Hello everyone. I recently platinummed the PSVITA version of Sly Cooper 4: Thieves in Time as my 28th platinum. It only took me 10 years, 4 weeks, 22 hours to do it. Did you know this game hides its true ending behind the platinum?
Anyway, I'd like to talk about the experience.
Sly 4 was a bit confusing and inconsistent to platinum. I get the feeling the game wants you to platinum it given how on every loading screen it shows you how much you've completed the trophies and collectibles for the game. And that there no missable trophies. But there are some decisions that don't help with that.
So I'd say there are around 3 groups of Trophies in this game.
The first group are the mandatory story trophies. Not much to say about these. There's nothing missable here and the names are quite cool. I do like looking at the percent completion to see how many players completed the PS VITA version of the game. Did you know that around 73% of players booted this game up and completed the prologue? And only around 25% of players even beat the game. The biggest drop happened around the start of Episode 2 since the completion dropped from around 60%to 48% for some reason.
The second group are the trophies for the collectibles and arcades. I'll talk about these later.
The third and final group of trophies are for miscellaneous challenges. I'll start with these first and highlight some of the notable ones that I missed on my first playthrough.
"Crazed Climber - Scale the dragon lair in under 90 seconds". This was one I missed during my original playthrough of the game. This requires you to climb a giant tower filled with traps in the mission "Mechanical Menace". And this one was really fun even though it took me like 3 attempts. Sly 4's movement and platforming is quite fun so having a mini speedrun challenge using Sir Galleth's moveset was a treat. The one criticism I have here is that the game drops a checkpoint as soon as you get to the top. If you haven't gotten the trophy by then and need to retry, you need to quit to the main menu/hideout and reselect the mission, skip through all the cutscenes and get back there which gets annoying. At least the tower is near the start of the mission.
"Ancient Warfare 3 - Crackshot 10 enemies within 65 seconds. Sly's ancestor, Tennessee "Kid" Cooper" has an ability similar to "Dead Eye" from Red Dead Redemption where he can slow down time, mark enemies and objects and then instantly shoot them dead called "Crackshot". I never got this trophy when I first played the game because there wasn't much opportunity to. There aren't large groups of enemies wandering around that you can casually get 10+ of them line up for you to shoot them. Plus, I was already good at shooting them normally. I tried running around in the open world trying to lure enemies but found it wasn't working. There's a mission in the game called "Blind Date" that throws lots of rabbit enemies that chuck TNT at you that worked better for me.
"Hubba Hubba - Don't miss a beat in the Carmelita dance game." This trophy is, without a doubt, the main reason to platinum this game on VITA instead of the PS3. So nobody can see you play this dumb minigame and call you a Furry. This trophy requires you to complete the minigame where Carmilita needs to disguise herself as a belly dancer and dance to distract guards while the Cooper gang try and open a door. You just need to hit the button prompts perfectly. So you can ignore the times the minigame asks you to shake the VITA from side to side like a champagne bottle to make Carmilita shake her ass (seriously, why does this game sexualize Carmilita so much? None of the past Sly games did it).
"Get To the Chopper - Don't take any damage during Up In Smoke." This one was actually fun. In the mission "Up in Smoke", you have to control an RC Helicopter and drop bombs on turrents while drones and mines chase you down. It was fun dodging and weaving through them. There are 3 phases to this mission and you have a checkpoint in between every phase. So if you mess up, you can just restart the checkpoint to the last phase. You don't need to avoid taking damage the whole way through which is nice.
"Unexpected Package - Place 60 bombs in enemy pockets with Bentley." When I first saw this trophy, I groaned. This would be a massive grind. And I had actually made it harder on myself. You see, normally, when you sneak up behind an enemy as Bentley and hold triangle, Bentley will try to put a bomb in the enemy's pocket. Larger enemies won't notice this but smaller enemies will. But the main issue is that I had previously unlocked the Heat Seeking upgrade for Bentley. Meaning sometimes, the bombs would "miss" and stick to an enemy guard's arms or legs instead. So it was annoying going around the hub world and planting bombs on guards.....until I remembered that I had purchased the upgrade for sleep bombs. My plan now was just to find a lone guard on a rooftop, try and place one sleep bomb into his back pocket and detonate it. He'd then fall asleep. Then I'd go to his sleeping body and try placing 5 sleeping bombs in his pocket and back away (the max you can place at any one time). When he wakes him, I'd detonate all 5 which set him to sleep and then repeat. Even if I'd "miss" a few bombs that would stick to their legs instead, I generally 3 or 4 bombs work perfectly. So it didn't take long to get all 60.
"Apollo Wins - Have the perfect workout during the Training Montage." During the mission "Getting Stronger", you have to do a training montage with Bob where you alternate through 6 minigames as you complete them with the minigames getting harder as you complete them. The trophy requires you to complete 10 randomly selected minigames without making a single mistake. If you mess up, you can restart the checkpoint to the beginning of the montage and have to play through a new set of 10 randomly selected minigames. The Minigames are "Slippery Slope" where you balance an egg on a beam using motion controls while penguins jump around on the floating iceberg you are standing on. "Penguin Popper" where Penguins are diving in front of you and you have to play baseball using them. "Sumo Slap" where you have to perform QTEs to push a giant penguin out of a Sumo Ring. "Duck and Cover" where penguins get launched at you from 4 different directions and you have to move the left stick to dodge them. "Super Sling" which requires you to use a catapult to launch a penguin at a flying pterodactyl. And "Whack a chump" which is Whack a Mole but with penguins. Some of which are fake and you should avoid.
Penguin Popper was easy. Once you get the timing down it's easy to get into a rhythm and hit the penguins since they don't vary when they dive. Whenever this popped into the rotation, I considered it a freebie. Sumo Slap was extremly easy. The button mashing was extremely generous. This was another freebie. Duck and Cover requires a bit more focus because of the timing and inconsistent patterns. It's not too challenging. Interestingly, I noticed that the VITA's speakers would reflect if the penguin was coming from the right or left but not above or below you. I guess headphones would make this easier but I had no need for it. I was generally glad when this popped up in the rotation. Whack a Chump was a bit harder than Penguin Popper because there is no set pattern and the additional challenge of not hitting the fake penguins. But it wasn't too bad. I was glad when this popped up in the rotation.
Super Sling and Slippery Slope were the 2 I dreaded and the ones I messed up the most on. Super Sling doesn't give you much indication of where your sling will go. The Pterodactyls have varied speeds so you can't rely on pattern recolonization and reactions. And there's time pressure as taking too long counts as a miss. And it kept popping up in the rotations for some reason!
Slippery Slope was stressful because of the motion controls and how wild later versions of it were.
"The Cooper Open - Have a 20 hit rally with Bentley in each hideout." There are 6 hideouts in the game. In each hideout there is a table tennis table where you as Sly can play a round of table tennis with Bentley. I question the inclusion of it but I suppose it can be a nice distraction. This trophy requires you get a sequences where both you and Bentley hit the ball back and forth 10 times each (or 20 times overall) without missing. And repeat for each of the 6 tables. I found Bentley kept messing up so I had to intentionally hold back and avoid making good shots and try and hit the ball towards him. The main issue is the fact you have to repeat it 6 times. I feel it would be better off just once and as nothing is really added by doing it 6 times. If anything, it's more annoying given the long load times to switch hideouts and Bentley's random AI.
"Hassan Would Be Proud - Pickpocket a full collection of every item in the game." Each of the 6 or so locations have around 3-4 items that can be pickpocketted from guards. The main issue with this trophy is that it doesn't keep track of which items you have already pickpocketed in any way. The game already tracks how many treasures and masks you've found per general area but not pickpocketted items.
I only got this trophy by planning on systematically going through every location in the game and pickpocketting every enemy item and noting down which ones I found.....only to get it in the first level when I used Murray's shake move on some rat enemies. Enemies that you never encounter or have a reason or opportunity to naturally pickpocket. I guess 2013 me had already gotten 99% of these items previously.
"Navigate Like Drake - Take a look at every map in every episode". I found this trophy really annoying. The way it works is that every location in the game, including linear interiors that are exclusive to missions and even the hideouts, have a map you can look at by pressing SELECT. The game doesn't keep track of which locations you've seen the map of. So I had to systamatically play the game from the first mission and press SELECT whenever I entered a new interior. Then quit out and play the next mission and repeat. It popped for me in Episode 4 so somehow, 2013 me had looked at all the maps in Episode 5 without realizing it.
I don't like this trophy. It doesn't really add anything. The player would already be looking at the maps in the hub worlds where they would be at their most useful since those are open world sections. They have no real reason to use the map in linear interiors. And even less useful in hideouts as these aren't even explorable. They are basically just menus that happen to have a 3D background. I'd be more forgiving of this trophy if the map showed collectibles at least. That way, players have more of a reason to use this feature.
Shout out to the Lazy Trunk Spa & Lounge. A secret area in the game that contains a mask collectible and counts for the trophy with a unique map. No mission ever goes here. So even if you were to play diligently and open the map for every area you encounter, you'd still miss this. I only knew this existed because the trophy guide I looked at told me about it so I decided to tag this area while doing the "Get to the Chopper" trophy.
"Hero Tech - Battle with a secret weapon" Once you collect 50 Sly masks. You unlock Ratchet's wrench from Ratchet and Clank. This weapon even turns the coins you collect into bolts. Collecting 60 Masks unlocks Cole's Amp from inFAMOUS. This can electrocute the enemies you hit. I chose to use Cole's Amp to get the trophy as a tribute to inFAMOUS. Killed by Ghost of Tsumia 😭. May it rest in peace. Gone too soon.
That covers all the miscellaneous trophies. Now for the collectibles and arcades.
Sly 4 has a bunch of different collectibles scattered in each of its 6 episodes.
Bottles: Each hub world contains 30 bottles. Collecting all of them gives you access to unlock a safe hidden somewhere in the hub world. Unlocking that safe rewards you a special treasure. Bottles make a "clinking" sound when you're near them so if you're having a hard time finding them, try going into the game's settings and turning down the music and voice sounds. If you find the safe in Episode 3, the special treasure it gives you will highlight bottles and safes in every other episode on your map which is quite nice. I wish the game did this more often. If it hides collectibles from the player, at least give the player an endgame ability to highlight them. It makes it more feasible and fun to complete these tasks instead of combing every last inch (or looking up a guide).
Treasures: Each hub world has around 11 treasures scattered all around. The gimmick here is that in order to collect them, you first need to find where they are in the hub world. Then once you pick them, you need to race back to your hideout under a certain time limit and without taking any damage. If you mess up, you need to repeat the process. The treasures generally require you to have all of Sly's costumes. And a couple require you to be playing as Sir Galleth because England has increased gravity for some reason. Some of these treasures are really well hidden. Requiring you to go to these holes in the middle of nowhere which then require you to switch between some of Sly's costumes. Like, if you open the map when picking some of these up, you'll find Sly is located beyond the borders of the area.
I found it way more fun to race back to the hideout than actually finding them. It was tedious to find many of them because of how well hidden they are. There is no tool or item in the game that can help mark them on your map. Well, I say that. Supposedly, if you have both the PS3 and VITA versions of the game and play them at the same time, you can use the VITA like a scannebinoculars to locate these treasures. And then use the Cross Save feature to nab them in both versions. I only have the VITA version so no luck for me. Again, I'd argue it would be better if there was an endgame upgrade or tool you could get that would mark the treasures like how the game does it for bottles. There isn't even a "clinking sound" or any help for these.
Anyway, collecting all the treasures for an episode unlocks the arcade machine minigame for that episode.
Also sidenote, but this game has the worst map screen that still somehow can be useful. The map gives a top down view of the area but with a blue filter. This makes it harder and more annoying to navigate and use landmarks for reference. Especially on the VITA with its smaller screen. There are also no icons on the map (aside from bottles, safes and objectives) or the ability to make your own markers. The VITA version makes it worse as you can't even use the buttons to navigate the map. You have to use the touchscreen even though that's not how it is in the PS3 version. But you can still use it to know where you are and where collectibles can be from guides. It's technically readable and useful but just barely. I've never seen a map in a game so perfectly walk the line between useful and annoying.
The next collectible are Sly Masks. There are 60 total and around 11 per Episode. Collecting them unlocks skins and some goodies. But the catch with them is that they can be anywhere. There can be a couple in the hub world. But also couple during select missions and even some in the arcade minigames. There's no way to know where any of them are. They generally tend to be really well hidden even if you are trying to scour every area.
Again, I wish there was a way to highlight them. The game's long load times make it a chore to switch episodes or missions so it's tedious to try searching for them manually.
Now it's time to talk about the arcades. Sly 4 has 3 arcade minigames that are used in both the main missions and have a harder version in the arcades in hideouts. The arcade versions of these minigames are harder, go on for much longer and can have secret paths that lead to portals that reward you with points and some of them even have Sly masks. You need to beat the high scores to get the trophies
The first minigame is "Alter Ego". This has you play this 2D auto scrolling twin stick shooter minigame where you must avoid enemies and collect these "ionic bits". Collecting 5 yellow bits levels you up so your weapons get more powerful. At level 10 you have shoot crazy fast, can launch missiles and have floating drones that can damage enemies around you. But whenever you take damage, you drop an entire level. And you get left behind as the level autoscrolls, you respawn at level 0. You can also collect blue bits which can give you a grenade explosion around you.
