Outward sells 400,000 worldwide, free update released with Hardcore mode, added languages, more

Outward sells 400,000 worldwide, free update released with Hardcore mode, added languages, more

The indie survival RPG gets a free update after selling well.

source /news/9059-outward-sells-400-000-worldwide-free-update-released-with-hardcore-mode-added-languages-more

Ghost Recon: Breakpoint Guide – How Blueprints Work And Where To Find Them

Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Breakpoint is a massive game packed with tons of systems and mechanics. It’s a lot to take in all at once, so we don’t blame you if you skipped past Maria’s shop tutorials–which is easy to do early on. As a result, you’re likely to become confused about her most crucial tutorial: how blueprints work.

As you can imagine, not all guns and attachments can be bought at Maria’s shop or even found organically in the world. Instead, you need to search for their blueprints. These investigative mini-quests have you traveling all around Aurora island to secure the ability to purchase some of the game’s better, more powerful guns.

You can generally find blueprints in special chests scattered across Aurora’s various bases and residential districts. But if you’re having trouble, you can clue in on their location by interacting with intel points.

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Once you’ve acquired a weapon or attachment blueprint, you can then buy it at Maria’s shop. It’s as easy as that. There’s no crafting involved–all you need is your hard-earned Skell credits. But don’t fret, they’re just as affordable as the other guns in Maria’s shop. If you grow partial to a particular weapon, though, you’re welcome to re-purchase it with stats adjusted to your current level.

For more Ghost Recon Breakpoint, check out our spoiler-free beginner’s guide. Be sure to check back often in the coming days as we publish even more guides. For everything else Breakpoint-related, read our feature rounding up everything you need to know.

Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Breakpoint is available now for PS4, Xbox One, and PC. You can read our most significant thoughts of the full game so far in our early review impressions.

from GameSpot – Game News https://www.gamespot.com/articles/ghost-recon-breakpoint-guide-how-blueprints-work-a/1100-6470331/

More Destiny 2 Cheaters Banned — “Keep It Clean,” Bungie Says

Nobody likes a cheater, and that’s also true for Bungie, the developer of the Destiny series. The studio announced that it has banned a number of Destiny 2 players who tried to use aim-bots.

“Our security team has taken action today [October 3] and issued a wave of bans targeted at players attempting to use aiming cheat tools,” Bungie wrote on Twitter.

It’s been a big week for Destiny 2, as the game’s newest expansion, Shadowkeep, launched this week alongside a free-to-play version of the sci-fi shooter called New Light.

The rollout of Shadowkeep and New Light wasn’t entirely smooth, as Bungie was forced to bring down the game’s servers for several hours to perform “emergency maintenance.” Things have improved significantly since, although there are a number of lingering issues, including one that impacts players’ ability to get a key new item, the Gate Lord’s Eye artifact.

Destiny 2 was able to reach more than 200,000 peak concurrent players on launch day on Steam alone, and the game continues to be extremely popular. Steam’s public statistics page shows the game reached 222,000 concurrent players on October 3, making it one of the most popular games on the entirety of Steam.

from GameSpot – Game News https://www.gamespot.com/articles/more-destiny-2-cheaters-banned-keep-it-clean-bungi/1100-6470334/

Detroit: Become Human Reaches Big New Sales Milestone, And The PC Version Is Still To Come

The latest game from developer Quantic Dream is a big success. Detroit: Become Human, which was originally released in May 2018, has now passed 3 million copies sold. Quantic Dream announced on Twitter that the game has hit 3.2 million copies on PS4 globally.

This is just the latest sales milestone for Detroit. In December 2019, publisher Sony announced that the game had reached 2 million copies sold.

Sales of Detroit are expected to continue to grow, as the game is scheduled to launch on PC later this year. The game is releasing as a timed-exclusive for the Epic Games Store.

Quantic Dream worked with Sony for a long time on its big games, including Heavy Rain, Beyond: Two Souls, and Detroit, but the company is going multi-platform for its next release. Heavy Rain was released on PC in June, while Beyond: Two Souls came out for PC in July. Like Detroit, both titles are exclusive to the Epic Games Store through a timed-exclusivity deal between Epic and Quantic.

