Today I went to my local Gamestop (yes, we have Gamestop in Italy, we're the only non-american country to have Gamestop, with the result that US Gamestop will ship their games to Burkina Fasu, but not to Italy, forcing Italian customers that want american editions of games to find other solutions) to finally buy my copy of Star Ocean: The Last Hope and to resist the terrible temptation of buying the 360 version of Tales of Vesperia. I really want to play it, but I already know that I would feel almost scammed in missing out the additional contents coming (who knows when) with the PS3 version... But that (the shame of exclusive content released months later) is another story...
What do those two games have in common, besides being both JRPGs? They are part of the innumerable host of games released in Europe with an unacceptable delay compared to the other regions.
While American gamers, in most cases, get to wait a few days more than their Japanese counterparts, European gamers had to wait four months more for Star Ocean, and ALMOST A YEAR for Tales of Vesperia.
But this isn't the only problem. Despite being well into the 21st century, there are still games that don't get released at all in Europe.
While American gamers are treated to lovely ports of Japanese games from the american branches of Atlus and Nippon Ichi, most of the time the European customer gets only to sigh and dream (or import, which isn't possible on all platforms).
Let's not even talk about downloadable content. While american gamers have fun with Final Fantasy VII and Final Fantasy IV: the after years, we have to bang our heads against the wall to try and make ourselves numb and to avoid thinking about how inferior is the service we receive by the eurpean providers of basically every major MMORPG.
So, what are the problems behind the fact that Europe, despite being a thriving and rich market for the videogaming industry, is still the ghetto in which the least considered and valued (by the industry) gamers are held prisoner?
1) While Europe is an extremely lucrative market for the gaming industry, many software houses still didn't notice that maybe, just maybe, there actually is land on this side of the big pond.
2) Translation and dubbing: a few big developers started spoiling european customers with translations AND voice acting in all the major European languages (German, French, Italian and Spanish), with the result that now many European gamers take translation AND voice acting in their own language as a granted undeniable civil right, and shun games that are shipped only in english. This, of course, inflates the costs and the timeframe for localization.
We are in the paradoxical situation in which things were better when we were REALLY a ghetto, with games released only in english. At that time people took videogames as a chance to learn English (I started learning english when I was six, playing on my Spectrum 48k), instead of whining because they can't understand it (not being able to fluently speak and at the very least understand english in 2009? Shame on you. Seriously).
3) Separate rating system: Has everyone ever thought about this? Why the hell do we need a separate rating system from the ESRB? Other than for paying absolutely useless "experts" whose job is absolutely redundant of what's done on the other side of the ocean. Are Italian, French or english parents so dumb that they need a "localized" version of the ratings?
Because, of course, getting videogames rated by our very own, but extremely reduntant PEGI is extremely time consuming, not to mention costly for the software houses. The funniest thing is that some countries (like Italy) want to establish their own additional rating systems... God forbid...
4) Forever damned region locked systems and games: why, as the dawn of the new millenium is well in our past, hardware developers still insist in selling us region locked systems? Why, in a globalized world in which I can order a game from Tokyo today and receive it the day after tomorrow, I cannot just buy my games in any place I like, and play them on my own console? While at least Sony has finally understood that gamer segregation is an absolutely laughable choice, Nintendo and Microsoft still don't get the simple concept that region locks should definitely be a thing of the past already.
They want to demolish the borders between reality and virtuality with gimmicks like Project Natal, but still they can't even get past the borders between Japan, the US and Europe.
Thank goodness for me being able to play the american Final Fantasy XIII on my PS3. If i was a 360-only user, I would be absolutely furious about having to wait several months more to let the (not exactly top-notch) translators at Square Enix Europe butcher both the game's script AND my native language like they did with the past installments of the series.
So, where does the solution lie? Microsoft and Nintendo finally getting a clue and removing their silly region locks would definitely be a big step on the right direction. An unified rating system would probably "protect" kids (and who protect videogames from kids?) all over the world without any problem, without foraging an absolutely redundant and mostly useless European organization.
Nothing can be done about that slice of European customers demanding a translated and dubbed version of all titles, but at the very least, a liberalized market in which any gamer can freely chose the version of the game to buy and to play on any version of his console, would at least allow those of us that have done that little effort needed to study a language that's almost deemed as international (and needed for almost any job nowadays), to avoid waiting several months for a damn game that's already old when it finally gets on our local shelves.
Give us the freedom to chose and to buy, that's all we ask.
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Monday, July 13, 2009
Modding: Something PC gaming has, and consoles don't
You hear every day how PC gaming is about to die and consoles run the market. This may have a measure of truth commercially-wise (just a measure, since PC gaming is far from being actually dead, while it holds a smaller slice of the market). but PC gaming does have something to offer that Consoles won't be able to deliver regularly for quite a while.
Console developers are making a big fuss over the few games (like Little Big Planet) that offer some user generated content. When I first saw that, my reaction has been fairly simple: "What's teh big deal?"
PC gaming has been packed with user generated content for several years, and while being a feature that can be definitely defined as niche in it's appeal, modding is an added value of PC games that cannot be denied.
Recently, tired of seeing all the awesome pictures of my friends' modded Oblivion, i shelved my PS3 Game of the Year edition and picked up a PC one.
A whole world opened in front of me.
Oblivion is probably one of the most shining examples of how a game with an high moddability potential can generate an awesome community of extremely talented modders that will continue to refresh the game's appeal over the years.
Sites like TESNexus offer thousands over thousands of mods (a percentage of which, of course, are quite low-quality, but it isn't hard to distinguish the cream from the crop) that can turn a 2006-dated game into something that better, bigger and even visually more appealing than most games released recently.
Improved visuals, new questlines (often even better than the original ones), whole new cities, new equipment... It's impossible to list all the additions the modding community brought to the game.
If you still have a PC copy of Oblivion sitting around (or Fallout 3, since it's inheriting a part of the modding community), I'd definitely encourage you to give it another look in the lights of what the moders created in the last couple of years.
So yeah, PC gaming may be less popular than console gaming, but it's far from being dead. As long as it'll offer something that consoles don't, it'll always have it's share of the market. As much as I love my consoles, very few features can be compared to the option of simply changing myself what I don't like of the games I buy (just to make an example, the absolute uglyness of most female NPCs in the original Oblivion).
It'd be nice if more game-developers learned from this, making their games more and more moddable. It's in their own interest after all. A game with a thriving modding community is a game that people continue to buy several months or even years after release, not to mention the fact that by seeing what the modders create and the users appreciate, a developer can easily gauge what the gamers really want for future installments of a franchise (no more festival of uglyness in TES5, please get a clue, Bethesda :D ).
If you think modding isn't a big deal, look at the picture that opens this post, and compare it with the Oblivion that you have on your PS3 or 360. You'll probably change your mind.
Console developers are making a big fuss over the few games (like Little Big Planet) that offer some user generated content. When I first saw that, my reaction has been fairly simple: "What's teh big deal?"
PC gaming has been packed with user generated content for several years, and while being a feature that can be definitely defined as niche in it's appeal, modding is an added value of PC games that cannot be denied.
Recently, tired of seeing all the awesome pictures of my friends' modded Oblivion, i shelved my PS3 Game of the Year edition and picked up a PC one.
A whole world opened in front of me.
Oblivion is probably one of the most shining examples of how a game with an high moddability potential can generate an awesome community of extremely talented modders that will continue to refresh the game's appeal over the years.
Sites like TESNexus offer thousands over thousands of mods (a percentage of which, of course, are quite low-quality, but it isn't hard to distinguish the cream from the crop) that can turn a 2006-dated game into something that better, bigger and even visually more appealing than most games released recently.
Improved visuals, new questlines (often even better than the original ones), whole new cities, new equipment... It's impossible to list all the additions the modding community brought to the game.
If you still have a PC copy of Oblivion sitting around (or Fallout 3, since it's inheriting a part of the modding community), I'd definitely encourage you to give it another look in the lights of what the moders created in the last couple of years.
So yeah, PC gaming may be less popular than console gaming, but it's far from being dead. As long as it'll offer something that consoles don't, it'll always have it's share of the market. As much as I love my consoles, very few features can be compared to the option of simply changing myself what I don't like of the games I buy (just to make an example, the absolute uglyness of most female NPCs in the original Oblivion).
It'd be nice if more game-developers learned from this, making their games more and more moddable. It's in their own interest after all. A game with a thriving modding community is a game that people continue to buy several months or even years after release, not to mention the fact that by seeing what the modders create and the users appreciate, a developer can easily gauge what the gamers really want for future installments of a franchise (no more festival of uglyness in TES5, please get a clue, Bethesda :D ).
If you think modding isn't a big deal, look at the picture that opens this post, and compare it with the Oblivion that you have on your PS3 or 360. You'll probably change your mind.
Are journalists afraid of (gaming) bloggers?
I just finished reading an interesting article on Kotaku, featuring a document by the Federal Trade Commission that calls out bloggers (and gaming bloggers, actually) on their right to review gaming products.
In particular the document in question insinuates that bloggers (making no mention of actual paper-bound journalists) would be affected in their judgement by receiving freebies by developers in the form of review material and similar swag.
The New York Times has been quite qick (maybe even too quick) in receiving the pass from the FTC, with a feature article (and no, the writer of the Classy Mommy blog mentioned in the article is not my mom :D I can only wish that my mother would be tech-savy enough to have her own blog...) in which such accusations are amplified and elaborated, of course insinuating the idea that paper-bound "professional" journalists would not suffer from such a bias.
This, to be honest, sounds to me like a desperate lobby action coming from the world of "professional" journalism to try and face the crisis that blogging has brought in the last few years.
Gaming magazines closing due to lack of readers are an almost daily matter. Even the last magazine i wrote for myself had to close due to the competition of the internet.
With everyone being able to create information (or misinformation, exactly like actual journalists do quite often) due to the creative freedom granted by the Internet, the conventional press has faced several moments of jeopardy, as a bigger and bigger part of the audience stopped buying magazines to simply read the much more accessible and free news on websites and blogs. Looks like the world of journalism is finally starting to panic.
The most funny part of this whole thing is that the accusations of what basically is (removing all the frills and decorations) accepting bribes, come from the world of paper-bound journalism.
It's well known that bloggers and web editors DO receive review products and swag. is it a problem? I wouldn't say so.
Personally , the last time i received such regalia, was, surprise surprise, when I was writing for a paper magazine. Yes, because, of course, the ones that receive the largest slice of the cake are the "professional" paper-bound journalists. And yes, this underground "give and take" goes on on paper magazines quite a lot more than on the blogosphere.
Exclusive previews given in exchange of covers and high review scores, invitations to parties and events, free giveaways of quite costly products... Gaming (and not just gaming, it works for every kind of media or product-related magazines) journalists have enjoyed this kind of "advantages" on a widespread fashion since before the term "blog" was even coined.
It's quite laughable to uphold the idea that bloggers are swayed but this kind of trade, while "professional" journalists aren't.
Many writers are, many are just a bit, very, very few aren't. Regardless the kind of media they write on.
Honestly, I AM biased. What creates such a bias (in me and in everyone else that picks up a keyboard and writes), are my own opinions, not any kind of gifts (unless you consider a a game that gives me quite a lot of fun being a gift, but that would be beyond the point, given the fact that I pay for them).
In the end it's the reader's responsibility to make for himself an informed opinion on a product based on multiple sources and ultimately personal experience. The more the time goes on, the more the differences between paper-bound journalism and blogging tend to disappear. Developers giving away swag and gifts to bloggers more and more is just another sign of that, and of the fact that the privileges enjoyed by the press aren't exclusive anymore.
The audience is moving more and more towards the digital domain, and so are developers, that view bloggers more and more as the true opinion leaders.
Instead of panicking and genrating this kind of aberrant accusations, paper-bound journalists should concentrate on raising the (even too often extremely low) quality of their articles, since they can't compete on the pricetag.
In particular the document in question insinuates that bloggers (making no mention of actual paper-bound journalists) would be affected in their judgement by receiving freebies by developers in the form of review material and similar swag.
The New York Times has been quite qick (maybe even too quick) in receiving the pass from the FTC, with a feature article (and no, the writer of the Classy Mommy blog mentioned in the article is not my mom :D I can only wish that my mother would be tech-savy enough to have her own blog...) in which such accusations are amplified and elaborated, of course insinuating the idea that paper-bound "professional" journalists would not suffer from such a bias.
This, to be honest, sounds to me like a desperate lobby action coming from the world of "professional" journalism to try and face the crisis that blogging has brought in the last few years.
Gaming magazines closing due to lack of readers are an almost daily matter. Even the last magazine i wrote for myself had to close due to the competition of the internet.
With everyone being able to create information (or misinformation, exactly like actual journalists do quite often) due to the creative freedom granted by the Internet, the conventional press has faced several moments of jeopardy, as a bigger and bigger part of the audience stopped buying magazines to simply read the much more accessible and free news on websites and blogs. Looks like the world of journalism is finally starting to panic.
The most funny part of this whole thing is that the accusations of what basically is (removing all the frills and decorations) accepting bribes, come from the world of paper-bound journalism.
It's well known that bloggers and web editors DO receive review products and swag. is it a problem? I wouldn't say so.
Personally , the last time i received such regalia, was, surprise surprise, when I was writing for a paper magazine. Yes, because, of course, the ones that receive the largest slice of the cake are the "professional" paper-bound journalists. And yes, this underground "give and take" goes on on paper magazines quite a lot more than on the blogosphere.
Exclusive previews given in exchange of covers and high review scores, invitations to parties and events, free giveaways of quite costly products... Gaming (and not just gaming, it works for every kind of media or product-related magazines) journalists have enjoyed this kind of "advantages" on a widespread fashion since before the term "blog" was even coined.
It's quite laughable to uphold the idea that bloggers are swayed but this kind of trade, while "professional" journalists aren't.
Many writers are, many are just a bit, very, very few aren't. Regardless the kind of media they write on.
