It’s been a while now since Nintendo revealed a sequel to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild was in development. Although there have been no official updates, there are some rumours currently making headlines around the internet.

One that seems to have gained traction comes from the Twitch stream of Tyler McVicker – an individual who runs the Valve News Network YouTube channel, recently interviewed the voice actor of G-Man, and is more commonly associated with “news and leaks” about Valve’s upcoming projects. He’s also got a Nintendo channel on the side and his claim to fame is uncovering the recently released Half-Life: Alyx years before rumours began to surface online.

McVicker’s reportedly been sharing information about Nintendo’s highly anticipated sequel to Breath of the Wild. Here’s a full summary via the Gaming Leaks and Rumours subreddit:

Unlike the first part, the game will be linear at the beginning. Canonically, Link already knows Hyrule, so there is no point in climbing the towers again

Instead, the developers have filled the world with a miasmic version of Ganon, and until the infection is cleared from location to location, it will be impossible to move around the entire Hyrule

In this regard, the locations are worked out much deeper than in the original. At the very least, McVicker hints at the appearance of dungeons, strongly inspired by one game that knows a lot about spreading dungeons around the open world

In general, while designing the world of Breath of the Wild 2, developers was inspired by Red Dead Redemption 2 (officially known) and another unknown game

Based on what has been shown in the original reveal trailer, this sort of a sequel definitely sounds plausible. A lot of Zelda fans would also love to see the return of dungeons, which have been a staple of the series over the years.

What do you make of this rumour? Could you see dungeons making a return and Link having to clear Hyrule of a miasmic version of Ganon? Share your thoughts below.

Accelerate classified missions with unparalleled connectivity, high availability, and resiliency across three regions with more than 35 services

Azure Government Secret recently achieved Provisional Authorization (PA) at Department of Defense Impact Level 6 (IL6) and Intelligence Community Directive (ICD) 503 with facilities at ICD 705. We’re also announcing a third region to enable even higher availability for national security missions to stay ahead of their unique threats.

Built exclusively for the needs of US government and operated by cleared US citizens, Azure Government Secret delivers dedicated regions to maintain the security and integrity of classified Secret workloads while enabling reliable access to critical data. The first cloud natively connected to classified networks; Azure Government Secret enables customers to leverage options for private, resilient, high-bandwidth connectivity.

Protect national security production workloads with geodiversity across three regions

Azure Government Secret is designed for the unique requirements of critical national security workloads that cannot be served out of a single geographic location. To provide the geodiversity required, Azure Government Secret delivers across three dedicated regions for US Federal Civilian, Department of Defense (DoD), Intelligence Community (IC), and US government partners working within Secret enclaves. These dedicated Azure regions are located over 500 miles apart to enable applications to stay running in the face of a disaster without a break in continuity of operations.

In addition, these regions provide greater choice when working across multiple locations and delivering cloud-to-edge scenarios. With comprehensive cloud services Azure Government Secret enables faster innovation for the mission from cloud to tactical edge meeting the critical availability needs of the warfighter.

Enabling classified missions at scale with more than 35 services

Designed and built for Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), Software as a Service (SaaS) and Marketplace solutions, Azure Government Secret provides a broad range of commercial innovation for classified workloads.­ Some of the services include: identity, analytics, security, and high performance computing to support advanced artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning.

Operated by cleared US citizens, these new regions are part of Azure Government, delivering a familiar, consistent experience and alignment with existing resellers and programs. Eligible customers can also leverage cleared Microsoft cloud support for their workloads.

Gain speed by connecting directly or extending on-premises networks

With Azure Government Secret, customers can connect natively to classified networks or leverage options for private, resilient, high-bandwidth connectivity using ExpressRoute and ExpressRoute Direct:

• Native connection: Agencies with direct connections through US government classified networks can connect natively to Azure Government Secret.
• ExpressRoute: Extend on-premises networks into Azure Government Secret regions over a private connection facilitated by a connectivity provider with ExpressRoute.
• ExpressRoute Direct: Get the ability to connect directly into Azure Government Secret locations using ExpressRoute Direct.

