Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves' beta has been cracked wide open, with players simply turning on an otherwise disabled training mode - Related to wide, install, wolves', first, started

Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves' beta has been cracked wide open, with players simply turning on an otherwise disabled training mode

The Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves open beta has been cracked, allowing those with the game and some naughty software to bypass the game's intended settings and access aspects and content otherwise locked away. This includes a training mode, which folks have been using to train before they're meant to.

For context, the City of the Wolves (CoTW) beta kicked off last Friday up until today, and comes with an offline tutorial and online matchmaking. The assumed purpose of this test is to push the matchmaking and netcode to its limits, which players certainly have. The beta has shown cracks in such areas, leading SNK to consider another test in the near future. However, by most accounts, the beta has proven a nice way of fighting game fans to try out the game.

Enter the crackers, causing mischief. On PC, some players have discovered that by using Cheat Engine, they've been able to hop into the beta files and mess around. This has lead to a variety of discoveries not meant for mortal eyes quite yet. There are some serious spoilers out there, which we won't share here to protect the innocents eager to learn more in due time, but it has also allowed for offline training modes to become accessible. It doesn't sound like it was particularly hard to do, either.

This has resulted in the past few days of CoTW beta time being spent, by some, in the lab. Gameplay footage on Twitter confirms the discovery, as we can see basic frame data information on display, as well as a limited number of combo trails playable by those willing to be a bit cheeky and get up to no good.

Now, fighting game betas and crackers are no newfound issue. Street Fighter 6 had its own Cracker problem, as did Tekken 8 a little later. It looks like any time a fighting game dev puts out an early test like this, an arms race of sorts kicks up with people all over the world rolling up their sleeves and finding the Crack.

So why does this matter? Well, for the average player, it doesn't! A day or two of extra training time won't mean much when the game actually comes out. And, let's face it, chances are if you're reading this you (nor I) are taking rounds off FGC greats anyway. In fact, as long as the beta remains unplayable after today, it shouldn't matter much to anyone at all.

Where this get's really tricky is if crackers can find a way to access the training mode after the servers shut down. Then, there's a serious problem. Again, not for me or you, but for the competitive scene. With CoTW coming out in April, this Super Crack would allow those with their eyes set on glory to train for roughly two months ahead of the game's full release. This would provide an undeniable advantage for the first few months of the game's life.

Consider the Esports World Cup, a Saudi Arabian tournament series with CoTW on its main stage roster of games. A government Sportswashing venture with some serious money on the line, those willing to compete in spite of ethical concerns could potentially win a lot of money. Now, this tournament happens shortly after CoTW's launch, meaning those with two months of practice time would have a major advantage. Not that Saudi Arabia likely cares, as long as the players turn up and SNK's game is on the stage (Saudi Arabia being the sole owner of SNK), then they win either way.

But for players it provides a serious dilemma. Being a Cracker is without a doubt a punishable offence at tournaments if evidence of its use can be established, but at the same time you've got to accept the reality that most top level players would be using it if one exists. Let's hope that an offline-functional Beta Crack does not exist, or this is something all high level CoTW players will have to contend with.

What do you think, will naughty crackers out there figure out how to get an offline version working? Is it so bad to use it? Let us know below!

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Tread carefully, Atomfall's world includes 'exploding sheep' that can 'infect you with spores that creep into your lungs'

Atomfall - Official Extended Gameplay Deep Dive Overview Trailer - YouTube Watch On.

In case you hadn't noticed already, Atomfall is a very British game. It elements those unmistakable red phone boxes, plummy, moustachioed army generals, and that most quintessentially British creation, exploding sheep.

Now, you might be thinking that one of those items is not like the others. But combustible farmyard animals have been a fundamental part of British gaming culture for decades, primarily via the Worms series. As a kid, there were few things I enjoyed more than sending my younger brother's annelid army scattering with a perfectly deployed woolly bomb, though admittedly, they'd blow up in my own face half the time.

