The Epic MegaGrant program was first announced at GDC of 2019 and is a $100M fund by epic games to support game developers, open source projects and others. The Godot Engine project just joined past recipients such as the Blender foundation, receiving a cool 1/4 million USD in funding.
The story was broke by Gaming On Linux, but has been all but confirmed by Tim Sweeney, CEO at epic, in this Twitter exchange.
Some good news to share for the free and open source Godot Engine, as the lead developer Juan Linietsky announced during GodotCon that Epic Games have approved them for an Epic MegaGrant.
This was announced during Linietsky’s talk on porting Godot Engine over to the Vulkan API, which is coming with Godot Engine version 4.0 later this year. Epic Games have approved them for a sum of $250,000 USD which they’ve known for a little while, but they only just got the okay to announce it.
The GodotCon YouTube livestream video link is available here. You can learn more about the Epic MegaGrant program here or by watching the video below.
We really want a Fire Emblem Heroes premium subscription (said no one)
By Joe Robinson03 Feb 2020
Fire Emblem Heroes has, hands down, proven to be the other most popular Nintendo properties on mobile. Sensor Tower data from last week shows that, out of the $1 Billion+ revenue that Nintendo-published mobile games brought in in 2019, 61% of it came from FE Heroes.
It’s first place out of six with the No. 4 spot being held by Mario Kart Tour, which brought in only 8% and that’s with a $5 premium subscription offering. Clearly, Fire Emblem Heroes’ next step is to do something bold that meets the needs of their player base… like introducing a premium subscription offering? (Announcement at 11:40 below)
This rather strange move was announced on Saturday. Fire Emblem Heroes is a typical free-to-play strategy game in many ways (although it’s quite thematic), but it’s managed to convince a relatively small number of people to spend quite a lot of money. It may have brought in 61% of the revenue, but it only represents 4% of total downloads across the six games.
Out of all of the plans they could have considered, a $10 (!!?) premium subscription is not the one I would have chosen, or even guessed.
If you do choose to subscribe, you gain access to give key benefits:
Resplendent Heroes – new versions of existing heroes with new attire, voices and a +2 stat boosts. Two are on offer every month during set periods, and you can choose between attires if you manage to secure one. An option to purchase Resplendent versions separately is planned.
Special ‘FEH Pass Quests’ – available twice a month, offers unique rewards.
Expanded Summoner Support – you can bond with up to three heroes, instead of just one.
Re-Act – Essentially an ‘undo’ or ‘re-do’ button, you may go back to the start of the previous turn or the current turn, depending on what’s just happened. Unlimited uses, and works on the Game Over screen. Doesn’t work in Coliseum or Aether Raids.
Auto-Start – Essentially an ‘auto-battle’ feature, you can have the game automatically replay maps for as long as you have stamina remaining. When choosing a map you get to set how many times you want it to replay.
Fire Emblem: Heroes isn’t a game we’ve been keeping on top of, so it’s hard to expertly assess the impact of these features. The community has already expressed their concern over this new pass – the video itself is already at 11K dislikes vs. 6.3K likes.
The FEH Pass will be available to purchase after the 4.2 update, which is due later this week on February 5th.
First HomeKit Router firmware update coming very soon
By Mike Wuerthele Thursday, February 13, 2020, 07:21 pm PT (10:21 pm ET)
Linksys appears to be the first vendor to make available a HomeKit router, as the Velop line is scheduled for an imminent firmware update to enable the functionality.
Linksys MX10 Velop AX mesh router
After several false starts, firmware updates for routers to make them HomeKit Routers upgrades will start arriving soon. The first confirmed one, is for the Linksys Velop line.
“We’re rolling out a firmware update to your Velop system in the next several days. Once your system updates, the next time you open the Linksys app, it will invite you to link with Apple Home,” Linksys says in an update note. “All of your Velop nodes must be tri-band for this integration to work.”
