Author: Admin

DC Universe Celebrates Sixth Anniversary


As incredible as it may sound, DC Universe Online has been around for six years, and is planning on kicking off a new year with plenty of anniversary celebrations. As part of the event, players travel to a new version of Metropolis in order to fight off a Qwaridian invasion from another universe. The event is currently available and will run until January 31st. The list of events currently running is below.

  • New Open World Missions: Metropolis Antimatter Invasion Zone
  • New 8-Player Raid: Centennial Collapse
  • New Gear, Collections, Feats, and More
    • New Anti-Monitor-inspired gear
    • New auto-leveling gear set
    • New base items and consumables

DC Universe Online is currently available on PC, Xbox One, and Playstation 4.

(Source: Daybreak Game Company Press Release)

Video: World of Warcraft Patch 7.1.5 Survival Guide


World of Warcraft is implementing patch 7.1.5 and Blizzard wants you to know what to expect. You can check out the entire list of patch notes here, or watch the video above to get the gist of things. Putting it short, the patch contains more class balances to make each type more enjoyable, the return of the Brawler’s Guild with new rewards and items, as well as new bonus events every few weeks. Micro-holidays will dot the calendar, lasting 1-3 days and generally being pretty quickly completed events with small rewards.

As always, please refrain from placing your class complaints in the comments below. I do not work for Blizzard.

(Source: World of Warcraft)

Fig Claims 4 of Top 10 Crowdfunded Games In 2016


When I say that Fig carries four of the top 10 funded games in 2016, your answer is probably “of course, they curate the list of games they put up.” As someone who previously had doubt about Fig as a crowdfunding platform, I’m happy to see that the service is apparently finding its footing. Boasting a 78% successful funding rate, Fig (whose name is now synonymous with Tim Schafer) has been the stone on which games like Psychonauts 2, Wasteland 3, and Jay and Silent Bob: Chronic Blunt Punch have been able to find backers.

Apparently Fig backers are quite satisfied with the service, since more than 3,700 came back to back more games, funding an average of $133.71 per person. For more information, check out the infographic below.

(Source: Fig)

Roller Coaster Tycoon 3 Spurs Frontier Lawsuit Against Atari


Frontier Developments is currently best known for their hit title Planet Coaster, of course when people aren’t thinking of them as the developer of that Star Citizen-esque game that actually saw release. Odds are you’ll also remember them as being the developer behind Roller Coaster Tycoon 3, because I just told you they were. The news today is that Frontier Developments is suing Atari over what it claims are $2.2 million in unpaid royalties.

“We can confirm Frontier is currently pursuing a complaint against Atari. We have attempted to resolve this issue without legal action since April 2016. We have so far been denied our contractual right to audit by Atari, and we are unfortunately left with no other way to resolve our concerns. We are unable to offer any further comment while the matter is subject to due legal process.”

Here’s where it gets weird. First, of all people, TMZ broke the story. According to the news article, Frontier Developments is citing a Steam tracking website (likely Steam Spy) in their claim that Atari owes them $2.2 million, following with a lawsuit because Atari has been delaying an audit which Frontier is entitled to in their contract. Secondly, it is odd to see a developer using something like Steam Spy as a source. For the record, it is impossible for third party services to count how many people own a certain game, that information isn’t publicly available. They guess, using data from accounts that are public, and do not claim to be accurate.

Imagine users as voters, but instead of voting for one of three candidates, they’re voting for several games from tens of thousands available in Steam catalog. Even the most popular paid games are reaching maybe 5% of this audience and most are in realms of 0.1% or even less.
So 0.1% margin of error for a game with 0.1% of Steam audience would produce results that are mostly useless. That’s why Steam Spy has to gather millions points of data daily to predict games sales and audience. And that’s why Steam Spy is often wrong. Not by much, but still wrong.

At a $2.2 million difference comparing sales to Steam Spy, it’s rather believable that Atari shorted Frontier Develoments on some level, and you could be forgiven for taking the delays as a sign that the company is hiding something.

Or maybe nobody at the shell corporation that calls itself Atari answers their email. I couldn’t get a single person to answer my requests for comment over Asteroids: Outpost.

Community Revives The Sims Online, It’s Too Popular


The Sims Online is back! I’ll give you a second to remember that this existed.

We’re going on ten years since The Sims Online was shut down by Electronic Arts, but nothing online ever dies forever. Unfortunately for players, while promising for the developers, is that interest in the revival has been so overwhelming that the servers just couldn’t handle the influx. In addition to North American players, the game has drawn an equal number of potential customers from Brazil. The DDoS attacks were also an issue.

With over 1000 people, we would not even be able to get everyone in the building, and having all new users play at exactly the same time without lots to split everyone into would be a recipe for disaster. Picking a server configuration to allow this many users to play would be a complete shot in the dark – and we wouldn’t know the root cause or true capacity of a server configuration if we were way over it (it would just crash immediately)

For right now, the game is going back into closed beta until the problems can be ironed out.

(Source: FreeSO)

PSA: Return To Atlantica Online, or Lose Everything


Atlantica Online is getting a new set of parents in the form of VALOFE, moving from its current home at Nexon on January 11th. As part of this transition, players are warned to transfer their stuff or face the possibility of losing it. Anyone who does not transfer their account over by the January 11th transition will lose everything, and there won’t be a way to get it back.

