Tag: Update

2019 Developer Report Cards: Ubisoft Edition


Oh Ubisoft! What can I say about Ubisoft that hasn’t already been said about Flint’s water supply?

Ubisoft confuses me as a gamer and as a guy who writes about games. On one hand, they are constantly pulling maneuvers that make you wonder what chucklehead is driving the vehicle. On the other hand, they’re competent enough to put out some actually good games and fix what they screw up. Let’s look at Ubisoft’s 2019 releases.

  1. Trials Rising: It came out, it sold copies. Honestly don’t have much to say about this one.
  2. Far Cry: New Dawn – If you enjoyed Far Cry 5, New Dawn was basically an expansion pack’s worth of content at an expansion pack’s price of $40. If you enjoyed Far Cry 5 and wanted to see what happened following the rather crazy ending, well you pretty much got what you wanted. As far as Far Cry plots go, the story was fine. Just fine. It allegedly sold worse than Far Cry’s prior spinoffs including Primal so perhaps it would have been better off as a cheaper DLC release for Far Cry 5 instead of a standalone title.
  3. Anno 1800: Anno 1800 marks the first of Ubisoft’s titles this year to go to the Epic Store for exclusivity on PC. It sparked quite a controversy since the title had already been available for pre-order on Steam before Ubisoft summarily yanked it. Not willing to let that controversy hold it back, Anno 1800 evidently went on to become the fastest selling Anno game. It also seems to be very well received by those who bought it, looking at Steam reviews.
  4. The Division 2: And here is where Ubisoft first pooped the bed. By all means The Division 2 was exactly what a game sequel should be. It implemented a lot of lessons from its predecessor and actually fixed them instead of ignoring/exacerbating them. It wasn’t perfect, The Division 2 launched with some issues surrounding loot and the first raid was kinda crap because console players literally couldn’t handle it. And Ubisoft fixed most of those problems and has been supporting the game with some good content. Unfortunately for them the appetite of the general consumer base just wasn’t looking for another open world sequel and The Division 2 hasn’t quite lived up to expectations in terms of sales.
  5. Ghost Recon: Breakpoint – If there is one positive thing that can be said about Breakpoint, it’s that it beat the sense back into Ubisoft (hopefully). Breakpoint is a dumpster fire that should have never been acceptable within Ubisoft and its failure not only snapped their stock price over its knee, it led to a restructuring of how Ubisoft approves games. Riddled with major game-breaking bugs, obviously half-assed systems, and drowning in microtransactions, Breakpoint shouldn’t have been this broken given how close it is to Wildlands. It serves as a reminder that Ubisoft’s titles are quickly hitting the singularity, becoming so blandly similar that they are hard to tell apart.
  6. Just Dance 2020: I’m sure it will do just fine.

2019 also brought us changes in Ubisoft’s business plan, primarily the announcement and launch of Uplay+. This may come as a surprise, but I honestly don’t have much of a problem with Uplay+ from a consumer standpoint. As with any service, it’s a value proposition. If you want to keep buying your games and “own” them, whatever that means in a world where games as a service ties your playability to servers remaining online, you can still buy the game. If you want to spend $15 to binge some Ubisoft games for a month and then cancel, you can do that too. If you think that long term subscriptions in exchange for having the best versions of Ubisoft’s titles is worth it, go ahead. It’s as valuable as you think it is, and obviously Ubisoft knows this because it’s not mandatory in any sense.

I’d like to give Ubisoft a higher score for having their come to Jesus moment during the last gasp of 2019. Unfortunately their moment of lucidity was not due to personal reflection but due to the potential for financial ruin brought upon by the insane failure of Ghost Recon and the potential that their upcoming titles could perform worse, a game that they were all too happy to release in its state and with all of its microtransactions. At the same time, the company is not completely incompetent and has shown that it is somewhat capable of learning from mistakes. Ghost Recon has received a couple of patches since launch and they have promised more coming.

