The goodwill generated by this game’s initial buzz would only last so long. While the promises and goals of the game were certainly interesting and worthy of the attention they got, unfortunately, upon the launch of the game’s early access state, there was a bevy of problems. Clipping into and getting stuck in objects, wildly inconsistent enemy AI, and rampant stability issues server side all served as things that, perhaps any single one of them wouldn’t sink a game, but getting all of these things at once definitely drove down the broad opinion of the project. That said, games go into early access all the time and there is a reason why early access exists; to let players own and experience a game with a soft launch that allows the developers to gain valuable feedback that can help move the project along. While there is nothing wrong with taking advantage of the early access system, replacing your QA team with the end users of your game is less forgivable.

“Early access” should not mean “broken”, and unfortunately it seemed that Grapeshot had not received the memo on this. For a game to come out in any states other than totally playable is inexcusable. There’s just no way to justify it. If it’s not ready to be played then it just shouldn’t come out. regardless of why or how the game was rushed it’s pretty unavoidable that it certainly was even though we all know to tamp down our expectations for early access games, despite relatively decent communication between the developers and the players, the number of online players in Atlas has dwindled fairly steadily ever since. you’ll see a few spikes here and there every time a big update comes out but because many of those updates either don’t quite fix what they say they’re going to or end up breaking other things, those spikes and players don’t really seem to last, in fact given the data that we have so far, many of the games updates and patches have had the opposite effect by contributing to a net decline in people that are in the game’s servers at any given time.

That said, it would not be accurate to simply say that Atlas had nothing interesting or redeeming about it. there were and still are plenty of reasonably addicting gameplay loops with in this game such as building your ships and managing your resources generally – although it is incredibly grinding to come across resources and can often lead you down a rabbit hole of seemingly endless variables to keep track of that can make you forget you’re supposed to be playing a pirate game here. So, while the survival elements are definitely there and they technically work, Atlas seemed more concerned with that aspect of it then making sure you would be able to enjoy using those resources in a constructive way that gave the player a feeling of genuine progression. But even those moments which eluded the game often still existed here and there especially if you had your friends with you on your finished ship as you sailed the seven seas. Working with your friends to solve various problems like taking out enemy ships and navigating your way out of dangerous storm systems could easily elicit the feeling that all of the game’s elements were starting to click. And that feeling would intensify once you were rewarded with the resources that come along with defeating an enemy ship or arriving on a new island. That sense of risk and discovery was not totally lost on Atlas, and there were absolutely moments where that feeling could be found.

Of course, as with many games of this type, the challenge for the developers is to maintain that sense of swashbuckling discovery and not let the games rougher edges get in the way of it. This, as you might have guessed, is exactly where Atlas has gone wrong. Many patches for Atlas have ended up breaking more than they were intended to fix. Enemy AI has gotten worse before it’s gotten better. But what’s even worse is that there seems to be very little attention being paid to balancing out various aspects of gameplay between human players. Islands can be flooded with game-breaking tactics from other players to prevent newcomers from even having a shot at doing anything with it, and other areas seem to just inexplicably refuse to generate resources at all. If you could pile on these problems on top of the game just feeling unfinished in myriad other ways, then you can start to see why the game is such a problem child at this point. Now, many games have come close to providing the ideal pirate survival experience, but given the results we’ve seen over the last several years it does seem to be a pretty tough nut to crack, and you can’t blame grapeshot for taking a stab at it especially considering that many of the creators working on Atlas also worked on ARK: Survival Evolved, which was actually pretty good overall. We all know that developing games is absurdly difficult and developers have to roll the dice that certain junctions no matter how good they are, but it’s hard to summarize Atlas in any way that doesn’t mention its many missed opportunities.

