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CD Projekt Red’s The Witcher Gets Netflix ‘Toss A Coin To Your Witcher’ Mod

While Netflix’s The Witcher is solely based on the books, the TV series and CD Projekt Red’s video game adaptation have now crossed over in an unexpected way. A popular song from The Witcher TV series can be seen in Geralt of Rivia’s first adventure, 2007’s The Witcher, thanks to a new mod.

You can add “Toss A Coin To Your Witcher,” a song performed by the show’s version of Dandelion at the end of the second episode, to the original Witcher PC game by downloading Hubert Wiza’s mod from Nexus Mods. Once installed, it appears as an in-game cutscene during The Witcher’s third chapter. The song replaces Dandelion’s performance at The New Narakort Inn.

The Witcher’s main campaign is lengthy and getting to the third chapter just to see the cutscene could take a while, so Wiza uploaded the full performance to YouTube for your convenience. You can check it out below.

This mod really capitalizes on The Witcher games’ recent resurgence in popularity. Since The Witcher TV adaptation debuted on December 20, the games have seen huge player spikes on Steam. CDPR’s third installment in particular, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, had more people playing than ever before since its 2015 launch. Though the show and the game remain separate entities, CDPR and author Andrzej Sapkowski recently settled a royalties dispute that “confers new rights” to the developer.

Prior to Netflix’s The Witcher receiving less than favorable reviews from some critics, the show had been picked up for a second season. In our The Witcher Season 1 review, we said, “If you’re utterly devoted to the world of The Witcher, you’ll certainly enjoy the familiar aesthetic and characters, but beyond that, this series is hard to recommend.”

from GameSpot – Game News https://www.gamespot.com/articles/cd-projekt-reds-the-witcher-gets-netflix-toss-a-co/1100-6472492/

Fortnite Workshop, Crackshot’s Cabin, And Mr. Polar Locations Guide

Fortnite‘s holiday-themed Winterfest event is wrapping up soon, but there’s still a little time to complete its challenges and snag yourself some special rewards. One challenge that may give you some trouble asks you to visit the Workshop, Crackshot’s Cabin, and Mr. Polar’s Artisanal Ice. If you have no idea where any of those places are, don’t worry; we’ve put together this map and guide to show you where to go.

What Are The Locations You Need To Visit?

As the challenge states, you’ll need to head to three different buildings to complete this mission, and they can be tricky to find if you’re not already familiar with the layout of Fortnite’s island. Fortunately, each building is near a named location, so they shouldn’t be too hard to track down.

The Workshop is located southeast of Holly Hedges, on the way to Slurpy Swamp; Crackshot’s Cabin is east of Eye Land, the island that’s dead in the center of Fortnite’s map; and Mr. Polar’s Artisanal Ice is in the northeastern corner of Dirty Docks. You can see where all three buildings are located on the map below.

How To Complete The Challenge

Now that we know where all three locations are, all you need to do is make your way to each one and you’ll complete the challenge. You don’t need to visit all three within a single match, so the quickest way to complete the challenge would be to head to one, get yourself eliminated, then jump into another match and go to another one until you’ve visited all of them.

Fortnite’s Winterfest challenges will only be around a few more days, so you’ll need to act quickly if you’re hoping to complete them and unlock the special Winterfest rewards. You can see the full list of challenges, along with all of our maps and guides for this season’s trickier missions, in our ongoing Fortnite Chapter 2 challenges roundup.

from GameSpot – Game News https://www.gamespot.com/articles/fortnite-workshop-crackshots-cabin-and-mr-polar-lo/1100-6472477/

The Witcher 3 And More Xbox One Games Discounted In Latest Sale

The first week of 2020’s Xbox One game deals is a good one. Netflix’s The Witcher Netflix series has stolen viewers’ hearts, causing The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt to spike in popularity. And if you want to get in on that, The Witcher 3, its Complete edition, and the expansion pass are all discounted on the Xbox One for the next week–if you’re subscribed to Xbox Game Pass for console, then you can play the base game free of any extra charge.

However, there is much more than just The Witcher on sale. Both Grand Theft Auto 5 and Red Dead Redemption 2 are discounted, in addition to some of the best games from this year: Resident Evil 2, Mortal Kombat 11, and Devil May Cry 5. The Outer Worlds is also on sale. Now while these games are discounted, it’s important to note that some of them are available as part of Xbox Game Pass. These include GTA 5, Devil May Cry 5, and The Outer Worlds.

