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American Truck Simulator (ATS) is a 2016 business and vehicle simulation game developed by the Czech company SCS Software and is the parallel video game sequel to Euro Truck Simulator 2. It was first announced as being in development in September 2013[1] and unveiled at the Electronic Entertainment Expo 2015 (E3 2015). The game was released on 2 February 2016. Gameplay : American Truck Simulator is a truck driving simulator with business management elements. In the game, players drive trucks and deliver trailer-moved goods to a designated location in order to be compensated with money and experience points. The payload must be delivered to the location speedily within a given amount of time, and with the least amount of damage to the goods as possible, in order to net the most money and experience points possible. In-game money, after being earned, can be used to purchase more trucks and associated aesthetic, mechanical, and structural upgrades, purchase fuel and repairs for those trucks, take out and repay loans from a bank, as well as hire drivers and purchase garages to house and base them in. The amount of money and experience points earned is commensurate on the length of the delivery in distance traveled as well as the type of goods being transported. When delivering goods, players can use their own personally-purchased truck or use one provided by an in-game company. When delivering goods using a fleet-provided truck, repairs and other costs are paid for by the company rather than out of the player's in-game fund pool. Experience points can be accumulated and used to obtain perks, which improve the player's driving ability and what kinds of payloads they can deliver, such as chemicals and explosives, which net a bigger reward when completed successfully. In addition to driving and delivering goods, the player can also manage a trucking business with hired drivers and owned properties. Hired drivers will perform deliveries on their own, netting the player money. The longer the drivers are hired, the more skillful they will become, thus increasing the amount of money they earn from each delivery. The player can train each driver to focus on a specific area of their driving that can be improved upon. Unlike in Euro Truck Simulator 2, the game features weigh stations, where players must stop at a designated weight station in order to determine the weight of the cargo before proceeding through (though the game will sometimes allow them to bypass the station but avoiding it deliberately will result in receiving a fine). The game started off at launch with the U.S. states of California and Nevada, and expanded from there, with Arizona being added in June 2016 as a major update. The U.S. states of New Mexico and Oregon have been made available, as paid DLC, in November 2017, and October 2018, respectively. More U.S. states (and parts of Mexico and Canada)[citation needed] are expected to be added by SCS Software in the future. Development : SCS Software first announced the game on 6 September 2013.[3] It was revealed at E3 in 2015.[4] On 11 April 2014, SCS Software announced that there will be 100+ cities in the game once completed (not initially), and SCS released screenshots of the game. Truck brands included on American Truck Simulator so far are Kenworth and Peterbilt, but more will follow; the only setback remains the licensing of trucks from their manufacturers. SCS plans to eventually include the entire contiguous United States, as long as the game continues to do well. On 26 January 2015, SCS Software published a 1-hour video to YouTube of footage from early alpha of the game. On 18 December 2015, SCS Software announced the official release date for American Truck Simulator, 3 February 2016, on their blog. The game was released 1 day earlier instead.[5] On 23 June 2016, SCS Software announced that it will edit the size of the in-game environment to increase its size by 75%.[6] On 20 July 2017, SCS announced the 1.28 update, jumping from 1.6 in order to reflect that American Truck Simulator shares features with Euro Truck Simulator 2. The game was released for PC-DVD on 14 December 2017

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt[a] is a 2015 action role-playing game developed and published by CD Projekt. Based on The Witcher series of fantasy novels by Polish author Andrzej Sapkowski, it is the sequel to the 2011 game The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings. Played in an open world with a third-person perspective, players control protagonist Geralt of Rivia, a monster hunter known as a witcher, who is looking for his missing adopted daughter on the run from the Wild Hunt: an otherworldly force determined to capture and use her powers. Players battle the game's many dangers with weapons and magic, interact with non-player characters, and complete main-story and side quests to acquire experience points and gold, which are used to increase Geralt's abilities and purchase equipment. Its central story has several endings, determined by the player's choices at certain points in the game. Development began in 2011 and lasted for three and a half years. Voice recording took over two and a half years. The writing was infused with real-life aspects like moral ambiguity in a deliberate attempt to avoid simplification, impart authenticity, and reflect Sapkowski's novels. Europe was the basis of the game's open world, with Poland, Amsterdam, and Scandinavia as its primary inspirations. REDengine 3 enabled the developer to create a complex story without compromising the game world. The music was composed by Marcin Przybyłowicz and performed by the Brandenburg State Orchestra. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt was released worldwide for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One on 19 May 2015. The game received critical acclaim, with praise of its gameplay, narrative, world design, combat, and visuals, although it received minor criticism due to technical issues, some of which were later patched. It received numerous Game of the Year awards, and is considered to be one of the greatest games of all time. The game was also a commercial success, shipping nearly ten million copies by March 2016. Two expansion packs, Hearts of Stone and Blood and Wine, were also released. A Game of the Year edition, with the base game, expansion packs and all downloadable content, was released in August 2016. Gameplay: The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is an action role-playing game with a third-person perspective. Players control Geralt of Rivia, a monster hunter known as a Witcher.[1] Geralt walks, runs, rolls and dodges, and (for the first time in the series) jumps, climbs and swims.[2][3] He has a variety of weapons, including bombs, a crossbow and two swords (one steel and one silver).[4] The steel sword is used primarily to kill humans while the silver sword is more effective against creatures and monsters.[5] Players can draw out, switch and sheathe their swords at will. There are two modes of melee attack; light attacks are fast but weak, and heavy attacks are slow and strong.[6] Players can block and counter enemy attacks with their swords.[4] Swords have limited endurance and require regular repair.[7] In addition to physical attacks, Geralt has five magical signs at his disposal: Aard, Axii, Igni, Yrden and Quen.[8] Aard prompts Geralt to unleash a telekinetic blast, Axii confuses enemies, Igni burns them, Yrden slows them down and Quen offers players a temporary, protective shield.[9] The signs use stamina, and cannot be used indefinitely.[10] Players can use mutagens to increase Geralt's magic power. They lose health when they are attacked by enemies, although wearing armour can help reduce health loss. Health can be restored with meditation or consumables, such as food and potions.[4] Players may also control Ciri, Geralt's adoptive daughter who can teleport short distances, in certain parts of the game.[11] It has responsive, advanced artificial intelligence (AI) and dynamic environments. The day-night cycle influences some monsters (and their powers), as a werewolf becomes powerful during the night of a full moon.[12] Players can learn about their enemies and prepare for combat by reading the in-game bestiary.[13] When they kill an enemy, they can loot its corpse for valuables.[13] Geralt's witcher sense enables players to find objects of interest, including items that can be collected or scavenged.[14] Items are stored in the inventory, which can be expanded by purchasing upgrades.[13] Players can sell items to vendors[15] or use them to craft potions and bombs.[16][17] They can visit blacksmiths to craft new weapons and armour with what they have gathered.[18] The price of an item and the cost of crafting it depend on a region's local economy.[3] The game focuses on narrative, and has a dialogue wheel which allows players to choose how to respond to non-player characters. Geralt must make decisions which change the state of the world and lead to 36 possible endings, affecting the lives of in-game characters.[19] He can have a romantic relationship with some of the game's female characters by completing certain quests.[20] In addition to the main quests, books offer more information on the game's world.[13] Players can begin side quests after visiting a town's noticeboard.[13] These side missions include Witcher Contracts (elaborate missions requiring players to hunt monsters)[21] and Treasure Hunt quests, which reward players with top-tier weapons or armour.[13] Players earn experience points by completing missions.[3] When a player earns enough experience, Geralt's level increases and the player receives ability points.[22] These points may be used on four skill trees: combat, signs, alchemy and general. Combat upgrades enhance Geralt's attacks and unlock new fighting techniques; signs upgrades enable him to use magic more efficiently, and alchemy upgrades improve crafting abilities. General upgrades have a variety of functions, from raising Geralt's vitality to increasing crossbow damage.[10] The game's open world is divided into several regions. Geralt can explore each region on foot or by transportation, such as a boat. Roach, his horse, may be summoned at will.[23] Players can kill enemies with their sword while riding Roach,[24] but an enemy presence may frighten the horse and unseat Geralt.[13] Points of interest may be found on the map, and players receive experience points after completing mini-missions in these regions.[25] Players can discover Places of Power for additional ability points.[26] Other activities include horse racing, boxing and card playing;[27][28] the card-playing mechanic was later expanded into a standalone game. Development : Although the game was planned to begin production in 2008, CD Projekt Red's preoccupation with Rise of the White Wolf pushed it back to 2011.