Latest Gaming and MMORPG Updates |
- Kingdoms of Amalur developer in financial trouble
- Resistance Burning Skies’ Multiplayer Feels Like a Small Version of Traditional FPS Shooter Gameplay
- Battlefield Getting a Call of Duty Elite-Style Service Makes Perfect Sense
- Diablo 3 installer now live
- Sonic the Hedgehog 4 Episode II Review: Blue Renewed
- Valve and GameStop Sensibly Team Up to Offer Steam Codes In-Store
- The Problem with Preservation
- DK Online (KR)
- Diablo III
- Max Payne 3 Review: Death Transformed into an Art Form
| Kingdoms of Amalur developer in financial trouble Posted: 14 May 2012 09:38 PM PDT
Similar Article can be found at: http://www.mmoculture.com/2012/05/kingdoms-of-amalur-developer-in.html |
| Resistance Burning Skies’ Multiplayer Feels Like a Small Version of Traditional FPS Shooter Gameplay Posted: 14 May 2012 09:38 PM PDT Religion and civilization have gone hand-in-hand throughout human history, with gods and their mouthpieces alternately hindering and inspiring humanity every step of the way. That’s why Civilization V felt a bit off when it hit us about a year and a half ago and was missing a few things we’d come to take for granted in the previous iterations. Religion and its best buddy subterfuge were either absent or folded into the Piety branch of its social policy tree, with temples and whatnot contributing to the ever-more-broad “culture” statistic. Religion always existed in the background of Civ V, from cathedrals to a huge number of biblical verses doled out for researching everything from animal husbandry to frickin’ laser beams, but it was no longer present as a distinct element of strategy. When it came to religion as a tactical tool, the relevant quote seemed to be, “God is dead.” Well, now we’re getting a chance to make him in our own image. Faith is the new currency, and once we have enough we’re given a Great Prophet. The first one we’re graced with can found a pantheon, be that a war god that grants more faith when we win battles, a namby-pamby healing god that restores units that end a turn next to a friendly city, or a whole slew of other crazy stuff people are raring to fall on their knees in front of. Our second prophet can turn that half-assed belief into a true religion, tacking on tenets like tithing (if you’re into accumulating more gold) or holy warriors (which grant the ability to purchase pre-industrial land units with faith). Followers passively pressure neighboring cities to join their particular theological club, but for a more direct approach we can send those prophets and missionaries to neighboring cities to directly convert the population. Nobody really likes that, so expect diplomatic repercussions, and prepare your own cities with inquisitors to keep the faith pure… or just fill the besandaled heretic with arrows when he starts down the palm-leaf-covered road to your own holy city. It’s an act of war, sure, but at least the simulation isn’t detailed enough to take martyrdom into account. That’d really make a mess of things. Similar Article can be found at: http://www.1up.com/previews?cId=3187028 |
| Battlefield Getting a Call of Duty Elite-Style Service Makes Perfect Sense Posted: 14 May 2012 09:38 PM PDT Downloadable content has been one of the most popular trends this generation. Last year Activision tried to find out if a market exists for a subscription service for a non-MMO with Call of Duty Elite. As the latest numbers peg Elite subscriptions — which cost $50 a year, or were free with Modern Warfare 3‘s Hardened Edition — at 2 million, an audience does apparently exist that is willing to fork over money for more than just a la carte DLC. Electronic Arts is now rumored to be preparing a premium service for the Battlefield series which is said to be launching in only a few weeks’ time. Battlefieldo reported on Friday a “very reliable source” had shared with it a timeline for the forthcoming updates Battlefield 3 is receiving. In addition to a mention of a fifth expansion pack (beyond the already released Back to Karkand and the previously announced Close Quarters, Armored Kill, and End Game) is a strategy guide being released in June and, more notably, something called Battlefield Premium. “Battlefield Premium will land you a number of content drops with unique in-game items not available anywhere else,” reads a description provided to Battlefieldo. “First out is the one-of-a-kind Premium knife and black dog tag, plus a set of soldier camos, weapon camos, dog tags and Assignments that will make sure you stand out and get more personalization options.” Neither EA nor DICE have officially confirmed the existence of Premium, which is reportedly scheduled for release on June 4. That date is significant because it is the same day as EA’s E3 press conference. It’s not difficult to imagine the service being unveiled and released on the same day, particularly if the goal is to have this out before any other DLC packs are released. (Close Quarters is scheduled to be out in June.) The description Battlefieldo received doesn’t make it clear if this service will include the game’s downloadable content similar to the way Call of Duty Elite includes all of Modern Warfare 3′s DLC. If it’s limited only to things like camo and in-game items, that will greatly limit its appeal. As great as all of the extras Elite provides are, it’s the