Playback.dem

Welcome to another entry of our mini-feature on Frag-Net, where we try to have a round up of interesting news on the community along with a status report on our gaming network.

Frag-Net Status Report

Happy early summer! Hope the heat isn’t too bad where you are.

First up let’s address the delay for this month’s entry! Off screen, we are in the midst of a giant move, plus had tickets to a convention.

Calendars

There was a very minor hiccup that lead to a very big mistake. Turns out we had not been properly uploading the 2024 Gaming calendar! This giant oversight has been fixed. We apologize to anyone who was using this calendar to not miss the “non-E3” season.

ETC

We always have something cooking behind the scenes, but sadly as mentioned above, life events and other obligations got in the way. We hope to give you an exciting summer of new content however!

Our interview article teased a couple months back is nearly finished, so expect that in June! In addition, our staff eukara and Xylemon got to release some articles they penned a while back.

Enjoy the features and stay cool!

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 May 2024 that you should be aware of, list is oldest to newest:

• Hades II Early Access

• Microsoft Closes Multiple Studios

• AC Shadows in November

• GTA 6 in Autumn 2025

• Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II Released

• XDefiant Preseason Launches

• Uvalde Families Sue Activision

• No Bequeathing Steam Libraries

• F1 24 Races Out

• Valve TMs DEADLOCK

The anticipated Hades II goes Early Access, Microsoft extinguishes multiple studios, we learn the same lesson again that copyright laws and digital ownership need massive reform, Sony goes crazy with Helldivers 2 (read below), and GTA 6 gets a release date. Another crazy month in these crazy times.

Valve Working On New Game, “DEADLOCK”

There has been rumors and leaks of a new Valve game title DEADLOCK, with a US Trademark filing being the latest indication this game is the real deal. It’s supposedly a 6v6 multiplayer third person shooter, but that’s all we know. Let’s just say here at Frag-Net, we can confirm we have heard from people around us there is a semi-private beta test going around, so ask around for an invite but you didn’t hear it from us!

Or just watch the 90+ leaked videos…

Thanks to Blue’s News

RIOT Games’ Kernel Anti-Cheat Causes Mayhem

In another sad tale of perverse anti-cheat methods, players of League of Legends were in uproar over the new kernel level rootkit, sorry we meant “anti-cheat”, called Vanguard. A supposedly small but vocal minority made allegations that Riot had bricked their PCs while many more had matchmaking difficulties and so on. Riot went into full damage control mode, posting a Reddit megathread and then a follow-up post:

Overall, the rollout has gone well and we’re already seeing Vanguard functioning as intended. We’ve already seen a hard drop off of bot accounts in the usual places, and we will continue to monitor this.

Since 14.9 went live, fewer than 0.03% of players have reported issues with Vanguard. In most cases, these are common error codes such as VAN codes 128, 152, 1067, -81, 9001, or 68 that are easily solved through player support or troubleshooting, and account for the vast majority of issues we are seeing. There are also a few trickier situations that have popped up that we’re actively looking into; driver incompatibilities for example. If you’re running into issues like this please contact Player Support.

As Blue’s News stated following these posts:

If their claim of 125 million active users is accurate, that’s still a whopping 37,500 players suffering from problems caused by a rootkit being installed by a free-to-play game.

Perhaps the real cheaters are companies who force rootkits onto our systems.

Thanks to Blue’s News

Microsoft Closes Multiple Bethesda Studios

Microsoft in traditional “embrace, extend, extinguish” fashion has closed mutliple studios under Bethesda, who Microsoft purchased a couple years back. Blue shared the scope from IGN which had a list of studios affected:

Arkane Austin – This studio will close with some members of the team joining other studios to work on projects across Bethesda. Arkane Austin has a history of making impactful and innovative games and it is a pedigree that everyone should be proud of. Redfall’s previous update will be its last as we end all development on the game. The game and its servers will remain online for players to enjoy and we will provide make-good offers to players who purchased the Hero DLC.

Alpha Dog Studios – This studio will also close. We appreciate the team’s creativity in bringing Doom to new players. Mighty Doom will be sunset on August 7 and we will be turning off the ability for players to make any purchases in the game.

