Need For Speed Heat Is Out Now On EA Access, Here’s How To Get It

Need for Speed Heat officially launches on November 8, but the racing game is playable right now for subscribers to EA Access and Origin Access on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC.

This is the full version of Need for Speed Heat, though there is a timer that limits gameplay to 10 hours. As with EA’s other “Play First” trials, all gameplay progress carries forward to the full game should you decide to pick it up. Additionally, EA/Origin Access subscribers save 10 percent on all EA digital content, so that knocks the price down from $60 USD to $54 USD.

EA Access costs $5/month or $30/year, and you can cancel any time.

Need for Speed Heat is an open-world racing game set in a fictional version of Miami called Palm City. There are more than 100 cars in the game, but no loot boxes.

GameSpot recently got some hands-on time with Need for Speed Heat, and our own Will Potter came away eager to play more. For more on his thoughts, check out GameSpot’s recent preview, “Why You Should Be Excited To Play Need For Speed: Heat.”

from GameSpot – Game News https://www.gamespot.com/articles/need-for-speed-heat-is-out-now-on-ea-access-heres-/1100-6471189/

Neo Geo Mini Hits Its Lowest Price Yet In This Early Black Friday Sale

The Neo Geo Mini is a cool, little handheld device that contains more than 40 beloved SNK classics. We’ve seen some Neo Geo Mini bundles in the past, but we’ve never seen the handheld on its own at a price quite this low. However, with Black Friday on the horizon, it seems anything is possible. As part of Newegg’s early Black Friday 2019 deals, the online retailer has slashed the Neo Geo Mini’s price to $50 USD, down from $110.

No Caption Provided

Neo Geo Mini | $50 ($110)

You can play the Neo Geo Mini in handheld with its onboard joystick and buttons, but if you want to output it to the TV, you can do that. However, you’ll need to buy extra controllers and a mini HDMI cable to enjoy the Neo Geo Mini on a television.

GameSpot’s Neo Geo Mini review called the device “a pretty great table-top curiosity on its own [with] dozens of games, most of which are decent and … more enjoyable to play (in short bursts) on the 3.5-inch screen than you might expect.”

Critic Peter Brown noted that the speakers struggle to do the soundtracks justice and the video quality in TV mode is disappointing. If you can look past that, he wrote “the Mini is perfectly capable of running the included games in either table-top or TV mode without skipping a beat.”

Neo Geo Mini games

  • 3 Count Bout
  • Art of Fighting
  • Blazing Star
  • Blue’s Journey
  • Crossed Swords
  • Fatal Fury Special
  • Foot Ball Frenzy
  • Garou: Mark of the Wolves
  • Ghost Pilots
  • King of the Monsters
  • King of the Monsters 2
  • Kizuna Encounter: Super Tag Battle
  • Last Resort
  • Magician Lord
  • Metal Slug
  • Metal Slug 2
  • Metal Slug 3
  • Metal Slug 4
  • Metal Slug 5
  • Metal Slug X
  • Mutation Nation
  • Ninja Master’s: Haou Ninpou Chou
  • Puzzled
  • Real Bout: Fatal Fury
  • Robo Army
  • Samurai Shodown II
  • Samurai Shodown IV: Amakusa’s Revenge
  • Samurai Shodown V Special
  • Sengoku 3
  • Shock Troopers
  • Shock Troopers: 2nd Squad
  • Super Sidekicks
  • The King of Fighters ’95
  • The King of Fighters ’97
  • The King of Fighters ’98
  • The King of Fighters 2000
  • The King of Fighters 2002
  • The Last Blade 2
  • Top Player’s Golf
  • World Heroes Perfect

from GameSpot – Game News https://www.gamespot.com/articles/neo-geo-mini-hits-its-lowest-price-yet-in-this-ear/1100-6471191/

Call Of Duty Black Ops 4 Update 1.25 Finally Makes Nuketown A Permanent Fixture

The new 1.25 update for Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 brings a raft of improvements and tweaks to the game, one of which is bound to make fans of a particular map very happy. In a post on Reddit, Treyarch has outlined the big changes and released their full patch notes for this update.

Nuketown is now a permanent fixture of the Featured Playlist tab, so you can jump into a playlist dedicated to the map–a recreated small chunk of suburbia on a nuclear testing facility grounds–at any time. Nuketown first appeared in the original Black Ops back in 2010, and has been reimagined for each mainline Black Ops game that has followed.

Going forward, certain featured playlists will also grant you double XP, with a new one being selected each Tuesday. 2XP Stockpile, 2XP Capture the Flag, and 2XP Prop Hunt weeks have been promised.

