Author: Admin

ArcheAge Dealing With DDOS Attacks As Servers Strain


If you’re having trouble logging into ArcheAge today, you aren’t alone. Gamigo has stated via the official ArcheAge Twitter account that servers are dealing with several distributed denial of service attacks that the company is working on mitigating.

Players may have trouble logging in during this period.

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Jagex Grinds Out 120 Farming/Herblore This Week


Jagex this week gave its players a new reason to grind out those levels and farm those farms with the expansion of two skills and introduction of new content to RuneScape.

Foremost on the list of additions this week is the expansion of the Farming and Herblore skills, increasing the skill caps to 120 and enabling an array of new content to make that level grind a little bit more worth the time. On the farming side, players now have access to the Ranch Out Of Time (Blue Cheese Out Of Time for players in Buffalo) where players can farm and breed dinosaurs in a new set of farming paddocks located on Anachronia. In addition to dinosaurs, players will also be able to grow a set of new plants and access new farming plots.

On the herblore side, leveling past 99 will give access to potion bombs.

“As players work towards 120 Farming, they’ll unlock new content at every single level: new mushrooms, new cactus patches, and the elusive Money Tree await. They’ll be able to use all these new ingredients to make potent potions that provide short-but-powerful benefits on a whole range of attributes, and the new herblore skills will allow players to concoct something even more explosive: bombs!  Sticky bombs, poison bombs, vulnerability bombs and more – the higher your Herblore level, the more efficient you will become at crafting bombs. Have fun on our rather ferocious farm!”

This week also marks the launch of the Yak Track, RuneScape’s answer to the titular battle pass. \

Source: RuneScape

Battleborn Rendered Unplayable In January 2021


2K Games announced this week that the Battleborn servers will shut down as of January 2021, leading everyone to ask the same question; “Battleborn’s servers were still online?”

Battleborn famously launched in May 2016 and became known as the game killed in the crib by Overwatch which released just three weeks after. Following a steep decline in users once Overwatch actually launched, Battleborn languished for a year and a half until Gearbox finally pulled the plug and announced that the title would no longer be seeing any content updates. After that it was only a matter of time until the servers were taken down for good.

For what it’s worth, Battleborn was actually a decent game. Not great, but decent. It was less of the Overwatch that it was compared to and more of a first person shooter variant of a Dota-style game. GQ’s Joshua Rivera made an analogy in 2017 that still fits:

“Imagine you opened up a new, pretty good pizza shop in your neighborhood, a place where people like pizza but can’t really get any nearby. It’s a good idea; the demand is there, and you’ve got a pretty good supply. Not the best slice you’ve ever had, but you can reliably make a solid pie that should make your spot a hit. Now imagine that two weeks later, let’s say… Paul Rudd opens a pizza shop a block away. And not only is that pizza shop a place where you can go and hang out with Paul Rudd and all his famous friends, but it turns out that Paul Rudd is like, a pizza savant? Just freaking impossibly good at slingin’ pies, that Paul Rudd.”

As of right now, Battleborn has been removed from digital store shelves (although you can probably still find piles of unopened copies at Goodwill). Digital currency is being removed from sale in February 2020 and the game will no longer be playable once the servers go down in January 2021.

Source: Twitter

Bloodbath Steam: Valve Burns Down The House In Mass Game Ban


(Update: It looks like a total of 833 games have been banned by Valve today)

Bloodbath Kavkaz? Nah, Bloodbath Steam.

Valve is currently in the midst of what appears to be a massive ban wave of shady Steam developers, with hundreds of games caught in the crossfire and no sign of slowing down. The ban wave began just over an hour ago as of this publishing and has been knocking out games left and right.

Chief among the ban list is Dagestan Technology, a Russian publisher of titles such as Bloodbath Kazkov.

We will update if more information become available.

Source: Sentinels of the Store

Star Trek Online’s New Mudd Market Is Probably Fraudulent


Just when you thought Bethesda was going to take home the trophy for 2019’s “stupid and greedy” decision, Cryptic Studios rolls in and says “we can do it better, and possibly commit fraud in the process!”

