Battlerite is Now Available on Steam!

BATTLERITE​ ​is​ ​an​ ​action-packed​ ​team​ ​arena​ ​brawler.​ ​Experience​ ​the​ ​unique​ ​combination​ ​of​ top-down​ ​shooter​ meets​ ​fast-paced​ ​fighting​ ​game and challenge ​friends​ ​and​ foes​ ​in​ ​a​ ​battle​ ​of reaction. The Arena awaits!

Idle Champions Starter Pack, DLC for Idle Champions of the Forgotten Realms is free for 48 hours!

The starter pack provides an entry-level boost to start your Idle Champions adventure with a piece of gear for Bruenor and two Gold Chests.

This pack includes:

Bruenor’s Shiny Level 1 Strong Shield
2 Gold Chests

Available for free until 9am Pacific on November 10th.

When you pick up your Xbox One X on November 7, you’ll experience many of the latest cutting-edge technology features that will be focused in gaming for years to come like 4K Ultra HD, High Dynamic Range, or HDR as it’s better known, as well as Spatial Audio. To help showcase these new features to you, even if you may not have the 4K display to run, we developed an interactive demo known as “Insects.”

Originally developed by the Xbox Advanced Technology Group for game developers, “Insects” was designed to help teams easily see and hear just how the dramatic the differences can be between the various technologies.

Over time, the team realized how fun and effective the experience was, and so we’re making it publicly available the same day that Xbox One X launches, on November 7 to be viewed on your console. “Insects” will be available to download from the Microsoft Store on your console.

If you don’t have an Xbox One X to experience this interactive demo, we have included a variety of screenshots here that showcase all the elements of the video to give you a sense of what features like HDR and 4K bring to your games.

On Xbox One X, the beauty of “Insects” is the option to toggle between the various formats. Once you’ve completed the initial Guided Tour, you can, at any time, turn 4K on or off, as well as HDR and Spatial Audio. You can also pause the experience and zoom in on various elements.

Better yet, you can even change the time of day and alter the colors of the ladybug and flowers, all while toggling 4K, HDR, and Spatial Audio on or off to your heart’s delight. Also, if you download Insects on an Xbox One X and display it on a 1080p display, switching 4K mode on and off will showcase super-sampling in all its beauty.

If you really want to dig into the details, you can even use Pixel Highlighting to show you what areas of the scene are being affected by HDR or Wide Color Gamut. We think you’ll find it remarkable to see the detail pop into focus when you turn 4K back on, or see the range of detail and color when you do the same with HDR. Our personal favorite is switching HDR on and off at night and looking at the moon. It’s such a simple, but great illustration of the technology.

We hope you enjoy the “Insects” demo experience on Xbox One X and we can’t wait for you to feel true power when the world’s most powerful console launches on November 7.

It’s time for the Nintendo Download Update, and it’s another busy week in Europe. There are multiple intriguing retail arrivals on the Switch, along with various download-only options and DLC. The 3DS and Wii U also get in on the act along with the usual batch of discounts, so let’s get to it.

Nintendo Switch Retail Downloads

DOOM (Bethesda, €59.99 / £49.99) – This intense and fast-paced shooter was critically acclaimed when it launched in 2016, and it’s made an impressive transition to Nintendo’s hybrid system. A full-on solo campaign is joined by some fun online multiplayer options, so it’s an impressive package to have on the go. Despite a few day one flaws we still gave this a thumbs up in our DOOM review. Available from 10th November.

Sonic Forces (SEGA, €39.99 / £34.99) – The long-awaited next entry in the 3D Sonic series, drawing ideas from the likes of Generations and Colors. In this one there are wisp powers once again, and in addition you also create and control your own avatar characters in some stages. We gave it a modest recommendation in our Sonic Forces review.

Farming Simulator: Nintendo Switch Edition (Focus Home Interactive, €44.99 / £37.99) – While it’s easy to dismiss a humble farming sim, this series is surprisingly popular. Farming Simulator 17 attracted a whopping one million players within the first month of its launch. Even the German Chancellor Angela Merkel can’t get enough of ploughing virtual fields. If that’s your thing, this may be worth a look.