At the same time, this is a company that supports its products. Ultimately I have to give Ubisoft a B- for 2019. Let’s hope the failure of Ghost Recon: Breakpoint teaches them a lesson. Let’s also hope that I get around to making more of these report cards.

Striker/Tamer Out Now On Black Desert (PS4)


Today marks the launch of two new classes in Black Desert on the Playstation 4; the Striker and Tamer.

The Striker class is a melee fighting class that specializes in hand-to-hand attacks to bring down his enemies. The Tamer as you might expect is joined by her animal companion and utilizes powerful area of effect attacks while evading counterattacks. In addition to the two classes, Black Desert on Playstation 4 sees the addition of a new world boss in the form of Karanda The Queen of Harpies. Karanda has a chance of dropping the dandelion weapon box which contains the most powerful awakening weapon in Black Desert.

Information on the classes can be found here with Karanda and a new world boss schedule here. Black Desert is currently 25% off on the Playstation Store and 50% off for plus members as part of the ongoing Double Discount sale.

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

Jagex Will Discuss RuneScape Monetization On November 5 Stream


RuneScape. Financially the game is in a fantastic position; back in May we discussed how Jagex had posted a 9.3% increase in overall revenue with subscription numbers at their highest ever in the game’s history thanks to the launch of Old School mobile.

But all has not been great on the western front. MMO Fallout has reported for several years on how RuneScape’s monetization efforts have been very successful, but also very polarizing in the community. Every couple of years, Jagex reaches out to try to pull on the brakes of the game’s heavy microtransactions and it looks like it’s time for another heart to heart. Community animosity has been high ever since a UK parliamentary report from September specifically called out the developer when discussing egregious microtransactions, pointing to one player who had spent more than $62,000 USD.

On November 5, several Jagex staff will host a stream discussing the future of microtransactions in RuneScape. Those of you placing bets should keep in mind that Jagex receives one third of its revenue from these microtransactions.

“Tune in at 5PM GMT on November 5th for a very important livestream. Mods Osborne, Warden and MIC will be on the couch discussing plans for the future of MTX in RuneScape.

Ask your questions in the Discord room, on the forums, or in the dedicated Reddit thread – or email Mod Warden directly at AskModWarden@jagex.com. Your opinion is important to us, especially when it comes to controversial topics like this one – so let us hear your thoughts!”

Source: RuneScape

World of Warcraft Squishing Levels Down To 60


Blizzard is crushing your head.

Blizzcon came and went this weekend and World of Warcraft players received confirmation on a feature that many probably knew was coming months ago. Blizzard officially announced that World of Warcraft will see an arguably much deserved level crunch as the max cap goes from 120 to 60. Current level 120 players will be crunched down to 50 and be able to make their way to the new level cap of 60.

Another positive of this announcement is that alt leveling is supposed to be more user friendly. Alts will be able to level in any zone or through world quests, and while you’ll need to hit level 60 to unlock the ability to align with end-game factions, your alts will be able to take advantage of the faction alignment from the start and begin farming end-game materials earlier.

Enjoy level 120 while it lasts.

Source: Blizzard press release

Mystic Character Class Available In Black Desert (Xbox)


Black Desert today released a new update introducing the Mystic class to the Xbox One. The Mystic utilizes the gauntlets and vambrace and prefers close combat.

More information can be found at the official website.

RuneScape In Your Pants: Mobile Early Access Is Live


RuneScape mobile has entered early access on Android phones, allowing gamers their dream of finally carrying the MMO around in their pants. Users who take advantage of the early access will be gifted a mobile founder’s pack which contains a steel panther combat pet, a unique rest animation, and radiant dawn armor. Product director Jason Millena stated;

“Given RuneScape’s 18-year long heritage, in addition to being recognised by Guinness World Records for ‘The Most Prolifically Updated MMORPG Videogame’, to have the whole of RuneScape running on mobile is a massive achievement. We couldn’t be more excited to launch in Early Access and welcome those who know RuneScape the best – our members.”

