CrossFire: Warzone is a free-to-play 3D mobile base-building strategy MMO based on the classic CrossFire online FPS. Players must build up their base and their army as they go up against a vicious terrorist group, zombies, and other players.
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Publisher: Joycity Corp. Playerbase: Medium Type: 3D Mobile Strategy Release Date (Global): July 28, 2020 Pros: +Polished base-building mechanics. +Easy-to-learn. +Simple controls. +Good voice-acting. Cons: -Sheer power negates battle strategy. -Lackluster narrative. -Grindy gameplay.
Facepunch Studios has confirmed that they’ve suffered a catastrophic loss of Rust player data due to a fire that ripped through the OVH Datacenter in Strasbourg, France early yesterday morning. According to the studio, 25 EU servers were lost during the blaze along with all the data they contain. Thankfully, no one was hurt during the incident.
“We’re expecting a large amount of data loss across the affected servers,” tweeted Facepunch. The team says that they’re now working on replacing the destroyed servers but admits that they won’t be able to restore data lost during the fire.
Rust saw a recent surge in popularity 7 years after it launched thanks to big-name Twitch streamers deciding to jump into the game. The game hit a new all-time peak concurrency record back in February at just over 224K players.
Destructive Creations and 1C has just launched a free-to-play version of Ancestors Legacy, their medieval squad-based multiplayer strategy game. The aptly-named Ancestors Legacy: Free Peasant Edition is now available on Steam, featuring all of the original game’s 17 multiplayer maps and four single-player Viking campaign missions.
“Take command of the Viking nation and conquer enemy strongholds in cinematic battles. Multiplayer also offers access to the four basic nations: Viking, Anglo-Saxon, German, and Slav, all free. Challenge opponents in 1v1, 2v2, and 3v3 battles. Add optional A.I. allies or enemies to craft the perfect match.”
Peasant players can also participate in the game’s PvP league starting at the end of the month for a chance to earn official merchandise, game keys, and wireless headphones.
The full game is available on Steam, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch, offering up to 40 hours of single-player campaigns from the four playable nations. You can check out the Ancestors Legacy: Free Peasant Edition launch trailer right after the jump.
The highly-anticipated Watch Dogs Legion online mode is now live on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S and Google Stadia. Players on the above-mentioned platforms (sorry PC players) will now be able to explore the streets of near-future London together and start organizing their DedSec cells.
The story-driven Tactical Ops missions won’t be launching until March 23 due to a number of unforeseen issues, but players will be free to participate in regular missions, join the Spider Bot arena, or simply cause mayhem in the streets until then. The PS4 and PS5 versions will also have limited in-game chat capabilities with a fix coming alongside the Tactical Ops missions.
Speaking of issues, the PC version has been delayed indefinitely until the team at Ubisoft can sort out an issue with certain GPUs causing the game to crash. “The team is working on fixing the issue as quickly as possible,” tweeted the devs. “In the meantime, we’ve made the decision to wait to launch the PC version until this is fixed. We will communicate the new launch date as soon as possible.”
Aside from getting players together in a single persistent world and a few extra features, the online mode will play just like the main game. Additional features include the ability to recruit virtually any NPC in the game as a DedSec agent in exchange for Influence Points which can be unlocked and earned as players progress through the game.
Check out the official launch trailer below for a sneak peek at the new online mode.
The RuneScape dev team hosted a livestream yesterday to address player concerns about the ongoing login and account lock out issues affecting both RuneScape and Old School RuneScape since last week.
During the livestream, Jagex CEO Philip Mansell admitted that the issue was caused by a technical problem on their end. He proceeds to point out that this is the first time that the team ran into a problem that they couldn’t fix in just a few hours. He also assured the game’s community that the team is all hands on deck to fix the problem.
“Fortunately the vast majority of players aren't affected, but regardless of how many players have been impacted, we know it's imperative to get you back in game as swiftly and smoothly as possible,” he said. “Everyone at Jagex is taking this incredibly seriously.”
