Author: Trafficblast

The latest timed event in Destiny 2, the spring-themed Revelry, is winding down this weekend. You’ve only got until the next weekly reset on Tuesday, May 7, to dive into the Verdant Forest, complete your Triumphs, and unlock the game’s latest Exotic weapon, the Arbalest. If you’re still struggling, we’ve got a guide that can help nabbing Arbalest go a little quicker. And if you need more Exotics, good news: the snake-faced Xur returns once again with a bag full of them.

Head to Io to find Xur this week. He’s hanging out in the Gaint’s Scar region. From the spawn point, ride your sparrow north and head to the cliff wall on the left side of the area. Look for a cave entrance: Inside, you’ll find Xur waiting and, as usual, acting a little weird.

The Huckleberry is Xur’s Exotic weapon of choice this week. The Exotic submachine gun fires bullets extremely quickly, and kills refill its magazine from reserves, making it a deadly close-range bullet hose. In the armor department, Xur brought two Forsaken Exotics this week, making up for last week’s disappointing inventory. Titans can pick up the Antaeus Wards leg armor, which reflcet incoming projectiles, refilling your Super energy, when you slide. For Warlocks, there’s Contraverse Hold, Exotic gauntlets that power up your charged Void grenades, returning grenade energy on a hit and helping you resist damage. Hunters get a Year One Exotic: Gemini Jester, a leg armor set that disorients enemies and turns off their radar when you dodge near them.

Here are all the Exotics Xur offers this week and what they’ll cost you:

• The Huckleberry (Exotic SMG) — 29 Legendary Shards
• Antaeus Wards (Exotic Titan leg armor) — 23 Legendary Shards
• Gemini Jester (Exotic Hunter leg armor) — 23 Legendary Shards
• Contraverse Hold (Exotic Warlock gauntlets) — 23 Legendary Shards

If nothing Xur has strikes your fancy, you can also purchase a Fated Engram from Xur. Thanks to a recent update, Fated Engrams can now dish out Exotics from the Forsaken expansion, as well as from the original Year One group. Grabbing one of the engrams gives you a random Exotic that you don’t already have–if you can afford it. Fated Engrams will run you 97 Legendary Shards, and you can only get one per account each week. Xur also offers the Five of Swords challenge card for free, which allows you to add difficulty modifiers that increase your score in Nightfall runs.

Finally, Xur brings yet another Invitation of the Nine weekly bounty. Completing these gives you a Powerful gear drop, as well as a bit of story about the Nine and the Drifter, along with a new Lore entry that fills in the history of the Emissary of the Nine. As usual, you’ll have to clear out a mess of enemies of various types, and complete a Strike. Stick to the planet mentioned in the bounty to kill the enemies you need, as they don’t always count if you kill them in other places. Be sure to finish the bounty by Thursday’s daily reset, or you won’t be able to grab a fresh bounty from Xur on Friday.

Warning: Spoilers Ahead

Thanks to Disney’s acquisition of Fox, the X-Men are now under the Disney/Marvel umbrella. And due to the sheer amount of time it takes to make movies, it will have to be years before we see them on the big screen as an integrated part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe–if we ever do. There’s already a slew of movies slated for the next era of the MCU, known as Phase 4: a Black Widow solo film, a Guardians of the Galaxy three-quel, and a Black Panther sequel, just to name a few. There’s even a Shang-Chi film in its planning stages. And none of those involve the X-Men.

Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige, who is notoriously cagey about the future of the MCU, was clear on the X-Men’s hiatus in an interview with io9, where he discussed the new merger:

“It’s all just beginning and the five-year plan that we’ve been working on, we were working on before any of that was set. So really it’s much more, for us, less about specifics of when and where [the X-Men will appear] right now and more just the comfort factor and how nice it is that they’re home. That they’re all back. But it will be a very long time.”

It’s probably for the best; fans will need some time and space to accept anyone as Wolverine other than Hugh Jackman.

But Avengers: Endgame may have already set some X-Men-related plot points, though we may not see them pay off for another decade. And they have everything to do with the three Snaps in Infinity War and Endgame: the first by Thanos, the second by Hulk, and the third by Iron Man.

