Tuesday, October 25, 2016

News:: Destiny's Superblack shader is finally obtainable years after being discovered, because raisins

Two of Destiny's greatest mysteries have been solved in one sugar-coated stroke: how do you get the Superblack shader that was datamined ages ago, and what are you supposed to do with those raisins? Now that the Festival of the Lost update is live in time for Halloween, a group of players on Reddit have discovered that you can trade the latter mysterious item to receive the former mysterious item

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News:: Deadspin Washington Coach Pulls Out Dong, Pees Freely Before The Masses During Game [NSFW] | The Slo

Deadspin Washington Coach Pulls Out Dong, Pees Freely Before The Masses During Game [NSFW] | The Slot Here’s the Very Sexist Trump Reality TV Show That Never Saw the Light of Day | Gizmodo Russia Reveals ‘Satan 2' Nuclear Missile Capable of Destroying Texas in One Blow | Jezebel Sean Hayes Feels Very Bad For Not Coming Out Sooner |

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News:: Resident Evil 7's Jack Baker has shades of the Nemesis

After talking about the broad strokes of Resident Evil 7 for so long, Capcom has begun showing bits and pieces of the game's more traditional elements in weekly clips. I just had to write about this pair.

The first clip, "Survival," is ostensibly about combining items -- in this case, an herb with chem fluid to create magical, wound-erasing first-aid juice -- but my eyes went straight to the objective list on the left of the screen. "Get 3 dog heads and open the door to the yard," reads one. "Get the dog's head from the dissection room," says another. How is that (presumably) a puzzle?! Who, in-universe, is taking the time to build these contraptions? And what's their hourly rate for contract work?

Resident Evil 7's Jack Baker has shades of the Nemesis screenshot

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News:: GTA Online's Halloween event starts Friday and it has a skull-cycle with glowing eye sockets

It's not just the more fantastical games that are getting Halloween-themed events: GTA Online has got a few tricks and treats to share as well starting Friday, October 28

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News:: Battlefield 1 Players Are Trying To Solve A Mysterious Morse Code

The search for answers is on as Battlefield 1 players have found strange headphones across various maps and odd morse code messages relayed from special locations.

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News:: The New Stellaris Update Can't Fix A Boring Game

Stellaris didn’t launch as a bad game, just a game that hadn’t figured out what it was. While the new Heinlein patch helps Stellaris become more coherent, it still doesn’t quite work.

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News:: Rockstar Cracks Down On GTA Online Cheaters, Deletes Trillions Of 'GTA Dollars'

Grand Theft Auto Online players who amassed mountains of in-game money through exploits and mods woke up today to gargantuan deductions from their virtual bank accounts. Rockstar Games started the day with a new offensive against players who break the game’s terms of service to their advantage.

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News:: Review: Civilization VI

Over the course of many playthroughs and almost three full days of game time, Civilization VI is still on my mind. I’ve gone through the motion of placing districts, training an army, distributing “great” people, and building world wonders so many times that I dream about it at night. I envision how my next playthrough is going to turn out well before I even sit down.

That is the mark of a game that is truly great, but not every aspect of the package is flawless. If you can accept that scenarios are absent, Steam Workshop isn’t currently available, and that multiplayer doesn’t work much better than in Civ V, then I wouldn’t hesitate to tell you Civilization VI is worth owning.

Review: Civilization VI screenshot

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News:: Overwatch’s Third Competitive Season Will Make Skill Ratings More Fair

If you began Overwatch season two as a high-tier hotshot, only to plummet into silver or bronze as time went on, don’t worry: you’re not alone.

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News:: $6 Mad Max and $26 Fallout 4 Season Pass in Halloween PC sale

Various digital retailers are now running Halloween-themed sales with "spooky" games as the bulk of their offerings. The noteworthy one today is the one from GMG, which kicked off yesterday with a great price on Mad Max at only $6.79 (beats previous low by a giant 33%).

