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Secret World impressions video shows glimpses of new footage
Game Reactor has just released a new preview video for Funcom's horror-conspiracy opus known as The Secret World. Petter Martensson and Bengt Lemne have a lot to say about the title in an impressions piece that runs just north of 10 minutes in length. Lemne talks about his experiences viewing the game at GDC, and we get to see a few glimpses of new footage from Kingsmouth and other locations throughout the world. The duo also talks about Funcom's much-publicized focus on story, with Lemne ultimately concluding that whether TSW is story-centered or not will be up to the players. "You can go and do all this [the story elements], and I think you can have a lot of fun if you do it in a group... but I think that the day the game is released, you're going to find guys that know how to do all these things, how to find these things, how to do it the fastest," he explains. Lemne also posits that earning skill credits will be the primary motivating factor for players (as opposed to Funcom's stated aim to have the narrative drive gameplay). Endgame is also a concern, as eventually the story content will dry up, and the plan seems to be to funnel players toward TSW's PvP elements. There's more, including discussion of PvP modes and the game's "overwhelming" skill options (as well as the resulting balance issues). Check out the full video at Game Reactor.
Does RIFT want to be a sandbox?
RIFT's launch was the biggest launch of an MMO in years, and unlike flash-in-the-pan MMOs, RIFT continues to innovate the MMO space. Recently, Trion Worlds hosted a massive event, the River of Souls. Granted, there were issues with server queues and players missing the entire event, but that does not negate its creative intentions. In an interview with Game Reactor, Design Director Simon Ffinch said that the team has learned its lesson from the event. "We made some drastic improvements to the way the servers handle large loads of players during that as we reacted to various things," he says. But what is the next step for RIFT? Are the designers looking to add more sandbox elements to the themepark RPG? Ffinch says, "There are definitely some plans for [adding more sandbox elements]. That's actually a personal sort of favorite thing of mine, I'm the one who puts all the puzzles and stuff in and stuff for the explorers to find and stuff that is off the beaten path, that is absolutely my passion." In the same interview, he hints about other sandbox staples like housing. "We actually do talk about [player housing], that does come up quite a lot. Not only is there a lot of players that want that, but a lot of us here in design that want that as well." Catch the latest weather report from Telara after the break, and skip over to Game Reactor to see the whole Simon Ffinch interview.
Rumorang: NiGHTS 2 spotted on game mag cover
Apparently, world exclusives just aren't what they used to be. Shortly after Official Nintendo Magazine teased readers with "world exclusive" information on a new game, only to backpedal once internet speculation deemed the game to be NiGHTS 2, comes this image of an upcoming issue of Swedish mag, Game Reactor. Their exclusive is right there on the cover -- the androgynous acrobat himself sporting a grand new costume. No mention of platform is made, though most online pundits point to Wii.The image, which was posted on the NeoGAF forums and the Game Reactor website, has since been replaced on the latter page with a version containing an empty outline of NiGHTS. Is that the official motif for teasing gamers with the sequel to a deeply loved Saturn classic? Caution requires us to continue labeling this as an unconfirmed rumor, but we think it's about time we changed our line of questioning.It's not a question of whether NiGHTS 2 exists now, but rather a question of how completely modern Sega (sans Yuji Naka) will mangle a cherished property. We say it in jest, but deep down, we can already picture an Afterburner clone, complete with fly-by shootings and bordello bombing runs.[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