[36] The company developed The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt with a self-funded budget of US$81 million over three-and-a-half years. The project began with 150 employees, eventually growing to over 250 in-house staff. Fifteen hundred people were involved in the game's production globally. While the game is based on Sapkowski's novels, his involvement with the game was limited to the creation of its in-game map.[40] It was localised in 15 languages, with a total of 500 voice actors.[41][42][43] The game was scripted concurrently in Polish and English to alleviate difficulty in localisation.[44] According to Side (the company which handled voice casting and recording), the 450,000-word script had 950 speaking roles. The voices were recorded from late 2012 to early 2015.[45] CD Projekt Red wanted The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt to be free of any digital rights management (DRM) due to the developer's unsuccessful control of piracy with its predecessor, The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings, whose DRM also made it run slowly.[46] The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt was created with the REDengine 3, CD Projekt Red's proprietary game engine designed for nonlinear role-playing video games set in open world environments,[47] aided by the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One consoles and prepared for use in October 2014. The first play-through indicated to the developers that the open world, despite its content and generation around the quests, seemed empty. As a solution, they added points of interest. The game had 5,000 bugs that December, which (with a launch date of February 2015) necessitated its postponement.[36][48] Like the previous two Witcher games, players are given a complex story with multiple choices and consequences. Unlike other game engines, REDengine 3 permits a complex storyline without sacrificing virtual world design.[49] The user interface was made more intuitive with grid-based solutions. The camera system was improved to use long shots for battles with multiple enemies and close-ups for more-intimate confrontations.[50] More animations were used for combat sequences than in The Witcher 2, with each lasting less than one second for quick succession.[51] Game director Konrad Tomaszkiewicz and senior game designer Damien Monnier cited Dark Souls and Demon's Souls as influences on Wild Hunt's combat system,[52][53] and level designer Miles Tost and senior environment artist Jonas Mattsson cited The Legend of Zelda series and Red Dead Redemption as influencing the game's level designs and environments.[54] Months before its release date, the game's economy, crafting, and inventory systems were incomplete and apparently unable to meet the deadline. Senior gameplay designer Matthew Steinke thought of a remedy and drew up a system context diagram. To allocate prices, Steinke wrote a formula based on rate of damage, defence, or healing. Polynomial least squares were used to determine its efficacy, and it was found to eliminate bugs from the system and reduce loading times.[55] Each character was given a unique personality to contrast the fetch-quest system typically used in video games. It was decided early that the writing would be witty, with metaphors and implied meanings. Dialogue was limited to 15 lines, with occasional exceptions, to retain content originality. Player options were written as morally ambiguous, reflecting real life and Andrzej Sapkowski's original Witcher series. Alcoholism, abuse and sexuality, depicted as normal parts of the medieval world, were incorporated into the story for authenticity.[36][48][44] Areas of the open world were based on Poland, Amsterdam, and Scandinavia.[44] Objects on the game's levels were modelled by hand.[48] Storylines such as Yennefer imprisoning Geralt on an island and Geralt's covert recruitment to the Wild Hunt were discarded to make the game smaller and avoid splitting it into two parts. The card game Gwent was preceded by other mini-game proposals, including a drinking game, knife throwing, and ice skating.[36] A re-enactment of the Battle of Grunwald was recorded for the sounds of battle, marching, blacksmithing, and the firing of arrows. Recording the knights' voices for post-processing, the speakers wore helmets for an authentic sound. Marcin Przybyłowicz was the game's music director and composer, with additional music contributed by Polish folk band Percival because their instruments were older. According to Przybyłowicz, working with Percival was a challenge; he expected an academic approach before learning that most of the group were not formally trained, and much of the music was improvised. Multi-instrumentalist Robert Jaworski of the folk band Żywiołak recorded lute, Renaissance fiddle, bowed gusle, and hurdy-gurdy sections. The score was performed in Frankfurt (Oder) by the Brandenburg State Orchestra, conducted by Bernd Ruf.

Monster Hunter: World[a] is an action role-playing game developed and published by Capcom. A part of the Monster Hunter series, it was released worldwide for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One in January 2018, with a Microsoft Windows version in August 2018. In the game, the player takes the role of a Hunter, tasked to hunt down and either kill or trap monsters that roam in one of several environmental spaces. If successful, the player is rewarded through loot consisting of parts from the monster and other elements that are used to craft weapons and armor, amongst other equipment. The game's core loop has the player crafting appropriate gear to be able to hunt down more difficult monsters, which in turn provide parts that lead to more powerful gear. Players may hunt alone, or can hunt in cooperative groups of up to four players via the game's online services. Announced at E3 2017, Monster Hunter: World adopts the series' standard formulas from its older home console roots and recent handheld games to take advantage of the higher processing power provided by modern consoles and computers. Changes made in Monster Hunter: World include creating environmental spaces that are fully connected and removing the "zones" that were necessary for the PlayStation 2 and handheld games, more advanced monster artificial intelligence and physics to create seemingly living ecosystems that could be taken advantage of during hunts, a more persistent cooperative multiplayer experience, and a refinement of the game's user interface, menu systems, and tutorials to help with bringing new players into the series. These changes led Capcom to plan for the game's simultaneous release across both Japan and Western markets, since Monster Hunter as a series has generally languished in the West compared to Japan partially due to disparate release schedules. Capcom also opted to support online play between these different geographic regions for similar reasons. The delay for the Windows release was attributed to Capcom seeking to make sure its first foray into the Windows market was optimized for players on computers. Monster Hunter: World received critical acclaim upon release, with critics praising how Capcom was able to make the game more accessible to new players and to Western markets, without detracting from the series' core gameplay elements and enjoyable difficulty, and fully taking advantage of the computational capacity of modern consoles to create living ecosystems. Within a few weeks of release, the game became the fastest-selling game in Capcom's history. It eventually became their best-selling game, with over ten million copies shipped by August 2018. Synopsis : In an unnamed high fantasy setting, humans and other sentient races have set their eyes on the New World, a separate continent from the po[CENSORED]ted Old World. The New World is an untamed wilderness where many powerful monsters roam, and where researchers have been drawn to uncover new mysteries. Several ocean-bound Fleets have been sent already to establish working bases, safe from monsters, and operations are led by the Research Commission. Plot : The player controls a hunter that they can name, supported by an assistant handler, who are a part of the Fifth Fleet which has been summoned by the Research Commission to provide more support to the New World. A particular focus of the Expedition is to study Elder Dragons, powerful beasts that can affect entire ecosystems, and why they migrate to the New World every ten years in an event known as the Elder Crossing. While traveling to the New World, the Fifth Fleet encounters Zorah Magdaros, a massive Elder Dragon the size of a mountain. After being rescued and arriving at the base camp, known as Astera, the Hunter and their Handler undertake various tasks to explore the area and study Zorah Magdaros at the behest of the Commander of the Expedition. The Expedition determines that Zorah Magdaros is dying and is migrating to a massive graveyard, known as the Rotten Vale. An Expedition-led capture mission against Zorah Magdaros is foiled by Nergigante, an Elder Dragon that feeds on other Elder Dragons, and is protecting Zorah Magdaros as its future meal. After escaping the ambush, Zorah Magdaros unexpectedly enters the Everstream rather than traveling to the Rotten Vale. After further investigations, the Expedition learns that if Zorah Magdaros dies within the Everstream, its released bio-energy will destroy the New World. With no time to evacuate, the Expedition develops an emergency plan to intercept Zorah Magdaros and drive it to the ocean, where its released bio-energy will form a new aquatic ecosystem. Nergigante once again interferes, but this time is driven off by the Hunters, and Zorah Magdaros is successfully driven into the ocean. However, when Nergigante flees to the Elder's Recess, an area in the Everstream with massive amounts of stored bio-energy, the presence of Nergigante drives away its Elder Dragon prey toward neighboring locations, upsetting each individual ecosystem. With the help of the Admiral, the true leader of the Expedition, the Hunter is able to track down and kill Nergigante. With Nergigante dead, the Elder Dragons calm down and return to the Recess. After their defeat by the Hunter, the source of energy within the Elder’s Recess is discovered: Xeno'jiiva, an infant Elder Dragon, which had been incubating within the Elder's Recess, and was feeding on the bio-energy of dead Elder Dragons. Xeno'jiiva hatches upon being discovered, and at the behest of the Admiral, the Hunter defeats it before it can wreak havoc on the world. With the Elder Crossing now fully understood, the Expedition is considered finished, but members are offered the chance to stay in the New World to continue their research. Gameplay : Monster Hunter: World is an open-world action role-playing game played from a third-person perspective. Similar to previous games in the series, the player takes the role of a player-created character who travels to the "New World", an unpo[CENSORED]ted land mass filled with monsters, to join the Research Commission that study the land from their central command base of Astera. The Research Commission tasks the Hunter to hunt down and either kill or capture large monsters that roam outside Astera to both protect the Commission and to study the monsters there.