One of the additions I like least in Spider-Man 2 is the web wings. The Spider-Man games,?? in general, have often strived to provide the best facsimile of the protagonist’s preferred mode of transportation, web swinging, so adding something like gliding to the mix is a bit of an affront to me. It’s a personal preference, but thankfully, I can mostly ignore the skill?? and just get around the old-fashioned way. I often forget it even exists.

However, while I was looking through Spider-Man 2’s various options to s??ee if there is a way to turn off the visual wind-tunnel effects (there doesn’t seem to be), I did find something that might only appeal to strict swingers like myself. And that’s a Swing St?eering Assist slider.

Roller coaster design

This probably won’t come as a shock to you, but Spider-Man 2 takes a few creative liberties with physics to provide an approxi??mation of the way the webslinger moves in the air. I mean, the comics already have to do a lot of handwaving to try and explain how he even does it, but we’ve already bought into a radioactive spider biting a guy and making him strong, so having him swing through the streets of New York is comparatively easier to believe.

However, for the game, Insomniac went a bit further with things to ensure that you look cool while traveling. These assists consist of a lot of minor details that you might not even notice while playing. Like, for example, if your swing is too long, the web line will shorten so you don’t hit the ground. When you go around a corner, the line doesn’t wrap to cause an abrupt change of speed and angle. It’s a lot of behi??nd-the-curtain magic, so you can just concentrate on where you’re going rather than have to worry about distracting details.

It’s not a bad thing. Beyond the fact that Insomniac is trying to reach an extremely broad audie??nce and having a steep learning curve just to get around the city would be extremely alienating to a lot of people, game design is sometimes like building a roller coaster. The goal is to make it feel like you’re doing something awesome and skillful when you’re really not. It’s why QTE sequences became so popular for a while.

Spider-Man 2 subscribes to the roller coaster design philosophy so hard. Even the combat is designed to look very intricate and technical while being extremely simple. It works, and in Spider-Man 2 it works very well.

Can you swing from a thread?

However, if you’re someone like me and you really enjoy web-swinging, you might?? not want the handwaving that is there to make you look cool. You might want some additional technical chew to the experience; something more tangible that forces you to concentrate a bit more on what you’re doing. And, if that’s you, there’s a slider buried in the options that might be what you’re looking for.

The Swing Steering Assist slider has ten levels to it that you can use to tune your experience. Because the assist is already designed to be very subtle about the way it helps you, it can be difficult to tell where it steps in. If you crank it all the way down, however, you will definitely feel the difference. The most signi?ficant change is? that you’ll actually be able to swing into the ground, and you’ll more regularly smack into obstacles until you adapt.

It’s important to note, however, that this doesn’t make web-swinging physically accurate. You still have a lot of control in the air and can easily alter your trajec?tory. The secondary abilities like weblines, slingshots, and point jumps are all still accessible and work the same. I also don’t think you can wrap around horizontal obs?tacles. For example, if you swing under an arch, you won’t suddenly be launched into the sky. There are limits, but we can keep dreaming.

I also want to stress that I’m not trying to posit this as the “correct�or even a “better�way to play the game. Within the context of Spider-Man 2, it’s probably the opposite. This is just a personal preference, and I figured that ther?e are probably others out there like me who love Insomniac’s take on locomotion but just want it to b??e a bit more involved.

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Keep an eye out for spoilers

We're under two weeks out from the release date of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. But it seems like you'll already want to start locking in those muted words and phrases. It looks like Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom has leaked.

Images and clips of the upcomi??ng Switch game began to circulate at some point over the last 24 hours, on various gaming forums. This includes footage of areas both seen and unseen in prior footage.

We won't be sharing any of the information here, either on what or where it is. Suffice it to say, I've looked, and can a??t lea??st verify that it looks quite real.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=uHGShqcAHlQ

While we won't share spoilers here, it's still a good idea to start keeping an eye out on various forums if you want to stay completely unspoiled. My personal recommendation is to make use of any keyword-blocking features on social media, if available, and also be wary of browsing any "new" or "recently updated" tabs. And also, be nice to your local forum?????????????????????????? moderator, as they're about to have a very long 11 days between now and the release date.

A new Zelda is on the horizon

It is, again, wild to think that we're just about 11 days out from the release of the sequel to Breath of the Wild. First announced back at E3 2019, and later officially named, The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is a direct sequel to 2017's Breath of the Wild. We've seen teasers and learned about Link's inventive new hand powers, and seen plenty of teasers for what's in store for Hyrule.

Now, we're just a little over a week out from the full launch of Tears of the Kingdom. May your feeds be spoiler-free as we rocket toward M??ay 12.

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Don't let maps and bars get in the way of your perfect shot

I've been slowly whiling away the hours over the last few weeks with Xenoblade Chronicles 3, a fun and incredibly scenic RPG. And this week, I picked up a little trick that I wish I had known about from the get-go: a shortcut for easy, HUD-less Xenoblade screenshots.

In most games, I tend to be a screenshot fiend. Part of that is, well, part of the job; if I know I'm going to want to write about something later, having a bevy of good screenshot?s is useful. But I also like to catalogue my journey, remembering specific ??moments, lines, and vistas from throughout my time there.

