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League of Legends Is Adding Jungle Pets

Riot Games has another jungle shakeup planned for League of Legends’ next preseason period, and this time, it’s doing something completely new. An overview of some of the work-in-progress jungle changes shared this week confirmed that Riot intends to add pets to the jungle, pets that’ll help junglers clearing out the jungle itself while also empowering champions to some degree. Riot’s full plans have not been laid out, however, so we only know of teases so far to hint at what might happen.

The plentiful jungle changes were talked about first in a Lol Pls video focused on the next preseason period and a couple of upcoming champions. These pets stem from planned changes for the jungle items themselves which Riot said don’t currently offer a lot of excitement or readability when it comes to things like Red Smite. Riot wo n’t be returning to the days of Spirit of the Elder Lizard or Wriggle’s Lantern but he will instead try out a new strategy via these pets.

“These pets will help you do little things in the jungle like clearing or taking down epic monsters (think old Sated Devourer puppy),” a post on the league site accompanying the video said. “As you jungle, you slowly raise and feed your pet until they’ve grown up enough to be able to empower you.”

Two early images showed what sorts of things Riot is looking at, though the devs clarified that the concepts were very early in development and that things would look different when the idea was fully realized. One image shown below had a tiny wolf walking behind Mundo in the jungle while another showed how Riot used stand-in effects for the part where the pet empowered the player.

league-of-legends-jungle-pet.jpg

“Our earliest prototype was a jungle wolf that followed you around and whenever you killed a camp, Ahri’s foxfire missiles shot into the wolf’s mouth,” the post explained. “At a certain point the wolf got really, really small (unlike our love of it) and attached to your head. Then a recolored version of (soon-to-be-outdated) Udyr’s Tiger Form glowed on you while Aatrox’s ult activation sound effect played repeatedly (and globally oops).”

As for what that buff does, Riot isn’t saying just yet, so we’ll have to wait until closer to the preseason period when that and more questions will be answered.

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Technology

Steam Adds Feature Users Have Requested for Years

Valve appears to have quietly added a Steam feature that people have been asking about for a long time now: the ability to add a game to your library without having to download it. That may seem like a small thing (and it is, really), but it’s something players have only been able to do in the past via workarounds that didn’t make for the most convenient methods. It’s a feature that’s pretty much only useful whenever you’re downloading free-to-play games, but it does seem to have a few uses outside of that, too.

This new Steam feature wasn’t publicized in any sort of patch notes for Steam this week, so this stealthy feature was only noticed by people who shared news of it online after their discoveries. Twitter user RobotBrush, for example, screenshotted the option in the image below (which you may have to expand) that shows the usual “Play Game” button besides a new one that says “Add to Library.” Fellow Twitter user Morwul contextualized this for those who might not have understood what was going on from the first tweet alone.

As others pointed out in the replies there and in other threads where this feature was discussed, this Add to Library option was already available to a degree. There wasn’t a dedicated button for this action, and to achieve a similar effect, players could end the download of a game at the first confirmation window that pops up to have the game added to your library but not downloaded at that time. That workaround has essentially been condensed now into the one button you see pictured above.

For paid games, this won’t really be helpful seeing how you’d have to purchase the game anyway before adding it to your library. But considering the prevalence of free-to-play games nowadays with no end to that monetization method in sight, this feature will only be more useful as additional free-to-play games release. It’ll also be useful when claiming free DLC for a game you already own.

One caveat to this is that it doesn’t appear to be an option available on the Steam site at this time and is only found within the Steam app itself. It’s also unclear if this Add to Library button is present on games that are temporarily free-to-play or free-to-own seeing how there aren’t any games being promoted that way on Steam at this time, but those offers are never far apart from one another, so we’ll see soon if the button does indeed work that way, too.

