Week 8 of Fortnite Season 8 has arrived, which means there’s a new set of challenges to complete in the hit battle royale game. Each task you clear will net you Battle Stars, which will help level your Battle Pass up and, in turn, unlock this season’s Battle Pass rewards. However, there’s an added bonus for completing all of the challenges from a given week: you’ll also clear a Discovery challenge and earn a special loading screen.

Not only do these loading screens feature cool artwork, each one also contains a subtle clue that points you in the direction of a free Battle Star or Banner–depending on how many Discovery challenges you’ve completed–hidden somewhere around the island. The Battle Star will level your Battle Pass up by one tier, while the Banner can be used as a profile icon.

If you’ve completed eight full weeks’ worth of challenges from Season 8, you’ll receive the loading screen below. This week’s screen depicts Ruin, the Legendary skin you’ll unlock after clearing 55 weekly challenges from this season. Look closely at the background, however, and you’ll be able to spot a set of coordinates hidden in the flames: B6, B7, C6, and C7. This is where you’ll need to go to find a free Banner.

The Banner is hidden right where the coordinates converge, on a snowy hill just northwest of Polar Peak. We’ve marked its location on the map below. Head to the area the next time you jump into a match and the Banner will appear when you approach. Collect it as you would any other pickup in the game, then finish the match and it’ll be yours to use as a profile icon. If you need more help locating the Banner, we walk you through where to find it in the video at the top of this guide.

Before heading off to find this Banner, keep in mind that it won’t appear in the game unless you’ve completed eight weeks’ worth of challenges and unlocked the above loading screen; you won’t be able to simply go to the right area and collect it unless you’ve finished all of the necessary steps first. If you still have any outstanding challenges you need to finish, you can find tips for the trickier ones in our complete Fortnite Season 8 challenges guide.

Prior to rolling out the Week 8 challenges, Epic released Fortnite’s 8.40 update, which marked the started of a new limited-time mode called Air Royale. This LTM revolves around dogfighting and comes with its own set of challenges, which will unlock special Wraps when completed. Epic also brought back the Food Fight LTM. This time around, however, it’s called Deep Fried, and it features elevated restaurant bases, forcing you and your teammates to build up to them in order to protect your mascot.

from GameSpot – Game News https://www.gamespot.com/articles/fortnite-week-8-secret-banner-location-guide-seaso/1100-6466367/

The latest patch for Apex Legends has added some often requested armor to two characters, introduced a limited-time bonus XP event, and ushered in various other weapon tweaks and adjustments. It’s live now so you can already start tinkering with all the new toys.

According to the patch notes posted on the Apex Legends subreddit, one of the most significant changes came to Gibraltar and Caustic. Community manager Jay Frechette explained that those two, along with Pathfinder, were all getting punished in match data for their hitbox size. Readjusting the hitboxes worked to fix Pathfinder, but the other two were still at a disadvantage. As a result, this patch adds a new passive ability for them both: Fortified, which reduces damage by 10%. Each has a handful of other minor tweaks as well to make them more competitive.

In addition to those changes, you can get some bonus Battle Pass XP to level up faster. Your first Top 5 of the day will grant you a full Battle Pass level (29,500 BPP), and you can repeat that every day until the bonus period ends on 4/18.

Other changes to weapons include buffs for the Longbow DMR and Havoc, and nerfs for the G7 Scout, Wingman, and Spitfire. The jump ship has also gotten a speed increase.

This is a smaller-scale update to the overall 1.1 Patch that went live a few days ago. More recently, project lead Drew McCoy commented that the game isn’t coming to Switch right now, but didn’t rule out the possibility completely.

Apex Legends Patch 1.1.1 Update Notes

LEGEND BALANCING

CAUSTIC:

• Fortified Passive Perk added: reduces damage taken by 10%

• Gas Damage per tick increased: 1 -> 4

• Ultimate Throw distance increased: 28 meters -> 33 meters

GIBRALTAR:

• Fortified Passive Perk added: reduces damage taken by 10%

• Gun Shield health increased: 50 -> 75

WEAPON BALANCING

• G7 SCOUT / TRIPLE TAKE / LONGBOW DMR

  • Lowered leg shot damage reduction: 25% -> 10%

  • Reduced base weapon sway by about 33%

  • Reduced base sway speed by about 25%

• LONGBOW DMR

  • Increased fire rate 1.2 -> 1.6

  • Increased magazine size

    • Base mag increased: 5 -> 6 rounds

    • Common mag extender increased: 6 -> 8 rounds

    • Rare mag extender increased: 8 -> 10 rounds

    • Epic mag extender increased: 10 -> 12 rounds

• HAVOC

  • Increased base magazine size: 25 -> 32 rounds

  • Charge Beam

    • Reduced cost per shot: 5 -> 4

    • Increased close range damage: 55 -> 60

    • Increased damage at range: 45 -> 50

    • Close range damage falloff increased: 35m -> 75m

    • Ranged damage falloff increased: 75m -> 125m

• WINGMAN

  • Reduced magazine size

    • Base mag reduced: 6 -> 4 rounds

    • Common mag extender reduced: 8 -> 6 rounds

    • Rare mag extender reduced: 9 -> 8 rounds

    • Epic mag extender reduced: 12 -> 10 rounds

• SPITFIRE

  • Reduced base damage: 20 -> 18

  • Magazine extender attachments reduced

    • Common mag extender reduced: 45 -> 40 rounds

    • Rare mag extender reduced: 55 -> 45 rounds

    • Epic mag extender reduced: 60 -> 55 rounds

ADJUSTMENTS TO GOLD WEAPON ATTACHMENTS:

• Gold Havoc

  • Now has Turbocharger

  • Now has 1x-2x variable holo site

• Gold R301

  • Now has 1x-2x variable holo site

• Gold Wingman

  • Now has digital threat

BATTLE PASS XP BONUS EVENT:

In honor of Thicc-boi buffs, we’re going to be running a bonus Battle Pass XP event. From approximately 10AM PST 4/16 through approximately 10AM PST 4/18, your first Top 5 of the day (your squad places 5th or better in a match) will grant you 1 full bonus Battle Pass Level (29,500 BPP), up to a max of level 110. You can earn this once per day.

