In the space MMO EVE Online, chaos reigns. And this is exactly what the developers intended, as they hope that the online game remains “fresh” as a result.
Why is there currently chaos in the game? In July, an invasion of the Drifters began, an NPC faction that is embroiled with players in fierce battles.
Additionally, the developer studio CCP Games implemented a chat blackout. All these things have not been well received by the community. Many are upset and criticize this severe intervention by the developers into the sandbox of EVE Online, which is known as the “era of chaos”.
Chaos is sometimes necessary
Why did the developers take this path? An intervention in the game is always challenging. EVE Online is meant to be managed by the players themselves. This is an important aspect for many fans.
However, CCP Games has noticed a stagnation of player numbers for some time, which is very bad for an online game. CCP Games’ CEO Hilmar Pétursson explains: “No one wants the sandbox to turn to cement, hence the sand must be shifted a bit. And we as the managers of the universe must intervene. We want the game to be built and operated by its player base. But now we must step in.”
The intervention has serious consequences for the in-game economy. Monopolies are being broken, industrial giants are being toppled. Everything is being thrown into disarray. But that is exactly the intention. Because this way, there is room for new players who can settle in EVE Online. And new players are important to keep an MMORPG fresh and active.
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This system is to be further developed: It has become necessary for CCP Games to intervene in the game through drastic actions. And this will continue in the future. However, not always with manual events like the current invasion of the Drifters.
Eventually, there should be automated processes for this. These could include cosmic disasters or further alien attacks. The game should someday decide for itself when such an event is necessary and initiate it accordingly. Thus, EVE Online, according to the developers, will develop a life of its own and self-regulate. One could almost speak of a consciousness of its own.
How do players react to this? Of course, there are hardcore fans who fundamentally do not want any intervention from the developers in “their” game. These players also voice their complaints loudly.
However, many fans recognize the advantages and understand that it is sometimes necessary to create chaos if one wants to keep an online game fresh and attract new players.
Luke Smith talked about the launch of Destiny 2 and what went wrong during the development of the game in the years prior. In his view, the time after the launch was a terrible year. He and the team vowed: “Never again.”
Who is speaking? It is Luke Smith, who was responsible for the launch of Destiny 2 and is now the Franchise Director at Destiny.
As we now know, Luke Smith took over the Destiny 2 project only in April or May 2016, after a previous Game Director had left. Destiny 2 was supposed to be released in September 2016 – but that didn’t happen.
Destiny 2 was rebooted. At its release in September 2017, Destiny 2 was well received for about 6 weeks, but then harsh criticism of the game arose, which grew stronger and only calmed down with the release of Forsaken a year later.
Luke Smith in an interview.
Smith gave a long interview to “Kinda Funny” and revealed many details from his time at Destiny. He considers the period leading up to Destiny 2’s release as the lowest point of his career.
“Couldn’t carry over features from Year 2 for Destiny 2”
Why did Destiny 2 go wrong? Smith says that at the time, they had a different organizational structure at Bungie. The problem was “multiple overlapping releases and teams.”
There were small bubbles of people working on their different projects. He, Noseworthy, and others were one team. Other people were in other teams.
When he and Noseworthy were assigned the Destiny 2 project, the game had already been “in development for a longer time.”
The designer Luke Smith and producer Mark Noseworthy have been a team since The Taken King.
At that time, Bungie was unable to say due to the organizational structure: Hey, what are the cool features from Year 2 and 3 of Destiny 1? How can we use them for Destiny 2?
It was not possible for technical reasons: The features could not be carried over to Destiny 2.
“It’s scary,” Smith says when he describes how the technicians spoke about various “executables”.
Noseworthy and others from the production team identified this organizational structure as a problem and worked on it. Smith hopes that the fruits of this work will soon be seen.
Destiny 2 felt unfinished
This is how Destiny 2 felt for Smith: Smith is later asked in the interview what the lowest point of his career was. He says, Destiny 2 after the 6-week honeymoon phase.
Smith looked at Destiny 2 at the time, what was happening with the game, and it felt as though the work was simply not finished. He and Noseworthy were working on “other things.”
The game director says that with Forsaken and since last year, Bungie has gathered and now wants to finish what they started.
Smith, Noseworthy, and others from the team got metaphorical “Never again” tattoos and vowed never to let Destiny slide like that again.
“Terrible time”
This is how Smith felt at the time: Smith says that for him personally, the crisis phase after the release of Destiny 2 lasted about a year, during which he felt unwell. He calls it a terrible time. His wife later told him that during this period he came home from the office dejected, retreated to his study, and went to bed.
Smith says:
It was a terrible time. But I don’t want to complain; many people go through a terrible time for many reasons. I’m nothing special. And for me, the reason was that I got to make a video game. Which in itself is something pretty fantastic.
What lies behind it: It probably isn’t a very satisfying answer for fans, but it’s what has continuously shone through the 5 years of Destiny:
The organizational structure at Bungie in the first years required teams to work separately on releases. Smaller teams on the DLCs, larger ones on expansions and main games. This was probably Bungie’s way to fulfill Activision’s big master plan and provide constant new content.
This resulted in insufficient communication. A variety of problems arose: Things were delayed, didn’t feel cohesive, and followed no common vision.
Changing and restructuring this internal structure has probably been the major thing Bungie has been working on internally for many years. However, it will take years to see the effects of that.
It is now said that they want the seasons following “Shadowkeep” to be thematically linked.
Smith does not clearly state what went wrong, but he hints at it. But from his words, you can hear:
that there was pressure to meet the release date.
that the reboot surely caused problems because his team joined Destiny 2 too late.
Smith and his team had too little time due to organizational problems to make Destiny 2 the game they wanted.
This is shown in the clip: We fast-forward the video to 2:43:45. Here Smith talks about the low point of his career so far, the launch of Destiny 2 and how he felt about it.
Smith’s interview grants us many interesting insights behind the otherwise tightly shut doors of Bungie. He has explained, among other things, what the first raid in Destiny was supposed to be.
But there are also statements about the future of Destiny 2:
Getting eliminated by cheaters in Fortnite is never nice. But a cheater was quickly punished and banned. Hundreds of people are now laughing about it.
This is the scene: Streamer SlackAttackk_ shows a clip from his stream on Reddit where you can see how he is eliminated by an aimbot user.
