Tag: Game

Valve Drops 40,000 Accounts In Mass Ban


It may not surprise you to learn that Valve bans thousands of Steam accounts every day for cheating, between two to four thousand VAC bans and just as many game bans on a daily basis. A website that tracks and estimates inventory value determined that a total of $7,387 in items were taken out of the market along with the banned accounts. This makes for the highest ban day in Steam history, by a long shot.

In case you were wondering about timing, the bans were laid down right after the end of the latest Steam summer sale. VAC bans will extend to all accounts that share the same phone number and will ban that phone number from being reused for three months. In addition, players will be unable to move items from VAC banned accounts, meaning those expensive weapon skins are now permanently stuck to a tainted account.

(Source: VAC Database)

Prey Developer: Consider Steam’s Refund Policy Your Demo


Prey launches on PC and consoles this week, and while gamers on Xbox and Playstation were able to gauge their interest thanks to a pre-release demo, PC gamers haven’t been afforded the same luxury. Thankfully, Co-Creative Director Raphael Colantonio has a solution: Buy the game anyway, and just make use of Steam’s refund policy. Steam, for those out of the know, allows automatic refunds for games within two weeks or two hours of gameplay, whichever comes first.

“It’s just a resource assignment thing. We couldn’t do a demo on both the console and on the PC, we had to choose. And besides, PC has Steam. Steam players can just return the game [prior to playing] 2 hours so it’s like a demo already.

There are a few important notes to keep in mind that if you’re using Colantonio’s suggestion, foremost being that you have to buy the game through Steam. Registering a third party key will invalidate your eligibility for a refund. Furthermore, the two hour gameplay cutoff isn’t a hard line, but you’ll be dealing with Steam’s customer support and the good will of whoever you happen to be sent to. Finally, there are no guidelines for what constitutes refund abuse, so if you’ve been refunding a lot of games Valve may cut you off.

Otherwise, just think of Prey on PC requiring a $60-80 deposit, depending on your region.

(Source: Aus Gamer)

New Everquest Server Will Never Catch Up


Everquest pumps out progression servers on a pretty regular basis, but have you ever looked at them and wondered what life would be like if the community never voted to progress past Planes of Power, aka when the game stopped being good (your words, not mine). Well consider that thirst quenched, as Daybreak Game Company has announced that the next progression server will do just that.

When server Agnarr launches on May 24, it will unlock new expansions every 12 weeks, without interference or vote, until finally Planes of Power unlocks. After that, nothing more. The server is true box, meaning one client per computer. As always, All Access membership will be required.

More details can be found at the FAQ below.

(Source: Everquest)

Player Elder Scrolls Online Free: PS4 and PC


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PS4 and PC users will have the opportunity to play The Elder Scrolls Online for free beginning Wednesday, November 16th. While news has not been given on an Xbox One trial, players on the other two platforms will have access to the full game plus 500 Crowns (cash shop currency) to muck around with. In addition, progress made during the trial will cross over to the main game should players buy the game afterward.

The European PlayStation 4 Free Play Weekend will begin at 12:01 am local time tomorrow. PlayStation Plus is not required to participate. The PC and Mac Free Play Weekend on Steam will begin at 6 pm GMT tomorrow – you can begin downloading it from Steam now in preparation. Information on a Free Play Weekend for Xbox One will be revealed soon.

Furthermore, all trial players will be entered to win the Trip of a Lifetime, a sweepstakes that allows people to win a fully paid trip to one of five locations just by playing the game.

(Source: Elder Scrolls press release)

Daybreak Game Company Branching Into Xbox One


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(Update: Clarified that DC Universe is the first game to be released)

When Daybreak Game Company spun off of its Sony corporate overlords, most of us assumed and hoped that this would lead to their titles eventually being released on the Xbox. That speculation has come to fruition with the announcement that DC Universe Online will be hitting Xbox One later this spring. The console release will include the full game and all 20 currently released episodes. According to Game Informer, the release will also come with updates for all systems tying in the game with the Legends of Tomorrow television show.

A number of quality of life updates are coming as well, including account-wide unlocks for gear and styles, as well as cross-platform play between PC and Playstation with Xbox players on their own servers.

Hopefully this means more of Daybreak’s games coming to Xbox such as Planetside 2 and Everquest Next.

(Source: Game Informer)

You Can Now Disown Games On Steam


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Have you ever looked at your Steam library and thought “this game was so bad, I don’t even want it in my collection?” If you said yes, your day has come. In an unannounced update to their customer support section, Valve has made it possible to completely disown games on Steam. It sounds like a really bad phishing attempt, but it’s true. All you have to do is go to help.steampowered.com, log in, and find the game you want to get rid of. Click on “I want to permanently remove this game from my account,” and confirm, and blamo: It’s gone.

Finally something to help with those long-forgotten defunct MMOs. It is important to note that this is different than Steam’s refund policy. This will simply delete the game from your account, and you will not be able to reinstall it without purchasing it again.

Jagex Is Working On Another MMO Again


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Hot off the heels of Transformers Universe closing down, it appears Jagex is back on the horse with another MMO. A job listing popped up on the Jagex website looking for a lead programmer for an “undisclosed MMO.”

Given the exciting recent developments in online game engine technology and our historical success with the record breaking ‘Runescape’, we offer an amazing opportunity for a Lead Programmer to define the technological path of an undisclosed MMO.

Jagex’s most recent product, Transformers Universe, shut down in January mid-beta. Previous known works include Stellar Dawn, a science fiction MMO that was halted but not cancelled for Transformers, as well as an unnamed “ThirdScape” referenced several years ago.

(Source: Jagex)