Arthur Morgan, main protagonist of Red Dead Redemption 2 , has become the unwitting mascot of quarantined gamers in a recent fan design. Certain external worldwide events have driven people to stay ins [...]
Former president of Blizzard Entertainment Mike Morhaime stated in an interview that he believes making World of Warcraft more casual took away some reasons for gamers to play. Blizzard’s popular MMO has evolved since the early days of diehard raiding with dedicated, consistent teams, and has streamlined the leveling experience by implementing double XP events and other casual-focused changes. While the game’s massive community does still possess a decent number of more hardcore raiders and competitive guilds, the majority of its players participate on a more casual basis – a reflection of Blizzard’s decision over the last decade to offer alternate methods of acquiring gear besides raids and high-level dungeons.
Furthering World of Warcraft’s more radical design changes, Blizzard has opted to also decrease the level cap with the release of its next expansion, Shadowlands, which will release sometime in 2020. The level cap will be effectively halved, and players will be able to choose where they grind for levels. If they wish to level their character through the game’s Wrath of the Lich King expansion’s content, they can, or they can grind through Cataclysm or Mists of Panderia. This approach to the upcoming leveling redesign is akin to that of Guild Wars 2, giving players more choices on how they participate in WoW’s content.
In a Fireside Chat with VentureBeat via YouTube, Morhaime acknowledged that making World of Warcraft more casual took away reasons for gamers to play. “I would also just observe that as World of Warcraft evolved over the years,” Morhaime said, “it actually kind of became less social, because in an effort to achieve more accessibility, we removed some of the reasons why you need to play with the same group of people over and over. I think that it takes away some of the reasons for some people of why they play, and why they might want to continue to play.”
Morhaime’s thoughts on WoW’s declining social aspects are a result of his observation that the traditional MMO experience is not as popular as it had been 10-15 years ago. He sees that other types of games have filled that social aspect of gaming, possibly to a better extent than World of Warcraft did in the past. Morhaime also acknowledges that one of the reasons that World of Warcraft, and other games, has reduced its group sizes required to tackle content is due to the hurdles involved with getting large groups of people organized outside of the game. Thus, titles such as World of Warcraft and others have lowered the number of players required to tackle content to make people’s lives easier, though, at the cost of innate sociability.
World of Warcraft is still often heralded as the greatest MMO of all-time, and despite its shift to a more casual experience, the game retains a gargantuan following around the world. The release of WoW Classic in 2019 even doubled the game’s subscriber count for a time. However, the impending loss of hardcore raiding with a dedicated, consistent team that is persistent and continues trying after weeks of wipes has ripple effects outside of gaming. Learning them in a fun, entertaining environment with likeminded people also created lasting bonds between players. Without hardcore raiding, it’s possible that persistence and determination could be casualties that join sociability as castaways – though, given the popularity of World of Warcraft to this day, it’s fair to wonder just how much of Morhaime’s assessment is accurate, too.
World of Warcraft is available now for PC and Mac.
Source: YouTube
2008’s Tropic Thunder featured Robert Downey Jr.’s using blackface, yet surprisingly this didn’t receive a major backlash or cause any real controversy. Tropic Thunder is the movie w [...]
A fresh round of datamining has revealed that Fortnite is getting a new island soon, but it won’t revolve around combat. It goes in line with the recent public activities in the game, which were hosted for peaceful hanging out with friends and strangers rather than for another violent battle royale shootout.
The never-ending stream of leaks and rumors has long served as the major source of Fortnite hints and news. For instance, one of the recent speculations suggests that Tyler Rake from Netflix’s Extraction movie could end up being another character skin. The idea behind this rumor comes from a promising exchange between the movie’s writer Joe Russo and Epic Games’ creative director Donald Mustard over on Twitter. While the former was trying to find out if Tyler Rake could stand against John Wick, the latter directly suggested putting them against each other in Fortnite. John Wick’s character, obviously, is already present in the game. The concept of clashing two masterful melee combatants within Fortnite sounds exciting, but the recent rumor takes a completely opposite approach towards gameplay.
Popular Fortnite leaker ShiinaBR has shared on Twitter the leaked Papaya island map, which will be supposedly used to host non-violent gaming activities that do not include combat. There’re multiple points of interest scattered across the map that represent various mini-games. Players will be able to compete in such disciplines as vehicle and boat races, marathons, parkour, skydiving, etc. According to the leaked description, the new mode that includes all of the content above will be called Party Royale. It literally encourages players to leave their deadly weapons behind and start peacefully hanging out with friends and compete in nonlethal challenges. On top of that, sharp-sighted fans have already noticed the iconic Devourer’s skeleton from Season 9 on the Papaya’s image, which is a nice throwback.
The new peaceful mode is not something completely original for the game, though. Fortnite is being often referred to as a social network of sorts serving as a communication platform, which has become even more obvious during the current global situation. Moreover, the recent Travis Scott concert attracted a whopping 12.3 million concurrent players, which is a huge achievement for a game that usually concentrates on combat.
