Blizzard’s very popular MMO World of Warcraft celebrates its 16th anniversary this month, and the developer is throwing a party to mark the occasion.
The event was supposed to start later, but Blizzard moved it up due to the release date changed for the Shadowlands expansion. Available now through November 22, the anniversary event adds special rewards, including an Anniversary Gift Package that comes with items that increase reputation and experience gains by 16% to reflect the game’s 16th anniversary. The gift bundle also comes with a special invitation to initiate a quest in Orgrimmar or Stormwind, depending on which faction you’re aligned with.
There is also a new vendor in the world who sells items from previous anniversary events, as well as a new Crafted Clock of War you can buy to use for transmogrification. The Korrak’s Revenge PvP event also come to WoW with the anniversary event, and it allows you to earn new mounts.
Finally, some legacy bosses return to WoW with the anniversary event, including Lord Kazzak and Azuregos. You can visit Icy Veins to see a full rundown of what’s new in the 16th anniversary event.
The Xbox Series X has been sent out to many press and streamers, and videos of various Xbox One games running much faster are emerging. With the Xbox Series X launch line-up looking pretty thin, much of the appeal for new console owners will come from revisiting older titles and seeing how the new system’s features enhances them.
Now, thanks to one streamer’s video of The Witcher 3 running on a Series X, we can check out the advantages of super-boosted loading times. YouTuber rubhen925 has shared nearly two hours of footage, showing the game running on the new system. While the full video is worth a watch, the most exciting part, funnily enough, comes when fast travel is used.
The GIF from the video below happens just past the 1 hour 14 minute mark in the video, and it shows what happens when you fast travel. There’s no loading screen now–in fact, the environment loads in so fast that it kind of looks like a glitch.
It’s a bit uglier than a loading screen, perhaps, but it’s much more convenient.
The Witcher 3 is coming to Xbox Series X and PS5 with an improved next-gen edition. It’ll feature ray tracing for the first time.
Baldur’s Gate 3 is a bit of a mess, and for now, that’s okay. Baldur’s Gate 3 isn’t done yet. As with developer Larian Studios’ previous release, the acclaimed 2017 RPG Divinity: Original Sin 2, Baldur’s Gate 3 has been released into Early Access on Steam. It contains the first act of the game: a chunk of content encompassing around 25 hours of adventuring for players determined to seek out every last treasure chest or minor side quest.
As a setup it shows promise, introducing you to a cast of half a dozen characters who hint at the potential to become interesting traveling companions. Already on the brink of civil war and now facing a terrifying alien threat, the world itself seems to offer rich pickings for these characters to indulge. And by building on the template forged by the Original Sin series, BG3 already has the foundation of a well-engineered RPG that rewards players willing to engage with its systemic creativity.
Yet such promise is muted by notes of caution. Baldur’s Gate 3 is rough and messy and often feels like it is just barely hanging together. Occasionally it falls apart, collapsing under the weight of scripting bugs and graphical glitches, and even gives up completely with numerous hard crashes to desktop. Technical issues are not unusual in any game, let alone one still in Early Access, and so it is neither a surprise nor much of a criticism to encounter them here.
You can pet the dog in Baldur’s Gate 3.
Many such problems are trivial–a wonky death animation here, a missing bit of text there–and can be excused by the game’s Early Access state. The real price to be paid by the many bugs and glitches is a tariff on the dramatic weight of the conversations and cinematic scenes during which they arise. Tense confrontations are diminished when characters cycle through clearly unfinished animations or the placeholder camera position fails to focus on what’s actually happening. Key scenes are undermined when the faltering choreography makes it hard to discern what’s at stake. As a result, it’s tough to really invest yourself in story development or character dynamics when they’re being constantly tripped up by a presentation that is so obviously a work in progress.
Technical issues are not unusual in any game, let alone one still in Early Access, and so it is neither a surprise nor much of a criticism to encounter them here.
But that’s okay. Baldur’s Gate 3 isn’t done yet. Without trying to second-guess Larian’s development process, these technical problems don’t seem fundamental; the reasonable expectation is that they will be fixed, and there is plenty of time for that to happen. Improvements have already been noted in the transition from pre-release to Early Access launch, as well as in the subsequent patches, and there’s no reason to think that trend won’t continue.
