Possibly to meet standards for the sort of gamer that CD Projekt RED expect to be playing The Witcher 3 when it comes out, it has been announced that it will be available with a hardmode setting: Dark Difficulty. This setting will ramp up the skill and difficulty of enemies and monsters and death is a one-time thing. Once you die, that’s it – game over.

An interview with VG247 CD Projekt RED dev Phillip Weber gave the reason for the difficult setting as being “Usually normal is easy, and easy is – well, you can be on your phone while playing.” Weber said. “We want it to be easy to learn but hard to master. Dark difficulty is something that many people in the company are very passionate about. Because they want a real challenge. If you die five minutes before the ending, it’s over.”

CD Projekt RED have decided that with The Witcher 3 they wanted something definitive for their game, and so have chosen to do it through a devillishly hard game setting with perma-death. Sounds exciting, but I can’t imagine playing through a game for hours only to lose it all at the last moment. I’d be devastated personally.

What about you? Does Dark Difficulty appeal to you or are you going to stick to Normal while you learn how to play the game?

The Sims 4 has been out a little while now, and although it released with nearly 90 things from previous games missing from the release version, some of that stuff has already been put back with some free updates. Now the career market for you little virtual people is about to expand out properly with the release of the first expansion for the game.

Titled “The Sims 4 Get to Work”, it will include a few more new career paths as well as the option to open up your own retail businesses. Among the added career paths are that of the Doctor, for the medically inclined; the Scientist, for discovery, silliness and science! and the Police path, so you can tackle crime if you want to rid the Sims streets of thieves and other criminals. Retail businesses can sell many different things and the shops can be designed like your typical Sims house, and I expect that to appeal to a number of fans of the game. Also, aliens are back. Not sure why they’re in a work expansion but I guess there must be some reason?

If you’re interested, Get to Work will appear in shops both real and virtual in April.

A few days ago, files that contained mods for the new Dying Light game were taken down from the places they were being shared thanks to some DMCA takedown notices that were served against them. Now the Entertainment Software Association has apologised for issuing them, saying that it was a mistake and that the requests were issued in error by a third-party vendor on behalf of the organisation.

Saturday was when the hosts of the mod files discovered that the modification files they had uploaded onto MediaFire had been taken down for violating the sharing site’s Terms of Service. The notices identified the ESA as the ones issuing the notices, and referred to “copyright infringment” also linking readers to an antipiracy website. All this despite the fact that the mods were nothing more than some visual alterations, so obviously there was some anger towards this action.

Around the same time the developer of the game Techland had released a patch that seemed to be designed to block the making of mods (a reference to how ‘cheating’ in the Be the Zombie PvP game mode by altering the game’s data files was now blocked), and now alterations to things in all gameplay modes was no longer possible. Many people linked the two events together due to the timing, suspecting that ESA member and publisher of Dying Light Warner Bros. was using the DMCA like a massive club to smack down the mod-making community of the game.

The ESA though has denied this, stating that the “ESA was notified this morning that potentially erroneous DMCA notices had been transmitted by one of its vendors. Upon further review, it was determined that the notices should not have been sent and retractions were issued immediately. We regret any inconvenience and have taken steps to avoid similar situations in the future.”

At the same time Techland have said that the effects of the new patch on single-player modification was an unintended side effect of their attempts to stop multiplayer cheating. They have said they’re working on a way to get modding restored as soon as possible.

“Creating obstacles for modders has never been our intention. We are now working on a quick patch that will re-enable common tweaks while stopping cheating in the game’s multiplayer mode.”

So after being told of the reasons why there was no Minecon last year everyone’s been waiting for the announcement of Minecon 2015, especially the British players due to the fact that at the same time it was explained why there was no 2014 Minecon it was also said that they wanted to hold Minecon 2015 in the UK but that it wasn’t yet confirmed. Well, today it has been confirmed: Minecon is coming to London in July!

In a blog post the details of the con were announced, including the dates (July 4-5 2015), the location (the ExCeL London Exhibition and Conference Centre) and other things besides. Tickets will be sold sometime this month, with the exact date and times to be confirmed. Mojang have said that they’re releasing the tickets in two batches though so that more people have a chance to grab them. No word yet on what guests of exhibitors will be attending, but I dare say all that stuff still needs to be finalised.

You can bet that some of us here at the Sanitarium.FM will be attempting to make it there, so wish us luck and see you there if we make it!

Mojang blog “MINECON 2015 announced!”: [x]

Well, this is something we didn’t see coming…

In an announcement posted the the H1Z1 Reddit by SOE_Legion, it was revealed that Sony Online Entertainment which is responsible for a good number of games right now, has been acquired by an investment management firm named Columbus Nova. This makes it effectively now an independent studio, renamed Daybreak Game Company.

The announcement revealed the news of the acquisition and name change, as well talking about continuing to “focus on creating exceptional online games for players around the world” as well as developing games for multiple platforms including the Xbox. As for the existing games, Daybreak are going to continue with them and hopefully be able to improve them thanks to the availability of more resources from Columbus Nova.

We’re not sure about future plans, but if a tweet from one of H1Z1’s staff is to be believed, it’s going to involve the Xbox One…

can’t wait to make Xbox One games!

— John Smedley (@j_smedley) February 2, 2015

The full announcement message is below:

Dear Players, Partners and Friends,

 

Today, we are pleased to announce that we have been acquired by Columbus Nova, an investment management firm well known for its success with its existing portfolio of technology, media and entertainment focused companies. This means that effective immediately SOE will operate as an independent game development studio where we will continue to focus on creating exceptional online games for players around the world, and now as a multi-platform gaming company. Yes, that means PlayStation and Xbox, mobile and more!

 

As part of this transition, SOE will now become Daybreak Game Company. This name embodies who we are as an organization, and is a nod to the passion and dedication of our employees and players. It is also representative of our vision to approach each new day as an opportunity to move gaming forward.

 

So what exactly does this mean for you? It will be business as usual and all SOE games will continue on their current path of development and operation. In fact, we expect to have even more resources available to us as a result of this acquisition. It also means new exciting developments for our existing IP and games as we can now fully embrace the multi-platform world we are living in.

 

Our games and players are the heart and soul of our organization, and we are committed to maintaining our portfolio of online games and pushing the limits of where we can take online gaming together.

 

Thank you for your continued support. See you in game!

 

The Team at Daybreak