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EVE Evolved: The top five most dangerous solar systems
EVE Online is a PvP game at its core, with conflict built in at a fundamental level. Pirates lurk around key trade routes and stand ready to pounce on unsuspecting victims, while vast nullsec alliances protect their territories with watchful vigilance and never-ending bloodlust. Wander into the wrong solar system as a new player and your precious ship and cargo will be turned into molten slag and a few points on a killboard quicker than you can say, "Hello, new friend, and what does that red square on your ship mean?" The original map of EVE was generated one evening by an Icelandic developer who could scarcely have known he was deciding the fates of thousands of gamers for years to come. New systems have been added to the game over the years, and a few manual changes have been made to the stargate network, but most of the universe has remained the same for over a decade. In all that time, a few solar systems have stood out as brazen bastions of bastardly behaviour and made their marks on EVE's history. In this week's EVE Evolved, I run down a list of the top five most dangerous solar systems in EVE's long history and delve into why each has earned its reputation as a no-fly-zone for newbies.
Syndicate Wars inspires 5 Lives Studios to get a Kickstarter in June
Five Lives Studios is teasing a Kickstarter project for something called Satellite Reign – and all signs point to a game inspired by Syndicate Wars. The Kickstarter is scheduled for June, with a countdown on the Satellite Reign site. The teaser video reads, "In 1996, this man –" referring to Syndicate Wars lead Mike Diskett, it would seem "– created a Bullfrog masterpiece. In 2013, with your help, we will redefine the genre." The original Syndicate Wars launched for the PlayStation and DOS in October 1996 as a real-time tactics game. Syndicate got an FPS reboot from Starbreeze Studios and EA in February 2012.
New generation comes of age in record-holding long-time guild
You know your adults-only guild has built up a serious steamhead of history when you begin seeing an entirely new generation of applicants from within your own ranks. That's right, WoW players, you really are that old. This month marks the 17th anniversary of The Syndicate, the current Guinness world record holders for the longest continuously operating online gaming community. "As our move into our 18th year as a community, internally we are starting to see the children of our members applying to join," writes Sean "Dragons" Stalzer, president and CEO of The Syndicate. "Said a different way, that means people who have only known MMORPGs similar to WoW or EQ or UO or Rift are heading off to college." When we interviewed Dragons three years ago, we examined the group's massive size across multiple games, its unrivaled retention rate (an average loss of one to two people per year, for a 99.92% retention rate), and its own studio that turns out strategy guides for casual players and handles game and hardware consulting and testing for various game companies. That's a heady bouquet of achievements for a hardworking guild. Still, the group's anniversary this month makes waves in a much larger context -- a new era for MMO designers and fans alike. "It matters because the MMOs of the past 17 years were created, in large part, by a community of developers who knew the world of BBS gaming via a modem... who played MUDs and MOOs... who, in the more senior levels, knew gaming before there were computers," Dragons writes. "We are just now reaching the point where the future programmers, designers, producers etc.. are heading off to college having never known a world without MMORPGS. Some of the core mechanics and concepts that shaped what 'success' is in the MMORPG world are things they have never experienced, and that isn't a bad thing. It means there is change coming to the MMO space."
GOG weekend sale: Alpha Centauri, Syndicate and other EA classics 60% off
Several of EA's classic PC games have had their prices slashed to ridiculous levels on GOG for this weekend – games like Alpha Centauri, Syndicate, Populous and more can be had for under $3 each.Other EA games taking part in the sale include a whole bunch of Ultimas, the Wing Commander series and SimCity 2000. All of the games listed on GOG's weekend promo page will set you back $2.39 a pop. If you want to purchase all 26 eligible games, it'll cost $62.14.
Good Old Games now supports Mac, kicks off with approximately 50 games
Everyone's favorite DRM-free digital games distributor, Good Old Games, is now offering support for just over 50 games on Mac OS-based machines. That means that classics like Syndicate and the Wing Commander series are now offered through the service, not to mention new classics like Botanicula and The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings. To kick off the launch, GOG's offering a variety of discounts (including 50 percent off of SimCity 2000 -- a no brainer if you ask us), as well as an Apple-flavored commercial that we've dropped below the break. If you haven't already headed over to GOG and started madly purchasing things, we'd suggest watching the tongue-in-cheek trailer, for the chuckles alone.
Syndicate reboot 'didn't pay off' for EA; SSX reboot 'very successful'
Clearly a positive review on Joystiq isn't the sales driver we thought it was. Despite having a good time with it ourselves, it would seem EA's Syndicate reboot was not the commercial success the company had hoped for. So says EA Labels president Frank Gibeau."Syndicate was something that we took a risk on. It didn't pay off – it didn't work," Gibeau told CVG. "But in general it doesn't change my appetite for wanting to go look in the library and see what we have and maybe bring back some IPs for the next-generation. That's the nature of the business; some stuff works, some stuff doesn't."EA's other big reboot this year, SSX, apparently fared a bit better. Gibeau called this year's revival "a very successful launch for us," and lauded the game's "online innovation" as a catalyst for bringing the series back. "It's done well and you'll probably see more in the future," Gibeau concluded.
