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Escape From Tarkov developer Battlestate Games dropped patch notes for the highly-anticipated Patch 0.12.7 early, alongside a teaser video showcasing the new Customs expansion and some of the update’s brand-new weapons–including the FN GL40 grenade launcher. Patch notes highlights include details on the new areas being added to Customs, a new scav boss at Shoreline, the reworked skill system, and an HP tweak that will end up being a huge nerf to some popular ammo types. There is no word on a release date for the patch just yet.

According to the patch notes, the industrial area and construction site at Customs are getting expanded, with new explorable buildings, a new spawn location for scav boss Reshala, and stationary weapons. Shoreline is also getting new quests and a new scav boss named Sanitar. The last map to get a substantial expansion was Reserve, as part of an update in late June.

The new weapons include the Mossberg 590A1 Shotgun and the FN GL40 grenade launcher, which you can get a glimpse of in the teaser video, at about 37 seconds. This should not be confused with the GP-34 underbarrel grenade launcher, another planned item that will be compatible with AK family assault rifles, but does not appear to be part of this update.

One of the most notable adjustments is the addition of 5 HP to the Chest region, from 80 to 85. This effectively eliminates the one-shot chest kill potential of certain ammo types, like 7.62x54R LPS Gzh rounds, a popular and cheap option for the Mosin bolt-action sniper rifle.

More on the various skill system changes, new ammo types, stimulants, and various optimizations and bug fixes can be read in the patch notes below, or over on the Escape From Tarkov forums.

Escape From Tarkov 0.12.7 Patch Notes (Preliminary)

Added:

• Customs expansion (expansion of industrial area, construction site, added many new explorable buildings, stationary weapons, new location for Reshala spawn etc.)
• Added new scav boss – Sanitar.
• A former doctor, he worked in the health resort “Lazurny bereg”, and before that in the TerraGroup laboratory. After the events that happened in Tarkov, he gathered a gang with former colleagues and operates on the “Shoreline”. Actively uses professional skills in combat, quickly healing himself and the gang members. He uses various stimulants and medications, including those of his own production. He can quickly perform surgery by pulling out a bullet or applying a tourniquet on the field. Sometimes he is loyal to the Scavs and can leave a couple of first-aid kits or other medical supplies for his own group members on location
• New quests on Shoreline
• System for reporting suspicious players, unacceptable nicknames and game bugs abusers (on the post-match screen)

Improved AI behavior:

• Bots can pick up items now
• Improved AI behavior when they see bodies
• Bots now can pick up a second firearm from bodies
• AI now can greet each other or player scavs, showing their peaceful intentions
• Bots will eatdrink while in peaceful mode
• AI will perform a mag check when in peaceful mode
• Bots can check someone for friend or foe by aiming at him for some time, if they’re not sure of one’s intentions
• Bots will sprint while patrolling if they consider the spot being dangerous
• AI will be able to storm the player as a group, if he’s holding position and attacking them
• AI will try to avoid dangerous places

New weapons:

• FN GL40 Grenade launcher
• Mossberg 590A1 Shotgun

New ammo:

• .366 AP-M
• .45 ACP Hydr-Shock
• 9×19 mm QuakeMaker
• 9×19 mm 7N31
• .45 ACP Lasermatch FMJ
• .45 ACP AP
• 7.62×51 mm M993
• 40×46 мм M381 HE
• 40×46 мм M386 HE
• 40×46 мм M406 HE
• 40×46 мм M433 HEDP
• 40×46 мм M441 HE
• 40×46 мм M576 buckshot

Added new stimulants:

• 3-(b-TG)
• L1 (Noradrenaline)
• P22 (Specimen 22)
• AHF1-M
• Meldonin
• “Obdolbos” cocktail
• M.U.L.E

• Added an additional icon for the network connection status in case of high packet loss
• In the container slots window, the container tag is now displayed in the header

Iteration of improving and reworking the skill system:

• New skill “Surgery”
• Reduces HP penalty for surgery
• Improved surgery speed
• (Elite) No HP penalty for the restored body part
• (Elite) Maximum increase in the speed of surgery
• New skill “Aim drills”
• Increase of the aiming speed
• Decrease the volume of aiming
• (Elite) No hand shaking at any stamina value, first 2 seconds after aiming
• (Elite) Reduced hands shaking during tremor and fracture, the first 2 seconds after aiming
• Rework of the “Strength” skill
• Increase all weight limits
• Increase the speed of the sprint
• Increase the jump height
• Increase the strength of the grenade throw
• Increase the strength of a melee attack
• (Elite) The weight does not take into account the weapons on the sling and on the back
• (Elite) Melee attack can be stronger than usual
• Rework of the “Endurance” skill
• Increased feet stamina
• Reduced stamina consumption for jumping
• Increased holding breath time when ads
• Increased the speed of breath recovery
• (Elite) Maximum increase in breathing recovery rate
• (Elite) Breathing is no longer dependent on energy
• (Elite) Increased stamina reserve
• Various fixes in old skills
• Added 5 HP to the health of “Chest” zone (from 80 to 85)

Optimization:

• Optimized the rendering of decals
• Fixed freezes that happened when the sound of thunder or the sound of grenades exploding was played
• Optimized the performance of the game server
• Fixed an issue with killing the boss of a group of raiders who appeared on the scene after interacting with the trigger was leading to errors on the server
• Minor optimizations on the first shot or hit
• Optimization of hideout sounds
• Fixes of errors that could potentially lead to different freezes

Fixed:

• Iteration of fixes and corrections in UI
• Bug with the PostFX menu that remains on the screen after closing the settings
• Bug playing the sound of contusion if the sound is turned off in the settings
• Bug of jerky animation of shooting weapons in the Hideout shooting range
• The passage of raiders on the laboratory through the doors
• A bug that allowed you to quickly move when constantly tapping the “Run” button when overweight
• AS VAL with the handle adapter “Rotor 43” is now impossible to fold
• Inability to exit the location via the paid exit “Car”, if you reconnect at the start of the exfil timer
• Bug with throwing away the magazine when reloading the weapon via the context menu
• Error 228 when receiving items from an expired email
• Formulas for calculating prices for items with its resource and its commissions
• After the reconnect, the equipment that was not searched become searched
• The sound of the visor on/off remained at one point, and does not follow the character
• Bug that wouldn’t block buttons on the bottom panel after reconnecting as a Scav
• Interface block if you go to the “Map” screen without a map
• Bug when the “Receive all” button opened only the first and last message with items
• Various bugs with switching the sound from “outdoor ” to “indoor”, and back, when reconnecting
• Bug of not blocking an item after it was added to the merchant’s sales table
• Cartridges from packs of cartridges found in raid now have the status ” found in the raid”
• Error when studying items from the scav box

Fixes in the flea Market

• The search will be updated if you delete and add an item to the wish list
• Loss of a player’s nickname and rating from the offer line after applying filters
• The “search by item” option now resets the selected filters
• Bug displaying the loading spinner on top of the list of offers
• The mount without the “Found in raid” label ceased to be semitransparent (blocked) in the selection of the item for the offer, if you put and remove the mod on it
• Bug when the merchant’s avatar was flattened
• Incorrect tag behavior on marked items for a flea market offer if you select multiple items from the container, closing and opening the container
• Horizontal scrollbar on the product sales screen
• Bug when the player couldn’t put 2 identical weapons on the flea market if one of them was included in the starter kit for pre-order
• Error 1508 – You send bad items- when putting an empty pack of cartridges on a flea Market
• Bug, when for buying through a flea market goods from npc merchants needed items found in raid

Fixed in weapon presets

• Displaying the indicator “you have mods to build” when there are no mods for the build in the stash
• Bug when the build could have been built with the wrong mod that was not in the preset
• Weapon disassembly bug if you build the same preset twice with the same weapon
• Ability to select items that are blocked for purchase, via the presets by clicking the button “Select all”
• Packs of items are no longer displayed in the purchase lists of preset mods
• The purchase lists of presets no longer display items the player’s own offers
• Added an error about lack of space when purchasing preset mods
• Bug when opening presets through the lower panel that caused the game client to freeze