Tango Gameworks – Tango Gameworks will also close. We are thankful for their contributions to Bethesda and players around the world. Hi-Fi Rush will continue to be available to players on the platforms it is today.

Roundhouse Games – The team at Roundhouse Games will be joining ZeniMax Online Studios (ZOS). Roundhouse has played a key role in many of our recent game launches and bringing them into ZOS to work on The Elder Scrolls Online will mean we can do even more to grow the world that millions of players call home.

With this consolidation of our Bethesda studio teams, so that we can invest more deeply in our portfolio of games and new IP, a small number of roles across select Bethesda publishing and corporate teams will also be eliminated.

This is the result of a recently annouced plan to cut 1,900 jobs as IGN also notes:

Layoffs are sweeping the video game industry, with a number of high-profile studios cutting staff or shutting down. In stark contrast to a year of blockbuster video game hits, one of the biggest ongoing industry trends in 2023 was the prevalence of mass layoffs, and they have continued into 2024. While actual figures are difficult to obtain, estimates suggest the number of workers laid off in games last year approached or exceeded 10,000. A recent GDC survey of developers suggests one-third of all game developers were impacted by layoffs last year, either directly or by witnessing them happen at their company.

Sure feels like because of those new-fangled language models being on Microsoft’s mind lately, something else had to give. Sure hope that won’t bite them in the ass…

We wish for the best for all those who were laid off, it’s been an incredibly rough time in the industry.

Thanks to Blue’s News

HELLDIVERS 2 Goes to Hell and Back

HELLDIVERS 2 released earlier this year earlier this year with the PC port being a huge success. However, it seems everyone but Sony was unhappy about this. If having a service like Steam wasn’t already cumbersome enough, a patch came out at the start of May forcing a PSN account requirement to play the game.

This did not go well to say the least. Review bombs occurred (with over 200,000+ negative reviews at one point). And this even resulted in a community manager getting fired for their alleged role in the review bombings. Then the community created a petition to get them rehired.

Sony eventually backed down on the PSN requirement, but the game was delisted and remained so in more than 100 territories over this whole fiasco. Near the end of the month, there was even a new CEO at Arrowhead Studios and there was a huge player count drop.

Perhaps this will have greater consequences on the industry going forward with requiring accounts and alternative launchers, but we shall see.

Thanks to Blue’s News

Nightdive Breaks Promise on Ports Despite Reaching Funding Goals

Nightdive posted a Kickstarter update that addresses some questions:

Is System Shock still coming to MacOS and Linux?

Unfortunately no, plans for MacOS and Linux releases of System Shock have been shelved.

This is incredibly disappointing, especially because they made their funding goals. Let’s be clear, incentivizing people to give you cash for a port then not doing it is bad. Sadly it’s not the first time that crowd-funding goals become broken promises. Some of us here at Frag-Net were burned with Killing Floor 2 doing the same exact thing.

While you can play the game with Proton (probably) it sends a message of a company that does not value its customers and long-time supporters. We hope Nightdive will reconsider in the future.

Thanks to GamingOnLinux

Gaming News: Community

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

Mod Appreciation Week (May 26th - 31st)

For the 9th year in a row, ModDB celebrates the Mod Appreciate Week, where users are encouraged to share their favorite mods while sporting the hashtag, “#modlove2024”. You can also be picked at random chance to receive a free game. While that is great and all, we say you should just share a mod you love for just the sake of it. Go revisit and play an old classic or something new, there’s an almost endless supply of great mods out there!

FixTF2 aka SaveTF2 Deluxe

The Team Fortress 2 Community is launching another campagin to get Valve to address the issues that have been plaguing TF2 for the past few years now (which is sad as TF2 player to say). A petition is even hosted on the site with over 200,000 signatures at the time of writing. An event happened on June 3rd bearing the familiar hashtag, #fixtf2. It’s unknown how Valve will react, if they even will. Here’s a blurb from the site:

Team Fortress 2 is a game that has stood the test of time for almost 17 years. It’s still beloved by millions as one of the greatest video games of all time. This makes it all the more shameful that Valve has refused to take substantive measures to eliminate this botting crisis.

