Author: Trafficblast

With Assassin’s Creed Odyssey nearing release, those hoping to pick the game up on PC will find themselves needing to run the game through Ubisoft’s distribution platform, Uplay. On this week’s episode of Steam Punks, Ed and Jess discuss Uplay, Origin, Steam, GOG Galaxy, and more.

Ed and Jess highlight the positives of Uplay including the system’s achievement and experience system which can provide access to DLC packs, maps, and items without needing to pay for them. On the downside, the platform’s poor performance drags down the experience, and is a problem that arises with other distribution platforms like EA’s Origin. This week’s episode also features discussion on the problems that occur when games require multiple launchers, or when companies such as EA remove its games from sale on any platform other than its own.

We also talk about Bethesda’s plan to release Fallout 76 on PC on their own platform, instead of Steam. Check out our thoughts, share your own, and weigh in the featured comments from last week’s episode on the best old games that still hold up today.

HB Studios’ golf sim franchise The Golf Club added the PGA Tour license for its recently released 2019 version, but one issue is that there weren’t as many officially licensed courses as players might have wanted. There is good news today, as HB Studios and publisher 2K have announced that another PGA course, Atlantic Beach Country Club, is coming to the game as a free DLC course on October 4. In real life, the course hosts the Web.com Tour Championship. In the game, you’ll see it in the game’s PGA Tour career mode and others.

Also in this update will be more character customisation options including new PGA Tour-branded hats and more. The update also features bug fixes and quality of life improvements. You can see the full patch notes below, as posted in the game’s forums. And for a closer look at Atlantic Beach Country Club, you can click through the images in the gallery above.

A second DLC update for The Golf Club 2019 is coming later this year. It will feature “more character customisation options, including licensed Under Armour shirts, shoes, and glasses, additional PGA TOUR branded hats, and more colour and pattern options for existing clothing.” The second update will also have more bug fixes and optimisations.

Additionally, HB and 2K announced that a physical version of The Golf Club 2019 will be available at retailers on November 16.

The Golf Club 2019 Patch Notes (October 4)

General

• Fixed the menu background moving unnecessarily when switching between the main menu and the character editor.

• Added support for viewing the clubs of ghosts from the View Golfer menu.

• Added support for editing local guests directly from the Character Editor button in the main menu, when there are local guests in the user’s golf group.

• Added support for local guests to edit and customize their clubs in the character editor, via the Edit Golfer button in the popup when clicking the guest’s name in the match setup screen.

• Fixed hangs related to rapidly navigating leader boards.

• Fixed incorrect capping of handicaps.

• Expanded character customization options. Available skin tone options expanded. New licensed clothing added including PGA TOUR and Tattoo Golf Hats.

• Improved stability throughout gameplay and course designer.

Gameplay

• Fixed a framerate hitch that could occur shortly after entering gameplay.

• Fixed the hole cup casting a shadow on the ground.

• Fixed certain cases of terrain shadow flickering on hole 9 of Kipahulu Reserve.

• Fixed the “Club Only” shot suggestion setting not working properly.

• Improved lighting and wind effect on trees.

Societies

• Fixed users not being able to join private online societies.

• Fixed the display of Society Purse payout for first prize.

• Fixed issue of Online Society restrictions carrying over and overwriting the round 2 settings if advancing from the end of round screen.

• Fixed mini leaderboard not showing the users score if they’re outside of the top 5.

• Fixed mini leaderboard between rounds displaying totals for the event.

• Fixed mini leaderboard to properly display the users rank for the round/event.

Career

• Fixed FedExCup Points not being rewarded correctly in the season Championship.

• Users will now play in the final groupings throughout Career and Solo Societies.

Matchmaking/Private Match

• Added Support for Wagers Playlist for users to play Skins matches in matchmaking.

• Fixed awarding of points in points-based skins when there is a carry-over skin from a previous hole.

• Fixed users in a party being split up when playing team based matchmaking games.

• Fixed Skins matches ending when one user quits before the end of the round.

Course Creator

• Fixed entry/exit flows when transitioning between tools.

• Replace incorrect sign icons.

• Updated button callouts to address missing icons.

• Fixed the green grid to refresh when making height edits on a course.

• Fixed alternate surface’s secondary options to be correctly based off of the primary surfaces type

• Fixed brush dragging to create a smooth look after generating.

• Fixed scale speeds when toggling between advanced mode and normal mode for objects and brushes.

• Fixed brushes to no longer have their scale reset when entering and exiting brush tools.

• Fixed height brushes to no longer have their height value change when entering and exiting the tools.

• New Course flow sets the values for a theme properly before your first edit. Fixes issues of disappearing water on some themes.

• Fixed the overwriting of course thumbnails with every save.

As part of a wide-ranging, in-depth, and thoroughly fascinating interview with Game Informer, which you should read right now, Ubisoft’s chief creative officer Serge Hascoet speaks frankly about what the video game industry lacks.

He says the video game industry is soulless. Video games should be about more than just entertainment; they should inspire you to learn, Hascoet says.

“You know what is missing in this industry? A soul,” he explains. “Video games are about gaming, and gaming is not about entertainment, it’s about learning. When you learn, you have fun. But when we are just entertainment we are losing something.”

Hascoet, who has been with Ubisoft for 30 years and oversees every game the publisher releases in some capacity, said he talks with his team about try to make sure Ubisoft’s games are developed to include elements that players can use in their real life.

“I question the team about what real benefits the player will take away from the game for their real life. Right now, we don’t do enough in this area,” he said. “This is what excites me, how to make something that lets you have the most fun while also having something beneficial for your life.”

Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed franchise, which is one of the company’s biggest and best-selling series, introduced an education-themed mode in 2017’s Assassin’s Creed: Origins called Discovery Tour. In this mode, there is no combat, and you’re able to freely explore the world and learn about its history. Ubisoft worked with real historians on this. This year’s game, Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey, will also have a Discovery Tour mode after launch.

Also in the interview, Hascoet said he thinks the video game industry needs to move away from being so obsessed with killing. Hascoet said games have so much untapped potential to do new and exciting things.

“Some board games and card games have higher benefits than video games because when you play the board game you are analyzing people’s faces,” he said. “Do I want to cooperate? Do I want to believe in you when you are in character? This knowledge–gained while you are having fun–is very beneficial for your life because it will improve the way you read people’s faces. We have to understand how we can change games and the rules to have this kind of benefit.”

On the more positive side, Hascoet said he’s excited about numerous elements of video games today, including virtual reality, the emergence of China as a major market for Ubisoft, and free-to-play games like Fortnite. “We have new spaces everywhere. Our business is full of possibilities,” he said.

Game Informer’s full interview is incredibly fascinating and well worth your time; Hascoet speaks with a frankness that is rarely seen for someone in as high-up a position as he is. Go read it here.

Get Out director Jordan Peele is heading up development on a reboot of the classic Rod Serling sci-fi/fantasy TV show Twilight Zone, and it’s now crossed a major development.

It was announced today, October 2, that the show is now officially in production. October 2 is a notable date in Twilight Zone history, as the original show premiered on October 2, 1959–which is now 59 years ago. The show is hosted by Peele, who has the tough challenge of filling the legendary Rod Serling’s shoes, with X-Men writer Simon Kinberg producing.

The “start of production” video doesn’t give away much, but we do get to hear Peele say Serling’s famous words, “You’re traveling through another dimension; a dimension not only of sight and sound, but of mind.” The video ends with a teaser for one of the new Twilight Zone episodes, which appears to be a ’50s or ’60s period piece of some kind.

The Emmy-winning show originally ran from 1959-1964, before being a few times many years later. The Twilight Zone rights are held by CBS, which owns GameSpot.

The original Twilight Zone was an anthology series, with episodes often focusing on the pitfalls and struggles of humankind. The show featured numerous actors who went on to become very famous, including William Shatner, Ed Wynn, Cloris Leachman, Don Rickles, and Robert Duvall, among many others.

Peele’s directorial debut was the acclaimed 2017 film Get Out, for which he won an Oscar. It’s incredibly exciting to think about what Peele may bring to the table with the new Twilight Zone. The show airs in 2019 on CBS All-Access.

Red Dead Redemption 2 is fast-approaching its PS4 and Xbox One release, and with it, more news regarding the plethora of mechanics and systems at play in Rockstar’s upcoming Western. Now, following a recent lengthy hands-on, we have even more to share.

In the video above you can hear Mike Mahardy, Jake Dekker, and Alessandro Fillari discuss their time with the first five hours of Red Dead Redemption 2, including more time in the open-world portion of the massive game. They came across a variety of side quests and NPCs, and if this chunk was any indication of the final game, there will be a lot to discover in Arthur Morgan’s world.

Red Dead 2’s release will mark the longest gap between new releases in Rockstar Games’ history. In that time, Rockstar has made it clear that it’s not only focused on making its worlds bigger–it’s also trying to go deeper.

We’ve already shared our thoughts on our previous demo time with Red Dead 2, and you can catch up with that on both GameSpot and our YouTube channel. You can also watch both of Rockstar Games’ gameplay walkthrough trailers.

Lastly, make sure to stay tuned to GameSpot throughout the coming weeks–we’ll be covering Red Dead Redemption 2 before, during, and after its release.

Season 6 of Fortnite is underway, and now developer Epic is readying the second update of the season for its popular battle royale game. Patch 6.01 is slated to roll out for all platforms–PS4, Xbox One, PC, Nintendo Switch, and mobile–on Wednesday, October 3, with downtime for the update scheduled to begin at 12 AM PT / 3 AM ET / 8 AM BST. [Update] Downtime for the latest Fortnite update is over and the new update is available. You can see everything added and changed in the Fortnite v6.1 patch notes.

As usual, Epic hasn’t provided an estimate of how long downtime will last, but previous maintenance periods have typically run for an hour or two. Likewise, the developer hasn’t dropped any hints as to what new content players can expect from the update; usually, Epic teases the arrival of a new weapon in Fortnite’s News feed, but as of this writing, the feed has no mention of one.

That’s not to say we don’t have some idea of what could be on the way to the game, however. Fortnite Leaks recently discovered a new type of item called Freeze Traps within the game’s code. These are reportedly Rare items and, as their name suggests, will slow down players who trigger them. Epic hasn’t officially confirmed they’re arriving in the game this week, but full patch notes will be made available when the downtime begins.

We do also know what Fortnite’s next limited-time mode will be: Disco Domination. According to the game’s News feed, players will need capture and defend dance floors using emotes to score points once the mode is added to the rotation. We don’t know much about Disco Domination beyond that, but its accompanying image shows a wild dance party around a disco ball, which looks similar to the dance floors that were available as part of previous challenges.

Season 6 of Fortnite kicked off on September 27, and some unusual things have been happening in the game since then. Most notably, the floating island that rose from Loot Lake has now starting moving around the map, leaving strange craters in its wake. Epic also introduced a slate of new cosmetics to unlock, which you can see in our Season 6 rewards gallery. You can also find tips for the latest challenges in our Season 6 challenge roundup.