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Starcraft II 4.11.0 Patch Notes

December 26, 2019 by

Arcturus gets his own co-op and so much more

GENERAL

  • New Co-op Commander and Announcer: Arcturus Mengsk
    • Control the battle with an iron fist as Arcturus Mengsk, the newest Co-Op Commander for StarCraft II.
    • Feed an endless stream of cheap troopers into the meat grinder, softening your enemies for your Royal Guard to go in for the kill.
    • Learn more in our blog.
  • A new Winter Announcer is now available.
  • 16 Nation Wars 2019 team Portraits were added into the Nation Wars 2019 Complete Bundle available for purchase through Matcherino website.
  • MMR is now revealed on the loading screen for Master and Grandmaster players in 1v1 ladder games.
  • Account Management link has been added to the log in screen.
  • Queue up with DeepMind feature is going to be shut down with this patch.
  • Balance test tab is going to be disabled.

CO-OP MISSIONS

  • Brutal+ difficulties have been added to Co-op. These create random mutation challenges of increasing levels of difficulty. The Retry Brutal+ setting allows players to attempt a failed challenge on the same map against the same enemy unit composition. Brutal+1 can be queued with any level 15 commander through matchmaking. Brutal+2 through Brutal+6, and the Try Again setting, can only be played with a premade group.
  • Co-op players on Hard difficulty will now play at Faster game speed in order to better match with Brutal players.
  • The Ultralisk’s Frenzied ability no longer blocks mind control effects in Co-op.
  • Ultralisks may now walk over Zerglings, Banelings, Locusts, and Broodlings in Co-op.

VERSUS

  • Balance Update
    • Terran
      • Battlecruiser
        • Tactical Jump now stuns and puts the Battlecruiser into a 1 second vulnerability phase before it teleports. In this state, the Battlecruiser can be damaged, but Tactical Jump may not be canceled.
        • Yamato Cannon will no longer cancel itself if a target enters a transport or becomes cloaked/burrowed. Instead, the Yamato Cannon will miss, and the ability will go on cooldown.
        • Fixed an issue that if a Battlecruiser used shift to queue several commands which included Tactical Jump, it would be immune to Abduct or Interference Matrix as if it was using Tactical Jump during that time.
        • Fixed an issue where the Raven’s Interference Matrix and the Viper’s Abduct were causing the Battlecruiser’s Tactical Jump to go on cooldown.
        • Fixed an issue that displayed the opponent’s Battlecruiser’s locations on the minimap after using Tactical Jump.
      • Hellion/Hellbat
        • Infernal Pre-Igniter research cost decreased from 150/150 to 100/100.
      • Liberator
        • Advanced Ballistics upgrade moved from the Starport Tech Lab to the Fusion Core.
        • Advanced Ballistics upgrade now increases the range of Liberators in Defender Mode by 3, down from 4.
      • Medivac
        • Moved the Rapid Re-Ignition System upgrade from the Starport Tech Lab to the Fusion Core.
        • In addition to reducing the Medivac’s Ignite Afterburners cooldown by 5 seconds, this upgrade will also increase the Medivac’s base movement speed from 3.5 to 4.13. However, this upgrade will not affect Medivac’s movement speed during the Ignite Afterburners effect.
      • M.U.L.E.
        • Duration remains at 64 seconds.Developer Comment: Since there are some situations where the mule duration decrease could return less minerals than before, we want to revert the mule’s duration to their original 64 second value.
        • M.U.L.E.’s now always attempt to spawn on the side of minerals closest to a town hall.
      • Raven
        • Interference Matrix energy cost increased from 50 energy to 75 energy.
        • Interference Matrix duration increased from 8 seconds to 11 seconds.
        • Raven movement speed increased from 3.85 to 4.13.
        • Fixed an issue where splash damage will not properly apply to units affected by Anti-Armor missile.
      • Thor
        • High Impact Payload damage decreased from 40 (+15 vs Massive) to 25 (+10 vs Massive).
        • High Impact Payload weapon cooldown decreased from 1.7 to 0.9.
    • Zerg
      • Brood Lord
        • Broodling leash range decreased from 12 to 9.
      • Creep
        • Active Creep Tumors may no longer be canceled.
      • Infestor
        • Removed the Infested Terran ability.
        • New Ability: Microbial Shroud
          • Creates a shroud that obscures ground units below, reducing the damage they take from air units by 50%. Lasts 11 seconds. Energy cost: 100.
          • Cast range: 9.
          • Radius: 3.
        • New upgrade found on the Infestation Pit: Evolve Microbial Shroud
          • Requirement: Hive.
          • Research cost: 150/150.
          • Research duration: 79 seconds.
        • Updated visual effects and sounds for Microbial Shroud
        • Neural Parasite range decreased from 9 to 8.
        • Neural Parasite can no longer target Heroic units.
      • Lurker
        • Lurker Den build time decreased from 86 seconds to 57 seconds.
        • Lurker range decreased from 9 to 8.
        • New Upgrade found on the Lurker Den: Seismic Spines
          • Increases the Lurker’s range from 8 to 10.
          • Requirement: Hive.
          • Research cost: 150/150.
          • Research duration: 57 seconds.
        • Increased research duration of Adaptive Talons from 54 seconds to 57 seconds.
        • Lurkers affected by Blinding Cloud will now only fire to melee range.
      • Nydus Network
        • Nydus Worm cost increased from 50/50 to 75/75.
        • Summon Nydus Worm ability cooldown increased from 0 to 14.
        • Nydus Network and Nydus Worm initial unload delay increased from 0.18 to 0.36.
        • Nydus Network and Nydus Worm load period increased from 0.09 to 0.18.
        • Nydus Network and Nydus Worm unload period increased from 0.18 to 0.36.
      • Overlord
        • Pneumatized Carapace research cost increased from 75/75 to 100/100.
    • Protoss
      • Adept
        • Resonating Glaives reworked. Instead of increasing attack speed of the Adept by 45%, it will increase the attack speed of the Adept by 60% for 6 seconds after a completed Psionic Transfer.
      • Mothership
        • Time Warp now affects air units in addition to ground units and buildings.
        • Time Warp delay reduces from 3.57 seconds to 1.79 seconds.
        • Gains the Heroic Tag. Neural Parasite can no longer target Heroic units.
        • Fixed an issue where beam-type weapons didn’t get slowed in the Mothership’s Time Warp.
      • Observer
        • Observer movement speed decreased from 3.01 to 2.63.
        • Gravitic Boosters upgrade now increases movement speed by 1.31, down from 1.51.
      • Oracle, Sentry, Void Ray
        • Fixed an issue where beam attacks could deal more damage than intended.
      • Tempest
        • Kinetic Overload (anti-air) range decreased from 15 to 14.
        • Health increased from 150 to 200.
        • Shields decreased from 125 to 100.
      • Void Ray
        • New upgrade found on the Fleet Beacon: Flux Vanes
        • Increases the Void Ray’s movement speed from 3.5 to 4.65.
        • Increases the Void Ray’s acceleration from 2.8 to 3.76.
        • After the upgrade, the Prismatic Alignment ability will still reduce the Void Ray’s movement speed to 2.625.
        • Research cost: 100/100.
        • Research duration: 57 seconds.
        • Fixed an issue after getting the Flux Vanes upgrade where the Void Ray’s acceleration didn’t get reduced while using Prismatic Alignment.
      • Zealot
        • The Charge upgrade no longer provides Zealots with +8 damage on impact. Instead, it increases Zealot movement speed from 3.15 to 4.72, up from 4.13.
  • Maps
    • Introducing a new map mechanic:
      • Acceleration Zone Generators
        • Increases movement speed of ground and air units within the generated field by 35%.
    • Changed the color of Inhibitor Zones and Time Warp bubbles from green to red. Acceleration Zone Generators will be green.
    • Inhibitor Zone Generator minimap icons updated from green to red. Acceleration Zone Generator minimap icons will be green.
    • The center of Inhibitor and Acceleration Zone Generators are now pathable. The art was updated to reflect this.
    • Concord LE
      • Lighting status updated.
    • Eternal Empire LE
      • Fixed an issue where players could not build on certain gas geysers.
      • Fixed and issue where units could clip into rock doodads and become hidden.
    • Nightshade LE
      • Adjusted some mineral and gas locations at the natural, third, and fourth bases.
      • Updated some doodads at certain locations.
      • Updated the map so that units and structures are brighter and easier to see.
    • Winter’s Gate LE & Turbo Cruise ’84 LE
      • The center of the Inhibitor Zone Generators were changed to be pathable. Maps were updated to maintain the original pathing around the Inhibitor Zone Generators.
    • World of Sleepers LE
      • Changed the Rich Vespene Geysers to normal Vespene Geysers.
    • Zen LE
      • Changed the pathing near the Reaper paths so that Reapers can path properly.
      • Changed the location of the reduced mineral field and updated the pathing on the map to allow Terran players to wall off the natural base with 1 Command Center and 2 Supply Depots.
      • Fixed the heights of certain rooftops on doodad structures.
      • Updated grass and rock textures in the middle of the map.

