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First Impressions: Marvel Heroes isn't a heroic marvel
Despite my best efforts, I couldn't get into Diablo. I tried several times, but whatever strange alchemy kept turning me off from other roguelikes was still in full effect. Despite that, I can respect that the game has made an enormous impact on gaming as a whole -- even disregarding the effect it had upon MMOs and RPGs in general, we're currently amid a glut of Diablo derivatives (including Diablo III itself). This is relevant because Marvel Heroes is very clearly meant to be Diablo: Online With Superheroes Edition. So I'm not fond of the design style. But I'm very fond of superheroes, and especially fond of the Marvel universe. A well-done Diablo-style game could have easily won me over and convinced me that while this wasn't the Marvel game I necessarily wanted, it was good enough. The trouble is that the game doesn't have the marriage of playstyle and source material that it needs; it wants to be Diablo with a superhero skin, and it misses both marks.
Vindictus cuts out a place for new character Vella
She slices, she dices, she eviscerates, and she's the newest character in Vindictus. Ladies and gentlemen, meet Vella and her dual blades. She's the star of the newest video from the game's team at Nexon, which shows off her penchant for quick maneuvers and swinging arcs of destruction. In the game's lore, Vella is a mariner renowned for her skill with blades and her agility. In play, she more than lives up to the reputation, possessing a variety of attacks that either help her close the range with her opponent (such as Typhoon Slash) or help her get out of range as necessary (such as the spinning attack Slipaway). While she's obviously a melee character, her ability to dart in and out of range and vent around larger opponents should help keep her versatile on the battlefield. But don't take our word for it -- check her out in action just past the break. [Source: Nexon press release]
Storyboard: The lies we tell ourselves
We all have our delusions. Some of them are very conscious decisions, like ignoring the fact that Superman Returns is a thing that actually exists. Others are more unconscious, like people who genuinely believe that the ancient Mayans put together a calendar predicting the end of the world in a few weeks. But they're always there, and all of us have a full set of them bred into us from years of social interactions and peer groups. We ignore, we obfuscate, and we reject facts that do not line up with our opinions. Make your own joke there about gamers declaring a game is or was a failure. Our characters often see the world with a lot more clarity. It's not that they're devoid of opinions; it's that they tend to base those opinions on the real story instead of what they saw or felt or thought. That's all well and good, but perhaps it's time for reasonable things like facts to take a hike in favor of some good old-fashioned delusions. After all, if we're all deluding ourselves in real life, shouldn't our characters get to occasionally stick their fingers in their ears and declare they can't hear anything?
Breakfast Topic: Which Mists character grates on your last nerve?
Remember Corki? Really, now ... Who could forget the most annoying little twit ever to grace not one but four quests in Nagrand during The Burning Crusade? There really aren't many NPCs that can set my teeth on edge like Corki could, but Li Li Stormstout sure is making a run for the title. I know she's supposed to be loosely modeled on an actual little girl (the daughter of Blizzard Senior Writer Micky Neilson, also the author of the graphic novel about her), and yeah, I'm a mom with a little girl of about that age, but this little flibbertigibbet drives me batty -- which has done nothing to put me in any decent frame of mind to deal with Dook Ookem, Chief Kah Kah and their ilk, now that I'm running up my team Horde-side. I know, I know, many of you love those little bundles of comic relief. Maybe I'm just "lazy and old," as Li Li might claim. I'm all pumped up and ready for war, though, and I hate being sidetracked by these knuckleheads. I guess I could try leapfrogging the storylines I don't care for, but it's part of my storyline. I don't wanna skip anything! Commiserate with me. I know plenty of you are agonizing over more important matters, grinding your gears over Garrosh while I'm merely fretting about a little girl and bunch of monkeys. So tell me, what characters in Mists grate on your last nerve -- and what are you doing to mitigate the pain?
