Review: Zombieland: Double Tap – Road Trip – Undead, Unfunny And Unnecessary
High Voltage Software’s Zombieland: Double Tap – Road Trip keeps alive the great video game tradition of absolutely terrible, overpriced movie tie-ins. With a campaign that clocks in at around about the two-hour mark, extremely basic twin-stick shooting action, bland graphics, inexplicably long loading times, rotten narrative segments that freeze the on-screen action at random points as you’re trying to play and the excruciating decision to send players right back to the very start of a level when they die, what we have here is a shambling, lazy experience that costs upwards of thirty pounds on Nintendo Switch and, quite frankly, barely warrants a review at all.
But review it we must! Set between the events of the first and recently-released second Zombieland movies, the game sees you take control of one of the four main characters from the franchise – Columbus, Tallahassee, Wichita and Little Rock. All of these protagonists – apart from Abigail Breslin’s character – are voiced by replacement actors in dismal little banter segments that bookend each of the ten levels that see you travel from the West to East coast of a zombie hellscape America. Not that you really see any hellscape; the game instead throws you into the most banal and derivative environs imaginable, tasking you with stuff like shooting a load of portaloos until they blow up, stealing a single twinkie from a supermarket and – over the course of two of its ten levels – escorting the exact same grandmother character around her neighbourhood as extremely dull enemy AI tries (and fails) to present any kind of a meaningful challenge.
There is, in fact, practically zero challenge in this game on its default setting; the only time we perished was during a level set at a gas station where we had to hold down a button to retrieve fuel and were killed as we waited for a little bar to fill up and let us know we were done. This pitiful incident is how we discovered that, upon death, you return to the very start of the mission you’re currently playing – they run around ten-to-fifteen minutes apiece – and get to re-sit your way through faux-Woody Harrelson having the absolute anti-craic with faux-Jesse Eisenberg as faux-Emma Stone and actual Abigail Breslin throw in the odd excruciating cheesy line of dialogue.
In terms of gameplay, you’ll spend your time grabbing guns from the badly-textured trunks of cars, milling around bland environments doing menial jobs and shooting hapless undead enemies until you’re alerted that you’ve completed the necessary task, at which point you’ll be unceremoniously ripped from whatever you were doing and kicked back to an XP screen to allocate some points to your chosen character. These points do things like give you a bit more firepower (we didn’t notice a difference if we’re honest) or beef up your character’s special move. Oh, and those special moves, by the way, are just bad; Woody Harrelson spins around the screen windmilling things because the developers clearly decided they’d given up by this point and were content to just throw it in there and not think about it.
Over the course of the game a handful of different zombie types are added to the mix in an attempt to conceal how terribly repetitive everything is, but the only ones we thought made any difference were the zippy little ninjas, simply because they were momentarily harder to hit as they approached. There’s also an exploding fat zombie, a clown and a vomiting lady zombie, but we can’t say we really noticed that they added any meaningful variety or tactical nuance to proceedings; they’re just more crap to shoot your limp guns at.
There are a bunch of boss encounters, each of which boils down to facing off against a larger zombie type whose distinguishing characteristic is that they’re slightly more of a bullet sponge – oh, and one of them is a chef that throws flames at you, the absolute standout moment in the game – but they still present pretty much zero challenge. These boss types – except for the chef – are then mixed into the general zombie populous but have their longer kill-times reduced so that they die in the same number of shots as the rest of the enemies. In other words, they are absolutely pointless beyond looking a bit different.
Alongside the campaign – which you can probably tell by now we weren’t particularly fans of – there’s a four-player co-op and a horde mode, both of which we can’t imagine anyone being enamoured with for any particularly worthwhile length of time as even the ten-minute campaign levels were a struggle to get through. There’s just no energy or fun to be extracted from any aspect of the gameplay. Even the guns have zero feedback or feel to them; you can’t even reload when you want to, taking away the one little strategic bit of control you might have had: ensuring your mag was topped up in moments of downtime.
In terms of positives, well, it’s a top-down twin-stick shooter and mechanically works well enough that you could potentially just turn your brain off and blow through the whole thing without being troubled and, maybe as a completely free-to-play game on your phone, you might even think it was a pleasing enough distraction to pass a journey. This Switch version works fine in both handheld and docked (although blowing it all up to TV-size does the bland visuals absolutely no favours whatsoever) and we didn’t experience any bugs on our playthrough. It also has characters from the movie in there – we’re really struggling – and, if you love Zombieland then you get to… spend time with people who you love, we guess?
Conclusion
Zombieland: Double Tap – Road Trip is everything you’ve come to expect from a lazy movie tie-in. Its gameplay is mechanically competent but it’s bland beyond belief, short, cynical and lazy. It has the most tenuous of links to the actual film it portrays and is ultimately a very basic twin-stick shooter with a tired-looking Zombieland skin tossed carelessly on top – it also costs far more money than it has any right to. If this was a free mobile game you might get an hour or two of braindead time-wasting out of it, but as an almost full price console release, it’s pretty much indefensible.
For this week's legendary bounty, Red Dead Online players can journey up to the swamps of Lagras to apprehend or kill Philip Carlier. The middle-aged fugitive is extremely volatile, so proceed with caution. Carlier is wanted dead or alive, and revisiting the Bounty board lets you replay the mission at a higher difficulty.