Another highlighter of the sales event is a rare price drop for Fallout 4 Season Pass back down below the $30 price point. Now at $26, this is the cheapest the Season Pass has been since earlier this March when the Season Pass experienced a price hike from $29.99 to $49.99. In either case, this is much cheaper than Steam's current 33% off to $33.49.

While there are over 300 titles on sale, the dozen or so titles listed below are the goodies that have reached or tied its historic low price. You can also check out all the Green Man Gaming games on sale here (no coupon required).

Add to cart to see final prices:

$6 Mad Max and $26 Fallout 4 Season Pass in Halloween PC sale screenshot



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News:: Rogue One hits UK theaters on December 15 - one day early!

Lucasfilm's done it again. UK Star Wars fans are getting the chance to visit a galaxy far, far away ...

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News:: The Creators of Pokémon Explain Why Sun and Moon Has Ridiculous Monster Designs

Haunted sandcastle Pokémon. Dugtrio with luscious hair. Garfield’s shitty blue cousin. Maybe you’ve noticed, but Sun and Moon’s creature design is actively absurd, sometimes bordering on troll-like. All of that is intentional, according to the creators.

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News:: Destiny’s Festival Of The Lost Returns With Some Goofy Secrets

Destiny’s Festival of the Lost is underway once more, bringing with it a heaping helping of masks, mirth, and microtransactions. Also, you can ride a broomstick.

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News:: Buy a PS4 Slim, Get an Extra Controller For Free

If you were thinking of picking up a PS4 Slim anyway, this Uncharted bundle includes an extra DualShock 4, which would normally set you back $40-$50. As far as PS4 deals go, that’s pretty great!

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News:: Microsoft Research helped 'Gears of War 4' sound so good

Popping in and out of cover has been a hallmark of the Gears of War franchise since the first game came out in 2006. It hasn't changed much because it didn't need to. What's always been an issue though is how thin the game sounds -- a shortcoming of the underlying tech, Unreal Engine, powering it. But Microsoft owns the series now and has far more money to throw at it than former owners/Unreal Engine creators Epic Games did. With help from Microsoft Research, Redmond's Gears of War factory The Coalition found a high tech way to fix that problem. It's called Triton.

Two years ago Microsoft Research's Nikunj Raghuvanshi and John Snyder presented a paper (PDF) titled "Parametric Wave Field Coding for Precomputed Sound Propagation." The long and short of the research is that it detailed how to create realistic reverb effects based on objects in a video game's map, to hear it in action pop on a pair of headphones and watch the video below.



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News:: The Best Dungeons & Dragons Adventures Keep Things Simple

The little-known secret to an extraordinary Dungeons & Dragons session is the tired cliche “less is more.” It’s true, although it may not seem that way to a tabletop culture that traditionally relishes in crowded mechanics and bloated narratives.

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News:: Is Pokemon Go's candy-filled Halloween event enough to tempt you back?

Pokemon Go is getting in on the Halloween hype, with a special event running from October 26 to November 1

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News:: These are the big changes Ubisoft just made to save The Division

We had a good couple months together, The Division and I, but then I got tired of its crap and uninstalled it

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News:: A BDSM Game That Let Me Explore A New Type of Sexual Experience 

Ladykiller in a Bind is a visual novel by Christine Love. It’s about affection, sex, consent, manipulation, and expression. Video games can often be a vector for experimentation and escapism. Playing Ladykiller in a Bind has taught me a surprising amount about myself.

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News:: The villain of Doctor Strange 2 is probably going to be *spoiler*

Warning: this article includes spoilers for Doctor Strange, the mid- and end credits scenes and its sequel too

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News:: World Of Warcraft's Return To Karazhan Update Is Live

Now that we’ve had nearly two months to get used to the World of Warcraft: Legion expansion, Blizzard heaps on a massive helping of new dungeon, raid and quest content in Update 7.1: Return to Karazhan. Here’s all the new stuff players can do today.

