You Can Download the Sequels to Zelda and Pushmo to a 3DS Today

 

Here in America, yesterday was Thanksgiving. It was a day to be thankful, a day for eating turkey and cranberry sauce and a day for ignoring the normal Nintendo download update.

Cutting to the chase, the sequel to Pushmo my favorite 3DS game is out today. The new one is called Crashmo. In the old game you pulled and moved blocks in order to climb to your destination.. In the new one, you do the same… but now the blocks can fall! This sounds like the most boring thing ever, but both last year’s game and this year’s—which I’m about 40 puzzles into and not close to halfway—are very good puzzle games. Watch the Japanese trailer up top, ok? Or go to Nintendo’s Crashmo site, which is full of videos and justified hype.

Not sold on Crashmo? Well, back in the day there was a game called Zelda. It had block-pushing puzzles, too. It also had a sword, a shield, a bow and arrow and octorocks. It was very good. Then they made a sequel and it was strange. And by strange I mean it was a side-scrolling role-playing game that seemed to have little to do with the first Zelda. Nintendo loves re-selling their old games, so, as of today, you can buy Zelda II: The Adventure of Link on your 3DS. Previously, you could only have it on your 3DS if you were a 3DS Ambassador (translation: you paid full price back when the 3DS was not worth its price tag and before Nintendo cut the price by a third; today, the 3DS is wayyyyy better).

Also in today’s Nintendo eShop update:

• Spirit Hunters Inc: Light for the 3DS and DSi shops. Official info page.
• Spirit Hunters Inc: Shadow for the 3DS and DSi shops.. Official info page.
• 3D MahJongg for the 3DS shop. Official info page.
• Ninja Master’s for the Wii shop, which can also be accessed with a Wii U in Wii mode. (Sorry, no info page)

BUT WHAT ABOUT THE WII U?

That’s what you’re thinking, right?

Well, tough. Wii U owners get no new games today. They’ll just have to be happy with this handful of games that were put on the Wii U’s eShop . Just a few indies and whatnot:

• Assassin’s Creed III
• Chasing Aurora
• Darksiders II
• Disney Epic Mickey 2: The Power of Two
• EA Sports FIFA Soccer 2013
• ESPN Sports Connection
• Game Party Champions
• Just Dance 4
• Little Inferno
• Madden NFL 2013
• Mighty Switch Force! Hyper Drive Edition
• Nano Assault NEO
• NBA 2K13
• New Super Mario Bros. U
• Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor’s Edge
• Nintendo Land
• Rabbids Land
• Scribblenauts Unlimited
• Sing Party
• Sonic All Star Racing Transformed
• Tekken Tag Tournament 2 Wii U Edition
• Trine 2: Director’s Cut
• Warriors Orochi 3 Hyper
• Your Shape: Fitness Evolved 2013
• ZombiU

Source: Kotaku

Black Ops 2: Full patch notes for 360, PS3 and PC

Treyarch details multiple fixes in latest title updates

A list of patch notes for the Xbox 360, PS3 and PC versions of Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 has been released.

 

The title updates were designed to address a number of launch issues on all three platforms, with the Xbox 360 patch having released yesterday, the PS3 one on November 17, and two separate PC ones on November 16 and 21.

 

Full details of each follow, courtesy of MP1st:

Xbox 360 Title Update 1 Patch Notes

• Made infrastructure and performance improvements to Live Streaming.
• Made streaming performance improvements to video playback in CODTV.
• Addressed an issue where flight range parameters for airborne vehicles could be deleted in the middle of a match due to a network interruption. This fix resolves the following symptoms reported by the community:
• Escort drone flying under the map
• Inability to call in the Dragonfire
• FHJ-18 weapon level is now increased by destroying Scorestreak vehicles and aircraft.
• Care Package/AGR canister exploit has been addressed.
• Patched a small map exploit in Aftermath.
• Addressed a rare situation that would cause the Emblem Editor menu to overlap other menus.
• Balance pass on spawn influencers to improve cases causing non-optimal spawning under certain conditions.
• Improved performance for emblem uploads to prevent an occasional hang. If there is an error connecting to servers during an upload, you will now be able to re-try your save.
• Emblems and Clan tags will now appear correctly on the Assault Shield when stowed on the back.
• Addressed all reported UI error code messages.
• Elite Clan Friends list no longer actively sorts players when their status is updated. The player list will refresh after closing and re-opening the tab.
• Improved a number of emblem icons in the Emblem Editor.
• Junkyard IV reward added to Calling Cards.

