Amazing news, citizens of Super Earth! As we all know, May 6, 2024, was supposed to be a day of grief, sorrow, and regret. But the effort of millions upon millions, perhaps even billions of patriotic citizens, has not been in vain! Thus, as former US President Bill Pullman once said, "We will not go quietly into the night. We will not vanish without a fight! We're going to live on. We're going to survive! Today, we celebrate our Independence Day!"
For Helldiver 2 (HD2) players, the past week has been filled with turmoil and dissatisfaction. On May 3, Sony posted an alarming news update on the game's Steam page. It said that starting May 6, new HD2 players must connect their Steam account to a PlayStation Network account.
But what about current players, you ask? Well, they would have started to see a mandatory PSN account link message on May 30 prompting them to link their account until June 4. There was no way of avoiding this. Simply put, without a PlayStation Network account, you couldn't play Helldivers 2 anymore, no matter how much money you spent on the game, microtransactions included.
The purpose was clear: make everyone create a PlayStation account because maybe sometime in the future, they'll buy a PS5 or see some more enticing stuff on the PlayStation store.
Photo: Reddit user, Emptynesz
Obviously, they made this move seem like it was in the interest of the player: "Account linking plays a critical role in protecting our players and upholding the values of safety and security provided on PlayStation and PlayStation Studios games. This is our main way to protect players from griefing and abuse by enabling the banning of players that engage in that type of behavior. It also allows those players that have been banned the right to appeal."
That's not to say all that about player safety and whatnot wasn't true, but another expression comes to mind: "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." Steam users had zero issues playing the game without linking to any PSN account.
Thus, this started an entire uproar on the Interweb, with players worldwide uniting under the banner of protest. That rebellion took the shape of negative Steam user reviews, and in less than three days, the game's rating went from Very Positive to almost Very Negative, a rather unique scenario for such an adored video game.
Almost 300,000 people recently gave the game a negative score and a thumbs down, which shows how involved players are with the game's situation. What's a shame is that developer Arrowhead Game Studios was caught in the middle and absorbed the fallout.
Photo: Reddit user, Emptynesz
After this debacle began, the game's CEO tweeted, "Ouch, right in the review score. Well, I guess it's warranted. Sorry, everyone, for how this all transpired. I hope we will make it up and regain the trust by providing a continued great game experience. I just want to make great games!"
The game's Discord Community Manager also said, "First of all, it's Sony's decision, not ours. Secondly, we don't have all the details about region-related issues yet. We're chasing Sony to get more info." These posts made it clear that Arrowhead wasn't behind the account-linking move, so naturally, players sided with the developers in a united front.
It seems this story will have a happy ending because prosperity, liberty, and democracy prevailed! The tyrannical forces of PlayStation publicly apologizes by saying, "Helldivers fans -- we've heard your feedback on the Helldivers 2 account linking update. The May 6 update, which would have required Steam and PlayStation Network account linking for new players and for current players beginning May 30, will not be moving forward."
Over 14 million people have read this statement in mere hours, with more to follow. Since then, it looks like Helldivers 2's Steam reviews have gone one percent in the good direction.
Photo: Arrowhead Game Studios
Helldivers 2 is a beloved game that has topped the Steam charts since it came out on February 8. The goal is easy: you team up with up to three other players in online matches and eradicate whatever threats your corrupt government deems fit to cease existing.
Each week after release, the servers were bursting at the seams with tons of new players buying the game, leaving little to no room for servers to accommodate. Still, this didn't slow people down, as the trend grew until February 24, when HD2 reached its all-time peak of 458,709 concurrent players. That day, it reigned king on Steam.
Since then, the developers have kept in constant contact with players and have always been on their side. The updates kept coming, with more recent ones introducing the beastly EXO-45 Patriot Suit, one of the many mechs from the Helldivers universe.
Another one was recently spotted in videos across Reddit, called the EXO-49 Emancipator exosuit. This baby comes with dual autocannons and seems even more menacing than the first one. According to the leaker, the tanky EXO-49 has two uses per match and a 600-second cooldown time. It has quite a bit of ammo and does great damage, but because it's still in the testing phase, it's all subject to change as the devs keep tweaking the stats.
If Arrowhead Game Studios keeps the mechs coming, by next year we could be looking at three in total. Ideally, sky battles wouldn't hurt in a future Helldivers 3 game, either.
Photo: Arrowhead Game Studios
All that's left to do now is wait for the new Mech to arrive, and hopefully some player-controlled tanks also, while keeping an eye on those Steam review scores. Will players change their thumbs down, or keep them as a stark reminder for Sony never to forget?
Helldivers 2 is only available on Steam and PlayStation 5 and costs 40 bucks. To play it on PC, the minimum requirements mention having at least an Intel Core i7-4790K or AMD Ryzen 5 1500X CPU paired with an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti or AMD Radeon RX 470 GPU. At least 8GB of RAM and 100GB of available space wouldn't hurt.
As for the recommended specs, you need an Intel Core i7-9700K or AMD Ryzen 7 3700X processor and an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 or AMD Radeon RX 6600XT graphics card. It's also best to have a minimum of 16GB RAM and 100GB of free SSD space.
If you're unsure about the game but want to get into the spirit of things, I highly recommend watching the classic "Starship Troopers" from 1997. The ironic patriotic vibe intertwined with the brutality of war is portrayed superbly in Helldivers 2.
Firstly, I am impressed by the willpower of the @helldivers2 community and your ability to collaborate. Secondly I want to thank our partners and friends at @PlayStation for quickly and effectively making the decision to leave PSN linking optional. We together want to set a new… https://t.co/2rayksgH1v
Codrin just loves American classics, from the 1940s and ‘50s, all the way to the muscle cars of the '60s and '70s. In his perfect world, we'll still see Hudsons and Road Runners roaming the streets for years to come (even in EV form, if that's what it takes to keep the aesthetic alive). Full profile
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