One of Pokemon Go‘s numerous February events is set to kick off very soon. The Sinnoh celebration event starts at 8 AM local time tomorrow February 7, and it makes it easier to find Gen 4 Pokemon.
Throughout the event, Pokemon originally from the Sinnoh region–the setting of the series’ Gen 4 games, Pokemon Diamond and Pearl–will appear in the wild and in Raids more often than normal. Additionally, you’ll have a greater chance of hatching certain Sinnoh-native Pokemon from 7 km eggs you obtain during the event. Among the Pokemon you’ll be able to hatch are Budew, Combee, Bronzor, Gible, Riolu, Hippopotas, and Mantyke.
On top of that, two new Shiny Pokemon will make their debut in Pokemon Go. You’ll have your first chance to encounter Shiny versions of Riolu and Hippopotas during the Sinnoh celebration. Event-specific Field Research tasks will also be available, and completing these will net you rewards such as Sinnoh Stones, which are required to evolve certain Pokemon like Electabuzz, Magmar, Magneton, and others.
You’ll want to use this opportunity to stock up on Sinnoh Stones. This month’s featured Community Day Pokemon is Rhyhorn, and its evolved form, Rhydon, requires a Sinnoh Stone to evolve into Rhyperior. If you can evolve a Rhyperior during the Community Day, it’ll learn the event-exclusive Rock-type attack Rock Wrecker.
The Sinnoh celebration event runs until 10 PM local time on February 10. You can read more about it on the official Pokemon Go website.
There’s a lot more happening in Pokemon Go this month. In addition to a new batch of Field Research, a new Legendary Pokemon, Tornadus, is now available in Raids until February 25. That same day, Niantic will kick off the game’s Pokemon Day event, which will bring Armored Mewtwo back to Raids and introduce Clone Pokemon to the title.
The Outer Worlds for Nintendo Switch has been delayed due to the Coronavirus outbreak. The developer of the Switch port, Virtuos, is based in Singapore.
Publisher Private Division, which is owned by Take-Two, announced the delay today on Twitter as part of Take-Two’s latest earnings report. The team at Virtuos is safe and healthy, but the office has been closed, so work has been halted on the project.
Private Division also confirmed that Outer Worlds for Switch will now ship on a physical cartridge and via digitally. Previously, the game was expected to be digital-only, with the physical version of the game containing a download code. Additionally, the first Outer Worlds Switch screenshots seemingly leaked just ahead of this news.
The Outer Worlds for Switch is now expected to launch during Take-Two’s fiscal year 2021. That means the title will launch during the April 1, 2020-March 31, 202 period.
We’re delaying @OuterWorlds on Nintendo Switch due to the coronavirus impacting the Virtuos team working on the port, to provide them enough time to finish development. We’ll now be releasing the physical version on cartridge. Once we have a new launch date, we’ll let you know!
Take-Two’s earnings call begins shortly, so keep checking back with more on The Outer Worlds and Take-Two’s other properties.
To follow up: The Virtuos devs are healthy! Their office has just been closed for safety, so progress has halted for the time being. We’ll absolutely share more information as soon as we have it.
If you played online PC shooters in the early ’00s, you might remember Soldat, a free, one-of-a-kind 2D shooter where soldiers jetpack around and blast each other with sniper rifles from the sky. You might think of it as Worms meets Counter-Strike. Though the game has remained somewhat active even to this day–with a couple dozen players deathmatching at this very moment–the studio Transhuman Design has announced a surprise return for Soldat in 2020.
According to the developer, the original Soldat is coming to Steam in Q1 (meaning between now and the end of March 2020), with a sequel to follow in Q2 (April – June). Based on the announcement trailer, Soldat 2 will feature an all-new 2.5D artstyle, along with the same ease of modding support that defined the original. (In the original game, you can modify the weapon traits with any basic word processor to make your own custom game modes.) It’s launching in Early Access, with original developer Michal “MM” Marcinkowski at the helm.
Given the harsh competition for multiplayer titles on Steam, it’s unclear if Soldat will be able to find a large audience once more, but there still aren’t many games like it, even almost 20 years later.