“When your Velop system is linked with the Apple Home app, it can monitor HomeKit accessories and prevent them from communicating in ways that might be harmful in the event an external threat from the internet gets through,” Linksys added. “This can stop viruses and malware from spreading, or your data from being sent to the wrong places.”
The entire Velop line with not get the update. The update is limited to the following models.
A03
WHW0301 & WHW0301B
WHW0302 & WHW0302B
WHW0303 & WHW0303B
The update notification was first spotted by HomeKit News on Thursday evening.
AppleInsider reviewed the Velop router in December. At the time, we found that it delivered significant real-world speed on our iPhone 11 Pro Max because of Wi-Fi 6. Other devices show minor speed improvements as well because of the power of the router itself —but with the price still so high for Wi-Fi 6, it was hard to justify for the vast majority of people. HomeKit Router certification and compatibility may change that, however.
PlatinumGames Open To Wonderful 101 Sequel, As Long As Fans Show Their Support
In the same interview with Nintendo Everything, prior to the reveal of The Wonderful 101: Remastered, PlatinumGames head Atsushi Inaba said the developer was open to a follow-up, provided fans showed their support for the remaster.
In regards to a sequel or something, we can’t make one if there aren’t any fans for the series in the first place. So if fans support this and things go really well for The Wonderful 101, then I’d say it’s pretty natural that we’d want to make another game in the series!
The game’s director Hideki Kamiya added to this, stating how he had all these creative ideas flowing back when the original Wii U title was in development and hoped he could put them to use in the future:
I had ideas like, ‘Oh, what would it be like if we did a sequel where Wonder Blue was the leader?’ All of these creative and exciting ideas were flowing, and then the game released and I saw the numbers and was like, ‘Wait, what?!’ So, I hope I get to have those aspirations again in the future.
Last weekend, The Wonderful 101: Remastered surpassed its $1.5 million Kickstarter stretch goal, which unlocked “Luka’s First Mission” and two more stretch goals.
Would you like to see a sequel one day? Have you shown your support by backing the first game on Kickstarter? Leave a comment below.
Netflix Raises Hell With Castlevania’s Season 3 Trailer
After a false call by Netflix Nordic last November, earlier this week the third season of the animated adaptation of Castlevania was officially dated. It’s arriving next month, on 5th March, and will reportedly be comprised of a total of 10 episodes.
If the release date alone wasn’t enough, Netflix has now shared its first trailer of season three. As you might recall, the previous season ended with Alucard killing his father. Unfortunately, though, the human race is still under threat from Dracula’s forces of evil.
Trevor Belmont, his morning star, and the speaker Sypha Belnades make a return in this new season alongside Alucard, as they reunite once again in an attempt to stop Hell from breaking loose. View the full trailer above and tell us what you think of it in the comments below.
Posted by: xSicKxBot - 02-17-2020, 12:18 AM - Forum: Lounge
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Castlevania Season 3 Gets Wild And Intense First Trailer
On March 5, the Netflix series Castlevania will arrive for its highly-anticipated third season. The first trailer for the animated series has arrived, and it's pretty intense.
Dracula is out of the picture, and a new league of vampires rise to power, including the iconic character's son Alucard. This season, the war comes to humans, and you can check out the first video for the new season below.
Think of this as our bloody valentine to you, Castlevania is back for season three on March 5th! pic.twitter.com/2F13YIykFn
There are plenty of new characters being introduced for Season 3, many of which you can see in the latest poster for the show. The vampires' plot is to enslave and farm the humans for their blood, to sustain them. However, Trevor Belmont has a few new friends to help save the human race, and many of them have some pretty cool special powers to keep the undead bloodsuckers at bay.
The Disgaea games may not be as famous as Final Fantasy or Dragon Quest; nevertheless, the series has a loyal fanbase, appreciative of its hardcore tactical approach. This is a remake of the first game in the series; Disgaea: Hour of Darkness. The original was released on PS2 back in 2003. Thankfully, this updated version has enhanced graphics and even a few mobile-exclusive features.