BUG FIXES

Campaign

  • Legacy of the Void
    • Kerrigan’s Queens no longer attempt to place creep tumors incorrectly during the first epilogue mission.
  • Nova Covert Ops
    • Hunter-Seeker Missiles from Ravens with Special Ordinance equipped now deal splash damage.

Co-op Missions

  • General
    • Missions will now properly pick a map or commander victory line at random.
    • Amon’s Brood Queens should no longer autocast Ensnare on structures.
  • Commanders
    • Han & Horner
      • Fixed several of Han’s buildings to display her Junker adjutant.
    • Karax
      • Chrono Beam can no longer be cast on Kerrigan’s resource pickups.
    • Kerrigan
      • Omega Worms can no longer prevent defeat for Kerrigan’s ally.
      • Raptor strain Zerglings should no longer occasionally launch themselves from Nydus Worms at great speed.
    • Stetmann
      • Fixed an issue where Jumping Mecha Baneling could overkill units.
      • The game performance should be much improved while large numbers of Stetellites exist on the map.
      • Mecha Drone hotkeys can now be set.
      • Mecha Banelings now count towards Zagara’s Baneling & Scourge statistic.
      • Gary now obeys the laws of air units.
    • Tychus
      • Tychus players can no longer gain access to additional outlaws earlier than intended.
    • Vorazun
      • Void Thrashers now properly spawn when Vorazun uses Time Stop before or as they are spawning.
      • Fixed an issue that caused some heroic units to not benefit from Vorazun’s Time Stop Haste mastery.
    • Zagara
      • Damage dealt by Mecha Banelings now properly count towards Zagara’s Baneling & Scourge score.
    • Zeratul
      • The Artifact will move itself if its spawn location becomes unpathable.
      • Zeratul now properly unloads when dropped on top of large units.
      • Fixed an issue that caused Void Templars to fail to do damage while blinking.
      • Xel’Naga Watchers are now correctly affected by sight limiting mutators regardless of Artifacts collected.
  • Mission
    • Malwarfare
      • Fixed an issue that could cause a Suppression Tower’s minimap icon to persist indefinitely.
      • Fixed an issue that could cause air units to path poorly near the players’ main base.
    • Minor Evacuation
      • The Eradicator’s Rail Gun can no longer hit targets behind it.
    • Mist Opportunities
      • Harvesting Bots should no longer occasionally wander off.
      • Fixed an issue that could cause the bonus objectives to become invisible.
    • Oblivion Express
      • Damage is no longer sometimes ignored when attacking multiple train cars.
    • Scythe of Amon
      • New units spawned from Void Rifts are now properly affected by Polarity mutator.
      • Larva and Eggs will no longer die when a nearby Hatchery, Lair, or Hive is destroyed.
    • Temple of the Past
      • Fixed an issue that could cause the bonus objectives to become invisible.
    • Void Launch
      • Leviathans, Motherships, or Lokis now properly spawn in the final shuttle wave.
  • Mutators
    • Bonus AI terminals no longer become hostile to players with the Polarity mutator selected.
    • Amon’s Dehaka no longer transforms while the Transmutation mutator is active.
    • Void Rift minimap icons should no longer appear very small on Low settings.
    • Purifier Beams should now respect the same areas that other mutators avoid.
    • The Concussive Attacks mutator no longer affects Frenzied targets.

Collection

  • The Visual indicator for the cooldown of the Ihan-Rii Disruptor’s Purifier Nova ability now appears, and the cooldown animation now appears as intended.
  • The correct upgrade animation now appears when selecting an upgrade from the Cybernetics Core with the Forged skin applied.

User Interface

  • Portrait borders on the versus loading screen should now display your league on the race you are playing as instead of your highest league across all races.
  • Fixed a few issues where Console skins could appear as unintended in game and replays.
  • The multiple burrow icons in the help menu for Zerglings no longer appear in game.
  • The Custom lobby has been updated to prevent the screenshot button from overlapping map details text.

Filed Under: Other Games, Starcraft 2 Tagged With:

Starcraft 2 Crashing on Mac

June 22, 2017 by

UPDATE: Patch 3.1.5.1 has now been released which fixes the issue.

