Tag: Steam

Day of Dragons Dev Accused Of Hardcoding Ban Of Critics


There’s malfeasance (allegedly) afoot in Steam early access. Today’s piece comes to us about the game Day of Dragons, currently in early access on Steam. Day of Dragons bills itself as “an online creature survival game set in a large, beautiful, sandbox open world with multiple biomes and distinct creatures. Rule the world as one of several dragon species, or play as an elemental.”

We here at MMO Fallout have dealt with plenty of dirty Steam devs, but the accusations being levied this week really take the cake. The developer of Day of Dragons, Jao, has been accused of hardcoding bans of two Youtuber critics into the game’s files that apparently cause the game to crash on startup if either try to play. The two Youtube creators are IGP_TV and IcyCaress, both of whom have been very vocal in criticizing Day of Dragons for being a cheaply made prototype using store bought assets. So another day in the indie neighborhood.

The video posted by IGP_TV creates a dump of the game’s memory and then checks the files in a hex editor. Among the code they find six Steam ID’s that have been hardcoded to prevent the game from running.

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Youtuber SidAlpha confirmed through his own investigation that the dump contains the six hard coded Steam ID’s.

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Several parties including MMO Fallout have reached out to Valve for comment. Current Steam Terms of Service for developers state that game bans cannot prevent a user from launching the game. It will have to be seen how Valve respond to these allegations, if they do.

The Game Awards: Epic Store Sale & Free Games


The Game Awards is here, or at least will be here in roughly eight hours from this article’s publishing.

Ahead of Geoff Keighley’s award show, the Epic Game Store has launched a Game Awards sale. The sale runs from today (Dec. 12) through December 16 and includes discounts on titles up for awards including Control, Borderlands 3, and The Outer Worlds. Check it out at the link above. Nintendo has similarly launched a sale for its favorite titles, including current and previously nominated games. Over at the Square Enix store, you can get a good deal on Final Fantasy XIV.

Meanwhile The Escapists is available for free on the Epic Game Store. You can grab a copy between now and December 19.

Over at Steam, Crytek is hosting a free play period for Hunt: Showdown. Hunt launched back in August and is a competitive PVP bounty hunting game with heavy PvE elements. The free weekend runs until Sunday. Team-based tactical FPS Insurgency: Sandstorm is also holding a free play period on Steam along with a 50% sale if you decide you want to pick the game up after giving it a trial run.

Tune in to the Game Awards tonight.

The Game Awards Will Have Playable Demos On Steam


Say what?

If you’re one of those people who doesn’t particularly care about the Game Awards, well now you have a reason to be at your computer this week (outside of the usual reasons). Geoff Keighley’s annual public display of affection toward Hideo Kojima is also renown for having a fair number of game reveals, something that only gets larger every year. This year however you won’t just sit at the television computer screen being told what’s coming out, you’ll be able to play them.

This year The Game Awards is working with Steam to bring playable demos of about a dozen games that will be available for 48 hours before they are removed.

“Six years ago I bet everything I had to create The Game Awards as a way to celebrate our passion for gaming,” said Geoff Keighley, creator, The Game Awards. “Now feels like the right time to take the next step with The Game Festival, a completely digital approach to the consumer event space. Let’s face it: Not everyone can attend a physical trade show or consumer event. The Game Festival is designed from the ground-up as an event without barriers, extending the benefits of a physical event to the global gaming community that watches The Game Awards.”

  • System Shock (Nightdive Studios)
  • Eastward (Pixpil/Chucklefish)
  • Spiritfarer (Thunder Lotus)
  • Moving Out (SMG Studio/Devm Games/Team17)
  • Röki (Polygon Treehouse/United Label)
  • Chicory (Greg Lobanov)
  • Wooden Nickel (Brain&Brain)
  • Haven (The Game Bakers)
  • Heavenly Bodies (2pt Interactive)
  • Acid Knife (Powerhoof)
  • The Drifter (Powerhoof)
  • CARRION (Phobia/Devolver)
  • SkateBIRD (Glass Bottom Games)

More information has been posted in an article on Medium. Steam users will also have the chance to win free games through game drops. Exact times have not been established, however the Game Awards airs Thursday Dec. 12 at 8:30p.m. eastern standard time.

