While the game itself is small, it’s still found great success (with a fair few technical hiccups along the way) thanks to the design of its locations. Each map is tiny, but is packed with places to hide and items to uncover. Every time you enter the map, the location of various things such as the radio, phone and car parts, shifts so it always feels fresh when you feel the urge to hunt down counsellors as Jason Voorhees, or be hunted by him. It’s the compactness of the camp that makes it special; it’s the perfect size to get lost in while still being tight enough to keep you on your toes. It’s a perfect example of a small space done well, utilising every inch of space to its fullest.

The facilities

There are also plenty of activities on offer to keep you entertained while you’re out there, including moonlit walks, classes in car mechanics and frequent hide-and-seek tournaments which award great prizes such as bear traps and even, if you’re very lucky, the gift of life.

Should you decide to visit you can get closer to nature and rough it in a tent by a log fire, but the only way to experience camp life at its fullest is to rent a rustic chalet with your friends. Each one has several rooms for you to spread out in and includes drawers to hide your knickknacks, as well as plenty of underbed storage space should you feel the need to hide. Scattered around the forest, they are little oases of hope in a wilderness full of dread – sneaking inside one gives you a brief moment of calm and a source of inspiration as you uncover items to plan your next moves. Healing items, car parts and makeshift weapons can all be found in your lodgings when taking part in one of Jason’s games.

Moonlit walks

There are two places in Higgins Haven that stand out above everything else – the main lodge, and Jason’s cabin. Spread over two floors with multiple rooms and a cosy fireplace, the lodge feels like a smaller map within a map. With plenty of room for the counsellors to run around in and narrow stairs to contend with, players are forced into attacking Jason to escape if he steps inside. It feels very much like a condensed version of the whole map – you’re forced into close contact so all of your interactions are far more intense, but being such a large cabin you’ve got loads of options in how you handle things. Do you dive out of a window? Or stand your ground and stun Jason with a flare gun? Or do you hide in a closet and hope he walks right past so you can escape later?

By comparison the forest outside feels positively wild; the tall pine trees feel overbearing, adding to the tension. You find yourself jumping at every shadow in the pale moonlight, nervously looking over your shoulder every time you duck into the bushes to hide. Stay outdoors long enough and eventually you’ll stumble across a tiny, isolated cabin with a morbid secret inside – the dried-out remains or Mrs Voorhees and a crusty jumper that can stop Jason in his tracks. Finding it feels like winning a horrible jackpot – the prize being the most powerful item in the game, though you’ll have to slip into a dead woman’s jumper to be able to use it.

No matter how horrible it is, Higgins Haven is a joy to explore inch by terrifying inch. The nights you spend there are dark and full of terror, but it’s worth the visit to see just how well a small space can build such a tense atmosphere.

This article originally appeared in Xbox: The Official Magazine. For more great Xbox coverage, you can subscribe here (opens in new tab).

The post Take a trip to Higgins Haven and go glamping in Friday The 13th appeared first on Game News.

You can see the patch notes below and, well, there’s not a lot that wasn’t causing problems. There had been some discussion that Xbox One had received an unfinished version of the game but, according to the developer, it was simply the fact that a day one patch had been held up by Microsoft. 

There’s been no reason given for the delay but the patch is out now, so friends can finally get axe-happy on Xbox without falling through the floor. The expansive list of fixes is below and, if you’re wondering what all the excitement is about then here’s a few stories from our own experiences playing Friday The 13th (opens in new tab), and if you’re already playing then we’ve some Friday the 13th tips (opens in new tab) to help with all the murder and running. 

Friday the 13th Patch Notes;
-New intro cinematics for Tommy Jarvis spawn, Game Intro, and Game Outro.
-Fixed crash for VoIP that would during gameplay
-Fix for out of memory crash with a bug in the texture system bloating out textures after playing a couple of rounds.
-Fixed getting stuck when interactive with drawers.
-Fixed getting stuck when climbing through windows
-Fixed camera getting stuck when interactive with doors, windows and drawers.
-Fixed Jason getting stuck in a chop loop when breaking down doors.
-Fixed Jason getting off aligned when breaking down doors. He will no longer keep popping back in a new position.
-Fixed environment and grab kills being off.
-Fixed environment and grab kill jittering.
-Made knife pickup grab animations more accurate.
-Fixed some knife pickups from not working.
-Fixed the shotgun and flare gun sometimes not firing.
-Fixed weapon swapping from floating.
-Fixed firecrackers going through the world
-Fixed physics on car. No longer can a group of counselors push it around.
-Fixed getting in and out of a car where animations would get off sync.
-Fixed players standing up in the car.
-Fixed pocket knife not working when getting pulled out of the car.
-Fixed more than one player being able to get into the driver’s seat at the same time.
-Fixed physics on boat. No longer can a group of counselors push it around.
-Fixed getting in and out of a boat where animations would get off sync.
-Fixed players standing up in the boat.
-Fixed more than one player being able to get into the boat driver’s seat at the same time.
-Fixed HUD getting stuck when getting in and out of armoire.
-Fixed blood getting stuck on screen when dying.
-Fixed blood getting stuck on screen when coming back as Tommy Jarvis.
-Fixed repair mini game getting stuck on screen when getting hit with a weapon while doing the mini-game.
-Fixed exploit where users were able to go into combat stance and then sprint sliding around the character but not burning any stamina.
-Fixed Jason sliding around when getting stunned.
-Fixed counselors sliding around when playing the falling animation.
-Fixed Jason grabbing someone out of a car and them becoming a ghost.
-Fixed driving the car getting out of sync with the server / host then teleporting the player back to where they got into a car.
-Made session invitations a lot more reliable.
-Fixed crash where you would exit a match and then start a new Private Match.
-Added movable hair to the female characters.
-Optimized all maps to have a nice performance increase on Xbox One when action gets intense.
-Did a warmer lighting pass to increase visual quality.
-Fixed crash when getting grabbed by Jason.

The post Friday the 13th finally patched on Xbox One: it fixes EVERYTHING appeared first on Game News.

Seven Camp Crystal Lake counsellors are just waiting to be picked off by Jason Vorhees – motion captured by Kane Hodder himself – and the video shows that even the idea of running through the woods and knowing that he’s out there is seriously terrifying business. Plus, it’s not just purely a game of cat and mouse. You can hear the team talking about the car being repaired and pondering other team members using this impending death as a chance to escape so there’s clearly more than one way to avoid imminent slaughter.

I don’t want to spoil the moment but 2:08 really shows how this game could be getting it so right. Add in the fact that the player says he has all the right sound effects in his ears as Jason gets closer and this could be something really special. Take a look and to find out more you can read our interview with the Friday The 13th game creators (opens in new tab).

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The post Friday the 13th alpha footage shows Jason Voorhees in action appeared first on Game News.