s. Stacks up to 5 times.
      • Companion
        • While you are within 5m of an ally or skill, total weapon damage is increased by 15%.
      • Composure
        • While in cover, increases total weapon damage by 15%.
      • Concussion
        • Headshots increase total weapon damage by 10% for 1.5s. 5s with marksman rifles.
        • Headshot kills additionally increase total weapon damage by 15% for 10s.
    • Status Effect
      • Creeping Death
        • When you apply a status effect, it is also applied to all enemies within 5m of your target.
        • Cooldown: 20s
      • Wicked
        • Applying a status effect increases total weapon damage by 18% for 20s.
        • Perfect Wicked: 27s
      • Galvanize
        • Applying a Blind, Ensnare, Confuse, or Shock to an enemy grants 40% of your armor as bonus armor to you and all allies within 20m of that enemy for 10s.
        • PvP: 20%
    • Sustain
      • Clutch
        • If you are below 15% armor, critical hits repair 3% missing armor.
        • Kills allow you to repair up to 100% armor for 4-10s, based on your [Weapon] core attribute.
        • Perfect Clutch: If you are below 20% armor.
  • Chest Talents
    • Skill DPS
      • Tag Team
        • The last enemy you have damaged with a skill is marked.
        • Dealing weapon damage to that enemy consumes the mark to reduce active cooldowns by 4s.
        • Cooldown: 4s
      • Kinetic Momentum
        • When in combat, each skill generates a stack while active or not on cooldown.
        • Stacks increase your total skill damage by 1% and total skill repair by 2%. Up to 15 stacks per skill. Lost when on cooldown.
      • Skilled
        • Skill kills have a 25% chance to reset skill cooldowns.
        • If no skills were on cooldown, you instead gain one-time buff that immediately refreshes a skill’s cooldown when it goes on cooldown.
      • Spotter
        • Amplifies total weapon and skill damage by 15% to pulsed enemies.
      • Explosive Delivery
        • Whenever you throw a skill, 1.5 seconds after landing, it creates an explosion damaging enemies within 5m.
        • Damage scales with skill tier dealing 25-100% damage of a concussion grenade.
        • At most once per skill.
        • Remote Pulse, All Turrets, All Hives, Explosive Seeker, Cluster Seeker, Mender Seeker, Decoy, All Traps.
    • Heal and Support
      • Empathic Resolve
        • Repairing an ally, increases their total weapon and skill damage by 3-15% for 10s. 1-7% if self.
        • Effectiveness increased by your skill tier.
      • Overwatch
        • After staying in cover for 10s, increase your and all allies’ total weapon and skill damage by 12% as long as you remain in cover or in a cover-to-cover move.
        • Perfect Overwatch: 8s.
    • Tank and Bruiser
      • Intimidate
        • While you have bonus armor, amplifies total weapon damage by 35% to enemies within 10m.
        • Perfect Intimidate: 40%.
      • Unbreakable
        • When your armor is depleted, repair 95% of your armor.
        • Cooldown: 60s.
        • Perfect Unbreakable: 100%, 55s.
        • PvP: 50%, 60s.
        • Perfect Unbreakable PvP: 55%, 55s.
      • Vanguard
        • Deploying a shield makes it invulnerable for 5s and grants 45% of your armor as bonus armor to all other allies for 20s.
        • Cooldown: 25s
        • Perfect Vanguard: 50%
        • PvP: 20%
        • Perfect Vanguard PvP: 25%
      • Protected Reload
        • Grants +20% bonus armor while reloading.
        • Grants 0-18% of your armor as bonus armor to all other allies when they are reloading, based on your [defense] core attribute.
        • PvP: 15%, 0-12%
    • Weapon DPS
      • Glass Cannon
        • All damage you deal is amplified by 25%. All damage you take is amplified by 50%.
        • Perfect Glass Cannon: 30%/60%.
      • Gunslinger
        • Weapon swapping increases total weapon damage by 20% for 5s. This buff is lost for 5s if you weapon swap while it is active.
      • Focus
        • Increases total weapon damage by 5% every second you are aiming while scoped 8x or higher, up to 50%.
        • Perfect Focus: 6%/60%.
      • Braced
        • While in cover weapon handling is increased by +45%.
        • Perfect Braced: 50%
      • Spark
        • Damaging an enemy with a skill increases total weapon damage by 15% for 15s.
        • Perfect Spark: 20s.
      • Obliterate
        • Critical hits increase total weapon damage by 1% for 5s. Stacks up to 15 times.
• Mods
  • All Mods have been reworked.
  • Gear Mods now provide one attribute.
  • Mask, Chest and Backpack items can contain one mod slot.
  • Generic Gear Mods have been removed from the game.
• Gear Sets
  • All Gear Sets have been reworked.
• Exotics
  • All Exotic items and weapons have been reworked.
• Skills
  • All Skills have been re-balanced.
  • Skill Power has been removed.
  • Skills now automatically scale with the Skill Tier attribute.
  • Skill Mods now have no requirement to equip.