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.

PSA: Want The Steam Controller? It’s On Sale (And Discontinued)


The Steam Controller is on sale for 90% off as part of Steam’s Autumn Sale. If you were looking to pick one up but for some reason still haven’t done so, you’ll want to take advantage of this sale. The Steam Controller is going away.

Presently priced at $5 plus shipping (your mileage may vary), Valve has confirmed that this batch of controllers will be the last. After that? You’ll need to go to the second hand market. The store page also notes that due to high demand, shipping may be delayed. The controller should ship and arrive within 4-8 days once the order is processed.

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

Video: Check Out 25 Minutes Of Wild Terra 2 Gameplay


It’s been nearly a week since the folks at Juvty Worlds announced Wild Terra II, the technologically superior sequel to the title of a similar name. Today Juvty Worlds released a video showcasing the first 25 minutes of pre-alpha gameplay which you can view embedded above.

The video notes that;

“The game does not yet have most of the sound FX, many animations need to be improved or created, and animals leave a trail on the screen when moving. But we really want to share this video so that you can see what has already been done and how the gameplay feels. We took it off as it is.”

For those interested in checking out Wild Terra II, it is possible to buy into a founders pack. Juvty Worlds is funding Wild Terra without investors or publishers. The first rendition of the game is available on Steam in a free to play format.

Both Destiny Titles Are Offline As Bungie Hurries To Figure Out Why


Destiny 1 and 2 have been down pretty much all day today, and Bungie is trying to get to the source of why. Servers for both titles went down at about 7:30 eastern this morning. Bungie has not publicly stated what the source of the downtime is, just that they are investigating the issues preventing people from logging in.

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Is this a conspiracy by the Undying Mind to prevent players from racking up kills during the final offensive event? Your guess is as good as mine.

Vicious Circle Goes Free To Play, Refunds Everyone


Back in September we reported on the failed launch of Vicious Circle, the latest title from Rooster Teeth Games. In that time, the crew has been working behind the scenes and at the start of the month announced that not only would Vicious Circle be going free to play, but that those who bought founders packs would be refunded.

“Why is Vicious Circle going Free to Play? In short, the game didn’t succeed. We came together on a super creative ambitious new project, put our hearts into it, did our best to support it, and it didn’t work out, and that’s okay. Not every idea we have will be a success. We have to fail to find success. Servers will remain up because we made a game and we want the community to still have a chance to play it. We don’t want price to get in the way. We remain proud of the work that was put into the game and want as many people to have the chance to experience it as possible.”

Don’t get too excited about that free to play, though. While the game is going free to play, Rooster Teeth has no intention of supporting the title outside of some bug fixes.

Source: Steam

Valve Changes CS: Go Keys To Combat International Fraud


Counter Strike: Global Offensive is making some changes to its keys this week and you can thank international fraudsters for that. Starting today, Counter Strike container keys will no longer be traded or sold on the market. Players are able to earn cases that contain weapon skins while playing Counter Strike but must buy keys in order to open them and see what loot is inside.

According to a statement put out by Valve, the keys recently became the preferred method of cleaning money by international fraud networks to the point where almost all key purchases are believed to be fraud-sourced.

“Why make this change? In the past, most key trades we observed were between legitimate customers. However, worldwide fraud networks have recently shifted to using CS:GO keys to liquidate their gains. At this point, nearly all key purchases that end up being traded or sold on the marketplace are believed to be fraud-sourced. As a result we have decided that newly purchased keys will not be tradeable or marketable.”

This update does not affect keys that were already on the market.

(Source: Counter Strike)