You can get mobile early access here.

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)

IPE Update: Epic Games v. ABC Moving Forward


Epic Games is moving forward with its lawsuit against Acceleration Bay (ABC) following an order denying the defendant’s motion to dismiss.

Taking the initiative upon itself, Epic Games filed suit several months ago against Acceleration Bay, seeking a declaratory judgment that their game Fortnite did not infringe on patents owned by the defendant. The lawsuit was predicated on contacts between the two parties where ABC appeared to be offering a “mutual resolution” to avoid potential litigation, as it believed that Epic Games had infringed on a patent owned related to network technology. Epic got snarky with its response, noting that ABC appears to exist solely to litigate patents it buys in bulk from third parties.

Last month Acceleration Bay filed a motion to dismiss on grounds of lack of subject matter jurisdiction (wrong court) and lack of controversy (there must be reasonable anticipation of a lawsuit in order to file for a declaratory judgment). Following oral arguments on October 22, the court denied the motion. Acceleration Bay must file an answer to the lawsuit no later than November 5.

As always, MMO Fallout has uploaded the relevant dockets to our Google Drive. You can view the decision at this link. The file included a motion to seal certain exhibits so you may see some of our documents get replaced/removed/redacted in the future depending on circumstances.

Review: The Outer Worlds


(Editor’s Note: I received a review copy of The Outer Worlds on Playstation 4. Given I have an Xbox Game Pass subscription and would have had access less than 24 hours later anyway, this has not changed my opinion on the game)

Why are you reading my review of The Outer Worlds? You can literally get access to this game right now on PC/Xbox One for $1 as part of the Xbox Game Pass trial subscription. Get the game, download it, play it, maybe read my review while it downloads? Buy an ewin racing chair using the MMO Fallout discount code (that’s promotional humor, please don’t kill me).

Those of you who read MMO Fallout may be aware that my passion for video game stories has, shall we say, waned a bit in recent years. I’m currently loving The Division 2 even though its plot is rather thin, but I play a lot of massively multiplayer games and that means that the story is pretty threadbare. It also doesn’t help that a lot of AAA games have gone toward the open world sandbox where you’re basically spending dozens of hours taking out bad guys you didn’t know before the mission and don’t care about after. Not all games, obviously, but enough that I have found it difficult to get engaged in stuff.

I have really been missing a good Obsidian-built world.

If you haven’t left this page and started downloading The Outer Worlds, let me just sum it up in one line: The Outer Worlds manifested itself when you were taking a bath and said “gee, I wish they would make a modern Fallout: New Vegas that wasn’t jank as hell.” I’d also like to sum up the humor of the game as taking the absurdity of Borderlands and stripping the memes away. Yea, it’s like that.

The Outer Worlds takes place in a futuristic science fiction world where the universe has been colonized and mega corporations run everything because William Mckinley was never assassinated and the United States did not legislate antitrust laws at that time. The game beats you over the head and neck with this narrative from the beginning where you create your character in a way that looks like you’re literally buying them from a store. You are part of a colony that was cryogenically frozen and for purely bureaucratic reasons your ship was never thawed out, left to become a myth as your people float around in the deepest recesses of space. You are rescued by an anti-corporate activist of sorts and land on a planet to start your journey pissing off the big corporation.

I made the comparison to Borderlands because The Outer Worlds is clearly an absurd story about intergalactic corporations and it knows how silly that concept is. The first person you come upon is a slogan-spouting corporate shill who gets angry if you try to heal him because he’s not allowed to use a competitor’s product. Your first experience with one of the megacorps is my personal favorite; Spacer’s Choice whose slogan is “it’s not the best choice, it’s Spacer’s Choice.” Spacer’s Choice sells products that are cheaply produced, low quality and prone to breaking, but very cheap to repair. There’s some dark humor, like how employee suicide is considered a crime of destroying company property.