Ben 10 (Outright Games, €34.99 / £34.99) – A single player action brawler which could certainly be fun for fans of the TV series. Available from 10th November.

Nintendo Switch Retail Download / DLC

Snipperclips Plus: Cut it out, together! (Nintendo, €29.98 / £26.98 for a ‘bundle’ of the full game plus new content, DLC alone is €9.99 / £8.99) – Coming to retail as a complete package with the new content also available as DLC for those that own the original; there’ll be 30 new stages, remixes of old stages and some additional features such as a ‘stamp’ mode. Available from 10th November.

Nintendo Switch Retail Download Pre-Purchase

Xenoblade Chronicles 2 (Nintendo, €59.99 / £49.99 or €89.98 / £76.98 with the expansion pass) – Full game unlock on 1st December.

L.A. Noire (Rockstar Games, €49.99 / £44.99) – Full game unlock on 14th November.

Switch eShop

Octodad: Dadliest Catch (Young Horses Inc, €13.99 / £11.99) – A game based around tricky controls and chaos, it was actually a sequel and certainly earned plenty of plaudits when it first arrived. It eventually made its way to Wii U but, unfortunately, it wasn’t a perfect port. Our review of the Switch version will be with you later today.

Cat Quest (Pqube, €12.99 / £9.99) – One of the quirkier titles that’s been in the works for some time, this is “an open world RPG set in the pawsome world of cats!” Expect lots of cat-themed wordplay, but it also looks like it could be a relatively deep and fun game – we’ll ask whether Dog Quest is in development and see whether this one is purrfect in a review.

Heroes of the Monkey Tavern (Monkey Stories, €9.99 / £8.99) – This one picks up the style of old-school first-person dungeon crawlers, with a mix of classes, enemies, puzzles and plenty of combat to tackle. It looks rather simplistic in footage but neverthelesss captures the stronger points of the genre; we gave it a recommendation in our Heroes of the Monkey Tavern review.

UNO (Ubisoft, €9.99 / £7.99) – No, that’s not a typo, it is a Ubisoft game, and considering the fact that the company’s version of Monopoly costs a slightly ludicrous $39.99USD / £29.99 on the Switch, this is at least reasonably priced. This spin on the card game includes online play and various customisation options to switch things up.

Tallowmere (Teyon, €6.99 / £6.29) – Perhaps you remember this one from its release on the Wii U eShop last year; we really liked it in our review. The challenge is to see how far you can get into the dungeons. Each randomly-generated room gets bigger, harder, and more rewarding the further you go, and you strive to earn better gear as you progress. We’ll check it out on Switch and let you know what we think.

Koi DX (CIRCLE Entertainment, €5.00 / £4.99) – Released on the Wii U a while ago, Koi DX places you in the role of a lone fish which has become separated from its owner and is tasked with purifying waters polluted by mankind. To do this, you must explore the waters for other fish and guide them to flowers of the same colour while avoiding the malevolent black fish. The game includes “memory jigsaws”, new skins and alternative fish to control. We’ll swim towards a review soon.

Transcripted (Plug In Digital, €7.99 / £6.99) – This is a match three puzzler / dual stick shoot ‘em up hybrid that looks a bit like the love child of Nano Assault and Zuma. We’ll see how it shapes up in a review.

Spellspire (10tons, €9.99 / £8.99) – Spellspire casts the player in the role of a nerdy wizard climbing a 100 level tower; plenty of monsters must be defeated and loot collected on the way. Combat uses a word game mechanic, where the player picks letters from a grid of ten to spell out words; these are cast out as spells, with longer words producing more powerful blasts. We’ll dig out a thesaurus and get cracking on a review.

Maria The Witch (Naps Team, €4.99 / £4.49) – One of those ‘tap to fly’ games popularised on mobile and with a few similar experiences on Wii U and 3DS, your task is to collect mail and various items through a variety of stages. We’ll see whether it casts a spell over us in a review.

