Month: January 2019

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Some things, like fine wine, a good pair of jeans, and certain cheeses, get better with age. Unfortunately, many other things don’t, a category that definitely encompasses gaming PCs. When asked to push the heavy graphical load of a new AAA game, computers of a certain vintage start to struggle, and it’s all downhill from there. If your gaming rig’s best days are in the rearview, or you’re looking to dive into the world of PC gaming for the first time, it’s a good time to buy. A number of appealing off-the-shelf gaming PCs happen to be on sale right now.

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There are a bunch of items and resources in Resident Evil 2 that are completely optional, such as hip pouches that expand your inventory space or ammo for some of your most powerful guns. These are typically hidden inside safes or lockers with letter dial locks. You can find the combinations for these either in memos or even scribbled somewhere on a wall.

Whether you’re playing as Leon or Claire, the solutions remain the same and can be accessed without grabbing the memo that hints at their solution. The only exception to this are the items you grab by developing film rolls–though, there is a minor exception even to that. Regardless, below you can find details on all the optional items locked behind safes, lockers, or hidden in the environment.

For more guides, be sure to check out our beginner’s tips, as well as our gun upgrades location guide. Otherwise, be sure to read our Resident Evil 2 review.

Safes

There are two safes in the RPD–one in the West Office and the other in the Waiting Room. Both yield valuable resources well worth grabbing. We won’t spoil what’s inside each here (spoiler: they’re all useful items), but we will reveal how to open them. The safe solutions are found in memos scattered around the building, which we’ve detailed the locations of for all of you completionists out there.

West Office (RPD 1F)

The West Office safe’s combination is as follows: 9 Left, 15 Right, 7 Left. If you’re curious where to find the memo containing this solution, you can find it in Captain Wesker’s office in the S.T.A.R.S. Office on the second floor.

Waiting Room (RPD 2F)

The Waiting Room safe’s combination is as follows: 6 Left, 2 Right, 11 Left. If you’re inclined to grab the memo associated with this safe, you can find it in the Observation Room on the first floor.

Dial Locks

There are three lockers in the game that are sealed by letter dial locks. Each hold valuable ammunition for your more powerful guns that you don’t wanna miss.

Shower Room (RPD 2F)

The Shower Room’s dial lock combination is CAP. Interestingly enough, you can find this solution written on a whiteboard in the connecting room between the Operations Room and the Records Room on the first floor.

West Hallway (RPD 3F)

This locker is located in a hallway you can reach by getting to the third floor from the western side. It’s right beside the broken wall and the mannequin shadow. The dial lock combination is DCM. This is the only film roll item that doesn’t require you to first develop the film to get (more on this later).

Control Room (Upper Sewers)

The Control Room locker is located in the Upper Sewers by a desk. The dial lock combination is SZF. If you’re curious where this solution was found, it was on a Jazz festival flyer found in the Workers’ Break Room.

Film Roll Items

Other optional items don’t show up until you’ve developed a film roll with photographs that point you to their locations. Whenever you find a roll, develop it in the Dark Room on the western side of the police station. The resources you gain by completing these are typically more lucrative, so try to set aside time to complete these item hunts.

Commemorative Photo

This film roll is interesting in that it doesn’t point you to the location of resources; rather, it points you to an item you can use to gain some valuable stuff. Located in the Safety Deposit Room, grab the film roll by keying in the proper code to unlock the locker its sealed in. Though, you’re by no means required to develop the film roll to get the items its photograph hints towards, but it does help direct you towards what you need to do

When you develop the film roll in the Dark Room, it reveals a photo of a statue found in the Art Room. Before you go there, you’ll need to grab the Red Book in the Library by the door with the Spade insignia on the second floor. Once you’ve got this, head back to the Art Room, grab the stone arm beside the statue and combine it with the Red Book. Then take the arm and insert it back into the statue to unlock the scepter from its right hand.

