Mobile BF didn't even have time to be released.
Apex Legends was released to Ios and Android formats as recently as May. Battlefield Mobile has had a so-called "soft" launch, but it won't be a sharp one. In fact, EA confirms it is scrapping the duo. According to Venturebeat , the studio behind mobile BF, Industrial Toys, is also shutting down.
The studio was founded by former Bungie CEO Alex Seropian and was purchased by EA in 2018.
EA explains the Battlefield closure with "industry evolution" and that the decision was right for both the brand and to meet the expectations of players.
"As the industry has evolved and our strategy to create a deeply connected Battlefield ecosystem has taken shape, we decided to pivot from the current direction to best deliver on our vision for the franchise and to meet the expectations of our players.
The Apex Legends Mobile servers will be taken offline on May 1st and Respawn comments on it like this:
"Following a strong start, the content pipeline for Apex Legends Mobile has begun to fall short of that bar for quality, quantity, and cadence.
The game was made by Respawn in collaboration with mobile PUBG developer, Tencent's Lightspeed & Quantum Studios. You will not be able to request a refund for your purchases.
Marvel's Avengers was released in 2020 by Crystal Dynamics and was supposed to be a so-called live Serivce venture for all superhero fans. Instead, the game received mostly poor reviews from both the press and the players. Criticism was directed at the pay model and loot boxes in the game, but also for tiresome game mechanics and an uninspiring single-player campaign. The developers have tried to fix the problems and continue to release content, but as of September this year, support for the game will be discontinued completely.
After the 2.8 update, Crystal Dynamics will no longer spend any more time on the game. However, it will still be possible to play both in single player and multiplayer so the servers will remain. The Cosmetic items will no longer be purchasable from the market but will be made available for free to all players. The players who have credits left on the account will have these converted into resources according to a model described in the link above
Are you still playing Marvel's Avengers ?
There has been talk for many years that Tom Clancy's book and game series Rainbow Six will become a film. The book and first game were released in 1998 and naturally many people think that the game is based on the book. However, the truth is that the book and the game were written and developed in parallel. Tom Clancy wrote the book while Red Storm Entertainment developed the game. As you know, Red Storm was also started by Tom Clancy himself after he became interested in the game medium. Ubisoft later bought Red Storm and has since developed a number of games in the R6 series. Last game was Rainbow Six Extraction .
Now, in any case, the series will get a film adaptation and Michael B. Jordan will once again take up the mantle and play the Navy SEAL soldier/CIA agent John Clark. Clark figures in quite a few of Clancy's books but got his own spin-off in the book Without Remorse and later Rainbow Six . Jordan played Clark in Amazon's film version Without Remorse which was released in 2021 and will now return to the role. As written, the director will be Chad Stahelski, who is better known for the John Wick films.
Battlefield 2042 received a lot of criticism when it was released last fall, not least because the fixed player classes were replaced with specialists who could act as just about anything. Already in August, Dice made it clear that this will change, and in a new blog post they talk about the return of the class system.
For starters - it's close. The return of the classes will happen when the game is updated to 3.2, which will be already this month. In concrete terms, the specialists will be sorted into each class (Assault, Recon, Support, Engineer).
We will get more details about the update and the changes shortly - only eleven days left in the month. And if it turns out well, we have to be prepared to give Dice and EA credit for trying to make the game better since it was released.
Tactical military shooter Squad has been out for a number of years now, and developer Offworld Industries has been steadily adding new content to the game without charging for it. In fact, in the past it promised that the game would never charge for any content, but now they seem to have changed their minds.
In a post, they write that update 4.27 will, among other things, add emotes (emotes) – that is, short animations to interact with other players. Initially, there will be three different emote packs, but only one of them will be free, while the other two can be purchased for "a reasonable price". However, all Kickstarter backers who qualified for physical rewards will receive all three at no cost.
"
After releasing free updates to Squad for years, this will be our first attempt to monetize Squad beyond the initial purchase.
We understand that in-game costed content can be controversial and that Offworld's previous management said that costed DLC would never be added to Squad.
With that in mind, we wanted to inform you of this change before v4.2 is released.
"
They explain that they plan to maintain the game with more free content for a long time, but that they need a way to finance development, including in the form of DLC packs like these. However, they promise that the emotes should not be of the type that spoil the experience.
It's all received a mixed reception among players, with some not having a problem with it at all, some upset that Offworld doesn't deliver on what they promised, and some worried about potential DLC that could detract from the experience, like various colorful clothing.
Russ Bullock is the top dog at Piranha Games and in a podcast talk with No Guts No Galaxy told a little about the future of Mechwarriors. As you know, a DLC called Rise of Rasalhague is on its way to Mechwarrior 5 and will be released on January 26, but they are also looking a little further ahead.
