Tag: Update

Rise of Agon Focuses On PvE Experience In New Update


Rise of Agon is focusing on player vs environment in its latest patch. The latest update tweaks daily quests to provide significantly more appealing rewards, chests have been made more rewarding, and the gold cost to combine treasure map fragments has been removed completely. In addition to the content tweaks, players should be happy to hear that Big Picture Games has taken steps to fix uncompletable quests, removed obsolete crafting tools and spells from various loot tables and crafting, and optimized the texture loading.

The entire list of patch notes can be seen at the link below.

Source: Rise of Agon

Mobility: More Heroes Enter Spiritwish


Mobile game Spiritwish deployed a new update this week introducing new heroes and new activities. The update deploys two new heroes as well as expands on the backstory of two other heroes. Adventure mode is permanent content available for higher tier players while those who take part right now can get in on the firework festival offering great loot.

More details on Spiritwish can be found at the official website. Spiritwish is a Nexon title.

  • Adventure Mode – In this all-new mode, players with achievement scores above 900 can earn rewards by tactfully commanding idle heroes to embark on quests to earn Spirit Cards
  • New Heroes – Two powerful Rare heroes join the fray, with Mononofu, a melee-wielder who uses a Tachi to take down ghostly enemies, and Vanguard, a protector who utilizes superior defense skills to stun and taunt
  • Recruitment Quests – The Fire Mage and Soothsayer now offer two new quests for players to unlock their respective character cards and learn who they are and where they came from
  • Firework Festival Event – Players can celebrate today’s content update by collecting randomly-dropped fireworks and exchanging them for items at the Premium Shop. Red Envelopes can unlock Legendary++ Weapon Boxes, Character Cards, costumes, Blue Diamonds and Gold.

PSA: Update Windows 10 Right Now, NSA Posts Critical Vulnerability


You know a security issue is going to be a big problem when the National Security Agency is posting an APB for people to update their computers as soon as possible.

The United States Department of Defense has issued a critical security warning advising users of Windows 10 to ensure that their operating systems are up to date. The NSA identified a vulnerability that will allow malicious software to be installed on a machine by fooling Windows into thinking that it is an official update. The most up to date versions of Windows have allegedly patched this bug, and the department warns that it expects exploits to start cropping up in the very near future.

NSA has discovered a critical vulnerability (CVE-2020-0601) affecting Microsoft Windows®1 cryptographic functionality. The certificate validation vulnerability allows an attacker to undermine how Windows verifies cryptographic trust and can enable remote code execution. The vulnerability affects Windows 10 and Windows Server 2016/2019 as well as applications that rely on Windows for trust functionality. Exploitation of the vulnerability allows attackers to defeat trusted network connections and deliver executable code while appearing as legitimately trusted entities. Examples where validation of trust may be impacted include:

  • HTTPS connections
  • Signed files and emails
  • Signed executable code launched as user-mode processes

The vulnerability places Windows endpoints at risk to a broad range of exploitation vectors. NSA assesses the vulnerability to be severe and that sophisticated cyber actors will understand the underlying flaw very quickly and, if exploited, would render the previously mentioned platforms as fundamentally vulnerable. The consequences of not patching the vulnerability are severe and widespread. Remote exploitation tools will likely be made quickly and widely available. Rapid adoption of the patch is the only known mitigation at this time and should be the primary focus for all network owners.

Source: NSA

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.

RuneScape Celebrates All-Time High Membership In 2019


Everything’s coming up Glouphrie in RuneScape for 2019.

As RuneScape enters its twentieth year of existence, Jagex is celebrating a successful 2019. RuneScape as a franchise enjoyed the highest membership count of all time with well over a million subscribers while Old School RuneScape achieved its highest daily active players thanks in part to a launch on mobile that has drawn in over 8 million installs, and was also awarded a BAFTA for mobile game of the year and best mobile game at the Develop Star Awards.

In 2019 Jagex hired over 100 new employees as part of a big hiring drive including former EA Development Director Melissa Bachman-Wood joining as VP of Studios, Product Director at Blizzard Entertainment Ryan Ward joining as Executive Producer of RuneScape, and Rob Hendry, previously Head of Studio London at Natural Motion, joining as Executive Producer of Old School RuneScape.

CEO Phil Mansell, aka Mod Pips, stated:

“This level of success only comes with the passion of huge player communities, who engage with our games because of the amazing craft and care from our talented teams. It is thanks to these efforts that we’ve been able to greatly increase our investment in our existing games, new product development and the broader business with more than 100 new hires coming onboard in the last 12 months. This includes senior leaders joining from EA, Blizzard, Activision, Ubisoft, Riot and more, adding more than 250 years of cumulative games industry experience to the Jagex team.”

RuneScape raised over £250 grand in charity with Jagex being voted the Best Places To Work award by Gamesindustry.biz.

More details on RuneScape’s future will be released in the coming months.

