Today’s Deal: Save 30% on The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel II!*

Look for the deals each day on the front page of Steam. Or follow us on twitter or Facebook for instant notifications wherever you are!

*Offer ends November 12 at 10AM Pacific Time

Starting at 2:00 p.m. PDT today, members of the Xbox One Preview Beta and Delta Rings will begin receiving a new 1811 Xbox One system update (181026-1939). Read on for more about the fixes and known issues in the latest 1811 system update.

New Features:

Family Settings

• Children signing up for new accounts will now be asked to add a parent only if required to by local privacy regulations (e.g., GDPR or COPPA). This means that some minors, like teens in the U.S., will no longer have to add a parent and join a Microsoft family during signup. Xbox privacy and online safety defaults will still be applied based on age, and in order to change those, the minor would need to add a parent on Xbox who can then change their settings. Minors not in a family can add a parent anytime in Settings > Account > Family settings > Add a parent. Joining a family would also allow the parent and child to use other family features like content restrictions, screen time, activity reporting, and spending.
• Children that are subject to local privacy regulations will still be required to add a parent during signup. While this will create a Microsoft family through which the parent can use family features like content restrictions, screen time, activity reporting, and spending, the parent will no longer be required to sign in on Xbox. If a parent wants to change their child’s Xbox privacy and online safety settings, the parent can sign in separately on Xbox and manage their family in Settings > Account > Family settings.
• Existing child accounts are not affected by this change and will remain with their parents in their current Microsoft family.

 Mouse & Keyboard Support

• We have enabled mouse support in the build.  Please check out the Quest in the Xbox Insider Hub to experience mouse and keyboard support in Warframe.

 Search Enhancements

• The search function has been enhanced across the console and will now return responses from the Xbox Assist application for example to help with help, support and troubleshooting.  Please check out the Quest in the Xbox Insider Hub to help us gather feedback.

Fixes:

My Games and Apps:

• Fixed issues in which some users were experience Games and apps failing to launch at the splash screen.
• Fixed an issue in which Recently installed games were not showing in collections.

Networking

• Fixes to address the console loosing network connectivity at random times.
• Additional fixed issues in which the console is fully powering off when it is placed into Instant On mode.

 Notifications:

• Fixed the Achievement toasts issue in which it was not clearing.
• Fixed the Welcome to Game Pass Toast every time.

 System

• USB keyboard navigation fixes in the system.
• Store twist updates to improve performance and stability.
• Localization fixes.

Known Issues:

Profile Color

• Sometimes users may encounter the incorrect Profile color when powering on the console.

Japanese chart figures are now in for 29th October – 4th November, revealing that the Switch has managed to regain its usual sales momentum after a slight dip last time around.

Call of Duty: Black Ops IIII returns to the top of the charts this week, with an extra 39,077 sales taking its total for the region to 417,990. Nintendo’s highest entry is Super Mario Party on 27,001 sales, managing to stay in third place for another week.

The only new entry this week was the Switch version of Neko Tomo which has sold 4,151 copies in its opening week. Here’s a look at the top 20 (first numbers are this week’s sales, followed by total sales in brackets):

1) [PS4] Call of Duty: Black Ops IIII (SIE, 10/12/18) – 39,077 (417,990)
2) [PS4] Red Dead Redemption 2 (Limited Editions Included) (Take-Two Interactive, 10/26/18) – 34,258 (167,242)
3) [NSW] Super Mario Party (Nintendo, 10/05/18) – 27,001 (301,351)
4) [NSW] Minecraft: Nintendo Switch Edition (Microsoft, 06/21/18) – 8,093 (350,337)
5) [NSW] Mario Kart 8 Deluxe (Nintendo, 04/28/17) – 8,000 (1,818,277)
6) [NSW] Splatoon 2 (Bundle Version Included) (Nintendo, 07/21/17) – 6,505 (2,684,110)
7) [NSW] The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (Limited Edition Included) (Nintendo, 03/03/17) – 4,628 (1,147,476)
8) [PS4] Soulcalibur VI (Bandai Namco, 10/18/18) – 4,304 (33,766)
9) [PS4] Assassin’s Creed Odyssey (Limited Edition Included) (Ubisoft, 10/05/18) – 4,240 (82,874)
10) [NSW] Neko Tomo (Bandai Namco, 11/01/18) – 4,151 (New)
11) [PS4] Marvel’s Spider-Man (Bundle Version Included) (SIE, 09/07/18) – 3,808 (298,124)
12) [3DS] Pokémon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon (The Pokémon Company, 11/17/17) – 3,568 (1,753,461)
13) [NSW] Super Mario Odyssey (Bundle Version Included) (Nintendo, 10/27/17) – 3,301 (1,837,912)
14) [PS4] Warriors Orochi 4 (Limited Editions Included) (Koei Tecmo, 09/27/18) – 2,887 (151,187)
15) [NSW] Taiko no Tatsujin: Drum ‘n’ Fun! (Bandai Namco, 07/19/18) – 2,751 (220,756)
16) [NSW] Kirby Star Allies (Nintendo, 03/16/18) – 2,689 (636,284)
17) [PS4] Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Collection (Capcom, 10/25/18) – 2,360 (16,358)
18) [PS4] The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel IV ~The End of Saga~ (Limited Editions Included) (Falcom, 09/27/18) – 2,317 (110,314)
19) [NSW] Dragon Ball FighterZ (Bandai Namco, 09/27/18) – 2,298 (43,051)
20) [NSW] Dark Souls: Remastered (From Software, 10/18/18) – 2,248 (20,267)

