News

Playback.dem

Welcome to a new 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 Announcements

New on Frag-Net

Not much, we were mostly on vacation.

Gaming News

Game Releases

We’ve had DOOM: The Dark Ages announced. Honestly, when I saw the first couple shots during the Summer Games Fest (more on that later) I expected it to be the much anticipated HeXen reboot. That’s something Phil Spencer would have liked, anyway.

We also got an estimate for the release date of GTA 6 (which is in Autumn 2025). I don’t think we need to mention how anticipated this release is.

Valve trademarked Deadlock (not, not that one. We’ve already gotten access to the playtest and are writing down our thoughts for future reference. Stay tuned?

The Year Without a E3

There was no Gaming Santa this summer. We at Frag-Net are still kind of sadden in a way about how there was no E3 this year. We admit that it was often a subject of ridicule, even amongst ourselves and at times we even wished that E3 would just end already. Well, it’s a tale of be careful what you wish for. Being the first real year without even a sliver of hope of there being an E3 just seems odd. Maybe it will come back some day, but probably not.

It would be neat if there was some kind of community oriented celebration and previews of games, similar to Comic-Con (or Fan Fusion) but you still have the official sponsorship etc. E3 just became too corporate for it’s own good, presentations became outrageous over-produced glorified advertisements instead of conferences talking about what the hardware and line-up would actually be. Yes, we get it’s a consumer show focused on selling a product, but it really did become a mockery at the end.

So yeah, we are sad in a nostalgic way that E3 is gone, but E3 wasn’t E3 for a very long time, and deep down we all knew it. A tradition has been lost, but a new one begins.

Summer Games Fest

Speaking of glorified advertisements, the Summer Games Fest kicked off this month trying to fill in the void left by E3.

Other Events for the Non-E3

In addition to the Summer Games Fest, these other events also happened in what is currently known as “Non-E3”:

06/04 OTK Games Expo @ 12:00 PDT, 2024
06/06 Guerrilla Collective @ 10:00 PDT, 2024
06/07 Access-Ability Showcase @ 08:00 PDT, 2024
06/07 Day of the Devs @ 16:00 PDT, 2024
06/07 Devolver Direct @ 17:00 PDT, 2024
06/08 Wholesome Direct @ 09:00 PDT, 2024
06/08 Future Games Show @ 12:00 PDT, 2024
06/09 Xbox Games Showcase @ 09:00 PDT, 2024
06/09 PC Gaming Show @ 13:00 PDT, 2024
06/12 Black Voices in Gaming @ 12:00 PDT, 2024
06/11 Nintendo Direct (Rumored) @ 07:00 PDT, 2024

Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 Will Require Constant Internet Connection

The official statement:

To deliver the highest-quality visuals while also reducing the game’s overall storage space on your hard drive, Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 will use texture streaming across all game modes. This means you’ll need a continuous internet connection to play any game mode, including Campaign. If you’re on a console, Campaign can be played without a premium subscription service such as Game Pass Core or PlayStation Plus.

The size of these games is a problem waiting to be solved, but streaming of game assets is a future none of us preservationists want to think about.

Gaming News: Community

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

Errant Signal Releases Children of Doom: 1999

Errant Signal reminisces about 1999s hot first-person games. Of course Quake III Arena too. Go play some.

PandaMonium Releases New Video! Sega Rally Championship

If you’ve got almost 5 hours free-time to spare, go watch this incredible celebration, documentary, review of SEGA Rally Championship and its SEGA Saturn version.

Hardware News

MiSTer Clone Updates

If you’ve read our recent Features then you’d know we’re all-in on FPGA technology for all sorts of hardware replication goodness. Soon you can get your hands on a more affordable clone of the DE-10 Nano and build a more budget friendly MiSTer FPGA system.

Sony PlayStation 5 stops advertising 8K capability

From the get go it seemed a bit optimistic, but Sony scrubbed the 8K support claims off their PS5 boxes. I think people are still fine with 1080p anyway… right?

All in All

That’s pretty much it. See you end of July!

Playback.dem

Welcome to a new 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] (https://www.ign.com/articles/microsoft-closes-redfall-developer-arkane-austin-hifi-rush-developer-tango-gameworks-and-more-in-devastating-cuts-at-bethesda) 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!

https://media.moddb.com/images/members/1/1/1/profileevents/modlove2024.jpg Thief: The Black Parade an incredible mod by an industry veteran that won MOTY last year.

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

A new feature was just posted! This time it’s about the future of x86, or rather the fact that it has none. This is going to be one hot topic for some, as many identify x86 as the de-facto PC Gaming platform.

Staff member Marco has some commentary on his own to provide:

“I’ve been hoping for over a decade that we’ll finally see some competition in the laptop space, one that challenges the x86 monopoly. I always envied the battery-life and performance achieved in handhelds, tablets and other portable devices (all without the need for a fan). One of the reasons I started developing FreeCS is because I wanted to migrate away from it and still be able to play my favorite tactical shooter. The only reason we stuck with it, is because quite frankly people were too blinded by compatibility to see the benefits. People also tend to be a lot like electricity, going the path of least resistance - until big corporate shoots itself in the foot big time.
Windows and x86 have been stagnating for a damn long time, but something big needed to come around to force people to re-evaluate the path we’re heading.
Luckily, Apple has shown that the stuff we’re currently using sucks quite hard. I’m sorry, there is no nicer way to put it. Maybe something will finally be done about it.
You should read what this Feature has to say. There’s some cool stuff on the horizon after all.”

You can read the Feature right here.

We have a new Feature to share with you. It’s called Not Just Cheats and is available here.

The new Playback.dem will also be posted shortly. We haven’t forgotten, but it’s been a busy month over here at the site!

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