Capcom is back with another huge update for Monster Hunter World: Iceborne. Arriving for free tomorrow on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, the action-RPG’s 12.01 update will add new weapon trees, a plethora of adjustments and tweaks, the Stygian Zinogre monster, and more.

The headlining feature of the 12.01 patch is the inclusion of the Stygian Zinogre, a fanged wyvern found in Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate. Additionally, a tempered version of the Ruiner Nergigante monster is available to hunt. Of course, you’ll be able to craft weapons out of their fragments.

The 12.01 update also includes new weapon trees, armor pieces and sets, additional skills, and more. Further, you’ll get access to the Tundra Region, a new frost-covered cavern littered with frigid beasts and area-specific materials for you to hunt and gather.

Elsewhere in the patch, Monster Hunter World: Iceborne will get more Horizon Zero Dawn content later this month. The second collaboration quest will open up on December 13, with the third collaboration quest following just two weeks later on December 27. These events will be available until January 9, 2020.

Check below for the full patch notes on Monster Hunter World: Iceborne’s upcoming update.

Monster Hunter World: Iceborne Full Update 12.01 Patch Notes

Required Space

• PlayStation 4 (v. 12.01): About 2.1GB (only this update)
• Xbox One (v. 12.0.0.1): About 2.8GB (only this update)

General

• Added cutscene that unlocks the Tundra Region in the Guiding Lands.
• Added new weapon trees, armor, and skills.
• Added Stygian Zinogre (Stygian Zinogre will appear in a cutscene in the Guiding Lands, after finishing the story of Iceborne).
• A tempered version of Ruiner Nergigante will now appear in the game.

Action

• Removed the damage reaction from the startup of the sword & shield’s Claw Uppercut.
• The sword & shield’s Claw Uppercut can now soften a monster’s hide.
• Adjusted damage on the sword & shield’s Perfect Rush.
• Adjusted design on how other players are knocked back from explosions caused by the gunlance’s Wyrmstake Blast.
• Adjusted various dual blade actions.
• Instead of dropping slinger ammo, the dual blades’ Spinning Rising Slash will now wound parts easier.
• Fixed an issue where cluster bomb reload speed was normal or reload wouldn’t perform while aiming when using the heavy bowgun.
• Adjusted design on the hunting horn’s Extended Health Recovery so health could be regained even when taking damage over time.
• Adjusted how much ammo is used by the flinch shot when the Slinger Capacity skill is active.
• Adjusted the Frostcraft skill so that the insect glaive will no longer consume its gauge when performing a moving mounted attack.

System

• New decor can now be placed in your room in Seliana.
• New BGM can now be played in your room in Seliana.
• New designs for the Squad Card added.
• New Pendants added.
• Starter-friendly Defender weapon line added (forgeable at the Smithy).
• Starter-friendly Defender α armor set added (purchasable from the Armory).
• New feature added to upgrade armor to its maximum level automatically with the available armor spheres.
• When obtaining analyzed special tracks in the Guiding Lands or when analysis is finished, other players in your expedition will now obtain the same special tracks.
• The leader of the Guiding Lands expedition can now decrease specific region levels manually by speaking to the Handler.
• New layered armor added.
• New Weapon Pose added. Your hunter will perform different poses depending on the equipped weapon.

Miscellaneous

• Region Level Fix option available while in the Guiding Lands.
• Changed design so all ammo types are reloaded when exiting your tent with a bowgun equipped.
• Red, white, and, orange Kinsect extract can now be harvested from the training area’s wagon.
• Shining Wyvern Blade was renamed to Platinum Dawn. (This name was changed to match its appearance)
• Lowered the frequency of the Palico’s voice playback while in standby mode.
• The following decorations are now easier to obtain:
• Blaze Jewel+ 4, Stream Jewel+ 4, Frost Jewel+ 4, Bolt Jewel+ 4, Dragon Jewel+ 4, Venom Jewel+ 4, Paralyzer Jewel+ 4, Sleep Jewel+ 4, Blast Jewel+ 4

Bug Fixes and Balance Adjustments

Base/Facility

• Fixed an issue with the priority level of certain meals added to the canteen in Monster Hunter World: Iceborne.
• Fixed an issue that wouldn’t allow you to create Rajang items obtained from the Guiding Lands at the Elder Melder.
• Fixed an issue where the music player in your room in Seliana wouldn’t appear.
• Fixed an issue where the game would freeze when displaying certain dual blades in the Equipment Display in Your Room in Seliana.
• Fixed an issue where when placing pets via the Housekeeper, specific steps would cause an error.
• Adjusted the conditions to unlock the BGM “The Invading Tyrant – Bazelgeuse” for the music player.
• Fixed an issue where after eating a meal at the Canteen, the time before your stamina is reduced isn’t reset.