It is wholly unacceptable to let such a beloved IP get ravaged by nefarious actors intent on destroying the game adored by so many.

TF2 doesn’t need new content updates, it doesn’t need new microtransactions, it doesn’t need new weapon additions. What TF2 needs is a solution to the bot crisis.

Enough is enough.

You can sign the petition here.

Thanks to Blue’s News for the story

DNF 2001 Mod: Countdown to Destruction Releases

The community that has embraced a leaked prototype of Duke Nukem Forever has produced a set of updated levels. Specifically the ‘Lake Mead’ chapter. A total of 3 updated levels are available.

Check out the mod here

Vogons User Creates Voodoo 4 FGPA for Laptops

User sdz on the vogons forum has created a homebrew clone of the Voodoo 4 for use in laptops. There never were any official 3dfx Voodoo powered laptops, so this is cool on many different layers. Utilizing FPGA technology, custom PCB and other regular off the shelf components.

View the original thread here.

SourceWorld for Half-Life 2 Announces Upcomming Demo & Release New Media

This relatively young HL2 mod has released a lengthy news post announcing that there will be a demo, but no release has been set. The post also highlights screenshots of the “Inter-Dimensional Travel Device”, along with new models, a custom Objectives System, Experience Points, and even a custom “save” system. SourceWorld is a self described “ambitious project” that is centered around procedurally generated levels and “Multiverse and inter-dimensional travel” being developed by the two person Bronco Development team.

Read all about it here!

Round ’Em Up

And here’s a bunch more new we couldn’t fit but felt was worth sharing! Was a big one this month!

April Leftovers

• Half-Life 2 Mod: The Thing Redux releases An official update for on of the first ever Half-Life 2 mods, or more specifically, Half-Life 2 leak.

• ‘Marketing’s dead, and I can back this s**t up’ says Larian’s Michael Douse

Releases

Big or small, we track them all.

• Realm of Ink Enter Early Access

• Seal: WHAT the FUN Early Access [src]

• The Braves [src]

• Wine 9.8, 9.9, and 9.10 ARM, Mono, DPI improvements, good stuff all around

• Hades II Early Access

• Stellaris The Machine Age

• SteamVR 2.5 [src]

• V Rising Exits Early Access

• Europa Universalis IV: Winds of Change Released

• PAC-MAN Mega Tunnel Battle: Chomp Champs

• ANIMAL WELL

• Necrophosis Demo

• The Land Beneath Us

• SAMURAI WARRIORS 4 DX Launches

• VOIN Demo Blue reminds us of the old school Voin Quake :p

• Athenian Rhapsody

• ROBOBEAT

• MULLET MADJACK

• Men of War II Native on Linux day one!

• Die By The Blade

• PC Ghost of Tsushima DIRECTOR’S CUT

• Morbid: The Lords of Ire

• Aarik And The Ruined Kingdom Demo

• Seablip Early Access

• Close Combat 1-5 Rereleased

• Star Wars: Empire at War mod “Republic at War” “Call to Arms” Update

• Yolk Heroes: A Long Tamago

• Paper Trail

• Enotria: The Last Song Demo

• Venture to the Vile

• The Fate of Baldr

• Union of Gnomes: Prologue

• Star Trek: Resurgence and Demo on Steam

• The Detective Reaper Invites

• MOD: LIGHTFOOT for GZDoom

• Rack and Slay

• Ultimate Godspeed

• The Rogue Prince of Persia Early Access

• War of Wheels Demo

• Werewolf: The Apocalypse — Purgatory Demo

• Tavern Keeper Announced

• My Time at Sandrock - Monster Whisperer

• Reus 2

• VoxeLibre (formerly MineClone2) v0.87

• Zelda 64: Recompiled, the Majora’s Mask PC port v1.1

• Old World Behind the Throne

• RIPOUT

• MultiVersus

• Pizza Bandit Alpha Test

• Vkd3d 1.12

• Necro Story Demo

• Slayaway Camp 2 Demo

• MOD: Half-Life 2 Rebalanced!

