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Pikmin 3 trailer tours new mission mode DLC levels
Nintendo issued a new trailer to show off the latest set of downloadable content for Pikmin 3, which launched this week. Announced during a Nintendo Direct livestream in November, the DLC offers players the opportunity to play as the protagonist of the first two games in the series, Captain Olimar, for one level. The three extra content packs amount to four battle and four treasure remixed stages for $1.99 each, as well as a mission mode map pack with eight brand new environments for $4.99. The downloadable levels include Clockwork Chasm, which has an abundance of gears and conveyor belts, as well as the holiday-themed Fortress of Festivity. Those that update Pikmin 3 will receive four of the mission mode stages for free.
EVE Evolved: Getting ready for Rubicon
EVE Online's Rubicon expansion goes live in just two days on Tuesday, November 19th, introducing four brand-new personal deployable structures and revamping PvP across the board with a seemingly innocuous warp acceleration fix. The expansion represents the first step in new Senior Producer Andie Nordgren's plan to bring true player-run deep-space colonisation to EVE Online. The new Mobile Depot that can be placed anywhere in space is possibly the most sandboxy feature since the introduction of player-owned starbases back in 2004. Players have been coming up with plans for the device since its first announcement, but I think we'll see its true potential revealed in the coming weeks and months. If you've been saving up your Sisters of EVE loyalty points to get your hands on the faction's new exploration ships, be prepared to buy and build the blueprints as soon as the server comes up. These will be the first pirate faction ship blueprints that are available in high-security space, and a recent devblog confirmed that players have been collecting Sisters of EVE loyalty points like crazy lately in anticipation of the expansion, but those who get the built ships to market first will make an absolute killing. For the rest of us, getting ready for the expansion means planning where to set up a Mobile Depot for some quick profit-making enterprise or building a few small PvP ships to put the new warp speed mechanics to the test. In this week's EVE Evolved, I look at some of the best places to set up a Mobile Depot, re-consider the lure of low-security space, and propose adapting your PvP fleets to take advantage of the warp acceleration changes.
EVE Evolved: Ghost Sites and PvE goals
PvE in most MMOs revolves around killing hordes of NPCs for currency, XP, tokens, or loot, and EVE Online is no exception. Players can hunt for rare pirate ships in nullsec asteroid belts, farm Sansha incursions for ISK and loyalty points, or team up against Sleeper ships in dangerous wormhole space, but most prefer the safe and steady income of mission-running. Missions are essentially repeatable quests that can be spawned on request, providing an endless stream of bad guys to blow up in the comfort of high-security space. Completing a mission will earn you some ISK and a few hundred or thousand loyalty points, but most of the ISK in mission-running comes from the bounties on the NPCs spawned in the mission sites. Similar deadspace sites with better loot are also distributed randomly throughout the galaxy and can be tracked down using scanner probes. But what would happen if the NPCs in these sites were a dangerous and unexpected interference that could get you killed, rather than space piñatas ready to explode in a shower of ISK? This is a question CCP plans to test with the Rubicon expansion's upcoming Ghost Sites feature, which promises to introduce a whole new form of high-risk, high-reward PvE. In this week's EVE Evolved, I look at EVE's upcoming ghost sites and explain why I think its goal-oriented approach to PvE should be adopted in other areas of the game.
Captain's Log: New-user tips on Star Trek Online's duty officer system
Let me first wish all of our readers in Canada a very happy Thanksgiving Day! This week I will continue my informal series for new Star Trek Online players with a brief primer on the game's duty officer system. More commonly referred to as DOffs, Star Trek Online's duty officers provide a player with an additional means to obtain XP, dilithium, and other rewards without his having to shoot a single thing. Many people have likened the DOff system to that of a trading card game, and to an extent they are right. The duty officers have also become a commodity that can be used in other ways outside of the assignment system itself. So join me past the jump as I delve into the very basics of the STO duty officer system.
The Nexus Telegraph: Still looking forward to WildStar
One of the analogies I keep coming back to is that choosing an MMO is a lot like being in a long-term relationship. That's also true of sticking with one for the long term. Some weeks, your MMO of choice just seems to do everything wrong, and sometimes you go through a period of time when you're just not sure if the relationship works any longer. WildStar and I are in a bit of a long-distance relationship at the moment, what with me steadfastly existing in the present and her not technically having launched just yet. And sometimes she finds ways to make me upset, with clueless design or business decisions that leave me wondering what in the hell went on in the background. But then there are things that get me excited, things that remind me of why I've been waiting for this game for a while. So let's talk about some of the stuff that still gets me excited.
