May 20

Call of Duty® - mfrost

Vikhor “Stitch” Kuzmin has escaped captivity once more, but this time he’s been extricated from maximum security detention by his nemesis, Russell Adler, the same operative who imprisoned him in an Icelandic CIA black site prison in the first place.

These two share a deep history to their rivalry—one they’ll have to leave behind them if they hope to accomplish the mission ahead.

[[CINEMATIC VIDEO]]

Prepare to deploy as Stitch when he rejoins the fight as part of the Season 04 Battle Pass coming to Call of Duty®: Black Ops 6 and Call of Duty: Warzone™.

If you’re new to his story, read on for the main events leading up to this dramatic twist in the search for the Pantheon moles, before returning tomorrow, May 21, for the full Season 04 Announcement Blog, Roadmap, and Gameplay Trailer.

Rebirth R&D: Nova 6 Production

Scanning intelligence reports, it appears to have started on Rebirth Island, where Stitch was placed in charge of production of the chemical gas Nova 6 in the 1960s. Growing up in the Soviet Union, Stitch was recruited by the KGB after graduating top in his class studying organic substances and pharmaceutical chemistry. Once he proved his skills working within the Laboratory 12 R&D facility, Stitch found himself reporting directly to the villainous Colonel Kravchenko for his new assignment on Rebirth Island.

Originally developed by German scientist Friedrich Steiner for use against his country’s enemies in World War II, Nova 6 was seized by those within Stitch’s sphere of influence after thwarting a planned attack. Picking up where Steiner left off, Stitch pushed the island’s facilities to produce countless barrels of the gas, creating a large stockpile of the chemical weapon.

The Eyes Have It: Raid on Rebirth Island

Stitch worked for three years producing Nova 6 until his plans were foiled when the CIA uncovered the truth about Rebirth Island’s facilities in 1968. Led by Grigori Weaver and Jason Hudson, the CIA conducted a successful, but costly raid on the island.

Despite Steiner getting assassinated in the conflict, Adler was able to capture and interrogate Stitch. His efforts proved unsuccessful, however, when Stitch refused to give up more than his name and rank. Eager to send a message, an angered Russell Adler gouged out Stitch’s left eye, cementing their intense rivalry.

A Trip to the Gulag

Returning to his homeland, Stitch was found guilty of dereliction of duty for failing to stop the American raid on Rebirth Island. Kravchenko stripped him of his rank and sent him to the Petropavlovsk Gulag, where he left the name Vikhor Kuzmin behind and emerged as Stitch.

During his captivity, Stitch stewed in his hatred for the West and even his own country, which abandoned him, and his intense desire for vengeance was used to turn him into an agent of Perseus. Then the chance to exact his desires finally came when a deadly attack on the gulag left Stitch MIA.

Setting the Trap

His expertise in the production of Nova 6 and the power it offered was not lost, as it was later discovered Perseus agents were responsible for breaking Stitch free from his imprisonment—members of an international spy ring composed of rogue military operators under the leadership of a mysterious figure. It wasn’t long before the original “Perseus” died, and his protégé Stitch took command of the group, before finally turning his attention to an old foe.

Dropping clues to Adler regarding his return to the fight, Stitch lured the agent to a mall in New Jersey where Nova 6 was secretly being manufactured and stockpiled. He ambushed the agents on site and captured Adler. In a daring scheme to incriminate his old foe, Stitch tried brainwashing Adler using MKUltra techniques while setting his sights on Verdansk.

“Adler… You Took Your Time.”

Adler was able to escape and dismantled Stitch’s operation in Verdansk by detonating explosives beneath the city. After being brought in and deprogrammed by Jason Hudson and Alex Mason in the 11th hour, Adler and the team tracked down his nemesis in the mountainous Kastovian terrain and prepared to end their conflict once and for all.

After an intense stand-off, where Stitch revealed the true origins of Perseus, Adler spared his adversary from execution after realizing he would be of more use alive. Instead, he had Stitch incarcerated at a remote black site prison, off the grid and deep inside the Icelandic interior, tucking him away for a day when Adler might need his particular talents.

And now that day has come. A deal with the devil has been made, as Adler needs Stitch’s help to crack the codenames needed to identify and capture the Pantheon moles.

First Look: Deploy as Stitch, Available in the Season 04 Battle Pass

Control the next step in the villain’s journey as Stitch arrives in the Season 04 Battle Pass for Black Ops 6 and Call of Duty: Warzone.

Purchase the Battle Pass to instantly unlock the “Supermax” Operator Skin for Stitch. Still in his prison clothes, he deploys in his signature mask ready to join the battle. Other rewards earned in the Battle Pass Instant Rewards Page include a 10% Battle Pass XP boost, a Legendary Emote, Weapon Blueprint, a Large Decal, and up to 1,100 COD Points.

