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The Best Of Big Download: June 8-14, 2008
Did you have a good week? We had a terrific one at Big Download but with the release of Spore Creature Creator next week it promises to be an even busier time for our site. In the meantime here are the highlights from the past weekExclusive Features Interview: Vic Davis of Armaggedon Empires: We chat with the creator of the acclaimed indie turn based strategy PC game. MODverlous Monday: This week we examine two custom mad maps for Blizzard's classic RTS game Starcraft. Casually Speaking: We take a look at the "death" of the video arcade. Freeware Friday: This week's free featured game is the nearly graphics-free RTS/RPG title Dwarf Fortress Big Iron: Our regular hardware column takes you through some video card basics
Why exactly is Hellgate:London so bad?
Earlier today we brought you word that there has been some unrest in the ranks at Flagship Studios, makers of Hellgate:London. Though Kotaku's discussion with studio representatives makes it sound like much ado about nothing, it's worth wondering where from Mr. Somberg's angst originated. In this the games blogger Shamus, of the site Twenty Sided, may be able to assist. Though Shamus is a dyed-in-the-wool tabletop player, he also regularly plays PC titles. Intrigued by Hellgate's terrible reputation, he dove in expecting to find that the negative hype about the game was likely just as insubstantial about the pre-launch positive. Instead, he found himself sinking into a quicksand of strange design choices and poorly documented subsystems.In what he's calling an autopsy of the game, Shamus lays out what makes Hellgate:London the yawning disappointment it is. His first analysis post centers around the fact that there's almost no reason to care about the world or its inhabitants. An unnecessary amount of snark and in-joking sucks all the veracity out of the setting. His second post is all about the game's unapproachable crafting system. Think "undocumented black box" and you'll have some approximation of what's involved here. From there you can look to his site for future discussions of the game, or head back into his archive for previous discussions on the genre.
Hellgate: London programmer claims staff leaving 'in droves'
Things are not well at Hellgate: London developer Flagship Studios according to Guy Somberg, an audio and gameplay programmer at the fledgling studio. Somberg wrote on his personal blog a month ago – which was recently dug up by GI.biz – that people are leaving the company "in droves" following the poor sales and negative feedback of its post-apocalyptic jaunt.Somberg does have some hope for the future (wait, isn't London occupied by demons in 2038?), saying that the game is doing well in Korea and has yet to start in China. He concludes that he likes the job, but that all the artists and programmers leaving the company is taking a toll on the future of Hellgate: London and Flagship as a studio. Well, we're hearing good things about Mythos ...
Hellgate staff abandoning sinking ship
We never like to see a developer start to go on the down and out. Even in the rare event where we find few redeemable things about a game, we understand that the developers behind the project are generally good people and we hope that they continue to be fruitful in their endeavors. That's precisely why we were sad to read an old blog post from Hellgate: London programmer Guy Somberg describing how much of the Flagship staff, including their founders, is abandoning ship for less choppy waters.Although developers usually present a united front of optimism when their games are struggling, and indeed there is still some hope to be had with Hellgate's release into the Chinese market, you know that the individuals behind the game have to suffer when they're subject to so much heat from online vultures. After all, we've seen people on the developer side crack even when their game is a success. It's a very high pressure environment. We hope Somberg hangs in there and that Flagship manages to turn a corner.[Via GI.biz]
The Daily Grind: Which MMO deserves the movie treatment?
The World of Warcraft movie is coming, barring one of those infamous Hollywood accidents that seem to happen to many movies before they're finished. We've covered the others before, with a gloomy outlook. But statistically, surely at least one of them will be watchable.So if not City of Heroes, or Everquest, which property might make a good movie? Which one has a good setting, visually interesting powers or abilities, a rich storyline, and engaging characters? Tabula Rasa might be a fun romp if it could avoid comparison to Starship Troopers. Perhaps Hellgate: London might make a good Summer spookfest. Weigh in with your thoughts!
The Daily Grind: Does chat break immersion?
