Author: Trafficblast

Nintendo has given us more details on Super Mario Maker 2 and it is packed with lots of new features. Mario Maker 2 will also feature a more fleshed out single-player story mode, several online multiplayer modes such as, multiplayer versus, co-op, and nearby play. There are new tools and customization options coming to Mario Maker 2 such as, building levels using assets from Super Mario 3D World and new course themes for every Mario style. Finally, you’ll be able to share your levels online and try out other players’ creations in the course world hub. However, you’ll need a Nintendo Switch Online subscription.

Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige held a Reddit AMA today, in which he answered lots of questions about Avengers: Endgame and the wider Marvel Cinematic Universe. You can wade through the entire AMA here, while we’ve compiled a rundown of notable comments here.

He didn’t give anything away about the much-anticipated MCU Phase 4, but he did offer some intriguing granular updates on the history and future of the MCU.

Feige stated that the upcoming Disney+ MCU shows, including WandaVision and the one about Loki, will feature stories that are “totally and completely” woven in the main MCU movies coming up. The executive also confirmed that Marvel Studios generally has a five-year plan for the MCU, though the team does less specific planning on a much longer timeline.

You can check out some of the AMA highlights below, but be sure to check out the full Reddit AMA here to see everything Fiege had to say.

The next big superhero movie that Marvel is connected to is July’s Spider-Man: Far From Home, which was made by Sony in conjunction with Marvel. Some of the other upcoming MCU projects include a standalone Black Widow movie, Shang-Chi (which could film in Sydney), and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, as well as sequels to Doctor Strange and Black Panther.

Kevin Feige Reddit AMA Highlights:

• The Disney+ MCU shows will be woven “totally and completely” into the new movies. [Full quote]
• They planned to adapt the Infinity Gauntlet comic not long after the release of the first Avengers in 2012. [Full quote]
• Stan Lee did not get to see the final cut of Endgame before he passed away but Marvel briefed him on the story points. [Full quote]
• Hulk actor Mark Ruffalo pitched numerous ideas for The Hulk, some of which led to what was seen in Thor: Ragnarok, Infinity War, and Endgame. [Full quote]
• Feige doesn’t like being filmed, but he can be seen as a Weapon X technician covered in blood in the first X-Men. [Full quote]
• He knows the truth about Captain America and if he is the father of Peggy’s kids in Winter Soldier. But he won’t tell you. [Full quote]
• His team usually has a five-year plan for the MCU, but there is a general, less specific plan that extends “much, much further.” [Full quote]
• Of all MCU actors, Feige had to fight the hardest to cast Robert Downey Jr. as Iron Man. [Full quote]
• Feige loved Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse [Full quote]

Valve announced today that the Steam Link app, which brings streaming games to your mobile device, is now available as a free download for iOS and Apple TV. This is notable because it was just 11 months ago that Apple rejected the app because it violated a number of Apple’s guidelines.

At the time, Apple said it planned to continue to communicate and worth with Valve to bring Steam Link to iOS and Apple TV, and that’s now happened. However, there is no word on how the two sides came to terms.

The Steam Link app promises to bring “desktop gaming to your iPhone or iPad.” Users can pair a Steam controller or any MFI (Made-for-iPhone/iPad) controller to play games over a network connection provided they are on the same local network.

Here are the requirements and specifications for “best performance,” according to Valve.

Requirements:

• iPhone or iPad using iOS 10 or higher
• Computer running Steam – Windows, Mac, or Linux
• iOS device must be on the same local network as the computer running Steam

Best Performance:

• Connect your computer using Ethernet to your 5Ghz WiFi router
• Connect your iOS device to the 5GHz band of your WiFi network
• Keep your iOS device within a reasonable range of your router

The Steam Link app is effectively a replacement for the physical Steam Link device that Steam discontinued in 2018. Steam Link is already available on Android.

For lots more on Steam Link, check out the official Steam Link page on Valve’s website.