In the following guide, we go over Revenant’s three abilities and detail how you can best use them to draw out the legend’s full potential. If you’re jumping into Apex Legends for the first time in Season 4, don’t worry. You’ve certainly missed a lot (plenty changed in Wild Frontier, Battle Charge, and Meltdown), but we have articles and videos to help get you up to speed–just check out the Apex Legends News pinbox, below.
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1 Year Of Apex Legends: Highs, Lows, And Biggest Changes
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Once a human and the greatest hitman for the Mercenary Syndicate, the simulacrum known as Revenant desires nothing more than to take revenge on his former masters for turning him into a living machine without a will of his own. With a glitch in his programming preventing the Syndicate from bringing him back under their control, the higher-ups within the organization decided the best way to escape Revenant’s terrifying grasp was to throw the synthetic nightmare into the Apex Games, where his lust for murder helps the company market the machine as the latest villain to join the blood sport.
As you can probably surmise, Revenant’s backstory translates into an incredibly aggressive legend to play. Your entire strategy for playing as Revenant can be summarized in one word: attack. While playing as Revenant, you should always be on the hunt for another squad to kill and the first one to enter the fray once you’ve found a target.
This may mean you’re also one of the first in your team to be downed in a fight, so you have to be sure that you’re dealing as much damage as possible before that happens. If you prefer looting for supplies on the outskirts and slowly moving in on squads only once the circle is small enough, Revenant may not be the right legend for you. You need to be as bloodthirsty as Revenant is in order to succeed with him.
How Revenant’s Abilities Work
Passive Ability: Stalker – You crouch-walk faster and can climb higher than other Legends.
Revenant’s passive ability gives him an added advantage when sneaking up on targets. Able to climb twice as high as the other legends (two stories as opposed to just one), Revenant can clamber up to spots that can typically only be reached by Pathfinder (using Grappling Hook or Zipline) or Octane (using Launch Pad) and he does it so much more quietly than those two do. And once he’s in position, he can sneakily crouch-walk right up to unsuspecting targets and attack before they even know he’s there. While crouched, Revenant moves about as fast as the other legends do while walking–so you can actually bunny hop and strafe fast enough while crouched to dodge bullets in a firefight. Take advantage of your small hit box when you can.
Tactical Ability: Silence – Throw a device that deals damage and disables enemy abilities for 10 seconds.
Arguably Revenant’s most powerful ability, Silence only affects enemy teams–making it a devastating force in close-quarters. Enemies hit by Silence will take 10 damage, be stunned, and their tactical and ultimate abilities will be disabled for 10 seconds. Similar to Octane’s Stim, Silence can be used in tandem with other actions, meaning you can use the ability while healing, reloading, aiming, shooting, or throwing a grenade. Like Bangalore’s Smoke Launcher, holding down the button to use Silence will reveal its trajectory, allowing you to aim where it lands. Silence sticks to wherever you throw it (including walls) so you can place it in spots to temporarily deter enemy advancement.
Ultimate Ability: Death Totem – Drop a totem that protects those who use it from death for a set amount of time. Instead of being killed or downed, users will return to the totem.
It takes a few seconds for Revenant to fully construct his totem and players need to actually interact with it first for it to take effect. Once used, the totem will transform you into a shadow that can only take health damage–your shields won’t be affected. When you die, you’ll return to the totem’s location, but you’ll only have 1 HP. The totem’s effect has a very limited horizontal range, but it has no vertical limits. So you can go pretty far away from it if you place it in tall landmark locations like Epicenter, Train Yard, and Planet Harvester.
Tips To Play As Revenant
Revenant’s abilities are all geared towards fighting at close- to mid-range, so securing some form of assault rifle, shotgun, or submachine gun is ideally what you want to do first. Both pistols and light machine guns work too, of course, but the former requires you have very good aim and the latter can be difficult to control when trying to hit a target that’s not in your face. As incredible as the new Sentinel is, you probably want to steer clear of sniper rifles–if only because the limited range on Death Totem means that you won’t be able to really use it as a way to put significant distance between you and an enemy upon death.