DLC that is the main attraction. There is a hardcore set of fans that know they’ll be playing the latest Call of Duty game for the next year and will be buying all of its DLC; it only makes good sense to save $10 and get the DLC at a discount, not to mention sooner than they would otherwise. Opting to focus on cosmetic extras and assignments (the latter of which are something I would hope all players get) would be a missed opportunity. It would also be controversial if the exclusive in-game items include anything that can be perceived as giving players with them an advantage. Elite, love it or hate it, does not provide players with weapons, attachments, or perks other players do not have access to. Regardless of what the particulars are, it’s almost a given that we see some kind of subscription service come to Battlefield. Electronic Arts has made digital growth a priority, and it’s an area it has seen success in. The combination of The Old Republic subscriptions, Origin, and The Sims Social have done well for the company, and Battlefield is among its biggest brands. Leveraging that with a subscription, even if it isn’t going to attract nearly as many players as Elite (which is to be expected, as Elite offers a great deal and Call of Duty has a much larger userbase), would be a natural move. EA and Activision are not the greatest of friends, yet the job Activision did with Elite has been met with praise even from its greatest rival. Without naming names, CEO John Riccitiello referred to Elite as a “best-in-class performance” during an investors conference call earlier this year. With Battlefield clearly aimed at toppling Call of Duty, it only makes sense to do the same with Elite. Assuming Battlefield Premium is, in fact, a subscription service as many have presumed, its availability for Battlefield 3 would, unlike the service itself, which is inevitable, be somewhat unexpected. Releasing something like this almost eight months after launch would be peculiar; it would be easier to attract subscribers by coinciding its launch with that of a game, as Activision did with Elite and Modern Warfare 3. For EA it may, however, be preferable to waiting for the launch of the next Battlefield as that is not coming until at least later next year. Medal of Honor Warfighter will launch this fall in the spot Battlefield occupied last year, and support for BF3 will continue on past the one-year mark as evidenced by the End Game DLC being scheduled for release this winter (and the rumored fifth expansion coming sometime after that). EA and DICE may be wanting to get their feet wet in the subscription space before pushing Battlefield Premium much harder with the release of the next game in the series. The bottom line is, whenever it comes and under whatever name — I hope ‘Battlefield Premium’ is only a placeholder — Battlefield is likely to get the Elite treatment, and it’s unlikely to be the last big franchise that can be said of. Similar Article can be found at: http://www.1up.com/news/battlefield-call-of-duty-elite-service |
| Posted: 14 May 2012 03:37 PM PDT Though you can't play the game until 23.01 BST tonight, Blizzard has unlocked the game's installer so you can get set to play the moment the game goes live. Blizzard's Community Manager has already Tweeted about inevitable teething issues, but offers some words of advice if you're running into trouble: "Most installer issues should be resolved at this point. If you see something let me know the issue and region. "If you're running into any download or install issues, the streaming client has replaced the previous downloaders, and could help." Those that pre-ordered the game via Amazon.co.uk were also notified that Diablo 3 has been dispatched today, meaning they should arrive first thing tomorrow. Similar Article can be found at: http://www.totalpcgaming.com/latest-pc-news/diablo-3-installer-now-live/ |
| Sonic the Hedgehog 4 Episode II Review: Blue Renewed Posted: 14 May 2012 03:37 PM PDT It wasn’t too long ago that The set-up is about as pure as Similar Article can be found at: http://www.1up.com/reviews?cId=3187134 Incoming search terms: |
| Valve and GameStop Sensibly Team Up to Offer Steam Codes In-Store Posted: 14 May 2012 03:37 PM PDT Starting today you can purchase Steam Wallet codes at GameStop stores. These codes, which are available in $20 and $50 denominations, can be added to a Steam account and used to purchase content through Valve’s immensely popular digital distribution service. This move may come as a surprise to some as GameStop last year purchased Steam competitor Impulse, yet it actually is a very sensible move for both sides. For GameStop, this is another way for it to insert itself into the sale of digital content. It already offers things like downloadable content and points for the console manufacturers’ respective platforms, as well as (more recently) digital PC games through Impulse. Getting a cut of money spent on Steam is an obvious benefit, but there is more to it than that. The ability to take old games and trade them in for Steam credit may have the same effect that the availability of Impulse games could have: Gamers who ordinarily don’t visit GameStop or sell their games may now be inclined to do so. The used games business is incredibly lucrative for GameStop, and while it would probably be more beneficial to its bottom