Did you upgrade your Nvidia drivers yesterday? Are you wondering why you woke up this morning and you’re already being asked to upgrade your Nvidia drivers? It can be a little bothersome, especially if you’re on slow internet, as you need to replace the full driver suite each time. However, it seems like there’s a good reason to update again, as the “old” driver was screwing with the memory clock speeds for many users, which can be devastating to in-game performance.
The GTX 1080, 1070 and 1060 seemed to be the ones affected by the error, but the driver also seems to throw up some issues with CoD: Infinite Warfare and battlefield 1 in SLI and rolling back the driver is likely the best solution for those games, at least for now.
The new driver released today should fix the memory problems, but if you want to play it safe, wait a few days before updating until they’ve been proven stable.
Blizzard’s super popular Overwatch is celebrating the Chinese lunar new year by having a Year of the Rooster event, giving characters custom themed skins relevant to the celebration including Sun Wukong Winston, Tan Sanzang Zenyatta, Zhu Bajie Roadhog, and “Palanquin” D.Va as well as having a new Capture the Rooster-themed brawl using a rooster instead of the usual flag. Not everyone is happy and in on the celebration however. While Blizzard received flack during the holidays for Mei’s skin being basically just a palette-swap of her original using red and green colors instead with a hat, the internet mob is outraged once again for a different reason this time: a skinnier Mei.
Many have taken on Twitter, Tumblr and other social media to point out how the new Mei is several pounds lighter and several inches skinnier than her usual look when using her Year of the Rooster skin. The change is even more obvious when seen from a side profile as Mei’s CryoTank does not even connect with her back anymore. The character itself has not been without controversy since the game was launcehd as she has been adopted by many “fat acceptance activists” online as a positive image of their own while many also contend that she is not fat but simply wearing many layers of clothing, including an Arctic-styled parka. Blizzard stated that the skinnier Mei is simply a glitch and was not intended to be a permanent change.
“There’s a bug with Mei’s Luna and Chang’e skins right now that’s causing her waist to appear much smaller than normal. We’ve already fixed the bug internally, but it’s going to require a patch to implement (ideally it’ll be included in whatever next patch hits your gaming platform),” said an Lylirra, an Overwatch community manager on the official Overwatch forums. There might be some merit to this as players have also been reporting that Reinhardt’s new Wujang skin does not show cracks.
The Overwatch Year of the Rooster event is running until February 13th and includes over 100 commemorative themed cosmetic items in-game.
Fans who have the privilege of playing Mass Effect Andromeda ahead of everyone else before its March 21st release are having a field day mocking the poorly executed and often-times glitchy animation online. Aside from the obvious disparity in graphics quality from what was shown previously, the latest Mass Effect title appears more and more half-baked and premature as more people post about their gameplay experience online. Most notable are the lifelessness in some of the animation compared to previous Mass Effect games, with many characters just standing there without gesturing while talking and many character models have a very dead look in their eyes. Some screenshots even show the guns pointing backwards in some scenes. It is a very bad sign when the much older game has superior graphics than the latest version.
YouTuber xLetalis shows some of these animations in his latest video, comparing the graphics to Mass Effect 1 and Witcher which has a smaller budget and smaller development team:
Here is another YouTube video compiled by Drew Peacock from various sources demonstrating just some of these awkward and poor quality animations:
It is so bad that it is actually hilarious. Keep in mind that Mass Effect is a big budget major release title and that Mass Effect 3’s budget was $40M, so even though there is no data yet on what the production budget is for Mass Effect Andromeda, it is safe to say it is in the same ball-park or greater. If you want to see more of Mass Effect Andromeda’s poor animation hilarity, I suggest going to Twitter and browse all the GIFs that people have been posting. What’s sad is that many have pointed this out already last year when the teaser trailer came out but everyone remained hopeful and defended the game in the comments saying that it is still an early version that will be fixed before launch. Well, the release date is only a few days away and it seems that is not the case at all.
Bioware is about to issue update patch v1.05 that is scheduled for Thursday, April 6th that aims to improve several key animations such as lip-synching and facial acting during conversations. The eyeball animations for Asari and Human characters have also been improved as well as Ryder’s walking animation problems when running in a zig-zag pattern. Update patch v1.05 also improves multiplayer matchmaking and latency as well.
Many fans and critics have been very vocal about their disappointment with the in-game animation over the past few weeks and even before its release, and this patch is Bioware’s way of saying ‘we are listening’. In addition to cosmetic improvements, Bioware is also finally adding the most requested feature ever since Mass Effect Andromeda launched: galaxy map autopilot sequence skipping. Bioware also urges fans to continue sending in suggestions which they can consider incorporating on subsequent updates.
Update Patch v1.05 notes:
Improved tutorial placement
Increased inventory limits
Single player balance changes: Ammo crates, armor, weapons, nomad, profiles, attacks, and progression
Multiplayer balance changes: Weapons, cover, and enemies (check back for detailed notes on balance changes)
Improved matchmaking and latency in multiplayer
Added option to skip autopilot sequences in the galaxy map
Decreased the cost of remnant decryption keys and made them more accessible at merchants
Improved logic, timing, and continuity for relationships and story arcs
Improved lip-sync and facial acting during some conversations, including localized VO
Fixed an issue with Ryder’s movements when running in a zig zag pattern
Improved the appearance of eyes for human and asari characters
Fixed various collision issues
Fixed bugs where music or VO wouldn’t play or wasn’t correct
Fixed issue where global squad mate banter sometimes wasn’t firing on UNCs
Fixed issue where player was unable to access the Remnant Console Interface after failing decryption multiple times
Fixed issue where fast travel is sometimes disabled after recruiting Drack until the player reloads a save
Fixed issue where Ryder can become stuck in the start of Biotic Charge Pose
Fixes issues related to some saves
Fixed issue where objective sometimes becomes un-interactable for players in multiplayer
The latest DLC from Respawn Entertainment’s Titanfall 2 titled ‘Glitch in the Frontier’ will go live on April 25, but for now they have released a teaser trailer highlighting what is to come with the upcoming free downloadable content. As promised in their blog several weeks ago, Titanfall 2 will be getting new multiplayer and live fire maps, as well as a new faction. The trailer opens up with a MRVN back in the scene waving the players off the drop ship. MRVNs were prominent in the original Titanfall but now, they are going to be the face of the new faction.
The new multiplayer map is called Glitch, it is a medium-sized area with plenty of twists and very chain-run friendly. The trailer actually does a good job showing how smooth the gameplay flows in this new multiplayer map. It is almost reminiscent of the WarGames map in the original Titanfall. There is also an interesting live map on one of the walls which could shake the multiplayer side a bit. The new live fire map is called Deck, showing a small, confined space with plenty of wall running opportunities. The trailer also shows flying drones which the players can grapple into which would make for an interesting shooter vantage point.
Aside from these updates, Titanfall 2 is also getting some tweaks, including an improved main menu, a new execution method shown in the trailer, and more. The ‘Glitch in the Frontier’ DLC update will be completely free once it goes live on April 25.
Having a C4 jeep in Battlefield 1 can be done, but it’s not quite as easy as it was in previous Battlefield games.
Those of you who have played the Battlefield series might remember a common tactic of the C4 jeep, more commonly (and offensively) known as the ‘Jihad jeep’ or ‘jeep stuff’ as popularised by ‘Battlefield Friends’.
The tactic can in brief be described in the following chain of events;
You find a weak/common vehicle (a jeep).
You place explosives on that vehicle (c4 for example).
You climb into that vehicle and drive around looking for a heavily armoured vehicle (usually a tank).
You point your jeep at the tank, speed up to create some momentum and ‘bail out’.
With any luck, your vehicle will continue to roll and crash into the side of the tank.
You detonate your explosive and usually take out the tank with it.
Wait for the explosion of hate mail in the chat bar.
The tactic was created to effectively take out tanks and lowering the risk to yourself, and it was quite effective.
I myself must confess to perfecting the art of the Air Transport crash on Battlefield 2142. With a lot of practice, I found the ability to crush enemies by slick manoeuvres and even found a way to destroy a walker by crashing into it, but still surviving myself. My friends soon learnt that if they were in a walker and they saw an air transport coming, to run away very quickly. Without blowing my own trumpet, this did get me in the top 10 air transport scores in the world for about 8 months so it does prove that certain ‘underhand” tactics can give great results.
You find a breakable object (such as a crate) and place explosives on it.
You drive your vehicle (in the videos instance a motorbike) through it.
With any luck, the explosives stick to your bike.
Enjoy!
I have tried this myself and can confirm it does kinda work, but it is very tricky and will likely be patched in the next few months, but still, if you’re one of those people who like ‘dirty tactics’ I shall look forward to raging at you via the chat in-game.
The famous Megalodon easter egg has finally been discovered in Battlefield 1, and as you can imagine, the unlocking of it is as trick as usual.
The fine people at Dice have always had a habit of inserting rather bizarre and fun Easter eggs into their games, 3 years ago people were thrilled to find the Megalodon in Battlefield 4, there was also in BF4 the lesser known T-Rex Easter Egg (where you could see trees moving in the distance and the roar of a dinosaur) and also the random Pterodactyl flying around in battlefield 3. With the exception of the latter, these have always been a really complicated affair to unlock and in Battlefield 1 this is no exception.
So… what do you have to do to unlock this beast?
Buy the DLC “They Shall Not Pass” as it’s the map you need.
You must locate 3 valves on the map (2 inside the building, and 1 cryptically hidden underground).
You (and your team mates) must turn all 3 valves on at the same time.
The crater near C will begin to fill with water… so far so good.
Near B there is a corridor with a bunch of crates in the corner – destroying the crates will reveal a long pipe, leading down. You must throw a grenade down here.
HUMAN SACRIFICE!!! – Back to the puddle – 3 people must be knifed inside the puddle to summon Megalodon. MEGALODON REQUIRES BLOOD!
Boom! – Stand in the puddle and wait to be eaten.
So, as you can clearly see, not easy, which might have you thinking, how on earth was this discovered?
Well, in the release of the DLC, Dice placed random recordings throughout the game on ‘vinyl discs’.
SO YOU ARE HERE FOR THE SECRET THAT LIES BELOW VAUX. MAKE SURE YOU ARE READY FOR THIS JOURNEY. DO NOT THINK IT WILL BE EASY, AND DO NOT EXPECT ANY REWARD. ALL YOU WILL FIND IS DEATH. A HINT; THAT IS ALL I HAVE FOR YOU, SO LISTEN CLOSELY: THE MEN THAT LIVED HERE KNEW ITS SECRETS. SEARCH WHERE THEY RESTED WHEN THEY DID NOT WORK
Still cryptic I know, but some clever clogs finally managed to put the pieces together and Megalodon is their reward!
So there you have it, if you want me to talk more about Megalodon, we’re going to need a bigger anecdote!… I’m sorry.
Super Mario World was perhaps one of the greatest games ever made. Combining excellent visuals with a good level of challenge, for many, this was their ‘gateway’ into the world of gaming. Personally, for me, it was Chuckie Egg on the Acorn Electron, but you get the idea.
Fans of the game have however been finding new ways to play the game and even beyond the standard remit of speed running. One of these runs is what is known as the ‘credits warp‘ and popular runner SethBling has just set a new record for this with a time of 55:58 seconds. Yes, that’s from start to the ‘finish’.
The credits warp explained
We have included the video of the speed run in below, but put simply, in the run SethBling was able, from the start of the game to get it to start the credits within 56 seconds.
