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First Impressions: Mythos
I can sum this MMO up in one sentence: If you liked Diablo, you'll like this.However, I sense that you'd like more from this than a mere summary, so I'm happy to oblige. Bear in mind that Mythos, by Flagship Studios, the guys who gave us Hellgate: London, is still in Beta, so any of what I report here can change at any time. Still, it looks great, it performs well, and it scratches that Diablo itch like nothing else. So I suppose you could say that this is a hit, rather than a myth. BWAHAHAHAHAHAAA! Oh, my pleasures are so few.%Gallery-10781%
The Massively Guide to the Hellgate: London Mini-game
When I was reading the Patch 0.5 notes, I came across a couple of items about the Mini-game. I bought Hellgate: London the day after it came out and have been playing ever since. I even looked at the very small manual. I knew nothing about the Mini-game. Questions to friends produced the same results. What Mini-game?I found nothing official on their website, but I did find a couple of posts on the forums that describe the Mini-game. (If you don't have a Hellgate: London account, you are unable to read the forums.) MSKoSSK summarizes the game and Nocktis has a handy printable cheatsheet. I have further investigated the game and researched the icons, so after the jump, you will find the Massively Guide to the Hellgate: London Mini-game.
IAHGames to implement Patch 0.1 for Hellgate: London
IAHGames have just announced that they will be going ahead with plans to patch Hellgate: London with Patch 0 and Patch 0.1 in just a few hours, starting at 9AM Thursday, Hong Kong time. The whole maintenance process (if all goes well) will take 10 hours, and will run until 5PM Hong Kong time. This will be the first time the servers have run post-beta code, and while we've been assured that Flagship Studios have found a way to convert the characters in the Asia-Pacific region to the production system, we're really not certain what the results will be, exactly.
Patch 0.5 for Hellgate: London coming tomorrow
The Hellgate: London servers will be down tomorrow, November 20th, from 9am to 11am PST to implement Patch 0.5.I'm very excited about the new patch because the game as is has some cumbersome bugs and clunky features. One bugfix that will not be in tomorrow's patch is the Invisible Party Members bug, though they do have some solutions for this and promise it for the next patch. I have not noticed this bug because, like our Soloist, I tend to play alone.Some differences between previously published patch notes and the new official ones are: Because the Guy Fawkes event is ending, there is some more information about "Fawkes Force Five" They are no longer adding an automatic reset to the Minigame, which means the people who were upset about that (which included me) will be much happier. Full patch notes are after the jump.
Patch 0.5 coming next week for Hellgate: London
The people at Flagship Studios have announced that patch 0.5 for Hellgate: London is moving to the test servers and, if enough goes well, they will be releasing it sometime next week. They invite everyone with a U.S. account to help test the new patch this weekend. They've even copied all of our characters over for us.(You're right, the picture has nothing to do with the post. But, seriously, isn't that a great pet name? Khaaaan!)Some highlights for the new patch are:Increased character slots: You no longer have to be a subscriber to get 24 character slots. I think this is a very good change. 3 character slots is embarrassingly few.Chat interface improvements: Thank the gods! How did the current chat system ever get into the "final" build? It stinks in a way that only a trip to the dump can approximate. The chat window is no longer going to cover up other menus (this really should have been a showstopper) and will be open by default when logging into Multiplayer. You'll be able to see whispers in all tabs. Whispers and Admin announcements will automatically open the chat window. It looks like we'll finally have something we can use.Many Quest fixes: My favorite will be the ability to complete an interrupted side quest. There is nothing like running around trying to figure out if I missed something or if it is just another bug. After going through a zone 4 times, I did discover that the rare and legendary/epic mobs have a higher chance of spawning and dropping fun gear. I guess they like to reward the stubbornly optimistic.Full patch notes are after the jump.
Hellgate: London extends Founder's Offer
Like Pirates of the Carribbean Online, Flagship Studios has extended their Founder's Offer for Hellgate: London. Previously the Founder's offer ended this month, but has now been extended until the end of the year.What is the Founder's Offer? For $149.99 you can have a lifetime subscription to Hellgate: London. What's the catch? You have to have pre-ordered the game in order to be eligible for the offer.Well, there are other catches, too. The game is patched daily and is far buggier than anything with the name Diablo was at this stage. Who knows if they're going to have to extend character wipes to more than Asia. Also, as much as I loved Diablo 2, I only played it for a couple months as did most of my friends. I'm not sure that they are going to offer enough content in Hellgate: London to warrant spending a minimum of 15 months-worth of subscription fees.Are you a Hellgate: London Founder? Do you think it's worth it?
