biteho.com

Media Molecule has announced that early access to Dreams, its upcoming PS4 exclusive, will be available from April 16. Like the studio’s Little Big Planet series, Dreams enables players to create unique gameplay experiences as well as play what Media Molecule and other players have created. The early access part of Dreams will be limited to the creative tools, the studio said on the PlayStation Blog.

“The core of Dreams–the creation bit–is ready,” explained studio director Siobhan Reddy. “There is so much we want to do with and add to Dreams–but to start, we want players to be able to see their creations on their own TV screen and be able to have all the tools they need to make games or stories or art or music accessible from their couch.

“[Early access] won’t feature everything that the full release will have (our story mode being a big piece of that) but you’ll get our full tool set for creating, our interactive tutorials and arcade games, templates and additional content created by Media Molecule and access to what you, the CoMmunity, made during our Dreams Creator Beta. You’ll also be getting the first hands-on with new features and content as we add them.”

Early access is an opportunity for players to offer feedback to the developer, and Reddy said Media Molecule plans to make Dreams “an amazing space for creators and players alike for years to come.” Anything created in the early access will carry over to the full game.

The early access version of Dreams will cost $30/£25/CAD$40. It will be available in the US, Canada, and all European territories. Those that purchase the early access version of Dreams will get the full version when it is released. Media Molecule and publisher Sony have not yet provided a release date for the full version, however.

Media Molecule has also said that early access is limited, in terms of the amount of people that can purchase it. Although it added that “it’s a big limit,” the studio suggested players purchase as soon as possible to avoid disappointment.

Dreams had a beta in January and players were immediately coming up with interesting ways to use the game. One person, for example, created a battle royale-style game inside Dreams. Another remade Konami’s P.T. within the game.

Fortnite Season 8 seems to be whizzing by, as we’re already in Week 5. For those with hopes of unlocking everything the Battle Pass has to offer, the clock is ticking. Luckily for you, there’s a way to speed the whole process up: doing challenges. Every week developer Epic Games updates Fortnite with a fresh set of tasks for you to complete. Doing so unlocks Battle Stars which levels up your Battle Pass and makes cosmetics available.

As always, there are two categories of challenges. The first is available to everyone playing the game, while the second is exclusive to those that have spent V-Bucks on a battle pass. Below you’ll find a list of everything that you need to do in both categories.

First up is the free challenges. As part of this players will need to deal damage with scoped weapons, search chests in Paradise Palms or Shifty Shafts, and complete a lap of the race track in Happy Hamlet. If you’ve got the premium Battle Pass, you’ll need to use the Bouncy Ball toy and get 15 bounces with it.

You’ll also have to complete a three-stage challenge that begins with getting shields from Mushrooms, and once that’s done further stages will be revealed. You’ll also need to use a Volcano Vent, a zipline, and a vehicle all in the same match, and head to pirate camps to take out three enemies. Take a look at the full list of challenges below.

Fortnite Season 8, Week 5 Challenges

Free

• Deal damage with Scoped Weapons to opponents (200) — 5 Battle Stars
• Search chests at Paradise Palms or Shifty Shafts (7) — 5 Battle Stars
• Complete a lap of the Race Track in Happy Hamlet (1) — 10 Battle Stars

Battle Pass

• Get 15 bounces in a single throw with the Bouncy Ball toy (1) — 5 Battle Stars
• Stage 1 of 3: Gain shields from Mushrooms (50) — 5 Battle Star
• Use a Volcano Vent, a zipline, and a vehicle in the same match (3) — 10 Battle Stars
• Eliminate opponents at Pirate Camps — 3 Battle Stars

Deal Damage With Scoped Weapons

This one is fairly obvious: grab yourself a weapon and make sure it has a scope. Once you’ve got one of those you’ll need to land 200 points of damage on opponents, and in return you’ll be rewarded with five Battle Stars. Fortnite has scoped sniper rifles, assault rifles, and a scoped revolver. For our money, we recommend looking for an assault rifle, as it’s the most common and also much easier to land shots with.

