Month: November 2019

Death Stranding’s story, confusing as it may seem, is ultimately about reconnecting the world after a great catastrophe pulls it apart. That’s Death Stranding’s plot in a nutshell, but if you want something a little deeper than that to truly find out what’s going on in Hideo Kojima’s latest, well pull up a chair, because here’s Death Stranding’s 40 hour story (including the big ending) summed up in a nice digestible plot summary in 3,000 or so words. If you need help understanding some of the terms used, we have a neat Death Stranding glossary you can use as a reference.

Continue reading…

Fortnite now has Star Wars Imperial Stormtrooper skins, just in time for the release of Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order. You can deck yourself out in the classic suit, first seen in 1977’s Star Wars: A New Hope, by grabbing the skin from the in-game store for 1500 V-Bucks. As you can see in the trailer below, it’s a pretty faithful recreation of the cinematic suit.

You’ll want to hurry, as the suit is only available for a limited time–it’ll disappear on November 17 at 7 PM ET, so you really don’t have long to grab it. Alternatively, you can get the suit for free by buying Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order from the Epic Games Store. Jedi Order is also available on Steam, but the deal is not available there (and the deal is, unfortunately, unlikely to be altered further.)

Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order released today, and received an 8/10 in our review. Our critic Phil Hornshaw called the game “perhaps the strongest conception of what playing as a Jedi Knight ought to really be like.” While the Stormtroopers in the original trilogy has infamously poor aim, this suit won’t impede your ability to take down your enemies at all. While you’re trying out your new skin you might want to give some of the new challenges a go, so be sure to check out our Fortnite challenge guide.

Obsidian’s most recent game, The Outer Worlds, has been a big success for the studio both critically and commercially. Now the studio, which was bought out by Microsoft back in August, is looking to the future. At Microsoft’s X019 event the studio announced Grounded, a survival game where you play as a shrunk-down human. It seems like the studio is doing well right now, but according to its founder, Feargus Urquhart, the plan going forward is to not rock the boat too hard.

As USGamer reports, Urquhart recently spoke about the studio’s now more-secure future under Microsoft, as well as his own desire to return to directing games after focusing on running the business for so long. He wants to return to his roots–he worked on the first two Fallout games, as well as Baldur’s Gate, before founding Obsidian in 2003. “I would like to be a game director again,” he said, stating that he would like to “meddle” in games once more.

Interestingly, he also noted that Obsidian wants to avoid growing its staff headcount too much, with a 200 person benchmark having been established. While teams are going to “be a little larger,” and Obsidian is going to have a “larger outsourcing budget,” Obsidian itself isn’t going to be allowed to get too enormous by the company heads. “I mean, Assassin’s Creed is awesome, all of those games are awesome, but I don’t think we need to compete with numbers,” Urquhart said. “I don’t want to do thousand-person teams.” Despite having Microsoft money behind them, it seems that Obsidian wants to avoid the potential perils that come from a massive studio.

Along with Grounded, Obsidian also has a Nintendo Switch version of The Outer Worlds in the works, which is due to release by March 2020.

It’s finally happening: Bungie is about to severely weaken one of the best, most tried-and-true guns of Destiny 2. An upcoming update will cut the legs out from under The Recluse, a pinnacle SMG from Year Two that remains one of the most versatile and sought-after guns in the game. It’s about to become a lot less useful, thanks to rebalancing that will also effect the Titan Exotic helmet One-Eyed Mask, and the Xenophage Exotic machine gun.

In its latest This Week at Bungie blog post, the developer shared details for a few upcoming balancing changes, with a nerf to The Recluse headlining the list. Currently, the gun carries a perk called Master of Arms, which is activated when you get a kill with any gun in your arsenal. When the perk is running, The Recluse deals significantly more damage, making it a beastly addition to your arsenal in just about all situations, both in the PvE and PvP sides of the game.

Nerfs To The Recluse

Right now, when Master of Arms is activated, The Recluse does precision-level damage no matter where you hit your target–basically, it’s like the gun lands nothing but headshots. In Destiny 2’s next content season, the Season of the Dawn, the game will get a change that removes that bonus, which will knock down the damage The Recluse deals significantly. It’s part of Bungie’s continued focus on trying to bring Legendary guns (of which The Recluse is one) down a peg in strength, in order to make rarer Exotic guns stand out from the crowd more.

As Bungie details in the TWAB, The Recluse will still get a damage bonus from Master of Arms, but it won’t be as powerful as the current bonus.

