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Hi-Rez's Todd Harris argues Tribes: Ascend is a 'complete' and 'content-rich' experience
We reported earlier this week that Hi-Rez decided to stop updating Tribes Ascend in favor of user mapmaking tools because the studio feels that the Tribes experience is "complete" as-is. In a follow-up interview with Rock, Paper, Shotgun, Hi-Rez's Todd Harris has now discussed the development hiatus in more detail and answers some tough questions on extant issues with game balance. He argues that not only is the game complete, but it's already feature-rich and a bargain for the price. Since launch, we added 54 new weapons. We added a new game mode, a new leveling system, custom servers, server browser, shielded base assets, 29 new maps – all free – and all that in a brief period of time. We also added an option for people to pay one price and get all the weapons. I don't know of any other free-to-play game, other than our own SMITE, that has that option. It's free-to-play, but it does have a twist. You can get all the gameplay elements for the price of a normal game. It's fairly complete in its content. Harris also tells RPS that a new tutorial would be only a "modest improvement as far as new people sticking with the game"; instead, he says, he hopes to facilitate community resources. But mostly, he appears to believe the game has already found its audience. "The days of major changes in the game are behind us," he says. What about insinuations that the studio bit off more than it could chew? Harris explains that the studio has three small teams working on multiple games and has learned "learned the value of focus." According to Harris, Tribes has supported itself commercially and profits were always returned to the game's development. Even so, the studio is focused on the MOBA space: "SMITE is doing well enough that it's justifying a large amount of resources on it . . . we see the biggest studio opportunity on SMITE."
Large Hadron Collider stops for two years of tune-ups, goes out on a high note (video)
We've long known that the Large Hadron Collider would need to take a break, but that doesn't take the edge off of the moment itself: as of Valentine's Day, the particle accelerator has conducted its last test for the next two years. The giant research ring will undergo sweeping repairs and upgrades that should should give it the superconducting connectors needed to hit the originally planned 14TeV of combined collision energy, versus the 8TeV it's been limited to almost since the beginning. CERN's machine arguably earned the downtime. After a rough start, it went on to produce rafts of collision data and healthy evidence of the elusive Higgs boson. If you're still down, think of the hiatus as doing us a favor -- it postpones any world-ending disasters until around 2015.
Halo 4 Spartan Ops goes on hiatus next week, 'Infinity Challenge' begins
Halo 4's episodic co-op campaign Spartan Ops will go on hiatus next week, concluding in January with the final five episodes of season one. Microsoft is also teaming up with Virgin gaming on the "Halo 4 Infinity Challenge," which has a V8-powered 2013 Ford F-150 SVT Raptor (pictured), along with an appearance in a future Halo game, as its grand prize.Those interested in participating in the Mountain Dew and Doritos presents, in association with Seven Eleven and Harvey's RV World, Halo 4 Infinity Challenge can register at www.halo4infinitychallenge.com. The tournament begins December 17 and will track War Games and Spartan Ops leaderboards, with over 2,800 prizes available. The qualifier phase will run until January 10.After the qualifier section, players will be tiered into three groups, with the final phase taking place the week of January 12. Leaderboards will be reset at this time to award the top performers in each tier. No word yet if the new Ford F-150 handles like a Warthog.
Cliff Bleszinski quits Epic Games, leaves us with an Unreal feeling
Fall must be the season for sea changes in the game industry. Just weeks after BioWare's founders retired, key Epic Games veteran and Design Director Cliff Bleszinski (known to many as just CliffyB) is hanging up his hat. He simply describes it as taking a "much needed break," which makes sense when you see his development experience: he joined Epic's crew with Dare to Dream Volume One in 1993 and has nurtured virtually every major (and often minor) game franchise at the company since, including the Jazz Jackrabbit platformers, untold numbers of games in the Unreal line and most recently the Gears of War series. Bleszinski hasn't said where he's headed next, although it's hard to imagine him switching professions like the two BioWare doctors -- for many, he's synonymous with certain eras of first- and third-person shooters. Wherever he goes, we wish him the best of success.