Initially frustrated, the streamer ended up laughing because the cheater got the deserved punishment.
Cheater gets banned live on stream
This is the video: In the one-minute clip, you can initially see the elimination by the cheater. The streamer reacted annoyed and wanted to report the cheater at first.
The cheater racked up numerous more kills. He even eliminated players without seeing them. In the end, he had 13 kills to his name. Then he was suddenly eliminated. Epic apparently intervened and removed the cheater.
This is how the streamer reacts: After SlackAttackk_ kept complaining about the aimbot user, the joy was great in the end. He shouted: “Yes, he was banned! Fuck you!”.
This is how viewers react: Many viewers celebrate the ban on Reddit. One user writes: “A lesson for life. You should not cheat.” Another user comments: “That brought a smile to my face:”
Snipers in Fortnite – my most hated opponents
Other Reddit users are more annoyed with the cheater. The ban doesn’t really help. You can easily create a new account and keep cheating. After all, the cheater is only using the standard skin. It doesn’t seem like he is investing much into his account or buying special skins.
Recently, another cheater made headlines. He kept cheating after being sued by Epic:
Has WoW Classic heralded the end of private servers? It seems so, as player numbers are dwindling.
World of Warcraft Classic has been released for just over two weeks. While the official servers are bursting at the seams and there are still long queues in the evenings, another type of server is currently losing players massively: pirate servers or private servers. At least that is what the colleagues from Kotaku report, who have spoken with the operators of these servers.
Private servers are losing players: Since the release of WoW Classic, the number of players on private servers has dwindled. Some, like “Light’s Hope”, have even completely closed down, which some operators see as a “relief”. The long work has now come to an end. They are somewhat proud of what has been achieved, as the years of commitment from the operators and players of such private servers have contributed to the fact that WoW Classic exists today. After all, Blizzard even met with the developers of the largest private server, Nostalrius.
Nostalrius and the Blizzard employees.
The two private servers Kronos and Elysium, which were previously extremely popular, have now lost 25% of their player base. The operators expect that this number will rise to 50% to 60% in the coming weeks.
Less “fear” on official realms: One reason for the player exodus is that official servers generally run “smoother”, display fewer errors and bugs. Additionally, they offer official support from Blizzard and there is no risk of the server shutting down suddenly, causing players to lose all their progress.
Some remain loyal to private servers: However, there are also some fans of private servers who are attached to them and are not willing to switch to the official “WoW Classic” realms. They cite several reasons for this, such as:
Additionally, there is the concern that Activision Blizzard will later introduce loot boxes or other forms of additional monetization in WoW Classic, which is why they prefer to stay with private servers where this is excluded.
In any case, the number of players on private servers is decreasing – whether they will completely disappear is rather unlikely. The hype around WoW Classic seems unbroken. Even two weeks after the release, there are still regular queues when logging in.
The pirate online game Sea of Thieves has received a new update called “Smuggler’s Fortune”. This introduces microtransactions and pets.
What does Smuggler’s Fortune offer? As announced some time ago, Sea of Thieves now features an item shop with microtransactions. The shop “Pirate Emporium” offers you emotes, ship cosmetics as well as the first pets. The first paint job for your ship “Bear & Bird” was inspired by the Banjo-Kazooie games.
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What can you do with the pets? Pets are simply part of being a pirate. What is a pirate without a parrot on his shoulder, after all? The pets dance when you play music, hang around you, or can be fed. Of course, you can give your pet a name and dress it in outfits.
It is also possible to stuff them into a ship’s cannon and fire them off… Get ready to see many animals flying around in Sea of Thieves.
How do you shop in the store? To acquire cosmetic items and pets, you buy Ancient Coins, which you receive directly in the Pirate Emporium.
A really great update
What else does the update offer? You will participate in new adventures. For example, you have to carry out Bilge Rats Rag-and-Bone voyages and deliver hidden chests to various trading posts under time pressure. For this, you will earn doubloons as a reward.
Especially interesting for players is that they can now rejoin a game session if they get kicked or lose connection.
How are players reacting to the new update? The new update is very well received by the fans of Sea of Thieves. Many are excited about the pets and are curious about what the players will come up with for the animals.
However, there is also some skepticism due to the introduction of the item shop. Currently, only cosmetic items can be found there, but other developers have shown that they eventually introduced pay-to-win elements despite initially stating they wouldn’t do so.
So far, however, the shop and update are being very well received by the Sea of Thieves players.
The FIFA 20 demo is out. We played the test version extensively – this is our opinion on VOLTA, gameplay, and atmosphere.Our demo review.
What to consider: The demo is pure offline play (unless you use the online trick on PS4 to play with your friends). The gameplay in FUT, for example, may feel different than in the demo.
This is what was played: In the demo, you can try kickoff matches with selected teams. This can be done alone or with multiple players.
You can also test the new VOLTA mode – with friends, this is only possible together, not against each other. What stood out to us, we will show you in this article.
This is how VOLTA comes across: Let’s start with the biggest innovation that can be tested in the demo. The VOLTA mode starts in the demo with a video focusing on Vinicius Jr. from Real Madrid. After we see a few scenes in the stadium, the cutscene switches to the street. And the scenes there make you want more! You can find out more about the story in VOLTA here.
The VOLTA demo does not skimp on atmosphere
You get challenged by a team to a match on the small field in 3v3. It is played until four goals are scored – and you should easily win the first match.
Your opponents mostly let you do your thing. Especially with friends on a console, which you can add in the menu via the pitch selection for the game, VOLTA is fun in the demo – but you can only play cooperatively, not against each other.
The opponent team is quite easy to beat in the first round
If you play a few more matches, the opponents seem to act a bit stronger – and then the mode becomes more fun. Completely like FIFA Street it doesn’t feel at the beginning, but rather like a souped-up version of the old futsal mode.
Tricks don’t flow as easily as you might be used to from the Street series. However, it is possible that VOLTA can become more spectacular with more practice – there is definitely potential.
After a goal, there is even a celebration via smartphone
In the first attempts, it felt more efficient to simply pass through the opponent instead of outsmarting them – this may also be due to the AI.
Another thing to note: Shooting from a distance at an empty goal rarely yields results. The shooting accuracy in VOLTA seems to have been significantly reduced. At least, the ball often hits the board instead of going into the goal despite the absence of defense.