• Lesson Learned

• Taora: Survival Early Access

• Cowboy 3030 Early Access

• Quest Master Early Access

• Starstruck Vagabond

• Capes

• Infinite Mana

• Astor: Blade of the Monolith

• Selaco in Early Access Shoutout to our friend who worked on the game!

• Path of Exile 2 Early Access This Year

• Trans-Siberian Railway Simulator Early Access

• Mutant Football League 2 Early Access

• Soulmask Early Access

• F1 24

• MOD: Deus Ex: Nihilum - 20th Anniversary Update

• MOD: Wolfenstein 3D - Definitive Edition DEMO

Announcements

• Dawn of Defiance

• Akimbot

• DayZ Frostline

• New Jurassic World Game

• Microsoft announces the Proteus Controller, a gamepad for Xbox gamers with disabilities

• Second Sun

• Sanctua

• Permafrost

• Screw Drivers

• Arsene Lupin – Once a Thief

• Terraria: The Board Game live on Kickstarter - goal met almost instantly

• Helix: Descent N Ascent

• Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory’s 21st Anniversary Celebrated with Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory Single-Player & Cooperative 2.0 and RealRTCW 5.0 Teased

• DYNASTY WARRIORS: ORIGINS

• (18+) Nymphomaniac - Sex Addict Geez they let anything on game stores these days

• HYPERFANTASY Mimesis Announced Despite the title, this one’s not porn

• MOD: SCP - Containment Breach Ultimate Edition (Reborn) v1.3 Update

Delays

• The Rogue Prince of Persia Delayed

• Life by You Delayed Again

• Little Nightmares III Delayed

Cancellations

• Redfall Development Ends; Hero Pass Upgrade Cancelled

• Remedy Cancels Codename Kestrel [src]

• Ubisoft Financials: The Division Heartland Cancelled

Events

• Team Fortress 2 4v4 PASS Time Draft Cup [src]

Rumors

• Arkane Austin Was Working on a Big Redfall Update for May Before Microsoft Ditched the Game and Closed the Studio [src]

• New Call of Duty leak suggests you’ll be seeing Ghosts in 2026 [src]

• Capcom rumored to be working on a remake of the first Resident Evil game on the REX Engine [src]

• Red Dead Redemption May Finally Launch on PC, 14 Years After Its Original Release [src]

• Microsoft Reportedly Readies $16 Billion Bid to Acquire Valve [src] We don’t really think this has any weight but… cute.

• DOOM: The Dark Ages to be Revealed at Xbox Games Showcase - Insider Gaming [src]

Stories

• ESA Once Again Comes Out Against Video Game Preservation Efforts [src]

• Deus Ex creator Warren Spector has “literally dumpster dived” to help with game preservation [src]

• B.C. program uses video game Minecraft to help children process grief [src]

• Supreme Court decides not to block Texas law that age-gates porn websites [src] We learned nothing from The New Order.

• Somehow This $10,000 Flame-Thrower Robot Dog Is Completely Legal in 48 States [src] We really learned nothing from The New Order…

• Intercept of Kerbal Space Program 2 fame and Roll7 Closures Confirmed

• Nintendo DMCA nukes 8,535 GitHub copies of Switch emulator yuzu If it was any other company that did this…

• Knuckles’ Sets Record for Paramount+ Original Series [src]

• Nvidia streamlines GeForce Now install process on Steam Deck [src]

• Microsoft plans to lock down Windows DNS like never before. Here’s how. [src]

• Unity’s New CEO Nets Millions Months After Layoffs and Scandals. [src]

• https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2024/05/uk-government-replies-to-petition-about-requiring-publishers-to-keep-games-working Tsk tsk.

• Valve graphics dev gets Gamescope working on NVK with Explicit Sync

• QuakeCon 2024 in August; Ticket Sales This Month We wish we could attend, maybe next year.

• RIP ‘Red vs. Blue.’ Machinima Is Gone—but Its Legacy Is Everywhere [src]

• Steam review bombing is gaming’s most powerful method of protest- 3 takeaways from Helldivers 2’s weekend meltdown [src]

• PlayStation Remote Play for Steam Deck app chiaki4deck testing easier connections

• May’s PlayStation Plus Essentials List [src]

• Nintendo Switch-era profit beats previous 35 years of profit combined [src] And the roach survived the dinosaurs, pests find a way.

