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Soul Calibur IV gameplay video dump
In addition to yesterday's cinematic trailer, which gave us a fantastic look at the game's three combatants from a galaxy far, far away, a plethora of gameplay videos for Soul Calibur IV also recently made their way into GameTrailer's expansive archives. Other than the addition of a few new characters and a graphical overhaul, it's tough to pick out any changes that Namco Bandai has incorporated into their armament-rich fighting franchise -- we suppose the Soul Calibur series has adopted the official mantra of the fighting genre: "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." The above preview and those embedded after the jump certainly don't look broken, and have imbued in us an insatiable hunger for well-timed counters, guard impacts, and incredibly overdramatic dialogue.
BigBearButt on finding your WoW cheese
John "BigBearButt" Patricelli is one of the writers on this fine blog, gracing us with the Shifting Perspectives column, and appearing on our podcast whenever he can. But has also has his own blog at TheBigBearButt.com, and just recently he put up a very nice post about "finding your cheese" in the World of Warcraft. And he doesn't mean Alterac Swiss."Who Moved My Cheese," as he says, is one of those corporate management books that's a little trite for anyone but executives to actually read seriously -- it's got a fable about two mice who find a chunk of cheese, and then have to deal with what happens when change hits them and that cheese runs out. And BBB then takes that into the act of playing WoW: right now, this game is giving us plenty of cheese, and when the expansion drops, things will be even better. But at the same time, there's no reason to stick with the game if it isn't giving you what you want, and as we've said before, if you're not interested in the game, feel free to go find something else.BBB's post is a great read, and it's refreshing to hear an honest take on what it might mean to finally end a career in WoW (not that BBB is doing that yet). There's a lot of stuff left to do in Azeroth (and there'll be more to do in Northrend). But at the same time, there's nothing wrong with making your own path and going off to find yourself some fresh cheese.
Player vs. Everything: The retention game
The conventional wisdom in any service-driven industry is that it's far, far cheaper to retain an existing customer than to recruit a new one. This is especially true in the MMOG industry, where your business model is largely dependent on maintaining a long-term subscriber base. The concept also applies to transaction-driven and episodic games, where you need your customers to want to stick around and continue spending money. Box sales are great, but ultimately they're pretty useless except as an indicator of how many people actually bought the game -- returning players are the bread and butter of the MMO world. In fact, that's exactly why companies are so interested in finding out why you're quitting their game. If they can fix issues that are making a lot of people quit, they can retain more customers and drive up their revenue. Surprisingly, Blizzard is the only company I know of which actually makes people fill out an exit survey in order to cancel a subscription. It's not that annoying and it gives them great information about how to make their game better for you (so if you're adamant on copying Blizzard, that's a good thing to copy). Unfortunately, Blizzard keeps notoriously quiet about their internal numbers like that. So why exactly do people quit MMOGs, and what can and should game companies be doing to keep you interested?
EVE Online: play test factional warfare, June 4-6
CCP Games announced a new series of factional warfare playtests for EVE Online's imminent Empyrean Age expansion, and are seeking help from all available pilots in New Eden. EVE dev CCP Tanis stated that the first release candidate for the Empyrean Age is being put on the Singularity test server, and that CCP is now focusing its attention on the gameplay mechanics of the long-anticipated factional warfare system. The playtest will focus on the offense and defense of capture points and the conquering of solar systems. Players will be divided into either Caldari or Gallente factions; each faction will have an offensive and defensive team. The ultimate goal is to capture as many systems as possible while preventing the opposing faction from gaining any territorial control. CCP developers and ISD will be on hand to answer questions and guide players. When: June 4 to 6 (Wed., Thurs., Fri.) from 11:00 to 14:00 EVE time (GMT).Where: Singularity test serverWhy: "We really cannot stress how important your feedback is to us." Another Why: Each day the players on the winning side will be given a stock of officer modules !! ... *dramatic pause*... on the test server only. (Sorry.) Also the player who submits the best bug report will be given maxed out skills on the test server. How: Join the in-game channel "Faction Testing" for instructions.CCP Tanis also reminds players that the latest Singularity test server patch is required to participate in the playtest. The patch should ONLY be applied to a second copy of the EVE client, and NOT the main client used for everyday play on the Tranquility server. That is, unless you'd prefer to call the test server "home" from now on. Further details can be found in the official announcement; EVE Online account login is required to access this information.
