Destiny: Videos of the Week and a Non-Date for March Iron Banner

In the MMO shooter Destiny , Bungie features videos from the community. You can find more information about the Iron Banner here.

This week’s video comes from Germany. It’s pretty much a “special effects spectacle.”

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As another video, Bungie featured a pretty quirky “80s” thing.

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And then something really solid. I mean, if shoulders can be “solid.”

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We received this Crucible montage from our community this week.

http://youtu.be/fl8P_oenCbI

If you have a video that could fit well here, send it to us via the Mein-MMO contact form: We’ll take a look. Please understand that we can’t feature every video here, otherwise, we would have four to eight Crucible montages every week and a snooty readership that would enjoy and criticize it with sharpened arc blades, saying that none of it is worth mentioning and that they should rather show them in action – preferably before breakfast, since they would have already experienced much more fantastic things.

No one would want that.

Iron Banner in March will not take place this week in Destiny

So much for the videos of the week. There’s one more piece of information from Bungie, specifically from Community Manager DeeJ. The Iron Banner will not take place this week, as some hoped. They will inform as soon as it is time.

The most important appointment this week in Destiny is neither tomorrow’s reset, nor Banshee on Wednesday morning, nor the weekly update on Thursday evening, nor Xur on Friday. No, it is Wednesday at 7:00 PM, when there will be a livestream in which Bungie will present the new game content. We will accompany the stream with a live ticker here on Mein MMO.

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The Division: Alle benannten Highend-Waffen – Midas, Pakhan, Liberator und Co

In The Division, high-end weapons are among the most coveted items in the game. This includes named weapons. We present these “named weapons” in a list.

When agents reach max level 30 in The Division, they need to continuously gather better gear to become ever more powerful. At the top of many agents’ wish lists are high-end weapons, as they represent some of the best guns in the game. There are 12 named high-ends that we want to list now.

This is the list of named high-end weapons in The Division

There are 12 high-end weapons in The Division, of which only five are somewhat known, namely just their names.

Caduceus (Assault Rifle)

caduceus-division

Caduceus can be found as a rare drop from named enemies both inside and outside the Dark Zone. The assault rifle has the following talents:

  • Coolheaded: After a headshot, all skill cooldowns are reduced by 5.5%.
  • Self-Preserved: Critical hits with this weapon heal the user for 3% of the damage dealt.
  • Restored: When you kill a target with this weapon, all negative status effects are removed.

Liberator (Assault Rifle)

division-liberator

The blueprint for this weapon can be purchased for 181 Phoenix credits at the specialty gear vendor in the Tech Wing of the Base of Operations. The assault rifle has the following talents:

  • Competent: Weapon damage is increased by 10 percent for 13 seconds after a skill is used.
  • Dominant: Each kill during an active signature skill reduces the cooldown of other skills by 8%.
  • Talented: When you eliminate a target with this weapon, skill power is increased by 8% for 13 seconds. This effect does not stack. If you kill another target, the timer is refreshed.

More information about the Liberator in The Division can be found here.

Midas (Submachine Gun)

division-midas

Midas can be found from named elite enemies in the Dark Zone. These are the talents:

  • Trained: Critical hits accelerate the cooldown of the individual skill by 4.6%. This talent is currently disabled.
  • Self-preserved: Critical hits with this weapon heal the user for 3% of the damage dealt.
  • Vicious: While at full health, the chance of critical hits is increased by 13%.

We have already dealt with Midas in The Division in this article.

Pakhan (Light Machine Gun)

division-pakhan

Pakhan can be purchased for credits (477689) from the advanced weapon vendor in the Base of Operations after the Security Wing has been upgraded. It comes with the following talents:

  • Swift: Reloading is 13% faster.
  • Destructive: The “Armor Destruction Value” is increased by 18% when you use this weapon.
  • Ferocious: Damage against named and elite enemies is increased by 13%.

Tenebrae (Sniper Rifle)

tenebrae-division

A blueprint for Tenebrae can be acquired at the safe room in DZ06 from the DZ specialty vendor for Phoenix credits. It comes with the following talents:

  • Ready: If a target is eliminated with a headshot, 100% of weapon sway is removed for 7 seconds.
  • Brutal: Headshot damage is increased by 24% when you use this weapon.
  • Toxic: Headshots with this weapon have a 13% chance to activate the Blind status effect.
  • A random talent.

We have already dealt in detail with Tenebrae in The Division in this article.

Damascus (Pistol)

division-damascus

The blueprint for this weapon is unlocked when you successfully complete the last story mission. The pistol comes with these talents:

  • Harmful: Each hit has a 12.5% chance to inflict bleeding on enemies.
  • Restored: When you kill a target with this weapon, all negative status effects are removed.
  • Expert: The weapon deals 100% more damage when the target has less than 30% health.

