MMO Updates

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• The Tattered Notebook: The EQ2X community speaks
• SWTOR launch day questions answered
• WRUP: Let's hear it for shock safety orange edition
• The Daily Grind: How important is your look?
• BioWare announces launch date for Star Wars: The Old Republic
• MMOs may be on the horizon for OnLive
• DCUO's Game Update 5 now on the PC test server
• Betawatch: September 17-23, 2011
• City of Heroes bringing early Freedom to lapsed subscribers
• Wasteland Diaries: PvE like a boss
• Champions Online's September Ask Cryptic: Introducing the UNTIL Field Report
• BioWare releases more SWTOR companion info
• One Shots: Flying high
• Storyboard: A matter of times
• LotRO dev blog talks Rise of Isengard crafting changes
• The Road to Mordor: 'Twas the night before Isengard...

The Tattered Notebook: The EQ2X community speaks Posted: 24 Sep 2011 10:00 AM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, EverQuest II, Business models, Interviews, Opinion, Free-to-play, The Tattered Notebook This week, I was all set to share my personal experiences as I continue my time on the EverQuest II Extended server. I was going to talk about guide events (or lack of them) and my amazing feats with my newly purchased Wand of Obliteration (I killed a Spectre in Sinking Sands at level 13 but only got about 1300 experience, which is not much more than I was getting for white and yellow cons at my level). But then I realized that if we're really going to roll up our sleeves and tackle the issue of free-to-play, we need to hear from those who exist on the other side of the virtual wall, those who have been silently playing in a world cut off from the rest of the Legacy servers, both in game and out. In this week's Tattered Notebook, I tracked down guild leaders and members of guilds on the Freeport server in order to hear from them what their gaming experience is like. While I had been playing my bronze account for the column, I made a character on my main account in order to have access to chat channels and in-game mail in order to get in touch with them. I spoke to two of the top raiding guilds on the server as well as a large crafting guild. We talked about raiding, the economy, and the community overall. What I uncovered was eye-opening. Read on for their stories. Continue reading The Tattered Notebook: The EQ2X community speaks The Tattered Notebook: The EQ2X community speaks originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 24 Sep 2011 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

SWTOR launch day questions answered Posted: 24 Sep 2011 09:00 AM PDT Filed under: Sci-fi, Launches, New titles, News items, Star Wars: The Old Republic The community team at BioWare told us that we would know when the train was coming, but it came crashing through our house when half of us were still sleeping. As we reported earlier, Star Wars: The Old Republic set its launch day for December 20th for North America and December 22nd for Europe. All the fans exhaled in relief, then promptly started asking more questions. First off, the Australian and New Zealand launch dates have not been set, and BioWare cannot commit to a launch day yet for that region. However, back in August, Senior Community Manager Stephen Reid posted on the official forums that "There are no plans to 'region lock' or 'IP block' players from the game. You may experience some latency issues if you're not playing in a launch territory." This still holds true today. To prevent signup issues on launch day, log-ins will be throttled. However, pre-order customers will still gain early access to the game. Senior Community Coordinator Allison Berryman reported on the official forum: "The beginning of Early Game Access will depend on a number of factors, including results from our Game Testing Program and Pre-Orders, but there will be multiple days of access." Lastly, in case you missed it earlier, BioWare did announce the subscription costs. It comes as no surprise to most MMO gamers that the first month is free with the purchase of the game. After that it's $14.99 per month (£8.99 or €12.99), $41.97 for 3 months (£25.17 or €35.97), or $77.94 for six months (£46.14 or €65.94). There have been no lifetime subscription announcements as of yet, but we will let you know if we hear anything. SWTOR launch day questions answered originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 24 Sep 2011 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Source: SWTOR launch press release, Early access announcement, Australian launch update

WRUP: Let's hear it for shock safety orange edition Posted: 24 Sep 2011 08:00 AM PDT Filed under: Massively meta, Miscellaneous Ladies and gentlemen, do you know what we're missing in our games? That's right -- we're missing things that are colored bright orange that may be seen clearly through a blindfold. Yes, you can argue that it does make it a little harder to take the game seriously when everyone is colored so brightly, but to that I say that you're missing the central part of that shocking color. Namely, it looks awesome. We don't need everyone decked out in it, but every time I see the option, I cheer a little. Moving on from my love of things with day-glo coloration, it's time for this week's installment of WRUP. Past the break, we here on the Massively staff will talk about what we plan to do over the course of the weekend as well as whether or not we think that next year is going to be the end of the world for MMOs and not just for the Mayan calendar. So jump on past the break, and let us know what you'll be up to in the comments. Continue reading WRUP: Let's hear it for shock safety orange edition WRUP: Let's hear it for shock safety orange edition originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 24 Sep 2011 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

