There is an abundance of opportunity to improve your skills during these weird and unprecedented times. Online courses are reduced, or in some cases, free right now, making now the perfect time to learn something new or add more to your existing subject-matter expertise.
I’m actually enrolled in a Python course from Udemy right now, and it’s pretty great. Definitely well structured and quite robust. The only snag I’ve hit so far has been the release of Animal Crossing, which has put a major pause on my personal attempt to improve my skill-set. I did catch a stringfish on Monday, though.
If free classes don’t thrill you, or you’d rather just spend your free time enjoying movies or comics, there’s a massive amount of streaming services with free trials, some of which have been extended.
It’s no secret that Fallout 76 has not had an easy journey on the heels of its rocky launch. While it’s received some post-launch improvement, right now, it’s still fairly buggy and isn’t in the greatest of places. It just doesn’t feel like the Fallout I’ve grown to love, nor does it have enough to keep me coming back for more with its mind-numbing “your princess is another castle” storyline, and an end game that completely falls flat..
Enter Fallout 76 Wastelanders, or as some have dubbed it, Fallout 76 2.0 – a free update that promises game-wide improvements and the non-player characters surprisingly absent from the initial wasteland adventure. I finally got the chance to go hands-on with Wastelanders through a private test server and while it’s not the excellent Final Fantasy 14: A Realm Reborn overhaul the game probably needs at this point, it’s most definitely a small step in the right direction.
When starting Wastelanders, there are two ways to go about it: begin fresh from the Vault, or travel back to Vault 76 using your high-level character. I wholeheartedly recommend using your high-level character for multiple reasons. For starters, there are a ton of Charisma, Strength, and Intelligence dialogue options right from the get go, all of which will be closed off to you in the earlier levels. The second is a very early, very abrupt progression gate tied to your character level, but that’s something I’ll get to in a bit.
You’ll notice immediately that the world is much more populated. From the start, you’re greeted by two women scouting Vault 76’s entrance, claiming to be looking for a treasure. After some back and forth, they gave me my first weapon and motioned me off to a nearby bar to check in with the locals. While it’s not exactly a mind-blowing interaction by traditional Fallout standards, the idea of conversing with folks in a meaningful way nudges Fallout 76 slightly closer to that traditional Fallout experience.
Though there aren’t a ton of NPCs to meet from the start, the ones you do interact with are actually quite charming and memorable. Duchess plays the role of a hardened barkeep looking for a new start very well, and keeping with Bethesda’s tradition of hiring celebrities for their roles, Jaon Mewes’ Mordecai is full of dumb charm. Although Fallout 76 is built in the Fallout 4 engine, the dialogue harkens back to the Fallout 3 and New Vegas days, where engaging with someone kicks in the classic Bethesda slow zoom and background fade. And though your character is still a mute, you’re given with plenty of options to cycle through.
[poilib element=”quoteBox” parameters=”excerpt=Anything%20meaningful%20happens%20in%20instanced%20versions%20of%20the%20world%20to%20allow%20scenes%20to%20play%20out%20as%20intended%20with%20full%20dynamic%20camera%20movement.”]Now, because Fallout 76 is still an active online experience with other players, I was curious how Bethesda would tackle interactive conversations and decisions. While the solution seems fairly simple, it’s elegant in its execution. Essentially, anything meaningful happens in instanced versions of the world, so when you enter a shop or a cave, you and your party are the only ones there. This allows for scenes to play out as intended with full dynamic camera movement to boot.
The Wastelanders story itself is simple but still interesting. Raiders and Settlers are flocking to Appalachia because, frankly, it’s safer than where they’ve been. It’s up to you as a native to warn these newcomers about the scorched threat that plagues the land.
What starts as a linear quest line eventually splits into separate factions, as you complete tasks and daily missions for the two factions, all while earning reputation with them as well. Everyone you meet fits in with the world. I’m particularly drawn to the friendly Settlers who are just trying to keep their people safe while building a new home for themselves in a desolate wasteland. It’s very Fallout. Although, I suppose the Raiders storming in and stealing things by force is also very fitting. Post-apocalypses, amirite?
