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State of the ruined wasteland of Fallen Earth
There's definitely a developer communication theme running through MMOs these days. After one month of players being able to stomp around in Fallen Earth, the game has received its first State of the Game address from developer Colin Dwan, better known as "Ilkor" on the official forums. The address goes through some of the concerns players have had, some of the minor bugfixes and improvements, and what the developers are planning on introducing for patch 1.1 and 1.2. The former is slated to have a content improvement for levels 32-35, and the latter is intended to boost social content and group-oriented activities.The address also takes time to respond to some issues that have come up on a repeated basis. Faster travel is on the list to be implemented down the road, especially once later updates arrive, but it will be expensive and between very strictly delineated points for thematic reasons. Respecs are also on the table, but again will be expensive and limited. As Dwan himself puts it, "[We] would like to help the people who spend a few points wrong and want to fix those mistakes, not folks who want to rebuild their whole character. The specifics are still up in the air, but it will be expensive, slow, and limited." If you're interested in the near future of the game and are curious about the overall developer plan, take a look at the whole address at the official Fallen Earth forums.[ via WarCry ]
Catch an insider glimpse of a Fallen Earth meeting
If you ever thought to yourself how cool it would be to work for a video game company - well, obviously you're not alone. However, the team at Fallen Earth, LLC have decided to release a video that's part-trailer and part behind-the-scenes at their indie studio. Entitled only "Fallen Earth Marketing Meeting" it shows off not only the team's passion for Fallen Earth, but reveals that one guy who still hopes for "elves... magic" in the mix. Aww, poor misguided soul. For a very silly look at an up-and-coming studio (and of course, their new MMO) be sure to check out the very tongue-in-cheek "marketing meeting" video behind the break.
Fallen Earth's art director talks about updating the apocalypse
When it comes to an apocalypse, you might think that you could bang up some destroyed buildings, slap some dirt on them and call it a day. But as we learned from a recent guest dev blog on Curse with Fallen Earth's Art Director, Chris Deavellar, there's a lot of work that goes into creating a believable, realistic apocalypse. Players who are currently finding their way in Fallen Earth will undoubtedly be glad to hear that graphical updates like the one above in the works, and will be coming to us down the road. Additionally, as part of the updates that they're working on, these new building formats and textures will help to reduce the memory needed to render all the original, legacy buildings. In all, it's a great post, offering up some frank "making-of" type information for those who are curious about how this indie studio is moving forward with their work on Fallen Earth. Also included are a series of interior and exterior images showing before and after - updates that will help to improve the overall look and feel of the game. For an apocalypse, we think it looks pretty cool, and can't wait until we ride into Embry and see all new, less memory-intensive buildings.
The Daily Grind: Which sci-fi MMOs are you looking forward to?
Star Wars: The Old Republic, Earthrise, Fallen Earth, Star Trek Online, Jumpgate Evolution, Global Agenda, Black Prophecy, the Fallout MMO (maybe), Blackstar, Otherland, StarGate Worlds, and even more. It seems that if you're a hardcore sci-fi fan, now is a really good time to be an MMO player with all the options coming soon in terms of upcoming MMOs. You've got everything from the blended fantasy/sci-fi to favorite movie and gaming IPs to all-new concepts to dig into and enjoy. Of course, with such a large influx coming, this morning we thought we'd ask you what some of your most anticipated sci-fi MMOs are? Which ones are you trying like mad to get into the betas for? Which ones are just kind of "meh" on your radar? If you've got more than one, which one do you think might reign supreme among your choices?
The Daily Grind: What beta are you dying to get into?
With all the games in beta right now, there's a huge list going here at the Massively offices of what betas everyone wants in on. There's Jumpgate Evolution, Champions Online, Darkfall, Fallen Earth, and more coming into beta all the time - almost all of which have our interest right now. The coin-tosses in the virtual massively offices to see who lands which invites will be fast and furious, but to bring us to our question today... With so many interesting titles coming up, we know we can't be the only ones excited about all the new games coming. What beta - or betas - are you really hoping to get in to?
Fallen Earth shows off character model improvements
Icarus Studios has put out another Fallen Earth update, the post-apocalyptic MMOG set in the year 2156. Fallen Earth's graphics underwent a visual facelift back in March and we've been seeing the results from that in before and after images. It's about graphical details that will really set your MMOG apart because visuals, imagery, the user interface it all needs to gel well and look fantastic to make a positive first impression. The more graphical details the better as long as graphical boundaries aren't pushed to a point where gameplay or playability is sacrificed. The latest graphical revamp shows off how far the old Fallen Earth character models have progressed. The key differential is in faces, hair styles, and equipment. While the artistic style is still the same, the art team has updated clothing, weapons and armor enhancing and adding more depth to character models. A wide variety of customization options like tattoos and face paint are also available which will allow players to create a truly unique appearance for their characters.
Sony's FJ, FE, and SZ get spec bumps
Look like Sony's giving their European laptop releases some spec bumps to fend off the summer slump. The most interesting is the FE line's new FE20, with Sony's new 2nd gen X-black display (aka XBRITE, some of the nicest laptop displays money can buy), which finally addresses its most typical complaint with an anti-reflective surface layer, and also throws in some extra brightness with a dual lamp backlight; the FJ line's new FJ3 gets a dual layer DVD burner, 1GB DDR2 SDRAM, and a 100GB drive; the SZ series gets the SZ2 with the upgrades are the least exciting, and from what we can tell they'll just have a version with a 2.16GHz T2600 Core Duo chip, which is already available as an upgrade on the Sony Style configurator. Keep an eye out for these in the states sometime in the near future (with different names, of course).[Via MobileWhack]