The Daily Grind: How important is your look? Posted: 24 Sep 2011 06:30 AM PDT Filed under: Culture, Opinion, The Daily Grind, Miscellaneous Sometimes I'm not entirely sure I play City of Heroes. I definitely log in, and I definitely enter the game world. The thing is that I can enter the gameworld and then start staring at the tailor, and the next thing I know two hours have passed and I'm calling Ms. Lady over to see if the outfit looks better with one shade of cyan or another. I believe there are also elements of the game that involve superhuman antics, but at times it feels that my intersection with those elements is brief and often superfluous. Of course, I know I'm not the only one. There are people who will devote even more time than I will to getting a character's outfit just right, even in games that don't allow costume-customizing free-for-alls. And then there are players who couldn't care less that their RIFT characters appear to have been dressed by a blind MC Hammer as long as their stats are high. So where do you fall on the spectrum? How important is your look? 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: How important is your look? originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 24 Sep 2011 08:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

BioWare announces launch date for Star Wars: The Old Republic Posted: 24 Sep 2011 06:00 AM PDT Filed under: Sci-fi, Launches, MMO industry, New titles, News items, Star Wars: The Old Republic At the 2011 Eurogamer Expo keynote address, BioWare co-founders Dr. Ray Muzyka and Dr. Greg Zeschuk announced that Star Wars: The Old Republic will officially launch on December 20th, 2011 for North America and December 22, 2011 for Europe. The retail copy will include 30 days of subscription time, with further pricing as follows: 1 Month Subscription: $14.99 (£8.99/€12.99) 3 Month Subscription: $13.99 per month (one-time charge of $41.97/£25.17/€35.97) 6 Month Subscription: $12.99 per month (one-time charge of $77.94/£46.14/€65.94) [Thanks to everyone who sent this in!] BioWare announces launch date for Star Wars: The Old Republic originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 24 Sep 2011 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Source: SWTOR site

MMOs may be on the horizon for OnLive Posted: 23 Sep 2011 08:00 PM PDT Filed under: Business models, MMO industry, News items, Miscellaneous The OnLive gaming platform officially launched in the US last year, bringing a new on-demand gaming service to homes with broadband internet connections. OnLive hosts and renders games on a computing cloud and delivers the resulting video feed over the internet. The potentially revolutionary system lets people play high-end games on low-end computers, but has a minimum bandwidth requirement of 2Mbit. OnLive celebrated its UK release this week during Eurogamer Expo in London, and we were on the floor to ask the OnLive staff some questions about the service. Representatives were able to confirm that there are plans to bring MMOs to the OnLive service in the future but no solid deals had been made. The only thing keeping MMOs out of the game catalogue is the fact that no deals have been signed with MMO publishers. OnLive representatives stated that it would be unlikely to see Activision-Blizzard's games like World of Warcraft on OnLive, but that Star Wars: The Old Republic and other MMOs could eventually be licensed to both the PC client and the home console. Talks are already underway with Electronic Arts, which released its first game on the system this week to coincide with the UK launch. When asked about latency issues, staff explained that the service already supports a large number of multiplayer titles with similar connectivity requirements to MMOs and latency is not a problem in those games. MMOs may be on the horizon for OnLive originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 23 Sep 2011 22:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

DCUO's Game Update 5 now on the PC test server Posted: 23 Sep 2011 07:00 PM PDT Filed under: Super-hero, Bugs, Patches, News items, DC Universe Online Calling all DC Universe Online heroes and villains! Game Update 5 is now available for testing on the PC test servers, and it's up to players to help work out the kinks. PvE players get a new treat in the form of Fortress 2, the second in the Fortress of Solitude raid series. With the help of some new Kryptonian friends, players must go toe-to-toe with Brainiac's Avatar of Meta. A "beefed-up" version of the HIVE alert has been introduced as a new Tier 2 alert, and players can take on updated bosses for epic new loot. Meanwhile, on the PvP end of the spectrum, the duelling system has been updated and SOE wants players to lay the smack down on one another to ensure that it's bug-free. A quasi-new PvP map is also available in the form of the former 2v2 Legends Batcave map. Now players can take their own characters into the arena to fight for dominance in Bruce Wayne's not-so-secret-anymore hideout. For the full details on what's being tested, and to to get in on the fun yourself, head on over to the official forum post. DCUO's Game Update 5 now on the PC test server originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 23 Sep 2011 21:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Source: DC Universe Online -- Game Update 5

