MMO Updates

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• ArcheAge's fifth Korean closed beta coming in August
• RuneScape reaches 200 million users mark
• Bigpoint company shake-up includes closing mobile games development
• Blizzard acknowledges Diablo III always-on Is DRM
• D&D Online showcases two more Menace of the Underdark dungeons
• Ask Massively: Owls, the bears of the sky edition
• Chaos Theory: The Secret World's single-server tech
• The Daily Grind: Can we talk about Batman?
• A look at the Farmer's Faire in Lord of the Rings Online [Updated]
• Shadowrun Online aims for Kickstarter funding
• Choose My Adventure: At the end of TERA
• John Riccitello discusses the impact of the free-to-play market on Star Wars: The Old Republic
• A Mild-Mannered Reporter: Too many choices
• Free for All: Why the unlimited trials of RIFT, WoW, and Ryzom are perfect for me
• Enter at Your Own Rift: The joy of mentoring
• MechWarrior Online reveals Centurion mech
• ArenaNet presents WvW improvements and server list for final Guild Wars 2 beta
• Rule your own allod in Allods Online's new expansion

ArcheAge's fifth Korean closed beta coming in August Posted: 19 Jul 2012 10:00 AM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, New titles, News items, ArcheAge, Sandbox, Housing ArcheAge fans have something to look forward to next month: Thirteen thousand testers will be invited to take part in ArcheAge's fifth Korean closed beta test scheduled from August 16th through the 31st. XLGAMES also announced that the engine merge has completed and CBT5 will be presented on CryEngine3. XLGAMES is calling CBT5 a "grand rehearsal for the open beta;" the open beta is currently planned for the end of the year. The company is looking forward to hearing testers' feedback on housing, marine content, and updated quests in this beta session. [Source: XLGAMES press release] ArcheAge's fifth Korean closed beta coming in August originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 19 Jul 2012 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

RuneScape reaches 200 million users mark Posted: 19 Jul 2012 09:30 AM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Events, in-game, MMO industry, News items, RuneScape, Free-to-play, Browser You could say RuneScape has grown a bit since its launch way back when. In fact, Jagex announced that the popular free-to-play browser game has reached 200 million users! Hailing from over 150 different countries, RuneScape players could actually make their own country: The game's population is almost nine times that of Australia and over three times that of the United Kingdom. Jagex released other fun facts relating to the booming populace of RuneScape. For instance, players catch more than eight billion fish each year (enough to encircle the globe 20 times), amassed 58,000 times more gold than is held in Fort Knox, and have logged more than 443 billion minutes of game time since launch. Twenty-seven players meet their death every second. For the next three days, RuneScape is holding a celebration worthy of this achievement that includes a newly discovered demon with 200 million hitpoints! Join the festivities in-game and check out some screenshots -- including a comparison shot of Druids Circle then vs. now -- in the gallery below. [Source: Jagex press release] Gallery: RuneScape RuneScape reaches 200 million users mark originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 19 Jul 2012 11:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

Bigpoint company shake-up includes closing mobile games development Posted: 19 Jul 2012 09:00 AM PDT Filed under: MMO industry, News items, Free-to-play, Browser, Miscellaneous German online games publisher Bigpoint, best known for free-to-play and browser games, will be dumping its mobile games development side very soon. Two managing directors, brothers Tobias and Philip Reisberger, and the chief communications officer, Nils Holger Henning, will be exiting the company to pursue work in mobile gaming elsewhere. Bigpoint CEO Heiko Hubertz stated that of the approximately 10 games that were in development, "some of them are finished and will launch in the next few weeks but most of them will be completely closed and shut down." Bigpoint is not abandoning mobile games completely; it is looking to assist and support external development teams. The company has stated it is focusing on game development and distribution and plans to open more offices globally. Bigpoint company shake-up includes closing mobile games development originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 19 Jul 2012 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Source: GamesIndustry International

