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News

Fan Made Half Life The Borealis Project Puts Valve to Shame

How long has it been since we saw a Half-Life game from Valve? Yet despite overwhelming demand from the community Valve refused to work on it for over a decade. The good news is that the Half-Life community is still alive and thriving. Members of the community started a new Half-Life project under the codename “Borealis.” Fan made Half-Life 2 Episode 3 Project Borealis uses a highly modified Unreal Engine 4. Unlike the traditional Half-Life engine (Source Engine), Unreal Engine 4 is a well-rounded tool.

Project Borealis has been in development for a while but finally, we have gameplay. And let me tell you, Valve needs to take a look at this and higher these guys to develop an official game.

Team Borealis released a five-minute gameplay video from a work-in-progress section. In the level we see Gordon infiltrate a Combine facility. Most of the elements we see in the Half-Life 2 Episode 3 demo are placeholders. What the final product looks like remains unclear. But if it is anywhere close to the demo we don’t mind at all. Of course, we expect improvements instead of a downgrade from this version.

Team Projekt Borealis is currently working to expand the physics system and features such as the Gravity Gun. Anything near the Gravity Gun will see some effects when you fire.

The progress is great, isn’t it? You can actually contribute to the development of Borealis. There are many job openings including Level Design Team Lead Project Manager, Texture Artist, and more.

What Led to the Creation of Fan-Made Half-Life 3?

After over a decade of silence from Valve, something happened. In 2017 a plot synopsis was published on a blog by Half-Life Writer Mark Laidlaw. His plot explained adventures of Gertie Fermont and Alex Vaunt. The plot is widely believed to be an overview of the intended Half-Life 3 story.

Following the post, Half-Life fans demanded Half-Life 2 Episode 3. Valve didn’t listen but Team Borealis did. The team consists of hardcore Half-Life fans who are funding this project out of pocket. Project Borealis has 80 developers on-board since 2017. There is no final release date for the time being.

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News

Shenmue 3 Kickstarter Backlash Just Got Worse, Lawsuit Coming?

Shenmue 3 class action lawsuit might be around the corner. Disgruntled fans are demanding refunds and threatening Ys Net with lawsuits. Ys Net generated millions from its Kickstarter but refuses to honor the contract with its backers. According to recent updates, PC players may not get the promised physical edition. Not only Shenmue 3 is an Epic Games Store exclusive, but it could also be digital only on PC.

Shenmue 3 Kickstarter backers received confirmation emails for Steam and physical versions. But the Epic Games Store deal threw Ys Net’s original plans out the window. Ys Net responded to the criticism earlier and promised to “assess” the situation after E3 wrap up. The post got more heat from the community who at this point only wish for a refund.

We want to make sure that the Backers are aware that we are listening to their concerns. We kindly ask all our fans to have some patience, we are currently at E3 demoing the game and need to get back to our respective offices to assess the situation and together find a way forward to justify the trust you placed in us.

When and if Ys Net responds to fans next time will determine the direction of the ongoing situation. Due to so much backlash, Shenmue 3 could face a lawsuit if backer demands aren’t met.

If enough people come together, which from the looks of it won’t be hard to achieve, a lawsuit is possible. Thousand of comments on Kickstarter demand refunds and cancellation of Epic Store deal. Although Ys Net made significant money from Epic deal, will it be worth upsetting so many fans? We will have to wait and see where this Shenmue 3 backlash leads us.

This is a developing story so we will have more updates for you soon. Shenmue 3 is releasing on PS4, Xbox One, and PC on August 27.

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The Division 2

The Division 2 Dodge City Gunslinger Exotic Holster Quest Guide – How to Get, Exotic Talents

With The Division 2 TU4 rolled out on the live servers, the game now has its first piece of Exotic Gear: a holster called the Dodge City Gunslinger Exotic Holster alongside the new Gunner specialization. It’s a pretty good holster given the fact that it can work with different niche builds. It’s definitely not a must-have holster for every build out there, especially if you’re chasing certain Attributes/Talents, but there are other Exotic Armor pieces on the way (hopefully!).

