| What Happened to Gaming’s "Middle Class?" Posted: 13 Mar 2012 05:57 AM PDT The divide at this year’s GDC between independent developers and AAA game makers seemed wider than ever. Panelists referred to working with teams of a few dozen, or over 200, and almost never something in-between. We observed this dichotomy in nearly every aspect of the show, even the recruiting pavilion where major publishers and social game startups competed for space and talent.  Mid-sized companies still exist in the industry, just not in the public eye. HD-development and the economic crisis destroyed the old middle class of developers and publishers (remember Midway?) and the companies that have taken their place don’t produce content directly for consumers. If you recognize their names at all, it’s probably only from five-second splash screens that run before a game’s main menu. You’ve no doubt played games that take advantage of the Unreal Engine, Havok Physics, or SpeedTree. Called middleware, these services provide a short-cut for developers who don’t want to undertake the laborious process of creating their own game making tools. Why spend months creating things from scratch when there are cheaper and less time consuming options available. Developers can now choose two routes to viability when making games, finding a publisher or going indie. Those that choose the former tend to make large AAA titles, while indie developers generally tackle much smaller projects — or, if they do have a large game, like Minecraft, they still maintain surprisingly small headcounts at their studio. Developers that want to create something in the middle don’t have the money to fulfill their vision, and publishers won’t invest because a mid-sized game’s profit potential can’t justify it. At GDC, Saints Row: The Third Design Director Scott Phillips explained how his team took a middle class (if uncharacteristically successful) series, and turned it into something that could go head-to-head with Modern Warfare 3 and Skyrim. Phillips pointed out some serious flaws in the first two SR games, and explained how the team improved upon them. THQ, the publisher of Saints Row, spent the last fifteen years capitalizing on licensed titles while releasing tiles like Company of Heroes or Dawn of War — well received games with relatively small, but dedicated communities. The two halves of the publisher’s portfolio let them enjoy a fair level of success. However, 2011 marked a major shift in the publisher’s strategy as it tried to emulate Call of Duty with Homefront, and largely abandoned licensed titles (a genre that’s proven unprofitable in the current market). Turning Saints Row from an enjoyable-despite-its-flaws breakout hit, and turning it into a major event was the natural extension of this strategy. If a mid-sized company wants to turn a profit they must downsize, turn to outsourcing, or, like THQ, invest the capital into development necessary to compete with EA and Activision. The market now resembles that of the ’80s and early ’90s, where garage development produced major hits alongside the big players like Sierra or EA. Of course, teams were so small then that the distinction between indie and studio-development was a matter of a dozen individuals, not hundreds. CEO of Loot Drop, a social game developer, John Romero and pointed this out while on a panel about the state of independent games, “The platform is different, and the monetization is different. You just don’t sell games on Facebook…but the games are very similar to the way they were back in the early ’80s.” On that same panel, Epic Games founder Tim Sweeney drew attention to the efficiency of small development teams saying, “Infinity Blade was more profitable per man hour than Gears of War 3.” In a world where an iPhone game presents a better investment opportunity than a AAA-retail game like GoW3, who would volunteer their money to fund a milquetoast project aimed squarely at the middle? With the market in its current state, it’s no wonder middleware vendors filled the show floor. They seemed to have a solution for every game design issue imaginable — from the ones you’d expect, like graphics and physics engines, to off-the-shelf solutions for AI, particles, and even narrative. All the financial chaos we’ve seen play out in the past six or seven years is merely a high-profile side show created by shifting economic incentives. For every developer we’ve seen shutter their doors in the past ten years, it seems an indie studio or middleware developer started up — though not necessarily in the same locations, the industry’s shift game development in the UK devastated, while new studios start in China every day. Kept away from the public eye, middle-class developers don’t make games anymore, they create tools other game makers use every day.