Cassidy (Shotgun)

division-cassidy

Cassidy can be purchased for credits (479582) from the advanced weapon vendor in the Security Wing of the Base of Operations. It comes with the following talents:

  • Responsive: Damage is increased by 13% when you are within 10 meters of the target.
  • Commanding: Each kill during an active individual skill extends the duration by 18.5%.
  • Meticulous: If you kill a target, you have a 23% chance that the magazine will be instantly refilled.

More Named High-end Weapons:

  • Warlord (Assault Rifle)
  • Valkyria (Submachine Gun)
  • Historian (Sniper Rifle)
  • Centurion (Pistol)
  • The Showstopper (Shotgun)

When and how these weapons will be added to the game is not yet known. At least there are currently no reports of anyone having one of these weapons in their possession.

Update: These named weapons were gradually added with updates in The Division.


In addition to the weapons, the phone recordings and other filler material in The Division are really good.

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Source(s):
  1. Steamcommunity

Sword Art Online: The Beginning Project – This is what the testers played

208 testers were allowed to briefly dive into the VR world of Sword Art Online. What did they experience? Check it out here.

Fighting Gleam Eyes as Kirito

On March 18th, it was finally time for some chosen ones. 208 testers could immerse themselves in Sword Art Online: The Beginning Project and experience the virtual world of Aincrad for 20 minutes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2RL-l3AQaNU

Some videos have now been released to the public, showing what the testers experienced. Fans of the anime series will quickly recognize where this takes place, namely in the starting area of Aincrad, the town with the (not-so-creative) name “Town of Beginnings”. They are even accompanied by the A.I. Yui, who (if my hearing is correct) retained the original voice from the series and can be “tapped” just like in the anime to tease her a bit.

Later, it continued via teleportation directly to the 74th floor, where the players had to face the notorious boss Gleam Eyes. Although the moves and skills are not yet as impressive as Kirito’s, there is still some time until the year 2022…

During the “game,” it was possible to chat with various NPCs by controlling the hands, make purchases, move some objects, and of course perform simple sword skills and block during combat.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-FF1rUWTCQs

Mein-MMO says: Even though virtual reality with VR glasses still seems rather silly and strange, every SAO fan’s heart would leap (or drop) if they could stand in front of Gleam Eyes themselves.

The potential of VR can already be hinted at in the connection between anime and “real” games. A future that some can’t wait to begin soon enough.

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Blade and Soul: Levelcap 50 – Großes Update Silberfrostgipfel kommt schon am Mittwoch

In Blade & Soul the pace continues faster than expected: On Wednesday, March 23, the Silverfrost Summit will be released.

By now, everyone should have noticed that NCSoft is picking up a killer pace with Blade and Soul to bring the Western version as quickly as possible up to the level of the Korean version. After all, they have a 4-year lead – Blade and Soul is a latecomer in Europe. The Martial Arts MMORPG, which has been successful in Korea for years, was only released in early 2016. This year, 3 story acts are still set to be released in the West.

It seems that the pace is being further intensified. The recently announced update “Silverfrost Summit – Part 1” is set to be rolled out on Wednesday.

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This brings a new level of 50, 8 fresh dungeons, ice zones, a new capital, world instances for 24 players, and much more.

More information can be found in this article:

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Star Citizen: Andy Serkis als Thul’Óqquray und ein Ausblick auf Alpha 2.3.0

The work on the space MMO Star Citizen and the single-player offshoot Squadron 42 is progressing.

The story of Squadron 42 is told with computer-animated characters played by real actors. It is already known that, for example, Mark Hamill – known as Luke Skywalker from the Star Wars films – and Gillian Anderson – known as Agent Scully from The X-Files – have taken on roles. Now Andy Serkis has also revealed that he plays a role in Squadron 42. He takes on the role of the Vanduul Thul’Óqquray.

The Vanduul are an alien race that continuously causes trouble for humanity. In the game, players will learn more about this species and what exactly their intentions are. A video shows how Andy Serkis – who portrayed Gollum in The Lord of the Rings films – records his scenes using motion capture and how these are transferred in real-time to the character in the game.

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Update 2.3.0 is coming

In addition, the developer studio Cloud Imperium provides a preview of the upcoming update 2.3.0 for the MMO Star Citizen. With the update, which is currently still on the test server, two new ships will be introduced. One of them is the Khartu-al ship, which is a scout of the peaceful alien race Xi’an. The light combat ship has been adapted for use by humans as an export item.

Moreover, you can sit in the cockpit of the transport and refueling ship Starfarer Base. However, the ship not only transports fuel but can also refuel other spacecraft. The Starfarer can also convert resources in space directly into fuel.

