Epic Games has rolled out Fortnite’s Season 5, Week 3 challenges, which means there’s lots of new rewards to work towards unlocking. We’ve already got a guide for following the treasure map in Flush Factory, which is the harder of the bunch. If you’re a Battle Pass owner, however, there’s also a challenge that requires you to shoot a clay pigeon at five different locations, which can be tricky if you don’t know where to look. Luckily, we’ve spent some time hunting them down and put together a guide that’ll have you sniping those suckers out of the air in no time.
Thankfully, there’s a whole bunch of Clay Pigeon shooters scattered around the map for you to find, and you only need a total of five, so the odds are heavily in your favor. On our brief trek across the island we managed to find a six, and you can take a look at the locations below.
Fortnite Clay Pigeon Locations
West of Pleasant Park (Quadrant B4)
North east corner of Loot Lake (Quadrant E4)
North west of Tomato Town (Quadrant G3)
Between Lonely Lodge and Wailing Woods (Quadrant J4)
Between Shifty Shafts and Flush Factory (Quadrant D8)
South of Paradise Palms (Quadrant I9)
Once you’ve done that, it’s smooth sailing as the rest of the challenges are pretty simple. You can read a full breakdown of Fortnite Season 5, Week 3’s challenges here and see all the rewards for each one.
In related news, Fortnite’s SMG and Compact SMG have seen nerfs, as developer Epic Games thought they weren’t working quite as intended (read: they were too powerful). After receiving feedback from the community, the studio has tweaked both guns, changing their range, damage output, fire rate, and accuracy.
Netflix is moving forward with its adaptation of Locke and Key, based on the IDW graphic novel series of the same name. Following a rocky start which bounced the show from Hulu to Netflix, its new home implemented some creative changes before moving forward with the 10-episode first season.
Hollywood Reporter details the changes. Meredith Averill (The Good Wife) will join Carlton Cuse (Jack Ryan, Lost) as co-showrunners, while Aaron Eli Coleite (Star Trek: Discovery) will serve as executive producer. Coleite also rewrote the pilot episode with comic author Joe Hill. The original pilot was written by Cuse and Hill before Hulu passed, prompting the changeover and rewrite. A new director has not been announced, and the show will be recast.
Locke and Key is a fantasy series with strong gothic horror themes, following the Locke family’s three siblings. Following a tragedy, the family moves back to their father’s home in Maine. The house holds secrets in the form of keys that unlock a wide array of magical properties, but a demon has its sights set on their power.
The graphic novel series was a critical success, having been nominated and won multiple Eisner and British Fantasy Award accolades. The setting of Maine as a gothic horror backdrop has its own family connection as well, as author Joe Hill is the pen name of Joseph Hillstrom King–the son of horror author Stephen King. The comic was illustrated by Gabriel Rodríguez.
Note: Care has been taken to avoid major specific spoilers for The Banner Saga 1 and 2. The broad narrative setup for The Banner Saga 3 is discussed.
The Banner Saga 3 begins just like the last installment did: by throwing you into the middle of the series’ ongoing story, Chapter 16, specifically. It is a seamless continuation of the series that began four years ago, meaning this third and final chapter is not a good entry point into the series–even its recap cinematic relies on a lot of assumed knowledge. But Stoic Studio‘s Banner Saga formula–featuring lavish hand-drawn art, a satisfying turn-based combat system, a beautiful Austin Wintory orchestral soundtrack, a compelling Nordic-inspired story, and branching choices with consequences–is still as successful as it was in the first game, and this final chapter provides reassurance that the trilogy has maintained its strength from beginning to end.
Where the first two entries in the series revolved around war and refuge, respectively, The Banner Saga 3 focuses on desperation. As an all-consuming darkness slowly destroys the world, the story again follows the perspectives of two different groups. One is a large, mixed-race clan who have fortified themselves in the city of Arbberang, which serves as the final bastion of all who still remain. The other is a smaller group of mercenaries traveling towards the center of the darkness with a magical escort, hoping to reverse its effects. There’s no longer one particular race or group that serves as the primary enemy. Rather, the primary adversary is the infighting between everyone as the situation worsens–different clans war over power in Arbberang, unable to see the bigger picture, and interpersonal conflicts plague the mercenary group, who also have to deal with new enemy creatures warped by the darkness. There’s a time limit until all is lost–the series’ visible day counter which previously counted up will now eventually tick down to zero–and the high narrative stakes will also see major characters take riskier actions, with greater chances of having them being lost permanently depending on the choices you make.
