gamescom-2011
Latest
Wartower video highlights why devs love Guild Wars 2
Wartower, a strong pillar of the German-speaking Guild Wars fanbase, has just put out a video detailing why ArenaNet staff members are so passionate about their upcoming game. The video is made of in-game footage captured from conventions and interviews from each of the 30 developers who were present at Gamescom 2011. Each developer was asked about his or her favorite part of Guild Wars 2; everything from race options and combat mechanics to the story and world content was highlighted as a favorite. It's excellently put together and does a remarkable job of highlighting the devs' love for their game. Follow past the jump to check it out!
The Perfect Ten: The upcoming contenders
While I'm on board the Star Wars: The Old Republic train (at least until SOE's Star Wars: The New Republic comes out in 2014 and forces SWTOR to shut down), I can certainly sympathize with the frustration that non-fans are feeling right about now. There are few things more annoying than not being into the latest craze -- or hating it outright -- and yet being unable to escape it. So I'm here to say to you today that, like World of Warcraft, SWTOR isn't the be-all, end-all of the MMO field. It's a part of it, but just one part, and there are many, many others in the works as we speak. Mama always told me never to put all your eggs in one basket anyway, so I'm spreading my eggcitement across many cyber-nests. This is the bone I'm throwing to all of you this week: a list of 10 Midichlorian-free MMOs that have me -- and should have you -- extremely buzzed about their development. In putting together this list, I realized that there are so many promising prospects that I divided them into two groups. This week I'm presenting the strongest contenders that should make it to launch with a solid product, while next time I'll list promising prospects that may be more of a long shot. I'm 47% confident that I will not forget your most-anticipated title.
Street Fighter X Tekken inspires another Ono vs. Harada battle
After an already weird competition at Comic-Con, Street Fighter and Tekken reps Yoshinori Ono and Katsuhiro Harada, joined by fans, faced off in another set of challenges. This time, it was even weirder thanks to added German-ness.
Count the punches in an hour's worth of Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 footage
Capcom Unity has posted an hour's worth of Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 gameplay footage showcasing the latest additions to the character roster. That got us thinking: How many punches can you fit into an hour? Hundreds? Thousands? All of them? All of the punches? Let's find out.
eSports draw record viewership numbers at Gamescom
Last year, 254,000 individuals attended Gamescom. This year that figure grew to 275,000 and amongst those attendees, 223,000 stopped by the ESL (Electronic Sports League) arena to check out competitive gaming live in both StarCraft 2 and League of Legends, as well as several console titles. Perhaps more impressive was the ESL's live feed, which was visited by 500 percent more people than last year. Turtle Entertainment, the organizer of ESL at Gamescom, is clearly happy with the turnout of what was the first stop on the ESL Pro Series Winter season 2011, Germany's national video game league. "The response of the visitors in our hall was overwhelmingly positive," said Turtle Entertainment's managing director Ralf Reichert. "Gamescom has proven once again that eSports has thousands of enthusiastic followers, not only in the world but also in Germany."
Get indoctrinated with lots of Dragon's Dogma, Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 video
Capcom-Unity captured 30 minutes of uninterrupted Dragon's Dogma gameplay from Gamescom, controlled by producer Hiroyuki Kobayashi. Even while being interviewed, Kobayashi holds his own in open-field battle scenes and close-quarters combat alike. Capcom also captured a producer interview-slash-gameplay session for Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3, which is even more impressive in its potential for distracting a producer mid-sentence. Check it out after the break.
SWTOR lead spills the beans about the Eternity Vault raid
At Gamescom this past week, Star Wars: The Old Republic concentrated on showing off endgame to prove to players that it is indeed an MMO. At the press conference just prior to the convention, Lead Designer Gabe Amatangelo demonstrated the very first part of the Eternity Vault raid content you will find in TOR. The demonstration group wiped on the second encounter, but we were assured that there was more. But how much more? Thanks to The-Force.eu, we now know. Amatangelo explained the encounters to the German fansite as follows: "The Eternity Vault has five. It has five encounters. 'Bosses' is such a loose term. One of them, you have to hack this puzzle. You've got to split up the group, and you've got to fight back a bunch of different waves while people are trying to solve a puzzle in tandem." This information should comfort some fans of the game; there is more to this dungeon than a simple tank-and-spank. More SWTOR information is headed our way as we gear up for PAX. Stay tuned this weekend as we give you the latest information from our reporters on the show floor in Seattle.