Steam Cleaned: Cyber Watch Dev Manipulates Review Scores To Counter Mine


Update 1/17/20: Cyber Watch is still up to its shadiness. Another positive review from a user who created their account on January 15 expressly to play Cyber Watch and nothing else and leave a positive review within 24 hours of creating their account.

In addition, our friend kaushikarathi7 has changed their name and moved from India to Germany.

Original Story:

Cyber Watch’s developer is dumb, they are really dumb, for real. And they just made a fatal mistake.

Cyber Watch is a low quality Unreal shooter that I chatted about just a day or so ago, and I went back on the Steam page today because I wanted to see if anyone else got duped into buying the game and left a review. What I found was even better, three positive reviews two of which contain snarky references to my commentary on the game. Even better, they all come from relatively new accounts with one product. Let’s dive in.

The first review is by a user named bhadana9474, a new account that owns one game and hails from Uttar Pradesh, India which also happens to house Cyber Watch’s developer. Keshav Bhadana, where have I heard that name before? Oh right, he’s listed as a developer for Cyber Watch. I like how he references the developer’s inexperience as “from what I can tell,” as though he only has second hand experience and isn’t actively working on the title.

Now let’s look at review #2:

Another account that only owns one game from Uttar Pradesh, India. What are the odds! Ashish Chaudhary…where have I heard that name before? Okay you know where this is going, Ashish is also a credited developer on Cyber Watch.

Oh my lord, a third account that only owns one game and hails from Uttar Pradesh, India. WHAT ARE THE ODDS? 100% evidently. Kaushika Rathi, where have I heard that name before? Actually this is one is a trick since there is no Kaushika Rathi listed in the developer section. There is however a Kartikay Rathi. Related to the developer? Boy it would be a hell of a coincidence if someone named Rathi from the same area of India just happened to set up a Steam account, only buy Cyber Watch, and leave a positive review within the same time span as the actual developers and after playing ten minutes.

I was born on a day and that day wasn’t yesterday.

Review manipulation is of course grounds for immediate termination, and the attempt to manipulate Cyber Watch’s review score is just as poorly thought out as the game itself. All images referenced above have been archived in order to keep the data sealed fresh for your enjoyment.

Source: Archive, #2, #3, #4, #5, #6, #7

Red Dead Online: Free Roam Events This Week


Red Dead Online has a whole bunch of stuff going on this week for players to take part in including xp bonuses, the latest free aim series, and free roam events for Rank 4 bounty hunters. Bounty Hunters, Traders, and Collectors of at least rank 4 will receive a 25% boost to experience gained while taking part in any rank-specific free roam event in Red Dead Online this week while players of all stripes will be able to redeem a 2,000 experience bonus for each of the specialist roles while completing role activities.

This week’s showcased competitive mode is Last Stand. Just as it sounds, Last Stand pits players against one another in a free-for-all with only one left standing, available for play in the featured showcase. In addition all rifles available via local gunsmiths or the Wheeler catalogue are 30% off. Playstation Plus members can receive a free colorway of the Leavitt Jacket while Twitch Prime members can redeem the polished copper still upgrade, collector’s bag, an extra 10% discount game-wide, and extra gold bars on purchase. Cost for the butcher table, bounty hunter license, and collector’s bag have been discounted five gold bars this week as well.

Source: Rockstar Press Release

NCSoft Files New Trademark For City of Heroes


It has been more than eight years since NCSoft shutdown City of Heroes and unsurprisingly there are still a lot of people who haven’t quite forgiven the developer for its transgressions. As MMO Culture noted this week however, it looks like NCSoft has filed new trademark applications for the City of Heroes brand. Could this mean something new on the horizon for City of Heroes?

Our guess? It might have something to do with the rogue server negotiations that have been going on for some time now. It might also be related to the fact that NCSoft’s trademarks for City of Heroes have all died. The prior trademarks for City of Heroes, Going Rogue, Freedom, etc, have been listed as abandoned for several years now. You see, in order to keep a trademark going you have to show that it is still in active use; a reason to be protecting it.

Since NCSoft has had no interest in the City of Heroes name for nearly a decade now, their lawyer never bothered submitted a notice of continued use. Once a trademark is knocked off for lack of notice, it is unrevivable. You want it back, you’ll need to file a new application. So why does NCSoft suddenly want the trademark back? It could be that they just didn’t notice it had expired, it could be that they are protecting their interest in the names as part of the negotiations with the rogue server teams.

It could just NCSoft wanting to collect its toys so nobody else can play with them. We will have to wait and see.

Source: Trademarkia via MMO Culture

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)

Video: Wild Terra 2: New Lands Gameplay Footage


Today’s video comes to us from Wild Terra 2: New Lands. The video shows off gameplay from the upcoming title kicking off with what else but a party killing big infectious rats, followed by skinning them for parts. Yummy.

Wild Terra 2 is currently in alpha testing. For more information, check out the Steam page. The current iteration of Wild Terra is free to play.

Source: Steam