HBO’s Game of Thrones wraps up its eighth and final season this Sunday, but what will the show’s creators D.B. Weiss and David Benioff do next? Apart from a new trilogy of Star Wars films for Disney, Weiss and Benioff are currently visiting studios looking for big “overall” deals.

According to Deadline, Weiss and Benioff have met with as many as six “big media companies” for new “overall” deals that would cover TV, film, and streaming projects. Those said to be in the mix are HBO, Disney, Comcast, Netflix, Amazon, and Apple, according to Deadline.

Of course, Weiss and Benioff are already partnered with HBO and Disney for Game of Thrones and Star Wars, respectively, so that could impact negotiations. According to Deadline, the duo are not looking to “rush into a decision.” Given the massive success of Game of Thrones, it certainly seems like Weiss and Benioff certainly have bargaining power.

Overall deals can be very lucrative. For example, comedy legend Michael Schur is reportedly being paid $25 million per year to stay at NBC, while Grey’s Anatomy creator Shonda Rhimes is being paid $100 million for her overall deal at Netflix.

In addition to the Star Wars series, the first movie of which is scheduled to premiere in 2022, Weiss and Benioff are working on the controversial HBO show Confederate.

As for Game of Thrones, the final episode airs this Sunday, May 19 on HBO. For more on the show, you can check out GameSpot’s review and recap of Episode 5, “The Bells.”

Ubisoft has released the full patch notes for the latest update to The Division 2, Title Update 3. The major piece of content included in the update is Operation Dark Hours, The Division 2’s first raid, but new features, apparel, and quality-of-life changes are included in Title Update 3 as well.

Operation Dark Hours is an eight-player raid available for those who’ve reached World Tier 5 and defeated Tidal Basin. The raid sends you and your team up again the Black Tusks, who have taken over the Washington National Airport. “Teamwork, collaboration, and adaptation will be necessary to defeat the Black Tusk,” The Division 2 community manager Johan LindholmMore wrote in the Title Update 3 patch notes. Operation Dark Hours is scheduled to go live tomorrow, May 16 at 9:00 AM PT / 12:00 PM ET / 5:00 PM BST.

Ubisoft has announced that the first teams to complete Operation Dark Hours first will receive limited-time prizes. The very first team will have their team photo displayed in The Division 2’s White House for all other players to see. Any team that completes the raid between May 16-23 will receive a cosmetic arm patch. If you can’t pull together an eight-person team in time–which is a likely possibility considering the raid won’t have matchmaking–you’ll still be rewarded with a clan banner icon and a trophy just for completing the raid at any point in the future.

For Year 1 Pass owners, Title Update 3 adds the first two Classified Assignment missions. Completing them allows you to hear the stories behind the fall of DC prior to the start of The Division 2’s campaign and also unlock backpack trophies. Title Update 3 also includes The Division 2’s second Apparel event, which adds new outfits, masks, emotes, and weapon skins to the game.

The full patch notes for Title Update 3 can be viewed in the link above. We’ve gone ahead and listed the highlights below. The Division 2 is available for Xbox One, PS4, and PC.

