The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles have gone through many different forms since their debut in the Mirage Studios comic book series in 1984. And each time there’s a new round of TMNT products, the turtles evolve a little bit. Now, in 2019, Playmates has a new toy line based on the newest TMNT TV series, Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
At Toy Fair in New York, Playmates unveiled the latest set of TMNT figures. It was a pretty hefty reveal, as you can see below. In this upcoming Spring/Fall 2019 line, the 3.25″-5″ figures will cost $9 each and they all come with their own accessories to fight some crime.
From left to right: Leonardo, Donatello, Michelangelo, Raphael, Splinter, and April. However, no TMNT set would be complete without secondary characters and villains for the turtles to beat up. Here is what Playmates has planned for 2019.
From left to right: Foot Lieutenant, Origami Ninja, Meat Sweats, Bull Hop, Baron Draxum, and Albearto. These villains are specific to the 2018 animated series, so fans of the classic TMNT cartoon from the ’80s may not recognize them. However, you cannot deny the fact that Meat Sweats is the greatest name for a secondary villain in TMNT history–sorry Rat King.
There were plenty of reveals at Toy Fair last weekend, from Funko to video game action figures to lightsabers you can hit your friends with. Check out the stories below for GameSpot’s coverage of the event.
Following a partial leak of the upcoming Anthem update, BioWare has released a more extensive list of patch notes and released the update. This “day one patch” will be waiting for players who buy the game on its wide release day, but it’s coming several days into the early access period.
BioWare released the official notes on Reddit. While the original list was lengthy, the new one is even more extensive. It lists more than a dozen new changes, along with minor updates and revisions of some of the tweaks that were already on the list. As before, the high-level fixes focus on load times, crash and loading bugs, and challenge tracking. Other improvements include changes to Strongholds, crafting, the UI, and much more.
Anthem went live on Friday, February 15, for players with EA Access on Xbox One or Origin Access on PC. Both offer a 10-hour trial, and Origin Access Premier granted unlimited access. Those players have been experiencing the game without these improvements for almost a week. The full game will go live at midnight on Friday, February 22, in your local time zone.
“Anthem has good ideas, but it struggles significantly with the execution,” critic Kallie Plagge said in GameSpot’s Anthem review. “It’s a co-op game that works best with no one talking; it buries genuinely interesting character moments and puts its most incomprehensible story bits at the forefront; its combat is exciting until you get to the boss fights and find your wings have been clipped. Even the simple, exhilarating act of flying is frequently interrupted by the limitations of your javelin, and you never quite shake that feeling of disappointment–of knowing, throughout the good parts of Anthem, that you’ll inevitably come crashing back down.”
A number of issues have been fixed that were causing players to disconnect or crash
Weapons and gear now have numbers present for modifiers
General Fixes and Improvements
Loot Reveal and Expedition Summary now correctly play during the end of expedition screen.
The gather party mechanic has been made more lenient in a number of situations
At the end of expedition screen players will no longer get stuck on “Recording Victories” or “Skipping All”.
Game no longer hangs in Javelin menu when unlocking the second, third or fourth javelin
During the mission “What Freelancers Do” dying after killing Junkmaw & freeing Arcanists leaves you unable to progress, this has been fixed
Challenges now unlock for players at the correct levels
Fixed some camera issues during cutscenes
Legendary Contracts can now be accepted from the Social Hub contract board
Some enemies have had their shield values decreased
Loot now properly drops for players who are downed
The texture quality on the NPC Prospero has been improved
Final boss of strongholds now drop loot instead of only being shown on the end of expedition screen
Fixed the time outs on echoes and relics to prevent griefing and to handle disconnections properly
Players can no longer fall through the floor during the 3rd trial in the Fortress of Dawn
Completing the tutorial expedition will now show the correct Ranger appearance
After disconnecting, rejoining an expedition will now place you back into a squad if you were in one previously
Corrected an issue where players could not interact with each other in the launch bay in certain circumstances
Corrected an issue during the Mission “Bad Deal” where outlaws won’t spawn, blocking progress
The start of expedition screen has been improved
Addressed a variety of situations where killing enemies does not properly progress world events
Opening a chest now increments Tomb of the Legionnaire progress for all squad members present
Scar snipers can no longer shoot through Storm Shield
Corrected an issue where players would get stuck on the end of expedition screen in some situations
Players will no longer get disconnected if joining the “Finding Old Friends” mission while the cinematic is playing
Addressed a number of situations where players can get stuck on the environment in the launch bay
Increased the damage of the electric status effect
Corrected an issue where the Shield of Dawn could be crafted with less materials then intended in some situations
The Platinum Mission feat now grants completion as intended
Status effects can more reliably be applied to Titans
Fixed loading animations on Marksmen Rifles
Players can now access the Vault from the Forge
Swimming into jellyfish underwater no longer leaves a visual effect stuck on players.
