This Persona 5 Mod Replaces The Phantom Thieves With Persona 4 Characters

Good news for Persona fans who find themselves missing Persona 4‘s Investigation Team while playing Persona 5‘s Phantom Thieves–there’s a mod on the way just for you. The Persona 5: Investigation Team character replacement mod is in progress now, building a whole new cast to play through the game’s story with.

The project lead is a modder who tweets under @REALMadMax1960, in collaboration with artist Century_. The mod builds on a now discontinued mod that inserted Persona 4 protagonist Yu over P5’s Joker. For now, all updates are being posted to the Persona 5: Investigation Team Discord server.

The project lead has said that the aim is mainly to replace the UI and models for Persona 5, which will include the Persona 4 characters’ personas, adding that they may or may not be able to implement character animations as well. Updates in the Discord note that the project will only replace voicelines if someone comes forward to help with that side of development.

Welcome to P5:IT’s twitter!
P5:IT is a comprehensive overhaul/replacement mod for persona 5 to replace it’s characters with persona 4 ones.
Current plans are detailed in length in discord server (link below), but mostly just phantom thieves (ui and models) being replaced. pic.twitter.com/ebs2IDCZA1

— PT:IT (@Persona5IT) March 8, 2022

The Discord also lists which characters will be swapped over the existing Persona 5 cast, with the decisions made based on both personality and proportions. A number of early releases have been posted to the game’s Discord, but the developers say it will only be posted to GameBanana when it’s in a playable state–meaning the entire game’s story should be playable all the way through.

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Elden Ring Mountaintops of the Giants Location Guide

Beyond the Forbidden Lands in Elden Ring, all the way in the north, is the Mountaintops of the Giants. Despite the name, there are very few giants remaining in the Lands Between, with this area more often populated by corpses and monsters. There are plenty of places to check out here, some related to your main quest and some not. Here are all the places you should check out in the Mountaintops of the Giants.

Explore the Zamor Ruins, carefully

You will want to tread carefully around the enemies in the Zamor Ruins.

After using the Grand Lift of Rold and entering the Mountaintops of the Giants, the Zamor Ruins will be the first landmark you discover. There are some great items scattered around here, including the Smithing-Stone Miner’s Bell 3. Of course, this area is also meant to introduce you to the enemies here, which is full of some tall enemies that are pretty tough. They attack quickly and there are a ton scattered around the area, so you will want to either move quickly or try sneaking.

Race across the massive stone bridge

The massive stone bridge leads into the rest of the Mountaintops of the Giants.

After getting past the Zamor Ruins, you will find a massive stone walkway that is very skinny and almost looks like a bridge between you and the rest of the area. On the other side of the bridge is a golem with a bow and arrow. There is limited cover across this gap and there is a possibility that the arrows will knock you off this ledge. While it’s a mild pain, the best plan here is to hop on Torrent and go across that gap at max speed. There are a few items on the bridge towards the middle section, including some smithing stones, but gather these items carefully.

Fight an Ice Dragon, if you want

image

After crossing the bridge you will find yourself in the lower part of a canyon, with a river running through it. If you head to the northeast, there is a massive ice lake. From this area you can head up to the top side of the two cliffs that hang over the canyon. In the center of the lake the snow gets really dense, lowering visibility. In this area is Borealis the Freezing Fog dragon boss fight. You can get 100,000 Runes and a dragon heart for defeating it, but this boss is totally optional and can be a bit tough if you just arrived in the Mountaintops of the Giants. On the south edge of the lake is also the First Church of Marika, which contains a Sacred Tear to upgrade your flasks.

Enter Heretical Rise using the invisible bridge

The invisible path is fairly simple to follow, but one mistake will result in death.

The Heretical Rise tower is another magical tower that requires you complete a puzzle in order to get inside. The Heretical Rise Tower is located on the southern cliff, but you will need to navigate to the northern cliff to access the tower. Directly across from the tower on the other cliffside is the remnants of a bridge that would have crossed the canyon. From here you can use an invisible bridge to walk across to reach the Heretical Rise tower. The path is straight for about 90% of the distance, before you need to take a rising, circular path on the left side. This leads to a balcony which gets you inside the building. There are a couple enemies waiting in the immediate room, so be wary of them. At the top of the tower is the Founding Rain of Stars, a powerful spell.

