Full Patch Notes Revealed for Bloodborne 1.04 and SHAREfactory Theme

Patch 1.04 was released Monday for From Software’s brutal action RPG, Bloodborne, but gamers were in left in the dark in terms of details of the fixes.

Today, PlayStation’s blog revealed the patch notes of all the new features to expect. The largest add-on allows gamers to play with their friends even with gaping level disparities. Both players must use the same password to be matched together despite level differences or rival covenant enlistment.

In addition, From Software is releasing a free SHAREfactory Theme of Bloodborne to be released on June 2^nd. Bloodborne fans have to be pleased, especially with the confirmation of DLC to be released later this year. 

Bloodborne 1.04 Patch Notes:

System

• When players use a password, they will be matched regardless of level difference.
• As long as the other player uses the same password, members of enemy covenants can also play co-op.
• The Insight Shop will now appear when players have more than 1 Insight.
• Blood Stone Chunks can now be acquired by trading Insight.
  • *Players must advance the story to a certain point before Blood Stone Chunks become available.
• The maximum number of Blood Vials and Quicksilver Bullets which can be stored has been increased from 99 to 600. 

Game Balance

• Enemy strength in several New Game + areas has been adjusted.
• Enemy resistance to arcane and bolt attacks have been adjusted.
• Beasthood is now easier to increase. This allows players to have stronger attack for a longer period.
• The Beast Blood Pellet changed so that Beasthood will increase when used.
• A bug that occurred while using Rifle Spear as a rifle has been fixed.
• In particular, its damage when Blood Gems have been affixed has been fixed.
• The use of Stamina when wielding the Kirkhammer has been reduced.
• The use of Stamina when wielding Logarius’ Wheel has been reduced.
• The duration of the effect when the Old Hunger’s Bone is being used has been extended. Fewer Quicksilver Bullets will be consumed.
• Increased stat scaling for the Tiny Tonitrus. The Strength of attack when the arcane stat is low has been increased.
• Increased stat scaling for Augur of Ebrietas. The Strength of attack when the arcane stat is low has been increased.
• Number of Quicksilver Bullets consumed by A Call Beyond has been reduced.
• Number of Quicksilver Bullets consumed by the Choir Bell has been reduced.

Chalice Dungeons

• Players can now acquire a Short Ritual Root Chalice by trading Insight. The Chalice will become available after completing the Pthumeru Chalice dungeon. Players can now use the Short Ritual Root Chalice’s quick matching feature in the early part of the game.
• Random drops added to the reward given by bosses in Chalice Dungeon Materials to upgrade weapons, including Blood Gemstone, will be dropped randomly. Materials that can be obtained will change depending on the depth of the dungeon.
  • Depth 1: Blood Stone Shards
  • Depth 2: Twin Blood Stone Shards
  • Depth 3: Twin Blood Stone Shards, Blood Stone Chunks
  • Depth 4: Blood Stone Chunks
  • Depth 5: Blood Stone Chunks, Blood Rocks
• The Rank of Blood Gemstones appearing in Depth 1-3 Chalice Dungeons has been boosted.
• More Blood Echoes will be obtained when enemies in Chalice Dungeons are hunted.
• The guest player’s HP will drop to 50% instead of 65% in a Cursed Chalice Dungeon.
• When using a Short Ritual Root Chalice for co-op play, the guest player will always start from the Lamp room of each floor.
• Special weapons that have been obtained in a Chalice Dungeon, such as Uncanny or Lost will become available for purchase chase from the Bath Messengers.
• Upon obtaining a special weapon such as an Uncanny or Lost weapon in a Chalice Dungeon, it will become available for purchase at the Bath Messengers.

Other Adjustments and Changes

• Brightness of the screen when Blood Echoes are acquired has been adjusted.
• A bug that disconnected players from online mode during standby mode has been fixed.
• During Multiplayer, there was an issue of enemies not displaying properly when they move quickly, on the guest’s screen. This bug has been fixed.
• Other adjustments and bug fixes.

Full Patch Notes Revealed for Bloodborne 1.04 and SHAREfactory Theme

Vulcun doubles eSports prize pool

It looks like competitive gamers are getting a raise. Fantasy eSports website Vulcun is increasing the 2015 Prize Pool from $4 million to $10 million. This makes the Vulcun prize pool the largest in Fantasy eSports and the second-largest in all of eSports, period, trailing only The International, the annual Dota 2 competition.