RDO players looking to channel their Halloween spirit can head to Madam Nazar to pick up some limited-time masks. And those in any of the three Specialist roles get a free one: Bounty Hunters get an exclusive Creature Mask variant, Traders get an exclusive Swine Mask, and Collectors get an exclusive Masquerade Mask. These masks for any of the Specialists are free of charge. Further, Outlaw Pass Club Rank 10 owners are rewarded an exclusive Freak Mask variation, while those Rank 20 will receive the Freak Mask and an exclusive Horror Mask variation. Check a few of them out below.
Also this week for RDO, the Free Aim Series has a new mode: Make It Count. This battle royale-like mode pairs players down to a bow and arrow or throwing knives to fight against enemies in a gradually-shrinking arena until one is left standing.
There are plenty of opportunities to gain extra experience in RDO this week as well. You will earn an additional 2,000 Club experience points and a 30 percent experience booster towards progress in the Wheeler, Rawson & Co. Club, and The Outlaw Pass by doing a variety of activities. These include all A Land of Opportunities and Free Roam missions, a range of Series game modes such as Elimination and Takeover, and more.
CloudBees And Google Cloud Partner To Accelerate Application Development On Anthos
CloudBees and Google Cloud are collaborating to deliver a modern DevOps platform based on open source technologies powered by Google Cloud’s Anthos. The companies are using transformational technologies like Jenkins X, Kubernetes and Tekton to create a unified, end-to-end software delivery system. CloudBees provides companies large and small with Jenkins-based continuous delivery solutions that are secure, open toolchain-enabled and scalable to transform software delivery processes across hybrid computing environments. Google Cloud is delivering to enterprises a secure, open, intelligent and transformative enterprise cloud platform. Anthos, a hybrid and multi-cloud platform, is built on open source technologies pioneered by Google Cloud and enables consistency between on-premise and cloud environments. (Source: Press Release)
This week at Bungie, we’re on final countdown for launch.
It’s been a long summer of reveals, travels, interviews, and updates. Now we find ourselves in that old familiar clearing at the end of the path. This is the final weekly update that we’ll have before we blast off on another adventure.
Our new launch trailer is making the rounds. Here it is if you haven’t had a chance to watch yet.
Today, you’ll find us ticking all the boxes on the pre-flight checklist. There are some final items we want to cover before you set out to investigate the mysteries of the Moon. Here’s what you’ll find during a lengthy final scroll:
Combat Changes
Progression and Economy Changes
Patch Note Preview
Ritual Weapons and Perk Changes
Set It Straight
Wear It With Pride
Bungie Rewards
Let’s start the clock.
Combat Changes
As discussed previously, damage numbers in Destiny 2 have been a bit out of control. We’re making some adjustments so the numbers shown are smaller and easier to comprehend without affecting the percentage of damage you’re dealing. We’re also adjusting how your Power works when you go up against enemies tougher than you. Here are some more details on what to expect.
PvE Damage Numbers Display
Goal: To provide players with useful and legible feedback for damage dealt to enemy combatants across many years of Power progression.
Displayed damage numbers for damage dealt to non-Guardian enemy combatants are crunched
Damage dealt is displayed using fewer digits to enhance readability of damage output
Occurrences of displayed damage getting capped at 999,999 should be significantly reduced or eliminated
The exponential curve used to calculate damage numbers for display is replaced with a new linear curve that is built to last for many years
As players grow in Power, displayed damage numbers increase at a much more measured pace than previously
This is a UI update only; player damage output, whether measured as hits to kill, time to kill, or DPS, remains unchanged by this update
PvE Difficulty Tuning
Goals: Widen the sweet spot where fighting higher-level combatants provides a fun, challenging, and rewarding combat experience for a more enjoyable Power climb. Also, allow players looking for even greater challenges to confront much higher-level enemies.
Combatants that are 10–40 levels higher take less time to kill and deal less damage
Higher-level combatants continue to increase in difficulty up to 100 Power levels above the player
When enemies are 100 Power levels or higher above the player, they are immune to damage
Nameplate icons on higher-level combatants have been updated to reflect these changes
These changes affect only higher-level combatants; the at-level or over-level experience remains unchanged
Progression and Economy Changes
Every Season brings with it some tweaks to the Power climb. Shadowkeep is going to deliver significant changes to how you grow in strength. We also want to make you aware of changes to various currencies and the Eververse Trading Company before you set out to power up your gear.