This weekend saw the launch of the Mudd Market in Star Trek Online, a feature that by all means should be seen as a good thing. Its purpose after all is to sell items that have been previously unobtainable for a very long time. Ships, crewmates, and other items all being sold to people who have really wanted them but couldn’t get them. Simple, right? Well not so much.

Cryptic decided the best course of action was to launch the shop with ridiculously egregious pricing, offering items like a combat pet for the regular cost of eight thousand Zen (that’s $80 USD) and around $140 for a ship. The items are on sale, of course, at 75% off, but even the sale prices have gone over like a lead balloon to the community, many of whom are aware that many of these items were previously given away for free.

To complicate matters, official communications from Cryptic staff indicate that these prices were meant to be a joke, as in “ha ha look how crazy that Mudd is selling his rare goods.” Unfortunately for Cryptic, while the idea of the crazy used goods salesman might make for a decent lore point, the law has something to say about deceptive advertising.

You see, in the United States and several other countries there are laws on the books that consider it fraudulent advertising when you put an item on discount but never actually sold it at the regular price or had any intention of selling it at the regular price. These cases regularly end in multi-million dollar settlements. Cryptic has attempted to walk back these claims of ‘joke’ prices by claiming that the items will indeed go to their regular listed price after the sale ends.

Disgruntled customers are encouraged to air their grievances to CBS (who own Star Trek) directly via their compliance line by phone or by email. Complaints regarding deceptive advertising can be made to the Federal Trade Commission, your Attorneys General, or for those living outside the United States your equivalent consumer protection bureau.

Source: MassivelyOP via Reddit

Video: Check Out 25 Minutes Of Wild Terra 2 Gameplay


It’s been nearly a week since the folks at Juvty Worlds announced Wild Terra II, the technologically superior sequel to the title of a similar name. Today Juvty Worlds released a video showcasing the first 25 minutes of pre-alpha gameplay which you can view embedded above.

The video notes that;

“The game does not yet have most of the sound FX, many animations need to be improved or created, and animals leave a trail on the screen when moving. But we really want to share this video so that you can see what has already been done and how the gameplay feels. We took it off as it is.”

For those interested in checking out Wild Terra II, it is possible to buy into a founders pack. Juvty Worlds is funding Wild Terra without investors or publishers. The first rendition of the game is available on Steam in a free to play format.

MMO Fallout Presents 2019 Predictions For 2020: 2019 Edition


With 2019 just about dead and behind us, it’s about time we start looking toward the far future of 2020. That in mind, I’d like to make some of my trademark predictions for the coming new year.