Bullock says he's a little surprised they got to work on Mechwarrior as long as they did, but he really appreciates it. Furthermore, he reveals another standalone game in the series is now in development with them, and it is not a sequel to Mechwarrior Online and does not revolve around online PVP.
Instead, it's more in line with Mechwarrior 5, with singleplayer and co-op. It is supposed to be released for PC and "consoles", but he does not want to say more, apart from the fact that it will be announced for real sometime during the year, possibly as late as this fall.
In the past six months, Ubisoft has discontinued seven games. Most unknown but not all, such as Splinter Cell VR. On Wednesday, an emergency meeting was held with Ubisoft and investors, where closures and further Skull and Bones delays were agreed upon. Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot expresses disappointment. He highlights industry changes and the economic situation of the rest of the world.
"
We are clearly disappointed by our recent performance. We are facing contrasted market dynamics as the industry continues to shift towards mega-brands and everlasting live games, in the context of worsening economic conditions affecting consumer spending.
"
Ubisoft has reportedly spent the past four years adapting its major brands, Assassin's Creed, Far Cry, Ghost Recon, Rainbow Six and The Division , to keep up with industry changes.
However, they have not yet been able to reap the benefits, while new games have underperformed. For example, Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope did "significantly and surprisingly" worse than expected.
Changes await - unclear exactly which ones
In the next fiscal year (April 2023 through March 2024), it plans to release Assassin's Creed Mirage, Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora and "other yet-to-be-announced premium games, including a major, as well as promising free-to-play game that builds on some of our biggest brands".
Guillemot concludes with optimism. He believes Ubisoft can reverse the trend and that they have the ability. The board has also approved "additional strategic and operational decisions", for the good of the company.
However, it is unclear how these look concretely, but presumably money will be saved. The CEO also notes that older games, like Rainbow Six, continue to perform and the future looms.
"
We expect our strategy to build long-lasting live games and transform our biggest brands into truly global phenomenon with multiple offerings across platforms and business models, to ultimately generate significant value creation, with strong topline and operating income growth over the coming years.
"
Ready for new sequels: "Now I know what I'm going to do for the next six, seven years," says James Cameron.
No one is surprised that "Avatar: The Way of Water" attracts a huge cinema audience. But no one is more relieved than James Cameron himself because it was never clear that the audience's interest would rekindle after 13 years. We've been waiting a long time for this sequel - but it delivers, already grossing over $1.5 billion in just a few weeks.
You may remember how Cameron said that the lavish adventure film would have to bring in a lot of money before it turns a profit? And that the fate of the sequels depended on it?
Now it has happened, and we can therefore count on "Avatar 3" to be followed by both a 4th and a 5th. The director promises that in a new podcast interview:
"It seems that the film has momentum and will easily cross the break-even line within a few days. So I can't escape, I have to do the other sequels. Now I know what I will do for the next 6-7 years.
According to the Hollywood Reporter, he will soon meet with Disney to discuss plans for "Avatar 3," which has already been shot. Furthermore, there are scripts for "Avatar 4" and "Avatar 5", where the plan is again to shoot both films at the same time.
- We have started a franchise now. We have started a saga that can take place over several films, says Cameron.
"Avatar: The Way of Water" may have cost as much as $400 million to produce and another $200 million to market, according to sources.
Now we eagerly await "Avatar 3" which continues the adventures on Pandora Christmas 2024.
Francis Ford Coppola's dream project "Megalopolis" is barely halfway through and the recording is so chaotic that it may have to be stopped. It oozes "Apocalypse Now" a long way in terms of production.
In a short time, Coppola's upcoming sci-fi "Megalopolis" has lost a lot of key people and several employees have reportedly been fired. Among other things, an art director and the entire special effects team have fled. In addition, the budget is said to be beyond all control.
- It was total madness to be on the set, points out a source to The Hollywood Reporter.
The dream project has thus turned into a nightmare! The shoot, which is underway in Atlanta, was scheduled for 90 days of work but now things look dark for the entire production, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
"Megalopolis" is perhaps the legendary "Godfather" director's most ambitious film to date. With a budget of more than 120 million dollars, also from his own private pocket, "Megalopolis" is his big dream project that he wanted to implement for 30 years. A dream that now does not seem to be coming true.
In the cast we have (or maybe had...) big names like Adam Driver, Forest Whitaker, Nathalie Emmanuel and Laurence Fishburne.
There are Starfield and The Elder Scrolls 6 reasons to believe in a long wait for Fallout 5. The game is confirmed, but will only be released after Bethesda's other two giant RPGs. 2028-ish? Perhaps? We'll see.