Although the inherent satisfaction of the game’s combat system can exist without context, nearly every other aspect of The Banner Saga 3 relies on having some prior knowledge for meaningful enjoyment. For example, combat units who enjoyed significant character arcs in The Banner Saga and The Banner Saga 2 may only have a small handful of lines in 3, which can give the mistaken impression of flimsy characterization. Starting a new game from within 3 will let you make a major binary decision that arose at the end of The Banner Saga, but the multitude of other choices and potential consequences from the first 20 or so hours of the series are made for you, and the game doesn’t spend time re-explaining the complex relationship between characters, unique races, and the world itself.
But if you have played through the first two games, and ideally imported save file through them both, then you’ll have a good idea of just how catastrophic things are going into The Banner Saga 3. In this situation, the final game does a wonderful job of taking the discrete set of experiences you’ve had with your roster of surviving characters (as well as the collective long-term resources you’ve strategically acquired over the course of two games) and using them as emotional leverage, creating meaningful, personal impacts as the story climaxes and concludes.
Desperation also informs the additions to the turn- and grid-based combat system. The signature mechanics remain: Strength is a value that informs both your health and attack power, meaning the less health you have, the weaker your attack. An armor value protects against strength damage, and units can choose to focus an attack on either strength or armor. Willpower returns as the limited resource that fuels unique character abilities, as well as allowing you to overexert in basic actions to either move further or hit harder. But a significant number of scenarios are now wave-based, helping to characterize the relentless tides of enemies trying to lay siege to Arbberang and stop the mercenaries at all costs. Failing to stop a wave in a set amount of time results in enemy lineups stacking together, resulting in an overwhelming number of adversaries and all-but-certain failure. Successfully defeating a wave gives you the choice of continuing to fight or fleeing the battle, as well as an opportunity to substitute characters into your active force. Completing the entire battle will reward you with a high-end item to equip.
The thematic appropriateness of the wave-based battles makes the fights themselves incredibly compelling, despite perhaps seeming rudimentary on paper. The higher narrative stakes and stronger enemies mean that you need to fight diligently; the circumstances mean there aren’t many opportunities to give characters time to recover from debilitating injuries after battle if they fall, and even when those opportunities do arise, it’s at the cost of precious time before the doomsday clock runs out. Failing or fleeing a battle after a wave or two can also have negative consequences in the plot. The substitution system is engaging because it not only asks you to draw from the sizable roster of characters you may (or may not) have collected and kept alive over the past two games, but it demands you keep them all upgraded, equipped, and battle-ready rather than letting you rely on a small stable roster, lest a wave battle surprises you. The Banner Saga 3 calls for all hands on deck and motivates you to make the most of what you’ve gathered in the past to stay prepared for the worst.
The worst will come in the form of the new Warped enemies–mutated and more powerful versions of the series’ existing units, including the incredibly ferocious bears–whose behaviors add a new emphasis on spatial considerations. All Warped enemy variants explode upon dying, creating hazardous squares and requiring more careful movement around the battlefield. Other environmental elements, like spreading fires and exploding ice shards, feel like bigger considerations this time around and are more inviting to take advantage of strategically (by using displacement abilities, for example) given the more numerous opposition. One significant holdover annoyance remains from previous games, however: The fixed isometric perspective of combat means units can often obscure the contents of the grid tiles behind them, which is especially troublesome given this game’s increased numbers of foes and hazards.
While you’re given the opportunity to utilize a handful of new and exciting units yourself (depending on your choices), there’s a lot that’s become absent since The Banner Saga 2–though it fits the narrative. Combat training and challenge missions have been lost, as have some of the series’ clan management interactions. While you’ll still need to keep an eye on each group’s overall morale, supplies, and population, there are very few opportunities to bolster these resources. The Banner Saga is no longer a game that revolves around traveling and recruiting, but one that’s a constant task of trying to stave off attrition as best you can during the last stand.
