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The Daily Grind: What's more important: content or polish?
In a recent post, blogger Cuppycake asked a very prescient question that we thought we would relate to you. What's more important to the long-term success of an MMO title: the quantity of content at launch or a high-level of polish? The way development works these days, developers are often hard-pressed to finish a game on a deadline, and at some point they have to make the decision whether to keep implementing new features, zones, and graphical assets, or go back and refine the content they have to make sure it's perfect. Games like Everquest 2 exemplify that first path - pushing out huge quantities of content from the beginning, but turning off many with their initially slow refinement process. LotRO on the other hand is highly polished, but has to undergo frequent content updates to keep players interested.With Age of Conan right around the corner, would you choose that it be refined but small or huge and a little buggy?
New agreement locks in Polish version of AoC
No, not a polished version, although we hope for that too. Poland will be getting a fully localized version of Age of Conan under a new agreement with developer and distributor CD Projekt. The game's text and voice, website, in-game support and communities will be looked after by CD Projekt, with Funcom still overseeing the other parts of the game. Funcom's baby will be in safe hands with CD Projekt, as they have localized countless hit games over the last decade or so, and are also the developer behind the recent critically acclaimed PC RPG The Witcher. The Polish AoC is expected to be released in the second half of this year.
FusionFall release date slips to Fall
We came really close to calling this post 'FusionFall (fusion)falls down to (fusion)Fall', but were talked out of it. At any rate, the Hollywood Reporter, writing about the upcoming MMO FusionFall, mentions that the release date has slipped (once again) from Summer of this year to Fall.Executive Producer Chris Waldron has said "Let's just say that MMOs are very deep, very large games that are ready when they are ready. They take a lot of testing, a lot of polish, and that's what we're going through." It's the best of reasons to slip a release date, but without more clarity on what precisely they're working on polishing, these sorts of announcements just tend to lead to insecurity among the faithful. After all, if it's slipped once, it can slip twice. If it's slipped twice, as it just has, it could slip again. Let's hope for more information to be revealed soon.
Poland's Cyfra+ to pick up Eurosport HD
We already knew that Eurosport HD would be making the rounds in various parts of Europe, but now we've got confirmation that the forthcoming high-def version will also be carried in Poland. Cyfra+ (a Polish digital satellite platform) will begin offering the channel as soon as it goes live on May 25th. The network will join Canal+ Film HD, Canal+ Sport HD and National Geographic HD as the only HD stations available on said carrier, though Eurosport HD will purportedly cost around €1.44 ($2.24) per month to enjoy.[Via Broadband TV News]
Tourist nearly tumbles down Niagara Falls to retrieve mysterious cellphone
We've heard of filing larceny charges in an attempt to retrieve a highly desired cellphone, but risking your life at Niagara Falls? Apparently, a Polish tourist studying English in Lancaster, Pennsylvania wasn't exactly fazed by the treacherous surroundings at Terrapin Point, as he slid to within 50 feet of the falls before finally stopping. Whilst frolicking about on the obviously icy terrain, 29-year old Waldek Kubicki slipped about 200 feet down a rock after "trying to pick up his cellphone," and remained stranded for around 45 minutes until rescuers came and roped him up. Of course, the mystery here is simple: which (potentially unavailable in the US) phone do you think was worth nearly plummeting into an abyss for?
Poland first to get MGM Channel in HD
While we're overjoyed to hear that some of our own are receiving additional HD programming out of the blue, we can't help but extend our congratulations to Poland on locking down yet another HD offering. The country's private television broadcaster, ITI Group, it teaming up with MGM Studios to launch an HD version of the MGM Movie Channel on the nation's "N" direct-to-home satellite television platform. Furthermore, this is MGM's first dedicated channel to be delivered in high definition, and will reportedly cover a smorgasbord of genres and eras while including films like "Raging Bull, Midnight Cowboy, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Coming Home, Network and The Manchurian Candidate." Additionally, Poland's leading commercial television network (TVN) , as well as "third party cable operators" will be able to offer the new channel to those without "N." If all goes as planned, the folks in Poland can be enjoying their very own HD movie channel by the year's end.[Thanks, Arsenal]
Samsung BD-P1000 Blu-ray player hands-on, cracked open, pored over
While it may be delayed (only in Europe, Blu-ray fans don't jump off the ledge just yet!), a few guys at Greek home theater site AVSite.gr got a demo of Samsung's BD-P1000 Blu-ray player and said it looked beautiful. Actually we're not totally sure what they said because we can't read any of it but the pictures look great. A few guys from the site came over and posted a few details on AVS Forum. During their demo they weren't able to switch into 1080p mode to get a look at that, but in 1080i connected to a high-end projector everything looked great. They didn't note any playback glitches and said the discs did not seem to take a long time to load.That's all well and good but HDTVPolska did them one better and cracked the unit open for a look at its insides. That's what we like, pre-early HDTV adopters who take risks.
Call of Duty 3 announced; leak confirmed [update 1]
Call of Duty 3's just been confirmed, and it looks like we were right on the money with our early leak of the WWII-related game.Back in early March, we printed the following information (and a whole lot more) on the focus of an upcoming sequel: "'CoD 3' ... is being produced by Big Red One dev Treyarch. ... The next Call of Duty World War II-based title will return gamers to the battlefields of Normandy as the Allies take on Nazi Germany to drive them out of France once and for all. This time around, American and British forces are joined by Canadian troops, Polish tanks, and French freedom fighters in a reenactment of the bloody Normandy Breakout campaign spearheaded during the summer of 1944. In the push to Paris, you'll get to choose how you approach each mission, free of menu screens and jarring non-interactive cut-scenes."Here's what IGN quoted from Activision for the announcement yesterday: "Through the eyes of four Allied soldiers, Call of Duty 3 brings players closer to the fury of combat as they fight through the Normandy Breakout, the harrowing offensive that liberated Paris and changed the fate of the world. Developed by Treyarch, Call of Duty 3 is the follow up to the #1 next-generation game and is scheduled for a 2006 release." Fingering the developer and the setting? Not too shabby -- while Joystiq pats itself on the back.Check out the IGN trailer below for a first-person look somewhat reminiscent of the FPS sequence in the Metal Gear Solid 4 trailer from TGS. At the end of the "official E3 teaser" trailer, a number of platforms are listed, with the major manufacturers (including a small "Nintendo Revolution" in text) and publisher/developer combo listed. We suspect that versions for the PC and possibly the current-gen consoles will be covered with ports as well. Now all we have to do is wait for the word on Call of Duty: Modern Warfare. (Infinity Ward, we're looking at you!) More info obviously hitting at E3.[Thanks, icemorebutts, jason, & Hiro Protagonist][Update 1: Had to fix a verb. Thanks, Hiro Protagonist, John Q, & Jiiiiihad!]See also: Official E3 teaser trailer for Call of Duty 3 Next Call of Duty leaked: Modern Warfare tackles terrorists Rumor: Call of Duty joining the Revolution Kojima interacts in real-time with MGS4 trailer at TGS
The most scratched up iPod wins!
Who says scratches on your iPod are a bad thing? This week at MWSF, the folks at Applesauch Polish (I just love that name) are looking for the iPod that has been scratched and abused even worse than their demo model. That lucky (if "lucky" is the right word) person will receive a much needed scratch removal kit. I think that "Good luck" is probably better to say than "We hope your iPod is a total mess," so we'll just say, "Good luck."[Via Macworld]