Honestly, I AM biased. What creates such a bias (in me and in everyone else that picks up a keyboard and writes), are my own opinions, not any kind of gifts (unless you consider a a game that gives me quite a lot of fun being a gift, but that would be beyond the point, given the fact that I pay for them).
In the end it's the reader's responsibility to make for himself an informed opinion on a product based on multiple sources and ultimately personal experience. The more the time goes on, the more the differences between paper-bound journalism and blogging tend to disappear. Developers giving away swag and gifts to bloggers more and more is just another sign of that, and of the fact that the privileges enjoyed by the press aren't exclusive anymore.
The audience is moving more and more towards the digital domain, and so are developers, that view bloggers more and more as the true opinion leaders.
Instead of panicking and genrating this kind of aberrant accusations, paper-bound journalists should concentrate on raising the (even too often extremely low) quality of their articles, since they can't compete on the pricetag.
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
The Land of the Dead is open on Warhammer Online
I Just finished playing the "free" day for my realm in Land of the Dead (it's 7.22 AM and I'll have to go to work in 1 hour, so I guess you can understand already how much I liked it if it kept me up til now)
I managed to experience all the public quests and Lairs (getting a very, very nice shield in the process, yay), and I have to say I had a blast. It's hand down one of the most beautifully designed areas i've ever seen in a MMO. The graphics are stunning, pushing quite nicely the limits of the engine.
The nicest thing, though, is that I didn't encounter any real bug, all the content is really polished and flows without problems.
The encounters themselves, on top of all the goodness, are very fun, topped by quite challenging mechanics that bring a lot of variety to the gameplay.
Unfortunately the tomb of the Vulture Lord was still closed. Hopefully I'll manage to get in there tomorrow (if we get control of the place). If the quality is similar to the necropolis, then we're in for a lot of fun.
Mythic really delivered, in the face the usual haters.
I managed to experience all the public quests and Lairs (getting a very, very nice shield in the process, yay), and I have to say I had a blast. It's hand down one of the most beautifully designed areas i've ever seen in a MMO. The graphics are stunning, pushing quite nicely the limits of the engine.
The nicest thing, though, is that I didn't encounter any real bug, all the content is really polished and flows without problems.
The encounters themselves, on top of all the goodness, are very fun, topped by quite challenging mechanics that bring a lot of variety to the gameplay.
Unfortunately the tomb of the Vulture Lord was still closed. Hopefully I'll manage to get in there tomorrow (if we get control of the place). If the quality is similar to the necropolis, then we're in for a lot of fun.
Mythic really delivered, in the face the usual haters.
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
Square Enix unveils Final Fantasy XIV at E3
Looks like the Square-Enix press conference at E3 is actually 100% dedicated to Final Fantasy XIV (proof that, differently from what someone hinted at, it's quite a important title for S-E).
I'm following the G4tv.com liveblog, adn I'll write and comment while I read, since lots of interesting information are being unveiled.
First of all, since it's a very sensitive point for everyone, the rumors about the game being free to play are, at the moment, to be considered just rumors. They specified clearly that they didn't take any decision on pricing yet. Honestly, I hope it'll be pay to play. Pay to Play games normallyt enjoy an higher quality and better updates. In any case the "illusion" of free to play games often brings people (me included) to spend quite a lot more than an usual monthly fee.
While the announcement surprised many (looks like S-E is better than Sony at keeping secrets), the game has been in developement for more than four years, which means that a lot of the content is probably already done or near completion. They probably didn't want to do the error many other software houses do, announcing a game too early, with the result that the hype peaks before release and then starts to fade.
Many have gritted their teeth lately at the fact that Final Fantasy XIII will be released in the US quite a lot later than in Japan, and even later in europe (luckily I'm going to buy the PS3 version, so I'll be able to import at least an US copy, since the console is region free). Looks like this won't be the case for Final Fantasy XIV, that will be released simultaneously in Japan, US and Europe, sporting Japanese, English, French and German languages. No plans for Italian or Spanish at the moment.
Looks like western players won't have any excuse, this time, to gripe at the japanese gamers because they "got it first" and have an advantage.
On that note, and quite a pleasant note for me, for now the plan is to have completely international servers, that will have players from the whole world (Japan included), exactly like with Final Fantasy XI.
No US servers, no Euro getto, everyone will play together, and this really makes me happy. One of the things that I loved the most about Final Fantasy XI was the cultural diversity, and the ability to create ties with gamers from areas of the world with which normally you don't get to play with (expecially Japan). They didn't mention an autotranslator (no one of the press asked about it after all), but it's pretty safe to assume that it will be there, and boy i had tons of fun using it in FFXI...
At launch the game will be, as anticipated on PS3 and PC, even if further platforms will be considered down the line.
Moving on, they specified that the trailer (that you can see in the post below) were partly pre-rendered, and partly working with the game engine, in particular, the melee battle scene was in-game. The battle system will still remain a mistery, but there will be solo content as well as massive battles (maybe a Realm vs Realm PvP system?), and even raiding has been hinted at.
Many are hoping that the game won't be as grindy as FFXI was, and in fact they reassured the audience, telling that "the character will be able to grow and develop in a more natural way without putting too much weight on the player". Also, the job system will be fairly different from the one in Final Fantasy XI (and this is an indirect confirmation of the fact that there WILL be a job system, in the case someone doubted it).
The player will be able to chose to play "solo, in a party, 40 minutes, all day..". there will be content for all of those play styles and systems in place to satisfy both the casual and the hardcore gamer.
The game still doesn't have a precise release window besides a generic "2010", and the beta schedule still hasn't been determined (but yes, there will be a beta that will be announced "shortly").
While the game will not use Playonline, the playonline friend lists will be carried over. The characters, though, will not, so everyone will have to restart from scratch (which is good, since my paladin must be quite outdated by now...).
Finally, they specified that the major reason for which players should chose their game instead of others, is because they'll fall in love with the world and the story that they created. This probably is a confirmation that Final Fantasy XIV will (thank goodness) be heavily storytelling focused, exactly like it's predecessor. There can be a true Final Fantasy without a good story, after all, isn't it?
What can I say. I'm excited. I'll for sure play it when it'll come out next year... will be hard to split my time between Warhammer and Final Fantasy, but i can't be forced to chose between my two favourite franchises (when Warhammer 40000 will be released my life is going to collapse). If you're interested about it at least a tenth of what I am, you might want to subscribe to the newsletter on the game's new official site, here.
I really can't wait. Despite having left Vana'diel about two years ago, a part of me always missed Final Fantasy XI, and I've been tempted to go back several times. Looks like it's almost time to go back home, to a new home on Eorzea :D
I'm following the G4tv.com liveblog, adn I'll write and comment while I read, since lots of interesting information are being unveiled.
First of all, since it's a very sensitive point for everyone, the rumors about the game being free to play are, at the moment, to be considered just rumors. They specified clearly that they didn't take any decision on pricing yet. Honestly, I hope it'll be pay to play. Pay to Play games normallyt enjoy an higher quality and better updates. In any case the "illusion" of free to play games often brings people (me included) to spend quite a lot more than an usual monthly fee.
While the announcement surprised many (looks like S-E is better than Sony at keeping secrets), the game has been in developement for more than four years, which means that a lot of the content is probably already done or near completion. They probably didn't want to do the error many other software houses do, announcing a game too early, with the result that the hype peaks before release and then starts to fade.
Many have gritted their teeth lately at the fact that Final Fantasy XIII will be released in the US quite a lot later than in Japan, and even later in europe (luckily I'm going to buy the PS3 version, so I'll be able to import at least an US copy, since the console is region free). Looks like this won't be the case for Final Fantasy XIV, that will be released simultaneously in Japan, US and Europe, sporting Japanese, English, French and German languages. No plans for Italian or Spanish at the moment.
Looks like western players won't have any excuse, this time, to gripe at the japanese gamers because they "got it first" and have an advantage.
On that note, and quite a pleasant note for me, for now the plan is to have completely international servers, that will have players from the whole world (Japan included), exactly like with Final Fantasy XI.
No US servers, no Euro getto, everyone will play together, and this really makes me happy. One of the things that I loved the most about Final Fantasy XI was the cultural diversity, and the ability to create ties with gamers from areas of the world with which normally you don't get to play with (expecially Japan). They didn't mention an autotranslator (no one of the press asked about it after all), but it's pretty safe to assume that it will be there, and boy i had tons of fun using it in FFXI...
At launch the game will be, as anticipated on PS3 and PC, even if further platforms will be considered down the line.
Moving on, they specified that the trailer (that you can see in the post below) were partly pre-rendered, and partly working with the game engine, in particular, the melee battle scene was in-game. The battle system will still remain a mistery, but there will be solo content as well as massive battles (maybe a Realm vs Realm PvP system?), and even raiding has been hinted at.
Many are hoping that the game won't be as grindy as FFXI was, and in fact they reassured the audience, telling that "the character will be able to grow and develop in a more natural way without putting too much weight on the player". Also, the job system will be fairly different from the one in Final Fantasy XI (and this is an indirect confirmation of the fact that there WILL be a job system, in the case someone doubted it).
The player will be able to chose to play "solo, in a party, 40 minutes, all day..". there will be content for all of those play styles and systems in place to satisfy both the casual and the hardcore gamer.
The game still doesn't have a precise release window besides a generic "2010", and the beta schedule still hasn't been determined (but yes, there will be a beta that will be announced "shortly").
While the game will not use Playonline, the playonline friend lists will be carried over. The characters, though, will not, so everyone will have to restart from scratch (which is good, since my paladin must be quite outdated by now...).
Finally, they specified that the major reason for which players should chose their game instead of others, is because they'll fall in love with the world and the story that they created. This probably is a confirmation that Final Fantasy XIV will (thank goodness) be heavily storytelling focused, exactly like it's predecessor. There can be a true Final Fantasy without a good story, after all, isn't it?
What can I say. I'm excited. I'll for sure play it when it'll come out next year... will be hard to split my time between Warhammer and Final Fantasy, but i can't be forced to chose between my two favourite franchises (when Warhammer 40000 will be released my life is going to collapse). If you're interested about it at least a tenth of what I am, you might want to subscribe to the newsletter on the game's new official site, here.
I really can't wait. Despite having left Vana'diel about two years ago, a part of me always missed Final Fantasy XI, and I've been tempted to go back several times. Looks like it's almost time to go back home, to a new home on Eorzea :D
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
Sony wins E3 2009. Nintendo is the meh.
The second day of E3 began in a pretty bleak way, with Cammie Dunaway plaguing our ears with her usual talks about non gamers, gaming for everyone, bla bla bla. It continued more or less in the same wy during a very uneventful Nintendo conference, until they managed to save themselves from a complete Epic Fail by announcing the new Mario Galaxy (but I hate Mario, so I couldn't care the less about it) and Metroid games. Still, Nintendo's presser was very, very underwhelming. Looks like they didn't learn from last year's abysmal performance, and by the yawns that the audience slapped in their faces. Too bad.
Then Sony came, and they definitely DID learn from last year's errors. What did they show? Games. Tons of games, with the official announcement of the PSP Go (looks pretty awesome, for the "worst kept secret of E3 2009) and their new motion controller, that while painting me uninterested, like Milo and all those gimmicks that would like to replace my beloved joypad, displayed an amazing precision, which I think could be unparaleled by the competition.
And yeah. If i have to put up with a gimmicky motion controller, i'd rather cope with a precise one. I have to admit that the sword and shield demo looked quite interesting. I still prefer the joypad though.
But back to the games. It all started with some absolutely awesome demos of Uncharted 2 (I don't think i ever seen a game with better graphics than that) and MAG (many thought that it would have never worked, well, it seems it does, and quite well).
Then Hideo Kojima shown up on stage to introduce us to Metal Gear Solid Peacewalker. The sequel of Metal Gear Solid 3, that will depict the birth of Outer Heaven and will come to PSP in 2010. In addition to that, the PSP Go will have an awesome launch title: Gran Turismo. The popular racing franchise will come to PSP with 800 (yeah, you read it well, eight hundreds) cars, that pretty much dwarf the 400 in the line-up of Forza Motorsport 3 (and on a portable), and will launch at the same time as the console.
So, was it all PSP? Not in the least. Sony dropped the bomb right after the presentation of Final Fantasy XIII. Microsoft snatched the latest single player game of the saga? Well, good for them. When Jack Tretton started to devilishly hint about the next chapter being exclusive to the PS3, everyone thought he was talking about Versus XIII. He wasn't. The audience was muted for a second and then burst in cheers when the secret was revealed. The sequel to Final Fantasy XI (one of my most beloved MMOs of all times) is coming and it'll be only on PS3 (and probably PC, since they said the PS3 was the only CONSOLE sporting the title). Final Fantasy XIV will bring us back to Vana'diel (or better, to Eorzea, as the new world seems to be named, even if the races seem to be the same, an Elvaan and a Galka are clearly visible in the trailer that you can watch below, a mithra and a tarutaru can be spotted, even if you'll have to put in a little more effort. The kitten is the one casting the barrier towards the beginning, and the Taru is visible in the logo at the end) in 2010.
From there on, it was a crescendo of awesomeness. Agent, a new IP by Rockstar set in the spy war in the seventies exclusive to the PS3, Mod Nation Racers (a seemingly awesome super deformed racing version of Little Big Planet) exclusive to the PS3, the new work of team ICO, "The Last Guardian", exclusive to the PS3, and goodness, it looks beautiful.
Then came a teaser for Gran Turismo 5, which most definitely shown car damage, not to mention a pretty surprising NASCAR racing license. And with that, I'm afraid my time to play Forza Motorsport 3 will be pretty limited...
Finally we got the climax with the God of War 3 demo. It looked very, very nice.
Milo? Who cares? What I care about are games. And Sony brought the most and the best games, exclusives included.
Many bloggers were already handing this E3's victory to Microsoft, well, Sony proven them wrong.
This E3 belongs to Sony. Simply put and by a landslide. Though, it's not over yet. Tomorrow we'll see the pressers from Konami and Square-Enix. can't wait for them.
