Life Is Strange: True Colors follows the story of Alex Chen, a young woman who has the power to experience and influence the emotions of people around her. It’s the third main game in the Life Is Strange Series, staying true to the franchise’s use of gameplay-controlled supernatural powers to explore deeply personal stories.
Unlike the other games in the series, True Colors is releasing all at once on September 10, while the other installments in the franchise have been dropped episodically. The game stays true to some parts of the Life is Strange formula, while radically mixing up other parts of it. Here’s what critics think of the game, which has been made by Life Is Strange: Before the Storm developers Deck Nine Games.
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Now Playing: Life is Strange: True Colors – First Official Gameplay Trailer
We’ve included a sampling of key reviews below. To find even more reviews from a broader range of critics, check out GameSpot sister site Metacritic.
Game: Life Is Strange: True Colors
Platforms: PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch, PC
Developer: Deck Nine
Release Date: September 10
Price: $60
Kotaku — No Score
“If Life Is Strange: True Colors is meant to paint a picture of what’s to come from the supernatural franchise, then I am here for it. True Colors shines in all the right ways for a Life Is Strange game. It provides a litany of characters that invite you to get to know them, a gripping story, and a unique protagonist with her own gameplay-defining powers, a signature of the franchise.” — Lisa Marie Segarra [Full review]
Destructoid — 9/10
“Regardless of whether you’re a fan of this series, this one is a must-play if you like story-centric games. It’s honestly my favorite thing I’ve played all year so far. Sure, parts of Life is Strange: True Colors are really bleak, but ultimately it’s an uplifting, heartfelt story about what it means to find your own version of home. It tells that story in a way that feels perfectly sincere, which is something that is hard to come by in games nowadays. True Colors has officially redeemed the Life is Strange series in my eyes.” — Noelle Warner [Full review]
PC Gamer — 86/100
“Although True Colors has its pitfalls, I have never had this much fun with a Life is Strange game. Previous games in the series have dealt with some incredibly heavy topics, like convincing a friend not to jump off the roof of a building or experiencing horrendous racism, so even when there are happy moments, they often come across as bitter sweet, a fleeting moment in an unfair world. True Colors has its fair share of drama, but it also has moments of incredible joy. The whole emotional spectrum is present, from white hot anger at her brother’s death to the pure joy of LARPing with a group of friends—Alex experiences all of this deeply, and all within a story that respects her feelings.” — Rachel Watts [Full review]
The Verge — No Score
“The anthology format has helped keep Life is Strange fresh across three main entries, but it also comes with a significant risk. This is a series where so much relies on your investment in the characters; these stories work because you want to help characters like Max Caulfield and Sean Diaz live a better life. Luckily, despite a new setting and lead, True Colors has exactly that. I played through the entire thing in two sittings — not because I had to see how it ended, but because I needed to make sure that Alex was alright.” — Andrew Webster [Full review]
The Washington Post — No Score
” Life is Strange: True Colors tries to do a lot of things at once. It is at times a murder mystery, and at others a live-action role-playing game. Sometimes it’s a music video, other times it’s a therapy session. There’s also no content warning despite the game’s heavy material–an omission that has inspired controversy in the past. Most glaringly, True Colors centers Asian American characters, though its story could be about anyone of any background. The game never talks about race, except for showing an Asian-style shrine that Alex puts up to commemorate Gabe’s life and putting a few rude comments on the game’s version of Facebook or Nextdoor, MyBlock. And so, its diverse casting feel inconsequential.” — Shannon Liao [Full review]
Tales Of Arise is the latest in the long-running Tales series, and the first major JRPG to release on the new generation of consoles. With a lengthy, in-depth narrative and gorgeous visuals, Tales Of Arise aims to rejuvenate the classic series to appeal to newcomers, while still maintaining the elements that keep long-time fans coming back game after game.
To find out whether it’s been successful in this goal, we’re looking at a range of reviews from critics who have spent some time with the JRPG ahead of its release on September 10.
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“As the first major original JRPG on new consoles and the latest installment of a very long-running series, Tales of Arise comes with a lot of expectations attached. Arise sets out to refresh its visual presentation and gameplay to appeal to a new audience, but it also tries its best to retain what has made the Tales series so beloved among its longtime fans: fun characters, fast-paced combat, and an epic sense of scale.” Heidi Kemps wrote in GameSpot’s Tales Of Arise review. “While it manages to succeed admirably at most of what it tries to do, a few shortcomings keep it from being the new standard-bearer for RPGs to come.”