Have you installed patch 3.1.5 and now find your Starcraft 2 install is crashing a few seconds after logging in? Well you’re not alone.

A thread on the Blizzard forums shows a long list of people experiencing the same thing. So hunker down for a further patch – hopefully it hits soon. We at least know that Blizzard have acknowledged the issue.

If you’ve found a workaround, post it in comments. Suggesting that the PC version is used is not a workaround.

Filed Under: Starcraft 2

Funcom’s The Park Draws Near

October 15, 2015 by

ThePark_KeyArt_SmallerSlimmer-612x33727th October is when Funcom’s The Park drops and the company are promoting a little pre-order offer that might interest. There’s a 23% discount plus for The Secret World players there’s some extra incentive:

By Purchasing the game you will receive exclusive items in The Secret World when The Park launches later in October this year:

  • You will get the Chipmunk Killer outfit, which was worn by Steve Gardener as Atlantic Island Park’s mascot in 1979. He was known as Chad the Chipmunk and his gruesome murders are still talked about on Solomon Island to this day.

  • You also get The Woodcutter’s Legendary Talismans. This necklace was a gift to Lorraine from her late husband. It is a QL 10.9 Talisman, which comes in three version – one for tanks, one for healers and one for damage dealers. Each version has a unique ability.

Aussie expat Joel Bylos is behind The Park and if it’s half as good as The Secret World we expect it’ll go down well with players.

Filed Under: Other Games, The Secret World Tagged With: ,

Destiny: The Taken King – A Review

September 19, 2015 by

I’m going to jump straight into the review of The Taken King without a paragraph or four regurgitating the challenging first year Destiny has had. We all know the story of ‘no story’, so let’s move on.

The first thing that jumps out is the improvements in navigation (thanks as much to the Destiny 2.0 update). The quest screens, the communication is all more obvious and it’s a great thing. Here’s the quest overview screen, something that wasn’t there at all in year one:

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If you played in Year 1, you’ll have 5-10 minutes of running around the Tower picking up some gifts for your previous patronage then you’re ready to launch into the new story. And I’m extremely pleased to report there is story! It’s quite engaging as well, with the banter between Eris Morn and Cayde-6 particularly entertaining.

As far as locations go we only get the one new one: Saturn, but the re-use of the other planets is done well enough to keep it fresh. The new vistas are as stunning as you’d expect and throwing Taken into the mix gives the new content some good variety whilst also ramping up a feeling of how hectic things are getting in the story. The main storyline revolves around taking down Crota’s dad Oryx, but once you get to the end of that there’s a bunch of other quests to do to build your reputation, skills and sub-class. Time-wise, it took me half a dozen hours maximum to get from Level 34 to 40.

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The game mechanics in the new Strikes are overall excellent – lots of frenetic activity is the name of the game with most. I really enjoyed the Echo Chamber strike in particular – there are some nice mechanics to keep it interesting. I haven’t gotten geared to Raid level yet, let alone that the Raid content isn’t available at time of writing, so I can’t comment there. On the PvP side of things I’ve only recently gotten into Crucible matches but from what I’ve seen of the new content it’s a worthy addition to the stable and the new modes (Mayhem and Rift) are welcome as well.

Just to be as balanced as possible, there are still some annoyances with the game. There are a number of locations where you’re presented with a vast chasm to get across. If you look in a certain direction a small levitating rock ledge appears that you jump on, with the next ledge appearing. For me at least though, the next ledges didn’t appear a lot of the time, either because it was glitchy or I wasn’t looking in a very specific location. Very frustrating and unnecessary – how many players want to be playing Mario jumping in a game like this? The direction arrow on your mini-map also remains very misleading in some locations – there was one instance of me dying three times assuming I had to try and do some Mario jumping when in fact I was meant to go in the opposite direction to where the arrow was pointing. Hopefully there’ll be some incremental fixes on this stuff.

So is The Taken King worth the nearly $100 you’ll pay for it? For me the answer is yes, though I’d still tend towards buying the disc given it has all the content on it to date. For new players there’s now a game that will keep you occupied for months. For those that listen to our podcast, you’ll know we both lost a great deal of faith in the game. I’m happy to say  most of that faith has been restored but I still have an eye of what moves Bungie makes in the coming 3-6 months. In the meantime, I’m never going to get sick of that view:

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Now it’s your turn: if you’re playing The Taken King, is it meeting your expectations?

Filed Under: Consoles, Destiny, Other Games Tagged With: ,

Destiny 2.0 Patch Notes

September 9, 2015 by

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2.0 Patch notes

 

Just a quick update this morning now that patch notes are live. How’s that 18Gb patch?

https://www.bungie.net/en/News/News?aid=13474

2.0.0 – The one to prepare for Oryx.

 

This update begins Destiny Year Two. It contains sweeping changes that will impact the way we all play. Prepare for the arrival of The Taken King.

 

Player Character

  • Character Level Cap raised to 34 for all players
    • Your Character Level will be grandfathered into your highest possible Light Level from all gear in your inventory and vault 
    • Character Level Cap will be increased to 40 on 9/15 (requires The Taken King)
  • Character Level and Light are now separate stats
    • Light is now calculated by the average of the Attack and Defense scores of all your gear
    • Weapons, Ghosts, Class Items, and Artifacts now all contribute to Light
    • Grimoire Score has been moved from the Character Nameplate and now displays in the Character Screen
  • Attack Power values on weapons and gear have been renormalized in preparation for the Taken King
    • Year 1 Attack and Defense values caps have been renormalized for Year 2 (previously 365 Attack is now 170 Attack) 
    • All Defense values are now on the same scale as Attack
    • Weapon damage numbers and combatants have been scaled against renormalized Attack and Defense values
  • Outgoing and Incoming damage has been changed to reflect new Light system
    • Ability Damage is directly computed from your Light Score
    • Player Health is directly computed from your Light Score
    • Weapon Damage is heavily weighted by both your Light score and the Attack value of the weapon

 

Classes

General

    • Intellect, Strength, and Discipline now only change their effect in fixed tiers
    • Intellect, Strength, and Discipline stats now display their tier and the exact duration of the effect on the tooltip in the Character Screen
    • Orb generation is now capped to a maximum of 8 orbs at once when wearing exotic armor items that increase orb spawning rates
    • Increased Recovery stat time at low end by 1 second and Reduced high end reduced timer by 2 seconds.  These were re-normalized Recovery stat effects to make a more compelling character stats choice
    • Pulse Grenades secondary effect distance are now globally 8 meters (Thermal and Void: 7 -> 8 meters, Arc: 9 -> 8 meters).  Detonation distance still unchanged at 7 meters
    • Pulse Grenade fuse times have been reduced
    • Thermal Pulse (Incendiary Grenade) base detonation and damage have been increased to unify stats with other Pulse Grenades
    • Fixed an issue where perks that grant additional super energy for grenade kills did not work correctly in the Crucible

