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Ooh Ouya! Testing MMOs on a $99 console
My big birthday present this year was an Ouya -- the $99 Android console that was funded by Kickstarter, powered by dreams, and promoted as a "revolution" by its makers. I've not been big on either consoles or Android platforms as of late, mostly due to being preoccupied elsewhere. But something about Ouya's roguish underdog status and the combination of being a fully functional console and a development kit in one attracted me to it. Plus, it's so dang tiny! You can only fit one-half of a magical elf inside it, and even that took some intense pushing. Obviously this is not a bleeding-edge console that's going to pump out realistic graphics at 100 fps, but that's not Ouya's thing anyway. So you might be forgiven in thinking that MMO studios might stay far away from it, what with its limited storage space and processing power, but that's actually not the case. Two MMOs that I know of have been released on the Ouya, Vendetta Online and Order and Chaos Online, and to me that signals the possibility that there might be more in the future. So I downloaded both of them fairly quickly and settled onto my couch to check out MMO gaming with a controller on a TV powered by a console smaller than a Coke can. What kind of MMO experience was I going to get with a $99 machine?
Tamriel Infinium: Everyone gets an Elder Scrolls game!
The more convention coverage I read and the more conventions I go to, the more I'm concerned by them. The atmosphere is unlike anything I've ever experienced before, and rubbing shoulders with the developers of some of my favorite games has its perks. But you hardly ever get to the meat of what determines a great game. Amidst the hype and free booze, every game looks and tastes great, but even the greatest games are less filling under those circumstances. Even we observers from home receive only a candy-coated glimpse of what a game really offers. The news pouring in from the The Elder Scrolls Online really exemplifies the layers of fluff that the convention atmosphere can place on a game. Two of our reporters spent time talking to the developers of the next venture into the world of Tamriel, and both stepped away with a very positive experience. Admittedly, I feel the excitement, too. I'm twitching with joy. Our freelancer Andrew's note that he "just didn't realize [he] was starting a quest when [he] talked to [quest givers]" piques my interest. Have we finally found a game that feels like a living world? And quotes from the ESO developers like, "You can pick up a sword and shield if you start as a sorcerer class and become a sword and shield user, and that's fine" have me wondering if we haven't stumbled upon the best mix of sandbox and themepark in an MMO. This week and next, I want to delve deeper into the reports from E3. Do we find some concerns that the developers are trying to gloss over, or is ESO everything we ever wanted from an Elder Scrolls game?
Massively's Defiance launch week diary: Recap
By popular forum-rager demand, I present to you Massively's "real" Defiance launch week impressions. I guess some folks aren't satisfied with the general contentment expressed in the diaries I posted Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, and they need a chance to vent. So for those people: Defiance is the worst launch ever! It's worse than Anarchy Online! My pet peeves from alpha/beta haven't been fixed, and worse yet, Trion has not called me personally to apologize! Boo-hoooooooo! Oh, you did actually come here to read some day four Defiance impressions? Good. Today's entry is going to be a recap of sorts because my brief play session last night was likely my last until the TV show's debut. I feel sorta bad typing that because ultimately I want to like Defiance more than I do, not because I spent 60 bucks on it but because I think Trion has the makings of a title with some staying power. After 20 hours of play, though, I feel as if I've seen enough until the game matures a little bit. No forum rage required.
Defiance weapon mod trailer is infectious
This trailer for Trion Worlds' MMO Defiance shows off the weapon customization options in the game. Defiance will launch on April 2 for PS3, Xbox 360 and PC, while its counterpart TV show will air April 15 on SyFy.
Trion offering a Defiance season pass with DLC, new species, and more
Trion has posted details on a season pass for Defiance, its MMO-meets-a-TV-show project in conjunction with SyFy. The season pass will cost players $39.99 and enable access to the game's first five DLC packs, which will include a new playable alien species, along with lots of new weapons, vehicles, missions, and other rewards. Plus, pass buyers get two bonus items: a digital Hellbug combat cap, and an extra Lock Box (which is a sealed container in the game for a chance at another item).The $39.99 is in addition to the game's initial purchase price ($59.99, or $99.99 for the deluxe edition). Defiance won't have a subscription fee, and this price is 20 percent off what the DLC will cost in total.The Defiance game will be launched on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC on April 2, while the TV show will start on April 15.