Betawatch: September 17-23, 2011 Posted: 23 Sep 2011 06:00 PM PDT Filed under: Betas, Massively meta, Betawatch, Miscellaneous Welcome to Betawatch, Massively's weekly report on the state of MMO betas. In each installment, we'll report everything from the latest open betas, closed betas and even alphas in one convenient place. Plus, we'll make sure to include as much info on each game's current status, including projected release dates (if known) and links to the sign-up forms to get yourself into that beta you've been seeking. Star Supremacy joins the closed beta list this week, and the open beta list is getting a bit longer too thanks to the addition of Immortal King. Finally, we bid farewell to Luvinia Online as the game heads off into launch territory. Follow along after the jump for the latest Betawatch list. Continue reading Betawatch: September 17-23, 2011 Betawatch: September 17-23, 2011 originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 23 Sep 2011 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

City of Heroes bringing early Freedom to lapsed subscribers Posted: 23 Sep 2011 05:30 PM PDT Filed under: Super-hero, City of Heroes, City of Villains, Business models, Patches, News items, Free-to-play It's quite possible that you've fallen out of love with City of Heroes over the years. Actually, it's quite possible that that itself was some time ago, and while you've been eying the game every so often, you've never quite found the time to come back. But if you've got an old account and you're curious about what things will be like after the free-to-play conversion, you're getting to sign on board for part of the head start as well. Throughout the weekend, the team at Paragon Studios will be reactivating lapsed accounts as premium members, the tier for players who were once subscribers but decided to take a break from the game. And while you won't get all of the VIP content for free, you will be able to enjoy the game and your old characters without owing a dime. So if you've got an old account, keeping checking in to see if you can get a little early play on City of Heroes Freedom over the weekend... and if you don't, you can look forward to the servers opening up sometime next week. City of Heroes bringing early Freedom to lapsed subscribers originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 23 Sep 2011 19:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Source: Return to City of Heroes!

Wasteland Diaries: PvE like a boss Posted: 23 Sep 2011 05:00 PM PDT Filed under: Sci-fi, Fallen Earth, PvE, MMOFPS, Wasteland Diaries, Post-Apocalyptic Fallen Earth PvE can be anywhere from laughably easy to downright frustrating. I guess that's a good thing since you get a gamut of difficulty levels, but much of the leveling span leans toward the easy end of the scale. I tend to get bored with PvE combat fairly quickly in MMOs (not just Fallen Earth). Other people love to struggle against the environment. Some even refuse to do anything remotely akin to PvP. I'll only throw the term "carebear" at those who think all PvPers are maladjusted psychopaths. I'm not talking about them; I'm talking about regular hardcore PvEers: players who would rather play against the NPCs than against other players. Many of my posts center around PvP. If I didn't PvP (and since I'm not a big roleplayer), I doubt I would still be playing Fallen Earth. That's just what I spend most of my time doing in the wastelands. So I tend to write a lot about it. But all PvPers have to PvE. PvE has its own set of challenges for the player. Granted, these challenges are quite static, and once you find a way to overcome them, you are done. But they are challenges nonetheless, and knowledge is power as much in PvE as it is in PvP. In this post I will give you some tips and tricks that might help you get through that next tough mission. Much of this stuff is common sense, but it may not occur to you until it's too late. So click past the cut and let's get started. Continue reading Wasteland Diaries: PvE like a boss Wasteland Diaries: PvE like a boss originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 23 Sep 2011 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

