Month: July 2021

Fortnite Week 6 challenges are coming up fast. The Legendary Quests will go live on Wednesday, July 14 at 7 AM PT / 10 AM ET, while the Epic Quests will follow a day later at the same time. Players will once again be taking orders from Doctor Slone, leader of the Imagined Order, as she seeks to thwart the alien invasion. That means your first challenge of the week will be to get to a payphone and receive your covert mission. As for the full list of Fortnite Week 6 challenges, read on.

Fortnite Week 6 Legendary Quests

• Get Slone’s orders from a payphone (1) – 15,000 XP
• Place prepper supplies in Hayseed’s Farm (1) – 45,000 XP
• Deal damage to opponents in farms (25) – 30,000 XP
• Use an Inflate-a-Bull (1) – 30,000 XP
• Place cow decoys in farms (3) – 30,000 XP
• Damage an alien-driven saucer (25) – 30,000 XP

Fortnite Week 6 Epic Quests

• Collect gold bars (500) – 30,000 XP
• Spend gold bars (500) – 30,000 XP
• Destroy equipment on top of Abductors (3) – 30,000 XP
• Open chests or ammo boxes in low-gravity areas (3) – 30,000 XP
• Deploy alien nanites anywhere other than Holly Hatchery (3) – 30,000 XP
• Destroy alien trees (5) – 30,000 XP

As has been the case each week in Season 7, the Legendary Quests are more story-driven than past seasons. That also means they include one-off objectives that even the most seasoned players can’t have mastered before, so we’ll be updating this guide hub with specific solutions to those challenges very soon and ahead of the quests going live.

Some of them you should already know how to do anyway, such as damage an alien-driven saucer, which you can do by going to any invaded location–where its name is written in purple on your map. Those spots change with each round but are always home to UFOs being piloted by AI aliens, or “trespassers.” Getting Slone’s orders from a payphone can once more be any payphone, and you can find these at all bus stops or, if you’d like one specific spot, on the western edge of Misty Meadows. To deal damage to opponents at farms, simply drop at Farmer Steel’s (now Hayseed’s) farm or at Corny Complex. Damage within those limits will apply.

An Inflate-a-Bull is a brand-new traversal item coming with this week’s 17.20 patch. Those details have not been revealed in full just yet, but we know from prior leaks that an Inflate-a-Bull will allow players to use a balloon (shaped like a cow) to float across the island at will, sort of like gliding with a chicken but with more air time. You won’t be able to shoot while inside an Inflate-a-Bull and you’ll be at risk of being shot down from opponents popping the cow balloon with bullets–so be careful!

As for the Epic Quests, they are once again more familiar for frequent Fortnite flyers. Collecting and spending gold bars can both be done by interacting with NPCs across the island. You can also find smaller sums of gold bars by smashing beds, chairs, sofas, and washer/dryer machines whenever you see them. They each have a high spawn chance for dropping gold bars. If you want to spend 500 gold bars in one swift motion, you can visit Sunny at Believer Beach and select her offer to “tip the bus driver” a small tip, which will spend 500 gold bars instantly. Just be careful you don’t select the large tip option or you’ll be 4,000 gold bars lighter.

Abductors are coming back after a week away, so you’ll want to land on at least one and destroy some equipment on top of them. To open chests or ammo boxes in low-gravity areas, your best bet will be to head to Holly Hatchery and search within the deployed alien nanites. You can’t miss them. They’re the massive, gelatinous, fluorescent cubes spread across the town.

Cow decoys are another one-off challenge this week and we’ll have a guide on those for you very soon. To deploy alien nanites anywhere other than Holly Hatchery, you’ll first need to come upon the rare item. It’s said that they’re found more often around satellite stations or abductors, so try those places, and remember not to use them within the limits of Holly Hatchery or else they won’t tally toward your challenge completion.

The final Week 6 challenge is to destroy alien trees. Those are the purple trees spread all over the map. You can even see them from your map screen. Drop into any deep purple zone and you’ll find alien trees to destroy.