We’ve included a number of other reviews below. To find even more reviews from a broader range of critics, check out GameSpot sister site Metacritic.
Game: Tales Of Arise
Platforms: PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, PC
Developer: Namco Tales Studio
Release Date: September 10
Price: $60
GameSpot — 7/10
“Taken as a whole, Tales of Arise is a very good RPG, boasting beautiful visuals, a wonderful cast of characters, and engaging combat mechanics–but its flaws (and that odious DLC) are also difficult to ignore. If you’re looking for a lengthy, charming, and engaging JRPG to play on your shiny new console or PC gaming rig, Tales of Arise is certainly a fine choice. Just don’t go into it expecting an all-time classic.” — Heidi Kemps [Full review]
Rock Paper Shotgun — No Score
“I lack the qualifications to make a precision argument about whether Arise is worth the wait for long-suffering Tales fans – the last one, Tales Of Berseria, came out all the way back in 2016. Nevertheless, my instincts shrug and say, “Sure, why not?” Despite the tedious introduction of its two main characters, it’s filled with strong character moments and ridiculous battles that remind us only nerds and squares bend to gravity’s iron rules.” — Nadia Oxford [Full review]
Eurogamer — No Score
“Tales of Arise rides the high of a brilliant battle system and a charismatic supporting cast. It’s not always the smoothest ride, especially when the back half of Bandai Namco’s game stumbles into interplanetary affairs and storytelling that goes for something a little more grandiose, but the combination of compelling characters and a plot that’ll genuinely get you rooting for everyone involved is a sublime match.” — Hirun Cryer [Full review]
Game Rant — 5/5
“Tales of Arise is a game designed for long-term Tales franchise fans and those who have never picked up a franchise entry before, where story, combat, and various features come together to deliver a high-quality, highly-detailed JRPG. All of that makes it not just one of the best JRPGs on the market today, but one of the best games hands-down.” — Joshua Duckworth [Full review]
Push Square — 9/10
“Tales of Arise went above and beyond our expectations. With its picturesque landscapes instilling a real sense of adventure, it’s easily one of the strongest, most cohesive Tales games to date. Dramatic cutscenes and memorable character moments help sell an intriguing story, while a satisfying combat system becomes more and more engaging as your party powers up. A fantastic, modernised journey with all the rewarding qualities of a classic JRPG.” — Robert Ramsey [Full review]
Screen Rant — 4.5/5
“The game’s anime-style cutscenes and memorable musical score contribute to the feeling that Tales of Arise is something special, which is tied to its main takeaway – it’s just a whole lot of fun. Whether it’s the captivating, satisfying combat or the surprisingly deft storytelling that has more than a few pumpfakes on tropes, what Bandai Namco has produced here is still going to be up for debate as one of the best entries into the franchise to date. Tales of Arise accomplishes the rare feat of catering to its many fans while simultaneously making a compelling case for newcomers to give it a try, and it’s a JRPG must-play that was more than worth the wait.” — Cody Gravelle [Full review]
WarioWare: Get It Together! is the latest game in the Wario-led microgame franchise, which releases on September 10 for the Nintendo Switch. The newest game introduces a handful of recurring playable characters for its platforming-led take on the franchise’s classic format, meaning players will always be controlling a character within microgames this time around.
Many of the games in the WarioWare franchise have been organised around a singular gimmick, with varying degrees of success. Here’s how critics are finding the platforming-focused Switch game.
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Now Playing: WarioWare: Get It Together! Video Review
“The twist in Get It Together is that all of the microgames involve some degree of character platforming. While previous WarioWare games might have simply had you press the A button at the right moment to manipulate an on-screen device, in Get It Together you’ll always be controlling a character.” Steve Watts wrote in GameSpot’s WarioWare: Get It Together! review . “Characters include Wario, complete with his Wario Land-style shoulder slam, along with all of the WarioWare-specific characters who have been introduced throughout the series’ history. As a story device, they’ve all been sucked into their own video game which is being plagued by bugs.”
We’ve included a number of other reviews below. To find even more reviews from a broader range of critics, check out GameSpot sister site Metacritic.
Game: WarioWare: Get It Together!