The Division 2 Title Update 3 Patch Notes

Commendations

• Added new Commendations for Operation Dark Hours.
  • Removed the following Commendations.
  • 28 Days Distinction – Record 672 hours (28 days) of time in-game.
  • Distinguished Service Ribbon – For 30 consecutive days, on each day play for at least 1h and complete 1 mission.
  • Supreme Response Distinction – For 7 consecutive days, on each day complete 4 main missions and rescue 5 civilians.
  • Year One Merit – Play on 14 days per month, on a total of 12 months.
  • Division Service Merit – For a total of 100 days, on each day play for at least 1hour and deliver 20 resources to control points.
  • Developer comment: We removed these Commendations as we felt that they were not delivering a great experience for players. Often times you could miss out on your daily login or lose your streak with no error of your own. We’re adding different Commendations that still let you show off your dedication towards the game, without the login requirements. For those players that have already earned the above-mentioned Commendations they will remain visible as completed.
• Added a new vanity patch reward for all players as compensation for any lost time due to the above changes.
• Added five new Commendations
  • Full Deck Distinction – Acquire all Snitch Cards.
  • Distinguished Service Distinction – Complete 30 hours of service.
  • Supreme Response Distinction – Complete all main missions and Strongholds on Hard difficulty (or above).
  • Control Point Takeover Merit – Take over 50 Heroic Control Points.
  • Invasion Service Merit – Complete 10 Invaded Strongholds.
• Changed Peacock Award to specifically use the ‘Jumping Jacks’ emote.
• Changed Mission Discovery Merit Commendations to track when a player collects loot from loot boxes, not opening the loot boxes. This will ensure that all players that are in a group can earn this Commendation when playing the respective missions.

Crafting

• Increased the base cap for Receiver Components and Protective Fabric crafting materials by 200, meaning that their caps now start at 350 and end at 600 with all material capacity perks.
• Inaya al-Khaliq in the Base of Operation is now a Crafting Vendor, she can be found next to the Crafting Bench in the White House.
  • Added Specialized and Superior Skill Mod Blueprints to her stock.
  • Added an extra weekly Blueprint to her stock.
  • Moved crafting Blueprints from the Base of Operations vendor to her stock.
  • Note: While Inaya will have a variety of Blueprints available, there are still other sources in the game like Settlements and Control Points.
• All exotic items upgraded through crafting will get the maximum Gear Score of the current crafting bench tier.

Gear

• Bonus Armor granted on blue attributes gear significantly increased.
• Armor percent can now be found as Defense Attribute rolls.
• Health percent can now be found as Defense Attribute rolls.
• Gear sets
  • Hard Wired
    • Now grants Skill Damage instead of Shock Duration.
  • Ongoing Directive
    • Now grants special ammunition into any weapon, including the weapon currently equipped.
    • Now grants special ammunition on any kill, not just weapon kills.
  • True Patriot
    • Decreased debuff cycle from 4 seconds to 2 seconds.
    • Increased damage dealt to nearby targets when Full Flag is active to 50%.

Icons

• The Confidential Gear Set intel item now has a project icon to better reflect its use.

Loot

• Loot containers will now reset at a preset time of day.
  • Control Point reward container will now also reset with this daily timer.
• Improved quality and quantity of Drone Helicopter loot.
• Slightly reduced the quality of items from Clan Caches.
• Cabinet loot containers now have a chance to contain Dark Zone keys.
• Increased ammunition drop chance from enemy NPCs to limit situations where players would run out of ammunition during prolonged fights on higher difficulty activities.
• Dark Zone contaminated loot does not drop below player’s average Gear Score and will guarantee Gear Score 500 when the player has reached 500 Gear Score.
• Heroic difficulty Mission bosses, Stronghold bosses, Bounty bosses and Heroic Control Points reward containers will guarantee Gear Score 500 when the player has reached 500 Gear Score.
• Loot now skews more towards the top end of its allowed Gear Score, resulting in fewer items below a player’s average Gear Score, and items that do drop below it will be closer to that average more often.
• Increased the rewards for daily Hard and Challenge mission Projects and they will guarantee Gear Score 500 when the player has reached 500 Gear Score.

Missions

• New feature: Post Mission Activity Summary
  • After completing missions, players may opt to look at an activity summary showcasing their performance in that activity and allowing an expanded look at a variety of detailed statistics.
  • Bank Headquarters
    • Reduced difficulty for solo players.
  • Roosevelt Island
    • Reduced difficulty for solo players.

Mods

• Hive users can now find +healing on the Experimental Blend mods.
• Hive users can now find +radius on the Network Firewall mods.
• New mods: Auxiliary Skill Battery
• Auxiliary Skill Batteries fit in Skill mod slots and grant Skill Power.

