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The Daily Grind: What was the juiciest reveal at Gamescom?
Every summer, the Massively staff spends time lurching from con to con in a drunken haze of MMO reveals. And every summer, we mull over those reveals, mentally ranking each one for quality, practicality, guts, and comic-relief. Gamescom has provided another such opportunity. WildStar? 2007 called; it wants Tabula Rasa back. The Secret World in April? Ambitious. Otherland? About time. Huttball? Wait. Really? Huttball? Then again, we'll play just about anything. So you tell us: What would you deem the best reveal of Gamescom? 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!
Gamescom 2011: gamigo reveals Otherland trailer
Prior to this week's Gamescom, blurbs about the Otherland MMO popped up once a year or so, if that. Now we're bringing you the second bit of news in as many days, courtesy of the trailer announcement that follows hot on the heels of yesterday's developer interview at IGN. The video clip showed up on publisher gamigo's YouTube portal this afternoon with a curious action MMORPG label in tow. We say curious here because "action" isn't the first word that springs to mind when discussing Tad Williams' Otherland novels, nor is there a lot of action in the four-minute trailer. There is a lot of eye candy and appropriately bizarre cyberpunk trappings, though, and all of it is presented through the glossy stylings of the Unreal 3 engine. The free-to-play title is scheduled to release sometime next year, and you can get a glimpse of what awaits you in the teaser after the cut.
New interview highlights the development of Otherland
Otherland was an ambitious project that had fallen off the radar for quite some time, but it looks like the project is back on track. Based on the novel series of the same name, the game is set to place players in the eponymous multi-world simulation, a surreal network of virtual worlds filled with inhabitants that believe themselves to be people. Players will not only interact with the otherworldly environments, they'll be tasked with trying to uncover the powers attempting to manipulate the simulation behind the scenes. A new interview sheds some light on what developer RealU is hoping to achieve within the universe. As fits the setting of the book, Otherland is a game with a great deal of player customization, ranging from customizing the appearance of a player's individual simuloid to customizing one's own space on the virtual web. Fans of the books will also be happy to learn that the game continues the storyline of its predecessors, with the offspring of the Grail Brotherhood working behind the scenes to regain control of the unearthly fantasy worlds. The game is currently aimed for a 2012 release, but it looks as if the foundations are being laid solid to start.
Five MMOs that have gone MIA
Unlike Chuck Norris, who seems to hang on as an MMO meme with insane tenacity (perhaps it's that extra fist under his beard), there are a handful of MMOs that appear to have dropped off the radar in the last several months -- if not years. Admittedly, this was originally to be a top 10 list of missing MMOs, but in the last half of this year, several developers have seen fit to thwart our plans by actually releasing information about their games. Shock! Horror! Nevertheless, I've armed myself with an enormous cup of coffee and plundered the archives of Massively and general press releases for MMOGs that seem to have dropped off the radar. Are they still under development? Will we see some movement on them in 2011? Will it take a Chuck Norris-level feat-of-strength and all-around badassery to pull them back from the developmental abyss they appear to be in? Join me behind the break as I run down some of the MMOs we're still waiting for word on.
The Daily Grind: Which sci-fi MMOs are you looking forward to?
Star Wars: The Old Republic, Earthrise, Fallen Earth, Star Trek Online, Jumpgate Evolution, Global Agenda, Black Prophecy, the Fallout MMO (maybe), Blackstar, Otherland, StarGate Worlds, and even more. It seems that if you're a hardcore sci-fi fan, now is a really good time to be an MMO player with all the options coming soon in terms of upcoming MMOs. You've got everything from the blended fantasy/sci-fi to favorite movie and gaming IPs to all-new concepts to dig into and enjoy. Of course, with such a large influx coming, this morning we thought we'd ask you what some of your most anticipated sci-fi MMOs are? Which ones are you trying like mad to get into the betas for? Which ones are just kind of "meh" on your radar? If you've got more than one, which one do you think might reign supreme among your choices?
Cyberpunk MMO Otherland launches game preview site
It was only a few months ago when we first got word of a new cyberpunk/VR-themed MMO in development. Otherland is based on the the sci-fi novels of Tad Williams, which deal heavily with the interplay of the virtual and the real. Otherland is being built on the Unreal 3 engine by Singapore-based development studio Real U, a wholly-owned subsidiary of dtp entertainment AG in Germany.The Otherland information page states the game will release in 2011 for PC, and it could potentially offer some interesting dimensions to MMO gameplay. The site states: "MMO fans can expect a fascinating gameplay experience. Based on the globally successful novels, the Otherland gameplay is distinguished by a unique narrative structure. Rather than retelling the story, players will experience their own individual stories within the Otherland universe and will encounter many of the familiar characters from the books. The game world will change dynamically around them during the course of the game."
Cyberpunk MMO based on Tad Williams' Otherland announced
The German games publisher dtp Entertainment has made the surprising announcement that they'll be transforming sci-fi author Tad Williams' Otherland into a massively multiplayer online game. The title will be a mixture of several different playspaces, riffing on the series concept of competing virtual realities. One area in particular will be geared towards casual gaming and social interaction, a hub area to be called the Lambda Mall. Eurogamer has the story, along with a three-page discussion of dtp's plans and goals for this innovative title. As you can see from the site's screenshot gallery, plans for the game include several different art styles to exist side by side. At its core the game will make use of an 80s/90s "virtual reality" theme, bringing to mind the Metaverse of Stephenson's Snow Crash or the old-style Matrix of the Shadowrun RPG. dtp plans to make use of the Unreal 3 engine for the project, ensuring that the impressive screenshots are likely to be even more eyebrow-raising in action. The game is currently slated for release to the PC in 2010.
