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Call of Duty Mobile Season 13 Arriving This Week

By
Christian Allen Tandoc
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Call of Duty Mobile is preparing for the winter season and will be releasing new content later this week in celebration of the coming holiday season. New content already revealed for Call of Duty Mobile Season 13 includes the Nuketown Russia map, but the new update will be adding even more to the game.

Call of Duty Mobile usually releases seasonal updates, and this new one will be inclined toward winter themes for the Christmas season. The new winter holiday update is dubbed as “Winter War,” and will be arriving today, December 21. The winter-inspired event will be debuting new content in the form of a new multiplayer mode, online events, snow-filled maps, new weapons, and more.

A considerable part of the Winter War patch is the integration of new winter-inspired maps. One of the new maps will be a snowy area in Call of Duty Mobile called Ski Town, a new region that will be introduced to the game’s Battle Royale map. Other new maps include the abovementioned Nuketown Russia as a multiplayer mode map, and the fancy Holiday Raid map featuring a mansion covered in snow and decorated for the Christmas season.

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Alongside the new maps, the holiday patch will be introducing a new multiplayer mode called Grind, as well as the new seasonal Battle Pass to the game. The Grind mode will be blending the rules of Hardpoint and Kill Confirmed modes. Players will need to recover dead teammates’ dog tags, and then take them to specific areas around the map before they also get killed.

Players can receive more content and rewards with the Winter War Battle Pass via Free and Premium Pass Tiers. Several of the new content includes a new scorestreak, charms, weapon blueprints, and new operators.

The new update will also include seasonal events and challenges for players to get more rewards such as the “On The Brink” event. Players can get a new SMG in Call of Duty Mobile called QXR and a new perk for the multiplayer mode called Restock that recharge items in 25-second periods.

Winter War will also introduce the new Peacekeeper weapon to Call of Duty Mobile as a Mythic gun, advertised as being infused with magma and created in space. The weapon blueprint shows it can shoot magma-wrapped bullets and will have a few new gunsmith options.

Fans can expect a lot more winter-inspired content in Call of Duty Mobile’s Winter War update which releases today at 4 PM PT.

Azur Lane: Crosswave Gets February 2021 Release on Nintendo Switch

By
Aletheia
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Azur Lane fans will be thrilled to know that Idea Factory International has confirmed the official release date of the Nintendo Switch version of Azur Lane: Crosswave. Both physical and digital editions of the game will be released. In fact, players can now go ahead and add the title to their wishlist on the publisher’s North American storefront.

Azur Lane: Crosswave received a PC via Steam release in the past as well as on the PlayStation 4. Since its release, the title launched multiple DLCs introducing different individual characters, although players could also get them by bundles.

That being said, Idea Factory has yet to reveal if the game’s Nintendo Switch port will already contain all the DLC characters or if they need to be bought separately first. Fortunately, the publisher confirmed that more will be revealed soon, so let’s cross our fingers that the next announcement will answer all our questions.

What makes Azur Lane: Crosswave stand out is the fact that it consists of cute characters that personify different battleships from across the globe. Described on the Nintendo Switch eShop as a “high-octane 3D action shooter,” the game divides the world into four different nations, namely Eagle Union, Royal Navy, Iron Blood, and the Sakura Empire.

Of course, every single one of these nations has been hard at work trying to win a victory for their respective realms. During their training exercises, however, a Joint Military Exercise was declared.

The Joint Military Excercise chooses a representative from each nation, which meant that the different areas would have to train even more than they already do. As players progress through Azur Lane: Crosswave, players will soon discover the cause for this exercise and whether or not there were secret agendas behind the scenes.

Before the start of a battle, players will be able to equip their chosen character with different items, or perhaps craft a variety of things at Akashi’s Laboratory. Deciding on which gear to use is a crucial part of the game, as equipping the right gear could lead players to victory.

As such, commanders have the ability to obtain new gear in exchange for blueprints, earn rewards, and even convert particular materials into rate items.

