Spider-Man: Miles Morales players have run into a glitch that seemingly swaps the player-character model with, well, any other object in the game, while remaining totally playable. It means we’re now seeing videos of a new Spider-Man that takes the form of dumpsters, or cigarette bins, or just a big patch of snow.
As chronicled by Polygon, it’s not clear what causes the glitch, but some have guessed that it may be down to colliding with objects in the world. Others have seemingly found that having the glitch happen once means it will keep occurring. That’s shown in no more entertaining a fashion than in this video by Froste, in which we see Miles becoming some snow, a blank white cube, and a fence, all while taking down a car full of criminals:
That’s far from the only example floating around right now. We’ve also seen the likes of Spider-Trash, Spider-Lamp, and Spider-Brick, all of whom can swing around the city as normal:
There is a slightly more worrying aspect to this – some have reported that the game will crash instead of simply having Miles revert to his normal form. While I’ve not seen any reports of save corruption or the like as a result, it’s clearly not ideal.
Neither Insomniac or Sony have yet commented on the glitch. There is a small part of me hopes they don’t for a little while – I really want to experience this myself before it’s patched away.
Joe Skrebels is IGN’s Executive Editor of News. Follow him on Twitter. Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to [email protected].
My latest demo with New World made me realize two things: first and foremost, this is absolutely not a game for everybody. At all. The combat is a bit clunky at first, the world is very dangerous, and it doesn’t hold your hand as much as other MMOs. This demo also made me realize, perhaps more importantly, the developers have really been working hard following several release delays. Compared to what I saw during my previous session and especially compared to my first demo back at the start of 2020, New World has come a long way — especially in terms of PvE content and general polish.
This week I got my first real chance to see what it would be like to play a high-level character in end-game caliber content without being guided around by developers or ushered through a specific piece of content. The session wasn’t about the big War battles (I’ve seen those already), and it wasn’t a high-level overview of the game itself with a fresh level one character (I did that already too). Instead, I was plopped into a level 60 end-game character with a fully stacked inventory of gear, all weapon mastery points ready to be allocated, and a full complement of attribute points to spend.
The Swamps of Reekwater
It’s difficult to show off end-game content in an MMO prior to release. The account I played on represented, roughly, 150 hours of progress according to a representative from Amazon Games Studio. As a result, the entirety of the latest preview was a legitimate look at actual end-game content in a new, never-before-seen zone, Reekwater.
My adventure was inadvertently segmented into three parts. The first part began in the central waterside village area where I rounded up a bunch of quests before setting out for the closest waypoint on my map. We needed to explore some ruins, mark down some ancient drawings, and retrieve some stone tablets. Pretty straightforward.
The ruins were overflowing with enemies and other players had already arrived before me so fights were underway with massive tentacles erupting from the ground, armor-clad demonic warriors firing arrows, and enormous wildlife charging at anything that gets in the way. It was absolute chaos, but seeing the action play out in real-time, in an MMO, was pretty spectacular.
If you’ve ever played an older MMO then you’ve probably seen the “tab-targeting” style of combat in which you can fight enemies effectively by just tabbing between them, auto-attacking, cycling through your abilities on the hot bar, and that’s it. That type of combat absolutely can be intense and strategic, but it’s most often not. Modern MMOs try to get around this issue with more action-packed combat systems like Guild Wars 2 and The Elder Scrolls Online, that are sort of hybrid approaches, or TERA and Black Desert Online that go full-on action RPG style.
New World adopts a similar philosophy, but leans more towards the methodical and deliberate combat style of Dark Souls. I know that’s the inspiration because the developers themselves told me so and you can immediately feel it while playing. Even just swinging a light attack takes patience and timing.
Pirate Life For Me
The second phase of my adventure consisted of another player in the demo session approaching me and a friend as we were exploring and asking us if we wanted to visit a secret pirate bayou. Of course we said yes.
The player led us to a massive, intricate cave system complete with zombie-esque pirates living in little shacks by the water. I used this opportunity to experiment more with ranged weapons since we had a group of three capable fighters. The fire staff seems a bit unwieldy to use since so many of its best attacks require multi-second charge ups that completely root you in place to cast, but when you land one of those big fireballs at least it feels nice.
This version of New World had all of the weapons and their skill trees fully available, which includes sword and shield, hammer, bow and arrow, hatchet, musket, spear, fire staff, and life staff. Every type of weapon is vastly different from the last, each with a finite amount of mastery points to invest across two unique skill trees. Each tree has three active abilities and several passives, but you only get three active abilities per weapon slot — so you need to choose your upgrade path wisely.
I experimented with all of the weapon types, but by the end I was gravitating towards sword and shield for my go-to “Okay, I need to take this seriously” moments, but usually preferred to open up with the hatchet. What I love about the hatchet is that it’s a very fast melee weapon, but you can also throw it for mid-range damage. This is super helpful for drawing enemies towards you and chipping away at their health as they approach, then switching to the sword and shield to block and bash before finishing off.
My third slot ended up going to the Life Staff in most cases, because being able to heal between fights without setting up camp or wasting potions and food is pretty invaluable. Or if someone else in your group takes a Life Staff you could put a true ranged weapon like a musket or the bow and arrow in there.
Since you can equip up to three different weapons at a time, plus a wide range of armor and trinket gear slots, there are tons of ways to mix and match and customize your ideal build. I can really see a lot of potential for speccing out different builds for different enemies and situations being a huge part of end-game play.
Finally, my adventure ended as a friend and I wandered around Reekwater looking for a nice spot to try out the new fishing mechanic. The first two spots we tried were too swampy and not scenic enough, but we finally found a nice river near some mountains on the outskirts of a bog.
Fishing in New World is pretty simple, you just perform a short little Quick Time Event (QTE) and then click at the right moment once it bites and alternate between holding down the click and releasing so it doesn’t escape or break the line. Admittedly, there is a lot more nuance here than most MMO fishing activities, so it’s encouraging to see a bit of depth here.
This was the most promising session I’ve had with New World so far. I already knew the big PvP War Battles were epic, but the PvE side of end-game always seemed so mysterious. Although I didn’t see anything resembling a dungeon by any means, questing in higher-level zones is much more challenging and exciting than the early game. The amount of depth and variety with how you build your own character is quite liberating.
Whether or not the journey to end-game ends up being compelling remains to be seen, but I’ve been reassured the focus the last few months leading up to its new release date has been on expanding mid-game and post-game content — which sounds like a very good thing.
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David Jagneaux is a freelance writer for IGN. Talk RPGs with him on Twitter at @David_Jagneaux.
Apple has made a big change to the cut it takes from all in-app purchases on its App Store, with the company slashing its rate from 30% down to 15% for most of its developers.
In response to the tough year Apple says its developers have been enduring, the company will now only take a 15% cut from all apps that make less than $1 million revenue annually. According to app analytics firm Sensor Tower, that accounts for nearly 98% of iOS developers currently, which makes the move a big shift for the company.