How? Well, it’s at this point that things get a little complicated. Put simply items are used and/or manipulated to place the games coding in a specific pattern. From this and the execution of the glitch, the game (should) warp you immediately to the end credits. For Super Mario World this represents the fastest category of a speed run.
The legitimacy of the glitch
Given the unusual nature of this, it was for a time called into question whether the glitch would be possible on a console. SethBling, however, was able to prove that the glitch could be performed on a genuine, unmodified, SNES and Super Mario World cartridge.
The speed run and glitch viability is therefore very much accepted within the remit of speed running. An alternative and more traditional route is via Star Road, that, however, usually takes about 10 minutes. Something which, incidentally, usually takes me about 30 minutes because I’m useless.
How do people even find this stuff out?
Personally, I have no idea. People who really understand coding and love Mario I guess.
I played the bejeezus out of Mario World and I never came anything close to this level of play efficiency. Personally, the best I managed was completing half of the 2nd star world.
What do you think? Impressed with the run? In addition, amazed that it was even possible? – Let us know in the comments!
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Smartphones these days are capable of a lot of amazing things. Playing games, e-mails, social media, music etc. One of the more fundamental things, however, is actually being able to receive telephone calls.
A newly identified bug with iPhone X phones, however, has owners unable to answer incoming calls. Suddenly that £999 phone can’t even do something a £20 off the shelf model can.
Bug in the machine
In a report via the Guardian, following the most recent IOSupdate, some users have found that when incoming calls are made to their phone, the phone’s screen locks up.
The report suggests that Apple‘s forums are currently being flooded with complaints with some suggesting that the screen locks can occur for anything from 6-8 seconds.
Has Apple provided a fix for the issue?
Yes, and no. It would seem that Apple’s temporarily solution would be to restart the phone and in fairness, this would seem to sort the problem out. It is, however, only a temporary fix. Users are reporting that after 10-15 calls the exact same issue
A post on the forums has said: “Sometimes the screen does not turn on and this problem can last for a few seconds or remains permanent until I do a forced reboot.”
A permanent fix for this issue will surely be on the way shortly, but as above, for a £999 phone, you would have hoped for better. At least they’re not exploding anymore.
What do you think? Do you own an iPhone X? Would another issue put you off getting one? – Let us know in the comments!
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For racing fans, Forza has been one of the standout series in recent years. Yes, I can already see you Project Cars fans frothing at the mouth, maybe even fans of Gran Turismo and while your games are pretty good, they don’t release anywhere near as regular as you would probably like.
I’m certainly no advocate of Forza, particularly their recent microtransaction riddled, titles. That does, however, outright stop them being great games.
For fans of Forza 7, and particularly those on PC, there is some good news for you. A new patch has been released which adds new game packs and in addition, fixes a lot of bugs which semi-plagued the PC release.
Spectate & Seed the Grid
Part of the new packs includes Spectate and Seed the Grid. The former, spectate, is pretty self-explanatory. Players now have the option to join lobbies or races simply to watch rather than participate. This might sound a little boring, but it does give you the option to perhaps follow a racer and pick up some tricks.
The latter is again, something which Forza 7 was missing. The option for the grid to be populated and set by the host. Therefore, either the better racers (or at least ones you trust) can be put where you think best and maybe all those random rammers can be kept to the rear.
The Patch also comes with some big PC specific fixes including;
Fixed an issue where information on the next race was missing in Forza Driver’s Cup campaign.
Fixed an issue with Text to Speech chat affecting multiplayer gameplay.
Text to Speech chat now has a 100-character limit for PC players (same as console character limit).
Fixed an issue where setting Dynamic Render Quality to a specific level changes the Performance Target from “Unlocked,” but the menu still shows the setting as “Locked.” Now, when any advanced option is changed using the mouse, Dynamic Optimization changes from “Dynamic” to “Custom.”
What do we think?
The fix, as comes to us in a report via DSOGaming, is certainly good news and represents perhaps the biggest list of changes and more importantly fixes since the launch.
We are certainly not suggesting that Forza 7 is perfect and frankly, in my opinion, it won’t be until microtransactions are scrapped. The general play and online experience, however, should be a lot more enjoyable for gamers.
What do you think? Do you play Forza? Planning on going back now after the patch? – Let us know in the comments!
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Fans of classic cabinet arcade games will undoubtedly be familiar with Qbert. The premise of the game was simple. Using an isometric design, jump on all of the platforms a suitable number of times while avoiding the balls, snakes and other enemies trying to get you. It’s that easy!
While it sounds simple, as per Donkey Kong, most first timers will struggle to get past the opening level.
While pitting an AI to learn how to play the game, however, in a report via PCGamesN, the AI has unexpectedly found a way to beat the game by breaking it!
Cheating!
In the study, conducted in Freiberg University in Germany, they found that the AI had, somehow, found a means of glitching the first level allowing for an incredible amount of points to be scored.
Initially, it appears that the AI is acting randomly and poorly, but there is indeed method in its madness.
The report study has said: “First, it completes the first level and then starts to jump from platform to platform in what seems to be a random manner. For a reason unknown to us, the game does not advance to the second round but the platforms start to blink and the agent quickly gains a huge amount of points (close to 1 million for our episode time limit)”
The AI, therefore, isn’t cheating, it’s exploiting the code and to excellent effect.
High Score possibilities
Before you go rushing off to try and utilize this glitch to get your name on the high-score world-record charts. The designer of the game, Warren Davis, is a little cynical that the programming could be corrupted or corrected in such a way to cause this glitch. He has said, and in fairness, many seem to agree, that the glitch is likely due to the combination of emulation software and the AI.
Either way, it’s pretty impressive to find that an AI can not only learn how to play a game but also to glitch it as well.
What do you think? Impressed with the AI? Could this be replicated in a cabinet run? – Let us know in the comments!
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By supporting eTeknix, you help us grow. And continue to bring you the latest news, reviews, and competitions. Follow us on Facebook and Twitter to keep up with the latest technology. Share your favourite articles, chat with the team and more. Also check out eTeknix YouTube, where you’ll find our latest video reviews, event coverage and features in 4K!
Over the last few days, rumours began to emerge that a message ‘bomb’ was floating around on the PlayStation Network. This would essentially be a message sent to you which caused your system to crash. Initially, Sony did not comment on the matter and in fairness, with rumours such as this, it can often be difficult to ascertain whether they are true or just an elaborate hoax.
There was certainly more than a little hyperbole about the matter!
It seems though that they were indeed true. In a report via Eurogamer, however, the good news is that Sony has reportedly fixed the problem!
Not As Bad As Some Made Out!
We have seen numerous sources attempt to blow this matter exceptionally out of proportion. Just to be clear, the message bomb did not cause systems to be ‘bricked’. For those unaware of the term, that is where a piece of hardware is rendered completely broken beyond all normal remits of repair. It was found that the error could be corrected by simply resetting your PlayStations hardware or, much more simpler, by using the PlayStation app on your phone to delete the offending message from there.
Yes, your system wouldn’t restart correctly without this, but calling systems ‘bricked’ is a step too far in terms of accuracy!
Business As Usual
Regardless of your interpretation of ‘bricked’ the good news is that the problem is now fixed which draws the line under this brief saga. It isn’t, of course, the first time we’ve seen messages used to disrupt systems. We still recall the incident with iPhones in 2015. Assuredly as well, this won’t be the last. Fortunately though, when they do happen, they are relatively isolated affairs that seem to be fixed rather quickly.
What do you think? Did you experience any problems with this? – Let us know in the comments!
While you might be able to find various reasons to criticise Facebook, on the whole, it’s hard to argue that the social media site generally tends to work very well. You rarely hear of downtime and, more so, you really encounter any unusual problems. It seems, however, that a random, but very strange, bug has started appearing.
In a report via The Verge, Facebook has confirmed that a weird glitch is currently affecting users. The glitch is causing years old messages to appear as brand new notifications.
Don’t Get Excited!
You might log into Facebook to be notified that a long-lost partner has just sent you a brand new message. Before you get too excited about rekindling that old flame though, this is an error. The social media site has confirmed that this is happening to many users, although at present they have absolutely no idea why.
“Some people are seeing older messages on Facebook.com. We are aware of the issue and are actively working to resolve it in as soon as possible.” – Facebook
Update!
The good news is that the social media site has confirmed that while the error did exist, it has now been corrected – “Earlier today, some people may have experienced Facebook resending older messages. The issue, caused by software updates, has been fully resolved. We’re sorry for any inconvenience.”
The term ‘software updates’ is a little vague and doesn’t really seem to explain much. At the very least though, if you did experience any problems, the good news is that they should have stopped now.
What do you think? Did you experience any issues? – Let us know in the comments!
When it launched last month, Fallout 76 was pretty much universally panned by the critics. It has, however, been something of a matter of personal curiosity that despite so many people hating the game, I rather like it. Sure, it’s clunky. I do, however, suspect that this will get significantly better over time.
As more and more patches come to the game, the experience is improving. In other words, slowly but surely, things are getting better.
In a brand new patch released for the PC version (and on consoles later this week) fans are not happy. Why? Well, because a bug has been fixed. Yes, you read that correctly!
Feed The People
Anyone who has played Fallout 76 is probably very familiar with the ‘Feed The People’ event. This is, for those of you who are not, a world event which players can join to essentially keep a food factory in production. Upon completion of the event, (if successful) players were rewarded with food. It was, however, a rather pleasant bug that you were given food even if you didn’t participate in the event.
With this now being fixed though, players are not happy. They are, in fact, so unhappy that in a report via Polygon, they have asked Bethesda to put the bug back in.
Well – That Explains It Then!
While it is unlikely that Bethesda will correct the error, the notification of it has at least given some users answers. Specifically, why they kept getting canned food magically appearing in their inventory. It is, however, entirely possible that, just for the fun of it, they might reintroduce it. I know for a fact I’m going to miss the freebie!
Have you ever heard of a game called Glare1More? No, me neither. As one of the (seemingly thousands) of graphical novels available on Steam, however, not being aware of it is not exactly any slight on your gaming knowledge.
It must, however, have been very confusing for all concerned when the game went from an average hourly player count of around 0.8 to nearly 35,000.
Well, in a report via PCGamesN, it turns out that a glitch in the Steam Database was (temporarily) allowing people to grab a free copy of the game.
Why So Many Downloads?
Well, at the risk of offending the developer, it actually didn’t have much to do with the game so much as what the game had. Namely, Steam trading cards. As such, many grabbed a copy while the opportunity was there just to boost their card collections and/or Steam profile.
As you can see, however, the developer (while taking it in a lot better humour than I would) seemed to understand the nature of the issue.
What Went Wrong?
Well, it basically boils down to the developer making a slight error and, in fairness, he’s not the first to do it either. Offering the game for free to certain establishments (as a promotional tool) a ‘free license’ of the game was provided on Steam for them to access it. With a little digging, however, this could be accessed by regular users.
As above, it’s not even the first time this has happened, but it’s certainly one of the highest profile examples based on the rush for the trading cards.
Before you try it yourself, we are told that the backdoor is now closed, but if you want to understand how this happened in more detail, check out the video below!
It has been a long time now since I paid any notable attention to the WWE (or WWF as I shall always refer to it). I must confess though, it is something of a guilty pleasure that I have to occasionally dip my toe into. It’s probably something to do with growing up during the ‘Golden Era’ of wrestlers such as Randy Savage, Hulk Hogan, Andre the Giant and many more I promise you I could list!