The Hulk had a potentially key line of dialogue, right before he performed the second Snap at the Avengers compound. He explained to the group that he must be the one to do use the Infinity Stones, because the resulting, massive amounts of gamma radiation they release would kill the average person. And since it was gamma rays that created the Hulk, he would stand the best chance of survival.

But just because everything looked normal on the outside, doesn’t mean it was. What if these gamma rays affected more than just the Snapper, and also mutated people’s genes? Maybe one Snap wouldn’t do that, but there were three Snaps total, and the last two happened in close succession.

If a fraction of that gamma radiation could create a massive green rage monster, what could multiple Snaps, which affected not only Earth but the entire universe, have upon living creatures? And especially the ones closest to the epicenter, on Earth?

Could it cause varied, odd mutations in certain people? Like the ability to absorb life through touch? Or the ability to read minds? Or even the ability to control the weather? It would continue a key, running theme in the MCU: that many of our heroes’ problems are the unintended consequence of trying to do good.

Tony Stark built weapons for America’s troops, only to find out they were being used to kill them. After the Chitauri attack on New York, Stark Industries stepped in to help clean up New York, and inadvertently caused a bitter, unemployed Adrian Toomes to become The Vulture. In Avengers 2, Stark and Bruce Banner created an artificial intelligence to protect the Earth, only for it to gain sentience and grow evil. The Sokovia Accords were meant to bring accountability, but they turned out to be just another level of corrupt bureaucracy.

That the two “positive” Snaps–the first by Hulk, the second by Iron Man–could create such a life-altering, catastrophic effect, would be both thematically consistent and karmically justified. You can’t do or undo something that big, and expect to get away with it scot-free.

So if the Snaps create mutants in the MCU’s future, how will they explain the existence of older mutants, like Magneto and Professor X (assuming they keep the X-Men timeline true to the source material at all)? Maybe by exposure to the Infinity Stones earlier in the timeline, as seen throughout the MCU movies. Nazis experimented with the Tesseract in World War II in Captain America: The First Avenger (in the comics, Magneto was imprisoned in a Nazi concentration camp as a child), and it was later studied as a part of Project P.E.G.A.S.U.S., which we saw in The Avengers. The Stones could have been in any number of places on Earth or space since the beginning of the universe. And if a young Sabretooth and Wolverine came in contact with a stone centuries ago, they may be lying low, thinking they’re the only mutants out there.

This would also dovetail with Marvel’s timing issue. It might take several years for these mutant “gifts” to manifest; in the comics, they were often latent, triggered by puberty or a moment of trauma. There could be Phase 4 and a Phase 5–perhaps even a Phase Six–before the first wave of new mutants begin appearing.

And lastly, in the comics, Xavier’s mansion was located in Westchester, New York. With the new, upstate Avengers facility now destroyed, what better place to build the mansion than on the land where the last two Snaps occurred? It would be a symbolic gesture on Xavier’s part; he embraces his new students for who they are and how they came to be.

In short, the ending of Endgame is a little too neat. There has to be a loose end or catch to playing God. And this unexpected consequence would be a masterful way to bring the X-Men into the MCU fold where they belong.

More Avengers: Endgame:

If not for the studio logo when you start up Giga Wrecker Alt, you’d never know it was made by one of the most successful video game developers in history. It isn’t just that this lacks any connection to Game Freak’s iconic Pokemon series. Giga Wrecker Alt, an enhanced port of the 2017 PC release, doesn’t have the cohesion present in the Pokemon games, and its blend of clever ideas is held back by poor implementation.

The core mechanic behind Giga Wrecker is novel: You destroy robots to gather debris, which can then be formed into objects like blocks, weapons, and tools. These help you to resolve both platforming and puzzles, and the giant debris blocks also make a handy melee weapon against the bots. The bigger the debris pile you carry around with your cybernetic arm, the better it will serve as a bludgeon against larger robots, and the more and bigger tools you can create.

