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E308: Warhammer Online's customization options explained
One component of Mythic Entertainment's Warhammer Online that we haven't seen a ton of is character customization. We know that the collector's edition will contain 'rare heads', for example, but what of in-game options. That's exactly what the team set out to correct at last week's E3. Mythic's Adam Gershowitz lays it out for us - make sure to read below the cut for some exciting news about guild banners!I noticed earlier there was a demo for what looked like character customization options? Adam Gershowitz: One of the things we've been having a bit of a hard time with, because we show people live demos, is showing the breadth of customization in the game. So we've put together this presentation which shows off what we have. As you're aware, all of our equipment is career-specific. We've taken a page out of the FPS playbook – we want you to be able to identify a character's career from a distance. Expanding on that, we're showing the armor progression from low to high level in the game. We have over 400 armor sets in the game, they're split pretty evenly amongst the 20 careers. What you're seeing here are just three of the careers - the Warrior Priest, the Witch Elf, and the Chosen – going through some of the armor. I don't think it's all of the armor, maybe just half of it.
Hands-on: Resident Evil 5
Click for high-resolution image. Remember how innovative the original Resident Evil game was? It essentially defined what the survival horror genre should be on consoles -- and in spite of its infamous "tank" controls and fixed pre-rendered camera angles, it become an instant-classic for PS1 fans everywhere. Resident Evil 2 was also a great game, but it simply added more of what fans came to love about the first game.Resident Evil 5 is Resident Evil 4's immediate successor. When RE4 debuted on Gamecube last generation, it was praised for its innovative reimagining of the then-aging series. The series lost its fixed camera angles, and gained a behind-the-shoulder perspective to fight a horde of intelligent enemies. RE5 for PS3 is simply more of what we've come to expect from the new invisioning of the franchise.Considering the accolades RE4 received when it debuted (considered by many to be the finest game of the last generation), continuing with the established formula shouldn't come as a surprise. With a new coat of (incredibly beautiful) paint, will RE5 garner as much praise as its PS2/GC predecessor?%Gallery-5254%
Top 5: Nintendo's Biggest "Mehs"
As the fallout of E3 rests upon the public, Nintendo finds themselves pelted by fierce criticism. Forum posts and blog comments have been predicting the assassination of the Wii core gamer. Not surprisingly, the most ominous declarations have been coming from within Nintendo's ranks. A civil war has been declared, and the fanboys are ready to revolt against the casuals. Though this core gamer is not ready to take sides, I will admit that Nintendo's press conference was quite underwhelming. It wasn't a complete and utter failure; the bigwigs at Nintendo made no bones about their intentions. Additionally, one can argue that the financial foundation of the casual gamer endows Nintendo with more capital to support first party efforts. And by having the most successful console, third parties are likely to focus resources on Nintendo's magnificent machine. Certainly, all parties had impressive titles associated with E3, such as Dead Rising, The Conduit, NHL 2K9, Wario Land: Shake It!, Mega Man 9, and plenty to be excited about on the DS. Though Nintendo didn't close with a Jobs-esque "one more thing" slobberknocker, they accomplished what they set out to do. Yet dissatisfaction remains: the definitive description of Nintendo's E3 presence is a resounding meh. Here is a look at some of the most famous "mehs" in Nintendo history. Not utter failures, mind you. Rather, items that were simply met with indifference. 5. The Super Scope - The Nintendo Entertainment System was offered in several different "bundles," with the most successful bundle containing the successful NES Zapper. The light gun was a relatively new concept and simple to use. Plus, my cousin's friend said you can totally shoot the dog if you get to the 50th level in Duck Hunt and enter the Konami code on the second controller. Like many successes of the NES, Nintendo tried to transfer the idea of gun play to the SNES. Thus, the Super Scope was created. While the Zapper was similar in appearance to a revolver, the Super Scope was shaped more like a bazooka. This proved to be uncomfortable and not nearly as cool as the original. Plus, the device relied on infrared instead of light flashes, which was found to be less precise. The nail in the coffin was that the Super Scope went through AA batteries like I go through cheesesteaks: in ridiculous numbers.