Champions Online's September Ask Cryptic: Introducing the UNTIL Field Report Posted: 23 Sep 2011 04:00 PM PDT Filed under: Super-hero, Game mechanics, News items, Free-to-play, Champions Online It's time for Champions Online's September edition of Ask Cryptic, and as always, it's packed with delicious Q&A goodness. Many questions are related to new content, new powersets, and when players can expect either. The answers vary but for the most part seem to be variations of "we're working on it, but we can't give you a date yet." The same goes for the Nemesis system, though players who were hoping for theme-specific story arcs seem to be out of luck. Costume change animations are also requested, and the team says that such animations are in the works but will likely not see the light of day until further down the line. If you're more interested in what's coming to the game in the immediate future, though, Cryptic has you covered there as well. The team has introduced a forum feature known as the UNTIL Field Report. These Field Reports will be posted every other month alongside the State of the Game letter and will provide players with a status report on many fixes and upcoming features. It's important to note that the Field Reports are not intended to be comprehensive, but rather are meant to give players an idea of what they can expect to see in the near future and to give them a single place they can go to voice comments or concerns. For the full, meaty Ask Cryptic article as well as the premiere UNTIL Field Report, head on over to the official forums and take a look. Champions Online's September Ask Cryptic: Introducing the UNTIL Field Report originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 23 Sep 2011 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Source: Champions Online -- Ask Cryptic, September 2011, Champions Online -- UNTIL Field Reports

BioWare releases more SWTOR companion info Posted: 23 Sep 2011 03:00 PM PDT Filed under: Sci-fi, Classes, Game mechanics, MMO industry, New titles, News items, Star Wars: The Old Republic, Dev Diaries "Go for the eyes, Boo!" Er, sorry, wrong BioWare RPG. You'll have to forgive us, though, as the firm's latest dev blog references dear old Minsc in the very first sentence. Yep, it's another treatise on companions in Star Wars The Old Republic, and this time senior game designer William Wallace (really) treats us to a lengthy entry explaining a bit about companion customization and combat. The latter presentation takes the form of a few short videos showing off the fighting prowess of one Corso Riggs, a heavily armored blaster specialist who functions as one of the Smuggler class companions. Head to the official SWTOR website for all the goods. BioWare releases more SWTOR companion info originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 23 Sep 2011 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Source: SWTOR dev diary

One Shots: Flying high Posted: 23 Sep 2011 02:00 PM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Galleries, Screenshots, Vanguard, One Shots Vanguard: Saga of Heroes offers its players a wide variety of mounts, including several with the ability to take flight. Massively reader Korvin took advantage of this to add to our One Shots lineup: This is the Kojan archipelago, and the place is Jalen's crossing, not so far from Caia'l Brael, the starting place for Wood Elf and Raki races. Here you can hire a flying pegasus to get yourself to Arks of Harmony (the group of floating islands in the screenshot). Jalen's Crossing is a gigantic bridge that connects Youthgreen island with the eastern islands and was built and protected by Raki. Raki are a foxlike race whose members fled their homeland after it was destroyed by the Ulvari. The Arks of Harmony became their safe haven and a place to store important information on how to protect themselves from future threats. We're all about looking up this week on One Shots! Show us your favorite aerial image -- whether it be taken from the ground looking up or from atop a high-flying mount or tall perch, we want to see! Next week we're throwing the ball back to you. There's no theme and no requirement; just send us your favorite screenshots and tell us why you love them. Add your name and a little bit about the image, send it in to oneshots@massively.com, and we'll feature it in this week's One Shots! Gallery: One Shots: 2011 One Shots: Flying high originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 23 Sep 2011 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

Storyboard: A matter of times Posted: 23 Sep 2011 01:00 PM PDT Filed under: Lore, Opinion, Roleplaying, Storyboard, Miscellaneous How often do you actually think about time in-game? I'm not talking about how long you spend in the game or how much time you have to play or anything like that -- I'm talking about the actual passing hours when you're playing the game. My guess is not frequently, if ever. Most people just use real-world time as a shorthand if they even consider time, and that's all that needs to be said. Time isn't interesting. At best, historical dates are interesting, and even that's only in the event that the game gives you some sort of context. Who cares, right? But whether or not you find time interesting, it's important. Time has a bigger impact on the game world than you might think, and it's one of those facets that you can't un-see once you look at it. It's as problematic an issue as character death, and in some ways even more so, because there's no comfortable way to skate around how screwy time is in the game. And the proof lies entirely in a simple question: What did you do today? Continue reading Storyboard: A matter of times Storyboard: A matter of times originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 23 Sep 2011 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