Close-range goals seemed to fall much more often – even if there was a keeper present
The VOLTA conclusion: VOLTA in the demo is fun, but still feels like something “for a quick game”. The gameplay and atmosphere in the scenes before the game make you want more. It will be particularly exciting to see what the mode brings in its full scope and whether it can motivate for a long time.
What stands out about the gameplay: Now let’s switch to the kickoff mode. Here, Champions League is played! And quite slowly: The gameplay feels overall tidier, but not as fast. This isn’t negative. The gameplay gives you more time to think – and thus play more creatively.
The new ball physics are something you have to get used to. But the game feels much more realistic in this regard. Additionally, there are some shooting and movement animations that you haven’t seen before.
How the gameplay will transfer from kickoff to FUT remains to be seen. Experience shows that there are remarkable differences in terms of speed.
Player strengths are noticeable
This is what makes the individual players stand out: What was impressive in the demo was that you could notice clear differences between the individual players.
This was especially reflected in that strengths really came into play. For example: When Jadon Sancho had run away from you, he was really gone.
Chasing a sprinting Sancho feels almost impossible
On the other hand, it was absolutely impossible to catch up with Salah using Mats Hummels. At the same time, it was noticeable that technically strong players, for example, delivered passes and crosses much more accurately than less skilled teammates.
In FIFA 19, the pace differences were not as significant.
The same was noticeable in defense. When Virgil van Dijk stood in front of you, it was almost impossible to get past him. Skill moves or a quick sprint didn’t help at all. You had to look for a different way then.
What appeared to be very effective: Sending players out wide. Because once you got past the defense, you normally had a clear run – and hardly any defender could catch up at that point.
Hazard actually caught it out wide – and then it’s hardly any opponent to overcome
Regarding skill moves: Speaking of leaving defenders behind. It’s no longer so easy. Also, the trick “La Croqueta”, which in FIFA 19 was a real weapon when chained together, no longer feels like a cure-all in offense. Often, you could get past the opponent with this trick or at least draw a penalty.
In the demo, the defense seemed unimpressed by “La Croqueta”
That seems to be over now. Seamlessly chaining no longer works in this form. And also in the penalty area, “La Croqueta” no longer leads to a penalty whistle. The defense has gotten smarter. However, the general rule is: if you time a skill move just right, the tricks remain a good weapon in attack.
This is how the penalties were successful: The new penalty system definitely doesn’t feel easy. You’ll first have to get used to a few misses before you can realize the perfect penalty.
Hitting the right spot is not easy
In theory, the system seems to enable more accurate shots. In practice, however, so far, the virtual spectators behind the goal have mostly enjoyed free balls.
The direction of the shot shows: That wasn’t great
Keepers somewhat erratic
This stood out about the keepers: The goalkeepers in the game seem a bit strangely balanced. Many saves felt random. Relatively simple-looking balls were completely inexplicably flicked to the side, while really strong shots were easily held.
You still miss a clearer line here – currently, you have the feeling that you don’t really know what the goalkeeper is planning.
Here, the defense didn’t know what to do
What is pleasing, though: A rebound landing directly back to the opponent over several meters did not occur in the demo so far. Simply shooting and then capitalizing on the rebound doesn’t seem to be the way to go in kickoff mode.
However, here a green timed finishing was simply plucked from the air
Manually defending feels rewarding
This is what the defense does: In the previous game, there was a lot of criticism that manual defending didn’t feel rewarding. This is noticeably different in FIFA 20. When you prevent an attack yourself with the defender, you generally win the ball. It doesn’t roll back to the opponent, and it rarely goes out of bounds unexpectedly. This is a significant improvement.
Intercepting passes also feels quite rewarding
Moreover, passes are often intercepted when you position the defender correctly. This is fun, as you can use several defensive variations that are equally successful.
Atmosphere fantastic
This is what is convincing about the atmosphere: Regarding the atmosphere in the stadiums, FIFA 20 shines already in the demo. The Champions League design still looks strong. But it seems that EA has turned the stadium sound a bit. This will be especially exciting in the new stadiums!
The home fans go completely crazy when their team scores a goal. Conversely, it goes dead silent when an opponent scores. Meanwhile, singing is going on endlessly. It’s fun and really feels like football.
Overall, we enjoyed the demo – we are excited for more! How did it go for you?
The size of your inventory in The Division 2 will be doubled with Title Update 6. This information was only revealed to the agents who stayed long in the SotG.
Where does the information come from? Yesterday, on September 11th, Massive held a “State of the Game” livestream for the first time after the long summer break. In this briefing, they talked about some new developments regarding loot that will come with Title Update 6.
But Massive’s Hamish Bode chimed in shortly after, as he had one more piece of information to announce. He called “Breaking News” and revealed: The inventory will be enlarged. From now on, you can store 300 items in your inventory.
You can see the information here in the recording of the stream from minute 1:02:58:
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How large was the inventory before? At the launch of The Division 2, agents started with an inventory size of 50. However, through several inventory upgrades, one could earn an inventory of up to a maximum of 150 item slots.
A 300-slot inventory thus doubles the storage space for your items this autumn compared to the launch of The Division 2 in March 2019.
This is what agents say about it: This information spread like wildfire on Twitter, and agents cheered on reddit: “Inventory space will be increased to 300!” – of course written in capital letters to emphasize their joy and the significance of the news.
Some agents wondered where this information came from. After all, many had turned off the livestream right after the last word was spoken. Few players expected Hamish Bode to come back.
In loot shooters like The Division 2, inventory size is always a topic of discussion. Already in The Division 1, agents criticized at the beginning that they had far too little space to store all their loot. In the first part, one had to make do initially with only 70 slots before the inventory was expanded to 150 slots.
With Title Update 6 of The Division 2, you will have more options to combine items and create builds. Therefore, expanding the inventory is a welcome and sensible change – after all, you need to store all the items for the builds somewhere.
Title Update 6 will be released in October 2019.
What do you think about 300 inventory slots? Is it enough or still not sufficient?
The game duration of the main story is always a major buying reason for players. Gearbox has already revealed how long you will be playing the story of Borderlands 3.
