Author: Admin

Review: Guild Wars 2 Path of Fire


(Disclosure: MMO Fallout received a copy of Path of Fire for the purposes of review. As always, this does not change my opinion)

I’ve always regarded Guild Wars 2 as the Cadillac of MMORPGs, it’s a title that while not being the apocalyptic horseman for subscription games that some fans prophesied, has cut itself a fine section of the market thanks to its polish and the way that Arenanet went about building the world. Here you have a game with strong non-player characters, an engaging story, and a world that feels more living and breathing than your Eorzeas or Gielinors. It presents maps chock full of stuff to do, and your character at the forefront of ever increasingly dangerous foes.

Path of Fire is the second expansion to Guild Wars 2, continuing the story as it left of in season 3 of the living story. Balthazar, human god of war, has returned to Tyria and plans to kill the elder dragons in order to absorb their power and get revenge on his fellow gods for their betrayal of him. At the end of the season, Balthazar turns his sights toward the Crystal Desert and sets off to kill the elder dragon Kralkatorrik. This is where the story picks up.

The lands of the Crystal Desert aren’t just long stretches of brown and tan, either. The world presented forth is massive, much more open than previous zones (especially Heart of Thorns) and well varied between open deserts littered with the skeletons of massive dead beasts, and a lush oasis of trees and waterfalls.

#1: Mounting With Purpose

I’d like to use this opportunity to gush about the mount system in Guild Wars 2, in part because it was the main focal point of my previous commentary and mostly because it is a huge part of the expansion and a lot of mechanics revolve around the use and leveling of said mounts. You’ll gain several story related mounts, all of which are required to progress through the main story missions and to thoroughly complete each map. These mounts allow you to leap further, jump higher, ride the waves, and the griffon is halfway towards flying.

Now depending on who you ask, the mounts fall into one of two categories: Great handling or cumbersome and horrible. While not entirely like driving a tank, there is no doubt that the mounts in Guild Wars 2 have been built with some idea of realism in mind. Your mounts won’t turn on a dime, you can’t position the camera in front of your mount and perform a crazy backwards leap, it just won’t work. In the wide open maps of Guild Wars 2, these mounts feel great. They sway and roll into each maneuver, you can tell that Arenanet put a lot of love into making something more than just your avatar but with boosted speed/jump. Try to use them to maneuver through small spaces, and they respond exactly like you’d expect walking a giant dinosaur through a China shop would.

The mount system itself introduces a whole new form of progression into Guild Wars 2, with each mount becoming even better at their specialty as you use them and gain experience. Completing tasks, finding nodes, and going through the story missions unlocks mastery points which are needed to upgrade your mounts to be all they can be. The mounts also have a use in old Tyria as while the old zones have a lot more waypoints, you won’t have to spend the money to warp between areas.

#2: The Trivializing of Isaac

The good news is that if you have vast swaths of the game world unexplored, as my newly minted level 80 boosted ranger does, you’re going to have a much easier time doing so. The raptor and hopper mounts perform their jobs excellently, jumping long distances and leaping to extreme heights with ease. On the other hand, those of you who meticulously took the time to complete all those difficult jumping puzzles might not be happy to find out that they’ve all been made trivial and mostly useless thanks to a mount that can leap 50 feet in the air or a raptor that can just bypass a jumping puzzle.

Granted, these abilities already exists in one fashion or another, but Path of Fire basically takes all of that and wraps it up into four mounts and hands them to everyone, regardless of your ownership of Heart of Thorns.

#3: Telling A Story With A Punch

Five years later, I still can’t tell whether I like or hate story boss fights in Guild Wars 2. They remind me of the opening sequence of Game of Thrones, in that if I’m in the right mood, they are epic and just the right length. Other times they can seem cumbersome and overly dragged out.

One of the bosses you’ll fight against during the Path of Fire story is the Herald of Balthazar in Act 1. Personally I hated this character, not because of the character itself but for its game mechanics. There is no thought to most of the Herald’s fights, you just pummel her uselessly with attacks while she goes around murdering the people you’re trying to save. I get it, and although clumsy the presence of no-win situations is a nice addition. Who wants the protagonist to come out on top at all chapters of the story?

