S.O.P.H.I.A.

Yesterday's long-awaited Fallout 4 "next-gen" update is now available to download on PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S - but has so far received a mixed response from fans.

It was sadly to be expected that the update would break compatibility with a large number of Fallout 4 mods - and indeed, ahead of time, users of top modding site Nexus Mods offered advice on how to disable the patch from being automatically downloaded. The creators of Fallout 4's "DLC-sized" fan mod Fallout: London also had to delay the project's release.

Still, many players have reacted with dismay that, yes, a number of mods are currently broken, with the game's Fallout 4 Script Extender add-on not yet supported. ("I am working on an update and cannot currently offer a timeline for its availability, nor whether there will be any critical technical issues that would block an update," the mod's creator ianpatt wrote. "Do not email with questions.")

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Stellar Blade takes you to the far future, one that sees the near-collapse of humanity. As Eve, you join forces with other heroes to defeat a great threat that awaits. However, you might be wondering if this whole endeavor is going to take you a while. Well, here's our guide on how long it takes to beat Stellar Blade. Likewise, please be reminded that this guide contains minor spoilers.

How long to beat Stellar Blade - Mission list and campaign length guide

As cited in our Stellar Blade review, we completed the campaign in around 31 hours. However, this also includes tackling several side quests.

Main story only

For those who want to focus on the main story, you can expect to finish Stellar Blade in roughly 20 hours. If you want to speed things up, you can also enable Story Mode and Action Assist. The former weakens enemies significantly, while the latter triggers quick-time events (QTE), with button prompts to help you avoid attacks.

Expect dozens of boss battles in Stellar Blade.

Completionist playthrough

Completionists, however, can expect anywhere from 40 to 60 hours due to several factors. We don't want to delve further into spoilers, but we're going to mention some tidbits:

• Stellar Blade has hundreds of collectibles and items that you can gather over the course of your playthrough. These include Eve outfits, Adam/Lily outfits, Exospines, soda/beer cans, and more.
• Apart from the main missions, there are side quests from NPCs, bulletin board assignments, and even a fishing minigame arc. Some of these unlock new locations, such as the Eidos 7 Flooded Commercial Plaza and Wasteland Forbidden Area.
• There are two points of no return in the game. We won't mention the specifics, but the game will warn you once you reach these moments.
• There's a particular secret area, too.
• Lastly, there are three endings.

Because of these factors, a single playthrough will not be enough. You must clear New Game Plus to unlock everything in the game.

There are a bunch of side quests and collectibles, too.

Mission list

There are 13 main missions in Stellar Blade. We've redacted some of those that pertain to "spoilery" parts:

• 7th Airborne Squad
• Scavenger Adam
• Xion, The Last Remaining City
• Altess Levoire
• Light of Hope
• Alpha Signal
• Hidden Truth
• Abyss Levoire
• Secret Garden
• [REDACTED]
• Eye of the Hurricane
• [REDACTED]
• Last Fragment
• [REDACTED]

That's everything you need to know about how long it takes to beat Stellar Blade. If you're just starting the campaign, we recommended checking out our beginner's guide.

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Physical copies of Fallout 4 are in high demand. Thanks to the popularity surrounding the Fallout TV show, it seems everybody is ravenous to add developer Bethesda's 2015 RPG to their bookshelves. If you're one of them, well, you might be out of luck, unless you're patient and don't mind pre-owned copies for the most part.

Over at GameStop, the Xbox One version is available preowned for only $10, without an option for pick up in-store or same day delivery. Unless you spend over $79, you'll also pay a $7 shipping fee. The PlayStation 4 edition is $15 a pop for preowned copies, though it's only available in stores and availability will vary depending on your location.

If you're looking at Amazon, a new copy for Xbox One available from third-party sellers for $21.50, but don't expect it to arrive for about a week. If you want free shipping, you have to either be a Prime member or spend at least $35 on your total order.

At the time of publication, Amazon had used copies for the PS4 version of Fallout 4 starting at $40, with brand-new copies exceeding $60. Both listings were from third parties as well. Shipping times vary depending on your location and which marketplace seller you buy from.

At Walmart, the PS4 version is nowhere to be found. Xbox One copies are available for around $25 and up, but your order will ship from a third-party seller. If anything else fails, eBay might be an option.

There's been a substantial surge in popularity lately not just for Fallout 4, but all Fallout games--even the very first one on Steam. If you don't want to wait or would rather not take a gamble on a third-party seller, your best bet might be purchasing a digital copy, at least until stock improves.

Once you finally get your hands on a physical copy of Fallout 4, make sure to keep our guides at hand to tackle the Echoes of the Past quest, as well as getting a hold of a Hellfire Power Armor and a Tesla Cannon to aid you in your travels. Also, note that there's a next-gen update available, and you can read everything it addresses here.

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The next joint of developer Supercell, best known for Clash of Clans, is releasing soon. Squad Busters, the first global game launch of the studio in over five years, will launch on May 29 for iOS and Android devices.

At the time of publication, Squad Busters has already soft-launched in some select countries. If you reside in Canada, Mexico, Spain, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland, or Singapore, the game is already available to download.

Squad Busters introduces itself as a 10-person multiplayer where you build squads over the course of 4-minute matches. The objective? Grabbing more gems than the opposing players. While you only start with a single unit, the progression of each match will have you upgrading characters and taking on enemies around the map to grow stronger.

Supercell is leaning heavily on collaborations with other games from its suite, including Brawl Stars and Clash Royale. As per usual, the learning curve is designed to be approachable for everybody before the more enthusiast players arrive. If you want to get in early before folks start taking the game too seriously, you'll only have to wait a few weeks.

