sto-featured
Latest
Captain's Log: Newstime grab bag
Hey, everybody. I did four things this weekend: I saw True Grit, I saw The Green Hornet, I tried kumquats for the first time and I went on a blind date with a dyspeptic wendigo. I recommend doing only one of those things. In other news, it's time for another edition of Captain's Log. We covered some helpful resources for creating missions with Star Trek Online's Foundry last week, even as the folks at Cryptic Studios tossed out a whole slew of new information. Dan Stahl and company meted out an update to the feature-episode calendar, a new Engineering Report and the latest Ask Cryptic. So, what'd we learn?
Captain's Log: Star Trek Online's year in review
Welcome back, Capsloggers! (Note: professional nicknamer here, available for all your mascot-imagining, brand-revamping needs.) I hope you've all had a merry merry and a happy happy so far. And if you haven't, then keep it to yourself, because Massively is no place to be sad. Now the calendar's just one page, and of course I am excited. Tomorrow is New Year's Eve, and the end of the year means end-of-the-year lists! As we all know, 2010 has been a big year for Star Trek Online, from its release in February to the introduction of Season 3 just this month. Skip away with me down the Memory Brick Road as we recall the biggest STO stories of the year!
Captain's Log: Wrapping up STO's first series of weekly episodes
Welcome back to another installment of Captain's Log, your weekly dose of -- y'know what, could you guys hang on for a bit? Glee is on as I write this. Britney can take a flying leap, but John Stamos is somethin' else, amirite? Ahem. So anyway, Star Trek Online's very first series of weekly episodes wrapped up this past Saturday. We covered the introduction of weekly episodes a few weeks ago, and I promised we'd get back to them in due time. So did the Breen win? What can we expect from the next series of episodes? And are STO's weekly episodes all they're cracked up to be?
Hands-on with Star Trek Online's space combat
Space battles in Star Trek Online are going to be a big selling point for many a Trek fan. I recently got some hands-on time with the closed beta and found several interesting talking points to deliver like hot fresh delicious phasered pizza. I imagine some of you are quite up to snuff on the basics of combat in Star Trek Online, so if you find your interest waning I suggest skipping ahead into the analytical aspect of this feature.%Gallery-28615%
New Star Trek Online video shows tactical combat, UI
Cryptic has released the first part of a series looking at the tactical ship combat in Star Trek Online. It's definitely worth watching, especially if you've been following the progression of Star Trek Online's combat development; in this regards it's nice to finally see some in-game action as we'll experience it when STO releases in February. There are a few points that STO Director of Production Craig Zinkievich, Game Designer Zeke Sparkes, and Producer Daniel Stahl make which are worth noting. We've already heard most of it, but the in-game footage demonstrates most of these concepts nicely. You can watch the video above, or head over to our sister site Big Download to grab the hi res version. The hi res version of this video is worth it. After the break we'll take a look at the major points, as well as talk about some of the high resolution screen grabs of the UI shown in the video. %Gallery-78487%
Star Trek Online lore: 2379 to 2384
It's rare for an MMO to bring with it a history as rich and generational as Star Trek. The Trek universe is as deep and rich with lore as Lord of the Rings or Star Wars, and just like both those titles the lore has been passed down from parent to child over generations now. This leaves any game which attempts to encapsulate that lore in a precarious situation of both having to remain close to the canon, yet leaving enough creative room for the player to feel like they're making a true difference in the universe. And while we have yet to see if Star Trek Online lives up to the second part of that criteria, we can take a look at how they are moving the lore forward and dealing with the canocial events of past Trek incarnations. The main conduit for this lesson in lore has been through the sporadic postings of The Path to 2409 on the official STO website. However, there's a lot of information there and it's quite easy to get lost in it all. So, let's take a look at the Star Trek Online timeline Cryptic has released thus far. To begin with, we'll go over the years 2379 through 2384.
Massively's Star Trek Online beta interview
With beta now beginning, we shot some relevant questions at Cryptic's Craig Zinkievich, executive producer on Star Trek Online. He gave us his insight on what the team's goals are during beta and what some of their toughest challenges were from their point of view. Plus, we even got him to spill the beans on when Klingons would be entering the fray for beta testers -- hopefully the rest of us get to see and hear more about the warrior race soon thereafter. It's a short interview, mostly because we kept our questions on topic and well, also because we didn't want to distract Craig from working on his game for very long. Someone's got to work on fulfilling our childhood fantasies!
PAX 2009: Hands-on and phasers locked with Star Trek Online
We stopped by Cryptic's booth at PAX 2009 for a chance to speak with the Executive Producer for Star Trek Online Craig Zinkievich, and obviously to get our hands on the game as well. Well, turns out our demands were acceptable, and we got to both play the game and prod at Craig with our incessant "questions" for your -- and of course our own -- pleasure. Cryptic's goal for Star Trek Online is to make players feel like they're inside an episode of Star Trek when they play the game. That's why they call their story-focused missions episodes, and why every one of them deals with both ground and space combat. Our hands-on experience focused on this aspect of the game, and much combat was had by, well, us.
