Federal Charges Filed Against Tyler Barriss And Accomplices In Witchita Swatting


Last December we reported on Tyler Barriss, a 25 year old who goes by the handle “Swautistic,” who was arrested after admitting that he called in the fake 911 call that ultimately lead to the death of 28 year old Andrew Thomas Finch. Barriss was arrested to be charged with calling in the hoax, and potentially for his part in the death of Andrew Finch. Last we left off, it didn’t appear that any punitive action would be taken against the two other individuals involved in the hoax, either the person who ‘hired’ Barriss to call the police or the Call of Duty player that gave Barriss the fake address.

Well this week a federal indictment was unsealed against Tyler Barriss as well as Casey Viner, 18 of North College Hill, Ohio, and Shane Gaskill, 19 of Witchita, Kansas. Barriss’ charges include making false/hoax reports to emergency services, cyberstalking, making interstate threats, making interstate threats to harm by fire, wire fraud and conspiracy to make false/hoax reports. Viner’s charges include wire fraud, conspiracy to make false/hoax reports, obstruction of justice, and conspiracy to obstruct justice while Gaskill is being charged with obstruction of justice, conspiracy to obstruct justice, and wire fraud.

If convicted, all three defendants face severe jail time and financial damages, with Tyler Barriss facing multiple life sentences for making a hoax call to emergency services and cyberstalking both leading to the death of another.

(Source: Indictment)

PSA: How To Actually Unlock The Raiders DLC On Steam


Raiders of the Broken Planet is giving its DLC away for free, but only until Friday. The method to unlock said DLC is rather, shall we say, convoluted and probably somewhat confusing for some of you. So MMO Fallout has put together a comprehensive guide on how to unlock Raiders free campaigns while the promotion is still going.

Step 1: Don’t Click On “Add To Cart”

Clicking on Add to Cart is probably why you are Googling this in the first place. Clicking Add To Cart will add the item to your cart and provide you with a cost to purchase. You’re not here to buy the DLC for $10, you’re here to buy it for $0.

Step 2: Go To The DLC’s Page

Click on the DLC to view its store page. Here you will see the DLC listed with the option to just “Download” it, as shown above.

Step 3: Click Download

Click download. This will activate the DLC to your account. You’re done, that’s all there is to it.

Apple Rejects Steam Link Streaming App For iOS


Apple has rejected Valve’s Steam Link app for iOS, the company announced this week. The app, released on Android with no apparent problems, allows users to stream their Steam library to their tablets or phones. According to Valve’s press release, quoted below, Apple cited business conflicts as the reason for their rejection of the app.

“On Monday, May 7th, Apple approved the Steam Link app for release. On Weds, May 9th, Valve released news of the app. The following morning, Apple revoked its approval citing business conflicts with app guidelines that had allegedly not been realized by the original review team. Valve appealed, explaining the Steam Link app simply functions as a LAN-based remote desktop similar to numerous remote desktop applications already available on the App Store. Ultimately, that appeal was denied leaving the Steam Link app for iOS blocked from release. The team here spent many hours on this project and the approval process, so we’re clearly disappointed. But we hope Apple will reconsider in the future.”

In other words: It allows people to play games without Apple getting a cut of the revenue.

(Source: Valve Press Release)

H1Z1 Strikes 1.5 Million Playstation 4 Systems


H1Z1 has officially hit the Playstation 4 and in the 24 hours since open beta began more than 1.5 million players have downloaded the game to their system.

“This is an incredible milestone and we want to thank all of our player who helped make this possible,” said H1Z1 Producer Terrence Yee. “We believe we’ve found the right balance for battle royale on console and players have responded positively to our reimagining of H1Z1. We will continue to refine the game based on feedback from Open Beta to ensure the best experience possible for our actively growing community.”

Redesigned for the PS4, H1Z1 features more weapons, a reworked user interface, and faster paced gameplay. The open beta can be downloaded for free on Playstation.

(Source: H1Z1 Press Release)

Jagex To Shut Down RuneScape Classic


After seventeen years of existence, Jagex today made the surprising announcement that its flagship title RuneScape Classic will shut down over the next few months.

Posted on the official website, Jagex’s explanation for the sunset is related to advancing technology making it more difficult to properly police the game of macros and for community safety. Over time the game has gradually broken down and Jagex is unable to fix them or promise any sort of reliable long term support.

