News
Paladins’ Controversial ‘Cards Unbound’ System To Be Removed
Paladins‘ ‘Cards Unbound’ system is only a few months old, but it is already on tap to be removed from the game in the coming future.
Paladins’ partially pay-to-win system of Cards Unbound came under an intense fire of criticism from the Paladins’ player base and also staff members within Hi-Rez Studios.
The game’s new Executive Producer HiRezChris has announced that the system is soon to be a thing of the past.
“We know this system has angered many of our most loyal fans and become a point of continuous contention in the Paladins community (and even inside of Hi-Rez). Your voice has been heard loud and clear.
Our team will be working over the next major release cycle to remove Cards Unbound from the game. We will be replacing it with a new system that I believe the community will be really excited about — including the re-introduction of the deck building point system, and a method for obtaining cards that will be way less grindy.
We want the focal point of the card system in Paladins to be about fun ways to customize your champion to your favored playstyle. We also want to unify the COMPETITIVE and CASUAL experiences with the card system so that we use the same system for both (no more separation of bound vs unbound).
We are still working out the details of the new system, but the rough outline of our current thinking is as follows (NOTE: Subject to some change, but hopefully this communicates the general direction we want to head):
- Legendary Cards will now be called Talents.
- Talents will only have a single level.
- Talents will be unlocked for free by earning XP and gaining Champion levels (for example; level 1,5,10,15).
- All Champion Cards will now be free (No cost or grind).
- Deck creation will return to a point system where players can distribute 15 points across the five cards they select for their loadout. Each Champion Card will have five ranks to choose from.
- Talents will not have ranks, and are not included in the loadout point cap.
- Talents and Decks will continue to be chosen at match start to allow players to tailor their playstyles based on their opponents.
- New Talents will be added over time and give further varied playstyles.
- Champion Mastery will no longer be capped at level 25. Instead, it will work similarly to Player Account leveling (which has no cap).
- Card chests will be removed from the game.
- We are evaluating the best options to compensate players for their previously earned cards, and hope to share details soon.
The release plan is to start testing this new system as soon as we can on PTS (hopefully, next week). Your analysis and participation will be very important over the next few weeks as we work the kinks out of this design and deliver the best possible product to you in the next update.”
FromSoftware title ‘Armored Core 6: Fires of Rubicon’, which is published by Bandai Namco, has laid claim to the top spot of the boxed charts in the United Kingdom this week following it’s August 25th release.
Armored Core 6’s debut pushed Mario Kart 8 Deluxe to the second overall spot in news that video game journalists have been covering extensively.
According to GamesIndustry.biz, Bandai Namco believes that ‘Armored Core 6: Fires of Rubicon’ is a “big step up in the franchise’ and communicated their hopes that it would surpass previous Armored Core games following the increased popularity in the game developers work on Elden Ring.
The United Kingdom charts also saw The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom move back to the 3rd spot, and FIFA 23 holding the 4th spot.
The biggest rise was from Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga, which jumped back in the top top from it’s previous 24th spot to land in 6th with a 146% increase in sales. That game, along with Hogwarts Legacy, is currently a part of a Playstation 5 bundle.
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Game of the Year edition entered the Top Ten this week with an appearance in the 9th spot.
The news wasn’t so good for The Texas Chainsaw Massacre which saw a debut in the 13th spot last week but has now dropped to 37th following a 43% decrease in sales week-on-week, despite it’s initial push on every video game streaming platform following it’s heavily hyped arrival.
Here is a breakdown from the United Kingdom Boxed Top Ten for the week ending on August 26th, via GamesIndustry.biz.
| Last Week | This Week | Title |
|---|---|---|
| New Entry | 1 | Armored Core VI: Fires Of Rubicon |
| 1 | 2 | Mario Kart 8 Deluxe |
| 4 | 3 | The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom |
| 3 | 4 | FIFA 23 |
| 9 | 5 | Hogwarts Legacy |
| 24 | 6 | Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga |
| 5 | 7 | Mortal Kombat 11 Ultimate |
| 7 | 8 | Minecraft (Nintendo Switch) |
| 12 | 9 | The Witcher III: Wild Hunt GOTY Edition |
| 2 | 10 | Grand Theft Auto V |
Interactive drama developer and BAFTA-nominated studio Scriptic has raised a total $6.2 million in additional seed funding, including $500,000 from the Sony Innovation Fund, bringing the total seed investments to $8.7 million.
The funding will be deployed to continue going towards the expansion of its mobile narrative offerings, and the studio aims to provide its generative AI developer tools to more writers and storytellers.
“It’s a huge honor to have Sony Innovation Fund join our roster of stellar investors, and we’re thrilled that they share our vision for the future of interactive media and storytelling,” Scriptic CEO Nihal Tharoor said, according to GamesIndustry.biz.
This marks another example of studios who find Angel Investors and find VC investors to fund their initiatives, and those deals making waves in the gaming industry.
Following news earlier this year that Larian Studios cited technical issues developing the port, there is now official confirmation that Baldur’s Gate 3 will be launching on Xbox Series X|S consoles this year.
Larian Studios CEO Swen Vincke officially announced the update on social media following a meeting with Xbox head Phil Spencer.
“We’ve found a solution that allows us to bring Baldur’s Gate 3 to Xbox players this year still, something we’ve been working towards for quite some time,” Vincke said in the announcement. “All improvements will be there, with split-screen coop on Series X.”
The Xbox Series S console version of the RPG will not feature split-screen coop, a disappointing part of the update, but Baldur’s Gate 3 will have cross-save progression functionality between Steam and Xbox Series consoles.
Stay tuned here or other prominent video game journalists for more information on Baldur’s Gate heading to Xbox in 2023.
-
News5 years ago
Assassin’s Creed Odyssey Patch 1.0.7 Is Here
-
News5 years ago
No Man’s Sky Update 1.55 Is Out
-
News5 years ago
Bungie Outlines Infamy, Gambit Ranking System for Destiny 2: Forsaken
-
News5 years ago
PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds Appears on Playstation Store, Out in December
-
News5 years agoGhost Recon Wildlands’ Rainbow Six Siege Crossover Mission Now Available
-
News5 years ago
Find the ‘GhostBusters’ Firehouse in Spider-Man
-
News5 years ago
Red Dead Redemption 2 Reveals Characters
-
Mobile5 years ago
Fortnite Leaks Season 6 Skins, Emotes, Backbling