There are areas in Second Life devoted to roleplaying. There are roleplaying servers for several of the major MMOs. Obviously, these exist to fulfill the need for full-immersion experiences, away from the frequently inane chatter to be had in most games's chat. But outside of these specialized environments, it's open to all and sundry, the polite and foul-mouthed alike.In a futuristic scenario like Tabula Rasa's, or an alternate modern setting like Hellgate: London, players can get away with contemporary language. Yet even there, if the talk comes around to non-game issues, it breaks the suspension of disbelief just enough to remind you you're just a person playing a game, rather than a character inhabiting the game world. Is this bothersome? Do you turn off general chat whenever possible? Are you perfectly happy feeling one step removed from the game's reality, and don't need the immersive experience?
Sweeping changes to Hellgate: London in Abyss Chronicles
Hell is about to get even hotter, as Flagship Studios prepares to unleash fresh content for Hellgate: London. Our sister blog Big Download has some posted new screenshots of the upcoming Abyss Chronicles for HG:L, as well as info on the 2.0 and 2.1 updates to the title. Patch 2.0 will be Hellgate: London's second major content update, and brings with it a host of new features and changes to the game. The build is likely to go live on the Test Server in the next week, but until then, here's Big Download's breakdown of the 2.0 changes: A new quest line that covers the spread of the Abyss through Parliament Square and the survivors' efforts to fight back A major rebalancing of the Blademaster class A complete PvP overhaul, including achievements, rankings, rewards, and a new CTF team gametype Changes to the Shared Stash, such as a separate pane for each difficulty Addition of two new trinket slots for players to add rings and such to their characters An attribute respec NPC that allows players to remove points from an attribute for a fee-per-point Three new skills for each class A consignment house (read: auction house) where players can sell stuff to other players without direct trading Beyond rolling out The Abyss Chronicles with 2.0, the next area Flagship Studios is focusing on is PvP through Patch 2.1. The patch will 'open up an entirely new side to Hellgate: London' by introducing five cohesive elements of PvP in a single update: ranking, matchmaking, rewards, achievements, and Capture the Flag. The end result is what Flagship describes as 'a robust PvP experience.'
The Daily Grind: Why can't Earth have a fantasy MMO?
Take a look at the preeminent Fantasy MMOs available: World of Warcraft takes place in Azeroth. Age of Conan's setting is Hyborea. Guild Wars boasts Tyria as its location. Lord of the Rings Online has Middle-Earth, which Tolkien refers to as much as an age as a location, hinting that it could in fact be Earth's past, but the landscape as described doesn't really match anything in our reality.And what does Earth have? Hellgate: London, The Agency, The Day, and possibly The Secret World. While there may be supernatural elements in a couple of these titles, for the most part they belong firmly in a science-grounded reality, and couldn't be considered true Fantasy settings. So what gives? With the unlimited imagination on display for all these other titles, why does Earth get short shrift? Is there any good reason for our fair Terra to be left out of the Fantasy loop?
Hellgate: London giveths and takeths away
Flagship Studios announced some changes to Hellgate: London in the form of Patch 1.3b, which should resolve issues with the ill-fated Patch 1.3a. Indeed, the month of May has turned out to be HellPatch: London for Flagship and HG: L fans, with the patches even being patched. Some players who logged into the Test Server recently found that their characters were gone and, fearing the worst, assumed (incorrectly) that a character wipe had taken place. This was not the case at all; a Test Center database crash was the culprit, and a restore from backup solved the issue. Now that the updated patch has been rolled out, nightly restarts of the live servers have ceased, as of May 20th. The reboots were a precaution to prevent server instability while issues were being resolved. A notable change in Patch 1.3b is that HG: L now blocks non-subscribers from party portaling into subscriber-only areas. Although this change will likely disappoint the gamers who play for free, a quest NPC previously available only to paying players is now available to non-subs. Whether or not this balances the scales for the non-subs remains to be seen, but portaling into restricted areas would seem to be an exploit. The other changes and fixes in Patch 1.3b are numerous, and affect non-subscribers and subscribers alike. The complete breakdown is found after the jump:
Anti-Aliased: How to pick the MMO for you
Let's be honest for a moment - there are a ton of MMOs out there. We have everything from fantasy, to dystopian future, to fantasy, to horror, to fantasy, to pirates, to fantasy, to sci-fi, and even all the way down to fantasy. While this is great for people who love choice, this is a complete nightmare (or should I say Bloodymare, ha ha, gaming puns) for anyone who's new to the genre or wants to start off with a fresh game that's different from what they're playing.How do you separate the good from the bad? How do you know if you'll stick to a game? You don't want to gamble with an expensive game only to find out that you totally hate it and wish it would burn in the deepest depths of hell. (I'm looking at you, Risk Your Life.) So, do you rely on what your friends tell you or what reviewers tell you?In my opinion, no one knows you except you. So when you sit down and want to pick the right game the first time, here's a few pointers and suggestions to get you started.