Party Royale looks like a confident leap forward in terms of offering a native option for social interaction. Fortnite is great for keeping friendships alive and staying in touch, and for some people who do not necessarily enjoy non-stop combat, the new mode could be greatly appreciated. That being said, there’s no specific timing on when Party Royale will officially premiere. However, the inclusion of files and descriptions in the latest patch indicates that fans won’t have to wait long for the proper reveal.
Source: ShiinaBR/Twitter
Key Release Dates
Ubisoft is teasing the next entry in the Assassin’s Creed franchise right now on Twitch . There have been a number of rumors about the newest Assassin’s Creed game for a while now, with man [...]
Popular retro FPS title Ion Fury tapped into the old-school charm of Duke Nukem-inspired gameplay and graphics, and is now bringing its brand of classic gameplay to consoles. Released in August 2019, Ion Fury was met with rave reviews and was praised for its adherence to a modern-day interpretation of the 1990s-style FPS genre.
At launch, Ion Fury was a PC exclusive, but players were expecting the game to migrate to home consoles sooner or later. The game is built on the ancient Build engine, which was cutting-edge in the mid-1990s, but shouldn’t be particularly stressful on modern machines. Now, after a couple of unfortunate controversies involving the band Iron Maiden and an uncool message left hidden within the levels, the game formerly known as Ion Maiden is coming to Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One.
In a new trailer touting the game’s numerous accolades, developer Voidpoint and publisher 3D Realms announced that Ion Fury is coming to consoles in a staggered release pattern. Digital versions of the game can be purchased and downloaded on May 14, while a limited edition physical version will release on June 26.
While more video games are being purchased digitally, many players still have a strong desire for physical media. For Ion Fury, the limited quantities of physical editions is something that will likely make them collector’s items, especially since retro and nostalgia-based gameplay often targets demographics heavy with collector mindsets already. Consoles are often a strong home for this kind of gameplay, too, with Doom even coming to Switch thanks to the portability of retro-style shooters.
Retro shooters are hot right now. After years of dealing with regenerating health, cover-based mechanics, and realistic weaponry, audiences are ready for a return to the old-timey nature of games like Duke Nukem 3D and Doom, with their huge guns, silly humor, buckets of gore, and dedication to non-stop wall-to-wall action. One of the biggest games of April was Doom Eternal, a game similar in its themes to Ion Fury, though Doom Eternal eschews the retro graphicsfor a more cutting-edge 3D aesthetic. In fact, the other biggest games of the month are also retro-themed, if not in the same way as Doom and Ion Fury; Resident Evil 3 and Final Fantasy VII are both remakes of classic PlayStation titles from the late 1990s, updated with modern visuals and completely rebooted gameplay systems.
Source: 1C Entertainment
A Bloodborne modder got the game running at 60 FPS, and the results are awkward, to say the least. While Bloodborne is regarded as one of the greatest PlayStation 4 games ever made, graphics enthusiasts are disappointed that the game doesn’t run at 60 FPS, instead remaining locked at 30, even on PS4 Pro.
The PS4-exclusive title from the legendary developers at From Software helped introduced the Souls sub-genre to an even wider audience. Set in a Gothic fantasy world full of horrific monsters and deliciously disgusting gore effects, Bloodborne impressed and appealed to a key demographic in consumers that hadn’t been familiar with the Souls series previously. Bloodborne is blisteringly difficult but rewarding in its loop of teaching the player through failure so they can emerge victorious after a glorious struggle.
Popular YouTuber Lance McDonald created a patch for Bloodborne, tricking the game into running at a higher frame rate, which he posted on Twitter. While the results look promising at first glance, it’s quickly obvious why a 60 FPS mode was never implemented into Bloodborne: animations are tied to frame rate, so losing the 30 FPS cap causes the game to run in fast-forward like a Benny Hill Yakety Sax comedy routine.
I patched Bloodborne to run at 60fps. It works alright (about as good as the Dark Souls 3 PS4 Pro patch does) except for the fact that the game doesn’t have proper timing and the entire game basically runs in fast-forward. This is running on a base PS4. pic.twitter.com/vfdjjWxpp5
— Lance McDonald (@manfightdragon) April 28, 2020
Some video games are designed in such a way that uncapping the frame rate is as simple as flipping a switch. However, when animations are tied to the FPS, it’s a whole other matter. When Kingdom Hearts 1.5 + 2.5 HD Remix was released for PS4, the frame rate was boosted from 30 to 60 FPS, and several animations were impacted by the change, running at double their intended speed before subsequent patches improved the situation.
The upcoming PlayStation 5 console is expected to feature backwards compatibility with a great many PlayStation 4 games. Many fans are hoping older titles will be able to take advantage of the high-end specs of the PS5 to boost the frame rate and resolution of their favorite classic games. For games with uncapped frame rates that fluctuate between 30 and 60 (like From Software’s own Dark Souls 3, which was patched to include the high frame rate option on PS4 Pro), this should work properly. However, for games with established 30 FPS caps, the developer will have to issue a specific patch to unlock the frame rate beyond its 30 FPS limit. In the case of Bloodborne – and the numerous other games whose animations are tied to a specific 30 FPS frame rate – it will take significant work from developers to get 60 FPS working properly on PS5.
Source: Lance McDonald/YouTube
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