Author: trafficblast

EA has addressed feedback from the Star Wars Battlefront 2 beta, including issues around loot crates.

In a post thanking players for engaging with the beta, EA discusses likely changes that will appear in the full game.

One of the most contentious issues in the beta was the use of loot crates, which raised fears the game might be pay-to-win. EA has attempted to clarify what these crates will do in the full game.

Star Cards, Outfits, Emotes and Victory Poses will all be available in loot crates, purchasable with both in-game credits and premium currency.

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Epic Games is reportedly suing two Fortnite players, alleging they have violated the game’s terms of service and EULA by cheating. TorrentFreak has obtained legal complaints filed in North Carolina federal court against two individuals. The documents claim that they are running afoul by “modifying and changing the game’s code, committing copyright infringement in the process.”

Epic warned players about potential action it might take. In a blog post last week, the studio said, “Let’s be straight for a second, nobody likes playing with cheaters. Not you, not me. Nobody.” It added that addressing cheating in Fortnite is “the highest priority across Epic Games.”

“We’re exploring every measure to ensure these cheaters are removed and stay removed from Fortnite Battle Royale and the Epic ecosystem. We don’t want to give too many clues about what we’re doing, but we are rolling out tools and will continue to do so,” the developer went on to say.

According to Epic, it has already banned “thousands” of players, and it will continue the bans as needed.

Epic’s lawsuits against the two alleged cheaters goes on to say that the defendants “use cheats in a deliberate attempt to destroy the integrity of, and otherwise wreak havoc in, the Fornite game. As Defendant[s] intend, this often ruins the game for the other players, and for the many people who watch ‘streamers.'”

As for why Epic is taking such a hard line against the supposed cheaters, the studio explained that one of the alleged cheaters was banned nine times already but created a new account every time to get back in. This person is also alleged to have written code for the hacks, which may explain why Epic is suing this person.

Epic is suing both parties for up to $150,000 in damages over copyright infringement. Another claim mentioned in the lawsuits is breach of contract and circumvention of technological measures. Go to TorrentFreak to get the full story.

This is not the only prickly situation that Epic is involved in right now over Fornite. PUBG developer Bluehole has threatened some kind of action against Epic over Fornite due to the game’s similarities with PUBG. Fortnite’s Battle Royale mode, which is free, recently passed 10 million players, so it’s clearly a huge hit.

One of the next new features coming to Battle Royale is a progression system, which is due out in the “next several weeks.” This will help in Epic’s “war against casual cheaters,” because the idea is they think twice about cheating if they know all of their progress will be reset if and when they banned.

Fortnite’s Battle Royale mode is available now on Xbox One, PS4, and PC.

After launching for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One in September, Bungie’s Destiny 2 comes out for PC on October 24. Today, Bungie announced the game’s exact unlock time and revealed the final PC requirements. Servers will become available at 10 AM PT on October 24, which works out to 1 PM ET / 2 PM BRT / 6 PM BST / and 4 AM the next day in Australia. Check out the map below to find out precisely when Destiny 2 unlocks where you live.

Bungie also today announced the final minimum and recommended specs for Destiny 2, following the preliminary specs from the beta last month. You need 68 GB of free space to install Destiny 2, while Windows 7, Windows 8, and Windows 10 are supported operating systems. You can check out the full minimum and recommended specs in the image below, which Bungie shared in its latest weekly blog post today.

The PC version of Destiny 2 will be available at physical retailers and through Blizzard’s Battle.net, but not Steam or other digital stores. That’s notable because Destiny 2 is the first non-Blizzard game to be offered on Blizzard’s PC gaming platform. For more on the PC edition of Destiny 2, check out GameSpot’s roundup of everything you need to know.

In other Destiny 2 news, the game’s first Iron Banner event went live this week (and it’s a little different), while the Inverted Spire is this week’s Nightfall Strike. Additionally, horror movie director John Carpenter spoke about how he’s dedicating his life to Destiny 2 (maybe).

One issue in Destiny 2 that has persisted is a problem where the game displays a black screen when players load into The Tower, one of the game’s social spaces. This problem has been reported on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, and there is still no fix. Some players are reporting that they can hear audio but can’t fully get into The Tower.

If this is happening to you, there are a pair of workarounds that you can try. Bungie laid these out in its latest weekly blog post today, the first of which is launching a different activity or into a different location from the Director before trying to go into The Tower. The second potential workaround is the harsher one: Bungie advises closing and re-launching Destiny 2 to fix the problem. Neither of these workarounds are ideal.

Thankfully, then, Bungie said it remains on the case to find a more permanent solution. We’ll report back with further details on this effort as they become available.

In other Destiny 2 news, a new hotfix for the game–1.0.3.2.–came out this week. It fixed issues involving The Tower crashing when players load into it. This is separate from the black screen issue mentioned above.

For lots more on Destiny 2, check out GameSpot’s recent stories linked below.