One important thing to note about the Dodge City Gunslinger Exotic Holster is that you can equip with Liberty Exotic Pistol, making it one of the better holsters for pistol builds. You can also use it to replace holsters with “Fill ‘Er Up” (LMG builds) since you’ll reload both your LMGs faster with the Exotic Holster equipped.

The Division 2 Dodge City Gunslinger Exotic Holster

Before we begin talking about acquiring the Exotic Holster in the game, let’s talk about Talents and Mod Slots available. There are no Attributes on the said holster. The holster comes with three Talents:

 

Talent Effects
Sleight of Hand Requires a Pistol to be equipped.
  • +20% Stability
  • +40% Reload Speed
  • +400% Optimal Range
  • +20 % Revolver Damage
Quick Draw Swapping to your pistol reloads all your weapons.
Perforator
  • Shots fired from your pistol penetrate enemies.
  • Pistol headshot kills grant +20 percent weapon damage and allows your primary and secondary weapons to penetrate enemies for eight seconds This duration is increased to 11 seconds when using a revolver.

 

There are one Utility and two Offensive mod slots. With that out of the way, let’s talk about how to acquire Dodge City Gunslinger Exotic Holster in The Division 2.

How to Unlock?

The first thing that you need to do is to go to Blueprints Vendor in the Base of Operations (near Crafting Station) and purchase a Project called “Holster Intel: Go West… Young Agent”. It should cost you around 10,000 in-game Credits. The said Project requires you to take over the westernmost Control Point called “Riverside Gas Station”. You don’t need to level up the Control Point and can take it over at Level 1 to complete the step.

Once you’re done, you’ll receive the “Fast Leather Belt” component inside the reward cache upstairs. Turn in the Project and get the next one called “The Good, the Bad, and the Evil”. This one requires you to collect three more components which are locked behind Level 4 Control Points belonging to the game’s three main Enemy Factions i.e. Hyenas, True Sons, and Outcasts.

Assemble your squad and take over Level 4 Control Points belonging to each of the aforementioned Enemy Factions. You should be able to see a Named Enemy wearing a cowboy hat in the final wave. The following is a breakdown of which components you can get from these Control Points:

Ornate Leather Holster: Level 4 Hyena Control Point
Oiled Leather Holster: Level 4 Outcasts Control Point
Inverter Leather Holster: Level 4 True Sons Control Point

With a total of four Exotic Pieces in your inventory, return to the Base of Operations and acquire another Project called “Showdown at High Noon Saloon”. To complete this Project, what you need to do is to head over to the southeast of the White House to a bar. However, there’s a little catch. You must show up at the bar a little after 12:00 PM in-game time. You can check the in-game time by opening up the Photo Mode and looking at the bottom-right of the screen.

If you show up the right time, you should be able to see a few Black Tusk guys inside the bar (right next to an Echo collectible). You simply need to eliminate these men followed by another Named Enemy in a cowboy hat to get the final piece called “Holster: Rind”. Once done, return to the Base of Operations to acquire the Exotic Holster blueprint.

In order to craft Dodge City Gunslinger Exotic Holster in The Division 2, you need all the parts that we just acquired, one Providence Holster, and one Petrov Holster. If you don’t want to dismantle your current pieces, you can always craft them at the Crafting Station, provided you’ve required materials.

This is all we’ve in our Division 2 Dodge City Gunslinger Exotic Holster. Now you can work on your pistol builds, Agents!

Categories
News

Call of Duty Modern Warfare Censored? Infinity Ward Shares The Truth

Call of Duty Modern Warfare is censored as reported by many websites. The news sparked a wave of disappointment in the community because fans hoped for an authentic war experience. But rest assured, the reports aren’t true.

Despite pressure from the mainstream media, Infinity Ward will not censor Modern Warfare. Infinity Ward has confirmed there is no censorship in Call of Duty 2019. There will be content cut from the game but not due to censorship. Furthermore, during the course of development, many aspects of the story and gameplay are often put aside. There is nothing to worry about as IW will deliver its true vision.