Search Chests At Paradise Pals or Shifty Shafts

Again, another fairly obvious one. Drop into one of those two locations and, to speed things up, look for an elevated position. From there you should be able to spot nearby treasure chests that you can search. However, be careful as both these areas will likely be crawling with other players also looking to complete the challenge. If you’re able to get there with a scoped rifle and are feeling confident, you could engage enemies and kill two birds with one stone.

Complete A Lap Of The Race Track In Happy Hamlet

This is a nice, easy breezy challenge that lets you have a bit of fun. Happy Hamlet is located at grid reference D9 on the Fortnite map. Drop there, hop into a vehicle, and do a quick lap. Done!

Get 15 Bounces With Bouncy Ball Toy

If you head to your emote locker you’ll be able to select the bouncy ball and throw it for a good time. The easiest way to complete this challenge is to grab the resources necessary to build a high ramp, build up, and once you’re relatively high in the sky, just throw down the bouncy ball and let physics take care of all the hard work for you. Alternatively, just build a 1×1 structure around yourself and throw the ball–even easier.

Gain Shields From Mushrooms

Mushrooms are consumable items in Fortnite that you’re most likely to encounter in the dense forest areas of the map. We recommend heading to Wailing Woods, Dusty Divot, and Shifty Shafts to find them. However, given that they’re relatively prevalent throughout the map, it’s probably easier to just get on with the other challenges and keep your eyes peeled for them as you’re out on your adventures.

Epic Games also recently released update 8.20 for Fortnite. It introduces a new limited-time mode that tasks players with avoiding lava that is constantly rising. There’s also a new trap weapon and a number of other tweaks to the way the game plays. Check out the full Fortnite 8.20 patch notes to see everything included in it.

In February it was announced that Kaz Hirai, who led the PlayStation business before being promoted to CEO of Sony, would step down and transition to the role of director, chairman. Now, Sony has announced that Hirai will be retiring from those roles effective June 18. Hirai will serve as senior advisor for the company and “will continue to provide counsel as requested by Sony’s management team.”

In a statement, Hirai lent his support to Kenichiro Yoshida, who replaced him as CEO of Sony on April 1. “Since passing the baton of CEO to Yoshida-san last April, as Chairman of Sony, I have had the opportunity to both ensure a smooth transition and provide support to Sony’s management. I am confident that everyone at Sony is fully aligned under Yoshida-san’s strong leadership, and are ready to build an even brighter future for Sony.

“As such, I have decided to depart from Sony, which has been a part of my life for the past 35 years. I would like to extend my warmest gratitude to all our employees and stakeholders who have supported me throughout this journey.”

Yoshida added: “Hirai-san and I have been working on management reforms together since December 2013. While he will be retiring from both Chairman and our Board of Directors, we look forward to his continuing high-level support to Sony’s management that encompasses a breadth of diverse businesses.”

Hirai was instrumental in launching the PlayStation 2 and PlayStation 3, and went on to become CEO and president of Sony. In February, the PlayStation business had a management reshuffle, with Jim Ryan being appointed president and CEO of Sony Interactive Entertainment.

2019 is set to be quite a different year for the PlayStation division, particularly in the way it communicates and promotes its products to its audience and the wider gaming community. The company has pulled out of E3, where it traditionally debuted and showed off its biggest upcoming games.

Fans are looking to PlayStation Experience to be the tentpole PlayStation event for 2019. Sony opted to skip PlayStation Experience in 2018, so many are hoping to see it return this year. However, as of yet Sony hasn’t indicated it has plans to host the show.

Sony has kicked off State of Play, however. This is a series of smaller, streamed showcases in the same vein as Nintendo’s Directs. The first one yielded a new Iron Man VR title, as well as information on No Man’s Sky VR and Mortal Kombat 11. You can read all the news from Sony’s first State of Play to catch up on what happened.

Sony has said State of Play will return throughout the year to deliver updates on key titles. While the first episode wasn’t exactly a barnstormer, the company has a number of big games on the way, including Death Stranding, The Last of Us: Part II, and Ghost of Tsushima, so upcoming episodes stand to be much more exciting.

Larian Studios has announced Divinity: Fallen Heroes, a new standalone game that acts as a sequel to Divinity: Original Sin II. Fallen Heroes has been developed in co-production with Logic Artists, a studio known for creating strategy RPGs such as Clandestine and Expeditions: Vikings.

