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One Shots: To the rescue!
There's nothing quite like the feeling of coming to the rescue of a friend, virtual or not. I've tried rescuing people in real life, but I've found that not every granny wants to be given a piggy-back ride across streets and not every depressed teen is waiting for a well-choreographed dance routine to turn his or her life around. I guess I'll take a cue from reader Mary, who found her inner hero in Spiral Knights. "In McVillain to the Rescue, my buddy Astro has been hemmed in by baddies by our friend's freezy bomb during a particularly rough arena," Mary explained. "Toward the top right corner, I'm coming to save him, weapon charged and at the ready." What other thrilling rescues lie ahead in this column? If nothing else, it'll be a rescue from boredom, so let us give you that emotional piggy-back ride you desperately need!
Make My MMO: Crowdfunding February 9 - 22, 2014
In the world of MMOs, no news is not necessarily good news -- especially when it comes to crowdfunding. Silence often denotes a lack of progress on a game, and that can certainly make investors nervous. Thankfully, many games provide players with updates that we, in turn, provide for you here. If no news is bad, then news is good, right? Unfortunately, this doesn't hold true. In the case of Star Rider and Hot Rod Hustle, the news is that neither met its funding goals. So we say farewell to these two games from Make My MMO. And Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen's campaign was chock-full of news, but in the end, its Kickstarter didn't succeed either; Pantheon, however, is continuing the fundraising effort on its official site. At least some news is good! War of Omens also leaves this round up, but for different reasons: Players can hop in and play the game! Likewise, HEX: Shards of Fate and StarCraft Universe move on now that both have moved into testing. Another sandbox, Terrayn, also joins the Kickstarter ranks. To hear other good news, keep reading.
Massively's Valentine's Day roundup
When a mob hits your eye with a big sharpened spike... that's not really amore! In fact, it's downright painful. But it's February -- a time when love is in the air, hearts are aflutter everywhere, and pink and red festoon your favorite MMOs. So in the spirit of the season, go ahead and give that mob an extra-hard love tap, right from... er, to the heart! And don't forget to collect whatever treasures it had for you because we all know Valentine's Day isn't all about the love; no, it's about the loot! Want to know where to get your hands on something special for this holiday? There are plenty of celebrations throughout the MMOverse offering a plethora of events and goodies. Check out some of the various Valentine's events and specials going on now.
Massively's winter holidays MMO roundup
The holidays are here! That means the hustle and bustle of the season is in full swing, with gifts to get, treats to taste, deals to nab, and plenty of festivities to partake in -- and that's just in the MMOverse! Yes folks, there's a plethora of holiday celebrations out there -- so many, in fact, that it can be hard to keep track of them all, let alone participate to them! If you're trying to catch everything in your favorite games, we're here to help. We've got a round up of the various winter celebrations across the gaming sphere all bundled together right here for you. If something catches your eye, hop in and join in the festivities!
One Shots: Shields up!
Reader Mary is in a tight spot. It all rests on her shoulders now, and if she dies, she will be responsible for letting down her entire team. The fate of this day -- nay, of the future, rests upon her quick thinking and reflexes. "I'm shielding!" she cries triumphantly. "I juuuust managed to get my shield up in time to deflect a dying Spookat's final attack. Meanwhile, Astro is distracted by the emerging Black Kat in the upper left corner, seeing as it was the first time we found one during Spiral Knight's now infamous Black Kat event." Give me a break, give me a break, break me off a piece of that Black Kat bar! Folks, it doesn't get any less punny from here, so hold your nose and jump into the rest of this week's player screenshots.
Jukebox Heroes: Starting your MMO music collection
I love seeing people turned on to MMO music, particularly after it's gotten such a bad rap over the years. But for the new fan, it can be a daunting proposition to start up a collection. After all, it's not as if you can go down to your local vinyl shop, peruse a stack of 45s, and come out with a full set of SOE's greatest hits. Only a fraction of MMO scores are available for purchase these days, with the rest being free, packaged in with collector's editions, out of print, or just tucked away inside of game files somewhere. So how do you get started on building up a robust library of MMO music? If you don't have deep pockets, which scores would I recommend you pick up first? Well, my friend, I've given it some thought and have put together a guide to six essential purchases that will get you off to a great start. Don't thank me; thank music. And also me because I did this hard work.
Second Wind: Spiral Knights
There's something to be said for the rise of browser-based games. What once was an elephant graveyard of bad ideas, low-res graphics, and trite or incomplete game mechanics has now evolved into a veritable playground of new ideas and fun casual titles. Games like City of Steam and Drakensang Online continue to push the boundaries of what's possible in a browser window, delivering engaging experiences with depth and high fidelity. Browser game represent some of the coolest technological innovations in the MMO niche. They also, often, represent the very worst in predatory monetization schemes and "pay-to-win" exploitation. Spiral Knights does both. And it does both well.
