After Anthem has been completed, the developers are working on additional content. In an interview, one of the producers of the game discussed what is already planned after the launch.
What is it about? In an interview, Scylla Costa, one of the producers of Anthem, talked about the content that players can expect after the release of the game. Anthem has already achieved Gold status some time ago, meaning the final development step, with which the software can be pressed onto the data carrier.
According to Costa, several teams have been working for weeks on new content that could come into the game after the launch of Anthem on February 22.
What are the developers working on? Costa mentioned that the teams are working on cosmetic content. In addition, players will also be able to see new creatures or even more regions to explore.
There will also be content related to Anthem’s dynamic system:
When it rains in the game, it already cools your jets and allows you to fly longer. You can use electricity and create bigger effects. Now imagine that we can create different weather conditions and transfer them into the game, so that not only new places in the game world, but also old areas behave differently. For example, new creatures might appear during the day or night, or they might be stronger.
According to Costa, these variables, along with new events or weather conditions, which are also being worked on, will create a completely new storyline in the game.
What content will not be available at launch? Costa also mentioned that features were planned that have been temporarily discarded or for which the team is waiting for feedback from the community.
A trading system was also being discussed, which was removed in favor of player progression for the launch of Anthem. The developers wanted to prevent higher-level players from trading weapons with lower-level players.
In Belgium, FIFA players will have to refrain from purchasing FIFA Points in the future. EA is complying with a ban from the Belgian Gaming Commission.
Here’s the backstory: In recent months, the Belgian Gaming Commission has made headlines repeatedly. They addressed the question of whether loot boxes in games fall under gambling. The Commission decided that this constitutes gambling and demanded that developers remove this system from their games.
EA has now given in – FIFA halts the sale of Points
A decision has now been made: After a dispute lasting over a year, EA has now relented. In a statement, the developers addressed the player community and announced that the sale of FIFA Points in Belgium will be discontinued.
This is the problem: When the Commission began to examine the loot boxes, they encountered an issue: A player spends money to obtain a box containing random items. Therefore, the player does not know which item they will receive.
Since chance determines the outcome and money is involved, this form of loot boxes is classified as gambling. At least that’s how Belgian experts see it.
When does the ban take effect? As of January 31, 2019, the sale of FIFA Points in Belgium will be completely halted. Players who still have Points in their account can use them, but no new Points can be purchased.
However, EA is dissatisfied: The game developer stated in the announcement that they are not happy with the decision of the Belgian Commission and will continue to seek a solution to the problem.
Besides FIFA, many other games are also affected by this decision. In 2017, the Commission also examined the loot boxes from Overwatch and Star Wars Battlefront 2:
In Fortnite, dataminers discovered an image of the Snowfall Skin. To get it, players must complete 60 challenges. They have been working on earning this skin since early December and it will consist of 4 stages.
Spoiler Alert: The article contains the loading screens for weeks 9 and 10 and four images of the Snowfall Skin in its various stages. It also includes a back bling image.
What kind of skin is this? The Snowfall Skin is not a “normal skin” available in the Fortnite shop for V-Bucks; rather, it is the major reward of Season 7.
Players must complete 60 weekly challenges to earn it. However, there are only 7 challenges available per week, so the challenge can only be completed in week 9.
This will take place this Thursday.
This is what dataminers found: With the latest patch 7.30, several new lines of code were introduced that showcase images of the Snowfall Skin.
Dataminers discovered two loading screens that appear upon completing all challenges for weeks 9 and 10. You can already see the “Snowfall Skin” in action there.
Additionally, they found an image of the Snowfall Skin itself, along with a matching back bling.
The skin depicts a kind of ice monster that appears to be chained up due to fear of its power. However, these chains seem to be crumbling. The loading screens show it leaving its cave and warming itself by a fire.
This is special about the skin: It looks like the skin has four stages that are gradually unlocked.
This could mean that the ice captive sheds its chains over time and regains its full power – in the first stage, it looks quite scruffy.
Paladin Rextroy has achieved amazing things in World of Warcraft. Lady Jaina has been defeated – only with Tank Paladins.
In the past months and years, we have repeatedly reported about Paladin Rextroy, who has achieved special successes and soloed numerous bosses. He is back with the Battle of Dazar’Alor, but this time he brought along additional Paladin colleagues.
With a total of 15 additional Paladins, he entered the final fight of the Battle of Dazar’alor and faced Lady Jaina Proudmoore – successfully!
You can see how the ultimately successful battle against Jaina went in this video:
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An Enrage timer is missing: It must have been helpful that Lady Jaina Proudmoore does not have an “Enrage timer”. This normally kicks in for bosses after a certain time to quickly end the fight with overwhelming abilities. Apparently, Jaina has a too cool temperament to really get enraged. Therefore, even 16 tanks could manage the fight “easily”, because even after 22 minutes, no “Enrage” was triggered.
16 attempts for victory: Even though it looks “easy” in the final video, the boss fight was anything but that. The group started with 30 Paladins and needed a total of 16 attempts to finally succeed in the fight. Many Paladins had already dropped out. No wonder, as individual attempts can take up to 22 minutes.
Item level 385 as average: The Paladins were also quite well equipped. With an average item level of 385, the normal mode of the Battle of Dazar’alor can be well managed – at least with a group that does not consist solely of tanks.
Have you already experienced any successes in the Battle of Dazar’alor? Or are you still waiting for the LFR or the start of the Mythic difficulty?
The first “M” in MMORPG stands for “massive”, which is often barely obvious in many representatives of the genre. Camelot Unchained has demonstrated in a new test what kind of “massive” battles an MMORPG can really be capable of.
During “Beta One”, City State Entertainment, the developers of Camelot Unchained, invited even more people than were already playing. All players who were supposed to play only during Beta 2 were also invited to a mass battle. The fights had already been prepared for some time. The test concluded on January 26.
