Category: Games

Grinding Gear Games has just revealed a new round of content for Path of Exile during a recent livestream, which includes a new Expedition expansion and the return of the battle royale mode–which is out now for a limited time. Along with new content for the 3.15 expansion, the developers announced some sweeping quality-of-life changes coming to the game, some of which could be considered controversial to the state of the game.

Grinding Gear Games CEO Chris Wilson gave a detailed breakdown in the latest stream for what’s new for Path of Exile, revealing the latest league event called Expedition, which will launch on July 23 for PC and on the 28th for consoles. Focusing on a new faction called the Kalguurans, you’re tasked with exploring a new region called Wraeclast, which holds ancient treasures and the lost history of the new faction. Ancient Kalguurans once controlled this land, but they would eventually lose control due to the region’s supernatural forces.

The main conceit of the Expedition content is that you’ll be exploring a new landscape filled with hidden chests and undead monsters hiding underneath the surface. While this seems quite close to the standard overworld exploration loop, what sets Expedition apart are the various excavation sites scattered around the land. By planting explosives at these sites, you can unearth treasure stashes or undead Kalguuran explorers to fight. While you can focus on blowing up markers at each site carefully, you can also chain together explosions–which in turn risks more fights–to increase your haul of loot. With this new Expedition league, you can also acquire brand new pieces of armor and weapons. The Expedition also serves as an opportunity to meet with new Kalguuran NPCs, with whom you can learn more and even trade resources with in order to gain new items and gear for your character.

Another reveal shown off during the stream was the announcement of the return of the Royale mode. Starting out as a April Fool’s Day event, it quickly became a fan-favorite activity in the community. Like other battle royale games, it puts a loot-driven action RPG spin on the popular mode, pitting you against other players in a fight to the death for the number one spot. The original mode was described as a “quick and dirty” project by the team, so the new and improved Royale mode will feature a re-designed map and refined core gameplay. It was also announced that the Royale mode is available now and will be free for all players. But like the previous Royale mode, this one will also only be open for a limited time. The Royale will only be open for 48 hours at launch, but throughout the Expedition league, the Royale mode will go live during weekends.

The new league content will also introduce some new quality-of-life improvements and gameplay tweaks to improve the game for the longer haul. Along with new support gems that can be applied to existing builds, there are also new combat skills. Here’s a quick rundown of some of the new 19 new ascendancy skills coming to Path of Exile, as explained by Chris Wilson during the stream:

• Earthbreaker Support – Chieftain: “The Earthbreaker Support gem can be linked to any Slam skill. Upon use, it summons an Ancestor Totem that uses that slam on your behalf.”
• Rage Vortex – Berserker: “Rage Vortex provides a new way to consume your rage: unleashing a whirling vortex that rapidly hits enemies within its range. It gains damage and area of effect based on how much Rage was sacrificed.”
• Defiance Banner – Champion: “Defiance Banner is a new purely defensive Banner skill. While you carry the Defiance Banner, it increases the armor and evasion of nearby allies while reducing the critical strike chance of nearby enemies.”
• Storm Rain – Raider: “Storm Rain is a new bow skill that fires arrows that stick into the ground. These arrows periodically pulse with lightning damage that arcs to nearby arrows.”
• Focused Ballista Support – Deadeye: “The Focused Ballista Support Gem causes your ballistas to pick the same targets as you, and they will only fire when you fire your own ranged weapon. It also makes the ballistas fire a lot faster than they otherwise would.”

Along with these new skills and gems, there’s also going to be a new reworking of the game’s current difficulty settings. Over the next year, starting with Act 1, the campaign will see some new changes, such as overhauls on some combat encounters and rebalancing current builds so as not to make them too overpowered. As Wilson said during the presentation, the game will move closer to its 2013 beta, which was noted for its difficulty. Furthermore, the current Flask system will also see something of an overhaul. These flasks, including health, speed, defense, and other stat buffs, have been altered with the new Expedition expansion. The big primary change with Flasks is that they will offer less of a massive, permanent buff to your character when used in quick succession. With less of a focus on mashing the buttons to activate the flasks, which was one of the key reasons behind the overhaul, certain flasks are only triggered on conditions, such as when skills are activated or depending on your build type.

Though the livestream focused primarily on new content for the current game, Wilson did state in a follow-up chat with GameSpot after the presentation that more details on Path of Exile 2 are on the way for later this year. Still, the original Path of Exile is still very much thriving, and its newest slate of content looks to serve up a much-needed refresh of the game’s nearly eight-year-long lifecycle, which as Wilson stated in our chat will be a stepping stone for the launch of the sequel in the future.