Having never generally heard much good about the gaming releases from 2K, however, I have at least been sensible enough to avoid (most) of them.
With the recent release of the latest gaming adaptation (WWE 2K20), however, it seems that based on the Twitter reports, the only people who are likely enjoying it at the moment are those who, like me, are just sitting back and watching this disaster unfold!
Following a number of posts on various review and social media accounts, it seems pretty clear that in terms of a ‘polished product’ WWE 2K20 is about as far away from that description as you could possibly imagine. It is, quite frankly, turning into something of a “dumpster fire” in terms of negativity largely because the game is so horrendously crammed full of glitches, bugs and other things that break the (to use a wrestling term) “kayfabe” of the experience.
“After playing this game I can say that it is the BIGGEST DUMPSTER FIRE EVER PRODUCED BY 2K!!!!!!!! This game has bugs that you only see in Alpha builds and shouldn’t be in a finished product. Glitches that have been around since 2K15 are still here along with a slew of new and worse” – Just one of the ‘overwhelmingly negative’ Steam reviews
We often hear criticisms of franchises such as Call of Duty and Fifa that the developers seem to essentially re-release the same game each year. In this instance, however, it seems that WWE 2K20 is worse than anything seen before!
Given that it’s retailing for a price in the region of £40-50 (for PS4, Xbox One and PC) all we can say is that based on these videos if you have been tempted with this one, it seems clear that you are best advised to avoid this at all costs! Well, unless you are something of a gaming masochist!
What do you think? You didn’t buy this abomination, did you? If not (or so), what’s the buggiest game you have ever played? – Let us know in the comments!
Red Dead Redemption 2 was officially released for the PC yesterday and, it’s pretty safe to say at this point, that the launch is proving to be something of an unmitigated disaster. While some users have been able to play the game without seemingly any problems, they are the lucky few.
Why? Well, a huge number of people can’t even get the game to load up even nearly 24-hours after it officially ‘came out’.
At present, those experiencing problems largely fall into two camps. Those who are having the Rockstar Games Launcher itself crash when attempting to launch the game and those who have the game crash at the load-up screen. For those who are actually able to access the game, however, they also are reporting a number of issues including permanent loading screens and graphical/audio glitches.
The good news is that if you have been experiencing launch problems, a new update to the Rockstar Games Launcher may allow you to finally play the game. The bad news is, even this fix isn’t working for everyone!
An update has been made to Rockstar Games Launcher. For release notes please see: https://t.co/hCyU63iRcc
In the Twitter post above, Rockstar Games seems to think that they may have fixed the main issue of people not being able to boot the game. For a number of users, however, including myself, the problems are still persisting.
Even despite the update, I’m still getting the exact same error message below. Are there any workarounds to the problem, though? Well, yes and no.
Potential Fixes
If you are experiencing this problem too, then at the time of writing, there are a number of ‘fixes’ (both fan-based and direct from Rockstar) that may help get the game running. Based on my own experience and research, I’ll chip in to tell you what success I’ve seen.
Update the launcher to the latest version (In fairness, a fix that does seem to be having success for a lot of users)
Disable any anti-virus software you have running (Some report that this works, others not)
Add the Rockstar Launcher and Red Dead Redemption 2 folders to your anti-virus’ ‘Exceptions’ list (Again, a mixed bag of results).
Set both the Rockstar Launcher and Red Dead Redemption 2 executable to run in ‘administrator’ mode while selecting “Disable Fullscreen Optimization” (No notable differences reported by users)
Ensure you have the latest graphics card drivers installed (Nvidia 441.12 – AMD 19.11.1.) – (This does seem to be a required step, but people who have done this still seem to have the problem).
Check Windows manually for any new system updates.
If any of these do work for you, then kudos!
You’re Not Alone!
In all honesty, having tried all of the above (with a few more homebrewed ideas either in progress or failed) the bottom line is that despite even the update to the official Rockstar Launcher, many people are still unable to play the game.
If you’re in this boat, then I can at least confirm to you that you are not alone!
A Rockstar technical support worker has confirmed to me that they are aware that the ‘fix’ hasn’t worked for everyone and they are still plugging away at trying to get to the root of the issue. My best theory at the moment is that this error is due to some kind of hardware conflict. Albeit AMD, Intel and Nvidia (and every combination of) users all seem to be in the same boat here.
For the moment, however, if you are on the fence on buying this game, don’t get it right now. I’d say, at best, it’s a 50/50 if it will run on your PC.
What do you think? Have you been able to get Red Dead Redemption 2 to work on your PC? If not, what problems are you having? – Let us know in the comments!
If you have any love for wrestling games and purchased WWE 2K20, then there’s a good chance that you’ve probably been forced to reconsider that affection. Why? Well, in a nutshell, the game was crammed full of truly awful glitches. They were so prevalent in fact, that the game has gained something of a fan base from the ‘so bad it’s good’ genre.
If you were, therefore, hoping that they’d have a chance to redeem themselves with WWE 2K21, then in a report via GamesIndustry, it’s not currently looking likely. Why? Well, apparently, the game has been cancelled!
WWE 2K21 is Cancelled?
In the report, Justin Leeper who reportedly has inside knowledge of the development, has said that, to his best knowledge, while WWE 2K21 was in production, it has been decided by the (mega?) powers that be to cease all production and to put the franchise on hold for at least one year.
“I have heard from reliable sources and I truly believe that WWE 2K21 has been canceled. There will be no game this year.”
While issues surrounding the Coronavirus has been cited as one of the main reasons for the cancellation, it’s hard to overlook the fact that the absolute dumpster fire created by WWE 2K20 has created more than a little friction between 2K Games and the wrestling organization. Not to mention long-term fans.
What Do We Think?
For those of you disappointed with the news, there is something potentially on the way to fill the void. While not mentioning anything specifically, Justin Leeper has indicated that some form of wresling game will be released this year.
Taking this news as a whole, however, we can’t help but view it all as a positive. WWE 2K20 was terrible and, if we’re being honest, many of the more recent prior ones were pretty bland at best. As such, if any franchise deserved a year in the wilderness for an opportunity to take some time for reflection, then this was a prime contender!
Earlier this month we heard rumors that the development of WWE 2K21 had been canceled. While these were not 100% confirmed at the time, the decision seemed likely based upon the fact that WWE 2K20 was absolutely awful glitch-ridden mess, and, in all honesty, it hasn’t improved much since then.
Well, following confirmation from the wrestling organization themselves, it is now official. WWE 2K21 is has been held down for the 3 count!
WWE 2K21 Gets Pinned!
Speaking during a financial planning meeting, WWE interim chief financial officer Frank Riddick has confirmed the game’s cancellation. In the statement (coming via Eurogamer), he has categorically said: “There’s not going to be a launch of the game this year.”
Off the record, it is believed that the WWE is deeply disappointed (and, indeed, angry) with the overall poor quality and reception of the game and, as such, they may be reevaluating their relationship with 2K Games moving forward.
That doesn’t, however, mean that you fans of wrestling are not going to see something land in 2020.
Rumors of a Spin-Off!
Despite the lack of any official WWE game, there are rumors that some form of ‘arcade’ style wrestling game is in development. Personally, I’d love to see some sort of re-boot of the ‘Wrestlefest’ franchise that ate quite a lot of my spare change at the arcade machines when I was a kid. For now, however, we’re just pending some kind of formal confirmation as to what this game will be. We do, however, known as a nailed-down fact, there’s not going to be a WWE 2K21, and that’s probably a good thing!
What do you think? Are you surprised WWE 2K21 has been cancelled? – Let us know in the comments!
While Call of Duty’s Warzone has proven to be a highly-popular battle royal game, it’s not like it hasn’t had its share of problems along the way. Be it bugs or guns being over or underpowered, there’s always something that needs fixing! It seems, however, that a fresh exploit has started worming its way into the game known as ‘snake abuse’.
So, what is it I hear you ask? Well, watch the first video and see if you spot the shenanigans going on!
Call of Duty Warzone – Snake Abuse
So, just in case you didn’t spot it, the ‘snake abuse’ glitch allows players to basically move around (as if they were walking) while in the prone position. Something that can clearly give you a huge advantage as your opponent has a much more awkward target to aim at and, more specifically, with fire coming from very unusual positions.
It doesn’t, however, end there. People who have used the glitch report that the camera retains the ‘upright’ position. So, in other words, you can be entirely hidden behind a wall, yet still be able to fire upon enemies completely unseen. Something that would undoubtedly give you a pretty huge advantage!
Activision/Infinity Ward is Unusually Quiet
Despite the issue being quite well known (and probably a lot more now with me writing this – albeit, I’m not going to tell you how to do it) as of yet, neither Infinity Ward nor Activision has made any specific comments regarding this new Warzone glitch. With season 4 set to kick off on Wednesday, however, one would presume the (almost inevitable) patch will correct the error. Well, all going well!
For the moment, however, if you do decide to give Warzone a go today, we have only one piece of advice: Watch out for snakes! (100 points if you get the reference).
The chances are that many of you reading this probably really enjoy YouTube as a form of ‘free’ entertainment, but likely not so much the masses of adverts that have grown increasingly on the platform over the last few years. While many have resorted to ‘ad-blockers’ as a means of bypassing them, it seems that a simple tweak of the URL might also give you some pretty nice results!
Ad-Less YouTube – Thanks to a URL Oversight!
In a report via TheNextWeb, it has been found that a moderate oversight in the URL coding for the video platform can allow you to bypass the need to watch adverts. So, how does it work? Well, it all boils down to how you enter the web address:
For example, let’s say that video you’re watching has the web address – ‘youtube.com/genericchannel’. With this URL, adverts will pop up as normal. Changing it to ‘youtube.com./genericchannel’, however, will stop adverts being played entirely. And for those of you who didn’t spot the difference, there’s a singular additional of a period mark.
Enjoy it While You Can!
Spotted by Reddit user ‘Unicorn4sale‘ they have said:
“It’s a commonly forgotten edge case, websites forget to normalize the hostname, the content is still served, but there’s no hostname match on the browser so no cookies and broken CORS – and lots of bigger sites use a different domain to serve ads/media with a whitelist that doesn’t contain the extra dot.”
Enjoy it while you can though, because the chances are that when YouTube discovers this (which may already be the case by the time you’re reading this) this moderate oversight will have probably already been fixed!
I have to admit that despite not having much to say about the single-player campaign (because I’ve barely bothered with it), I’ve pumped a lot of time into Call of Duty Modern Warfare’s multiplayer and particularly the ‘battle royale’ Warzone mode. I should make it clear though, despite loving Warzone (and having registered a solid handful of wins in it I might add) I’d be among the first to admit that the game has had more than a few ‘balancing’ issues since it released.
Following a recent patch, however, an exploit was discovered that effectively allowed you to access an infinite number of Stim packs. Why was this important? Well, with them being capable of restoring your health, it provided some (grubby) players with a means of perpetually surviving from outside the circle. In other words, in the fog.
If you were one of those people, however, then it’s bad news for you, but good news for the rest of us. Yes, Infinity Ward has confirmed that the stim glitch has now been removed from Call of Duty Warzone with more than a few other little tweaks.