Check out two minutes of State of Decay zombie-killing action
It's been a few weeks since we've heard from the Undead Labs dev team. Happily, the newest State of Decay update comes with a gruesome slice of gameplay video. The two-minute clip focuses on the weapons and tactics necessary to clear a path through a horde of undead. There's a brief bit of driving action, too, and we also get a glimpse of the game's map functionality and UI. Community manager Sanya Weathers also offers up a teaser on the, er, state of State of Decay's development. "It's the most wonderful time of the year... that time when we're seeing the light at the end of the development tunnel," she writes. "We're polishing up communications, tactics, and all of the elements that make a game more than a simple 'see zombie, shoot zombie' kind of thing."
EVE Evolved: Merging EVE with DUST 514
When console MMOFPS DUST 514 was first announced, players were cautious of the game's ambitious goals. Developers promised that DUST battles would decide the ownership of planets inside PC MMO EVE Online, and that this would tie into system sovereignty and ultimately ownership of entire regions of space. We expected the two games to have separate communities and economies that would interact only when EVE players hired DUST mercenaries to take over sectors of particular planets, but we couldn't have been more wrong. Two years later, CCP blew our expectations out of the water with details of how DUST and EVE will be practically joined at the hip. We learned that the two games would share the exact same corporations and that ISK would be transferable between games. We also got a glimpse of the incredible plans for realtime integration, with EVE ships able to deliver air strikes to planets and DUST players able to shoot down ships in orbit with ground cannon. But have those ambitious goals stayed in focus during development, and what can we expect from DUST when it launches early next year? In this week's EVE Evolved opinion piece, I look through the public information on DUST 514's launch integration with EVE Online and speculate on how the link may evolve after release.
Undead Labs hires community director, Class3 info forthcoming
With the rash of MMO-related job losses in recent weeks, it's nice to see the occasional blurb about a dev finding a new home. Former Dominus and Dark Age of Camelot community guru Sanya Weathers has landed at Undead Labs, where she'll be heading up -- you guessed it -- the community relations department. This is good news for fans of the firm's tentatively titled Class3 zombie MMO as well. As Undead Labs' Jeff Strain writes, "you don't hire a kick-ass community director if you have nothing to say."
EverQuest Online Adventures slays its final dragon
EverQuest Online Adventures, the console spinoff of SOE's EverQuest franchise, is counting down the hours until the server is switched off at midnight tonight. In addition to EQOA, SOE is shuttering three other underperforming titles today: Cosmic Rift, Infantry, and Star Chamber: The Harbinger Saga. Instead of spending its final days in sorrow, the EQOA community joined the dev team for a series of epic battles against marauding dragons this past week. Players have filled the forums with posts about their favorite in-game memories over the past nine years of gameplay. To compensate players for the loss of their game world, SOE gave EQOA subscribers three months of gold-level status in EverQuest and EverQuest II. EQOA came out in 2003 on the PlayStation 2 and was one of the first generation of console MMOs. For those Massively readers feeling nostalgic or curious about it, definitely check out our series on the game: part 1, part 2, and part 3.
The Game Archaeologist dials up Phantasy Star Online: The highlights
The Dreamcast was a brief but shining aberration in the gaming world. Coming along years after Sega had fallen out of its position as a top-runner in the console market, it represented the company's big attempt to reclaim its former glory. While it failed to succeed in that respect and ultimately closed up shop in 2001 (ending Sega's interest in the console market), the Dreamcast became a gaming cult favorite responsible for some of the most innovative titles ever made. Games like Jet Grind Radio, Space Channel 5, and Shenmue have remained fan favorites long after the Dreamcast's demise, which shows the legacy that these dev teams left behind. But perhaps the Dreamcast's greatest gift to the gaming world wasn't crazy taxis or space dancing but a surprisingly forward-looking approach to online gaming. In 2000, the Dreamcast took the first steps to bringing an online console RPG to market, and while it wasn't a true MMO, it certainly paved the way for titles like EverQuest Online Adventures and Final Fantasy XI. It was bold, it was addictive, and it was gosh-darned gorgeous. Ladies and gentlemen: Phantasy Star Online.