Personally, I don't really like this minigame. It's fine when playing casually as a change of pace but grinding the high score isn't great. Since it is an autoscroller it is entirely possible you don't have enough points to match the high score and you won't know until its too late, wasting your time. I also found the hitboxes a bit too small. Making items more annoying to pickup.
The key to success is finding the right balance between collecting yellow bits as they give points and level you up (and how high your level is acts as a multiplier for your score) and killing enemies since they give more points. As well as avoiding taking damage and maintaining level 10 as much as possible and knowing where the secret paths are so you can get more points as well as level up if you have messed up.
The second minigame is "System Cracker". Here, you guide a little space ship looking thing through 2D levels in top down twin stick shooting sections. This isn't an autoscroller. You need to explore levels looking for keys and shooting enemies. There are 3 ships you can switch between by going onto specific coloured pads and each ship has its pros and cons. The green ship you start with does decent damage and has decent health and can carry keys. So it's a jack of all trades master of none kinda ship. The pink ship literally resembles a tank. It fires slower and at a shorter range but does more damage and has more health. It's also necessary for destroying pink crystals to progress. The blue ship has floatier handling and faster speeds. Its shots also bounce off walls and it can draw a line which can activate switches and damage enemies. It is weaker than the green ship though.
I actually really enjoyed this minigame and was happy whenever it comes up. It even feels the most fleshed out of the 3. Like, I feel it could even be released as a small standalone game with some tweaking and expansion. I'd probably play a mobile version of this in my free time.
I like how varied the levels can be. You can have a lot of different threats and mini-puzzles and even scenarios where you have to keep switching between ships on the fly to damage enemies. Like, there's this one enemy that's made up of orange, blue and pink hexagons that require you to switch between all 3 ships and use their abilities to damage it. It's quite fun. Damage one ship takes is "saved" on that ship. So if you take 50% damage with the green ship and switch to the pink one, the pink one will have 100% health. But whenever you switch back to the green one, you will be back at 50% health. So mistakes have consequences requiring you to make decisions accounting for them without being too overbearing.
Beating the high scores for the associated arcades is very easy. For one, there is no time limit or pressure so you’re free to take your time and play carefully. On top of that, the mode is very generous with points. Whereas Alter Ego only gives you points for killing enemies and picking up bits (and you need to get and maintain a multiplier for decent times), System Cracker gives you points even for shooting obstacles and barricades in your way. In Alter Ego, I was scraping for points until the very end. In System Cracker, I had more than enough points by the halfway mark.
I suppose the game could have balanced this by increasing the points threshold and rewarding extra points for taking less time to complete sections but I’m not complaining.
The third and worst minigame is “Spark Chaser”. Here you must guide a little electric ball across these maze like areas with gaps that end your attempt if you fall down them and these pinball like bounce pads that bounce you really far. There’s also a time pressure. You have around 20 seconds to get as far as possible with more time added as you pick up these purple clock icons.
The biggest issue is that it’s entirely controlled by motion controls. And this makes me experience worse on VITA. Seriously, I very nearly quit playing. This post was almost titled “I gave up trying to Platinum Sly 4”.
With the PS3 version, at least titling the remote doesn’t also affect your view of the screen. You can look at the game and play it the same as you normally would. But in the VITA version, the “neutral” position where no input is registered by the system is placing the VITA flat with its screen facing up. The standard “screen facing you” position registers as down.
The end result is a frustrating experience. This minigame requires really fine precision given how easy it is to fall off and the time pressure requires you both be fast and more precise to collect time pickups. On top of that, your view is constantly being messed with due to how much you need to tilt the system from odd angles. Especially how tilting “up” really makes it hard to see. Oh, and the dialogue from Bentley as you bounce gets really annoying and repetitive.
It’s barely tolerable in regular missions since those don’t require as much precision or speed. And even then, the usage there in 2013 was suspect to begin with. I only completed this because there’s a cheese where if you can get enough time early on, you can then keep bouncing on certain pads which give around 20 points per bounce. When I played “normally”, I’d get around 300 points with the high score being 1000 points. Using the cheese, I averaged around 990 points and managed to get lucky to win with 1010 points.
Tangent Time:
I’ve said it before. Motion controls work best when they complement existing controls in an optional way or in more restrained ways. I love it when games have gyro aiming since that can help compensate when aiming with sticks with small fine corrections. It works here because the sticks do most of the work and the gyro sensors work where they are best suited.
Or in many mobile racing games, steering is often done by tilting your phone. I enjoy this because there is only one axis you need to tilt your phone, the screen often rotates in conjunction so your view is preserved and it’s more intuitive to feel the “range” of rotation and how it corresponds to steering.
Hell, even ignoring these approaches, motion can still be used in worthwhile ways. Such as by mapping an extra action that is infrequent if all other buttons are occupied. The Mario games on Wii map a “spin” when you jump and shake the remotes giving Mario a bit of grace allowing him to make slightly further jumps or correct a bad jump. Call of Duty MW1 on Wii allowed you to assign certain commands to custom motions of the controller and nunchuck. So you could map stuff like jumping, moving and shooting to buttons but map reloading to smacking the nunchuck to the Wii Mote or plunge the Wii Mote forward to do a melee attack or tilting the Wii Mote to bring out a grenade or alt fire.
Even Resistance 1: Fall of Man had a neat idea. You could quickly tilt the controller left to bring up the Scoreboard screen without needing to take your thumbs off the sticks or stop moving. The Soulsbourne games allow you to quickly do emotes without needing a menu by holding the interact button and quickly tilting the controller in certain directions.
I bring all this up to highlight how Sly 4’s use of motion controls are a failure on every level. They’re mostly used in place of minigames as the sole method of control. So all the issues of motion controls (such as the lack of broad control and feedback) are front and centre. The only place where the motion controls are understandable is when firing arrows as you can then control the arrow after it’s fired using both the sticks and gyro aiming. But even then, the lack of any ability to tune the gyro sensitivity or even invert the controls hampers any use it could have had.
I don’t mind the idea of Sly 4 having decent motion controls. There are places where I can see it being beneficial. In addition to shooting and guiding arrows, I can see it being useful when you have to use the binoculars. Especially as Bentley as you need to shoot darts precisely.
Or, here’s a gimmicky one: you can bind certain costumes or tools to also be selected by quickly tilting the system. Even though using the D-pad for a quick select would be faster, it would still be a better use of motion controls for Sly 4 than most of what’s currently there.
End Tangent.
Back to getting all the trophies, the final arcade machine, unlocked only when you’ve gotten all the treasures in every other episode, is very easy. It has “3 rooms”, one featuring every minigame thus far. But the high score requirements are really low and rooms aren’t as tough as prior versions. You can easily get the high score in the first area which is the Alter Ego one. Even if you miss it there, the second area is Spark Runner but you can keep reloading the checkpoint to preserve your score. So you can get some time clocks, reload a checkpoint when you’re close to running out of time or about to fall off and repeat until you get the high score.
You do need to get past the Spark Runner section to the 3rd and final section that uses System Cracker's gameplay in order to get a hidden Sly Mask, but it's far easier than the dedicated Spark Runner arcade minigame as the section is shorter, is more generous with Time Pickups, has easier level design and lets you reload a checkpoint if you're about to fail which doesn't end the run.
So yeah, Sly 4 Thieves in Time was....inconsistent game to platinum. I enjoyed the base gameplay, System Cracker, the various challenge trophies and the mini speedruns for collecting treasures. I didn't enjoy finding the collectibles and doing some of the other minigames. I hated Spark Runner.
If the game had more ways of tracking collectibles, fewer minigames and better load times, I'd gladly recommend it as a fun game to platinum.
As for the base game itself, I am mixed on it. The gameplay is arguably the best in the series. Sly's movement and costumes are so fun to play around with. Murray, Bentely and Sly's ancestors are also fun changes of pace during missions.
The story is lacking. My main issue is that it doesn't feel like it realizes its following up Sly 3. The story so casually undoes the ending of Sly 3 to get Sly 4's story going. I get it, that's what a sequel has to do. But the way it does it really undermines Sly 3. It's also much more lighthearted and doesn't have as much of a theme or focal point as its predecessors. Sly 1-3 explored the theme of legacy and the consequences of adhering to it so tightly. A major aspect of Sly 3 was Sly realizing the Cooper Vault wasn't worth dying for. It's what prompts him to fake his amnesia and retire with Carmilita in the end. So for Sly 4 to then have Sly have an itch to steal just for the fun of it, it's sending mixed messages here.
In addition, Sly is really casual about the fact Carmilita now knows about his betrayal and has broken up with him. Seems like that should have been a bigger deal. In fact, that kind of "casual-ness" persists throughout the story. Sly doesn't really have much of an arc or any real heartfelt moments with his ancestors. Nor do they seem to really care their decedent from the future is here with them.
If I could have tweaked the story to address these points, here's what I would have done:
I'd have the story open with Sly, Bentley and Murray enjoying their "retirement" and have no plans of thieving. I'd go so far as to have Sly even scoff at the idea of him ever wanting to be a thief. Then when the pages of the Thievus Racconus are dissapearing, Sly, Bentley and Murray have to reluctantly unretire to try stopping them. There would be dialogue during the opening mission of Sly being worried if they get caught as it would undo their happy ending. And then when Carmilita catches Sly, Sly at first is flustered and tries to explain the situation to Carmilita who isn't having any of Sly's BS. Sly is forcibly extracted by the gang and then they time travel. As they are time travelling. Sly is upset that, in order to go literally defend the Cooper Legacy, he has to give up his happy relationship and can't be repaired now. That even if they fix the problem, they'll be on the run forever now. Murray had to give up his professional career as well.
Already, I feel this introduction has a few things going for it. It respects the ending of Sly 3 and keeps the characters in more character, as well as putting more heat on Le Paradox. Sly 4 had to rip away the happy ending that was Sly 3. The characters know that and aren't happy about it. There is immediate consequences. And that heat can be directed at Le Paradox when he comes later.
I'd also like if all of the ancestors Sly met had different reactions to both him and the Cooper legacy and how it affects Sly's arc.
For example, lets say when he meets Riochi Cooper, Ricohi is initially disappointed in Sly as the future Cooper decendent as Sly doesn't act honourably or respect the legacy or something like this. Something that makes Sly start to question if it's even worth defending the Cooper Legacy. Bentely is the voice of reason here and mediator that gets the gang to work as well as they can.
Then when Sly meets Tennessee Cooper, Sly is initially expecting another traditionalist ancestor that cares a lot about the Cooper Legacy. But Tennessee is kinda the opposite of Riochi in that Tennasee doesn't care about the legacy in the same way. He adds his own spin and contributions but also uses the knowledge from it to do his own thing. Perhaps Tennessee is this Robin-Hood esque figure who uses his heisting skills to steal from the corrupt ruling class and give to the lower class. The point being that through Tennessee, Sly considers another aspect of the Cooper Legacy on how he's not that beholden to it and can potentially make it his own.
Then when Sly meets Bob, part of Bob's training is also from Sly as Sly teaches him some of the Cooper moves he knows. Since Bob is the first Cooper ancestor, he has no bias towards the legacy or any knowledge. So he's far more grateful and begins to use his new skills in helpful ways. Causing Sly to wonder if he could use the Cooper Legacy in more ways.
It's a similar situation for Sir Galleth. And for Selim, perhaps by that point, Sly has a newfound outlook and appreciation for the Cooper Legacy and ways on how he can improve it or make it his own that he encourages Selim not to retire or to retire in such a way where he could help people or something like that.
So yeah, there's this theme now of "Don't let the past define you now. You can make it your own and grow past its flaws". Which I feel would give Sly 4 more of a punch. I am basically copying Metal Gear Solid 4 and Assassin's Creed though.
I also feel it would be better if Penelope wasn't the villain of episode 4. It seems to contradict her character from past games and the explanation given for her heel turn doesn't really hold water. I feel the story would be better if Penelope had the role Dmitri has where she's their help in the present and the Knight was a new character. But if you need to have Penelope as the antagonist, have her be under mind control or something. That way the team has the conflict of how will they stop the plan without hurting their friend. But if you really insist on Penelope being a full on antagonist now by her own choice, perhaps flesh out her motivations more? Maybe something like "she sees how Bentley will never reach his full potential as the Bill Gates of the world because of his criminal past that requires him to lay low and not take public credit for his inventions. So she's trying to erase the Coopers so Bentley will have never met Sly". That would at least be more than "I want money".
Everything else, I feel works more or less.
I will note that the cliffhanger ending was a weird choice given that this game wasn't projected to sell well and kinda pigenholes any story Sly 5 would be going for. Plus, it being locked behind the platinum trophy means only a small portion of the few players that played Sly 4 would even know about it.
So yeah, that's my take on platinumming Sly 4: Thieves in Time. What do y'all think?
Next up for me is platinumming every Spider-Man game on PS VITA. See you then.