Thank you again for your support and patience while we worked to resolve this issue. We're happy to say that a fix has been deployed and we'll continue to monitor your feedback. Please reach out to @ATVIAssist if you experience any further issues. https://t.co/Wv2iNHCxIi
As part of the latest patch (that thankfully isn’t 20GB+ in size), Infinity Ward has confirmed three semi-major (or at least significant) changes to Call of Duty Warzone and, specifically, the utilization of items and weapons in it. These tweaks include:
The ‘infinite’ stim glitch has been removed
The Val has been given a slight nerf removing its ability to fire through walls
The SP-R 208 (the new and amazingly overpowered sniper rifle) has received a nerf on both sight speed and recoil.
What Do We Think?
While Warzone is undoubtedly one of the best ‘battle royale’ game modes ever created, balance is a key aspect to ensure that players, generally speaking, have access to a reasonably even playing field. So, on the plus side, with these much needed tweaks, hopefully the experience will get better while we all wait for the release of Call of Duty Black Ops Cold War!
Oh, and if you want an idea as to how the infinite stim glitch worked, check out the video below. Just don’t bother trying it yourself now. All going well, this has been permanently removed!
What do you think? – Let us know in the comments!
Yeah this really annoyed me. I wasn't able to get the win and died to last circle gas because there were LITERALLY 3 FRICKING people doing it in my game, it's boring, I don't get how people find this fun, at all. pic.twitter.com/SbfZ6Jxyha
With the release of FIFA 21 earlier this month, it’s not exactly surprising to find that it’s currently topping the vast majority of video game sales charts. Despite its (entirely expected) popularity though, that doesn’t mean to say that the game isn’t without its problems. Rather than something relatively mundane such as graphical corruption, however, a report via Eurogamer has found that more and more people are reporting a very unusual controlling issue.
Namely, that players on the pitch will, seemingly randomly, decide to temporarily turn into Mario with a jump worthy of an Olympic gold medal.
Following the posting of various videos online, it has been found that a glitch in FIFA 21 is seemingly causing players to jump in the air and defy gravity like an NBA Jam slam dunk. This isn’t just an isolated incident either as the issue has been recorded across various platforms and in many different game modes.
While this can often work to the players benefit (such in the video above where the striker bypasses two defenders by simply leaping over them), more often than not, it leads to moments of chaos.
As far as we are aware, EA has yet to officially acknowledge this issue and it does only appear to have started happening, rather ironically, since the most recent patch. More so, nobody is entirely certain, even despite the masses of video evidence, as to what exactly causes this jumping glitch. One would presume that it’s something to do with trick moves, but what button combination produces that result is, as of yet, unknown.
Rest assured though that, sooner or later, this glitch will be patched out. For the moment, however, if you suddenly find that Marcus Rashford is able to leap 10′ in the air, well… now you know why.
What do you think? Have you experienced this bug in FIFA 21? – Let us know in the comments!
Following the release of the latest 1.1 update for Cyberpunk 2077, CD Projekt Red clearly hoped not only to add a little more stability to the game but also to correct some of the quests that, likely due to a bug in the code, wouldn’t execute correctly. Therefore, it was a matter of mild frustration when it was found that one mission that had supposedly been fixed now contained a total game-breaking soft-lock bug.
While no formal solution (i.e. a patch) has yet been provided, the good news is that CD Projekt Red has issued a blog post stating what they believe may help resolve the problem. Specifically, in the form of a temporary workaround.
Cyberpunk 2077
The issue itself was found within the ‘Down in the Street’ quest. Before the patch, Takemura would not call you at the end to give you the ‘completion’ status. Since the 1.1 update, however, while he would now give you a ring, he would stare at your indefinitely. Which, by proxy, meant that the dialogue didn’t progress and the mission could never be finished, and no others could be started. Something clearly more than a little bothersome as ‘Down in the Street’ is one of the main storyline’s key parts.
Well, while it might not work every single time, CD Projekt Red has suggested the following as a potential short-term fix:
Load a game save before Takemura and V leave Wakako’s office.
Finish the conversation with Takemura outside the office right away.
Right after the finished conversation and when the quest is updated, skip ahead in time by at least 23 hours.
See if the holo call triggers and the dialogue with Takemura starts.
I am personally way too far down the road to personally check if this fix actually works or not. However, if you are roughly about the mid-point of your Cyberpunk 2077 playthrough, this mission will be quickly approaching. So be sure to give this a whirl pending the release of a hotfix patch which will undoubtedly be coming in the exceptionally near future.
Oh, and if you’re not at this point yet, you might want to start getting a little more generous in your saves. You know, so that you have more than a few solid points to return to.
What do you think? Have you experienced this issue in Cyberpunk 2077? If so, did the workaround solve your problem? – Let us know in the comments!
I don’t think it would be unfair to say that over the last 10 years or so, the quality of a released game has nosedived quite notably. You only have to look at the state of titles such as Cyberpunk 2077 to see that, quite clearly, when this was finally placed on retail shelves last December it still wasn’t really finished. In fact, it felt to me like it still required at least another 6 months and particularly so to make the PS4/Xbox One experience at least competent.
This isn’t a new problem, though. Other pretty notable AAA-gaming titles have also seen similar (if not worse) problems. To name just a few: WWE 2K20, Fallout 76, Assassin’s Creed: Unity, Battlefield 5, Sim City, No Man’s Sky, and some might even consider adding Sea of Thieves to that list. Albeit, at least in regards to the latter two, they both had similar problems (lack of content) and, fortunately, the difference between the games now and when they originally came out is like comparing night and day.
The 5 Gaming Sins of Modern AAA-Developers!
We should make it abundantly clear that there has, and always will be bad games. To use a popular saying, you can’t polish a turd. In recent years, however, I think the gaming community as a whole would agree that QA (quality assurance) standards have dropped and worse, there isn’t really anything to regulate them either. Developers are, quite frankly, consistently allowed to regularly release bad, broken, or unfinished work in the guise of a boxed game.
What are the biggest and most consistent problems we generally tend to have with these developers, though? Well, based on our experience over the last 10 years, let’s take a look at what could be considered the 5 sins of modern AAA-gaming developers!
Lack of Innovation
There are more than a few gaming franchises (and I’m not just talking about sports titles, but they’re certainly included) where a new release is made on an annual or biannual basis. This happens because not only are they popular but they nearly always reside somewhere in the top 10 sales charts for a pretty solid period of time.
Let me ask you a question, though? Specifically regarding those kinds of games, what was the last one you played that truly blew your mind and expectations?… Ok, let’s throw everything into the mix now. Apply that rule to every game released in the last 10 years and tell me, which ones truly stood out as new, innovative, and most importantly, actually worked as a playable design and not just as a concept? If you could pick more than 5, I’d be very impressed because I’m struggling to even come up with one in all honestly. Maybe Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order just because EA had the courage to actually release it as a single-player title. Albeit, while the concept of such a thing is undoubtedly rare these days, it’s not exactly groundbreaking is it?…
Again, remember that I’m very specifically talking about AAA-developers here so, while the indie community has thrown up more than a few pleasant results, it just feels that mainstream developers have become too corporate. Why bother taking a risk when people will just buy the same rehashed content in a different skin for $60?
I could rephrase this to them simply being unable or unwilling to take a risk, but overall, it all boils down to the same thing. AAA-developers are rarely willing to take the gamble in trying something truly new!
Greed
One of the few truly innovative ideas the gaming industry has had over the last 10 years has been the ability to discover that, even by giving a game away for free, they can still make an absolute pile of money from it simply by exploiting its players. I’m not so much talking about DLC’s here as, generally speaking, you generally tend to get something tangible for your money. You know what I’m really getting at here—microtransactions, loot boxes, card packs, skins etc.
You can’t help but feel that whenever a gaming concept is pitched at a AAA-publisher, one of the main subjects of conversation is how it can be monetized beyond the initial purchase price. And I suspect that there are more than a few coders or designers out there that have become increasingly disillusioned with the industry as a whole because this must surely see their initially brilliant idea slowly get broken down into hideous packages and paywalls.
Fortunately, while this may have taken a while, people are starting to pay attention to this and, of course, the knock-on problems it can cause when your kids have access to your bank details. Belgium has even gone as far as outright banning loot boxes/microtransactions with many other countries apparently looking to follow suit.
It’s hard to deny though that while seemingly offering us less, game developers/publishers still want even more money from us!
Day One Patches
Although it’s not something I personally pay much attention to, I don’t think I can remember the last time (at least on console) that I purchased a game on release day and found that upon insertion of the disk, there wasn’t some kind of update or patch to download. Day One patches, however, are often no more than an admission that when the game was sent to print, work on it still wasn’t quite finished.
Although it’s not one particular game I want to beat up on too much over this, it’s hard to ignore Cyberpunk 2077 given that it’s one of the most recent high-profile titles. So, what about it? Well, on the same day people took it home or had it arrive on their doorstep, they found that a circa 40-50GB ‘day one’ patch was waiting for them.
All such a download says is that the game was declared ‘gold’ long before work or testing on it had truly been completed. But don’t worry, ‘patches are on the way’ to make your $60 purchase actually playable within the next 3 months… Maybe…
Lack of Optimization
Generally speaking, most games these days are primarily designed to run on consoles with the PC version usually receiving the least attention and resources. Even when time is taken to actually put out a PC port though, the experience is often pretty terrible. Remember Red Dead Redemption 2? The PC version was completely inoperable for nearly 2 weeks after it ‘officially’ came out (I know this because I was kept trying to get it to work during that time). Horizon Zero Dawn was another example of a truly poor piece of PC optimization.
It doesn’t just end there though in terms of PC gaming. On all platforms, game file sizes have undoubtedly become significantly larger over the last 5 years. In many instances, it has been found that this is simply because the developer didn’t bother to try and compress some of the assets. Yes, compression adds to load times, but I think I’d rather have a couple of seconds more of waiting than a 130GB+ file squatting on my SSD.
Again though, you only have to look at the amazingly shoddy state of Cyberpunk 2077 on the Xbox One and PS4 to see that, overall, in attempting to release games for everything, it usually isn’t too difficult to tell which version/s had the least amount of time, money, and attention thrown at them.
Consumers
Ultimately, the biggest problem with the gaming industry rests with us consumers. Why? Well, year in, year out, while we might complain about it, we generally tend to put up with all this crap. We buy the next Call of Duty or Fifa like cows being led to the slaughter and only once we have it do we realize that, like all the years we’ve bought it before, we’ve ultimately been conned into getting (pretty much) the exact same game all over again. We declare to the universe that we’ll never do it again, and in 12 months’ time, we repeat the whole process again!
I do like to think though that consumers have perhaps, overall, become either a bit savvier about the industry or perhaps just a little more careful with their gaming money these days. I myself am nowhere near as much of the compulsive gaming purchaser I was 10 years ago, and a significant factor in that decision is largely having had my fingers burnt one time too many. Red Dead Redemption 2 on the PC was, perhaps, the straw that broke the camel’s back.
The bottom line is that these problems will continue for many years to come unless we unite as consumers and start demanding more. And, of course, hitting them where it hurts (namely, their wallets). If we can do this, better things will simply have to come our way. I mean, let’s face it, at the moment we’re being treated like fools and, quite frankly, it’s well deserved!
Will it happen though? Well, I keep my fingers crossed, but on the same note, I fully expect to see all of EA’s regurgitated sports titles once again dominating the sales charts this September.
What do you think though? Let us know in the comments!
Releasing in early access earlier this month, Valheim is certainly one of the biggest unexpected gaming hits of 2021 so far. With it currently averaging around 300,000 concurrent players, its timing has perhaps capitalized most from the recent resurgence in popularity for Rust. Yes, they are different games, but it’s hard to deny that they do share somewhat similar mechanics.