How long does the story campaign in Borderlands 3 take? The Creative Director Paul Sage addressed this question and explained: If you proceed very purposefully, a playthrough of the main story takes about 30 hours.
Side missions take up a lot of time: A “normal” run of Borderlands 3 will likely take significantly more time. After all, there are again numerous side missions that lead back to already visited locations and invite you to linger longer in the individual areas.
Thus, the actual game time will likely increase significantly. Anyone who actually completes the game within 30 hours probably ignored most of the side missions.
Game duration corresponds to the predecessor: The duration of 30 hours also corresponds roughly to the length of its predecessor Borderlands 2 – at least if one proceeded purposefully and left most side quests aside.
Here, players took an average of 31 hours to complete the main story. However, if you include all side missions and raid bosses, you could easily scratch the 100-hour mark.
DLCs will add even more gameplay time: One should not forget that Borderlands 3 will receive several DLCs, which can be purchased individually or via a Season Pass. If these are of similar scope to the DLCs from the predecessor, they will surely add a few more hours of playtime.
Is the duration of the main story an important reason for you to buy? Or does it not matter how long the story takes, and it depends on the total playing time?
We have also been able to play for over 30 hours in our test. You can see the results here:
The new challenges of Week 7 in Season X of Fortnite have been leaked. They are called “Team Spirit” and are fully focused on playing in teams with friends.
What is it about? Weekly challenges in Season X of Fortnite change regularly. The weekly challenges “Team Spirit”, which are supposed to start today, September 12, have already been leaked by data miners. What awaits you will be shown in this overview.
Team Spirit – The Challenges from Week 7
What is the theme? The findings of the data miners show that this week focuses on teamwork with other players. In the regular and prestige tasks, there are repeatedly missions that should be solved as a team.
Completing these tasks rewards you with Battle Stars and experience points for the Battle Pass. These Team Spirit tasks were found by data miner Lucas7yoshi (via Twitter) in the code of Fortnite.
These regular tasks have been leaked:
Play matches with a friend (3)
Assist team members with eliminations (5)
Pet a teammate’s companion (1)
Heal an ally with the slurp pack in different matches (3)
Mark an uncommon, a rare, and an epic item (1)
Deal damage together with your squad or duo (1,000)
How realistic is the leak? In recent weeks, the leaks from the data miners have been reliable. Last week, there were these Boogie Down tasks. It is expected that these tasks will also be implemented in the game and unlocked this afternoon.
However, it will only be confirmed at 3:00 PM, when the challenges are visible in the game.
The legendary secret skin from Season X has now been leaked:
A first hotfix for World of Warcraft Classic has been deployed. Warriors and Druids now generate less threat, while other classes significantly more.
A few hours ago, Blizzard announced a first hotfix for World of Warcraft Classic, which is now live. This primarily affects tanks in the form of Druids and Warriors, who now generate less threat. While this is a nerf, it is primarily a bug fix, as the previous values were incorrect. However, healers also have to deal with a decrease.
What has changed for tanks? The two “debuff howls” of Warriors and Druids, namely the Demoralizing Shout (Warriors) and the Demoralizing Roar (Druids), now generate less threat when applied to multiple opponents simultaneously. This makes it a bit more challenging for tanks of these two classes to tank large groups. Other classes now have to be a bit more careful not to accidentally pull “aggro” with their attacks, as Warriors and Druids generate less threat with large groups.
What has changed for healers? Healers now face the opposite problem, as they generate more threat. There was a bug that caused the threat generated by “most healing spells and buffs” to be incorrectly divided among all opponents who had group members on their threat list. Or to put it simply: Healing and buff spells generated too little threat against multiple opponents.
No “new changes”, just bug fixes: It is important to note that these “nerfs” are more of a bug fix. The goal is to restore the spell behavior exactly as it was in World of Warcraft 15 years ago. The previous state was therefore a bug that needed to be fixed. After the hotfix, the threat should work exactly as it did back then.
Have you already noticed the threat problems in the game?
Grinding Gear Games introduced a type of loot boxes with the Salvage Boxes into the action RPG Path of Exile. The community’s reaction was extremely negative.
What did Grind Gear Games announce: The studio wanted to introduce a new type of loot boxes with the Salvage Boxes into the hack ‘n slash Path of Exile.
The basic idea behind this was as follows: You put duplicate items that you got from the previous Mystery Boxes into these Salvage Boxes. You now destroy these items in the box and receive rewards in the form of higher-tier microtransactions that you otherwise find in the regular Mystery Boxes (except for exclusive items). The more valuable the destroyed item is, the higher the chance of receiving better rewards.
Essentially, it is a new loot box that gives you a loot box with random items. And among these, there could also be duplicate items again.
A Salvage Box costs 30 POE Points and can be used once. You can buy 50 points for 5 dollars.
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How did players react to the Salvage Box? The outcry was great. There was a deluge of criticism from the community. Until now, Path of Exile was known for having a very fair item shop and is considered a very good free-to-play game. However, the Salvage Box did not go down well at all.
Players felt that such an item should actually be available for free in the game. Many like the idea of destroying duplicate items to receive something new. However, having to pay for it is out of the question. Within a few hours, an extremely large amount of negative feedback accumulated. Players even threatened to boycott Path of Exile.
The Developers React Immediately
What was the developers’ reaction? Only four hours after the announcement, Grind Gear Games backtracked. The Salvage Boxes were removed from the item shop. However, those who have already purchased one can still use it.
“Today we released the Salvage Box, a mystery box that increases the value of its rewards when you destroy duplicate microtransactions,” explained GGG’s Chris Wilson. “The community’s feedback on this feature was extremely negative. We have removed this box from sale.”
This quick reaction is highly appreciated by the Path of Exile community towards the developers. However, the developer studio’s shine has lost some luster with this action.
Lead Designer Mortdog announced the next champion for Teamfight Tactics in the forum. This champion is set to be introduced with Patch 9.19.
Who is the new champion? Joining the game is Kai’Sa, another Void creature. She represents the two classes of Marksman and Assassin, which complement the True Damage of her origin particularly well.
Kai’Sa will cost 5 Gold and significantly shake up the meta. She has a very low attack damage but simultaneously the highest attack speed in the game, which is quite suitable for a Marksman.
