Author: Admin

[NM] Lawbreakers Discussing Marketing, Dismisses Free To Play


Lawbreakers launched nearly one month ago, and suffice to say the game hasn’t been that well received on PC. Despite boasting a “mostly positive” review score from those who did pick up the title, the population peaked at 3,000 and has plummeted to a present 163 concurrent users as of 9am EST on a Wednesday morning as of this writing (by comparison, the recently free Brink has 813 people playing). Cliff Bleszinski has called the game a “marathon, not a sprint,” dismissing concerns over population issues and expressing hope that the game will see an increase in players over time.

But if you’re holding out for free to play, it isn’t being discussed. Over on the Steam forums, when asked about plans to address low traffic, the following response was given:

To answer the original question “when”, I can only say “soon”. We had roadmap meetings with Boss Key last week on what they have planned for the rest of the year. We’re working out a marketing plan to support that new content and reach out to more people. We’re also doing regular updates to the game based on player feedback, so we are listening and acting on the issues that come up.

We are committed to the long-term success of the game. And no, we are not discussing F2P.

The person quoted is a representative of Nexon, the publisher of Lawbreakers. The statement was later reiterated in the same thread:

We are not discussing F2P, and the OP is correct, it doesn’t really solve more issues than it brings with it. We are still working on patches (next one is next week), future content as well as addressing player pop.

Boss Key’s plans to revitalize the game will have to be seen, but at its current trajectory the game is going to need a big marketing push in order to get its name out there.

MMOments: Grabbing Free Costumes in Marvel Heroes Omega


I’ve been rolling through the latest event in Marvel Heroes on PC and Playstation 4, of which the latter is woefully outpaced by the amount of time and money I’ve placed in the former. While Marvel Heroes Omega on Playstation is by all means an inferior product at the moment, I have to hand it to Gazillion for having a better idea from the start as to how they want to take their product. Marvel Heroes on PC was a mess at launch, in fact it was a mess when I played it at New York Comic Con back in 2012, just a well disguised mess. It’s come a long way, but as I’ve said in previous articles there are things that the community has come to take for granted that aren’t exactly how Gazillion wants the game to go, but can’t remove because it would kill the community and likely the game itself.

One clear advantage, in this humble author’s opinion, that the console version has over PC is that it seems to be making up for the lack of fast experience by giving away loot boxes. Rather than through shared quests, console players receive daily missions that, upon completion, reward a Defenders loot box. The box is the same as the paid one, and it has a chance of containing costumes. Gazillion may not be handing out experience like it’s candy on the console version, but PC players aren’t getting their hands on new costumes at no charge.

In fact, I was able to get my hands on the Elektra Maskless costume just today (seen above). The boxes also hand out marvelous essence, the currency to buy general costumes from the store and eternity splinters to more quickly collect heroes. The quest itself is a pretty simple diversion, defeat 200 Hand members and a number of elites, you can complete it in one run of the Hand tower in Chapter 3 story mode.

Otherwise I can’t talk much about the gear other than to say that it is not the best in show, and therefore as an efficiency minded ARPG player, it is completely useless to me and not worth grinding the Hand currency to buy. If you’re on PC, the ongoing events are worth it if you’re looking to level up the related characters or get Spider Man to cosmic prestige to get ready for his Omega Prestige (coming soon). For those on console, it’s nice to be able to get your hands on something that Gazillion is normally pretty stingy with: Free lockboxes and free costumes.

[PSA] You Can Now Activate Steam Keys on the Steam Website


As an update that will no doubt leave some of our viewers thinking “boy it looks like MMO Fallout got hacked and is being used to phish Steam accounts,” Valve has updated their systems so that players can now redeem keys through the Steam website. I’m not entirely sure how to get to this page from the main Steam website, but you can click on the completely legitimate link down below listed as the source and redeem any key you want. Totally legitimate.

There is no way to report on this and make it look good.

(Source: Steam)

Omega Prestige Hits Marvel Heroes on August 31


Marvel Heroes is giving its players what they’ve demanded, if your demands include more incentive to grind, by introducing a new prestige tier. Set to launch on August 31, Omega Prestige continues the leveling system of resetting your character to level 1 for costumes (on PC) and increased ranks (on pc and console). Omega prestige will increase its rank for each time you hit 60, up to 70 times. Since Omega Prestige is a big change, Gazillion has announced that it will be rolled out on a character by character basis, starting with Spider Man.

With the new Omega Prestige system, we will introduce “Omega Prestige” status for select heroes with a new “Omega Prestige Rank” system for those looking to unlock the true potential of a hero and to help prepare players for more challenging end-game content coming soon. Omega Prestige marks the culmination of your hero’s journey. This is an extension of the normal Prestige system, extending end-game playtime considerably for anyone who is up to the challenge.