You want to lead every attack with the use of Silence. With a cooldown of 25 seconds, you should have enough time between engagements for Silence to recharge. Combat strategies for certain characters are defined by their tactical (players who use Gibraltar and Wraith typically rely on their tactical abilities to get them out of a sticky situation, for example). Taking someone’s ability away can cause less experienced players to panic. Crypto alone is entirely defined by his tactical ability. Take that away and the character is basically useless.
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Apex Legends – Revenant Character Introduction Trailer
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It’s worth noting that Silence is only preventative. Revenant stops others from using their tactical and ultimate abilities. If they’re already active, then all Silence will do is stun and do small damage. You want to throw it out before Wraith’s Voices from the Void give her enough warning to disappear Into the Void. You want to throw it out before Caustic and Wattson have time to set up their defenses and a team bunkers down. Always before. After the fact will do nothing substantial for you, which is why it pays to be aggressive when using Revenant. If you see another team, then you attack before they have a chance to see you and prepare.
Death Totem charges fairly quickly (just under 90 seconds), so use it if you’re at all worried that your push is going to be met with more resistance than you can handle. Make sure you have a Med Kit equipped so you can immediately heal after you die. And you do want to die when using Death Totem. You’ve got just under 30 seconds before Death Totem’s effect wears off, and if it does while you’re still fighting, you won’t have a way to easily retreat and you’ll have to commit. Carefully planning out your attack and then executing a well-orchestrated ambush isn’t Revenant’s strong suit. Use Death Totem, throw out Silence, and just recklessly run forward. When you revive at your totem, heal and push again–essentially allowing you and your teammates to third party enemy squads on your own.
Because Revenant is at his best when he engages with reckless abandon, he pairs best with legends who can join him in a fast assault. Encourage teammates to play as Wraith, Octane, Bloodhound, Pathfinder, or Bangalore. For added protection, it’s also good to team up with Wattson or Caustic players, who can use their tactical abilities to set up defenses around your Death Totem–it may keep squads off you just long enough for you to fully heal.
How To Counter Revenant’s Weaknesses
Because Revenant grows less effective when he can’t quickly close the distance between him and an enemy, he’s at his weakest when in large open fields (it really makes you wonder how much better he’s going to be in the vastly more enclosed spaces of Kings Canyon when that map returns, doesn’t it?). Stalker and Death Totem make him a more viable attacker in areas where there’s a lot of verticality, so it’s best to try and drop in urban areas and then stick to them. Revenant struggles in the more rural spots on the outskirts of the map, where it’s easier to see him coming and dodge his Silence.
Many Netflix subscribers are all annoyed by the same thing: the autopreview feature on the menus of the streaming service. At times, it can offer a helpful glimpse into a movie or show you’re about to watch, but most of the time, it’s a distracting feature while you’re scrolling through the service. Now, Netflix has a solution to that by allowing you to disable it entirely.
On February 6, Netflix revealed the control for this feature is now in the hands for the streaming service subscriber, something many people have wanted for months.
Disabling the autoplay previews feature is simple. But you can only do it through a web browser. It doesn’t matter if it’s on your phone, laptop, desktop, or tablet. You can’t do it through the app.
How to disable autoplay previews
Using a web browser, sign into Netflix
Go to Manage Profiles
Select profile you want to update
Uncheck “Autoplay previews while browsing on all devices”
Netflix notes that there may be a delay before the setting takes effect. In order to speed up the process, you can switch to another profile, then back, which will reload your profile with the updated setting.
This can also be done for autoplaying the next episode of a series you’re watching on the streaming service. Select the profile you want to update from the Manage Profiles section, and uncheck the box for “Autoplay next episode in a series on all devices.” Again, there could be a delay, so you can use the switching profiles trick in order to speed up the process.
Now, you can feel free to peruse the Netflix menus without a video playing and possibly scaring you have to death. While you’re at it, make sure to check out what’s new to Netflix in February. You can plan out your binge-watching schedule while you wait for Season 3 of Castlevania to arrive.