While waiting for part five in the series, we get the chance to rediscover the soon-to-be 25-year-old Fallout 2 as an fps. The fan-made game can be played online as well as downloaded and costs nothing, although you can support the game and the creators through things like Patreon. The developers, Jonasz Osmenda and Alexander Berezin, emphasize that this is an early access version. Feedback is welcome.
The Fallout series turned 25 last fall (the second coming so quickly after the first), and it was in that vein that this 3D version was revealed. One that literally gives us Fallout 2 in a new perspective.
Download directly from here or from the developers site where you can also play the game online and donate (and you should) to the project.
Vampire Survivors not only became one of the most popular games on Steam in 2022, it was also released for Xbox and mobile formats before the end of the year. Something striking is that the mobile version is really free. No, not free-to-play, but free through and through. The end.
Or yes, maybe a little comma is in order. Namely, there are advertisements for purchases in the game (but "no pop-ups"), which you can ignore and avoid interacting with. The reason is that the developer wants to make money somehow "but in the way that least affected the players" (via Mobilegamer).
However, the road there turned out to be more complicated than developer Luca Galante, Poncle, could have imagined.
It appears in a New Year summary on Steam. The plan wasn't to develop the mobile version on our own but after spending months without finding a team that wanted to make the game without greedy monetization in the back of their minds, they felt compelled to take development into their own hands.
"Unfortunately, nobody I spoke with was on board with the monetization I had in mind for the platform: non-predatory.
Another reason for developing the mobile version ourselves was the fact that similar games started to line up, where some were pure "copies with stolen code, data and stolen assets". However, it is acknowledged that the version has some unpolished elements, and as there is a lack of manpower, this may take longer.
However, there was never any talk of not making Vampire Survivors "free-for-real".
"If you're like me, then if you wanted Vampire Survivors on mobile you'd have been happy to just pay a couple of bucks for it and call it a day. But the mobile market doesn't work like that and by making Vampire Survivors a paid app I'd have cut out completely a lot of new players from even trying the game.
This is why we ended up with a free-for-real approach, where monetization is minimal and is designed to never interrupt your game, always be optional and in your control through a couple of 'watch ads' buttons, and doesn't have any of that real money sinks that mobile cashgrabs are usually designed around. It's just the full game, playable offline, in landscape or portrait, with touch controls or with a gamepad.
Feel defeated, Tom Cruise. James Cameron has officially made the biggest movie of 2022.
It took the action film "Top Gun: Maverick" more than four months to reach $1.48 billion in revenue. The highest-grossing movie of 2022 is now beaten by "Avatar: The Way of Water", which reaches the same totals after just three weeks.
At the time of writing, James Cameron's theatrical spectacle has grossed $1.43 billion. It is expected to overtake the "Top Gun" sequel in revenue today or tomorrow.
"Avatar 2" cost 350 million dollars to shoot, and the marketing should have cost a fortune as well. The director himself stated that the film needs to make around $2 billion - and become one of the four biggest box office hits of all time - to break even financially.
Variety believes, however, that Disney will make a profit already with revenues of 1.5 billion, which will therefore happen already this week.
At this breakneck pace, it's probably only a matter of time before Cameron and his blue love warriors reach the next milestone of 2 billion. So far, only five films have succeeded in that: "Avengers: Infinity War" and "Avengers: Endgame", "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" and James Cameron's own "Titanic" and "Avatar", of course. The original film is still today the biggest box office success of all time with revenues of 2.9 billion dollars.
It was recently rumored that Arkane's co-op vampire game Redfall has been pushed back a few weeks due to unspecified issues. It raises concerns that Starfield will also be affected, as both titles will be launched before the end of the year and Redfall will be first. But when Bethesda now threw up a support page for Starfield, it gives reassuring news: it says in black and white that the launch will take place in the first half of 2023.
"Starfield arrives exclusively on Xbox Series X|S and PC in the first half of 2023.
If Microsoft keeps all planned releases, then Xbox and PC players have a good six months ahead of them, with Starfield, Redfall (rumored for release in May), Forza Motorsport (premiere this spring), the survival sequel Ark 2, the Civilization-like Ara: History Untold and the strategy game Minecraft Legends. All the games shown at Microsoft's big summer show in June were then said to be released within a year
A year ago, Square Enix big boss Yosuke Matsuda said that NFTs and blockchain games would become a "huge trend" in the entire gaming world going forward. NFTs are digital gadgets that you exclusively own, but in 2022 the new technology hit major roadblocks here and there in the gaming world. Steam said no, the Stalker 2 team changed plans, and Ubisoft got a hell of a lot of thumbs down. The backlash has been huge and sales around NFTs have collapsed (according to the Wall Street Journal).
