Category: News

Destiny Putting Older Consoles Into Maintenance Mode This Year


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Gamers who haven’t made their way to the current generation of consoles will be disappointed to find out that Destiny’s next expansion, Rise of Iron, will not be available on their respective platforms. Set to launch in September, Rise of Iron will be exclusive to Playstation 4 and Xbox One. While The Taken King will still be available on older consoles, Bungie warns that future content will be limited on the 360 and PS3, including:

  • Future Game Updates and Content Releases
  • Some Destiny Events and Content
  • Purchasing Silver
  • Accessing new Eververse Item purchases across console generations
  • Some Destiny Companion features on the Mobile App and Bungie.net

Beginning in August, Bungie will be providing an account import tool to upgrade your characters to a newer system. According to the FAQ, upgrades must be within the same console family (PS3 to PS4, 360 to XOne), under the same ID, and not all content will transfer. In addition, older consoles will no longer receive major content updates.

The list of features being disabled on older consoles includes:

  • Trials of Osiris
  • Iron Banner
  • Live Events
  • Purchasing Silver
  • Cross-platform progress

(Source: Bungie, Guided Support)

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Steam Sales: Counter Strike Is Not Giftable This Year


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The Steam Summer Sale is upon us, and that means one thing: people stockpiling on cheap copies of Counter Strike: Global Offensive in order to dole them out to burner accounts to use for hacking/griefing purposes once the sale is done. Why would someone spend a ton of money just to cheat in Counter Strike? Your guess is as good as ours.

Unfortunately, prospective cheaters will need to do this the hard way as Valve has disabled gifting for all copies of the game bought during the summer sale. Valve hasn’t explicitly stated this, but their official explanation doesn’t make a whole lot of sense:

CS:GO will not be giftable during the sale. Our goal with sales is to grow the community and historically, during sales, the new users that stick around are mainly the ones that purchase copies for themselves.

Given the recent controversies surrounding key resellers, it seems more likely that the changes are really to prevent a combination of bulk buyers and cheaters.

(Source: Reddit)

Video: 15 Minutes of Escape From Tarkov


The latest video from the hardcore MMOFPS Escape from Tarkov shows 15 unedited minutes of a soldier attempting to escape a guarded chemical factory. You can cut the tension with a knife in many moments, and the video places a heavy emphasis on scavenging.

Pay no mind to the overlapping watermarks.

Overwatch “Avoid This Player” Removed Due To Abuse


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Blizzard has announced the removal of Overwatch’s “avoid this player” feature after, perhaps unsurprisingly, the function was abused to avoid playing against highly skilled players. Meant to allow players an opportunity to avoid toxic players, Jeff Kaplan explained on the forums that the function was abused to avoid professional-tier players.

One of the best Widowmaker players in the world complained to us about long queue times. We looked into it and found that hundreds of other players had avoided him (he’s a nice guy – they avoided him because they did not want to play against him, not because of misbehavior). The end result was that it took him an extremely long time to find a match.

On the other hand, players can still make use of the ‘prefer this player’ feature. Widowmaker is the sniper class of Overwatch, allowing skilled shots to take out enemies from far away. Blizzard recently nerfed Widowmaker’s abilities in order to better balance out her abilities.

(Source: Blizzard)

RuneScape Founders Return For Quest


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Fifteen years after they created RuneScape, the original trio of brothers – Andrew, Paul, and Ian Gower – have returned to the world of Gielinor with a new quest as part of the game’s year-long anniversary celebrations. Dubbed, somewhat inevitably, ‘Gower Quest’, the new mission sees players uncover the mystery of the disappearing cabbages for three familiar looking cabbage mages. Packed with nods and winks to vintage RuneScape memes and jokes, Gower Quest is a fond love letter from the game’s creators.

A free-to-play quest that enables the broadest range of players to experience the adventure and celebrate the game’s past and future successes, Gower Quest will take players through cabbage fields and beyond as they experience a tale that will warm the very cockles of their hearts. Featuring new rewards, including a brand new god sword forged in the name of the cabbage god, Brassica Prime, Gower Quest is like no other RuneScape quest!

“Bringing back the three brothers to help design a celebratory quest was simply fantastic, and we’re already seeing players contact us saying how nostalgic and wonderful Gower Quest is for them,” said David Osborne, lead designer, RuneScape. “We’re grateful to Andrew, Paul, and Ian for returning to RuneScape for one more occasion and being guest designers on the quest. Fifteen years is a phenomenal milestone to reach, so few MMORPGs have ever reached it, and fewer still while experiencing a resurgence in player numbers!”

“Without the Gowers, we would not have RuneScape and there would be no Jagex, so we were thrilled when they agreed to return to Jagex as guest quest designers for this celebratory adventure,” said Mark Ogilvie, design director, RuneScape. “I’ve been working on RuneScape for 14 years now, and I have many, many fond memories of working at the near-dawn of Gielinor and its lore. This quest harks back and pays homage to some key events and characters from across the history of RuneScape, and is the perfect way to celebrate its milestone anniversary.”

Conan Exiles Delayed to January 2017


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Conan Exiles is begin delayed, and for good reason. In an announcement posted on the Steam Early Access page today, Joel Bylos has revealed that additional funding has allowed the studio more flexibility in getting the game up to snuff before putting it on the store.

