Gaming
Steam Community Access Blocked from China
Here’s something the Net Neutrality opposition might not tell you. China has the power to police and check on every single bit of content thanks to laws created to repeal it during the 90’s. As such, China’s government can control whether or not people access certain places, like the Steam Community.
According to ValveTime, China’s Steam Users aren’t allowed to enter the Steam Community anymore. Ever since December 15, players have been restricted from going into the Forums, Guides, Achievements. Groups, Player Profiles and Badges.
The Steam Community has been blocked in China. Steam and the Steam Store are still accessible. https://t.co/pHJGFX2U4E #steam pic.twitter.com/oDl6FqOSzR
— ValveTime (@ValveTime) December 18, 2017
It’s important to mention that China hasn’t completely sealed off access to Steam. As such, the players in the region can still enter the Steam Storefront and purchase any games they want. Some Reddit users have also confirmed that features like Friends and Chat are still available.
At the moment, China hasn’t stated their reasoning behind blocking off Steam Community Access. However, when you consider the fact that China has a history of blocking American Content, it’s not that hard to put 2 and 2 together.
Earlier this year, the Chinese government reportedly implemented a full ban on the release of games developed in South Korea as a political warning. Prior to that, it blocked Gears of War 4 from the Windows 10 store for being too violent, showing it isn’t afraid to chastise big name players like Microsoft.
We also mentioned how companies like Tencent often have to be distributing games like PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds. But to be fair, their law enforcement against cheaters and cheat providers is enviable.
Since we’re on the subject of China and game distribution. Did you know that Nintendo and Nvidia are bringing Nintendo Games to China through a partnership? Nintendo will be distributing Wii and Nintendo GameCube games through Nvidia SHIELD in this country. China is certainly a bit hard to deal with.
Since the excellent Baldur’s Gate 3 has been out in the wild for a while, interesting data can be gleaned, such as how players choose to play an innovative new RPG from home. Stats from developer Larian Studios and posted on the PlayStation Blog show that most people want to play as a stealthy archer like in Skyrim when given nearly limitless options.
According to a fascinating graph, Rogue/Ranger is the most popular multiclass build, with over 175,000 players using it to snipe unsuspecting enemies from range. The next two builds reveal similarly. 150,000 played Barbarian/Fighter because they loved pummeling things, and 109,00 played Barbarian/Paladin, which lets players talk to their victims before beatings.
More sense emerges as you descend. If the Paladin/Warlock/Sorcerer/Bard has high Charisma, any combination can be interesting. Charisma helps these classes cast spells and abilities and interact with NPCs outside of combat.
Playing a single class through Baldur’s Gate 3 feels great, which is what most players do. A pure Fighter or Wizard becomes so powerful by game’s end that we don’t blame you for not mixing things up!
Play as a Tiefling Oathbreaker Paladin, Dark Urge Origin (which you must resist), or Bard for real moral dilemmas. You could also play pseudo-Aragorn again.
Techland is continuing to release Dying Light 2 content as part of its long-term support. This is surprising since the meaty Good Night, Good Luck update was released a few months ago. It’s nice to know what’s coming, but no timeline was given.
IGN-exclusive roadmap trailers reveal more co-op missions, board quests, a tower raid, and replayable GRE anomalies. Executions and finishers may be added to the April Gut Feeling update, which overhauled melee mechanics. Graphical options, weapon repair, gear, and mod dismantling are always welcome.
Knives, polearms, and more enemy variants are coming, including a Nightmare difficulty. Changes to NG+ include firearms. Players can finally dress to their hearts’ content with new cosmetic options.
Has Techland’s Dying Light 2 support lured you back? Would you rather focus on something new?
Epic Games expanded the Fortnite V-Buck “pricing alignment” after laying off almost 900 employees, citing “inflation and currency fluctuations”. Fortnite’s premium currency will rise in international markets, including the largest.
Epic Games will raise the price of V-Bucks and real money content packs in the Czech Republic, Denmark, Eurozone countries, Hungary, Japan, Norway, Poland, Romania, Sweden, Turkey, and the US (including all US Dollar storefronts) on October 27.
Raising the price of this fictitious currency was successful when the company trialed it in the UK, Canada, and Mexico, so it was decided to announce it worldwide now. These USD increases range from $1 (1000 V-Bucks, previous $7.99) to $10 (13,500 V-Bucks, previous $79.99).
How do you view Epic’s timing and pricing increase?
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