We’ve collected a selection of the best deals and compiled them in a list below. The majority of these deals are valid until 3 AM PT // 6 AM ET on January 7, though there are a few exceptions–The Witcher 3 and its various add-ons and editions are discounted until January 9.

In related news, Microsoft still has an awesome deal for Game Pass. You can get your first three months of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate for $1. Ultimate grants you access to the Xbox Game Pass libraries for console and PC, in addition to Xbox Live Gold, which grants you access to online multiplayer, free monthly games, and exclusive discounts.

Xbox One game deals

from GameSpot – Game News https://www.gamespot.com/articles/the-witcher-3-and-more-xbox-one-games-discounted-i/1100-6472488/

Pokemon Sword & Shield: All Max Raid Events Happening Right Now

Pokemon Sword and Shield introduce a few exciting new features to the series, such as Max Raid battles. At certain dens dotting the Wild Area, you can team up with three other trainers–either locally or online–and take on supersized Dynamax Pokemon together.

Pokemon you encounter in these Max Raids are special in a few different ways. First, there’s a chance the monster will have its Hidden Ability. Regular wild Pokemon you come across in Sword and Shield will never have their Hidden Ability, making this the only way to obtain it in the games (outside of breeding, and in that case one of the parents would need to have the Hidden Ability in order to pass it down).

Depending on the level of the Raid, the Pokemon will have a couple of perfect IVs (base stats) as well, making them useful for breeding if you’re trying to put together a competitive team. You’ll also receive an assortment of rewards for clearing Max Raids, including Exp. Candy and TRs, which can otherwise only be purchased with Watts (and are quite costly). Finally, Max Raids are the only way to encounter Gigantamax Pokemon; unlike standard monsters, these Pokemon take on a different appearance when they Dynamax.

Which Pokemon you encounter in Max Raids is typically up to chance, but Game Freak periodically hosts Max Raid events that bring out certain monsters for a limited time, such as Shiny Magikarp and Gigantamax Snorlax. You can see the full list of Max Raid events happening right now in Pokemon Sword and Shield below. Be sure to also check out our Max Raid guide for tips to help you defeat these Dynamax monsters.

Pokemon Sword & Shield Current Max Raid Events

PokemonVersionEnd Date
Shiny MagikarpSword and ShieldJanuary 3
Gigantamax SnorlaxSword and ShieldJanuary 9
Gigantamax ButterfreeSword and ShieldJanuary 9
Gigantamax DrednawSwordJanuary 9
Gigantamax SandacondaSwordJanuary 9
Gigantamax CorviknightShieldJanuary 9
Gigantamax CentiskorchShieldJanuary 9

from GameSpot – Game News https://www.gamespot.com/articles/pokemon-sword-and-shield-all-max-raid-events-happe/1100-6472482/

Valve’s Canceled Portal Prequel Revealed

With Half-Life: Alyx officially made public, Valve seems to be getting more comfortable with reveals. The company has given permission to an indie studio to show a behind-the-scenes look at F-Stop, the Portal prequel that never saw the light of day.

F-Stop was a nonviolent puzzle game with DNA similar to Portal. The entire game–led by a Valve producer named Joshua Weier who worked on Portal and Portal 2–was centered around the “Aperture Camera,” an item that could copy, paste, and rescale items in the game’s world. Unfortunately, as revealed in a 2011 interactive book titled The Final Hours of Portal 2, Valve put an indefinite hold on the project after workshopping it for a while.

LunchHouse Software, an indie studio currently working on its own physics-based puzzler titled Punt, is only now, almost a decade later, giving us a look inside what Valve had been planning. With Valve’s permission and access to the F-Stop’s official source code, Lunch House has peeled back F-Stop’s curtain through a brand-new docuseries called Exposure. The first episode, while short, can be seen below. LunchHouse said more episodes are to come.

The studio said Exposure, which will document F-Stop’s various mechanics as Valve developed via the original source code, is “not based on speculation or hearsay.” The first episode only shows the “base mechanics” of F-Stop, but the team at LunchHouse is excited to “[share] more with you all in the near future.”

from GameSpot – Game News https://www.gamespot.com/articles/valves-canceled-portal-prequel-revealed/1100-6472483/

PS Plus 12-Month Membership For PS4 Is $45 At Amazon

If you own a PS4, PlayStation Plus is virtually a must. Sony’s subscription service grants PS4 owners access to online multiplayer and enables cloud saves. PS Plus members also get exclusive discounts and two free PS4 games each month. Normally $60, Amazon has 12-month PS Plus subscriptions discounted to $45 right now.