Upgrade to BlackCell to additionally unlock the “Supermax BlackCell” Operator Skin variant. In this version, chains drape over the villain’s body, his sinister stare looking out from under a black hood, energy pulsing under translucent skin.

Ramp up the lethality even further with his “Yard Dog” and “Yard Dog BlackCell” Operator Skins unlocked in the Battle Pass Completion Page. In this look, his mask bears a terrible grin.

To really dig into the rivalry, don’t miss Adler’s “Truth Chaser” and “Truth Chaser BlackCell” Operator Skins on Page 12 of the Battle Pass, a look that twists the events of what happened during their fateful meeting on Rebirth Island.

Grab the Battle Pass when Season 04 launches in Black Ops 6 and Call of Duty: Warzone and get Stitch back into the field.

Expect the full Season 04 Announcement and Roadmap on May 21.

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For more information, please visit http://www.callofduty.com/ and http://www.youtube.com/callofduty, and follow @Activision and @CallofDuty on X (formerly Twitter), Instagram, and Facebook. For Call of Duty Updates, follow @CODUpdates on X (formerly Twitter).

May 20

Simulating Crisis: When Games Mirror Current Events

Mr. President - georgia girl

In the real world, India and Pakistan had a sequence of violent confrontations. There’s still a lot we don’t know about those events: the casualties and air kills, the course of the mediation and the degree of U.S. involvement in bringing about the current ceasefire, etc. In Mr. President, part of the fun for players is in imagining the narrative of such rapid and dramatic events when they occur in the game.

The most obvious model for the real-world conflict this month is Crisis card #90, “Violence in Kashmir Escalates.” It’s a sharp event, and not a Cascading Event, that adds tension to the map and also boosts the India/Pakistan Conflict Track by one box:

Conflict Tracks are how Mr. President models the closeness of serious armed conflict between plausible adversaries in 2000-2020, and who will start with a military advantage. There are ten of them, and India appears on two (India/Pakistan and India/China). The Status column is a 1-5 scale; if the marker moves to 5, war breaks out. For two of the tracks - China/Japan and Russia/NATO, if this happens, the game is over. For the rest, the war system is used, with an immediate War Progress check and then more such checks as long as the war is going on. The Relative Strength column is a bonus that one side or the other gets added to its base strength when the war begins.

Going back to the Kashmir Crisis card, we can see that the card immediately escalates this conflict track by one box, and adds tension to both India and China (with India engaged, China has two reasons to escalate its own actions - India’s distraction, and the danger posed to Pakistan, with whom China has been building a strategic and economic partnership during this period). It’s unlikely this card by itself will start a war, unless mediation fails. Note that the player has the option to bow out of mediation by declining to spend two Action Points - but even if they do, and cooler heads prevail, they’ll still reap some political benefits).

So this card all by itself has a few different narrative possibilities - and the card doesn’t specifically describe the violence. The player can use their imagination to fill in those specifics, as well as what happened in the ensuing clash. And whether or not the Conflict track was pushed to 5 would influence the story quite a bit! But what if the player had previously drawn this card as well?

Now the Kashmir violence could be imagined as a purely military retaliation, or a spark ignited from the heightened tensions generated by this border skirmish. The Regional Crisis increase seems like an afterthought, but a Regional Major Crisis could add more fuel to this fire, in the form of additional, or leveled-up, Terror Groups, refugee crises, or Stability penalties.

And what about all those tensions markers that are getting added by these cards? Well, if you don’t tamp that down, India is much more likely to get a high result on their Unilateral Action table - which will occur during their Ally Group activation.

See that 13+ result? And the fact that this d10 roll gets +1 to its final result per Tension value on India? Now it’s easy to see how what seems like a calm Conflict track, sitting at 2, can rocket up to 5 - and war - when the key events and actions happen in a fateful order. But if the order is changed, the scene changes, and so does the story in the player’s head.

James Dunnigan referred to historical tabletop wargames as “paper time machines.” But Mr. President is also a story-making machine. Each playthrough will prompt the player to envision new ways the movement of the pieces, the results of the table rolls, and the draw of the cards might have manifested as real life events. We hope you’ll have many hours of fun writing the story of your own presidency in digital Mr. President!

May 20

Weekly report for MonGirl Conquest v0.5

MonGirl Conquest - Byaka games

Hello!

Artists started working on their tasks. We plan to add a new girl, young snow owl and 2 new H scenes in the upcoming v0.5 update. One for the new girl and another one for snow wolf mommy.

The main artist is on her break for the current month, but we are planning to add a new activity for mongirl interaction once she returns. While we are still thinking about the details, the main idea is to add mini-stories to seduced girls. The main idea at the moment is a small story arc with a quest or a puzzle ending with something special. There’s a possibility that with Eve’s help, this special something could be a striptease scene or a minigame. Based on the support and workload, we’ll see how the “pilot” try will go and gather feedback before proceeding with this idea.

