The battle for resources between the factions is raging on all fronts. Can New Monarchy or Future War Cult rise to the occasion and knock Dead Orbit off their black throne? Their fates lie in your hands.
Each leader sits on their perch in the Tower, waiting for you to do their bidding in the wild. Which one will you choose? We will find out who awarded the most packages and declare them the winner on November 14. Their banners will adorn our home and their chosen weapon will be available to all. The price you pay will depend on where you pledged your loyalty.
High Fidelity
The holiday season is nigh, so you might be compiling your wish list. The PlayStation 4 Pro and the Xbox One X are now both out there in the wild, and either of them would make a great gift – even if it’s one you buy for yourself. We’ve seen a lot of questions about whether or not Destiny 2 would scale to meet the potential of new hardware. On this festive occasion, the answer is “Yes!”
On December 5, along with the launch of Curse of Osiris and Season Two, we’ll be deploying an update to Destiny 2 that will deliver stunning gameplay with high dynamic range (HDR) lighting to these new consoles. You’ll also see adaptive 4K resolution on the PlayStation 4 Pro and 4K on the Xbox One X.
If you’re migrating to these new consoles, or already have, we’ll make it worth your investment.
Answer the Call
Starting on November 17, the first Clarion Call for Destiny 2 will be live all weekend long. This will be an opportunity for you to earn double XP for everything you do with a fellow clan member in your fireteam. If you aren’t in a clan, this would be a perfect time to join one. Your increased gains will run from 10 AM Pacific on November 17 to 10 AM Pacific on November 20. If you are dedicated to playing solo, there will be future Clarion Calls that won’t require you to play with a clan.
Social Cues
Since the first launch of Destiny 2, we’ve seen a lot of feedback about the social features you use to share your adventure with other players. Social Designers M.E Chung and Steve Dolan are here to shed some light on Guided Games, in-game chat, and that emote wheel we talked about a few weeks ago.
How is Guided Games going?
M.E.: Well, one thing we’re really happy to see is that Guided Games has enabled a bunch of new players to play the Nightfall and/or Raid for the first time (since Destiny 1). Our goal with Guided Games for end-game content is about helping players find tight-knit communities to join, but we see and are very aware of the current issues. For example, we know that the lack of reconnections causes all kinds of problems with unintentional oathbreakers, that the lack of audio feedback when a clan is found is causing players to miss the queue, that guides lack proper incentives, that we need a guided games option for Trials of the Nine, etc.
Steve: We have several of our superhero engineers working on really important things, like network stability across the game, but we hope to continue making progress on Guided Games as soon as possible. Here are some short-term fixes we’ll deliver with the release of Curse of Osiris on December 5:
We’ve added an audio cue so that you know when you’ve found a guide.
Full clans can now guide.
Added reminders that if you reject a clan, you’re still at the front of the line, so you can only pick guides with a mission statement that looks appealing.
Guided games will support the new Nightfall and Raid content you’ll find in Curse of Osiris (and you’ll learn more about that next week on our first livestream).
Why aren’t there checkpoints in Guided Games?
M.E.: The original goal was to prevent checkpoint farming (where players would start a game with a pickup group and drop right when they reached the right checkpoints to take to their buddies), but not having checkpoints causes different issues that we’re not happy with either. We’re still looking at this.
Steve: We also wanted to make sure every player had the same expectation of where you would be starting. When you go into a guided game, you will always start from the beginning. We considered breaking up the starting points by checkpoints, but our fear is that if we split up the matchmaking pools on a per-checkpoint basis, we would make queue times even longer. It’s always a balancing act when putting new players together to play endgame content.
Why can’t players talk to their clans in the game chat?
M.E.: Oh, man, we want it in the game too! Getting clan chat into the game is one of our highest priorities, and we hope we can get it into a release as soon as possible.
Steve: And yes, we’re interested in a Tower/zone chat too, but we have to prioritize it against all of other asks.
Will we see improvements to chat functionality?
M.E.: We can do a waaaaayyyyyy better job in the game to encourage players to communicate, like making more obvious public/team channels and a good time to enter (i.e., NOT when the player gains control when boots are on the ground), or letting players know about chat setting defaults up front when you start the game, or letting you know when someone is trying to whisper you, etc. These are the kinds of things we have on our backlogs, but again, everything is prioritized against all other asks.