Kai’Sa’s special ability allows her to hop across the map and escape from tricky situations. The positioning on the field is especially exciting for her. As an Assassin, she pounces on enemies, while as a Marksman she prefers to stay at range.
The Void creatures are getting a rework
Is Kai’Sa too strong? At first glance, the combination of the classes with the Void creature origin seems very dangerous. Assassins and especially Marksmen are naturally pleased with True Damage that cannot be reduced by armor.
Additionally, there is already a Void creature in Kha’Zix that is also an Assassin. Similar to Cho’Gath and Rek’Sai, they buff each other.
On Friday, September 13, it’s finally here – Borderlands 3. MeinMMO author Robert has been looking forward to this for what feels like the past 15 years. Just now, a game comes in between that really nobody had on their radar: Remnant: From the Ashes. What remains is confusion and the question: Where did the hype go? Should I really have to play Borderlands 3 on Friday?
This feeling is something everyone has surely experienced: You wait a very long time for something very specific, and when it finally arrives, the anticipation just vanishes. Anticipation is the best joy, but it can also completely disappear due to unforeseen events.
This Remnant: From the Ashes was supposed to just pass the time until the release of Borderlands 3 finally came. It was a filler game for me.
The problem: I’m currently having so much fun with Remnant that the upcoming release of Borderlands 3 feels like a curse. Like a flood of Christmas gifts where you don’t know which gift to dedicate your time to first. It’s a luxury problem, but one with real consequences.
Massively fun in co-op: Remnant: From the Ashes
And you really want to play Borderlands 3 now?
That’s why Remnant is so good: As a Dark Souls enthusiast, Remnant: From the Ashes has everything I always criticized about the Souls series: A sophisticated co-op mode, focus on ranged weapons, and at least a minimally easier setting (after all, one is not getting any younger, reflexes are fading). Although the worlds are not as beautiful and especially not as well-thought-out as those from the Souls series, the big plus is undoubtedly the co-op mode.
Level differences are balanced, enemies scale along, and joining friends’ instances or public lobbies is simple and quick. Due to the randomly generated level instances, the replay value is impressive; there’s something new to discover around every corner.
My colleague, with whom I’ve been adventuring since the early Crota days in Destiny, finally asked the fateful question: “And do you really want to start with Borderlands 3 right on Friday?”
Is it going to Pandora, or to Rhom and Corsus on Friday? Difficult question
Just four weeks ago, I would probably have asked him if he was joking. Currently, I can’t answer this question. After all, Borderlands 3 does bear a not insignificant “shared blame”.
If someone has already played a lot of Borderlands in Borderlands 1 and 2, do they need more Borderlands right from the start?
My anticipation would surely not have received such a big blow with Remnant if Borderlands 3 were indeed more than just Borderlands. The widely praised approach of the tried-and-true turns out to be a fun killer for me because of Remnant.
In terms of antagonist (Handsome Jack), Borderlands 2 cannot be beaten anyway, whether Claptrap will remain the fantastic, humorous sidekick is to be seen.
Not that I get misunderstood here: I expect a fantastic game with Borderlands 3, but thanks to Remnant: From the Ashes, I no longer feel the urge to dive into Borderlands 3 right at release.
Remnant: From the Ashes offers me exactly the new gaming experience that I probably won’t get with Borderlands 3. Besides, I still have so much to do in Remnant:
Too much to do, so little time. And it gets even worse. To top it all off, the next big Destiny 2 expansion Shadowkeep starts on October 1. Even more Christmas gifts that I probably won’t unpack just yet.
What do you think? Do you have similar thoughts regarding the current release calendar? Or are your priorities crystal clear?
The attack for the Community Day of Pokémon GO in September featuring Chelast is known. Chelterrar will learn the Grass-type attack Flora-Statue. We will tell you if the attack is worth it.
This is the attack: On every Community Day, there will also be an attack that an event Pokémon can learn. This time, it is, unsurprisingly, Flora-Statue, which all previous Grass-type starters were able to learn.
The attack is a significant improvement for Chelterrar and makes it a good attacker. But does it compete with the top attackers?
Chelterrar with Flora-Statue – Is the attack worth it?
This is how strong Chelterrar will be: Flora-Statue is a powerful attack that makes Chelterrar significantly stronger. Compared to other Grass-type attackers, Chelterrar does not perform as well.
Pokémon like Roserade or Gewaldro deal more damage per second (DPS). They all also deal more total damage until they are defeated (TDO).
In comparison to other attackers, Chelterrar does not perform very well. Source: Gamepress
There are several reasons for this. These include:
Chelterrar has a relatively low attack value of 202. Other Grass-type attackers perform significantly better in that aspect.
It knows the fast attack Razor Leaf. This is significantly weaker than Vine Whip, which is why some Pokémon, like Venusaur, perform better.
Is Chelterrar worth it with the attack? In the end, Chelterrar is not a bad attacker, but it simply has too strong competition. Roserade, for example, is easy to obtain since Roselia appears frequently.
You can then forgo Chelterrar and should invest your stardust in other Pokémon instead. However, you should not miss out on a Chelterrar with such an attack, as it holds a certain collector’s value.
How do I get the attack? To get a Chelterrar with Flora-Statue, you need to evolve it during the Community Day. This will take place this Sunday, September 15.
There is a new development: You can evolve Chelcarain until 4 PM, which is 2 hours after the Community Day. The attack will be available for that duration. Previously, it was always until one hour after the event.
You will not be able to learn Flora-Statue through TMs and even after the Community Day, the attack will no longer be available through evolution.
Currently, you can hatch shiny regional Pokémon. We will tell you how rare they are:
FIFA 20 will be released on September 27. However, you can get started earlier, for example, through EA Access. We show you what options are available to play FIFA 20 earlier, when the start date is, and how the special editions differ.
What editions are available? This year there are 3 editions of FIFA 20. Each version includes various pre-order bonuses and allows you to start with the football simulation at different times.
Here are the editions:
FIFA 20 Standard Edition – 59.99 € on PC (69.99 € on PS4 and Xbox One)
FIFA 20 Champions Edition – 79.99 € on PC (89.99 € on PS4 and Xbox One)
FIFA 20 Ultimate Edition – 89.99 € on PC (99.99 € on PS4 and Xbox One)
Release dates of FIFA 20 – When does it start? How can you start earlier?