This is how the test went: To test a mass battle, City State Entertainment sent a total of 2809 players and ARCs (Autonomous Remote Clients, i.e., bots) into a battle. They were simply supposed to fight each other.
ARCs are not just bots, but an AI that accesses the server from its own client. Thus, ARCs are not server-side deployed, but stress the connection exactly like a real player.
The characters used significantly more spells and abilities than originally planned by the developers. Nevertheless, the servers held up, even though almost 3000 characters were fighting simultaneously. City State itself comments:
This is a huge success for the team, especially considering that “500 people in the same battle at 30FPS” was the goal during our Kickstarter time. Even though there is still a lot to be done, the numbers have improved greatly compared to our old system before Beta 1.
What’s next? After the currently running Beta 1, two more beta tests will follow before Camelot Unchained is released. The launch has already been announced for 2019, but there is still no specific date.
On the website, all dates for the upcoming tests and the launch are marked as “postponed” with the note that they may still change. Therefore, it is not yet clear when exactly Camelot Unchained will be released.
The VIP demo of Anthem has faced a lot of criticism for technical difficulties, numerous bugs, and performance issues. However, a YouTuber who was able to play an advanced version says: The demo does not represent the current state of the game.
a bug where players were stuck on the loading screen and could not get into the game
lags and rubber-banding
many minor bugs
Many players were understandably upset, as many could only try the demo with limitations or annoying interruptions. Some hardly or not at all got to play because of the loading screen bug.
It became obvious that BioWare still has numerous issues that need to be significantly improved. Fans are concerned whether BioWare will manage to fix these issues by the launch on February 22.
This is what a YouTuber says about the current state of Anthem: Now YouTuber RyanCentral has spoken out on Reddit and YouTube, trying to calm the excited fans.
According to his own statements, RyanCentral was at a demo event in London last week, where a current build of Anthem was playable on PC. This build is said to be very close to the release version of Anthem. There, players could test early parts of the game, as well as the mid and endgame.
After also participating in the VIP demo, the YouTuber was shocked by how much the (outdated) demo build differed from the newer version from London. He assures that Anthem is already in a much better state than it was during the VIP demo. The demo was by no means representative of the current status quo.
What has improved in Anthem? RyanCentral has listed some aspects in his video that have already been improved or fixed, including
the performance. It is said to have noticeably improved compared to the VIP demo. There were hardly any problems, loading times were shorter
numerous desired “Quality of Life” features that were missing in the demo. For example, there is now a small radar that shows the position of your team members. Mission objectives are also displayed better in the UI
The user interface has been improved and looks clearer and more organized
Overheating while flying has been much more balanced
Overall, the new build is said to be much more polished and smoother. There were only occasional minor issues.
How did the differences arise? As the YouTuber emphasizes, the VIP demo is an older build derived from an even older version of the game.
There are about 6 weeks between the version that could be played at the event in London and the VIP demo, during which numerous bug fixes, “Quality of Life” changes, and optimizations have been incorporated into the game. Accordingly, the experience must have been significantly better.
In this video by RyanCentral, you can watch footage from the demo event in London:
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This is what BioWare says: The developers at BioWare have recently spoken about these issues.
There are already some improvements for the open demo next weekend. However, for the release of Anthem, massive bug fixes and optimizations are expected to significantly improve the gameplay experience.
What does the patch change? The patch mainly makes many balance changes to the items players can buy during a match. For example, the gold cost for a Hero’s Cape drops from 15 to 12 gold and the Cloak of Endless Carnage from 13 to 10 gold. Additionally, there are numerous bug fixes aimed at increasing the stability of Artifact – it frequently crashed for many players.
You can view the full list of changes in our sources.
Speed mode for private matches: A new option that can be utilized in private lobbies and tournaments is likely to be of interest. Players can choose to enable the “Speed Timer.” Then, players only have 10 seconds to make an action, creating a sense of urgency.
Communication hidden in the patch notes: The final point of the patch notes does represent a form of communication with players, as it states “Unchanged: Still in it for the long haul,” which implies: “Unchanged: This is designed for the long term.” While this is not much communication, it is at least better than none.
The community is dissatisfied: Although the remaining community finds many changes in the patch good and sensible, they seem to believe that this falls under the category of “too little, too late.” Calls for a “Free2Play” model are growing louder, and for numerous players, this seems to be the only way to give Artifact another chance at a comeback. Most players have disappeared and turned their backs on Artifact. It seems unlikely that these players will take a second look.
However, perhaps Valve will keep its promise to aim for long-term sustainability with Artifact, leading to a potential resurrection. So far, that seems rather unlikely.
Are you still playing Artifact? Or do you hope for a Free2Play change before giving the game a chance?
Currently, the big anniversary celebration is happening in Monster Hunter World. There is also a special event quest where you must hunt a special monster. It can be quite rewarding.
What is the event quest about? The quest is called “The Greatest Jagras.” It is available as part of the one-year anniversary festival, the Festival of Gratitude. It requires Hunter Rank 50 and is a 9-star quest.
The goal is to take down a gigantic Great Jagras. And “gigantic” really applies in this case. The Jagras is significantly larger than its counterparts. Fans have wished for this monster for a long time, as the Great Jagras is one of the community’s favorite monsters, but was simply too weak.
The huge Great Jagras is not only particularly cool, but it has also learned some new tricks and has more abilities than the smaller specimens. Consequently, the quest is not a walk in the park, and the rewards are particularly generous.
The most effective method to get decorations
What are decorations? These stones can be attached to your equipment. They are crafted from the various jewels obtained as quest rewards. Each stone has a different designation and skill. With decorations, you can optimize equipment and create specific builds.
However, it is not easy to obtain the particularly rare specimens, and it can take hundreds of hours of gameplay. That’s why decorations are also part of the endgame of Monster Hunter World. The Jagras quest showers you with decorations.
