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DC Universe Online flying into New York Comic-Con at full force
If you're planning on heading to the New York Comic-Con this year then be prepared to see DC Universe Online in full force. SOE is pulling out all the stops this time around, including the first-ever villain play via a new playable demo at the SOE booth on the show floor. Something else attendees won't want to miss will be the panel on Saturday, February 7th where a mysterious new creative team member will be revealed and opened to questions along with Jim Lee, Geoff Johns, SOE developers Wes Yanagi, Jens Andersen and Jared Carr.Immediately after the Saturday panel, SOE will be holding a fan event where the new villain-focused demo will be available for further play. Plus, Jim Lee and Geoff Johns will be on hand to speak about the game some more -- as if they won't have been pelted by fervent fan questions already. Still, the whole thing sounds like a ton of fun for anyone looking forward to DC Universe Online and the new superhero MMOs in general.Find full details after the cut. Did you enjoy this? We've donned our capes and tights to explore SOE's DC Universe Online in-depth. Come explore more of Metropolis and Gotham with your friends at Massively!
Prototype comic detailed, hitting stands in April
New details have emerged surrounding Wildstorm's upcoming comic book take on Radical Entertainment's Prototype. First announced last April, the graphic reworking will be penned by Jonah Hex writing duo, Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin Gray, with illustrations by Transmetropolitan co-creator, Darick Robertson. The adaptation's debut issue will cut into comic book pull lists this April as the first in a six part mini-series. But read slowly. Even with a variant cover by veteran X-Men and WildC.A.T.s artist, Jim Lee, that's still just one issue for every two hours of game.
Jim Lee on his influence over DC Universe Online
When it comes to the super-hero genre in massively multiplayer online games, two new names seem to be on the lips and hearts of all man-children (and we're hoping a fair number of women, too): Champions Online and DC Universe Online. The latter title is of particular interest, given how it builds on the DC Universe comics legacy which is significantly older than your average gamer. Given how much comics legend Jim Lee is involved with fleshing out the DC setting into an online world as the title's Executive Creative Director, Gamasutra's Brandon Sheffield interviewed Lee about the extent and scope of his influence over the game. The interview is a good read, showing us a bit about Lee's approach to DC Universe Online, both in terms of his overarching view of how the game should be, and his attention to detail. It also touches upon what it's like for Lee to step away from the flexibility he's always had with 2D, and into the more concrete 3D of game design. Did you enjoy this? We've donned our capes and tights to explore SOE's DC Universe Online in-depth. Come explore more of Metropolis and Gotham with your friends at Massively!
Chris Metzen to attend NY Comic Con
Our friend Medivaldragon over at Blizzplanet brings word that the mind and man behind Warcraft himself, Chris Metzen, will be live at the New York Comic Con in just under a month. The con takes place in New York over February 6-8, 2009, and Mr. Metzen, the creative director and central creative force behind all of Blizzard's modern universes, will be signing books at both the DC Comics and Pocket Star Books booths (apparently for the promotion of WoW's comic books and novels). As Turpster is often inclined to say (along with many other Blizzard fans), "Chris Metzen is a god," so here's your chance to meet the deity himself.There'll be some other expanded universe notables there as well, including Jim Lee (who'll no doubt be promoting DC Universe Online as well) and Walter Simonson will be there, and there will likely be some other familiar faces, either signing books or just stopping by. Those of you in New York who are free, consider yourselves lucky and head on over there. And bring a camera -- if you can capture the elusive Metzen on film (random adventurers are always freeing him), send us the pics.
Slick hair, cool poses in newest DC Universe Online screens
New outfits, ice guns, fiery hands and crazy Jim Lee-influenced jumping poses -- all these and more are in the newest batch of DC Universe Online screenshots over at Strategy Informer right now. We're really impressed with this blue armor-clad girl with her wind-swept hair and impressive poses. In fact, these are some of the first player-character screens we've seen and they certainly do impress.We're interested to see more of the character designs and hopefully the character creation process as well. If there's one thing we've learned over the years playing City of Heroes, it's that you can never have enough character creation and customization options in a superhero MMO. Did you enjoy this? We've donned our capes and tights to explore SOE's DC Universe Online in-depth. Come explore more of Metropolis and Gotham with your friends at Massively!