Continued investments in commercial parity across data classifications

In addition to serving mission customers at DoD IL6 and ICD 503, we continue to invest in rapidly delivering new Azure Government capabilities to support mission needs across all data classifications for any US government customer. In the last six months we’ve continued our drive toward commercial parity, adding hundreds of features and launching 40+ new services and 101 total services in FedRAMP High, with more to come across Azure commercial, Azure Government and Azure Government Secret.

These continued investments enable customers across the full spectrum of government, including departments in every state, all the federal cabinet agencies, and each military branch, modernize their IT to better achieve their missions.

To learn more about Azure Government Secret contact us or visit Azure Government for national security.

Ever wondered what’s under the hood of Animal Crossing: New Horizons on Nintendo Switch? Probably not, given the type of game it is, but that hasn’t stopped Digital Foundry from taking a look. To cut to the chase, the game renders at 1920 x 1080 in docked and 1280 x 720 while in portable. Anti-aliasing is “practically absent” from this new entry, so expect a few jaggies.

The frame rate is probably the most interesting detail. New Horizons runs at 30fps regardless of whether it’s in docked or portable mode. While there are few minor blips, it’s a relatively smooth experience. In this department, it’s outdone by its console predecessors. The GameCube version of Animal Crossing and Animal Crossing: City Folk on the Wii both ran at 60fps. The frame rate cut is tied to the visual upheaval, which Digital Foundry considers to be a worthy sacrifice.

The game is believed to be running on the same in-house EAD engine as titles like ARMS, Splatoon 2 and Super Mario Maker 2. As a result, it’s quite feasible that it’s making use of the same rendering technologies for lighting, shaders, and materials. Havok Physics have also likely been used, but appear to be put to minimal use in the game. There are also other effects like bloom and ambient occlusion, and pop-in issues seem to be a thing of the past.

Those are just some of the highlights, check out the video above for the full rundown.

Update – Thu 26th Mar, 2020 02:25 GMT: A listing for this game has now appeared on the Canadian Switch eShop (thanks, Nintendo Everything), and it appears to have the same release date as the PlayStation 4 version (26th March). We’ll just have to wait and see!

Original article – Sun 22nd Mar, 2020 07:05 GMT: One welcome surprise on the Switch last year was the release of Star Wars Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast. Although this version didn’t include the much-loved multiplayer component, Aspyr Media still made the effort to improve the solo experience over time with some patches.

What’s going on with Star Wars: Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy, though? It was confirmed for Switch last September alongside the reveal of Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast and was scheduled to be arriving early on in 2020. Well, the latest update comes from the PlayStation Blog of all places. Yep, according to a new post, Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy is arriving digitally on the PlayStation 4 on 26th March. Here’s the description for this console:

The online multiplayer classic comes to PS4 with Trophies and modernized controls! Take on the role of a new student eager to learn the ways of the Force from Jedi Master Luke Skywalker. Interact with famous Star Wars characters as you face the ultimate choice: fight for good and freedom on the light side or follow the path of power and evil to the dark side.

While there’s obviously no mention of the Nintendo Switch release on this page, there’s a theory going around it could be linked to the rumoured Nintendo Direct, which is believed to be taking place on 26th March. This same rumour already predicted the recent Nintendo Indie World Showcase. Keep in mind, there is no guarantee, so we’ll just have to wait and find out.

It’s been a while.  I’m healthy once again and able to bring you Minecraft related News.

Have you ever wanted to walk on lava in vanilla?  What about using a compass that pointed you elsewhere instead of at 0,0?  Well, this Snapshot may just be for you!

• Added the lodestone
• Added the Strider
• Basalt is formed when lava flows over soul soil next to blue ice
• Farmer villagers can now compost seeds

LODESTONE

A new block that can help you get your bearings!