Then Sony came, and they definitely DID learn from last year's errors. What did they show? Games. Tons of games, with the official announcement of the PSP Go (looks pretty awesome, for the "worst kept secret of E3 2009) and their new motion controller, that while painting me uninterested, like Milo and all those gimmicks that would like to replace my beloved joypad, displayed an amazing precision, which I think could be unparaleled by the competition.
And yeah. If i have to put up with a gimmicky motion controller, i'd rather cope with a precise one. I have to admit that the sword and shield demo looked quite interesting. I still prefer the joypad though.
But back to the games. It all started with some absolutely awesome demos of Uncharted 2 (I don't think i ever seen a game with better graphics than that) and MAG (many thought that it would have never worked, well, it seems it does, and quite well).
Then Hideo Kojima shown up on stage to introduce us to Metal Gear Solid Peacewalker. The sequel of Metal Gear Solid 3, that will depict the birth of Outer Heaven and will come to PSP in 2010. In addition to that, the PSP Go will have an awesome launch title: Gran Turismo. The popular racing franchise will come to PSP with 800 (yeah, you read it well, eight hundreds) cars, that pretty much dwarf the 400 in the line-up of Forza Motorsport 3 (and on a portable), and will launch at the same time as the console.
So, was it all PSP? Not in the least. Sony dropped the bomb right after the presentation of Final Fantasy XIII. Microsoft snatched the latest single player game of the saga? Well, good for them. When Jack Tretton started to devilishly hint about the next chapter being exclusive to the PS3, everyone thought he was talking about Versus XIII. He wasn't. The audience was muted for a second and then burst in cheers when the secret was revealed. The sequel to Final Fantasy XI (one of my most beloved MMOs of all times) is coming and it'll be only on PS3 (and probably PC, since they said the PS3 was the only CONSOLE sporting the title). Final Fantasy XIV will bring us back to Vana'diel (or better, to Eorzea, as the new world seems to be named, even if the races seem to be the same, an Elvaan and a Galka are clearly visible in the trailer that you can watch below, a mithra and a tarutaru can be spotted, even if you'll have to put in a little more effort. The kitten is the one casting the barrier towards the beginning, and the Taru is visible in the logo at the end) in 2010.
From there on, it was a crescendo of awesomeness. Agent, a new IP by Rockstar set in the spy war in the seventies exclusive to the PS3, Mod Nation Racers (a seemingly awesome super deformed racing version of Little Big Planet) exclusive to the PS3, the new work of team ICO, "The Last Guardian", exclusive to the PS3, and goodness, it looks beautiful.
Then came a teaser for Gran Turismo 5, which most definitely shown car damage, not to mention a pretty surprising NASCAR racing license. And with that, I'm afraid my time to play Forza Motorsport 3 will be pretty limited...
Finally we got the climax with the God of War 3 demo. It looked very, very nice.
Milo? Who cares? What I care about are games. And Sony brought the most and the best games, exclusives included.
Many bloggers were already handing this E3's victory to Microsoft, well, Sony proven them wrong.
This E3 belongs to Sony. Simply put and by a landslide. Though, it's not over yet. Tomorrow we'll see the pressers from Konami and Square-Enix. can't wait for them.
Monday, June 1, 2009
E3 microsoft presser, Metal Gear and gimmicks
It's that time of the year again, and I just finished watching the Microsoft keynote. The feelings are a little conflicting.
Personally, the two most exciting announcements are the new Metal Gear solid game (Metal Gear Solid Raising) featuring Raiden as the main character, and that, at least in the short teaser we saw, doesn't feature Snake at all. There was no mention about exclusive deals, which, in the context of an E3 presser probably means a multiplatform title. If it was an exclusive you can be sure that we would have heard the word "exclusive" at least 20 times in 3 minutes (Edit: through the day there have been some confirmatory voices that the title is indeed multiplatform, for PS3, 360, and PC. We'll very probably know more tomorrow at the Playstation keynote).
I'm definitely happy to see that the Metal Gear series will continue (MGS4 absolutely amazed me, like the other games of the series), even if I personally think that Raiden's charisma is a little weaker compared to Snake's.
What worries me, though, expecially given the subtitle "Lightning Bolt action" is that the game might be a Devil May Cry-like brawler, and that it might lose it's stealth component. While the strongest point of MGS has always been it's story, that for sure won't be missing, the loss of the stealth action might be quite sad.
On the other hand, i'm totally excited about Forza Motorsport 3 coming this october. Since when the servers of Forza 2 lost a big percentage of their activity due to old age (that unfortunately comes quite early on consoles), I've been missing the lovely mix of online racing and car customization and painting. It'll sure be a great duel bewteen Forza 3 and Gran Turismo 5. Personally I wouldn't know which one to prefer, but I will for sure play both extensively (actually., Need for Speed: Shift seems to be a very worthy competitor as well, I'm seeing it at EA's presser right now, and it looks definitely awesome, expecially the fully rendered cockpits).
Unfortunately, at least for me, those were the only really interesting announcements in the Microsoft keynote. A big slice of time has been taken by Microsoft's new motion recognition technology, Project Natal, that will allow the 360 to recognize motion, facial expressions and voice. While technologically nice, I feel it's nothing more than a gimmick. You probably already know that according to me motion control is very, very secondary towards the actual quality of a game.
More casual galore incoming... *sighs*
All the time destined to this gimmick (that shown no real games) is what made the Microsoft keynote a bit meh for me. We'll see about the actual application of this tech, but i'm totally skeptic.
In the end, the EA press conference that just started (despite the DISASTROUS beginning with littlest pet shop and charming girls club) is looking WAY more interesting. Dragon Age origins loosk incredible, and honestly it just jumped to the top of my most awaited games list (is that lingerie what I just saw on that trailer? :P )
Personally, the two most exciting announcements are the new Metal Gear solid game (Metal Gear Solid Raising) featuring Raiden as the main character, and that, at least in the short teaser we saw, doesn't feature Snake at all. There was no mention about exclusive deals, which, in the context of an E3 presser probably means a multiplatform title. If it was an exclusive you can be sure that we would have heard the word "exclusive" at least 20 times in 3 minutes (Edit: through the day there have been some confirmatory voices that the title is indeed multiplatform, for PS3, 360, and PC. We'll very probably know more tomorrow at the Playstation keynote).
I'm definitely happy to see that the Metal Gear series will continue (MGS4 absolutely amazed me, like the other games of the series), even if I personally think that Raiden's charisma is a little weaker compared to Snake's.
What worries me, though, expecially given the subtitle "Lightning Bolt action" is that the game might be a Devil May Cry-like brawler, and that it might lose it's stealth component. While the strongest point of MGS has always been it's story, that for sure won't be missing, the loss of the stealth action might be quite sad.
On the other hand, i'm totally excited about Forza Motorsport 3 coming this october. Since when the servers of Forza 2 lost a big percentage of their activity due to old age (that unfortunately comes quite early on consoles), I've been missing the lovely mix of online racing and car customization and painting. It'll sure be a great duel bewteen Forza 3 and Gran Turismo 5. Personally I wouldn't know which one to prefer, but I will for sure play both extensively (actually., Need for Speed: Shift seems to be a very worthy competitor as well, I'm seeing it at EA's presser right now, and it looks definitely awesome, expecially the fully rendered cockpits).
Unfortunately, at least for me, those were the only really interesting announcements in the Microsoft keynote. A big slice of time has been taken by Microsoft's new motion recognition technology, Project Natal, that will allow the 360 to recognize motion, facial expressions and voice. While technologically nice, I feel it's nothing more than a gimmick. You probably already know that according to me motion control is very, very secondary towards the actual quality of a game.
More casual galore incoming... *sighs*
All the time destined to this gimmick (that shown no real games) is what made the Microsoft keynote a bit meh for me. We'll see about the actual application of this tech, but i'm totally skeptic.
In the end, the EA press conference that just started (despite the DISASTROUS beginning with littlest pet shop and charming girls club) is looking WAY more interesting. Dragon Age origins loosk incredible, and honestly it just jumped to the top of my most awaited games list (is that lingerie what I just saw on that trailer? :P )
Sunday, May 10, 2009
More news on the Land of the Dead filter from Games Day Baltimore
And here I'm back again, after a while (yes, two months, a long while) of inactivity. Work has been a bitch, and my "to play" pile has been finally thinning a bit with The Last Remnant finished (a perfect example of a nice story plagued by an horrible, horrible, horrible technical realization. Probably we have to thank Microsoft and their silly timed exclusives that forced S-E to release the game before it was ready) and Valkyrie Profile: Covenant of the Plume halfway through (Beautiful story, overcomplicated gameplay for the sake of itself, making it more of a chore than a game).
Anyway, the Games Day Baltimore has come, and Mythic has chosen to reveal quite a lot of new information, footage and screenshots on their upcoming RvR dungeon. Can't lie about that, it looks absolutely awesome, both graphics-wise and, thanks to some footage, gameplay-wise. They promised some gameplay that would have reminded us of console games, and LotD looks like a mix of God of War and Tomb Raider in many ways.
You can find quite a lot of screenshots and info on the news section of Warhammer Alliance, more info on the Gaarawarr Gabs blog, after drooling on those, you can drool on this and this videos on G4TV.
Now, of course we don't know if Land of the Dead will play as good as it looks, but what we're seeing looks indeed better than more or less anything we've seen so far in a fantasy MMO. Most definitely on par with the beauty of the graphics of Age of Conan. As usual, I have to praise Mythic's art directors and designer. The detailing and style are just a pleasure to see.
On top of it, looks like Land of the Dead includes something that many fans of quests and storytelling have demanded for a long time. Cutscenes!
More coverage has been promised on Warhammer Alliance between today and tomorrow, so we've got to stay tuned and see what they have in store for us. I'll be honest, I can't wait for June.
Anyway, the Games Day Baltimore has come, and Mythic has chosen to reveal quite a lot of new information, footage and screenshots on their upcoming RvR dungeon. Can't lie about that, it looks absolutely awesome, both graphics-wise and, thanks to some footage, gameplay-wise. They promised some gameplay that would have reminded us of console games, and LotD looks like a mix of God of War and Tomb Raider in many ways.
You can find quite a lot of screenshots and info on the news section of Warhammer Alliance, more info on the Gaarawarr Gabs blog, after drooling on those, you can drool on this and this videos on G4TV.
Now, of course we don't know if Land of the Dead will play as good as it looks, but what we're seeing looks indeed better than more or less anything we've seen so far in a fantasy MMO. Most definitely on par with the beauty of the graphics of Age of Conan. As usual, I have to praise Mythic's art directors and designer. The detailing and style are just a pleasure to see.
On top of it, looks like Land of the Dead includes something that many fans of quests and storytelling have demanded for a long time. Cutscenes!
More coverage has been promised on Warhammer Alliance between today and tomorrow, so we've got to stay tuned and see what they have in store for us. I'll be honest, I can't wait for June.
Monday, March 9, 2009
Dawn of War II hits with the whole power of the Exterminatus
I allowed a little too much time to pass since the last time i wrote on this little blog of mine, mostly because the economical crysis hit us consultants just as much as the videogaming market, forcing me to work twice as much to stay afloat, but even because, well, there were too many great games to be played, and my "to play" pile was swelling a tad too much beyond what I felt confortable with. This without even mentioning the adventures of my Knight of the Blazing Sun in Warhammer Online, and my now slightly fading escapades in EVE Online (In the end I decided to try it, but it's starting to bore me, so I might actually shelve it soon while I wait for the revolution that the Ambulation patch should bring).
Anyway, I'm back, after completing the single player campaign of Dawn of War II (yes, I did take my sweet time). The ones that are used to read my blog already know how much I was looking forward to this game, partly because my love for Warhammer 40000 is even stronger for the one I have for the Warhammer Fantasy franchise.
In the last few days we saw the news trickling in about how DOW2 literally dominated the worldwide sales charts for PC games, but how good the game really is?
First of all, here's a premise: I can comment just on the single player campaign, I didn't touch the multiplayer yet, and I probably wouldn't be able to write a good report on it anyway, mostly because yes, I suck at multiplayer RTSs. There isn't much i can or could do about it.
In any case, you know what kind of importance a good story has for me in any kind of videogames, and this most definitely play a great role in RTSs, that are pretty much an offspring of the same mold, with little variation of innovation to set them apart from one another, besides the story behind them. That is why i was greatly pleased by Dawn of War and by it's first expansion Winter Assault, which sported a quite great story, and equally displeased by the next two expansions (Dark Crusade and Soulstorm), that in the end sacrificed the story a lot to implement a fairly disappointing dynamic campaign that wasn't really engaging or interesting.
Luckily Relic realized that such an approach deprieved the players of enjoying the rich background of the Warhammer 40000 franchise, and they decided to go back to the scripted campaign, that, while not being as freeform as the dynamic one, and allowing just one playable race (the Blood Raven space marines, even if further campaigns for other races have been hinted at as downloadable contents), prompts for a much more involved plot and a better use of the several characters involved in order to evolve the story.
The story itself is definately nice. It picks up the Blood Ravens chapter after the events that occurred in Dark Crusade and Soulstorm, and includes sevral references to the original Dawn of War (we finally see the return of Gabriel Angelos, even if not as the main character anymore). Revolving around the Tyranid invasion (and believe me, the Tyranid are scary, they ain't some fluffy Zerg) of the system Aurelia, recruitement cradle for the chapter, it's seen by the collective point of view of several characters.
One of the main new features in Down of War II is, in fact, that you'll be given command of a limited number of marines squad (four) and your main character. Each of the squad leaders will be carried over from mission to mission, and will have his own prsonality, background and different viewpoint on the struggle for survival that he will have to face.
From the fatalist veteran to the rash rookie, all the most common shades of the spectrum are be covered, enhancing the connection with the player, even thanks to the good (even if normally not stellar) voice acting. Even some of the secondary characters end up being quite interesting. Administrator Derosa, one of the few ladies you'll meet during the campaign, ends up a quite interesting character, and an emblematic one of the warhammer 40000 universe.