Xenoblade Chronicles 3 has some good camera options, including one that lets you essentially go full-on first-person mode. But Nintendo of Europe tweeted out this handy tip that changed my Xenoblade screenshot life for the better. If you press the L ??and R buttons simultaneously, you can easily snap a screenshot wi?thout the heads-up display.

//twitter.com/Ninten??doEurope/status/15591?32800028233729

?After seeing this, I went directly into my game and started trying it. And ind??eed, it's basically a macro. The game dips out the HUD, snaps a screenshot, and re-ups the display. It's startling how well this works in real-time; I was a little worried I'd have to give it a bit of lead time, but no, it happens pretty darn fast.

A photo album of adventure

Now I've been revisiting all the places I blew through in my early hours of Xenoblade Chronicles 3 to get new screenshots. Capturing some of the massive landscapes, beautiful views, and colossal sights makes for a?? fun diversion from the main plot.

It helps that Xenoblade Chronicles 3, on top of being quite a good game, is also a very scenic game. It feels like Monolith Soft ekes incredible views out of the Nintendo Switch, and now, I've got a great tool? f??or preserving them without too much fuss.

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Take a free look at the Halo series

The first episode of Paramount's Halo series premiered today. And if you're waiting in? the wings because you don't have a Param??ount+ sub, there's some good news in the form of a free trial.

Yesterday, Xbox confirmed that Game Pass Ultimate subscribers can get a free 30-day trial of Paramount+ through their Perks. The subscription trial can be redeemed? through the Perks gallery on Xbox consoles, the Xbox app on PC, or through the mobile a??pp.

There is one catch, though. The trial is only available for new Paramount+ subscribers. So if you've been on the Paramount service al??ready, you won't be able to tack a free 30 days on.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDxF02MoNDE

The Halo TV series is a??lso releasing at a weekly cadence, rather than all at once. The first episode, "Contact," premiered today. A new one will follow each week, through nine episodes. If you want to free trial the whole thing, well, you might be waiting until May.

Xbox has been putting out a few of these free trials for Game Pass Ultimate users. Also announced recently was a three-month trial for Marvel Unlimited. They're not the only ones, either; PlayStation ran a six-month trial offer of Apple TV+ for those who bought a PlayStation 5, too.

Reviews came in for the Paramount+ Halo TV series today, and reviews seem a little rough. Wired says that Halo joins the ranks of failed video game adaptations, and The Verge didn't seem keen on its attempts to h?umanize Master Chief.

I'm an avid connoisseur of game adaptions, be they live-action or animated, so this has been on my radar. Honestly, hearing that it's not stellar lifts some weight of expectation off it for me. Now, I can happily tune in to see just how weird it gets with the source material. I'm not sure anything can be as bad as Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li.

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If one player in an online lobby owns the Booster Course Pass, everyone else is covered

It's worth stressing again, just in case you missed hearing it, that you don't strictly need to cough up $25 to play the Booster Course Pass levels in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe's online multiplayer. If you’re facing random online players in Worldwide, Regional, or Tournaments and someone’s got the DLC, the just-released Wave 1 levels can show up in the ?rotation.

Assuming the folks in the lobby vote accordingly, you're good to go. And this only-one-owner rule also goes for Friends, Wireless Play, and LAN Play if any of those are more your speed. Nintendo confirmed this in the Ver. 2.0.0 patch notes, if you're curious.

That said, as demonstrated in this wonderfully painful clip from Reddit user IceBre4th, it's tough to reach a consensus with other Mario Kart-loving strangers. No matter the odds, the course selection RNG is going to do its wacky thing. If you've got any superstiti?ons about its sentience or inten?tions, well, they're probably true. Ninja Hideaway is a blast!

//www.reddit.com/r/mariokart/comments/tjtlie/me_finally_im_going_to_play_the_dlc_on_globa??l/

Hey, maybe someone is just really into Yoshi Circuit. They can't be swayed.

//www.reddit.com/r/mariokart/comments/t?jx6yq/yoshi_circuit_best_track/

Or?? maybe they've already had their fill of these (mostly) basic tracks after going all-in.

The Booster Course Pass levels can appear in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe’s multiplayer rotation as long as "at least one of the players you are matched with online has access to the [DLC]," as Nintendo puts it. Basically, they aren't splitting us up. That said �and this will likely go for future Booster Course waves as well �the timing ?isn't day-and-date.

In the case of the Wave 1 tracks (Toad Circuit, Choco Mountain, Sky Garden, Tokyo Blur, Shroom Ridge, Paris Promenade, Coconut Mall, and Ninja Hideaway), they weren't available in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe's online pool until March 21 �so, a bit after the March 18 launch. If you hopped online on day one and were conf?use?d, that's what happened.

For my part as a silly N64 fan, I have access to the DLC as a Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pass subscriber, but otherwise, I probably would've paid $25 for a sta?ndalone Booster Course Pass purchase down the road. I don't feel like the value is here yet (not that I'd expect it to be so soon out of the gate), but with 48 total Booster courses joining? the game, I'm sure it'll get there. For the time being, mooch away as needed.

Wave 1 courses have shown up more often than not in my sessions, and �so far so good �other players have tended to vote for fresh tracks over old favorites. We’ll see how long that lasts. CJ has a good breakdown of the eight additions and how they stack up.

It's going to be wild to hop back into Mario Kart 8 Deluxe in 2023 and have this huge pool of courses ready to go. I'm curious how the dust will settle, and which tracks will get the most votes in online lobbies. The sheer chaos of online Mario Kart helps keep these levels fresh. Playing against low-?level AI is fine, but real human jerks bring out the best in them.

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Most Wonderful Time of the Year

If there's one thing that video game fans can expect when December 25 rolls around, it's server outage. As the planet simultaneously makes way for an abundance of new consoles and online store gift cards, services from PlayStation Plus to Nintendo Online are often left feeling the strain as players spend a good few days gobbling up the juice??. And speaking of Nintendo, the legendary devel??oper/publisher has already candidly stated it expects this week to be no different.

Through its support account, Nintendo has suggested that players looking to use Nintendo's online services (eShop included) this festive weekend perform as much prep as possible beforehand. Whether booting up new consoles and installing updates, pre-purchasing games and software, registering Nintendo Online or Fa?mily account, The Big N has openly tipped players to jump online and gets these acts completed right now, before December 25 sees the service run thin, possibly delivering little more than a very slow service at best and network outage warnings at worst.

Of course, this is by no means a Nintendo-only Christmas issue, nor a particularly new issue. Ever since gaming hit its online s?tride with the PS3/Xbox 360, players have been left frustrated by server outages, store closures, and network failures over the holiday season. While all major publishers have taken steps to curtail the problem, there simply is not enough power at the source to cover an entire international community of eager video game fans �so take a tip from Scar and Be Prepared.

Nintendo Exp??ects Servers to Overload? Again on Christmas 2021 [Siliconera]

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Get a free squirrel by completing tasks and logging in

The Halloween Festival has kicked off in Pokemon Unite, adding a new currency and turning the main screen into a fiendishly festive landing page. But it isn't just about costumes and candy, as Pokemon Unite players can also pick up a free Greedent license t?his week if they save up their pumpkins.

As announced on the Pokemon Unite Twitter, Greedent is one of the rewards available during the Halloween Festival. It's also the newest Pokemon in Pokemon Unite as of this writing, so it seems like a good opportunity to bolster your ??roster with some new 'mons.

//t??witter.com/PokemonUnite/status/1450601504583217154

You can earn a license for Greedent (a.k.a. the ability to pick Greedent) by trading in pumpkins. The new pumpkin currency is part of the Halloween event, and you earn it by either play????ing and winning games in the spooky new stadium variant or through daily log-ins during the event.

TiMi Studios also notes that for the upcoming Festival, not all players will be able to obtain all reward??s by event's end. So while there are ?a few different cosm?etic rewards alongside Greedent, you might want to save your pumpkins until you know exactly what you want.

Greedent's playstyle sounds fairly unique for the Defender class. He uses belly flops and berries, and overall, isn't quite what you'd expect when put up alon??gside other beefy Defenders like Blastoise or Snorlax. But as a Defender player myself, I welcome the newcomer to the fold, and will definitely be saving up to add some variety to my rotation.

The Halloween Festival has also kicked off, with the aforementioned Mer Stadium variant and a bunch of new cos?metics for both Pokemon and their Trainers. Hopefully there are some scary Ghost Pokemon set to arrive soon too, just to really round out the October atmosphere.

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Black Panther leaps into battle

Marvel's Avengers fans are getting an influx of new stuff to do, as the War for Wakanda expansion goes live today.

The expansion ad??ds Black Panther as a playable character, with martial arts-inspired moves, his Percussive Blast that sends kinetic energy out around him, and some devastating daggers. T'Challa's Heroics include a Vibranium spear, calling on Kimoyo Beads, and summoning a spectral projection of the panther goddess Bast for a buff.

New content is also being added in the Wakandan jungle, ??a new biome to explore with its own dangers, defense weapons, and ancient structures. Plus, the villain Klaw is bringing some backup, and there will be some Vibranium-armored mercenaries and Sonic-powered foe??????????????????????????s to fight.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=jwAZoyHO3n0

All of it arrives in a free update today, for owners of Marvel's Avengers. You can find a full breakdown of the update here on the PlayStation blog, though longtime Avengers players will likely care a lot about the last point: UI updates. The War for Wakanda expansion also massively overhauls the Marvel's Avengers user inter??face, sorting? the character tabs and altering the layout according to community feedback.

This is one of Marvel's Avengers biggest updates, which is likely good news for those who have been holding out for more of Square Enix and Crystal Dynamics' hero-action game. Content for Avengers is still gradually rolling out, though some long-awaited additions are still waiting in the wings; Spider-Man, for example, is "still on track" according to a recent interview.

But with the War for Wakanda expansion, this might be a big enough boost to get players online and jumping back in. It's clear today, at least, that Marvel's Avengers is going to keep carrying on with updates and building upon w??hat it has.

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