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PAX South 2015: The Untitled Game is whatever you want it to be
The Untitled Game, better known as TUG, is one of the many recent titles that have earned a small crowdfunding fortune by shouting the word "sandbox" as loud as the internet will allow. The game's initial Kickstarter campaign raised $293,000; launching on Steam's Early Access marketplace helped Nerd Kingdom rake in an unspecified amount of additional dollars. The studio had a bold plan for an open-world, innovative crafting MMORPG, and it appeared as though players were ready to pay for it. Things haven't gone so swimmingly since then. Funding issues in late 2014 forced the studio to lay off around half of its staff. Many MMO industry followers have been wondering whether the project will ever be released or it's just another crowdfunded pipe dream. I took a look at TUG on the show floor at PAX South 2015 and talked to COO Brennan Priest about crowdfunding, layoffs, and killing things with axes. The one thing I can say for sure is that there is definitely a game here, and it seems as if it could be a good one.
PAX South 2015: Notes from a Star Citizen town hall
Star Citizen is such a big fancy deal that instead of having a panel or booth at PAX South 2015, Cloud Imperium booked a theater down the street and hosted 10 straight hours of forums and chit-chats with backers. That's right: There wasn't enough room in the PAX convention hall to accommodate all the Star Citizening Star Citizens needed to Star Citizen, so they had their own one-day mini-convention dedicated just to their game of choice. One has to respect a development team willing to spend the entire day with its community (for a nominal fee, of course). I'm sure Star Citizens were absolutely amped to pay the same amount of money as a PAX day pass to hang out with CI all day. Unfortunately, I attended only the evening town hall with Chris Roberts, which I would describe as impenetrable to anyone without a license to pilot one of Star Citizen's $350 ships. I did take some notes. I will try to parse them here.
PAX South 2015: Garriott and Long talk Shroud of the Avatar
In 2013, Ultima Online creator Richard Garriott took to Kickstarter in the hopes of funding an old-school, sandbox-y MMO. Titled Shroud of the Avatar, the new project would be built in Unity and aimed squarely at those MMO fans who longed for the days of player-driven economies, crafting as a focus instead of a side activity, and the ability to impact the game world in a real way. The plan worked. Shroud of the Avatar pulled $1.9 million on Kickstarter alone, almost doubling its $1 million funding goal. Since then, the team has been hard at work bringing Garriott's vision to life (and keeping backers happy). I spoke with Garriott on the PAX South 2015 show floor about crowdfunding, loot, and the mistakes of the modern RPG. I also got to play a bit of SOTA with the help of executive producer Starr Long, who kindly did not make fun of me when I was killed by the second mob in the demo.
TUG's multiplayer goes live
Yesterday, the first stage of TUG's multiplayer went online with its 0.8.1 alpha patch. Players can now bump into each other in both survival and creative modes. But wait -- there's more! The patch also sports a brand-new terrain engine, a new UI, better mod capabilities, additional AI characters, and a handy return stone. The TUG team will be at booth #1483 at PAX South this weekend and will be selling access to the game at a discount for the duration of the convention. Massively will be reporting on TUG from the show floor, so stay tuned!
Echo of Soul unveils new NA website
Echo of Soul is quickly becoming known around these parts as a title that is talking big talk prior to its North American debut, and now the Korean fantasy game has a new website to match these boasts. The US version of the website has now gone live, with information, art, community hub, and the vitally important beta sign-up button. It also has a short section on the game's mobile app that will feature access to chat and trading. Echo of Soul's North American beta test is planned for sometime this spring. [Source: Aeria Games press release]
First Impressions: H1Z1 is more boredom than terror
What would video game purgatory look like? After spending an afternoon wandering aimlessly across a mostly-deserted countryside, I'd have to say that H1Z1's early access build fits the description of limbo perfectly. I even smacked into a wall of grey nothing that bordered the eight square kilometers of play space and wondered whether it might be more interesting in that haze than back among the living dead. H1Z1, as SOE will emphatically tell you, is not anywhere near to being done. Features are missing, placeholder art is everywhere, and there isn't a female character to be seen. It's only just playable on a larger scale, and yet the studio felt fit to open hundreds of servers (and take in thousands of dollars) so that the early crowd could sate its curiosity. There's no NDA, either, which means that the studio definitely wants people to chat the game up, whether good or bad. I'm happy to oblige.
Borderlands Online unloads hard details before testing begins
If you desperately want to play Borderlands Online but have no access to the upcoming China-only title, maybe the hard details on the game's systems will make you feel better. Or maybe they'll make you want to play it more; hard to say. The game will feature four classes: Soldier, which can summon a mobile turret; Hunter, which marks and weakens the target with a drone; Siren, which uses a little bird made out of fire to burn things; and Berserker, which can, well, go berserk. Five categories of weapon will be available, with four of the categories locked to classes (Sniper Rifles for Hunters, for example) and Pistols being available for everyone. The game's first test, running from the 23rd to the 27th, will feature three towns with six instanced areas each for gameplay. Take a gander at the full details and some early press screenshots if you just can't find out enough about this new installment of the franchise.