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There are a couple of new weapons available in Fallout 4 following the release of the next-generation update. One of them is the Tesla Cannon, which is looted through the Best of Three quest as well as the Echoes of the Past quest, giving you two chances to acquire it. The other weapon is the Heavy Incinerator, which is only obtainable through completing the Crucible quest.

To see exactly how to start and finish the Crucible quest in Fallout 4 so you can wield the Heavy Incinerator, take a look at the guide below.

Starting the Crucible quest in Fallout 4

First off, if your character has already progressed through some of the story in Fallout 4, the Crucible quest and all the other next-gen update content should be immediately available after downloading the update. However, players on new saves have to reach a specific point in the story before they can partake in all of the fresh content.

Approaching Saugus Ironworks

In any case, once you can start the Crucible quest, track it in your quest log. You'll see that your first objective is to investigate Saugus Ironworks, located on the map's eastern side, just south of The Slog. Upon reaching Saugus Ironworks, you'll have to deal with a few enemies out in front of the building. Once they've been dispatched, head inside and defeat some more enemies that are located on the ground floor and on the platforms that go across the interior of the building.

The terminal that opens the door inside the ironworks building

Your goal inside is to reach a door on the upper level that's locked via a terminal. Hack into the terminal to open the door and then find an enemy named the Forged Keeper. Defeat the Forged Keeper, who's wielding a Flamer, and loot their body to find the Forged Keeper's Note.

After reading the note, you'll learn that the Forged acquired the Incinerator and tested it on their new recruits. The Keeper also scolded one of the recruits for trying to cheat the testing, and they said they put the evidence against this cheating recruit in a toolbox upstairs. When you read the note, a new quest marker appears that leads you to this toolbox, which requires Expert Lockpicking to get inside.

Killing the Forged Keeper

The toolbox contains a note from the cheating recruit, explaining that they tried to use some flame-resistant power armor legs not to get burnt by the Incinerator. The recruit says they buried the power armor legs below the crucible in the ironworks building. To get beneath the crucible, make sure you loot the Smelter Console Password from the toolbox and then head down to the ground floor to press the Molten Metal Flow Control button. You can also step into the Raider Power Armor suit that's located behind the button and then go back upstairs to the Smelter Terminal.

Pushing the Molten Metal Flow Control button

Use the Smelter Console Password at the terminal and move the crucible from its resting place. This makes the crucible move forward on the ground floor and reveals the spot where the recruit hid the power armor legs. However, the recruit only managed to hide the blueprints for the flame-resistant power armor legs, meaning you need to craft the mod for each leg.

Digging up the recruit's power armor mods

Fortunately, you can use the nearby power armor station on your new Raider Power Armor to build and attach the flame resistant legs. Just go over to the station, hop out of your power armor, press the "Craft" button on the station, and then go down to the right and left legs. Here, you can attach the flame resistance mod in the "Misc Mod" section. Don't worry about the crafting materials for the flame-resistant leg mod, as the game automatically lets you craft it for each power armor leg.

With your new legs attached to the power armor suit, head over to the open smelter on the other side of the room, dip your toes into the flames, retrieve the Incinerator hanging by a chain, and get out. If you try to go into the smelter without using the flame-resistant power armor legs, you die instantly.

Stepping into the fire for the Incinerator

If you did everything right, you now have the Ghoul Slayer's Heavy Incinerator. This completes the Crucible quest in Fallout 4.

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Bulletstorm and Outriders studio People Can Fly has brought development of its struggling Project Dagger to a close after concluding its commercial potential was "unsatisfactory".

Project Dagger, previously described as a new action-adventure IP, had been in development for around three and a half years, and was initially set to be released by GTA and Borderlands publisher Take-Two Interactive.

In September 2022, however, it was announced Take-Two had pulled out of the deal, and that People Can Fly would retain the rights and continue development for self-publishing. "We strongly believe in Project Dagger's potential," People Can Fly boss Sebastian Wojciechowski said at the time.

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Fallout 4's long-awaited free next-gen update is here, but those attempting to download the update for PlayStation 5 have run into an issue that Bethesda says it's currently working on fixing.

Many PlayStation users were quick to complain that they seemed unable to download Fallout 4's free next-gen upgrade, which adds performance and quality modes for on Xbox Series X|S and PS5, new creation club items, and fixes various bugs. Unfortunately, it seems one bug slipped through the cracks and is currently preventing those playing Fallout 4 via the PS Plus Extra and Premium Game Catalog from receiving the update.

In a post on X, Bethesda Game Studios addressed the "confusion" surrounding the update for those using PS Plus to play Fallout 4, saying it's working on a fix.

"We've seen some confusion regarding the free Fallout 4 next-gen update for PlayStation Plus Extra members," Bethesda Game Studios writes. "The Fallout 4 next-gen update will be available to PlayStation Plus Extra members through the PlayStation Game Catalog. Your patience is appreciated while the teams work on this."

No timeframe for when the next-gen update will roll out to PS5 players using PS Plus is given. However, some PS Plus members, specifically those who are no longer PS Plus Extra or Premium members but who previously added Fallout 4 to their game collection via the now defunct PS Plus Collection, may be out of luck entirely.

The PS Plus Collection, which featured a number of major first-party PlayStation titles and various third-party titles, like Fallout 4, was retired in May 2023. Games added to a player's library via the PS Plus Collection before it was shut down can still be played, but are no longer available to be added to a player's game catalog. Many of the same games once featured in the PS Plus Collection now require PS Plus Extra or Premium to be played, similar to Xbox Game Pass. Bethesda Game Studios makes no mention of making the update available to players playing this way, but it's unclear if this is also a bug or intended.

As some users have pointed out, the Fallout 4 next-gen update is labeled as being "free for all players," so it would seem strange for Bethesda to hold back the update specifically for those who received the game for free via the old PS Plus Collection system. This article will be updated should Bethesda Game Studios clarify or fix the problem for PS Plus Collection players.