All of that said the game has received some substantial patches in the past few months and they seem to mostly beep actually fixing problems that were reported by the players. Some of the game’s biggest improvements have just come within the last couple of weeks, and that’s a good sign despite how long this game’s issues have dragged on and how small of a number the player base has dwindled to. We’ve seen developers give up on games who have suffered less than an Atlas has, but it appears that Grapeshot isn’t ready to let go of this game just yet, and that is absolutely the correct attitude. Despite everything we could see a resurgence of this game if it’s able to prove itself worthy of its players’ time – and of course their 30 bucks.

Note: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, GamingBolt as an organization.

No Man’s Sky

Hello Games’ No Man’s Sky was a complicated case. With its initial reveal, the developer unveiled large alien creatures and a fairly dense planet teeming with wildlife. Enormous fleets and epic space battles were teased in screenshots leading up to launch. In comparison, the final game felt kind of empty. Those massive animals and epic space battles were almost no where to be seen. Procedural generation could be blamed for some of that and No Man’s Sky did have some pretty stunning vistas. They were just far from what the trailers before it had promised. Fortunately, Hello Games has been heavily supporting the game after launch and given us incredible forests, the potential to build massive bases and vastly improved visuals overall.

Studio Wildcard surprised quite a few of us last week at The Game Awards, when it announced Atlas. Unlike ARK: Survival Evolved, Atlas is an open world survival title, where allegedly 40,000 players can occupy a single server. Though it was due to launch for Steam Early Access this week for $29.99, the developer has announced a delay.

Atlas will now launch on December 19th. Given the ups and downs that ARK: Survival Evolved had during its development – both in and out of Early Access – you have to wonder if Atlas could face the same problems. Regardless, the game is nothing if not ambitious.

Along with seeking out treasure and building up their fleet, players will assault fortresses and raid other ships. Fantasy elements like dragons are also thrown in, because why not? Atlas will also launch in the Xbox Game Preview program in early 2019, so Xbox One players will also get a chance to try it out.

Far Cry New Dawn Announcement and Gameplay Footage

When the cover art first leaked, my first response was to hope that Ubisoft did enough to distinguish New Dawn from RAGE 2. To be fair, they kind of have. This stand-alone narrative sequel to Far Cry 5 takes us 17 years into the future of Hope County following a nuclear fallout, and showcases how our favourite characters managed to survive (or didn’t). With interesting new villains, more vehicular combat and a nice aesthetic, Far Cry New Dawn is certainly intriguing at this stage. It’s out on February 15^th 2019 for Xbox One, PS4 and PC.

Dragon’s Crown is an upcoming 2D side-scrolling brawling RPG  co-op game that is being developed by Vanillaware. According to Joystiq the game’s characters are customizable to a certain extent. Players can choose different skin color sets for their favorite classes such as Dwarf, Wizard, Elf, Fighter, Amazon and Sorceress. The game will also include the ability to change voice acting from English to Japanese or vice versa.  Every player will also be able to edit their character’s name to their liking.

Dragon’s Crown will be releasing exclusively for PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Vita on August 6th 2013. For more information, please take a peek at our preview of the game from E3 hands-on demo.

Let us know if you’re excited to play Dragon’s Crown later this summer in the comments section below.

Stay tuned to GamingBolt for our review of the game next month.

The Atlas takes a skilled and veteran pilot to be effective — an intimate knowledge of the weapon systems is required.

-The Left Torso contains your LRM 20, perfect for indirect fire, as well as an SRM 6 for added close-in punch
-The Left and Right Arms each contain a Medium Laser
-The Centre Torso contains an additional two Medium Lasers
-The Right Torso contains your go-to weapon, the AC/20

Heat management, knowledge of weapon grouping and weapon ranges are all necessary to make the most of this fearsome ‘Mech. Mastery of these facets will rain destruction on any who face you.

Keep in mind, however, that the Atlas is not the fastest ‘Mech, and that being attacked from behind is a very constant and real threat. Scan your battlefield carefully, as even a single Jenner can ruin your day. Careful positioning is key, as is fire discipline — learn your weapons ranges, as you will be switching between them as you close with the enemy.

Get your Founder’s Atlas now http://mwomercs.com