Blizzard acknowledges Diablo III always-on Is DRM Posted: 19 Jul 2012 08:30 AM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Game mechanics, MMO industry, News items, Free-to-play, Diablo III Despite weeks of insisting that Diablo III's internet connection requirements were all about improving the experience for gamers, Blizzard has finally copped to the fact that the feature was actually designed to prevent piracy. "While we've never said that this requirement guarantees that there will be no cheating or game cracks, it does help us battle those problems," Blizz co-founder Mike Morhaime said in a D3 state-of-the-game post. As Rock, Paper Shotgun points out, Morhaime claims to "fully understand the desire to play Diablo III offline" despite the fact that the game was "designed from the beginning to be an online game that can be enjoyed with friends." The online requirement "is the best way for us to support that design," Morhaime writes. Blizzard acknowledges Diablo III always-on Is DRM originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 19 Jul 2012 10:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Source: D3 state of the game Via: RPS

D&D Online showcases two more Menace of the Underdark dungeons Posted: 19 Jul 2012 08:00 AM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Galleries, Screenshots, Dungeons and Dragons Online, Expansions, News items, Free-to-play, Dungeons If you have the urge to hack-and-slash your way through some undead or test your mettle against a new type of demon, Dungeon and Dragons Online's recent expansion Menace of the Underdark has just the two dungeons for you. The Unquiet Graves dungeon features Drow necromancers desecrating a once-peaceful graveyard and constantly reanimating the bodies of the dead. The second dungeon -- The Deal and the Demon -- pairs players with the notorious mercenaries, the Yugoloth, to get rid of a demon lord deep inside the Demonweb. Peer into these new dungeons in the gallery below. [Source: Turbine press release] Gallery: Dungeons and Dragons Online: Menace of the Underdark D&D Online showcases two more Menace of the Underdark dungeons originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 19 Jul 2012 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

Ask Massively: Owls, the bears of the sky edition Posted: 19 Jul 2012 08:00 AM PDT Filed under: Business models, Culture, MMO industry, Opinion, Humor, Ask Massively, Miscellaneous It is important in these troubling times that we understand what things are in relation to other things. Dogs, for example, are very clearly the sea lions of the land. Volcanoes are the ulcers of the earth, camels are the ships of the desert, and hoodies are the kangaroo costumes of the non-Australian. But what are owls? Owls are the bears of the sky, my friend. Inversely, bears are the owls of the land. I hope this makes your day-to-day life significantly easier. Now that I've gotten one of your major questions out of the way, I guess I can move on to finish up with the rest of Ask Massively, which discusses free-to-play profits versus sub profits and more about our comment system. (For the record, our comment system is the smoke signal of the site, if smoke signals also involved smiley faces and memes.) If you've got a question you'd like to see answered in a future installment of the column, mail it along to ask@massively.com or leave it in the comments below. Questions may be edited slightly for clarity and/or brevity. Continue reading Ask Massively: Owls, the bears of the sky edition Ask Massively: Owls, the bears of the sky edition originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 19 Jul 2012 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

Chaos Theory: The Secret World's single-server tech Posted: 19 Jul 2012 07:00 AM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Horror, Age of Conan, Game mechanics, MMO industry, Opinion, The Secret World, Chaos Theory Something went missing during this month's launch of The Secret World. Do you know what it was? No, snarkonauts, it wasn't "fun." The game is certainly an acquired taste, but it's nonetheless doing pretty well for itself in terms of word-of-mouth and happy early adopters. No, what was missing was a parade of lengthy launch-week queues (and QQs for that matter). I've been present for every AAA MMO kickoff since Star Wars Galaxies in 2003, and The Secret World marks the first time I've been able to log in when (and where) I wanted to log in on day one. RIFT, Star Wars: The Old Republic, Aion, Lord of the Rings Online -- all of these were "polished" launches by most accounts, and yet all of them featured horrendous launch queues that often stretched from minutes to hours. Why was The Secret World so different? Continue reading Chaos Theory: The Secret World's single-server tech Chaos Theory: The Secret World's single-server tech originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 19 Jul 2012 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