This is the full rundown of the Fortnite Week 6 challenges, but remember that Epic Quests can be beaten all season long. If you still need to finish up your Week 5 challenges, we have those too. You may also want to learn more about the incoming King’s Bling Quests, which herald the arrival of LeBron James.

The enduringly popular online multiplayer game Warframe is set to grow once again with a new expansion, The New War, and the game’s developers will show it off at the TennoCon event very soon. Digital Extremes will broadcast the gameplay reveal for The New War on July 17 as part of this year’s all-virtual TennoCon event.

The event begins Saturday, July 17 at 2 PM PT / 5 PM ET. Everyone who watches the event on Amazon’s Twitch service will get a free Prime Warframe for the game. Coinciding with TennoCon, Digital Extremes will also conduct an in-game Relay event where players can meet up to get a “sneak peek” of “exclusive new content.” Some developers from Digital Extremes will be in the game to mingle with as well, the studio said.

The New War was first announced back in 2018 during that year’s TennoCon event.

“It’s been a while since we first discussed this expansion with players. We truly hope Tenno will enjoy a day dedicated to them and the memorable experiences we’ve shared together in Warframe,” Digital Extremes executive Sheldon Carter said. “There’s plenty of new and exciting reveals to be made, but players will have to tune-in to TennoLive to find out more.”

Digital Extremes live operations and community director Rebecca Forward thanked fans for their patience, as the wait for The New War has been lengthy. “We are so excited to finally provide some answers and give everyone a small piece of what’s to come with The New War. We’re thankful for the patience of our players and we look forward to seeing their reactions to some of our big reveals in the chat,” Ford said.

Finally, Digital Extremes provided a rundown of the special content you can unlock for Warframe by watching the showcase:

• Vastilok Gunblade Weapon
• Awarded for watching thirty consecutive minutes between 12:30 PM ET – 5:00 PM ET

In-Game Relay Event Reward During TennoLive Segment

• Tannukai Longsword Skin and Armor Set
• Awarded at the end of the TennoLive in-game Relay event, must be present to qualify

Twitch and Steam Drop During TennoLive Segment

• Loki Prime Warframe with Slot
• Awarded for watching thirty consecutive minutes between 5:00 PM ET – 7:00 PM ET

Warframe is a free-to-play game available on PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC, as well as PS4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch. Digital Extremes is owned by Tencent, after that company acquired Leyou, a former chicken meat supplier based in Hong Kong.

Delays are par for the course in video games, but developer Triband has decided to buck that trend by accidentally rolling out a massive new Switch update for What the Golf a few days early. The game–which turns the entire idea of golf on its head by going beyond 18 holes with the sport into weird and wild directions–now has three additional packs of content available that were previously released on the Steam and Apple Arcade versions.

This includes the Sporty Sports Pack, It’s Snowtime Pack, and a Challenge mode, each one including the following content:

Sporty Sports

• 30 new sporty levels
• All-new sports gone wrong: Weightlifting golf, Cycling golf, Hurdles golf, and more!
• Copyright-compliant references to the Olympics

It’s Snowtime

• 30 new Extra ❄COOL❄ levels and lots of jokes
• Silly adventure about finding that frozen pizza in the back of the freezer
• Frozen peas, pizzas, and popsicles

Challenge Mode

• Content for the people who are actually good at golf!
• A harder version of all your favorite levels, plus a few new ones
• Leaderboards

In addition to that, new fixes and optimizations for the Nintendo Switch version of What the Golf will also be available. Beyond that, players can also look forward to a new free campaign called “A Hole New World” that features over 50 new levels with over 1000 holes, game mechanics, more puns, and extra music tracks.

“What the Golf was already excellent on PC and mobile, but the Switch version is the definitive one, especially if you have another player handy,” James O’Connor wrote in his What the Golf review.” It’s still wildly funny, weird, and lots of fun, and if it was just the campaign again, it would still be the best version of the game thanks to the ability to switch between touch and stick controls–but the addition of Party Mode really elevates the whole package.”

