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When I think of the first Dead Space, I picture voiceless engineer Isaac Clarke creeping through the corridors of the mining ship Ishimura, accompanied only by the groans of iron joints and the roars of reanimated corpses. His face is always obscured by the three glowing green bars on his helmet—like Sam Fisher if he were a BioShock character—and his only human company comes from warnings finger-painted onto the walls in blood.
My memory is such garbage.
I recently played the first few chapters of the upcoming Dead Space remake at one of EA's offices, and as Isaac arrived at the Ishimura, helmet off, standing among the chatty crew of an emergency repair ship, I wondered why Motive Studio would so brazenly defy the lonely mood of the original. My first hint that I was the one who was wrong came while talking to another player about the gross eyeball scene we'd both been bracing for. He realized before me that the scene we were thinking of happened in Dead Space 2, not Dead Space.
I was at least correct in remembering that Isaac doesn't speak in the original Dead Space (he does here, in moderation), but the impression of solitude it left on me wasn't accurate at all. Isaac's got a girlfriend for crying out loud, and in the original and the remake, a pair of crewmates and others bug him with video calls throughout the ordeal on the Ishimura. Even the dead talk to him, because before their corpses became puppets for alien DNA, they recorded their day-to-day concerns in audio logs that they carelessly left scattered throughout the ship's facilities. I'd forgotten how big of a buzzword "environmental storytelling" was back in 2008. BioShock and Fallout 3 were full of audio diaries and Pompeii-style corpse poses, too.
Vertical slice
So it turns out that the Dead Space remake is pretty faithful to the game I played in 2008. As engineer Isaac Clarke—controlled from a close third-person-perspective—you carve up the alien undead as you move through the Ishimura fixing its busted systems. The alien carving is most memorably done with the plasma cutter, a tool which shoots vertical or horizontal lines that sever the fang-like limbs of the "necromorphs." In the late 2000s, limb-severing technology was still pretty hot. A few years earlier, we'd been achieving similar results flinging sawblades around with the Gravity Gun in Half-Life 2's Ravenholm, a level which was far too short for how fun it was. Dead Space was more or less the answer to the question, "Why not make the whole game out of Ravenholm?" It smartly made the normal guns backup weapons, and the main gun the cool, unconventional one that slices off limbs.
The plasma cutter is as much fun in the remake as it was in the original. The only big difference is that the rotten skin of the necromorphs is no longer a blurry mess of pus and blood-colored pixels. It's shiny, and it peels away to reveal pink muscle.
Graphics are the one area where my false memory aligns with the new Dead Space: It looks like how I remember Dead Space looking 14 years ago, even though the original couldn't have looked nearly this complex, gross, or realistically lit. I love that Isaac's big stomps—used to squish necromorph corpses, causing ammo or money to pop out—are still animated in the chunky, not-quite-natural way popular at the height of the Gears of War era.
Something else that had gone fuzzy in my memories were Isaac's techo-magical powers; Dead Space had more parallels with BioShock than I recalled. The telekinesis ability is most fun to use for chucking spear-shaped debris at the necromorphs, pinning them to walls like the nailgun in FEAR. I'm less delighted by its role in moving boxes, sticking big batteries in big battery slots, and reconnecting gears. There's also a stasis ability used for sticking objects together and slipping through malfunctioning doors. It's more artificial-feeling than I remember, with glowing magnet stickers telling you when it'd be a good idea to try manipulating them. But that's how it was in the original, too.
What's new
The remake appears to leave the important physics puzzles roughly as-is, but adds one interesting elaboration. Some rooms contain fuse boxes that allow you to power up systems so long as you're willing to power another system down. You could turn an elevator on at the expense of turning the lights off, for example—the idea that you have to make things scarier for yourself to progress is cute. I'm told that later in the game you'll have to depressurize areas of the Ishimura, or turn off gravity, which could have fun consequences if done cleverly.
In the zero-G sections of the original Dead Space, you were stuck to the ship with magnet boots, and could only leap from surface to surface. In the remake, you can fly around like you can in the sequels, and it's fun to track leaping necromorphs as they zoom through space.
You can also explore this version of the Ishimura from front-to-back without loading; it's all "one shot," the developers say. And unlike the original, you won't be entirely safe when you return to areas you've already explored. Throughout the remake, an "intensity AI" will mix surprise necromorph attacks in with the pre-scripted ones, and otherwise try to spook you by messing with the lights and sounds. A room that was well-lit in one playthrough might be dark on a second, for instance.
It's not like Left 4 Dead, where zombies emerge from doorways like bees from a hive—I never went, "Ah, the AI is at work here"—so it seems like a subtle addition. The same goes for the decision to put Isaac's voice actor, Gunner Wright, back to work. Isaac was voiced by Wright in Dead Space 2 and 3, so it's not like the spirit of the series as a whole has been violated, and Motive keeps the Isaac dialogue simple. Dead Space wouldn't benefit from Isaac muttering stuff like "need some juice for my plasma cutter" as he clomped around, so I was relieved to find out that he only speaks in response to someone speaking to him.
Staying in character
It would've been easy for Motive to justify making Isaac deliver hints by talking to himself, since Dead Space is famous for its commitment to keeping the fourth wall intact. It's one of the few games where you don't need a console command to take a HUDless screenshot, because there is no HUD. Excluding subtitles, no information at all is displayed without an in-game context. Isaac's health is indicated by glowing bars running up the spine of his suit, for example, and guns have holographic sights which display their remaining ammo.
Now is not the time, security clearance notification. (Image credit: EA)
That in-world UI is still cool today, but it caused problems in 2008 and causes the same ones now. It's annoying when a floating notification distracts me during a fight, and the mouse and keyboard controls are kind of bad. Since all the menus appear in the world as holographic projections, you don't lose control over Isaac's body when you open them, so WASD and the mouse aren't freed-up for navigation. Instead, you have to find other keys to use to flip between menu tabs or inventory items. By default, it's the arrow keys. If, like me, you can't stand that, you'll have to come up with some weird keybinding scheme of your own, or just accept that Dead Space was designed for controllers.
ABOVE: Oops.
Other problems with the original Dead Space on PC, however, don't appear to be replicated. I replayed a bit of the original after trying the remake, and the mouse acceleration is more horrifying than any necromorph. Also, the first corpse I encountered turned into a ball of infinite energy and flew around the room smacking its limbs all over the walls. I sort of miss that classic ragdoll bug, but it's not very eerie. The unfinished remake build I played had some bugs of its own—framerate dives, a certain action that turned me into a noclip ghost (they told me not to do it, so of course I did it)—but EA said those issues were accounted for, and wouldn't make it to the final release.
If that is the case, the new Dead Space will be a lot like the old one, except with modern graphics, fewer mid-2000s bugs, and a far more detailed Ishimura. There are some new puzzles and some surprise scares from the "intensity AI," but nothing that drastically alters the original sequence of events. I struggle to think of a better way to remake a recent classic like Dead Space, but I do wonder if $60 will be a hard sell for a rebuilt 2008 horror game (in this economy?). The Resident Evil 2 remake seemed to be popular, though, so maybe the time is right to bring back landmarks in the survival horror genre.
The Dead Space remake will release on Steam on January 27, 2023. The original game is still available for $20, and has had its name changed to Dead Space (2008).
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It's been quite a month since our last issue. We've got beloved 4X games returning after over a decade away, new (yet old) directions for Ubisoft's flagship franchise, and to round it all off, what may be the biggest ever leak of pre-release game info in the history of the medium? If things keep up like this, we're gonna need a bigger mag.
This month, we're exploring the sprawling universe of Sins of a Solar Empire 2. A mix of real-time strategy with 4X empire building, it's an ambitious sequel that simulates everything from planetary orbits to the individual guns on your warships. We've gone behind the scenes to find out more, chatting to the developers about interstellar piracy, galactic trade lanes, and spaceship battle tactics. And to keep you in the strategy mood, we've also run down our favourite 4X games to play right now.
But a galaxy isn't enough for us: we've checked out plenty besides Sins in this issue. In previews, we've got all the latest details about Assassin's Creed Mirage, a stealthy sequel that goes back to the series' roots; Broken Roads, a post-apocalyptic RPG that could rival Disco Elysium; The Great War: Western Front, a brutal RTS ready to breathe new life into the genre; and much more.
(Image credit: Future)And, of course, we've gotten our first look at Grand Theft Auto 6, thanks to what might be the biggest leak in games history. Rockstar's been hacked, and we've got the full breakdown of what happened—and we've gone deep into what the footage can tell us about the game's setting, main characters, and mechanics.
Over in our expert hardware section, we're investigating all the things you could be doing with your PC's power besides gaming—you might already have the horsepower you need to become a full-fledged video or music editor. Plus, we've been testing six of the best wireless earbuds around, to find out the best audio quality and noise-cancelling you can get that's still portable and convenient.
Issue 376 is on shelves now and available on all your digital devices from the App Store and Zinio. You can also order directly from Magazines Direct or purchase a subscription to save yourself some cash, receive monthly deliveries, and get incredibly stylish subscriber-only covers.
This month:
- Exploring the edges of the known universe—and beyond—in Sins of a Solar Empire 2.
- Ubisoft gets back to basics in Assassin's Creed Mirage.
- Might there be a competitor for Disco Elysium's narrative RPG crown in Broken Roads?
- What does the history-making GTA 6 leak tell us about Rockstar's next game?
- What else can you do with all your PC's power?
- A whole lot more besides!
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Sins of a Solar Empire 2 developer Ironclad Games and publisher Stardock Entertainment have confirmed that the 4X RTS will launch in early access via the Epic Games Store on October 27. We already had a pretty good idea of the date, since Epic included it on the store page last month, but now we know what it will actually contain.
Good news: You'll be able to muck around with all of the "core systems", letting you see how the celestial mechanics, diplomacy, warfare and all that good stuff works, Ironclad co-founder Blair Fraser told me.
"If you remove a single piece of it, other parts just don't work," he says. "So we've got to put it all in, but just restrict the content, enough so that the systems operate but not to give away everything."
One of the big changes that you'll be able to see in action is the dynamism of the galaxy. It's always in motion, with planets orbiting stars and moons orbiting planets. This means you really need to keep an eye on celestial mechanics when planning long trips. If you're in a rush to get your fleet to a planet that's about to be attacked and another planet intersects with your route, you're going to be waylaid.
Along with the celestial mechanics, you'll be able to see how the ship combat system has evolved. The headline attraction here is turrets. These turrets are all individually simulated, spinning around and trying to find targets. Each missile is also a simulated projectile that your turrets will need to shoot down—thankfully that's handled automatically. Positioning is incredibly important, then, and you'll be able to use your beefier ships like a wall, protecting the glass cannon artillery at the back.
(Image credit: Stardock)You can read more about these things in our exclusive Sins 2 preview from last month. In a follow-up chat, Fraser went into more detail about diplomacy and the other ways you can interact with the galaxy beyond blowing stuff up, calling these features "one of the most important and largest changes to Sins". You can do a lot to both work with and undermine your rivals, and expand your influence without being overtly aggressive.
If a rival has claimed a planet you had your heart set on, for instance, you might try to make a deal, exchanging it for resources that they need. They can then make a counter-offer, throwing more demands into the mix. If they give you the world, you don't want them stealing it a few minutes later, so maybe you make a temporary treaty. Ceasefires now have a set time where you can't break them, but after everyone's free to be jerk again.
You can also develop relationships with neutral factions, opening up new avenues for trade. If you see a rival doing the same, you can compete with them, setting up your own deals or outbidding them in auctions where you can win resources, bonuses or, in the case of pirate factions, pirate raid abilities that you can save up and deploy at will.
