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The Next Smart Video Game Only Lets You Kill Once

Mar 30, 2010 Articles Recommend|329views

Seldom in life does someone cackle in front of you like a James Bond villain, explaining how they will deliver your demise. When game designer Chris Hecker did this to me in San Francisco recently, I knew I had him.

See, Chris Hecker thought he was clever. And the truth is that Chris Hecker is clever. A former developer of Spore and a well-respected game designer, he is now developing one of the most interesting multiplayer games I have ever played.

The game is called Spy Party, a game that pits one player as a spy at a fancy party and another as the sniper across the street. It features just one death, triggered when the sniper player believes they have finally figured out which character in the party is the other player and squeezes the trigger.

The game might not be out for two more years, because Hecker has a notebook full of ideas, determination to polish this game until it sparkles and a desire to let no company mess with his ideas. “I want to make a game that is different,” he told me when we hung out in his hotel room in San Francisco a couple of weeks ago and played his game. “I can’t do this for someone who needs to have a ‘return on investment.’”

Chris Hecker sure does talk a good talk about the noble art of game development, which helps when his opponent — me — is figuring out how to wriggle out of the knots suspending me over a proverbial shark tank. Hecker had told me I had no chance playing against him, because the game is not yet tuned to accommodate players of different skill levels. He also said all sorts of beautiful things that an ambitious and talented person would say about making their next video game on their own terms.

Hecker and I sat across from each other, in front of two laptops wired to Xbox 360 controllers. He explained both playable roles for me, apologizing repeatedly that, really, this game is best played right now by two people of equal skill level, meaning not me vs. him. The sniper role would be simple, at least. The party, in the game’s prototype form, is held in a single, minimally furnished room that has windows on three sides. Everyone in the party talks, walks around, looks at some statues in the corner, wanders over to the book case, laughs and so on. The spy is among them, but the sniper just watches. The sniper player can move their camera view to any windowed side of the room and zoom in for inspection. They can highlight characters they are suspicious of and darken those who they are sure are genuine. A laser sight from their gun exposes the sniper’s viewing angle to the spy and they only get one shot. Lock onto the shadiest character and fire a can’t-miss bullet. And hope you murdered the right person.

I asked Hecker to play well and then to play badly. When he played well, I was paranoid. Was that swipe of the hand from one character to the other something the computer did? Or was that Chris planting a bug on the ambassador, which is one of the spy’s four goals in the prototype Hecker was showing? I fired. I shot the wrong guy.

Hecker told me that Spy Party emerged from his desire to make “an asymmetrical multiplayer game about subtle human behavior.” Naturally, because it’s a video game, I pointed out, this subtle game’s got to have killing. Hecker laughed, though he wasn’t yet doing his Bond villain cackle. Subtlety is his unusual game design goal. He wants a game that you pore over, that you study and observe. If you are the sniper he wants you to have to spot the tiniest clues. As the spy, he wants you to be able to make the slickest super-spy gestures. In this prototype, for example, one of the four goals for the spy is to move a book from a bookshelf at one end of the room to the other. Doing this correctly involves standing in front of the bookcase, taking a book from the shelf to read and then either putting it back for real or doing a slick move — triggered by a different button press — that slips the book under one’s jacket while still reaching a hand to the bookcase, as if the book was being put back on the shelf. Even when Hecker showed me the animation I was two blinks away from missing it.

Spy Party has already proven to provoke devious actions. Hecker said that some of his spy-side game testers have taken to tapping on buttons that the 360 controller doesn’t use, in order to make the sniper player think that a spy action is being committed. If they hear come clicking then they’ll assume, perhaps, that one of the statue idols is being replaced? That’s another of the spy’s four goals, by the way. It may have been Hecker’s description of such deviousness that made me realize how I was going to beat him at his own game. As he continued talking about all the bright ideas he had for Spy Party, I concocted my master plan.

Part of what is so exciting about Spy Party is the stuff that happens around the game. Hecker has seen the game trigger strong emotional responses. I even felt it… guilt of all things. I’ve killed thousands — millions? — of enemy characters and even some friendly characters in video games with none of the pangs of consequence. I shot one innocent partygoer in Spy Party after tracking them for a few minutes, after being sure they were Chris Hecker’s avatar and up to no good, and then, as they lay dead on the floor I realized I was wrong. I felt bad. Apparently Hecker’s friend, Chaim Gingold, a fellow ex-Spore designer (he made the game’s terrific creature editor) has been wracked by the same guilt when play-testing the game. Another Hecker friend, Spore visionary Will Wright, was less bothered. “Will doesn’t care,” Hecker said. The legendary game designer sees the characters for the digital constructs they are and moves on to the next session, ready to try to figure out who the spy is and shoot again.

I knew my time as the spy would be tough. As I tried this side of the game Hecker even checked whether I wanted him to be playing well or with sympathy. It was a clear sign that he’d already figured me out.

I would move my spy character through the party, watching Hecker’s laser pointer find me and knowing the bullet was coming. There were times when I moved my character with a stutter, making the kind of awkward stop-and-turn move that a computer character would never make. Hecker sniped me, then explained that he is going to program the computer to sometimes make those kinds of bad moves too. Add that to his ideas list: He also wants these parties to be set in multi-room mansions with multiple players as spies who may or may not know about each other, and with snipers waiting outside. He wants there to be events at the party, like the singer drawing people to the piano so she can belt out a tune, giving the spy an opportunity to slip away. He wants to let the paparazzi character take photos, making a flash that temporarily blinds the sniper. He wants personalities in his characters, so that the lecherous partygoer hits on the ingenue. Spy players could choose any of these characters and role-play them as best they can while trying to accomplish their spy goals.

After each time that Hecker sniped me we were able to restart the room. I kept playing as the spy, but I had the option to select the four spy goals and my spy character. I don’t remember which character I chose when I decided it was time to hatch my plan. It may have been the man in the plaid blazer. Maybe it was the general. Whoever it was, I do recall that I walked my guy over to the statues. I was going to do the first goal: idol swap.

As my character stood there, Hecker’s laser-pointer found me. That’s when Chris Hecker threw his head back and laughed. He’d found me out again. Really, he said, this wasn’t a fair match.

No, it wasn’t fair. Hecker hadn’t shot me yet.

It would have been better if I’d played with someone at my skill level, he had continuously suggested. No, this was better.

I made my character walk toward his next goal. Hecker’s laser followed. At any moment he could pull the trigger.

Or, actually, he couldn’t. He only had a few seconds left, because unbeknownst to Hecker I had changed the rules of the game. I had ignored the mandate to select all four of the game’s spy goals during our matchmaking preparation. I had set up the match so that my spy had only one task: swap the idols. A timer was counting down on my screen, as it would on the screen of any player who has completed all of their assigned spy goals.

The countdown timer finished. The game pronounced me the winner. Hecker, realizing what I’d done, made a different kind of cackle. He’d made a liar out of me and I’d tricked him.

Well-played, he told me. Yes, Hecker, and to you, well-made. Spy Party is one of the most psychologically interesting games I’ve played. Remember its name and follow its progress (on the official Spy Party site, if you’d like). Two years from completion, it could be worth the wait. It’s a promising game in the making, with just one kill.

Tags: Hecker, Spy Party, Video Game

A WoW player offers guide to Runes of Magic

Mar 30, 2010 Articles Recommend|297views

Are you praised for your quick wits and fast fingers when 10-manning ICC? Hailed for your uncanny knowledge of talent specs on every class? Then, reader, you’d be a formidable foe in World of Warcraft, but let’s see how that helps you in Runes of Magic, eh? There are many more differences than the names of items and spells. While you may feel comfortable at first with the interface layout, new systems abound. An arcane whatsit? Where’s my talent tree? No Shaman-type class? Let’s ease you into a comfortable transition, to minimize annoyance and bruises. Even if you aren’t a WoW player, you should find this to be a good getting started guide.

Dungeons and Dragons Online Update 4 and beyond

Mar 28, 2010 Articles Recommend|274views

PAX East in Boston kicked off yesterday, and we were lucky enough to have a visit with Fernando Paiz, the Executive Producer of Dungeons and Dragons Online. We spent some time looking at Update 4 as well as chatting about what else is in store for Dungeons and Dragons Online in 2010.

Update 4 will bring the standard Adventure Pack, of course — “Sentinels” is geared toward more low-level characters than the previous one — but Turbine didn’t stop there. Players were pretty excited and even more curious about the guild housing planned for this summer, with a lot of questions about it. Will smaller guilds be at a disadvantage? Do you have to spend money to access it? How is it all going to work?

For all the answers, follow along after the jump to see what we heard from DDO’s Executive Producer.

Sentinels
The cosmetic changes that came to House Deneith with Update 3, highlighting the military feel of the House, served as a hint of more to come in that area: “that was all part of rolling out the Sentinels Adventure Pack” said Paiz. Those in House Denieth are part of an elite group of mercenaries that serve as Stormreach’s enforcers — they keep the peace, and currently they’ve got their work cut out for them. The Blood Tide is a group of pirates with an interesting business plan: they’re hijacking all the ships coming into Stormreach, and selling the stolen goods back to the citizens of Stormreach at a nice profit.