Monsters

• Fixed an issue where Brachydios would get stuck on top of ledges in the special arena.
• Fixed an issue where during multiplayer, the explosions caused by Tempered Brachydios’ slime would not be synchronized between players.
• Fixed an issue where certain monsters would always be displayed during low-rank quests in the Ancient Forest even if they don’t appear in the quest itself.
• Tweaked the rewards upon breaking Zinogre’s head, along with adding rewards.
• Fixed an issue where Legiana would continue to walk instead of fly after an avalanche is triggered in area 4 of the Hoarfrost Reach.
• Fixed an issue where Nightshade Paolumu wouldn’t drop a shiny after a turf war with certain monsters.
• Fixed an issue where Velkhana wouldn’t sustain damage in its turf war with Ruiner Nergigante.
• Fixed an issue where stamina wouldn’t decrease while mounted on top of Gold Rathian.
• Fixed an issue where master rank Lunastra wouldn’t use its flare attack.
• Fixed an issue where Gold Rathian would take more time than usual to land after attacking with its hellfire breath.
• Fixed an issue where, in the Coral Highlands, Namielle would sometimes fall into an area it isn’t designated to go.
• Fixed an issue where certain attacks from monsters would hit twice.
• Fixed an issue where the clutch claw would work during certain monster actions even when it shouldn’t.
• Fixed an issue where the color of Seething Bazelgeuse’s scales wouldn’t correspond to its powered-up state.
• Fixed an issue where Namielle’s water pools wouldn’t react to the monster’s electric attacks.
• Fixed an issue where Gold Rathian would roar non-stop if led to a specific area of the Elder’s Recess.
• Fixed an issue in Ver. 11.50 where analyzed special tracks could be obtained while mining from Uragaan or Radobaan’s back in the Guiding Lands. We apologize for not notifying players of this earlier.
• Adjusted how long an elder dragon and certain monsters stay in the same area of the Guiding Lands.

Player

• Fixed an issue where the Long Sword’s Foresight Slash or Iai Slash or the Evasion Mantle would successfully trigger an evade when the monster is knocked down, even if no attack hitbox was present.
• Fixed an issue where Lunastra’s info in the Guiding Lands menu wouldn’t appear under certain conditions.
• Fixed an issue where if you don’t have the Surveyor Kit, and under certain conditions talked to the Lynian Researcher, the first tutorial for the Surveyor Set wouldn’t appear and you wouldn’t be able to obtain the item.
• Fixed an issue where in the Coral Highlands, monsters would get caught in environmental traps instead of being knocked down as a result of colliding with a wall from a clutch claw flinch shot.
• Fixed an issue where Health Boost skill increases wouldn’t display properly to other players during multiplayer.
• Fixed an issue where only the effect sound plays in certain situations after the heavy bowgun autoloads its ammo.
• Fixed an issue where icon colors would not display correctly when upgrading a weapon.
• Fixed an issue where the upgrade state of equipment wouldn’t be reflected when updating an equipment loadout.
• Fixed an issue where in specific situations, slinger ammo would get embedded into walls, etc., when performing a clutch claw weapon attack on a monster.
• Fixed an issue where the Master Gatherer skill effect wouldn’t activate when mining with the pickaxe.
• Fixed an issue where auto shoutouts would display unintentionally after using the clutch claw to slam a monster into a wall.
• Fixed an issue where the attack and control guide would not match after a backwards evade with the sword & shield.
• Fixed an issue where skills related to draw attacks would be consumed if the draw attack came into contact with Velkhana’s frost.
• Fixed an issue where a flinch shot would occur when grappled onto a monster, even though no button had been pressed.
• Fixed an issue where a critical hit effect would appear when wounding a monster’s hide after hitting it with the sword & shield’s Claw Uppercut.
• Made adjustments to the dual blades’ Spinning Rising Slash along with increasing some elemental scaling.
• Fixed an issue where players would still be inflicted with an elemental blight even when guarding certain monster attacks.
• Fixed an issue where the position of certain weapons while sheathed was inaccurate.
• Fixed an issue where, while searching under specific criteria, the 2nd page of SOS flares couldn’t be viewed.
• Fixed an issue where the effect for the charge blade’s Power Axe Mode would continue to display.
• Fixed an issue where player character behavior would become erratic if the player becomes zombified in mid-air while close to a ledge.
• Fixed an issue where some skin color on the player character would not display properly when the zombification status is removed.
• Fixed an issue where the default color for the Gastodon layered armor was unnatural.
• Fixed an issue where correct defense numbers were not being shown when defense-related skills are activated when forging or changing equipment.
• PS4 –Fixed an issue where, when holding down the Triangle button to continue to reload while aiming the Heavy Bowgun, the reload would not continue after reloading Cluster Bombs.
• Xbox One – Fixed an issue where, when holding down the Y button to continue to reload while aiming the Heavy Bowgun, the reload would not continue after reloading Cluster Bombs.
• Fixed an issue where Palico commands would change places in the item window after switching Palico gadgets.
• Fixed an issue where the hunter would not perform an action when a button is pressed after the player uses the left stick and a buffer input is recognized.