[poilib element=”quoteBox” parameters=”excerpt=I%20was%20happy%20ignoring%20Fallout%2076%E2%80%99s%20original%20storyline%20until%20Wastelanders%20quests%20came%20to%20a%20screeching%20halt.”]The big bummer you’ll find with Wastelanders is honestly the fact that vanilla Fallout 76 still exists at all. Meeting NPCs in the wild, only for them to nudge you to join the original 76 story line is a bit of a drag. I found it very strange that there are basically two main storylines now: Wastelanders and vanilla. I was happy ignoring Fallout 76’s original “chasing ghosts” storyline in favor of the new Wastelanders one, that was until Wastelanders quests came to a screeching halt just as it was getting exciting, and required me to rank up to level 20. This is where having a high-level character to avoid the abrupt stop comes in handy.
After fun dialogue moments with interesting NPCs and using a trash-talking severed robot head to fight off scorched, I was suddenly dumped back into the not-so-great Fallout 76, and told I needed to stay there for 11 more levels. It was a huge bummer.
I want to meet people, I want to engage in interesting storylines, but now I’m once again taking on menial tasks where I gather water and listen to audio log after audio log from people I’ll never get to meet. These older quests are spiced up however, although usually in minimal ways. For example, clearing the scorched from the Morgantown Airport now ends with you meeting a man who now lives there, claiming he came here looking for his brother and has decided to live where his brother presumably died. It adds a bit of flair but doesn’t drastically alter what was originally there.
Luckily, I am happy to report that once I did get to level 20, Wastelanders took the reins once more and I was thrust back into the post-apocalypse I much prefer to be in. And while I wasn’t allowed to play much beyond opening up the Raiders and Settlers storylines, I’m told from Bethesda that reaching level 20 does, in fact, unlock the full breadth of Wastelanders content.
[poilib element=”quoteBox” parameters=”excerpt=While%20Wastelanders%20is%20definitely%20a%20step%20in%20the%20right%20direction%2C%20it%20doesn%E2%80%99t%20suddenly%20transport%20you%20back%20to%20Bethesda%E2%80%99s%20classic%20Fallout%20experience.”]While Wastelanders is definitely a step in the right direction, it doesn’t suddenly transport you back to Bethesda’s classic Fallout experience. For example, while looking for a gang hideout, I met a father who claimed he didn’t know anything about it. After poking around and speaking to his daughter, I was informed that there was an audio log hidden in the cabin. I found it and discovered the man killed his wife and made a deal with the gang to keep himself and his daughter safe. To my surprise, I was able to confront him about it and he fessed up to his crimes, but when I talked to him again, he resorted back to his normal state of not knowing anything about gang hideout. Wastelanders definitely reminds you that this is a shared-world experience, and you, as one lowly player, are not the center of this world’s attention as you were in previous Fallouts.
Overall, Wastelanders is the jolt of story and interaction that Fallout 76 was desperately missing. Existing characters are more fleshed out, and being tasked to search for someone now occasionally results in you actually finding them instead of just a charred or mangled corpse. The Appalachian roadsides are populated with folks willing to share information on nearby key points that are evolving. For example, I cleared a cave of scorches, and then was told to return a few quests later and discovered the place had now been overrun with mole rats. In this way, what you’re doing actually feels like you have a small impact. Unfortunately, there’s still too much of the old Fallout 76 in here to fully recommend it to folks who were totally turned off by its original form.
But with a full story seemingly ahead of me, and an infrastructure in place to deliver holiday events and additional story content, Fallout 76 is in a better place now than it’s ever been. I just hope that Wastelanders keeps the content flowing, and isn’t just there for little story beats cut interstitially around Fallout 76’s bland original storyline. Time will tell, but as of now, I’m very eager to jump back in and explore this slightly new but very improved Fallout 76.
[poilib element=”accentDivider”] Mark Medina is a huge Fallout fan that can’t wait to explore everything the new and improved Fallout 76 has to offer! You can follow along on his adventures here on Twitter.
Microsoft has announced that its game streaming tech, Project xCloud, will be part of its plans going forward with the Xbox Series X. In a new interview, Xbox head Phil Spencer says that putting the tech to work on consoles just makes sense for discoverability, based on the data it’s seen both with xCloud testing and its Game Pass service.