For all their flaws, the pirates are a pretty organized bunch and have set up a pirate mart in Searing Heights for this purpose. Your first quest takes you out there to shut it down. (Sorry, you can’t loot the store yourself after you’re finished.) Afterwards, it’s off to the Black Loch, a pirate hideout you’ll remember from Three-Barrel Cove. The pirates of the Black Loch don’t like the invading Blood Tide any more than we do, and have called upon House Deneith to help clear them out.

This is where you learn a little more about the Black Tide. They’re not just interested in breaking into the retail business, and running around slaying pirates right and left isn’t going to work for you. The Black Tide is working with a particularly unpleasant necromancer, and he’s helping them out by resurrecting the pirates that you kill as a new breed of intelligent zombie. These zombie pirates retain their intelligence and are able to cast spells, use weapons, and all sorts of things that make them more dangerous than the shambling, “Braaaaaaains”-mumbling kind we’re used to. Taking out the necromancer seems to see the way to go, so that’s your goal here.

Once you’ve taken care of that, it’s time to think about infiltrating a little more in an effort to bring down the rest of the Blood Tide. Back you go to begin a quest called “Storming the Beaches”, and things start to get interesting. You’ll find yourself in a planning room with a spymaster, a captain, and an archmage, who all agree that you need to infiltrate an orc fortress to take down the pirates. Unfortunately, this is where their agreement ends, as they all have different ideas about how you should get in. The archmage, for example, has a great plan to teleport you right to an underwater entrance safely out of sight of any guards. He’s a bit imprecise, unfortunately, and may or may not get you where you need to go. The spymaster has knowledge of a secret entrance, and the captain is in favor of a “fight your way through the front door” approach. This provides for some great variety and interest in this quest, and avoids bickering among the party about the best route to take, as it allows each party member to make their own decision and split up if they prefer.

Spies in the House is your next quest, where you work to figure out how these pirates are getting into House Deneith. This is an optional quest, but if you’re a fan of puzzles you’re going to want to check it out. The Turbine team had a lot of fun with this one, making heavy use of the 3-D space and their physics engine. If you’re a fan of the classic DDO style of solving puzzles to advance, you’ll definitely want to take on this challenging dungeon. There are traps right and left as well, so Rogues really shine here.

The final quest wraps it all up, taking you to the final showdown and an “explosive” finish. This is an Adventure Pack that all players will definitely want to check out. The changeable difficulty levels — including casual mode added with Update 3 — open the quests up to players of nearly every level.

The future of DDO

Turbine has quite a bit planned for DDO throughout 2010. They’ve committed to six updates for the year, so we’re going to see lots of new content in the form of Adventure Packs, but the upcoming update this summer is bringing something exciting.

Dungeons and Dragons Online is introducing guild airships, offering housing and transportation all in one. The airships will work like a standard guild house or hall in one fashion, in that you can acquire the basic place, then add to it, but that’s where the similarities end. Acquisition of the airship isn’t simply a matter of forking over the right amount of gold — it’s a combination of in-game coin and teamwork on the part of the guild, unlocked as an achievement. Players can upgrade the guild airships through a combination of in-game coin, achievements, and purchases in the DDO store, so options are offered for every type of player.

Besides the guild airships, Half-Orcs are coming to Eberron as a playable race, new cosmetic items are coming to the DDO store, and we can look forward to some UI and engine upgrades, making the game even better to look at.

2009 was a banner year for Dungeons and Dragons Online, and it looks like 2010 is going to follow in its footsteps. We look forward to seeing what these updates bring, and we thank Fernando Paiz for his time!

Tags: Dungeons and Dragons Online, Fernando Paiz, pax-east-2010, sentinels, Turbine

Aika: Open Beta First Impressions

Mar 27, 2010 Articles Recommend|465views

Aika is currently in the Open Beta phase of its western development and is the newest MMO to be published by Gala-Net (gPotato). Combining a slew of traditional MMO facets with some of its own improvisations, Aika could wind up being one of the more impressive free games on offer. I’ll be honest here, going into my first play session with the game, I was initially about ready to write it off as yet another Asian import with little value other than a pretty (if uninspired) art style. There were a lot of signals that immediately told me to run screaming, but being a brave gamer I stayed and found more than a few reasons to be intrigued by the title. Mind you I’ve only played a few hours so far, so take this all as merely my first impressions and not a final review.

The game begins as any other: with the task of selecting your class and personalizing their looks. There are six classes in total that run the gamut of traditional fantasy roles: fighter, paladin, dual gunner, rifleman, warlock, and cleric. I don’t think the specific styling of each class needs to be explained, with the exception of the dual gunner. Unlike the rifleman, the DG specializes in middle (not long) range damage and damage over time abilities… plus they just plain look cool wielding two guns. I selected the traditional fighter because I am a boring guy like that, and I was off into the starter zone (of which there are two to choose from).

Here I was met with one of a few signs that dared me to log out and never look into Aika again. Had I not been playing for the purpose of previewing and sharing my experiences with all of you, I might have done just that. First impressions are important, and all that. You see, gold sellers and their spam are already rampant throughout Aika. It is the open beta phase for this game, and the first chat I see when I log into play my first character is how much of a deal I can get if I act now and order some in-game funds. The general chat channels are just filled with the advertisements to the point where discerning between ads and actual chat is nigh impossible.

Luckily the game’s rather pretty visuals made it so that I didn’t have a hard time ignoring the chat interface. With an art style that is reminiscent of Guild Wars, it’s hard not to like what you see in Aika. The anime-influenced style isn’t exactly my cup of tea, but as with Aion, it’s pretty enough that I simply didn’t give a hoot about how much my male fighter looked like that actress from “Just One of the Guys”.

Aika’s not a game that’s trying to break the MMO mold, this much is certain. And that’s not a bad thing mind you, but this is hardly the place to break into that debate. Questing is a fairly straightforward affair in the early levels. Kill this, visit this person, collect these. Nothing new here. What makes it less tedious to me is that quests involve a sort of back and forth conversation between your character and the quest giver. It’s not like a BioWare game where you choose the path of the conversation, but it’s nice that your character is given a voice even if it’s textual. I do wonder though if the novelty will wear off and how soon I’ll start using the “skip” option which is thankfully provided for players who could care less about the story.

I had chosen the fields outside of my nation’s city to begin my adventure, and one of the first quests I was given was to help clear out some rather nasty pigs… yes pigs. Cliché aside, at least there were plenty of the mobs for all of us new players, and they spawned aplenty. Combat is fairly fluid and straightforward and is akin to pretty much any similar MMO you’ve played. Highlight and hotbar action all the way. The one niggle I have to bring up is that every time I use a skill on my hotbar my auto-attack is cancelled. It’s not a deal breaker, and I quickly grew used to the cycle but it’s an annoyance nonetheless.

After doing some quests in the area, and gaining a few levels I was sent off to obtain my very own Pran. Not a Prawn. This isn’t District 9. A Pran is sort of a fairy as far as I can tell by their lithe figures and flapping insect wings. That and they flitter around like Tinkerbell quite appropriately. The Pran is similar to the pet system found in Perfect World International. You must do a few simple collection quests in order to earn your “daughter” as they are sometimes referred to, and then you get to pick from a few different types. Fire is for offensive help, Water is for defense and recovery, and Air is more for evasion.

You’ll have to get a number of different drops in order to get the type of Pran you want, but doing so is a fairly easy task even if it takes some time. If you’re not in the mood to do the gathering yourself you can always buy the essences off of other players. Once you’ve done this, you have your own little fairy girl to follow you around, annoy you like Navi from The Ocarina of Time, and help you a bit as well. She’ll even change her appearance based on what you feed her and how you interact with her. Pretty cool stuff that reminded me a little bit of days spent with my mag in Phantasy Star Online.

Aika also does a fairly good job of herding players toward the idea of grouping for both PvE and PvP early on. One quest before you even hit level ten will send you off to an instanced area, and much akin to World of Warcraft you soon will be directed to Battlegrounds which are exactly what you’re thinking as you read this. Players get to decide how big each battle is (teams of 6 to 24), how long each can take, what the mode will be, and what the winning score is.

Sadly, I don’t have more impressions of this portion of the game yet. My first glimpse of PvP in Aika will come with my second set of Open Beta impressions next week. There is a fairly large focus on PvP in Aika with a set up similar to that of Dark Age of Camelot of Warhammer Online. Five warring nations (which don’t seem to have any differences other than the color of their logo) vie for territory and the destruction of each other’s guardian stones, as well as stealing from each other’s national altars and the ownership of buff-granting relics. By all accounts from fellow players, the system seems intricate and with five opposing sides I can imagine things getting fairly hectic. Battles are supposedly supportive of up to two thousand player simultaneously, a feat I’d like to witness for myself before passing judgment.

Some other smaller things I noticed during my first session? Aika seems to automatically adjust the resolution of your entire PC display on its first load. I set it back to my screen’s normal resolution, but when I closed down the client I had to reset my regular display as well. It didn’t happen again with other sessions so I’d call it a minor annoyance, but still a game shouldn’t enact that sort of change on its own in this day and age. I’m not sure how effective it will be for botting and whatnot, but a pretty nifty feature for people who have had the unfortunate occurrence of a compromised account before is that players must create a four digit pin which is used for creation of, deletion of, and logging in of each of your characters. Considering the amount of gold sellers already in the game? I was glad to see such a feature included… I just hope I don’t have a key-logger on my machine.