Fixed in the hideout

• Various fixes in the bitcoin farm
• White authorization screen if you improve the pre-order version while in the hideout
• Bug when it was possible to install a filter with zero resource in the “Water collector” and it could not be uninstalled
• Calculation of fuel consumption time in the “Generator ” zone
• Bug duplicating the canister icon, when selecting a canister, in the “Generator” zone

• Various bugs in group chat
• Bugs with the discharge of weapons in the stash
• Incorrect position of the fire mod pin and the turn of the barrel of the PPSH
• Visual bug for displaying a zero bonus in the base level zones in the Hideout
• Visual bug with the availability of time selection before the raid on the Laboratory screen
• A bug where the player could spawn outside the location
• Spamming error NullReferenceException: MuzzleManager
• An error that occurs every time after treatment or getting a fracture
• “Failed to create device file” error that occurs during client downtime
• Errors when assigning voice commands
• Spamming error when a large number of bots are active in the offline mode
• Various errors while loading in raid
• Various bugs and issues with Customs location
• Various bugs and improvements related to AI
• Fixed a bug when bots didn’t follow a grenade throw with a voiceline
• Fixed a handful of bugs related to bots getting stuck
• Fixed a bug where a Gluhar would not react to a killed in the head ally
• Fixed a bug when bots tried to heal a blacked out body part
• Bots are now able to treat debuffs on blacked out body parts again
• Fixed a handful of bugs with bots knocking out doors
• Other AI related bug fixes and improvements
• Various localization fixes and improvements
• Other minor bugs and issues

Changed:

• Now it is possible to examine items from the construction requirements screen in the Hideout
• Added displaying the time before the bleeding effect disappears in the stash
• Now if you are not matched to the raid within 45 minutes, the search will be canceled
• Updated SV-98 animation, hold, new animations when entering and exiting a sprint, new hold in the menu and on the loading screen
• Updated PPSH animation, hold, and new animations when entering and exiting a sprint

The original ending to The Last of Us Part II was going to put Ellie down an even darker path. In an interview with Game Informer, creative director Neil Druckmann and narrative lead Halley Gross discussed the final moments in the PlayStation 4 exclusive.

“When I signed on a lot of it was very similar,” Gross revealed. “We did a lot of iterations on what that last act looked like, but the final beat was that Ellie would kill Abby. About halfway through production, we changed that and had Ellie let go at the last second to [illustrate] that some little part of the old Ellie, the Ellie with humanity, the Ellie that is impacted by Joel, still exists within this character who has been so overtaken by her quest for revenge.”

The change occurred as the narrative team was discussing the fates of Lev and Yara as they originally had permutations with each of them dying or surviving. After it was argued that Lev should survive, Druckmann felt that Ellie shouldn’t kill Abby anymore. Gross was shocked by the suggestion as she didn’t even know that changing the ending was on the table.

“Letting Abby live felt wrong thematically initially,” Druckmann said. “But at the end of the day, it felt more honest for the character. The theme [and] what we’re trying to say shifted a little bit, but our top priority always is are we being honest to the character? There’s certain things we are trying to hit but they can only work if we’re consistent with the character we’re writing.”

Druckmann also revealed that when writing a character, he feels it is more important to keep a character’s motivation consistent over time than to make them likable as there will always be haters. One of Naughty Dog’s other characters, Nathan Drake, will be hitting the big screen next year as the oft-delayed Uncharted film starring Tom Holland has entered production.

The film adaptation of video game series Just Cause has landed Michael Dowse as its director. Dowse, whose directing credits include the action-comedies Stuber and Netflix’s Coffee and Kareem, will direct a screenplay from Derek Kolstad (The John Wick trilogy).

According to Deadline, the film “will follow the video game’s blueprint, as Rico Rodriguez is on a race-against-time mission to stop the mercenary group The Black Hand. The series draws its name from the real-life United States invasion of Panama, code-named ‘Operation Just Cause.'” Deadline is also reporting that the film will be getting a female co-lead giving the movie a Romancing The Stone vibe, referencing the 1984 romantic comedy-adventure starring Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner.

