Category: News

[Video] Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey


Today’s video was sent to us by Panache Digital Games and features Patrice Désilets discussing the concepts of the upcoming title Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey with various experts outside of the gaming industry. The first episode, above, features an interview with anthropologist Dr. Niobe Thompson to talk about survival 10 million years ago in Neogene, Africa where the game takes place.

New videos will release every three weeks. Ancestors is set for launch on PC on August 27 via the Epic Game Store with console release coming in December.

In Plain English: Court Throws Out Jagex Ban Lawsuit After Five Days


Today’s In Plain English is going to be a short one, but you’ll understand why when you see that the gist of it is about six sentences long. It comes to us from the Eastern District of Pennsylvania and involves everyone’s favorite developer of RuneScape: Jagex. Along with their parent company Shanghai Fukong, Jagex last week was sued in Pennsylvania court by one Amro Elansari, who is alleging that Jagex muted him without reason. The lawsuit goes on to claim that the UK developer refused to provide an explanation and denied Elansari’s request for an appeal. Elansari’s suit alleges violations of due process, free speech, and human rights.

Elansari was granted leave to proceed in forma pauperis, fancy legal speak for nulling filing fees, however the court took some umbrage with his claims. Judge Kearney noted that Elansari’s claims of constitutional violations were implausible, adding that the first amendment and its constitutional free speech guarantees do not restrict private entities. More so, the fifth amendment due process clause also does not apply to private companies.

As such, Elansari’s lawsuit has been dismissed just five days after being filed. Elansari cannot make any further constitutional or federal claims however if he decides to bring the lawsuit back on state charges in state court, he absolutely may do so.

As always, MMO Fallout is hosting the relevant dockets at our expense at the Google Drive. As the lawsuit was filed pro se, MMO Fallout has removed some personal contact details from the documents for the sake of the plaintiff.

Whatever Happened To: Hello Kitty Online (Again!)


Hello Kitty Online. It can’t have been too long since I last updated everyone on what is going on with this quirky little game for kids who absolutely do not view this website. But Connor, I hear you shout into your computer, if you bothered to check your own post history once in a while you’d notice that you haven’t written about Hello Kitty Online since 2013!

So chalk this one up as another ball that MMO Fallout dropped. Hello Kitty Online isn’t the kind of game I would normally cover here at MMO Fallout, so it shouldn’t come as a surprise that the game has been offline for two years and I think only PC Gamer and MMOBomb have noticed that the game has been offline for the better part of the past two years. It’s not surprising as Sanrio had stopped supporting the title way back in 2012 and it looks like they just let the game drift off into the distance until 2017 when the servers went offline and never came back up.

Here’s to Hello Kitty Online. You snuck out the back door and very few noticed.

A Tale in the Desert: Tale 8 Ends August 2019


A Tale in the Desert has announced the end of Tale 8 and the beginning of Tale 9, both set to commence on August 30, 2019. Unlike other MMOs, A Tale in the Desert resets its players every tale, in this case after 18 months. Players begin a new world with new characters and changes requested by the players or added in by the developer Desert Nomad Studios.

“It’s been a fantastic 18 months and the great news is that Tale 9 will soon be upon us. For the first time, the end of a Tale and the start of the next will be on the same day! Tale 8 Amnesty will take place on the 24th and 25th of August, with an AMA with the developers across both days in game and on discord. We can’t wait to share with you some great secrets from the Tale that have been missed! See you then”

A Tale in the Desert launched in 2003 and has retained a small but sustainable number of subscribers. Set in ancient Egypt, ATITD features no combat but sets players up with various tests that they must overcome in order to progress. Tests involve various activities such as breeding scarabs, creating art for others to vote on, building puzzles, and convincing other players to elect you.

Source: A Tale in the Desert

Apex Legends To Target High Risk Regions, Matchmake Cheaters


Cheating in Apex Legends is for ratfinks, and if Respawn has anything to say about it cheaters will be thrown into a pit where their only company will be other ratfink cheaters. In the latest community update, Respawn gave a list of plans on how it will deal with the cheating that has been going on. Plans include automatic detection and bans of cheaters, as well as matchmaking detected cheaters and spammers together.

  • Using machine learning to create behavior models that detect and auto ban cheaters.
  • Requiring TFA in certain regions on high risk accounts.
  • Improving detection that identifies and bans new spam accounts before they are used.
  • Ongoing work to adapt to new cheats.
  • Matchmaking that matches detected cheaters and spammers together.
  • Investigating how people party up for matches. Even if you are not specifically using a cheat, partying up with cheaters is still cheating.
  • Increasing resources whether that be people or tech.

Don’t cheat in Apex Legends, or any competitive multiplayer game for that matter.

Source: Reddit

[NM] Steam Launches Steam Lab Experiments


Valve is constantly working on improvements to Steam store visibility. After all, hundreds of new games are launching on the service every month, and sometimes dozens of games launching every single day. The average user just can’t keep up!

This week Valve launched the Steam Labs, three experiments being presented to the community as ideas on how to improve visibility. The first idea comes in the form of micro-trailers; five second clips of video game footage on a big page where the user can simply go down the list of recently released titles.