Idle animations will no longer sync up over time in the Launch Bay
Haluk is no longer dual-wielding canes in the epilogue scene
Corrected an issue where players could not interact with each other in the launch bay in certain circumstances
Fixed an issue that could cause players in the launch bay to have identical emotes and be unable to use them
Interceptor melee ability animations will no longer stretch out in certain situations
Corrected an issue where the default Ranger appearance doesn’t preview in the forge in some situations
All animations now play as intended in the Forge
Players can now enter the Tomb of Gwanes while in a party
The default Javelin wear state has been changed from “Dirty” to “Old”
Sentinel Loyalty 2 text no longer incorrectly states that it will lead to a larger vault
Picking up ammo from the ground now properly gives you 30% of that ammo back into both the current magazine and the maximum spare ammo
Fixed a bug where some global (Javelin Icon) inscription bonuses were not being properly applied to the Javelin and other gear/weapons.
Fixed some issues that could cause the Armor Pip count on the UI to break and not display properly
Strongholds
Fixed an issue that would cause a Stronghold server crash after defeating the last boss
Temple of Scar – Players can no longer get stuck in the mined tunnel in the explosives room
Temple of Scar – Players can no longer be blocked from entering the explosives room due to fog wall
Fixed Tyrant Mine so people that join the stronghold in-progress do not end up locked away from their team
Adjusted lighting in Tyrant Mine underwater section to make it easier to navigate to the exit
The Swarm Tyrant will no longer get stuck in the side cave entrances in some situations
Corrected an issue where players would spawn into different areas of the Tyrant Mine in certain situations
Implemented more safeguards to stop players from going AFK in Strongholds
Challenges
Only Masterwork items can now be used to progress Masterwork challenges as intended
Corrected an issue where some Challenges track progress simultaneously instead of incrementally, as intended. (ex: Blast Missile I and then Blast Missile II instead of both incrementing at the same time
Gear and Weapons
After having 1st pilot unlock suit after tutorials, creating a new pilot and going to forge no longer causes load screen hang
Ice damage bonuses are now correctly applied on ice gear
Suit-wide bonuses from inscription are now functioning properly
Players can no longer salvage equipped items
Javelin specific gear and/or weapons are no longer able to be used on javelins they aren’t intended for
Corrected an issue where in some circumstances Masterwork Components do not have any inscriptions
The Endless Siege Masterwork Autocannon no longer displays a damage increase of 0% in its tooltip
Suit-wide specific weapon ammo bonuses coming from infusions are now correctly applied
A Network Error Message no longer appears when opening an item chest in the second tutorial
Colossus shoulder gear will now share the appearance of the rest of the javelin as intended
Deadeye has increased spare ammo 10 -> 20
Cloudburst has had increased damage 16.3 -> 21
Torrent has had increased damage 22.2 -> 28.6
Lightning Strike’s pre-visualization will now accurately depict that the explosion snaps to the ground.
(Ranger) Inferno Grenade base damage 130 -> 175
(Interceptor) Cryo Glaive base damage 20 -> 50
(Storm) Living Flame base damage 50 -> 60
(Storm) Glacial Beam base damage 150 -> 120
(Storm) Arc Burst secondary damage 100 -> 150
(Ranger) Pulse Blast base damage 225 -> 300, and now deals extra damage to Shields (previously did extra damage to Armored).
(Ranger) Blast Missile now properly scales up in damage as the item level increases
(Interceptor) Melee attacks now have some minor resistance penetration
Large Area of Effect abilities will better register multi-kill activities for challenges and medals
Spark Dash functionality has been significantly improved when the target enemy is at a different height (above/below) the Interceptor.
Several gear pieces that had missing primer or detonator icons have been fixed.
Interceptor
Tempest Strike – Detonator Icon
Spark Dash – Detonator Icon
Venom Spray – Primer Icon
Detonating Strike – Primer Icon
Colossus
Lightning Coil – Detonator Icon
Shock Coil – Primer Icon
Flamethrower – Primer Icon
Several improvements have been made to ensure gear use on PC prioritizes turning the Javelin towards the reticle when used rather than casting in front of the Javelin’s current direction.
Javelins
The Colossus javelin is now able to activate its shield more quickly after using an ability or firing a weapon
The Storm javelin now reacts to getting hit when its shields are up
Fixed an exploit that allowed the Storm’s ultimate attack to be used more times than intended
The Colossus exo can now shield and revive at the same time
Interceptor Combo Aura has been increased in power and now has a damage over time component
Ranger melee now has a cooldown when striking in the air
The Target Beacon ability now correctly seeks targets
Spark Dash and Venom Spray now target based on player cursor instead of character facing. This should also improve the travel path of Spark Dash.
The Colossus will no longer be knocked out of the sky in some situations when the attack was blocked by their shield
Combos + Status Effects
Combo indicator icons above creatures now are correctly removed when detonated.
When a Storm detonates an electric status effect the chained electric effect now correctly deals damage.