• Crafted from a Netherite ingot and chiseled stone bricks
• Use a compass on a lodestone to create a lodestone compass pointing to that lodestone

STRIDER

A new mob living the lava lakes of the Nether.

• Striders can walk on top of the surface of lava
• Can be saddled, but has a will of its own
• Really likes the smell of warped fungi – might even be convinced to follow it
  

  

FARMER VILLAGERS

• Farmers can now put excess seeds in the composter to create bone meal
• Bone meal is used by the farmers to grow crops
• Farmers share excess wheat to other farmers, so more farmers can make bread

• You’re now more likely to get soul speed books and boots from bartering with Piglins
• You now can charge the respawn anchor using a dispenser

• Jigsaw Block
• A fishing location is now considered to be open water if the fishing hook is in water, there are no blocks besides lily pads above water and all water blocks are source blocks with no solid underwater blocks around

JIGSAW BLOCK

• Jigsaw can now have one of 12 orientations
• Added new property Joint type to describe if attached piece can be rotated (rollable) or not (aligned)
• NBT field target_pool has been renamed to pool
• – attachement_type has been split into name (on parent block) and target (on child block).

• MC-118080 – Bows without pulling predicate animate when other bows are pulled back
• MC-154427 – Villagers only pick up four stacks of items
• MC-171003 – Crimson and Warped stairs, planks and slabs can be used as fuel in a furnace
• MC-171286 – Warped fences and Crimson fences don’t connect with other fences
• MC-171484 – Shields, crossbows, bows, and fishing rods don’t show their proper animations in first person mode after certain actions
• MC-171526 – en_us.json issue: weeping_vines and weeping_vines_plant have the same name
• MC-171830 – Smokers cannot be crafted using crimson or warped stems
• MC-172123 – Using a spawn egg on a mob without a baby variant spawns an adult mob of the same type without a weapon
• MC-172279 – Can’t craft campfire with nether stems or hyphae
• MC-172307 – All loaded tileticks instantly run in the first tick after loading the chunk
• MC-173258 – Back of zombified piglin heads has very different texture/shading compared to the other sides
• MC-173367 – Arrows are floating in midair after being pushed by piston
• MC-173791 – Mobs dismount vehicles only in front of the boat, even if there is danger ahead
• MC-174368 – Minecarts can no longer eject entities into an open trap door
• MC-174428 – Nylium can be bonemealed underwater with seagrass above it
• MC-174434 – Sugar Cane, Kelp and Bamboo are in the incorrect creative inventory tab
• MC-174481 – en_us.json issue: twisting_vines and twisting_vines_plant have the same name
• MC-174510 – Stems, Hyphae, and variants do not use the Nether Wood material
• MC-174537 – Zombie Pigman hooves are still visible on Zombified Piglin texture
• MC-174547 – Kelp, Weeping Vines, and Twisted Vines can be bonemealed at age 25
• MC-174642 – Hitbox of twisting vine is incorrect
• MC-174731 – Modifying “soul.json” (inside of “particles” folder) causes crash
• MC-174787 – Arrow physics don’t work correctly when in a target that is moved
• MC-174823 – Sprinting and walking scoreboards don’t update properly
• MC-174988 – Bee nests are brown on maps
• MC-175165 – Using glowstone on a respawn anchor doesn’t consume it
• MC-175171 – Fishing bobber can get stuck on a ledge when being reeled in
• MC-175174 – Respawn anchor is considered obstructed if all its sides are covered or air
• MC-175178 – Anchor uses up the glowstone charge even though it didn’t respawn you
• MC-175185 – No datafixer for item AttributeModifiers UUIDs
• MC-175191 – Respawn Anchor charging cannot be heard by other players
• MC-175193 – Using glowstone in the offhand does not charge respawn anchor
• MC-175199 – In snowy_medium_house_2, some blocks are still misrotated
• MC-175204 – Four misrotated blocks in snowy_masons_house_1
• MC-175208 – Incorrect grammar “Your have no home bed or respawn anchor, or it was obstructed.”
• MC-175209 – Dying in a different dimension than your respawn anchor will cause the anchor to not play the depletion sound
• MC-175210 – Respawn anchor uses a charge after leaving the end dimension through the end portal
• MC-175218 – Looking at a map of an area with spruce sign, jungle sign or dark oak sign in it crashes the game
• MC-175219 – Respawn Anchor plays the “Respawn Point set” sound when right-clicked even when its already your respawn point
• MC-175224 – Nether gold ore does not yield any experience when mined
• MC-175239 – Villagers are generated very rarely in villages
• MC-175278 – Fishing near lily pads prevents players from receiving treasure loot table
• MC-175289 – Respawn anchor isn’t in the #dragon_immune tag
• MC-175322 – Clicking on a fully charged respawn anchor with a glowstone block doesn’t activate it
• MC-175327 – The crafting recipe of Polished Basalt is inconsistent
• MC-175514 – Villager Gossips still use old UUID NBT format (TargetMost and TargetLeast)
• MC-175827 – Entities not loading in structure blocks (duplicate UUID)
• MC-175830 – F3 + I copies UUID