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Another reason why Azur Lane: Crosswave garnered a bit of attention is most likely because of its graphics that make the characters look like adorable anime girls. There are different modes available for players to choose from, each one offering vastly different gameplay.

Namely, there’s the Story, Extreme Battle, Photo, or Episode Mode. As expected, the Story mode has different intense chapters for players to go through one by one; the Extreme Battle mode consists of over 100 battles that give players the opportunity to earn rare as well as special items; Episode mode consists of more than 50 episodes that help players learn more about each character; while Photo mode is a fun and casual feature wherein players get to pose and take pictures of the characters.

Azur Lane: Crosswave’s Nintendo Switch port is scheduled to launch next year in February 2021, but players who aren’t able to wait until then can go ahead and purchase the game on either Steam or PS4.

Banning the Word ‘Simp’ on Twitch Doubled the Usage of the Term

By
Aletheia
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Popular streaming platform Twitch recently banned a couple of words a few days ago, including the term “simp.” However, this decision may have backfired because it appears that the usage of the word has since doubled.

For a bit of context, Twitch decided to ban supposedly insulting words such as “simp” and “virgin” after a town hall took place addressing and discussing issues that have been taking place within the community.

The platform has been going through a lot recently, such as the DMCA takedown notices being delivered to content creators left and right due to in-game copyrighted music or that time when Twitch decided to take down a tag that was considered by many to be ableist.

These controversies didn’t stop the audience from hopping onto the platform though, so much so that Twitch reached a whole new record last month. This just does to show that no matter what, dedicated users will always tune into the platform.

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Even now that certain terms have been banned, users still continue to use them — even more now since the ban was implemented.

According to Stream Hatchet’s analytics update, audience members have doubled the use of the word “simp” ever since it was banned. Before it was banned, the term’s average usage was around 71,000 mentions in a day. Ever since the ban, however, the word “simp” was mentioned around 140,000 times on December 16.

While Stream Hatchet didn’t mention whether or not the words “incel” or “virgin” — two words that have also been banned —increased in usage too, we can assume that they’ve most likely been used even more now on the Twitch chat. However, they probably didn’t double in usage the way “simp” did.

That being said, we’re not entirely surprised that users did the exact opposite of what the platform wanted them to do. After all, this is a trait that the internet has shown many times: defying implemented rules that they don’t think make a lot of sense.

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The indignation especially reared its head when Twitch users discovered that the platform was quick to ban words such as “virgin” and “simp” yet couldn’t completely ban the n-word. Twitch claims that the usage of the slur would require more context in order to know if it was used in an offensive or discriminatory way.

While many could see what Twitch’s point was, they still found that this decision wasn’t exactly a good one, especially since words like “simp” and “virgin” aren’t as hurtful and hateful as the n-word.

In any case, the fact that the banned word has significantly increased in usage is just a classic case of internet users refusing to follow implemented rules and regulations, wanting instead to keep saying the word for fun and to see just how far they can get away with it.

We have yet to see how Twitch will respond to this situation. Will the platform do something about the increased usage or will the bots be tweaked to work double-time in order to catch these words on the chat? “Simp” has been used so much though that we’re beginning to wonder if the chatbot itself will be capable of censoring out everything. In any case, we’ll keep everyone updated if there’s anything new regarding this.

Mountain Dew Giving Away PlayStation 5 and Black Ops Cold War Packs

By
Christian Allen Tandoc
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Mountain Dew is exclusively giving away free PlayStation 5 consoles and a few copies of Call of Duty Black Ops Cold War. This is not the first time fans can get a PlayStation 5 by way of food since back in October, Burger King began a partnership with Sony, offering free PlayStation 5s to consumers who ordered from the fast-food chain’s mobile app or website.

The video gaming industry has a long tradition of collaborating with food and snacks. One recent and most prominent example of this can be found in Halo Infinite. The new shooting game was set to be a flagship release title for the Xbox Series X|S, but when players were frustrated with the visuals during a reveal event back in July, Microsoft postponed the game indefinitely.

