Author: Trafficblast

Fortnite will soon update to version 12.40, and as always the battle royale game will have to go offline for a short period while the update is applied. Here’s when you can expect the update–and if you’re in the US, you’ll likely still be asleep.

Fortnite update 12.40 will arrive on April 15, with downtime scheduled for 2 AM ET (6 AM UTC), when fewer players (in the US, at least) are likely to be playing. The content of Fortnite updates is rarely known in advance, so we’re not entirely sure what this one will bring.

What we do know for sure, though, is that Fortnite Chapter 2 Season 2 will continue for longer than originally planned–Season 3 will not begin until June.

You’ll want to act fast if you want to complete the Deadpool challenges in Fortnite to unlock the Unmasked Deadpool skin. Meanwhile, you can unlock an in-game reward by playing Fortnite Trivia on Houseparty (an app that is also owned by Epic).

The last five episodes of Rick and Morty Season 4 are hitting Adult Swim soon, and now we finally know the episode titles and release dates of these five installments – although it’s anyone’s guess as to what they’re actually about. Read on for all the details on when the new Rick and Morty episodes will air, what they’re called, and why Adult Swim has opted for such an unusual release schedule.

When Does Rick and Morty Season 4 Return?

Rick and Morty: Season 4 originally kicked off on November 10, 2019. But the series only returned for half of its ten-episode season before going on hiatus in December. Season 4 will return on May 3, 2020, nearly half a year after it last went off the air.

That’s an unusual move, given that past seasons have tended to air in one, continuous dose. However, it seems to be a sign of things to come, with new episodes arriving more frequently, if not always in large batches. Rick and Morty was renewed for a whopping 70 episodes back in 2018. Work has long since begun on Season 5, and co-creator Dan Harmon says the waits between new seasons won’t be as long as they once were.

That said, co-creator Justin Roiland is also involved in another new animated sitcom called Solar Opposites, which is premiering on Hulu on May 8. There’s no telling how his commitment to two animated series will impact the flow of new Rick and Morty episodes.

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Rick and Morty Season 4 Episode List

Adult Swim has tended to make a big show out of revealing the titles for new Rick and Morty episodes, in part because their odd titles invite all sorts of fan speculation. That was certainly the case when the first five episode titles of Season 4 were revealed.

For the latter half of Season 4, Adult Swim went as far as to partner up with different outlets (including IGN) to reveal the new titles on Twitter. Here’s the full list, including our exclusive reveal of episode 6’s logline:

• Season 4, Episode 6 – “Never Ricking Morty” – Choo Choo, broh. Catch this train broh.
• Season 4, Episode 7 – “Promortyus” – Get off my face broh.
• Season 4, Episode 8 – “The Vat of Acid Episode” – The one with the acid vat, broh
• Season 4, Episode 9 – “Childrick of Mort” – Miracle of life broh. Whole family in this one broh.
• Season 4, Episode 10 – “Star Mort: Rickturn of the Jerri” – Parenting is crazy broh. Stuff straight disappearing in this one.

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Rick and Morty Season 4 Release Schedule

For those keeping track, here’s a full breakdown of Season 4’s release schedule, including both past and upcoming episodes

• Season 4, Episode 1 – November 10, 2019
• Season 4, Episode 2 – November 17, 2019
• Season 4, Episode 3 – November 24, 2019
• Season 4, Episode 4 – December 8, 2019
• Season 4, Episode 5 – December 15, 2019
• Season 4, Episode 6 – May 3, 2020
• Season 4, Episode 7 – May 10, 2020
• Season 4, Episode 8 – May 17, 2020
• Season 4, Episode 9 – May 24, 2020
• Season 4, Episode 10 – May 31, 2020

What Time Does Rick and Morty Air?

While the series may come and go at a whim, at least Rick and Morty sticks to a consistent time schedule. The series will continue to air on Sunday nights at 11:30 p.m. ET/PT on Adult Swim.

