Tag: Steam

Valve Bans Rai Studio Games Over Fraudulent Reviews


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Say hello to the new Digital Homicide.

Electric Zombies got a very small nod here at MMO Fallout last week where we discussed the game Zombie Rush and how it was definitely buying reviews. I mentioned at the time that the legion of bots were busy farming time on a game Electric Zombies by Rai Studio Games. I made a note to keep an eye on Rai Studio Games over the weekend, knowing that sooner or later the chickens would come home to roost and we’d be seeing a tidal wave of positive reviews for their games.

Well the weekend has come and gone, and it’s time to check the hen house. Electric Zombies is now available for purchase, although you can’t buy it. In fact, you can’t buy any of Rai Studio Games’, uh, games. Over the course of the weekend, the purchase button has been completely removed. Unfortunately that means no more Base Squad 49, no more Lands of Devastation, or Rapid Squirrels either. Presumably, RSG’s current list of Greenlight titles will not be eligible for release.

Some more good news: The apparent leaders of the bot group are this guy, this guy, and this guy. The group that the bots congregated around is gone, however the bot accounts are still present with many having been given community bans.

There has been some speculation that these games are being used for money laundering purposes, the game Lemurzin has a $100 DLC that does basically nothing.

MMO Fallout will be keeping an eye out on the legion of review bots (that we know of) and will keep you abreast of any updates as they arise.

Conan Exiles Enters Early Access In September


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Conan Exiles is now available to add to your wishlist on Steam, however the game itself won’t be available for another few months. In a press release published today, Funcom has revealed that its multiplayer survival game Conan Exiles will be heading to Steam Early Access in September.

Accompanying the announcement is a brand new trailer showing off some early gameplay, with players laying siege to castles, building, destroying, and generally slaughtering each other in massive numbers.

“We’re very excited (and a bit nervous) about launching our first Early Access title,” said Funcom CEO Rui Casais. “The team wants to give the players the best possible experience, and while we are used to working on a game for several years before letting players in, this time around we will let players in just nine months after development started!”

As with any early access game, Age of Conan will not be feature complete upon its initial launch. Customers should keep that fact in mind before they make their purchase.

[NM] ZombieRush Is Definitely Buying Reviews


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I have no idea if ZombieRush is a good game, its Steam page would definitely seem to imply so despite the top two most helpful reviews being overwhelmingly negative.

The most recent review (as of this publishing) is by user tyXYDelcatQU, who I will call Ty for the foreseeable future. I looked into Ty’s account and he appears to be playing Electric Zombies. Ty has three reviews for the 44 products in his account, two of which are exactly the same: “Very simple, straightforward gameplay but highly entertaining. 9/10.” All three games have 3.9-4.1 hours invested in them.

But whoever said lacking creativity was a crime? Let’s go down to #2, user yXSSkittJH, who I will be referring to as Skitt. Now Skitt has three reviews out of 44 games in their library and has reviewed ZombieRush, BaseSquad 49, and The Culling of the Cows, the same three games as Ty above with identical reviews on two games. Skitt was also playing Electric Zombies at the time of this publishing.

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Alright, two could still be a coincidence. Let’s look at the following set of reviews to see if there is a correlation.

There appear to be around 200 fake reviews in a row, and I know because I counted all of them, all by accounts with the same three games, same review structure, same comments in many cases (reviewing two games exactly the same and then reviewing Culling of the Cows as ‘gg’). Like every instance of mass production, the reviews come in blocks. Thirty reviews in a row from accounts with 44 games and 3 reviews, followed by another fifty of accounts with 50 games and 4 reviews.

So it’s obvious that Zombie Rush is buying reviews in bulk, thinking that the average consumer is too stupid to notice hundreds of positive, one line reviews written by accounts with generated names and the same number of games/reviews, all playing the same games.

ZombieRush was developed by Arthur Kariev.

[Community] The Beast That Wouldn’t Stop It


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It’s time for another Community Monday here at DH Fallout, the website that used to cover those online games, and as usual I have another Digital Homicide update for you. The last post on Digital Homicide got such a huge response that it shut down the website for part of the day. The positive side is that it spurred me to upgrade us to Cloudflare, so this shouldn’t be a problem going forward.

