October 2021

Apex Legends Escape is the battle royale game's 11th season, introducing the 19th playable character: Dr. Ashleigh "Ash" Reid. Ash is an offensive legend, having abilities geared towards combat. Similar to Octane and Revenant, Ash is suited towards aggressive play, spearheading her squad's push against enemy squads to deal major damage. Having information-gathering abilities, Ash can technically fill your squad's recon role in a pinch, as well.

Below, we go over everything we know about playing as Ash, including her abilities, strengths, and weaknesses. We also detail which legends best pair with Ash, and also offer a few tips and tricks for playing as the described "incisive instigator." Remember: If you want to play as Ash, you'll need to buy her from Apex Legends' in-game store. You can unlock Ash for 12,000 Legend Tokens (which you earn by playing and leveling up in Apex Legends) or 750 Apex Coins (which you can earn by completing Season 11's premium battle pass track or buy with real-world money).

Ash's Abilities And Class Skill

• Passive Ability: Marked For Death - Ash's map shows the location of recent deathboxes and marks surviving attackers.
• Tactical Ability: Arc Snare - Throw a spinning snare that damages and tethers the first enemy that gets too close.
• Ultimate Ability: Phase Breach - Tear open a one-way portal to a targeted location that's also usable by allies and enemies.

As an offensive legend, Ash doesn't possess a class skill.

Coding is now more widespread than it ever has been before, and many jobs now require at least a basic understanding of one or more languages. One of the most popular and useful coding languages is Python, and it's also one of the best languages for beginners. Right now, you can get The Python Programming & Git Certification Bundle from Coding Gears for only $29.

With 29 hours of content, you'll be taken from a novice level to dealing with expert-level concepts like machine learning at a vastly accelerated rate. You'll gain a nice knowledge base on subjects like object-oriented coding and fundamental tenets like variables, data types, and more.

You'll also learn Git, which is an essential complement to Python and allows you to upload code onto a website called GitHub. GitHub is almost universally used within the coding community because it allows you to store your information on the cloud and share it with other programmers. GitHub will let you get feedback from others and learn from other users in order to improve your work.

Lastly, YAML, the data serialization language which is commonly used for storing or transmitting data, is explained in its own lesson. Learning YAML, because of its cohesion within a Python framework, is a great value add, which will help you make the most of your knowledge of programming.

Several different publishers are currently running sales on the Nintendo eShop, offering big discounts on AAA games and smaller releases alike. Whether you're looking to try out the Zelda-like Immortals Fenyx Rising or play a party game with friends or family, there's something in this sale for you, and it's far cheaper than it would be normally. And the kids won't be left out of the fun, as there are a number of age-appropriate games, too.

Those deals include Ubisoft's aforementioned Immortals Fenyx Rising for less than half its regular price, as well as the excellent strategy game Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle for just 15 bucks. On the Capcom side, three different Devil May Cry games are joined by seven Resident Evil games, and EA's decidedly non-spooky Plants vs. Zombies: Battle for Neighborville - Complete Edition is only $12. It's not scary, but it's a great and family-friendly take on multiplayer shooting. Check out some highlights from the sale below.

Best Buy's early Black Friday deals event ends Sunday, but you'll have more discounts to browse next week. Target is kicking off its early Black Friday deals event on Sunday (Halloween). From now until Black Friday, Target will have a new batch of deals each week, all of which will have a price-match guarantee if what you buy happens to go on sale for less before Christmas. Target has teased some of the deals that will be available starting this weekend, including a big discount on Beats Solo 3 headphones and a nice HP laptop for school and work for less than $350.

We'll update this article with the best early Black Friday deals at Target when they go live. For now, here are the noteworthy deals that have been confirmed:

• HP 15.6" laptop (i3 11th Gen, 8GB of RAM, 256GB SSD) -- $340 ($540)
• Beats Solo 3 Wireless Headphones - $100 ($200)
• Black Friday priced TVs -- LG, Samsung, and TCL

Additionally, Target will have some deals from the first batch that are limited to next weekend (Nov. 4-6):

Call of Duty: Vanguard releases on November 5 with a campaign, 16 standard multiplayer maps, 4 Champion Hill maps, and a Treyarch-developed Zombies mode, but Activision's October 28 blog post already details some of the post-launch content coming to the game.