Jim Lee on how he came to work on DC Universe Online
Comic book fans and gamers looking forward to DC Universe Online are likely familiar with the work of Jim Lee. What some comic fans may be less familiar with is Lee's interest in videogames, even before he got involved with DCUO as Executive Creative Director. Indeed, Jim Lee's twin passions in life are comics and videogames, he said in an interview with 1UP's Billy Berghammer. Lee discusses how he came to work on a project that brought those passions together -- DC Universe Online -- and what he's doing to breathe life into the game. The interview ranges from Lee's first steps into the comic book industry to creating the best-selling comic book in history, and beyond. Lee also brings up some of the goals he and the DC Universe Online team have in terms of storytelling, including the introduction of tertiary characters from the DC universe that haven't ever been featured in videogames before. (Ambush Bug and The Metal Men, we're looking at you.) "Introducing this to a crowd of gamers that never has seen these characters before is really exciting. Putting them in context and creating storylines with these characters is really the fun part of working on this game, and we're in the meat of it," Lee says.
An inside look at the DC Universe Online studio
The latest bit of info about the upcoming game DC Universe Online comes to us through a video walk-through of the developers' own Hall of Justice. Michael Daubert, Studio Art Director for DC Universe Online, blogs on Myspace about what it's like to work on the game in the setting they've created.It's a place where every Friday is "Green Lantern Friday" when studio employees either wear GL's requisite green or Sinestro yellow. Monday is "Batman Monday"-- we think you get the picture. But having Wednesdays devoted to Aquaman... dubious. One pictures employees bringing their goldfish to work and willing them to perform office tasks. One tradeoff for having to dress in orange and green is that employees at the Austin studio are surrounded by artwork for DC Universe Online from Jim Lee and the Wildstorm Productions studio. The video gives us a glimpse at the roughly 1200 pieces of concept art Lee and his team have produced that literally wallpaper the studio. Plus you get to meet some of the dev team as Daubert alternately attempts to stay awake through Scrum explanations or avoid tirades from his colleagues. Unfortunately we can't embed the video for you right here, but if you head over to the DC Universe Online site, you can't miss it.
AGDC08: Jim Lee and the artwork of DC Universe Online
It's a generally busier day in Austin as the second round of AGDC sessions kicks off. Tuesday began for Massively with a look at DC Universe Online, Sony Online Entertainment's four-color physics-enabled brawler. Presented by none other than Jim Lee, the well-known comic book artist, the session was a look deep into the game's art direction and vision bringing the DC world online. Jim was joined by Jared Carr (art director for the game), Jason Smith (lead character artist), and Jens Anderson (creative director for DCUO). Read on below the cut for hints into everything from character customization to the unadulterated fun of bus-flinging,
Geoff Johns revealed as writer for DC Universe Online
How do you make DC Universe Online with Jim Lee in charge of the art direction even more exciting for comic fans? You bring Geoff Johns on as writer for the game's backstory. Geoff is the man responsible for one of the best runs on The Flash, his envisioning of Green Lantern: Rebirth and the highly engaging cooperative effort that was 52. Basically, if you're a fan of DC comics and haven't bothered with them for a while, you should really check his stuff out.According to the Newsarama interview with Geoff, he's only responsible for writing the general state of the world, its characters and the whole story behind why all these new superheroes (that'd be us) are suddenly cropping up everywhere. Beyond that, nothing has been confirmed, although he did say it'd be possible to come back to write more stuff. In that regard, Geoff also says the game will be set more or less within the current DCU at the time of launch. Players can expect to see story arcs both new and old -- or something like them -- to eventually show their faces. If DC comics fans were only a little excited before this is a reason to start smiling, or maybe even do a fist-pump. Go ahead, we won't look.[Thanks, Haggs]
SOE throwing block party at Comic Con
This blogger has always been rather jealous of San Diego residents. In hosting Comic Con, they not only get to meet the best and brightest that the comic industry has to offer, but increasingly, they're getting attention by big names in the MMO industry too. We knew that SOE was going to be in attendance, showing off DC Universe Online in playable form. We've now gotten word, via Grimwell's Blog, that they'll also be hosting a block party on Saturday the 26th outside of the Con proper for anybody in the San Diego area who wants to stop by, Con attendee or no.They'll be busing people to and from the Con to their location, where they'll have food, unreleased games to play, a live band, and plenty of SOE employees to bug about their games old and new. As icing on the cake (do you really need icing?), Jim Lee be making an appearance from 4:00pm to 5:30pm. To say this blogger is simply jealous would be a gross understatement.
