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A big new patch is live for Grinding Gear Games Path of Exile 2, currently in early access for PC, Xbox Series X/S, and PS5. It offers quality-of-life changes, including the ability to fast-travel between checkpoints in an area. Areas also have more checkpoints near their entrances and exits, which helps with backtracking.The update also brings multiple changes to the endgame difficulty, including 40 less bonus damage dealt by monsters critical strikes, less aggressive scaling of chaos damage, and the Siphon Flash Charges Modifier draining your flash charges ten times less per second. The Volatile Crystals Modifier is also disabled and will be revised.Those who dislike Trial of the Sekhemas can also take heart as Honour damage will now scale based on enemy distance, so you lose 35 percent when up close. A bug that caused three times as much Honour depletion via damage over time is also fixed, and Rattlecages Volcanoes now last half as long.Check out some of the patch notes below and full details here.0.1.0e Patch NotesGeneral Improvements and ChangesAdded the capacity to fast-travel between Checkpoints within an area. You can now select checkpoints which will bring up your Map Overlay allowing you to select other Checkpoints you have discovered in the area to travel to them immediately. Many more checkpoints have been added to areas generally at all the entrances and exits to areas, meaning if you find those first, you are able to instantly travel to them if you choose to go back and explore an area.Passive Point Respeccing has been made cheaper especially at higher levels, it had a relatively aggressive curve getting more expensive with character level, we have flattened that curve so it doesnt exponentially grow as much. For Example, this should generally result in an approximately 40-50% less Gold Cost for respeccing between the start and middle of Endgame progression.Added a shortcut to open a skills advanced information display by right-clicking the skill on your Skill Bar.You can now compare equipped Flasks when using a Gamepad.Added Chance Shards to the Currency Exchange.Added a button to travel to your Guild Hideout when interacting with the Waypoint.Endgame and Monster BalanceMaps no longer have additional elemental resistance penalties inherently applied at Tier 6 and Tier 11 or higher Maps. It is now consistent across all of the Endgame.Critical Strikes from Monsters now deal 40% less bonus Damage.Chaos Damage now scales less aggressively over the Endgame.The Ground Laser and Ground Lightning abilities used by the Runed Knight in Expedition Encounters now deal substantially less Damage.The Waystone Modifier that adds Burning Ground to your Maps no longer increases in coverage or area with higher Tier Waystones.The Siphons Flask Charges Modifier on Monsters now drains ten-times less Flask Charges per second. (This was unintentional).Disabled the Volatile Crystals Modifier, to be revised in the future pending telegraphing improvements.The Trail of Fire monster Modifier now deals 30% less Damage and lasts for 3 seconds (from 5 seconds).The Trail of Lightning monster Modifier now lasts for 4 seconds (from 8 seconds).The Trail of Ice monster Modifier now lasts for 4 seconds (from 8 seconds).The Purple Explosives created by the Volatile Plants Modifier on Rare Monsters now deal significantly less Damage.Packs of Prowling Chimerals in Maps now contain less of the Prowling Chimerals and spawn alongside some Zombies.Lowered the baseline monster density of Breach Encounters, primarily by reducing the frequency of the Elite monsters appearing.Fixed an inconsistency in the different types of packs that could spawn during Breach Encounters, you should now see more different types of Monsters appearing on an area to area basis.The volatiles spawned by the Volatile Fiends Trial of Chaos Modifier now accelerate over time.The Stormcaller Runes Trial of Chaos Modifier are now smaller, take longer to charge up when standing inside and give more time to escape once triggered. The Runes now also get larger as the Modifier is upgraded.Improved the hitboxes on a number of abilities used by Blackjaw, the Remnant.The Crossbow variants of the Decrepit Mercenary monsters that dealt Fire damage now deal less damage.Trial of the Sekhemas ImprovementsHonour Damage now scales down based on distance to enemies, you now take up to 35% less Honour Damage when in close range, tapering as you are further away from Monsters.Fixed a bug where Damage over Time was dealing three-times as much damage to Honour as intended in the Trial of the Sekhemas, and fixed a bug where Honour Resistance was only applying to two-thirds of that damage taken. (This got confusing for us too).Skitter Golems no longer use basic attacks and instead now just explode as their attacks were largely unavoidable when in Melee Range.Serpent Clan burrow and ambush attacks now have improved visual telegraphing and cannot be used from as far away.Volcanoes created by Rattlecages Fissure Slam now last half the duration.Added keyword hover for the Honour mechanic in the Trial of the Sekhemas.