Star-Citizen-Cockpit

Also new are the two weapons Arrowhead sniper rifle and the Devastator-12 shotgun, which you can find in the Yela asteroid field and whose use is useful if you have the “Wanted” status, as new security forces are now present around Port Olisar looking for criminals. Additionally, there is an improvement to the component system, character animations have been revised, and numerous fixes have been implemented in the MMO Star Citizen. Update 2.3.0 is set to be rolled out to the regular servers soon.

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Source(s):
  1. MassivelyOP
  2. Gamestar

Destiny: Gefeuerter Komponist zu Paul McCartney „So, als würde die Band auseinanderbrechen“

The composer of Destiny and Halo Marty O’Donnell spoke in an interview about the separation from Bungie, the time that followed, and a conversation with Paul McCartney about what it’s like to lose your band.

Marty O’Donnell was actually inseparably linked to Bungie, responsible for the music of the games. Then he left Bungie in a publicized dispute, he was fired, there was a lawsuit, all quite unusual for a business where separations are almost always amicable.

We will get back to you

In the interview with IGN, O’Donnell now spoke about the details. The separation had been looming but was still a surprise to him. He was led out of the building at that time, handed over his badge, and was told: We’ll get back to you over the weekend. O’Donnell thought at that time they would go through this, finding a narrative like: “We regret to announce that he is leaving. He wants to focus more on his family.” That’s what one usually writes in such cases.

However, the call did not come, and after 5 days, his own lawyers contacted him: “You are still listed as an employee of Bungie on Facebook and everywhere. This could be legally problematic.”

The tweet, in which O’Donnell announced his departure in dispute, was sent by his wife.

His contract was terminated without stating reasons. After that, it was clear that there would be conflicts. O’Donnell then talks about a time with lawyers, more lawyers, even more lawyers, dealing with contracts and rights. Overall, a tough phase for him. Why it all had to unfold like this, why Activision and Bungie decided to handle the matter this way, O’Donnell still does not quite understand.

It’s like a band breaking up

For O’Donnell, it was also hard because he felt so connected to the studio, had so many friends there. Later, during a car ride, Paul McCartney, with whom he worked on the Destiny soundtrack, called him, and they exchanged thoughts. McCartney said in a light tone: “That must be tough for you, those are your friends.” O’Donnell replied: “Yes, it’s like the band is breaking up.”

Before he realized that he was speaking with a member of possibly the most famous band of all time, one of the Beatles.

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Meanwhile, O’Donnell seems to have left it all behind, working in a small studio on new titles and is critical of the development in the gaming industry towards large companies and anonymous teams:

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No Man’s Sky ensures: No frame rate issues – Multiplayer similar to Dark Souls

What’s the deal with reports of framerate issues in the space MMO No Man’s Sky and how will the multiplayer part play?

Allegedly, the upcoming space MMO No Man’s Sky is experiencing framerate problems. However, the developers have now announced that this is not true. Developer Sean Murray states that the game is on a very good path. However, he also admits that the game is so huge that it is impossible to test everything. In other games, every level would be thoroughly examined before release. Given the size of No Man’s Sky, this is simply impossible.

No Man's Sky creatures

The games that Murray was previously involved in have all had good framerates, so he is optimistic because this is something his studio has always done well. Plus, we still have a few months to work on optimizations before the MMO launches on June 22.

MMO with rare encounters between players

No Man’s Sky is an MMO, but due to the vastness of the galaxy, players will rarely encounter each other. Therefore, the developers compare the multiplayer part more to Dark Souls or the game Journey. You will rather discover traces of other players when visiting planets, knowing that someone has been there. These can be animals that other players have named or objects they have left behind.

For this reason, it is currently still completely open whether there will be interactions with other players in No Man’s Sky and if so, how these will take place. Whether there will be crossplay between PC and Playstation 4 is still undecided.

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More from us on No Man’s Sky in this article:

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The Division: Bullet King – stupides Farmen zu effektiv, Massive will reagieren

In Tom Clancy’s The Division, “Bullet King” is widely regarded as an efficient farming spot. Ubisoft Massive aims to respond.

In The Division, the farming spot around the named enemy Bullet King has spread like wildfire within the community. With this Bullet King method, agents can obtain numerous high-level items and Phoenix Credits in a short amount of time. After doing this “fun” for a while, at the end of the day, they have many Phoenix Credits, superior items, and with some luck, also high-end items.

This mindless farming is currently considered the most efficient way to farm the coveted items and Phoenix Credits in The Division.

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Bullet King exploit is dull, but efficient

division-bullet-king

Although this farming spot isn’t exactly varied or fun, many agents utilize it. However, caution is advised: if you kill the entire enemy team—not just the Bullet King—you ruin this trick for yourself, as the “Named Enemy” will no longer spawn. Agents who have faced this fate are organizing on social networks to join other agents where this method still works.

