Posted by: xSicKxBot - 10-24-2018, 08:12 AM - Forum: Lounge
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Game Sale At Best Buy: PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch (US Only)
A new week means you can find a new set of video game deals at Best Buy, available both in-store and online. This week's sale sees temporary price drops on a handful of PS4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch games, as well as discounts on accessories and $10 rewards for specific purchases and pre-orders. Let's take a look at what deals are available between now and October 27.
For PS4 owners, select DualShock 4 controllers are $5 off this week, bringing them down to $60 each. They come in a variety of colors, which is great for anyone looking to expand beyond the traditional black. Pre-order Fallout 76 this week, and you'll get a special steelbook edition, plus access to the beta. The beta begins October 23 on Xbox One and October 30 on PS4 and PC.
If you trade in select games between now and December 1, you'll get a $10 coupon toward the purchase of Battlefield V in addition to the game's trade value. That's on top of the $10 reward credit you can get for pre-ordering Battlefield V. Speaking of credit, if you pre-order Just Cause 4, which comes out December 4, you'll also get a $10 reward. And buying Dragon Ball FighterZ for Nintendo Switch gets you a free $10 Best Buy gift card.
There aren't that many games on sale this week at Best Buy, but you can same some cash on a few fine titles. Sports fans can grab NHL 19 or NBA 2K19 for $40 each. The open-world shooter Far Cry 5 is on sale for $30, the cheapest we've seen it drop yet on console. And Xbox One owners can pick up Minecraft: Explorer's Pack for $20.
You can find more video game discounts at Best Buy right here.
The Best Party Games to play with Family & Friends
As much as we enjoy our serious mobile games here at Pocket Tactics, sometimes it’s nice to just unwind and have some fun with friends and family. Party games are a really entertaining and worthwhile genre of games and nothing’s better than meeting up, sharing a good meal, and capping off a hangout session via our mobiles.
Easy to pick up, high-energy and socially demanding, but along with these requirements comes exhilaration, surprise and a guaranteed way to shake things up. The life of the party might just be lurking in the palm of your hand. Here’s our collection of the best games you can play with your friends, whether you’re using an iPhone, iPad or an android device.
Identity V
Developer: NetEase Games Platforms: iOS, Android Price: Free
One hunter chases four innocents across a gothic manse while the would-be escapees struggle to find and solve puzzles. The asymmetry and creepy-cute aesthetic make for a thrilling and iconic experience. The devs are always experimenting with new play modes (like the 8v2 for starters) and the hunt-or-be-hunted setup is a timely mix of the survival- and battle-royale games so en vogue these days. Add in a splash of progression (skill trees, new and unusual characters, cosmetic unlocks) and you have a winner.
Soul Knight is a pixelated top-down arcade shooter with a dash of roguelike elements thrown in for good measure. Technically it’s not primarily a multiplayer game, but the local multiplayer mode is so good it would be criminal not to give it a shout-out here. The weapons are unusual and distinctive, dreamt up with some real flair. It takes some real skill to pull off impressive moves, but the difficulty-satisfaction curve is pitched just right with this one.
Mucho Party
Developer: GlobZ Platforms:iTunes, Android Price: Free (effectively a trial with limited games), $3.99 one-time IAP for full unlock.
Sample a sumptuous variety of mini-games with inspired and easily-digested twists with goofy facial reactions, and deft touch controls. Your player avatar has an oversized head with a handful of emote options which are customizable: just snap a few photos of your mug with exaggerated expressions and mild hilarity ensues. Yes, the new Mario Party is a classic return to form but Mucho Party is a really nice substitute available for the price of a song. A hidden gem.
Heads Up!
Developer: Warner Bros. Platforms:iOS, Android Price: $0.99, Free (android). Optional IAP to unlock extra category modes.
Heads Up! Was a victim of its own success for a time. The game is dead simple: a word appears on screen and is held above the guesser’s head. This same guesser is assailed by clues from teammates until the guesser finds the right word or phrase . Cycling through words quickly to rack up a high score, switching up the guessing role amongst team members. Heads Up! has one simple advantage over every other game on this list: it doesn’t need a surface to work. Works just as great standing or crammed together in a vehicle. Anywhere with good sight lines is fair game for Heads Up! short of a hall of mirrors. It’s so good that it’s cliche, at risk of getting played to death and forgotten. In case you’ve never given it a chance with a bored group, do.