Despite this, Yosuke Matsuda continues to underline the Square Enix venture. It appears in a New Year's letter. The company is, according to Matsuda-san, "mostly focused on blockchain entertainment".
"Looking externally, I think it is fair to say that blockchain gained significant recognition as a field in 2022.
Words that many people probably have opinions about. The majority of blockchain games are under development. The Square Enix boss believes that "confusion" can arise around new technologies before the public accepts them.
"Blockchain has been an object of exhilaration and a source of turmoil. But with that in the rearview mirror, we hope that blockchain games will transition to a new stage of growth in 2023.
As usual, OnePlus has gradually revealed details about the new phone 10T. The Oppo brand has now shown off the entire mobile design in a trio of images.
The 10T will be OnePlus' first top-of-the-line model without the physical do-not-disturb switch along the side – a practical design feature carried over from iPhones. Through the slider, it is easy to switch to silent mode and between different sound profiles, without even having to wake up the screen.
OnePlus chief designer Hope Liu gives an explanation, or excuse if you're less friendly, why the slider was removed. Liu says the slider simply didn't fit, as the space was needed for fast charging, battery capacity and a better antenna system.
The phone could have been made a touch thicker, but OnePlus chose to remove the slider instead. The component looks small from the outside but takes up 30 mm² internally, according to Liu. OnePlus has also confirmed that the screen is 6.7″ but does not reveal any other screen characteristics. 10T will be presented on August 3.
In recent years, Samsung has become the best Android manufacturer in terms of updates. In the beginning, that statement had an asterisk, "except for Google", but now Samsung is even better than the search giant in sending out new OS versions in the middle segment.
For all intents and purposes, it remains to be seen how well the promises are fulfilled, but on paper, the Galaxy A53 will receive more new Android versions than Google's equivalent phone, the Pixel 6a. The Galaxy A53 will get four new OS versions and will reach Android 16, while the Pixel 6a stays at Android 15.
However, both phones have been promised five years of security updates. But it is noteworthy that Samsung offers a better update policy than the company behind the operating system itself.
Meanwhile, manufacturers like Sony have fallen hopelessly behind by only guaranteeing two generations of Android updates. How important do you think updates are when choosing a new phone?
A number of Chinese smartphone manufacturers have been accused of tax evasion by Indian authorities since the spring. It all started when Huawei's Indian office was raided by authorities in February.
In May, the equivalent of $725 million was seized from Xiaomi's bank accounts, as the manufacturer was accused of diverting high royalty fees to other parties. Xiaomi India said everything went right.
Now at the beginning of July, the equivalent of 58 million dollars of Vivo's assets in India were seized while 119 bank accounts were taken over, after the company was accused of money laundering. Indian authorities alleged that Vivo sent nearly eight billion dollars to China via shell companies, with the aim of being able to declare a loss in India and avoid paying taxes.
Vivos commented that they hope the investigations are conducted "in a truly fair and non-discriminatory business environment". The latest Chinese manufacturer to find itself in Indian trouble is Oppo, which in the middle of the month was accused of evading customs duties. Indian authorities want $551 million from Oppo.
All this has prompted Chinese manufacturer Honor to withdraw its staff from India. Local partners will instead represent Honor in the Indian market. The Honor boss says that the manufacturer should have a "very safe approach" in India. Unlike Xiaomi, Vivo and Oppo, however, Honor has so far not been the subject of any formal Indian investigations.
Single player, open world and under development by new EA studio, according to rumor.
For almost fifteen years, Marvel has been a big deal, following the success of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The film success has of course echoed in the gaming world, with both successful (Insomniac's Spider-Man) and less successful (Marvel's Avengers) results. However, the feeling is that this is just the beginning.
Earlier this summer we reported that EA was also rumored to have a Marvel game in the works. The details were sparse. Now Giant Bomb's Geoff Grubb is filling up with significantly more layers.
"It is a single-player game, it is in very early development, and the game starts with Black Panther being dead. The player is going to take on the challenges of becoming the new Black Panther and that seems to be the set-up for the game.
EA's ambition should be to make a "big open-world game".
This is what Grubb says in a podcast (thanks, VGC) and believes that it is "very likely" that the game will be developed by a new EA studio led by Kevin Stephens, who bossed Monolith Productions, known for Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor and Shadow of War – with a Wonder Woman game on the horizon.
Unclear if Black Panther has any major similarities to the Middle-earth games, but the single player and open world focus definitely doesn't speak against it. We will hopefully have reason to return.