We saw similar prices throughout the holidays. Occasionally PS Plus dips to $40 (or even a tad below), but it’s pretty rare. If you purchase a 12-month subscription through Amazon, your code will appear in your digital locker within minutes.

Sony recently announced January’s free games for PS Plus subscribers: Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection and Goat Simulator. The Nathan Drake Collection contains remastered versions of the first three Uncharted games, which originally released on PS3. Goat Simulator, on the other hand, is a zany sandbox game that lets you wreak havoc as a goat. Both games will be available starting January 6. Until then, PS Plus subscribers can grab December’s free games: Titanfall 2 and Monster Energy Supercross.

from GameSpot – Game News https://www.gamespot.com/articles/ps-plus-12-month-membership-for-ps4-is-45-at-amazo/1100-6472484/

Where Is Xur? Destiny 2 Exotic Location, Weapon, And Armor (January 3-7)

We’ve finally arrived in 2020, and that makes this weekend’s visit by Destiny 2‘s weekend vendor, Xur, the first of the year. As usual, Xur brings a host of Exotics that can help you fill out your collection, as well as a handy Fated Engram to get you one item you don’t already have and that’s not in his inventory.

If you’re cramming activities to upgrade your Sundial obelisks or complete more baked treats for The Dawning, visiting Xur can be a great way to get yourself new items that can help. While you’re at it, be sure to check out our Dawning recipe guide to help you make all the treats you need to unlock the holiday event’s Exotic sparrow.

Xur Location

Xur is located on Io in the Giant’s Scar area this weekend. He’s offering Lord of Wolves as his Exotic weapon. For Hunters, Xur has ST0MP-EE5 leg armor; for Titans, it’s Dunemarchers leg armor; and for Warlocks, you can get Sanguine Alchemy chest armor.

To find Xur’s location, spawn in at the Giant’s Scar transmat zone, then ride your sparrow north through the archway. Head to the left side of the area and look for a cave set into the wall. Xur hangs out inside.

What Is Xur Selling?

The inventory Xur brings to the solar system this weekend isn’t too impressive, although he does sport one Year Two item in Lord of Wolves. If you don’t have it, the shotgun is still a powerful tool in the Crucible, although the period in which it was nearly unstoppable and used by everyone has long passed, thanks to a patch from Bungie. For Hunters, the ST0MP-EE5 boots are also a must-have for some tougher platforming activities, so take the opportunity to snag these if they’re not already in your collection.

If Xur’s wares aren’t compelling, you can always roll the dice on the expensive Fated Engram he brings with him. This gives you a single Exotic from the limited pool of ones you haven’t already earned, for the price of 97 Legendary shards. If there’s something you’re missing from your collection and you want it sooner rather than later, it can be a good deal–starting with the Season of Dawn, all Exotic Engrams are Fated Engrams, but you’ll have to level up your Season Pass or wait for a random drop to get some. Be sure to purchase it on the character who’s missing the Exotic, and note that you can only get one per week, so choose wisely which of your characters makes the buy. If you’re a PC or Xbox One player taking advantage of cross-save, you can now potentially get Wavesplitter from the Fated Engram as well.

Xur Item Lineup (January 3-6)

  • Lord of Wolves (Exotic shotgun)
  • ST0MP-EE5 (Exotic Hunter leg armor)
  • Dunemarchers (Exotic Titan leg armor)
  • Sanguine Alchemy (Exotic Warlock chest armor)

Lord of Wolves

Not too long ago, Lord of Wolves dominated the Crucible, but Bungie has since adjusted the gun to make it less dominant in PvP activities. It’s still a very handy weapon, however, thanks to its two firing modes. The standard firing rate is similar to most shotguns, while holding the reload button switches to Release the Wolves mode, which fires a longer, more powerful shotgun burst of several shots. Think of it like a shotgun that shoots like a fusion rifle–which makes it pretty devastating.

ST0MP-EE5 (Hunter)

Though they’re among the oldest Exotic armor in Destiny 2, for Hunters, the ST0MP-EE5 boots are a must. They increase your sprint speed, slide distance, and jump height, which makes them phenomenal for tough platforming areas featured in The Whisper or the Pit of Heresy. Those mobility bonuses can also make them great in PvP situations, too. Put these boots in your rotation if you haven’t already.

