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Uncharted 3 multiplayer celebrates the holidays with free items and map
Naughty Dog is getting a little nuts with the holiday goodies this year. They're giving away a free new map and some free custom avatar items for Uncharted 3 multiplayer, and the look of these freebies makes us wonder if there's been a little too much egg nog drinking around the offices over there in Santa Monica. The goofy "present head" hat above is only the beginning - there's also a t-shirt with Naughty Dog Co-President Christophe Balestra as an elf that everyone gets for free.And the wildest thing is a "Block Mesh Lab map," made completely of polygons by former Naughty Dog Richard Lemarchand (who's now teaching interactive media at USC). It's quite funky, especially when you imagine the relatively realistic forms of Nathan Drake and friends wandering around it with guns. All of these items are free for all players in the game right now until January 8, after which they'll only be available in the weekly tournaments, so pick them up now. Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good Nate!%Gallery-173694%
Legendary Wars updated to version 2.0
Legendary Wars is a favorite around here. It's an app put together by developer Orian Livnat and his team, and while he's gone on to work on some other projects, Legendary Wars is still a great example of some talented developers just polishing a great, original idea until it shines. And now the app shines even brighter: Just in time for the holidays, Livnat and his developers have updated the app for version 2.0, which he tells TUAW "almost doubled the size of the game." There's now a whole new campaign to play through, with more units, more monsters, more gear to earn, more bosses, and even some new hidden gameplay placed in the current campaign. Liv Games has been very generous with this game in the past, and this release is no exception: All of this new content is available for free to current owners of the app, and you can grab the whole thing for just $1.99 (or $.99 for an SD version). Legendary Wars is a great game, and it's really amazing to see this kind of support put in so far after release. If you've made the mistake of not getting this one and playing it yet, time to fix that right now.
City of Steam shows player collaborations
As part of its pre-launch fundraising efforts, Mechanist Games continues to offer players the chance to design their own in-game item for City of Steam if they kick in $500. It turns out at least four players have done so, and the devs whipped up a new blog post to show the journey from concept to completion for each of these items. The items include a Darth Vader-style mask with cool steampunk goggles, a "Swiss Army Knife" of one-handed swords, a skull-adorned sword with an engine powering it, and a pair of sleek firearms. Mechanist Games says that there are plenty of additional player items being designed and implemented. If you're thinking about making a mark on this upcoming game, you might want to move fast: donors will only have access to the design-an-item perk until December 5th. If you're curious about City of Steam, check out Massively's recent hands-on with the title!
Final Fantasy XIV explains changes to money and items
A lot of changes are coming to Final Fantasy XIV when the relaunch finally comes around. Changes to currency and item properties are among the less interesting of those changes, but they're certainly going to have a big impact on the game. A new update from the development team explains in depth what will be changing, what items will be removed, and what will happen to currency values. The currency one is what's going to throw the largest number of players for a loop, as the game is reducing all money values to a tenth of what they once were. To reduce numbers, all money is getting the ones digit removed, meaning that players will be 10% as wealthy as they are now, but all vendor prices will be 10% of their current values. Net purchasing power should be identical. There will also be a number of items removed from the game, altered, or otherwise changed with the new version. Players will lose several key items and ammunition, and other items will be bound to a player to prevent trading. Take a look at the full rundown for all the particulars on graphics, money, and other mechanical shifts to inventory management.
Flameseeker Chronicles: The long haul in Guild Wars 2
I hear a lot of Guild Wars 2 players talk about level 80. I hear, specifically, a lot of Guild Wars 2 doubters talking about level 80. Surely, surely, if the level cap could be hit in mere days (or for those of us well behind the vanguard, mere weeks), then the game must be content-light? Surely, surely, that would mean that the real game was "endgame"? Nope. Don't get me wrong; hitting the level cap is significant. It's cool. Your character strikes a pose (you know, the same one he has struck literally scores of times before at each and every level-up). Your character says a catch-phrase. You feel good. But in terms of actual gameplay, I can think of very little that is less significant.