We have come to realize that we would like to spend a little more time creating our vision of Hyboria before we release it into Early Access. Having very recently secured additional funding for our studio which has made our financial situation much more flexible than even just a few weeks back, we want to take advantage of that and move Early Access to January 2017. With the extra time in development, we believe we can make a better game for you, the fans.

(Source: Steam)

Check Out Overwatch’s Golden Guns


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In his previous talk, Jeff Kaplan announced that competitive mode would bring golden gun skins as a reward for players, with the most skilled among the player base getting their hands on the (presumably) beautiful weapons much sooner than the rest. According to screenshots revealed on the Korean public test server, those guns may be coming sooner than thought.

These guns have not been confirmed by Blizzard, so they may just be high quality fakes. The odds of that seem unlikely.

(Source: Forum)

Down The Line, Where Does H1Z1 Stand?


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Earlier this year, Daybreak Game Company announced that they would be splitting off H1Z1 into two separate games: King of the Kill and Just Survive. Since February, the games have been operating as two separate products leading myself and some others to ask: How have they fared?

Looking at the statistics, it’s safe to say that King of the Kill is easily what players bought into H1Z1 in order to play. The game peaked out in its launch month with an overall peak of more than twenty thousand players. Since then, traffic has dropped off about 25% to fifteen thousand, a respectable rate of retention, and has even grown slightly over the course of June.

The survival portion of H1Z1, meanwhile, has proven more stable while less popular. You can see in the chart that, upon split, Just Survive immediately loses nearly twenty thousand players from its peak numbers and sticks at about eight thousand. Since the split, however, the game has lost a distinctly smaller portion of its base. Peak numbers in February dropped from 8.7 thousand down to 7.0 thousand, so it looks like a substantially larger portion who stuck around during the split have stayed since then.

So while King of the Kill is more popular, Just Survive seems more stable. Both titles are no doubt doing well for Daybreak.

(Source: Steam Charts #1, #2)

Elite Lord of Alliance Releases Latest Update


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WEBZEN, a global developer and publisher of free-to-play games, today announced the release of “EPIC 2: Outlaw’s Emperor“, the latest content update for its triple-action hack ‘n’ slash MMORPG ELOA: Elite Lord of Alliance.

ELOA: Elite Lord of Alliance is an anime-inspired triple-action hack ‘n’ slash MMORPG, with classic action RPG elements and unique dynamic 3-combat-stance gameplay.

EPIC 2: Outlaw’s Emperor today raised the level cap to 50. This increased level cap is accompanied by new content, including the Veren Arena, Ruins of Forgotten King, and Paliore’s Garden dungeons. In the new dungeons, characters at the new maximum level will have a chance to obtain level 50 rare weapons/armor/accessories in Normal mode, and Engraving Stones in Hero mode.

Spanning from today through to July 12th, 2016 (UTC), the ELOA team is organizing many in-game events to celebrate the latest content update. The Epic 2 Commemorative Coin Event allows players to collect “EPIC 2 Commemorative Coins” via the in-game attendance event, and exchange them through NPCs to get their rewards. Rewards will be allocated based on the number of coins, and include the Awakened Poron Egg, Nightmare’s Avatar Surprise Box, VIP Service (7 days), Low Reinforcement Safety Scroll, Elite Potential Scroll (500), Eva’s Knowledge and Eva’s Fortune.

Returning players who have level 40 unique weapons & armor (over +8 reinforcement) from Hero raids can take part in theReinforcement Preservation Event. They can acquire the “Elite Reinforcement Scroll (100%)” by disassembling the eligible items.

The Newcomer Event also welcomes new players. After finishing the tutorial, new players will arrive at the Baratan Fortress and get level 40 weapons for their classes.

The update also introduces many improvements to the game, such as a shop renewal, a revamped transcendence level system and the addition of more items that can be obtained using Honor Points.

Additionally, level 50 wings, a dolphin pet (Joey), swimsuit costumes, and a limited all-in-one package are now available for purchase in the shop.

Full details about the latest update can be found on the official ELOA website at: http://eloa.webzen.com/en/events/epic2 , and players can check out the trailer on the official ELOA YouTube channel: https://youtu.be/ttXKFt8G_Vs

Firefall’s Future On The PS4


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Hello, Firefall fans,

We wanted to take some time to discuss Firefall and our plans for other platforms. Red 5 Studios cherishes the Firefall IP and we are continuing to make the game in the best way that we can. Additionally we are working to bring the IP to other platforms such as Playstation 4 and mobile.

The team deeply appreciates and embraces those that are enthusiastic about Firefall as an IP and welcome constructive ideas and feedback from all sources including former employees of the studio. Because of the enthusiasm shown we feel the value of the Firefall IP is not only recognized by gamers but the capital market as well.

While we have more plans for the Firefall IP, currently the team’s focus regarding Firefall is working to prepare the franchise for Playstation 4 and mobile. We will be sure to provide everyone with more updates as we have them. We’d like to thank all of those that have supported us and plan to continue to support the team as we continue to progress not only Firefall as a PC game but as an IP.

Best regards,
The Firefall Team

Firefall has had a bumpy ride on PC, and Red 5 Studios seems determined to save the game by starting fresh with new customers on new platforms. User count on PC has declined to incredibly low levels and only seems to be losing more people every day. Mobile and PS4 may be the only way to save the franchise and Red 5 from extinction.

(Source: Firefall)