Matt Daniel
Articles by Matt Daniel
PAX East 2013: Hands-on with The Elder Scrolls Online, round two
Last October, I paid a visit to the ZeniMax Online studios in Maryland in order to get some hands-on time with the studio's upcoming MMO, The Elder Scrolls Online. Well, today at PAX East I got to pay the lands of Tamriel a second visit to see how far the team has come since my first look at the game. Honestly, I was initially dreading writing this because I was sure that I wouldn't have anything to say that I hadn't said in my previous review, but thankfully, I was worried for nothing. The game was hardly recognizable to me because of the sheer amount of attention that's been given to it since I first played it in its alpha stage last fall. Gone was the functional-but-barebones UI with which I was familiar; it's been replaced with a sleek, polished interface leaps and bounds above the (notoriously awful) interfaces seen in the single-player entries of the series. On top of that, I got my grubby paws on a different faction, swapping my Dunmer of the Ebonheart Pact for a Breton of the Daggerfall Covenant. After character creation (which, by the way, is insanely detailed with dozens of appearance sliders and customization options), I was dropped into Stros M'Kai, the starting zone for members of the Daggerfall Covenant. From there I was let loose to roam, explore, quest, and fight for a solid two hours.
PAX East 2013: Hi-Rez Studios' Todd Harris talks SMITE, Global Agenda 2
SMITE just recently celebrated the release of its 32nd playable deity, Aphrodite, but she's far from the last thing in the wings for Hi-Rez Studios' borderline blasphemous MOBA. We got the chance to catch up with Hi-Rez COO Todd Harris at PAX East to find out what awaits in the studio's future. Obviously the studio's immediate focus is on its new golden child, SMITE, for which Hi-Rez (partnered with Twitch.tv) is holding a $10,000 tournament at PAX East over the weekend. Harris also mentioned that SMITE is looking to officially release once its roster reaches about 40 deities, which he says will likely be sometime this summer. And for those of you with itchy trigger-fingers, Harris also mentioned that Global Agenda 2 is, in fact, still alive and kicking, though right now further details are scant. What we do know is that the team is focusing on the game's PvP for launch, which may be somewhat disappointing to fans of the original Global Agenda's co-op PvE, but Harris says that the studio wants to put forth the most polished PvP experience possible before looking into expanding the game into PvE territory. Unfortunately, that's about all we know right now, so we'll just have to content ourselves with knowing that it hasn't been relegated to the realm of development hell. Massively's on the ground in Boston during the weekend of March 22nd to 24th, bringing you all the best news from PAX East 2013. Whether you're dying to know more about WildStar, DUST 514, or any MMO in between, we aim to have it covered!
Champions Online dev blog goes behind-the-scenes of the Lemurian Invasion
Last week, Champions Online's Lemurian Invasion event hit the live servers, and since then players have been valiantly fighting to defend the world against the alien forces. But as the latest Champions devblog notes, "an invasion force like the Lemurians doesn't come out of nowhere." With that in mind, Cryptic has released a brand-new devblog that takes players behind the curtain for a look at the making of the Lemurian invasion. In the post, Champions Online's new Live Producer, Tom "Lord Gar" Edwards, takes players on a brief tour of the process behind creating a live event. Edwards details all of the hard work that went into the Lemurian Invasion, from the event's initial conception to 3-D models, animations, and playtesting. But perhaps more importantly, he takes a few paragraphs to talk about the future: "[In] the first half 2013, [Cryptic's] plan is to release several story arcs of a similar scale to the Lemurian invasion." He adds that "each arc will have a lockbox, some smaller missions, and then a larger mission at the end." According to Edwards, each mission will " have its own themed rewards and new items [that will] sometimes focus on character improvements, and some on vehicles." Champions' next arc will involve "gladiatorial combat" and will focus on the aforementioned character improvements. Edwards promises that more info is coming soon. Until then, how about heading over to the Champions Online devblog for all the tasty Lemurian Invasion details? [Thanks to Matixzun for the tip!]