Jukebox Heroes: Spiral Knights' soundtrack
Wow, talk about a soundtrack that leaped up and bit me on the... earbuds! Sometimes I'm surprised how the smaller MMOs get treated to such lavish score releases while big-name games hoard their music to themselves, but in the case of Spiral Knights, I'm sincerely glad that this two-volume set was put out there for the world to enjoy. It truly is a kickin' project. Spiral Knights was composed and arranged by Harry Mack (Doctor Who: Worlds in Time, Braid). Mack likes the smaller indie projects, so tackling this was one of his more high-profile works. For this album, Mack said that he was inspired by retro games: "It pulls a lot from the 'sound' of an earlier era, coupled in with more modern, easier-on-the-ears instruments." The end result is a chirpy, peppy ride through a clockwork MMO, and trust me when I say that I had a hard time narrowing it down to just six picks. I hope that by the end of this column I'll have convinced you to listen to the rest of this terrific score.
Jukebox Heroes: A few of my favorite MMO soundtracks
I could hear some of you thinking in disbelief last week, "If Age of Conan isn't one of your top MMO scores, what is? And just how much am I not sending you a Christmas card this year, you loser?" You were kind enough to just think it and not say it, but I could hear it even so. As we've mentioned countless times in this column, musical tastes are subjective. What's appealing to you may not be for me and vice-versa. What more is that musical tastes -- and favorites -- are always shifting around. I listen back to the jams that I enjoyed in the '90s and absolutely pity my younger self for such a deficiency in his musical diet. So I thought that I'd take a week off our normal soundtrack reviews to bring to you my current top six favorite soundtracks. This list comes with the caveat that it's always subject to future changes as I continue to listen through more soundtracks for this column.
Previously on MV TV: The week of September 8th
It's starting to cool down outside, at least here in Texas. Trust me, I know how strange that sounds, but the temperature during the middle of the day is moving up as usual and the mornings and evenings are pure bliss. If it's cold where you are now, settle down with a cup of coffee and take that newspaper and throw it in the trash! Who needs to read? Follow the magic links down below, and not only will you get the news, but it will be delivered in a completely non-newsy form: video game streams! Let's break down the top stories for this week. First, we'll be joined by the Pigster as he takes us on a tour of Spiral Knight's planet. Richie is still stuck in Guild Wars 2, but trooper that he is, he continues to file reports from the front lines. How brave! MJ returns this week with a recipe for Gnoll burritos from EverQuest II, a newbie tour through the character mines of Guild Wars 2, a quickie glimpse of the floating islands of Vanguard: Saga of Heroes, and an avocado dip recipe given to her by the pirates of Aion. I finish off by travelling back in time to a game called There, a title that kept me up for ages when I was younger.
MMO Blender: Beau's portable, accessible, and casually immersive mashup
I've been pretty excited to take my turn at the MMO Blender wheel. Sure, we all have ideas about how we would build our dream MMOs by mixing up different parts from favorite games, but honestly, I wanted to use my time here to make a point: MMO gaming needs to climb outside of the box, soon. Since there is more and more emphasis on mobile and casual gaming, my game will take that in into consideration. But games have to be fun too, right? I think they can be fun, immersive, and casual all at the same time. I'm hoping that my examples will show how other developers have combined the three such that players can access the game from anywhere. It's also important to me that my game be simple to play and accessible for players with disabilities, so let's just say that I have included all of the proper features like adjustable colors for the color-blind, resizable text, and maybe even audio cues to help those with sight issues. I've been given a budget of one million-billion internet bucks, so let's get to it... this game is not going to build itself!
The Game Archaeologist: Puzzle Pirates
Up until this point in my life, Puzzle Pirates has always been that "oh yeah, that actually exists!" game to me. Even when I do lists of pirates in MMOs, this title slips right off of my radar. Maybe it's because Puzzle Pirates doesn't make waves (har!) these days, or maybe it's been around for so very long. I can't be the only one; the last time Massively talked about Puzzle Pirates was three years ago. I think that part of Puzzle Pirates' forgettability is that it doesn't exactly scream MMO. I mean, its combat is more cerebral than anything else, it's all cutesy and stuff, and even its name suggests a casual flash title than anything deep and substantive. Yet I have friends with a long and abiding love for this game, people who always chide me when I forget it. So to peer pressure I bow: It's high past time that we gave Puzzle Pirates its due as part of the MMO genre. Avast, ye landlubbers, and swab those peepers: We be goin' to sea!
The Soapbox: The death of AAA
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. I think we're all pretty familiar with the tragic story of 38 Studios by now. If not, take some time to familiarize yourself with it. Essentially it is a tale of massive dreams, botched plans, and hundreds of job losses. I'm not yet sure exactly what went wrong, but I have a feeling that the lackluster response to the studio's stand-alone title might be to blame on top of the poor performance in the high-end of the company. Either way, I have seen many comments exclaiming the end of the big-budget title or at least more trepidation from governments that feel the need to get into a game (no pun intended) they were unfamiliar with. If we could take a poll of the several million "AAA" MMO players in North America, it's my bet that most of them simply go from one title to the other. The RIFT players who are now enjoying Star Wars: The Old Republic came from World of Warcraft, and before that (if they played MMOs before WoW) they might have been City of Heroes fans and EverQuest players before that. For a long time, large studios held all of the players. Then, AAA started rolling down the steep hill to where it is now.
