Fortnite Players Will Receive Freebies To Make Up For Recent Server Problems

The day following the latest patch for Fortnite, the 3.5 update, has been a disappointing one for fans. The game was rendered unplayable for many on PC, PS4, Xbox One, and mobile during that span due to a variety of technical issues. Those appear to be ironed out now for the most part, but developer Epic plans to apologize with freebies for everyone.

“It’s been no secret that over the past 24 hours we’ve been experiencing issues with our services that have prevented many of you from playing Battle Royale and Save the World. We’re sorry,” Epic says in a message on its website. “We know how frustrating this has been. We messed up here.”

In return for players being “awesome and patient,” it’s offering free items that can be claimed for a limited time. This weekend, Battle Royale players can get a free Back Bling item (a new type of customization slot added for Season 3), which is pictured below. Also this weekend, Save the World players can grab a Troll Stash Llama. Both of these will be available from the respective modes’ in-game stores.

No Caption Provided

In addition, Battle Royale players will receive a “pack of Battle Stars,” which are used to rank up the Battle Pass and earn rewards. Save the World players will get some amount of seasonal gold. Unlike the freebies on the store, these will require downtime to distribute, so that will happen as part of the planned update for the week (which is likely to come between Wednesday night and Thursday morning, US time).

Epic says it intends to release a “detailed postmortem” detailing the problem Fortnite encountered this week and its plans to “improve services” in the future. This will be released “later next week.”

There’s still no word on when the removed Guided Missile weapon will return to Fortnite: Battle Royale, but the game is at least playable once again. That’s good news, as the 3.5 update introduced a new Port-a-Fort item and made a variety of other changes. Week 8 challenges are also now available, although the server issues have prompted Epic to delay the release of the new 50v50 limited-time mode until next week.

Deadpool 2 Director to Helm Dwayne Johnson’s Fast and Furious Spinoff

Deadpool 2 director David Leitch will officially helm Dwayne Johnson’s Fast and Furious spin-off.

Per Entertainment Weekly, Leitch has signed to direct the film which will follow Security Service agent Luke Hobbs (Johnson) and reformed villain Deckard Shaw (Jason Statham). The untitled movie is set to hit theaters on July 26, 2019.

Leitch has reportedly been the front-runner to helm the project for months. He’ll direct from a script by series veteran Chris Morgan. Along with the upcoming Deadpool 2, which debuts in theaters on May 18, Leitch’s other directing credits include Atomic Blonde and the first John Wick film, which he co-directed with Chad Stahelski.

Continue reading…

The Division’s New Update Out Now, Adds 4K Xbox One X Support

Ubisoft has updated The Division on Xbox One today to optimize it for 4K TVs. Update 1.8.1 also introduces two new Global Events across all platforms including PC and PlayStation 4: Blackout set for the end of this month, and Onslaught set for the end of May.

Other changes in this update include an increased drop rate for Classified Gear, a legendary difficulty for Amherst’s Apartment and Grand Central Station missions, and several tweaks to gear and drop rates. Global events will offer Classified Gear set caches that are specific to each set, and Legendary missions will now have a 20% chance to reward Classified gear. It also naturally provides some bug fixes.

The Division is Ubisoft’s fastest-selling game, but its player base fell steadily after new content slowed. Since then, the company appears to have learned a lesson about continued support from its success with Rainbow Six Siege and a steady stream of updates brought the number of daily active users up dramatically. The Resistance update in December added a new PvE mode with factions fighting against hordes of enemies and a Skirmish mode.

Ubisoft has already announced The Division 2 with plans to unveil it at E3 this year. We don’t know just yet what the sequel will bring, but we have some ideas of what we’d like to see.

PUBG Savage Map Gets Second Beta Test; Here’s When You Can Sign Up

PUBG‘s new map Savage got its first round of beta testing on PC earlier in the month, and now players who missed out are getting another chance to give it a try. Developer PUBG Corp. has announced it is running a second round of testing next week and will be giving out more beta keys starting this weekend.