RuneScape Classic has not been officially supported for about 14 years now and hasn’t been open to the general public for most of that time. There have been several periods where Jagex opened up account creation to the public, however the game has been mostly closed off to those who weren’t already playing for most of the last decade.

(Source: RuneScape)

H1Z1 Orders More Hardware To Deal With PS4 Overload


The H1Z1 open beta has arrived on Playstation 4 today, and many of you trying to log in may be unlucky enough to find yourself getting stopped at the door. Daybreak Game Company has announced via Twitter that 200,000+ concurrent users are trying to get online and the servers are having some trouble keeping up. As a result, more hardware is being spun up to accommodate the extra server load.

Daybreak has asked that players hold on tight while the servers stabilize.

(Source: H1Z1)

Wild Buster Relaunching Under New Publisher As Champions of Titan


Wild Buster hasn’t had such great success on Steam, especially after Valve severed its ties to Insel Games over that whole fraudulent review fiasco and removed their entire library from the platform. In response to the lack of simoleons flowing in and likely several angry phone calls with developer Nuri Works, Insel Games has agreed to transfer publishing rights to a new company, IDC Games who will relaunch Wild Buster under the new moniker Champions of Titan.

Unfortunately this means that all of your progression is going to be wiped.

With these changes also comes the necessity for a server wipe and new game client which means that all character progress will be reset and you need to re-register your account. While this might sadden some of you it simply is the best way to ensure a fair start for everyone and a growing community from the point of the re-launch.

Those who backed Wild Buster have been promised compensation in the form of rewards for the upcoming Champions of Titan relaunch.

(Source: Steam)

505 Games Reveals Memories of Mars: Open World Survival Shooter


Limbic Entertainment has released the latest trailer for Memories of Mars, an open world survival game set on none other than the red planet itself. Memories of Mars will task players with surviving the harsh conditions of the planetary surface, competing with other players and fending off the wildlife as they build their home away from home and make life just a smidgen easier on themselves.

To keep the game fun and fresh, Memories of Mars will implement seasons, periodic solar flares that wipe out all life and construction on the planet and force everyone to start anew. Thanks to the existence of cloning, however, you’ll be able to get a head start with some blueprints carried over from the previous season. The game will also feature a series of events to encourage players to compete with one another to salvage valuable resources.

Memories of Mars hits early access on Steam later this Spring. It is being developed by Limbic Entertainment who you may recognize from their work on Might and Magic: Heroes VII, and is being published by 505 Games who also published games like Payday 2 and Terraria.

(Source: Press Release)

505 Games Details No Man’s Sky Xbox One Launch


505 Games this week revealed the official launch date for No Man’s Sky on the Xbox One. The title will launch in North America on July 24 and in Europe on July 27 and will include a major update that will also hit the Playstation and PC versions of the game. Dubbed No Man’s Sky NEXT and revealed earlier this year, the update promises a full multiplayer experience.

“Multiplayer completely changes the No Man’s Sky experience; it’s emergent, fun and intense in ways we always wanted it to be. I’m so happy this is finally happening,” said Sean Murray, founder, Hello Games. “It is genuinely exciting to be able to fully realize the potential so many people could see in No Man’s Sky. This will be our biggest update yet and we’re pumped to be bringing Xbox players along on the journey with us now too.”

NEXT is a free update expected to launch simultaneously on all systems.

(Source: 505 Games Press Release)

Wild West Online On PvE “They Have Literally Nothing To Do And Never Will”


Wild West Online launched to mostly negative reviews and a peak of 559 players on Steam that has since continually dwindled downward. In a post on the official forums, 612 Games is pitching ideas on overhauling certain aspects of the game including the faction systems and offering players activities that aren’t devoted to just shooting other people. In response to a player concern that the activities would take the game in a more player vs environment sort of direction, 612 responded that the game is not being developed to care about PvE players and never will be.

No, this is not what we want to do. We want game to be PVP game, but we also want to allow PVP players to enjoy other activities as well. Here’s what happening right now in a game – PVP players, who LIKES to shoot other players are sitting in a safety of towns until Town Capture or other event starts. Then they teleport to the event, shoot each other brains out and then retreat back to safety of towns.

Our goals is improve that part, not care about PVE players. Game is not for them. they have literally nothing to do in a game and they will never will. It’ll never be a PVE game.

More on the proposed changes can be found on the official forum.

(Source: Wild West Online)