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News:: The Destiny Halloween event patch notes are here, get hyped

Patch notes, patch notes! Nothing's more exciting than patch notes! Okay, most of the time they're really not, but when they're about Destiny's annual Halloween event, I'm actually pretty jazzed

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News:: It looks like we might get another Azure Striker Gunvolt

With its sequel fully released and certified in quality, Azure Striker Gunvolt has cemented itself as one of the marquee modern platforming franchises. It did everything Mighty No. 9 set out to do and more, and it kind of just did it under the radar...twice.

Speaking to director Yoshihisa Tsuda, Nintendo Everything found out that developer Inti Creates would very much like to keep this good thing going "with Gunvolt at the helm as the protagonist," and that he has a "rough idea" for the premise of a third game. It's all a "pretty long way away," but it's on their minds, which is important.

My guess is if Azure 2 sells well enough it'll get a Steam port just like the first, so keep an eye on that if you aren't big on the 3DS. The only thing I really want for a third game is a followup to Mighty Gunvolt

Inti Creates wants to make a third Azure Striker Gunvolt game [Nintendo Everything]

It looks like we might get another Azure Striker Gunvolt screenshot



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News:: My thoughts on region locking and the Nintendo Switch

Anyone who has frequented the Destructoid comment sections would know the level of exaggerated vitriol and venom that I’ve spewed forth due to my frustrations with region locking in the past. To put it plainly, I find it to be a highly inconvenient and archaic form of content management that has no place in a modern and globally-connected society. It prioritises the bottom lines of manufacturers and publishers well above the consumer, who sees no tangible benefit from its inclusion.

I’m not here to be as deliberately facetious as I have been in the past when discussing such a topic. Instead, I would like to try and explain my frustrations with region locking. I'd also like to express my hopes that Nintendo - the last major console manufacturer to still employ these kinds of restrictions on its devices - will finally move on from it and embrace the concept of region-free hardware with its new Switch console.

My thoughts on region locking and the Nintendo Switch screenshot

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News:: I Got Internet Famous Leaking Games From Toys "R" Us

In the 15 years I worked at Toys “R” Us, I sometimes leaked information about video game sales and posted them on message boards. I even took games home early to try them and then post impressions about them, which was very much against the rules. I did this because I’ve always been excited about video games and because, frankly, when your job is a grind, you will take chances if you know it’ll get your fellow gamers online to like you.

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News:: Today's Best Deals: Jeans, Dash Buttons, Anker Speaker, and More

Rubbermaid food storage containers, a tiny Anker speaker, and Levi’s jeans lead off Tuesday’s best deals.

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News:: 'The Division' update keeps you playing past the endgame

Ubisoft is facing the same problem with The Division that Bungie encountered with Destiny: how do you keep people playing after they've hit the level cap, especially when extra content only goes so far? Its solution: dangle the promise of more loot. The developer has released that promised patch to overhaul the game's mechanics, and its centerpiece is a new World Tiers feature that increases the difficulty of enemy characters in return for greater rewards. The higher the tier, the greater the chance you'll get items you'd want to keep. You can also accrue experience beyond the regular and Underground level caps, and Ubisoft has tweaked loot drops across the board -- you're more likely to get equipment appropriate to your level, and any enemy has a chance of dropping advanced gear.

Source: Ubisoft



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News:: One day Rockstar woke up and cracked down on GTA Online cheating

Anyone still play GTA Online? I hop on every so often to see what's up, but if you've quit at some point due to rampant cheating, know that Rockstar is cracking down even further on ill-gotten cash hordes.

As of this week, a massive purge has occurred, where in order to "keep the gameplay environment fair," illegitimate cash has been removed from players. Note that this is basically a slap on the wrist as you won't get banned for it, and you'll get to keep any cash you've purchased -- it merely gets rid of the cheat money. Which, according to players who are still active, includes exploits and glitches, not hacks.

All told it's great that they're doing something, but this is a pretty soft stance compared to other publishers.