Rewards Power and Progression
All non-powerful rewards now drop 3 to 0 points below your highest equippable Power level, up from 15 to 20 below
Year 2 powerful reward sources have changed to Legendary rewards
These sources no longer have a chance to drop a random Exotic instead of the Legendary gear
Bonus Exotics that drop from Nightfall: The Ordeal will drop at the character’s highest equippable Power level
Under- and over-leveling activities no longer adjust how much Power is received from the rewards
Experience no longer fuels a player’s character level, which has been changed to be level 50 for all characters
Experience instead progresses the Season Pass, Seasonal Artifact mod, and Power progressions, as well as the unlocking of destinations for new characters
Experience rewards have been rebalanced with the introduction of the Season Pass and Seasonal Artifact progressions
The Power granted from the Seasonal Artifact is additive with the Power of the player’s equippable gear, but does not increase the Power of gear drops
All existing gear has had its Power increased to a minimum of 750; new characters will begin Destiny 2 at Power 750 as well
The Power bands for Season 8 are as follows
Floor: 750
Soft Cap: 900
All drops up to this point will be upgrades to the most powerful item in your inventory or vault
Beyond this point, only powerful and pinnacle rewards will increase a player’s Power
Powerful Cap: 950
All non-powerful/pinnacle rewards are capped at 950
Pinnacle rewards are the only way to raise Power above this point
Powerful rewards are equivalent to the character’s highest-equippable Power beyond this point
Pinnacle Cap: 960
This is the highest Power at which gear drops; also known as the “hard cap”
The Seasonal Artifact bonus Power allows characters to attain values above this level
Prime Engrams
Prime Engrams now gain charges more quickly, drop more frequently, and have a higher maximum charge cap (nine charges, up from six during Year 2)
The Power gains have been rebalanced for the increased frequency, providing +3 Power, down from a range of +4 to +7
Players who have completed the “Prime Example” quest prior to Shadowkeep’s release will earn charges, but those charges won’t drop until the character has reached 900 Power
This will help players avoid spending charges early for gains that are most beneficial during the Soft Cap to Powerful Cap range
Bright Dust
Bright Dust is now earned by completing Crucible, Gambit, and Vanguard weekly and repeatable bounties
We chose to grant all of Bright Dust from ritual weekly bounties rather than spreading it out across the weekly and daily bounties so players could more easily earn Bright Dust without having to make sure they complete every single daily
Players will be able to do the repeatable bounties as many times as they like
Any Crucible, Gambit, or Vanguard completed bounties need to be turned in before maintenance begins on 9/30 as these changes will reset them; other bounties—Gunsmith, clan, Eververse, etc.—can still be claimed after Oct 1
Eververse items no longer dismantle into Bright Dust, and instead grant legendary shards and glimmer
New Eververse items for Season of the Undying will become available for Bright Dust two weeks into the Season
Eververse items no longer require Bright Dust to reacquire them(or re-roll perks) from Collections; instead, they cost the same materials that reward items of the same type/rarity use
Fireteam Medallions have been removed from the store, deprecated into Fizzled Fireteam Medallions, and can now be dismantled into Bright Dust to recover their purchase price (50 Bright Dust)
Gleaming Boon of the Vanguard price has been lowered to 150 Bright Dust
Gleaming Boon of the Crucible price has been lowered to 500 Bright Dust
Eververse
The Season 7 Best of Year One Engram has been retired, and in its place, players can now obtain the new Season 8 Nostalgic Engram
The Seasonal Milestone no longer grants a bounty; instead, it directly grants a Bright Engram
The Season 8 Nostalgic Engram is no longer earned at level up
Instead, the Bright Engram is now included in the free rewards of the Season Pass that are visible before level 100; it’s also awarded every 5 levels after level 100
The Eververse storefront is now available via the Director
Eververse bounties (standard and IGR versions) have been deprecated; any remaining bounty notes can be broken down into Bright Dust
You can still complete and turn in any outstanding Eververse bounties until they expire
Glimmer
Players can now store up to 250,000 Glimmer
Glimmer rewards from the majority of sources in the game have been rebalanced
Most open world sources (public events, Lost Sectors, chests) have been significantly increased
Passive Glimmer gain on kill has been reduced
In addition to directly awarding Glimmer on kill, combatants will sometimes drop additional Glimmer chunks
Weekly bounties award a large amount of Glimmer in addition to their other rewards
Spider’s Exchange
The Spider welcomes new opportunities with four arms open and now deals in materials from all planets
However, the Spider has noted changes in market value, and has adjusted his exchange rates accordingly:
Glimmer exchange now costs 10 Legendary Shards or 20 materials, and yields 10,000 Glimmer
Tangled Shore daily bounties no longer award Glimmer, providing instead Etheric Spirals (in keeping with his competition)
Weekly wanted bounties no longer award gear, but now provide between 3,000 and 15,000 Glimmer in addition to the Enhancement Cores currently offered
Xûr
Xûr’s inventory pool and Fated Engram now include world-drop Exotics from Year 2
Patch Note Preview
We’ll have a bunch of bullet points for you to peruse next week. Here’s something to tide you over until then.
Added rally banners to Leviathan, Eater of Worlds, and Spire of Stars
“The Shattered Throne” Dungeon is now available at all times instead of on a three-week cycle
It can also be launched and reset from the Director
Black Armory forges are now accessible through a Director-launched playlist on EDZ
Weapon mods are now treated as reusable unlocks instead of consumables; any mods you have in your inventory will be converted to unlocks
If the only copy of a mod you have is already in a gun, you will need to reacquire one to unlock it
Discarding an Enhancement Core no longer deletes the entire stack
Borealis and Hardlight now match the Prism modifier when changing elements on reload, rotating through Void, Arc, and Solar
Fixed an issue where the Hunter’s Tempest Strike melee ability couldn’t be performed if the sprint button/key was set to Hold
The Phoenix Protocol Hearth perk will no longer award bonus Super energy on kills and assists to Warlocks inside a Well of Radiance if they do not also have the Well of Radiance (Attunement of Grace) subclass equipped
Fixed an issue where allied Golden Gun projectiles weren’t going through Banner Shields
Fixed an issue where the Queen’s Wrath perk for the Exotic Wish-Ender Bow wasn’t correctly highlighting players if their shield was depleted
Players who’ve obtained the Salute emote in the past can now correctly select it in their collection and assign it to their emote wheel
Multiplayer (buddy) emotes will now have a visible indication of where a player can stand to interact and initiate the emote
Failing the first encounter for any Black Armory forge will no longer award planetary destination materials. ಠ_ಠ
Ritual Weapons and Perk Changes
In Season of the Undying, pinnacle weapons will become ritual weapons. They will no longer have special perks and will instead be curated rolls. A previous article incorrectly showed two new pinnacle weapons. The good news is you will be getting three ritual weapons for each of the ritual activities: Crucible, Vanguard, and Gambit. Here’s the Destiny Dev Team on why we made this difficult decision and some information on upcoming perk changes.