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| Age of Wulin (CN) Posted: 13 Mar 2012 02:26 AM PDT 
So, after the previous tour of Shaolin, this time I will be taking a tour of Wudang. If you noticed, the Wudang clan in Age of Wulin uses dual swords as the main weapon starting off. The weapon itself is 1 item, not 2 single swords by the way. I don’t think I came across a game where Wudang utilized this weapon (heavy 2-handed sword is actually a legit weapon according to Wudang lore, another branch of Wudang), but I am kind of lazy to dig further into the history books. And oh, both males and females characters are accepted into Wudang.
Wudang is a huge place, with cliffs and more cliffs going up to the skies. Much space is still rather empty, but all these will just give Snail Game more creativity in placing new NPCs, Miracle Encounters and quests as the game development progresses. I am touring Er Mei clan now, and if you think Wudang and Shaolin is huge, Er Mei will be bringing “huge” to the next level…
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| MechWarrior Tactics is Part CCG Part Video Game Posted: 12 Mar 2012 05:55 PM PDT 
The Game Developers Conference is far from over — actually, the show floor just opened today — but if bumping into people over the past couple days has been anything to go by, a PSN game called Dyad seems to be getting the best word of mouth at the show. Well, let me try that again — the Halo announcements, SimCity, Quantic Dream’s bundle of joy, and the Independent Games Festival probably win this award I just made up. But for the underdog word of mouth, I’m going with Dyad. A couple days ago, I was able to play it for about an hour. Developer Shawn McGrath invited some media to try the game in his hotel room, each alone, with the lights off — “the cool kids’ way of playing it,” he said — which seemed odd, but made sense when I realized the game is a weird mash-up of Rez, a light show, a kaleidoscope, and a racing game. “Weird” is his word, by the way.
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| Luna Plus Posted: 12 Mar 2012 05:55 PM PDT 
As a Free to Play gamer myself since the days of MapleStory’s beta phase, it really pisses me off seeing how game companies out there are trying their best to milk gamers dry. Back in March 2011, I posted about Luna Plus Korea getting shut down as the developer (Eyasoft) is taking a long hiatus (link). Subsequently, gPotato emailed me in June 2011 and asked me to remove their company name, after I mentioned the North American server might be affected (link).
And to no surprise, they promised that updates will still arrive for Luna Plus and Iris Online, another of Eyasoft’s game. After a check, the only noticeable game content update Luna Plus got was a party match-making system (link) in July 2011, which was followed by tons of Cash Shop updates leading to the closure announcement.How many of you actually fell for it? Iris Online is currently still active, I dare say it will follow suit soon.
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| Leisure Suit Larry Makes a Comeback in HD Posted: 12 Mar 2012 02:27 PM PDT Leisure Suit Larry is largely regarded as a pretty poor franchise by those who have only played the more recent entries in the franchise. Years back, it had its unfunny moments but was an extremely popular point-and-click adventure series. Nowadays it might be difficult to track down its better iterations, so Replay Games is hoping to revive them all for modern platforms. Back in June, Replay announced it was working with Larry creator Al Lowe to bring the original Leisure Suit Larry to tablets, netbooks, and mobile devices. According to EGM, it now has plans to bring remastered, HD versions to an even wider variety of platforms: Xbox Live Arcade, PlayStation Network, PC, Mac, iOS, Android, OnLive, and more. The first game in the series, Leisure Suit Larry in the Land of the Lounge Lizards, was originally released in 1987 and then got a remake in 1991. This took the original 16-color EGA graphics (featured in the video above, which shows off the game’s first ten minutes) and upgraded them to 256 colors. Should the new HD version do well enough, the later games in the series — there were six games released before Magna Cum Laude and Box Office Bust came along — could follow, complete with enhanced graphics, sound, and controls. Brand-new Larry games are also a possibility.
