Set in real-world Asakusa in Tokyo, indie game developers 'Judgement 7? AR tech goes awry, spilling into and affecting the real world. Directed by acclaimed Noki Morita- the author and planner of the excellent Sakura Wars.
Sean and Daniel Diaz?s journey to Mexico continues in Episode 3, a few months after the events in Episode 2 and the boys? escape from Beaver Creek. The brothers experience life on the fringes of society, as they befriend a close-knit community of drifters and runaways, and become embroiled in the illegal cannabis trade among the towering redwood forests of California. Sean and Daniel?s resolve is put to the test once again, as new relationships create friction between them and they both learn much about who they are as individuals. Uncertain about their once united purpose, can they stay together, or will their journey together end here?
Fortnite Season 9 Battle Pass Guide: Free Skins, Price, And How It All Works
Mark it on your calendar, Fortnite Season 9 began on May 9, and brought with it a whole bunch of new things for players to obsess about--10 weeks from now, you'll be getting all nostalgic about this moment, probably. Fortnite developer Epic Games has detailed the major patch that is ushering in all the exciting changes to the game and, as with previous seasons, there are significant changes to the map, fresh gameplay opportunities, and much more. Obviously, there's a new Battle Pass too, and below you'll find a breakdown of all the key details, including pricing information, what you'll get as part of it, and how to make the most of the Battle Pass.
What Is The Fortnite Battle Pass?
The Battle Pass is effectively what allows players to unlock new items that can be used to customize their character. These include skins, emotes, wraps, gliders, and back bling--basically, it's all the rad stuff you see players wearing and think, "Dang, that's cool, I want that." These items are earned by playing Fortnite--taking out enemy players, scoring Victory Royales, completing the weekly challenges, and generally having a good time in Fortnite. While doing this, you'll accrue Battle Stars, which in turn level up the Battle Pass and unlock cosmetic items attached to the levels.
As with previous Battle Passes, there are over 100 levels to upgrade through. For Season 9, when you buy the Battle Pass, you'll automatically get two skins: Sentinel and Rox, which you can see images of below. Rox is a progressive skins, which means it can be levelled up to evolve into new styles.
How Do Battle Pass Challenges Work?
Thankfully, you're not required to have a Battle Pass to enjoy playing Fortnite. This is because, by default, everyone is able to unlock a limited number of cosmetics. This is because everyone starts off with what is a free, baseline level of the Battle Pass. With this version, however, it takes considerably longer to level up the Battle Pass and unlock cosmetics, and many of the coolest items are exclusive to paid Battle Pass owners. Weekly challenges are the quickest way to level up a Battle Pass, and while free players will have some challenges to do, there's a portion of the weekly challenges that are exclusive to those that have spent V-Bucks on a Battle Pass. More challenges to do means more Battle Stars can be earned, which in turn results in the Battle Pass leveling up quicker.
How Much Does A Battle Pass Cost?
The Battle Pass costs 950 V-Bucks from the in-game store. V-Bucks is a Fortnite-specific currency that you can purchase with real money. 1,000 V-Bucks go for about $10 in the US. Alternatively, you can purchase the Battle Bundle, which is 40% off and gives you the Battle Pass with 25 tiers unlocked, as well as the Bunker Jonesy skin. This bundle is priced at 2,800 V-Bucks.
Season 9 Battle Bundle Contents
Battle Bundle is available now through August 1 and instantly grants players with items "valued at over 10,000 V-Bucks. These include:
Rox Progressive Outfit
Sentinel Outfit
Bunker Jonesy Outfit
Sentinel Wrap
Ripe Rippers Harvesting Tool
Turbo Spin Glider
Ripe Wrap
300 B-Bucks
1 Music Track
70% Bonus Season Match XP
20% Bonus Season Friend Match XP
What Are The Rewards?
When you purchase a Battle Pass, you'll immediately receive a few skins including the Sentinel and Rox. However, beyond that there are futuristic wraps, which chance the visual style of whatever they're applied to, mechanized pets, emotes, back bling, sprays, and more. The ultimate goal, however, is a progressive outfit that unlocks at tier 100. This skin is called "Vendetta" and you can see an image of it above. It's also worth noting that if you owned a Season 8 pass, you'll start Season 9 with a 30% personal XP boost. You can see all the Fortnite Season 9 Battle Pass rewards here.
What's New In Season 9?
