Townsmen ? A Kingdom Rebuilt hands the crown to you: Guide your people from their first steps in a small village to a massive medieval metropolis with thousands of inhabitants.
Apex Legends Battle Pass: Release Timing, Octane, And What We Know
In early February, Respawn surprise-launched Apex Legends, which quickly rocketed to higher player counts than many competitors--both those in the battle royale genre and otherwise. We know from the get-go that what was available at the start wasn't the entire game, and that proper seasons with optional battle passes would be coming before long. Season 1 was slated for release in March, and we still don't have an official release date or details on what exactly to expect.
However, we do know the basic outline of what to expect from a season, and various details have leaked. Most notably, that includes the new character, Octane, who seemingly got an in-game teaser recently. With the end of the month--and presumably the battle pass's release--fast approaching, here's everything we know about the battle pass's contents, release date, new character, and more.
What's Included?
In Respawn's year-one roadmap for the battle passes, it stated that all four of this year's battle passes will include new weapons and loot like exclusive cosmetics, and at least one new Legend character. Each battle pass is said to include about 100 rewards. Several seasonal items will be unlockable through the course of regular play, while others will be exclusive to battle pass holders. Battle passes will also include random Apex Packs, giving you an assortment of random skins and other items to earn.
Price
Respawn has not formally outlined its pricing plan for the Apex Legends battle pass. Its year-one roadmap was the most detail the studio has given on its assorted battle passes coming through 2019, and it didn't mention price anywhere in the announcement.
However, an accidental update on the Origin storefront appeared to disclose the price. Respawn later acknowledged the mistake and called it an "unintentional update about Season 1." All that suggests that the leak was legitimate. If that's the case, the price will be 950 Apex Coins--or roughly $10.
A Founder's Pack is currently offered for $30, which nets you 2000 Apex Coins--likely enough for the first two battle passes--along with other goodies: exclusive character and weapon skins, banner frames, and a Founder's badge.
Release Date
So far, all we know regarding the release date for Apex Legends comes from the roadmap released by Respawn itself. The first battle pass is set to release in March, with others following in June, September, and December. When the Origin leak occurred, some fans suspected the release was imminent. But just as Respawn acknowledged that the leak was legitimate, it also stated that the battle pass was not releasing that day. For now, we still do not have an exact date for the first battle pass release. But with less than two weeks left in the month, it's fair to assume--barring a delay--that it will be out any day now.
New Character, Octane
The leak also unveiled what appears to be the Season 1 character, Octane. We don't have official confirmation of his abilities, but one that was rumored is the ability to place jump pads. Sure enough, launch pads have begun appearing in-game that match that description. Based on coy responses from Respawn developers on Reddit, this sure seems like a deliberate tease for the addition of Octane.
The Origin leak did give us a good look at the character itself. As with the pricing information, the Respawn acknowledgement that it was an unintentional update likely means Octane is legitimate. That said, datamining has revealed several other possible Legends, and these are much less certain. Respawn appeared to address these purported leaks in its statement as well.
"There's stuff in there that is very old, or things we've tried in the past and cut--remember our design process is to prototype and play lots of ideas--and some of it may be things we're still building for Apex Legends," said community manager Jay Frechette. "Finding this stuff by no means confirms that it'll ever come out. At best you should treat any posts about this as a rumor and the real info will come from us when we’re ready to show off what's coming next."
Were you a wizard or a knight? Either way, the results for the latest Splatoon 2 Splatfest have arrived. After a fierce medieval battle across the globe, Pearl and Marina can now confirm team wizard have won! Here’s full the breakdown:
If you happen to be on the winning side, don’t forget to pick up your Super Sea Snails from Inkopolis Square.
Did you participate in the latest Splatfest? Tell us below.
Freedom Planet Might Be Receiving A Physical Release On Switch
If you love games similar but slightly different to the Sonic the Hedgehog series, the 2D platform title Freedom Planet is well worth your time. The GalaxyTrail game started out as a Sonic fan made project and was eventually released on PC in 2014. It has since been ported across to multiple platforms including the Switch eShop.
The game’s publisher XSEED has now applied for an age rating (again), this time for both the Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4. As the previous occasion was for the game’s digital release, this second rating suggests a physical version might be on the way. Below is an image from the ESRB:
Would you be interested in adding a physical copy of Freedom Planet to your Switch library? Tell us down in the comments.
