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Jukebox Heroes: Hellgate London's soundtrack
Hellgate London was a title that I was highly anticipating back in the day. It was a post-apocalyptic MMO action-RPG brought to us by the makers of Diablo, all with techno-warriors and jaunts through the London Underground. I was on board with that. Sure, we all know how it ended and will probably kvetch about it in the comments, but I feel comfortable in saying that the concept sounded pretty awesome. Ironically, the sound is what remained with me long after my days in that game were through. It's no surprise, as the composing duo of Cris Velasco and Sascha Dikiciyan have tackled many other high-profile video game projects together, such as Prototype, Mass Effect 2, and Mass Effect 3. This score is pretty easy to get a hold of these days (try Amazon). It's a solid pick that has a few great tracks, as long as you're willing to tolerate darker themes.
Hellgate: Tokyo, still not for you!
Let's just get this out of the way right off the bat -- there is no word on a Hellgate game release for, or return to, any of the Western markets. Still, some of us quite enjoyed playing Hellgate: London or saw the potential in it, and would like to see this happen. Back when Hellgate: London was new and held some promise as a good mix of horror and sci-fi, a few of the writers here envisioned how the game might expand if it were successful. Monikers like Hellgate: Hong Kong, Hellgate: New York, and such were mentioned. As was Hellgate: Tokyo, only it seems this one is actually going to happen... for Asia. Our Korean is rusty non-existent but the (very brief) Hellgate: Tokyo teaser indicates a 2010 release. Fans of Hellgate: London -- we know there must be a few of you out there somewhere -- can find the video over at GameTrailers.
2008 wasn't a good year for MMOs
One of the blog posts over at the Hellforge community that is getting some traction is Agamemnon's look back at the MMO failures of 2008. Included are looks into why Tabula Rasa, Hellgate: London, Age of Conan, and Pirates of the Burning Sea either outright failed (in the case of Tabula Rasa and Hellgate) or were unable to get the subscriber numbers they expected with their launches.What separates this blog post from the myriad of other posts on the same subject is that the article ends with the many things that these games all did wrong and other developers should learn from. Little things, like listening closely to the feedback from your beta testers, fostering a community, and learning to stay away from the concept of "we'll patch it to perfection." It's a good analysis of the many failures of other games, and a kind tip of the hat to the things an MMO can do right, such as Mythic's openness with Warhammer Online.
HanbitSoft plans Hellgate: London relaunch and new expansion
The Hellgate: London IP saga continues. While we had some dire news that the servers will go dark at the end of January, we also know that development for the title is still being done in Redbana's California office... just not for which region. The latest word we've received on this seems to indicate the continuity of Hellgate: London, but to date this is only confirmed for service in Asia -- so we cannot (yet) offer a definitive, "Yes, HG:L will continue for North America and EU." That being said, Gamasutra has picked up on company blog posts by HanbitSoft's Global PR Manager, Janelle. One is a definitive announcement that HanbitSoft owns both the Hellgate: London and Mythos IP, while the other is more telling. Janelle republished an email sent from Hellgate: London's Product Manager about the future of the title.The message in its entirety, as shown on the Game Espresso site for HanbitSoft, is reprinted below the cut.
Hellgate London status: Purgatory
There have been so many twists and turns with the future of Hellgate: London (and Mythos) that it's hard to know what will happen next. We've heard on a few occasions that Hellgate: London was about to face its demise, only to be saved. Adding to the confusion was the dispute over who even owned Hellgate: London, Flagship Studios or HanbitSoft. After Flagship folded, HanbitSoft's claims seemed to be genuine, and the IP was left in the hands of T3 Entertainment. Subscriptions, however, were then suspended. Shortly afterwards Namco-Bandai swept in, prominently featured HG: L on its site... and subsequently removed it. Despite this, the game has been kept running ever since, although Namco-Bandai's stated that the servers will shut down at the end of January, 2009.Gaming site HellForge has picked up on what we're not ready to call anything more than 'rumor' at this point, but something that perhaps bodes well for the future of the game. Another company name has been thrown into the mix: Redbana (based in Taiwan, connected with the aforementioned T3 Entertainment). HellForge writes: "Further research leads to findings of a new San Francisco office for the company, which is where Hellgate offices were located previously." This seems to be in line with what we reported about the future of both titles in August. While we hope this information could be a positive sign for Hellgate: London and perhaps Mythos as well, at this point it's still largely conjecture. [Via Blue's News]
Hellgate: London subscriptions suspended
Exploring and fighting in post-apocalyptic London used to require a subscription but not anymore. Flagship Studios has announced that active Hellgate: London subscribers will not be billed nor will any new subscriptions be accepted. Normally, this would be welcoming news to players, but it's not because there is a chance that Hellgate: London could shutdown operations. Staff went first, and the forums are going next, tonight both the official Mythos and Hellgate: London forums will be pulled offline at 12AM. Due to financial circumstances Flagship Studios has come under hardships and had to layoff almost its entire staff. Ping0, an online services subsidiary was also affected. The fallout is a huge confusing mess, and Flagship used the rights to its intellectual property as collateral on loans for operating expenses. Now that Flagship is more or less collapsing HanbitSoft is stepping in trying to reign in both intellectual properties, Hellgate: London and Mythos, due to Flagship Studios defaulting on their original agreement.
