This August bank holiday weekend saw me away from my usual radio station and writing duties to attend and represent the Sanitarium.FM at the Insomnia gaming LAN event, the 55th one held since the event started years back.

Hosted by Multiplay, a company who also host game servers and have been acquired by GAME in the last year the event boasts massive halls for gamers to bring their computers and consoles to link up for a massive LAN party with friends and rivals alike; along with an expo hall filled with gaming and media related retailers, special guests, indie game demos and so much more. This is the fifth one I’ve been to. So how did I, an experienced attendee, find the event?

Well let’s get the niggles and annoyances out of the way first.

For context I attend Insomnia for the sake of going around the expo hall, seeing my friends in the flesh, checking out the new indie games and since taking this job also to make contacts and get some of the indie devs onto our Indie Game Show. Since I became press Insomnia have provided a press pass and a room designated for press to use, although the press pass was reduced from a weekend ticket to two day passes which would have seen me fork out more for the sake of being able to cover all 3 days and nothing in the evening. This time Insomnia had two camera crews on site, from the British Channels 4 and 5. They were given use of the usual press room for their filming of interviews with attendee volunteers but unfortunately this did come at the expense of the rest of the press no longer having a place to do their work in peace or leave coats and bags while they were patrolling the event talking to people for this event.

Another issue comes in the fact that some of the hosted content was placed in three large tents. This in itself was well done for the most part, just could have been signposted a tiny bit better. There’s also the fact that the indie game developers’ area was taken out of the expo area where it’d been for the last few events and placed at the end of one of the tents, beyond the rows of machines set up with bunches of retro games. This did lead to a few traffic jams in those aisles as people played the games, people built up behind those people to watch and then you had people going back and forth behind those people. There was an exit on that side of the tent but it led to the main stage of the main tent and the only time I tried to go through it I was told I wasn’t allowed to go that way. I did also hear there was a concern about the security of electronics being left in the tent overnight with at least two of the developers I know taking their demo desktops back to their hotel rooms with them each night because they were that uncertain.

However the event itself seemed to proceed without much of a hitch. The special guests weren’t too badly mobbed although I did once get caught up in the middle of a crowd of children travelling to one of the impromptu signings their heroes were doing and it was alarming to see how many people there were there for the signatures and the chance to catch a glimpse of their favourite video personalities. There were two main signing areas for the two big Youtuber groups attending and both seemed to be flowing quite quickly, even though I know that one of the groups were also taking time to have conversations with those fans and others that they recognised.

The LAN halls were packed at all hours, and the time I spent in one watching my friend play Hearthstone on the computer was a welcome break from my press work. Security on the doors there was tight as it should be with a room full of expensive custom build computers, with myself, with the ‘wrong’ wristband, only being allowed in with my friends who had the right wristband. It was also tight on both the north and south exits to the venue with wristbands being given upon registering your ticket for the event at the gate and being checked every time after to be sure you were allowed in. Stickers were given out for those bringing their own machines to stick to them to be sure that the right people were taking the right machines. The general security is always something that has impressed me about Insomnia and I’m glad to see that it was mostly up to the same high standard as always.

The expo hall was as showy and wonderful as always, despite the lack of the familiar little indie zone within it. The big computer customisers always show up and give out little freebies and leaflets. EBuyer was there this time and I got a nice big goody bag off them, along with several packets of mini Haribo bags which are always a bonus for me. This time the retailers were also set up in the corridor outside too, but it seemed that this wasn’t too big of an issue for anyone and no big crowds hindered the movement as people gathered at stalls to buy hats and bags. There was also a small stage at one end of the expo hall where panels such as indie game demos, Youtuber Q and As and other things were taking place throughout the day with a seating area set up.

All in all I did really enjoy Insomnia 55 and the events do get better each time, and if you’re going for a day or with your kids or to just hang out with your friends at a big LAN party – Insomnia is for you. Just this one was marred slightly for me by a number of small things that can all be explained by the fact that the venue is a football ground that the team has recently returned to. There were areas of the venue once open that Multiplay can no longer use and quite simply the event has now outgrown the venue.

Good thing from Insomnia 56 it’s moving to the NEC in Birmingham, England. I can’t wait to see how much better the change of venue could make this event.

The Rockstar Editor was one of those editions to the game of GTA V with the PC release and one I was most interested in. I need to just find the time to play the game…

However, the Rockstar Editor has been supplemented with player-made mods since it released, mainly because it didn’t do everything that people needed it to (although people were still able to make great videos without modding the Editor). Rockstar seem to be paying attention because they’ve decided to upgrade the tools available in the upcoming months to make the video creation even better, along with porting Rockstar Editor to the console versions as well.

Here’s the list of changes coming:

• Ambient Audio and Sound Effects Library: Add ambient and atmospheric sound design with a library of audio tracks to help bring your scenes to life or add sound effects from a collection of Foley and other sfx.
• Snapmatic Integration: Now you can export any still frame at a marker point straight to Snapmatic, giving you ultimate freedom when searching for that perfect camera angle.
• Director Mode Updates: An enlarged minimap with location blips to highlight preset locations, the power to freeze chosen time of day settings and the ability to spawn air and water vehicles.
• Copy and Paste Marker Properties: Easily copy and paste your audio settings from any marker to another marker in the clip – adding invaluable efficiency to your go-to editing techniques.
• New Fonts: You’ll now have more style options than ever for your titles and credits — we’re tripling the library of available fonts with new styles.