The Bullet King farming spot is currently the most efficient method to obtain high-level items and Phoenix Credits that are of great importance in endgame. Reddit user valmian wanted to find out through personal experimentation how many of the coveted items he could farm within an hour. He came to the following conclusion:

  • over 170 Phoenix Credits
  • over 170 superior items
  • some specialized items
  • few high-end weapons.

However, he got bored with this method very quickly, he reports.

He then went into the Dark Zone to compare these results with the potential loot in the PvP area. In just over an hour (after three pickups), he came to the following numbers:

  • 22 Phoenix Credits
  • 24 superior items
division-dark-zone

After that, he completed the Challenge Mode in Lexington Event Center. He managed this with his group in about 20 minutes and received the following:

  • 30 Phoenix Credits
  • 1 high-end item
  • 5 superior drops

Even though he received significantly fewer high-level items and Phoenix Credits here, at least this way was fun for him. But fun does not always mean efficiency.

Ubisoft Massive aims to respond to this farming spot

natchaistappers-division

On Twitter, Ubisoft’s Community Manager Natchai Stappers responded to questions from the community regarding Bullet King. He tweeted that the team is already aware and is working on a solution.

In response to a user’s query about whether one should fear penalties for farming, the Community Manager stated that there would be no penalties, as it is the developers’ fault that this “problem” arises.

A conflict is igniting over the “Loot Cave”, much like it did with Destiny. While the other methods of obtaining gear may be more fun and are clearly “intended” by the developers, they are too inefficient compared to Bullet King. In Destiny, they had closed the loot caves back then but later realized that the actual problem was not the farming spots but the “stingy” loot distribution in the rest of the game. However, the deeper changes to the loot system in Destiny took a long time.

In the present-time context of The Division, it seems that we might expect a fix for the problem hopefully this week, perhaps even tomorrow. It is currently Ubisoft’s “top priority”.

The community’s preferred solution, as evident from discussions on our website, would be: Make the other methods more lucrative. At the moment, it seems that they are going to put a stop to Bullet King for the time being.


Do you have questions about the game? In this The Division guide collection you will certainly find answers.

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Source(s):
  1. reddit.com

LoL: You can soon earn championship points, champions, and skins in ARAM

As known in a forum post, developer RiotGames is working to implement its mastery points system into other game modes of LoL.

The mastery points system allows players of League of Legends to show which champions they know particularly well or like to play – often there are differences *cough*. Unfortunately, this system currently only exists for Summoner’s Rift, putting players who prefer ARAM games in the Howling Abyss at a disadvantage. Now, however, this system is set to be included in other game modes.

Harmony with Hextech Crafting in LoL

League of Legends Mastery Points
Mastery points in LoL

With the new Hextech Crafting system, you have the opportunity to obtain skins, champions, and other items in League of Legends. Every time you earn an “S” rating with a champion in a game or reach a champion mastery milestone, you receive a chest containing these rewards. This way, you can also “level” your champions and achieve milestones by playing in the Howling Abyss. To find out when Hextech Crafting comes to the EU servers, you can read here.

Riot on ARAM Mastery Points in LoL

In response to the question of why there are still no mastery points in ARAM games in LoL, RiotL4T3NCY replied:

“The ARAM mode was not intentionally ignored – the work on the system for Summoner’s Rift simply had priority (the same goes for Twisted Treeline (3 vs 3). Currently, adjustments are being made to the Champion Mastery Points algorithm for the new game mode rotation. At the same time, attention is also being given to ARAM and 3 vs 3 games.

The reason the system is not yet available in the ARAM mode in LoL is that there is no dedicated ARAM balance team that solely focuses on this. A positive side effect is that ARAM accounts (that is, accounts that only unlock specific champions that are “good” in ARAM) will unlock new champions through the Hextech Crafting system, slightly unbalancing these accounts.

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The Elder Scrolls Online: Offline – Maintenance on March 23 brings DLC for PS4 [Update]

In The Elder Scrolls Online, it is time. This week the DLC “Thieves Guild” is being released for consoles PS4 and Xbox One.

Update 23.3.: The maintenance work for ESO on the Playstation 4 has now begun. Yesterday, the work on the Xbox One lasted about three hours. Here are the patch notes for the Xbox One version in German to Zenimax – they should roughly apply to the Playstation 4 as well.

Original article:

For a quarter of a year, we have known that the Thieves Guild would be coming, for about two months Zenimax has been talking about it more intensively, and for two weeks the first DLC of 2016 has been playable on PC and this week it goes to the consoles.

The Thieves Guild is a typical quarterly DLC for The Elder Scrolls Online. It brings a new area, a fresh trial, numerous features in the “group search” sector. New items are introduced, assistants are implemented, and much more. We have introduced this in the past weeks and months.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r8QIm6SzP-M

Server down for The Elder Scrolls Online? Thieves Guild arriving with maintenance on March 22 and 23

This week, both Playstation 4 and Xbox One are ready. This will presumably come with longer maintenance work.