The Battle Pass might seem like a lot of work, and it certainly is--requiring hours of dedicated play, but it also worthwhile if you're an avid Fortnite fan. But how does Season 9 mix things up from a gameplay standpoint, you may be asking? Well, the biggest change that we've seen in Week 1 of Season 9 is the new Slipstreams. These are new ways to get around the map quickly and, since you can either hop in yourself to be carried around the island, lob projectiles in, or drive small vehicles through, there's sure to be plenty of opportunities to make mischief. There is gameplay depth to using Splistreams too, as you can build speed and influences trajectory, so you'll need to spend a bit of time getting familiar with how they work. You can read more about what's new in the Season 9 patch notes.
One Mortal Kombat 11 Developer Had To See A Therapist After Violent Dreams
Mortal Kombat 11 hasn’t had the smoothest launch. The new fighting game was criticised for being a grind-fest and more recently, there have been serious allegations of toxic work culture at NetherRealm Studios during the development cycle. If that wasn’t already enough, one of the individuals involved in the creation process has revealed how working on the latest entry in the excessively violent series eventually led to a PTSD diagnosis.
During an interview with Kotaku, the individual – who requested anonymity to protect their career within the video game industry – said they spent their days throughout 2018 viewing violent animations and referring to “real-life” research material to create overly gory in-game animations while breaking down each cinematic sequence frame-by-frame.
“You’d walk around the office and one guy would be watching hangings on YouTube, another guy would be looking at pictures of murder victims, someone else would be watching a video of a cow being slaughtered.”
After roughly a month, all of this violent content took its toll on this particular developer, resulting in a loss of sleep due to graphic dreams:
“I’d have these extremely graphic dreams, very violent.”
They then saw a therapist, who diagnosed them with post-traumatic stress disorder – which is believed to be because of Mortal Kombat and its explicit development process. Apparently, this particular individual wasn’t alone, with other co-workers who eventually left also suffering from “similar problems” during the creation of the game.
Warner Bros. Games and NetherRealm Studios did not respond to this story. Read the full report here.
In a recent interview with VGC, Platinum Games’ studio head, Atushi Inaba, was asked if the upcoming Switch exclusive Astral Chain had been influenced by the previously cancelled Xbox One title, Scalebound. There are supposedly no similarities between the two games:
“I can’t go in to detail about how the different gameplay systems of ASTRAL CHAIN and Scalebound work, but they’re both very different. Any feeling of similarity between the two projects is not true. It’s all in your imagination!”
Inaba was also asked how Scalebound’s cancellation had impacted Platinum:
“I wouldn’t say our experience with Scalebound influenced us to go towards self-publishing. Quite frankly, the reality is that we’ve had plenty of titles cancelled in the past: that’s part and parcel of what comes with making video games.
“Watching fans getting angry at Microsoft over the cancellation wasn’t easy for us to watch. Because the reality is, when any game in development can’t get released it’s because both sides failed. I think there are areas where we could’ve done better and I’m sure there are areas that Microsoft as a publishing partner wish that they could’ve done better. Because nobody wants a game to be cancelled.”
Are you looking forward to the release of Astral Chain on the Switch this August? Tell us below.
Posted by: xSicKxBot - 05-09-2019, 11:45 PM - Forum: Windows
- No Replies
New self-paced learning tools make quantum programming more approachable
With the most recent Quantum Development Kit release, we’ve focused on empowering our users to get engaged with quantum development. The new release:
Makes it easier to learn quantum computing with the quantum katas notebooks.
Adds more consistent and concise Q# syntax.
Refactors to focus on helping users find what they want and contribute their code.
Building upon the Jupyter Notebook integration that we shared with you last month, we now extend the support to our quantum katas – self-paced tutorials on quantum computing. Today’s update means that new Q# developers can experience our self-paced learning tools without having to install the Quantum Development Kit. With this update, we’ve made quantum programming approachable for people with any level of experience.
Youcan try out the kata notebook yourself hosted online, or you can also find a list of other kata notebooks for you to try at our open source Quantum Katas repository.
Q# makes it easy to think in terms of quantum algorithms and quantum applications.As we continue to evolve the world’s first high-level quantum programming language to meet the needs of scalable quantum program development, we’re also taking the opportunity to make it even easier to express quantum algorithms in Q#.
With this release, we areadding new capabilities to the Q# language itself. For example, we addedan operator “w/”, a new way to express array creation as a modification of an existing array. We have also added a shorthand way to express specializations of quantum operations (e.g.: Controlled and Adjoint) and new shorthand, (e.g.:, “w/=, +=) for common statements. These changes not only improve the developer’s ability to express quantum algorithms, but they will also lead to more efficient code generation on quantum devices.