Treyarch has increased the maximum damage and speed on the Echohawk Dual Bore assault rifle, while the AN-94 has also received a damage boost to make it a more viable weapon. The Reaper specialist class has also been nerfed slightly, with the Scythe’s duration being reduced from 40 seconds to 30 and its ammo being cut down from 150 rounds to 100.

In other patch notes, Blackout’s matchmaking is being overhauled with LTM Moshputs being introduced, giving players four limited-time modes each week to make sure that players are experiencing some sense of variety in their game. Changes are coming to Zombies too–if you’re playing on PS4, the new Zombies Gauntlet “An Ice Day In Hell” is up now, while an outro cutscene error bug that had affected some players has been addressed.

This patch suggests that Treyarch will continue to support their latest entry in the series, and the community of players who have stuck with it, in the wake of the release of Infinity Ward’s Call of Duty: Modern Warfare. This makes sense, as the two games are quite different–Black Ops 4 does not feature a campaign and instead released with Blackout, Call of Duty’s first battle royale mode–and they’re both developed by two different teams. Black Ops 4 scored an 8/10 in our review last year.

from GameSpot – Game News https://www.gamespot.com/articles/call-of-duty-black-ops-4-update-125-finally-makes-/1100-6471190/

Dragon Age Writer’s New Musical Adventure Game Reaches Funding Goal

Chorus: A Musical Adventure, the next game from Dragon Age writer David Gaider, has reached its funding target, meaning production is now officially set to begin.

The game crossed its $600,000 funding target on November 5. It currently stands at $612,756 at press time, which is 102% of its funding goal.

Developer Summerfall Studios released a celebratory video in which Gaider thanked fans for their support and said he “really can’t wait to get started” on the project. Another lead developer, Liam Esler, said, “Thank you so much.” Composer Austin Wintory added, “Thank you thank you thank you, that’s crazy. We hope to do you proud.”

Chorus has a number of stretch goals that can be unlocked in the campaign’s final four days before it wraps up on November 10. The first stretch goal will add romance options for the Freddie and Pan characters if funding reaches $650,000. You can read more about the other stretch goals and get more details on the project at the Chorus funding page on Fig.

In addition to Gaider, Esler, and Wintory, veteran voice actor Troy Baker is working on Chorus as the voice director. Laura Bailey (Halo, Gears of War, Uncharted) is voicing the main character, Grace.

In other news, Star Trek actor Anthony Rapp will seemingly have some involvement in Chorus. Additionally, Gaider has shared new light on how the game’s romance system works.

from GameSpot – Game News https://www.gamespot.com/articles/dragon-age-writers-new-musical-adventure-game-reac/1100-6471188/

GameStop Announces Black Friday Hours, Here’s When Stores Open

GameStop will be among the first retailers in the United States to open its doors for shoppers for the Black Friday shopping bonanza.

In a news release, GameStop announced that it will open at 3 PM local time on Thanksgiving Day and stay open through 10 PM local time. This is all normal and expected for GameStop, as the company had the same Thanksgiving Day hours since 2017.

Before that, however, GameStop remained closed on Thanksgiving Day out of respect for the company’s workers who might have had family gatherings that day.

GameStop’s Black Friday deals actually begin even earlier, as the deals will go live on GameStop’s website beginning Wednesday, November 27 at 8 PM CT.

On Black Friday itself, November 29, GameStop will open at 7 AM and close at 10 PM. You can see GameStop’s full Black Friday store hour schedule below.

GameStop Black Friday 2019 Deals

Online

  • Online deals go live on GameStop.com beginning at 8 PM PT on Wednesday, November 27.

GameStop Black Friday Weekend Store Hours

  • Thanksgiving Day, Nov. 28: 3 p.m. – 10 p.m.
  • Black Friday, Nov. 29: 7 a.m. – 10 p.m.
  • Saturday, Nov. 30: 10 a.m. – 9 p.m.
  • Sunday, Dec. 1: 11 a.m. – 7 p.m.

GameStop has not announced its Black Friday 2019 deals just yet, but keep checking back with GameSpot for the latest on these deals and more.

The retailer has been struggling lately, with its stock price currently sitting at a near all-time low.

from GameSpot – Game News https://www.gamespot.com/articles/gamestop-announces-black-friday-hours-heres-when-s/1100-6471185/

FaZe Clan Member Banned From Fortnite For Using Aimbot

A popular Fortnite pro who joined the competitive esports team FaZe Clan earlier this year has been issued a lifetime ban from the battle royale shooter for using an aimbot.