As you can see below, Switch hardware sales have jumped back up by around 6,000 units this week, pushing its sales right back into its usually consistent 40-45,000 mark. Here are this week’s figures, with last week’s in brackets.

1) Switch – 43,747 (37,855)
2) PlayStation 4 Pro – 8,847 (10,975)
3) PlayStation 4 – 8,693 (9,664)
4) New 2DS LL – 4,226 (3,733)
5) PlayStation Vita – 1,945 (2,115)
6) New 3DS LL – 1,775 (1,669)
7) 2DS – 273 (247)
8) Xbox One X – 129 (127)
9) Xbox One – 61 (71)

< Last week’s charts

Any surprises this time around? Do you expect hardware sales to rise as Pokémon Let’s Go and Smash Bros. Ultimate appear on the scene? Let us know with a comment below.

OVERKILL’s The Walking Dead is Now Available on Steam!

OVERKILL’s The Walking Dead is a four player co-op action FPS, where you fight the dead as well as the living. Set in The Walking Dead Universe, you and your group try to survive in a post-apocalyptic Washington D.C.

It’s been a very busy week here at Mojang, but we’ve managed to finish off two more features in time for the snapshot. Don’t worry – there’s still lots more to come!

A full summary of the content available in this snapshot can be found in the changelog on Minecraft.net, the following is a short summary:

• Added Illager Patrols
• Added scaffolding
• Rewrote the sign editing to be more intuitive
• Performance improvements & bug fixes!

ILLAGER PATROLS

• Spawn in the world as a pack of 5 mobs consisting of an Illager beast and 4 random other illagers.
• Spawn in all variations of the Plains, Taiga, Deserts, Savanna.
• Scary-spooky new banner can be found a top the patrol leaders head.

REWRITE OF SIGN EDITING

The pen is mightier than the sword! Unless you’re fighting a Pillager…

• Movable cursor for free text editing
• Selection support
• Copy & Paste

SCAFFOLDING

Here to make your life easy! No strings attached.

• Easily buildable
• Easily destroyable
• Easily climbable
• Easily the best use of your Bamboo

Q: Tell us a little bit about yourself and when you started drawing up Destiny creations.

DrAssenov: As a child, I spent hours drawing comics and cartoons of my favorite characters because they felt so real to me. I continued this hobby throughout my educational years, always knowing I wanted to create something of my own, driven by the hunger to remember others and be remembered after I’m gone. After a career in medicine as a physician, I decided to continue pursuing this childhood dream and began studying art more seriously.

I started drawing Destiny fan art when my Halo friends on Xbox 360 switched over to Destiny when it launched. The way the Hunters looked and moved just resonated with me, so they instantly became a favorite subject for me to draw. Most of my inspiration comes from my gaming buddies because they are the some of the funniest people I know, and I love them and hope they live forever! My first big Destiny fan art, “Attack on Destiny,” was drawn after we ran Vault of Glass, and it was actually published in UK PlayStation’s magazine! That gave me the positive feedback I needed to keep having fun attempting to draw the complicated and sophisticated weapon and armor sets in Destiny.

Q: What’s your normal process for art pieces? Paper napkin concept to final.

DrAssenov: First, I spend a few hours mulling over the poses and overall composition in my head while looking for references around me or online. I sometimes pose in the mirror or use my Body-Kun poseable dolls and take photos of them for ideas. I then attempt to sketch it in Photoshop, and realize that it looks absolutely terrible, haha! I then tell myself, “This is fine.” I keep pressing on and get past the bad sketches until I find something that works for me. Once I have the anatomy down, I can move full speed ahead from sketch stage to blocking out parts, and then finally coloring and detailing. I still find plenty of mistakes along the way. The more time I spend the more I can fix everything. Colored line art pieces can take anywhere from 10–40 hours each, but full-on painted pieces can take much longer.

People have often asked, “How can you work on something for so long? I can’t seem to find the patience!” The thing is, I don’t think I’m a very patient person—I just get addicted to the process itself. You just do it, because if you don’t, it will never exist. The creation coming to life in front of you ends up completely devouring you. That delicious color palette for your composition harmonizes and you want to taste more of it. You go a little bit crazy but you put on your favorite song and blast it for 10+ hours straight until you feel time stop and then you hit the zone. Everything makes sense and its coming together. Then you keep going after that, and you realize you haven’t slept in a while and should probably take a break to eat or something. Repeat this a few times, and that’s how I get it done.  After it’s finished, it feels so cathartic, and I am energized to do better next time!