Visual Studio and Visual Studio code users will also now see the familiar light bulbicon that recommends fixes for build problems.
We have optimized the layout of our libraries to enable the exciting growth that we are seeing from our team and the larger quantum community. As more developers contribute their ideas and Q# code, the new layout helps developers learn and re-use code faster. Learn about these and other new features in the Quantum Development Kit update release notes.
Finally, please take a look at our developer blogthis week as wepublish a series of more in-depthblogs about each of these new capabilities.
The Division 2's New Loot Changes Canceled Thanks To "Loud And Clear" Feedback
Ubisoft has announced Title Update 3, set to go live in The Division 2 this month, will not increase the game's Gear Score to 515 like previously stated. Instead, the maximum Gear Score will remain at 500.
"Our intention, as always, is for players to enjoy the content they love and continue to make progress with their Agent," a blog post on The Division 2 website reads. "After talking about loot and Gear Score in a lot of meetings, chats and video calls and many white boards being filled with thoughts, notes and graphs, we decided that with all the changes coming with [Title Update 3], increasing the Gear Score at this point would have created a couple of issues."
The post goes on to list some of those issues, including how raising the Gear Score to 515 would have made all Gear Score 500 items outdated ahead of the raid that's also included in Title Update 3. "We don't want to invalidate your progression and we heard that feedback loud and clear from our community," the post reads. Ubisoft also doesn't want The Division 2 to become too focused on chasing higher Gear Scores, as "it should be about finding a playstyle and build that you enjoy."
To reinforce this, Ubisoft has made several changes to Title Update 3 ahead of its release. These changes are listed below. The list of in-game adjustments and add-ons coming in Title Update 3 are listed in the full patch notes on The Division 2's website.
The Division 2 Title Update 3 Changes
We have increased the rewards for daily Priority Hard and Challenging missions. Once you've reached Gear Score 500, those activities will guarantee Gear Score 500 drops.
Heroic Mission bosses, Stronghold bosses and Bounty bosses, as well as Control Point Alert Level 4 reward containers guarantee Gear Score 500 items if your average Gear Score is at 500.
DZ contaminated loot does not drop below player's average Gear Score. When you've reached an average Gear Score of 500, Contaminated loot will guarantee Gear Score 500 items.
We've balanced loot across the board to reduce the chances of items dropping at a lower Gear Score than that of your character.
The Division 2 is available on Xbox One, PS4, and PC.
Reminder: The Latest Free Update For Dragon Ball FighterZ Is Now Live
One of the standout brawlers on the Switch right now is Dragon Ball FighterZ. The Arc System Works release first arrived on the platform in 2018 and has improved over time with a number of free content updates and DLC character releases.
The latest free content update unlocks seasonal gacha, a new course for the Arcade Mode and custom Tenkaichi. In addition to this, Goku [GT] and commentator voice packs are also being added to the game today as a part of the FighterZ Pass. Here’s a graphic of everything you can expect, courtesy of the Bandai Namco Twitter account:
The new paid DLC fighter – Goku [GT] – is based on the much younger-looking Goku from the Dragon Ball GT series. He’s ready for battle with his special “Super Kamehameha” attack, transforming him into Super Saiyan 3 and has many other moves such as “Super Spirit Bomb”, “Power Pole” and the “Reverse Kamehameha.”
Will you be trying out the free update for Dragon Ball FighterZ? Have you been eager to train up with this version of Goku? Tell us down below.
Smash Up The City As A Giant Monster In This Free Nintendo Labo VR Minigame
Remember the free ‘Alien Bopping’ game added to the Labo Toy-Con 04: VR Kit at the end of April? Well, Nintendo has now released another mini-game. This time it’s about smashing up a city as a gigantic green Godzilla-like creature. The only difference is this monster shoots red balls (imagine them as lasers) from its mouth to destroy the buildings.
Before you download this VR minigame, you’ll need to have first unlocked the Toy-Con garage VR programming tool. You can gain access to this mode by completing the activities in the Discover menu and from there, you load up the garage and save this new mini-game data by selecting “Name and Save” within the Toy-Con VR programming tool.
You can initiate this download by visiting the Switch news channel on the system’s HOME Menu and clicking on the Labo VR Channel. Once you’ve done this, view the ‘VR Minigame’ post and click the button at the bottom of the page to start up the software and receive the game.