Starting with the Xbox One on March 22. At 11:00 AM, maintenance will begin here.

On Wednesday, March 23, it will be the turn of Playstation 4. From 11:00 AM, the European and the North American megaserver of ESO will be down. The DLC will be applied.

elder scrolls online hews curse

What changes with the Thieves Guild in ESO?

If you want to delve deeper into the Thieves Guild and what changes in Tamriel, we recommend the following articles:

Next up, after the thieves, will probably be the assassins: the Dark Brotherhood is slated for the next DLC in the second quarter.

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Heroes of the Storm: New Skins – Dehaka as Mecha, Li Li as four-fingered Killer Moth

The latest “In Development” video from Heroes of the Storm features Dehaka and numerous new skins. Check it out here.

Dehaka Skins and Li Li from the Shadowpaw

Blizzard has released a new trailer to get the players of Heroes of the Storm a bit excited about new skins. Among the featured cosmetic updates is the upcoming StarCraft 2 hero “Dehaka”, who is expected to hit the Nexus later this month.

Like all heroes (and all premium skins), Dehaka comes in three different color variations that can be gradually unlocked through the leveling system. Typically, it only takes a few evenings to do so. Check out the latest “Currently in Development” video to see what new cosmetics will soon be available in the shop.

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The Mecha Dehaka could turn out to be particularly sought after, swapping the familiar Zerg tissue for a lot of technical gimmicks.

Shadowpaw Li Li also joins the fight, showing everyone that she’s tired of constantly shouting “Look over there, a flower!” Just released from the monastery in Pandaria, she shows all foes that she can throw perfect shuriken with just four fingers on each hand and wield a pretty wild sword.

Artanis, on the other hand, seems to have a burning interest in ancient China, as he fights as Shogun Artanis, trading his psi blades for hard steel… and lanterns. They seem to be important for achieving victory in the Nexus.

This skin already caused quite a stir last week:

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For more news and articles, like an initial look at Dehaka’s abilities, you can find them on our Heroes of the Storm topic page.

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Source(s):
  1. massivelyop.com

Tree of Savior: New founder packages are available – 30 instead of 90 days Early Access

In Tree of Savior, the founder packs have been adjusted at the request of the community. Equal access for everyone, but shorter.

30 Days Early Access, for €9 – €46

After the Tree of Savior community complained about the long early access period of 3 months, the developers backtracked and proposed several alternatives that players could choose from through voting. This voting has now ended and the new plan is set: There will be 30 days of early access, no matter which of the 3 packs you choose to purchase.

Tree of Savior New Founders Packs

The content of the packs differs only in additional goodies, such as more in-game currency or special accessories. You can find this in the graphic (Click to enlarge):

In Germany, the prices for the founder packs are as follows:

  • €10 for the smallest
  • €28 for the medium
  • €46 for the largest

The packs can be purchased immediately in the Steam shop, but early access doesn’t start until March 29.

Tree-of-Savior-Peace

With these changes, the official release date will also be moved forward significantly. Thus, all players who do not want to spend money on the game can storm the servers as of April 28, and do not have to wait until summer.


You can find more news and articles about the game on our Tree of Savior news page.

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The Division replaces Call of Duty as the most popular game on Xbox One

The new shooter The Division has overtaken Call of Duty as the most popular game on the Xbox One console.

As VG247 reports in amazement, The Division has now surpassed Call of Duty in the popularity ranking on Xbox Live. This seems to be such a big deal because Call of Duty usually reserves the sunny spot for itself. While they are not there all year round every year, VG247 writes, they are there almost all the time.

No one could have expected that the shooter would win this award.

Division-Ubisoft-beliebt

The Division is currently breaking some records, not just Ubisoft’s internal best marks, it has now secured the best launch in the UK in eleven years and is the biggest new brand in the gaming industry overall.

Things are going well for The Division, a one-year plan with planned game content has also been presented.

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Source(s):
  1. vg247

The Division: Game Director verlässt Ubisoft und geht zu Square Enix

The Game Director of The Division, Ryan Barnard, is leaving Ubisoft Massive to join the Hitman developer IO Interactive.

Division Concept

The Danish developer IO Interactive, a subsidiary of Square Enix, is getting reinforcement: The Game Director of The Division, Ryan Barnard, has left Ubisoft Massive and is now working for the developer of the Hitman series.

According to MCV, Barnard is set to take on the newly created role of Gameplay Director there. According to the publisher Square Enix, he will be the head of three core teams at IO Interactive responsible for Gameplay, Online, and World.

A statement from the publisher states that Barnard is the ideal person to tackle the upcoming tasks. This is evidenced by his contributions to game design in recent years.