We’ll also be finding other moments during the season to add Battle Pass XP bonuses, so stay tuned!

ADDITIONAL CHANGES

• JUMP SHIP SPEED

  • Increased the speed of the ship by about 50%

    • We felt that the ship was moving a bit too slow after watching player behavior so we’re speeding it up so players that like to drop later in the flight path don’t have to wait so long.

• BUG FIXES

  • Fixed UI bug where the wrong percentage would be displayed for all boost badges.

from GameSpot – Game News https://www.gamespot.com/articles/apex-legends-update-tweaks-gibraltar-and-caustic-b/1100-6466303/

Fortnite‘s Week 8 challenges of Season 8 are now live on PS4, Xbox One, PC, Switch, and mobile, giving players across all platforms another opportunity to level their Battle Pass up and unlock this season’s cosmetic rewards. While many of this week’s objectives are fairly straightforward, a few of them may throw you for a loop if you aren’t familiar with Fortnite’s map, like the one that asks you to dial the Durrr Burger number on the big telephone west of Fatal Fields. That’s why we’re here to help.

The big telephone challenge is one of two multi-step missions available this week (the other ask you to search treasure map signposts). Fortunately, this task is a lot simpler than it may initially sound. To complete the first step, you’ll need to head to the oversized telephone mentioned in the challenge name; it can be found atop a snowy mountain directly west of Fatal Fields. Once you get there, you’ll see the Durrr Burger number already displayed on the phone’s dial, so all you need to do is shoot the numbers in the correct sequence to move on to stage two.

Once you’ve dialed the first phone, you’ll be asked to dial the Pizza Pit number on the big telephone east of The Block; you can see its exact location on the map below. As before, the number is already displayed on the phone, so all you need to do is shoot them in the right order to complete the challenge and earn your Battle Stars. If you need another look at where to go, you can watch us walk you through the whole challenge in the video above.

There are only a few weeks remaining in Fortnite Season 8, so you still have a little time to complete any outstanding challenges and unlock this season’s Battle Pass rewards. If you need some assistance, you can find tips for this season’s trickier tasks in our complete Fortnite Season 8 challenge guide, which we’ve been updating as new challenges are rolled out. You can also see all the skins and other cosmetics up for grabs in our Fortnite Season 8 rewards gallery.

Week 8’s challenges arrive hot on the heels of Fortnite’s 8.40 update, which kicked off a new limited-time mode called Air Royale. This LTM revolves around dogfighting and features its own set of challenges to complete, which will net you special Wraps. The patch also brought back the Food Fight LTM, but this time around it’s called Deep Fried and features elevated restaurant bases, requiring you and your teammates to build up to them to protect your mascot.

from GameSpot – Game News https://www.gamespot.com/articles/fortnite-where-to-dial-the-durrr-burger-number-on-/1100-6466359/

The stylish shooter XIII is coming back as a remake slated for release on PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch this year. The original 2003 game was known for its mind-bending story, and the remake is said to be borne out of a desire to introduce the story-driven game to a new generation who may have missed it more than a decade ago.

The reveal on the PlayStation Blog includes a few pieces of concept art for both the environments and one character, showing off the new visual style. Among other things XIII was known for its cel-shaded aesthetic, which has been maintained here but updated with a lot more detail.

In XIII, you play as an amnesiac soldier named Thirteen. You’ve been accused of killing the President of the United States, and the story revolves around your efforts to uncover the truth with only a few clues to go on. This remake is said to be based on the first five volumes of the comic series.

“XIII has a unique and potentially interesting premise, and some will certainly want to drag their way through the single-player campaign just to watch the story unfold, but the game doesn’t really differentiate itself from the wide array of other first-person shooters on the market,” said critic Jeff Gerstmann in GameSpot’s 2003 review. “The cel-shaded graphical style works in the context of trying to re-create a comic book, but the models and other graphical elements fall short. Given the extreme amount of competition in this genre, fans of first-person shooting are advised to spend their time elsewhere.”

The remake of XIII is coming November 13, 2019.

from GameSpot – Game News https://www.gamespot.com/articles/remake-of-stylish-shooter-xiii-coming-this-year/1100-6466360/

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate might have already launched for Nintendo Switch–and received a big update just recently–but Super Smash Bros. Melee still holds a special place in the hearts of many. The GameCube game launched in 2001 (2002 in Europe) and was loved by millions of gamers worldwide.

Today we’re putting your Melee knowledge to the test: can you name every Super Smash Bros. Melee character in under five minutes? Once you’re done, be sure to comment your score in the comments below, and remember to share with your friends to see who has the superior gaming knowledge.

You might also be interested in that new Super Smash Bros. Ultimate update. It adds a stage builder and a video editing tool, as well as preparing the game for its latest DLC character, Persona 5‘s Joker. For more, take a look at our Super Smash Bros. Ultimate review.

from GameSpot – Game News https://www.gamespot.com/articles/quiz-how-many-super-smash-bros-melee-characters-ca/1100-6465279/