In a new pre-launch community update stream, the development team for Monster Hunter Wilds outlined the changes and improvements coming to the title. Visual improvements were reported during the recent round of previews, but Capcom has outlined the graphical modes for PS5 and Xbox Series X/S.On PS5 and Xbox Series X, Prioritize Graphics runs at 30 FPS while rendering at 30721728 resolution and outputting at 2160p. Meanwhile, Prioritize Framerate runs at 60 FPS while rendering at 1080p and outputting at 2160p. Xbox Series S only features a single mode, rendering and outputting at 1080p while running at 30 FPS.While the open beta featured Checkerboard Rendering, the game will use AMD FSR for upscaling. A rendering bug in Prioritize Framerate mode has also been fixed, improving performance. Furthermore, PS5 Pro support will be available with the day one patch at launch.For PC, Capcom is looking at lowering the minimum specifications and potentially releasing a benchmark tool before launch.Monster Hunter Wilds launches on February 28th, 2025, for Xbox Series X/S, PS5, and PC.

Falcoms Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter, a remake of The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky FC, will launch worldwide in Fall 2025. Instead of NIS America, GungHo Online Entertainment will handle publishing duties. Check out the latest trailer below, showcasing iconic environments, other playable characters, and combat.Along with fully 3D visuals in the developers proprietary engine, the remake features the combat system introduced in Trails through Daybreak. Players can attack enemies in real-time with Field Action, unleashing attacks and Crafts, or enter into turn-based Command Battles. It even includes team-up attacks introduced in Trails in the Sky SC.Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter is the first title in the series to launch simultaneously worldwide. Its confirmed that English and Japanese audio will be available alongside English, Japanese, German, and French subtitles. Stay tuned for further details on the remake in the new year.Of course, fans can also look forward to The Legend of Heroes: Trails through Daybreak 2, which launches on February 14th, 2025, for PS4, PS5, PC, and Nintendo Switch.

It's been easy to forget that Helldivers 2 has still had an Illuminate invasion going on over the past couple of days, as everyone's been distracted by the pricing backlash against the game's Killzone crossover gear. But, the aliens are still doing their thing in-game, and the next step in their warpath could delay yopu getting your hands on a new ride.Remember the Omens of Tyranny update's announcement mentioning Helldivers 2's first driveable car, the Fast Reconnaissance Vehicle or FRV? Well, the baddies have it in their crosshairs, and players reckon they're aiming at something else too.To see this content please enable targeting cookies. "The AM Defense Factory Hub on Achernar Secundus has come under attack by the Illuminate, threatening production of the Fast Reconnaissance Vehicle (FRV)," this latest Major Order from Arrowhead reads, "If the Illuminate are not repelled, distribution of the FRV will be severely delayed. Importantly, many colonists will also be killed or abducted."So, naturally, the folks on the Helldivers 2 subreddit and in the game itself were like 'oop, better get my bum over to Achernar Secundus', only to look at their maps and realise something. This new order's main battleground planet isn't far from Meridia, which long-time Helldivers will remember as the planet that got spaghettified into a purple black hole all the way back in June. To see this content please enable targeting cookies.Now, in a fun coincidence, players have noticed that the black hole's apparance has recently been revamped alongside the deployment of that Killzone crossover, taking on a darker hue and gaining some extra floaty bits around it. Naturally the conclusion being reached is that the Illuminate will make a move for Meridia soon, maybe to do something like pull some fresh reinforcements through this hole.Given a lot of folks have spent the majority of this year since the hole became a thing believing that it could well be where the Illuminate would enter the game from, it doesn't seem like too big a leap in logic, but Arrowhead itself's not convinced yet.A recently released in-game alert from the studio issues folks with the following edict: "Some helldivers may have noticed novel electromagnetic phenomena in the vicinity of the Meridian Black Hole. High Command is aware of the situation, which is being closely monitored by experts in the field. "Helldivers are advised to avoid distractions and focus their full attention on replling the Illuminate threat."So, there you go. No thinking, leave that to the experts. I'm sure everything with Meridia will be just fine.At leasdt if anything does happen with the back hole soon, you'll have some gear from Helldivers 2's Killzone crossover on hand as you dive into the fray, after Arrowhead responded to the pricing controversy by gifting everyone the second part of it for free.