PlayStation All-Stars adding Kat and Emmett Graves, plus Heavenly Sword/Wipeout level
SuperBot Entertainment showed off a new pair of fighters in PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale at the Sony Santa Monica studio recently: Kat from Gravity Rush and Emmett Graves from Starhawk will be the first two DLC characters to join the fracas. The character pack containing both will be free for a limited time when it arrives sometime early next year.SuperBot's director Omar Kendall also premiered a brand new level for the game, combining the worlds of Heavenly Sword and Wipeout into a beautiful but precarious environment. The actual pricing (and release date) for the level hasn't yet been decided.While letting us play a little bit with each character, Kendall talked to us about the reaction to PlayStation All-Stars, why these two characters are the first to make the DLC cut, and what else SuperBot has planned.%Gallery-172572%
The Cave trailer introduces playable characters
This trailer for Double Fine's The Cave has said cave talking about the game's diverse cast of characters. The game is heading to Wii U, PS3, Xbox 360 and PC in January 2013.
A look at Final Fantasy XIV's new character creator
Final Fantasy XIV players already knew that the game's character creator is being overhauled when the game's relaunch goes live. Now, the development team at Square-Enix has finally given us a clearer picture of what to expect from the creator in A Realm Reborn with five new screens showing off some of the options within the new tool as well as the overall interface players will be experiencing. It's not the full picture, but it's enough for fans to start getting a feel for what's on the way. Several of the options appear to be returning from the current version of the game, while still others are being added or expanded (no doubt some players will be happy to see that a character's bust size is now freely selectable, for example). The overall look is far more streamlined and straightforward compared to the current version. There's no hint of new hairstyles, but you can take a look at the full preview in the gallery just below. [Source: Square-Enix press release]%Gallery-157176%
'Borderlands Legends' for iOS leaks ahead of release
Borderlands is a popular console shooter title that was recently followed up with a sequel on Xbox 360 and PS3, and it appears Gearbox, the company behind the game, isn't done yet. Plans have leaked out for a game called Borderlands Legends, coming to mobile platforms soon (and specifically iOS, on both iPhone and iPad). As for what the game actually is, however, details aren't very clear yet. The mobile title will include all of the characters from the main Borderlands series, and it will have them leveling up various abilities and skills. It will also have the game's intriguing dynamic weapon system, as the mobile game promises "thousands" of different weapons to use. But there's also a cover system, which the console's first-person shooter gameplay doesn't really have. So this is likely a shooter, but probably features a twist on the genre -- maybe an on-rails shooter instead? At any rate, we likely won't have to wait long: Borderlands Legends is apparently due out sometime this month. So we'll keep an eye on the App Store to see what Gearbox is cooking up for mobile for this popular series. [via The Verge]
The Game Archaeologist: A City of Heroes memorial, part 1
When I first heard that City of Heroes would be given a hero's farewell, I felt for the players who call that game home. I also was depressed because I spent a fair amount of time in Paragon City myself and have a particular affection for the game. But beyond empathy and misery, I knew that the Game Archeologist had a duty to perform: to preserve the memories of what would soon fade into history. Thus, I put out a call for your City of Heroes characters along with their stories so that I could share them with the world at large. Dozens of readers responded, and for the next couple of weeks, we're going to be looking at the digital face of tragedy and memories. These are the avatars who genuinely meant something to someone, and while they are about to be deleted from the servers forever, I hope that by archiving them here, they'll live on for future generations (read: December 2012 readers) to discover. Let's go meet some of them, shall we?
Avengers: Battle for Earth features favorites, familiar faces
Ubisoft has named all twenty characters appearing in Avengers: Battle for Earth, the upcoming fighter for Kinect (and then Wii U). You'll be able to spin off some psy-force as the Phoenix, embodied by the X-Man Jean Grey, and take command of the Skrull queen Veranke, among others. It's not surprising to see a big "Secret Invasion" influence, given the game's initial trailer. See the full list after the break.Avengers: Battle for Earth will have you and your friends jumping around and debating the correct time for clobberin' on November 9. If you want to see some of these heroes throwing down right away, there's a demo available for download in the meantime.