According to the same firm, however, this same 98% only accounts for 5% of Apple’s total app revenue, which might explain why the company is comfortable with such a drastic change. This also has no bearing on the ongoing court battle between Epic Games and Apple considering Fortnite’s massive turnover on iOS. The Fortnite developer is seeking to get App Store rates slashed after claiming that Apple’s cut is part of a monopolistic practice.
Apple developers looking to apply for the program can make submissions to Apple before the program goes live in January 2021. New developers will also be automatically opted into the program, with Apple only switching over the rate to the higher 30% if revenue ticks over the million mark in a calendar year.
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A lot of time goes into playing any video game, especially the sandboxes that Ubisoft has produced over the last few years. If you’ve ever wondered exactly how much time you’ve spent inside one of Ubisoft’s games and if you have any remarkable achievements to boast about, a new wrap-up feature will give you a breakdown on your gaming activities.
The feature analyses the last five years of your activities inside of Ubisoft games so long as your Uplay account (now Ubisoft Connect) was connected during these sessions. You’ll be able to see which games you devoted hours to, how many Ubisoft games you played, and plenty more details in your favorite game according to time played in the last generation of console gaming.
In our Assassin’s Creed Valhalla review, we scored the game 8/10. “It takes a little while to build momentum, but when it hits its stride, Valhalla is a confident Assassin’s Creed title that takes a few narrative risks which, as a whole, pay off,” critic Jordan Ramée wrote. The game has done especially well for Ubisoft, becoming the biggest Assassin’s Creed game launch in the history of the series.
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If someone on your gift list this year is into tabletop RPGs, you’ve come to the right place. We’ve gone straight to the experts here at IGN to hand-pick selections that will make just about any board game fan happy. We’re talking games like Dungeons & Dragons, Pathfinder, Cyberpunk, and more.
So even if you don’t know the first thing about board games and tabletop RPGs, you can feel confident you’re purchasing a gift they’ll enjoy. We have a wide range of gift ideas that are suitable for total tabletop RPG newcomers to seasoned pros. And if you don’t want to spend a lot of money, you can scroll right on down to the stocking stuffers category, where you’ll find plenty of budget-friendly ideas ranging from sets of dice to RPG-themed socks. Let’s get to it.
Best Dungeons & Dragons Gifts
Dungeons & Dragons is far and away the most popular tabletop RPG. And when you look at all the expansions and companion books available for it, it’s easy to see why. If you only play one tabletop RPG, you should probably make it D&D.
As great as D&D is, it only offers a taste of what’s possible in the tabletop RPG space. Many other games are available that bring you to other kinds of worlds and allow for other kinds of exploration.
You don’t need to spend much to bring a smile to the lips of the tabletop RPG fan in your life. These charming stocking stuffers are wonderful gift ideas that won’t break the bank.
If there’s one thing The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild fans want, it’s more Breath of the Wild, and Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity is here to give us… something kinda like that. Like the previous Hyrule Warriors games, this is Zelda as seen through a Dynasty Warriors lens, but the key difference here is that Age of Calamity’s premise takes us back to the events of The Great Calamity referenced throughout Breath of the Wild. This is the story of the Champions, of Zelda’s struggle to awaken her power, and of the resurrection of Ganon. The resulting game is a great fit for Koei Tecmo’s famous 1 vs 1000 gameplay, and also a fun new spin on a much-loved world.
Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity really does feel like a love letter to Breath of the Wild. It goes out of its way to include as many of the signature elements of that game as it can, from the bestiary and Sheikah powers, through to cooking, Koroks, clothing options and paragliding, and they really set the tone – but it doesn’t stop there.
Age of Calamity is packed with systems, mechanics, locations, and Easter eggs pulled from its predecessor, and coming across these is a joy. Of course Link can shield surf! Or parry Guardian lasers. And why shouldn’t he wield tree branches, soup ladles, and mops as weapons? And why not cast Magnesis to yank treasure chests out of the ground or use an Octorok to polish up rusty weapons? And what could be more normal than tuning the Sheikah Sensor to find ingredients across the map? My more than 40 hours with Age of Calamity were filled with moments in which Koei Tecmo’s reverence for the source material was abundantly clear.
Age of Calamity is able to expand upon this world in a number of areas too. There’s a large cast of playable characters for one, letting you get a sense for how deadly Impa was as a young woman, or how skilled the Champions were in battle during their prime. We even get to pilot the Divine Beasts, and while these missions aren’t actually all that exciting, they’re still a good palate cleanser, as well as an effective way to bring Breath of the Wild’s backstory to life, and to make these lumbering titans feel more real than they ever did before.[poilib element=”quoteBox” parameters=”excerpt=Age%20of%20Calamity%20really%20does%20feel%20like%20a%20love%20letter%20to%20Breath%20of%20the%20Wild.”]
Perhaps the most significant new twist, however, is also likely to be the most divisive. The opening cutscene introduces us to a miniature Guardian who comes alive at the moment Zelda’s powers awaken – when all hope is lost – and then travels back in time to warn the heroes about what is to come. Now, the Guardian itself is adorable, sure, but the time-travelling motif naturally raises the question of whether this prequel will follow the events as described in Breath of the Wild, or whether it will create its own timeline by altering the past.
I’m not going to directly answer that question here, as the story should be yours to discover, but what I will say is that while many events transpire, and there’s plenty of high-stakes drama, the actual characterisation along the way is pretty lacking. Zelda, for instance, spends a big chunk of the time playing the one note she played in most of the memories in Breath of the Wild – namely, self-doubt that she’ll ever unlock her power and be useful. It’s disappointing that she’s played so straight when this was an opportunity to do more with, well, all of the main characters, actually.
This is especially awkward because in battle, Zelda is a straight-up brawler – she wields the Sheikah Slate as her primary weapon, and yet, this badass killing machine is still meek, bookish, and lacking confidence as far as the story is concerned. There’s even an escort mission in which she can’t fight, despite the fact that – mere moments earlier – she was slaughtering hundreds if not thousands of Bokoblins, Moblins, Lizalfos, and everything else Hyrule’s got. If Age of Calamity can toss a time-travelling Guardian into the mix, surely it could’ve done a little more with Zelda, too?
Another way to look at it is that Breath of the Wild’s story was disjointed by design – you pieced it together as you came across memories and other flashbacks, whereas here we have a storyline that runs from start to finish, yet still doesn’t really tell us anything meaningful about its characters.
None of this should really be a surprise, though, because Age of Calamity is not trying to be a Final Fantasy game. Big events are often delivered through narrated text on-screen (with some pretty questionable voice acting), while the cutscenes are largely just brief interludes that help keep the story going, or show off something cool. The primary purpose of the overarching story really is to provide a backbone for ever-evolving gameplay across the dozens of hours of Age of Calamity. And in this capacity it serves its purpose admirably.
