Rainbow Six Siege developer Ubisoft is trialing some big Operator changes on the game’s PC test server. In short, shield Operators are being nerfed, while Nokk and Glazz have been buffed.

Shield characters–Recruit, Blitz, Fuze, and Montagne–will suffer from reduced accuracy when firing from the hip. In addition, melee attacks with ballistic shields will no longer kill enemies in one hit; instead, it will send them into the down-but-not-out (DBNO) state.

Another Operator facing ire from the community at present, Jackal, is being nerfed, too. If he detects you, you’ll be tracked for a total of 20 seconds (with your location refreshing four times in that period)–that’s down from the present scenario of five refreshes over 25 seconds.

For the final two nerfs, the disorientating effect of Echo’s sonic burst will see its duration reduced from 10 seconds to seven, while Maverick’s breaching torch will be louder.

In terms of buffs, Nokk’s ability will now last for the greater duration of 12 seconds, with a 12-second refresh to compensate. Glaz, meanwhile, will be slightly more effective on the move, as his vision penalty won’t be so harsh and takes longer to activate (six seconds, up from 2.5).

You can see the full patch notes below, via Ubisoft. Bear in mind these are only active on the test server for the time being and are subject to change before they come to the live servers. Those playing on console or on public PC servers might be interested in the latest full Rainbow Six Siege update.

Rainbow Six Siege Test Server Update

Balancing

Shield Hip-Fire

• Hip-fire cone increased. We have standardized the hip-fire penalization when you have a Ballistic Shield equipped.

Ballistic Shield Hip-Fire

• Performing a melee attack with a Ballistic Shield equipped will now only injure and DBNO the opponent, instead of killing them.

Echo

• Reduced Yokai Sonic Burst disorientating effect base duration to 7 seconds (down from 10s).

Glaz

• Reduced time it takes to trigger the vision penalty when moving or rotating, lowering the overall vision penalty when moving.

• Movement time before complete vision is lost is now 6 seconds (up from 2.5s).

• The speed at which the vision penalty is applied when rotating has also been slowed down.

Jackal

• Reduced the number of pings from a scan to 4 (down from 5).

• [Edit/Update for clarification] Tracking: Now 20 seconds ping every 4 seconds + ping duration (initial ping + 4 pings).

• [Further clarification]: Tracking time reduced by 5 seconds. This means that instead of 5 pings (+initial ping) over 25s, it is 4 pings (+initial ping) over 20s.

Maverick

• Modified breaching torch sound SFX.

• Breaching torch sounds will now be easier to hear when Maverick is making a hole close to you.

Nokk

• Increased Nøkk’s ability duration to 12 seconds and increased the refill timer to 12 seconds.

• With the longer duration, and cooldown, you’ll be able to better leverage her ability.

Bug Fixes

• FIXED – Under certain circumstances, after emptying the magazine, weapons cannot be reloaded.

• FIXED – After joining in progress, any Yokai drones or hacked Mozzie drones outside will not display the jammed VFX to the player who joined midway.

• FIXED – Missing SFX for Clash when equipping her CCE Shield.

• FIXED – Sometimes placing Mira’s Mirror on a reinforced wall may not breach both sides of the wall.

• FIXED – Players can spawn peek the Docks.

• FIXED – Starting any situation after completing a Custom Online game will start a Thunt Lone Wolf on the same map and mode as the Custom Online game.

• FIXED – Players are unable to reconnect to a Ranked session via the dynamic Play button and remain in queue unless they relaunch.

Reverse Friendly Fire

• Continued chip damage to an individual from another teammate over several rounds will stack RFF points more quickly.

• Putting a teammate into DBNO will now activate RFF and system willr respond accordingly if teammate is revived or bleeds out.

Idle Kick Timer

• Idle kick warning timer will display 10 seconds before a kick.

from GameSpot – Game News https://www.gamespot.com/articles/rainbow-six-siege-update-makes-big-operator-change/1100-6468502/

Video game retailer GameStop has unveiled an ambitious plan for new types of retail stores. The company is partnering with a “global innovation design firm,” R/GA, to create “streamlined” GameStop stores. The two companies are working together on designing and testing out the stores, which GameStop says in a news release will introduce “new ways” for shoppers to try games before they guy them. The stores themselves will have a “unique layout and purpose.”