However, if you are currently enjoying your Viking adventure, you might want to take note. Why? Following an official Twitter post by Valheim’s developer, they strongly urge all players to back-up their save files. Like… Right now!
Valheim Devs Warn of ‘World Destroying’ Bug
In order to keep the gameplay and environments fresh, Valheim utilizes a procedurally generated world, meaning that, in most cases, every new game presents you with a new world to explore. With the discovery of a new bug found in the code, however, it has the potential to completely corrupt your saved files. While the exact cause of the issue has not yet been identified, it is believed that hard closing your game (ALT+F4) might be one of the major contributors (possibly something to do with save data being written during that time). We should note that this is not 100% confirmed and is only currently being cited as a potential contributing factor.
As such, Valheim has officially issued all players with a very terse warning that, so as to not lose their progress, backing up the save file data is an exceptionally good idea!
in windows Worlds & characters are saved in C:\Users\Username\AppData\LocalLow\IronGate\Valheim\
Fortunately, ‘@dvoidis‘, the game’s developer, has posted on his Twitter account where you can locate the save data in order to make your safety back-up copy (which you can check out above). – Until this issue is resolved, however, it might be well worth both your time and effort to ensure you do this regularly and perhaps even have multiple back-ups prepared just in case you make progress and forget to do it as often as you (probably) should.
Rest assured though, as soon as this bug is discovered, it will be fixed. For the moment though, ‘back-up regular, back-up often!’.
You can, incidentally, check out the game’s official Steam website via the link here where, for £15.49, this does look more than a little bit of inexpensive fun!
Following the release of the latest Windows 10 KB4601319 cumulative update earlier this month, while it has largely gone without issue for many people, a growing number of reports began to emerge suggesting that for reasons unclear, some users’ webcams stopped working! – Well, if you are one of those who have had this issue, then there is at least some moderately good news.
Firstly, Microsoft has confirmed that this is 100% an issue with the update. In other words, there’s nothing wrong with your PC or webcam. Secondly, they’re already working on trying to fix the bug!
Windows 10 Update Affects Webcams!
Although thought to only affect certain models, Microsoft has confirmed that the latest cumulative Windows 10 update did affect webcams by it failing to correctly reinstall the virtual driver. Fortunately, if you are in desperate need of getting your webcam working again, rolling it back should fix the problem. Microsoft has, however, confirmed that a fix is definitely on the way and should, all going well, be applied within the next few weeks.
What Do We Think?
While a fix is on the way, this is, again, a rather annoying instance of a Windows 10 update seemingly fixing some problems while causing a whole bunch of new fresh ones. A complaint that has often been levelled at the operating system and, largely, for good reason.
So, as above, if you are having webcam issues, you really have two options. You can either wait until Microsoft fixes it, or you can roll back the patch!
Despite the fact that Call of Duty Warzone has stolen a lot of thunder away from PUBG in terms of the ‘battle royale’ genre, the latter is still an exceptionally popular title among many gamers. It seems, however, that following an update, a lot of PC players logged in to find that they had apparently been banned from it!
Well, if you were one of those people, then I have some good news for you. Following an official Twitter post, it has been confirmed that the ban was (more than likely) a glitch, it has been fixed, and all going well you should now have full access to it again!
PUBG Glitch Sees Players Banned!
While the bug’s exact source has not been specifically identified in the social media post, it’s understood that an update to the game’s client incorrectly resulted in a file validation issue. This, by proxy, immediately flagged the account as suspicious. Why? Well, this is something usually associated with cheating.
Fortunately, the issue was detected pretty quickly and, as such, all accounts have now been reinstated. Not without, however, a few grumbles from the more competitive PUBG player.
[PC] Players impacted by an incorrect set of bans issued earlier today have now had their Reputation Score restored to the correct level and have also been granted a 5 Levels Survivor Pass Coupon.https://t.co/PclfpvWN01
Despite the ban being lifted, this didn’t stop players accounts from being negatively hit in regards to their ‘online reputation’. As such, the developer had to tweak the affected accounts to 100% restore them to their ‘pre-banned’ status. And as something of a recompense, all affected players have been given a 5 Levels Survivor Pass Coupon. Albeit, given that the current season ends in literally just under a week, some are complaining that it’s a bit late in the day to really make such an offer have any notable worth!
Still, it’s something, and the problem has been fixed. So hopefully you can at least take that as some sort of solace as someone sneaks up behind you with the frying pan of death!
Despite the many problems the game mode has had (and lord knows that there’s been plenty of them!) Call of Duty Warzone still represents the biggest (and in my opinion) the best Battle Royale title currently around. As many people who play it have become more than accustomed to, however, you’ll have likely noticed that when you most recently went to boot Warzone up that there was another stonkingly huge update awaiting your attention.
Well, while the update did bring a surprisingly decent amount changes and improvements, it would appear that a long-standing glitch has also decided to make, yet again, another appearance!
New Warzone Patch Sees Old Exploit Return!
So, what’s the problem? Well, it’s sadly an exploit that has appeared and been removed around 6-7 times before in prior updates. Yes, Stim-Glitching is back in the latest Call of Duty Warzone update and that surely means that, within the next few days, we can likely expect another patch to be released to (once again) remove it from Warzone.
What is this though? Well, in a nutshell, a player using this exploit can infinitely spam ‘Stim packs’ (that restore your health) to remain perpetually outside of the circle. If you want an example, you can check out the video by Twitch streamer ‘Stodeh‘ below showing it in action through the latest update!
This Just Won’t Go Away!
As above, it’s exceptionally frustrating that this is a glitch that has been removed so many times in the past to only reappear the next time a relatively major update is released. I mean, by this point, you’d think someone would be very specifically testing this just prior to release to make sure it hasn’t made another comeback. – Again though, this won’t be around for long so, presuming you do encounter it, just remember to report the user and move onto your next game!
While Call of Duty Warzone is undoubtedly one of the (if not the) most popular battle royal gaming titles around the moment, I think it would be fair to say that it has had more than a few glitchy ups and downs along the way. Most notably among these is perhaps the constant battle Activision seems to have in stopping people from using the ‘Stim’ exploit.
Following a report via PCGamesN, however, it seems that a brand new issue has appeared in the game. It’s not regarding Stims though, this time, it’s the turn of the ‘Most Wanted’ contracts which have, just for the moment (and not for the first time) been removed from Warzone!
Warzone Removes ‘Most Wanted’ Contracts (Again)
So, just to clarify for those of you who are unaware, the ‘Most Wanted’ contact is one of the various missions available in the Warzone game mode. The chief perk of it is that while you mark yourself as a constantly highlighted target on the map, should you survive the countdown, your entire squad can be brought back into the game. Well, presuming that they’re dead! If they’re still alive, well.. At least you get a nice payout for it!
So, why has it been removed again? Well, it’s not like the last time where Activision attempted to replace it with another contract option. Instead, it was found that if people took the ‘Most Wanted’, despite being clearly marked on the map, upon being shot at it was found that they were entirely invulnerable to gun damage!
Whoops!
When Will They Be Back?
Activision will clearly be working hard to find out exactly what caused this glitch. And, of course, finding a way to correct it so that ‘Most Wanted’ contracts can be reintroduced into Warzone. Although the chances are more than excellent that they should be restored by the time you read this, if they’re not, well, now you know why!
While Call of Duty Warzone still remains one of the most popular battle royal titles around, it’s hard to deny that since the game launched a little over a year ago that it hasn’t had its fair share of problems. Most notably, cheating. – Well, following various reports on Reddit, while you can’t technically call it cheating, an exploit has been found in the new Verdansk map that allows people to get a lot of sneaky kills with seemingly total impunity.
Warzone Glitch Takes People Under the Airport
In the video below, it has been found that a glitch exists within one of the doors leading inside the airport. Through a pretty easy clip, players can gain access to underneath the map and, as long as they apparently remain stood on assets that are underground (such as the underpass), they can fire through walls on targets who would have literally zero ideas as to where the shots were coming from.
What Do We Think?
While we daresay that by telling you this, many of you will be eager to try it out (since to my knowledge this has not been fixed yet) we should note that this isn’t clearly advisable as while not perhaps full-blown cheating, it is still utilizing an exploit the developers (and other more honest players) do not want you to do.
I would, however, perhaps be far more forgiving if it was impossible to escape from the void. As shown above, however, thanks to those handy zip lines leading to the roof, you are given a means of getting out while the gas closes in. Rest assured though, please don’t do this. Activision will not only take an exceptionally dim view of your actions but this will, of course, be patched out likely within the next day or two (if it has not been quietly already).
What do you think? Do you play Warzone? If so, how many wins have you managed to muster so far? – Let us know in the comments!
More than a few urban myths surrounding video games have managed, despite regularly being disproven, to continue to be spread. One such example is the Tomb Raider cheat code, where you could supposedly make Lara Croft nude. And just in case you needed confirmation, no, this never existed. Well, not beyond what was provided by the modding community. – For Street Fighter 2, however, there was a long-standing belief that, under the right (or wrong) circumstances, it would be completely impossible to beat Zangief using E. Honda over the course of 10 individual match-ups.
Well, it may have taken 30 years, but against a lot of expectations that myth has finally been proven accurate! With, of course, a few interesting caveats.
So to cap off this whole story, here it is, the round start SPD touch of death.
So, as you might expect, this requires a little explanation. Starting at the beginning though, following the release of ‘Street Fighter 2: The World Warrior’ back in 1991 a myth emerged that if you were to pit E. Honda against Zangief, the latter could perform a combination of moves that would be completely impossible to break. If played over 10 separate games, the result would always be the same. Namely, a ‘perfect’ Zangief win each and every time.
While this was never proven true to date, however, following a bounty issued by YouTube channel ‘TheoryFighter‘ a couple of people stepped forward with video evidence showing the ‘myth’ to be 100% accurate!
So, what exactly happens here? Well, again, it’s complicated. Put simply though, while this never seemingly existed in the SNES port of the game, it was found that in an early arcade version, Zangief’s Spinning Piledriver throw (incidentally the game’s most singularly powerful move) had a broken hit detection that could allow it to be executed as soon as the match starts. So, quickly grabbing E. Honda right from the word ‘fight’, with a few simple follow-up moves, this could create a completely unbreakable chain that E. Honda, thanks to his girthy hitbox, could never avoid.
If you want more technical details, the video below by ‘TheoryFighter‘ goes into the nitty gritty.
What Do We Think?
While the myth has been proven accurate, it should be noted that it only seemingly ever existed in pretty much the original arcade version of Street Fighter 2. From this, though, it seemingly transitioned by word of mouth to also apply to the SNES version, which as noted above, was never the case and, as such, led to this being inaccurately deemed a myth.
While certainly unusual though, don’t forget that Street Fighter 2 was a highly revolutionary game when it came to 1 v 1 ‘beat em ups’. It pretty much invented the ‘combo’ fighting system entirely by accident. While clearly a very broken mechanic, it was fixed as the game evolved into later releases and versions. Not, however, before the ‘myth’ managed to gain some traction.
With this new development, however, while once a myth, we now know that technically speaking, it was indeed once entirely true!
It has now been 6 months since the release of Cyberpunk 2077 and I think that while many would agree that the game is in a significantly better state now than it was then, it’s still a long way away from being a perfect example of modern high-budget AAA-gaming. – Following a report via Eurogamer, however, we are seeing yet more evidence that developer CD Projekt Red might be beginning to slowly sidestep themselves away from the title.