Have you downloaded this or the Alien Bopping game yet? How are you finding Labo VR so far? Tell us below.
Posted by: xSicKxBot - 05-09-2019, 05:22 PM - Forum: Windows
- No Replies
Military Spouse Technology Academy to be offered in San Antonio
May 8, 2019
Today we’re announcing the second phase of the Military Spouse Technology Academy (MSTA), which trains military spouses in technical and soft skills that equip them for careers in the technology industry. Following the successful completion of the pilot cohort on March 1 — which graduated 100% of its 19 participants in the Tacoma, Wash., area — the academy will also be offered at a new location in San Antonio, Texas, beginning this fall.
MSTA is the latest program to demonstrate Microsoft’s dedication to supporting the military community. It was built atop the success of the Microsoft Software & Systems Academy (MSSA), which launched in 2013 with the mission of providing important technical skills to transitioning service members and veterans.
Military spouses make up a highly educated, talented and hard-working group. Forty-five percent have a four-year degree or higher, but the demands of being a military spouse — frequent relocations, their spouse’s unexpected deployments and the challenge of sometimes living in remote areas — mean that they face high under- and unemployment rates.
At the same time, the technology industry continues to face a talent shortage.
For these reasons and more, Microsoft introduced MSTA, a 22-week onsite program that offers the opportunity for well-paying, long-term and meaningful careers in tech.
“We’re proud that the first Military Spouse Technology Academy graduates have accomplished their training goals,” said U.S. Marine Corps Major General (Ret.) Chris Cortez, vice president of Microsoft Military Affairs. “Now, we’re taking MSTA to San Antonio, based on its large military community, the city’s support for military spouses, and the many companies in the area that have committed to considering employment opportunities to hire these resilient and industrious graduates. Military spouses have a lot of potential. They’re going to be great employees.”
From MSSA, which has helped more than a thousand transitioning service members garner well-paid careers in the technology industry; to YouthSpark4MilKids, which provides immersive STEM workshops specifically for middle school children of military families; to MSTA, which is specifically tailored for military spouses, Microsoft endeavors to empower every person on the planet to achieve more.
MSTA empowers military families and the regions and industries that support them
Reflecting Microsoft’s ever-broadening commitment to this community, the new San Antonio location will offer the Texas-based military spouse community a chance to develop technology skills necessary for today’s digital economy. MSTA will also give local organizations a chance to hire motivated and skilled tech talent.
Microsoft works closely with Hiring Our Heroes — a nonprofit initiative of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce that connects service members, spouses and veterans to meaningful employment — to support the military community through MSTA and MSSA. San Antonio is one of Hiring Our Heroes’ Military Spouse Economic Empowerment Zones, which boost prospects for military spouses through a vibrant and robust network of employers.
“MSTA is the first of its kind for military spouses,” said Elizabeth O’Brien, senior director of the Military Spouse Program at Hiring Our Heroes. “Military spouses face unique challenges, but I will tell you we are masters of solutions as well. The program that Microsoft created is a perfect example of how companies can partner for innovative change to support military spouse employment.”
Jacqueline Widdis, an MSTA graduate and a program manager at Microsoft, had a 19-and-a-half-year full-time employment gap before starting the program. “MSTA has, quite frankly, changed my life,” Widdis said. “I knew what I had to offer a company, but I couldn’t get past that portal to show or even interview with a company to say, ‘This is what I’m capable of.’ Now, I feel empowered to take control of my own career, find out what my next steps are and walk in that direction.”
MSTA graduates benefit the companies that hire them
Jessica Jacobs, an MSTA graduate who now works at Boeing, found MSTA’s sense of community to be very valuable. “The most challenging thing about being a military spouse is juggling your household and your own personal aspirations,” Jacobs said. “MSTA can benefit organizations by teaching military spouses the fundamentals for IT. MSTA has empowered me to go after my dreams at all costs.”
MSSA and MSTA play a key role in funneling a unique pipeline of savvy and skilled talent from the veteran and military community into roles at some of the world’s most prominent companies. Our hiring-partner program is a group of more than 450 companies committed to hiring these graduates, who are often mission-oriented, adaptable and instilled with a sense of teamwork aimed at problem-solving. As a hiring partner, companies gain access to candidates with the drive, discipline, training and capabilities to succeed in a fast-paced and increasingly digital world.