Just like Black Ops Cold War's launch, players can expect a small "Preseason" to start before the first full season begins. Vanguard's Preseason will run from November 5 to December 2. During this time, Vanguard players can continue to make progression in Black Ops Cold War's Season 6 battle pass, and Warzone's Verdansk and Rebirth Island maps will still be available as well.

Vanguard's Preseason

Vanguard's Preseason will also add the fan-favorite Shipment map from Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. This version of Shipment arrives on November 17 and will feature a new World War II-themed reskin of the map. The blog post says more details of post-launch offerings would be given prior to Season 1.

Additionally, two final events were detailed for the Verdansk map before the new Warzone Pacific Caldera map is released with Season 1 on December 2.

As suspected, Facebook announced a new name today during its Facebook Connect event. Mark Zuckerberg announced a new parent company, called Meta, under which Facebook will operate.

Zuckerberg said he hopes Facebook can become known more as a metaverse company as opposed to a social media company. The new name is part of that ambition. Zuckerberg also clarified that users will not need Facebook to access its services going forward.

"Meta's focus will be to bring the metaverse to life and help people connect, find communities, and grow businesses," the company said.

"The metaverse will feel like a hybrid of today's online social experiences, sometimes expanded into three dimensions or projected into the physical world. It will let you share immersive experiences with other people even when you can't be together--and do things together you couldn't do in the physical world. It's the next evolution in a long line of social technologies, and it’s ushering in a new chapter for our company."

Activision finally revealed the details of Call of Duty: Vanguard's upcoming integration to Warzone later this year with Season 1 of post-launch content. Season 1 starts on December 2, bringing a new Warzone Pacific map called Caldera that will introduce new modes, including some dogfighting. Prior to the start of Warzone Pacific, players will also get limited-time modes in Verdansk to say goodbye to the map, as well as learn information about Caldera before the integration.

Leading up to Vanguard's Season 1 and the new Caldera map, Warzone's Verdansk map will get two final events. First, Operation: Flashback is described as an encore for Verdansk, which begins on November 18. This is a limited-time mode that is said to feature plenty of surprises that cover Verdansk's history over the last 18 months.

Operation: Flashback will reward two unique items:

• An Emblem for participating in the event
• And an animated Calling Card for those who claim victory

This final goodbye for Verdansk is very vague, but Activision says more information on Operation: Flashback will be revealed prior to its launch on November 18.

New World's latest update is live, and it looks to address a number of critical bugs, including some that are making players invincible.

Update 1.0.4 will allow for server transfers to happen once more in Amazon Game Studios' MMORPG, after having been taken offline for a period following issues with the service. The update also addresses a number of bugs both big and small, from issues with the Ice Gauntlet's Ice Pylon ability having an infinitely long cooldown to players losing the houses they purchased in the Cutlass Key territory.

One of the biggest problems the update looks to address are several instances in which players could become invincible, at least one of which involved playing the game in windowed mode and dragging the game window around. Bad enough in a PvE focused game, the fact that New World largely revolves around PvP made this issue potentially game-breaking. Amazon says it has fixed "several known causes" of players becoming invulnerable and that the issue is a "top priority." The patch notes state the fixes are "speculative" and that the team is continuing to work on additional fixes.

Ubisoft has shared some new details on Assassin's Creed Infinity, the codename for the company's next big Assassin's Creed game. As part of Ubisoft's latest earning briefing, CEO Yves Guillemot confirmed the title is not free-to-play and added that it will be a "huge game" featuring everything fans love about the series.

"It's not going to be a free-to-play [game]," Guillemot said. "This game is going to have a lot of narrative elements in it. It's going to be very innovative game, but it will have what players already have in all the other Assassin's Creed games, all the elements that they love... right from the start. So it's going to be a huge game. But with lots of elements that already exist in the games that we published in the past."

Also during the call, management confirmed that Infinity--or whatever the game is called when it releases--is still in the "early" stage of development. A report said the game won't be released until 2024 at the soonest.

Ubisoft management declined to say when Infinity is scheduled for release, but the company said its development teams will release "meaningful" paid content for the Assassin's Creed franchise each year. Assassin's Creed Valhalla, for example, will receive lots of new content in its second year. The game is already the second biggest profit-generating game in Ubisoft's history.