I'm currently in the process of selecting a laptop specifically for competitive gaming in titles like Fortnite, Valorant, CS, Overwatch, and Apex. I prefer playing these games on the lowest settings possible. The laptops I'm considering are equipped with a 240Hz screen. My main concern revolves around choosing between a laptop featuring a 13900HX or a 12700H CPU. I'm aiming to maintain a consistent 240fps. Despite conducting extensive research, I haven't been able to find any direct real-world performance comparisons between these CPUs, particularly in CPU-bound gaming scenarios. Could anyone provide me with guidance on whether the 13900HX significantly outperforms the 12700H, especially for gaming with low settings, or if the overall performance difference is substantial?
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For whatever insight you may need, these are the two laptops I'm pointing to:
Lenovo Legion Pro 5i 13900HX + 4070
Acer Predator Helios 300 12700H + 3070 ti

If you look at a Minecraft map from afar, you'll notice it barely looks like a real map. The water masses are just big lakes, alternating with land at random intervals. So I propose to change world generation and make it more continent-based. But this isn't just "make land generate in isolated islands". There's more to it.
Essentially, there are different kinds of continents. Each kind has a certain combination of biomes and structures. For example, the game could be coded to always spawn you in a beginning continent with standard stuff. Plains, forests, villages, deserts, etc.
Then, you'd go to discover new lands far across the sea, in search of treasure exclusive to certain continents. For example, maybe strongholds only spawn in a type continent with tons of danger on its surface. Or mushroom plains are part of a rare mystery continent.

Hey all, I learned verse code a bit and made my first game but I just recently started getting this error. It seems like something of an error with something I placed on my map. I've looked for it online and can't find references to it. Any thoughts?
I also clicked Docs and it doesn't have the best info to help me understand it. So I'm pretty lost, hoping for smarter people to help me out! Thank you!

If you ever wondered why it is so easy to get headshots as widow in an aim trainer and so hard during a game, I suggest you try this aim trainer:
- create a custom game with the VXEAT code
- turn off workshop chamber and set the map to Volskaya Industries
- go to the high ground and try to shoot the bots in the main plaza. Leave the target bots on their default movement setting (hard).