Loot

• Reduced overall loot drop quantity.
• Item power, quality, and quantity now scales more strongly with difficulty.

Developer comment: This change is intended to make loot feel more meaningful. While you will see less loot drops overall the quality of items you acquire will be higher and you have the option to increase the quality by tackling harder challenges.

Vendors

• The Clan Vendor and Cassie Mendoza no longer sell items at maximum power and instead sell items within a high-power range above other Vendors.

Crafting

• Items from the Crafting Bench now have a minimum and maximum power range.
  • For players that stay at Level 30:
    • Crafting bench scales with player level and requires World Tier upgrades to increase Gear Score.
    • The 500 Gear Score upgrade now raises the minimum Gear Score of the crafting power range.
  • For players that own Warlords of New York and are above Level 30:
    • Crafting bench scales with player Level.
    • Crafting bench is reset to Specialized quality upon arrival in New York and will automatically increase back to High-End while levelling up to Level 40.
• Crafted Exotics are no longer crafted at maximum item power and now roll at a higher range than the bench’s default range.
• Exotic Upgrade Blueprints are temporarily capped at Level 30, Gear Score 515.
• All other Blueprints can be used to craft items up to level 40, scaling with the player level.
• AUX Batteries can no longer be crafted.
  • These previously provided the Skill Power attribute which has been removed.
• The missing Gear Score Upgrade Blueprint for the Chameleon has been added.

NPCs

• Players now receive an off-screen warning for incoming grenades.
• Elites are more adept at targeting player Skills.
• Signature Weapons now deal reduced damage against Named enemies.
• Cleaners’=; Rushers now move slower (Coney Island took a lot out of them).
• EMP emitted on death from Black Tusk’s Warhounds has been decreased in radius.
• Black Tusk – Adjustments to Hostile Factions:
  • Renamed existing Rusher archetype (the one that deploys the Suicide Drones) to the Drone Operator. Big promotion for those guys!
  • Added two new archetypes which have been recruited from the LMB:
    • Rusher – Uses an Assault Rifle at range then switches to a Shotgun up close.
    • Support – Deploys a Support Station which heals nearby friendlies.
  • Added two new Warhound archetypes:
    • Warhound Grenadier – Fires a volley of three grenades while stationary, then moves to a new position do it again. And again, and again, and again.
    • Warhound Minigun – Frequently repositions while unloading a powerful minigun.
  • Increased Health gain per player.
  • Slightly increased armor gain per role, per player.
  • Slightly increasesd damage per role, per player.

Infinite Progression

• SHD Levels – an infinite progression system granting you perk points at regular intervals used to improve selected stats and bonuses of your agent.

New attribute system

• Streamlined RPG system, with a focus on increasing build diversity, improved accessibility and making the RPG systems more intuitive.
• “God rolled” items are back and easily identified in the new UI.
• Skill Power now uses a Tier system to allow a clear progression and benefits to each skill, shown in the UI.

Recalibration

• Recalibration has received a large overhaul and players can now store attributes extracted from gear and weapons.
• Once extracted, players can use the stored attribute to recalibrate gear.

Achievements and Commendations

• New Achievements and Commendations have been added for Warlords of New York.

Hunter Puzzles

• 8 new Hunter encounters.
  • 4 encounters in New York.
  • 4 encounters in Washington D.C.

Operation Dark Hours

• A Normal Difficulty Operation Dark Hours Raid is now available for Level 40 players.

Signature Weapons

• All Signature Weapon Pistols now have a Level 40 version.
• Increased the Gunner’s Minigun damage to make it more effective, it will still require sustained fire to maximize effectivity.
• The Technician Skill Power Talent has been reduced to a Single Talent which grants Skill Tier.

Dark Zone

• Additional extraction points are now available in every Dark Zone.
• Experience in the DZ will now only be earned from player to player interactions, Extractions and Supply Drops.
• All items are now contaminated and show attribute rolls to give players more agency on which items they want to extract.
• VOIP is now active on default, with options to set it to Team only or turn it off entirely.
• You can now see players in the Social Menu that are within 100ms of your agent.
• Signature Weapon Ammunition is now longer granted inside the Dark Zone and already acquired ammunition is removed when entering a Checkpoint.
• Grey Rogue Status and the Thieves Den Vendor have been removed. There are still Vendors available near the DZ gates.
• Removed the securing loot option on dead agent’s loot piles.
• Added new, intense extraction music for non-invaded Dark Zones.
• Extraction Timer is now 90 seconds in all Dark Zones.
• Surviving Manhunt rewards are not contaminated.
• Dark Zone Intro Missions have been shortened and streamlined.
• Death Timer for dying as Rogue agent or Manhunt is now 15 seconds.
• Reduced the loss of DZ XP when dying by 50%.
• You now lose DZ XP when dying as non-rogue.
• Killing NPCs inside the DZ no longer grants DZ XP.
• Added ammunition creates near every extraction site.
• Clearing a Landmark no longer grants DZ XP.
• Loot quality in the Dark Zones has been increased.
• Toggling speed to gain Rogue status has been increased, it now takes less time to go Rogue.
• Players are now able to move while toggling Rogue status.
• Added Heroic Landmarks.
• Added Project Objectives for the Dark Zone.
• Deconstructing contaminated items will now provide contaminated DZ resources.
• Entering Dark Zone effect has been added. You know which one.
• Reduced UI clutter.
• Dark Zone Perks have been reset as some perks and the order of perks have changed.
• Invaded Dark Zones are now normalized.
• Normalization has been changed and now only affects Base Amor and Weapon Damage.
• DZ Vendor prices now slightly scale with item level and quality.