Cinemassively: Mythos trailer
In a press release found on WarCry Network, Flagship Studios Seattle released a new trailer for their free MMO in closed beta, Mythos. The video features new footage of gameplay, and narration by a producer, Brock Jones, and programmer, Marsh Lefler. If this game seems familiar, that's because Flagship was responsible for Diablo II many moons ago.According to the press release, you can play as one of three races, Human, Elves, and Gremlins, in this free-to-play MMO. Players must take on heroic quests in search of gold, armor, and weapons in the fantasy-land of Uld. It is currently in closed beta, but you can sign up on their official site.The video is included after the jump, as it may contain ads ...
Flagship addresses the subscription issue, finally
Yesterday all hell broke loose in the billing department at Flagship Studios. Now they are responding to the subscription debacle with Hellgate: London and trying their best to calm everyone down. According to the Flagship, the issue arose with 3% of subscribers, and they are working around the clock to fix the problem. What exactly was said problem? Only the fact that those canceling their subscriptions to the game were losing all the content they paid for immediately, instead of at the end of the month.Yes, it's a top priority, getting this ironed out, but I am more concerned about the supposed response to the forum posts created about the problems yesterday. As some players were reporting the issue, their posts were being deleted without so much as an explanation. Now, it's hard for us to verify this, since the Hellgate: London forums are private, which is in and of itself sort of odd. But if the poop hits the fan again, will they start deleting before they start dealing? It all sounds a little suspicious to me.
Hellgate: London, demons in the system
Just a warning to those of you with an active Hellgate: London subscription, or those considering getting one. The moment you unsubscribe to the service, all subscription benefits are terminated instantly -- regardless of how long your subscription was due to last.The cancellation page warns you this will happen immediately, but it's still annoying those who have encountered it.As one of our tipsters put it: "so in reality you aren't paying for one month of subscription time, you can't cancel and still play out the month you PAID for, they cut you out at the instant you unsubscribe". That means it's entirely possible to start a monthly subscription one day, unsubscribe the next, 27 days deleted from your account. Is this "fair game" to you, and just count the days manually before you cancel? Or more than a little discourteous? To me, if you pay for a month, you should get a month -- no exceptions. On the back of the recent billing problems, this doesn't make HG:L the most user-friendly of launches. Or the smoothest.Has this affected any Massively.com readers?[Thanks, RandomEngine & Anonymous!]
Hellgate: London class overview
I am having a blast playing Hellgate: London, but it took me a while to sort through the different classes and choose one for playthrough. After dabbling with them all, I have settled on the Summoner as my current favorite. Following is a very general breakdown of the different classes to help you choose which one to try.The TemplarsThese are the melee classes. They have some good survivability skills, especially when surrounded by mobs.Guardians: This is the standard tank class -- sword, shield, the best armor, etc. They can also do a decent amount of melee damage and can acquire a healing aura at level 2 which heals the Guardian more as the number of mobs attacking increases.Blademaster: DPS Melee. If you like dual wielding blades, the Blademaster is your class. They can also carry shields if you like and get auras of their own like the Guardians.
Hellgate: Petition - IAHGames demonic?
Keen Hellgate: London player, Paul Chor, has put together a petition to Bill Roper and Flagship Studios, asserting that IAHGames (responsible for servers in the South-East Asian regions) are screwing things up. "Patch 0 has been delayed; whilst there are explanations on why it have been, there is no official ETA on its deployment." There's a list of complaints, including potentially game-unbalancing changes, vague and unhelpful community management, delays and fears that all of this will lead to the region being the poor cousin, poor sales, and a disaffected community. "The company is resorting to potentially harmful stop-gap measures, such as just raising the level cap to 50, but not implementing patch 0." Ultimately, the (so far) 31 signatories want better management for the region and a review of IAHGames operations and policies by Flagship Studios.