The bounty system has also been expanded. You can now place bounties on specific planets, and every AI and human player will be notified, though they won't know you're the source of the bounty. This allows you to quietly set up a killing blow while you're pretending to be your rival's friend, and when you're no longer locked into the treaty, you can start using pirate raids and bounties to make your conquest of their worlds even easier, as well as attacking their trade lanes to break their economy.
"So it's not just diplomacy," said Fraser. "It's how can I screw these other people over in ways that are more indirect and with less pew pew involved. These are the kinds of things that I've always found more interesting."
Exotic resources will also inspire more conflict. They're finite and necessary for things like special research projects, titan production and the construction of starbases. You can find them in derelicts and on planets, typically closer to stars, making these locations major flashpoints where there's a lot of competition. What's handy is you can tell your scouts to look for specific resources, along with neutral factions and whatever else you're keen to discover.
It's worth noting that the trading system is unique to the TEC faction, since mercantile ventures are what they're all about. You'll only be able to play as the TEC when the early access version launches, but if you miss the Advent and Vasari, don't worry, you'll still be able to play as them eventually. You'll also need to wait until next year for multiplayer shenanigans, since this build is going to focus on singleplayer.
The original game launched nearly 15 years ago, and while it received expansions and DLC right up until a few years ago, I've been eager for a sequel for a long time. The proof will be in the pudding, but from what Ironclad and Stardock have revealed so far, there are plenty of reasons to be excited for the early access launch later this month.
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Nvidia no longer blocks ethereum (ETH) mining on its graphics card, roughly one month after the second-most valuable cryptocurrency moved away from GPU mining altogether.
Nvidia's Lite Hash Rate (LHR) cryptocurrency limiter was released alongside the RTX 3060 as a way of dissuading cryptocurrency miners from buying up all the available stock of the graphics card at launch. It would also roll out to other GeForce GPUs manufactured after that time. LHR was released as a supposedly untouchable implementation across hardware and software, which would detect an ethereum mining workload and slow the graphics card down to lower its profitability. However, following a shaky start, LHR would eventually become mostly, if not entirely, circumventable.
Some miners even called LHR "pointless."
Following ethereum's shift from a proof-of-work algorithm, one which required GPU mining to validate the blockchain; to a proof-of-stake algorithm, which uses consensus of validators instead, LHR has become even more pointless. The Merge, as the move is known as, took place on September 15, 2022, and reportedly no other cryptocurrencies are proving profitable enough for GPU miners to jump ship.
Ethereum mining is dead and Nvidia's LHR no longer has any purpose.
That might be why, according to recent reports from Reddit, via Twitter leaker I_Leak_VM and Videocardz, Nvidia has removed the LHR limiter from its cards completely. Many people are replying to social threads confirming an increase in hash rate on LHR GPUs with the new drivers, up to their non-LHR hash rate, and we've also tested the new drivers out on our test bench.
We used nanominer, with an RTX 3080 Ti, mining ethereum classic (ETC). That cryptocurrency is a continuation of an older version of ethereum from 2016. It uses a near-identical proof-of-work algorithm to ethereum's ETHash and has been similarly affected by the LHR limiter. In our test, the RTX 3080 Ti's hash rate increased from 75MH/s to over 103MH/s between the old 516.41 driver and new 522.25 driver.
For the record, not even the higher hash rate is anywhere close to profitable right now, especially not with the increased costs of energy today.
Here's a screenshot of the mining software on Nvidia's older drivers. (Image credit: Future)I'm seeing some comments suggesting that Nvidia removed the LHR limiter to sell off old stock of RTX 30-series cards to miners, but that makes little to no sense. It has been increasingly difficult to make a profit from cryptocurrency mining for a large part of the year, even prior to the Merge, due to a wider cryptocurrency value write-off. Graphics cards were already less in demand as a result—there are simply fewer miners left to appeal to.
Your next upgrade(Image credit: Future)Best CPU for gaming: The top chips from Intel and AMD
Best gaming motherboard: The right boards
Best graphics card: Your perfect pixel-pusher awaits
Best SSD for gaming: Get into the game ahead of the restSimilarly, LHR was intended to prevent ethereum mining, which no longer exists, and while it did impact the hash rate for mining on some similar coins, such as ethereum classic, other alternatives were mineable at full pace. Miners were also circumventing LHR by mining ethereum and another crypto at the same time, to extract a card's full mining performance. And let's not forget the miners that simply got around LHR altogether, like NiceHash.
The removal of LHR will mean that ethereum classic will now be easy to mine. However, its hash rate has never amounted to anything close to ethereum's, nor its value.
One ETH is worth $1,328.40 at time of writing. One ETC is worth $24.34. And you'd need some 600MH/s at the same 300W level to get close to breaking even with today's energy prices.
Nvidia's LHR is practically pointless today, and has been for a while now, so it's not at all surprising to see the company ditch this surplus code altogether.
And anyways, the removal of LHR from the latest Nvidia driver package is a sideshow to the real improvement that driver package offers for gamers: big performance increases for some DX12 games.
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A while ago I spotted someone working on real time AI image generation in VR and I had to bring it to your attention because frankly, I cannot express how majestic it is to watch AI-modulated AR shifting the world before us into glorious, emergent dreamscapes.
Applying AI to augmented or virtual reality isn't a novel concept, but there have been certain limitations in applying it—computing power being one of the major barriers to its practical usage. Stable Diffusion image generation software, however, is a boiled-down algorithm for use on consumer-level hardware and has been released on a Creative ML OpenRAIL-M licence. That means not only can developers use the tech to create and launch programs without renting huge amounts of server silicon, but they're also free to profit from their creations.
I was awoken in the middle of the night to conceptualize this project
Scotty Fox - Stable Diffusion VR devScottieFoxTTV is one creator who's been showing off their work with the algorithm in VR on twitter. "I was awoken in the middle of the night to conceptualize this project," he says. As a creator myself, I understand that the Muses enjoy striking at ungodly hours.
What they brought to him was an amalgamation of Stable Diffusion VR and TouchDesigner app-building engine, the results of which he refers to as "Real-time immersive latent space." That might sound like some hippie nonsense to some, but latent space is a concept fascinating the world right about now.
At a base level, it's a phrase that in this context describes the swelling potential that artificial intelligence brings to augmented reality as it pulls ideas together from the vastness of the unknown. While it's an interesting concept, it's one for a feature at a later date. Right now I'm interested in how Stable Diffusion VR manages to work so well in real time without turning any consumer GPU (even the recent RTX 4090) into a smouldering puddle.
Stable Diffusion VR Real-time immersive latent space.
Small clips are sent from the engine to be diffused. Once ready, they're queued back into the projection.Tools used:https://t.co/UrbdGfvdRd https://t.co/DnWVFZdppT#aiart #vr #stablediffusionart #touchdesigner #deforum pic.twitter.com/x3QwQDkapTOctober 11, 2022See more"Diffusing small pieces into the environment saves on resources," Scotty explains. "Small clips are sent from the engine to be diffused. Once ready, they're queued back into the projection." The blue boxes in the images here show the parts of the image being worked on by the algorithm at any one time. It's a much more efficient way to have it working in real time.
Anyone who's used an online image generation tool will understand that a single image can take up to a minute to create, but even if it does take a little while to work on each individual section, the results still feel like they're happening immediately as you're not focusing waiting for a single image to finish diffusing. And although not at the level of photorealism as they may one day be, the videos Scotty's been posting are utterly breathtaking.
Your next upgrade(Image credit: Future)Best CPU for gaming: The top chips from Intel and AMD
Best gaming motherboard: The right boards
Best graphics card: Your perfect pixel-pusher awaits
Best SSD for gaming: Get into the game ahead of the restFlying fish in the living room, ever-shifting interior design ideas, lush forests and nightscapes evolving before your eyes. With AI able to make projections onto our physical world in real time, there is so much potential for use in the gaming space.
Midjourney CEO David Holz describes the potential for games to one day be "dreams" and it certainly feels like we're moving hastily in that direction. Though, the important next step is navigating the minefield that is the copyright and data protection issues arising around the datasets that algorithms like Stable Diffusion trained on.
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SEGA has released a new trailer for Sonic Frontiers, detailing how combat and progression will work in the blue hedgehog's upcoming adventure. Functionally titled "Combat & Upgrades", it runs through the various abilities Sonic will start out with, and how those abilities will expand and improve over the course of the game. It also proudly announces that Sonic's debut open world game will have a skill tree, which is a bit like someone excitedly telling you that their chair has four legs and a backrest.
According to the trailer, Sonic begins the game with a basic moveset that includes a stomp attack, his familiar drop-dash spin attack, and the "homing" attack which has been controversial more or less since Sonic made the transition into 3D. But these abilities are only good for dealing with basic opponents. Against tougher enemies, you'll need to deploy special "combo" moves like Phantom Rush, where Sonic pummels his opponent in such rapid succession it's as if there's several of him attacking at once. Also available is "Wild Rush", a drunken-boxing version of Drop Dash that lets Sonic attack and avoid being hit at the same time, and "Cyloop" which Sonic can use to break enemy shields by literally running rings around them. Oh, and Sonic has a parry move as well, because every game has to be Dark Souls now.
As for how you'll access these later game powers, defeated enemies drop items named "skill pieces". Collecting these will enable you to unlock new abilities on the skill tree. Skill pieces can also be found in breakable containers hidden around the game world encouraging you to explore the game's nooks and crannies.
It all sounds very Sonic Frontiers, which is to say, bowing to popular convention in a way that seems at odds with the series' core identity. Mollie felt similarly when she took the game for a spin earlier this month, stating "Sonic Frontiers is the perfect example of how not every game needs to make grand, open world formats work."
Of course, it could still prove to be brilliant, and it would be nice for Sonic to finally have his Mario moment, unlikely as it may seem. We don't have to wait long to find out either way, as the game launches on November 8.
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Need to know
What is it? A shopkeeping simulator. Also a life sim, dating sim, and deckbuilding card game, all at once.
Expect to pay TBA
Release date October 17, 2022
Developer Voracious Games
Publisher XSEED Games
Reviewed on Intel Core i7-10750H, 16GB RAM, GeForce RTX 2060
Multiplayer? No
Link Official siteThere's obviously something in the water—eye of newt, probably. Potionomics is the latest game to have you flinging leaf and sinew into a cauldron, though I dare say it would be a compelling game without that. It's a game of multiple genres, but at its heart it's a shopkeeping sim, where you manage a potion store in a cosy fantasy setting. You get the ingredients, brew the stock, and haggle with customers. Then you go to bed and do it again, day after day.
All with the aim, not of amassing a fortune, but of paying off a ridiculous debt, which is foisted on you the moment you inherit your uncle's shop. It's more than you could make ordinarily, which is why it's extremely handy there's a potion competition coming up, and with a grand prize that could potentially wipe your slate clean.
(Image credit: XSEED Games)The competition imposes a rigorous structure, and a ticking clock to your turn-based shop management, with brew-offs against your rival occurring every ten in-game days. Picking your options from a menu (everything is menu-based in Potionomics), your days are broken up into discrete blocks of time. Will you open the shop first thing in the morning, spending two time units to flog your wares and earn some much-needed cash? But perhaps you should set some potions brewing in your cauldrons first. Potions take time to brew, so while you wait you could pop out to buy ingredients, flirt with the vendor NPCs, or task a hero with raiding the wilderness for rare supplies. Before you know it the day is over, and you've forgotten to actually open up the shop.
