risk
Latest
Want to control the Flood? Play Risk: Halo Wars
Last week, the folks at USAopoly revealed that they had nabbed the Halo license and planned to release a special, themed edition of the board game Risk, soon after the retail release of Halo Wars. Set to hit the street in July, Risk: Halo Wars features three playable factions (UNSC, Covenant and that pesky Flood), 42 territories with six sectors and 250 plastic playing pieces that represent each of the three factions. The themed set has a MSRP of $39.99. It may not be the new Halo announcement many were hoping for, but a Halo-themed Risk set has, "Yes, please," written all over it.[Update: Image gallery now includes a snap of the game board and pieces.]%Gallery-43278%
Anti-Aliased: The Darkfall prophecies
var digg_url = 'http://digg.com/pc_games/Anti_Aliased_The_Darkfall_prophecies'; Darkfall. Everyone talks about it. Our mailboxes get flooded with requests about it. Comments regarding the game are both frothingly energetic and intensely angry. Just writing a piece about it can get a writer wacked.So, let me paint a giant target on my back, cover myself in delicious meat, and walk right into the lion's den of MMOs. This column is dedicated to Darkfall's gameplay mechanics; presenting an analysis of what we know so far from released beta tester announcements and gameplay footage. This is, by no means, a comprehensive analysis of everything Darkfall has to offer. This is just one man's opinion column at work, looking at the ups and downs of what Darkfall might bring to the table.I'm doing all of this to answer one eerily simple yet dastardly complex question: Can Darkfall live up to the hype around it?
Anti-Aliased: The Darkfall prophecies pt. 2
The double-edged sword to this is that the player is going to require a time investment. It's going to take more than stats and big numbers to win battles in these parts, and those things take time to learn. Knowing the environments, knowing how to gauge enemies, and knowing where to go in case of emergency are going to be things that are learned through use and not by giant pointing arrows or help boxes.But, when you do learn them, you'll probably find that you'll enjoy this game more than other games on the market. Once again, talk to any EVE player who's ever killed another player or destroyed a player-owned station, or done anything of note. They'll talk excitedly and smile the entire time they tell you the story.Epic is more than just purple text, it's a philosophyThe number one reason to get your hands on Darkfall seems to be the environment itself. Exploration is finally a viable option, as exploring can lead you to some amazing discoveries and treasures. Cities seem to be well designed and crafted from the limited view we've been presented with. And, of course, some of the scenes are amazingly gorgeous and worthy of a fantasy novel.All of this is heightened by the tension that an ambush can happen at any moment. Things could go from blissfully calm to deadly in a heartbeat. Player action is the root of the game, and not an incidental item left outside of the menu. The design is set up so that players drive what the game has to offer, a page taken directly from EVE Online's book of plays.Games should stop telling their players that things are epic, and instead make players feel like things are epic. Darkfall seems to understand this, and incorporates it into as many aspects of their design as possible.So, what's the final word?Even with all of these good things in store, even with the looks we have of the game, I'm going to be bluntly honest. Darkfall's hype is bigger than it's bite. We're not looking at the savior of MMOs or anything like that. Players are going to walk away feeling disappointed not because Darkfall is a bad game, but because they may not understand what they're getting into.Darkfall will be a good, solid game that will follow up on amazing concepts, but those concepts are not made for the general population of players. Let me stress that this is not a bad thing. Darkfall will certainly have a home amongst the well made games of our time. But players who are buying into the hype and not researching what they're getting into may find that this may not be the game for them.Players with backgrounds in Lineage II, EVE Online, and Ultima Online will find things to love here. But players with more modern MMO experience, like World of Warcraft or Lord of the Rings Online, may find that the game world is too harsh and unforgiving.But if you can get through that harshness and stick it out, you're going to find experiences in this game that you will be completely unable to find in other games. You will walk away from Darkfall with tales to tell your friends, I guarantee it. Colin Brennan is the weekly writer of Anti-Aliased who is interested, yet cautious, about Darkfall Online. When he's not writing here for Massively, he's over running Epic Loot For All! with his insane friends. If you want to message him, send him an e-mail at colin.brennan AT weblogsinc DOT com.
