Call of Duty: Modern Warfare is just hours away, but a last-minute patch is making a major change to the multiplayer options first. Infinity Ward announced that it’s releasing an update that will remove all night maps from rotation.

The studio didn’t state a reason for the change but did say that it will be adding night maps back in as a separate playlist. The update will also remove the minimap from Hardcore modes.

Feedback to day-one patch notes may shed some light on the reason, though. Several users complained that night maps in the beta just fundamentally played differently than others, due to the reliance on night vision and specialized aiming attachments. Several players suggested doing exactly what Infinity Ward just announced: making it a separate playlist entirely. The day one patch notes, much of it addressing beta feedback, can be found below.

If you’re eagerly anticipating the release of Modern Warfare, you can pre-load now and check out what time it will unlock in your territory. Plus you still have time to run to Walmart and pick up a double XP bonus before you start playing. Read our pre-order guide for everything you need to know to prepare for launch.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Day One Patch Notes

GENERAL FIXES

• Spawning in Core Multiplayer:

  • Fixed edge case scenarios with spawning on enemies

  • Adjusted spawn logic to improve spawn quality. We’ve also added more spawns to increase your options. We will continue to improve this map by map post-launch

• Ground War:

  • Added more fallback spawns to FOBs if the flag has too many enemies

  • Improved safety checking for spawning on Squadmates (is still dangerous, but the UI will notify you of this!)

  • Added spawning on Squadmates while in vehicles

  • Neutral tanks and helicopters now show up in the Spawn Selection screen

  • Helicopters now have flares to help manage incoming missiles

  • If all flags are captured by one team, you’ll go into Defcon to win so protect those flags!

  • Fix for an exploit that was allowing players (and therefore teammates) to spawn under the map

• Lighting:

  • Brightened characters in dark areas across many maps

• Low Health Visuals:

  • Now brightens up in the middle of the screen instead of darkening

• Weapon Balance:

  • In general, weapons received a lot of love since the Beta. Most notably shotguns and pistols.

• Equipment:

  • Enemy claymores now have larger, visible lasers

  • Reviving a teammate near a friendly claymore could cause the claymore to explode, resulting in a suicide

• Mini-Map:

  • Now on by default across core multiplayer and Ground War. Enemy firing does not show up on the mini-map unless a team UAV is active

  • Map zoom is pulled out a bit to help with player awareness

• Killstreaks:

  • VTOL Jet adjusted to not target players though rooftops

  • Fix for the Juggernaut Suit not spawning out of a crate. Another fix was deployed to prevent the mask from staying on the player after you have died as the Juggernaut and respawned

  • After using the Cruise Missile, player character models were sometimes stuck in a lean after using the streak

• Munitions Box:

  • Activated by using a prompt instead of proximity

  • Reduced the explosion radius of the box

• Trophy System:

  • Applied the Snapshot effect to the owner of any Snapshot grenades

• Recon Drone:

  • All players in vehicles are now markable

• Screen tearing on character and weapon models on Xbox

• Impact damage of lethals/tacticals and the ammo box were causing instant kills

• Adjustments to the descriptions in Gunsmith

• Fix for a bug where the wrong input would be shown for players in a party

• Fix for a bug where a door could open in the opposite direction of the player’s movement

• Footsteps – Footstep tuning of volume fall off distance, mixing volume and occlusion settings

• Placing Deployable Cover on stairs could prevent teammates from being able to mantle or crouch under, blocking paths

• Various audio tuning and fixes for executions and weapons

• Players were able to spam the crouch button while moving creating a ‘snaking’ effect.

PC SPECIFIC

• Crouch and prone transition animations have been smoothed out for high FPS

• ADS Sensitivity options can now be saved when using KBM

• Double-tapping the sticks now always triggers the Tactical Sprint when using a gamepad on PC

• Fixed blurriness in various situations

• Ping widget is now showing the correct latency value

• Added depth of field option in the Graphics options

• Added HDR support

• Added NVIDIA Highlight support in MP

• Global performance improvements and stability fixes

• ADS transition animations have been smoothed out for high FPS

• Adjusted stand-to-prone timing for KBM versus gamepads

• Player no longer loses sprint functionality by holding down sprint keybind and the move keybind while respawning

• FOV Slider setting reverting to default after loading into the map.

from GameSpot – Game News https://www.gamespot.com/articles/call-of-duty-modern-warfare-update-removes-all-nig/1100-6470866/

Though Game Freak hasn’t revealed any specific window for how long it will likely take to complete the campaign in Pokemon Sword / Shield, it looks like the upcoming game will have about as much content as previous titles in the franchise. Of course, since different generations have taken wildly different times to complete, that’s still a fairly large ballpark.