EVE Evolved: Everything we know about Rubicon
Back in April, EVE Online Senior Producer Andie Nordgren delivered an incredible long-term vision for the game's future that included deep space colonisation, player-built stargates, and players controlling practically everything that's currently run by NPC empires. This vision sets the tone and direction for development over the next ten expansions, each of which will introduce a small component of the overall goal. In a live interview session earlier this week, CCP revealed the first steps it will take toward space colonisation in its upcoming winter expansion. Named Rubicon, the expansion will be in players' hands on November 19th and promises to give individuals and small groups unprecedented control over the sandbox. It will let players fight over planetary customs offices in high security space, significantly buff the ability of small ships to participate in hit-and-run style warfare, and even introduce a new set of personal deployable structures that can be hidden anywhere in space. All this comes alongside two new Sisters of EVE ships, twitch livestream integration, and significant balance changes to Marauders, Interceptors, Interdictors, and Electronic Attack Frigates. In this week's EVE Evolved, I run down all of the new features and changes announced so far for EVE Online's Rubicon expansion.
Chaos Theory: Three ideas to improve TSW's replayability
In my opinion, a lot rests upon The Secret World Issue #8's shoulders. While the past few issues have offered up top-notch story arcs, I gobbled them up quick and then looked sadly at an empty plate while wishing for seconds. It's the blessing and curse of quality content that takes a lot of time to make and far, far less time to play through. So our eyes are on the promise of Issue #8's scenario system and the possibilities that it might bring. MJ did a great job of touching on the potential there, but I'd like to add that the game sorely needs a system like this because there are only so many times you can run the same missions and dungeons before getting really restless. It doesn't have to be just up to scenarios to cure the replayability blues, however. Off the top of my head, I can think of three ways that the devs (given appropriate time and resources, of course) could add more layers of fun and activity into the current framework of The Secret World.
Champions Online previews upcoming Carrier Wave mission
Champions Online's heroes were instrumental in stopping an attempted hacking, but they're needed again once the source of the hacking attempt is discovered. The second mission in the game's current Fatal Error arc will be available on Thursday, and it sends players straight to the source: Cyberlord's carrier in Canada. Players are tasked with getting on the ship and stopping Cyberlord before he tries again, since that's much easier than just stopping his hacking attempts every single time for another few years. Needless to say, the mission will involve bashing through robots on the decks down to the core of the ship, with new perks and titles available for anyone who defeats enough robots. Players can also earn new Cybernetic Boots for taking part in the operation to prevent another hack attack. For more information on in-game action figures obtainable through this mission, take a look at the official preview, and be sure to finish the first part of the arc before the second comes out tomorrow.
PlanetSide 2 is letting players make the missions
The world of PlanetSide 2 is a battlefield, one that is constantly evolving and changing. Sometimes you need a commander who can come up with some off-the-wall strategies, a desperate flank, an ambush for a pursuing force, something like that. So the developers at Sony Online Entertainment are giving players a tool to make that happen via player generated missions. Anyone with the required command certifications can start creating missions at the relevant location visible to the entire faction. The missions are meant to be short-term bursts of activity, with major experience bonuses for a limited series of objectives. So someone on the ground might put out a call for an air strike, offering big bonuses to flyers who divert and take out hardened ground targets. It's a fascinating idea that can offer mechanical bonuses for improved leadership and placement, something that players will have more reason to practice once the system gets rolled out later this summer.
The Daily Grind: What quest has frustrated you more than any other?
I have a relatively acrimonious relationship with most of The Secret World's investigation missions for reasons too ornate to detail here. Hell and Bach, however, deserves special mention. It's not that it's one of the game's worse examples, but that the actual mechanics behind clearing the mission are very finnicky. You have to click a series of symbols in just the right way to spell out a phrase, but the symbols are close together, it's easy to miss a click, and to top it off it won't work if you have the reference guide open as you do so. For all-time frustration, that mission ramped up pretty highly, although I enjoyed it once I cleared it. But it's not about what frustrates me, it's about what frustrates you. So what quest has frustrated you more than any other? Was it unclear in its objectives, or were its clearly stated objectives just dizzyingly hard to actually accomplish? Or was it something even more mundane, like a Final Fantasy XI quest that irritated you because you could never find the other people to do it with? 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!
