Month: July 2020

Even before Warzone added a whole second game to Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare‘s files, the size of the game’s patch downloads and disk footprint were a problem the developers had to address. The file size ballooned after Warzone’s release, and now some players’ game sizes have broken 200 GB according to a Reddit thread picked up by US Gamer.

Reddit user kiwi_lad_1982 posted a screenshot of the combined Modern Warfare and Warzone package taking up 209 GB after the game’s most recent patch, though another user in the replies said theirs was 222 GB. GameSpot’s Mat Paget verified that his PC copy of the game was only at 196 GB, however.

Console players have the option to reduce their Modern Warfare file size by deleting files for parts of the game they don’t use–a necessity as the file size approaches half the size of an average console hard drive. PC players don’t have access to this feature, however, though many have complained that they’ve played their fill of the campaign and would rather delete it to free up space.

The latest Season 4 Reloaded patch added huge 200-player matches for Warzone’s Battle Royale, yet most of the Twitter conversation around the new update was more concerned with the massive download size. For what it’s worth, the latest update actually decreases the file size slightly for players who only have Warzone installed, while players with the combined games will see a slight increase in size.

When Skater XL launches on PC, PS4, and Xbox One on July 28, it will contain three maps created by the game’s modding community during the game’s Early Access period on Steam. The maps will be a part of the game for all players.

The three maps are Streets (by Jean-Olive), Hűdland Training Facility (by Pactole), and Grant Skate Park (by Theo). A trailer and screenshots for these maps have been released, showcasing the work of the game’s community. Theo joined the development team after creating Grant Skate Park, which will debut in the game’s 1.0 release.

In a statement released to press, developer Easy Days Studio co-founder Dain Hedgpeth praised the game’s modding community, which consists of 84,000 people who “have created thousands of amazing maps, fake skate brands and gear” in the game. states Dain Hedgpeth, Co-founder of Easy Day Studios. “Their creativity and passion have not only inspired us, but has become an integral part of the Skater XL experience,” he says, “and we want to pay homage to this by including some of their work at launch.”

Hedgpeth notes that this is “just the beginning” of the studio’s plans to highlight community-created content.

Grant Skate Park is a recreation of the iconic Chicago public skatepark, with a few small changes to make it easier to skate in a game. Streets brings together numerous street spots from different parks, and Hűdland Training Facility is an entirely original creation.

Skater XL faces some tough competition for skateboarding fans, as Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1 + 2 is also releasing later this year on September 4. XL has drawn comparisons to the Skate franchise, but the next Skate game was only just announced, and is likely to be a long time away from release.

Originally released in 2007, The Lord of the Rings Online continues to receive new update some 13 years later. The latest one invites players to attend the wedding of Middle-earth heroes Aragorn and Arwen. Just like in the book, Aragorn and Arwen will celebrate their marriage in Minas Tirith, and you can attend this joyous event and earn special bonuses for doing so.

The new event is called Epic Volume V, Book 1: A Time of Celebration, and it runs through July 20. Players will automatically receive a quest that provides a map to Minas Tirith. Once you get there, you’ll receive another quest that kicks off the Midsummer Festival. This is mean to celebrate Midsummer’s Day, which is when Aragon and Arwen got married in the year TA 3019.

There are a variety of Midsummer-themed quests, and you can visit Thorin’s Hall, Duillond, Bree-town, and the Party Tree to find them. Going forward, the Midsummer Event will be an annual event.

Additionally, wedding-themed gifts are now available as daily and weekly Hobbit gifts that you can claim, while players will get extra allotments of silver and other bonuses like cosmetic items. You can read the full patch notes for The Lord of the Rings Online’s wedding update here.

The Lord of the Rings Online won’t be the only Lord of the Rings MMO on the market in the future, as Amazon is developing a Lord of the Rings MMO of its own with a unique art style.

Amazon’s free to play team shooter Crucible has been pulled back into closed beta just a month after its official release.

Crucible’s developer Relentless Studios revealed the news on the Crucible blog yesterday, announcing that as of today, the game will shift back into a closed beta state once more, in order to “focus on providing the best possible experience for our players.”

Despite the drastic change, Relentless is still following the roadmap it announced in early June when it decided to pull two of Crucible’s three game modes from circulation after its player base dwindled just weeks after launch. The team are focusing on “map, combat, and system changes,” and made it clear that the Crucible experience will remain much the same for those who have been playing since launch.

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“You’ll keep all the progress and customization items you’ve already earned, and the battle pass, reward tracks, and in-game store will continue to be supported,” the statement reads. Relentless is also setting up a “community council” of players who they’ll be consulting for feedback, and the team will be scheduling dedicated time each week to play the game with the current community.

Crucible’s most popular game mode, Heart of the Hives, has remained and Relentless is working on a number of new features, trying to improve the game using feedback from fans. You can check out the public Trello board here, which shows what the developers are working on at the moment, and which issues have priority.

We reviewed Crucible upon its official release in late May, giving it a 4/10 and calling the team-based shooter “a slog.”

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Jordan Oloman is a freelance writer for IGN. Follow him on Twitter.

While one team inside 343 Industries plugs away on Halo Infinite, another continues to work on Halo: The Master Chief Collection. The studio has continually introduced impressive updates for the game over the years, and this continues with a major update coming to Halo: CE in particular.

The game is getting a brand-new customization system for multiplayer. These include visors, weapon skins, and vehicle skins. You can see some work-in-progress images of the new system below.

In a blog post, design director Max Szlagor explained why 343 is adding these new visor, weapon, and vehicle skins to Halo: CE and not the other titles in the collection.