Spaceteam
Developer: Henry Smith Platforms:iOS, Android Price: Free
Masquerading as chaos and nonsense, Spaceteam never fails to gin up a riotous good time. Navigating the reaches of space takes technical know-how and precise coordination, and Spaceteam spoofs these facts of spacetime-travel by splitting up instructions from control panels. Someone knows which button to press, and where, but the orders and details are deliberately turned into techno-speak-gibberish. Jabbering, giddy gibbons sharing gibberish…in space. Seriously though, the game works wonders for those improvisational types who thrive on chaos and unprecedented social situations. Oh, and it allows for cross-platform play between Android and iOS.
Talisman is a wild time and a mess, digital or analogue, but it’s markedly tidier and every bit as much of a caper on the good old ‘pad. Collecting magic artefacts, spells and literal pieces of fate and destiny as the hour grows late. It’s a classic and epic game, but also well suited to casual meet-and-greets, too. Because each turn’s decisions are relatively simple and straightforward, players can banter, chow down or otherwise divert themselves without hampering the flow of the gameplay at all.
Psych!
Developer: Warner Bros. Platforms:iOS, Android Price: Free
Creative word games can be risky prospects when entertaining guests, but they also give such sharp turns of phrase and sweet surprises. (Cue Balderdash, Apples to Apples, Cards Against Humanity) Anything that allows for write-in answers is a golden opportunity, and Psych! Is no exception, adding replayability and variety. After hearing the prompt, each player jots down a fake answer to add to the pool. Points are earned by either guessing the true answer, or duping others into picking yours. It’s clean, freeform and effortless excuse to mess around and let your imagination run wild with some friends.
Mysterium
Developer: Asmodee Digital Platforms: iOS, Android Price: $3.99, $3.49
Solve a murder mystery with a little ethereal help in Mysterium, where players will use richly illustrated images to try and winnow the guilty from the innocent. Just like in Clue, location, suspect and weapon will have to be grouped into the proper combinations. The mediums divine which of these combinations is valid, and then after successfully sleuthing, the group has to figure out which of the stories is the ghost’s own tragic ending. So a game that goes well ends where the ghost’s afterlife begun. It’s a fun gothic take on deduction, creative visual interpretation, and contention, sometimes downright quarrelsome co-operative goals.
Triple Agent is a mixture of chaos and order, of ineffective backstabs, liars giving useful tips and honest fools botching the naked truth. It’s a find-the-betrayer style party game, just like Mafia and Werewolf, but what sets it apart from its ilk, aside from a whip-smart app and panoply of extra optional win conditions, is the total miniaturisation of the experience. One device is passed around to dole out identities, clues and the final elimination vote. The group at the end of the chaotic play session collectively eliminates one person, and if they were a Good Guy the Bad Guys win and vice versa. Really fresh interface and game design take on an old standard.
Worms are good for the earth, enriching the soil and setting the fields for a rich harvest next season. Worms from Team 17, on the other hand, spend all their lives trading quips and aiming impractical and ultraviolent weapons at each other. Carpet bombs, napalm, the holy hand grenade, anything and everything is an instrument of death in Worms. The terrain is destructible too, and the only ‘loot crate’ drops are just in-game goodies and not a euphemism for scummy monetisation. This is a premier zany 2D shootout, decades old and no worse for wear.
What are your favourite party games? Let us know in the comments!
The Linux Foundation Awards 31 Open Source Training Scholarships
Since 2011, the Linux Foundation has awarded 106 training scholarships worth over $220,000. In 2018, we awarded 31 scholarships, our most ever. Scholarship recipients receive a Linux Foundation training course and certification exam at no cost. This year, The Linux Foundation awarded scholarships to 31 of the more than 900 applicants who vied to be selected in one of the nine categories offered. Two applicants were selected to receive a scholarship in each category with the exception of ‘Open Source Newbies’, in which 15 applicants were selected.
“With the LiFT scholarship program, we strive to select a cohort of individuals that represent the future of software development and those who will utilize this opportunity to give back to not only the broader open source community, but also their local communities,” said Linux Foundation Executive Director Jim Zemlin. “Scholarship programs such as LiFT showcase the unlimited opportunities a single person can unlock for themselves and other aspiring developers when given access to do so.”