[1] The player's character does not have any intrinsic attributes, but instead these are determined by what equipment the character is equipped with. This includes a weapon, selected from the series' fourteen archetypes (such as long sword, bow, or hammer),[2] which then further defines the types of combat moves and abilities the player can use, and pieces of armor, which can lead to beneficial or detrimental combat skills if matched properly. While some basic equipment can be purchased using in-game money, most equipment is built from loot obtained by slaying or trapping monsters, rewards from completing quests, or items gathered while in the field. This creates a core loop of gameplay that has the player fight monsters they can beat to obtain the right loot to craft improved weapons and armor to allow them to face more powerful monsters and the potential for even better equipment. After taking a quest in Astera, or after choosing to simply go on an open-ended expedition, the player is taken to a base camp in one of six large regions that make up the New World. Each region is made up of numbered zones, but unlike previous Monster Hunter games, these zones are seamlessly connected, and there are no loading screens when moving between zones. The player must traverse zone to zone, though they can quick-travel to any of the base camps in that particular region when outside of combat. From camp, the player can acquire limited provisions, rest to restore their health, and new to World, have a meal that provides limited-time buffs to the player. The player sets out to track down monsters, which in World is aided with the use of Scout flies, which hover near tracks and other signs of large monsters, or highlight resources that the player can collect such as flora, ores, bones, and insects. Investigate the traces of the monster leads to improving the Scout flies' abilities for the quest, eventually enabling them to lead the player via their glowing flight path towards the monster they seek; further, investigating these help the player to gain research towards the monster that helps them gain insight on its strengths, weaknesses, and behavior.[3][4] Once a monster is located, the player can take several approaches to either slay or capture it using traps once sufficiently weakened, using a combination of their weapons and items they are carrying. As a monster is weakened, its tactics will often change, frequently becoming more aggressive, or fleeing to a lair to rest or find food to recover. The player has additional tools within World for combat. Each player has a Slinger, a tool that can be used to fire small projectiles like rocks at the monster to damage it or cause other debuffs, or can be used as a grappling hook to reach higher elevations or pull down objects onto a monster.[2] A new type of tool called a Mantle can be used for a limited amount of time; these cloak-like objects provide a buff to the player, such as acting like a ghillie suit to reduce the chances of monsters detecting the player. Furthermore, the player has opportunities to use the environment strategically against the monster, such as bursting a natural dam to flood out a monster, or leading a monster into another monster's den to cause them to fight each other.[2][5] The game includes a dynamic weather system and day-night cycle, which can affect the behavior of some monsters mid-quest.[2] In combat, the player must watch their health — if it falls to zero, they faint and are taken back to camp but then can set out again at a reduced reward; however, fainting three times will cause the quest to fail. Further, the player must watch their stamina, which is consumed for nearly all attacks, dodges, and other actions; stamina will recover quickly but the player must not take other aggressive actions for this to happen, which can be tricky in the heat of battle. The player can carry various restorative items for health and stamina; unlike previous games where the player was forced to stand still to take these, World allows the player to take these while walking, though the player must not be interrupted for a few moments to gain the full effects of the restorative item.[6] The player must also be aware of various debuffs that monsters can inflict on them, the sharpness of their weapon or the quantity of ammo for certain weapon types, and the limitations of items they can bring on a quest that restrict how much they can recover while in the field. If the player successfully completes the quest, they gain reward resources, often consisting of parts from that monster along with zenny, the in-game currency. The distribution of rewards from a quest are determined by rarity, so obtaining certain rare parts may require repeating a quest several times to get a desired part. Astera acts as a central hub where the player can buy and sell goods, manage their inventory, craft new equipment, and gain new quests.[3] A core facet of Monster Hunter games is the construction and upgrading of armor and weapons at a forge using the monster parts and resources the player has gained from combat. As the player defeats tougher monsters, they can make armor with more defensive value or particular elemental resistance, or can improve weapons to be more lethal and deal elemental or debuffing damage. Weapons and armor also carry various skills which have a number of different effects for the player; World introduces a new streamlined skill system compared to previous games, where each weapon or armor piece has one or more ranks in at least one skill, and the total effect of a skill on the player is determined by adding up all ranks of that skill from all equipped items the player carries. Additional services in Astera include a farm to grow quantities of flora while the player is out on quests, training areas to practice weapons, a gathering hub to take on special Arena challenges against one or more monsters, and a canteen which the player can order a meal from specific ingredients to provide buffs and special conditions while out on the field. World features a story mode offered through the quest system. Unlike previous games, where the story mode led the player through and to complete the "Low Rank" quests, before opening the game to more difficult "High Rank" quests without a story driver, World will have a narrative that continues into the "High Rank" quests.[7] The game's complete story mode is estimated to take between 40 and 50 hours, according to director Yuya Tokuda.[8] Instead of quests that required the player to slay a number of smaller monsters or collect resources, World will offer these as Bounties that can be achieved alongside the main quests, or provided as Optional quests that generally lead to improving some facet of the resources in Astera.[9] A player can have up to six different Bounties active, and which provide rewards when they are completed.[10] The player can gain Investigation quests as well, which come from investigating the trail of monsters with Scout flies or by breaking off parts of monsters in combat. Each Investigation offers a quest that may have unique limitations or goals compared to main story quests, such as time limits or reduced fainting limits but also provide additional rewards; Investigations can only be attempted, successfully or not, a limited number of times before they are exhausted and removed. The game supports both single-player and up to four player cooperative mode while being online; there is no local offline multiplayer. The game's quest system is the same in both modes.[2] Players gather in multiplayer servers supporting up to sixteen players, during which they can post quests to invite others to join, or join other existing quests as long as they have progressed far enough in the game's storyline. If there are only one or two hunters on a quest, each brings with them a Palico (an anthropomorphic sentient cat species) to assist them in combat; these Palico can be equipped with weapons and armor crafted in the same manner as the hunter themselves. If there are less than four players in a party, a party member can launch a red SOS flare, which other players, while in their instance of Astera, can opt to join to help out, creating a drop-in/drop-out system.[2] The game also supports Squads, the equivalent of clans or guilds in typical massive multiplayer online games.[9] The game allows players in different release regions to work together; the game will use a pre-determined set of common greetings and commands that are translated to the various languages so that players can effectively communicate with each other.[2] However, players are limited to cooperating with those on the same platform, and will not feature cross-platform play.[3] Players also need to register with their console's service (PlayStation Network or Xbox Live) to use multiplayer features.[11] With an aim to reach a wider audience than past games, Monster Hunter: World also provides more information to players, such as a companion that will warn the player when they are running low on health, and more details on the advantages and disadvantages of weapons and armors against specific monsters.[4] In addition to quests shipped with the game, Capcom has offered downloadable content quests, similarly featured in the handheld versions. However, with the greater degree of connectivity offered by modern consoles/computers compared to handheld systems, Capcom has been able to offer several time-limited Event quests that players can easily jump in on through the new matchmaking system.[7][11][12] Through the event system, the game has included limited-time unique gameplay modes, such as a 16-person raid against a single monster, with players working in teams of four to help defeat the monster.[13] Capcom has also added new monsters to hunt through free downloadable content; the first such update, adding in the Deviljho monster from previous games was released alongside other quality-of-life updates in March 2018.[14][15][16] Capcom also expected to provide paid post-content material as well;[10] however, Capcom does not see World as a type of service, as they do not expect players to continue playing the game five to ten years after release.[17] The game will not include any type of microtransactions that influence gameplay; Tsujimoto said that as Monster Hunter is meant as a cooperative game, they did not want to create any type of "friction" between players due to some having simply purchased better equipment with real-world funds compared to those that spent the time to work through challenges to acquire the equipment.