MMO Updates

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• Free for All: Using a controller to play your favorite MMO
• Choose My Adventure: Seriia
• Friends, Romans, noobs, lend me your ear: Gods & Heroes devs answer community questions
• New Fallen Earth dev blog talks fixing the economy
• The Daily Grind: What is player skill, anyway?
• Massively Exclusive: Elsword developer Q&A, final round
• 4X MMORTS Starjack Online goes live
• MMObility: HP pulls the old switcharoo with the TouchPad
• Super Hero Squad Online teasing Villainville
• We are the Champions: New LotRO dev diary outlines upcoming Champion changes
• Astronaut MMO may finally launch (pun intended)
• City of Heroes to get frickin' laser beams
• Hyperspace Beacon: Monday night Huttball! [Updated]
• One Shots: Gloom and beauty
• Game Developers Choice Online Awards announces finalists, EQ to be ushered into Hall of Fame
• TERA devs talk guild housing and more in Twitter chat
• Antec to sell NCsoft-themed PC enclosures
• The Soapbox: The Republic must stand, the Republic must fall

Free for All: Using a controller to play your favorite MMO Posted: 24 Aug 2011 10:00 AM PDT Filed under: Video, Game mechanics, Free-to-play, Browser, Hands-on, Casual, Humor, Free for All, Miscellaneous In my constant pursuit to make my game playing sessions smoother and more pain-free, I decided to finally buy a controller to play with. Lately, I have been needing some relief pretty badly. The whole "pain" thing started many years ago, back when I worked on a PC most of the day back. Even though I had physical therapy and an employer who was understanding about the dangers of repetitive action, my pain continued. I've tried heat, cold, and even shock therapy, but after all these years of drumming, drawing, and playing games, the pain still comes more than goes. Click past the cut and I'll discuss how to use a controller with an MMO... and whether it helped my poor wrists. Continue reading Free for All: Using a controller to play your favorite MMO Free for All: Using a controller to play your favorite MMO originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 24 Aug 2011 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

Choose My Adventure: Seriia Posted: 24 Aug 2011 09:00 AM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Galleries, Polls, Screenshots, Opinion, Choose My Adventure, RIFT, Miscellaneous If you missed the results from the vote in last week's Choose My Adventure, then you would not know that female Eth DPS Cleric won the votes. I did not make the livestream schedule last week, which was totally my fault. I apologize. However, I did go ahead and do a stream on my Justin.TV channel that you are welcome to watch. In that video, the viewers and I created the character you see above here. She is named Seriia. She lives on the Faeblight server and currently wanders near the Ark of the Ascended in Freemarch. Feel free to add her to your friends list and say hello when you see her online. I did enjoy my first steps in RIFT, but as with any MMO experience there were ups and downs. As you can see, I documented parts of the story with screenshots in the gallery below. I can certainly see why RIFT appeals to many MMO players, but at the same time, multiple facets of the game could turn some players off. But I don't want to talk about that on this front page. Jump past the cut as I weave the tale of Seriia, the Chosen. Gallery: CMA: RIFT Continue reading Choose My Adventure: Seriia Choose My Adventure: Seriia originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 24 Aug 2011 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

Friends, Romans, noobs, lend me your ear: Gods & Heroes devs answer community questions Posted: 24 Aug 2011 08:00 AM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Historical, Video, Community Q&A Sometimes it makes a world of difference to put a name to a face, especially when it comes to the often-mythologized field of MMO development. The Gods & Heroes team recently sat down in front of a camera to not just answer community questions, but to give you a sense of who the team is, how they function together, and what they look like. Topics on hand for the discussion included Heatwave Interactive's favorite memories from Gamescom, fixing problems with the latest patch, the combat range changes, the ongoing production blog that one of the devs is writing, promotions for Steam and other distributors of the game, a "targeted marketing campaign" that's going to launch in the next couple of weeks, and a future update tenatively scheduled for mid-October. You can watch the full USTREAM recording of the dev chat after the jump! Continue reading Friends, Romans, noobs, lend me your ear: Gods & Heroes devs answer community questions Friends, Romans, noobs, lend me your ear: Gods & Heroes devs answer community questions originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 24 Aug 2011 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