Mac Game of the Week: Galaxy on Fire 2 HD brings iOS' best space adventure to the Mac
While some developers have recently gone towards a philosophy of making a bunch of smaller releases and dropping them on the App Store quickly, German developer Fishlabs has done the opposite. It's focused on one huge game, Galaxy on Fire 2, and spent the last year expanding and perfecting it. The app is on iOS, and it's just a brilliant game for the iPad, if you haven't seen it yet. Galaxy on Fire 2 HD is also available on the Mac, and Fishlabs' hard work is evident from the beginning. As you can see above, the graphics are phenomenal. What you'll get is open-world space exploration, combat and trading game, with a huge galaxy to explore, a large story to play through, and plenty of things to do, from full combat missions to simply flying around the galaxy and trading or exploring. This game's been polished and re-polished and then some. As an original title on the Mac App Store, it doesn't get much better than this. The one issue I have is in the voice acting. Some of it can be a little wooden, and because the developer is European, the accents are a little strange. But that's just a small caveat. If you haven't played this one yet, and especially if you have a big bright MacBook or a new iMac to play it on, definitely pick up Galaxy on Fire 2 HD. It's on the Mac App Store for $9.99.
The Repopulation goes in-depth on PvE mechanics
If you're a sandbox fan and The Repopulation has been pinging your radar, you'll be pleased to hear that the dev team at Above and Beyond Technologies has penned a lengthy articles detailing the features of the game's PvE mechanics. Previously, we've seen similar news for the game's housing, grouping, trade skills, engagements, and more. As a true sandbox, The Repopulation allows you to have several options. Missions are explained as similar to traditional MMO quests, but they're not necessary to the game. In fact, these missions are tailor-made for your character based on your skill level, faction, previously completed missions, personality traits, and more. The article also gives us extensive details on engagements, generated epic missions, rewards, exploration, branching dialogue options, and way more than you'd expect to hear on a game this early in development. Check out the full novel article for more information.
EVE Evolved: Four ways Guild Wars 2 is like EVE Online
With its single-shard server structure and sandbox ruleset, EVE Online seems to have little in common with a sharded fantasy themepark like Guild Wars 2. But dig a little deeper past GW2's fluffy exterior and you'll find it shares some core game mechanics and ideas with the world's biggest PvP sandbox. GW2's Trading Post bears a striking resemblance to EVE's Jita 4-4 market, and many of the same market tricks that work in New Eden have proven just as effective in the land of Tyria. EVE's PLEX system lets people buy game time for in-game ISK and undercuts illicit RMT by giving players a legitimate way to buy ISK, a system that's very closely mirrored in GW2's gem trade. GW2's Karma system resembles a heavily restricted version of EVE's loyalty point mechanic, and PvP in both games may be more similar than it appears. The same strategies that work for faction warfare fleets in the depths of space are currently helping guilds win World vs. World vs. World PvP. In this week's EVE Evolved, I look at four Guild Wars 2 game mechanics that are similar to those in EVE Online and how lessons from EVE can be applied to GW2.
EVE Evolved: Making your first billion ISK
A lot of the people I introduce to EVE Online ask about the possibility of playing for free by buying game time codes with in-game ISK. It's a legitimate way to turn EVE into a free-to-play game, but the rising price tag of a 30-day PLEX can make it seem as if only veteran players can afford to do it. New players typically scrape together just a few million ISK by the end of their free trial periods, making the 500 million per month required to pay via PLEX seem like a tall order. With the right guidance, a new player can actually pull in over a billion ISK in his first month or two of play and quickly become able to afford a PLEX each month. Farming missions requires a bit of time investment but can pull in 20-30 million ISK per hour once you're set up, and exploration and salvaging can lead to some unexpected big hauls. There are also plenty of newbie-friendly corps that run group activities, and those who aren't interested in grinding to their first billion ISK might try their hands at trading or turn to a life of crime. It's all possible in the sandbox. In this week's EVE Evolved, I give some practical tips on making your first billion ISK, from scraping together the seed capital to buy your first big ship to reliable farming methods and some more underhanded methods.
The Soapbox: The quest to save quests
Disclaimer: The Soapbox column is entirely the opinion of this week's writer and does not necessarily reflect the views of Massively as a whole. If you're afraid of opinions other than your own, you might want to skip this column. Semantic shift is a phrase I've recently acquired for whenever I want to sound insufferable at parties. It refers to the phenomenon of a word's usage changing over time, sometimes to the point that it's completely the opposite of whatever it originally meant. I believe that the word "quest" has undergone a semantic shift in the MMO community (and video games at large). What once had roots in the long, difficult journeys that take place in life and fiction has quickly become reduced to a trivial task of gathering, killing, or clicking in-game. The sheer volume of such quests and that meaninglessness of their charges has reduced the word to bargain basement kitsch. If we're supposed to be heroes, why then are so many of the quests we're given are no more exciting than going to the grocery store? "Quest" as a word has lost much respect in the community, almost completing its semantic shift such that it's almost pejorative. Yet there is a movement right now to reclaim the word and restore it to its proper meaning, and it's happening right in front of our eyes.