It's easy to spend time outside your store, as the other vendors are memorable characters, brought vividly to life with expressively animated talking heads and funny, if comfortably tropey dialogue. You can date them, and here it feels a lot like a Persona game, as you allocate blocks of time to building bonds, eventually unlocking cards for the deckbuilding minigame. It's not necessarily a criticism, but you should know there's no voice acting. Perhaps I just expected it because of the high-quality 3D animation, but sometimes it felt like I was playing the game on mute.
You can't spend all your time flirting, however—there's a competition to be won. You need to submit three high-powered potions at every stage of the contest, and you'll have to do a lot of planning to be able to brew them. Better potions need better ingredients, which you can either acquire randomly from heroes or buy outright from the head of the heroes' guild, although there are definite pros and cons to each. Heroic quests take time, gold and potions to yield worthwhile results, while investing in the guild risks disrupting the ecology of the monstrous wildernesses around you.
(Image credit: XSEED Games)Ingredients in hand, you then have to chuck them into a cauldron, and here this turns into a game of carefully managing numbers. You'll barely look at ingredients by name, but by their magimin makeup—magimins being the magical essences that have infused every plant and creature on the island. To make a health potion, for example, you need a roughly equal number of red and green magimins. The easiest, and cheapest, way to achieve this would be to hurl a Feyberry (containing six red magimins) and a Mandrake Root (six green magimins) into your bubbling pot.
Potionomics feels extremely cohesive, with every element interacting with every other.
These Minor Potions will only get you so far, however. To make more money from customers—and stand a hope of winning the competition—you need to utilise those rarer ingredients. So you advance to the next tier of health potions, by combining a Fairy Flower Bud, two Desert Metals and a Golemite. Now you have some Common Health Potions: more useful to heroes and with a higher market value.
Things quickly get complex when you begin to brew potions requiring three or more different magimins, as it can be tricky to get the numbers in the right proportions. There is some leeway, but only a little bit. I spent a lot of time in the brewing menu, chucking in and removing ingredients, and ultimately found it exhausting.
(Image credit: XSEED Games)I found solace in the haggling minigame—or perhaps 'minigame' is underselling it, as haggling could easily be a separate game. Here Potionomics turns into Slay the Spire, as you 'battle' customers with cards, so they will (hopefully) pay over the asking price for your merchandise.
It's a unique spin on the formula, with different aims other than to win the battle—a sale is pretty much guaranteed, you just want to fleece the customer as thoroughly as possible. Instead of spending energy to play cards, you're exhausting the customer's patience level, which ticks down with every card played, and turn ended. It's possible to secure a worthwhile victory in a single turn, if you're dealt a good hand of cards—something that is not, entirely, down to luck.
Unlike a lot of deckbuilding games, you can freely add or remove cards from your deck ahead of battle, using cards earned by interacting with the friendly vendors. I enjoyed managing the deck, as the number of cards is not overwhelming, and they're helpfully categorised around each of the major NPCs.
(Image credit: XSEED Games)These haggle-battles are, by far, the most enjoyable element of Potionomics, being light, brisk, yet packed with charm and simplistic tactics. This latter element is expanded for the competition haggle-battles, which are essentially three-way boss battles between you, your rival, and the judge. Here, all your work—all your potion-brewing and haggling and bonding and inventory management—pays off in a glorious face-off that either validates, or punishes, your efforts leading up to the competition.
Despite being comprised of seemingly disparate parts, Potionomics feels extremely cohesive, with every element interacting with every other, and contributing to your greater goal of winning the competition. You might play richer life sims, or dating sims, or deckbuilders or shop management games, but you won't find another game that so adroitly smushes all of those genres together.
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Now that October is here, it's time to get spooky with the MultiVersus Halloween event. This update adds Stripe, the not-so-friendly gremlin who also happens to be Gizmo's nemesis, as well as several Halloween-themed items. The seasonal event is live now and runs until November 15, so you've got several weeks to get your hands on all the goodies.
Various Halloween skins have been added, though some of these will need premium currency to unlock. Luckily though, there are some items you can buy with Candy and I'll explain how you can earn that below. Here's how to unlock the MultiVersus Halloween skins and how to earn Candy.
MultiVersus Halloween skins and items
The Candy shop uses Candy for currency—as the name might suggest. Here are the Halloween skins and other items you can buy:
- Mummy Reindog: 3,000 Candy
- Calico Cake: 12,000 Candy
- Pumpkin Patch profile icon: 150 Candy
- Jack-O-Lantern emote sticker: 500 Candy
- 10 Gold: 500 Candy
You can also use the premium currency, Gleamium, to unlock additional Halloween skins, though you'll need to spend money to get these:
- Vampire Tom & Jerry: 800 Gleamium
- Frankenstein Iron Giant: 1,500 Gleamium
- Witch Velma: 1,500 Gleamium
- Black Lantern Superman: 2,000 Gleamium
- Black Lantern Wonder Woman: 2,000 Gleamium
How to get Candy in MultiVersus
You can earn Candy by simply playing MultiVersus during the Halloween event, though you can earn extra Candy if you play with Combat Stripe, Combat Gizmo, or any other Halloween skins. Here's the breakdown.
Singles & Free-For-All:
- Candy earned per win: 20 Candy
- Candy earned per loss: 10 Candy
- Candy earned per win (with Halloween skin): 40 Candy
- Candy earned per loss (with Halloween skin): 20 Candy
Teams (Solo & With Friends):
- Candy earned per win: 20 Candy
- Candy earned per win (one player with Halloween skin): 40 Candy
- Candy earned per win (both with Halloween skin): 60 Candy
- Candy earned per loss: 10 Candy
- Candy earned per loss (one player with Halloween skin): 20 Candy
- Candy earned per loss (both with Halloween skin): 40 Candy
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Gosh, but isn't Valve busy at the moment? Between the Steam Deck, VR stuff, and even overhauling Steam's long-neglected mobile app, you'd be forgiven for thinking the company had enough going on that it wouldn't feel the need to spin up new projects. And you'd be wrong, because a new trademark that Valve applied for on October 10 has unintentionally announced the existence of something called Neon Prime.
The application, which is still being processed by the US Patent and Trademark Office, identifies Neon Prime as pertaining to "Computer game software, electronic game software, video game software, computer game programs downloadable via the internet". My remarkable deductive powers tell me that this means it has something to do with videogames and videogame software, and the internet seems to agree: there are already rumours that Neon Prime could be a new game—or even series—from Valve.
But let's not get ahead of ourselves. As tempting as it is to make bold predictions about what Valve is up to, the number of things that could fall under the umbrella of "computer game software" is enormous. It could just be a new tool, some kind of anti-cheat, or a new software doodad for the Steam Deck. But look, you can believe it's Half-Life 3 if that's what makes you happy. I'm not gonna stop you.
It's also worth remembering that trademarks get filed all the time and then don't end up used. Even if it is an embryonic idea for a new game, whatever plans Valve has for Neon Prime might be years in the future, or might never see the light of day. It could even just be that Valve thinks Neon Prime is a really cool name and wants to pin it down before someone else does. The possibilities for being underwhelmed are endless.
Still, it's fun to speculate, right? And Valve has been incredibly active lately. Heck, we got our first Half-Life game in 13 years when Half-Life: Alyx released in 2020. It's not beyond the realms of possibility that we could see a new game from Valve in its currently energised state. Maybe a game made first and foremost for the Steam Deck? Hey, now that I think of it, 'Neon Prime' has the same number of characters as 'Half-Life 3'. Let the rumour mills spin.
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A new update from COD's Ricochet Anti-Cheat Team is trying to soothe players who are worried about Modern Warfare 2's SMS verification requirement. The post from Team Ricochet confirms that Modern Warfare 2 players on PC will need a "text-enabled mobile phone number" to verify their accounts and play the game, but it's very specific about that PC part: players on consoles won't have to verify themselves via SMS at all.
But even for us PC players, Team Ricochet says the requirement won't affect people who have already verified themselves for Call of Duty: Warzone. MW2's (and Warzone 2.0's) SMS verification system on Battle.net is the same one that's existed in Call of Duty: Warzone for the last two years, so legacy players won't have to re-verify for access. Unless you're going to play MW2 on Steam, that is, in which case you'll need a mobile number linked to your Steam account before you can play.
The update promises that your phone number will only be used for security reasons, and that the game "does not use SMS verification data for marketing purposes".
The measure is being implemented to combat the "illicit account market" and cheating. For a while there, cheaters were able to play Warzone without verifying themselves if they accessed it through 2019's Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, which led to the implementation of the SMS verification system in MW1 back in August this year. The team wants to avoid that happening again.
The whole post feels like an attempt to sidestep the furore that kicked off around Overwatch 2's SMS security system this month. Overwatch 2 was originally going to force both new and old players to verify themselves with a mobile number before getting such a deluge of complaints that the policy was eventually dropped for legacy players. The game also attracted criticism for requiring phone numbers from both console and PC players, which MW2 is pointedly not doing.
COD hasn't dropped everything that people didn't like about Overwatch 2's SMS security system, though. Prepaid phones are still a no-go, which upset plenty of Overwatch fans earlier this month.
We'll see how well COD pulls it off when Modern Warfare 2 releases on Steam and Battle.net on October 28 (with preorders getting access to the campaign on October 20). So far it's looking pretty good: the trailers drip with enjoyable COD nonsense and the PC features are looking very expansive indeed. You just might have to get your phone out before you can enjoy them.
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No More Heroes 1 and 2 will be getting fixes for their beleaguered PC ports soon, publisher XSEED has announced.
In a Steam discussion notice, XSEED's community development manager Luke Brown stated "We are very much aware of the issues affecting this title since launch, and after over a year of trying to develop patches, we can report that we have brought the effort to address these issues in-house". XSEED then apologised for the delay and lack of communication, stating it would "provide further information as soon as we are confident that we have patches in releasable shape".
Originally released for Wii in 2007 and 2010 respectively, No More Heroes is a series of oddball action-adventure games directed by Suda51, whose other work includes Killer7 and Lollipop Chainsaw. The two games were ported to PC in June last year, but the ports have been lambasted by the game's community, with complaints about broken achievements, animations, and audio. More generally, there has apparently been little effort to gear the port toward PC, with the games allegedly still bearing the credits and button layout for the Switch version of the game, upon which the PC port is based.
That Switch version was co-developed by NMH's developer Grasshopper Manufacture and Engine Software, a third-party studio which previously assisted with the well-received PC port of Killer7. Presumably, that relationship hasn't worked so well for the two No More Heroes games, and as a result XSEED has taken the decision to fix the releases internally.
As for why XSEED has taken the decision announce these upcoming patches now, it might have something to do with the fact that No More Heroes 3, the 2021 follow-up to NMH 2, launched on PC this week. This third game, which is also based on the Switch port, currently has a "very positive" rating on Steam, albeit with only 81 reviews at the time of writing.
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Need to know
What is it? An atmospheric first-person horror-shooter thing inspired by the art of H.R. Giger and Zdzisław Beksiński.
Expect to pay $40/£32
Release date October 14, 2022
Developer Ebb Software
Publisher Kepler Interactive
Reviewed on Core i5 12600K, RTX 3070, 32 GB RAM
Multiplayer? No
Link Official siteIn 2021, a wayward pilgrim named "bogleech" expressing themselves in the crumbling remains of Tumblr insightfully compared cosmic horror to the notion of an ant exploring a circuit board. From the ant's perspective, this is some kind of terrifying alien city, and if an ant were able to grasp, even for a moment, a sliver of a human computer's terrible purpose and context, how could it ever go back to being an ant?