• Destiny 2 Expansion Open Access Month Begins

• EA Financials: Dragon Age Dreadwolf by Next March?

• Remembering Prey (2017), Arkane Austin’s masterpiece [src]

• EA CEO says there’s a “real hunger” among developers to use AI to speed up development [src] With comments by people who clearly aren’t developers.

• GUNDAM BREAKER 4 in August

• AMD takes CPU market share from Intel in desktops and servers, but Intel fights back in laptops [src]

• Devolver co-founder says large-scale game dev “crushing under its own weight a little bit” [src]

• New Video Game Hall of Fame Inductees [src]

• Hi-Fi Rush gets reverse review bombed after Microsoft shutters Tango Gameworks [src]

• Xbox president says studio closures were made to keep business ‘healthy for the long term.’ [src]

• Former Dragon Age lead writer David Gaider pours scorn on EA’s AI dreams- ’What they took as excitement was really a veiled wail of despair. [src]

• “Being acquired is a stepping stone to having your studio shut down” Gaming founders and CEOs speak out on the current state of the industry [src] Too right.

• Fallout 4 Gets New Patches

• Bungie’s classic free FPS ‘Marathon’ is now on Steam

• Warner Bros. won’t delist Adult Swim indie games after all, devs say [src]

• EA is looking at putting in-game ads in AAA games — ‘We’ll be very thoughtful as we move into that,’ says CEO [src] We’ve already had ADs, how far are they gonna go?

• Around 30 people laid off in CI Games’ final round of job cuts [src]

• Warhammer 40K Inquisitor - Martyr Offline Mode This Month; New DLC This Year

• Ghost of Tsushima DIRECTOR’S CUT Steam Delistings

• NVIDIA switching to open kernel modules by default in future driver update for Turing+ About damn time.

• Steam Endless Replayability Fest [src]

• New DOOM Trademark Spied

• Canadian game preservation petition [src]

• How Stop Killing Games Ups the Ante in the Fight for Video Game Preservation [src]

• Report: Sexual Misconduct Investigation Conducted at EA, Suspects Named and What They Did Revealed [src]

• Marvel Rivals apologizes for “inappropriate and misleading” contract [src]

• Parents Sue Video Game Makers for Purposely Addicting Their Kids [src]

• Proton Mail still okay with giving PII to cops [src]

• Unofficial PC ports of N64 games could be about to get a lot easier [src]

• Marvel Rivals developer apologies after banning negative reviews [src]

• Internet use is associated with greater wellbeing, global study finds [src]

• Space Engineers Signal Update

• This open source project runs RPG Maker MV/MZ games on Linux

• Ghost of Tsushima single-player only on Steam Deck due to PlayStation Network features

• Tomb Raider TV Series Greenlit

• Epic €1.1m fined for breaking EU consumer law in Netherlands [src]

• AT&T paid bribes to get two major pieces of legislation passed, US gov’t says [src]

• Trailer released for DOOM mod, “Call of DOOM: Tarkov”

• Monkey Island creator Ron Gilbert’s next game is ‘classic Zelda meets Diablo meets Thimbleweed Park’ [src]

• Fallout 4 mods are broken again following update [src]

• 1 In 4 US Teens Say They Play Games On A VR Headset [src]

• AR Glasses Breakthrough Claimed

• Ghost of Tsushima Director’s Cut Declares Crossplay “Beta”

• My whole library is wiped out’- what it means to own movies and TV in the age of streaming services [src] What did we talk about earlier?…

• Assassin’s Creed Shadows in November

• Proton Experimental improves Halo Infinite, Call of Juarez: Gunslinger and more

• Twitter has officially moved to X.com [src] Please start using the Fediverse now, thank you.

• EA SPORTS WRC is adding EA anticheat, breaking another game on Steam Deck / Linux

• Mod Red Alert 3: New Dawn Reveals New Media

• Tesla drops Steam gaming support inside its vehicles [src]

• Redfall Getting Offline Mode in Final Update

• “There will be changes” to Xbox Game Pass when Call of Duty is added, says industry insider [src]

• Why Piracy Fears are Keeping Some Researchers from Accessing the Games They Need [src]

• Surge Engine, the open source Sonic-like game engine (and game) gets upgraded

• Netris is an open-source cloud gaming platform with Stadia-like features using Proton If you’re into that sorta thing.