One aspect of Obisdian storytelling that I love in The Outer Worlds is that choices are not specifically good or evil. Without spoiling any details, I had to think long and hard about the first major choice in the game. Your starting zone is a town based around a Saltuna factory (try the white chocolate saltuna!). You have numerous side quests that you’ll take on while helping out in the main story, but the gist of the conflict you find yourself in is that you need a power regulator to get off of the planet. The town has one and so do the deserters who left because they were getting screwed by Halcyon’s (the big umbrella megacorp) policies. The power generator cannot properly fuel both groups, so you need to act as arbitrator and figure out the best outcome.

Gameplay in The Outer Worlds is handled as a first person shooter. You can explore the multitude of indoor and outdoor areas, utilizing your various skills to hack computers, loot all the goods, and chat up the locals. As you would expect from an RPG made by Obsidian, there are many situations that you can either fight your way out of or, if your character has high enough speech skills, talk your way out of. Want to be a rootin-tootin bandit shootin desperado? You can do that. Want to go in with your sword and beat your enemies to a pulp? You can do that too. Want to be a smooth talking friendly type or intimidate your opposition into giving you what you want? Check and double check.

One aspect of The Outer Worlds that I can appreciate in theory but didn’t find much attachment to are flaws. Flaws are sort of a unique new feature that pop up once you have done a certain thing enough times. For example, getting hit with enough plasma damage will offer a “plasma weakness” flaw that has the effect of increasing plasma damage by 25% while also offering you one perk point. It’s an interesting idea, but your payout is always one perk point and frankly those just aren’t valuable enough to outweigh the detriments you receive. The game also doesn’t do a great job of explaining some of the more nuanced flaws, like a fear of heights decreasing your perception score while high up.

Loot in The Outer Worlds drops like someone’s making a profit off of it. It isn’t as excessive as it is in Fallout where you’ll find every piece of armor on a person’s body, but you do get plenty of resources and equipment from each person that you kill. Equipment can be tinkered with, modified, and broken down into its components to use on other items.

New Vegas players will love the breadth of freedom that you get for roleplaying in The Outer Worlds. There are dialogue choices out the wazzoo, and you’ll see indications for perception, science, medicine, persuasion, intimidation, and all sorts of options to talk your way through a situation. Want to be a corporate foot licker and do everything for the greater good of intergalactic capitalism? You go for it. Want to stick it to the man and eat the rich? You can do that too. The game gives you the opportunity (although I didn’t take it) to just rat out the guy who saved your life, since he’s a wanted criminal on the run from the greedy Board that controls the universe. You can do that, the game lets you, and apparently it takes the plot in quite a different direction.

Specializing in various skills unlocks a ton of information about the world. The barber? He just kinda prepares the dead for burial. The Saltuna factory whose workers are dealing with the plague? It’s not quite a plague and their remedy isn’t exactly medicine. In many games that I play, I tend to skip through a lot of the side characters commentary because it’s usually very unimportant to the overall plot. Whenever I get into a new area in The Outer Worlds, I am like a Presidential candidate going around and making sure I talk to everyone and see all of their dialogue choices.

Your character has access to a few tricks to survive, including time dilation which is a natural sequel to Fallout’s VATS. Activate time dilation and you’ll have a small period where time slows to a near crawl. Level up and that time increases. The shooting is not great; it is a marked improvement over the jankness of New Vegas but The Outer Worlds won’t be winning any awards for its combat system. Still, it’s more than serviceable despite it being occasionally difficult to keep track of your health in the middle of a fight.

Speaking of which, you may have noticed from the screenshots that The Outer Worlds has some very deep contrasting colors. For the most part they are beautiful. There are some points including one I have shown above where these colors make the game quite painful to look at. Literally. My eyes hurt after some segments where the screen blows out with bright neon colors.

The Outer Worlds is a beautiful game. I played it on a Playstation 4 Pro system and it worked fantastically. I plan on having a piece up once I find some time to start playing on PC.