Beyond technical frailty though, there are other–perhaps more intractable–reasons to suggest it may be premature to embark on your Baldur’s Gate 3 adventure.
I found the tone of much of the writing to be a turn-off. The premise has your starting character escape from a Mind Flayer experiment, but only after a gross psychic maggot crawled into your character’s eyeball and bedded down in their brain. Meeting up with a handful of other such victims, with whom you share the realisation you can now influence the thoughts of others, you decide to band together and find a way to remove the maggots. These party members are at first understandably wary of you and of each other–you’ve all endured a traumatic experience and you don’t like anyone who can go digging through your mind. I totally get it. But everyone feels cut from the same cloth. Everyone shares the same slightly petulant personality. Treating you with a certain degree of suspicion makes sense, but it’s tiring to travel with companions who all affect an air of mystery, teasing you with allusions to there being much more to their stories while at the same time clamming up and even scolding you for daring to probe further.
It seems likely the writers are shooting for a gradual building of trust. During conversations you’ll receive feedback that your fellow party members approve or disapprove of the things you’ve said and the choices you’ve made. At times they’ll even voice support or concern during the exchange. You can also have one of your party members (rather than your primary character) initiate conversations with an NPC and potentially reveal different lines of dialogue as a result. On a mechanical level, it feels good, as if your choices matter, particularly when you realize a situation would likely have played out differently if you had left one party member at base camp and brought along someone else.
Yet the dialogue itself feels off to the extent that I’m not convinced anyone wants to be there. There’s a snideness and aloofness to each party member that doesn’t align with their willingness to, you know, be a party member. It could be that it’s too early to judge, and I am all for a good long arc of character development, but the impression these characters have so far left on me is that I don’t particularly want to hang around with any one of them.
It probably doesn’t help that the primary character available in the Early Access build is a generic roll-your-own variety. The most interesting way to play Divinity: Original Sin 2 was by picking one of the pre-made characters who came equipped with their own background, a distinct personality, and an established relationship with the wider world, while the pre-made characters you didn’t select initially would later be recruited to your party. Rolling your own character at the start did let you customize their skills and appearance, but it meant you had to forgo the extra flavor that came with choosing a fleshed-out, pre-written character. It felt like you were missing out.
It could be that it’s too early to judge, but the impression these characters have so far left on me is that I don’t particularly want to hang around with any one of them.
Baldur’s Gate 3 works in much the same way. You can roll your own character, selecting from a variety of races, classes, genders, skills and so forth, along with a fairly impressive suite of sliders and presets that allow you to tailor physical appearance. Or you can pick one of the pre-rolled options and properly role-play an existing character. The exception is that the latter is not yet available in the Early Access build. It’s visible as an option in the character creation menu, but it’s greyed out.
What this means is you’re currently left with a fairly boring main character. I played through the first act with three different primary characters, switching up their race, gender and class, and I struggled to find many ways to make the experience feel fresh each time. That your primary character remains silent during conversations, while everyone else is fully voiced, only exacerbates the problem, heightening the sensation you’re playing as an interchangeable mannequin. When the option to pick one of the pre-made characters becomes available in a future update, this issue should disappear. For now, though, it’s another reason to wait.
There are also reservations to be had on a more mechanical level. Combat works very much like it does in Divinity: Original Sin 2, and for the most part that is an asset. The turn-based encounters revolve around making use of the immediate environment, whether that’s securing high ground and the advantage it affords ranged attacks or deploying spells and items to leverage elemental hazards, such as turning pools of water into slippery ice traps. Creative solutions are not merely encouraged but rewarded, and the many fights in Baldur’s Gate 3 are best enjoyed when you’re able to exploit options beyond once again swinging your longsword.
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Where it comes undone is in failing to tell you about any of the more interesting ways to approach combat. Tutorials for anything beyond basic melee and ranged attacks are non-existent at this stage, and I suspect anyone who hasn’t played Original Sin 2 will find that much of the complexity passes them by. Worsening the confusion is an inventory system that does a poor job of highlighting anything useful, while the quick select bar at the bottom of the screen is a jumble of indecipherable icons, sorted seemingly in the most chaotic and unhelpful order possible.