For example, many puzzle rooms have pressure-sensitive switches that are only activated by the maximum size debris block. The solution, then, comes from taking down progressively heftier machines to build a big enough stockpile. Junk piles can also be cut or drilled through to make platforms, or a block piece can be used to deflect a laser. It’s an inventive idea that merges combat, puzzle-solving, and platforming under a single gameplay hook.

However, it isn’t long before the concept meets its limitations. Giga Wrecker often asks more of you than it’s willing to give, making for an unforgiving and frustrating experience. Most pervasively, the physics systems at the heart of the game are inconsistent. Even when you already know the solution, you’ll spend a significant amount of time performing it over and over waiting for the pieces to fall in place just so. Then, with the puzzle resolved, you’ll be asked to escape to a door without falling into an instant-kill trap, which is where poor checkpointing issues arise–if you fail, you’ll need to begin the puzzle again. At one point, I solved a particularly tricky puzzle and then jumped onto a moving platform, only to have the camera pull away to highlight that I had solved it. By the time camera control was restored, I was in a spike pit, dead.

The checkpointing that does exist is odd and erratic. Since the physics-based puzzles are prone to unresolvable errors, each major room includes a reset point highlighted in noticeable hot pink. These are activated by pressing up, which leads to unintentional activation on a fairly regular basis. If you don’t hit these reset points, though, you’ll find yourself sometimes checkpointed at the start of a puzzle and other times checkpointed when you first entered a room and repeating a dialogue sequence. I got in the habit of hitting a reset point as soon as I entered any room, just to make sure I set the checkpoint there.

Even putting aside unlucky moments and fiddly checkpoints, though, the platforming can be a struggle. The controls are imprecise, and you’ll often continue to slide after releasing a direction or move an uncertain distance from a light, fine-tuned tap. Inching closer to an edge to prepare for a tricky jump will occasionally result in going right over it.

The platforming and puzzles are scattered across three major areas joined by a central hub. Progression generally comes from solving rooms to activate nodes, which then open up doorways locked behind a set number of those nodes. Rinse, repeat. The overworld map that shows how these areas connect is nonsensical, only giving the vaguest idea of direction to find the next doorway, but the areas are small enough that memorization eventually sets in.

The one area that works as intended is combat, but this element is underserved. The robot destruction is mostly about gathering debris, so enemies are few and far between, and you dispatch them with environmental hazards more than your limited arsenal of weapons. The more challenging combat comes from the boss battles: three named characters with two battles apiece, followed by a single final battle. These rare moments are where the combat shines, relying on the same debris-gathering mechanic but challenging you to gather it by countering their moves in between dodging devastating attacks. These fights are challenging, and as opposed to the rest of the game, they leave you with a feeling of accomplishment rather than exhausted relief.

Even putting aside unlucky moments and fiddly checkpoints, the platforming can be a struggle.

While much of the game grows more complex over time, the story actually becomes simpler and more accessible. You’re put into the shoes of Reika Rekkeiji, a young girl who barely survived an apparent robot apocalypse thanks to an emergency surgery that gave her a cybernetic arm. The art style helps reinforce Reika’s mindset, as her cyborg arm has a spindly sense of body horror. It looks twisted and unnatural on her frame, and as she starts to encounter humanoid “Astra” class robots, their appendages are similarly awkward, elongated, and misplaced on their bodies. It’s a subtle and creepy way of showing rather than telling one of the story’s major themes.

Giga Wrecker uses some staid plot tropes, like the classic amnesiac protagonist, and at first it feels like showing up to a book club without having done the reading. Characters make multiple inside references to the ongoing robot conflict with such ease and familiarity that I genuinely wondered if it was adapted from an existing franchise. As the story proceeds it slowly clarifies itself. It all carries a distinct tone of anime melodrama, complete with soul-searching soliloquies about the nature of war and violence. It isn’t breaking new ground, but it’s fine enough.