This time, I decided to focus on the main quest first. Yoshi helped a lot to establish the contact with the snow tribe, but there’s always something not going according to the plan. What will it be this time? Check out yourself once the update will roll out!

Don’t forget to participate in the feedback poll. As I previously mentioned in earlier reports, we are gathering feedback for the new seduction event. The results will show us if there’s a sense in pursuing the new version of the seduction minigame over the current one. I’ll make a separate info post with the results once the poll will end.

Fixed snow hare’s sprite. Now it doesn’t have a part of her hood on her less clothed variation.

As always, if you don’t like something about the game – tell me, and if you like it – tell your friends ^^

May 20

Age of Mythology: Retold Update 18.27100

Age of Mythology: Retold - Lady Eridani

Welcome heroes to another exciting update for Age of Mythology: Retold with brand new AI Personalities, more balance updates, PlayStation 5 performance fixes, and plenty of new features! So take a peek at the notes before jumping in game!

This is just a small taste of what is coming in the latest update. For a more complete list, please visit our site and check out our blog. Happy Gaming!

💬 DISCUSS: Age of Mythology: Retold Forum
💬DISCUSS: Age of Mythology: Retold Steam Forum
🗣 JOIN: The Age of Empires Official Discord

Thanks again to our amazing community members, all of whom have helped to make Age of Mythology: Retold a success thus far!

—The Age of Mythology Team

◆ Update 18.27100 ◆

AI Personalities

AI Personalities Selection and Difficulty Level

AI personalities have always been part of Age of Mythology as a way to adjust AI behavior alongside the traditional difficulty modifier. This patch revamps and improves many of the features related to AI personalities to empower players to enjoy the game experience in their own ways!

This feature lets players create custom thematic battles tailored to their playstyle. Team up with two Defenders to hold the line while you go on the offensive against three enemy Overwhelmers, or join forces with two Conquerors to take down four enemy Economists before their economy takes off. Mix and match difficulty levels, personalities, maps, player counts, and teams for endless strategic possibilities and fun!

[h4]7 New personality options to choose from![/h4]
Conqueror[expand type=details]No unclaimed Settlement is safe for a personality with such an expansionist mindset:
Can claim more Settlements on Standard/Moderate/Hard than the other personalities.
Aims to claim Settlements faster than other personalities.
Attacks less frequently.
Expands the number of buildings within its bases quickly to maintain control of its base
[/expand]
Overwhelmer[expand type=details]Don't expect small forces from this personality, it's go big or go home:
Only attacks if it has built up a large army.
Prioritizes ally defense more often than other personalities.
Prioritizes upgrades that improve military units.
[/expand]
Supporter[expand type=details]The eyes of this personality are always fixed on its allies, to see how it can help them:
Periodically sends resource tributes to allies, with a priority for human allies.
More inclined to accept tribute requests.
Prioritizes the defense of allied players.
Attacks less frequently.
[/expand]
Passive[expand type=details]You don't have much to fear from this personality in your own base, but it will defend itself:
Does not attack unless a human ally uses the correct taunt: number 15.
Prioritizes the defense of allied players.
Avoids claiming Settlements near enemy territory.
[/expand]
Economist[expand type=details]Wars are won or lost on logistics, that's what this personality strongly believes:
Builds Village Centers.
Ages up faster than other personalities.
Claims Settlements quickly to maintain economic advantage.
Only attacks after building up a large force.
More inclined to accept tribute requests.
Prioritizes upgrades that improve economic units.
[/expand]
Mythical[expand type=details]The power of fell beasts is what will bring this personality victory:
Prioritizes building more myth units.
Faster than other personalities at producing a Titan and Wonder.
[/expand]
Humanoid[expand type=details]It's just like playing Age of Empires! This personality only loves human and siege units!
Builds no myth units or heroes, focuses solely on human and siege units.
Casts no god powers.
Deletes any myth units it receives.
Doesn’t research upgrades that cost favor.
Doesn’t build a Wonder.
[/expand]
[h4]Other Changes as part of the AI Personalities feature include: [/h4]
The “Standard” personality has been renamed “Balanced” to better reflect its gameplay style. Additionally, the change was to avoid confusion between the shared names for both personalities and difficulty levels.
A new “Random” personality option has been added for those who want a surprise during gameplay!
Lobby screen overhaul to neatly display all the personality and difficulty options. This includes 6 new icons to visualize difficulty levels.
A new option, “No AI personality,” allows you to effectively remove an AI from the game. Great for practicing build orders in peace!