[18] There is paid downloadable content available for the game, but these are limited to cosmetic items only, such as gestures, character customization options, and stickers used in communicating with other players. Development : Monster Hunter: World is considered a main installment in the Monster Hunter series, according to the game's senior producer Ryozo Tsujimoto and director Yuya Tokuda.[6] Along with executive director Kaname Fujioka, Tokuda served as a director for Monster Hunter 4 and Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate.[19] Development of World started about three years prior to the E3 2017 reveal, following a year of brainstorming on what the next main game in the series would be.[20] With the series more than a decade old, Capcom re-evaluated where they wanted to take the series, and realized that with the hardware capabilities of the new consoles, they could realize a different vision compared to the handheld entries.[20] According to Capcom Europe's COO Stuart Turner and marking director for the Europe, the Middle East and Africa Antoine Molant, the divisions of Capcom outside of Japan had suggested for Capcom to embrace a Western release with full online gaming support. The Japanese teams had been wary of this, since the series normally assured them of three to four million sales within Japan and they would risk those assured numbers by making the game more global. However, the risks of taking a more worldwide approach were embraced when Sony said they would help support this approach, since they believed this would also help to boost PlayStation 4 sales.[21] Additionally, the sheer scale of the project also used a large budget which they deemed necessary to "go up against Hollywood movies", and cost-cutting measures had to adopted throughout Capcom. [22] Tsujimoto said that past games typically had arcane rules, and the zoned-area structure made each zone feel isolated, and wanted to change that approach.[23] They have also wanted to implement living worlds and ecosystems, with complex artificial intelligence interactions between monsters and the environment but have been limited in the past by handheld gaming hardware.[6][20] The team determined that they would pursue highly detailed worlds that felt realistic, eliminating the disconnected zoned-map approach.[23] This created a "ripple effect" of changes in gameplay; for example, elimination of loading screens meant the player could not use the tactic of jumping to a different zone to heal in safety, and thus allowed the player to drink healing potions while walking.[24] Tokuda noted that with these changes, the pace of the game also became quicker.[24] A prototype of this more open world approach took about 18 months to complete by November 2015 with a team of 50-70 developers to test the seamless transition in the map, and how monsters would behave in these varied environments.[25] This also helped the team recognize that player survival during hunts by effective use of the environment, either for protection or as means to harm monsters via destructible components, and of monsters themselves, luring one to an area to draw out another, could be a key part of World's gameplay.[26] While the game features monsters already created from previous games in the series, the developers also crafted new monsters that took advantage of the benefits from more powerful processing hardware. A design of a new monster typically began around developing a certain gameplay challenge or mechanic for the monster's behavior that the player may need to exploit to defeat it, and then working with the level designers to find or help craft an area in the region maps to have that monster inhabit that allows for that behavior to be shown off. This in turn helped to establish the look and other behavior of the monster so that it felt like it belonged in that particular region.[27] Individual features of the monsters could now be more directly animated compared to the previous games, such as showing feathers on bird-like monsters having natural-appearing movements, or having monsters take on different forms. In one case, the monster Nergigante was designed to have thorns all over its body that grow over time as it becomes more aggressive; with the ability to render monsters in more detail, they could show each of these thousand-some thorns moving and growing on their own, which directly affects how the player interacts with it in combat, making it a creature they could not have previously used in early games.[27] Monster animation was developed in part with motion capture, with human actors acting out some of the various monster actions.[28] Sets of rules were developed for the monsters to follow to interact in their environment, but they did not resort to any type of scripted event. This often created unexpected monster behavior when testing or demonstrating the game to public audiences.[12] Once monsters were created, then they used those to develop the various weapon and armors that could be crafted from those monster parts to give a consistent feel to the game.[27] As they worked towards this, Capcom found that this more open world would be something better appreciated by Western audiences. The Monster Hunter series has generally languished in sales in Western markets due to the complexity of the game, high learning curves, and the preference of console and PC gaming in Western audiences compared to the po[CENSORED]rity of portable gaming in Japan.[23] The team felt the new approach to the game would be something that would mesh well with Western markets, and starting adopting the game to include more Western standards in controls and interface design. They also looked to provide more tutorial information as well as making these fully voiced, as to avoid unskippable dialog boxes that had been used in the past.[23] With these changes came the decision to make the game a worldwide release with inter-region play, as they believed they would be able to draw more Western players with the gameplay changes they have made.[23] Tsujimoto and Tokuda recognized that World would be the first Monster Hunter game that many in the Western regions will likely play, so wanted to make sure the game was accessible to those players without having played any of the previous games. They also were aware of past criticisms that the games were very hard to learn though provided a rewarding experience once learned, so aimed to include means to help ease the learning curve and provide more information to the starting player.[6] Fujioka responded to some initial criticism of the Western-driven changes to the game that they were not trying to make the game easier just to drive sales: "We're not taking things that people in the west hate and fixing them to make western players buy it. People sometimes make that assumption, or they've got that fear, but that's not the case at all."[5] He continued that some of the changes that were seem to favor Western audiences were necessitated by the highly interconnected maps, and that "the new gameplay has to mesh with the new concept or else it would just be a mess."[5] Tokuda said that they were not simplifying the game, but instead "It's more that we want to have this great core action gameplay where players observe monster behaviour and then learn how to take advantage of that and mani[CENSORED]te that to assist in hunting them. We want to make it so that if they make mistakes they don't feel it's unfair but instead think that it's their mistake and they have to grow and learn."[12] Most of the changes made were thus specifically to reduce the difficulty curve to make it easier for new players to grasp the concepts of the game, but otherwise not changing the core difficulty.[12] Tsujimoto also said that as they have been working on the series for more than a decade, they are aware of what fans expect of a Monster Hunter game, saying "we want Monster Hunter fans to feel like this is a Monster Hunter game through and through when they play it".[5] The subtitle World alludes to many facets of the game's design changes from past Monster Hunter games: it reflects that the game had a worldwide simultaneous release, that it plays on worldwide servers rather than segmented by region, that the maps are no longer connected zones but wide-open worlds, and that these maps represent living worlds.[6][20] Capcom opted not to use a numerical title, such Monster Hunter 5, as that would give the impression that players needed to have completed other games in the series to play this one.[24] Tsujimoto and Tokuda said they add a unique gameplay element with each Monster Hunter, and as such, the "Hunter Arts" and "Prowler" Modes from Generations were not included. However, they have re-evaluated all the existing weapon classes to add new moves and abilities to provide a fresh take on the series for veteran players.[20] While their main Monster Hunter development team from Osaka developed the core, Capcom brought in other programmers familiar with the newer consoles to help with bringing the game to those systems.[6] The game uses a modified version of Capcom's internally developed MT Framework engine which provided a minimum of 30 frames per seconds on all platforms.[29] The PlayStation 4 and the Xbox One version includes ultra-high resolutions and other improved features for the PlayStation 4 Pro and Xbox One X.[20] When they had started development, neither of these console refreshes had been announced, and by the time the specifications for both were released (around 2016), Capcom recognized they did not have time to evaluate the specifications fully without changing the release window, but were aided by support of both Sony and Microsoft to help make World run efficiently on these newer consoles. For these, the game includes options to run between a detailed graphical version, lowering the game's framerate, or with reduced graphical details to maintain a high framerate.[12] Tsujimoto and Tokuda said the delay on the Windows version release was to make sure it was "optimized and fine-tuned for the PC as much as possible", with all work being done internally within Capcom to avoid treating the game as an outsourced port.[30] They also seek to have Monster Hunter: World support a wide variety of personal computer configurations, and need the additional time to achieve this broad range.[24] Additionally, the Windows platform lacks the built-in matchmaking that is in Xbox Live or PlayStation Network, requiring them to build their own version for this.[31] Tsujimoto announced in January 2018 that they are aiming for a Windows release in the second half of 2018,[32] looking to get the console versions released so that they can spend their full attention towards the Windows port.[31] There are no plans for Monster Hunter: World to be released for the Nintendo Switch. Fujioka and Tokuda said that development started well before the Switch was announced, and had focused the game to best play on the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.