Combo damage now penetrates resistances
Crafting
Non-Masterwork materials purchased from the crafting store now show as their proper rarity instead of incorrectly showing as Masterwork
A number of javelin components that had different icons for their recipes and the actual items are now the same
The Battle Cry gear recipe now has the correct description
Fixed Spark Beam gear having the wrong description when being crafted
Crafting recipes are now sorted alphabetically
The items in the crafting store are now sorted by type to be clearer
Controls
Additional Mouse and Keyboard control improvements have been made
UI
Some conversations were not popping up the reputation points post conversation completion, this has been fixed
The squad screen now displays the correct information for each player
Fixed a number of issues where subtitles will no longer get stuck on the screen after dialogue has finished as often
Settings should no longer reset upon exiting and restarting the game on Xbox One
Motion blur can now correctly be turned off
The Electric Status Effect now shows scaled damage properly
An option has been added to hide the Squad Member HUD
The edge of the compass will now pulse to indicate enemy locations
A notification has been added in Fort Tarsis if a player’s vault is at the cap of 250 items
On the “Repair the Strider” step of “A Cry for Help” the search radar has been adjusted to correctly lead the player to all 4 tools
Primer and Detonator icons have been added to all Interceptor gear
Corrected a user interface issue where a player’s ultimate would show as available when it isn’t
Toggling the HDR option now properly prompts the Apply Changes button
Player banners should now display correctly
Camera shake slider has been added to settings menu
Players may now track 10 challenges instead of 5
An option to adjust screen boundaries on consoles has been added
Changing a player banner through the banner menu now properly saves the selection
Health, cooldowns, and key bindings now light up on supported keyboards
Players will now receive more clear messaging when a squad is disbanded or are kicked from a squad
Squad leaders will no longer always show as ready
The icon for players in a downed state will no longer appear in cutscenes
Cypher Annotations will now appear for more than one player if they are looking at it simultaneously
Removed mentions of respawning on the player UI when they die in a restricted respawn area
The Player Banner now updates immediately when updated from the squad screen
Fixed a number of situations where a combo will trigger but no combo floating text appears
Pressing esc to pass a notification screen no longer opens up the in-game menu
Quick chat messages will no longer appear from an ignored player
Removed a message from the mailbox which incorrectly stated that messages will be removed after 3 days
A number of inscription icons have been updated to properly reflect whether they are Javelin specific or not
Corrected an issue where players could not change loadout names on PC
Players no longer need to exit and re-enter the forge for loadout names to update
The on-screen VOIP indicator which shows a player speaking will no longer be active if that player is muted
The January sales are over, new games are coming out, and everything’s expensive again. But wait! A big new sale has appeared on the PlayStation Store in Europe, discounting plenty of great PS4 games.
Elsewhere, Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 is available for 35% off at £39, while Grand Theft Auto V‘s Premium Online Edition is down to £13. The sale also has an extensive list of games available for under a tenner–take a look at the full list of games on sale over at the PlayStation Blog.
February’s free PS Plus games are also available now. This is the last month you’ll be able to pick up PS3 and PS Vita games for no extra cost, but those platforms are at least going out with a bang: Divekick and Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots are the final PS3 PS Plus games, along with Gunhouse and Rogue Aces for PS Vita. Divekick also has cross-buy with Vita, and both of the Vita titles have cross-buy with PS4. Finally, February’s PS Plus games for PS4 are For Honor and the 2016 reboot of Hitman.
Media Molecule’s Dreams for PS4 has been in the works for a number of years, but until now the closest we had to a release date was merely a vague “2019.” Now, the developer has confirmed Dreams will launch in early access this spring.
“Early access won’t have everything that the full version of Dreams will, but you’ll get 100% of the same Dreams tools that we have used every day at Media Molecule to make our content,” wrote the company’s director, Siobhan Reddy, on the PlayStation Blog. “As well as fun, deep interactive tutorials catering for all skill sets and levels, and Media Molecule crafted arcade games ready to play and remix. If you joined us during the beta period, you’ll also have your beta creations to return to. Along the way, we’ll be adding more features, tutorials, arcade levels, and assets during the early access period as we build towards the full slate of launch content.”
Reddy goes on to confirm Dreams’ early access version is a limited release, meaning Sony will take the game off sale once a certain number of copies have been shifted. This, Reddy says, is to ensure Media Molecule can adequately listen and respond to player feedback.
The early access edition will launch on the PlayStation Store this spring for US $30 / €30, with UK and AU pricing yet to be announced. A precise release date for the early access version has also not been confirmed, while we are no closer to knowing the release window for the game’s final version.
The Samsung Galaxy S10 is set to release on March 8 and will be the biggest phone release of 2019 to date. All eyes were watching on at Galaxy Unpacked to see the multinational conglomerate that is Samsung unveil their new flagship phone.
What Did Samsung Announce at Galaxy Unpacked?
Samsung announced three new phones: the standard Samsung Galaxy S10, along with a larger version, the Samsung Galaxy S10 Plus, and a more affordable verison, the Samsung Galaxy S10E. Samsung also unveiled a foldable smartphone, the Galaxy Fold, but the revolutionary handset is set to go on sale on April 26.
