Next week is shaping up to be a busy one for Pokemon Go players. In addition to Giratina’s return to Raid Battles, Niantic has announced a new Limited Research event, which will give players their first opportunity to catch two new Shiny Pokemon.

The event takes place on Saturday, March 30, and runs from 11 AM to 8 PM local time. During those hours, Pokemon that are affected by weather conditions, such as Castform, will appear more frequently in the wild. You’ll also receive special Field Research tasks from Poke Stops, which will culminate in encounters with Lotad.

On top of that, the Shiny forms of Lotad and Castform will appear during the event, marking the first time either has been available in Pokemon Go. Niantic is also adding the move Weather Ball for Castform permanently to the game. You can read more details about the new Limited Research event on the official Pokemon Go website.

In the meantime, a few more days still remain in Pokemon Go’s ongoing spring equinox celebration. Until March 26, Grass Pokemon will appear more frequently in the wild. On top of that, the rare Rock/Psychic Pokemon Lunatone and Solrock have swapped regions, and their Shiny forms have likewise started appearing for the first time.

Pokemon Go’s next Community Day takes place on March 23. Not long after that, the Legendary Pokemon Giratina will make an encore appearance in Raid Battles. You’ll be able to catch it again in its Altered Forme from March 28 to April 2, after which point it’ll assume its Origin Forme–the appearance it takes in Pokemon Platinum–for the first time in Pokemon Go until April 29.

from GameSpot – Game News https://www.gamespot.com/articles/pokemon-go-two-new-shiny-pokemon-debuting-next-wee/1100-6465794/

Respawn has released the patch notes for a PC update for Apex Legends. The update is already live and is specifically aimed at fixing game crashes on PC.

“The game should now write an apex_crash.txt file to your My Documents folder when it crashes,” Respawn community manager Jay Frechette wrote in a Reddit blog post. “The apex_crash.txt files we got from players had a lot of information that we needed… We had never seen the crash in any of our internal testing before, but now we could finally reproduce the bug and that meant we could find it and fix it.”

More updates for Apex Legends are planned for next week. Frechette didn’t provide specifics, but did list several issues that Respawn is working towards fixing. Those broad problems are outlined below.

• FPS capped to 144: It was the intent to cap to 300 but a bug is keeping it at 144. We’re aware and looking into it and I’ll provide an update when I can.
• Hit reg issues: we are aware and testing a fix locally.
• Audio issues – we’ve heard the feedback on numerous issues you folks have been reporting. Working with audio guys to address the stuff we can answer next week.

The Apex Legends Season 1: Wild Frontier battle pass is now available for purchase, as is the game’s first post-launch add-on playable character, Octane. The battle pass costs 950 Apex Coins–about $9.50 USD–and offers a variety of rewards, such as cosmetic skins, stat trackers, new Legend voice lines, and Apex Coin and XP drops. Each reward is unlocked by earning XP and climbing up the battle pass’s 100 levels. It’s unfortunate there aren’t any challenges, like the Fortnite battle passes, but thankfully, Apex Legend’s pass allows you to earn enough Apex Coins to buy next season’s.

You don’t need to put the Apex Coins towards the next pass, though. Instead, you can use them to purchase the new character, Octane (although he can be unlocked using Legend Tokens too). The ninth Legend in Respawn’s battle royale game, Octane is all about being the fastest. His tactical gives him a boost of speed at the cost of his health, while his ultimate throws out a launch pad that can propel Legends and items through the air. In order to keep on running, Octane’s passive heals him over time, provided he’s not in combat.

Apex Legends is available for Xbox One, PS4, and PC.

from GameSpot – Game News https://www.gamespot.com/articles/new-apex-legends-pc-update-patches-game-crashes/1100-6465795/

Even early in Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, there are some tough boss battles to deal with, but they can be made a lot easier with the right weapons and items. There are a bunch of early prosthetics you shouldn’t miss, like the Flame Vent, which can be a huge help fighting the Chained Ogre. Lady Butterfly, a fast-moving boss who uses illusory apparitions to aid her, is another fighter who’s a lot easier if you have the right equipment.