Platforms: Nintendo Switch
Developer: Intelligent Systems, Nintendo
Release Date: September 10
Price: $50
GameSpot — 8/10
“For the most part, the new character-based approach is a welcome addition to the WarioWare blueprint. The characters themselves are differentiated and expressive, and mechanically they make the traditional microgame challenges that much more engaging. The WarioWare series has been fertile ground for Nintendo to experiment with concepts like touchscreen capabilities in Touched or accelerometer-based motion in Twisted, which makes Get It Together’s platforming riffs a little more traditional than usual. But that also makes it less reliant on a gimmick, and that’s a change for the better.” — Steve Watts [Full review]
The Washington Post — No Score
“I’m not sure if “Get It Together!” will make a convert out of anyone who doesn’t already enjoy the series’s brand of silliness and chaos, but it’s an ambitious entry that successfully pushes the series into new territory in its own WarioWare way. It leans into its own ridiculousness to deliver a multiplayer experience that feels unique to the series and a single-player experience that has plenty of fun reasons to return even after you beat Story Mode. Embrace the chaos, and, like me, you’ll have a blast. ” — Alyse Stanley [Full review]
Polygon — No Score
“WarioWare: Get It Together! tasks you with the usual multifarious microgames, such as counting items, tweezing hairs from a statue, or escaping a flooding dungeon. But instead of flipping your Game Boy Advance on its head or swiping a stylus across a second screen, like in past WarioWare games, Get It Together! asks you to control one of the members of Wario’s posse–or the big man himself–in a rotating pool of characters you select. This new format adds an impressive layer of depth to the WarioWare universe, but ends up proving that too much chaos can be a bad thing–even for WarioWare. ” — Ryan Gilliam [Full review]
ArsTechnica — No Score
“WW:GIT is hard to fault on a piece-by-piece basis, and when laid on a table like an unsolved jigsaw puzzle, its parts are up to the series’ standard of humor, creativity, and polish. Yet the collection has not been put together quite right, and the result is a rare case of Nintendo putting a game out before it feels finished.” — Sam Machkovech [Full review]
IGN — 7/10
“WarioWare: Get It Together! is an absurd delight, testing your ability to think quickly and adapt on the fly in a series of ever-escalating microgames. That tried-and-true formula is still a lot of fun here, looking better than ever and introducing unique characters that can either bring interesting twists or mechanical frustration to familiar games depending on who you’re using. It’s a shame that Get It Together!’s multiplayer options somewhat drop the ball though, enough for an evening or two of laugh-out-loud fun with friends but lacking the staying power for many more beyond that.” — Tom Marks [Full review]
NintendoLife — 9/10
“WarioWare: Get It Together! is a triumphant Switch debut for the subversive series that makes some daring changes to core gameplay, resulting in the best entry in the franchise to date. With a generous roster of playable characters, lots of solo and multiplayer modes to dig into, and stages that cleverly adapt to your choices on the fly, this is a superb compilation of hilarious microgames that delivers more ways to play than ever before. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll dodge bird droppings on a skateboard. So grab a few friends or family members, break out the controllers, and gather round the TV–WarioWare: Get It Together! is essential stuff.” — PJ O’Reilly [Full review]
Atari’s Videogame Computer System, or VCS, just became the first console to allow direct access to game streaming services Google Stadia, Amazon Luna, Xbox Cloud Gaming, and Nvidia GeForce Now, as well as its own retro streaming service, Antstream Arcade.
After years of delays, Atari’s VCS finally released this year as a PC-console hybrid boasting a built-in Chrome browser. A press release says players were already using the console’s browser to access the game streaming service, so now Atari has given them direct access to the services through the Atari VCS Store. The only notable streaming service that’s missing is Sony’s PlayStation Now, though users could conceivably download that game’s PC app while running the VCS in PC mode.
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“The Atari VCS team is thrilled to deliver all of the leading cloud gaming services to our users at one time and in one place,” said Atari’s Michael Arzt. “Many fans have been accessing these services on their own and asking for direct links for some time now. We actively strive to satisfy their various requests and will continue to add more exciting new features as we keep moving the VCS platform forward.”
Of course, even if the VCS is the first console to offer all these streaming services in one place, they could all already be accessed on a regular PC–including Atari’s own Antstream Arcade. Reviews for the $300 console praised its retro aesthetics, but failed to find enough use for the VCS to justify its price tag when compared to other devices already on the market.
