Destiny 2's Xenophage, The New Exotic Weapon, Is Bugged
Among the many new things introduced to Destiny 2 this week was another Exotic weapon quest, this one for Xenophage. Starting the quest and seeing it all the way through is challenging, but that didn't stop some players from quickly getting their hands on it--and finding themselves underwhelmed. As it turns out, the weapon is bugged, causing it to be less effective than intended.
After players began to unlock Xenophage, posts began to pop up on places like Reddit wondering if something was wrong. The weapon was not dealing precision damage and was generally not great--not exactly what you'd expect from an Exotic light machine gun.
In response to some of the feedback that's been shared about the new gun, Bungie community manager Cozmo23 wrote on Reddit, "I checked with the team on this. The fact that Xenophage does not do precision damage is not a bug and by design. However, the weapon is unintentionally underperforming and we are currently investigating."
Bungie's weekly blog post reinforced that this is a bug, much to the amusement of some players due to the fact that Xenophage's unique design is basically that of a bug gun.
There's no word on how quickly Xenophage's problems will be resolved, but there's no time like the present to work on acquiring it. Alternatively, you can dive into the new dungeon or Festival of the Lost.
The Khronos Group have just released the Vulkan Unified Samples Repository, a single location for the best tutorials and code samples for learning and using the Vulkan API.
Today, The Khronos® Group releases the Vulkan® Unified Samples Repository, a new central location where anyone can access Khronos-reviewed, high-quality Vulkan code samples in order to make development easier and more streamlined for all abilities. Khronos and its members, in collaboration with external contributors, created the Vulkan Unified Samples Project in response to user demand for more accessible resources and best practices for developing with Vulkan. Within Khronos, the Vulkan Working Group discovered that there were many useful and high-quality samples available already (both from members and external contributors), but they were not all in one central location. Additionally, there was no top-level review of all the samples for interoperability or compatibility. This new repository project was created to solve this challenge by putting resources in one place, ensuring samples are reviewed and maintained by Khronos. They are then organized into a central library available for developers of all abilities to use, learn from, and gain ideas.
The first group of samples includes a generous donation of performance-based samples and best practice documents from Khronos member, Arm.
The repository is hosted entirely on GitHub under the Apache 2.0 source license. The code samples are located here.
I’m not really a huge fan of Halloween, mainly because in the evenings I don’t like to be bothered. After a long day my priorities are to eat dinner and relax on the couch, and not be answering the door every few minutes to give out sweets. We put out some anyway just in case anyone did come knocking, but it was a quiet year on our street so most of the box is still there.
In terms of the site this week we finally caught up on a review I’ve been meaning to have done (Xenowerk) and had what will probably be the penultimate look at games are still due out this year. We also reviewed Bad North, which is excellent, if only really suitable for short bursts.
There was a lot of buzz around GWENT when it first turned up. A hit mini-game within the very popular RPG The Witcher 3, it had all the hallmarks of an excellent stand-alone experience and, lo and behold, it appeared on PC and consoles in 2018. Not much has really been heard about it since then – it’s still going, and people still seem to enjoy it, and we’ve known a mobile version was on the horizon at some point.
After a recent beta period, that ‘some point’ is finally here, although only on iOS. GWENT is a very different game from the likes of Hearthstone and other challengers, although it’s still at its core a vaguely CCG looking card game. Michael is hard at work playing through the game for us now, and we’ll bring you our thoughts on it over the coming weeks. No word on an Android version yet I’m afraid, but we’ll keep you posted.
The Quest is a bit of a PT staple so it’s good to see it’s still going. This is a new stand-alone expansion to the beautifully hand-drawn Adventure/RPG with new areas, new quests and new challenges. As with past expansions, you can purchase this as a stand-alone experience if you don’t own the base game, or enable the new content within your existing save.
If you’re doing it within the base game, go to Mithria harbor and talk to captain Hanty, then select “Basilisk’s Eye” as your travel destination. The devs recommend you be at least level 75 before taking on the new content.
