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It took a bit of experimentation, but I found my ideal way to play Overwatch on Switch: hunched over the console, undocked and propped up by its kickstand, using a Pro Controller. It’s a peculiar setup that feels as awkward as it sounds, but there’s a method to my madness.

The concessions made to get Blizzard’s shooter on Nintendo’s modestly powered hardware are immediately evident. There’s no denying that–unsurprisingly–it doesn’t look or perform as well as its counterparts on other platforms. But while the technical performance on Switch may falter, Overwatch’s core design still shines… under the right circumstances.

Overwatch on Switch bears the familiar hallmarks of a game ported from decidedly beefier platforms onto the less powerful Switch. When docked, the visual blemishes are noticeable, ranging from reduced details in the environment and character models to low-resolution textures and an abundance of jagged edges. Displayed on large screens, the vibrancy of Overwatch’s world and the charm of its characters are diminished.

The game also frequently reminds you that compromises have been made. Often it takes a good few seconds for character models to load in, so you’ll spend the start of each match looking at orbs floating around the spawn room and darting out into the field of battle. The orbs linger just long enough to be noticeable before the models pop in. In more intense clashes, the effects tied to special abilities and weapons become lost in each other. For those not already intimately familiar with the visual language of Overwatch, and thus capable of picking out what’s important in heated moments, that loss of clarity could be frustrating.

These big team battles are usually decisive ones, with their outcomes dictating whether your team or the enemy team goes on to victory. Unfortunately, it’s also here where the dips in performance are most likely to occur. The game runs at 30 frames per second but, under the strain of a chaotic skirmish, that number is liable to drop. Again, in the midst of a crucial push, this can be distracting enough to let victory slip away.

In handheld mode, Overwatch Switch moves a step closer to the experience offered by its counterparts, though it’s a small step. Crammed onto the smaller screen, it goes from just-rolled-out-of-bed to buttoned-up, tucked in, and straightened out. Visual details pop more, the iconic cast of heroes and villains regain some of their panache, and what is there becomes more noticeable than what isn’t. The performance hitches occur much less frequently and those that did happen were more of a flick of the ear than a push of the shoulder. It’s for this reason that I opted for handheld over docked, with my face inches away from the Switch’s screen.

With the Switch in my hands I faced new problems, however. Although Overwatch may be among the most approachable multiplayer shooters on the market, it’s still demanding. Whether it’s Support characters such as Mercy or Ana, Tanks like Reinhardt or Zarya, or DPS like Reaper or Soldier, playing well requires quick fingers and thumbs as much as it does quick minds. After a short play session, holding the Switch in my hands became a hindrance. At the risk of sounding overly dramatic, the thin profile of the device and its hard edges started to press into my palms enough to become a nuisance. The stiff and clicky face buttons felt harsh on my thumbs, and, similarly, the lack of travel on the shoulder buttons sapped all satisfaction from pulling a virtual trigger. The diminutive analog sticks became constrictive, making the act of moving my fingers and thumbs to where they needed to be feel like playing thumb war with the Switch.

I tried using the gyroscope to aim, as well as Joy-Cons for a laser pointer-like control style, but felt they were more of a novelty than a viable way for me to play, owing to the jittery movement and occasional bouts of reticle drift. The former, however, definitely feels like it could be beneficial to someone that sinks in the time to tweaking the settings and finding the sweet spot, then practicing. In conjunction with the more drastic movements from the analog sticks, a gyroscopically-inclined person could fine-tune their aim for precision shots. That person is very much not me, though; I ended up using it primarily to spin around in an office chair in the hopes that my character looked like an out-of-control Beyblade.

Pick up a Pro Controller, though, and playing Overwatch Switch feels natural and comfortable. The controller is ergonomically designed and, as a result, far better suited for fingers and thumbs to dance around as you carefully aim gunfire, launch Ultimate abilities, and frantically reposition your character. And that’s why I found myself hunched over a Switch placed precariously on a table with a Pro Controller in hand.

That’s also when Overwatch on Switch felt most like Overwatch that’s available everywhere else. To be clear, I would not and could not recommend it if the PS4, Xbox One, or PC versions are available to you, but I also can’t deny that I had fun playing. Overwatch remains a thrilling game and, even on the small screen, with bells and whistles binned, I gleefully hooked a Pharah out of the sky as Roadhog, inched forward in my seat as my team fought for that final push of the payload, and held my breath as I desperately tried to take out a Mercy before she could resurrect that annoying Reaper that had been victimizing me the whole game. The fundamental design of Overwatch is so strong that, even in its most compromised form, it still offers a compelling gameplay experience.