• If you hadn’t noticed, these 5 disturbing trends prove we’re in the dark age of PC gaming - XDA [src]

• Microsoft Destroyed Arkane Austin but the Studio’s Soul Is Indestructible [src]

• Cafe Owner Simulator Farm DLC

• Larian Opens Warsaw Studio

• China approves 96 new video games in May, with market leaders Tencent, NetEase missing from list

• KINGDOM HEARTS on Steam Next Month

• Gordon Bell, an architect of our digital age, dies at age 89 [src]

• Crime Boss: Rockay City on Steam Next Month

• XDefiant Launch Struggles

• “Gibs is pronounced with a soft ‘g’” - John Romero [src] “This was settled years ago.” - Blue

• Lawmakers say Section 230 repeal will protect children—opponents predict chaos [src]

• Rolling Stone Launches Gaming Section [src]

• Hunt: Showdown “New Era” in August

• Atari Acquires Intellivision A quiet end to an insane chapter.

• Mad Max developer hits back at film director George Miller after criticism. [src]

• Over 90 Deadlock videos have now leaked, but Valve’s still acting like nothing’s happened [src]

• Epic says it’s bringing Fortnite and the Epic Games Store to iOS in the UK next year. [src]

• The ROG Ally X leaks, with twice the battery of the original and way more RAM. [src] The Steam Deck is still a very good deal also.

• Bungie Prevails in Cheating Case

• Steam Deck hits 15,000 games rated Playable and Verified

• Warner Bros. is allegedly “threatening to destroy” a popular YouTube modding channel over Mortal Kombat 1 videos. [src]

• Dark Souls Re-Remastered is Complete [src]

• Larian Studios’ CEO says, “we did have to do a bit of crunch” making Baldur’s Gate [src]

• Rainbow Six Siege Adding Paid Membership

• Another US state repeals law that protected ISPs from municipal competition [src]

• Days of Play 2024 comes to PlayStation Store [src]

• The TikTok ban law will be argued in court this September. [src]

• YouTube is becoming unwatchable for ad block users – thanks to this powerful new crackdown tactic [src] The cat and mouse game between Google and its users keeps going strong.

• Team Fortress 2 Seasonalander Summer 2024 [src]

• Square Enix shutting down two Dragon Quest mobile games [src]

• CD Projekt says it wants to release major games more frequently [src]

• Cyberpunk 2077 Development Officially Ends This singleplayer game “came out” four years ago.

• The World’s Fastest Typist Is 17 Years Old at 300 WPM [src]

• Star Citizen Passes $700M Still no game to show for it, but we’re sure it paid for a very nice boat.

• Call of Duty Boosting Bans

• Activision Prevails in Cheating Lawsuit (Again)

• No Man’s Sky: Adrift Update

• Call of Duty Season 4 Begins

• Garry Newman of Facepunch comments on the Nintendo takedown of Garry’s Mod content We disagree with the authors take, Nintendo abuses Copyright law all the time and the fan content is often fair use.

• Dev of crowdfunded WW1 survival-horror game CONSCRIPT cancels Linux and macOS versions Tsk tsk.

• Mystery malware destroys 600,000 routers from a single ISP during 72-hour span. [src]

• PC God of War Ragnarök Confirmed; Requires PSN I guess Sony didn’t learn their lesson.

• The Witcher 3 REDkit is now available

• Embracer’s Lars Wingefors on the “brutal truth” of the AAA market. [src]

• Federal agency warns critical Linux vulnerability being actively exploited. [src]

• NSA Warns iPhone And Android Users To Turn It Off And On Again [src]

• Windows 11’s new Recall feature has been cracked to run on unsupported hardware [src]

• FCC ends affordable internet program due to lack of funds [src]

All in All

And that’s it! We hope you enjoyed our latest entry in this newish series and have some fun in the sun! Like we said, we’ll make sure June’s Playback.dem won’t be as delayed.

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