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| How Saints Row: The Third Nearly Failed Posted: 12 Mar 2012 05:54 AM PDT  “Visual and quality issues were the number one complaint in Saints Row 2,” said Design Director Scott Phillips at a Saints Row: The Third postmortem at GDC on Thursday. Despite the retail performance of the second game, he explained that developer Volition couldn’t take success for granted. Producing a goofy breakout hit didn’t automatically give them the resources or insight to improve upon the game. Phillips documented how the team created a better and more cohesive experience by improving upon the last title’s tone, quality, and scope. “How you’re going to say something can be more important than what you’re saying,” explained Phillips. Nothing could be more important for a game like Saints Row: The Third than setting the proper tone. He felt that the previous two games in the series suffered from incongruous emotional moments falling too close together — SR2 tasked you with committing a brutal murder in cold-blood after an extended “vehicle surfing” moment. He stated that the team on the first Saints Row “wanted to make…an MTV music video,” but that clashed with some of the goofier missions. Once the game’s leads decided on the tone they would like to take, they found trouble trying to communicate that to their subordinates. “By the time Saints Row: The Third shipped, only 20% of the team had shipped a Saints Row title,” explained Phillips. “This meant that people didn’t have that automatic knowledge of Saints Row…We had a lack of buy-in as to what the game was. People didn’t know what they were making. Is fart-in-a-jar [weapon] too far? …I had to re-explain constantly.” The leads responded by producing a short video featuring scenes from movies that fit the tone they were aiming for — Hot Fuzz and Bad Boys II among others. Those that still didn’t understand found help as the team produced prototypes and pre-visualizations. This reflects the need for better communication on larger projects like SR3, something that can be time consuming and expensive to maintain. 
Since the team wanted to turn their breakout-hit franchise into a AAA tent-pole release, they stepped up their playtesting on the game extensively. This was done to ensure that things were paced properly and that the “holy-shit” setpiece moments would really blow the player away, while still keeping the moment-to-moment gameplay entertaining. All of those show-stopping moments required a significant investment of time and resources, and a designer’s imagination could have easily outpaced the ability and budget of the team. Phillips emphasized the importance of controlling the scope of SR3. Pre-visualization — like a studio might commission a movie — gave the team a clear idea as to what they should aim for. He showed the audience the pre-viz sequence for the game’s opening mission — where the player robs a bank, jumps out of a plane, and parachutes back into the vehicle, then out again. The rough sequence (which featured little more than marble white, untextured models) let artists and others learn what the leads were looking for. Previously the team relied on written communication which Phillips found to be vague and prone to misunderstanding. The proper tone and score were only discovered through trial and error. Phillips explained that for the first six months of the game’s life it starred an undercover agent infiltrating the Saints. Retooling the story caused even more confusion. For over a year the game featured an Assassin’s Creed-style parkour system that allowed the player to effortlessly leap over cars, but processing limitations forced designers to remove the system that the team had spent a great deal of time implementing. Problems like this are an unavoidable part of game development on even the smallest titles. But the economics of scale involved in modern AAA development exponentially increase costs, and a title has to sell more to stay profitable. Though Phillips didn’t address it directly, his talk reveals why “go big or go home” has become the mantra for hardcore console games in the past few years.
GDC 2012: Gaming’s Vanishing Middle Class The disappearance of mid-sized developers and publishers worries associate editor Ryan Winterhalter. How is the industry preparing for the age of the very large and very small? Will innovation eventually create a new middle, or is the future filled with nothing but Call of Duty-style blockbusters?
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| Age of Wulin (CN) Posted: 12 Mar 2012 02:28 AM PDT 
Before I get to the tour of Wudang, I thought I should continue with Part 3 of the small walkthrough. Once again, I will like to talk about combat. Yes, combat against normal mobs will be the typical “point and click”, with the different types of skills mentioned in Part 2 kind of meaning less at first. Age of Wulin is not geared towards fast-paced PvE combat, but once again, tactical PvP combat. Ever wondered why there ain’t really any trailers or feature article focusing on PvE so far?