 

Titan

Defender

      • Line attacks (Fist of Havoc Shockwave and Arc Blade Razor’s Edge) can now no longer penetrate Ward of Dawn

 

Hunter

Gunslinger

      • Golden Gun Damage increased (350 -> 360) to ensure it consistently killed opponents in the Crucible

Bladedancer

      • Arc Blade can now generate up to 6 Orbs when geared with exotic armor that increase orb spawning rates
      • Blink movement ability activation delay increased by 0.07 seconds (0.26 seconds to 0.33 seconds)
      • Blink movement ability visuals now changed to better telegraphing direction: clearer activation FX and trail FX
      • Blink Strike now does Arc Damage
      • Arc Bolt grenades (Thermal and Arc) damage reduced by 25% to 75 damage
      • Arc Bolt Range reduced by 11% to 8 meters
      • Flux Grenade tracking shape volume has been changed to reduce tracking aggressiveness

 

Warlock

General

      • Armor Bonus perk “Strength of the Ram” (found on exotic helmet, The Ram) has been reduced (5->3)

Sunsinger

      • Fixed an issue where Sunsingers who self-resurrected from Fireborn were given a free orb upon respawn
      • Fireborn Sunsingers must now successfully kill to spawn orbs

 

Weapons

Read our detailed review of weapon change philosophies.

 

Auto Rifles

    • Base Damage increased across all archetypes
    • Damage Falloff now starts closer to the player to emphasize its role as a close range weapon
    • Base Stability reduced slightly.  Landing consistent precision shots require more weapon control
    • Damage done against AI combatants increased by 30%

Pulse Rifles

    • All Stable (low recoil) Pulse Rifles (i.e., Hopscotch Pilgrim) now use “Medium” Rate-of-Fire base stats
    • “Medium” Pulse Rifle’s Rate-of-Fire has slightly increased, but with base Damage reduced slightly (2.5%)
    • PVP: Bursts-to-kill (all precision hits) is 2 or 3, depending on victim’s Armor stat
    • Magazine Size increased on all base stats
    • Base Stability reduced slightly. Landing consistent precision shots require more weapon control
    • Damage done against AI combatants increased by 25%

Scout Rifles

    • Base Damage increased slightly for “Medium” to “High” Rate-of-Fire Scout Rifles. Small adjustment, does not change shots-per-kill in PVP against another Guardian with full health
    • Magazine Size increased on all base stats
    • Accuracy when firing from hip is reduced
    • Damage done against AI combatants increased by 5%

Hand Cannons

    • Damage Falloff distance has been reduced to be closer to the player to limit long range lethality
    • Accuracy while in Aim-Down-Sights reduced slightly, making long range snap-shooting less reliable
    • Accuracy when firing from hip is reduced
    • Magazine Size reduced on all base stat settings
    • Base Optics (zoom) reduced so Aiming Down Sights grants more width (in favor for depth)

Shotguns

    • Shotgun precision damage scalar grants 10% bonus damage (Was 25%)
    • Shot Package perk reduces the cone spread by 20% (was 50%)
    • Rangefinder perk adds a 10% base Range increase on zoom (was 20)
    • Damage done against AI combatants reduced by 45% ( 2.25-> 1.15)

Sniper Rifles

    • Final Round perk now buffs precision damage, not base damage. This change only affects this perk when combined with Sniper Rifles

Fusion Rifles

    • Fusion Rifles now no longer get more accurate with each projectile fired
    • Fusion Rifles that are slow charging, high impact now have a slightly lower base Range value, making it harder to max out
    • range for these weapons
    • Accuracy increased for low range Fusion Rifles; Accuracy reduced for high range Fusion Rifles
    • Max Fusion Rifle projectile speed decreased slightly
    • Damage done against AI combatants increased by 15%

Sidearms

    • Base Reload Speed increased
    • Ammo Stats for Sidearms have been reduced to match other Secondaries, but still retain starting bonus ammo

Rocket Launchers

    • Blast Radius distance slightly increased
    • Grenades and Horseshoes perk proximity detonation distance reduced to 1.3 meter (was 2 meters)

Machine Guns

    • Fixed an issue with all Dead Orbit Machine Guns where attached plasteel plate failed to animate properly on reloads
    • Damage done against AI combatants increased by 5%

 

Weapon Perks

General 

    • Reduced Damage bonuses and penalties granted from weapon barrel upgrades
    • Overpenetration perk now only works on bipeds (no longer works on environment materials)
    • Mulligan perk chance increased to 20%

 

Year One Perks

We have revisted all of these Year One stat perks and reduced the amount they buff your weapon stat to re-normalize against Year Two weapon lethality and reinforce specialization so players are making meaningful trade-offs on weapons.

 

To compensate for the weaker stat perks from launch weapons, we added some new stat perks (introduced in House of Wolves) that provided a significant increase to a stat in exchange for a reduction in other stats. This allows players to be able to spike a stat that reinforces their specialized play style, but at a cost.

 

    • Accelerated Coils: Reduced charge time by 50%
    • Accurized Ballistics: Reduced range and damage bonus by 50%
    • Aggressive Ballistics: Reduced damage bonus by 50%. Increased stability and range penalties by 100%
    • Aggressive Launch: Reduced damage bonus by 50%. Increased stability and projectile speed penalty by 100%
    • Confined Launch: Increased projectile speed penalty by 25%. Reduced stability bonus by 33%
    • CQB Ballistics: Reduced range bonus by 25%. Reduced stability bonus by 33%
    • Enhanced Battery: Reduced magazine bonus by 60%
    • Extended Mag: Reduced magazine bonus by 33%
    • Field Choke: Reduced damage bonus by 50%. Reduced range bonus by 60%. Reduced stability penalty by 20%
    • Field Scout: No longer affects magazine. Reduced inventory bonus by 37%
    • Fitted Stock: Reduced stability bonus by 60%
    • Flared Magwell: Reduced reload bonus by 80%
    • Hammer Forged: Reduced range bonus by 50%
    • Hand Loaded: Reduced range bonus by 50%
    • Hard Launch: Reduced projectile speed bonus by 50%
    • Heavy Payload: Reduced blast radius bonus by 50%
    • Javelin: Reduced projectile speed bonus by 50%
    • Linear Compensator: Reduced damage bonus by 50%
    • Luck in the Chamber: Reduced damage bonus by 3%
    • Perfect Balance: Reduced stability bonus by 40%
    • Send It: Reduced by range bonus 40%. Inventory and equip penalties added
    • Smart Drift Control: Reduced stability bonus by 40%. Reduced range penalty by 33%
    • Smart Drift Control (Rocket Launcher): 
    • Reduced stability bonus by 40%. Reduced projectile speed penalty by 33%
    • Smallbore: Reduced stability and range bonuses by 25%
    • Smooth Ballistics: Stability bonus made into penalty. Range penalty is now a bonus.
    • Soft Ballistics  : Reduced damage penalty by 50%
    • Soft Launch: Stability bonus made into penalty. Projectile speed penalty is now a bonus.
    • Speed Reload: Reduced reload bonus by 80%
    • Warhead Verniers: Reduced blast radius bonus by 37%. Reduced projectile speed bonus by 60%. Reduced stability penalty by 20%

