Xbox Live Servers Down Right Now [Update: Back Up, But Chat Issues Remain]

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If you’re having trouble logging into Xbox Live, you’re not alone. Microsoft’s online service is currently experiencing issues, which means you may not be able to sign in and access certain games and apps on Xbox One. [Update: It appears the issues have been resolved, although another problem–this one involving issues with party chat–have since emerged. Microsoft says it’s working to address that, but you should at least be able to get online and begin playing games as normal in the meantime.]

The Xbox Live status page, which was last updated at 3:46 PM ET, confirms some core services–such as signing in and managing your Xbox Live account–are “limited.” The latest update reads, “Our engineers and developers are actively continuing to work to resolve the issue causing some members to have problems signing in to Xbox Live. Stay tuned, and thanks for your patience.”

The official Xbox Support Twitter account also tweeted about the login issues, noting that teams are “working on it now.” No timetable was provided for when we can expect the issues to be resolved, but we’ll update this story with any further developments.

Because players are not able to sign into their Xbox Live accounts, they can’t currently play online games like Fortnite or use apps like Spotify and Amazon Video, both of which require you to be logged into the online service.

This story is developing…

New Wolfenstein: Youngblood Patch Makes It Less Frustrating

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If you’re having trouble making it through Wolfenstein: Youngblood, a new patch aims to alleviate some frustration. Available right now on PC and sometime next week on consoles, the latest Youngblood update makes the game easier with the addition of checkpoints, improved companion AI, and more.

Patch 1.0.5 adds a variety of “player-requested features,” including checkpoints in Towers and end bosses, a toggle to remove enemy health bars, and improvements to the companion AI. This last one is important, as update 1.0.5 will now see your AI partner retreat more often when taking damage from large enemies, as well as being able to heal you when you’re downed.

Elsewhere in the patch, Youngblood will see the difficulty of all boss fights adjusted, the “bullet sponginess” of enemies supposedly reduced, an increase in special weapon ammo in the more challenging levels, and more. While the PC version of Youngblood saw 1.0.5 today, and the PS4 and Xbox One versions will see 1.0.5 next week, the Nintendo Switch version will get 1.0.5 sometime “in the following weeks.” You can check out the full update notes below.

1.0.5 follows patch 1.0.4, which dropped earlier this month. That update introduced a host of changes and fixes, including issues surrounding players loading into online matches despite selecting the offline option, padlocked doors being opened from the wrong side, and more. Most significantly, patch 1.0.4 added the ability to pause Youngblood while offline. Since the Nintendo Switch still has yet to get 1.0.4, both updates will be combined in 1.0.5.

In our Wolfenstein: Youngblood review, we said, “Wolfenstein: Youngblood has the series’ signature first-person shooting thrills that’ll have you gladly busting shots and blasting lasers in the face of Nazi trash–and the opportunity to do so alongside a friend. Jess and Soph–and Abby too–learned from the best, and embrace their newfound duty of ridding their world of tyranny while being cool as hell doing it. Youngblood is short, but oh-so sweet.”

Full Patch 1.0.5 Notes

Patch Highlights

  • Adjusted difficulty of all boss fights.
  • Enemies can now have their health bars toggled on or off in the Options menu. (This does not turn off armor types.)
  • Took a variety of actions to reduce the feeling of enemy “bullet sponginess.”
  • An amount of ammo for basic weapons is now replenished after a player respawns.
  • Added more special weapon ammo throughout more difficult areas.
  • Added duplicate tutorial laptops to the game to make 100% completion more attainable.
  • Fixed an issue that could cause some enemies in certain areas to spawn prematurely.
  • Increased the speed of switching between certain weapons to make it easier to adapt to enemy armor types.

Bug Fixes

  • Client players can now explode Host player DKW charges by shooting them.
  • A data tape required to complete the Silent Outpost mission could go missing, preventing completion of the mission. This tape will now appear correctly for all players.
  • Equalized damage modifiers for all weapon classes and upgrades for Host and Client players. Previously a bug could cause one player to do a lot more damage with certain weapon types and upgrades.
  • The “available unlocks” and message could play despite there being active enemies. This will no longer occur.
  • Fixed a variety of timing bugs with completion events that could cause progression not to be saved in certain circumstances.
  • Co-op levers will now work much more reliably when playing solo.
  • Improved sister AI so that she gets out of the way of large enemies more often and improved ability to successfully heal the player when they are downed.