Bungie is making big changes to the Destiny 2 reputation system in Season 15. In a blog post on Bungie’s website, rituals lead Alan Blaine provided details on the updates coming to the reputation system, aimed at streamlining the experience.

In Season 15, the reputation systems from Lord Shaxx, The Drifter, and Commander Zavala will be renamed Crucible, Gambit, and Vanguard ranks, respectively. The names Infamy and Valor are being retired, while Glory will continue to be used for the competitive Crucible reputation system.

The ranking progression system is being altered as well, to allow players to reset the reputation system faster on average. This is being achieved by removing ritual-specific rules that impede progress, removing win streaks in favor of activity streak bonuses, and standardizing reputation bonus weeks to double multipliers. Blaine said that currently it would take someone who consistently loses their PvP Crucible or Gambit matches three to four times as long as someone who wins consistently to complete their Crucible reset. The new changes in Season 15 will make that more forgiving, so it’ll only take you twice as long to reset if you find yourself on a losing streak. It is now expected that two-thirds of reputation will come from just playing the game but players can progress faster by winning.

Commander Zavala will be getting a full ritual progression similar to what’s already in place for Crucible and Gambit, with Vanguard Tokens being retired when Season 15 starts. Players will earn Vanguard reputation from completing Strikes, Nightfalls, and Battlegrounds, with Nightfalls offering bonuses based on high scores. Zavala will also have a full reputation reward line, like Lord Shaxx and The Drifter, offering powerful rewards every third rank and an Ascendant Shard on the first reset.

Season 15 will introduce activity streaks, which will award bonus reputation for staying in Vanguard activities. The streak also won’t end if you return to the Tower as long as you don’t become inactive for an extended period of time.

Seasonal weapons and ornaments are being moved to the reputation reward tracks for Vanguard, Crucible, and Gambit in Season 15. Seasonal challenges are also being updated to include ritual weapon rewards.

Coming mid-Season 15 are some additional changes to the Grandmaster catch-up node. The catch-up node will be available to players as soon as the Grandmaster difficulty is available, as long as you have the Conqueror title but haven’t gilded yet that season. Each Grandmaster Nightfall will be available to select if the fireteam leader has not yet completed the gliding Triumph for that strike yet. Once your title has been gilded the catch-up node will no longer be available.

Season 15 of Destiny 2 launches on August 24.

Xbox head Phil Spencer belives the games industry needs to “come together” behind video game preservation.

This news comes by way of Episode 81 of the Kinda Funny Gamescast, which saw Spencer discuss his desire for the games industry to come together to preserve the history of gaming. He said he doesn’t want to lose the ability to go back and play older games.

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“I really wish as an industry we’d come together and help preserve the history of what gaming is about so we don’t lose the ability to go back,” Spencer said. “As an industry, I would love it if we came together to help preserve the history of what our industry is about, so we don’t lose access to some of the things that got us to where we are today.”

Spencer goes on to cite Xbox Game Pass as helpful in the fight for video game preservation. He discussed how “amazing” it was when Bethesda came in and added so many of its older games to the subscription service.

“It was amazing when Bethesda came in and we were able to put so many of the ‘old new’ games, or ‘new old’ games, into Game Pass, and go back with the legacy that we have with some of the IP,” Spencer said. “Even thinking about things like Rare Replay was a really interesting thing for us to go do, and letting people go and experience some of the old Rare IP.”

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The Xbox head said Game Pass would continue to add older games to the service for video game preservation.

Speaking of Game Pass, it’s easier than ever to access the service now that Game Pass games can be streamed to iOS and Android phones. Plus, Microsoft will bring Xbox Series X|S exclusives to Xbox One via Cloud Gaming.

Elsewhere in Episode 81 of the Kinda Funny Gamescast, Spencer said that Xbox will probably update its controller and it may learn from the PlayStation 5 in doing so.

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Wesley LeBlanc is a freelance news writer and guide maker for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @LeBlancWes.

Call of Duty’s Season 4 Reloaded update for Black Ops Cold War Zombies adds lots of new content with the launch of Mauer der Toten, including a powerful new Wonder Weapon. The CRBR-S Wonder Weapon starts off as an energy-based pistol with an orbiting repeater that fires an extra shot when you fire. To upgrade it into one of three additional variants, you’ll need special weapon Mod Kits that will attach onto the CRBR-S, modifying it into a completely different weapon.

How To Get The CRBR-S Wonder Weapon

There are a few ways to get the new CRBR-S Wonder Weapon in your hands:

While not a guarantee, your odds might be best with the Trials feature. Simply locate and activate the Trials computer terminal on the map, and keep activating and completing trials until your reward reaches the “legendary” rarity status. You might end up getting a different high-end gun or a perk as your reward, but this is going to be a more favorable approach than just getting lucky with the Mystery Box. Your odds are even better of getting at least one Wonder Weapon if you have a full team of four and everyone attempts the trials.