“In terms of the volume or the amount of content in the main adventure, [Sword / Shield is] comparable to other Pokemon generations that we’ve played,” Pokemon Sword / Shield director Shigeru Ohmori said, according to Game Informer. “I think there’s a lot of interesting activities that, for example, completing the Pokedex or really going out into the Wild Area and engaging with those mechanics, that’ll add a lot of replay value for players who are looking to get really hardcore into that.”

“I feel like a lot of players these days will typically burn through content and try to go to the ending as fast as they can,” Pokemon Sword / Shield producer Junichi Masuda added. When looking at previous Pokemon games, their campaign’s run the gamut of 26-41 hours of content, with Gen I as the low outlier and Gen IV as the high one. Comparatively, the stories in Gen II, III, V, VI, and VII are all in the 30-35 hour range–so it’s probable that’s where Gen VIII will ultimately end up as well.

One of the biggest new features in Pokemon Sword / Shield is the Wild Area, an open-world expanse where Pokemon roam about in the overworld–just like they do in Let’s Go, Pikachu / Let’s Go, Eevee. This area doesn’t work like the routes seen in previous Pokemon games. In the Wild Area, Pokemon don’t naturally scale to your adventure, so when you’re just starting out, you may run into wild Pokemon that are far too strong for you to take on, forcing you to be sneaky. You can also interact with other players while in the Wild Area, allowing you to easily find other trainers to battle against or trade with.

Pokemon Sword / Shield is scheduled to release for Nintendo Switch on November 15.

from GameSpot – Game News https://www.gamespot.com/articles/pokemon-sword-and-shield-are-comparable-in-length-/1100-6470860/

Halloween is a scary time of the year, with ghouls and kids in Fortnite costumes running around, but it’s also a time for retailers to get ahead of Black Friday and all those scary good deals. Walmart’s pre-Black Friday sale is currently live with more deals coming soon, and now Best Buy has kicked off a sale of its own.

Best Buy’s Give-Back Sale starts on October 25 and runs until October 27, but if you sign up for a free My Best Buy account, you can gain access to the deals today. Best Buy plans to give 5% of the profits (up to $200,000) from the Give-Back Sale to the Best Buy Foundation for Teen Tech Centers, which provides young people with technology, training, and mentorship to help them achieve their dreams. It’s offered assistance to young artists, such as filmmakers, photographers, and musicians.

See all deals at Best Buy

Save up to $200 on select MacBooks

Best Buy is currently discounting a large selection of MacBooks, all of which are the latest models of MacBook Pros and Airs.

See at Best Buy

ASUS – FX705DT 17.3″ Gaming Laptop – $680 ($1,000)

This 17.3-inch Asus Tuf Gaming laptop features a GeForce GTX 1650, 8 GB of RAM, and a Ryzen 7 3750H processor, in addition to a 512 GB SSD. It’s a great laptop at the regular price, and at the reduced tag of $680, it’s an excellent deal.

See at Best Buy

WD – Easystore 8TB External USB 3.0 Hard Drive – $130 ($200)

If you’re looking for a heck ton of storage for your PS4 or Xbox One–or anything else–this USB 3.0 external hard drive is a good choice. For 8 TB of storage (eight times the amount of the largest PS4 and Xbox One), $130 is a great price.

See at Best Buy

GoPro HERO7 4K Waterproof Action Camera – $330 ($400)

There is a lot of great GoPro footage out there, particularly of people snowboarding, snowmobiling, and the like. With the snowy season fast approaching, you may want to get a GoPro of your own, and this 4K Hero7 will give you the ability to capture your footage at an ultra-high resolution.

See at Best Buy

Insignia 50” 4K TV with HDR – $270 ($350)

If you’re looking for an affordable way into the world of 4K TVs, then this 50-inch Insignia is a good option at $270. It’s even got Amazon’s Fire TV service built-in and comes with an Alexa-enabled remote for voice control.

See at Best Buy

from GameSpot – Game News https://www.gamespot.com/articles/macbooks-hard-drives-and-more-discounted-in-best-b/1100-6470857/

Another hotfix for Borderlands 3 is scheduled for October 24. The patch makes over a dozen adjustments to Gearbox’s loot shooter, addressing general issues across the entirety of Borderlands 3 as opposed to solely focusing on one aspect of the game, like the October 17 legendary weapons-focused hotfix.

As a result, there’s nothing earth-shattering in the patch notes for this hotfix. Most of the update addresses minor bugs–some are definitely annoying, but none seem game-breaking. Perhaps the most significant change is the added option of adjusting the volume of the 2K and Gearbox logo intro movies that play when you first boot up the game. So you no longer need to worry about accidentally blowing out your ears while playing Borderlands 3 with headphones. The full patch notes are listed below.

