Author: Game Infliction

The First Descendant Enjoys Big Player Numbers on Steam Despite ‘Microtransaction Hell’

Nexon’s free-to-download looter shooter The First Descendant has enjoyed a huge launch on Steam but players have hit out at ultra aggressive microtransactions.

The First Descendant is a Warframe-esque action game designed to be played co-op with friends, with progression tied to a deep-rooted grind that involves completing missions and defeating bosses. Check out IGN’s The First Descendant review in progress to find out what we think of the game so far.

But it’s the monetization that has sparked debate during the early days of The First Descendant’s launch, as well as issues giving players rewards they’re owed that have forced Nexon into offering compensation.

Korean company Nexon, which is behind other multiplayer-focused free-to-play games such as Kartrider: Drift and Maplestory, launched The First Descendant with a packed cash shop that sells everything you’d expect from a game of this type: a premium battle pass, new characters, premium character and weapon skins, and even experience boosts and increased inventory capacity.

New characters, called Descendants, are sold for real-world money, but the premium virtual currency, Caliber, is sold in bundles that come in just under the cost of a new character itself, forcing players to buy more virtual currency than they need and, thus, having some left over.

Caliber can only be obtained by buying it with real-world money or by buying the premium battle pass. There is currently no way to earn it through gameplay alone.

While you can grind (a lot) for new characters, you can save time by spending money to buy them. You can also pay to gain immediate access to an ‘Ultimate Descendant’, which is a Descendant with better stats and an exclusive skin. Expect to pay upwards of $55 for one.

The First Descendant also locks a paint to a skin, which means if you want to re-use a paint you’ve already obtained, perhaps from the premium battle pass, you have to spend real-world money on it again.

Some players have called The First Descendant “predatory” because of its monetization, while others have said it’s par for the course when it comes to games from Nexon. On Steam, The First Descendant has a ‘mixed’ user review rating, with many of the negative reviews focusing on the microtransactions, but others are also delivering their verdict on the gunplay and mechanics. One Steam user called the First Descendant “microtransaction hell.” Another said: “This game released with more real money purchasable items than actual gameplay mechanics.”

Even those who have spent money on microtransactions are having a tough time, Nexon apologized to players who have yet to receive items they paid for by offering compensation. “We will continue to strive to provide a more stable service,” Nexon said.

Here are the compensation details:

  • Gold Gain Boost +30% (Duration 3 days)
  • Kyper Shard Gain Boost +30% (Duration 3 days)
  • Descendant EXP Gain Boost +30% (Duration 3 days)
  • Weapon Mastery EXP Gain Boost +30% (Duration 3 days)
  • 2 x Matte Red Paints

Despite all this, The First Descendant hit a Steam concurrent player count of 229,257, which was enough to put it in the top five most-played games on Valve’s platform. The game also launched on PlayStation and Xbox consoles, but Sony and Microsoft do not make player numbers available.

Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.

Your paper RPG character sheet itself is under attack in CrossOver: Roll For Initiative

The tabletop equivalent of “buying books and reading them are two different hobbies” is surely the difference between buying sexy tabletop RPG manuals and actually dragging your mates on to Discord for a few hours to stumble your way through a module. It’s the dogeared Fighting Fantasy from a carboot sale kid in me, I think. Something about reading worldbuilding snippets organised into numbered tables just hits in a way a novel doesn’t. Such tantalising ephemera is the name of the game in Microprose-published CrossOver: Roll For Initiative. It’s a wave defense where you play match-3 to collect dice, then spend them on fireballs and mace swings to stop tiny bastards from marauding all over your actual character sheet and attacking your stats.

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Video: Nintendo Treehouse Plays Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition

Out this month!

Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition will be arriving later this month on the Switch, and ahead of its launch Nintendo Treehouse has released a 30-minute video showing off the different games, challenges, and modes.

This is perhaps the most detailed look at the game yet, so if you’re still not sure whether you would be interested in this upcoming release, this should help you out. Be sure to also check our Nintendo Life hands on. In short, we think this has the potential to become a staple of game night:

Read the full article on nintendolife.com

Xbox Live Suffers Widespread Outage, Xbox Support ‘Investigating’

Xbox Live is currently down, affecting thousands of gaming fans.

Players who attempted to log into their accounts this afternoon found they were unable to sign in and play games as usual. Microsoft describes the incident as a “major outage” on its official Xbox Live status page. The company says troubles with its service began just after 2 p.m. ET, with the website Downdetector reporting a peak of more than 38,000 individual outage reports around 3 p.m. ET.

Though a select few have shared that they’ve been able to eventually sign into Xbox Live, Microsoft says the sign-in issues affect Xbox Series X | S, Xbox One, and Xbox 360 consoles as well as mobile devices, web services, cloud gaming, backward compatibility, and Xbox on Windows. No explanation for the outage has been shared, but in the meantime, Microsoft said in an X/Twitter post that it is investigating the issue while directing concerned players to head to its status page for updates.

“You may not be able to sign-in to your Xbox profile, may be disconnected while signed in, or have other related problems,” the status page says at the time of this story’s publication. “Features that require sign-in like most games, apps and social activity won’t be available.”