All in all despite some early warning signs my first foray into Aika was a heartening one. I am anxious to play again, and hope the game continues to impress as I get to dive more into the PvP and group encounters. I’ve yet to try crafting, but it seems fairly on par with what you might expect in a traditional MMORPG. The real key, as with any F2P game, will be just how much the cash shop plays into the game as a whole, especially the PvP. In my second impressions we’ll dive into a little more of the game’s player versus player system and its crafting, and we’ll see just how much closer to madness the gold sellers can drive me.

Tags: Aika, Beta, First Impressions, Impressions, Open Beta

Planting Your Flag: Three Months After Dominion

Mar 26, 2010 Articles Recommend, eve online|476views

A fleet of battleships nervously cluster around the force field of a large control tower deep in null security space. Moments later, a cynosural field appears on their overview and ship counts in the system dramatically rise as another fleet enters and proceeds to mercilessly slaughter the defending fleet. Over the course of the next eight hours, they proceed to pound every tower in system into reinforced mode, each followed with, “Five more minutes. One more tower,” spoken over fleet communications. With every tower in system finally reinforced, the fleet jumps out, waiting to come back in a day or two to repeat the task again and finally purge the system in their ongoing campaign to control the region.

Sound familiar? This was roughly the state of sovereignty warfare before Eve Online’s Dominion expansion attempted to redesign the process. No longer would it be required to hunt down and destroy every control tower in a system before it could be considered taken while simultaneously dropping your own towers to claim it. Gone would be the days where time zone ping pong would turn into an endless back and forth ping pong game of reinforcement of hostile towers while repairing friendly towers. The new sovereignty system was to be streamlined, much more fluid and dynamic while offering alliances who plant their flags new ways to build infrastructure in their space. It’s now, three months later, I’d like to examine and highlight both the positive and negative results of Dominion for EVE Online.

TCUs, SBUs, iHubs…wat?

New expansions always mean new acronyms. Dominion was no different with its new chess pieces for the sovereignty game, the Territorial Claim Unit (TCU), the Sovereignty Blockade Unit (SBU), and the Infrastructure Hub (iHub). These three structures would be key in allowing alliances to claim, attack and build their empires while transforming the former slog of control tower sieges into a much more active struggle of invasion and defense. But what exactly do these new toys do?

Territorial Claim Unit - I claim this space in the name of…!

The TCU was designed as the alliance flag to be planted in a solar system. Anchorable at specific points in the system, it would become invulnerable after an eight hour online time while immediately granting system control to the controlling alliance. The only way to remove an online TCU would be the next structure on our list…

Sovereignty Blockade Unit - Nice system, we’ll take it.

A permanently invulnerable TCU would make sovereignty warfare non-existent, so we have the SBU to correct that issue. Should you find a nice patch of real estate you would like to own, just drop enough SBUs to cover 50% of the jump gates in the system and they will go to work making the TCU there vulnerable to your attack. Once the 3 hour online time passes for each structure, they become invulnerable and the TCU becomes attackable.

Infrastructure Hub - Making something out of nothing

Once you’ve secured your patch of space and dropped your own TCU, it’s time to lay the groundwork for your empire. The iHub itself has slots for upgrades to be plugged in once certain criteria are met in the system, allowing the controlling alliance to improve their territory beyond what it normally would be by increasing the frequency of hidden asteroid belts for miners and anomalies or complexes for more combat oriented players.

So how did all of this fit together in reality? On the infrastructure side of things, the shakeup was fairly dramatic. The decoupling of sovereignty from control towers meant alliances no longer needed to cover every moon in a system in some cases to make it more difficult for attackers to gain a foothold. Many alliances removed all but the most essential towers they were using for mining or jump bridge networks, leading to much less time invested in fueling hordes of sovereignty claiming towers. Additionally, CCP’s inclusion of a maintenance fee per system held resulted in many alliances dropping excess systems from their empires, choosing only to hold station systems and other high value areas while leaving the rest unclaimed to save money. The net result here was less time spent doing tedious maintenance tasks like fueling towers, leaving the players free to do more of what they enjoy in the game like blowing other people’s stuff up.

It’s only fitting then that the changes to sovereignty warfare are among some of the most hotly debated features of Dominion. While Dominion made taking a system in theory much more simple by requiring destruction of the TCU and iHub present, mechanics have led to a strategy of jumping into a system, camping the exits for three hours while SBUs online, reinforcing the TCU and iHub’s shields, then waiting to come back in a day or two to reinforce their armor, then come back to finish the job. This has led to campaign times increasing greatly, requiring sometimes up to a week to finish off and claim a system an alliance has set out to siege depending on how strong enemy resistance is.

Dominion was also laden with some severe bugs early on at launch, specifically pertaining to the iHub upgrades applying properly to the system they are in. Upgrading a system is based on three individual indices that are rated from 1 to 5: Military (how many NPC pirates are killed per day), Industry (How much ore is mined per day), and Sovereignty (how long that system has been held by an alliance, in days). The upgrades that go in the iHub can improve everything from how many and how good the hidden ore belts are to improving the number of anomalies (small combat sites) permanently in system. Normally, anomalies would despawn once completed, but each level of the upgrade was supposed to improve the number of anomalies present by four per upgrade, plus allow them to instantly respawn once completed. Players discovered early on that this was not the case, raising a very large and angry cry for it to be fixed since it was supposed to be one of the most appealing features of upgrading a system. The issue was patched three weeks later after discovery, fixing the issue and allowing anomalies to respawn instantly as had been intended. Other features, such as the conversion of Motherships to the new Supercarrier class and the associated hit point increase, didn’t make it into the game until Dominion 1.1.1, causing many players with these ships to not log in and use them in combat as they were now incredibly vulnerable to the new Titan super weapon, a single target death ray designed to replace the massive Area of Effect old Doomsday Devices.

In spite of the multiple issues arising with the new sovereignty and upgrade system and certain features such as Supercarriers not being available until a later patch, Dominion itself laid the groundwork for a system that CCP can conveniently build upon for later improvements and expansions. Supercarriers and their new fighter bomber drones have given the ships a new, interesting role in large fleet combat, while the changes CCP made to the Faction Pirate ships (such as the Guristas and Angels) has led to an increase in them being used in combat as well. Sovereignty itself needs more work, but Dominion has taken the out of control problems of the old system and replaced it with a much simpler one that can be given increasing complexity over time as CCP iterates further on their designs for player empires.

Tags: CCP, empires, eve online, Flag

No Plans For Consoles, STO over 100K subscribers

Mar 25, 2010 Articles Recommend|357views

Over the past couple years, it looked as though Cryptic had console ports in its plans, from bringing on board console engine programmers to public plans of expanding their subscriber base into the console market. However, when the date for the supposed console release kept getting pushed back, players grew worried, and now it seems that the concern was justified. This might have been compounded by the fact that recently Champions Online experienced a major transition as executive producer Bill Roper stepped down and Shannon “Poz” Posniewski took over.

The folks over at The Big Freaking Podcast grabbed a bit of face time with Jack Emmert, Cryptic’s Chief Operating Officer, to expand on this news as well as the future for Champions and Star Trek Online. Read on for the highlights of this interview!
“I never envisioned selling it,” Jack said of Cryptic’s first MMORPG. “I thought we’d be working on City of Heroes for a decade or more.”

Jack began the interview by tracing the history of how and why Cryptic made the transition from NCSoft to Atari, going from City of Heroes to Champions and Star Trek Online. The move was partially prompted by the desire to retain employees who would have been laid off otherwise. After landing at Atari, Cryptic built both recent MMOs from the ground up in two years as a necessity of time and funding.

When it comes to experienced studio leads, Jack puts himself in an elite category, with four MMO launches under his belt — City of Heroes, City of Villains, Champions Online, and Star Trek Online. — an impressive number for this genre. He saw a major shift in the industry after World of Warcraft’s launch, as every subsequent game’s “success” was compared to that title and fell short. He cited Auto Assault, Tabula Rasa, Age of Conan and Warhammer Online as examples of decent games that struggled after a buildup of huge hype and eventual player disillusionment. Reviewers, he said, changed the way they evaluated MMOs in this post-WoW world, for better or worse.

Jack reviewed some of Champions’ strengths — such as great character customization and lush art — while also pointing at a few of its weak spots, like unbalanced powers and obscure tooltips. “I’m just as perplexed as you are as to the description of some of these things!” he confessed. He is incredibly excited about Champions’ Revelation update, which is apocalyptic in theme and epic in scope, and boasts 20-30 hours of new content for high level players.

Although they were disappointed by some of the reviews, Cryptic is proud of Star Trek Online’s launch, which has “well over 100K subscribers” at this point. In dealing with such a huge IP, they had to “pick their battles” as to what would be included with STO. This led the team to focus on space and ground combat as the core of the game, as a necessity to its success. He knows that some fans were upset as to the lack of features like diplomacy, which he says is on its way.

While the Cryptic team was working on a console MMO for Marvel Universe Online, this is no longer the case for their current lineup. He is clear on this point: “It is not happening. The console is not a current focus.”

As for Bill Roper, Jack says he’s moved to a “floating design role” to assist both titles, and is the “good cop” in the studio to Emmert’s self-professed “bad cop.”