Detroit tells the story of three androids living in the future and grappling with their sentience. In this future, androids are deeply life-like and interwoven with society, and the game overall was generally well-received. For more, check out GameSpot’s Detroit review.

from GameSpot – Game News https://www.gamespot.com/articles/detroit-become-human-reaches-big-new-sales-milesto/1100-6470332/

Meet the PVP Campus League Finalists!

Collegiate esports continues to grow as competitions around the world spring up at tertiary institutions trying to find the next great esports player. For people in the Singapore PVP Campus League (Mobile Legends: Bang Bang) scene, those players might already be found. After a gruelling battle featuring 90 hopeful teams, three have qualified for the Finals on 7-8 December at PVP Esports @ Singapore Comic Con.

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Unstable Network SIM (UNS), from the Singapore Institute of Management, qualified in the upper bracket, while Institute of Technical Education teams Serpentine (SPT) and Holy (HL) will have to fight their way up through a lower bracket final before they get their shot in the Grand Finals.

Mobile Legends: Bang Bang is the immensely popular mobile MOBA from Moonton featuring five versus five hero-focused battles where two teams attempt to destroy one another’s bases. Being a mobile game, it requires a significant amount of focus and high manual dexterity as players make skillshots and secure kills.

A Twist of Fate

a1a2 snipes Holy to secure a win.

The best team out of the qualifiers, Unstable Network, came together almost by accident.

“They were all in my friends-list beforehand, so it was easy for me to ask them to join my team,” explained Aaron “K U K U” Tan from USN. “At the time, however, I did not know that they were attending [the Singapore Institute of Management] until [Shane “Hao • WakaWaka”] Hao told me who to approach [from our school].”

This lead to USN adding William “a1a2” Heese, Eugene “ᴀcεσғsρα∂ε” NG and Enoch Cheong Xiang “Flawedshot” Rui to the team as they kicked off their campaign to win the Campus League.

A Winding Path

BAH-NANA secures an Ace against UNS (ITE).

For Serpentine, the path to becoming a team was a little more typical, as they just got together for the tournament and decided on a team name almost on a whim.

“Some of my teammates pitched weird names,” Glenn “XCP.” Hong of SPT. “So I figured I might as well put Serpentine. Otherwise, I wanted to [call us] Viper or Syngeneic.”

Those teammates suggesting weird names are Chai “ᴊᴜɴ♣” Munjun, Tan Boon “Spyman” Kiat, Brosnan “BAH-NANA” Yong and Zacharias “ᴺᵞˣeтʜᴇʀ” Fong — alongside XCP., of course.

Holy Moly

P⁄ιgεση•鳩 assassinates the enemy team to earn a GG.

Holy, meanwhile, have been together for quite some time — which might explain the team synergy that got them to the finals.

Eugene “p⁄ιgεση•鳩” Yam and I were friends from secondary school, while Sheng Meng “レクイエム” Foo knew me from CCA, our boardgames club,” said Huang “❖FrostZK” Zhikang when asked how the team came together. Keith “gнοѕτ” was also a CCA member and friends with Sheng Meng, and finally, Marcus “dragonmasterultimate” is Eugene’s classmate.

“At first the team was me, Eugene, Sheng Meng and two other friends of ours. However they couldn’t make it, so Eugene introduced Marcus, and Sheng Meng introduced Keith. And we have known each other since.”

MVP Efforts

We asked each team who their MVP was — who they felt played invaluably during the tournament. Serpentine quickly pointed to Spyman and BAH-NANA, two players who created massive headaches for their opponents.

For Holy, it was a different kind of one-two combo.

“Sheng Meng did a great job for protecting and supporting Eugene our mid-laner,” said FrostZK. “But overall I think Eugene was the MVP, he played well in every match and carried the team to victory.”

A1a2 was the MVP for UNS, and it appears that they weren’t the only ones who noticed his spectacular play.

“[A1a2] has been approached by many esports teams but he rejected them all,” said K U K U. “He displayed an outstanding performance at the Funan qualifiers, and it really wasn’t easy trying to convince him to join this tournament as he has other commitments.”

