gamescom-2012
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Gamescom 2012: SWTOR will sell statted gear, debating new planet monetization
How do you take a subscription title like Star Wars: The Old Republic and turn it into a free-to-play MMO? According to Executive Producer Jeff Hickman, you do it as carefully as possible. "Give the story away," he explained. "Make the casual player understand what that is. Don't try to monetize that. Monetize all the things around that. I think, actually, as we looked through it, it is not as complex as you think it is. It is very difficult." While plans for SWTOR's cash shop are not finalized, Hickman did admit that players could use it to purchase gear to help them level up: "I don't want to unbalance the game by putting things out on the store that somebody can walk in on day one, buy and be the winner. Having said that, there will be some things that we put out in the store that do enhance power value in some way, but not at the top end." Hickman nibbled around the topic of the planet Makeb, which is still under construction. With more story and more systems, he hopes players will be pleased with the final result. However, Hickman could not confirm nor deny that the update will expand the level cap, nor would he go into detail about whether or not BioWare is going to attempt to sell this to subscribers. [Thanks to Scott for the tip!] Every summer, the gaming industry descends on Cologne, Germany, for Gamescom, the world's largest trade fair for interactive games and entertainment. Massively's on the scene in 2012, bringing you all the best scoops, impressions, and interviews from the MMOs at the show!
Gamescom 2012 attendance over 275,000
Gamescom: Part Vier stabilized its attendance, with the premier European gaming event's attendance reaching a little over 275,000 according to event organizers, approximately the same as last year. Microsoft and Nintendo's absense kept things calmer this year, with the Koelnmesse avoiding overcapacity – it also probably helped that Saturday tickets were locked at a set number this year.Gamescom 2013 is scheduled for next August 21-25 in Cologne. Like our previous roundups of official and unofficial stats, you can find 2012's after the break.
The Daily Grind: Is Ubisoft cashing in with Silent Hunter and Anno Online?
Last week's Gamescom saw publishing giant Ubisoft dip its toe into the free-to-play browser game market. It did so with a pair of titles based on ancient, beloved franchises. First up was Silent Hunter Online, a riff on the submarine sim that's been playable on your PC since 1996. Ubisoft followed that up with Anno Online, a simplified version of the long-running Anno real-time strategy series that debuted in 1998 (if you've never heard of Anno, you might be an American who played it under the Dawn of Discovery moniker). A cynic might say that Ubisoft is looking to milk the nostalgia factor by taking a couple of complex titles and turning them into accessible MMO-lite affairs. An optimist might say that this is the logical next step if franchises are to remain relevant in the age of casual gaming. What do you think? Is Ubisoft cashing in, or will Silent Hunter Online and Anno Online be worthy of their names? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
Dead Space 3 weapon crafting lets you stack guns on guns
You know what this Line Gun needs? A flamethrower. We've all thought about it and in Dead Space 3 players will be able to construct just that. Just make sure you credit us for the completely original idea!By gathering materials, one can proceed over to the nearest weapons bench and get to work. Players will be able to "build guns, modify guns and share guns," Dead Space 3's UI lead Dino Ignacio reveals in the above trailer. And once something has been made, players can then share their blueprint with the Dead Space 3 community, allowing others to copy and use the weapon in question in their own game.So can we make a Plasma Cutter that is actually eight Plasma Cutters? Well, EA, can we?
How to pitch your indie game to Sony
"I'm sick of sitting through crap development pitches," Pete Smith, Sony XDev director of product development, told an audience of developers at GDC Europe last week. Smith handles all of the European studios looking to snag a publishing deal on Sony systems, and he helped games such as Heavy Rain and the Motorstorm series race into the public eye.Smith knows what he wants in a pitch, but just as importantly, he knows precisely what he doesn't want. He gave an overview of his approach to independent pitches, and then broke down a quick and dirty list of "do's" and "do not's." Read through Smith's pet peeves and praises below.
CastleStorm fires off new screens for Gamescom
Zen Studios, which found success through its pinball games, is branching out and showed off Kickbeat and CastleStorm at Gamescom. Here's the latest screens for the real-time strategy, castle vs. castle physics based destruction game launching this autumn, "first on Xbox."
