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PlanetSide 2 smashes world record for biggest FPS battle
Those of you who turned out to help PlanetSide 2 set a world record this past Saturday now have the satisfaction of knowing that you're officially a part of gaming history. The Guinness World Records title for "Most Players Online in a Single FPS Battle" was set by the combined efforts of three factions and 1,158 players on January 24th in the game. The immense fight took place in a single instance and surpassed the previous record holder of Man vs. Machine, which reached only 999 players in 2012. The title will be included in the Gamer's Edition of the World Records. PlanetSide 2 Producer David Carey wanted to thank those who participated, adding that this put the title right back where it belonged: "PlanetSide held the original record for this achievement and we're thrilled to have officially taken it back with PlanetSide 2." [Source: SOE press release]
Blizzard's Overwatch bumps into trademark issues
Remember when no one knew what Overwatch was and we were all speculating it was some sort of expansion based on the fact that the trademark had been filed? Oh, it was a more innocent time. Unfortunately for that trademark, it might be having a little bit of a problem after all, as it has come to light that another company filed an earlier claim for the trademark that would supersede Blizzard's use of the name due to likelihood of confusion. The trademark that has already been filed is for an app that can be used to provide enhanced functionality for paintball matches, laser tag matches, and the like. Both trademark applications are currently suspended pending investigations, so it remains to be seen whether Blizzard will be pushing forward or will change the name of the game to something legally different. Like Oversupervise, for instance.
Warlords of Draenor Beta - Legend of Pandaria title introduced
As reported on Wowhead, if you've completed the legendary cloak questline before patch 6.0 drops, you'll be rewarded with a new title, Legend of Pandaria. It's like most titles in that it can be used even by characters that didn't earn it (I've only earned it on one character, and that isn't him above) so if you have managed to complete the quest, it's a nice little bonus. I'd still kind of like it if they allowed us to complete the quest once Warlords of Draenor dropped if we had already started it, but I won't say no to another title. I love those things. Nothing's ever going to beat Death's Demise, though. Still my favorite title ever.
The Daily Grind: What's the niftiest MMO character title you've ever earned?
I don't usually bother with the achievement metagame in MMOs or anywhere else. Checking off a bragging-rights checklist generated by a studio whose entire goal is to waste as much of my time as possible is just not my idea of fun. But I make exceptions, chief among them being character titles. If a game is going to give me an awesome title for doing something bizarre like eating 36 Eggs and Onions, Delicious Crispy Bacon, Hobbiton Omelets, and Complete Hobbit Breakfasts, then by golly, I'm going to do it just for the giggles and wear that silly title with pride. Besides, it sounds delicious. What about you readerly types? Do you also collect titles rather than minipets and scouting badges? And more importantly, what's the niftiest title you've ever earned? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
Sony's Driveclub becomes second PS4 launch title to be delayed in a week
Sony has just announced that Driveclub, one of its original launch titles for the PlayStation 4, is running behind schedule and will miss the big day. The magnitude of this loss will obviously depend on how much your personal PS4 unboxing fantasy involved loading up a team-based, arcade-style driving sim -- and honestly, ours didn't. Nevertheless, the postponement comes in the same week that Watch Dogs was also pushed back to spring 2014 -- though that delay affects all consoles, not just Sony's. There's another issue, too: Driveclub was one of just two launch games that were meant to be offered free to PS Plus subscribers, as an extra inducement to spend $50 on a year's access. By way of a replacement, Sony will offer the dark platform-puzzler Contrast as part of its PS4 instant game collection, and you'll find a trailer for that title lurking in the shadows below.
Patch 5.4 PTR: Crazy Cat Lady/Man title added
When the Crazy for Cats achievement was discovered on the PTR, the first thing players asked for was a title to go along with it. Namely, something to do with being a Crazy Cat Person. Good news! We got what we asked for: The Crazy Cat Lady and the Crazy Cat Man were both added as titles in the latest patch 5.4 PTR build. Keep in mind that you need 20 out of the 24 cats listed under the achievement. Overall, the achievement doesn't seem too difficult for a battle pet collector to earn, especially since one-third of the cats on the list are purchasable via NPCs. A few felines on the list are harder to come by, including the Nightsaber Cub and Spectral Tiger Cub from the TCG, and the Spectral Cub awarded to players participating in the Shanghai 2012 Battle.net World Championship. I'm crossing my fingers for the title off the bat when the patch drops!