Here are the rewards for the event: If you complete “The Greatest Jagras,” you will receive monster parts as usual. In addition, there are many worn and crooked jewels. Furthermore, you will receive some Armor Spheres V.
But that’s not all. During the fight, the huge Great Jagras drops a lot of materials. These aren’t scales or the usual parts, but rather more jewels. And there are quite a few.
So many that the quest is currently the best way to get the desired decorations in Monster Hunter World.
Get the loot
How to efficiently farm decorations: Under the right circumstances, you can make the Jagras scatter many jewels around. The easiest way to do this is to start the quest and wait until he has eaten. This takes a maximum of one minute.
Once he is full, you can go for him. Hit his massively swollen belly, and the loot rain will begin.
There are now two options:
You can abandon the quest after collecting the jewels and start again. This saves you time, but you’ll miss out on the quest rewards.
You can kill or capture the Jagras and collect the full rewards. While this takes longer, it is more rewarding overall as you will get a lot of rare jewels as quest rewards at the end.
If you want to take down the Jagras, you need to keep a few things in mind. He has some new attacks in his repertoire. Once he is full, he starts spewing meat chunks. These can deal very high damage; without optimized armor, you can go down quickly. However, this vomiting attack also brings a boost in jewels, which will then be scattered.
The giant Jagras is not necessarily hard to defeat, but his strong attacks can knock players down quickly if they are not careful. It is best to bring a fire weapon, as he is particularly vulnerable to fire. Capture him as soon as you can, as it saves time.
Which weapons are particularly effective? If you have trouble with the Jagras, ranged weapons and weapons with shields are particularly effective. Additionally, you should consider the skill Tremor Resistance, as the Jagras frequently causes the ground to shake with his belly.
Who should take this quest? This quest is particularly suitable for anyone missing many decorations. Some of you might get lucky and receive a particularly rare decoration like the coveted attack jewels.
However, you still have some time, as the Festival of Gratitude runs until February 7. By then, the Witcher event will also take place.
Metro: Exodus is no longer available on Steam, but on the Epic Games Store. This surprising news shocked those who had pre-ordered the shooter on Valve’s platform yesterday. With this move, Epic Games shows that it is fully confronting Valve and is serious.
What happened? Yesterday at around 6 PM, a press release stated that the shooter Metro: Exodus is exclusively available on the Epic Games Store. And this, despite the fact that the game had been available for pre-order for some time on Steam and other online retailers. However, pre-order customers will still receive their games through the retailer they purchased from, including Steam.
It is now just not possible to purchase the game further on Steam.
This exclusivity deal between publisher Deep Silver and Epic Games lasts for one year. From mid-February 2020, Metro: Exodus will again be available on Steam.
Valve is severely impacted
How is Valve responding? With previous games that have taken a similar path, Valve has remained calm. Even when Ubisoft announced that The Division 2 would no longer be available on Steam, but rather on the Epic Games Store, the company stayed silent.
Now, however, there has been a reaction that shows how hard Valve has been hit.
On the Steam product page for Metro: Exodus, it is stated: “We consider the decision to remove the game for Steam customers to be unfair. Particularly after a long pre-sale phase. We would like to apologize to the Steam customers who expected Metro: Exodus to be available until February 15. However, we were only recently informed of the decision and had limited time to notify everyone of this.”
The loss of Metro: Exodus is not easy for Valve to digest, as the company has had a very good partnership with the publisher Deep Silver.
What does this mean for Steam: That Electronic Arts offers its own games via Origin and Bethesda titles like Fallout 76 through the Bethesda Launcher is already bad for Valve. However, the company can manage this.
But the fact that now publishers and developers are withdrawing who do not offer their own launchers and have been loyal partners of Steam previously is a severe blow. It is as if Epic Games has declared war on Valve. The company now needs to react somehow.
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Why are so many developers and publishers switching to the Epic Games Store? Valve maintained a monopoly on PC with Steam for a long time. For players, this was also acceptable and even pleasant, as they only had to install this launcher to play their favorite titles. However, as more and more companies are withdrawing, the number of launchers is increasing.
For studios and publishers, this is good, as they can sell their games directly without having to give a part of the revenue to Steam.
Steam takes 30 percent of the revenue, which companies find to be very high.
Epic Games only wants 12 percent.
Through the Epic Games Store, developers communicate more directly with customers, while on Steam, Valve is in between – meaning that the game pages and feeds are managed directly by the developers.
The Epic Games Store currently has no user reviews and will even allow studios to disable this feature upon its introduction.
What implications does this have for us as customers? Everyone has to decide where they want to buy their games. Epic Games would, of course, like this to happen through its own store. And right now, the company is doing everything necessary for this.
Customers need to decide whether they want to install another launcher and give their money to Epic Games, or if they want to remain loyal to Valve and perhaps forgo some games – at least for a certain time until the exclusivity period is over.
How are the players reacting? The Epic Games Store is still viewed ambivalently. Some think it is good that Valve is now facing competition, while others criticize the aggressive approach of Epic Games.
Some hope that Valve will finally wake up and reconsider its strategy. Otherwise, more and more development studios and publishers could turn their backs on Steam.
For the MOBA Dota 2, mods are regularly developed. On January 4th, the Auto Chess mod designed for eight players was released. This is a modified version of chess featuring heroes from Dota who compete against each other. The mod enjoys great popularity and has two million subscribers.
What is Dota 2 Auto Chess? In Auto Chess, the player takes on the role of a courier and can buy heroes. These are placed on an 8×8 chessboard and then compete in different rounds against the heroes of other players.
In each round, you receive gold to buy new heroes, upgrade your old ones, or get more hero slots. If you lose a round, the courier loses health points. Once these drop to 0, the game is over.
In the first two rounds and also between rounds, you face neutral opponents. This is primarily to facilitate the entry and usually secures the first gold.
