Tom Clancy's Division - Page 15

Something strange is going on with The Division, Ubisoft’s loot-shooter megahit that has dominated 2016 so far. As time goes on, the game has grown from a pretty competent and fun shooter to something that is quickly unraveling due to a series of crippling bugs and fun-destroying exploits. And it seems like developer Ubisoft Massive doesn’t really have a clue what to do about it.

While I’ve been critical of some aspects of The Division in the past, how the Dark Zone works, the loot system, and so on, that was me trying to suggest ways to make a game I like even better. But now? We’re entering new territory where many aspects of The Division have become downright unplayable, threatening the health of the entire game, and draining the interest of a would-be devoted fanbase.

First, the bugs. Ubisoft games are known for being glitchy at launch, but there hasn’t been anything so “hilarious” as Assassin Creed Unity’s invisible-faced monsters, so it hasn’t been as widely reported. But these bugs are even worse, as they directly impact players’ ability to play the game.

There’s the backpack bug, where a glitch involving an overstuffed pack has locked many players out of their account for ages. Then recently there’s the biggest bug yet, where many Xbox One players logged in to find their characters erased. Though Ubisoft has promised to bring them back, there’s still no ETA on that, nor can these players play on alts, as their entire account progress will be rolled back when the fix comes.

While those are the two major ones, there are so, so many others as well, almost all of which I’ve experienced personally. Players can fall through the floor during missions and be unable to complete them. Many story missions will fail to start at all, leaving solo or grouped players standing around a locked door. The new Incursion is putting some players in an infinite loading loop when they try to play the mission, and many haven’t been able to play it at all as a result. And though it may not be a specific bug, players are heavily abusing the “kick” system, booting players from harder missions to allow friends to join at a late stage, or just for the hell of it.

The Division, Ubisoft's big online multiplayer-focused third-person shooter, burned brightly at launch but quickly faded as a myriad of gameplay, performance and technical issues left players feeling disillusioned.

The game had gone quiet for some months before Ubisoft, and developer Massive, recently perked up to reveal a raft of changes it hoped would encourage lapsed players back into the fold.

Now, Ubisoft has announced plans to tackle one of The Division's biggest problems: balance.

One of the issues facing the game right now is that there's a massive power difference between optimised and non-optimised builds. This gap between the two extremes, most agree, is too large.

Ubisoft said that as part of the upcoming Update 1.4, due out in October, it wants to "bring back the shooter feeling" to the game, add more decision-making and hard choices when building your character, and add more variety to the viable builds.

The game had gone quiet for some months before Ubisoft, and developer Massive, recently perked up to reveal a raft of changes it hoped would encourage lapsed players back into the fold.

Now, Ubisoft has announced plans to tackle one of The Division's biggest problems: balance.

One of the issues facing the game right now is that there's a massive power difference between optimised and non-optimised builds. This gap between the two extremes, most agree, is too large.

Ubisoft said that as part of the upcoming Update 1.4, due out in October, it wants to "bring back the shooter feeling" to the game, add more decision-making and hard choices when building your character, and add more variety to the viable builds.

Ubisoft Massive is rolling on with its Public Test Server for update 1.6 and Last Stand of Tom Clancy’s The Division. The developer offered more information on the third iteration of the PTS and there are significant changes afoot.

Sprinting while reloading was removed for the PTS but it’s now being added back in with PTS 3 since the change was too big for some players. With changes made to Armour and the emergence of the Skill Power meta, it also noted that the Cluster Mod for the Seeker Mine would no longer stagger enemies.

Furthermore, the turret is receiving some changes to its health and range to make it easier to combat. Players will also be unable to stack Support Stations for large amounts of healing.

Changes have been made to Exotics like the Historian and Caduceus while the new SEEKR gear set will be removed altogether since it wasn’t unique enough nor fun to play with.