Last but not least, A Case of Distrust caught our eye as something that might be worth looking at. It’s a narrative-based murder mystery experience, so not our usual fare, but it won a bunch of indie awards in 2017 and has developed a good reputation on PC and other platforms. It’s now finally on iOS.
App Updates, News & Pre-Orders
Tropico
Feral Interactive released a free update for their mobile adaptation of banana republic simulator Tropico this week. The ‘Absolute Power’ expansion has been made available at no extra cost, which consists of 10 new missions, each taking place on its own island. Don’t forget to check out our review.
Runescape Mobile
While ‘Oldschool Runescape’ is already available on mobile, that’s the old 2007 version of the game. If you wanted to play the currently running modern version. You’d have to play on a PC… until today! An Early Access build has released on Android, although despite being free-to-download, you can’t actually play it unless you’re a subscriber of the game on PC.
No word on an iOS version yet, or if the Early Access will open up to anyone else. I’ve dabbled in Runescape myself on PC, but because I’m a free-to-play user I’m not able to access the Android build.
Mario Kart Tour Multiplayer
Mario Kart Tour has been out nearly a couple of months now, long enough to get a good measure of it. It’s a pretty good way of idling away some time if you’ve got nothing better to do, and the Mario Kart aesthetics make for some good nostalgia, but a true Mario Kart game it is not. One of the main reasons for this is the lack of true multiplayer.
We just heard today that a beta trial of a multiplayer mode will be rolling out in December. Unfortunately, it’s only going to roll out for the Gold Pass subscribers first. The Gold Pass costs $4.99 and unlocks the game’s 200cc mode and then various cosmetic goodies. That’s the same price as Apple Arcade, just so you know.
Minecraft
The iOS and Android versions of Minecraft were updated to Version 1.13 earlier this week, the first major patch since July. It’s another technical focuses one looking at fixing bugs and the like, but it also adds Foxes as a new animal, and the Character Creator, which allows you to further customise your avatar in lots of different ways (with even more ways available to purchase). There are few other little content drops as well.
Halloween App Sales
Fuuu- there are a lot of sales to process this week, so you may have to settle for a more general bulletin rather than our usual more specific alerts:
Necrodancer: AMPLIFIED is down to $2.99 (not cheapest price), and the original game is also discounted.
XCOM: Enemy Within is down it its cheapest price of $1.99 again on iOS and Android, as are a couple of other 2K games.
King of Dragon Pass is half price, making it its cheapest price in recent memory. Six Ages is still full price.
Handelabra’s One Deck Dungeon is down to $4.99 on iOS and Android. It was slightly cheaper in June.
All of Acram Digital’s games are discounted on iOS and Android.
Stardew Valley is down to $4.99. It was $3.99 in Dec ‘18 so it might go that cheap again this year, but it’s still a decent price.
A lot of Ironhide’s (Kingdom Rush, Iron Marines) games are going cheap this week on iOS and Android.
New trailer for ‘Ghostwriter’ shows up on Apple TV+ YouTube channel
By Amber Neely Friday, November 01, 2019, 11:54 am PT (02:54 pm ET)
A new trailer showcases clips from the reimagined 1990’s PBS classic educational program “Ghostwriter,” now available to watch on Apple TV+.
When a ghost takes up residence in a local bookstore and releases fictional characters into the real world, a team of kids must band together to help put everyone back into their proper stories.
The trailer teases clips of the characters interacting with famous literary characters such as the White Rabbit from “Alice in Wonderland” and Mowgli from “The Jungle Book.”
The video’s description reads “Magic. Mystery. Mad Hatters. Just another average day in middle school.”
“Ghostwriter” is a reimagining of the early ’90s PBS classic. While the original series focused on the characters solving mysteries with the help of a ghost, the reimagining is a bit different.
The aim of “Ghostwriter” is to help bolster the reading skills of elementary school students. This time around, the characters will have to help rescue classic literary characters and get them back to their correct pieces of fiction. “Ghostwriter” is available to watch now on Apple TV+.