“The xCloud scenario on a console makes a ton of sense,” Spencer told IGN Unlocked. “One of the things we’re seeing in xCloud today, in the preview, is we watch people sample games. We see that in Game Pass already, even on console. We call it the ‘hummingbird effect.’ People are just willing to try more games, but obviously you have download times. So on xCloud you definitely get people who are sampling a lot more games, and I think that’s healthy for our industry. I want more different kinds of games played, more creators found, more new favorite games.”
He also noted that in the tech preview for xCloud, players can go from watching a trailer to streaming a game almost seamlessly–a feature idea also touted by Google when it detailed its Stadia service. Spencer said that’s also a boon to discoverability.
Though Spencer’s comments tie together xCloud and Game Pass in a philosophical way, the company hasn’t detailed how or if the two services will work together. It may be that Game Pass subscribers will also be able to use the streaming tech to jump into games more quickly, which would make sense with Spencer’s comments about how the two serve similar goals.
Update: Microsoft has now officially confirmed a Steam release for Sea of Thieves, but hasn’t revealed a release date.
An Xbox Wire post didn’t adda release date or a price, but it did confirm that the game will feature cross-play with Xbox One and Windows Store versions:
“We’re happy to confirm that cross play will allow Xbox One, Windows 10 and Steam users to adventure together when Sea of Thieves launches on Steam, letting you assemble your perfect pirating crew, whatever their preferred platform.”
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Original Story: Sea of Thieves has received a Steam store page, without any formal announcement of the move from Microsoft.
Rare’s seafaring adventure was previously only available on PC via a purchase from the Microsoft Store or through the Xbox Play Anywhere scheme, which meant that if you purchased the game on your Xbox console, you could also play the game on your PC. The game is also part of the Xbox Game Pass for PC library, for those of you with an active subscription.
Other Xbox Games Studios games have arrived on Steam in the past, most recently Ori and the Will of the Wisps and Halo: The Master Chief Collection.
It appears to be part of Microsoft’s ‘Play Anywhere’ service-led strategy, which has famously eroded the barriers of platform exclusivity over the past few years, perhaps most notably with Ori and the Blind Forest Definitive Edition and Cuphead launching on the Nintendo Switch.
To celebrate the launch of Persona 5 Royal on PS4, video game collectible and apparel retailer Fangamer is holding a Persona merch sale. The sale runs until April 7 and features discounts on officially branded T-shirts, hoodies, keychains, buttons, and more. You can check out the full Persona 5 merch sale at Fangamer and take a peek at some of the highlights below.
If you haven’t picked up your copy of the game yet, check out our Persona 5 Royal buying guide that outlines the various editions available for purchase. Also, you can snag all of Persona 5’s DLC for free if you purchase Royal. PS4 users have an exciting couple of weeks on hand when it comes to Japanese RPGs. Final Fantasy VII Remake releases next week, and there’s some pretty cool merch for Square Enix’s long-anticipated remake as well.
Velvet Room hoodie | $44 ($54)
The lone official Persona 5 hoodie at Fangamer
Featured in every Persona game, the Velvet Room is the space between consciousness and subconsciousness. This zip-up hoodie has an embroidered Velvet Room crest on the back and a custom zipper. You can pick it up for $10 off right now.
Big Bang Burger T-shirt | $20 ($24)
“Do you have the guts to take the Big Bang Burger Challenge?”
Naturally, Big Bang Burger is home to comically large burgers. Not only is it a great place to boost stats in Persona 5, it makes for a stylish shirt. The front of the tee has the Big Bang Burger logo, while the back nods to the in-game challenge you take on. This fun T-shirt is on sale for $20 right now.
Queen of Justice long-sleeved shirt | $30 ($39)
Makoto has her own long-sleeved shirt that’s on sale for $30 right now. Along with the cool graphic, her “Queen” codename is emblazoned across one of the sleeves.
Morgana socks | $13 ($16)
Morgana is a cool cat
I’ve been thinking way too much about Tiger King lately, so when I first saw these Morgana socks, I started muttering, “Hello all you cool cats and kittens” in my best Carole Baskin impression. The little cat ears at the top are what make these socks so cute. You can pick them up for $13.