New Fallen Earth dev blog talks fixing the economy Posted: 24 Aug 2011 07:00 AM PDT Filed under: Sci-fi, Fallen Earth, Game mechanics, MMO industry, Patches, News items, Post-Apocalyptic What does the Fallen Earth dev team mean when they say "fixing the economy?" The latest dev blog has your answer, and there's nary a tax cut, stimulus plan, or partisan political argument in sight. Instead, producer Marie Croall waxes on about what's wrong with wasteland supply and demand, with a specific focus on crafting component drops and rarity. The end goal is to "give value to basic, improved, and advanced recipes," and Croall hopes this will happen as a result of the team's manipulation of the market. "We had to, in some cases, actually create rarity where there was none or -- in the case of cooking components -- create common items where there were only rare and uncommon," she explains. Fallen Earth's cooking mechanic is also receiving special attention, due in part to the large number of required components and the lack of rare ingredients in the current game build. The dev team is also taking a hard look at consumable buffs, and Croall states that more details on the upcoming fixes will be available as the patch nears release. New Fallen Earth dev blog talks fixing the economy originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 24 Aug 2011 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

The Daily Grind: What is player skill, anyway? Posted: 24 Aug 2011 06:00 AM PDT Filed under: Game mechanics, Opinion, The Daily Grind, Miscellaneous Today it's time to tackle the somewhat touchy subject of player skill in MMORPGs. With Guild Wars 2 touting its active dodging system and TERA just on the horizon with its action-based combat, many games seem to be attempting to force individual player skill to weigh more heavily in overall gameplay. Guild Wars 2's PvP takes it a step further, putting all players on an even playing field with equal gear and equal stats, leaving the only undecided factor to be the skill of each individual player. But what is player skill? Some people argue that twitch-based gameplay (such as GW2's dodging or TERA's movement and aiming system) isn't skill but rather is a matter of reflexes. Some argue that regardless of gear or character stats, a truly skilled player will always come out on top. Some argue that skill is a matter of knowledge -- knowing your class and the class of your opponent. So today we ask you, what is player skill? Is it the ability to aim a shot in such a way that you lead a player across the map and nail him in the head? Is it knowing to save your cooldowns for when a particular class lands a nasty CC ability on you? Does gear play a part, or does it simply impede a truly balanced experience? Perhaps it's some combination of the above. What does player skill mean to you? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind! The Daily Grind: What is player skill, anyway? originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 24 Aug 2011 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

Massively Exclusive: Elsword developer Q&A, final round Posted: 23 Aug 2011 08:00 PM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Interviews, News items, Free-to-play That's right, Elsword fans, it's time for the final installment of the ongoing Elsword dev diaries. This last episode includes only a lone pair of questions, both of which focus on the developers' favorite things about the game -- particularly, their favorite bosses and best and worst moments while playing the game. What boss would the developers most like to see as a playable character? What have been the best and worst moments in their Elsword gaming career? For the developers' answers to these questions, including a rather amusing anecdote regarding having one's face smashed in by an elementary school kid, head on past the cut. Continue reading Massively Exclusive: Elsword developer Q&A, final round Massively Exclusive: Elsword developer Q&A, final round originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 23 Aug 2011 22:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

4X MMORTS Starjack Online goes live Posted: 23 Aug 2011 07:00 PM PDT Filed under: Sci-fi, Launches, News items, Free-to-play, MMORTS Way back in February, we covered the open beta of Limbo Game Studios' Starjack Online. For the uninitiated, Starjack Online is an MMORTS of a variety known as 4X. RTS players will find themselves familiar with the 4X term, which stands for explore, expand, exploit, and exterminate. In a press release today, the studio announced that the free-to-play title has now gone live, and players are able to 4X the hell out of each other to their hearts' content. The entire game takes place in real-time (as opposed to being turn-based), ensuring that players will be kept on their toes. Almost everything in the game is player-created, as well, so if you'd rather make a killing as a war profiteer, you can outfit other players with their ships and troops. If this sounds like your cup of tea, the game can be downloaded and played for free at the official site. 4X MMORTS Starjack Online goes live originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 23 Aug 2011 21:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