Fallout is having a major moment, with the Amazon Prime TV show spurring renewed interest in the franchise. Player counts for Fallout games have been rising on platforms like Steam, and Fallout 76, which was heavily criticized when it first launched in 2018, recently saw 1 million players dive into irradiated version of Appalachia in a single day. Meanwhile, the Fallout show has already been renewed for a second season.

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A new quest that's been added to Fallout 4 with the next-generation update is called "Pyromaniac." While this quest has technically been in the game via a Creation Engine mod, it's now an official part of the RPG. The quest revolves around acquiring the Hellfire Power Armor set, which is extremely strong and belongs to a man named Pyro.

To get the Hellfire Power Armor, you must dispatch of Pyro to claim the set for yourself in Fallout 4. Below, you can find all of the details on completing the Pyromaniac quest.

Completing Pyromaniac in Fallout 4

If you have a leveled-up character in Fallout 4, the Pyromaniac quest should automatically be added to your quest log after downloading the next-gen update. However, if you're starting over from scratch with a new character, you'll have to advance to a specific point in the story before gaining access to the quest. That goes for all of the other new quests as well. This includes Echoes of the Past, which rewards you with Enclave-themed content, and Speak of the Devil, another quest that rewards new Power Armor.

For Pyromaniac, all you need to do is track the quest in your log, and you'll be directed toward a location on the northeastern side of the map. The quest marker is directly near the Listening Post Bravo point of interest, which you can fast-travel to if you've previously visited there.

The location of Pyro

Using Listening Post Bravo as a reference point, travel slightly southeast to find a camp on a hill with a fire burning. Around the fire, there will be a couple of enemies, one of which is Pyro. Pyro is wearing the Hellfire Power Armor, and you need to defeat him to loot the set.

Battling Pyro at his camp

However, seeing as the Power Armor is quite heavy, you might need to take the individual Power Armor parts back to your base in a few trips. You could wear your own set of Power Armor to defeat Pyro, but even then, an entirely new set of Power Armor still weighs quite a lot. I had to make three trips to get all of the Power Armor back to Sanctuary, but you can deal with the situation however you see fit.

Looting Pyro's body for the Hellfire Power Armor

Once you get all of the Hellfire Power Armor parts back to your base, you can take an existing Power Armor body and transfer the Hellfire parts onto that set. When that's done, you'll have a fully-functioning Hellfire Power Armor set ready to take on the Commonwealth with in Fallout 4.

If you're interested in the weapon I'm using in the screenshots above, it's the Tesla Cannon, another new piece of content in the next-gen update. Our previous guide explains how to get your own Tesla Cannon.

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Bungie is making major changes to Destiny 2's Power levels, the measure of your character's strength that dictates how difficult content is, in its upcoming expansion, The Final Shape. The biggest change is a new system called Fireteam Power, which brings everyone in your party up to five levels below whoever's Power is highest, which should allow anyone to join friends and play just about any content they want. That has an interesting knock-on effect, though: It undoes a move Bungie made four years ago, when it "sunsetted" a bunch of guns by putting an upper limit on their Power stats.

The impact of Fireteam Power

The changes to the Power system are outlined in Bungie's latest This Week in Destiny blog post, which goes into detail about how the entire system is getting overhauled in The Final Shape. First and foremost, the Fireteam Power system will allow you to play just about any content with your friends, so long as someone in your group has a Power level that's high enough to play that content. The person in a group with the highest Power level becomes the Power Leader, and everyone else gets their Power brought up to five levels under the leader's level, if their Power isn't already the same or higher. So if your Power level is 1950 and you're playing with someone at 2000 Power, when you go into an activity, your Power level will jump up to 1995 for that activity.

As Bungie demonstrates in this image, your Adjusted Power is attuned to the Power Leader in your Fireteam, regardless of the Power score you get from your gear.

The idea here is to let you play whatever content you want with your friends, even if you're new to the game or haven't been playing Destiny 2 for years. Fireteam Power won't change the rewards you get--you'll still receive weapons and armor that are near your actual Power level, not the adjusted Fireteam Power level. And if you want to play tougher content without some high-level person to boost you, you'll still need to climb the Power ranks as normal by earning rewards from different activities and increasing the Power levels of your gear. But the change removes any limitations that might keep low-level players from joining up with their high-level friends.

Bungie also acknowledges in the post that since Fireteam Power raises your Power level regardless of the Power on your actual weapons and armor, it would allow players to get around the fact that some older weapons have upper limits on their Power. Bungie put those limits on guns that were released before the Beyond Light expansion in a move players dubbed "gunsetting." It meant those guns were effectively too weak to use in most future content and rendered them obsolete. That made a lot of people upset, however, since many of the deprecated weapons were fan-favorites that were extremely hard to earn, like The Mountaintop and Luna's Howl.

Undoing gunsetting

So four years later, Bungie is undoing gunsetting altogether by removing the Power limits on legacy weapons. That means if you still have old versions of weapons like Luna's Howl or any of the Black Armory weapons, you'll be able to use them again in The Final Shape.

The Mountaintop in its Brave Arsenal iteration.

However, since it's been so long, Bungie acknowledges that most players who've been around long enough to have those old Legacy guns have probably deleted them by now. Several--Luna's Howl, The Mountaintop, The Recluse, Blast Furnace, and Hammerhead among them--are already back in the game (or soon will be) in new versions as part of the Brave Arsenal, a slate of reworked legacy weapons Bungie released with the Into the Light content drop launched a few weeks ago. "Most or all" of the other deprecated legacy weapons are also coming back to the game, Bungie says.