Of the $10 million in prize money, Vulcun reports on their blog that about $2 million of it has already been paid out to more than 142,000 players. The most successful Vulcun gamer, YJingtong, has grossed more than $61,000 this year and several others have won more than $25,000.

Here’s a compiled list of the Top 10 Prize Pools in eSports

1. The International 2015 – $10.9 M [Dota2]
2. Vulcun – $10.0 M [Fantasy eSports]
3. League Championship Series – $5.5 M [League of Legends]
4. DAC 2015 – $3.6 M [Dota2]
5. Smite 2015 – $2.6 M [Smite]
6. HOTS Championship (Heroes of the Storm) – $1.2M
7. ESL ESEA Pro League (CS:GO) – $1.0M
8. COD World Championship (Call of Duty) – $1.0M
9. LPL Spring & Summer (League of Legends) – $756K
10. i-League S3 (Dota2) – $420K

Vulcun doubles eSports prize pool

Killer Instinct ends Season 2 with an Aria this Friday

It's been a productive second season for Killer Instinct, thanks to new overlords Iron Galaxy. Today was something of a bittersweet day for fans, as the studio released the trailer for Season Two's final character. It's an artificial intelligence come to life and there are no strings on her. It's Aria, who will also act as the Season Two story mode's final boss.

Aria can use various drones, each extensions of her own body, to perform extended combos. Armed with shotgun knees, sound wave cannons, and grenades, Aria's trailer sees her taking the fight to many of the Killer Instinct fighters and coming out on top. In fact, she actually knocks Glacius through the Ultortech window, in what appears to be a Stage Ultra.

Aria will take Killer Instinct out with a huge bang, as she debuts for Ultra Edition owners on May 29. Combo Breaker Edition owners will get her on June 4. For more, check out the trailer below.

For those looking for more gameplay content, we've also included the 30 minutes of gameplay footage from this past weekend's Combo Breaker event in Chicago. Here, Iron Galaxy's Adam Heart and Isaac Torres offer a complete look at the character and her skills. Enjoy!

Killer Instinct ends Season 2 with an Aria this Friday

Oculus Will talk about VR Controllers during E3

After almost three years of development, and quite a few variations of the device, Oculus finally has an answer to one of the biggest questions the developer has spent the past several months dodging. Will the Rift have any sort of input device?

It’s already clear that these devices can be supported when you consider that competitors, like the HTC Vive, have already announced the release of their input devices. But Oculus developers have been busy dodging the question for months.

Today at the Code Conference Oculus CEO, Brendan Iribe, revealed that Oculus will be answering some of the questions surrounding their lack of input devices at E3 later in June. In his statement he advised “Long term, there’s not going to be a single input device. In VR, it’s going to be several different devices.” Does this mean we'll actually see Human Interface devices with the first Consumer release of the Oculus Rift? Or are we in for more questions and confusion?

Time will only tell if fans will have all the answers they crave, or if Oculus will pull a whammy and leave us waiting more. One thing's for certain, we know exactly where will be during E3.

Oculus Will talk about VR Controllers during E3

Shack's Arcade Corner - Sunset Riders

The age of the arcade beat-em-up included superheroes, walking turtles, and even cartoon sitcom families. But what about the cowboy? Where's the cowboy representation in this genre? Konami, makers of such arcade classics as the aforementioned Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles arcade game, had those needs covered with Sunset Riders.

Join Greg Burke as he discusses the many fine elements of Sunset Riders, from its unique take on the 2D beat-em-up to its distinct Old West setting. Watch as he discusses both models of the Sunset Riders cabinet, followed shortly by its brief history on consoles.

Be sure to check out any previous episodes of Shack's Arcade Corner you may have missed. And for more, be sure to subscribe to Shacknews on YouTube.

Shack's Arcade Corner - Sunset Riders

StarCraft 2: Legacy of the Void's new unit hailed as Liberator

The battle is just beginning in StarCraft II: Legacy of the Void, but the number of units is starting to increase. Today, Blizzard unveiled the game's newest Terran unit, a massive air vessel called the Liberator.

"The Liberator is a large, high-cost air unit that deals splash damage against its enemies in the sky," explains the Battle.net post. "The Liberator normally can't attack ground, but it can target a specific ground area in order to deal high burst single-target damage to any unit entering that area. This ground attack only targets units, so structures can’t be hit with this weapon."