Pirates of the Burning Sea to eliminate ganking, restore ambush gameplay
Is ganking really such a bad thing? That's the question Isildur addresses in his latest Pirates of the Burning Sea dev blog, where he outlines how ganking evolved in the game -- and how it got out of control. "Ganking has a long and difficult history within our design and development process, so it's a hard question to answer with a simple 'we hate it' or 'we love it," Isildur said. To really understand why the Flying Lab Software developers are torn on the issue of ganking, Isildur explained their concept of 'ambush gameplay' and the contradictions it brings to game mechanics. Isildur explains how the creators of Pirates of the Burning Sea envisioned the act of piracy. The scenario he outlines involves a lone pirate (or small group of pirates), who catch an unwary merchant by surprise, defeat him and loot, then escape before reinforcements can arrive. This is the ambush gameplay Isildur and the team at Flying Labs pictured -- rewarding for pirates, disheartening for lone merchants. To put a more visual spin on it -- a player sets sail from port, perhaps hoping for an uneventful trip. But then, a sail appears on the horizon. Is it a friend or enemy? As the unknown ship comes into view, so does its pirate flag, signaling a possible fight to the death. But the introduction of the Open Sea to the game changed all this. In some respects, Pirates of the Burning Sea developed in ways contrary to the original spirit of the game.
Freaky Creatures gets a new video
Ever since we first talked about seeing Freaky Creatures at GDC08, we've wanted to provide gameplay video that shows off the slickness of the game itself, and now there's finally something for hungry minds to consume.The video is offered in three formats, high, medium, and low. There's some great footage of creature customization, a look at most of the creature types, and of course the gameplay which is much as we remember it being at the GDC event. Go ahead, whet your appetite for destruction!
Age of Conan on single player mode
Age of Conan has gotten an intense amount of exposure lately on virtually every site that covers games. You might have noticed. The influence of AoC is ever-present, burned into the retinas of most of the Massively team as they slash their way through Hyboria. The title seems to have breathed new life into massively multiplayer spheres, with people everywhere either talking about it, reading about it, or playing it. While the AoC launch went smoothly, this is not to say that the game itself is perfect. Psychochild takes Age of Conan to task in his latest Weekend Design Challenge, for what he perceives to be a potential flaw in the game's design: much of the low-level experience, despite being a massively multiplayer title, is essentially a single-player game. He contends that the point of online games is to interact with people in one way or another, but the difference between instances in AoC is literally night and day. Night quests give personal instances that are wholly isolated from other players. This creates a split where daytime quests are multiplayer; night quests are single player. While a benefit is that players can opt for the night quests to take on their own spawns unchallenged by competitors, doesn't this defeat the purpose of AoC even being an MMO title?
Wrath of the Lich King update loaded with frozen treats
As World of Warcraft slowly progresses to the release of Wrath of the Lich King, the juicy tidbits keep hearthing our way. Blizzard recently took some time to release some more information concerning Northrend within Wrath of the Lich King. There are a few glimpses at new dungeons, some notes on vehicle combat, and some new screens of snow and ice. The big feature is an entirely new site devoted to the new class, the Death Knight. Not surprisingly, the updates come rather close to the release of Age of Conan and are filled with content information and a nifty little Death Knight animation. The new WotLK gameplay features talk about some rather major changes to quest mechanics and, most importantly, raid mechanics. For the hardcore raider in you, the instances now carry a 10 and 25 man raid that are the exact same instances, but offer different ways to advance. Players taking on the 25 man content will get better rewards, but the shift is meant to allow more folks to absorb the new content. If some extra power is needed, the new Death Knight class will be a welcome friend (oddly enough) in any raid or group with his all powerful skills. Unlocking this class of doom is an easy task. Simply have a level 55 character and the class is open to you. Then you create your Death Knight and start raising skeletons to do your bidding! The expansion is still in alpha testing, but make sure to check out some of these changes before you are left in the cold.
Meet a Champions Online environment artist
In this week's edition of Champions Online's "Meet The Team" we have an environment artist who goes by the name of Andrew Jansen. Now Andrew seems like a nice enough guy, but we're not at all opposed to taking down names and finding any party responsible for possible "layer cake tiles" in Champions Online. Oh wait, that's right we nearly forgot that we've already been promised a complete lack of them. So rest easy Andrew, the pitchforks are safely locked away in storage.The work of a environment artist sounds both intriguing and challenging as they have to design for story, fun and gameplay in everything they create. In other words an environment has to fit within the story while being both fun to play in and functional -- oh and lets not forget that it has to look great. If you're curious what kind of mind is helping to create these canonical, entertaining and functional environments we urge you to check out the rest of the interview over at the official site.