WoW Insider interview: You Play or We Pay founders
George Tung and Milos Golubovic have known each other for years, and been Blizzard fans for a long time as well. Around the launch of the Burning Crusade, like many WoW players, they were having issues with queues and server outages. They'd come home at night after work and want to play, but either be locked out of the realm with a queue or not be able to sign on at all. And now, they're aiming to help other players in the same situation, by offering a controversial service on their new site YouPlayorWePay.com.When we posted about the site earlier this week, a lot of readers cried foul. The site's business plan (players pay a fee every month, and then are compensated back money (sometimes more, sometimes less than they originally paid) when their realm is full or suffers downtime. Lots of our commenters called the site a scam (a few of them even suggested, incorrectly, that it was a phishing site), and they all wanted to know more: how could these guys get away with asking for a fee and taking people's money on the promise that they might get some back?And so, when Tung and Golubovic contacted us at WoW Insider, we were anxious to put those questions to them directly. Were they able to justify the service they're providing (and maybe show Blizzard just how compensation should be done), or are they just trying to take advantage of people already losing gameplay to downtime? You can be the judge -- our exclusive interview is right after the break.
Blizzard adds advertising to the official forums
Blizzard has added two advertising bars to their official forum pages, one on the top and one banner along the side. And it's got players concerned -- there's a large forum thread growing even bigger by the minute right now. The main complaints seem to revolve around a few issues: the design breaks the forum layout for some users, the ads are possibly a security risk (they aren't hosted by Blizzard -- more on that in a second), and of course the issue that we're paying every month to be able to look at ads on the forums.
XBLA Quarrel mixes Risk, Scrabble and Countdown
Sometime soon, developer Denki has plans to release a new Xbox Live Arcade game called Quarrel. A game that's a blended mix of Risk, Scrabble and the UK game show Countdown. To play, players try to capture and hold various territories (Risk) by competing in rounds of Countdown by spelling various words of different point values (Scrabble). Players will also have to strategically place "quarrelers" pieces on each territory, which will ultimately affect the territory's point value. Sound complicated? Sound fun? Sound Riskascrabblecountdown'riffic? Make the jump to read Square-Go's early Quarrel impressions.[Via Joystiq]
XBLA's Quarrel will Countdown to a Risky Scrabble
Denki, the Dundee-based developer behind the well-received GBA puzzler Denki Blocks, might just be the Girl Talk of board game mash-ups. Their upcoming Xbox Live Arcade title, Quarrel, is an amalgam of three "off-the-grid" titles: Risk, Scrabble and Countdown (a popular UK game show). The game, which is Denki's first title in seven years, is reportedly about a year away -- but gaming news site Square-Go got their hands on an early build of Quarrel in order to see just how these three great tastes taste together. The main objective of the game is to gain control of territories (in Risk-esque fashion). Skirmishes between players are hashed out in a round of Countdown, where players make words out of tiles, which are assigned different point values (ala Scrabble). Further strategy includes managing the number of "quarrelers" you have stationed at a particular territory -- more quarrelers means more tiles with which to form longer, point-garnering words. A game where vocabulary, not physical prowess, dictates strength? It's a pulchritudinous dream come true![Via GamerBytes]
Mark Jacobs on changes to WAR's open RvR
Mythic Entertainment's Mark Jacobs posted a Warhammer Online dev blog today, titled "Open RvR Update" which maps out the future of open realm-vs-realm in the game. Jacobs writes that the coming months will bring some changes and additions to WAR: An RvR Influence system. "This system is designed to reward our oRvR players with lots of new stuff that you can only get through oRvR," he says. Increased visibility of open RvR, made possible through numerous improvements such as improved maps and travel systems, second bind points, a campaign HUD, and tier-wide messaging about the status of battlefield objectives and keeps. Greater incentives for oRvR participation, namely through keep quests, 'Daily Event Quests,' and chained RvR missions. Better rewards for guilds that take and control keeps, and a system of keep upgrades. Allowing characters to gain oRvR "Fame", linked to the Tome of Knowledge and thus rewards, titles, and experience that come with oRvR success. Jacobs cautions though, "Please keep in mind that these changes/systems apply to oRvR only and not to scenarios. This is not all we are working on but these do reflect the majority of oRvR additions that we are currently working on/planning for the next few months." Jacobs hopes that open RvR enhancements will inject more risk and challenge into this aspect of the game, and ultimately more rewards. Check out his dev blog where he outlines the changes to open RvR and let us know, do you think Mythic is headed in the right direction with this system revamp? Did you enjoy this? Make sure to check out our Warhammer guides: Massively's Character Creation Guide and our WoW Player's Guide to Warhammer. Plus, don't miss any of our ongoing coverage as Massively goes to WAR!