line for people to spend their store credit on used games, this may still generate business that it did not see before. And who knows, some of those people wandering in to get Steam credit in exchange for their old games might end up buying something in-store they would not have otherwise. Speaking for myself, I rarely visit GameStop anymore, but knowing some of my old games I never play anymore can be turned into money that can be spent on Steam gives me a reason to change that. And it’s not as if offering Steam Wallet codes prevents GameStop from still putting Impulse front and center. These are essentially gift cards for Steam being sold, not games; GameStop sells individual digital games from Impulse in-store, which might be more appealing to consumers who want a digital game and don’t have any preference for where the game is downloaded. GameStop is also still free to bundle different versions of a PC game together for an added cost (like a physical and digital version, or a physical and streaming version) as I originally theorized it might when it acquired Impulse and streaming tech company Spawn Labs last year. It was the company’s ownership of Spawn Labs which caused a controversy last year that might make this Steam deal come as somewhat of a shock. PC copies of Deus Ex: Human Revolution were packaged with a code for a free OnLive version of the game. GameStop was unaware of this when it began stocking the game, and when it was discovered it instructed employees to open the game, remove the code, and then sell the game as new without informing customers. As customers cried foul, GameStop pulled copies of the game until they could be replaced with ones that did not contain the codes, claiming it does not promote competing services “without a formal partnership.” (An internal memo noted Spawn Labs is developing a streaming service, which is what makes OnLive a competitor.) GameStop ultimately apologized to customers and offered a $50 gift card to those who were affected. From Valve’s perspective, this deal opens up Steam to a new demographic. Those who are averse to buying things online now have a way of becoming Steam customers without their credit card numbers ever having to be entered into a computer. By extension, this allows for those without credit cards or PayPal to spend money on Steam. Offering the codes at GameStop also opens the door for gamers to make purchases on Steam without having any money to spend, only physical games they’re willing to part ways with. But more important is the impact this has on the relationship between retail and publishers. The reality of digital distribution is it has the potential to cut out retail altogether. At some point in the future that may not worry publishers, but at this point in time retail is still of critical importance to them, and they are therefore hesitant to put more strain on that relationship than they have to. The important role retail plays is precisely what Electronic Arts COO Peter Moore preached recently. “We love what retail does for us. We love its ability to create massive launches and create excitement,” he said last week, Gamasutra reports. “GameStop probably sees three million hardcore gamers walk through their doors every day, and that’s a marketing opportunity for us.” He also pointed out how many consumers don’t have credit cards, and that some of those who do are scared to use them following the PlayStation Network hack last year (not to mention the rarely-mentioned Steam breach). “A lot of our consumers prefer to go into retail buy those Xbox Live or PlayStation Network cards, and retail gets a very strong margin on that,” Moore continued. “For retail, if they can evolve to be not just a physical media purveyor, but a digital media purveyor, it’ll play a very strong role in our business going forward.” Publishers don’t want to risk angering retail with their forays into digital distribution while they remain key partners capable of bringing in a significant amount of revenue and helping to market new games. It’s an understandable position, albeit one Valve is helping to mitigate with this partnership. Valve teaming up with GameStop should help to downplay concerns about retail being left behind. Doing so also establishes a presence at retail that did not exist previously. In other words, Valve is helping publishers to alleviate retail partners’ worries and expanding the market for their products to be sold to while also increasing the size of Steam’s userbase. And with gamers only getting more options for how they can buy games on Steam — and increasing pressure on its competitors to do something to compete — there really is no downside for anyone involved. Similar Article can be found at: http://www.1up.com/news/gamestop-offer-steam-codes |