If you don’t have a cable TV subscription, you’ll have to buy the season digitally or wait five months until it’s available to stream on Hulu. Rick and Morty will also be available to stream on HBO Max at launch, but only the first three seasons for now.

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Jesse is a mild-mannered staff writer for IGN. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on Twitter.

Each character in Final Fantasy 7 Remake has six different weapons, and each one has its pros and cons. Some weapons are better for straight melee fighting, others amp up your magic capability, and a few carry benefits like increased critical hits and boosted defenses.

Weapons and their upgrades are the avenues through which you can customize your characters and their roles in battle. But while some weapons come your way through the course of the story or are waiting for you in shops, others are in particular places that you can blow right past. Below is everything you need to know to find every weapon in the game, for every character.

We’ve got tons of other Final Fantasy 7 Remake guides to help you find every collectible and secret along the way, as well. If you’re curious about our thoughts around the game, be sure to read our FF7 Remake review.

Cloud

Buster Sword

Though you start with the Buster Sword, the Weapon Upgrade system can keep it a viable weapon all the way through the game. It’s well-balanced between physical and magical attacks, so if you want a weapon that can handle any situation, the Buster Sword is a good one.

Iron Blade

The Iron Blade is your first weapon upgrade and you’ll get it as part of the story. After you clear our Scrap Boulevard in Chapter 3, return to the Beginner’s Hall and talk to Biggs and Wedge to get your new sword. It gives you a lot of boosts to magic power, while still maintaining decent melee strength.

Nail Bat

Complete the Kids On Patrol side-quest in Chapter 8 to unlock the Nail Bat. You’ll need to defeat the Toad King and his Hedgehog Pie minions in order to get it. The Nail Bat mostly focuses on critical attacks and boosting Cloud’s HP, at the expense of power in both attack and magic.

Hardedge

Drop by the Weapons Shop in Wall Market in Chapter 9 to get Hardedge. You’ll need to work through part of the story in the chapter in order to get access to the shop, but it’s a good idea to hit it before you go to Corneo’s Colosseum. Hardedge is a sword that sacrifices magic and materia slots for raw power and defensive boosts.

Mythril Saber

You’ll be back to Wall Market in Chapter 14, and the Weapons Shop will have updated its inventory. If your Cloud is a heavy magic-user, the Mythril Saber is a good bet for him. It has a lot of materia slots and gives you a big boost in magic power.

Twin Stinger

You’ll pretty much trip over the chest that gives you the Twin Stinger in Chapter 17. Look for it after you reunite with Barret after the bridge collapses as you chase Hojo. It’s on the walkway just through the door where Cloud and Barret first encounter the M.O.T.H. Unit. It’s a balanced weapon that gives you good elemental damage and a lot of materia slots.

Tifa

Leather Gloves

Tifa’s first pair of gloves stay pretty formidable throughout the game. If you spec them for it, their attack power can be pushed up relatively high.

Metal Knuckles

The Metal Knuckles are your reward for besting the Crab Warden. They don’t have too many materia slots, but make up for it with a bunch of upgrades to attack power.

Sonic Strikers

Look for the Sonic Strikers in a chest in Chapter 7. It’ll be in the hallway between the B6 and B5 Air Buster labs. The Sonic Strikers are particularly good if you favor elemental damage and spells.

Feathered Gloves

After you enter the sewers in Chapter 10, you’ll hit a room in which you need to raise a sluice gate to drain water so you can cross a gap. Once the water is gone, duck under the gate to find a chest with the Feathered Gloves inside. They give some solid buffs to ATB generation, speed, and strategies like attacking from the rear.

Mythril Claws

You get the Mythril Claws as part of the main story when you defeat the Failed Experiment boss in Chapter 13. Like other Mythril weapons, these have big boosts to magic power and are good if your Tifa is a spellcaster.

Purple Pain

You can easily miss the Purple Pain gloves, which are found in Chapter 16 in the lobby of the Shinra Tower. When Tifa goes for the keycard in the reception desk, you’ll climb up a display to reach a ladder with a red toolbox beside it. Walk around to the back of the ladder to find a place where you can cross hand-over-hand to the west wall of the area, where a chest waits on top of a display. The Purple Pain gloves pack a bunch of materia slots and carry critical hit boosts.