Addressing the ongoing censorship rumors, Narrative Director Tylor Kurosaki said: “We never would. Those are rumors. Not true.” Tylor confirmed that the only content removed from the game is the one that doesn’t work. Cutting and adding content is a routine practice and part of development.

No censorship is great news for the fans but I doubt mainstream media is too pleased about it. All in all, Call of Duty Modern Warfare isn’t censored. But there is one thing that needs a discussion here. If Modern Warfare is set in the Middle East and adjacent regions, it may end up censored in certain regions including but not limited to the Middle East.

Modern Warfare deals with terrorism and from the looks of the trailer, some parts of it are set in Middle Eastern locations. This region of the world is most affected by terrorism, often allegedly state-sponsored. The worst-case scenario for the new Call of Duty is a complete ban. It won’t be the first time a Call of Duty game feels the ban hammer in the Middle East. Black Ops is one of the games banned from the region.

Call of Duty Modern Warfare is set to release on October 25. The game is releasing on PS4, Xbox One, and PC. For PC gamers the title is available on Blizzard’s client. Modern Warfare is available to pre-order with many incentives.

Categories
Reviews

Anthem Review – The World’s First 0/10

At RespawnFirst we aim to publish quality content and do our best to make sure you are well informed. The purpose of any review is to make sure you know if a product is worth your money. And Anthem is clearly not. After playing the game since release I only need a few paragraphs to review this game. And even that paragraph I will summarize in one sentence for your right now: Anthem is a horrible.

Anthem took 6 years to develop but the final product, even after months of its release is no way near what BioWare promised. Anthem has fundamental issues with its loot system, customization, and progression. The lack of a meaningful story mixed with horrible animations, cut content, and server issues make the game unplayable and highly uninteresting.

There are numerous glitches including a persistent teleportation glitch. You are constantly teleported back to where you started. Prolonged loading screens plague the game.

After months in EA’s Anthem, I wanted to prepare a detailed review discussing every issue, problem, visuals, gameplay, etc. However, I came to the conclusion that Anthem isn’t worth writing about. Anthem is a pure scam and it is about time a class action lawsuit is filed against BioWare. The studio showed a fake demo at E3 and so far the game hasn’t been able to live up to any of what was shown at E3 2017 and E3 2018.

One look at Anthem’s Reddit tells the story of how tired and frustrated fans are. And so are we. After discussing it with the team we have decided to give Anthem exactly what it deserves.

RespawnFirst will give Anthem the world’s first 0/10. It is about time we take a stand against horrible practices and lying to consumers. We are also taking into consideration the famous Kotaku report.

The report revealed internal conflict, politics, and lack of leadership during Anthem development. But the worst part is the “BioWare magic” that pushed the developers to their limits in the final months leading up to release.

Anthem is dying and it should for EA to hopefully realize it needs to do better. We will not be covering Anthem until we and the community feels Anthem is drastically changed for the better.

I hope our readers will stand with us in our decision to give Anthem a 0/10 and refusing to cover it for the foreseeable future.

One thing that needs to be clarified is that the reason we are talking about Anthem months after its release is the fact that we started our website only a week ago after leaving our previous company to pursue something of our own and say what we actually want to say without anyone’s approval. This is one of the first topics that we wanted to cover to send a message to anyone at EA/BioWare who thinks such practices can continue. It’s a humble beginning for us and we appreciate your feedback and support. We hope to deliver the best content possible — Team RespawnFirst

Categories
News

Phil Spencer on PC Gaming: “Our games will be available on Steam”

For the past few years, Microsoft has made efforts to bring Xbox and Windows together. But the most significant step toward the goal came in the form of Xbox Games Pass. Microsoft is bringing Xbox games to PC via Xbox Games Pass.

While that is good news Xbox Game Pass isn’t the only option in the works. PC gamers should look forward to Microsoft games on Steam. According to Head of Xbox Phil Spencer, Microsoft wants to and will bring Xbox games to Steam.