If you look at the new Korean trailer (link), which is actually a remake of the Chinese trailers, you will see a PvP match in there. Again, there is no mention of PvE. If you are a sucker for Dungeon Fighter or Vindictus kind of combat, this isn’t really the game for you. I feel like jumping off the cliff on the back of a horse trying to get this through to people… Talking about PvE, killing mobs will drop players normal equipments, materials and some random items. There will not be any currency dropping as far as I have seen. Currency comes in 2 kinds, tradeable and one which is soulbind to characters. Most quests give players both kinds of currency upon completion. 
Let me now talk about the Miracle Quest/ Encounter feature, which I ran into once so far. Talking to random NPCs and gossiping with them will sometimes lead to such an encounter. For mine, I was told a certain miner NPC discovered a secret cave in the mountains, and buying the NPC some wine will probably let him spill out more information. I did, and was given the coordinates to locate the cave, seen below.
This is just a simple example of the Miracle Quest/ Encounter feature. For more advanced encounters, players will really have to build up the relationship meter with the NPCs. There isn’t really a guide on which NPCs lead to what encounters though. 
Seen here is the Miracle Encounter window. The first tab records which NPCs you are having a grudge with or having an awesome relationship with. The second tab records all the prominent gossips which might lead to a Miracle Encounter. This system may also work if you have a bad relationship with a NPC, but another NPC which is against him as well might aid you and give you a secret quest. It is all about relationships.
Next, equipment upgrading. There is no such thing as +1, +2 etc system in Age of Wulin, the same goes for socketing. The only way to enhance equipments with additional stats will be to fulfill the requirements listed on the equipments, if any. Let us take a look at the sword I got from my Miracle Encounter. As it says below, I will have to reach Level 10 of the life skill, Cooking, and have 7 of a particular item before a special stat is revealed. Yeap, this is the only enhancement system seen so far in the game.
I guess this post will be getting longer than it should be, but I will like to clear off the basics as soon as possible as this is just the first test version. Below, you can see the character stats window (I hid the stats, lazy to explain those).
Red square – The strength of the character. As mine is just a newbie, it says my strength is equivalent to that of just a beginner in practice.
Yellow square – Karma. Having done nothing significant, I am still listed as a commoner. Do note that his is not the official title system. Purple square – This is the interesting one. Other than normal equipment look on the left and cash costume look on the right, this is the “social status” look. I am not really sure what this might be, perhaps important people in the game, for example the leader of the number one guild, might get access to exclusive costumes. Below are the other 3 tabs which can be found in the character stats window, each briefly explained. Reputation – Shows the reputation points players have with each clan and in the overall game world. There are different levels of course, filling the bar will open up the next. 
Title – There are 4 kinds of titles, World, Clan, Life skills and Temporary.
Mount – For now, there are only different designs of horses in Age of Wulin, no dragons, unicorns, phoenix etc.
I will leave questing to another time, but there are lots of quests (this is a quest grind game) with long storytelling and fabulous rewards. Once again, players who are used to grinding out mobs for EXP should really be prepared for a huge change in mindset. With the Miracle Encounter system, players can always travel back and forth areas, even the beginner town, as there might be something surprising just around the corner.
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| Yulgang 2 (KR) Posted: 11 Mar 2012 11:53 PM PDT 
I know, since last November at G*Star where Mgame officially debuted Yulgang 2, there has since been little news except for a short Closed Beta 1. As a sequel to one of the most famous Free to Play martial arts online game in Korea, there is no doubt high expectations for the title. Korean gaming website PlayForum paid a visit to the developer and find out how more about Yulgang 2′s current status.
1. Closed Beta 2 is currently being prepared, with over 100 staff working day and night to perfect the game. 2. Enhancing game’s visuals. As an in-house developed game engine, the development team can keep updating the system to accommodate their demands and stay close to the original artwork. Satisfaction rate is now around 70% of the vision set, with specs for both low and high end computers in the works. 
