Originally set for release in Spring 2024, D3Publisher has announced today that Earth Defense Force 6 is now set for release in “Summer 2024” for the PS4, PS5 and PC in the West, though with no specific month and day just yet.
In development by SANDLOT, the delay in the game’s release is meant to add “finishing touches” and to also finalize preparations for its Western launch.
If you’re not familiar with the long-running franchise, here’s what the game is all about (via Steam).
About Earth Defense Force 6:
Story:
The year is 2024 AD. Mankind has won the long battle against the unknown invaders. The enemy Primers are now gone and peace has returned to Mother Earth. However, the population has shrunk to 10% and the world was on the verge of collapse. The survivors fought against the remaining threats while trying their best to continue their recovery. Three years passed in the year 2027. In a new world without hope, the time has come to once again resist the fate of the Earth.
Save the future of Earth in the new world.
The identity of the invader that has long tormented Earth is finally revealed. A chain of deep despair that strikes in a devastated world for the first time in the series…But your presence as a soldier of the EDF will lead humanity to the greatest joy. Now you must face it with courage and wisdom.
The largest volume in the history of the series. Supports online co-op play.
The largest number of missions and weapons ever included. All missions support online co-op play for up to four players. Offline co-op play is also available in split-screen mode. Take control of four different soldier classes and fight alongside real EDF members from across the country.
Originally part of D3Publishing’s “Simple” series, the Earth Defense Force franchise debuted in June 2003 in Japan, and has since gained a cult-like following among gamers who dig mindless third-person shooting action, or just, y’know, really hate bugs.
Ultros is a rogue-lite Metroidvania with a colorful soul and a looping core. Balancing the standard tropes of the genre with a whimsical side-dish of gardening supported by some marvelous psychedelic artwork, it’s a solid entry that captures both the eye and the heart of gamers in search for their next grand journey. With some ingenious ideas and a progression system that rewards persistence and attention to detail, this is one to crash-land into without second thoughts.
Loop the Loop
The surreal setting of Ultros will make you forget about most things you’ve witnessed before. The Sarcophagus is a genuinely original and sometimes dazzling alien landscape where you have crash-landed, conveniently home for a demon named Ultros. It’s a bizarre and fairly unique landscape filled with strange lore and twisted creatures big and small, friend and foe, up to your discovery. As you attempt to find your way out, a black hole inevitably sucks you into a loop, and you restart the cycle with bolstered confidence and the reassurance that abilities are now cheaper and consequently easier to get.
That is one of the beautiful things about Ultros. How it seemingly strips you from your progress and puts you back at the start, unsure if you are going to take as long to reach the point you were before, but in all likelihood, you’re going to find new paths. Defeat a boss, known as a Shaman, return to the colossal center room and the loop will restart; however, you may choose to continue exploring for a while longer, maybe attempt to kill another boss, but that’s entirely up to you.
Designing the vast world of Ultros surely wasn’t an easy feat. It’s a maze of huge proportions divided into several sections, many of them technically inaccessible before you unlock some abilities or Extractors – more on this later – and it can seem daunting at times, as you wonder what your next move should be. The map is useful, signaling some of the exits that you have yet to explore, but it’s not enough to convey that sense of security that you are indeed moving in the right path, with a surefire chance of success and return – at least during the first few hours of the 15 or so that it should take you to reach the ending.
To realize that everything ends up making sense is interesting, given the size of The Sarcophagus. You are ready to use your Cortex abilities and the Extractor’s help to unlock that path or reach that ledge you previously couldn’t, cut through plants or fly in designated locations to discover new places. Unless you are really lost and confused at this type of game, there will be a way to find the next place to go.
You start each loop deprived of a mere weapon, which you will find after a short trip. Along the way you can slay aggressive alien organisms and collect parts of four different color-coded categories that you can consume, bloody tentacles and other unidentifiable viscera, ultimately giving you health but also nutrition to explore the Cortex, or in other words, the ability tree. Defeating an enemy by means of repetitive attack patterns will damage the part that drops, resulting in less nutrition; performing varied combos results in a prime quality part, offering more nutrition.
The Cortex is accessible via pods that double as save points. You can eat more parts to reach the nutrition thresholds necessary for each ability, unlocking even more in the process, playing around with the skill tree to see which ones you can get at the time. Extractors are these little sidekicks that grant you the valuable double jump ability and one specific power, such as flying on designated locations or cutting through dense plants. Each loop usually ends with a boss and soon rewards you with a new Extractor.
Kaleidoscopic Platforming
If Ultros wasn’t so colorful, it could pass for a true horror game with underlying hallucinogenic tones; however, the bright palette and the countless details permeating every screen manage to be a feast for the eyes, a brand new world that is as inviting as it is unsettling. Coming from the talented mind and hands of Niklas “El Huervo” Åkerblad, known among gamers for his gruesome Hotline Miami cover art, there is no shortage of things to look at, memorable landmarks or boss encounters, and sometimes all this otherworldly beauty gets under your skin. It’s a gorgeous game, and if it’s at fault in something is that a lot of times the background can be too rich and vivid, too sparkly, so much that you often get confused on what you can hit and what you can’t. Sometimes, they may be static enemies or plants, or maybe they’re just scenery that you pass through without any interaction. This almost seamless blend between foreground and background ends up being one of the game’s shortcomings, as it has an effect on gameplay.
The boss fights are not only exciting but balanced, providing a nice challenge without being of the hair-pulling kind, like some Metroidvania games with Souls-like pretensions are aiming for. The often gruesome and visually stunning design really shines here, an art style that is memorable and rich, a true feast for the eyes until all the blood starts spilling and it ends on a pulpy explosion of viscera.