What about that emote wheel we just heard about?
M.E.: Yes! No one wants this more than me, and we’re trying our best to make it happen as soon as possible.
Steve: I’ve wanted this forever! Even without an emote wheel there has been amazing content put out by the machinima community. I can’t wait to see what y’all create once the wheel is out and it’s easier to chain your favorite moves together.
Thanks for your patience, for sending feedback, and being a passionate community!
Resetting the Reset
The DPS team is always working diligently behind the scenes. They are making sure you have the info you need to have the best Destiny 2 experience. Player Support Specialists are your tireless advocates behind the scenes – in the meetings, repeating what you talk about on our forum.
This is their report.
Curse of Osiris: Reset Changes
With the release of Curse of Osiris, Ritual Resets will no longer take place at 1 AM Pacific. Starting December 5, resets will occur at 1700 UTC.
Throughout Destiny 1’s lifespan, players would frequently encounter an issue where weekly resets would not always coincide with content releases. This would prevent impacted players from earning new rewards. Countermeasures were taken by disabling activity playlists, but we were unable to prevent every scenario. Additionally, we’re seeking to align the Milestone resets with event availability, such as Trials of the Nine or Iron Banner, to provide a uniform experience for players to follow each week.
The following is a short list of time zone conversions from 1700 UTC. If you do not see your local time below, we advise using an online time zone converter to prepare for the upcoming change.
9 AM PST
12 PM EST
5 PM GMT
9 PM MSK
2 AM JST
4 AM AEDT
6 AM NZDT
Stay tuned to help.bungie.net for future Support updates regarding the Curse of Osiris and the start of Season 2, releasing on December 5, 2017.
PC Support:
We are actively investigating general issues and crashes impacting Destiny 2 that have been reported to the PC Support forum. This chatter is helpful and we invite more of it.
Framerate Stutters or Hitches:Hotfix 1.0.6.2 was deployed this week to address issues introduced in Hotfix 1.0.6.1. Some players are reporting continued framerate stutters or hitching. We advise the following troubleshooting steps:
Ensure you have installed the latest Windows updates
Ensure you have the latest graphics drivers available for your GPU
Attempt running Destiny 2 in true Fullscreen mode
Set clock speeds for hardware, including memory, to manufacturer-recommended defaults
General Gameplay Crashes: As we continue to investigate general crash reports during Destiny 2 gameplay, we advise the following troubleshooting steps:
Ensure you have the latest graphics drivers available for your GPU.
Note: AMD Vega and AMD R9 380 GPU’s have been reported frequently to the #Help forums.
Set clock speeds for hardware, including memory, to manufacturer-recommended defaults.
Some anti-virus programs may interfere with Destiny 2. Please consider temporarily disabling the program to see if this resolves your issues. If so, please report your findings to the #Help forum.
If you are receiving a “Run a scan and repair” error when crashing, yet seeing no improvements after doing so, attempt installing Destiny 2 to an alternate hard drive if available.
Additionally, we are investigating reports of issues encountered when attempting to visit the Third Spire destination during Trials events. Players may circumvent this issue by using in-game vsync settings or the framerate_cap setting in their cvars.xml file to limit framerate to under 100. Stay tuned to @BungieHelp for updates on our investigation.
Movie Madness
Seen any good movies lately? We have. And now we are going to share them with you. Every week we sift through all of the good submissions on the Creations page to pick out the great ones. If your movie gets chosen, we will send you a special emblem in Destiny 2. To enter, just send your movie to the Creations page. Here are this week’s favorites.
Movie of the Week: Voice Effects
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Honorable Mention: Fragments of Time
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Honorable Mention: Drawing a Nightstalker
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Next week, we will start a series of streams to give you more info on Curse of Osiris, Season Two, and more. The first stream is next Wednesday at 11 AM Pacific. Join us live to learn about the new stories we’ll tell.
Are you excited yet? I am. We have some cool stuff coming up and we are looking forward to sharing more of it with you soon.
The Sims 4 is the highly anticipated life simulation game that lets you play with life like never before. Create new Sims with intelligence and emotion. Experience all new intuitive and fun creative tools to sculpt your Sims and build unique homes. Control the mind, body, and heart of your Sims, and bring your stories to life.
Fast-track your way to footballing history with the Football Manager 2018. A double-sided Management Masterclass pull-out races you through your first steps in the digital dugout and gears you up for long-term success, helping you transform your team from contenders to champions and elevating you to managerial icon.