Destiny Dev Team: The decision to stop creating extremely powerful pinnacle weapons was made for a variety of reasons. The first was that the band in which “pinnacle” perk can exist is actually quite small, and most of them far exceeded the efficacy they should have been at. Another issue is that they cause problems in the player ecosystem, particularly in the case of the Crucible pinnacle weapons. Due to the nature of PvP and PvE, anything that works well in PvP is likely going be extremely effective in PvE as well. This forces players into the Crucible if they want the “best” loadouts. Even the title of “pinnacle” set a variety of unrealistic expectations. Rather than being the absolute height of Legendary power, they were supposed to be interesting novelties to chase.
These problems became more pronounced the more of them we produced. In the end, we decided to move away from pinnacle weapons. If you managed to collect them all, we hope you enjoy them!
While we’re on the subject of weapons, here are a few important notes on changes to how perks will work.
Reduced the effectiveness of the following perks in PvE:
In general, these perks use the same damage multipliers for PvE that they did in PvP
The change to Rampage does not affect the Huckleberry
Onslaught and Desperado now change bullet impact values while active in PvE
Surrounded no longer multiplies precision damage on top of base damage, as it was benefiting some weapon types more than others as a result
Legendary weapons have become too powerful overall. In many cases, they even outclass Exotic Primary weapons, so we’re walking them all back a bit. All the way back in original Destiny, we had a perk named Crowd Control, which was Rampage’s predecessor. Crowd Control capped out at a bonus of +15% extra damage. At this point in Destiny 2, Rampage caps out at about +67%. That’s a 447% increase from the original iteration. Legendary damage perks have become so powerful, they simply invalidate non-damage related perks.
Here’s a quick preview of the three ritual weapons you can earn in Season of the Undying. Because these weapons are no longer pinnacle weapons, the quest required to earn them is not as in depth as previous seasons.
Vanguard—Edgewise
Crucible—Randy’s Throwing Knife
Gambit—Exit Strategy
Set It Straight
During the run up to launch, we’ve been dropping videos, articles, interviews, and information all over the internets. Along the way, the fact-checkers called us out a few times. Today, we’re issuing some corrections to previous transmissions.
1. There was a shot of Trials of the Nine armor in the launch trailer by mistake. We wanted to clear up any confusion and let players know that the Trials of the Nine set will not obtainable in Season of the Undying.
2. We also had to revise our gameplay calendar for Season of the Undying. The menu of action is the same, but we are adjusting the timing of the Nightmare Hunts. The new schedule looks like this:
3. Back when we were first talking about finishers and some of the mods that go with them, we talked about how one of the mods enabled you to spawn Heavy ammo for your fireteam when you executed a finisher. That was still in flux at the time, and for balance reasons we ended up making a mod that will spawn Heavy ammo for yourself and a mod that will spawn Special ammo for your fireteam.
Wear It With Pride
At Bungie, our mission is to build worlds the inspire friendship. Our games become places where people—all kinds of people—can gather to share meaningful experiences. One of the most important aspects of friendship is acceptance. Earlier this year, we took to the streets as part of the Seattle Pride Parade. We also offered up a Pride Pin via the Bungie Store that was rumored to have an emblem that would come with it. The rumors are true, and we’ve chosen International Coming Out Day as the advent to deploy the in-game expression of acceptance.
For the details, along with a personal story to capture the spirit of that day, here is one of our own…
Hi Y’all,
My name’s Nigel. You may know me from things like the Shattered Throne Ride Along, or this wonderful fan video made during our St. Jude’s charity stream. This is my first TWAB post and I’m a little nervous, so I’m going to use one of my favorite TV shows, Golden Girls, as a crutch.
Picture it. Tempe, Arizona 2009. A sophomore in college. At this point in my life, I’d never really had a girlfriend or really found myself attracted to a woman. I refused to believe I was gay. Having seen so many coming-out stories go poorly, with family and friends abandoning people they loved, I didn’t want that for myself. So I ignored it by playing video games.
Dragon Age: Origins had just released, and my twin brother had been bugging me for a good week to buy it and play it. Quickly I found myself wrapped in magic and steel for an untold, but probably perfectly healthy, amount of time. During this time, I found myself conversing with one of the male party members, simply trying to raise his approval.
That’s when it appeared. The option to flirt with this character. I was as the kids say, “shooketh.” I sat for what must have been twenty minutes before deciding to click on it. He flirted back. My heart skipped. I was a ball of nerves and anxiety as the conversation continued with another chance to confess romantic feelings to the character. I thought I was going to vomit all over a simple choice in a video game. I debated with myself, what did it mean that I wanted to flirt with this character? Why did I suddenly feel like my entire existence would be changed with this one conversation? I clicked it.
And that’s when I learned about rejection. From a digital character. He wasn’t gay, and my heart sunk. But his next words were something I didn’t know I needed. “There’s nothing wrong with who you love. You are my friend no matter what.” I spent the next two hours on the floor crying, finally feeling that it was okay to be gay. I felt more comfortable than I’d ever felt in my life. I vowed, if I ever got the opportunity to pay it forward, I would.
Well I’m helping to pay it forward. I’ve spent a lot of my time at Bungie helping to make sure Destiny is a welcoming place. I have marched in the Seattle Pride Parade. I have helped set up the Trevor Foundation and other LGBTIQA+ charities. Most recently, I helped create those wonderful Bungie Pride Pins you keep seeing on our streams. I’m happy to announce that, on October 11, International Coming Out Day, we’ll be releasing a Pride emblem for your Guardian if you’ve purchased this pin. If you missed the chance to buy the pin back in June, mark your calendars, because we’ll be restocking our supply on the Bungie Store.