Bloody Harvest, the first of Borderlands 3’s post-launch content drops, begins alongside the release of this latest patch. To participate in the event, you must have progressed far enough in Borderlands 3’s campaign to unlock the area Sanctuary III. While in Sanctuary III, look for newcomer Maurice–you literally can’t miss him, as he’s one of those fire-breathing dinosaur Saurians.

Speak to him and he’ll give you a quest to collect Hecktoplasm, which drops from haunted enemies. You can find haunted enemies on any planet, they’re marked by their ghostly green glow. If you haven’t finished the campaign, you’ll likely run into enough finishing off the story. If you have completed Borderlands 3’s story, however, then you have a bit of a grind ahead of you. Thankfully, Borderlands 3 has a decent endgame.

After you’ve collected enough Hecktoplasm, return to Maurice and he’ll send you to Heck–the underworld of the Borderlands universe. Here, you’ll face the deceased spirits of the enemies you killed throughout Borderlands 3’s campaign, as well as a new boss called Captain Haunt. It’s here that you can more easily find weapons that play off the brand-new Terror debuff, and you’ll also have a chance to get Fearmonger, a new legendary shotgun, from random drops. Bloody Harvest continues until December 5.

Borderlands 3 October 24 Hotfix Patch Notes

Bloody Harvest

• During the event, the Main Menu will now become spooky when the micropatch has loaded and the event content is available

Stability

• Fixed a report bug resulting in a crash while loading into maps
• Fixed a reported audio crash bug
• Fixed a reported crash that occurred for certain users when level transitioning immediately after throwing a longbow grenade
• Fixed a reported rare crash that occurred for certain users after completing missions
• Fixed a reported crash that occurred for certain users when swapping an equipped weapon
• Fixed a reported crash that occurred for certain users when sorting the Mission Log by region

General

• [Consoles Only] Mayhem mode is now available in True Vault Hunter Mode on Consoles
• [Consoles Only] Added Photo Mode support for Consoles
• [Consoles Only] Added ECHOcast Twitch Extension support for Consoles
• Added new Vault Hunter customizations and trinkets
• Added ability to specify Mayhem Mode while matchmaking
• Adjusted the volume of the 2K and Gearbox logo intro movies
• Addressed reported concern where some players were missing skill points
• Updated gore stump textures for consistency
• [PC Only] Improved reliability of the voice chat system when open and closing the ECHO menu on PC
• [PC Only] Added a modification so typing in text chat no longer prevents players from fast traveling
• Singularity grenades will no longer cause Saurian corpses to float in the air after dying
• Addressed a reported concern that certain players experienced some Visual FX for the side mission “Transaction Packed” before accepting the mission
• Addressed a reported concern that some players experienced Brick getting stuck after chasing enemies off the cliff near Hector’s Lament in The Anvil
• Made a modification where Amber Lamps no longer has a chance to spawn during the “Defend BALEX” objective of “The Family Jewel” mission
• Addressed a reported concern with the Legendary grenade mod Quasar, where it was not counting towards the optional grenade kills objective in Slaughter maps
• [PS4 Only] Addressed a language code issue present in PS4 activity feeds for English
• Addressed a reported concern where users with their region set to Japan were unable to complete the Fast Travel tutorial
• Made a modification so Safe Area Calibration is now saved when relaunching the game
• Camera no longer resets to a random location when using the Reset Camera function in Photo mode
• Photo mode will now force exit when the player is teleported
• Subtitles are now present when joining another player’s game while a cinematic is playing
• Addressed a reported concern where some sounds were quiet or missing for the second player in split-screen
• Made various split-screen UI fixes
• Fixed a reported UI issue where the Mayhem Modifier menu would sometimes not appear for certain players

Weapons

• Flakker
  • Now consumes 1 ammo instead of 5.

Bug Fixes

• Addressed a reported bug with “Space-Laser Tag” which prevented some players from progressing to the next objective
• Atomic has been modified to no longer become invincible, as has been reported under certain conditions
• Modified Powerhouse Heavy’s attacks to no longer damage players outside of the intended range
• Addressed a concern that Projected shields were taking too much damage from General Traunt’s attacks
• Fixed the reported floating door frame in the Jakobs Theatre
• Addressed a reported potential progression blocker when Rhy’s talks during “Hostile Takeover”
• Increased checkpoint sizes of New-U stations in multiple locations
• Included a modification so that Zane’s Digi-Clone will no longer spawn into the cage in Slaughterstar 3000

from GameSpot – Game News https://www.gamespot.com/articles/new-borderlands-3-update-releases-today-full-patch/1100-6470855/