| Posted: 14 May 2012 03:37 PM PDT Note: There are some terms used throughout this piece that some readers may not familiar with. These are linked to outside articles that can add clarity. Nothing lasts forever, not cold November rain, and not video games. The battery in your Earthbound cartridge will die, the cathode tube in that old Joust cabinet will burn out. Even code isn’t immortal; emulators — software that mimics old hardware to run classic games — don’t always offer a perfect solution, so that version of Super Mario Bros. on your PC might be close to the original, but not entirely. Time spares nothing. You’d think that between the twin marvels of emulation and digital distribution, it would at least be easier to preserve classic gaming. Anyone who’s played an emulated PlayStation 2 game on their PlayStation 3 knows it’s not that simple, that even something as basic as a new television standard can greatly alter a classic experience. Hence the boom of HD re-masters in the past three years. These collections of games from the final standard definition console generation have been remade to look prettier and play smoothly on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. What started with a trickle of successful reissues like the God of War Collection in 2010 and even earlier with downloadables like the Xbox Live versions of Perfect Dark and Banjo-Kazooie has now become a flood. The Jak Collection, Ico and Shadow of the Colossus, Metal Gear Solid HD Collection; the best games of last decade are getting a new life. Sometimes, though, that second life is none too pretty. Players of the new Devil May Cry Collection found versions of Dante’s adventures that were somewhat easy on the eyes during the fast-paced sword fighting, but painful and blurry to look at during the cinemas and even in menus. It turns out that properly re-mastering a game for a new generation of machines is as delicate an art as actually making a game. Preservation is no easy task. How do you do it right? Of the many different studios that have put together some of these HD re-masters, they all agree that doing it makes for a huge undertaking. “The easiest thing to screw up is underestimating the task at hand,” says Glen Egan, President of Sanzaru Games. Sanzaru put together last year’s Sly Collection, re-masters of Sucker Punch’s Sly Cooper games. Tomm Hulett, Senior Associate Producer of Konami’s Silent Hill Collection agrees. “Game re-mastering isn’t a quick and easy process. That first God of War Collection came out and did really well, and I think a lot of companies saw it as a good way to make a quick buck off old stuff. If you want to make a definitive version of a game, expect a serious time commitment. It’s been more than two years since we began the Silent Hill Collection project. That’s how long it took to make Silent Hill 2 in the first place.” Similar Article can be found at: http://www.1up.com/features/the-problem-with-preservation |
| Posted: 14 May 2012 11:57 AM PDT
Similar Article can be found at: http://www.mmoculture.com/2011/10/dk-online-kr-seeking-glory-through.html |
| Posted: 14 May 2012 09:37 AM PDT
Blizzard kindly uploaded a new video a few days back to talk about what Diablo III is, and it is worth a look as well. I did notice all the Asian game media outlets are very quiet on news today. Oh my, I can’t wait to get started on the game! Similar Article can be found at: http://www.mmoculture.com/2012/05/diablo-iii-understand-past-shape-future.html |
| Max Payne 3 Review: Death Transformed into an Art Form Posted: 14 May 2012 09:37 AM PDT At one point in time, the concept of a zombie apocalypse stood as a genuinely terrifying idea. But, over the years, zombies have begun to serve a different role altogether; for the most part, they’ve become meat pinatas, assisting us in acting out our creative ultraviolent fantasies. Dead Rising and Dead Island may give us the chance to take out thousands of zombies with patently ridiculous weapons, but the badass protagonists of these particular games barely bat an eye at the moldering hordes trying to get a taste of their sweet innards. When compared to these exaggerated experiences, Telltale’s The Walking Dead feels much more like a documentary than Dead Alive; each and every undead encounter is meaningful (and horrible), and taking down a single zombie amounts to much more effort than tearing your way through wet tissue paper. This grounded approach meshes well with the typical slower pace of the traditional adventure formula, and also makes for one of the more atypical and interesting zombie games seen in quite some time. After Telltale’s dreadful Jurassic Park, the company looked to be headed in a dangerous direction; JP’s QTE-based gameplay might have been highly approachable, but it removed most of what we’ve come to expect (and love) from their brand. The Walking Dead doesn’t return completely to the mechanics seen in the later Sam and Max seasons and Tales of Monkey Island, but it gives the player back some much-needed agency, rather than forcing them to undergo neverending series of button prompts. Make no mistake: the interface can’t get any simpler. The ways you can interact with objects and people have been reduced to their absolute basics, and old-school adventure game fans may be disappointed to find that the main character doesn’t have a pithy comment for every piece of background scenery. You can definitely feel Telltale’s hand guiding you throughout, though the developer has provided just the right amount of wiggle room to allow their story to be told effectively. Horror relies entirely on tension, which can easily be broken if players are allowed to meander for minutes, poking at puzzles and exhausting their character’s knowledge of everything in his pockets. Similar Article can be found at: http://www.1up.com/reviews?cId=3187133 Incoming search terms: |
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