NPC

• Updated RC Blade to fix various issues. Elite Medic’s Pulse Grenade has been changed.
• • No longer applies disrupt.
  • Reduced Impact radius.
  • The grenade impact radius should now be easier to see.
• Decreased damage of Veteran, Elite and Named NPCs.
• Greatly decreased melee damage of all Tank NPCs.
• Moderately decreased melee damage of all non-Tank NPCs.
• Decreased Thrower NPC’s accuracy with grenades. They are no longer professional baseball pitchers or cricket fielders.
• Slightly decreased damage of Elite/Named War Hound.
• Civilian Control Point Officers now wear pants.
• Civilian Control Point Officers now wear protective body armor. Safety first.
• Civilians with fully upgraded Settlements now wear combat harnesses and have slightly more health.
• Upgrading a Settlement now slightly increased Civilians’ damage.
• NPCs will now be slightly less defensive while in cover and being aimed at by a player.
• Decreased likelihood of NPCs using ladders in combat.
• Decreased likelihood of NPCs using special navigation out of combat.
• Civilian NPCs will now stay further away from players in cover, lessening the chance of them taking a player’s preferred cover location. We get it, you’re very protective of your favorite cover spot.
• Civilian Hostages are now more protective of their lives.
• Fixed issue with many explosives causing extreme amounts of threat, confusing NPCs.
• Fixed various sliding issues with NPCs following recovery from a Status Effect.
• Enemy NPCs should no longer be able to stagger players with a melee attack if the player has a Ballistic Shield equipped.
• Drone Helicopter
  • Increased health.
  • Increased damage.
  • Improved movement.
• Decreased Outcast Suicide vest explosion radius.
• Lowered NPC damage and health above normal difficulty.
• Increased variety of NPCs at higher difficulty levels.

Open World

• Implemented various UI and audio improvements to Living World activities.
• Control Points
  • Control Point difficulty is now more clearly communicated, using regular difficulty names in addition to Alert Level.
  • Approaching enemy patrols and convoys are now signaled more clearly during Control Point Takeover.
  • The Civilian Officer will now revive downed players during Control Point takeover and judge you silently.
  • Players can now select the civilian takeover icon on the map as a respawn option during Control Point takeover. The option is disabled after the enemy leader joins the fight.
  • Players can now fast travel to civilian convoys and takeover squads from the map.
• Black Tusk now send War Hound Convoys carrying gear and weapons to Tidal Basin when the mission is available.

The Xbox Store had a great offering of Xbox One game deals last week, and the digital store is keeping the ball rolling this week with another solid batch of deals. Here are the best discounted games to grab on Xbox One right now:

First up is a collection of “Super Saver” deals up to 85% off some Xbox One games, including Tomb Raider‘s Definitive edition for $6 and Sleeping Dogs‘ Definitive edition for only $4.49. The complete first season of Life Is Strange is available for only $4, and you can grab Deus Ex: Mankind Divided for $4.50.

Golden Week may have ended, but you can still find deals on Japanese-developed games for Xbox One. SoulCalibur VI, which released last October, is 67% off right now; you can pick it up for $19.80. Final Fantasy XV‘s Royal edition is marked down to $25 from $50; Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 is now $15 instead of $60; and Valkyria Chronicles 4 is discounted to $30 from $60.

May 17 marks 10 years since block-building phenomenon Minecraft was released, and as one of Microsoft’s biggest games, the store is celebrating with a sale. The base game was recently added to Xbox Game Pass, where members can play it for free. As a bonus, you can get three months of Xbox Game Pass for only $1 right now. For non-members, Minecraft’s standard edition is on sale for $10. The Minecraft Starter Collection, which includes the Greek Mythology Mash-up, Texture Pack, two skin packs, and 700 Minecoins, is discounted to $20 from $30. Meanwhile, the Master Collection, which includes the base game, 1,000 Minecoins, the Starter Pack DLC, and Creators Pack DLC, is available for $40 instead of $50.