A widespread Xbox Live outage means there are thousands of gamers with questions and time on their hands. Many have them quickly took to social media to share memes while looking for answers. Although they’re all in the same boat as they wait for Microsoft to chime in with good news, many are just happy to see they aren’t the only ones faced with gaming downtime.

We’ll update this story when Microsoft has an update on the status of Xbox Live. In the meantime, you can check out the recently confirmed Xbox Game Pass lineup for July 2024. You can also see our IGN Live interview with CEO Phil Spencer, where we learned more about the company’s plans for the future.

Michael Cripe is a freelance contributor with IGN. He started writing in the industry in 2017 and is best known for his work at outlets such as The Pitch, The Escapist, OnlySP, and Gameranx.

Be sure to give him a follow on Twitter @MikeCripe.

Save Over 20% Off Nintendo Switch Joy-Con Controllers

Official Nintendo Switch Joy Cons are still generally priced at full price, but there are two colorways that are availble for over 20% off today. Amazon has both the Nintendo Joy-Cons Neon Red/Blue and Neon Pink/Green for about $62-$63 each. They retail for $79.99. These are still all-around the best controllers you can get for your Nintendo Switch console.

Nintendo Switch Joy-Con Controllers (Pair) from $62

These are official first-party Nintendo Switch Joy-Con controllers. Two Joy-Cons can be used separately in each hand or combined with the Joy-Con grip that came with your Switch console. You can even use them as two separate controllers in supported games like Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. They have a lot of fun features like a built-in accelerometer, gyro sensor, independent motion controls,. HD rumble, and NFC touchpoint for amiibo compatibility. Most 3rd party controllers don’t support amiibos at all.

We rarely see Joy-Cons on sale. When they’re discounted on Amazon, they go back up in stock quickly as well. If you need an extra pair of Joy-Cons and you like these colorways, then jump on these now. We doubt that they’ll drop in price on Amazon Prime Day (they haven’t in the past).

Other Nintendo Switch related sales and news that might interest you:

Dragon Age: The Veilguard Reveals a Host of Customizable Difficulty Options, Including the Ability to Turn Death Off Entirely

Dragon Age: The Veilguard will have a number of difficulty options that allow players to tweak the experience to their liking.

Developer BioWare revealed more about the latest installment in its fantasy franchise as part of this month’s Game Informer cover story. Features like the hundreds of character customization sliders and pronoun options separate from your character’s gender live up to game director Corinne Busche’s promise that Dragon Age: The Veilguard was created with inclusivity in mind. This desire was carried over into the difficulty options too, which include standard choices like the story-focused Storyteller path, a balanced Adventurer mode, or the more crushing Nightmare mode, which can’t be changed once a playthrough is started.

Where BioWare’s latest gets interesting in this regard is its Unbound difficulty mode. This option is said to allow players to tailor their Dragon Age: The Veilguard adventure as they please with a variety of tweakable settings. Some highlights include the ability to adjust how wayfinding guides the experience, aim assistance, an auto-aim option, and wider (or narrower) parry windows. Enemy and player damage can also be finetuned, as can enemy pressure, but the real game-changer might be the option to turn off death for your character entirely. These are all options meant to make Dragon Age: The Veilguard more inviting for every kind of gaming fan.

“[None of these options] are a cheat,” Busche explained. “It’s an option to make sure players of all abilities can show up.”

Game Informer was unable to view every difficulty and accessibility setting BioWare will offer, but Busche says players can expect to find more options upon launch. Dragon Age: The Veilguard is currently set to come to PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X | S sometime this fall. For more, you can read up on why former executive producer Mark Darrah thinks the next Dragon Age game will be the first in the franchise with fun combat. You can also check out how decisions from past entries can be carried over and how players can romance any companion your heart desires.

Michael Cripe is a freelance contributor with IGN. He started writing in the industry in 2017 and is best known for his work at outlets such as The Pitch, The Escapist, OnlySP, and Gameranx.

Be sure to give him a follow on Twitter @MikeCripe.

Review: Tsukihime -A Piece Of Blue Glass Moon- (Switch) – A Delightfully Dark Revival For A VN Classic

Blood-meltingly beautiful.

Tsukihime is responsible for a lot of things. Back in 2000, Type-Moon’s classic visual novel captivated audiences with a story crammed full of occult mystery, thrilling action, and heart-pounding character drama. Like jagged lines splintering out of a unified core, its success spread out in many different directions: adaptations across manga and anime, the production of a number of sequel VNs, the birth of Type-Moon’s mega-popular Fate franchise, and, of course, the creation of its very own fighting game series Melty Blood. It’s no stretch to say that Tsukihime is a cornerstone of the industry, which is exactly why the title’s fade into relative obscurity is such a surprise.

For all the waves it made in the time during and after its release, Tsukihime has never been graced with an official Western localization. Moreover, the original Japanese release has long since become abandonware, with the task of preserving the game online falling to diehard fans. Suffice to say, it’s not the fate that a game many champion as one of the best in its genre deserves. Fortunately, Type-Moon has seen fit to rectify that problem by way of a full-on remake project.

Read the full article on nintendolife.com