Despite having nearly two dozen of their games slammed with an “incompatible with Greenlight” sticker from Valve, rejection both by the gaming community at large and now their would-be host doesn’t seem to be slowing the developer down. No, on Sunday the 5th, Digital Homicide added another seven games to their Greenlight portfolio. Let’s break them down:

  • Barnacle Explorer Sub: Fish Rescue – Another Space Invaders clone, the exact same looking game from the dozen other clones DH uploaded last week.
  • Barnacle Explorer Sub: Shark Rescue – A clone of the game above, but with sharks instead of fish.
  • Barnacle Explorer Sub: Octo Helper – A clone of the game above, but with octopus instead of sharks.
  • Mike the Astronaut: Battle on Arturian Twelve – A clone of the game above, but in space.
  • Star Scream on Orion – Looks like a clone of DH’s other game, Decimation of Olarath.
  • Sharktastic Yum Yums – Probably as close as you’ll get to an original Digital Homicide title.

What caught my eye is the last game on the list, Clickerton Gang. I couldn’t figure out for the life of me why this game in particular was screaming for my attention, at least not until a couple of people on Twitter pointed it out: We’ve seen Clickerton Gang before.

Clickerton Gang was first put up on Greenlight by user Bobmiddleton80, an indie developer who appeared out of the blue with three games ready for the Steam community to vote on. We first heard of Bob Middleton under allegations that the account was actually a sock puppet of Digital Homicide. One of Middleton’s games, as it turns out, was Clickerton Gang. In what can only be pure coincidence, the logo for Clickerton Gang bears a strong resemblance to Digital Homicide’s game Wyatt Derp. You might even say it looks like two alternatives to the same stock photo.

You have to imagine that Valve is getting tired of Digital Homicide’s shenanigans. The seven new games weren’t even up for a day and Valve has already struck down five of them as incompatible with Greenlight. This leaves DH with 50 games currently on Greenlight. 26 of its titles are listed as “incompatible with Greenlight.”

With the developer shoveling more trash into the pile every week and Valve increasingly stomping down on it, you have to wonder how long it takes until the developer is blacklisted from uploading new titles period, and whether or not that will be enough to prevent an entity that has had no problem changing its name in the past.

[Not Massive] Valve Just Struck Down Digital Homicide


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In the world of Steam and shady developers, no name has drawn quite as much hatred from the gaming public like Digital Homicide. Not unlike similar personalities including Uwe Boll, Digital Homicide’s notoriety is only superseded by the fact that the perception of its following is much higher than the real numbers. What it does have, however, is the ability to flip Unity engine assets and turn those into cookie cutter games that are quickly becoming parodies of themselves.

downloadFast forward to Steam Greenlight, a service that Digital Homicide has flooded with dozens of titles. As of this publishing, the company has more than forty titles in its Greenlight section. You read that correctly, more than forty. In their rush to clutter the service with as many titles as possible, Digital Homicide has resorted to putting out entire series of games that appear to be quite literally the exact same game but with different stock images.

To the left is Daisy’s Sweet Time: Cupcake Mania 3. It is identical to the other two iterations of the game plastered on Greenlight, and functionally it is also identical to Merle Wizard Extraordinaire #1, 2, and 3, all posted on the exact same day. Those games, in turn, are identical down to the placement of enemies, to Sarah to the Rescue, and its four sequels. Eleven games, all posted to Steam on the same day, all completely identical except for the art. As of this posting, there are more than a dozen Space Inavders clones up on Greenlight through Digital Homicide.

download (1)And the list goes on. Games that are reskins of other Digital Homicide games, sequels upon sequels that are the exact same title coming out at the same time as the original, functionally identical except for slight changes in art.

Because I am a veritable soothsayer of the gaming industry, I started this piece yesterday to convey the message that Valve should do its job and strike these games down. As so happens in the magical box that is the WordPress draft folder, my wish was granted and Valve has struck down many of Digital Homicide’s current Greenlight games.

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If you head over to their workshop, you’ll notice that a good two dozen of Digital Homicide’s games have been blackmarked by Valve as “incompatible with Greenlight.” Whether or not this fully disqualifies titles for release is up for debate, however Valve has clearly shown their disapproval for Digital Homicide’s release tactics.