As usual, these deals are available through next Monday, May 20 (with the exception of the Minecraft deals, which run through the following Thursday, May 23).

SHOP THIS WEEK’S XBOX ONE DEALS »

See some of the best game deals below, and visit the Microsoft Store to see everything available at a discount this week.

Ubisoft is making big plans for the coming year. The company revealed during its latest financial earnings that it still has three more unannounced triple-A games coming within the next fiscal year, teeing up a likely set of E3 2019 reveals. Each of them is slated for release by March 31, 2020.

Though the company was relatively quiet in its financial report on plans for these three games, it did drop a few intriguing clues. Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot said during the investor Q&A that each of the games are full-priced releases. The studio also seemed to suggest that the games will be different genres, calling them each “unique experiences” that occupy different spaces in the market. The Q&A also narrowed the release window to Q4, which suggests they’ll release between January and March of 2020.

The three unannounced games were part of a slate of four games total coming in the fiscal year, one of which was announced last week: Ghost Recon Breakpoint. That game is a followup to Ghost Recon Wildlands, but offers a host of new mechanics and options.

Another possible game on Ubisoft’s slate could be the next Assassin’s Creed, which is rumored to take place in the Viking era. However, that game is said to be coming in 2020, and Assassin’s Creed games usually target a fall release, which would put it outside these fiscal year plans. We also learned today that Skull and Bones, the pirate combat game, has been delayed.

That leaves at least two games unaccounted for in the next year. Those could include franchises like Watch Dogs or Splinter Cell, experimental one-offs like Steep, or even another partnership with Nintendo like Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle. Ubisoft says we’ll hear more about these games soon, which likely means during Ubisoft’s E3 press conference.

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Pokemon Go‘s Detective Pikachu event may be winding down, but the game’s next Community Day is just around the corner. Niantic is bringing the monthly event back this Sunday, May 19, giving players around the world another chance to catch a rare Pokemon and even come away with a special event-exclusive move.

Pokemon Go Community Days typically only run for three hours, but the specifics of each event–such as what time it begins and what bonuses you’ll be able to earn–tend to vary month by month. To help you get ready for the event, we’ve rounded up all of the most important details about May 2019’s Community Day below.

What Is The Featured Pokemon?

Niantic designates one “featured” Pokemon ahead of every Community Day. During the event, this Pokemon will spawn much more frequently in the wild than it normally does, and you’ll even have a chance of coming across its Shiny variant. Moreover, if you’re able to evolve the featured Pokemon into its final form by the end of the Community Day, it’ll automatically know a special, event-exclusive move that it wouldn’t otherwise be able to learn in Pokemon Go.

For May’s Community Day, the featured Pokemon is Torchic, the Fire-type starter from Pokemon Ruby and Sapphire. Throughout the event, Torchic will be much easier to find in the wild than usual, and you’ll have your first opportunity to catch a Shiny Torchic. On top of that, if you’re able to evolve Torchic all the way into Blaziken up to an hour after the Community Day ends, it’ll learn the powerful Fire attack Blast Burn. This applies to any Torchic you evolve, even those you’ve captured prior to the event.

What Time Does It Start?

For most of the time the event has been around, Niantic held each Community Day during a specific window of time, which varied depending upon your region; North America’s event, for instance, would always run from 11 AM – 2 PM PT, while Europe’s Community Day would take place from 10 AM – 1 PM UTC.

Beginning this past March, however, Niantic changed the schedule for Community Days. Now, rather than holding the event during a different window of time in each region, it will take place everywhere from 3-6 PM local time. This should make it much easier to remember when the Community Day is happening in your area, as you no longer need to convert the event hours to your time zone.

What Other Bonuses Are There?

On top of increased Pokemon spawns, Niantic offers a couple of other bonuses as an extra incentive to participate in its Community Days. This month, you’ll earn triple the normal amount of Stardust for capturing Pokemon during the event hours. Additionally, any Lure Modules you use will last three hours, rather than their usual 30 minutes.