The MMO Report: Big news edition
The MMO Report has some big news this week, and no, it's not about the fact that it's secretly carrying your baby. Nor is it even tied to all of the various big news that the show has this week, and there is quite a bit of that. Obviously, there's the new patch for Star Wars: The Old Republic, and there's also the first in-game footage of both World of Darkness and Defiance, but those aren't the big reveal in the news. So what is it? Well, while we'd normally promise that there's going to be a new episode next week from G4 and Massively, this week it's not quite so clear-cut. The show is going on a brief hiatus for reasons that we'll allow the show itself to explain. So hop on past the break for more MMO news, and tune in when the hiatus ends for another episode. You can keep checking back here forlornly, however. We won't hold it against you.
The Daily Grind: Are you currently on hiatus from MMOs?
Something fascinates me about many of the more vocal commenters on Massively. No matter what game is launching, re-launching, closing, expanding, or going free-to-play, someone usually has to make it known that he doesn't play MMOs at all anymore. The fact that he's still reading about MMOs on Massively is a compliment to us, but I'm always curious about what drove him away from actually playing. So if you're a former MMO player and you still like to keep up with the news, let us know why. What drove you away? What makes you still read about it? Are you holding out for the next big MMO, or is it something more? 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!
Divine Souls is taking a time out
It's not you; it's them. Specifically, it's the development team behind Divine Souls. The game has been out for only a little while, but the team is apparently unhappy with the reception thus far, not to mention the game's bugs and other instabilities. So without any major notice, the game has been essentially put on hiatus, going offline so that the team can put it back on the drawing board for more refinements and adjustments. While the game has already been taken down, there's no set timeframe for when it will come back online; the closure notice acknowledges that it may be some time before the bug fixes and refinements are complete. Players will receive a partial refund for any in-game currency purchase since the game's launch, with the amount refunded dependent on how close to the closure it was purchased. It's not an ending, just a pause, but it's still sad news for the game. [Thanks to Paul for the tip!]
The Daily Grind: How do you deal with extended downtimes?
Sometimes, games go down for maintenance, or your power goes out, or there's an internet hiccup. You have to deal with a bit of time out of the game, and it's no big deal. But other times, you have to deal with an extended hiatus from your game of choice due to massive natural disasters or other catastrophic circumstances. You might have bigger problems than just not logging in to Star Trek Online, but it doesn't change the fact that you're going to be out of circulation for a bit. If you've been messing around exclusively with low-level characters that have nothing time-related on their plates, naturally, you won't be affected. But if you're in the midst of endgame work in RIFT or long-term roleplaying in Lord of the Rings Online, being out for a long stretch of time can cause some issues. So how do you work around it? And equally importantly, how do you manage your time when you're taking an unwanted hiatus from one of your hobbies for a while? 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!
Breakfast Topic: Have you ever taken time off from WoW?
This Breakfast Topic has been brought to you by Seed, the AOL guest writer program that brings your words to WoW Insider's pages. Sometimes people need a break from Azeroth. There are various reasons for it -- real-life issues, lack of new content, boredom, another game you have to try -- but despite the reasons, most of the time people come back. Something about the world or the people in it draws players back to see what is new since the last time they logged in. Sometimes it almost seems that WoW has a pull that is hard to escape, and you find yourself launching the game and putting in your account and password without even realizing you are doing it. I have never taken a long break from WoW, and I have played since launch. I have taken a week or two off from time to time, but never any of these extended multiple month or year breaks from the game. Perhaps it is being a pretty serious raider that makes me log in nearly every day. Perhaps it is my penchant for being an achievement junkie or the fact I am an altaholic. But for some reason, I cannot seem to avoid the game for any major length of time. My latest break was right before Cataclysm launched, in which I caught up on some other great video games I missed -- but even then, I logged on to check mail and the AH and chat with some friends. And that is what I realized keeps me coming back: the people in my guild and on my friends list; it isn't the raids or the chance at shiny purples, even though I do enjoy that aspect. So have you taken time off from WoW? How long was your break? What brought you back?
