Nexon has announced that it will be shutter (“sunsetting”) the F2P first-person shooter Ghost In The Shell: Stand Alone Complex First Assault in four regions in early December. Players who purchased in-game currency will receive a refund of 100% if it was purchased before Feb of 2017, all other in-game purchases will be refunded at a rate of 50% but this does not apply to the initial purchase of the game client if bought through one of the several Early Access bundles sold before the F2p launch.
I enjoyed the 4 or so hours I spent with the early access version of Ghost In The Shellback in 2015. Gameplay wise First Assault always felt somewhat lacking but the overall aesthetic, voicework and presentation certainly nailed the GITS aesthetic.
In their official statement, which was emailed to registered players, the Chinese, Japanese, and South Korean regions are not mentioned as being slated for closure. This could mean that these three regions may still receive First Assault game support, but it simply went unstated.
Below is Nexon’s message to players:
“We’re sorry to inform you that we will be sunsetting Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex First Assault Online in North and South America, Europe, and the Oceania region, with final closure scheduled for December 6.
This was a very tough decision to make. The game has been in development for a long time, supported by the developer, publisher, and community effort. Ultimately, we decided that continued development wasn’t going to help the game become what we all hoped it could become. We will be supporting the game for the next several months during the sunset period, allowing both the development and publishing teams and the community to say goodbye and enjoy the game.
As a courtesy to our fantastic community, we will provide players with NX for items purchased.”
Nexxon and Boss Key Games announced that the open beta for their upcoming first person shooter, Lawbreakers, is now available on Steam for everyone to try out.
Unlike other team-based FPS games, Lawbreakers doesn’t give its heroes a personality so to speak. Instead each of the team’s members are broken down into unique roles – the chain gun wielding Vanguard, the all-around assault class the Enforcer, the vertically mobile assassin class among others. Unique to Lawbreakers is also a low gravity mechanic where portions of the map are entrapped within a bubble that allows players to jump higher but with a lower fall rate.
In a press-release announcing the availability of the Open Beta until July 5th, Nexxon provided a brief rundown of new features available in the Open Beta:
New Map: Vertigo – located in a remote location in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, Vertigo is a high-altitude reconnaissance outpost with near suborbital elevation;
New Mode: Uplink – capture the uplink in the centre of the map and deliver to your team base, continuing to protect it until points are earned;
Weapon Stickers – players can test a new customisation feature and earn a special Beta participant Weapon Sticker by completing five matches during the event. This reward transfers to the full release of the game at launch.
Lawbreakers will be releasing on both PlayStation 4, PS4 Pro and Windows PC with the base game priced at $39.99 CDN.
Team-based, hero focused first person shooters are all the rage right now and the undisputed king is Blizzard’s Overwatch. In an interview, CliffyB compared Blizzard’s latest success to a digital game of Rock, Paper, Scissors. Our comrades at Eurogamer had a chance to sit down with CliffyB at E3 last week about his new game, Lawbreakers.
Comparisons to Overwatch wasn’t the only thing that CliffyB discussed, he was asked about the chance that the game might have cross-play between a potential console version and the already playable PC game. He shot the idea down saying:
“We like money and we like to keep the lights on .. we’ve talked to them [Microsoft & Sony] .. The thing about controllers is that it is going to be tricky. If we get around to doing a console port we don’t want to do cross-play. If you do keyboard & mouse VS controller the person on keyboard & mouse is going to win 9 times out of ten.”
Another tidbit that Cliffy dropped was the fact the developers at BossKey Studios are considering removing Iron Sights from the game:
“The other thing that we are looking at is ‘will we keep Iron Sights in the game?’. It is debatable right now, when you give players Iron Sights they play it like Destiny or Call of Duty.”
Towards the end of the interview Overwatch was brought up. The interview asked Cliff if the constant comparisons were tiring, as they seem to come up quite a bit. Here is what CliffyB said:
“People, when they see something, they want to put it in a bucket with something else. There is some overlap that we have characters, guns & what not. Our art style is very gritty, [Blizzard’s] art style is super bright colors, very cartoony – almost animeish… them as a game is so much Rock, Paper, Scissors. If I have the wrong character, I’m dead!”