How do I play Auto Chess? To play Auto Chess, you first need a Steam account. There you can download the free game Dota 2. The game is about 20 gigabytes in size.
Then you can install the mod either through the workshop or directly through Dota itself. On Steam, you can simply search for Dota 2 under “Community” and “Workshop”. After selecting the game, just search for “Auto Chess” and install the mod.
In Dota 2 itself, you will find the “Game Hall” option in the menu bar. There, you can also search for the Auto Chess mod and play it.
The First Steps in the Game
To survive the first round, you need to buy a hero. At the start, you will have 5 heroes to choose from. Which one you choose is initially irrelevant. You have 30 seconds to choose the hero and place it on the field before your first battle begins.
How do I place a hero? After purchasing a hero, it is best to use the “Q” key and then click on the corresponding hero. You can then place it at any point on your half of the chessboard.
Alternatively, you can select your courier, click on the placement symbol, choose the hero, and then place it on the field. However, since you only have 30 seconds between rounds to prepare, it is advisable to work quickly with hotkeys.
How does a round of Auto Chess progress? After the 30 seconds for shopping and placing heroes, there is a short 5-second phase before the battle begins. The battle phase lasts up to 60 seconds, but ends the moment the battle is over on each of the 8 chessboards.
After that, you receive your gold, and you have another 30 seconds to buy heroes and place them freely on the field.
How do I earn gold? After the first round, you receive 2 gold; after the second round, 3 gold, and this continues up to the fourth round. Afterwards, you will always receive 5 gold per round. Additionally, you can earn bonus gold each round:
For defeating an opponent, you earn 1 gold
For a winning or losing streak, you earn up to 3 gold
There is 10% interest on your gold. From 10 gold, you therefore earn 1 additional gold. However, you can earn a maximum of 5 gold in interest
You also get gold back when you sell heroes you no longer need. Additionally, you can hold a maximum of 100 gold.
The Hotkeys: To help you navigate the game as quickly as possible, we have compiled the most important hotkeys:
Q – Place or move a hero
W – Put a hero on the bench
E – Sell a hero
D – Get new heroes in the shop
F – Buy experience points
Spacebar – Open shop
The Heroes
Heroes are your chess pieces in Auto Chess. They are creatures from the Dota universe. All heroes have specific traits (such as race and class) and abilities. They also have attributes like attack power, armor, or health points.
What heroes are available? Currently, there are a total of 52 heroes. These are categorized by rarity. Some of them you encounter regularly (white or blue heroes), while others are very rare (purple or orange heroes).
At the beginning, the chances of rare heroes are very low. However, the higher your courier’s level, the higher the chances of rare chess pieces.
You can view a list of all available heroes in the image here:
Combining Heroes: To be truly successful in Auto Chess, you need to proceed strategically. The races and classes have synergies with each other. For example, the more warriors you have on the board, the more armor they get.
Three assassins, in turn, deal more damage to each other. The races of the heroes also help each other. Several elves give each other a higher chance to dodge attacks.
The more of these synergy effects you use, the stronger your team will be on the chessboard. However, be careful to use different creatures to receive the bonuses.
Leveling Up Heroes: Your heroes level up passively when they are on the board. But you can also actively enhance them. Having three of the exact same character upgrades them to a character with two stars.
So if you have three Axes on the board, they turn into an Axe with two stars. If you have three Axes with two stars, they upgrade to an Axe with three stars.
Those who want to delve deeper into the combinations can find all the important information in the English table by author Qihl.
How do I get more hero slots? At the start, you can only place one hero on the field. However, with each round, your courier earns experience points and levels up. With each new level, you get more hero slots.
You can also buy an additional 4 experience points for 5 gold. This allows your hero to level up faster, and you can have more creatures in the battle. You can see how much XP you need for the next level with the ALT key (Thanks to Fewa for the tip).
More Useful Tips for Auto Chess
The strategic components of Auto Chess are diverse. In addition to the different heroes and synergies, there are also items that can enhance heroes. It is also worthwhile to observe your opponents.
Items and Combinations: During matches, opponents drop items that you can pick up with your courier. You can give these items to your heroes on the field.
Be careful when distributing these, as you cannot take the items away from the heroes once given. You will only get the item back if you sell a hero.
The items can also be combined like in Dota 2 and upgraded to stronger items. They only need to be in the same inventory (either your hero’s or your courier’s).
DPS Statistics: At the end of each round, you will find a DPS table in the upper left corner of the game. Here you can quickly see how much damage your heroes have dealt.
If you want to optimize your team in this regard, you should always keep an eye on it.
The Hero Pool: When setting up your team, you should also pay attention to which heroes your opponents are purchasing. There is only one pool from which all heroes are drawn.
If all players focus on orcs and warriors, the chances of getting more orcs and warriors in the shop will significantly decrease. In that case, it might make sense to switch tactics and build a different team.
Apparently, Bungie has also noticed this. The studio has now detailed how the scout rifles will change ahead of the upcoming patch – much to the delight of many fans.
Here’s how scout rifles will change in detail: Community Manager dmg04 spoke on Reddit about this. He provided a closer look at the upcoming changes to scout rifles. Here’s what guardians can expect:
The damage of lightweight scout rifles will be increased by 5%
The damage of rapid-fire scout rifles will be increased by 6%
The damage of all scout rifles will also be increased by 10% in PvE
How fans are reacting: The fans have reacted with joy and disbelief to this small preview. Many have been waiting for these specific changes to this weapon type. Additionally, Bungie provided some numbers, which is very rare. The Reddit thread received over 1,000 upvotes in a very short time.
Although scout rifles are generally popular among guardians, many perceive them as simply too weak and not competitive enough. Previous small buffs did not really change this. Guardians were eager to see how Bungie plans to strengthen this weapon type this time.
Now there is extensive discussion on how these increases will affect the time to kill in the Crucible and the performance of scouts in PvE. Guardians are very hopeful that scouts will finally take a worthy place and could be worth using again.
