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E3 2012: Origins of Malu brings player-created factions, housing, and exploration to the sandbox
It's hard to remain completely objective about Origins of Malu. The sci-fantasy title from Burning Dog Media is a project I've been watching personally for quite a while now, both because of its ambitious design goals and because of the sandbox affinity displayed by the dev team. At this week's E3, I finally got to put names with faces when I met with senior developer Jason Mitchell and programmer Chris Shaw. The pair had plenty of interesting tidbits to share, and despite the fact that I haven't put my hands on an Origins build yet, it remains very near the top of my most-anticipated-MMOs list. Join me after the cut for some chit-chat about action combat, player-created factions, PvP (yes there are safe zones), and more.
Grandia Online coming this summer
BigWorld have formally announced the latest game build on their BigWorld Technology Suite, Grandia Online. Grandia Online is the latest in the Grandia series of games that started with the Grandia RPG on the Sega Saturn and has continued with two sequels and several spin off games on a range of consoles and the PC. Grandia Online is set before the story in the first game, but in the same game world. This release comes after a long development during which it wasn't always clear that the game would actually be released. The game was first announced in 2004 with beta testing announced for September 2006 with development by GameArts, but development transferred to GungHo Online Entertainment in early 2007. Development has since reverted back to GameArts, with GungHo Online Entertainment remaining as publisher.The title is expected to enter open beta this month, with a full release for the later in the summer on PC.
Sierra making "mass-market" online game with BigWorld suite
It seems like every time we hear about a new title, the first thing we hear is an announcement about what engine or dev tools its developers will use. This time, Sierra has licensed the BigWorld Suite, parts of which are also used in Cheyenne Mountain Entertainment's Stargate Worlds and John Romero's forthcoming MMO project.The announcement was made by BigWorld Technologies, not Sierra, and it didn't reveal much about the nature of the game, except that it it will be (according to Gamasutra) "targeting a mass-market audience." King's Quest Online? Probably not, but if only! If you want to know more about BigWorld, Ten Ton Hammer did a great interview with one of the guys behind it earlier this year. Oh, and just so you know; Sierra is/was owned by Vivendi Games, and so is (like Blizzard) now part of the epic corporate monstrosity known as Activision Blizzard. All your studio are belong to us.