Posted by: xSicKxBot - 11-01-2019, 09:27 PM - Forum: Windows
- No Replies
First wave of Xbox Black Friday deals arrives
The holidays will be here before you know it, and to kick off the start of November, we are unveiling the first wave of Xbox Black Friday discounts. This is just a sample of our entire Black Friday deals – tune in via Mixer for a special episode of Inside Xbox live from X019 in London on Thursday, November 14 at 12:00 p.m. PT for the full lineup of Xbox Black Friday discounts and offers. You won’t want to miss out!
First up, we are offering a 50% discount on Sea of Thieves: Anniversary Edition, the fastest-selling first-party new IP of this generation. Join this multiplayer, shared-world adventure game featuring new modes like the story driven Tall Tales or The Arena, a competitive multiplayer experience on the high seas. Xbox Live Gold is required to play Sea of Thieves: Anniversary Edition and is sold separately.
Deals are valid starting on November 24 and run through December 2, 2019. Plus, Black Friday kicks off even earlier for Xbox Game Pass Ultimate and Xbox Live Gold members, with Early Access beginning on November 21.
Visit Xbox.com, Microsoft Store and participating retailers globally for more details on availability and pricing as deals will vary between regions and retailers. See here for more Black Friday deals from Microsoft Store.
Xbox has something for everyone on your gift this list year, and at every price point. Be sure to tune in to Inside Xbox at X019 on Thursday, November 14 at 12:00 p.m. PT for the full lineup of Xbox Black Friday deals.
It’s here! We’re proud to announce the release of Fedora 31. Thanks to the hard work of thousands of Fedora community members and contributors, we’re celebrating yet another on-time release. This is getting to be a habit!
If you just want to get to the bits without delay, go to https://getfedora.org/ right now. For details, read on!
Toolbox
If you haven’t used the Fedora Toolbox, this is a great time to try it out. This is a simple tool for launching and managing personal workspace containers, so you can do development or experiment in an isolated experience. It’s as simple as running “toolbox enter” from the command line.
This containerized workflow is vital for users of the ostree-based Fedora variants like CoreOS, IoT, and Silverblue, but is also extremely useful on any workstation or even server system. Look for many more enhancements to this tool and the user experience around it in the next few months — your feedback is very welcome.
All of Fedora’s Flavors
Fedora Editions are targeted outputs geared toward specific “showcase” uses.
Fedora Workstation focuses on the desktop, and particular software developers who want a “just works” Linux operating system experience. This release features GNOME 3.34, which brings significant performance enhancements which will be especially noticeable on lower-powered hardware.
Fedora Server brings the latest in cutting-edge open source server software to systems administrators in an easy-to-deploy fashion.
And, in preview state, we have Fedora CoreOS, a category-defining operating system made for the modern container world, and Fedora IoT for “edge computing” use cases. (Stay tuned for a planned contest to find a shiny name for the IoT edition!)
Of course, we produce more than just the editions. Fedora Spins and Labs target a variety of audiences and use cases, including the Fedora Astronomy, which brings a complete open source toolchain to both amateur and professional astronomers, and desktop environments like KDE Plasma and Xfce.
And, don’t forget our alternate architectures, ARM AArch64, Power, and S390x. Of particular note, we have improved support for the Rockchip system-on-a-chip devices including the Rock960, RockPro64, and Rock64, plus initial support for “panfrost”, an open source 3D accelerated graphics driver for newer Arm Mali “midgard” GPUs.
No matter what variant of Fedora you use, you’re getting the latest the open source world has to offer. Following our “First” foundation, we’re enabling CgroupsV2 (if you’re using Docker, make sure to check this out). Glibc 2.30 and NodeJS 12 are among the many updated packages in Fedora 31. And, we’ve switched the “python” command to by Python 3 — remember, Python 2 is end-of-life at the end of this year.
We’re excited for you to try out the new release! Go to https://getfedora.org/ and download it now. Or if you’re already running a Fedora operating system, follow the easy upgrade instructions.
In the unlikely event of a problem….