Destiny and Bungie are places where we can foster community and work together, no matter your background. We at Bungie want to make sure no matter who you love, or who you are, that everyone belongs in the Tower. Or the Farm, if you’re into that.
Nigel speaks true. Thanks for being excellent to each other. Any players who previously purchased the Pride Pin will be receiving codes for the emblems through email.
Bungie Rewards
Last week, we showed off a preview of the World’s First belt and some of the emblems you can earn in our upcoming pinnacle PvE activity. We weren’t quite ready to show off the awesome jacket Bungie Rewards will be offering, but the design is ready for the runway.
Any player who beats the “Garden of Salvation” raid and claims their code before the weekly reset on 10/15 will be eligible to purchase the raid jacket through Bungie Rewards. We are giving you some extra time to Power up this time. We know many of you don’t enjoy rushing through content, so even if you aren’t ready to take on the raid before 10/15, any player who completes “Garden of Salvation” during Season of the Undying will be eligible to purchase a special raid T-shirt through Bungie Rewards.
So… the shirt has some spoilers on it, but we’ll share out what it looks like after the raid is completed.
That’s not all! Players can also claim a free Eris Morn papercraft mask by completing the main Shadowkeep quest by the end of Season 8. If you’re already receiving Bungie newsletter emails, you’ll get a direct link the next day, or you can visit www.bungie.net/rewards to redeem it. Stay tuned for more Bungie Rewards throughout the season.
Full Steam Ahead
Player Support is waiting in the wings to support our next launch.
This is their report.
Upcoming 24-Hour Maintenance
This upcoming Monday, September 30, Destiny 1 and Destiny 2 will be taken offline for extended maintenance on all platforms.
This maintenance will last for approximately 24 hours, starting at 10 AM PDT (1700 UTC), ending with the launch of Destiny 2: Shadowkeep on October 1. During this downtime, players will be unable to log in to Bungie.net or access Destiny API features.
For the latest information on this maintenance as it occurs, including download availability and emergent issues, players should follow @BungieHelp on Twitter or monitor our support feed on help.bungie.net.
Pre-loading Destiny 2: Shadowkeep and Update 2.6.0
Existing console players will be able to pre-load Update 2.6.0 during the maintenance leading up to launch. The moment we confirm that downloads are available, we’ll sound off from the support links provided above.
FOLLOW UP: Delay in Forsaken License Transfers for Migrating PC Players
Last week, we discussed the likely delay of Forsaken license transfers for migrated PC players on Steam. With the announcement of our upcoming 24-hour maintenance, we hope to mitigate any possible delay in Forsaken license transfers following the launch of Shadowkeep on October 1. If any such delays occur, we’ll be sure to sound off from the support links provided above.
PC Migration and New Characters on Steam
Following the launch of Shadowkeep and Destiny 2 Update 2.6.0 on October 1, players who link their Steam account to their Bungie.net profile will be able to manually trigger PC Migration.
Players should be aware, however, that any new characters created on Steam before performing PC migration will be overwritten when players migrate from Battle.net. This will result in the potential loss of new characters and gear, as well as Silver, Eververse items, and Season Passes—if purchased on these new characters before performing PC migration.
To make things as simple as possible, here’s the recommended order of operations for players who perform PC migration to Steam after Shadowkeep launches on October 1:
2. If desired, enable Cross Save so your preferred characters are available when you log in to Destiny 2 on Steam. PC Migration will still transfer your Battle.net characters to Steam, even if another set of characters is selected for Cross Save. This also determines which characters receive any Silver or Season Passes purchased on Steam before logging in.
4. Log in to Destiny 2.
5. Your Battle.net characters, licenses, and Silver will already be migrated to your Steam account, however your Cross Saved characters will appear if Cross Save is enabled.
IMPORTANT: Since purchased Silver and Season Passes are applied to the first character set that players log in with after purchase, we strongly recommend that players enable Cross Save before logging in to Destiny 2 on Steam. This will ensure that your desired characters are receiving your Silver and Season Passes on the Steam platform. Cross Save-enabled characters will be able to bring their Season Passes with them to any platform after they have been applied.
REMINDER: Destiny 2 and Silver Purchases on Battle.net
This week, we’d like to remind PC players that Destiny 2 game content and Destiny 2 Silver can no longer be purchased from the Battle.net Shop.
Existing PC players can continue to play on Battle.net until Destiny 2 undergoes maintenance for Steam launch. Players should also be aware that in order for recent Silver purchases to successfully transfer to Steam, players MUST log in to Destiny 2 on Battle.net before 10 AM PDT (1700 UTC) on September 30, 2019 to claim their purchased Silver.
REMINDER: Battle.net Code Redemption for Destiny 2
As another reminder, players should be aware that any Battle.net code they possess for Destiny 2 content MUST be redeemed on their Battle.net account before they perform PC Migration. Players who have already prepared for PC Migration have until the start of Destiny 2 maintenance on September 30 to redeem any unused Battle.net codes—to have that license transfer to their Steam account.
Players who migrate to Steam after our October 1 maintenance must also ensure that their Battle.net code is redeemed before they link their Steam account. Once a Steam account is linked, their Guardians, Silver, and game licenses will be migrated from Battle.net to Steam. This is a one-time process that cannot be repeated for new licenses. For information on Battle.net code redemption, players should visit Blizzard’s How to Claim a Code knowledgebase article.