The difficulty of encounters is similarly all over the place. I found some very early fights completely impossible while later ones proved a breeze. This led to a great deal of careful quicksaving and quickloading when exploring. I’d take a wrong turn and find myself in a pitched battle I quickly realized I had no hope of winning, so I’d reload and explore in the opposite direction. This would be fine if it felt like I was braving more dangerous territory, but instead it simply felt random and thus frustrating.
Related to the difficulty, percentage chances to hit in combat often feels very low. From frustratingly low to-hit chances to frequent steep skill checks, you will spend a lot of time in Baldur’s Gate 3 failing at various actions–failing to stab someone, failing to hit them with a spell, failing to intimidate or persuade or pick a lock. There’s a sense that you are, despite your “chosen one” status, not actually a particularly accomplished adventurer.
It’s probably best to wait and see how these things fall in the final, or at least story-complete, release.
Currently there is no adjustable difficulty setting–the pre-game setup describes the difficulty as “Normal”–and it’s impossible to know if this sort of unevenness is intentional or will be tweaked in future balance updates. Either way, it’s another example of the virtue of patience. It’s probably best to wait and see how these things fall in the final, or at least story-complete, release.
Reviewing Baldur’s Gate 3 at this point in time is a delicate proposition. It shows a good deal of promise, yet there are plenty of warning signs it may not fulfill its potential. But predicting the future is not really the task of an Early Access review. To some extent, it is fascinating to play Baldur’s Gate 3 today with the knowledge you will be able to follow its progress over the coming months–and possibly years–with a kind of academic interest in how AAA RPGs are built. You’ll be able to witness first-hand how rough cuts are beaten into shape and finally polished. And for some small section of the audience, that alone will be worth the price of admission. For the rest of us, however, there’s no rush. Baldur’s Gate 3 isn’t done yet. It’s okay to wait until it is.
In Half-Life 2: Episode Two, players can encounter a garden gnome near the game’s opening. If they manage to carry it all the way to the end and place it in the rocket ship before it takes off, players can unlock the Little Rocket Man achievement–an infamously complicated but very fun challenge for Half-Life fans. Now, Valve founder Gabe Newell is recreating this achievement in real life for charity.
Polygon is reporting that Newell is looking to launch a garden gnome into space as part of a Rocket Lab initiative in New Zealand, where he’s currently staying. The gnome, called Gnome Chompski (as it is in several Valve games), will be sent into space during a livestream, and viewers will need to donate to watch.
Money raised from the stream will be sent to the Paediatric Intensive Care Unit at Starship, an Auckland-based children’s hospital.
This version of Gnome Chompski is not a regular garden gnome–Weta Workshop, the studio behind the effects in the Lord of the Rings movie series, has 3D-printed a titanium gnome that can withstand the heat and pressure of the launch.
The exact date of the launch isn’t yet clear, but it will likely happen within a two-week window starting on November 15.
The latest Half-Life game, the VR shooter Half-Life: Alyx, also contained a gnome that could be carried through the whole game for a Steam achievement.
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Control was among the best games of 2019–and one of the most taxing in terms of graphical fidelity. Even on the powerful PlayStation 4 Pro and Xbox One X, Control would sometimes hitch, drop frames, and struggle as protagonist Jesse Faden telekinetically hucked objects at Hiss enemies or smashed through the offices of the Federal Bureau of Control, flinging papers and wood splinters in all directions in her wake.
The high graphical requirements seem like they would preclude Control from ever running on the Nintendo Switch, a less powerful game console than its Sony and Microsoft counterparts. But Nintendo and publisher 505 Games found a workaround: streaming. The release of Control: Ultimate Edition leverages cloud technology to make the game available on Nintendo’s little hybrid console, and the results are surprisingly strong. With a stable internet connection (my Switch said I was getting around 30 mbps down and 8.2 mbps up over WiFi), Control plays very well on the Switch with all its options, and if you haven’t had a chance to check out Remedy Entertainment’s killer title, this is a good way to do so.