MMObility: HP pulls the old switcharoo with the TouchPad Posted: 23 Aug 2011 06:00 PM PDT Filed under: Business models, Opinion, Free-to-play, Browser, Humor, Miscellaneous, MMObility If you are one of the unlucky few who decided to pick up one of the new HP TouchPad tablet PCs, I feel bad for you. First of all, pretty much all of the reviews I have read said that the device was not worth its $500 price tag. For that amount of dough, the hardware should have been sleeker, beefier, and more stylish. Then we heard the news this week that support for the device was being terminated. Shortly after that, news of price drops started to come out, and then tech geeks starting lining up. Sure, they wouldn't pay $500 for a sub-par device, but they would pay $100 for the chance to toy around with it. I've used this joke before, but it fits perfectly here: A farmer sticks a million-dollar price tag on a pile of cow dung and people laugh at him. He keeps the sign up for about a week before changing the price to one dollar. People line up around the block to get the discounted item. The farmer laughs... it turns out they were still just buying a pile of dung for a dollar. Click past the cut and let's examine further! Continue reading MMObility: HP pulls the old switcharoo with the TouchPad MMObility: HP pulls the old switcharoo with the TouchPad originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 23 Aug 2011 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

Super Hero Squad Online teasing Villainville Posted: 23 Aug 2011 05:30 PM PDT Filed under: Super-hero, Previews, News items, Free-to-play, Browser, Kids, Super Hero Squad Online Super Hero Squad Online is sold on the strength of its characters, and up until now, it's been firmly on the heroic side of the equation. But Marvel Comics isn't limited to heroes like Spider-Man, Captain America, and Wolverine -- it's just as defined by villains like the Green Goblin, the Red Skull, and Sabretooth. So while we might not yet have much in the way of information, it's a good thing to see that the game has an incoming addition in the form of Villainville. As of yet, the designers haven't released any information beyond the name of the locale -- whether it will be a new area for heroes to fight against their nemeses or a chance for players to take on the role of said nemeses is yet to be seen. Even so, if you appreciate the game's more kid-friendly approach to the Marvel universe, there's reason to be excited at the prospect of some home ground for the villains as well. Super Hero Squad Online teasing Villainville originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 23 Aug 2011 19:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

We are the Champions: New LotRO dev diary outlines upcoming Champion changes Posted: 23 Aug 2011 05:00 PM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Lord of the Rings Online, Classes, Game mechanics, Previews, News items, Free-to-play, Dev Diaries A new developer diary from Turbine Entertainment was released today, and it outlines the changes coming to Lord of the Rings Online's Champion class with the Rise of Isengard. These changes are "meant to set them further apart from the other martial frontline classes." For instance, no longer will it cost Champions extra fervour in order to wield a two-handed weapon. Champions are also having their ability to use shields removed, though they will still remain a viable tank. The post also goes on to outline each of the Champion's stances and the changes being made to them, which takes up something to the tune of three pages. The diary wraps up with some changes to many of the Champion's skills and legendary traits, such as Second Wind, Seeking Blade, Ferocious Strikes, and more. The diary is incredibly comprehensive, so whether you're a Champion looking to see what's in store for your class, or just someone interested in the design process behind LotRO, head on over and check out the whole post. We are the Champions: New LotRO dev diary outlines upcoming Champion changes originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 23 Aug 2011 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

Astronaut MMO may finally launch (pun intended) Posted: 23 Aug 2011 04:00 PM PDT Filed under: Sci-fi, Trailers, Video, New titles, Astronaut: Moon, Mars, and Beyond Just when Astronaut: Moon, Mars, and Beyond was about to be written off as vaporware, NASA has popped back on the scene to announce some commercial backing for the project from developers Project Whitecard, Wisdom Tools, and Virtual Heroes. According to the first announcement over two years ago, the MMO aims for a demographic of players age 5 to 24, setting them up as astronauts who are training to explore deep into Earth's star system in the year 2035. Imagine Space Camp... but actually in space. To assist in funding the project, the developers of the upcoming MMO have created a Kickstarter page that includes a four-minute video explaining what the game is about. CEO for Wisdom Tools Dr. Sonny Kirkley explains in the video that the game is meant to be fun, but at the same time the designers "want the learning to be authentic." To that end, NASA has granted the developers full access to the rich history of the space program so that a true sense of realism can be achieved. The game has been developed with the Unreal Engine 3 to work on PC, iPad, and some yet-to-be-announced consoles. Look for the beta testing to start in December of 2012, and watch the full Kickstarter video after the break. Continue reading Astronaut MMO may finally launch (pun intended) Astronaut MMO may finally launch (pun intended) originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 23 Aug 2011 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