Educational and Inspirational

Singapore’s Minister for Education, Mr Ong Ye Kung, attended the PVP Inter-Campus League at Funan Mall, taking the time to learn how to play Mobile Legends: Bang Bang — something all three teams agreed was a big deal.

“Maybe it will help Singapore host more esports events (in the future)” said XCP. of the visit.

“Esports is a booming industry, and people enjoy playing games for a living,” said K U K U. “However many people feel that playing video games is a waste of time and not constructive or valuable to a person’s development or career.”

Hopefully the visit provided Minister Ong with a little extra perspective as esports continues to pursue governmental support in Singapore and around the world.

SPYMAN goes to work against team KIMMY

The Path Forward

One of the challenges of collegiate esports is the balancing act between practising and keeping up with your studies. It’s a tight rope that USN is definitely walking.

“We are currently busy with our school work,” said K U K U. “So we haven’t really been playing Mobile Legends as much, but hopefully our standard of play will maintain into December.”

Serpentine is taking a more measured approach.

“We are practising slowly until we figure out our mistakes,” said XCP.

And Holy is going all-in to get the win.

“We will be playing together every day and training in ranked to improve more on our teamwork and skills,” said FrostZK.

Holy and Serpentine face off first in an elimination match during PVP Esports @ Singapore Comic Con on the 7th of December, while Unstable Network SIM will be watching in the wings. They’ll compete against the victor, and the winner will take home $2500 worth of prizes.

PVP Esports @ Singapore Comic Con begins 7th December 2019 at Marina Bay Sands.

from GameSpot – Game News https://www.gamespot.com/articles/meet-the-pvp-campus-league-finalists/1100-6470333/

Major Games Writing Award Canceled, Uncharted Dev Calls It “Misguided Slap In The Face”

The Writers Guild of America–the union that represents writers across movies, TV, and video games–has scrapped its video game category for the next edition of the show. WGA has honored video game writing since 2008, so this is a big change–and developers are sounding off about it.

A spokesperson for WGA told The Hollywood Reporter that it will not hand out a Video Game Writing Award in 2020 due to a lack of WGA-covered games. The category may return in the future if the number of video games covered by the WGA reaches a “critical mass,” the group said.

A bigger number of WGA-covered games will lead to a “meaningful award selection process,” WGA said. The five nominees for the Video Game Writing Award for 2018 included Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, Batman: The Enemy Within, Episode 5- Same Stitch, God of War, Marvel’s Spider-Man, and Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire. Sony’s God of War ultimately won the award.

Some of the previous winners included Horizon: Zero Dawn, Uncharted 4, Rise of the Tomb Raider, and The Last of Us: Left Behind.

To be nominated, a game must feature on-screen writing credits, while credited writers must have already been or applied for membership in the WGA Video Game Writers Caucus. This incurs a $100 fee. WGA said in the past that it also considered games that were not developed “under WGA jurisdiction,” though the new statement specifically called out a lack of WGA-covered titles as one of the reasons the award category is going away.

While the WGA has abandoned its video game writing award, other prestigious awards shows, including BAFTA, still honor video games in multiple categories.

The reaction to this news from video game writers and developers came swiftly and passionately. Naughty Dog’s Neil Druckmann, who has won multiple WGA Video Game Writing Awards in the past, said on Twitter that he is “very disappointed” by the WGA’s decision to remove the category.

“A misguided slap in the face for writers in games,” he said.

You can see some of the other responses below, including messages from Patrick Weekes (BioWare), Josh Scherr (Naughty Dog), Chet Faliszek (Portal, Half-Life), and others.

from GameSpot – Game News https://www.gamespot.com/articles/major-games-writing-award-canceled-uncharted-dev-c/1100-6470330/

Destiny 2 Garden Of Salvation Raid: Start Time And New Trailer

Shortly after the launch of Destiny 2: Shadowkeep, Bungie released the next trailer showcasing the next raid known as the Garden of Salvation. Bringing players back Destiny 1‘s Black Garden, which closed out the main story of the game, the Vex stronghold that’s between the realms of time and space is home to a new threat that the Guardians will need to take out. This time, Guardians will be bringing with them a full fireteam to face the new menace within.

