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Chris Roberts returns with open-world Star Citizen sandbox
It's a good day to be a hardcore gamer, folks, particularly if you grew up playing Wing Commander, Freelancer, or any number of similar PC-exclusive space sims. Genre heavyweight Chris Roberts has finally unveiled his new project, and it looks to be a sprawling open-world title called Star Citizen. Roberts has released an 11-minute video detailing various aspects of the ambitious game (it's been in development for a year now), which include a co-op fighter pilot campaign and a huge Freelancer-style cosmos that allows players to pursue their own goals. Wanna be a pirate? Go ahead. A trader? Sure thing. Oh, you want absurdly immersive details like full working cockpits, flightsuit wrinkles, and physics-based spaceflight too? You got 'em. "I'm building the game, and a universe, that I would like to play, so it's for gamers like myself," Roberts explains. "I wouldn't say that I'm a social, casual gamer who plays Farmville. I like sophisticated experiences." Roberts goes on to explain why he's chosen the route of PC-exclusive in an era when consoles and mobile platforms are all the rage, and he also touches on the subject of crowd-funding. His goal is a relatively modest $2 million, and he's aiming to achieve it directly on the game's own website rather than via a third-party intermediary like Kickstarter. He's also got quite a bit of in-engine footage to show already, and you can see it in the clip after the cut. Is Star Citizen an MMO, though? That's hard to say at this juncture. We know it's massive in scale, and we know it's multiplayer, but thus far we don't know much about the server setup or how many concurrent users are in the cards. [Thanks to Scott for the tip!]
Aion gunslinger class concepts revealed
There's badassery, and then there's the newly revealed class concept for Aion's forthcoming 4.0 update. You might recall that NCsoft teased three new archetypes via a trio of silhouette images a few weeks ago. Now MMO Culture has published a couple of concept drawings showing off one of the classes, a black-clad gunslinger complete with a fedora, a duster, and a pair of pistols. The images are taken from a Korean dev blog and as is typical with Aion, the updates will go live on the game's Korean servers first before slowly making their way west. If this new Gunner class (loosely translated as Shooting Star from the dev blog) is any indication, though, the updates will be well worth the wait. Head past the break for the images, then click through to the source for further details.
Black Desert Facebook page hints at parkour system
Black Desert is rapidly approaching too-good-to-be-true territory, at least for this sandbox-starved gamer. While there are still a ton of unanswered questions regarding the newly announced Korean import, we have seen some spectacular visuals and an interesting twist on player housing. Today the Pearl Abyss Facebook page has updated with a look at the game's parkour system. Steparu.com reports that players will be able to "run up on walls, jump on obstacles, climb balconies, and stuff." There's no video as of yet, but there is a screenshot montage that shows a free-runner vaulting over ground-based obstructions and climbing onto a balcony.
New Black Desert trailer impresses
One of the more spectacular MMO trailers we've seen in a while comes to us courtesy of a company called Pearl Abyss. The MMO in question is Black Desert, the firm's maiden offering that is apparently getting ready for public testing in either Korea or Japan. We say apparently because official details are sketchy. Fan site Steparu.com says that publisher GameOn recently signed a contract with Pearl Abyss, but no dates or territories have been announced. In terms of the trailer itself, there are plenty of gorgeous environmental fly-throughs, mounted combat, and several stunning character model examples. See for yourself after the break.
Rumor: Elder Scrolls MMO in the works?
Just about every MMO player has an IP he'd like to see undergo the MMO treatment. For some of us here at Massively, that IP is Bethesda's long-running Elder Scrolls series. Due to a deep reservoir of lore and the fact that earlier games in the series (notably Morrowind and Daggerfall) were more MMO-like than many modern MMOs, we'd love to see what Bethesda would do with such a beast. Apparently we're not the only ones, as SystemLink has posted a bit of speculation on a possible The Elder Scrolls V, highlighting a few job postings as evidence in support of its theory. While we're not completely sold on the author's conclusions -- mainly due to Bethesda's plainly articulated stance on the massive genre -- we suspect this won't be the last we hear of an Elder Scrolls MMORPG..