Perks include:

  • 60 second reduction for ultimate ability
  • Doubled stat boosts from synergy bonuses
  • A unique legendary item
  • A prestige nameplate
  • A prestige flourish (spray)
  • And more!

For those of you on console who don’t feel like hitting prestige rank 6, Gazillion is selling a pack to unlock Omega prestige for $40. The pack will be available for one month starting August 31. For more information, check out the link below.

(Source: Marvel Heroes)

[NM] Assassin’s Creed Forums Struck By Trolling Over Skin Color


If you’re looking to rustle some jimmies or meme it up on the Assassin’s Creed Origin forums, you might want to think twice or risk the wrath of some overworked, twitchy moderators. The forums are undergoing an apparent fumigation after they were targeted by a collective of trolls and angry gamers responding to so-called “blackwashing,” alleging that Ubisoft is depicting characters in the upcoming Assassin’s Creed Origin as darker in complexion than some believe they should be.

Assassin’s Creed: Origins launches October 27, 2017 on PC, Xbox, and Playstation. The game serves as a prequel to the series, set in Ptolemaic era Ancient Egypt with the player taking the role of Bayek and the origins (get it?) of the order of Assassins and their rival Templar group.

The series has been criticized over its historical accuracy. Recent studies have shown that ancient Egyptians shared more ancestry with Near Easterners (West Asia, Middle East) and that Sub-Saharan genes did not mix until more recent times, however the study notes that the genetic samples were taken from a single site and may not account for all of Egypt.

It is possible that populations in the south of Egypt were more closely related to those of Nubia and had a higher sub-Saharan genetic component, in which case the argument for an influx of sub-Saharan ancestries after the Roman Period might only be partially valid and have to be nuanced.

Much of the spam on the forums appears to be users repeating various memes, with some trolling using harsh, offensive slurs. As a result, the moderators appear to be taking a heavy handed approach to keep up with the influx of posts, and the nature of the posts has led some to believe that the complaints are rooted in racist ideologies.

[Community] Wild West Online, Everquest Next, and Guaranteed Refunds


I refuse to advocate or advertise Wild West Online’s preorder scheme, but I am going to tell you why I don’t trust buying into it and how it all comes back to Everquest Next, zombies, and Sergey Titov.

As one of the most incompetent and shady developers in this industry, MMO Fallout takes great caution when covering any game that even smells lightly of Titov’s touch. The rumors that he was involved in Wild West Online’s development, in fact just the idea that the game is using the engine that his company made, is enough to warrant intense scrutiny. If you’ve been following the game’s impending alpha launch, then you’re probably aware of the next “too good to be true” marketing trap: The guaranteed refund.

Let’s look at Wild West Online’s guaranteed refund policy, shall we?

So, up until the second phase of Alpha testing, we’ll let you refund your early bird purchase with no questions asked. This gives you a chance to play the Alpha yourself, and opt-out if you think the game won’t develop into the game you wanted. There are no restrictions on amount of time you have played, and there are no limits on how long you owned the game — so long as you decide before September 27, 2017 you will be granted a full refund.

Sounds great, right? No questions asked refunds for the first alpha wave, what could possibly go wrong? Well, let’s go back to Titov’s The War Z, which also had a no questions refund policy going into its alpha. The thing about getting rid of that policy so early in development is that developers tend to promise features that are coming if players just hold on a little longer, until after the refund window has passed. War Z waited until beta and launch day to implement some of its more egregious cash shop items, including the four hour respawn timer, making unpopular changes and refusing to implement features that it promised would be available for launch if players just held off on hitting that refund button.

Even more, let’s take a look at Daybreak Game Company and Everquest Next: Landmark, a game sold entirely on the premise that if you wanted a refund during alpha, you could have it with no questions asked. Of course, it wasn’t until after the refund window passed that Daybreak would announce the cancellation of Everquest Next, Landmark’s sole reason for existing, and basically doom the game to an early death while simultaneously telling players “hey, we offered you a refund window and you didn’t accept it. Tough luck.”

Steam has a refund window of two hours of gameplay, fourteen days after purchase, with exceptions in the case of developer malfeasance. Rather than buy into, and vicariously promote, players supporting a system that will present them with a completely unfinished game, one that has historically used a disguise of customer friendliness to hide a system that can be easily abused and then defended under the premise that the customer should have known that the product was incomplete, I’m going to go with this website’s running policy: Don’t preorder on a system that looks too good to be true.

And to wrap up, I don’t trust a refund system by Xsolla as far as I can throw the company (and if you haven’t figured out, I can’t throw things far). Once again, let’s go back to a name that finds itself on some of the industry’s sleaziest con jobs, and talk about the War Z’s guaranteed refunds. Back in 2012, War Z had a guaranteed refund policy which Xsolla promptly rendered moot by denying refunds. They pulled every excuse out of the book, from losing orders, not being able to find accounts, transitioning companies, and even quoting the terms of service saying that all sales are final.