Miscellaneous

• Fixed an issue where the directional button camera controls wouldn’t respond at times when using Item Control Settings Type 3 or Type 4.
• Fixed an issue where the Select Ammo/Coating entry in the long-range weapon control guide would not display when using Item Control Setting Type 2.
• [PS4] Fixed an issue where multiple actions would be performed at the same time when the player uses the Surveyor Kit, and the functionality of the L1/R1 buttons is switched in the Control Settings.
• [XBOX] Fixed an issue where multiple actions would be performed at the same time when the player uses the Surveyor Kit, and the functionality of the LB/RB buttons is switched in the Control Settings.
• Fixed an issue where characters could fall off the map in the Coral Highlands.
• Fixed an issue where the analysis gauge would disappear when the player obtained analysis in progress special tracks or analyzed special tracks.
• Fixed an issue where Molys would continue to dig into the ground.
• Fixed an issue where activation conditions for skills that raise elemental power wouldn’t display properly when inspecting other player’s equipment.
• Fixed an issue where the monster’s information wouldn’t sync properly between players when the monster is near death.
• Fixed erroneous information in the “A Man and his Shield – 5” and “The Boaboa Challenge – 6” treasure tip.
• Fixed an issue where multiple monster BGM would frequently switch and play during a quest.
• Fixed an issue where the order of the item pouch would unintentionally change upon closing the application.
• Fixed an issue where ranking information couldn’t be retrieved if a deleted player was registered in the rankings.
• Updated an error message that is displayed when saved data is damaged.
• Fixed an issue where portions of save data would be erased under certain conditions for users who have cleared the “Paean of Guidance” and “To the Guided, A Paean” quest.
• Other minute game balance tweaks and minor bugs fixes have been made.

from GameSpot – Game News https://www.gamespot.com/articles/new-monster-hunter-world-iceborne-update-arrives-t/1100-6471918/

December has just begun and EA is already in the spirit of giving. The publisher’s Plants vs. Zombies: Battle for Neighborville has received a holiday-themed update that includes new maps and modes, balance tweaks, and more.

The Feastivus Holiday update features a brand-new map for Team Vanquish, Ops, and Mix modes–Oozevoir. This map includes a springy pink goop that lets you bounce around for better vertical positioning. Other locations, like Giddy Park, have been reworked to fit into the holiday-theme.

You can earn seasonal costumes through Battle for Neighborville’s newly-implemented Festival Prize Map. Unlock holiday-specific wares like the Super Rare Abominable Chomper, Legendary Feastivus Master Engineer, and more by completing certain requirements on the prize map.

Actor Patrick Stewart narrated a trailer outlining everything available in the update. EA also released the patch notes for the Feastivus Holiday update, which includes a new “Casual” setting for free-roam regions, updates to battle arenas, the opening of Rux’s Emporium, bug fixes, adjustments to things like controller settings and aim assist, and much more.

Plants Vs. Zombies: Battle For Neighborville Holiday Feastivus Update Full Patch Notes

General

• Added an all-new Map: Oozevoir
• Updated Giddy Park’s loading screen to a winter-themed version
• Added new Grandmaster Ranks to the game so character levels now go up to 50 (current top rank is 20)
• Updated the Social Tab to show the Grandmaster Ranks of all players in Giddy Park
• Updated the Player Rank plates to make them easier to read
• Moved completed Free-Roam Region Medals to the bottom of the screen
• Updated the last Weekly Challenges so they now give Rainbow Stars instead of coins
• Added a Vanquish/Vanquished Ratio to the end-of-round scoreboard for multiplayer games
• Added new UI icons for Character Perks, including attack, defend, speed, and character-specific perks

Turf Takeover

• Decreased capture time for certain objectives
• Made it easier to hit targets on the final objective in Goopy Gully