It ended up in development hell for several months now and is expected to be released sometime in Fall 2021. The huge delay hasn’t halted Microsoft from advertising the game vigorously and from offering special in-game content via snack food purchases. Monster Energy, Sour Patch Kids, and Chips Ahoy are all in on a similar scheme, giving away DLC content for a game that won’t be released for almost a year.

However, Halo Infinite is not the only game around for fast food chains to advertise. As posted through a press release on PR Newswire, Mountain Dew is commemorating the release of a new e-shop to sell Game Fuel, an exclusive Mountain Dew brand specially designed to cater to video game players.

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The website is being released with special shopping codes and sweepstakes to provide fans generous chances to do the Dew. In addition to a Dr. Disrespect-inspired can of Gamer Fuel, fans can also choose to participate in the new Victory Pass rewards system.

Purchasing cases of Gamer Fuel will provide players an opportunity to win special prizes such as 2x XP tokens for Call of Duty Black Ops Cold War. The grand prize for the Victory Pass is a special pack that gives Mountain Dew drinkers a PlayStation 5 unit and a copy of the Call of Duty Black Ops Cold War game to partner it with.

Both new-gen consoles have been partnering with various fast food brands this whole year. Fans of Bojangles, for example, were shocked to learn that the restaurant has teamed up with Microsoft to design one special edition Xbox Series X, which was outlined as a box of the famous fried chicken from the restaurant and was given away for free to a single lucky follower on social media giant Twitter. This was surely an unforeseen collaboration from both companies, but it certainly worked wonders from a promotional perspective.

Fortnite’s Operation Snowdown Event Has Officially Launched

By
Aletheia
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0
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It’s finally the holiday season, which means that countless video games out there have started celebrating winter-themed events. Epic Games’ Fortnite isn’t any different, as the franchise has recently launched its winter holiday 2020 event called “Operation Snowdown.”

As expected, the new event gives players a chance to acquire all kinds of rewards as well as experience both new and returning game modes. The fifth season of the incredibly popular battle royale recently went live with the theme “Zero Point,” which consists of bounty hunters and the like.

According to Fortnite Team’s post on Epic Games’ website, dedicated players who participated in last year’s Winterfest event will find that Operation Snowdown works similarly. Starting last December 18, 2020 and ending on January 5, 2021, players will be given the chance to obtain free cosmetics by successfully completing Snowmando’s quests, a new character introduced just for this event.

Some of the rewards will include the Frosty Globes Pickaxe, the Shield Surprise Back Bling, gliders, weapon wraps, and a lot more. Those who manage to complete all nine Operation Snowdown quests will be given the Snowmando skin. On the other hand, those who complete all twelve will earn the Frost Squad.

One exciting thing that will be making a comeback to Fortnite in this winter-themed event are the in-game planes. These planes will already be available on the map, but not only that, the Air Royale LTM will also be brought back to the game.

Other things that will be returning include presents and chiller grenades, which will give players the chance to create dynamic strategies. There’s a brand-new mode introduced to Fortnite as well, which is called Shockwave. This exciting new mode makes players attempt to knock each other into an incredibly powerful yet shrinking storm.

In addition to that, Fortnite players will be experiencing a brand-new LTM called Pickaxe Frenzy during this event. With all the new and exciting modes to choose from, those players who are confused about which one to play can let the game randomly choose for them via the Snowdown Shuffle playlist.

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That being said, Fortnite’s Operation Snowdown has a lot more to offer to its players. Players will be given the opportunity to obtain new skins as well as the skins from the previous holiday events. These include a snowglobe, a candy cane, among others.

Sadly, these skins, in particular, don’t come free, and players need to purchase each one separately using V-Bucks. However, what’s available for free — at least until January 5 — is Fortnite’s Sing Along emote.

Fortnite has been receiving a lot of buzz within the video game community for its surprising roster of crossover characters. Epic Games was able to secure partnerships with a variety of franchises from both media and video games, including The Walking Dead’s Daryl and Michonne, God of War’s Kratos, and Halo‘s Master Chief is said to be coming soon.

Since the battle royale has been in the spotlight for quite some time now, many gamers in the community have begun speculating that Agent Jonesy may even be the next DLC fighter Super Smash Bros Ultimate.