City of Heroes to get frickin' laser beams Posted: 23 Aug 2011 03:30 PM PDT Filed under: Super-hero, City of Heroes, City of Villains, Classes, Game mechanics, Previews, Professions, Dev Diaries If there's one common cry on the City of Heroes forums, it's "give us new power sets!" Fortunately, the upcoming Freedom expansion aims to deliver just that. This morning, CoH's Phil "Synapse" Zeleski offered up a new dev blog outlining one of the planned power sets, Beam Rifle. Available to Blasters and Corruptors (as a primary set) and Defenders (as a secondary set), Beam Rifle is heavy on the AoE and features a signature cascading Disintegrate effect, which can be spread to nearby enemies and causes targets to take ever more damage from the power set's attacks. In a nod to style, Synapse noted that "plasma beams from movies, games, and other sources were the inspiration for the style of beam used by this power set" and that it has "a synthetic, futuristic sound with some 'grime' added [to make it] sound powerful." In related news, Paragon Studios has reiterated that various CoH-flavored purchasables on the NCsoft store website, including the booster packs and expansion boxes, will be discontinued in advance of the looming F2P conversion. If you can't live without a Steampunk costume in the meantime, you have until August 30th to get your fix. City of Heroes to get frickin' laser beams originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 23 Aug 2011 17:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

Hyperspace Beacon: Monday night Huttball! [Updated] Posted: 23 Aug 2011 03:00 PM PDT Filed under: Sci-fi, New titles, Endgame, Star Wars: The Old Republic, Hyperspace Beacon If memory serves me, the first MMO that integrated an actual sport into its game design was Free Realms. Although soccer was not implemented at launch, players could not miss the soccer fields, and eventually, the developers did put those fields to good use. I certainly don't believe the Star Wars: The Old Republic developers had Free Realms in mind when they created the newly announced Warzone Huttball, but that does not negate the fact that most MMOs do not have sports that are just sports. I'm not sure this is because developers take the setting too seriously and therefore don't think outside the box in regard to side adventures players can have, but you will be hard-pressed to see many other MMOs introduce a sporty game into their core. Needless to say, Huttball excites me even more about SWTOR, and I've even considered creating a character just to play Huttball. Beyond the jump, I breakdown the rules of Huttball and speculate on the further possibilities of the game. Join me. Continue reading Hyperspace Beacon: Monday night Huttball! [Updated] Hyperspace Beacon: Monday night Huttball! [Updated] originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 23 Aug 2011 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

One Shots: Gloom and beauty Posted: 23 Aug 2011 02:00 PM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Galleries, Screenshots, Lord of the Rings Online, Free-to-play, One Shots Lord of the Rings Online has center stage for today's One Shots, thanks to Massively reader Carolina. She's been doing some exploring in Mines of Moria and shared a screenshot with us: I take a lot of screenshots from the environments in games, so I had a huge collection to choose one to send here. It was tough, specially since once I've read this week's theme, all I could think of was LotRO. I decided to send this one from the Water-Works, inside the Mines of Moria, because I am still surprised how the developers were able to make such a complex setting, and at the same time beautiful without the "cliche" aspects that attract me in game environments: There are mostly no trees, no cute critters, no flowers, no sunlight, but yet they made the place so pretty and full of epic feel that I need to stop and look at every new corner I discover. We're looking at the best MMO environments all this week. Do you have a favorite landscape, particularly eye-catching weather effect, or hidden jewel in an out-of-the-way location? Snap a screenshot of your favorite MMO area, tell us a bit about what and where it is, and send it to oneshots@massively.com. Gallery: One Shots: 2011 One Shots: Gloom and beauty originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 23 Aug 2011 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