E308: Massively's chat with DCUO's Jim Lee
Reading back through a list of comic book artist Jim Lee's work is like a "best of" list from DC comics history. Arguably best known for his art in the series Batman: Hush, Lee's credits include the X-Men, Punisher, Superman, and several titles from the comic label Wildstorm. The Authority, the cult classic dark superhero series, bore his penmanship in several places. He was at E3 last week with the folks from Sony Online Entertainment, because Jim is also the executive creative director on the DC Universe Online project.We had the chance to sit down with Mr. Lee for a short interview, to get a feel for what his role on the project is. We chat with him about his work on the project, find out about his love for talking apes, and delve into his past as an MMO gamer. It's great to hear such a noted artist talking about his love for the massive genre - read on to find out about Mr. Lee's past as a guild officer in the world of Norrath and much, much more.
Jim Lee gives more information about DC Universe Online
While it's not a long piece, there are some interesting nuggets of information in the latest interview Jim Lee gave to USA Today. He talks about the interaction between DC Universe Online and the print adventures, which MMOs he's played, and how DCUO will differ from other MMOs.It's in this last bit that Lee says something that might be a hint, or it might just be idle talk: "To me, that is kind of how superheroes fight. It's not like they stand there and trade blows. The cities are their playgrounds, and they demolish them." Can we expect destructible environments in DCUO?
E308: DC Universe Online roundup
Sony Entertainment Online revealed a metric ton of new information on their upcoming superhero MMO DC Universe Online at E3 this week, and Massively was on hand to pick the spicy brainmeats of Creative Director Chris Cao, SOE-Austin VP of development John Blakely, and famed DC artist and Executive Creative Director for the project, Jim Lee. Check out the roundup of all the DCUO coverage from E3 including interviews, screenshots, a full breakdown of the trailer and analysis of DCUO's role on the console. Plus, don't forget to tune in next week for our exclusive interview with Jim Lee! Development team interview A top to bottom exploration of DC Universe Online How the DC world will come to life in DC Universe Online E308: DC Universe Online already 'released' inside SOE Screens and Trailer DC Universe Online screenshots First footage of DC Universe Online The DC Universe Online trailer explained MMOs on the console MMOs for your PS3 DC Universe Online's role on the PlayStation 3
Massively explores a world of capes and tights in DC Universe Online
When Jim Lee stepped onstage at the Sony press conference Tuesday, it was the first reminder in some time of Sony Online Entertainment's upcoming super-hero MMO DC Universe Online. The title, meant to bring the world of Batman and Superman to fans of the massively multiplayer genre, has been under a communications blackout and in development for years. E3 2008 is the first substantial chance the gaming press has had to learn about the title, and our friends at Massively were naturally attracted by the smell of grouping mechanics and instanced content.To kick things off, they've got a description of the extensive trailer that was the core of the SOE presentation. That wasn't enough for the MMO-addicted writers, so they followed that up with an exhaustive Q&A session. Follow along as DCUO Creative Director Chris Cao and SOE-Austin VP of development John Blakely explore how the game will interact with the PlayStation 3, tie-ins between DC Universe Online and the actual DC comics, and an interesting aside about how the developers are already acting like the game is 'released' inside the company. The Massively crew also has a few choice pieces of concept art from the game, from the mind of comic legends like Jim Lee - take a look below. Gallery: E308: DC Universe Online concept art
E308: A top to bottom exploration of DC Universe Online
Superman soars above the skies in Metropolis. Batman swings from rooftop to rooftop in Gotham City. The world of DC comics is an extremely venerable IP, with numerous evocative characters, locations, and villains. It's set to be the backdrop for one of the most ambitious new titles planned by Sony Online Entertainment: DC Universe Online. We had the chance to talk with DCUO Creative Director Chris Cao and SOE-Austin VP of development John Blakely all about the game.Join us as we explore the game from top to bottom, uncovering tidbits about the game's raid gameplay, the underlying technology, holiday events, and the game's business model. We even ask about the game's launch date, with pretty well expected results. For a taste, here is what the game is capable of as far as world events: "We actually have a dynamic content system. What that means is that we hand-craft each event (like an armored car robbery or a hostage situation) and then we spin them up dynamically based on who is there and what they're doing. It allows us to easily replace every single encounter in Metropolis and Gotham and suddenly have Brainiac Attack or the Thanagarians Invade. Next week at Comic-Con you'll be able to play through that event."