GOG.com offering EA games half off: Syndicate, Nox, more
GOG.com is having a big sale this weekend until Monday on "EA Guns and Spells." Everything's half off down to $2.99, including the first Syndicate, Magic Carpet, hack-and-slasher Nox, Lands of Lore 1 and 2, and two Crusader games, No Regret and No Remorse.
Starbreeze CEO doesn't think Syndicate 'could've ever lived up to some people's expectations'
CEO and President of Starbreeze Studios Mikael Nermark appears to have mixed feelings about Syndicate, the FPS reboot his team launched earlier this year. Syndicate snagged the No. 2 spot during its launch week with sales of 34,000, just 2,000 shy of Asura's Wrath. Even after such a squeeze, Nermark tells Joystiq he isn't disappointed in Syndicate, numerically or otherwise:"Sales? What can I say?" Nermark says, inadvertently answering his own rhetorical question. "So many things depend on whether sales are good or not good. And it can always be better, right? You always want it to be better."Being "not disappointed" isn't the same as being overwhelmingly, truly happy with a title, nor is it the same as being devastated – it seems Nermark is still working out how exactly he feels about Syndicate, but he's made up his mind about Starbreeze itself."Personally, I've never been satisfied with any games I've worked on. I never play my own games," Nermark says. "I was brought into Starbreeze two and a half years ago, and the first year I worked on other things than on production. But what I saw coming out of this long production time, I'm proud of what we did at Starbreeze."
Asura's Wrath beats Syndicate in first week sales (with all six fists, presumably)
Asura's Wrath moved 36,000 copies in its first week of sales at the end of February, NPD tells Joystiq. Despite Syndicate's business-savvy nature, the big reboot came up approximately 2,000 copies short of matching the Capcom god destroyer, with 34,000 copies sold at retail in February. As NPD doesn't track digital sales, the launch sales gives us a comparison of each game's commercial performance on consoles (Syndicate also came out on PC).We're ascribing the disparity to our own reviews of each game, of course, with only a half star difference between the two (which apparently equates to roughly 2,000 units). The two games launched on February 21 in North America and NPD reports sales between January 29 and February 25, giving each game four days of February sales data.
Syndicate review: The business of aggressive expansion
Fans were perturbed when they learned the classic Bullfrog-developed strategy series, Syndicate, would be rebooted in first-person form. The original was a beautiful and brutal affair, set in a cyberpunk world filled with corporate conspiracy. In its reboot, developer Starbreeze manages to hold onto some of those elements that made the original such an intriguing beast. Syndicate showcases its own beautiful brutality, shaking off the label of "just another shooter."It's 2069. Corporations have ascended beyond the reach of simple governments and battle one another for technological advancement. Civilians are inconsequential, seen merely as pawns in the midst of each company's boardroom brawl, and are often gunned down by characters throughout the campaign simply for "getting in the way." You take the role of the mostly faceless Miles Kilo, an agent at the industry giant EuroCorp, where you have been outfitted with a prototype version of a chip that gives you control over connected devices around you, as well as a number of other abilities. Like other agents, you must work to keep your corporation at peak profitability. %Gallery-138068%
Starbreeze lets 25 go after finishing Syndicate
Having completed Syndicate before EA ships it next week, Swedish developer Starbreeze has let several employees go. The company employed 93 individuals while working on the FPS reboot, 25 of which have been dismissed, according to GamesIndustry.biz (registration required). Starbreeze chairman Peter Tornquist has also reportedly resigned."It is sad that we are forced to make staff cutbacks affecting employees. But we have to reduce staff after the final delivery of the Syndicate," CEO Mikael Nermark told GI.biz. Layoffs at development studios on the cusp of shipping a title has quickly become the norm for the industry. We don't like to see anyone lose their job and hope the individuals in Sweden affected by our least favorite tag find new work as soon as possible.
Syndicate's launch trailer reminds us how messed up the violence is
You remember that first time you saw the Syndicate dude make a security guard dude shoot himself in the head? Surprise, surprise, it doesn't get any less messed up when you see it performed in subsequent trailers, as evidenced above.
Syndicate employs Brian Cox, Rosario Dawson and Michael Wincott
In the future, your brain will be infused with special technology to unlock the massive potential within you. Also, the company you work for will be headed by a surly Scot and a beautiful wherever Rosario Dawson is from.EA's announced both Brian Cox and Rosario Dawson will lend their voices to Syndicate, the Starbreeze reboot of the classic strategy game from the '90s. Joining them is Michael Wincott, who you may remember as the bad guy from The Crow. Gamers may better recognize his pipes as The Prophet of Truth in Halo 2, and as Death in the upcoming Darksiders 2. Dawson will play Lily Drawl, a "rising star" at EuroCorp; Cox plays Eurocorp board member Jack Denham and Wincott plays veteran agent Jules Merit.
