The Witcher 3 – Hearts Of Stone

The Witcher 3 is a massive game that’s brimming with quality content that would keep one engaged for hours on end, but playing the base game alone isn’t the complete experience. Both of the game’s post-launch expansions including Hearts of Stone are equally good in their own right, but we are going with the latter of the DLCs for this list simply because of the fantastic story. Set in an entirely new section of the map called No Man’s Land, Hearts of Stone is all about Geralt trying to defeat the immortal Olgierd von Everec. Hearts of Stone also introduces new Monsters, side quests, and new combat mechanics like Runewords which come together to make this expansion a surprisingly fresh experience that’s unmissable for fans of The Witcher.

A new hotfix is currently live for 4A Games’ Metro Exodus. It applies to both PC and console versions but will be utmost interest to the former. That’s because it removes Denuvo from the Steam, Epic Games Store and Xbox Game Pass for PC versions of the game. If you’ve been on the fence about it, this should be a good incentive to finally jump in.

Other features of this patch, aside from various crash fixes, include a backup functionality for saves on the Epic Games Store version. This is in the event of cloud saves malfunctioning. An issue that caused the filter to rapidly discharge in the Sam’s Story DLC has also been fixed.

Check out the patch highlights below with more details here. Metro Exodus is currently available for Xbox One, PS4, PC and Google Stadia. For more information on the game’s quality, check out our review here. You can also read reviews for The Two Colonels and Sam’s Story DLCs to see if they’re worth the trouble.

METRO EXODUS HOT FIX – 27 MAY 2020

• Removed Denuvo from Steam, Epic, Xbox PC Gamepass versions.
• Fixed the rapidly discharging filter issue in Sam’s Story on all platforms (extreme timer depletion in fog).
• This fixes the filter issue just after getting the boat from the humanimal hunter lair and proceeding into the fog beyond. Filters depleting quickly in the high rad zone near the sub base without the proper hazmat suit from the fire depot, is by design.
• Added save backup functionality for Epic version in case of cloud save malfunction.
• Browse to the default save folder to find a “.backup” folder.
• Fixed camera rotation issue with latest Nvidia Ansel update.
• Fixed various crashes.

In the Metro Exodus DLC, Sam’s Story, upgrading your suit is key since it allows for carrying more ammo and items while also having substantial damage resistance. The kicker is that upgrades can only be found in Night Hunter stashes, which require some digging around to find them. Don’t worry though – we’ll tell you where to find each one.

First are the Night Vision Goggles. Head southeast of the Submarine to the two-story building marked with with a “?”. Upon docking to it, scour the location’s second floor until you find a zombie mutant carrying the Night Vision Goggles. Relieve the zombie mutant of said goggles. To get the NVG amplifier, you’ll need to go southeast of the scout outpost to a lair infested with mutants. It’s found in the back room.

Next is the Throwing Weapons Harness, which can be found in the same location as the Night Vision Goggles. Look around the second story around the wooden bridge, then drop down from here to find the harness in a hidden path. Now it’s time to head to the apartment opposite of this location, to the third floor. This is where the Captain is being held by mutants. Look around for an apartment with a workbench that has a balcony, which leads to a kitchen. Head into the kitchen and destroy the left shelf (the one with the glassware) to find the Battery Upgrade.

The Reinforced Helmet is found in the Captain’s back-up base. It’s in a locked room on the above floor but if you travel to the apartment nearby, locate a barricade that was constructed from a painting and bash through, you can access it. Next are Ammo Pouches. Head to the outpost in the southern part of the map. You’ll find a safe house here and also a bridge that leads into a three-story complex. Go up and meet the scouts. As you tour the area, the pouches should be on a table.

The Armored Glass, which helps reinforce your gas mask, is found in the Naval HQ. Look for the room with a workbench where the Zap Spider makes its first appearance. The Extended Filter is found in the Fire Department’s armory – after donning the radiation suits, just head upstairs. Finally, for the Consumables Carrier, go to the bandit camp at the Unfinished Construction Site. This is a location in the southern part in the center. Upon reaching the site, head into the first floor of the building on your right and look for three switches in an offices. Activate the middle one first, followed by the right and then the left to find the carrier.