If you’re not familiar, Control imbues you with supernatural powers and sets you loose in the Oldest House, a brutalist concrete office building with shifting walls and seemingly impossible scale. It houses the FBC, a government agency dedicated to the study, protection, and containment of “paranatural” objects and entities. If it’s supernatural, weird, or possibly involved with other dimensions, it’s the Bureau’s purview–but the building has been invaded by a spectral force called the Hiss that has possessed many of the Bureau’s employees and turned them against the survivors.
As Peter Brown wrote in GameSpot’s Control review last year, “If you’ve played past works from Remedy Games, you will instantly recognize the studio’s footprint. Control’s story plays with grim truths and strange themes. Everything is a serious matter, except when it isn’t and a dark sense of humor creeps in to offer a momentary respite–which, yes, includes plenty of FMV shorts. The combat system is designed for you to be equal parts agile and destructive, bearing a notable resemblance to the studio’s Microsoft exclusive, Quantum Break. Combat aside, that game felt like a step removed from what Remedy does best. Control feels like Remedy has found its footing again.”
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Like Jesse, the Hiss fight with a mix of guns and telekinetic powers, requiring you to utilize a host of supernatural capabilities–like levitation, throwing objects with your mind, creating shields out of random debris, and even turning the hiss to your side. Combat is always a fun, frenetic combination of gunplay with your shape-changing Service Weapon and deploying your otherworldly abilities, while constantly staying on the move so you’re never overwhelmed.
On Switch, Control comes in two varieties: Enhanced Performance mode and Enhanced Graphics mode. The former favors frame rate over powerful graphical accouterments like ray tracing in the latter, but in practice, both modes capture Control’s impressive visuals without too much in the way of differences. Especially in handheld mode, where the Switch’s small screen helps to hide its lower resolution capabilities, the graphics tend to be pretty gorgeous, even if you aren’t getting the tier of lighting effects, hair detail, and reflections that the enhanced graphics mode can deliver.
The enhanced mode looks pretty great, though, both when the Switch is handheld and when it’s docked. The biggest weakness of the Switch’s graphical fidelity is that, through a combination of either the limitations of streaming or the lower resolution of the Switch in general, the game can look a bit hazier than it does in other versions. It’s a minor weakness, however–Control still turns out multiple beautiful images and high-fidelity faces, especially in motion, in either handheld mode or TV mode. Enhanced mode enjoys some prettier lighting effects and other touches, but while Performance mode is definitely something of a graphical downgrade, it’s a fairly small one. Whether in handheld or on a TV, both modes of Control are pretty.
Frame rate is the place where the two Control modes seem to differ the most. In Enhanced Graphics, frame rate is already a bit lower than the Enhanced Performance mode, and routinely dipped even further, both handheld and on a TV. The lower frame rate never hurt my ability to play the game, even during Control’s tough and hectic firefights, but the slowdown was noticeable when the game worked to render lots of explosions, enemies, gunfire, and other effects.
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It’s worth noting that frame rate issues are probably the biggest problem the game faces among both modes. This is likely a function of streaming, where dropped frames are a fairly common problem–but then again, similar frame rate drops sometimes plague the PS4, Xbox One, and PC versions of Control because of its graphical demands. In any event, Performance mode doesn’t solve the frame rate troubles, but in playing through about four hours of the game, the hitching or slowdowns were always minor and never affected my ability to actually enjoy the game.
Control is a tough game on any platform, requiring fast reflexes and aiming against enemies who will pummel you relentlessly. The Switch’s Joy-Cons don’t always feel up to the task, though. The thumbsticks are notoriously a bit loose and floaty, and precise aiming with firearms can get frustrating. The problem is mitigated by what feels like an increased aim assist that functions very well here–I never felt like playing on Switch was notably tougher than other platforms, and in Control’s difficult battles, Jesse is just as quick and formidable a paranatural combatant as on PC or PS4. But the few moments when you need to be precise with your shots can be frustrating as you swing your targeting reticle too far over a target and have to try to track back, especially as enemies are unloading on you with machine guns, rockets, and floating chunks of concrete.