“We wanted to bring a greater level of customization to the games that didn’t have as many customization options for armor sets so players can have their uniqueness in each game,” he said. “With that in mind, we thought, ‘Hey, wouldn’t it be cool to have some new options for Halo: CE and what’s possible there?’ Turns out there were a number of things that we could do! We sat down and started to come up with some concepts, going through trial and error in trying stuff out, and I think we’re quite happy with what was possible and how to spice things up in multiplayer with these options.”

Szlagor went on to say that the size and scale of MCC–which comprises five different games–meant that 343 needed to make a call about what game to prioritize. “There’s just so much stuff in MCC that it takes time to build out these features to the level of quality and the level of depth that we want,” he said. “This was an opportunity where we saw Halo: CE didn’t have any of these types of features previously and now, we are bringing these to life.”

These new customization items will be available for MCC Season 2, which is set to kick off with the launch of Halo 3 on PC sometime soon. In the future, Szlagor said 343 might look to develop new customization items for the other games in MCC. “I think people are going to be stoked to see what crazy stuff comes up for all the different titles in MCC,” he said.

Not everyone will want to have skins, or want to see them. With that in mind, 343 created a new option from the Gameplay tab that allows you to opt out of seeing the new skins. The “New Skins” setting is toggled on by default, but you can disable it so you can only see the original art for Halo: CE.

In other news, 343 has announced that more microtransaction options are coming to MCC with the launch of Season 2.

Halo: The Master Chief Collection is changing its progression system for the upcoming Season 2 update. Developer 343 Industries announced that it will soon begin to allow people to purchase “seasonal items.” [Update: following the publication of this story, Microsoft removed the word “purchase” from its blog post, so it seems microtransactions may not be coming to MCC]

MCC currently has a battle pass-style progression system that players grind through gameplay to unlock new stuff.

“We also heard feedback that players want more choice in the order they unlock items, so we are adding the ability to purchase seasonal items in a given tier in any order that players want,” design director Max Szlagor said on the Halo website.

[UPDATE: the wording here has since been changed to say, “We are adding the ability to unlock seasonal items in a given tier in any order that players want.” Based on this, it seems microtransactions are not, in fact, coming to MCC, but rather that you can spend Season Points to unlock the new content]

In MCC, a tier consists of 10 unlock slots. The Season 1 progression system had 10 unlock slots in each tier, of which there were 10. With the new microtransaction system, players can’t buy anything they want. “Players will still need to unlock all items in tier 1 in order to access tier 2 items, but in any given tier players can choose their favorite items first,” the developer said.

MCC Season 2 will include more than 100 new items to unlock, including vehicle skins of Halo: CE for the first time in the game’s history. 343 is making another change to how you unlock stuff, too. In Season 1, the “season points” required to unlock new content could only be earned through multiplayer gameplay. However, Season 2’s progression system will let you earn these points in campaign, Firefight, and PvP.

MCC Season 2 will begin when Halo 3 is released on PC, which should be soon given that the closed beta has just ended.

343’s MCC development team is one of at least two teams inside the company. The other is working on Halo Infinite for release as a launch title on Xbox Series X this year. Microsoft plans to showcase the game during an Xbox 20/20 event in July. The event won’t happen for a while, apparently, as WindowsCentral reports it will take place the week of July 20.

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July is just around the corner, and Pokemon Go developer Niantic has outlined a number of events it has lined up for the popular mobile game over the next few weeks. In addition to the weekly challenges being held in the lead up to Pokemon Go Fest 2020, July will bring a new Legendary Pokemon, Kyurem, to the game, as well as a new Research Breakthrough reward encounter and more.

July Research Breakthrough Reward

On top of a new batch of Field Research tasks to complete, there will be a new Research Breakthrough reward in July. Each time players collect enough stamps to achieve a Research Breakthrough next month, they’ll earn an encounter with the Rock Pokemon Larvitar, and there’s a chance it may even be Shiny.

Kyurem

Once Zekrom leaves Raids on July 7, the Legendary Ice/Dragon Pokemon Kyurem will make its debut in Pokemon Go. Kyurem will be available as a five-star Raid boss for several weeks, and there will be a Kyurem Raid Hour every Wednesday evening from 6-7 PM local time, giving you plenty of chances to catch it.

Pokemon Spotlight Hours

Every Tuesday at 6-7 PM local time, Niantic will hold a Pokemon Spotlight event, making a certain Pokemon much more common that evening. Alongside each Spotlight Pokemon will be a special in-game bonus, such as double XP for catching Pokemon or double Candy for transferring them. The full Spotlight Hour schedule for July is as follows:

Date	Spotlight Pokemon	Spotlight Bonus
July 7	Taillow	2x Candy for transferring Pokemon
July 14	Zubat	2x XP for evolving Pokemon
July 21	Oddish	2x Stardust for catching Pokemon
July 28	Buizel	2x XP for catching Pokemon

Pokemon Go Fest 2020

The first global Pokemon Go Fest takes place on July 25 and 26, but before then, Niantic is offering a series of challenges each week leading up to the event. If enough players on each team can complete these challenges, Niantic will unlock additional Pokemon during Go Fest weekend. You can read more about the Pokemon Go Fest weekly challenges here.

Pokemon Go Fourth Anniversary Event

Running alongside the first set of weekly challenges is Pokemon Go’s fourth anniversary celebration. The event takes place from July 3-8, and during that time, Flying-type and party hat-wearing Pokemon will appear in the wild, raids, and eggs much more frequently than usual. Players will also have a chance to catch Shiny versions of Pidove and Flying Pikachu, and the Legendary Pokemon Ho-Oh will return for a special Raid Weekend from July 3-6.