Dealing with Lady Butterfly is a lot easier if you have Snapseeds, a consumable item that breaks the illusion of the boss’s apparitions. You’ll get one Snapseed from a samurai just outside the room where you fight Lady Butterfly, but it runs out pretty fast. Snapseeds aren’t essential to defeating Lady Butterfly, but they make the fight a whole lot easier. The trouble is, Snapseeds are difficult to come by and only located in certain locations, and you can’t buy them from merchants.

You can find Snapseeds quickly to fight Lady Butterfly if you know where to look, though. Tracking them down requires you to head back to the Ashina Outskirts and deal with another tough enemy: the White Serpent.

To find the Snapseeds, start by heading to the Underbridge Valley area in Ashina Outskirts. You’ll find the location soon after beating the Chained Ogre boss. As you head down past the Idol Statue for the location, you’ll encounter the giant White Serpent, a massive boss that hunts you for your entire passage through the area.

The trick to passing the White Serpent is stealth. Stay low and hidden in the tall grass, wait until the serpent’s attention is elsewhere, then leap across the valley and use your grapple to get clear. Repeat the process of sneaking and avoiding the serpent until you reach the wooden palanquin, where you can briefly hide from the snake. When it gets close to try to look inside, you can do a deathblow on its eye, causing it to flail around in horror and pain, giving you a chance to make a run for the exit of the area beyond.

Once you’re clear of the snake, you’ll hit the Ashina Castle Gate Fortress and its corresponding Idol Statue. Don’t continue once you get there, though. Instead, double back to where you fought the snake. You should see a glowing item on the hillside right near the palanquin where you stabbed the White Serpent, marking a bush on the mountainside. Head to it and you can grab five Snapseeds from the bush.

It’s advisable that you spend some time fighting Lady Butterfly before using your Snapseeds, though. The apparitions you don’t destroy either with your sword or with the seeds will turn into ethereal butterflies that can damage you, but they’re easy to dodge or block with the wooden beams around the area. If you do use Snapseeds, make sure you’re close to the apparitions before you activate them–they create a wave around you that dispels the ghosts, but if you’re too far away, it won’t work.

from GameSpot – Game News https://www.gamespot.com/articles/sekiro-guide-where-to-find-snapseeds-to-fight-lady/1100-6465791/

Week 4 of Fortnite Season 8 has arrived, and with it a new batch of challenges to complete across PS4, Xbox One, PC, Nintendo Switch, and mobile devices. Clear this week’s challenges and you’ll earn more Battle Stars, leveling your Battle Pass up and bringing you another step closer to unlocking Season 8’s new skins and rewards. But there’s another good reason to complete all of the tasks; doing so will also clear one of this season’s Discovery challenges, earning you a special loading screen that points to a free Battle Star or Banner hiding somewhere around the island.

Which of those two items you’ll be able to find depends on which loading screen you’ve unlocked, which in turn is determined by how many weekly sets of challenges you’ve completed this season. If you’ve finished four weeks’ worth of them, you’ll receive the loading screen pictured below. This one features a regal Peely being carried up the volcano while a procession of lowlier bananas trails behind. Look closely at the background, however, and you’ll be able to spot a Banner hanging from one of the torches lining the path.

That torch marks the spot where this week’s free Banner will appear, and it’s fortunately very easy to get to. The quickest way to find it is to glide toward the volcano at the beginning of a match. As you can see on the map below, the torch is along the patch leading to the mouth of the volcano. Make your way to it and the Banner will pop up as you approach. Collect it just as you would any other item then finish the match and the Banner will be yours to use as a new profile icon.

If you need another look at where the Banner is hiding, you can watch us collect it in the video at the top of this guide. However, like other secret Banners and Battle Stars, the item will only appear if you’ve completed enough challenges and unlocked the Peely loading screen; you won’t be able to simply go to the right location and expect to find the Banner unless you’ve fulfilled all the necessary steps.

If you need help completing any of this season’s previous challenges, you can find more tips and guides in our full Season 8 challenges roundup. In other Fortnite news, Epic has recently rolled out the game’s 8.11 update, which introduced a new weapon–the Flint-Knock Pistol–and unvaulted the Impulse Grenade. The patch also adjusted the spawn rater for the Baller–this season’s new vehicle. You can read the full patch notes here.

from GameSpot – Game News https://www.gamespot.com/articles/fortnite-week-4-secret-banner-location-guide-seaso/1100-6465779/