| Diablo III Changes Mean More Waiting, But the Delay Should Pay off Posted: 22 Jan 2012 05:35 AM PST For me, Mass Effect 3 happens to be a sort of déjà vu moment from nearly a decade ago. Specifically, this is the second time that BioWare has taken a consistent player character across three games. Back in 1998, I rolled a little half-elf ranger for Baldur’s Gate; by that game’s conclusion, I took special care to transfer the character save over to a 3.5-inch floppy. Holding onto said floppy proved handy for Baldur’s Gate II’s release in 2000, where I turned that scrappy half-elf into a ranger worthy of Strider/Aragon — able to lead a band of warriors, wizards, and animals into a victorious battle against a wizard who could bend time itself. And I rounded out this ranger’s tale with Baldur’s Gate II: Throne of Bhaal in 2001 — where he became a sort of god-king that could call in elementals and beasts when he’s not slinking in the shadows like some sort of forest ninja. So the idea of taking a character that I have slavishly developed over three games to a grand conclusion again is what excites me about Mass Effect 3 the most. But what sort of Shepard am I playing for the conclusion to this crazy grand sci-fi saga? That ranger eventually retired to a quiet life in his cabin surrounded by wolves, rabbits, and other fauna. That was the last time I followed the “good” path in an RPG. Since then, I’ve generally played evil — I was the Devil in Fallout 3; and I grew horns and featured sickly skin in Fable 2. I reserved Jennifer Hale’s excellent acting for a proper heroic Paragon female Shepard, and in line with my “I play asshole fellows” mentality, I created a male Shepard. The result: while Jeremy played Yukiko Shepard with a healthy amount of meticulous thinking, Hobo Shepard (I also don’t take character names seriously) played fast and loose. For nearly every red dialog choice or Renegade interrupt, I promptly chose that option — with exceptions being in rare times where I personally didn’t want the result (more on that in a bit). Since Jeremy and I both played as Infiltrators, our general styles showed two sides of the sniper Shepard space coin.
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| Nexon acquires global rights for Shaiya Posted: 22 Jan 2012 05:35 AM PST 
In what I see as a really bizarre business move, Nexon Korea just purchased the global IP rights for Shaiya, which is developed by ChoiRock Games (formerly Sonov). With this deal, the 30-odd team members behind Shaiya will now move and work under the Nexon brand. Note that ChoiRock Games is not being bought over, but just the Shaiya team and the game rights.
In service since 2006, Shaiya is currently in service around 16 countries, with the North American server currently under Aeria Games (link). Perhaps the extensive global outreach and the game’s success is what Nexon banked on. It is unknown if Shaiya 2, currently under development, is included in the deal.
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| PC Is The Future Posted: 22 Jan 2012 05:35 AM PST Paradox Interactive has pitched in with his own prediction of the end of console, and the future of PC gaming. "The next generation of console hardware will probably be the last," said Paradox CEO Frederik Wester to journalists at the Paradox annual showcase, "I'd be surprised if we see another generation after that." The Stockholm-based company publishes PC titles like Mount Blade, Cities In Motion and the Majesty series, and launched major digital distributor GamersGate in 2006. Since its founding in 1998, Paradox has gone from strength to strength to become a major player in the PC market. This could explain, in part, the PC bias of Wester's statements, though he went on to explain his belief that digital would replace boxed retail and mobile platforms would be big part of the games industry's future. Which in the current climate, isn't such a mind-blowing statement.
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| Civilization V: Game of the Year Edition Includes a Lot, But Leaves Out Some Recent DLC Posted: 22 Jan 2012 01:28 AM PST 
Almost exactly a year after it first came out, 2K Games will be releasing a Game of the Year Edition of Civilization V on September 27. The game on its own could last you quite a long time, and much — but not all — of the available downloadable content is included. For $49.99, you get the game, a digital soundtrack, and the following DLC: Civilization and Scenario Pack: The Mongols; Civilization Pack: Babylon; Cradle of Civilization Map Packs: Mesopotamia, Americas, Asia and Mediterranean; Double Civilization and Scenario Pack: Spain and Inca; Civilization and Scenario Pack: Polynesia; Civilization and Scenario Pack: Denmark – The Vikings; and Explorer’s Map Pack. The DLC alone would run you about $40 on Steam, in addition to the game itself for $29.99 — although it was on sale for just $12.50 a few days ago. What you don’t get in this GotY Edition is a pair of DLC releases from August: the Wonders of the Ancient World Scenario Pack and the Civilization and Scenario Pack: Korea. Those cost $4.99 each on Steam, though they’re hardly required to play the game.