 

Exotic/Legendary Weapons

Hard Light

  • Base Stability increased to 80
  • Hard Light projectiles now have increased bounce count
  • Hard Light projectiles are now not affected by Damage Falloff
  • Hard Light projectile FX updated so it is easier to track the projectile ricochets

Suros Regime

  • Stability reduced
  • Added a Range boost to the Focus Fire node on the Talent Grid

Necrochasm

  • Base Stability increased to 60
  • Magazine Size increased
  • Cursebringer perk will now always trigger on a precision kill
  • Cursebringer perk explosion radius increased and deals more damage
  • Rangefinder perk has been replaced by Zen Moment

The Last Word

  • Range reduced by 10
  • Base Stability reduced by 10
  • Accuracy while in hip fire is increased
  • Precision Damage aim assist while in hip fire is increased
  • Fixed an issue where damage bonuses while in hip fire was not applying correctly

Thorn

  • Base Damage of Thorn DoT reduced by 1/3 for both PVE and PVP
  • Thorn DOT now stacks up to 5x over multiple shots
    • This is a net buff, but it is now spread over multiple shots to eliminates the PVP “2-shot walk away.”
  • Thorn DoT damage now correctly reports as poison

Hawkmoon

  • Luck in the Chamber and Holding Aces perks now have a stacking limit of 2.  Only 2 of the bonus damage perks will ever stack, which should eliminate the Hawkmoon 1-hit PVP kill to an undamaged opponent
  • Holding Aces perk now increases magazine by 2 rounds

Icebreaker

  • Ammo Recharge time increased to 7 seconds between rounds (was 5 seconds)

Gjallarhorn

  • Reduce damage of Wolfpack Rounds by roughly 1/3

Black Hammer

  • White Nail perk now fills the magazine from your ammo reserves

No Land Beyond

  • Fixed an issue where there were overlap/parallax issues in Sights during aim-down-sights view
  • Base Handling increased
  • The Master perk has an increased base precision damage bonus scalar (2.6x -> 3x)

Lord of Wolves

  • Rally perk now grants +5 Recovery to allies in close proximity

Thunderlord

  • Arc detonation chance for Lightning Rounds kill increased to 50%
  • Magazine size increased to offset ammo stat changes

Vex Mythoclast

  • Projectile Speed increased to compensate for global Fusion Rifle changes
  • Stability increased to compensate for global Fusion Rifle changes

Universal Remote

  • Base Range increased by +20

Monte Carlo

  • Stability increased to compensate for global Auto Rifle Changes
  • Fixed an issue where the Method perk did not only trigger when killing players or combatants. Can no longer trigger when “killing” destroyable objects

Bad Juju

  • Stability increased to compensate for global Pulse Rifle changes

Red Death

  • Stability increased to compensate for global Pulse Rifle changes
  • Fixed an issue where Rate of Fire and Impact stats were displayed incorrectly. Stat values were not changed, UI display only

Plan C

  • Range increased to compensate for global Fusion Rifle changes
  • Stability increased to compensate for global Fusion Rifle changes

 

Exotic Armor

General

    • Many pieces of Exotic Armor now recolor when a Shader is applied

 

Titan

An Insurmountable Skullfort

      • Gain a second melee charge for Storm Fist and Sun Strike. (It doesn’t apply to Void melee yet—this is a bug I believe we have fixed in 2.0.1.)

 

Hunter

Spine of Young Ahamkara

      • Bonus to Tripmine grenade duration increased
      • Gain a second grenade charge for Tripmine grenade

 

Warlocks

Heart of Praxic Fire

      • Gain bonus Agility when Radiance is active

 

Activities

World

  • Year 1 Activities have been converted into Quest system
    • Year One Questlines do not require ownership of The Taken King
    • You can replay the story for more experience and reputation by looking at the Quest Collections in the Tower
  • The Ghost is now voiced by Nolan North
  • Fallen Wolf Hunt Patrols will retreat in anticipation of the arrival of Oryx in our solar system
  • Fixed an issue where “Medic” and “Blast Shield” PVP medals displayed while playing PVE activities 

Strikes

  • Players now are required to participate in the boss fights to be eligible for end-of-activity loot.
  • Bonus Loot and Reputation can now be earned via Vanguard Streak Bonuses for players who continue to recycle back into the Strike playlist without exiting to Orbit
  • Burn (Arc, Void, Solar) Skulls now only increases player damage by 2x (down from 3x). Combatant damage to player is unchanged at 3x.
  • Fixed an issue where the incident for completing a strike (i.e., earning the “Strikes Introduction” grimoire card) was not triggering in Strike playlists

Prison of Elders

  • Fixed an issue where the “Servitor Bonds Weakened” buff did not clear when Skolas is pushed into phase 2 
  • Fixed an issue where the web mine FX extended beyond effect area 
  • Fixed an issue where the rewards for Skolas’s Revenge does not grant “Hildian Seeker” to players who already have Ceres Galliot 
  • Glimmer Consumable drop rates reduced drastically from the Arena chest
  • Removed the Elder Cipher exotic bounty 
    • These exotics now have a chance to drop from the large chest in the Queen’s Arena
    • Players who were on any step of the elder cipher should receive a token to redeem at Variks for their choice of House of Wolves exotic weapon

King’s Fall

King’s Fall Raid will unlock on 09/18/15, 10AM Pacific

 