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Technology

Final Fantasy 14 Patch 6.2 Gets a Release Date

the next Final Fantasy 14 update dubbed “Buried Memory” now has a release date with the patch scheduled to be released on August 23rd. This update – Patch 6.2 for those keeping track – comes with a range of new features like more main quest content, additional dungeons and variants, and an “Island Sanctuary” feature which will give players the chance to manage and build up their own private island like a mini farming or settlement management game.

For those who might’ve missed the latest on this update from Square Enix, the trailer below shared this week should bring you back up to speed. It shows off some of the different dungeons and enemies players will tackle when the update releases as well as a look at the island players will inhabit as they take care of crops, animals, and more.

The site set up for the next Final Fantasy 14 update shared more info about this Island Sanctuary and other key features planned for the next patch. You can find all of that below:

“Find sanctuary in an island paradise abundant with wildlife, where crops may be sown and minions let to roam,” a preview of the next update’s Island Sanctuary feature said. “What will you learn in nature’s embrace─and what will you create from this newfound inspiration? Make ready to set sail, for your hideaway awaits!”

New Final Fantasy 14 Features in Patch 6.2

  • New Main Scenario Quests
  • New High-end Raid – Pandæmonium: Abyssos
  • Island Sanctuary
  • New Dungeon – The Fell Court of Troia
  • NewTrial
  • The First Variant Dungeon – The Sil’dihn Subterrane (Patch 6.25)
  • The First Criterion Dungeons – Another Sil’dihn Subterrane and Another Sil’dihn Subterrane (Savage) (Patch 6.25)
  • New Unreal Trial – Containment Bay S1T7
  • Main Scenario Revisions
  • Tataru’s Grand Endeavor
  • Somehow Further Hildibrand Adventures (Patch 6.25)
  • New Weapon Enhancement Quests – Manderville Weapons (Patch 6.25)
  • New Tribe Quests – The Omicrons (Patch 6.25)
  • Adventurer Plates (Official Release)
  • Allagan Tomastones of Causality
  • New Crafting Recipes
  • New Mounts, Minions, and Emotes
  • New Fashion Accessories

Final Fantasy 14’s Patch 6.2 will be out on August 23rd.

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Technology

Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered Mod Adds Black Symbiote Suit

Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered has only just been released and somehow, there are already mods for the game. Marvel’s Spider-Man was one of the best games released during the PS4 era and it has only continued to grow in popularity due to the fact that it is now available on PC. Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered brings Insomniac’s beloved Marvel adventure to the first non-PlayStation platform with all kinds of new bells and whistles to basically make it the definitive version. Not only is it playable on PC, but players can even play it on Steam Deck and it runs exceptionally well and helps elevate the hardware even further.

Perhaps one of the most exciting things about Marvel’s Spider-Man finally coming to PC is that it has mod support. YouTuber and modder jedizosh920 released a video of the new Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered Black Symbiote Suit, which basically turns the main game’s “Advanced Suit” into the iconic black suit from the comics. The suit is one of the most famous Spider-Man suits out there not only because it looks cool, but because it also represents a darker side of Peter Parker and typically introduces Venom. The suit was introduced in the Secret Wars comic run and was featured prominently in Sam Raimi’s Spider man 3. The real deal is also expected to appear in Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 as Venom is confirmed to appear in the game. You can get the mod for Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered on NexusMods right now for free.

It’s pretty impressive to see a mod like this released so quickly and is likely the first of many to come. With Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered being one of the biggest games on Steam right now, it’s likely players will have a field day with mods in it. Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales is also confirmed to be coming to PC later this fall.

Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered is available now on PC. Are you going to play around with any mods in the game? Let me know in the comments or hit me up on Twitter @Cade_Onder.

[H/T @VideoTech_ on Twitter]

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Technology

Desktop CPU shipments plunge to lowest total in nearly 30 years

Credit: Dreamtime

Remember about two years ago, when absolutely everyone wanted to either upgrade their existing PC or buy a new one? Yeah, that doesn’t appear to be the case anymore, according to the latest market report from Mercury Research.