Launching upward off a jungle floor and bursting through a thick canopy of trees, bobbing and weaving your way under a waterfall as you take in the lush landscape below you, is one of the highlights of Anthem. Flight, in these moments, is freeing, serene and exhilarating all at once. But you will eventually have to come back down to earth. When you don’t have a means to cool down in the air, you have to interrupt your flight to cool off on the ground–or else your suit will overheat and send you careening downward much more violently. This is what Anthem is like as a whole: a game where promising moments are bookended by frustration, where good ideas are undone before they can be fully realized.
It can take a while to warm up to Anthem in the first place. In its intro mission, you are a rookie Freelancer–a hero type who battles threats to humanity in mechanized combat suits called javelins. But that brief mission ends in failure, and after a two-year time skip, you’re now an experienced Freelancer. As a result, everyone talks to you as if you know everything about the world, even though much of the game’s space-fantasy jargon is explained only in codex entries. “Shapers,” “Arcanists,” to “silence” this or that “relic”–all the dialogue is structured as if you already know what all these things are, so there’s not even an element of mystery to it. It’s just hard to follow.
The story and overall worldbuilding do a great disservice to the characters, which have elements of what you might think of as BioWare’s pedigree. The main cast is well-acted and genuine, with complicated emotions and motivations that might have been interesting had they been given time to grow. Two characters are mad at you for the events of the tutorial, even though it’s never quite clear why; that bad blood spills over into your relationship with your current partner-in-Freelancing, Owen, and there’s enough believable awkwardness there to make you almost feel bad for him. But because the narrative is so poorly set up, the drama feels unearned, the “emotional” reveals robbed of their impact, and any connection you might have had to the characters just out of reach.
Exacerbating all of this is Anthem’s loot game core, which is simple on paper. After every mission, you return to your base of operations, Fort Tarsis, to talk to people, get new missions, and tinker with your javelins using the loot you picked up from the previous mission. Missions themselves almost universally involve some quick narrative setup followed by flying, completing routine tasks, and plenty of combat (with more brief plot-related stuff thrown in via radio chatter).
But this general structure doesn’t work well in practice. You’re told up front that playing Anthem with others is the best way to play and that you’ll get better rewards in a group, but this means asking your friends to be quiet every few minutes so you can hear a bit of dialogue or to wait patiently while you tweak your loadout. Playing solo is better if you want to take your time and talk to different characters, but doing so can make missions more difficult or tedious. Matchmaking with random people is the best option, since you’ll have people with you for grindy parts but will leave you alone for the story–but even then, it’s easy to lose track of what’s going on, especially if someone in your team is ahead of you and triggering dialogue early.
And no matter what, you’ll have to return to Fort Tarsis after each expedition, which makes for choppy pacing in both the story and the gameplay. There’s no way to change your loadout on the go and no way to just continue on to another mission right away, and there are currently a number of loading screens in between leaving and returning to Fort Tarsis. It’s hard to really get into any kind of flow.
When I finally took the time to talk to NPCs in between missions, I found endearing characters and brief but interesting bits of story spread between them. There’s one girl who just loves animals no matter how dangerous, and she’ll happily tell you all about them; there’s the oldest man in Fort Tarsis, who admits to doing some shady things to earn that title; there’s an old woman whose daughter has been missing for years and might just need some kindness. Though it took some patience to do it, I was glad I stopped to listen to them.
Throughout all of this, combat is the main thing keeping Anthem afloat. There are four types of javelins–Ranger, Storm, Interceptor, and Colossus–that are essentially a soldier, mage, assassin, and tank, respectively. Each plays differently, with a different pool of abilities, and you aren’t locked into the one you start with; you unlock them as you level up. That, combined with a handful of new weapons and abilities after each mission, means that you’re almost always experimenting with new loadouts and playstyles.
I initially picked the Ranger, thinking it would be a good all-around class while I was learning the basics. But the guns alone aren’t enough to make Anthem combat’s exciting; I found a lot of the weapons, especially shotguns, to feel ineffectual. The Ranger’s abilities are pretty straightforward, too–you get grenades and missiles and the like–which left me largely unimpressed with combat in the beginning. But then I unlocked the speedy Interceptor, whose gymnastic jumps and swift melee strikes are incredibly satisfying, and I started to get excited about trying new things in each successive mission.
The Storm javelin became my favorite, though, because it both has interesting elemental abilities and can hover for minutes, not seconds, at a time before overheating. Its assortment of powers lends itself well to getting combos, which result in a satisfying explosion of sorts and a more chaotic battlefield. But more importantly, it’s the only javelin that doesn’t require frequent stops on the ground, and as a result it provides the most dynamic combat–you can go from shooting basic enemies in a hallway to floating above the battlefield, raining down lightning to wipe out five at once while scoping out the area for your team.
Generally, all of the javelins can easily jet out of sticky situations in a pinch or briefly hover in the air to gain the upper hand, and combining movement with your abilities is consistently a good time. But when fighting titans and certain other bosses, there’s a catch; a lot of them use fire attacks that overheat your suit and ground you instantly, robbing the fight of much of what makes combat interesting. You can still use your abilities, but they don’t do much in these fights, and they fall flat compared to the often bombastic impact they have on regular enemies. This extends to the final fight, which is especially underwhelming.