Balance Changes

  • Tutorials not collected by players in Paris Streets sections 1 or 2 will now be present in Paris Streets section 3. This will allow players to backtrack from later sections of the game in order to get tutorials that count towards game completion percentage.
  • Added checkpoints to all Tower mission and Tower Guardian fights. Note that returning to the towers after completing the main missions will not have checkpoints.
  • Players who expend all lives and reset to the latest checkpoint will now find their base weapons refilled to at least 50% of ammo capacity. This will function with all ammo modifier skills and upgrades but does not affect special or heavy weapons.
  • Additional special weapon ammo has been added to all boss and guardian fights.
  • We have doubled the amount of damage done to armored enemies by the incorrect weapon type. This will result in enemies feeling much less absorptive of damage when the player has the wrong weapon equipped. We still highly encourage players to spend their silver to upgrade a variety of weapon types so as to maximize damage to tough enemies.
  • General Winkler has had his health lowered to be more in line with the difficulty of the Zeppelin level.
  • The Bombdog damage has been slightly lowered.
  • The base Shotgun, Autopistol, and SMG damage output has been increased to bring them in line with other basic weapons.
  • Tower Gate Guardians have had their level lowered in all Districts to better reflect the level of enemies inside the Towers. The Towers are still intended to be played by players level 20 or higher.
  • Added the ability to toggle “iron sights” on/off. This option can be found in the Controls menu.
  • Lowered controller rumble on Xbox One.
  • Added the option to turn off enemy health bars to the Gameplay options. Note that this will not turn off armor barriers or enemy level, so we recommend players have a high degree of familiarity with enemies before turning health bars off.
  • Added more than 20 additional duplicate tutorials to the Districts to allow for easier game completion as well as better coverage for new players.
  • Added a unique icon for Tutorial Computers when player has the correct Secrets Collector upgrade.
  • Lowered Lothar’s healthpoints during the “Penthouse” stage of the boss.
  • Made a variety of changes to Lothar’s accuracy and damage during his final stage.
  • Added an alarm and audio cue for the 4th Reich jet planes during the Lothar fight to give players more of a chance to dodge or shoot down the planes.
  • Reduced the number of missiles during the Lothar flight stage.

Control’s Luck And Probability Room Guide

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Night In The Woods Studio Cuts Ties With Co-Developer Over Abuse Allegations

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(Content warning: sexual assault.)

Following serious allegations leveled against Night in the Woods co-developer Alec Holowka, the indie studio Infinite Fall has cut ties and changed its release plans for a physical edition of the game. In a series of tweets, developers Scott Benson and Bethany Hockenberry say they take the allegations very seriously and that they share their fans’ hurt and anger.

On August 27, developer Zoe Quinn detailed sexual abuse and assault allegations against Holowka on Twitter. Though the response from Benson and Hockenberry does not mention Quinn, it does reference “allegations of past abuse” that have come to light this week. Quinn’s statement came alongside a broad range of abuse accusations within the games industry.

“We take such allegations seriously as a team. As a result and after some agonizing consideration, we are cutting ties with Alec,” the studio stated. “We are cancelling a current project and postponing the Limited Run physical release. The iOS port is being handled by an outside company and supervised by Finji and will remain in development.”

The studio goes on to address how people may feel about the game itself, and that this shift in studio roles may impact their plans in other ways. The situation is in flux.

“Thousands of people have connected with Night In The Woods in a very personal way,” it stated. “We can’t tell you how to feel about any of this. Whatever you’re feeling is valid. Your experience with art is yours. What it means to you is yours, regardless of anything else. Going forward, Night In The Woods will be handled by Bethany and I [Scott]. We’re not sure what that all means yet. This stuff takes time.

“Thanks for your support over the years. We’re sorry to even have to say any of this. That’s all I can say at the moment. Thank you for your patience.”

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New Last Of Us Part 2 Footage Shown Before PAX West, But You Can’t See It Yet

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Just before PAX West kicks off this Friday, lucky attendees of the GameStop managers conference got a glimpse of some new The Last of Us Part II footage on PS4.

The footage, supposedly releasing sometime soon, was “very short but [a] great vertical slice of gameplay,” according to Twitter user Gaming Forte. The same user tweeted a picture of the event and later said the bit of footage they saw was centered around stealth and how you can “use Clickers to your advantage.”

It’s unclear how “soon” this new gameplay video will be made public. An event on September 26 called Outbreak Day could be when the video is released, as it serves as an anniversary for the Last of Us universe, but developer Naughty Dog and Sony have yet to confirm anything official.

No The Last of Us Part II news came out of E3 2019 since Sony skipped the event. The last time we saw the game was during E3 2018, when Sony debuted a beautiful–and brutal–slice of gameplay. Things have been relatively quiet for Ellie and her NPC companion ever since.