PS3 Title Update 1 Patch Notes

• Made performance improvements to matchmaking and lobby timers to start matches faster.
• Addressed an issue contributing to the majority of reported freezes. A small number of low frequency cases continue to undergo investigation for the next patch update.
• Many backend updates have been made since launch to streamline servers for load balancing. This results in many general improvements to matchmaking, user content servers, leaderboards and online security.
• Made infrastructure and performance improvements to Live Streaming.
• Made streaming performance improvements to video playback in CODTV.
• Addressed an issue where flight range parameters for airborne vehicles could be deleted in the middle of a match due to a network interruption. This fix resolves the following symptoms reported by the community:
• Escort drone flying under the map
• Inability to call in the Dragonfire
• FHJ-18 weapon level is now increased by destroying Scorestreak vehicles and aircraft.
• Care Package/AGR canister exploit has been addressed.
• Patched a small map exploit in Aftermath.
• Addressed a rare situation that would cause the Emblem Editor menu to overlap other menus.
• Balance pass on spawn influencers to improve cases causing non-optimal spawning under certain conditions.
• Improved performance for emblem uploads to prevent an occasional hang. If there is an error connecting to servers during an upload, you will now be able to re-try your save.
• Emblems and Clan tags will now appear correctly on the Assault Shield when stowed on the back.
• Addressed all reported UI error code messages.
• Elite Clan Friends list no longer actively sorts players when their status is updated. The player list will refresh after closing and re-opening the tab.
• Improved a number of emblem icons in the Emblem Editor.
• Junkyard IV reward added to Calling Cards.

Black Ops PC updates

• Max FOV increased to 90
• Fix: Horse falling through the world in Afghanistan when playing on some CPUs with 4 or more cores
• Fix: RC-XD and the AGR sinking into the map in MP when playing on some CPUs with 4 or more cores
• General performance improvements in SP, MP, and ZM for CPUs with 4 or more cores
• Fix: crash when a 7th player tries to join a 6 player league lobby
• Improved dedicated server matchmaking
• Fix: some cases of “Connection Interrupted” in MP while loading into a match
• Server connectivity improvements
• Fix for transmission errors during League Play
• Fix: crashing when running with no Audio device
• Fix: error when going into the sound options menu with no sound device
• Make sure laptops with both integrated and Nvidia GPUs always switch to the Nvidia GPU. This will fix bad performance, ability to join matches, and possible crashes
• Multi GPU performance improvements
• Livestreaming improvements
• Fixed freeze if the player tries to change graphics options after rendering a movie or live streaming
• Speed up going into Options menu in some cases
• Fix: Various additional errors, crashes, and other compatibility issues

Source: CVG

Bricked Wii U Count Increases Due To Impatient Software Updaters

The first thing many people noticed when first plugging in their shiny new Nintendo Wii U and powering it on was how long the initial software update took. Many people waited 1 to 2 hours for the download to complete. This is no surprise as launch hype was high and Nintendo’s servers were likely being pounded.

Public service announcement: do NOT restart or turn off your WiiU during the initial software upgrade. Many users did exactly that, probably assuming their system froze, Wi-Fi was messed up, or something else, but apparently these users are now enjoying a very heavy paperweight: their WiiUs are bricked.

Patience is a virtue, people. Whether you’re downloading updates to your phone, updates to your PC, or updates to anything else… we always see the, “Do not restart or power off your device during the installation/upgrade process.”?  It’s pretty much common sense, but I guess the anticipation and excitement has gotten the best of many Nintendo fans.

Just wanted to share this experience with you in hopes that I can save the lives of so many WiiU consoles that may find themselves endangered due to unknowing or incompetent owners.

[WiiUForums via vr-zone]

Guild Wars 2: The Lost Shores, A Lost Opportunity?

Massive Assassin’s Creed III Patch

Patch Promises To Solve Many of the Game’s Problems

Ubisoft promised a big patch for Assassin’s Creed III and it looks like they’re delivering. The game’s huge “Thanksgiving” patch, set for release next week has a lot of fixes.