LotRO dev blog talks Rise of Isengard crafting changes Posted: 23 Sep 2011 12:00 PM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Lord of the Rings Online, Expansions, Game mechanics, MMO industry, News items, Free-to-play, Crafting Hey look, crafting news! Yep, there is more to MMOs than combat, and Turbine has long fought the good fight in regard to giving tradeskill fans something to chew on. The latest Lord of the Rings Online dev update shines the spotlight on crafting in the Westfold, which Turbine describes as an "all-new crafting tier [...] filled with valuable natural resources, sought-after ancient artifacts, rare recipes, and powerful crafted items." Unlocking the new content happens by way of mastering your particular profession's supreme proficiency tier. The expansion also gives you more options in the form of a new reputation rank for the game's various crafting guilds. Furthermore, Turbine has eliminated component recipes in the new tier to "reduce the amount of time spent crafting intermediate ingredients." Finally, there are also a couple of changes to resource gathering, including yield tweaks and the ability for Farmers to produce crops individually or in bulk. That's not all, but you'll have to head to the official LotRO website for all the details. LotRO dev blog talks Rise of Isengard crafting changes originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 23 Sep 2011 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Source: Dev diary

The Road to Mordor: 'Twas the night before Isengard... Posted: 23 Sep 2011 11:00 AM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Lord of the Rings Online, Classes, Expansions, Launches, Free-to-play, The Road to Mordor I feel it. It's those excited butterflies that appear somewhere in my navel region when I realize that I'm on the verge of something new, fun, and possibly involving an alien xenomorph bursting out of my insides. It's the thrill of anticipation almost realized. For this time next week, we'll be well on our way to Isengard. I've never been around for a Lord of the Rings Online expansion release, which makes this a first for me. Sure, I have my concerns about Rise of Isengard, but on the whole I'm ready to jump into an untamed region and explore the living deeds out of it. I'm not in a rush to get through it all and start raiding or anything, so my Lore-master will be taking his sweet time milking each quest for the calcium-rich story within. Oddly enough, I'm most excited about the prospect of cool new cosmetics because I have a sick obsession with them that's going to require a full-scale intervention. I'm not quite sure how LotRO's third expansion will be taken by the larger community, and I probably won't know until the launch fever dies down and we evaluate how useful, entertaining, and engaging it is over the long term. I'm just glad we're moving forward. In this week's Road to Mordor, I want to look back at the build-up to Isengard's release, what we know so far, and what changes are in store for our characters. Might as well tidy up the place since it's going to get hecka messy soon enough. Continue reading The Road to Mordor: 'Twas the night before Isengard... The Road to Mordor: 'Twas the night before Isengard... originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 23 Sep 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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• Weekend Deals: Company of Heroes and Lots of Sega
• Indie Dev Defends Tax Incentives for Videogame Developers
• Diablo 3: How Does it Feel to Play With Friends
• Microsoft Allowing a Small Number of Mistakenly Banned 360s Back on Xbox Live
• Team ICO Working Hard to Make The Last Guardian's Level Design Unpredictable
• Gritty Xbox Shooters Caused Uncharted to Move Away From Having Tolkien Elements
• Blaze of Glory: The Final Games of the PSP and DS
• BioShock Maker Irrational Worked on an RTS for Consoles in 2002
• Conan Shows Us How Gears of War 3 isn't All That Violent
• Deus Ex: Human Revolution's "The Missing Link" DLC is Cyberpunk Meets Under Siege

Weekend Deals: Company of Heroes and Lots of Sega Posted: 23 Sep 2011 03:58 PM PDT Steam is having a big sale on every Sega product on the service, with prices ranging from 50-90% off what you'd usually pay. There were too many individual deals to list below, but of particular note is the Sega Collector Pack ($79.99, down from $576.52), the Sega Genesis Classics Collection ($7.49 from $29.96) and Alpha Protocol ($2 from $19.99). Alpha Protocol is a very flawed game, but at this price it's definitely worth picking up if you're willing to work around its issues by doing things like attempting to avoid letting enemies detect your presence. Steam is also offering all of the Company of Heroes games on the cheap. They're some of the best strategy games to come out in years, and to be able to get the CoH Complete Pack for $9.99 is a steal. Amazon continues to offer discounts on recently-released PC game downloads like Dead Island and Deus Ex: Human Revolution, more than one place has The Witcher 2 discounted to $29.99 (Amazon has it all the way down to $23.99), and Civilization V is $14.99 on Impulse. And if for some reason you still feel compelled to try out the disaster that is Duke Nukem Forever for yourself, it's only $9.99 on Impulse.