The endgame thus far is to complete high numbers of the various mission types, which amounts to repeating many individual missions. The draw is better gear, but without compelling high-level fights, you don’t have anything to build toward with all that grinding. A post-credits cutscene has the most intriguing plot point in the game and serves as a preview of what might come later on–but right now it’s just a promise, rather than a true incentive to keep going.
It’s worth noting that the early access period saw a number of technical hiccups. Dropped audio, server issues, long loading times, missions not registering as complete–I didn’t have a single session without some sort of problem. A day-one patch aims to iron much of this out, but overall, the poor structure and pacing are a more frustrating problem.
Anthem has good ideas, but it struggles significantly with the execution. It’s a co-op game that works best with no one talking; it buries genuinely interesting character moments and puts its most incomprehensible story bits at the forefront; its combat is exciting until you get to the boss fights and find your wings have been clipped. Even the simple, exhilarating act of flying is frequently interrupted by the limitations of your javelin, and you never quite shake that feeling of disappointment–of knowing, throughout the good parts of Anthem, that you’ll inevitably come crashing back down.
Former EA executive vice president of worldwide studios Patrick Soderlund has announced his indie studio, titled Embark, is beginning development on its first game. In a blog post, Soderlund detailed the type of game Embark is working on.
“Lots about this first game of ours will change and evolve as we progress,” Soderlund wrote. “With that caveat out of the way, I can tell you that it’s a cooperative free-to-play action game set in a distant future, about overcoming seemingly impossible odds by working together.” Embark is using Epic’s Unreal Engine to develop the game.
Soderlund left EA in August 2018, but not before playing a key role in the company’s development of the Battlefield and Star Wars Battlefront franchises, including Battlefield V and Battlefront II. “From his early vision for Frostbite, which has now become a cornerstone for our technology strategy, to being a champion for Players First experiences, Patrick has always ensured we put creative at the center of everything we do,” EA CEO Andrew Wilson said when announcing Soderlund’s departure.
After Soderlund’s departure, there was an internal shakeup within EA, and the company announced a renewed focus for how players consumed its games. “We’re deepening our focus on user experience, and welcoming Jason Wozencroft to our studios to lead a strong, unified UX approach for our games and services,” Wilson said. “And with new games and content playing a vital role in our networked future, the EA Originals and EA Partners teams led by Rob Letts will join our Strategic Growth group.”
Bethesda has released another update for Fallout 76. This week’s patch–version 1.0.6.0 across platforms–is now live on PS4, Xbox One, and PC, and it makes another assortment of gameplay tweaks and bug fixes to the online RPG.
The new patch weighs in at approximately 4.5 GB on consoles and 3.5 GB on PC. Among other things, Bethesda has once again increased players’ maximum stash size, this time to 800 pounds (up from 600). The developer has also made it easier to contest ownership of another player’s Workshop; you can now do so from anywhere within its build area.
Additionally, Bethesda has made a few adjustments to the game’s Wanted system; now you must completely destroy objects either in another player’s CAMP or Workshop to earn a Wanted status. The developer says this change “should reduce cases of accidental crime.”
Beyond that, Bethesda has increased the time between Scorchbeast Sonic Screams, giving players a slightly longer reprieve between attacks. Bethesda says it has been looking over “lots” of feedback regarding the monsters and plans to make further balance adjustments to them.
Rounding out the update is another long list of bug fixes. You can read the full patch notes, courtesy of Bethesda’s website, below.
Bethesda still has many more updates planned for Fallout 76. Among other things, the studio is working on a more competitive Survival PvP mode that removes the restrictions currently around the game’s PvP encounters. Bethesda hasn’t said exactly when this mode will go live, but the studio plans to release it in beta sometime in March.
Server Maintenance: As we work on world servers that have been running for a long time and hitting some lag issues, we’ll be performing maintenance on those servers more frequently. You may receive an in-game message alerting you to this maintenance when it occurs, and you may be asked to join another world. This should improve the play experience for everyone during your adventures in Appalachia.
BALANCE AND DESIGN
Power Armor: The amount of springs required to craft and repair level 25, 35, and 45 Excavator Power Armor Legs has been significantly reduced.
Weapons: Flare Guns have been removed from the legendary weapon list, as they can’t benefit from legendary mods.
C.A.M.P., CRAFTING, AND WORKSHOPS
Stash Limit: The storage limit for the stash has been increased from 600 to 800 pounds.
Dev Note: We’ve been reading your feedback that the current stash limit of 600 lbs could use an additional increase, and after some investigation found that we could offer some more storage space in the Stash.
C.A.M.P. Placement: If a player’s current C.A.M.P. location is occupied upon joining a world, a message will now display which gives them option to stay in the current world or attempt to join a new one.
If the player chooses to find another world, they will be removed from the current world and matchmaking will attempt to place them in a new one.
This process can be repeated if the player’s C.A.M.P. location happens to also be occupied in the new world.
Workshops: Players no longer need to interact with claimed Workshops directly to contest ownership, and Workshops can now be contested and captured from anywhere within the build area.