Alpha Patch 3.17.2 has been released to the LIVE environment and is now available to test! Patch should now show: VERSION 3.17.2-LIVE.8148301.
It is strongly recommended that players delete their USER and Shader folders for the Public client after patching, particularly if you start encountering any odd character graphical issues or crash on loading. The USER folder can be found (in default installations) at C:\Program Files\Roberts Space Industries\StarCitizen\LIVE. The Shader folders can be found here %localappdata%\Star Citizen.
Database Reset: Yes
Long Term Persistence: Disabled (Reputation will be preserved)
Starting aUEC: 20,000 (Players will receive a stipend based on previous 3.17.1 LIVE playtime)
Known Issues
Party Invite/Group Launch - Unable to party launch with friends
Players may have to restart the game after getting kicked to the main menu from a 30k server crash
Targeting - A ship's targeting pip may be missing or disappear for some players; they cannot be targeted when this happens
Multivehicle - Ships floating in the hangar when stored with the engines left on then retrieved again
Ships / Character Animation - The player character arm will misalign when seated in ships, causing obstruction of HUD and view
Vehicle / Spawning - The Khartu-al spawns on the hangar floor sideways
Vehicles / Ships - Shields - Weapon fire penetrates shields when ships are moving
Vehicles / ShipRefuel - While docked to a Starfarer multiple vehicle types will continuously tilt instead of remaining stationary and snap away from the arm if any movement is attempted
Vehicles – The Argo Raft's elevator controls cannot be interacted with from either deck
Crusader Ares - Headlights on Ares are too dim to notice at reasonable range
Medical Beacon- Medical beacon does not complete mission/payment when player is brought back from incapacitation
Animation - Weapons - All weapons are held like a pistol whilst moving in EVA
Combat AI - UGF Missions are sometimes missing NPC spawns to complete the mission
FPS Weapons - Weapon holsters or un-holsters unintentionally
Armor / Weapons / Utility items may disappear between sessions
Inventory - Weapons - Weapons looted directly equipped from containers/boxes are missing attachments
ASOP - Ships on landing pads end up in "unknown state" for location and have to be reclaimed after the ship is stored or streamed out
Missions - UGF / Bounty Hunter - Turrets around bunkers respawn very quickly, sometimes almost instantaneously
Mission Giver / AI / Locations - Wallace Klim is not aligned to the table and can be seen standing away from it
Multiple locations - R&R Stations - Stations are variably offset from the Lagrange point they are housed within
New Features
Locations
Derelict Reclaimers V1
Added additional points of interest that will be scattered both on planets and in space. These Derelict Reclaimers come with puzzle traversal elements along with multiple legal and illegal mission types which include delivery and FPS combat in and around the crash sites using the new planetary navigation mesh. There are multiple Reclaimer Derelicts in space with three associated delivery, investigation, and mercenary missions. We've also added a new ground-based Derelict Reclaimer site inhabited by NPCs called "Ghost Hollow," which involves delivery, bounty hunter, and mercenary missions.
Derelict Colonialism Outposts
Added new derelict versions of the Colonialism Outposts into Stanton. This initial release will see 5 unique outpost locations on microTech with new delivery missions, small traversal puzzles, and AI guards that utilize the new planetary navmesh along with the new drop ship reinforcement system.
Added the Snake Pit Race Track
AI
AI - Planetary Navigation
This system allows NPCs to move on planetary surfaces using a dynamically generated navigation mesh. This will efficiently process planetary terrain and objects to prioritize the processing of the environment around the players into navmesh, allowing the use of all existing functionalities on planets. The first implementation of this feature will be at the Reclaimer and Colonialism Outpost Derelict Points of Interest.
AI - Landing Improvements
This enables AI ships to land and deliver reinforcements on non-structured ground areas like planetary terrain where a pre-defined landing area and assistance from Air Traffic Control is not available.
Gameplay
Illegal Collect and Delivery Missions
New set of delivery missions focusing on illegal cargo. These will be offered by Red Wind Linehaul once the player reaches a high enough reputation with them as a courier. The player will be sent to sketchy, run-down locations like drug labs and stash houses and is tasked with delivering goods between them, some of which may not be legal. The intro mission should be available around Hurston if you have rank 2 courier rep with Red Wind Linehaul. The illegal missions are available outside of Hurston's jurisdiction if you have a high enough Red Wind Linehaul reputation and have completed the intro mission in Hurston. These missions come in 5 different versions, each with a different quantity of cargo and a corresponding monetary and reputation reward given on completion.