E308: First footage of DC Universe Online
Did you hear? Jim Lee showed up at the E3 2008 Sony press conference and not only talked about DC Universe Online, but showed it too! Our initial thoughts on the video? While purportedly still pretty early on (even though Lee mentioned that they'd been working on the project for three years now) the footage doesn't look bad at all. However, it does remind us quite a bit of the EverQuest 2 graphics engine. We just hope that it's only a visual resemblance and not a technical one -- as that engine has some troubles we'd rather like to not see in DC Universe Online.It's quite nice to see all of our favorite characters represented in this trailer. We even get some Black Adam love, which was entirely unexpected! We're sure to have more information about the game for you as E3 continues, so stay tuned, go order some spandex and keep your bat-radar on! Hungry for more DCUO news? Massively got the scoop at E3 from Creative Director Chris Cao, SOE-Austin VP of development John Blakely, and Executive Creative Director for the project, Jim Lee. Check out the roundup of all the DCUO coverage from E3 including interviews, screenshots, a full breakdown of the trailer and analysis of DCUO's role on the console. Plus, don't miss the rest of our E3 coverage!
E308: Jim Lee talks about DC Universe Online at Sony's press conference
Jim Lee has just appeared on the stage at Sony's press conference here at E3 to talk about Sony Online's upcoming DC Universe Online title. He kicked off his presentation by doing a one-handed pushup (the press conference is going down on the same state that Jack Palance did his famous pushup on), and it only got more exciting from there.Lee told the audience that that creating the MMO based around the DC Comics universe is a dream for him -- not only did he grow up reading comics, but he's also a big Everquest fan -- he was the first Paladin to get a Firey Avenger. He also said that the game will allow players to create their own superhero and/or supervillian, and then fight alongside some of DC's finest -- against the Joker with Batman, or pull a Bane and help all the bad guys break out of Arkham.Lee also showed off a bit of art from the game, featuring Batman (seen above), Superman, and the Green Lantern taking out baddies in a colorful landscape. We'll keep an eye out for more DCUO info when we speak with Sony later today. Hungry for more DCUO news? Massively got the scoop at E3 from Creative Director Chris Cao, SOE-Austin VP of development John Blakely, and Executive Creative Director for the project, Jim Lee. Check out the roundup of all the DCUO coverage from E3 including interviews, screenshots, a full breakdown of the trailer and analysis of DCUO's role on the console. Plus, don't miss the rest of our E3 coverage!
DC Universe Online: still being worked on, artists named
Even with Marvel Universe Online now cancelled (and Champions Online rising in its place) there's been surprisingly little revealed about the shadowy DC Comics contender from Sony Online Entertainment. Last we heard, John Smedley was hoping to deliver the first glimpse of DC Universe Online to the media later this summer, probably at E3. Despite the lack of available details, we can at least be assured that it's still taking shape. According to Austin Craigslist, there are currently positions outstanding for a producer and a senior artist on the Outsource Team.
World of Warcraft comic #1 gets a second printing
People sure do love their World of Warcraft, in whatever form they can get their hands on it. The first WoW comic sold out incredibly fast, and now DC comics has arranged for a second printing of "World of Warcraft #1" that will feature a new black and white version of Jim Lee's cover illustration.You can expect this second printing to be in stores on January the 4th, and you'll probably want to plan ahead or get in quick if you ever want to see one of these in the flesh. As vice president of creative development at Blizzard Entertainment Chris Metzen puts it, "From how quickly the first printing sold out, it's clear that comics fans and World of Warcraft players are also liking what they're seeing."[Via WoW Insider]
The Digital Continuum: Concerning superpowers
It's been a long time since City of Heroes launched and up to the sale of the CoX property to NCsoft, Cryptic Studios added quite a bit more into the game. Not just City of Villains with its slew of additional content but also additional levels, tailors for extra costumes/costume redesigns, epic archetypes, plenty of new zones, PvP elements, game balances, new powers, an item system that allows players to invent all sorts of things and even an alien invasion or two. Just recently players were given with another set of new powers that they themselves were able to help choose via the official forums! While that laundry list of additions is quite well and good, for me it still feels like something is missing from my super hero game.Largely, I think the problem lies with what the game engine is and isn't capable of rendering. The recent inclusion of customizable melee weapons and guns/bows has made me realize something. What about the guy who shoots fire or throws punches full of pure energy? What if I want to create a magic character ala Dr. Strange and green magical fire sounds really cool to me? Well too bad, my fire looks like everyone's boring red fire and there's not a thing that I can do about it. Yet in a game where customization is king, personal touches like green fire or red and purple energy blasts seem to me an incredibly important feature. I've paid a lot more than one or two months of subscription fees just to design myself some characters in CoX and I only manage to get them to around level 14. Just imagine how much more money and time someone would spend given further customization choices.