"We understand that many old Power limited items have been dismantled by this point, and we regret that we have no recovery mechanism for these," Bungie wrote. "Going forward, we intend to reintroduce sources for most or all of these, updated to modern Destiny sandbox standards with added properties such as Origin Traits and build-crafting perks (as we have started to do with the BRAVE arsenal in Destiny 2: Into the Light)."

More welcome Power changes

Other changes to Power in The Final Shape are geared toward making it easier to understand what sort of difficulty you're facing in any given activity. First, Bungie is lowering the Power level caps for all activities so that, generally, it'll take less grinding to reach the upper Power bands that let you take on the toughest activities. You'll only need to climb 40 Power levels through The Final Shape, which should be doable by playing through its story campaign, to hit the Powerful level cap at 1940. From there, it's another 50 levels to the Pinnacle cap at 1990, and 10 more to the hard Power cap for gear at 2000. You'll climb from there as normal using Artifact power, which is done by playing the game and earning experience points, but will reset with each of Destiny 2's three "episodes" releasing in the year after The Final Shape.

It'll also be easier to level up multiple characters going forward. Leveling has always been annoying for anyone who wants to play more than one character in Destiny 2, often requiring convoluted schemes of passing high-level equipment back and forth between each one. Bungie has streamlined that process over the years, but in The Final Shape, you'll have an Account Power level that takes your best gear into account automatically. That means that after leveling up one character, if you jump to another low-level character, you'll instantly get drops in line with the higher character's level--drastically cutting down on the Power grind.

Bungie also shared an image showing how the user interface will change to show you the difficulty of an activity.

Finally, Bungie is changing the interface for activities to make it clearer what Power levels they require and how difficult they'll be. Activities are now grouped into two sets: Power Disabled, in which the experience is the same regardless of how high or low your Power level is, and Power Enabled, where the strength of your gear determines the difficulty of the activity. However, Power Enabled activities will still have a cap so you can't drastically outlevel the content to make it super easy.

The Final Shape is also doing away with the old names for activity difficulties, like "Legendary," in favor of a more straightforward convention. Power Disabled activities include things like the regular Crucible and Gambit activities. Enabled activities are grouped into new difficulty tiers:

• Standard (Power Cap: 1945): Vanguard Ops, Seasonal activities, Exotic missions, raids, and dungeons
• Advanced (previously Hero, Power Cap: 1995): Nightfalls
• Expert (previously Legend, Power Cap: 2005): Nightfalls, Lost Sectors, Seasonal activities, Exotic missions
• Master (Power Cap: 2010): Nightfalls, Lost Sectors, raids, and dungeons
• Grandmaster (Power Cap: 2020): Nightfalls

All those changes sound like they'll go a long way to making it a little easier to level up your character quickly, jump into content with friends, and understand how difficult what you're about to face will be when you get there. However, there's no real salve for having deleted all your favorite pre-Beyond Light guns, except maybe that Bungie says it'll bring them back eventually. We'll have to wait and see exactly what forms those take.

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Earlier today, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) voted to reinstate net neutrality. Taking place during an April Open Meeting, commissioner Anna M. Gomez voted in favor of restoring federal oversight of broadband internet access service under Title II of the Communications Act. According to a press release, the aim is to ensure the resource is open, safe, and secure for all moving forward.

“Broadband access to the Internet is a critical conduit that is essential for modern life,” said Gomez in the press release. “Protecting this critical infrastructure that is essential to the safety, economy, health, education, and well-being of this country is good public policy. The value is so great that we cannot wait for the flood to arrive before we start to build the levee.”

In essence, the idea of net neutrality is that internet service providers (ISPs) should not be allowed to discriminate by offering paid prioritization for different internet traffic sources, discriminating different types of content by blocking or throttling traffic, and so on. This was first established by the FCC in 2015, and then reversed during the Trump administration in 2017.

In another press release, FCC chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel notes five use cases of protections that net neutrality promises to ensure. These include preventing ISPs from blocking traffic, slowing down content or creating pay-to-play internet fast lanes, providing oversight of broadband outages, and authority to direct foreign-owned companies deemed to be national security threats to discontinue any domestic or international broadband services.

In terms of speech, the FCC noted that it "has no authority to, and no interesting in, policing online speech," and that the open internet protections will prevent ISPs from doing so. As for "Big Tech," FCC deemed it as an important but unrelated policy challenge. "Net neutrality is important so that the small and medium-sized companies that are trying to compete with more established companies have a level playing field, and net neutrality would ensure that 'Big Tech' can’t just cut a deal with a broadband provider to favor its products over upstart competitors," the press release read.

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One of the several new side quests to take on in Fallout 4 with the next-gen update is called "Speak of the Devil." This quest has you following after a man's journey to find a mysterious character called The Devil, who supposedly swoops in to help those in need after a specific radio station is turned on. It so happens that The Devil is wearing a set of rare Power Armor, called X-02, and plenty of people are after it.

To ensure you get to the X-02 Power Armor first in Fallout 4, follow our guide below to complete the Speak of the Devil quest. For more on the new quests in Fallout 4, use our Echoes of the Past quest walkthrough.

Starting Speak of the Devil in Fallout 4

If you have a leveled-up character in Fallout 4, the Speak of the Devil quest should automatically be added to your quest log after downloading the next-gen update. However, if you're on a new save, then you have to wait until reaching a certain point in the story before you can begin Speak of the Devil or any of the other new quests.

Connie's note

Speak of the Devil begins at Wattz Electronics store, which is located in the middle of the map. Here, you can enter the front door and walk across the broken floor over to a small table with a radio on it. Pick up Connie's Note and play the Black Devil Vol 1. holotape that's lying on top of it. The holotape describes some of the backstory of The Devil, and how they save innocent people when someone tunes in to a specific radio station. Reading these items starts the Speak of the Devil quest.