The question, however, is if you really need to have it on Switch. If this is your first and only way to play Overwatch, I can’t begrudge you for doing so. It’s one of my favorite games of all time and much of what I love can still rise to the surface when playing on Switch. If you have the ability to play Overwatch on any other platform, however, you should. Those worlds could always use more heroes.

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Dauntless fans, this is your chance to stock up for your next monster hunting adventure. The Timely Arrival packs that are going out to 1,000 readers include:

– 1,000 Platinum

– “Timely Arrival” Arrival Emote

– 50 Ace Chips

– 3 Common Cells

– 2 Rare Cells

– Tonics Bundle

In order to be a lucky winner you have to read the official rules, accept our terms and conditions and proceed to fill out the form below. If you have problems seeing this form on your mobile device please try this link.

Remember to check your email after 9 a.m. PT on Oct. 25 because the winners will receive an email with the code to download the Timely Arrival Pack. The codes are platform agnostic so they are compatible with PC, PS4, and Xbox One.

Head to the comments section and let us know how you are planning to hunt the new Dire Behemoth “Tempestborne Stormclaw.” Good luck, everyone!

Dauntless players won’t be puzzled by this image.

A new chapter of Fortnite has begun. Following Season 10’s cataclysmic “The End” event, which saw the game get seemingly destroyed by a black hole, the battle royale shooter has returned as Fortnite Chapter 2, and it’s introduced a new map, new mechanics like fishing and weapon upgrading, and a whole host of other changes.

One aspect that remains the same, however, is challenges. Each week, players who’ve picked up a Chapter 2 Battle Pass will get access to a new set of challenges to complete, which run the gamut from scoring eliminations with certain weapons to finding a particular item around the map. As usual, clearing challenges will help you level up your Battle Pass, unlocking new skins and other cosmetic items in turn–and this time, it’s even easier to level up the pass.

Chapter 2 may have only just begun, but there are already two sets of challenges to complete, with even more to come each week as the season progresses. You can see the full list of Fortnite Chapter 2 challenges so far below, along with tips and maps showing you how to complete them. We’ll continue to update this list as more challenges become available, so be sure to check back often throughout the season for all our latest Fortnite challenge guides.

Fortnite Chapter 2, Season 1 Weekly Challenges

• Discover Named Locations (10)
• Eliminations at Lazy Lake or Misty Meadows (3)
• Discover Landmarks (10)
• Ride a Motorboat in different matches (3)
• Deal damage with Assault Rifles to opponents (500)
• Search chests at Sweaty Sands or Retail Row (7)
• Eliminations in different matches (5)
• Catch a weapon using a Fishing Rod (1)
• Deal damage with SMGs, Shotguns, and Pistols in a single match (3)
• Carry a knocked player 10m
• Search hidden “F” found in the New World loading screen

Discover Named Locations

The first set of Chapter 2 challenges is fittingly titled New World, and many of the missions task you with exploring the new map. The first asks you to discover 10 named locations. However, the first time you jump into a match, your map will be blank, and the named locations won’t appear until you’ve visited them, which may make this challenge tricky if you don’t already know where to go. To help you out, we’ve marked all the different named locations on the map above in white.

Discover Landmarks

Continuing the theme of exploration, this New World challenge asks you to discover 10 landmarks on the island. This shouldn’t be too hard to accomplish, as there are way more than that scattered around the map. However, you need to visit different landmarks for your progress to count; you can’t simply return to the same ones across multiple matches. If you need help locating some, we’ve marked 10 landmarks in yellow on the map above.

Search Hidden F Found In The New World Loading Screen

Complete eight New World challenges and you’ll unlock a special loading screen, which contains a clue pointing you to the letter F hidden somewhere around the island. The letter can be found near Lazy Lake, one of the new named locations introduced in Chapter 2. The town is nestled in the southeast portion of the island, and the letter will appear on a hill just to its east–you can see the exact location above. If you need more help finding the letter, be sure to check out our full hidden letter F location guide.

