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The game of DC Universe Online is beginning a bid to free up account names, clearing out those used by inactive players so that they can be chosen by new active ones. If you’ve not logged in recently, make sure you do by January 20th to keep hold of your name.
Sony Online Entertainment are going ahead with the process, hoping that more new players will be able to find their perfect name for the character they will have spent a good while creating if they’re anything like the majority of gamers presented with a character creation page. “Finding just the right name for your character can be tough, especially in a game like DCUO where millions and millions of characters have already been created, locking up their millions of names. It’s even more frustrating when the character with that perfect name you want hasn’t logged in in years or never even made it off of Brainiac’s ship. That’s where we come in.” wrote community manager Mepps.
The inactive accounts that will be affected by this are the ones that haven’t been touched since July 20th 2013, which will leave the accounts intact, bar a rename. A few days later that name will come into circulation again to be used at the character creation page or the name change service.
Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number has been refused a rating classification from the Australian Classification Board, effectively barring it from sale in Australia. The decision was made over a particular scene that the Board say implies sexual violence.
The report from the board stated that “the computer game is classified RC [Refused Classification] in accordance with the National Classification Code, Computer Games Table, 1. (a) as computer games that ‘depict, express or otherwise deal with matters of sex, drug misuse or addiction, crime, cruelty, violence or revolting or abhorrent phenomena in such a way that they offend against the standards of morality, decency and propriety generally accepted by reasonable adults to the extent that they should not be classified.'”
The scene in question is one where the player character enters a movie set, shooting dead several men before knocking down a woman before partially undressing and appearing to make thrusting motions over her body while she struggles. This scene was the one that the developers had previously considered revising, as it has caused some controversy previously.
However Devolver Games and Dennaton have since released a statement in which they express disappointment in the Board and accused them of “stretching the facts” to make them fit what they wanted to see; because they state that the thrusting actions described by the Board are “not simply present in the sequence in question”. Within the statement they also clarify that as with the version showed in June of 2013, you are warned before the level that scenes that “allude to sexual violence” are present and you are given the option to skip them. They presented the scene in context with the video below.
While they are not planning to challenge the decision it’s clear that the developers are not happy with it. You can read their full statement here.
Last year in the midst of rumours that Google were due to purchase it, Twitch begin tightening up their broadcast rules as far as they applied to third-party music. They put a blanket ban on most of it, with any section of archived video that had even a trace being muted resulting in that section of video losing all audio for about 30 minutes. It’s still a system that some see as a bit heavy-handed because even if they have a point regarding third-party music not being broadcast, half an hour’s quite a long time…
Now though Twitch are making some steps to allow some music in streams and have launched a free-to-use library of about 500 tracks that are cleared for broadcast. Tracks included are from many labels including OWSLA, Dim Mak, Monstercat and Spinnin, so hopefully there will be something available for anyone who wants some music as background. 500 tracks is a decent amount and hopefully Twitch will find a way to negotiate for the use of more in the future.
In a statement about the libray Twitch’s Colin Carrier wrote: “Our community has been vocal about the importance of music for their broadcasts and their love of music in general. By working with both established and upcoming record labels, we are now able to offer music for them to use that is cleared for live broadcasts and archiving.”
It’s always nice to be able to stream and know that you’re keeping within the rules set isn’t it? Takes a weight off the mind.
Twitch Blog “Twitch Brings Music to Broadcasters”: [x]
Blizzard’s game Heroes of the Storm has been functioning in an alpha state for a bit now, slowly but surely adding to and improving a game based on feedback. Now it seems that enough has been tweaked to stand as a base for the game, because it’s upgraded itself to Closed Beta.
The update has come with some new features too, including a new hero and a fresh new ground on which to do battle. Sky Temple is the name of that new arena and its themed in a desert style with temples that can be taken control of to fire beams of energy at enemy structures. The new hero will be Thrall, a Horde Warchief with powerful melee abilities such as Chain Lightning, Windfury and Earthquake.
A new mode has also been added, the Hero League which is a ranked play mode for high-level players. To join you need to be Level 30 or over and have a collection of 10 heroes and can join as either a solo player or with a group of your friends in a team. Wins and losses obviously contribute to your ranking to stay within this play bracket.
Lastly a Draft Mode has been added to help players build a team to compete and counter your opponent’s hero choices.
To be a part of the closed beta you need to have either signed up at the Heroes of the Storm website or have ticked the ‘opt in’ option for Beta Profile Settings on your Battle.net account management. It’s obviously not a sure thing that you’ll gain access but you need to be on the list to get chosen. If you do get selected you’ll be able to play whenever you like as well.