Barret

Gatling Gun

Barret’s initial weapon is a strong choice if you’re using him as a tank to absorb damage for the team. You can raise his HP pretty high with the Gatling Gun’s upgrades, which is great with later weapon abilities like Lifesaver.

Light Machine Gun

Your second weapon for Barret is fairly balanced, with a few good boosts to his defenses. You’ll get it automatically from Biggs as you advance the story in Chapter 6.

Big Bertha

When you return to the Collapsed Expressway with Tifa and Barret in Chapter 13, you’ll eventually emerge in Evergreen Park, where a few merchants have gathered. Visit the Weapon Store to get Big Bertha, which is Barret’s hardest-hitting ranged weapon. Drive up its attack power to make it useful in a lot of big, arduous battles.

Steel Pincers

The first of Barret’s melee weapons is Steel Pincers, which you can buy from the Moogle Emporium in Chapter 14. This is Barret’s weapon for focusing on elemental damage–you can get a lot of buffs to your elemental spells, and unlock a number of materia slots, as well. The trade-off is that you need to get in close to fight enemies.

Wrecking Ball

Barret’s Wrecking Ball is another melee weapon, and it carries the highest attack power of all his gear. You’ll earn it for completing Chapter 14’s “Subterranean Menace” side-quest, which you can get from Wymer in Evergreen Park.

EKG Cannon

The EKG Cannon, Barret’s last gun, is also the one you’re most likely to miss. You get it from talking to Hart, Mayor Domino’s butler, in the Shinra Tower archives. After dealing with Domino, talk to Hart for information about the Shinra executive you’re seeking. He’ll agree to clue you in, but only for 10,000 gil. It sounds like a rip-off, but pay the man anyway; after he dishes out the information, he’ll give you the EKG Cannon, which packs a ton of materia slots and focuses on critical hits.

Aerith

Guard Stick

Aerith’s first weapon gives you big boosts to magic and MP, as well as to her primary attack abilities and healing spells. It’s a well-balanced magic-focused weapon that’s good no matter what role you assign Aerith.

Silver Staff

Once you get to the Sector 5 undercity in Chapter 8, work through the story until you’re allowed into the Kids’ Hideout. You can purchase the Silver Staff from the Moogle Emporium there. This is another well-balanced magic staff, with focuses on reducing the costs of spells and amping up Aerith’s HP.

Arcane Scepter

You’ll get this staff just by completing specific side-quests in Wall Market in Chapter 9. When you interact with Madam M in her parlor, choose any option except “Luxury” to unlock two side-quests: “The Party Lasts All Night” and “Dynamite Bodies.” Win the fight in the Colosseum for “Dynamite Bodies” and the Arcane Scepter is your reward. It’s particularly for elemental magic.

Mythril Rod

You can easily run past the Mythril Rod if you’re in a hurry in Chapter 11. Just after you enter the Train Graveyard, you’ll walk through a train car to advance. When you exit the other side, straight in front of you is another train car. Go through it and turn right to head south. At the end of the area, behind a cargo container, is a chest containing the Mythril Rod. This one gives you a huge boost to magic power, at the expense of everything else.

Bladed Staff

If you don’t know the deal with the Bladed Staff, you might never know it’s there. You have to use the Steal materia on Eligor, the chariot-riding ghost boss in Chapter 11, to get this one–and it might take you more than one try. If you like Aerith as a ranged attacker, though, this is a handy weapon; its upgrades are mostly focused on amping up your critical attacks.

Reinforced Staff

You can’t miss Aerith’s final weapon. It’s located in a chest right at the start of Chapter 17, in Aerith’s room in the Shinra Tower, so don’t leave before opening it. The Reinforced Staff is good for defense, while packing a whole bunch of materia slots.

Developer Obsidian has spoken about the numerous cuts it made to the award-winning RPG The Outer Worlds, labelling some of the cuts “painful” and how they limited the story the studio wanted to tell.