Progression

• Reduce the maximum number of armor kits that can be carried from 6 to 4.
• Target Intel has been removed.
  • Loot containers that previously provided Target Intel will now provide Crafting Materials.
• Targeted Loot areas have been updated to include new gear, weapons and equipment.
• The E-Credit reward for replaying a mission now scales with player level.

Bounties

• Daily Bounties no longer require collection from the Bounty Boards or Officers.
• Bounties no longer require Target Intel, once a Bounty has been accepted it can be completed.
• Bounty location selection has been updated, some rare Bounty locations will now activate more frequently.

Invasions

• Invasions no longer automatically select a “suggested” mission every time you enter Washington D.C.
• Agents may now fast travel to most invaded missions.
• Invaded Strongholds no longer have a Gear Score requirement during the World Tier progression.

Offsite Locations and the Pilot

• Many Offsite Missions have been moved on the map for easier navigation.

Missions, Control Points and Bounty Difficulty

• All difficulty modifiers have been updated to account for the removal of Damage to Elites.
• All missions now have Heroic Difficulty available once you finish the Warlords of New York campaign.

Directives

Directives are additional difficulty modifiers that players can activate manually after having finished the Warlords of New York campaign, both for Missions and the Open World. The more Directives you activate the harder the challenge and the greater the end-of-activity XP reward! Five Directives will be available once you reach the Level 40 endgame:

• Ammo Hoarders
  • Reduced starting ammo & excess ammo is lost on reload. Enemies don’t drop ammo & ammo is not shown on the mini-map.
• Cool Skills
  • When one Skill is activated the other is put on cooldown.
• Fog Of War Revisited
  • Mini Map and directional threat indicators are removed.
• No Regen
  • Armor never regenerates after an encounter. It can be manually healed.
• Special Ammo
  • Enemy bullets may be of special types. What type depends on the enemy faction.

Global Difficulty

Players that have finished the Warlords of New York campaign can now choose to select a Global Difficulty. This will affect all gameplay, including Open World activities. Higher difficulty enemies and activities drop better-quality loot. There are 4 difficulties that can be selected:

• Normal
• Hard
  • Small Enemy Damage increase.
  • Small Enemy Armor increase.
  • Small Enemy Veterancy increase.
• Challenging
  • Medium Enemy Damage increase.
  • Medium Enemy Armor increase.
  • Medium Enemy Veterancy increase.
• Heroic
  • Heavy Enemy Damage increase.
  • Heavy Enemy Armor increase.
  • Heavy Enemy Veterancy increase.
  • Respawn Restricted.

Changing Global Difficulty will respawn and re-activate activities in the Open World. This will allow players to freely reset their activities.

Seasons

Seasons will bring a cohesive experience end-game experience using Seasonal Manhunt, Leagues, Global Events, Bounties and Apparel Events across both New York City and Washington D.C. You can find a first overview on Seasons in our dedicated article here.

• Participating in the activities above will earn players Season experience contributing to their Season level.
• Season One will feature 100 levels.
• Seasons have a free track and a premium track, which is available to be purchased via the Season Pass.
  • The Season Pass for the first Season will be free for all players.
• Playing Conflict will contribute XP by gaining Conflict Levels beyond 30.
• Playing in the Dark Zone will contribute XP by gaining DZ Levels beyond 30.

Bug fixes

• Fixed an issue causing Dead Man’s Hand talent to not trigger properly after several activations and respawning.
• Fixed an issue that caused the Lullaby Upgrade Blueprint to not be available.
• Fixed an issue that caused the Stats menu to not correctly close when clicking the “Toggle View Stats” button with a mouse.
• Fixed an issue that could cause players to receive a Server transfer message when accepting a Dark Zone group invite.
• Fixed an issue that could cause players to become stuck in a loading screen when accepting an invite for The Pentagon mission while not having unlocked the Safe House Off-Site.
• Fixed several issues with props and covers not working properly with player interactions.
• Fixed an issue that could cause DZ server transfers to not work properly under certain circumstances.
• Fixed some weird walls.
• Fixed an issue that caused the Food Aid Operation Campus Project to no longer reward the Compensator 5.56 Blueprint.
• Fixed an issue that caused the Salvager Crew Theatre Project to no longer reward the Vertical Grip Blueprint.