SmoothMonster Hunter Wilds' performance has been improved in the final game, and we may even get a second betaCapcom just revealed a bunch of new Monster Hunter Wilds details, and addressed several points of criticism from the recent open beta.Image credit: Capcom News by Sherif Saed Contributing Editor Published on Dec. 20, 2024 Just before we all check out of 2024 and prepare for the new year, Capcom hosted one final community update to address pretty much all the major topics the recent beta of Monster Hunter Wilds generated.The livestream touched on a number of key topics, including some that have caused some controversies amongst the Monster Hunter community. It was full of good news, and even the promise of another chance with the beta.To see this content please enable targeting cookies. Anyone who played the recent Monster Hunter Wilds beta, or even got to watch others play, will very clearly tell you that the game just didnt run very well on any system. Even high-end PCs struggled with constant framerate drops and lower than expected performance. The beta was clearly heavily CPU-bound, meaning even those lucky enough to own the most expensive GPUs couldnt brute-force their way into a smoother experience. Things were even worse on consoles, too.This was one of the first things game director Yuya Tokuda addressed on the livestream. We got to see a gameplay video from an updated build, which certainly looked smoother than the beta. According to Tokuda, the team fixed a rendering bug in the PS5s Prioritize Framerate mode that was responsible for some of the performance woes, and generally improved it elsewhere.The team also shared target framerates and resolutions for all console versions. Unsurprisingly, Prioritize Graphics modes run at a higher resolution but limit the framerate to 30fps, whereas Prioritize Framerate can go as high as 60fps by rendering at a lower resolution.All of this is good news for everyone. The even better news for PC players is that Capcom is considering releasing a benchmarking tool to help players understand how the game is going to run on their systems. The games minimum specs will also be lowered. To see this content please enable targeting cookies.One of the more heavily discussed issues with the open beta was the lack of a hitstop/impact of weapon attacks. The hitstop effect will return in the final version, and you can expect weapons to generally feel more weighty as a result. Sound effects have been improved there, too.Another controversial topic has been the degree of friendly fire, particularly when using upswing attacks of the hammer. That has been adjusted, and so has the gunlance's fire. Friendly fire will always be an element of combat in Monster Hunter, of course, but as Tokuda explained, its all about the balance.As for whether were going to get a chance to go hands-on with Wilds one last time prior to launch, Tokuda teased that we may potentially get a second open beta, but couldnt outright confirm it. Though it may have more content the first beta, dont expect many of the improvements discussed on the livestream to make it into that.Monster Hunter Wilds is out February 28 on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S.

Subscribe to Nintendo Life on YouTube789kWatch on YouTube Vanillaware's tactical RPG Unicorn Overlord is one of the Switch highlights this year, and if you're hoping for more adventures in the form a sequel or even DLC, you might want to read on...Sadly, it won't be happening (at least right now). Speaking to GamesRadar+, the game's director Takafumi Noma says he's aware of how many players have "expressed a wish" for this type of content, but there are "currently no plans" for further development.If there was an opportunity to make this happen in the future though (and it was up to him), he would love to see it happen:Takafumi Noma: "We are profoundly grateful for the sheer number of players who have embraced our vision for a new strategy RPG. Many of these players have expressed a wish for DLC or a sequel to the game. While there are currently no plans for further development of this nature, I definitely wouldn't say no if it were up to me. It would be great if we could make this happen sometime down the line."So, there you go - maybe "something down the line" will be announced. Until then, you'll just have to keep enjoying the current release.When Unicorn Overlord landed on the Switch in March of this year, we gave it an "excellent" nine out of ten stars - labelling it a "crowning tactical RPG achievement". My kingdom for a unicorn"A unicorn is worth more than riches"Celebrating one million salesWould you be up for a sequel or DLC if it was a possibility? Tell us in the comments.[source gamesradar.com]Related GamesSee AlsoShare:01 Liam is a news writer and reviewer for Nintendo Life and Pure Xbox. He's been writing about games for more than 15 years and is a lifelong fan of Mario and Master Chief. Hold on there, you need to login to post a comment...Related Articles'Hyperdimension Neptunia' & 'Death End' Switch Releases Scrapped For "Not Complying With Nintendo Guidelines"Death end re;Quest: Code Z still on for PS5/4, though'Switch 2' Is Projected To Be The "Clear Winner" In The Next Console GenerationWhile either Sony or Microsoft will "struggle mightily"

Mario's Wii adventure is back.Modders are always evolving games in new ways and the latest effort is touted as the "biggest" Super Mario Odyssey mod yet.If you haven't already seen it, it's called Super Mario Odyssey - A Galaxy Story and is a "mod by Slycer and many more". It brings the universe of Super Mario Galaxy to Mario's 2017 Switch release, completely recreating the Wii-era outing on Odyssey's game engine.Read the full article on nintendolife.com

@Freek HiAllow me to do exactly the opposite.I ordered a fair amount of games. Around 12 orders. So I can say I pretty much know their businessTheir graphic designer(s) is top notch. Manufacture quality is bad.signed NMH 3 for Switch quality is bad. Poorly made. Outer box had manufacture issues. Replaced it and shipped a copy with similar issues. Windjammers had a similar issue.Their site still crashes.communication is not great.Their shipping is crazy expensive (and I live in FR)Their products are beautiful. Everything else is average to bad.About this release...for Switch, same version as the one previously released, just a different cover. However, this time, 15 bucks more expensive for the same dealThe price for this special release was never communicated until the actual release You had seconds to find out what the price was and make your decision.Regarding the lovely PS4 box, they limited that to 50 I believe. For the customers that already own all 4 ps4 releases, they could have sold the box separately. But no.They basically made ONLY 50 big nice boxes, 4 different covers and everything else was the same, sold at 450 bucks. You find out what the price was when they opened preorders, not before. You had 5 seconds to decide. Just the KoF. celebration fans wanted, right?Not even LRG tried something this pathetic and manipulative. I don't even own a ps4, don't need to be a KoF fan and PS4 owner to find this FOMO attempt abhorrent. Greed, through FOMO is killing the physical gaming industry.

Uzbekistans mobile-exclusive bank, TBC Bank Uzbekistan, has raised $37 million in a new funding round to bolster its dominating digital presence in the Central Asian nation by developing new AI and tech products and attracting more tech-savvy customers.The fresh investment, made by the banks London-based parent TBC Group, comes just five months after it raised $38.5 million in July. The parent company also led the last round, which included participation from its shareholders, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and the World Banks International Finance Corporation (IFC). Uzbekistan has been an attractive market for digital businesses in recent years, with nearly 90% internet penetration and a young population 60% of its total population is under 30, per UNICEF. However, a significant share of the countrys banking assets remains with its state banks. TBC Group sees this as a growth opportunity.Started in 2020 under TBC Group Uzbekistan, the bank offers a mobile app through which customers can open bank accounts and access banking services, including cash loans and deposits.The Uzbekistan group, which is 60% owned by Londons TBC Group and 20% each by IFC and EBRD, recently expanded its financial lineup in the country with its in-house processing center to streamline payment operations and shorten time-to-market for new offerings, and entered strategic partnerships with Visa and Mastercard. Further, it introduced the Salom debit card and Osmon credit card and launched TBC Business, a digital banking service for small and medium Uzbek enterprises.In the last few months, TBC Uzbekistan also started building its proprietary AI solutions, including agents to handle payment reminder calls for customers taking loans. Hughes told TechCrunch that those agents attended 42% of all the reminder calls in the third quarter.Next year, TBC Uzbekistan plans to expand its AI developments by bringing service and sales bots and a dialog-based mobile service to let customers interact with its app using their voice instead of going through a text-based interface.Were going deeper into the financial life of retail customers across Uzbekistan. So were building out vertical by vertical into different products, Oliver Hughes, head of international business at TBC Group, said in an exclusive interview.Hughes told TechCrunch that the group hired AI experts who built AI assistant Alice for Russias Yandex. These experts have built a finance-specific LLM based on Metas Llama that understands local nuances and local languages, including Uzbek, the executive said.While Hughes did not disclose the exact capital the group is specifically putting into its AI effort, he said that a material portion of the money raised will be going to the AI projects, but still, the overwhelming majority will be for building and scaling its business and consumer products.One of them will be insurance.TBC Uzbekistan currently offers insurance through a third-party service provider, but it plans to become an insurer in the country next year. It also plans a buy-now-pay-later solution and an SME lending product. Similarly, the mobile bank will enhance its Salom debit card with new benefits and offerings to attract more customers.Uzbekistan has not yet been a highly competitive market for a banking entity. However, the countrys growing digital base and young population have drawn interest from foreign players. Hungrys OTP Bank and South Koreas Korea Development Bank have already set up their shops in the country. Similarly, Frances Socit Gnrale, Kazakhstans Kaspi, and the U.S.s Citi Bank are exploring to enter the country.Its not super competitive today, but it will certainly become more and more competitive as we could go along over the next few years, Hughes said.TBC Uzbekistan, which also operates the digital payments app Payme and Sharia-compliant credit business Payme Nasiya, has a user base of 16.9 million users as of September, up from 13.2 million users in December 2023. It also has 4.9 million monthly active users and garnered a net profit of $27 million for the first nine monthsm of the year, up from $23 million in the financial year 2023. Moreover, its projecting $75 million in net profit in 2025.