Dev Note: The ability to contest a claimed Workshop is intended and encouraged behavior as part of Workshop design. This change should prevent situations where a Workshop owner could prevent others from attempting to contest it without becoming Wanted by destroying something or picking a lock to reach the Workshop.
ENEMIES
Scorchbeasts: Increased the timer between successive Sonic Scream volleys to 10 seconds for Scorchbeasts and the Scorchbeast Queen in order to reduce the frequency of these attacks.
Dev Note: This change should help players have some more time to react between Sonic Scream volleys. We’ve also been reading lots of feedback about Scorchbeasts in general that the community has been sharing, and we’re looking into further improvements and balance changes we can bring to them in the future.
PVP
Wanted: Damaging a C.A.M.P. or workshop object created by another player no longer causes the attacker to become Wanted. The object must now be completely destroyed by the attacker in order to flag them as Wanted.
Dev Note: We’ve received feedback from players who felt that it was too easy to become Wanted accidentally by damaging others’ C.A.M.P. and Workshop objects. We agree and made this change to help limit cases where a stray bullet could result in a bounty on your head.
SOUND
Sound Effects: Pulling the pin on a grenade to prime it before throwing now play audible sound effects for nearby players.
Map: Sound effects now play when placing or moving custom Map markers.
USER INTERFACE
Player Icons: Hovering over a player’s name on the Map will now display their current player icon.
Player Icons: Hovering over an owned Workshop on the Map will now display the current owner’s player icon.
Turrets: Viewing a Turret placed by another player in their C.A.M.P. or at a Workshop will now display the owner’s name and player icon in the Turret’s nameplate.
Voice Chat: The color of Voice Chat speaker icons on player nameplates now update based on that player’s current status: Neutral players display a pale-yellow icon, Allies display gold, and Hostile and Wanted display red.
BUG FIXES
PERFORMANCE AND STABILITY
Loading: Addressed an issue that could cause controls to lock up if the player opened the Pip-Boy immediately after encountering a loading screen.
Loading: Fixed an issue that could cause the player to encounter an infinite loading screen if they quit to the main menu immediately after joining a world.
Loading: Fixed an issue on PC that could result in an infinite loading screen if multiple players on a team joined a world simultaneously.
Loading: Fixed an issue that could cause a player to encounter an infinite loading screen due to an inventory discrepancy.
Performance: Addressed an issue that could cause hitching while scrapping items.
Performance: Attempting to craft many items at very high speed will now result in a delay of up to 1 second between subsequent crafting attempts after the first few. This was done to help improve server performance and should not affect normal crafting.
Performance: Addressed an issue that could impact server performance when scrapping a large number of items in rapid succession.
Performance: Addressed an issue that could cause reduced framerates when many players were firing weapons simultaneously in the same area.
Stability: Addressed a crash that could occur when interacting with a Power Armor Station while wearing Power Armor.
ART AND GRAPHICS
Apparel: Hair no longer clips through the Nuka-Girl Rocketsuit helmet.
Apparel: Underarmor no longer remains visible while wearing the Silver Shroud costume.
Emotes: Fixed an issue causing reduced framerates during the Snowball Fight! Emote’s animation.
Enemies: Fixed an issue that could cause a second head to appear on a specific Scorched variant after decapitating it via headshot.
Graphics: Switching outfits or weapons while the Chameleon mutation or legendary effect is active no longer causes those items to appear visible to other players.
Nuke Code Pieces: Letters and Numbers displayed by Nuke Code Pieces will no longer appear misaligned on pickup.
Perks: The throwing arc displayed by the Fire in the Hole perk now remains visible if the player moves while holding a fragmentation grenade.
Photomode: Returning to first-person view after exiting Photomode with a ranged weapon equipped no longer causes the character model’s hands to appear offset or dark graphic effects to appear onscreen.
C.A.M.P., CRAFTING, AND WORKSHOPS
Blueprints: Blueprints containing a mirror ball can now be placed correctly and no longer cause an “Object is floating.” error message to display.
Blueprints: Attempting to place a blueprint containing objects that have been placed on shelves no longer causes an “Object needs support” error message to display.
Blueprints: Blueprint names now support a maximum of 25 characters.
Budget: Tamed creatures no longer permanently consume C.A.M.P. budget after they are killed.
C.A.M.P.: Fixed an issue that could cause a C.A.M.P. dialog to display to a new character before they had placed their C.A.M.P. for the first time.
Crafting: Fixed an issue that could prevent items from being crafted or repaired despite having the required materials if those materials were split between the inventory and stash.
Crafting: Players who have exceeded the absolute weight limit of 1,500 lbs plus their current maximum carry weight are now correctly notified that they are unable to craft items while over the limit.
Exploit: Addressed an exploit that could allow items to be duplicated when moving C.A.M.P. locations.
Exploit: Addressed an exploit that could allow items to be duplicated if a blueprint failed to save properly.
Recipes and Plans: Fixed an issue that could prevent a player from crafting a Recipe or Plan they had previously learned.
Scrapping: Bleached Dogwood is now protected from autoscrapping when crafting. However, it can still be scrapped manually.
