Quick Play is Overwatch 2‘s most standard, basic mode — where players log in if they just want to hop into a few matches without worrying about their rank or an unwelcome ruleset. But for one weekend, Blizzard’s team-based shooter is shaking Quick Play up.
For a few days, Quick Play will be “hacked” by Sombra, who is turning it into something called Quick Play: Hacked – Quicker Play. As the name suggests, everything will be faster. By changing things like capture times, Blizzard is hoping that players will experience more team fights and potentially new strategies. Here are the patch notes detailing the changes:
Respawning times are now 75% of their original time.
Payloads in Escort and Hybrid maps will move 60% faster.
Taking control of the Objective Point in Hybrid is 40% faster than normal.
Taking control of the objective point in Control is 40% faster than normal, and scoring the capture progress percentage is 80% faster.
Taking control of the objective point in Flashpoint is 20% faster than normal, and scoring the capture progress percentage is 40% faster.
When you play an Escort, Hybrid, or Push map, the initial match time has been reduced to 70% of the original time, and any time extensions are also reduced to 70% of the total time added.
Quicker Play will be active until January 14, at which point the game will return to normal. But according to Blizzard, this marks the start of a larger shift for Overwatch 2’s core mode.
“We want to explore new and fun ways to change core Quick Play gameplay,” reads the blog post announcement. “Changes will happen periodically and only for a limited time.”
Special, time-limited modes are added periodically to Overwatch 2, but typically they’re offered as something separate from the basic queue. Since these are changes to Quick Play, it means that more players will experience an alternative version of the game. Players who dally in Ranked or Arcade modes will be unaffected.
“Testing new ideas with you for a limited time allows us to quickly understand what you like and possibly implement changes to improve gameplay,” the blog post says. “This also gives players of all skill levels an opportunity to try out new playstyles and strategies that wouldn’t necessarily work as well in a traditional game of Overwatch.”
The good news is that if you’re truly not feeling these Quick Play changes, you can start a custom game with the traditional rules.
Two retro collections announced with Limited Run Games.
Limited Run Games and Konami have teamed up to bring back two classic series’ from the Japanese developer’s back catalogue — Felix the Cat and Rocket Knight Adventures.
Felix the Cat will contain the 1992 NES original and the 1993 Game Boy adventure, while Rocket Knight Adventures: Re-Sparked will include Rocket Knight Adventures, Sparkster: Rocket Knight Adventures 2, and the SNES-exclusive spin-off Sparkster. A release date hasn’t been announced for either collection, but we know they’re coming to Switch.
Hey Xbox Insiders! We have a new Xbox Update Preview releasing to the Beta ring today.
It’s important we note that some updates made in these preview OS builds include background improvements that ensure a quality and stable build for Xbox consoles. We will continue to post these release notes, even when the noticeable changes to the UI are minimal or behind the scenes, so you’re aware when updates are coming to your device.
Details can be found below!
System Update Details:
OS Version: XB_FLT_2402ZN25398.3402.240108-2200
Available: 2 p.m. PT – January 11, 2024
Mandatory: 3 a.m. PT – January 12, 2024
Fixes Included
Thanks to all the great feedback Xbox Insiders provide and the hard work of Xbox engineers, we are happy to announce the following fixes have been implemented with this build:
Installation
Various fixes to improve unexpected issues when installing or updating various titles.
System
Various updates to properly reflect local languages across the console.
While known issues may have been listed in previous Xbox Insider Release Notes, they are not being ignored! However, it may take Xbox engineers more time to find a solution. If you experience any of these issues, we ask that you please follow any guidance provided and file feedback with Report a Problem.
Audio
We have received reports of users experiencing intermittent issues with audio across the dashboard, games, and apps. If you have experienced issues, be sure you have the latest firmware updates for your TV and other equipment. If you’re unsure, you may need to contact the manufacturer for assistance.
Note: If you continue to experience issues after applying the latest firmware updates, please submit feedback via Report a Problem immediately with the “Reproduce with advanced diagnostics” option, then select the category “Console experiences” and “Console Audio Output Issues”. Be sure to include as much information as possible:
When did the issue start?
Did you lose audio just in the game/app or system audio as well?
Does changing the audio format resolve the issue? If yes, what was the format before and after?
Does rebooting resolve the issue?
What does your setup include? Equipment, layout, etc.
And any additional information you can provide to reproduce the problem.
Networking
We are investigating reports of an issue where the console may not connect to their network as expected on boot. If you experience this, be sure to report the issue via Report a Problem as soon as you’re able.
Workaround: Wait a minute for the connection to establish. If your console still hasn’t connected, restart your Xbox from the Power Center or the guide. Learn more here: How to restart or power cycle your Xbox console.
As always, be sure to use Report a problem to keep us informed of any issues you encounter. We may not be able to respond to everyone, but the data we’ll gather is crucial to finding a resolution.
If you’re an Xbox Insider looking for support, please visit the community subreddit. Official Xbox staff, moderators, and fellow Xbox Insiders are there to help with your concerns.
When posting to the subreddit, please look through the most recent posts to see if your issue has already been posted or addressed. We always recommend adding to existing threads with the same issue before posting a new one. This helps us support you the best we can! Also, don’t forget to use “Report a Problem” before posting – the information shared in both places helps us understand your issue better.
Thank you to every Xbox Insider in the subreddit today and welcome to the community if you’re just joining us! We love that it has become such a friendly and community-driven hub of conversation and support.
For more information regarding the Xbox Insider Program follow us on Twitter. Keep an eye on future Xbox Insider Release Notes for more information regarding your Xbox Update Preview ring!
Everyone likes bees. Brightly colored, fuzzy, industrious: what’s not to love? So if you wanted to make bees even more appealing or exciting, there’s only one way to go: make them into space bees! That’s the setup for Apiary, the new strategy game from first time designer Connie Vogelmann. In the far future, bees have evolved intelligence and taken their peaceable lifestyles to the stars. Players are rival factions, who must both cooperate and compete to demonstrate their philosophies are superior.
What’s in the Box?
Like a lot of modern strategy board games, Apiary starts with a lot of cardboard-punching. There are all sorts of building and upgrade hexes to push out of their cardboard sprues, along with waggle dance tracks, planet tiles and various other chits and counters. A deck of seed cards is also included, and there’s a big fold-out board with various tracks and action spaces on it. It’s all serviceable enough stuff, although the art is a little drab.
Fans of wood and plastic won’t be disappointed when they go rummaging in the deeper recesses beneath. There are shaped wooden tokens to track supplies of various resources, with the wax and honey tokens being painted a neat metallic sheen and a chunky bee miniature that serves as the mothership which flies around exploring the galaxy. Each player color also has four plastic worker pieces, which are bee-shaped but with a cubic center that rotates to show values between one and four. These are ink-washed so you can see the numbers and details clearly.
Player piece sets are rounded out with some wooden cubes in their color to record progress on various tracks and a docking mat to organize their pieces. Players also get a hive mat which has spaces for their growing colony and a faction tile which gives them some starting hexes for their hive and a condition for extra victory points. There are five different hives and 20 factions, so there are lots of possible starting combinations.
There’s a lot of stuff in the box and, at first, it looks like it won’t all fit back in. However, there’s a clever plastic organizer included which keeps it all together. How it all packs down isn’t obvious and there’s no guide in the rules, but a quick search online should show you how it works.
Rules and How It Plays
At first glance, Apiary looks like a classic worker placement and resource management affair. Most of your turns will be spent placing worker bees from your docking mat into action spaces on the board and gaining the benefits. Explore lets you move the mothership around, revealing planets and gaining resources. Advance lets you spend those resources to gain farm, recruit and development tiles to add to your hive, each of which grants additional bonuses. Grow gives you the chance to add empty cells to your hive for future building, or new workers to place on future turns. Convert does what it says on the tin, allowing you to change up basic resources for more advanced ones.
As ever in games of this style, the overall aim is to gain victory points, and there’s a bewildering array of ways to do so, in the interest of offering multiple ways to win. From this standpoint, it’s still a standout title that features a lot of nicely rounded and well-integrated mechanics. You need buildings on your hive mat to store resources, for example, but you also need the resources to gain the buildings. Not only is this circular dependency interesting to solve mechanically, but it prevents players from stockpiling. It also adds a fun spatial strategy aspect to what otherwise might be something of a spreadsheet game. The same goes for exploring the galaxy, a mini-game where you move the mothership on a grid in which empty spaces reveal a random planet which may, or may not, grant you the resources you want.
But the game has a novel trick up its sleeve to surprise you, and it’s a doozy. Not all workers in Apiary are created equal. Those numbers on the body of each worker indicate its level, and this has a critical impact on play. Most actions work better the higher the level worker is assigned to it. More resource conversions on the convert action, more squares to move on the explore action, and so on. Furthermore, explore and advance can hold two workers each, and when a second worker is assigned you get to use the sum of both levels, regardless of which player owns the other.
This sets up a fascinating dance of interaction. Going first lets you grab the action and results you’re looking for, but waiting may be beneficial, as you might get to tag along with a higher-level worker. Furthermore, workers don’t block each other from spaces in Apiary. If you want to use an occupied spot, you can go right ahead and do so, but the owner gets their bee back, gets to increase its level and can choose either to use it again on a later turn on “land” it. This means it can be used to gain income from farms along with other returning workers if you run out of workers to place, whereupon they all gain a level, too.
Positive interaction of this kind is very novel, and it leaves Apiary in the brilliant position of feeling like a highly interactive game without the zero-sum, “take that” bites that a certain kind of gamer hates. Rather, bumping players off spots is often doing them a favor, and you need to take that into account when deciding your moves. Some spaces will hold two workers, and you get the action at the strength of them both added together, so, again, you must be careful being first to the spot. You get the advantage of an early selection, but you’re handing a hand-up to the following player. It’s a lovely balance of competing priorities.
Worker leveling also feeds into the end game and becomes a major source of points. Level four workers, the highest grade, are very powerful. Not only do they lend the highest level to their action, but they grant an additional bonus. A convert action with such a worker, for instance, lets you “dance,” creating a custom conversion of your choice that other players can later pay you to use. They’re also the only workers that can use the Monument action, which lets you buy tiles offering big end-game points. But once used, these top-level workers have to go into hibernation, earning you a small extra bonus, and once a player has hibernated seven bees, the game ends.
This gives control of the game end to player choice in yet another layer of interlocking systems. Indeed, if anything, there’s almost too much going on at once in Apiary. While the core rules loop isn’t that difficult to learn, the sheer number of options can feel overwhelming to new players. And even for the more experienced, it can make it hard to understand how the mechanical levers you’re pulling are leading to you getting points, or lack thereof. The result is a feeling of disconnect that’s sometimes frustrating, especially if you’re looking to work out how you can improve your play.
Mechanical disconnect like this is often a sign of a game that’s divorced from its theme and, indeed, Apiary is semi-abstract. You can see echoes of the bee’s lifecycle in the way you need to construct cells to expand your hive and, of course, in the busy nature of the workers you place. But at the same time, the game uses its futuristic overtones to good effect. This is particularly clear in the different game factions, each of which has its own starting setup and ways to score bonus points, giving you a huge pot of varied strategies to try out.
A new Elden Ring update has patched the game’s Easy Anti-Cheat to support a recent SteamOS update, as detailed on publisher Bandai Namco’s official site. It’s good news for people playing the FromSoftware RPG on Steam Decks, especially those haunted by memories of the game’s technical tribulations at launch, some of which were caused by the anti-cheat functionality. It’s less great news for the millions hankering for the slightest whisper of new information about Elden Ring’s Shadow of the Erdtree DLC. But save your pity, above all, for the dozens of videogame news writers – dozens, I tell you! – who must write about Elden Ring’s Shadow of the Erdtree DLC at any opportunity, lest the demigods of traffic eat our souls.
Way back in 1989, Jordan Mechner’s original Prince of Persia represented one of the first and best examples of what’s become known as the ‘cinematic platformer’. It’s a traditionally challenging genre, one that combines strong art, fun storylines, and fluidly animated protagonists to bring us adventures that test reflexes and puzzling abilities to their limits. You know the sort of thing, stuff like Flashback and Another World; y’know, the classics.
Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown is the latest rebirth of sorts for the franchise — following on from The Sands of Time and 2008’s Prince of Persia revamp — one that takes the established lore of past entries and ditches them in favour of a tangentially-related new lead character, and a bit of role-switching fun. Yes, this brand-new tale sees you play as Sargon, a member of The Immortals (crime-fighting hero types), and a man who meets all the criteria required of a bonafide action hero.
The task of developing a game, from its initial idea to the final version, involves hard work and many challenges that are invisible to those who play it. The standard in a billion-dollar industry involves large teams and all kinds of tools and methods to make the process run as smoothly as possible.
Raccoo Venture is one of the cases that escapes this pattern not by choice but by necessity. Just as the raccoon hero often faces trials and challenges alone in the kingdom of Verta, his creator, independent developer Diego Ras, on the other side of the screen, faced all kinds of challenges alone for five years to get his game onto modern video game consoles.
At 39 years old and the son of a typical Brazilian family, Diego was born in the region known for being the cradle of industry around one of the largest cities in the world, the state capital of São Paulo. Due to the typical difficulties of a family formed by a metalworker Diego had late contact with games and technology. Always a few steps behind the most modern consoles, he had his first contact with games at the age of 8 and his first computer at the age of 21.
For Diego, making games for a living had until then seemed a very distant and impossible reality. He graduated from a technical school for mechatronics and went on to study design. He entered the advertising industry and worked there for years until he suffered burnout from working at a fast and chaotic pace.
He gave up what he did for a living and decided to divide his time between freelancing and starting his big project, Raccoo Venture. His entire professional history up to that point had given him a certain ease in the creative and design aspects, and even in programming due to his technical knowledge. But in making this choice, Diego had to give up some things and began to strictly control his savings in order to get the game off the ground. Even so, he used up his reserves and had to borrow money.
Even his father, his biggest supporter, ended up helping out financially as best he could. But in 2019, the bad news came: his father was diagnosed with cancer. Now it was time for Diego to help his father financially who, during his many visits to the hospital, was the one who most wanted to know if the game was ready and how the project was progressing.
The choice of genre and hero was no accident. When he started his project in 2018, he missed the more colorful and cuddly games of his childhood. The raccoon always had a bad guy stigma with its fur almost always looking like the mask of a thief or something. But that mask could also be that of a hero like Zorro, for example!
The part that took up the most of the developer’s time was the level design, not because it was exactly labor-intensive, but because Diego wanted a game balance that would make the game progressive and, of course, fun for the players.
In this whole process, Diego needed a lot of balance and determination to get Raccoo onto the screens of gamers all over the world in a game that is closely linked to his personal history. And for this very reason, the developer never thought of giving up. On the contrary, he learnt valuable lessons that he is keen to share with every developer who wants to make their first game.
He says that if someone has done it, he can do it too. Nothing is impossible to do. If you do it alone, the only difference is that it will take longer. With hard work, dedication, discipline and study, you can achieve it, or at least come close. Especially because what matters most is the journey and everything you learn along the way, not necessarily the final destination.
Diego knows that Raccoo Venture could be much better than it already is. But what he really hopes is that the adventures through the kingdom of Verta manage to put a smile on the faces of the players who decide to venture into it. And, of course, that the game brings back wonderful memories for those who, like him, spent hours as a child collecting items and jumping around a colorful fantasy kingdom. That would be his greatest reward.
Diego’s father, Edvaldo, passed away in 2023 and, as the biggest supporter of the game, he never saw it finalized. But all the players around the world will be playing this role for him. Have fun with the game that tells two incredible stories of two beloved, likable, persistent and fun characters: Raccoo and Diego Ras.
Defeat different enemies and challenges in this spiritual successor to the 3D platform genre. Find new ways to customize the hero, and discover new friends who will help you on your journey to retrieve the holy relics.
Discover your true destiny through a world full of magic and secret items. Save the harmony of the world and prevent chaos from returning to the land of Verta. But for that, many puzzles and the most unusual enemies will cross your path.
Soon you’ll be able to play the latest and greatest hits from Night City’s top radio stations at home with the Cyberpunk 2077 Radio Vol. 1 and Vol. 2 vinyls, which are officially up for preorder. These bright yellow vinyls are set to release on April 26 of this year and will set you back $29.98 each. They’re well worth the investment as well given the artists included on them. Check out the links below to preorder a copy for yourself today.
Preorder Cyberpunk 2077’s Radio Vol. 1 and Vol. 2 Vinyls
If you’ve yet to jump into Night City and explore the world of Cyberpunk 2077 for yourself, there’s no better time than now to do so. Cyberpunk 2077’s Ultimate Edition released back in early December and features the game in its fresh 2.0 updated state alongside the excellent Phantom Liberty expansion. It’s well worth picking up if you’ve been looking to play it. We also gave Phantom Liberty a 9/10 upon release in our review, calling it a “more sophisticated level of storytelling with excellent performances, smarter insights on the cyberpunk genre and its dystopian themes,” and that it lands “on top of a much-improved gameplay experience thanks to its fresh 2.0 update,” so you know you’ll be in for a great time.
The Independent Games Festival awards – aka: the only awards that are actually worth paying attention to – have announced the finalists for their 2024 cohort, and wouldn’t you know it, there are lots of RPS-endorsed games in there, lemme tell ya. Cooking adventure Venba leads the pack with a total of four nominations, but it’s closely followed by Cocoon, A Highland Song, Mediterranea Inferno and 1000xResist, all of which have scooped three noms apiece.
A demo for upcoming role-playing game Granblue Fantasy: Relink launches on PlayStation 4 and 5 at midnight tonight, January 11, publisher Cygames has announced.
Three modes will be available in the demo — Tutorial, Story, and Quest — with players able to earn rewards for the full version of Granblue Fantasy: Relink in each one. Story mode won’t be a prequel or separate part of the game but instead just offer “a small slice” of Granblue Fantasy: Relink’s main story.
Quest mode gives players an additional three quests to work through, playable either solo or with up to three others via online co-op. 11 characters are available in this mode: Gran, Katalina, Rackam, Io, Charlotta, Ghandagoza, Narmaya, Lancelot, Siegfried, Yodarha, and Zeta. Finally, Tutorial mode gives players a chance to get to grips with the basics. Progress made in the demo does not transfer over to the full game.
“Granblue Fantasy is set in Zegagranda Skydom, in the corner of the world where islands are guarded by primal monsters and winds,” its synopsis reads. “Players are tasked with discovering the web of intrigue reaching far beyond the borders of Zegagrande and will fight to determine the future of the Sky Realm.”