HanbitSoft barbs Flagship Studios
A few days ago, Bill Roper exclaimed Flagship Studios still has a pulse, but only the founders and core management remain employed. There was no official word on what role the company will encompass now but a focus on casual games is rumored. The statement also noted that Flagship Studios owns the rights to all its technology and intellectual properties, including Hellgate: London and Mythos. HanbitSoft doesn't think so, and the verbal spar is heating up. In the latest war of words taking place on the Korean gaming site ThisIsGame, translation by Hellgate Guru. HanbitSoft is making it known that they are preparing for a legal battle. A lawsuit against Bill Roper and the founding directors of Flagship Studios is already underway. HanbitSoft will also be visiting Comerica bank next week in order to secure to the Global intellectual property rights to Hellgate: London. HanbitSoft also stated, "Flagship not only lacked effort, but were only looking for personal gain. Firing all of the Flagship employees in order to protect the personal interests of its founding members only shows how selfish and irresponsible they are." HanbitSoft owns a 9.5% stake in Flagship Studios and went on record to state they tried to bailout Flagship Studios numerous times.
HanbitSoft CEO claims ownership rights to Hellgate:London and Mythos
We're still reeling over the news that Flagship Studios has met its demise. Seeing any hard working development studio with loads of potential go belly-up isn't easy considering all the real people affected from the fallout. Bill Roper hasn't made a public announcement yet, but the closure of Flagship Studios was confirmed. What will happen to Mythos and Hellgate:London is a question that remains on many minds. The HanbitSoft CEO, Kim Ki-young chips away at that answer in a response to an inquiry by TheGames.co.kr seeking clarification about the situation surrounding Hellgate:London and Mythos. In a translation provided by Hellgate Guru, Kim Ki-young of HanbitSoft states: "If we can take intellectual property rights of relevant products from Flagship Studios, we have confidence to develop the games ourselves based on T3 Entertainment's advanced technology' and 'we believe we can service fresh and interesting games to online gamers by getting intellectual property rights and development. This crisis could be an opportunity for us."
Hellgate:London patch update 1.3d now live
All the scuttlebutt regarding fleeing Hellgate:London developers and programmers didn't stop the 1.3d patch from hitting the servers yesterday. The refreshing patch introduces changes to gameplay, a rebalancing act to the calculations behind rank experience, and further eradications to pesky bugs occurred which will help keep the mean streets of Hellgate:London crash free. The full 1.3d are listed on the official website or you can hit the jump below. Frequent displeasure remains constantly expressed in our Hellgate:London post threads. If you are still looking for an admittance of failures from someone at Flagship Studios, Max Schaefer, operations chief and co-founder recently acknowledged mistakes were made and lessons learned. The main one being the grandiosity in the overall vision for the game and an early launch that more or less turned Hellgate:London into a recovery process. Still there is a fanbase, and it was well received in South Korea. The developers are working hard, and hopefully with enough patches it will prove to be a better experience for those willing to give it a second chance. Have you?
Cinemassively: For the Living
DeafeningTheDaisies did a great job with a game not particularly known for machinima, Hellgate: London. Deafening has an entire series planned out, with most of the first episode almost done. While there isn't a plot in this video, it's certainly heavy on the scare factor! The biggest problem with For the Living is the aspect ratio, which jumps back and forth between text and gameplay. However, that's easy to fix. We look forward to seeing the full series!If you have machinima or movie suggestions from any MMO, please send them to machinima AT massively DOT com, along with any information you might have about them.