It’s worth noting that all content previously included in the base Destiny 2 game, Curse of Osiris, or Warmind, will be available to all players for free through the launch of Destiny 2: New Light on October 1.
Steam Limited User Accounts
Next week, Destiny 2 officially launches on Steam. Before it does, we’d like to make players aware of Steam’s Limited User Accounts.
In short, any player whose account has spent less than $5.00 USD on the Steam Store will have limited access to community and social features that are commonly used for spamming, phishing, and other abuse.
This will also apply to any Destiny 2 player new to the Steam platform who migrates from Battle.net. For more information, please see Valve’s Limited User Accounts support article.
Premonition Legendary Pulse Rifle
Following the launch of Shadowkeep next week, players will be able to view new items added to Destiny 2 using the in-game Collections. Before then, we’d like to make players aware of a known issue with one particular weapon listing.
Following the launch of Shadowkeep, the Collection listing for the Premonition Legendary Pulse Rifle will state that it is “found by exploring the Moon.” This weapon’s specific source is actually the new dungeon, which will become available sometime after Shadowkeep’s launch.
Players who encounter other issues following the launch of New Light, Shadowkeep, and Steam PC should report them to the #Help forum.
MOTW
All right, let’s see what we got. More movies on the field. Here are our favorites this week.
Movie of the Week: Embrace your fears
Honorable Mention: The Duke
This is it. The last TWAB before launch. Are you ready?
The entire team has been working hard on this release. We got Cross Save in your hands early and are excited to see you experience all the content in Shadowkeep. New players and veterans alike will have new characters wake up on the Cosmodrome for the first time in Destiny 2. Please welcome new Guardians who may be just joining this incredible community. Thanks for sticking with us. We’ll see you star side.
Mojang has released 1.14.3. This release includes many bug fixes and some feature changes to make your lives easier… or harder depending on what they are.
A full summary of the content available in this snapshot can be found in the changelog on Minecraft.net.
Items can now be repaired by crafting them together again
Reverted the enchanting system to how it was before 1.14
Torches, lanterns and pressure plates can now be placed on glass panes and iron bars
Lanterns can now be attached below iron bars and glass panes
Saturation is no longer required for the “How did we get here?” advancement
You can now turn off raids with ‘/gamerule disableRaids true’
Patrol changes:
Vindicators are no longer part of patrols
Doubled the minimum time to spawn from 5 + (up to 1) minutes to 10 + (up to 1) minutes
Patrols no longer spawns if the block light level disallows monster spawning
Patrols are now allowed to spawn in any biome except mushroom biomes
Villagers that are panicking now have a bigger chance of spawning Iron Golems, assuming they can occasionally work and sleep
“Last slept” and “last worked” is now saved properly for Villagers
Farmers now spend more time farming when they are working
Farmers can now always give away food even if other villagers don’t need it
Improved performance
Fixed bugs
MC-47699 – Blazes are able to see a player through blocks
Versus: Unfriendly Frenzy has a rhythmic name that just rolls off the tongue, and its gameplay is every bit as dynamic. The presentation and play experience are zippy, the theme is zany if a little vacuous, but the strategy is ultimately flat. This ain’t Civ 5, folks, and it was never meant to be. As a series of rapid-fire tactical skirmishes, Versus shines, as it also does with local multiplayer. It has clearly been well-polished and is quite fun, but the lack of depth in decision-making and interactions makes the overall experience middling.
It’s real time strategy in a lightweight sense: two commanders duke it out on a single-screen map by spawning units down the lanes of the map. These forces march to the other side of the battlefield, fighting any enemies they come across and ultimately damaging the base if left unopposed. Every one of these units costs energy, which regenerates automatically over time. Your leader can be re-positioned and becomes the spawn point for any or all new units. Honestly that’s 90% of the game, so it is practically pick-up-and-play accessible.
I suppose because Starcraft & Warcraft cast long shadows, there are three factions. There’s some notional asymmetry amongst them: the Circus, Muscle Faeries, and Junkyard. Each one has a roster of six units, three (or rarely four) of which must be selected as a squad. Some are area-of-effect attackers, others demolish buildings quickly. There are tanks and glass cannons alike. It’s a bit like throwing rock-paper-scissors to finagle an advantage in a match, for the melee/ranged/flying matchups serve as soft counters to each other. Standard stuff, nothing fancy or wrong with it really, just a tad uninspired. To be fair, the visual and thematic design is kitschy and eclectic, so at least the aesthetics are colorful.
The extensive single-player campaign does a thorough job parcelling out how everything works in stages. It give tutorials on different units, win conditions, terrain effects and power ups, and moreover separates these new elements into their own missions. A generous interpretation to this campaign structure would be to say it onboards the player gently and has a leisurely difficulty curve. The cynical take is that there’s more padding here than mechanically unique challenges. As ever, the truth is somewhere in the middle. While the campaign storyline does follow the quest to steal and use the Pixie Protein Powder to revive ‘dark magicks’ it is constantly jumping around point-of-view and setting. New cartoon characters are introduced and dismissed rapid-fire, and the missions are generally beaten using the exact same operating procedure. It’s a fever dream, yet also dreary at times.