Otherwise the story boss fights are pretty grand, more than a simple “do more damage than the other guy until one of you is dead.” Fights against Balthazar become desperate, as he continues to make the field more dangerous. One boss I fought against had a mechanic where he would summon allies, and if you didn’t beat them fast enough he would siphon their energy and replenish some of his health. One thing Guild Wars 2 does great with its story boss fights is making that 10 minute fight seem like a real struggle, making you hate the giant bastard after you finally think you’re making progress only for Balthazar to show up and start wrecking your stuff while taunting you the whole time. After a while you realize that it’s not so much frustration at game mechanics that you’re feeling but actual immersion in the world and its inhabitants.

I eagerly await Season 4 and how the story will continue going forward.

#4: Closing Thoughts

In summary, Path of Fire is exactly what you would want out of an expansion. It adds a bunch of new content, reasons to log back in and keep playing, while keeping your existing toys more or less intact. The Crystal Desert is a beautiful place to roam around in with tons to do. There is more content coming with Path of Fire that simply hasn’t been unlocked yet, but we’ll be doing an updated look when it does.

Verdict: 4.5/5 – I loved the story of Path of Fire, and the mounts are a positive addition to the game. Arenanet avoided a major pitfall by not diluting the world with flying mounts. It’s impressive to see how far the story has come, via a series of flashbacks in Path of Fire’s main story.

Humble Bundle Gets Owned by IGN


Humble Bundle has been owned by gaming website IGN, by which we mean that IGN is now the owner of Humble Bundle. It will take helm of one of the top gaming charities, whose bundles have not just supplied gamers with endless piles of cheap fun, but have also supplied charities to the tune of over $100 million.

“If it’s not broken, don’t fix it,” said Galbraith, who explained that IGN started looking to make a deal like this nearly a year ago. “The idea is just to feed them with the resources they need to keep doing what they’re doing.”

The news has no doubt called into question the ethics of having a company that reviews games be directly connected to a store that could sell those games, but IGN has stated that the two entities will remain entirely independent.

(Source: Gamasutra)

(Our thoughts: To the dismay of Humble Bundle’s finance department, IGN pushed the contribution slider 100% toward giving the money to charity. This news also comes alongside the announcement that IGN has once again not acquired MMO Fallout)

In Plain English: Epic Sues Two Fortnite Cheat Creators


I’m not entirely happy with the press coverage of Epic Games’ lawsuit. If you’ve been reading the news this week, you may be under the impression that Epic Games was so angry about two particular players cheating in Fortnite that the game developer decided to take these two individuals to court. This isn’t exactly the case.

Epic Games has filed complaints against Charles Vraspir and Brandon Boom in separate cases in North Carolina district court. Unsurprisingly, Epic has chosen to go with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act for their main point of attack, alleging that the cheats involve illegally modifying the game code. By going for copyright infringement, Epic is looking to slap both defendants with some potentially hefty fines (up to $150,000 each) plus damages and any additional profits that the defendants made from the sale of said cheats. In the interim, Epic is seeking an injunction preventing the defendants from continuing to use and advertise said cheat programs.

One interesting note in this lawsuit that may help their case is intent. The lawsuit docket makes several notes of both Vraspir and Boom stating that their goal is to ruin the business viability of Fortnite by making the game as unbearable to play as possible.

In an effort to adversely impact as many people as possible while playing and cheating at Fortnite, Defendant specifically targets streamers. He has declared that it is his objective to prevent streamers from winning the game and has boasted in online cheating discussion channels that his goal is to “stream snipe,” i.e., kill streamers as they stream. Defendant has said that making streamers hate Fortnite is Defendant “in a nutshell.”

Epic also alleges that Vraspir’s conduct may be related to the fact that he was banned from Fortnite PvE for cheating:

 

Defendant’s unlawful conduct may be the result of a misplaced antipathy towards Epic because he was banned from Epic for cheating.

This is known in court as the famous “u mad” strategy.

Now those of you who read In Plain English know that the legality of cheating has come up in the past. The court ruled that the use of bot software in World of Warcraft did not constitute copyright infringement because the software itself was found to not violate Blizzard’s copyright. If the software is found to be violating Epic’s copyright by making illegal modifications or by violating DMCA rules in circumventing protections, it could spell trouble.