Firefall revamps progression system... again
Red 5 Studios has not been shy about making sweeping changes to its in-beta massively multiplayer shooter Firefall. Entire game systems have been retooled, revamped, and sometimes removed entirely as part of the developers' efforts to improve the game. The latest Firefall devblog has revealed that the game's progression system is back on the operating table for the second time, and it's going to get some more nips and tucks in the March 22nd milestone patch. Senior Game Designer Cameron Winston states that when the studio first overhauled the game's progression system (replacing the game's more traditional leveling system with battleframe-specific tech trees), the result was certainly for the best, but the change "came with some problems of its own," such as being "hard to understand... [with] arbitrary limitations that prevented players from exploring how they could customize their frames." To fix these issues, the studio will ensure that players will now have "far more flat access to the frames," meaning that there will still be different battleframe classes such as Assault and Recon, "but each battleframe will now have its own unique progression tree," which the developers hope will give more flexibility and customization options to players. Of course, the specifics of an entire system overhaul can't be adequately described in 300 words or less, so if you want all the fine details, head on over to Firefall's official site.
Second Wind Roundtable: Torchlight II
Welcome to the first ever installment of this "roundtable" edition of Second Wind, where the best and brightest (or barring that, whoever's available) here at Massively get together for an evening to act stupid in video games and then talk about it. For our first trip down the rabbit hole, Bree, Eliot, Lis, and I decided to give our mouse-clickin'-fingers a workout by way of Runic Games' Torchlight II. Our intrepid party of fearless adventurers was made up of Viase the Engineer (played by Eliot), ZERKIN the Berserker (played by Bree, and yes the caps are necessary), and a pair of Embermages played by Lis and me because it was the only class neither of us had played yet. We spent a few hours hacking and slashing our way through the first couple of zones of TL2's campaign, and much hilarity ensued. Click on past the cut for our full, insanity-fueled conversation on the ups and downs of our joint Torchlight II experience.
In the year 20XX, Mega Man Online is cancelled
It's been quite some time since we heard anything about Mega Man Online, which we first heard about in May 2010. Unfortunately for fans of the Blue Bomber, it looks as if we've now heard the last of it, as Korean website This Is Game has received confirmation from the game's developer, Neowiz, that the project was officially canned last November. The studio's representative stated, "Both companies have continually discussed to find agreeable points on quality, development time, communication and etc. Ultimately, both companies have agreed to stop the development of Rock Man [Mega Man's Japanese name] Online [early last] November." It's sad news for fans who were looking forward to going Maverick-hunting with some of their closest friends, but if the much-requested Mega Man Legends 3 can't even get through the pipeline, it shouldn't be too surprising that this didn't, either.
Dig through the sand(box) in the latest Camelot Unchained devblog
Camelot Unchained continues its foundational principles series of dev blogs with entry number 11, in which Mark Jacobs talks about what exactly constitutes a sandbox game and the philosophy behind the sandbox elements in Camelot Unchained. He starts off with a clarification that "CU is not a true sandbox MMORPG" because "a true sandbox MMORPG would allow the player to build out his stats, skills, alter the world, etc. without most of the fixed conventions and limitations that are found in CU and most other RPGs." Regardless, Jacobs believes that his studio "can learn from and adapt the concept of [sandbox games]." Jacobs goes on to talk about how and where he decided to implement traditionally sandboxy elements into Camelot Unchained and where he decided it was best to go a different route altogether. For instance, he argues that "in a true SBRPG a player's actions within the game would dictate evolution and progression." Jacobs claims that while CU earns some "sandbox points" because of its relatively unrestrictive class system, it loses some simply because it utilizes a class system. He spends the rest of the post running through the game's list of features and explaining the rationale behind the sandbox elements (or lack thereof) in each one, so if you want to get into the nitty-gritty of Camelot Unchained's sandboxiness (which is now a word), settle in and read the full post at the game's official site.