Football Manager 2018 achieves an interactive reality in depth, emotion and control like never before, taking you places only accessible in the completely immersive game world. Quite simply, it's the closest thing to doing the job for real.
They say football is a game of opinions and everyone has theirs, but it's only yours that counts around here. You make the decisions now, from who you sign and who you sell, to how you manage your budget. Will you build tactics around the players at your disposal or train them in your vision of how the game should be played? Who you pick and who you bench will affect squad harmony, and its up to you to manage it. Every decision comes back to you.
Get it right and youll be the star of the show, grabbing the newspaper headlines and dominating trends on social media. Theyll write your name in footballing folklore... if you succeed, of course. With unparalleled choices both on and off the pitch, all within the immersive footballing world, it's time to decide what kind of manager do you want to be?
In Eggman's greatest victory to date, the evil doctor has conquered much of the world with a mysterious new power. A resistance comprised of Sonic's friends is formed to fight back, and in the midst of the chaos and destruction, an unlikely hero will rise up to help Modern and Classic Sonic take back the world. Even these three heroes may have their work cut out for them, as Dr. Eggman has a new ally of his own...
SUPERHYPERCUBE is a retro-futuristic spatial reasoning puzzle game. Control a cluster of cubes, rotating it as it approaches a wall in front of you – fit your cluster through the hole in the wall to increase your score and advance to the next wall!
Toys for Bob is looking for a qualified Generalist Software Engineer with Unreal Engine 4 experience to join our team in creating the next generation in our history of award-winning, best-selling games.
This individual will be responsible for providing guidance to other engineers and to content creators on best practices working with the Unreal Engine. This role requires a strong focus on communication and collaboration with others. As time progresses, you can expect your role to evolve from being support oriented into being more feature development oriented.
Your responsibilities will include:
Implementation of software in C++ and other languages.
User support for the Unreal tool suite.
Architect and design software systems through collaboration with engineers, designers and artists.
Participate in design and code reviews.
Support and educate other engineers on available Unreal features.
Follow and enforce group standards and best practices.
Continually expand knowledge of new game technologies and systems.
Essential experience to be considered for this role
Developed and shipped at least one Unreal Engine based game from start to finish.
Minimum 2 years’ experience working with Unreal Engine 4
Additional skills & experience we’re looking for
Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science or other relevant discipline or equivalent experience.
5 years’ minimum software engineering experience
Strong C++ skills
Ability to analyze, improve and extend a large established code base
Excellent debugging skills within a networked environment
Actively voices ideas and opinions to the team in a constructive manner
Takes available opportunities to help and support team members
Communicates clearly and responsively project-wide
Coordinates work between multiple people, crossing discipline boundaries
Coaches less-experienced engineers to assist them in skill development
Empathizes with the users of their systems and workflows
Strong written communication skills
Ability to resolve conflicts in an effective manner
Toys For Bob is one of the longest-lived game studios in the world. We founded the company in 1989 and have developed a wide variety of successful games on virtually every platform. Most recently we reinvented the world of toys and kids video games by creating the ‘Toys to Life’ genre with Skylanders: Spyro’s Adventure. We are proud of our game’s innovation and success, but more so the passion and joy we see in the millions of Skylanders fans around the world. Our studio is located in Novato, California, a quick 20-minute drive north from the Golden Gate Bridge. We are a mix of game-industry veterans, energetic new developers, and everything in-between. We work hard, yet maintain a fun and laid-back workplace complete with Tiki/Pirate Culture and a welcoming policy for friendly dogs.
Whether you’re just starting out, looking for something new, or just seeing what’s out there, the Gamasutra Job Board is the place where game developers move ahead in their careers.
Gamasutra’s Job Board is the most diverse, most active, and most established board of its kind in the video game industry, serving companies of all sizes, from indie to triple-A.
For Honor Free Weekend Coming Next Weekend Ahead of Season 4 Launch
Two dangerous new heroes are coming to shake up the battlefields of For Honor when Season Four, Order & Havoc, launches on November 14. The nimble Aramusha will join the Samurai faction, and the ferocious Shaman joins the Vikings, and each hero brings new fighting styles and new strategies into play. But that’s not all that’s coming in the new season: two new maps and two new modes will be free to all players, offering new proving grounds where warriors can test their might. And to get you ready to take on these challenges, For Honor will host a free weekend beginning at 9 a.m. PT on November 9, and continuing until 11:59 p.m. PT on November 12 for all players with an Xbox Live Gold membership.