Death Stranding‘s Director’s Cut is on the way, but Kojima himself is not a fan of calling it that. He said on Twitter that Director’s Cut often applies more appropriately in the world of film to represent content that was cut from a movie due in part to a movie studio’s control over the production. But with Death Stranding’s Director’s Cut, Kojima pointed out that the game will feature new content not originally even planned for the base game.

“A director’s cut in a movie is an additional edit to a shortened version that was either released reluctantly because the director did not have the right to edit it, or because the running time had to be shortened,” Kojima said. “In the game, it is not what was cut, but what was additionally produced that was included. Delector’s Plus? So, in my opinion, I don’t like to call ‘director’s cut.'”

Given Kojima’s commentary here, it sounds like the decision to call it a director’s cut for Death Stranding was a decision made by Sony and not Kojima and his team. For what it’s worth, Sony is also releasing a Ghost of Tsushima Director’s Cut in August, and beyond that, Sony might have plans for additional ones.

The Death Stranding Director’s Cut releases on September 24, and Kojima is hopeful to be able to personally edit a trailer or some piece of content for the game. He polled his 3 million Twitter followers about this, and they overwhelmingly agreed that he should be able to.

For more, check out GameSpot’s rundown of everything in the Death Stranding Director’s Cut and what additional Director’s Cuts we want to see from Sony in the future.

In other news, Kojima’s next game might be a cloud-based title for Xbox, though it’s still early days and no official announcements have been made thus far.

Respawn Entertainment’s Apex Legends was recently targeted by hackers who were looking to bring awareness to the current state of the developer’s Titanfall games. While Apex Legends quickly resolved its server issues, Titanfall still remains vulnerable as Respawn has only tasked one to two of its employees with maintenance on the game.

Respawn’s first franchise has been almost unplayable for a long time as unpatched security vulnerabilities are taken advantage of with distributed denial of service attacks that prevent players from joining games. In a video update spotted by MP1st, community coordinator Jason Garza explained the current situation while assuring fans that the Titanfall community had not been forgotten.

“All I can say is that we’re working on it (Titanfall), and that’s why I stopped talking about things like that,” Garza said. “The Titanfall community is not forgotten or abandoned or anything like that. We’re still working on it, it’s just we can’t telegraph our moves, and we only have like one or two people on it because the rest, everybody else is on Apex Legends, so don’t feel bad. It’s something we do work on just that these things take time, you can’t just press a button and everything’s fixed magically.”

If you’re curious as to what exactly is happening to Titanfall and Titanfall 2’s multiplayer, YouTube channel Upper Echelon Gamers has a short documentary on how a hacker has used DDoS attacks to take out entire server populations if certain streamers are playing.

As for Apex Legends, Respawn’s future plans–as revealed at the EA Play Live Spotlight Series showcase for FPS games–including a new hero and ranked Arenas. The game’s new Thrillseekers event will go live from July 13 until August 3, with the event having a new Arenas map, three weekly rewards tracks offering brand-new loot, and purchasable event-limited cosmetics.

Motorsport Games has confirmed a new NASCAR game will be ready for 2021, and it will not be a continuation of the Heat series.

NASCAR 21 will represent a fresh start for NASCAR simulations from Motorsport Games and will be powered by Unreal Engine and Studio 397’s acclaimed rFactor 2 physics. Motorsport Games acquired Studio 397 and rFactor 2 in March this year. 2020’s NASCAR Heat 5 was built using Unity.

“What’s really exciting is that we’ve been working with the rFactor team at 397, who have been known for their physics, and also then changing engines from our previous engine into Unreal, and then combining the two,” Motorsport Games’ George Holmquist tells IGN. “Using the Unreal engine just brings the graphics [and] the gameplay into more of a AAA style of game. More than the NASCAR Heat franchise we’ve had before. I think that’s something our customers are looking for. If you’ve seen the screenshots at this point, it’s definitely a step up from our previous franchise.”