Examine the scepter to obtain the Red Jewel. This goes into the Bejeweled Box, which you can get in the Interrogation Room. Accessing this area requires the Club Key, so if you don’t have that yet, keep progressing the story until you get it. Once you’ve got the Bejeweled Box, combine it with the Red Jewel to get the S.T.A.R.S. badge. You can use this item in two locations: the Underground Stairs in the Middle section of the Underground Facility, and the S.T.A.R.S. Office.

The badge serves as a key to unlock the white holding case holding the gun parts for either Leon’s Magnum or Claire’s Sub-machine Gun in the Underground Stairs. These are good to grab, as you’ll be following up to use the badge in the S.T.A.R.S. Office to get the weapons themselves. But before you combine the badge with the computer tower, examine the badge’s backing to reveal a hidden USB. This can then be used to open the armory.

Hiding Place Photo

This film roll is found in the Work Room in the Upper section of the Sewers; you’ll see it in-between a cardboard box and tool kit on a small table. Develop the roll in the Dark Room back at the RPD to reveal a photograph showing you two locations–that you might recognize if you’ve got a keen eye.

The first photograph points to Captain Wesker’s desk in the S.T.A.R.S. Office on the second floor. Open the drawer to get a wooden box containing a gun part.

The second photograph points to a boombox found in the Press Room on the RPD’s first floor. Open the drawer to nab the treasure.

Pocket Safes

The RPD’s Safety Deposit Room is packed with useful resources, but not all of them are accessible at first. To get everything in those pesky electronically sealed lockers, you’ll need to get two replacement keypad keys. These can be found inside Pocket Safes scattered throughout the police station. To open a Pocket Safe, simply examine it and then input the correct button pattern. This require a little bit of trial and error to find out, but keep at it and you’ll unlock it in no time. Below you can find details on where each Pocket Safe is located.

Shower Room

You’re likely to find this Pocket Safe first. It’s located in the Shower Room on the second floor of the RPD. When you enter the room, turn right and you’ll see it on top of a shelf beside some lockers.

Linen Room

The second Pocket Safe is found in the Linen Room on the second floor. You won’t be able to open this room without the Diamond Key, so if you don’t have the means to access it, simply progress the story until you do.

Disney announced Monday that Black Panther will be coming back to theaters for one week at the beginning of February.

The film is celebrating Black History Month and tickets will be free to ensure everyone has a chance to watch the SAG award-winning and Oscar-nominated film.

Black Panther will be available to watch at participating AMC locations from February 1-7, with two showings per day.

Disney is also giving a $1.5 million grant to support UNCF (United Negro College Fund) to help further it’s mission in assisting minority students through college.

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With dozens of comic books to choose from, let us show you which are the best coming out this week. Take a look at this list spotlighting our favorite comics that we know are money-well-spent and new books that look cool and are backed by some top-tier talent.

Check out our picks, then head to the comments to let us know what you’ll be buying this week!

Fight Club 3 #1 – $3.99

Writer Chuck Palahniuk | Artist Cameron Stewart | Cover Artist David Mack (Dark Horse Comics)

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It’s hard to believe but the launch Kingdom Hearts III has finally arrived. This long-awaited adventure has a lot going for it that’ll please fans, while also potentially attracting folks who may have avoided the series and its myriad spin-offs over the years. Regardless of your background, there are several tips you’ll need to know should you decide to embark on this magical Disney-filled adventure.

The tips below will help prepare you for the challenges that lie ahead in Kingdom Hearts III. For others, these tips will reinforce and refresh your memory of the general habits to follow around getting the most out its well-established mechanics. We even included a fair amount on some of the new things you’ll encounter—without spoiling too many of the surprises, of course.

If you’re looking for more Kingdom Hearts III guides, be sure to check back often as we’ll be posting several more in the coming days. If you haven’t read our review yet, be sure to check it out for our full thoughts about the game.

In our Kingdom Hearts III review, GameSpot Editor Tamoor Hussain gave the game an 8/10 and said: “[T]he story of Keyblade wars, time-travelling villains, body-hopping also-rans, and world-ending darkness isn’t what I’ll remember about Kingdom Hearts III or the series as a whole. What sticks with me is the exciting battle against elemental titans with Hercules, taking Rapunzel out into the unfamiliar wide world for the first time, snapping selfies with Winnie the Pooh, and going toe to toe with Davy Jones. In 2002, as Sora, I left Destiny Islands to travel across the universe and make new friends. In 2019 I brought old ones home, and I had so much fun doing it.”

