Final Fantasy 14 Endwalker 6.05 Patch Notes Revealed, See What’s New

The newest patch for Final Fantasy XIV is out now, and it’s a big one. The big update, version 6.05, adds a “multitude of additions and refinements to the realm,” Square Enix said in a blog post.

This includes a new “Savage” version of the Pandæmonium raid, a new Excitatron 6000 treasure dungeon, and Allagan tomestones of astronomy, among other things.

For the raid, players need to speak with Nemjiji in Labyrinthos (X:8.4 Y:27.4) and have a level 90 Disciple of War or Magic; players must also complete the “Who Wards the Warders” quest before they get started.

Those who complete the raid will be rewarded with special gear and weapons.

“The Excitatron 6000, a special instance similar to the Dungeons of Lyhe Ghiah, can be accessed after finding and opening treasure coffers obtained from kumbhiraskin treasure maps. Here, players will have the chance to test their luck and obtain priceless treasures,” Square Enix said.

Elsewhere, the 6.05 patch makes a series of changes to the battle system, with actions and traits adjusted for a series of jobs and classes, including Dragoon, Pugilist/Monk, and Ninja, among others.

There are also new furnishings available from a community design contest, one of which is a zen-looking garden frog, while more recipes and a new minion are now available in the game.

The blog post also runs through the bugs and other issues addressed in this update and lists off some of the known issues that players should expect to encounter. You can see the full patch notes here.

Final Fantasy XIV’s Endwalker expansion, which released in December, was so popular that Square Enix temporarily suspended sales of the game.

Read MoreGameSpot – Game News

What’s In The Fortnite Item Shop Today – January 4, 2022: Last Chance For Winterfest Skins

With Winterfest ending later this week, Epic is giving players one last chance to grab any Winterfest skins in the Fortnite Item Shop. If you’ve had your eye on any festive characters, this will be your last opportunity to get them before next December, so consider yourself warned. Here’s everything in the oversized Fortnite Item Shop for January 4, 2022.

The complete run of Fortnite Winterfest characters brings over a dozen heroes to the store for one last hurrah before they’re shelved (presumably in Santa’s Workshop) for nearly the whole calendar year. That means characters like Reina, Snowbell, Red-Nosed Ranger, and many more are all on their last gingerbread limbs.

Last chance to jingle your bells

If you’re already over the holiday season yourself, you can ring in the new year with characters such as Boba Fett and the Cobra Kai collection, as well as long-absent Epic originals in the Permafrost set. The eight-hero set has been missing in action for nearly 300 days, but it’s back now and includes the following heroes, each of them clad in wintry camo and each of them going for 800 V-Bucks:

Chill CountIce InterceptHailstormSnow SniperChillout Arctic IntelIce StalkerSnow Striker

For a full view of the inventory today, check out iFireMonkey’s tweet.

🛒 #Fortnite Item Shop
⏰ Tuesday, January 4, 2022

💚 Use code ‘FireMonkey’ to support me! #EpicPartner pic.twitter.com/26RjmCwXsD

— iFireMonkey (@iFireMonkey) January 4, 2022

Given that this is Fortnite, we’re likely only days away from the next major collaboration. We’ll be back tomorrow with another Fortnite Item Shop update.

Read MoreGameSpot – Game News

AMD CES 2022 Pre-Show Teaser: Ryzen 6000 Series Mobile Processors with RDNA2 & DDR5 Tech

Ahead of tomorrow’s big CES keynote, AMD is offering a spoiler of sorts for one of their product announcements. As it turns out, one of AMD’s forthcoming products, the Ryzen 6000 Series Mobile processor lineup, is receiving a CES innovation award. And since those awards are being announced this evening, ahead of the show, so too is the Ryzen 6000 Mobile series.

While AMD is clearly saving the bulk of the details for tomorrow’s presentation, for this evening they are revealing a few key details. First and foremost, AMD’s latest generation of mobile APUs is getting a significant upgrade in terms of graphics support, with AMD (finally) replacing the Vega GPU architecture with their current-generation RDNA2 GPU architecture. Along with supporting numerous additional graphics features – namely, the DirectX 12 Ultimate feature set – RDNA2 also introduced some significant energy efficiency and computational throughput improvements to AMD’s GPU architecture, which has made AMD’s latest generation of discrete parts among the most competitive in generations.