Rock ‘N Racing Off Road DX (EnjoyUp Games, €7.99 / £7.19) – Another title making its way across from the Wii U, it features a variety of tracks, an arcade mode, time trials, and multiplayer action to get stuck into as well as a rock ‘n’ roll soundtrack for accompaniment. We didn’t have a great experience with the game on Wii U so we’re hoping for a pleasant surprise on the new console.

Street Hoop (HAMSTER, €6.99 / £6.29) – The latest ACA Neo Geo release fills that Basketball gap in the line-up; we reviewed this back in 2010 when it landed on the Wii Virtual Console it netted an impressive 8/10.

Nintendo Switch DLC

Sonic Forces: Shadow Costume (SEGA, free)

Switch eShop Demo

Super Beat Sports (Harmonix, free)

Switch eShop Temporary Discount

Sparkle 2 (10tons, €6.79 / £5.94 until 16th November, normally €7.99 / £6.99)

3DS eShop

Bonds of the Skies (KEMCO, €9.99 / £8.99) – When we saw the artwork and title we instinctively thought ‘that’ll be a KEMCO RPG on 3DS’, and so it came to be. In this one humans and Gods team up to find a demon that’s ‘cast a town into a sea of flames’, which is a normal weekend for most of us.

Hiding Out (Green Lightning, €4.99 / £4.99) – Drawing inspiration from retro platformers, this looks like a simplistic title in which you hunt for photo parts. 

New Nintendo 3DS eShop

RTO (nuGAME, €8.99 / £7.99) – This appears to be a scrolling gallery shooter in which you control multiple characters to shoot a whole lot of scary aliens, though the developer describes it as an “FPS survival horror game with permadeath”.

3DS DLC

Culdcept Revolt – Challenge from Hell (NIS America, €0.99 / £0.89)

Culdcept Revolt – Soltis (NIS America, €0.99 / £0.89)

Culdcept Revolt – Zigzag Tour (NIS America, free)

3DS Demo

Worcle Worlds (Lightwood Games, free)

3DS eShop Temporary Discounts

Fun! Fun! Minigolf TOUCH! (Shin’en Multimedia, €2.24 / £1.87 until 30th November, normally €2.99 / £2.50)

Real Heroes: Firefighter 3D Download Version (Zordix AB, €4.99 / £4.49 until 16th November, normally €9.99 / £8.99)

Me and My Pets 3D (Treva Entertainment, €4.99 / £6.24 until 30th November, normally €29.99 / £24.99)

My Pet School 3D (Treva Entertainment, €9.99 / £8.24 until 30th November, normally €29.99 / £24.99)

3D Game Collection (Joindots, €5.24 / £3.74 until 23rd November, normally €6.99 / £4.99)

Atlantic Quest (Joindots, €5.24 / £3.74 until 23rd November, normally €6.99 / £4.99)

Secret Agent Files: Miami (Joindots, €5.99 / £4.49 until 23rd November, normally €7.99 / £5.99)

Kutar Apple (CIRCLE Entertainment, €0.69 / £0.69 until 23rd November, normally €0.99 / £0.99)

Kutar Burger Factory (CIRCLE Entertainment, €0.69 / £0.69 until 23rd November, normally €0.99 / £0.99)

Kutar End Credits (CIRCLE Entertainment, €0.69 / £0.69 until 23rd November, normally €0.99 / £0.99)

Kutar Powder Factory (CIRCLE Entertainment, €0.69 / £0.69 until 23rd November, normally €0.99 / £0.99)

Kutar Ski Lift (CIRCLE Entertainment, €0.69 / £0.69 until 23rd November, normally €0.99 / £0.99)

New 3DS eShop Temporary Discounts

Super Destronaut 3D (Petite Games, €1.59 / £1.43 until 23rd November, normally €1.99 / £1.79)

FIFTEEN (RCMADIAX, €0.99 / £0.93 until 23rd November, normally €1.49 / £1.39)

Wii U eShop

Annihilation (TreeFall Studios, €1.99 / £1.79) – A pixel-based top-down shooter in which you try to resist waves of enemies; also includes support for co-op.