Following Connie's journey

After reading the holotape and Connie's note, a new quest marker appears on your map that leads to Relay Tower 0MC-810. Be careful when approaching this location, as there are raiders and a Deathclaw waiting for you. Once the enemies have been dealt with, head into the red-gated area of the tower and read Richie's Note on the dead body in front of the terminal, and pick up the AM 810 holotape. Then, you need to access the terminal and extend the satellites.

Fallout 4 satellites during the Speak of the Devil quest

Once the satellites are fully extended, head back into the terminal and insert the AM 810 holotape. With it inserted, tune the radio to play "Stars and Stripes Forever." This makes a new radio signal appear and a new quest marker on your map, leading to the BADTFL Regional Offices. This is located right near Wattz Electronics, so fast travel back there and head over to the quest marker.

Inside BADTFL, battle through the raiders until you reach the back interrogation room, where you find Connie's body sitting on a table. Loot Connie's body and read the note she left on the table, which reads "Check the Wall." You can also loot the FM 52.7 holotape on the table. This holotape is encrypted, so you'll need to find the password to it or hack in. This is done by playing the holotape on your Pip-Boy and then looking at the available options.

Interrogation room

If you have a Hacker +3 stat, you can break in with no problem. However, if you don't, you need to guess the password from the generated list or find it. Connie's clue of "Check the Wall" does offer the password, but I can just tell you the right password too:

• [e\_di@bl0*p7z+rk4CkzEsx\@iene

This password is near the top of the list and when you click on it, you'll gain access to the holotape's data. After unlocking the holotape, a new quest marker appears on your map at the Relay Tower OSC-527. Here, access the terminal, load the FM 52.7 holotape, and then transfer the "America the Beautiful" file onto the terminal. You'll hear the famous song play and get your final quest marker at the Boston Police Rationing Site.

Getting the X-02 Power Armor

At the Boston Police Rationing Site, you need to break into the building and go through the underground tunnel. The front door to the building is barred shut, but you can throw a grenade at the door to unlock it. You can also get on the roof with a Power Armor jump, but the explosive route is easier.

X-02 Power Armor is within your reach now.

Go through the tunnel entrance and then keep heading forward until you see a radio in front of a locked door with a set of Power Armor behind it. Activate the radio to unlock the door, and you'll have access to the X-02 Power Armor. You can also read the terminal behind the Power Armor to learn about the true intentions of The Devil character.

It's here where you can make a choice: Short-circuit the radio transmission, effectively killing The Devil's character, or restore the Enclave Radio, making a new radio station available. If you end the transmission, you can unlock a nearby wall safe with some loot. Activating the radio station will lock that safe for good.

What decision will you make?

Regardless of your choice, after getting into the X-02 Power Armor, a Sgt. Hodges and other enemies show up. Kill them to complete the Speak of the Devil quest in Fallout 4.

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One of the new weapons that arrived with the next-generation update in Fallout 4 is the Tesla Cannon, a powerful Fusion Cell gun that shocks any enemy unfortunate enough to get in its way. The primary way to get the Tesla Cannon is by completing the quest called "Best of Three," which is part of the next-generation update. However, there's an additional and much easier way to get the Tesla Cannon as well.

You can see both ways of acquiring the weapon in the guide below.

Getting the Tesla Cannon in Fallout 4

The Tesla Cannon is a highly sought-after weapon on which the Enclave faction has its sights. This is made evident in the quest Echoes of the Past, which is also part of the new update. In that quest, you can read a terminal entry that details the Enclave's current efforts to find the Tesla Cannon. We have a full walkthrough of the Echoes of the Past quest, which you might want to start sooner rather than later.

If you're on a leveled-up character in Fallout 4, both the Best of Three and Echoes of the Past quests should automatically be added to your quest log. However, new characters must wait until a certain point in the story to start the quests. Both quests offer a way to get the Tesla Cannon, and you can see how to get the weapon in either quest below.

Completing Best of Three

First up, we have the dedicated quest that concludes with you acquiring the Tesla Cannon. Best of Three begins by tuning to the Vault-Tec Distress Signal in the Radio section of your Pip-Boy. Once you've listened to it, you'll see a new quest marker that's near the Glowing Sea appear on your map.

Starting the Best of Three quest

After reaching the quest marker's destination, you'll find a dead Gunner slumped up against a tree. Loot the Gunner's body to pick up the Gunner Holotape, which you can play to learn more about what happened to them. To quickly sum it up, the Gunner was part of a team that learned how to infiltrate an encrypted part of the Pip-Boys, giving them the locations of different vaults in the area. This particular Gunner was a prankster who picked on another man named Caroni when they were stationed at Vault 95.

Once you're done reading the holotape, you learn of new coordinates from another distress signal further into the Glowing Sea. These new coordinates come from another dead Gunner who's lying dead on the ground floor of a church. The church is overrun with ghouls, but after defeating them, you can make your way over to the dead Gunner. When you hover over the body, you'll see a new option appear next to "Take" and "Transfer," which is "Download Pip-Boy Data." Press the button next to that option to read what's on the Gunner's Pip-Boy.

Looting a dead Gunner

Read what's on the Pip-Boy, and then go to the next quest marker on your map. You'll be taken to Relay Tower 0DB-621, where you can download more data off the body of a dead Gunner.

Reading the only accessible entry on the Pip-Boy reveals the Gunners were trying to acquire a pre-war weapon called the Tesla Cannon. Eventually, they could find it, but a war broke out over who would get to wield it. This soon led to many of the Gunners being killed by the creatures of the Glowing Sea. However, a few men survived, one of whom was Caroni.