Big Download talks to Blizzard about eSports and PvE/PvP
Our newest sister site Big Download is just a week old, and yet they're already playing with the big boys -- Steven Wong has posted an interview with Blizzard's Lead Designer Tom "Kalgan" Chilton, as well as Paul Della Bitta and Joong Kim of Blizzard's eSports division about what it's going to take to tune the Arena game just right. As he did before, Kalgan confirmed that the Arena Tournament Realm is acting as a laboratory for changes and updates to classes.Della Bitta confirms, also, that Blizzard is still interested in letting players watch the matches, either via television or some other way (we heard that way back when from WSVG's President -- when they were still around, anyway). And Joong Kim lays out a simple timeline for the Arena tourney: Blizzard expects the online portion to be finished mid-July, and the Global Finals will start later in the year, around October (which is when another big Blizzard event is taking place... coincidence?).Wong doesn't get Kalgan to list a favorite class (obviously -- think of the torment that would cause on the forums), but he does confirm yet again that Blizzard isn't giving up on keeping both the PvP and PvE games the same. They want players using the same abilities as much as possible in both types of gameplay, and apparently they're committed to juggling both of those flaming torches for as long as they can.
Player vs. Everything: Age of Conan closed beta impressions
Everyone and their brother seems to be writing about Age of Conan over the last few days, but hopefully you're hungry for a little more. I've spent the last day and a half trying out different classes and playing through the various starting missions, and I'm ready to serve up some impressions. If you want the quick and dirty version, I'm really impressed with what Funcom has done. This game is worth your money. I'll try to talk about the aspects of the game that I haven't seen discussed much yet, as well as the stuff that everyone is talking about. It's also important to note that I've been playing with the closed beta client -- not the open beta one. There is a serious difference. I should mention that when I wrote Friday's article, I hadn't yet played the game and I was basing my arguments largely on the claims of people who had had bad experiences with the open beta client. I still stand by my arguments about making games with outlandish system requirements, but I think Age of Conan will run just fine on many systems. Keeping all of that in mind, here's what I think of the game.
Behind the Curtain: More Epic Gameplay?
Should MMOs give us a more 'epic' feel to our experiences? In the past, when I've explained the time I spend in-game to friends and relatives, one of the common complaints or opinions that I hear a lot is that it never sounds very exciting.While I know that I've been saving a future Warchief from slavery, or putting to rest the spirit of a lost fiancée, some people are always going to see it as me just killing some more anonymous monsters that will be back in five minutes' time. "This is boring!" they cry, "How long does it take you to kill a boar!?" I have to explain to them, again and again, the genre staples – incremental gear upgrades, starting from pathetic, finally getting up to ridiculous pieces of gear that make other players weep with envy. When they turn round and say, "Okay, show me the cool gear then, go buy some and use it instead." I have to explain, once more, that that kind of gear is only rewarded after you've spent weeks, months even, in the game, working your way up to them. It's about this time that disgust and terminal boredom sets in, and they drift away to their own pursuits, convinced that I'm slightly mad.
The Grand Theft Auto IV video dump
With today's dissolution of the embargo on all things Grand Theft Auto IV, came a veritable deluge of reviews and media related to the game. By now, we've seen all the teasers released by Rockstar, and read the write-ups which were hidden behind the floodgates just a few hours ago. However, in this maelstrom of perfect scores and cinematic trailers, there hasn't been much in the way of actual gameplay footage -- until Gametrailers cracked open their secret stash, revealing a bevy of cutscenes, car chases, and call girls just aching to be viewed by the impatient crime drama enthusiast. We've got some highlights after the jump; those purposefully trying to remain in the dark would be well advised to steer clear. You've been warned!(You probably don't need us to tell you that some videos are NSFW.)
Group buffs as solo buffs and when to use them
Rufus over on WoW LJ brings up Commanding Shout, the Warrior group buff that increases maximum health of party members for two minutes within 20 yards, and comments that it doesn't work so well in solo play. Which isn't necessarily true-- there are cases when you need as much health as you can get. And he got me thinking about other buffs like that -- buffs that are really meant for group play, but that can sometimes help in solo play.The first one that jumped to my Shaman mind is the Mana Spring Totem -- it's really meant for group play, but every once in a while I'll pull too many, need some extra mana, and drop that to pick up a little blue. Also in the Shaman's Resto tree is Earth Shield, which can be helpful in solo play, too. And while Power Word: Shield is really too mana intensive to regularly be used in solo play (it's really meant to be used in groups), there are lots of times when it's helpful with solo priests.Usually, you should only use these things when absolutely necessary (and when you've got the resources to use them -- Commanding Shout, for example, doesn't actually give you any health, so using it in the middle of a fight doesn't help). But Blizzard has made sure we don't just have group buffs and solo buffs -- some group buffs are occasionally really useful in solo play. Can you think of any others?