Wii U Virtual Console

Digital Champ: Battle Boxing (Konami, €6.99 / £6.29) – An interesting idea and technically impressive for the time, this first-person boxing game falls short once it steps into the ring; that’s what we thought in our review, anyway.

Wii U Demo

3Souls (RedColumn, free)

Wii U eShop Temporary Discounts

Bridge Constructor Playground (Joindots, €7.49 / £6.36 until 23rd November, normally €9.99 / £8.49)

Dracula’s Legacy (Joindots, €5.99 / £4.49 until 23rd November, normally €7.99 / £5.99)

Frankenstein – Master of Death (Joindots, €5.99 / £4.49 until 23rd November, normally €7.99 / £5.99)

Island Flight Simulator (Joindots, €5.99 / £4.49 until 23rd November, normally €7.99 / £5.99)

Suspension Railroad Simulator (Joindots, €5.99 / £4.49 until 23rd November, normally €7.99 / £5.99)

Toon Tanks (Petite Games, €1.59 / £1.43 until 23rd November, normally €1.99 / £1.79)

BLOK DROP U (RCMADIAX, €0.99 / £0.86 until 6th December, normally €1.49 / £1.29)

BLOK DROP X TWISTED FUSION (RCMADIAX, €2.00 / £1.80 until 6th December, normally €2.99 / £2.69)

FIFTEEN (RCMADIAX, €0.99 / £0.93 until 23rd November, normally €1.49 / £1.39)

ORBIT (RCMADIAX, €0.99 / £0.93 until 23rd November, normally €1.49 / £1.39)

PINBALL (RCMADIAX, €0.99 / £0.93 until 23rd November, normally €1.49 / £1.39)

SPHERE SLICE (RCMADIAX, €0.99 / £0.93 until 23rd November, normally €1.49 / £1.39)

TABLETOP GALLERY (RCMADIAX, €2.00 / £1.80 until 23rd November, normally €2.99 / £2.69)

That’s it for the European update this week – let us know what you’ll be downloading in the poll and comments below.

Space Pirates And Zombies 2 is Now Available on Steam!

Design and then improve the ultimate mothership. Explore a persistent living galaxy populated by 200 unique captains that can do everything you can do. Survive the zombie infection and then fight them back. Make allies and start your own faction. Build your empire. Also includes Sandbox Mode.

In 1.13 we are completely redesigning the command system to be easier to use, faster to run, and allow for much cooler things than were possible before. Todays snapshot introduces the first kinda-workable build of that command system!

A full changelog can be found on Minecraft.net, which includes a full breakdown of the new command system.

CHANGES

• New horse model! Hurrah!
• Lots of bug fixes! Especially crash fixes on Mac OS.
• New command library! Details below.
• Added new GUI scaling options! 4k users rejoice, you can see a few more pixels now

[…]

COMMANDS

• Most commands are even more case sensitive than before. Lowercase is preferable wherever possible.
• For example, this is no longer allowed: /scoreboard ObJeCtIvEs ...
• They will be so much more faster and efficient. Especially functions. Oh man.
• Functions will be completely parsed & cached on load. This means if there’s any command that isn’t correct for whatever reason, you will know about it on load.
• This means to check if a map works in 1.17.banana, you simple open your world in 1.17.banana. If there’s errors, they’ll be in your log. If there’s no errors, it’s probably fine!
• Here’s a list of every single executable command so-far: https://gist.github.com/Dinnerbone/943fbcd763c19be188ed6b72a12d7e65
• It’s very verbose, because each line is its own command. [optionals]and (conditionals|ors) are separated out.
• ... is where another command is required
• -> foo means an alias to foo
• The new command library is called “Brigadier”. That’s not relevant in any way, I just really like the name.

To get snapshots, open your launcher and go to the “launch options” tab. Check the box saying “Enable snapshots” and save. To switch between the snapshot and normal version, you can find a new dropdown menu next to the “Play” button. Back up your world first or run the game on in a different folder (In the “launch options” page).

Please report any and all bugs you find in Minecraft to bugs.mojang.com.