What are some of Jack Emmert’s dream licenses that he’d love to work with? “Godzilla and Dungeons & Dragons,” he confessed.

The man has taste.

Tags: Age of Conan, Champions Online, City of Heroes, City of Villains, Star Trek Online, Warhammer Online, world of warcraft

What The People Behind Mass Effect And Dragon Age Are Trying To Do

Mar 24, 2010 Articles Recommend|295views

I spoke to the men running the studio behind many of the world’s biggest role-playing games a couple of weeks ago, to discuss a variety of things. I left with a bonus: The BioWare Vision Statement.

Here is that vision, from the mouth of Ray Muzyka, EA’s general manager for (as he named them) BioWare Edmonton, BioWare Austin, BioWare Mythic and BioWare Montreal: “Create, deliver and evolve the most emotionally engaging gaming experiences in the world. That’s the vision for the BioWare group across the four studios, and they all have different ways to approach that.”

He mentioned this during an interview in San Francisco tied to the 2010 Game Developers Conference. I had been needling Muzyka about his propensity for using the phrase “emotionally engaging” a lot. But, he said, that’s the BioWare vision, something that he said came clear in the past year after a series of meetings with the heads of the studios.

Emotional engagement, he said, is what great role-playing games can create between the games and their players. “These experiences just pull you in… The features of classic RPGs help do that, they facilitate that. The journey of an explorer gives you the sense of awe and mystery as you enter new places. You feel like you’re the first person to see it.

“The tension of combat and feeling like you’re going to get your ass handed to by some gigantic creature or some kind of space monster or something like that. Or a villain in a contemporary setting…

“[There can also be a] sense of pride in your progression of a character.

“There are lots of emotions you can have interacting with other characters in a game: hatred, love, loyally, friendship, remorse, sadness, grief — all kinds of different interesting emotions. As long as you’re engaging people in that level, we think that’s a more compelling experience.”

Muzyka’s colleague, BioWare co-founder Greg Zeschuk offered his way of looking at it: “People are thinking about our games after they play them. The average game.. you play it, you experience it, your go back to work or home and it doesn’t stick with you. Somehow, our stuff sticks with you. It’s the character interactions, all these things that Ray discussed. It all lives with you after.”

BioWare’s four branches currently have several projects in development, including future installments of Dragon Age and Mass Effect as well as Star Wars: The Old Republic. Mythic’s ongoing project is Warhammer Online. The Montreal studio’s project(s) is/are unannounced. Expect the above goals — or an attempt to attain the above — to be targeted in all of those games.

Tags: Dragon Age, Mass Effect

The Tips and Tricks of The Farming Masters

Mar 23, 2010 Articles Recommend|793views

With around 82 million players worldwide, odds are at some point you’re going to be playing the hit Facebook game, FarmVille.

While I’ve merely dabbled in FarmVille myself, being more of a Petville man, it’s hard to ignore a game that’s played by more than one percent of the world’s population. Love it or hate it, Farmville has spread like crop disease throughout the Facebook community. It’s a wonder there’s no FarmVille: The Movie yet.

My friends are constantly posting game updates on their walls, and even my older brother, a manly construction foreman by day, dons suspenders and milks pink cows after he gets home from work. It’s slightly frightening.

But rather than raging against my fear, I’ve decided to embrace it, and game developer Zynga has generously offered to help, by sharing with us FarmVille strategy tips on how to make the most of your land, your crops, and your livestock.

Check out the gallery below for Zynga’s FarmVille advice, along with my own color commentary in italics.

Make The Most Of What’s Around
Utilize the space on your farm efficiently by keeping your plots organized. This will increase your Experience and profit.

My brother is dangerously well-organized. We’re like Goofus and Gallant.

Covet Thy Neighbors’ Gifts
Instead of purchasing animals and trees from the Marketplace, add some Neighbors! Neighbors can send these items as Gifts to you, for free! Don’t forget to return the favor by sending one back to them. Remember, what goes around, comes around!

And then Fahey shared a portion of his Facebook friends list with potential stalkers. Good call.

Take Advantage Of Your Animals
Animals are more than just cute! When your animals’ counter reaches 100% you can collect milk, eggs, wool, and other items that you can sell for coins!

My cats never give me milk, eggs, or wool. Hmph.

Here’s Why You Build Them Up…Buttercup
Buildings not only look great on your farm but constructing them can provide you with a hefty amount of Experience. Horse Stables, Dairy Barns and Chicken Coops can also be used to store your animals. If you’re lucky, you might even receive a Foal or Calf when collecting from your Horse Stable or Dairy Barn.

The more I read, the more pathetic my farm looks. Buildings?

Expand Your Horizons
Feeling cramped? If you need more room to grow, expand your farm! Additional land can be purchased from the Marketplace for Coins or Farm Cash. Remember, in order to expand your land for Coins, you must have enough neighbors! Check out the Marketplace to review how many Neighbors you need to gain additional land.

I have one neighbor. What’ll that get me?

Pimp Your Farm With Your Rides
Vehicles can be purchased from the Marketplace to assist with your farming needs. FarmVille features a Hot Rod Tractor, Harvester and Seeder that can be used to plow, plant and harvest your farm in no time!

Everyone needs a Hot Rod Tractor.

Become A Tree Hugger
When your trees’ counter reaches 100%, you can collect various types of fruit that can be sold for coins! Fruit does not rot, so no need to worry about them withering.

Yes, my farm is a pathetic fallacy, but I have a tree!

Achievement Unlocked
FarmVille features numerous Achievements that can be obtained by completing various tasks within the game. In addition to a Ribbon to show off to your friends, you can also gain Experience points, Decorations for your farm and Coins!

If they linked these to Gamerscore, you all would play, and you know it.

Time Your Harvest Well
FarmVille features crops that are ready to harvest at varying times. Make sure to plant crops that ripen when you are available. Doing so will ensure that your crops are less likely to wither.

Look at me, plowing the land like an old farm pro!

Neighborhood Watch
Assisting neighbors with daily chores and fertilizing their crops will provide you with valuable Experience points and Coins. Fertilized crops will reward additional Experience points when harvested, so don’t let them wither.

I don’t know about you, but I get by with a little help from my friends. Just sayin’.

Don’t Keep Your Comments To Yourself
Want to talk to your neighbors? Leave them a comment! The new Comment Box can be used to send messages to, and receive messages from your friends. You can also easily keep track of who has visited your farm, fertilized your crops, fed your chickens and sent gifts sent to you by clicking the “visits” tab in the Comment Box.

I wonder if he’ll make the connection?

Save Your Coins
When starting FarmVille for the first time, make sure to save your coins. Plant and Plow in moderation for the first few levels. Gradually add more plots of land once you are more familiar with the game and its mechanics. If you add too many plots of land too soon, you may not have enough money to buy crops!

Or buy more coins! That’s the beauty of having money to burn. There was an economic crisis? When?

Take Shortcuts
FarmVille features various consumables that will make your daily chores a breeze. Use the “Arborist” and “Farm Hands” items to harvest all of your trees and animals with a single click!

If all else fails, hire someone else to play the game for you.

Tags: Farming, FarmVille, Masters, Tips, Tricks

A little more conversation

Mar 22, 2010 Articles Recommend|309views

Well, gee, not much has happened since the last time we did a community spotlight in this column. Except maybe for that little VanaFest thing, and huge drops of new info on Final Fantasy XIV, and the beginning of the latter’s beta testing. So, yeah, slow month all around. This should be a pretty short column, I might just start talking about my favorite beers toward the end.

All joking aside, a lot has been happening, and it has produced more than a few diverse opinions. The immediate response to the VanaFest announcements for Final Fantasy XI was covered a couple weeks ago, but there’s still the specifics to be hammered out. After all, it’s hard to take in server merges, level cap raises, massive content drops and new add-ons all in one go. Not to mention that we do still have another game coming in the not-so-distant future, one that’s shaping up to have an interesting positional aspect to gameplay. So let’s take a look at some of the noteworthy talk from Final Fantasy’s webwide community.
A rose by any other name would be xXx_rose_xXx
There’s a side to Final Fantasy XI’s upcoming server merges that hasn’t gotten quite as much press time — the fact that the people being merged don’t have a lot of control in the matter. And by “a lot,” we really mean “any.” Which servers are being merged in isn’t up for discussion. That means that there are going to be characters who find their names ripped away and changed whether they like it or not, something that Pet Food Alpha’s FusionX isn’t terribly happy about.

On the one hand, I can certainly understand the frustration. The flip side, of course, is that there’s no way Square-Enix could have handled this that would have been fair to everyone. Someone has to lose the name, and it’s not fair to the merged players to make it an ornate process. You could even look at this as the most fair way of ensuring who keeps what name, by making it wholly arbitrary and outside of player negotiation and control. (Remember, kids, “fair” does not always mean “likable.”) It’s still worth considering, however, and it’s an unlucky turn of events for the players being merged into a new server.

The Mod squad

Final Fantasy XIV probably won’t have Windower.But our demands of UIs are increasing, and thanks to games like World of Warcraft and Warhammer Online supporting a robust modification framework we expect quite a bit out of the gate for a game. This thread is a discussion of what might happen in terms of mods — whether they’ll exist, be sanctioned, and most worryingly be necessary for endgame participation.