When the Demon Prince, Lahral, wakes from a two-year nap to find that his father has died and numerous upstarts are vying for his rightful position of Overlord, he decides to do something about it. Roaming the halls of the Netherworld, Lahral soon encounters numerous merchants, each with their own helpful advice. There is a lot of information to absorb but after reassurances by one rather patronising guy, who explained that it is possible to complete the game with minimal knowledge, I decided to plough on.
The Dark Assembly building sounded ominously intriguing, so I stepped inside. Here, you can add new members to your party, train characters to higher ranks and even, through either bribes or brawn, try to influence the Assembly itself. The initial party consists of just Lahral and Etna (a lady who you soon discover has her own hidden agenda), with the remaining slots being temporarily filled by odd little penguin-type creatures, known as prinnies. Whilst appreciating their support, I decided to try and bring a bit more balance to my party by first recruiting a cleric. Unfortunately, mana is needed to recruit even the most wet-behind-the-ears character, which meant embarking on my initial battle.
First though, trips to the weapon and armour shops to buy some shiny new clobber. Each character can be equipped with a maximum of four items so inventory management never becomes too much of a chore. There is also a hospital nearby, making use of their healing services may cost gold but also awards you with special items. The more healing you need the more items you receive, so, weirdly, suffering lots of damage is good?
Battles take place on an isometric grid. They follow the usual turn-based, action-allocation format, but add a few neat twists. Positioning allies in adjacent squares can trigger combo attacks, and a mentor system enables characters created at the Dark Assembly to benefit from fighting alongside their master. One option is to lift and throw adjacent characters. This allows you to pick up and fling comrades, thus increasing their movement range or reaching inaccessible high points. You can also grab and throw prinnies, who react like penguin-based grenades, exploding on impact. Enemies that block your way can also be grabbed and thrown around the landscape. This landscape is also littered with multicoloured geotiles. Depending on their colour, these provide either bonuses or penalties to characters standing on them. Geotiles are powered by crystals, which can be destroyed or thrown, altering the make-up of the landscape. Clever placement of crystals and deployment on geotiles will definitely give you an edge; especially as the game progresses and the battles become much tougher.
Disgaea isn’t an open-world game of exploration and side quests. It is a linear sequence of tactical battles split into ten episodes, each divided into several stages. Progress requires constantly revisiting stages to boost your character’s level. You will be required to do more grinding than performers at a Dirty Dancing convention. Thankfully, this updated version allows players to switch to an auto-battle mode and to speed up the action by up to a factor of eight. Characters in this mode do tend to throw caution to the wind and sometimes you will be called upon to take over command to reach particularly hard to get at enemies. However, without this ability to zip through stages the game quickly becomes repetitive and frustrating.
Frustrating because, from the onset, it is obvious that this is a straight port from other systems. Anyone used to the instinctive interfaces of the likes of Warbits and the recent Apple Arcade release Spaceland is going to be in for a big shock. The interface feels archaic, with all actions requiring constant menu switching rather than a simple tap and move approach. This is exacerbated when you want to perform quite involved chains of actions such as moving, lifting and throwing. The camera also causes frustration. It can only be rotated in 90° steps, which means that getting a clear overview of the action requires constant switching of the angle. The terrain features remain stubbornly solid and it is all too easy to overlook a lurking enemy and unnecessarily awkward to identify and keep track of your units.
It is a real pity that these issues impact on the enjoyment of the game since it still has many ideas that, in spite of the age of the game, feel fresh and innovative. To upgrade equipment, you need to travel inside it, Fantastic Voyage style. Here the landscapes shift to the abstract, and battling your way through the levels improves the item. Mad, but genius too.
The cutscene graphics, over the top special moves and combos, are also wonderfully realised with a bevvy of likeable characters and classy voice acting. Some of the humour may have been lost in translation but there is still plenty of comedy and weirdness to enjoy, as our egocentric antihero sets about claiming what is rightfully his. It is part loving homage to the anime genre and part self-parody, as the characters mock the level-grinding nature of the gameplay. The music is also splendid, with a range of diverse background tunes that throw every musical genre into the melting-pot.
