Publisher Ubisoft has launched a major update for its squad-based third-person shooter The Division that rebalances a number of crucial late-game elements in a bid to make a “more even playing field” for veteran players.
This week’s update implements a new damage-per-second formula for weapons while increasing enemy health and damage, making for a more challenging experience for players who have already reached the game’s level cap.
Ubisoft previously outlined the many weapon balance changes players can expect to see in this week’s patch, noting that it will specifically scale back headshot damage and chances for critical strikes. Previously, level 30 players in The Division could forge overpowered weaponry that broke late-game balance.
With the launch of version 1.4, players will need to carefully weigh the strengths and weaknesses of weapon mods before installing them, as weapon stats will now fluctuate based on how they are upgraded.
“Want to build for the highest possible damage?” Ubisoft asks. “That’s perfectly fine, but you’ll end up with a gun that might have a big recoil or a small magazine. Or if you prefer, you can build a weapon that is incredibly stable and precise, but you’ll have to sacrifice raw damage.”
Ubisoft continues: “It means that there will be more skill involved in using the weapons, just like in a regular shooter and during the level 1-30 experience, and our hope is that it will lead to much more variety and less cookie-cutter weapon setups.”
Equipped gear will also lose skill bonuses as part of this week’s update, but equipment will now include new performance mod slots to better suit individual character builds. Gear Score will also be adjusted to keep non-optimized players from being prematurely kicked from multiplayer squads.
Other improvements hitting The Division this week include more varied loot drops, tweaked signature skills, and the removal of scavenging. Players across all platforms will be prompted to update the next time they launch The Division starting on Tuesday.
Acer’s Predator Atlas 8 finally has a US release date and price, several months after the company first showed off the handheld in May. The highlight is the Intel Arc G3 Extreme chip inside, which has been adopted by only a couple of other consoles besides the Atlas 8. This version will go on sale exclusively at Best Buy on November 1 for $1,299.99.
Acer originally said the Atlas 8 would arrive in North America in October, but left pricing open at the time. The launch came amid the ongoing DRAM crunch, which has made memory more expensive across the PC industry and complicated pricing for hardware makers.
Gaming laptops and I have a complicated relationship. One of my first gaming rigs was an Acer Predator that was already outdated when I bought it. I was a broke college kid, and that was the best I could afford. So trying out high-end gaming laptops is always fun. But ASUS' ROG Zephyrus G14 is a lot more than a laptop that can run AAA games. It is portable, so you're not lugging around a 2.5kg machine everywhere you go. It is built well, none of that plastic chassis, and can even function as a normal laptop outside of just gaming.
Google Play is borrowing one of the Nintendo Switch’s most useful little tricks. A new Sidekick tool called Playbacks captures a short clip after something interesting has already happened, sparing players from running a screen recorder throughout an entire game.
Playbacks is part of Google Play Store v53.8 and keeps saved clips on the phone. Google first announced it earlier this month, but the new Play Store update marks its arrival for players. Anyone who has watched a perfect win vanish because the record button came too late already understands the appeal.