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Line of Defense's Derek Smart recaps ongoing test phase
3000AD's Derek Smart has penned a new Line of Defense developer blog outlining the current state of the MMOFPS title's early access test phase. Smart explains that more than half of the game's world stations have been opened to testers so far, with two more stations expected to open soon. The final four will unlock when aircraft are patched in. Smart also says that his team is working on a public roadmap website so that players can track release progress and vote on new features. He thanks his testers for their patience with the "staggered" test schedule. " It is for the greater good," he writes. "Been doing this a very – very – long time, so you just have to trust that I know what I'm doing." Earlier this fall, Line of Defense launched on Steam's early access program, but an error allowed the public to download the game without paying for a founder's pack, leading to negative reviews when the games were confiscated and eliciting a fiery response from Smart.
Elite: Dangerous' third beta is now live with new systems, ships, and interdiction mechanics
After a brief technical delay, Elite: Dangerous' "Beta 3.00 is now available," declares a post on the official Frontier forums. The patch notes are extra long; new and updated features include new ships, player-driven interdiction, fuel scooping from stars, asteroid mining, visual overhauls to planets, philanthropy missions, and an expanded game map with now over 2400 systems. Frontier has also added hundreds of audio tweaks and bug fixes. Players have continued reporting stability issues with the new patch. This episode of beta, like the phases before it, is exclusive to those who've pre-purchased the game and beta access. Massively's Mike Foster spent September playing the game in beta 1 and had enough fun to say that he "would happily recommend it" but for the beta price tag. We've included the new beta 3 trailer below.
Play Trove for free this weekend
If you've been itching to playtest Trion Worlds' voxel-based sandbox Trove but haven't wanted to pony up cash for the beta, then you're going to love the next three days. Trion has announced a free weekend event starting today at 2:00 p.m. EDT; everyone is invited to dip in and give the game a look.The only catch? You'll have to play through Trion's Glyph client. "Trove will automagically appear in your Library game list this weekend!" says the studio. The freebie weekend is timed perfectly to coincide with Trove's ongoing Shadow's Eve Halloween event, which offers bizarre prizes like piñata mounts and Smashing Pumpkin recliners. The free play period ends at 2:00 p.m. EDT on Monday, October 27th. Shadow's Eve ends November 2nd.
Google's plan for super-fast internet: tap unused airwaves
One of the problems with a tech company publicly testing anything is that you can start to hope. Hope, almost inevitably, leads to despair, and from despair it's only a short hop to the dark side, or something. With that in mind, we'd suggest you try not to hope too hard when you hear that Google has applied to the FCC for permission to begin wireless spectrum tests in the San Francisco area. According to Reuters, the company's looking into a rarely-used millimeter wave frequency that is capable of transmitting large amounts of data, but only if the receiving equipment is in the line-of-sight.
Bloodborne alpha returns this weekend for one postponed hurrah
Players of Bloodborne's alpha have one more chance to check out the build this Sunday, October 19, after developer From Software postponed the final day's session during the initial test run. The Souls studio canceled the October 5 session "due to some issues," but an email sent to Joystiq by Sony Computer Entertainment Europe detailed the encore with co-op play for up to two extra players included. According to a PlayStation Japan support page, the delayed alpha session is due to run between 5PM and 8PM PT in North America (8PM-11PM ET), while in Europe it's scheduled for 6PM-9PM BST (7-10PM CET). Meanwhile, Sony Europe notes voucher codes for the alpha have been extended beyond the stated expiry date, and advises users who've deleted the Alpha Test client they can re-download it.
Choose My Adventure: Basically Han Solo in Elite: Dangerous
When Frontier Developments' Elite: Dangerous eventually launches, I'm guessing there will be two primary types of pilots cruising its vast expanses: quiet, peaceful types who enjoy exploring and courier-ing, and destructive, violent types who prefer interacting with NPCs and other players via pulse lasers. Elite's loose structure has room for other archetypes, though, such as the savvy trader working the marketplace and the under-the-radar smuggler who lives on the wrong side of the law but avoids drawing attention to himself. Being peaceful doesn't mean you have to be lawful. Last week's Choose My Adventure poll set me on the path of the smuggler, challenging me to secure illegal goods and to sneak those goods by the feds to net a healthy profit. Results were mixed.
MapleStory 2 shows off its housing system
MapleStory 2 is not going to make your character live on the streets. Probably not, anyway; the new video on housing makes it appear that space is limited for buying and building a house or a room, but players will have the option of doing either. Yes, there's housing, and the video just past the break shows it off in all its glory, even if the narration will be a bit difficult to follow for the non-Korean-speaking members of our audience. While open-world plots are rather expensive, rooms can also be purchased for characters to use, offering many of the same benefits. Some decorations are purely cosmetic, while others offer a function; the video shows off using a cabinet for storage and a mannequin for quickly changing to a new gear set. There's also the option to quickly teleport back to your home as necessary once you own one. Check out the full video past the break for a clearer picture of the housing setup.