Let’s start with the heroes. The Aramusha is a hybrid hero, wielding two katanas to strike swiftly and deflect their opponents’ blows. Donning an iconic low-brimmed hat, the Aramusha is quick to punish any opponents who misstep. The Shaman wields two blades, a hatchet and a dagger, and uses them with deadly precision. She’s an assassin hero, and her speed is complemented by an aggressive moveset that sees her pouncing on enemies like a wild beast and gaining strength when her opponents are actively bleeding. Both heroes will be released for Season Pass holders on November 14, and will be available for all other players to unlock on November 21 for 15,000 Steel each.
Two free new modes are also coming with Order & Havoc. Tribute is a 4v4 objective-based mode, in which players fight to claim three offerings and return them to their team’s shrines. Each of your three shrines will activate a different buff for your team, and choosing which shrine to place your offering in can tip the scales for your team. Will you juice your team’s attack power? Bestow a regenerating shield on your allies? Or reveal the enemy players’ positions for your whole team to see? You’ll need to defend your shrines, hunt down offerings in the field, and steal from the enemy team’s shrines if you hope to claim victory in Tribute.
For Honor will also continue to expand its ranked competition with the addition of Ranked Dominion mode, which will be available following the launch of Season 4. Now you and your team of heroes can rise through the ranks and earn glory for all to see (as well as some sweet in-game loot to boot). The new heroes, Tribute mode, and two new maps (Market Town and The Gauntlet) all arrive with the launch of Order & Havoc on November 14.
To get you warmed up for the new season of For Honor, you can play for free from November 9 to November 12. This free weekend includes access to all the content released for the game thus far, which means every multiplayer mode (playable versus human players or bots), the full campaign (playable solo or with a co-op ally), and the chance to build up any of the game’s 16 heroes, including the new heroes released in previous seasons (who are unlockable for 15,000 Steel each). Haven’t chain-hooked an opponent as the Shinobi or brandished the brutal claymore of the Highlander? You’ll be able to do so from November 9-12, providing you have an active Xbox Live Gold subscription.
And if you want to stay in the fight for the launch of Season Four, Ubisoft will be offering discounts of up to 60% off digital For Honor content through the Microsoft Store. To get a taste of the new Heroes and new modes in action, tune in to the Season 4 Livestream Reveal on twitch.tv/forhonorgame on November 11.
Now’s the best time to sharpen your swords and wade into the fray. See you on the battlefield!
Point-and-click adventure games have historically found their audience on PC, especially in the heyday of the early-to-mid ’90s with series such as Broken Sword and Monkey Island. While there has always been a core fanbase for this style of game on mouse-driven systems, the genre has been brought into both the console with recent remasters of classics such as Grim Fandango and Day of the Tentacle. This expansion has resulted in a handful of modern takes on the formula, ranging from episodic, story-driven titles such as Broken Age and the dialogue-focused Telltale games, to this year’s Wwitch releases Violett and Thimbleweed Park – the latter being a throwback (and spiritual successor) to Lucasrts’ fan-favourite Maniac Mansion.
Not to be left behind, the Syberia trilogy, created by Benoit Sokai, makes its way to the Switch after a fifteen year stint as not only one of the most well-received PC genre titles, but also as one which has seen release on several other systems, including a rather sub-par DS version in 2008. While the quality of these ports have varied thus far, the Switch’s ample hardware specs – combined with its portability – means that there is potential for this to be the best iteration.
Syberia at its core is initially a pretty standard point-and-click affair. During your adventure, you will explore various environments, talk to different characters and find inanimate objects in order to solve puzzles and progress through the story. Influenced by the work of early 20th century pioneering French film maker Georges Méliès, the game mixes mild fantasy and science fiction elements, but starts out as a somber tale explaining the decline of a family business. You play the role of young American attorney Kate Walker, sent to the quaint and secluded French village of Valadilène on behalf of her law firm to finalise the takeover of a mechanical toy (automaton) factory after the death of destitute owner Anna Voralberg and the disappearance of its sole heir and genius inventor, Hans. The company Kate represents has the monopoly on the toy business and tracking down Mr. Voralberg is imperative as the business can not be taken over without his approval. Kate delves deeper in to the village’s – and the factory’s – history by meeting various residents and explores the increasingly desolate and remote landscapes of the European and Russian wilderness in search of clues as to Voralberg’s whereabouts.