Friends, Romans, noobs, lend me your ear: Gods & Heroes devs answer community questions
Sometimes it makes a world of difference to put a name to a face, especially when it comes to the often-mythologized field of MMO development. The Gods & Heroes team recently sat down in front of a camera to not only answer community questions but give you a sense of who the team members are, how they function together, and what they look like. Topics on hand for the discussion included Heatwave Interactive's favorite memories from Gamescom, fixing problems with the latest patch, the combat range changes, the ongoing production blog that one of the devs is writing, promotions for Steam and other distributors of the game, a "targeted marketing campaign" that's going to launch in the next couple of weeks, and a future update tenatively scheduled for mid-October. You can watch the full USTREAM recording of the dev chat after the jump!
Hyperspace Beacon: Monday night Huttball! [Updated]
If memory serves me, the first MMO that integrated an actual sport into its game design was Free Realms. Although soccer was not implemented at launch, players could not miss the soccer fields, and eventually, the developers did put those fields to good use. I certainly don't believe the Star Wars: The Old Republic developers had Free Realms in mind when they created the newly announced Warzone Huttball, but that does not negate the fact that most MMOs do not have sports that are just sports. I'm not sure this is because developers take the setting too seriously and therefore don't think outside the box in regard to side adventures players can have, but you will be hard-pressed to see many other MMOs introduce a sporty game into their core. Needless to say, Huttball excites me even more about SWTOR, and I've even considered creating a character just to play Huttball. Beyond the jump, I breakdown the rules of Huttball and speculate on the further possibilities of the game. Join me.
MMO Roundup: Gamescom, Gamescom, and more Gamescom
Sometimes you'd like to know that there are other MMOs out there, right? It's not all WoW, all the time! Our sister site Massively can provide you with everything you need to know about all of the other MMOs around -- past, present and future. Massively's Gamescom coverage Gamescom is one of Europe's largest gaming events of the year. More news comes out of that event than we could ever hope to sum up in MMO Roundup, but Massively has it all. Head over to Massively's Gamescom hub for all of the event's MMO news. NCsoft announces new MMO: WildStar Developed by Carbine studios, WildStar is a sci-fi/fantasy hybrid MMO of "high adventure" in which players "lay claim to a mysterious planet on the edge of known space" by playing as explorers, soldiers, scientists, or settlers. Hit Massively for concept art and the game's cinematic trailer. Blizzard quashes speculation about a potential World of StarCraft Just in case all of Blizzard's previous indications of a StarCraft MMO not being in our future wasn't enough, here's another verification from Blizzard senior VP Frank Pearce: Blizzard currently has no plans to adapt the StarCraft setting to an MMO. Guild Wars 2 shows off 40 minutes of gameplay On the Gamescom floor, ArenaNet's Chris Lye took time to walk Wartower.de through the full Guild Wars 2 demo for the event. During the tour, he shows us character customization, the Asura, and the Charr starting experience, capping it off with a giant dragon boss encounter. Massively Speaking Episode 161 Massively Speaking, Massively's MMO podcast, is back this week to bring you all the latest MMO news with your hosts Shawn and Rubi. This time around, the focus is Gamescom 2011, which exploded with new game announcements, video trailers, and screenshots. Massively's week in review Don't let WoW Insider do all of the talking when it comes to Massively's best content of the week. The Massively staff themselves have picked out what they think is the best content their site has to offer, in their own weekly roundup.