Game Developers Choice Online Awards announces finalists, EQ to be ushered into Hall of Fame Posted: 23 Aug 2011 01:00 PM PDT Filed under: EverQuest, Events, real-world, MMO industry, Miscellaneous It's not quite to the prestigious level of the Academy Awards -- yet -- but the Game Developers Choice Online Awards is fast becoming one of the more well-known and highly respected award ceremonies in the MMO world while only being in its second year. With October 12th's ceremony coming soon, the field has been narrowed by 400 industry leaders into a competitive pool of nominees in a dozen categories. The categories include Best Online Visual Arts, Best Social Network Game, Best Online Game Design, Online Innovation, Best Online Technology, Best Community Relations, Best Audio For An Online Game, Best New Online Game, and Best Live Game. Several popular MMOs, including RIFT, DC Universe Online, World of Tanks and Wizard101, are up for a possible award. In addition, the awards will recognize Kesmai Corporation founders John Taylor and Kelton Flinn for the Online Game Legend Award. EverQuest, too, will be getting its long-overdue kudos as it is ushered into the Hall of Fame. We'll be anxious to see which games grab the gold this fall, but until then we're just going to grouse that we weren't tapped to be one of the judges. Game Developers Choice Online Awards announces finalists, EQ to be ushered into Hall of Fame originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 23 Aug 2011 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

TERA devs talk guild housing and more in Twitter chat Posted: 23 Aug 2011 12:30 PM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Events, real-world, Game mechanics, MMO industry, New titles, News items, TERA In case you missed it, En Masse is hosting a TERA production chat via Twitter on the third Friday of every month. The transcript of last Friday's session is now live on the official TERA website, and there were a few noteworthy nuggets dropped by producer Brian Knox and community manager Evan Berman during the course of the event. Among the interesting blurbs on display are the fact that guild housing is back on the dev team's radar, and the feature may yet make it into the game's spring 2012 launch. Also of note are a couple of general numbers relating to the size of the dev team (70 at En Masse and over 200 at Korea's Bluehole Studio, where the game is originating). Finally, there was a bit of a teaser for a big TERA-related announcement at next week's PAX community event, so keep your eyes and ears peeled! TERA devs talk guild housing and more in Twitter chat originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 23 Aug 2011 14:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

Antec to sell NCsoft-themed PC enclosures Posted: 23 Aug 2011 12:00 PM PDT Filed under: Aion, City of Heroes, City of Villains, Culture, Events, real-world, MMO industry, News items, Guild Wars 2, Miscellaneous So it's official, Antec and NCsoft are going out. OK, maybe it's not quite that creepy, but a new press release does note that the two companies have an "official relationship," which will be publicly consummated at next week's PAX Prime event. Antec, known primarily for its PC hardware and upgrade components, will be opening an online boutique featuring custom PC cases emblazoned with artwork from NCsoft franchises including Aion, City of Heroes, and Guild Wars. Antec's PAX Prime booth will also be hosting an exclusive City of Heroes Freedom demo for convention attendees, and you can read all the details via the full press release at MarketWire. [Thanks to Jessie for the tip!] Antec to sell NCsoft-themed PC enclosures originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 23 Aug 2011 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

The Soapbox: The Republic must stand, the Republic must fall Posted: 23 Aug 2011 11:00 AM PDT Filed under: Sci-fi, MMO industry, Opinion, Star Wars: The Old Republic, The Soapbox Disclaimer: The Soapbox column is entirely the opinion of this week's writer and does not necessarily reflect the views of Massively as a whole. If you're afraid of opinions other than your own, you might want to skip this column. So there's a game coming out called Star Wars: The Old Republic. Maybe you've heard about it once or twice. It's no secret that a lot of people are excited to see what BioWare's long-anticipated title will do once it's finally released. The title has had a huge amount of time and money poured into its production, extensive voice acting, countless demos and revelations and debates... all without having yet amassed a substantial playerbase. What happens when it gets released will have a huge impact on MMOs as a whole for years to come, and even if the developers aren't calling it a World of Warcraft-killer, a lot of players are expecting just that. And for the good of MMOs as a whole, it needs to be just that -- but at the same time, for the good of MMOs as a whole, it needs to fail. Continue reading The Soapbox: The Republic must stand, the Republic must fall The Soapbox: The Republic must stand, the Republic must fall originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 23 Aug 2011 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

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General gaming

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• Portal: No Escape is an Awesome Short Film
• Fall Update to Let Players Turn PlayStation Home Into a Game
• 16-Bit Defined: 20 Years of Super Nintendo
• 1UP's Top 5 Super Nintendo Games
• Six Must-Play Super Nintendo Imports
• Playing With Power: The Super Nintendo's Technical Tricks
• Nintendo Planning Pre-TGS Event, Stock Price Jumps in Response
• The Next Sonic 4 Episode Won't be Out Until 2012
• Kirby Wii is Now Return to Dream Land, Coming in October
• This is a Free-to-Read Age of Empires Online Review

