Tag: Game

Not Massive: Tower of Shades Is A Tower of Charm


Tower of Shades is one of those games that I talk about knowing someone’s going to link to it to say “oh that Connor he’s not a real gamer, look at this hipster trash he calls a game.” I don’t care, Tower of Shades is charming as hell and I enjoyed every minute of it.

In Tower of Shades the entire game is comprised of beating the final boss of an RPG. That’s it, you fight the final boss. You won’t beat the boss on your first try, your second try, your third, and so on, but the whole goal here is to reinforce the idea that you should keep trying. If you don’t keep trying you’ll never win, and if you give up then why did you start at all?

All in all, Tower of Shades might take roughly 30 minutes to complete, give or take a bit. It also costs a whole $2 on the Steam store, which is more than reasonable for what is more of an experience than a “gamer’s game.” The fight does require you to think strategically, and each time you get a bit closer to beating the boss the game encourages you to keep on keeping on. Keep trying, even if you fail now you still have another chance.

One warning I will offer is that Tower of Shades has a few points where there is extreme flashing lights. The game has a warning at the beginning, but it is definitely not safe to play for those with epilepsy.

Otherwise Tower of Shades is a very uplifting game and I recommend it to anyone who needs a quick confidence boost. Check it out, nerds.

Jagex Hiring For Unreal Engine Title


Jagex is hiring for a new IP, one that appears to be built on the Unreal Engine.

A job listing on Jagex’s corporate website lists New IP hiring a number of positions including game director, product director, senior roles, as well as a lead environment artist. The job listings don’t give a whole lot of hints on what this game might be, however the job listings do make several mentions to knowledge of the Unreal engine including a position for a gameplay programmer that requires Unreal Engine experience as well as experience in networked and MMO games.

Jagex’s next game is up in the air as the company has started and halted development on new titles numerous times in the past (see MechScape, Stellar Dawn, and other vaguely referenced games), but it appears that they are at least in the planning stages of an MMO built on Unreal Engine 4. We’ll see if this one happens to get close enough to release that Jagex gives it a name.

Hero Siege Taken Offline After Hacker Bans Everyone


Let’s start the new year off with a bit of comedy.

Hero Siege servers have been taken offline for a period of time today. The problem? A hacker managed to make his way into the system and ban every account in the game. According to the news post which we have reposted below for your pleasure, this attack has been ongoing for several weeks with the most recent escalation taking down every account.

Hello,

Unfortunately there is a hacker attacking our servers and the person has managed to ban every account in the game. This attack has been going for weeks and has now escalated. We are currently looking for a fix to this and have disabled multiplayer for a while.

We are sorry for the issue.

As of 5:07p.m. EST, the issue appears to have been fixed with the servers brought back online and everyone unbanned.

Source: Steam (Credit to Gonzo for the tip)

Early Access: Inferna Is A Quaint Little Grinder


Inferna is a quaint little murder box that is kinda fun to run around in for a bit and kill mobs. If it wasn’t free to play, I’d suggest staying away from it.

As part of MMO Fallout’s year end checkup on various early access games, I decided to check out Inferna which launched into early access on December 20 of this year. Inferna is what AAA developers would probably refer to as “minimum viable product,” in that the developers over at the properly named INFERNA LIMITED have created some base systems and tossed the player into a map with gratuitously sprinkled in mobs of varying size, shape, and level.

Otherwise there isn’t a whole lot going on in Inferna at the moment, which is to be expected from a game that literally just launched into early access a week ago. There are some basic equipment enhancement systems in effect, mobs occasionally drop gear that can be sold to other players or to NPC shops. There is the option to create a personal shop like you tend to see in Korean MMOs and plop it down in town to sell items while you are off and about obtaining more goods.

Honestly there’s not a whole lot to talk about with Inferna. On a positive note the developer has clearly been hard at work pushing out patches, and in my short experience the game seems to have a vibrant and active trading community. If you’re expecting a game that is feature complete, you’ve immediately made a mistake by downloading an early access title. If you want a free game to tinker around in for a bit, give it a download.