Sweeping changes to Hellgate: London in Abyss Chronicles
Hell is about to get even hotter, as Flagship Studios prepares to unleash fresh content for Hellgate: London. Our sister blog Big Download has some posted new screenshots of the upcoming Abyss Chronicles for HG:L, as well as info on the 2.0 and 2.1 updates to the title. Patch 2.0 will be Hellgate: London's second major content update, and brings with it a host of new features and changes to the game. The build is likely to go live on the Test Server in the next week, but until then, here's Big Download's breakdown of the 2.0 changes: A new quest line that covers the spread of the Abyss through Parliament Square and the survivors' efforts to fight back A major rebalancing of the Blademaster class A complete PvP overhaul, including achievements, rankings, rewards, and a new CTF team gametype Changes to the Shared Stash, such as a separate pane for each difficulty Addition of two new trinket slots for players to add rings and such to their characters An attribute respec NPC that allows players to remove points from an attribute for a fee-per-point Three new skills for each class A consignment house (read: auction house) where players can sell stuff to other players without direct trading Beyond rolling out The Abyss Chronicles with 2.0, the next area Flagship Studios is focusing on is PvP through Patch 2.1. The patch will 'open up an entirely new side to Hellgate: London' by introducing five cohesive elements of PvP in a single update: ranking, matchmaking, rewards, achievements, and Capture the Flag. The end result is what Flagship describes as 'a robust PvP experience.'
Hellgate: London giveths and takeths away
Flagship Studios announced some changes to Hellgate: London in the form of Patch 1.3b, which should resolve issues with the ill-fated Patch 1.3a. Indeed, the month of May has turned out to be HellPatch: London for Flagship and HG: L fans, with the patches even being patched. Some players who logged into the Test Server recently found that their characters were gone and, fearing the worst, assumed (incorrectly) that a character wipe had taken place. This was not the case at all; a Test Center database crash was the culprit, and a restore from backup solved the issue. Now that the updated patch has been rolled out, nightly restarts of the live servers have ceased, as of May 20th. The reboots were a precaution to prevent server instability while issues were being resolved. A notable change in Patch 1.3b is that HG: L now blocks non-subscribers from party portaling into subscriber-only areas. Although this change will likely disappoint the gamers who play for free, a quest NPC previously available only to paying players is now available to non-subs. Whether or not this balances the scales for the non-subs remains to be seen, but portaling into restricted areas would seem to be an exploit. The other changes and fixes in Patch 1.3b are numerous, and affect non-subscribers and subscribers alike. The complete breakdown is found after the jump:
Anti-Aliased: How to pick the MMO for you
Let's be honest for a moment - there are a ton of MMOs out there. We have everything from fantasy, to dystopian future, to fantasy, to horror, to fantasy, to pirates, to fantasy, to sci-fi, and even all the way down to fantasy. While this is great for people who love choice, this is a complete nightmare (or should I say Bloodymare, ha ha, gaming puns) for anyone who's new to the genre or wants to start off with a fresh game that's different from what they're playing.How do you separate the good from the bad? How do you know if you'll stick to a game? You don't want to gamble with an expensive game only to find out that you totally hate it and wish it would burn in the deepest depths of hell. (I'm looking at you, Risk Your Life.) So, do you rely on what your friends tell you or what reviewers tell you?In my opinion, no one knows you except you. So when you sit down and want to pick the right game the first time, here's a few pointers and suggestions to get you started.
Open forums and a patched patch for Hellgate: London
Things are happening at Hellgate: London these days -- so many, that we're going to make a list! (We love lists.) The forums are now open: You no longer need to have an account to read the Hellgate: London forums, though you still need an account to post in them. Patch 1.3 is out: It has the usual number of bug fixes along with a lot of new features like emotes and shared stashes. Patch 1.3 has been patched: It also has the usual number of bugs that had to be fixed for the game to be fully playable again. Patch 1.3b is on the test server: There are still more bugs to be fixed and the changes are being tested now. The Test Server has been patched: The database crashed and needed to be rebuilt. So the Test Server is currently being tested. The Abyss Chronicles are coming soon: The next content patch or Patch 2.0 is in the works and information will be released shortly. For more details on all of this news and more, check out Issue 5 of the Underground Communique.