We are happy to welcome this talent to the pool of great people working at IO.

division-barnard

As noted on Barnard’s LinkedIn page, he started his work at the new company in March. He began his career as an Associate Game Designer at Sony Online Entertainment in November 2003. After stints at EA Mythic and Crytek, he landed at Ubisoft Massive in September 2011, where he quickly rose from Associate Creative Director to Game Director. In this position, he significantly stamped his mark on The Division.

The reason for Ubisoft and Barnard parting ways is not known. However, it should not be related to the success of The Division.


All news, guides, and information about The Division can be found here.

This is an AI-powered translation. Some inaccuracies might exist.
Source(s):
  1. Linkedin
  2. MCV

SWTOR: Release date for Chapter 12 “Visions in the Dark” is here!

BioWare has announced the release date for Chapter 12 of SWTOR’s current expansion KotFE. We have the details.

“Visions in the Dark” starts in April

Every month, BioWare releases a new chapter for Star Wars: The Old Republic to gradually conclude the story of the “Knights of the Fallen Empire” expansion. The 12th chapter will be titled “Visions in the Dark” and is scheduled to be released on April 7. A teaser trailer has also been nicely released, which aims to capture the mood of the chapter. Check it out here:

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As the video shows, players will have to confront Valkorion himself on the planet Odessen in battle. During the fight, some dramatic revelations are expected to come to light, revealing more about the mysterious connection between the player character and the fallen Emperor. At the same time, the story will continue elsewhere. While the Outsider engages in his duel, the Alliance attempts to deliver a devastating blow against the Eternal Empire to significantly weaken Arcann’s troops.

All players who subscribe early will also enjoy a reward this time. If you have an active subscription by April 2 at the latest, you will receive an HK-55 inspired weapon set as a bonus, with which you can aesthetically enhance your character. Who wouldn’t want to look a bit more like the best meatbag disposal machine in the galaxy?


More news and articles about Knights of the Fallen Empire, such as “Is SWTOR worth it in 2016?” can be found on our Star Wars: The Old Republic theme page.

This is an AI-powered translation. Some inaccuracies might exist.

Black Desert: Tolles MMORPG, aber nicht für jeden – Ersteindruck im Video

Our YouTuber Refaser draws an initial conclusion about Black Desert. Check out what he has to say here.

Black Desert has been playable in Germany for a few weeks now and is prompting many people to give their first ratings for the game. The YouTuber Refaser also takes 7 minutes for you to reveal what he likes about the game and what seems to be less successful.

Positively, he appreciates that the RPG elements are at the forefront. Friendships with NPCs need to be developed, and numerous game contents ensure that there is always something to do. There is something to discover at every corner of the world, and those who enjoy venturing into an open world will be able to immerse themselves in the game world for a long time. He also finds the community particularly commendable, describing it as helpful and friendly.

On the negative side, he emphasizes that the game is not for those who have little time or prefer to be led “by the hand” from quest to quest. A bit of curiosity and especially patience are necessary to truly enjoy Black Desert.


Further news and articles about the game can be found on our Black Desert topic page.

Some exciting posts include the following:

This is an AI-powered translation. Some inaccuracies might exist.

The Division: Filling material – otherwise it’s gory, here it’s really good

The online action RPG The Division has reached the heart of our author Schuhmann, but somehow in an unusual way.

It’s a bit like going to a pizzeria wanting pizza, but then you end up liking the bread more. That’s how I feel about The Division: the filler content is excellent.

Huge parallels between The Division and Assassin’s Creed Syndicate

I played another Ubisoft title in my life, which was “Assassin’s Creed Syndicate.” I didn’t buy it; instead, I got it a few months ago with the graphics card I ironically bought to play something like “The Division.”

And if you only know these two Ubisoft games, you see huge parallels. The world is divided into small portions, and there’s basically the same to do in each one.

The-Division-Hund

There are “small missions” that follow the same patterns repeatedly, then there are medium missions that follow other but still similar patterns, and there are story missions: Those are varied, you can tell they put some thought into them.

And then in these open-world games following the Ubisoft formula, there are “collectibles,” which are little scraps you can pick up. Usually, they are a bit hidden and aim to reward the player for really exploring the “open worlds.”

Division

Okay, the game follows a formula… but so does basically everything

These things have a pretty bad reputation: They are just “fillers” to make the world feel full, people say.

Just like on a CD that contains other songs alongside the hits, and how potatoes are a side dish to a steak, the game contains a lot of small stuff to keep players busy alongside the “exciting main missions.” In the end, no one should say: “20 missions? I was done in 4 hours? That’s not worth my money!”

This entire “Ubisoft” formula is viewed quite critically. The same mission is repeated 8 times; in every district, you have to search a building for viruses, collect a bounty in the same format, and so on. Everyone realizes while playing that this formula aims to stretch a rather short game (the main missions) into a long game (if you collect everything, complete everything, and aim for 100% all around).

