Author: Trafficblast

Pokemon Go has received a regular stream of new events and Pokemon over the past few months, but that’s not the only new content Niantic has planned for it. In a blog post on the Pokemon Go website, the developer shared the first details about Lucky Friends and avatar poses, two new features coming to the hit mobile game.

Lucky Friends is a new level of friendship you can achieve once per day with players you’ve become Best Friends with. Much like Lucky Pokemon, there’s a chance you’ll become Lucky Friends when you interact with a Best Friend, be it by trading Pokemon, opening gifts from each other, challenging them to Trainer battles, or fighting alongside them in Raids.

If you do become Lucky Friends, you’ll both see a notification indicating it, and your next trade is guaranteed to give you both Lucky Pokemon. Once the trade has been completed, however, your friendship status will revert to Best Friends, although Niantic says you will have a chance to become Lucky Friends again the following day through the same methods.

In addition to the Lucky Friends mechanic, Niantic is introducing avatar poses to Pokemon Go. These can be purchased through the in-game Style Shop for 500 Coins apiece and allow you to customize your Trainer’s pose in your profile, the Friend list, and other areas where your avatar appears.

Pokemon Go’s next in-game event is the Legendary Lunch Hour, which runs from 12-1 PM local time on April 10. Shortly after that, Niantic will hold this month’s Community Day on Saturday, April 13. The Legendary Pokemon Latios is returning for a special week-long Raid event from April 15-22, and the annual Eggstravaganza event is coming back for another year starting April 16.

It’s the season of deals at many games stores, with both the PlayStation and Microsoft stores wrapping up huge sales on critically acclaimed games recently. GameStop’s massive spring sale is still ongoing, and in the midst of all these deals, Nintendo has been gearing up for a sale of its own. The Nintendo Eshop Blockbuster Sale launches this Thursday, April 11 at 1 PM GMT / 3 PM CEST and will be available for two weeks, ending Thursday, April 25 at 10 PM GMT / 12 PM CEST. As of right now, the sale is only confirmed in Europe–it’s not clear if these deals will be available in North America.

Some of the Switch’s biggest games will be discounted up to 60% off, including select first-party Nintendo games like The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Super Mario Odyssey, which are 30% and 33% off, respectively. The sale also includes popular Switch ports, like The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (50% off), Doom (50% off), Dark Souls Remastered (30% off), and Diablo III: Eternal Collection (30% off).

A selection of Nintendo 3DS games will also be marked down, including Super Smash Bros. (33% off), The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask 3D (33% off), and New Super Mario Bros. 2 (33% off). In total, more than 20 games for Switch and 3DS will be part of the sale and available to download directly from the Eshop, according to the press release. We’ll update this story when all of the deals become available; in the meantime, check out the list of currently confirmed deals below.

Nintendo Switch deals

• Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy — 34% off
• Dark Souls Remastered — 30% off
• Diablo III: Eternal Collection — 30% off
• Doom — 50% off
• The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim — 50% off
• L.A. Noire — 66% off
• The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild — 30% off
• Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle — 50% off
• Monster Hunter Generations Ultimate — 42% off
• Octopath Traveler — 33% off
• Super Mario Odyssey — 33% off
• Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus — 33% off
• Xenoblade Chronicles 2 — 33% off

Nintendo 3DS deals

• The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask 3D — 33% off
• New Super Mario Bros. 2 — 33% off
• Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS — 33% off

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There’s no better time to sign up for Xbox Game Pass–not only are six new games expected to be announced for the service tomorrow, but Amazon has been running a deal where you can buy a three-month Xbox Game Pass and get three months free. Now, an even better deal is on the horizon: starting Thursday, Microsoft will offer new and inactive subscribers three months of Xbox Game Pass for just $1.

While the deal hasn’t been promoted by Microsoft yet, you can find the details buried toward the bottom of the Xbox Game Pass sign-up page under Description. The offer will go live this Thursday, April 11, at 9 PM PT / Friday, April 12 at 12 AM ET and be available until May 13 at 12 AM PT / 3 AM ET. You can’t combine this offer with other promotions, and you can claim it only one time per account. After the three months are over, you’ll be charged the full monthly price unless you cancel.