The last one is pretty easy to answer: no.

I can think of perhaps one mod that’s ever been necessary for endgame activities, and that was shot down by Blizzard as soon as the first expansion dropped. Mods are there to make life easier; when they’re making life just plain livable, it’s time for adjustments. Given the much more icon-heavy and presumably information-heavy setup in FFXIV, I think many of the problems Windower was created to address won’t be present in the game from the start.

That being said, open-source mod development isn’t terribly likely. But Square could always surprise us.

Metal Gear Not-Quite-So-Solid, or the plight of the sneaky WHM
Most of my high-level experience in FFXI has been as a caster, either RDM or WHM, and so I’m very familiar with the complete unreliability of two skills that may as well be core class features. I’m proud to say that I don’t recall ever dying due to a Sneak or Invisible drop, but that includes a few just-in-time alcoves that I happened to locate.

There’s a bit of a debate here about whether or not the spells should be as variable as they are. On the one hand, there are purchasable items which do the same thing, and making the spells more reliable would undercut the value of Silent Oil and Prism Powder. On the flip side, it’s argued that not needing to purchase items is one of the advantages a caster has over other jobs, and it hardly seems fair that it’s gimped due to items that exist elsewhere with little connection. While I imagine less insta-death aggro sneaking in FFXIV, it’s an interesting discussion to consider, and it’s going to be telling to see how similar effects work in Eorzea.

FFXIV on the go?

With the advent of more and more mobile apps, it seems like the perfect opportunity for Square to offload some of the more tedious maintenance portions of the game into a simple click-fest on your iPhone or Droid. (I’d prefer a Droid version, because that’s the phone I actually own, but I’m not going to demand developers cater to me. I’ll just whine if they don’t.) Of course, by the same token, there are players who hate the idea that developers might take that as permission to create more tedious portions, or make it a de facto requirement that you load the app up on your lunch break so your plants don’t die.

The thing is, this is not exactly a new idea. Square did this already, after a fashion, for Final Fantasy VIII. It was a little less of an issue at the time, since no one outside of Japanese players or die-hard American fans owned a PocketStation, so the chocobo mini-game was a bit less vital. It also didn’t unlock anything particularly interesting in the game. I wouldn’t be totally surprised to eventually see an app devoted to raising chocobos or the like, however.

Don’t worry. It’s okay you’re not testing.
To which I can only respond no. No, it is not okay.

Not okay at all.

In all seriousness, we forget that the first round of testing doesn’t so much have bugs as it is one sustained bug with occasional patches of gameplay. And I do try to fit in at least one discussion that’s a bit toward the amusing side. This one fits the bill.

Mollified by VanaFest
I’m far from the only person who had rather high hopes going into the celebrated event, but I do seem to have taken a bit of an extreme viewpoint. Thayos posted an article before the event that actually informed one of the first columns I wrote, so to see his reaction to the announcements as a whole is certainly interesting. They’re not a hundred percent happy, but they’re largely positive.

Initial rush of irritation aside, I’d wager that most of the community is — and should be — fairly happy about the overall scope of what’s coming for FFXI. For those of us a bit less pleased, well, there’s always the sequel coming out.

That’s all the community highlights we have time for this week. (Or, if you prefer, that’s all the ones I could chase down and write about until my hands got tired, Scott Adams-style.) As always, send any links, questions, or requests to transfer enormous sums of money out of Nigeria to Eliot at Massively dot com. Next week will be another chance for me to go through all of the questions I’ve gotten, so by all means, flood the mailbox.

Tags: addons, class-abilities, discussion, Final Fantasy XI, Final Fantasy XIV, Square Enix, Xbox 360

Illusion Castle: New User Interface and Party System

Mar 20, 2010 Articles Recommend|384views

It’s that time of the year again, as we move ever closer to the next eagerly-awaited update for Cabal Online. This update is shaping up to be a good one as well; where the previous update, Reloaded, refined and polished lower level content Illusion Castle is aimed at more established players, bringing a much-needed UI update, some new dungeons, weapons and other bits and pieces to improve the gameplay experience.

Part 2 of our Illusions Castle update blog  focuses on the new user interface and party system.

The New User Interface

The first, and by far the most obvious, part of the new update is the updated User Interface. As I said in the previous blog the new UI comes across as very slick, compared to the one currently in use.

Full page link - http://i.imgur.com/NCpLy.jpg

I must admit that I like it, and I welcome the change to something a bit more modern. The character name at the top right was removed, and MP received a numerical counter similar to the HP bar. Premium, Nation Bonus and notification icons were shifted to the bottom left of the screen, fitting in rather unobtrusively, which is another aspect of this new UI that I like.

The new ‘C’ button on the right of the skillbar opens up a menu for everything you could possibly need ingame: Crafting, Inventory, Buddylist, Help, etc. The menu also lists the keyboard shortcuts for the various items on it, which is a decent touch.

You will also notice that the EXP and AEXP bars shifted right down to the bottom of the screen. This is not a big change, but it fits in with the overall new look. The little jukebox bar also got an upgrade:

The extra quickslots on the skillbar are very useful, and I have gotten used to having them there in a remarkably short time. You can access the skills either by mouseclick or by using Alt+number of whichever slot you want to use. Especially on a Force Blader the expanded UI is fantastic, and I am sure most FB will agree with me.

Full page link - http://i.imgur.com/oYVPh.jpg

I saw a question somewhere on the CABAL Community forum about how auto-attack will handle the expanded bar, and it is pretty simple. Your main skillbar is still the start for the auto-attack feature. It will run through all the skills on the main bar, and if it reaches the end and there are no skills cooled down yet it will simply shift up to the first skill in the new expanded skillbar, and start to cast it. As soon as a skill on the main bar has cooled down again auto-attack will try to use it. I hope people do not try to overcomplicate the explanation again… It really is very simple.

You have to enable the expanded skillbar in the Options / Game menu. Once activated it will stay activated, like any other game option. You can also choose to lock/unlock the expanded bar, either by clicking directly on the UI (you will see where if you move your mouse over the correct area) or simply enable lock/unlock through the Options / Game menu. Having it locked simply means you cannot remove skills from the bar by accidentally clicking on them.

The New Party System

Let’s move on the new Party System. This is going to be really big news, I think. The single most important part is that you can now rejoin a dungeon if you got disconnected and you have a party member still inside the dungeon. And to make this even better you do not need a new entry item either. If you have entered it once, and your party member is still inside, you can re-enter again without an entry. This is a long overdue update, in my opinion.

The more minor parts of this is that you can now party anyone with the /party command. They do not have to be close to you, and they do not even have to be on the same map. There are some limitations, of course, such as the fact that you cannot join a party that is already inside a dungeon, and you cannot party members of the opposite nation in TG. If you relog to another channel you will automatically rejoin the party as well, and you will be able to see the other people in the party listed like this if they are on another channel:

As always, ask questions in the comments and I will try my best to answer them. Questions about the new dungeon I will answer with a later update to the blog.

Have a good weekend all!

Tags: Illusion Castle, Interface

Finding time to game during the family years

Mar 20, 2010 Articles Recommend|155views

Believe it or not, the childhood years can be a golden era for your gaming. It’s all about availability — and let’s face it, staying home to game gives you a big edge. The trick is making sure you actually are available to your children and partner while you’re gaming. (After all, isolating yourself in the back room mumbling, “Just six more kills … Just six more kills …” isn’t exactly helping anyone find a juice box or get a fresh diaper.) Still, once you stop to consider the ways that gaming can fit into your daily schedule, we think you’ll find that gaming is a great fit for a young family.

The newbie levels. The first months are the only period of childhood when some parents might prefer staying completely AFK. For most gaming parents, however, dipping into a game that’s easy and immersive can be an emotional lifesaver.

• Limit raids and instances. This is where you set the baseline expectation that will hold true for the rest of your parenting life: no raids or instances unless the other parent is “on duty” or you can be 99% certain that your child will not need you.
• Try a different game or character. It’s too frustrating trying to accomplish your usual goals in the snippets of time available to the new parent. If you want to keep in touch with the rest of the gang, create a new character to chat with while you level casually. Better still, try a game that’s specifically designed to be played in short bursts. Kids’ MMOs and free-to-plays can be great choices.
• Never underestimate the value of sleep. If your newborn is asleep, you probably should be, too.

The toddler and preschool years. Once your child is settled enough to sleep predictably at night (or if he’s also a great napper), you’re golden.

• Best practice for parents: No gaming while you care for young children. That means no sneaking in a little bit of farming; no dashing through a quick delivery mission. You’re not with your children if you’re in a virtual world at the same time. Frustrating? It can feel that way when it’s happening … But this time in your child’s life will be gone before you know it. Be here now. You won’t regret it.
• Naptime seems like a great time for gaming, but try to keep your enthusiasm on a leash. All good naps must come to an end. Make sure yours doesn’t end two bosses short of the end of the instance. It’s best to stick to casual content during naps.
• With a reliable night-time sleeper, you’re good to go. Nothing beats “getting away” while being right there at home while the kids are tucked into bed.
• Look for a family-friendly guild who’ll understand the occasional “AFK, kid awake.”
• If interruptions become too frequent and unpredictable, don’t frustrate yourself and your fellow players by attempting group-oriented content. Scale back until you can count on an uninterrupted stretch of time.
• It’s not too early for your kids to game, too! Try letting them “help” you play from time to time, or investigate games you can play together.