Remaking re5 isn’t that necessary, but I know better than anyone remaking re5 isn’t a matter of IF, it’s when. But here’s the thing: people say re4r is capcom experimenting with partner ai, and tbh it probably is. The issue is that RE engine partner ai is… not… great. There’s a reason they made Ashley and Luis practically invincible, it was bad enough in the mt framework engine babysitting Ashley with competent ai, it would be a WHOLE nother beast if Ashley was completely vulnerable. By making re5 more like re4r, you’d inevitably make a game that’s already struggling for a unique identity less like re5.
Conversely, if you make sheva or Chris completely vulnerable like classic re5, the ai might not be able to compensate. So you’d be making the most criticized part of re5 possibly worse, and judging by capcom seems to be ignoring code Veronica which could give them practice to further hone the partner ai, they’re not putting themselves in a great position for re5. And this isn’t touching on the story which is no doubt going to be a challenge for capcom to retell for… a myriad of reasons.
So capcom doesnt want to remake code Veronica. Okay, fine. How exactly are you going to make people care about Albert Wesker, the villain of re5 who had 3 games worth of buildup to establish his goals and threat to the resi universe’s national security? You might say remake resident evil 1 again, but overproduction aside this isn’t ideal either. Revealing wesker might be alive at the end of resident evil 1 would remove the awe of his resurrection in later titles, and that aside remaking too many games between resident evil 4 and 5 defeats the hype 4r’s ending promised.
Remaking code Veronica and then 5 would have better yearly pacing for capcom’s business plans. Yes it’s a game keeping us from re5 a little while longer, but you could at least sum up who Albert wesker is with Chris’s part of the game in some dialogue between the two, and capcom could stand to emphasize Chris’ defeat at wesker’s hands to be his motive for buffing up for 5. But again, capcom doesn’t seem to want to acknowledge code Veronica so this seems like an unlikely point, again robbing re5 of impact when it’s desperately needed as a culmination of the franchise. Things aren’t looking good.
And then there’s the elephant in the room. We do have to talk about re5’s questionable elements. I for one find most of the questionable Africa representation in re5 misguided yet I don’t blame capcom. But it was criticized back in 2009, can you imagine how audiences will react now? My friend suggested mending this issue by making sheva alomar have more emphasis placed onto her as the Main protagonist, this would definitely ease audience tensions if handled right. The problem is resident evil 5’s main narrative DOES circle back around to Chris’s pursuit and platonic love for Jill, and that can’t exactly be ignored in the remake. So it’s either keep Chris redfield as the focus of a game where Africa is a footnote and questionably represented, and risk triggering new fans… Or, make sheva alomar the main protagonist and expect fans to set aside a main plot as her to help Chris redfield rescue his partner sheva would have no context for. Again, not entirely ideal.
In conclusion, I wouldn’t be opposed to a resident evil 5 remake in a lot of ways. Gameplay loop wise I’ve found myself trying to parry in resident evil 5 classic, and moving while aiming has become so synonymous with the modern entries it feels more jarring when it’s absent. But as much as these gameplay changes would impact a rather controversial entry of the resident evil series, I can’t help but worry it will be a sunk cost fallacy, to the point I wonder if remake passion might be better spent on other games to buy support for when the time is right. If at all, I really hope capcom carefully considers their next move. Re5R WILL happen, but maybe some things are best left alone for now.

So LoZ: TotK is going to have DLC. And going off of how DLC was in BotW, I cannot help but wonder what new equipment items we may see added to the roster for TotK's gear in the form of new weapons, bows, shields, and armor that may be bundled into any of the DLC packs coming around.
So I cannot help but theorize and predict that we may get any of the following -
​
​
ARMOR SETS -

• Skyloftian Attire - Considering the fact we may get a DLC that adds more islands, I think it would be fitting to allow for Link to acquire clothing and a new hairstyle option as rewards; replicating Link's appearance from the opening act of Skyward Sword.
• Ordonian Shepherd - Sticking to the idea of having Link in TotK replicate the look of what we once wore in the opening act of a previous game, I think it would be fitting to allow us to acquire the outfit worn by Link in the opening act of Twilight Princess. Especially since it will expose Link's right arm that is now adorned with Zonai accessories.
• Zora Armor of Twilight - As an alternative outfit choice for the Zora Armor you can already acquire in-game, the Zora Armor of Twilight Princess would be an addition to simply allow you to replicate Link's appearance in Twilight Princess.
• Magic Armor - The Magic Armor from Twilight Princess could be added to the game. Though most likely it would simply be an alternative outfit style while replicating the same effect as the Mystic Armor, I personally believe it could be recontextualized as a suit of armor worn by King Rhoam Bosphoramus Hyrule during his younger years as a mere prince of the realm before his time to reign.
• Hero's Shade Armor - Continuing the trend of Twilight Princess inspired attire, I believe that the armor worn by the late Hero of Time in his final days would make for a nice set of armor to replicate the effects of the Barbarian Armor set. To make it interesting, I would personally add a visual flair to the armor by having Link's flesh look normal by day; but when night falls, his exposed flesh becomes semi-translucent, revealling his bones beneath with a single eye-socket glowing red to fully pull off the Hero's Shade look.
• Dark Mage's Robes - Moving to more toon aesthetics, I believe that it would be interesting to provide Link with the ability to mimic Vaati's appearance from The Minish Cap. What with BotW/TotK being more cell-shaded, it would be rather fitting to allow for us to see Vaati's likeness in more graphical detail. Plus as a bonus I think it should receive the gloom-resistant effect.
• Royal Engineer Uniform - Similarly, I think it would be fitting to have the outfit worn by Link in Spirit Tracks to be available in TotK as a collectible set. If I were to apply a bonus attribute to the set, it would be Energy Cell Efficiency; thus wearing the full set would allow you to have a 20% less drain on your Energy Cells when using Zonai Devices.
• Cap/Tunic/Trousers of the Warrior - Honestly, I was surprised that this set was not available in the base game; seeing as the outfit was available in Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity. But I can totally see Nintendo adding it in as a new collectible set to acquire while scrounging through The Depths.
• Bunny Hood - Tired of eating Rushroom Skewers and Speed Potions? Well, wearing the Bunny Hood will provide you with the same effect; allowing you to jog and run faster; though climbing speed is still normal.
• Hawkeye Mask - Some Bows, such as the Gerudo Bow, will zoom in whenever you take aim. If Nintendo were to add this mask as a DLC item, this would be how to replicate that effect for all bows in the game.
• Pegasus Boots - No, I don't think a speed boost would be proper to apply to these boots. Instead, I would have it be so that wearing the boots has stamina drain reduced by 20% while sprinting. Combined with the Bunny Hood, you can most certainly travel fast and far on foot.
• Iron Boots - Tired of being knocked around by heavy attacks from large enemies? Don't want Horriblins with bouncy mushroom sticks to make you launch across the cave? Well, find and equip the iron boots to make you move around a little slower but also never be launched by a heavy attack. Just be ready to take the hit.
• Travelling Swordsman - Though most Super Smash Bros Ultimate players don't like the Mii BrawleGunneSwordfighter characters, we can all admit that the default outfit for Mii Swordfighter is actually pretty well made. I could easily see Nintendo add it in as a reference set of shirt and pants; to be paired with the Travelers weapons arrangement.

​
​
WEAPONS -

• Wooden Sword - I think as a fun silent addition, Nintendo should add the Wooden Sword from Twilight Princess as an item. An uncommon drop from the Meantree enemies, so instead of them dropping an effectively useless tree-branch; they drop a more sturdy wooden sword to possibly make use of.
• Ordon Sword - The sword that the Hero of Twilight wielded during his adventure's earliest miles. A fitting piece to help fully replicate the look of Link from the Twilight Princess game when paired with the Cap, Tunic, and Trousers of Twilight.
• Sword of the Knave - At the start of Hyrule Warriors, Link was but a young Knave on his way to be a proper Knight. So it would be fitting to rename the Knight's Sword as such. However in the hands of someone like Link, this blade's power would surpass the likes of a Knight's Sword from BotW/TotK.
• Blade of the Shade - Should the Hero's Shade armor items be added to the game, it would only be fitting to include the Hero's Shade sword to help complete the look.
• Gilded Sword - The fully upgraded Kokiri Sword version 4.0! I think it would be fitting to have to acquire this sword in the Lost Woods, implying that the Hero of Time had returned the blade to the Lost Woods after his adventure in Termina.
• Great Fairy's Claymore - Perhaps they might add in a quest for Link to perform for each of the Great Fairies, allowing you to be rewarded with the gift of the Great Fairy's Claymore? That or simply make us find it in the overworld.
• Kholint Sword - Seeing as Toy Link has been given some representation as a headpiece you can acquire, I think it would only be fitting to allow for you to obtain the ultimate sword from Link's Awakening as an item you can acquire.
• Blade of Hurricanes - The sword that the Hero of Winds used when not in possession of the Master Sword. What makes this blade unique? Well, I propose that if you were to charge up your spin-attack to the third level of power buildup; Link will then unleash a Hurricane Spin Attack! Great for when you are surrounded by enemies or just farming for items that you can harvest by cutting down grass in a field.
• White Sword - Though it has rarely made an appearance, I believe the addition of the White Sword would be fitting. Fun fact, if you attach a star fragment to an item; you will launch beams of light into the distance. So if the White Sword were to be added to the game, I think it would be best to have it simply not be a weapon you can throw away. Make it akin to the Master Sword where attempting to toss the sword will instead send out a beam. However in the White Sword's case, it will cast a triad of light sources into the distance. A good tool for when in the depths and trying to conserve Brightbulbs.
• Magical Sword - Like the White Sword, this sword should also be unable to be thrown. Instead, attempting to throw the sword should unleash an elemental attack. But with the caveat of it being a random type of element. Are we casting flames, lightning, or ice against our opponent?
• Phantom Sword - I think the addition of the Phantom Sword would be a nice addition to the game's roster of legendary weapons. But how to make it unique? Well it could be complicated to code, but I think that if Link were to try to toss the blade while at full health; it should launch a beam of light upon the enemy. Whatever enemy gets hit by the beam of light will replicate the Time Stop + ability from BotW so the enemy is frozen for a free hit or two.
• Lokomo Sword - The addition of the Lokomo Sword would make for a nice item to include in the weapons roster. But how to make it unique? Simple. If Link attempts to use the Fusion ability with this weapon and attempts to attach Zonai Charges or even Large Zonai Charges, the blade will be mended of damage. Thus the sword can be healed without the need of an Octorok.
• Four Sword - Now I know what you are thinking and NO. This sword will not make three other companion Links running around as AI companions. We already have our Vows with the Sages providing that. Instead I offer an alternative. Imagine a visual effect like what happens in Super Mario Galaxy when you pick up an Invincibility power up. Whenever you wield the Four Sword, you will instead have three shadows following very closely behind you; one red, one blue, and one purple. Whenever you swing the Four Sword, these copies follow your every motion and if the hit lands; they deal the same damage as you. So while the Four Sword would be 15 damage power, it is actually most likely 15x4 if all three of these copy Link's follow your motion and land their hits; meaning that if all 4 hits land you just dealt 60 damage with one button press. However, the enemy could fall out of range due to the slight knockback that weapons feature in the game; so you may end up missing your copy-cat hits. At least this is how I would have the Four Sword act in the game.
• Dominion Mace - Though this is more of a joke item. I figure that after eons, the Dominion Rod of Twilight Princess would be both depleted of power and all history regarding the relic has been lost to those who do not peruse the Royal Library. As a result, Link finds the Dominion Rod and deems it to be a well-made mace.
• Flameblade
• Flamespear
• Great Flameblade
• Frostblade
• Frostspear
• Great Frostblade
• Thunderblade
• Thunderspear
• Great Thunderblade
  • So yes, these weapons were sadly removed as BotW transitioned into TotK. And yes, you can replicate them by way of elemental Lizalfos Horns. HOWEVER; I think there is a missed opporitunity here. Zonai attachments to Zoanite weapons receive a bonus to their attack power. I believe that these elemental weapons should return to the game and if affixed with the proper attachment (Flameblade receives Flame Lizalfos Horn attachment for example), it should have a similar enhancing effect to both the weapon's damage and elemental output.