Seize power ups early, increasing your force’s power level and consistently turning the tide of battle in your favor. That’s it. The specifics of faction matchups and squad composition are only of trifling concern. If ‘strategy’ means long-term planning to you, implying some overarching ambition and design, then Versus is a weakling in terms of strategy. It is, however, tactically intense. Because of the obstacles and unpredictable spawn behaviour of those power ups, timing and quick wits are crucial. A flurry of micro-skirmishes between forces proves pivotal, so to master those, you have to position your leader correctly and tap the right mixture of units in the right window of opportunity. Unfortunately there is no real way to micro-manage the flow of battle beyond this. Contrast that with, say, Iron Marines, and you have a weird hybrid where battles are set into motion without much additional oversight or fine control. In this respect it strongly resembles a lane-pushing or tower-defense game.
The single game element that keeps Versus from getting totally stale is the power-ups. There are ones which beef up a unit type’s health, speed or attack, but there are also one-off ones, which can freeze the enemy commander or create a super-unit. Power-ups have to be used manually, and while the unit stat upgrades have the longest tail of influence, the short-term ones are no joke, either. They are decisive and unpredictable, so they keep the game from becoming a tedious overlong tug-of-war match. It’s a mid-range objective to give additional momentum, and the trick works.
The theme of the game, as well as it’s overall presentation were clearly going for Saturday morning cartoon, and they hit that aim. Each faction has a few key players and personalities, all of which bicker and quibble over every little thing, just as a way to generate dialogue to break up the battles. Heavy dialects drive home how unsubtle the whole affair is. The story, much like the gameplay, is best digested by kids.
Some good news: the multiplayer is a standout and somewhat redeems the rest of the game’s weaknesses. Finally all of the simplicity in design and inputs makes perfect sense: how else can you manage local multiplayer without split screen? It’s about as good as it gets in this limited format, though the strategy fiends would be infinitely better served by a pass-and-play game, and this feels more like an RTS game for parties.
‘It’s a bit rubbish, but I can’t stop myself from playing’. This phrase is a tidy bit of unfair rationalization, used as a preface to diminish every single so-called guilty pleasure. It leapt to mind several times while playing Versus: Unfriendly Frenzy, and though the game is well-made, it quickly runs out of interesting things to say or do. The guilty pleasure here is that of an easy, familiar challenge, and it is easy for any gamer to simply enjoy Versus, which for all its faults is at least well-executed. As a routine or background action, the battles are pleasurable enough, but the game demonstrates how difficult it is to straddle that fine line between simple and simplistic. For someone just looking to blaze through the game in a few hours and leave it behind with only dimly pleasurable hazy memories, it is perfectly adequate, but for long-term play it isn’t a keeper.
LowRes NX is a cross platform and open source fantasy console. Fantasy consoles are designed to create a virtual game console as well as providing all the tools you need to create games for the console. It’s a way of harkening back to a simpler time in game development and is an excellent way of introducing game programming while keeping the complexities down, as well as teaching more experienced programmers how to deal with more constrained environments.
LowRes NX is described as follows:
Virtual Game Console
Imagine LowRes NX as a handheld game console with a d-pad, two action buttons and a little rubber keyboard below a slidable touchscreen. LowRes NX was inspired by real 8- and 16-bit systems and simulates chips for graphics, sound and I/O, which actually work like classic hardware. It supports hardware sprites as well as hardware parallax scrolling, and even offers vertical blank and raster interrupts to create authentic retro effects.
Old-School Programming
The programming language of LowRes NX is based on second-generation, structured BASIC. It offers all the classic commands, but with labels, loops and subprograms instead of line numbers. Graphics and sound are supported by additional commands and you can even access the virtual hardware directly using PEEK and POKE. You have complete control over the program flow, there is no standard update function to implement.
Creative Tools
LowRes NX includes all the tools you need: The Character Designer for editing sprites, tiles and fonts, the Background Designer for tile maps and screen layouts, as well as the Sound Composer for music and sound effects. All of these are just normal BASIC programs. You can change and improve them or even create your own custom editors.
Share and Play
Send your games directly to other users or share them via the website. All programs are open source, so you can play them, learn from them and edit them. Do you prefer making just art or music? Share your creations as assets and let other programmers use them in their projects.
One of the most interesting aspects of LowRes NX is there is a completely free iOS implementation available on the Apple App Store enabling game development on the go. There is also a community of games you can learn from. The source code is available on GitHub under the LGPL v3 open source license. You can check out LowRes NX in action in the video below.
Material Maker is a free and open source MIT licensed procedural texture generation tool built using (and that can run within) the Godot game engine. Material Maker 0.6 was just released.
Material Maker is now a lot more generic and nearly all generators are based on GLSL shaders that can be edited. To test this feature, just drag one from the library to the graph editor, selected the newly created node and hit Ctrl+F. The node becomes editable, and hitting the pencil button will show the shader editor that can be used to define the node’s parameters, inputs, outputs, and GLSL functions that will be used to generate textures. For now it lacks diagnostic tools, so you’d better start with code you already tested (in shadertoy for example). Since images described in GLSL are math functions, all those generators are resolution independent.
It is now possible to create a group of interconnected generators using Ctrl+G. This will create a new node that contains the previously selected ones, while keeping all connectivity with other nodes of the graph. To edit the new subgraph, click on the pencil button of the newly created node ; and to get back to the parent graph, use the Up button in the top left corner of the view. If a Remote node was selected, it will be used to define the new node’s parameters.
All nodes now have embedded previews. Just click on the closed eye left of each node output to open it.
The 3d preview can now be moved manually, and the “O” button in its top right corner will show the preview as background of the graph view.
the library pane now has icons for many generators and a filter.
There are quite a few new generators: truchet, weave, runes, mirror and kaleidoscope.