The gameplay itself is simply fantastic. The few squads you'll have to work with are easy to take care of, and quite intuitive, but the most interesting factor are the evident RPG elements, that will see your characters level up and progress during the game, not to mention the loot collection, that will allow you to chose the wargear that you prefer for each mission, and even customize the look of your Space Marines. In the end you will find yourself playing an absolutely delightful hybrid between an RTS and an RPG, with a great story and a long, fun campaign to play.
Is it a perfect game? Of course no. The multiplayer still seems to suffer from some stray bug carried over from the beta (or introeduced by the release), but I'm not really concerned. By the time I'll stop sucking, it'll be already long perfected and forgotten. One of my biggest gripes is the fact that Relic decided to bow to the Microsoft monster and enter the Games for Windows Live hell, which basically removed one of the best aspects of the first Dawn of War. It's deep moddability and the room for a lot of User Created content. Since Microsoft wants it's gaming environment to be family friendly (despite the fact that DOW2 has an M rating in the US and a 16+ one in Europe), the creativity of the rich DOW modding community has been severely curbed. One of the worst parts of it is that the player can't even create and upload his own personalized badges anymore. This means that we can forget creating and playing with the wide variety of space marine chapters hat populate the Warhammer 40000 universe. We're limited to the excruciatingly few included in the game by default, and the ones that have been given out as preorder bonuses (Which means that if you didn't have access to the preorder from the shop that gave away your chapter of choice, it simply sucks to be you, you'll have to find another). Hopefully they will introduce new available chapters with the announced downloadable contents, but it's still very disappointing to see one of the best features of PC gaming (moddability and user created content) nulled by the will of keeping an M rated game kid-friendly. Seriously, quite a let-down.
In any case, despite this evident rant on what's (according to me), the worst flaw on Dawn of War II, I'd advise everyone that likes the genre (and even the ones that don't) to give it a try. It's worth it, and, in my opinion. it's plenty to give Starcraft II a run for it's money. After all, we all know where Starcraft came from. There's no reason to play the imitation when you can have the original.
Anyway, I'm back, after completing the single player campaign of Dawn of War II (yes, I did take my sweet time). The ones that are used to read my blog already know how much I was looking forward to this game, partly because my love for Warhammer 40000 is even stronger for the one I have for the Warhammer Fantasy franchise.
In the last few days we saw the news trickling in about how DOW2 literally dominated the worldwide sales charts for PC games, but how good the game really is?
First of all, here's a premise: I can comment just on the single player campaign, I didn't touch the multiplayer yet, and I probably wouldn't be able to write a good report on it anyway, mostly because yes, I suck at multiplayer RTSs. There isn't much i can or could do about it.
In any case, you know what kind of importance a good story has for me in any kind of videogames, and this most definitely play a great role in RTSs, that are pretty much an offspring of the same mold, with little variation of innovation to set them apart from one another, besides the story behind them. That is why i was greatly pleased by Dawn of War and by it's first expansion Winter Assault, which sported a quite great story, and equally displeased by the next two expansions (Dark Crusade and Soulstorm), that in the end sacrificed the story a lot to implement a fairly disappointing dynamic campaign that wasn't really engaging or interesting.
Luckily Relic realized that such an approach deprieved the players of enjoying the rich background of the Warhammer 40000 franchise, and they decided to go back to the scripted campaign, that, while not being as freeform as the dynamic one, and allowing just one playable race (the Blood Raven space marines, even if further campaigns for other races have been hinted at as downloadable contents), prompts for a much more involved plot and a better use of the several characters involved in order to evolve the story.
The story itself is definately nice. It picks up the Blood Ravens chapter after the events that occurred in Dark Crusade and Soulstorm, and includes sevral references to the original Dawn of War (we finally see the return of Gabriel Angelos, even if not as the main character anymore). Revolving around the Tyranid invasion (and believe me, the Tyranid are scary, they ain't some fluffy Zerg) of the system Aurelia, recruitement cradle for the chapter, it's seen by the collective point of view of several characters.
One of the main new features in Down of War II is, in fact, that you'll be given command of a limited number of marines squad (four) and your main character. Each of the squad leaders will be carried over from mission to mission, and will have his own prsonality, background and different viewpoint on the struggle for survival that he will have to face.
From the fatalist veteran to the rash rookie, all the most common shades of the spectrum are be covered, enhancing the connection with the player, even thanks to the good (even if normally not stellar) voice acting. Even some of the secondary characters end up being quite interesting. Administrator Derosa, one of the few ladies you'll meet during the campaign, ends up a quite interesting character, and an emblematic one of the warhammer 40000 universe.
The gameplay itself is simply fantastic. The few squads you'll have to work with are easy to take care of, and quite intuitive, but the most interesting factor are the evident RPG elements, that will see your characters level up and progress during the game, not to mention the loot collection, that will allow you to chose the wargear that you prefer for each mission, and even customize the look of your Space Marines. In the end you will find yourself playing an absolutely delightful hybrid between an RTS and an RPG, with a great story and a long, fun campaign to play.
Is it a perfect game? Of course no. The multiplayer still seems to suffer from some stray bug carried over from the beta (or introeduced by the release), but I'm not really concerned. By the time I'll stop sucking, it'll be already long perfected and forgotten. One of my biggest gripes is the fact that Relic decided to bow to the Microsoft monster and enter the Games for Windows Live hell, which basically removed one of the best aspects of the first Dawn of War. It's deep moddability and the room for a lot of User Created content. Since Microsoft wants it's gaming environment to be family friendly (despite the fact that DOW2 has an M rating in the US and a 16+ one in Europe), the creativity of the rich DOW modding community has been severely curbed. One of the worst parts of it is that the player can't even create and upload his own personalized badges anymore. This means that we can forget creating and playing with the wide variety of space marine chapters hat populate the Warhammer 40000 universe. We're limited to the excruciatingly few included in the game by default, and the ones that have been given out as preorder bonuses (Which means that if you didn't have access to the preorder from the shop that gave away your chapter of choice, it simply sucks to be you, you'll have to find another). Hopefully they will introduce new available chapters with the announced downloadable contents, but it's still very disappointing to see one of the best features of PC gaming (moddability and user created content) nulled by the will of keeping an M rated game kid-friendly. Seriously, quite a let-down.
In any case, despite this evident rant on what's (according to me), the worst flaw on Dawn of War II, I'd advise everyone that likes the genre (and even the ones that don't) to give it a try. It's worth it, and, in my opinion. it's plenty to give Starcraft II a run for it's money. After all, we all know where Starcraft came from. There's no reason to play the imitation when you can have the original.
Sunday, February 1, 2009
Warhammer Online sounds the Call to Arms
Yesterday Mythic entertainment has, as anticipated, released a slew of announcements about their plans for the next few months. As expected they officially confirmed the coming of the Slayer and the Choppa, as introduced by the usual funny podcast included in the monthly newsletter.
In the end, looks like I was right again (I might even get used to it...), and Mark Jacobs & C. Had a lot more up their sleeve then the two new melee DPS.
Since I talked a lot about the two new classes in my previous post, let's see about the rest of the announcement. The coming of the Choppa and the Slayer is part of what has been defined the first "Subscription Based Expansion" (IE: an expansion that you get for free by being a subscriber) for Warhammer Online: Call to Arms.
This isn't the first time Mythic follows the politicy of releasing free expansion sized (or at least quite a log bigger than normal content patches) content additions to their games. We already saw something like that on Dark Age of Camelot with Foundations and New Frontiers, and I have to say that's a policy that I always appreciated and that I'm happy to see applied to Warhammer Online as well.
The expansion will buiuld up between the beginning of march and june, trough several live events (another element in Warhammer Online that I really like) that include the opening of another limited-time scenarios like Reikland Factory was, themed about a chaos tower spiraling over the chaos wastes (the Twysting Tower), and culminating with something that will make several old DAOC fans happy.
Most of you, looking at the picture I used for this article, will probably guess that such treat has something to do with the undead, Egyptian undead to be precise. Well, yes. It does: the climax of the Call to Arms expansion will be the opening of a massive RvR Dungeon/Zone (IE, a dungeon/area in which the factions fight each other and in which domination is determined by RvR itself, like Darkness Falls in DAOC) themed on the Tomb Kings that dominate the desertic area named "The Land of the Dead"
Since well before the release of the game, during the endless discussion about what races would have beenthe most suitable expansion in Warhammer Online, I and a few others have been arguing that the Tomb Kings would have made the perfect NPC race to be added as the "hosts" of some big PvE/RvR zone. They are strictly neutral, and wouldn't fit the ranks of destruction well (and even less they'd fit Order of course), but their lore is probably one of the most fascinating of the whole Warhammer background. While i was pretty sure they would have seen the light in this form, sooner or later, i most definitely didn't expect to see them this early into the game's lifespan, and I have to say that being wrong on that makes me quite happy.
Those of you that don't know the Warhammer lore in depth are probably wonder who the Tomb Kings are, and what this Land of the Dead is, so I'll tike my time to explain.
----
About two and an half millennia before the birth of Sigmar and of the Empire, far in the south of the old world an ancient and powerful civilization was settled in the land of Nehekhara (As you know, the Old World is very similar to our Europe, Nehekhara was situated in a location similar to our Egypt), divided between an host of powerful city-states the most powerful of which was Khemri, which extended it's influence above all the others, and to which they paid tribute.
Such power had been created by Settra, the first priest-king of Khemri, a mighty general that extended his dominion well beyond the land of Nehekhara. His costant obsession, though, was the thought of his own mortality. He instructed his priests to find a way to overcome that limit. They traveled far and explored misterious lands, but they couldn't find a solution to the riddle, finally deciding that eternal life was beyond their power. They did, though, discover means to extend their life in order of centuries, though this made their bodies frail and decayed, while being still alive, they took up the name of Lich-priests.
In the end, full of grief, Settra died, and was entombed in a mighty pyramid, as his priests promised him that they would find the way to wake him up again to eternal existance.
After Settra's death, the domain of Nehekhara saw a long period of power and domination, as it's mighty armies of chariots found no rival, and it's many kings extended their influence well beyond their borders. Still obsessed by death, they too had themselves entombed in enormous pyramids, and soon the necropolis cities of the dead surpassed and engulfed the dwellings of the living.
The power of Nehekhara, though, was destined to fall. One cursed day, the brother of the king, named Nagash, became High-Priest of Khemri. He was jaelous of his brother's power and while corrupting the powers of the other priets, he plotted to take the throne for himself. He eventually killed his brother, and became king and high priest at the same time.
Nagash's thirst for power was impossible to quell, and he summoned the darkest creaturest to do his bidding as he delved deeper and deeper into the foulest secrets of sorcery. He starved the entire region by imposing terrible tributes in gold and slaves to build the biggest pyramid of them all, made of black stone.
It didn't take long for the other kings of Nehekhara to decide to declare war on Nagash and Khemri, in an attempt to free the land for the sorcerer's influence. The sorceries of Nagash had gone past the limits of death, and entered the world of Necromancy. For the first time in history an human being summoned the dead from their graves and had them march in a mighty army of undead warriors.
In the end, though, even the terrifying undead couldn't win against the combined armies of all the kings, Nagash was defeated, but not destroyed, as he managed to flee to the north.
Centuries passed, and the kings of Nehekhara prospered again. But the legacy of Nagash wasn't gone with him. The queen of Lahmia drank dark elixhirs inherited from Nagash himself, mixed with blood, and she was tainted by corruption. Soon her and her court became the first vampires. Their corruption was so evident that King Alcadizzar of Zandri had to declare war of them, and driven them away from Nehekhara, destroying the power of Lhamia. They fled to Nagash, that was rebuilding his power in the north and welcomed them as his captains.
Again, as the power of the vampires strenghtened his armies of the undead, Nagash sent his minions to move war on Nehekhara. Again king Alcadizzar sent for the armies of all the city states and faced the mortal enemy of his people. Again the mighty general pushed back the minions of Nagash and ultimately defeated them in a series of bloody battles.
Nagash was so enraged by this further defeat that sworn to gain vengeance against Nehekara at any cost. So deep was his bitterness that he decided to strip his former homeland bare of all life. He polluted the river vitae, on which Nehekhara's survival heavily depended, so irrevbersible was the spell, that from then on it had to be called Mortis. Alcadizzar sat on his throne, forced to watch as his kingdom grow bare and as his people starved to death. His court, his friends, his family, even his wife. Finally, he was captured, and sent to rot in a dungeon under the fortress of his mortal enemy.
Eventually Nagash surged forward, dark energies so powerful that had no equal in history were unleashed in a final ritual of damnation. Every single living being in Nehekhara, plants, animals, men and women withered like it aged 100 years in a few seconds and died, falling to dust and bones.
As Nagash was lost in his dreams of victory, ready to raise the entire population of Nehekhara as an host that no mortal would have ever stopped, some misterious, cloaked creatures penetrated in his dungeons and freed Alcadizzar. Having given him a blade of power they sent the maddened king to battle with the ancient Lich King. The clash that followed was epic, and finally Alcadizzar prevailed. He cut down Nagash and fled the fortress carrying his crown, never to be seen again.
As the power of Nagash faded away (even if some say he's just resting, waiting to return to wreak havoc upon the lands of men), Nehekhara was left as a lifeless desert. But life was soon replaced by undeath.
The Liche priests, still surviving trough the ages, finally found the eternal life they seeked through the vile ritual that killed everyone else. The kings, and their minions, entombed through the ages in the great pyramids awoke as well. While the countless skeletal warriors that stirred from death were little more than mere puppets, the kings had been preserved by the rituals of the Liche priests through the ages, and woke up with their consciousness and memories intact, lost in horror as they saw the withered remains of their bodies and the ruins of their once great civilization.
Soon the ambition that urged them to conquest in life, led them beyond the horror of death, as they rallied their armies once again to conquer what had been theirs, and much more.
For two days the battle raged between hundreds of long dead kings, as many had been entombed in a millennia with their retinues, until the mighty doors of the first pyramid opened and Settra himself, the first king, strode forth, followed by thousands of skeletons of his personal guard. He walked on the battlefield unmatched and soon overpowered the other kings, establishing his dominion, and starting his new raise to power.