JOYHUBs announces new browser MMO Call of Camelot
As great as big-budget MMOs can be, sometimes it's nice to have a game you can play to kill some time during your lunch break at work, and nothing fills that niche better than a good-ol'-fashioned browser game such as JOYHUBs' newly announced title Call of Camelot. The game takes place in the mythical realm of Camelot, and features all the Arthurian fantasy staples people expect: dragons, wizards, demons, and kings who expect to wield supreme executive power just because some watery tart threw a sword at them[citation needed]. The game's press release boasts a number of features such as three PvP modes (team-based battlegrounds, guild-vs-guild-vs-guild siege warfare, and open-world encounters), and instances "where players can train themselves or their mounts." Players can work toward enhancing their equipment, find and acquire new mounts, and even get married. Call of Camelot also features a method of idle-progression in the form of an "in-game legal bot" which "allows players to beat mobs automatically," which is a feature that will likely fall into love-it-or-hate-it territory. If any of that sounds like it tickles your fancy, the game will be entering alpha testing sometime this month, so keep an eye out for more news soon. [Source: JOYHUBs press release]
Allods Online dev blog details the Dominion Wars
For some time now, gPotato has been detailing the features of Allods Online's upcoming content update, Lords of Destiny. Today, the final Lords of Destiny devblog discusses one last major feature: the Dominion Wars. The Dominion Wars are described as "battles that will allow guilds to become true leaders of the Astral and gain precious resources, and from them players can gain glyphs that will enhance their equipment even further. In order to join in the battle, players must be level 55 and have the necessary keys for access to the Dominion Wars. Each skirmish in the Dominion Wars consists of two rounds, each lasting 10 minutes. In the first round, one team will play on defense and the other on offense with the roles being reversed in the second round. Attacking players will be tasked with capturing enemy checkpoints, and each checkpoint captured will increase the time of the round by two minutes (though the second round can be no longer than the first). At the end of both rounds, whichever team captured the most checkpoints is declared the victor. For the full details on this complex new system, check out the entire post at the Allods official site.
Massively interviews Genese Davis, author of MMO novel The Holder's Dominion
We all love video games, right? I mean, you wouldn't be here if you didn't, would you? Of course not. But you know what else is pretty great? Books! But who said you needed to choose between the two? Thanks to up-and-coming writers like Genese Davis, you can have the best of both worlds. Genese is the author of The Holder's Dominion, a novel that follows protagonist Kaylie Ames as she and her friends delve into the mystery of the fictional MMO Edannair, where the enigmatic Holder, leader of an in-game organization known as Sarkmarr, has begun sending his disciples on dangerous real-world missions. It's up to Kaylie and company to figure out who this mysterious Holder really is and foil his (or her) nefarious schemes. And as it so happens, we had the opportunity to take an advance look at The Holder's Dominion and pick Genese's brain on the MMO industry, girls in gaming, and much more. To find out what she had to say (and believe us, you want to), head on past the cut and check out the full interview.
Tomorrow's EverQuest II update brings three new raids, guild achievements
The folks behind EverQuest II took to Twitter today to reveal more details about tomorrow's big update. Raiders had better polish their gear because the update will be bringing three new raids to the table. Two X2 raids will take place in Wurmbone's End and are referred to collectively as Nox Incessit, and one is tuned to be on the easier end of the scale whereas the other is intended to be a real challenge. An X4 raid will take place on the Dreadcutter and the devs stress that it is a hard mode raid in which "the final boss is designed to be the most difficult encounter in [the] game!" Guilds will also have a lot to work toward, as the update is adding over 150 guild achievements that cover content from all of EQ2's expansions. The devs state that every guild will start with a "clean slate," meaning that achievements will not be rewarded retroactively. This first set of achievements is raid-based, and for a guild to earn one of these achievements, at least two-thirds of the raid group must belong to the same guild, so it's time to rally your friends and go for glory, honor, and of course, precious intangible internet points. Remember Norrathians, the update hits tomorrow, so head on over to the game's official site for all the details you need to be prepared.