The holotape also lets you access a new radio station called the "Gunner Signal Remnant." Tune into the station and move in the direction the signal takes you by following the beeps and percentages in the top-left corner. You're trying to reach 100% on the signal. To make things easier, you want to head west, where you'll run into a Deathclaw and find the remnants of a plane crash. Inside the plane is another dead body, which is where the signal leads. You learn Caroni killed his squad using the Tesla Cannon, and now you need to finish the job.

Defeating Caroni in the Glowing Sea

After reading the data, Caroni appears out of nowhere, wielding the Tesla Cannon. Defeat him and loot the Tesla Cannon off his body. This completes the Best of Three quest in Fallout 4.

Going through Echoes of the Past

If you want to obtain the Tesla Cannon more simply, follow the questline in Echoes of the Past. Eventually, you'll enter the Glowing Sea and find an office building the Enclave has set up as a base. When you arrive, a soldier wearing Power Armor on the roof starts shooting at you with a Tesla Cannon.

All you have to do is defeat this soldier and loot the Tesla Cannon wherever it falls. In my case, the Tesla Cannon fell to the ground before me, so I didn't have to move much, but you might have to go to the roof to get the weapon.

Picking up the Tesla Cannon

This is a much easier way to get the Tesla Cannon, but you miss out on the Best of Three quest if you only take this route. Either way, you now have a Tesla Cannon to use in Fallout 4.

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Blizzard has revealed it won't be hosting its annual BlizzCon fan convention in 2024, but says the long-running event - first seen in 2005 - may return "in future years".

BlizzCon has, of course, had a bit of a bumpy ride in recent times, taking an extended hiatus as Blizzard navigated health and safety considerations stemming from the coronavirus pandemic and reckoned with disturbing allegations in a State of California lawsuit accusing it of being a "breeding ground for harassment and discrimination against women". Blizzard skipped BlizzCon entirely in 2020, switched to a digital-only format in 2021, then scrapped a planned digital event in 2022, making last year's BlizzCon the first in-person event since 2019. As such, it's perhaps surprising to see the publisher step away from the event again so soon.

Blizzard announced the cancellation of this year's BlizzCon in a statement shared on its website, writing, "After careful consideration over the last year, we at Blizzard have made the decision not to hold BlizzCon in 2024. This decision was not made lightly as BlizzCon remains a very special event for all of us, and we know many of you look forward to it."

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Capcom is delisting some of its most underrated games soon, namely ones from the Dark Void series.

According to Steam, the games Dark Void, Dark Void Zero, and Flock will be removed from the storefront on May 8. The reasoning behind the delisting is currently unclear, as well as if the removal will also extend to PSN Store and Xbox Live Marketplace.

Dark Void was released in 2010 for PC, PS3, and Xbox 360. The story is set before World War II and follows a cargo pilot named William Augustus Grey. As he is traveling through the Bermuda Triangle, he gets transported to another world called the Void. He joins a group called the Survivors as they battle an alien race called the Watchers, all the while trying to find a way back home.

Dark Void Zero was released in 2010 as well for PC, DSIWare, and iOS. It's a parody game of Dark Void that started as a joke inside Capcom, but was eventually made into a real title. Flock is a puzzle game that was released in 2009 for PC, PS3 and Xbox Live Arcade.

Capcom also delisted Age of Booty, a pirate strategy game, last month from the Xbox Live Marketplace, as well as several older Devil May Cry games on Steam back in February.

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Manor Lords, a highly anticipated medieval strategy game, releases on April 26, but developer Hooded Horse still has not announced the game's price point. Why is that? Tim Bender, the CEO of publisher Hooded Horse, provided an answer in a post on Reddit recently (via Kotaku).

Bender said Manor Lords, like other Steam games before it, will have regional price points as part of the game's worldwide distribution. Because of this, Hooded Horse shied away from revealing the game's price prior to launch.

"Sharing the US price alone will lead to misunderstandings. People will be concluding the game is unaffordable in their region when at launch they will have pricing that will work for them," Bender said. "And whatever disclaimers we'd attach would probably be dropped when it is repeated elsewhere causing a bunch of people to lose hope and feel the game won't be affordable in their country."

Bender also mentioned that keeping the price point a mystery for now could help alleviate issues with "gray market/scam stores" that attempt to sell preorder keys.

"They don't have any keys, and they aren't going to be getting any from us. But they are attempting to capitalize on the hype, and, despite our stance that we are NOT doing preorders because we don't want to take your money until after release, they are claiming to take preorders for key sales," Bender said. "They have no idea what the price will be, so they are taking their wild guesses and probably figuring they can get a key through some questionable means later (or just leave the customer not getting what they paid for if not perhaps)."

Bender said Hooded Horse is looking out for players and trying to help them avoid getting scammed.

But what will Manor Lords actually be priced at? Bender said no one needs to worry about a steep price. "As a publisher, Hooded Horse has never done AAA pricing on a game. We have no current plans to do so, no matter how popular a game is," Bender said. "We're not trying to squeeze every last dollar out of people, we won't be putting up five editions with a spreadsheet needed to understand them or locking up content into Day 1 DLC or any of that crap. There's going to be a fair price there at launch with a fair discount."

The discount Bender is referring to pertains to how Manor Lords will launch in Early Access, and customers can expect the price to be about 10%-25% lower over the first couple weeks.

All will be revealed on April 26 when Manor Lords releases on Steam, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S. On console, the game will launch in Game Preview, which is similar to Early Access. Game Pass subscribers can play the game at no extra cost when it launches.

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The post Minecraft Realms Plus Upgrades  appeared first on Xbox Wire.

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Developer Level 5 has just dropped its new mech RPG game, Megaton Musashi W: Wired. It's available for PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, and Nintendo Switch.