Are you excited for these changes?

I hope you’ve got some time on your hand Destiny fans, because this video is packed full of some 55 minutes dedicated to nothing but unveiling what’s ahead for Year Two of Destiny and it’s The Taken King update.

Bungie has been kind of cagey when it comes to giving details about their future plans for Destiny, but now it’s all going to come pouring out. Grab some popcorn, or hell, run some dailies, and check out everything you want to know about Destiny Year Two.

So here it is, let us know what you think in the comments below!

A new patch for The Witcher 3 is here, and it fixes a bunch of bugs including a lot of quest bugs.

1.08 stops some quests from being uncompleteable by having certain things happen (such as an NPC dying or the player leaving an area too soon), implements groundworks for the New Game+ that’s coming and oddly stops decapitated heads from vanishing once they’ve been separated from bodies. Who knew that was a feature players asked for to be fixed?

It also provides a sort of fix for an issue that was introduced with the 1.07 patch, which saw requirements for some level-dependent gear ramped up rendering some player’s equipment useless. CD Projekt are giving all players one ‘Wolven Hour’ potion, which will lower the requirements down again for a temporary period so players can level up to the point they can use the gear again or else not have such a difficult time finding new, lower level gear to wear.

 

Full Patch notes:

PERFORMANCE:

• Overall improvements to performance, including some issues that may have been caused by 1.07.

UI:

• [Japanese Only][PS4 Only] Fixes an issue where the background text of certain books would flicker.
• Fixes an issue where part of the Kaer Morhen map would not display properly.

GAMEPLAY:

• Fixes a rare issue where items would disappear from the stash.
• Fixes a very rare issue which would cause Geralt to get stuck when trying to run.
• The interaction pop-up will no longer appear on lootable objects that are empty.
• Fixes an occasional glitch in one of the dwarf combat animations.
• Heads chopped off during finishers will no longer disappear.
• “Players can perform a roll just before landing to significantly reduce the damage caused by falling.
• We’ve added a tutorial pop-up window explaining this to make it clearer.”
• In patch 1.07, the level requirements for certain items were scaled up, leaving some players stuck with only unusable gear. With patch 1.08, we are introducing the Wolven Hour potion. This potion will be available in everyone’s inventory once they install the patch. It will reduce level requirements on all gear for a period of one hour. This will give players time to level up or find alternative equipment using the gear that was available to them in patch 1.05 but became unusable after patch 1.07. After one hour, the potion’s effects will cease and the requirements for all gear will revert to their original, pre-potion values.
• Fixes an issue where players were unable to compare their items with ones sold by merchants.

ACHIEVEMENTS:

• Players will now be able to complete the Card Collector achievement.
• Achievements are now working properly again and will be unlocked if players meet their requirements after installing this patch (PC version).

GRAPHICS:

• Fixes an issue where interiors would sometimes not display properly on the minimap.
• Fixes an issue where certain world elements would sometimes be missing and noticeable visual glitches would be present while in Novigrad.

QUEST:

• Fixes an issue where players were unable to finish the “It Takes Three to Tango” quest, even though they had obtained wine at the Kingfisher.
• Fixes an issue where Geralt would sometimes die after traveling to Velen in the quest “Something Ends, Something Begins.”
• The entrance to the area where the Sunstone is obtained will no longer be blocked off if the player exits it prematurely during “The Sunstone” quest.
• Fixes an issue where players were unable to complete the “Get Junior” quest on certain occasions.
• Fixes an issue where players were unable to finish the “Scavenger Hunt: Viper School Gear” quest due to a closed gate.
• Fixes an issue where some players were unable to investigate rooms during the “Family Matters” quest, effectively blocking their progression.
• Fixes an issue where players were unable to finish the “Hey, You Wanna Look at my Stuff?” quest.
• Fixes an issue where players were unable to talk to Roche during the “An Eye for an Eye” quest.
• Fixes an issue where Roche would stay at his camp instead of going to the Oxenfurt Bridge in the “Get Junior” quest.
• Fixes an issue where, under certain circumstances, Yennefer would not appear in Oxenfurt during the “The Great Escape” quest.
• Drowners will have a harder time killing Nidas during the “Black Pearl” quest.
• Fixes an issue which led to an infinite loading screen during the “To Bait a Forktail…” quest under certain circumstances.
• Fixes a rare issue where the basement was locked during the “King’s Gambit” quest.
• Fixes an issue where players were unable to free the merchant during the Person in Distress event in the Claywich area.
• The trolls at the Circle of Elements will no longer attack Geralt if he opts for a peaceful resolution.
• Fixes an issue where players were unable to talk to Roche during the “Brothers in Arms” quest.
• Fixes an issue where Zoltan’s card was unobtainable.

GENERAL:

• Preparatory features paving the way for the introduction of New Game + in the future.

HiRez Studios has been hard at work this year. New gods, map redesigns and balance changes have made the pace of change in SMITE seem fast and frenetic. And now, the studio has revealed that Joust, the popular 3v3 laning mode is getting an overhaul as well. Drawing inspiration from the Chinese legend of Sun Wukong and the sky palace, the map will be reowrked in a chinese motif. Check it out below!