Over the past seven years, Destiny has seen a fairly vast evolution, with its shooter gameplay encompassing a whole host of different experiences. But that has led to a lot of disparity. There are the complex, iconic, endlessly replayable endgame raids on one end of the spectrum, and the simpler, more by-the-numbers one-off campaign missions at the other. Across its lifetime, Destiny 2 has evolved to offer more and more missions and activities that bring those two experiences closer together, and with the upcoming major expansion, The Witch Queen, Bungie is looking to make more of the Destiny 2 experience feel like it is definitively, quintessentially “Destiny.”
That’s according to Joe Blackburn, who formerly worked as Destiny 2’s raid design lead and recently stepped into the role of game director. For Blackburn and the rest of Bungie, a major goal going into Destiny 2’s next year of content is finding more ways to blur the line that separates the game’s toughest, most intricate content, from the more casual, more approachable baseline campaign missions–to make more of the game feel like the sort of thing you can only find in Destiny 2.
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Now Playing: Destiny 2: The Witch Queen – What You Need To Know
“There’s a suite of content that we feel like is definitively Destiny,” Blackburn said in an interview with GameSpot. “There’s stuff like Presage, there’s stuff like dungeons and raids up there. All of that stuff feels like stuff that you could only find in Destiny. And every time we do something, there are articles written about it, and people say, ‘You gotta complete this game. Look how cool this thing is.’ And then you get into Destiny, and you’re like, ‘Where’s the stuff that I saw people playing on Twitch? Where’s this?’ And instead you’re playing a much more linear sort of classic shooter-style campaign.
“I think even over the last year, we’ve started to really creep into that,” he said. “When you look at things like Expunge, when you look at things like in Season 15, the Ascendant weekly missions, they’re pretty weird. They’re pretty dungeon-like, they’re pretty secret-like, in a bunch of their executions. The stuff this season is like a metroidvania game, which is pretty cool to be in mainline Destiny. We want to keep blurring that line so that eventually, when you’re playing through the campaigns, it feels like we’re stepping you into this content. And even in the early stuff, in the Witch Queen campaign and these missions we talked about, we said, ‘Hey, this is going to be the definitive Destiny campaign.'”
“We want to keep blurring that line so that eventually, when you’re playing through the campaigns, it feels like we’re stepping you into this content.”
The Witch Queen is set to throw some major wrenches into the Destiny 2 works. Like past expansions, it’ll launch with a series of campaign missions that take you through the expansion’s story, and which, traditionally, are easy and straightforward enough to be played alone. But as detailed in Bungie’s recent Witch Queen showcase event, that campaign is seeing some changes from past expansions. For one thing, it’ll include a “Legendary” difficulty setting that will up the stakes, giving players a tougher challenge if they want it. For another, it’ll include Hive Guardians–enemy characters who have the same sorts of sci-fi superpowers as players.
Blackburn said the inclusion of Hive Guardians is going to create some serious changes in the way combat flows for players, akin to new major enemies added in the previous expansion, Beyond Light. When that new content dropped, it contained two new enemy types: the Vex Wyvern and the Fallen Brig. Both were small additions, but Bungie found they created big changes in the flow of battles in which they were present, Blackburn said, forcing players to prioritize taking out the new units and adjusting their strategies to deal with the new foes.
The way those units shook up battles was successful, so when it came to The Witch Queen, it was those kinds of experiences the developer wanted to expand on, Blackburn said.
“We want to invest in combatant changes where, anytime you have one of these in an encounter, it feels different,” he said of adding Hive Guardians to the mix. “And so it started pulling at this fantasy of like, okay, what’s it like to fight someone that feels like you? How powerful are they? I think, to give you some Destiny parallels in what we talk about, a Hive Guardian feels like a miniboss. It feels like a Champion. It feels like something that you would never want to fight a full room of. That would be incredibly overwhelming, so we start you off fighting one, maybe later in the campaign, you have to fight two at once, something you’re like, ‘Oh my God, this feels like a lot.’ But really, we want that emotional experience. Once you see one of those Guardians transmat in, you’re like, ‘Holy shit, this is my number one priority here.’ And you’re going to get to see it do a suite of Guardian moves that you’re like, ‘Yep. Okay. I’ve had that happen to me in the Crucible before, I know what to do here.'”
That emotional experience of facing a Hive Guardian is a big change for Destiny 2 players, and something Bungie wanted to lean into, Destiny general manager Justin Truman added.