GTA Online October 2016 [Rockstar Games] 

One day Rockstar woke up and cracked down on GTA Online cheating screenshot

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News:: The Star Wars Han Solo movie will reportedly show how Han got the Millennium Falcon

 More details about the Han Solo Star Wars spin-off movie have emerged, and fans of the scruffy-looking nerfherder should be pleased to hear that a very important moment in Han's life will be shown on film for the first time

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News:: World Of Final Fantasy's Ridiculous Mirage Manual Is Worth Reading

One of the best reasons to collect all of the mirage creatures in World of Final Fantasy is to fill out the Mirage Manual, a catalog of creatures with some very colorful flavor text. Here are some of the best to get you started.

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News:: Doom's Arcade Mode is the ideal way to play the campaign

Doom is a really solid shooter. It evokes old-school level design with an emphasis on all-out action and not a lot in the way of fluff. The story definitely draws too much attention towards the end, but the game has a breakneck pace that hasn’t been seen in a lot of modern games, shooter or not.

The recent update to Doom fixes one of my main complaints with the main campaign, namely that you don’t need to find upgrades. Now, I understand that searching the environment for any manner of secrets isn’t a required option, but Doom went out of its way to make those collectibles important.

Doom's Arcade Mode is the ideal way to play the campaign screenshot

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News:: Win a World of Final Fantasy Collector's Edition on PS4!

World of Final Fantasy is out on Friday October 28 on PS4 and Vita and to celebrate, thanks to Square Enix, we've got three copies of the PS4 Collector's Edition to give away to UK readers

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News:: How will the AT&T / Warner merger change games?

In case you hadn't heard, AT&T announced Saturday that it intends to purchase Time Warner, Inc. for $85.4 billion. The deal is far from final, and if approved, wouldn't take place until sometime in 2017. It's an absolutely enormous merger, and it appears AT&T is looking to diversify its business so that it controls both the distribution and the creation of entertainment content. Assuming it's approved though, what effect would the merger have on gamers?

To start with, AT&T would be acquiring all of Warner's intellectual property, including DC comics, Harry Potter, and the movie versions of the Lord of the Rings universe. All of Warner's movies, TV divisions, and cable channels would become part of AT&T, meaning both The Big Bang Theory and HBO shows like Westworld and Game of Thrones could be changing hands. Warner owns the Turner group of channels, so anything you watch on Cartoon Network (including Adult Swim), TNT, TBS, or CNN would be affected. This also includes Warner's extensive back catalog, movies and shows as diverse as Christopher Nolan's Inception, DC TV shows like Flash and Supergirl, old Looney Tunes cartoons, Freakazoid!, and even Space Jam.

It'd also be in control of Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment (WBIE), one of Warner's most profitable divisions. According to the Washington Post, this division alone brought in over $2 billion in revenue last year. WBIE owns TT Games (formerly Traveler's Tales), Rocksteady Studios, NetherRealm Studios, Monolith Productions, Turbine, WB Games Montreal, and WB Games San Francisco.

TT Games is responsible for every Lego game, including the toys-to-life game Lego Dimensions. Rocksteady is best known as the creator of the Batman: Arkham games, though it has said that Arkham Knight will be the last entry in that series. NetherRealm makes the Mortal Kombat and Injustice fighting games, and was also responsible for the Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe mashup that came out eight years ago. Warner acquired the rights to the Mortal Kombat franchise along with many others when it purchased Midway Games in 2009. Turbine creates and maintains Massively Multiplayer Online (MMO) games, including Dungeons and Dragons Online, The Lord of the Rings Online, and upcoming MMOs set in Game of Thrones' Westeros and Batman's Gotham City. Monolith Productions are known for the Condemned and F.E.A.R. franchises, as well as 2014's well-received Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor

Warner also handles publishing for some games it doesn't produce, like The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt last year. Finally, Adult Swim Games isn't directly owned by WBIE, but is related because of its link to Cartoon Network. It produces its own games, like Robot Unicorn Attack, and has also handled publishing for games like Jazzpunk and Headlander.