The Guild, Episode 9 released
Episode 9 of The Guild is up, and it's confrontation time. The guildies meet each other in RL again to take down the bank ninja Bladezz, but yet another boss battle looms deep on the horizon. Y'know, not that we don't love this series (we do), but has there ever been any actual gameplay footage here? Am I the only one that would kind of like to see them in their characters, maybe raiding into Karazhan or wherever else they're raiding?Maybe there's legal issues or something involved (but surely Blizzard wouldn't mind, right?). At any rate, another fun episode for The Guild (Tink needs to get some new DS games, I beat Mario like years ago), and it seems like things are coming to a boil on this storyline. Episode 10 should be a big one. Like The Guild? We do, too! We've got all the episodes so far: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8. And don't forget to check out our interview with Felicia Day, The Guild's appearance on Mahalo Daily, or even The Guild's gag reel.
Breakfast Topic: Macro madness
Yesterday, I bashfully admitted that I don't use the /focus feature in the default UI as much as I should -- in fact, aside from a totem dropping macro I put together a long time ago, I haven't used macros nearly as much as I should. It's not that I don't want to -- I'm sure I could be a better player with more macros (like the ones found in our Macro Anatomy column) -- it's just that as I said in the /focus post, there are so many ways to use macros that it's kind of tough to figure out just where to put them in your gameplay.So let's talk about macros -- do you use them? If not, why not? And if so, how do you use them? Of course, we all play different classes, but within your class, where do you find it's easier to use macros, and it's easier to play things manually?A lot of good players could probably become great players with a few easy macros, but for players who have no idea what macros are for, it's sometimes hard to figure out where they fit. If you do use them, how?
New York Toy Faire previews the WoW mini game
The WoW Minis Game has a bit to go before it sees release in Fall 2008, but wowminifan.com has some news fresh from the New York Toy Fair to whet your appetite, including a few pictures. The miniatures themselves especially look pretty awesome, and I can see a lot of non-players buying sets just for display purposes, especially if they haven't managed to get their hands on a Figureprint.
The Daily Grind: should there be adaptive difficulty in MMOs?
Adaptive difficulty (also called Dynamic Difficulty Adjustment) is a game mechanic in which play becomes easier or more difficult depending on how well you progress. If you keep dying in the course of the game, the action ramps down a bit until it's at a more manageable level. This can be seen in the God of War and Devil May Cry franchises. As an uneasy compromise between the hardcore and casual players, it serves to make things easier initially, but at the cost of preventing access to content unlockable only to those willing to put in the time to master the challenges, as difficult as they may be.But in an MMO, where the gameplay is meant to progress conceivably into eternity, does adaptive difficulty help or hurt the player? Should the challenge remain static, and act as a determinant of inclusion, a kind of 'survival of the fittest'? If gameplay is accessible to any level of skill, should a monthly fee be in place to take advantage of the hordes of relatively non-hardcore users?
Chronicles of Spellborn gets a video'd walkthrough at GDC
For those of you unfamiliar with Khaeon Games' Chronicles of Spellborn, here's a 40-minute developer-led tour through its opening stages, including character creation at this year's GDC.A great deal of time is spent going over the character's stats ... a bit more than I'd have had the patience to sit through, personally. Right around the 17 minute mark the character finally starts running around. Nice tidbits: you have a chance to pick up a piece of hardware that an opponent carries and wear it yourself, but not before taking it to an armorer or equivalent to have it fitted. The atmosphere of the world is nice and angsty. Combat is reminiscent of Age of Conan, where there is no lock-on targeting, and it's dependent upon facing.There's some promise here; sign up for the beta at their official site.[Thanks, Garold!]
Details on the WoW Minis game
WoW Insider has obtained a copy of the "sell sheet" sent to distributors about the upcoming WoW minis game, and it contains information about pricing, pack size, and even some hints at a release date. var digg_url = 'http://digg.com/pc_games/WoW_Insider_obtains_details_on_the_upcoming_WoW_Minis_game'; Basically, the minis will become available in three different ways: there will be the core booster sets, which will contain three minis of the same Horde or Alliance faction, plus three character cards and six ability cards, and will have a suggested retail price (SRP) of $14.99 per booster. Additionally, each booster will have a chance to include an ingame Loot Card, supposedly from the Trading Card Game (there is no word if there will be loot cards specifically for the minis game), and a 1/8 chance to have an "epic" character.More info on the starter sets, including the full text of the "sell sheet," after the break.