Explore Castle Sol and suffer at the hands of Commander Niall

While optional, Castle Sol contains an item that unlocks a secret area of the map.

If you head up to the northern cliff from the frozen lake, you will eventually find your war to Castle Sol, on the northern edge of the Mountaintops of the Giants. Outside of the castle you will find a walking mausoleum in an area where lightning regularly strikes. Inside the castle you will find some real tough customers, including a couple of beasts right at the front entrance. These two enemies don’t respawn luckily, so once they are defeated you can reenter the castle without worry. Inside a church about halfway through Castle Sol is the Eclipse Shotel, one of the legendary armaments in Elden Ring. This weapon inflicts the death status effect and is quite powerful.

At the top of Castle Sol is the Commander Niall fight, who summons in two knight spirits to fight alongside him. This fight can be overwhelming, since Commander Niall has multiple area of effect attacks, so you will need to avoid getting near him while taking his spirits out of the fight. In the area behind him, you can find one half of the secret medallion, which grants access to the Path to the Haligtree area, which is to the east of the Mountaintops of the Giants.

The graveyard of giants

This area is filled with the corpses of giants, with a few enemies scattered throughout.

After heading south from the frozen lake, you will cross a massive chain to another area. Here there are a ton of dead giants spread about. From here you will need to head south and then west to reach the required area to advance the story but there are some minor places to check out first. To the west you can find the Giant-Conquering Hero’s Grave, one of the medium sized dungeons in the open world. On the southern cliff you can find the Church of Repose. Just outside of that church there is an NPC invasion that occurs. The fight itself isn’t too tough and the invader drops the Rivers of Blood katana, a powerful weapon with the blood loss status effect.

Fight a giant and burn the Erdtree

The Forge of the Giants is an important part of the Elden Ring main quest.

The final area for you to check out is in the southeastern area of the Mountaintops of the Giants. Here is where you will find the Fire Giant boss fight, which stands between you and advancing the story. After completing that fight, there isn’t much else to check out in this area, except for the Forge of the Giants. Once you reach the top of the forge, head around the edge to reach the final Site of Grace in this area. Here you can talk to Melina to advance the story and to be transported to the next area of the game.

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Humble Raises $20.7 Million For Ukrainian Relief Efforts

The PC store Humble Bundle’s recent charity bundle supporting Ukrainian relief efforts raised $20.7 million, the company has announced. The funds are being donated to Razom for Ukraine, International Rescue Committee, International Medical Corps, and Direct Relief.

Humble’s Stand with Ukraine bundle was available for seven days, from March 18-25, featuring 120+ items covering games, books, and software. 100% of proceeds from the 437,917 bundles sold went to the charities mentioned above. As usual, Humble allowed people to pay whatever they want for the bundle. It works out to about $47 per bundle sold, on average.

“We’re grateful to everyone who came together and contributed to this critical cause–the people around the world who purchased a bundle; those who helped spread the word on social media and among their family and friends; and all of the publishers and developers who donated games, books, and software to the bundle. The funds we raised together will have a real impact on the lives of the people of Ukraine during this time of urgent need,” Humble said in a statement.

“While this particular bundle is over, we’re actively working with our partners on additional opportunities to support Ukraine relief efforts during this ongoing crisis,” the company added.

Humble’s Stand With Ukraine bundle raised more than $20 million

Of the $20.7 million, $5 million went to Razom for Ukraine, and this was the charity’s single largest individual donation it has ever received, Rozom for Ukraine president Dora Chomiak said.

“Your support will save lives through much-needed funds that will go toward critical medical aid and equipment and will be delivered to the most suffered cities and towns of Ukraine through the fastest routes possible. We are extremely thankful for your generosity and open hearts for Ukrainians during this horrifying time,” Chomiak said.

