Back in October, Humble announced that it was going to transition its Humble Monthly Bundle from being a mystery bundle of PC games to a selection that you get to choose from each month. However, with the introduction of Humble Choice–the bundle’s new name–prices are going up and the number of games you get is going down. That is unless you’re already a Humble Monthly subscriber, which you can still become until December 6 at 10 AM PST / 1 PM EST.

If you’re a Humble Monthly subscriber before the transition to Humble Choice occurs, you’ll be locked into the $12/month Classic plan, which gets you 10 games a month, a 20% store discount, and unlimited access to Humble originals and the Humble Trove–a DRM-free collection of games that you can download and keep forever.

For comparison, the Premium plan costs $20/month and grants you access to the same benefits, but you only get to claim nine games a month. The Basic plan costs $15/month and gets you three games, a 10% store discount, and access to Humble originals and the Trove. And lastly, the Lite plan costs $5 a month for access to the Humble Trove, a 10% store discount, and a limited selection of Humble originals. Lite plan subscribers, unfortunately, don’t get any games from the monthly, curated selection. You can see a more detailed breakdown below.

Humble Choice breakdown (click for full-size image)

Some of the games currently available in the Humble Trove include Getting Over It with Bennett Foddy, A Short Hike, and Kind Words (lo fi chill beats to write to), in addition to more popular games like Soma, Tacoma, and Torchlight. You can see the full list of games at the Humble Bundle website.

If you’re interested in subscribing before the transition, you’ll get SoulCalibur VI, Yakuza Kiwami, and My Time At Portia as part of December’s bundle. More games will be revealed on December 6 at 10 AM PST / 1 PM PST. Humble Monthly always held a portion of its game back as a mystery; one of the changes with Humble Choice is that the company will let you know exactly which games you can choose from the get-go.

from GameSpot – Game News https://www.gamespot.com/articles/last-chance-to-get-one-of-pc-gamings-best-deals/1100-6471966/

The Season of Dawn is almost here in Destiny 2, and as is usually the case with a new content season, Bungie is making a bunch of changes and additions to the game with an update that also adds its new activities. We already knew that Dawn would see tweaks to various character subclasses, but now we have a better sense of what else will change when the new season drops on Tuesday, as well.

The developer dropped the details in its This Week at Bungie blog post, giving a sense of everything we can expect from the update. First and foremost is the tweak that will affect players as they climb toward the endgame: the Power cap. That’s the overall rating of your character’s strength based on the gear you possess. In the current season, the Season of the Undying, the soft Power cap is 950, which is only accessible by getting weekly “Powerful” gear drops for completing certain activities. The hard Power cap, the highest you can get your gear in Undying, is 960, and it requires you to complete the toughest endgame content, like the Garden of Salvation raid, to receive “Pinnacle” drops. In the Season of Dawn, the soft cap rises to 960, while the hard cap will reach 970.

Bungie is also introducing a bunch of useful quality-of-life changes to Destiny 2 alongside the new season, and one major one is a change to how Exotic Engrams work. These are rare, random drops you get as you play the game that give out Exotic weapons and armor, the best and most unique stuff in Destiny 2. Right now, Exotic Engrams give a random Exotic item (not including the ones you need to earn by completing specific quests or activities). Meanwhile, you can buy Fated Engrams from Xur, Destiny 2’s weekend Exotics vendor, which gives you an Exotic you don’t already have for that particular character class.

In the Season of Dawn, Exotic Engrams and Fated Engrams become the same thing. When you receive an Exotic Engram while playing the game normally, it’ll no longer just dish out a random item–it’ll give you something you don’t already have for that character. Once you have everything available to that specific character class, the engrams will once again drop random Exotic armor. That should make it a lot easier to fill up your collection without a struggle, while still allowing you to try to find the best possible stats for your Exotic armor over time.

Bungie’s making some changes to bounties with the new season that will make leveling up and earning certain rewards a little easier, too. The Gunsmith will now offer repeatable bounties, and his weekly bounties for completing Crucible, Strike, and Gambit matches will be simplified so that you don’t have to do each activity every week. A bunch of Crucible bounties will have easier-to-fulfill requirements as well.

