How to say deus ex machina

It’s a bit odd to say this about a Pokemon game, but raiding in Pokemon Go is kind of a big deal. Multiplayer has always been a core part of the series, but it’s mostly been PvP. Niantic’s design choices aren’t always on point, but since its first reveal, I knew it was something that would change the nature of the game, and it certainly did. I’d argue that the introduction of raiding, something I normally dislike in MMOs, is what really helped solidify POGO as at least an MMO-esque game. But as in your typical MMO, raiding is drastically different from what you do 90% of the time in game. The new quests/tutorials kind of help with this, but there are some very basic issues that even people in my raid group still ignore. While having strong allies is part of the reason for this, numbers can help offset this as well. But if you’re reading this guide, you probably need to help your local scene out, or at least want to tackle … [Read more...] about Massively on the Go: Our guide to legendary and EX raiding in Pokemon Go

A self-proclaimed ex-employee of Carbine Studios spilled what he or she claims is a behind-the-scenes account over at Kotaku of how NCsoft handled both City of Heroes and WildStar prior to both games’ shutdowns. The anonymous author, whose status has not yet been verified, claims that NCsoft shut Paragon Studios in 2012 down “because they tried to pull a fast one” on the publisher by taking money for a sequel to City of Heroes while instead using those funds for a new IP instead. “South Korean publishers are actually pretty hands off for the most part, as long as you give them reason to trust you,” the writer said. “You hit your deadlines, you give them the product you promised, they’re actually pretty willing to put up with a lot. Until you waste their money. THEN the boot comes down.” Of course, you’ll note that some of the claims contradict what both Paragon Studios and NCsoft put on the record back in 2012. As for … [Read more...] about Purported Carbine ex-employee spills the tea on WildStar and City of Heroes shutdowns

Jack Thompson is much more than the pathological liar on a never ending quest to destroy video games. He’s also a disgraced ex-lawyer disbarred over ten years ago for no less than 31 charges of inappropriate conduct inside and out of the courtroom, for intimidating and harassing opposition, whose rambling court arguments have been described as bizarre and idiotic by the Florida court, and for coining the idea that teenagers can learn how to properly fire weapons by playing Doom, a game so primitive that you can’t look up and down in it. But like Freddy Krueger’s sleazy uncle who sells used cars, Jack Thompson refuses to duck out of the public scope and just can’t stop lying. Unfortunately Florida’s least competent attorney has conned another newspaper into publishing his latest attempt to twist the death of children for his Quixotic quest, the Tallahasee Democrat, which we have linked in an archived form for your pleasure and their lack of advertising … [Read more...] about Bad Press: Disbarred Ex-Lawyer Jack Thompson Returns, Is Still A Pathological Liar

Unless you’re a hardcore Darkfall player from way back in the day as MOP’s Andrew was, you probably look at the sequels and spinoffs with pure confusion. What’s the difference between Darkfall, Darkfall: Rise of Agon, and Darkfall: New Dawn? That’s at least partly the subject of a new infographic out from the New Dawn team. For starters, you can’t actually play the original Darkfall. After launching in 2009, rebooting amidst much controversy as Unholy Wars in 2012, and toying with plans for a more classic reboot, its dev team abruptly vanished without much of a goodbye in 2016, saying it hoped the service disruption would be temporary. It wasn’t. Aventurine wound up licensing the game out to two different player-led studios, which separately put together their own takes on the game to keep it alive. New Dawn, as the infographic touts, focuses more on group PvP than the original, with less grind and griefing and a more realistic economy and … [Read more...] about Get caught up on the Darkfall spinoffs as ex-Aventurine devs explain what happened to the original (and throw shade)

It looks like Just Survive’s sunset is really happening. Back in August, Daybreak announced that it was sunsetting the sandboxier zombie survival half of the game once known just as H1Z1, saying it was “no longer in a position to fulfill its greatness and the current population of the game makes it untenable to maintain.” The game technically never officially launched and received only sporadic love from Daybreak once it was eclipsed by its battle royale half. There was a bit of hope earlier this month when Z1 Battle Royale (fka H1Z1) lead Jace Hall told streamviewers that he was working on finding a way to keep Just Survive around in “maintenance mode” and “figure out the right way to re-integrate Just Survive as a mode inside of Z1.” Daybreak says it’s still discussing that possibility, but the game is definitely going offline tomorrow, not headed for maintenance mode. Here’s today’s statement: “As we announced … [Read more...] about Daybreak confirms that ex-H1Z1 sandbox Just Survive is still sunsetting tomorrow