When can you start? You can play the earliest if you subscribe to EA Access or Origin Access. This allows you to start a whole 8 days before the release! However, there is a limitation: Total playtime is restricted to only 10 hours before the release – unless you subscribe to Origin Premier.
The various start times at a glance:
Start on September 19 – EA Access or Origin Access (For 10 hours)
Start on September 19 – Origin Access Premier (full access without time limitation)
Start on September 24 – FIFA 20 Ultimate Edition
Start on September 24 – FIFA 20 Champions Edition
Start on September 27 – FIFA 20 Standard Edition
Information about EA Access and Origin Access – PS4, Xbox One, PC
What is EA Access? It is a paid subscription service for video games from Electronic Arts.
This allows you to play numerous EA games from a large collection of various titles or test games like FIFA before their release. Additionally, you receive a discount when purchasing games from Electronic Arts.
On which platform is EA Access available? EA Access is available for Xbox One and recently also for PlayStation 4.
This is how much EA Access costs: The monthly subscription costs 3.99 euros. An annual access is available for 24.99 euros.
What is Origin Access? Origin Access offers the same service as EA Access, but for PC gamers. Here, too, there is a game catalog featuring games from Electronic Arts, including PC-exclusive titles.
Additionally, there is a premium subscription called Origin Access Premier, which allows you to fully play FIFA 20 on September 19 without the 10-hour limitation.
On which platform is Origin Access available? The offer from Origin Access and Origin Access Premier is exclusively aimed at PC players.
This is how much Origin Access costs: Origin Access costs 3.99 euros per month, and for the annual access, you pay 24.99 euros. If you decide to go for Origin Access Premier, you pay 14.99 euros monthly or 99.99 euros per year.
The FIFA 20 editions at a glance
These are the differences: The individual editions differ by various bonuses as well as the date on which they can be played. However, what is the same is that each version contains the main game FIFA 20, with identical content and modes.
Who is this edition interesting for? The Standard Edition is aimed at players who do not care much about Ultimate Team and who do not necessarily need to be the first to play FIFA 20.
If you have no time at the end of September and are not interested in FUT, you should consider purchasing the Standard Edition.
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Who is this edition interesting for? This version is interesting for players who plan to spend a lot of time with FUT. With the bonuses, you get 12 Rare Gold Packs, which can contain quite useful cards. But you need a bit of luck for that.
If you plan to get heavily involved in Ultimate Team, you can do so with the Champions Edition 3 days earlier, and with the weekly packs, you can make some coins if you’re lucky to build a good team early on.
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Who is this edition interesting for? This edition offers 12 additional Rare Player Packs compared to the Champions Edition and is therefore especially interesting for FUT enthusiasts. Otherwise, there are no differences compared to the 10 euros cheaper Champions Edition. The 3 days early access remain the same.
Only fans who pre-order the Ultimate Edition before August 5 will receive a random OTW player as a bonus. Whether this is useful depends heavily on which player you draw.
For detailed information about the Ultimate Edition of FIFA 20, you can find it here:
Cortyn has identified a few differences between the two WoW versions. It is clear where the strengths and weaknesses of both games lie.
Those who, like me, have spent a lot of time in World of Warcraft Classic in recent weeks, but have also spent a lot of time in Battle for Azeroth (“Retail”) beforehand, will probably have asked themselves some questions. Why does the appeal of Classic still work so well? What are the fundamental differences and why is what is considered essential in Retail not necessary in Classic? Why is Classic still fun and gives me something that I don’t get in Retail?
This question occupied me, and it did so yesterday as I was farming Fire Essences in Classic – after I had completed my world quests in Retail.
Farming Fire Essences. Yay. Almost.
In search of players who felt similarly, I came across a quote from user Avanguardian in the WoW subreddit. He said:
Classic is a video game that tries to simulate a fantasy world.
Retail is a video game that only wants to be a video game.
Exactly this quote perfectly summarizes what I felt and thought about Classic – and can be directly illustrated with several examples.
The world of Classic is based on fantasy logic
One example is herbalism. Herbs do not only grow in areas that match the respective level of the player and the area, but where they “logically” grow. For instance, Purple Lotus always grows near ruins, even in Ashenvale. Since you need herbalism at level 210 for the Purple Lotus, it is unlikely that a player will be able to gather it while leveling in Ashenvale, let alone process it into potions.
Another example is the item “Singeing Wiring”. This is an item that you primarily get in Gnomeregan, a dungeon for about level 30. However, you also need this wiring for a few engineering recipes at level 60, such as the popular Repair Bot. From a “video game perspective”, it is completely absurd that you need such low-level items for high-level objects. However, from the perspective of a fantasy world that operates based on fantasy logic rather than video game logic, it makes sense.
A level 20 area with herbs meant for level 50.
In Retail, such things are relatively strictly sorted according to video game logic. Is an area the current “endgame”? Then there is also only the special endgame resource there. I can’t immediately think of an example where I would have to return to an old dungeon or visit an old area – unless one of the war campaign quests leads me there.
Something similar applies to the areas of Classic. These feel inherently larger because you are indeed only traveling by foot or with a relatively slow mount – flying is out of the question.
My assumption is certainly wrong, but the feeling you have in the areas of Classic is this: The developers first created the layout for the area itself and then added things like settlements or special waypoints. The game world feels as if the area “Ashenvale” really existed first and later night elves and orcs set up their camps there to adapt parts of the area to their will. I had the same thought in Azshara, on the Dark Coast, and especially in the Un’Goro Crater, that a fantasy world could have arisen so “naturally”.
Azshara is expansive and hardly divided. It feels like a “logical fantasy world”.
In Retail, it feels different. There, settlements and “landmarks” stand out clearly from their surroundings. You can already see at first glance where a settlement is or what the great threat of the zone is looming over everything. Additionally, the world does not feel like “one piece”, but each zone is subdivided into small subzones that often do not fit into an overall picture.
Within an area, there are “hard boundaries” and rarely any fluid transitions. This works well to guide the player and lead them through a world where each small sub-area has a handful of its own quests. In Classic, where entire zones often have only a few quests, this simply would not fit.
In Classic, you had to find your own focus. I often walked down a road only to be surprised to discover: “Oh, there was a small gathering of NPCs here.” You often only see them at the last moment and not from afar. Their small camps are firmly integrated into the environment but do not stand out too much.