Platforming is solid, never frustrating, and the levels are filled with secrets and the occasional surprise. You can find some gardens where to plant seeds, with each loop making it grow into beautiful trees and plants, sometimes giving you more items or allowing you to unlock and reach unexpected places. It takes a keen eye to find these garden spots sometimes, but it will be worth it as you reap the rewards on the next loops.
Combat is a progressive affair, starting from the true definition of a blank slate. By unlocking abilities, you are finally starting to discover your potential and chaining moves that reward you not with the traditional useless combo counters, but with the prime parts for you to chew on or use for further Cortex expansion. It’s a loop within a game about looping, and it works.
Not everything about fighting feels perfect, though; aerial kicks and combos don’t feel as accurate as they could be, hitting those pesky flying creatures isn’t a seamless affair, often falling short of getting close to them and landing the kick or slash.
Fight, Kill, Repeat
Ultros is a great Metroidvania that ticks all the required boxes and then some. The magnificent art style deserves even more praise because it’s very original and drenched in dazzling alienesque tones, true eye-candy with no shortage of bloody moments and remarkable bosses, despite some potential confusion between what’s background and what’s not. Platforming and combat are both solid, and while the latter isn’t perfect, there’s enough comfort to enjoy some good slashing and dodging fun, mixed with a hint of gardening and a gripping loop mechanic. The biggest fans of the genre should dive into this cryptic Sarcophagus without hesitating.
Score: 8.5/10
Pros:
A beautiful, colorful, and original alien art style that is also gruesome
Interesting loop mechanic
Nice touch of gardening
Exciting and stunning bosses
Good length
Cons:
Sometimes hard to understand what is background and what isn’t
Visual Concepts has released NBA 2K24 update 1.009, and this preps the game for Season 5 launching on Feb. 23. Alongside this, there’s a a bunch of improvements rolled out, which are listed in the official NBA 2K24 new update patch notes for Feb. 12.
NBA 2K24 Update 1.009 Patch Notes for Feb. 12:
[NEW GEN] :PS5: :XBS:
GENERAL
Preparations for NBA 2K24 Season 5, launching on Friday, February 23, at 8AM PT/11AM ET/4PM GMT. Stay tuned for what we have in store!
The George McGinnis #30 memorial stripe has been added to the Indiana Pacers jerseys
The Dejan Milojević commemorative patch has been added to the Golden State Warriors jerseys
The following players have had general likeness updates or adjustments made:
LaMelo Ball (tattoo update)
Ish Wainright (tattoo update)
Derrick White (default hair update)
CITY/PRO-AM/REC/THEATER/MyCAREER
Various improvements to performance, stability, and visuals have been made to enhance the overall experience in the City and throughout MyCAREER
MyTEAM
Unlimited Weekend Championship celebration updated to prevent a player from the losing team from winning the MVP trophy
Addressed a specific issue preventing shoe cards from appearing on players in Triple Threat Online: Co-Op games
MyNBA/THE W
Resolved a rare hang that could occur in MyNBA Online when simulating past the All-Star Game with the Start Today option turned on
Addressed a hang that could occur in MyWNBA when creating an expansion team and advancing in the season with the Protected Players option turned on
Same as before, once the rewards and other stuff are known, we’ll have an NBA 2K24 Season 5 blowout piece on the site, so stay tuned.
Following yesterday’s server maintenance for Helldivers 2, Arrowhead Game Studios announced that they deployed three “rapid fixes” during the downtime, and explained what’s happening to the server and rewards, and why they’re not fully resolved.
What Where the Fixes Deployed During Server Maintenance Conducted on Feb. 11?
Per Arrowhead CEO Johan Pilestedt, the three rapid fixes were:
Aimed at improving the situation with rewards not often being handed out properly
Log-in issues
Server capacity
Explaining it in technical terms, Pilestedt states their services and partner services have a rate limier that denies connections beyond a volume per minute which is to prevent the entire system from failing. The rate has been increased from 10,000/min to 20,000/min and the total capacity of concurrent players was increased from 250,000 total to 360,000 total. However, this was still not enough as the player count jumped to 360,000 in just after 5 1⁄2 minutes.
Did the Login Issues for Helldivers 2 Got Resolved After the Feb. 11 Maintenance?
Unfortunately, that’s a no. Per Pilestedt, the login issues are still there. If players are seeing the “Failed to connect to server” issue, it means that the maximum number of login requests for that particular minute has been exceeded and/or the servers are full and will require someone to log out before allowing new players in. The increased server capacity should require less retries to get in.
How Come the Helldivers 2 Rewards Issue Still Aren’t Fixed?
As for the rewards issue, Arrowhead states the fix was mitigated but not resolved. Without additional server maintenance, this will not work as intended. For players who are encountering the issue, Arrowhead suggests rebooting teh game to increase the chances of it being reset. This issue is caused by high traffic on the servers leading to rewards not being tracked correctly by the game’s servers.
Pilestedt has apologized for the issues and knows that it is frustrating players, and says they are doing their best to make it right. The studio boss ends the note stating that they will be back again to tackle the issues in a “few hours” after the des have gotten some sleep.
Let’s hope these issues are resolved soon. In other Helldivers 2 news, Arrowhead announced that the game has now crossed over a million sold already and is blowing past sales estimates.
Released back in 2018, Dead Cells not only reached critical acclaim but also commercial success, which saw the game getting support for five long years. Well, it seems that’s coming to an end soon, too, as MotionTwin has confirmed that while the game will still get fixes and whatnot, the Dead Cells new content support is ending with Update 35.
MotionTwin penned a letter to the Dead Cells playerbase to inform them of the game’s future, as Evil Empire, the studio collaborating with MotionTwin for new Dead Cells content, is shifting to another project. MotionTwin also mentions how they want to avoid the “more of the same” trap and to not overextended the game’s welcome.
Update 35 for Dead Cells marks the end of our creative journey on the game. After an incredible 5-year collaboration in bringing additional content to Dead Cells’ live-ops, Evil Empire will be pursuing new adventures and we can’t wait to see what they come up next. This comes after much reflection, especially following the awesome success of the “Return to Castlevania” DLC last year. Our commitment to avoiding the “more of the same” trap and keeping Dead Cells fresh and original has led us to this point; as we’ve seen with other long-running series, it’s crucial not to overextend and risk diminishing the unique charm that makes Dead Cells special to us all. This change explains the recent quiet period on updates, as concluding such a partnership required careful planning to ensure a smooth process for everyone, including the community. As always, we will of course continue to find solutions to make sure that all quality of life issues and bugs are properly fixed across all platforms to provide a worthy experience to all of you.
While mobile gamers will be getting Update 34 “Clean Cut’ sometime this year, MotionTwin also confirmed that Update 35 “The End is Near” can’t be released at the same time as the mobile update, which was the original plan. The studio states they are “all hands on deck” trying to figure out how to release it out into the wild, and more updates about the patch will be delivered in the future.
While there is no sequel announced, MotionTwin did say that they are continuing Dead Cells’ world outside of the original game. There will be development updates on the animated series, the board game, and the Beheaded appearing in another world (yep, crossover confirmed).
This news comes after MotionTwin’s announcement of support promised until 2025! We’re unsure now whether that’s still the case or not, and given Evil Empire’s departure, I suspect this plan — announced last year — is still on the table.
Once we know what Evil Empire is up to, we’ll let our readers know.
Heads up, helldivers! If you can’t log in or seeing issues with matchmaking, it’s not just you, as Arrowhead Game Studios has taken Helldivers 2 down for server maintenance this Feb. 11! Read on for the schedule and info about it.
Helldivers 2 Down for Server Maintenance Schedule and Status for Feb. 11:
Update: Arrowhead announced on their Discord that connecting to the servers should be “much smoother” now.
Of course, having said that, we here at MP1st is aware that some are still having connection issues. We’ll update the article as more info develops.
End time: 9pm CET/12am PST/5am JST/3pm EST/4am HKT
According to Arrowhead, the biggest issues right now is the game not dishing out rewards properly at the end of missions alongside the recurring login failures. Also of note, while the maintenance is pegged to be just for two hours, Arrowhead also shared, “Note that during this maintenance we expect there to be larger disruptions to the servers for a limited period of time.”
This will fix will be applied via a server-side patch, as we are not expecting a client download to be initiated given we just got one yesterday.
If anything changes regarding the schedule downtime, we’ll be sure to let our readers know. In other Helldivers 2 news, the game has now become Sony’s biggest launch on PC beating out God of War. Not only that, but the game is now confirmed to be a sales hit and is “blowing through estimates‘ says Arrowhead.
While Sony hasn’t revealed any sales data for the recently released Helldivers 2, we already know that it’s a massive hit, as the game is now the biggest PlayStation game in terms of playercount at launch, hitting over 100,000 players. However, confirming that Helldvers 2 is a sales hit is Johan Pilestedt, CEO of Arrowhead Game Studios and the Creative Director of the game.
Over on Twitter/X, Pilestedt replied to a user stating that the game is “around a million” right now, but the gap is still very large (in comparison to Palworld’s insane sales numbers).
Well… We are around a million right now, but yes. The gap is still very large.
Hopefully, Sony announces Helldivers 2’s sales sometime this coming week. Even if they don’t, this has been a massive win for Arrowhead, and let’s see if they can continue this momentum. For those looking for what’s incoming for the game, while no roadmap was revealed just yet, Arrowhead did confirm that new enemies, biomes and more are incoming and all for free!
Players Are Liking It Too
Despite its rocky launch and initial player reaction review bombing it on Steam, the overall score rating has been in recovery since some fixes were rolled out. As it stands, the game went from “Mostly ” to “Mostly Positive.” in user reviews, racking up 22,349 as of this moment.
There’s still many issues that the team is hoping to address, but we expect the user rating on Steam, to continue to trend into a positive direction.
Did you contribute to the sales number of Helldivers 2? What do you think of it so far? Sound off in our comments below.
Developer Deep Worlds is aiming high with the indie studio’s upcoming extraction shooter Beautiful Light. While we’ve already gotten some hands-on time with the game, we also managed to sit down with the devs to talk about the on-going project.
Deep Worlds took time off their busy schedule to chat with MP1st, and answering the questions is Eric Rajot, CEO of Deep Worlds.
Beautiful Light Interview With Deep Worlds:
Q: Can you introduce yourself to our readers and explain your role in the development of Beautiful Light?
A: Hello, my name is Eric ‘Aherys’ Rajot. I am the CEO of Deep Worlds and also the main developer behind Beautiful Light. I started this project alone 5 years ago, and for the past year, we have been a team of 15 people working on it. Before Deep Worlds, I was a professional player in Rainbow Six Siege and, even before that, a Gendarme.
Q: For a debut title from an indie studio, Beautiful Light seems like quite the challenge. What made you opt for this task, considering the requirements and the hefty competition in the extraction shooter genre, which isn’t exactly crowded but difficult to break into?
A: Beautiful Light is indeed been a big challenge, but we simply make the game that we would like to play. The difficulty is just a hurdle on the path. I wouldn’t say that breaking into the extraction genre is difficult. If I recall correctly, only one game has failed so far (The Cycle), and that wasn’t really due to it not being able to ‘break into’ the genre, but more because of player retention issues (cheaters). Marauders is doing fine, and Tarkov and Hunt are also in a sweet spot.
Q: What were your main influences for the look and feel of Beautiful Light? I’d say it definitely mixes Escape from Tarkov with S.T.A.L.K.E.R., but did you look up to these games, or was there something else serving as inspiration?
A: There are tons of inspirations for Beautiful Light. I can mention the entire S.C.P universe, S.C.P Secret Laboratory, Death Stranding, F.E.A.R, Metro, Evan Royalty’s short films, ‘Roadside Picnic’ by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky (which inspired Stalker), and many more.
Q: Is the introduction of bots to fill player spots in the works, both Operators and Anomalies, or is this something you aren’t considering for now?
A: The game is split into two very separate parts : PMC, and Player Controlled Anomalies. We don’t plan them to be controlled by bots. However, we have AI anomalies (PvE) which are different types of anomalies than the ones controllable by players.
Q: What about PvE (non-PvP) modes focusing solely on player cooperation, is that under consideration?
A: We’ve considered it, but as you mentioned, the game is already quite a challenge to develop. There is no PvE mode planned. However, as seen in our playtests, you’ll be able to host servers on Beautiful Light (without progression). Some settings will allow you to customize the experience and set an access code for the server. So, even though the game is built for PvP, you can technically play solo or co-op.
Q: What are your thoughts on loot not making it into Beautiful Light? Is this completely out of the question for the future, and what has influenced you to choose this route?
A: Beautiful Light is what we like to call an objective-based extraction shooter. We believe loot-based extraction shooters are too bound to their economy, causing many mid-to-long-term problems to the game loop (essentially forcing wipes to keep the game interesting). We don’t believe this is as much of an issue for objective-based shooters. Objectives add a lot more replayability. However, BL will have some kind of loot, including loot from player bodies, map objectives, and quest-related items. We’ve also recently considered a fourth type of loot, but it’s still a topic of internal discussion. We don’t want players to focus solely on looting every crate on the map.
Q: The goal in the current game mode is to secure an artifact, which you mention “have different properties that can be exploited.” What do you mean by this, and can you describe how it affects gameplay?
A: This specific statement is lore related. However, artifacts will impact gameplay in many different ways depending on their properties. As you may have seen in our trailer, one of the artifacts fell and released an ElectroMagnetic Pulse. I won’t reveal much as it remains a heavily work in progress feature, but players will be able to exploit these properties to their advantage or be negatively affected.
Q: Players can opt to be part of a team of three out of a maximum of six teams or pick the Anomaly side. Can you describe what an Anomaly is their role in a match and maybe give a couple of examples of these?
A: A player-controlled anomaly is basically a monster you’re able to play in-raid while other players are trying to extract an artifact. To play anomaly, you’ll just have to select it before going into matchmaking, you’ll then invade an already started match. Anomalies have two objectives, kill all humans and eat them. Eating them will grant xp to level up the anomaly skill tree. For example, the first anomaly planned for Beautiful light is the Juggernaut, the dog shaped monster seen in our trailer. This anomaly is able to run on all surfaces, walls, ceilings and jumping from trees to trees (Like Alien VS predator). It is also capable of detecting players with high heart rate through walls and can emit screams to elevate the heart rate of nearby players.
Q: With potentially 18 Operators and 6 Anomalies in each match, the latter sporting different movement abilities, how challenging are you finding it to balance such diverse characters and playstyles?
A: Let’s be honest, this is and will be a hell to balance! Anomaly and player count is highly subject to change, especially with new anomalies introduced over time. But the fact anomalies will invade already started match will help us balance the spawn rate of anomalies depending on how many players are still alive, how many trio / duo / solo are on the map or even where they’re located on the map.
Q: You seem to interact a lot with the community and encourage their cooperation and ideas. How has this contributed to the state of the game? Any areas where player involvement was of significant importance so far?
A: Community and content creator playtests are crucial for us, as we don’t have an in-house QA team. Community members are our QA team, which we believe is better because they are our players. For example, we had issues with friendly visibility and teamkills. We initially thought this was due to players needing more time with the game. However, since Beautiful Light is faster-paced than many other games without friendly tags or outlines, we are experimenting with a feature to differentiate allies from enemies using a chemlight attached to allies’ clothing. This maintains immersion while helping identify friend from foe in intense combat.
Q: An Early Access release seems to be scheduled for late 2024, postponed from a previous Q1 2024 release, is this correct? How many maps do you plan on offering for EA and full launch, and can you give us some juicy details on a few of the environments?
A: Yes, the Early Access release is now scheduled for late 2024, though 2025 is also possible. We want to meet player expectations and our own before release. We aim for 3 maps at Early Access (though realistically maybe only 2) and 8 maps at full launch. The next two maps will feature Arctic and Pacific jungle environments.
Q: Do you plan to release Beautiful Light for platforms other than PC?
A: Yes, if Beautiful Light is successful on PC, we plan to release it on PS5 and Xbox Series X/S.
Q: Anything else you would like to share with our readers?
A: Beautiful Light is the very first project of our Studio, Deep Worlds. It’s a dream project for many of us in the team and we hope to release something special. Don’t hesitate to join our Discord where we host (small) community playtests and answer any questions you might have.
Beautiful Light is set for release on PC sometime in 2024.
With servers getting overwhelmed on Helldivers 2’s first day of availability, it was evident the game’s launch was doing good numbers, but I doubt anyone could have guessed that it’d be this big, as the Helldivers 2 concurrent playercount on Steam has managed to break 100,000, making it the most successful launch in PlayStation history for PC!
According to the reliable Steam Charts, Helldivers 2 managed to hit an all-time concurent peak of 119,117 making it the highest in terms of playercount beating God of War on PC which managed to wrangle 73,529 players at its peak. Of course, Helldivers 2 is not only cheaper but also multiplayer-focused, thus making this number skewed somewhat, but a win is a win, right?
Important to note that this is only the playercount on Steam, and I’m guessing the PS5 playercount is even higher given this is a first-party game, and the PlayStation fanbase are usually loyal to new exclusive games released.
This is definitely good news for not only Sony but Arrowhead Game Studios as well. In comparison, the first Helldivers only managed to peak at 6,691 on Steam — which is not even 10 percent of what the sequel managed to achieve. It didn’t help that the first game was released on Steam eight months after the PlayStation version was released.
Will Helldivers 2’s Success Continue?
Hard to say whether a live service game will continue in growth or not, but given the first game’s success and maintaining players years after release, even leading up to the launch of the sequel, we’d wager that Helldivers 2 is in for the long haul. With a big post-launch content push, and players clearly taking to the gameplay and challenge Helldivers 2 offers, don’t be surprised seeing it make more headlines in the coming months.
With Helldivers 2 confirmed to be a live service game, players can expect new enemies, biomes and more to be released in the coming weeks and months, and for free according to the studio.
For those having issues connecting to games and matchmaking, there was a patch deployed on both platforms recently, with another one headed out this coming week, which will improve the matchmaking even more.
Are you one of the 100K Helldivers 2 players on Steam or are you playing on PS5?
Arrowhead Game Studios has released Helldivers 2 update 1.000.004 on PS5, and this is the same patch that was released on PC yesterday. This brings matchmaking improvements, crash fixes and more, though don’t expect everything to be fixed with this patch alone.
Helldivers 2 Update 1.000.004 Patch Notes:
Overview
For this patch, our major areas of focus were:
Resolving crashes.
Improving matchmaking functionality.
Fixes
The following issues have been fixed for this version.
Resolved crashes when pressing ESC to open the menu, or O to open the social tab.
Game no longer crashes after matchmaking.
General improvements to matchmaking.
Resolved crashes after interacting with the Armory before their first dive.
Solved crash-to-desktop when equipping the MP-98 Knight.
Known Issues
These are issues that were either introduced by this patch and are being worked on, or are from a previous version and have not yet been fixed.
According to Game Director Mikael Eriksson, a full matchmaking solution is in the works, but it will take “a few more days” to test and deploy, so expect another patch this coming week on both platforms.
Studio Wildcard has deployed Ark Survival Ascended update 1.034.054 this Feb. 9, and this is to bring back the game to a previous state due to lost items and other issues. For those keeping score, this is the third patch released for the game this week. Read on for the patch notes and announcement from the devs.
Here’s the announcement from Studio Wildcard over on the game’s Discord server:
“We’re rolling back the Official Network to the previous build, which should restore the lost items.
We’ll also be increasing the Evolution Event rates to 3x and in the interim we’ll be iterating on the issue for a future patch.
Thank you for your patience!”
In addition to that, there’s been a change in the PC version as well, and the Xbox version has been brought to parity of the PC version. For convenience’s sake, we’ve included the previous build updates for the PC version leading up to today’s.
Ark Survival Ascended Update v34.56 Patch Notes:
v34.56 – 02/09/2024 – Minor version for servers
Fixed an exploit
Fixed a crash
v34.51 – 02/08/2024 – Minor version for servers
Disabled dino baby tracking as a temp fix for baby tracking crash on consoles.
Fixed some server crashes
For the v34.48 changelog that housed a long list of bug fixes, head on over here.
Once another patch has been released, we’ll be sure to let our readers know.
Arrowhead Game Studios has pushed out the Helldivers 2 update for Feb. 9 on PC (PS5 owners will have to wait a bit), and this brings various fixes related to crashing and more. Note that this doesn’t solve the matchmaking issues, and not every issue has been addressed, but it’s a start.
Helldivers 2 Update for Feb. 9 Patch Notes:
For this patch, our major areas of focus were:
Resolving crashes.
Improving matchmaking functionality.
Fixes
The following issues have been fixed for this version.
Resolved crashes when pressing ESC to open the menu, or O to open the social tab.
Game no longer crashes after matchmaking.
General improvements to matchmaking.
Resolved crashes after interacting with the Armory before their first dive.
Solved crash-to-desktop when equipping the MP-98 Knight.
Known Issues
These are issues that were either introduced by this patch and are being worked on, or are from a previous version and have not yet been fixed.
Players may still experience some instability while matchmaking.
According to Arrowhead, while they’ve managed to improve the matchmaking success rate, they acknowledge it’s not “all the way there yet” and the full solution will take additional days of work before it’s functional. The devs state they noticed it works best if a player joins an active game by searching planets rather than triggering Quickplay.
Those on console, the PS5 patch was originally set to be released today, but it’s taking longer than expected. Once it’s live, we’ll let our readers know.
Games that promise to make players face complex morality questions aren’t uncommon, but the ones involving religion and the devil himself are less prevailing. Indika is going to tackle many ethical standards by putting you on the shoes of a young nun who embarks on a self-discovery journey, with the devil as the companion inside her head. The short demo we could play revealed the potential for ambiguous choices and conflicting paths, supported by many surreal and psychedelic moments capable of making you wonder what is truly going on.
Devil Nun
A story-driven experience at heart set in alternative Russia of the late 19th century, Indika may seem heavy on the religious tones but isn’t doing it as a way of preaching to the player. More of a plot device than a means of passing any moral message, it’s a game where horror and hallucinations go hand in hand with the discovery of the thin line between reality and madness.
The few chapters available to try highlighted the goal of putting characters front and center, as Indika escorts an injured captive to safety. There’s not the greatest context to this part of the journey, somewhat skipping the start of the adventure, but there will be no shortage of trials during this brief period.
Indika’s struggles with the devil are shaped by this voice in her head, her morals often questioned and tempted by the evil one. Exploring derelict villages under a heavy snowstorm is part of the soul-seeking journey, carrying ladders around to reach other places and trying to solve puzzles that seem to offer a nice sense of balance so far. This is a resourceful young nun, capable of climbing and running, a physical prowess that will come in handy when she gets chased by a hell hound in nerve-wracking but apparently overly scripted sequences.
One clever touch was spotted when Indika is on the brink of madness, committing the sin of opening a letter that isn’t addressed to her, making the devil literally tear apart a large room, thrusting the player into an alternate hellish dimension. Praying serves as the glue that brings her back to reality and holds the place together, allowing her to find her path in something of a twisted puzzle room. Switching between the two planes shatters and repairs the room in ways that may allow you to access different platforms, so there’s this need to observe your surroundings and understand where you must go to finally reach the door on the other side. The fiery red palette, the blasting voice of the devil, and the strange chiptune music create this hellish segment that is definitely a haunting one, and contributes to a clever puzzle section that hopefully we’ll see more of in the final version.
Other sections will require some scouring of the environments to realize where we should go. From pushing carts, to solving a resourceful iceberg balance puzzle allowing you to reach higher places, these pieces provide an interesting break from the frequent dialogues.
Chases seem to be a regular gameplay mechanic, at least during the demo, and while exciting, there was a heavy focus on what appeared to be scripted events and predefined paths. For now, there doesn’t seem to exist any room for exploration or improvisation, your only chance of survival being to discover the right path by trial and error, which felt a little underwhelming, and nothing like the excitement brought by the relentless chases of Outlast 2.
Being such a character-driven experience, the contrast between the realistic visuals – although seemingly drenched in steampunk fantasy – and this retro videogame user interface is glaring and somewhat cryptic. The soundtrack ranges from chiptunes to bombastic techno pieces, and there’s no sign of any HUD elements cluttering the screen apart from an experience counter on the top left corner. Yes, this game has a very basic experience system with levels and abilities such as guilt and repentance, mostly about earning more experience points, quite unexpected given that this game couldn’t be farther from your traditional RPG template. This feels so much out of place in Indika, perhaps deliberately so, as to make us wonder what we are actually experiencing while donning the habit of this nun, and something that only the complete journey may end up explaining.
Whispers of the Devil
There’s no denying that Indika strives for a fairly unique setting with an emphasis on the surreal and the moral ambiguity. Some scenes thread a fine line between what’s real and what’s an hallucination, and the death of a ravenous dog creature is as good an example as any to debate on whether they are to blame for their instincts or just acting out of survival, as any human would equally do.
This small taste of the devil’s whispers left us wanting more, yearning to see how this nun is going to fight the sweet talk of this entity who seems to make some very grounded points, ramping up the moral debate. And who isn’t up for a game that makes you reflect on some of the grander controversies in life?
MP1st was given access to a preview build of Indika for our hands-on session. Indika is launching for PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S in Q1 2024.
While there’s been no word on when we’re getting our first Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League client patch, the folks over at Rocksteady Studios has been listening to the concerns of players, and has acknowledged the known issues and what items are being worked on currently.
Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League Known Issues:
ISSUES WITH WORKAROUNDS
These issues are being targeted for future fixes, however in the meantime we have identified workarounds that can be used to bypass them while we investigate. ———————————————–
Steam Players Receive the Error “Not in Argus Database” when trying to Invite other Steam Friends
WORKAROUND: Set matchmaking to “Open to Friends” and use the Steam overlay to invite players to a session.
Grenade gear slot becomes or remains locked after finishing “Don’t Blow It” in Chapter 2
WORKAROUND: Head over to penguin and craft a Grenade while in control of the affected Squad member(s) and then equip them.
Firearm 2 slot becomes locked
WORKAROUND: Head over to penguin and craft a weapon while in control of the affected Squad member(s) and then equip them.
Pre-order / Deluxe / Twitch drops / Luthor Coin are missing or have not been added to an account
We recently implemented some fixes that should reduce the number of players with this issue, however if you are still missing your items we advise you to contact Customer Support.
Losing game progress
WORKAROUND: In some cases, we have observed that this has been caused after players have unlinked their WB Games Account and relinked it to another. Game progress is linked to your WB Games Account, so switching it will cause this. Progress can be reclaimed by logging into the original WB Games Account. Alternatively, if you continue using the same WB Games Account this issue should no longer happen.
ISSUES UNDER INVESTIGATION
Loading into a game session sends you back to the Login screen. We are continuing to fix affected players as we find them. If you are experiencing this issue please report it HERE.
Infinite loading or crashing during singing into WB Services.
NOTE: We have managed to resolve these issues for a portion of players, but we are continuing to investigate further possible causes.
Errors retrieving EULA.
Legendary/Notorious Gear losing their Augments when Overhauling the weapon with Penguin.
Deadshot not animating correctly and/or appearing in the Rival Taunts of other Squad members.
RESOLVED ISSUES AWAITING RELEASE
Players blocked from increasing their Finite Crisis rank or unlocking Mastery levels after playing with a friend that has already progressed beyond Mastery level 30.
NOTE: This can be avoided by playing through the introduction to end-game and completing the Mayhem mission before playing with friends at higher Mastery levels.
Twitch drops not being granted to players.
Ivy is sometimes missing/invisible in cinematics.
Players sometimes being unable to pay to play Incursion missions when playing with friends.
Shield Harvesting Contracts not being tracked.
Voice chat not working when matchmaking in “Open to Public”.
Game crashing during shader optimisation.
Various Achievements not unlocking on certain platforms.
Do note that it doesn’t mean that if it’s not on the list, Rocksteady isn’t working on it.
No word yet on when we’ll get a patch, but I assume it’s sometime soon. Unless Rocksteady is saving it to roll out a massive update come Season 1 in March.
Sony has released yet another sale on the PlayStation Store today, and this is the Weekend Offer! Thankfully, this sale isn’t a massive one like what we usually get, which means it’s way easier to check the list out on what games to buy. H
PlayStation Store “Weekend Offer” Sale List of Games for Feb. 9 – Ends 2/12
Note: Active PlayStation Plus members receive an additional discount per title (percentage varies depending on the item).
Destiny‘s Trials of Osiris weekly PvP mode has returned this Friday with a new map and rewards. If you’re wondering about the current rotation, we’ve got you covered: MP1st’s new Destiny 2Trials of Osiris rewards and map this week February 9, 2024post lists down all that information in full below.
New Destiny 2 Trials of Osiris Rewards This Week February 9, 2024:
Reputation System, Trials Engrams, and Adept Farming
Win individual rounds within each match to gain Trials reputation. The amount of reputation you gain increases with each round you’ve won on your card. Earn enough reputation, and you’ll be able to claim a Trials Engramfrom Saint-14! This engram can be focused into any currently available trials loot you have previously obtained, or it can be taken to Master Rahool for a random Trials drop. Your reputation increases after every match completion, based on the number of round-wins on your card, regardless of the result of that match itself (win or lose, 0-5 or 5-4).
Once you have gone Flawless, keep playing! Every win you achieve while at the 7-win level, even if you lose your Flawless, has a chance to drop bonus Trials Engrams, adept weapons, prisms, and even Ascendant Shards. There is no penalty for losing once you’ve made it to the Lighthouse!
When you’re done, you can cash in your 7-win passage for one additional adept drop, granted you have gone Flawless that week. This resets your card so you can start anew.
Passages
Name
Perk
Cost
Passage of Ferocity
Your third match win grants a bonus win.
1500 Glimmer
Passage of Mercy
Forgives one loss per run. Forgives a second loss if you have not yet been flawless this week.
Xur is back in Destiny this Friday carrying a fresh set of Exotics, Engrams, and Legendary gear that he will sell only in exchange for Legendary Shards. For those who want to know his current hideout and wares, MP1st’s new Destiny 2 Xur location today, February 9, 2024 post details both his location and full inventory until the next Weekly Reset.
New Destiny 2 Xur Location Today February 9, 2024 (And What Xur Is Selling):
Complete Vanguard or Exotic playlist activities, or win matches in Crucible or Gambit. Extra progress is awarded for more challenging activities and for succeeding with clanmates.
Engrams
Name
Description
Cost
Exotic Engram
An engram with a predestined outcome. Contains a new Exotic if any of the possible rewards remain to be collected. Preview contents for possible rewards.
Xûr, Agent of the Nine, is a strange vendor who randomly appears in a Public Sector on one of the Worlds. Xûr sells Exotic equipment and only takes Legendary Shards in exchange for them.
TL;DR: He’s the Santa Claus of Destiny and every weekend is Christmas. Sometimes he brings you what you want, sometimes he brings you coal. Mostly it’s coal.
When does Xûr visit?
Xûr visits every Friday at 17:00 UTC and departs at Weekly Reset (Tuesday 17:00 UTC). If you would like to see all the live conversions of Time Zones, please follow this link here.
It looks like Helldivers 2 is down and having matchmaking issues this Feb. 9, which makes this the second straight day since launch that the game is having server issues.
Helldivers 2 Down and Matchmaking Issues Status for Feb. 9:
Multiple players on the game’s subreddit have reported issues connecting and matchmaking in Helldivers 2.
Outside of the connection issues, Arrowhead Game Studios has revealed the known issues the game is suffering from concurrently.
No update has been issued yet from Arrowhead today, but once we have one, we’ll update the article with the info. While we are having connection issues now, this shouldn’t be a problem in the future. Speaking of which, the studio has promised a slate of new content will be released for the game and for free.
With Helldivers 2’s launch yesterday, not only did the game’s servers crash due to the player capacity, but there are also other problems spotted as well. Thankfully, Arrowhead is aware of a lot of these problems, and the studio have listed the Helldivers 2 known issues.
Not only did the devs list the known problems with the game, but they even mentioned what they’re doing with ’em too.
Helldivers 2 Known Issues:
Quickplay not working
The Problem: This is one of our most significant issues in the game right now. It manifests itself when you attempt to join a mission at the War Table on the ship, and you see a “Failed to join game lobby” message.
Why It Happens: There’s a problem with how we’re finding valid matches for you, when you attempt to matchmake, and it gets worse with a very large player base. The core of the problem is that the matchmaking is attempting to put you into the same game as a lot of other players.
Frequency: This happened at launch for almost all players who have attempted to use Quickplay, either on PC or PlayStation. Over the last twelve hours, it’s reduced for the PC community, but is still prevalent for PlayStation users.
What We’ve Done / Are Doing: We put out a patch yesterday that took the Quickplay success rate on Quickplay attempts from about 5-10% to about 75-80%, with a fair bit of regional variability. This is just a fix on PC at the moment, but an emergency PlayStation fix is coming out in the next four hours. Watch this space.