Open forums and a patched patch for Hellgate: London
Things are happening at Hellgate: London these days -- so many, that we're going to make a list! (We love lists.) The forums are now open: You no longer need to have an account to read the Hellgate: London forums, though you still need an account to post in them. Patch 1.3 is out: It has the usual number of bug fixes along with a lot of new features like emotes and shared stashes. Patch 1.3 has been patched: It also has the usual number of bugs that had to be fixed for the game to be fully playable again. Patch 1.3b is on the test server: There are still more bugs to be fixed and the changes are being tested now. The Test Server has been patched: The database crashed and needed to be rebuilt. So the Test Server is currently being tested. The Abyss Chronicles are coming soon: The next content patch or Patch 2.0 is in the works and information will be released shortly. For more details on all of this news and more, check out Issue 5 of the Underground Communique.
Can Mythos live up to its hype?
We've written once or twice about the upcoming free-to-play game action-MMO Mythos. It will rock you, sock you, completely demolish you and keep you coming back for another round of its point-and-click gameplay. Well, that's the theory, anyway. Can any game ever live up to all its hype? As Miguel Lopez points out in his Mythos preview, you have four races, but there's really not that much difference between them. Eventually, you'll run out of quests, and the only thing that will keep you coming back is the prospect of more fairly similar dungeon crawling.Mythos shows the most creativity in its classes. Your characters must choose between one of three classes, but the talent trees can turn them into almost any variant on those you can think of. Want your caster to tank and melee? You can do that. Want your gadgeteer to let his pets do the fighting? Entirely up to you. Your character can be uniquely yours in every respect. This might come in handy when you meet someone else in the FFA PvP world of the Shadowlands. They won't have any idea what you can do... and you won't know anything about them, either. Will Mythos have the staying power of Diablo II? That's a tough call, but the developers at Flagship Studios are definitely hoping its addictive gameplay, casual setting, humor, and low price (can't beat free) will give them a hit after their miss with Hellgate: London.
TV shows that could be MMOs: Battlestar Galactica
Watching the final season of the new Battlestar Galactica the other night, and getting only a taste of the amazing, chaotic, shaky-cam ship-to-ship action left us wanting more. But even better than a full episode devoted to space combat would be an MMO based in that world. How would that work, you ask? We're glad you did! Keep in mind that this article assumes basic knowledge of the show universe and its characters. If you haven't seen it, get thee to a torrent, or a rental store immediately!First, consider some of the great two-sided rivalries in MMOs: Horde vs. Alliance; AFS vs. the Bane; Humanity vs. Hell -- Mankind vs. the Cylons fits right in. In fact, since the show itself manages to portray both sides as sympathetic, there isn't too much storyline massaging to be done; the universe of Galactica is nicely morally ambiguous. All that really matters is survival.
Hellgate: London goes to Korea, makes it big
So do you remember when Hellgate: London wanted you to give it a second chance? Well apparently it found a new Korean boyfriend. Launching in beta-mode last January 15th, Hellgate has since officially launched on February 22nd to critical success. Apparently, in the two weeks following the February launch, Hellgate: London managed to grab over a million subscribers. By Flagship's count, that makes Hellgate: London the most successful Korean launch in the last three years; quite the difference from its state-side grand opening last year.Apparently all the buzz started in Korea during the January 15th beta, when gamers at PC Cafes picked up on the title. Ever since then it has been garnering a strong audience. We're happy to see the game has found a home, as hopefully this means Flagship can bankroll some more people into the Mythos team to make that game even cooler.[via Joystiq]
Hellgate: London finds success in Korea
Last year's launch of Flagship Studios' Hellgate: London was not exactly what we'd call a family album moment, its release plagued by client crashes and enough bugs to have the Orkin man calling for backup. Still, one person's trash is another's treasure, as Bill Roper and company have announced that in the two weeks since the Korean launch of the Hellgate beta more than a million accounts have been registered. According to Flagship, this makes the MMO the most successful online game launch in Korea in the past three years.Hellgate's beta officially kicked off in Korea on January 15, and according to Korean online game tracking service Gametrics, the game quickly found an audiences with gamers in PC Cafes, ranking ninth among online games, fifth among RPGs, and was the most popular beta being played. This was followed by a commercial release on February 22, a launch that Flagship boasts achieved "record sales," though it's a record that we're pretty sure will be broken soon enough.