What are you most excited to see in Kingdom Hearts III? Got any additional tips or insight that you’d like to offer about the game? Let us know the comments section below.

Check Abilities Often

As you progress, your party constantly learns new abilities–most of which you have to activate manually. Take time to jump into the Abilities screen to activate them so you don’t miss out on the useful perks they offer. In some instances, you might even learn an ability that’s required to progress further, so don’t neglect it. Just make sure you’re properly managing your abilities and setting up the ones you’re more likely to use, as each ability does have a cost that takes up your overall AP threshold.

Swapping Special Attacks

The more you wallop on enemies, the more special attacks you can use during a fight. You might not know it, but you can actually cycle through which attacks you trigger by simply pressing L2/R2 or LT/RT. Make use of this to open up your strategic options in a fight, reserving special attacks for the moments where they matter.

Always Be Eating And Cooking Foods

Once you’re able to prepare meals with Remy, be sure to cook up one of each dish type. This allows you to eat a full course in the Cuisine menu, which gives you a temporary special ability bonus alongside a buff to your stats.

To ensure you have enough to cook with, always scour the environment for potential ingredients. Break open boxes, shatter lanterns, or raid some leftover chinese takeout; do whatever you gotta do. You can also buy ingredients at the Moogle Shop, and Sora, Donald, and Goofy will even inform you whenever there’s ingredients around; as long as you’re paying attention, you should be well-stocked before long. Check up on the menu frequently, as more recipes will unlock as you gather more ingredients.

In addition, if you keep cooking, Uncle Scrooge will give special item rewards for completing dishes on the menu.

Diversify Your Keyblade Roster

You can equip up to three Keyblades in Kingdom Hearts III (fitting). As you unlock more, make sure to mix and match to see which combination works best for you–or for the enemy types you’re fighting in a particular world. It’s typically smart to equip Keyblades with contrasting Formchanges in order to give you more options. For example, the Favorite Deputy’s varied close-ranged attacks meshes well with the projectiles of Shooting Star.

This is more of a personal preference, but we recommend always having the Kingdom Key in your loadout, as it provides the best balance of them all. Its Formchange, Second Form, is also useful given its extended combo. That and if you’re a classic Kingdom Hearts fan, it doesn’t make sense being without it!

Use the Moogle Shop’s Workshop

Always check in at the Moogle Shop–not only to purchase potions, ethers, and equipment, but also to upgrade your Keyblades and synthesize materials. You need the proper materials to upgrade a Keyblade, so make sure you’re constantly collecting enemy drops and scouring the environment for treasure chests. It’s a lot of effort, but worth it to enhance the magic, strength, and abilities of your weapon.

On the other hand, synthesizing materials is useful for a variety of reasons. While you can utilize this feature to craft healing potions and other power-ups, you’ll generally want to use it to craft armor, accessories, and valuable materials for upgrading Keyblades. If you lack the Munny to purchase equipment, there’s typically a lot of powerful pieces you can synthesize that’ll either close the gap or help you specialize your stats further.

The Moogle Shop frequently accompanies save points for a good reason, so make a habit of checking it to see if you can upgrade Sora and company.

Photo Challenges

The Moogle Shop may have plenty of items and accessories to synthesize, but there’s several that aren’t made available to you unless you complete the Moogle’s Photo Challenges. These mini-quests require you to take photographs of specific locales and enemy types. Check in every once in a while to see what snapshots the Moogle needs, as you’re often rewarded with new synthesis recipes upon completing them—usually for accessories that are far better than the standard ones listed.

The Photo Challenges are fairly easy to complete. But if you’re having trouble with the enemy-focused Photo Challenges, don’t be discouraged; these ones are a bit finicky and tough to get since you’re usually surrounded by a ton of enemies getting in the way of your shot. We recommend focusing your attention on your target’s friends, taking particular attention to launch them away. Go at it long enough and before long you’ll get a confirmation of a successful photo.