If you run into a problem, check out the Fedora 31 Common Bugs page, and if you have questions, visit our Ask Fedora user-support platform.
Thank you everyone
Thanks to the thousands of people who contributed to the Fedora Project in this release cycle, and especially to those of you who worked extra hard to make this another on-time release. And if you’re in Portland for USENIX LISA this week, stop by the expo floor and visit me at the Red Hat, Fedora, and CentOS booth.
In a universe where darkness appears around every corner and death usually follows, it’s important to gain courage by looking fear in the face. Candy helps, too.
After taking a year off, Eva Levante has returned as the herald of the Festival of the Lost. This holiday is a time for Guardians to don irreverent masks and celebrate the memories of those that are lost.
As a growing threat looms ever-present, return to the Tower, grab some candy, and remind yourself what you’re fighting for.
Dark The Halls
With Eva’s return comes a renewed dedication to decorations. Candles, lights, cobwebs, and pumpkins adorn every nook and cranny of the Tower to ensure spirits will be raised.
Speak with Eva to begin your journey and acquire a Masquerader Helmet to participate. Earn Chocolate Strange Coins from bounties and activities to purchase Festival of the Lost mask ornaments for your new helmet. All Destiny 2 players can partake in the festivities, including New Light players who need to be 770 Power to begin.
Back by popular demand, Candy makes its sweet return as a reward to be spent towards Mystery Grab Bags and the Braytech Werewolf Legendary Auto Rifle. After acquiring the fully Masterworked 950 Power weapon, create your own monster with random rolls.
Forest Through The Trees
While the festival is underway, Guardians are needed to return once more to the Haunted Forest and defeat the fiends, ghouls, and terrors that lie within. You’ll have 15 minutes to make it as far as you can go, but beware of what awaits you at the end.
Terror-verse
There are more treats to be had in the Eververse if you’d like to further customize your Guardian’s costume. From spooky scary skeleton armor ornaments to Jack-O’-Lantern masks, we’re sure you’ll find something to terrorize your enemies.
To those witches and Warlocks out there who are looking for some good clean fun, your favorite spooky Sparrow has returned.
The Festival of the Lost is a time to honor those who have passed on. Make sure to let your Crucible enemies remember it forever with their own personal tombstone.
Join us in the Tower and beyond and help us celebrate the Festival of the Lost beginning on October 29 and concluding on November 19.
Re-introduced hold-to-attack, but attacks now happen at “120%” charge which is slightly slower than optimal spam clicking
Knockback resistance is now a scale instead of a dice roll (less RNG)
Axes now always disable shields for 1.6s, instead of a 25% chance to disable them for 5s (less RNG)
Axes now only take 1 durability damage for attacking
Axes now have a new “Chopping” enchantment that adds +1 damage and +.5s shield stun per level (max 3 levels)
Projectiles no longer trigger the invulnerability timer, which means that a Multishot crossbow can hit (and deal damage) with all three arrows
Shields protective arc has been decreased to ~100 degrees instead of 180 degrees
Added a “Shield Indicator” option that displays when the shield is active (similar to the attack indicator)
Added an option to hide the shield when it’s active
Additional notes:
The Chopping enchantment is experimental. You can still apply Sharpness to axes in the anvil, but Sharpness and Chopping are mutually exclusive. An option here is to change Chopping so that it only affects shields, and let axes get Sharpness from enchanting, but currently there are no mobs in the game that use shields so in that case Chopping would be meaningless in PvE.
The delay to auto-attacking will likely be removed when we add the system to Bedrock for controllers and touch. It may be a mouse-and-keyboard only limitation.
Unpack the folder into your “versions” folder of your local Minecraft application data folder (see below if you are confused)
Create a new launch configuration in the launcher and select the “1_14_combat-3” version
Start the game and the remaining files will be downloaded
Play in a new world! This version is not compatible with other snapshots! (These are based on the 1.14 branch and doesn’t include any bug fixes or features in the mainline snapshot series.)