Impa Slap
While I’d have liked a little more insight into the characters, the Rock Roast of this game really is its combat. The foundation is deliberately simple, with every character having an array of different combos based around regular attacks transitioning into strong attacks, as well as a unique central mechanic. Impa, for instance, uses ZR to place symbols on enemies which she can then absorb with strong attacks to create mirror images of herself. Absorb three symbols and she’s at full power, with a line of clones fighting to either side of her. Impa can feel absurdly powerful in this state, spraying a barrage of blades at anyone in even the vaguest of vicinities. This feeling of power only grows as you upgrade her weapons and start to take advantage of seals – weapon augmentations – that suit her play style.[poilib element=”quoteBox” parameters=”excerpt=Impa%20can%20feel%20absurdly%20powerful…%20spraying%20a%20barrage%20of%20blades%20at%20anyone%20in%20even%20the%20vaguest%20of%20vicinities.”]
What’s impressive is that every character in the roster is this distinct. Urbosa, for instance, has a lightning gauge which can be channeled – one segment at a time – into extra-powerful strong attacks in her combos. Her fighting style is very much like a dance, and I love how she balances elegant, contained moves with outright devastation. Her lightning gauge is instantly refilled after using a weak-point smash too, allowing you to chain together shockingly effective sequences of moves.
Mipha, meanwhile, literally swims around the battlefield, and her key mechanic lets her close the distance to enemies by bursting from fountains, then juggle them in the air before launching them again with another fountain, and so on. Seals that do extra damage to airborne enemies work well for Mipha’s tridents.
I’d love to also tell you about some of the insane characters you’ll unlock later on, but that would be spoiler territory, so instead I’ll just say: woah. Age of Calamity has some awesome surprises and some truly deep cuts that fans are really going to love. They don’t all land – some characters are more intuitive to use and more robust in design than others – but still, the overall roster is a lot of fun.
Coming back to what we can discuss, Link is perhaps the most traditional character, but he also offers up the most variety: he boasts different combos, special attacks, and ZR mechanics based on the weapon type he’s using – sword and shield, spear, or the two-handed weapon category. Sword and shield, for instance, opens up parrying, shield surfing, and a rapid-fire bow, whereas two-handed weapons let him sacrifice some of his own health to juice up attacks. He’s a powerhouse.
Of course, these are just a few of the ingredients going into this mighty combat stew. Every playable character can also use four Sheikah runes – Stasis, Cryonis, Magnesis and Remote Bombs – with a unique implementation for each character. Link uses his Cryonis block as a launcher, for instance, while Impa rides hers around like some kind of ultra-compact ice car. It’s fun seeing how each has been realised in-game.
The runes’ role in combat is less freewheeling than you might expect them to be, however, as each boss – including area bosses – clearly signposts when to use a particular rune against them. It’s not enough for a big Bokoblin to be holding a shield in front of its body – you’ll also get an unmissable bomb icon telling you explosives are the way to break its guard.
This happens in basically every combat encounter and, to be fair, is a wise move for a game that’s aiming to be broadly accessible. Age of Calamity’s combat isn’t meant to be punishing, after all, it’s meant to be empowering fun. The main issue for me is that all of this hand-holding discouraged me from experimenting and using my runes at other times, as I didn’t want to get caught out needing to counter an attack while the ability recharged.
That said, there are some instances in which it makes sense to proactively use rune powers. Any time you’re able to open an enemy up to chip away at its weak-point gauge, for instance, you can use Stasis to give yourself the opportunity to whittle it down further. And against any enemy with a weak-point gauge that’s very much your priority, as eliminating the gauge lets you execute a weak-point smash attack which will one-shot most area bosses and do a major chunk of damage to anything tougher. It would have been nice if all the rune powers had a similarly strategic impact, but generally speaking they’re used reactively.
Elemental powers, on the other hand, work in much the same way as they did in Breath of the Wild. If you’re facing a Fire Moblin (yes, there are more enemy variants now), using an Ice Rod is going to be super effective, whereas waggling a Fire Rod in its direction will tickle it at best. And of course you can do things like target a metal crate with a Lightning Rod to amplify the area of effect. It’s good to see these kinds of interactions return.
Perhaps the most critical part of why the combat feels good, however, is Age of Calamity’s implementation of dodging. Being able to lock on to larger enemies then dodge away from their attacks is a big part of what gives the action its sense of speed, letting you dance around the outside of a massive enemy or go straight at Lynels, confident you can evade their Savage Lynel Swords. And best of all, if you dodge at the right time you’ll trigger a Flurry Rush that gives you an opening to take a big chunk off the opponent’s weak-point gauge. In Age of Calamity, dodging – and by extension the Flurry Rush – is king.[poilib element=”quoteBox” parameters=”excerpt=Many%20of%20the%20most%20thrilling%20missions%20double%20down%20on%20the%20fast-paced%20combat%20by%20putting%20you%20on%20the%20clock.”]
Many of the most thrilling missions double down on the fast-paced combat by putting you on the clock. There’s a real sense of urgency when you know you need to capture a certain number of outposts or take down a certain set of powerful enemies within a limited time. In these missions you’re not bothering with the cannon fodder or scouring the corners of the map for Koroks or treasure chests. Instead, you’re bee-lining for your objective, entirely focused on dodging attacks and finding ways to whittle down those crucial weak-point gauges. Often you’re also dispatching allies to the other key points on the map so that you can switch directly from one objective to another.
Combat can be a little rough around the edges, however. The camera isn’t always helpful and sometimes loses the action completely. And while Age of Calamity generally feels fast and responsive, the frame rate can vary a bit, and this is even more noticeable in splitscreen co-op, where the game’s gorgeous visual style also takes a significant hit. It’s a real shame Koei Tecmo didn’t allow for online co-op.
Age of Calamity can be as easy or as hard as you want it to be. Aside from the broad difficulty settings, you have the freedom to attempt missions while you’re under the recommended level, or conversely, only ever attempt missions once you’re well above. There are so many missions that unlock over the course of the campaign that I almost never found myself having to grind to hit a certain level. In fact, the times I repeated missions were for specific drops or enemy trophies to help me complete subquests across the map. The vast majority of the time I was doing new missions.
I really like the way the progression system is structured, too. You can pay to level up allies if need be, but a character’s level is obviously only part of the picture. Completing more missions with a character means you’ll get more weapon drops for them, and spare weapons can be fused onto your existing weapon to make it more powerful and add additional perks via the seal system. And no, your weapons will never break – not even if it’s a tree branch.[poilib element=”quoteBox” parameters=”excerpt=Spare%20weapons%20can%20be%20fused%20onto%20your%20existing%20weapon%20to%20make%20it%20more%20powerful%20and%20add%20additional%20perks%20via%20the%20seal%20system.”]
I’m also a fan of how cooking has been implemented in Age of Calamity. Recipes are unlocked, as opposed to discovered through experimentation, but if you have all the ingredients you’re able to cook one or more meals before every mission, and this opens up a whole host of possibilities. If you’re slightly under-leveled you might want to stack on attack power or reduce damage taken. If you know you’ll be facing a series of bosses you may want to widen the timing window for triggering Flurry Rushes. Perhaps you just want as much XP as you can get. Or bonus rupees. There are so many options, and sometimes making Dubious Food is absolutely the right choice.
