One Mass Effect modder has been hard at work to bring first-person mode to the original Mass Effect trilogy. LordEmil1 has pushed out a couple of videos showcasing his work on Mass Effect 2. While first-person mode isn’t functioning properly (yet) in combat, it is working as intended when in conversation with NPCs/companions, walking in the Normandy and on the Citadel, etc. According to LordEmil1, there are plans to bring first-person to both Mass Effect 1 and Mass Effect 3 as well.
EA’s Vice President of Legal Kerry Hopkins has been testifying in front of the United Kingdom’s Digital, Culture, Media & Sport Committee on the issue of microtransactions. When asked about “lootboxes”, Hopkins came up with a new and quite novel name for them: “Surprise mechanics.” “Well, first, we don’t call them lootboxes. We look at them as surprise mechanics…this is something people enjoy. They enjoy surprises.”
Niantic’s next location-based mobile AR game, Harry Potter: Wizards Unite, finally has a release date. Players in the United States and the UK can start playing on June 21st! “Niantic and Warner Bros. have crafted a new type of adventure in the wizarding world — one that I’m excited for, and one I hope can bring a bit of magic to my everyday life.” said Niantic CEO John Hanke.
For the first time in several years, the United States has overtaken China as the largest market for games revenue generation according to NewZoo’s Global Games Market report. This year, the revenue from games in the US will surge nearly 14% to $36.9B while China will fall to second place generating $36.5B. The Chinese market has been hit hard by the 9-month freeze on licensing new games in 2018 that is still being felt well into 2019.
The good folks at UnleashtheGamer.com have sent word about a new infographic they have created that is designed to help gamers find the perfect RPG to play. The information presented has been collected and collated to provide the best options and categories for over 500 RPGs that have been published in the past 40 years.
Asmodee Digital has announced that Gloomhaven will be launching into early access on July 17th. During a recent livestream, devs showed off gameplay for the multiplayer “tactical, RPG and dungeon crawling” experience based on the board game. Two to four players set out in an unforgiving “world of darkness and trials” that requires strategic thinking to succeed. Gloomhaven will feature the same gameplay as the board game and also include a special roguelike mode at a later date.
Kotaku has a new report that Amazon Game Studios has laid off “dozens of developers” and that it has reportedly canceled a number of unannounced games. The news of the layoffs came as the gaming world’s attention was focused on E3 in Los Angeles.
Earlier this week, we wrote about a game called Maneater where players take on the role of a shark. Now we have an MMO in development by Alderon Games called Path of Titans where players take on the role of a dinosaur. Players become one of ten “core dinosaurs in a rich ecosystem filled with complex AI creatures and up to 200 other human players” who are also presumably dinosaurs as well.
Yesterday the Version 1.06 update went live for Mortal Kombat 11. Another minor update the game that focused more on squashing bugs and adding some quality-of-life improvements to the title as opposed to introducing balance changes. This patch most notably added an Easy Krushing Blow option to Training Options, allowing players to bypass the traditional conditional requirements to make it easier to lab out your combos without having to tediously set them up, as you would have to in a real match. Additionally, we have difficulty adjustments and increased rewards for Towers of Time, fixes to The Krypt, new Brutalities are available to be discovered, and bug fixes have been applied to various characters.
Most notably though, aside from Easy Krushing Blows and Erron Black receiving a bullet counter for his rifle, would be that we finally have information on the mysterious Kombat League, which you’ve no doubt seen advertised when battling online. The opening Season, “The Season Of Blood,” will begin on Tuesday, May 18th, the same day Shang Tsung begins his early access period. This will then disable Ranked Sets for the duration of the Season, which have now been reduced to FT2 affairs from the previous FT3 Sets.
You can see the full patch notes below as they were posted from r/MortalKombat, as well as a video from Rooflemonger visually displaying some of the more significant changes. The update is out now for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.
General Gameplay Adjustments
• Move list corrections
• Improvements to AI logic
• Fixed several rare online desync causes
• Fixed minor visual issues related to some Brutalities
• Removed a rare crash that could occur after a Quitality
• Fixed an issue that cause users to lose controller functionality when trying to record an AI command after pausing the game with very specific timing
• Trying to Practice Reset while waiting in a KOTH lobby will no longer sometimes reset twice in a row
• Added an Easy Krushing Blows option to Practice Mode’s Practice Options which will bypass most Krushing Blow’s conditional requirements
• Added Random Hidden option to Practice Mode AI Options’ Playback Recording Slot selection
• Added several new Brutalities for players to discover
• Added Variation info to the pause menu and some multiplayer online loading screens
• Added Kombat League online game mode. Season I (The Season of Blood) starts on June 18th!