Cyberpunk 2077 – Officially “Satisfactory”
Speaking at an event at the WSE Innovation Day, while CD Project Red CEO Adam Kiciński did suggest that, in an overall sense, the main work on making Cyberpunk 2077 a relatively stable game might now be somewhat completed, that does sort of inadvertently concede the point that even 6 months on, the game is still a long way from being ‘perfect’,
“We have already achieved a satisfactory level in this regard [of stability]. We have also been working on the overall efficiency, which we are also quite happy about. Of course, we also removed bugs and glitches, and we will continue to do that.”
What Do We Think?
Stability is one thing. It is, of course, good news that the game isn’t quite so crash happy as it used to be. On the whole, however, it’s still blatantly evident that Cyberpunk 2077 still requires a lot more work to get into a condition that would even mildly begin to live up to the hype. Therein, however, we might find the problem. It might just be me, but overall, I’m starting to get more and more of an impression from CD Projekt Red that while a few quality of life patches are still clearly on the way, the game is approaching what will, for better or worse, be its final state. And if that is the case, then I think it will just really underline the fact that sometimes being ambitious with a game is rarely a good thing.
How creative are you with the name of your home network’s SSID? Invariably I tend to use ‘Tin Foil Hat Time’ or ‘Secret Nuclear Bunker’, but it can change depending on the mood I’m in. The short version is, most of the time, if you see a custom SSID network name, you generally just tend to presume that it’s a home user with a sense of humour. Following a report via Mashable, however, it has been found that a very particular SSID can have a very nasty effect on Apple iOS products, namely, that it can actually completely lock out the device’s Wifi capabilities!
SSID Found to Lock Apple iOS Wifi!
At this point, I come to something of a moral dilemma. I can tell you this specific SSID code so that those of you with Apple iPhone’s can attempt to avoid it, but I do so at the risk of some of the more mischievous among you with Android devices (who aren’t affected by this bug) attempting to troll your neighbours with the tasty bait prospect of some free Wifi. – I’m am, however, going to take the risk though that you will not do this.
So, the code, it’s “%p%s%s%s%s%n”.
Although we do not suggest you try this at home, many reports are now confirming that if an Apple iOS device attempts to connect to a network with that SSID name, it will completely shut down the device’s capabilities of obtaining ANY sort of Wifi connection.
A Workaround of Sorts
The main crux of the issue appears to be found in the fact that with the SSID starting with a ‘%’, Apple devices can mistake this for a piece of code and, with this particular network name, it seems that the stars have aligned enough to actually form an executable string that, likely through accident rather than design, completely shutdowns the products Wifi capabilities.
The news from the community regarding fixing this bug has so far been more than a little mixed. While pretty much all users confirm that attempting to connect to that SSID name does indeed completely disable the Apple device’s Wifi capabilities, some have said that resetting the network setting will likely get things back to normal. Perhaps worrying though, this doesn’t appear to apply to everyone, with many claiming that a ‘factory reset’ has been necessary to get their iPhone back to normal, and some even go as far to say that even that hasn’t worked!
While Apple is undoubtedly working hard to provide an update with a permanent fix for this issue, the bottom line is that if you encounter this networking name with an Apple device in your hand, you are strongly advised to resist the temptation to connect to it!
For several years now, Microsoft has run one of the arguably most lucrative bug bounty hunting programs in the tech world. Put simply, if you know your way around code and think you’ve found a vulnerability within any program or software they’ve created, Microsoft will pay you to tell them exactly where the exploit lies. Just how much money is involved in this system, though? Well, following a report via TechSpot, Microsoft has confirmed that over the last year, they have made payments totalling $13.6M to people who found such vulnerabilities in their tech releases!
Microsoft Confirms Big Payouts in Bug Bounty Program
In announcing the news, Microsoft has confirmed that over the last 12-month period, 1,261 eligible and successful bug bounties were claimed by 341 individuals and/or security research teams. While the average reward was in the region of $10,000, they have said that the highest single payment awarded was $200,000. However, it should be noted that their maximum reward of $250,000 has still yet to be claimed. Presumably because while serious glitches have definitely been discovered, it hasn’t been anything as serious as to warrant their ‘jackpot’ yet.
Big Money – But It Makes Sense!
Given that the reward figure for 2020-2021 is only marginally smaller than seen in the previous year, Microsoft has a strong and consistent history of making big payments to those who discover problems in their technology. You might, however, be wondering why they do this. Well, the simple answer is motivation. – Sure, you can pay security experts to attempt to find bugs, but the problem there is that they get their money regardless of what success they have. Offering bounties, and well-paying ones, clearly incentivise an absolutely huge community to scrutinise everything Microsoft has ever released thoroughly. This helps them ensure that slowly but surely, every single bug, glitch, or exploit is eventually patched, fixed, and then removed entirely!
If you do, therefore, think you can put your PC and coding skills to good use (and potentially earn yourself some pretty tasty cash), you can check out the official Microsoft bug bounty program website via the link here!
In early July, it was revealed that a significant security flaw lay within practically every Windows 10 system. No, this isn’t anything particularly new, as many flaws have been identified in the operating system over the years. In terms of what it represented, however, this was likely one of the more concerning iterations. In simple terms, a flaw within the ‘Printer Spooler Service’ was found that could allow unauthorised persons, with the right knowledge to execute code at the administrative level. By proxy, this could allow various bits of malware to be installed on the system without the actual real user ever being aware.
Known as “PrintNightmare”, Microsoft released a patch later that month, but ultimately, it was discovered that it didn’t really solve the problem. – Following a report via ZDNet, however, following the release of a new Windows 10 update, it would appear that the issue might’ve been resolved. Well… Sort of.
Windows 10 “PrintNightmare” Security Flaw is Sort of Fixed!
While the exact nature of the fix is unclear, as Microsoft clearly wouldn’t want to give anyone out there any hints as to how the security exploit could be performed, the only notable change end-users will see is that printer drivers can now only be installed from administrator-level accounts. – So, on the plus side, for the vast majority of people, this shouldn’t be a problem and, all going well, provides them with a permanent plug for the leak.
However, one the quite notable downside will likely be for people in charge of large network systems. Although a little complicated to explain, employees who don’t have admin accounts on the PC they use (which is fairly standard practice for most businesses) will no longer have default access to simply connect to a printer. This will only be permitted if the person attempting to make the connection (and install the drivers) has admin-level security control.
What Do We Think?
Based on the clear limitations of this fix, it would appear that Microsoft has found something of a security ‘workaround’ rather than an outright means of solving the “PrintNightmare” problem. As such, while we’re sure there are going to be many network administrators swearing wildly at the clear implications that this new update has, it does appear that, at least for the moment, this was the only way Microsoft could find to (sort of) permanently solve the problem. Therefore, this would suggest that it might have been a bit of a knotty one to begin with, hence why their initial attempt to correct this security flaw failed!
As you may be aware, many online companies offer bug bounty programs to people known as white hat hackers. The basic premise of this is that although they do their own in-house security testing (or at least they should), it’s often far more cost-effective and successful to simply open to the doors to regular people out there with the trade-off that if they do find a serious problem, a payout will be issued. – Well, following a report via Eurogamer, it would appear that Valve has just paid one such person a pretty substantial $7,500 reward for finding a confirmed glitch within Steam that could’ve potentially allowed people to fill up their ‘wallets’ with seemingly unlimited amounts of currency.
Valve Pays $7,500 in Successful Bug Bounty Claim
Spotted by a user known as “drbrix” back in August last year they submitted a ‘bug bounty’ claim to Valve, claiming that they’d found a means of adding practically unlimited funds to a Steam Wallet by simply utilising a bug within the email system. Now, admittedly, it’s a little more complicated than that, but the short version is that it was proposed that people with “amount100” in their Steam account email address could successfully intercept payments made to the associated wallet (made via Smart2Pay) and then artificially inflate them. – With this, it would be possible to basically add 10 dollars worth of credit and fiddle the numbers to change this to $1,000.
Upon the report, Valve investigated the matter themselves and confirmed that this exploit did indeed exist. It has, therefore, since been fixed. Therefore, to reward “drbrix” for their efforts, they have just cut them a cheque for $7,500. Not without a bit of controversy from the community, though.
How Much is Enough?
The key factor in the controversy here is that if “drbrix” had made the glitch a matter of public knowledge, rather than reporting it as they did, this could’ve potentially cost Valve hundreds and thousands of dollars before they found a means of fixing it. Let alone discovering what was happening in the first place. – As such, many within both the gaming and ‘white hat hacking’ community are questioning whether $7,500 was really a payment sufficient to reward the merits of the discovery.
So, I guess it boils down to a matter of opinion, but in a nutshell, many think the $7,500 payment was a bit stingy of Valve. – But what do you think? – Let us know in the comments!
Following the release of Windows 11 earlier this month, while the adoption of the new operating system hasn’t provided Intel users with any notable problems (at least none that I’ve heard of) I’m sure many of you are aware that the same can not be said for AMD Ryzen. Simply put, a day one issue with Windows 11 resulted in a notable performance drop for Ryzen CPUs, particularly in gaming with the new operating system ‘providing’ a 10-15% worse gaming performance.
Well, while it has clearly taken a while, following the launch of a new update from both Windows and AMD, all going well, the Ryzen issue on Windows 11 has now been fixed!
AMD Ryzen – Windows 11 Fix Available Now!
AMD Ryzen had two notable issues on Windows 11 that were, technically speaking, separate from each other, but largely provided the same effect. Namely, the processors ran a lot worse than they would (or used to) on Windows 10. – Fortunately, though, both AMD and Microsoft have now released separate updates that should, again, all going well, resolve these problems entirely.
The only downside is that to get this resolved now, a little metaphorical leg work is required on the users part:
L3 CACHE LATENCY:
A ‘preview’ of the upcoming patch set to officially be released this Tuesday is available to manually download early now. This resolves the L3 cache latency issue that saw it increased by roughly 3 times its expected amount. Although this may vary, a manual check of the ‘Windows Update’ menu should provide you with the option to download and install this now.
AMD Ryzen utilises a ‘preferred core’ system. This actively utilises the operating system to select the two most consistently potent cores available on the processor and then ensure, in very basic terms, that these are given the majority of the workload. However, with this being disabled within Windows 11, this has perhaps represented the biggest culprit of the performance drop bug. Unlike the L3 cache latency, however, this one can not be fixed from a Microsoft update. Instead, users have to download and install new AMD chipset drivers. – So, not too difficult and, on the whole, probably no more or less of a faff than updating Windows.
With the updates being relatively new, while early reports indicate that they have completely resolved the issues present with AMD Ryzen on Windows 11, we wouldn’t necessarily want to guarantee that for certain. Microsoft ‘fix’ update particularly do have something of a reputation of solving one problem while creating two more. Presuming you are, however, already on Windows 11, and have an AMD Ryzen processor, we would suggest that, at least in theory, applying the above as soon as possible will likely be to your advantage!
Yesterday we saw the official release of the highly anticipated (and equally unexpected) GTA Trilogy. In reality, though, that statement has only turned out to be partially true. While it has been available to purchase on console, the PC version has been a bit more challenging. – Why? Well, in a nutshell, the Rockstar Games Launcher hasn’t been working properly.
Put simply, it is stubbornly refusing to connect to their server and, with no launcher, you have no game! – Yes, there’s no other way to put this, Rockstar Game has, once again, contrived to find a way to completely cock up a PC release!
Rockstar Games Doing What it Does Best on PC!