“We’ve had, I feel like, years in the lore and in the storytelling of just the idea of the Fallen, the Cabal, even in their own way, the Hive, just being kind of terrified of the idea of one of these immortal Guardians dropping in and wrecking house,” Truman said. “And we wanted to turn that around and be like, ‘What happens if you’re the one feeling that level of terror that [Fallen] Captains have felt since way back in the Cosmodrome?'”
Apart from the foes you’ll face, The Witch Queen expansion is going to bring some new ideas to the forefront of Destiny 2. The tagline Bungie is using in its marketing, “Survive the Truth,” gives some idea of what you’ll be facing–you’ll be heading to a new location, the throne world of the eponymous queen, Savathun, in order to uncover the mystery of just how these mortal enemies of humanity gained access to its greatest power.
Blackburn has described the expansion as taking inspiration from TV shows such as the first season of True Detective. It takes place in a swampy, bayou-like location, where players will work to unlock clues and discover what’s really going on with the Hive Guardians. In practical terms, Bungie wants The Witch Queen to convey something of a detective story feel as you explore the throne world.
“What happens if you’re the one feeling that level of terror that [Fallen] Captains have felt since way back in the Cosmodrome?”
“One of the things that Bungie is really great about and taught me about, and teaches a bunch of people when they come on, is what we call experiential design,” Blackburn explained. “We always start with an experience. What do you want this to feel like? We want it to feel like you’re at a day at Dollywood, or we want it to feel like you’re lost in the mall, or something. And so when we started thinking about Witch Queen, we started thinking about a bunch of inspirations, and one of the first things that we do, that’s really hard to get everyone aligned on, is like, ‘Hey, what is our experience statement? What is everything that we’re doing? Try to create this evocative feeling.’ That, for us, where we ended up landing with it was feeling like, ‘detective,’ right? And so it’s really this paranormal mystery and once you start thinking about that, True Detective really starts coming to mind, like this is the sort of moody landscape we want. And we go through a bunch of iterations on how ‘detective-y,’ how weird and fantasy.”
“We really want this to be mostly moody and tone-y and inspiring,” he continued. “And we don’t want to go all the way to making you feel like you’re in a ‘detective mode’ like in Batman: Arkham Asylum or something, or you’re like, ‘I don’t know, everything’s dead and I’m searching for clues.’ And so this is really a sort of an action first stab at that. And so it’s been really interesting to sort of weave that line with, how can we get a bunch of these total experiences we wanted and still keep it where you always feel like you’re pushing forward and trying to solve that mystery.”
Uncovering secrets has always been a big part of the Destiny experience, so working to solve the mystery of Savathun feels like a natural extension of that. But as Blackburn and Truman made clear, this won’t be like some of the larger alternate reality game-type mysteries that have popped up in Destiny 2 before. Some of those mysteries, such as the massive and intricate Corridors of Time in 2020, had a huge portion of the Destiny community working with math and cyphers to uncover its secrets, but The Witch Queen will strike a different balance.
Bungie is trying to make progressing through the story and uncovering clues enticing for individual players–but as time goes on, it sounds like the mystery will take on the feel of some of those larger, community-grabbing secrets.
“For the core experience, we want you to be able to feel like you’re the one pulling at the threads here and constantly giving you that feeling that, ‘Oh, I’m smarter than you probably think that I am,'” Blackburn said. “That’s the player fantasy behind all of this. I love when Tomb Raider makes me feel super smart. And I’m like, ‘I know I’m probably not smart, but, man, did that puzzle make me feel like I really cracked it.'”
“We definitely aren’t going to make it so you have to solve a community ARG to unlock the next mission,” Truman added. “But I do feel like what we’ve seen over and over again is the Destiny community loves discovering secrets. And so, we wanted to get that emotion, that feeling of being smart, and how do we put that as front-and-center thematically in your experiences, as you’re exploring what on earth Savathun has done.”
The way all of those elements will inform The Witch Queen remains to be seen, but Bungie’s vision for the future of Destiny 2 sounds like it’s rooted in a strong focus on the game’s best elements, and the parts that players have found compelling for so many years. The Witch Queen appears to be another evolution for Destiny 2, one that will continue to push the game toward its ultimate, final shape. The Witch Queen is slated to launch on February 22 for PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, and Stadia.
The Halloween series is as old as modern horror. Just like the genre itself, though, Michael Myers can’t and won’t die. He’s once again facing off against Laurie Strode who, when last we saw her, was fleeing as a burning house collapsed around the unkillable killer.