While director Neil Druckmann left fans with some jokes, no definitive release date or window for The Last of Us Part II has been announced.

Shovel Knight Dig Announced, Has Strong SteamWorld Dig Vibes

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Shovel Knight: Treasure Trove, the full Shovel Knight package including all of its planned expansions, is almost completed. But Yacht Club has now announced the character’s next game: Shovel Knight Dig, a vertical scrolling action game being made in partnership with UK studio Nitrome.

The brief trailer showed a more 16-bit inspired art style, as compared to the original game’s 8-bit incarnation. The action also appears to be largely vertical as Shovel Knight digs his way down into the earth, similar to the SteamWorld Dig games. The official site also states that the stages will be procedurally generated.

The presentation said the game has been in development for more than a year, but still has much longer to go. The first demo will be available at PAX West.

The announcement came as part of a Yacht Club Games Presents presentation, similar to a Nintendo Direct. In it, the indie studio announced more details on the upcoming King of Cards and Shovel Knight Showdown, a release window of December 2019 for those final updates, and it promoted a Shovel Knight board game on Kickstarter.

Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford Accused Of Contempt In Latest Court Filing

Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford continues to be embroiled in legal disputes stemming from a host of allegations made against him over the past few months. Wade Callender, Gearbox’s former legal counsel, filed a motion on Tuesday in Dallas County (Texas) district court for contempt and requested sanctions against Gearbox, alleging “discovery abuse” and failure to produce certain court-ordered documents.

This is the latest filing in a lengthy legal battle between Pitchford and Callender. It started with a filing by Gearbox in November 2018, alleging that Callender “exploit[ed] Gearbox’s generosity and trust for his own personal gain.” Callender responded with a countersuit a month later, accusing the Gearbox CEO of harassing the company’s former general counsel because of his Christian faith. The suit also accused Pitchford of taking a “secret” $12 million bonus as an advance on royalties, and of syphoning profits from Gearbox to fund “Peacock Parties” where adult male guests “reportedly exposed themselves to minors, to the amusement of Randy Pitchford.” There was also the USB drive Pitchford left in a Texas restaurant allegedly containing sensitive corporate information from the studio and its business partners–such as 2K Games, Take-Two Interactive, Sega, Sony, and Microsoft–as well as “underage pornography.” Ten days after the filing, Gearbox sued Callender for fraud and breach of fiduciary duty.

“Callender believes he can prove that GBX (Gearbox), and their lawyers, continue to violate this Court’s order and hide documents,” the most recent filing reads. “Enough is enough and GBX needs to be held in contempt and sanctioned for this behavior.” This follows months of back-and-forth legal disputes between the two parties. Callender served Gearbox with a set of eight interrogatories in February of this year, which the Borderlands developer responded to in March with a one-page document. Callender claimed a deficiency in this response and requested an amendment. After a week with no response, Callender filed a motion to compel Gearbox to respond to the deficiency letter. Gearbox agreed to provide amended interrogatory responses by July 3, but a later 30-day extension pushed this back to August 2.

When the latest deadline arrived, Gearbox provided their response, which included text correspondence between Pitchford and a “member of the press that he had podcast with” in which the two discuss the aforementioned USB drive. Pitchford appeared on the December 22 episode of the Piff Pod podcast one day after Callender’s suit was filed. During the conversation with comedian and fellow magician, host John van der Put, Pitchford mentioned the USB drive contained “barely legal pornography.”

“In response to ‘Is the USB stick falling out or has the internet moved on now?’, Pitchford replied ‘Internet is fine. All they care about is if my next video game is good or not.’ It comes as no surprise that GBX did not want to disclose this very telling document,” the latest filing claims.

The allegations claim the USB stick was discovered at a Medieval Times restaurant in 2014, in a location a stone’s throw away from Gearbox’s Plano, Texas, headquarters. During this time, Callender and other Gearbox counsel were mediating the Aliens: Colonial Marines class-action; another case where Pitchford’s conduct has been controversial. Earlier this year, Pitchford was involved in another dispute with former Gearbox vice president (and the original voice of Borderlands’ Claptrap), David Eddings. After Pitchford called him “bitter and disgruntled,” Eddings spoke up and accused the Gearbox CEO of physically assaulting him in a hotel lobby during GDC 2017, along with numerous other allegations.

On Monday, ahead of Callender’s official filing, the Dallas County Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals denied Gearbox’s request for relief. The company claimed the “trial court abused its discretion by overruling numerous objections to requests for production of documents and compelling production of certain documents.” The appellate court stated that Gearbox “have not shown they are entitled to the relief requested.”