The Liberator will act a more rounded air unit to go along with some of the changes to the Legacy of the Void beta. Blizzard is aiming for diverse strategies with the addition of this unit and will be examining player strategies closely. For a better idea of how the Liberator unit works, check out the video below.

StarCraft 2: Legacy of the Void's new unit hailed as Liberator

Galactic Civilizations 3 Review: Conquering the Final Frontier

As anyone who has played a turn-based strategy game like Civilization can attest to, might often makes right. The rule holds true whether you're taking over the world or out to conquer the galaxy. However, few games balance between the different avenues of power as well as Galactic Civilizations 3. This deep strategy game that lets players choose one of eight different alien races, then set forth to take over known space however they see fit. But amassing an army of ships takes a tremendous amount of planning and cunning, even at the lower difficulty settings.

Building an Empire

The campaign is only three missions, which some might find disappointing, but more will be added in the future. Although the story tells of how Earth is behind a planetary shield that both protects it and imprisons it. A fleet of ships that has been hiding in a different dimension returns to liberate the planet and turn the tide of battle against the galaxy's most ruthless species. But a prophecy states that humanity the galaxy's biggest threat.

Its story has a very promising start, but the missions lack a natural sense of progression. The first two are relatively easy, then the third suddenly ramps up the difficulty by pitting your small force against a pre-constructed armada that will destroy your starbases and colonies in their infancy. Those looking to master the game's complex economic, diplomatic, and technological systems are better off playing a couple of skirmish games before diving into the campaign.

GalCiv3 shines best in its regular sandbox mode, where players are tossed into a randomly generated map and must build their fledgling empire from scratch. My ongoing problem with all strategy games like this is maintaining the delicate balance between expansion, economics, technology, and military. I usually focus on one aspect too much and end up neglecting the others. The game's massive technology trees, tailored to each individual race, doesn't make the job much easier, but I'd much rather have the robust set of options.

Ruling the Galaxy

The game requires quite a bit of micromanaging. Each planet you colonize only has so many spaces for you to build on, so you have to choose wisely. It's usually best to dedicate certain planets to a specialty, like research or manufacturing, but then you also have to keep in mind that there are a finite number of habitable worlds, and they can end up being very far apart from each other. Depending on what comes out from the random map generator, you could find yourself surrounded by a wealth of resources, or you could be left isolated and struggling to get by. Tweaking the settings helps fix the odds, but all factions benefit.

One of the most noteworthy aspects of interstellar expansion is that the game, in the tradition of Galactic Civilization, will often present players with moral choices that can be solved using Benevolent, Pragmatic, or Malevolent decisions. A Benevolent species seeks peace, even at great cost, which makes them beloved across the galaxy but not very threatening. Pragmatic species try to strike a balance in a way that will benefit the empire, while a malevolent one will ruthlessly exploit everything it comes across.

You're free to solve situations however you see fit, and doing so will earn points towards ideological bonuses. For example, a malevolent race could gain extra bonuses to production through slave labor. Relationships with rival factions will be influenced by your ideology, which led to weird moments, like when a leader called to tell me how much he loved our trade agreement, then called again two turns later to let me know what a terrible person I was.

The AI is generally very smart and will rapidly spread its influence across the stars. But even though there's a slew of diplomatic options, it's hard to figure out what constitutes as leverage. How much are these crystals worth, and what constitutes a fair trade? Until you're very familiar with the tech tree, trading technology is largely a matter of guesswork. I wish the game had a "make me an offer" button, the way Civilization V does.

The Great Space Race

Galciv3 also greatly excels at customization. In addition to the randomized galaxies, players can build their own alien species. But perhaps the game's biggest attraction is the custom ship designer, which lets players build starships from the ground up, or modify an existing template, using all the technology that's currently available. Players can let their imaginations run wild building gigantic capital ships, or tiny fighters designed for guerrilla attacks. Each ship design has a point value that dictates what devices can be attached.

Given how complex GalCiv3's overlapping systems are, getting good at the game can become quite a daunting task, but it's worth it. Few games offer the same sense of flexibility and depth that this game has.

---

This review is based on a PC code provided by the publisher. Galactic Civilizations 3 is available now for $49.99.

Galactic Civilizations 3 Review: Conquering the Final Frontier