Age of Calamity really does offer a wealth of content. All the way through the main story I was steadily unlocking new characters, revealing more missions, gaining access to more services and perks, seeing new weapon seals pop up, and upgrading my roster with more combos, more hearts, stronger powers, and so on. At no point did I hit a wall; instead I was always making progress, and always having fun. And even now, with the main story complete, my journey still isn’t over because there’s so much left to do.
Navi 2.0 has landed, and that means it’s time to break down exactly how these exciting new graphics cards perform. We’ve already looked at the AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT, and now it’s time to take a close look at its younger sibling, the Radon RX 6800. Coming to market at $499, it’s competing directly with the Nvidia RTX 3070. Does it have what it takes to earn a place on your holiday wishlist?
Like the RX 6800 XT, the Radeon RX 6800 has undergone a radical redesign this generation. The loud blower-style coolers of yesteryear have been left in the dust of the much more stylish and effective triple-fan cooler found here. Visually, the design is extremely similar to the RX 6800 XT, and there’s a real sense of style that stands apart from even many third-party cards. The mix of silver, black, and mirror finishes really makes the card stand out while also avoiding the garrishness of overdone RGB. I said the XT-version reminded me of a cross between a muscle car and spaceship and I stand by that here. Where the RTX 3000-series looks minimalist and utilitarian, the RX 6000 series goes for flash.
The biggest difference between the two cards is their thickness. As the lower powered of the two cards, the thermal load is naturally going to be less, so AMD was able to equip it with a standard two-slot heat sink. This is good news if your gaming PC also has internal sound or capture card because it will allow for more room to draw cool air through its fin stack.
Otherwise the two cards are nearly identical on the outside. The RX 6800 is still powered by dual eight-pin PSU connectors (no proprietary headers here!), as well as the same array of video outputs: 2x DisplayPort 1.4 outputs, each offering Display Stream Compression for those 4K HDR gaming monitors, one HDMI 2.1 output, and a USB Type-C output for easily connecting a virtual reality headset. Who said USB-C out on graphics cards was dead?
It’s only once you look under the hood that the differences begin to stand out. Like the RX 6800 XT, this card is built on AMD’s 7nm process and features the same 26.8 billion transistor count, but it features a trimmed back processor and clock speed. In total, it packs 3840 stream processors and 60 compute units, each with its own Ray Tracing Accelerator for hardware-based ray tracing. This is roughly 17% less each, while also being 50% more than last generation’s AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT. Given the relative performance of each card, that actually lines up quite well.
When it comes to clock speeds, the RX 6800 features a “Game Clock” of 1815MHz and a Boost Clock of 2105MHz. Again, this is a more modest promise than the 2015 MHz and 2205MHz of the RX 6800 XT, but a noteworthy improvement over the RX 5700 XT’s 1755MHz and 1905MHz. As has been the case for years, these figures should be taken with a grain of salt as each card will intelligently ramp itself up beyond these limits so long as it stays within acceptable power and thermal limits. For example, when gaming, my sample would routinely clock itself up to 2275 MHz and hover there. It’s not quite the 150MHz boost I found on the RX 6800 XT, but the top speed remains impressive compared to Nvidia’s current RTX 3000 line-up, which often hover between 1900 – 2000MHz.
Another highlight the RX 6800 shares with the RX 6800 XT is its large store of video memory. Each card features 16GB of GDDR6 VRAM on a 256-bit bus. With a bandwidth of 512 GB/s, it’s a far cry from the ridiculous 760 GB/s speeds offered by the Nvidia RTX 3080’s GDDR6X, but is perfectly sufficient for 4K gaming. Since this card is squarely targeting 1440p, standard GDDR6 is a good choice, as is the generous capacity featured on both cards. Compared to the 10GB on the RTX 3080 and 8GB on the RTX 3070, 16 gigabytes feels downright exorbitant and offers the kind of headroom that will give both RX 6000-series cards ample headroom for the advanced textures and graphical effects always around the next bend in PC gaming.
Of course, the Radeon RX 6800 also brings with it all of the improvements of AMD’s new RDNA 2 architecture. I give a thorough breakdown of the improvements in my review of the RX 6800 XT, so you can read the full breakdown there, but there are a few important high points that allow this card to be more than meets the eye.
First, instead of using a dedicated core just for ray tracing, each compute unit has its own ray tracing accelerator. Every clock cycle, each CU is able to process four ray intersections. This allows the system to be scalable while also offering a massive improvement over software level ray tracing. Additionally, you should be aware that RDNA leverages Microsoft’s DirectX ray tracing solution, DXR, and not RTX. That’s important, because certain games that are designed explicitly for RTX will not work on the RX 6800 or 6800 XT.
Second, each announced RX 6000-series card features a brand new store of GPU-level memory called Infinity Cache. This cache allows the GPU to store important data rather than pull on the VRAM, which reduces latency and increases effective bandwidth. This memory store is also a key reason for the impressive clock speeds the GPU is able to deliver, and aids in the increased performance per watt. This card, despite being far more advanced than the RX 5700 XT, has a TDP of only 250 watts, 25 watts higher than the 5700 XT.
Third, the RX 6000-series is synergistic with the Ryzen 5000 CPU platform through a new system called Smart Access Memory. If you’re running one of AMD’s latest Ryzen CPUs on a 500-series motherboard, your CPU will be able to access all 16GB of the RX 6800’s VRAM for a boost in performance. AMD claims this averages to about 6% but can be more depending on the game in question (their documents show Forza Horizon 4 receiving a 15% improvement at 1440p, for example). Since our test bench is built on the Intel platform, I wasn’t able to test this for myself, but it’s reasonable to expect a modest performance bump by the function of this new system.
There is lots more to RDNA 2, including game- and performance-enhancing features like Radeon Boost and Radeon Anti-Lag, as well as boons to content creators like HEVC encoding/decoding and AV1 decoding, so be sure to head over to the RX 6800 XT review and take a look.
AMD Radeon RX 6800 – Performance
With all of that preliminary information out of the way, it’s time to take a look at how the card actually performs. All of our cards are put through a series of synthetic tests and real world gaming benchmarks. Since AMD seemed to be taking aim at the RTX 3070, I’ll be focusing mainly on 4K and 1440p gameplay, but also note 1080p results in our initial game tests.
As I mentioned above, our system is unable to take advantage of Smart Access Memory, so if you’re running a system composed of a Ryzen 5000 processor, AMD 500 motherboard, and RX 6000 GPU, you can expect a roughly 6% increase in performance.
AMD Radeon RX 6800 – Synthetic Benchmarks
Looking at synthetic benchmarks, the RX 6800 performs very well. It outperforms the RTX 3070 handily and comes in just below the RTX 3080.
Turning to ray tracing, I ran each card through Surgical Scalpels’ Boundary Benchmark as well as 3DMark’s Port Royal and Ray Tracing Tests. Here, the RX 6800 performs significantly below the RTX line-up and RX 6800 XT. This is to be expected because of its position on the product stack and, in the Boundary benchmark in particular, demonstrates the importance of a scaling solution like DLSS. Without that, the RX 6800 offered only 36% of the performance of the RTX 3070. In 3DMark’s ray tracing test, where neither card was able to benefit from DLSS, the results were closer, but the RTX 3070 still led the RX 6800 by 48%.