Curiously, no similar mention is made of the underlying CPU architecture. However, since we’re not expecting Zen 4 until later this year, it stands to reason that these new mobile chips are based around the Zen 3 CPU architecture, just like the current Ryzen 5000 chips.

AMD Ryzen Mobile APU Generations
AnandTech
CPU Arch
GPU Arch
Memory Types
Year
Ryzen 6000 Mobile
Zen 3?
RDNA2
DDR5 / LPDDR5?
2022
Ryzen 5000 Mobile (Cezanne)
Zen 3
Vega
DDR4 / LPDDR4X
2021
Ryzen 4000 Mobile (Renoir)
Zen 2
Vega
DDR4 / LPDDR4X
2020

AMD’s brief announcement also touts support for newer memory standards, specifically “DDR5 technologies.” All of AMD’s current-generation APUs are currently based around DDR4/LPDDR4, so the move to DDR5 will offer a significant boost to total memory bandwidth, something that should pair very well with the increased iGPU capabilities of the Ryzen 6000 Mobile parts. Notably, LPDDR5 isn’t explicitly mentioned alongside DDR5, but this is clearly a less-than-complete detailing of the chips’ architecture.

Finally, the award announcement also confirms that the new Ryzen processors will integrate a Microsoft Pluton-architecture hardware security processor. As well, the chips come with what AMD is calling “AI-audio processing,” which we’ll no doubt hear more about tomorrow.

And with that, we’ll have more tomorrow. Join us at 7am PT (15:00 UTC) for our live blog coverage of AMD’s CES 2022 keynote, where we should hear all about the Ryzen 6000 Mobile series and more.

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Fortnite: Best Landing Spots In Chapter 3 Season 1

The Fortnite Chapter 3, Season 1 map is home to dozens of new landmarks and NPCs, and brings a brand-new loot pool featuring never-before-seen weapons and healing items. Learning the lay of the land and knowing where to enter the fray is one of the most important parts of any battle royale, and that remains true on the new Fortnite map. After dozens of hours, here are our picks for the best landing spots in Fortnite Chapter 3, Season 1.

Fortnite: best landing spots for Chapter 3

Greasy Grove

Come for the tacos, stay for the loot.

This fast food hub is surrounded by several residences, which reminds us of Retail Row, but its more thickly-settled houses are akin to Holly Hedges. Put that together and you’ve got a place rich with loot without the need to trek very far to collect it all. We recommend dropping right into the gas station for its chests and a parked car (probably with off-road tires too). Or, you could try the taco restaurant, in which you’ll find plenty of weapons and food items in the basement. Then loot all the residences nearby like The Grinch.

Rocky Reels

If the Storm wasn’t moving in, you could maybe catch a movie.

The drive-in theater is back for Chapter 3, but apparently under new management given its revised name. At Rocky Reels, you’ll still find a giant projection screen loaded with loot in its hidden stairwell, but around the open area beneath it, you’ll find a ton of healing items inside coolers. Oftentimes, these coolers are full of Chug Splash, which makes landing at this location the fastest way to get shields to 100 in the game. You can also explore nearby snack shacks for an absurdly high number of ammo chests–so many, in fact, that it can feel like a bug.

Chonker’s Speedway

Start your engines!

Chonker’s Speedway features the unmissable dirt racetrack, and it always keeps you ready for a quick getaway thanks to the fleet of Whiplashes pre-loaded with off-road tires. This makes it a wise landing spot for the indecisive players of the Fortnite world. While its two central buildings on either side of the starting line have plenty of loot to go around, the cars make for an easy getaway should you realize halfway down your descent that the drop is too spicy for your tastes.

Camp Cuddle

Sure, they call it Camp Cuddle, but enemies rarely care to embrace.

Every Fortnite island needs a sizable lake, and for Chapter 3, it’s found at Camp Cuddle. This location has several NPCs in close proximity to one another, meaning you can buy special loot or take on gold-rewarding quests in a flash. If you’re not one to take up shop at its central island featuring the watchtower as seen above, you can explore the many wood cabins around the area, complete with lots of foraged items and plenty of loot for a full squad. The water and ziplines help make for a fast exit once the Storm closes in too.