“Easter eggs” have become common in visual media, whether it’s film, television, or video games. Creators hide these bits of surprise in a way that’s findable to those with a keen eye and an appreciation for whatever the Easter egg makes reference to.

As games evolved over generations, the principle behind the Easter egg has grown exponentially, with more iterations on the concept appearing in modern video games.

One recently released game that leans into the idea of Easter eggs is Zombie Army 4: Dead War, Rebellion’s latest in the series, which maintains a cult following. Jordan Woodward, lead level designer at Rebellion, is no stranger to the implementation of secrets within the game world. Much of what infuses a sense of charm into the world of Zombie Army is the carefully positioned Easter eggs, which encourage players to carefully dissect each level. A conversation with Woodward gave insight into the process behind it all.

Within the early moments of Zombie Army 4, a small room presented a dead end with nothing of interest but a typewriter. With no other means of interactivity in the room, the typewriter beckons players to inspect it. Choose to do so and it will begin to type on its own accord — reeling off numerous horror movie quotes for the player. Then, as the player turns around, a greeting from several creepy dolls is glaring back at them, startling the player.

It’s a game series that’s built around the love and admiration of classic horror movies — especially the golden age of the genre.

“The franchise and universe of Zombie Army take a lot of inspiration from cult horror and 80s B-movie horror films and that vibe is definitely a big part of Zombie Army 4,” said Woodward. “They are genres a lot of the team are massive fans of, and they had a lot of fun coming up with references and Easter eggs from their favorite films to put in the game. We had feedback from our community, and this was one of the things people loved about the franchise, so it was an obvious fit for Zombie Army 4 too.”

Looking at player feedback and how the community reacts is an integral part of the process, as well as looking back at past installments. “Creating an engaging and intriguing world which players want to explore was at the core of designing the levels and lore within the game,” Woodward said. “The humor and tongue in cheek delivery of that additional layer was something previous Zombie Army games in the franchise were praised for and another reason our fans, and ourselves, loved the other games. We wanted to revisit this in Zombie Army 4, continuing with the trend of adding movie references and quirky Easter eggs to discover, to drive some more exploration and provide a few chuckles along the way.”

With so many different voices in the team at Rebellion, everyone had their own ideas for what to implement in the finished release. “A lot of the development team are big fans of the horror genre and we spent a lot of time watching cult zombie horror movies such as Dead Snow, Outpost, and Overlord – so naturally everyone jumped at the chance to get their favorite zombie and horror movie references in to Zombie Army 4.”

Having the player recognize these secrets isn’t integral to the experience. It was to be made clear that finding such extras was an extension to the overall experience. “It was also our aim to provide players with a layer of depth and environmental storytelling that is always present for the player to find but wasn’t crucial to the enjoyment of the game,” Woodward said. “It’s a game that doesn’t take itself too seriously, but lore-wise everything still makes sense within the world and story we’ve created.”