• Land at Craggy Cliffs, Salty Springs, and Dirty Docks
• Hide inside hideouts in different matches (3)
• Search chests at Craggy Cliffs or Misty Meadows (7)
• Eliminate opponents with a sniper rifle (2)
• Be crouched within 20m of an opponent for 10 seconds
• Deal damage with pistols to opponents (500)
• Search ammo boxes in a single match (7)
• Get an elimination from 50m or further
• Survive Storm phases (10)
• Deal damage within 10 seconds of leaving a hideout
• Search hidden “O” found in the Open Water loading screen

Hide Inside Hideouts In Different Matches

Despite the set’s name, most of the Open Water challenges revolve around hiding, and one in particular asks you to hide inside hideouts in different matches. Hideouts are a new map feature introduced in Chapter 2, and they come in two forms: dumpsters and haystacks. Both are fairly plentiful around the island. Dumpsters can commonly be found near buildings in major named locations such as Retail Row, Craggy Cliff, and Dirty Docks, while haystacks are most prevalent around Frenzy Farm. Conceal yourself in any hideout in three different matches and you’ll complete the challenge.

Search Hidden O Found In The Open Water Loading Screen

Complete eight Open Water challenges and you’ll unlock another special loading screen, this one pointing to a different letter to find. This time, it’s the letter O, and it’s located in Craggy Cliffs, near the docks in the northernmost portion of the area. Make your way to the area and the letter will appear when you approach. If you need more help finding it, check out our dedicated hidden letter O location guide.

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With the recent release of Destiny 2: Shadowkeep, as well as the free-to-play New Light version of the game and cross-save functionality, Destiny is in a good place. Bungie, freshly independent after splitting with publisher Activision, is looking ahead to the future of Destiny–whether that means expanding Destiny 2 further or developing Destiny 3.

I caught up with Bungie design director Victoria Dollbaum at PAX Australia to discuss where Destiny is at, and where it’s headed. Dollbaum is responsible for overseeing Bungie’s staff as they figure out what the team should be building, how their work serves their goals, and what they need to do to make Destiny 2 as good as it can be for its ever-growing audience.

“I make sure the team is on time and understands what they’re building,” Dollbaum says. “Because sometimes we’ll build things, and we’ll say, ‘Well, the thing we built was cool, but it’s actually not hitting any of the goals that we’ve set.’ So how do we adjust?” Destiny has gone through numerous adjustments since the original game launched, of course, and as new players flood in through New Light, the newly launched free-to-play version of the game, the team has asked themselves what the experience is like for first-time players. “It’s very hard to take the perspective of a person who has never touched Destiny before,” Dollbaum tells me, but New Light has been designed with them in mind.

Now, Dollbaum says, the goal is to keep building, and to try to keep every player on the same page. “Since we’re trying to move towards an evolving world, we want you to come into the present, not the past,” she elaborates. It was important for the team that new players could immediately play with established Guardians without feeling out of place. “You can just go straight into playing with your friends right away, unlock some destination, be the correct level to already start playing with them in the content that they’re in.”

Destiny has also fostered a community that is, by gaming standards, very pleasant, one that Dollbaum says is “pretty open to new players.” Because of adjustments to how ‘Power’ levelling works, Dollbaum says, “it’s actually very hard to tell who the new players are because the game starts everybody off in the same place.” Beyond this, it’s always been important to Destiny’s design to focus on the positives of each player’s contribution: you’re never shown how much damage individual members of your team did to a boss, for instance, because the team wants to make sure that the game does not “incite toxic behaviour”.

Shadowkeep, meanwhile, is “doing really well” from Bungie’s perspective. By coming to Australia for PAX Aus in October, Dollbaum missed the usual excitement in the office over the first Raid being completed and said that she felt a certain anxiety over not being able to play the game that week. “Pretty much everybody (in the office) has their Twitch open and just watching their favourite streamer compete for World First (raid clear),” she says. “Every once in a while, you’ll hear a cheer go throughout the studio when some group beats something.”

It’s also, Dollbaum tells me, exciting to see players “start to interact with this first thread of the narrative that will then lead them on to the next season.” Narrative is a strong focus for Destiny’s future, she tells me, stating furtively that “over time, the story will start to expand… things will happen.” While Dollbaum cannot be too specific about these threads, I was curious to ask her about what the future looks like beyond Shadowkeep. The first Destiny made way for Destiny 2 after releasing two major expansions–will 2 have a longer tail? “We have plans for Destiny as far as the stories we want to tell, whether that means it’s a release like Shadowkeep or Destiny 3,” Dollbaum says. “We don’t have specific plans for any of those things. But we know the story that we want to tell, and we know where we need to go. We’re just going to continue to deliver you guys content that is like Shadowkeep and the seasons following. What form that takes can change.”