Thimbleweed Park is a point-and-click adventure game developed by Ron Gilbert and Gary Winnick for Microsoft Windows, macOS, iOS, Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Linux, Android, and Nintendo Switch. The game was revealed on November 18, 2014, along with a Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign with a goal of US$375,000, and was released on March 30, 2017.[1] The game is a spiritual successor to Gilbert and Winnick's previous games Maniac Mansion (1987) and The Secret of Monkey Island (1990), and is designed to be similar to graphic adventure games released in that time period, both visually and gameplay-wise. Gameplay : The game is played similarly to early graphic adventure games; it is seen from a third person perspective, with a view of the area taking up the majority of the screen, while the bottom portion is taken up by the player's inventory and a list of verbs, such as "use", "pick up", and "talk to". By clicking on a verb followed by one or two items or characters, the player character will attempt to perform the action described. An example given in the reveal trailer was "Use balloon animal with corpse", performed by clicking on the verb "use", the "balloon animal" item in the player's inventory, and a corpse found in an area in the game. The game has five different player characters which the player can switch between in the middle of gameplay, similarly to Maniac Mansion. Plot : FBI agents Ray and Reyes arrive at the town of Thimbleweed Park to investigate a murder. Their investigation leads them to several persons of interest: Chuck, the recently deceased owner of the PillowTronics robotics company; Ransome the Clown, cursed to wear his makeup forever after going too far in his insulting performances; Delores, computer programmer and niece of Chuck; and Delores's downtrodden father Franklin. Franklin attempts to pitch his business ideas to Chuck, but is murdered at the town hotel and becomes a ghost. Delores discovers that Chuck has written her out of his will, angered by her choice to pursue a career in video games. Ray and Reyes gather blood samples, fingerprints, and photographic evidence, and arrest vagrant Willie, who protests his innocence. They leave town, but return incognito to pursue other agendas: Ray has been tasked with stealing computer secrets, and Reyes wants to clear his father of causing the fire that burnt down the PillowTronics factory. Ray, Reyes, Delores and Ransome infiltrate the factory. Delores disables the security systems and discovers that Chuck has uploaded his personality into the factory computer. Chuck reveals that everyone in the town is trapped inside a video game that keeps repeating, and that the group must free themselves by deleting the game. Ransome apologises to the citizens of Thimbleweed Park, clearing his reputation. Franklin says goodbye to his daughter and disappears to the afterlife. In the local paper, Reyes publishes a confession from Chuck clearing his father of blame for the factory fire. Ray steals a game design document from game designer Ron Gilbert and is transferred out of the game by her employers. Delores enters the "wireframe world", a prototype version of Thimbleweed Park with simplistic graphics, and shuts down the computer. Development : On November 18, 2014, Gilbert posted an update to his blog, in which he revealed that talks about the game had begun "several months ago" while he and Winnick had been discussing how fun their time developing Maniac Mansion at LucasArts (Lucasfilm Games at the time) had been, and how they liked the "charm, simplicity and innocence" of the adventure games of that era. Winnick proposed that they should make a new game in the style of their old ones; as such, it is designed as if it had been made in 1987 and as if it were "an undiscovered LucasArts adventure game you've never played before". Gilbert agreed, and suggested that they should crowdfund it on Kickstarter.[4] Development started with Gilbert and Winnick building the game's world and story, designing puzzles using puzzle dependency charts, and creating characters around the puzzles. From the start, Gilbert says, they wanted to parody the TV shows Twin Peaks, The X-Files, and True Detective.[4] The game's production was planned to last for 18 months, with Gilbert programming, Winnick producing art, and both writing and designing. Six months into development, an additional artist and programmer was hired along with a part-time musician. Development began on January 2, 2015. Crowdfunding A month-long crowdfunding campaign for the game was launched on Kickstarter on November 18, 2014, with a goal of US$375,000; people who pledged at least $20 received a copy of the game.[3] At the end of the campaign, on December 18, 2014, they had managed to raise US$626,250 from 15,623 people; they had also managed to reach a number of "stretch goals", which would allow German, Spanish, French, and Italian localizations of the game, full English voice acting, and ports to iOS and Android. The German localization is planned to be done by Boris Schneider-Johne, who was responsible for the German localization of Monkey Island. After the end of the campaign, there was a 14-day period of waiting for credit cards to clear; Gilbert and Winnick finally got access to the money on January 5, 2015. Kickstarter took a 5% cut, and Amazon, who handled the payments, took a 3–5% cut; this added up to $57,198 of fees. Additionally, another $4,890 was deducted from the raised amount due to failed transactions; in the end, they had $564,162, plus around $8,000 from people who had pledged via PayPal.[6] According to Gilbert, a lot of the failed transactions were from people who had problems with Amazon, and who then went on to pledge money via PayPal instead; because of this, he suggested that perhaps only half of the $4,890 had been lost. Budgeting was done around the money from Kickstarter, while the PayPal money was to be a safety net, or for potential added improvements to the game.[6] Game engine and tools Gilbert had already started to look for adventure game engines in August 2014,[7] but because of his experience of always wanting to modify engines to do exactly what he wants from them, he decided it would be easier to create his own engine.[8] He already had a 2D graphics engine written in C/C++ that he had used for his non-adventure games The Big Big Castle! and Scurvy Scallywags, which he decided to use for Thimbleweed Park; SDL was used for handling window creation and input, while Gilbert's own code was used for rendering the graphics. The only other thing that was needed for the engine was a scripting language; Gilbert had looked at Lua, and while he considered it "easy to integrate and highly optimized", he disliked its syntax. He considered making his own scripting language, but due to time concerns, he chose the language Squirrel instead.[8] Winnick mostly used Adobe Photoshop. According to Winnick, the style they were aiming for would lend itself very well to being drawn entirely digitally from the start. He drew the initial concepts and layouts as sketches.[9][10] Updates While the game was released on 30 March 2017, the developers have continuously released updates not only fixing problems but introducing various new gameplay elements. In the 20th June 2017 release, the characters became able to talk to one another (fully voice acted as the rest of the game), which became an inventive "hint system" without explicitly offering specific hints to solve the puzzles. Apart from this there's a more classical hint system which includes calling the hint line using the phones available in the game, which offers context-sensitive help.

Plot : The game is set in an alternate 1886 where the eruptions of Krakatoa and Mount Tambora, the dimming of the Sun, and other unknown factors caused a worldwide volcanic winter. This in turn led to widespread crop failure and the death of millions. This event roughly lines up with the real world 1883 eruption of Krakatoa, a volcanic event that led to global cooling. In response to this, several installations called "generators" were built by the British authorities in the coal-rich North, designed to be city centers in the event that dropping temperatures force mass migration from the south. In all scenarios, the player is the leader of a city around a generator, and will have to manage resources to ensure the city's survival. There are currently 3 scenarios in the base game and 1 additional scenario offered in a free DLC, each with different backgrounds and storylines. A New Home In the main scenario, the player is the leader of a group of explorers who fled the cold and the hunger of London in an expedition to find supposed massive coal reserves in the North. Instead, the group gets separated from the main expeditionary party and discovers a massive heat generator in a giant sheltered crater and settles there. The player begins to face the issue of the people's dwindling hope as they find out, through exploration, a city similar to theirs called Winterhome has been destroyed, leaving few survivors. The player has to make hard decisions in order to help the people find their purpose and stay hopeful. The player later also has to prepare enough supplies to make sure the city survives an impending storm. The Arks In the second scenario, the player is tasked as the leader of a group of scholars from Oxford and Cambridge responsible for establishing a self-operational city for the purpose of preserving seeds and plants from around the world from the volcanic winter. They settle around a generator located in an ice crevasse. During the gameplay, the player will be presented with the issue of a neighbouring city struggling with resources, and will have to make a choice whether or not to help them prepare for the incoming storm. The Refugees In the third scenario, the player is set as the leader of a refugee group who have taken over a generator reserved for the wealthy. The people have intended the city to be a place where everyone is equal, but in time the people will begin to divide into two separate social classes. The player will also have to deal with constant waves of refugees seeking shelter in the city, and the player will have to decide to accept them or reject them while also minding the limited resources they have access to. The Fall of Winterhome Released on September 19th 2018 as free DLC, this scenario revolves around the story of Winterhome, a city established well before the events of the main scenario. Through ineffective management by a neglectful leader, resources ran dry and the city fell into anarchy and rioting. Hundreds die in the fighting, starvation, and cold. The player is tasked of rebuilding what is left of the city and its residents, and also discovering the lore behind the eternal winter and the wasteland they live in. Gameplay : The player character starts out with a small group of survivors (that consist of workers and engineers) and several small caches of supplies with which to build a city. From there players harvest coal, wood, steel and food in order to keep their society warm and healthy in the midst of constantly fluctuating temperatures. Weather conditions and political turmoil can cause citizens to not want to work as hard. The player has the option to use laws to regulate the productivity of their society at the cost of possibly raising discontent. Building a workshop structure allows the player to research technology that will make the city more efficient and to scout the surrounding frozen wasteland for additional survivors and resources. Development : The game was announced in August 2016.[1] The developers were initially targeting a release in the late third quarter of 2017, however the game was delayed into the first quarter of 2018.[3] Eventually, the final release date – 24 April 2018 was announced on 9 March 2018. Reception : Frostpunk received an 84 out of 100, based on 65 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews", according to review aggregator Metacritic,[5] and a 9 out of 10 from IGN. It was nominated for "Best Strategy Game" at the Game Critics Awards,[6] and for "Best Visual Design" and "PC Game of the Year" at the 2018 Golden Joystick Awards.