Uncharted and Warhawk Home spaces snapshots
Click for high resolution image. Hype for Home may be pretty dead right now, but there are still a few aspects of the service that intrigue us, like Game Spaces. A couple of these were shown off in trailer form at Sony's E3 Press Conference, but we had a chance to have an in-depth look at the Uncharted and Warhawk spaces with a Sony representative. Most of the presentation was seen through the lens of a camera, so check out the gallery for plenty of snapshots.The Uncharted Game Space takes the form of Sully's bar, complete with "photos" of characters from the game on the walls. The space is made up of several rooms and rull of relics and mounted animal heads. There's a chance that something in there might be indicative of where the series is headed (a diver's helmet? Uncharted 2: Quest for Atlantis confirmed?) The Warhawk space is similar, featuring assets from the game. The best things about these Game Spaces are the interactive elements. Uncharted has a locked door with a keypad input. The number can be found by carefully looking around and this will open another room for you to explore. There's also an Uncharted-inspired platforming mini-game. The Warhawk space has a sandtable for you and your clan to plan out your method for the upcoming match before jumping into a game. %Gallery-28131%
E308: Exploring an improved Inevitable City in Warhammer Online
Our discussion of Warhammer Online as seen at last week's E3 event continues, with a look at an improved Inevitable City. During our huge Massively goes to WAR feature spread earlier this year, we had the chance to tour the Chaos home base, and came away impressed. Last week we got the chance to see an updated version of the capital, and learned about what the extra time removing the other capitals has netted the Mythic Entertainment development team. Read on to hear Adam Gershowitz talk about city improvements, the endgame reward cycle, and how the two-cities structure has focused the player experience.Adam Gershowitz: Inevitable City is one of the two capital cities we're going to launch with. It has gotten bigger and better than it was previously. That's part of the reason why we're down to two capital cities - we keep throwing more and more stuff into the existing ones. It got to the point where we were like, "Well crud, just Altdorf and Inevitable City have as much content as we originally planned for all three city pairings. So we kind of wanted to finish the job, to make sure it's really really top-notch so we're focusing down a little bit more. What that does is it actually changes the campaign up a little bit.
Hands-on: PixelJunk Eden
There's one bit of key advice we learned after out playthrough with PixelJunk Eden at E3 in Los Angeles last week. Simply close your eyes and hibernate until the end of the month -- then you'll be awake with PixelJunk Eden ready on the PSN. This upcoming downloadable title continues the trend of Q-Games' abliity to make quirky, easily accessible arcade games exclusively for PS3. While not as conceptually easy to grasp as their previous titles, Eden has such an imaginative charm that it's hard not to fall in love with it. Having so little time with the game makes us wish we can simply fast-forward time to the game's release on PSN.Undeniably, many will want an explanation on how the game is played. It may seem unclear from the videos, but the game is rather simple. Simple press X to shoot a web and start swinging around. You'll want to collect pollen and land on various pods. If you have enough pollen, these pods will grow into brand new plants, which will give you easier access to other parts of the level. Simply swing and stick to various plants, as you make your way through the level.%Gallery-22823%
PS3 Fanboy eyes-on: inFamous