In a new Noclip documentary, which you can watch below, game director Leonard Boyarsky said the team “had to make one cut too many.” Specifically, the studio decided to axe some content that would have shed more light on some of the companion characters, while the company also removed some main story chunks.

Despite these cuts, Obsidian remains proud of The Outer Worlds because if people are calling for more content, that means they like the game, Boyarsky said.

“We had to make one cut too many. All through the project we were making cuts. We started out with a smaller scope in mind and we found out that that was too big as we went, and we made several rounds of cuts,” the developer said. “The last cut for me was the painful one. Because I feel like I would have liked to have a little more depth in some of our characters. I wish you could have delved a little bit deeper into who our companions were and had a little bit more reactivity there. But at the end of the day, if somebody says the biggest problem with your game is it’s too short that means they liked it.”

Regarding the story cuts, Boyarsky said this content would have helped the story more naturally progress towards its finish. In the final version, the ending feels rushed, he said.

“We had to cut some chunks out of the main story, but we did it early enough so it didn’t feel disjointed. But we felt we could have built to the end a little bit better,” Boyarsky explained. “That’s one thing I’ve seen, that people feel like the end kind of jumps up all of a sudden without much warning, and I feel like we could have built a little more towards that.”

The Outer Worlds’ other director, Tim Cain, also remarked that it’s a good sign if people finish a game and want more of it. “If the biggest complaint about our game is that it’s too small and people want more of it, that’s good. We told our story. We had lots of side quests and lots of interesting companion characters. And we were really happy with the scope,” he said.

The developers added that it was always the plan, from the beginning of development, for The Outer Worlds to be a “shorter game” to encourage people to replay it and experience the branching narrative options.

Obsidian cut an entire planet from the game. “It hurt to cut that because it makes all the areas on Terra 2–Roseway, Byzantium, Edgewater–kind of feel disjointed,” Cain said.

The Outer Worlds was the first game that Obsidian created using the Unreal Engine 4, and this led to production problems that limited what the studio could achieve in an efficient manner, the team said in the documentary.

The Outer Worlds is set to expand with new story DLC in 2020, while the base game is growing, too, with a launch for Nintendo Switch scheduled for June following a COVID-19-related delay.

The Outer Worlds was published by GTA company Take-Two’s indie label, Private Division. Going forward, the franchise will be published by Microsoft, which acquired Obsidian in 2018. Microsoft believes The Outer Worlds could become a new franchise, and it’s exciting to think about what the team could do with the resources and backing of a giant like Microsoft.

In a new interview, Sam Raimi casually confirmed that he’s directing Marvel’s Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.

Speaking to ComingSoon and other oulets about his new Quibi series, 50 States of Fright, Raimi was asked about putting a Doctor Strange reference in Spider-Man 2 and then being attached to helm a Doctor Strange film all these years later.

For those who don’t recall, there’s a scene in Spider-Man 2 where the Daily Bugle’s J. Jonah Jameson and Ted Hoffman riff on supervillain names for Otto Octavius and pass on using Doctor Strange since it’s already taken.

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Raimi also spoke of his love of the character of Doctor Strange, a superhero he only ranked, though, “at number five” among his picks for the best comic characters.

“I loved Doctor Strange as a kid, but he was always after Spider-Man and Batman for me, he was probably at number five for me of great comic book characters,” Raimi said, before going on to confirm his involvement with the Doctor Strange sequel.

“He was so original, but when we had that moment in Spider-Man 2 I had no idea that we would ever be making a Doctor Strange movie, so it was really funny to me that coincidentally that line was in the movie. I gotta say I wish we had the foresight to know that I was going to be involved in the project.”

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Raimi being considered to direct Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness was confirmed by the project’s original director, Scott Derrickson, in a social media post wishing Raimi well with the film, but this is Raimi’s first direct confirmation that he’s directing the sequel.