The Special Episode, as it's called, costs $6 / £5.39, and each of its five stages are playable in single player or in two player co-op. It should be noted, however, that the DLC is not coming to the 3DS or Wii U versions of Treasure Tracker.
The paid DLC pack follows a free Captain Toad update in February that added co-op and one new stage ahead of time. Those features improved on what was an already an enjoyable game.
In our Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker Switch review, Daniel Starkey awarded the game an 8/10. "Despite a smattering of minor complaints, Captain Toad stands as a pint-sized version of Nintendo's stellar first party pedigree," he said. "It's among the best Mario spin-offs around and a delightful iteration on old ideas.
"The sharper screen on the Switch and addition of about a dozen new areas and modes make this version a strictly better choice, and the short, relatively simple stages of Captain Toad lend themselves to a portable environment. Of course, it also carries with it the weaknesses of its forebear. Even with the bonus content, Treasure Tracker is a bit short. You're left with the sense that there could be plenty more and that the idea of rotating through levels doesn't get its full due."
Set in Washington D.C., the game takes place 7 months after a deadly virus was released in New York City and the nation has become a shell of its former self. While the virus has been contained, its effects are most evident in the devastated streets of the nation's capital where survivors cling to hope and struggle to rebuild. Enter The Division, a unit of civilian sleeper agents who now must work to stop enemy factions from completely taking over the city ? and ultimately, the nation. As a universally-regarded seat of power, if D.C. falls, the nation falls. With civilians helpless and fearing for their lives, players will be the last line of defense in preventing the total collapse of society. [Ubisoft]
Set in Washington D.C., the game takes place 7 months after a deadly virus was released in New York City and the nation has become a shell of its former self. While the virus has been contained, its effects are most evident in the devastated streets of the nation's capital where survivors cling to hope and struggle to rebuild. Enter The Division, a unit of civilian sleeper agents who now must work to stop enemy factions from completely taking over the city ? and ultimately, the nation. As a universally-regarded seat of power, if D.C. falls, the nation falls. With civilians helpless and fearing for their lives, players will be the last line of defense in preventing the total collapse of society. [Ubisoft]
This inaugural GDC Main Stage presentation, The Developer’s Journey, starts at 12:30 PM PDT in the Moscone Convention Center’s West Hall next Wednesday, March 20th — but get there (or tune in) early, because at 12:10 the pre-show starts, and it features a special Dreams performance!
The Developer’s Journey will focus on finding inspiration over the course of a game’s development cycle, from its earliest conception through its development, to dealing with the fallout from the release and the post-release content. After the presentation opens with a special musical performance generated in Media Molecule’s upcoming creativity-fueled title Dreams. Media Molecule’s Siobhan Reddy will break down how Dreams helps unlock players’ creativity in unprecedented user-generated detail.
From there, Hello Games’ Sean Murray will discuss how his small and unlikely team created one of the most ambitious and anticipated games of 2016, No Man’s Sky. He’ll then detail how by 2019, through determination and love, they built to record player numbers and sown positivity amongst their most negative detractors. This candid and open discussion will show the power of focusing on what you do, rather than what you say, in the face of adversity.
Finally, veteran game developer (and top-rated GDC speaker) Laralyn McWilliams closes out the presentation discussing how her teams have found resolve and inspiration in stressful environments. Laralyn will describe how she has stayed optimistic and motivated through unforeseen challenges using proven and inspiring tools and techniques.
The hope is that this multi-speaker Main Stage presentation (open to all GDC Conference and Expo+ pass holders) will inspire attendees and offer practical insight into creative challenges and opportunities unique to the game development community.
For further details on the Main Stage presentation and all the other fantastic GDC 2019 talks, check out the GDC 2019 Session Scheduler. There you can begin to lay out your GDC 2019, which takes place next week (March 18th through the 22nd) at the (newly renovated!) Moscone Center in San Francisco!
Bring your team to GDC! Register a group of 10 or more and save 10 percent on conference passes. Learn more here.
Posted by: xSicKxBot - 03-18-2019, 01:30 AM - Forum: Lounge
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Epic’s Tim Sweeney addressees privacy concerns for the Epic Games Store
Epic Games head Tim Sweeney has popped into a Reddit thread to address concerns that the Epic Games Store client was showing sketchy behaviors by poking around into unnecessary files.
Most of the accusations brought up by the thread are unfounded, though Sweeney notes that one file accessed by the Store should only be done after a user opts into the feature and will be changed in the future. Both Sweeney and Epic’s VP of Engineering Daniel Vogel address the uses for the specific files called out in the thread, offering a somewhat unusual, transparent look at how the storefront interacts with the machine running it.
The original author of that thread agrees that the accusations are born out of “amateur analysis,” analysis presented alongside a conspiracy theory while raising concerns that Tencent’s minority stake in Epic means the store reports private data to the Chinese government, a conspiracy theory Ars Technica says Sweeney has had to refute several times in the past.
This time around, Sweeney notes that he’s happy to see more and more PC players poking around into and analyzing what their software is doing, but that it’s important that fact remain separate from wild speculation when that does happen.
“In analyzing the results, it’s important to distinguish the normal from the abnormal; e.g. much of the commentary is over what the normal open-source Chromium embedded web browser does upon startup; and to separate technical analysis from inflammatory rhetoric, such as the insane claim that we’re a bunch of Chinese spies,” wrote Sweeney.
This thread, meanwhile, says that the Epic Games Store pokes around in a computer and enumerates running processes on a computer, accesses DLLs in directories for other applications, looks at Internet Explorer cookies, and stores hardware information. Another person in the replies points out that the Epic Games Store also makes a copy of Steam’s localconfig.vdf file if the competing storefront is installed on the same machine.
In most cases, those actions are perfectly innocuous and are used to feed data into things like an anonymized hardware survey or Epic’s Support-a-Creator program, explains a response from Vogel.
That Steam file is the one Sweeney says will be addressed in an upcoming update. The current set up has the Epic Games Store pull the localconfig.vdf file from Steam right away, but only uses it if an EGS user tries to import their Steam friends list into the Epic Games Store. It’s a remnant from the early days of Fortnite, Sweeney says, and one that was born out of the pressure he put on the client team to quickly roll out social features for the game early on.
“You guys are right that we ought to only access the localconfig.vdf file after the user chooses to import Steam friends. The current implementation is a remnant left over from our rush to implement social features in the early days of Fortnite,” wrote Sweeney. “It’s actually my fault for pushing the launcher team to support it super quickly and then identifying that we had to change it. Since this issue came to the forefront we’re going to fix it.”
Xbox One Exclusive Operencia Coming March 29, Pre-order Today
If you follow Xbox Wire, you might have heard about our new dungeon-crawler RPG, Operencia: The Stolen Sun coming exclusively to Xbox — and yes, that includes Xbox Game Pass! It is my pleasure to tell you that you’ll be able to embark on your quest starting March 29.
Operencia will be present at GDC 2019, so keep an eye out between March 18-22 to read first impressions about the game from your favorite gaming outlets. Wait, what’s that? You’re more of a hands-on person? We’ve got you covered. Visit us at the Xbox booth at PAX East at the end of this month to try the game and maybe leave with some exclusive swag! You can also catch a live stream on Thursay, March 14 from 11am PST – 12pm PST on Mixer.com/Xbox and Twitch.tv/Xbox.
As we prepare for launch, we invite you to join Jóska, your completely honest — and in no way untrustworthy — new ally in our story trailer above. You have plenty of catching up to do, so let the scoundrel turned reluctant hero fill you in.
The Sun King of Operencia provided radiance and light for all the land for centuries — but he’s vanished! And with him, all hope for the future of humanity. It’s your job — dare we say destiny — to get him back before everything withers and the land succumbs to darkness. This journey will lead you through places right out of Central European legends, like cursed castles, deep dungeons, and even a glimmering copper forest, as you desperately pursue the crumbs that lead to the Sun King, Napkirály.
Okay, this might be too much to put only on your shoulders. Don’t worry — you won’t be alone. You already know Jóska, and plenty of companions will join you to share that burden. For example, Mezey, a young and idealistic — maybe a bit naive — knight with a sense of purpose and a need to prove himself. Or Sebastian, a veteran warrior willing to do anything for his beliefs — maybe a bit too much if you ask Jóska… You’ll meet others along the way, such as an actual star walking the world in human-like form, a stonemason plagued by the burdens of her past, or even a member of the last members of the táltos order, shamans and witch doctors to Hungarian tribes of old.
And of course, there’s you, the youngest child of a humble farmer, who left the homestead literally following your dreams. Care to lead the way?
Operencia: The Stolen Sun arrives March 29 on the Xbox One family of the devices, Xbox One X Enhanced and with Xbox Game Pass. Keep up with game at OperenciaRPG.com and follow @OperenciaRPG through Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