The game was first released in Japan for consoles in November 2021 and has now made its way internationally. It was originally scheduled for a 2023 release but was pushed back, and preorders began earlier this month on April 11.

The story follows a young man named Yamato Ichidaiji in the year 2118. Alien forces called the Draktor have wiped out almost all of humanity and it's up to him and his fellow pilots in giant robots, called Rogues, to reclaim Earth.

Megaton Musashi W: Wired is one of several projects that Level 5 currently has in development. Inazuma Eleven: Victory, Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals Time, and Decapolice are all slated to be released this year. Only Fantasy Life i currently has a set release date, which is set for October.

Level 5's Vision 2024: To the World's Children games showcase was supposed to air this month, but it was postponed to sometime in the summer. The company did not reveal any reasons for delay.

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Blizzard has announced that there will be no 2024 BlizzCon event, its semi-regular convention where it makes its biggest announcements. The event has been held since 2005 and typically sees Blizzard reveal what's next for its biggest franchises, like Diablo, Warcraft, and Overwatch. While BlizzCon 2024 isn't happening, Blizzard has pledged to return to the event in the future.

"After careful consideration over the last year, we at Blizzard have made the decision not to hold BlizzCon in 2024," Blizzard said in a press statement. "This decision was not made lightly as BlizzCon remains a very special event for all of us, and we know many of you look forward to it. While we're approaching this year differently and as we have explored different event formats in the past, rest assured that we are just as excited as ever to bring BlizzCon back in future years."

Blizzard added that it'll be sharing more details on upcoming game launches later this year, with new looks at World of Warcraft: The War Within and Diablo IV's first expansion, Vessel of Hatred, planned. Some of these reveals are being planned for other industry trade shows and conventions like Gamescom, and Blizzard is also working on celebrating the 30th anniversary of Warcraft with multiple in-person events across the globe.

Now that's it under the ownership of Microsoft, Blizzard could also pop up at the Xbox Showcase in June 2024 or a Developer Direct livestream. Summer Game Fest is also scheduled for June 2024, so while Blizzard won't be doing an annual blowout of information on upcoming games this year, it has multiple platforms available to provide updates on specific games while it continues to work on its other projects.

In related news, Blizzard announced a new promotion to celebrate Earth Day this week, pledging millions of maggots to charity--specifically, the British rescue and rehabilitation hospital Tiggywinkles, so that the birds under the care of this organization can enjoy a tasty meal. Duriel, Diablo's King of Maggots, will not be pleased to hear that his minions are becoming lunch.

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Today's the day Bethesda's long-in-the-works Fallout 4 next-gen update makes its debut, introducing native versions of the post-apocalyptic RPG for PS5 and Xbox Series X/S. However, PlayStation users who've acquired Fallout 4 via PlayStation Plus are reporting they're unable to access the free PS5 upgrade, and are being directed to buy it instead.

As spotted by IGN, everything is working as intended for PlayStation users with a purchased version of Fallout 4 tied to their PSN accounts - they're able to access the free PS5 upgrade as expected - but those with the PlayStation Plus version in their libraries are not, and are instead seeing the PS5 edition listed at £15.99. That's in notable contrast to Xbox Game Pass, where subscribers are able to access the native Xbox Series X/S version of Fallout 4 from today.

It's currently unclear if this is an intentional move on the Microsoft-owned Bethesda's part or if it's merely an unforeseen quirk of Sony's PlayStation Plus set-up; a Bethesda representative told users on Discord they were "still looking into" whether the free PS5 upgrade should be available to PS Plus subscribers, and Eurogamer has reached out to Bethesda for clarity on the situation.

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The post Fallout 4 Next-Gen Update for Xbox Series X|S Available Now appeared first on Xbox Wire.

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An official life-sized replica of Malenia's arm, the notorious Elden Ring nemesis, is now available to pre-order.

Bandai Namco has paired with high-end collectible company PureArts to create the model, which will cost $389 (around £310) and features high detail, an articulated wrist, and two display options: a metal base or a metal wall mount.

It's available worldwide with an estimated delivery of December 2024.

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The Fallout franchise is in the midst of a resurgence lately, thanks to the live-action series adaptation on Amazon Prime (which is good, by the way). Even though it's been almost a decade since its release, Fallout 4 has rocketed to the top of sales charts like a mushroom cloud into the atmosphere, which makes today's update perfectly timed: Fallout 4 is finally getting a proper next-gen update.

ICYMI: The Fallout 4 free next-gen update lands on consoles and PC April 25th! https://t.co/lFnD4X5Q3o

Performance and Quality Mode
Stability improvements and fixes
PC widescreen support
Steam Deck Verified
Free Creation Club Content pic.twitter.com/JrJDqdn9tW

— Bethesda Game Studios (@BethesdaStudios) April 19, 2024

The update brings major technical upgrades to console players. The PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S now get their own native versions of the game rather than relying on running applications made for older consoles. These new apps come with a Performance Mode, which targets 60 fps with 4k resolution and standard graphics settings, as well as a Quality Mode, which plays at 30 fps with a 4k resolution and graphics set to ultra. The notes also clarify that, when connected to a 120 Hz display, Quality Mode will target 40 fps, and when connected to a 1440p display, the game will run at 60 fps with a 1440p resolution regardless of rendering mode.

PC players aren't left out, either. In addition to launching on the Epic Store, the game will also support widescreen and ultra-widescreen for those who have them. Steam players will also be happy to hear that the game is now officially Steam Deck Verified, so you can take it on the go. That said, the update is not yet available on GOG, but will be sometime soon. "We will let you know as soon as we can," the patch notes read.