The Just Cause movie is one of many recent announcements of similar video-game adaptations, or others on the horizon, like the coming 2021 Monster Hunter movie, the long-in-development Uncharted movie (which has apparently begun filming), and the also long-lingering Minecraft movie.

Dowse’s Just Cause movie is a co-production between Constantin Films and Prime Universe. Constantin Films is the German studio behind the Resident Evil movies and the above-mentioned Monster Hunter movie.

It’s looking to be a great year for Pokemon spin-off games, with Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team DX released this spring and a Pokemon Snap sequel coming to Nintendo Switch “soon.” As someone who wasn’t too impressed with the latest mainline Pokemon games, Pokemon Sword and Shield, it was a relief to see a new Pokemon game release on Switch this year, one filled to the brim with charm while also packing some seriously challenging combat and a truly memorable story. I’m talking about Rescue Team DX, of course, and if you missed out on this gem when it released back in March, you can grab it on sale for $40 with free shipping right now at GameFly.

GameFly, a service that lets you rent video games and purchase them to keep if you like, currently has the best deal we’ve seen on Rescue Team DX. Keep in mind this is a used copy, but it comes with everything but the shrink wrap, including the colorful case. For $20 off, I think this deal is pretty worth it for a Switch game that’s hovered around $60 since release. It was worth it for me at $60, but for $40, there’s plenty of content here to keep you busy.

Rescue Team DX is a stunning remake of the very first Pokemon Mystery Dungeon games, Red Rescue Team (on Game Boy Advance) and Blue Rescue Team (on Nintendo DS). Like the originals, Rescue Team DX sees you wake up one day to find yourself transformed into a Pokemon (which is selected by a “personality quiz” at the very beginning). Soon enough, you encounter another Pokemon who quickly befriends you, and together, you form a rescue team, taking on missions to find items, rescue lost Pokemon, and escort clients through dangerous dungeons. Like other Pokemon Mystery Dungeon games, Rescue Team DX is a roguelike and involves turn-based combat in grid-like dungeons, and you can recruit Pokemon you defeat to join your team. There’s an overarching story that’s quite interesting as well, involving a mystery surrounding your identity and a series of natural disasters that have been upsetting the Pokemon world.

The game earned an 8/10 in GameSpot’s Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team DX review for its charming art direction, improvements to combat and dungeon exploration, and its riveting story that still hits hard 15 years later.

“Whether or not you’re an old-school Mystery Dungeon aficionado or a total newcomer to the long-derelict spin-off series doesn’t necessarily matter: Mystery Dungeon on Switch improves upon the originals with some valuable quality-of-life tweaks, making it a worthwhile play regardless of your familiarity with the series,” wrote critic Cian Maher. “It features a distinct combat system that provides an intriguing alternative to the mainline Pokemon formula with tile-based strategizing, humanizes the Pokemon you’ve fallen in love with over the years, tells a riveting and emotional story that will make you view the franchise in a totally different light, and does so with a stylish suite of visuals and music.”

The PC version of Microsoft Flight Simulator is releasing on August 18, and European players will have the option of picking up a physical copy of the ambitious flight sim. Published by Aerosoft, the physical version will come on 10 discs. This is due to the game’s massive size, which Microsoft has recommended players clear 150 GB of space for.

On Aerosoft’s official forums, community manager Mathijs Kok explained what will come on the 10 discs. He explains that there are four main parts to Microsoft Flight Simulator: the simulation itself, the world and aircraft that Microsoft has created, online content that is streamed, and third-party files. While the third-party and streamed content is optional, the world and aircraft must be downloaded and will take up around 90 GB of space.

“The boxed version makes it possible for people on a slower internet connection to get the sim installed without downloading the [world and aircraft],” Kok explained. “The simulator is in every way, 100 percent the same. The boxed retail version just gets you a nice box, printed manual, and about 90 GB you do not have to download.”

Microsoft Flight Simulator is available to pre-order now and comes in three versions. The standard release, priced at $60, will come with 20 planes and 30 airports to land at. Meanwhile, the $90 deluxe edition comes with five additional planes and airports, while the $120 Premium Deluxe features 30 planes and 40 airports in total.

Although it won’t be coming out in August, the Xbox One version of Flight Simulator is also in development.