The childhood years. When your kids grow old enough to play outside by themselves or spend time away from your direct supervision, you gain more freedom as well. Here’s where you can work in those quick auction house checks and Fed Ex missions.

• Don’t get tempted to get over-involved in your game content. School-aged kids may spend entire afternoons without wanting more than a snack and a hug — until that day that’s nothing but one interruption after another.
• If your kids are older, you may be able to tackle group content or focused activity when they’re awake. Guard against becoming a keyboard-bound lump in the other room. If the kids are up, it’s your job to stay available and involved.
• The childhood years are a great time to game together as a family. It’s also a golden era for MMOs made especially for kids — check out our continuing “Parents Guide to X” series.

The tween and teen years. As your children become more mature and aware of what’s going on around them, be conscious of any disparities between what you say about gaming and what you do.

• Do you neglect other family members or responsibilities in order to game?
• Do you cheat, gank or indulge in inappropriate behavior online? Your kids are watching, guaranteed.
• Don’t play games you wouldn’t want them playing (M ratings, for example) when they’re around.

Be available No matter how you decide to blend gaming with your own family, remember: An effective parent is an available parent. You are not available if you’re raiding or grouped with others in any encounter you cannot step away from. Yes, you’re technically “at home” — but being immersed in a game isn’t the same as being emotionally present for your kids.

Can your kids drift up to watch you without being snapped at for interrupting? Are you free at times when they might like to chat about the day’s events, a problem at school or a sticky situation with a friend? Do they crave more time to do things together, rather than simply being in the same room while pursuing separate activities? It’s true that the family that plays together, stays together. Make sure you get plenty of playtime together in the real world, too.

Tags: children, family, featured, kids

God of War III Review: Olympic Glory

Mar 19, 2010 Articles Recommend|8,797views

Bombastic, titanic, brutally imaginative and even occasionally subtle, God of War III is the latest, best reason for a gamer to save money and skip action movies. The better thrills are on a disc on my PlayStation 3.

Just five years since the first God of War comes God of War III, a game that sticks the landing of the grand technological leap beyond the PlayStation 2 and PlayStation 3. Tortured mortal Kratos is back to conclude a narrative trilogy that has energized one angry man to wreak vengeance on the heroes and villains of Greek mythology. You’ve got blades on the end of chains, wrapped to this man’s wrists, a variety of moves to use and hordes of mythological beasts and beings to slay. At the beginning of this new game, in a moment set immediately after the end of God of War II, Kratos is scaling Mount Olympus on the back of Titans to eradicate the Greek pantheon, including its leader Zeus. That is an ambition quest, and ambition is the quality with which to measure this game — against movies, against games, against other God of Wars.

This PS3 exclusive, a stubbornly single-player action game in this era of seemingly mandatory multiplayer, is vicious and violent and built not without risk. God of War III is a sequel that is less innovative than its predecessors and one recklessly indulgent in game design cliches and possibly unwise homages to other games. It excites the same synapses as the best and most macho action movies, a clash of the Titans. But it is as a video game that it best be judged.

Loved
The First 10 Minutes: The first minutes of Half-Life 2 intrigue. The first minutes of Super Metroid unnerve. The first minutes of Super Mario 64 and Super Mario Bros. may represent two facets of perfect fun. The opening playable sequence of God of War III is equally wowing, perhaps the most impressive controlled combat sequence to ever start a game. Extraordinarily, this sequence, worth experiencing fresh if you haven’t heard about it already, is surpassed later in the game.

Titanic Struggles: God of War III’s main innovation is the animation of some of its terrain. Some levels that would seem to take place in a forest or on a massive bridge actually are occurring on the backs and limbs of Titans, the largest characters I’ve ever seen in a game. They are sometimes our terrain, terrain the flexes and moves and turns our world upside down. They are sometimes, amazingly, background players, monsters in the distance that reach into the foreground to mess with us. They are also the best justification for owning a large and high-resolution a TV as possible. Witnessing spectacle at this scale is a reminder of how massive the mountains of reality and our imagination can be and how quaint the virtual worlds we’ve played in have been so far.

Extra Weapons: There is little surplus in Kratos’ latest war of gods. This game presents a massive scale, but it has neither massive playtime other games may have nor the wasteful distractions its predecessor did. Kratos’ journey sends him up and down the strata of Greek mythology, down to Hades and up to the palace of Zeus. On that journey, even when areas are returned to, little time feels wasted. Everywhere, Kratos is tasked with something new and interesting to do, one challenge at a time. Kratos is also armed with an expanding arsenal of powers and weapons, all of which feel relevant to the fiction and interesting to use. Most action games that offer a large arsenal assume players will specialize and allow a gamer to neglect the variety offered. God of War III expects and justifies the player’s use of every last thing offered in the game, each square foot and each new blade or power worth experiencing.

Those God of War Cliches: It’s a God of War, so Kratos will be growling a lot. He’ll have extraordinary off-camera, semi-interactive sex. He’ll have context-sensitive super-kills, doors that only open when the player mashes a button and experience points to gain and then spend leveling up weapons and abilities. I am not a fan of series cliches — trappings, as they can fittingly be called. God of War III adds far less to the series formula than it replicates. But, this time, it was hard to mind, because everything controls so well and passes so quickly. Plus, if you activate the sex scene for a second time (that’s what pro reviewers do, you know), someone involved in the scene makes an ESRB (games rating board) joke. Fourth-wall-breaking, sure, but I can stand a game that acknowledges which buttons it is re-pressing and moves on.

Stuff That Shouldn’t Have Worked, Worked: Maybe video game design progress was another failed myth. Forget player-controlled cameras, God of War still doesn’t have one. This is a game with invisible walls that block Kratos from jumping and dashing to places it looks like he should go (but the designers don’t want you to take him to). In an era of immersive games, this game risks embarrassment for retaining the series’ use of the illusion-shattering appearance of button-prompts. Many millions spent on rendering Greek mythology, so convincingly that you think you can smell Hercules’ armpits, are potentially ruined by the appearance of PS3 thumbsticks on the TV. They are there to let you know it’s time to press them or twirl them, probably to provoke some brutal beast-killing move. Theoretically they and the lack of camera control and the invisible walls should be the archaic ruin of this game. No. They instead make the case that following the developers’ mandates, proceeding on the prescribed path and doing what one is told, can make for the most exciting of thrill rides. Choice and progress be damned to Hades.

Subtle Touches: Once in a while the God of War III developers get so experimental you might think their artsy neighbors who made poetry-game Flower snuck in and added some grace to the grunt of this production. But let’s give the God of War III folks the benefit of the doubt that they are responsible for the game’s spare but impressive experiments with perspective and control. To give one vague example, there is a moment when Kratos needs to walk toward a blinding light. The game’s camera suddenly closes in tightly on Kratos’ back, one of his arms extended, palm spread, to block the light. The player will soon realize that the only way to make Kratos advance is to use a PS3 control stick to keep Kratos hand in front of the light. The controls of the game have been changed for this one sequence, the struggle redefined. Other, smarter moments like these appear just often enough to signal that God of War III isn’t just a game for manly men, but for manly men who can appreciate a dash of subtle artistry.

The Best Bosses: I’ve not battled and bulldozed a more interesting set of bosses since I cleared Metal Gear Solid 3. Each of God of War III’s bosses, until its disappointing final one, are imaginative and impressive spectacles. Some are a test of combat strategy and endurance; others are semi-interactive cut-scenes. Most are superb and like little else you’ve played before.

Something About Yourself: How angry are you? By the end of God of War III, you will know.

Hated
Reading: Occasionally, Kratos can stop and read. Why? To teach the player about where in the mythology he is. In these moments, the game’s voice-acting is replaced with text-reading and the player is finally given camera control, but only on a swivel so a vista can be observed from beyond a book where Kratos has stopped to read. These should be the vista moments, the time to stop the car, get out, stretch legs and smell the mountain air. Instead, they are the clunky moments that are begun and ended with unintuitive button prompts and turn our hero from a convincing man of wrath to a dull tourist. God of War III has much that is magnificent to look at; it is unfortunate that the designers couldn’t find a better way to compel gamers to pause and take it all in.

Decline Of The God: God of War III peaks, but after an amazing ante-upping sequence of excellent action and puzzle-based levels, it leaves its best moments behind. The game, as svelte as it is and as clear of time-wasting tedium as it should be praised for being, nevertheless glides through a less interesting final third. Be prepared to be amazed by this game, but be prepared to be left a little hungry at the end.

How thrilling can a summer blockbuster movie be for those whose hearts have withstood the rush of God of War III? Not very much, I think. Action games are at risk of seemingly equally outclassed. God of War III ends quickly and with a surprisingly artful finale, and, yes, it offers the ability to replay it in a harder mode or with new difficulty and power tweaks. It has a few tough new timed challenges too. But it does boldly risk the trade-in or the sell-back after its 10-hour adventure has been finished. It risks being a game you’d play once and then move on. But it is a game, more so than any I’ve played in a long time, that feels unforgettable — unforgettable minute after minute so that you won’t even forget the mid-boss you tackled in hour three or the block-pushing puzzle in hour eight. Credit the exclusion of repetitious sequences or uninteresting goals and the inclusion of well-controlled spectacle.