What draws players to EVE while keeping others away?
EVE Online is the type of game that doesn't have the broad appeal of fantasy that titles like World of Warcraft. Certainly, it attracts a number of players who are looking for an edgier game experience where actions have consequences. For some, the consequences can be steep, causing those gamers to shy away from EVE. Being wary of your fellow pilots is always a good idea, but it's not all piracy and suicide ganks. The game offers freedom to do what you want in the sandbox, but most EVE pilots stay on the right side of the law. Sam Guss is a writer at EVE-Mag.com, an up and coming site that focuses on EVE Online, who wrote a piece that caught our eye at Massively. His article is titled "Is EVE for You?" and looks at what the attraction to the game is for him, and speculates about the wider appeal of EVE to other dedicated players. If you're an EVE fan, what is it that sets the game apart from other MMOs? And for those that don't play EVE Online, what aspects of the game keep you away?
EVE Online player establishes new profession
Players in EVE Online pursue a wide variety of professions or careers, but are not locked into any given role at character creation. This flexibility allows a character to change their play style over time, or to capitalize on niches no one else has filled. This is the case with Dylon Xavier, an enterprising Caldari pilot with Ascendant Strategies, Inc.ISD Magnus Balteus reports that Xavier "has decided to try something different; create a product that is both time and resource consuming to build, and offer it for auction to the alliance that has the funds and space to deploy it." The niche item in this case is an Outpost Platform. When launched, it will create a space station for an alliance that can handle the minimum 20 billion isk bid on his auctions. This substantial pricetag includes a freighter for transporting the Outpost Platform and materials, and turns what is normally a time-consuming collective effort into a (comparatively) rapid-deployment. He's also willing to have Chribba, perhaps EVE's most trusted player, broker the transactions, mitigating the risk involved with such large amounts of currency. With the neverending ebb and flow of territorial control in New Eden, and if alliances continue to express interest in Xavier's venture, he may well have created a new and lucrative profession in EVE Online
The high price of trust in EVE
Trust is a rare commodity in EVE Online, and is one of those aspects of the game that makes it at once interesting and frustrating. That friendly person who offers you assistance in a mission, wants to sell you a faction module, or seeks to join your corporation may very well be waiting to backstab you when you least expect it. This might sound bad, but it's not necessarily a terrible thing in terms of enjoying the game. Indeed, some may feel that it adds to the risk inherent in EVE, and thus the thrill. The fact that players can manipulate trust within the rules of the game is one of the aspects of EVE that sets it apart from most other MMOs. The risk vs. reward stakes are raised when trust comes into play with groups of players. Collective action through corporations or alliances will, at some point in time, entail trust. It may be a CEO or director lifting restrictions on access to resources for a member of the corp, hoping that the faith placed in the recruit wasn't a bad move. In other scenarios, the situation is reversed -- a director decides to cut and run, seizing assets and leaving the corporation shocked and understandably enraged.
The freedom of living in EVE Online's lawless space
In EVE Online, there are few things as feared by highsec dwellers as going into 0.0 space. These lawless tracts of New Eden do come with certain perils -- as CONCORD isn't there to protect you -- but there are arguably more benefits to flying in 0.0 than there are drawbacks. Still, there will always be a dichotomy in EVE between players who like the game for the freedom 0.0 offers, and those who prefer the safety of highsec. In 'Living the good life in 0.0,' EVE blogger Xiphos explains his choice to leave Empire space behind. "In 0.0, you are free. Free of Concord, free of hundreds of players, and free to set your own destiny... it is the untamed wild west, where fortune, power, and glory are right for the taking and few have yet to reach out and grasp it," Xiphos writes. Of course, being a member of Agony Unleashed, an EVE corp that provides in-game PvP courses, doesn't hurt in terms of knowing how to handle yourself in 0.0. Have a look at 'Living the good life in 0.0' and see Xiphos' take on the appeal of flying in lawless space. Do you agree with Xiphos' view of the game, and have you largely abandoned highsec in favor of 0.0 and all that comes with it, or simply to experience the most from the game? [Via CrazyKinux]
Joystiq hands-on: Hasbro Family Game Night
Stepping into Electronic Arts' "EA3" event last week, we made a beeline for ... Hasbro Family Game Night, passing up the likes of Dead Space, Mirror's Edge, Mercenaries 2, and Tiger Woods Golf 2009: Busted Knee Edition along the way. We know, we know. But who can resist the lure of Battleship, Connect Four, Yahtzee, Boggle, Sorry and its new sibling Sorry Sliders? (Answer: you maybe; not us.) %Gallery-26011%
Player vs. Everything: Fear is the missing ingredient