There are a lot more little tweaks coming with the Season of Dawn, according to Bungie–including some improvements to the Eververse store that will make the premium currency store more transparent. Check out the full list of changes below.

Destiny 2 Season of Dawn Update Changes

Rewards

• Increased the drop rate of the “Scourge of the Past” raid Exotic weapon Anarchy from 5% to 10%
• The Exotic Engram and the Fated Engram have been collapsed into a single new Exotic Engram item
• When opened, it awards a new Exotic if any remain to be collected; otherwise, it contains a random piece of Exotic armor
• Note: Contents are still class-specific

Powerful and Pinnacle Reward Caps

• Powerful Cap: 960, up from 950
• Pinnacle Cap: 970, up from 960

Escalation Protocol

• Escalation Protocol wave 7 chest no longer requires a key to open
  • Chest can be opened upon every successful completion of wave 7
  • Each time opening the chest awards one piece of EP armor for your character class until you have the full set
  • After full set is acquired, subsequent opening of the chest awards a random piece of armor
• Charged Decryption Keys and Key Fragments are being removed from the game; these items will be removed from player inventories
  • Armory keys to spawn Valkyrie Javelins are unchanged and will remain
• EP weapon drops were not touched and are still cumulative-stream boss drops

Weapon Mods

• The cost of slotting a weapon mod has been reduced from 5,000 Glimmer to 500 Glimmer
• Fixed an issue where Ada-1 could grant duplicate weapon mods

Bounties

• Repeatable bounties have been added to the Gunsmith
• Merged strike/Crucible/Gambit objectives on the Gunsmith weekly bounty “Field Calibration” into a single objective that shares progress from all sources
• Removed Valor/Infamy and Vanguard tokens from “Field Calibration” as there is no longer a requirement for any of these linked activities
• Added new mode-specific daily Crucible bounties (one per day, selected from full-time playlists and active rotators)
• Reduced the completion requirements of several daily and repeatable Crucible bounties
• Removed grenade and melee bounties from the Crucible bounty repeatable pool

Striker Code of the Missile (Middle Path)

• Thundercrash
  • Increased base damage from 2,700 to 3,200
  • Increased in-flight damage from 100 to 200
  • Slightly increased the amount of time you have in the air after activation

Nightstalker Way of the Pathfinder (Bottom Path)

• Vanish in Smoke
  • Added a short period (0.8 seconds) after the invisibility is applied where firing weapons or performing other actions will not break invisibility
    • This should help prevent allies from accidentally breaking invisibility the moment it’s granted to them if unexpected

Voidwalker Attunement of Fission (Middle Path)

• Handheld Supernova
  • Adjusted grenade charge time so it lines up with the animations and FX; this should make it feel more consistent to activate

Crucible Maps

• Added Rusted Lands to appropriate playlists
• Added The Dead Cliffs, Legion’s Gulch, Retribution, and Solitude to appropriate playlists
• Removed Emperor’s Respite, Equinox, Firebase Echo, and Vostok from all Crucible playlists
  • These maps are still available for play in private matches

from GameSpot – Game News https://www.gamespot.com/articles/destiny-2s-next-update-raises-power-cap-tons-of-ha/1100-6471969/

Respawn has announced that it plans on further tweaking Apex Legends‘ Peacekeeper shotgun, arguably the best firearm in the battle royale game. The Peacekeeper has been nerfed in the past–even as recently as November 2019–but the shotgun continues to remain a dominant force.

In the patch notes for Update 3.2, Respawn writes, “We’ve heard feedback loud and clear that the Peacekeeper is still feeling too powerful after latest changes. We are working to push out more tweaks to address it ASAP and will post details on timing and what those changes will be soon.”

These “latest changes” increased the rechamber time of the Peacekeeper by a tenth of a second and decreased its headshot multiplier from 1.5 to 1.25. The changes are so minor, however, that they’re almost indiscernible in the heat of combat. The Peacekeeper continues to deal out immense amounts of damage in a relatively short amount of time.

If anything, the most significant problem with the Peacekeeper is the size of the shotgun’s spread. The pellets are large enough that it’s relatively simple to land headshots even if your aim isn’t exactly lined up with a target’s head. In close quarters, consistently landing headshots can usually make a major difference in a firefight.