Patch 5.4 PTR: Challenge Mode titles for fastest clear times
In patch 5.4, Challenge Mode players who have already earned gold will have a strong reason to continue running them. Players who earn the fastest clear times in a Challenge Mode dungeon will receive a title specific to each dungeon. As long as players hold the record for the top time, the title will remain. A permanent Feat of Strength will also be earned upon reaching the fastest time. However, there is a caveat: the Challenge Mode group must have at least 3 players from the same realm to earn the titles. Patch 5.4 Challenge Mode notes Players who obtain a realm-best time in a Challenge Mode dungeon (group must contain at least 3 people from the same realm to qualify) will receive a temporary title specific to each dungeon (e.g. Siegebreaker for Siege of Niuzao temple, Darkmaster for Scholomance, etc.). This title will persist for as long as a player retains the top time on the realm. Holding a realm-best time at any point will also confer a permanent Feat of Strength to record the accomplishment. source It's not enough to go for the gold anymore. How far will you go for the titles and Feats of Strength?
Finally, a title for someone Gorgeous like me
It's hard being pretty in Azeroth. Everyone's always like "quick, we need you in Arathi Basin right now, I don't care if you're wearing your expensive tunic" or "what do you mean you didn't come fight Nalak because you were busy washing your hair?" There's no thought to how being beautiful might consume our time -- nay, our very being. Some things cannot be rushed, and beauty is one of those things. Do people not appreciate beauty, or do they simply not realize it when they see it? Well, no more. Blizzard has provided every fortunate son and daughter of Azeroth a way to broadcast just how lovely they are: the Gorgeous title, available in patch 5.3 as the reward for the meta achievement for Deepwind Gorge, the brand-new battleground. Sure, it'll take some legwork. Sure, you might break a nail or end up with split ends or, worse, have to interact with trolls in any way whatsoever. But think of how much easier your life will be when you can say "Please excuse me from tonight's challenge dungeon; I'm overdue for an eyebrow waxing," and people will open their mouths, look at your title, and say "Ah, yes. Of course. That seems reasonable."
Daily iPhone App: Ms. Splosion Man splodes out onto iOS
I'm a big fan of developer Twisted Pixel -- their console games are always terrific, with the original Splosion Man being one of my favorites. Now, the company has teamed up with developer Iron Galaxy and publisher Microsoft to bring the sequel to that one, Ms. Splosion Man, to iOS, and the result is a really impressive port. In fact, I don't know if "port" is even the right word for this one. If you'd never heard Ms. Splosion Man was released on Xbox before it arrived on the iPhone, this could just be one of the best platformers on the App Store. The idea here is that you play a very silly creature that can "splode" whenever you touch the screen, which allows you to destroy objects and jump all in one explosive movement. You can "splode" up to three times before you need to touch the ground again, so essentially the game is a pretty twitchy triple jump platformer, challenging you to navigate Ms. Splosion Man through fifty different levels. Just looking at the game itself, Ms. Splosion Man is great -- it takes Twisted Pixel's original Splosion Man idea, and improves on it with huge boss fights, perfectly designed levels, and lots of new mechanics, like rotating cannons and a very active camera. As a port, however, this title is even more impressive. I am not sure how Iron Galaxy was able to make the game look and run this well, but they did it -- the title looks like it was lifted straight from the Xbox, and it runs just as smoothly on my iPhone. There are some new additions, too, like challenges to complete for "Fame" as you play, and even full AirPlay support. My one complaint here is that the touchscreen controls sometimes cover up the action, but that's not a huge issue, especially considering the rest of the app's quality. Ms. Splosion Man is a great game already, and it's been delivered to the App Store with panache here. You can pick it up there now for just $2.99.
The OverAchiever: The game's 13 vanished titles
Every Thursday, The Overachiever shows you how to work toward those sweet achievement points. This week, we rue the lack of High Poobah among the game's honorifics. An interesting question in the Tanking forum about a month back spurred an article for readers here about which title they find most reassuring on a fellow player. The discussion that ensued was a reminder that you can't get some of the more popular picks anymore, and just why they meant -- and continue to mean -- something in the first place. Sad to say, these titles are no longer accessible, unless you manage to find some far-flung server at the end of the universe where no one's bothered to kill Sartharion at all.