Celebrating 15 Years of the Xen Project and Our Future
In the 1990s, Xen was a part of a research project to build a public computing infrastructure on the Internet led by Ian Pratt and Keir Fraser at The University of Cambridge Computer Laboratory. The Xen Project is now one of the most popular open source hypervisors and amasses more than 10 million users, and this October marks our 15th anniversary.
From its beginnings, Xen technology focused on building a modular and flexible architecture, a high degree of customizability, and security. This security mindset from the outset led to inclusion of non-core security technologies, which eventually allowed the Xen Project to excel outside of the data center and be a trusted source for security and embedded vendors (ex. Qubes, Bromium, Bitdefender, Star Labs, Zentific, Dornerworks, Bosch, BAE systems), and also a leading hypervisor contender for the automotive space.
Fortnite: Save The World Co-Op Mode's Free-To-Play Release Delayed
Thanks to the launch of its Battle Royale mode, Fortnite has enjoyed incredible levels of popularity. That's due in part to its availability as a free-to-play game. But Fortnite's original mode--the cooperative affair dubbed Save the World following the launch of Battle Royale--will also eventually move out of early access and be available as a free-to-play title. However, those plans have been delayed out of 2018, as developer Epic Games says it needs to progress on some reworks and additional features before it makes the switch.
In an update about its Save the World mode, Epic suggests that the popularity of Fortnite as a whole means it needs to be prepared for a large influx of new users once STW goes free for all.
"We're working on a broad set of features, reworks, and backend system scaling we believe are needed to go free-to-play," it said. "Scaling up for the legions of player heroes who will be joining the fight is key to providing an excellent experience. This applies to all of our players, old and new, so we’re taking the time to get this right."
If you just can't wait for it to go free-to-play, Epic is hosting a 50% off sale for the Standard, Deluxe, Standard Deluxe, and Limited Founder's Packs starting later this week. That means that your cheapest option will be $20 soon, until it goes free. Founders will also get a Brainiac Jonesy and Skull Ranger Ramirez for free if they log on during the Fortnitemares Halloween event.
The update also details a big change to the Hero System to give you more flexibility in the loadouts, along with several front-end UI improvements.
The cooperative PvE Save the World mode was the original pitch for Fortnite, and has remained in development as the free-to-play PvP Battle Royale has exploded in popularity. It's fair to say the free version of the game has overshadowed its original vision, especially since the PvE isn't available for some versions, including the Nintendo Switch or mobile games. But at least some of its large audience is likely to jump into Save the World once it's free, so Epic is looking to be prepared.
If you need a hand on earning your rewards in Battle Royale, make sure to check out our challenge guide for this season.
Linux Kernel 4.19 – Long Term Support, USB Type C, and WiFi 6
This was a rather special release due to the fact that, at about half way through the process, Linus Torvalds left the helm of Linux kernel development to take a rare break. However, Greg Kroah-Hartman took over until the release was ready and is now handing the reins back to Torvalds.
Another interesting fact about this iteration is that 4.19 will be a Long Term Support (LTS) kernel. That is, it will receive updates and patches to keep it safe and maintained for at least a couple of years. The last LTS kernel (which is still supported) was 4.14, released in November 2017.
On the purely technical side, among many other things, 4.19 is getting a new USB Type C display mode driver. This means exactly what it says on the box: soon you will be able to use the USB Type C on your machine to stream video to a display.
Also, the kernel at last gets a built-in GPS subsystem. Obviously, Linux has supported GPS devices for years, but this support was pretty non-standard and dependent on external and ad hoc modules that varied from device to device. The GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite System) subsystem puts an end to that. According to the Phoronix article on the matter, GNSS abstracts the underlying hardware interfaces and will have a front end in user space that will allow programs to read the data in standardized way and format. And, once more, developers have had to deal with the Spectre bug. This time, it was to add mitigations for affected IBM POWER CPUs.
Other things to look forward to in Linux kernel 4.19:
A new queuing discipline for the network packet scheduler. Dubbed CAKE (for Common Applications Kept Enhanced), it aims to speed up home network routers and links. By shaping data transmissions over the network, it helps reduce the problem of buffering and latency that will slow down your downloads, make your video-stream stutter or get you kicked off CS:GO.
A brand new (and, for now, experimental) read only file system called EROFS (for Enhanced Read-Only File System). It is designed to be lightweight and modern in its design and is created by Huawei for situations where a high-performance read-only file system is needed. This is useful in firmwares for mobile devices or for Live CDs.