The one that Hammerpoint copied from League of Legends.

So with Sergey Titov’s engine and Xsolla “all sales are final” handling the refunds, I’m going to do all I can and simply recommend that players don’t get caught up in the “guaranteed refunds” system like it is a safety net. It isn’t, and until you have the much more reliable safety of Valve overseeing the transaction, I recommend sitting it out on Wild West Online.

Marvel Heroes: 25% Off G’s On PS4 Until August 31


Marvel Heroes is running a 25% sale on G’s for Playstation users. The sale extends until August 31.

Our G Packs on PlayStation 4 are 25% OFF through August 31! Stock up on G’s today!

Target Probably Leaked Bethesda Game of Thrones Title


Is Bethesda working on a Game of Thrones title? I’ll never tell, but Target apparently will. Target currently has a page listing for Bethesda: Game of Thrones, which may or may not be leaking an as-of-yet unannounced title of the same name by the same developer. There are two known Game of Thrones titles in the works: Season two of the Telltale series, an MMO being created by Bigpoint, however Bethesda has not yet talked about developing or publishing a game based off of the popular HBO series.

There has been no comment by Bethesda as of yet.

Mark Laidlaw Reveals Half Life 2: Episode 3 Plot


With the launch of Duke Nukem Forever now more than half a decade behind us, Half Life 2: Episode 3 (or Half Life 3 depending on who you ask) has taken the throne as the king of vaporware. Initially announced in 2006, the next episode in the Half Life 2 series, which Valve ironically moved to an episodic format to avoid long development delays, has been in limbo with nary a shred of evidence that the developer is actually working on said title.

While Valve has been silent on their development plans for Half Life, one thing that the company cannot hide is that its Half Life writers are jumping ship. Over the past two years, at least four big writers have left the company: Eric Wolpaw, Chet Faliszek, Mark Laidlaw, and Jay Pinkkerton.

Mark Laidlaw, evidently not content with his story being lost to the Valve offices forever, recently posted a “fan fiction” story titled “Epistle 3” on his blog. The blog post is from the perspective of a “Gertie Fremont,” discussing the death of “Elly Vaunt” and heading to the antarctic with Alex Vaunt to find the Hyperborea. The story is a clear nod toward Half Life 2, with events detailed that have leaked out through interviews and documents over the years.

In Laidlaw’s story, Freeman and Alex go north to find the Aurora Borealis, a ship created by Aperture Science (thinking with Portals) that can phase in and out of existence and time. The duo comes across Dr. Breen who had transferred his consciousness to a Combine slug, now regretting his decision and wishing for death. They take over the Borealis and plot to crash it into the Combine homeworld, when the illusive Gman shows up and pulls Alex out to rescue her.

Gordon, meanwhile, remains on board the ship to realize that the plan is destined to fail, as the Combine power is too great. He is rescued at the last second by the Vortigaunt, setting the game up for a possible sequel. Gordon wakes up on shore, not knowing where he is or how much time has passed, or even if the resistance won. The story ends on a somewhat chilling note,

“Expect no further correspondence from me regarding these matters; this is my final epistle.”

The last full game to be developed by Valve was released in 2012, with much of the company’s focus being on maintaining Dota 2, Team Fortress 2, and Counter Strike: GO, as well as its various investments in competitive gaming tournaments, VR, and the Steam marketplace. More story-driven titles including Half Life, Portal, and Left 4 Dead have sat neglected for the better part of the last decade.

As time goes on, the hopes for Valve wrapping up the Half Life series have understandably faltered. Valve remains silent, writers from the series are leaving, the voice actor for Dr. Breen passed away, and leaks from the company suggest that all attempts to revive the sequel have ultimately died off and gone nowhere. Valve is currently working on several VR titles, and the flat structure ensures that anyone can start working on Half Life as soon as they feel like it. So will they?

It feels less likely as they years tick on.

ArcheAge 4.0: All The News That’s Fit To Print


ArcheAge 4.0 hits PC in the fourth quarter this year, and Trion Worlds has released a fact list showcasing some of the features coming to the titular MMO. More information will be coming at a later date, however Trion Worlds has showcased the following new features coming with the next big version update:

  • 20 player naval battleground: ArcheAge’s first PvP naval battleground. Take your crew of five and go up against three other crews. Naval Battlegrounds promise new cross-server arenas as well as new rewards.
  • Open world raid finder: Exactly as it sounds, find or advertise your raid.
  • Simplified gem system: Streamlined lunagem system purported to be more user friendly.
  • Crafting updates: A new crafting tutorial quest line, new crafting interface, and specialization.

(Source: Trion Worlds press release)