When I was playing EverQuest in the Kunark-era days there was one item that stood head and shoulders above all the others for me: the Fungus Covered Scale Tunic (affectionately called "The Fungi"). It was the ultimate twink item, allowing you to regain your health at a rate unheard of in the days when long rest periods between each minor battle were the norm for solo players. The Fungi was something I lusted after, wished for, and dreamed of, but I was never able to actually lay hands on it during those days, due to the extreme difficulty of obtaining one. If you wanted one, you had to take a full party of maximum level characters into an exceedingly dangerous area, far from the reaches of civilization, and fight your way to a rare spawn deep in the ruined city of Old Sebilis. Very rarely, he would drop the prized Fungi, which you could then pass on to your low-level alts or sell on the open market for hundreds of thousands of platinum pieces. Other than the fact that it was a fantastic twink item, what made the Fungi so compelling? It was that you really had to risk something to get it. EverQuest, with it's naked corpse runs, experience loss on death, and horribly dangerous dungeons, made adventuring into a real adventure. Getting to Old Sebilis required traveling across several dangerous and hostile jungle zones in the forgotten continent of Kunark, far from the nearest hub of civilization. Dying in the depths of Old Sebilis was a sickeningly punishing experience in those days -- something you avoided at all costs. When a battle started going sour, you could feel your hackles rising, panic setting in, and a real sense of fear that made victory that much sweeter and death a soul-crushing experience. Is that sense of fear something we're missing out on in the modern MMOG?
Off the Grid: The new roommates
Every other week Scott Jon Siegel contributes Off the Grid, a column about card games, board games, and everything else non-digital.One of the most exciting parts about moving to a new place is having new people to play with. One week ago I arrived in California, and moved in with my new roommate and his girlfriend. Jet-lagged, and achy from spending nearly twelve combined hours in airplanes and airports, I still excitedly busted out the board games from my luggage once I arrived at the apartment.I unboxed Risk: Black Ops under the pretense of showing them how pretty it was. Realistically, I was prodding, waiting for one of the new roomies to say "cool, let's play!" They sure did think it was a nice-looking game, but neither said boo on the subject of playing. I packed it up and passed out.Of course, over the past week I've learned that this was not merely a single case of cold feet. Compared to the relative ease of playing video games, or watching television or YouTube videos, or renting a film, playing a round of Carcassonne or Kill Doctor Lucky apparently just isn't worth the effort.And thus, even with a small contingent of possible opponents living in the same space, it's still surprisingly difficult to get my game on.
Off the Grid: Risk Black Ops and Hasbro's wrong direction
Every other week Scott Jon Siegel contributes Off the Grid, a column about card games, board games, and everything else non-digital.Risk: Black Ops is one of the most beautiful board games you'll never play. In anticipation of the newly updated release of Risk, Hasbro produced only 1,000 copies of this special edition game, distributing them to bloggers, journos, and gaming hobby sites for perusal and easy publicity.The response was unanimously positive. The updates to the rules -- handled by Risk 2010 designer Rob Daviau -- lower the game's initial barrier to entry, and make it possible to play through in under two hours (which is significant for Risk). Most media attention, however, was lavished on the slick, modern redesign, devised under the command of art director Lindsay Braun and visual designer Jason Taylor.Risk has always wanted to be taken seriously, but Black Ops is the first version of the game to look deadly serious. A matte black finish on the box is accented by imagery of barbed wire, dog tags, and the faintest hint of blood spatter, all rendered in a subtle gray. "History is written by the victors," the box declares in a modest sans-serif font. The game board itself is designed to look like something out of our modern war-rooms, with a visual style not unlike Introversion's apocalyptic strategy game Defcon. This is not the Risk you remember.%Gallery-20806%
Wii Warm Up: Board games
With the recent news and media from Wii Chess, we can't help but cast our eyes toward board games lately. While we certainly aren't against playing board games on a console, Wii Ware seems like the logical choice for release, not regular retail titles (though we're in favor of the budget price) ... you know, sort of in the spirit of XBLA releases. Then again, we've seen full-fledged retail versions of XBLA titles before, and they worked just fine, so we can only assume that current-gen board games can fly as well. Our question today is: what would you actually like to see in a retail board game (as opposed to a downloadable title)? Which games with what features? Perhaps a version of Settlers of Catan with options for all the expansions, or games we've enjoyed on consoles before, like Risk, that are nice in electronic form because you don't have to bother with all the pieces. But will any board game really be enough to take us away from all the other Wii games that are already so much fun to play in live groups?