Sleepy Sound

Sleepy Sound is ironically quite lively.

The fan-favorite landing spot of Chapter 3 so far is Sleepy Sound. This riverside boating community offers many tightly-packed buildings side by side, making it easy for you to start at one end and clear it out room by room as you run the length of the region. The combination of several boats, a gas station, and the Sticks Restaurant all being right there completes the all-in-one appeal of Sleepy Sound. It has something for all types of players, so long as you’re ready for a fight from the drop.

Daily Bugle

Listen closely and you can hear demands for pictures of Spider-Man.

There’s maybe never been a location with as much loot per room as you’ll find in the Daily Bugle’s central skyscraper. The multiple floors offer loads of chests, floor loot, and ammo boxes, in a way that’s more reminiscent of PUBG: Battlegrounds than anything Fortnite has done before. Surrounded by ziplines and Spider-Man’s bouncy webs outside for added fun, the only downside is that it’s such a popular landing spot. Like Sleepy Sound, you’ll probably never get the place to yourself, but if you survive the initial onslaught, you’ll clean up better here than anywhere else.

For more on Fortnite Chapter 3, Season 1, don’t miss our breakdown on all the Exotic and Mythic weapons, including Spider-Man’s Web Shooters, as well as an introduction to this season’s secret skin, The Foundation.

Read MoreGameSpot – Game News

Call of Duty: Warzone – Best Caldera Landing Spots For Season 1

Call of Duty: Warzone‘s new Caldera map is a lush island with waterfalls, a lagoon, and even a massive volcano, so it’s easy to get distracted by all the beautiful scenery, but it’s important to know where to drop to get decent loot. Here we list some of the best locations to land on Caldera, which can depend on your preferred playlist, whether you’re going for high kills, or just looking for somewhere quiet to get started.

Call Of Duty: Warzone – Best Places To Land On Caldera

Airfield

Caldera’s Airfield

Caldera’s Airfield is a solid choice if you’re looking to get into the action right away, as this is a popular location with plenty of buildings and vehicles. Loot up at one of the airfield’s many hangars, grab a Contract, then use a plane or vehicle when it’s time to head out. This is a great place to drop when playing Plunder mode, trios, or quads, especially if you’re looking to rack up plenty of kills and cash.

Mines

Caldera’s Mines

Mines is another popular choice to drop for trios or quads playlists, especially if you’re looking to go for high-kill games. There is a lot of dangerously open ground here with just a few clusters of buildings to choose from, so pick an area to land close together as a team to start looting. With some decent gear, Caldera’s phosphate mine can be an exciting location to rack up kills. It’s a central area on the map with plenty of open sightlines, allowing you to control the location and easily pick off any opponents that try to push through. This also means it’s a great drop location if you or your teammates like to do a little sniping.

Peak

Caldera’s Peak

The top of Caldera’s volcano is often a pretty congested drop, but with luck or skill in your favor, you can score decent kills and get looted up quickly. With Peak being an elevated location near the center of the map, it’s a great starting point to get those quick kills and then easily glide down to almost any other part of the map.

Capital

The Capital

Caldera’s Capital is a large location that is absolutely filled with loot. It’s often a busy drop, so you can get into early gunfights for those high-kill game opportunities. However, the city area is also big enough that you can usually veer off and slip away from your opponents to loot up and play a bit slower. This is a great drop for playing Plunder and scoring a ton of cash, but it can also work for solos, duos, trios, and quads.

Ruins

The Ruins

If you’re a solos and duos player looking to take a less aggressive approach and not go for those high-kill games, Ruins should be a bit quieter for you. There is also enough loot in the Ruins to get you geared up before moving someplace more chaotic. However, it’s near the western coast of the island and often falls victim to one of the early circle collapses, so you’ll want to loot quickly and be ready to move.

Lagoon

The Lagoon

Caldera’s Lagoon looks like a tropical paradise best suited for swimming or working on your tan, but it’s also another great place for you to have a quieter drop location for solos or duos. This almost never seems to be a highly-contested area, and it’s open enough that you’ll likely see any threats that do come your way. Grab whatever gear you can here, and then you can rotate to a busier area like Village or Airfield to get into the action.

