A popular modding tool for GTA V among other games was taken down about a week ago, when the creators received a case and desist letter from Take Two. Obviously the modders felt they had no choice to avoid legal action.

OpenIV had been going since 2008 and as well as GTA V had been used for modding it’s predecesor GTA IV and Max Payne 3. A lot of people used it and a lot of people loved it. However, the notice gave the developers little choice and they took down all the files and ceases distribution entirely.

The player response has not exactly been favourable to Take Two and Rockstar, with the Steam rating of reviews given to the GTA V game going from a highly Positive percentage down to Mixed – with many of the new reviews stating the takedown of OpenIV was what was causing them to review it as Negative now. Now a petition has popped up on Change.org asking Rockstar to ‘save’ the mod by allowing the team behind it to distribute it again, as well as asking that modding “be deemed legal again” across the series.

“The closing of OpenIV leaves 10,000s of people without access to be able to mod their games, and leaves 10,000s of people without the ability to continue their hobbies. All modding used by OpenIV is for singleplayer use only to make the game more enjoyable, the software OpenIV was never used to mod multiplayer or Grand Theft Auto Online so it does not harm anyone.”

However, the response from Rockstar a few days back disagrees on that last point about the mods being kept to singleplayer, as they stated that the reason Take Two had to tackle OpenIV was that it had been the basis for a number of recent malicious mods that “allow harassment of players and interfere with the GTA Online experience for everybody.” They have also stated that they are working to find a way they can “continue to support the creative community without negatively impacting our players.”

This week was a bit of a strange one. While I made the standard amount of progress with Bodeclaw, Teddired has hit a point where I had to stop for a bit…

Not that I’m stopping playing her.

Wait, I Can Do These Myself??

Last week saw Bodeclaw in the midst of a burning landscape, having just been given a task from the nearby outpost. To smash black dragonflight eggs. While the mother of those eggs slept pretty near by. I’ve played enough games with similar tasks not to be incredibly wary, as a lot of these missions end up with you being attacked or chased by the angry mother…

… Thank god that wasn’t the case here though.

Eggs smashed, I finished running around the Charred Vale to scoop up the remaining tasks before carrying them back to the quest givers. And then… I was done. No more reason to be here, in this place full of my own race. Very sad. I moved on, but not before I got a nice shot overlooking the fiery Charred Vale.

And witnessing the fierce battles between the defenders of the outpost and all oncoming attackers.

All oncoming attackers…

… Yeah.

I continued on towards my next quest marker and set of tasks, and after running down the path a little while found myself in a place called Desolace. Fitting name really…

Ah, the smell of wet dog… >.<

Eventually I found myself at Nijel’s Point and picked up a task to check out three Elune relics in a nearby era overtaken by satyr. Getting there I headed towards the three relics, only to find special quests – for cleansing rituals. Now this was a surprise, I’ve played gatherer for ritual materials in the past, but never conducted any of myself.

Mind you, I am a Druid so I got down to it immediately.

Those satyrs stood no chance. I am a fierce Feral Druid cat. I completed all three rituals and gained my rewards. But when using the melonfruit to wash my face… well, suddenly I could see the past.

… Spooky.

I Hate Minigames…

Teddired had left off last week having just been tasked with infiltrating a pirate crew planning to take over Booty Bay. To get in though, I needed the head of the Bay’s fleetmaster. So a fake had been made to take back and hopefully get me in. A brave cow died for Booty Bay that day…

So I took the head back to the recruiter and…?

Well, that was easy. Guess these pirates really are that racist. Or blind.

Having been told where to go, I raced along the same beach I had torn up and down last week, slaying the same pirates who now let me pass without any hostility. I almost felt bad for them.

Eventually I found my way to the ship and took the chance to get a photo of myself, mounted and ready to go. My boar was obviously aware of just what was at stake too, as he did a great job at playing the wild, feral beast the crew would want him to be. I’m so proud.

Photo taken and pirates fooled (probably), I went inside and descended the stairs to find the Captain Keelhaul I was supposed to be crewing under for this act and also the end of my quest marker and…

A goblin. Of course he’s a goblin. I shouldn’t really have been surprised.

