Today at Day 2 of the Final Fantasy Fan Festival in Tokyo, Square Enix made a series of announcements about Final Fantasy XIV Online, including the start-date for the game’s crossover event with Final Fantasy XV.

The crossover event, which was announced previously, is called A Nocturne For Heroes, and it begins April 16. This news was confirmed during a behind-the-scenes “Letter From the Producer” event featuring producer Naoki Yoshida. The event brings a number of Final Fantasy XV gear and items to FFXIV, including the game’s first-ever four-player mount. You guessed it, the mount is the Regalia, which is the car the main characters drive in FFXV. The other items include FFXV-themed gear and a hairstyle from the game.

In other news, Square Enix confirmed that Final Fantasy XIV patch 4.56, which is called “A Requiem for Heroes Part 2,” will launch very soon–it’s due out Tuesday, March 26. Coming after that is Patch 4.57, which adds the new World Visit system, and it’s launching on April 23.

You can see a full schedule of important dates in the graphic below, which covers all the big proceedings leading up to the release of Shadowbringers on July 2 (or June 28 with Early Access):

Yoshida and main scenario writer/world lore creator Banri Oda answered a series of fan questions during the panel covering a range of topics. You can re-watch the panel here on Twitch.

Fan Fest Day 1 yesterday brought a lot of big news as well, including the next race for Shadowbringers, a new raid, more screenshots, and a fresh trailer–get all the details here.

Keep checking back with GameSpot for more from Fan Fest today and Monday, including a gallery of some of the best cosplay we’ve seen. Disclosure: Square Enix paid for GameSpot’s flight to Tokyo and accomodations.

from GameSpot – Game News https://www.gamespot.com/articles/final-fantasy-xiv-online-news-from-fan-fest-ff15-c/1100-6465801/

Microsoft’s Xbox One and PC pirate game Sea of Thieves has a big update coming up soon, and it’s set to deliver a number of fan-requested features–one of which is fishing. The “Anniversary Update” arrives on April 30, which is about 13 months after the game launched in March 2019.

Despite being very much connected to and associated with all manner of water-based fishing activities, Sea of Thieves didn’t have a fishing mode–until now. Coming April 30, players will not only be able to cast a line and reel in a big fish, but players will also be able to cook their catch.

Executive producer Joe Neate from Rare joked that the developer will remove fishing from Sea of Thieves if people don’t live up to their word and fish their hearts out.

More seriously, the Anniversary update is the biggest content update for Sea of Thieves to date. Fishing comes to the game through the new Hunter’s Call Trading Company, which is led by Merrick. In addition to fishing (which you can do from shore or on ship), players can hunt animals and other creatures, and, like fish, cook the flesh for energy. However, some meat may be poisonous. Additionally, players can earn gold and cosmetic rewards for fishing and hunting.

The Anniversary Update also adds a new competitive mode, along with a new storyline called Tall Tales: Shores of Gold. “Follow a series of narrative adventures surrounding existing and all-new characters, taking you to undiscovered places and revealing surprising new gameplay features,” reads a line from the description. “Fans of the expanded game universe will recognise some of the iconic characters and locations in Shores of Gold, yet this is only the beginning of a series of Tall Tales that will allow players to immerse themselves in the legends of Sea of Thieves.”

Finally, the Anniversary Update promises a number of improvements to the base game, including a more advanced ship damage system that is capable of damaging specific ship elements.

“Expanded ship damage means that your beloved vessel can suffer a broken mast, capstan, or even wheel, meaning that sailing and escaping battle could get very tricky indeed,” Rare said. “Meanwhile, the arrival of the harpoon means that treasure can be nabbed by a skilled enemy and ships can make some surprising manoeuvres.”

Being such a large update, Microsoft will hold a series of livestreams to talk about its different content elements. These will be help on April 10, April 16, and April 23 leading up to the update’s release on April 30. You can watch the streams on all the usual places: Mixer, Twitch, and YouTube. The full programming schedule can be seen here as written by Microsoft.

While you have to wait a bit longer for the Anniversary update, Microsoft has released a series of freebies to celebrate the game’s first birthday. This includes various cosmetics, the Captain Bones Original Pirate Cutlass, a set of Gamerpics, and discounts. Visit the Xbox Wire to see a rundown of the freebies.

Sea of Thieves is available now for PC and Xbox One; the console edition is in the Xbox Game Pass library, which means subscribers get it at no extra cost.

from GameSpot – Game News https://www.gamespot.com/articles/sea-of-thieves-is-adding-fishing-in-huge-update-co/1100-6465799/

The 2019 Final Fantasy Fan Fest in Tokyo began today with a keynote address from game director Naoki Yoshida, and the 90-minute briefing was packed with news and insight on the new Shadowbringers expansion for Final Fantasy XIV coming out later this year. Perhaps the biggest news was the announcement of a new Job. The new Job is Dancer.

As the name suggests, Dancer uses dance moves, in a way, to combat their enemies. Performing dances executes certain abilities, while some specific dances buff nearby party members.

Dancer is a ranged DPS Job, and its main arm is used for throwing weapons. It has no associated class, according to Square Enix, and you’ll be able to start using Dancer at level 60.

