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Former Flagshipers form Gravity Bear
Phil Shenk has become the latest to row ashore following the sinking of Flagship Studios, announcing the launch of a new development studio awesomely named Gravity Bear. Shenk will serve as the CEO, while according to Shacknews another Flagship survivor, former Hellgate: London senior software engineer Kevin Klemmick, has climbed aboard the dense grizzly as technical director. The studio is the third to emerge from Flagship's splintered remains, following the founding of Runic Games and Turbine's new Redwood City, CA branch in recent months. Nothing yet has been revealed regarding Gravity Bear's focus or future projects, though we have to wonder if the experience of being sucked into Flagship's financial hellgate was enough to sour the company on dabbling once more in anything remotely MMO.
Hellgate: London programmer claims staff leaving 'in droves'
Things are not well at Hellgate: London developer Flagship Studios according to Guy Somberg, an audio and gameplay programmer at the fledgling studio. Somberg wrote on his personal blog a month ago – which was recently dug up by GI.biz – that people are leaving the company "in droves" following the poor sales and negative feedback of its post-apocalyptic jaunt.Somberg does have some hope for the future (wait, isn't London occupied by demons in 2038?), saying that the game is doing well in Korea and has yet to start in China. He concludes that he likes the job, but that all the artists and programmers leaving the company is taking a toll on the future of Hellgate: London and Flagship as a studio. Well, we're hearing good things about Mythos ...
Hellgate: London finds success in Korea
Last year's launch of Flagship Studios' Hellgate: London was not exactly what we'd call a family album moment, its release plagued by client crashes and enough bugs to have the Orkin man calling for backup. Still, one person's trash is another's treasure, as Bill Roper and company have announced that in the two weeks since the Korean launch of the Hellgate beta more than a million accounts have been registered. According to Flagship, this makes the MMO the most successful online game launch in Korea in the past three years.Hellgate's beta officially kicked off in Korea on January 15, and according to Korean online game tracking service Gametrics, the game quickly found an audiences with gamers in PC Cafes, ranking ninth among online games, fifth among RPGs, and was the most popular beta being played. This was followed by a commercial release on February 22, a launch that Flagship boasts achieved "record sales," though it's a record that we're pretty sure will be broken soon enough.
Hellgate: London balances, Stonehenge coming today
Do you still care about Hellgate: London? We don't ask out of an attempt at snarkiness, we're asking with genuine curiosity. We ask because there's a big update for subscribers dropping today and we just want to know if that describes any of you. Or maybe you're a former player and just want to keep up with changes. For example, even though out brief fling with the game ended months ago, we were still interested to hear that the game was adding Stonehenge, a large outdoor hub designed to break up some of the monotony of city living. There's also some balance tweaks to the character classes and a new Dueling Arena.But do you care? Have you played? Are you still? Do you want to know what's going on in the world of Hellgate? Does this update pique your interest? Because we get the feeling that most of you have moved on or were never that interested to begin with. We look forward to hearing if that's right or off-base.
Metareview: Hellgate: London
Hellgate: London sprang forth on Wednesday and, well, reviews have been skewing average. Hellgate changed a bit over the years. Then there's the details of its optional subscription program and what it means for the game in the long term. Hellgate is now out there for the consumers to vote with their wallets during this cluttered holiday season. As for the reviewers, they don't seem to hate the game, but do get hung up on pesky flaws that pile up. EuroGamer (70/100): "Our reservations are balanced out against the obvious talent and effort that has been ploughed into the game - and the simple fact that every time we put Hellgate down, either during its extended beta period or while reviewing it, we were itching to get back to it within hours. It's compulsive, it's good fun and it's certainly addictive; perhaps as the online service evolves, it'll even be worth coming back to for a further evaluation. For now, though, this is a game too deeply flawed to deserve the masterpiece status we'd all hoped for." Game Daily (70/100): "It's easy to write Hellgate off as a mediocre game, but the truth is it's not altogether bad. In fact, it has some truly excellent innovations, like the item augmentation system that can imbue common items with special properties. Hellgate also has a machine that increases the level of an item, so players don't have to ditch useful armor or weapons because they outgrew them. Additionally, the game has a fantastically wicked sense of humor that comes out in the NPC dialogue. The problem is, the game tries to be a little bit of everything, but no one aspect gets fully developed." GameSpy (60/100): "Sadly, nothing says that Hellgate: London was pushed out the door too early better than the buggy state of the game's multiplayer. Since the game was pushed live on October 30, the multiplayer servers have been plagued by registration problems and downtime (which, naturally, results in the official site and forums getting overloaded and crashing). More problematic are a couple of nasty bugs including frequent crashes to desktop, slowdown and lag during combat and a weird display bug that makes all the character models on screen disappear, leaving the player as just a disembodied weapon floating in mid-air. GameSpy editor Fargo ran into a reproducible bug where he'd actually lose one of his weapons every time he was dual-wielding and logged off, which, as bugs go, is an inexplicable gamebreaker."