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Google’s cloud gaming service, Stadia, arrived to a thoroughly negative reception back in November, but the tech giant isn’t quite ready to throw in the towel yet. In an interview with Protocol, Google vice president Phil Harrison said that the company is planning to launch a free version of Stadia later in 2020, titled “Stadia Base.” No other details regarding the timing of release were provided.
“The big strategic difference is that over the next few months you will be able to experience Stadia for free,” Harrison said. “No money down, without having to put a box in your home, you can just click and play amazing games straight from our data center.”
Such a move would improve upon Stadia’s current payment scheme, which asks players to pay a $10 monthly fee for a smattering of free games, in addition to the $130 Founder’s Edition–games that aren’t included in the Pro package must be purchased individually. Though our reviewers felt that the streaming tech itself is in a good place, the library of games on offer is lacking compared to traditional consoles. Recently, Google announced that it’ll be bringing 120 more games to the service in 2020, but details on most of those games are sketchy at this point.
With the recent emergence of Nvidia’s game streaming service, GeForce Now, and ongoing rumors about Amazon stepping into the space, it seems that the game streaming wars are only starting. But it’s clear that Stadia has a lot of ground to make up if they plan on winning.
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Final Fantasy XIV director and producer Naoki Yoshida and global community producer Toshio Murouchi streamed another Live Letter (in Japanese) to officially detail the game’s 5.2 update. It’s subtitled Echoes of a Fallen Star and new quests that continue the main story, additional side quests, new boss battles (including Final Fantasy VII‘s famed superboss Ruby Weapon), another story dungeon, and more tweaks to the core game.
As with other 2.x, 3.x, and 4.x patches, 5.2 keeps the story moving with additional main scenario quests that will eventually lead into the next expansion (light spoilers ahead). Based on the trailer (see below), former Garlean officer Gaius van Baelsar looks to be get more screen time. And trusty Scion allies Y’shtola and Crystal Exarch go deeper into the implications of the history and lore introduced in Shadowbringers. You’ll also see the Crystarium (main home zone in Shadowbringers) consumed in clouds and a scene where Alphinaud and others witness a Calamity-like catastrophe.
Along with the new story quests is another instanced dungeon called Anamnesis Anyder, which will work with the Trust system, letting you take AI characters to fight alongside you. The dungeon takes place in Amaurot, the final zone in the Shadowbringers expansion and seems to explore more of the Ascian people’s history.
There will be new 8-player raid content with the second chapter in the Eden’s Verse raid series that’ll be playable in both normal and savage difficulties. These also act as side stories and introduces a new character named Gaia, who you can see in action in the trailer–she was also designed by famed Square Enix dev Tetsuya Nomura. Judging from what was shown, you can expect battles agains old Primals like Garuda, Ramuh, and Ifrit. New gear will be made available as well.
FFVII and FFXIV fans alike can get hyped about a new trial called Cinder Drift which stars the infamous superboss Ruby Weapon. Yoshida-san gave a preview of the fight during the stream which showed off a few its moveset. The fight will also tie into Gauis’s backstory as Ruby Weapon looks to be another trick up the Garlean empire’s sleeve. The trial will be playable on normal and extreme difficulties.
Final Fantasy VII’s Ruby Weapon appears in Final Fantasy XIV via patch 5.2.
A lot more is packed into the 5.2 update like Qitari beast tribe quests, tweaks to the fishing activity, a new weapon quest series with added lore, and extra Golden Saucer changes. And Umbrellas are now a thing as a new cosmetic for your character. Subsequent 5.21 and 5.25 updates will include an Ishgardian Restoration update for crafters and gatherers and a Resistance Weapon questline tied to the Hrothgar race. Adjustments to jobs and classes are also said to be part of the 5.2 update, but Square Enix is not detailing those changes beforehand.
Valentine’s Day is right around the corner, and Destiny 2‘s Lord Shaxx is feeling the love for all the couples populating the Tower. To celebrate, 2020’s Crimson Days event runs February 11-18. You can watch the trailer below.
Those familiar with the Valentine’s-themed event know not to expect too much from this year’s love-in. Aside from a few red petals sprinkled around the Tower, the event-exclusive bow, The Vow, returns again, while the 2v2 Crimson Doubles mode is also featured if you’re after a more intimate Crucible setting.