This is a copyright infringement and breach of contract case in which the Defendant is infringing Epic’s copyrights by injecting unauthorized computer code into the copyright protected code of Epic’s popular Fortnite® video game. In so doing, Defendant is creating unauthorized derivative works of Fortnite by modifying the game code and, thus, materially altering the game that the code creates and the experience of those who play it.

The Fortnite cheat in question has been discontinued on the cheat maker’s website, along with a Paragon cheat that was similarly discontinued over legal disputes from Epic.

Daybreak Announces Pro League for King of the Kill


How would you like to earn money while playing a game where shooting streamers is legal?

Daybreak Game Company today announced that its Battle Royale shooter H1Z1: King of the Kill will be getting the pro gaming treatment. Already host to professional tournaments, Daybreak has partnered with Twin Galaxies to create a “sustainable, first of its kind, professional esports league for the “one versus all” battle royale genre.”

The partnership has already produced a gamer’s bill of rights, guaranteeing the right to a “fair and livable wage,” as well as a governance committee and “best-in-class principles.” The league conference will be held on October 20, with the application window on the 23, team announcements in Q1 2018, and league play beginning in Q2 2018.

The league will consist of 15 teams of 5 players. There will be no fees or buy in costs for teams to participate.

(Source: H1Z1)

Secret World Legends Adds Orochi Tower


Funcom today released the latest update to Secret World Legends, introducing the Orochi Tower and bringing the Tokyo story to a close. Players have been keeping an eye on the so far inaccessible tower since Tokyo became available earlier this year.

Now that the area is accessible, players will finally be able to bring the story arc to an end.

“This final chapter of the Tokyo saga features hours of new story and gameplay content,” says Executive Producer Scott Junior. “Players get to explore over 20 sections of the massive tower, fighting their way to the top to uncover dark secrets behind the Orochi Corporation’s experiments. This concludes the Tokyo storyline and brings Secret World Legends up to date with the content of The Secret World. From here on out it will be unexplored territory for everyone and we are very excited about the future.”

More details on the update can be found on the official website.

[NM] Despite Loot Box Controversy, Shadow of War Gets Good Reviews


Yesterday marked the launch of Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor, and not everyone is happy with Monolith’s monetization scheme. Reviews are pretty positive, however a number of critical outlets have mentioned that late game progress is heavily tied to loot boxes and grind. But enough about the critics, how do players feel?

Over on Steam, Shadow of War is being received quite positively. Out of 1,000 reviews, 84% are positive. There are, at the moment of this publication, over 42 thousand playing the PC version with an early peak of 52,658.

One player figured out that you can turn off online components by not agreeing to that part of the terms of service. The video below has some baseless claims, including that WB is selling user data to third parties. You can see the part about shutting off microtransactions at the start.

Final Fantasy XIV 4.1 Update Takes Players to Ivalice


Square Eninx today released patch 4.1 for Final Fantasy XIV, bringing players back to Ivalice. The update includes more main scenario quests, a new 24-player raid series, a new high level dungeon, solo dungeons, housing areas and more. Solo dungeons are an interesting concept, it appears that players are able to hire squadrons which can be leveled up and commanded to aid you in your dungeon raiding, however they are only available for certain dungeons.

The highly anticipated new story arc and alliance raid will send players to the ruins of the Royal City of Rabanastre as they learn more about the Majestic Imperial Theater Company and unravel the mysteries of the legend of Ivalice.

(Source: Final Fantasy XIV)

Battlefront II Getting Panned Over Pay To Win Elements


Star Wars: Battlefront II just recently launched its open beta, and it is getting panned by critics and users alike over pay to win elements present in the game.

With the latest title in the Battlefront franchise, EA/Dice decided to go down the route of loot boxes as the main source of secondary income, tying abilities and crafting materials to random chance. Users have been pointing out how powerful the abilities are, such as an ability for Bobba Fett which allows him to take 100% less damage (effectively invulnerable) while flying with his jetpack, and how the expense/rarity of obtaining or crafting said abilities is encouraging players to spend a ton of money on crates in order to not be at a disadvantage. Another example includes up to 40% health increases on bombers.

Have you played the Battlefront II beta? If so, do you agree with the critics below?