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| How Diablo Saved the Computer RPG Posted: 21 Jan 2012 05:33 PM PST It’s safe to say that by 1995, the computer role-playing game was dying. RPGs were losing traction to the wave of games modeled after two recently innovative titles: 1992′s Dune II: The Building of a Dynasty and 1993′s Doom. After the success of those two titles, the computer game industry as a whole shifted to producing more real-time strategy games and first-person shooters. The dwindling audience that enjoyed turn-based role-playing games full of mechanics, simulations, and obscure details were then being swayed by turn-based strategy games like Civilization II. By this time, traditional first or third-person RPGs were still being released, but pretty much no one except Europeans bought them. One of the bigger successes in the genre came from a small studio in Maryland: The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall from Bethesda Softworks. Yet that was more of an anomaly — Bethesda saw better traction from shooters like Terminator: Future Shock and its sequel SkyNET. Even the stalwart Ultima series — Lord British’s saga of isometric RPGs in a fully fleshed-out fantasy universe — abandoned its core principles in pursuit of the action-driven market. Ultima fans generally felt betrayed when Ultima VII Part Two: Serpent Isle — a party-based RPG with a vast world — was followed up with Ultima VIII: Pagan — which featured a lone hero in a much smaller setting that bizarrely featured platforming elements (most likely in pursuit of luring action and even console gamers to the Ultima series).  Though, a happy side note for Ultima is that Origin, Ultima’s publisher, saw some success with its first-person Ultima Underworld spin-offs. Said spin-offs were produced by Blue Sky Productions — a company that would transform into the critically acclaimed Looking Glass Studios. A subject for another article, Looking Glass would eventually close down, but in its wake, begat companies such as Ion Storm Austin, Harmonix Music Systems, and Irrational Games. As the market abandoned RPGs in favor of faster and more action-oriented titles, one small studio almost produced another RPG victim. This studio, Condor Games, was started by two brothers (Max and Erich Schaefer) and their friend (David Brevik). After porting some sports and platforming games, the developers at Condor started drafting up a new project codenamed “Diablo”: a claymation-style turn-based single-player RPG inspired by Moria (a title that was itself a clone off of seminal RPG Rogue, a dungeon crawler that, along with Angband, is often considered the primary influence behind Diablo). But who would publish this new original RPG?
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| F.E.A.R.: Origin Online Posted: 21 Jan 2012 01:27 PM PST 
Back in September 2010 (link), I first posted about the F.E.A.R. series of console and PC games going the online gaming direction. The popular horror franchise has since been in stealth mode, silently being developed by the guys over at Korean studio, Inplay Interactive. After 2 years, the game’s debut trailer is finally here! It is more of a teaser, with an actual gameplay trailer coming “soon”.
F.E.A.R.: Origin Online promises to have several PvE and PvP modes, with a few new ones not found in any other FPS titles. Teased in the trailer above will be the 4 players co-op mission mode. The mobs’ high level AI is also one of the features touted as well. The co-op’s storyline is about having an internal revolt within the Armacham Technology Corporation, the company responsible for all the ongoing experiments.  
F.E.A.R.: Origin Online’s main storyline is based on F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin which was developed in 2009 by American developer Monolith. An enhanced Jupiter FX engine was used to create this online version as well. Before I forget, expect tons of blood and gore. More information to be posted when available! If you are curious about the F.E.A.R. series of games, read up the wiki here (link).
 
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| Star Trek Online Posted: 21 Jan 2012 11:32 AM PST 
(Register now) As you would have read, Star Trek Online just gone Free to Play a couple of days ago under the stewardship of the developer (Cryptic Studios)’s new owner, Perfect World Entertainment. Though I have had no qualms paying a month to try the game out back then, the game apparently did not have the final “pull” factor for me to do so. Hearing the game going Free to Play (F2P), I almost immediately gave it a try.
I got to confess, I am pretty impressed with the first hour or so of trying this game. Star Trek Online is nowhere near the colossus which is The Old Republic, but getting to try out space flight and combat early in the game (almost immediately) is something which pleased me. Yes, it may lack the many features which The Old Republic has, but the development budget is no where near, hence it is an unfair comparison. Like most maneuvering of vehicles in online games, such as rowing the boat, I am pretty bad at this. The combat, both space and ground, in Star Trek Online might not be anything ground-breaking, but I actually enjoyed it, even if I stayed at a spot while firing at enemy ships without the need to move about dodging them. There are 4 sections of your ship, in layman terms the front, back, left and right, which can be damaged. The strategic thing to do is to position yourself properly after a side takes too much damage from a source. I am actually glad to give this game a go before I go overseas in a couple of hours to visit my relatives. This is certainly a game I will be playing more of over the next few days of my holidays once I return. Free to Play is really good move for Star Trek Online, and I will recommend those who are looking for some (free) space adventures to try it out.
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