That was how the ancient and mighty Nehekhara became the Land of the Dead...
----
This, of course, was just the short and quick version of the lore that will fuel the Call to Arms expansion. It's truly one of my favourite parts of the warhammer lore, and, for the ones of you that are already familiar with the deeper details of the lore included in Warhammer Online, it links very neatly with the story of the Mourkain civilization that can be found in the Marshes of Madness and in the Badlands, born from the retreival of the crown of Nagash that Alcadizzar took after cutting down the bane of Nehekhara.
Personally, I can't wait to see the Land of the Dead in Warhammer Online. If it's half as good as the backstory that will give birth to it, we're in for a lot of fun.
And Yeah, if someone is wondering, the true, original Lich King is Nagash, not some worthless icy wuss in some other game :D
In the end, looks like I was right again (I might even get used to it...), and Mark Jacobs & C. Had a lot more up their sleeve then the two new melee DPS.
Since I talked a lot about the two new classes in my previous post, let's see about the rest of the announcement. The coming of the Choppa and the Slayer is part of what has been defined the first "Subscription Based Expansion" (IE: an expansion that you get for free by being a subscriber) for Warhammer Online: Call to Arms.
This isn't the first time Mythic follows the politicy of releasing free expansion sized (or at least quite a log bigger than normal content patches) content additions to their games. We already saw something like that on Dark Age of Camelot with Foundations and New Frontiers, and I have to say that's a policy that I always appreciated and that I'm happy to see applied to Warhammer Online as well.
The expansion will buiuld up between the beginning of march and june, trough several live events (another element in Warhammer Online that I really like) that include the opening of another limited-time scenarios like Reikland Factory was, themed about a chaos tower spiraling over the chaos wastes (the Twysting Tower), and culminating with something that will make several old DAOC fans happy.
Most of you, looking at the picture I used for this article, will probably guess that such treat has something to do with the undead, Egyptian undead to be precise. Well, yes. It does: the climax of the Call to Arms expansion will be the opening of a massive RvR Dungeon/Zone (IE, a dungeon/area in which the factions fight each other and in which domination is determined by RvR itself, like Darkness Falls in DAOC) themed on the Tomb Kings that dominate the desertic area named "The Land of the Dead"
Since well before the release of the game, during the endless discussion about what races would have beenthe most suitable expansion in Warhammer Online, I and a few others have been arguing that the Tomb Kings would have made the perfect NPC race to be added as the "hosts" of some big PvE/RvR zone. They are strictly neutral, and wouldn't fit the ranks of destruction well (and even less they'd fit Order of course), but their lore is probably one of the most fascinating of the whole Warhammer background. While i was pretty sure they would have seen the light in this form, sooner or later, i most definitely didn't expect to see them this early into the game's lifespan, and I have to say that being wrong on that makes me quite happy.
Those of you that don't know the Warhammer lore in depth are probably wonder who the Tomb Kings are, and what this Land of the Dead is, so I'll tike my time to explain.
----
About two and an half millennia before the birth of Sigmar and of the Empire, far in the south of the old world an ancient and powerful civilization was settled in the land of Nehekhara (As you know, the Old World is very similar to our Europe, Nehekhara was situated in a location similar to our Egypt), divided between an host of powerful city-states the most powerful of which was Khemri, which extended it's influence above all the others, and to which they paid tribute.
Such power had been created by Settra, the first priest-king of Khemri, a mighty general that extended his dominion well beyond the land of Nehekhara. His costant obsession, though, was the thought of his own mortality. He instructed his priests to find a way to overcome that limit. They traveled far and explored misterious lands, but they couldn't find a solution to the riddle, finally deciding that eternal life was beyond their power. They did, though, discover means to extend their life in order of centuries, though this made their bodies frail and decayed, while being still alive, they took up the name of Lich-priests.
In the end, full of grief, Settra died, and was entombed in a mighty pyramid, as his priests promised him that they would find the way to wake him up again to eternal existance.
After Settra's death, the domain of Nehekhara saw a long period of power and domination, as it's mighty armies of chariots found no rival, and it's many kings extended their influence well beyond their borders. Still obsessed by death, they too had themselves entombed in enormous pyramids, and soon the necropolis cities of the dead surpassed and engulfed the dwellings of the living.
The power of Nehekhara, though, was destined to fall. One cursed day, the brother of the king, named Nagash, became High-Priest of Khemri. He was jaelous of his brother's power and while corrupting the powers of the other priets, he plotted to take the throne for himself. He eventually killed his brother, and became king and high priest at the same time.
Nagash's thirst for power was impossible to quell, and he summoned the darkest creaturest to do his bidding as he delved deeper and deeper into the foulest secrets of sorcery. He starved the entire region by imposing terrible tributes in gold and slaves to build the biggest pyramid of them all, made of black stone.
It didn't take long for the other kings of Nehekhara to decide to declare war on Nagash and Khemri, in an attempt to free the land for the sorcerer's influence. The sorceries of Nagash had gone past the limits of death, and entered the world of Necromancy. For the first time in history an human being summoned the dead from their graves and had them march in a mighty army of undead warriors.
In the end, though, even the terrifying undead couldn't win against the combined armies of all the kings, Nagash was defeated, but not destroyed, as he managed to flee to the north.
Centuries passed, and the kings of Nehekhara prospered again. But the legacy of Nagash wasn't gone with him. The queen of Lahmia drank dark elixhirs inherited from Nagash himself, mixed with blood, and she was tainted by corruption. Soon her and her court became the first vampires. Their corruption was so evident that King Alcadizzar of Zandri had to declare war of them, and driven them away from Nehekhara, destroying the power of Lhamia. They fled to Nagash, that was rebuilding his power in the north and welcomed them as his captains.
Again, as the power of the vampires strenghtened his armies of the undead, Nagash sent his minions to move war on Nehekhara. Again king Alcadizzar sent for the armies of all the city states and faced the mortal enemy of his people. Again the mighty general pushed back the minions of Nagash and ultimately defeated them in a series of bloody battles.
Nagash was so enraged by this further defeat that sworn to gain vengeance against Nehekara at any cost. So deep was his bitterness that he decided to strip his former homeland bare of all life. He polluted the river vitae, on which Nehekhara's survival heavily depended, so irrevbersible was the spell, that from then on it had to be called Mortis. Alcadizzar sat on his throne, forced to watch as his kingdom grow bare and as his people starved to death. His court, his friends, his family, even his wife. Finally, he was captured, and sent to rot in a dungeon under the fortress of his mortal enemy.
Eventually Nagash surged forward, dark energies so powerful that had no equal in history were unleashed in a final ritual of damnation. Every single living being in Nehekhara, plants, animals, men and women withered like it aged 100 years in a few seconds and died, falling to dust and bones.
As Nagash was lost in his dreams of victory, ready to raise the entire population of Nehekhara as an host that no mortal would have ever stopped, some misterious, cloaked creatures penetrated in his dungeons and freed Alcadizzar. Having given him a blade of power they sent the maddened king to battle with the ancient Lich King. The clash that followed was epic, and finally Alcadizzar prevailed. He cut down Nagash and fled the fortress carrying his crown, never to be seen again.
As the power of Nagash faded away (even if some say he's just resting, waiting to return to wreak havoc upon the lands of men), Nehekhara was left as a lifeless desert. But life was soon replaced by undeath.
The Liche priests, still surviving trough the ages, finally found the eternal life they seeked through the vile ritual that killed everyone else. The kings, and their minions, entombed through the ages in the great pyramids awoke as well. While the countless skeletal warriors that stirred from death were little more than mere puppets, the kings had been preserved by the rituals of the Liche priests through the ages, and woke up with their consciousness and memories intact, lost in horror as they saw the withered remains of their bodies and the ruins of their once great civilization.
Soon the ambition that urged them to conquest in life, led them beyond the horror of death, as they rallied their armies once again to conquer what had been theirs, and much more.
For two days the battle raged between hundreds of long dead kings, as many had been entombed in a millennia with their retinues, until the mighty doors of the first pyramid opened and Settra himself, the first king, strode forth, followed by thousands of skeletons of his personal guard. He walked on the battlefield unmatched and soon overpowered the other kings, establishing his dominion, and starting his new raise to power.
That was how the ancient and mighty Nehekhara became the Land of the Dead...
----
This, of course, was just the short and quick version of the lore that will fuel the Call to Arms expansion. It's truly one of my favourite parts of the warhammer lore, and, for the ones of you that are already familiar with the deeper details of the lore included in Warhammer Online, it links very neatly with the story of the Mourkain civilization that can be found in the Marshes of Madness and in the Badlands, born from the retreival of the crown of Nagash that Alcadizzar took after cutting down the bane of Nehekhara.
Personally, I can't wait to see the Land of the Dead in Warhammer Online. If it's half as good as the backstory that will give birth to it, we're in for a lot of fun.
And Yeah, if someone is wondering, the true, original Lich King is Nagash, not some worthless icy wuss in some other game :D
Monday, January 26, 2009
A Slayer and a Choppa coming to a Warhammer Online near you
In the past month or two some (Massively is an example) interpreted some very generic statements by Mythic as a signal that there wouldn't have been new classes (and new major content additions) in Warhammer Online for a long time. Personally, I always begged to differ with such an interpretation, since Mark Jacobs had always hinted pretty clearly that the timeline for major content patches was roughly every three months.
Turns out I was right (am I not always? :P ), as several teasers sent around for a major announcement coming on January the 29th hint (in a way that really cannot be interpreted differently, looks like subtlety isn't Mythic's forte) that it will pertain the soon to be added new classes. The Dwarf Slayer and the Orc Choppa.
While the choppa isn't exactly a new class, since it's been removed from the game prior to launch (despite the fact that the ones that tried it during the beta found it generally quite fun to play and very well done graphically), the slayer is entirely new, and replaced furor populi (by public acclamation) the original dwarf melee DPS, the seemingly dull Hammerer.
The incoming announcement will most definately make many warhammer fans happy (the ones that didn't already guess due to the previous hints scattered here and there). Destruction players have always mourned the loss of the dual-wielding choppa and it's cool looking and hard hitting berserk action, while order-oriented players, expecially after seeing the very first cinematic trailer, always groaned about the fact that Mythic initially decided to go with the hammerer, instead of the Slayer that was considered much more iconic and cool, both due to his looks and it's peculiar background.
So, what in the world are this "Choppa" and this "Slayer" I'm talking about?
The Choppa, in it's traditional Warhammerish sense, isn't really a "class" or a "career" by definition, but simply the name by which Orcs call one of their favourite weapons. Due to their relatively unrefined nature, Orcs tend to name their implements of pain and killing by their effect, and the choppa is exactly that, something that chops, Exactly like the Basha is something that bashes. This means that the definition of "Choppa" applies to a wide range of variations of a nice (or not so nice), thick slab of metal shaped in the middle between a sword and an axe, which primary function is chopping the enemy (and even some friends) to pieces. Applying the concept to the MMORPG, the Choppa becomes a marauding orc specialized in the use of two of such lovely tools to cause the most damage possible in the smallest amount of time. Nifty, isn't it?
The Slayer digs deeper in the warhammer background, as a truly iconic representative of his race, expecially in it's warhammerish variation.
When a dwarf undergoes a personal ordeal that persuades him that he's lost his honor, he'll shave part of his head, put up a mohawk, dye his hair and beard fiery orange, and take up the Oath of the Slayer. Then he will wander the world alone or in groups for the rest of their life in search of a glorious death against some terrible enemy, dragons, demons... that kind of "terrible".
Now, many slayers die soon, as they fullfill their oath while fighting some monster that happens to be stronger then them. Some, though, happen to be stronger than the monsters they face, and become legendary heroes, veterans of hundreds of suicidal battles.
It's pretty easy to understand why this career is considered very cool and compelling, so it's safe to assume that the two new classes will probably strenghten the ranks of Order further. The choppa is very nice, but the slayer is probably going to cause a lot of rerolls.
In addition to this, I'm pretty sure that Mythic is going to announce quite a few more surprises on the 29th. Mark Jacobs has been on a spree on the VNboards, telling that the announcement will be quite extensive, in addition to this, the clues given were really too clear and easy to interpret. Mythic has probably something more up their sleeve, or they wouldn't have spoiled the surprise this extensively.
I'm sure many of the Mythic haters out there will harshly criticize any sorth of enthusiasm about the news at hand, saying that Mythic is just introducing two classes that they removed to begin with. I personally don't care that much about this kind of bull droppings. It's additional content (and quite important) compared to what we had at release, and any additional content is good content. 4 new classes on top of the 20 present at release in just 6 months is definately unparaleled in the whole history of the MMO genre. Gotta hand it to Mythic, they know how to roll in new stuff into their game.
In any case, we need to wait for the 29th and see what happens. Personally I can't wait, so stay tuned for additional coverage when the time comes.
Turns out I was right (am I not always? :P ), as several teasers sent around for a major announcement coming on January the 29th hint (in a way that really cannot be interpreted differently, looks like subtlety isn't Mythic's forte) that it will pertain the soon to be added new classes. The Dwarf Slayer and the Orc Choppa.
While the choppa isn't exactly a new class, since it's been removed from the game prior to launch (despite the fact that the ones that tried it during the beta found it generally quite fun to play and very well done graphically), the slayer is entirely new, and replaced furor populi (by public acclamation) the original dwarf melee DPS, the seemingly dull Hammerer.
The incoming announcement will most definately make many warhammer fans happy (the ones that didn't already guess due to the previous hints scattered here and there). Destruction players have always mourned the loss of the dual-wielding choppa and it's cool looking and hard hitting berserk action, while order-oriented players, expecially after seeing the very first cinematic trailer, always groaned about the fact that Mythic initially decided to go with the hammerer, instead of the Slayer that was considered much more iconic and cool, both due to his looks and it's peculiar background.
So, what in the world are this "Choppa" and this "Slayer" I'm talking about?