Quests

  • Quest Screen added to Menu
    • The Quest Screen allows you to view all active Quests
    • Quests may be abandoned, but they are recoverable at Abandoned Quest Archives at the Tower
    • Each Quest has a Details Screen that describes the current and previous quest steps
    • Up to four Quests can now be viewed in the Director and while in Nav Mode 
  • Year One Activities have been converted into Quest system
  • New Questlines have been added for each Year One Subclass
  • Reputation panel has been moved from the Inventory screen to the Quest Screen

 

Bounties

  • Bounty slot size increased to 16
  • Incomplete Year 1 Bounties are auto-abandoned on 09/08 in preparation for The Taken King launch
  • Incomplete Year 1 Exotic Bounties are auto-completed at their respective Vendors
  • Bounties are now turned in for completion reward via the Quest Screen
  • Bounties can now be tracked via the new Progress UI in NavMode
  • Eris Year 1 bounties will be retired. Reputation with Crota’s Bane can continue to be earned via TTK Quests on 09/15

 

Tower

General

    • All Vendor reputation from Year One carry over
    • Collections have been added to the Tower 
      • Shaders & Emblems Collections can be found near Eva Levante in North Tower
      • Ships & Sparrow Collections can be found near Amanda Holiday in Tower Hanger
      • Exotic Armor & Weapon Blueprint Collections can be found near the Class Mentors
    • Vault space has been increased to store up to 72 Weapons, 72 Armors, and 36 General 
    • The Bounty vendor, Xander-99, has a new stock of daily Bounties 
    • Map droids have been removed from North Tower, Plaza, and Hangar 
    • Loot announcements now appear in the Tower, but have a maximum range of 10 meters

 

Gunsmith

    • Starting on 09/09, reputation will be earned with Banshee-44 by using his Field Test Weapons

 

Speaker

    • New Ghosts are on sale with the Speaker
    • Year One Emblems have been moved to Eva Levante

 

Factions

  • Faction Emblems are no longer purchasable but will come from faction packages instead
  • Former Vanguard emblems are now unlocked at level 10 and 20 of their respective class quest chains

 

Crota’s Bane

  • Eris’ bounties have been retired as her ire shifts from Crota to Oryx and his Dreadnaught
  • Eris reputation can now be earned weekly by killing bosses in the Crota’s End raid, or through new methods to be discovered in The Taken King’s new destination
  • Eris’ reputation requirements for each rank have been adjusted to be faster
  • Characters will retain any rank they currently have with Eris
  • Eris’ reputation is no longer capped at Rank 4, and players will receive reward packages for Rank increases
  • Players will be able to earn rewards by continuing to level up the Crota’s Bane reputation

 

Queen’s Wrath

  • With the launch of The Taken King, Petra will have new bounties available in the Reef upon completing a new quest
    • These bounties will also drop a Treasure Key the first time one is completed each week

 

Inventory 

  • Class-specific Armor materials have been deprecated in favor of a unified material
    • On Sept 15th, Vanguard Quartermaster Roni-9940 will exchange old materials for new ones
  • Fixed a bug where item upgrade UI was triggering when nothing was actually earned
  • Armor dismantle now makes a sound when dismantling is complete
  • Year Two Weapon Telemetries have now been combined per weapon slot instead of per weapon type

 

Crucible

Preview Event

  • The Taken King maps will be available for all players to preview for free 09/08 until 09/15
  • Rift game mode will be available for all players to preview for free 09/08 until 09/15
  • Crucible Daily will not be available on 09/08 and will resume on 09/15
  • Mayhem Clash game mode will be available for all players to preview for free from 09/11 until 09/15

 

General

  • House of Wolves maps (Widow’s Court, Black Shield, Thieves’ Den) are now available to all Destiny players
  • Year 1 Platform-exclusive maps (The Timekeeper, Exodus Blue) are now available to all Destiny players
  • Added a new Mercy rule that will end blowout games early
    • When the Mercy Rule hits, Shaxx will call out the end of the match. We immediately disable join in progress to prevent any additional players from joining the game (if anyone has dropped already) and reset the game clock to 10 seconds. After those 10 seconds, the match will end normally. All players will receive their end of match rewards and return to matchmaking.
    • More detail about this system can be found here
  • Legendary Loot drop rates have been increased
  • PVP post-game scoreboards now use abbreviated names
    • Hover over these stat headers to see more detailed information on what each stat tracks
  • The PGCR now does not display the “Score” column if the mode does not have individual player scores
  • Shaxx will now comment on multi-kills and kill streaks
  • “Victory Imminent” voice-over will no longer play when there is less than 30 seconds remaining in Crucible matches

 

Director

  • Salvage and Rift are now core Crucible playlists
  • The Taken King maps are now included in the core Crucible playlists

 

Medals

  • Added set of new Crucible medals
  • Buckshot Bruiser, Machine Lord, Sharpshooter, and Master Blaster medals can now be earned multiple times in a row (if you’re awesome enough)
  • Fixed an issue where “First Place Kill” score bonus (which triggers the “Uprising” medal) was awarded when killing the highest scoring player on the winning team, instead of the highest scoring player in the match

 

Maps

Widow’s Court

    • Added invisible physics to keep players from hiding in the ivy overlooking the courtyard Heavy Ammo 

 

Game Types

Salvage

  • Reduced Salvage score limit from 10000 to 7500, as our data showed too many games were ending to the time limit
  • Modified the base 3v3 options to have a 7-second min respawn timer

Skirmish

  • Modified the base 3v3 options to have a 7-second min respawn timer

Inferno

  • Changed special ammo crate timing for Inferno Clash, Inferno Control and Inferno Rumble modes to 2 minutes (small team modes will remain at 3 minutes)
  • Removed heavy ammo crates from all Inferno playlists

Rumble

  • Placing in the top 3 in Rumble playlists now counts as a win for Quest Step purposes

Control

  • Bastion, First Light, and Skyshock have been added to the core Control playlist with Pikes and Interceptors disabled
  • “Zone Captured” and “Zone Neutralized” scoring messages in Control will now display the zone being captured, i.e. “Zone A Captured,” “Zone C Neutralized”

Trials of Osiris

  • Trials Passage Coins are now discarded by the stack rather than by the item

 

UI

  • Super icons in kill messages are now displayed in yellow
  • Added icons to kill messages for precision kills
  • Super kill messages now display the name of the Super used
  • Voice channel settings in Nav Mode have been moved into the Nav Mode toggle display, which also includes quests & bounties, active modifiers, and PvP Scoreboard

 

Technical

General

    • Cinematics can now be skipped
    • Show/Hide Helmet options now also applies to the Character Screen
    • Unused update compat packs will be removed automatically on PS3 and 360 (to save HDD space)
    • Fixed a crash on PS3 when cycling through too many activities
    • Properly report free space required on PS3 when out of disk space
    • Enabled support for game content to be loaded from USB devices on Xbox 360
    • Improved Xbox One messaging and flow handling for users performing certain party options; the Pineapple error should only occur for actual malfunctions now
    • Fixed an Xbox One issue with suspend/resume on certain loading screens
    • If there is a valid playlist, use that for rich presence instead of the activity

 

Networking

    • Reduced latency of kill notifications in Crucible
    • Improved damage validation systems to reduce the effectiveness of players with extreme lag
    • Improved accuracy of network quality meters slightly

 

There are more changes scheduled to take effect with the official launch of Destiny: The Taken King. Final patch notes will be published at 2AM Pacific on September 15th, 2015.