Phil Spencer confirmed the company plans to bring games to Steam but there can be issues. Spencer explained that issues can occur with rights in certain situations. Despite that Microsoft will do its best to bring as many games as possible to Valve’s Steam.

My expectation is that our games will be available on Steam. You can never say ‘always ever’, because then something will happen with rights in certain situations where something might not happen, but we have a really good relationship with the team over there. We go over and talk with Scott Lynch, Erik Johnson and Gabe a lot about the plans we have—it’s a good, healthy conversation. So there’s nothing in our plans that would say there’s a reason we wouldn’t continue to ship our games on Steam, and they’ve been incredibly supportive with us which I appreciate.

Xbox Games Pass is only the first step. Bringing Microsoft games to Steam is the next move. One of the first games to arrive on Steam is Halo: MCC. As far as we know, Xbox Games Pass is its own thing that’s separate from Steam.

But many people love to have their library in one place and Phil Spencer acknowledged that. It would be interesting to see if Xbox Games Pass for PC ever comes to Steam.

Apart from Steam, there are other PC stores online. Epic Games and GOG are two of the leading video game retailers. While Microsoft wants to support both of these platforms there are certain issues.

GOG has some specific rules that they set, as does Epic right now, about what games we can put [on them], what other stores they can be available in.

Spencer commented on Epic Games strategy of buying exclusives. Xbox Head thinks buyers should have the option to buy games they want from wherever they want to. Still, he thinks Tim Sweeney’s strategy is something Epic considers best for both the company and the consumer.

We will know more about Microsoft’s plans and the future of Xbox at next year’s E3. Who knows? We may see Xbox games on Google Stadia.

Source: PC Gamer

Categories
Articles

Uplay Plus Gives The Best Value for Money; Price, Games, Future of Uplay Plus, And More

Uplay Plus is Ubisoft’s very own subscription service. The creator of Assassin’s Creed and The Division is moving into the new era. The service will rival EA’s Access and Origin Premier. Ubisoft announced the service at E3 2019. Interested parties can sign up right now. It gives access to many current and upcoming games from the French video game maker.

The service is exclusive to Windows PC and Google Stadia users. Those on PlayStation and Xbox won’t be able to access it. This decision isn’t surprising. Digital is booming on PC and console players still prefer physical copies. It makes sense to launch Uplay+ on PC first.

But as we head into the next generation of console, we may see Uplay+ on consoles.

  • Uplay Plus Price — The service costs $14.99 a month on PC. Google Stadia users will need to pay extra to play. Will Stadia users need to pay for Uplay Plus as well as Google Stadia? Yet to be confirmed. Ubisoft’s service has over 100 games for the players.
  • Uplay Plus Games — It has over 100 games including The Division 2, Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey, For Honor, Beyond Good and Evil, Rayman Legends, Child of Light. Upcoming games such as Watch Dogs Legion are included.
  • Uplay Plus Release Date — Uplay Plus is releasing on September 19.

Is Uplay+ For You?

Well, do you spend $180 on Uplay every year? Because that’s how much it will cost you. For the Stadia users, the price could be higher if you combine Stadia’s price. But on the other hand, Ubisoft comes with 3-4 amazing new games every year. Each game costs $60 so in that context, the service gives good value considering you will get special editions.

You can not only play new games but older Ubisoft games as well. Upcoming titles like Ghost Recond Breakpoint, next year’s Assassin’s Creed, and others boost value.

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Articles

Sony Said No to Troy Baker as Sir Galahad in The Order 1886

Nolan North and Troy Baker are two of the most talented voice actors. Who wouldn’t want them in their games? Well, there was a time when Sony didn’t. Troy Baker’s casting almost happened for The Order 1886. But for some reason, Sony said no. Ready At Dawn wanted Troy to play Sir Galahad in The Order 1886 but unfortunately, it didn’t happen.

Speaking at the E3 Coliseum Troy Baker revealed what happened.