If you feel luck is on your side, you can gamble your points at the Mystery Box, but there are so many guns added into the weapon pool that this is best as a last resort.

The third way is by completing an Easter egg quest. This requires that you’ve first turned on power and activated Pack-A-Punch, as well as activated the robot named Klaus.

CRBR-S Wonder Weapon Quest

Once you have Klaus activated, guide him to the nearby Switch Control Room. There you’ll find a locker with the number 0 above it. Use your Tactical Equipment remote to target the locker. Klaus will open it. Inside, you’ll find a Blacklight flashlight item that you’ll need to grab.

Next, go to the Garment Factory. Shine your Blacklight around the area to discover hidden numbers that are unique to your game. This is completely random as far as where the numbers might appear in the room each map, and also what the set of numbers will be. Write them down.

This blacklight part can get tricky, especially if you’re playing solo. It’s easy to get cornered and killed by the zombies. I recommend using Decoy equipment to distract the zombies while you search. Sometimes the numbers are high up on the walls, and something you’ll get a sneaky spot low on the wall or in a corner.

The second location will be the Service Passage. Use your Blacklight item on the walls here to discover your next set of numbers.

Finally, take the Blacklight to the Grocery Store. Find your final set of hidden numbers.

Once you have all your numbers written down, head back to Hotel Room 305 where you collected the robot hands for Klaus. Inside the room is a safe. You’ll want to enter the numbers you found as the combination–do so in the specific order you retrieved them The safe will unlock and grant you the CRBR-S Wonder Weapon.

The base CRBR-S Wonder Weapon is a powerful laser pistol, and it has a rotating bullet orbiting it that will also damage surrounding enemies. It can be further upgraded with variant mods.

How CRBR-S Upgrades Work

Once you actually have the CRBR-S Wonder Weapon in hand, you can choose to add even more power with modifications. Zombies will randomly drop one of three variant upgrades to choose from:

• CRBR-S Swarm: The Swarm variant fires a swarm of lock-on missiles at targeted enemies when fired. The weapon mod uses 4 ammo per shot, but deals significant damage to offset the extra ammo cost.
• CRBR-S Blazer: The Blazer variant will transform your CRBR-S into a laser rifle, and this one is a pretty powerful upgrade as well.
• CRBR-S Diffuser: The CRBR-S Diffuser variant is more of a close-range weapon good for crowd-control. It fires in blasts similar to a shotgun.

TheGamingRevolution has a great guide that shows each variant in action.

You can also switch up the CRBR-S Wonder Weapon variant at any time, so you don’t have to worry about committing to one specific type. Try them all to find what’s best suited for your playstyle.

If you’re looking for more to do on Mauer der Toten, there’s a really wacky disco bunny Easter egg to unlock as well.

NASA’s Juno spacecraft has performed over two-dozen flybys of Jupiter and its largest moon, Ganymede, and now you can watch it from a “starship captain” point of view.

Juno performed the closest flyby of Ganymede that’s happened in more than two decades on June 7. Less than a day later, it performed its 34th flyby of Jupiter. It flew from one of the planet’s poles to the other and it did so in less than three hours, and you can watch that flyby from a “starship captain” point of view below.

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Now, the video is quite breathtaking but it’s important to note that it’s actually a collection of images taken by Juno’s probe camera spliced together with synthetic frames to create the video you see above.

“The animation shows just how beautiful deep space exploration can be,” Juno principal investigator from the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonia, Scott Bolton, said. “The animation is a way for people to imagine exploring our solar system firsthand by seeing what it would be like to be orbiting Jupiter and flying past one of its icy moons.”

NASA says its three-and-a-half minute video animation “begins with Juno approaching Ganymede, passing within 645 miles (1,038 kilometers) of the surface at a relative velocity of 41,600 mph (67,000 kph).” When viewing the animation, you’ll notice some darker regions and NASA says those are believed to be the result of “ice sublimating into the surrounding vacuum, leaving behind darkened residue.”

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You can also see the Tros crater, which is Ganymede’s largest and brightest crater scar.

“It takes just 14 hours, 50 minutes for Juno to travel the 735,000 miles (1.18 million kilometers) between Ganymede and Jupiter, and the viewer is transported to within just 2,100 miles (3,400 kilometers) above Jupiter’s spectacular cloud tops,” NASA says. “By that point, Jupiter’s powerful gravity has accelerated the spacecraft to almost 130,000 mph (210,000 kph) relative to the planet.”

According to NASA, the video showcases Jupiter’s circumpolar cyclones at the north pole and five of its “string of pearls,” which are eight large storms that appear as white ovals and rotate counterclockwise in the planet’s southern hemisphere.