What is sometimes criticized is that slowly firing scout rifles with high damage only receive a “mere” 10% damage buff compared to the other archetypes.
This is why Bungie rarely reveals numbers: In this context, dmg04 also explained why Bungie so seldom provides specific numbers. In the past, they have often kept the information very vague so that players could experiment with the effects of the changes themselves.
Changes are often much more profound than just a number in the patch notes. Very few guardians can draw the right conclusions from that. So when players see 5% in the patch notes, it may seem very little to most. However, this small change could already have significant effects and may lead to some dusty favorites being pulled out of the vault.
Thus, in the future not all patch notes will provide specific numerical details. Because some changes are simply much more complex than a number can express.
The release of the online shooter Overkill’s The Walking Dead on PC was a disaster for publisher Starbreeze. The fired CEO of the studio subsequently blamed the developers, who, according to him, did not work carefully enough.
What happened? On November 6, 2018, the PC version of the online shooter Overkill’s The Walking Dead was released. However, both players and the press were unimpressed with the title.
Bugs and poor optimization ruined the gaming experience for many. The release version felt like an unfinished budget game, receiving harsh criticism and low ratings.
As can be seen from Steamcharts, the player numbers continue to decline. Sales figures were well below expectations, as publisher Starbreeze itself admitted.
A release of Overkill’s The Walking Dead for PS4 and Xbox One has been postponed multiple times. Some doubt whether the game will even come out.
What consequences did the publisher draw from it? The launch of Overkill’s The Walking Dead was so disastrous that Bo Andersson, CEO of Starbreeze, had to leave the company.
The console version of the game was postponed indefinitely, and Starbreeze’s stock plummeted. Finally, there was even a raid at the company due to suspicions of insider trading.
This is all the more surprising because Starbreeze had been considered a huge success for years. The Swedish studio had a megaseller with Payday 2 and had been on a spending spree in recent years, spending millions – however, the money was apparently not wisely invested, as a major insider report from Eurogamer shows.
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How did the dismissed CEO react? According to Eurogamer, Bo Andersson wrote a farewell email to the staff.
In this email, he writes that he is going through a divorce and has lost all his money and custody of his children because he spent the last two to three years working 100-hour weeks to ensure that the developers could be paid. However, he believes that fewer and fewer employees place value on care, which affects the quality that can be achieved in a given time. He wrote that he should have reacted to this situation.
In other words, Bo Andersson believes that the developers of Overkill’s The Walking Dead did not work carefully enough, and that is why the game is a failure. This impression is confirmed by employees of Starbreeze who were interviewed anonymously by Eurogamer.
What the employees say: The employees who were harshly criticized feel mocked, as there was a months-long intense crunch time leading up to development with some 100-hour weeks.
Midway through development, the engine had to be changed. The developers were not familiar with the Unreal Engine. All of this led to delays and the crunch time described by employees. That it is now presented as if the team did not show enough commitment is a harsh blow.
What does the new CEO say about it? In the meantime, Mikael Nermark runs the business. He reacted to the letter from his predecessor and stated that the entire team worked very hard on the game. The work ethic of the employees is very high, and when necessary, individuals were asked if they would work overtime. They consciously wanted to avoid regular crunch time.
“I personally appreciate and respect the hard work that all our employees have put into all our projects,” he says. “We will carefully ensure that everyone has the space to create great games that are based on their respective expertise – with clear goals set for individuals that align with our future overall strategy.”
How things will proceed with Starbreeze remains to be seen. Many players are concerned about the future of the company and the games that are to be published through the publisher, including the highly anticipated action RPG System Shock 3.
In the latest raid of World of Warcraft, one boss provides a lot of joy. Communication is especially important at a new level.
I want to be honest – I am also one of those people who no longer have the time to dedicate two to three evenings each week to a fixed raid group. That’s why I only sporadically participate in raids when a random group is formed or a friendly guild needs a priest.
But goodness – the newest raid is so much fun! It has been a long time since I laughed so much in World of Warcraft as I did in the Battle of Dazar’alor.
Especially the seventh boss fight against Gelbin Mekkadrill brings more joy than ever, as the fight features several funny mechanics.
Endless bots spawn. These bots create AoE effects around them that will eventually overwhelm the raid if enough of them aren’t removed.
Some players get shrunk. Shrunk players can be trampled by “normal” players, taking massive damage in the process.
The catch is that the shrunk players can climb into the bots. There, they have to provide the correct color code to disable the bot. The problem: The player in the bot cannot see the color order; only the players outside can, as the color is displayed above each respective bot.
I admit without shame: The first attempt was pure chaos. Three people tried simultaneously in Discord to call out the colors for the bots. Since the bots were also marked with “Raid Marks”, funny calls like this resulted:
“Bot blue – green – yellow – purple!”
“The bot with the red mark, red! RED! RED! Man, press red! Yellow! Blue – uh, I meant purple! Damn!
“Green bot – yellow – red – uh, is that yellow? Yellow!”
Just imagine that all these calls happened at the same time. It was hard for me to hold back the laughter when none of the three bots was disabled.
While players call out the colors of the bots, some raid members are also assigned bombs. These bombs must be carried far away from the raid. Some forget this when they are currently calling out the colors for a colleague.
Sure, for such an experience, you also have to have the right people. Many would probably have been frustrated or angry about the chaos, but in the relaxed atmosphere of the raid, it was wonderful. We needed more tries for the boss than necessary, but we had a hell of a lot of fun.
Other players apparently also enjoyed the fight. One raid group learned during the fight that one of their teammates is “a bit colorblind” and he “probably should have mentioned that” – after he bravely made the first calls. The reaction was amused and relaxed, as the video shows:
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Such experiences ran throughout the entire raid, even with Jaina, Rastakhan, or the treasure boss. And this is where I see the big difference to Uldir, the previous raid.