Hellgate: London 0.1 patch today at 6-9am pst
You would think London 2038 would have no lag, but so far, the future could use some upgrades: there's bugs; memory fits; extreme imbalances; demons that eat other demons, who knows? Hell isn't always pretty, but someone must be answering some prayers since the developers aren't candy arsin' around and getting down to business before they lose it. The servers are coming down between 6-9AM PST to make way for the 0.1 patch. It's always possible the server may blowup when the patch goes live and there is a little forewarning in effect that one server may be up before the other or the patch will require extended downtime. It happens, anyone remember Diablo 2's release? I'm still losing sleep over that. The biggest problem a few of my voraciously addicted Hellgate: London friends had over the weekend was their computer becoming exhausted from memory leaks. I do not recommend pouring water on your computer in an attempt to alleviate said exhaustion -- I bet someone tried it. One interesting part to this morning's patch is that subscribers are already getting exclusive content in the form of Guy Fawkes Day: A remembrance holiday still celebrated in England, celebrating Guy Fawkes' failure to assassinate King James I in what became known as the Gunpowder Plot. Yo b, them be crazy times in 1605, a history lesson for those not in the know. This exclusive content for fancy pants "subscribers" is ticking off the "free-grazers" who believe there are plenty o' bugs that need to be fixed first. I think Hellgate: London should implement a new in-game holiday, the day the battle for the Hellgate: London haves and the have-nots began. In case you want to avoid the official forums I got the full patch notes after the jump. Look them over, free your mind, roleplay, or tell us how your Hellgate: London weekend went.
Hellgate: London subscriptions are now live
So, there I was, about to enter the Upper Kingsway Sewers for Mac Kenzie to help him create a strange brew, when I see that Tiggs announced that the subscriptions for Hellgate: London are now live. She also went on to say that they are only live for Visa and Mastercard but they are working on the other options.Who is Tiggs? Well, she was the Director of Community Relations for Star Wars Galaxies until she quit a couple years ago. Now she seems to be the official announcement maker on the forums and in-game.Subscription is $9.99 a month. Now I don't know if it is worth it yet, but they promise a lot of goodies for the future. It is an MMO-like fee for a game that is not really an MMO, but I am having a lot of fun playing it.The official benefits of subscription to Hellgate: London are after the jump.
Hellgate: London satisfies Diablo cravings
Every time Blizzard sneezes, I think Diablo 3 is coming, but now that I have tasted a little of Hellgate: London, my Diablo needs have been satisfied. Yes, it's buggy, but if you tried to get on Battle.Net for Diablo 2 updates when it was first released, you ran into huge issues for a few days there, too.Other than the lore, what do you look for in a Diablo game? Demons? Check. Undead? Check. Basic combat archetypes? More to choose from without an expansion. Intuitive and innovative UI? Check. Check. (Though the spousal unit disagrees.) Cutting edge graphics? Check. Story quests and side quests? Again, more to choose from out of the starting gate. Grid inventory screen for creative item arranging? Check. Single player and online multiplayer options? Checky McCheckerstein. It is obvious that the core creators of the Diablo series created Hellgate: London by the very familiar gameplay, look and feel of the game. There are differences of course. Hellgate: London is a 3D world that pushes the current technology. It is set in an alternate future of Earth instead of a fantasy D&D derivation, making the setting and in-game technology vastly different from the Diablo world.If and when Diablo 3 is released, I will be there with bells on. Until then, I will be happily questing for people who live in subway stations and helping make London safe for the living, while still remembering the dead.
Xfire chats with Hellgate devs, transcript online
For those too busy trick or treating Wednesday night to make it to the chat with the Flagship Studios folks hosted by Xfire, a transcript has been made available online for your viewing pleasure. Word has it that it was the most popular chat session that Xfire has ever hosted, which is no surprise to us, because excitement for Hellgate: London has been off the charts. Among the things that stood out to us during the chat, which featured at least one developer in nearly every area of production, including art, sound, design, graphics, programming and more, was a heavy focus on future content. One listener complained about the lack of visual diversity in the game, to which graphics programmer Amir Ebrahimi replied, "HGL's dynamic level technology was built with the idea that we'd be extending well into the future. As with any big-budget game today, building environments are costly in terms of man-hours. We've yet to tap the flexibility of our DRLG technology and you'll see more in the future. As we add more areas and tilesets, our designers will be able to mix and match to create new environments for your enjoyment."The transcript runs over 8000 words in its entirety, so there's a lot of content in there for you hungry Hellgate fans.
