Category: News

Closers: En Mass Entertainment To Remove Fatigue


This may come as a shock, but one aspect of games that gamers don’t take too kindly to these days is the idea of developers purposely stopping them from playing. Such is the case with Closers, epic anime RPG published by En Masse Entertainment. Turns out players weren’t too happy about the fatigue system preventing them from playing as much as they would like, and after hearing their feedback En Masse has decided to remove the system come July.

We heard you loud and clear. As of July 3, we’ll remove the fatigue system from the NA and EU versions of Closers. We’ve been watching, observing, and listening to all of your comments in regard to this system. It became obvious the system wasn’t good and took away the fun for a majority of players in our regions. Naddic is a very player focused developer and aligns with our En Masse mission to create great Player Experiences. So, we are very happy to announce the implementation of this change in the next update!

The update notes that existing energy potions will be converted into credits, however this has not been finalized. In addition, starter packs will be altered in what benefits they give as said potions will no longer have a use once the update goes into effect.

(Source: Steam)

Valve Addresses Fake Steam Games Again, Again, Again, Again


Valve is once again taking on fake games plaguing Steam, this time focusing on achievements. In a leaked post to the private developer forums, Valve announced that games will now be subject to confidence constraints that will limit how many achievements a game can have and how those achievements affect your account, until the game is validated as being an actual product that people are buying and playing.

The post notes that, until a game is validated as being genuine, it will be limited to 100 achievements and progress will not be visible, nor will it count toward global achievement numbers. Achievement games have become more prevalent on Steam due to Valve’s lax restriction and quality control on products, with an entire genre forming around games that offer thousands of achievements with no real underlying game, generally simply requiring the game to be launched and idling to generate achievements.

This move is very similar to one that Valve took against trading cards, where Valve placed limits on which games would be eligible for the marketable, tradeable cards. It is important to note that unlike trading cards, where an entire black market of mostly Russian bots formed to farm games developed purely to profit off of fraudulent card sales, that achievements are absolutely worthless in Steam other than for decoration and ego purposes.

(Source: Twitter)

Planetside 2 Rolls Out New Event System, Weapons, and More


Daybreak Game Company has released the latest update for Planetside 2, bringing forth continent-wide events and more. Continent events bring back the aerial anomaly event, tasking the three factions with controlling the most facilities of a certain type within a 30 minute timer, also making all aerial vehicles free to spawn during that time frame. Construction is seeing a change to make the attacking portion less frustrating while also reducing prices to build. Finally, new battle rifles available to all classes will be made available, one for each faction.

But wait, there’s more. In addition to the major changes noted above, Daybreak is also making some tweaks to the user interface and squads, as well as other fixes and balances. The entire list of changes can be found at the link below.

(Source: Daybreak)

[Video] Remedy Entertainment Unveils Control


Remedy Entertainment and publishing partner 505 Games have announced Control, set for PC and consoles in 2019. Players take on the role of Jesse Faden, director of a secretive agency in New York when the world is invaded by aliens. Players will have to master a variety of powers, loadouts, and reactive environments.

“Control represents a new exciting chapter for us, it redefines what a Remedy game is. It shows off our unique ability to build compelling worlds while providing a new player-driven way to experience them,” said Mikael Kasurinen,game director of Control. “A key focus for Remedy has been to provide more agency through gameplay and allow our audience to experience the story of the world at their own pace”

Remedy Entertainment is known for their work on Max Payne, Alan Wake, and Quantum Break.

Lawbreakers Will Shut Down In September, Now Free To Play


When Boss Key Productions announced its closure back in May, the question of its two titles sunsetting became a matter of when, not if. As of today, competitive shooter Lawbreakers has been made officially free to play in preparation for the servers to sunset in September. No information has been posted to Radical Heights, which is already free to play, on when that game will follow suit.

The announcement in its entirety has been posted below. All in-game purchases have been disabled and no refunds are being granted.

(Source: Steam)

Dear LawBreakers,

In light of the unfortunate news regarding Boss Key Productions shutting down, we regret to announce that we will be sunsetting our support of LawBreakers on September 14, 2018 as we are not able to operate the game.

Our servers will remain open until then and the game will be made free-to-play on Steam for all players effective immediately. Please note that any and all new in-game purchases will also be disabled and we will not be able to accept any refund requests.