Portal: No Escape is an Awesome Short Film Posted: 23 Aug 2011 04:14 PM PDT Portal is obviously a tremendous game, but how would it transfer to other entertainment mediums? We've already gotten a taste of what it would be like as a comic, and now we can see what it would be as a short film. Titled Portal: No Escape, director Dan Trachtenberg has re-envisioned a grittier take on Portal and turned it into the 7-minute film seen above. It stars Danielle Rayne in the role of Chell, although, with her never speaking a word, that's never explicitly stated. She's kept prisoner in a room and eventually discovers the Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device (the proper, fancy name for the Portal gun) and uses it to escape, only to realize she's in a test chamber. The fan-favorite Companion Cube doesn't make it an appearance, nor does GLaDOS or any cake, though you do get to see a few Aperture Science Weighted Storage Cubes. Trachtenberg said on Twitter that it was filmed prior to Portal 2 being announced, making it upwards of a year and a half ago that production began.

Fall Update to Let Players Turn PlayStation Home Into a Game Posted: 23 Aug 2011 03:05 PM PDT PlayStation Home has changed a number of times over the years. This fall, it's getting what may be its most drastic redesign yet. The new Home will feature what's described as a "'hub and districts' design." It's intended to better integrate all of Home's content -- particularly the games -- so that all of it is better organized and more easily accessible. The new Hub area seen above will feature a rotating selection of games you can play, with indie PC title Cogs planned to be among what's located there when the update first goes live later this year. Also new is the Activity Board where you'll find all of the games you can play, rewards, and a user-generated content "events system."

16-Bit Defined: 20 Years of Super Nintendo Posted: 23 Aug 2011 02:39 PM PDT Feature Share it: Tweet 16-Bit Defined: 20 Years of Super Nintendo Two decades later, we take a look back at the system that created the console cycle. By: Bob Mackey August 19, 2011 This article originally appeared in 1UP Presents #2, our amazing print magazine that contains 58 ad-free pages of original content on the best paper ever. If you'd like to read more about the Super Nintendo, check out Bob Mackey's list of must-play imports, his examination the system's technical tricks, and our readers' top 5 SNES games, also from Issue 2. How do you follow up the NES? This question undoubtedly ran through the creative minds at Nintendo as the faint spectre of the 90s began to loom on the horizon. In many ways, the ubiquity of their Nintendo Entertainment System stymied the release of a new console; simply put, the NES was a standard feature of any American household, common as the Mr. Coffee.

1UP's Top 5 Super Nintendo Games Posted: 23 Aug 2011 02:39 PM PDT Feature Share it: Tweet 1UP's Top 5 Super Nintendo Games Find out which titles 1UP readers selected as the best of the best on the SNES. By: 1UP Staff August 19, 2011 Super Mario World You could say that a Nintendo console hasn't properly arrived until it sees its first Mario game. By that metric, the Super NES arrived on day one thanks to the inclusion of the superb Super Mario World as the system's pack-in title. At the time, fans probably found it a little too easy to take Mario World for granted -- it was free, it arrived a mere year after the equally amazing Super Mario Bros. 3, and Sega quickly started flinging nastiness at its earnest tone and deliberate pacing with the ad campaign for Sonic the Hedgehog -- but in retrospect that just goes to show that we didn't appreciate just how good we had it back then.

Six Must-Play Super Nintendo Imports Posted: 23 Aug 2011 02:38 PM PDT Feature Share it: Tweet Six Must-Play Super Nintendo Imports Check out the best 16-bit games you (probably) never played. By: Bob Mackey August 19, 2011 The 16-bit market wasn't the best place for American publishers to take risks; with Nintendo's ruthless grip on the production side of things, anyone who put out a Super Nintendo game in the United States had to make sure their product sold, and sold well. And as the system aged, carts only increased in size and cost, which is why you'd often see Super Famicom games of the era listed at 100 to 150 dollars -- Japanese publishers simply passed the price of their potential risk on to the consumer. And while certain niche titles were often priced at a now-unbelievable 80 dollars in the U.S. (in mid-'90s bucks, no less) this approach certainly didn't work for everyone, causing many games to forever stay in their native Japanese homeland -- until, that is, intrepid young hackers began taking apart and reassembling them for an English-speaking audience. These games might not be for everyone, but we can at least be thankful they exist in a Western-friendly format. Satellaview