This is a game that is so mighty in its expression, so loudly in your face, so boldly an advertisement of the power of the PlayStation 3, that it leaves its mark, punches its impression in your memory and seems too good to chuck. This game shows off and gets it right. It is an Olympic achievement, worthy of Kratos’ burning drive.

God of War III was developed by Sony Santa Monica and published by Sony Computer Entertainment of America for the PS3 on March 16. Retails for $59.99 USD.

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Look on Rise of the Godslayer expansion

Mar 18, 2010 Age of Conan, Articles Recommend|2,446views

We are unabashed fans of Robert E. Howard’s Conan mythos, so naturally we jumped at the chance to sit down and talk with Funcom’s Craig Morrison at this year’s Game Developer’s Conference. Morrison, executive producer and game director for the Norwegian game maker’s Age of Conan MMORPG, gave a presentation on the forthcoming Rise of the Godslayer expansion and then took a few of our questions about the additions in store for the sword and sorcery title.

First things first: the eye-catching title refers to the expansion’s place in Howard lore, and the game makes use of the events in The Tower of the Elephant, one of the most highly regarded Howard short stories. In a nutshell, twenty years prior to the setting of original game, a young thief named Conan managed to slay the god Yag-Kosha. Unaware of the god’s role as a protector of the lands of Khitai, the barbarian unwittingly loosed a tide of dark forces on the eastern lands which have coalesced into a threat to the modern day Aquilonian kingdom, which of course is now ruled by King Conan.

Players will be swept up in the story of Khitai as they travel to the far east and attempt to deal with the dangers presented by the evil that has been corrupting the lands for the last two decades.

Combat Evolved

Age of Conan is a title that has undergone significant changes since its May 2008 launch, not the least of which are personnel moves (Morrison taking over for Gaute Godager) as well as many performance optimizations and game play tweaks. Morrison spoke of the development team’s mindset from launch on into the present day, using that as a spring board to present details on the forthcoming expansion’s feature set.

“Before our launch we had this mantra of combat, combat, combat, and for the last eighteen months after launch we shifted it slightly to content, looking into the content gaps that existed when the game launched, adding new community features like guild renown, PvP functions that increase the longevity of the game and rebind the players into the game world,” he said. With Rise of the Godslayer, combat is still essential, but there is also a laser focus on player choice and game play consequences.

Factions, Factions, and More Factions

Factions play a large role in the troubled lands of Khitai, with a total of ten separate groups vying for the player’s loyalty. True to the source material, Age of Conan’s factions present many shades of grey, rather than the clear cut good versus evil nature of many MMORPG faction choices. Morrison commented that players will generally be aligning themselves with between three and five factions at any given time, and the fact that many of these groups dislike one another will force gamers to make definitive choices that will affect everything from equipment to quest availability and therefore progression through the expansion’s content.

In terms of gear, each faction offers new armor and weapons to the player, with a total of eighty new armor sets spread among the ten groups. Each set will be visually and statistically unique, thereby appealing to a broad range of tastes while simultaneously furthering the expansion’s goal of choice and consequence. There are also two new faction mounts, the tiger and the wolf, available through a new loyalty quest line that sees the player acquire a young cub before guiding it along the path to becoming either a dedicated mount or a combat companion.

Systemic Anomaly

In addition to factions, the other systemic addition brought on by Rise of the Godslayer is a form of alternate advancement. As with most MMO expansions, there are new general feats, archetypal feats, and class-specific feats, but Morrison was quick to point out that Funcom put a lot of work into these additions rather than simply layering them on top of the existing game. Of particular interest is a new mechanic that draws inspiration from Guild Wars by allowing the player access to dozens of new powers while simultaneously requiring that they choose six of them to take into combat. Abilities can be chosen based on the types of situations the player might encounter, but no changes are possible to this new ability bar once combat has begun.

Another noteworthy addition is the concept of perks, which are basically abilities that can have a major impact on situational combat and therefore occupy two slots on the aforementioned bar. Finally, Morrison unveiled a new training mode, likening it to EVE Online’s offline skill progression. Players will select an ability to train, and after a period of elapsed time, will return to find it more powerful and useful.

Dungeons and Barbarians

New dungeons and instances are plentiful in the lands of Khitai, and with them comes an overhaul to dungeon-running mechanics that Funcom hopes will add both longevity and challenge to the PvE portions of the game. In one example, Morrison showed players using the game’s emote system to navigate portions of the new Celestial Necropolis instance, and explained how the party will need to plan tactically in order to have enough bodies to solve puzzles and take on enemy mobs simultaneously. “it’s the first time in MMOs that I’ve heard of anyone using their animation system to actually trigger gameplay,” Morrison commented.

In addition, all of the puzzles and challenges in an instanced dungeon will hint at the tactics necessary to take down the final boss. Each dungeon will also feature a hard mode which can only be activated via contextual gameplay. As an example, Morrison spoke of a particular type of emote angering a particular boss, which would in turn trigger the instance’s elite mode.

As if all that weren’t enough, Rise of the Godslayer also features a brand new playable race, the Khitan, available at character creation, as well as a plethora of quests for both new and existing characters. Veteran players will also be able to further customize the appearance of their older characters through vendors that offer new tattoos, hairstyles, and other options. Morrison also hinted at further customization options during initial character creation. One oft-requested feature that won’t be shipping with the expansion is social armor and clothing tabs. Morrison explained that cosmetic clothing is something that Funcom has wanted to implement for awhile but has taken a back seat to more necessary gameplay and balancing issues. “Once the expansion is done it will likely find its way into one of the updates,” he said.

In the zone

Finally, the land of Khitai itself brings several changes to the Age of Conan game world. Five expansive new play fields have been added, all of them featuring the lush eastern terrain and architecture from Howard’s stories. Morrison also spoke about Funcom’s incorporation of player feedback on the initial game with regard to zones and feelings of linearity and disconnection when loading across huge distances.

“While we’re still using our zoning technology, what we’ve done is kind of stitched the play fields of Khitai together so while we still achieve this fantastic level of high detail art, the experience is much more consistent for the player, the play fields are much more open and vast so when a player moves from one region to another they can literally turn around and see where they’ve just come from, with visual landmarks off in the distance that allow them to navigate,” he said.

All in all, Rise of the Godslayer will certainly make a huge impact on the world of Age of Conan and its players.

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New Zone Added for Tiger's Lair Event in Sho Online

Mar 17, 2010 Articles Recommend|3,758views

Seoul Korea, March 18, 2010- Big changes are taking place in Sho Online (www.shoonline.net). New events, updates and fame resets are planned for the March 18, 2010 update.

Sho Online (www.shoonline.net) is holding “Tiger’s Lair” Event starting on March 18, 2010. In this event, a new map, a very special zone called the Tiger’s Lair will be introduced. This lair will only be opened for a limited time. To enter, one must possess and perform a special ceremony using certain items, an item that can only be obtained through series of combinations of (‘Tiger’s Claw’, ‘Tiger’s Meat’, and ‘Tiger’s Molar’). Travel to this mysterious world and be granted tons of prizes you only dreamed of.

Also Zone Warp system will be added. All players who want to use the Zone Warp function will have to teleport back to the castle. After they click on an npc, a list of zones will appear. They only have to choose which zone to teleport to. After this update, there will be no need for players to waste their valuable time walk through the massive maps.

Now is a good time to start anew. To encourage competition, War Fame will be reset. Now new players will have equal chance with the veteran players in acquiring the General title.

For more information, please visit the Sho Online web site.

Tags: New Zone, Sho Online, Tiger's Lair

GDC 2010 Dragon Nest hands-on

Mar 16, 2010 Articles Recommend|2,294views

Ever since the Diablo franchise hit it big with gamers across the world, competing companies have attempted to replicate Blizzard’s addictive click-and-loot gameplay with varying degrees of success. There’s just something satisfying on a primal level when you wipe out entire armies of monsters with a mere 2,142 mouse clicks. Mega-MMO publisher Nexon (Mabinogi, Dungeon Fighter Online) is bringing over another contender in Dragon Nest, a fast and furious dungeon crawler (minus the Vin Diesel, unfortunately).

At GDC 2010, we were fortunate enough to nab a hands-on with Dragon Nest, a title could almost be considered a sibling of Nexon’s Vindictus. Both games are action-oriented, twitch-based and include cutting through swaths of enemies for the glory of your inventory. However, while Vindictus is serious in tone and looks, Dragon Nest goes for a “cuter” feel. In markets where Dragon Nest and Vindictus exist simultaneously, such as Korea, each can co-exist peacefully while not undercutting one another.

Of course, Dragon Nest is more than a cute face and a mouse waiting to be worn out — hit the jump after the gallery to chew through this colorful game with us.

Have Huge Honkin’ Sword, Will Travel

Dragon Nest is a melting pot of MMO styles. Its gameplay is firmly rooted in the action-RPG setup of its forefathers, yet it goes beyond mere mindless hack-and-slashery to roll out an epic storyline as players progress through the world. Several cutscenes will attempt to engage you in the tale as you meet new characters and travel to distant lands.