While it does have some minor issues, Control streaming on Switch is impressive. Even a few rooms away from my WiFi router, the game always handled well, and I was able to fight through battle after battle with the Hiss with nothing more bothering me than a less-than-optimum frame rate. This isn’t the most beautiful-looking version of Control, but it’s also nothing to sneer at, and it’s boosted by the opportunity to play such a big, technically demanding game on a handheld system. Venturing through the Oldest House on the Switch mostly feels great, and this is a solid, convenient way to experience one of 2019’s best–along with all its DLC–if you haven’t already.
A new trailer for Netflix‘s The Witcher series has arrived, and it contains some secrets that could point to where the show is headed for Season 2 when it comes to its monsters.
Released on Halloween and set to the song “Monster Mash,” the video’s description states that viewers should be on the lookout for a few surprises. “The White Wolf takes Halloween as a personal challenge. But keep your eyes peeled for a few sweet treats… you won’t want to miss what’s hidden,” reads the description.
Collider noticed that there are new monsters and otherworldly beasts that can be seen at around 15 seconds and 30 seconds into the video, and this could be our first look at Season 2 footage. One is a clump of blood and viscera and the other is a group of skeletons connected together.
This new footage comes not long after Netflix published new images that show off Freya Allan as Princess Ciri. She’s wearing new battle garb, and it’s a radical shift from Season 1.
Season 2 is reportedly set to premiere in 2021. For fans who can’t wait, Netflix recently released Making the Witcher, a 32-minute behind-the-scenes documentary about the making of the series.
Fortnite is getting its next Marvel hero later this week. Ghost Rider is coming to the battle royale as part of another Marvel Knockout Super Series tournament. You can earn the skin for free if you place well in the competition.
The tournament takes place on November 4. Players need to form a three-person squad in order to participate. The top players in each region will earn their own Ghost Rider skin and back bling. The cosmetics will be purchasable for $20 USD in the item shop, just like the Daredevil skin, sometime after the event. You can see the full rules for the tournament on Epic’s official site. Here’s where you need to place in order to earn the reward:
Europe – Top 800
NA East – Top 500
NA West – Top 200
Brazil – Top 200
Asia – Top 100
Oceania – Top 100
Middle East – Top 100
Marvel Knockout is a limited-time mode that pits teams against each other with special Marvel items. Every player is given select abilities from a pool of heroes like Dr. Doom, Iron Man, She-Hulk, Storm, Black Panther, Wolverine, Groot, and others. This announcement means Marvel Knockout will also return to regular playlists. It’s great for earning experience quickly.
This is the second of four special Marvel Knockout tournaments. The first awarded select players with a Daredevil skin, back bling, harvesting tool, and glider. Two more are scheduled for November 11 and 18. A special finale tournament with a cash prize will take place on November 22.
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When it comes to box sets, many home releases feature plenty of special features, revamped visuals and audio, or some really cool packaging. For Rambo: The Complete Steelbook Collection, this 4K UHD release comes with a copy of a handwritten note from Sylvester Stallone.
Currently available at Best Buy, the Rambo box set features all five movies in the franchise, including 2019’s Last Blood. Additionally, it comes with digital copies of all the movies, and then a bizarre note from Stallone himself, written in cursive, which you can check out below.
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It’s truly a weird inclusion for this box set. “I’m the luckiest actor to have gotten to play and write for this most incredible character,” Stallone writes. “Please enjoy this extended cut as much as I did playing the part.”
Below, he signed his name. However, this is obviously just a copy of the note, as not every copy of the Rambo collection has a personalized note from John Rambo himself. On the other side of the note is a code for the digital copy of the extended cut of Rambo: Last Blood.
Each movie comes in its own steelbook with some pretty cool art on each case. Of course, each movie also contains some special features, including audio commentaries, deleted scenes, featurettes, and various trailers. The collection is currently on sale at Best Buy.
Rambo: The Complete Steelbook Collection
$120 $95
There are digital copies of all five movies, all in 4K UHD, included in the collection as well. There isn’t a lot going on for the future of this franchise; however, Rambo isn’t remaining quiet. John Rambo was recently revealed as a DLC character for Mortal Kombat 11. Stallone returns to voice the character one more time. So if you were wondering if Rambo could beat up The Terminator, you finally can… in video game form.