Despite its glimmers of inventiveness and artistry, Giga Wrecker Alt is its own worst enemy. The puzzles are too frustrating and the platforming too fiddly to recommend it. Game Freak set out to make something very different than the series it’s most known for, and the studio’s trademark creativity shines through in brief moments. The execution on the whole, though, is sadly lacking.

Though it turned out that Clint Barton’s “protege” in those Avengers: Endgame trailers was actually his daughter, Lila, and not Kate Bishop, there’s still room for Kate to make her debut–especially considering we’re going to be getting a Hawkeye-focused Disney+ series here at some point in the future. But for all Endgame lacked in teenaged archery heroes, it did pave the way for another new hero to take the spotlight in a giant way.

Yes, pun intended, because we’re talking about Cassie Lang, otherwise known over in Marvel Comics as Stature–Ant-Man’s daughter and a member of the Young Avengers.

Cassie is by no means a new character for the MCU. She made her debut in Ant-Man 1 as Scott Lang’s very young daughter–her age is never directly confirmed but Abby Ryder Fortson, who played her, was around six or seven during filming. Later, during Ant-Man & The Wasp, Fortston reprised her role at age ten. Though both movies showed her taking particular interest in her dad’s line of work, both as a superhero and as a thief, she was way too young to be seriously considered for any sort of codename or mantle.

However, after Endgame’s five year time jump, Cassie is now around fifteen or sixteen years old, right smack dab in the middle of the Young Avengers demographic and a suddenly limitless potential for the future of the MCU both in theaters and in streaming TV.

So, who is Stature?

Over in the comics, Cassie’s story is actually pretty close to what we see onscreen, except she also has a heart condition, which helped motivate Scott to steal Hank Pym’s tech in the first place so he could help wrangle a doctor to save her. The heart condition thing will come up again in a second, just bear with us.

Much like her live action counterpart, Cassie loved and admired her dad–both as a hero and as a thief, which inspired her to start experimenting with stolen Pym Particles on herself. This went on for a few years, though Cassie never quite got the hang of just how they worked and never saw the effects. A few major things happen–namely Scott dying during the Avengers Disassembled event–that inspired Cassie to try and sever ties with her mother and go on the run, first playing with the idea of joining the Runaways and then later seeing news about the formation of a new kid superhero team, the Young Avengers, which captures her interest.

The Young Avengers initially reject her application, but the stress of the moment triggers the Pym Particles within her (apparently) and allows her to manipulate her size just like her dear departed dad. Impressed, the Young Avengers leader and financer, Kate Bishop, welcomes her aboard. Rather than take on the name Ant-Girl or Giant-Girl, Cassie lands on Stature for her new alter ego.

For the most part–supervillains and life threatening peril notwithstanding–things go pretty well for Cassie for a while, until her mom discovers her secret (though it really couldn’t have been that hard–the list of suspects when it comes to size-manipulating teenagers in the Marvel Universe is pretty short). She doesn’t outright make Cassie retire, but she does fear that the heart condition Scott had effectively become Ant-Man to cure all those years ago would return thanks to all the continuous size-changing.

A few years down the line, she went on to join the Avengers: Initiative after the Young Avengers disbanded, but was tragically (temporarily) killed by Dr. Doom. Upon her eventually resurrection, her heart was stolen (like, literally, as in a forced heart transplant) which effectively depowered her.

Will all of that happen in the MCU? Probably not–but there’s definitely the groundwork laid. Cassie’s been interacting with Pym Particles for two entire movies and most of the moving parts of her backstory have been dealt with in one way or another. Also, now she’s got five whole years of off screen time where anything could have happened–for all we know Stature is already an active hero in the MCU and has been for the last year or so.

Either way, the five year time jump solved the issue of Cassie’s youth just in time for the next phase of movies to start rolling in. And while the original six Avengers may be done, at least for now, no one said their kids can’t get in on the action at some point. And Scott Lang isn’t counted among the dead or the retired–both he and Hope are still active in the MCU, meaning Cassie could start her superhero career with the Stature codename under their supervision. Now all we have to do is keep an eye out for teases of other Young Avengers staple characters–anyone have any theories about how Wiccan, Hulkling, and Patriot could make their debuts?