Syndicate will not have an online pass, EA confirms
EA will break with tradition when Syndicate launches later this month. EA Partners executive producer Jeff Gamon told Eurogamer that Starbreeze's reboot would ship without an online pass, in the hopes of lowering the barrier of entry for the game's multiplayer side."We want as little resistance or barriers to entry as possible," Gamon said. "The co-op is equal billing in this. We wanted everyone who owns a copy of the game to have access to the entire product." It's policy for EA to include an online pass in all of its games. Curiously, this policy does not always extend to EA Partners games like Crysis 2 and Portal 2, both of which shipped without online passes. Meanwhile, Bulletstorm required a pass for its online co-op mode."Under normal circumstances it would have had an online pass, but because it didn't have competitive multiplayer and because we wanted as many people as possible to be playing co-op, we got away with it," Gamon added. "Maybe another reason for not having the Online Pass is we were confident in the scope of the online game." Throughout the nine multiplayer maps, he says players can expect "a good six, seven hours" on a single playthrough. "That and the single-player campaign means hopefully we won't see much in the way of early second hand sales and rentals," Gamon concluded before absconding with Princess Zelda.%Gallery-146175%
Syndicate co-op demo, term life insurance available now
The co-op demo for Syndicate is ready to infiltrate Xbox 360s in North America and Europe right now. The PlayStation Network will likely gain access today at the close of business on the East Coast, which is when the PSN usually updates in North America. The PSN version for Europe will have open enrollment tomorrow.The demo covers the "Western Europe" co-op mission, as your team steals blueprints for Cayman Global (the TCBY of the future) and assassinates what may or may not be a bad guy. Hey, it's business, there's very little room for ethics. XBLM Syndicate Co-op Demo
Twisted Metal demo shoots up PSN on January 31
During this week's PlayStation Blogcast, on which our own Ludwig Kietzmann is a "special guest," PlayStation Sr. Social Media Specialist Sid Shuman (yay, alliteration!) confirmed the planned multiplayer demo for Twisted Metal would hit PSN next week, on January 31. If you like your manslaughter a bit less vehicular, you may want to check out a demo for another February-bound title, EA's rebooted Syndicate. It will also be a multiplayer demo, focusing on the game's co-op side, but you already knew that. Who needs expensive implants and cool tech for remembering things? Not you, buddy!
Starbreeze self-funding original IP
Starbreeze, the developer behind The Darkness, The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay and the upcoming series reboot Syndicate, is looking to expand its developmental output beyond the intellectual properties of other creative minds."We want to make our own IP; no doubt," Starbreeze CEO Mikael Nermark told Gamasutra. "We're actually self-funding one original IP right now. If we're going to take it to market ourself -- I haven't decided yet. It's always about how you maximize what you can do." Nermark's current strategy is to continue working on high-profile titles like Syndicate while simultaneously looking for opportunities to launch the developer's own original IP. As the old saying goes, "You can only milk another man's cow for so long." Or something.
Syndicate co-op demo lands Jan. 31, Feb. 1 on XBL and PSN
The co-op demo for Syndicate launches on Xbox Live in North America and Europe on January 31, while the PlayStation Network version drops the same day in North America, and on February 1 for Europe. The demo covers the "Western Europe" co-op mission, in which you steal blueprints from Cayman Global and assassinate Colonel Enrico Gabron, one of nine co-op challenges in the full game.Liking the Syndicate page on Facebook begets access to remixed tracks of the original Syndicate soundtrack by Digitalism, Flux Pavillion and Skrillex, which is newsworthy because until just now we thought Skrillex was the singer in some trendy rap-metal band. And possibly a girl. Huh.
Classic Syndicate infiltrates GOG on Jan. 19, asks how to conquer world first
Syndicate, the original title of twisted corporate greed and cyberpunk inhumanity, is hitting GOG on Thursday, Jan. 19 for $5.99. GOG's Syndicate will come with the game manual, artwork and avatars, but until it's officially released GOG is having a little dystopian fun. Ten players can win a copy of Syndicate by forming the best team of four people -- yourself and three others, real or imaginary, dead, alive or not born yet -- to lead the DRM-free revolution as the world's largest Syndicate. Just drop a description of your team in the GOG comments before 7 a.m. EST on Jan. 19 for a chance to prove yourself in the corrupt corporate world.
Gather your cabal for Syndicate's co-op demo, coming this month
You and three of your friends can try out the new Syndicate game this month, unless you're in Australia. EA announced plans to release a four-player co-op demo on PSN and XBLA, available "the end of January" and lasting "a limited time." The full game arrives February 21 in North America and February 24 in Europe. The demo comprises one of Syndicate's nine co-op missions, called "Western Europe." Players work to assassinate Cayman Global's "Colonel Enrico Gabron" and steal his blueprints, after making their way into Cayman Global. %Gallery-144914%
