Over the weekend a number of Uplay accounts had games suddenly vanish from their libraries. These users took to the Ubisoft forums to enquire about why this had happened and Ubisoft have provided an answer. They’re actively seeking out and disabling keys that they believe were obtained in a fraudulent manner through bad credit cards and then resold.

The keys in questions came from a number of third-party sites, such as Kinguin and G2A, the latter seems to be where the majority of users who have lost access to their game bought keys from and it isn’t the first time G2A keys have been found to be obtained in a fraudulent manner. Back in April 2014 Devolver disabled a number of keys for game keys purchased through the site. People still buy from third-party sites though because they will often sell the keys at a lower price than the official channels will.

A Ubisoft rep issued a statement earlier to Eurogamer that read:

“We regularly deactivate keys that were fraudulently obtained and resold. In this case, we are currently investigating the origin of the fraud, and will update customers as soon as we have more information to share. In the meantime, customers should contact the vendor from whom they purchased the key.”

As always the moral of the story is that if you buy third-party, you take a risk on your key later being rescinded. Most third-party sites do have the policy of refunding keys that no longer work though, so if you’ve been affected contact them. You can only try.

Players pretty much guessed it but Guild Wars 2 Heart of Thorns being an expansion is confirmed! At the “Beyond The Point of No Return” panel at PAX South, ArenaNet president Mike O’Brien told players the good news and Guild Wars 2 Game Director Colin Johanson went over the major features coming in the expansion. Players will be heading into The Heart of Maguuma where players can fight Mordrem minions and discover allies from ancient civilizations. From the announcement trailer, it looks like the Mursaat (or whatever those spectral beings are) are probably a new ally. There will be challenging group content, open world jungle maps, new events, a new story line, and new boss battles.

Max level and gear stats are not changing but progression shall be done using the Mastery System. The Mastery System is available at max level and is account based so you only need to apply points once if you have many characters. This system is used in order to adapt and survive in the Maguuma Jungle. Points for this system are earned by doing Heart of Maguuma jungle content. There are abilities such as hang gliding and combat abilities such as tearing bark off a heavily armored Mordrem. Also, precursors can be earned from the Mastery System via building and completing new collections. Speaking of precursors, Johanson confirmed new legendaries and new legendary precursors in Heart of Thorns.

Specializations are another form of progression being introduced in the expansion. Players will be able to gain access to a new weapon that was unavailable to their character. There will also be new traits, skills and unique mechanics. Some specializations described in the panel for Rangers is the ability to use a staff and Druid Form which provides new skills and mechanics; Necromancers will be able to use greatswords. From the trailer, it seems that Engineers will be able to wield hammers.

The expansion introduces a new heavy armor class: Revenant. Destiny’s Edge member Rytlock Brimstone was confirmed to be a Revenant when he returns from the Mists by Johanson at the panel. Revenants are able to channel the powers of the Mists as well as powers from past Guild Wars great legends such as Jalis Ironhammer (from Guild Wars Prophecies and Eye of the North) and Mallyx the Unyielding (from Guild Wars: Nightfall).

The PvP side is receiving new things as well! For WvW, there will be a new borderland in the borderland rotation where keeps have distinct themes. Certain abilities can be obtained when in control of objectives around a keep. For example, Johanson said the Earth Keep will raise up parts of the ground to defend itself when attacked if players control the shrines around the keep. Core changes to WvW will also be made in order to promote holding objectives. For sPvP, there will be a new mode called Stronghold which is a throwback to Guild Wars 1. Players will be able to hire troops with supply in order to assault the enemy team’s keep in order to defeat the enemy guild lord for the win. Guild teams will be available for this mode in order to see who makes it to the top of the leaderboards.

Finally, there will be Guild Halls. Guild Halls can be upgraded and can be a centralized place where guilds can organize and head out for guild missions and Heart of Maguuma jungle content.

In a post interview by Twitch, Mike O’Brien said that the first (public) playable version of Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns will be available at PAX East. If you missed the panel and want to see it for yourself, you can check it out on Guild Wars 2’s Twitch channel!

Gearbox Software have officially announced the Homeworld Remastered Collection at PAX South today. It will feature a high-definition update to all the assets within the game, new voice-recordings for the cast who did the original voice acting and new cinematics that are updated in quality but stay true to the original cinematics’ themes and style. It will also include access to a new Homeworld Remastered Steam Multiplayer Beta, an attempt at combining both of the classic games into one platform for a wider variety.

Gearbox acquired Homeworld back in 2013 when they bid for it at an auction for the sale of assets that belonged to the then recently-defunct studio THQ. Both Paradox and Stardock had also been in the bidding for the IP. In those nearly two years Gearbox have set about giving the classic games an update and overhauled as much as they can while still attempting to stay true to the original games. That can mostly be seen in the decision to bring back as many of the original voice actors as possible, a move that will probably please fans of the original versions of these games. In fact, the fan community’s feedback had an effect on how the remaster was done.

“We received a lot of great feedback from the passionate Homeworld fan community, and we hope to deliver a game they – and new fans from around the world – can get lost in for countless hours to come.” said Brian Martel, CCO at Gearbox Software.

The release date is set for February 25th, but pre-orders will have a 15% discount to the price. Otherwise everyone who buys the Remastered Collection will get both Homeworld and Homeworld 2 as well as access to the Steam Multiplayer Beta.

Electronic Arts has added the newest addition to the Sims franchise to its Game Time lineup on Origin. Game Time is a little like the On The House in that you can get games without paying for them, but unlike On The House you only get a limited amount of time to try out the game before your ‘demo’ period is up and you decide whether you like the game enough to buy it.

The Sims 4 is available to try once downloaded for 48 hours, and while that doesn’t start the minute it’s done downloading it’ll start from the first time you play it and then ticks down in real-time. Probably best then to wait until you’ve a nice chunk of free time to give it a go then. If you do choose to buy it, you’ll keep your progress and saves too, which is nice.

Browse to Origin’s Game Time page if you’re interested. While you’re there, you might want to check out some of the other games which include Titanfall and Battlefield 4.

If you’ve recently responded to an e-mail from Mojang asking you to confirm your account details, please read on. Because you might be glad you did.

Mojang have confirmed that phishers, who get private account details from people usually by imitating official channels be they ‘human’ or site-based, have posted the details of around 1,800 Mojang account details with usernames to a forum for phishers. Mojang have now contacted everyone whose details were on that list, so go check your e-mails – if you’ve been contacted change your password now. If you’ve not been contacted you don’t need to change your password, but it might be a good excuse to do so if you’ve not for a while.

Either way, Mojang have force reset the affected accounts so you’ll need to change the password anyway the next time you log in. So no worries, your account will not be gone if you’ve no time to log in for a while.

Mojang have released a blog post with the amusingly captioned graphic below briefly explaining what has happened, assuring us that no one’s hacked them so there’s no need to worry. Only a lesson to be learned – never trust an e-mail asking you to confirm account details even if it looks legit.

Mojang site “Let’s talk about password security”: [x]