Jarvis Khattri has been “permanently banned on Fortnite for life” for using an aimbot in the game’s Solos and Playground modes. While Khattri notes in an apology video that “this is the first time” he’s ever done anything like this and has “never done this in a competitive game mode at all,” developer Epic Games makes its rules explicitly clear its End User License Agreement.

One of the EULA’s clauses states that “running or using methods which are not authorized by Epic and which interfere with the outcome and/or the course of the Software (including Cheats, bots, scripts, or mods not expressly authorized by Epic)” is strictly prohibited.

In a statement to the press, Epic Games exercised the common “cheaters never prosper” mantra. “We have a zero-tolerance policy for the usage of cheat software. When people use aimbots or other cheat technologies to gain an unfair advantage, they ruin games for people who are playing fairly.”

“I was completely oblivious to what could happen to me, what the consequences were. Obviously, this was a huge mistake and is completely wrong on my end,” Khattri said. “Genuinely, I don’t even know what I was thinking. Cheating in anything is just terrible, you should never do it. It’s not acceptable. It’s zero-tolerance. It’s just such a dumb thing to do. I should’ve paid more attention to the community rules and the TOS of Fortnite. I just wanna urge you guys to review all of those Terms of Service and stuff so that nothing like this could ever happen to you because it’s actually so shit.”

Khattri can be seen using the aimbot in a mirrored YouTube video, where he confirms that he’s running on a backup PC. “I had to go on a new PC,” Khattri said. “I don’t wanna get my main PC banned. Sounds weird [that] I have a spare PC, but it’s just a spare PC that’s been in the house.”

from GameSpot – Game News https://www.gamespot.com/articles/faze-clan-member-banned-from-fortnite-for-using-ai/1100-6471181/

PlayStation Now Adds Three More Games For November On PS4, PC

PlayStation Now recently dropped its price as competition with other game subscription and streaming services heats up, and Sony has announced another three games joining the lineup for the month of November. The company also shared data on the most played games through the service in October. Anything available on the service’s streaming selection is playable on your PC too.

The new month will add the acclaimed Japanese RPG Persona 5, action adventure game Middle-earth: Shadow of War, and the indie Metroidvania Hollow Knight. Persona 5 and Shadow of War will be available through February 4, 2020, while no end date was given for Hollow Knight.

October’s new additions included God of War, Grand Theft Auto 5, Uncharted 4, and Infamous: Second Son. Each of those are still available through January 2, 2020. Not surprisingly, they’re also all on the most played list for the month of October (below).

PlayStation Now began as Sony’s streaming-only service, but in 2018 added a download option. Then in October, it dropped the price to $10 per month, making it competitive with Xbox Game Pass. It combined this announcement with limited-time inclusions like God of War.

Top PlayStation Now Games (October 2019)

  1. Grand Theft Auto V
  2. God of War
  3. Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End
  4. Infamous Second Son
  5. Rocket League
  6. Fallout 4
  7. NBA 2K18
  8. WWE 2K18
  9. Mortal Kombat X
  10. Batman Arkham Knight
  11. Mafia 3
  12. Farming Simulator 19

from GameSpot – Game News https://www.gamespot.com/articles/playstation-now-adds-three-more-games-for-november/1100-6471168/

New Apex Legends Update Adds Firing Range; Duos Mode Out Now Too

Respawn has released the patch notes for the latest update for Apex Legends. The update adds a new firing range to the game and several balance changes. With these new changes, Apex Legends’ Halloween-themed Fight or Fright event comes to an end. If you’re looking to unlock Lifeline’s heirloom, you’ll now have to rely on chance. With Shadowfall leaving Apex Legends’ game mode rotation, a new limited-time Duos mode has gone live alongside the new update–the new mode will remain in the game until November 19.

The firing range is a great addition for those wondering which character to buy in Apex Legends, as jumping in allows you to test any legend and their corresponding abilities–giving you a chance to try Caustic, Mirage, Octane, Wattson, and Crypto prior to purchasing them. You can enter the firing range solo or as a squad, and experiment with all in-game loot items. In the update’s patch notes, Respawn says additional “future improvements” are on the way.

In terms of balance changes, the new update doesn’t add all that many. The Wingman is getting a nerf: dealing less damage on headshots. Projectile width has also been adjusted for all shotguns (EVA-8, Mozambique, and Peacekeeper), the L-Star, and several sniper rifles (Longbow DMR, Kraber, and G7 Scout).

Perhaps the most noticeable changes are several buffs for Crypto. Though the hacker is very beginner-friendly, the legend has seen a drop-off in ranked play due to the weaknesses tied to his passive playstyle. The buff to his Ultimate ability greatly increases his usefulness, allowing his EMP to damage shields even after enemies have dropped them. Now, Wraith is the only legend who can easily escape the effects of Crypto’s Ultimate.