Added Marker for Players and Friendly AI That are Associated with Your Current FPS Mission
Ships and Vehicles
Added New Vehicle: Anvil Centurion
Weapons and Items
Added New Lootable Item: Greycat Aril Backpack Collector
Added New Armor to Shops and Lootable Containers: RRS Specialist Heavy Armor (Morozov-SH Brushdrift, Redshift, and Snowdrift variants)
Feature Updates
Locations
Rest Stop Hangar Additions
Updated existing rest stops to have small and medium hangars.
Additional Stanton Lagrange Points
Added 8 additional, unique rest stop locations with full amenities that include clinics, EZ-Habs, shopping, and services. This update includes both the stations themselves and the surrounding gas clouds for players to explore and mine asteroids.
Grim HEX Hospital Expansion
Expanded Grim Imperial Medical to include additional medical rooms.
AI
Improved NPC Face Randomization to be More Diverse
Gameplay
Combat Service Beacons V2
Updates to Combat Service Beacon Gameplay for a more varied and rewarding experience. This update hooks combat service beacons into Quantum to allow the system to determine when, where, and what difficulty will occur. This brings a range of 10 levels of difficulty to space combat beacons which will start players at low tiers with easier targets and scales up massively as the player gains reputation to include higher difficulty levels with tougher targets, larger payouts, and rare encounters that may require teams of players to take down the target. Updated combat assist beacons to only display on screen notifications to players who are currently in a vehicle.
Food and Drink QoL Purchasing Update
Food and drinks can now be purchased in multiples using many shop kiosks throughout the universe.
Shopping Kiosk QoL Updates
Updating shopping Kiosk with new QoL features. General UI polish pass. Added check functionality to Quick Buy confirmation popup, so that it is now a quick passive popup and requires no interaction. Updated filter section to be multi-line and added a field to support search inputs.
Price of Freedom Mission Updates
Reduced the reputation requirement to gain the intro hijacked Caterpillar mission. Added an additional new version of the mission around Crusader. Once players have have completed the first in-person mission from Tecia Pacheco directly, they will be able to accept further ones from the mobiGlas while in space near planets.
Turret Velocity Pass
Tuned the turret velocity and acceleration values, such that the feeling and weight of turrets matches their size, and it doesn’t negatively impact aiming experience.
Adjusted "Critical" Display Status for Hunger & Thirst Widgets to Appear at about 25% Full (Up from 15%)
Made it Legal to Commit Infractions Against Players that are Illegally Trespassing in an Area
Higher-Valued Gems Will Now Be Much More Rare in Loot Crates
Players Will Now Drop Empty Magazines While Reloading
Disabled Corpse AR Marker Showing for Other Players
Ships and Vehicles
Mustang Alpha QoL Updates
Made changes to the cargo grid to add a new 4 SCU cargo hold with animated doors that open and allow players to place and store loose cargo. Greatly increased the cargo bay health.
Vanduul Ship Updates
Greatly increased the fuel tank storage and adjusted fuel usage for the Blade, Glaive, and Scythe ships.
Blade Performance Polish
Retuned weapons to increase velocity. Increase wing hull health. Reduced hull health of several joints. Changed lateral velocities, boost multiplier, and aerodynamics.
Greatly Increased the Health of the Nova Tank
Greatly Increased the Fuel Reserves of the Khartu-al
Greatly Increased the Hull Health on the Ursa Rover
Improved the Ursa Rover Brakes and Reverse Speeds
Decreased Scorpius Max Speed in Atmosphere
Updated Scorpius Passby Audio
Adjusted Drake Mule Weapon Rack Interactions to Be Easier to Select
Weapons and Items
Updated Dimensions and mSCU for Missiles and Torpedoes
Greatly Increased the Railgun Damage
Core Tech
Player Networking Update
Enabled new remote movement and new client authoritative position systems. With this update, players should see great improvements with on foot player positions and less jittery behavior while viewing remote player movements.
AI Networking Improvements
Made many improvements to on-foot AI networking to improve their movements, responses, and reduce rubberbanding.