Hellgate: London would like a second chance
We all know that Hellgate: London didn't exactly have the best of launches; actually it had a very terrible launch. The biggest problem was probably all the bugs in the game, which more often than not were responsible for regular client crashes among other game-ending glitches. This sort of thing tends to kill games forever, but Hellgate: London has been sticking it out over the past several months and things have actually gotten better -- at least as far as the bugs and additional content goes. So now Flagship Studios is hoping players will come back and give the game a second (or possibly third) chance.From what we've heard and seen of these updates, it sounds like Flagship isn't pulling any legs here -- the game really has gotten better. Even so, we really have to wonder if that's enough to bring previously-scorned players back to the game, as many of them have no doubt moved on since last year. Maybe it would be wise to drop the price on the game a tad and offer some sort of incentive for players to come back or try the game for the first time. Mythos might be the perfect conduit to spotlight these new improvements; if Flagship can think up a clever way to do it.
The Daily Grind: Would you read an MMO novelization?
The funny thing about translating a game to a novel is that it's a tightrope walk between sticking to canon, and inventing something new that feels canonical. Balancing between just writing up the events of the game, and trying to expose action lying just outside of view. Stray too far, and you'll alienate the fanbase; hew too closely, no one will feel the need to read it.A game like World of Warcraft, though, has a fairly extensive lore, with lots of unexplored nooks and crannies just begging for attention. We can see a great deal of promise in books based on the Hellgate: London title, and can imagine the complexity of EVE Online fiction. What's a good way to turn a game into a novel, and which worlds deserve the treatment?
Interview with Flagship's Max Schaefer
On their latest video podcast, the folks at 1UP had a chat with Flagship Studios' COO and executive producer of Mythos, Max Schaefer. He talks a little about Mythos' raison d'être as a sort of technology demo for last year's action MMO, Hellgate: London. It's taken on a life of its own since then to become the kinder, lighter action MMO, brighter and more just plain fun. In keeping with their more social goal for Mythos, there is full guild support, and they'll be adding in email, minigames, group-oriented content and, yes, an item mall. Following the lead of the Asian casual game market, Mythos is free to download, free to play, and though you may want to buy certain things to help you along the way at their item mall (though nothing overpowering -- you won't find the best swords or armor at the item mall), you will be able to see and do everything without paying a penny.Schaefer calls this new philosophy "Triple-A casual" -- top flight production values using the latest tech, but keeping development time short and focusing on the fun. We've been hearing a lot about Mythos lately; here's hoping they start their open beta soon so that we can all play.
April Fools' in Hellgate: London
Not wanting to be left out of the fun, the folks at Flagship Studios have a couple of April Fools' jokes of their own. The acquisition of Hellgate High School in Missoula, Missouri is an amusing read. The team name is the Hellgate Knights and Flagship Studios plans to farm the school for in-game music and sound effects.But really, it's all about Hellgate Barbie. We don't know which is funnier, Evoker Barbie with the hot pink pentacle or the fact that they beg Mattel not to sue them. It's really too bad this is a joke, because dressing up dolls in armor like our characters isn't such a bad idea. Would you buy a Guardian Ken or a Summoner Skipper?
New way to talk to Flagship Studios: YouTube comments
Do you want to communicate with a representative of Flagship Studios with all of your Hellgate: London or Mythos related questions? Are you tired of not getting a response on the forums? Well, the unlikely place of YouTube may be the answer for you.We were surprised to find that Scapes, Hellgate: London's Community Manager was answering both HGL and Mythos questions in the comments of their YouTube videos.For example, if you go to take a look at the new Patch 1.2 trailer, you will find comments about the new Single Player patch as well as the difference between Video development and Game development.So if you have a burning question for Flagship Studios, go sign into your YouTube account and leave a comment. You may just get a response straight from the source. Or you could wait until the next time they do an IRC developer chat.