I found Uldir terribly boring. Not “boring” in the sense of “the bosses are too easy” but I didn’t like either the setting or the bosses. In my opinion, they lacked personality and significance, except for Zul. However, in the Siege of Dazar’alor, there are so many cool bosses with funny mechanics or great quotes that I look forward to each one of them.
No matter how much criticism one may have for World of Warcraft right now, the Battle of Dazar’alor is pretty cool and is already one of the best raids WoW has ever had.
What do you think of the raid “Battle of Dazar’alor”? Are you having fun in the raid, or are you bored? Or are you still waiting for the LFR version?
The Twitch streamer Rex “Rexzilla” Lisle is currently making his own playground out of the space online game Star Citizen and hosting action-packed ground battles. After the streamer got bored with Battle Royale games like PUBG, he looked for something different and came up with an interesting idea.
Who is Rex “Rexzilla” Lisle? “Rexzilla” is actually a YouTuber and streamer who has earned a living so far by playing and streaming titles like PUBG and the blackout mode of Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 .
How did “Rexzilla” come up with the idea? As “Rexzilla” explains, he was simply fatigued by the battle royale genre: “All that stuff just bored me,” Lisle told the US site Polygon.
“Battle Royale is what got me attention on Twitch and allowed my community to grow. Eventually, PUBG started to die. Then we jumped on the Call of Duty train. Blackout just came out and then it started to die too. To me, it just seems like this stuff is always the same. It just keeps getting a new skin.”
What’s special? The fact that it takes about an hour for destroyed spaceships to respawn creates a small in-game economy on the server. Players either wait for the respawn or pay in-game money to get the ship back faster. Therefore, many participants in the battles grind beforehand to gather enough money.
Additionally, there are arm dealers. If a player is defeated, they lose their weapon. So there must be players who supply the others with new weapons, which of course cost money.
Furthermore, Rex Lisle has spent around $2,500 on spaceships. However, he doesn’t want to collect or fly them, but rather uses them to build and make the battlefield interesting.
He has invested $725 for the Hammerhead ship. He says: “When I look at a ship, I think something like: Hey, should I buy the $400 Reclaimer? It’s the size of two Call of Duty maps in one!”
What is the danger? Star Citizen is still in alpha status. Besides the bugs and connection issues that may occur right now, it’s possible that the game will change significantly by the time it’s released. It might be conceivable that such actions will no longer be possible in the future.
Therefore, Rexzilla hopes that Cloud Imperium Games takes notice of the “Warlords of Star Citizen,” as the group is called, and that this type of gameplay can continue in the future.
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What does Anthem offer in the endgame and what content could follow after the release? We summarize what is known so far.
What is the endgame about? In the endgame of Anthem, the main goal is to find better equipment for the four Javelin suits. Therefore, it mainly revolves around replaying missions on higher difficulties and continuously gathering better gear.
With the Strongholds and the Contracts, Anthem offers two main activities for this at launch. Additionally, at a certain level, three more difficulty levels are unlocked, very much in the style of the torment ranks from Diablo 3.
The Strongholds – Like Small Raids
How the Strongholds work: Strongholds are special missions that send you into a larger dungeon. In this dungeon, specific tasks and some tough enemies await you.
So far, one Stronghold is known where you fight the Swarm Tyrant at the end. However, before facing the boss, you have to complete some tasks. In the first section, you must collect echoes and bring them to a certain point. In the second phase, it’s about relics that can open the door to the final section: the boss fight.
This fight is quite intense. The Swarm Tyrant is a gigantic, insect-like beast that constantly spawns smaller versions of its kind. However, its weak spots on the back are very easy to hit.
If you defeat the boss, there’s an additional loot bonus and a large amount of experience points. The loot can basically be anything – from weapons to skill mods. The higher the difficulty, the rarer the reward can be.
Strongholds are expected to be the best way to find rare loot at launch. However, there are also the Contracts, the other part of the well-known endgame.
How the Contracts work: Contracts are contracts that send you on missions. The legendary variant of these Contracts will be one of your main activities in the endgame of Anthem.
Contracts consist of repeatable missions whose details are generated anew each time. Ultimately, they are randomly generated missions. They can vary in location, objective, enemies, and mission type. This is meant to keep the Contracts diverse.
What rewards are available: The loot and rewards adjust to the difficulty level of the Contracts. Legendary Contracts therefore yield very high-quality equipment.
Grandmaster Difficulty for better loot
How difficulty levels work in Anthem: There are six difficulty levels, of which only three are available at the start of the game:
Easy
Normal
Hard
Additionally, there are the Grandmaster levels 1 to 3, which are part of the endgame. Initially, you cannot select them. To unlock them, you need to reach level 30. After that, you can choose freely among them.
What rewards are available: The higher the difficulty, the better the chances for rare loot. However, the enemies are also significantly stronger. Ultimately, one of the goals of Anthem will be to master all Grandmaster ranks to get the best loot.
And what does the future hold?
This is what BioWare says: In an interview with Gamespot the lead producer of Anthem, Ben Irving, discussed possible content that could be released after launch.
Raids are part of the plans; Irving refers to them as “aspirational content”. This refers to content from games whose progression is designed to master these special experiences: “We believe in “aspirational content”, I think in other games they can call it raids. We have plans for “aspirational content” and live service.”
In addition to raids, they are also looking for other ways to connect players to the world of Anthem. This includes opportunities to compete “friendly” within the community.
The game world can be constantly changed
This could become important in the future: Anthem was designed so that the creators can constantly make changes to the world. This is even tied to the story of the game and is supposed to happen through special events aimed at preventing content drought.
According to Irving, the “Anthem of Creation” is constantly creating things and could therefore cause chaos in the world. He envisions the effect like this:
You might just log in, go out into free play, and something is different. And sometimes it’s just something mysterious, and you have to figure out what happened.