According to a Larian Studios press release, in Fallen Heroes, you’ll delve “deeper into the world of Rivellon as you command your troops aboard the Lady Vengeance. Explore new lands and wield new weapons and skills. Build your squad and vanquish never-before seen corners of Rivellon.” The game will feature both single player and two-player coop.

Several characters from Original Sin II return to help you fight on your quest, including Malady, Fane, Ifan, Lohse, Sebille, Red Emperor, and Beast. Combat is tactical, forcing you to make calculated decisions on the battlefield and challenging you to strategize prior to every encounter. The hub you’ll return to between missions is a flying battleship called Lady Vengeance. It’s there you’ll manage your crew, influencing their relationships in how you interact with them.

Fallen Heroes introduces gun powder into the world of Divinity, allowing characters to wield firearms for the first time in the franchise. A new surface, called Sulfurium, has been introduced as well. Read more about the game from Larian Studios’ synopsis below.

• Play with mysterious hero character Malady for the first time in a Divinity game, as well as an all-new character. Or take control of the famous Godwoken.
• Select from 30+ different unit types to create the perfect squad and equip them with over 200 skills
• Decide which technology to research and what artifacts to obtain to give your troops that extra oomph
• Unlock devastating source powers for your flying battleship, The Lady Vengeance, that will turn the tide of battle
• Recruit unique veteran troops but be careful: if you lose them in battle, they are gone for good!

Divinity: Fallen Heroes is scheduled to release on “multiple platforms” later this year. If you haven’t played it yet, consider picking up Divinity: Original Sin II. In our review, we gave the game a 10/10, and the title went on to be one of our favorites of 2017. It’s definitive edition is also one of our best reissued games of 2018.

We’re in the final days of March, which means two things for PlayStation Plus members: March’s free PS4 games will soon disappear, and another two free games will be available to download in April. Unfortunately, PS3 and Vita games are no longer part of the monthly package, and the latest free pair of games aren’t quite on the same level as March’s fantastic offerings. April’s PS Plus games are The Surge and Conan Exiles, and they’ll be available to download starting April 2.

The Surge is a science-fiction RPG heavily inspired by the Dark Souls series and takes place in a grim, dystopian future where the world has been ravaged by war and environmental diseases. Robots and clones make up a majority of the workforce, so the humans who are left must fight to survive while wearing exoskeleton implants intended to boost speed and strength. Critic Daniel Starkey gave the game a 7/10 in GameSpot’s The Surge review.

“Not everything hits, but The Surge works far more often than it doesn’t, and what it does change is mostly better executed here than in its forebears,” Starkey wrote. “Deck 13 has crafted a satisfying adventure that breathes new life into a flooded sub-genre.”

Then there’s Conan Exiles, an open-world survival adventure set in the universe of Conan the Barbarian. You play a customizable character who has been rescued by Conan and must now explore the harsh world known as The Exiled Lands. Resource gathering, item crafting, and shelter building all play a role in your quest for survival. However, the game received a 3/10 in GameSpot’s Conan Exiles review–critic James Swinbanks took issue with the game’s multiple bugs, confusing AI, and unexciting combat.

“Ultimately, Conan Exiles is one of the most unsatisfying games I’ve ever played,” he wrote. “Its crafting and resource systems may be dense enough that the ultra-patient could find something to enjoy here, but anyone else would likely walk away with their hands thrown up in defeat.”

That said, both of these games are totally free, so if they sound interesting to you, be sure to download and try them out while they’re available next month. In the meantime, you can still download March’s free PS Plus games until April 2 at 8 AM PST / 11 AM EST / 3 PM GMT (and 2 AM AET on April 3). The two freebies are Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Remastered, the 2016 revamp of Activision’s critically acclaimed shooter, and The Witness, a gorgeous puzzle game set on a mysterious island. Both titles have been enhanced for the PS4 Pro.

Download March’s free PS Plus games:

Most of the tough bosses in Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice are weapon-carrying warriors, who clash blades with you and require breaking through their guard to defeat them. Occasionally, though, you’ll face some huge beasts, like the Blazing Bull or the Great Serpent. The Guardian Ape is another such giant belligerent animal, and it can hit you with a variety of moves from various ranges, making it a difficult beast to best.