“Absorb every game in the Steam catalog in just seconds. Micro Trailers are six-second looping videos designed to quickly inform viewers about titles on Steam with a presentation that’s easy to skim. This experiment is a fancier version of the Twitter bot of the same name.”

The second idea is an interactive recommender, a slider that shows you recommended titles based on your library as well as your weight by popularity and release date.

“This experiment looks at how much you’ve played each game in your Steam library, and uses the magic of machine learning to recommend games you might like. Filter your results by picking games that are popular or niche, and drill down by release date and tags.”

And the third idea is an automated show about games, kind of like #1 except presented as something of a very long, half-hour clip show of six second clips of recently released games.

There are certainly more experiments to come. Check out the Steamlabs and see how it works for you at the link below.

Source: Steam

Netmarble and Rooster Teeth Team Up For RWBY Crossover With Knights Chronicle


Starting now through July 31, Knights Chronicle is running a crossover event with the Rooster Teeth anime series RWBY (pronounced Ruby) that will afford players the opportunity to attract powerful members of Team RWBY (Ruby Rose, Weiss Schnee, Blake Belladonna, and Yang Xiao Long, and the deadly Maiden of Fall, Cinder Fall) from the world of Remnant into their roster of powerful heroes through Knights Chronicle’s Summon Shop.

  • An all-new Advent Dungeon where fans can win over Cinder Fall into their party and learn how the worlds of Knights Chronicle and RWBY come together in an all-new story.
  • All-new costumes for Ruby Rose, Weiss Schnee, Blake Belladonna, Yang Xiao Long and Cinder Fall themed after their Beacon Academy uniforms.
  • A limited-time check-in event where players can simply log-in and earn a free 4? SSR RWBY hero.

Knights Chronicle is a classic turn based RPG available on mobile devices. For more information on the game, head over to the official website.

Jagex Hides AFK Magic Trainers From New Players


Jagex is very concerned with how new players take in their first few minutes in RuneScape, and they are kind of concerned regarding the impression players are getting from logging in and seeing the starting area full of players in high level armor fighting rats. Magic splashing is a widespread method of training the skill, as players figured out years ago that you could wear melee equipment with low enough magical accuracy that your attacks never actually hit. Since RuneScape gives a small amount of magic experience even when a spell fails to do damage, this has become a slow and expensive, but for many valid method of training their magic skill while doing something else.

Thankfully Jagex is not removing magic splashing, but the company announced with this today’s update that magic splashing will no longer reward experience within the area that players immediately spawn in following the tutorial, that being Lumbridge and the surrounding forest. The map area is very small, so there are plenty of other locations that players can set up in and AFK to their heart’s content.

Source: RuneScape

Maplestory M Hits One Year Anniversary, Releasing Phantom


Maplestory M is celebrating its one year anniversary with style as Nexon has announced the latest class to be added in: The Phantom. Set for release on July 17, players can pre-register for the Phantom today to receive a pack of items including a Unique Weapon Whetstone, Unique Armor Whetstone, Auto-Battle Charge Ticket and more.

“Featuring a cane as his main weapon, the Phantom is a master thief who steals the abilities of characters in the Explorer class. Skills including Phantom Shroud, Return of Phantom and Steal help players plan more strategic strikes, while the Phantom’s most special skill – Judgment – comes into play when delivering critical damage to mobs, triggering randomly stacked cards that give players additional attack. Phantom characters between levels 3 to 100 will also be able to level up a total of 3 levels per each level up through the Mega Burning event.”

Also included in the update is an updated wedding system allowing players to team up with their dearly beloved for buffs and gifts, as well as a new emote wheel and more. The one year anniversary will have events of its own with special experience rewards, skins, accessories, and more. Starting July 25, players can take part in the Monster Park amusement park event for heavy experience gains.

Source: Nexon Press Release

Black Desert: Be A Ninja, Right Now


Do you want to be a ninja? Of course you do.

Pearl Abyss today announced the release of the latest class for Black Desert on the Xbox One and unlike with the Shai class, you won’t need to go through the hullabaloo of pre-making your character for when it launches in a few weeks. It’s available now. The ninja is a close-quarters combat specialist and enters the game along with the two new guild bosses and the Marni Stones, an item to assist in end-game leveling.

“For Adventurers interested in a challenging fight, two new guild bosses have been added – the electrifying Ancient Puturum in Valencia and the ghastly Muskan of Madness in Serendia. The Ancient Puturum attacks by shooting out electric currents from its body and can regain HP by soaring into the sky to gather energy. For those seeking a more grounded fight, the Muskan of Madness will require substantial teamwork and clever strategies to be defeated. Players who successfully conquer either guild boss can receive powerful new items and equipment.”

Marni Stones can be purchased at level 57 and are available for each monster type and achieving specific bounties. Players can turn in these stones to gain more experience.

Playstation 4 users will be happy to know that the game is available for pre-order ahead of the planned August 22 launch. More information can be found on the official website with the trailer below for your viewing pleasure.