International Rescue Committee’s Ourania Dionysiou said the money will help it to provide “lifesaving support and emergency aid for people and families that have been uprooted from their homes in Ukraine due to the conflict.”

For International Medical Corps, chief advancement officer Rebecca Milner said the funds will help IMC help address the “most urgent needs amid ongoing chaos and violence.” And finally, Direct Relief’s Heather Bennett said, “This support will further enable the mobilization and delivery of more medicines and emergency medical supplies into Ukraine, but receiving this generosity from the Humble community–which includes people from across the globe–brings with it profound appreciation.”

It’s not just Humble that’s raising money for relief efforts in Ukraine. Fortnite developer Epic and Xbox are donating all proceeds from Fortnite through April 3, and so far this has amounted to more than $70 million.

If you want to help relief efforts, we’ve assembled a list of humanitarian organizations like the Ukrainian Red Cross and UNICEF that you can donate to.

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Axie Infinity’s NFT Network Hacked, $625 Million Stolen In Massive Digital Heist

The Ronin Network, a blockchain system that runs Sky Mavis’ popular NFT game Axie Infinity, has been hacked, with about $625 million worth of funds stolen in a massive theft.

The Ronin bridge was “exploited” for 173,600 Ethereum and 25.5M USDC, the Ronin Network announced in a blog post, adding that the bridge the Katana Dex have now been halted as a result. The Ronin Network said it’s actively working with law enforcement, as well as forensic cryptographers and its own investors to ensure that “all funds and recovered or reimbursed.”

In the announcement, the Ronin Network said it discovered today (March 29) that the validator nodes on the Ronin validator for Sky Mavis and the Axie DAO nodes were compromised on March 23, leading to the theft. Two transactions took place, with the hacker using “private keys” to create fake withdrawals, the company said. “We discovered the attack this morning after a report from a user being unable to withdraw 5k ETH from the bridge,” Ronin Network said.

Ronin Network explained that the only way to deposit or withdraw funds from the Ronin chain is to obtain five out of nine validator signatures. The attacking party gained access to four validators from Ronin and one from a third-party run by Axie DAO, Ronin Network said.

“The validator key scheme is set up to be decentralized so that it limits an attack vector, similar to this one, but the attacker found a backdoor through our gas-free RPC node, which they abused to get the signature for the Axie DAO validator,” it said. “This traces back to November 2021 when Sky Mavis requested help from the Axie DAO to distribute free transactions due to an immense user load. The Axie DAO allowlisted Sky Mavis to sign various transactions on its behalf. This was discontinued in December 2021, but the allowlist access was not revoked.”

The statement continues: “Once the attacker got access to Sky Mavis systems they were able to get the signature from the Axie DAO validator by using the gas-free RPC. We have confirmed that the signature in the malicious withdrawals match up with the five suspected validators.”

Ronin Network said it “moved swiftly” to address the incident and is now taking steps to make sure it doesn’t happen again. In the short term, Ronin Network said deposits and withdrawals now require eight validations instead of five.

“We are working directly with various government agencies to ensure the criminals get brought to justice,” the company said. “We are in the process of discussing with Axie Infinity / Sky Mavis stakeholders about how to best move forward and ensure no users’ funds are lost.”

According to Ronin Network, it has determined that “most” of the stolen funds remain in the hacking party’s wallet. The company also clarified that users are currently unable to withdraw or deposit any funds on Ronin Network for the time being.

Axie Infinity is an NFT-based game from developer Sky Mavis that is one of the most popular examples of a blockchain-based video game. It is a gigantic money-maker, bringing in $4 billion from NFT sales.

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Call Of Duty: Warzone Patch Notes Reveal Major Perks Changes

Call of Duty: Warzone continues to see major changes in Season 2 Reloaded, with the latest patch notes from Raven Software including several changes to the battle royale’s perks.