***SPOILER ALERT***

Some of the fixes will be spoilers (there’s a boring non-spoiler version of the changes here). Read on at your own risk. But let me make something clear: they say they are fixing the chases.

Here’s the full list of patch notes, via the Ubisoft forums, with some notes from me for emphasis.

Multiplayer

Multiplayer Modes

• ASSASSINATE – Instances where it was possible for players to kill players that were not their target in Assassinate have been corrected.
• ASSASSINATE – Bodyguards no longer fail to stun when they are locked by the pursuer of the player they protect.
• DEATHMATCH – In Fort Wolcott, fixed a bug where players would remained stuck on warmup screen.
• MANHUNT – The cooldown boosts for loss streak bonus are not permanently active for all abilities during a manhunt round anymore.

Multiplayer Abilities

• Loss Streak now correctly triggers when players lose their contracts five times in a row.
• Disruption now breaks the hitting player’s lock.
• The Smoke Bomb’s drop behavior has been updated. It now drops at the user’s feet instead of dropping in front of them. However, if players drop it from a ledge, it will drop below them.
• Throwing Knives used against players hiding in haystacks will now make them get out of this haystack.
• Using Throwing Knives against a target now prevents the target from contesting the kill.
• Players are no longer stuck after using the Money Bomb from a ledge.

Multiplayer Ladders

• Several issues which occurred when players would quit a Manhunt pre-session lobby and join their friends the same session later have been corrected.
• After a session ends on a draw, both teams will now receive the same rate for Abstergo ladder, instead of one team getting a winning rate and the other getting a losing rate.
• Players are now granted Abstergo points normally even if one or several players get the idle state at the end of the session (The idle players do not get any Abstergo points)

Multiplayer Misc

• It is now possible for players to lock their target when their target has just stunned them.
• Changing the ability set three times during a game can no longer reset the ability’s cooldown.
• The X icon no longer inaccurately persistently displays.
• It is no longer possible for players to get up and perform a kill under certain conditions while they’re vulnerable.
• Transitions to join Multiplayer sessions after an invite now work correctly.
• Warm up games are no longer interrupted when the host player leaves.
• It is now possible to stun a vulnerable pursuer.
• The X icon no longer displays above the pursuer’s previous target when they have been stunned after being vulnerable.