I kept thinking of that post as I played Scorn, especially during my favorite moment late in the game (some spoilers ahead, I'll try not to be too specific), when you transition from the industrial underbelly of a forgotten civilization to its alien and terrifying, yet also still somehow mournful, regal capital.
The entire game up until now you've seen the gruesome brown machinery of this ancient people churning and grinding to do something, ripping familiarly human-like beings apart, sometimes while they're still alive, for some unknowable purpose. Now you see a decaying cathedral adorned with colossal statues of these same beings, some taking heroic poses, others cradling red, glowing wombs, and many of them copulating. How did this civilization digest the contradiction in how it represented itself vs. how it treated its people?
This grey cathedral bathed in lilac light was the part of the game that most reminded me of the work of Zdzisław Beksiński, a Polish artist who "wished to paint as if [he] were photographing dreams" and is cited alongside xenomorph creator H.R. Giger as one of Scorn's primary inspirations. The striking visual feast of the alien capital, accompanied by mournful audio, practically moved me to tears. It was so strange and wonderful, and seemed to hint at some greater mystery at the heart of Scorn.
An hour into the subsequent level, Scorn bugged out and I had to restart the chapter. You can't manually save, and the game's more generous regular checkpoints are only accessible through player death—from the main menu, you can only load into the start of a chapter, or occasional halfway-point markers. I speedran the parts of the chapter I'd already beaten, yada yada ancient people, yada yada unknowable purpose, beat the modicum of game I had left to play after that, and rolled credits. The technical hiccup and frustrating runback at this crucial moment really, seriously killed my buzz.
I think Scorn is a genuinely great work of sci-fi, but it vexes me sometimes.
Eureka moments
(Image credit: Ebb Software)Scorn's core gameplay loop reminds me most of Portal or the shrines in Breath of the Wild. You enter a new area and have to slowly pick your way through, soaking up the creepy ambience and sussing out the function of the various grotesquely biological apparatuses left behind by this lost civilization. Scorn's protagonist looks to be a member of that civilization, maybe the last one left after everyone else went to the body-horror Rapture.
You follow lines of inquiry, pushing to dead ends, picking up keys or puzzle pieces, trying to figure out how everything ties together until it finally clicks. For example, Scorn's first major setpiece sees you playing a sort of crane-stacking game to extract a surprising bit of cargo, then rearranging a small railway, allowing you to deliver the cargo via hand cart to its ultimate destination. I found the crane bit to be a taxing, yet enjoyable puzzle, and it was fascinating (and also a little horrifying) to then see the machinery in motion after passing it by in an inert state.
...I hustle to avoid attacks, weaving close to these weird flesh monsters to bop them with my penis gun.
There were points where my prodding and puzzling posed horrific consequences for the few non-hostile living things you encounter in Scorn's world, and these scenes made me feel worse than any mean dialogue choice I'd accidentally chosen in an RPG. Seriously, think "denying Kim's Aces High in Disco Elysium" for a frame of reference of how bad it made me feel. If it's not clear, I think it rules that Scorn can deliver emotional punches like this with no dialogue whatsoever.
(Image credit: Ebb Software)Scorn's combat is reminiscent of classic survival horror. You move slow, enemies hit hard, and more than two facing you at once is overwhelming. To fight your foes, who mostly consist of a mindless, funguslike species of animal that's infested the ruins, you draw on an arsenal of living weapons.
The bread and butter is a phallic melee plunger thing that has to cool off every two shots, though later you get a pistol, a shotgun, and eventually a grenade launcher. I enjoy Scorn's combat, if enjoy is the right word. It's tense like Resident Evil, and it always feels like I'm just barely making it by the skin of my teeth as I hustle to avoid attacks, weaving close to these weird flesh monsters to bop them with my penis gun.
Unfortunately, the punishing combat definitely exacerbated those checkpoint woes I mentioned. Before that glitch in the last level harshed my profound, cosmic horror vibe, I also lost about an hour and a half of playtime partway through. After a long Scorn sesh ending with a real bastard of a puzzle, I reached a new area and promptly died on introduction of Scorn's most serious normal enemies—think the Lickers or Hunters in Resident Evil. It reloaded to about a minute before I fought the guys, so I quit to go do something else, figuring that I could load in right there when I next sat down to play.
I could not load in right there when I next sat down to play. I had to redo the entire act from square one, bastard puzzle and all. Proportionally then, I lost about half of Scorn's advertised playtime of five hours to its checkpoint system. Different playing habits or simple luck could help someone avoid this sore spot entirely, but I feel like a reasonable developer-side solution would be to have a single rolling checkpoint save slot accessible from the menu.
(Image credit: Ebb Software)Still, checkpoint shenanigans, five-hour runtime, and all, I think Scorn is worth $40. It's striking, unique, and represents something I desperately want to see more of from triple-A and triple-A-adjacent developers: good ideas allowed to run their course instead of being stretched thin to meet ballooning playtime demands. Scorn could have certainly worked as a lower-fi, Haunted PS1-style project, but its commitment to the grotesque genuinely benefits from high-end, modern rendering. And anyway, Scorn's cost can be sidestepped by accessing it via
XboxPC Game Pass.Scorn's condensed focus makes an interesting counterpoint to another first-person, horror-ish experience with a striking visual design released in 2022: Ghostwire Tokyo. Ghostwire had about five hours worth of fresh ideas stretched across 10-20 hours of open-world collecting and base-clearing, and after an intense rush of initial excitement, I slogged my way to the end of its main quest and immediately uninstalled. I'd say I value the lower amount of time I spent with Scorn more than the chunk I gave to Ghostwire Tokyo.
Scorn, in a word, rocks. It meaningfully uses its high-end art and rendering resources. Instead of 200 gigabytes of battle royale maps or the most realistic simulation of Ronald Reagan's jowls the world has ever seen, Scorn presents something more deliberately, artistically upsetting: a truly alien world, one that by turns surprised, sickened, and genuinely moved me. I'm hopeful its checkpoint pain can be alleviated with a patch, and it's a type of game I'd only like to see more of.
Hey there little buddy, I sure hope nothing unspeakable happens to you! (Image credit: Ebb Software) -
Legendary film director John Carpenter has reiterated his desire to make a Dead Space movie. Speaking to the A.V. Club, Carpenter discussed adapting EA's horror series after being asked if there were any games he'd considered turning into films.
"The only one I can think of, and I've mentioned it before is Dead Space," Carpenter said to the A.V. Club's William Hughes. "That would make a real great movie. I could do that."
As Carpenter's statement implies, this isn't the first time the director has talked about making a Dead Space film. He previously mentioned the idea to Game Informer back in 2013, stating "Dead Space would just make a great movie, because you have these people coming onto an abandoned, shut-down space-ship and they have to start it up and something's on board. It's all just great stuff." A keen gamer in general, Carpenter is a big fan of Visceral Games' sci-fi horror trilogy. When asked by the A.V. club which Dead Space game was his favourite, the director replied. "Well, any of them were really good. I even like the last one, the action one nobody else liked."
Carpenter hasn't directed a feature film since 2010's The Ward, explaining to Collider in 2019 that he "got burned out". But he has more recently talked about getting back into filmmaking. A Dead Space movie would be a fitting comeback, given how the series is itself partly inspired by Carpenter's work on the Thing, particularly with regard to the game's hostile, mutating Necromorphs.
Alongside enthusing about Dead Space, Carpenter also discussed the games he's been playing this year, stating he got "hooked" on Fallout 76. "I know it had bugs coming out, and a lot of it was put down, but I thought it was great." He pointed to the games large-open world to "roam around" in as a major factor in its appeal. "That's what I love about Fallout. There is a template to follow. There are missions, but you can do it differently. And they keep coming up with new missions every once in a while, and new ideas. It's good. It's really interesting."
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General guides designed to improve your daily Wordle game, handcrafted tips to point you in the right direction, and even the answer to the October 14 (482) puzzle are all just an easy click or scroll away. Whatever you need to help you with today's Wordle, it's here.
Wordle decided today's puzzling was going to be a dramatic rollercoaster ride, each guess giving me just enough clues to make me believe I'd definitely got the answer this time, only for the results to lead me down a different path. I eventually got it right—on the very last go.
Wordle hint
Today's Wordle: A hint for Friday, October 14
Any interior surface designed to be walked on. Crudely put, this is the opposite of the ceiling. One vowel is used twice today.
Wordle help: 3 tips for beating Wordle every day
If there's one thing better than playing Wordle, it's playing Wordle well, which is why I'm going to share a few quick tips to help set you on the path to success:
- A good opener contains a balanced mix of unique vowels and consonants.
- A tactical second guess helps to narrow down the pool of letters quickly.
- The solution may contain repeat letters.
There's no time pressure beyond making sure it's done by midnight. So there's no reason to not treat the game like a casual newspaper crossword and come back to it later if you're coming up blank.
Wordle answer
(Image credit: Josh Wardle)What is the Wordle 482 answer?
Let me help you win. The answer to the October 14 (482) Wordle is FLOOR.
Previous answers
Wordle archive: Which words have been used
The more past Wordle answers you can cram into your memory banks, the better your chances of guessing today's Wordle answer without accidentally picking a solution that's already been used. Past Wordle answers can also give you some excellent ideas for fun starting words that keep your daily puzzle solving fresh.
Here are some recent Wordle solutions:
- October 13: EQUAL
- October 12: IONIC
- October 11: VALID
- October 10: ENJOY
- October 9: HOWDY
- October 8: VIGOR
- October 7: DANDY
- October 6: SLOTH
- October 5: MARSH
- October 4: BOUGH
Learn more about Wordle
Every day Wordle presents you with six rows of five boxes, and it's up to you to work out which secret five-letter word is hiding inside them.
You'll want to start with a strong word like ALERT—something containing multiple vowels, common consonants, and no repeat letters. Hit Enter and the boxes will show you which letters you've got right or wrong. If a box turns
️, it means that letter isn't in the secret word at all. 
means the letter is in the word, but not in that position. 
means you've got the right letter in the right spot.You'll want your second go to compliment the first, using another "good" word to cover any common letters you missed last time while also trying to avoid any letter you now know for a fact isn't present in today's answer.
After that it's just a case of using what you've learned to narrow your guesses down to the right word. You have six tries in total and can only use real words (so no filling the boxes with EEEEE to see if there's an E). Don't forget letters can repeat too (ex: BOOKS).
If you need any further advice feel free to check out our Wordle tips, and if you'd like to find out which words have already been used you'll find those below.
Originally, Wordle was dreamed up by software engineer Josh Wardle, as a surprise for his partner who loves word games. From there it spread to his family, and finally got released to the public. The word puzzle game has since inspired tons of games like Wordle, refocusing the daily gimmick around music or math or geography. It wasn't long before Wordle became so popular it was sold to the New York Times for seven figures. Surely it's only a matter of time before we all solely communicate in tricolor boxes.
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Hello JRMcCoy,
Welcome to UnityHQ Nolfseries Community. Please feel free to browse around and get to know the others. If you have any questions please don't hesitate to ask.
JRMcCoy joined on the 10/13/2022.
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With its 1.07 update to Elden Ring, FromSoftware has taken steps to ensure the game's long-term health and multiplayer balance. The biggest change is the decoupling of PvP and PvE weapon balancing, though From has also buffed a huge variety of weapons and spells.