Indie Dev Defends Tax Incentives for Videogame Developers Posted: 23 Sep 2011 03:14 PM PDT We often hear brief mentions of the tax benefits granted to videogame developers in Canada -- it's no coincidence that so many companies have opened up locations in Toronto and Montreal. A recent New York Times report on tax breaks for videogame developers prompted a decidedly negative piece on the subject from Canadian publication Maclean's. This in turn has led to a fairly in-depth piece from Capy's Nathan Vella explaining why these tax breaks are handed out and the positive effects they can have. Capy is an independent developer located in Toronto that created both Critter Crunch (above) and the iOS hit Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP (below). Vella was among the company's co-founders, and his extensive response to the Maclean's piece explains how tax breaks helped Capy to go from a work-for-hire developer that contributed to third-party projects it had no real say in to creating original games that it controls. In his words, "Tax incentives helped us take Capy from another faltering licensed game maker and turn it into something that I believe has real value in both the game industry, and in the provinces' economy." Vella went so far as to have an economics expert break down the purpose of such incentives, which was provided in convenient bullet-point form. Essentially, providing a tax credit to a game developers leads to the firm expanding (i.e. hiring more skilled workers or creating its own content), which in turn leads to expanded output (or more employees) that the government can collect taxes on/from. That's in addition to the money that these new employees spend at local businesses, which can generate more money for the government. It's a simple way of looking at it, but it shows that the incentives aren't simply a way of handing out money without getting anything in return.

Diablo 3: How Does it Feel to Play With Friends Posted: 23 Sep 2011 02:15 PM PDT Diablo 3 is a game designed for multiplayer, and we didn't want to give you just one person's take on the game. 1UP editors Mike Nelson and Ryan Winterhalter played through the recently released beta, and we wanted to give you a sense of what it's like playing through the game with a friend. Ryan Winterhalter: What are your first impressions of the Diablo 3 beta? Overall, mine was positive with the exception of the one random disconnect we encountered.

Microsoft Allowing a Small Number of Mistakenly Banned 360s Back on Xbox Live Posted: 23 Sep 2011 02:10 PM PDT Taking your Xbox 360 online with a pirated game, using a modded console, and cheating are all recipes for getting banned from Xbox Live. Typically these bans are handled by individuals at Microsoft. Recently, a number of bans were handed out by a piece of software and it appears that mistakes were made. Stephen Toulouse, the head of Xbox Live's Policy and Enforcement team, has written a blog post today explaining that a number of suspensions were mistakenly made by this software that is sometimes used. It occurred between August 29 and September 9, and those who were impacted will find that their console has been unbanned. To make it up to those affected users, Microsoft will soon grant them a free three-month subscription to Xbox Live Gold and 1,600 Microsoft Points ($20). "Recently, it was brought to our attention that a number of customers had concerns about the validity of a recent ban of their individual consoles, which they feel had been triggered inaccurately," he wrote. "In this case, the bans were related specifically to modded consoles. I take these claims very seriously, and after an initial investigation we have confirmed that a handful of banned consoles did in-fact appear to not have been modified or tampered with. We're still conducting our review but the cause appears to be a software issue, not an error on the part of the enforcement team's normal actions. It's very specific and occurred between August 29 and September 9, affecting a very small percentage of users."

Team ICO Working Hard to Make The Last Guardian's Level Design Unpredictable Posted: 23 Sep 2011 12:55 PM PDT The Last Guardian no-showed the Tokyo Game Show last week, much to the chagrin of fans desperate to see something new from Team ICO. Fortunately, the remastered HD versions of ICO and Shadow of the Colossus will be out in just a few days, on September 27. While there doesn't appear to be a great deal of new footage of The Last Guardian in the collection, there is a roundtable discussion with the developers that reveals what's keeping them busy right now. "As much as possible, the level design shouldn't seem too functional or rational," explained director Fumito Ueda. "It has to seem like a natural part of the atmosphere and the world, like it's been like that forever. "Obviously we need to do the level design, but we don't want our users to notice the intent of the designer... I think that's what we're spending most of our time on right now. I think being unpredictable, giving the game unpredictability, is key for The Last Guardian. Just by their presence alone, the AI characters tend to invite unpredictable situations. That was on purpose."