In addition to a number of bug fixes across PC and console, the update provides all players with nine free Creation Club items. You can read the patch notes in their entirety here. For more Fallout, check out the trailer for the (now delayed) Fallout 4 London mod, get ready for season 2 of the TV series, and read our review of Fallout 4, which we called "one of the most rewarding (and time-consuming) experiences in gaming."

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Stellar Blade has several attires that Eve can try out. One of them is rewarded by a friendly citizen of Xion, but you need to help her with a request. Here's our guide on how to get the Sky Ace outfit in Stellar Blade. Likewise, please be aware that this article contains minor spoilers.

How to get the Sky Ace in Stellar Blade

The Sky Ace outfit comes from Kaya, and it's part of a special quest called Encounter. Here's what we did during our playthrough:

• We made sure to buy a lot of items from Kaya so we could max out her affinity at level 3.
• Along the way, we tackled various quests from other NPCs, some of whom led us to Kaya due to her provided information.
• Once we had access to the Great Desert region, we chose the "Request" dialogue option. This led to Kaya asking us to help find her sister Kara.

We increased Kaya's affinity (left), and we also completed quests that were only partially related to her (right).

The Stellar Blade Sky Ace outfit does require you to head to the northeastern part of the Great Desert (which you can see on the map below).

Note that vast areas of this landscape are inaccessible due to the sandstorms. As such, you must first complete an objective to repair the Solar Tower. Once you're done with that, you should be free to explore at your leisure.

A map showing the location of the Encounter side quest objective.

Upon reaching the northeast of the Great Desert, you'll notice a moored ship in the distance. Follow the path that leads to an opening and make sure you rest up. Past this point, there's a boss battle against the Behemoth Naytiba. This monster has powerful charges and pouncing attacks, so try your best to avoid them.

Once the Behemoth has been defeated, look around to find Kara's corpse. Scan it and return to Kaya to bring her the bad news. This completes the Encounter side quest, which nets you the Stellar Blade Sky Ace attire.

Slay the Behemoth (left), then tell Kaya about her sister's fate. This nets you the Sky Ace outfit (right).

Note that the Sky Ace is one of several kinds of outfits for Eve. You can learn about the others in our outfits and nano suits guide.

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Stellar Blade showcases Eve's physical prowess and good looks. And what better way to take out hostiles in style than in your swimwear. Here's our guide on how to get the Blue Monsoon bikini in Stellar Blade.

How to get the Blue Monsoon bikini in Stellar Blade

The Blue Monsoon bikini comes from a bulletin board assignment in Xion. The task is called Precious Treasure. Here's a quick summary:

• The quest's objective is in the Great Desert (as seen in the map below).
• In our campaign, the Precious Treasure assignment appeared automatically as we finished the region's objectives.
• However, we're unable to confirm if a strict prerequisite must be completed first.

A map showing the location of the Precious Treasure objective and Blue Monsoon reward.

In any case, to get the Blue Monsoon bikini in Stellar Blade, you have to go to the southeastern part of the Great Desert region. There, you'll see the ruins of a freeway. If you're approaching from the southern part (i.e. near the Solar Tower), you'll realize there's no way to get to the top.

The idea now is to follow the freeway as it winds to the north. Eventually, you'll see a sloping section that you can climb. Continue along the road until you spot a bus. Shoot the explosive barrels to cause it to fall down, giving you a means of crossing the gap.

Use the bus to cross the gap (left) so you can pick up the bikini (right).

From here, all that's left is to open the red crate. Inside, you'll find the Stellar Blade Blue Monsoon bikini for Eve. This also completes the Precious Treasure objective, and you'll be able to turn it in at the bulletin board.

The Blue Monsoon is just one type of clothing that Eve can equip in the game. There are dozens of others, and you can learn about them in our outfits and nano suits guide.

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Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes has over a hundred characters that can join your fledgling force. One of them happens to be a mighty spellcaster who can turn the tide of battle. Here's our guide on how to recruit Isha in Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes.

How to recruit Isha in Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes

Isha was originally introduced in Eiyuden Chronicle: Rising, which served as a prequel to Hundred Heroes. In this particular game, you can recruit her once you've completed three of her tasks. Here's a quick summary:

• Isha can be found in Eltisweiss if you revisit it later in the campaign. Specifically, it's after you've defended the city of Hishahn from imperial forces.
• Return to Eltisweiss and go to the plaza with the fountain. There, you'll meet Isha.
• Isha's three tasks involve finding a lost cat, collecting a Cockatrice Egg, and delivering a package.

Where to find the lost cat

The first task if you want to recruit Isha in Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes involves finding a black cat. Simply head to the southwestern corner of Eltisweiss to spot the furry feline. Go back to Isha so she can give you the next challenge.

We all know that cats are awesome!

How to get a Cockatrice Egg

The second objective takes a bit more effort. You have to return to Mountain Path Homeward, the pass that leads to Nowa's village. Roam around the area until you get a random encounter against a Cockatrice. If you see a treasure chest behind it, use the Attack/Gimmick command to loot the container. This nets you the Cockatrice Egg.

Time to catch before they hatch.

How to deliver the package

Finally, you have to go all the way back to Arenside, which is where you started the campaign. Thankfully, you don't have to make the trek on foot. Once you've unlocked the fast travel mechanic, you can teleport back to the initial village. Enter the item shop/inn and hand over the package to the woman to finish this task.

Back where it all began.

Isha's role in the game

Once you're done with all three tasks, Isha will permanently join your forces. You'll soon realize that she's an invaluable asset, primarily because of her amazing stats. She has high speed, allowing her to get her turn earlier in a round. Even better, her magic stat is extremely high, making her a remarkable spellcaster. In fact, only a select few characters (i.e. Momo) can manage to trump her in this category.

That's everything you need to know about how to recruit Isha in Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes. If you're keen in meeting more allies, you can check our guides on the Divination Parlor and all recruitable characters.

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