Originally set to release in October 2020, Halloween Kills was delayed almost exactly a year to October 15, 2021. The film premiered just last night at the 78th Venice International Film Festival, and reviews of the second film of this new trilogy (and 12th installment in the franchise) are starting to roll out.
Reviews are still early for Halloween Kills, so there’s plenty of time for critical consensus to change. They’re mixed right now, with most of the reviews in the positive-to-middling range.
Here’s what the critics had to say about Halloween Kills.
Directed By: David Gordon Green
Written By: Scott Teems, Danny McBride, David Gordon Green
Starring: Jamie Lee Curtis, Judy Greer, Andi Matichak, Will Patton, Thomas Mann, Anthony Michael Hall
Release Date: October 15, 2021
The Hollywood Reporter
“I felt a genuine jolt of excitement as the first gut-churning electronic rumble is heard here over the Universal logo. But as in everything else, restraint has been abandoned. Carpenter’s son Cody and Daniel Davies share composing credit with the master, going big and bombastic, and layering in vocal elements. But instead of getting under your skin, the music hammers you over the head. Call it Halloween Overkills.” — David Rooney [Full Review]
Deadline
“Never was there a film truer to its name. They’re sliced up with kitchen knives, hollowed out with a fluorescent strip light, bisected with a chain saw and impaled on banisters. The body count is phenomenal. We love this stuff. You know we do.” — Stephanie Bunbury [Full Review]
Variety
“The relentless nattering about the past–Michael is evil! And evil can never be killed!–is the sure sign of a desperate, bottom-line-fixated sequel. The other sign is that Michael Myers, stabbing knives and broken light fixtures into people’s faces, may not be scary anymore, but he’s still a charismatic figure of darkness. You’re relieved every time he shows up, and it’s all about that doleful, rubbery-gray, Hamlet-of-psychos mask. After 40 years, that mask is more expressive than any of the actors in Halloween Kills” — Owen Gleiberman [Full Review]
The Wrap
“Green seems less interested in rewriting the Halloween playbook than in giving audiences what they came for, from ghastly scares to a ghoulish score. It’s a strategy that promises to make the series as immortal as Michael Myers himself.” — Asher Luberto [Full Review]
IndieWire
“Halloween Kills inadvertently opens a window into its own screenwriting challenge, forcing you to ask: How do you make characters pop just enough to liven up a scene or two, but not too much that the viewer will feel torn about seeing them impaled on a halogen light bar? How do you weave a tapestry with one hand while tearing it apart with another? The answer would be: somewhat awkwardly.” — Ben Croll [Full Review]
IGN
“Halloween Kills suffers from being the second chapter in a trilogy, but it still delivers gory fun, fantastic performances, and an electrifying score from John Carpenter. There are enough callbacks to the original film to satisfy Carpenter fans while also expanding the mythology around Michael Myers and the town of Haddonfield in meaningful ways.” — Rafael Motamayor [Full Review]
PlayStation’s newest studio, Firesprite, teased a new project, the Steam Deck may not play your favorite game. Plus, Blizzard reveals why you can’t play Diablo 2: Resurrected in a 21:9 aspect ratio.
In this video, DeVante talks about PlayStation acquiring their 14th studio, Firesprite, and teases a new project.
Codeweavers president James B. Ramey revealed why Valve’s Steam Deck won’t play all your Steam games at launch despite previous reports and confusion.
Just a few weeks before launch, Blizzard has revealed additional insight regarding certain features of Diablo 2: Resurrected, including 21:9 ultrawide monitor support.
Valorant 3.05 Update is now live, nerfing Raze, adding bonus battle pass XP, and adding the new map Fracture in its own playlist. Detailed on Valorant’s website, the new patch also brings consistency to ability damage across all Agents.
The update makes changes to three Agents: Brimstone, Sova, and Breach, so that damaging abilities interact with physical objects consistently across the game. This makes it so players don’t have to know how each damaging ability interacts with other Agents’ abilities. For example, Brimstone’s Orbital Strike now deals damage to Killjoy Nanoswarm, Cypher Trapwire, and more.
Killjoy receives a slight balancing change, with the bullet tagging from her turret now slowing 29.5% instead of the previous 72.5%. Raze’s Boom Bot now deals reduced damage but can be used more frequently. The max damage has been dropped from 125 to 80 and the minimum damage dropped from 50 to 30, but the cost has been reduced from 400 to 300.