Gritty Xbox Shooters Caused Uncharted to Move Away From Having Tolkien Elements Posted: 23 Sep 2011 11:41 AM PDT The Uncharted you know and love today used to be much different. Naughty Dog was, once upon a time, working to create a fantasy game with "elements of Tolkien" in it before Sony saw the success of gritty shooters on Xbox and pushed for a change to something more realistic. This was revealed by former Naughty Dog environment modeler Don Poole, who spoke with Play (via NowGamer). "We were talking about a more 'realistic' game in terms of how it was modeled and rendered but the concepts were much more far out. One was a forest world where the antagonists lived underground," he explained.

Blaze of Glory: The Final Games of the PSP and DS Posted: 23 Sep 2011 10:53 AM PDT Feature Share it: Tweet Blaze of Glory: The Final Games of the PSP and DS Don't upgrade those portables just yet; these games have plenty to offer. By: Steve Watts September 23, 2011 New hardware launches bring with them a flood of new software, perfect for early adopters eager to show off their new kit. Unfortunately, this wave of titles usually overlaps with new releases from the previous generation, causing the latter to get lost in the mania typically caused by superior hardware. As the 3DS takes Nintendo's center stage and the Vita hogs Sony's portable attention, games for the original DS and PSP are still on the way -- albeit quietly. Since it'd be a shame for some of these games to slip through the intergenerational cracks, let's take a look at some of the late-comers that may run the risk of being left behind.

BioShock Maker Irrational Worked on an RTS for Consoles in 2002 Posted: 23 Sep 2011 10:45 AM PDT Irrational Games likes to share some of its old game ideas from time to time. Last year it shed some light on a zombie shooting game it worked on before Left 4 Dead came along, and now it's shown off details and some early artwork for an RTS/RPG hybrid called Dungeon Duel. Now best known as the developer of BioShock and BioShock Infinite, Irrational once worked on System Shock 2, Freedom Force, and SWAT 4, among other games. In 2002, it was working on Dungeon Duel which, according to a new blog post, was meant to be an RTS that was being specifically designed for consoles and controllers -- the Xbox and PlayStation 2 in particular. Much of the information Irrational has unearthed on the game was put together in a document you can see for yourself here (PDF). It mentions combining RTS elements with those of a card trading game for a product that would fit the old cliche of being "truly easy to learn but challenging to master." It's specifically noted that it is not a card game, and that players simply choose cards that represent monsters and spells. Combat would follow the rock-paper-scissors model and take place in real time, and dungeons would be randomly generated so as to extend its lifespan. Its replayability would be further bolstered by a trading system compared with Magic and Pokemon; you'd be able to trade either by going online or by taking "your memory card over to your friend's house to trade for the cards you want." Oh, 2002.

Conan Shows Us How Gears of War 3 isn't All That Violent Posted: 23 Sep 2011 09:39 AM PDT Many feel Gears of War 3's story is much better than that of its predecessors. Part of it is it's much more emotional, but as Conan shows us, it's a bit more complicated than that. The video above comes from last night's episode of Conan. Prior to Jonah Hill and John Noble showing up, Conan O'Brien talked a bit about the perception of Gears of War 3 being less violent than its predecessors and how that could turn off hardcore gamers. The ensuing clip didn't quite prove that, as it didn't take long before someone was annihilated with a sawed-off shotgun, but besides that it's every bit as silly as you'd expect.

Deus Ex: Human Revolution's "The Missing Link" DLC is Cyberpunk Meets Under Siege Posted: 23 Sep 2011 09:30 AM PDT Adam Jensen starts off naked inside a slow boat from (not "to") China in his first (I'm presuming) DLC mission for Deus Ex: Human Revolution. For context, this mission takes place during a period that, at the time, didn't really concern me when I reviewed the core game: protagonist Adam puts himself inside a stasis pod of sorts within a boat and arrives at his next destination (which reminded me of how Snake infiltrated Shadow Moses in the original Metal Gear Solid). Well, said journey actually took three days, and The Missing Link now fills in that conveniently placed time gap. So, of course he gets discovered, which leads to the beginning described earlier. The mercenary crew has taken away his gear, deactivated his Augmentations, and strapped him to an EMP chair. They have no idea of who he is -- only that he has over a billion dollars' worth of Augmentation work done on him, and that he took down a squad of soldiers by himself before getting captured. After exchanging some words with one of his interrogators -- dialogue choices include whether to threaten or redirect a question for example -- Adam's captors leave, the EMP chair mysteriously turns off, and you now have control.

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