Destiny is an online-only multiplayer first-person shooter video game developed by Bungie and published by Activision. It was released worldwide on September 9, 2014, for the PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360, and Xbox One consoles. Destiny marked Bungie's first new console franchise since the Halo series, and it was the first game in a ten-year agreement between Bungie and Activision. Set in a "mythic science fiction" world, the game features a multiplayer "shared-world" environment with elements of role-playing games. Activities in Destiny are divided among player versus environment (PvE) and player versus player (PvP) game types. In addition to normal story missions, PvE features three-player "strikes" and six-player raids. A free roam patrol mode is also available for each planet and features public events. PvP features objective-based modes, as well as traditional deathmatch game modes. Players take on the role of a Guardian, protectors of Earth's last safe city as they wield a power called Light to protect the City from different alien races. Guardians are tasked with reviving a celestial being called the Traveler, while journeying to different planets to investigate and destroy the alien threats before humanity is completely wiped out. Bungie released four expansion packs, furthering the story, and adding new content, missions, and new PvP modes. Year One of Destiny featured two small expansions, The Dark Below in December 2014 and House of Wolves in May 2015. A third, larger expansion, The Taken King, was released in September 2015 and marked the beginning of Year Two, changing much of the core gameplay. The base game and the first three expansions were packaged into Destiny: The Taken King Legendary Edition. Another large expansion called Rise of Iron was released in September 2016, beginning Year Three. Rise of Iron was only released for the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One; PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 clients subsequently stopped receiving content updates. The base game and all four expansions were packaged into Destiny: The Collection. A full sequel, Destiny 2, released in September 2017. Upon its release, Destiny received mixed to positive reviews with criticism centered mostly around the game's storyline and post-campaign content. The game was praised for maintaining lineage from the Halo franchise, particularly in regards to its competitive experiences. On day one of its release, it sold through over US$325 million at retail in its first five days, making it the biggest new franchise launch of all time. It was GamesRadar's 2014 Game of the Year and it received the BAFTA Award for Best Game at the 2014 British Academy Video Games Awards. Gameplay : Destiny's style has been described as a first-person shooter that incorporates role-playing and MMO elements, but Bungie has avoided describing Destiny as a traditional MMO game.[2] Instead, the game has been referred to as a "shared-world shooter",[3] as it lacks many of the characteristics of a traditional MMO game. For instance, rather than players being able to communicate with all other players in the game or on a particular server — as is the case in many conventional MMO games — Destiny includes on-the-fly matchmaking that allows players to communicate only with other players with whom they are "matched" by the game. To communicate with other players in the game world, players must use their respective console's messaging system.[2] Time-limited events and modes are also occasionally added or featured in-game.[4][5] Activities in Destiny are divided among player versus environment (PvE) and player versus player (PvP) game types across the Cosmodrome and the Plaguelands (added with Rise of Iron) on Earth, its Moon, Venus, and Mars. There are also PvP maps for Mars's moon Phobos and the planet Mercury. A social space on Mercury was added with the House of Wolves expansion, but requires players to go undefeated in the Trials of Osiris Crucible mode in order to access it. Another PvE area, a massive ship called the Dreadnaught that is situated in the rings of Saturn, and two PvE missions on Phobos were added with The Taken King expansion. Character progression and classes : Players are able to improve their characters, referred to as Guardians, by gaining experience points (EXP) — when a set number of experience points are accumulated, the player's character will "level up" and gain improved statistics which further enhance performance in battle. Quests, including the "main scenario" quest line, are specific tasks given to the player by non-player characters which reward items and EXP. Completing main scenario quests progresses the overarching plot of the game. Destiny features three character classes. Each class has their own specific upgrades, perks, special abilities, and two sub-classes that allow the player to finely tune their individual characters to provide a different play style. After choosing a class, players select one of three species for their character: Human, Awoken (bluish-gray-skinned descendants of Humans), or Exo (humanoid machines). They can then customize their character, such as changing its gender or skin color. A character's species is only cosmetic and does not affect gameplay. Players can create two more characters to have a character of each class. The Taken King added a third sub-class for each class, but requires the purchase of the DLC to access the new sub-classes.[6][7] Hunters are designed to be like a bounty hunter with a focus on agility and mobility. Its Solar-based "Gunslinger" sub-class tree includes stat boosts that award accurate play, a throwing knife attack, the ability to upgrade to a triple jump, and the "Golden Gun" super, a very powerful, flaming magnum with a base magazine of three shots. The Arc-based "Bladedancer" sub-class has a heavier focus on close combat, offering an extended-range "Blink Strike", and an "Arc Blade" super (which allows the player to quickly dart between and kill enemies) with a temporary invisibility option.[6][7] The Taken King added the Void-based "Nightstalker" sub-class that includes a bow-like super called "Shadowshot" that tethers enemies together, limiting movement and preventing enemies from using abilities for a short time.[8] Warlocks are designed as a mage, or a space wizard, with a larger focus on offensive abilities, recovery, and melee attacks that can reduce the cooldown time of its abilities. Its super in the "Voidwalker" sub-class, "Nova Bomb", is an explosively powerful sphere of Void energy capable of being thrown in different ways. Its "Sunsinger" sub-class features abilities based around the Solar element, with the "Radiance" super allowing the player to temporarily improve their statistics, or revive themselves if killed.[6][7] The Taken King added the Arc-based "Stormcaller" sub-class that includes the super "Stormtrance", which produces lightning bolts that chains between enemies.[8] Titans are designed to be "tanks", with a focus on withstanding large amounts of damage to allow close quarters combat. The Titan's super in the Arc-based "Striker" sub-class, "Fist of Havoc", is a ground slamming attack that destroys all enemies in its radius. Its Void-based "Defender" sub-class offers the ability to generate a shield with its "Ward of Dawn" super. The shield can also provide temporary stat bonuses to other players that step within it.[6][7] The Taken King added the "Sunbreaker" sub-class, which features a Solar-based super, the "Hammer of Sol", creating a flaming hammer that can be thrown at enemies, or used for close-quarters combat.[8] Upon reaching the character level cap, character progression shifts to improving their "Light" level by acquiring new and better equipment. This equipment can be gained through a variety of sources, including "strikes", raids, and in-game events. Prior to The Taken King, all legendary and exotic armor, and some rare, contained an attribute called Light. Once players reached level 20, they no longer earned experience to level up; EXP earned after level 20 went towards upgrading weapons and armor, and creating Motes of Light, an in-game currency. Players could only go beyond level 20 by obtaining armor with Light, and these levels were referred to as Light levels. The initial Light level cap was 30, which increased to 32 with The Dark Below and 34 with the House of Wolves. Update patch 2.0, released in preparation for The Taken King, made the character's experience level and Light level separate: level 34 is now the experience level cap for all players; level 40 for players who own The Taken King and Rise of Iron. A higher character level allows for better equipment to be equipped. A character's Light level is now an average of the attack and defense of all equipped gear. For example, if all equipped gear has 170 Light each, the character's Light level will be 170. A higher Light level improves damage output and defense. The highest obtainable Light level was 320 for players who owned The Taken King;[9][10] the expansion's April Update increased it to 335.[11] Rise of Iron increased the highest obtainable Light level to 400.[12] Players' equipment includes weapons and armor. Legendary and exotic items are the best items for players' characters, and only one exotic weapon and one exotic armor (excluding exotic class items) can be equipped at one time. There are several different classes of weapons that are categorized as either a primary, special (secondary), or heavy weapon. Several weapons have an elemental damage type. There is Arc (blue), Solar (orange), and Void (purple). All damage types will deplete enemy shields of that type faster, and the weapon will also do extra damage to enemies if the gameplay modifiers 'Arc Burn', 'Solar Burn' or 'Void Burn' are active. The original maximum attack damage for legendary and exotic weapons was 300. This increased to 331 with The Dark Below and 365 with the House of Wolves. Because of the change to the Light level system, The Taken King numerically changed weapons of 365 damage to 170, but with no loss in damage output (365 damage of Year 1 equals 170 damage of Year 2). As with armor, weapons' attack damage contributes to the Light level and all gear can be infused to increase their numbers.[6][7][10] There are six armor slots: helmet, gauntlets, chest, legs, class item, and artifact (artifacts were added with The Taken King). Each class has armor specific to them with exotic armor that complement a character's sub-class. Each piece of armor increases overall defense. Before The Taken King, class items were only cosmetic (such as the Hunter's cloak) and did not have any stat or defense boosts. With The Taken King update, class items were given defense that contributes to players' Light level. Players' Ghost companion was also given defense with The Taken King update that contributes to their Light level. In addition to earning gear from loot drops by playing missions and other activities, players can purchase gear from faction vendors. Players can pledge their allegiance to one of three factions — Dead Orbit, Future War Cult, or New Monarchy — and earning enough reputation with a faction allows players to earn and purchase that faction's legendary items. Players also earn reputation with other vendors, such as the Vanguard and Crucible, by doing playlists or bounties for that vendor, which also have their own set of legendary items. Player versus environment (PvE) : Player versus environment game types makes up the majority of the game. PvE story missions can be played either solo or as part of a "fireteam" of up to three players. Initially, although there was an order to the story missions, they could be played in any order as more missions became available. For example, after completing Earth's second story mission, three more became available, but did not have to be played in story order. The questing system introduced in House of Wolves and refined in The Taken King requires story missions to be played in order due to quest step progression. Every day, a random story mission is featured as the Daily Heroic Story Mission, featuring bonus rewards. Each playable area offers an open world "Patrol" mode, where players can travel freely around the area and perform small tasks gathered from beacons, and they can collect materials that are used for upgrading weapons and armor. Players travel around the areas on foot or with their vehicles called Sparrows (very similar to the speeder bikes of Star Wars). Public events happen periodically and any player in the same location can participate. These location-specific events include eliminating a target, defeating incoming waves of enemies, and defending a Warsat (a crashed satellite).[13][14][15] "Strikes" are cooperative missions played with a party of three players that culminate with a boss; most strikes are side missions that are not part of the main plot. Players can play much harder versions of the strikes in what are called the SIVA Crisis Strike (formerly Vanguard Heroic Playlist) and the Weekly Nightfall Strike, which grant bonus rewards. While the SIVA Crisis is a playlist of strikes from The Taken King and Rise of Iron (as well as older strikes updated with Taken and SIVA-infected enemies), the Weekly Nightfall Strike, which is harder than heroic, is only one strike that changes every week with a chance for greater rewards. The Daily Heroic Story Mission, SIVA Crisis Strike, and Weekly Nightfall Strike each feature game modifiers that increase difficulty. Game modifiers can be positive or negative for the player. For example, a positive modifier would be "Small Arms", where damage for the player's primary weapons are doubled, but a negative modifier would be "Chaff", where the player's radar is disabled. Raids are advanced cooperative missions designed to be played by a team of six players — the only PvE game type that allows more than three players in a fireteam. Raids culminate with the elimination of a major boss that relates to the story.[13][14][15] With the release of Rise of Iron, there are four raids in Destiny. From social spaces (the Tower on Earth, the Vestian Outpost added with House of Wolves, and the Iron Temple added with Rise of Iron), players can redeem "engrams" into items, buy items, and collect challenges known as bounties to complete during activities to earn experience, build their reputation among factions, and sometimes earn items. Beyond armor and weapons, items that players can obtain include ships that represent themselves during travel cutscenes, shaders for customizing the color scheme of their armor, emblems which are banners for players' names, emotes such as a dance or gesture, and shells for their Ghost companion.