These map locations should help you get looted up for success on Warzone’s Caldera. Make sure to check out our Caldera bunker guide, if you’re looking for areas to explore and Easter eggs to hunt. And here we recommend the best Warzone loadouts for Season 1.

Read MoreGameSpot – Game News

Steam Breaks Record For Most Concurrent Users With Nearly 28 Million Players Online

While we might only be mere days into 2022, it looks like Steam is already crushing its New Year’s resolutions. Less than two months after the platform shattered its previous record of concurrent users back in November, Steam has once again achieved an all-time high number of active users, coming in just short of 28 million people logged on to the service as of 10 AM ET on January 2. Of these 27.9 million users, just over 8.2 million were actively playing a game via the PC gaming client, according to SteamDB.

As for which games were the among the most played when the new record was set, Valve’s own free-to-play shooter, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, unsurprisingly topped the list, maxing out with a whopping 867,000 players online. Another Valve original, Dota 2, trailed just behind at 761,000 players. In addition, PUBG, Apex Legends, and Grand Theft Auto V also all made their way into the service’s most-played games list, making the day’s top games list a nearly perfect replica of Steam’s most played games of 2021.

The news comes in the midst of Steam’s annual winter sale, which began on December 22 and runs until January 5. This might explain why games such as Yakuza: Like a Dragon, It Takes Two, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, and several other games currently on sale have seen an influx in players, likely contributing to Steam’s new record.

Of course it’s also worth mentioning Final Fantasy XIV also ranked quite high on the service’s most played game list, even with Square Enix trying its hardest to keep folks away from the servers due to some pretty intense congestion by suspending sales. However, if you’re looking to pick up some games that aren’t Final Fantasy XIV, several other fantastic Steam games are still heavily discounted over on the client until January 5, and naturally we have plenty of recommendations for you.

Read MoreGameSpot – Game News

Nvidia CES 2022 Special Address: How To Watch, Start Times, And What To Expect

The 2022 Consumer Electronics Show begins this week, and despite many major companies pulling their booths from the show floor–thanks Omicron–the online showcases are still moving forward as scheduled.

Among them is Nvidia, coming off of a 2021 filled with continued supply issues surrounding its 30-series graphics cards. The company’s 2022 CES showcase will highlight these cards–Nvidia’s official website mentions “the latest breakthroughs in accelerated computing from design and simulation to gaming and autonomous vehicles” among what to expect–but specific products have not been named.

Join us on Jan. 4 at 8 a.m. PT for our virtual special address during #CES2022 to see the latest breakthroughs in accelerated computing—from design and simulation to gaming and autonomous vehicles. https://t.co/01wprkXzdE

— NVIDIA (@nvidia) December 16, 2021

Nvidia CES 2022 Special Address Start Time

The Nvidia CES 2022 Special Address kicks off January 4 at 8 AM PT / 11 AM ET. Multiple Nvidia accounts have posted teasers for the event–including Nvidia Creators and Nvidia GeForce–indicating a few areas that will be featured.

8 AM PT10 AM CT11 AM ET4 PM GMT3 AM AET (January 5)

How To Watch The Nvidia CES 2022 Special Address

Nvidia has confirmed via its website that the CES 2022 Special Address will be available for viewing on the official Nvidia Facebook, Twitch, Twitter, and YouTube pages, as well as on IBM Video. The presentation is not listed on the CES 2022 website’s schedule, however, so be sure to use one of Nvidia’s official sources.

Considering what’s been teased by Nvidia, we’re expecting a major focus on creators and gamers, the latter specifically through GeForce Now. While we don’t expect to hear about a new line of graphics cards, an update on the 30-series’s stock issues would make sense.

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PS Plus Games For January 2022 Coming Tuesday, Including Persona 5 Strikers And More

Sony has announced January 2022’s free PlayStation Plus games, and there are three titles in all coming to the service this week to kick off the new year.

Available with the PlayStation Store refresh on Tuesday, January 4 will be the racing game Dirt 5 (PS4, PS5), the co-op FPS Deep Rock Galactic (PS4, PS5), and the action-RPG Persona 5 Strikers (PS4). All of these games will be available until February 1.

These titles leaked earlier in December, but this is the first time Sony is officially confirming them. Also of note, Persona 5 Strikers can be played on PS5.