The Daily Grind: Can we talk about Batman? Posted: 19 Jul 2012 06:00 AM PDT Filed under: Super-hero, Culture, Opinion, Free-to-play, The Daily Grind, DC Universe Online This is a Daily Grind about Batman. Why Batman, you ask? Mainly because he makes other superheroes look like derps. Oh, and we hear there might be a new Bat-flick coming out sometime or other. We're not sure exactly when, though. For all we know it could be this week. This Batman Daily Grind doesn't have much to do with MMORPGs, unless you count the fact that Batman appears in DC Universe Online. We could fumble around for another feeble excuse to tie Batman to Massively's mission statement, but we won't. We'll just reiterate the fact that he kicks ass, and we'll humbly beg your pardon for talking about him all morning. 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: Can we talk about Batman? originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 19 Jul 2012 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

A look at the Farmer's Faire in Lord of the Rings Online [Updated] Posted: 18 Jul 2012 07:00 PM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Lord of the Rings Online, Events, in-game, Previews, News items, Free-to-play A riddle for the Lord of the Rings Online players in the audience: If you have every hobbit in Bywater gathered around tables and eating relentlessly, what do you have? Why, the Farmer's Faire, of course. (Or an average hobbit meal-time.) For those of you not familiar with this combination farmer's market and summer event, Lauren "Budgeford" Salk has written up a rundown of the events at the Faire as well as an explanation of what goes into improving the holiday events as the years go on. Players who wish to enjoy the festivities will need to be on-hand to help Mayor Whitfoot sample all of the fine wares of the festival and add seasoning to some of the more bland offerings. They'll also be asked to run security, turning out hobbits who have become too drunk and possibly quelling a wine-induced bit of mischief. Salk goes on to explain how she and the rest of the team make a point of polishing and updating event content every year to ensure that even veterans have something new to enjoy. If you can't wait to find out more about dealing with overstuffed hobbits, there's plenty to devour in the diary. [Update: Farmer's Faire has been postponed until July 26th.] A look at the Farmer's Faire in Lord of the Rings Online [Updated] originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 18 Jul 2012 21:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Source: Developer Diary: The New Farmer's Faire

Shadowrun Online aims for Kickstarter funding Posted: 18 Jul 2012 06:00 PM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Sci-fi, Culture, News items, Free-to-play, Browser, Mobile Are you excited about the prospect of being able to play Shadowrun Online? You might want to vote for that with your wallet, as the developers have just put up a Kickstarter project to help fund further development of the title. But if you thought that the title would be setting the bar low for a browser and mobile-based client, think again -- the project is aiming for $500,000 total by August 14th. Like every Kickstarter project, the game offers increasingly visible rewards to those inclined to drop the money, culminating in the $10,000 reward level that puts your face on billboards in the game. Lesser rewards include special backer images, guaranteed beta access, and of course, the gratitude of the project managers. So if you can't wait for the joy of playing a Decker in an online game, jump on over to the project and lay down your cash. [Thanks to Hue for the tip!] Shadowrun Online aims for Kickstarter funding originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 18 Jul 2012 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Source: Shadowrun Online Kickstarter

Choose My Adventure: At the end of TERA Posted: 18 Jul 2012 05:00 PM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Polls, Game mechanics, Opinion, Choose My Adventure, TERA, Dungeons All good things must come to an end, including my run of Choose My Adventure. There have been high points and low points, good parts and bad, but there's only so much time to cover the game. And so I leave TERA, confident that while I may have missed points, at least I have a broad sense of the game. That's certainly less... straightforward than previous installments of this column have been for me. My impressions of TERA have really been all over the map. There are things I absolutely love about the game, but a lot of them are minor touches. There's one part that I think is absolutely brilliant, and a lot that's absolutely juvenile. The game has a lot of systems that are essentially filling space without adding anything. And as a result, it's really hard to classify the whole game as being good or bad or neutral. Continue reading Choose My Adventure: At the end of TERA Choose My Adventure: At the end of TERA originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 18 Jul 2012 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