Thus, BioWare can easily launch new events that even have a visible impact on the open world. How this will look in practice will be revealed after the launch on February 22.
If you don’t want to miss any updates about Anthem, check out our Facebook page. There we will keep you updated on everything.
In Fortnite, the new update 7.30 is here today. Four weapons are going to the vault. But there are also some new features for the online shooter.
Today’s update for Fortnite is an “cleanup” update. It mainly adjusts the balance and some weapons are going to the vault. Additionally, the patch today brings a lot of bug fixes.
Highlights of the Patch Notes 7.30 for Fortnite Battle Royale
The following weapons are being vaulted:
The bolt-action sniper rifle
The salvo rifle
The heavy shotgun
And 3 types of submachine guns: common, uncommon, and rare – gray, green, and blue
This weapon is back: Suppressed submachine guns are back in common (gray), uncommon (green), and rare (blue).
In principle, Fortnite is replacing the regular submachine gun with a suppressed version.
New Weapon: The Chiller Grenade is new. It pushes players back and makes them slide on the ground. This applies to friends, enemies, and vehicles. The grenade freezes their feet or tires and causes players or vehicles to slide for 7 seconds.
Feature for Mobile Devices: Players playing Fortnite on iOS or Android can now connect a Bluetooth controller. Additionally, Fortnite now supports a frame rate of 60hz for selected Android devices such as the Samsung Galaxy Note 9, Huawei Honor View 20 or Huawei Mate 20x.
These gameplay changes and bug fixes are in the patch
Chests and floor loot now contain 20 materials instead of 30 – in supply drops even 60 instead of 40
Client-side editing of structures has been re-enabled – it was previously removed
The kill feed now clearly indicates when a vehicle was involved in a kill
Boogie Bombs were fixed – players wearing the snowman disguise in Fortnite were somehow immune to them. Some bugs with the snowman disguise have been fixed
The aim assist now works against enemies in vehicles, previously the aim assist only affected the underside of the vehicles
And an annoying bug with the Week 4 Challenge “Use 4 planes in different matches” has been fixed – many were frustrated by this
Highlights of the Patch Notes 7.30 for Fortnite Save the World
Loot boxes now transparent: The biggest highlight is definitely the x-ray llamas. Players can now see what’s inside a llama before purchasing it. If they don’t like the content, they can just wait a day until the weekly shop resets.
You can now only buy one llama at a time.
New challenge: The Week 5 Frostnite challenge starts on January 31 at 1:00 AM CET. Those who survive for 30 minutes will receive the Spectral Blade. Those who survive three times for three minutes will receive the Week 5 Challenge banner.
Mass crafting: Players can now craft multiple traps, ammunition, or materials at once and select beforehand how much material should be used.
Collection expanded: In Save the World, heroes from previous events have been added to the collection. These are heroes that were previously only available in the shop or through quests.
In Hearthstone, the developers are once again making changes to the ranking system. We reveal what will change in February.
It has become a habit for the developers of Hearthstone to announce planned changes only immediately before their implementation. This time is no different, as the ranking system of the collectible card game will be adjusted once again.
Fewer stars for rank promotions: With the start of the February season, which begins on February 1, Hearthstone will change its ranking system. From then on, it will be easier to rise from the lower ranks, as fewer stars will be needed. Stars symbolize the number of wins necessary to reach the next rank.
The changes are as follows:
Ranks 50 to 16 require 3 stars per rank
Ranks 15 to 11 require 4 stars per rank
Ranks 10 to 1 require 5 stars per rank (unchanged)
The developers aim to shorten the time players spend in the lower ranks and give them the opportunity to level up faster. At the same time, everything remains unchanged at ranks 10 to 1 – nothing changes for the professionals.
Ranks 26 to 50 only for newcomers: If you can’t make sense of ranks 26 to 50, don’t be surprised. These ranks were only introduced a few months ago and are solely for complete novices, so they can compete against other new players. Once a player reaches rank 25, they can never drop below it again.
What do you think of these changes to the ranking system? Is it good that it’s easier to rise to the high ranks? Or does Hearthstone have other problems at the moment?
In Pokémon GO, the new raid boss has been confirmed. The legendary Pokémon Palkia will be catchable starting tomorrow.
What happened? Tonight, Kyogre and Groudon will leave the raids, and with Palkia, a brand new raid boss comes to the gyms. The legendary Water and Dragon-type Pokémon will be available to battle for an entire month before it disappears again.
We’ll tell you how strong the new Pokémon will be and whether it’s worth participating in raids this month.
What we know about the new raid boss Palkia
When does Palkia come? The legendary Pokémon will appear starting tomorrow, January 29 at 10 PM as the new raid boss. However, since no more raids are happening at 10 PM, we will find Palkia in raids the following day. It will be available to battle early in the morning.
How long will Palkia stay? The Palkia raids will last a whole month. You can challenge the new raid boss until February 28.
These are Palkia’s stats: Palkia’s stats are impressive. Its attack score is nearly as high as Rayquaza’s, and its other two stats provide the Pokémon with considerable stamina.
Max CP: 3991
Attack score: 280
Defense score: 215
HP: 189
This attack can Palkia learn:
Fast moves: Fire Breath and Dragon Tail
Charged moves: Fire Blast, Hydro Pump, and Draco Meteor
How strong will Palkia be as a result? Palkia is likely one of the best legendary Pokémon of the 4th generation. It’s comparable to Rayquaza and is definitely a worthy replacement. Nevertheless, it’s slightly weaker than the Pokémon from the 3rd generation. This is due to the moves Palkia possesses. Draco Meteor is a bit weaker in attack than Rayquaza’s Dragon Fury.
Even as a Water attacker, Palkia is a strong Pokémon. Although it doesn’t have a Fast move of Water type, Palkia is still a good choice thanks to its high attack score.