A Mild-Mannered Reporter: Underused enemies in City of Heroes
Last week I discussed why I'm not fond of Nemesis as a group, and this week I promised to discuss villainous groups that I think that City of Heroes could use a bit more actively. So I am certain that longtime readers expected me to spend most of this week talking about the Fifth Column because of course I would. I love the Fifth Column, I think they're a fantastic group of villains, and I've talked about how great they are as a group over and over. Surprise! Not this time. For all that I love the Column (and their continual curbstomping of their pale imitation in the Council), that wasn't my goal this week. No, this time around I want to highlight other groups that I think Paragon City could use a bit more often, enemies that either fall off the radar or just don't get as much attention as they're due. Even in a game that's been around as long as City of Heroes, there are certain enemy groups that just never get the love they deserve. Maybe the future can fix that for some of these guys.
Ubisoft shows off four-player co-op in Far Cry 3
Ubisoft took the stage at the Sony press conference this afternoon to show off a new feature of Far Cry 3: Four-player co-op. Rather than take place in the game's singleplayer world, the co-op feature is an additional mode, offering a mission-based campaign, where players have to team up to accomplish certain objective-based tasks.Ubisoft also showed off a map editor for the game, and mentioned that Far Cry 3 would also have extra content exclusively on Sony's console. The game is due out later on this year.
Choose My Adventure: Cruisin' with the gang in City of Heroes
You've experienced it, right? That magic moment on any trip of significant length when you've been living and breathing the locale long enough that the place starts to feel more familiar and you settle in, that time when you feel less like a tourist and more like a local. After the last few weeks traveling with you all, I have hit that moment in City of Heroes. While I still may not be able to tell one inspiration from another by sight, I can find my way around the 'hood and know the skyline when zipping about -- well, at least in Atlas Park. Oh, and I found a Mexican restaurant! It's almost like a second home now. It was upon reaching this comfort zone that City of Heroes got better for me; this past week has been more fun than the previous ones during this Choose My Adventure road trip. (And yes, I'd even call the torture of the expansive character creation fun. Exhausting, but fun!) What transpired this week? Buckle up and step on the gas to see.%Gallery-155409%
EVE Evolved: Risk vs. reward in lowsec
In EVE Online's early years, one of its core design philosophies was adherence to a strict risk vs. reward balance scheme. There were riches out there to be found, but to get them, you had to put yourself in the firing line. Police ships patrolled high-security space to keep players safe from piracy, but the only resources available there were low-bounty frigate NPCs and inexpensive ores like Veldspar, Scordite and Omber. In the lawless far-reaches of nullsec, huge NPC bounties and rare ores containing Megacyte and Zydrine tempted hundreds of pilots to head out and make their fortunes. Nullsec offered absolutely no protection against player attacks, and the only safety to be found was in sheer military force. The biggest and best corporations hoarded these gold mines for themselves, locking down the few entrances into the regions and patrolling the skies for unwanted visitors. Low-security space offered a middle-ground between these two extremes, a place where the everyday pilot could enjoy increased income and pirates were easier to spot. At some time in the past nine years, lowsec lost its place in the game and became simply not worth the effort. But how did that happen, and what can be done to fix it? In this week's EVE Evolved, I look at why lowsec systems are now ghost towns and suggest an alternative design philosophy that I think could revitalise these under-used areas.
Spiral Knights update introduces new mission types and more
It's been a little while since we heard from Three Rings' free-to-play dungeon-crawling title, Spiral Knights, but today we have some new information regarding the game's latest patch, and it brings a whole new degree of structure to the title in the form of new mission types. The team is adding four different types of missions in order to give players a solid path of progression as well as a quick fix for players who don't have a ton of time on their hands. The first of the four mission types is known as a rank mission. Rank missions comprise the main campaign of Spiral Knights and will allow players to climb the ranks of the organization. Each rank mission will grant players pre-set awards in addition to any loot found on the mission itself. Prestige missions, the second type of mission, are daily tasks that will reward players with prestige. Players with high prestige scores will receive an unspecified bonus sometime in the future. The third mission type, expansion missions, operate similarly to rank missions in that they "feature set rewards," but the missions must first be "unlocked with purchase," though as of now we don't know whether that means a microtransaction or an in-game-currency purchase. Lastly, we have arcade missions, which are the same arcade missions that players know and love, except now they can be joined directly from the mission interface instead of making you run to the arcade itself. For the full details on all the new mission types and features being added in the new patch, just head on over to the Spiral Knights forums and take a look.