'Blow your minds': The Secret World dreams of large-scale PvP
While the big news from The Secret World out of Gamescom was its April 2012 launch window, that's not all the developers had to say about this creeptastic title. Ragnar Tornquist opened up to Ten Ton Hammer about the game's epic large-scale PvP fights between the three factions of the Dragons, the Illuminati, and the Templars. Unlike The Secret World's smaller PvP battlefields, the warzones are persistent with a much larger population. So instead of waiting for a match, experienced players can hop right into a warzone for the glory and honor of their faction. In the warzones, players can capture respawn points to help out their faction and work on their secret society ranking while doing it. Tornquist said that the first warzone is in a Chinese city, although it doesn't have a name yet. Tornquist stated that the game should provide players with "several hundred hours" of PvE experience, not to mention the title's PvP and optional internet quests that will have the dedicated hunting through websites for arcane clues. Funcom's project lead thinks the total sum of The Secret World will be unlike anything we've ever seen before: "When the story and the respective events are ready to show off, we are going to blow your minds."
Gamescom wrapups for WildStar tease a few more nuggets of information
It remains to be seen what's going to come of it in the future, but WildStar certainly made an impressive showing during its debut at Gamescom 2011. Of course, outside of a trailer and some very early gameplay, potential players still know very little about the meat of how the game plays. But there are nuggets to be found in the wrap-up posts, a few interesting answers that should pique further interest in the upcoming title. The fact that the game will include PvP is almost a no-brainer, but the endgame has been stated to be diverse for all players. If you don't enjoy raiding, the game will still have a world story for players to explore and get engaged by. The world will feature both open areas and instances, as well, with a definite spread of different ways to ensure that players can experience the game with their friends. Last but not least, classes will be versatile and armor will be heavily customizable -- the game is being shaped to be something where each player can make his or her mark and have a unique look. If the game interests you, our own staffers will be getting a hands-on experience with WildStar on Friday.
Resistance: Burning Skies preview: One axe, two sticks
Resistance: Burning Skies protagonist Tom Riley is having a rough day. He awakes at Ellis Island to find himself alone in a stretcher, an IV still embedded in his forearm, while a massive alien attack wages on all around him. Other than his handy fire axe and helmet, Riley's ill-equipped to take on enemies, nonetheless a swarm of Chimera who are hellbent on recovering their stolen technology from the human resistance. But this is a game, after all, so I pilot Tom towards the nearest exit -- a planked up doorway which looks ripe for the axing. Success! I couldn't help but notice in my exploration of Resistance: Burning Skies' opening room that the game looks much improved over the series' previous portable spinoff on PSP. Textures are more detailed, colors are more varied, and environmental effects actually exist. While the game is certainly early (Chimeran faces resemble little more than goofy flat paper masks at the moment), it showed a lot of promise. And maybe more importantly, it demonstrated to me that the PlayStation Vita's twin analog sticks are more than sufficient at delivering shooters on the portable.%Gallery-130818%
Flameseeker Chronicles: Information overload
Early last week I had a fail-proof strategy in place for handling Gamescom. I'd diligently watch the Guild Wars 2 news coming from the event, and at the end of the week, do a nice neat wrap-up for all of you. It's OK, you can laugh -- I am. Talk about trying to empty the ocean with a teaspoon! There is one thing I can wrap up for you: Last week there were ArenaNet blog posts and site updates, over a dozen interviews and articles written, nine photo galleries (one from ArenaNet), 17 video interviews, and over 100 game footage videos. So how do you even begin to process all of that, especially when you consider that there's another wave coming in just a few days? Follow along after the jump and let's take a look!
Gaming for the gold: Na'vi take the first International Dota 2 Championships title
Pay homage to the kings of the International Dota 2 Championships, Na'vi! These six Ukrainian studs won $1 million over the five-day tournament held at Gamescom, followed by China's Ehome, who landed in second place. The top eight teams competed bravely, so show some respect as follows: 1. Na'vi - $1 million 2. Ehome - $250,000 3. Scythe.SG - $150,000 4. MYM - $80,000 5. (tied) M5, iG - $35,000 each 7. (tied) OK.Nirvana.int, Mith-Trust - $25,000 each Handing out over $1.5 million to the people who love your game enough to make it a career seems like a wonderful advertising strategy from Valve. Maybe eventually it'll be altered to include people who love Valve's games but have day jobs too. Maybe. [Thanks, Aibbi!]