Singleplayer

Platform: All

• Location: Sequence 1 – 12:
• Mission – “A DEADLY PERFORMANCE” – Mission result screen could show an incorrect sync reward
• Mission – “A DEADLY PERFORMANCE” – Players could be stuck in the opera if they backtracked in a certain way after killing the target.
• Mission – “INFILTRATING SOUTHGATE” – Target would not be spawned if the player failed to perform a meat shield during the firing line tutorial
• Mission – “INFILTRATING SOUTHGATE” – Fixed multiple bugs where the guard on the boat could walk in circles, stay stuck or jump on the railing. [NOTE FROM STEPHEN: We chronicled this bug during launch week… we’ll miss the rail-jump.]
• Mission – “JOHNSON’S ERRAND” – Fixed floating muskets after a cinematic.
• Mission – “JOHNSON’S ERRAND” – Moved HUD icon on the explosive barrel on the ground instead of above the cart, because that’s what the player needs to shoot.
• Mission – “JOHNSON’S ERRAND” – prevent the player from using hide spots during part the mission to avoid a possible mission break.
• Mission – “THE SOLDIER” – Fixed a missing audio line.
• Mission – “THE SURGEON” – Fixed a bug where the eavesdropping tutorial couldn’t be completed if the mission was restarted.
• Mission – “THE SURGEON” – Fixed NPC not reacting to the player’s presence during the steal tutorial.
• Mission – “THE SURGEON” – Fixed optional objectives that could fail too easily.
• Mission – “WELCOME TO BOSTON”- When replaying the mission, when asked to buy a sword and pistol, those items would already be purchased.
• Mission – “WELCOME TO BOSTON” – Fixed Possible mission break if the player shoots the horse he’s supposed to ride.
• Mission – “UNCONVINCED” – Fixed a bug where the player could enter the tavern too early and break the mission.
• Mission – “UNCONVINCED” – Blocked accidental blending during the tavern fight, which could break the mission.
• Mission – “FEATHERS AND TREES” – Fixed a bug where the optional objective “Do not touch the ground” could fail too easily.
• Mission – “HUNTING LESSONS” – Fixed the issue where the bear could flee and eventually freeze. [NOTE FROM STEPHEN: Good news for the bear, I guess.]
• Mission – “A BOORISH MAN” – After the mission, the candelabra would display an interaction effect while the secret door to the basement was already opened.
• Mission – “RIVER RESCUE” – Blocked the player from diving in the river too early which could break the mission.
• Mission – “STOP THE PRESSES” – Cinematic could sometimes not trigger, breaking the mission.
• Mission – “THE HARD WAY” – Fixed the optional objective “Do not take any damage” that would fail if the player hits rocks even if it doesn’t deal damage to the ship
• Mission – “ON JOHNSON’S TRAIL” – Fixed issue where Chapheau could become inactive if the player dragged the fight far from where it started.
• Mission – “THE ANGRY CHEF” – Fixed issue where the “limit health loss” optional objective would wrongly fail if the player reloads a checkpoint or dies. Also fix the displayed limit to 33% as that’s what’s actually used.
• Mission – “THE ANGRY CHEF” – fixed missing butcher hatchet during cinematic if blood option is turned off
• Mission – “BRIDEWELL PRISON” – Closed the cell doors while being escorted to prevent the player from getting stuck in them
• Mission – “BRIDEWELL PRISON” – fixed voices becoming muffled mid-eavesdropping
• Mission – “SOMETHING ON THE SIDE” – Fixed missing ocean during the chase
• Mission – “SOMETHING ON THE SIDE” – Made the chase part easier [NOTE FROM STEPHEN: This is the much-hated Hickey chase that I passed only when he bumped into a wagon. Hooray!]
• Mission – “A BITTER END” – Fixed a camera glitch if the player reloads last checkpoint during a certain cinematic
• Mission – “A BITTER END” – Fixed a glitch that could happen if the player restarted the mission during a specific cinematic
• Mission – “FATHER AND SON” – Fixed a bug where the guard you’re supposed to kill would not reappear if the player starts fighting him and then runs away.
• Mission – “FATHER AND SON” – The mission could not be completed if the guard the player kills the target he’s supposed to steal using a stealth kill from bench or a rope-dart hanging move.
• Mission – “MISSING SUPPLIES” – Disabled a patrol that would almost guarantee failing the mission if they detected and started fighting Haytham
• Mission – “ALTERNATE METHODS” – Made the chase section easier
• Mission – “BROKEN TRUST” – fixed a bug where the player could be stuck on a horse if he exited and re-entered the Animus at a specific moment
• Mission – “LEE’S LAST STAND” – removed a destructible barrel that could cause problems if used as part of a contextual counter-attack.
• Mission – “CHASING LEE” – Adjusted difficulty on the Charles Lee chase [NOTE FROM STEPHEN: This is the other hated chase in the game that many players complained about. It is/was the hardest mission in the game.]
• Mission – “LAID TO REST” – Fixed a bug where the mission could be failed if redcoats start fighting the mission targets

• Location: Side Quest:
• BOSTON BRAWLERS – Mission “PETER BUNYON”, prevent the player from hiding, which would break the mission
• BOSTON BRAWLERS – Mission “THE TOURNAMENT”, fixed a bug where the player could blend with spectators and break the mission
• BOSTON BRAWLERS – Prevent using anything else than the fists during all fistfights
• Boston Liberation Missions, North District – fixed an issue where some events would not complete properly if the player used an assassin recruit to kill the target.
• COLLECTIBLES – fixed some chests that were not properly aligned when lock picking
• COLLECTIBLES – removed the glow effect from chests during lock picking
• COURIER MISSIONS – fixed a bug where mission update popup messages could be missing or wrong when delivering letters
• FORT ST-MATHIEU – fixed a bug where the player could respawn inside the fort’s reset zone, which could break the fort’s logic
• FRONTIERSMEN – Challenge 3, fixed a bug where objective “visit every tavern” would complete after visiting only 1 tavern
• FRONTIERSMEN – mission “MONSTER OF THE SEA”, fixed a bug where sometimes eavesdroppings could not be completed
• HUNTING SOCIETY – mission “THE MAN-EATER”, fixed a bug where the smaller locate zone would disappear if the player scans all clues outside of it
• HUNTING SOCIETY – mission “THE PATRIARCH”, fixed a where the search zone could disappear from the map after interacting with the 1st clue
• New York Liberation Missions – mission “PROTECT THE CLINIC”, fixed the mission not failing if the player goes too far from the area to protect.
• New York Liberation Missions – West District, fixed a bug where the NPCs guarding the infected blankets could sometimes not be there.