3. Improved new players guide. Players will not learn the basics of Yulgang 2 via quests in the actual game world, rather than an instanced “beginner zone”. Although not stated how the new target system is like, the previous auto-select feature will be gone as players from Closed Beta 1 complained about it being inconvenient.
4. 2 new classes will be added in Closed Beta 2, which are the previously revealed, the Assassin and Sorceress. The faction system found in the prequel will make its debut as well. 
5. There is currently no date yet, but the developer promised to address all concerns from Closed Beta 1 players and implement new content for Closed Beta 2.
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| Diablo III Launch Ditches PvP Arena Mode, Raising an Interesting Question Posted: 11 Mar 2012 05:53 PM PDT  The release of Diablo III is fast approaching according to Blizzard, which is certainly good news for fans who have been waiting years and years for that day to come. Unfortunately the initial launch won’t be quite as feature-rich as expected; the game’s PvP Arena mode will not be ready in time for launch. The news was announced on a post on the game’s development blog which tried to mitigate the disappointment by reiterating the game will be available soon. “As we’re counting down the days until we’re ready to announce a release date for Diablo III, we’ve come to realize that the PvP game and systems aren’t yet living up to our standards,” wrote director Jay Wilson. The PvP Arena mode, which was first announced at BlizzCon 2010 alongside the Demon Hunter, will now be delivered in a patch sometime after the game’s release. The mode places players in arenas where they use their characters (complete with any gear and skills they have) to face off against each other instead of the usual AI-controlled monsters. “After a lot of consideration and discussion, we ultimately felt that delaying the whole game purely for PvP would just be punishing to everyone who’s waiting to enjoy the campaign and core solo/co-op content, all of which is just about complete,” Wilson continued. I find it difficult to be terribly upset about this, as anything that allows me to start playing the co-op game sooner sounds like welcome news. (I have trouble becoming invested in the beta knowing my character will be lost when the game is released.) Yet it’s also very strange to see a feature temporarily stripped out instead of contributing to another delay, as Blizzard has remained steadfast in saying it will only ship the game once it’s ready. Not having the Arena mode in there feels, to me, like the game is not ready. I’m not under the impression that there is anything untoward to read into this; Blizzard may be a part of Activision now, but it seems to have maintained its independence thus far. If it were being forced to rush the game to market, it likely would’ve hit long ago. This no-win situation does raise an interesting question: Is it better to delay your game and ensure every feature is available at launch or do you ship the core game (assuming it to be bug-free) and then deliver an extra mode like this once it’s ready? It’s a scenario that wasn’t especially viable years ago, but with larger hard drives, broadband Internet, and gamers used to seeing games evolve over time, there is a case to be made for doing things the way Blizzard is here. It’s also a built-in way for a company to get a second round of publicity for the game in question when that content is released several weeks or months down the line. Those who would argue Arena mode should be available at the same time as the game arrives on store shelves aren’t obligated to pick the game up right away; there’s nothing to stop them from waiting until Arena mode has been patched in to make a purchase. There is, however, a valid concern to be had with this model. While I don’t foresee it happening in this situation, buying a game with the promise of a mode coming later could get messy if the developer takes longer than expected or outright cancels a mode when it’s determined it isn’t working. And with the disdain many gamers have for pre-ordering games in the first place, those people would probably hate the idea of paying for a game and part of that money essentially acting as a pre-order for content that remains in development. What do you think — would you rather be playing games sooner but have to wait until after release for certain content, or do you want everything, DLC aside, upfront? Let us know in the comments below.
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| Battlefield MMO Review Posted: 11 Mar 2012 02:29 PM PDT Battlefield is a 3D modern era first person shooter MMO. Its the latest entry to the venerable Battlefield series and the second to be free to play. Battlefield is a tactical shooter where players battle it out on large maps with dozens of users on two sides. 