Sticker sheet set | $9 ($12)
Two Persona 5 sticker sheets
Decorate your tech with official Persona 5 stickers. For $9, you get two sticker sheets, each of which comes with 10 stickers.
Phangirls button set | $7 ($9)
This “Phangirls” button set comes with four buttons featuring female characters from Persona 5: Queen, Navi, Noir, and Panther. There’s also a Phanboys button set up for grabs for the same price.
The latest update for Final Fantasy 9 on Steam has seemingly removed the entire game, making it unplayable.
A handful of threads have been made on the Final Fantasy 9 General Discussion board on Steam, with all of them discussing the sudden disappearance of the game. The update, which went live at some point in the past 24 hours, has reduced the game’s file size to zero megabytes, effectively rendering it gone entirely.
Square Enix has not issued official patch notes, but the SteamDB update tracker notes that on April 2 an update removed a long list of files. That long list appears to be every file in the game.
Investigating myself, I’ve found that if you download Final Fantasy 9 from your Steam library, it requests 0 MB of disk space, and downloads instantly (because it pulls down next to nothing). With it installed, you’re able to load the launcher from which you choose screen resolution, but clicking ‘play’ simply shuts the launcher down and nothing happens. Steam itself recognises that the game has closed, and resets its big UI button from ‘Stop’ to ‘Play’.
The PC Final Fantasy 9 community is relatively active, largely due to the fantastic Moguiri mod that makes the game look significantly more impressive than the PC port usually does. But without the actual game files, the mod is – as you’d expect – useless.
Without official patch notes this seems a mistake on Square Enix’s end rather than an actual update. Or it’s a dreadful April Fool’s that deployed a day too late.
Sony has announced that it will be committing $100 million in support of COVID-19 relief around the world. The fund is called the “Sony Global Relief Fund for COVID-19,” with the intention of providing much-needed relief to those in need during this crisis.
Support will be divided into three main areas:
Assistance to individuals engaged in the medical field like doctors, nurses, and first responders efforts fighting the virus on the front-lines.
Implementing new forms of education for children and educators who can no longer attend school and must work from home.
Support for members of the creative community within the entertainment and gaming industries impacted.
Sony has pledged that $10 million of the fund will be sent to medical support, in conjunction with the COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund for WHO powered by the UN Foundation and Swiss Philanthropy Foundation, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). These foundations are devoted to assisting medical professions and workers currently assisting in the effort to prevent the further spread of the virus and contribute to the treatment of the public.
In terms of assisting teachers and children, Sony is looking to explore ways in which the company can leverage the technologies at its disposal in support of educational activities, and to help coordinate with educators to implement these changes in a seamless way.
“Sony extends its condolences to the families of those who have passed away as a result of the COVID-19 crisis, and extends its sympathies to all those who have been impacted. In order to overcome the unprecedented challenges that as a society we now face around the world, we will do all we can as a global company to support the individuals on the frontlines of the battle against COVID-19, the children who are our future, and those who have been impacted in the creative community” said Kenichiro Yoshida, President and CEO of Sony Corporation, in a statement.
Sony also plans to assist those working in the creative communities that have been affected by the pandemic. The company is looking into ways to support creators and artists in these professions, including those who have been impacted by the cancellation of events and work. That includes those who work or participate in music, pictures, games, and animation, along with group companies working in the entertainment industry.
Employees will be able to provide their support, with a matching gift program available to the 110,000 Sony employees around the world.
Sony says it will continue to work with its partners and stakeholders to find more ways to help those in need and further extend these initiatives.
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At this point we know that the day one launch lineup consists solely of Halo Infinite, Xbox’s flagship franchise. When asked about the launch lineup, Spencer skated around the topic, not really confirming anything new, but instead outlining his own beliefs on how Microsoft will be handling the launch. “For the momentum of the platform, it’s not about any one day, it’s about a sustained stream of great games coming from our first party and our third party partners,” he said.
Spencer went on to comment on how he thought the Xbox One had too many games released on the launch day. “It doesn’t really help somebody to have eight games launched on one day, and I think you can pace those out,” he said.
Here are the games we know so far that will be coming to or releasing on the Series X:
As the interview went on, Spencer touched on Microsoft’s various studios working on multiple projects and how they will be planning on announcing titles much earlier in development.