The Choppa, in it's traditional Warhammerish sense, isn't really a "class" or a "career" by definition, but simply the name by which Orcs call one of their favourite weapons. Due to their relatively unrefined nature, Orcs tend to name their implements of pain and killing by their effect, and the choppa is exactly that, something that chops, Exactly like the Basha is something that bashes. This means that the definition of "Choppa" applies to a wide range of variations of a nice (or not so nice), thick slab of metal shaped in the middle between a sword and an axe, which primary function is chopping the enemy (and even some friends) to pieces. Applying the concept to the MMORPG, the Choppa becomes a marauding orc specialized in the use of two of such lovely tools to cause the most damage possible in the smallest amount of time. Nifty, isn't it?
The Slayer digs deeper in the warhammer background, as a truly iconic representative of his race, expecially in it's warhammerish variation.
When a dwarf undergoes a personal ordeal that persuades him that he's lost his honor, he'll shave part of his head, put up a mohawk, dye his hair and beard fiery orange, and take up the Oath of the Slayer. Then he will wander the world alone or in groups for the rest of their life in search of a glorious death against some terrible enemy, dragons, demons... that kind of "terrible".
Now, many slayers die soon, as they fullfill their oath while fighting some monster that happens to be stronger then them. Some, though, happen to be stronger than the monsters they face, and become legendary heroes, veterans of hundreds of suicidal battles.
It's pretty easy to understand why this career is considered very cool and compelling, so it's safe to assume that the two new classes will probably strenghten the ranks of Order further. The choppa is very nice, but the slayer is probably going to cause a lot of rerolls.
In addition to this, I'm pretty sure that Mythic is going to announce quite a few more surprises on the 29th. Mark Jacobs has been on a spree on the VNboards, telling that the announcement will be quite extensive, in addition to this, the clues given were really too clear and easy to interpret. Mythic has probably something more up their sleeve, or they wouldn't have spoiled the surprise this extensively.
I'm sure many of the Mythic haters out there will harshly criticize any sorth of enthusiasm about the news at hand, saying that Mythic is just introducing two classes that they removed to begin with. I personally don't care that much about this kind of bull droppings. It's additional content (and quite important) compared to what we had at release, and any additional content is good content. 4 new classes on top of the 20 present at release in just 6 months is definately unparaleled in the whole history of the MMO genre. Gotta hand it to Mythic, they know how to roll in new stuff into their game.
In any case, we need to wait for the 29th and see what happens. Personally I can't wait, so stay tuned for additional coverage when the time comes.
Sunday, January 11, 2009
Warhammer Online: Fortress sieges capped?
During the last few days Mythic announced the addition of a cap to the population of fortress siege battles as a preliminary solution to the problem of server crashes during such usually massive battles. The community has shown some mixed feeling about it, but some pretty isolated but vocal element went way too far on the way of trolling.
Just to spank one to spank them all, you can read this article at MMOCrunch, that pretty much shows how people can totally misunderstand (probably on purpose) what the changes brought to the game.
Let's shed some light on the matter, shall we?
Mythic implemented a level-based population cap just during the siege, which removes from it low level players when such cap is reached.
The result of such action is simply to weed out those MANY lowbies that went to fortress sieges just to leech xp and rps, and that took as much server resources as a level 40 characters, while not contributing at all to the fight.
I've been in several fortress sieges, and the amount of level 20 (or lower) people you see leeching during the siege itself is a very sizeable percentage of the total. A sizeable amount that the battle can definately do without, as they're nothing else than crash/lag inducing entities that contribute to the fight less than the lowest level fortress guards.
Does it take away from the "massiveness" of the battle? Not one bit. The caps are still very high, and let in a number of people in that can be easily defined "massive", in spite of what Paragus drools all over his blog.
It's fun how he accuses others to be "PR monkeys", while he's the one that tries (and fails miserably, it seems, looking at the comments on his blog) to spin around the facts.
He tries to point down a lack of coherence between "capping a zone" and "allowing more people to partecipate". Too bad that the idiot evidently and purposedly cut the sentence, warping it's meaning. The complete quote qould be: "allowing more people to partecipate to capital city sieges", not to fortress battles.
It's pretty evident how cutting down the lag (which favors the defenders a lot) and removing the crashes problem makes successfully attacking fortresses much more viable and doable (even for the underdog realm, numbers-wise), and increases the number of city sieges considerably, thus making them much more accessible to more people.
The conclusion is even more laughable, as he compares warhammer to age of conan. Too bad that in age of conan ALL sieges are limited to 48 vs 48 people. In Warhammer the limits are a ton less restrictive and ONLY applied to fortress sieges. All things summed up, the only result he attains with his pathetic attempt to a PR spin is making a fool of himself.
On a much brighter note, on this thread on the VNboards Mark Jacobs confirmed that the changes will be followed by further, deeper ones: the fotresses will probably be placed in their own zones (which will allow Mythic to raise the caps, making sieges even more massive than they are with the current cap), while the lower level players will be probably given other tasks to complete during the siege, to contribute to it while not influencing the performace for the level 40s, which is most definitely a very good idea.
Just a further signal of the fact that all the doomsayers really don't know what they're talking about.
Just to spank one to spank them all, you can read this article at MMOCrunch, that pretty much shows how people can totally misunderstand (probably on purpose) what the changes brought to the game.
Let's shed some light on the matter, shall we?
Mythic implemented a level-based population cap just during the siege, which removes from it low level players when such cap is reached.
The result of such action is simply to weed out those MANY lowbies that went to fortress sieges just to leech xp and rps, and that took as much server resources as a level 40 characters, while not contributing at all to the fight.
I've been in several fortress sieges, and the amount of level 20 (or lower) people you see leeching during the siege itself is a very sizeable percentage of the total. A sizeable amount that the battle can definately do without, as they're nothing else than crash/lag inducing entities that contribute to the fight less than the lowest level fortress guards.
Does it take away from the "massiveness" of the battle? Not one bit. The caps are still very high, and let in a number of people in that can be easily defined "massive", in spite of what Paragus drools all over his blog.
It's fun how he accuses others to be "PR monkeys", while he's the one that tries (and fails miserably, it seems, looking at the comments on his blog) to spin around the facts.
He tries to point down a lack of coherence between "capping a zone" and "allowing more people to partecipate". Too bad that the idiot evidently and purposedly cut the sentence, warping it's meaning. The complete quote qould be: "allowing more people to partecipate to capital city sieges", not to fortress battles.
It's pretty evident how cutting down the lag (which favors the defenders a lot) and removing the crashes problem makes successfully attacking fortresses much more viable and doable (even for the underdog realm, numbers-wise), and increases the number of city sieges considerably, thus making them much more accessible to more people.
The conclusion is even more laughable, as he compares warhammer to age of conan. Too bad that in age of conan ALL sieges are limited to 48 vs 48 people. In Warhammer the limits are a ton less restrictive and ONLY applied to fortress sieges. All things summed up, the only result he attains with his pathetic attempt to a PR spin is making a fool of himself.
On a much brighter note, on this thread on the VNboards Mark Jacobs confirmed that the changes will be followed by further, deeper ones: the fotresses will probably be placed in their own zones (which will allow Mythic to raise the caps, making sieges even more massive than they are with the current cap), while the lower level players will be probably given other tasks to complete during the siege, to contribute to it while not influencing the performace for the level 40s, which is most definitely a very good idea.
Just a further signal of the fact that all the doomsayers really don't know what they're talking about.
Thursday, December 25, 2008
Happy Holydays! End-of-the-year wrap-up
It's that time of the year again (well, not exactly "again" since this is the first Christmas for Classy Gamer), so I would like to extend my most heartfelt Holydays wishes to all the classy gamers that managed to bear with me (and my Warhammer fit :P) during this first year.
It's been definately an interesting year for gamers, with two new Major MMORPGs released (Warhammer and Age of Conan, at least one of which seems to be slowly climbing the stair to success), two expansions of other major MMOs (Mines of Moria and Wrath of the Lich King) and a whole slew of new games, many of which we waited for years (metal Gear Solid 4, for one) while some others have been very pleasant semi-surprises (Valkyria Chronicles).
A very pleasant factor, during the year, at least for me, has been the return of the JRPG genre to the new generation consoles. Even if some of the first steps have been a bit shaky (the lack in coding quality of The Last Remnant was, unfortunately an example of that). Hopefully the next year will bring the genre back where it's supposed to be, delivering awesome and deep stories in a videogaming industry that lacks them more and more.
The current crysis that's affecting the real world left the gaming industry Bloodied, But Unbowed and in this day of happyness my thoughts go to the many that, in the industry, lost their job due to it.
We must not forget that, if we're having this much fun playing our beloved games it's even due to their hard work, and many of them are probably spending some quite sad holydays. Hopefully as many as possible of them will find a new home in which to express their game-designing talents soon.
Many sites have or are now compiling their "Game of the year" list, and, despite this being a small portal, I'm going to do the same right now. My authority on the matter is for sure less solid, but after all this is a blog, and what's a blog for if not to express one's own opinions?
So, without further ado, here's the list:
Best MMORPG: Warhammer Online
I doubt many of you had any doubts on this particular award, coming from me. Many accused me of being a rabid Warhammer fanboy, and while I wouldn't definately go as far as defining myself a "fanboy" I'm definately a fan. The game started with some undeniable problems, but Mythic has been so fast and responsive in adressing them, that I hardly felt them. Warhammer Online is delivering a whole ton of fun to the ones that like RvR warfare like me, and due to it's original features and it's absolutely fantastic background, it's definitely demonstrating that a fantasy MMO that's not WoW CAN be brought to success. From now onwards it can only get bigger and better, the room for expansion is unparaleled, so if you still didn't try it, now may be the time to, thanks to the "recruit a friend" program.
Best First/third Person Shooter: Farcry 2
I know many will fiercely disagree with this resolution. Farcry 2 does have some problems, expecially in the fact that the combat tends to be a tad repeatitive, causing some very punitive reviews from the "official" press. But the world such combat is set in is absolutely astonishing. While not perfect the game has set a milestone on what freedom can be given to a player even in a traditionally linear genre like FPSs are.
Best Action Game: Metal Gear Solid 4
So many things have been said about this game that I'm kind of at a loss for words. A fantastic closure to one of the best stories ever written for a videogame comes packed with an absolutely lovely gameplay, that leaves the player free to approach it in a "shooty" way, or in a completely stealthy way. Many complained about the cutscenes, but i found them an immense added value to the game. Simply outstanding.
Best Driving Game: Midnight Club Los Angeles
It's not a simulation by any means, and while I was seriously conflicted between this and Gran Turismo 5 Prologue, in the end MC:LA won due to the tons of hours of unadultered adrenalynic fun it provides. Blazing trough the crowded streets of LA is an intoxicating experience, even slightly better than what provided by it's real competitor: Burnout Paradise (which is, don't get me wrong, another outstanding game), expecially due to the freedom of customizing one's car. The only (Big, at least for me) flaw is the story, that could have received much more attention, as much as the characters. Looks like Rockstar has a beef against people that aren't gangsta-blingtards talking in a weird street jargon, and it shows quite clearly in their games. With a better story MC:LA could have easily matched the competition for my very personal overall game of the year award. Too bad.
Next year, I'm sure, will be interesting, we'll see the clash of the titans as Gran Turismo 5 and Forza Motorsport 3 will hopefully reach a console (two consoles, actually) near us.
Best RPG: Valkyria Chronicles
many, for this category, will probably scream "Fallout 3!" Well, as usual, I beg to differ. While not at all hyped, and most definately understimated before it's launch, Valkyria Chronicles has been an absolutely pleasant surprise. The wise mix between RPG, Strategy and Action element made for several hours of enjoyment, and the story is a downright beautiful and poetic encounter between the thypical japanese romance, norse mythology and the gruesome reality of war. Most definately a gem that will shine for a long time in the JRPG genre, and demonstrated that the Japanese videogaming industry is far from being dead. If you didn't get it yet. Do it. If you don't have a PS3, this might be a good chance to consider buying one.
Best Fighting Game: Soul Calibur IV
As usual the soul calibur series delivers. A whole slew of greatly designed characters and hundreds of hours worth of awesome gameplay put this game a step over the competition, expecially due to the absolutely lovely character customization mode.
Best Wacky Game: Saints Row 2
This game is very wacky, but it's wacky in a good way. The freedom it provides (even in customizing one's character) simply blows Grand Theft Auto 4 away, and it simply gifts the player with total fun from start to end, expecially if played online with a friend. I often found myself bracing an heavy weapon and just aimlessly wreaking havoc in the city, just for the hell of it, and this for hours. And if you know me, you also know that it's pretty hard for a game to entice me in doing so.
Best Story: Ex Aequo: Metal Gear Solid 4 and Valkyria Chronicles
Together, this two games demonstrated that the Japanese still reign supreme in storytelling, and gave us hope for the future of that part of the Industry. Personally I can't wait for April, when the first episode of the Valkyria Chronicles anime will be aired in Japan. That will be for sure a fantastic game for me, providing that some good-willed fansubber will bring it to a torrent near me as soon as possible.
Best Gaming Platform: ???
To be honest it's really hard to tell. More or less all the gaming platforms, PC included, saw a very nice slew of great titles this year, and saw a lot of evolution even in their basic features.
The only thing i can safely say is that the worst gaming platform of the year, in my opinion, is the Wii. Yes, that wii that outsells the competition at every corner. Nintendo shown that they are absolutely uninterested in caring and catering to core gamers like us, showering the market with fake smiles and absolute crap (the E3 conference was a perfect example of that this year). My Wii is, at the moment, just a very costly blue light (since i can't be bothered turning it on even to read the useless mail Nintendo sends me) and it's been in that position for months. Truly sad, but nothing is perfect, I'm afraid.
Most Anticipated Game for 2009: White Knight Chronicle
I've had my eyes on this game since when it's been announced, and it promises to have an absolutely lovely story and a quite interesting gameplay. Moreover I have a soft spot in my heart for the mix of mecha and fantasy. Our lucky japanese friends already got their hands on it. Hopefully we won't have to wait too long ourselves.
