dreadnought
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Command a spaceship fleet in the 'Dreadnought' PS4 open beta
Ever dreamed of commanding a whole fleet of giant spaceships? You now have your chance. Six Foot, Yager and Grey Box have launched the PS4 open beta for Dreadnought, their long-in-the-making tactical space battler. The test expands on the long-running closed tests on PC and PS4 by giving everyone access to eight new maps, a new vessel (the Trident Hero Ship), an in-game friends list, squads and a slew of PS4-specific additions like PS4 Pro support and Remote Play. An expanded beta like this wouldn't normally garner so much attention, but the closed betas (and the open beta on PC) have racked up some positive buzz -- this is a game concept that appears to work well in practice.
Dreadnought: This ain't your daddy's Battlestar
The free-to-play shooter market is quickly growing crowded, but developer Yager has a novel take on gunplay involving giant ships, big guns, and nuclear weapons that shake the pillars of heaven and earth. Describing Dreadnought as a "shooter" isn't quite accurate. Though it features the control scheme that's been standard since the days of Quake and pits teams of players against one another in a rush to see who can rack up the most kills, these opposing forces are not populated by your typical hyper-macho space marines. Instead, you pilot spaceships. Huge spaceships. Battlestar Galactica-scale spaceships. The result is a shooter that's equal parts Team Fortress 2 and three-dimensional naval warfare.
Gears of War: Judgment gets free OverRun map May 15
Through another partnership with Maxim, Gears of War: Judgment will offer a free OverRun-compatible map to all players next week, May 15, called Dreadnought. This new map is set on a derelict ship, used by the COG at the outset of the war to transport captured Berserkers. This is the second free piece of DLC sponsored by Maxim. The first free map, Haven, arrived on April 2, when Execution mode was introduced to Gears of War: Judgment.
EVE Evolved: Is EVE becoming a spectator sport?
This week saw another landmark event in EVE Online grab the gaming community's attention as over 3,000 players from dozens of alliances battled it out in the lowsec system of Asakai on the Caldari border. The battle reached 2,800 concurrent players at peak, falling just short of 2011's record-breaking siege of LXQ2-T which hit 3,110 simultaneous combatants at its peak. There were livestreams, tons of after-action reports, and the story of this immense battle started by one man clicking the wrong button really captured our imaginations. EVE is one of those rare cases in which a lot of people find the media that surrounds the game more fun than the game itself. News of big in-game events like scams, heists, and huge battles spreads across the internet like wildfire, even among people who hate the game or have never tried it. When news of the Asakai battle emerged, someone on Reddit suggested that people should play EVE for only a few months to get some background and then quit and just read the stories. I've seen a lot of similar comments over the years saying that EVE is more fun to watch and read about than play, and it makes me wonder if the game is becoming a bit of a spectator sport. In this week's EVE Evolved, I look at why stories like the Battle of Asakai are so pervasive and explain why I think EVE should embrace its role as a spectator sport.
EVE Evolved: Getting people to actually fight
EVE Online has always been strongly focused on PvP, from the obvious activity of smashing ships together to the more subtle cutthroat nature of competitive market trading and corporate politics. EVE is testament to the fact that if you put enough people in one place and ask them to share and play nice, pretty soon they'll be tearing each other's eyes out. Though the lack of direct flight controls and steep death penalty turn a lot of people off trying EVE, I have to admit that I've yet to find a better PvP experience in any MMO -- when I can actually get a good fight, that is. Everyone who engages in PvP regularly will have stories to tell of some of the awesome fights he's had, but in truth they're few and far between. For every fight so spectacular that its story is retold for years, there are hundreds of quiet nights, failed roams, and encounters that end in disaster. Lowsec is particularly troublesome as the lack of warp disruption fields can make it hard to deprive enemies of an escape route and get them to actually fight. Warp bubbles bring their own problems, so what can be done to add more PvP opportunities to lowsec without allowing players to use area-effect warp disruption? In this week's EVE Evolved, I look at some of the factors that prevent good fights and stifle PvP in lowsec.
EVE Evolved: Returning EVE to the Crucible
When EVE Online launched in 2003, it was a barren game without many of the comforts we enjoy today. The user interface was abysmally worse than today's (if you can imagine such a thing), players with cruisers were top dog, and practically the only activities were mining or blowing up miners. The culmination of years of hard work by a small indie studio, EVE Online sold almost entirely on its future potential. When I was introduced to the game by an excited friend in early 2004 during the Castor expansion, he encouraged me to get in on the ground floor because he believed the game was going to be huge. Years later, I find myself introducing the game to thousands of readers on the same premise. EVE's continual success over the years transformed a fresh-faced CCP Games into a multinational game development giant. And yet, for all that growth and all the updates to EVE over the years, the fact that the game sells largely on future potential is still firmly embedded in both players and developers. Players subscribe not only because they like the game but because they want to support development to reach EVE's true potential. Two years with very little iteration on existing features sent the message that developers weren't trying to reach that potential, but it seems that trend is soon to be completely reversed. With the newly announced Crucible expansion, CCP will be adding countless small features, graphical updates and iterations that put EVE firmly back on the path to reaching its full potential. In this week's EVE Evolved, I look at CCP's plans to return EVE to the crucible and reforge it into something awesome. Those waiting for the third part of my look at the new player experience can catch that in next week's column, as Kajatta is enjoying his final week in EVE before delivering his verdict.