The new map Fracture is now live, with a Fracture-only playlist available for the next two weeks so players can learn the map before it’s added to Valorant’s competitive mode. Also for competitive play, Immortal 1/2/3 ranks have been added back into the game. The ranked distributions have also been updated as developer Riot Games had previously detailed.
This update also adds a 3% battle pass XP boost for people who own the premium battle pass. This bonus XP does not apply to daily or weekly challenges, nor is it retroactive if you purchase the premium pass later in the season.
Brimstone, Sova, and Breach are all receiving consistency changes to ability damage. We want to reward those of you who are creative with the ability sandbox, using your tools to solve the obstacles other Agents are creating. To ensure this, physical objects across VALORANT need to interact in a reliable and consistent manner, so you can properly plan and execute without knowing ability-specific interactions.
BREACH
Aftershock (C)
Now deals damage to the following:
Killjoy Alarm Bot
Killjoy Nanoswarm
Killjoy Lockdown
Cypher Tripwire
Reyna Leer
Sage Barrier Orb
Sova Recon Bolt
KAY/O Zero/Point
BRIMSTONE
Orbital Strike (X)
Now deals damage to the following:
Killjoy Nanoswarm
Cypher Trapwire
Sage Barrier Orb
Sova Recon Bolt
KAY/O Zero/Point
SOVA
Hunter’s Fury (X)
Now deals damage to the following:
Killjoy Nanoswarm
Cypher Trapwire
Sage Barrier Orb
Sova Recon Bolt
KAY/O Zero/Point
KILLJOY
Killjoy’s Turret is a versatile ability that provides information, chip damage, and a powerful slow. While manageable during mid to later rounds, the Turret can be especially oppressive on pistol rounds down longer sightlines, where the tagging intensity combined with weapon spread makes it challenging to press forward. These changes aim to slightly tone down the Turret’s ability to impede rushes, and give opponents more counterplay options.
Turret (E)
Bullet tagging reduced 72.5% slow >>> 29.5% slow
RAZE
The Boom Bots’ ability to clear space, spot, and track opponents, as well as one-shot enemies with Light Shields, left you with limited options on how to counterplay–especially during low economy rounds. So, we’re trading off reduced damage output for an ability cost reduction in order to introduce more Boom Bot counterplay options. This should also increase the frequency that Raze mains can use Boom Bot to create space.
Boom Bot (C)
Max damage reduced 125 >>> 80
Min damage reduced 50 >>> 30
Cost reduced 400 >>> 300
MAP UPDATES
NEW MAP: Fracture is live!
See below for more info on the Fracture map rotation
COMPETITIVE UPDATES
Immortal 1/2/3 rank tiers are back!
The Leaderboard will update to distinguish between those of you in each Immortal tier.
Updated Ranked grouping restrictions to accommodate return of Immortal 1/2/3:
This queue is a standard, Unrated mode that will give players a chance to practice the new map before they see it in Competitive play.
Fracture-only queue will be available for 2 weeks, afterwards Fracture will enter other modes, including Competitive.
PROGRESSION UPDATES
PREMIUM BATTLEPASS BONUS XP
Upgrading to the Premium Battlepass will grant a 3% XP boost toward Battlepass tier progression for all matchmade games until the end of Act II
We believe the Battlepass experience is at its best when you’re able to earn hype rewards as you unlock tiers, hitting major milestones and feeling good about what you’ve earned.
This is not retroactive, so upgrading early will give you access to the most amount of XP
The XP boost does not apply toward Daily or Weekly Missions
SOCIAL UPDATES
Updated AFK detection logic to deter players from farming Battlepass/Account Levels by AFKing in game modes like Deathmatch and Snowball Fight
PERFORMANCE UPDATES
Updated the ping calculation to exclude the server frame time.
Updated markers used by NVIDIA Reflex
NVIDIA Reflex is used to reduce and measure rendering latency. This update should allow Reflex to better pace frames by adding present markers as well as fixes on some older markers.
BUGS
AGENTS
Fixed a bug where concurrent, overlapping ally and enemy Viper smoke could cause the nearsight and decay to never remove
Fixed a bug where Omen could become stuck in other objects if they were blocking the return location of From the Shadows
Omen will no longer equip his weapon slower than intended after casting Dark Cover
Astra will no longer equip her weapon slower than intended after exiting Astral Form
Fixed KAY/O’s NULL/cmd waves from destroying the glass on Ascent
COMPETITIVE
Fixed a bug that would cause the Leaderboard to infinitely load when searching for a specific player.