Inscryption is a roguelike card game, but to advance through it, you'll need to get to know both the card game itself and the room around the table. It's possible to stand up in between card game bouts and wander around Inscryption's setting, investigating objects, finding clues, and solving puzzles that will help you advance the narrative.

The first big puzzle you'll need to solve involves a safe standing against one wall of the cabin. Getting into it isn't tough--once you have the combination. But with the spooky opponent to deal with, a fairly complex card game to learn, and a lot of other puzzles to understand, it can be a bit tricky to find what you're looking for.

Below, we'll put you on track to finding the safe combination, while also providing the solution if you'd rather just have the answer. You might also want to check out our Inscryption tips for beginners, and once you open the safe, read our slide puzzle guide for help with the cabin's next challenge.

How To Find The Safe Combination

While Inscryption is packed full of puzzles, most of them are pretty simple, requiring you to be observant and to pay attention to the characters you interact with along the way. Some of the cards you encounter can speak to you, suggesting that there's more going on with your shadowy opponent than just a friendly game. As you work your way through a few matches, you'll get some hints as to what you should do next. Primarily, you want to try to seek out other cards that can speak. Your opponent has hidden them in the room, and it's your job to find them.

World of Warcraft Classic's Season of Mastery will bring a number of changes to the original version of Blizzard's landmark MMORPG, and players won't have to wait long to experience it. New seasonal servers for the game will be going live November 16, Blizzard has announced.

The servers will share the same game client as regular WoW Classic, but with players having the ability to choose to create a character on a Season of Mastery server. Character name reservations will start on November 11 for players with game time on their account or an active WoW subscription.

Soon, players will be able to walk through the streets of San Andreas literally in CJ's shoes. Announced during Facebook's metaverse-focused Connect event, it was revealed that Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas is coming to VR via the social media giant's Oculus Quest 2 headset.

While GTA: San Andreas' release on the Quest 2 marks the franchise's first journey onto the platform, VR isn't anything new for Rockstar. The developer re-released L.A. Noire as a VR title for PlayStation VR, the HTC Vive, and Oculus Rift in 2016.

It's not clear when GTA: San Andreas' VR version will release on the Oculus Quest 2. According to a page on Oculus' site, the title has been "many years in the making."

While it hasn't been formally announced, it's possible that players will be exploring Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas' updated version coming in the Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy - The Definitive Edition rather than its classic, blocky release. The version of the game arriving in the collection, which also includes Grand Theft Auto 3 and Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, includes updated visuals. Its original blocky style has been smoothed out, and the game's lighting has received a full-on overhaul.

We're back with another exciting episode of The Game Informer Show! In a game-heavy episode, we're talking about our impressions of Darkest Dungeon 2, Shin Megami Tensei V, and our review of Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy! On top of that, we also quickly discuss the highlights from Sony's latest State of Play, and end the show with a buck-wild entry of community questions.

Follow the crew on Twitter: Alex Stadnik (@Studnik76), Alex Van Aken (@itsVanAken), Andrew Reiner (@Andrew_Reiner), Kimberley Wallace (@kstar1785), and Dan Tack (@dantack)

We already knew Season 6 of Call of Duty: Warzone would be the last for Verdansk, which is the current map in rotation for the popular battle royale. Now we know when we’ll be officially saying goodbye: December 1. 

Darkest Dungeon has always been a game that could inspire some of our most colorful language with challenging enemies and creatively devious encounters. Its sequel was recently released in Early Access and is carrying that torch forward. Though the game has not been out long, we've already run across several enemies that have made our blood boil, muscles tense, and obscenities fly from our mouths - which makes defeating them all the sweeter. Here are the top contenders on this dubious, profanity-laden leaderboard so far.

We were not given early access to review Riders Republic, Ubisoft's new open-world action sports game. So, while you wait for our full review, here are some thoughts on the game after nearly a dozen hours. We hope to release a formal review sometime next week. 

I think the best way to describe Riders Republic is to tell you about its soundtrack. Specifically, two songs prominently featured and played ad nauseam over almost every single race and objective. 