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British racer Lewis Hamilton secured his fifth Formula 1 World Championship title – and his fourth in the last five years – with a fourth place finish in the Mexican Grand Prix. The Mercedes-AMG driver went into the event knowing that seventh place would secure the title, while Ferrari rival Sebastian Vettel needed to win. Despite a strong start, Hamilton struggled with his tyres in the race and could only finish fourth. Verstappen took a comfortable race win, while Vettel battled hard to take second. Hamilton said he had mixed feelings taking the title after what he admitted was a “horrible” race where he was just “trying to hold on and bring the car home”. Feature: Autocar meets the racers who beat Lewis Hamilton But he added: “I don’t really allow myself to be too emotional in public, but I feel very, very humbled by the whole experience. It’s something that I dreamed of, but never in a million years did I think I’d be standing here today as a five-time world champion.” Hamilton, 33, has now tied Juan Manuel Fangio for second place on the all-time list with five championships, behind only seven-time title winner Michael Schumacher. Opinion: is Lewis Hamilton Britain's greatest F1 racer? (from 2016) Hamilton secured his first title driving for McLaren-Mercedes in 2008, in only his second season in the sport. He switched to the works Mercedes squad for 2013, taking his second title in 2014. He has won four of the last five titles, only narrowly missing out to team-mate Nico Rosberg in 2016. While Hamilton has benefitted from having a dominant car most years since 2014, he faced a strong challenge this year from Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel. The four-time champion led Hamilton by eight points after ten races of this year’s 21 races, but Hamilton then put in a stunning run of form, including four wins in a row – while Vettel was involved in a number of incidents – to build a substantial points lead. OUR VERDICT Mercedes-AMG A45 Mercedes-Benz A45 AMG AMG pops its hot hatchback cherry in singular, inimitable fashion, but do less expensive rivals like the Honda Civic Type R and Golf R deliver greater thrills? Find an Autocar car review Driven this week Jaguar XE SV Project 8 2018 UK first drive review - hero front 26 OCTOBER 2018 FIRST DRIVE Jaguar XE SV Project 8 2018 UK review Jaguar's 592bhp super-saloon may be a Nürburgring record holder, but how... Mercedes-AMG CLS 53 2018 road test review - hero front 26 OCTOBER 2018 CAR REVIEW Mercedes-AMG CLS 53 4MATIC+ Coupé Third-generation four-door coupé is the first to get hybridised AMG powertrain Alfa Romeo Stelvio Quadrifoglio 2018 UK RHD first drive - hero front 25 OCTOBER 2018 FIRST DRIVE Alfa Romeo Stelvio Quadrifoglio 2018 UK review Alfa’s extreme SUV finally arrives in right-hand-drive form, with potent... Hamilton could have secured the title in last weekend’s United States Grand Prix, but a strategy error meant he finished third behind Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen and Red Bull’s Max Verstappen. Unusually, Hamilton has secured three of his five championships without finishing on the podium, and his fourth place in Mexico ended a run of nine consecutive podiums. With two races remaining, Hamilton has secured nine race wins this season, giving him a total of 71 for his career. That puts him second on the all-time winners list behind Schumacher, who has 91. Hamilton has also claimed 132 podium finishes and a record 81 pole positions. He has also secured a multi-year agreement to stay at the Mercedes F1 squad, giving him the opportunity to add to those totals in the years to come.

Ginger salad : With pickled ginger as the key component, this refreshing salad makes a good counterpoint to any rich curry or stirfry. Japanese pickled ginger is not hard to find at well-stocked grocers – opt for white pickled ginger instead of pink, if possible. You can also make your own. It is especially good when made with young ginger, if you are lucky enough to come across it. Like all good Burmese salads, this recipe does not skimp on all the crunchy bits. Keep them on hand to make more of this salad; you may want to eat it all week. If you happen to have fresh ginger juice handy, add a splash to the bowl as you mix the salad. Serves 4 : 4 cups thinly sliced romaine lettuce (about 1 romaine head) 1½ cups shredded cabbage 3 heaped tbsp thinly sliced pickled ginger, chopped 2 tbsp fried garlic chips 3 tbsp fried yellow split peas 3 tbsp coarsely chopped cilantro 2 tbsp sunflower seeds 2 tbsp coarsely chopped toasted peanuts 2 tbsp minced jalapenos 1 tbsp toasted sesame seeds 1½ tbsp toasted chickpea flour 1½ tbsp onion oil or canola oil 2 tbsp juice from the ginger pickling liquid 2 tbsp fish sauce ¼ tbsp salt 1 lime or lemon, cut into wedges In a salad bowl, combine the lettuce, cabbage, pickled ginger, fried garlic, split peas, cilantro, sunflower seeds, peanuts, jalapenos, and sesame seeds. Sprinkle chickpea flour over the top and drizzle with oil and pickling liquid. Add the fish sauce and salt (use more salt if you are not using fish sauce). Squeeze 1 or 2 lime wedges over the top. Using your hands, mix well and taste, adding more salt or lime juice if needed. Pickled ginger : The best pickled ginger is made with young ginger, but even mature ginger can be pickled. Older ginger will likely be spicier, so you may want to use less of it. Peel a 3in piece of ginger (about 1½oz). Slice it very thinly into planks with a sharp knife or a mandoline and transfer to a heatproof container. In a small saucepan over medium heat, combine 2 tablespoons of sugar, 5 tablespoons of distilled white vinegar, and 2 tablespoons of water, stirring until the sugar dissolves. Pour the mixture over the ginger and let it cool to room temperature. Refrigerate until needed. Chicken with mint : Serves 3, or 4 as part of a larger meal Those who like laap will love this Burmese-Chinese version of the herby Thai minced meat dish. Here, minced chicken is stirfried with ground cumin and mustard seeds, ginger, garlic, and a spoonful of sambal oelek. Whole cloves of garlic are mixed in for texture, but they are fried ahead of time to reduce the pungency of eating them raw. Use the smaller cloves found on the inside of a head of garlic or slice large cloves in half. You can turn this into a vegetarian dish by dicing up a block of firm tofu, letting it drain on paper towels for a few minutes, and then stirfrying the tofu pieces in place of the chicken. 1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breasts (about 2 small) or 4 to 5 boneless, skinless chicken thighs 1⁄2 tsp cumin seeds 1⁄2 tsp black mustard seeds 2 tbsp sambal oelek (shop bought) 1 tbsp dark soy sauce or 1 teaspoon salt 1 tsp fish sauce 1⁄4 tsp sugar 2 tbsp canola oil 6 to 8 small garlic cloves 1 tsp minced garlic 1 tsp minced ginger 1⁄2 jalapeno, chopped, or 2 Thai chillis, sliced 1⁄4 cup chopped cilantro, plus extra sprigs for garnish 1⁄4 cup chopped mint Lime wedges, for garnish To mince the chicken, place the pieces on the cutting board so the smooth side is facing up. With a knife blade parallel to the cutting board, slice the chicken in half width-wise, opening it up into two thinner, even pieces. Cut the chicken against the grain into thin strips, then chop the strips finely. Run the knife over the meat until it looks evenly minced. (Cutting the chicken by hand results in a better texture than using ground chicken.) In a dry wok or skillet, toast the cumin seeds and mustard seeds until the cumin is fragrant and the mustard seeds start to pop, no more than 30 seconds. Transfer to a mortar with a pestle or a coffee grinder used for grinding spices and pulverise into a coarse powder. In a small bowl, mix together the sambal, soy sauce, fish sauce, and sugar. (If not using soy sauce, you may need a pinch more fish sauce.) In a wok or large skillet, heat the oil over medium heat. Tilt the wok so the oil pools to one side and add the garlic cloves. (This helps the garlic cloves stay submerged in oil so they fry more evenly.) Fry until light golden and softened, about 1 minute. Use a slotted spoon to remove the garlic cloves. Leave the oil in the wok. Heat the wok over high heat. When the oil is hot (but not smoking), add the minced garlic and ginger. Stirfry for a few seconds and add the chicken. Using a spatula or wooden spoon, stir-fry the chicken briefly, then press the meat against the sides of the wok to increase the surface area and decrease how much the chicken steams. (If using a skillet, spread the chicken evenly across its base.) Water will start to pool in the centre of the wok, but that’s okay – it will cook out. After a minute, give the wok a stir so the chicken pieces don’t stick together. Repeat this step until the chicken is light brown in places and pale in others, about 3 minutes depending on the wok and the burner strength. Stir in the mustard-cumin blend, sambal mixture, fried garlic cloves, and jalapeno. Stir constantly, until the liquid just lightly coats the meat. Mix in the chopped cilantro and mint. Serve with cilantro sprigs and lime wedges.