The report states that x86 chip shipments have dropped by the largest percentage year-over-year since the report began way back in 1994. Analyst Dean McCarron said it’s probably the largest decline since the precipitous downturn of 1984.

Desktop and mobile client CPU shipments were down significantly compared to a year ago, with desktop CPU unit shipments falling to the lowest level in nearly three decades, McCarron said in an emailed statement. Total CPU shipments had the largest on-year decline in the history of our report, which spans 28 years.

Even so, the news is good if your name is AMD. Across desktops, laptops, and servers, AMD has gained ground on Intel in every segment, totaling 3.7 per cent market improvement and nearly nine per cent gain year over year. That measurement from Mercury is broadly in line with the quarterly reports from Intel and AMD — awful and rosy, respectively.

Even while gaining on its industry rival, AMD is showing a downturn in laptop CPU shipments, despite glowing reviews for its Ryzen 5000 and 6000 lines. But in desktop and server shipments the company is well up on its position a year ago.

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Technology

Gotham Knights Reveals New Red Hood Trailer

Gotham Knights developer WB Games Montreal has released the fourth and final character trailer for the title revealing new gameplay footage of Red Hood. In all, Gotham Knights features four different playable protagonists in the form of Nightwing, Batgirl, Robin, and Red Hood. While certainly not the first time we have seen Red Hood in action, it does mark the first time a trailer has focusee explicitly on him and him alone.

As previously revealed, Red Hood being brought back to life through the use of the Lazarus Pit has left the character with strange mystical powers. While the previously released gameplay footage indicated that this explained his unique traversal mechanics, the latest trailer seems to imply that his combat abilities have also been affected by his resurrection. You can check out the new Gotham Knights trailer for yourself embedded below:

Gotham Knights is a brand-new open-world, third-person action RPG featuring the Batman Family as players step into the roles of Batgirl, Nightwing, Red Hood and Robin, a new guard of trained DC Super Heroes who must rise up as the protectors of Gotham City in the wake of Batman’s death,” the official description of the upcoming video game reads. “An expansive, criminal underworld has swept through the streets of Gotham, and it is now up to these new heroes to protect the city, bring hope to its citizens, discipline its cops and fear its criminals. Players must save Gotham from descent into chaos and reinvent themselves into their own version of the Dark Knight.”

Broadly speaking, Gotham Knights is set to release for the PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, and PC on October 25th. In case you missed it, the title is no longer set to release for Xbox One or PlayStation 4. There are several different versions available to pre-order from $69.99 to $299.99 wherever such things are sold. You can check out all of our previous coverage of the upcoming DC video game right here.

What do you think about the new Gotham Knights trailer featuring Red Hood? Do you already have an idea as to which of the four playable characters you are most interested in playing when the game releases? Let us know in the comments, or feel free to reach out and hit me up directly over on Twitter at @rollinbishop in order to talk about all things DC and gaming!

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Technology

S1 Zeus: “I played very poorly. I’m incredibly mad at myself… I got greedy for POG votes, which led to misplays.”

On day 40 of the 2022 LCK Summer split, T1 defeated Nongshim RedForce 2-1 and secured a spot in round 2 of the playoffs. Despite NS showing fight in game 2, there was no upset in the series.

After the match, Choi “Zeus” Woo-je joined Inven to talk about his disappointment in his performance that day.

Zeus was brutally honest on his self-feedback:

“I played very poorly. I’m incredibly mad at myself. The Camille pick in game 1 was not only bad, but also played poorly on her. By taking Press the Attack on Renekton in game 2, I tried to pressure the enemy in lane very hard, but I couldn’t do that at all. I even died helplessly to a gank. In game 3, everything aligned for me to carry, but I couldn’t do that as well.

I actually practiced a lot of Renekton recently. I should’ve played better when he hit his power spike, but I didn’t. I couldn’t play as well as I could have. My opponents also played well, but there were things that were definitely disappointing on our end.”