New Ni no Kuni screens, and a Ninostarter update
A set of new Gamescom screens for Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch provides the perfect reason to check in on the "Ninostarter" pre-order campaign.With 12 days left, enough fans have pre-ordered the special "Wizard's Edition" to unlock one bonus item, a set of five prints. The second item is a gold "Wizard's Coin," which has 24% of its allotted pre-order numbers. You have until August 31 to throw your pre-order in and get the game, the book, the prints, and possibly that coin.%Gallery-162721%
Super Joystiq Podcast Gamescom 2012 special: Day 5
Welcome to our last day of podcast specials from Gamescom 2012!Today, the stalwart Gamescom crew of Alexander, Ben, Richard, and Jess are joined by Xbox Live's Larry "Major Nelson" Hryb to discuss a whole slew of games and the Cologne, Germany experience.Games on-tap in this episode include Call of Duty: Black Ops 2, SimCity, Joe Danger 2: The Movie, KickBeat, Dishonored, and more. The crew also shares some anecdotes from the show and Cologne, and the the Major himself gives an audio sightseeing tour, extols the virtues of canned oxygen for fighting jet lag, and offers protips on how to survive a life of international travel.That's it for our Gamescom 2012 podcast specials. Thanks so much for taking the journey with us, be sure to hit the archives if you missed any of the shows, and we'll back back to normal next week with another episode of the Super Joystiq Podcast.Listen to the Super Joystiq Podcast: Subscribe to the Super Joystiq Podcast in iTunes Super Joystiq Podcast is also available in the Zune Marketplace Add the Super Joystiq Podcast feed to your RSS aggregator Download the MP3 directlyA stream of the show and details about each segment is available after the break.
Ten whole minutes of Splinter Cell: Blacklist gameplay
Allow Splinter Cell: Blacklist creative director Maxime Beland (and his soothing accent) to walk you through 10 full minutes of Blacklist gameplay, as Sam Fisher infiltrates a terrorist cell on the Iraq/Iran border.
Spector still wants Epic Mickey HD, needs your help
Warren Spector, long-term industry survivor and creative director of Disney's Junction Point Studios, still wants to do a high definition version of Wii-exclusive Epic Mickey for other consoles."It's been about four or five days since I've asked to get that project greenlit. It's not my call to make. I can't even tell you how much I want to see the first game with all the enhancements and improvements we've made on Xbox 360 and PS3," Spector told us today at Gamescom. "Just have all of your readers send emails to Disney corporation and say: 'Warren should make this game.'"Spector told us there are two things he very much wants: "I want to make a duck game and I want to see Epic Mickey on next-gen platforms."But this is Warren Spector we're talking about. Can't he just wave a magical paintbrush and make his dreams come true? He may not have his duck game, but he's got his duck comic."There's only so much clout," he admitted. "When you're talking about the kind of money games cost now, there's only so much you can do."Well, what we can do is just slide the Disney Twitter over to you fine folks reading and you can decide whether to let them know if you want Epic Mickey on HD consoles.
Remember Me's 'Neo-Paris' was a 'late choice,' US / AU both considered
The art style of Dontnod Entertainment's "Neo-Paris" in Remember Me is stunning, and the vision of a futuristic Eiffel Tower glimmering in the background of many images gives the game a distinctive look – not dissimilar from the beauty of modern day Paris. The city may be a staple of the game now, but Remember Me's development saw Nilin potentially memory jacking foes in the United States or Australia before settling on the dev team's home base."Since the beginning, I really wanted to have Remember Me not being all French, for instance," Dontnod creative lead Jean-Maxime Moris told us in an interview this week at Gamescom. "Neo-Paris was a late choice, because we wanted to stay away from it. We had that global warming element to the game," Moris added, a reference to the concepts we saw last year when the game was still known as "Adrift.""First we thought about Australia or the US, and then we were like, 'Well, let's just stick to Paris, because we have all the material, it's a great city, and it hasn't been done in the way we wanna do it,'" Moris said. Beyond just a thematic shift, the choice of Neo-Paris fits with the game having an international feel, he said."There are French elements to the game, but we wanted it to have some American appeal – kind of really extending the scope of the city, and the characters, and the scope of the robots. And at the same time, there is definitely a Japanese feel to it with the cyberpunk theme. Japanese have been eating cyberpunk for breakfast for 30 years now. Ghost in the Shell, and Akira and all those things," Moris added.We might've followed up to that question, but we were too busy thinking about Japanese people eating cyberpunk for breakfast. What a dangerous proposition!
Gamescom 2012 wrap-up
Cologne, city of cathedrals, chocolate museums and -- at least for the last week -- a little bit of cosplay. While Gamescom largely concentrated on the latest titles coming in the next year, there was still plenty to see for gadget obsessives -- especially when it came to PC mice and keyboards. Sony also had a few tricks up its sleeve at its press event before Gamescom had even begun in earnest. After the break, gorge on all the gaming hardware of note, in case you missed it on the first round. Tschüss! %Gallery-162685%
Look around SimCity, don't get bogged down in charts
"I want more time," I thought leaving my first SimCity hands-on experience. "I must go deeper!" There's just so much I wanted to try out, poke around, but the rails were firmly set to give the tiniest taste of what's to come. Needless to say, I'm ready for the SimCity entree when it launches in February 2013 on Mac and PC.The demo I tried out went through the super basics of building residential, commercial and industrial zones; along with how the city infrastructure is built out. All of it quite instinctual.%Gallery-157342%
Gamescom 2012: Aion will offer three new classes in 4.0
Atreia is about to become more interesting. After some talk about patch 3.5 and Tiamat at Gamescom 2012, NCsoft let fly the announcement that Aion will offer three brand-new classes in the 4.0 update. This will be the first time the free-to-play fantasy game will introduce new classes beyond the ones the game launched with. What will these new additions be? While NCsoft isn't revealing too many specifics yet, Daevas wanting to experience something new will be able to choose between wielding a gun or a musical instrument as weapons with two of the classes. Currently, mum's the word on details about the third class, but we'll keep you updated as more information is released. Every summer, the gaming industry descends on Cologne, Germany, for Gamescom, the world's largest trade fair for interactive games and entertainment. Massively's on the scene in 2012, bringing you all the best scoops, impressions, and interviews from the MMOs at the show!