• Location: Boston: Removed map icon on the door of Molyneux Tavern in Boston, until it is required by a specific mission

• Location: DLC: Fixed a bug where the wrong language could be selected even if the proper language DLC is installed

• Location: Epilogue: Animus Synching tutorial, forced subtitles on off-camera voice, so that the player doesn’t think the game is frozen

• Location: Frontier:
• Fixed a bug where players could respawn and desync immediately in a loop if he died in the Valley Forge region before unlocked. Also patches players which savegame are already stuck
• Fixed a bug where the player could respawn under the ground in a loop, in two different places
• Plugged a hole in the ground where players could fall through the map [NOTE FROM STEPHEN: Aww. Bummer.]

• Location: Global:
• A text message is now visible on-screen at all times while a skippable cinematic is playing
• Added a failsafe to the animals navigation, to prevent them from getting stuck
• After the end credits, put the hood back up when not in Homestead [NOTE FROM STEPHEN: Oddly, this seemed to be requested a lot. Well, there you go.]
• Disabled special attacks with heavy weapons on animals
• Fixed a bug where the player could not equip a color change on the normal outfit from a shop if they are currently wearing a special outfit.
• Fixed a bug where the player could not finish enemies on ground if they were thrown in deep snow
• Fixed a bug where there wouldn’t be any reticle when precision aiming if the SSI option was turned off
• Fixed a few rare bugs where the player could fall through the map while swimming or diving
• Fixed various rare crashes
• Greatly reduced the probability of animals to get stuck inside an object [NOTE FROM STEPHEN: Sounds good.]

• Location: Homestead:
• Fixed a rare bug where the Homestead upgrade progress could be lost after fast-travelling to the homestead
• Mission “BOWLS BEGINNER” – Removed possibility to quit the bowls game after a reload, which would fail the mission.
• Mission “CUTTING TIES”, fixed a bug where the NPC could react to fights or dead bodies and flee away, breaking the mission
• Mission “NORRIS GOES COURTING”, fixed a bug where Norris would not reappear if the player goes too far from him.
• Mission “THE PROPER TOOLS”, fixed multiple glitches where the Quest Log could become inconsistent
• Mission “THE WEDDING”, fixed a missing audio line
• Mission “THOUSAND-POUND IDEA”, fixed a bug where NPCs required for the mission could disappear and break the mission
• Mission “TOOLS OF THE TRADE”, fixed mission not failing if Lance falls in the water
• Mission “WHITE TROPHY”, make the cougar immune to explosions to prevent a possible mission break
• Side-quest “ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE COMMON MAN”, fixed a bug where the quest could sometimes not be completed

• Location: Menus:
• Added a wait message for some cases where the game could appear frozen if some servers are unresponsive
• Animus Database, fixed updates of Kaniehtí:io entry that would be unlocked too early and spoil the fact that… [censored] [NOTE FROM STEPHEN: This is a good fix, because it spoiled one of the game’s last twists way too early.]
• Fixed a bug where the player’s friends’ Uplay wall would get spammed by previously completed missions and sequences when the player reloads his game
• Fixed leaderboards ranking the player as #1 when he’s actually alone on it
• Homestead mission icons are now displayed on the map when selecting the “Missions” filter
• Present pause menu, fixed a possible glitch if the player enters the controls section and leaves it very fast

Platform: PS3

• Fixed wrong message after purchasing a DLC and leaving the store
• Westpoint DLC – mission “A SPY AMONG US”, fixed a bug where required characters would disappear and not come back if the player went too far from them
• Westpoint DLC – fixed a bug where the player could fall through the map by going through the gate while in conflict

Platform: Xbox 360

• Location: Menus: Removed Benedict Arnold icon from the map legend

Wow, that’s a lot. Anything fixable that they missed?

Source: Kotaku