According to the March 28 patch notes for Warzone, significant changes were made to Scavenger, Restock, E.O.D., Quick Fix, and the popular Ghost perk. The developer discussed these perk updates in detail, describing Season 2 as ever-evolving and teasing that these changes only offer a glimpse of what’s to come in Season 3.

“We see this chapter of Warzone as an ever-evolving and layered gameplay space where we want both counterplay and interplay between systems to be viable,” Raven Software said. “Perks are going to make for a significant part of the push towards this objective. The changes observed today represent a glimpse of what is to come in Season 3.”

The most impactful changes come to Quick Fix and Ghost. For Warzone’s popular Ghost perk, the Ghost stealth effect will now only trigger if the player is moving. Previously, Ghost was seen as the “camper” perk, easily hiding players who waited patiently in buildings or bushes, but now players will need to keep their feet moving to receive the benefits of Ghost.

For Quick Fix, the perk gained popularity with Warzone’s recent Iron Trials mode, as the perk helps a player regenerate health faster. The new update can make it even more beneficial for getting healed up faster, as it now triggers health regeneration when inserting armor plates. This means players using Quick Fix can start the regen process faster and regen health at a faster rate than normal players.

Additionally, the E.O.D. perk also received a significant buff in Warzone. The raised cap on explosive damage has changed from 80 to 200, while the increase to damage reduction went from 35% to 45%. Raven Software says this change was implemented due to lethal equipment dealing more damage in Season 1, and the developer wanted to buff the E.O.D. perk to be a viable counter against lethal equipment for Season 2.

And finally, the Scavenger and Restock perks received buffs. Scavenger’s resupply pouches now have a cyan outline for those with the Scavenger perk equipped, and the pouch now gives +1 armor plate to add a little more value to the perk. Players can also choose to resupply their equipment much faster, as the Restock perk has a reduced recharge time from 50 seconds to 25 seconds, but the Stim equipment is now on a 60-second timer to reduce spam and gas abuse while using Restock.

Perks aren’t the only thing changing in Warzone for Season 2. Rebirth Island recently added the Weapon Trade Station feature as a reward for completing the first Rebirth Reinforced event challenge. The map will continue to evolve as the event progresses, adding new features to the prison island.

In other Call of Duty news, Activision is hosting a two-week-long Free Access event for Call of Duty: Vanguard. Parts of Vanguard’s multiplayer will be free for everyone across all platforms.

The full details of the perk changes can be found in the patch notes below, as shared by Raven Software.

GAMEPLAY

Perk Adjustments

We see this chapter of Warzone as an ever-evolving and layered gameplay space where we want both counterplay and interplay between systems to be viable. We want to provide Players with a variety of tools to create even more interesting stories or “big-brain” plays that take advantage of systems in ways that we as developers never thought possible.

Perks are going to make for a significant part of the push towards this objective. The changes observed today represent a glimpse of what is to come in Season Three.

Below are the outlined adjustments:

ScavengerThe pouch will now have a cyan outline for those with Scavenger equipped.Increased dissipation time from 20 seconds to 60 seconds.The pouch now gives +1 Armor Plate on top of previous items.Text update.

Scavenger was originally built for a multiplayer encounter where your eliminations are typically easy to reach and foot traffic aligns with elimination zones. In a Battle Royale setting, Players have a lot more space to cover and a lot more time passes in between encounters. With this change we aim to assist in identifying where your spoils of war are located while also providing more time to acquire them. The update to the items may seem small but a more aggressive Player may see better results in staying stocked up on gear.

RestockRecharge time reduced from 50 seconds to 25 seconds.Stim is now on a 60 second timer to reduce spam and gas abuse.Incorrect ingame text “50s” will be updated in a future update.

Restock saw an increase in time with the original launch of Battle Royale. As Warzone has evolved, it has become noticeable that its strength has diminished. We want there to be stronger choices in the Red category of Perks that heavily impact the playstyle around the respective Perk, and there is an opportunity with this revamp to create room for experimenting with various equipment that doesn’t get as much love.

E.O.D.E.O.D. will reduce damage or cap the damage whichever is higher.Raised cap on explosive damage from 80 to 200.Raise damage reduction from 35% to 45%.Text update.