Another huge announcement was the next playable race for Final Fantasy XIV–the Hrothgar. Cat-like humanoids, the Hrothgar will be available in male and female variants, and each will have unique heads and customisable features. They also each have two clans.

Also during the presentation, Square Enix showed off two new cities, the Crystarium and Eulmore. The Crystarium is a beautiful, expansive place with blue-hued environments. Eulore is also a sight to behold, as it sits atop a massive, ornate, and steampunk-looking structure.

Square Enix also used the news-packed keynote to reveal Final Fantasy XIV’s latest Beast Tribe–the Dwarves. Not a whole lot of information was shared, but the company confirmed these dwarves always have beards and they always wear helmets–even at the dinner table. They’re experts in mining and metallurgy.

The new Dancer

Another big piece of news was the announcement of the game’s next eight-player raid series. It’s called Eden, and while little is known about the specifics, Square Enix confirmed that none other than legendary designer Tetsuya Nomura is working as a character and boss designer for it.

Shadowbringers launches on July 2, but an Early Access period will start on June 28, Square Enix announced. However, that was only a tentative date, so it is subject to change.

An epic new, six-minute trailer for Shadowbringers was shown during the keynote. You can see this trailer above, while a number of brand-new screenshots can be seen embedded in this post.

The Hrothgar

While fans have to wait a while longer for Shadowbringers, the next big update for Final Fantasy XIV, update 4.56, launches on March 26. Everything announced today is on top of all the previous Shadowbringers announcements, which include a level cap jump from 70 to 80, as well as the introduction of a new system called the Trust System. There is also more end-game content and more.

Here are some further facts and details about today’s Shadowbringers news that Square Enix shared after the panel wrapped up (text written by Square Enix):

• New Job – Dancer: Dancer joins gunbreaker as one of the new jobs in Shadowbringers. This ranged attacker not only unleashes powerful attacks using throwing weapons, but also performs dances to execute abilities and provide beneficial effects to their party
• New Player Race – Hrothgar: The Hrothgar player race compliments the recently announced Viera as the second new playable race in Shadowbringers. The Hrothgar and Viera will both have unique, customizable features specific to their races.
• New Player Cities – The Crystarium and Eulmore: Located in Norvrandt, the former will serve as a player hub, while the latter—an affluent city ruled by the elite will play a key role in the Shadowbringers main storyline.
• New Raid – Eden: This new high-end raid content will feature multiple challenging bosses, as well as a new character–both designed specifically for this raid series by Kingdom Hearts Director and Final Fantasy series veteran, Tetsuya Nomura.
• New Beast Tribe and Primal: The bearded dwarves and the “sin eater,” Innocence.
• New Field Area – Lakeland

Good luck sleeping tonight

As for the Final Fantasy Fan Fest, it runs all weekend long, so keep checking back with GameSpot for more. Disclosure: Square Enix paid for GameSpot’s flight to Tokyo and accomodations.

from GameSpot – Game News https://www.gamespot.com/articles/final-fantasy-xiv-online-shadowbringers-new-race-j/1100-6465798/

Respawn has released the patch notes for a PC update for Apex Legends. The update is already live and is specifically aimed at fixing game crashes on PC.

“The game should now write an apex_crash.txt file to your My Documents folder when it crashes,” Respawn community manager Jay Frechette wrote in a Reddit blog post. “The apex_crash.txt files we got from players had a lot of information that we needed… We had never seen the crash in any of our internal testing before, but now we could finally reproduce the bug and that meant we could find it and fix it.”

More updates for Apex Legends are planned for next week. Frechette didn’t provide specifics, but did list several issues that Respawn is working towards fixing. Those broad problems are outlined below.

• FPS capped to 144: It was the intent to cap to 300 but a bug is keeping it at 144. We’re aware and looking into it and I’ll provide an update when I can.
• Hit reg issues: we are aware and testing a fix locally.
• Audio issues – we’ve heard the feedback on numerous issues you folks have been reporting. Working with audio guys to address the stuff we can answer next week.

The Apex Legends Season 1: Wild Frontier battle pass is now available for purchase, as is the game’s first post-launch add-on playable character, Octane. The battle pass costs 950 Apex Coins–about $9.50 USD–and offers a variety of rewards, such as cosmetic skins, stat trackers, new Legend voice lines, and Apex Coin and XP drops. Each reward is unlocked by earning XP and climbing up the battle pass’s 100 levels. It’s unfortunate there aren’t any challenges, like the Fortnite battle passes, but thankfully, Apex Legend’s pass allows you to earn enough Apex Coins to buy next season’s.

You don’t need to put the Apex Coins towards the next pass, though. Instead, you can use them to purchase the new character, Octane (although he can be unlocked using Legend Tokens too). The ninth Legend in Respawn’s battle royale game, Octane is all about being the fastest. His tactical gives him a boost of speed at the cost of his health, while his ultimate throws out a launch pad that can propel Legends and items through the air. In order to keep on running, Octane’s passive heals him over time, provided he’s not in combat.

Apex Legends is available for Xbox One, PS4, and PC.

from GameSpot – Game News https://www.gamespot.com/articles/new-apex-legends-pc-update-patches-game-crashes/1100-6465795/