Speaking to Keelhaul finished my quest marker but then gave me a new one… and it was a deck swabbing minigame type task. Now I’ve played a few games over the years. And a few have a similar minigame element to it. I have never ever enjoyed a deck swabbing minigame. Never the less I tried.

And tried. And tried.

I only had three goes but then I decided I’d had enough. I really hate deck swabbing minigames! Next time I might ask that ‘Pretty Boy’ for help, I saw that option when I was picking up his quest…

That’ll have to wait though. I hear a voice in my ear. Lone’s inviting me along for some fun.

How could I say no?

Konami, OpenIV and Shadow of the Colossus – your news update!

Join us for an E3 sum up on your news update video!

It’s time for the weekly look into gaming Kickstarter campaigns.

Starting with a look back at ones I’ve previously covered, it’s a wide spread of mostly bad news I’m afraid.

Many campaigns have finished this week unsuccessfully, with one being cancelled before it could finish. The cancelled one was The End is Nahual: If I May Say So, with an update after cancelling saying that the team is going to seek funding in other places for the game. Of the failed ones there was Sons of the Void, which unfortunately has now had its development cancelled as a result of the failure; Lost Cities, which apparently is still being released on Steam soon regardless; BLANK, which is still being continued and has just been Greenlit on Steam; Abstract Arena, which had no updates even prior to the ending of the campaign; Fake News!, another one with no updates (and the site still lists it under the game’s previous name – Lizard People); and PipPow, which hasn’t been updated since the campaign finished, although that was merely seven hours before the time of writing.

There is also one campaign still going with less than 48 hours, and a monster task of making up over 4000 euros – The Salt Fortress. Strangely despite its pedigree, Project Rap-Rabbit has also been struggling to raise funds. It has a week to go and the developers recently released a video of gameplay footage in a big to try and drum up interest again.

However, there is a little bit of good news. Firstly Rememorex which I covered last week has passed its goal so we can expect to see that one getting made. Also spaceBOUND is nearing completion having reached its goal weeks before – so that one will be listed next week as a completed successful project.

Pathfinder: Kingmaker

First up we have a game based on the popular tabletop RPG Pathfinder.

We here at the station love tabletop RPG, and Pathfinder is one of the favourites among some of the staff. Pathfinder: Kingmaker is a isometric single-player version of the game, in which you customise your character the way you would when starting a Pathfinder campaign – race, class, stats and abilities. There are 7 races available, over 10 classes and the developers say that while the core story will take 40 hours, the additional side-quests will take you that long on top of that. 80 hours worth of play doesn’t sound too bad, does it?

Pathfinder: Kingmaker has a $500,000 goal, of which it has made $396,642 with 29 days to go.

Darkened Abyss

Next we have another RPG, this time done in a minimalist top-down style.

Darkened Abyss is a game where you play as someone who has fallen down into the abyss of the title. You’ve lost your memory and as you climb your way out, you encounter ancient works and relics which slowly help you piece together who you are and what has happened. The game itself is played in very dark light to make seeking out discoveries that much more hazardous as you don’t know what could be around the corner. You’ll encounter monster, untouched buildings and puzzles on your way through the abyss.

Darkened Abyss has made $240 of it’s $6,000 goal. It has 30 more days to run.

LUCAH

Next up is a game that describes itself as a “nightmare action-rpg”.

LUCAH is apparently a game about finding oneself, set in a world that is very sketchily drawn in. The game is a simplistic looking pixelart style one, with dark background and a nightmarish tone to it. You play as one of the ‘Marked’, able to use both melee and projectile-based combat styles to ward off the horrifying things that attack you. There is a demo available on the page if you wish to try before you back, and it will be released for PC, Mac and Linux in 2018.

LUCAH has 27 more days to go to make $20,000. It has made $8,168 so far.

The Underground King

Finally we have a game that requires you to build a gang to rule the street racing scene.

The Underground King is a “strategy racing manager RPG”, in which you tinker with junk cars, fix them up, recruit lowlifes off the street to form a team and compete in street races to earn infamy and money. The campaign page itself has a quote from Jim Sterling which praises it and says that this is apparently the last game ever to go onto the now-dead Steam Greenlight. If Jim Sterling likes something, that’s a pretty good endorsement for the game.

The Underground King has made €2,558 of its €15,000 goal and has 23 days left to run.