Performance Polish Pass on Large Planetary Storms
Performance Polish Pass for Entity Streaming
Updated ReShade to Version 5.3
Added Option to Enable or Disable the QR Code from the Options Menu
Bug Fixes
Players should no longer be able to directly call another player to constantly monitor their location
Players should now be able to see and add other players on their friends list from the main menu
Fixed an issue causing attacks against ships to sometimes not register
Emptying and reloading consecutive magazines should no longer break reloading
Players should no longer become desynced after being downed and revived
Player's corpses should no longer clip and fall through surfaces after dying
Shopping kiosks search filter should no longer reset to default after transaction success
Dragging and dropping a magazine into the player's armor should no longer cause the inventory to infinitely load and stop responding
On foot Players/NPCs should no longer appear to pause and teleport when viewed through a scope at a distance
AI should now spawn in appropriate numbers during Infiltrate/Defend UGF Missions
Fixed an issue causing AI to be slow to respond when engaging players in combat
'Restricted Area' warning should no longer occur inside UGFs if player has a lawful mission
Players should no longer receive an armistice crimestat for damaging their own vehicle with another owned vehicle while it is being lifted up/down by a cargo elevator/lift
Player Injuries should now fully persist through sessions
Fixed an issue causing the Argo Mole to have no cargo capacity which prevented mining
Hospital pharmacy kiosks should no longer display Invalid Location message upon purchase
Orison Pharmacy Kiosk screen should no longer flash at a distance
Crusader Showroom sales terminal should no longer display a black screen
Players should no longer be able to duplicate ship components by transferring them from read-only ships on the claim timer and claiming the ship at another location
Item boxes left in hangars should now be cleaned up and no longer block a ship that is being spawned
Functional claim button should no longer briefly appear after player selects to store a ship
Area18 Centermass elevator doors should no longer be duplicated
Astro Armada ship consoles displays should no longer have Z-Fighting
Orison Covalex Shipping and Trading kiosks should now have proper interaction
Refinery shop kiosks should no longer have blank displays
Defiance core armors should no longer have the wrong color in inventory
Players should now be able to interact with and buy Tigersclaw cryptokeys off the shelf in Grim HEX
Shubin Interstellar kiosk in New Babbage should now correctly use the new shop UI
Filtered out items on the "Sell" tab should now be correctly removed from the current items list
Uncommon loot crates should no longer be missing from Caterpillar derelicts
Ships should no longer hop and jump around after being spawned
Starfarer Gemini should no longer be missing its table and benches
Fixed an issue causing players to impact into planets when quantum traveling to a party marker on the surface
The Scorpius quantum drive UI should no longer be very small making hard to read
Players should now be able to change the lower weapons on the Scorpius' turret
Scorpius headlights should no longer be dim and hardly usable in dark terrain and cause particles effects to blind the pilot's view
Players should now be able to interact with top right MFD of the Cutlass series
Remote turrets can now be slaved to the driver in the Nova Tank, Argo RAFT, Ursa Rover, Anvil Ballista, and Anvil Spartan
Redeemer Nose Turret should now fire correctly
Redeemer Disc-Joint should no longer be Invulnerable
Fixed an issue causing the control panel and guard rails of the Reclaimer's elevator to not follow along with it
Reclaimer's elevator should now correctly show option to "go up" when on the bridge level
Jettison Cargo inner thought prompt should be visible inside of the Prospector
Hammerhead's front interior airlock doors should now allow players to open and close them correctly when docked to a station
Atmosphere should no longer be missing from the lower deck corridor of the rear elevator of the 600i
Players should no longer be able to fall through the closed rear ramp of the Cutlass Steel
Starfarer should no longer be able to quantum travel when another ship is docked to it
Players should now be able to access the Origin 135c cargo bay
ROC-DS should now hold its correct amount cargo at 3.5 SCU
Tumbril Cyclone MT missile racks should now function
The rear of the Drake Mule should no longer start to float if the vehicle navigates over steep inclines / hills
AI corpses should no longer despawn too quickly while players are near
Vaulting over objects should no longer seriously injure or knock out a player
Player EVA animation should no longer appear as them standing in space
Legal and Illegal Deploy Probe Missions should now show up correctly in the Contract Manager
Arlington Gang Idris should now be able to maintain its flight in atmosphere
Morozov-SH Helmet cheek lights should no longer present externally for female characters
Klescher Prison Escape rover should no longer spawn offset inside of its garage
Players should now suffocate when their suit runs out of oxygen while in the Klescher mines
Hacking chips should no longer appear sideways when equipped by a player
There should no longer be ReplaceMe balls on the surface near outposts on Daymar
Hull-A Empyrean, Horizon, and Dusk Paints should no longer be missing
Technical
Fixed 19 Client Crashes
Fixed 17 Server Crashes
Fixed multiple backend server crashes
AC score board should no longer crash the client
Video
Evan Blass offers high-resolution images of Samsung's upcoming foldables Galaxy Z Flip 4 and Galaxy Z Fold 4. The latter mobile phone is shown in the colors beige, black and gray.
Both phones look like their predecessors at first glance and we suspect the biggest news can be found internally and in the hinges. Samsung recently told that the Flip is significantly more popular than the Fold, which is likely partly to do with the large price difference.
Of those who bought a foldable from Samsung last year, 70 percent chose a Flip.