In the short term, I'd expect very little to change if the merger is approved. The old adage "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" applies here, and Warner's games division is one of the bright spots on its ledger sheet. You may see some older Warner content delisted, at least temporarily, as the new rights holders reevaluate contracts. If you haven't downloaded the Freddy Krueger DLC for Mortal Kombat or started watching Animaniacs on Netflix, for example, now might be a good time to start. It's also possible that retro games published by Bally/Midway or Midway Games on services like Steam or Nintendo's Virtual Console might be affected. These include classics like Joust, Rampage, and Defender as well as slightly more recent titles like the Cruis'n games, Mortal Kombat, NBA Jam, and Gauntlet Legends.

TT Games might be the studio most impacted by the merger. Disney, which owns Marvel, has allowed it to use Marvel characters like Spider-Man and Hulk in its Lego games, but a new corporate overlord might cause Disney to reexamine their relationship with TT Games. The same is true of Universal, which owns the movie rights to franchises like Jurassic Park. Disney already gave EA exclusive rights to make games in the Star Wars universe after its acquisition of Lucasfilm in 2012. It's speculated that the success of Star Wars Battlefront may have contributed to Disney closing down the Disney Infinity toy and game line, since Disney saw a greater profit from Battlefront than Infinity generated, and assumed none of the risk.

That being said, TT Games is probably generating a healthy profit for Disney with games like Lego Marvel's Avengers, so it's likely to be left alone. Disney's current deal seems to keep their characters separate, preventing Captain America, Chewbacca, or Donald Duck from joining Lego Dimensions. Even without other studios' properties, TT Games would still have access to all of Warner's other intellectual property in its games, which is how Sloth from The Goonies can share screen space with Legolas, Ron Weasley, and Batman in Dimensions. Incidentally, this is also why there was a Midway Arcade level pack in Dimensions earlier this year.


The other part of the merger that might affect gamers has to do with how you get your internet. This would mostly only impact people in the United States, though AT&T offers internet services in Mexico as well. AT&T purchased DirecTV in 2015, and that made it the largest provider of pay-TV services in the country. It's the third-largest internet service provider in North America, behind Comcast and Charter Communications. Time Warner Cable isn't a part of this deal, since it was purchased by Charter earlier this year. After its merger with DirecTV, AT&T announced DirecTV Now, a competitor to Sling that offers live and on-demand base packages with premium add-ons, including much of DirecTV's current satellite content. This is intended to appeal to cord cutters, allowing them to watch cable programs without needing a cable subscription. In a similar vein, we might see AT&T offer benefits to customers who use more than one of its services. It's likely that Warner's content would end up being the enticement to get people to choose AT&T's U-verse internet over one of its competitors. For example, in the future you might enjoy a few days early access to Shadow of Mordor 3 if you preorder it using your U-verse internet access.

It's worth repeating that nothing is final yet, and any merger would likely have to pass antitrust scrutiny from the federal government. If the acquisition is successful, AT&T would have a huge advantage in rolling out anything Warner's studios produce, including games. As NBC noted, "It's almost a throwback to when the film studios owned the movie theaters. Except the film studio makes 55-minute epic fantasy TV segments and the movie theater is now your iPad." It'll be interesting to see how this all shakes out. I, for one, never dreamed I'd see enormous corporations battling to the death over the rights to fantasy realms and fictional universes. What a time to be alive.

How will the AT&T / Warner merger change games? screenshot

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News:: Destiny's Halloween event has a secret broom sparrow, here's how to get it

Slather on some flying ointment, bucko - Destiny's Festival of the Lost is live and it has an appropriately Halloween-y Sparrow waiting to be discovered in the Tower

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News:: This 55" 4K TV Has Roku Built In, and a Ridiculously Affordable Price Tag

TCL’s 2016 4K TVs aren’t technological marvels, but they might just represent the best value in the TV world, and the popular 55" model is on sale for an all-time low $430 today.

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