The source code for Material Maker is hosted on GitHub, although the 0.6 code doesn’t seem to have been made an official release yet. Material Maker can also be downloaded from within the Godot Engine, in which case it will directly create a Spatial Material ready for use in your Godot game. The standalone release instead exports a series of PNG textures for use in whatever engine or application you wish to use.
You can learn more about Material Maker in the video below.
Extend your Mac display to another Mac with Luna Display 4.0
By William Gallagher Thursday, October 17, 2019, 10:00 am PT (01:00 pm ET)
You can now extend or mirror your main Mac’s screen onto a second Mac as easily as you can with Sidecar and an iPad with Luna Display 4.0.
Extending a single desktop across an iMac and a MacBook Pro. (Photo: Luna Display.)
Before Apple introduced Sidecar in macOS Catalina, firms including Luna Display provided the same ability to use an iPad as a second display. Now the latest version of Luna Display 4.0 lets you do the same thing, but with either an iPad or a spare Mac.
The company calls it Mac-to-Mac-Mode and says that the aim is to make the most out of multiple Apple devices at once.
“Apple has always marketed its products to be standalone, never intended to be used at the same time.” says the firm in a statement. “While you can connect devices through AirDrop, or pick up where you left off in Safari and the Messages app, the idea remains the same: it is all about picking up one product, and setting the other down.”
“Where we differ from Apple is that, instead of limiting ourselves to using each product individually, we see the potential that comes from a combination of products that is greater than the sum of its parts,” it continues.
Apple’s Sidecar requires macOS Catalina to work with an iPad, but is also limited to certain newer Macs. Luna Display 4.0 brings the feature to older models, with the main Mac needing 2015’s macOS El Capitan or later.
The secondary Mac, the one used as an extra display, can be running an even older OS, going back to 2012’s macOS Mountain Lion.
The software element is an app that must be run on both machines. Luna Display works only wirelessly, and the two devices must be on the same Wi-Fi network.
Posted by: xSicKxBot - 10-22-2019, 08:39 PM - Forum: Windows
- No Replies
How AI is helping secure water for your future
Last year, Cape Town, South Africa, came within days of running out of water. This summer, Chennai, India, ran dry, with residents standing in line for hours for government water supplies.
Global demand for water is rapidly growing – but it is becoming increasingly scarce. Almost a third of the world’s population is estimated to be living in water-scarce areas, according to the World Data Lab.
With an increase in shortages driven by climate change and a growing global population, better management of this resource is crucial.
A team of researchers at Stanford University’s Natural Capital Project is combining remote-sensing data with machine learning to detect smaller dams and reservoirs. These structures deliver drinking water and generate hydropower, but they can also risk threatening ecosystems if not built and managed carefully.
Developed using Microsoft Azure, the algorithm will be made freely available to the sustainable development community.
Dr. Simmhan is part of an interdisciplinary team applying its experience with IoT to the challenge of water management in megacities
Managing water in megacities
The rapidly growing demand for water in India will soon significantly outpace its supply. Dr. Yogesh Simmhan is using the Internet of Things (IoT) to help ensure people have access to an affordable, safe water supply. This can be an issue in areas with dense populations, particularly megacities (those with populations over 10 million), many of which experience water scarcity and inequitable access.
As part of his work with the EqWater project, Dr. Simmhan is using data analytics and machine learning to understand the causes of variations in access to water for individual neighborhoods; algorithms can be used to better manage supplies, such as improved water scheduling or detecting leaks.
Pooling data on areas such as flow from reservoirs, seasonal weather and residential use, the team can predict peak demand and identify shortfalls.
Improved forecasting of droughts and floods will become increasingly important as climate change drives more extreme weather events. The Center for Western Weather and Water Extremes project, based at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego, is working to increase its understanding of some of the less well-recognized weather phenomena affecting the western U.S.
Such phenomenon is atmospheric rivers – large bodies of water vapor in the sky. Although little is understood about them, they are known to trigger intense storms and flooding, and are major contributors to water supplies. Equally, droughts can occur if they fail to arrive at the expected time or place. Deep learning is helping the team predict their behavior.
Conservation Science Partners wood supply model
Investigating the effect of tree loss
Drought, climate change, wildfires and insect infestation have all contributed to an increase in tree loss in the western U.S., where forest health is a major concern. Trees help prevent flooding by absorbing rain and slowing run-off; they contribute to drinking water supplies by helping replenish aquifers and purifying water; and they play a vital role in carbon capture.
Tony Chang and a team at the research nonprofit Conservation Science Partners are using cloud computing and machine learning to assess tree health and biomass, using images from NASA, the U.S. Geological Society, the National Agricultural Imagery Program and others. This data is linked to information about regional water sources in order to uncover the connections between forest conservation and management and water supplies.
The analysis is initially being applied in California before being rolled out to rest of the western U.S.
Africa Flores, research scientist at the Earth System Science Center in the University of Alabama
Predicting armful algae blooms
Africa Flores, a research scientist at the University of Alabama’s Earth System Science Center, and her team are using AI to analyze satellite images and weather models to help predict harmful algal blooms. These out-of-control colonies of algae deplete oxygen in the water and make it potentially toxic to humans and wildlife.
Working on Lake Atitlán in the Guatemalan Highlands, she uses machine learning to analyze data on variables such as rainfall, temperature and cloud cover. She hopes deeper insight into the conditions that may lead to such blooms will help authorities take preventive measures and potentially improve agricultural practices. Her plan is to use her algorithm in other freshwater bodies in Central and South America.