Now, for those of you unaware of what I’m referring to here in my admittedly rather terse tone, you may recall that when Red Dead Redemption 2 was released on the PC, the game (for many – including myself!) was completely unplayable for up to three weeks after it supposed release date. And no, that’s not an exageration!
The reason? Well, the short answer is the god-awful Rockstar Games Launcher. And it appears to, yet again, be the cause of more problems for PC users. – As you can see from the image above, taken from my own PC (I don’t even need a source for this!), you can not log into it and this has been the case (at least at the time of writing) for nearly 24-hours now!
I’m not going to lie, I first noticed the issue last night. I did, however, presume that something had perhaps gone a bit haywire with the launcher since I’d relatively recently just updated to Windows 11. After a complete clean re-installation, however, it still refused to connect.
So, despite the GTA Trilogy supposedly releasing on PC, the bottom line is that 99.9% of you (and we suspect probably all) can’t actually play the bloody game!
Services for the Rockstar Games Launcher and supported titles are temporarily offline for maintenance. Services will return as soon as maintenance is completed.
So far Rockstar Games has not given any reason as to why their PC launcher isn’t working. Annoyingly though, they have originally cited (as per the Twitter post above) that it was “temporarily” shut down for ‘maintenance’. Something, incidentally, which I’m just going to call BS on right now. Why would you shut down your ‘server’ for maintenance on the exact same day you’re releasing a major gaming title?!
There’s no other way to look at this, once again Rockstar Games’ stubborn insistence on using its god-awful launcher (and yes, it’s way way way worse than anything else, even Uplay and the EGS) rather than something like Steam has only resulted in a total failure on their part. – I’m not angry, I’m not even surprised, I’m just disappointed that they still haven’t managed to learn from their mistakes of the past!
What do you think? – Let us know in the comments!
Edit – Intriguing or irrelevant, the Rockstar website currently cites that the GTA Trilogy is NOW set for release on December 7th. No idea what this is about, but maybe you can help clarify this point in the comments!
It’s been nearly a week since the release of the GTA Trilogy. Well, 4 days if you include the PC version getting pulled for 48-hours due to a still unconfirmed issue with the files. The bottom line though is that despite this supposedly representing the ‘Definitive Edition’ of the original PS2-era titles, it has become abundantly clear that this so-called remaster is a sub-par, rushed, bug-riddled mess. Apparently, Rockstar Games learned nothing from the fiasco we saw last year with Cyberpunk 2077.
Representing something of a rather amusing glitch, however, Reddit user ‘u/stack413‘ has posted a video showcasing a rather bizarre bug with the vehicles. Namely, that if you jiggle the wheel, your car may start to embiggen itself!
GTA Trilogy – A Noble Glitch Embiggens the smallest Car
The glitch, as shown in the video below, appears to allow vehicles to grow in size and/or distort when the steering wheel is given a swaying jiggle from left to right. – In what is clearly some kind of huge issue between the physics engine and the vehicles polygons, our best guess is that this is an unforeseen bug created when the games were ported to the Unreal Engine 4. It’s also entirely possible that this is some kind of bizarre conflict with the cars damage mechanics.
Anyway you look at it though, when compared to some of the hideous game-breaking bugs discovered so far (one of which including a mission regarding boxes that can’t be broken – boxes to hit that have no hit boxes) this is at least on a Bethesda level of amusing rather than annoying!
Oh, and for those of you who have never heard of something getting ’embiggened’, I ensure you that it’s a perfectly cromulent word!
What Do We Think?
There is no other way to look at this. The GTA Trilogy has clearly been rushed out of the door in a state that is not currently fit for purpose. Sure, you can probably play the games, and presuming you do so on a full moon, with a rabbit’s foot in your pocket, a horse shoe hung over your PC/console, and all while standing on one leg whistling the national anthem, it might very well let you have a perfectly fun and fine experience.
Yes, Rockstar Games will release patches to fix the worst of the problems including this one seen here. By and large though, for what should’ve represented one of the great unexpected gaming surprises of 2021, I think the GTA Trilogy may simply be this year’s version of Cyberpunk 2077. An unfinished game rushed out the door to attempt to cash in on the Christmas sales!
I daresay that there are more than a few of you who remember the technological hysteria we saw when we were approaching the new millennium. Known as ‘Y2K’, for those of you who were too young to recall, it was basically a general fear that computer systems that were not programmed to enter into a 4 digit year (having previously just relied on the latter two) would effectively fail. – Planes would fall out of the sky, the internet would disintegrate into ashes, nuclear power plants would go into meltdown, dogs and cats living together, mass hysteria!
So, what happened when the year 2000 rolled around? Well, in a nutshell, not much. – In something that seems to echo the fears of what issues a new year might bring, however, it seems that Microsoft is having a bit of a problem with their email services and, based on the nature of the problem, it’s already being dubbed the ‘Y2K22’.
Microsoft Confirms ‘Y2K22’ Bug
Following a report via SkyNews, Microsoft has confirmed that with us entering a new year, this has thrown up an unanticipated error with many of its email exchange servers. – How could a new year possibly do this though? Well, the short answer is that it’s due to how Microsoft names its updates and specifically so in regards to malware detection.
Generally speaking, Microsoft updates usually begin with the date of its release which is then followed by a code denoting the specific update. Converting this into a 31 bits binary code, this means that it can easily detect if a new version is available. With the year ticking over to 2022, however, this is now a figure too large to represent within that binary system which is causing its malware detection to, basically, throw a fit. This, by proxy, means that many emails are struggling to make it from A to B.
“The version checking performed against the signature file is causing the malware engine to crash, resulting in messages being stuck in transport queues.” – Microsoft
Some Potential But Ill-Advised Workarounds
For general users, this isn’t creating too many problems. For last companies who relay thousands of emails a day, however, this is quite a significant problem. Largely because, with the emails not getting sent, they’re basically squatting on the server. While Microsoft has confirmed that the issue can be temporarily fixed by disabling the malware security, this is clearly something that they do not advise. Particularly in this day and age of ransomware.
Rest assured though, a fix is on the way in order to attempt to correct this problem for good. It does seem rather ironic though that for many people, 2022 is proving to be far more problematic with their computers than 2000 ever was!
Despite the fact that it’s only January, God of War is already looking to potentially be one of the best PC games released this year. While receiving pretty much universal praise on Steam, however, a number of users have encountered a rather annoying issue. Namely, when they attempted to boot it up, rather than it loading as it should, it instead crashed giving a somewhat bizarre ‘out of memory’ error. Certainly not ideal for a title you just spent a good chunk of change on!
Following an official post on the games Steam website, however, the developers have not only identified what they believe to be the cause of the problem, but they are also offering users a potential hotfix workaround while a patch to completely resolve the issue is put together.
God of War – “Out of Memory”
So, what’s the problem? Well, although still pending 100% confirmation, it would appear that the issue is currently only being found by people using Intel’s latest Alder Lake-S processors and specifically those that feature an integrated graphics adaptor. Put simply, it would appear that although attempting to display on the dedicated graphics card, the game is accidentally getting pushed towards the integrated one resulting in its rather limited VRAM getting gobbled up beyond capacity immediately. Hence, the ‘out of memory’ error.
While a patch is on the way to hopefully fix this permanently, however, God of War’s PC developers may have found a potential workaround those users can at least attempt in the meantime.
How to Try the Hotfix!
The developers have made it abundantly clear that the hotfix is very new and undergoing testing. As such, while they hope it will help resolve the problem, they can’t guarantee its success for everyone. – So, with that little disclaimer out of the way, if you are getting an ‘out of memory’ error, they have suggested placing the game in an ‘experimental’ beta mode. To do this, follow the steps below:
In your Steam library, right click on ‘God of War’ and select ‘Properties’
Select the ‘BETAS’ tab
Change the drop down to ‘experimental’
If you do not see the branch in your drop-down, please restart your Steam client.
To switch back to the default branch, follow these steps:
In your Steam library, right click on ‘God of War’ and select ‘Properties’
Select the ‘BETAS’ tab
Change the drop down to ‘none’
As above, they’re certainly not guaranteeing that this will work for everyone. On the plus side, however, it is nice to see the problem not only getting quickly identified but more so them already having a temporary fix/workaround in place to try and help resolve it in the short term.
Late last week CD Projekt Red released the latest 1.5 updates for Cyberpunk 2077 that, as its key highlight, finally brought the next-gen upgrade to the PS5 and Xbox Series X/S. With it offering a number of bug fixes and general ‘improvements’ to the existing last-gen versions, however, a number of PS4 users found that rather than ‘fixing’ anything, the patch had instead completely bricked the game. Specifically affecting disc-based users, Cyberpunk 2077 was rendered entirely unplayable.
Well, while a fix has been released that should hopefully resolve the problem, we again have to ask if CD Projekt Red has, once again, only managed to shoot themselves in the foot!
There’s a software update for PS4 live now. It addresses the issue with the disc version of Cyberpunk 2077 not launching on PS4 after installing the latest game patch. Please make sure to update your system. pic.twitter.com/3EYJNGjRKp
You do have to feel a bit of sympathy for PS4 owners who have somehow managed to stick with Cyberpunk 2077. At launch, it was undoubtedly the worst version available with, by a huge margin, the most problems. With this latest 1.5 update basically rendering the game unplayable for a significant number of disc users, however, it’s not only a slap in the face to those who perhaps did view this as a big step towards getting the game right but more so those who perhaps choose the 1.5 patch moment to finally purchase the game!
Put simply, as often has been the case with Cyberpunk 2077, CD Projekt Red has taken one gaming step forward while taking 2 huge PR steps backwards!
Well… At Least its Mostly Fixed!
While the PS4 update has undoubtedly captured most of the attention, the release of Cyberpunk 2077 1.5 hasn’t been entirely carefree for other platforms either. PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S owners have all reported a fresh batch of problems (mostly bugs/glitches) related to the 1.5 updates. Fortunately though, on a comparative level, they’ve been nowhere near as bad as the disc PS4 version. You know, at least those people could actually play their game!
It does, however, again highlight that CD Projekt Red likely rushed this update out the door with not enough Q&A testing. The 1.5 update clearly wasn’t ready as a whole, but then again, perhaps this is just in keeping with the traditions that Cyberpunk 2077 has set.
Released a little over 6-months ago, eFootball 2022 was certainly an interesting new proposition when it came to sports gaming. Rather than continuing the apparent uphill battle to compete with the popularity of FIFA, Konami decided to release the title as ‘free-to-play’ with clearly the hope of generating income through microtransactions. A platform that, in fairness, had a lot of potential to do well. And particularly so as more and more people got (and continue to get) disenfranchised with the ‘surprise ethical mechanics’ (AKA gambling) of FIFA Ultimate Team.
The thing is though, while it could’ve worked, eFootball came out with a pretty big problem. One that over the last 6-months has still yet to really be resolved. Namely, it was absolutely awful. Not outright unplayable, but clearly pushed out the door months before it was even close to being in even a finished state. – Following a report via DSOGaming, however, while it might be stating the ridiculously obvious, Konami has finally issued a statement in which they confirm that eFootball 2022 was rushed.
Konami Finally Admits eFootball 2022 was Rushed!
The announcement has been made immediately prior to the 1.0.0 update that is set to release on April 14th. A serial code that, being indicative of the final release, clearly highlights just how far behind schedule eFootball 2022 was when Konami kicked it out the door. – Put simply, it’s only just set to graduate into the realms of the 1.0 version!