That first change is a long time coming for FromSoft—to my knowledge they've never attempted anything like this for the Souls series or Bloodborne. The capacity to separately adjust weapons for PvP and PvE content is crucial for live service games like Destiny, allowing devs to adjust pain points in one mode without overcorrecting in another. I don't think Elden Ring is in any danger of becoming a live service game, but this is still a welcome change. I like Elden Ring's PvP, but I don't go seeking it out. It wouldn't feel good to have a preferred singleplayer strategy hamstrung because hardcore PvPers found and exploited an annoying trick in a mode I hardly ever touch.
For this first round of PvP-only adjustments, FromSoft has made it more costly to block attacks, increased poise (stagger) damage across the board, nerfed most Ashes of War, and also nerfed a selection of AoE spells.
Other than that, FromSoft has buffed a large number of weapons and spells for both PvP and PvE. I'm a big fan of the Souls series' katanas, but Elden Ring has really been dominated by its signature unique swords, Rivers of Blood and Moonveil. It's a salient critique of Elden Ring that though it has a broad arsenal, players gravitate to a small number of weapons, so this is definitely a move in the right direction. The full list of changes is as follows:
PvP Exclusive balance adjustments
- Increased stamina attack power in PvP for all attacks against guarded foes, except for long-ranged weapons.
- Improved poise damage in PvP for every weapon's normal attack, except for Skills and long-ranged weapons.
- With a few exceptions, the power of Ashes of War in PvP has been lowered across the board.
- The power of the following incantations in PvP has been decreased:
- Dragonfire / Agheel's Flame / Glintstone Breath / Smarag's Glintstone Breath / Rotten Breath / Ekzykes's Decay / Dragonice / Borealis's Mist / Unendurable Frenzy
General balance adjustments
- Increased poise damage when using two-handed normal attacks.
- Increased the speed of some Colossal Sword attacks.
- The speed and hit detection of Colossal Sword crouching and rolling attacks have been decreased.
- Increased the speed of some Colossal Weapon attacks.
- Decreased recovery time for Colossal Swords and Colossal Weapons, except for jump attacks, dual wielded attacks, and attacks while riding.
- Increased poise damage of Hammers, Great Hammers and some Colossal Weapons.
- Increased guard penetration for the following weapons:
- Celebrant's Sickle / Nox Flowing Sword / Shotel / Eclipse Shotel / Vulgar Militia Shotel / Scythe / Grave Scythe / Halo Scythe / Winged Scythe
- The poise rating of some attacks has been increased for the following weapons:
- Greatswords / Colossal Swords / Curved Greatswords / Greataxes / Great Hammers / Great Spears / Halberds
- With some exceptions, poise of all armor has been increased.
- The effects of the Greatshield Talisman and Hammer Talisman have been increased.
- Some effects of the spell Scholar's Shield, the Barricade Shield skill and the Shield Grease item have been adjusted as follows.
- The effects on shields with low guard boost have been adjusted upward.
- The effects on shields with high guard boost have been adjusted downward.
- The guard strength of the Fingerprint Stone Shield has been decreased.
- Decreased the status buildup done by dual wielded weapons.
Balance adjustments for Magic and Incantations
- Glintstone Pebble / Shard Spiral
- Increased attack power.
- Lightning Spear / Flame Sling
- Increased attack power when charged.
- Rejection / Wrath of Gold / Black Flame
- Increased stamina attack power against guarded enemies.
- Crystal Burst / Triple Rings of Light
- Increased casting speed.
- Assassin's Approach / Law of Causality
- Extended effect time.
- Glintstone Icecrag / Freezing Mist / Frozen Armament
- Increased frostbite status buildup.
- Poison Mist / Poison Armament
- Increased poison status buildup.
- Glintstone Arc / Glintblade Phalanx / Carian Phalanx / Greatblade Phalanx / Magic Downpour / Loretta's Greatbow / Loretta's Mastery / Rennala's Full Moon / Ranni's Dark Moon / Ambush Shard / Night Shard / Unseen Blade / Roiling Magma / Rykard's Rancor / Darkness / Elden Stars / Lightning Strike / Lansseax's Glaive / Death Lightning / Giantsflame Take Thee / Bloodflame Talons / Unendurable Frenzy / Greyoll's Roar
- Decreased FP consumption.
- Glintstone Stars / Magma Shot / Bloodboon
- Decreased FP consumption and increased attack power.
- Aspects of the Crucible: Tail / Aspects of the Crucible: Horn / Ancient Dragons' Lightning Spear / Fortissax's Lightning Spear / Flame, Fall Upon Them
- Decreased FP consumption and increased stamina attack power against guarded enemies.
- Glintstone Cometshard / Comet / Cannon of Haima / Carian Greatsword
- Decreased FP consumption, increased attack power and stamina attack power against guarded enemies.
- Rancorcall / Ancient Death Rancor
- Decreased FP consumption and extended the lifespan of all vengeful spirits.
- Briars of Sin / Briars of Punishment
- Decreased the FP consumption and increased the blood loss status buildup on enemies.
- Increased casting speed.
- Gavel of Haima
- Reduced FP and stamina consumption, increased stamina attack power against guards and the power of the hammer portion of the attack.
- Shatter Earth
- Reduced FP consumption, increased poise damage and stamina attack power against guards.
- Increased certain portions of the spell’s hitbox and shortened recovery time.
- Rock Blaster
- Reduced FP consumption, increased poise damage and stamina attack power against guards.
- Increased certain portions of the spell’s hitbox.
- Starlight
- Reduced FP consumption and extended the duration of effect.
- Stars of Ruin
- Reduced FP and stamina consumption.
- Increased power when charged.
- Founding Rain of Stars
- Reduced FP and stamina consumption.
- Shortened time before damage is dealt.
- Extended the range of the star rain.
- Magic Glintblade
- Increased poise damage, attack power, and stamina attack power against guarded enemies when charged.
- Carian Piercer
- Reduced FP consumption, increased attack power, and stamina attack power against guarded enemies.
- Shortened the recovery time.
- Adula's Moonblade
- Reduced FP consumption, and increased stamina attack power, and frostbite status buildup against guarded enemies with the sword's slash portion.
- Gelmir's Fury
- Reduced FP consumption and increased attack power.
- Increased casting speed and shortened recovery time.
- Adjusted the direction of the lava projectiles to make it easier to hit enemies located in front of the spell.
- Increased the damage dealt by the first part of the spell, and greatly increased the ability to stagger enemies.
- Zamor Ice Storm
- Increased attack power and frostbite status buildup.
- Increased casting speed and shortened recovery time.
- Shattering Crystal
- Reduced FP and stamina consumption.
- Increased poise damage and stamina attack power against guarding enemies.
- Increased power when charged.
- Increased casting speed.
- Crystal Release
- Reduced FP consumption, increased poise damage and stamina attack power against guarded enemies.
- Increased casting speed and shortened the recovery time.
- Increased attack range.
- Adjusted the poise increase timing during activation.
- Oracle Bubbles
- Can now be used while in motion.
- Streamlined attack range and increased attack power when charged.
- Extended the time it takes for the bubble to burst when not charged.
- Damage hitbox has been adjusted to be larger against players.
- Reduced the number of projectiles that can appear at the same time.
- Great Oracular Bubble
- Can now be used while in motion.
- Increased attack power.
- Increased tracking performance.
- Increased stamina attack power against guarded enemies.
- Explosive Ghostflame
- Increased attack power and stamina attack power against guarding enemies.
- Increased frostbite status buildup of the explosion.
- Range of the residual flame has been slightly increased, damage detection time has been reduced.
- Tibia's Summons
- Reduced FP consumption and increased attack power.
- Increased casting speed, reduced recovery time.
- Discus of Light
- Reduced FP and stamina consumption.
- Increased the range, speed, and duration of the halo.
- Increased casting speed.
- Radagon's Rings of Light
- Reduced FP consumption and recovery time.
- Frozen Lightning Spear
- Reduced FP consumption and increased the frostbite status buildup.
- Flame of the Fell God
- Reduced FP consumption, increased stamina attack power against guarded enemies.
- Increased attack power when charged.
- Shortened damage detection time of residual fire.
- Whirl, O Flame!
- Reduced FP consumption.
- Increased stamina attack power against guarding enemies.
- Increased ability to stagger enemies.
- Burn, O Flame!
- Reduced FP consumption.
- Shortened the time it takes for a flame pillar to be generated.
- Scouring Black Flame
- Increased stamina attack power against guarding enemies and increased poise damage when charged.
- Noble Presence
- Increased stamina consumption and increased stamina attack power against guarded enemies.
- Shortened recovery time.
- Beast Claw
- Increased the range of the shockwave.
- Gurranq's Beast Claw
- Added a hitbox to the first part of the spell.
- Increased attack power when charged.
- Stone of Gurranq
- Reduced stamina consumption.
- Increased attack power and stamina attack power against guarding enemies.
- Extended the impact area of projectiles.
- Scarlet Aeonia
- Reduced FP consumption.
- Increased attack power, poise damage and stamina attack power against guarding enemies.
- Landing attack range has been increased and its recovery time decreased.
- Adjusted the poise increase timing during activation.
- Frenzied Burst
- Increased poise damage and attack power when charged.
- Howl of Shabriri
- Extended the duration of the effect that increases attack power and lowers defensive power.
- Inescapable Frenzy
- Reduced FP and stamina consumption.
- Shortened recovery time.
- Increased grapple range.
- Dragonclaw
- Reduced FP consumption.
- Increased stamina attack power against guarding enemies.
- Improved directional control.
- Dragonmaw
- Reduced FP consumption.
- Increased stamina attack power against guarding enemies.
- The hitbox around dragon's neck area has been enlarged to make it easier to hit enemies at close range.
- Black Blade
- Reduced stamina consumption.
- Improved turning performance and shortened recovery time.
- The sword and the wave attack have been changed so that they hit at the same time.
- Attack power, stamina attack power and poise damage of each part have been decreased.
- Decreased the number of times the wave part hits large enemies.
- Bestial Sling
- Reduced the stone fragment scatter randomness.
- Increased stamina attack power against guarding enemies.
- Reduced between two hits and adjusted the detection so that two hits are always made at close range.
- Decreased poise damage.
- Rotten Breath / Ekzykes's Decay
- Reduced Scarlet Rot status effect buildup.
Balance adjustment of Skills
- Glintstone Pebble / Surge of Faith / Gold Breaker / Regal Beastclaw / Nebula (Bastard's Stars) / Sacred Phalanx
- Increased attack power.
- Sword Dance / Vow of the Indomitable / Eochaid's Dancing Blade
- Reduced the delay between the end of various actions (such as using items or attack animations) and being able to perform the skill.
- Sacred Order / Shared Order / Soul Stifler / Knowledge Above All / Barricade Shield
- Extended effect time
- Taker's Flames / Miquella's Ring of Light
- Added damage detection to the weapon part.
- Prayerful Strike / Great-Serpent Hunt
- Increased power and poise damage
- Wild Strikes / Spinning Strikes
- Shortened the time between various actions and the activation of skills
- Slightly increased attack power.
- Ground Slam / Golden Slam / Erdtree Slam
- Reduced the time between using the skill and being able to roll.
- Increased attack power.
- Stamp (Upward Cut) / Stamp (Sweep)
- Reduced the delay between the end of various actions (such as using items or attack animations) and being able to perform the skill.
- Increased attack power.
- Reduced the timing between the end of the skill and performing actions other than the strong attack.
- Impaling Thrust
- Increased motion speed and attack power.
- Reduced the delay between the end of various actions (such as using items or attack animations) and being able to perform the skill
- Reduced the timing between the end of the skill and being able to attack and to roll.