Workbenches: Attempting to place a Power Armor Station on a foundation in a structure that has multiple levels no longer causes the station to be placed on the second floor.
ENEMIES
Scorchbeast Queen: The Scorchbeast Queen can now correctly drop Plans from the full range of Ultracite Power Armor Mod Plans in her loot list, and players now correctly receive a random roll from her loot list.
Mothman: Fixed an issue in which Mothman would not leave the area when approached or respond to attacks.
ITEMS
Apparel: The Clean Clown Outfit now correctly counts toward completion of the “Kill Wendigos” side mission at Freddie’s House of Scares.
Apparel: The Nuka-Girl Rocketsuit can no longer be equipped or unequipped while wearing Power Armor
Apparel: The Nuka-Girl Rocketsuit outfit has been separated into two pieces – the body piece and the upper helmet.
Dev Note: For the moment, the upper helmet, when not worn with the body piece, looks to be floating partly from the player character. This is temporary until we can rework the helmet itself. This was a necessary change to prevent poor interactions with Power Armor and underarmor. Players who already own the Rocketsuit, will automatically have access to craft the helmet.
Armor: The Punishing legendary effect no longer reflects “slap” damage dealt by another player. This should prevent cases where a player wearing Punishing armor could become Wanted unintentionally due to reflected damage that killed their attacker.
Armor: Fixed an issue causing damage reflected by the Punishing legendary effect to be reduced based on the defending player’s resistances.
Cap Containers: Now award the correct number of Caps and no longer generate only 1 Cap as loot.
Exploits: Removed an apparel Recipe that was not intended to be available in-game, as well as items created using that Recipe.
Headlamps: Removed an erroneously added Atomic Shop flag from all non-Mothman Power Armor Head Lamps. Also added a separate red Mothman headlamp that works once Mothman Power Armor is equipped.
Holotapes: Choosing to stop a Holotape now correctly stops that Holotape from continuing to play.
Mods: Aiming down the sights after applying the Recon Sensors mod to a Power Armor helmet now correctly marks enemies on the compass.
Power Armor: Resistances are no longer incorrectly reduced when entering Power Armor while wearing Underarmor.
Power Armor: Now correctly prioritizes using the Fusion Core in the player’s inventory that has the least remaining charge, rather than selecting them at random.
Power Armor: Fixed an issue that could allow Power Armor pieces with Atomic Shop paints applied to be transferred into containers.
Weapons: The M79 Grenade Launcher and the Auto Grenade Launcher are now classified as heavy weapons, and correctly benefit from all heavy weapons perks except Heavy Gunner, as they benefit from Demolitions Expert instead.
PERKS
Last Laugh: Explosive Bait is no longer dropped on death while the Last Laugh perk is equipped.
Martial Artist: Now only applies its attack speed bonus to melee weapons and no longer incorrectly increases the Gatling Gun’s rate of fire.
Ricochet: The Ricochet perk fanfare no longer displays repeatedly when its effects are triggered multiple times in quick succession.
Team Effects: A team invite must be accepted, and a team formed, before team-based perks, such as Squad Maneuvers, will apply their team effects.
PVP
Respawn: Being killed by a friend, selecting “Respawn”, and then using the Social Menu to respawn at a that friend’s location no longer causes those players to remain hostile toward each other.
QUESTS, EVENTS, AND CHALLENGES
Quest Containers: Non-quest items can no longer be transferred into the Feed the People and Path to Enlightenment event quest containers.
One of Us: The Congressional Access Card is no longer lost if the player is disconnected or the server crashes.
SURVIVAL
Addictions: Fixed an issue which prevented Addictions currently affecting the character from displaying in the Pip-Boy’s Status menu.
Diseases: Rad Worms now only increases radiation damage taken by 50%, and no longer incorrectly increases Mutation and other effects.
Mutations: Fixed an inconsistent interaction between the Class Freak, Barbarian, and Evasive perks that could cause them to stop functioning while affected by the Herd Mentality mutation.
Mutations: The Healing Factor mutation no longer causes players to become invincible while in the downed state.
USER INTERFACE
C.A.M.P.: A player’s name will now correctly appear onscreen when viewing their C.A.M.P., even if that player is not nearby.
Controls: Plugging in a controller after launching Fallout 76 on PC using a keyboard and mouse no longer causes the button indicators for interactable objects, like containers or workbenches, to disappear until the client is relaunched.
Controls: Pressing the Quick Swap key (Default: Left D-pad) after the current weapon breaks now correctly swaps to an alternate weapon.
Crosshairs: Fixed an issue causing crosshairs to expand and contract incorrectly for players running the game using 21:9 aspect ratios.
Game Camera: Changing the face preset in the Change Appearance menu outside of Vault 76 no longer causes the camera to show an unintended angle in third-person view.
Holotapes: Attempting to play a blank terminal holotape no longer causes the Pip-Boy to display a blank screen.
Localization: “Perk Card Pack” text that displays when opening a new Perk Card Pack is now correctly localized in non-English versions of the game client.
Map: Fixed an issue that could prevent player icons from displaying on the Map when choosing a respawn location.
