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The Daily Grind: Do you see more saints or jerks in-game?
Well, this will certainly be an extremely subjective topic today, but I say we embrace it! We've all heard and experienced horror stories with players who are extreme jerks in MMOs, from the mouthy trolls in general chat to the scammers out to fleece your hard-earned goods. But are there equal or perhaps greater numbers of generous, kind players whose good deeds don't make the headlines or leave us steaming for hours? Personally, it's really hard to say. The jerks can be really vocal and noticeable, which may make them seem proportionally larger than they really are. The saints can't be doing all sorts of nice things on a one-on-one basis that go virtually unnoticed by others. I see a lot of jerks in PUGs and a lot of saints while leveling in PvE, and I'd like to believe that there are more of the latter than the former. What do you think? 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!
Wasteland Diaries: A fond farewell
Fallen Earth's Alpha County: the first installment of Sector 4 is here at long last. There was a time when the place was considered a myth by many wastelanders, but it has finally become a reality. If you want to see what it has in store, check it out for yourself. It's very likely that's what I'm currently doing. Since the patch date got pushed back a day, I wasn't able to do a piece on my first impressions of the new zone. Maybe I'll handle that next week. I've instead decided to do a retrospective on what I am leaving behind in Fallen Earth, a fond farewell to some of the things that will no longer matter. There are a great many things I will miss as I cross over into S4, and there will be a great many things I won't miss. As a creature of habit, I fear change, but I'm trying to be as optimistic as possible. With that in mind, after the cut, I'll try to concentrate on some of the changes that I'll be pleased about.
Wasteland Diaries: Choose your clan
If you are playing Fallen Earth and you are not in a clan, you are doing it wrong. The importance of clan membership cannot be overstated. There are simply too many benefits to not find one that suits you. There is safety in numbers if you are a PvPer. It's nice to team up on that nasty boss with your PvE buddies. And roleplaying by yourself isn't roleplaying at all; it's just being weird. We need to interact with other people to get the most out of an MMO game. Hence: clans. Finding a clan to join is easy. Finding the best clan for you is a bit more complicated. In order to make it a little bit easier for you to choose the clan that's best for you, I have compiled a list of Fallen Earth clans for you to check out. I've supplied their requirements, playstyle focus, and website when available -- some clans are more secretive than others (or maybe less formal). So click past the cut and start your search for your new BFFs.
Wasteland Diaries: RP-PvP
In Fallen Earth, I spend most of my time PvPing. Well, actually, I probably spend most of my time waiting or preparing to PvP. I engage in PvE content out of necessity. In order to be effective in PvP, one needs levels and chips and gear. If this stuff could be earned through PvP alone, then that's all I would ever do. The situation has gotten better with the FCP rewards and XP for PvP, but it still isn't really enough. The other prominent playstyle in Fallen Earth, one I usually shy away from, is roleplaying. Some people will never do it, and some people are always in character. Most of us fall somewhere in between. This week I dipped my toe into the RP field. I would normally never decide to attend a roleplaying event, but lately I've been trying to broaden my horizons. Knowing there was a possibility of some PvP action solidified my decision to head down to New Flagstaff for Rowdy's Bunker of Blues. This is an event held every Wednesday night at the bunker bar by the pond in the center of the city. There was a live DJ and free drinks (plus the aforementioned possibility of a fight), so why not? After the cut, I'll describe what happened there and how I did when I threw my hat into the RP arena.
Wasteland Diaries: The battle of Haietta
There are new PvP objectives in Fallen Earth. Well, the objectives are the same, but the means of achieving those objectives are now different. Conflict towns remain largely unchanged, but the taking and holding of one is now dramatically different because of a few subtle changes. No longer are the non-timed towns captured by doing repeatable missions. Timed conflict towns haven't changed at all. But the other towns had a silly mechanic: having the PvPers do PvE missions to control a town. The attackers and defenders would roam about doing missions and possibly run into one another and fight. More often than not, there was little fighting. The new system concentrates the action on a certain point -- actually, three points. The Faction Control Points (FCPs) are placed near or in the town. They are now the key to controlling the town. Of course you can still do it the old-fashioned way, but it's much quicker to control all three points at once. Controlling all three points will give the controlling faction a steady stream of faction points toward its cause. Each tower held contributes 2500 points to the controlling faction about every five minutes.If you've ever done the missions in a conflict town, you know this is a much faster method. PvP is rampant in Fallen Earth right now. Well, in Haietta, it is. After the cut, I'll give a first-hand account of what I've seen on the front lines.
Wasteland Diaries: A brief history
Fallen Earth has a relatively short history, as far as the power struggles on the server. Yes, in case you didn't know it, Fallen Earth is a single-server game. Everything I'll discuss in this post occurred on that single shard. The power struggles in the wastelands, be they between factions or clans, have been ever-changing. It seems that no one group retains power for very long. They say that history is written by the victors. And they could be right, but since we lack clear winners, I'll write it. There isn't really a way to assert dominance in Fallen Earth in any kind of overt way. But there are subtleties that player groups can control. In some cases, they can even hold a resource with which to extort the playerbase. In the future we may see a true struggle for resources in an apocalyptic wasteland, but for now we will have to be content with simply crushing our enemies. After the break I'll chronicle the past year or so and outline how the power struggle evolved through that time period. Not everyone will agree with my perception of the events, but I'll do the best I can to remain unbiased.
Saint's Row has been cancelled - also, Saint's Row 2 announced!
The PlayStation 3 port of Saint's Row has been officially cancelled after disappearing from the radar some time ago. THQ announced that all the resources dedicated to the port have been moved to Saint's Row 2, which will come out on the PlayStation 3 as well as the Xbox 360 in 2008. The original Saint's Row came out in 2006 on the Xbox 360 to positive reviews and has gone onto sell an impressive 1.4 million copies.The cancellation will surely upset some people, but I'd rather have a fully developed and polished sequel than a port of a 9 month old game myself. It will give THQ more time to familiarize themselves with the complex architecture of the PS3 and tweak the gameplay of the series. The game was pretty good, but had some technical and gameplay issues (jaw-droppingly dumb storyline aside) that I hope they fix in the sequel.
Broken Saints creator discusses Wii
Brooke Burgess, the individual behind Broken Saints, recently took part in an audio interview with gaming site Cubed3. The obvious question came up regarding a Wii version of the game and how far along in development it is and like a champ, Brooke implied that a version of the game will be making its way to the console. "I can't confirm much. The reason is I'm under a series of NDAs, which will tell you something!"For those of you looking to bypass the login process, go here and right-click, save as on the link.[Via NeoGAF]
Broken Saints trailer from Comic-Con
A trailer has popped up on You Tube showing the trailer that was unveiled during the recent comics convention known as Comic-Con in San Diego. Some of the video's segments look like in-game footage and overall the trailer shows some very inspired artistic styles, so color us interested in Broken Saints: The Game. The video might be considered NSFW for a short clip of a naked lady from a distant view, so keep that in mind before clicking on to watch the video embedded in the second half of this post.[Via Codename Revolution]
The Superdome will be back this fall, and with HD
After the destruction of Hurricane Katrina, it seemed doubtful that football would ever be played in the Superdome again, but the NFL announced shortly before Super Bowl XL that the Saints will be playing actual home games starting September 24th next season against the Atlanta Falcons. The league has announced they will be putting in as much as $20 million of the projected $182 million it will cost to repair and renovate the stadium with most of the rest coming from insurance and FEMA.Part of the renovation will include a huge high definition scoreboard much like the one in New Orleans Arena. They also plan to renovate the luxury boxes, hopefully they will take a look at our buying guide before they make a final decision there.