• Destiny 2’s Prestige Raid Exploit Fix Delayed, But The Raid Will Still Launch Next Week
• Destiny 2 Dev Is Discussing Endgame Improvements; Will Reveal More “Soon”
• Destiny 2 Exact PC Unlock Times And Final Specs Announced
• Destiny 2 Nightfall Guide: The Inverted Spire Strike Modifiers And Challenges

After finishing The Evil Within 2 I was exhausted, like I’d been through an ordeal. Thinking back on my 20 hours with it, I had. The Evil Within 2 is an ambitious, genuinely tense, and at times brutally difficult experience, but one that left me exhilarated. Like the original before it, The Evil Within 2 may not know how to deliver convincing dialogue or maintain a consistent tone, but it does know that the mark of pure survival horror is to leave you feeling like you only just survived, time after time after time.

Developer Tango Gameworks has done a good job at a cleaner set-up this time around by sending protagonist Sebastian Castellanos to rescue his thought-dead daughter from The Evil Within’s version of the Matrix, called STEM – adding some vital emotional stakes that were lacking in the original. Sebastian himself, on the other hand, is somehow even more dull three years later. Despite having gone through all this once before, he still regularly quips mundanities at the weirdness of it all. Pedestrian lines like “What the hell?” and “Ugh, who comes up with this stuff?” break the horror spell, and most of the time I just wanted him to shut up and let the creepy world around him speak for itself.

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2K Sports has announced a new patch for NBA 2K18. Out now on PlayStation 4 and due soon for Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and PC, the patch adds new content, and also makes changes and fixes many bugs. Starting with the new content this update

Adds “classic” uniforms for the Buckets, Hornets, Lakers, and Suns. Additionally, five new shoes are now in the game, including Lonzo Ball’s Big Baller Brand’s ZO2: Prime, along with the Kobe A.D. NXT, among others. The new customisation options don’t end there, however, as 18 new beard styles (!!!) are added, along with a pair of moustaches. There are also eight facial stubble styles you can choose from.

As for gameplay changes, 2K has introduced “more variety to the types of injuries that can occur in-game.” Thankfully, 2K did not go into further specifics. We hope a Kevin Ware-style injury is not among the new additions. Please no. In other injury update news, the number of left ankle injuries is now “greatly reduced” in user-played games. Yes, it’s really that specific.

Other gameplay changes include making catching passes in the corner more reliable, along with a fix for a dribbling issue. Another change is a pretty funny one: this patch fixes an issue where a player on the losing team would celebrate with the winning team. Whoops!

You can see the full patch notes for NBA 2K18’s 1.04 update below, as posted by 2K Sports on the game’s Facebook page.

General

• The Classic Edition uniforms for the Bucks, Hornets, Lakers, and Suns have been added to the game. Look for these to be released in the next roster update!
• Five new shoes have been added to the game: BBB ZO2: Prime, Jordan CP3.X AE, Jordan Super.Fly 2017, Nike Foamposite One, and Kobe A.D. NXT. Look for these to be released in the next roster update!
• Improvements to the CAP/Lab user interface.
• New CAP facial hair: 18 new beards, 2 new mustaches, and introducing 8 facial stubble styles that can be mixed & matched with our various hair styles.
• Girth now changes when adjusting weight in roster Create-A-Player.
• Added eyebrows and eye colors to the roster Create-A-Player.
• Detroit Pistons court floor updated has been updated to their new Platinum Equity floor.
• Orlando Magic court floor has been updated.
• Player names are no longer cutoff in the uniform editor when creating a uniform.
• (Switch) Game no longer suspends when pressing the home button while in a Play With Friends locker room. This will prevent the accidental disconnects reported to us.
• (PC) Coaches Clipboard timeout prompt will no longer appear off-screen on 21:9 monitors.
• (PC) Mouse support has been added to the MyCOURT Customization menu.

Gameplay

• The number of left ankle injuries should now be greatly reduced during user-played games.
• Added more variety to the types of injuries that can occur in-game.
• Attempting icon passing while posting up will no longer disengage you from post.
• More responsive triple threat moves when crowded by a defender.
• Fixed a dribbling issue that would cause escape crosses and hesitations to sometimes face sideways.
• Made catching passes in the corner more reliable.
• Made some improvements to the screen system to improve reliability and user control.
• Edited several off-ball ride/deny animations to improve user control and visual fidelity.
• Fixed an issue with putback layups that would sometimes cause them to hit the front rim or bottom of the backboard.
• Fixed a bug that would cause defenders to pop to a stand while lying on the ground after a hard foul.
• Various improvements to the Teammate Grading system.
• Fixed issues where defenders were set to GAP, ignoring user and ACE settings.
• Fixed a hang that could occur when the ball boy picked up the ball while it’s in play.
• “After Foul” animations updated to prevent hands from clipping into the head of another player.
• When the offensive team wins a jump ball, the shot clock should now be reset.
• Addressed a case where defensive settings inside the Coaches Clipboard were not sticking after being changed.
• Fixed an issue where a player on the losing team would sometimes celebrate with the winning team when his team lost the game.