Preliminary support for the upcoming WiFi 6 (aka 802.11 ax) protocol. WiFi 6 widens the band for network transmissions and will be substantially faster than current WiFi networks, as a wider band means less congestion. Less congestion will also mean data can be transmitted more reliably. That said, there are still only a few 802.11ax-enabled devices out there, but when they come, Linux will be ready!
Mobile games are often given a lot of slack because of their medium. We judge them in a vacuum. Maybe not intentionally, but we really don’t expect certain types of games to translate well on little screens, if they make it there at all. The dream of getting “console-quality” experiences on your phone died in darkness under the heel of free-to-play a while ago.
So when one of these gaming anomalies show up flaunting some features you don’t see much on phones and tablets, we learn to make some concessions when justifying it. Enter Grimvalor, a metroidvania that is great in the absence of the sort of ecosystems that produce great metroidvanias.
A huge reason that you never see these games developed for mobile is the limited capacity for complex and responsive control schemes. Grimvalor attempts to make up for that by replicating some of the more complicated tropes of action platformers with simpler inputs. Your main attack combo can be completed and looped by just holding down the attack button. Tapping gives you slightly more control over there cadence of the four hits, allowing you to jump at the end of a combo to get height before it begins again, for example.
The major majority of the enemies you face will wilt under this barrage with ease. A dash, that doubles as a dodge roll in the presence of attacks, will make you basically invincible to non-boss types. You eventually gain a heavy attack, which added things like guard-breaking lunges and ground pounds, but very few of the enemies you face during your travels through the labyrinthine map require anything more than the basics. Ironically, in some cases your heavy attacks can trap enemies in loops, making sure they never stand to swing on you again.
This sort of makes the Hunter sub-bosses – encounters that crib the Bloodborne/Dark Souls gimmick of a sudden outside entity coming to get you – a more congenial experience than they were designed as. Not to mention that they are rarely more than just bigger versions of normal enemies.
Simplifying the hacking and slashing is a fine gesture, though. It’s better than trying to fumble over flat tap points with no tactile response without the alternative. But to make up for the lack of challenge in any of the individual monsters, Grimvalor often resorts to overloading your screen with the beasts. Getting hit by a thrown axe from someone you didn’t even see spawn off screen is a bitter experience you’ll always keep in the back of your head. Enemies will spawn seemingly endlessly during some sections, which is a prompt to just leave as fast as possible. But it also feels like a choice to make something difficult in a way that doesn’t feel very rewarding. Occasionally, the sort of breathless transition from dodge rolling, into furious combat and out into the clear can be fun. Maybe just as often, it feels like a claustrophobic mess.
Boss fights throw a wrench in your previously established “mash until they die” strategy. Sometimes, especially at first, they feel completely over-tuned, like they are compensating for how generally harmless the standard mobs can be. As you gain new abilities, level up your character, and find new trinkets and items, boss fights start to really make sense. They become a test, where the answers involved finding ways to string all of this swipes and taps together to get the most out of the openings they give you. If Grimvalor ever comes close to providing that gritty, AAA action-RPG vibe, it’s during some of these fights.
Another mechanical concession is the platforming. Platformer staples dashing and double jumping are here. Wall running is an option, but like combos, it is semi-automated. If you jump into a wall, you can just run up it for a short period of time. Many levels are designed around this fact, so spaces tend to be wide and tall so there’s plenty of ground to cover. But some jumping puzzles, like one in the second act that involved interacting with elements in mid-air, can feel janky and broken because of all the wall running. You can ignore paths and make your own in some instances, and you can still make it through fine. In a way, it’s offering you a sort of mutable space for creativity. In another, Grimvalor doesn’t take its own design seriously enough.
The world of Grimvalor leaves some to be desired. Even when travelling to different regions, through giant doors or magical mirrors or massive elevators, they all look and feel the same. Cracked up stone from abandoned and blown out buildings are the back drop for every zone in some form or fashion. The color scheme doesn’t seem to vary much from grey and brown, though the occasion greens of Earth’s possessive overgrowth can be seen.
It takes a too long of a time to see something different in the environments. When you do run into something unique, like a world overgrown with massive roots and thorns, it can be fascinating. But I wonder how many players are willing to stick around till act three or so to get something truly special.