An explosion obliterates a six-block area of your city, killing everyone but you in the blast. During the following weeks and months, society breaks down. People take to the streets, comitting crimes and cultural suicide. The city is quarantined and abandoned. You wake up from a coma, the sole survivor of the original blast, with the power to control electricity at your finger tips. In the power vacuum of the city, you are able to make a difference, but will you be a benevolent savior or a malevolent power titan? This is the question you're asked when you load up inFamous. Sucker Punch delivered a behind closed doors gamplay demonstration of the game this year at E3, demonstrating the direction they're going in with the title. Gameplay during the presentation consisted of exploring a small part of the city, which felt very similar to Assassin's Creed. Cole is an urban explorer, a hobby he had since before the blast, so he has ability to climb around the city at ease. How convenient. Cole's more supernatural abilities are all related to electricity. Those demonstrated consisted of a thunderbolt zapping power and telekenesis (manipulation of electro-magnetic fields, apparently -- that's electricity related, right?) In order to remain powered up, you must continue to syphon energy from the city, drawing it out from electricity pylons and other sources. Sometimes the city will suffer from a blackout, leaving you without any way to refuel should you come across any particularly brutal enemies. %Gallery-12672%
Siren: Blood Curse to terrorize PSN for $40, $15 each episode pack
Click for high-resolution image. Looking forward to Siren: Blood Curse? Good, because it's going to have a budget release on PSN later this week. The survival horror game will be downloadable for a discount price of only $40 for the entire game ... or $15 for each episode pack. Each episode pack will contain four episodes, with each episode averaging about an hour or two of gameplay each. That's 4-8 hours of gameplay for $15 each. Buy all three episode packs and save $5.We love seeing this rather innovative pricing scheme for consoles. Will you try Siren piece by piece, or will you take the plunge and buy it all at once? (New trailer, after the cut.)%Gallery-22445%
PS3 Fanboy hands-on: Fallout 3
Fallout 3 is Oblivion set in the post-apocalyptic future. If you don't mind that fact, then you'll probably love this game. From the minute you set eyes on the title, the similarities are obvious. This is still clearly Fallout, though. The world feels lovingly recreated from the original games, but expanded with some Bethesda flair.One of the biggest downsides of Oblivion (and the entire Elder Scrolls series) has been fixed in Fallout 3. While the game can be played as a first- or third-person shooter, with point and shoot gameplay, this is inadvisable thanks to accuracy and control problems. Instead, a Fallout style targeting system allows you pause the game mid-battle and decide how you'll spend your "action points." %Gallery-4357%
The week in Massively features (E3 Edition)
E308: DC Universe Online roundupSony Entertainment Online revealed a metric ton of new information on their upcoming superhero MMO DC Universe Online at E3 this week, and Massively was on hand to pick the spicy brainmeats of Creative Director Chris Cao, SOE-Austin VP of development John Blakely, and famed DC artist and Executive Creative Director for the project, Jim Lee. The Digital Continuum: Five KOTOR MMO Jedi counter-measuresWith the less-than-grandiose announcement that Electronic Arts, BioWare and Lucas Arts are working together on a KOTOR MMO, I've found myself pondering the game that until now was nothing but a rumor. Granted, I already thought about the game quite a lot even before it was the now more official affair. E308: Membership and microtransactions in Free RealmsWe know that SOE's upcoming title Free Realms will be free to play, but that begs the question of how SOE might profit from the title. (Especially considering that Lead Designer Laralyn McWilliams stressed that Free Realms is just as important to SOE as the other titles being shown off at E3, The Agency and DC Universe Online. E308: Erling Ellingsen talks patch timeframes for Age of ConanEarlier today we sat with Age of Conan product manager Erling Ellingsen. Due to the development cycle Conan is in right now, Ellingsen didn't really have anything in particular to show us - but he did have some things to tell us. E308: SOE President John Smedley talks Free Realms, possible sequelsYesterday at Sony Online Entertainment's E3 headquarters, the Massively team got to see and hear the latest details on SOE's trifecta of new titles: The Agency, DC Universe Online, and Free Realms. There will be in-depth coverage of these games across the site during the rest of the day. To kick off, and to give you some perspective on what these games mean for the company, we sat down to talk with SOE's CEO John Smedley.
E308: Viva Pinata was an Xbox game?