- Piercing Fang
- Increased motion speed, attack power and poise damage.
- Reduced the delay between the end of various actions (such as using items or attack animations) and being able to perform the skill.
- Reduced the timing between the end of the skill and being able to attack and to roll.
- Spinning Slash
- Increased poise damage against enemies when used with the following weapons: Greatsword, Curved Greatsword, Twinblade, Greataxe, Spear, Great Spear, Halberd, and Reaper.
- Charge Forth
- Increased directional control and motion speed.
- Reduced the delay between the end of various actions (such as using items or attack animations) and being able to perform the skill.
- Blood Tax
- Increased motion speed and attack power.
- Increased HP deprivation effect.
- Reduced the delay between the end of various actions (such as using items or attack animations) and being able to perform the skill.
- Repeating Thrust
- Increased motion speed. Reduced the delay between the end of various actions (such as using items or attack animations) and being able to perform the skill.
- Giant Hunt
- Increased poise damage.
- Reduced the delay between the end of various actions (such as using items or attack animations) and being able to perform the skill.
- Loretta's Slash
- Increased poise damage for the first attack.
- Reduced the delay between the end of various actions (such as using items or attack animations) and being able to perform the skill.
- Poison Moth Flight
- Increased poison status buildup and its power against poisoned enemies.
- Increased the duration and damage of poison.
- Reduced the delay between the end of various actions (such as using items or attack animations) and being able to perform the skill.
- Stormcaller
- Increased motion speed, attack power and poise damage.
- Increased skill size and poise damage.
- Sacred Blade
- Increased motion speed and range of the blade.
- Added damage detection to the weapon part.
- Increased effect duration and attack power that gives the weapon holy power.
- Bloody Slash
- Increased status buildup and attack power.
- Reduced the delay between the end of various actions (such as using items or attack animations) and being able to perform the skill.
- Lifesteal Fist
- Increased motion speed and attack power.
- Increased attack range against other players.
- Reduced the delay between the end of various actions (such as using items or attack animations) and being able to perform the skill.
- Eruption
- Increased the range and duration of lava.
- Added a hitbox to the part of the attack where the weapon is slammed.
- Fixed the timing of the poise increase during activation.
- Gravitas
- Increased poise during casting.
- Storm Blade
- Increased motion speed and range of the blade.
- Added damage detection to the weapon part.
- Reduced the delay between the end of various actions (such as using items or attack animations) and being able to perform the skill.
- Flaming Strike
- Increased attack power.
- Increased duration and attack power that grants the weapon a fire attribute.
- Reduced the delay between the end of various actions (such as using items or attack animations) and being able to perform the skill.
- Lightning Slash
- Increased duration and attack power that grants the weapon a lightning attribute.
- Reduced the delay between the end of various actions (such as using items or attack animations) and being able to perform the skill.
- Reduced the delay between using the skill and being able to attack.
- Vacuum Slice
- Increased motion speed and range of the blade.
- Reduced FP consumption
- Added damage detection to the weapon part.
- Sacred Ring of Light
- Increased range and speed of the projectile halo have been increased.
- Added damage detection to the weapon part.
- Blood Blade
- Increased power.
- Added damage detection to the weapon part.
- Reduced the delay between the end of various actions (such as using items or attack animations) and being able to perform the skill.
- Phantom Slash
- Improved directional control.
- Reduced the delay between the end of various actions (such as using items or attack animations) and being able to perform the skill.
- Spectral Lance
- Increased attack power.
- Reduced long range damage falloff.
- Chilling Mist
- Increased motion speed.
- Increased the duration of the weapon's frostbite effect.
- Poisonous Mist
- Increased motion speed.
- Increased the duration of the weapon's poison effect.
- Shield Bash
- Increased stamina attack power against guarded enemies.
- Enchanted Shot
- Increased arrow speed.
- Kick
- Increased poise damage and stamina attack power against guarding enemies.
- Cragblade
- Extended effect duration.
- Increased attack power, poise damage and stamina attack power against guarding enemies.
- War Cry
- Extended effect duration.
- Reduced the delay between the end of various actions (such as using items or attack animations) and being able to perform the skill.
- The power of strong attacks during the duration of the effect has been increased when using the following weapons: Straight Sword / Curved Sword / Katana / Axe / Hammer / Flail / Spear / Great Spear / Halberd / Reaper / Fist (one-handed) / Claw (one-handed)
- Troll's Roar
- Increased attack power.
- Fixed the timing of the poise increase during activation.
- Braggart's Roar
- Extended the duration of the effect.
- Increased attack power, defense, and stamina recovery speed.
- Endure
- Extended effect duration.
- Added an effect that prevents staggers caused by blood loss and frostbite status effects.
- Extended effect duration.
- Reduced the time between skill activation and being able to perform actions other than attacking.
- Holy Ground
- Increased HP recovery amount.
- Raptor of the Mists
- Reduced FP consumption.
- Flame Spit
- Improved projectile range.
- Tongues of Fire
- Reduced stamina consumption.
- Great Oracular Bubble
- Extended the amount of time that the large bubble stays in place.
- Tracking performance and range of the large bubble have been improved.
- Viper Bite
- Increased attack power and poison status buildup.
- Extended poison effect duration and increased damage caused by poison.
- Moonlight Greatsword
- Reduced stamina consumption for strong and charged attacks.
- Added damage detection to the weapon part.
- Siluria's Woe
- Increased motion speed, attack power and poise during activation.
- Added damage detection to the weapon part.
- The projectile now penetrates enemies and some objects when charged.
- Reduvia Blood Blade
- Increased attack power.
- Added damage detection to the weapon part.
- Glintstone Dart
- Increased range, speed and attack power of magic attacks.
- Magic attacks now penetrate enemies when not charged.
- Night-and-Flame Stance
- Increased attack power.
- The attack direction may now be adjusted up and down when using a normal attack.
- Added damage detection to the weapon part.
- Ruinous Ghostflame
- Increased the duration, attack power and poise damage of the effect that gives the weapon a magic attribute.
- Shortened the time between various actions and the activation of the skill.
- Reduced time between the skill activation and being able to perform actions.
- Spearcall Ritual
- Increased attack power.
- Reduced damage detection time.
- Wolf's Assault
- Increased poise during casting.
- Thundercloud Form
- Increased directional control.
- Regal Roar
- Extended effect duration.
- Reduced the time between strong attacks while under the effect.
- Reduced time between the skill activation and being able to perform actions.
- Blade of Death
- Increased effect duration that reduces maximum HP.
- Destined Death
- Increased motion speed
- Extended the duration of the effect that reduces maximum HP.
- Alabaster Lords' Pull
- Increased attack power.
- Increased poise during casting.
- Onyx Lords' Repulsion
- Increased repelling effect power.
- Increased poise during casting.
- Oath of Vengeance
- Extended effect
- Added an effect that prevents staggers caused by blood loss and frostbite status effects.
- Ice Lightning Sword
- Increased weapon attack power.
- Increased the duration and attack power of the effect that grants the weapon a lightning attribute.
- Reduced time between the skill activation and being able to perform actions.
- Claw Flick
- Increased attack power.
- Increased poise damage of the finger expansion.
- Golden Tempering
- Added a timing for interrupting the attack during a series of strong attacks while under the effect.
- Increased strong attack motion speed, poise damage, and stamina attack power against guarding enemies during the effect.
- Increased the duration and attack power of the effect that grants the weapon a holy attribute.
- Reduced time between the skill activation and being able to perform actions.
- Last Rites
- Increased effect duration.
- Increased attack power.
- Effect against Those Who Live in Death has been revised upward.
- Unblockable Blade
- Reduced FP consumption.
- Increased motion speed.
- Loretta's Slash (Loretta's War Sickle Ash of War)
- Increased attack power.
- Increased damage of the first attack
- Increased poise damage.
- Corpse Wax Cutter
- Reduced FP consumption.
- Increased motion speed, range and speed of the blade.
- Added damage detection to the weapon part.
- Zamor Ice Storm
- Increased attack power.
- Increased attack power to the weapon part.
- Dynast's Finesse
- The directional control of the follow up strong attack has been improved.
- Death Flare
- Increased the duration and attack power of the effect that grants the weapon a holy attribute.
- Magma Guillotine
- Increased poise damage and stamina attack power against guarding enemies for the first attack.
- Corpse Piler
- Slightly increased attack power.
- Bloodblade Dance
- Added damage detection immediately after activating the skill.
- Devourer of Worlds
- Increased poise damage.
- Familial Rancor
- Increased range of the vengeful spirits that chase down foes.
- Rosus's Summons
- Increased motion speed.
- Thunderstorm
- Increased motion speed.
- Increased the duration and attack power of the effect that grants the weapon a lightning attribute.
- Unblockable Blade
- Increased attack power.
- Reduced time between the skill activation and being able to perform actions.
- Ordovis's Vortex
- Increased attack power, motion speed and poise damage.
- Increased poise during casting.
- Reduced the delay between the end of various actions (such as using items or attack animations) and being able to perform the skill.
- Barbaric Roar
- Extended effect duration.
- Reduced the time between using the skill and performing various actions.
- Increased strong attack power when used with Claw or Fist weapons during the effect.
- Reduced strong attack power when used with Twinblade weapons during the effect.
- Shield Crash
- Reduced the amount of status buildup when used with weapons that have status effects.
- Seppuku
- Increased damage taken upon activation.
- Reduced the bleed status buildup effect granted to weapons.
- Bloodboon Ritual
- Reduced the range of the damage animation trigger on other players. Damage is unchanged.
Bug Fixes
- Added a process to remove the Ash of War from weapons that cannot normally be combined with certain Ashes of War.
- Fixed a bug that prevented users from obtaining items such as Great Runes, Crystal Tears, Cracked Pots, and Ritual Pots when the number of items in the inventory and the storage had reached the maximum limit.
- Fixed a bug that prevented users from obtaining Crystal Tear. If you fail to obtain a Crystal Tear, the item will be added to your inventory when moving within the vicinity of the place where you should have obtained it.
- Adjusted player character control when under certain damage animations.
- Fixed a bug that prevented charging some Incantations while casting them with a left-handed Sacred Seal in mid-air.
- Fixed a bug that prevented performing a normal attack from a dash immediately after landing from a jump when the weapon is two-handed.
- Fixed a bug where various action inputs were ignored when changing weapons while moving.
- Corrected the description of the Colossal Sword’s physical attack attribute.
- Fixed a bug where the timing to change the attack direction was narrower than expected for some attacks with Greataxes.
- Fixed a bug where the attack direction could not be changed when performing a charged attack with the Ruins Greatsword weapon.
- Fixed a bug where the Highland Axe’s effect was not applied to the skill Shriek of Milos.
- Fixed a bug where the effects of the Warrior Jar Shard and the Shard of Alexander were not applied to the skill Sorcery of the Crozier.
- Fixed a bug where the effect of the Roar Medallion was not applied to the Regal Roar Ash of War.
- Fixed a bug where the skill Viper Bite could inflict poison instead of deadly poison.
- Fixed a bug where the range of one of the three rocks was longer than expected when casting the Spell Rock Sling with a left-hand staff.
- Fixed a bug where recovery time after casting Beast Claw could not be shortened by magic or incantations.
- Fixed a bug where when attacking an enemy who cannot be grabbed by the incantation Inescapable Frenzy, the attack will be repelled if the enemy is holding a shield.
- Fixed a bug where HP or FP could be recovered when changing equipment to certain types of armor under certain circumstances.
- Fixed a bug that could cause death and result in the player becoming stuck in some locations.