The most reassuring title to see on a player
Whether we like to admit it or not, we tend to give other players the once-over whenever we zone into a Raid Finder or dungeon PUG, particularly if you've had a run of bad experiences while getting valor-capped for the week. A recent thread on the Tanking forums about the best title for a tank to sport is both a sideways acknowledgment of this and a question as to which title best suits your role in the game. For healers, one could argue that Undying or Immortal means you probably had job security for the length of Wrath, but that kind of ignores everyone else's responsibility to not screw up in Naxx. Possibly Herald of the Titans/Conqueror of Ulduar would have been the equivalent for DPS players, although a raid had to fire on all cylinders for those achievements too. Before achievements were account-wide, and leaving aside obvious ringers like Light of Dawn/Bane of the Fallen King before Mists, I would have nominated Loremaster or Seeker as the most reassuring titles to see on a player regardless of gear quality. I can't say exactly what link exists between the persistence needed to get these titles and overall competence, but I have yet to see a Loremaster or Seeker player do something screw-the-pooch crazy in a PUG. These days, it's tougher to guarantee that a player sporting a title is doing so on the character that originally got it, so maybe The Undaunted is probably the single best outward indicator of competence. Having written all this, I've also had the pleasure of knowing a world-class hunter who never bothered using titles, and we have to acknowledge that a generic, funny (e.g., "Chef Boyardee"), or absent title means nothing at all. But if you had to pick one that said, "I will not get you killed in this PUG," which would it be?
Rovio releasing a game based on The Croods movie
Rovio has announced another game, and it's yet another surprising title from the Finish developer of Angry Birds. Rovio's first non-Angry Birds game was Amazing Alex (which was a rebranding of another developer's game), its second was the spinoff Bad Piggies, and now they're making: The Croods, a licensed title from the upcoming Dreamworks film. As you can see from the official gameplay trailer, it looks like a Farmville-style townbuilding title, though of course everything is styled after the movie (with some fun Rovio touches in the nonsensical language and a really elegant hand-drawn style). It looks like players will be able to catch pets, grow crops, and develop their own little Croods homestead, similar to a lot of other freemium management games. Rovio continues to make really interesting choices in its game development -- the company has definitely exploited the Angry Birds brand as far as it could go and then some, and Amazing Alex, while definitely not a failure, wasn't nearly as big a success as the birds and the pigs. Rovio's teamed up with a movie studio before (Twentieth Century Fox) in making Angry Birds Rio, so it's not uncommon for them to be talking to a movie studio like Dreamworks. It's worth noting, too, that while most of Rovio's big titles have been physics puzzlers, The Croods looks to be very different. We'll keep an eye out for the game on the App Store. It certainly seems like a strange next choice for Rovio to make, but given the vast success of Angry Birds, I think the company can afford to experiment a little more. Update: A previous version of this post stated Dreamworks had made the movie Rio, but that movie was produced by Twentieth Century Fox instead. The error's been fixed.
Tropico 4 plunders some Pirate Heaven DLC
Kalypso Media has released Tropico 4 DLC pack called Pirate Heaven, which brings a distinct swashbuckler vibe to the island-dictatorship simulation game. In addition to the Pirate Queen outfit seen above, the DLC adds a new "Smuggler's Hut" building for bringing in resources from beyond internationally guarded waters, a Sailor trait for charactersm and a few other piracy-themed tweaks.You can see the update in action in the gallery below. Pirate Heaven is available today from Kalypso's own website, or any other places you'd normally grab such things, including Steam. In North America, the pack will run you $4.99 – no actual piracy allowed.%Gallery-169012%
Confirmed: Rovio acquires rights to Casey's Contraptions
Rovio's Ville Heijari has confirmed the rumor we heard yesterday is true, and Rovio is taking over the iOS Casey's Contraptions title from developers Noel Llopis and Miguel A. Friginal. We're still not sure what the exact business agreement is, but it sounds like an acquisition of all rights associated with the game, and Rovio seems to also have kept on Llopis and Friginal as developers for their services. The Casey's Contraptions title is going to be removed from the App Store for now, and return as an official Rovio title for both iOS and Android (along with other platforms, possibly, later on this year). As I said yesterday, this is a great move for everyone involved: Rovio gets a high quality title that really appeals to casual gamers of all stripes (with a really impressive social and content sharing backend), and Llopis and Friginal get the opportunity to bring their really excellent game to a much larger audience. Casey's Contraptions was always a great title, but now it'll have the Angry Birds-fueled marketing machine behind it all the way.
Daily iPad App: Kingdoms of Camelot: Battle for the North is a freemium gem
Many of my fellow gamers look down on the "set-it-and-forget-it" style of social freemium games, but I have a soft spot in my heart for them. For me, the genre's appeal started with We Rule a few years ago, and continued with Battle Nations and Dragonvale. There's a definite addictiveness and appeal to real-time based gameplay. Kingdoms of Camelot: Battle for the North by Kabam won't change your opinion of the genre, but it represents its strong points well. This is Kabam's first iOS title, though the company has titles on Facebook and in browsers. Don't confuse this game with the group's other game called Kingdoms of Camelot. Kingdoms of Camelot: Battle for the North is a brand new title, designed specifically for mobile devices. My main issue with it is that it looks bad on the iPad. It seems like it was designed for a much smaller screen. But the UI is still clean and simple, and the game's quests intelligently lead you through what needs to be done. As you play, you can interact with other players. Kabam's experience with social networks undoubtedly accounts for how nice that experience is. Kingdoms of Camelot probably won't change your world (especially if you've already decided that you dislike this type of game), but if haven't tried this genre, it's worth your time. Who knows, perhaps you'll find yourself getting invested in all of the cottages, farms, and barracks that slowly become grow burgeoning empire.