With the adjustment to lethals dealing more damage in Season 1, we wanted to align E.O.D. with those changes so there is a viable counter in the Perk meta.

Quick FixInserting an Armor Plate will now begin regenerating health.Text update.

Quick Fix was already a decent meta contender but similar to the other perks it was primarily built for Multiplayer. This change makes its effect more potent in a Battle Royale setting and we hope will lead to some really fascinating plays.

GhostThe “Ghost” stealth effect will now only apply if the Player is moving.Players can observe this via the arrow representing their Operator in the minimap fading when “Ghost” is active.A text update will be coming in the future to clarify these changes.

In a pre-Caldera world, Ghost has always been very beneficial. However, in Caldera it is obvious that it has become even stronger with the ability to seek visual cover in foliage across the map. With this change we aim to balance the Perk around being mobile or being stationary, to provide more counter play opportunities around the Ghost perk. We are thoroughly looking at the stealth and detection meta with the intent to create more value in the options available to acquire and combat it.

We’ve also updated tooltip text for the following Perks: Tune UpKill ChainPointmanHardline

We would like to thank all of our Players in the community who have made suggestions and generated discussions around Perks in Warzone. Please continue to provide feedback as we move towards some of the best Seasons of Warzone yet!

Read MoreGameSpot – Game News

New Genshin Impact Characters Yelan And Kuki Revealed

Two new Genshin Impact characters have been revealed who will be added to the free-to-play RPG in the near future. An exact date hasn’t been revealed yet, but if a slick Hydro-element operative and an electro-element ninja have been on your wishlist, now’s a good time to start saving up some Fate for their eventual release.

Yelan is described as a Ministry of Civil Affairs employee in Inazuma who wields Hydro powers, while Kuki Shinobu is armed with high-voltage skills as the ninja-themed deputy commander of Arataki gang.

I’d like to suggest that you treat her as an ordinary person, but if you do, it’s easy to lose control over negotiations. — Yanfei
◆ Yelan
◆ Valley Orchid
◆ A mysterious person who claims to work for the Ministry of Civil Affairs
◆ Hydro
◆ Umbrabilis Orchis#GenshinImpact pic.twitter.com/DZ1j3PyshW

— Genshin Impact (@GenshinImpact) March 28, 2022

I am writing to introduce a talented person to you. — Kujou Sara
◆ Kuki Shinobu
◆ Mender of Tribulations
◆ Deputy Leader of the Arataki Gang
◆ Electro
◆ Tribulatio Demptio#GenshinImpact pic.twitter.com/48q4sY0IP5

— Genshin Impact (@GenshinImpact) March 28, 2022

While it’ll likely still be a while before Yelan and Kuki make their debut in Genshin Impact, this week does feature a new update and characters in the game’s version 2.6 update, Zephyr of the Violet Garden.

The main attraction in this update will be the newest five-star character Kamisato Ayato, who combines hydro-powered sword attacks with teleportation to tear through enemies. Launching on March 30, you can also expect a brand-new explorable zone called the Chasm, the start of the Magnificent Irodori Festival, and the chance to unlock Xingqiu as a free character if you take part in several carnival activities.

If that’s not enough Genshin Impact content for you, you can also expand your Funko Pop collection by preordering Aether, Lumine, and Paimon figurines.

Read MoreGameSpot – Game News

Fortnite’s No-Build Mode Is Now Permanent, As New Update Adds Zero Build

After Fortnite Chapter 3 Season 2 began by taking the building mechanics out of the fight–and the idea became very popular–Epic Games has decided to make the no-build format its own separate and permanent mode: Fortnite Zero Build.

Zero Build is now available in Solo, Duo, Trio, and Squad matchmaking in the Discover menu found in the Fortnite lobby. Many of the new mechanics introduced with the mode–including mantling, using Ascenders to board blimps, and the overshield, will also feature in this mode.