The update also adds a new feature that allows you to reroll on your daily challenges. From now on, all players will receive one easy, one medium, and one hard challenge each day. If you want more or different challenges, you can pay Legend Tokens to unlock new dailies. The first reroll will cost 200 tokens, followed by 500 for a second reroll, and 1000 for every consecutive reroll. The cost will reset every day.

In the settings, you can now adjust the cursor speed as well–a change that will allow you to loot death boxes much more quickly. There’s also no countdown prior to picking your character at the start of the match–so be ready to pick in case you’re up first. You’ll also now be able to see the ammo type of the guns your teammates are using while in the inventory menu, a pretty nice change that will make it easier to know whether you and your teammates are all searching for the same type of ammo. The quip wheel has also been tied to a new input, allowing you to more easily access your chosen legends’ quips in the middle of a match. All of these changes and more are listed in the patch notes below.

Apex Legends November 5 Update Patch Notes

Firing Range

  • From the lobby, you can now select the firing range. Here you can practice playing around with all the weapons, items, and Legends.
    • Can enter the firing range solo or with your squad.
    • You can change to any Legend and use their abilities and ultimates.
    • All loot items are available to play with including weapons, attachments, and hopups.
    • Target DUMMIES available to practice those headshots.
    • Future improvements to come! Please give us your feedback.

Weapons

  • Wingman
    • Reduced the headshot multiplier: 2.15 -> 2.1
  • Changes to Projectile Collision: We’ve increased the projectile width on some weapons so they are easier to hit with. We made this change to the TripleTake in Season 2 and the following will be updated for this patch:
    • Shotguns: All shotguns will have projectiles with a small amount of width.
    • L-STAR
    • Snipers: The Longbow DMR, Kraber, and G7 Scout.

Quality of Life

  • In an effort to surface easier challenges to players more often and offer a balanced set of challenges each day, Daily Challenge distribution has been adjusted so players are guaranteed to receive 1 easy, 1 medium, and 1 hard challenge.
    • You can now spend Legend Tokens to reroll Daily Challenges.
      • First reroll: 200 Legend Tokens
      • Second reroll: 500 Legend Tokens
      • Third or more rerolls: 1000 Legend Tokens for each reroll.
      • Cost increases with each purchase before capping out at 1000 Legend Tokens.
      • Cost resets every day
  • You can now adjust the game cursor velocity in Settings -> Controller. This will apply to cursor velocity in all menus including the Lobby, Pause/Inventory menus, and Death Box inventories.
  • We now show you what Music Pack you have selected while dropping into the map. If you only have the default Pack selected you won’t see anything.
  • Improved flow from Lobby to Match that fixes some minor bugs and will hopefully get players into matches a bit faster.
    • Disabling pregame spawning of players before character selection. This will address cases where players might hear someone voice comms or other sounds before the Legend selection starts.
    • The “Waiting for Players…” transition now shows the game world instead of a black screen.
    • Removed the 5-second countdown that would start at the beginning of Legend selection.
  • Players will now be able to view the ammo types of their squadmates equipped weapons when in the inventory menu.
  • Ranked Mode: Players will no longer receive a penalty for abandoning a match if they leave after 2 and a half minutes have passed since their Banner was picked up after dying. As a reminder: players will be warned via the menus if their leaving may trigger abandon penalties; if the warning does not show up players are free to leave.
  • New Quip Inputs
    • [Controller] you can now open the quip wheel by holding down on the d-pad (you can still do it the old way – open ping menu and press Y)
    • [PC] Quick Chat binding should now auto bind to F1 if it isn’t bound to anything (assuming nothing is already bound to F1)

Bug Fixes

  • Fixed a bug where players would stay in place while the train keeps moving when reviving another player.
  • Updated the layout of the minimap that was previously showing a route that doesn’t exist.
  • Fixed cases where players could drop into Out of Bounds areas without getting the timer.
  • Fixed cases of some areas where players could take lava damage near the Volcano when there isn’t any lava.
  • Fixed display issue with post-game where it would show you earning 2 battle pass levels for leveling up via Stars.