For more on Raimi and the Doctor Strange sequel, check out this theory on how Tobey Maguire’s Spider-Man could appear in Raimi’s Multiverse of Madness.

In a race to keep up with premium Android phones often costing more than $1,000, OnePlus has steadily been evolving from a budget brand to a premium handset-maker in its own right. The latest OnePlus 8 Pro is easily the company’s most expensive smartphone yet with a starting price of $900, but it’s also going toe-to-toe with the Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra, a phone that starts at $1,400.

To this end, the OnePlus 8 Pro features one of the best screens I’ve seen, with a QHD+ resolution, 120Hz refresh rate, and is ultra-bright all at the same time. Additionally, this new flagship has two 48MP sensors for both its main and ultrawide cameras, along with a few other new imaging tricks too. There’s a lot to like about the new OnePlus 8 Pro, so let’s get into it.

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OnePlus 8 Pro – Design and Features

The OnePlus 8 Pro’s redesign is much more subtle than the evolution from the OnePlus 6T to the OnePlus 7 Pro. The OnePlus 7 Pro essentially reinvented itself with a new all-screen design with curved edges, while this year’s flagship has taken that design and refined it slightly.

The new phone features the same overall body, but the corners are sharper, and it’s thinner at 8.5mm thick – comparatively the OnePlus 7 Pro measured 8.8mm thick.
One major thing that has changed about the OnePlus 8 Pro is the removal of the mechanical pop-up front camera. Instead, you get a more traditional hole-punch camera pushed all the way into the top-left corner of the display.

It’s a shame that OnePlus has moved away from the completely all-screen design, but having a sleeker device does feel nice. Additionally, the new screen has even less of a bezel now that the bottom chin has been reduced to just 2mm thick rather than several millimeters in size.

All these little tweaks result in giving the OnePlus 8 Pro a 6.78-inch (1,440 x 3,168) AMOLED display that’s not only larger than the OnePlus 7 Pro’s 6.67-inch (1,440 x 3,120) display but also faster. Better, the new phone’s display can run at up to 120Hz even at its full QHD+ resolution.

That’s something no other phone has been able to do. The Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra is also capable of 120Hz, but to hit that refresh rate required lowering the display resolution from WQHD+ (3,200 x 1,400) to just Full HD+ (2,400 x 1,080).

The OnePlus 8 Pro’s display is also incredibly bright at 1,300 nits, which puts it just a few hundred candelas behind the iPhone 11 Pro. At the same time, shadows look inky black and colors are bold on this phone’s screen. OnePlus really has one of the best smartphone displays on the market.

Around back you’ll find the camera array has grown from three modules to four, and the sensors themselves have bloomed in sharpness. Both the main camera and ultrawide camera feature 48MP sensors. Then there’s an 8MP telephoto camera that offers 3x zoom and a 5MP color filter camera used solely for color effect modes such as adding a warmer glow to your image or switching on black and white mode. Lastly, the front camera uses a 16MP sensor.

Under the screen, there’s an in-display fingerprint scanner, a Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 processor, Adreno 650 GPU, and a sizeable 4,510mAh battery.

OnePlus 8 Pro – Performance and Gaming

The previous OnePlus 7 Pro’s 90Hz display made it feel incredibly smooth, and the 120Hz display on the OnePlus 8 Pro feels even faster. Refresh rate this fast on a phone might seem excessive, but it all makes sense when you’re scrolling through Google News and Twitter without any of the stuttering you would encounter on a slower phone display.

Of course, having the latest Snapdragon 865 processor and 12GB of RAM – which happens to be a faster LPDDR5 class of memory – also helps make this phone feel fast too. The underlying CPU had no problems powering the display running at maximum resolution and refresh speed at the same time – something I was potentially worried about after it was excluded on Samsung’s highest-end handset.

Thankfully my concerns were unfounded as the phone never hitched with regular everyday navigation, my creative applications, or even gaming. The 120Hz refresh rate and 240Hz touchscreen polling rate really feel like they give you an extra edge in competitive games like Shadowgun Legends. You see the action unfolding smoothly on the screen and have a chance to react faster than your opponents.

Gaming on the OnePlus 8 Pro is made even better with the built-in gaming mode that turns on automatically. When enabled, the phone will optimize graphics for improved shadow detail and enable stronger haptic feedback, along with the usual settings that prioritize performance and network bandwidth for the games you play.

For all your non-native 120Hz content, like YouTube and general streaming, OnePlus has also included a motion smoothing feature. But just like enabling the effect on a 4K TV, this ends up adding a soap opera effect which you may or may not like – personally I don’t.

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OnePlus 8 Pro – Camera

OnePlus has always been one of the few phone brands to make consistently good cameras, and image quality has definitely improved with its latest phone. The main 48MP camera not only resolves stunningly sharp and detailed images but also extremely contrasty photos that I personally like.

The OnePlus 8 Pro has also finally given me something I’ve always wanted: a high-resolution ultrawide camera. Most phone makers have stuck with an 8MP ultrawide camera, leaving me to capture blotchy landscapes and soft up-close shots. This new handset’s 48MP ultrawide camera lets you capture a lot more detail in the clouds, the pavement on the ground, and generally everything in the frame.

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Unfortunately, the 8MP telephoto sensor hasn’t been given nearly as much attention and it remains to be the weakest camera of the three zoom options on this device. The telephoto camera is what you pick when you really want to punch in the zoom to get a lot of detail, so it’s a bit odd that this sensor is still stuck at 8MP.

One other new feature the OnePlus 8 Pro adds is a Super Macro Mode, which should let you get extra up close to things like food and household nicknacks for some really detailed shots. It’s pretty neat that you can basically have the camera bump touch your subject and still be able to rack focus, but you’ll need an abundance of light for it to really work.

OnePlus 8 Pro – Battery Life

The OnePlus 8 Pro comes equipped with a sizable 4,510mAh battery and while it’s not the biggest one we’ve seen on a phone this size, I still ended most of my days with 30-40% of my battery life still leftover.

And that was with the display running full tilt at both QHD+ and 120Hz all the time. Not to mention most of my daily usage was spent playing mobile games after work and doing all of my email work on the phone throughout the day, as well as watching videos while I cooked and did other tasks while stuck at home.

The phone can also quickly recharge 50% of its battery life in 23 minutes with the included 30W Warp charger.

What’s more, this is the first OnePlus phone to feature wireless charging, which you can also get back up to 50% of your battery life with just 30 minutes of charging. Just know to get this extremely fast wireless charging, you’ll need to pick up a separate 30W wireless Warp charger

What about the OnePlus 8?

In most years the regular OnePlus 8 would simply be the OnePlus 8 Pro with a smaller screen but otherwise the same exact features. However this year the company has elevated its Pro series phone to be a higher-end premium experience to match the iPhone 11 Pro and Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra.

To that end, you’ll find the OnePlus 8 is not nearly as full-featured. For starters, you only get two cameras with different focal lengths – a 16MP ultrawide and a 48MP main camera. In place of a telephoto camera, you get a macro camera, which is a bit odd considering the previous OnePlus 7T finally gave us a telephoto, wide, and ultrawide camera combo.
The OnePlus 8 also lacks the Pro version’s wireless charging capabilities and you’re stuck with slightly slower LPDDR4X memory as opposed to LPDDR5. The smaller 6.55-inch display is also limited to a Full HD+ resolution of 1,080 x 2,400 and 90Hz refresh rate. But at least you get the equally powerful Snapdragon 865 processor.

Purchasing Guide

The OnePlus 8 and OnePlus 8 Pro will be available starting on April 29th with both phones featuring 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage in the starting SKUs for $699 and $899, respectively. The higher-end 12GB of RAM and 256GB model for both phones will cost $100 more.

The OnePlus 8 only comes in two colors, Glacial Green and Interstellar Glow. Meanwhile, the OnePlus 8 Pro will be available in Glacial Green, Onyx Black, and Ultramarine Blue – though this last option is only available on the higher end SKU.