fo
Latest
Fallout Online newsletter tells stories and shows off new weapons
Dark humor has always been an important part of the Fallout series, being especially obvious in the first two Fallout games that Interplay developed before selling the single-player game's rights to Bethesda. Now, with the fourth edition of the Fallout Online newsletter, The Armageddon Rag, we're not only treated to some typically dark and twisted storytelling but given a peek at some of the weapons that we'll see in the wastes. Along with the 9mm Burreyetta Model 86d seen above, there are other deliciously wicked-looking bits of weaponry concept art to check out, such as the Chemblaster 3000 CDS, a special stimpak that insists "even the dead will rise" when it is used, and slightly more familiar weapons like the AKA-47. Between the art and the descriptions, we're sure any post-apocalyptic fan waiting for Fallout Online will find goodness to geek out on. Just don't greeble on yourself, OK?
NetDevil lays off large portion of its staff [Updated]
When it comes to game development, it's somewhat common to see a layoff or realignment of development team members shortly after the release of a title. However, it appears that NetDevil's most recent round of layoffs came as a complete surprise to its employees. After all, the company's most recent release, LEGO Universe, is well past that initial post-launch phase, having gone live back in October 2010, and both Jumpgate Evolution and Fortune Online are (at least supposedly) under development currently at the studio. There are jobs posted on the hiring page, as well. However, it appears that the developer, owned by Gazillion Entertainment, is on shaky ground as of this morning, according to rumors. The truly horrible thing about this isn't that some developers were laid off -- it's how the affected employees found out. It appears that some of the NetDevil employees were notified that they were going to be laid off via Facebook postings before they were officially contacted by the company, according to a blog posting by Toby Cochran, who worked as a character/creature animator on LEGO Universe. Apparently an image showing a tombstone with the inscription "NetDevil R.I.P. Oct 1997-Feb 2011" started making the rounds on social networking sites shortly thereafter, indicating a far bleaker picture than just that of layoffs. We've reached out to NetDevil and Gazillion Entertainment for comment on the rumors and what, if anything, it will mean for the development of Jumpgate Evolution and Fortune Online. We'll be sure to update this post as soon as we have further information. In the meantime, we hope that all the talented, hard-working NetDevil employees who were affected are able to land fabulous new well-paying spots elsewhere, continuing to do what they love. [Update: We received the following statement from NetDevil: "The transition of members of our team to the LEGO Group allows us to conclude the work-for-hire segment of NetDevil's business and lets us expand our internally-published, free-to-play game businesses based on our own properties and licensed properties. Gazillion is wholly focused on developing, operating, and publishing the next generation of browser-delivered games," said David Brevik, President and COO. "We're proud of the LEGO Universe game that our team built, and we are certain that it has a bright future."]
New Fallout Online artwork sighted
It seems like the Fallout Online hype-machine is slowly grinding into gear, what with the recent FAQ update and now word of some cryptic new artwork being sent to mailing list subscribers late last week. Destructoid has the scoop on the email blast, which kicked off with a brief textual teaser before leading into the imagery. "There are many stories and many more tall tales about life in the wastelands, this is one of them," read the notice. In addition to artwork like the vista shown above, subscribers were sent images of a letter scrawled by a character named Les, who waxes on about the Menkey Butte Mine and a "Ragskin" named Fast Eddie. Yeah, we can't make sense of it either, but it's a great way for Interplay to pique our collective interest.
Freesky Online merges two servers, offers players compensation
Browser-based MMO strategy game Freesky Online has just finished merging two of its servers to help bring the player population up. The Paradise and Canaan servers have been turned into a single server called Paradise&Canaan, and the server's map was made bigger and filled with more resources to give the inflated population a chance to prosper in their new environment. The hope is that a greater population will increase the amount of PvP action that goes on and offer new strategic alliance opportunities.Along with the positive effects, the merge brought a lot of inconvenience to players: those that had a character on both servers were only able to keep one, and friends lists and existing alliances were deleted. Players were also unhappy about having their ongoing activities interrupted. To make up for all of this, the game's developers IGG have put together some compensatory goodies for affected players. There are two different gift packages; the players' reputation level affects which pack they will receive. To see what you might be entitled to, visit the news article about the merge at the game's official site.