When it comes to normal rasterization, the RX 6800 does very well, going head to head and even beating the RTX 3070 in several cases. At 1440p, it’s able to maintain 60 FPS in three of the five games above, with the exceptions being Metro Exodus, which was 55 FPS with also had RTX on high, and Red Dead Redemption 2 which was 58 FPS. Compared to the RX 5700 XT, the gains are very large, with an average improvement of 52% at 4K, 58% at 1440p, and 49% at 1080p.
Since the card is positioned so directly against the RTX 3070, which was itself compared directly to the Nvidia RTX 2080 Ti, I opted to do some expanded testing, beginning with 4K. As you can see, in non-ray traced games, the card does a good job of keeping pace with the RTX 3070. In fact, removing Wolfenstein: Youngblood from all calculations (ray tracing is exclusive to Nvidia, so AMD’s figures are not comparable), it averages 10% faster than the RTX 3070 and only 15% slower than the RX 6800 XT. Once ray tracing is factored in and Nvidia’s cards are able to take advantage of DLSS, that lead evaporates. The average performance across all games (except Wolfenstein) puts it 12% slower than the RTX 3070.
Is it fair to compare ray tracing performance between AMD and Nvidia when RTX cards have DLSS and AMD cards do not? I would argue that it is as that is exactly what many gamers will do when considering between the two. AMD seems to know as much, because it’s developing its own answer to Nvidia’s AI upscaling system: FidelityFX Super Resolution, but little is known about this technology other than that it is in development. When it will arrive and how it will work is anyone’s guess. The reality of Nvidia’s lead is hard to ignore here because most games supporting ray tracing also support DLSS. Even though the RX 6800 offers good performance at 4K and below as we’ll see in a second, the absence of such a system is a significant drawback at launch.
Comparisons and resolution scaling aside, I was impressed at how well the RX 6800 was able to handle non-ray traced games at 4K resolution. In my testing, leaving ray tracing turned off increases FPS by 40-50%, allowing many games to perform near or even above 60 FPS.
Looking at 1440p, which I would argue is the target resolution for this card, we see a similar story in comparative performance, but here it’s even more valuable to look at the actual FPS in each game. Even with ray tracing turned on, most games I tested performed well above 60 FPS. Of those that fell below, two were very close (Metro Exodus averaged 55 FPS, Battlefield V was 57) and only two were unplayably low: Control and Minecraft RTX.
It’s also worth calling out just how well Dirt 5 performed even without DLSS. Dirt 5 appears to be optimized for AMD, and the RX 6800 cleans the RTX 3070’s clock as a result. Given that current-gen consoles are also being built on the RDNA 2 architecture and will utilize ray tracing, I’m optimistic at what this means for the future of ray tracing on AMD cards.
Of course, if you’re not interested in ray tracing, these results are also very good news. If you’re gaming at 1440p with DXR disabled, the RX 6800 is able to run many games at or above 100 FPS.
AMD Radeon RX 6800 – Thermals and Acoustics
The new triple fan design is an improvement versus the blower style cooler of the previous generation. In my testing, the RX 6800 reached a peak temperature of 80C. This is definitely warmer than Nvidia’s RTX 3000-series GPUs, but since AMD determines throttling based on a junction temperature (hottest spot on the die) of 110C, it didn’t actually result in any throttling that I observed. The card is also noticeably louder than Nvidia’s most recent cards, rising above my PC fans for a clear rise and fall as the card would spin up and down. In short, the thermal solution works, but still lags behind the competition in temperatures and acoustic performance.
The wait is finally over: Navi 2.0 is here. I’ve spent the last week putting the Radeon RX 6800 XT and RX 6800 through their paces to see how they stack up against our stable of last generation graphics cards and Nvidia’s RTX-3000 Series. In this article, I’ll be focusing on the RX 6800 XT but be sure to check out our separate RX 6800 review as well. Coming to market at $649, the RX 6800 XT undercuts the price of the Nvidia RTX 3080 – but does it have the performance to stack up?
If it weren’t for the branding, I would think the Radeon RX 6800 XT was a third-party card. Compared to last generation’s AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT, it’s bigger and looks better, throwing out the blower-style cooler for a triple fan design and a 2.5-slot heatsink. At 267x120mm, is a far cry from the case-challenging Nvidia RTX 3090 and should fit in most mid-tower PC cases with ease. Visually, it’s a major upgrade from the minimalist 5700 XT and looks equal parts spaceship and muscle car. I like it.
Of course, looks only go so far. What really matters is what that heatsink is keeping cool. The RX 6800 XT is built on AMD’s RDNA 2 architecture. Like the RX 5700 XT, it uses AMD’s 7nm process, but the transistor count has more than doubled, going from 10.3 billion to 26.8 billion. With that, the GPU has received a massive expansion in Stream Processors, which are responsible for game rendering.
Last generation’s 5700 XT featured 2560 SPs, while the 6800 XT bumps that all the way to 4608. Likewise, it features 72 Compute Units, up from 40 last-gen, and each has its hardware level ray tracing unit (which we’ll get to shortly). It marries that with 16GB of GDDR6 memory (topping all but the RTX 3090 from Team Green) on a 256-bit bus bearing a total bandwidth of 512 GB/s.
If you recall from my review of the RTX 3080 Founders Edition, the RX 6800 XT’s main competitor, this memory configuration isn’t as fast. The RTX 3080 uses the cutting edge GDDR6X and offers a maximum memory bandwidth of 760 GB/s. If we go down a step to the RTX 3070, we find a much more “apples to apples” comparison since it is also running GDDR6 on a 256-bit bus. There, the 6800 XT is substantially faster than the RTX 3070’s 448 GB/s. In other words, this Navi GPU has faster memory than you might expect from GDDR6, but it still doesn’t compare well to the G6X in the RTX 3080. In real world terms, I wasn’t able to notice any difference while gaming, but it’s worth being aware as game engine development continues to advance.
The guaranteed clock speeds are impressive, though as we’ve seen with cards for a number of years, they really only hint at what the cards may achieve. The Radeon 6800 XT offers a “Game Clock” of 2015 MHz and a Boost Clock of up to 2250 MHz. AMD’s Radeon Software comes also with several presets, including the much anticipated Rage Mode (which raises the power limits on the card), and an automatic overclocking option that removes the legwork from figuring out a stable, notched up frequency. Even without those, I was surprised to see what the card was capable of. Loading up a game with complete stock speeds, the RX 6800 XT immediately ramped up to 2400 MHz and pushed just shy of 2500 MHz with Rage Mode engaged. Compared to the RTX 3070 or RTX 3080, which would maybe hit 2 GHz without a manual overclock, you can see how impressive that speed boost is.
Before moving into the architecture, you should also know that the card features one HDMI 2.1 output and two DisplayPort 1.4 with integrated Display Stream Compression (DSC) for running high performance gaming monitors. It also includes a USB Type-C output for easily connecting virtual reality headsets.