With January’s PS Plus games coming soon, now is a good time to grab December’s PS Plus games before they go away. These include Godfall: Challenger Edition, Lego DC Super Villains, and Mortal Shell, as well as three PlayStation VR games: The Persistence, The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners, and Until You Fall.

January 4 is also when January’s new PlayStation Now games join the catalog, including Mortal Kombat 11.

January 2022 PlayStation Plus Games

Available until Tuesday, February 4

Dirt 5 — PS4, PS5Deep Rock Galactic — PS4, PS5Persona 5 Strikers — PS4Read MoreGameSpot – Game News

BioShock Creator’s New Game Has Undergone Many Reboots And Changes, Report Says

New details have emerged regarding BioShock creator Ken Levine’s new game that he is making for Take-Two, and the project seems to be facing some issues. 15 current and former developers at Levine’s Ghost Story Games studio told Bloomberg that the project has undergone reboots and changes to its direction since work began in 2014.

The developers speaking to the site said Levine “struggles to communicate his vision and alienates or browbeats subordinates who challenge him or fail to meet his expectations.”

Developers joked about taking part in a “Kenception,” which would be entering Levine’s dreams and giving him ideas that he believes he devised himself, like Leonardo DiCaprio does in the Christopher Nolan movie Inception.

The report says Levine is given a good amount of autonomy given the success of his past games, but some workers said the level of freedom that Levine has is not actually good for the project.

Developer Mike Snight told Bloomberg that “Ken is a very hard person to work for.” Snight added: “I think he tried a lot to change, and he really excels better at this company than Irrational because it is a smaller group of people.”

Snight, and half of the original team that made up Ghost Story, have left the company, the report said. Whatever the new game is, one employee said it is making better progress but still might not release until 2024.

As for Ghost Story’s new game, the report said the first idea the company came up with was a sci-fi shooter akin to BioShock set on a space station. It was projected to release in fall 2017, the report said, but this never happened.

Levine is said to have worked out a special deal whereby he reports directly to Take-Two management instead of 2K Games, the publisher of the BioShock series. Levine is reported to have told staff that Ghost Story’s budget is nothing more than a “rounding error” for Take-Two, which may explain why the company has been given so much time without releasing a product.

Neither Levine nor Take-Two have commented on the story–GameSpot has followed up with both in an attempt to get more details. Go to Bloomberg to read the full story.

As for the BioShock series, 2K’s new studio, Cloud Chamber, is developing the next entry in the series–and it might be an open-world title. The BioShock series has been dormant for some years now, with the latest mainline release, BioShock Infinite, coming in 2013.

Before this, job listings at Cloud Chamber suggested that the new BioShock would feature a “new and fantastical world,” suggesting it won’t return to Rapture or Columbia.

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Samsung Gaming Hub Streaming Service Announced With Google And Nvidia Support

Certain Samsung TV owners will soon be able to stream games without the need for an extra dongle or USB device. At this year’s CES, Samsung finally put a name to its game streaming service, which is set to launch later this year. Titled Samsung Gaming Hub, users will be able to stream games from a variety of services straight to their TV.

Currently, Samsung Gaming Hub is planned to give users access to the game libraries available on Nvidia’s GeForce Now, Google Stadia, and Utomik, though other streaming platform partnerships are planned. “We developed the Samsung Gaming Hub with our incredible content partners to benefit all gamers, and we plan to continue our collaboration to grow the ecosystem,” said Samsung Electronics’ corporate president Won-Jin Lee.

Samsung Game Hub users will be able to play games available on GeForce Now, Stadia, and Utomik.

While it’s not clear how users can expect their games to perform, Samsung claims that any titles streamed through the Samsung Gaming Hub will have “console-like performance.” Players will also seemingly be able to use any controller they want, although they’ll need to have the right TV to actually use the service. Samsung Gaming Hub is only coming to a select group of 2022 Samsung smart TV models.

Although the game streaming service market is getting saturated, this isn’t Samsung’s first attempt at it. In 2015, the electronics giant partnered with Sony to bring PlayStation Now to its smart TVs. PlayStation Now isn’t going to be around for much longer though, as the service is reportedly going to be folded into PlayStation Plus as part of Sony’s plan to launch a game streaming service to compete with Xbox Game Pass.

Read MoreGameSpot – Game News