Weapon Upgrade Locations

Next to suit upgrades, the Sammy Assault Rifle and Stallion Pistol will be your best friends throughout the DLC. They can be customized in numerous ways to hold more ammo, change firing types and much more. The best part is that several parts will be located together and within areas with suit upgrades.

For the Sammy Assault Rifle, you’ll want to check around the outpost with the Night Vision Goggles. From the wooden walkway, drop down and find a stairwell. There will be a locked room that has the Burst Fire System (Barrel). The Standard Magazine is also located here. For the Semi-Automatic System (Barrel), you’ll need to go the south map’s center and navigate a building filled with traps. Walk through the area carefully and look for a rope ladder that leads into the mine workshop. Move through the hallway and you’ll find a room with the barrel inside.

There’s a bandit camp in the southern part of the map that used to be a police station. Head there and look for a boat on the dock. Board it and you’ll find the Heavy Stock and High Capacity Magazine on a corpse. The final upgrade, the Sniper Stock, is found once Klim’s rebellion begins in the room with a workbench. Just look for the rifle poking out from the corner in the room.

As for the Stallion Pistol, its first part, the Balanced Grip, can be found in the Captain’s back-up base. Remember where you find the Reinforced Helmet? The grip is on the bed in the same room, tugged snugly under a pillow. The Short Barrel and Suppressor and Reflex Sight can also be found on the same weapon.

The Heavy Grip, Closed Reflex Sight, Extended Magazine, Green Laser and Long Barrel With Full Auto parts are all located in the same place where you find the Consumables Carrier upgrade. There will be a cache with all of the parts so look out for it. Finally, the High-Capacity Magazine can be found in the same mutant lair with the NVG Amplifier.

Sam’s Story, as the name indicates, puts players in the shoes of Sam after he departs from Artyom’s group in the base game. As an American soldier who was stationed at the American embassy in Moscow when the bombs fell, Sam has been a long way away from home for years, and this expansion follows him as he attempts to make his way back to the United States, where he’s hoping his father will still be alive.

4A Games have never failed to tell an engaging story over the years, and they do so once again with Sam’s Story. The character of Sam is a lot more upbeat and feisty than the perpetually silent Artyom, so following him as the leading man of the story proves to be a much more engaging experience. Some of his lightheartedness occasionally feels like the situations call for it, while a few story developments feel somewhat rushed, but by and large, this DLC tells a solid narrative.

"After turning back the clock and offering an entirely linear experience with Metro Exodus’ first expansion, The Two Colonels, with its second one, Sam’s Story, 4A Games deliver more of what made Exodus so good- and deliver it in spades. "

To get to the United States, Sam needs to cross an entire ocean, of course, and it is as he’s looking for a way to sail across the Pacific when he arrives in the port city of Vladivostok- which is perhaps the DLC’s biggest strength. Narratively, the city has a lot to offer, as the story does an excellent job of immersing you in the brewing conflict that’s taken hold of the area.

Beyond narrative strengths, Vladivostok impresses in other areas as well. For starters, it is perhaps the single most visually impressive location I’ve ever seen in a Metro game. The city is half sunken and fallen into ruins, with water flooding the streets and seeping into the buildings, while an overgrowth of plants on structures and roads and layers of moss in the water give sections of the city a bright, green aesthetic.

Design-wise, too, Vladivostok feels fresh and exciting. Traversing through the city in a boat and finding new areas to explore or points of interest to check out is constantly engaging. The unique properties of the environment also pave the way for some excellent encounters, like wading through waist-deep waters in the corridors of a dark and half-sunken building, while underwater enemies camouflage themselves in the moss and suddenly jump out at you. The trademark tight, claustrophobic corridors of Metro feel even more oppressive in Sam’s Story.