• Ranked Sets (only available when a Kombat League season is not active) are now a first to 2 match set
Krypt
• Fixed a rare bug that could cause players to be locked out of the armory after getting the Spear
• Removed the ability to get out of bounds of the environment under certain circumstances
• Removed a rare crash when exploring the Krypt after playing several hours of Towers of Time
• All Skeleton Key Gates will now reward some currency when opened
Towers of Time
• Adjusted the difficulty of some starting towers on some tower platforms
• Added new Boss Fights & rewards
• Added new Tower Platform rewards
Character Specific Adjustments
Baraka
• High and Mid parries now work correctly against War Banner Charge
• Sinister Slice (Jump+Back Punch) no longer has an inconsistent hit region when auto-facing the opponent
Cassie Cage
• When an opponent loses a round to BLB-118 Bitchin’ Bubble, they will no longer continue to play out some animations
• BLB-118 will no longer sometimes lose functionality when the opponent loses a round to Control BLB-118’s Wub Wub Wub or Fun Phaser attacks
Cetrion
• When an opponent loses a round to Ring Of Fire, they will no longer continue to play out some animations
• High and Mid parries now work correctly against Unlimited Potential (Towards+Back Punch, Front Kick, Back Kick)
D’Vorah
• Adjusted Getup Roll Backwards animation to no longer recover slower than intended
Erron Black
• Added an ammo counter showing how many Locked And Loaded Rifle shots are currently available
• When an opponent loses a round to Zaterrean Spit, they will no longer continue to play out some animations
• Swinging Pistol (Jump+Front Punch) no longer has an inconsistent hit region when auto-facing the opponent
• Fixed a rare issue that could cause his Hat to be misaligned after being knocked off when losing a match as a rollback occurred
• Fixed an issue that could cause Dynamite to be misaligned when doing it again immediately after the previous one exploded
• Corrected damage scaling going into the On The Shoot (Back Punch, Front Punch, Back Punch, Front Punch, Back Punch) Krushing Block cinematic which results in it doing 10 less damage
Frost
• Adjusted repel during Throw Escape to eliminate some clipping issues
• When an opponent loses a round to Core Trap, they will no longer continue to play out some animations
• Core Overload amp no longer still occurs after a Krushing Blow cinematic
• Fixed a rare occurrence when hitting an opponent out of a the air at a specific height with Terminal Burrowing (Fatal Blow)
Geras
• High and Mid parries now work correctly against Gauntlet Slam (Down+Front Kick)
Jacqui Briggs
• When an opponent loses a round to Grenade Launcher, they will no longer continue to play out some animations
• Fixed a rare issue that could cause her Shield Generator to be misaligned after being knocked off when losing a match as a rollback occurred
Jade
• Fixed a rare issue that could cause her Staff to be misaligned after being knocked off when losing a match as a rollback occurred
Jax
• Adjusted repel during Throw Escape to eliminate some clipping issues
• Fixed a rare issue that could cause his Thumper to be misaligned after being knocked off when losing a match as a rollback occurred
Johnny Cage
• Adjusted repel during Throw Escape to eliminate some clipping issues
Kabal
• When an opponent loses a round to Gas Blast Amplify, they will no longer continue to play out some animations
• Fixed a rare issue that could cause his Hook Swords to be misaligned after being knocked off when losing a match as a rollback occurred
Kano
• When an opponent loses a round to Magnetic Trap or Molotov Cocktail they will no longer continue to play out some animations
• High and Mid parries now work correctly against Under Kick (Towards+Front Kick)
• Fixed a rare issue that could cause his Shanks to be misaligned after being knocked off when losing a match as a rollback occurred
Kitana
• High and Mid parries now work correctly against Noble Assault (Back Punch, Front Punch, Back Kick, Front Kick, Back Kick)
• Fixed a rare issue that could cause her War Fans to be misaligned after being knocked off when losing a match as a rollback occurred
Kollector
• Adjusted repel during Throw Escape to eliminate some clipping issues
• When an opponent loses a round to Vial Of Sorrow, they will no longer continue to play out some animations
• Fixed a rare issue that could cause his Chained Ball or Satchel to be misaligned after being knocked off when losing a match as a rollback occurred
Kotal Kahn
• When an opponent loses a round to God Ray, they will no longer continue to play out some animations
• High and Mid parries now work correctly against Xolotl (Towards+Front Kick, Back Kick)
• Fixed a visual issue when Kotal was hit by Geras’s Temporal Advantage while transformed during Tecuani Maul & Tecuani Pounce attacks
Kung Lao
• The Great Kung Lao Spiritual Guidance attacks can no longer be parried
• High and Mid parries now work correctly against Twin Kicks (Towards+Back Kick)
• Fixed a bug where Z Hat would not reset some connect in a row Krushing Blow & Brutality conditions
• Mind Of Its Own Brutality from Z Hat once again plays out the full animation
Liu Kang
• Adjusted repel during Throw Escape to eliminate some clipping issues
• Fixed a rare issue that could cause his Nunchaku to be misaligned after being knocked off when losing a match as a rollback occurred
• (Air) Fireball can now be correctly 2in1 cancelled into from a Jump Attack when playing with Alternate Controls enabled
Noob Saibot
• Adjusted repel during Throw Escape to eliminate some clipping issues
• Fixed a rare issue that could cause his Sickle to be misaligned after being knocked off when losing a match as a rollback occurred
Raiden
• When an opponent loses a round to Rolling Thunder, they will no longer continue to play out some animations
Skarlet
• Adjusted repel during Throw Escape to eliminate some clipping issues
• When an opponent loses a round to Red Mist or Blood Ritual, they will no longer continue to play out some animations
Sonya Blade
• (Air) Energy Rings can now be correctly 2in1 cancelled into from a Jump Attack when playing with Alternate Controls enabled
Shao Kahn
• High and Mid parries now work correctly against DIE (Front Punch, Back Punch, Throw) and Last Breath (Towards+Front Kick, Back Kick, Throw)
• Hammer Poke (Jump Front Punch) & Final Strike (Jump Back Punch) now correctly gain additional damage when Dark Priest Buff is active
Kronika
• When an opponent loses a round to Orb of Confusion, they will no longer continue to play out some animations
Lifelike Studios has announced that the first closed beta event for Rogue Heist will take place during specific hours this coming weekend. Interested players are invited to head to the game’s site to sign up for a chance to get in on the action that is said to be like Payday on steroids. One of the game modes in Rogue Heist pits two teams of six against one another to kill, ambush, snipe and steal their way to special packages that need to be collected and protected.