The new emote is supposed to form a heart; it’s not just a bad Fusion Dance.
The Crimson Days Sparrows are one of the new items included in this year’s event. These special Sparrows come in a unique pair, with players able to ride them side-by-side. There’s also a Ghost shell, emote, and ornament included as part of the event, but these are exclusive to Destiny 2’s real-money store, Eververse. It’s unclear if the Sparrows are also exclusive to the store, or if you’ll be able to earn them by completing a quest.
It’s back. Last month Amazon had a great deal that gave Prime members $20 off the Xbox Elite Series 2 controller. It was an incredibly popular deal, so we were disappointed when it vanished without warning. But now it’s back, giving Xbox One owners (and future Xbox Series X owners) a helpful discount off one of the best controllers ever made, and our pick for the best Xbox One controller on the market.
The discount is applied at checkout, and it’s only available for Amazon Prime members. If you’re not a Prime member, you can start a free trial to take advantage of the deal. Even if you don’t want to join Prime, you’ll still save $7 on the controller, as Amazon is already selling it for less than the $180 list price.
$20 Off Xbox Elite Series 2 Controller with Amazon Prime
What makes this controller worth the premium price? It has excellent build quality, for starters, with a wrap-around rubberized grip that feels great and keeps it from slipping in your hands. It works with all Xbox One consoles, and has been confirmed to work with Xbox Series X when it launches this fall.
But its biggest selling point is how customizable nearly every part of it is. You can adjust the tension of the thumbsticks to your liking. You can swap out the thumbsticks with standard, classic, tall, and wide-dome replacements that come in the box. Two D-pads are also included: a standard plus-shaped one, as well as a faceted one that many people think offers more precision.
On the back of the controller, you can attach four paddles that can be assigned any button for super-quick access. And shooter fans will be pleased to hear you can enable hair trigger locks to speed up your draw times.
On top of that, you can save up to three custom profiles and one default profile for easy switching. The built-in battery lasts up to 40 hours, giving you plenty of play time between charges. And the whole thing comes in a carrying case that has slots for all of the pieces for easy transporting.
Really, this is a premium-quality controller that has plenty to offer competitive gamers, or anyone looking to maximize their advantage. And since it’s compatible with Xbox Series X, you’ll get plenty of use out of it in the future. Just make sure you grab it before the $20 discount goes away.
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Chris Reed is IGN’s shopping and commerce editor. You can follow him on Twitter @_chrislreed.
After one year of Epic Games Store exclusivity, Metro Exodus will finally release for Steam on February 15. The Steam version had previously only been available to those who pre-ordered the game prior to the Epic Games Store exclusivity agreement.
The wider Steam release announcement was made through the game’s official Twitter page and it’s scheduled to launch at midnight ET. This will be the first time new purchases of the game have been available on Steam since launch, though updates and expansions were still available to those who had bought the game on Steam before it moved to Epic Games Store. The second expansion Sam’s Story launches on February 11.
When the initial Epic Games Store exclusivity was announced, publisher Deep Silver received backlash from players who only wanted to purchase the game on Steam.
But following release, Deep Silver’s parent company Koch Media was still pleased with its decision, with CEO Klemens Kundar saying the company was happy with Exodus’ commercial performance. Speaking to GI.biz, Epic Games Store’s head of store Steve Allison said the game manage to sell more than 2.5 times as many copies than predecessor Metro: Last Light had on steam.
Epic Games Store has scored several exclusives over the last year, with a number of them planned for Steam launch after a certain time period. Among these are Borderlands 3, Outer Wilds, Control, and The Outer Worlds.
Unlike Steam, which takes a 30 percent cut on game revenue, Epic Games Store takes only 12 percent. Game prices have also occasionally been reduced on Epic Games Store compared to other platforms, as the increased revenue sharing allows for publishers to still receive a comparable profit.
GameSpot found Metro Exodus to be a rewarding journey with excellent world building, calling it “a journey more about teh enduring relationships and ties that bind an earnest crew of survivors” than a traditional apocalyptic adventure.
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