As for me, I’ll be making a note on my big paper calendar to check in on Inferna in a year.

An MMO On Steam: Spelling Quest Online


Spelling Quest Online is certainly a game and is absolutely on Steam.

I’ll come right out and admit that I downloaded Spelling Quest Online because it is free to play and in early access, and also because it is tagged in the MMO category. Spelling Quest Online is multiplayer free-form scrabble, which is a fancy way of saying that nobody takes turns as much as you just throw down tiles and hope for the best. You can connect to random boards and just go to town for the ten minutes until the game gets boring and you want to stop and play something fun.

The boards have words that people can easily spell, like anal and bruv. There is a dictionary check when you want to make a word, but I’m not sure what dictionary the game cross-references that thinks bruv is a word because while the Cambridge dictionary recognizes it, the Oxford dictionary does not. There are daily quests that offer you gold which can be used to replace letters. I assume that most of the people playing this game are cheating. I cheated and used a Scrabble helper website because my gaming skills are only second in their inadequacy to my knowledge of words.

I will readily admit that I quit after ten minutes when completing words left me with a hand consisting almost entirely of Y’s, V’s, and X’s and literally no way to continue playing (I didn’t have any gold) on that map. I probably could have found a spot to put one or two of the Y’s but I didn’t feel like putting more effort than this game is worth. Which is nothing.

As for the developer Craig Schwartz, I will continue to love your character in the film Being John Malkovich, even if they didn’t give you anything to do in the sequel; Being John Malkovich 2: District Dafoe.

Steam: Strike Mole, The $199 Single Player MMO Hamster Game?


Strike Mole labeled itself a Massive Multiplayer game, so I can technically talk about it without attracting those “why does this belong on MMO Fallout” comments.

Strike Mole caught my eye because it is listed in the MMO section of Steam releases, contains a $200 price tag, and doesn’t appear to actually be called Strike Mole. If you click on the store page, it offers you the opportunity to buy “Physical Ball” for $199 USD. The screenshots look like a whack-a-mole game, which makes sense if the game is titled Strike Mole.

“This is a 3D casual hamster game with 12 levels. The first four levels are training levels, which are relatively simple, and the subsequent levels will require you to complete more in a shorter period of time as the level increases. Mole strikes, you need to destroy them in a short time to unlock more levels.”

Strike Mole is developed and published by Lize. It is literally an asset flip of Whack a Mole from the Unity Asset store, so you can save $175 and buy the pack, compile it, and just play it if you REALLY want to play this game. There is currently one review in Chinese which simply asks “why is this game 500?”

MMO Fallout will update when Mole Strike is inevitably banned off of the Steam platform.

Human Head Studios Sued For Abandoning Rune II


Human Head Studios will always hold a special place in many hearts as the company that made Prey 2006. About three weeks ago, the company launched Rune II on the Epic Game Store. Set in Norse mythology during the end times, Rune II puts you in the shoes of a warrior chosen by the gods to end Ragnarok and save Midgard from the treachery of that trickster Loki.

Rune II is also the focus of a lawsuit alleging fraud, contract breach, and fraudulent concealment, among other charges. The lawsuit stems from the events that occurred after Rune II launched on the Epic Game Store. Right after, as literally a day later they announced that Human Head Studios would immediately shut down with its developers transferred to a new studio under Bethesda’s management. Rune II’s publisher and financier Ragnarok Game LLC is understandably not happy with this turn of events, especially since Human Head is allegedly refusing to turn over source code and assets that Ragnarok now legally owns, in order to allow continued support of the game.

A notice was posted to the Rune II forums discussing the details of the lawsuit.

“Since Human Head’s sudden closure, announcement, and discovering the active concealment of their acquisition, we have repeatedly requested access to the final launch build source code and RUNE II game assets. This is so we can continue to support, update, and execute future DLC for our community. As part of the publishing agreement on RUNE II, Ragnarok Game LLC has paid for the development of these assets and is the rightful owner of them. After repeated refusals by Human Head to produce these assets, we’ve had no choice but to file a legal complaint in order to obtain the RUNE II game assets. We have exhausted all possible options before getting to this point.  This is not the step we wanted to take, but it is necessary in order to fulfill our promises to our community.”