“With more internal teams, we’ll be able to show things that are further out because it is just regretfully it’s a little different internal team and external teams. …Aaron Greenberg (Xbox Marketing manager) and I were just doing the math with Matt [Booty] (Head of Xbox Game Studios) and trying to figure out what is the next show that we would have that we would not be announcing a new game. It’s kind of hard for us to predict, because we just have that many studios.”
“Our first party organization that works with independent studios to ship games under our first-party brand and we unannounced signed things there that we are really, really excited about and that teams really found the rhythm in terms of how they’re working on these games and getting the quality and the shipping. So, I’ll just say that [you] are going to hear a lot more from us in the game space. I know I’ve been saying that for a while, but it’s just the math now says that we have to announce things almost every time we’re on stage, new things, otherwise were gonna be shipping games without ever announcing them.”
The Xbox Series X has no price as of yet, with Spencer saying he is “eyes wide open” in regards to the final retail price of the console. Microsoft will be looking at how Sony prices the PlayStation 5 for release come holiday season 2020.
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The game, which is developed by Tencent’s TiMi Studios in China, recently hit a milestone in Australia: 1 million installs. Chris Plummer, Activision’s vice president of mobile, spoke to GameSpot about this achievement and a lot more about the mobile game in a new interview.
Plummer tells GameSpot that Call of Duty Mobile is resonating globally, but for the Australia audience specifically, he had a message to share: “Personally, I want to thank the Australian fans. You were part of our beta program and really helped us in the lead up to launch.”
Australia and New Zealand are often used as testing grounds for big mobile releases, with publishers testing the game in those relatively smaller countries before expanding worldwide.
Plummer spoke to GameSpot as Call of Duty Mobile welcomes its latest big update, Steel Legion. This new season of content introduces new game modes, a new map, and more rewards to players to earn. There is also a new Steel Legion Battle Pass that adds two very iconic Call of Duty characters: Black Ops 2 protagonist David Mason and Reaper, a highly sophisticated war robot.
The launch of Steel Legion also represents a change for Call of Duty: Mobile in that the game has now shifted to a monthly season model. “We wanted it to be easy for our players to know when a season would begin and end. And then add to that, we wanted to add a light narrative to each season, which you’ll see starting in April with Steel Legion,” Plummer said.
Check out the Steel Legion trailer below, and read on for our full interview with Plummer. He also speaks about the controversial decision to remove Zombies from Call of Duty Mobile, how the game goes about offering fair microtransactions, and a lot more. You can also check out Activision’s blog post here to find out everything that’s included with the Steel Legion update.
GameSpot: 1 million installs in Australia alone is a big number. What do you think it is about CoD Mobile that’s resonating so much with the Australian audience?
Plummer: We’re really excited to see that 1 million milestone and proud that Australian gamers are enjoying Call of Duty: Mobile. I think the game is just resonating with a global audience in general, but we’ve always known that Australians were Call of Duty fans. Personally, I want to thank the Australian fans. You were part of our beta program and really helped us in the lead up to launch.
CoD Mobile is obviously a global juggernaut as well. Are there any other new metrics you can share regarding how successful the game has been on a worldwide scale?
It’s been truly remarkable to see Call of Duty’s rocketing performance, from daily stats to accolades and most importantly to attracting so many dedicated players day in and day out. We are deeply appreciative of the response and are working tirelessly to continue delivering a great experience for everyone playing around the globe.
“Fan feedback has been incredibly positive and humbling. We have been working with our community to deliver the types of items and gameplay experiences they want.” — Chris Plummer
Now that it’s been a few months since release, what are you hearing from fans in terms of feedback, and what are you planning to change, update, or improve on as a result?
Fan feedback has been incredibly positive and humbling. We have been working with our community to deliver the types of items and gameplay experiences they want. Based on their feedback, we are changing the way we are handling our Battle Pass system and making it more thematic and less of a time grind.
The other piece of news you’re announcing is around simplifying the seasonal update cadence. Can you explain your thinking there and what you’re trying to achieve and build upon?