- Fixed some terrain bugs that allowed users to reach unexpected locations with certain procedures.
- Fixed a bug where the rendering and collision detection of some maps were different from expected.
- Fixed a bug where bolts fired with the Hand Ballista weapon missed the lock-on target when the game was running at a frame rate below a certain level.
- Fixed a bug that could prevent online multiplayer from working properly on the PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 versions.
- Several other performance improvements and bug fixes.
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On the back of Elden Ring's 1.07 update, prolific Souls series dataminers Lance McDonald and Zullie the Witch have shared evidence of potential new DLC areas and ray tracing support added behind the scenes with the patch.
Zullie shared a screenshot of a level list for Elden Ring, which includes an entry for "m20_00_00_00: ???" As Zullie points out, m10-19 signal the IDs of legacy dungeons like Stormveil Castle (m10_00_00_00), or underground areas like Siofra or Ainsel (which are all preceded by m12). It's far from certain, but the evidence seems to point to m20 being the designation of a future DLC legacy dungeon.
Zullie also points out another mystery entry, m45. This doesn't correspond directly to any map files currently in the game, leaving the signifier to pure speculation. My best guess is that it would make sense as the ID for a new, separate overworld area to house the DLC legacy dungeon (or dungeons, if FromSoftware has multiple expansions brewing). Alternatively, if m20 covers a large number of areas like the m12 underground ID, m45 could make sense as the ID for DLC side dungeons.
Lance McDonald shared extracted menu text related to ray tracing graphics settings. The most substantial line is "Enabling ray tracing will lock performance settings to prioritize quality. The ray tracing setting will only be applied after returning to the title menu." The vaunted lighting tech was always in the cards as a post-launch addition to Elden Ring, but it's been a long time without word since release.
Personally I've yet to play a game where I've found ray tracing worth the performance hit, but with Elden Ring still capped at 60 fps and lightweight enough to run on the Steam Deck, maybe this will be the one where I keep it on. If FromSoft is still expanding its megahit's graphical options, I'm hopeful it'll go even farther and implement DLSS and FidelityFX support or even bump up the framerate cap. A fella can dream, can't he?
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Activision Blizzard is facing yet another sexual harassment lawsuit, this one filed by a former employee who alleges that her manager at the company engaged in "sexist and harassing conduct" against her for years after she was hired, threatened her job if she refused to consent to sex, and even threatened to reveal a "compromising photo" she'd shared with him years earlier—and that Activision Blizzard management was aware of the situation but did nothing to address it.
The anonymous plaintiff first met and formed a "virtual friendship" with the defendant, Miguel Vega, in 2009 or 2010—before she began working at Activision Blizzard—during which time "she regrettably sent him compromising photos of herself." That friendship ended in 2011 when the plaintiff met her future husband, but in 2016 Vega assisted her in getting a job as an independent contractor at the company, which was upgraded to a full-time position in 2020.
The lawsuit (via Vice) alleges that Vega groped the plaintiff's breasts "around a dozen times" and that he often attempted to kiss her while at work, telling her that "one day it'll happen" or "one day you'll give in" each time she rejected him. At the same time, he regularly "belittled and insulted" the plantiff during meetings, describing her as "a scrub" whose "opinions don't matter," and that she was failing to perform "a job a monkey could do."
"Whenever Ms. Doe expressed to him that his comments were deeply hurtful, he'd just dismiss her as being too sensitive and tell her that 'this is how it is when you work a corporate job, a real job'," the lawsuit states.
The suit claims that in 2017, the plaintiff filed a complaint through another manager, but Activision Blizzard took no action to stop Vega's behavior. His abusive behavior continued until he was finally fired in August 2021. A few particularly egregious examples cited in the lawsuit:
- At an Activision Blizzard office party in 2017, Mr. Vega walked Ms. Doe to a vacant part of the office away from the party and he asked her if she would give him oral sex if he were to "whip it out right here."
- When Ms. Doe expressed to Mr. Vega on several occasions that she felt underpaid, Mr. Vega often replied with a quid pro quo proposal: "Well you know what you need to do" while he pointed to his crotch.
- Mr. Vega detailed his threesome with his girlfriend and a former employee, and then said to Ms. Doe, "You’re welcome to join us next time." Ms. Doe rebuffed his sexual advance.
- Mr. Vega told Ms. Doe that he "is a very sexual person" and that he thus "needs to jack off at least twice a day."
- After Mr. Vega and Ms. Doe once walked into a meeting room, he immediately closed the door and said "now take your shirt off" and giggled. Ms. Doe rebuffed his sexual advance.
The suit goes on to allege that Vega implied to the plaintiff that he had friends in high places and would find a way to have her fired if she reported him to HR. He also "often" threatened to expose the photos she'd shared with him shortly after they first met, most recently in August 2021, when he said, "Maybe I'll blackmail you with those photos I have to get you to leave your husband so you can come stay with me." Repeated requests that Vega delete the photos were rebuffed, according to the suit.
The situation came to a head on August 23, 2021, when the plaintiff filed another complaint against Vega, through a different manager. This time, action was taken: Vega was fired one week later, on September 1, 2021.
Activision Blizzard defended the timeliness of its response in a statement sent to The Daily Mail. "We take all employee concerns seriously," a company rep said. "When the plaintiff reported her concerns to HR, we immediately opened an investigation, and Mr. Vega was terminated within 10 days. We have no tolerance for this kind of misconduct."
The lawsuit, however, accuses Activision Blizzard of failing to take "timely and appropriate corrective action" against Vega, presumably because the plaintiff's initial complaint against him, which resulted in no action being taken, was filed in 2017. It claims multiple causes of action against the company and Vega, together and individually, including sexual harassment, failure to prevent harassment, gender discrimination, sexual battery, and intentional infliction of emotional distress.
We filed another sexual harassment lawsuit against Activision Blizzard on Friday.We currently represent 8 women with sexual harassment claims against this company. If you or someone you know was a victim of its rampant frat boy culture, please contact me.https://t.co/utVJnmvTIvOctober 11, 2022
See moreThe plaintiff is being represented by Lisa Bloom, the attorney who called for an Activision Blizzard victim compensation fund "in excess of $100 million" in December 2021. Bloom said on Twitter that she now represents eight women who have filed sexual harassment claims against Activision Blizzard.
This lawsuit is the latest in a string of allegations made against Activision Blizzard relating to workplace misconduct that began in July 2021, when California's Department of Fair Employment and Housing filed a lawsuit alleging discrimination and sexual harassment against women in the workplace. In June 2022, an internal investigation found no evidence of widespread misconduct at the company, but earlier this month the National Labor Relations Board found the company had withheld pay raises for some of its quality assurance employees as retaliation for their unionization efforts.
Those efforts are slowly but surely having an impact: In June, Activision Blizzard ended its opposition to unionization efforts among QA workers at Raven Software and agreed to enter "good faith negotiations" with the Communications Workers of America, the parent organization of the Game Workers Alliance union. That same month, Microsoft (which is seeking to acquire Activision Blizzard for $68.7 billion) reached a "ground-breaking agreement" on union negotiations with the CWA, while Activision Blizzard shareholders rejected the board of directors' recommendations and voted in favor of the creation of an annual report on the state of the company's efforts to combat abuse, harassment, and discrimination in the workplace.
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Senior editor Wes Fenlon mostly liked what he saw when he got a brief look at Star Trek: Resurgence earlier this year, mainly because it evoked all that old-time Star Trek bullpucky we know and love: Technobabble and simplistic outer-space diplomacy. It's "the first Trek anything to capture the spirit of the '90s shows in a long, long time," he wrote, a statement that, for me at least, makes the game immediately appealing.
Unfortunately, the rest of us are going to wait longer than expected to sample its sci-fi pleasures, because developer Dramatic Labs has elected to delay its release into 2023.
"Production has been advancing steadily all summer, but we have made the difficult decision to move our release date out of 2022 in order to give the game a final coat of polish, and create a truly immersive Star Trek experience," the studio said. "We are planning to release Star Trek: Resurgence in April 2023 on PC, PlayStation, and Xbox.
"Our love and admiration for Star Trek is instrumental to this decision. We're proud of what we've accomplished so far, and this continues to be a passion project for everyone here. We are incredibly grateful—and excited—to be able to work within a universe that means so much to so many."
pic.twitter.com/yor2qmAx6uOctober 13, 2022
See moreDelays are always a bummer, but in this case it's likely a wise choice. While Wes enjoyed Resurgence's TNG-style subtleties and tone, he had concerns about the technical state of the game, including awkward motion and dated, "robotic" facial animations.
"Resurgence isn't finished, of course, and there's time left to smooth out the most noticeable flaws," he wrote. "But the developers said the animation is close to where they want it to be, so I'm not expecting a dramatic transformation between now and release later this year."
If Dramatic Labs can use the extra six months to bring Star Trek: Resurgence's technical qualities up to whatever the real-world equivalent of "10,000 teradynes per second" is, I think it'll be worth the wait.
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We've heard the term "dead game" before. It's an inflammatory way to judge live service games for losing players, even in circumstances when they measurably have hundreds of thousands of players. But what do you call a metaverse that has a low player count? A "dead metaverse?" A "metacrypt?"
Last week blockchain analytics firm DappRadar reported that Ethereum-based metaverse Decentraland only had daily 38 active users with a peak of only 657 active users, numbers that would surely inspire some "dead metaverse" discourse. Decentraland, which is valued at over a billion dollars, pushed back on that reporting, saying its daily users are actually in the high thousands, thank you very much.
Decentraland took to Twitter to refute the reporting, saying, "some websites are tracking only specific smart contract transactions but reporting them as daily active users DAU, which is inaccurate." The company posted its September user data showing a monthly active user count of 56,697 users.
Let's have a look at some of September's data:56,697 MAU1,074 Users interacting with smart contracts1,732 minted Emotes6,315 sold Wearables300 Creators received royalties161 created Community Events 148 DAO ProposalsOctober 7, 2022
See moreSteam in your hands(Image credit: Future, FromSoftware)Steam Deck review: Our verdict on Valve's handheld PC.
Steam Deck availability: How to get one.
Steam Deck battery life: What's the real battery life of the new device?
How loud is the Steam Deck? And will it pass the Significant Other test?
Steam Deck - The emulation dream machine: Using Valve's handheld hardware as the ultimate emulator.Decentraland creative director Sam Hamilton told CoinDesk, "DappRadar doesn't track our users, only people interacting with our contracts." This means that the 38-player figure only counted users performing some sort of transaction on the blockchain, not anyone who logged in to chat with friends or play games.
"Imagine you only track the number of people paying for something at a cashier at a shopping mall,” he told Coindesk. “That doesn’t mean there aren’t a lot of passerbys."According to DCL Metrics (a platform created by Decentraland to report user data, so take it with a grain of salt), the sandbox gets an average of 7,091 visitors per day over a 30-day period. That's not what you get when you divide the monthly user count of 56,967 by 30 days, but Decentraland says we should "embark on a little mental arithmetic journey" on its blog to explain how it got to 7,091.
"You might at first divide 56,697, the number of September’s MAU by 30 and come back with the number 1,866. 'That’s not 8k DAU!,' you scoff to yourself. But wait—1,866 would be the number of DAU if every one of those 56,697 unique individuals only visited Decentraland once in the month of September, and that’s not what’s happening."
Decentraland continues by saying that "a large number of Decentraland’s users are repeat visitors; they are the Decentraland community and spend time on the platform on a regular basis."DappRadar admitted in this blog post that it doesn't measure any activity outside of the blockchain ecosystem and is now working with the Decentraland team to report more accurate user metrics.