Anyway, as a recent video deep dive demonstrates, Atomfall continues this proud tradition. The video, which is primarily about how you'll explore the post-nuclear disaster quarantine zone around Windscale, takes a moment to address some of the hazards you'll encounter while wandering around the game's rolling fields and picturesque villages. These include familiar dangers, like mines and guard posts. But you may also stumble across sheep corpses in the landscape. As the video describes, these "exploding sheep" can "infect you with spores that creep into your lungs until you collapse, lifeless."

Delightful. The video also unveils more information about some of Atomfall's other major British touchstones, most notably those red phoneboxes, which are more than just stereotypical UK iconography. If you happen to pass one of them while exploring, there's a chance the phone inside (a delightfully chunky rotary number, I might add) will ring. As the video explains, "If you answer the call, a voice on the other end may offer helpful advice, or cryptic warnings." The video doesn't specify what these messages might entail, but in the accompanying footage, the subtitles for the anonymous caller read "Oberon must die". So at the very least, it seems you'll be hunting some poor fellow called Oberon down, though whether you'll actually have to kill them or not remains to be seen.

This all ties into Atomfall's emphasis on investigation, which the video elaborates upon elsewhere. For example, Atomfall doesn't have a traditional quest system, instead offering "various leads" which you can pursue of your own accord. These form part of a "larger, interconnected web of stories" that will help you "unravel what happened after the Windscale fire." Moreover, as you travel about Windscale, you'll meet numerous NPCs who'll offer to aid you in your mission. But apparently, their motivations may not be entirely what they seem. "It's up to you to discern who truly wants to assist, and who seeks to take advantage."

It all sounds fascinating. Rebellion has already claimed it's trying some highly experimental stuff with Atomfall, to the point where it isn't sure whether or not it will actually work. After years spent mainly making Sniper Elite games, it's great to see the studio trying something a bit more unusual. We'll find out whether it pays off in about a month's time, as Atomfall launches on March 30.

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I just started playing Monster Hunter Wilds and this monster health bar mod might be the first one I install

Monster Hunter Wilds mods are already here and I found the first one new players should install: a mod that adds a health bar for monsters, allowing you to see exactly how much damage you've dealt and how far you have left to go.

Veteran players of the Monster Hunter franchise may be familiar with mods like this for previous games, but if you're new, you might be wondering why you can't see monsters' HP. The lack of visibility can make it difficult to tell which weapons and combos work best for you, which is especially frustrating if you haven't played a Monster Hunter game before.

One modder, GreenComfyTea on Nexus Mods, created a tweak that adds a basic, no-frills health bar showing current and total HP under each monster's name. It's nothing fancy, but it gets the job done. As the mod's creator warns: "This a barebone mod without convenient in-game customization menu, optimizations, localization support and other cool capabilities, made to be released in a shortest time possible. There will be no updates!"

The mod creator also noted you need REFramework Nightly installed for it to work. If you're new to modding RE Engine games, I'd recommend checking out a guide first to learn your way around. Before installing this mod, you'll also want to keep in mind that Capcom's official stance on mods isn't exactly warm and fuzzy. Back in 2023, Capcom claimed mods are "no different" than cheating in an R&D presentation.

Many gamers would probably disagree with that view, but if you want to play it safe and get a feel for the game without a health bar, you can always try to keep an eye on your weapon damage to gauge what works and how you're performing in combat. You can even adjust how your attack damage reveals up by going into "Options" then "Game Settings" and scrolling down to "Weapon Attack Power Display."

As some players have pointed out with previous Monster Hunter games, the lack of a health bar for the monsters is supposed to make hunts more realistic and immersive, which is also something to consider. Of course, there are plenty of reasons a player might find it more helpful to their gameplay to be able to see how much health monsters have remaining, it just depends on your priorities and playstyle.

Regardless of whether or not you decide to try modding Wilds, it's nice that there are options so everyone can have a good time with the game (at least, as good a time as you can have considering its slew of graphics and performance issues).

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