And that world is crafted around a love for horror movies with a vast array of inspirations. With examples stemming from influences such as The Shining, and the more recent Netflix show Stranger Things. In Zombie Army 4, the game references Stranger Things via an environmental puzzle: lights lay draped on the wall, each dangling beside a letter. Figuring out the correct sequence in which to shoot the lights rewards players with a locked safe opening, which is filled with an assortment of items to assist them on their quest.

When such a large team is working on a project of this magnitude, there must be a degree of preparation when it comes to implementation. The early stages of development called for the team to come together, collaborate on ideas, and see what sticks.

“In the pre-production stages of development and during development, we encouraged everyone from the team to submit as many ideas as they could for their favorite Easter eggs, movie references, horror references and even references from previous Rebellion games,” Woodward said. 

With such a wealth of ideas coming from a large team, it’s no doubt that many would fail to see the light of day. Collectively discussing the plethora of concepts the team had brainstormed and choosing what to go forward with was a key aspect of the thought process.

“After we had collated a huge list of ideas, we started to look at which ones we wanted to take forward, prioritizing them and how and where we wanted to present them. Also, what would be the most fun way to discover it?” Woodward explained. “We then started to pin down the locations where we thought each of them would work well and the designers mocked them up in the levels using pre-made or whitebox assets and our in-house Asura Engine scripting tools for any triggering logic.”

While Zombie Army 4 is jam-packed with Easter eggs bursting from the seams, the development team still had plenty of ideas which inevitably were left unfinished. According to Woodward, this was the case with this development cycle. 

“A few ideas had to be scrapped from the list,” he said, “mainly due to complexity or time it would have taken to create them as some would need bespoke complex animation sequences or custom art assets we didn’t have the time to make. Or we had to simplify the reference, using different assets we already had. A lot of the coolest ideas made it into the game, though.” 

With so many hidden secrets packed into one game, a balancing act needs to be performed to ensure that they’re tucked away from the casual player, but not too obscure for the keen eyed. Often, the Easter eggs that lay dormant in Zombie Army’s world lay waiting at the end of offbeat tracks or incorporated into heavily decorated rooms, waiting for eagle eyed players to stumble across their presence.   

“The design approach with Easter egg placement was to encourage curious exploration of the game world,” Woodward said. “Often, we didn’t want to lead players directly to them, as this may have caused an unwanted distraction from the main objective of the mission or an encounter, this being especially problematic in co-op.

“The balance was to create areas and paths that weren’t too far away from the main play areas and main paths, so players didn’t get lost and could always quickly find their way back to a fight. These additional areas helped add some extra depth to the world and make the world seem larger and more open to explore.”

Sometimes, the balancing act can be tricky business and finding that perfect contrast into seamlessly integrating Easter eggs into the world of Zombie Army isn’t as easy as it may seem. 

“There were some tweaks we had to make to some of them to make them more obviously connected with a different part of the level,” Woodward said. “For example: the gas rats Easter egg in the Hellbase mission. During playtesting players weren’t getting the link between finding and killing the rats in the level to open a locked safe in the following room. We tweaked this and put tiny gas masks on the rats and a rack for tiny gas masks to hang on the wall in the safe room by the safe. A mask would be hung on the rack each time a rat was killed to show how many were found. It’s subtle, but it helped make the link.”

The sheer amount of creativity Woodward and the team put into Zombie Army is evident through the playful level design they’ve crafted. Much of the process has been rewarding, but Woodward has found the most enjoyable part being the developers’ playtesting sessions. 

“What I’ve personally enjoyed most about seeing all the awesome Easter eggs, environmental storytelling pieces and references is the creativity and enthusiasm from the design team. Even now during internal play sessions the team are finding references in each other’s work they didn’t know about!”