The unraveling of the plot and the depth of characters are highlights of Syberia. The protagonist has the difficult task of balancing her increasing intrigue for the Voralberg family with her professional obligations and personal relationships. There’s an interesting exploration of many different contrasts, including technology and the conflict between urban and rural life. As the game progresses, you’ll come across an increasingly mysterious and enchanting locations in search of Hans, as well as more abstract and mystical scenarios. Granted, the point-and-click genre might not suit everyone’s taste in terms of mechanics or pacing, but the overall experience is rich and engaging, while the puzzles – despite being a little obtuse – are more accessible than other similar titles.
From the get go, the art direction, string-based theme music and voice work are all great, but the game’s mechanics expose its age. Despite the story being in a contemporary time period (circa 2002), there’s a distinct Dickensian feel to the world. The antiquated newspaper clippings and the mechanisms of the robot toys (although don’t ever call them that) have a rusted aesthetic consisting of springs, cogs and the sounds of creaking old metal. While the art nouveau, industrial architecture and steam punk-like automatons – along with rich colour palates – give the village and other areas a sheltered and intriguing atmosphere, the game’s technical presentation does let it down in places. The backgrounds alternate from being crisp and sharp to blurry and ugly. The character models are, on the whole, pretty good but the lip syncing from the PC version is absent.
Particularly jarring examples of this uneven presentation come early on; a completely static background of a bridge over a river or a stone fountain are both accompanied by the sound of running water despite the lack of movement, for example. You’ll be moving around interior and exterior environments set to fixed camera angles, while controlling Kate with full 360 degree movement as opposed to ‘tank controls’ feels natural and reasonably responsive, including the option to run (by holding down a trigger) that adds welcome pace. However, looking around and using objects or performing actions can be cumbersome, as you are moving the character around as well as looking for the right direction. The inclusion of a touch-based option for item management (brought up with Y or the bottom right hand icon on screen) is oddly patchy. Tapping ‘R’ brings up your trusty mobile telephone, but you can only scroll through contacts with the touch screen, not input numbers.
Furthermore, the game is not optimised to fit the Switch in either TV or handheld mode. The 4:3 aspect ratio option is dealt with by having translucent extensions of the scenery or black vertical boarders, and in both configurations the resolution differences are obvious – the FMVs in particular look very blurry. The other option is full screen, where everything is stretched. It’s an unfortunate catch 22.
Conclusion
Syberia on the Nintendo Switch is a reasonable yet inconsistent port of an enchanting genre classic. This is an absorbing, intricate story filled with melancholy, eccentric characters and mystery demands and deserves attention, even if the game shows its age technically in some places and demonstrates a lack of care in the porting process in others. For fans of the genre, or those willing to dive in and forgive some inconsistencies, there’s an endearing and worthwhile adventure here.
Get Ready To Slam Dunk With The Next Neo Geo Game For Switch, Street Hoop
We all love a bit of basketball action here at Nintendo Life, so we were delighted to hear that the Data East’s classic Neo Geo game Street Hoop is heading it’s way to the Switch tomorrow courtesy of Hamster.
We reviewed this back in 2010 when it landed on the Wii Virtual Console it netted an impressive 8/10. Here’s what we had to say:
There’s no denying the heavy Double Dribble and NBA Jam influences that abound in Street Hoop, but given how well those arcade hoops classic played, that’s certainly not a bad thing. The game’s unique hip hop musical score and over-the-top Super Shots give it something to stand out from the crowd, but what ultimately makes the game so much fun to play will inevitably be its familiar controls that will give fans of popular arcade hoops games something new with which to play. At the very least it proves that the Neo Geo system was capable of producing quality titles that were actually not fighting games.
Let us know if you plan to pick up this classic sports game tomorrow with a comment below.
Hand of Fate 2 is Now Available on Steam and is 10% off!*
A new hero rises to challenge the Dealer in Hand of Fate 2! Master a living boardgame of infinitely replayable quests – unlock new cards, build your adventure, then defeat your foes in brutal real-time combat!
Draw your cards, play your hand and discover your fate!
