Playback.dem

Another month, another recap of the news on the Gaming world, community, along with a status report on our gaming network!

Frag-Net Status Report

There was a minor hiccup early in the month, where the master server froze unexpectedly. We made a change to the service so that it peforms a little bit of ‘self-maintenance’ to prevent this from happening.

Gaming News

Blue’s Stories of Note

Here’s what our favorite gaming news site, Blue’s News has listed as the top stories for April 2024 that you should be aware of, list is oldest to newest:

• SEGA Selling Relic
• Take-Two Buys Gearbox
• PC Vigor Next Month
• Larian Studios on Baldur’s Gate III and Two New Game IPs
• Embracer Group Splitting In Three
• Atari Revives Infogrames Brand
• BlizzCon 2024 Cancelled
• Manor Lords Early Access

A jam packed month! BlizzCon is canceled, Gearbox is bought after leaving Embracer who are splitting up into three companies! SEGA has layoffs and is parting ways with Relic while Atari brings back Infogrames, and many new releases. Wow!

The news of SEGA & Gearbox was last month but was included because the news wasn’t in our last Playback.

April Fools

As is tradition in our region of the world, every April 1st is the day of pranks and all sorts of tomfoolery. Blue’s News compiled a great list of the gags you may have missed this year. Check out Part 1 and Part 2 respectively! Here’s some highlights:

• Cardboard DUSK - Official Teaser
• ELDEN RING Expansion
• Dying Light reveals Pocket Zombies
• SEGA - We’re excited to introduce the next innovation in gaming… Cartridge Loadable Content
• Terraria: Undeluxe Edition - Out Now

We were sadly too busy this year for our own prank, but you never know what we will be up to next year… ;)

Accused Farms launches Stop Killing Games

Ross Scott of Accused Farms fame (Freeman’s Mind, Civil Protection) has launched a campaign about video game preservation called, “Stop Killing Games”. Anyone who has followed Scott knows he has been very vocal about this issue in the past, but this is his biggest effort yet at bringing awareness and a way to tackle the problem. This handy website helps give you clear and easy ways of contacting government organizations, signing petitions, and updates on legal actions regarding preservation efforts such as a lawsuit aimed at Ubisoft regarding “The Crew”.

This is an issue we take very much to heart here at Frag-Net. We as archivists ourselves have seen first hand how much has been lost and have been victims of copyright abuse ourselves. Please checkout the site and FAQ for more information and take some time out of your day to help change law. Here’s a snippet from the website:

This site is dedicated to real-world action on ending the practice of publishers destroying videogames they have sold to customers.

An increasing number of videogames are sold as goods, but designed to be completely unplayable for everyone as soon as support ends. The legality of this practice is untested worldwide, and many governments do not have clear laws regarding these actions. It is our goal to have authorities examine this behavior and hopefully end it, as it is an assault on both consumer rights and preservation of media.

Take Action Here

Thanks to Blue’s News and Gaming On Linux

Microsoft Releases MS DOS 4.0 Source Code

Speaking of preservation, Microsoft has given the public the source code to version 4.0 of MS DOS. They did this a few years back with 1.25 / 2.0 but they were under a restrictive license. This time however, they have release 4.0 under MIT, along with re-licensing the other version to MIT as well! While DOS has been heavily studied, reverse engineered, and even rewritten from scratch, it’s still great to have this for preservation efforts. It’s one of those rare times we can actually say, “Thanks Microsoft!”

Grab your copies here.

Wine 9.7 and 9.6 Releases Along with Proton 9

For those non-Windows gamers, Valve partner in crime CodeWeavers have released two new versions of WINE! In case you don’t know, WINE is a layer for Linux and other systems that allows Windows software to run like a native program. Valve also contributes to the project as Proton is powered by it. Here’s the changelog from the releases this month:

• Build system support for ARM64X.
• Some restructuration of the Vulkan driver interface.
• WIDL improvements for ARM support as well as SLTG typelibs.
• Support for advanced AVX features in register contexts.
• More Direct2D effects work.
• Support for RSA OAEP padding in BCrypt.
• Interpreted mode fixes in WIDL.
• Various bug fixes.

See your local operating system’s package manager for installation or checkout WineHQ if you like it the hard way.

For users of Proton

• Previously playable only with Proton Experimental: Sonic Colors: Ultimate, Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2 and Yuri’s Revenge, Command & Conquer Tiberian Sun and Firestorm, Aisling and the Tavern of Elves, Snares of Ruin 2, Insanity’s Blade, Bloody Walls.
• Fixed Proton 9.0 regressions:
  • Overwatch 2 no longer randomly crashes.
  • Video playback in Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition works again.
  • Total War: WARHAMMER II no longer has clicking audio while playing videos.
  • Call of Juarez: Gunslinger no longer crashes on start.
  • Sea of Thieves is able to play videos on Steam Deck.
  • Borderlands GOTY Enhanced is playable again.
  • Mars First Logistics is now able to upload to Steam Workshop.
  • Neverwinter, Star Trek Online and Champions Online are playable again on Nvidia setups.
  • Fixed input issues with Worms Armageddon.
  • Main menu video is looping correctly in Call of Cthulhu.
• Fixed audio in BOOMEROAD, DORONKO WANKO, NOTTOLOT.
• Fixed Civilization V Touch Only option in the launcher not working.
• Improved cutscene desync in Immortals Fenyx Rising.
• Limited number of cores seen by the following games making them playable on a high core count CPUs:
  • Far Cry 2
  • Far Cry 4
  • The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings Enhanced Edition
  • Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light
  • Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine
  • Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II
  • Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II - Chaos Rising
  • Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II - Retribution
  • Outcast - Second Contact
  • Prototype

Round ’Em Up

And here’s a bunch more new we couldn’t fit but felt was worth sharing!