During the brief glimpse of the raid in the trailer, the enigmatic Guardian Eris Morn offers warnings for the major threat within the Black Garden. Just like in the original game, the Black Garden will focus primarily on the Vex faction, the machine race intent on rewriting history. However, the returning force known as The Darkness will also have a role to play, which was referenced throughout Shadowkeep. Just as with previous raids, your fireteam will encounter several obstacles focusing on combat engagements, puzzles, and even some involved platforming sections.

The raid is expected to go live on October 5, 10 AM PST, and as is tradition, players are currently grinding out loot to acquire more strength for the raid. To participate, you and your fireteam will need to be at least 890 Power. During that launch window, players will go through the new raid blind, and they’ll have to figure out what to do with their comrades. Just like previous launches for Destiny raids, Bungie devs will monitor the various attempts at the raid.

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Groups that can finish within the first 24 hours will get a special emblem, others who finish before October 15 will get to purchase a special raid jacket, and of course, the first clan to finish the raid will get all previously mentioned prizes and also a coveted World’s First championship belt. Other Unlike previous raids, Bungie will introduce a limited time modifier for first-time raiders, which will cap Power at 920. This will ensure players aren’t overpowered for the raid. Also, the exotic weapon Jotunn has been banned from the raid for 24 hours, as it’s been proven highly effective against enemies and bosses.

Garden of Salvation Raid Start Time

  • 10 AM PST
  • 7 AM EST
  • 11 AM GMT
  • 9PM AET

There’s plenty of new loot to acquire in the raid, but in order to participate, you’ll need to finish the campaign and its following missions, along with getting up to 890 Power. If you’re looking for more info on how to get raid-ready, check out our various guides and features highlighting tips and other details about the important things of note.

from GameSpot – Game News https://www.gamespot.com/articles/destiny-2-garden-of-salvation-raid-start-time-and-/1100-6470326/

Destiny 2 Shadowkeep Deathbringer Exotic Quest: How To Get The Rocket Launcher Fast

As with every new big content drop for Destiny 2, Shadowkeep has its share of special new Exotic weapons to chase down. So far, the toughest to get and most interesting is the Deathbringer rocket launcher, which requires you to wreck a whole bunch of Hive enemies in order to get it. The Exotic also handles differently from most rocket launchers; it’s a gun you use indirectly, shooting over your targets for the best effect.

The lengthy quest to unlock Deathbringer will take you all over the moon to unlock it, and has some pretty significant grind attached. The good news is, it’s possible to knock out the quest relatively quickly if you know where to go, what to do, and which enemies to concentrate on for the fastest progress. We’ve got a complete list of all the steps below, plus all the tips you’ll need to get Deathbringer quickly and relatively painlessly.

Complete The Story Campaign

Before you can go after Deathbringer, you need to finish up Shadowkeep’s campaign. When you finish the mission called Beyond, head back to Eris Morn on the moon and speak with her. She’ll give you a new quest: Memory of Sai Mota. It’s not a gold Exotic quest, but it’ll put you on the path to getting what you need for Deathbringer. Grab the Lunar Spelunker bounty from Eris, which you’ll need to complete in order to advance the quest.

Clear Out The Lost Sectors

The Memory of Sai Mota quest will send you through all four of the moon’s Lost Sector locations. You’ll need to do three for the first part of the quest: K1 Crew Quarters, K1 Logistics, and K1 Communion. Those are the three southernmost Lost Sectors–the last is in Sorrow’s Harbor, so don’t worry about that one yet.

The Lost Sectors are pretty straightforward, but you’ll need to raise your Power level to a pretty decent height before you can handle them. The story campaign should bring you high enough to handle them, but you’ll want to be at least around 840 before getting started.

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Explore K1 Revelation

Once you’ve handled all three Lost Sectors, you’ll get a Firewall Data Fragment item for completing the Lunar Spelunker bounty. Complete the K1 Revelation Lost Sector by clearing out all the Revenant Wizards and destroying the crystals they protect, then finishing off the Nightmare Ogre at the end of the area. Once you’ve done that, climb up into the tunnel on the right side of the arena, where you’ll find a door you can use the Firewall Data Fragment to enter. Activate the console inside to advance the quest, which now requires you find pieces of Sai Mota’s Necklace.