“Many doubted The Recluse when it was first announced, but it has since proved to be resilient to being squashed,” Bungie writes. “Although the precision damage modifier did not actually improve the efficacy of the weapon at its best, it did allow for fairly mindless spraying to be just as good as concentrated aiming. After considering various options on what to do with it, the decision was made to remove that part of the functionality and preserve its activation methods. The alternative was leaving in an effect we believe to be too strong for a Legendary weapon.”

Nerfs To One-Eyed Mask

Also getting pared down is a favorite Titan helmet from Year Two called One-Eyed Mask, which has become a regular adornment for many players in PvP. One-Eyed Mask marks the person who damages you when you take fire, activating a perk called “Marked for Vengeance.” If you then kill the person who did damage to you, you get immediate health regeneration as well as an overshield, making you even more powerful for taking down the next person you encounter.

The update that nerfs The Recluse will also alter One-Eyed Mask to do away with the overshield.

“In a previous sandbox update, One-Eyed Mask received some tuning in how Vengeance was applied to Titans,” the blog states. “Next Season, this perk will continue to provide health regeneration when defeating an opponent that has inflicted damage upon your Guardian, but it will no longer grant an overshield.”

Boosts To Xenophage

The TWAB wasn’t all bad news, though. The recently released Xenophage, is getting its power amped up to make it more effective. Xenophage fires explosive rounds that explode somewhat like grenades, but it doesn’t deal extra damage for critical hits. That made it somewhat less powerful than Bungie intended it to be at release, and coupled with its small magazine size, made the gun fairly forgettable. Next season, Xenophage will get a couple more rounds when you pick up Heavy ammo in PvP, and will do more 50% more damage in PvE.

“Xenophage unintentionally shipped a little weak, so it’s getting a bump up in raw damage,” Bungie writes. “Machine Guns have a higher ammunition capacity than other Heavy weapons, trading raw DPS for ease of use. Xenophage slides further towards other Heavy weapons such as Grenade Launchers in that aspect but didn’t get enough power back. This will correct that.”

There’s only one month left in the Season of the Undying, so now’s the time to get out there and enjoy your Recluse and One-Eyed Mask before Bungie’s changes come through. On the bright side, Xenophage could be a very useful gun with these new changes, which will be nice considering how difficult it was to unlock in the first place.

Racing in Palm City–the fictional street racing capital of the world–is all about earning money and building a reputation. During the day there are sanctioned races on closed streets, with safety barriers, an adoring crowd, and substantial cash prizes awaiting those who cross the finish line. At night, illegal street racing engulfs the city’s neon-soaked roads, and the police respond in kind, blanketing the star-lit sky in the sound of thunderous V12s and whirring sirens. This dichotomy between day and night sets Need for Speed Heat apart from its contemporaries, and makes for Ghost Games’ best entry to date, stripping away a lot of the series’ needless baggage to get to the heart of what Need for Speed is all about.

There’s still a hackneyed story about crooked cops and racing crews that take themselves far too seriously; it’s full of corny dialogue, farfetched stakes, and irritating characters that wouldn’t make the cut in earlier Fast and Furious movies. Story missions occasionally crop up, too, forcing you to follow a character while they talk at you, and there’s even one instance of a dire tailing mission. Aside from this, however, the narrative is mostly relegated to background noise that’s easy to ignore, especially if you opt to skip any of its cutscenes. Need for Speed Heat is mostly focused on getting you behind the wheel of a car you’ve customized yourself, altering everything from the ludicrously oversized spoiler on the back, right down to the distinct sound of the engine.

Each aspect of the game’s design is built around the core dynamic between day and night. Official circuit races dominate the faux-Miami streets when the sun is beaming, rewarding you with cash that can be spent on new cars, parts, and visual customization options. The autoparts companies and car salesmen in Palm City are a peculiar bunch, though. They won’t sell to just anyone–such is their love of cars. They have to know that you’re “cool” enough and are going to put their parts to good use, so the dead of night is spent competing in illegal street races to earn rep and convince them of your pedigree. This creates a clear divide between day and night that gradually cultivates this enjoyable flow, as you switch back and forth between the two time frames depending on whether you need money or rep.