Okay, confession time: I never played Viva Piñata the first time around. The allure of festive animal husbandry was insufficient to entice me into the console purchase required. I've researched the original (by, uh, watching some YouTube videos and such), but I went into my quick demo of Viva Piñata: Pocket Paradise without a real preconceived notion of how Viva Piñata is supposed to look or play.How was this ever anything but a DS game? The tasks involved in playing Viva -- watering and planting plants, clearing land, building structures for critters -- make so much sense in the top-down perspective of Pocket Paradise that it's hard to imagine this game in a different perspective on a different system. It would be so much harder, I think, to manage a large-scale garden in a more zoomed-in view. Having a larger, wider look at the goings-on in the garden makes the game seem more natural and easier. %Gallery-8991%
E308: Buns-on with Raving Rabbids TV Party
I am happy to report that Raving Rabbids TV Party maintains the same balance of well-designed, clever motion-based minigames and puerile humor that have made the first two Rabbids games a not-so-guilty pleasure. The addition of the Balance Board just means that the team at Ubisoft has a new tool in their ongoing effort to make you look ridiculous. Which I certainly did while sitting on the floor pretending to sled in the middle of the E3 show floor.
DS Daily: Well, well, look at that
We're asking this question over at Wii Fanboy this morning as well, but we think it might be more pertinent here -- if only because of the niche nature of most DS games. With that said, let's get to it -- were there any games that eluded your radar before, but caught your attention at E3? If so, what games were they? And, what exactly was it that caused you to take notice (screens, videos, impressions, something else)?
Wii Warm Up: What surprised you at E3?
We all have our own opinions on E3, and whether it made us more or less excited to be Wii owners. Most likely, you kept tabs on games that you were already looking forward to. Did anything surprise you, though? Have any games or publishers that you previously haven't payed much attention to grab your notice? If so, let us know here (or here, should your answer be DS related).
E308: Social networking and web-games in Free Realms
For a game that's not actually browser-based (though it will only require a small download and stream content in the background, Free Realms is a client-based game), Free Realms will have an unprecedented amount of browser-based content. Free Realms will have all of the web content you would expect from a modern MMO... and some of the web content you would expect to see in a social networking application like Facebook. Each player will have an online player profile listing all of their in-game friends (with links that will launch the game client and take you right to your friends' location) and newsfeeds that give you information about what's going on with your character. Not even Free Realms' game elements are restricted to the client. Many mini-games will also be playable via the web -- and give you in-game benefits for doing so (as long as you're logged on). So if you played the Bejeweled-esque mini-game via the web during your lunch break, your character in-game would gain ore and experience.In-game, characters will connect through a non-traditional guild system. When we asked Lead Designer Laralyn McWilliams about guilds at E3, she informed us that SOE is "exploring other kinds of social arrangements, like different types of friends. So you could have your BFFs, your regular friends, and your family." They're also exploring a "club" system. McWilliams said, "Guilds are exclusive -- so we'd like to really recognize the fact that someone might want to be in the gardening club and the dog-lover's club and the ninja club. Those would all have collections associated with them because Free Realms is ultimately a collection. There's a collection of jobs, a collection of clubs... we're all about letting you collect things in the game and show off your achievements."%Gallery-27758%%Gallery-27753% Interested in Free Realms? Then check out all of our E3 coverage of SOE's latest free-to-play online game!