O Death, where is thy sting?
What does your choice of playing a warrior say about you as a person? Probably not a lot, considering that you're likely to try many different classes during the course of your stay in any given MMO. Or, to turn it around: what can you tell about the person driving that warrior you just saw run by? Taken like that, the intent behind this question becomes more obvious. We've gotten the 'roleplaying' part down solid. You choose to play a particular role -- which in this case we might re-term 'function' -- and that gets some emotional response. We drive our avatars around with varying degrees of personal investiture in them, but sometimes it feels to me as though we're merely cogs in a great machine, bent toward the purpose of simply furthering gameplay, rather than participating in a greater story with far-reaching consequences. And if it isn't Guild Wars, it's Flyff. If it isn't City of Heroes, it's Anarchy Online. The mechanisms are the same, the quests are similar. Visuals aside, where is the uniqueness? What's the point? Where is the purpose?What is it that makes watching a good movie so engaging, and why is that not inherent in MMO gameplay? Why is there so much more of an emotional investment in a good book than in your game of choice? No matter how much you may enjoy playing your character, there is an inherent element that's lacking. Is it the uniqueness of personality?
All the World's a Stage: Oh the drama! -- When to "/ignore"
All the World's a Stage is a weekly column by David Bowers, published on Sunday evenings, investigating the explorative performance art of roleplaying in the World of Warcraft.We've talked before about roleplaying as an art form, whether you think about it as acting or puppeteering, fiction or improv, there's definitely something creative going on here. But like any art form, roleplaying is best when it means something; that's to say, when it expresses something ultimately "true" about human experience, and perhaps even illumines the minds and hearts of the roleplayers in some way.Roleplayers all want to achieve that creativity, of course, but one problem often stands in our way: it's a rare work of art that really works for everyone. That's why the regular old art world is such a complete mess -- one man's fingerpainting is another man's post-modernist masterpiece. People constantly disagree about what subjects make for acceptable art, whether some art pushes extremes too far and becomes obscenity, and whether real art actually requires talent and skill. One person may curl up with their favorite Jane Austen novel and read it for the 10th time, while another may come home from the comic book store with the epic adventures of the Bone cousins. Each story conveys very different things to the reader -- but then the people who want to read these stories are looking for different things to get out them as well. Each form of storytelling speaks its own language for its own special audience.We have the same problem in roleplaying. To illustrate, imagine there's a teenage boy going through public school and not getting along with his peers very well. When he roleplays, he plays an intimidating character who likes to try to get in your face, pick a fight with you and insult you to show how very powerful he is. That power fantasy may be very annoying for you and me, but for him it really means something. That's not to say it's high-quality art by any means, but nonetheless, his feelings are important too, and he has his right to play a character on an RP server the same way we all do. It's just that for us, the "/ignore" command starts to look really tempting every time his sort comes along.
WoW = low risk, high fun
World of Warcraft is successful largely because it is such an accessible game. You can get started without being a gaming-genius, and you can make progress in it without playing all day. There are advanced challenges to overcome if you want to excel of course, but for most people, WoW is a just a place where you can have a bit of fun without much chance of a negative experience. You don't have to pay a huge penalty for mistakes such as death, and you're likely to find variety of meaningful things to do in a relatively short period of time. The fact that there's not much actual risk in WoW is one of the things that lets so many people see how fun it is and sets it apart from other MMORPG games.I can understand the reasons some game designers and players may wish there were more serious risk of failure versus success in their video games. We are taught from real life that great success requires one not be afraid of failure, or at least be willing to take the chance. In real life, you may lose a lot of your hard work and all your efforts may come to naught, but if you don't try anyways, you'll never reap some of the great rewards that this world has to offer.But to apply this rule in a video game doesn't make any sense, because the majority of people, no matter how good a game is, are wisely unwilling to invest a lot of time and energy into it if it may end up to be a waste of time. It is just a game after all, and its rewards are only real within its little game world.