Overall Game of the Year 2008: Ex Aequo: Warhammer Online, Valkyria Chronicles and Metal Gear Solid 4
No matter how much I try, I cannot find a way to determine an overall winner between those 3 games. Each one shines like a star over the rest of the market, so I guess in this not very professional list of mine, there's plenty room for a three-way ex Aequo.
That's it, I guess. I could go on inventing awards for the whole night. But episode 13 of Tales of the Abyss (a very nice anime based on a very nice PS2 game) is waiting for me, so, again, happy Holydays, my beloved readers. Stay tuned!
It's been definately an interesting year for gamers, with two new Major MMORPGs released (Warhammer and Age of Conan, at least one of which seems to be slowly climbing the stair to success), two expansions of other major MMOs (Mines of Moria and Wrath of the Lich King) and a whole slew of new games, many of which we waited for years (metal Gear Solid 4, for one) while some others have been very pleasant semi-surprises (Valkyria Chronicles).
A very pleasant factor, during the year, at least for me, has been the return of the JRPG genre to the new generation consoles. Even if some of the first steps have been a bit shaky (the lack in coding quality of The Last Remnant was, unfortunately an example of that). Hopefully the next year will bring the genre back where it's supposed to be, delivering awesome and deep stories in a videogaming industry that lacks them more and more.
The current crysis that's affecting the real world left the gaming industry Bloodied, But Unbowed and in this day of happyness my thoughts go to the many that, in the industry, lost their job due to it.
We must not forget that, if we're having this much fun playing our beloved games it's even due to their hard work, and many of them are probably spending some quite sad holydays. Hopefully as many as possible of them will find a new home in which to express their game-designing talents soon.
Many sites have or are now compiling their "Game of the year" list, and, despite this being a small portal, I'm going to do the same right now. My authority on the matter is for sure less solid, but after all this is a blog, and what's a blog for if not to express one's own opinions?
So, without further ado, here's the list:
Best MMORPG: Warhammer Online
I doubt many of you had any doubts on this particular award, coming from me. Many accused me of being a rabid Warhammer fanboy, and while I wouldn't definately go as far as defining myself a "fanboy" I'm definately a fan. The game started with some undeniable problems, but Mythic has been so fast and responsive in adressing them, that I hardly felt them. Warhammer Online is delivering a whole ton of fun to the ones that like RvR warfare like me, and due to it's original features and it's absolutely fantastic background, it's definitely demonstrating that a fantasy MMO that's not WoW CAN be brought to success. From now onwards it can only get bigger and better, the room for expansion is unparaleled, so if you still didn't try it, now may be the time to, thanks to the "recruit a friend" program.
Best First/third Person Shooter: Farcry 2
I know many will fiercely disagree with this resolution. Farcry 2 does have some problems, expecially in the fact that the combat tends to be a tad repeatitive, causing some very punitive reviews from the "official" press. But the world such combat is set in is absolutely astonishing. While not perfect the game has set a milestone on what freedom can be given to a player even in a traditionally linear genre like FPSs are.
Best Action Game: Metal Gear Solid 4
So many things have been said about this game that I'm kind of at a loss for words. A fantastic closure to one of the best stories ever written for a videogame comes packed with an absolutely lovely gameplay, that leaves the player free to approach it in a "shooty" way, or in a completely stealthy way. Many complained about the cutscenes, but i found them an immense added value to the game. Simply outstanding.
Best Driving Game: Midnight Club Los Angeles
It's not a simulation by any means, and while I was seriously conflicted between this and Gran Turismo 5 Prologue, in the end MC:LA won due to the tons of hours of unadultered adrenalynic fun it provides. Blazing trough the crowded streets of LA is an intoxicating experience, even slightly better than what provided by it's real competitor: Burnout Paradise (which is, don't get me wrong, another outstanding game), expecially due to the freedom of customizing one's car. The only (Big, at least for me) flaw is the story, that could have received much more attention, as much as the characters. Looks like Rockstar has a beef against people that aren't gangsta-blingtards talking in a weird street jargon, and it shows quite clearly in their games. With a better story MC:LA could have easily matched the competition for my very personal overall game of the year award. Too bad.
Next year, I'm sure, will be interesting, we'll see the clash of the titans as Gran Turismo 5 and Forza Motorsport 3 will hopefully reach a console (two consoles, actually) near us.
Best RPG: Valkyria Chronicles
many, for this category, will probably scream "Fallout 3!" Well, as usual, I beg to differ. While not at all hyped, and most definately understimated before it's launch, Valkyria Chronicles has been an absolutely pleasant surprise. The wise mix between RPG, Strategy and Action element made for several hours of enjoyment, and the story is a downright beautiful and poetic encounter between the thypical japanese romance, norse mythology and the gruesome reality of war. Most definately a gem that will shine for a long time in the JRPG genre, and demonstrated that the Japanese videogaming industry is far from being dead. If you didn't get it yet. Do it. If you don't have a PS3, this might be a good chance to consider buying one.
Best Fighting Game: Soul Calibur IV
As usual the soul calibur series delivers. A whole slew of greatly designed characters and hundreds of hours worth of awesome gameplay put this game a step over the competition, expecially due to the absolutely lovely character customization mode.
Best Wacky Game: Saints Row 2
This game is very wacky, but it's wacky in a good way. The freedom it provides (even in customizing one's character) simply blows Grand Theft Auto 4 away, and it simply gifts the player with total fun from start to end, expecially if played online with a friend. I often found myself bracing an heavy weapon and just aimlessly wreaking havoc in the city, just for the hell of it, and this for hours. And if you know me, you also know that it's pretty hard for a game to entice me in doing so.
Best Story: Ex Aequo: Metal Gear Solid 4 and Valkyria Chronicles
Together, this two games demonstrated that the Japanese still reign supreme in storytelling, and gave us hope for the future of that part of the Industry. Personally I can't wait for April, when the first episode of the Valkyria Chronicles anime will be aired in Japan. That will be for sure a fantastic game for me, providing that some good-willed fansubber will bring it to a torrent near me as soon as possible.
Best Gaming Platform: ???
To be honest it's really hard to tell. More or less all the gaming platforms, PC included, saw a very nice slew of great titles this year, and saw a lot of evolution even in their basic features.
The only thing i can safely say is that the worst gaming platform of the year, in my opinion, is the Wii. Yes, that wii that outsells the competition at every corner. Nintendo shown that they are absolutely uninterested in caring and catering to core gamers like us, showering the market with fake smiles and absolute crap (the E3 conference was a perfect example of that this year). My Wii is, at the moment, just a very costly blue light (since i can't be bothered turning it on even to read the useless mail Nintendo sends me) and it's been in that position for months. Truly sad, but nothing is perfect, I'm afraid.
Most Anticipated Game for 2009: White Knight Chronicle
I've had my eyes on this game since when it's been announced, and it promises to have an absolutely lovely story and a quite interesting gameplay. Moreover I have a soft spot in my heart for the mix of mecha and fantasy. Our lucky japanese friends already got their hands on it. Hopefully we won't have to wait too long ourselves.
Overall Game of the Year 2008: Ex Aequo: Warhammer Online, Valkyria Chronicles and Metal Gear Solid 4
No matter how much I try, I cannot find a way to determine an overall winner between those 3 games. Each one shines like a star over the rest of the market, so I guess in this not very professional list of mine, there's plenty room for a three-way ex Aequo.
That's it, I guess. I could go on inventing awards for the whole night. But episode 13 of Tales of the Abyss (a very nice anime based on a very nice PS2 game) is waiting for me, so, again, happy Holydays, my beloved readers. Stay tuned!
Saturday, December 20, 2008
Warhammer Online now lets you recruit friends to join your battles
I haven't written much lately, mostly because of the fact that I've been playing. The videogame onslaught that hit us in the last month sure let us short in free time, and between Warhammer, Fallout 3, Farcry 2 and Midnight Club LA I've been quite swamped by pure, unadultered fun.
Today I received the new Warhammer Online newsletter, that comes with some news that won't sound as a surprise to those of you that read my blog regularly. Mythic is beginning to offer (starting immediately) free Warhammer Online trial accounts, even if not in a widespread way as I would have preferred.
The initiative will take the form of a "Recruit a friend" program. Each subscriber to the game will have a "pool" of three free 7 days account that they can send to a friend. Every month one account will be added to the pool up to a maximum of 6.
When you send one of those accounts to a friend, if he becomes a paying customer after the 7 days, you'll be awarded 30 days of free play. If he doesn't use the account at all, it'll expire after one month, and will be "refunded" to your pool of "recruitement" accounts so that you can reuse it.
The whole system is quite clever, and comes right in time for the holydays. Personally I plan to make full use of it and I bet many others will, so if you have a friend that plays Warhammer Online, now it's the right time to ask him a friend code.
Just a message to the ones that will receive this little gift for Christmas from their friends. Roll Order. We're much cooler that those destro emo kids :P
Today I received the new Warhammer Online newsletter, that comes with some news that won't sound as a surprise to those of you that read my blog regularly. Mythic is beginning to offer (starting immediately) free Warhammer Online trial accounts, even if not in a widespread way as I would have preferred.
The initiative will take the form of a "Recruit a friend" program. Each subscriber to the game will have a "pool" of three free 7 days account that they can send to a friend. Every month one account will be added to the pool up to a maximum of 6.
When you send one of those accounts to a friend, if he becomes a paying customer after the 7 days, you'll be awarded 30 days of free play. If he doesn't use the account at all, it'll expire after one month, and will be "refunded" to your pool of "recruitement" accounts so that you can reuse it.
The whole system is quite clever, and comes right in time for the holydays. Personally I plan to make full use of it and I bet many others will, so if you have a friend that plays Warhammer Online, now it's the right time to ask him a friend code.
Just a message to the ones that will receive this little gift for Christmas from their friends. Roll Order. We're much cooler that those destro emo kids :P
Thursday, November 27, 2008
Warhammer Online: First Impression on the Knight of the Blazing Sun
You probably noticed that I didn't post in the last few days. Maybe you wondered why. The reason is simple: I was split between defending my realm on Phoenix Throne (my Warhammer Online server) and the new test server, on which I was working hard in testing the new Knight of the Blazing Sun class.
If you're a regular reader of this blog, you probably know how much I awaited this class. Order has been weakened considerably (expecially numbers-wise) by the removal of an human tank, and expecially one that fit the archetype of the "Knight in Shining Armor", that is so familiar and popular to many players.
But this wasn't the only problem. The warriors of Order have been fighting costantly debuffed by the auras of the Chosen, with nothing to counter them. This is finally going to change.
The Knight of the Blazing sun is, first and foremost, massively fun to play. It changed a lot since when it was made available in the early closed beta, and now has received an extremely varied and flexible array of new abilities that make it one of the most versatile classes of the whole game.
As a knight of the Blazing Sun you will buff your companions and debuff your enemy at the same time, just by walking on the field (more or less like the Chosen), but that's not all. Your enemies will pay dearly every hit they land on you or your mates, making you the master of protection, helped by a vast array of CC abilities, like the knockdown that smashes to the ground everyone that dares walking in front of you.
The role of the Knight of the Blazing sun will be a quite crucial one on the battlefields of the world of Warhammer, protecting their companions, discrupting and frustrating the enemies, and generally raising the effectiveness of the whole Order battle line both in attack and defense. Always on the frontlines, where their defense and survivability will be put to the most use.
Another extremely pleasing element of the Knight of the Blazing Sun are the visual effects that Mythic designed for it's abilities. Flames, light, glowing auras. You chose one, the Knight has it, making for a truly majestic sight on the battlefield.
If you're just now (or in the next few weeks) approaching the world or Warhammer Online, it's the right chance to roll Order, wheter you will be a Knight (and hopefully many will), or any other class benefitting from the Knights' presence.
See you on the battlefield!
If you're a regular reader of this blog, you probably know how much I awaited this class. Order has been weakened considerably (expecially numbers-wise) by the removal of an human tank, and expecially one that fit the archetype of the "Knight in Shining Armor", that is so familiar and popular to many players.
But this wasn't the only problem. The warriors of Order have been fighting costantly debuffed by the auras of the Chosen, with nothing to counter them. This is finally going to change.
The Knight of the Blazing sun is, first and foremost, massively fun to play. It changed a lot since when it was made available in the early closed beta, and now has received an extremely varied and flexible array of new abilities that make it one of the most versatile classes of the whole game.
As a knight of the Blazing Sun you will buff your companions and debuff your enemy at the same time, just by walking on the field (more or less like the Chosen), but that's not all. Your enemies will pay dearly every hit they land on you or your mates, making you the master of protection, helped by a vast array of CC abilities, like the knockdown that smashes to the ground everyone that dares walking in front of you.
The role of the Knight of the Blazing sun will be a quite crucial one on the battlefields of the world of Warhammer, protecting their companions, discrupting and frustrating the enemies, and generally raising the effectiveness of the whole Order battle line both in attack and defense. Always on the frontlines, where their defense and survivability will be put to the most use.
Another extremely pleasing element of the Knight of the Blazing Sun are the visual effects that Mythic designed for it's abilities. Flames, light, glowing auras. You chose one, the Knight has it, making for a truly majestic sight on the battlefield.
If you're just now (or in the next few weeks) approaching the world or Warhammer Online, it's the right chance to roll Order, wheter you will be a Knight (and hopefully many will), or any other class benefitting from the Knights' presence.
See you on the battlefield!
Monday, November 10, 2008
Farewell, Black Lion Company
The time has finally come. After several months of non stop tanking this evening I canceled my subscription to Age of Conan. The Black Lion company, the guild that i contributed to create and that raised to the very top of the Hyrkania server, had it's last successful raid, and then everyone went their separate ways. Some (few) will stay, some will go to Warhammer, some to try WOTLK, some will wait for Darkfall, some, like Phara, the beautiful and ruthless stygian assassin that led us to the glory until now, even decided that it's time to close that part of their lifes that has been dedicated to online gaming.