The-Division-Werbung

As an MMO player, I don’t have much of an issue with this because – let’s be honest – this system was invented by RPGs and later MMORPGs. Before you can advance to the next part of the main story, you first have to kill 300 creatures to become strong enough to continue.

The-Division-Winter-Soldier

One could say harshly: Most MMORPGs consist only of these fillers. The mechanics repeat across games. Whether I’m killing 15 creatures for a quest NPC and then returning to him or have to fend off exactly 4 waves of enemies at 3 different points in an area, when looked at closely, it’s pretty much the same. I’m quite immune to this “filler material.”

But this collecting of every little thing, every scrap I chase after, to jump from the exact “wire” at the right moment to hit the secret point from below – that annoyed me in Assassin’s Creed. That’s not really my drive to fill bars to the edge.

The collectibles, the filler material, are really well told

In “The Division,” that’s really well done. Because the collectibles are wonderfully tied to the story. Especially the phone call recordings are truly great. You can think of it as a collection of short stories, fully voiced, in which one can catch tiny glimpses of people during the catastrophe.

Here are all phone calls in The Division:

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Some of these stories stand on their own, some are interlinked. They often provide heartbreaking narratives. A woman calls her mother, has accepted her fate, and tearfully confesses that she is a lesbian. She wants to get this off her chest before her imminent end. A father calls his daughter and explains how she should take care of his bees. You can tell: That was the center of his life for the last few years. Is everything about to change now? Two hockey fans are utterly astonished that due to this pesky pandemic, the hockey game is now canceled.

It’s like a surprise egg; you never know what kind of story you’re getting now, but they are wonderfully made and taste great every time. They don’t exaggerate; they respect the situation, and they ask, “How would people really deal with something like this?” And that helps – much more than the missions themselves – to give the game depth and dignity. By the way: This applies to the English voices. The German dubbing, from what I’ve heard, cannot compete with the acting aspect – but that’s another topic.

The German translation can’t really keep up:

http://youtu.be/WOruDO7wH7E

The actual story with punchy lines and “cynically tough” characters also has its highlights: When the cranky ultraliberal explains that “The Division” is an absolutely terrible idea, which idiot could create such an elite unit outside the “checks and balances” power structure, it cleverly questions the actually absurd power fantasy behind the game. But too often, this power fantasy is fully realized, and the subtle cracks you sometimes feel just aren’t enough.

In fact, it’s the usually dull “collectibles” that give the world of The Division warmth and tension. And that is truly worth a lot.


Related to the topic:

This is an AI-powered translation. Some inaccuracies might exist.

Landmark: Server-Wipe, großes Update ab Montag

A major wipe is coming for Landmark, after which a patch will follow.

24 to 48 hours are planned for the wipe, maintenance, and applying the patch at Landmark. It is supposed to be the penultimate one. The final wipe, where almost everything in the world will be reset, is expected to occur just before the launch.

The world of Landmark  will be reset to almost zero with the wipe starting on Monday, March 21, at around 6 PM. Characters, guilds, buildings, and even the claims will disappear. It is expected that when the servers come back online, things will be different. New landscapes will be introduced, the claims will be significantly larger and players will have control over monsters and NPCs, allowing them to tell their own stories.

Landmark Claim Before
“Claims” before the patch…

It should start running again no earlier than Tuesday evening, at the latest Wednesday evening.

A large FAQ on what to expect during such a wipe can be found here. Landmark is currently still in “Closed Beta”, which can be accessed by purchasing founder packages. Many have been waiting for an Open Beta since 2014. It seems that there were other plans—certainly with financial considerations as well. The launch is now expected in the spring, after Everquest Next, the original mother project of Landmark, is no longer being developed.

This is an AI-powered translation. Some inaccuracies might exist.
Source(s):
  1. Forum Daybreak
  2. MO

Destiny: This is how the user interface could have looked like

In Destiny, the lead UI designer David Candland spoke about the development of the menu of Bungie’s MMO shooter.

At the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, Bungie’s lead UI designer David Candland gave a lecture on design and the interface of Destiny.

The menu cursor of Destiny was worked on for a long time

user-interface-destiny-ttk

While in many console games, you switch from one selected item to another with a button press or a stick movement, in Destiny you have a freely movable cursor available ‒ similar to a mouse on a PC.

According to Candland, it took a lot of time to achieve the cursor’s movement behavior as we know it today. When you hover over the icon of an item, the cursor slows down a bit and the graphic stands out slightly. This slowing down was carefully worked on until the cursor behavior felt right.

These are early models of the user interface of Destiny

Candland also showed early models of the UI during his presentation, which illustrate how the layout evolved over time. While Candland presented these images, he emphasized that many items and also the text in these models originated from the art team and had no relation to the content that actually made it into the game. Therefore, it is advisable not to read too much into what you will see next.