As things come down to the wire the two separate groups become more and more interconnected, the consequences of one group’s choices directly affecting the potential of the other. This exemplifies the best part about The Banner Saga 3: the feeling that every action you’ve made in regards to your clan for three games–the friends you’ve kept and lost, the decisions you’ve made, and the battles you’ve picked–will likely influence how well this finale is going to fare. The Banner Saga 3 won’t have the same kind of meaningful impact if you haven’t experienced the rest of the series. But if you’ve taken the time to journey with these characters from the very beginning, this finale is a worthwhile and cathartic end to your long journey.
Note: Care has been taken to avoid major specific spoilers for The Banner Saga 1 and 2. The broad narrative setup for The Banner Saga 3 is discussed.
The Banner Saga 3 begins just like the last installment did: by throwing you into the middle of the series’ ongoing story, Chapter 16, specifically. It is a seamless continuation of the series that began four years ago, meaning this third and final chapter is not a good entry point into the series–even its recap cinematic relies on a lot of assumed knowledge. But Stoic Studio‘s Banner Saga formula–featuring lavish hand-drawn art, a satisfying turn-based combat system, a beautiful Austin Wintory orchestral soundtrack, a compelling Nordic-inspired story, and branching choices with consequences–is still as successful as it was in the first game, and this final chapter provides reassurance that the trilogy has maintained its strength from beginning to end.
Where the first two entries in the series revolved around war and refuge, respectively, The Banner Saga 3 focuses on desperation. As an all-consuming darkness slowly destroys the world, the story again follows the perspectives of two different groups. One is a large, mixed-race clan who have fortified themselves in the city of Arbberang, which serves as the final bastion of all who still remain. The other is a smaller group of mercenaries traveling towards the center of the darkness with a magical escort, hoping to reverse its effects. There’s no longer one particular race or group that serves as the primary enemy. Rather, the primary adversary is the infighting between everyone as the situation worsens–different clans war over power in Arbberang, unable to see the bigger picture, and interpersonal conflicts plague the mercenary group, who also have to deal with new enemy creatures warped by the darkness. There’s a time limit until all is lost–the series’ visible day counter which previously counted up will now eventually tick down to zero–and the high narrative stakes will also see major characters take riskier actions, with greater chances of having them being lost permanently depending on the choices you make.
Although the inherent satisfaction of the game’s combat system can exist without context, nearly every other aspect of The Banner Saga 3 relies on having some prior knowledge for meaningful enjoyment. For example, combat units who enjoyed significant character arcs in The Banner Saga and The Banner Saga 2 may only have a small handful of lines in 3, which can give the mistaken impression of flimsy characterization. Starting a new game from within 3 will let you make a major binary decision that arose at the end of The Banner Saga, but the multitude of other choices and potential consequences from the first 20 or so hours of the series are made for you, and the game doesn’t spend time re-explaining the complex relationship between characters, unique races, and the world itself.
But if you have played through the first two games, and ideally imported save file through them both, then you’ll have a good idea of just how catastrophic things are going into The Banner Saga 3. In this situation, the final game does a wonderful job of taking the discrete set of experiences you’ve had with your roster of surviving characters (as well as the collective long-term resources you’ve strategically acquired over the course of two games) and using them as emotional leverage, creating meaningful, personal impacts as the story climaxes and concludes.
Desperation also informs the additions to the turn- and grid-based combat system. The signature mechanics remain: Strength is a value that informs both your health and attack power, meaning the less health you have, the weaker your attack. An armor value protects against strength damage, and units can choose to focus an attack on either strength or armor. Willpower returns as the limited resource that fuels unique character abilities, as well as allowing you to overexert in basic actions to either move further or hit harder. But a significant number of scenarios are now wave-based, helping to characterize the relentless tides of enemies trying to lay siege to Arbberang and stop the mercenaries at all costs. Failing to stop a wave in a set amount of time results in enemy lineups stacking together, resulting in an overwhelming number of adversaries and all-but-certain failure. Successfully defeating a wave gives you the choice of continuing to fight or fleeing the battle, as well as an opportunity to substitute characters into your active force. Completing the entire battle will reward you with a high-end item to equip.