Details of the promotion

Xbox Game Pass generally costs $10 per month, so this is a great opportunity to get three months for over 96% off. New subscribers can already sign up and get their first month for $1, so this deal is basically an extension of that one.

Xbox Game Pass gives subscribers unlimited access to over 100 Xbox One and Xbox 360 games, which they can download, play, and keep as long as they remain members. New games are regularly added to the service, while others are replaced. Minecraft was the latest addition to Game Pass; other games currently included are Fallout 4, Halo 5, Halo: The Master Chief Collection, Shadow of the Tomb Raider, Doom, Just Cause 4, and more.

Sign up for Xbox Game Pass »

A new update is rolling out for Fortnite very soon. Downtime for this week’s 8.30 patch is scheduled to begin at 2 AM PT / 5 AM ET / 9 AM GMT tomorrow, April 10, developer Epic Games confirmed on Twitter, and it’s slated to introduce a game-changing new feature to the hit battle royale title.

Arriving as part of the 8.30 update are Reboot Vans. Much like the respawn stations found in Apex Legends, these vehicles will allow you to revive any fallen teammates during a match. Once a teammate is eliminated, they will drop a Reboot Card, which can be taken to a Reboot Van and used to bring them back into the fray.

“After a squadmate has been eliminated, grab their dropped Reboot Card and any surviving squadmates can activate it at a van,” Epic Games community manager Nathan Mooney explained in a recent Dev Update video. “Once activated, you’ll definitely know, as a beacon and audio cue will be set off, informing nearby players to the reboot in progress and how many players will be arriving. Your squad will appear, one by one, on top of the van–ready to jump back into the match.”

The Reboot Van is only the latest addition to Fortnite this season. Epic has been introducing new weapons and features to the game on a near-weekly basis. Last week’s 8.20 content update, for instance, added the Boom Bow, a new kind of bow whose arrows are lined with shotgun shells, causing them to explode on contact. The prior week introduced several new foraged consumables and made adjustments to various other items like the Baller vehicle.

There are a few weeks remaining in Season 8 of Fortnite. Week 7’s challenges are slated to arrive on April 11, but in the meantime, you can still complete any outstanding missions you have and get one step closer to unlock the Legendary Ruin skin in Week 8. You can find tips and guides for this season’s tricker missions in our full Fortnite Season 8 challenges roundup.

Rockstar has announced the latest update for Red Dead Online, the online multiplayer portion for Red Dead Redemption 2, is now live. Despite the several pieces of new content included in the update, Red Dead Online remains in beta.

The update adds a new Showdown mode, called Plunder. This mode sees two teams face off in a race to gather supplies from a central location to outfit their respective bases. You can also sneak into your enemy’s base and steal their supplies. However, all other players can more easily spot you when you’re holding supplies, so if you’re going to steal from the enemy, it might be best to bring along a friend or two to watch your back.

New cosmetic items also come included in the latest update. After logging in to Red Dead Online, you’ll be able to find the new Owanjila Hat, Porter Jacket, and Concho Pants being sold from outfitters. Additionally, until April 15, all rank 40 coats, holsters, boots, and gloves will become available for all players, regardless of in-game rank. The Turkoman, Missouri Fox Trotter, and Arabian horses are all being lowered to rank 40 as well, with the Volatile Dynamite, Incendiary Buckshot, Explosive Slug, Express Explosive, and Dynamite Arrow pamphlets going down to rank 60.

Red Dead Redemption 2 is not only one of our favorite games from last year, it’s our game of the year for 2018. In our Red Dead Redemption 2 review, Kallie Plagge gave the game a 9/10, writing, “Red Dead Redemption 2 is an excellent prequel, but it’s also an emotional, thought-provoking story in its own right, and it’s a world that is hard to leave when it’s done.” However, our follow-up review for the Red Dead Online beta was not as positive, though Kallie did point out “there’s a lot of potential for Rockstar to iterate upon and expand…both in the amount of content available and the nature of that content.”