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Battlefront 2 Unlocks All Heroes, Adds Loot Crates
Star Wars Battlefront 2 made news last year when fans were upset by what they saw as unfair prices for microtransaction content, which resulted in Battlefront 2‘s publisher Electronic Arts (EA) pulling Loot Crate microtransactions from the game. Tuesday, Battlefront 2 released update 2.0, which re-introduces the Loot Crate system. Now, only cosmetic items will be available from Loot Crates, and all Heroes have been unlocked, meaning you can now play as Darth Vader from the beginning. This addresses many of the concerns fans of the game had from the beginning, and may go a long way to repairing the damaged relationship between EA and Battlefront 2 players.
Game Developers Talk of Unionizing
Game Workers Unite met with game developers at this year’s Game Developers Conference (GDC) to discuss the pros of unionizing. Game developers have long complained about industry practices many deem abusive, such as coercing developers to work overtime without overtime pay on a regular basis, exploitive internship programs, and studio-wide layoffs as an expectation rather than exception. Game Workers Unite hopes that through unionizing, game developers can hold a united front against these practices and convince studios to change how they manage their employees.
Rare’s Sea of Thieves officially released this Tuesday on Xbox One and Windows. It has received mixed reviews, suffering from complaints of matchmaking and maintenance issues while garnering praise for its aquatic graphics and anti-toxicity measures. Rare has deliberately integrated these anti-toxicity measures into the game, including democratic options to kick a player, throw them in the brig, or teleport your ship away from other ships creating a negative game experience. The studio hopes that keeping anti-toxicity measures in-world will allow for a smoother gaming experience.
PUBG is getting an “Event Mode,” described as “a periodically changing preset Custom Game where [the developers] will be trying new things and experimenting with different game parameters.” Poised to compete with Fortnite’s periodic, themed offerings, Event Mode will begin by allowing 8 player teams on a map with a doubled drop rate for rifles. PUBG Corp also teased another upcoming event by revealing a themed picture of a flare gun. As the Battle Royale market keeps evolving, having a public test environment should benefit PUBG greatly.
Game releases this week:
Sea of Theives(PC/Xbox One), Detective Pikachu (3DS)
