Gamer’s “News of the Week” (March 8th – March 15th)

 

Bans, Exploits, Fires, Leaks, and Arrests… March’s 2nd week was “harsh” but it also full of tributes and collaboration.

Find out what happened in the world of Gaming between March 8th and 15th.

 

1) Over 5,000 Players Banned for Trading Real Money in Final Fantasy XIV Online

Square Enix banned more than 5,000 players out of Final Fantasy 14 between February 25 and March 3 of 2021. They were caught up paying real money for in-game equipment, PvP rank smurfs, and raid clears, which is prohibited.

Instead, they’re supposed to trade with the official FFXIV currency: the “Gil.”

Real-Money Trading (or RMT, as they call it) isn’t allowed by Square Enix because “Items and Gil obtained illegally through RMT activities can affect the game’s economic stability and can encourage other inappropriate behavior.”

So, while this ban wave only consisted of 5,037 allegedly accounts banned by doing it and other 814 accounts for advertising it, the developers plan to keep the crackdown on.

The advice players who see others trading real-money, to “report by right-clicking the character name in the chat log and selecting the menu [Report] -> [Report RMT Activity].”

Although we all know this well is impossible to dry up. We already know what happens with other MMOs such as WoW and even FFXIV itself: bot scripts can automate most of the forbidden activities with legacy controls.

 

 

2) Outrider’s Demo Users Found a Way to Exploit Legendaries

Fans of the looter-shooter genre will do what they do best: shoot and loot. So, many dedicated players who got a free demo of the upcoming “Outrider” found a way to farm a ton of legendary items before the full game is released.

The exploit worked this way: players selected the “confront the altered at the tower“ story point” at world tier five, so they could open three chests with high stakes of legendaries inside.

This could be done over and over, without having to find enemies along the way.

People Can Fly fought back by removing such legendaries from opening chests. The only way now? To get them directly from enemies.

 

Update Regarding Chests Dropping Legendaries in the Outriders Demo:

Having listened to very reasonable community feedback, we have enabled the Gauss boss chest to drop Legendaries again as we should indeed be rewarding boss runs.

Other chests still cannot drop Legendaries.

— Outriders (@Outriders) March 6, 2021

Of course, patches/changes won’t stop the player base from seeking new farming exploits.

The proof is, there are already a good number of guides out there as “The Best Way to FARM LEGENDARIES After the Outriders Demo Patch/Update!”

 

 

3) Rust Data is Lost After Data Center Fire

Facepunch Studios (developer of Rust) notified a good portion of player’s saved data was permanently lost due to a fire that occurred on their OHV Data Center in Strasbourg, France.

Images of the remaining parts of the building were tweeted by cybersecurity analyst, Kevin Beaumont.

Firefighters got into the scene right away. Over 100 workers and 44 units of equipment were involved and the electricity had to be cut off, but the fire wasn’t extinguished fast enough.

The good news is, no-one was harmed in the incident. The cause is yet to be determined.

And there is no word if this event will affect the launch of the upcoming Console Edition.

 

 

4) LEAKED: Tomb Raider: Definitive Survivor Trilogy

The Microsoft Store seems to have leaked the product page for Tomb Raider: Definitive Survivor Trilogy (Original, Rise of the Tomb Raider, and Shadow of the Tomb Raider) with a promised release date: March 18.

It will also contain all DLC’s launched by Eidos Montreal and Crystal Dynamics since 2013.

For now, it’s known that it will launch on PC, PS4, and Xbox One, but not any other. No new content or next-gen upgrades seems to be added in this compilation.

There’s a high chance that the release of this edition is connected to the series 25th anniversary. They are celebrating the IP through expansion, with 3 new Fortnite skins and an upcoming Netflix animated series.

 

 

5) Now You can Use Stadia and Discord On Your Xbox Console

If you currently have an Xbox One/Series, then you’ll be happy that its web browser can now run Google Stadia, Amazon Luna, and GeForce Now… All in one.