Mojang previews next Minecraft update (and avatar items) for Xbox
Mojang has posted a quick preview of the next update coming to Minecraft XBLA. In the gallery below, you can see three different shots from the upcoming patch, including what appear to be some Endermen (in a picture labeled by Mojang as "the most anticipated thing on Xbox 360"), an underground zombie, and even a spider at the end of a rail line. And above: a brief video showing off a new sheep pet coming to XBLA's Avatars. The sheep looks cute indeed, but that pixelated wool can't be ideal for a sweater.%Gallery-165308%
Firefall beta opens up its item store, sells Founder's Packages (on sale now)
Red 5 Studios is once again showing off its open world, free-to-play MMO Firefall (currently still in closed beta) at PAX, and the newest bit of content included is a set of in-game stores, allowing players to purchase items and features via microtransaction. Firefall lead designer David Williams promises the developer won't "sell power items or content areas to players." Instead, Firefall's item stores are all about aesthetic and convenience items, things that players can use to customize their character's look, or have some fun in the game world.In addition to the company's just-announced 'Founders' content bundles (detailed above, and currently on sale during PAX), Williams showed us some special cosmetic items available for purchase, like shaggy dreadlocks or a flashy helmet, as well as items from an in-game store called Luau Larry's. Larry will happily sell you some fun items, like a little voodoo doctor pet, or a tiki torch that plays in-game music and causes everyone around it to dance when placed in the world.Becoming a founder also grants priority access to Firefall's current beta build – along with XP boosts, real-world items, in-game currency and more based on purchased tier. And the items in the founders' packages are set to be available on September 24, so we may hear about a bigger update coming then. Meanwhile, the current price on all three packages ($15, $37, and $75, down from $20, $50, and $100) lasts through PAX weekend.
WildStar Wednesday discusses the importance of items
WildStar's developer dispatches all have a theme: "Play the way you enjoy playing." That's borne out in the latest installment of WildStar Wednesday, in which Economy team leader Jeremy Wood discusses the ins and outs of the game's reward system. Wood explains that his team is responsible for making sure that players have the rewards needed to keep them playing, and in a game focused so heavily on differing player paths, that can be a tall order. WildStar will allow players a hefty amount of customization for items, including a dye system and modifications to existing equipment. Players can also expect to receive rewards of attractive and useful gear through every path rather than to be limited to one or two endgame pursuits. Even once you reach the top tier of items, there won't be a single "best" piece; the game will offer several different items for different playstyles. Take a look at the full article to get a broader picture of what the game will offer players to keep them invested to the endgame and beyond.
Animal Crossing 3DS features gardening shop, real estate market
Tom Nook appears to have lost his ironclad, varmint grip on the various commercial enterprises in Animal Crossing – if these new details about the latest version of the series coming to 3DS are accurate. The game has been given a full title of Animal Crossing: Jump Out, and in addition to the redesigned characters and StreetPass features, the game has a new thift shop run by Lisa the Alpaca, a new shoe store, the familiar Able Sisters clothing shop, a full shopping mall just outside town, and a gardening store run by a sloth.Players will indeed play as the Mayor, and certain other features of the game have been expanded: The museum will reportedly be open 24 hours a day, and have a bigger collection of fish and fossils to find. The gardening store will offer seeds and seedlings, allowing you to beautify your town as you see fit.Don't worry about Nook, though. He's a real estate mogul now, and will be selling house parts, letting you grow your mansion from a tent all the way up into an estate. No matter how much Animal Crossing may change over the years, one thing's for sure: Tom Nook will always get paid.
Big updates for Fairway Solitaire and Junk Jack
Two of my favorite iOS games from the last few years have gotten big updates today. Fairway Solitaire is a really brilliant puzzle/card game that combines golf and solitaire in a fun way, and it's gotten a big update that adds a whole bunch of ongoing content. The game now has a "Daily Mode" where you can play a brand new challenge every single day, and earn new Challenge Cups to unlock even more courses. There's also a new card back and push notifications -- Fairway Solitaire is completely free, and that makes it one of the best cost-to-fun ratio games I've ever seen on any platform. Definitely give it a look if you haven't yet. Junk Jack has also gotten another big update, although the team behind that game has warned players not to install it just yet (there's apparently a game-breaking bug involved). Whenever the expedited update does drop, there will be a whole mess of new items in the 2D Minecraft-like sandbox title, including bows, animals to tame, new hidden treasures, lots of inventory and UI updates, and lots of revamped graphics in the world. The update sounds awesome, and Junk Jack is a great game. It's too bad the team got caught by a bug, but hopefully the next update will be out as soon as possible and everything will work fine again.
The Summoner's Guidebook: Balancing League of Legends' offense and defense items
Last week, we talked specifically about building League of Legends' attack damage champions and the multiplicative effects the various bonuses have on these heroes. Building attack items is fairly cut and dried. The good attack damage items (IE, BT, PD, LW) are common to most pure AD builds, and there's not a lot of reason to heavily deviate from building them. Defense is another story, however. In Dominion, defense is more heavily itemized than in Summoner's Rift simply because irregular engagements happen constantly. On Summoners' Rift, there is more structure to specific engagements, and a single champion getting spotted out of place either results in an epic bait or a brutal gank. In those situations, defense doesn't help much. However, it's important to itemize defense in any game mode, and in Dominion, it is outright critical. Building only damage items will cause your champion to get melted by enemy attacks very early on, while building defense allows you to play more aggressively and capitalize on damage opportunities with less risk. Building defense is also important for bruisers who must close the gap to melee range, which inevitably means taking more damage than normal. Want to know all about the best time to start building tank? Read on!