SMITE rolls out a video for Ares
Interested in the deities of SMITE? You'll be quite happy to know that the game has put out a new video revealing one of the game's many heroes. In a stunning move that should shock nearly no one, one of the heroes available for play in this game of warring gods is Ares, the Greek god of war. And while almost any student of mythology could give you a brief rundown of who Ares represents (people who like war), the video goes into depth about Ares' abilities and combat roles. Ares in SMITE is meant as a melee magical tank. His abilities allow him to chain other gods for continual damage and increased movement speed, bolster the defenses of himself and nearby allies, and breathes fire from his shield to cut down high-health targets. At the apex of his power, Ares can pull several enemies together to him while dealing extensive damage. Take a look past the cut to see a full rundown of his skills as well as some demonstrations of their tactical execution.
The Daily Grind: What characters do you love to hate?
Kaliyo Djannis is one of my favorite companions in Star Wars: The Old Republic. Not because I like her as a person; she's really pretty unambiguously awful. But she's entertainingly awful, and working around the hindrances she provides makes the overall experience more entertaining. Every MMO has its important NPCs, and some of them either are just plain annoying or fade into the woodwork. But then there are the enemies you love to hate, the allies who frustrate you in amusing ways. Some of the Guild Wars henchmen (Orion and Alesia in particular) were half-useless, but charmingly so. Every Final Fantasy XI player got nightmares about running from goblins, but they had a strange charm despite that. So what about you? What's your favorite character whom you love to hate? An ally who's totally useless but makes life more interesting? An enemy who kills you in entertaining ways? Or just a story character who prompts a smile at his or her ineptitude? 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!
Storyboard: Making character relationships work
Character interrelationships are the heart of roleplaying. The interesting part of your character isn't his background or his personality; it's what happens when you put him in a room with several other people and let the whole thing move from there. You're trying to create an entirely different person who will build an entirely different set of relationships in an entirely different world. Unfortunately, some of those relationships can feel a bit... forced -- as if you're trying to find a connection where none exists, or as if you've jumped past some important elements of characterization that would make everything seem clearer. In short, a lot of your relationships feel as if they were cut from the Star Wars prequels. I harp on verisimilitude a lot in this column, but that's precisely because roleplaying depends on the illusion of reality in each interaction. If your relationships in roleplaying feel real, it does wonders for grounding the characters and their interplay in reality and giving substance to everything else you do. So I think it's worth noting some obvious stumbling points and some ways to help relationships feel more organic.
Meet the new, familiar faces of Fuse's Overstrike 9 team
Insomniac's Overstrike team-based shooter has turned into a game called Fuse, due out in the first quarter of next year on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. And the four characters in the game's co-op team are in many ways the same four that we saw in last year's trailer, but they've changed a lot as well. The names might be the same, but the looks (in some cases) are different, and the weapons, now powered by the alien element "fuse," have seen changes.So here's your guide to the four co-op characters in Fuse, that make up the "Overstrike 9" team, dedicated to fighting the villanious Raven force around the world. Players will be able to play any of these characters in online co-op, and Insomniac has also created a function called "Leap" that will allow any player to jump, at the press of a button, into any character not already being controlled (so a solo player can jump into any character, two players can jump into either free character, and so on). And all of these characters not only earn experience upgrades as they play, but they also build up fuse power into a "fusion mode" (activated by anyone on the team) that then rewards unlimited ammo and extra functionality in their fusion weapons. Finally, in addition to each character-specific fuse weapon, each character also gets two conventional weapons to wield (one heavy and light, per character), and grenades to throw as well.Read on to hear where these four characters come from, and what you'll find their strengths and weaknesses are as you play through Fuse.%Gallery-165036%
Storyboard: Lessons from what roleplaying resembles most
When you get right down to it, roleplaying isn't really like a movie or a novel in which you determine the story. It's not even all that much like a video game in which you write the story; those tend to be structured better. No, roleplaying is most like making your own serial comic book. Think about it. You have a number of charcters with superhuman abilities getting into conflicts on a regular basis. Sometimes those characters pan out into a satisfying story arc, but other times characters show up and then vanish, either because they were awful or because the author didn't know what to do with them. There's a real risk of running on into boredom, and there are a lot of times when characters get kludged into other storylines for cross-promotional purposes. Regular readers will probably guess that I don't think of this as a bad thing. I like comics a lot, after all. And it means that we can take some interesting lessons from the long lifespan of comics because when you realize you're making a big collaborative comic, you earn the right to use some tricks of the trade.