Besides that, you’ll be able to use Discord and Skype to communicate easier while playing.

the latest Xbox Alpha skip ahead build includes the Chromium version of Microsoft Edge pic.twitter.com/C34d59UYuJ

— Tom Warren (@tomwarren) March 6, 2021

This “adapted” Microsoft Edge version inside your Xbox has the same sync engine as your Window’s computer (if you have any), with all of its extensions, tabs, collections, and rest of features. Take into account that only members of the Alpha group can try it right now.

Some that are in, mention that mouse-and-keyboard support needs to be urgently added.

 

 

6) Monster Hunter Board Game Is Here (Gameplay Trailer)

Steamforged Games has announced its board game “Monster Hunter Worlds” on Kickstarter, which it will release on April 20, 2021. This is the new gameplay trailer:

As you can see, the game will feature all kinds of card decks representing the franchise’s weapons. The trailer also shows off the almighty Rathalos. More monsters (from 12 miniatures announced) will be revealed in the following weeks.

These detailed-sculpted figures will be broken into four size categories (from L to XXXL), with the largest being over a foot in height.

Its “Entry Pledge” version costs $70 and will contain four hunters, +600 cards, a double-sided board, and two books: the rulebook and the quests one. Its “Core Pledge” edition at $140 doubles the hunters, books, boards, and includes 5 additional monsters.

At $279, the “All-In” pledge offers all 12 monsters and triples both the hunters and cards.

 

 

7) Bethesda “Here’s the Journey” Tribute to Xbox Acquisition

The Xbox acquisition of Bethesda Software can only be celebrated in one way, and that’s it with a short tribute video, reflecting everything the company (Bethesda) has gone through.

“Here’s the Journey” shows its humble beginnings and salutes everyone in the team.

It also mentions the most and notable IPs the publisher has made, with The Elder Scrolls (TES) among the most remarkable. Clips from Morrowind and Skyrim, as well as Doom, Dishonored, Prey, and others, are included in the video.

According to its Sr. VP of Public Relations and Marketing, Pete Hines, the company will continue to operate in the same way as it was, just with the game collection going to Microsoft’s Game Pass:

First, let me say that we’re not making any landmark announcements or changes right now. 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.

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.

 

8) Warframe Receives its Biggest Update in 8 Years

Rebecca Ford (Live Ops & Community Director at Digital Extremes) announced everything that the Warframe community can expect from its Update 29.10.0 in March.

You can watch below, or read in blog form on the Warframe website.

Not only the cost of Railjack component materials is being reduced, but its ships will also be available to buy on platinum’s marketplace.

More is included here: layouts improvements (more compact), nodes changes, new Railjack mission types (as Volatile, about sabotaging a capital ship from the inside).

This will set the stage for the 30th update (“Call of the Tempestarii”) which Digital Extremes claims will be its biggest and “most dramatic” so far.

 

 

9) Call of Duty Fan and Escaped Convict Returns to Prison After Police Conflict

36 years-old Clint Butler (Former Convict) broke Britain’s quarantine rules to get a copy of Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War. He was confronted by the police before he got it.

The West Midland Police was responsible for publishing the following video online.

Clint, who served a 17-year extender sentence at Buckinghamshire’s Spring Hill open prison for armed robbery, was informed that he’d be investigated for breaking the rules, only after to kick constable Mark Owen in the groin. He was cuffed by two nearby security guards.

While he escaped on November 28, 2020; Butler has been jailed for 19 additional months.

 

 

10) Dota 2 New Tutorial Raises $25,000 On IndieGogo

MOBA-genre games are known for having sometimes-absurd amounts of mechanics which are easy to learn but often overwhelm new players.

This is especially true for Dota 2. Here’s when tutorials should serve its player base at best, but this game has been out for almost 8 years and almost everyone has laughed or been infuriated at its not-so-useful tutorial since its release.

That’s why members of the community decided to raise over $25,000 on IndieGogo to create a decent tutorial for the game.

Fun fact: the “updated” tutorial has as objective, to find a “Stout Shield,” an item removed 3 weeks after the guide was made.

The tutorial will include basic systems for new players (movement, attack, defense, communication) and it plans to release “as soon as possible,” considering its popularity will peak after the Dota: Dragon Blood Netflix anime comes out on March 25.