GoldenEye 007: Reloaded gallery, direct from Gamescom
Gamescom isn't done giving us goodies, and today we have a roundup up GoldenEye 007: Reloaded screens for everyone to enjoy -- your mom, dad, cousin Larry and even that squat dude in a bowler hat standing right behind you. Maybe this gallery will wipe that serious, deadly look off his face.
A fistful of new Shinobi 3DS screens
Griptonite's wall crawling, kunai hurling, shuriken throwing ninja action homage Shinobi looked pretty dang good back at E3, and these new screenshots, hot from the Gamescom oven, are making us hungry for more.
The Joystiq Show - Gamescom 2011 Day 4
It's the final day of Gamescom 2011 and that makes this the final podcast from the show, but don't be sad, the guys are going out with style a bang. Harmonix's John Drake and Eric Pope join-in, and their presence means the show has at least 1000% more apple pie talk than it would otherwise. Gamescom is a unique beast. It is very different from the big conventions held in the US, and there are plenty of anecdotes here that provide a peek into the European games convention experience. For the full picture, also be sure to catch episodes from Day 0, Day 1 and Day 3. Note: The audio has a few issues, but with lovely and understanding listeners like yourselves, it shouldn't be an issue. Get the podcast: [iTunes] Subscribe to the Joystiq Podcast in iTunes [Zune] Subscribe to the Joystiq Podcast directly in the Zune Marketplace [RSS] Add the Joystiq Podcast feed to your RSS aggregator [MP3] Download the MP3 directly Hosts: Alexander Sliwinski (@xandersliwinski), Ben Gilbert (@BigBossBGilbert) Guest: John Drake (@johntdrake - Harmonix) and Eric Pope (@MrPope - Harmonix) Producer: Jonathan Downin (@jonathandownin - Game Thing Daily) Music: "Bust This Bust That" by Professor Kliq See all show links, and stream the show, after the break.
Gamescom 2011 welcomes 275,000 attendees
Gamescom: Part Drei was another whopper. The premier European gaming event saw an attendance of 275,000, up 21,000 from last year. Despite no major incidents being reported, things did get a bit uncomfortable for organizers yesterday when the Koelnmesse reached capacity and entrance to the event was "temporarily" suspended. Gamescom 2012 will take place in Cologne August 15-19. Like our roundups of official and unofficial statistics of the past two years, you'll find our 2011 list after the break.
Guild Wars 2's crafting system detailed and demonstrated
Guild Wars 2 fans, it's time to get out your smithing hammers and fire up your forges. Freshly imported from Gamescom 2011 is a new video outlining Guild Wars 2's crafting system. The game offers eight different professions, and -- like many other MMOs -- you are granted your choice of two of those professions at any given time. However, unlike many MMOs that give you a set list of recipes based on your crafting level and then limit you to crafting only those recipes, Guild Wars 2's system allows players to experiment with different combinations of materials to see if they form a new recipe. Only guy on the server who's figured out how to make that badass warhammer? Don't tell anyone and monopolize the market! Also gone are the days of skill points. Rather than giving crafting recipes a somewhat random chance to give you a skill-up, Guild Wars 2's crafting system provides you with an experience bar for your tradeskill, with each completed recipe providing a set amount of experience toward the next level. But what if you're not happy with your profession choices? While the game only allows you to have two active professions at any given time, you're able to freely swap one profession for another while retaining progress made in your former profession. So if you want to drop your level 50 profession to mess around with another, you can pick back up where you left off at a later time. For the developer commentary and a whopping 20 minutes of hands-on time with two different professions, hop on past the cut for the full video. [Thanks to Paul for the tip!]