Stats:

  • Mobility: 18
  • Resilience: 6
  • Recovery: 2
  • Discipline: 10
  • Intellect: 6
  • Strength: 6
  • Total: 48

Dunemarchers (Titan)

It’s not just Hunters who can enjoy an Exotic that makes them quicker; Titans also get a boost to their mobility with Dunemarchers. These boots increase your sprint speed, but with a violent bonus–sprinting builds up a static charge that you can release on enemies when you melee them. Punching an enemy with a charge built up will chain lightning to their nearby allies.

Stats:

  • Mobility: 13
  • Resilience: 7
  • Recovery: 6
  • Discipline: 6
  • Intellect: 6
  • Strength: 12
  • Total: 50

Sanguine Alchemy (Warlock)

There are several Exotics that boots Warlock Rifts, depending on the effects you need for a given situation. Sanguine Alchemy gives you and your teammates “heightened senses” when you stand in Rifts. That effect maintains your radar even when you’re aiming down sights and marks powerful enemies, allowing you to see them even when they’re out of your direct line of sight.

Stats:

  • Mobility: 12
  • Resilience: 7
  • Recovery: 8
  • Discipline: 6
  • Intellect: 12
  • Strength: 6
  • Total: 51

from GameSpot – Game News https://www.gamespot.com/articles/where-is-xur-destiny-2-exotic-location-weapon-and-/1100-6472481/

Xbox Game Pass For Console Adds Grand Theft Auto 5

Xbox Game Pass has kicked off the new year with a bang. The company announced today that it has added Grand Theft Auto V to the Xbox One edition of the service, letting you play the full campaign or jump into Grand Theft Auto Online if you have a Gold subscription.

GTA 5 received a positive critical reception including a 9/10 from GameSpot when it launched on PS3 and Xbox 360 in 2013, but its ports to current-generation platforms and ongoing support for GTA Online have kept it going strong for years. The latest update, released in December, added the Diamond Casino Heist. The sprawling multiplayer mission lets you plan a big score with various approaches. Unexpected problems appear on the fly, to boost replayability.

If you enjoy your time in Los Santos enough to buy some DLC, the Game Pass membership entitles you to 10% discounts on the Criminal Enterprise Starter Pack or Shark Cash Cards. You can also save 20% on the base game to add it to your permanent collection. And if you don’t have Game Pass yet, you can buy your first three months of a Game Pass Ultimate subscription for $1 through January 6.

Including GTA 5 in Game Pass is a surprise, especially given that the game is still consistently a top-seller after so many years. It even made the NPD list of top-sellers in October and November, in the midst of a busy shopping season filled with new game releases.

The Game Pass service recently added some other notable games like The Witcher 3 and Pillars of Eternity. If you need more recommendations for games to try on the service, check out our top Xbox Game Pass picks.

from GameSpot – Game News https://www.gamespot.com/articles/xbox-game-pass-for-console-adds-grand-theft-auto-5/1100-6472478/

When Is More PS5 Info Coming? A Look Back At PS4’s Reveal Event

Sony has announced the PlayStation 5 is coming this holiday season, which leaves less than 12 months for the company to announce all the details in preparation for launch. If Sony follows the roadmap set by the PS4, the PS5‘s big debut could be extremely close.

PS4 Reveal’s Event Date, Time, And Location

In January 2013, Sony invited media to attend a special “PlayStation Meeting” to take place on February 20 at 6 PM PT in New York City. The showcase took place at the PlayStation Theater near Times Square, and sure enough, it was at that event that the company outlined the PlayStation 4 launch plans.

This event was the first we’d heard of the PS4’s tech specs, with a detailed breakdown from hardware architect Mark Cerny. The event also showed the DualShock 4 controller with Share functionality, a PlayStation smartphone app, and promised games would be playable while downloading. It also gave a launch window of holiday 2013.

If Sony follows this timeline, which would allow maximum time for its retail partners to prepare for the holiday season, we can expect a similar rollout of information. The debut would take place in the first quarter, possibly as early as February. The 2013 event was scheduled for the evening, giving US fans who wanted to watch live from home the opportunity to do so after work. That time would be all the more important now, as publishers have increasingly messaged directly to fans.

As for the venue, the PlayStation Theater closed its doors as of December 31, 2019. That means the company couldn’t host the event there, for obvious reasons. But Sony could use another theater, or continue using its own property with the concert venue Sony Hall in New York.

E3 No-Show?