Get The Necklace Pieces

This part’s mostly easy. Head to Sorrow’s Harbor and kill Nightmares there–or jump into a Nightmare Hunt. Either way, you need to use Arc abilities to clear 10 Nightmares (it doesn’t matter how strong they are), with each one dropping two pieces of the necklace. Once you have 20, return to Eris, who’s now waiting inside the portal, to complete the Memory quest and unlock the Exotic quest for Deathbringer.

Head To The Circle Of Bones

You’ll next be prompted to “Explore the Circle of Bones,” where you’ll find a mission that will start the Deathbringer quest proper. To reach the spot, transmat into Sorrow’s Harbor and head south to the Hellmouth. Go toward the opening into the Hive temple and descend downward. Keep going through the Gatehouse area and beyond until you hit a much larger, wide-open area–the Circle of Bones. From here you can find the mission flag that will send you descending further into the Hellmouth. Head toward the Summoning Pits and kill the boss there to get a new item: the Silent Skull. You’ll need it to create Deathbringer.

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Gather The Bones

With the mission complete, your next job is to zip around the moon completing a few activities. Two are pretty straightforward: Head to the Hellmouth area and complete a Public Event to get your first bone fragment. For the second, you’ll need to complete the K1 Revelation Lost Sector again, located in Sorrow’s Harbour. They should be easy to handle at this point.

Your last item on the list might require a bit of searching and waiting. From Eris’s transmat location, jump on your Sparrow and head to the right toward Anchor of Light. When you get there, hang out a bit until you see an elite, yellow-bar enemy called the Bone Collector. This is a Hive Acolyte who will wander through the area like a high-value target, and when it spawns in, you’ll see a notification in the bottom-left corner of your screen. He’s usually right out in the middle of things near the big dome building and spawns pretty regularly. Kill him to complete the quest step.

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Back To The Scarlet Keep

Next, you’ll need to return to the Scarlet Keep Strike. Load into it from the Director’s moon map and run it as normal. You’re looking for a Hive Wizard called the High Conductor–look for it during the elevator portion when you’re ascending the tower of the Scarlet Keep. The High Conductor shows up on the second floor of the area among the other wizards, and is easy enough to deal with in the regular course of fighting enemies. Once the wizard is dead, you can complete the Strike as normal or head back to orbit–either way, you have your next step.

Another Grind In Sorrow’s Harbor

You’re almost done. In order to charge the skull, you have to gather the screams of your enemies. The step basically just means you have to kill a whole bunch of enemies: around 200 minor enemies, roughly 50 elites, and 10 bosses. That sounds like a lot, but this step goes pretty quickly if you know where to go for the best results.

The short answer is Sorrow’s Harbor. Turns out, the Nightmare Ogres that spawn regularly in Sorrow’s Harbor all count as bosses, which makes what would be the toughest step on the list into one of the easiest. The smaller Nightmares that spawn with the ogres are also very useful–they count as elites, which will give you progress on the middle bar. And of course, any random regular enemies around are good to kill too.

Once you’ve killed the bosses, you’ll probably have made some decent progress on the other two bars, but Sorrow’s Harbor isn’t really the best place to kill a bunch of minor enemies. You can make solid progress on both the other two requirements in either the Scarlet Keep Strike or in the K1 Revelation Lost Sector. The Strike might be the better way to go, since it seems that enemies killed by teammates also count toward your progress. In fact, if you have other activities to complete to earn Powerful gear, this is a good time to do some of it to double-count your progress–although you’ll move faster if you kill enemies on the moon. We found one run of Scarlet Keep and one run through K1 Revelation completed the requirement for killing minor enemies and nearly completed the elites requirement. To shore up the last of the latter, we went back to Sorrow’s Harbor and quickly mopped up a few more Nightmares.

With that out of the way, you’re down to one last mission, located, once again, in the Circle of Bones.