With this hopefully looking to iron out all of the major bugs and glitches present in the title, however, (video below showcasing them), Konami has issued this apology perhaps in the hope that it might manage to pull back some of the people who felt hugely let down by the original launch state.
“We were too focused on getting the game out on time that we lost sight of the most important thing — quality. Naturally, we were met with critical reviews from rightfully disappointed fans.” – Konami
What Do We Think?
While Konami has received a lot of criticism over eFootball 2022, I think the point should still be highlighted that it was released as a ‘free to play’ title. Presuming you didn’t spend any money on microtransactions, you gained and lost nothing through trying this out. – More than anything though, I think the predominant frustration from the community has been that this franchise, in its prior iteration, was the only alternative to FIFA. And with that now gone, what’s left? I doubt EA’s going to view the total non-competition as any kind of prompt for them to actually start making great FIFA titles instead of, you know, just CTRL+C CTRL+V the last one.
With the new update set to go live on April 14th, however, while we’re almost certainly not suggesting that eFootball 2022 is going to represent anything significantly better, given that it is free, giving it another chance surely couldn’t do sports gamers any harm!
At the time of writing, we are still yet to get any kind of firm figures as to exactly what the adoption rate of Windows 11 has been so far. With moderately conservative estimates suggesting numbers in the range of 7-10%, however, one thing is undoubtedly certain. This is significantly lower than Microsoft would’ve probably liked considering that Windows 11 is now over 6 months old now!
Why is the adoption rate of Microsoft’s latest operating system so poor though? Well, for this, there are a number of potential answers which I won’t go into any huge detail about. One of them, however, is certainly seen in a notable number of people who are legitimately planning to transition to 11 at some point. For the moment though, they are simply waiting for around a year or so for the worst of the bugs and kinks to be worked out.
For us already on Windows 11, however, we do at least have our ‘Windows Insider’ users who do get to test out the latest updates before they publically drop. – If you are one of those people, however, then following a report via BeepingComputer you may want to avoid the most recent update as Microsoft has confirmed that it is causing significant issues with a significant number of .NET Framework 3.5-based applications.
Microsoft Issues Warning for Windows 11 Insider KB5012643
Just to be clear, for those of you already on Windows 11 who might now be terrified at any upcoming update notifications, the issue presented here should not affect you. So go ahead and update as much as you want. – To be categorically clear, the current problem with .NET Framework 3.5 applications failing to run (including reports of the Microsoft Store too) is currently only affecting those Windows 11 Insider members who updated to the most recent KB5012643 preview build.
With this in mind though, it has led Microsoft to issue a rather interesting and somewhat unique warning.
Windows 11 Insider Users – Update At Your Peril!
So, what is this warning? Well, put simply, while Microsoft is not (apparently) going to withdraw the latest ‘KB5012643’ preview build, they are advising that Insider members should only update to it if they are willing to accept a bit of the rough with the smooth here. And if you have already made the update, the good news is that through checking your Windows Update settings, a roll-back to the prior version does seem to be correcting the bug.
At this point though, consider yourself warned. And for those of you on regular Windows 11, give your metaphorical hat a tip to those people who are members of the Insider updates who regularly have to encounter these bugs so you don’t have to!
Although I presume that most are probably already aware of this, staring at the Sun for any kind of period of time is, generally speaking, hazardous to your overall health. – If you’ve gotten this far though, then I can only presume that you were already aware of this fact or you’d be blind and unable to read what I’m typing here.
It seems though that the developers behind the recently released (and bizarrely) popular PowerWash Simulator have had to issue such advice to its community. Not because starting at the sun in-game might make your eyes water, but more so that a bizarre glitch has been confirmed that could cause your game to have a pretty huge crash!
PowerWash Simulator – Staring at Sun is Hazardous to Your Games Stability!
Although thought to currently be an issue exclusive to the Xbox version, PowerWash Simulator developer FuturLab has posted on Twitter to confirm that a hotfix is on the way (no pun intended) in order to attempt to correct an issue that would potentially see the game crash is a player was to stare at the sun for a bit.
An Xbox hotfix is on the way and we hope to have it out by the end of next week! Sorry all. We caught it last second and will get it to you all as quickly as we possibly can! https://t.co/sjRomOq9U9
As per the post, it appears that a Lens Flare graphical issue within the game’s engine is accidentally triggering the crash. Let’s be honest though, with a power hose at your disposal, there were always going to be some people looking to find out if they could put the Sun out so the discovery of this bug, while amusing, did seem somewhat inevitable and more than a little coincidental given how a lot of us are melting at the moment.
In short though, as per the advice of PowerWash Simulator’s developers, please don’t stare at the sun!
Despite the fact that The Sims 4 is seven years old now, it still regularly receives fresh DLC and generic patches and updates. Yes, it might be quite old in generic gaming terms, but The Sims 4 is one of those titles that seems to constantly be in a state of relative evolution. – Following the latest update to the title, however, a growing number of user reports all seem to be suggesting that an unusual and deadly glitch has appeared.
Put simply, the Grim Reaper seems to be making a lot more calls than usual!
Beware of the Latest Sims 4 Update
So, what’s exactly happening here? Well, in a nutshell, death is always an inevitable part of a Sims life. Admittedly, for me, it’s mostly when I’ve got bored of the game and trap my virtual family in a room full of highly flammable material. – In terms of generic ageing, however, following a report via Eurogamer it seems that the latest update to The Sims 4 has somewhat sped up the process of Father Time.
Yes, in a sentence, Sims seem to be both growing up and dying a lot faster than usual. – One user on Twitter said that during a wedding they’d spent ages planning, half the guests had died before the ceremony had concluded! Another said that their newly born in-game baby was already an angsty teenager within circa 15-20 minutes!
In generic terms, it seems your Sims may have, at best, about 1-2 hours total of human time to go through the full process of getting hatched and then dispatched!
EA Confirms A Potential Problem
EA has officially acknowledged the issue, and, as such, players can likely expect a hotfix to drop within the next couple of days. For those of you who enjoy playing The Sims 4, however, the best advice at the moment seems to be to avoid installing the latest updated version. Well, not unless you want to fast-track your family from the cradle to the grave.
Alternatively, if you already have the last update installed, well, you better go forth and multiply because, if you’re not quick, your home is going to be empty very quickly!
Thankfully, modern Windows operating systems are a lot more forgiving when it comes to removing USB storage devices. Once upon a time, to prevent any potential risk of data corruption (which was very real and exceptionally common), you had to manually ‘eject’ a USB device (Safely Remove Hardware) through the system to ensure that it would successfully work again when reinserted. – Failure to do this (and yanking it out at the wrong time) could often result in the device being completely bricked and although it’s been a fair while since this last happened to me, I know for a fact that I’ve had to consign more than a few thumb drives to the technological graveyard.
As above though, this is now mostly an issue consigned to the history of older operating systems with it actually being quite difficult these days to ‘brick’ a USB storage device.
Being a moderate traditionalist, however, I still typically do the ‘manual ejection’ method to just be certain my device isn’t going to have any problems. – Following a report via BetaNews, however, it seems that this is creating a lot of problems for users under the new Windows 11 2022 update. – Yes, another bug has been found!
Windows 11 2022 Update Creates New USB Removal Bug
Following the latest (and first major) Windows 11 update (22H2), users have started reporting that when attempting the traditional method of ‘ejecting’ a USB storage device through the system settings, rather than getting the notification that it is ‘now safe to remove the device’, they are instead seeing an incredibly disturbing “Problem Ejecting USB Mass Storage Device” error message. – A post which would indicate that, against all apparent visual checks, the device is still being used by something.
Now, again, for those older people among you, this is not what you want to see and will clearly have you more than a little terrified that by removing your USB device you might end up ruining it completely. Well, that or, at the very least, you’ll be risking losing all the data that’s on it.
What’s causing this problem though? Well, it’s a bit of a unique issue, but apparently, this only occurs if the Windows 11 user has the task manager open while attempting the drive removal. – There is, fortunately, no actual risk to your USB device and closing the task manager window should remove the error. – Based on the masses of issues found with the Windows 11 2022 update, however, (click here if you want to see the growing list), it seems that our advice remains the same.
If you haven’t made this update yet, don’t! – Microsoft still has a lot of work to do before we’re willing to give this 2022 update a pass!
While players are, of course, free to explore as many advantageous tactics as they like in Warzone 2, the typical ethos of the game is to get some loot, kill your opponents, and be the last one standing. – It certainly sounds simple enough, but whether that actually happens though is clearly down to a combination of both luck and skill.
Following a report via DigitalTrends, however, it seems that a bizarre ‘new’ tactic has emerged which can potentially see you get a solo win without ever firing a gun in anger once. There’s only one catch, you need to hoard as many self-revive kits as you can!
Warzone 2 – Self Revive Kits FTW!
Seemingly confirmed to work by a large number of players, you might at this point be wondering how you could possibly win a Warzone 2 game merely through the merits of having masses of self-revive kits. – Well, overall, the glitch isn’t overly dissimilar to a bug that once existed in the original Warzone.
Overall, the key is to survive a solo round until the end game (which is clearly hard enough in itself) and then avoid your opponent discovering you while the final circle closes in. At this point, it turns into a combination of hide and seek and a battle of attrition. Through masses of self-revive kits, however, you can survive the gas for more than long enough to outlast your opponent meaning that you can beat the game with zero kills! – And this isn’t theory either as it’s already been done multiple times.
Of course, the chances of success using this tactic are incredibly low. You’ve not only got to find a whole host of self-revive kits, but you’ve also got to avoid all combat until it’s down to a solo 1 v 1. And even then you’ve got to hope that your opponent is incapable of finding you. When it works though? Well, let’s just say that I’d never considered this in Warzone 2, but I applaud the challenge if nothing else!
Rest assured though, like the aforementioned Warzone 1 bug, expect Activision to ‘fix’ this in Warzone 2 within the next few weeks.
Earlier this week we saw the highly anticipated release of The Witcher 3’s next-gen upgrade patch. So far, however, while the game certainly looks graphically glorious, many people, mostly on PC, haven’t really been able to enjoy it all that much. Yes, for all the good work CD Projekt Red has done in restoring its reputation following the buggy release of Cyberpunk 2077, it seems that history might be repeating itself with The Witcher 3.
On the plus side, however, following the publication of a blog post, CDPR has at least confirmed that a number of issues exist, and more so, some potential workarounds users might consider.
The Witcher 3 – CDPR Publishes Official ‘Confirmed Bug’ List!
As noted above, it does seem that the PC version is suffering the most with users regularly complaining that the game barely functions for 5-10 minutes before promptly crashing you out to the desktop. The greatest frustration from fans, of course, is not just in that this was a highly anticipated release, but more so, the last official version of the game was phenomenally stable. One upgrade patch has, however, seemingly brought the entire stack of cards tumbling down!
So, what are the confirmed bugs? Well, the list is brief, but here it goes:
Game crashes on PC
Players who own the game on Origin are unable to update the game
Low Ray Tracing performance on Intel GPUs.
PlayStation 5 version of the expansions are unavailable in some regions
While CDPR is offering some workarounds, in truth, or at least at the time they’re not much use. Well, aside from some very generic stuff like making sure your drivers are up to date, etc. – If you do, however, want to keep your eye on this as it develops, check out the link here!
For the moment though, as much as I’m looking forward to checking The Witcher 3’s next-gen upgrade out, I think I might give it a couple of weeks now just for some of the more problematic issues to be resolved.
Forza 7 Update