Watch Dogs Legion Online Mode Launching Early Next Year

By
Christian Allen Tandoc
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Ubisoft has revealed its intentions to launch the online mode of Watch Dogs Legion early next year. The new open-world stealth-based action game was launched back in October to decent reviews. Critics and fans, for the most part, enjoyed the game but they were unsatisfied with the execution of the game’s main concept which is the power to recruit and play as any NPC in the whole city of London.

Players are also condemning the game for its various bugs and issues. It has also been having a hard time with the gulf between the generations of consoles as players are having problems upgrading their last-gen copies to the PlayStation 5 or Xbox Series X|S.

To its credit, Ubisoft has been doing everything it can to enhance the game and create a better experience for all its fans. This dedicated post-release support has come at a cost – Ubisoft has had to take resources away from the development of the online multiplayer mode of the game, which has been postponed to 2021 as a result.

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However, the developer hasn’t forgotten about the game’s new mode. In a recently concluded State of the Game article, Ubisoft detailed all of the work they have been doing to make the game better. This includes stability enhancements and a fix for saved game corruption, a specifically dangerous bug affecting players on the Xbox Series X|S.

Amongst the multiple updates, Ubisoft also took the time to discuss the game’s upcoming multiplayer mode. As of the latest Title Update, the developers are confident enough in its glitch fixes that it has started taking more moves in integrating the mode, and is now testing it to make sure that it will have a smooth launch early next year.

Ubisoft also revealed what will be coming along with the multiplayer mode. Up to four players will be able to explore the game together, take on new missions and a Tactical Op as well as take on a PVP mode called Spiderbot Arena.

If integrated correctly, this mode might be a success for Watch Dogs Legion. The title surely hasn’t made as much of a blast as some of the publisher’s other new open-world games such as Assassin’s Creed Valhalla.

As a matter of fact, the new hacking game has already received significant price cutoffs in various stores, even though it is only two months old. While the title itself is just fine as far as reviews are concerned, the poor timing of launching along with Ubisoft’s recent Assassin’s Creed title has not helped at all, and neither have the bugs that the developers are still looking at.

Tencent Hiring Pokemon Super Fan For New Upcoming Game

By
Christian Allen Tandoc
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The massive tech company Tencent is looking to hire a Pokemon super fan for its new online game Pokemon Unite. Being developed by both The Pokemon Company and Tencent, Pokemon Unite was originally announced during a Pokemon Presents event back in the summer.

It is being developed for the Android, iOS, and Nintendo Switch. During one of the events, a sequel to the hit Pokemon Snap was revealed for the Nintendo Switch to widespread anticipation. Pokemon Unite was announced at the next Pokemon event but received a hefty amount of fan frustration.

Tencent has also come under fire for its improper data practices. It has even received critic from President Donald Trump for its ownership of the online chat application, WeChat. This is Tencent‘s first time partnering for a game for the Pokemon franchise.

The company has developed on various mobile titles in the past, such as the hit battle royale mobile port of PUBG. Pokemon Unite was announced in its very own Pokemon Presents event, which resulted in high expectations from players and, consequently, plenty of disappointment.

Daniel Ahmad, a Niko Partners senior analyst, posted photos from Tencent that the company is hiring a Pokemon consultant, or in layman’s terms, a Pokemon enthusiast. The qualifications of the job require worthy job seekers to have finished all Pokemon games with over 900 hours of total playtime, know the history of Pokemon, have a highly competitive ranking in the game, and have watched over 500 episodes of the Pokemon anime series. Tencent has recently removed the job listing.

Although it’s great to see that Tencent wants to hire someone with immense knowledge of Pokemon, this tells fans a few things. This implies that there are a lot of people working on the game who know little about the franchise but Tencent wants to make sure that the game will satisfy fans of the franchise by hiring a super fan. Even though there was initial resentment upon the reveal of Pokemon Unite, this might possibly be a huge success considering the utter ubiquity of Pokemon Go.