Jewel of the North: Impressions of Neverwinter to the level 30 cap
I've been stoked for Neverwinter ever since I first got my hands on a short demo of the game at PAX East a year or two back. The game's stylish, fast-paced combat hooked me, and I've always been particularly fond of the Forgotten Realms campaign setting, having spent a considerable amount of my teenage years in the original Neverwinter Nights and its many persistent worlds. So of course when I got my hands on a Neverwinter beta key, I was thrilled and waited on pins and needles for the duration of the excruciatingly long download, courtesy of my lovely ISP. Once the game was finally installed on Friday, however, my weekend was consumed by my adventures in the Jewel of the North and its surrounding environs. Over the course of the weekend, I managed to take my Trickster Rogue to the level cap of 30 and experienced a fairly large amount of the available content. Spoiler alert: I liked it. But if you wanna know the details, listen up and I'll recount my tales for you.
Camelot Unchained dev diary details crafting
Camelot Unchained's series of dev diaries on the game's "foundational principles" continues today with a post on principle number seven: "Crafting should be fun, useful and not induce Carpal Tunnel Syndrome." Well, that does sound like a reasonable principle, but how is the team going to go about implementing that principle in practice? For starters, crafting will be "the only reliable way to get armor, weapons, and most items" within the game. The post emphasizes that there are no "rare drops" and that "the whole 'Oh look, I just killed a nightingale and it dropped a full suit of purple armor' is so last decade." Players will also be able to create a "'crafting-class' character with separate crafting-based... leveling tracks." The CU devs also hope to ensure that crafters are able to build a reputation on their servers through the "naming/signature (hopefully visual as well as textual) of items, rewards from their server's ruler, etc." The full piece goes into much more depth than we have the space for here, though, so if you want all the details on Camelot Unchained's crafting philosophy, head on over to the game's official site.
Camelot Unchained dev blog: 'Choices matter'
City State Entertainment has put up a new Camelot Unchained dev diary that continues the Foundational Principles series of posts. Today's devblog is about foundational principle number four, which is that "choice matters." Well of course it does, but how are the Camelot Unchained devs going to provide choices to their players? The post provides a few examples of the way players' choices will affect their long-term gameplay. For starters, Camelot Unchained will feature "a full stat allocation system" that will allow players to completely customize their characters' attributes. Race and gender will also matter: different races will have different stat maximums/minimums, and of course, various racial proficiencies and deficiencies. However, it's not mentioned exactly what effect a character's gender will have. The post also mentions players being able to take various advantages and disadvantages for their character such as in a number of pen-and-paper games, which will allow players to further tailor their characters as they see fit. For the full post, which also includes an example of what might happen if a mage decked out in metal armor decides to cast a lightning spell, head on over to the official site and check it out.
Wizard101 comes to Mac
Mac-users, we know you're magical as it is, but if you want to flex your wizarding muscles a bit more, KingsIsle Entertainment has a robe and wizard's hat waiting just for you. Today the studio announced that its family-oriented spellslinging MMO, Wizard101, is now available for Mac. The game is free to download and play, so if you want to get in on the action, just head on over to the Wizard101 official site. [Source: KingsIsle Entertainment press release]
Second Wind: RIFT's Storm Legion
Trion Worlds' RIFT is still a relative newcomer to the MMO space, released a mere two years ago in March 2011, but in that time it's made quite a name for itself as one of the premier AAA titles on the market today. Since the game's release, Trion has built a reputation for putting out frequent, quality updates, and in the time since launch, RIFT has continued to grow with the addition of new features and content. Last November, Trion released Storm Legion, the game's first expansion pack, which bumped the level cap up to 60, tripled the size of the in-game world, and brought player housing to the masses in the form of dimensions. For my part, I used to be an avid RIFT player, but despite the game's unique soul system, there just wasn't enough to differentiate itself from the myriad other similar MMOs on the market, and I never managed to make it to max-level before I let my subscription lapse out of boredom. So for this edition of Second Wind, I picked myself up a copy of Storm Legion and jumped back into the world of Telara once again to see just how far it has come.