RDNA 2: The New Architecture
To really understand the RX 6000 series and how the specs above come into play, we have to dig a little deeper into what’s going on within the chip itself. RDNA 2 is a big leap forward for AMD and offers real world benefits for gamers. AMD quotes 1.54x performance per watt compared to last-gen and up to 1.3x higher frequency. What that means, in essence, is that watt for watt the RX 6000 series is going to kick out more frames at a higher frequency than the original RDNA architecture was capable of.
One of the ways it accomplishes this is through its brand new store of Infinity Cache. Both the RX 6800 and RX 6800 XT feature 128 MB of rapid access, on-die storage that increases the bandwidth of the built-in video memory. Rather than have to draw on the VRAM, RDNA2 maintains a pool of important data on the GPU itself for near-immediate access, and actively maintains it to reduce latency. This accounts for a share of the gains I introduced previously, but is also more energy efficient, reducing the overall power demands of the card as a whole. Likewise, it’s a primary reason for the incredible clock speeds the card is able to offer.
If that name sounds familiar, it should. Infinity Cache is directly related to the Infinity Fabric found on AMD’s Ryzen CPUs. More than any generation before it, the RX 6000 series draws on the connection between CPU and GPU for elevated performance. As a result, there’s a real benefit to running a new AMD CPU along with your RX 6000-series GPU.
AMD leverages this synergy with a technology it calls Smart Access Memory. By running both AMD components on the AMD 500-series platform, your Ryzen CPU is able to directly access all 16GB of the 6800 XT’s memory. AMD claims an average FPS improvement of 6% with results that can go as high as 15% in Forza Horizon 4 at 1440p. Since our test platform is based on the Intel i9-9900K, I wasn’t able to test these for myself, but based on the performance results I saw, even a 6% improvement does well to close the gap between or even beat the RTX 3080 in some titles.
Enabling Ray Tracing
One of the biggest curiosities leading up to this launch was how the RX 6000 series would handle ray tracing. While Nvidia features a whole separate “RT Core” in its RTX architecture, RDNA 2 instead bakes ray tracing into its existing Compute Units with new Ray Tracing Accelerators. Each CU features a single Accelerator, so every clock cycle – up to 70 of them – can be leveraged for four ray tracing intersections each. This performance is also enhanced by the Infinity Cache and is further enhanced you have the CPU, GPU, and motherboard synergy above with Smart Access Memory.
Even with those enhancements, trying to run ray traced games at 4K is a tall order, even for the best gaming GPUs. Nvidia accomplishes this with the help of its AI-powered Deep Learning Super Sampling (DLSS) technology to intelligently upscale games to higher resolutions without the same performance penalty. At launch, AMD has no answer for this technology, which means ray tracing at a particular resolution is much more taxing than those that support DLSS with Nvidia (which, to be fair, is still a fairly small, yet growing, number). AMD did share that gamers can expect a solution to come – a technology they call FidelityFX Super Resolution, but there is very little known about it or when it may actually release.
In the gaming landscape today, it’s still a minority of games that support ray tracing, but since Nvidia was first out of the gate, many of those that do also support DLSS. Apples to apples, AMD’s RX-6000 series is at a significant disadvantage in these cases as DLSS will allow Nvidia’s RTX cards to run at much higher frame rates, even at 4K. As you’ll see, enabling ray tracing at this resolution often drops frame rates well below 60 FPS. In many cases, games are still playable but aren’t nearly as smooth. This isn’t the case at 1440p, and the RX 6800 XT does an admirable job of enabling no-sacrifices gameplay at that resolution. Given that, it’s worth taking a close look at how you want to play, and how long you may need to wait for FidelityFX Super Resolution if 4K with ray tracing is on your list of must-haves.
That said, I remain impressed at the impact of Radeon Image Sharpening, which algorithmically applies a sharpening filter but only to the areas of the screen that need it. This technology was highlighted as part of the RX 5700 XT launch and has since gone mostly under the radar. Gaming at 1440p with ray tracing on and Radeon Image Sharpening enabled isn’t quite 4K, but it is an improvement over normal 1440p without a major FPS loss.
The other thing to know is that the Radeon RX 6000 series uses Microsoft’s DXR platform, not RTX. That means, games designed specifically for RTX ray tracing will not automatically work with DXR cards like the RX 6800 XT. While that might seem obvious, that does mean that some games that can do ray tracing won’t do ray tracing with these cards, such as Wolfenstein: Youngblood. That said, in the roster of games I had available to test, Wolfenstein was the only one that had this issue.
Radeon Anti-Lag, Radeon Boost, Content Creation
This launch isn’t all about hardware, though, as AMD has a couple of neat software tricks up its sleeve and some real highlights for streamers and content creation. The first is a technology called Radeon Anti-Lag and can work in conjunction with its second, Radeon Boost. Together, they aim to reduce input latency, improve performance and make games feel more responsive.
Radeon Anti-Lag works by controlling the pace of CPU tasks to better sync with GPUs in graphics-card-limited scenarios. By its design, this can have a minor impact on frame rate (several frames a second) but in my testing does make games feel more responsive. I’m far from a competitive gamer, so the fact that it’s perceptible even to me bodes well for competitive gamers in hardware-limited scenarios.
Radeon Boost, on the other hand, dynamically adjusts your resolution to increase performance. Unlike the resolution scaling you might be familiar with from console implementations, Boost only kicks in during bursts of motion when you’re unlikely to perceive any difference in visual quality. This improves overall performance, and when used in conjunction with Radeon Anti-Lag, makes competitive gaming feel more fluid and responsive. With little to no visual difference, there’s little reason not to use these features if you enjoy twitch shooters and need the lowest input possible.
Finally, the RX 6000 Series also brings with it the most recent codecs for streamers and content creators. In addition to traditional H.264, it also features H.265/HEVC and AV1 decoding for reduced bandwidth, higher quality game streaming.
AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT – Performance
Now that we have a better understanding of the card itself, let’s take a closer look at how it performs. All tests were performed at ultra settings to determine how the RX 6800 XT performs under pressure. In contrast to our prior GPU reviews, I have expanded ray tracing testing to include 1440p in a wide variety of tests to better demonstrate the different levels of expected performance. Since Rage Mode was highlighted as a gateway to improved performance, I included tests with Rage Mode enabled as a separate entry. I tested this preset at 4K only due to time and to examine the impact it would have in the most challenging scenarios.
As I mentioned previously, our test system is built on the Intel Z390 platform, so we were unable to take advantage of Smart Access Memory. If you’re gaming on a system that does have that hardware, your results will likely be slightly higher than what I was able to document.
AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT – Synthetic Benchmarks
Starting with our synthetics tests, the Radeon RX 6800 XT performed very well, topping the charts in Fire Strike and coming in second to the much more expensive Nvidia RTX 3090 Founders Edition in Heaven. These are rasterization tests, however, and don’t engage each card’s ray tracing capabilities so I turned to a series of additional benchmarks to see how it would stack up there.