• Linux: A backdoor in xz versions 5.6.0 and 5.6.1 Update your system if you haven’t
• Security pioneer Ross Anderson dies at 67 [src]
• Content Warning Passes 6M Users After Going Free on April Fools Day [src] and Content Warning Sells 1M
• Roblox asks judge to dismiss illegal gambling suit [src]
• The System Shock remake is getting a massive patch [src]
• V Rising Sells 4M
• Gale Sparrow, Ex-Director of Artist Relations at MTV, Dies at 74 [src]
• Lovecraftian Days 2024 on Steam [src]
• Fallout Goes Prime Time
• GOG.com Adds 24 SNK Titles [src]
• Call of Duty Bans 27K Cheaters [src]
• Slay the Spire 2 Revealed [src]
• Ubisoft is stripping people’s licences for The Crew weeks after its shutdown, nearly squandering hopes of fan servers and acting as a stark reminder of how volatile digital ownership is [src]
• Fortnite exec on kids making games: Island Creator Program is 18+ because “this is professional labour” [src]
• Leak Apparently Closes Possibility Space
• Apple Denies Violating Court Order in Epic Suit [src]
• Gamer buys 4,000 copies of Alan Wake, none of them work [src]
• Steam FPS Fest
• Sea of Thieves Sails Past 40 Million Players Ahead of PS5 Launch [src]
• Dwarf Fortress Adventure Mode Beta [src]
• You can now play World of Warcraft in VR - the perfect excuse for your awful DPS [src]
• Dead Island 2 on Steam [src]
• FTC bans noncompete clauses, declares vast majority unenforceable [src]
• EA Shuts Down Dead Space 2 Remake Rumors After Reports Indicate It Was Shelved [src]
• Phantom Fury Released [src]
• 40 Years of Sopwith [src]
• Biden just signed a potential TikTok ban into law. Here’s what happens next [src]
• Suspect charged for cancelling Nintendo Japan events by threatening to ‘kill everyone’ for ‘shitty games.’ [src]
• Valve Closes Advanced Access Refund Loophole [src]
• New slate of lawsuits brings video game addiction to the forefront [src]
• Garry’s Mod announces the removal of Nintendo-related Workshop items at Nintendo’s request [src]
• Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition Released only on Xbox Store
• Team Fortress 2 64bit support released, plus Vulkan for Linux via DXVK [src]
• Veteran LucasArts lead Matthew Shell has passed away [src]
• Remedy’s Codename Condor in Production [src]
• ISPs can charge extra for fast gaming under FCC’s Internet rules, critics say [src]
• F.C.C. Votes to Restore Net Neutrality Rules [src]

Gaming News: Community

And of course we have to highlight what’s been going on in the community!

Fallout London Gets BBC Coverage

The drop of the next-gen update for Fallout 4 has affected the very popular mod “Fallout: London”. It’s an extremely rare occurence that mods are covered by the mainstream press, and to our knowledge there has never been a report on a modification breaking due to software updates.

• Fallout London: ‘Bethesda didn’t tell us about Fallout 4 update’ | BBC News [src]

Battlefield 1918 20th Anniversary Edition Released

Near the end of March the classic WW1 themed Battlefield 1942 mod “Battlefield 1918” has received major updates.

This special update features new maps and a new army, the fearsome Force Publique! Read more here.

Grab a full copy here or upgrade your current version here!

Thanks ModDB

Round ’Em Up

And here’s a bunch more new we couldn’t fit but felt was worth sharing!

• Black Mesa: Blue Shift Interview with HECU Collective
• Team Fortress 2 ozfortress Sixes Autumn ’24 Grand Final [src]
• Half-Life: Enriched - The Good and the Bad
• HL2 Mod Urban ChaosMedia Update
• Company of Heroes: IMMERSION 1944 v1.6 is now online
• HL2 Mod Entropy : Zero - Uprising - 4 YEAR ANNIVERSARY!
• S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Mod Gunslingera ported to OpenXRay Engine
• HL2 Mod Coterminus 2.0 Progress & Media Update
• Battlefield 2 Mod Forgotten Hope 2 Media Update
• Half-Life 2 2002 Edition
• Call of Duty: Rio - Fruits of the First Wave
• The AMC Squad Episode 5 April Update
• Open Galaxy 2.0.0 Released
• CRYSIS WARS - CRYSERV.de CLIENT (v.2.0.1079.0)
• Kaiser X: Promise - Menu Media Update
• Dragon Sector (Remake) v0.65 Is Here!
• Heroic Games Launcher v2.14 has GOG and Amazon fixes, category customization improvements [src]

Thanks ModDB

All in All

And that’s it! We hope you enjoyed our first entry in this new series. Writing these articles will help us document the things that are happening and select info will go right into our game event & anniversary calendars.

If you have any news you think we missed, should share on Frag-Net, suggestions, or even complaints, let us know. You know where to find us!

Happy Fragging