E308: DS Fanboy's E3 Endgame Evaluation
In its second year as a diminished behemoth, E3 still manages to be packed full with news, media, and more. While there wasn't much from Nintendo themselves for the DS this year, third parties are still incredibly strong and we're faced with more games than we can possibly handle. We're also pretty sure we saw almost all of them at E3 this year. Relive the entire experience right from the convenience of this post! Check out our choices for show highlights right here, or hit the break for the full rundown of our E3 coverage. Of course, we're still adding things, and will be over the next few days; keep up by clicking the E3 graphic in the sidebar. GTA: Chinatown Wars shooting up the DS in winter! Transfer data from Animal Crossing: Wild World to new Wii game Highlights from Nintendo's keynote Rhythm Heaven bumped by Cammie Dunaway's wrist Konami booth tour DS Fanboy reacts to the Nintendo keynote Three DS news items you may have missed Chrono Trigger's controls explained (and hands-on) DS Fanboy enters the Retro Game Challenge Rhythm Heaven is the best musical microgame collection at the show
E308: Wii Fanboy's E3 Endgame Evaluation
In the second year of the newly revamped show, Nintendo released a few much-desired games, as well as a pair of incredible peripherals, and yet, there seemed to be something missing. Much of the show's excitement came from third parties (on my Nintendo Wii?), and some found Nintendo's announcements disappointing. Whatever your reaction, we're sure we can all agree on one thing: there was a ton of news and a flood of media. Luckily, you can revisit it all right here (even the week's most outrageous story, which wasn't even from E3).We've listed a few of the show's highlights below, but for the full index of all our 2008 E3 coverage, hit the break. We still have a few items rolling in, and we'll be updating the index as that happens. Check back with us over the next few days by clicking the E3 sidebar graphic. A new Pikmin sprouts! Animal Crossing: City Folk confirmed The Conduit will use WiiSpeak Wii Sports Resort announced (and Wii MotionPlus!) Mega Man 9 feels more like a 10 Wii Fanboy bats-on with Mario Super Sluggers Animal Crossing to support keyboards, save fruit-picking time Wii Fanboy hands-on with Wii Sports Resort
The Best of Big Download: July 13-19
It's E3 week and we were there getting some hands-on time and some eyes-on time with some of the biggest PC game releases in the next several months. Here are the highlights from Big Download for the past week.Exclusive Features E3 2008 articles: Check out our impressions of a number of PC games at the show this week (with more to come next week) for games like Spore, Dragon Age: Origins, Far Cry 2, Command and Conquer: Red Alert 3, Empire: Total War, Warhammer 40,000 Dawn of War II, Wanted, Left 4 Dead, Crysis Warhead and more. Spore Creature Creator Contest Grand Prize Winners: We reveal the winners in our extremely popular contest BigCast 004: It's the fourth installment of Big Download's weekly podcast. News Demigod beta schedule revealed Crytek acquires Black Sea Studios Fallout 3 to have downloadable content for PC and Xbox 360 Pivotal Games closes Activision reveals new titles including new Raven game Singularity Wanted movie game confirmed Flagship Studios still operating but without most of its employees City of Heroes and City of Villains officially merged Could there be a Serenity game? 1C Company acquires Buka EA confirms Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic MMO Wrath of the Lich King goes beta Rebellion acquires Razerworks
E308: Membership and microtransactions in Free Realms
We know that SOE's upcoming title Free Realms will be free to play, but that begs the question of how SOE might profit from the title. (Especially considering that Lead Designer Laralyn McWilliams stressed that Free Realms is just as important to SOE as the other titles being shown off at E3, The Agency and DC Universe Online. Said McWilliams, "We have the same size team working on this as we do on those titles.") The answer is two-fold: memberships (which, for a monthly fee, will allow the user access to more content) and microtransactions (allowing you to buy items for your character for small amounts of money). When we had a chance to catch up with SOE's John Smedley back at CES, he told us that they were looking into the microtransaction model, saying "In order for people to see the games, they have to be able to play them; we're opening them up to that possibility by letting them play for free." Free Realms seems to be the final result of a lot of soul-searching on SOE's part as this traditional MMO company tries to find its way in a genre increasingly crowded by free-to-play titles.%Gallery-27758%%Gallery-27753%
E308: Combat in Free Realms
Because it's not required in order to advance (characters will be able to level up without ever killing a monster), combat in SOE's upcoming free-to-play MMO Free Realms is a bit different than you may be accustomed to. When we sat down to chat with Lead Designer Laralyn McWilliams at E3 this week, she described the combat system by saying, "Combat is our biggest mini-game." Monsters will never attack you as you're exploring the world -- only when you enter clearly marked combat zones. "We took a very Disneyland apprach," said McWilliams. "You're walking around Disneyland, you see Space Mountain, it looks awesome, and so you think, 'I want to go on Space Mountain!' Our content broadcasts itself to you." In the screenshot above, you see the entrance to a combat zone: a gate clearly proclaiming danger. So like any good MMO player, what do you do but walk up to it and see what dangers await you on the other side? Interacting with the gate, like launching any other mini-game in Free Realms, will give you a choice of several different combat encounters associated with the area.%Gallery-27758%%Gallery-27753%