John Riccitello discusses the impact of the free-to-play market on Star Wars: The Old Republic Posted: 18 Jul 2012 04:00 PM PDT Filed under: Sci-fi, Business models, Interviews, News items, Star Wars: The Old Republic Rumors continue to swirl about whether or not Star Wars: The Old Republic will embrace the free-to-play model. In a recent interview, Electronic Arts CEO John Riccitello threw a bit more fuel on the fire by stating that the company is looking at different models to help make Star Wars: The Old Republic accessible to the largest number of people. The recent unlimited trial of the game is the first of several steps designed to lower the game's barrier to entry for new players. Riccitello explains that the biggest problem facing the game is competing against the currently massive free-to-play market, which he describes as a major challenge to any game launching with a subscription model. Despite this, there's no direct confirmation that the game will be embracing the free model in the near future. The full interview can be found on CNBC with further commentary from Riccitello regarding the growing impact of digital distribution and EA's longer plan over the next several years. John Riccitello discusses the impact of the free-to-play market on Star Wars: The Old Republic originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 18 Jul 2012 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Source: Full Riccitello interview Via: Gamespot

A Mild-Mannered Reporter: Too many choices Posted: 18 Jul 2012 03:30 PM PDT Filed under: Super-hero, City of Heroes, Classes, Game mechanics, Opinion, Free-to-play, A Mild-Mannered Reporter We've gotten a lot of new powersets in City of Heroes ever since the game went free-to-play. This is something that I've talked about before: There's rather uncomfortable cycle during which a new set is released full of bugs, but it gets played for a month before the next set comes out and you stop thinking about the old one. And that's definitely a potential problem, but with the release of the new Water Blast set, I'm thinking that there's a much more coherent one in mind. Specifically, I'm thinking for the first time that maybe there's something to the old issue of being locked into a power set after character creation. Don't get me wrong -- I don't think Water Blast is overpowered or underpowered. It actually looks like it makes better use of a new mechanic than did the last big ranged set. But we now have an absolute surfeit of options for playing a Blaster, and as the game gets more and more endgame-heavy, I'm starting to wonder how long it will be before players get tired. We're seeing a different sort of power creep here: We just have too many choices for a new character. Continue reading A Mild-Mannered Reporter: Too many choices A Mild-Mannered Reporter: Too many choices originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 18 Jul 2012 17:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

Free for All: Why the unlimited trials of RIFT, WoW, and Ryzom are perfect for me Posted: 18 Jul 2012 03:00 PM PDT Filed under: World of Warcraft, Business models, Culture, Ryzom, Opinion, Free-to-play, Casual, RIFT, Free for All, Miscellaneous I think there are some pretty basic but complicated concepts going on behind MMO gaming. There always have been. There's some sort of driving force that makes many of us want to reach that max level or grab every last achievement or (in my case) get to a comfortable level and stay there. I did it in Vanguard: Saga of Heroes: I reached level 32, cast a spell to stop my character from gaining anymore experience, and continued playing and exploring the game. Not only was I tired of leveling, but I knew that if I continued to level, I would probably continue to try to level. Like I said, it's a basic driving force. We all have them inspiring us to play in different ways. I don't want to reach max level. Not really, anyway. I want to have a unique character, one who is fragile in some ways and strong in others. When I do reach higher levels, I start to feel generic and a bit too powerful. I want to have some force stop my character, to give him his own maximum level while others reach the true maximum level. Unlimited free trials have shown me just how fun it is to have a sort-of-max-level character within a game filled with other max levels. It's like playing a different race or class, something unique. Continue reading Free for All: Why the unlimited trials of RIFT, WoW, and Ryzom are perfect for me Free for All: Why the unlimited trials of RIFT, WoW, and Ryzom are perfect for me originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 18 Jul 2012 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

Enter at Your Own Rift: The joy of mentoring Posted: 18 Jul 2012 02:00 PM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Game mechanics, Opinion, RIFT, Enter at Your Own Rift One of the reasons I like RIFT so much is that it has similar features to my other favorite MMO, EverQuest II. That's not really surprising, since RIFT's Executive Producer is Scott Hartsman, who was formerly EQII's Senior Producer and Creative Director. Since mentoring is one of the cornerstones of Norrath, it's something I was hoping would make its way into the world of Telara. But mentoring in RIFT is a little different what's in EQII, and it's worth taking a closer look at those changes because they've broken the major hurdle to allowing high- and low-level players to do things together. In fact, I think mentoring is something that every level-based MMO should add as a standard feature. Continue reading Enter at Your Own Rift: The joy of mentoring Enter at Your Own Rift: The joy of mentoring originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 18 Jul 2012 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