  • Daybreak Game Company DayBREAKS: I’ll file this one under ‘assuming it doesn’t happen next month.’ In case you weren’t paying attention for the past two years, Daybreak Game Company is a mess and I predict that 2020 will be the point where all of that comes to a head. More layoffs, lower quality workmanship with their live titles, and H1Z1 on PS4 will still be a simmering dumpster fire of garbage. This year we speculated that Daybreak is planning on facturing itself into several separate companies. If that is the plan, I believe that 2020 is the year that it happens. Assuming there’s anything left to break apart.
  • Alganon/Line Of Defense Will Still Be Vaporware: I don’t know how it’s possible for an MMO that was already released to become vaporware but Derek Smart managed to pull it off. Alganon has been offline for migration to a new server since November of 2017 and it doesn’t seem like it’s coming back any time soon. Smart is allegedly working with partners for an international release (Alganon technically only launched in North America), but if this relaunch doesn’t get MMO Fallout into legal trouble with David Allen…again, will it even be worth it? Oh and Line of Defense is still a pipe dream.
  • Neither Will Earthrise: The folks at SilentFuture want me to know that the Earthrise reboot is definitely happening and the game hasn’t been cancelled at all, but I’m going to to on a limb here and say that a 2020 reboot of a nine year dead MMO that nobody wanted the first time around, for whom the new developer hasn’t actually done anything with in years? If that happens and it’s good, I will eat an entire Little Caesars pizza. For charity.
  • And Neither Will Everquest 3: I don’t think this revelation will surprise anyone, but Everquest 3 isn’t going to be a thing, Daybreak missed that boat when they abandoned Everquest Next and Landmark and arguably pulled a con on their customers in the process.
  • The Rise Of Specialty Servers: Now that World of Warcraft has shown how popular classic servers can be, I expect that more developers will be working on specialty servers going into 2020. 2019 was rife with them, we had DDO release a permadeath server, as did Age of Conan, RuneScape has its twisted leagues, and there have been all sorts of progression servers. I expect 2020 will only increase in developers willing to take risks by which I mean copy what should be a safe and proven idea.
  • MMOs Releasing On Stadia: If they are smart they will. Right now Stadia requires a $10 monthly fee just to access the service. As of some point in 2020, that will change and the standard service at 1080p will be free. For MMOs that already have console versions, if the developers are smart they’ve already been working on porting those games to Stadia. Think of it this way; you’re effectively porting your game to mobile (phones/tablets) without actually having to put the legwork into trimming down the game to function on a mobile device.
  • More SpatialOS MMOs Will Shut Down: I know this one is about as obvious as predicting the sun will rise tomorrow, but I expect we will see more games running on SpatialOS to shut down due to the engine’s extortionate costs. All of these games will be before they even release, or shortly after.
  • More Mobile Ports: Mobile ports of MMOs are apparently doing very well, just ask NCSoft how Lineage II: Revolution and Lineage mobile have been operating. It stands to reason that more developers are going to tap into the mobile market and make cut down versions of their PC/console games.
  • Anthem’s Reboot Will Be Too Little, Too Late: File this one under ‘assuming it happens at all.’ At this juncture, I can’t see Anthem recovering from its first year to any standard that EA might find acceptable. Stores can’t give the game away and it has already hit single digit prices on the used market. For those who already own the game, at least they won’t be completely abandoned like EA has done with certain past MMOs.
  • More Lootbox Alternatives: Given the threat of looming government regulations has been slowly turning into actual government regulations, I anticipate 2020 will introduce more lootbox alternatives. 2019 saw the rise of the battle pass and it looks like that’s the direction many developers are going in since you can make extra money selling levels for casual players who really want all of the cosmetics included.

That’s it for MMO Fallout’s 2020 predictions for now. If I come up with another list, I’ll be sure to publish it.

Epic Game Store Black Friday Sale Highlights


It’s Black Friday sale time and that can only mean one thing; giving Epic your money.

Instead of boring all of you by putting every single game that is currently on sale, I will do the Epic thing and curate the list. There is quite a bit on sale and at a deep discount too. Warm up those Chinese shill comments.

  • Red Dead Redemption 2: $59.99  $47.99
  • Borderlands 3: $59.99 $40.19
  • Sinking City: $59.99  $38.99
  • Operencia: The Stolen Sun – $29.99  $14.99
  • Conarium: $19.99  $6.79
  • Alan Wake: $14.99  $2.99
  • Alan Wake’s American Nightmare: $8.99  $1.79
  • The Division 2: $59.99  $14.99
  • Ghost Recon: Breakpoint – $59.99  $29.99
  • Watch Dogs 2: $59.99  $17.99
  • Sherlock Holmes: The Devil’s Daughter – $49.99  $9.99

There are over 80 games on sale, so check out the link below and see if anything catches your fancy.

Source: Epic Game Store

Both Destiny Titles Are Offline As Bungie Hurries To Figure Out Why


Destiny 1 and 2 have been down pretty much all day today, and Bungie is trying to get to the source of why. Servers for both titles went down at about 7:30 eastern this morning. Bungie has not publicly stated what the source of the downtime is, just that they are investigating the issues preventing people from logging in.

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Is this a conspiracy by the Undying Mind to prevent players from racking up kills during the final offensive event? Your guess is as good as mine.

PSA: Brad Mcquaid Memorial Stream Nov. 22 at 7p.m. EST


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MMO Fallout would like to remind our readers that Visionary Realms is hosting a community memorial stream in honor of the late Brad Mcquaid. The stream will be held tonight, November 22, at 7p.m. Eastern at the link above.