ESPORTS FEATURES
For Coaches, the Loading screen should now properly display all of the Agent select information (Agent compositions of both teams, etc)
Fixed an issue where Observer Moderators could not see the pause match timer option if they disconnected and then reconnected during a round
The Titanfall 2 community is once again being roiled by issues with hacking, with rumors on Twitter and other social channels of a major security vulnerability.
The rumors appear to stem from this screenshot of a Discord announcement, which has been making the rounds for most of the day.
Several members of the Titanfall 2 community incl. @DirectXeon are reporting that Titanfall 2 is currently massively compromised.
If you own Titanfall 2 on PC, *DO NOT* launch the game. Uninstall it for now until a fix is released. pic.twitter.com/lNZGbufOL1
The bug reportedly allows local code execution from Respawns’ servers, potentially affecting both PCs and consoles with Titanfall 2 installed. While there are still plenty of unknowns, several community members have raised the alarm and encouraged players to uninstall the game until the vulnerability is fixed.
Respawn responded on Twitter, “We are aware of reports of a security vulnerability affecting Titanfall 2 and are investigating. We have no other information to share at the moment but will update once we do.”
We are aware of reports of a security vulnerability affecting Titanfall 2 and are investigating. We have no other information to share at the moment but will update once we do.
The rumors of Titanfall 2’s vulnerability follow months of server issues, denial of server attacks, and other problems. In early July, Apex Legends was hacked by a group ostensibly trying to raise awareness of Titanfall’s woes, but who were then accused of having their own ulterior motives by other community members. Needless to say, it’s been a strange time for the Titanfall community.
The constant barrage of wild rumors has seemingly led some members of the Titanfall 2 community to treat the rumors with ambivalence. “You are all panicking over a tweet of a screenshot of a discord post claiming the existence of a zero-day multi-platform RCE in a moderately popular game,” one Reddit poster wrote.
While Benedict Cumberbatch will be donning the cape once again for Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, some players from the original film will not be returning for the follow-up — namely director Scott Derrickson. In January 2020, the filmmaker announced that he had departed the Marvel sequel due to “creative differences.”
Now, Cumberbatch has offered his own thoughts on marching forward without Derrickson in a profile in The Hollywood Reporter. The actor also recounted his experience collaborating with Sam Raimi, who took over as director on the Marvel sequel.
“I was sad to hear about it, but that was not my decision,” Cumberbatch says. “I completely respected the studio’s decision, and it was done very amicably. The grown-ups called and just talked me through it. And that was that.”
Cumberbatch dug into Raimi’s approach on the project, saying that the Spider-Man trilogy director encouraged him to improvise while filming. While the freedom intimidated the actor at first, Cumberbatch explained that he had gained experience improvising banter while filming his Avengers: Infinity War scenes with Robert Downey Jr. and Tom Holland.
“I remember on the [Infinity War] set when I called [Robert Downey Jr.] a douchebag, there was this sort of ripple effect. ‘Oh my God. Did you just call Iron Man a douchebag?’” Cumberbatch said. “They kept it, good for them. And then, it got the same kind of response at the cinema.”
“I got bored of being compared to Liberace or whatever other retorts the guy with the same camp goatee had opposite me, so I tried to knock him down,” he continued. “It’s great fun to play with that stuff. You find your feet. The more times you do it, the more familiar it becomes.”
Cumberbatch also explained how a Doctor Strange sequel left more room for improvisation, as the production had fewer worries about establishing its characters and world.
“With the first film, you’re always locked into a script, because it’s the origin story,” he said. “But there was a lot more freedom this time around… Marvel has this amazing ability to come into production: ‘We really just have to start shooting now. It doesn’t matter that the third act is not quite where you want it to be.’ You really do things on a wing and a prayer sometimes.”
Derrickson praised the selection of Raimi when Marvel announced the director would be taking over the Doctor Strange sequel, calling Raimi “a true living legend.”
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is set to hit theaters on March 24, 2022, but Marvel viewers will be reacquainted with Cumberbatch’s Sorcerer Supreme a bit sooner. The character will appear in Spider-Man: No Way Home this December. For more about the Doctor Strange sequel, catch up on the rumors that the sea monster Gargantos will play a role in the film.
J. Kim Murphy is a freelance entertainment writer.