Hellgate: London uses tailored in-game advertising
Following the release of the demo for Hellgate: London, a somewhat disappointing discovery has been made. Heartless_Gamer has a post that shows that the game's licensing agreement has provisions for them to collect information about users, to help them tailor in-game advertising. In other words-- adware. Hellgate: London is being published by EA, and as Heartless_Gamer points out, this isn't the first time they've bundled this helpful addition with their games. Battlefield 2142 caused a stir when the full retail version of the game did exactly what Hellgate: London is doing now. Is there really any point in hoping that this will only be included with the demo of Hellgate?The advertising seen in the demo is in the form of posters on the walls, but I'm willing to bet that they could be a lot more creative than that. There is also the question of whether we want to see ads in games at all, "dynamically served" or otherwise. If Hellgate is set in a post-apocalyptic London, then why am I seeing current-day ads in-game? Games in the sports genre include bucketloads of advertising, but in most cases, the fact that those ads are there at real life sporting events lends more authenticity to the games -- okay, perhaps not the Burger King's Fight Night cameo (coincidentally also EA's doing). Let us know where you draw the line in the comments section, and if Hellgate: London is collecting information from you, will you still buy it?
Hellgate: London demo available now on GameDaily
A day before it busts out of hell everywhere, the Hellgate: London single player demo is available at GameDaily today. No stupid logins or signing up, just download and go. Hellgate: London is the long awaited first game by Flagship Studios, whose development team consists of old Blizzard employees that worked on Diablo, Warcraft and StarCraft.The 1.5GB Hellgate: London demo will allow players to choose from two of the six available classes in the full game: "The swashbuckling melee action of the Blademaster or long-range killing action of the Marksman." The demo is a good chance to get a taste for what lurks in London before its Halloween launch (Nov. 2 for Europe).
Hellgate: London release date set for Halloween
Clever! What immediately springs to mind when you hear the word "hellgate"? Simple: it's a gate leading, ostensibly, straight to Hell where all sorts of freakish ghoulies live. Tack "London" on the tail end of that and you've got one scary-ass video game title. What better day to unleash Hellgate: London upon an unsuspecting world than October 31st, All Hallows Eve, Halloween! Unfortunately, despite having one of Europe's premier cities right there in the title, Europeans will have to wait until November 2nd (oh, that's not so bad) to play Flagship Studios debut title.That date is all they're sharing for now. If you're looking for details about that $10/month optional subscription-based service – featuring "huge amounts of content on an ongoing basis in the form of quests, character classes, demons, items, etc." – you'll have to wait some more. That information is "coming soon."
Optional Hellgate: London subcriptions set at $9.95 per month
Games for Windows Magazine (via Hellgate Guru) reports that the optional MMO mode in Hellgate: London will cost players $9.95 per month. The subscription service, provided in addition to a single-player campaign and basic online functionality, will benefit from a continuous stream of content from developer, Flagship Studios, as well as several other features. Compared to the once-off package, these include round-the-clock support services, a lack of server queues, four times the amount of characters allotted to each player, increased item storage, guild functionality and other typical MMO offerings. In essence, the monthly fee acts as a gateway to a different business model, netting you an "elite" version of the post-apocalyptic RPG. The absurdly lucrative business model that powers an MMO like World of Warcraft must be the ultimate temptation and source of envy to those publishing games in the more traditional vein. Whereas most transactions end once the game is purchased, consistent online universes have the player not only buy the game, but continue sending money month after month. Much like slipping on a patch of oil deposited on the driveway by your neighbor's recently discovered geyser, it's not a financial prospect you can easily ignore.
The top 5 "secret" games coming to 360
According to Planet Xbox 360, the latest Official Xbox Magazine dishes out what its editors believe to be the top 5 games being secretly made for the Xbox 360. More or less the list is a wish list of games that most of us would like to see make an appearance on our beloved console. Many of them have been rumored for quite some time, but it's a nice list nevertheless. Check it out after the break.
Hellgate: London bound for 360?
During an interview with Next Gen, Namco Bandai's Zach Karlsson speaks to the possibility of Hellgate: London arriving on the Xbox 360. Hellgate, for those who don't know, is sort of a hybrid shooter/MMO for PC. First of all, Karlsson notes that Namco Bandai is looking for a good multiplayer game to bring to consoles like the Xbox 360 and PS3. He notes that the online space is essentially a platform in and of itself, thanks to the ease of portability between PC and 360. Next Gen then asks Karlsson if a 360 version of Hellgate is forthcoming. He doesn't confirm it, but states that it is very likely. Given the company's focus on the "online platform" and that EA -- the game's co-publisher -- typically extends its franchises as far as possible, it's definitely looking good.[Thanks, Jonah Falcon]