MechWarrior Online reveals Centurion mech Posted: 18 Jul 2012 01:00 PM PDT Filed under: Sci-fi, Video, Classes, News items, Free-to-play, MMOFPS, Dev Diaries, MechWarrior Online Been looking for the perfect mech in MechWarrior Online? Not been able to find it? Today's reveal of the Centurion mech and its variants may be the answer to your troubles. This new mech has good speed and medium armor without sacrificing the deadliness of its walking arsenal. That balance makes it an excellent mech for getting the feel of the game and an idea for how you'd best like to play. Three variants of the mech allow for a little more customization of playstyle. The CN9-A and CN9-AH variants are toting 8.5 tons of armor. The CN9-A has weapons for any range, while the CN9-AH exchanges close-quarters weapons for greater ranged hostility. The CN9-AL has an impressive 11 tons of armor strapped on and bears lasers where the other variants have cannon. Check out the official post for all the details, or skip below the jump to see the introduction video for yourself. Apparently the MWO team is in a revealing sort of mood because a Spider mech design was also posted today. Continue reading MechWarrior Online reveals Centurion mech MechWarrior Online reveals Centurion mech originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 18 Jul 2012 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Source: Here's the Centurion!

ArenaNet presents WvW improvements and server list for final Guild Wars 2 beta Posted: 18 Jul 2012 12:00 PM PDT Filed under: Betas, Fantasy, Game mechanics, PvP, News items, Guild Wars 2, A Mild-Mannered Reporter, Dev Diaries With the final Guild Wars 2 beta just days away, ArenaNet has been putting out scads of information regarding what players can expect over their weekend in-game. We've already told you about the Asura and Sylvari being playable, new areas being opened up, and the new PvP map. Today ArenaNet added to the heap of updates with some information about world vs. world. The last BWE helped the team find some issues and bugs in the WvW matchmaking system, leading to some rather unbalanced matches. As a result, the server standings from that weekend won't be published, but systems designer Mike Ferguson says that those bugs have been patched up and more factors have been added to the formula to improve its accuracy. In answer to some concerns about launch, Ferguson announced that the 24-hour match length that players are familiar with from the betas will be used until servers are consistently being matched properly. At that time, matches will move to the two-week format that WvW is meant to take. In the same post, Ferguson listed the servers available for the final beta, which is noticeably shorter than the previous list. The world population limit has been "greatly increased," due both to the additional areas that will be open for player exploration and to some adjustment in how the team is handling its tech. Players should note that this is the initial list and the team is prepared to launch new worlds should the need arise. Refer to the original blog post for the full world list. ArenaNet presents WvW improvements and server list for final Guild Wars 2 beta originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 18 Jul 2012 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Source: The worlds of the final beta weekend event

Rule your own allod in Allods Online's new expansion Posted: 18 Jul 2012 11:00 AM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Expansions, Game mechanics, MMO industry, Patches, News items, Free-to-play, Allods Online It's only been a few days since gPotato announced a new server for Allods Online, but today the firm has even more exciting news for fans of its free-to-play fantasy MMO. An expansion called New Horizons is coming on August 8th alongside the new server launch. Quite a bit of content is in the offing, including the ability for players to build, design, and rule their own allod (which is basically an island in the game's vast expanse of magical space known as The Astral). The expansion also brings ship-to-ship combat, territorial and trade wars, and mercenary characters to the table. These mercs can be called upon to join parties and take down tough content that's not normally tenable for solo players or small groups. The mercs will take a share of the loot spoils, though. That's not all there is to the new patch, but you'll need to head to the official Allods website to find out more. [Source: gPotato press release] Rule your own allod in Allods Online's new expansion originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 18 Jul 2012 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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• The Essential 100, No. 86: Dance Dance Revolution
• The Essential 100, No. 87: Shining Force
• The Essential 100, No. 88: Tomb Raider
• The Essential 100, No. 89: Myst
• Dyad Review: Tripping the Light Fantastic
• The Essential 100, No. 90: XCOM UFO Defense