The Black Lion Company (whose roleplay story, written by yours truly, you can find here) has been one of the best guilds i've ever been part of, with a very close knit core, that managed to keep organizing 2-3 successful weekly raids against all odds in a server whose population was dwindling fast (this last sunday evening it was just over 100 people online), managing to kill all the raid bosses in the server save two.
In the end, though, organizing raids and scraping the bottom of the barrel every single time to find people to get involved simply stopped to be fun, and that's what led to tonight parting. I've been in many guilds so far, since the times of Ultima Online, but this is the first time i actually see a guild disbanding like that as I leave a game. It's been a moving experience, that demonstrated to me, just another time, that online friendship DOES have a value, even if the environment doesn't always favor it. In the harsh world of Hyboria i found some true friends, and I admit that I did shed a tear this evening, when i wished everyone good luck, trying hard (and maybe failing) for my voice not to break in Ventrilo.
What remains are memories, fond ones, that are summarized in my Age of Conan flickr gallery. A little memento of Abriael the Guardian, since when he was an half-naked refugee washed ashore on Tortage, to raising as one of the strongest tanks of his server.
As I bit farewell to the Black Lions, and I lay to rest another of my online personas, worn and tired by many battles, but victorious, I cannot help being sad. It's unfortunate that MMORPGs don't last forever. They give us fun, they give us frustration, but in the end they always become a sizeable fragment of our life that turn into emmories that won't come back.
May the memories we built together stay strong in your heart, Black Lions. I will not forget.
The Black Lion Company (whose roleplay story, written by yours truly, you can find here) has been one of the best guilds i've ever been part of, with a very close knit core, that managed to keep organizing 2-3 successful weekly raids against all odds in a server whose population was dwindling fast (this last sunday evening it was just over 100 people online), managing to kill all the raid bosses in the server save two.
In the end, though, organizing raids and scraping the bottom of the barrel every single time to find people to get involved simply stopped to be fun, and that's what led to tonight parting. I've been in many guilds so far, since the times of Ultima Online, but this is the first time i actually see a guild disbanding like that as I leave a game. It's been a moving experience, that demonstrated to me, just another time, that online friendship DOES have a value, even if the environment doesn't always favor it. In the harsh world of Hyboria i found some true friends, and I admit that I did shed a tear this evening, when i wished everyone good luck, trying hard (and maybe failing) for my voice not to break in Ventrilo.
What remains are memories, fond ones, that are summarized in my Age of Conan flickr gallery. A little memento of Abriael the Guardian, since when he was an half-naked refugee washed ashore on Tortage, to raising as one of the strongest tanks of his server.
As I bit farewell to the Black Lions, and I lay to rest another of my online personas, worn and tired by many battles, but victorious, I cannot help being sad. It's unfortunate that MMORPGs don't last forever. They give us fun, they give us frustration, but in the end they always become a sizeable fragment of our life that turn into emmories that won't come back.
May the memories we built together stay strong in your heart, Black Lions. I will not forget.
Sunday, November 9, 2008
Chaos Wastes under assault: Warhammer Online glory
Today, on my Warhammer Online server (Phoenix Throne), Order decided to launch a full scale assault against the forces of Decrussion across the imperial front. Ranks upon ranks of valiant warriors of the Elves and the Dwarfs aided the Empire in liberating the war torn northern city of Praag and pushed up into the enemy territory. The Chaos Wastes became ablaze with battles as hundreds fought hundreds, back and forth, across the whole area.
It was truly an epic battle (you can see the map above, littered with battle marks), full of tension and excitement, as we managed to get the Chaos Wastes basically to the point of capture (which would have opened the road to sieging the massive chaos fortress named The Maw), when finally the enemy managed to reorganize and push us back, little by little, until the momentum of the assault slowed down. The whole massive struggle lasted about nine hours (but the situation didn't normalyze yet, destruction still didn't manage to push the front all the way back to initial conditions, and praag is still enjoying some much awaited moments of truce).
Despite the assault didn't manage to bring us all the way into conquering the Maw (while Order in the Volkmar server did manage get even to capturing the Inevitable City, dispelling in a single stroke all the doomsaying about Order never being able to defend against the hordes of Destruction due to a mostly perceived population imbalance. Kudos to them!), it was massively fun. Many people, today, felt the true taste of what Open RvR can become, and of what makes it a superior, more involving and immersive PvP mechanic compared to all others.
As I was riding with hundreds of others behind me, I almost heard in my head the Ride of the Valkyries. It was really a sight to behold.
I do have to extend my kudos to my opponents on the Destruction side. They fought valiantly all day, and managed to push us back just when they were on the brink of defeat. As more and more people get access to tier 4, Warhammer Online gets every day more promising, with more and bigger Realm vs Realm battles, and a lot of glory to be had.
PS: I just came back from a trip on the newly opened test server. Warhammer has just become even more fun, fighting wise. The reduction of CC has made fighting much more dynamic, classes just feel a lot more balanced. I will have to explore more, but it seems that the whole quality of combat has been upped a notch or two.
It was truly an epic battle (you can see the map above, littered with battle marks), full of tension and excitement, as we managed to get the Chaos Wastes basically to the point of capture (which would have opened the road to sieging the massive chaos fortress named The Maw), when finally the enemy managed to reorganize and push us back, little by little, until the momentum of the assault slowed down. The whole massive struggle lasted about nine hours (but the situation didn't normalyze yet, destruction still didn't manage to push the front all the way back to initial conditions, and praag is still enjoying some much awaited moments of truce).
Despite the assault didn't manage to bring us all the way into conquering the Maw (while Order in the Volkmar server did manage get even to capturing the Inevitable City, dispelling in a single stroke all the doomsaying about Order never being able to defend against the hordes of Destruction due to a mostly perceived population imbalance. Kudos to them!), it was massively fun. Many people, today, felt the true taste of what Open RvR can become, and of what makes it a superior, more involving and immersive PvP mechanic compared to all others.
As I was riding with hundreds of others behind me, I almost heard in my head the Ride of the Valkyries. It was really a sight to behold.
I do have to extend my kudos to my opponents on the Destruction side. They fought valiantly all day, and managed to push us back just when they were on the brink of defeat. As more and more people get access to tier 4, Warhammer Online gets every day more promising, with more and bigger Realm vs Realm battles, and a lot of glory to be had.
PS: I just came back from a trip on the newly opened test server. Warhammer has just become even more fun, fighting wise. The reduction of CC has made fighting much more dynamic, classes just feel a lot more balanced. I will have to explore more, but it seems that the whole quality of combat has been upped a notch or two.
Saturday, November 8, 2008
Some good night giggles
Tonight i wanted to share something pretty funny. Looks like an Age of Conan fanboy named Mysana is being really frustrated about the bad waters in which his favourite game is barely floating, and has elected this blog as AoC's personal number one enemy. This resulted in about 20 messages a day ranging from the "you're a gay a**hole and you should be gassed", passing by "go fu*k yourself a**hole. I won't rest until you shut your blog down" up to "you can't stop me from fu*king your blog", and a plethora of other colorful but not very imaginative insults that I won't repeat for decency's sake.
This actually is an interesting case on how fanboyism (that seems particularly strong in MMORPGs, other than in other similar internet fields like the console war), when brought to extreme levels, can really make someone regress to a state that can only be defined as barbaric, in a sad, but almost funny way. Reading this kind of messages every day gives me and my friends quite a lot of giggles, so I thought I could have shared some of them with my readers, for fun and lolling sake.
The poor man doesn't even realize that it takes me a single click to wipe out of existance whole groups of his comments (that no one else will ever read, unless I decide to allow it) that he wastes so much time to compose, and if he intends not to rest until this blog is shut down, he'll have to survive without any rest for a long, long time, since I fully plan to continue writing my opinions indefinately. His influence on my life and blog is totally non-existant, besides the occasional giggle, and his ability to phase me (or anyone else at that) matches the absolute zero.
My advice to him, is to direct his frustration for the demise of AoC towards the real culprits, which are none else than Funcom.
But none-the-less, this actually makes me quite proud to have my first resident internet troll. Must mean that this blog is getting successful :D
Warhammer Online: updates on 1.05. Test server up tomorrow.
Mark Jacobs posted again on the VNboards today, bringing news about the controversial 1.05 balance patch. The new updates, that you can read here, mitigate or actually outweights most of the nerfs that some part of the playerbase was afraid about. Healers got a big chunk of love, as the more powerful, long-cast heals have been made faster and less likely to be setback/interrupted. Iron breakers got their grudge nerf mitigated, while Sorcerers and Bright Wizards will have to feel some though love, as their critical damage (which is one of the biggest sources of their perceived superior power) will be lowered.
Jacobs also mentioned several bug fixes and told that many more will be adressed during the testing of the patch, that will most probably begin tomorrow.
It's truly interesting to read the dialogue between Mark and the community. Mythic might not be always right in their decisions (no one is), but they sure listen to their players more than anyone else. Maybe they don't always agree, but they're demonstrating every day more that they definately listen and are fully able to act fast and effectively on what their players help them learn.
It'd be nice if more developers followed they're example, isn't it?
PS: Mark really likes to play with our curiosity, as, while concluding his posting for tonight, he wrote "And, for a bit of a teaser, I just saw some of the concept art for our third major content patch (1.1 is our first). Oh, are you folks going to be surprised and happy when we start talking about it. It's really, really cool."
Now, since I love to play myself, i'm gonna guess. Personally i think the second and third major content class will be the two missing classes (That, according to me, will be the reinstatement of the choppa and the newly developed slayer), and two of the missing capitals. Now, considering that they probably have plenty concepts of their missing capitals, I'm going to guess that Mark just saw the concepts for the Slayer.
If you have your own guesses feel free to comment with them :D
Jacobs also mentioned several bug fixes and told that many more will be adressed during the testing of the patch, that will most probably begin tomorrow.
It's truly interesting to read the dialogue between Mark and the community. Mythic might not be always right in their decisions (no one is), but they sure listen to their players more than anyone else. Maybe they don't always agree, but they're demonstrating every day more that they definately listen and are fully able to act fast and effectively on what their players help them learn.
It'd be nice if more developers followed they're example, isn't it?
PS: Mark really likes to play with our curiosity, as, while concluding his posting for tonight, he wrote "And, for a bit of a teaser, I just saw some of the concept art for our third major content patch (1.1 is our first). Oh, are you folks going to be surprised and happy when we start talking about it. It's really, really cool."
Now, since I love to play myself, i'm gonna guess. Personally i think the second and third major content class will be the two missing classes (That, according to me, will be the reinstatement of the choppa and the newly developed slayer), and two of the missing capitals. Now, considering that they probably have plenty concepts of their missing capitals, I'm going to guess that Mark just saw the concepts for the Slayer.
If you have your own guesses feel free to comment with them :D
Friday, November 7, 2008
Valkyria Chronicles, a rare, shiny gem
In my previous post, when i wrote about Valkyria Chronicles' release, I told Sega's new game was a rare gem. Today, after winning the final battle, I can finally say that I was wrong.
In Which way was I wrong? Well, i underestimated the game, and i did it by a lot. The sweet and soft graphics made me think about a very enjoyable, but pretty light-hearted story. Goodness, I was so wrong...
The story of Valkyria Chronicles, even if it has it's light moments, takes on fully the responsibility of telling what is, despite the fictional nature of the conflict, a war story. It has tear jerking moments (I can remember at least three distinct moments of the story in which i was moved to tears), and instances in which you'll feel a straight on punch into your stomach, as the brutality and ruthlessness of war is fully expressed.
Loss of dear ones, discrimination, history-bending by the victors, extermination, betrayal, sacrifice... you name it. The depth of Valkyria's story easily matches that of most JRPGs, and surpasses them in more than a moment, with a more and often cruel approach.
This, coupled with an absolutely glorious soundtrack, and by a finally fulfilling finale (something that's often sorely missing in many games), makes for one of the best storytelling experiences i've seen in my whole gaming career. And i'm NOT exaggerating.
The only glaring flaw is the english translation, that's really low quality, with the localization editors that take too many liberties in their interpretation, often warping the nature of the characters and the way they interact with each other (for instance, Isara is quite formal and exceptionally respectful with her brother Welkin, for reasons that are shown clearly trough the story, while on the english track she's definately different). Luckily, the presence of the Japanese track partially makes up for this flaw. I would definately advise switching to Japanese language, keeping the subtitles on to understand the dialogue.
Anyway, if you have a PS3, don't miss this absolute gem. If you don't have one, you may even consider this game as a good reason to get a PS3, because games like this one are rare and far between. Expecially here in the west.
In Which way was I wrong? Well, i underestimated the game, and i did it by a lot. The sweet and soft graphics made me think about a very enjoyable, but pretty light-hearted story. Goodness, I was so wrong...
The story of Valkyria Chronicles, even if it has it's light moments, takes on fully the responsibility of telling what is, despite the fictional nature of the conflict, a war story. It has tear jerking moments (I can remember at least three distinct moments of the story in which i was moved to tears), and instances in which you'll feel a straight on punch into your stomach, as the brutality and ruthlessness of war is fully expressed.
Loss of dear ones, discrimination, history-bending by the victors, extermination, betrayal, sacrifice... you name it. The depth of Valkyria's story easily matches that of most JRPGs, and surpasses them in more than a moment, with a more and often cruel approach.
This, coupled with an absolutely glorious soundtrack, and by a finally fulfilling finale (something that's often sorely missing in many games), makes for one of the best storytelling experiences i've seen in my whole gaming career. And i'm NOT exaggerating.
The only glaring flaw is the english translation, that's really low quality, with the localization editors that take too many liberties in their interpretation, often warping the nature of the characters and the way they interact with each other (for instance, Isara is quite formal and exceptionally respectful with her brother Welkin, for reasons that are shown clearly trough the story, while on the english track she's definately different). Luckily, the presence of the Japanese track partially makes up for this flaw. I would definately advise switching to Japanese language, keeping the subtitles on to understand the dialogue.
Anyway, if you have a PS3, don't miss this absolute gem. If you don't have one, you may even consider this game as a good reason to get a PS3, because games like this one are rare and far between. Expecially here in the west.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