The first song is "All I Want" off The Offspring's 1997 album Ixnay on the Hombre. If the name doesn't immediately ring a bell, it's perhaps best known as the song in Crazy Taxi. You know, the "Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah" song. That one. 

The second is a cover of Coolio's landmark 1996 song "Gangsta's Paradise," softly performed by Les Ukulélés Girls, featuring the artist Zita. Replacing the bass and drums of the original, and the almost icy and cold keyboard lead that rests over them, is the light strumming of a ukulele as a woman creates her own melodies, assuring you that she is, in fact, "a loc'd out gangsta, set trippin' banger." Actually, before we continue, I think you need to hear this one yourself. It is truly one of the worst things I have ever heard in my entire life. 

The WD Black SN750 is a super-fast PCIe 3.0 SSD - and the 1TB model is down to £87 at Amazon UK, a historic low price. That's a fantastic price for what was once among the fastest NVMe SSDs on the planet, with read speeds up to nearly 3500MB/s... before the advent of faster (and more expensive) PCIe 4.0 drives in the last couple of years.

Still, in terms of value for money, this TLC drive with a DRAM cache is going to be hard to beat - especially as the only real competitors tend to come with QLC NAND or without a DRAM cache, both of which sacrifice performance to hit lower price points!

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As I've mentioned before, the Razer Viper is one of my favourite ultralight gaming mice of all time, and today the Ultimate wireless version is marked it down from £170 all the way to £73 at Amazon UK.

That's an incredibly good price considering this is the model that comes with a handy charging dock to ensure your mouse is always topped up without ever fussing with a cable.

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Today third-party developers had some interesting new assets to share about upcoming add-ons for Microsoft Flight Simulator.

We can enjoy a video from Leonardo Software House, which revealed another look at the Fly the Maddog MD-80 series package.

This time around, we get to see the MD-80’s taking off at dusk, including a look at the flight deck lighting.

Next comes Aerosoft, with the very first work-in-progress image shared of the Airbus A330. Of course, it’s very early in the modeling process, but it’s nice to see that it’s coming along. We already know that this one will not release this year.

Earlier this month, Valve instituted a ban on all cryptocurrency and NFT sales on Steam. This not only laid down rules governing the future sales (or lack thereof) of titles on its platform, but also booted a few games off that had already launched and were based on the technology.

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Making money in role-playing games often boils down to killing monsters or selling off low-level equipment you no longer need. But the terrifying Laplace no Ma (roughly Laplace’s Demon in English) takes a more novel approach, allowing you to accrue a small fortune by taking glamour shots of skeletons, ghosts, and…

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At this point, we’re all just holding out hope that our favorite video game franchises aren’t getting into weird crypto shit. Sometimes, it’s a vain hope. In today’s second quarterly earnings report, Ubisoft said it is exploring blockchain for games.

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The team promises that development is still very much underway.

The post Prince of Persia: Sands of Time Remake Delayed Again appeared first on Siliconera.

Weird West, the new cowboy-flavoured immersive sim from Arkane Studios co-founder Raphaël Colantonio, will be coming to PC, Xbox, and PlayStation on 11th January next year.

Revealed back in 2019, Weird West is the work of Colantonio's WolfEye Studios and unfolds in a "dark fantasy reimagining of the Wild West where lawmen and gunslingers share the frontier with fantastical creatures, each playing with their own rules and their own peculiar motives."

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I am scared of many things in video games. Sharks mostly, but there’s other stuff. Nothing has ever scared me, though, as much as 1992's Alone in the Dark.

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Following the recent release of version 2.2 of Genshin Impact, MiHoYo launched a new trailer showing off on one of its characters.

We get to take a look at Thoma, retainer of the Kamisato clan of Inazuma. He’ll be available in the gacha on November 2.

You can check the trailer out below in both the English and Japanese trailers depending on your voice-over language preference.

Here’s how MiHoYo officially describes him:

Today Square Enix announced something that will make Final Fantasy VI fans either celebrate or cry if they cannot afford it.

The publisher revealed the new figure of the Masterline brand created in collaboration with the acclaimed creators at Prime1Studio. It portrays Terra atop the iconic Magitek Armor.

The scale is 1/6, which means it’ll be rather large, but for now not much is known about the figure, including precise measurements and pricing.