So if I spend $200 on crates, open or craft all the best cards I can, then face an equally skilled opponent at the same level as me who didn’t spend money, I will likely win because I have better tools available.
–IGN

To make matters worse, awarded currency comes in at a flat rate for the team regardless of performance, making it even harder to strategically earn to earn everything the game has to offer.
–Kitguru

What’s even worse is that for some reason, the developers have decided that it’s okay for progression to be completely random. Unlike the previous game, regardless of which classes or even mode you’re playing, the loot box system completely dictates the overall progression.
–WCCFTech

Cards are not rewarded based on the class you play, so if you’re unlucky you could end up with a bunch of garbage for a class you never touch. It also has made leveling meaningless—unlike Overwatch, there’s no crate reward for gaining a level, which is utterly bizarre.
–PCWorld

Put simply, this is an exploitative and greedy system I’m surprised has made it this far. Question is, will EA let it go the whole way, or will it use a saving throw and alter the system for full release?
–Eurogamer

What can I do to side-step this bad luck? Well, EA could ask me to spend real money of course. Buying as many loot crates as I need to get the abilities I want, either using crafting parts or waiting until the RNG falls on my side. People who would buy the most loot crates on day one will have a significant advantage over those players that don’t, which is depressing because the underlying game seems supremely amazing.
–Windows Central

And if these loot boxes are purchasable from the get-go, yes, I can imagine that players who buy say, 50 boxes on launch day will be at an advantage over someone who is going to grind out 50 boxes over the course of the next month, even if the “opportunity” is there for them to get the same amount of crates when one pays and one doesn’t.
–Forbes

There is something about the timing of Battlefront 2’s release that coincides with the ongoing debate in the gaming community regarding loot boxes. But of the games listed as “offenders” so far, Battlefront 2 is the game critics are singling out as having a particularly hostile loot system.
–US Gamer

While Star Wars Battlefront 2 has yet to be released, unless the ability to purchase loot crates with cash is removed from the game, it’s difficult to see how EA could change the current system without it being pay-to-win.
–Game Revolution

PUBG Is Dominating PC, But Fortnite Is Gaining Speed


The effects of Fortnite Battle Royale on Playerunknown’s Battlegrounds appears to be nil, at least in the sense that the former has seen a great deal of success and yet the latter continues to rise in popularity. Launched as a free addition to Fortnite, Epic’s Battle Royale clocked in an impressive 525,000 peak concurrent user count with 3.7 million daily active users. If Battle Royale was a Steam title, that would put it somewhere in fourth place below PUBG, Dota 2, and Counter Strike: Global Offensive. Meanwhile, Playerunknown’s Battlegrounds continues to shatter records on Steam, setting a new peak of 1.98 million players on Saturday October 9.

Both titles are currently dealing with a swarm of cheaters, an inevitable outcome given the overall active user base. Fortnite announced that it has banned thousands of cheaters and will continue working on features that reward legitimate players while punishing people who cycle through throwaway accounts. In spite of these efforts, Epic also announced that Fortnite is experiencing an issue with false positive bans.

Bluehole meanwhile continues to work against cheating with some success. Despite their efforts, blatant cheaters are dominating the PUBG leaderboards. According to multiple sources, you can identify what are effectively advertising accounts for cheat creators situated in China, as the number strings are QQ (think Chinese Skype) contact details to buy said cheats. How Bluehole plans on taking down cheaters effectively using their platform to advertise their business has not been detailed.

Regardless, it looks like there is plenty of room on the internet for both games to thrive, and continue growing.

Ghost Recon Wildlands: Ubisoft Adds PvP, Free Weekend Coming


Player vs player combat is coming to Ghost Recon Wildlands, so what better time than the present to play host to a free week?

Gamers on PC, PS4, and Xbox One will be able to jump in to Ghost Recon from October 12 to the 15, with PC players able to preload starting today, October 9. The PvP update hits servers tomorrow, October 10, as a free update to all who already own the game.

Ghost War is a 4-versus-4 team deathmatch experience that builds on the tactical squad play from the main game, where strategy is equally as important as skill. Using one of the 12 distinct classes, each with their own varied characteristics, weapons, perks and customisation options, players will engage with enemies across eight unique maps. Ghost War also integrates new PvP mechanics, including suppressing fire and sound markers, to create a strategic and intense team-based multiplayer mode.

Further along the road, Ubisoft will expand player vs player by adding in new maps, new modes, and new classes, all of which will be free for all players (new classes will be unlocked with prestige points). Wildlands season pass owners will have one week early access to new classes.

(Source: Ubisoft press release)