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Go Kill Some Deathsingers

Drive back to the Hellmouth and dive down to the Circle of Bones to find another mission flag for “Choir of the Damned.” Your job now is to turn the deadly song of Hive Deathsingers into a gun. Follow the markers down into the Catacombs, which you’ll remember from the story campaign when you found the Cryptoglyph. This is a 920 Power level mission, so you might want to recruit a friend or two as backup. The good news is, despite the numbers attached, this is actually a pretty easy mission. The toughest part is quickly dealing with the Deathsingers without getting overwhelmed by enemies.

As you head into the Catacombs, you’ll start to see glowing green energy appearing around the edges of your screen. That’s the Deathsong–you’ll also notice a timer ticking down when that happens. Once the Deathsong starts, you only have a minute to kill the Deathsinger using the spell, or you’ll be wiped. These are Hive Wizards and they get objective markers, so they’re easy to find. They’ll also stop singing if you break their shields or stagger them, so the situation isn’t quite as dire as it seems.

The tough part about reaching and killing each Deathsinger is the big group of enemies you’ll have to fight through to get there. But in most cases, as it turns out, you can sprint past most of the baddies and just drop the Deathsinger, then advance to the next area when the door beyond each one opens.

You’ll kill three Deathsingers before you reach the boss at the end of the mission. The situation hasn’t changed, except now you’ll have more enemies to deal with, including a couple of ogres. The boss Deathsinger will also try to fly away from you mid-battle and start a Deathsong–but again, doing some damage will stop it, so you don’t really need to worry about it much.

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With the boss dead, you’re all done. Return to Eris and she’ll give you your prize: the Deathbringer rocket launcher. It’s a little different from the other launchers you’re used to, firing shells that explode into void orbs that seek enemies. The orbs become more powerful the farther they fall through the air, and you can remotely detonate your Deathbringer shells by letting go of the fire button–so the best way to use the rocket launcher is more like a mortar. Fire it above your target, then release the fire button to remotely detonate the shell and drop void orbs on it.

from GameSpot – Game News https://www.gamespot.com/articles/destiny-2-shadowkeep-deathbringer-exotic-quest-how/1100-6470329/

Borderlands 3 CEO Settles Wild Lawsuit, Both Sides “Resolved All Claims”

The lawsuit between Borderlands developer Gearbox Software’s CEO Randy Pitchford and former company lawyer Wade Callender has come to an end. Both sides have “resolved all claims between them.”

A joint statement filed in 162nd Judicial District of Dallas, Texas confirms that Randy Pitchford has been “exonerated” from the claims against him. The two sides reportedly apologized, while “all misunderstandings between the parties have been corrected.”

The document asks the Court to dismiss the case “with prejudice,” which means it cannot be revisited at a later date.

“Upon review of all the evidence in the case, it was of the opinion of counsel that the evidence exonerated Randy Pitchford from the allegations against him; all misunderstandings between the parties have been corrected, and apologies were exchanged,” reads a line from the statement. “Because the parties are mutually bound by confidentiality, no additional statements will be forthcoming.”

This seemingly brings about an end to a bitter, drawn out legal battle between Pitchford and Callender. Gearbox sued Callender for fraud, and Callender fired back with his own lawsuit containing numerous and significant claims. Callender alleged that Pitchford awarded himself a secret bonus of $18 million that Callender claims should have gone into a pool spread between developers. Callender also claimed that Pitchford accidentally left a USB drive at a Medieval Times restaurant that he says contained secret company documents and videos of “underage” pornography and that Pitchford held parties at his home where “adult men reportedly exposed themselves to minors.” Gearbox has consistently denied this and other claims.

While this lawsuit may have come to an end, Pitchford has been a focal point of other controversies as well. Another former employee, David Eddings, explained why he won’t be resuming his role as Claptrap for Borderlands 3. That led to a testy exchange with Pitchford until Eddings ultimately alleged that Pitchford had physically assaulted him at GDC 2017, and subsequently stalked him on social media.

Gearbox’s latest release, Borderlands 3, launched in September and sold 5 million copies in 5 days to set a new franchise sales record.

from GameSpot – Game News https://www.gamespot.com/articles/borderlands-3-ceo-settles-wild-lawsuit-both-sides-/1100-6470328/