Category: Games

In a move that is seen as the biggest removal ever in a single day, Apple has deleted some 39,000 mobile games from its Chinese app store, according to Reuters.

The mass removal comes as Apple initiated a year-end crackdown on unlicensed games by Chinese authorities. As a result, including the 39,000 pulled games, the company took down a total of 46,000 apps from the Chinese iOS app store on New Year’s Eve. As cited by Reuters, the research firm Qimai said only 74 of the top 1,500 paid games made it through the purge.

Publishers had until December 31, extended from end-of-July initially, to submit a government-issued license number allowing the use of in-app purchases in their games. The titles affected include the mobile-exclusive Assassin’s Creed Identity and NBA 2K20, according to Qimai. It’s unclear which others games have been removed from the app store.

A law has been in place in China since 2016 that mandated all paid games with in-app purchases must be approved by the country’s National Press and Publication Administration, the government body that approves game releases. Android stores have enforced this law for years, but loopholes on the iOS market let games launch in China without license numbers. Apple warned developers by deleting over 8,000 games in a single week in early July 2020.

Over the years, Grinding Gear Games’ Path of Exile has steadily improved its core hack-and-slash gameplay as it incorporates significant new features that spice up the flow of the game. While the developers are still working on its sequel, Path of Exile 2, the original game isn’t showing any signs of slowing down. As revealed during a livestream, the latest expansion, Echoes of the Atlas, will upgrade the action-RPG’s extensive endgame, and will launch on PC January 15, and for Xbox One and PS4 on January 20.

Just before Grinding Gear Games’ reveal stream, we had a chance to speak with managing director Chris Wilson about Echoes of the Atlas, how it will change the endgame and incorporate gameplay from previous expansions. Along with his thoughts on the state of the game, he also explained how work on Path of Exile 2 has improved the original for the better.

The Echoes of the Atlas expansion features a whole suite of changes coming to the game, which includes rebalances, new endgame content centered on the Atlas of Worlds world map, and new pinnacle boss fights that can open up pathways for more powerful loot. While previous expansions like Harvest, Delve, and Heist was available to all players, the core content from the Echoes of the Atlas expansion is catered more towards high-level players with decked out character builds. The expansion will also add in new passive skill trees that can be unlocked from completing high-end challenges from the new NPC known as the Maven, who appears after clearing bosses on the world map.

Chris Wilson explained the developer’s reasoning for re-examining the endgame, and why the team wanted to give players more freedom in how they want to progress and improve their characters.

“We typically modify aspects of the endgame in a big way at least once per year, we find that that’s a reasonable cadence and things don’t change too much, and it gives players a chance to tackle the new content and master it, and by the time a year comes up, they’re ready for new content,” said Wilson. “What we wanted to achieve with Echoes, both by the Atlas [passive trees] concept and the Watchstones that can be acquired in the Atlas, was to give endgame players more control in what type of content they can get from it.”

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As with previous expansions, Echoes of the Atlas not only has a core focus, but it also features a set of quality-of-life improvements and the start of a new challenge league called the Ritual League. Here is a quick rundown of the expansion key new features, changes, and upgrades based on our impressions.

• Upgraded Atlas Gameplay: The Atlas of Worlds is currently an endgame focused world map that allows players to travel to different areas to explore isolated dungeons clearing monsters, and gathering loot. With the Echoes expansion, endgame level players will modify regions of the map to increase the difficulty and add more rewards. The Atlas expansion adds new Watchstones, items that upgrade the map, that introduce more persistent changes. These new Watchstones from the Echoses expansion can also be traded and crafted for other players. With these new stones and other changes to the map, you can now optimize and alter the Atlas gameplay to your liking.
• Maven’s Challenge And Atlas Passive Skills: The new Maven NPC can be summoned by the player with beacons, allowing you to summon the character to watch your battles. If you complete dungeon runs, she will invite you to her domain to engage in more challenging fights. After you clear fights, you not only get greater rewards, you can also fight the Maven herself. Completing her challenges will give you new skill points to spend in the Atlas passive trees. The skill trees are located on the map, and they can increase drop rates or add the chance for special monsters to appear in specific regions.
• New Maps: The expansion will introduce 11 new maps layouts. What makes these maps different from PoE’s current suite of locations is that they feature dynamic camerawork and more intricate level design. According to Wilson, the developers’ work on Path of Exile 2 influenced the changes map to the current game’s current map designs.
• Reworked Ascendancy Classes: PoE’s ascendancy classes are special subclasses that open up new skills and perks. The Echoes expansion will update four classes–The Slayer, Deadeye, Inquisitor, and Elementalist–with buffs, rebalances, and other upgrades that will make them more defined and viable for longterm play.
• Harvest and Heist gameplay reworked: The farming and stealth action gameplay introduced in the Harvest and Heist expansions respectively are set to be introduced into the core loop of Path of Exile. Both pillars are presently experienced in isolation, but with the new expansion, they will be a part of the story progression and included in the Atlas endgame, presenting them more organically in the experience.