How do you feel about this comparison between Overwatch and Lawbreakers? No cross-play between a potential console version and the PC build does not really surprise me given the fact that Lawbreakers feels like it was built with a keyboard & mouse in mind. For my initial impressions check out my write-up from E3 2016 where I played the game against developers from BossKey Studios. The next playable alpha for Lawbreakers is expected in July and potential players can sign up for the next alpha test on the official Lawbreakers website.
The man behind Microsoft’s chainsaw wielding Gears of War franchise, Cliff Bleszinski left Epic Games back in 2012 but he hasn’t been sitting idle in the subsequent four years. He’s formed a new studio, BossKey, and they brought an alpha version of their upcoming arena shooter Lawbreakers with them to Los Angeles last week. After playing several rounds of this in your face shooter at E3 with the development team and quite a few hours with the Friends & Family alpha at home, I’m here to tell you how CliffyB is about to come back in a big way!
Lawbreakers is a role-based first person shooter with a focus on vertical gameplay built using the Unreal 4 engine. Just like the other titles that ClifyBhas had a hand in creating, the combat in this game is frantic, somewhat twitchy and gorier than most R rated movies. The emphasis on verticality during combat isn’t just a bullet point on some press-release, it is essential to succeeding in Lawbreakers. During a match it isn’t uncommon to watch your foes & teammates swing across the map, jetpack around objectives and slam downard onto the ground in the middle of a pack of rivals. Freedom of movement and quick speed are core gameplay components to what sets Lawbreakers apart from other role-based shooters.
Players should be fully aware that CliffyB’s trademark ‘*%#$% you’ attitude is all over the world of Lawbreakers, and especially within the personalities of the characters. The grey and brown pallets from Gears of War and other interactive experiences that Cliffy has had a say in are replaced with bright particle effects, colorful textures and wonderfully rendered explosions. I suppose there is a bit of juxtaposition between the bright graphics and watching your shaved head, rocket slinging character telling the competition that she is going to ‘fucking kill you all’. The whole aesthetic package feels like that trademark rough attitude combined with brighter colors that we’ve seen from other role based shooters.
Each team in Lawbreakers is comprised of four separate roles, from which teams can mix & match and swap at any point upon death. Unlike a competing game like Overwatch role switching, at least based upon the several hours I have spent with the game, is more about finding roles that you are comfortable with rather than reacting to your opponent’s strategy. Here is a brief rundown of all four available roles:
Assassins – Agile and able to swing long distances across the map, Assassins are able to deal damage using two sharpened blades and a powerful energy shotgun for up close encounters. The fast paced grappling hook can be used to not only to escape heavy firefights but also to pull yourself toward weakened foes to land the killing blow.
Enforcers – If you’re looking for a run and gun class perhaps you should consider the enforcers. They carry a standard issue assault rifle but for all that they lack in unique or powerful weapons they gain in support abilities. Enforcers are able to speed up time itself around friendly targets, they can also use an electromagnetic charge to disable opponents. An enforcer’s ultimate allow them to unleash a powerful rocket attack.
Titans – Best described as the “tankiest” role that Lawbreakers has to offer the Titans are all about taking as much punishment as possible and dishing out just as much pain in return. They are armed with both a chain lightning gun and a hammerhead rocket launcher to decimate their foes. A Titan’s ultimate unleashes a torrent of built-up electrical energy burning any enemies in their path.
Vanguards – Want to take to the skies? The Vanguard is the class for the aspiring pilots everywhere, with their jetpack allowing them to thrust forward at great speed towards the battle. In terms of armaments the Vanguards use a poweful chaingun as their primary weapon, with a hand-mounted pulse blast as their backup. A Vanguard’s ultimate allows them to unleash a targeted mid range missile blast which is almost always a one hit kill.
During E3 we played a brand new mode that tasked both teams with capturing control points that would randomly spawn around the map. The team that captured the most points out of a set of best of 3 would win the round, these control points really emphasized the frantic vertical nature of Lawbreaker‘sfirst person combat. Another mode, Battery, was available during the Friends and Family alpha that was held over Steam this past weekend. Each of these modes allow players to think strategically and try out their favorite roles in different ways. Folks from Nexxon have assured us that Lawbreakers will not be a free-to-play title and will not be a $59.99 USD release – it will enter Early Access after several more alpha tests over the course of the summer.