Photo Mode on Xbox and PlayStation 5

Accessing Photo Mode from the Pause Screen
All players will now have access to Photo Mode! This feature was previously made available for PC players and we have been working to ensure the experience works as expected on consoles!
To access Photo Mode, use the Pause menu in singleplayer games!
Settings and Hotkeys are available to control how you experience Photo Mode.
Share your epic moments captured as screenshots to share with the community!
We have enjoyed seeing all the amazing screenshots in Photo Mode since the feature launched on PC and look forward to seeing more now that the feature is available to all players!

Super cool controls on console

New Loading Screen Tips

New loading screen tips have been added to help players learn about playing Age of Mythology: Retold.
New interface changes for the loading screen have been made to improve tip visibility.
Tips are now visible on more loading screens, including the campaign loading screens.
Some loading screen tips will only show in specific situations. For example, if you are playing as a Greek Major God, the tip may be a specific tip related to playing as the Greeks.

Fall of the Trident Campaign Quality of Life and Difficulty Adjustments
Now is a great time to play the Fall of the Trident campaign again!
Some quality of life tweaks are coming to the campaign, primarily for moderate difficulty and below.
Examples of changes include:

New worldspace prompts to improve awareness of game dynamics.
Minor adjustments to some parameters to better align with expectations for a standard and moderate difficulty experience.
Minor improvements to streamline the experience for newer players, including improved visibility around starting areas.
Missions where changes have been made:

Fall of the Trident 04: A Fine Plan
Fall of the Trident 06: I Hope This Works
Fall of the Trident 12: Light Sleeper
Fall of the Trident 30: All Is Not Lost
Fall of the Trident 32: A Place In My Dreams
If you have not started the Fall of the Trident campaign, stopped somewhere along the way, or want to start it all over again, now is a great time to try!

In-Game News
A new news feature has been added to the game!
Important updates can now be shared through the in-game news to alert players to new patches or direct players to other information that may be helpful!
Look for the red dot next to your player dropdown on the main menu to find new in-game news.

This is just a small taste of what is coming in the latest update. For a more complete list, please visit our site and check out our blog. Happy Gaming!

:alertalert: DISCLAIMER
This list is subject to change and should not be considered a comprehensive list of all the known issues we’re tracking. The above is to inform you of the team’s current priorities, which will change as other issues arise or take precedence.

For the latest updates and announcements, please visit our social channels.

May 20

📰 Pixelia News Presents: What’s Inside [v1.0.16] ? 👀

To Pixelia - Kaan5

Dear, Pixelians! 👋

We’re here with our routine essential bug fixes and tweaks based on your feedback. 🧰

When we first launched, there was a lengthy list of bugs to address, but we’re making steady progress, and the occurrence of new bugs is dropping considerably.

This means we’ll soon be able to concentrate more on expanding content, introducing new features, and enhancing the mini-games and bringing more quality of life updates.

We appreciate all the feedback you share with us and take it seriously. 💖

✅ Fixed Bugs

The "Read Newspaper" task now completes as intended.
The issue where players would be knocked off their bike when changing screens has been fixed.
A bug that caused concerts to repeat infinitely after reloading the game has been fixed.
An issue causing players to not appear during certain concerts has been addressed.
Your character no longer stands up immediately after being knocked down for the first time in the round during boxing matches.
Advancing to a new Boxing tier no longer causes interaction issues with Joseph.
Players are now limited to placing only one Checkout Counter and one Work Station in their store, since only one Cashier and one Barista/Chef can be hired. Adding a second of these was causing unexpected issues.
The Furnishing menu is now disabled while your store is actively operating.
Douglas' safe has been assigned a proper password, no more mysterious access issues. 👀

🚧 Some Known Issues We're Working On For Upcoming Updates:

TVs sometimes vanish in certain NPC homes.
Dialogues could get stuck when speaking to clients for jobs accepted via phone.
Occasional soft locks occurred during kissing.
Players being unable to travel to Pixenville despite meeting all the criteria.
Receiving a phone call while riding the bus gets you stuck.
Being sent to incorrect job locations.
Bug with changing the color of bike at Mechanic Store.

- We’re aware of the problem that gets save files corrupted due to crashes occurring during auto-save. To address this, we plan to implement backup save files to ensure your progress is securely protected against such problems.

🎯 Gameplay Tweaks

You can now tow your vehicle back to your garage if you’re in the same district where it’s located. This feature is especially helpful if your vehicle ended up in an inaccessible spot due to previous bugs.
The points you earn from boxing victories have been increased by 40%.
Cocoa Powder, Mushrooms, Red Mushrooms, and Salmon are now available in markets throughout Pixelia.

Thank you for your continued support and patience as we work to improve your experience. 🛠

Your feedback plays a vital role in shaping Pixelia's future and we are reading each one of them that you post in our forums or in our Discord. No suggestion goes unnoticed, so don’t hesitate to keep sharing your thoughts and ideas! 💖

To Pixelia | Bug Reports

To Pixelia | Suggestions

Feel free to post your suggestions & bug reports in our Discord as well. 🙌