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‘The Stomping Land’ Has Been Pulled From Steam Early Access
There’s always a level of risk involved with supporting unfinished games on Steam Early Access or through crowdfunding sites like Kickstarter and Indiegogo. The developer doesn’t have to deliver anything, but if the concept sounds interesting enough — like an open-world survival game where you can ride a Carnotaurus, for example — some folks are more than willing to take that risk.
Most of the time, everything turns out okay and we get what we paid for. Then a story like this tries to ruin it for everyone.
Conceptually, The Stomping Land was exciting enough to motivate over 4,400 people to donate $114,000 in a Kickstarter campaign created by its lead developer, Alex Fundora. This past May, the game arrived on Steam Early Access, alongside the similarly themed survival horror game The Forest. Unlike The Forest, which has seen constant support from its developer since its arrival on Steam, The Stomping Land hasn’t seen an update since June.
After months of outcries from frustrated fans who are upset with a developer that’s been bizarrely uncommunicative and, for some unspecified reason, is either unwilling or unable to continue supporting its game, Valve has decided to take action. You can still find it on Steam, but the option to purchase it has since been removed.
It’s an unfortunate situation for everyone, except maybe for Fundora, who took home $114,000 and a lot more from everyone who spent $25 on it. It’s also likely to remain unresolved until the developer finally speaks up or Valve decides to start offering refunds.
Sam Neill, the New Zealand actor best known for his role in 1993’s Jurassic Park, has passed away this week at 78 years old. In a statement shared on Neill’s Instagram page this morning, the actor’s family said that his passing was “sudden and unexpected.”
Neill had been diagnosed with a rare blood cancer in 2022, but stated the following year that he was in remission. The family notes that he “remained cancer free” at the time of his passing.
The family statement reads, “It is with immense sadness that the whānau of Sam Neill share the news of his passing on Monday 13th July, in Sydney Australia. Sam was surrounded by family and passed with the dignity that has characterised his whole life. The loss was sudden and unexpected but blessed by the fact that Sam remained cancer free.
“They would like to express their deepest gratitude to the staff at St Vincent’s Private Hospital for their incredible care. More details will be shared later, but for now, on behalf of the family, we ask that you respect their privacy as they navigate this immeasurable loss.”
In addition to his iconic role as Dr. Alan Grant in the original Jurassic Park and the sequels Jurassic Park III and Jurassic World: Dominion, Sam Neill left an indelible mark on the horror genre with memorable roles in Andrzej Żuławski’s Possession, The Omen: The Final Conflict, John Carpenter’s In the Mouth of Madness, and sci-fi horror favorite Event Horizon.
Sam Neill’s vast resume in film and television began in the early 1970s and also includes the films Sleeping Dogs, Enigma, The Good Wife, A Cry in the Dark, Dead Calm, The Hunt for Red October, Memoirs of an Invisible Man, Hostage, The Jungle Book, Snow White: A Tale of Terror, The Horse Whisperer, Bicentennial Man, Daybreakers, Escape Plan, and Thor: Ragnarok.
Sam Neill is survived by his four children and eight grandchildren.
Steven Spielberg said in a statement to Variety, “I owe a debt of gratitude to Roger Donaldson, Gilliam Armstrong, Graham Baker and Phillip Noyce for casting Sam Neill in the roles in which he was so brilliant that brought him to my attention and led to his playing Dr. Alan Grant in Jurassic Park. Sam was exceptionally collaborative. It was a stretch for him to play a character who acted as though children were messy and smelly because this was the opposite of the loving father he was to his children. I adored making all the Jurassic movies with him.”
Spielberg adds, “Along with Laura Dern and Jeff Goldblum, we will always have our Jurassic family and Sam will never be forgotten by us or his many millions of fans around the world.”
Sam Neill in ‘Event Horizon’
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