With this in mind, I ask if Destiny is working towards a specific end point, or whether there’s a narrative that started in the original game that they’re planning to eventually conclude. “I think there are a couple stories that we’re telling with the characters, but the world is not going away,” Dollbaum says. “There are always stories continuing. There’s no hard end point where we’re like, ‘We’re done with telling the story of Destiny’. We know the threads of the stories we need to tell. And then where they go from that, some of them could end, some of them could keep going.”

Hanging over all of this is Bungie’s split with Activision, and the move towards self-publishing Destiny. “It’s just a new space for us,” Dollbaum says. “We’re learning ways to do things or experimenting with new methods. I think we’re trying to be more honest and open with the community, too. It’s all part of learning what it means to be independent, and the things that we need to do that we used to rely on other people to do for us.” While this might look like a move towards a greater level of freedom, Dollbaum says that “if anything the pressure is just kind of increased because we have high expectations for ourselves, especially now that we’re independent”. But she’s feeling positive about it: “There’s a lot of pressure to build an awesome game that everybody’s going to like, and I think we see that in Shadowkeep.”

In the immediate future, Bungie has some core goals for Destiny 2, Dollbaum tells me. “We have a future and we’re going to build into it,” she says. “It’s about adding more of those RPG customizable elements into the game, so things like the artifact and Armor 2.0 system, allowing players to customize their characters to make your builds different than somebody else’s. And it’s about creating a world that evolves alongside you, so the actions that you are doing are what lead us into the next season, to the next story.”

Destiny 2: New Light and Shadowkeep are available now on PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. Read our Destiny 2: Shadowkeep review, where we explain why the game exhibits “improvements that represent a giant leap forward for Destiny 2.”

Nintendo’s latest hardware has hit a new milestone, in part thanks to the launch of the new Switch Lite. The company announced that lifetime sales of both Switch models combined have hit 15 million units in North America since launch. The company also boasted that it’s been the top-selling console for 10 months in a row, according to the NPD group.

So far, 14 first-party Nintendo Switch games have sold more than 1 million units, and four of those hit at least 6 million. Nintendo also says that the Mario Kart 8 Deluxe and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate set sales records for their respective franchises, both becoming the fastest-selling to date.

The Nintendo Switch launched its original console-handheld hybrid model in March 2017. In September, Nintendo added the Switch Lite model, which removes the console docking functionality, and it sells for a lower cost at $200.

As of July 30, Nintendo announced it had sold approximately 37 million Nintendo Switch units worldwide. As noted by financial analyst Daniel Ahmad on Twitter, the Nintendo Switch hitting 15 million units in North America means its sales in this region alone have topped the Wii U lifetime sales worldwide.

Gacha mechanics and microtransactions in video games are hot-button issues. Developer and publisher Capcom is not too fond of one of these forms of monetization, confirming it “refrains” from including them in its games for the healthy development of the youth.

Gacha mechanics are similar to loot boxes in modern video games. They originate from gachapon, vending machine-style capsule toys popular in Japan, and largely appear in mobile titles. In games, they require real-world money to access and rewards are selected at random. In a recent investor report, Capcom president and COO, Haruhiro Tsujimoto, spoke about gacha and his disapproval of their implementation in the company’s titles.

“Since 2005 Capcom has independently continued literacy and career education support activities to raise awareness about how to properly interact with games in an effort to eliminate the social concern regarding the healthy development of youth with regards to games,” Tsujimoto said. “As a general rule, in our mobile games we refrain from utilizing gacha elements.”

That does not mean Capcom doesn’t offer microtransactions at all. While Tsujimoto notes the company does its best “to ensure that a broad range of customers are able to play safely and fairly,” he does point out that some kinds of monetization still appear in Capcom’s games. “And while we do sell small-scale, inexpensive additional content in games for home consoles, any content that is required to play the main game is provided free of charge.”

Capcom is having a phenomenal 2019 though. Devil May Cry 5 and a handful of Resident Evil games–including Resident Evil 2–saw critical acclaim when they released throughout the year. And games not released in the year, like Monster Hunter: World and Street Fighter V, continue to receive balance tweaks and content updates.