Snapshots can corrupt your world, please backup and/or run them in a different folder from your main worlds. 1.13 will have a lot of experimental snapshots that may break everything and smell funny. This may be one of those snapshots. This is what happens when Mojang are changing all the things! 

Share your thoughts on how 1.13 is shaping up in the comments below!

This week at Bungie, we’re tallying the rally. 

The battle for resources between the factions is raging on all fronts. Can New Monarchy or Future War Cult rise to the occasion and knock Dead Orbit off their black throne? Their fates lie in your hands. 

Each leader sits on their perch in the Tower, waiting for you to do their bidding in the wild. Which one will you choose? We will find out who awarded the most packages and declare them the winner on November 14. Their banners will adorn our home and their chosen weapon will be available to all. The price you pay will depend on where you pledged your loyalty.

High Fidelity 

The holiday season is nigh, so you might be compiling your wish list. The PlayStation 4 Pro and the Xbox One X are now both out there in the wild, and either of them would make a great gift – even if it’s one you buy for yourself. We’ve seen a lot of questions about whether or not Destiny 2 would scale to meet the potential of new hardware. On this festive occasion, the answer is “Yes!”

On December 5, along with the launch of Curse of Osiris and Season Two, we’ll be deploying an update to Destiny 2 that will deliver stunning gameplay with high dynamic range (HDR) lighting to these new consoles.  You’ll also see adaptive 4K resolution on the PlayStation 4 Pro and 4K on the Xbox One X.

If you’re migrating to these new consoles, or already have, we’ll make it worth your investment.

Answer the Call

Social Cues

Since the first launch of Destiny 2, we’ve seen a lot of feedback about the social features you use to share your adventure with other players. Social Designers M.E Chung and Steve Dolan are here to shed some light on Guided Games, in-game chat, and that emote wheel we talked about a few weeks ago. 

How is Guided Games going?

M.E.: Well, one thing we’re really happy to see is that Guided Games has enabled a bunch of new players to play the Nightfall and/or Raid for the first time (since Destiny 1).  Our goal with Guided Games for end-game content is about helping players find tight-knit communities to join, but we see and are very aware of the current issues. For example, we know that the lack of reconnections causes all kinds of problems with unintentional oathbreakers, that the lack of audio feedback when a clan is found is causing players to miss the queue, that guides lack proper incentives, that we need a guided games option for Trials of the Nine, etc.

Steve: We have several of our superhero engineers working on really important things, like network stability across the game, but we hope to continue making progress on Guided Games as soon as possible. Here are some short-term fixes we’ll deliver with the release of Curse of Osiris on December 5: 

• We’ve added an audio cue so that you know when you’ve found a guide.
• Full clans can now guide.
• Added reminders that if you reject a clan, you’re still at the front of the line, so you can only pick guides with a mission statement that looks appealing.
• Guided games will support the new Nightfall and Raid content you’ll find in Curse of Osiris (and you’ll learn more about that next week on our first livestream).

Why aren’t there checkpoints in Guided Games?

M.E.: The original goal was to prevent checkpoint farming (where players would start a game with a pickup group and drop right when they reached the right checkpoints to take to their buddies), but not having checkpoints causes different issues that we’re not happy with either.  We’re still looking at this.

Steve: We also wanted to make sure every player had the same expectation of where you would be starting.  When you go into a guided game, you will always start from the beginning.  We considered breaking up the starting points by checkpoints, but our fear is that if we split up the matchmaking pools on a per-checkpoint basis, we would make queue times even longer. It’s always a balancing act when putting new players together to play endgame content. 

Why can’t players talk to their clans in the game chat?

Will we see improvements to chat functionality?

M.E.: We can do a waaaaayyyyyy better job in the game to encourage players to communicate, like making more obvious public/team channels and a good time to enter (i.e., NOT when the player gains control when boots are on the ground), or letting players know about chat setting defaults up front when you start the game, or letting you know when someone is trying to whisper you, etc. These are the kinds of things we have on our backlogs, but again, everything is prioritized against all other asks.