Path of Exile’s next expansion looks to be just the endgame refresher that the hardcore players in the community want to see, and its core content is certainly meaty enough to dive into. Our previous looks at the game’s other expansions made it clear that support for the game is still going strong, and it doesn’t look like that’ll stop any time soon. Echoes is an undoubtedly dense update for the game, yet it feels totally appropriate for a robust and customizable game as Path of Exile.

Facepunch Studios is trying to capitalize on the recent wave of new players that has flocked to its popular game Rust by quickly providing updates and new features. The studio announced that it had enabled Twitch drops, increased its server capacity, added streamer-specific rewards, and more, all via its monthly update.

“We’re expecting to see huge player counts over the coming days, server capacity is something we’re keeping a close eye on and proactively bringing more servers online,” the studio wrote in a post on its official site. “We’re already boosting the official server count by 13 servers preemptively today.”

Rust cracked the 1 million viewer threshold in 2021 thanks to a number of big-time streamers picking the game up. Facepunch enabled Twitch drops for those who are watching streamers play the survival game. A couch, industrial door, and “hobo barrel” can be unlocked for watching eight hours of Rust content on Twitch.

The studio has also added streamer specific rewards for the following people: Auronplay, Jacksepticeye, lilypichu, ludwig, Myth, pokimane, shroud, Sykkuno and xQc. Tune in to these specific channels to receive one of the items below while logged in to your Twitch account.

Other new additions include server save backups, centralized banning, and a complete blueprint wipe. Blueprints let players craft new items and act as the main source of progression in Rust. Wiping the blueprints of all players is a big deal, but Facepunch wants all players to be on the same level now that tech trees have added more structure to the game.

“For the first time in years we are force-wiping blueprints across all rust servers,” the studio wrote. “Due to the recent introduction of tech trees we feel as though this is the right move to get everyone on equal footing once again. Don’t expect another blueprint wipe for a long, long while!”

You can check out more details from the update on the studio’s official site. If you’re looking to play Rust on console, then you might be in luck. The ESRB has published a rating for Rust on Xbox One and PS4, indicating that the game might not be too far away from launch.

Fortnite saw the return of X-4 Stormwing planes with the Operation Snowdown holiday event. Despite that now being over, some of these planes are still available on the map, but a change compared to their original launch has rendered them far less attractive

They no longer have infinite fuel. They, like cars and boats, have to get filled up at a gas station (or with a gas canister) after a short time behind the wheel. One boost in the plane eats nearly a quarter tank of gas.

“I wouldn’t even mind the fueling so much if it was actually possible to land the damn plane at a gas station,” said Redditor NickEggPlant in a thread about the planes. “The plane was actually fuel efficient instead of burning through a full tank in 30 seconds.”

The planes are currently the only way to travel all the way across the map efficiently, but the need for fuel has made them nearly useless after a little time in the air. Players aren’t happy about the change–but this is basically a nerf for the vehicle. Planes were considered overpowered when they were previously added and Epic Games has made them less effective without making them slower or less powerful.

Epic Games added fuel to the game alongside various four-wheel vehicles with the Joy Ride update. Fuel has made sure that vehicles are good for a quick trip across the map, while limiting how effective they are overall. Using the vehicles as Mad Max-esque death machines to fly around the map hunting players requires a lot more planning. You’ll have an empty tank after one fight–which is better than vehicles dominating the final few circles.

Today is the first day of filming our new TV show, “Only Murders in the Building,” in Manhattan. Starring the incredible Selena Gomez and the just okay Martin Short. pic.twitter.com/oLKhfDWUYj

— Steve Martin (@SteveMartinToGo) December 3, 2020