The duality of this concept establishes an unmistakable vibe to each time of day–almost like they’re two completely different worlds. The sunlit streets feel relatively safe, with sanctioned events emanating a casual, crowd-pleasing atmosphere. Courses are clearly marked with barricades, there’s room to drift your car sideways around most corners, and the only thing you have to worry about is beating the other competitors to the finish line. By contrast, Palm City’s nightlife is risky and fraught with danger. Rain that was previously casting a gloomy shadow over the day’s races has now settled onto the surface of the road, as visually-striking puddles absorb the city’s neon haze and reflect it back. Traffic clogs the streets, making races feel more claustrophobic, and the threat of the police getting involved is a perpetual source of concern.

Cops in Need for Speed Heat introduce a unique sense of dread because of the way they’re intrinsically linked to your rep. As you win races and accumulate more and more rep during a night’s work, your Heat level will steadily rise. Catching the attention of the boys in blue will expedite your Heat’s ascension, with cops becoming more aggressive and plentiful the higher it climbs. There’s an element of risk and reward here, as a higher Heat level means a larger multiplier for all of the rep you’ve accrued in a single night. The only way to bank that rep is by escaping the police and reaching a safe house, but this is easier said than done when the police are on your tail like a bad rash. You can play it safe and store what rep you have, or extend the night by antagonizing the police in the hope that you’ll be able to shake them when your multiplier is higher. Need for Speed Heat’s best moments come when you’ve led the fuzz on a jolly merry-go-round and manage to ditch them by the skin of your teeth to bank a considerable amount of rep.

Although the police do have a tendency to feel unfair. If they get close enough and bring your car to a sudden halt, a “busting” timer appears, automatically signaling an end to your escapades if it ticks all the way down. The problem with this, aside from how fast it runs out, is that it will continue to count away the seconds even after you’ve accelerated away from the police. It should be difficult to escape the cop’s clutches, but since you can get arrested if they total your car, ending up in cuffs because an arbitrary timer counts down when you’re not even penned in is frustrating. There are also very obvious moments when police cars will spawn directly in front of you to prolong a chase. Sure, they might be crooked cops, but that doesn’t stop their blatant cheating from dulling the pulse-quickening thrill of each hot pursuit.

These scenarios can be thrilling, however, especially when you push your car into top gear. There’s a fantastic sense of speed in Need for Speed Heat, as cars and lights blur past your wing mirrors at what feels like 300 miles per hour. A noticeable lag on your steering inputs does make each car feel slightly heavier than they otherwise should, though. The handling model also doesn’t have the malleability to alter the handling from one car to the next, so they all end up feeling relatively similar to drive aside from variations in speed and acceleration. Drifting is also a tad iffy, borrowing its mechanics from the likes of Ridge Racer as opposed to Need for Speed’s past. Rather than feathering the brakes to get your car sideways, Need for Speed Heat asks you to let go of the accelerator and then pump it again in order to achieve a successful drift. It’s a realistic approach, boiling drifting down to deft throttle control, but it can be difficult to get a handle on at first, namely because pumping the brakes feels much more intuitive due to the past 15 or so years of racing games adopting this method. Thankfully you can alter the control scheme, and drifting is generally quite fun regardless. It feels a lot slower than it has in the past, but you have much more control over angles and potentially extending the length of your car’s rubber-burning slide.

There are dedicated drift events, too, which require you to purchase the appropriate parts if you want to come out on top, and it’s here where Need for Speed Heat significantly improves upon its immediate predecessor, Payback. There are no luck-based Speed Cards needed to improve your car, nor are you limited to using specific vehicles in designated events. Instead, the upgrade system in Need for Speed Heat gives you the freedom to take a Nissan Skyline and mix and match parts such as the suspension, tires, and differential, until you have a car that can compete in road races, off-road races, and drift events–it’s just a shame there aren’t a few more event types to partake in. On top of that, there are also myriad parts available if you want to fully upgrade each car’s performance, along with a veritable bucketload of customization options, just in case you’ve ever wanted to control how much fiery overrun spurts out of the exhaust pipes. Each part is moderately priced so money is never much of an issue, and better parts are unlocked simply by increasing your reputation.

With only a select few events, no discernible difference between each car’s handling, and a simplistic driving model, Need for Speed Heat does stumble into repetition during its final few hours. It’s not quite a rip-roaring return to form, then, but this latest entry puts the Need for Speed series back on the right track. The duality of its day and night events props up what would otherwise be a fairly run-of-the-mill racing game, but the renewed focus on hurtling around the track, racing wheel-to-wheel, and customizing each car in numerous ways, taps into the essence of what Need for Speed used to be about. Need for Speed Heat may not revolutionize racing games, but it’s the best the series has been in a long, long time.