Considering the big financial investments some companies have made into Decentraland, especially in virtual real estate, you can imagine how the company would want to make sure the world knows that its virtual world has more than 38 people hanging around.
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The yearly Minecraft mob vote has returned to split friendships and light YouTube comments sections on fire. Once again we all get the chance to democratically elect which mob will join the game in the next major update. We won't know for sure until the Minecraft Live stream happens on Saturday, but history would suggest that the next update will be Minecraft 1.20 sometime next year, which is likely when we'll get to see our chosen new friend in game. And all three of this year's choices are absolutely friend shaped.
Unlike past years though, Mojang has really shaken up how voting works. The good news is that it's a lot easier for everyone to participate. For the 2022 mob vote, you have a whole 24 hours to make your selection, and you'll be doing so using the same Microsoft account you use to play the game instead of heading over to Twitter.
When is the Minecraft mob vote for 2022?
The Minecraft mob vote begins at 9 am PT / 12 pm ET / 5 pm BST on Friday, October 14 and ends at the same time the following day, Saturday, October 15. You'll have a full 24 hours to cast your vote before Mojang announces the winner during the Minecraft Live show on Saturday.
Where to vote for Minecraft mobs this year
This year there are three places to vote for a new Minecraft mob: on the Minecraft.net site, in your Minecraft launcher, or inside a special "carnival-themed" map in Minecraft Bedrock edition.
To vote inside your game launcher, look for the left sidebar tab called "Minecraft Live" next to all your owned Mojang games. You'll be able to make your choice right there on that launcher tab.
To vote in-game, open Minecraft for Windows from your launcher and look for the "Mob Vote" button on the left side of your main menu to join the world where you can check out all three mobs and vote for your favorite.
There is no voting on Twitter this year, which means you can change your mind about your vote right up until the deadline and also that the results will be a secret until revealed, unlike public polls on Twitter.
What mobs are in the mob vote?
Like past years, there are three potential new mobs to vote for this year: the Rascal, Tuff Golem, and Sniffer. Mojang has given some details about each to help make up your mind.
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It's been delightful watching the graphical version of Dwarf Fortress inch its way towards release. Things that we'd take for granted in most games are little thrills for Dwarf Fortress players: stuff like cute pixel art and mouse support and tabs will all make the game easier to play and parse than its old keyboard-only ASCII interface. Now, wonder of wonders, one of the most intimidating computer games ever made is getting a tutorial. What wild idea will they think of next?
"Dwarf Fortress has the well-earned title of being one of the most torturous games to learn," co-creator Zach Adams wrote in the latest Steam update. "There is a lot going on, even after we changed all the ridiculous keyboard commands and replaced the Matrix-like interface with some understandable, and awesome, pixel art. It still needs something. Something to ease the need to head straight to a wiki just to understand what's going on. The answer is the tutorial of course."
Based on the screenshots in the Steam post, the tutorial will cover many of the major roadblocks for new Dwarf Fortress players: controls, the basics of mining, creating and assigning stockpiles of goods, and dividing your fortress into zones so they can properly sleep, work, and grab a grog. Text boxes with some nice color coding for important features introduce these concepts and walk you through them.
Coupled with mouse controls and a clear graphical interface, I suspect this tutorial will take a bite out of Dwarf Fortress's reputation for overwhelming complexity. It's an incredibly deep game, but once you get past the byzantine interface, it's not that hard to get a fortress up and running.
Surviving is another story. The tutorials probably won't teach you to avoid digging into an aquifer and drowning your entire fortress, or guarding against your first invasion of bloodthirsty elves, but some lessons are best learned the hard way.
(Image credit: Bay12 Games)Dwarf Fortress is almost entirely developed by Tarn and Zach Adams, and the new tutorial is still a family affair: it was playtested by Zach's wife Amy, who is not a Dwarf Fortress player. Or wasn't, until the tutorial. "After one failed attempt with the original, the latest version of the tutorial allowed her to get good enough at the game to tunnel under a bog and drown her fortress," Zach wrote. "Our aim is to make this level of play achievable by anyone. We want the world to be able to lose this game and have fun doing it."
The Steam version of Dwarf Fortress still doesn't have a release date, but I'm optimistic we'll be playing it in 2023.
Colony sims
UI designed by programmers pic.twitter.com/3F8euczCGaJuly 6, 2022See more -
They say restrictions breed creativity. A completely blank page or a directionless pile of building blocks can be an intimidating thing, and that feeling hit me full force when I first loaded into the demo of Plasma, a sci-fi building game coming to early access next year. But as I got acclimated to its surroundings and systems, I found some helpful constraints that pushed me toward a satisfying loop of tinkering and tweaking.
The developers describe Plasma as a “creative engineering playground," and it is a pure sandbox sim. Its demo was just released last week during Steam’s Next Fest along with a cute behind-the-scenes making-of for the trailer, which shows how it was entirely put together with in-game tools. With no campaign in the demo and none planned for release, the focus in Plasma is really on creativity.
Even in demo form, Plasma gives you robust systems to build your own structures, robots, and worlds. There are hundreds of components, and all of them can be customized. There’s also a visual programming language you can use to control and manipulate almost every mechanical component.
The tutorial introduces you to core game concepts: I play with an RC car using a little joystick nearby, and a bunny-shaped robot sits at the next station, stuck in ‘wireframe mode.’ With it I can basically turn any object in the game world immaterial and manipulate it without gravity, making it easier to get to hard-to-reach sections. Next I run into a car that’s missing a wheel, which I drive around once I fix it. It doesn’t go very fast, but I still ended up crashing into the bunny bot, which made him sad.
(Image credit: Dry Licorice)A nearby structure has a broken switch that introduces me (very gently, thankfully) to its programming language. There’s a “sketch” panel which lets me drag and drop components to establish logic and functionality. For this one, you simply drag a line from the button over to the door, and then when you go back outside and hit the button it’ll open the door. When you’re actually working with it for your own creations, it’s a bit more complex. The screenshot below shows a simple sketch I made to use one button to both open and close a nearby door.
(Image credit: Dry Licorice)The visual programming language is pretty intuitive, but it makes me wonder if there will be some kind of manual released with Plasma, because it’s extremely detailed. The devs put an arcade cabinet in the tutorial with a functioning version of Pong in it, programmed entirely using in-game tools. I also found a cabinet with a simplified version of Space Invaders when I went poking around in the corners of the starter world.
A remote controlled drone, a console that lets you switch between night and day, and an operational Ferris wheel later, I finally make it to the Building Area. Here the game opens up and you can access the full complement of tools and utilities. There are a few step-by-step guides that show you how to make a flashlight, a small base, and a plasma cannon. I spent extra time tricking out my cannon because I knew I was going to need it. You always need a plasma cannon.
Image 1 of 2(Image credit: Dry Licorice)Image 2 of 2(Image credit: Dry Licorice)The best part of any game that features an extensive sandbox is checking out all the cool stuff smarter and more creative people have made with it. Despite still only being a demo, Plasma is no different. There are already tons of cool robots, structures, and components people have built that I was able to import into my own game. With a click of a button you can build them in your own world and tinker with them, take them apart, or pore through their programming. One player even made a drone that follows you around using laser rangefinders to maintain a safe following distance and stable altitude. Practical.
More practical: Building a dragon so you have something to shoot at with that plasma cannon.
(Image credit: Dry Licorice)There’s tons of potential in Plasma. You can change permissions in your worlds to allow or disable players to do basically anything, with incredible granularity. I'm already imagining people building escape rooms with hidden switches and password puzzles, giant robot obstacle courses, and engineering challenges. I was just happy I got the door working. I had to, to deal with all of the frogbots.
(Image credit: Dry Licorice) -
It was a surprise all around when Google announced in September that the streaming games service Stadia will be closed in early 2023. Developers have scrambled to come up with solutions for Stadia players: The Stadia launch title Gylt, for instance, is finally going to other platforms, while CD Projekt recently told Cyberpunk 2077 players how they can move their Stadia saves to other platforms.
But at least one game will not make the transition: Outcasters, the eight-player party shooter released by Splash Damage in December 2020. The studio initially said it needed "a couple of days to evaluate the options for Outcasters moving forward" following the Stadia closure announcement, and with that time taken it has decided to let the game die.
"It is with a heavy heart that we inform you that we do not have plans to bring Outcasters to other platforms at this time," the studio said in a message shared on Twitter. "Outcasters was designed and built exclusively for Stadia, with many of its systems heavily reliant on the platform, significantly increasing the complexity of the work required.
"We still firmly believe that cloud gaming has a bright future in our industry, providing easier access to games than ever before, and we are encouraged to see that other platforms still champion the cause."
Google doesn't share data on Stadia games so it's impossible to know what sort of success Outcasters has achieved, but it's understandable that Splash Damage might decide to let it go if the player numbers are too low. At the same time, bringing the game to Steam, Epic, and maybe PC Game Pass would undoubtedly grow the audience—although perhaps not enough to justify the work involved in the studio's estimation.
pic.twitter.com/7RxOGFadCxOctober 12, 2022
See moreThat's all purely speculative, and regardless of the reasoning it's unfortunate that at least one game is going to disappear completely when Stadia goes away. I'm also a little surprised by how upbeat Splash Damage remains about the future of cloud gaming given this outcome for Outcasters: The ease-of-access argument is fair, at least for people with access to the required infrastructure, but the other side of that coin is those games can just as easily be taken away. It's an extremely fragile form of ownership.
Splash Damage is, as far as I know, the first studio to confirm that it won't be mounting some sort of rescue operation for its Stadia stuff: Ubisoft, IO Interactive, Bungie, and Tequila Works (and, as mentioned earlier, CD Projekt) have all said that they're working on ways to get their Stadia players to other platforms.
How to find UFOs in GTA Online
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GTA Online's UFO event will have you searching the skies for unidentified objects and taking snaps of them to earn rewards. While GTA's Halloween event kicked off over a week ago, the alien sightings were first spotted on October 13. The UFOs will be around until October 29, so you've got a couple of weeks to brush up on your observation skills.
There's plenty to keep you busy in GTA 5 during the Halloween season, from the new Adversary mode to working on Short Trip side missions to claim a spooky mask. But if you're ready to turn your sights to the skies, here's what you need to know about the GTA Online UFO event.
How to find UFOs in GTA Online
These unidentified aircraft should be relatively easy to spot as they have a beam of light shooting down towards the ground. Be careful of venturing too close though as you run the risk of it disappearing before you get the chance to take a photo.
You can only find UFOs at certain times of the day too, so you should make sure you can log in between 10 pm and 4 am in-game time. There are only 25 UFOs to find during this event, with only one appearing each day for the first eight days—according to GTA Series Videos—after which multiple UFOs will start to show up. So you're out of luck if you were hoping to find them all in one sitting.
Once you've managed to snap a photo of one of the UFOs you can send it to Omega which will reward you with GTA$15,000 and 1000 RP. You get this reward for each photo you send, so it's worth going out of your way to look for them. You'll also get a bonus of GTA$50,000 if you capture all 25 UFOs on camera, as well as the Believe Cap.
Additionally, another type of UFO will spawn above the Zancudo River on the ninth day of the event—I make that October 21—which will reward GTA$50,000 and 1000 RP if you manage to take a snap of it. And if you stand in a UFO's beam of light on the event's final day, you'll be temporarily abducted by aliens before being returned clad in nothing but a brand new pair of UFO Boxer Shorts. Seems like a fair trade, right?
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