Publisher: Electronic Arts
Playerbase: Medium
Graphics: Medium
Type: MMO
EXP Rate: Medium
PvP: N/A
Filesize: N/A Website: http://battlefield.play4free.com/ Pros: +Varied classes. +Huge maps. +Vehicles like tanks, planes, and jeeps. +Team-based, tactical gameplay. +Plenty of skills. Cons: -Can't switch characters in-game. -Only four playable classes (BF2 had more). -Weapons disappear in 3 days (Unless bought with cash shop money). Battlefield is the latest game in the long running Battlefield franchise and the second of the series to be free to play. Unlike the previous Battlefield Heroes, the game has realistic graphics similar to those found in Battlefield 2. like previous Battlefield games, players will have the opportunity to play various roles like Medic, Engineer, and so forth. Each of these playable characters have their own skill trees, which give the game some unique RPG elements. Matches take place on large maps that pit two teams of up to several dozen players against each other. Like other battlefield games, Battlefield Play4Free has vehicles like tanks, jeeps, airplanes, and helicopters thrown into the mix. The game is published on EA's new 'Play4Free' portal alongside other free to play games like BattleForge, Need for Speed World, Fifa Online, and Tiger Woods Online.   
Battlefield RequirementsMinimum Requirements:
OS: Windows Vista / Windows 7 / XP
CPU: Pentium 4 1.7 GHz
RAM: 512 MB
HDD: 1 GB Free
Graphics Card: 256 MB VGA Card or better Recommended Specification:
OS: Windows Vista / Windows 7 / XP
CPU: Pentium 4 2.1 GHz
RAM: 1024 MB
HDD: 2 GB Free
Graphics Card: 256 MB VGA Card or better |
All-in-one PCs aren't known for their upgradability, but then again, all-in-one PCs haven't been built by boutique computer builder Maingear -- until now, that is. Today, the company announced it was spreading its proverbial wings with the Solo 21, which Maingear claims is the first AIO to sport an SSD caching solution out of the box.
There's an old saying about throw stones from a glass house, which we imagine is just one of the many dangers of living in an ill-conceived all-glass abode. Hail, birds, robbers, and all kinds of dangers abound, but we digress. The reason we're bringing this up is because MegaUpload founder Kim Dotcom claims that a bunch of high-ranking U.S. government officials are also members of the website that got him in hot water.
We already have Apple TV and Google TV, and if all goes to plan, Intel TV could be next. The Santa Clara chip maker has its eye on the pay TV business and for the past several months has been wooing media companies with a plan to create a virtual cable operator to stream U.S. channels over the Internet as part of a bundle that rivals subscription services by cable and satellite TV providers, 
Over the last two week, the Windows 8 Consumer Preview has been dissected from virtually every angle. In stark contrast, things have been very quiet on the Windows on ARM (WOA) front. But the fine folks at Digitimes seem to have broken the almost sepulchral silence surrounding WOA. Hit the jump for more.
Running low on RAM? The sooner you stock up, the less you'll end up paying, which doesn't sound like a big deal when you consider how rock-bottom RAM prices have become, but don't be fooled into thinking that will always be the case. Memory prices have already started to creep upwards, and various sources warn that this is going to be the trend through March and possibly beyond.
Gone are the days when ghastly looking CRT monitors cluttered your desk with a chunky footprint and all the grace of a sloth. Some of today's displays actually quality for design awards, like Acer's S235HL monitor, winner of a 2012 iF product design award and one of five new ultra-slim, LED-backlit S Series LCD panels 
The upcoming Ivy bridge launch will bring with it a new wave of ultrabooks. These Ivy Bridge-powered ultrabooks are expected to boast enhanced power efficiency and graphical capabilities. Among the first Ivy Bridge-based ultrabooks to hit the market will be the Asus Zenbook UX31A and UX21A, it has now emerged. Hit the jump for more.
These days it can be a bit difficult to get oneself excited about the release of a new version of a web browser, for the simple reason that it's something that happens far too often. But if for some reason you still want to get your hands on Firefox 11 just before its official release on Tuesday, you can do so as the said version seems to have slipped out ahead of time.