I do not mean to say that Retail is worse than Classic – it definitely is not. It simply has a “cinematic” narrative style in its areas that aims to tell the story and bring certain points into clear focus. After all, the massive Icecrown Citadel in Northrend has an oppressive, threatening presence, and the corrupted Shaladrassil in Val’sharah is similarly intimidating.
Also, the places (in my opinion) remain significantly better in memory because their presentation is often an important element in the story of the quests.
Classic is a fantasy world, Retail is a video game
Battle for Azeroth has long since parted ways with many old concepts. Many elements that characterize a cohesive fantasy world have been sacrificed for the sake of meaningful video game mechanics. “Mythic+” dungeons, for example, are a very sensible extension when it comes to video game aspects. Constantly new rewards with increasingly difficult challenges are good and give players new goals continuously.
The same applies to multiple difficulty levels in raids. Anyone who completes the normal mode can then attempt “Heroic” or even “Mythic” if they and their guild are particularly ambitious.
In Classic, it was not like that. In Classic, it would make no sense for mobs from a dungeon to suddenly learn new abilities or become harder because you have a keystone with you. From a story perspective, this also does not make sense in Retail, but that is not important, because Blizzard has long had a clear motto: “Gameplay first”. The gameplay must be fun, and everything else must submit to that.
This was simply not as pronounced in Classic and results in us now having two very different game worlds. Therefore, I also find it difficult to say whether WoW Classic or WoW Retail is the “generally better game”. It probably just depends on personal standards.
From my perspective, WoW Retail is the “better video game”, as it always gives me new tasks and something to do. WoW Classic, on the other hand, is the better fantasy world where you can lose yourself and which functions better according to fantasy logic. I like both.
In Destiny 2, a Guardian has managed to pull off perfect timing with his emote. As a result, he is receiving many upvotes.
What happened? A new video clip is currently causing a stir on the Destiny Reddit. It has received nearly 13,000 upvotes, which is an enormous number of “thumbs up” after 17 hours.
The user BlackMesaSouth, who shared the short video, writes: “I’ve been trying to pull this off since Forsaken came out and I got the emote. Now I can die happy.”
He also posts this video, which has now been viewed by more than 70,000 users – rapidly increasing:
You’ll see this in the video: The Guardian is currently in Gambit. The Drifter is about to teleport the players onto the map. The Guardians are still facing each other, where they can jump around or perform emotes for each other.
The Guardian BlackMesa performs a specific gesture. He taps on two laptops and finally presses a key gently with his index finger, as one does with the last keystroke that finishes their work.
He achieves perfect timing: Exactly at the last keystroke, the teleport begins, and the Guardians are brought to the Gambit map.
It looks as if he hacked into the system and caused the teleport with his work on the laptops.
Would definitely approve of the hack: the Drifter.
What kind of gesture is that? This gesture was introduced in the Warmind DLC in Spring 2018. It allows you to “awaken the Warmind,” as it states in the bottom left when you perform the gesture.
The Gambit mode was introduced with Forsaken, which was released on September 4, 2018. Allegedly, the Guardian had this perfect timing in mind since Forsaken came out. Now he has achieved it.
How does the community react? Most Guardians who have seen the clip celebrate the Guardian. They write silly comments or praise him to the skies. A few lines from Lord Shaxx are also quoted, like “This is amazing!” or “I can’t believe what I’m seeing!” He’s a real hacker.
Another Guardian writes that he should now try to do it with the “Clapping” emote, where you clap like Calus. Well-timed is necessary here as well so that the teleport starts after the second clap. However, one Guardian has indeed managed this 11 months ago:
If you are very lucky, you can catch a Shiny Kangaskhan, Tauros, Mr. Mime or Porygon in Pokémon GO right now. But how much luck do you actually need? We show you the shiny chances for the regional Kanto Pokémon here.
What are the chances now? In Pokémon GO, Week 2 of the big Ultra Bonus is currently running. There are more effective incubators and regional Kanto Pokémon from the 7 km eggs. The Pokémon are:
Tauros
Kangaskhan
Mr. Mime
and Porygon.
To make the event even more exciting, Niantic added the chance for you to hatch these Pokémon’s shiny forms or encounter them in the wild. Trainers are rightfully asking: What are the chances that I find such a shiny?
How many Kanto eggs do you need for a shiny?
Who researched this? The experts from the Pokémon GO community “TheSilphRoad” examined the shiny chances of the regional Kanto Pokémon in detail. Together, they compiled their results and can announce a first chance.
Keep in mind that these are preliminary figures and the results may still change slightly over the next few days.
Shinies in the wild / Encounters in the wild – Shinies from the egg / Total Kanto eggs
As you can see, the chances of shinies from Porygon, Kangaskhan, Mr. Mime or Tauros are low. As TheSilphRoad reports, there are no different shiny chances for a Pokémon caught in different ways. Thus, the same values should apply to encounters in the wild or hatching from an egg.
This is the result: In summary, it can be stated that the chance of a shiny Porygon, Kangaskhan, Mr. Mime or Tauros lies between 1/31 and 1/51. For this chance, it must be ensured that one of these Pokémon hatches. Roughly, the community estimates the chance to be 1/50.
The general chance of receiving a Kanto Pokémon from a 7 km egg that is also shiny is significantly lower.
Have you already received one of the regional Kanto Pokémon as shiny? This event is currently causing players concern for other reasons. The gift mechanics are bothering them:
Finally, there is information about the fall update for The Division 2, titled Update 6. This brings a large new loot feature and some gear changes.
The State of the Game aired on September 11th, the first situation report for The Division 2 after the long summer break. Massive discussed changes to loot and gear during the livestream that will be implemented with the upcoming title update 6.
When will title update 6 be released? According to Massive’s Hamish Bode, the fall update is expected to release in October. He doesn’t know the exact release date yet, but you can expect it in the next 3 to 7 weeks.
What happens until then? A PTS phase is expected to start in the upcoming days, during which some new features from title update 6 can be tested. This test build is expected to be PC exclusive again. Since the update is supposed to go live next month, the public test servers will launch soon. Narrative content cannot be played on the PTS.