Final Fantasy XI: Seekers of Adoulin site details Geomancer abilities, Naakual bosses
Some new updates have hit the Final Fantasy XI: Seekers of Adoulin official website, shining a light on the abilities of the new Geomancer job and on the Naakuals, seven of the fiercest creatures in Adoulin. The Geomancer will be bringing a number of nifty new mechanics to the table, though perhaps the most interesting of these is the job's use of luopans. Luopans are described as "geomantic catalysts" that "act as the epicenter for special spherical fields termed 'colures.'" The Geomancer can place a luopan anywhere on the ground and activate it to cast a geocolure spell, which can provide buffs to nearby allies or debuff nearby enemies. And from the looks of things, players will need all the help they can get in order to take down the dreaded Naakuals, described as "the seven most bloodthirsty hellions that reign over the wilds surrounding Adoulin." Three of these Naakuals have been revealed on the expansion's site. The first is Tchakka, the Riptide Naakual, which takes the form of a nasty shark-like rockfin. There's also Achuka, the Firebrand Naakual, representing the dinosaur-esque gabbrath family, and Colkhab, the Matriarch Naakual, the most dangerous of the bee-like bztavian family. To have a look at these ferocious foes for yourself, head on over to the FFXI: Seekers of Adoulin official site. [Thanks to zengarzombolt for the tip!]
En Masse Entertainment unveils TERA: Rising patch notes
On February 5th, En Masse Entertainment will be bringing TERA to the masses with TERA: Rising, which will see the game transition to a free-to-play business model. To help give players a leg-up on the competition, En Masse has released the patch notes for the upcoming update, and the list of changes is rather extensive. Some highlights include the introduction of the three-on-three Champions' Skyring battleground, the new competitive dungeon Crucible of Flame, a number of tweaks to many of the game's classes, and of course the much-needed crafting overhaul. The notes state that the game's crafting system "has been overhauled to streamline the process and simplify the amount of additional materials needed." But because of the game's change to F2P, one of the biggest chunks of the upcoming patch is the addition of various account tiers. Accounts are divided into Elite Status, Standard, and Founder. The Founder account type will be granted to players who purchased TERA prior to the F2P conversion, Standard accounts will be given to new F2P players, and Elite Status is available via a $14.99 US per month subscription. For the full patch notes and all the juicy details on the switch to F2P, head on to TERA's official site to sate your curiosity.
Bullet Run shutting down on March 8th
Sony Online Entertainment has announced the imminent closing of its short-lived multiplayer FPS, Bullet Run. In a post on the game's official forums, the studio announced that "after much review and consideration, Acony Games and Sony Online Entertainment have mutually made the decision to discontinue development on the free-to-play FPS game, Bullet Run." SOE will be officially sunsetting the game on March 8th, 2013. Until that time, however, the servers will remain up-and-running for any players who want to have one last hoorah before the game takes its final bow. Membership billing, however, ended yesterday, February 1st. Any players who still had time on their Platinum Memberships as of that time will receive a "pro rata refund for any time remaining on [their] Bullet Run subscription[s]" from SOE. The full details can be found on the game's official forums, and we wish the best of luck to the game's dev team in its members' future endeavors. [Thanks to Jack Pipsam for the tip!]
Guild Wars 2 adjusts dynamic leveling system
ArenaNet's Isaiah Cartwright, lead game designer on Guild Wars 2, has posted a new dev blog to address the recent changes to the game's dynamic leveling system. In the build of the game that went live on January 28th, the team made two major changes to the way dynamic leveling works. First, the devs "changed the formula for how attributes are calculated when the dynamic leveling adjustment system scales [players' levels] down." This is intended to make players' returns to low-level zones "more fun and better balanced." Secondly, the team "changed the formula for how rewards are calculated when scaled down to make it more rewarding for high-level players to visit lower-level areas." Cartwright claims that the goal of these changes is to "more accurately reflect the attributes [players] should have at that level for a similarly geared character" and adds that even though the changes will increase the difficulty of some lower-level zones, the team wants to ensure that "all areas of Guild Wars 2 [are] exciting and fun for players of any level." And last but certainly not least, Cartwright notes that "in 2013, one of [ArenaNet's] main goals is to add more content to map of all levels, as well as stronger reward structures for playing across all locations in the world."