We truly appreciate your understanding in this difficult time and we want to thank you all your support and being a part of the passionate LawBreakers community.

Thank you for staying with us throughout this journey.

-The LawBreakers Team

The Division, Elder Scrolls Online Hit Xbox Game Pass


Xbox Game Pass is a $10/month service that allows you to play an impressive library of games on your Xbox One, and with E3 kicking off the service just got more valuable. As announced over the weekend, Microsoft has added several games including The Division, Elder Scrolls Online, and Fallout 4, with more titles on the way.

As is standard the with service, the Game Pass won’t get you any DLC for any of the titles listed and there is the likeliness that some of the games may be removed from the service at some unspecified point in the far future. Any game on the service can be purchased at a discount, including relevant DLC. If you haven’t already invested into the game on other platforms, now might be a good time to start playing.

(Source: Xbox Game Pass)

Valve’s Steam Policy: Aids Simulator, No, Suicide Simulator, Yes


(Update: Since this posting, all of the developer’s titles have been pulled from Steam)

Aids Simulator was a game set to launch on Steam on June 12, 2018, at least until Valve shut it down and ripped it off the game store (still available in its archived state) According to its developer, BunchOD00dz, Aids Simulator is a game where you play as someone who goes to Africa and gets HIV, and must now kill all of the Africans who gave you HIV. It bills itself as an asset flip that performs poorly and isn’t fun. In short, it’s exactly the troll game to make the press go nuts.

The developer’s other titles include Suicide Simulator, which has apparently been deemed not a troll game and thus suitable for Steam, and Blackscreen Simulator, a title that is not in fact a black screen but instead a zombie shooter using flipped assets that similarly bills itself as short, low quality, and prone to crashing.

With Valve’s new stance on lowering the barrier to entry for Steam while toughening its stance on troll games, we’ll have to see how games like Aids Simulator and Suicide Simulator are handled going forward.

Wild West Online To Offer Free Trial As Traffic Drops


Wild West Online is preparing to implement a free trial as its Steam numbers continue to drop. Having released barely a month ago, Wild West Online launched to a peak of 559 players on Steam and currently sits at less than 40 as of this writing with a 24 hour peak of 84.

“We’re adding free trial version of the game. It’ll be available both at our website as well as thru Steam on a game’s store page. Free trial version will let users to play game as a normal player, but with some restrictions.”

Trial accounts will be restricted to level 20 and will not be able to unlock achievements or receive rewards. Wild West Online currently sits at a 37% “mostly negative” rating on Steam.

(Source: Steam)

Bless Online Promises To Fix Unpopular Balance Changes


Ask gamers what they want out of an MMO and “make me less powerful and the enemies more powerful” is probably not going to be high on the list. So when Bless Online developer Neowiz decided to slash player power across the board, those players were understandably annoyed. With waves of negative reactions to the patch coming in, Neowiz has again found themselves apologizing and promising to make things right.

In a post on the Steam discussions, Neowiz promised a patch early this week to address the following core issues:

  1. Decreasing ability (HP or defense) of monsters from the field and low-level dungeons. Adjustments will be determined by leveling area and monster level.
  2. Increasing Chain Bonus values. The more skills you connect, the higher the damage you will do. This will make up for the decreased DPS.

Direct damage increases and skill cooldown and resource adjustment will be worked on afterward.

Bless Online Is A Mess Online; Neowiz Apologizes, Compensates Players


Bless Online launched into early access this week and the launch was a bit of a mess. Between server lag, outages, maintenance, and the existence of a rather treacherous item dupe exploit, players were up in arms with some demanding refunds for their founder’s pack purchases.

In response, Neowiz posted an apology, promising fixes and outlining plans for the weeks ahead. Since the game initially launched with just a few servers, more servers have been added and much of the lag seems to have subsided.

Bless Online’s Early Access was always intended to be a growing experience, with systems and content being added in the weeks and months ahead; this is why we chose the Steam Early Access program. We are sincerely sorry that our players were led to believe otherwise, and we are happy to allow refunds for those who feel they cannot wait for the new content to arrive. We hope that you will return to the world of Bless when the features you expect are in the game and ready for your participation.

As part of its compensation, Neowiz has granted accounts approximately $20 in Lumena, the game’s premium currency.

(Source: Steam)