What about that emote wheel we just heard about?

M.E.: Yes! No one wants this more than me, and we’re trying our best to make it happen as soon as possible.

Steve: I’ve wanted this forever! Even without an emote wheel there has been amazing content put out by the machinima community. I can’t wait to see what y’all create once the wheel is out and it’s easier to chain your favorite moves together.

Thanks for your patience, for sending feedback, and being a passionate community!

Resetting the Reset

The DPS team is always working diligently behind the scenes. They are making sure you have the info you need to have the best Destiny 2 experience. Player Support Specialists are your tireless advocates behind the scenes – in the meetings, repeating what you talk about on our forum.

This is their report.

Curse of Osiris: Reset Changes

With the release of Curse of Osiris, Ritual Resets will no longer take place at 1 AM Pacific. Starting December 5, resets will occur at 1700 UTC.

Throughout Destiny 1’s lifespan, players would frequently encounter an issue where weekly resets would not always coincide with content releases. This would prevent impacted players from earning new rewards. Countermeasures were taken by disabling activity playlists, but we were unable to prevent every scenario. Additionally, we’re seeking to align the Milestone resets with event availability, such as Trials of the Nine or Iron Banner, to provide a uniform experience for players to follow each week.

The following is a short list of time zone conversions from 1700 UTC. If you do not see your local time below, we advise using an online time zone converter to prepare for the upcoming change.

• 9 AM PST
• 12 PM EST
• 5 PM GMT
• 9 PM MSK
• 2 AM JST
• 4 AM AEDT
• 6 AM NZDT

Stay tuned to help.bungie.net for future Support updates regarding the Curse of Osiris and the start of Season 2, releasing on December 5, 2017.

PC Support:

We are actively investigating general issues and crashes impacting Destiny 2 that have been reported to the PC Support forum. This chatter is helpful and we invite more of it.

Framerate Stutters or Hitches: Hotfix 1.0.6.2 was deployed this week to address issues introduced in Hotfix 1.0.6.1. Some players are reporting continued framerate stutters or hitching. We advise the following troubleshooting steps:

• Ensure you have installed the latest Windows updates
• Ensure you have the latest graphics drivers available for your GPU
• Attempt running Destiny 2 in true Fullscreen mode
• Set clock speeds for hardware, including memory, to manufacturer-recommended defaults

General Gameplay Crashes: As we continue to investigate general crash reports during Destiny 2 gameplay, we advise the following troubleshooting steps:

• Ensure you have the latest graphics drivers available for your GPU.
• • Note: AMD Vega and AMD R9 380 GPU’s have been reported frequently to the #Help forums.
• Set clock speeds for hardware, including memory, to manufacturer-recommended defaults.
• Some anti-virus programs may interfere with Destiny 2. Please consider temporarily disabling the program to see if this resolves your issues. If so, please report your findings to the #Help forum.
• If you are receiving a “Run a scan and repair” error when crashing, yet seeing no improvements after doing so, attempt installing Destiny 2 to an alternate hard drive if available.

Additionally, we are investigating reports of issues encountered when attempting to visit the Third Spire destination during Trials events. Players may circumvent this issue by using in-game vsync settings or the framerate_cap setting in their cvars.xml file to limit framerate to under 100. Stay tuned to @BungieHelp for updates on our investigation.

Movie Madness

Seen any good movies lately? We have. And now we are going to share them with you. Every week we sift through all of the good submissions on the Creations page to pick out the great ones. If your movie gets chosen, we will send you a special emblem in Destiny 2. To enter, just send your movie to the Creations page. Here are this week’s favorites. 

Movie of the Week: Voice Effects

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Honorable Mention: Fragments of Time

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Honorable Mention: Drawing a Nightstalker

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Next week, we will start a series of streams to give you more info on Curse of Osiris, Season Two, and more. The first stream is next Wednesday at 11 AM Pacific. Join us live to learn about the new stories we’ll tell.

Are you excited yet? I am. We have some cool stuff coming up and we are looking forward to sharing more of it with you soon.

<3 Cozmo