The Ray Tracing tests begin to tell a different tale. 3DMark’s Port Royal tests find the RX 6800 XT falling short of the RTX 3090 and 3080 while still maintaining a lead over the RTX 3070. In Surgical Scalpels’ Boundary benchmark, the lack of DLSS support puts the RX 6800 XT at less than half the FPS of even the RTX 3070. It fares a little better in 3DMark’s Ray Tracing Test, but still falls short of any of the RTX cards.
Synthetics are good for comparing GPUs, but don’t necessarily say much about actual gameplay performance. Let’s see how it did in gaming benchmarks.
Here’s where things get interesting. To say that it leapfrogs last generation’s RX 5700 XT is an understatement. In the games above, the RX 6800 XT explodes the frame rate at every resolution. FPS is 66% higher at 1080p, 77% higher at 1440p, and 81% higher at 4K. Generation over generation, that’s simply phenomenal; however, given that this is a 6800 XT and last generation topped out at 5700 XT, it’s possible we might see a more apt comparison in the future. For now, this is what we have and the results are extraordinary.
Compared to the RTX 3080, the RX 6800 XT is surprisingly competitive. It trades blows across games and resolutions. The RTX 3080 maintains the overall lead, but often by such a margin that it’s unlikely to be perceived during actual gameplay.
That said, without an equivalent to DLSS, ray tracing performance is much lower, as evidenced in Metro: Exodus. There, the RX 6800 XT delivered 65 FPS at 1440p but dropped to 35 at 4K. By contrast, the RTX 3080 offered 89 FPS at 1440p and 64 at 4K. Even without upscaling, the RX 6800 XT still surpassed the RTX 3070 at both 1440p and 4K resolutions.
Let’s take a look at 4K in particular with a wider variety of games.
For these tests, I narrowed down the focus to the current generation of 4K cards, excluding the RTX 3090 which is in an entirely different tier of price and performance. With this expanded selection of games, some ray traced and some not, several things become clear. First, when we look at pure rasterization, the RX 6800 XT is a beast. In default mode, it averages only 4% slower than the RTX 3080 (3% with Rage Mode enabled).
Try to play something with ray tracing enabled without DLSS and the gap becomes a chasm. Remember, most games supporting RTX today also support DLSS. Without that feature, the RX 6800 XT is 40% slower on those games and 18% behind the RTX 3070. The exception to this is the recently-released Dirt 5 which does not have DLSS and performed much better on the RX 6800 XT. Those numbers are both surprising and promising, so if this is an example of things to come, then maybe this won’t be an issue at all. Without a crystal ball there is no way to tell for certain. Looking at the entirety of our test roster, however, the RX 6800 XT was 23% slower than the RTX 3080 but 3% faster than the RTX 3070.
The other thing to note here is that Rage Mode does offer a performance improvement, but it’s small at only 1% on average. At the same time, since the cooler is able to keep the card well within safe limits and it doesn’t result in much if any additional noise, there’s not a lot of reason not to have it on unless you plan to overclock.
So what can we take from this? First off, if you don’t care about ray tracing, the RX 6800 XT is an excellent way to game at 4K while also saving money. I would also consider this card if you’re currently at 1440p and looking to upgrade in the future. At that resolution, it can deliver 60+ FPS at ultra settings even with DXR enabled. While you’re waiting to make the resolution jump, AMD should be well on the path to delivering its own scaling solution.
If you’re already gaming at 4K and do care about ray tracing, this probably isn’t the card for you. At least not yet.
AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT – Thermals and Acoustics
When it comes to temperature, AMD bases its throttling on a relatively high junction temperature (the hottest spot on the die) of 110C. The GPU temperature, on the other hand, is the figure we typically look at, which often lags behind the junction temperature. This is important because even though the RX 6800 XT runs fairly hot at 89C peak in our testing, the junction temperature never reached its 110C throttle point while gaming. Even after hours of benchmark testing, it was able to maintain a clock rate in the 2400 MHz range, which is impressive. Still, 89C is hot for a high airflow case like my Lian Li LanCool II and this is dramatically higher than the 69C average I observed on the RTX 3080.
With its triple fan solution, the Radeon RX 6800 XT generates more noise than Nvidia’s current RTX line-up. It’s not loud, but did overtake my case fans slightly, clearly allowing me to hear when the GPU would spin up. Given the revised temperature load, it’s clear to see that AMD has carefully balanced acoustics with thermal performance and has done well walking the line.
Purchasing Guide
The AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT is available now with an MSRP of $649. It’s available at Amazon, Newegg, Best Buy, direct from AMD, and other retailers, though like Nvidia’s latest cards, expect stock to be scarce for the time being.
Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity occasionally lets you take control of a Divine Beast. It’s a moment that should carry some weight for Zelda fans. The Beasts are colossal machines crucial to the events of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, and while they’re cumbersome to control, the levels in which you play as them effectively communicate their destructive power. If you’ve played Breath of the Wild, these moments take on a portentous air; the power fantasy of using lasers, bursts of lightning, and volleys of magma to level mountains and rack up thousands of Bokoblin, Moblin, and Lizalfos kills is undercut when you remember how the people who’re using them can’t fully control them, and that these tools of destruction will turn on their masters when they’re needed most and destroy them.
That sense of impending doom is what I came to Age of Calamity for, but that’s where it blunders hardest. It constantly encourages you to set aside that feeling of dread, avoid coming to terms with the consequences of its apocalyptic premise, and instead just kill a bunch of baddies and think the Divine Beasts are cool. Doing that is fun for a while, but it couldn’t stop me from being enormously let down by that choice.
Age of Calamity’s narrative failure is especially frustrating because the disappointing turns it takes to get there seem so clear, and because it does so much right until then. The campaign begins with a small, white Guardian-like robot seeing the Calamity caused by Ganon in Breath of the Wild and traveling back in time to before it ever happened, when Link is still a royal knight and Zelda is working to unlock her potential and stop the Calamity from happening.
Things start well enough, mostly thanks to how Age of Calamity infuses the long-running Musou formula with Breath of the Wild’s look and feel. Mowing down crowds of Bokoblins and Lizalfos is simple enough, but larger enemies like Moblins and Hinoxes require real effort to take down. Dodging their attacks at the right time lets you fire off a Flurry Rush attack, one of the cooler maneuvers in Breath of the Wild. The original Hyrule Warriors’ subweapons are replaced by four Runes (remote bombs, magnesis, stasis, and cryonis), and they’re integrated into combat well; stasis freezes enemies in place and launches them based on how hard you hit them while they’re frozen, while magnesis absorbs nearby metal weapons and throws them back at their owners. Some attacks from larger enemies prompt you to counter them with Runes, staggering them and leaving them open to attack. That, along with magic rods that rely on an elemental counter system, give you plenty of options in combat.
Every member of the playable cast has a distinct mechanic or trick at their disposal, too, and they help keep things interesting. Link has you holding down the attack button to charge up his spin attack, Impa can mark enemies with magic symbols then collect them to produce copies of herself, and Urbosa can power up her attacks by discharging stored-up lightning, which you can then recharge with a button press. Later characters have even wilder concepts, and while a few didn’t jive with me, they’re all creative enough that I wanted to explore them.