If you want to sign up for the chance to play, PUBG Corp. will be reactivating its registration site on Saturday, April 14, at 5 AM PT / 8 AM ET / 1 PM BST. Anyone who wasn’t part of the first round of testing can sign up for a beta key then. If you took part in the first round of testing and already have a beta key for the Closed Experimental Server, then you’re good to go to play in the second round of testing as well. Sign-ups for beta keys will end Tuesday, April 17, at 5 AM PT / 8 AM ET / 1 PM BST.

Testing itself will begin Monday, April 16, at 6 PM PT / 9 PM ET (2 AM BST on Tuesday), and will continue until Wednesday, April 18, at the same times. As we discovered in the last testing phase, Savage is a different gameplay experience than PUBG’s two other maps, thanks mostly to its smaller size. The map is 4 km x 4 km, and the result is a more close-quarters, faster combat experience, especially in the temple and resort areas. Watch the video above to get more of GameSpot’s impressions of the map, which feels a bit more like Fortnite than other PUBG experiences.

In other PUBG news, Xbox One players will soon get the chance to try the game for free. Anyone with an Xbox Live Gold membership will be able to play the full game for free April 19-22. A new cosmetic DLC pack has been announced for the game on Xbox One, too, and Microsoft has said PUBG’s second map, Miramar, will be coming to the console version of the game in May. For PC players, patch 10 is now available, bringing a number of changes to blue zones and the Miramar map.

Our Top Picks From the New Original Xbox Backwards Compatible Games

DOWNLOAD UNLOCKED 341 (Audio version)

Our Xbox crew digs deep into the huge new batch of original Xbox backwards compatible games announced this week, picking our favorites. Plus: a new batch of 360 games get Xbox One X enhancements, Michael Ironside AND Splinter Cell are back in Ghost Recon, and much more! Thanks to our sponsor this week, Hims. Check ’em out at ForHims.com.

Oh, and Unlocked now has its own snazzy new homepage! Bookmark this: go.ign.com/unlocked

Continue reading…

Jessica Jones Renewed for Season 3

Jessica Jones is coming back for another season.

THR reports Netflix has renewed the Marvel series for Season 3, just a month after the second season premiered on International Women’s Day. The news also confirms that the show will indeed be staying on Netflix as Disney, which owns Marvel, is preparing to launch its own streaming service soon.

Disney pulled its Marvel feature-films from Netflix. However, so far the company’s plans don’t seem to affect Netflix’s original Marvel shows. There’s no word yet on when Jessica Jones: Season 3 will debut.

Continue reading…

Nintendo Voice Chat LIVE – Today at 3 PM PT/6 PM ET!

Hey! Listen! NVC will be live streaming IGN’s weekly Nintendo Podcast today exclusively on ign.com!

Join Filip, Marty, Alanah, and Lily today at 3:00 PM PT/6:00 PM ET as they discuss the latest Nintendo releases and chat with the community LIVE! Don’t worry, you can still catch the full episode on Friday as usual on YouTube.com/NintendoVoiceChat and your favorite podcast listening services.

NVCLive (1)

Continue reading…

MSI GS63VR Stealth Pro Gaming Laptop Review

Be sure to visit IGN Tech for all the latest comprehensive hands-on reviews and best-of roundups. Note that if you click on one of these links to buy the product, IGN may get a share of the sale. For more, read our Terms of Use.

The MSI GS63VR Stealth Pro (See it on Amazon) is neither a thin-and-light, nor is it an absolute behemoth gaming laptop. Instead it’s positioned as a “sweet spot” laptop with plenty of horsepower in a chassis that won’t break your back thanks to its Max-Q Nvidia GTX 1070 GPU. The inclusion of a GPU that runs at lower clock speeds than a typical GTX 1070 has allowed MSI to squeeze it into a form factor that is just 4.19 pounds and 0.71 inches thick.

Continue reading…

Dwayne Johnson, Shane Black’s Doc Savage Movie Stalled by Rights Issues

Dwayne Johnson and Shane Black’s Doc Savage film adaptation has run into some problems.

In an interview with Collider, Johnson shared an update on the project, which is based on the classic pulp magazines that follow the titular hero who was born with extraordinary ability and strength. According to Johnson, the movie is yet to officially happen due to rights issues, as him and Black still want to make it

Doc Savage magazine, via Collider.

Continue reading…