the owner of Leicester City FC died when his helicopter crashed outside the stadium, the club has confirmed. Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha, two members of his staff, the pilot and a passenger were killed when the aircraft crashed at about 20:30 BST on Saturday. Witnesses said the helicopter just cleared the King Power Stadium before it spiralled out of control and crashed in a fireball. Thousands of bouquets and scarves have already been left outside the ground. Leicestershire Police said it believed the dead to be: Leicester owner Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha Two members of his staff Nursara Suknamai and Kaveporn Punpare Pilot Eric Swaffer Passenger Izabela Roza Lechowicz Ms Lechowicz, who moved to the UK from Poland in 1997, and Mr Swaffer were professional pilots who lived together in Camberley, Surrey. In a statement, the Polish embassy said: "With great sadness, we received the news about the death of Izabela Lechowicz in the Leicester catastrophe. "She was a great pilot, winner of the #Polka100 contest. It contributed to the creation of a positive image of Poland in the UK." Mr Swaffer had over 20 years' flying experience as a private jet and helicopter pilot. His career included flying helicopters for live media broadcasting including Channel 4's Thai billionaire Mr Srivaddhanaprabha, 60, who was married and had four children, bought Leicester City for £39m in 2010. Under his ownership the club won the Premier League in 2016, having started the season as 5,000/1 outsiders. In a statement, Leicester City said the club's thoughts were with "the Srivaddhanaprabha family and the families of all those on-board at this time of unspeakable loss". Leicester players pay tributes to owner Leicester helicopter crash: What we know The club described Mr Srivaddhanaprabha as "a man of kindness, of generosity and a man whose life was defined by the love he devoted to his family and those he so successfully led". "Leicester City was a family under his leadership. It is as a family that we will grieve his passing and maintain the pursuit of a vision for the club that is now his legacy," it added. A book of condolence will be opened at King Power Stadium from Tuesday morning. The team's next fixture against Southampton in the EFL Cup, scheduled for Tuesday evening, has been postponed. Leicester goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel, who witnesses said ran out of the stadium towards the crash scene, said Mr Srivaddhanaprabha had "changed football forever". "I cannot believe this is happening. I am so totally devastated and heartbroken," he added. Club captain Wes Morgan tweeted: "Absolutely heartbroken and devastated regarding the news of our chairman. A man that was loved and adored by everyone here at lcfc." Premier League chief executive Richard Scudamore said: "Vichai was a gentleman who graced the game with his civility and charm and we will miss him enormously. "His impact on Leicester - the football club and the city - will be remembered forever." Paris Saint-Germain, Inter Milan, West Ham United, Tottenham Hotspur, Nottingham Forest and Swansea City were among the football clubs that passed on condolences to Leicester. Leicestershire Police confirmed no-one else had been injured and said the Air Accidents Investigation Branch had launched an investigation. The helicopter came down in a car park near the stadium just over an hour after Leicester had drawn 1-1 against West Ham United in the Premier League. Who was Leicester's billionaire owner? 'Probably the best owner in England' Supt Steve Potter said: "Emergency services were immediately on scene when the crash happened, working to put out the fire and gain access to the helicopter in attempts to reach those inside. "Despite those efforts, there were no survivors." Supt Potter said it was likely to take several days to complete the investigation at the crash site. Freelance photographer Ryan Brown, who was covering the game, saw the helicopter clear the King Power Stadium before it crashed. He told BBC Radio Leicester: "The engine stopped and I turned round and it made a bit of a whirring noise, like a grinding noise. "The helicopter just went silent, I turned round and it was just spinning, out of control. And then there was a big bang and then [a] big fireball."

AOC, A brand that is well known for their budget, but still high quality gaming monitors has introduced the V2 series of its framless monitors with a slim design and IPS, the V2 series has 3 monitor models, they have released, a 22 inch, a 24 inch and a 27 inch model which are all only 1080P but feature FreeSync technology with an IPS panel and AOC Releases New FreeSync IPS Monitors Under $100 The V2 Series offers great image quality at its full HD resolution; the monitor itself also features a gorgeous ultra slim design. The line uses an advanced IPS panel which produces brilliant colors and offers wide viewing angles. The monitor is perfect for home entertainment or professional tasks such as watching videos, editing photos or gaming. In addition to looking modern and attractive, the V2 Series’ frameless design enables seamless multi-monitor setups for professional or home use. Users won’t need to worry about large black bezels hampering their productivity. The line’s borderless display offers a detailed 1920×1080 resolution and fast 75Hz refresh rate. The panel has viewing angles of 178 degrees, allowing user to enjoy consistent color uniformity and accuracy at all angles. The V2 line also has a 20M:1 dynamic contrast with a 5ms response time, and features several different inputs, including one VGA and one HDMI for connectivity of all users’ high-quality digital video and audio devices. Additionally, the display uses AMD FreeSync technology for a seamless synchronization of GPU and monitor refresh rates, without sacrificing performance. This technology delivers a gaming experience with zero tearing or stuttering and no input lag when playing games or watching video.

A computer built to mimic the brain's neural networks produces similar results to that of the best brain-simulation supercomputer software currently used for neural-signaling research, finds a new study published in the open-access journal Frontiers in Neuroscience. Tested for accuracy, speed and energy efficiency, this custom-built computer named SpiNNaker, has the potential to overcome the speed and power consumption problems of conventional supercomputers. The aim is to advance our knowledge of neural processing in the brain, to include learning and disorders such as epilepsy and Alzheimer's disease. "SpiNNaker can support detailed biological models of the cortex -- the outer layer of the brain that receives and processes information from the senses -- delivering results very similar to those from an equivalent supercomputer software simulation," says Dr. Sacha van Albada, lead author of this study and leader of the Theoretical Neuroanatomy group at the Jülich Research Centre, Germany. "The ability to run large-scale detailed neural networks quickly and at low power consumption will advance robotics research and facilitate studies on learning and brain disorders." The human brain is extremely complex, comprising 100 billion interconnected brain cells. We understand how individual neurons and their components behave and communicate with each other and on the larger scale, which areas of the brain are used for sensory perception, action and cognition. However, we know less about the translation of neural activity into behavior, such as turning thought into muscle movement. Supercomputer software has helped by simulating the exchange of signals between neurons, but even the best software run on the fastest supercomputers to date can only simulate 1% of the human brain. "It is presently unclear which computer architecture is best suited to study whole-brain networks efficiently. The European Human Brain Project and Jülich Research Centre have performed extensive research to identify the best strategy for this highly complex problem. Today's supercomputers require several minutes to simulate one second of real time, so studies on processes like learning, which take hours and days in real time are currently out of reach." explains Professor Markus Diesmann, co-author, head of the Computational and Systems Neuroscience department at the Jülich Research Centre. He continues, "There is a huge gap between the energy consumption of the brain and today's supercomputers. Neuromorphic (brain-inspired) computing allows us to investigate how close we can get to the energy efficiency of the brain using electronics." Developed over the past 15 years and based on the structure and function of the human brain, SpiNNaker -- part of the Neuromorphic Computing Platform of the Human Brain Project -- is a custom-built computer composed of half a million of simple computing elements controlled by its own software. The researchers compared the accuracy, speed and energy efficiency of SpiNNaker with that of NEST -- a specialist supercomputer software currently in use for brain neuron-signaling research. "The simulations run on NEST and SpiNNaker showed very similar results," reports Steve Furber, co-author and Professor of Computer Engineering at the University of Manchester, UK. "This is the first time such a detailed simulation of the cortex has been run on SpiNNaker, or on any neuromorphic platform. SpiNNaker comprises 600 circuit boards incorporating over 500,000 small processors in total. The simulation described in this study used just six boards -- 1% of the total capability of the machine. The findings from our research will improve the software to reduce this to a single board." Van Albada shares her future aspirations for SpiNNaker, "We hope for increasingly large real-time simulations with these neuromorphic computing systems. In the Human Brain Project, we already work with neuroroboticists who hope to use them for robotic control."

Hello there & Have a nice day ! well try to download that map if it doesnt download and stuck in 1% try to download it be ur self here turturial : The server is too rotten. Or your connection. A choice. Often it's the server side that's right. The only way to solve this problem, which I know I had to apply on a Source server, is that administrators - in cardboard - install a mirror for the cards. Or that you download beforehand the cards in your corner on the site of the authors or on a site which groups them like FPSBanana. Choice again. Hope that Help u and hope ur problem will be solved !