The lawsuit itself which can be read online accuses Ben Gokey, Christopher Rhinehart, and Paul MacArthur, all Human Head Principals, of intentionally damaging the Rune II brand and image by failing to perform and then conspiring to abandon the property, with the studio intentionally closing when it did to maximize that damage.

“In summary: (a) Human Head entered into a long-term agreement with Ragnarok — the whole goal of which was to launch Rune II and to provide the necessary support for its commercial success, (b) Human Head accepted millions of dollars in payment, but failed to perform, (c) instead of curing its deficient work, Human Head secretly conspired to abandon Ragnarok and the Rune II community in an apparent attempt to defraud and harm Ragnarok and the game, and (d) Human Head timed the unveiling of its plan to cause maximum damage. By this time, Ragnarok had learned its lesson. Ragnarok refused to be blackmailed and pay the ransom, repeatedly requesting the return of its property. What did Ben Gokey, Christopher Rhinehart, and Paul MacArthur do? They made unauthorized alterations to the code and attempted (unsuccessfully) to make public the unauthorized changes. Of course, since Human Head no longer existed, Gokey, Rhinehart, and MacArthur were not altering the code on behalf of Human Head. Regardless, alter the code they did. “

The lawsuit goes on to accuse Human Head of holding code hostage as ransom for monetary payments, as well as accusing the studio of attempting to upload altered versions of the game to the Epic Game Store despite demands to cease. If even half of the lawsuit is true, it’s a pretty damning story against Human Head heads Gokey, Rinehart, and MacArthur.

Source: Eurogamer

Steam Releases: Stay Out


Want a new MMORPG loosely based on the Stalker games? You’re in luck. Last week saw the launch of a new survival MMO on Steam. Stay Out is the latest in Stalker-inspired games developed by Mobile Technologies LLC. The title was previously called Stalker Online and may have changed its name to avoid copyright problems with the guys that created the actual S.T.A.L.K.E.R. games.

And it is free to play.

“Discover a world full of dangers and incredible events, which has its own laws and principles.
Become one of the “Stalkers” – people living the romance of the unknown, able to overcome any trials in search of artifacts on the territory of the Alienation Zone.
Take a look beyond the edge of the unknown, where the secrets of nature and deadly dangers await the daredevils at every turn.
Survive in harsh conditions, when you count every sip of water and every match.
Secret laboratories, life forms of unknown origin, mysterious anomalies, and strange artifacts that challenge our knowledge of the laws of nature – all this is a huge world of “Stay Out”.”

Reviews for the game are presently mixed, with players noting a pay-to-win cash shop as well as horrible translations into English and a tutorial that is boring and doesn’t really do much to teach you about the game. There are also complaints about people griefing as well as the pvp system that allows players to camp outside of towns and kill newer players to steal their inventory.

Play at your own risk.

Source: Steam

Bloodbath Steam: Valve Burns Down The House In Mass Game Ban


(Update: It looks like a total of 833 games have been banned by Valve today)

Bloodbath Kavkaz? Nah, Bloodbath Steam.

Valve is currently in the midst of what appears to be a massive ban wave of shady Steam developers, with hundreds of games caught in the crossfire and no sign of slowing down. The ban wave began just over an hour ago as of this publishing and has been knocking out games left and right.

Chief among the ban list is Dagestan Technology, a Russian publisher of titles such as Bloodbath Kazkov.

We will update if more information become available.

Source: Sentinels of the Store

Legends of Aria Announces Big Content Drop/Free Accounts


Legends of Aria dropped a new announcement today revealing upcoming content coming December 5.

The big update brings back the wilderness to reintroduce the risk-vs-reward system allowing you to take out murderous players or rob the defenseless. Warriors will now have access to a number of new skills. Townships will act as a hub for players to trade in local currency while militias can be formed to capture wilderness locations. Leagues of Celador promises to offer episodic content to push the game’s lore forward, while world bosses will provide a powerful enemy for players to group together and fight.

More details can be found at the official website.