PlayStation 3 patch to require more disk space for Final Fantasy XI
If you're playing Final Fantasy XI on your PlayStation 3, you might want to head to Gamer Escape to get the details on an upcoming hardware tweak. The website reports that sometime in February, Sony will release a system update for the PS3 that will increase the hard drive space necessary to run the PlayStation 2 version of FFXI. PS3 models that feature 60GB and 20GB drives are the only units being affected, but it's worth noting because the FFXI client will require an additional 9GB of space after the patch (21GB total). The PS2 version of FFXI isn't changing, nor is the Windows version, so don't sweat it if you're not playing the title on your PS3. If you are, though, the source article is worth a read. As of press time, Square-Enix hasn't divulged a reason for the space increase. [Thanks to Andrew for the tip!]
Blizzard hiring Diablo III network engineer to work on consoles
As 2012 rolls in, many gamers are rejoicing that they might make it to a year that Diablo III actually releases. Blizzard's action-RPG will certainly be a hit on the PC, although console fans may have more hope today that Diablo III could reach the shores of their platform. According to a job posting on Gamasutra, Blizzard is hiring a "Senior Software Engineer Console Network" to work on the Diablo team. It's a full-time position that will be in charge of designing and working on network systems for a console title. One of the requirements for the job is that the person have worked on a major Xbox 360 or PS3 title and have a good amount of experience with PSN and Xbox Live. While this is not the first indication that Blizzard is working on a console version of Diablo III, it certainly lends credence to the notion that the company is actively working on it. The studio previously said that the title "is probably coming to consoles."
Undead Labs' writer talks story in zombie MMOs
Don't look now, but there's another MMO jumping on the story bandwagon. This time it's Undead Labs' Class3 console game, and there's a new dev blog up on the title's official site that outlines writer Travis Stout's modus operandi. Stout is a huge fan of the zombie genre, and that's a good thing given Class3's focus on the walking dead and the creeptastic atmosphere surrounding them. So what does Stout see as a writer's main mission when it comes to the upcoming MMO? "Take the zombies out of the equation and be damn sure you've got a rock-solid story full of interesting, well-developed characters and exciting action," he explains. "Then put the zombies back in so those characters can smash their heads in with tire irons."
The Game Archaeologist's excellent EverQuest Online Adventures: The memories
It's been a good month looking back at EverQuest Online Adventures, wouldn't you agree? Educational, almost. While this title is just about as far from the mainstream MMO eye as can be these days, it's heartening to know it's still out there, still running, and still capable of evoking fond memories from current and former players. While we did attempt to contact SOE for an interview to see if we could find out anything new -- or even old -- about EQOA, it failed to materialize. As a wonderful consolation prize, however, this week we'll hear from three players who have extensive experience in the game. So let's hit this column running and equip our +2 Ears of Paying Attention!
The Game Archaeologist's excellent EverQuest Online Adventures: The blogger
To tell you all the truth, the comments from last week's initial foray into EverQuest Online Adventures bowled me over -- I truly was not expecting so many players to be so passionate about the game! How cool is that? I hope that some of you send me in your EQOA stories to justin@massively.com so we can include them in next week's column. Today I want to welcome Rick "Stoney" Stonebrook to our neck of the Massively woods. I remember finding Stoney's EQOA blog over a year ago and being so impressed that there was someone out there regularly updating a blog about this low-profile MMO. Stoney agreed to an interview about the game from a player's and blogger's perspective, so here goes! The Game Archaeologist: Please introduce yourself and your blog! Why did you start blogging about EQOA? Stoney: Well, I'm 24 and have lived in a lot of places in the past few years. I adopted the name Stoney when I started the blog, eqoa.wordpress.com, in October 2010. The purpose for the blog was simple: compile as much information about the game as I could find using various search engines such as Google, Yahoo, and YouTube. I hadn't played since 2005 and wasn't familiar with any new content. I had always wanted to return to the game. Thus the blog's goal evolved from a collection of memories to an effort to get people to return.