The term "pixel perfection" gets thrown around a bit sometimes, but in the case of The Excavation of Hob's Barrow (pc) it feels justified. Looks fantastic! The adventure is about antiquarian Thomasina Bateman who, via a mysterious letter, ends up in a sleepy small town with buried secrets. Maybe you're not trying to prevent people from getting in, but something from getting out ?
Well, this is an adventure with underlying horror, with a so-called pagan horror ("folk horror").
The Excavation of Hob's Barrow is being developed by the skilled Cloak and Dagger Games, but a perhaps greater stamp of quality is that Wadjet Eye acts as publisher. The modern champions of point-and-click adventures have brought us Blackwell, Gemini Rue, Technobabylon, and Unavowed, among others .
We haven't exactly been spoiled with cool dinosaur games in recent years, but The Lost Wild looks like it could be an interesting title. Now we've got a new trailer for the game, but unfortunately it's not a pure gameplay trailer. Instead, it's more of a cinematic showcase, but it looks to be in-engine and we'll hope it's representative of the actual game, because it looks really good.
The dinosaurs in this survival/horror game will use advanced AI that allows them to adapt to what is happening, so maybe something along the lines of Alien Isolation? The developers also say that we will be faced with dinosaurs that behave like wild animals, not monsters. It's entirely single-player, and the focus is on stealth and survival, not action.
We still don't have a release date, but they're teasing us that it's coming to Steam "soon", according to the video description - on the other hand, it says "2024" on Steam, so it's a bit unclear. There are also plans for versions for the current gen consoles, but they don't specify a specific time frame for when that might happen.
"Was it always this chaotic?" wonders a seagull in the opening moments of the trailer for Cities: Skylines' upcoming expansion. It goes by the name Plazas & Promenades (that is, the expansion, not the seagull), and just as the name suggests, it revolves around places where you can use your legs to get around, rather than a car. There are walking paths, market squares and regular zones as well as streets where cars are simply prohibited.
Other news includes street music to increase the happiness in the pedestrian zone (on the other hand, it also counts as noise). If you instead want to reduce the residents' happiness, you can introduce a sugar ban, which increases their lifespan. There are also three new district specializations: office buildings, high-density residential and high-density commercial zones, with 24 new associated buildings.
The price lands at €14.99 and the expansion should be released "soon". Otherwise, the game is going like a train, and celebrated twelve million copies sold a couple of months ago.
No more shopping Embracer titles...
The dictatorship's money pays for 8.1 percent of the shares.
Embracer Group receives 10.3 billion new in their the account. The Swedish Karlstad-based gaming company has released 99.9 million new B shares, which it sold to the Saudi Arabian Savvy Gaming Group. Savvy is funded by the Public Investment Fund, a government fund where the country's controversial crown prince and leader Mohammed bin Salman sits on the board.
The deal gives Savvy 8.1 percent of the shares and 5.4 percent of the votes in Embracer. This makes the Saudi company one of the largest owners behind founder Lars Wingefors, who at the turn of the year held 24.2 percent of the company's shares and just over 43 percent of the votes.
Embracer CEO and founder Lars Wingefors:
"Our relationship with Savvy Gaming Group will enable us to set up a regional hub in Saudi Arabia, where we will be able to carry out investments in the MENA region, either organically, through partnerships, joint ventures or through the acquisition of companies led by strong contractors.
Savvy was formed at the beginning of the year and immediately hit the headlines by buying Dreamhack owner ESL for $13 billion. In May, it became clear that PIF had bought 5 percent of the Japanese gaming giant Nintendo .
Embracer emphasizes in the press release that it wants long-term investments in the company. Savvy invests in entering the gaming and esports community worldwide. But the company's ventures are controversial because the fund that finances the company is controlled by Crown Prince bin Salman, who has been accused, among other things, of ordering the murder of a prominent journalist in 2018. The country has also been criticized for a lack of human rights, both during the crown prince's rule and before.
The fight to make Battlefield 2042 something that players actually want continues at Dice, and one news that will be welcomed by many is that they plan to introduce a class system and thus make it more like previous games in the series. Currently, there is no such system, but instead there are different specialists to choose from.
In a video update, they say that the game's second season is almost here and that they have big plans for the coming months. They have analyzed the "polarizing feedback" about the Specialists and decided that in season three they will be moved into a more classic class system. Existing specialists will thus be categorized as Assault, Recon, Support or Engineer, and all will have access to the abilities and equipment that belong to the class in question.
In addition to that, there are further improvements to maps to, among other things, give infantry a better chance and ensure that players get to the battles faster, as well as new material, including the new map that the second season includes.