You’ll find the Guardian Ape on your road through the poisonous swamps of the Sunken Valley. The boss guards a flower you need to advance Sekiro’s story, so you’ll have to deal with it sooner or later–although if you can bulk up with Prayer Beads or by finishing off other bosses first, you might want to do so. Amping your attack power against the Guardian Ape is very useful, since you’ll have to do a lot of damage to it during the fight.

We’ve got everything you’ll need to know to deal with the Guardian Ape, from its poop-throwing antics to its sword-swinging mayhem. For more Sekiro guides, check out our giant (and growing) knowledge center about the game.

Slash Away To Do Damage

The Guardian Ape isn’t a boss you’re going to parry away at to knock down his posture. Instead, you need to deal damage to lower its Vitality, which means looking for openings to wail away at it with your sword. A lot of those openings are tough to find, and you won’t be able to do much damage. You’ll want to balance between being close to the Guardian Ape, so you can get in and do damage, and staying clear of some of its tougher moves. Stay at mid-range, and use the whole arena to get away from moves you can’t handle, while staying away from the walls so you don’t get hemmed in.

Be Sure To Parry

Just because the Guardian Ape isn’t using a blade doesn’t mean you can’t parry its attacks. In fact, the Guardian Ape is too quick and its arms too long for you to avoid most of its strikes; parrying is the only real way to stay in the fight and to keep close enough to do damage. The best time to attack is after the Ape’s big four-move combo–it starts with a swing from each arm, followed by an attack that’ll push you pretty far away, and ending with the Ape leaping in from above. Parry all of them, but especially the last two, and you’ll open up the Ape for a counterattack. This is one of your best opportunities to deal damage. Another is after the vertical swing the Ape does, in which it follows through to land on its back and flail around like it’s throwing a tantrum. Sprint around toward its head and get in a few attacks as it finishes rolling around, then get clear.

Grapple In And Go For The Face

One of the best opportunities for damaging the Guardian Ape comes from using your grappling hook. When the Ape stops to roar, it’ll expose the sword in its neck that lets you grab it to swing in. If you have it unlocked, use the Ashina skill that lets you attack after a grapple and you can come in and get two good swings at the boss’s face before you even hit the ground. You can also sometimes grapple in when the Ape is walking around the battlefield. You’ll need to stay relatively close, though, so you don’t miss the grapple opportunities, which are basically free damage.

Stay Away From The Back And Dodge That Poop!

One set of moves will have the Guardian Ape swinging away at you, then coming around into a sitting position with its back to you. That makes a tempting target, but keep your distance, because the Ape has two ways of responding to your presence. The first way is to quickly spin around, pound the ground, and open up with a big swinging attack, all of which you’ll need to block or parry to stay alive. The second is to stand up more slowly and rip off a huge fart that drops green gas all over the area, which is poisonous. It’s better just to stay away.

The fart move is almost always followed by the Ape’s dangerous ranged attack, in which it poops in its hand, leaps into the air, and throws the giant turd in your direction. This is a tough attack because it’ll do quite a bit of damage, as well as potentially hit you with poison. If your poison meter is low, the most reliable way to handle the attack is to block it and take the poison hit. But if you’re risking poison affliction, try sprinting away and hitting the dodge button just as the turd would hit you to avoid it. Be aware that if you stay too far away from the Ape, you’re likely to trigger this attack as well, so it’s better to stay relatively close.

Use The Firecrackers

Most enemies are distracted by the Firecrackers prosthetic, and it’s very effective against animals like the Guardian Ape. That doesn’t mean it’s foolproof, but you can often interrupt the Guardian Ape’s attacks with Firecrackers, giving you a chance to get in close and knock out a few slashes. Like any boss, be careful not to use the Firecrackers when you’re already vulnerable, as they won’t always stop an attack animation that’s already started. They’re great for getting in a few good hits or for getting a little breathing room to heal.