Characters themselves are sparse, and they’re designs also range from generic soldier guy to striking magical beings. Again, Grimvalor’s more inspired stuff doesn’t show its face until later than it should. It’s a shame because the concept art and stills are great. Up close, even many of the textures of some of the mightier foes are well detailed. Some of the camera cues when you’re traversing long halls or staircases really convey that sense of you-versus-the-elements scale and isolation. Short of some awkward times with some of the stranger creatures in the game, the game looks great in motion.
When they were Touch Foo, the team that is now Direlight was the only people out there still trying to make the mobile platform’s first Symphony of the Night. Grimvalor is absolutely leaps and bounds better than Swordigo, their previous attempt at this genre. If we narrow the discussion of Grimvalor simply to a in comparison to other action platforms you can play from your pocket, then you’ll be hard pressed to find a better, more intuitive option. Move that conversation out of the shallow pond of the App Store, and into the general gaming arena at large, then it would be very easy to find a game that does everything Grimvalor does, but better.
Inspired by Thai mythology and beliefs, Home Sweet Home throws players into a dark and twisted labyrinth, where a miasma of fear fills the air, dread bleeds through cracks in the ceiling and seeps down through broken floorboards.
Posted by: xSicKxBot - 10-23-2018, 09:30 AM - Forum: Lounge
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Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 introduces special in-game items to support veterans
Activision Blizzard announced a new in-game pack for Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 today to support the Call of Duty Endowment, an international effort aimed to help unemployed and underemployed veterans in the U.S. and U.K. find high-quality careers.
This event falls in line with other charity events publishers have campaigned in the past, with Blizzard most recently providing a limited-edition Pink Mercy skin where all proceeds went to the Breast Cancer Research Fund.
The Call of Duty Endowment is a non-profit foundation started in 2009 by Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick, aiming to identify and fund the most effective employment-focused veteran-serving organizations.
Titled the salute pack, it retails for $4.99 USD and is available now in the in-game store and the Sony, Microsoft, and Battle.net online stores. It includes a special Call of Duty Endowment in-game tag, sticker, gesture, calling card, and emblem.
One hundred percent of proceeds will go directly to the Call of Duty Endowment’s mission statement to help veterans in the U.S. and U.K. secure meaningful, long-term careers when they leave military service.
For Honor Graphical Remaster Launching with Marching Fire on October 16
For Honor Marching Fire is coming to Xbox One, bringing the four new heroes of the Wu Lin faction into the fray, the new PvE Arcade mode to test your mettle, and the new 4v4 Breach mode to challenge your team strategy as you siege or defend a castle. The October 16 launch also coincides with a massive free update that all For Honor players will benefit from: a graphical remaster that implements a revamped lighting system, improved textures, new sky gradients, and more to make the game look better than ever.
A “remaster” in the world of video games usually involves a game from a previous console generation, but according to Art Director Christian Diaz, live games like For Honor present a unique opportunity. “We wanted this game to be alive and to ensure players keep enjoying the game,” says Diaz, “so for me it was natural that we would do anything we can to improve the game on each level. So on my side, on the 3D programming team, this is what we came up with: ‘What can we do to improve the visual experience of the player?’”
Together with his team, Diaz began to investigate data- and tech-related improvements they could make. What started as a side project soon blossomed into a complex effort involving multiple branches of the development team, and once they were able to test the results, the team saw notable improvements.
“What we achieved with this remaster is that we can convey a better feeling of what you are seeing and experiencing,” says Diaz. He cites the example of the Valkenheim PvP map, the frosty northern home of the Viking faction. With the improved lighting and snow effects, you feel more strongly that you are doing battle in a frozen, forbidding place where the cold is severe.
And the graphical remaster doesn’t just affect the PvP maps like Valkenheim. The entire campaign is enhanced as well, including the real-time cinematic scenes that tell the story of the warring factions fighting for survival.
Diaz is excited to get the improvements into the players’ hands and see what they think. “The graphic updates we did help to create a more harmonious image,” says Diaz, “and a more convincing natural look and feel while improving overall image quality. They will bring better readability of what you see on screen, which can help gameplay as well, and overall immersion will be increased.”
You can see the details for yourself when the graphical remaster of For Honor goes live at the launch of the Marching Fire on October 16. The remaster will be free for all players, and Xbox Live Gold members will have free access to Marching Fire’s 4v4 Breach mode. You can be among the first to try out the new PvE Arcade mode and put the new Wu Lin heroes to the test by purchasing the Marching Fire expansion from the Microsoft Store.