 

Filed Under: Destiny, Other Games Tagged With:

Destiny: The Beta Is Over

September 9, 2015 by

destinyLast week, in the Bungie weekly update, Deej let us all know that Destiny 2.0 would be going live on the 8/9/15. Sadly that was U.S. time as the Patch won’t go live until 3am on the 9th September AEST. Also sadly we still don’t have the final patch notes making it a little bit difficult to report on……

So what to write about? Well let’s get you guys prepped for what’s coming early morning.

The first thing you guys need to know is this patch is a biggie. If you’re on current gen consoles then be prepared for an 18GB download. Make sure you have some free space available and set the console to auto download updates while it is in rest mode and it will there ready and waiting for you tomorrow morning. Also due to the size make sure you take into account any download limits you might have. For last gen console owners the patch is slightly smaller. Xbox 360 owners make sure you have at least 10gb free and PS3 owners you will need at least 20gb free to download, but it also will only take 10gb of space once it has been installed.

All this patching and data is to get ready for the Taken King on the 15th. So even though you may not be able to access all the features in the patch it will make some significant changes which you will be able to access this week! Listed below is the info Deej chose to share with us last week.

Character 

  • Character Level Cap for all players will be raised to 34
    • Level Cap for The Taken King will be 40
    • You will be able to level up by gaining XP alone
    • Character Level and Light are now separate statistics
    • Your Character Level will be grandfathered into your highest possible Light Level from all gear in your inventory and vault
  • Attack and Defense ratings for armor and weapons will be translated to the new systems – their power levels will be unchanged
  • Grimoire Score has been moved from the Character Nameplate and now displays in the Character Screen

Quests

  • A Quest Screen will be added to your Menu
  • Tracks all active Quests
  • Abandoned Quests can be recovered in the Hall of Guardians
  • Year One Activities have been converted to the Quest system

Bounties

  • Bounty slots will be increased to 16
  • Incomplete Year One Bounties will be auto-abandoned on 09/08 in preparation for launch of The Taken King
  • Incomplete Year One Exotic Bounties are auto-completed with their respective Vendors
  • Year One bounties issues by Eris will be retired
  • Reputation with Crota’s Bane can continue to be earned by completing Quests in The Taken King 

Tower

  • Collections have been added to the Tower
    • Emblems/Shaders can be found near Eva Lavante
    • Ships can be found near Amanda Holliday
  • Exotic Armor and Weapon Blueprint added to the Tower 
    • You will now have the Blueprint for all Exotics you own in your Collection
    • Report to the Vanguard in the Hall of Guardians

Inventory

  • Motes of Light will be used to grant XP to Weapons and Armor
  • Class-specific Armor materials will be deprecated in favor of a unified Armor Material 
  • Vanguard Quartermaster, Roni-9940, will exchange old materials for armor material  [Update: This change takes effect on 09/15] 

Weapons & Armor

World

  • Fallen Wolf Hunt Patrols will retreat in anticipation of the arrival of Oryx in your solar system

 

Also you can expect all weapon balancing that has been promised over the last little while start to take effect. Sorry Thorn and Last Word users, your hand cannons won’t pack the same punch anymore. Speaking of weapon balancing and the crucible, starting this week we will be able to preview the two new game modes coming with The Taken King. Get yourself some Mayhem and Rift action in before the new subclasses come out and we are all complaining about them all being OP. Lord Shax is waiting: https://youtu.be/zTiCFIwW37Y

Finally, if you’re still trying to complete your Year One triumphs you have one last week to accomplish it. There are many community sites offering to Sherpa people through to get them completed, so get amongst the community and beat those challenges Guardian. You might find me running people through raids if you’re lucky, but until then I’ll be hanging out starside.

Filed Under: Destiny, Other Games Tagged With:

Destiny: Summing Up Year One

September 7, 2015 by

Huge kudos to the team at Badass Gaming for this very funny summary of Destiny’s Year One. It details in very humorous detail the infuriating shortcomings the game has had over the past twelve months but remains hopeful for the future. Or does it?

Enjoy!

Thanks to Ben McJannett for the heads-up!

Filed Under: Destiny, Other Games Tagged With:

The Taken King: The Momentum Builds

August 12, 2015 by

Picture1For the longest time Bungie has been saying “We are listening.” As fans we have said again and again and again: “Prove it”. With each DLC and patch Bungie has shown signs they have been.  But if all reports for The Taken King in the last couple of weeks is to be believed, I don’t think we will be asking them to prove it anymore and I really, really hope that they live up to the hype this time.

It all started almost two weeks ago when Game Informer announced their cover article for September (psst hey guys it’s only the start of August…. just saying…). In it they revealed that the new level cap will indeed be 40, as many had speculated. There are multiple cut-scenes in the new content, which are also skippable now. And surprisingly Ghost has been completely been re-cast and even had his original dialogue re-recorded. And after Gamescom last week and over the weekend we have had some more information made available.

Game Informer has all this information over on their page. The have all the scoops and information is being drip fed from their website as we speak. In fact there is supposed to be another update tomorrow. As they have done all the work I’m not going to go into huge depth here. Go read their articles. Buy the magazine. Credit where credit is due and all that. But here’s the skinny on what they have so far.

The new level cap is 40. Gone are light levels. Kind of. Light will still exist and be on your gear to some extent. How the new light system works Bungie is yet to reveal, but now you can reach max level with just experience. No more chasing gear to and praying to RNGesus to get into the end game proper. At Gamescom Bungie have said when the Taken King launches your character will be of equal experience level to whatever your current highest level achieved is for that character so far. An example would be if you were level 34 with gear, with experience you will be 34 also. If your 31 with gear, then you will be 31 with experience. Bungie also confirmed to IGN at Gamescom that there will be a one off level boost available to everyone so everyone will be able to enjoy the new content from day one.