The Summoner's Guidebook: Items and runes for League of Legends' attack damage champions
Attack damage is a universal thing for most League of Legends champions to build. Even characters that do not normally build AD are commonly played as AD in "joke builds." AD champions also have some of the widest variety of items available. There are a fair number of caster and tank items and a handful of hybrid items, but items that bolster physical attacks are everywhere. This can cause some confusion in what to build, and today we're going to talk about what gives you the most bang for your buck. This article will focus heavily on offense rather than defense for AD champions. We'll cover defense in a later week.
High-end gear in Dust 514 costs 24 cents in real money
CCP Vice President Morgan Godat has revealed the real-world cost of a high-end set of gear in the upcoming EVE Online companion, Dust 514, and it might be cheaper than you expect: About 24 cents. If you were to equip a character in the game with some of the highest-level gear out there and send them out into battle with equipment all purchased directly with real money, it would really only cost you a cent less than a quarter.But that figure is a little misleading, unfortunately, on both ends. On the one hand, that's the cost to equip a character once. When you die (which you'll do a lot in the match-based first-person shooter), you'll have to rebuy all of that gear, so players will probably buy their guns and armor by the hundreds or even thousands, not just one set at a time.And just like EVE Online, most of the gear in the game will be purchasable with in-game cash, called Isk, not just real-money purchased gold, called Aurum. EVE Online players will even be able to buy gear for Dust 514 players, so if you're a great shooter some ship jockey might fund your gear bill once the two games are finally connected. Dust 514 is currently heading into a series of betas (so these costs are still in flux anyway), and readying itself for a launch later this year.
Mists of Pandaria Beta: The evolution of itemization
Let me introduce you to the Massacre Sword. It was, and still is, a solid leveling green with a rather good model. I point it out to you to show you the odds of getting one with stats you'd actually want on a warrior, paladin or hunter (the three classes that would be using the sword at the time the game launched) and how likely it was you'd get, say, a Massacre Sword of the Boar or Whale. Granted, you could get a few fairly useful combinations (one of Strength or Agility, say, or a good two stat combo like Bear, Tiger, Eagle, Monkey or Gorilla depending on your class. This was a green drop, of course. It wasn't meant to be the best of the best, just something to pick up and use on your way to dungeon loot. It's hard to compare it to what it would be replaced by nowadays, because a lot of that gear was re-itemized when Cataclysm came out and the dungeon levels were adjusted up or down. I remember replacing it with Lord Alexander's Battle Axe, followed by a Demonshear and an Arcanite Champion, before forays into Molten Core and Blackwing Lair. It's fascinating to consider how itemization works as a tool in driving players forward. Bad itemization, while baffling at times when encountered in game, actually serves a purpose in the hands of the developers. An item with too good of a stat spread can actually serve as a hanging burr, sticking to your character long after it should have been replaced. I mention this because, to my mind, Mists of Pandaria is the first expansion to really know this, forwards and backwards. This is the expansion that will use gear design to motivate you better, more skillfully, and more expansively than ever before.
Infinity Blade: Dungeons gameplay revealed
Our friends at Joystiq have procured the first gameplay footage of Epic's followup to the popular Infinity Blade series, called Infinity Blade: Dungeons, and you can get a look at it below. As you can see, it's set in the same world as the first two games, but features a completely different take on gameplay, using gestures to fight baddies from a top-down view rather than a fixed camera. There are also some interesting crafting mechanics, like rubbing out imperfections on a blade you're making, or tapping dents in metal to clear them off. Infinity Blade: Dungeons was announced at the iPad 3 Apple event, and is supposed to be out later on this year.
The Repopulation lets players customize outfits to their hearts' content
As The Repopulation is free from conventional MMO leveling and hews to skill-based progression instead, dealing with player gear is substantially more difficult than it would be otherwise. The team posted a five-minute dev video explaining how items, repair, and what it calls "fittings" work in the game. The long and the short of The Repopulation's gear system is that players will be able to pick the outfit (or "shells") that they like the best visually and then equip the stats they want on it. This is done through fittings, which is similar to socket systems found in other MMOs. As outfits take damage, the conditions of the fittings can and do degrade, reducing the stats associated with it. If it gets too bad, the fittings will either need to be repaired or replaced. You can check out The Repopulation's gear system after the break. The team is currently accepting signups for June's alpha testing. [Thanks to Halldorr and J.C. for the tip!]