Other changes coming with the Fortnite 20.00 March 29 patch include a new Anvil rocket launcher designed to take down IO tanks and a new funding initiative where players can choose to unvault either the Combat Assault Rifle that debuted during Chapter 2 Season 8 or the MK-Seven Assault Rifle introduced last season.

The new patch is the first patch hit the Fortnite island during Chapter 3 Season 2, joining other new additions like the Omni Sword, siege cannons and IO blimps, and a brand-new battle pass include Marvel’s Doctor Strange and Prowler. Epic Games also began the season by pledging to donate all proceeds from Fortnite to Ukrainian relief funds, for which the company has already raised $70 million.

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NVIDIA Releases GeForce RTX 3090 Ti: Ampere the All-Powerful

Back in January during their CES 2022 keynote, NVIDIA teased the GeForce RTX 3090 Ti, an even more powerful version of NVIDIA’s flagship card for the high-end gaming and content creation markets. At the time, NVIDIA told us to expect more information later in January, only for January (and February) to come and go without further mention of the card. But now, in the waning days of March, the GeForce RTX 3090 Ti’s day has come, as NVIDIA is launching their new flagship video card today.

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New PlayStation Plus Subscription Launches In June With Three Tiers

Following a series of leaks and rumors, PlayStation has officially unveiled the next generation of PlayStation Plus. As expected, the relaunch of the PlayStation subscription service will combine the perks of PS Plus and PlayStation Now. When the subscription launches in June, it will be available as three separate tiers: PlayStation Plus, PlayStation Plus Extra, and PlayStation Plus Premium. The Premium subscription will feature up to 700-plus games.

The standard PS Plus subscription will still cost $60 per year and feature the same perks, including free games each month, cloud storage, online multiplayer, and discounts during select sales.

PlayStation Plus Extra will cost $15 per month or $100 per year and features up to 400 games. Sony’s description of the Extra tier is a bit vague, but subscribers will be able to download the games in the library to their console to play. It’ll include both first-party and third-party games. Considering the number of games in this tier, it sounds pretty much like a combination of PlayStation Plus and PlayStation Now, which will be discontinued in June.

The most expensive of the bunch, PlayStation Plus Premium, will feature “up to 340 additional games” versus the Extra tier. PlayStation Plus Premium will cost $18 per month or $120 per year. The Premium tier’s additional games appear to largely focus on the PlayStation back catalog, with original PlayStation, PS2, PS3, and PSP games available to play. PS3 games will be locked to cloud streaming, but the other backwards compatible classics will be downloadable.

The Premium tier comes with a couple other perks, including limited-time game trials and cloud streaming on PC. All three subscription tiers will be available on PS5 and PS4, though PS5 users will get access to more games.

PlayStation has confirmed a handful of PS5 and PS4 games that will be available to Extra and Premium subscribers at launch:

Death StrandingGod of WarMarvel’s Spider-ManMarvel’s Spider-Man: Miles MoralesMortal Kombat 11Returnal (PS5 exclusive)

PlayStation Plus Extra and Premium will be available in Asia first, but it sounds like North American and European users will be able to subscribe in June as well.

Read MoreGameSpot – Game News

The Intel Core i7-12700K and Core i5-12600K Review: High Performance For the Mid-Range

Since Intel announced and launched its 12th Gen Core series of CPUs in to the market, we’ve reviewed both the flagship Core i9-12900K, as well as the entry-level (but still very capable) Core i3-12300 processors. Today, we’re looking at the middle of the stack, with the Core i7-12700K and Core i5-12600K both taking center stage.

Ever since AMD launched its Zen 3 architecture and its Ryzen 5000 series for desktop, Intel has been playing catch up in both performance and pricing. Intel’s hybrid Alder Lake design is its second attempt (Rocket Lake) to dethrone Ryzen 5000 as the go-to processor for consumers building a high-end desktop system for gaming, content creation, and everything in between. It’s time to see if the Core i7-12700K and Core i5-12600K can finally level the playing field, if not outright give Intel an advantage in the always popular mid-range and enthusiast markets.

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