Despite the enhancements, there is no escaping the fact that Disgaea is based on a game that is over 15 years old, with a price that is probably more than your average mobile gamer spends in a year. The auto-battle mode is both a blessing and a curse. It eliminates the fiddliness of combat and substantially reduces the original’s 100 hour playing time. However, overuse of this feature ruins Disgaea’s tactical nuances, turning the whole game into an overly long anime.
B&H launches massive Apple Mac sale: save up to $1,000
By Christine McKee Saturday, February 15, 2020, 09:51 pm PT (12:51 am ET)
Fresh markdowns have been issued at Apple Authorized Reseller B&H Photo, with bonus savings on 16-inch MacBook Pros, 21.5-inch and 27-inch iMacs, and even new Mac Pros.
16″ MacBook Pro deals are back
Kicking off the sale, B&H has reissued its popular triple-digit discount on Apple’s new 16-inch MacBook Pro. Select between the standard model or opt for the 8-core retail model with 1TB of storage and upgraded AMD Radeon Pro 5500M 4GB graphics.
Apple’s iMac line is also on sale this week at B&H with discounts of up to $450 off current and closeout models. With prices starting at $999, there’s a price point for nearly every budget.
Those on the hunt for the lowest prices on Apple’s powerful Mac Pro can also save up to $1,000 on the desktops this week with a number of exclusive deals. Configs marked with an asterisk (*) have special activation instructions found near the bottom of this page.
*Special activation instructions To activate the discounted prices, you must shop through the special pricing links above or in our 8-core Mac Pro, 12-core Mac Pro and 16-core Mac Pro Price Guides from a laptop, desktop or iPad. We apologize, but the offer cannot be redeemed in mobile apps at this time. Need help? Send us a note at [email protected] and we will do our best to assist.
24-core
28-core
Additional Apple deals
AppleInsider and Apple authorized resellers are also running additional exclusive savings on Apple hardware that will not only deliver the lowest prices on many of the items, but also throw in bonus discounts on AppleCare, software and more. These offers are as follows:
This week at Bungie, we had to fix the timeline . . . again.
Sometimes when you kill a bug it doesn’t stay dead. Earlier this week, while deploying Hotfix 2.7.1.1, a small number of servers failed to restart with the proper configuration file. This reintroduced a previous issue that caused some players to lose currency. We had to reset the clock again, and roll back character data to ensure that no one’s hard-earned currencies were lost. To give you some details from behind the scenes, we posted a detailed recap of why this issue reemerged and how we’re working to prevent it from rearing its ugly head again. Player Support has more info below on Hotfix 2.7.1.2 going live this morning and how it put this bug to bed for good.
In other news, Crimson Days is back and Guardians are partnering up to show their love. The Tower decorations are up and Lord Shaxx is inviting partners to enter his special Crimson Doubles playlist in the Crucible. For the full details, check out our Crimson Days page or last week’s TWAB.
Fronktaline
To invest or to donate? That is the question the community has been pondering since the Empyrean Foundation event began last week. Many in the community are recommending that players keep investing in Obelisks, but we’re seeing a steady rise in donations as players have already hit stage five. We’ve also received reports from Spider that this economic stimulus has been great for his business.
Here is a look at current Fractaline donation tracking as of noon PST.
Billions of Fractaline have been donated, but you have billions more to go to reach stage seven and unlock the final Triumph for the Savior Seal.
An Affinity for You
When we introduced Armor 2.0 with Shadowkeep last fall, we got a lot of feedback on the new armor system – specifically pertaining to Elemental Affinities. Many of you have been asking for the ability to change Elemental Affinity types on armor. We’ll be adding the ability to do this starting next Season.