For more about Jupiter, check out this story about a metallic asteroid flying somewhere between Mars and Jupiter that has an estimated worth of $10,000 quadrillion (don’t worry — that number hurts our brain too) and then check out these beautiful close-up photos of Jupiter revealed by NASA back in 2018.

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Wesley LeBlanc is a freelance news writer, science guru, and guide maker for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @LeBlancWes.

American Horror Stories premieres, with two episodes, Thursday, July 15 exclusively on FX on Hulu.

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American Horror Story, Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk’s decade-running TV franchise, forever bubbling over with scares and snark, is now embracing the episodic anthology game with American Horror Stories, an earnest stab at shorter quick-bite horror and, even possibly, an attempt to solve some of the lingering woes the regular Horror Story seasons have been suffering from for a handful of years now. The end result here, after a two-part premiere — “Rubber(wo)Man” Parts 1 and 2 — is a story that starts strong but then undercuts its initial bite with a second half that feels too silly and sloppy.

Keeping things within the American Horror Story universe, which officially went full shared universe with 2018’s American Horror Story: Apocalypse, “Rubber(wo)Man” brings us back into Season 1’s Murder House (which also was a big part of Apocalypse and a bit player in other seasons) for a new romp through the ghostly halls of the most haunted manor on the West Coast. And while none of main players from the original Murder House tale are back (Evan Peters, Dylan McDermott, Connie Britton, etc), the story still makes good use of the unique ghostly physics of the place and the new doomed family moving in to try and capitalize on the dwellings’ diabolical history.

It’s not known yet whether or not the remaining Stories episodes will be as overtly connected to famous past American Horror Story seasons or if this is just an “introduction to the new format” deal in order to solidly tether it to the franchise right out of the gate, but the notion works. As American Horror Story grows longer in the tooth and more frequently offers diminishing returns, Murder House is still one of the series’ best regarded seasons. So it’s both an easy and efficient idea to kick off this anthology show with a dive back into this lore-filled landscape.

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When morose teen Scarlett (The Vast of Night’s Sierra McCormick) and her dads (Gavin Creel and returning AHS player Matt Bomer) move into the Murder House with intentions of flipping it into a spooky Airbnb, we’re submerged in a story about a high schooler getting corrupted by the dark forces of the dwelling (the Rubber Man, in particular). As the haunting unfolds, we discover that Scarlett herself comes with a uniquely traumatizing past as well as an attraction to the more violent aspects of BDSM porn. The first episode is then allowed to creepily morph into something less resembling tainted innocence and more embracing dark and dreaded spirits finding, and enabling, one another. Throw in a sprinkling of Stephen King’s Carrie and it makes for a mighty fun morsel.

Part 2 purposefully rocks the boat, though, and disrupts the terror elements, as AHS tends to do, by overcrowding the allegory and making things more ridiculous. It’s always a challenge to balance horror and humor and this franchise has, as the years went on, relied way more on sass and irreverence to assuage audience anxiety and fear. A little of this goes a long way and, sadly, the series tends to use too much of it. Horror can certainly have feel-good endings and moments of righteous redemption, but Part 2 dilutes the mix by propelling Scarlett and her new phantom girlfriend (played by “very obviously Cindy Crawford’s daughter” Kaia Gerber) forward as a pair of psychotic superheroes for a second half that plays more like a comedy.

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McCormick, however, is great and super engaging as the center of these two episodes. Regardless as to how “Rubber(wo)Man” Part 2 wraps up, this is definitely a character who could slip into a different story somewhere else in the AHS-verse and feel quite at home as a comfortable psychopath. There’s Dexter-style quality to Scarlett’s transformation and aftermath and if Stories is at all meant to flesh out the entire franchise’s tapestry, then she’s a very welcome new stitch. Part 2’s issues mostly reside with Bomer and Creel’s characters and their marital drama distracting from Scarlett’s more interesting arc. They’re not unimportant characters, but their relationship implodes somewhat predictably and it sidetracks the whole story. Then there’s other orbiting nonsense involving house ghosts that make the story feel like it’s taking a few steps backwards.

American Horror Stories still may hold the key, ultimately, to this decade-long property’s issues. Rarely able to sustain a full season’s worth of suspense and/or entertainment, American Horror Story feels strained in its middle episodes, even within its better seasons. Here, in short form, it stands a chance of avoiding this. As it also does with the upcoming American Horror Story: Double Feature (yes, there’s still a new season coming in August) where the run of episodes will be divided into two separate stories, thus eliminating some the excess. Even with these shorter takes though, American Horror Story will still be challenged by tonal footing and not having elements and themes unduly devour one another.

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