Is it worth raiding? You should definitely go raiding! Palkia is the second-best Dragon attacker in the game and thus a very good all-rounder. You can effectively use it in almost any battle situation.
If you still have some raid passes left from Kyogre and Groudon, you should invest them in Palkia. It’s worth it!
We have compiled a list for you of the best Pokémon that are still missing in the 4th generation. Palkia is also included:
Today, January 29, Destiny 2 receives a massive update that will shake things up in the sandbox and fix numerous bugs. Additionally, new content goes live for owners of the Annual Pass. We summarize the most important aspects for you.
What is it about? Today, January 29, things will be happening in Destiny 2. Because today the extensive update 2.1.4 will be released, which will address many of the current issues.
Many bug fixes and “Quality of Life” improvements will be implemented. Additionally, there will be extensive adjustments in the sandbox, and fresh content for owners with the Forsaken Annual Pass.
The update will be accompanied by several hours of maintenance work. The exact schedule can be found as usual in our update article. All major changes are summarized here at a glance.
These changes will come with update 2.1.4 for Destiny 2
There will be extensive changes, especially in the area of the sandbox. There, the weapon balance and the Super of the Guardians will be adjusted.
What changes with the abilities and Supers: Destiny 2 will adjust numerous ultimate attacks as well as some abilities of the Guardians and bring them into better harmony with each other. Two of the currently most powerful Supers, the Warlock’s Nova Warp and the Hunter’s Blade Barrage, will be weakened. However, many other Supers will receive a buff.
What changes with the weapons: There will also be numerous adjustments in the area of weapon balance. Some neglected weapon types and individual weapons will receive a buff. However, some exotic firearms will also receive nerfs.
Especially among fans of scout rifles, there is great hope that this weapon type will finally be strengthened and take a worthy place among the other weapon types.
Additionally, it was recently announced that grenade launchers will receive a nerf, for which no one really asked. This essentially makes a popular PvP perk of these weapons completely useless.
These are some of the most important fixes in the upcoming update: Bungie has particularly listened to player feedback regarding the forges. Numerous bugs will be fixed, and “Quality of Life” improvements will be introduced.
Furthermore, the coveted yet problematic raid achievement “Diamantengleich” will be fixed – however, not in the way that many players had hoped. It will finally be possible to earn the new Blacksmith title of the Black Armory.
The first premium DLC “The Black Armory” has nearly exhausted its content and brings its last known updates for Annual Pass owners. New content is expected to be available next season, except for the Scarlet Week, which is accessible to everyone.
What players get with the Forsaken Season Pass: With update 2.1.4, the exotic quest “The Draw” will start. This quest is expected to lead players to the 5th and final exotic weapon of the Black Armory DLC – the hand cannon “The Last Word”.
What fans are speculating about: Additionally, many Guardians suspect that with the new update 2.1.4, the story of Forsaken might finally be continued or take a decisive turn. Could the curse of the Dreaming City finally be broken soon?
As you can see, there will be many changes in Destiny 2. But keep in mind that this is not a comprehensive list of all upcoming changes. A complete list can be found today in the patch notes.
If you want to know how Destiny 2 will continue beyond update 2.1.4, check out this article:
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The VIP demo of Anthem was plagued by problems. The developers list which of these should be fixed by the release in the letter.
This is what happened: Players who tried the VIP demo of Anthem last weekend encountered nasty bugs and lags. One error caused players to get stuck on the loading screen. As a result, they could either not go on missions or could not even get into the game. The loading screen bug was the biggest evil. However, there were more problems.
This is how BioWare reacts: In an open letter to fans, the Head of Live Service, Chad Robertson, addresses these issues. He explains which demo problems will be gone by the release.
List of issues that will be fixed by the release
Players will no longer lose all XP after completing a mission
The performance has improved. Players had problems with lags or could not move from their spot.
The stability is expected to be further improved. This likely refers to servers.
Groups on missions were sometimes bugged, causing players to be pulled together. This should no longer happen.
The perks of weapons or skills sometimes only showed 0% as stats. The correct stats will be available at launch.
Weapons that can only be used by specific Javelins had bonuses that applied to another. Weapons that can only be used by the Colossus had a bonus like “Ranger grenade damage +5%”.
Are these problems fixed in the open demo? No. According to Robertson, this list refers to the launch of Anthem. These issues may still appear in the open demo, which will be made accessible to everyone next week.
According to Robertson, there would still be thousands of things that need to be improved or already fixed by the release of Anthem. They have been preparing for the launch for weeks.
These issues will be worked on until the open demo:
Incorrectly assigned account rights: Players who should have access to the VIP demo could not do so due to a bug.
The server performance is to be improved
The loading screen bug will be examined more closely this week and fixed if possible
The bug that prevented players from unlocking their second Javelin. This was already fixed during the VIP demo.
Bugs affecting logging in, clients, and platforms
Will these issues be fixed by the open demo? The developers are currently working on these issues. At this point, however, one cannot be sure that these issues will no longer be present in the open demo.
A special focus will be placed on the loading screen bug, as this has ruined the VIP demo for many players.
Your monster killed 2 million innocent rabbits
Robertson thanks the players who participated in the VIP demo in the letter. He is grateful for the support that BioWare has received from the players. Finally, Robertson reveals a few numbers regarding the VIP demo.
These statistics are shared by BioWare with the fans:
Approximately 9 million hours were played in 2.5 days
Almost 2 million rabbits (Grabbits) were slaughtered. These are cute, colorful bunnies that hop through the open world.
Rabbits live in the biotope of Anthem and do no harm.
BioWare apologized for VIP problems: The VIP demo was frustrating for many players because of all the problems. This is particularly bitter for those who had to pre-order Anthem to participate in the VIP demo. Others also accessed it for free with a friend’s code.
This feels for pre-orderers like paying for a beta test. BioWare apologized for these problems and gives players a gift:
