Alex Birlo on July 3, 2020
One of the biggest news pieces this week was the news that Dr. DisRespect received a permanent ban from Twitch and things do not seem to go well right now.
Shortly after Dr. DisRespect was banned Twitch sent all of his subscribers an email stating that the money they spent on their subscription to Dr. DisRespect’s channel will be refunded to them.
Which is surprising, since no one has requested any refunds and this instance itself is almost unheard of – automatic refunding of Twitch channel subscriptions.
This instantly prompted questions to whether this is as simple as everyone thought at the beginning, or something much more serious and – permanent.
Since neither Twitch nor Dr. DisRespect himself provided people with clear reasons and explanations on the matter, this has spawned a substantial amount of conspiracy theories online as to what is the reason for such a complete and utter ban from the platform.
One of the theories has it that Dr. DisRespect was in talks with another streaming platform, subsequently, this was discovered by Twitch and found to be in violation of a certain contract they had.
In turn, the platform in question is a separate matter of speculation in of itself. It was rumored to be a streaming platform that Ninja and Shroud are secretly planning to launch now on their own with the money they have from their “Mixer” contacts, which as you might remember Microsoft announced last week their intentions on shutting it down.
Another theory, that does not involve so many unconfirmed variables, is that Dr. DisRespect is involved in some sort of serious criminal offense and in light of that was banned permanently from the streaming platform.
Last week we saw the first announcement of a new game in the Crash Bandicoot series and instantly a big concern has arisen from the community so as to whether or not the game will have microtransactions in it.
On the Microsoft Store page of the game, it could be seen that the game had the usual “plus” sign next to the price and under the preorder button there was a line that said, in small letters, that the game “Offers in-app purchases”.
The developers for the game, Toys For Bob, have gone on to Twitter to clarify the situation and calm everyone down:
We’re seeing confusion about #MTX in @CrashBandicoot 4 and want to be 💎 clear: There are NO MICROTRANSACTIONS in #Crash4. As a bonus, the Totally Tubular skins are included in all digital versions of the game.
— Toys For Bob (@ToysForBob) June 30, 2020
Amazon Game Studious released their first major game a little over a month ago. Out of the blue, with nearly no marketing campaign for the game.
The free-to-play team-based, arena, hero brawler “Crucible” failed to impress as a full-fledged product. Bringing back low scores across the board, bad reviews, and a lot of negative feedback in general.
Amongst some of the flaws bugging the game were unbalanced characters making most of the roster of characters not viable in certain game modes; great traveling distances to rejoin the battle following every death in the game; dull PvE element and many more.
The overall problem of the game seems to be the fact that “Crucible” seems to lack a specific vision for its core gameplay loop and attempts to be a jack of all trades with both MOBA-like game modes and battle royal-themed ones.
At the end of it all, the developers announced their decision to withdraw the game back into BETA to work on improving it and listen more to the players’ feedback.
Everyone who downloaded the game before 9 am. PT, Wednesday, July 1 are included in the BETA. And in the future, the developers will open up the possibility to join the BETA through signups on their website.
We’re back with another developer update: we’re taking Crucible into closed beta starting tomorrow. Read about the details and how you can participate in the beta here: https://t.co/ox5KG7Fr55
— Crucible (@PlayCrucible) June 30, 2020
Last week we also saw the first look of a new game, developed under the label of Tencent, called “CODE: SYN”.
Tencent Holdings is a Chinese multinational conglomerate having a stake in many different areas including a lot of the gaming space as well, in companies like Riot Games and Epic Games.
The developers stated that this is a PC and Console Open-World, First Person Shooter. In the demonstration, we get a taste of the great visuals rendered in real-time in Unreal Engine – a bright and realistic Cyberpunk setting.
From what little that was shown we know that the game will have a deep vehicle and character customization and that the players will be able to choose from three factions that determine what type of “cybernetically enhanced pet” animal you will have which you can also customize.
No actual gameplay was shown or release date announced.
Hyper Scape
Ubisoft announced their own battle royale called “Hyper Scape”.
Last week we saw an extensive gameplay trailer where we were all the rules of this new game were explained.
Starting up, the game follows the standard formula of up to one hundred players, depending on the mode, dropping onto the map. In the beginning, there are two modes confirmed: Squads – which is a 3 persons per team mode; and Solo – which is an everyone for themselves mode.
The players will be dropping onto the battlefield, as per usual, with only a melee weapon and will have to loot the gear they need in the world. This is where the gameplay formula starts to change.
The idea of “verticality” is the core of the gameplay. Players are given extreme agility in the form of launch-pads and abilities to reach the rooftops Neo Arcadia, opening up the moment to moment gameplay to insane trick-shots, escape paths, and ambush opportunities, all while not losing the fast pacing.
Another interesting idea is how the developers decided to handle deaths. As it was explained, when you play with a squad and are killed, you become a “specter”, an invisible ghost that can run around with your remaining squad and help them scout ahead since you are invisible.
Revival here also plays into the idea of keeping things in constant motion, because when your team kills another player, in his place a “revival portal” of sorts appears. Now you as a Spectre can enter it and your team can return you back into the game.
Instead of a “Ring” or a “Storm”, what will push the players towards each other is how the city, Neo Arcadia, will be deteriorating sector by sector.
If you stay in the area of the simulation that had deteriorated, you will be exposed to enemies since all around you “lost textures” and you are the only colorful “object”. And of course, you will be receiving damage until you reach a safe area.
The final stage of the game begins in the last remaining sector, around the last ten players in the game. A crown will appear and the game can end in one of two ways:
One way is to kill off the remaining opponents like it usually is in these types of games.
The second way is to capture the crown and manage to hold it for a certain period of time. When the timer is out, the one wearing the crown, and his squad, become the winners.
In addition to that, there is an interesting new feature in the Spectator mode.
There is an option for a person to be the “Game Master” and occasionally activate global events that affect the entire playing field – low gravity mode, increased speed, etc.
What is even more interesting is that as the spectator is streaming the game on Twitch, their viewers can vote on one of three global events that are currently on choice and thus influence the decision of the game master.
The game will be free-to-play and will be coming out sometime soon.
Sources:
Twitch refunds after banning Dr. DisRespect: https://dotesports.com/streaming/news/twitch-refunds-dr-disrespect-subscribers-after-channel-ban
Toys For Bob on microtransactions in Crash Bandicoot 4: https://twitter.com/ToysForBob/status/1278034702121660420