However, it’s improbable to tell whether this title will have a similar success as Pokemon Go. The latter game was a title that fans were absolutely hyped for, whereas Pokemon Unite has frustrated plenty of fans before it is even launched.

Little has been disclosed about the new game, but hopefully, things will improve if they have hired the world’s ultimate Pokemon superfan on their development team. However, even if the game itself turns out to be pretty impressive, fans should still be careful of Tencent’s regarding its data practices. As a huge company, Tencent has a lot of power, and being accused of illicit data acquisition is a grave situation. With that said, there is still so much to learn about Pokemon Unite.

Call of Duty Warzone Secret Cutscene Hints At Soap MacTavish Return

By
Christian Allen Tandoc
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0
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A hidden cutscene has been discovered in Call of Duty Warzone, hinting at the return of Soap MacTavish and ending out the battle royale’s storyline for Call of Duty Modern Warfare. Speculations have been roaming around for quite some time now that Soap, who was first introduced in Black Ops 4, would eventually be coming to the game.

Call of Duty Warzone began a whole new chapter with its incorporation with Call of Duty Black Ops Cold War. At the start of Black Ops Cold War’s Season One, the new game’s arsenal was integrated into Warzone, launching a collaboration between the two titles like the one that Call of Duty Warzone’s development, players were instantly dismayed to discover that Black Ops Cold War’s guns don’t stack up to the guns they have been using Call of Duty Modern Warfare. As with most main content updates in ongoing Call of Duty titles, Season One also brought a myriad of bugs to both Warzone Black Ops Cold War.

Before Call of Duty really gets going with its Black Ops Cold War content, though, there were a few loose ends to integrate with Modern Warfare. YouTuber Geeky Pastimes recently released a video showing the wrap-up of Warzone’s most recent intel mission, which apparently concluded its Modern Warfare storyline in a shocking cutscene.

As the video displays, once the mission is accomplished, players can view the cutscene by going to missions under the challenges menu. At the end of the cutscene that features Captain Price taking down Victor Zakahev once and for all, all of the existing main operators assemble and put in a call to none other than Soap MacTavish, saying that they are on their way to him.

The discovery of the cutscene comes just after reputable Call of Duty leaker ModernWarzone shared new details claiming that, among others, Soap MacTavish will soon be coming to Modern Warfare as an operator.

New multiplayer weapons and maps were also leaked, but the announcement of MacTavish as an operator was the announcement that Call of Duty has been excited most excited to hear. There is still no official announcement on when Soap MacTavish will be arriving in the game.

Whenever he emerges, though, it will possibly be a welcome sight for fans who are disappointed with Call of Duty Warzone’s new content from Call of Duty Black Ops Cold War. The new operator might be a great way to bridge the gap from Modern Warfare to Black Ops and begin to get fans more on board for what is to come.

Cyberpunk 2077 Mod Allows Players to Change In-Game Haircuts

By
Aletheia
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0
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The hype for Cyberpunk 2077 has died down and has been replaced with feelings of frustration and controversy. Needless to say, CD Projekt Red’s new game has had a rough launch. For one thing, the game doesn’t perform well on the last-gen consoles, namely the PlayStation 4 and the Xbox One, and players have since been requesting refunds from their respective storefronts.

To make matters worse, Sony has completely removed the game from the PlayStation Store until further notice, which means that interested buyers won’t be able to purchase it digitally from there.

We still don’t know when the developer will release a patch that will fix the game’s issues, let alone new content and features to amp up the gameplay. As such, players who have decided to stick it out and continue playing the game have decided to take things into their own hands by creating mods for Cyberpunk 2077 on PC. The most recent one allows players to change their character’s hairstyle.

For a game like Cyberpunk 2077 that touts extensive customization, it’s somewhat strange that it doesn’t give players the opportunity to change the protagonist’s hair after the initial character creation stage.

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With CD Projekt Red’s The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt containing barbershops in-game that allow players to change how Geralt’s hair and beard look, one would expect the same thing from Cyberpunk 2077. Unfortunately, this doesn’t seem to be the case.

PC gamers weren’t pleased by this fact though, so they decided to change it. Needless to say that they were successful in this regard, but the In-Game Haircuts mod isn’t exactly as convenient as one would have liked. While the mod lets players choose and change their in-game haircut as often as they want, they would have to alt+tab first to adjust the hair as the game continues to run in the background.

Still, it’s a mod that works and seems simple enough, so there’s nothing to complain about. In a player’s Cyberpunk 2077 save files lies a hexadecimal value, which is the setting that gives the character their hairstyle. With the In-Game Haircuts mod, however, players are given easy-to-do instructions on how to edit the hex value if they’re already tired of the hairstyle they initially chose for their character.

It’s worth noting though that the mod doesn’t offer some kind of in-game menu — players must first download a hex-editing program and then manually edit their game’s save files.

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Here’s how it essentially works:

Players need to open the save file using the hex-editing program they downloaded. Now, it’s best to have a copy of the original save file just in case things go south, as any mistake could potentially corrupt the file.

Then, players need to look up the hex value of their character’s current hairstyle with the help of the included reference guide. Once the value has been located, players can proceed to change it to the hex value of a different hairstyle that they want their character to have. Save the file afterward and if successful, it should be ready for loading.

It may not be as convenient and as extensive as other mods, but keep in mind that Cyberpunk 2077 has only been out recently so it doesn’t come as a surprise that the available mods are still basic. We hope that a future mod will allow players to change the hairstyle via an in-game menu, but for now, this option will do just nicely.

Upcoming Stardew Valley 1.5 Update Will Introduce New Beach Farm

By
Aletheia
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Creator of the highly-beloved farming simulator Stardew Valley, Eric Barone aka ConcernedApe, has shared new details about the game’s upcoming 1.5 update. It’s highly possible that the anticipated update will be launching soon, perhaps even before the year ends.

To make things even more exciting, the developer revealed in a recent tweet that the upcoming update will introduce a brand-new farm type for players to choose when setting up their farm, as well as other extra settings.

ConcernedApe already revealed a couple of details about update 1.5 a few months ago, but this new information is definitely interesting. According to the developer, the new update will give players the option to choose a Beach Farm, a new type of farm that will change the way the player’s farm looks and its functionalities.

In addition to that, Stardew Valley will introduce an Advanced Game Options menu as soon as the update goes live, which will allow players to tailor fit the game’s settings to match their gameplay style.

The new Beach Farm will be perfect for those players who enjoy not only fishing but foraging as well. In addition, choosing this type will mean that the farm will offer a lot of open space in order to emulate a sandy beach.

To make things more dynamic, supply crates will randomly wash up on the beach farm’s shore, which will most likely contain a variety of items that players can either use or sell. The downside to this farm type, however, is that sprinklers will be rendered useless.

Long-time Stardew Valley players know that sprinklers are probably one of the most useful items in the game since they can help water the crops every day. That said, the new split-screen feature in co-op mode will most likely be useful for those who choose the Beach Farm, with one player focusing on one task and one on another.

Stardew Valley has been growing throughout the years, and it will do the same with update 1.5. The game’s community center, which consists of so many side-quest options for players to do, will now offer remixed bundles if the player chooses. The new advanced settings also offer a “Guarantee Year 1 Completable” check box underneath the Community Center Bundles.

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Despite being most commonly known as a farm simulator, Stardew Valley has dungeon crawling elements that are equally as fun. Heading inside the mines will give players the opportunity to test out their fighting skills, as a variety of monsters attempt to hurt the player’s character.

In the 1.5 update, players will be able to make some changes to the mine rewards via the Advanced Game Options. To spice things up, ConcernedApe has also included a new on or off toggle that lets monsters spawn on the player’s farm itself if they want them to.

Developer Eric Barone has been working on this update for quite some time now, sharing new details about it from time to time on his Twitter account. Even though the game has been out for a few years now, Barone still continues to support the title with new updates and will continue to do so until further notice. Plus, he hasn’t crossed out the idea of a sequel to Stardew Valley, which is great.

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