Let the cuteness of MapleStory 2 woo you
We've got another video preview of the upcoming MapleStory 2 for you to check out today, albeit with the standard "it's not in English, so either get really good at Korean fast or just pretend that you know what's happening" disclaimer. So what do you think about the blocky landscape? Is it perfect for the MapleStory setting or too reminiscent of the Minecraft crowd? Also, how has this entire population not killed itself for a lack of handrails next to bottomless drops into the sunshiney abyss? [Thanks to Lunian and Dystopiq for the tip!]
Choose My Adventure: Exploring exploration via Elite: Dangerous
Being an explorer is overrated. Sure, Lewis and Clark are remembered as bold adventurers who set out across the untamed American west, charting charts and mapping maps and becoming famous along the way. It's less memorable that the expedition frequently feasted on dogs, slept with more locals than a touring indie rock band, and included at least one accidental butt shooting. In other words, between an explorer and fame there lies a whole lot of gristle. Last week, Choose My Adventure voters set me on the exploration path in Frontier Development's Elite: Dangerous. While exploration hasn't yet been implemented as a viable career, it's still a thing you can do just because you feel like doing it. It's also a pretty great way to see your life end in a cacophony of flames and shrapnel or to find yourself staring at a map in complete and utter confusion. Still, it beats roasting a Labrador and passing it around the campfire.
Albion Online kicks off its summer alpha event
You could be forgiven for thinking it's a bit too late for "summer" events to take place right now, but Albion Online is forging ahead with its summer alpha event. The closed alpha client is now available for players to log in and explore all of the available systems, from gathering and trading resources to engaging in large-scale PvP battles. If you're not at one of the game's higher Founder tiers, of course, the alpha test is closed to you; all you can do is look on with interest and wish you were playing. Streams and reports will be coming out of this test, including one planned by our own MJ Guthrie at 2 p.m. EDT this afternoon. If you like what you see, you can pick up one of the Founder Packs, or you can just keep watching and waiting as the alpha test rolls on. [Source: Sandbox Interactive press release]
HEX is not Hearthstone: A look at HEX's closed beta
It's been a while, HEX. Last time I saw you was E3 2013. I hadn't yet started to play Hearthstone, and truthfully, I doubted it could hold a candle to you. In a lot of ways, I was right. It's so much simpler, it's less complex, and at the time, it felt less imaginative. But my card game days are behind me. I don't have the kind of time I used to, so Hearthstone's faster games and accessible drafts (called "arenas" in HS) reminded me of the things I love about the genre while allowing me to keep my grown-up schedule intact and being easy on my wallet. Just the same, HEX, when I got the closed beta invite to see you again, my heart skipped a beat. I was ready to drop some big money on you, but I've been burned a few times. While I've been in betas and alphas for other games, there's been a trend of letting people pay to play unfinished products. I've been burned, and while I don't regret the experience, I do regret the purchases at the moment. I mean, when a game suddenly disappears from the market, it does make you question your decisions, so I decided we should go out a few times first before I really invest in you.
Landmark adds toilets, opens itself for potty jokes
We'll just come right out and say it: You can now create and install toilets in Landmark. This is a boon for both the incontinent and the internet comedian, although we suppose that it will be well-received by home builders who want to complete their bathroom set. The patch supposedly fixes individual claim permissions, optimizes the gallery, and improves the bundling interface for the marketplace. Also in the game with today's patch are chains, bathtubs, sinks, and a new "modular" tree.
Choose My Adventure: I am Elite: Dangerous
Space is not a very good place for people to hang out. Humans have a specific list of things that are needed for survival, and space is in a continual state of being fresh out of all of them. Thus, the space race isn't just about firing objects into the universe and seeing how far they can go but about building contraptions that deliver enough tender love and care to keep folks alive for the journey. Space travel is immensely expensive and complicated; humanity is still decades or even centuries away from easily accessible personal spacecraft. Space sims like Frontier Development's Elite: Dangerous let you skip ahead a bit to see what things might be like when launching yourself into space will come with all the grandiosity of running to the store for some bread. "Yeah, you have a spaceship," Elite says, "but what exactly do you intend to do with it?" In this, the second week of our Elite-focused Choose My Adventure, we'll be seeking an answer to that very question.