​
​
BOWS -

• Sacred Bow - The final upgraded version of Skyward Sword Link's bow. I suspect that we will most likely see a DLC give us more islands in the sky to explore. So it would be fitting to be able to find this bow nested in a chest up high in the skies above Hyrule.
• Legendary Crossbow - It would be rather unique to have the ability to use Link's Crossbow from Link's Crossbow Training as a weapon. I personally would have it replicate the Duplex Bow to shoot two arrows for the price of one.

​
​
SHIELDS -

• Deku Shield - If any shield should be added in a DLC as a quest reward, it should be the iconic Kokiri Shield from Ocarina of Time. Simply have it be a reward given by the Deku Tree for Link running an errand for him, a humble and sentimental reward.
• Ordon Shield - To go with the Ordon Sword, I think that the Ordon Shield should also be added to the game as a legacy item; thus allowing us to replicate the Hero of Twilight look even further.
• Mirror Shield - Though you can replicate this shield's effect thanks to the Zonai Mirrors you can fuse with a shield, it would be nice to have a Mirror Shield from a previous game as a legacy item. Question is, which one? There are like 6 designs we have had in the history of Zelda.
• Engineer's Shield - The shield that Link used in Spirit Tracks at the start of his adventure.
• Shield of Antiquity - Simply put, have it be an alternative version of the Hero's Shield that used to be dropped from the Wind Waker Amiibo. I personally would have it be an item that could be found in a whirlpool cave in the waters of the Necluda Sea added in with a DLC.
• Wooden Shield / Banded Shield / Braced Shield - I honestly find it strange that these weren't added as an homage to Skyward Sword as shields that could be found both in the islands in the sky and as items scattered around fallen island debris. If any DLC shields should be added, I think the Skyward Sword wooden shields would make for a nice addition to the roster; especially since they would level up alongside the player in the save file. So as they progress further in the game, they can find Banded and finally the Braced Shields.
• Iron Shield / Reinforced Shield / Fortified Shield - Ditto but with the Skyward Sword Iron Shield lineup of upgrades. Stronger than the Wooden Shield counterpart but susceptible to lightning.
• Sacred Shield / Divine Shield / Goddess Shield - Ditto. However, unlike with this lineup of shields from Skyward Sword where they mended themselves over time; I think that it would be fitting to have these shields only have a single property from that game carry over to TotK. When the shield is raised against Stal enemies (with the exception of the Stalnox), it will make them cower away from you and keep their distance. An especially useful item to have on hand when roaming around at night or exploring the depths wanting to be undisturbed by the annoying bones.
• Shade's Guard - Again, if Nintendo were to add in the Hero's Shade armor set; it would only be fitting to add in the shield used by the Hero's Shade in Twilight Princess as a bonus to complete the look.
• Shield of the Knave - The default shield from Hyrule Warriors would make for a descent addition. Especially if players are wanting to replicate the Hyrule Warriors' depiction of Link if Nintendo were to add in the outfit as well.
• Shield of Light - If Nintendo were to add in the White Sword as depicted in Hryule Warriors, I think it would be fitting to have it also be included the shield that Link used when making use of that sword. Have the bonus attribute that whenever you raise the shield, it shines light upon whatever is in front of you; allowing you to illuminate the darkness of the Depths and some caves with ease.
• Shield of Magic - Ditto. However, I believe that this shield should have the bonus effect of actually being able to heal itself. Should the player successfully deflect a magic attack with this shield equipped, it will mend some of its damaged health-pool by 10%; allowing you to fix the shield by simply fighting an elemental enemy.

​
​
​
And there you have it.
Just figured I would share my expectations of what we could see as DLC legacy items coming to Tears of the Kingdom in the coming year and how I would have some of them provide a bonus effect.
Thoughts anyone?

Howdy! XMC is a dedicated community of players who love the vanilla Minecraft experience. Our server aims to provide a fun and immersive gameplay environment while maintaining full compatibility with vanilla mechanics.
XMC will officially open on June 7th. Though, we currently have a testing server up for people to try out some builds!

Features:

• Local Voice Chat: Communication is key in any multiplayer game, and we've implemented a voice chat mod that enables you to chat with other players in your vicinity.
• DynMap: Explore the world of XMC using our DynMap. Get a bird's eye view of the server, see the builds and structures, and plan your next adventure with ease. The map is constantly updated, ensuring you always have the latest information at your fingertips.
• Various Vanilla+ Additions: We’re still working out exactly what we’re going to enable/disable, but in the past we’ve enabled things like movable tile entities. Join now to influence the features for when we start!
• Daily backups: We understand the importance of preserving your hard work. That's why we take daily backups to ensure that your progress is safe and secure.

Server Specs and Performance:

• Processor: Ryzen 9 5950x
• RAM: 10 Gigabytes
• Location: New Jersey

Server Rules:

• Be Mature: One of, if not the most important rule, we expect our players to be mature. Immature behavior will not be tolerated, as we aim to create a community of people who can relax and enjoy the game.
• Respect other server members: Treat your fellow players with respect. We have a zero-tolerance policy for any form of disrespect towards others.
• No stealing or griefing: We have a strict policy against stealing or griefing. Our dedicated staff members have access to detailed logs and will take appropriate action if any unauthorized actions are detected.
• No NSFW, racism/xenophobia: Offensive or inappropriate content has no place on our server. We promote a welcoming and inclusive environment, free from any form of discrimination or offensive behavior.
• No mods that give an unfair advantage: Using mods or hacks that provide unfair advantages over other players is strictly prohibited. However, mini-maps and other utilities are exempt from this rule. If it feels like cheating, it likely is. If there’s any doubt, don’t hesitate to ask an admin.
• Inactivity: If you plan to be away from the server for an extended time period, please notify an admin in advance. Failure to do so may result in your account being marked as inactive.

How to Apply:

• Join our discord, linked below.
• Run the command "/apply" in any channel to receive the application form.
• Fill out the form and provide the required information.
• Submit your application.
• An admin will review your application and get back to you shortly.

Discord: https://discord.gg/Dw2Ue45

We look forward to welcoming you to our community. If you have any questions or need assistance, feel free to reach out to our staff or other players on our Discord server.