On Renekton’s item build, Zeus commented,

“There’s a player on the Challenger solo queue ladder that takes Press the Attack and builds Blade of the Ruined King [BorK] into Prowler’s Claw. If that Renekton gets fed, then his damage output is insane. He can just delete the enemy bot laner, so I took reference from how he plays. I thought I could build the same way in game 2, but looking back, it may not have been so good. To be honest, the item build wasn’t the issue; the plays were. Ever since last year, I always seem to perform poorly on Renekton, so it’s a bit of a sore thumb in my career.”

However, there were some good things to take from the series for Zeus, as he added Renekton and Zac in the champions played during the Summer split. He tied with Kim “Canna” Chang-dong with 13 champions in first place.

“The fact that I had a chance to play the champions that I couldn’t on stage is a good experience in itself. There are so many champions that can be played in the top lane. The more champions I play, the more options I’ll have in the future, so I’m proactively trying to play different options in the top lane.

Zac is a very good champion when there are these prolonged, ‘wet noodle’ fights. Not only did my opponent first pick Ornn, Zac also seemed like the best option in that scenario. I practiced him quite a bit in solo queue recently, and he was really good. So I decided to try him tonight.”

On his performance on Zac in game 3, he also added,

“When there was that lane swap, I died trying to interrupt Kalista’s recall. That was when Ornn got ahead because he farmed a lot of waves. I thought that the damage was irreparable, so I decided to rotate bot lane to get our bot duo ahead. However, because of that, I fell behind in levels; I had to level E to get good engage angles, but due to such, I couldn’t find good jump angles. So I just jumped in whenever I saw potential angles.”

T1 has two matches remaining in the regular split, against Liiv SANDBOX and DWG KIA. On the matchups, I have commented,

“I think it’s more important for us to regain our form, rather than to focus on the opponents’ game plan. I recently received a lot of POG votes, so I got greedy, which led to my misplays. I’m reflecting on it, and I’ll make sure to put my team’s victory over my personal performance.”

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Technology

The Biggest Video Games Release Dates Of Fall 2022, After A Pretty Barren Year

It’s August, and 2022 has already been a really, really strange year for video game releases, as even though the pandemic has been on the decline for a while now around the world, we are now seeing the long term effects in practice.

The disruptions of 2020 and 2021 have come home to roost, and that has led to a number of high profile delays out of this year, and long stretches of time without any major releases. This has allowed some smaller games to shine (Stray! Cult of the Lamb!) but gaming spending is way down and publishers are hoping this fall may turn things around. For some of them, at least.

From August through December, here are the release dates for the biggest games still to come in 2022, which may end up turning this game around, giving us more to work with besides Elden Ring, Horizon Forbidden West and a handful of others.

  • August 11 – Cult of the Lamb (All platforms)
  • August 12 – Spider-Man (PC)
  • August 19 – Madden NFL 23 (All platforms)
  • August 23 – Saints Row (All platforms)

  • September 2 – The Last of Us Part I Remake (PS5)
  • September 9 – NBA 2K23 (All Platforms)
  • September 9 – Splatoon 3 (Switch)
  • September 29 – Valkyrie Elysium (PS4, PS5)
  • October 4 – Overwatch 2 (All platforms)
  • October 7 – Marvel’s Midnight Suns (All Platforms)
  • October 18 – A Plague Tale: Requiem (PS5, Series X/S, Switch, PC)
  • October 20 – Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope (Switch)
  • October 21 – Persona 5 Royal (All remaining platforms)
  • October 21 – Scorn (Xbox, PC)
  • October 25 – Gotham Knights (PS5, Series X/S, PC)
  • October 28 – Bayonetta 3 (Switch)
  • October 28 – Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II (All Platforms)
  • November 8 – Skull and Bones (PS5, Series X/S, Stadia, PC)
  • November 9 – God of War: Ragnarok (PS5, PS4)
  • November 18 – Pokemon Scarlet/Violet (Switch)
  • December 2 – The Callisto Protocol (All platforms)

One game frequently brought up this fall, to end this list, is Hogwarts Legacy, the grand Harry Potter RPG. But as of right now, it’s still just listed as December 2022. A recent leak put it at December 6, but it remains one of the only big games coming out this fall/holiday without a specific date. I don’t think a delay is impossible, but we’ll have to see.