 

Ready At Dawn and Sony went with Steve West for Sir Galahad. The Hollywood actor/voice actor played “Mike The Bachelor” in “Best Night Ever.” He is also known for playing “Cyrus Albright” in Octopath Traveler.

Troy Baker may come on-board for the sequel to The Order 1886. The first game released during the early days of PS4. While The Order 1886 2 was in the pipeline it never saw the light of day.

According to Ready At Dawn, plans for The Order 1886 2 were in motion even before the release of the first game. The original PS4 exclusive game released with a sequel in mind. In fact, the background and story of The Order 1886 2 characters were already written.

Even before the release of the game, we put a lot of work on the foundations of why each of these characters is who they are, where they came from, what is behind the story.

Not 1886, but what’s behind the story. We asked ‘Where did it start? Where is it going’?

There is a lot of story that was already written, because we felt, again, writing a game and just kind of isolating it to just the story that it would’ve been was not enough for us.

The critical reception of The Order 1886 sealed its fate. Despite fans not seeing any hope for a sequel Ready At Dawn CEO Ru Weerasuriya said “the IP has a future.”

He believes the future is already built into the IP. There is a larger storyline that can be explored at any time. With The Order 1886, the developers explore a micro story within macro lore that keeps going. “It is an IP that is actually bigger than the storylines we have created,” said Ru. The Order 1886 2 is not out of the question. Back in 2015, chief executive Paul Sams also expressed his desire to develop The Order 1886 2.

If The Order 1886 2 ever comes to fruition Troy Baker might be the first choice for Sir Galahad. The sequel of The Order 1886 is without a doubt a PS5 game at this point.

Categories
News

Google Stadia Considering Free Games With Subscriptions

Google Stadia plans to offer free games to its subscribers. According to Google Stadia Vice President Phil Harrison, they are considering free game giveaways to subscribers. Google Stadia is giving away free subscriptions already to those who buy games from Google.

But free subscriptions aren’t as encouraging to consumers as free games. Google has a paid subscription model for Stadia yet if you buy the game from Google you can play it for free. The company didn’t mention how much Stadia games will cost. Still, it is clear that the pricing will be competitive with the industry.

Pricing for digital games is a long-running debate. Should digital games cost less compared to their physical counterparts? Well, fans sure seem to think so. Distribution cost is low while the manufacturing cost is none.

Another interesting aspect of digital games is the lack of discounts. Physical games discounts are normal in the weeks following launch. Why don’t we at least see digital games discounted as fast as physical copies? Ubisoft is a major Google Stadia partner and back in 2015, this question came up to CEO Yves Guillemot. Digital is more reactive than physical but at the same time it doesn’t react as fast on consoles, he said.

Google Stadia internet speed requirements

Hence, why we see more physical sales on consoles compared to PC. It is also why PC games see discounts in the weeks following launch. Meanwhile, digital games cost the same on consoles for months.

Digital is more reactive than what we put in stores, but at the same time, it doesn’t react as fast on consoles than it does on PC. What we can say is that when games are older than one year, digital is a lot more dynamic on console because there are fewer units in stores.

It’s a new business, a new trend, and we think all this will get more in line with time, but for sure, at the moment you see all sorts of prices depending on who is doing a promotion for that specific week. “If you look at the PC [post-release discount] trend, I think you will see that on consoles, but you will have to wait a little bit of time for that to happen with the same speed.

In his interview, Yves suggested that Ubisoft’s digital discount strategy may change in the future. And now, we are 4 years into the future since Yves did the interview. We are seeing the dawn of digital games and streaming platforms like Google Stadia. It is about time publishers reconsider their pricing model for digital games.

Google Stadia subscription pricing model is already confirmed but what we need to know about are the games. How much will Stadia games cost? But the good news is that at least Stadia performance reviews are positive. The lag and latency-free experience has impressed E3.

Still, Google Stadia requirements can’t be met by the majority of the world. Based on Google Stadia requirements we can safely say that it’ll take sometime before streaming is a worldwide thing.

Source: Boogie2988