Q: Any ideas on what your next project will be?

DrAssenov: I’m currently working on a really silly but smaller piece for my Destiny 2 clanmates on Xbox One. It features clanmates who participated in our “Everyone vs. Tetsu101” PvP tournament. Half of us spectated and were dancing off to the side while the other half scrambled over each other for kills. The top score for “number of Tetsu101 kills” was our friend Commander Nova, who was eating spicy ramen for the first five minutes of the match. This has resulted in the ramen being a very prominent part of the fan art, haha!

As far as personal projects go—offline, I am currently working on doing research, concept art, and writing for a hard science fiction game I want to create with my husband one day! We absolutely love studying space exploration and colonization, which is one of the reasons why I was drawn to the games you all have created. I really hope to capture how beautiful and how terrifying humanity can be in my projects one day. Until then, I’ll be pushing myself to get better and do more studies!

Q: Since the release of Forsaken, what’s been your go-to activity?

DrAssenov: My favorite activities in Forsaken are Last Wish and the Shattered Throne dungeon. Popping that tether on a big mob of Taken and creating a ton of Orbs at once is so satisfying. My friends and I actually fight over who gets to make all the Orbs sometimes. You all really did a fantastic job with this expansion—when I first found the Dreaming City, I actually had to fight back tears because I didn’t want to cry in front of my friends. Everything about that city just screamed at me—the lush vegetation, the ingeniously crafted color palettes, the fog over the shiny, wet stones on the shores, all the towering sapphire geodes, and the rainbows! It’s incredibly romantic and adventurous all at once and it made my brain explode! I love every part of that city and have found myself wandering around for hours looking for references. The way the artists have captured the mood with their lighting and design is astounding.

 Q: What subclass are you rocking these days? Any change with the new abilities?

DrAssenov: I mostly run Nightstalker purely for crowd control and Orb-making support in PvE. In PvP, I like to run Spectral Blades because I am not very good at reading enemy movements. The extra time I get sneaking around really helps me decide if I am going to win an encounter or not. Purple Hunter is even more fun this season with the new Reef shaders! I’ve tried Blade Barrage, but I think I have poor decision making because I tend to be that annoying person who panics and uses an entire Super on just one target in Crucible. Maybe it’s because my friends are way too good at Crucible and end up taking out most of the enemy team before I show up, haha. I’ve seen so many people rockin’ it with multikills, so it makes me want to get that good one day.

Q: How about weapons? We see you’re a fan of Quickfang.

DrAssenov: Running Quickfang in Crucible and against the Hive is still pretty fun, but there’s a new contender in town. This season, a fully Masterworked IKELOS shotgun dropped for me, and it is my absolute favorite Legendary weapon. I was never much of a shotgun user, and I still don’t use them in PvP, but it caters to my love of creating Orbs for friends in PvE. It’s effective at melting big mobs and makes me feel like an action hero.

Q: Any shoutouts before we go?

DrAssenov: I’d like to give the biggest shoutout ever for my husband, Randy, my incredible best friend for whom I would give my everything. To my dear brothers from other mothers who have known me since the beginning of my online gaming experience: Tetsu101, Cambo, Mario, Trolling Turnip, Ratmore, and Liam. We all started on Xbox 360 together almost a decade ago and are still together through Destiny 2. To you amazing people in our clan—The Lone Star—I want you to know that I really appreciate you guys, and I’m happy to have so much fun with you! I’d also like to show my love to my closest artist friends, Clinton Felker, Faysal Mekki, Steph Hoang, Matt Oishi, Dulcamarra, Stephen Boe, Spookgeist, and more! It brings me joy seeing their art because they literally make the world a better place with their light. Also to my favorite Destiny streamers—Teawrex and JOverrated—you are such positive and skilled people, and we’re blessed to have you in our community. Everyone should look them up and follow them—they will show you a good time!

Blockchain and its ability to “embed trust” can help elevate trust, which right now, is low, according to Sally Eaves, a chief technology officer and strategic advisor to the Forbes Technology Council, speaking at The Linux Foundation’s Open FinTech Forum in New York City.

People’s trust in business, media, government and non-government organizations (NGOs) is at a 17-year low, and businesses are suffering as a result, Eaves said.

Additionally, Eaves said, 87 percent of millennials believe business success should be measured in more than just financial performance. People want jobs with real meaning and purpose, she added.

To provide further context, Eaves noted the following urgent global challenges:

• 1.5 billion people cannot prove their identity (which has massive implications in not just banking but education as well)
• 2 billion people worldwide do not have a bank account or access to a financial institution
• Identity fraud is estimated to cost the UK millions of euros annually.

Read more at The Linux Foundation