Playing With Power: The Super Nintendo's Technical Tricks Posted: 23 Aug 2011 02:37 PM PDT Feature Share it: Tweet Playing With Power: The Super Nintendo's Technical Tricks Despite the opposition's claims of "blast processing," the SNES wowed in more ways than one. By: Bob Mackey August 19, 2011 Mode 7

Nintendo Planning Pre-TGS Event, Stock Price Jumps in Response Posted: 23 Aug 2011 02:01 PM PDT An event Nintendo reportedly intends to hold next month seems to have caused a spike in Nintendo's stock price today. Bloomberg reports that Osaka trading saw Nintendo shares jump 8.4 percent to 13,100 yen. That's the highest it's been since July 28, the day the 3DS price drop was announced. In the U.S., Nintendo closed out the day yesterday at $19.67. Today, it started out at $21.20 and steadily rose all the way to $21.65. Tokai Tokyo Securities analyst Yusuke Tsunoda attributes this to invitations that were reportedly sent out yesterday for an event to be held on September 13. Nintendo has declined to comment on the event, which kicks off just two days prior to the Tokyo Game Show (running September 15-18).

The Next Sonic 4 Episode Won't be Out Until 2012 Posted: 23 Aug 2011 01:21 PM PDT It'll still be a while yet before the next episode of Sonic 4 is released. Episode 2 isn't set to be released until 2012. Some companies, like Telltale Games, seem to have completely mastered episodic gaming. Seasons of Sam & Max, Back to the Future, Tales of Monkey Island, and so on have seen their episodes released on a regular basis without any major delays in between. Then there are examples like Valve, where episodic gaming was adopted in order to speed up the release of Half-Life games... and we're now going on four years since Episode Two with no signs of Episode Three or Half-Life 3. Rather than release one bigger version of Sonic the Hedgehog 4, Sega decided to break it up into multiple parts. Episode 1 was intended to come out last summer but was pushed back until later in the year, finally coming out in October. Episode 2 hasn't really been heard from much, and with Sonic Generations set to celebrate the series' 20-year anniversary later this year, it won't be until 2012 that we get to see the next chunk of Sonic 4.

Kirby Wii is Now Return to Dream Land, Coming in October Posted: 23 Aug 2011 12:20 PM PDT We knew the name "Kirby Wii" wouldn't stick around forever, even if the latest Mario Kart, Mario Kart 7, didn't get a particularly original name. Nintendo's PAX lineup reveals Kirby Wii has been officially named Kirby's Return to Dream Land and will be out on October 24. That's one month after the new Kirby game for DS, Kirby: Mass Attack, is released on September 19. It bolsters the upcoming lineup for Wii, which is really lacking outside of The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword. Nintendo of America continues to say it doesn't plan on bringing over any of the three JRPGs fans have been petitioning for (all of them are already available in Japan), including Xenoblade Chronicles, the game that was released in Europe last week to very strong reviews. Nintendo did recently say it would be watching how things go in Europe, so that's a more promising development than what came before it. Prior to Dream Land, Kirby had been fairly quiet as of late on consoles. Kirby's Epic Yarn came to Wii this past October, but before that, it had been a decade since the last real Kirby game on consoles came out, Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards. (Kirby Air Ride was released on GameCube in 2003, but that was a racing game.)

This is a Free-to-Read Age of Empires Online Review Posted: 23 Aug 2011 12:15 PM PDT When Microsoft shut down Ensemble Studios a few years ago shortly after the release of Halo Wars, I never thought we'd have a new Age of Empires game, much-less one being developed by remnants of that fabled studio. Microsoft, along with Gas Powered Games and Robot Entertainment (who has several former Ensemble employees within) has brought the franchise back into the spotlight with a mix of online social components and made it free-to-play. However, this entry in the series stumbles a bit in its execution and feels more like a conglomeration of ideas than a well-focused game that the franchise deserves. The biggest highlight for this game can't be ignored: Age of Empires Online is free, right now, via the Games for Windows LIVE client. How much can you play for free? Well, if you're to believe the promotional materials associated with the game you can get all the way to the level 40 cap without dropping a cent. But this journey to the level cap will be a grind with sub-par equipment for units, limited inventory space, few options for multiplayer, and other features that would otherwise be at your disposal for a premium civilization of your choosing.

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