Gaming
Operation Blood Orchid Live on Test Servers, Patch Notes Released

Rainbow Six Siege Patch 3.0 is currently available to preload on the Technical Test Server. The patch mainly features the new season of Operation Blood Orchid as well as the finishing touches on the Health Program. Players can expect a bevy of new content and gameplay improvements in this upcoming patch.
Per Ubisoft’s blog post, “In Operation Blood Orchid, two Special Duties Unit Operators join Team Rainbow to raid Theme Park. This third season will showcase a reworking of the Operators and maps following an optimization of our data, namely a rework of textures, polished dynamic and static lighting, richer sky domes, new customization, and much more.”
Aside from the major additions of Ying, Lesion, and Ela as operators, as well as the new map Theme Park, the Health Program brings countless updates to the game, like much needed lighting improvements and upgraded servers.
The upgrading of lighting issues also comes with shading upgrades, making the maps and characters themselves appear more realistic. “Facial rigging” also promises more consistent reactions. The team is also working on hit registration and high ping inconsistencies, making 1v1 situations more consistent, giving the advantage to those with better connections.
Higher speed defense operators now lose their ACOG scopes, as the team felt it was too easy to peek out on attackers from distance and relocate quickly. Weapon damage falloff is also being addressed, and many weapon’s clip sizes are being increased slightly. Players can now deploy two drones at once, unlike previously where deploying a second would destroy the first.
Ranked play is also adding a map rotation, a total of nine altogether, the same rotation used in pro league play. The maps are: Bank, Clubhouse, Oregon, Kafe, Consulate, Chalet, Border, Coastline, and Skyscraper. Casual mode is also getting a map rotation, so some maps will not be playable in matchmaking anymore. The team says some of these maps are getting reworked, with the possibility that some will be removed from the game altogether down the line. The two maps currently unavailable are Yatch and Favela.
There are also a few operator bug fixes in the works, like a more consistent sledgehammer for Sledge and IQ’s gadget being able to read Echo’s arm pad.
The full list of fixes and improvements in on the Ubisoft devblog. The patch is set to release September 5th.
Gaming
Sony Has a “Monopoly” on the High-End Japanese Gaming Market, According to a US Senator

The never-ending saga surrounding Microsoft’s proposed $69 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard has a new participant. Today, Senator Maria Cantwell, a Democrat from the state of Washington, said some things about the subject that were hard to understand.
The senator, whose remarks were reported on by ResetEra, spoke at a Senate finance committee hearing on “the president’s 2023 Trade Policy Plan,” which we are sure was quite interesting.
Senator Cantwell said that she had been told that Sony “controls a monopoly of 98% of the high-end game market” despite the fact that “Japan’s government has allowed Sony to engage in blatant anti-competitive conduct through exclusive deals and payments to game publishers, establishing games that are among the most popular in Japan.”
This 98% statistic is highly deceptive because it ignores PC, Nintendo, and mobile games and instead refers to Sony’s adoption rate over Microsoft in Sony’s native country of Japan, a fact that shouldn’t surprise anyone who is even somewhat familiar with the video game business.
What can we do to rectify these problems and create a level playing field, she said of US Trade Representative Katherine Tai after charging Japan’s Federal Trade Commission with improperly failing to look into this purported “exclusionary conduct”?
It is absurd to claim that Sony has a monopoly on the Japanese video game market, as Luke Plunkett of Kotaku correctly points out, “because Sony doesn’t even have a 98% share of the market for the God of War series, a title they own, as Steam is getting 30% of every sale on PC.”
It goes without saying that we can’t expect elected officials to be experts in every field, but this is a visible step at a time when the ongoing attempt to buy the company is at a very important point.
Is it significant that Microsoft, along with Nintendo, maintains its headquarters in Redmond, Washington—Senator Cantwell’s district—or that Microsoft has given Cantwell more than $500,000 over the past two decades? Let us leave that up to you.
Consoles
Eating trash, Pizza Possum destroys the PS5

Pizza Possum is an arcade action game in which you, a possum, attempt to consume as much trash as you can without being discovered. It is a web-based sequel to the anarchy simulator Untitled Goose Game.It will eventually be available on the PS5.
We couldn’t help but notice that the possum in the title doesn’t look like the cute Australian possum that comes out at night to visit people.On the other hand, it looks like the horrible North American opossums are the ones that will attack trash cans and cause general chaos.Even though we think the second choice was better in terms of theme, we prefer the first one and are happy to explain why.
Your thoughts on Pizza Possum? Does it possess the necessary mass appeal to successfully skitter along the back fenceline while setting the dog off in the process?
Consoles
The Mercenaries, a free piece of DLC for Resident Evil 4 Remake, launches on April 7

Resident Evil 4 is now out, and the excellent remake can be bought right away.Even though you probably plan to play it all this weekend, you can take comfort in the fact that The Mercenaries, Resident Evil’s almost-required challenge mode, will be available as free DLC on April 7.
The mode’s exact details are still unknown, but if it’s anything like previous versions, you can expect some pretty hard tasks to test your skills.
You’re stumped about something? If you are still debating whether to purchase Resident Evil 4 Remake, be sure to look at our exhaustive guide for the answer or our in-depth review. Are you spending this weekend playing Resident Evil 4? Are you anticipating The Mercenaries?
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