H1Z1 is going 'nuclear' on hackers
From the sound of it, the H1Z1 crew put in some serious overtime during this past weekend. SOE President John Smedley has been posting updates across Reddit, especially in reference to hackers and important patch fixes. Smedley said that the team is "extremely on top of" any hacking going on in the game and will only get better as time goes by. "What we have is extremely robust in terms of detection and prevention," he posted. "Now that we started with detection, you'll be seeing the prevention go nuclear." Patches that are coming soon to the game will cover many vital issues, according to Smedley. These fixes include more loot, frame rate fixes, the infamous G29 problem, the floating arrow bug, and a slower drain rate for hunger and thirst.
Life is Feudal unveils its 2015 roadmap
So what will the next year bring for Life is Feudal? Lots of things, since the game is still in its early access phase. But you don't have to take our vague and noncommittal words for it; you can just take a look at the game's official 2015 roadmap. The page outlines what will be coming to the game each month from here until September, along with progress bars to give hopeful players an idea of how far along the team has gotten on these features. The team is going to be taking a break on all of this during their first trip to a convention, though; the staff from Bitbox will be in-person at PAX South, displaying at Booth 1261 for fans and those who have never heard of the game before. In other words, it should be a pretty busy 2015 for the game. [Thanks to Saxxon for the tip!]
Massively hands-on: Let's talk about The Repopulation
Writing about early access games is the suck. I guess it's something I'll have to get over, though, given how early access is now launch, how alpha is the new beta, and how gamers are lining up to pay big money for ideas. With that out of the way, let's talk a bit about my first steps in The Repopulation. It's an appropriately ambitious sci-fi sandbox from scrappy indie studio Above & Beyond Technologies. As you might expect, it's somewhat rough at the moment. I see it carving out a successful niche for itself in the future, though.
H1Z1 bests login issues, justifies and tweaks 'pay-to-win' airdrops [Update: Refunds being granted]
Zombie sandbox MMO H1Z1 launched into early access on Steam yesterday evening only to be plagued with login server issues that caused even us to cancel our planned stream. In other words, it was an MMO launch. Overnight, SOE's John Smedley told Reddit that those problems have been mopped up that that SOE is currently working on G29 and G99 errors, server framerates, disappearing chats, crash bugs, and a "runaway memory situation." Reddit and Steam's user review section have exploded not over the predictable early access technical issues but over cash-shop airdrops, which some players say constitute pay-to-win in violation of SOE's stated philosophy. Smed denied obfuscating the presence of airdrops, saying SOE has "been straight about it" and justifying the mechanic: 1) You cannot call in airdrops until the servers are 1/4 full. 2) You can't call in airdrops without generating a ton of zombie heat. 3) the airdrops are random in what they deliver. 4) you are not guaranteed to get a single thing out of the airdrop you called in. You could die trying and you're out the money. 5) We fly the plane in very slowly and loudly.. we also stream green smoke from it you can see from very far away. But he does note that SOE will be "making some big changes" to airdrops, including widening the radius, reducing the chance they'll drop guns, slowing the airdrop planes even more, and increasing the number of players who can call them at any given time. "If you think it's P2W don't buy it. Don't play it," Smed posted. "But I have to say wait until you've personally tried them before making the call."
Elite: Dangerous maps out update beta schedule, teases expansions
In a development post released today, Elite: Dangerous Executive Producer Michael Brookes laid out Frontier's plans for the game's inbound major updates following the tiny 1.05 patch this morning. Update 1.1 is set to enter beta the first week of February, Brookes says, and will focus on mechanics for player collaboration and route planning. Who gets to join that beta? Currently beta testing will be available for those who already have beta access for the main game. For players participating in the beta tests there will be a separate mechanism for playing so testing does not affect your game and that you can continue to play the retail version as well. Options for players currently without beta access to be able to purchase beta access will be available. Details will be made available nearer the time. Depending on how the update Betas go in test, we expect them to be released to everyone a week or so after the Beta release. Brookes also teased E:D's upcoming paid DLC as well as the multiplayer-focused 1.2 update, the beta for the latter of which is expected in March.
Echo of Soul hopes to make a strong Western impression
What does it take to make a new MMO that can gain traction in this day and age? In a new video dev diary, the Echo of Soul team says that it's spent over four years and 110 developers to pursue a goal of "uniting MMORPGs and mobile games" while making it appealing for both an Eastern and a Western audience. The video goes on to talk up Echo of Soul's Asian launch; it claims the game is "constantly ranked among the top 10 Korean games" since then. Aeria Games Chief Manager Nara Kang concurred that the reception has been strong: "Players feel that EoS is the best MMORPG in a very long time." You can watch the full dev diary after the break!