Story is finally going to be in the campaign. Yes finally, they have time to explain what they didn’t have time to explain last time. We haven’t seen or heard a lot really. That was until GameInformer shared their latest video interview with Taken King Creative Director Luke Smith and Executive Producer Mark Noseworthy. I’m really excited to see Cayde-6 get his time in the sun, mostly because Nathan Fillion is amazing as Cayde and the character is the one I have hoped to see expanded on since I first played the Beta back in July of last year. Actually I hope now that they have announced Nolan North as the voice of Ghost, they announce (or sneak in) the other biggest VO name in games today, Troy Baker. And then cast him as the voice of Cayde’s Ghost. The banter possibility there is brilliant.

Like I said, there’s more information coming soon, and I expect Bungie to announce upcoming live twitch streams to reveal more this week in the weekly update, but in the meantime check out these and the other articles Game Informer have on their site.

Filed Under: Destiny, Other Games Tagged With:

Top Selling Games of 2015: So Far

July 25, 2015 by

The team over at Inside Gaming have rounded up the Top 10 selling games of 2015 so far. They rightly put a disclaimer on the data they base the Top 10 on, but it still gives a decent idea of what’s hot. If you can’t be arsed watching it, Mortal Kombat X comes out on top.

What’s your thoughts – any surprises? Dammit I need to get GTA V if it’s still selling its butt off after all this time.

Filed Under: General News, Other Games

Destiny: The Rip-Off King

June 25, 2015 by

I want to start by saying I am a Destiny fan. I pre-ordered the legendary edition and have no problems with it. I have been playing since the alpha and have enjoyed the game immensely. But today I am seriously questioning if I will continue to play anymore. Why? Because the newest expansion (this one I will call an expansion as it actually looks to be one content wise) is going to cost more to buy in Australia than the original game. Since when has an expansion ever cost more than the original game?

I would much rather be writing about all the great things the expansion has in store for us. New sub classes, new story missions (with actual story included this time round), new strikes and a new raid. All stuff I’m extremely keen to play. Plus I’m sure there will be new trophies/achievements to pickup, which will help entice some of my clan mates back into the game. But instead I’m sitting here writing about how it is going to cost me more than the original game did. And that’s not right.

Let’s first look at the offered pricing coming out of the US. The digital download of taken king is US $40 (AUS $51.77), The “Legendary Edition” is US $60 (AUS $77.65), and lastly the Collector’s Edition is US $80 (AUS $103.53). Also announced today the price for the digital Collector’s Edition items (that’s only the digital items included in the collector’s edition, not the game) US $20 (AUS $25.88). All the prices listed here when converted to Australian currency all look to be pretty reasonable (excluding the digital collector’s items only which I think is overpriced both in the US and Australia) from an average consumer point of view. When Destiny launched in September of last year the Standard Edition was AUS $79 at most retailers. For comparison to another AAA title, I purchased Batman: Arkham Knight yesterday for $69 on the PS4 (on special, normal price is $89 at the retailer I went to). So that’s the prices we should be expecting, however Bungie and Activison seem to have a different idea in mind.

To break it down this is what we are looking at in terms of price from the current pre-order options available in Australia (according to the official Destiny website). To Pre-order the expansion digitally the options are as follows: PS4 $119.95

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And Xbox One $119.70:

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Those are currently your only digital options Australia. You’re seeing that correct! You can only order the digital collector’s edition. There is currently no way to pre-order a straight up digital download of  just “The Taken King” itself. If you select digital download on the Bungie website for your selected console your only options are “coming soon”, except for the Xbox One which does offer a link to the Xbox store but there is no price currently listed.

The big thing to keep in mind is this is the digital price. Not the physical price. I can’t stress that enough. So shall we compare the physical copy prices now? Well it’s not going to get much better folks. To start with let’s look at what they are calling the legendary edition. The two pre-order options for Australia listed on Bungie’s website are JB Hi-Fi and EB Games (Australia’s version of Gamespot). JB Hi-Fi has the legendary edition listed for all consoles at a staggering $99:

Untitled

That’s a whole +$20 more than what is being paid in America. Sadly our other brick and mortar option isn’t much better. EB Games is also the only retailer selling the Collector’s Edition. And again they are charging another $20 more than when purchasing in the States:

Untitled

What’s your take: will you be forking out for The Taken King?

(No damn way at that price – Ed)

Filed Under: Consoles, Destiny, Op-Ed Tagged With:

Star Wars Battlefront Gameplay Footage

June 16, 2015 by

The Star Wars goodness just keeps on coming out of E3. This time it’s the turn of the Star Wars Battlefront game slated for release this November. Over five minutes of actual gameplay footage from Hoth is now yours to digest:

Not a lot to criticise from what I’m seeing – what’s your take?

Filed Under: Consoles, Other Games

Star Wars Battlefront: Trailer and Release Date

April 18, 2015 by

EA have announced some details about the upcoming Star Wars Battlefront game. November 19th is the Australian release date, with New Zealanders getting it on the 20th. The game will be available for PS4, Xbox One and PC via the EA Origin Service.

Does it look good? Have a look for yourself:

Not surprisingly, there’s a very direct tie-in with this December’s new Star Wars movie:

Fans who pre-order Star Wars Battlefront will be among the first players to experience the Battle of Jakku*, the pivotal moment when the New Republic confronted key Imperial holdouts on a remote desert planet on the Outer Rim. Taking place in the aftermath of the Rebel victory in the Battle of Endor, players will experience the events that created the massive, battle-scarred landscape of Jakku shown in Star Wars™: The Force Awakens™. Players who pre-order Star Wars Battlefront can fight the battle one-week early starting on December 1, 2015. All other players will get access to this free† content on December 8, 2015.

And there’s all the usual suspect planets as well for you to have a look around:

Star Wars Battlefront will allow fans to live out a wide range of heroic moments and intense battle fantasies of their own – firing blasters, riding speeder bikes and snow speeders, commanding AT-ATs and piloting TIE fighters and the Millennium Falcon. These battles will take place on some of the most iconic planets in the Star Wars universe, including Endor, Hoth, Tatooine and the previously unexplored planet, Sullust. Gamers will be able to play as some of the most memorable characters in the original trilogy such as Darth Vader and Boba Fett. Star Wars Battlefront will feature a wide range of modes tailored for different types of battles, from larger 40-person competitive multiplayer to crafted missions that are played solo, with a friend via split-screen offline or co-operatively online.

And finally, some screen shots from the game:

There’s an official site for the game if you want to get ongoing updates, but be assured we’ll let you know when we hear more as well.

Filed Under: Other Games Tagged With:
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