Anomaly: Warzone Earth takes out PSN on August 29 in Europe
Anomaly: Warzone Earth is set to launch digitally on the PS3 on August 29 in Europe, for €8.99, and some time in September for the US, 11 bit studios tells Joystiq at Gamescom. The PSN version will be available in seven languages: English, Spanish, French, Italian, German, Polish and Russian.PSN's Warzone Earth introduces local co-op and a new human unit to the franchise. The new unit is called the Chainer, and it charges enemies and blasts them in a chain attack, hitting up to eight at once.
New Tropico in development at Haemimont Games
Good news, El Presidente! The next Tropico is developer Haemimont Games' next title after it ships Omerta this fall. Even more interesting, the game won't be as obviously iterative as it was between Tropico 3 and Tropico 4."We've already started on Tropico. This time we're wiping the whole game clean and building it from the ground up," explained Gabriel Dobrev, chief executive officer of the Bulgarian developer. "We're starting with a clean design this time and all the graphics will be new."Dobrev says he's a fan of the Caribbean atmosphere, political aspects and story possibilities of the Tropico universe. He wouldn't share any more details about the new island adventure or pinpoint the era it would take place in, but said it's "larger in scope." No matter what they decide to do with the new design, El Presidente shall return! (Picitured: Tropico 4)
Official Black Ops II gaming headsets unveiled by Turtle Beach, coming 'weeks' ahead of game release (hands-on)
The crowds that filed towards the hulking Call of Duty: Black Ops II stand at Gamescom prove it deserved all that floor space and nearby, Turtle Beach was finally showing off its range of companion gaming headphones, ranging from in-ear buds to top-of-the-range wireless gaming cans with some heavy-duty audio customization options in tow. We managed to take a look at the whole selection (which repackages several models from the XP series and the incoming Seven series). While these were still developmental models (the Call of Duty decals will be painted on, not the stickers seen here), it should give you a good idea how the headphones will appear when they arrive in the next few months. We've got details on all the headsets (and the press release) after the break. %Gallery-162533% %Gallery-162520%
Warface deploys a platoon of screens to Gamescom
We're not sure what type of face you should have when browsing through this gallery of screens from free-to-play Crytek shooter, Warface. Happyface? Startledface? Apathyface? Nah, we'd say go with Guarded Optimismface.
Omerta gangs up this November
Omerta: City of Gangsters will muscle its way into retail this November. Developed by Haemimont Games, the Atlantic City mob simulator isn't so much about building a burg like in the developer's Tropico series, but is actually focused on turn-based combat and keeping the economy of the player's mob empire stable.Omerta's prohibition setting of the 1920s puts players in control of obtaining and maintaining a mob network that's earning cash through speakeasies, distilleries, bank heists and more. The game takes place on two levels, with the macro mob management game and the turn-based missions, where a team is personally selected thugs rob a bank, take out the competition or other enterprising opportunities. The game will be available on both PC and Xbox 360 when it arrives in "early November," according to Haemimont CEO Gabriel Dobrev.%Gallery-156648%
Tritton's Pro+ 5.1 headset goes up for pre-order, promises gamers 'true 5.1' for $200
Thought Tritton was satisfied with only pumping out Xbox-licensed gaming headsets in the last year? Fret not ye' PS3 and PC gamers, instead, say hello to its latest cross-platform unit, the AX Pro+. Although its color scheme is similar to the Dolby Headphone-enabled AX 720 virtual surround sound headset, the moniker pits it as a follow up to the AX Pro. Like its predecessor, the Pro+ sports a trio of drivers and one subwoofer in each of its earcups, aiming to offer "true 5.1 surround sound." Among other design tweaks, its cups can rotate flat for added comfort (a sorely missed feature on the original), and the drivers have been repositioned for "superior surround sound separation and improved bass response." An included Dolby decoder box handles its connections, while the headset's inline remote allows you to adjust each driver's individual volume level, the balance of game / voice audio, and enable voice monitoring through its detachable mic. Better yet, the whole setup is powered by one wall plug, rather than two as was the annoyance with the older model. Discrete 5.1 headsets haven't impressed us in the past, but you can pre-order the Pro+ for $200 from Tritton if you're willing to give its cramped surround sound setup a try during Call of Duty fragging sessions come this September.