Here’s what you’ll find in each of the sections of the map:
A weapon test area where you can test out weapon range, new enchants, shield mechanics, etc.
A Vanilla gameplay challenge area with portals into iconic Minecraft encounters
PvP and PvE battle arenas
Feel free to give feedback on the map as well!
FEEDBACK SITE
In addition to replying on reddit, you can head over to the feedback site to discuss specific topics here: https://aka.ms/JavaCombatSnap
Please note any combat designs or features within the combat snapshots and maps may or may not appear in an upcoming final release. As usual, we recommend keeping an eye on our release changelogs for details.
This Switch eShop Game Is On Sale For Just Two Cents, But Should You Buy It?
We’re well used to eShop sales these days; publishers often use a cheeky price drop to get their game to the top of the charts and give it some much-needed visibility, but SimFabric has taken this to new lengths by hacking the price of Tocana’s Dev’s action title Preventive Strike to just 2 cents.
The game launched in May of this year for $1.99 / £1.59, so it was hardly an expensive game to start with. Still, the publisher is clearly hoping that, by bringing the cost of entry down to such a small amount, many players who baulked at the original price will now take the plunge.
Is this good for the eShop, though? That’s highly debatable, as it means this title – which we haven’t played ourselves but can report scored a rather lukewarm 6/10 on Steam – will be suddenly catapulted to the upper regions of the eShop charts, where it will presumably gain more attention and more downloads.
Does it deserve this extra attention? Probably not. Should you rush out and buy it? Again, probably not – unless you’re short on games to play or are shopping on an especially tight budget.
Still, it’s easy to see why eShop publishers do this sort of thing; if your title has stopped selling, then you really do have nothing to lose by hacking the cost down and giving it a boost. In fact, you could argue that you have everything to gain in this ‘race to the bottom’, as you’ll pick up sales – even if it’s just 2 cents per copy.
Let us know if you’ve been suckered in by this tactic by leaving a comment below – who knows, you may even feel that Preventative Strike is worth a look.
The DeLorean 2650 is Available Now in Grip: Combat Racing
The DMC DeLorean is one of the most iconic cars ever made. Since its creation, there really hasn’t been anything else like it. Those immediately recognizable rear lights, the gull-wing doors, the retro yet futuristic look, the sleek windshield leading to an edgy front end…
It’s a sharp, timeless bullet of a car.
Taking this iconic car with such a famous design and turning it into one that fit into the chaotic and futuristic Grip: Combat Racing world was a bit of a challenge. We had to give it huge wheels without looking stupid. We had to bolster it with armor and bring it into the 27th century. We had to design a completely new other side that not only looked cool and unique, but fit well with the “top” side.
We also had to give it wings.
One interesting aspect of Grip’s vehicles is that their designs need to compliment axles for wheels as well as wings/thrusters that allow them to turn into anti-gravity ships. Rollers and Airblades, is what we call them. Two very different vehicle types dumped into one race. The DeLorean was no different – it needed to look great with both wheels and wings. You be the judge:
The first thing we did was center the vehicle in its huge tires and then bulk the car up with armor. You can see paneling on the hood, the windows (which are no longer glass), the bumpers, the roof, and pretty much every inch of surface on the car.
Then we had to find a place for the jet thrusters, while keeping the iconic rear of the car intact. We blasted some holes and stuck in some pipes to give the rear an even more powerful and rugged.
Next was the underside, which was a completely new addition to a DeLorean and required something that was a departure from the top, but still fit the overall themes well. What we came up with was something almost like a functional undercarriage.
Last were the wings, which were admittedly one of the hardest parts to do, as a car with wings can easily turn out a hideous monstrosity. As it turned out, the car doesn’t look ugly at all, and actually looks pretty damn awesome.
The DeLorean 2650 was a massively enjoyable but tricky endeavor. More design thought went into this car than probably any choice of three other cars from Grip’s roster. The results are a meticulous inception of what we thought an absolutely decked out, futuristic, armored up, jet powered, big wheeled or slick winged DeLorean would look like. e know people are going to love it as much as we do.