Use Your Item Boosts!

This should be a given, but make sure you’re jumping into the Items screen to use all the Boost items for your stats you earn throughout your adventure. These allow you to enhance your party’s stats further outside of simply leveling up or enhancing their equipment. We generally recommend handing off all the AP ones to Sora as he gets access to far more abilities than Donald and Goofy, while with all the rest you can divvy up based on how you want to build your party’s stats. Avoid giving these boosts to temporary party members for obvious reasons.

Always Search for Lucky Emblems!

You learn early on in your adventure about Lucky Emblems, which are Mickey Mouse symbols that you’re encouraged to photograph with your Gummiphone. The reward for photographing Lucky Emblems isn’t made entirely clear at first, but know that doing so will net you the secret ending. If that entices you, then we encourage you to always be on the lookout. Sora, Donald, and Goofy often note when a Lucky Emblem is nearby, so take the time to investigate. They’re usually hidden behind objects, on walls, or somewhere up above. If you’re struggling, check back often as we’ll be putting up a guide soon detailing all the Lucky Emblem locations we’ve found so far.

Feeling Lost? Use the Memory Archive

We’re not gonna lie; Kingdom Hearts has a wacky story that’s sometimes difficult to understand. And if you’re someone who missed out on a few of the spin-offs over the years, you might feel lost at times playing Kingdom Hearts III. Luckily, the game has story summary videos that offer a crash course on everything you need to know before playing, including details on the major players, conflicts, andhistory. Access these videos from the Memory Archive option in the main menu. We highly recommend giving them a look, so that you understand its story beats and characters better.

Give Battlegate the Time of Day

If you’re a longtime fan of Kingdom Hearts, you’ll want to partake in the Battlegate mode that unlocks towards the end of the game. It’s an optional mode where you take on difficult combat challenges. Each has a star difficulty rating ranging from 1-3 and can be pretty tough. But we recommend doing these challenges, as completing them earns you special reports–much like the Ansem reports from the first two Kingdom Hearts games–that flesh out the story further. In addition, you get new selfie poses! If that doesn’t entice you, then we don’t know what will.

Liu Bei, the hero of the loosely historical epic novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms, is both a very obvious and very odd protagonist for a Total War game. On one hand, he’s generally portrayed as the hero. The righteous, noble scion of the rightful dynasty looking to hold together the collapsing Han Empire. On the other hand, his journey through the first part of the story is utterly different from how most Total War games progress, entering and leaving the service of other warlords, gaining and losing his base of power, and eventually ending up hundreds of miles away from his starting position in Northeastern China. As it turns out, the Three Kingdoms campaign has a plan for telling the tale of this unorthodox rise to power.

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Treyarch has another update on the way for Call of Duty: Black Ops 4. This week, the developer will be rolling out patch 1.12, which will make some big changes to the way armor works in Blackout mode, add classic weapons to Zombies, and kick off another limited-time event on PS4.

In a post on Reddit, Treyarch outlined the biggest tweaks and additions that are coming in this week’s update. Among other things, the developer will be making further tuning changes to armor, concussions, and cluster grenades in Blackout mode.

The full list of changes will be detailed in this week’s patch notes, but Treyarch says it is reducing damage protection for armor “across the board.” On top of that, the developer is raising the number of armor plates it takes to repair level 3 armor, while the time it takes for cluster grenades to detonate is also being increased.

In Zombies mode, this week’s update will introduce five weapons to the Mystery Box across every map, as well as to the Zombies Armory: the MP 40, Grav, Daemon 3XB, SWAT RFT, and KAP 45. Treyarch says the MP 40 and Grav “will be unlocked by default in the Armory.” The PS4 version is also getting its second Zombies Gauntlet beginning January 29: “Vini, Vidi, Zombie!” for the IX map.

Also on PS4, Treyarch is kicking off another limited-time mode in Blackout. This one is called Ambush. It’s set to replace the current Down But Not Out mode and only features sniper rifles, melee attacks, launchers, and a continuously collapsing circle. Down But Not Out mode will remain available on Xbox One and PC for one more week.