Massively Exclusive: Previewing Mihile from MapleStory's New Dawn update
It's going to be a brand-new day for MapleStory when the New Dawn update goes live in early September. If you can't wait that long, we've got a little treat for you: a video preview of Mihile, who previously served as an NPC and can be played in the update. Players will be able to explore Mihile and find out how he became the Knight of Light -- and investigate his abilities in the process. Mihile uses a one-handed sword and a special shield known as the Soul Shield. Unlike other shields, this one improves as Mihile does, earning an upgrade with each advancement and leveling up as it gains experience. That gives Mihile a defensive bulwark from the start of his career all the way to the apex. Check out the preview past the cut, and keep your eyes peeled for more information before the update in early September.
A Mild-Mannered Reporter: Spotlight on the Freakshow in City of Heroes
There are three basic tiers that the villains in City of Heroes occupy. At the bottom you've got guys like the Hellions and the Skulls, chumps with just enough superhuman ability to deal with low-level heroes and villains. In the middle are groups like the Trolls and the Family, groups that either lack organization but have power or have organization but lack power. At the top are people like the Circle of Thorns or Nemesis, organized societies with villainous intent. The Freakshow are another ballgame because they're not organized at all, but they break to the top through sheer power. If you're going to be facing off against street thugs in the highest levels of the game, you'll be dealing with the Freakshow, and that's true of both villains and heroes. The gang is just a group of punks without any real goals or overriding drive, and yet they're a big enough force that even Arachnos has to deal with them from time to time. So it's worth looking at the group as a whole, since they're a bigger threat than they get credit for even if they don't have any sort of real goal.
Smash Bros. director says Wii U version will be familiar and focused
Masahiro Sakurai, who is overseeing the upcoming Namco-created iteration of Smash Bros. on the Wii U and 3DS, says the goal for the game will be to keep things focused and fresh, rather than blowing out either the mechanics or the character list.Sakurai told IGN that because the franchise is so popular lately, he believes the core gameplay is on target, and thus won't change much in the next installment. "The game system itself is complete," says Sakurai, "so we don't want to make it 3D or introduce complicated controls just for the sake of it." The Wii U's new controller will be used, but outside of that, it sounds like things will stay familiar for fans.That will be true for characters as well. While Sakurai thinks "Snake and Sonic joining were fantastic," he's leery of going too far outside the Nintendo staple, for fear of losing "the focus of the game." Will there be anything new at all? Sakurai says only that he and his team are thinking of "ways we can introduce a slightly different, fun experience all the while keeping the usual frantic game play."
Battleblock Theater will have 200 playable characters, and at least one duck
Developer The Behemoth has been toiling away on its latest, Battleblock Theater, for a while now, and all we've learned about the game has come from a few scant glances at various industry events. But the game is finally code complete, so the developer is being a little more forthcoming with details.On the latest company blog, the team goes through the numbers on the new game: There will be over 200 characters to unlock (compared to Castle Crashers' 30), over 200 levels to play through, and over 10 "weapontools" to use. There will also be a full slate of online multiplayer modes, Achievements and avatar awards to earn, and a "soundtrack created by well-known artists and members of our community" (that community being Newgrounds, which was created by The Behemoth co-owner Tom Fulp).The dev has also shared a video (above) of artist Dan Paladin working on some of the creations in the game. The Behemoth promises more announcements later this year – here's hoping they'll finally be able to bring this long-awaited game to players soon.
Storyboard: The RIFT project - week 3
I can't believe that this has almost been going on for a month. Well, all right, I can believe it but still find it somewhat baffling. Yes, it's the penultimate installment of RIFT project recaps, and it's been an interesting week. This one has been mostly focused around broadening the scope, adding in some new characters to the mix and seeing how they've played off the quartet already in play. In short, it's been good... but it highlighted a weakness that neither Ms. Lady nor I was really conscious of until we sat down and articulated it. Of course, if you've been reading steadily, you may have already guessed at the problem, but that's all the more reason to catch up on the events. There's a higher than usual dose of unmitigated crazy this week, too. So what happened on a week when we should really have been bringing things toward a conclusion? Anything but.