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​
Stream Man City vs. Inter in the final on June 10!
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The 2023 UEFA Champions League Final will be a clash of two of Europe’s most exciting teams, Manchester City vs. Inter Milan, at Istanbul’s Atatürk Olympic Stadium on Saturday, June 10. Inter Milan beat crosstown rival AC Milan 3-0 on aggregate to reach its first Champions League final appearance since winning the competition in 2010, while City had a statement 5-1 aggregate victory over current holder Real Madrid to progress to the final in its quest to win the trophy for the first time. City’s embarrassment of attacking riches includes Premier League golden boot-winner Erling Haaland, midfield maestro Kevin De Bruyne, and English winger Phil Foden, and will aim to outmaneuver and outscore the Italians. Simone Inzaghi’s Inter side, recent winners of the Coppa Italia, are more known for their canny defensive nous and Argentinian Lautaro Martinez’s electric pace on the counter-attack. Read on to learn how to watch UEFA Champions League live streams securely with a VPN.
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How to live stream the 2022–23 Champions League from your country
You can watch a UEFA Champions League Final live stream with a VPN by following a few simple steps:
​
Get ExpressVPN.
Connect to the VPN server location that matches the broadcaster you want to watch. For example, if you’d like to stream a British broadcaster, connect to a secure server in London.
Check the schedule of the broadcaster you want to watch, such as BT Sport (UK), and find the match you want to stream.
Tune in and enjoy!
Watching on a computer? For the best streaming experience, use the ExpressVPN browser extension for Chrome, Firefox, or Edge.
​
​
When is the UEFA Champions League Final?
Manchester City vs. Inter Milan – Saturday, June 10, 8 p.m. GMT / 3 p.m. ET
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Watch Champions League Final live streams in Ireland for free
RTÉ Player
Price: Free
Channels: RTÉ 2
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You can watch the English commentary of select Champions League football matches on Tuesdays through Ireland’s RTÉ Player—including Inter Milan vs. AC Milan on May 16, 2023.
​
Note: Only select games are available to live stream. Check the broadcast schedule here for RTÉ 2 on match day.
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How to watch Champions League Final live streams for free in Austria
ServusTV
Price: Free
Channels: ServusTV
​
The Austrian broadcaster ServusTV carries select Champions League football matches with commentary in German—including Manchester City vs. Real Madrid on May 17, 2023.
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How to live stream the UEFA Champions League Final in the U.S.
Paramount Plus
Price: 6 USD/month and up
Channels: CBS and CBS Sports Network
​
CBS holds broadcasting rights for the UEFA Champions League in the U.S. Every match is available live via Paramount Plus, while select matches will air on CBS and the CBS Sports Network. Paramount Plus offers a seven-day free trial.
​
YouTube TV
Price: 73 USD/month and up
Channels: CBS and CBS Sports Network
​
YouTube TV will show select matches on CBS and the CBS Sports Network. YouTube TV also offers a free trial if you only want to watch a specific game.
​
Note: You will need a US credit card to subscribe to YouTube TV. If you don’t have one, subscribe through Google Pay instead.
​
Fubo
Price: 70 USD/month
Channels: CBS and CBS Sports Network
​
Live stream Champions League games throughout the season with Fubo, which carries both CBS and CBS Sports Network to watch the games.
​
Note: You will need a US credit card to subscribe to fuboTV.
​
DirectTV Stream
Price: 95 USD/month and up
Channels: CBS and CBS Sports Network
​
Live stream UEFA Champions League games with DirecTV Stream by subscribing to its “Ultimate” package, which includes CBS and CBS Sports Network, showing games throughout the tournament. If you only want to watch a specific game, try the five-day free trial.
​
Note: You may need a U.S. credit/debit card to subscribe to DirecTV Stream.
​
How to watch a 2022–23 Champions League Final live stream in Canada
DAZN
Price: 25 CAD/month or 200 CAD/year
​
DAZN Canada is a great way to live stream UEFA Champions League games throughout the competition, including the final on June 10, 2023. However, bear in mind that DAZN no longer offers a free trial.
​
Note: You may need a Canadian credit/debit card and postal code (e.g., G1X 2W1, V9N 9C5) to subscribe to DAZN Canada. If you don’t have one, subscribe via PayPal instead. Keep in mind that your DAZN subscription will be locked to Canada and cannot be changed to another country, even when traveling.
​
How to watch a Champions League live stream in the UK
BT Sport
Price: 25 GBP/month and up
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If you live in the UK, BT Sport is your best bet for watching UEFA Champions League live streams. You don’t need BT broadband to stream sports online: simply choose a Monthly Pass instead to get access to all BT Sport contract-free. You can get set up with the BT Sport app or web player within 15 minutes.
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Note: This service is available to UK and Ireland residents only. You’ll need a BT ID to watch the stream online. To get a BT ID, you will need a TV license, a valid postal code, and a UK credit/debit card.
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Live stream the Champions League Final online in India
SonyLIV
Price: 300 INmonth or 1,000 INyear
​
SonyLIV has the rights to broadcast UEFA Champions League matches in India. Matches are available to stream via the SonyLIV app and website.
​
Note: You need an Indian credit card to subscribe to SonyLIV.

As we navigate the ever-evolving landscape of tech recruitment, we're all too familiar with the pitfalls of the current system. Traditional data structures and algorithm-based assessments, though widely used, often provide an incomplete picture of a candidate's true capabilities. They focus on theoretical aspects that, while important, don't fully encompass the breadth of skills necessary for an effective software engineer.
Moreover, these conventional tests are often prepared for, almost to the point of memorization by candidates, thereby failing to reveal their true problem-solving abilities. As a result, we often find ourselves questioning whether the candidate who passed the test with flying colors can actually handle real-world engineering tasks.
In light of these challenges, I work at a startup building a product aimed at disrupting the conventional recruiting process: a simulation-based assessment tool.
Features and Benefits

1. Real-world Simulations: This tool will place candidates in realistic job scenarios where they'll need to perform tasks such as debugging, coding, and designing - activities they'd be doing regularly in their roles. This provides a much clearer picture of their day-to-day capabilities. Were building around ~1500 different scenarios to be used with more to come in the future.
2. Holistic Skill Assessment: By focusing on practical tasks, this tool allows for a more comprehensive evaluation of candidates. Beyond just code-writing, it measures problem-solving, critical thinking, adaptability, and even collaboration skills in team-based simulations.
3. Reduced Bias: With a focus on real-world capabilities, the tool will mitigate the effects of the rote learning that often distorts the results of traditional assessments, leading to more accurate evaluations.
4. Improved Candidate Experience: As candidates would engage in practical tasks rather than abstract problem-solving, their assessment experience would be more representative of the job role, providing a more engaging and less stressful experience.
5. Scalability and Efficiency: With the proper use of automation, the tool can accommodate large volumes of candidates, saving time and resources without compromising assessment quality. In addition, we have developed an algorithm that scores candidate's simulations into an overall score between 0-100 with that score being broken up into different sections like problem solving, debugging, etc.

But before we can shape this into a reality, we need your insight and feedback:

• What are your thoughts on this approach?
• Does this tool address the challenges you currently face in tech recruiting?
• What features or considerations would be important to you in a tool like this?

Thank you for your time and for your contributions to the discussion.

We get dozens and dozens of file patterns that are VERY consistent coming in that have to be cleaned up and reformatted to .csv files which we compare against the data in the database to see if it needs to be updated or if its outdated. Once its been cleaned we load it into the database and all is good, but we are repeating the same process over and over and I want ways to automate the pattern matching.
The challenge is that each of these formats are quite large but almost always one of about 11 different formats and I'm repeating the same cleaning steps each time. What is a DataScience step, tool, function or process to create a `pattern` or `map` that python can use to recognize `oh hey random_dirty_file_00n format matches clean_data_file_00n format >90%` so lets reformat it.
We used something like this before years ago using MongoDB where they created a large script that compared the format and layout of a .csv, .txt, .tsv, .xml file that were 95% the same from customer exports, database exports, web scraping, data migrations or whatever. Isn't there a RL or SL 'thing' for this?
```
"if this `dirty_data_pattern_001`:
then reformat to `clean_data_pattern_001`"
```
My notes just mention it was a mapping or formatting script but don't have access to that code from 7 years ago.
Perhaps I'm overlooking or don't have the experience to know which but I've used

1. Python regex
2. MongoDB integrated with python
3. Python `map()` function
4. [Python NLTK functions](https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/python-gender-identification-by-name-using-nltk/)
5. Python scripts using `sklearn.preprocessing` like [Jeremyjordan.me](https://www.jeremyjordan.me/preparing-data-for-a-machine-learning-model/) using script like this works for words but not whole documents

I hope this script below is formatted correctly but its close to what we use for individual word matching.
Edit: for some reason I had to click inline code, then code block and the 'inserting spaces doesn't work' it only works when putting the code in "triple marks and doing `code block` and doing `inline code`" but it seems to be showing correctly now
```

male_terms = ["male", "m", "mal", "msle", "malr", "mail", "make", "cis male", "man", "maile", "male (cis)", "cis man"] female_terms = ["female", "f", "woman", "femake", "femaile", "femake", "cis female", "cis-female/femme", "female (cis)", "femail", "cis woman"] def clean_gender(response): if response.lower().rstrip() in male_terms: return "Male" elif response.lower().rstrip() in female_terms: return "Female" else: return "Other" df['Gender'] = df["Gender"].apply(lambda x: clean_gender(x)) 

```

I think it’s unanimous at this point that activating sage abilities is annoying. This being said, what would the best way of fixing them be?
I think the most popular proposed solution is having “sage” replace “map” on the ability wheel, which would then open a new wheel allowing you to choose and prime a sage ability. I think this is a good idea, except doing this every time you want to use an ability may get tedious. It is much better than what we currently have, though.
The other big idea is button combos. I’ve seen “A” while aiming a bow for Riju, “A” while holding “ZL” for Sidon, and “A” while gliding for Tulin. This just leaves Yunobo and the fifth sage (I haven’t gotten to the fifth yet, so I don’t know who they are or what their ability is.) I like the Riju and Sidon combos, but there are some use cases for using Tulin on the ground, and it still conflicts with grabbing items in midair. Maybe “A” while holding “X” for Tulin? Although this would probably merit a little bit of tweaking the paraglider controls. “A” while readying a throwing weapon for Yunobo kinda makes sense, since he acts as a projectile. Not sure what the fifth sage does or who they are, if anyone wants to discuss a combo for that feel free.
An idea I had was a mix of these two. Use the ability wheel to toggle abilities, then make “ZL” + “ZR” a button combo that primes the ability that’s currently selected. This way there’s no need to navigate two wheels if you want to use the same ability multiple times in a row. Maybe also make it so that if you hold “L” while an ability is primed, you automatically get the sage ability wheel?
So far I think my favorite idea is unique button combos for each ability, but I’d also be cool with a sage ability wheel that utilizes a “ZL” + “ZR” button combo. I’d also very much like to hear any other ideas that people have!

https://www.lotro.com/update-notes/lotro-update-36-release-notes-en
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Update 36 Release Notes

Here are the release notes for Update 36: Gondor Renewed, released on Wednesday, May 31st, 2023.

Of Special Note:

A New Story Begins in A Renewed King's Gondor!