The Peacekeeper is also one of the guns in Apex Legends that supports the precision choke attachment, which allows you to focus its large shells into a more precise shot. This makes it easier to hit a target at mid- to long-range with the Peacekeeper–something no other shotgun can do. And since it is a shotgun, the Peacekeeper’s overall damage output from a single shot can match a few seconds of sustained fire from most submachine guns, assault rifles, and LMGs.

from GameSpot – Game News https://www.gamespot.com/articles/apex-legends-best-gun-is-still-op-but-respawn-plan/1100-6471962/

“Realistic” World War I multiplayer FPS, Verdun, has received a brand-new update on Xbox One. The update, billed as more of a remaster, is available for free to all owners of the base game, and it comes with an assortment of changes and enhancements to the original experience.

Developers M2H and Blackmill Games released the patch notes for this Verdun Xbox One remaster, which can be viewed below. In addition to the patch notes, the two studios also put out a featurette, below, going into detail about the various changes available in the free update. These include improvements to the user interface, audio, graphics, controls and settings, and more.

Visual improvements aren’t all that is in Verdun’s free remaster update. The game also comes with new content, such as a brand-new map, additional squads and weapons, support for up to 24 AI players, and more.

Verdun has been around for a few years now. It first launched on Steam in April 2015, then made its way to PS4 in August 2016 and jumped to Xbox One in March 2017. We scored Verdun a 6/10 in our original 2015 review, saying, “Verdun somewhat succeeds in its lavish goal, but its road to glory is lengthy still. Until then, it sits on the edge of the line, waiting for the rallying cry.”

Full Verdun Xbox One Remaster Patch Notes

Major Additions/Improvements

• New Map:
  • St. Mihiel
• New Squads:
  • ANZAC & Tirailleurs Sénégalais
• New Weapons:
  • Webley Fosbery, Entrenching Tool, Senegalese Machete, Pétard Explosive, OF1 Grenade, Berthier “Sénégalais”
• Frontlines Bot support:
  • 24 players
• Updated graphics with improved weapon & character art, animations and shading
• Completely revamped UI with new features such as the spawn map and overview map
• Completely revamped sounds with higher quality and more authentic sounds and effects
• Improved controls to make it more responsive and allow for more customization
• New localizations:
  • Simplified Chinese, Japanese, Brasilian Portuguese, Turkish, Polish
• Added a prestige system to the game. When you reach level 100 you can choose to prestige in your account screen and gain a new prestige rank, level & icon
• Added a new and improved tutorial system with tooltips and an intro video about Frontlines
• Added bullet penetration mechanic
• Added team damage penalty to all game modes e.g. hitting a friendly player will now give you a 10 point penalty
• Added map voting at the end of a match. You can pick between two maps. When the time is up, the voting results will be displayed
• Networking improvements:
  • Smoother and more accurate movement
• Overhauled the squad leveling system:
  • Every user now has a squad-level per squad, these levels combined will form the total squad level. For older squad levels we have a legacy system in place
• Added various improvements to prevent spawn killing
• Improved death cam
• Added first-person gas choking animation
• Better match up between the third- and first-person animations
• Added more custom match options
• Added better match balancing measures to prevent unbalanced games
• Barbed wire no longer kills but slows down and injures the player
• Prone/MG deployment improvements
• More stamina:
  • You can now sprint for 100 meters
• Various level fixes and improvements
• Added more options to customize HUD and controls
• Improved ragdolls
• Putting your gasmask on or off is now interruptible
• Added end game camera animations
• Weapons now have full accuracy through iron sights.
• Added recoil kick to LMGs
• Suppression effect is nerfed
• New medal:
  • “Most binoc kills”
• [X1 Only] Adjusted “Extreme Headhunter” and “Do you even die” achievement requirements
• You can now abort reloading by firing
• Rebolting can now be canceled by melee
• New Frontlines rule based on community feedback. Both defenders and attackers may no longer be further away than 2 sectors from the currently contested sector
• The game will now switch to a better host faster
• Various loadout adjustments based on community feedback
• Various weapon stats adjustments based on community feedback
• Tweaked aura sizes based on community feedback
• Adjusted call-in cooldowns based on community feedback

Bug Fixes & Smaller Improvements

• Squad Defense no longer AFK kicks you if you are dead
• Improved backward and sideways crawling animation
• “Most kills of higher rank” medal is now “Most kills of higher or equal rank”
• Ragdoll fingers are no longer always in the trigger position
• Reduced possibility of big rotations happening when you attack someone in melee
• We now show network stats if they are not healthy values. It shows:
  • Host migration, jitter, ping, and packet loss
• Reduced all command order cooldowns to 5 seconds
• Fire now damages players. Affected maps:
  • Flanders, Champagne
• Fixed deploy widget sticking around when switching to a different specialization
• Fixed first person hiccups when shooting and moving with MGs
• Removed blending during weapon swap/draw to prevent weird weapon spins
• Adjusted timing of sighted stance animations to better fit the in-game speed
• Third-person swap/draw time now matches first-person
• Third-person reload animation matches first-person animation more closely
• Better match up between the third and first-person animation status of recharging rifle
• Better match up between the third and first-person animations status of sighting a weapon
• Better animations when you are sighted and the player switches stance
• Third-person melee animation speed now always matches first-person melee animation speed
• The pitch of your third-person weapon model now matches the first person pitch more closely
• Your gun will now always move a bit when holding breath while walking
• Recharging/bolting of first/third person is now synced better
• Third-person reload now always has the same duration as first-person reload
• Third-person reload will now stop when bashing during the reload
• Gasmask overlay is no longer visible after the end of the match
• No more melee suppression through walls
• Going prone on a hill doesn’t cause skewed characters anymore
• Guns block your view less during sprinting over rough terrain
• Team kills will no longer give you a kill on the scoreboard and add progress towards achievements
• You will no longer miss the spawn during a MC switch when the timer is just about to hit 0
• You can no longer deploy a MG while jumping
• You can no longer aim after pressing jump
• Melee shock should only be caused by running people with melee weapons. Also, it shouldn’t trigger unless the enemy and victim are facing each other
• Fixed a bug where Squad Defense wins would count toward ‘highest multi-kill’ stat instead of a winning streak
• Grenade Training 3 now correctly gives extra score
• Repeating weapon types will no longer spawn another case when the reloading/recharging has been interrupted and a case has already been ejected
• Fixed health regen delay being 0 during first player life
• Fixed animation glitch when starting sprint during weapon unsight
• Grenade throw time tweaks
• Fixed gas effect staying longer than the visual
• When not spawning on a player, you will now look in the correct direction on spawn
• Added an option to enable manual reloading, so you won’t reload your gun when trying to shoot without having loaded ammo
• Increase stab/bash range so you no longer have to crouch to hit prone targets
• Remember mini-map zoom setting between maps
• Near order points adjustment:
  • Non-NCO still get 15 points when killing near an order, NCO now only gets points for each squadmate that actually follows the order. This prevents NCO to just use the order for itself and to encourages placing better orders
• Teamwork points adjustment:
  • When making a kill in the squad aura, you now get 5 points per other squadmate that is also in the aura.
• No longer allow a 1 man squad to create a new match in Frontlines/Maneuver (unless there are no active matches). This prevents sharded matches. Users are encouraged via chat warning to change squad setup or use “Play Now” instead.
• Fixed MG deployment indicator staying after dying
• Fixed a case of retreat bonus not being triggered
• Frontlines:
  • Fixed a case that let players spawn on NCO who is in a ‘desertion’ area
• Made ammo crates always refill full amount of grenades in Squad Defense
• Fixed Engineer and Sentry squad being able to spawn in ‘No Mans Land’ and verified that they now do allow spawning when they are supposed to.
• Improved melee by allowing more trade-kill grace time
• Fixed a case where you could get stuck in ADS & ‘This report’
• Fixed a case where ladders were often not detected by making ladder collisions not affect movement. This improves some ladders that were not climbable
• Made movement up a slope as a fast as moving on flat terrain
• Fixed an issue where auto-balance triggers with a one player difference
• Fixed weapon snapping when firing a full auto weapon and toggling ADS at the same time
• Fixed rifle snapping when changing stance during reload
• Reduced instances of weapon snapping from and to ADS
• Added a trigger audio when firing a gun without ammo
• Peep sight edits for P17/14, Lewis and Bar. Their sights are now smaller and less obstructing
• Fixes in upper/lower body third-person animation timing/transitions to counter characters “dabbing” when sighting/unsighting.
• Made reinforcing bars on German gas mask (somewhat) transparent. This makes the German gas mask more on par with the Entente variant
• Various improvements to bayonet stabbing:
  • Bigger hit radius, faster damage application, no more locking on teammates when friendly fire/team damage is enabled
• In team-based matches, a player spawn penalty is applied only when the player’s team is winning or when the teams are tied
• You can no longer (accidentally) call-in abilities outside the map
• Your arms/weapon react to strafing and moving backward
• Fixed a case where a jump-like animation occurs when quickly ADSing after shooting
• Frontlines:
  • Defending squads will now be spread out in the defending sector before the start of the match
• Spawn protection against explosions (artillery/grenades) raised from 2 to 4 seconds as artillery/grenades can be in progress during your spawn
• Fixed an issue where bayonet stats differed, stats for all bayonets should now be the same
• Artillery projectiles are now removed if the owner leaves or changes faction. This prevents team killing by changing faction after calling in artillery.
• Increased the time you have to retreat to another sector in Frontlines.
• Preventing spawning in sectors that are about to be captured if you are a defender.
• Flamethrower damage is more consistent
• Third-person character now matches the first person vision more closely when a player goes prone. Reduces invisible prone issues when not deploying
• Improved gasmask checking on spawn, should resolve the ‘spawning in gas’ issues
• Reduced bouncing on downward slopes, you now stick better to the terrain
• Explosions & rifle shots cause body parts to have a force applied instead of merely dropping to the ground
• NCO artillery call-ins are now also shown on the map to friendlies
• Allow reload actions directly after inserting a stripper clip to be canceled
• The ability to switch role while under attack or dead is added to Squad Defense
• Fixed a bug which caused the height of the third person character model not matching the first-person model (mostly noticeable when prone)
• Fixed a bug where revolver per shell reloads could not be canceled by pressing the fire button
• Improved arm movements when moving, crouching, lying prone for some weapons
• Various smaller bug fixes and improvements

from GameSpot – Game News https://www.gamespot.com/articles/ww1-fps-verdun-on-xbox-one-gets-free-remaster/1100-6471959/

Red Dead Redemption 2 is now available on Steam, and it comes with all the graphical and technical enhancements the studio made for its PC debut last month. These include updated visuals, higher quality lighting effects, improved textures, and more.

Rockstar confirmed Red Dead Redemption 2’s Steam launch will feature platform-specific support, such as Steam Achievements, Steam Chat, and Steam Broadcast functionality. Further, the Steam version also includes the new features added to the game’s PC version, like the added Photo Mode, Bounty Hunter Missions, Gang Hideouts, Treasure Maps, and more.

You can pick up the standard edition of Red Dead Redemption 2 on Steam for $60 USD. Of course, there are two other editions available for purchase on the digital storefront. The $80 USD Special Edition includes exclusive story mode content, gameplay bonuses and boosts, the Nuevo Paraiso Gunslinger Outfit, and more. Red Dead Redemption 2’s Ultimate Edition, which retails for $100 USD on Steam, features everything in the Special Edition and more, like additional online content and the Black Chestnut Thoroughbred.

Red Dead Redemption 2 Steam Requirements

Minimum

• Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
• OS: Windows 7 – Service Pack 1 (6.1.7601)
• Processor: Intel Core i5-2500K / AMD FX-6300
• Memory: 8 GB RAM
• Graphics: Nvidia GeForce GTX 770 2GB / AMD Radeon R9 280 3GB
• Network: Broadband Internet connection
• Storage: 150 GB available space
• Sound Card: Direct X Compatible

Recommended

• Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
• OS: Windows 10 – April 2018 Update (v1803)
• Processor: Intel Core i7-4770K / AMD Ryzen 5 1500X
• Memory: 12 GB RAM
• Graphics: Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 6GB / AMD Radeon RX 480 4GB
• Network: Broadband Internet connection
• Storage: 150 GB available space
• Sound Card: Direct X Compatible

from GameSpot – Game News https://www.gamespot.com/articles/red-dead-redemption-2-is-now-available-on-steam/1100-6471954/