Map: Overencumbered players who die inside a Nuke Zone can now correctly respawn at the nearest Map marker.
Notifications: “Ammo Removed” messages no longer appear onscreen when harvesting flora or other materials shortly after firing a weapon.
Notifications: The “You have joined a team.” notification now correctly displays console controls, rather than PC hotkeys, in its subtitle text while playing on consoles.
Notifications: Fixed an issue where players could sometimes receive a “Max weight limit reached.” message when attempting to trade with other players.
Photomode Frames: Photomode frames that were purchased from the Atomic Shop now correctly display the Atom symbol in the photomode menu.
Shop: Fixed an issue on PC that could cause controls to lock up when purchasing Atoms.
Shop: Purchasing multiple items from the Atomic Shop in quick succession no longer prevents those items from appearing in crafting menus until the client is relaunched.
Shop: Preview images have been added for the Kill, Laugh, Love Neon Sign.
Teams: Attempting to join a teammate in a world from the main menu using the social menu no longer causes a message to display stating that they will be removed from the team.
Teams: Fixed an issue that could prevent team members from loading into a world with the team leader after the leader selected “Play”.
Teams: Fixed an issue in which the “Play with Team” option on the Main Menu became non-functional when attempting to rejoin teammates in a world following a crash or disconnect.
Transfer Menu: The transfer bar now correctly stops at 1 when scrolling to reduce the transfer quantity.
Voice Chat: The voice chat speaker icon now correctly appears in player nameplates, in team chat, and in the area chat list when a player is speaking.
Celebrating 20 years in 2019, the Age of Wonders series has always been nestled comfortably within the high-fantasy genre. However, with the upcoming release of Planetfall, the 4X (expand, explore, exploit, exterminate) strategy-sim will be moving away from the familiar swords and sorcery angle, to take the conflict star-side–dealing with the politics and ensuing drama that comes from building a galactic empire from the ground up.
We recently got a chance to check out the upcoming strategy game, seeing its expanded scope and the greater focus on the little details in the new setting for the series. Though it’s now firmly in the realm of science-fiction, Planetfall still hangs onto some of those familiar tropes and themes from the previous games.
In Planetfall, you’ll take control of one of six factions following a 200 year long dark age after the collapse of deep-space communication. The many civilizations that have evolved during that time have once again come in contact, and they’ll now have to cooperate or enter fierce conflict with one another to find a foothold in the new age. With factions having its own unique campaign, you’ll be able to create your own custom commander from the character creator and build up your empire through either careful diplomacy or with an iron fist.
Here’s a quick breakdown of all the game’s factions:
The Amazons: A bio-engineered faction using skills and traits focused on wildlife and the environment.
The Assembly: A cyborg faction that assimilates organic life to bring them into their fold.
The Dvar: Former humans that evolved into subterranean dwellers. They possess advanced engineering technology that have helped them survive the harsh climates.
The Kir’Ko: An insect race that communicates through a hive-mind. They seek to rebuild their empire and expand further.
The Vanguards: Tech-focused human faction who have awoken from hyper-sleep to find the galactic civilization in a vastly different state. They use mechs and other high-tech weaponry to survive in the field.
The Syndicate: A shifty feudal empire that specializes in politics and rough trade to secure its goals.
Planetfall’s approach to science-fiction takes a decidedly retro and somewhat over-the-top approach–which certainly adds a level of fun that you wouldn’t expect to see from a rather involved 4X strategy-sim. Channeling the same tone found from ’80s sci-fi like the classic Battlestar Galactica or even more modern films like Starship Troopers, there’s a really amusing vibe throughout, even when you’re nose-deep in the finer details of building up your empire.
For those into 4X games, you’ll find a lot of the familiar micromanaging, political discourse, and empire-building gameplay that you’d expect from the sub-genre. However, for those fairly new to 4X, there’s a bit of a learning curve as you’ll have to manage many systems at play. Even for those who know what they’re getting themselves into, it can be easy to feel a bit lost in the weeds when checking out all the necessary data for your commander and units. However, each faction’s main campaign also serves as a tutorial, which preps you for what’s to come in the other game modes. When you feel you’ve got a handle on what’s to come, you enter the Scenario mode, where you’re totally free to build up a new civilization and amass an army on the planet of your choosing.
Though you can take a more diplomatic approach to engagements, there will be times where you’ll need to defend yourself against enemy forces. In similar fashion to another combat-strategy game like XCOM, movement and actions are performed over the course of turns–allowing you to plan out your attack carefully. Units and resources that helped you in the early hours can be upgraded to face off against new threats, which include planetary wildlife and rival factions. There are alot of factors to consider when in combat, such as terrain, enemy attack range, or the type of foes you’re facing, but the combat in Planetfall offers a lot of options for you to take on the enemy as you can.
At first look, Planetfall is certainly a big change for the series. However, it still presents that very familiar and detail-oriented 4X gameplay that the franchise is known for. With a planned launch on PC, PS4, and Xbox One on August 6, the next game in the Age of Wonders series will mark a new beginning for the 4X strategy-sim.