April Fools' in Hellgate: London
Not wanting to be left out of the fun, the folks at Flagship Studios have a couple of April Fools' jokes of their own. The acquisition of Hellgate High School in Missoula, Missouri is an amusing read. The team name is the Hellgate Knights and Flagship Studios plans to farm the school for in-game music and sound effects.But really, it's all about Hellgate Barbie. We don't know which is funnier, Evoker Barbie with the hot pink pentacle or the fact that they beg Mattel not to sue them. It's really too bad this is a joke, because dressing up dolls in armor like our characters isn't such a bad idea. Would you buy a Guardian Ken or a Summoner Skipper?
New way to talk to Flagship Studios: YouTube comments
Do you want to communicate with a representative of Flagship Studios with all of your Hellgate: London or Mythos related questions? Are you tired of not getting a response on the forums? Well, the unlikely place of YouTube may be the answer for you.We were surprised to find that Scapes, Hellgate: London's Community Manager was answering both HGL and Mythos questions in the comments of their YouTube videos.For example, if you go to take a look at the new Patch 1.2 trailer, you will find comments about the new Single Player patch as well as the difference between Video development and Game development.So if you have a burning question for Flagship Studios, go sign into your YouTube account and leave a comment. You may just get a response straight from the source. Or you could wait until the next time they do an IRC developer chat.
Hellgate: London developer chat on IRC today
If you are interested in chatting with the developers of Hellgate: London and you are available at 7pm EST today, then fire up your favorite IRC client and get ready to talk to Flagship Studios. Their last developer chat was pretty candid, so if you are still playing HGL or have renewed interest since the release of Stonehenge, participating in this chat may be fun and informative.Here are the details:Server: irc.ForTheGamers.orgChannel: #FlagshipStudiosFor questions during the event, type /msg DevBot yourquestionhere where "yourquestionhere" is your actual question. There will also be a separate channel just for chatting with other attendees.I use Trillian for IRC, but mIRC is another good one. For The Gamers is also providing a web-based client for the chat. Full details on how to connect if you are having issues are provided here.Maybe I'll see you there, preschooler permitting.
The Stonehenge Chronicles delayed for Hellgate: London
Hellgate: London's Patch 1.0 aka Stonehenge aka The Stonehenge Chronicles has been delayed until January. This will be the first major quarterly update and, if released in January, will still be on schedule. Bill Roper, in a letter sent to registered players, said that they want to take the time to make this patch right:If there is one lesson we've learned from launching Hellgate: London, our releases should be a question of "what" and not "when".Huzzah.In other patch news, Single Player Patch 0.6 is live and available for download. Multiplayer Patch 0.7 has been live since December 14th on US servers and went live December 19th on EU server Sydonai. Subscribers who login to Patch 0.7 will find that Nemo in Holbrook Station has a goodie for them. My first try to receive it got me the much treasured Server Error, but after restarting the game I received the even more intriguing Transmogrifying Cube which, as promised previously, will look familiar to Diablo II fans.Patch 1.0 notes from the Test Center are after the jump.
Gamer Interrupted: Duos are good for relationships
Each week, Robin Torres contributes Gamer Interrupted, a column about balancing real life with MMOs.Sharing your leisure time with a friend and/or loved one is a great way to strengthen your relationship. This is not a controversial statement. But if that leisure time includes video games, we are getting into much debated territory -- though things are improving. Newer studies are finding that social games do in fact make people more social, rather than the basement dwelling stereotypes that exist. In my opinion, MMOs are a great way to spend quality time together with friends, family and significant others -- particularly when some are in different physical locations. Couples can have in-game dates where they spend only the money that they are already spending on their account fees and with the kids sleeping nearby. Separated friends can spend time together even if they are in different countries. And, in my favorite story (though I am biased), brothers who have never met can get to know each other though they are hundreds of miles apart.
More patches incoming for Hellgate: London
Patch 0.6 is on the test server and Patch 0.7 is on deck for Hellgate: London. The two most notable changes on Patch 0.6 are: The invisible group member bug has been fixed. The bug that unequips engineer pet weapons is improved, but not fixed. There's no official word as to when Patch 0.6 will be live, but they say that Patch 0.7 will be hitting the test servers next week and therefore, we can assume that Patch 0.6 will go live before then.Patch 0.7 will include: Memory usage improvements UI tweaks Subscriber items and quests for Diablo 2 fans The official patch notes for 0.6 are after the jump.