The first thing you’ll notice is that we’ve gone to a monthly season model. We wanted it to be easy for our players to know when a season would begin and end. And then add to that, we wanted to add a light narrative to each season, which you’ll see starting in April with Steel Legion.
One big change for CoD Mobile that was announced recently was that Zombies is being removed. This surprised a lot of people. Can you explain the reasoning behind that decision?
Zombies was a time-limited mode that ran for a few months. We’re discussing the player feedback from that first event and it is our intention to make further improvements to Zombies before reintroducing it. We have other time-limited modes that we want players to experience too. We know that our players really enjoy new ways to play!
Battle royale just came to Modern Warfare in a big way with Warzone. Are you looking to update and expand CoD: Mobile’s battle royale mode as well with new content or features in the future?
We’re always iterating on our Battle Royale game mode. We’ve added new items and new ways to play (i.e. 20 vs 20) and we’ll definitely be keeping BR interesting for our players over the coming months.
For CoD: Mobile, you’ve partnered with Tencent and TiMi Studios. Can you speak more about your relationship with them and how your partnership is going considering they are a team based halfway around the world from you?
Tencent and TiMi Studios have been fantastic partners through the entire development, publishing and live operation phases. Since Call of Duty: Mobile is such a global game, it’s been great having a global perspective from multiple partners. We’re living in the age of connectivity, so geography hasn’t really been a problem for us working with the full team.
Microtransactions generate a lot of debate and controversy, but CoD: Mobile seems to have struck a balance that gamers generally accept and enjoy. Can you talk more about creating the economy and making it feel fair and never pay-to-win?
Ensuring that players have a fair and even playing field was of utmost importance during development and continues to this day. We wanted to be sure that all players will have the same opportunities to win.
Do you plan to make CoD Mobile an annualized series like the mainline console/PC franchise? Or will CoD Mobile live on its own over the years with new updates and seasonal content?
Currently we are focused on continuously keeping Call of Duty: Mobile fresh and interesting so our players will always have something fun to do in-game. As we mentioned early, the new monthly seasonal content should provide many reasons to keep coming back to the game.
You have been in the gaming industry since the ’90s and you have experience across a number of major franchises from a range of big companies. What is it about what Activision is doing in the mobile space with CoD: Mobile and others that makes you excited to be part of the team?
I’ve been a big fan of Call of Duty since the very first version on PC so many years ago. As a game-maker in the same genre space, I always had a tonne of admiration for Call of Duty and how the franchise evolved over time; always delivering that incredibly fun, tight, visceral combat experience. When Activision approached me with the possibility to work on Call of Duty and the mobile business, I was struck by how committed and passionate the leaders were about bringing Call of Duty to mobile in the right way.
The game had to be great and the way we deliver it to players each day needed to meet the high standards of a true Call of Duty experience. Knowing the company and its leaders were as passionate about this and I am, it was hard to contain my excitement. Frankly, it’s just as exciting today, because we have so many cool things in the works and we’re all really energised to be working on such a great game.
April Fool’s Day 2020 has been and gone, and as usual many studios have gotten in on it with fake announcements. But one prank in particular seemed very cruel, because the game announced looked both very good and extremely plausible–Ducktales: Quackshot, from Monster Boy developer FDG Entertainment. But there’s a reason why it looked so professional–it was the result of a real pitch made to Disney.
In a follow-up tweet, in which the studio announced that the game was just a prank, FDG Entertainment clarified that while the game was not happening, it was not for lack of trying. “We worked hard on a legit pitch to Disney but unfortunately never got the license,” the tweet reads. “It would’ve been a shame to bury the material so it became this years #AprilFools. Maybe someday Disney will reconsider?”
Thank you for the overwhelming feedback on our #DuckTales Quackshot screens. We worked hard on a legit pitch to Disney but unfortunately never got the license. It would’ve been a shame to bury the material so it became this years #AprilFools. Maybe someday Disney will reconsider? pic.twitter.com/oLzikKds4u
The concept art captures the style of the Ducktales reboot cartoon, starring David Tennant as Scrooge McDuck. Season 3 of the show begins on April 4.
It’s possible that FDG Entertainment posted this as an April Fool’s Day prank so that Disney could see how sincere the enthusiasm for the game was–the announcement tweet received over 7600 likes.