You’ll soon be able to change the Elemental Affinity on any piece of armor to either of the other two Affinity types directly from the item’s inspection screen by hovering your cursor over the armor’s energy icon. This is intended to mitigate the experience of getting an armor drop with a stat roll you want, but the wrong Elemental Affinity. Changing an armor Affinity type will cost 1 Upgrade Module. If your armor is already upgraded to a higher energy level, the cost will be the total upgrade materials necessary to reach that energy value plus 1 Upgrade Module.
Seasonal Mods
We also received a lot of suggestions on how to improve Seasonal mods. Starting next Season, the Seasonal armor mod socket (e.g. Undying Mods, Dawn Mods) will also be able to use mods released during the Seasons before and after the armor piece was released.
For example, armor with a mod socket from Season of Dawn can now equip Dawn Mods, Undying Mods from Season of the Undying, and [Redacted] Mods (from Season of [Redacted])
Iron Banner
As Crimson Days comes to a close, Lord Saladin will arrive just in time to fill the hole in the heart of a less decorated Tower. Red flowers will be replaced with a burning shield as the last Iron Banner of this Season kicks off next week.
Iron Banner and Valor Bonus
Start: 9 AM PST on February 18
End: 9 AM PST on February 25
This is your last shot to finish your Iron Banner quest this Season and pick up any pinnacle rewards from Iron Banner bounties. Equip your best gear and control those zones!
GROUNDHOG DAY
Player Support is the first to field reports of issues in the game. The Help forum is the best way to throw up signal flares if you suspect something is awry.
This is their report.
HOTFIXES AND ROLLING BACK ACCOUNTS
After Hotfix 2.7.1.1 went live on Tuesday, the Player Support team started receiving reports of players missing their Destiny 2 materials and currencies, again. We alerted the rest of the development teams about the issue and the decision was made to immediately take the game down to prevent more players from being affected. Around 4 PM PST, we finished rolling back player accounts and brought the game back online.
Earlier today, we released Hotfix 2.7.1.2 which included a server code fix to prevent currencies and materials from disappearing again, as well as a fix for the infinite Dawnblade Super issue.
BOND, CRIMSON BOND
Lord Shaxx has decorated the Tower and brought Crimson Days back to the Crucible. Along with a partner, you can forge a Crimson Bond with them in the Crimson Days Doubles playlist, earn Confectionary Hearts, and purchase unique rewards. The event will end at the weekly reset on February 18.
KNOWN ISSUES
While we continue investigating various known issues, here is a list of the latest issues that were reported to us in our #Help Forum:
Players who completed quests or lost progress, gear, or weapons between 8:30 and 10:30 AM PST on Tuesday, February 11, will have to complete or earn them again due to our account rollback.
The “Fire of the Crimson Days” emblem can’t be accepted if it’s already your inventory. Delete the emblem and accept the new one to continue.
Unearned/unclaimed Crimson Days triumphs will be removed when Crimson Days ends and won’t be able to be claimed afterward.
Players having trouble collecting their Undeterred, SVC-12, or IVC-10 Sparrows need to make room in their Sparrows and Consumables inventory to receive them.
For a full list of emergent issues in Destiny 2, players can review our Known Issues article. Players who observe other issues should report them to our #Help forum.
Best Picture
Our movie awards may not have all of the pomp and circumstance of the Oscars, but dmg04 always dresses up when he picks the winners. Also, you don’t have to wait a year for more Movies of the Week. So that’s a bonus. Anyway, our award process is pretty simple – we pick our favorite community-made videos and the winners get an emblem. Just please make sure you include your Bungie.net profile link in the description of the video if you win.
Movie of the Week: Little Legend
Honorable Mention: I got a Fever
Hard to believe we only have one month left in Season of Dawn. If you’re planning on getting the title before the end of the Season, make sure you start finishing up any Triumphs you need. Looking at the numbers, the community should be unlocking the Empyrean Foundation Triumph soon.
We gave you quick look at some upcoming armor changes and we’ll continue to unveil details on what else to expect next Season in the weeks to come.