Alternatively, Sony could hold its announcements for the second quarter, near or even overlapping with E3. The annual ESA event is usually a showcase for new hardware, and will likely be the first public hands-on with Sony’s primary competitor, the Xbox Series X. Sony may skip the event altogether, as it did in 2019. It hasn’t given any public indication that it plans to come back this year.

Ceding the E3 ground to Microsoft would allow the industry’s biggest event to focus almost entirely on Sony’s chief competition. Sony may not be keen on giving Microsoft such a gift, so it could counter-program with its own event even if it doesn’t attend the show. That could be the reveal of the PlayStation 5, or it could be a public showing that builds upon the momentum from an earlier reveal event.

What We Know So Far

Whenever Sony chooses to lift the curtains, it will add much more to the limited details we have so far. Sony has begun talking about the PlayStation 5, but very rarely and in a tight-lipped manner. In fact, the company only confirmed late in 2019 that the system would be called the PlayStation 5 at all.

So far we know that the PS5 will be backwards compatible with PS4 games, and your older games will run faster thanks to the new system’s solid-state drive. A leaked comparison video showed the load times on PS5 as compared to a PS4 Pro.

We also know the system will use an AMD CPU based on a third-gen Ryzen. It will have eight cores of the Zen 2 microchip. The graphics chip will be a custom version of the Radeon Navi. All that hardware power is said to support 8K resolution, and ray-tracing for both graphical and audio effects. Sony has also confirmed it will include a Blu-ray disc drive, which can play 4K Blu-rays. Finally, it will be compatible with PSVR in some capacity, and Sony issued a statement promising increased energy efficiency as part of a UN initiative.

The PS5 controller will replace the rumble tech from the last several PlayStation controllers with new haptic feedback. It will also include adaptive triggers on L2 and R2, which allows developers to adjust the resistance. Sony says that these two features working in conjunction with each other creates a unique simulation experience. A new UI will allow you to view more details about friends’ games without opening the applications.

What We Don’t Know Yet

That leaves plenty for Sony to reveal, whenever the company decides to do so. We haven’t been given solid information on the price, release date, or launch lineup. We have no information on what the hardware–the console or controllers themselves–will actually look like. And the company’s commitment to more nebulous ideas like PSVR aside, we don’t know exactly what that means.

Most significantly, we haven’t seen any of these hardware or UI features in action. Hearing about features like ray-tracing is one thing; seeing the difference it can make to an environment in a real game is another one entirely. Seeing the PS5 load Spider-Man much faster than usual was nice, but a new console launch demands some graphical “wow” moments. Sony is sure to provide those with a look at next-generation software running on the PlayStation 5.

from GameSpot – Game News https://www.gamespot.com/articles/when-is-more-ps5-info-coming-a-look-back-at-ps4s-r/1100-6472466/

Respawn Boss To Lead EA DICE LA Studio

Vince Zampella, co-founder of Apex Legends and Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order developer Respawn Entertainment, will head up EA DICE’s LA-based studio, the Los Angeles Times reports. Under Zampella’s leadership, EA plans to expand the outfit and have it release an “original” game.

Up until now, the LA-based DICE studio has primarily been responsible for providing support for DICE Stockholm, developer of the Battlefield franchise. According to the LA Times profile, the office will remain separate from both Respawn and DICE Stockholm under Zampella’s leadership, but will “probably” be rebranded to establish its own identity.

“We will probably rebrand,” Zampella says. “We want to give it a new image. We want people to say, ‘This is a destination you can go and make new content.’ I think they’ve kind of gotten the branding that they are the support studio for DICE Stockholm. I think rebranding is important for showing people, ‘Hey! Come work here. We’re going to do some amazing things.'”

While he leads the LA DICE office, Zampella says he will remain on as head of Respawn. Meanwhile, Jedi Fallen Order director Stig Asmussen will lead Respawn’s narrative-driven branch, Chad Grenier will oversee Apex Legends, and Peter Hirschmann will helm a VR Medal of Honor game for Oculus Rift called Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond. Zampella teases “there might be more” projects underway at the studio as well.

Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond is slated to release in 2020. The game is set in World War II and has players assume the role of an OSS agent who’s charged with subverting and fighting back against Nazis. In addition to a multiplayer mode, the game will feature a single-player campaign that is estimated to last 10-12 hours, along with mini documentaries produced in cooperation with World War II veterans.

from GameSpot – Game News https://www.gamespot.com/articles/respawn-boss-to-lead-ea-dice-la-studio/1100-6472474/