Overall, 22 of Digital Homicide’s games have been slapped with an incompatible tag. Despite being labeled as incompatible, Wyatt Derp 2 is still available for purchase. Granted, the game was made available before Valve tagged the title, so the future of Digital Homicide’s presence on Steam is certainly in question.

MMO Fallout will update with more information as it becomes available.

Kings and Heroes Goes On Early Access Today


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Kings and Heroes feels like a game out of Dungeons and Dragons, and those interested in plundering its depths can do so starting today. Billed as an ARPG, Kings and Heroes presents players with randomly generated dungeons, persistent content, and a seamless open world.

With hundreds of players in each world you’ll have plenty of company to explore by foot or on horseback. Discover towns, villages, ruins, ghost towns, high mountains, lakes, and valleys across varied environments. You’ll travel in realistic day and night cycles with true weather effects. Be warned, many dangerous creatures inhabit the world so an adventurer must always be prepared for a fight.

The game will go live in about three hours from this posting, after which it will be available for $29.95. Those who create a character within the first week will receive a small handful of exclusive items.

(Source: Steam)

Wild Terra Beta Key Giveaway


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MMO Fallout has partnered with Wild Terra to hand out beta keys to 30 lucky (or fast acting) gamers. Wild Terra bills itself as an MMO life simulator in a fully developed player-driven medieval world. The game is currently on Steam Greenlight seeking approval and Juvty Worlds would like to get you in as soon as possible.

Check out the trailer and grab a key for yourself. Players will also receive a Steam key once the game goes live on said platform. Don’t forget to vote for Wild Terra on Steam Greenlight (link above).

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That player gets after the activation key:
– Early access to the game
– 5 premium days
 
Instructions on how to activate the key:
1. go to the website http://www.playwildterra.com/
2. Download and install the game client http://www.playwildterra.com/files/
3. Launch the game, sign up and enter the key.

Tree of Savior Temporarily Blocks New Players To Sort Things Out


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Citing “serious internal debate,” Tree of Savior developer IMC Games revealed that they have requested that Valve temporarily shut off the ability to access the game. The decision comes in response to server stability, lag, and major issues regarding gold farming and in-game chat spam.

These restrictions will be put in place as soon as they are implemented by Valve and will be lifted as soon as the issues have been resolved. There will be another announcement as soon as the restrictions are implemented.

Tree of Savior previously had issues with fraud regarding Steam refunds, where certain malicious people were purchasing founder packs and then refunding them via the Steam store to keep the items.

(Source: Tree of Savior)

Chronicle: RuneScape Legends Launches May 26th


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(Correction: The free card packs run until May 15th)

Jagex Ltd, makers of the popular MMO RuneScape, have announced that their collectible card game RS Chronicles will launch on Steam on May 26th. In order to celebrate the occasion, anyone who logs in between now and May 15th will receive three free booster packs to bolster their decks.

RS Chronicles is one of the latest additions to the battle card game genre, following the massive success of Hearthstone. The title sets itself apart from the competition in that cards are used to build adventures for the player’s hero, building up their abilities or tearing down their opponent in preparation for the final battle at the end of each match.

“It’s just two weeks until we officially throw open the doors to Chronicle’s Hall of Legends on 26th May, and its launch on Steam is only the beginning for what we have planned. We’ve already introduced brand new cards every week, increased rewards, balancing improvements, and there’s even more content planned for the months to come,” said James Sweatman, lead designer, Chronicle: RuneScape Legends.

Chronicle: RuneScape Legends is currently free to play with microtransactions. Chronicle: RuneScape Legends will launch on Steam in seven languages: English, French, LATAM Spanish, German, Polish, Russian, and Brazilian-Portuguese.

(Source: Jagex press release)

Fantasy Tales Online Available On Steam


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Indie MMO Fantasy Tales Online is available in Early Access on Steam, if you missed its release last week. Developed by Cold Tea Studio, FTO is a retro-inspired MMO with accessible controls and a small community. I managed to take a look at the game and found it to be an immensely enjoyable experience, albeit one that is clearly early on in development.

Also available at launch is the Frontier Pack. For $20, the Frontier pack provides 1 month of subscription, bags, crate keys, costume tokens, respec tokens, and cash shop gems. The server on Steam is separate from the one on the official website.

Otherwise Fantasy Tales Online is free to play. Check it out on Steam at the link below.

(Source: Steam)