Crunch is currently one of the hottest conversations in the games industry, with big-budget titles like Epic’s Fortnite, NetherRealm’s Mortal Kombat 11, and Rockstar Games’ Red Dead Redemption 2 reportedly pushing developers to extremely long work weeks. In light of this information, Path of Exile developer Grinding Gear Games has vowed to avoid allowing such a thing happen to its staff.

“A big topic in the gaming industry recently is development crunch. Some studios make their teams work 14 hour days to pack every patch full of the most fixes and improvements possible,” writes Grinding Gear Games’ CEO Chris Wilson. “I will not run this company that way.”

The news comes via Reddit where Wilson chose to answer growing concerns over the state of the game. “However, one thing that the Q&A doesn’t address is how we got here,” Wilson leads the post, referencing a Q&A scheduled for later this week. “I wanted to personally post an explanation of what has been going on behind the scenes at Grinding Gear Games that led to this state.”

In the post, Wilson lays out the studios plans for addressing the issues Path of Exile currently faces in the Synthesis update. “Synthesis was more work than we expected,” Wilson writes. “While our improvements after its launch have helped a lot and many players are enjoying it, we fully acknowledge that it is not our best league and is not up to the quality standards that Path of Exile players should expect from us.”

According to the post, there are “a large number of critical projects” happening simultaneously. “[From] 3.7.0 through to the eventual release of 4.0.0, [we] are going to make massive and lasting fundamental improvements to Path of Exile.” While it’s a huge undertaking, the New Zealand-based company will not overwork its employees, according to Wilson.

“Sometimes when we read our own Patch Notes threads and community feedback, we feel that we are being asked to do the same,” Wilson says. “While there’s inevitably a bit of optional paid overtime near league releases, the vast majority of a Path of Exile development cycle has great work/life balance. This is necessary to keep our developers happy and healthy for the long-term, but it does mean that some game improvements will take a while to be made.”

With the action RPG finally out on consoles, Wilson confirms that, while there are “promises that we haven’t yet fulfilled,” the studio will “make headway on console features.”

But first, update 3.7.0 will be detailed soon. “When we reveal 3.7.0 in three weeks, you’ll see that its league has a focus on repeatable fun, and the combat revamp has a lot of focus on improving the fundamentals of Path of Exile’s gameplay,” Wilson says.

Days Gone has suffered from a variety of nagging since launch, with multiple reports of audio and bug issues affecting the game. Developer SIE Bend Studio has released a slew of patches that operate as quick-fixes to some of these issues.

The Oregon-based developer took to Reddit to announce three separate patches that have recently hit for its zombie-infested, open-world action game. The three patches–patch 1.05, 1.06, and 1.07–are short and sweet, and handle auto-save functionality, dropped audio, streaming complications, and more. You can read the full patch notes below to see what’s been changed and fixed over the past few days. These are all available now.

Patch 1.05

General Fixes

• A fix for a streaming issue in a certain locations

Crash Fixes

• Fixed a bug where some players experienced a crash when booting up the game

Known Issue

Patch 1.06

General Fixes

• Auto-save function will now save the correct number of saves to your save cloud account
• Audio should no longer be cut out/dropped when it involves equipping certain engines and certain exhausts to your bike
• Difficulty settings are retained through patches

Known Issues

• The crash on startup and other issues in this scope are being investigated. As of now, if you haven’t downloaded Patch 1.06 and start-up Days Gone, you will remain with Patch 1.05 active. Updates to come

Patch 1.07

General Fixes

• Audio should no longer be cut out/dropped when it involves equipping certain engines and certain exhausts to your bike

Despite facing performance issues, Days Gone still managed to pull the UK’s top sales spot, according to sales monitor Chart-Track. Additionally, Days Gone will receive free DLC this June, including a new survival mode and challenges centered around the bike, horde, and combat.

In our Days Gone review, we said, “Riding a souped-up motorcycle through the world and taking out zombie nests and hordes is satisfying in the way that completing open-world checklists often is, but by the end, you’re left to wonder what the point of it all was.”