Hellgate: London subscriptions temporarily offline
As a whole, it's probably fair to say that MMO players are a tolerant lot. We're generally willing to put up with bugs, unbalanced players classes, and sparse content when we jump into an MMO for the first time. Usually the excitement of being part of a new world overrides the feeling that we're paying money for an unfinished product. What is likely to irk us however, is when we purchase a game, install it, and go to put in our subscription information and ... oops, the subscription system is bugged! Sadly, such is the case with Hellgate: London, with Flagship Studios announcing, " Subscriptions are temporarily unavailable due to technical issues."Now, as we understand it, that doesn't mean that players can't play the game, it just means that nobody yet has access to the subscriber content yet, which is supposed to be such a big feature for hardcore fans. Though I guess if you really look at what the subscriber content is (bells and whistles like new items, character classes, themed events, and the like), it's supposed to be the icing to the rest of the game's cake, and it's highly unlikely that players have already dug through all that cake in the span of a single day. Still, we'll keep you posted on the status of this subscriber bug. Hopefully it doesn't scuttle the launch completely.
Is Hellgate an MMO or not?
Being as Hellgate: London is seeing lots of installs this week, the question is going around: is it an MMO or not? As Cuppy points out, it certainly fits the bill. It is Massive, it is Multiplayer, and it is definitely Online. But on the other hand, Hellgate is a little different-- it's free to play, like Guild Wars, but also like Guild Wars, expansions will cost you. You can form guilds, but as I understand it, there is no "overworld," per se-- even towns are instanced.So is it an MMO or not? Depends, of course, on how you define MMO. A persistent overworld is a huge element of "normal" MMOs-- a world in which you can walk around and see thousands of other players playing the game alongside you, and Hellgate doesn't have that. On the other hand, its unique model lends itself to pulling in a lot of non-MMO players. Players turned off by the time and money commitment implied by a monthly fee have no such problems with Hellgate, and that will definitely be a nice draw for them (as it has been with Guild Wars).So maybe we need a new label for just what games like Hellgate are. Anyway Games says, wisely, that labels are how you sell games, and, for better or worse, Flagship can't call their game an MMO. So what can they call it? These "buy once, play in a virtual world" games will surely become more popular. Instead of simply being called MMOs, maybe we should put them in an "instanced multiplayer game" (IMG) market of their own.
Hellgate: How much?
If you're after the digital download for Flagship Studio's new title, Hellgate: London through the EA store, be prepared for a bit of a rude shock, if you're in Australia. You may have looked at the prices and thought, "US$49.95? That's not bad." Well, it gets worse. Put your card back in your purse. That download is going to cost you quite a bit more than you think.
Hellgate: London opens to online dungeon crawlers
This Halloween is full of treats, but if you can tear yourself away from the festivities in all the other online games, you can now roam post-apocalyptic London in search of weapon upgrades and experience points. Hellgate: London's public servers have gone live and are awaiting demon-slaying heroes and heroines.Flagship Studios' Bill Roper posted a launch announcement on the game's official website, and took the opportunity to thank the community, the publishers, and the friends and families of the development team for their support over the past four years.The single-player and multi-player 3D action RPG comes from a studio that includes some of the same developers who gave us Diablo way back in the day. If you haven't bought the game yet, you might want to check out our demo impressions or download the demo to check it out for yourself, but beware of possible in-game advertising if that sort of thing irks you.
Your chance for a live chat with Hellgate developers on Halloween
If you're anticipating Hellgate: London amidst its recent controversy, and want to find out more about the game, why not just ask the developers? 1UP.com has posted news that Xfire is hosting a live chat with a team from Hellgate developer Flagship Studios. Listed on the Xfire site, the developers participating in the event will be: Bill Roper, CEO Flagship Studios Aletheia Simonson, Art Producer Bill Manegold, Game Programmer Amir Ebrahimi, Graphics Programmer Guy Somberg, Audio and Gameplay Programmer To be in with a chance to talk to them, visit Xfire's website and enter your email address. If you're lucky enough to be selected, you'll receive an email from Xfire giving you the details of the chat. It is scheduled for 6pm EDT on October 31st, which as 1UP notes, is the actual release date of Hellgate: London, so chances are if you're a die-hard fan, you will have already been playing the game all day. Oh, and I guess October 31st is Halloween too.