"Vladivostok is perhaps the single most visually impressive location I’ve ever seen in a Metro game."

There’s also plenty of interesting things to do scattered around the map, which can offer anything from the aforementioned, more tense sections, to sections that are heavily stealth-centric, and more. Like the base game, all these activities are contextualized within the world and the main story very well, while the rewards they yield are also usually rather useful- so going after the optional objectives never feels like a waste of time.

Meanwhile, exploration has another added layer in Sam’s Story. Vladivostok is littered with mines and explosives that’ll blow you to bits upon impact, and so you have to keep an eye on the Universal Detector, a new gadget on Sam’s arm that warns you about everything from mines to other resources in your proximity. The Universal Detector gives exploration a more focused approach, and there were far too many times when I was happily distracted by its beeping and had to take a look around. Sure enough, there’s no shortage of content in Sam’s Story. At about 8 hours long, it’s quite a meaty package.

The expansion does stumble in some ways though, and chances are, if you’ve played Metro before, these issues won’t be unfamiliar to you. For starters, as engaging as the story and the world-building are, things such as the dialogue and the voice acting tend to be a bit spotty. The voice acting especially is, by and large, mediocre, and does dull the impact of some important scenes.

"The expansion does stumble in some ways though, and chances are, if you’ve played Metro before, these issues won’t be unfamiliar to you."

There’s also a few of technical issues that I ran into during my playthrough. There was quite a bit of texture pop-in, with some textures taking a bit too long to load in, and though the frame rate mostly remained solid, there were some occasional dips here and there. The facial animation and lip syncing are also quite rough, and facial models themselves don’t hold up too well under scrutiny. Finally, there were also several times when the audio would glitch out and dialogs would be skipped over before they were finished.

These few issues aside, Sam’s Story is a perfect encapsulation of everything that was good about Metro Exodus itself. It brings an excellent and large new area that is full of content and always a joy to explore; it delivers a balanced mix of stealth-based action, the series’ iconic claustrophobic horror, and more open-ended gameplay; and to top it all off, it tells an engaging story. It’s a great way to bid farewell to Metro Exodus, with 4A Games now having delivered all of its post-launch content, and an excellent final reminder of just what made the base game so good in the first place.

This game was reviewed on the PlayStation 4.

Metro Exodus took the shooter series out of the titular underground Metro and into the open world. While it was a bit slow going and needed some patches in the beginning, it ended up being a solid ride. It didn’t end with the credits, however, as more DLC stories have released post-launch. The second of those is Sam’s Story, and the expansion launched today with a new trailer.

The trailer highlights the new episode’s plot. It follows an American solider named Sam, who followed Artyom in his quest to leave the Metro. Sam is determined to find a way back to the United States after finding out there are other cities with survivors similar to Moscow. 

Metro Exodus is available now for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC (with the game coming to Steam soon), and Stadia. Sam’s Story is available now across all those platforms, and you can get the base game now if you happen to be subscribed to Stadia Pro for free.

4A Games’ Metro Exodus will receive its second DLC, “Sam’s Story“, on February 11th. Included in the Expansion Pass and also purchasable standalone, the DLC follows Spartan Ranger Sam, who leaves the Aurora to travel back to the United States of America. It’s going to be a long journey though, especially when he has to head through the crumbling port city of Vladivostok.

Along with industrial and residential areas, the new “sandbox survival” location also features harbors affected by tsunamis. Non-linear exploration aside, players can expect to see new mutant variants, new weapons and some new characters. How long the DLC will be remains to be seen, but The Two Colonels, the first major story DLC for the game, should serve as a decent measuring stick.

Metro Exodus is currently available for PS4, PC, Xbox One, and Google Stadia. It’s been a timed exclusive to the Epic Games Store for a year on PC (eventually making its way to the Windows Store), and will release for Steam on February 14th. Stay tuned for more details on Sam’s Story in the meantime.