Watch That Head

Once you lop off the Guardian Ape’s head, you’re actually not done fighting it–you’ll face it in a second round as a headless, sword-wielding monster thanks to its status as an Infested. The head is still dangerous, though. If you stay too close to the Guardian Ape, it’ll smash its head back against its neck and start screaming. The scream is a visible shimmer around the ape and if you’re too close, you’ll take damage–and you’ll experience Terror. If the Terror bar fills up, it’ll kill you, so make sure you get away from the Ape as fast as you can when you see the Perilous symbol appear. The best way is to just sprint directly away; look for the start of the move, which is the Ape starting to bring the head up toward its neck.

The Vertical Slash Gives You An Opening

A few moves are worth parrying to protect yourself or to get an opening, but there’s one key attack that you absolutely want to parry every single time you see it. That’s the vertical smash strike the boss does with its sword. You’ll know it because it’s a bit of a dancerly move, with the Guardian Ape raising the sword into the air and sort of wavering back and forth. It’s a bit of a delayed attack and takes a try or two to get the timing right, but parrying it is essential. A perfect parry on that move will cause the Guardian Ape to pitch forward and fall, lying on the ground for a few seconds so you can slash away at it. If you don’t go for any other attack opportunities, make sure you go for this one. The massive damage you can do will make the fight go pretty quickly.

(Spoilers!) Guardian Ape Redux

Once you’ve beaten the Guardian Ape, you can continue through the Sunken Valley to the poisonous Ashina Depths, where you’ll eventually find a giant cave. Inside is your old pal Guardian Ape, now seemingly forlorn because he has to carry his head around with him everywhere, and yet cannot die. You can fight the ape one last time to get another Memory to increase your attack power.

The fight is broken into two phases. The first proceeds the same as your last fight with the headless version of the Guardian Ape did, and is generally pretty easy–especially if you remember to block the vertical attacks that stagger the boss and let you get in a bunch of free hits.

The second half of the fight is the tough one. Once you land a deathblow on the Guardian Ape, it’ll roar and call in its mate, a smaller brown ape that fights with many of the same moves the original, headed version of the Guardian Ape did. You’re now fighting two enemies at once, but it’s not as bad as it sounds. Target the brown ape, which is much weaker than the Guardian Ape, but try to keep both on your screen as much as you can. Focus on killing the brown ape as fast as possible. You should be able to do it pretty quickly, since the brown ape’s Posture doesn’t recover as fast as the Guardian Ape’s did, and it has much less health. Just do your best to keep the Guardian Ape in your peripheral vision so it doesn’t hack you up while your back is turned.

Once the brown ape is down, it’s a simple matter to finish off the Guardian Ape and land that final deathblow to sever its immortality.

Now that March is just about behind us, Niantic has shared the first details for April’s Pokemon Go Community Day. The monthly event is scheduled to return on Saturday, April 13, and this time around, it’ll feature a rare Dragon Pokemon: Bagon.

All throughout the Community Day, Bagon will appear in the wild in greater numbers than it normally does, making it much easier to add some to your collection. Considering that Niantic typically introduces the Shiny form of that month’s featured Pokemon during each Community Day, you’ll also presumably have your first chance to catch a Shiny Bagon during this month’s event.

Bagon is the base form of the powerful Dragon/Flying Pokemon Salamence, so you’ll want to catch as many as you can during April’s Community Day. If you manage to evolve any into Salamence up to an hour after the event ends, it will also learn an exclusive move, although Niantic hasn’t revealed what that will be just yet.

Like March’s Community Day, April’s event will take place from 3-6 PM local time, rather than the usual schedule it followed. As an added incentive to participate, Niantic is also offering triple the usual amount of XP for capturing Pokemon. You can read more details about the event on the official Pokemon website.

That isn’t the only event happening in Pokemon Go next month. From April 2-9, Niantic is also holding a Bug Out event. During that period, Bug Pokemon will appear more frequently than normal, and Incenses will last twice as long. You’ll also be able to find special limited-time Field Research tasks revolving around Bug Pokemon from Poke Stops.

In the meantime, the Gen 4 Legendary Giratina is set to return to Raids beginning March 28. It will initially appear in its standard Altered Forme until April 2, when it’ll transform into its Origine Forme. A new Limited Research event is also scheduled for March 30. During that, you’ll find special Field Research tasks focusing on Lotad, and you’ll even have your first opportunity to catch Shiny versions of Lotad and Castform.