Some of the store concepts will be focused on competitive gaming and “home-grown e-leagues.” While other concept stores will exclusively sell retro games and hardware. The new stores will be piloted in a “select market,” though GameStop didn’t say exactly where they’ll be tested.

GameStop’s chief customer officer Frank Hamlin said in a statement, “We’re on a journey to use our vast retail footprint to provide an engaging and well-thought-out experience that enhances our consumers’ gaming interests.”

Hamlin said GameStop wants to “re-imagine” what the store experience can be.

GameStop has seen better days. The company’s share price is currently under $5 a share, which is close to the lowest it’s ever been in the company’s history. The company recently hired a new CEO, George Sherman, who said at the time of his hiring that he looks forward to putting GameStop through a large transformation. It appears these new concept stores are part of that.

In other news, Hamlin recently told GameSpot that the retailer is excited about the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Scarlett, in part because they will have disc drives.

from GameSpot – Game News https://www.gamespot.com/articles/gamestop-is-testing-new-types-of-stores-including-/1100-6468468/

After a lengthy hiatus, Sega’s Super Monkey Ball series is making a return later this year with the release of Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz HD, a remastered version of the 2006 Wii game. The title will arrive on PS4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch this October, with a PC release set to follow sometime in winter.

Along with updated visuals and “optimized control schemes for each platform,” Banana Blitz HD will feature 100 single-player levels and 10 different multiplayer mini-games. The game also introduces some new features such as online leaderboards and a new Decathalon mode, which challenges players with completing 10 mini-games in a row.

Banana Blitz HD launches for PS4, Xbox One, and Switch on October 29. The game is available for pre-order now and retails for $40 USD. Banana Blitz HD will also launch on PC via Steam later in Winter 2019, although no specific release date for that version has been announced yet. You can take a look at the first trailer for Banana Blitz HD above.

The original Banana Blitz launched in November 2006 alongside the Nintendo Wii. At the time, GameSpot awarded the title an 8.3/10 in our original Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz review, writing, “Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz serves as a great proof of concept, making some great, varied use of the Wii Remote and Nunchuk. The length of the single-player game and the inconsistent quality of the multiplayer minigames are lamentable, but the highs are high enough to make this one of the most highly recommended Wii launch games.”

Pre-order Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz HD at Amazon

from GameSpot – Game News https://www.gamespot.com/articles/super-monkey-ball-remake-announced-for-ps4-nintend/1100-6468459/

After three weeks of 9.30 content updates, a new patch is on the way for Fortnite. The v9.40 update will arrive on PS4, Xbox One, PC, Nintendo Switch, and mobile devices tomorrow, July 17, and it looks set to introduce some new weapon variants to the battle royale shooter.

Downtime for the v9.40 update is scheduled to begin at 1 AM PT / 4 AM ET / 9 AM BST, developer Epic announced on Twitter. The studio didn’t discuss what new content will arrive as part of the update, but Fortnite’s in-game news feed is teasing that Epic and Legendary variants of the Tactical Shotgun are “coming soon” to the title.

Given that new weapons are advertised in the News feed just ahead of their release, the Epic and Legendary Tactical Shotguns will presumably arrive in this week’s 9.40 update. We’ll have the full 9.40 patch notes once the update is live.

Fortnite’s Week 10 challenges arrived on all platforms last week, which means we’re quickly nearing the end of Season 9. Epic typically caps off each season of the game with a big world-changing the event, and it appears one may happen this weekend. Dataminers have recently discovered evidence that a large battle between the monster formerly beneath Polar Peak and the giant robot being assembled at the Pressure Plant will kick off in the game on July 20.

There have been numerous indications within the game that some large-scale event is happening soon. One of Week 10’s challenges tasks players with visiting public service announcement signs, while players have recently begun noticing countdown timers around the island that lead up to the fateful showdown this Saturday, although what exactly that will entail remains to be seen.

from GameSpot – Game News https://www.gamespot.com/articles/fortnite-940-update-new-tactical-shotguns-coming-t/1100-6468461/