Choose My Adventure: It's lonely out in Elite: Dangerous
In 1990, hurtling across the edge of our solar system at around 40,000 miles per hour, NASA's Voyager 1 space probe performed a quick rotation and snapped a parting photograph of the planet on which it had been conceived, built, and launched. The resulting image, known as the Pale Blue Dot photo, features a tiny Earth surrounded on all sides by an infinite blackness. It was this image, transmitted a distance of 3.7 billion miles at the speed of light, that inspired Carl Sagan to write, "There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world." In other words, space is big. Really big. And it is into this great unknown, this unimaginable void wrapped in darkness and silence, that Choose My Adventure now boldly goes via Elite: Dangerous, a crowdfunded space simulator (no, not that crowdfunded space simulator) from Frontier Developments. With 55 star systems and 38,000 cubic light-years of space to explore, Elite's Beta 1 release should offer us plenty of freedom to sate our interstellar cravings and to thrive or die as an independent pilot.
PAX Prime 2014: World of Warships balances historical accuracy with big boat fun
A warship is understandably larger and more complicated than a tank or plane, which is why Wargaming is diverging slightly with its third online title. At PAX Prime, I sat down with the dev team for World of Warships to see how the alpha is progressing and what a fleet of ships looks like with all guns blazing. There are four types of ships from which players can choose when they step into a match. Destroyers are smaller and faster with torpedoes, battleships are hulking gun platforms, and cruisers are straddling the line between the two. Then there are carriers (which we did not get to see) that eschew big guns for a squadron of planes to send out. Unfortunately, submarines aren't part of the mix, as the team decided that they wouldn't be fun for this type of game. Each ship is as historically accurate in its looks and is hideously detailed, with up to 500 parts and 270,000 polygons. This detail comes into play when ships are damaged in certain sections, disabling features and abilities. The team is planning on launching with around 75 ships between the starting nations of the United States and Japan.
Albion Online opens its next alpha test on September 15th
Excited to get your mitts on Albion Online? If you've got alpha access, you'll get your chance on September 15th. Developer Sandbox Interactive is opening up the game to testers so they can explore the game, hunt for bugs, and find out what's changed in the most recent build if they've tested before. The current test window is for 14 days (until September 29th) but it may be extended depending on performance, feedback, and player numbers. If you're not already a tester, you can buy one of the game's founder packs to get in and start testing when September rolls around; the $50 pack is the lowest priced option to allow for participation in this particular alpha test. Or you can nab a key during a giveaway elsewhere, that will work too. [Source: Sandbox Interactive press release]
Watch this: A robot traverses the English countryside on a hoverbike
Oh, that? It's just a robot riding across the English countryside on a 1/3-scale model of a hoverbike. The folks at Malloy Aeronautics are hard at work on a similar full-sized vehicle for humans, but as part of its Kickstarter effort to raise funds for the project, a smaller version is offered to backers. What was originally a proof of concept piece is now a fully-operational aerial drone, and can be yours if you're willing to part with around $1,000 (£595) in support of the endeavor. For now, just enjoy watching that tiny robot take flight in your stead, just after the break.
Gamescom 2014: Skyforge's crew narrates a 30-minute tour
Skyforge is a title that has caught my attention for several reasons, including its pretty graphics, its science-fiction bent, and its flexible class build system. Past that I'm a little ignorant, which is why I appreciated the following video from Gamescom. After Skyforge's trailer, the team delivers a crash course on the game's lore, features, and combat. One of the interesting aspects is how the game can zoom out to show you the entire world so that you can easily see where quests for your character are waiting. If Skyforge is on your radar, do yourself a favor and give the Gamescom panel a watch when you have a moment!
Take a virtual trip to Destiny's Mars
Mars is but one of the locales on which Guardians will be making planetfall in Destiny, but it is perhaps the most rust-colored and sandy of them all. In a new video released today, the mysteries and vistas of the Red Planet is, well, not exactly explained in great detail, but at least teased in a visually pleasing way. It looks as though mankind had made a previous stab at colonizing Mars, but now it's a desolate wasteland where dunes are reclaiming skyscrapers. If the video is to be believed, it's not exactly devoid of inhabitants, however. You can see it for yourself after the break.
ArcheAge adds three servers for next round of closed beta testing
Trion Worlds is anticipating a flood of new players for the third ArcheAge closed beta test, saying that it expects the weekend event will be "four times" the size of the first test. The studio is sending out "hundreds of thousands" of email invites, noting that players will need a new CB3 invitation to participate and cannot rely on an old CB2 key for access. The team is adding three new servers for CB3: two in North America and one in Europe. These servers will plug into the cross-server auction house that's shared by their associated regions. ArcheAge's beta will "pick up right where it left off," as the devs promise that progress made during CB2 will be retained and characters will not be wiped. The beta test begins on August 14th and continues through August 18th.