After picking up a big sword (or bow and arrow, or staff, or slinky — whatever floats your armory boat), you’ll follow your character in a third-person, over-the-shoulder perspective as you run headlong into combat. And you will engage in some combat, trust us. Learning to best wield your skills and hit precious combos will make a huge difference between who ends up as mincemeat on the ground — you or your foe.

Show Some Class, Will You?

Dragon Nest sports four classes: the Warrior (2H-weapon user), Archer (bow), Cleric (healing and lightning attacks) and Sorcerer (nuker). These basic classes are customized by players when they level up, offering them the opportunity to pursue several “paths of discipline” in which to specialize.

We got our hands on the Warrior, who didn’t mind a little man-handling in the name of gaming journalism. Whatever you might expect from the warrior stereotype, Dragon Nest could surprise you. This barbarian unleashed over-the-top attacks, such as slamming his hammer into the ground to create a gigantic shockwave, charging across the rooms to brutalize foes, and even flipping up into the air to lay the smackdown.

We also peered over the shoulder of MMORPG’s Jon Wood to watch him play the Archer class. Truly, this is a first-person shooter’s wet dream. He used a targeting reticule to fire on his enemies, calling on abilities such as multi-shots, rapid fire, and various types of arrows to rack up a pile of corpses.

As you can see in the video below, the combat in this game is anything but slow; rapid attacks, chain combos and all life as we know it being demolished in the name of large damage numbers is par for the course.

Riddle Me This, Batman

This isn’t to say that combat is the sole activity in Dragon Nest, as players will find their intellects tested by sheer logical madness in the form of diabolical puzzles that have the very power to drive you insane! Okay, maybe that’s somewhat of an exaggeration. Actually, the game’s puzzles seemed simplistic in the match we played, as they were just switches that sat around the map that needed to be activated — somewhat like Phantasy Star Online.

Fortunately, the combat is more than satisfying. Nexon promises that geography will factor into the fights, such as being able to knock enemies off ledges and using obstacles to your advantage. And when you do crush your enemy into submission, they explode into gratifying bursts of items and gear. As Min Kim said while we played, “It’s like popping loot piñatas.”

For advanced players of the game, Dragon Nest will roll out both PvP and dungeon raids as higher-level challenges.

While Dragon Nest was finished before Vindictus, Nexon chose to push Vindictus to the US first, so expect to see Dragon Nest shortly after its action-RPG brother hits the shores.

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GDC 2010 Hands-on with Star Wars-The Old Republic

Mar 15, 2010 Articles Recommend, City of Villains|1,346views

I could easily spend this article telling you about the amazing LucasArts Presidio compound, its history and the incredible relics of the Star Wars universe adorning the walls and hallways. But I won’t. I could also easily go on and on about how George Lucas and Star Wars inspired my childhood, and how even setting foot in the presence of such greatness was a bit overwhelming. But I won’t.

Instead, I will focus on the only reason you’re reading this: my first impressions of Star Wars: The Old Republic and the Trooper class.

Once we arrived at LucasArts HQ, we were introduced to a few members of the LucasArts and BioWare crew, then we each sat down to our very own computer with our very own Trooper class character set up to run through our very own test mission. Although we weren’t playing together in the game, we were all set up in the same location to run the same mission.

Interestingly enough, we weren’t really given an overview of the game or an intro to the gameplay. They sat us down and told us to have fun. There was a print-out of a small cheat-sheet for help with the mission if needed, but I was honestly stuck to the monitor from the second I sat down.
I started out by talking to a quest-giving NPC standing near me. A cinematic-style dialogue started, with a fully-voiced exchange between my character and the NPC. My answers to the NPC’s questions were based on a few choices, ranging from positive and agreeable to frankly argumentative. Against my best instincts to always cause problems for NPCs in games, I agreed to the terms of the mission and headed off towards the giant base just up the hill.

At first, I aimlessly wandered up towards some enemies, not realizing they wanted to blast me, until they actually did. I quickly figured out how to retaliate, killing both guards quite easily. As I made my way through the rest of the base, I realized that not only is the combat extremely easy to grasp, but it’s easy to master as well. There is no auto attack, so you feel more involved in what you’re doing. The skills are clearly labeled, the cooldowns on each are distinct and the mouse-over tips are brief enough to understand with a quick glance-over during intense combat.

I also noticed after a few battles that I wasn’t really getting hurt. I’m not sure if this is something special with the Trooper class itself, the way the demo was set up for a bunch of journalists, or just the way the game is, but I was beginning to feel quite invincible, taking on 3-4 guards or sentry bots at once.

Additionally, my aggro range seemed really small. I was running between clusters of guards without as much as a warning shot. They seemed to completely not see me.

Once I made my way through waves of guards (by fighting or just passing by), I entered an elevator to a lower floor. As a testament to how comprehensive the quest log, map and quest indicators on the map were, I was able to easily find my objective on the base’s lower floor. The computer I was commissioned to hack was shimmering (as any Champions Online or Star Trek Online fan might recognize), so it was easy to find exactly where I needed to be.

I encountered a few more cinematic interactions with NPCs throughout the base, and each one was entertaining enough to halt that temptation to skip. While my character and the NPCs talked, the camera angles changed regularly, showing every possible angle of work they put into making these discussions immersive and believable.

We were given around 45 minutes to play to our hearts’ content, although once I completed the mission and started wandering around outside the base, I was gently reminded to stick to the base area — curse my exploring nature! Even though those 45 minutes flew by, I was able to get a real feel for how the game is played and even how I believe the game will be received.

So to break it down by category, let’s take a look at a summary of my first impressions:

Combat
Easy, comprehensive and immersive. The blaster effects and explosions from the grenade launcher were very well done. I could take cover, the enemies took cover, and I felt like I was really fighting for my life. Even if my health bar barely moved.

At level 4, the Trooper is equipped with a normal blaster skill, an auto-fire skill, a grenade launcher skill, a rifle-butt melee attack and a sticky bomb. It took me only a few moments to get the hang of crowd control with the rifle butt’s stun and a few well-placed grenades to make quick work of the small groups of guards.

I felt that the enemy AI was a refreshing change, as they took cover and used the environment to their advantage. The respawn rate was practical, as I could run back by an area and see the fruits of my handiwork still lying around in various positions of death. That was actually a fun little addition.

Graphics/Art Style
Gorgeous landscapes and environments. Realistic lighting effects, shadows and character animations. As with most MMOs, the character’s faces aren’t the greatest (especially during cut-scenes), but I think the stylized look of the characters mixed with the more realistic look of the environments works really well. Basically, the screenshots you’ve seen so far aren’t lying. The game really does look that good.

Quests
Comprehensive, concise and clearly-labeled. The meat of the lore and interaction is taken care of in the voiced cinematics, so checking back with your quest log gives you a brief summary of your objectives. That was very welcome, but you need to pay attention during the cinematics.

The quest objectives are marked by a yellow circle on the map showing you the general vicinity of where you need to be. This allows you to get within the perimeter, but doesn’t hold your hand too much.

Cinematics
Immersive, interactive and entertaining. Despite a few camera angle bugs that I’m sure they’ll fix by launch, it was nice to watch a typical wall of text in any other MMO become a short movie in which I could control the outcome. Let me remind you, this is not on one or two quests, this is every quest. The voice acting I experienced by a half-dozen voices was done very well. There was never a point where I felt it was done cheaply or felt awkward, as I regularly encounter in other games with voice work.

Overall, I am extremely impressed by this game. I’m pleased to see that they didn’t try to reinvent the wheel on game basic game play, but at the same time, they didn’t just cut and paste from more popular games. This is a BioWare game on a LucasArts property, so you just know it’s going to be done right, and from what I’ve seen so far, it is done right.

But how well will it be received? Of course, that’s hard to predict, but coming from someone who has played hundreds of games and doesn’t consider himself TOO much of a Star Wars fanboy, I can see this game being a big hit. It’s approachable, understandable and really quite fun. Now I can’t wait to get it home at launch and try out the rest of the classes.

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God of War III Sex Mini-Game, Exposed!

Mar 15, 2010 Articles Recommend|7,232views

Like previous God of War games, God of War III has sex mini-games. Because a mini-game is pretty much what sex is, isn’t it?

The scene takes place in Aphrodite’s Chamber, and was almost cut. “It was more a debate between me and several of the story writers,” God of War III director Stig Asmussen told website UGO. “I was like, ‘I’d rather not have it in there at all.’”

“We make it more than it’s been in the past, but we also give it more of a purpose,” said Asmussen. “It’s not just you going in there, finding some corner and having sex with somebody. It’s something that guides you through the story. You get information and more than just a fluff moment.”

Heavily censored footage has surfaced on YouTube, along with pixelated screengrabs. And, of course, the mini-game in its entirety. The clip is viewable here. Judge for yourself, but be warned: There’s nudity and possible spoilers.

While there is nudity, the scene itself isn’t exactly sexy per se. The dialogue is hammy in a goofy, porn sort of way, and pails in comparison to the sexual pyrotechnics of adventure game Uncharted 2 and sci-fi game Mass Effect.

The point, however, of the God of War mini-games are and have always been to show how manly protagonist Kratos is.

シリーズ恒 例、『ゴッド・オブ・ウォー III』のセックスミニゲーム動画

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