Holmquist is optimistic fans will find plenty to like about NASCAR 21’s planned level of visual fidelity and handling quality, but he’s also keen to see players get stuck into the paint functionality that’s being added to this racing reboot – reportedly the “most requested feature outside of the core gameplay.”

[poilib element=”quoteBox” parameters=”excerpt=One%20of%20the%20biggest%20things%20that%20fans%20have%20been%20asking%20for%20is%20more%20customisation.%20″]

“One of the biggest things that fans have been asking for is more customisation,” says Holmquist. “We’ve always had the ability to make a custom car and stuff like that, but we really spent a lot of time bringing a legitimate paint booth to the game. I think this will be one that fans are going to be very excited for. It’s turned out really well. We spent a lot of dev resources on here. We’ve already created a lot of cool schemes, just testing the paint booth right now.”

“The paint booth is the one people have been asking for directly in the community, and it’s something we are delivering on in this first iteration of the new franchise.”

Holmquist is aware NASCAR is regularly viewed as a bit of an acquired taste by people outside the fan community but feels it’s probably one of the most straightforward racing formats for potential new fans.

“NASCAR’s either loved or not appreciated,” concedes Holmquist. “There doesn’t seem to be a lot of middle ground with fans.”

“From an accessibility standpoint, we actually think NASCAR’s oval racing lends a hand to really get people into our ecosystem, especially with the accessibility options that we’re including in this game.

“I think what’s under-appreciated is the closeness of racing. And the assumption that you just floor the gas and you go around in a circle. I challenge anybody to go to a NASCAR race and then see if that’s what you really feel after, because it’s a whole other thing to see 40 cars go around the track averaging 160 to 200 miles an hour within inches of each other. It’s just a very different experience.”

NASCAR 21 will be the first of Motorsport Games’ upcoming salvo of racing simulations built in the wake of the Studio 397 acquisition.

“So there’s definitely pressure,” says Holmquist. “There’s internal pressure. There’s external pressure. There’s partner pressure. There’s definitely pressure coming down.”

[poilib element=”quoteBox” parameters=”excerpt=I%20think%20a%20lot%20of%20people%20think%20we%20took%20a%20risk%20changing%20engines.”]

“I think a lot of people think we took a risk changing engines. We could have done what everybody else would have done, right? The easy route would have been to create [NASCAR] Heat 6, add some quality-of-life features, sell it, move on, flip the game again and again and again. It’s just not what we want to do at Motorsport Games. There’s a lot of pressure for this game, as you know, because we have the other games, like BTCC and other licenses coming on board, and obviously this is going to be a reflection to consumers, media – even our partners and future partners – of what our capabilities are.

“And obviously our goal is to create a portfolio of motorsport racing games that people really enjoy and really spread the passion of gaming and motorsports, which are starting to be very similar, especially with esports.”

According to Holmquist, the studio’s approach to NASCAR 21 will become the foundation it builds on.

“Unreal isn’t going to go anywhere,” he says. “The rFactor physics aren’t going to go anywhere but get better. So we also look to the future; that every game iteration – either NASCAR, BTCC, or so on – is going to get better and better. So this is our first flag in the ground.”

[poilib element=”quoteBox” parameters=”excerpt=It%E2%80%99s%20very%20important%20for%20us%20to%20ensure%20this%20game%20is%20of%20a%20quality%20our%20users%20expect%2C%20and%20it%E2%80%99s%20a%20step%20up%20from%20the%20Heat%20franchise.”]

“It’s very important for us to ensure this game is of a quality our users expect, and it’s a step up from the Heat franchise.”

Motorsport Games has not confirmed a release date for NASCAR 21 but more details will be revealed in the coming months.

[poilib element=”accentDivider”]

Luke is Games Editor at IGN’s Sydney office. He’s more of a touring car guy but he really, really likes Days of Thunder. A lot. You can find him on Twitter every few days @MrLukeReilly.