“We’ve always had the passion for playing games. We think that this is a great foundation for being able to operate the game for the community we’re about to have.” said the Game Operation Team for Atlantica Online in VALOFE. “We [VALOFE] envision the acquisition as a ‘homecoming’ and an opportunity to awaken the great potential of this MMO, promising the improvement of game-play for players, veteran and new.”

Our thoughts: If you have an account on Atlantica Online, do yourself a favor and just transfer it. You a year from now who wants to play it again will be thankful.

(Source: VALOFE press release)

Daybreak Continues Shrinking: Landmark To Shut Down


Daybreak Game Company’s library continues to shrink just a little more, with the news that the rest of Everquest’s Next’s failed dream, Landmark, will shut down February 21st. As of right now, the game will be unavailable for purchase while all items in the marketplace will have their cost turned down to 1. In addition, Player Studio items will not be available for listing and purchase in the Landmark Marketplace. The servers will come down on February 21, 2017.

Landmark, originally known as Everquest: Landmark, was a supplementary game sold to players on the foundation that it existed to test Daybreak’s engine for use in the full Everquest Next. When Everquest was cancelled last year, Landmark dropped the Everquest name and was spun off into its own building game. Fans hoping to see compensation are out of luck, Daybreak will neither be making it possible to host your own server nor will they be reimbursing anyone who invested in the title.

Our thoughts: Landmark is probably the most fraudulently marketed game in recent memory, from the fact that it was sold as a supplement to an MMO that the studio knew wasn’t fun and was potentially on the chopping block, to the fact that the announcement of EQN’s cancellation came conveniently after the no-questions refund period expired, to the fact that people who put in for the $100 founder’s pack only got to have the game launch and not even last a year. Considering this is the second game shuttered within the last year, and it looks like Daybreak won’t even take the easy route and compensate people with digital goodies for their other games (at no cost to themselves), Landmark and EQN should be a shining example to avoid putting any money into this company until the game goes gold.

(Source: Daybreak)

Screenshots: Final Fantasy XIV Patch 3.5


Final Fantasy XIV is set to launch patch 3.5, The Far Edge of Fate, and Square Enix is sharing a ton of new content screenshots. Seriously, the few that I have curated are just a sample of the massive amount of media that Square has released. Topping the list of new content is Dun Scaith, a 24 player alliance raid requiring level 60 in any disciple of war or magic, as well as an unknown item requirement and completion of the Freedom of our Skies quest. A major update to the party finder will allow players to group up with players on any world on the same datacenter, it will be possible to change the color of your egi, and you will go head to head with the final pillar of the Triad, Zurvan the Demon (req level 60, eight players, and completing Balance unto All.).

If you head over to the Final Fantasy website, you can read numerous previews of patch 3.5, coming later this month.

(Source: Square Enix Press Release)

Firefall Shut Down For 2 Weeks In December, Nobody Noticed


In my predictions for 2017, I said that Firefall would shut down and nobody would be surprised or really notice. What I didn’t realize was that Firefall had already shut down, for two weeks, back in December. And nobody outside of the community noticed. According to posts on the community forums, the servers first went down as early as December 7th and didn’t come back online until December 22nd.

Hello, we have found that our datacenter is having critical issues and all services including the website and game are impacted. We hope to have everything back online ASAP.

But don’t let that fool you, according to posts on official Facebook notice, the game is still essentially broken in many areas as features like Battle Lab do not work. The official website has not had a news update since May, it may still be impossible to level past 20 due to unfixed bugs in the main mission, and nobody seems to be present to answer emails.

So Firefall is still a bit broken, has less active Steam players than a full Battlefield 1 server, and seems to be riding the breeze on a prolonged descent while nobody is around to save the sinking ship. In the future, it will likely be known as one of the most incompetently run MMOs of all time, between the constant shift in direction and staff to the allegedly high sum spent to develop it.

(Source: MMO Bomb)

[NM] Ham Radio Deluxe Bricks Consumer’s Software, Co-Founder Blames Diabetes


There’s a shiny nickel in it for whoever looked at that headline and immediately understood it.

HRD Software, who develop software for ham radio, is being hung out to dry after a customer complained about his software’s incompatibility with certain versions of Windows. One user, Jim Giercyk, called up customer support to complain that his product completely stopped working after a recent update. As it turns out, Giercyk left a bad review for the company not long before, and rather than handling Giercyk’s complaints like a professional would, that HRD Software decided to remotely disable his product and revoke his key.

Now, if you aren’t aware, it is illegal in the United States to punish a customer for bad reviews, as per the Consumer Review Fairness Act passed into law by President Obama on December 16. As it turns out, HRD Software had a full blacklist of customers who had posted bad reviews and thus had their copies banned in retaliation, with co-founder Rick Ruhl even leaving an angry voicemail and threatening legal action against one such user. Ruhl blamed his diabetes for the way he acted.

“I apologize publicly … I do have diabetes and sometimes this affects my judgement and it did in that voicemail. I truly regret it. I’m talking to my doctor about changing my medications so I won’t have any more low sugar.”

Ruhl has been removed from his position in the company and will move on to other opportunities.

(Source: The Independent)