The order of these images shows (presumably) the evolution of the user interface of Destiny, which ended in the final version, as we know it today:

destiny-ui1
“Gus, the filthy” has not made it into the Destiny universe so far. This design of a Cabal trader gives us an image of how the Cabal would look without a helmet.
destiny-ui2
In the upper right corner, you can see “Grimo…”. Was it originally planned to display the Grimoire cards in-game?
destiny-ui3
“Evil Otto”. Aha!
destiny-ui4
This interface looks interesting!
destiny-ui5
Osiris as an in-game trader? It turned out differently in the end.
destiny-ui6
Except for “relic iron”, the resources apparently had different names initially.
destiny-ui7
This interface is already much closer to the final version.
destiny-ui8
This is not the final version yet, but it is not far off.
destiny-ui9-symbole

Candland mentioned that a lot of time was also invested in designing the symbols for all equipment pieces. During the presentation, he showed some of these weapon and armor symbols from the final game and bet that many people in the audience would recognize the items just by the symbols. According to Kotaku, he won that bet.

Ttime says: From this talk by Candland, one can take home that it takes a lot of work and time to develop and design a unique user interface for video games that satisfies the customer.

Even though there are currently some complaints about Destiny, I must admit that the developers have succeeded with the interface. I find it not only clear and nicely designed but also easy to use. This menu joins the list of many things that just feel good when you use them in Destiny. Especially the gunplay, that is, handling the weapons, provides an excellent gaming experience in Bungie’s MMO shooter.

What do you think of the development of the UI of Destiny? Are you satisfied with the menu?


The interface models were captured by the US site Kotaku during the lecture with a camera.

This is an AI-powered translation. Some inaccuracies might exist.
Source(s):
  1. Kotaku

The Division: Alle Talente für Eure Highend-Ausrüstung in der Übersicht

In The Division, there are numerous talents for your high-end gear that improve the equipment. We list all of them.

division-rikers

In The Division, you can craft gear pieces in addition to weapons and mods. The high-end items are assigned “talents” that grant bonuses to your equipment. You can refer to the following list to see what possible talents exist for the high-end gear, so you can decide if you have already crafted a ‘top’ item or if you want to visit the workbench again.

Talents for Masks in The Division

  • Enduring: When you are in the last segment of your health, health regenerates continuously to fill this segment.
  • Refreshed: When your health is in the last segment, healing increases by 30%.
  • Rejuvenated: When you use a medkit, all negative status effects are removed.
  • Tenacious: When you use a medkit, your damage increases by 9.5% for x seconds.
  • Rehabilitated: When you are affected by a status effect, you heal 2% every second.

Talents for Vests in The Division

  • Reckless: You deal 12.5% more damage but also take 10% more damage. According to reports on reddit, this roll can also be 13/10 or 13/11.
  • Robust: While you are in cover, you have 45% more armor.
  • Rapid: The cooldown of your healing skills is reduced by 13%.
  • Vigorous: All your healing skills allow for an “overheal”.
  • Forceful: While an active individual skill is active, armor value is increased by x%.

Talents for Backpacks in The Division

  • Technical: While an active individual skill is active, your skill power is increased by 13%.
  • Inventive: With full health, your skill power is increased by 13%.
  • Relentless: 3% of the damage you deal with your skills is returned to you as healing.
  • Resourceful: All healing you experience is also experienced by your skill object.
  • Specialized: 13% of your firearms and stamina are added to the skill power.

Talents for Gloves in The Division

  • Savage: Your chance of critical hits is increased by 13% when enemies are out of cover.
  • Reckless: You deal x% more damage but also take y% more damage.
  • Cunning: After reloading, your next shot has a 9.5% higher chance of being a critical hit.
  • Decisive: Headshots with your sidearm deal x% more damage.
  • Astute: The first three bullets in your magazine have a 9.5% higher chance to land critical hits.

Talents for Holsters in The Division

  • Recovered: The damage you take during a cover-to-cover move is regenerated in the next five seconds when you reach your target.
  • Nimble: During a cover-to-cover move in combat, you heal 2% for every x meters.
  • Steadfast: While you are in cover, the speed of health regeneration is doubled.
  • Sturdy: Your armor increases by 12.5% if you remain in the same cover for longer than x seconds.
    division-in-game2

Talents for Kneepads in The Division

  • Accomplished: The rewards for accolades are tripled.
  • Prosperous: Critical headshots grant you credits (reports on reddit mention 120 credits).
  • Perceptive: Your “item find” and “gold find” bonuses are increased by 25%.

For more info and guides, you can find them in our The Division guide collection.

This is an AI-powered translation. Some inaccuracies might exist.
Source(s):
  1. reddit.com