Category: Video Games

Remedy Entertainment has released update 1.15 for Alan Wake 2 on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series, and PC, adding a highly requested option to turn down the game’s spookiness.

Revealed in a blog post, the patch notes also point to myriad bug fixes alongside the addition of a chapter select option in the main menu, letting players hoover up those final collectibles with more ease.

Remedy is quick to point out “the update also includes the much-requested option to tune down the horror flashes”, with players able to choose between Low and Normal horror flash visual and audio intensity.

As for chapter select, players can choose to replay any mission in the game, loading into a pre-made save regardless of their own progress.

“This will also make life a bit easier (and we know we’ve made it a bit complicated with some collectibles having to be picked up in a single run) for Trophy and Achievement hunters to get those missing items or collectibles,” Remedy said. The full patch notes are available below.

In our 9/10 review of the game, IGN said: “Alan Wake 2 is a superb survival horror sequel that makes the cult-classic original seem like little more than a rough first draft by comparison.”

Alan Wake 2 Update 1.15 Patch Notes

New Feature: Chapter Select

• You can now choose to play any mission in the game that you have previously unlocked.
• Using this feature loads a pre-made save game regardless of your own progression.
• This means that item progression and inventory will be pre-determined depending on the mission.
• You will keep your previous manual saves.
• Remember to keep at least one manual save with your previous progression if you wish to retain it.

New features

• Added Chapter Select menu.
• Added option to choose between Low and Normal horror flash visual and audio intensity.

Gameplay and missions

• Fixed an issue in The Final Chapter (New Game Plus) where if the player already had Saga’s crossbow in their inventory, they could not complete/open all required Cult Stashes and thus couldn’t get the Lighthouse Key from the final Cult Stash.
• Fixed an issue where the player could get stuck if they opened the notification about having finished watching the final Koskela brothers’ advert:
  • During RE09 Deerfest when you go to the Oh Deer Diner, the last Koskela commercial is shown and you are given a prompt that you can see it in the Mind Place, but if you press the touchpad as instructed to view it in the Mind Place, nothing happens, and your controls are frozen. The issue remains until you reload the last save.
• Fixed an issue where the player was not able to collect all the clues around Nightingale’s body.
• The objects required for the Overlap ritual in RE03 Local Girl can now only be picked up after the player finds their respective clues.
• The 10th Echo Scene after meeting Casey in the alley now unlocks properly.
• Players now receive the Coffee World Mug Charm in the The Final Chapter (New Game+) instead of a duplicate Hammer Charm.
• Fixed the camera perspective on opened Cult stashes, so the note on the lid is now legible.
• Additional fix for the Cynthia profiling not being available if the player exits the diorama too quickly in the Nursing Home.
• Resolved an issue in RE05 Old Gods where players could pick up the fuse in the basement from a locked container without solving the attached combination lock puzzle.
• Propane tanks will no longer reappear after reloading the game in Watery. Less explosions, less fun, but a smoother game.
• Gave Saga a chance to gain more resources in the RE10 Come Home mission in the subway station.
• Added missing descriptions for some case files in the Case Cabinet in Saga’s Mind Place.
• Fixed a multitude of issues with Meta Case clues.
• Added descriptions for cases that are in progress to the Case Cabinet files.
• Igniting a flare while hiding in Safe Haven will now be seen as a hostile player action and collapse the Safe Haven if enemies are nearby.
• Fixed an issue with the player camera occasionally “micro jittering” when rotating the camera in Prologue.
• Removing the fun. It’s the beginning of the year. Explosions will no longer deal damage through doors.
• Prevent players from accidentally boosting the flashlight and wasting batteries when picking it up.
• FBI Service pistol and Revolver now deal enough damage to make cultists’ masks fly off with one, carefully aimed shot. F*ck yeah!
• Curtain Call. Not the best album. Fixed curtains being incorrectly closed in the Theater Hall in some instances.
• Fixed an issue where the crossbow with double-barrel upgrade was not being holstered properly.
• Saga’s phone conversations can’t be interrupted by switching the Flashlight on and off anymore.
• The item pickup indicator has been re-tuned, so the indicator should be more easily visible now.
• The player can no longer run off the ledge behind the Monitoring Station in Cauldron Lake.
• Fixed an issue where Fadeouts in the Poet’s Cinema Theater would sit in the air or inside of the theater seats. That was too spooky.
• Fixed a, well, uh, issue with a rogue boot moving along the Cynthia boss fight arena.
• Fixed an issue in IN05 Room 665 where items from a Tim Breaker’s stash could be picked up through the wall in Room 101.
• Fixed an issue where the wolves would get killed instantly by approaching the cliff at the Radio Tower in Watery.
• Fixed an issue where the player could get stuck in Norman’s room in the Bright Falls Nursing Home.
• Fixed an issue where the doors at the Bright Falls Wellness Center kept opening at the wrong time. It’s not spooky season yet.

UI

• [PC] Added preview images for most tweakable settings in the graphics menu.
• Add per-chapter counts for found Manuscripts in the Mind Place.
• Fixed UI layout issues with localized content in the Case Board, computers, and inspectable items.
• Fixed month names so they display correctly on save game UI.
• Fixed the Options menu scroll position not to resetting when quitting the Options menu with the start button on controller.

Audio and haptics

• Re-tuned haptics on the “key events” such as weapon firing and reloading, using the Light Shift mechanic, burning off Source Points and using the flashlight.
• Added audio to the ancient computers in the Bright Falls Sheriff Station.
• Added audio for impacts when the Espresso Express hits the player. Don’t try it please. Coffee World is in enough trouble as it is.
• Cassette eject sound added to Mr. Drippy.
• Added TV static audio to the Nursing Home TV Safe Haven location.
• Fixed an issue where the TV tape selection in the Writer’s Room was not triggering any sound effects.
• Fixed an issue in RE08 Summoning where a Tank enemy weapon played the wrong weapon audio.
• Multiple fixes for the Nursery Rhymes audio.
• Improved the audio quality for crouching footsteps.
• Improved the audio performance during the RE08 Summoning mission across all platforms.

Visuals

• General visual polish.
• Fixed an issue where an enemy became partially invisible when seriously wounded.
• Fixed the vegetation not always reacting to explosions in a cool way.
• The wind has picked up in Coffee World.
• Made the basement of the Valhalla Nursing Home more atmospheric, with a lot of added dust.
• Turned off Safe Haven indicator during the Scratch fight in the parking lot.
• Improved waterproofing of the Elderwood Lodge. It should not rain indoors anymore.
• Fixed the Hunting Knife being scaled up when Alan picked it up.
• Fixed missing lighting on some narrative items.
• Improved the quality of shadows in various off the beaten path locations in the forest.
• Fixed lighting pop-in in some locations.
• Fixed some abrupt color grading changes in Watery.
• Reduced shimmering around windows inside Suomi Hall in Watery.
• Reduced shimmering inside the Elderwood Lodge in Bright Falls.
• Lighting improvements in off the beaten path areas in Watery.
• Fixed Alan’s wild shirt glitching in some cinematic sequences where Alan is sitting down.
• Improved animations for Saga’s scare reactions while running.
• Fixed some animations restarting when toggling the flashlight.
• Fixed the player character so they use arms as expected while running just after picking up items.

General

• The SDR brightness setting now affects UI and 2D videos correctly.
• Fixed maximum display luminance being outdated in Brightness calibration menu.
• [PC] You can now tweak the FOV (Field of view) in the UI.
• [PC] Improved DLSS Frame Generation stability for Alt-Tab.
• [PC] Resolution is clamped correctly to the maximum supported resolution.
• [PC] Made the warning message about there not being enough physical memory and allow the game still to start a lot more serious.
• [PC] Mouse button icons now correctly reflect the Windows primary button setting in the UI [PC].
• [Xbox Series] Fixed a threading issue that could lead to rare crashes.
• Subtitle fixes.

Performance (aka the Northlight flex section)

• [PlayStation 5] Fixed the random stuttering during perfect dodge slow-motion moves.
• [PC] Changing the graphics settings is now… snappier.
• [PC] Optimized shadow map rendering saving up to 0.3ms in the Dark Place.
• [Xbox Series] Optimized point and spotlight culling, shaving off 0.3ms in locations where lights are aplenty.
• [PlayStation 5] Optimized UI rendering when there are a lot of UI elements on screen, such as when the Inventory is visible, resulting in smoother performance.
• Optimized character controller code for improved CPU performance, saving up to 1ms – 2ms in locations with dense geometry.
• Lighting optimizations inside the Overlap in RE01 Invitation saving 1ms – 1.2ms for smoother performance.
• Lighting optimizations around the Valhalla Nursing Home during RE05 Old Gods saving 0.3ms – 0.4ms.
• The good kind of lighting and fog optimizations around Watery that didn’t result in downgrading the visuals.
• Slightly optimized texture memory usage. Slightly.

For years, skill-based matchmaking (SBMM) has been the hottest of topics within the Call of Duty community, with some proclaiming it ruins the experience, others saying quite the opposite. High-skilled Call of Duty players often bemoan SBMM for chucking them into what they call “sweaty” lobbies full of similarly high-skilled players. All the while, Activision has remained silent on how exactly Call of Duty’s SBMM actually works — until now.

In a blog post, which is “starting the conversation about matchmaking in Call of Duty”, Activision pulled back the curtain on SBMM for the first time, and gave players plenty to chew on.

According to Activision, Call of Duty does consider skill (or more specifically player performance) as a component of matchmaking, but skill is not the “dominant” variable. Top of the tree, Activision said, is connection. “Ping is King”, the blog post reads. “Connection is the most critical and heavily weighted factor in the matchmaking process.”

Second is time to match (“we all want to spend time playing the game rather than waiting for matches to start”), and joint third are playlist diversity, recent maps and modes, skill/performance, input device, platform, and whether you have voice chat on or off.

“These factors have resulted in a process that we believe provides the best player experience and creates a stronger community for Call of Duty worldwide,” Activision said.

There are some fascinating insights in here for veteran Call of Duty players. Activision says that for Modern Warfare 3’s Rustment playlist (maps Rust and Shipment in rotation), players often leave lobbies and/or matches early on, hoping to requeue into Shipment instead. This creates a vacant spot on a team during an early stage of the match, Activision explained. “As the matchmaking process may prioritize backfilling that spot, this could result in players perceiving that Rust is disproportionately selected over Shipment. TL;DR – trying to cherry-pick maps may have an unexpected result.

“Our goal is to ensure that players spend more time playing matches rather than waiting for them.”

Now, onto the detail everyone wanted. Skill is determined based on a player’s overall performance, Activision said. This includes kills, deaths, wins, losses, and more, as well as mode selection, and recent matches as an overall metric across all Multiplayer experiences. “This is a fluid measurement that’s consistently updating and reacting to your gameplay,” Activision explained. “Skill is not only a factor in matchmaking players against appropriate enemies, but also when finding teammates.”

Activision goes on to say skill in matchmaking means all players (regardless of skill level) are more likely to experience wins and losses more proportionately. “We use player performance to ensure that the disparity between the most skilled player in the lobby and the least skilled player in the lobby isn’t so vast that players feel their match is a waste of time.”

“Our data shows that when lower skill players are consistently on the losing end, they are likely to quit matches in progress or stop playing altogether,” Activision continued. “This has an effect on the player pool. A smaller player pool means wait times for matches increase and connections may not be as strong as they should be. This can compound over time to create a spiral effect. Eventually, when only high-skilled players remain because lower skilled players have quit out of frustration, the result is an ecosystem that is worse overall for everyone.

“Game data indicates that having some limitations on the disparity of skill across the players in a match makes for a healthier ecosystem. We also understand that many high skill players want more variety of experience, but often feel like they only get the ‘sweatiest’ of lobbies. We have heard this feedback clearly and will continue to test and actively explore ways to mitigate this concern.”

Activision then answered some community questions, busting the odd myth along the way. Time played is not a factor in matchmaking, for example. Matchmaking does not impact gameplay, such as hit registration, player visibility, aim assist, or damage. Money spent on microtransactions such as bundles and battle passes “does not in any way, shape or form, factor into matchmaking”. Partners and content creators don’t get special consideration in general matchmaking, either.

Activision then ruled out adding an opt-in/opt-out system for the matchmaking algorithm, saying its data suggests splitting the player base in that way would make for potentially longer wait times based on the type of matchmaking selected and matches with poor connections.

And then the big one: have you ever tested removing skill as a consideration from matchmaking?

“We have run tests over the years to determine if removing skill as a consideration from matchmaking makes sense,” Activision said. “We will continue to launch these tests periodically. To date, the data remains consistent with what we detailed above – players tend to quit matches or stop playing if they’re getting blown out, resulting in a negative overall experience for all players in the lobby and the general player population. We purposefully do not disclose when these tests occur because it may impact feedback or the data we see during these tests.”

But will Activision consider removing skill from matchmaking in specific general multiplayer game modes?

“We have considered this in the past and we will continue to examine if this idea makes sense as part of an experimental playlist or in specific modes. We have nothing to announce on that front today.”

So, that’s that, you’d imagine. Clearly, Activision will not ditch SBMM for Call of Duty, no matter what the community thinks. But at least players now have an understanding of Activision’s thinking, whether they agree with it or not.

There’s more to come, too. Activision said its technology team is developing a Ping and Matchmaking white paper for those inclined to get into the more granular information about Call of Duty matchmaking.

Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.

The developer of Palworld has warned people against downloading fake mobile phone games that look like they’re Palworld.

In a tweet, Palworld developer Pocketpair said “there is no Palworld application for phones”, after noticing apps using names and product images from Palworld had popped up on the App Store and Google Play.

“They are not affiliated with our company in any way,” the statement continued. “We have reported this issue to Apple, which operates the App Store, and Google, which operates Google Play. Please be aware that downloading these apps may lead to the leakage of personal information stored on your smartphone or to fraud.”

It’s perhaps unsurprising to see fake Palworld mobile apps appear given the enormous sales success of the original, which launched in early access form on PC via Steam and on Xbox to the tune of eight million sales in just six days.

But Palworld is also one of the most controversial video game releases in recent memory. Developer Pocketpair has said its staff have received death threats amid Pokémon “rip-off” claims, which it has denied. Nintendo has moved quickly to remove an eye-catching Pokémon mod, and then The Pokemon Company issued a statement, saying: “We intend to investigate and take appropriate measures to address any acts that infringe on intellectual property rights related to Pokémon.” IGN asked lawyers whether Nintendo could successfully sue.

Meanwhile, Palworld continues to blow up on Steam, where it became the second most-played game in the platform’s history. If you’re playing, be sure to check out IGN’s interactive Palworld map.

Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.