CCP reveals DUST 514 rapid deployment vehicle
What would a sci-fi shooter be without initials and military techno-jargon? Unusual, for starters, and though DUST 514 is more than your average kill-'em-all, it does share a love of equipment abbreviations with the rest of the genre. The latest such is the rapid deployment vehicle (or RDV), and the mobile monstrosity is the subject of CCP's latest PlayStation blog entry. The RDVs are AI-driven, existing to deliver gear and other vehicles to players on the battlefield. The blog entry is heavy on lore details, and EVE Online veterans will recognize the RDV's manufacturer (Outer Ring Excavations) as the megacorp behind famous New Eden mining ships like the Hulk and the Orca.
The Game Archaeologist's excellent EverQuest Online Adventures: The highlights
In the pantheon of Sony Online Entertainment's flagship EverQuest franchise, there is a whole family of MMOs gathered around the table every evening. There's Papa EverQuest, looking a little wrinkled and worn but also radiating fame and authority. Next to him is Mama EverQuest II, a powerful matron of entertainment if there ever was one. They look proudly down the table at a bassinet where Baby EverQuest Next lies, cooing as it grows into the future generation of this family. Then, in the next room over is a cabinet. The cabinet is locked. Inside that cabinet is a weird abnormality that certainly looks like a member of the family, but he hasn't seen the light of day in quite some time. He subsists on the scraps of an aging console and the fading loyalty of fans, hoping against odds that one day he'll be allowed out for a stroll or something. His name is Cousin EverQuest Online Adventures, the EQ MMO nobody mentions. EQOA is a strange abnormality in SOE's lineup. While it was one of the very first console MMOs and heir to the EverQuest name, it was quickly eclipsed in both areas by other games and left alone. Yet, against all odds, it continues to operate on the PlayStation 2, eight years and counting since its debut. This month the Game Archaeologist will crack open that cabinet and give this interesting MMO a few weeks of attention and care. I think it's about time, don't you?
DUST 514 could be the PS3's 'most important game'
Still miffed about CCP's decision to limit its DUST 514 MMOFPS to Sony's PlayStation 3 console? According to an article at Develop, the title is worth following anyway because it could be just what the doctor ordered in terms of bridging the gap between the PC and console gaming markets. "The console space right now is where the PC was before the internet really kicked off," CCP's Thor Gunnarsson told Develop. "It is about to leap forwards and it won't look back." Unlike traditional console games that may see an update or two (and in more recent years, a handful of downloadable content packs) before fading into obscurity, DUST will be built "iteratively in front of our community, with the same tight feedback loop as before," according to Gunnarsson. The ongoing attention, and the game's real-time connection with EVE Online, should allow for an engaging console experience to be found nowhere else. It's not all roses, though, as Develop points out that console shooters are casual games almost by definition, while the EVE Online experience is anything but. Hit the source link to read the full article.
Undead Labs Q&A touches on health bars, death mechanics
Undead Labs has posted another question-and-answer session with fans of its upcoming Class 3 zombie MMO. The firm fielded a bunch of queries relating to healing, death, health bars, and assorted other topics. "You'll have a health bar so you won't have to guess how much health you have, but zombies won't. While we could have opted to have no health bar for you too, we wanted to emphasize the survival aspect of the game by having the damage you take stick with you until you can heal up," the dev team says. The Q&A also features some interesting tidbits about weight, fatigue and stamina, and the fact that zombies will respond to the noise generated by building survival structures (translation: Bring your duct tape). Read all about it at the official Undead Labs blog.
Undead Labs moving right along with Class3
The end of September marked a graduation of sorts for members of the Undead Labs development team. The company's untitled maiden voyage has officially crossed the threshold from pre-production to in production, and a blog post on the firm's web site celebrates the milestone with something of a rah-rah speech from founder Jeff Strain. "I'm blown away by how far we've come in such a short amount of time. Our task now as we move headlong into the production phase is to take this fun little gem and turn it into something we're proud to show the world," Strain wrote. The gem he's referring to is currently known only by its Class3 codename. We do know that it's about zombies and that it's only for consoles. Aside from that, the title is shrouded in a fair bit of mystery. Strain's post also features a time-lapse video that shows off the game's CryEngine 3-powered time-of-day effects, and you can check that out after the cut.