The Daily Grind: Do MMO studios owe us item restoration?
MMOs vary widely in their account and item restoration policies. In some games, like some of NCsoft's offerings, if you're hacked or you lose access to your account because your memory is toast, it's game over unless you happen to have your original account key. In games like Lord of the Rings Online, you're not guaranteed full reimbursement of your money or gear if a hacker strips you naked and leaves you dancing on a mailbox. BioWare won't refund guild bank items stolen by rogue guildies, either. In World of Warcraft, you'll almost always get your account back if you're hacked or you accidentally delete your favorite hat, but it might take an agonizingly long time. This week, Blizzard launched a new item restoration service that attempts to solve the second problem by simplifying the process of reclaiming lost trinkets (though not items stolen by hackers). I was surprised that Blizzard considers this a problem worthy of automation, but maybe it's more common than I thought. So now I'm wondering whether companies are actually obligated to restore items we've lost through our own goof-ups. Do you consider this a vital service of a support team, and would you quit a game if your items were truly gone for good? 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!
Blizzard launches Battle.net Item Restoration service
With the advent of transmogrification, void storage, account-wide pets, and lots of other item-dependent features, it's seemed a little odd that Blizzard hasn't been allowing item restores via the GM queue. Well, that apparently ends today -- both the inability to do so and requesting to do so via GM ticket. Now, your Battle.net account page has a brand-new service: Item Restoration. It's a free service that you can perform once every 30 days to retrieve lost, deleted, or vendored items immediately. In the event that you disenchanted an item instead of deleting or selling it, you'll still go through the regular GM ticket line to have your case looked at. Kudos to Blizzard for finally making this service available -- it was a huge stress on the GM queue and an inconvenience for players. Now everybody's happy. Probably. Announcing: Battle.net Item Restoration Starting today, players can access a new system that will allow players to recover World of Warcraft items that they may have sold, destroyed or disenchanted: Battle.net Item Restoration. With this new self-service option the recovery of an item or items that were recently deleted or sold to a vendor can be restored to a character immediately when using the ticket submission system on our support site. For any items that were accidentally disenchanted the same method can be used to request a review by Customer Support for restoration. This restoration option may only be used once every 30 days on active World of Warcraft accounts that are in good standing. As this option has a limited availability and use, we still encourage caution when selling, deleting or disenchanting items. While Customer Service always strives to help whenever we can, with the introduction of this self-help feature we will no longer be able to assist with these types of requests. Additional details can be found in the following Support Article: Battle.net Item Restoration. source
Pathfinder Online developer blog outlines the path of production
Everything comes from somewhere. That's one of the axioms underpinning Pathfinder Online -- almost every single object that players see will have been produced by a player. In the most recent development blog, the process for gathering and producing items is outlined, and it bears all of the detailed hallmarks of the game's other systems. This isn't a game in which players grab a pickaxe and swing at the nearest rock face for ore; instead, you construct a camp and start up an entire mining operation. The game has a basic three-tiered structure to its non-combat operation, starting with harvesting the resource, moving on to processing and refining the items in question, and finishing with crafting a usable item. And as an outgrowth of the game's open systems, these elements work in multiple directions. Starting a camp to harvest resources, for example, can generate a lot of commotion and attract hostile monsters, necessitating that players deal with the fallout or find someone else willing to do so. No one can accuse the designers of making crafting activities a secondary goal with this degree of detail involved.
DOTA 2 patch files hint at microtransactions, more
As is their wont, players have been rustling through some of the test build files for Valve's upcoming Dota 2, and they've found signs of some interesting (but still unofficial) features already. First and foremost, Valve hasn't yet determined exactly what the monetization model for the game will be, but it seems microtransactions will be a part of that model, as there are various announcers (including Half-Life's Dr. Kleiner), character taunts and skins, new hero items, and a few other goodies that may be purchasable either with an in-game currency, or with real money.There are also new kinds of couriers to buy (animal pets, basically, that will ferry items back and forth from your base), and there's one more consumable: Something called souls. A "Repentant Soul" will supposedly get players out of the "low priority punishment queue" when used, which suggests some sort of "pay or be punished" system. Gabe Newell mentioned just such a system last year, where he talked about Valve charging players "based on how much fun they are to play with." In other words, act stupid in game, get punished, and then you may have to pay your way out of jail.Finally, "treasure caches" are mentioned in the files. They'll probably work the same way that Team Fortress 2's crates do, where you get items that need to be unlocked with a key. This is all good news for those waiting for Dota 2 -- since Valve said it wouldn't worry about monetization until the fun was in there first, the game must be almost done, right?