Unfortunately, the developers say that it could take a few more days to resolve the issue although they did promise to compensate players for the extended downtime. Compensation will be discussed as soon as they get everyone back in the game, which at this time is their number one priority.
The team also repeatedly thanked players for their understanding and their undying support over the past few days.
As for the issue itself, the devs say that it was caused a combination of factors that resulted in a “perfect storm” of events. That storm resulted in a major bug that prevented the servers’ live and backup systems from functioning as they should. According to the devs, fixing the problem will be a monumental task considering how widespread the issue is.
No accounts were lost because of the issue but the state in which players will get their accounts back is an entirely different matter. Some players who managed to log back in were missing levels or items, or even have had their progress rolled back. Support services will be available to address individual concerns once the issue has been fixed.
We’ll keep you updated as soon as more information comes to light. You can watch the full update stream below.
Phoenix Labs will be retiring the traditional rotating vault format for season pass rewards in Dauntless in favor of a more permanent reward cache. The new reward cache will contain the same variety of items as the vault but will only be rotated out at the start of each new season.
“The Reward Cache holds all kinds of cool rewards – past season items like the Vault has held, new items you’ve never seen before, transmogs, emotes, dyes, consumables, keys, tokens – all the stuff you want. While new items will be added to the Cache throughout each Season, they won’t rotate out like in the Vault right now. Instead, the items will build up over the course of a few months before all rotating out for the start of a new Season. (You can think of a Season as about 2 Hunt Passes long. Each Escalation cycle was a ‘Season’).”
The downside is that earning season rewards will take much longer but can be sped up by subscribing to the Slayers Club, which offers several perks including double currency.
“Joining the Slayers Club is not required to access any part of the game, reach any milestone, or overcome any content,” explains developer Phoenix Labs. “It’s just a way to get where you’re going a little faster.”
The new system will arrive on April 8 along with new daily and weekly challenges that award the new seasonal currency. Unspent Vault Coins will be converted into the new currency which can be immediately used to purchase items from the reward cache. Hunt Passes and Elite Hunt Passes will still be available allowing players to earn armor sets with unique effects and other special additions.
MapleStory is celebrating the arrival of spring with the upcoming Spring Blossom’s update. The update will introduce a revamped Zipangu region featuring changes to several towns, including Ninja Castle, Showa Town, Hieizan, and more. The Legends Return will also be returning to the game allowing players to once more take control of legendary heroes in 3vs3 PvP.
“The Legends are back with an abundance of rewards and excitement! Select the Legend you’ve longed to be (we know, how can you choose just one?), upgrade your skills, and win against the opposing team. You’ll receive rewards for your cumulative wins, [. . .] but even more special rewards are waiting for those on the rankings.”
The new Maple Cafe will also be opening its doors to adventurers with a variety of rewards up for grabs for those who befriend the cafe’s charming baristas. Pit-a-Pat Pass Package owners will also get additional rewards, including exclusive event perks and cosmetic items such as My Beating Heart Outfit, My Beating Heart Weapon, and the Maple Cafe on a Spring Day Chair.
“Come by and help our Maple Cafe baristas by completing the missions. The more help you give, the closer you’ll get. Befriend the baristas and increase the cumulative levels to unlock rewards.”
The Spring Blossom’s update will also mark the start of the fan-favorite Mechanical Hearts event, which will be returning with all three seasons. Complete each season and collect Aspire Commemorative Coins which can be used to purchase items from the previous seasons in the unified Mechanical Hearts Coin Shop.
A release date has yet to be announced for the Spring Blossom’s update. Details can be found on the MapleStory official site.
Microsoft’s acquisition of ZeniMax Media has officially pushed through following the European Commission’s approval of the $7.5B deal last week, making it the largest merger in the video game industry to date.
“Today we officially complete the acquisition of ZeniMax Media, parent company of Bethesda Softworks,” said Spencer. “It’s an honor to welcome the eight incredibly talented development studios – Bethesda Game Studios, id Software, ZeniMax Online Studios, Arkane, MachineGames, Tango Gameworks, Alpha Dog, and Roundhouse Studios – and their passionate global communities to the Xbox family.”