After the defeat of Sauron, King Elessar and Queen Arwen seek to bring peace to their kingdom, but the danger is not gone and new foes seek to threaten Gondor. Adventure awaits in the new zone of King's Gondor East, set after the War of the Ring when fresh breezes have dispersed the fumes of the Dawnless Day and allowed the sun to shine again! Discover the beginning of a new Epic-style storyline, 'The Song of Waves and Wind,' and team up with Legolas, Gimli, and friends both old and new to investigate the continuing threat of the Heirs of Castamir!
The Song of Waves and Wind
A new story debuts with Gondor Renewed called "The Song of Waves and Wind"! For characters level 140. Start the first chapter by speaking to Glindor in Minas Tirith (Midsummer)! This new story is available to anyone who is VIP, purchases the "Gondor Renewed" quest pack, or who purchases quest packs associated with the story that are released in the future.
King's Gondor Awaits
Gone are the gloomy dark skies, replaced with bright and sunny fields and hills. Players familiar with the original Central and Eastern Gondor regions will be familiar with King's Gondor from a navigation standpoint, but there are new additions, and places players previously could not go are now open to allow for further exploration!
The Quest Pack "Gondor Renewed" unlocks more than 80 quests and Deeds for level 140 characters. Includes King's Gondor East and The Song of Waves and Wind. Free to VIPs!
How do I get to King's Gondor?
Go to Minas Tirith (After Battle) and head South through the Pelennor Fields. Where there once stood an impassable is no more! Questing begins in this area of the Pelennor Fields and in the under-construction version of The Harlond. From there, you can explore Gondor up to Linhir, where the gates are currently closed.​

Landscape Difficulty: The Paths of Valour!

We have reworked the Landscape Difficulty setting system introduced with Treebeard and are now opening it to the general game worlds as an option! Read full details about this new Landscape Difficulty option in the release notes below.​ A new Faction and new rewards are now available by playing these higher difficulties. Activate your difficulty and adjust it in the future by speaking with a Hardened Traveller, which can be found in major hubs and new player zones throughout Middle-earth:
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• Outside of the Prancing Pony in Bree
• Near the Stable Masters outside of the 21st Hall
• Just inside of the exit of Post-Raid Archet
• Just outside of Mossward
• Along the road Northward out of Celondim
• Just outside the door to Thorin's Hall
• Down the road from the Hobbit starter area exit waypoint

There are titles available for activating a difficulty of 3 or higher and keeping it there from level 10 to level 50, and then to level 130 respectively. The title granted depends on the class you play, but can be used by any character on your account. Make sure to select your Landscape Difficulty prior to achieving level 10 to be eligible for these titles! In order to earn these titles, you must keep the difficulty system active for the entire leveling span from level 10 thru 50/130. Entering areas of the game world where it is temporarily suppressed will not invalidate your title attempt, however turning it down or off via the Hardened Traveller will.

More Delvings!

More Delvings are now available! The Annúminas instances Glinghant, Haudh Valandil, and the Great Barrows instances Sambrog, Thadûr and The Maze have been converted to be playable as Delvings! Find them in the Instance Finder (Control+J by default).​

News and Notes

Classes

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• Several player stun-removal skills were inappropriately flagged as 'Immediate' causing them to occasionally cancel themselves and fail to free you from stuns. These skills are now correctly 'Fast' rather than 'Immediate' skills.
• High Elf, Beorning, and Stout Axe Dwarf racial recall skills can now be used while mounted on any steed.
• Beorning
  
  • The Beorning Trait "Battle Born" now correctly gives additional critical damage for off-hand weapons.
• Brawler
  
  • The Brawler mounted combat skill "Take Breath" will now properly update the incoming healing rating when active.
  • Innate Strength: Raw Power
    • Fixed description of the trait to state that it grants +2.5/+5/+7.5/+10%.
    • No change was made to the actual bonus granted by the trait, This is purely a tooltip change to have it reflect real values.
  • Tracery Innate Strength: Damage/Threat
    • Skill bonus has been modified [+10%->+5%], but is now added directly to the value of Innate Strength: Raw Power buff, which makes it considerably more effective than it was previously.
• Burglar
  
  • Aim skill now works with 'Throw Knife'.
• Captain
  
  • Fighting Withdrawal can now be used while rooted to free yourself.
  • The class deed "Fear the Darkness" should now properly advance even if "Courageous Convocation" is traited.
  • Captain skill "Defensive Strike" is now properly affected by the tracery "Single Target Attack Damage".
  • The buff from Inspire: Self-motivation should now correctly overwrite itself rather than failing to apply when you still have a few seconds of duration remaining from your previous skill use.
• Champion
  
  • Blood Rage and Continuous Blood Rage are now both correctly labeled Fast, rather than Immediate, skills. This prevents you from accidentally double-clicking the skill and putting it on cooldown without gaining the CC-removal effect.
  • Tracery Swift Strike: Damage & Power Cost
    • Renamed to Swift Strike/Blade: Damage & Power Restore
    • Tracery now increases the Power restored by Swift Strike rather than reducing the (now non-existent) Power cost. Magnitude changed from [-33%->+20%].
• Guardian
  
  • The Cardolan Essence of Retaliation effects' durations no longer benefit from the War-chant duration legacy.
• Lore-master
  
  • Clever Escape is now a Fast skill. This prevents you from accidentally double-clicking the skill and putting it on cooldown without gaining the CC-removal effect.
• Rune-keeper
  
  • The skill "Do Not Fall this Day" no longer breaks the target of the skill out of Stealth.
• Warden
  
  • "Forced March" will no longer be toggled off when you enter combat. It still only applies a bonus to your out of combat Run Speed.
  • Seared Flesh now appropriately benefits from bonuses to your Fire Damage.
  • Readied Blade's buff now provides Disarm Immunity for its duration.
  • The trait 'Movement Training' now correctly increases Mitigation ratings from the Conviction and Dance of War buffs.
  • Damage dealt by the trait 'Taking Advantage' increased.

Crafting

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• The crafting ingredients "Tuft of Torahammas' Fur", "Great Hoary Aurochs Hide" and "Speckled Shell Fragment" can now all be stored in crafting carryalls.
• Beasts in the Ettenmoors that drop crafting hides will now correctly drop Gundabad Hides instead of Eorlingas Hides.
• Crafters can now make two new tiers of selectable craftable essence boxes.
• Gundabad Skarn Deposits have been renamed to Brilliant Skarn Deposits.
• Frost-rimed Black Ash Branches have been renamed to Heavy Wind-swept Black Ash Branches.

Items & Rewards

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• The Homestead Steed can now be correctly placed on a hitching post by hobbit, dwarf, and Stout-axe dwarf characters.
• Might-based selection boxes no longer reference or contain medium armour.
• Many medium Might-based armour pieces obtained from quests from levels 1-75 have been updated from medium to heavy armour.
• Enemies in Moria no longer drop obsolete Legendary Item rewards.
• The Distillation set now properly identifies itself as a Distillation set and not a Crock Pot.
• Incomparable Earrings received from the 3-stack instances from Return to Carn Dûm have had the names of their set bonuses changed to reflect the stats given by the items in their groups.
• The "Dwarf-make Helm" cosmetic has been renamed to "Dwarf-make Circlet".
• The Champion Legendary Item Tracery "Brutal Strikes Damage" now only appears in The Berserker barter profiles.
• The decorative band on the Sightseer's Straw Hat will now correctly display dye colors.
• The weapon Candelleth's Hammer is now categorized correctly in the Auction House.
• The Veteran of Helm's Deep Quartermaster now offers items for Beornings and Brawlers.
• The Homestead Steed can now be used in Zirakzigil as well as in Caras Galadhon and other appropriate areas in Lothlórien.

Landscape Difficulty

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• We have reworked the Landscape Difficulty setting system introduced originally to Treebeard and made it available as an option to the general game worlds!
• We've added a new Faction and reward structure called The Paths of Valour that can be advanced by playing on higher difficulties.
• You can activate your difficulty setting by speaking with the Hardened Traveller that can be found in major hubs and new player zones who will offer you an array of quests representing the different difficulty levels.
  • Upon accepting and completing one of these quests, your challenges on the roads of Middle-earth will increase substantially.
  • The difficulty system turns itself off in group instances (3+), in the Ettenmoors, and any time the Delving system is activated. It will reactivate when you leave any of these areas.
• There are titles available for activating a difficulty of 3 or higher and keeping it there from level 10 to level 50, and then to level 130 respectively. The title granted depends on the class you play through with, but can be used by any character on your account.
  • In order to earn these titles, you must keep the difficulty system active for the entire leveling span from level 10 thru 50/130. Entering areas of the game world where it is temporarily suppressed will not invalidate your title attempt, however turning it down or off via the Hardened Traveller will.
  • Existing characters above level 10 will not be able to earn the titles themselves, but will be able to use those titles if they are earned by another character on your account.
• When playing at Fearless or higher, enemies of your own level or higher may drop Tokens of Heroism.
  • These can be turned in to complete weekly tasks from the Hardened Traveller, which will increase your reputation with the Paths of Valour faction.
  • At Fearless difficulty (3-6), these tokens can drop for up to 3 members in a Fellowship.
  • At Heroic difficulty (7+) they can drop for up to 6 members in a Fellowship.
  • The drop rate of these tokens increases somewhat with higher difficulties.
• The difficulty settings and effects are pretty much the same as they were on Treebeard, though we've changed up the names a bit, and added a few variations to the hotspot effects you can encounter under the Eye of Sauron.
• The Hardened Traveller has a menu of barter rewards that include a small set of Reputation accelerators for the faction and Morale/Power potions. More importantly, he also offers an array of 8 new Epic variations of familiar emotes which you will be able to find on the Collections panel.

General Landscape Changes:

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• Court of Celeborn now has a map.
• Floating objects in the Allegiance Halls and in Mordor have been grounded.
• Incorrect textures in Minas Tirith has been resolved.

Localization

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• Stablemaster map text has been updated for the German game client.