The original Zombieland came out during a different time–a period of ancient history known as 2009. The sequel, Zombieland: Double Tap, is set to hit theaters ten years later to the date–October 18, 2019, the ten-year anniversary of the original’s release. It features the same core ensemble as the original: Columbus (Jesse Eisenberg), Tallahassee (Woody Harrelson), Little Rock (Abigail Breslin), and Wichita (Emma Stone).

But just because it’s been a decade in real time since this foursome was last together chasing Twinkies and bashing undead skulls with banjos doesn’t mean ten years have passed in the series’ fictional apocalyptic world. Luckily, we got the opportunity to chat recently with Zombieland 2’s director, Ruben Fleischer, and writers, Paul Wernick and Rhett Reese, and we asked them how much time has passed since the original–and what that means for the characters.

In the movie itself, it’s never explicitly stated how much time has passed since the events of the original. The most reliable marker we have for the passage of time in the series is Abigail Breslin’s character Little Rock, who’s grown from a young girl (Breslin was 13 years old in 2009) to a young woman who might be anywhere from 16 years old to her early twenties.

But there are other markers of the passage of time besides Little Rock’s age. “We want to leave it a little vaguer in the movie,” Reese told GameSpot. “You get the sense that years have passed. You look at that White House [covered in plant growth], and definitely, years have passed.”

“And you look at Abby and you realize she’s no longer a 12 year old girl, she’s a grown, young lady,” Wernick added.

But although they left it deliberately vague, both writers agree that it hasn’t been a full ten years in-universe. “[Five years] feels a little more right than a full 10,” Reese said, adding that a full ten years would have felt too long for these characters to be together. After ten years, it becomes even more implausible that Columbus and Wichita haven’t had any kids, for example.

“That felt to us like, that’s time that passes that you kind of want to know, well, what happened to this family in those 10 years? What were they doing?” Wernick explained. “Five years, you feel like, OK, yeah.”

One thing you have to keep in mind is that they started working on this script basically a decade ago, when the original movie was still new.

“It took a long time to get the script right,” director Ruben Fleischer told GameSpot. “And so, I think, originally [Little Rock] might have been 17 [in the sequel]…But yeah, it’s never stated, so it’s just kind of whatever you want it to be.”

Fleischer said they used references like Alan Weisman’s book The World Without Us and the History Channel series Life After People to determine how the world would look at this point in their apocalypse–roads overgrown, buildings crumbling, that sort of thing.

But the other big marker of the passage of time is how the characters themselves have changed.

“[Little Rock] wanting to leave the nest and have her own experiences was the biggest change in characters,” Fleischer said.

“We also wanted to take certain things that were associated with certain characters and say something about their characters,” Reese said. “So, Tallahassee gives Little Rock a gun. Shooting and guns are a big part of that relationship in the previous movie, but that was 10 years ago. Now he’s giving her a gun and she’s like, ‘Yeah, another gun, great.’ You realize their relationship’s maybe in a rut. It’s stalled and she wants to move on. She wants to get out of the nest.”

One other thing that’s changed: Zombieland’s humor. Make no mistake, the sequel has plenty of callbacks and references to the original. But the filmmakers were careful not to rehash the same old jokes throughout the entire movie. For example, Double Tap features almost no references to Twinkies–Tallahassee’s obsession in the original–besides a brief shot of a car’s grill ornament.

“We didn’t want to have Twinkies be a whole thing again because after 10 years, there would be no more Twinkies, first off–they don’t last that long,” Reese explained. “They actually do go stale reasonably quickly. I only know this because I used to eat them a lot–I still do occasionally.”

“But then, Columbus is still drinking Mountain Dew Code Red, so we did little homages,” he added.

Read next: Zombie Movies Will Be Around “Forever,” Says Zombieland Double Tap Writer

“There are little Easter eggs,” Wernick agreed. “But the idea was that, when you rely too heavily on the first movie for a second movie, then you feel like you’re treading the same ground.”

Fleischer shared that there was at least one other Twinkies-related joke in the movie at one point, but he cut it because it wasn’t up to snuff.

“We were all really precious about not wanting to do anything that we felt would tarnish the first film,” the director explained. “The bar was very high, and so I think we were all really nervous about doing the second one, because sequels often don’t live up to the original.

“But I think we’re all pretty proud of the fact that this one is a worthy sequel to the original.”

Zombieland: Double Tap hits theaters Friday, October 18. In the meantime, we revisited the original Zombieland recently–check out the 30 Easter eggs, references, and fun facts you might have missed in the original.