Black Desert readies sieges for January 17th
Ready to lay siege to your enemies and take control of whatever strikes your fancy (as long as it's a castle) in Black Desert? The developers are getting ready to let players do just that. Sieges will be enabled on a single server on January 17th for a live test, and as long as nothing breaks horrendously, all servers will have the mechanics enabled on January 24th. Each guild will be able to build two towers and one command center as part of the lead-in to the warfare; the last guild standing after a siege will take control of the castle and be the defenders during the next assault. Still no word has been offered on an exact date for a North American release, for those of you watching this with hungry eyes. You'll have to find out how the siege tests go from the sidelines.
Pathfinder Online outlines its update and test patterns
The early enrollment stage of Pathfinder Online has started, and that means it's time to start setting a regular update schedule. A new development blog establishes that the game is currently slated to put out a new major build every other week, with the acknowledgement that the first few weeks will be something less than reliable due to the growing pains of turning the servers on. Players can look forward to the War of Towers kicking off tomorrow, January 14th, at 1:00 p.m. EST. A bunch of the game's moving pieces are being either reopened or renamed. The alpha accounts are being renamed platinum accounts, since the game is no longer in its alpha testing phase. The test server is coming back online as a way to double-check all of the new adjustments to the game before they go live. Worth noting is that account perks used on the test server will still count as consumed on the live server, meaning that an account entitlement you use on a test will be gone as surely if you used it in the core game. Check out the full update for more specifics and the mechanics of taking part in update testing.
Shroud of the Avatar's elementals run (not so) wild
The elemental forces of nature are one of many inhabitants of Shroud of the Avatar that can be either friend or foe, depending on the situation -- and the binding. In a recent newsletter, the devs showed off several of the elementals and golems in both bound and unbound varieties. Mages will be able to use magic to subdue and order these beings to protect and serve. The newsletter also showed the progress being made on Dragon Pass and promoted the Release 14 grand tour quest reward, which is a very pointy hat called a Hennin. You know you want to wear a princess hat, you pretty little thing. Well, you'll get your chance when that update comes out on January 29th.
See Black Desert's impish Tamer class in action
While we wait for word on Black Desert's arrival in the West, the game is ticking along in its Korean open beta and continuing to add more features. One of these is the addition of the Tamer class, which will be coming to the beta this month. Not much is known about the Tamer, other than what a short video reveals: that she is a little goofy and likes to hit things with sticks. Steparu reports that other classes are on the way, including the possible Blader and Ninja professions. You can watch the Tamer in action after the break!
Under construction: Who benefits from MMO early access?
On its Early Access page, Steam posts a manifesto of sorts praising this radical new type of development in which players get in on the alpha or pre-alpha stage, saying, "This is the way that games should be made." Is it? I'm not so sure. Early access -- and all of the other similar names for the same concept -- appears to be the latest trend that's sweeping not just MMOs but video games in general. Both Steam and crowdfunding sites like Kickstarter are largely responsible for promoting early access, and it has been a popular attraction for players who previously had to sit on their hands and wait for a game to get, y'know, finished. Now we can indulge instantly and run around the structure even as it's still under construction. I was talking about early access with Bree on the podcast the other day, and both of us were expressing distaste and an increasing uneasiness with the early access trend. Popular as it may be, is it really the way that games should be made? Will it result in better titles in the end? And who is getting what, exactly, out of it? It's this last question I want to address today.
PlanetSide 2's PS4 beta arrives on January 20th
A post on the official PlayStation blog today confirms that PlanetSide 2's PlayStation 4 beta will begin on January 20th. "We'll be using this beta period to test our servers, performance, and various other aspects of the game, and we also want you to share constructive feedback on PlanetSide 2," says SOE Executive Producer Clint Worley. "How does the game look and feel? Is navigating through the menus intuitive and utilizing DualShock 4 in the best way? All players in the Closed Beta will have access to our special Beta forums, which will be the primary location for development interaction and feedback. We want the massive battles to make your heart pound and adrenaline pump, so share your thoughts with us." Beta signups for the PS4 edition of the game have been live since early December. PlanetSide 2 has lately made news for its frank discussions about monetization; SOE president John Smedley admitted that "PlanetSide 2 only recently has turned profitable on an operating basis."
ArcheAge tosses its end-of-holiday update on the test server
Testing out an update that's mostly meant to just turn off the holiday event might seem to be overkill, but ArcheAge has seen such problems with bugs that the team behind the game is apparently taking no chances. A small patch is currently available on the test server and will go live later this week; it contains the shut-off for all of the holiday events (so players with gifts or stockings should use them before the deadline). This build also contains adjustments to the MTX Pet Healing Potion; the potion will now heal pets for 100% of their health, and a future build will add a resurrection effect. A Marketplace addition is also slated to go live on the test servers within the next few days. If you want to make sure that everything's working fine after the event gets turned off, you can hop on the test server today.