The thematic appropriateness of the wave-based battles makes the fights themselves incredibly compelling, despite perhaps seeming rudimentary on paper. The higher narrative stakes and stronger enemies mean that you need to fight diligently; the circumstances mean there aren’t many opportunities to give characters time to recover from debilitating injuries after battle if they fall, and even when those opportunities do arise, it’s at the cost of precious time before the doomsday clock runs out. Failing or fleeing a battle after a wave or two can also have negative consequences in the plot. The substitution system is engaging because it not only asks you to draw from the sizable roster of characters you may (or may not) have collected and kept alive over the past two games, but it demands you keep them all upgraded, equipped, and battle-ready rather than letting you rely on a small stable roster, lest a wave battle surprises you. The Banner Saga 3 calls for all hands on deck and motivates you to make the most of what you’ve gathered in the past to stay prepared for the worst.
The worst will come in the form of the new Warped enemies–mutated and more powerful versions of the series’ existing units, including the incredibly ferocious bears–whose behaviors add a new emphasis on spatial considerations. All Warped enemy variants explode upon dying, creating hazardous squares and requiring more careful movement around the battlefield. Other environmental elements, like spreading fires and exploding ice shards, feel like bigger considerations this time around and are more inviting to take advantage of strategically (by using displacement abilities, for example) given the more numerous opposition. One significant holdover annoyance remains from previous games, however: The fixed isometric perspective of combat means units can often obscure the contents of the grid tiles behind them, which is especially troublesome given this game’s increased numbers of foes and hazards.
While you’re given the opportunity to utilize a handful of new and exciting units yourself (depending on your choices), there’s a lot that’s become absent since The Banner Saga 2–though it fits the narrative. Combat training and challenge missions have been lost, as have some of the series’ clan management interactions. While you’ll still need to keep an eye on each group’s overall morale, supplies, and population, there are very few opportunities to bolster these resources. The Banner Saga is no longer a game that revolves around traveling and recruiting, but one that’s a constant task of trying to stave off attrition as best you can during the last stand.
As things come down to the wire the two separate groups become more and more interconnected, the consequences of one group’s choices directly affecting the potential of the other. This exemplifies the best part about The Banner Saga 3: the feeling that every action you’ve made in regards to your clan for three games–the friends you’ve kept and lost, the decisions you’ve made, and the battles you’ve picked–will likely influence how well this finale is going to fare. The Banner Saga 3 won’t have the same kind of meaningful impact if you haven’t experienced the rest of the series. But if you’ve taken the time to journey with these characters from the very beginning, this finale is a worthwhile and cathartic end to your long journey.
The PlayStation Store has kicked off a new sale in Australia. The Winter Sale is on now, offering discounts of up to 60 percent on “hundreds” of games for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3, PlayStation Vita, and PlayStation VR.
Additionally, DLC and expansion packs for a number of games are on sale. Go to the PlayStation Store Winter Sale page to see a rundown of all the deals.
This sale isn’t going on in North America or Europe, where it’s Summer and not Winter, but there are some deals to be had in the US. For example, No Man’s Sky is on sale this week to celebrate the big “Next” update, while Ghost Recon Wildlands is also marked down this week.
Tim Sweeney, the founder of Fortnite studio Epic Games, is now a billionaire. That’s according to a new report from business publication Bloomberg.
Sweeney, who is 47, is Epic’s majority individual shareholder. The report goes on to claim that Epic as a company is worth between $5 billion and $8 billion, so you can imagine Sweeney’s net worth is quite significant given that he holds so many shares.
Sweeney isn’t gaming’s first billionaire. According to Bloomberg’s Billionaires Index, Valve founder Gabe Newell has a net worth of $6.86 billion. That makes him the 235th richest person on Earth.
The Bloomberg story also reveals one of Sweeney’s favourite drinks: 60 percent water and 40 percent Diet Coke mixed together.
Epic is enjoying incredible success of late thanks to the company’s hugely popular battle royale game Fortnite. It was released a year ago this week, and in that time it’s attracted an incredible 125 million players–and it’s brought in millions upon millions in revenue. The game is free, but players can spend real money on a range of cosmetic items.
The developer pouring some of that money back into the community, as it is promising $100 million in total prize money for the game’s 2018-2019 competitive season. Additionally, Epic recently announced a big change to its Unreal Engine Marketplace whereby it will now pay creators 88 percent of sales, with Epic taking just 12 percent. This is significantly higher than the industry standard 70/30 split, and is no doubt made possible in part by Fortnite’s massive success.
Sweeney is dedicated to conservation efforts. In 2016, he donated $15 million to permanently protect a 7,000-acre forest in the developer’s home state of North Carolina. He’s been buying landing in North Carolina since 2008, and now has more than 40,000 acres of land in the state.
With Halo Infinite and the new Halo TV show still a long time off, Halo fans are understandably eager for something new in the sci-fi franchise. Enter Halo: Fireteam Raven. An arcade game made by Play Mechanix and Raw Thrills with the support of 343 Industries, Fireteam Raven was released at all Dave & Busters locations in the US this month, and it made its debut in Sydney, Australia this week. The first thing you’ll notice about Fireteam Raven is its gargantuan cabinet. It houses a massive 130-inch HD screen and four seats with mounted turrets to grab onto to control the action.
A light-gun game, Fireteam Haven has you and three other Orbital Drop Shock Troopers working together to defeat Covenant forces in a story set during the Halo: Combat Evolved timeline. I played through Fireteam Raven’s six chapters in four-player, and it took around 30 minutes to finish the whole thing. This missions are unique and varied, taking you to different parts of the original Halo ring. Fans of the original game will feel right at home.
In the various missions, you’ll fight against all manner of Covenant baddies, including Grunts, Jackals, Elites, and the horrifying-looking Flood. The game also switches up your arsenal regularly. Pretty much all of the classic-era Halo weapons show up in Fireteam Raven, including the Magnum, Needler, Rocket Launcher, Assault Rifle, and Shotgun, while you can throw frag and plasma grenades as well. You don’t get to choose which weapon you want to use, as the guns are automatically allocated at the start of a new sequence within a mission. There are also driving sequences where you shoot from the turret on a Warthog as you zip around.
The action in fast and heavy, and you’ll find yourself firing almost constantly as you lay waste to Covenant enemies that constantly come at you. The weapons generally feel good and act as you’d expect them to. There are some issues and oddities, however, one of which is that you never have more than one grenade. And the button to throw it is easily confusable with the turret fire button, so you may accidentally chuck a grenade at an inopportune time. It is also worth mentioning that your magazines are significantly larger than in Halo: Combat Evolved. This makes sense because it would be annoying to have to reload constantly, but it stands out as a little strange-feeling all the same.
Fireteam Raven looks good enough, but it won’t blow you away. There are some cool sequences when enemies get right up in your face on the screen and other moments when time slows down to accentuate the spectacle and help you fire in the right place. Another positive is that Fireteam Raven’s frame rate holds steady, which is impressive because some of the scenes can be very involved and detailed.
Halo’s hero, Master Chief, makes a few cameos through the story. You play as the boots-on-the-ground soldier doing the hard work to support Master Chief, so when he shows up, it helps bring a sense of scale to battle. It wouldn’t be a Halo game without him.
There are no boss fights in Fireteam Raven, which is a bummer, and it feels like a missed opportunity. It would have been fun to work together to take down a big enemy, just as you might do with friends in traditional Halo games, but alas. There are bigger enemies that require at least two people to take down, but true boss battles seem like they would be more fun.
Despite that, I had a lot of fun playing Fireteam Raven. It succeeds the most thanks to its use of classic Halo weapons, gear, locations, and enemies. For the most part it faithfully captures the essence of Halo, and that’s immediately clear even if you only have a few minutes to play.
Rogue-like dungeon crawler Wizard of Legend has sold 500,000 copies, developer Contingent99 has confirmed today. The news comes days after the release of the game’s latest ‘Nocturne’ update, which “introduces a familiar NPC to Lanova Plaza who will randomize players’ runs through the Chaos Trials.”
The update is free and is available across PC, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One. Players can reportedly also expect better load times and framerate improvements following this update. Additionally, French, German, and Russian language support has been added across all platforms.
Wizard of Legend, which was launched back in May this year, is currently discounted by 10% for a limited time on PC and Switch.