In addition, the developers will discuss changes to the fall update every Wednesday in the coming weeks. Next week, the Dark Zones and PvP will be addressed, and today they spoke about loot and gear.
This is the big new loot feature
This problem is being addressed by the developers: Many agents currently complain that it depends too much on luck to get the item they want. The loot pools are simply too large. You have to farm for ages to get the item you still need for your build.
How the problem will be solved: With title update 6, Massive will narrow the loot pools in The Division 2. In the future, you will be able to farm specifically for certain weapon types, gear pieces, brand sets, mods, etc., by grinding in specific areas or playing certain activities like story missions.
This looks something like this (not final version):
Here you can see that in the area “West Potomac Park”, the loot probability for skill attachments is increased.
The upper image shows that in the “White House” area, gear pieces from the Sokolov-Concern brand drop more frequently and that you can specifically get holsters in the “DCD Headquarters” mission.
And in the “Bank Headquarters” mission, gear from the “Overlord Armaments” brand can be obtained especially frequently.
This means you can now farm for items that you need for your builds. On the map and right before starting a story mission, the respective item type will be displayed.
These loot probabilities will change over time. If you want Overlord Armaments items, you do not have to play Bank Headquarters for weeks. Because on other days, this brand set is available in other activities. The loot probabilities are therefore dynamic.
Important: This loot feature, which enables targeted loot hunting, is only active at World Tier 5.
For the boss of a mission, there is a guarantee that the displayed item type (e.g., a holster) will drop as a reward. But for all enemy NPCs and also from crates in the mission, the chance of getting variants of this item type is increased.
What else is changing with loot? Massive is working on the general drop chances of loot. The new, goal-oriented looting is intended to take center stage, which is why general loot drops will become less frequent. Otherwise, you would be overwhelmed with loot.
Changes to Gear
What is changing with brand sets: The brands are currently restricted to certain armor slots. For example, Massive states that a chest piece from Airaldi cannot drop. This restriction will be eased, so that brands will be available in more armor slots where they previously were not.
What is changing with gear sets: You will now only need 4 items of a gear set to unlock all bonuses. This allows you to have 2 armor slots free for other gear pieces while still enjoying all gear set benefits. This creates more combination possibilities for builds.
In addition, backpacks and body armor will become more powerful. They will receive high-end talents.
The currently exclusive raid gear sets will also be available from other sources with the new title update. Only the powerful backpacks and body armors of the raid gear sets will remain raid-exclusive.
This is what happens to named items: There will now be around 35 named items (not Exotics!) – significantly more than before. They will have unique talents that are “perfected” versions of previous talents. So they are not completely new talents, but better versions of existing talents that provide a few percentage points more in bonuses.
You can obtain the named items from various sources. Some are rare random drops, while others are tied to hard activities.
New features in recalibration and crafting: The recalibration will become clearer and will also allow for the moving of stats (red, blue, yellow).
In crafting, the cap of materials will increase, you will receive more materials from NPCs, and it will be shown how to obtain blueprints that you are still missing. We will delve deeper into the new features regarding recalibration and crafting in a separate article.
In League of Legends , Jian “Uzi” Zi-Hao was considered the best AD carry in the world in 2018 and one of the best LoL players overall. Now he talks about injuries and wear and tear caused by intense gaming. These affect the entire body, especially the arms of the 22-year-old. Nike and fans recommend more fitness in eSports.
Who is Uzi? In the eSports of LoL, the Chinese Uzi (22) is a well-known figure. He has been with “Royal Never Give Up” since 2016, a top team in China.
Uzi has been playing in the league since 2012, has participated in five World Championships, won the important MSI in 2018, and several national championships in the LPL in China over the years. However, the very big title at the LoL World Championship, the Worlds, eluded him.
Uzi is considered a mechanically perfect ADC player in League of Legends. Especially in this role, players need to click a lot, quickly and precisely. Only then are they considered to have “good mechanics”.
This is what Uzi says: In a video for Nike (via weibo), Uzi explains what 7 years of LoL at that level have done to his body.
In the video, several Chinese LoL professionals talk about how broken they feel after intense playing late into the night every time. Because the Chinese professionals have only been gaming for years and have not sought balance.
According to the experts and statistics shown in the video:
The average career of a LoL player lasts only 2.6 years
Players reach their peak at just 20 years old
Uzi during a fitness test. He is not in his element here.
Uzi is 22 but already has been a pro for 7 years. In Nike’s fitness test, he says the years of gaming take their toll:
“Once I went to the hospital for a check-up and the doctor told me my arms resembled those of a 40 or 50-year-old. He really told me that.”
The worst spot is his right shoulder, which pulls down the whole arm: “It feels like my arm is already retired.”
A Twitter user compiled Uzi’s fitness stats from the video. During the fitness checkup at Nike, Uzi does not look as good as he does on the bot lane:
As the page Dexerto reports, these injuries are now affecting the career of the just 22-year-old. He often takes months-long breaks when it is not as important for his team RNG. He has been considering retirement since 2015.
But in 2019, Uzi seems determined to give it one more shot. Royal Never Give Up has already qualified for the Worlds 2019. Unlike TSM, who did not make it:
What is the video about? The promotional video seeks to connect Chinese LoL with the Nike brand, which aims to represent fitness. They have entered into a partnership and Nike pursues commercial goals with the video: They want to strengthen the bond between LoL and fitness.
The video essentially shows,
that LoL players like Uzi are in terrible physical condition
that in reflexes and hand-eye coordination they rank among the top percent – here eSports athletes have their strength
Nike wanted to show the LoL players through these tests: “You also need to do something for your fitness if you want to have a longer career in eSports and tap into your full potential.”
In the second half of the video, personal trainers get to work with the LoL players. The players, in turn, put out messages about how hard it is to be a pro and that you must always give your best.
The video ends with Uzi and other LoL stars from the LPL struggling through some exercises, not looking particularly happy, while the fitness trainer smiles kindly and says: “This is just the beginning, my little friends.”
Uzi needs to get fitter.
This is how it is being discussed: On reddit , LoL fans are watching with concern as one of their favorites is damaging himself through his own super-fast play. One says: “In 5 minutes, he clicks more than others do in an entire game.”
However, fans on reddit also recommend more fitness training.
In the Overwatch League, many pros prioritized fitness right from the start:
