Author: Trafficblast

Warning: this review contains full spoilers for Arrow: Season 8, Episode 7! If you need a refresher on where we left off, here’s our review for Season 8, Episode 6.

“Purgatory” probably shouldn’t work as well as it does. Arrow already made its grand return to Lian Yu once before. The Season 5 finale dragged Ollie and his friends back to the island for a final battle with Adrian Chase. The result was (and still is), Arrow’s single best episode. “Purgatory” doesn’t quite reach that level, but it’s close enough. And in the process, Arrow proves Oliver Queen can still go home again.

Continue reading…

The Tencent Nintendo Switch (Official Mainland China Ver.) will launch on December 10th 2019 for RMB 2,099 ($300).
It will come bundled with New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe and a 1 year warranty. pic.twitter.com/lcpWNfPUPC

— Daniel Ahmad (@ZhugeEX) December 4, 2019

In addition to games developed by Nintendo, third party titles developed by overseas studios are currently being localised for the China market. Pending approval.
The exclusive Rabbids Party game from Ubisoft is listed here. pic.twitter.com/lcetsuSSB6

— Daniel Ahmad (@ZhugeEX) December 4, 2019

Overseas game developers and Chinese game developers are working to create official versions of their games to be localised for the China market. Pending approval. pic.twitter.com/H2PXdb8Arq

— Daniel Ahmad (@ZhugeEX) December 4, 2019

Here is the official advert / trailer for the Tencent Nintendo Switch (Official Mainland China ver.)that is launching Dec 10th for RMB 2,099. pic.twitter.com/gObv4HweSW

— Daniel Ahmad (@ZhugeEX) December 4, 2019

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare expanded in a big way with the new Season One update that added a lot of new things, including a new map, Crash, as well as the new mode called Reinforce. Also new for Modern Warfare today is a suite of microtransaction offerings.

The in-game Store has now opened, and it offers up a number of microtransactions. In the Store tab of the multiplayer menu you’ll find a variety of things to buy, including Operator skins, charms, calling cards, stickers, and finishing moves. There are also new Blueprints available to purchase. Similar to Fortnite, these items are only available for a limited time.

All of the extra content, which is cosmetic only, can be purchased with Call of Duty Points. These are available in allotments from 200 Points ($2 USD) to 13,000 Points ($100 USD). Check out the images below to get a closer look at Modern Warfare’s microtransaction offerings.

Another form of microtransaction now available in Modern Warfare is the first Battle Pass, which costs 1,000 Call of Duty Points ($10 USD). All 100 tiers in the Battle Pass can be earned through gameplay (it’s estimated to take about 1 hour for each tier) or you can buy the Pass outright to unlock all the content right away. The tiers include all manner of different cosmetics and extras, along with two weapons. There is also a brand-new Operator, Mara, who is unlocked at Tier 100.

Modern Warfare launched on October 25, and up until this point there was no in-game store or Battle Pass.

Super Monkey Ball Banana Blitz HD recently returned the long-dormant series to modern consoles, albeit with a remaster of a Wii launch title rather than a brand new game. In an interview with Crunchyroll, director and producer Masao Shirosaki has said that this was the best option for the “limited time and budget” that they had, but that he’s hoping it will do well enough to ensure a future for the series.

“The Monkey Ball series is a very important IP for our studio,” Shirosaki says. He previously worked testing Super Monkey Ball: Banana Splitz for the PlayStation Vita, and has seen a lot of support for the series from fans since then. “Of course, I am aware that the most favored titles are the first two games,” he admits. “If there is enough support for Banana Blitz HD, this will open up doors for remaking the first two games or even a whole new title to the series. But for now, I’d be happy if everyone has fun playing Banana Blitz HD.” Super Monkey Ball and Super Monkey Ball 2 remain the pinnacle of the series for many players.

Shirosaki directly says that he hopes that next title he works on will be another Monkey Ball, once they’re done porting Banana Blitz HD to Steam. “As for my next project, I have many ideas in mind but my hope is to create a new Monkey Ball title,” he says. Shirosaki also worked on the Yakuza series, and when asked if those games could ever cross over into Monkey Ball, he says “if there’s an opportunity to create an all-new Monkey Ball title, I wouldn’t mind featuring Kiryu or Majima as guest characters.”

We gave Super Monkey Ball Banana Blitz HD a 5/10 in our review, writing that “a glimmer of what made the series great remains, and it’s enough to make us hope that someday we get a new entry that properly returns the series to its roots.”

Diablo IV is still a long way away, but Blizzard has been teasing details about the upcoming RPG, including specific information about how its systems will work together. Now, a new post on the Diablo blog from David Kim, lead systems designer at Blizzard, has dived deep into elements of system design we can expect from the sequel.

The post discusses the “easy to learn, difficult to master” approach that Blizzard is taking this time, noting that they believe that in Diablo IV, “itemization should be deep and rewarding.” They want the game to take the best elements of Diablo II and III, but also to add its own new systems, and to feel distinct from both games. To that end, some major changes are being planned for several Diablo systems. All of these changes are just in consideration for now.

When looking at affixes, Blizzard decided that they wanted item affixes to be “a meaningful part of character power,” and that they should make the decision of what items to equip interesting. While previously they’ve focused on gearing affixes towards builds, they want to give players more freedom to choice what they affix, regardless of build. Here are the changes Kim writes are currently being considered:

• We’re increasing the total number of affixes on items, including Magic (Blue), Rare (Yellow), and Legendary (Orange). This should raise the overall importance of non-Legendary affixes on your character’s overall level of power.
• We are also introducing three new stats:
  • Angelic Power, which increases the duration of all beneficial effects (like self-buffs or healing)
  • Demonic Power, which increases the duration of all negative effects (like debuffs or damage over time)
  • Ancestral Power, which increases the chance of on-hit effects (aka increased proc chance)

Changes are also being made to how you bulk up your attack and defense. In Diablo IV, weapons will only boost attack, armor will only boost defense, and jewelry will no longer boost either. “The goal here is to better embrace the fantasy of each type of item,” Kim says. It simplifies things somewhat, but there will be many other systems dictating your stats, and it’s good to have a clear idea if a weapon is an upgrade or not right away. At the same time, picking weapons and armor based purely on strength or defense will not be optimum, as items will contain other powers.

The third major point is that Ancient Legendaries are being replaced. A new consumable item will be introduced, although Blizzard isn’t ready to talk about it, and ultimately Blizzard is hoping that rare items with good affixes will retain their use and value because of this.

Diablo IV will also bring back talent trees and rune words, which were absent from Diablo III, and is aiming to be more replayable than its predecessor. From February 2020, we will receive quarterly updates on changes being made for the fourth game in the series.