Exploring Eberron: You can go home again
It's less common these days, but it used to be that many of the Massively staff's friends, family, and readers thought we had a great gig because we got paid to sit around and play games all day. Thankfully, that assumption comes around less and less nowadays -- most of the Massively staff finds very quickly that the job reduces our gaming time rather than allowing us free rein. So wait, what on earth does this have to do with Dungeons and Dragons Online? Well, my schedule has cramped my DDO time so severely lately that it could very well be called a hiatus. Recently, my husband had the day off work, so I assigned him full parenting duty, locked myself away, and logged into DDO for some uninterrupted playtime. OnedAwesome officers Aunwiira and Tebraen joined me, and Brian "Psychochild" Green jumped in partway through to join the fun too. I enjoyed some great playtime with some great company, and it started me thinking about the Massively DDO guild as well as the implications of rejoining an MMO after time away. Follow along after the jump for more!
NVIDIA halting chipset development after all
It's been about two months since NVIDIA called rumors that it was leaving the chipset business "groundless," so perhaps it's no big shock that PC Magazine is now reporting that the company is putting its nForce chipset line "on hiatus." On hiatus, that is, until the company gets a few sticky legal questions out of the way, including whether or not its four-year deal with Intel covers Core i7 processors. Thus we have the delicate line that NVIDIA walks with Intel: for the time being, the two companies need each other, but they don't have to like each other, and as the latter continues to pursue graphics integration with the CPU, manufacturers are going to be increasingly pushed towards all-Intel solutions. All this leads us to wonder if NVIDIA might decide chipsets in general are more trouble than they're worth, especially considering Intel's general attitude about them -- and whether ION might be the next on the block.Update: We've just received an email from NVIDIA's Ken Brown that sheds a little light on the matter. It reads, in part: "[B]ecause of Intel's improper claims to customers and the market that we aren't licensed to the new DMI bus and its unfair business tactics, it is effectively impossible for us to market chipsets for future CPUs. So, until we resolve this matter in court next year, we'll postpone further chipset investments for Intel DMI CPUs." Fair enough. Peep it for yourself after the break.
Lack of publisher puts Faith and a .45 in limbo
Unable to secure a publisher, the developer of Faith and a .45 has placed the game on hiatus, reports PS3 Attitude. Faith and a .45 stars protagonists Ruby and Luke -- Tobey Maguire's evil twin brother, from the looks of him -- who face off against an enemy force led by a ruthless oilman who's out for their blood. You know, the usual song and dance. When last we heard from developer Deadline Games -- which is currently developing two downloadable games based on the Watchmen graphic novel -- the studio showcased Faith at GDC'08 in hopes of luring in a publisher. Guess that didn't go so well.[via Evil Avatar and 1UP]
Forced fasting
One of the things that can really mess with your WoW gameplay is being forced to take a week or two off for various reasons. I doubt I'm alone in having less time to play in December, what with various holidays and family events near the end of the month, and it didn't help that recently our cable went out for several days, meaning I had a large chunk of time when I couldn't play at all. One of the things I noticed when I finally got back to playing was that taking several days off with no play at all means that I forgot what each of my characters was doing. This might in fact be exacerbated by my plethora of alts, but it still meant that I had to spend a day or two just figuring out what I had been doing before the cable went down. I'd actually gotten several characters new pieces of gear I hadn't equipped yet, and forgot it until I checked their bags.Oddly enough, it was less disruptive to my play back when I took several months off from the game before The Burning Crusade came out. Coming back to my characters after a two to three month break meant it really didn't matter what I had been doing but a week or two seemed jarring, possibly because I was mis-remembering what I had been doing or thought one character was keyed for a heroic when it was my shaman, little glitches like that. I'm curious to know if anyone else has problems getting back into the game after a small time off, and if the upcoming holidays will mean an enforced break for a lot of players. Even if you personally keep right on playing, it's hard to do a raid if everyone in your guild is heading to their family gatherings. Are you anticipating a longer than usual hiatus this month?