Legends

  • Crypto
    • EMP now will damage armor that players have dropped.
    • Fixed a bug where Lifeline’s drone couldn’t heal Crypto while he was in the drone.
    • Fix for friendly Caustic gas kicking Crypto out of his drone.
  • Bangalore
    • Fixed bug where sometimes the missiles from Bangalore’s Ultimate would disappear after landing on the train.

from GameSpot – Game News https://www.gamespot.com/articles/new-apex-legends-update-adds-firing-range-duos-mod/1100-6471180/

Red Dead 2 PC Crashes: How To Possibly Fix The Issue

Red Dead Redemption 2 just launched on PC today, but many players are facing issues of getting it to run properly, or even at all. The game has been subject to crashes, sending players back to desktop–myself included. In my experience, I would either get the “exited unexpectedly” message from the Rockstar Launcher or a critical error message from Windows when either loading into the story mode or a few seconds into gameplay.

However, I was able to get the game running stably after a few tweaks. If you get a crash, the Rockstar Launcher will ask if you want to run the game in Safe Mode; you can do this then tweak your graphics settings back to what you wanted. Granted, you’ll have to restart the game again to apply certain graphics options. One option you’ll want to have set is for the game to use the DirectX 12 renderer–by default, Red Dead 2 runs on the Vulkan API.

A third step isn’t so much a solution as it is just good practice: update your video card’s drivers. Nvidia users should download and install GeForce driver version 441.12 since it’s specifically tuned for RDR2 and the most recent software for Nvidia GPUs. AMD users will want to do the same and install the latest graphics drivers, Radeon software version 19.11.1. Rockstar has acknowledged the situation and offer driver updates as a solution, too. Additionally, it’s suggested to make sure Windows launches the game with “Run this Program as Administrator” and “Disable Fullscreen Optimization” set.

It’s hard to say which one of these are the definitive solution, but if you’re encountering crashes in the same manner, we suggest you follow these steps. Your mileage may vary as every PC is different and it’s not yet clear what exactly is causing the crashes. I’m currently running a PC with the following specs: Intel Core i7-7700K, Nvidia RTX 2080, 16GB RAM, and a 2TB m.2 NVMe SSD. I cannot speak to whether or not there are other issues that might be specific to AMD setups.

For more information on the situation, you can read our story the Red Dead 2 PC crashes people have been encountering. If you’re up and running the game stably, be sure to check out our previous coverage below.

from GameSpot – Game News https://www.gamespot.com/articles/red-dead-2-pc-crashes-how-to-possibly-fix-the-issu/1100-6471178/

New Mass Effect Javelin Skins Added To Anthem In Celebration Of N7 Day

In celebration of N7 Day–an annual Mass Effect holiday celebrating the beloved RPG franchise every November 7–BioWare has released new javelin skins in Anthem that are themed after characters from the original trilogy of Mass Effect games. A new emote and wrap have been added to the game as well.

Honestly, the four new javelin skins might be the coolest additions ever implemented into Anthem. The Ranger now has a Turian skin that reshapes the javelin to look like Garrus from Mass Effect 3. The new Storm skin is Asari-themed, making the javelin look like Liara in her default Mass Effect 3 appearance. Neither of the other two skins are based on specific characters, with the new Colossus skin themed after a Krogan and the new Interceptor after a Quarian. All four new skins are pictured below.

No Caption ProvidedGallery image 1Gallery image 2Gallery image 3Gallery image 4Gallery image 5Gallery image 6

Each skin goes for 61,000 Coins or 850 Shards, which roughly translates to $8 USD. There’s a new Mass Effect-themed emote in Anthem’s in-game store too: the Shepard Shuffle. Unlocking the emote allows your javelin to perform the awkward dance of the Mass Effect trilogy’s main character, a long-running joke in the franchise. There’s also a new Mass Effect: Andromeda-themed wrap available for purchase to adjust the Mass Effect skins to look like the armor worn by the Turians, Krogans, Turians, and Asari in the Andromeda Initiative.

BioWare typically does or announces something Mass Effect-related every N7 Day, and it’s looking like these new Anthem cosmetics may be what the developer planned for this year. We’ll have to wait for November 7 to see whether there’s anything else. The javelin skins, emote, and wrap will remain in Anthem’s in-game store until November 12.

During N7 Day 2018, BioWare posted a short video on Twitter where studio boss Casey Hudson teased a new Mass Effect game by knowingly staring at the camera after saying, “It means coming into the studio every day, dreaming about what the next great Mass Effect game will be.” In February 2019, Anthem and Dragon Age executive producer Mark Darrah said that BioWare is “definitely not done with Mass Effect.”

In EA’s latest quarterly earnings call, COO Blake Jorgensen said that the company wants to “deliver some exciting remasters of fan favorites, including the Command and Conquer game we’ve already disclosed.” However, he did not confirm whether those “exciting remasters” might include the Mass Effect trilogy.

from GameSpot – Game News https://www.gamespot.com/articles/new-mass-effect-javelin-skins-added-to-anthem-in-c/1100-6471175/