What Players Can Do: We hope that for PC players who have updated, you can get past Quickplay the majority of the time now. If you are still getting the error, you can avoid or mitigate it in a few ways:
Joining friends directly (either people you already know or friend codes you’ve shared on Discord or Reddit with other members of the community)
On PS5: turn on Crossplay, go into a game on your own, and then throw out the SOS beacon. That will allow PC players to join you.
Additionally, we have noticed some players reporting Quickplay working if you travel to a planet with fewer players on it. At the moment, far fewer players are on the Automaton planets, so you can try flying there, and then making the attempt
Despite matchmaking successfully… you still may crash
The Problem: If you do get past the big Quickplay issue… you may STILL crash.
Why It Happens: This is a related matter to the matchmaking problems. If you do join a mission, the game isn’t handling this correctly at all.
Frequency: This seems to be happening about 30% of the time, which in turn is only out of the population of people who get past quickplay.
What We’ve Done / Are Doing: This is a major error, and we are working on it as part of the solution to the overall matchmaking issue.
What Players Can Do: Similar to the item above, the most reliable way to avoid this problem is to share friend codes and play the game this way.
Critical problems for players using the AMD Radeon 7000 series of GPUs
The Problem: There are all sorts of significant problems players with these GPUs are experiencing, in total making the game nearly unplayable.
Why It Happens: We aren’t sure at the moment. We had tested with these GPUs previously and hadn’t encountered this in-house, but clearly there is something deep that is wrong.
Frequency: This is a constant issue for these users.
What We’ve Done / Are Doing: This one needs some investigation, and our team is looking at it in collaboration with AMD. Please watch this space: we will update when we have more details on this matter.
What Players Can Do: We need to better understand the problem. Thank you already to players who have sent in more details of their specs so that we can attempt to reproduce. Some AMD-using players have conveyed that they can play the game on the lowest performance settings. We know this is far from ideal, but it may be worth manually ratcheting down the performance in-game and via your GPU settings to see if that helps. Again, we will update here when we have more.
Stuck on “Press Any Button” on the splash screen while trying to log in to servers.
The Problem: Some players can’t log into the game at all, and are stuck on the static splash screen that says “Press Any Button”. Normally, you would proceed straight into your Super Destroyer from there. These players are also receiving no additional message. It just seems to hang on “Press Any Button”.
Why It Happens: This is a server problem. We make a connection to servers when you hit a button here. The server does a handshake with your game, makes sure everything is looking clean, and then lets you in. Unfortunately, if the server itself has a big queue of issues, it doesn’t return the handshake. Doubly unfortunately, the message on the splash screen isn’t updating to explain that to you.
Frequency: This isn’t happening constantly, as it only occurs in moments when server capacity is reached. The reports are entirely clear on the frequency of this issue. We suspect it’s about 1 out of every 150 players experiencing this.
What We’ve Done / Are Doing: This is an issue that we can improve directly with the servers. We’ve already significantly bumped up server capacity in the last twelve hours, and we are expecting that this issue should drop now.
What Players Can Do: If you still encounter this, and it doesn’t seem to resolve, can you please write into our Zendesk support queue? It would help us tabulate the frequency more accurately. We’ll update this issue in the future to confirm if we believe our fixes are working.
Game launch failing due to GameGuard errors
The Problem: When this problem arises, players can’t start the game at all.
Why It Happens: The anticheat software is catching false positives.
Frequency: About 1 in 150 players are reporting this issue. But when it does happen: it’s happening all of the time.
What We’ve Done / Are Doing: We’re working with the anticheat vendor to see what adaptations we can make. When we do have solutions, those will be rolled out automatically via the anticheat on game start.
What Players Can Do: We’ve learned that one workaround is to close other running software. We’ve found that the game has a particular challenge running alongside antivirus, fan cooling, or streaming video overlay programs. We would love to have some community support here. If you identify programs that the anticheat software can’t get past, can you let us know? We can work on getting those legitimate programs whitelisted so you can keep them on and still run the game.
Ed is coming to Street Fighter 6 later this month, and Capcom has quite the showcase for him as a new gameplay trailer shows off his boxing expertise. Not only that, but we even see Ed’s commands list and special moves ahead of the character’s roll out on Feb. 27!
As you probably saw, the gameplay trailer showed off plenty of Ed’s moves, which Capcom has revealed names and command lists for.
Street Fighter 6 Ed Commands and Special Moves List:
Psycho Flicker: A quick flicker jab from a distance that can go in one of three directions to catch the opponent off-guard and is vital to Ed’s ability to control space. If you hold this button down, Ed will use his Psycho Snatcher from Street Fighter V where he can pull in opponents with psycho-powered tendrils
Psycho Blitz: Unleashes a series of punches cloaked in Psycho Power
Psycho Storm: Ed’s Level 1 Super Art sees him striking opponents with a series of high-speed flicker jabs
Psycho Cannon: Ed’s Level 2 Super Art, previously from Street Fighter V, generates a multi-hitting ball of psycho power that moves forward
Psycho Chamber: Ed’s Level 3 Super Art turns opponents into his own personal punching bag by tying together their hands and feet and pummeling them in the name of Neo Shadaloo
Ed will join the Street Fighter 6 roster on February 27 and be available as part of the Year 1 Character Pass. Players can also expect an outfit pack at release and a new stage to fight on, the Ruined Lab.
Beyond the content drop, the update bringing all of this will include quality-of-life improvements, new photo mode lighting, and some more options for the PC version. We expect to have a full changelog posted when the update arrives on February 27.
A gamer at heart, James has been working for MP1st for the last decade to do exactly what he loves, writing about video games and having fun doing it. Growing up in the 90's gaming has been in his DNA since the days of NES. One day he hopes to develop his own game.