Maybe the biggest game-changer, though, is how all the fighting is structured. As someone who adores Breath of the Wild, I got a huge kick out of Age of Calamity’s interface, and that aesthetic actually adds a meaningful layer to the experience. You spend a lot of time looking at a map of Hyrule, with mainline missions, side quests, upgrades, and shops dotted all around it. And while the main story missions tell a cinematic story of Link and Zelda recruiting the Champions to control the Divine Beasts and stop Calamity Ganon, the map tells a more sprawling tale. Getting access to a new shop may be as simple as gathering supplies in missions and checking off an icon on the map, but it’s contextualized as securing a trade route so the shop owners can properly do business with other towns, with short descriptions of what happens after you complete the task. It’s a small but fantastic touch that gets across the scope of the war you’re fighting, and how Hyrule cared for its people as it faced its end.
As the map gets cluttered with icons and the story starts approaching the major story beats from Breath of the Wild, Age of Calamity explores some of its history’s more poignant threads. Zelda’s journey to uncovering her potential, how that purpose drives her father to push her toward her destiny at the cost of everything else, and how much of a burden that kind of responsibility puts on someone is told well. Seeing the Champions in their heyday is fun, too, even if we know where their stories are headed.
Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity
All of these threads converge when things start to turn dire. Hyrule’s hubris in thinking it could repurpose technology it didn’t understand begins to destroy it. That sense of doom approaches. But in its most critical moment, Age of Calamity refuses to look its expectations in the eye and blinks. Without treading into spoilers, I found the last act profoundly disappointing. The way it explores the most impactful moments in Breath of the Wild’s story subverts and repudiates much of what made Breath of the Wild so resonant. For a game meant to give that story context, it’s a fatal misstep.
It doesn’t help that by this point, the other parts of the game start to wear out their welcome. The new layers of combat are nice, but you end up seeing most of the enemies you’re going to fight throughout your entire playtime early on, with later bosses being buffed-up versions of earlier ones. After playing the game for so long, their tells become simple prompts, missions get so easy they’re tedious, and side missions are a grind. It’s also harder to forgive the camera and frame rate issues, which become more pronounced as you head into more interior areas and produce more on-screen effects that slow things down.
I had started out completely on board with seeing Age of Calamity’s story through. By the end, I was doing these tasks more out of obligation than anything else.
Despite how much I’d invested in this version of Hyrule and the nagging feeling of leaving things unchecked on a map left me with, I stopped taking on side missions, stopped helping people build up Hyrule and prepare for the Calamity. I had started out completely on board with seeing Age of Calamity’s story through, being with the citizens of Hyrule until the bitter end, and just killing some baddies. By the end, I was doing these tasks more out of obligation than anything else.
It’s strange to think of a bungled story leaving me so lukewarm on a Zelda game, even if it is a spin-off. But paying off its premise is the burden a prequel to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is tasked with. The main reason I dove into Age of Calamity is because I love its world and the history it tries to remember. So for a game to retread them and proclaim to have something new to say when its inspiration’s most striking moments come from what it leaves unsaid is a big ask. But my problem with Age of Calamity isn’t that it fails to live up to that responsibility. It’s that it doesn’t even try. It doesn’t have the courage to see things through.
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Pokemon Go has received a steady stream of tweaks and updates since its explosive debut back in Summer 2016, but the game will get its first major branded update next month. Dubbed Go Beyond, the massive update will be rolled out over the week of November 30, and it introduces some significant changes to the mobile game, including the first Gen 6 Pokemon, a higher level cap, seasons, and much more.
Kalos Pokemon
Niantic had previously teased that Kalos Pokemon were on the way to Pokemon Go, and the first Gen 6 monsters will arrive as part of the Go Beyond update. Starting December 2, players will be able to encounter a handful of Gen 6 Pokemon (and their evolutions) in the game, including X and Y starters Chespin, Fennekin, and Froakie, as well as Bunnelby, Fletchling, and Litleo.
To coincide with the arrival of Gen 6 Pokemon, Niantic is holding a special event in the game in early December. Throughout the event, Gen 6 Pokemon will appear in the wild more frequently, effectively ensuring everyone gets a chance to catch them. The event kicks off at 10 AM local time on December 2 and runs until 10 PM local time on December 8.
Increased Level Cap And Leveling Changes
As part of the Go Beyond update, Niantic is implementing some major changes to the game’s leveling system. Starting November 30, the studio is making the process of leveling up to 40 easier by doling out more XP for capturing and evolving Pokemon, registering new Pokedex entries, hatching eggs, and other tasks. Niantic says the extra XP “will be as much as double what it was before” in some instances, which should make it much easier for lower-level players to catch up.
Gyarados Cap
Everyone who reaches level 40 by the end of the year will earn the distinction of being a Legacy 40 Trainer. Along with this accolade, they’ll receive a few rewards, including a Legacy 40 medal and access to exclusive Timed Research that will offer its own rewards, including a Gyarados trainer cap for their avatar. You have until 11:59 PM local time on December 31 to earn the Legacy 40 rewards. To make it easier to hit that milestone, Niantic will offer a double catch XP bonus from today, November 18, through the remainder of the year.
On top of that, Niantic is bumping Pokemon Go’s player level cap up from 40 to 50. However, the leveling process will work a little differently for these high-level players. In addition to earning enough XP, players will need to complete new Level-Up Research challenges to raise their level beyond 40; for instance, to level up to 41, players will need to catch a high number of Pokemon in one day and complete other tasks. There will be similar challenge requirements for each successive level as well.
Players aren’t the only ones getting a level cap increase; Niantic is also making it possible to power up Pokemon even further than before. The studio is introducing a new type of Candy called Candy XL, which will let you increase a Pokemon’s CP further than originally possible. Niantic says you’ll be able to acquire Candy XL either by catching Pokemon or converting regular Candy.
Level-Up Challenges
Seasons
Another new feature coming as part of the Go Beyond update is Seasons. A new Season will begin in the game every three months, and each one will usher in some big changes. For instance, the kinds of Pokemon that spawn in the wild will vary by Season. Different Pokemon will also appear during a Season depending on your hemisphere; for example, players in the Northern Hemisphere will encounter wintry Pokemon during the game’s first Season, while those in the Southern Hemisphere will find summer-themed Pokemon like Burmy and Darumaka.
Naturally, the Season Pokemon Deerling will also tie into this new feature. You’ll be able to find a different Deerling form in the game each Season. Niantic also says that events will be themed around the Season they occur in, and different Mega-Evolved Pokemon will appear in Mega Raids depending on the Season.
12 Days Of Friendship Event
Ahead of the Go Beyond update, Niantic is holding a 12 Days of Friendship event in Pokemon Go beginning today, November 18. Throughout the event, your friendship level with another player will increase much more quickly than normal when you open gifts, trade Pokemon, or battle together in Raids and Gyms. Additionally, you’ll receive an attack boost when you battle in a Raid alongside a friend as well as increased XP for successfully completing the battle, and the number of gifts you can open each day has been increased. The 12 Days of Friendship event runs until 1 PM PT on November 30.