Spiral Knights celebrates 3,000,000 registered accounts
Spiral Knights seems to be doing pretty well for itself. The latest official dispatch proudly states that the game currently has three million registered accounts in total, which is certainly a sign of good health. To celebrate, the development team is running a small promotion: all Elevators will cost no energy to use from now until Saturday at 5 p.m. EDT. Players under the effects of an Elevator Pass will see the two free days added on, so all players who want to take advantage of this will be able to. The dispatch also reveals that the team is hard at work on developing new features for the next year, including new missions, more accessible DLC, and improvements to both combat and guild systems. All in all, if you're one of the three million account holders, it sounds like the game is going to provide you with more fun stuff to do in the future... and if not, well, you can always start the road toward four.
One Shots: City of who?
Massively reader Torch Light has a theory that someone at Paragon Studios is a Doctor Who fan, and I think he might be right -- and not just because the game boasts a Time Manipulation power set. Torch Light sent in today's featured image from City of Heroes' VIP testing servers along with this explanation: The beta for Issue 23 of CoH has just gone live with a new parallel world of spookiness. While exploring around, I saw a familiar (yet strangely colored) police box. Looks like Paragon called in an expert to help fix those wibbly wobbly timey wimey problems. The image isn't bigger on the inside, but it is after the cut alongside two more reader pics!
Free for All: Free-to-play MMO versions of your favorite Nintendo games
I have to be honest -- I wasn't the biggest Nintendo fan. I grew up right as the whole thing was really smashing and keeping kids glued to their TVs, but I generally went outside and played more than stayed inside and played games. (Odd, huh?) Still, I had my fun with certain titles. Contra rocked my boat, along with Kid Icarus and a bit of Mario Brothers. My friends, on the other hand, were full members of the Nintendo nation. They subcribed to the magazine, played the same games for hours and hours, and generally acted as though the fate of the real world hung in the balance as they attacked that last boss monster. Stylistically, the games have left a mark on the genre. Many of those same titles still sell as well, some of them reaching so many variations that I lost track a long, long time ago. I thought it might be fun to list off some free-to-play MMOs that remind me of those old classics. See what you think, and leave any suggestions in the comments section!
Rise and Shiny: A bit of Wakfu, a smidge of Spiral Knights, and some Lime Odyssey
This week in Rise and Shiny, things did not go as planned. This sort of thing actually happens often enough to almost be a problem: I pick out a title or am tasked with taking a look at a certain game, but communication lines are crossed and the game I was supposed to give a first impressions-style look at closes down its beta in the middle of the week. Like I said, it does happen, enough to force me to plan out my articles on a month-long calendar. Even then, things can change. So instead of talking about the game I said I was going to be this week, Seven Souls Online, I decided to go over the three games that I gleefully jumped into over the last few days. This will not be a typical first impression-style piece but instead will hint at the specific adventures I had while playing these games. These wonderful, wonderful games.
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.
Sonic CD, Sonic 4, Generations DLC and more hit Steam today
A whole mess of Sonic the Hedgehog content has rolled onto Steam today. First up, Sonic CD, which has already debuted on PSN, Xbox Live and mobile platforms, has now made its way to Valve's ubiquitous service. Joining it is Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode 1 and the Sonic Generations "Casino Nights" DLC that was previously scheduled to arrive on December 26. Though it's not a Sonic game, Sega's free-to-play Spiral Knights is getting some Sonic-themed content as well. Players can pick up a Metal Sonic costume or a Tails accessory (i.e. a pair of fox tails). Spiral Knights is free, but these items are not. The Metal Sonic costume comes free with Steam copies of Sonic CD, while the Tails accessory will require an in-game energy purchase. Both items are available until February 1. Head over to Sega's blog to check out images of the new goodies.
Free for All: The still-satisfying world of action MMOs
Look, I'm a red-blooded American gamer. I even call it 'Merica. So it should be no surprise when I feel like getting down with a melee-based chop-'em-up or have the desire to leap, jump and bounce my way through countless levels. In other words, action. We 'Mericans love our action games. I have my particular favorites, for sure, and within that list are my favorites of favorites that get the nod for different reasons. Honestly I'm not into action-based games just for the challenge. I don't need to make repeated attempts at downing a boss to have fun. I enjoy the immediate response that an action game gives me. I love to click the mouse button and see my character's sword swing or gun fire. It's satisfying. Of course, action games can have their drawbacks. Not only do they tend to produce a euphoric haze that can only be described as "stoner glare" and an open-mouthed state of hypnosis, but they can take a toll on delicate, drum-beaten wrists like mine as well. I take the good with the bad, I guess. Click past the cut and I'll let you know my favorite F2P action MMOs.
