Fallout 76’s New Survival PvP Mode, Next Patch Detailed

Bethesda has a number of new features in the works for Fallout 76 this year, including a more competitive type of PvP mode. The developer has shared some new details about this mode in its latest blog post, along with an early glimpse at what’s coming in the game’s next update.

Dubbed Survival, the new mode was devised to offer players a much more challenging PvP experience. “Since the launch of Fallout 76, we’ve received lots of feedback from some of our more competitive players who requested greater challenge, fewer restrictions, and more incentives when it comes to PVP combat,” Bethesda wrote. “With this in mind, we began developing Survival mode, which will bring a new way for you to engage in even more demanding, high-stakes, and deadly adventures in Fallout 76.”

When Survival launches in beta later this year, players will be able to choose between it or Adventure mode–the standard Fallout 76 experience–when they boot up the game. Both modes will feature the same quests, events, and story, but Survival eschews the restrictions that previously governed PvP encounters. All players outside of your teammates will automatically be flagged as hostile, and you won’t need to retaliate against another player to initiate a battle.

There will also be some steep penalties and rewards in this mode. Bethesda says it will continue to tweak these rules based on player feedback, but when Survival first launches, players won’t be able to use the “seek revenge” respawn option; instead, they’ll only be able to respawn at their CAMP or Vault 76. If you kill another player, you’ll receive twice as many Caps, and there’s a chance they’ll drop their Aid alongside their junk.

Bethesda is planning to roll out the Survival beta in March. In the meantime, the developer has another patch coming at the end of January. This one will fix another “massive round” of bugs and make a handful of gameplay and quality-of-life tweaks, like the addition of a “(Known)” tag for recipes and plans that you’ve already learned. You can read more on Bethesda’s website.

Overwatch Lunar New Year 2019 Update Outline New Buffs And Nerfs

Overwatch has kicked off its Lunar New Year 2019 event, marking the Year of the Pig. It brought the usual spate of nifty new skins and the return of a favorite game mode, while at the same time introducing a set of balance changes. As detailed in the latest patch notes, these mark some significant changes to particular characters.

First, though not tied to any changes, armor will now reduce damage to 3 instead of 5, capping at half. Blizzard notes that this will mostly impact heroes who fire in bursts. As an example the studio cites Soldier 76’s Heavy Pulse Rifle, which will do 16 damage per shot instead of 14. It says that armor was just “a bit too strong overall, especially when heroes were being healed quickly and often.”

Meanwhile, two characters have had their abilities slightly tweaked to nerf them. The armor from Brigitte’s Rally has been capped at a maximum duration of 30 seconds. D. Va’s Defense Matrix cooldown has been increased from 1 second to 2 seconds. In both cases, the change is aimed at giving opponents a chance to respond around the triggering of the abilities.

The one character to have gotten a buff was Reaper, whose passive life steal ability has gotten a big boost from 30% to 50% of damage dealt. “This change allows him to keep the pressure up while he’s dishing damage to his enemies,” Blizzard notes. “The added life steal is particularly effective against tanks, as they tend to do less damage than other heroes, and also take more damage from his Hellfire Shotguns due to their larger hit volumes.”

These changes come along with a wide array of bug fixes. The Lunar New Year event brought back the capture the flag mode and older Lunar New Year cosmetics, along with a bunch of new skins for this year. Those include the Legendary skins Lu Bu Reaper, Huang Zhong Hanzo, Guan Yu Reinhardt, Zhang Fei Torbjorn, Zhuge Liang Zenyatta, and Hong Gildong Tracer, plus the Epic skins Sanye Orisa and General Brigitte.

Fortnite – Season 7 Week 8 Secret Banner Location Guide

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Fortnite Week 8 Secret Banner Location Guide (Season 7 Snowfall Challenge)

Season 7 of Fortnite may be winding down, but a lot has been happening in the lead up to Season 8 of Epic’s popular battle royale game. On top of the ongoing Ice Storm event, which introduced its own set of daily tasks to complete, Epic has now rolled out Week 8’s challenges across all platforms, the trickiest of which has players searching between a hatch, giant rocky lady, and a precarious flatbed. Per usual, completing these tasks will reward you with Battle Stars, which in turn will level your Battle Pass up and unlock Season 7 cosmetics and rewards.

Getting your hands on this season’s new items is a good incentive to complete as many challenges as you can, but if you manage to finish all of the tasks from a given week, you’ll also complete a Snowfall Challenge. Doing so will unlock another bonus: a special loading screen that features a subtle clue pointing you to a free Battle Star or Banner–depending on how many weekly sets of challenges you’ve completed–hiding somewhere around the island.

If you’ve finished eight weeks’ worth of challenges, you’ll receive the loading screen pictured below. This one depicts the Ice King, who recently emerged from the mysterious icy sphere above Polar Peak and blanketed the entire map with snow, standing atop a tower overlooking the island. If you look closely just beneath the Ice King’s right leg, you’ll see a set of coordinates–A8, B8, A9, and B9–etched into the tower.

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The spot where the coordinates meet is where you’ll find the secret Banner. A quick look at the map reveals that the area in question is a snowy field just south of Frosty Flights. Make your way to the location and the Banner will appear. Collect it as you would any other item, finish the match, and you’ll be able to use the Banner as a new profile icon. You can see its exact location on the map below.

Of course, the usual caveats apply when it comes to this free Banner. The item will only appear in the game if you’ve completed the requisite number of weekly challenges and unlocked the special loading screen above; you won’t simply be able to go to the right area and find it unless you’ve first put in the necessary work.

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Only a few weeks remain in Season 7 of Fortnite, which means there’s only a little time left to complete any remaining challenges from this season. If you need some assistance, we’ve put together helpful tips on the trickier tasks in our complete Season 7 challenges guide. You can also use the links below to see where all of this season’s other free Battle Stars and Banners are hiding.

Fortnite Season 7 Snowfall Challenge Guides

Anthem Adds a Social Hub

The lead producer on Anthem has revealed a new social area that has been implemented following player feedback.

The new Launch Bay is an area where players can “hang out… use the forge, reload and grab a new contract,” according to a tweet from BioWare’s Michael Gamble.

He went on to explain that once a mission is wrapped up, players can choose to go to the NPC-centric Fort Tarsis. In regards to implementing the Launch Bay using player feedback, Gamble added, “We figured that we could show you BEFORE launch how we plan continue to be AFTER launch.”

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Survive The Horrifying Black Death In A Plague Tale: Innocence, Coming This Year

Asobo Studio has released the first video in a web series to promote its upcoming game, A Plague Tale: Innocence. At the end of the video, Asobo announces that A Plague Tale will release on May 14.

The video also details the backstories for its protagonists, as well as how their journey will change them. As the name of the game implies, the core theme of A Plague Tale is innocence, and the game’s young heroes will face the loss of theirs as they overcome numerous hardships, such as the act of needing to kill other people. In order to make this theme come through the game, Asobo made sure to recruit actors that closely matched the age of the characters they voiced, and tried to incorporate phrases and words that a teenager and child might use as opposed to an adult.

A Plague Tale is a puzzle survival game that has you control Amicia, a teenage noblewoman, as she and her younger brother, Hugo, try to survive 14th century France–a time when the Black Death was sweeping across Europe. How far Amicia is willing to go to both survive and protect Hugo is up to you, with the noble girl able to use her trusty sling to knock out enemies or kill them in gruesome ways. One of the more horrifying means of dispatching enemies is using fire to redirect plague rats at them, as the hungry mass of rodents will eat anything, whether it’s alive or dead.

Asobo Studio’s A Plague Tale is one of the big new games coming out that we think you should look out for. The developer behind the game has been responsible for contributing to a wide variety of titles, including the Xbox 360 port of The Crew and the creation of both the world and enemies in ReCore.

A Plague Tale: Innocence is scheduled to release for Xbox One, PS4, and PC.

Avengers: Infinity War And Black Panther Helped 2018’s Box Office Recover – GameSpot Universe News Update

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Nearly Half of Game Industry Professionals Say Workers Should Unionize

A recent report suggests that nearly half of game industry professionals think workers should unionize, though less believe this will actually happen.

This data comes from GDC’s State of the Game Industry 2019 report, which polled nearly 4,000 developers, giving an indicative, but not perfectly accurate, look at how many developers around the world feel about this and many other issues. Specifically, when asked “Do you think that workers in the video game industry should unionize?” 47 percent answered Yes, 26 percent answered Maybe, 16 percent answered No, and 11 percent answered I Don’t Know.

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The Punisher Season 2 – Spoiler Review And Easter Eggs

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Netflix’s She-Ra And The Princesses Of Power Season 2 Is Coming This Year

A second season of She-Ra and the Princesses Of Power has been announced. The Netflix exclusive will be returning this year on April 26.

She-Ra and the Princesses of Power is a reboot of the 1980s She-Ra: Princess of Power, which is a spin-off of the popular He-Man and the Masters of the Universe series. The new Netflix animated series is helmed by Noelle Stevenson, with protagonist Adora and antagonist Catra respectively voiced by Elena of Avalor’s Aimee Carrero and Steven Universe’s AJ Michalka.

In Season 1, She-Ra and the Princesses of Power follows the adventures of Adora, a young woman raised by the Evil Horde. Adora leaves behind all she knows after meeting and befriending rebel fighters Glimmer and Bow, both of whom show Adora the horrors that the Horde have enacted on the rest of the world of Etheria. Armed with a magical sword that can transform her into an amazonian warrior known as She-Ra, Adora sets out with Glimmer and Bow to create an alliance amongst Etheria’s princesses to defeat the Horde. All the while, Adora’s childhood friend Catra–feeling betrayed after being left behind–enacts a plan to rise within the ranks of the Horde and destroy the Princess Alliance.

Although the first season ended with the immediate threat thwarted, there are still several storylines that have yet to be addressed. Hopefully Season 2 continues most of these lingering threads. She-Ra and the Princesses of Power developed a fierce fanbase with its first season, with most critics pointing to the show’s diverse cast of characters and portrayal of Adora and Catra–whose relationship fluctuates between friendship, bittersweet love, and murderous intent–as the highlights.