Category: Games

The Division 2 is preparing for its first major content update, and it’s on its way very soon. The first free episode of its Year 1 content plan, titled DC Outskirts: Expeditions, will release on July 23 for Year 1 Pass holders and a week later, July 30, for all players.

The release is split into two main content types: the main story missions, and the new Expeditions. The main story will pick up where the campaign left off, sending your agents into areas around DC to find a lost convoy. That will consist of two new main missions: Camp White Oak, on the trail of the traitorous President Ellis, and the Manning National Zoo, where you’re aiming to finish off the Outcast leader Emeline Shaw.

Expeditions are split into three different wings that will release weekly. Finishing all three will give you access to an exclusive treasure room with a new exotic weapon (Diamondback Rifle), exotic gear (BTSU Datagloves), and two more weapons (Stoner LMB and Carbine 7). It all begins when you explore Kenly College to find what happened to a supply convoy.

Both the story missions and Expeditions feature will launch on July 30 for all players. The expansion will also bring Classified Assignments that are exclusive to Year 1 Pass holders. These take place in the Central Aquarium and NSA Site B13.

Ubisoft also detailed a set of tweaks and improvements that will be coming in the update, many of them based on player feedback. Most significantly, the Operation Dark Hours raid will have a new “Discovery” difficulty that will let players use matchmaking. The lack of raid matchmaking led to complaints from the community. The Normal mode will still have its own exclusive loot, but Discovery will let players try the raid and learn the ropes in a more casual setting.

A few other changes are coming as well. Crafting will max out at Gear Score 500 and players can share blueprints across characters and recalibrate crafted weapons. It will also introduce a range of balancing tweaks and an overhaul of various Skills.

This is the first of three planned major content drops for Year 1 of the game. The others will take you to the Pentagon in the fall, and then Coney Island in early 2020.

Responding to requests from fans, The Division 2 is adding matchmaking for raids.

Matchmaking will be available for the Operation Dark Hours raid, which was originally released back in May. The eight-player raid sees players working together to take down Black Tusk forces who have overtaken the Washington National Airport.

The wording of Ubisoft’s press release suggests that matchmaking may only be available for the new, more casual “Discovery” difficulty mode. Here is how Ubisoft described it in a press release:

“The new Discovery Difficulty, along with its corresponding matchmaking option, will allow more players to experience The Division 2 in its entirety. While Operation Dark Hours Exotic loot remains exclusive to the Normal difficulty, Agents playing the Discovery Difficulty can expect a variety of great rewards, while training for the Normal Difficulty.”

Matchmaking with anyone for story missions and other parts of the game is part of what makes The Division 2 so great. As such, some fans expressed their disappointment when Ubisoft confirmed there would be no matchmaking for raids.

“We decided to not include matchmaking, as we don’t think this would make a good gameplay experience for random groups,” The Division 2 community developer Hamish Bode said in a statement back in May. “The Raid will test your ability to communicate well, have a good build set up, and will require great teamwork to beat encounters.”

In other news, The Division 2’s first free episode of its Year 1 content plan, DC Outskirts: Expedition, is scheduled for release on July 23. For lots more on the expansion, check out GameSpot’s breakdown of everything you need to know.

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For one day only, Best Buy is offering Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 on PS4, Xbox One, and PC for just $20, which is the lowest price we’ve yet seen for the 2018 entry in Activision’s long-running first-person shooter franchise. With Prime Day 2019 coming up on Monday, there are going to be deals everywhere in the near future, but that assumes we’ll live through the weekend, so seize the day and head over to Best Buy if duty calls to you. It’s a great time to get the game, since the developers just released a big content update that adds a new multiplayer mode, specialist, and more.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 — $20

Black Ops 4 breaks from previous entries in the series by not having a traditional, single-player campaign mode, instead focusing on multiplayer. The narrative component lives in solo missions, set between the events of Black Ops 2 and 3, that serve as tutorials for each of the game’s specialists, many of whom are returning characters from previous entries. Gameplay is broadly divided into traditional multiplayer, the series’ signature co-op zombie mode, and a new battle royale mode called Blackout, which GameSpot’s Kallie Plagge thought was particularly well-executed in her Black Ops 4 review.

Frugal gamers have a lot to look forward to in the coming week with Prime Day, as well as all of the competing sales from other retailers like Dell, Ebay, and GameStop. The Amazon-owned Twitch is also getting in on it this year, with various streaming events as well as in-game goodies in Apex Legends and FIFA 19 for Prime subscribers.

After numerous reports, Nintendo finally confirmed the existence of a smaller Nintendo Switch model, dubbed the Nintendo Switch Lite. This iteration of the console differs from the flagship Switch in numerous ways, most notably by being tailored for handheld play, with no detachable Joy-Con controllers or television support. It also has a slightly different button layout, including a true D-pad, but don’t expect that to be added to the base Nintendo Switch model.

Speaking to CNET, Nintendo of America president Doug Bowser confirmed that Nintendo currently has no plans to update the base Switch’s Joy-Cons with a proper D-pad like the one featured on the Switch Lite. “There are no plans, or nothing to announce, in terms of further variations of Joy-Con,” Bowser said.

The lack of a true D-pad has been a common complaint about Switch’s Joy-Con controllers, but while Nintendo doesn’t appear to be rectifying that anytime soon, third-party manufacturers have stepped in to offer their own alternatives. Hori sells a variety of left Joy-Cons that replace the standard directional buttons with a more traditional D-pad, although the controllers have some limitations–namely, they can only be used while attached to the system in handheld mode. The D-pad Joy-Cons come in Mario, Zelda, and Pokemon designs.

That isn’t the only way the Switch Lite differs from the base model. The system is lighter and boasts a smaller screen. It also has an estimated 20-30% better battery life than the standard Switch, but it lacks some features such as rumble and the IR sensor. Being tailored for portable play means the system won’t be compatible with all Switch software–only titles that support handheld mode. That means you’ll need to own a pair of Joy-Con controllers in order to play certain games like 1-2-Switch or Super Mario Party. Nintendo has also said it is planning a transfer feature that will allow you to move between the Switch and Switch Lite, although the company hasn’t shared any details on how that will work yet.

The Switch Lite launches on September 20 for $200 USD. The system will be available in three different colors at launch: yellow, turquoise, and grey. Nintendo is also releasing a special edition Pokemon Nintendo Switch Lite on November 8, just ahead of the release of Pokemon Sword and Shield. That version of the system has a light grey body, cyan and magenta buttons, and illustrations of the games’ two cover monsters, Zacian and Zamazenta, on the back.