Dark Age of Camelot producer's letter looks toward the future
Dark Age of Camelot's Valentine's Day event is still in full swing, but the devs over at Mythic Entertainment have plenty more in store for players. Stuart Zissu, DAoC's producer, stopped by the official site to give players a heads-up as to what they can expect in upcoming updates. For starters, the next phase of the ongoing live event will be coming sometime "in the next few months," and players are warned that the Pict encampments they've already encountered are only the tip of the proverbial iceberg. On top of that, the devs will be adding a number of new titles throughout the year that center on the long-running title's 10th anniversary. Zissu adds that "there will also be new titles for the next phase of the live event" as well as a special trophy commemorating Dark Age of Camelot's 10 years of RvRvR action. For more information, including details on DAoC's first video contest, just click on through the link below and give the post a look.
SWTOR unsubscribe option goes missing for some [Updated]
Call it the Case of the Canceled Sub: Many players have written in to us to report that the "cancel subscription" button on their Star Wars: The Old Republic account pages has mysteriously gone missing. Considering that tomorrow is the one-month mark where accounts are set to be billed following the free month of gameplay for those who started on launch day, we think this is particularly troublesome. Some players have found a workaround link but have received a warning and seen their threads shut down by moderators as violating the Rules of Conduct. BioWare is investigating the situation and has alluded to an issue with certain types of browsers. In the meantime, the CS team has asked those affected customers to contact the company by phone for help cancelling their subscriptions. BioWare is awarding those players who pay for an additional month of game time by March 19th with a special "Founder" title. [Thanks to the many, many people who sent us this tip!] [Update: In a correspondence with us, BioWare has confirmed that it is aware of the website issue and is working to resolve it that the issue is now fixed.]
Breakfast Topic: What WoW title would you choose in real life?
The other day, I tried to come up with a title for Kelly Aarons. It was one of those fleeting moments where you have the opportunity to display your wit, and in doing so, show everyone that you're actually a funny, lighthearted, and interesting human being (as opposed to a boring, soulless low-life ... sigh). In those racing seconds, I grasped desperately at all the WoW titles floating aimlessly in my head. How about Kelly the Noble? Kelly the Light of Dawn, perhaps? No, that might seem self-absorbed or creepy. Kelly the Exalted? Salty Kelly? I was about to type out Merrymaker Kelly when I realized my window of time had expired and anything after that would just make me seem like some sort of desperate try-hard. "You'll never be witty, Dawn. Give it up already." Sighing internally, I held down the delete key and kept quiet. It made me wonder, though, if I were going to give myself my own title, what would it be? In game, I've only displayed a few titles on my characters over the years (Rival, Sergeant, Chef, and the Light of Dawn), but I don't think any of those titles suit me personally. Dawn the Patient seems fitting. Maybe Dawn the Explorer? I think I might have explored outside my house at some point -- that works. What about you?
Marvel announces official MMO title: Marvel Heroes
The Marvel Comics MMO formerly known as Marvel Universe Online has finally been officially christened. Gazillion Entertainment announced in a press release today that, due to the central role that classic Marvel heroes play in the upcoming title, the game will be known as Marvel Heroes. And to back up the news, Gazillion has also released a new teaser image displaying everyone's favorite web-slinger. For the brand new Spider-Man art, just click on past the cut. [Source: Gazillion Entertainment press release]
Paper, Scissors, Stone registered by LucasArts and BioWare in Australia
Ryan Langley is a level designer at Halfbrick Studios, so he's used to putting secret rewards in hard-to-find places, but in this case he found one. He discovered that both LucasArts and BioWare have filed for a classification in the Australian government for a computer game called Paper, Scissors, Stone. Unfortunately, we have no idea what that is at all. The classification does mention that it's related to "science fiction themes" and that the game will have "online content." When you combine that with the fact that both LucasArts and BioWare are listed on the mark (along with publisher EA), it's possible that, even despite the M rating for mature audiences, this could have something to do with the upcoming The Old Republic MMO. A standalone minigame of some kind? That's just a guess, but yes please on that. At any rate, we'll probably hear about this one soon. In the meantime, you might want to start practicing your hand signals.
