Month: December 2018

Black Desert is finally making its way over to the Xbox One. Massive, open-world MMORPGs are still relatively rare on consoles, but games like Final Fantasy XIV and The Elder Scrolls Online are slowly reforming that perception.

Over on PC, Black Desert Online has earned its spot as one of the most popular MMOs around. By adopting a buy-to-play model, similar to The Elder Scrolls Online and Guild Wars 2, once you pay for access to the game, you no longer have to pay a fee anymore (a la Destiny 2) – unless you want to. There’s a cash shop with optional items and perks for premium users, but it’s totally playable as just the base game if you want.

Since a lot of Xbox One players are likely new to this MMO, we’ve put together five specific things to know when starting out in Black Desert on Xbox One based on time spent with the recent Open Beta period.

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[Update] Service has been restored. [Original Story] PlayStation Network services are currently offline, which means online gaming, shopping, and communication is currently unavailable on the PS4. The PlayStation Network service status page states account management, gaming and social, PlayStation Now; Vue; Video; Store; and Music are all inaccessible.

“You may have some difficulty launching games, applications, or online features,” a message on the site reads. “Our engineers are working to resolve the issue as soon as possible, and we thank you for your patience.”

Based on messages directed at the various PlayStation support accounts on Twitter, it looks like the outage is widespread, with users both in the US and Europe reporting issues with connectivity. Sony has not provided a timeframe for when it expects services to be up and running again. The actual cause of the issue has also not been detailed.

With any luck, the problems won’t be severe and the service should be up and running again soon. Of course, outage at this time of the year immediately sparks memories of 2011, when PlayStation Network was severely compromised by hackers. In that situation, services were not restored for a significant length of time.

Downtime is fairly common with online network services, however, so as mentioned previously in most cases issues are resolved fairly quickly.

To celebrate 100 episodes, The Flash is doing something it’s been very fond of over five seasons. Barry Allen (Grant Gustin) is going back in time–again–and will hopefully not screw up the timeline–again. In a trailer for the momentous episode, “What’s Past is Prologue,” it’s revealed that Barry will be revisiting the biggest villains from the show’s past, and he’s not doing it alone. This time, his speedster daughter Nora (Jessica Parker Kennedy) is along for the ride.

The Flash isn’t simply relying on old faces for its 100th episode, though. Instead, as Tom Cavanagh–who directs the installment–told GameSpot at the 100th episode red carpet event, “What’s Past is Prologue” is more about the show’s future than anything else.

“I do have to say I’d be remiss if I didn’t admit that [the fans] figured into it in a massive way because you can you know, you want to have a certain celebration on the screen,” he said. “You do not want to be indulgent. You also don’t want to do a greatest hits episode because in some ways it’s almost too easy.”

So instead of letting the show’s past be the star, every element Barry sees once more helps to push forward a multitude of current plots, from the battle against Cicada (Chris Klein) to his relationship with Nora. “The idea that the writers had to have Norah and Barry Allen go… back in time to get a few things that they need to defeat the current villain, I thought it was genius,” Cavanagh admitted.

And in the end, it’s true to how he and the rest of those involved view the show as; a comic book come to life. “The thing that got us to 100 was trying to do a comic book every time out,” he explained. “You know, we succeed and we fail but we’re always trying. And to not do that for the 100th felt wrong.”

The 100th episode of The Flash airs Tuesday, December 4 on The CW. After that, the “Elseworlds” crossover, which sees The Flash, Arrow, and Supergirl meet up with Batwoman (Ruby Rose) for the first time kicks off on Sunday, December 8. Make sure to check out our photos and teasers for the “Elseworlds” event.

Calling all Xbox One owners who either don’t have Gold subscriptions or have let them lapse. If you’re a Fortnite fan who wouldn’t mind having three months of Xbox Live Gold, here’s a fantastic deal that’s available right now. You can get a three-month subscription to Xbox Live Gold, plus 1,000 V-Bucks in Fortnite, for just $10 / £6. The only catch is that the deal is only open to new subscribers, or anyone who canceled their Gold membership prior to October 1, 2018. You can take advantage of the deal on Xbox.com.

Assuming you’re eligible, this deal can save you a heap of money. Normally, a three-month Gold subscription costs $25 on its own, and 1,000 V-Bucks costs $10. But instead of dropping $35 on this collection of digital goodies, you only have to pay $10.

The deal is even better in the UK, where it will only set you back £6, because 1,000 V-Bucks normally runs £7. That means you get the Fortnite cash and the Gold subscription for less than the V-Bucks would regularly cost on their own.

Now is a particularly great time to get those V-Bucks as well, because Fortnite Season 7 starts on December 6. Assuming the pricing stays the same, buying Season 7’s Battle Pass–which comes with in-game seasonal items and unlocks new challenges each week–will cost 950 V-Bucks. That will leave you with 50 V-Bucks to spend on in-game outfits, emotes, or other cosmetics.

As for Xbox Live Gold, not only does the service let you take your paid games online, but it also gets you free Xbox One and Xbox 360 games each month. This is a fantastic deal, so consider taking advantage if you’re eligible.