MyCAREER

• On-Court shoes are now free for the given shoe company your MyPLAYER has a contract with.
• Updated MyCOURT murals for: Thunder, Bulls, Pelicans, Mavericks, Nuggets, and Rockets.
• Support for subtitles has been added for the on-court interviews following a played NBA game.
• The user’s VC balance will now correctly display the current VC total in the post-game recap following a played NBA game where the received teammate grade was D+ or lower.
• XB1 Silver and PS4 Non-Plus users can now play MyCOURT drills with AI players they invite over.
• The in-game framerate will no longer hiccup when the ‘My Matchup’ overlay is on the screen.
• Fixed a hang that could occur when the coach caught the ball during a live practice.
• The shot meter will now display when taking shots outside of the court while playing HORSE in your MyCOURT.
• Logos for the events on the event calendar app on the 2K phone should now always appear alongside the correct event.
• The Karl Anthony-Towns pre-game scene will no longer repeat every time you play him.
• Fixed a hang that would occur when selecting the “I’m always in rhythm” answer upon David Aldridge asking you how you were able to find your rhythm during the current game.

Neighborhood / Playground

• New Player Edition NBA Nike Jerseys (and more!) in the NBA Store: Wade, Carmelo, I. Thomas, D. Rose, K. Thompson, D. Green, A. Wiggins, B. Ingram.
• The displayed VC balance should now correctly match what was earned after a played Playground game (the earned VC was there all along, but the balance was not always getting refreshed).
• A number of performance and stability improvements for the Ruffles event.
• Controllers Settings should now apply to Playground games.
• Gamertags will no longer cover the turbo meter in Playground games.
• Fixed a stutter that would occur when people are playing on the courts and someone levels up.
• The correct score will now be attributed to the correct team during in-progress Playground games when queued up on a Got Next spot.
• Shots will no longer queue up when playing the mini-basketball game in the 2K Zone, making it easier to develop a smooth rhythm.
• The Who To Guard indicator has been re-designed to make it easier for you to quickly identify the offensive player you should be guarding in Playground games.
• Player signature walks that incorporated a basketball will now correctly draw the ball when performed in the Playground area of the neighborhood.
• (XB1) Fixed an issue where the game became unstable when a team attempted to use custom Pro-Am Away uniforms.
• (PC) The shot release text will now provide accurate feedback when using a keyboard to shoot ball in the mini-basketball game located in the 2K Zone.

Pro-Am

• Resolved Pro-Am Accessory issues that prohibited them from showing up correctly in the closet.
• Users will no longer earn progress toward their badges and cap breakers while the AI plays for them after fouling out in Pro-Am games.
• Fixed a case where users were not getting paid their full VC amount after Pro-Am games.
• When a team quits out of a Pro-Am game, the remaining team will no longer obtain the badge progress and progress of the team that quit out.
• The team overall will now calculate correctly on the loading screen of a Pro-Am game when there is at least one CPU player on the team.
• Fixed the issue where arena changes would fail to be applied the first time ‘Save Changes and Exit’ was selected when attempting to make changes to your Pro-Am Team Arena.

MyTEAM

• Users can now use strategy cards in Super Max games in MyTEAM.
• Strategy cards are now stackable, in quantities of 20.
• Non-NBA balls will now properly appear in your home court when set in the Edit Franchise menu.
• Users will no longer be automatically taken to the Edit Lineups menu after upgrading a player’s badge.
• Users that excessively foul in online multiplayer MyTEAM games will now get kicked and given a loss.
• The “Replace Player” option has moved from the Edit Player menu to the Edit Lineup menu for usability improvements.

MyGM/MyLEAGUE

• To satisfy a popular community request, the NBA logo has been removed from the created uniform template in MyGM/MyLEAGUE.
• The CPU will no longer override user-made decisions during the Qualifying Offers offseason time period.
• CPU teams will now be more conscientious of when they should renounce the rights to their players during the offseason.
• Fixed a hang that would occur for some users when they were signing a two-way player for the remainder of the season.
• Fixed a soft hang during the draft in MyGM/MyLEAGUE when the user attempted to negotiate a trade.
• Addressed a fantasy draft issue where certain players were being incorrectly omitted from the selected player pool.
• Fixed a case where we were incorrectly determining that a user was trying to maintain the rights to too many Draft & Stash players (it would force you to release a player you should have been able to sign).
• Addressed a case where a Draft & Stash player would appear on a G-League roster prior to his signing an NBA contract.
• Identified and corrected an issue that would lead to the inability to load your MyGM file. For those previously affected by this, your save will now properly load.
• Baskets will now count for the correct amount of points when the league approves the rule change that grants automatic points to be granted on shooting fouls (in lieu of free throws).
• Attendance will no longer show as 0% for playoff games in the financial information menu of MyGM.