As for everything else, you can see that the most stacked month of the next five is October, which has the most overall “big” games, including what will no doubt be a huge hit, Modern Warfare II, the only thing that can hope to challenge Elden Ring’s sales numbers. This calendar lacks both big Xbox exclusive releases that were supposed to be out in this window, Redfall and Starfield, which have both been pushed to early 2023.

So, which of these are you absolutely going to pick up?

follow me on Twitter, Youtube, Facebook and Instagram. Subscribe to my free weekly content round-up newsletter, God Rolls.

Pick up my sci-fi novels the hero killer series and The Earthborn Trilogy.

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Technology

2 MultiVersus Fighters Banned from Evo 2022

Multi Versus players looking to get a better look at what which characters pro fighting game players prefer and how they use them can get that this weekend during the Evo 2022 Multi Versus tournament, but two characters won’t be featured in the fights. Both the Iron Giant and LeBron James – the latter being the first character released after the start of the open beta – are not playable during Evo 2022. A map has similarly been struck from the rotation for the duration of the tournament.

The two fighters weren’t restricted from the tournament because they were overpowered or unfair or anything like that, though depending on which Multi Versus players you ask, some might hold those opinions about the pair. Instead, they were banned from the tournament because these two characters are the only ones labeled as “experimental” when you’re viewing them in the roster. The same goes for the Cromulons stage that comes from Rick and Morty and was added not long ago.

In the official rules for this Multi Versus tournament, the guidelines specified from the start that both of these characters (and any other new ones should Warner Bros. release a surprise drop ahead of schedule) were restricted from the event.

“Iron Giant, LeBron James, or any other characters released after the start of Open Beta will not be allowed in the Evo 2022 MultiVersus Open Beta Tournament,” the rules said. “This is subject to change at the sole discretion of Warner Bros. and Player First Games.”

Aside from those restrictions, the tournament seems to be operating off of pretty standard rules and is being played in a 2v2 format. It started just yesterday and is underway once more again now on Saturday, so it’ll be interesting to see once things have wrapped up which characters proved to be the most possible throughout the competition. A quick look at the MultiVersus Twitter account for the game’s competitive scene shows that there’s at least a range of characters being played instead of just a few being spammed over and over again, though some like Batman and Bugs Bunny are certainly seen frequently enough.

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‘Stray’ Speedrunners Are Already Beating The Game In Under An Hour

I had a great time with stray, so much so that I stuck it out long enough to earn the catinum…sorry, platinum trophy. The last trophy I snapped up was for finishing the game in under two hours on my second run. I’ll admit, I was sweating things a bit toward the end, but I finished with around 15 minutes to spare.

MORE FROM FORBES‘Stray’ Has Trophies That Could Leave You Tearing Your Fur Out

There are no such concerns for players who have been studiously plotting the best routes through stray, though. Some speedrunners are already able to complete the game in under an hour. As spotted by GamesRadara French runner named Erims now holds the record of 54:21 on PC (they have the PS5 record too at a significantly longer 1:12:18).

That zippy time includes the length of various unskippable cutscenes. However, Erims does take advantage of some glitches, including wall clips and near-instant dialogue skips. The glitchless records, according to speedrun.com, stand at 1:19:06 on PC, 1:23:21 on PS5 and 1:39:33 on PS4. With a few optimizations, I think that PS4 record is prime for the taking.

I’m both impressed by the ways players are able to break a game that hasn’t even been out for two weeks and how they’re able to find optimal routes through the entire thing. The glitchless runs are certainly putting my speedrun time to shame.

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