Free-Roam Regions

• Added new ‘Casual’ setting, reducing the amount of damage players will take when at low health
• Added a cooldown timer to region Bounty Hunts and Gnome activities

Giddy Park

• Added two new Festivals: Feastivus and Snowday
  • New set dressing for each festival with “snow” terrain and visual effects
• Added three new activities in Giddy Park for Snowday Festival in January – Treasure hunt, Bounty, and Coin capture

Battle Arena

• Updated so that the last player standing will now get a spotting and 10% speed increase buff to help them fight the enemy team

Rux’s Emporium

• Included the ability for players to now purchase Costumes, Gestures, Emotes, and much more
• Included the ability for players to purchase Rainbow Stars for use in Rux’s Emporium

Major Bug Fixes

• Fixed the Scoreboard so that it can now be viewed when the player is vanquished
• Adjusted mouse sensitivity options to have a wider range, allowing the user to adjust them to a much finer extent
• Fixed the heal beam so that it’s no longer canceled when its target sprints
• Fixed the issue where players could get a completed challenge after re-rolling

Controller Settings

• Increased max aim acceleration
• Reduced scale factor (ramp-up) for aim acceleration

Options

• Extended our max value for controller sensitivity
• Extended our max value for controller aiming sensitivity
• Extended our max value for controller aim acceleration

Aim Assist

• Adjusted assist settings when set to low
• Adjusted acceleration thresholds
• Reduced multiplier when facing aim assist targets
• Reduced aim assist when pushing sticks to extremes
• Reduced base aim assist area when aiming at a target

PC Controls

• Adjusted ranges and step values for mouse sensitivity
• Adjusted min mouse sensitivity value

Game Modes

• Increased disarm time in Gnome Bomb
• Reduced max time to be revived in Team Vanquish

from GameSpot – Game News https://www.gamespot.com/articles/new-plants-vs-zombies-battle-for-neighborville-upd/1100-6471911/

Bungie’s Destiny 2 Season of Dawn livestream showed off a few new things that are coming with the season, including its content calendar and new Sundial six-player event. It also confirmed an item that appeared in the Season of Dawn trailer that Destiny players have been wishing was in the game for a while: Sparrows on Mercury.

In Destiny 2, Sparrows are the speeder bike-like vehicles you can summon to help you get around in patrol zones, the open public areas situated on various planets. When it was added with the Curse of Osiris expansion back in the first year of Destiny 2, Mercury was a relatively small zone–so Sparrows were disabled, forcing you to walk wherever you wanted to go.

We’re headed back to Mercury for Season of Dawn, in order to use some time travel Vex tech run by Osiris, Curse’s main non-player character. Though the zone doesn’t seem like it’s changed too much outside the addition of the new Sundial activity, Bungie showed the ability to summon Sparrows on the planet during its stream. That’s going to make hanging out there a whole lot less irritating.

The stream also gave a few other tidbits of information. We saw the new seasonal artifact, the Lantern of Osiris, which will dish out several season-specific mods for armor and weapons as you level it up. Those mods are mostly focused on armor with Solar affinity, as opposed to the mods that came in Destiny 2’s last content season, the Season of the Undying, which were mostly aimed at Void and Arc abilities and armor. Undying’s weapon mods were also mostly for close-range, rapid-fire weapons, where Dawn’s play more with precision guns that function better at long ranges.

Bungie also showed some Sundial gameplay during the stream. The six-player activity includes a variety of bosses that will roll out slowly over the course of the season, and looks like it’ll include multiple encounters, similar to the Menagerie activity from the Season of Opulence. Completing it is part of the season’s story, which sends you to Mercury to stop the Cabal from trying to use time travel to rewrite the ending of the Red War, the conflict from Destiny 2 vanilla’s story campaign.

While Bungie showed off the new content calendar, it seems like it’s holding some things for the season closer to the vest than it did for Undying. We got a sense of the content that will roll out next season, but altogether, the calendar seems a little thin. That might be a result of Destiny 2’s seasons being a lot smaller than its major expansions, like the recently released Shadowkeep–but it also seems likely that there are some secrets coming next season that Bungie has yet to divulge.

The Season of Dawn kicks off on December 10, so make sure to finish whatever you still have left to do in Undying by then.

from GameSpot – Game News https://www.gamespot.com/articles/destiny-2-stream-confirms-you-can-ride-sparrows-on/1100-6471912/

As the holidays are the season of giving, developer IO Interactive is giving out free content for its stealth-action game Hitman 2 this month. The batch of new content includes additional contracts, seasonal events, and elusive targets.

Beginning on December 5 and going through early January 2020, you can play an assortment of new missions in Hitman 2. A few of the game’s locations will receive some form of new content throughout the month. These include an Escalation Contract in Santa Fortuna on December 5, an Elusive Target in Paris from December 6-16, a Seasonal Event in Hokkaido on December 17, and more.

Hitman 2’s seasonal events, Holiday Hoarders and Snow Festival, are now a permanent part of the game. Holiday Hoarders allows you to unlock the Santa 47 Suit, while the Snow Festival gives you the opportunity to get the Snow Festival Suit and Ice Pick. Check below for a full list of Hitman 2’s upcoming free content.

• The Truman Convention Escalation Contract in Santa Fortuna (Colombia) – Available Dec. 5
• The Raaz Algorithm Escalation Contract in Mumbai (India) – Available Dec. 5
• The Chef Legacy Elusive Target in Paris (France) – Available Dec. 6-16
• 12 Days of Contracts Community Curated Contracts – Available Dec. 12
• The Han Encasement Escalation Contract in Mumbai (India) – Available Dec. 12
• Holiday Hoarders Seasonal Event in Paris (France) – Available Dec. 17
• Snow Festival Seasonal Event in Hokkaido (Japan) – Available Dec. 17
• The Rafael Misadventure Escalation Contract in Isle of Sgàil (North Atlantic) – Available Dec. 17
• The Kotti Paradigm Legacy Escalation Contract in Paris (France) – Available Dec. 17
• IO Interactive’s Monthly HITMAN 2 Livestream on Twitch – Dec. 17
• The Stowaway Legacy Elusive Target in Isle of Sgàil (North Atlantic) – Available Dec. 20 through Jan. 6

While Hitman 2 is getting ready for a bevy of new content this month, IO Interactive confirmed that it is shifting its focus to the studio’s next project. According to a blog post, development on this unnamed game is “well underway.”

from GameSpot – Game News https://www.gamespot.com/articles/hitman-2-gets-new-content-for-free-this-month/1100-6471908/

Bungie revealed a bunch of new information about Destiny 2‘s Season of Dawn this week, with a trailer that gives a sense of the story and a livestream explaining some of the grittier details. During the stream, Bungie also dropped a content calendar for the new season, showing Guardians lots of what’s coming when the new season starts on December 10.

The story of Season of Dawn starts right where the current season, Season of the Undying, leaves off. During the current season, players took on the Vex, Destiny’s time-traveling robots, to stop them from invading the moon. Defeating the Vex messed up time on Mercury, another place where the Vex have major operations. There, the Cabal are using time travel tech to try to undo their loss of the Red War, which was the focus of vanilla Destiny 2’s story campaign.

“Fix the timeline” was the tagline Bungie used to first describe Season of Dawn, and to do that, it seems you’ll be helping Mercury’s major Guardian character, Osiris, activate some key artifacts. Those are four obelisks located on different planets throughout the solar system. You’ll also work through a new six-player activity called the Sundial to protect the timeline from the Cabal’s meddling. While you’re doing that, you’ll also go back in time to save a legendary Guardian, Saint-14, from death at the hands of the Vex.

Bungie’s content calendar details when some things will happen in Season of Dawn–although it also seems like the developer isn’t sharing everything that will happen in Season 9.

Bungie’s content calendar details what we can expect from December 10 until about March when Dawn comes to a close. The Sundial activity has a number of boss enemies that will roll out over time, as well as a Legendary difficulty version that will require you to build a team of your own, rather than relying on matchmaking. The calendar also notes that two new Exotic weapon quests are coming in January, and dates Destiny 2’s next two seasonal events: The Dawning, Destiny 2’s holiday-themed event, on December 17, and Crimson Days, its Valentine’s Day event, on Feburary 11.

As was the case with the Season of the Undying, some offerings in Season of Dawn are free, while others require purchasing Dawn’s season pass for $10 (or 1,000 Silver in Destiny 2’s in-game currency). Check out the list below for a rundown of what you get for free and what you’ll have to pay for.

What’s Coming In Season Of Dawn

Free

• Obelisk activities
• The Dawning seasonal event
• Iron Banner
• Empyrean Foundation
• Crimson Days seasonal event
• Lantern of Osiris Seasonal Artifact
• PvP Mode: Elimination
• Rusted Lands Crucible map
• Solar subclass updates

Requires Season Pass

• Sundial activity
• Save a Legend Saint-14 story
• Exotic Quest: Devil’s Run
• Exotic Quest: Bastion

from GameSpot – Game News https://www.gamespot.com/articles/everything-coming-in-destiny-2s-season-of-dawn/1100-6471909/