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Fewer terms are more iconic to gamers than “Pokemon Gym,” even though it’s a bit of a misnomer since most people visit gyms to train, not fight for fame and fortune. Then again, the Pokemon franchise has a tendency to misuse terms, the most egregious examples being “light-year” and “evolution,” but I’m rambling here. Getting back to the point, Niantic is changing how gyms work in Pokemon GO. According to a blog post on the official Pokemon GO site, these changes will be part of the game’s biggest update. Strap yourself in folks; it’s going to take a while to cover everything.

Prior to the update, Pokemon Gyms were fairly bare bones. Trainers could leave one Pokemon at a gym controlled by their teams. These gyms held up to ten Pokemon, and opposing teams usually had to grind battles to take over gyms. Now — or at least when the update is finished — gyms will have the standard six Pokemon limit. Furthermore, with the new system, each Pokemon must be unique, so trainers won’t have to worry about facing off against multiple Blisseys (Blissies?). The update will also introduce the motivation mechanic: the longer a Pokemon defends a gym, the more its motivation will decrease , and the more a Pokemon’s motivation decreases, the lower its CP will drop. Don’t worry though, the CP loss is only temporary. Trainers can boost a defender’s motivation with a berry treat, but eventually the Pokemon will lose all motivation and return to its trainer after its defeated. Also, when I say gyms are receiving a facelift, I mean it; gyms will look far more impressive, and each battle will start with trainers staring each other down, just as they do in the main Pokemon games.

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Another big change to the gym system is the introduction of gym badges. They might not function like badges in the main franchise, but they are still a welcome sight. Pokemon GO’s gym badges will provide various bonuses and can be leveled by battling in gyms, giving berries to defending Pokemon, and spinning the gym’s photo disc. Oh, right, I forgot to mention that gyms will also function as Pokestops, which means trainers can obtain items by visiting gyms. Much like other Pokestops, gyms will attract wild Pokemon, but occasionally a raid boss Pokemon will spawn at a gym and supplant all defending Pokemon. As the name suggests, raid boss Pokemon are extremely powerful and will curb stomp even the most powerful of solo trainers. Once a raid boss appears, gamers will have five minutes to defeat these super-powerful Pokemon, specifically by teaming up with up to twenty nearby trainers — including members of opposing teams.

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With powerful raid bosses come powerful rewards, including the chance to catch these Pokemon. Additionally, these Pokemon will drop valuable new items, including Golden Razz Berries (a more powerful version of the Razz Berry), Rare Candies (wildcard candies and can be used on any Pokemon), and the much-anticipated Technical Machines. Of course, trainers can’t just fight raid bosses whenever they feel like it: gamers can only fight raid bosses if they use a Raid Pass. These passes can be either bought in the cash shop or found at a local Pokemon Gym, but trainers can only hold one pass at a time, which means if you lose the battle, you need a new pass.

These changes just might be the booster shot Pokemon GO needs. Not only will the reworked mechanics encourage trainers to visit more gyms, but raid bosses will give players an incentive to cooperate, especially if those bosses include the legendaries trainers have been waiting for since Pokemon GO was first announced.

All you have to do to get my attention is talk about video games, technology, anime, and/or Dungeons & Dragons - also people in spandex fighting rubber suited monsters.

Gaming

Ubisoft says that future Assassin’s Creed games will need more time to be made

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As Assassin’s Creed Shadows is about to sneak up on people in November, Ubisoft says that the time between developing games needs to be longer to find the “right balance.” Shadows has been in development for four years, longer than any other game in the series up to this point. That includes the huge open-world epics Assassin’s Creed Odyssey and Assassin’s Creed Valhalla.

Shadows lead producer Karl Onnée (thanks, GamesIndustry.biz) says that the latest AC game took 25% longer to make than Valhalla. He says this is necessary to keep the quality of the series that it is known for: “It’s always a balance between time and costs, but the more time you have, the more you can iterate.” You can speed up a project by adding more people to it, but that doesn’t give you more time to make changes.

Onnée says this has as much to do with immersion and aesthetics as it does with fixing bugs and smoothing out pixels. This is because the development team needs time to learn about each new historical setting: “We are trying to make a game that is as real as possible.” We’re proud of it, and the process took a long time. In feudal Japan, building a house is very different from building a house in France or England in the Middle Ages. As an artist, you need to learn where to put things in a feudal Japanese home. For example, food might not belong there. Get all the information you need and learn it. That process takes a long time.”

You’ll have to wait a little longer for Ubisoft to work on each game. Are you okay with that? In what part of Shadows are you now? Is it interesting to you? Leave a comment below and let us know.

 

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You can now pre-order Lollipop Chainsaw RePOP on PS5

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You can now pre-order Lollipop Chainsaw RePOP, a remaster that Dragami Games and Capcom both created. You can now pre-order the PS5 game on the PS Store for $44.99 or £39.99. If you have PS Plus, you can get an extra 10% off the price.

The company put out a new trailer with about three minutes of gameplay to mark the start of the pre-order period. Lollipop Chainsaw RePOP is a remaster of Grasshopper Manufacture’s crazy action game from 2012. You play as Juliet, a high school student who fights off waves of zombies.

The remaster adds RePOP mode, an alternative mode that swaps out the blood and gore for fun visual effects. It also adds a bunch of other features and improvements that make the game better overall. You can expect the graphics and sound to be better as well.

The game will now come out on September 12, 2024, instead of September 12, 2024. Are you excited to get back to this? Please cheer us on in the section below.

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Gaming

This Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 zombies trailer is way too expensive

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Is there really anyone who is following the story of Call of Duty’s zombie mode? We’ve known about the story in a vague way for a while, but we couldn’t tell you anything about it. It looks like the “Dark Aether” story will continue in Black Ops 6, but we don’t really know what that means.

For those of you who care, here is the official blurb with some background: “Requiem, led by the CIA, finally closed the last-dimensional portal, sending its inhabitants back to the nightmare world known as the Dark Aether, after two years of fighting zombie outbreaks around the world during the Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War timeline.”

Wait, there’s more! “Agent Samantha Maxis gave her life to seal this weird dimension from the inside out.” Even worse things were to come: senior staff members of Requiem were arrested without a reason by the Project Director, who turned out to be Edward Richtofen.

Black Ops 6 will take place about five years later, and it looks like it will show more about Richtofen’s goals and motivations. The most important thing is that you will probably be shooting an unimaginable number of zombies in the head. This week, on August 8, there will be a full reveal of the gameplay, so keep an eye out for that.

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