Spencer continues to assure the gaming community that the ZeniMax studios, Bethesda included, will continue to make games as they always have while also teasing new titles that will be exclusive to Xbox and PC players.
Pete Hines, the Senior Vice President of PR and Marketing at Bethesda, also backed Spencer’s statement that nothing will change with the acquisition in a separate blog post. “First, let me say that we’re not making any landmark announcements or changes right now,” he said.
“As we’ve all shared, the expectation is that Bethesda Softworks and our studios will continue as we have in the past, just with more support and resources than we’ve ever had before,” continued Hines. “Obviously, Game Pass has been an important initiative for Xbox, and we’ll be working on putting even more of our games into Game Pass than ever before. Beyond that? Stay tuned, we’re just getting started together.”
After being hit by one roadblock after another, Australian indie developer Square Root Studios and their flagship game Titan Reach have finally made it into Early Access.
Square Root Studios first revealed that old-school social MMORPG when it launched a $430K Kickstarter campaign back in September. Unfortunately, the campaign failed to secure the required funds and Square Root was forced to make do with whatever funds they had and work long hours without overtime pay.
In December, the studio revealed that they were running out of funds and that they will be forced to shut down development if they don’t raise enough money by the early days of 2021. Surprisingly, the studio was able to pull through and release a limited Early Access version of the game.
The Early Access version features a completely rebuilt map, improved character models, a quest dialog system, a party system, pets, trading, a friends list, new sound effects and music, controller support, and the ability to chop down any tree in the game.
Square Root Studios, however, warns players that the game is in its minimum playable state and is missing a number of key features. “You are playing the most recent build available, and is not any form of polished release,” says the devs. “The game is not yet at a point where people can play it as their daily MMO, we intend for players to play for a small amount of time with the option to grind higher stats if they really want.”
They also warn players that there will likely be issues but that they’ll fix them as quickly as they can. The developers also haven’t had time to finish the character customization system which means that players will be spawning as a fixed female character. The character creator should be up in a couple of days and will be available even for existing characters.
If you’re interested, you can buy into Early Access starting at $56 (normally $70). The full game is expected to launch sometime in 2022 and will require a monthly subscription of $8.
If you’re a developer looking for funding or a player just looking for a new game to try, then you might want to check out Planetarium’s Nine Chronicles, a free-to-play 2D blockchain open-source MMO backed by Ubisoft.
“Nine Chronicles is a fantasy MMORPG, set in a vast fantasy world powered by groundbreaking technology that gives players the freedom to play how they want: exploring, crafting, mining or governing in a uniquely moddable, open-source adventure.
Conquer dangerous dungeons to gather rare resources for trade; specialize in crafting the finest equipment; or pass legislation with the support of other players to inhabit this realm as you see fit.”
Planetarium is encouraging developers and players alike to get creative and use any part of Nine Chronicles’ tools, codes, and assets for whatever they like, be it a mod or extension of the game or something entirely new. They’re even offering a $2.5M grant to developers who catch their eye.
"From the very beginning, we've always wanted to offer gaming communities a chance to own their online games,” said Planetarium CEO Kijun Seo. “We're excited to keep our promise by fully open sourcing Nine Chronicles, and offering grants for talented developers. We can't wait to support amazing projects from our community.”
Nine Chronicles is currently available to play on the official site and will be launching on Steam later this year. Check out the Steam teaser trailer below.
Facepunch Studios has confirmed that they’ve suffered a catastrophic loss of Rust player data due to a fire that ripped through the OVH Datacenter in Strasbourg, France early yesterday morning. According to the studio, 25 EU servers were lost during the blaze along with all the data they contain. Thankfully, no one was hurt during the incident.
![Ancestors Legacy - Free Peasant Edition Trailer [PC]](https://mmos.mystagingwebsite.com/wp-content/plugins/wp-youtube-lyte/lyteCache.php?origThumbUrl=https%3A%2F%2Fi.ytimg.com%2Fvi%2F4ycnWldxI-o%2F0.jpg)
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