That being said, it’s likely going to be extremely expensive. The previous figure of the line, dedicated to NieR: Automata, was priced up to $3100 and Prime1Studio figures usually go for prices with that many zeroes as well.

Whether you find this tempting or like me you can just look but not touch, you can at least see what it looks like in the video below.

Atlus released another of its many trailers showcasing the over 200+ demons of its upcoming JRPG Shin Megami Tensei V.

This time around we get to see the gameplay of Kaya-no-Hime, inspired by Japanese folklore. She debuted in 1997 in Giten Megami Tensei: Tokyo Mokushiroku.

You can watch her in action below.

In June 1948, a huge, repurposed German cruise liner docked in London, having travelled all the way from Australia. It was carrying more than 1000 passengers, but the vast majority of them - more than three quarters - had embarked in, and had lived in, the Caribbean. These people set sail for Britain invited by a country looking for help rebuilding after the Second World War, entering under a brand new British Nationality Act, which allowed anyone from a Commonwealth country residency there. That ship was the HMT Empire Windrush, and its name would go down in history as marking the beginning of a migration to the UK that would last more than 20 years and number hundreds of thousands of people. It would change the face of Britain forever.

A lot is owed to those people - the people of the Windrush generation - who faced and overcame adversity to settle in the UK. They laid the foundations for a multiculturalism that we, the people who live here, gain so much from today. From food to music to fashion to sport: the impact has been immense. The Windrush's arrival is such a significant part of modern British history it was even recreated for the opening ceremony of the London 2012 Olympic Games.

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What does Rick Astley and Guardians of the Galaxy have in common? They’re both synonymous with ’80s tunes, of course! But who’d have thought that the two would join forces to deliver that iconic ‘Rickroll’ meme, huh? Well, that’s exactly what’s happened in Eidos-Montréal’s latest tongue-in-cheek video promoting its just-launched sci-fi action-RPG.

Feast your eyes on the amusing Guardians of the Galaxy teaser trailer down below:

Featuring popular YouTube stars DanTDM, DrLupo and PaladinAmber, the new vid boasts an appearance of the legendary king of memes himself: Richard Paul Astley, aka Rick Astley – who sneaks in a classic rendition of Never Gonna Give You Up following a Huddle between the Guardians.

For those unaware, the Huddle is a new gameplay mechanic in Guardians of the Galaxy, and sees the ramshackle band of misfits huddling together for a strategic pep talk before launching into combat to the tune of an ’80s classic.

While it's not as powerful as the Defender set in Monster Hunter World, the Guild Cross armor set will help you through those pesky early quests.

The post Monster Hunter Rise Guild Cross Armor and Legacy Talisman Will Help Players in Early Game appeared first on Siliconera.

Halo Infinite developer 343 showed off the campaign for the first time in over a year this week - and in doing so revealed the infamous Brute dubbed Craig has received quite the glow-up.

Microsoft's reveal of Halo Infinite's campaign last year went so badly it delayed the game to this Christmas, and part of the negative reception had to do with the flat visuals. A closeup of a Brute enemy dubbed Craig by the Halo community became an instant meme - and to be fair developer 343 subsequently leaned into it.

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I'm going to be honest with you, dear reader: I'm writing about the addition of a character from the Warhammer 40,000 tabletop into a Warhammer 40,000 video game not because it's particularly newsworthy. I admit it! I am writing about this because I'm a sucker for Warhammer 40,000 lore, and I suspect there are a few of you out there who are too.

With all that said, on to the good stuff: The Emperor's Champion is now in a Warhammer 40,000 video game.

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Twitch has now launched the test of its paid boost feature, but streamers aren't impressed.

The feature was announced during the Patch Notes video on 30th September and allows viewers to pay to boost a streamer to a front page slot for extra promotion.

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Knockout City will get an update on 2nd November for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S, upgrading the game's performance and visuals.

On PS5 and Xbox Series X, the game runs at native 4K and 60fps - or 1440p (1620p on Series X) upscaled to 4K at 120fps.

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Assassin's Creed Infinity, the mysterious next entry in Ubisoft's historical stabathon series, will not be a free-to-play game.

Ubisoft boss Yves Guillemot confirmed this point last night during the company's latest investor earning call (thanks, Gamespot), when asked for more information on the project.

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