Missions and Delvings

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• Delving Barter Vendors and Mission Givers have also been added to all our Skirmish Camps. We did this to make it easier to turn in delving quests no matter where players are. Delving Mission Givers have also been given that title as a role to make it easy to spot them.
• Created a Selectable Delving Extraordinary Box that only drops in instances at tiers 7+. While still rare, new instances have a significantly higher drop rate for this item.
• The Delving Tracery Archive Travel Skill no longer has any reputation requirements.
• Mission: Jorthkyn and the Hounds
  • The Mission now appropriately identifies that you need to kill 8 wargs along with the 8 Jorthkyn to advance the quest.
  • The Mission had some pesky low-level monsters that really wanted to get in on the fight. They have been reprimanded to stay in their lanes.
• Fixed an issue with the mission "Dangerous Deliveries" where the player would pick the pie up twice upon completing the induction to pick up the pie.
• The bridge in the mission Patrol the Township that was bereft of physics has found its physics and will now support your character as it should.
• Before the Shadow missions that referred to previous mission givers have been updated with references to current mission givers.
• The mission "The Nettinglade" had a single cocoon that decided it didn't want to sparkle. The spider responsible has been admonished and though it pledged to swallow all Light in the world, it relented and allowed it's cocoon to sparkle once again.
• Delving Reward Changes:
  • Delving Selectable Crafting Boxes that drop at tier 7 and above can now be disenchanted instead for 20 Delvings Writs. These boxes now have a six hour expiration timer on them. These changes do not affect existing Crafting Boxes.
  • Changed how many writs completing Delving quests give. Tier 1-3 now give 10 writs, Tier 4-6 give 20 writs, Tier 7-9 give 30 writs and Tier 10-12 give 40 writs.
  • Two new cosmetic pets added to Delving Barter.
  • Delving armour will now be disenchantable for more Delving Writs. Common armour will disenchant for 10 writs, rare armour will disenchant for 20 writs, incomparable armour for 30 writs.
  • Added Tier 1 and Tier 2 Essence Boxes to the Delving Barter for Writs, and removed Tier 0.
  • Added Morale and Power Potions to the Delving Barter for Writs. Morale and Power potions also drop as rewards from high tier instance Delving Chests.
• Delving Mission Givers in Skirmish Camps now give Weekly Delving Quests.
• Mission - Defilers in the Dale - Corrected a visual bug where the cauldron's contents and bubbles could become visibly offset after being destroyed.
• Rewards that drop from Delvings have been updated with new Delving-specific icons.

PvMP

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• We have adjusted the distribution of Infamy/Renown while grouped. In the past, there was a modifier that increased the value of player kills when more than 6 kill contributors were involved. This resulted in the value of a single kill, while in a raid, to be valued over 2x what the kill should have been worth.
  • We have adjusted this modifier to make these values - in the absence of any other modifiers - equivalent to equal distribution of the infamy value of the kill.
  • We have adjusted the bonus modifier to infamy/renown gains when killing ranked players. This change rewards a higher contribution bonus for killing players of a higher rank.
• The War-spoils Carry-all icons have been updated and no longer display a bottle of liquid
• Lootboxes found by monster players now always drop 3 items from three specific tables:
  • Table 1 includes potions, barter lockboxes, and the potential for 500 commendations with weighting toward the barter box, and then equivalent draws for the remaining items.
  • Table 2 includes an equal chance for random perk items from a pool of 5 items.
  • The 3rd table has an equal chance to drop a single Audacity upgrade scroll, 2 Audacity upgrade scrolls, Lord's Symbols, Captain's Marks, 1k Commendations, 1.5k Commendations or a new Cosmetic Selection Box.
    • The Cosmetic Selection Box contains 2 new skins for each class. Previews are available on NPCs present near the Gramsfoot retreat circle.
    • The Selection Box also contains several new cosmetic weapons: Thrâng's Sword, a silvered scimitar, a spider-clan trident, an off-hand Gundabad mace, a Spider-clan staff, an Easterling Ghost Bow, and a new Dunharrow Shield.
    • The Box also contains a new cosmetic type that can be slotted into appearance Corruptions to change the style of your 'March!' skill emitted effects. These include: a white glow, fire trail, acid trail, and a "blue-foot" trail.
• The eggs around Grodris in the Isendeep Mine will now hatch if disturbed during the battle against the matron.
• Fixed an issue with the first and second marshal rewards not providing keys to the chest. The quests for First and Second marshal now correctly reward the key to the chest.
• Tokens of Valour will now go into the War-spoils Carry-all.
• Updated the new Monster Play tutorial to reference using skills on training dummy Kelsen, Jalessa, or Light training-dummy Orion. If you choose the other training dummies you are locked in combat for the full duration of the spawn - which is five minutes. This is bad. Please use the safety dummies. Use those initial skill training dummy Kelsen, Jalessa, or Light training-dummy Orion.
• First Marshal An and Tyrant Uzulthrang are back in action and ready to rush Tol Ascarnen when the opposition is in control. The rewards on the quests to use these two is increased significantly. Each has also been buffed appropriately.
• All values and costs for Lainedhal's Insignias were reduced. You can now purchase the old versions for nostalgia, but the tier 15 version is available to all rank 1 players and better for 2000 commendations and has a 1m cooldown just as the monster player brand.
• The Rank 9 mount available in monster play now has a full +68% movement bonus because it should have been upgraded along with all other mounts that are this hard to get.
• We adjusted the damage done by Spider Hatchlings to be more in line with creatures that are level 140.
• There was a bug introduced when we lowered the cost of monster play potions where we did not lower the amount purchasable from the barter NPC. This has been corrected and now you can only purchase in stacks of three.
• Mazauk and Old Goldhead have been refreshed and stand ready to help you capture Lugazag or Tirith Rhaw.
• Old U21 gear was using old Audacity values. This has been reduced to 1.
• Freepside Ettenmoors quests now award considerably more IXP when completed.
• The Freepside weekly quest, 'Battle Across the Ettenmoors' now gives slightly improved rewards.
• Many monster player skill power costs have been adjusted. In particular, several healing skills cost substantially more power.
• The base critical heal multiplier for most Creepside heals has been reduced from 1.5 to 1.2.
• Increased damage of ranger session play skills.
• Orc Defiler
  
  • Cooldowns reduced for Fertile Slime and Fungal Spores.
  • Fungal Spores initial heal potency reduced.
  • Enhanced Fungal Spores now rolls for a critical heal on each pulse, rather than following the critical outcome of the initial skill use.
  • Fertile Slime no longer has an initial heal.
  • Healing from Improved Blessing of Darkness now occurs every 1 second, rather than every 2 seconds.
  • Constant Pain now pulses healing every 2 seconds, and will restore some power to the defiler when it does.
• Orc Reaver
  
  • Blade Toss now only applies its slow and/or knockdown effects to targets facing away from you.
• Spider Weaver
  
  • Several spider animations should no longer slow down when you gain attack speed buffs.
  • Trapdoor Sanctuary now lasts 10 seconds; when traited, it will heal 5% of your max health each second.
• New Potions (of Bravery and Essence) are now correctly usable by the Free Peoples.
  
• Insignias now have a 3 minute cooldown and provide 15 seconds of combat state immunity (Tyrant Brands still have a 1 minute cooldown and only provide 5 seconds of immunity for now).
  
• Alwuld the Item Trader now carries the updated Morale and Power potions.
  
• Potions of Essence now correctly restore different amounts of Power, according to their quality and rank requirements.
  

Quests, Deeds and Instances

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• Tier 4 of Gwathrenost, the Witch-king's Citadel is available.
• All slayer deeds in the Wells of Langflood, will now properly reward players with LOTRO Points.
• Gwathrenost, the Witch-king's Citadel - The final Objective of 'The Storming of Gwathrenost' now functions similarly to 'Into the Hiddenhoard, allowing the Player the choice of whether or not to abandon the quest after completing it. The option to complete the quest via the Quest Actions panel was causing some players to mistakenly erase their progress in a given reset cycle, so this has been removed.
• Azanulbizar - Quest: Death in the Dale - The quest guide for this quest has been corrected to highlight the proper area.
• Azanulbizar - Quest: Elusive Prey - The quest guide now properly highlights the general locations of all the Rare foes in Azanulbizar.
• Sagroth - The Sewer Water debuff that can be applied to players during the Gárvadach encounter now carries the resistance type "disease" instead of "corruption".
• Several fading or overlapping combat music bugs have been fixed in the Race of Man and hobbit tutorials, the Archet raid, and the Trouble at Tuckborough skirmish.

Miscellaneous

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• The Allegiance panel can now be resized an additional horizontal distance.
• Certain Brawler Belt Buckles were appearing under the Lore-master class in searches in the Auction House. That has been fixed.
• Upgraded the compiler used to compile the 32 bit game client to make it compatible with upgraded OpenAL.
• Clydesdale mounts can now be used in Thorin's Hall and the Hall Under the Mountain
• The Assistant Stable-master at Elrond's Stables in Rivendell douses the horse less frequently.
• Facepaint rewards acquired from Hobnanigans now correctly shows on Human avatars.
• The Draught Horse cosmetic pets received in the Homesteads and Harvests Coffers have been renamed to "Miniature" Draught horses.
• Matching full size Draught horse cosmetic pet tomes have been granted (account-wide) to everyone that purchased the Homesteads and Harvests Coffers.
• The Homestead Steed mount scale has been increased to match the expected size of a draught horse. Many animation issues have been resolved for the Homestead Steed mount as well.
• Updated the icon for the Stoorvales/Clegur Milestone and for the Clegur travel skills.
• Several Run Speed buffs and debuffs were overwriting effects of greater potency. Player-applied Run Speed Effects should now only overwrite effects of the same kind (out of combat speed buff, in combat speed buff, or debuff) and the most potent effect should always be the one which is actively applied.

Known Issues:

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• In French and German the Tokens of Heroism may display as Tokens of Valour.
• The Stable-master panel in Collections has not been updated to include King's Gondor.
• The Deeds "Boar-slayer of Lower Lebennin" and "Boar-slayer of Lower Lebennin (Advanced)" are not bestowing/advancing properly.

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