EVE Evolved: Building a better empire
It's often said that EVE Online is 99% endgame, with only the tutorials and epic mission arcs really providing directed gameplay. Once you get out into the open world, the game is dominated by sandbox laws and social interaction. This is most clear in the lawless nullsec regions where alliances war over territory and build their own empires in the void. Last week I looked back at the early days of nullsec industry and examined the problems industry has developed over the years. With a massive nullsec revamp scheduled to begin this winter, I went on to speculate on how the game could be changed to bring back the glory days of nullsec industry. Although adequately incentivised local mining and production could transform player-created empires, those aren't the only areas of gameplay being revisited. Sovereignty mechanics, fleet warfare, small gang warfare, exploration and small-scale territorial control will all eventually be redesigned as part of the massive iterative overhaul. In this week's EVE Evolved, I look at the history of EVE's empire-building and territorial warfare mechanics, some of the problems faced by the sovereignty system, and how those aspects of EVE could possibly be changed for the better.
EVE's Dominion 1.1 patch to bring supercarrier changes, fighter bombers
A substantial number of changes will be made to EVE Online tomorrow with the Dominion 1.1 patch. The supercarrier changes and introduction of fighter bombs coming in 1.1 were originally slated for the Dominion expansion's launch last month but had to be postponed. Beyond the changes impacting EVE's capital ship pilots, nullsec warfare will be affected by how CCP is altering the stats of Sovereignty structures. (Territorial Control Units will receive increased hitpoints with reduced onlining time, likewise Sovereignty Blockade Units are getting a defensive buff.) New features are being introduced as well, like voice fonts for the Vivox-powered EVE Voice. According to the latest patch notes: "This new feature will allow you to alter your voice during chat to increase or lower pitch or to change from male to female voices. This is certainly not going to be abused in any way." Stick with us past the jump for some highlights of how EVE Online will change tomorrow.
Eve dev blog on PvP ship losses
The latest dev blog for EVE Online is from CCP Diagoras and contains some numbers and information about ship losses through PvP over the last year from April 2008 to April 2009. Firstly there are some very specific subscriber numbers. At the end of April 2008 the game had 234,314 active paying accounts, which had grown to 299,064 by the end of April 2009, which fits nicely with their statement a few days later that the game had passed 300,000 paying subscribers. Using these numbers and the number of ship losses which involved another player attacking he comes up with the information that in April 2008 there were 0.61 ship losses per subscriber in that month. By April 2009 this had raised to 0.67. The blog then follows up with a series of graphs that show more specific PvP ship losses per month. Some interesting highlights include how dreadnaught losses fluctuate over time compared to the number of each capital ship type destroyed per month which reflects the pattern of big battles over that time, and the numbers of Battleships and Interceptors destroyed which show the preference players have for Caldari and Gallente ships.
Warrior Epic goes into closed beta... again
The Possibility Space powered MMO Warrior Epic is about to open the doors to their closed beta later this month, offering players to visit their website and press the register button to apply for a chance to play the game.And if anyone's deja vu sensors are going off, you are indeed correct -- this is Warrior Epic's second closed beta. The change is the addition True Games Interactive, the brand new publisher backing Warrior Epic. The game has seen some changes since we last looked at it, like the removal of the Dreadnought and Vanisher classes, the addition of an Archer, and some name changing for the old Zambrano. Although, the Dreadnought's face is still lurking on the website (he's the background), so perhaps our tanky friend is just waiting in the wings for some action.The free-to-play title is also sporting a brand new eye-candy filled website, featuring new screenshots, concept art, and desktop backgrounds for the Warrior Epic faithful. We're interested to see how Warrior Epic has evolved from our first impressions on the game last year, and will be keeping up with any new developments with this title.
Two new warrior types for Warrior Epic
Somehow, since we last covered the class updates from Warrior Epic, not one, but two new classes have been revealed! The first is the Vanisher, clearly the stealth/rogue warrior of the title. Sporting a look decidedly alien and intricate at the same time, this is easily one of the more stylish warriors available from WE.The second new type is the Dreadnaught, obviously the tank's tank. These guys are built like sumo wrestlers and outfitted like ... well, like a dreadnought! Though the Warriors page seems to have filled up, looking at the bottom of each individual warrior's page reveals a bar with warrior face icons, and there's a final space with a question mark in it. Could there be one final mystery warrior approaching?[Thanks, Brice!]
Hackers vs Sony: the homebrew game
A new homebrew game by DreaDNoughT attempts to accurately chronicle the ongoing battle between Sony and the hacking community. The story begins as such: "Sony, previously considered a friend to the gaming community, has betrayed us... After some time Sony released the first plague: Firmware version 2.00... And now you must begin the quest to defeat the ultimate firmware."Uh... excuse me? Am I the only one that doesn't feel betrayed by Sony's firmware revisions? I, for one, do use the internet browser, RSS feeds, AVC, Flash and WMA support. Regardless, it seems like a notable effort by a fan, and might merit some playing for you non-updated PSP owners. And, as a bonus, the latest version lets you actually win.