The Essential 100, No. 86: Dance Dance Revolution Posted: 18 Jul 2012 06:01 PM PDT Feature Share it: Tweet 1UP COVER STORY 1UP COVER STORY | WEEK OF JULY 16 | THE ESSENTIAL 100, PART ONE The Essential 100, No. 86: Dance Dance Revolution Cover Story: Konami's rhythm music game proved that peripheral-based gaming wasn't a thing of the past. I  first encountered Dance Dance Revolution inside of an anime convention room smellier than most; in front of me stood a Weird Japanese Thing, and since part of my existence at the time involved indulging in Weird Japanese Things (hence the anime convention), I had to give it a try. Taking care to wipe the disturbing amounts of sweat from the plastic mat first, I asked the friendly fan for a song recommendation. A few minutes later, I had hopped my way through "Butterfly," one of the series' most obnoxious earworms -- and so began my brief courtship with DDR. Dance Dance Revolution's brief burst of popularity feels like one of those things that'll eventually make for a great segment on VH-1's inevitable I Love the '00s (unless this has already become a horrifying reality); given the strange and completely niche approach Konami took with the series, it made something of an impact on American pop culture -- to the point where a thoroughly American show like King of the Hill featured a sub-plot about a very DDR-esque game. Konami didn't come anywhere close to Rock Band level of market penetration, but back in my college days, a surprising amount of dorm rooms featured a plastic dancing mat, rolled up and tucked away somewhere (perhaps just out of sight from those who would judge).

The Essential 100, No. 87: Shining Force Posted: 18 Jul 2012 04:01 PM PDT Feature Share it: Tweet 1UP COVER STORY 1UP COVER STORY | WEEK OF JULY 16 | THE ESSENTIAL 100, PART ONE The Essential 100, No. 87: Shining Force Cover Story: Sega might not have created the strategy RPG, but they did make the genre accessible. W hen Sega's Shining Force entered the world in 1992, strategy RPGs had already been in existence for a few years. While Herzog Zwei and Fire Emblem each offered their own takes on multi-unit turn-based battles, for most Americans, the former's unpopular console and the latter's complete unavailability in the States made Shining Force their first strategy RPG experience. These days, the game stands as a remarkably no-frills experience; characters don't grow beyond their prescribed roles, spells are few in number, and the battles often boil down to luck (or AI stupidity) instead of strategy. But twenty years ago, this extremely basic approach finally simplified the strategy RPG formula just enough for console gamers to finally get what PC grognards had been crowing about for a decade. Just as Dragon Quest pared down complex computer RPGs for the console crowd, Shining Force did the same with the realm of strategy, and established the foundation of a genre that would be built upon for years to come.

The Essential 100, No. 88: Tomb Raider Posted: 18 Jul 2012 02:01 PM PDT Feature Share it: Tweet 1UP COVER STORY 1UP COVER STORY | WEEK OF JULY 16 | THE ESSENTIAL 100, PART ONE The Essential 100, No. 88: Tomb Raider Cover Story: Lara Croft's influence on gaming knows no bounds. I t's easy to forget that the now-jagged edges of Lara's polygonal world were once a thing of awe-inspiring beauty. Those awkward shapes that comprised the various sections of her body? Once as realistic a person as console gamers had ever seen. The strange blobs that slowly formed into enemies as they sprinted out of the darkness? Vicious beasts that added some true elements of horror to the spelunking experience. And those ancient structures that can hardly be identified now? In 1996, they sparked wonder into any player who stumbled upon their mysterious beauty. Looking back on it, Core Design and Eidos Interactive allowed gamers to live out a fantasy decades in the making by becoming an adventurer on par with Indiana Jones, and for that, we have to be grateful. Just take a look at the game's opening if you don't believe me. After receiving news of an ancient artifact buried deep within the Andes, Lara flies halfway across the world with the some good-natured spelunking in mind. The cinematic mise en scene of the opening cinematic is heightened as the music swells in a very John Williams-esque manner upon reaching the mouth of the frozen tomb. Lara opens the massive stone doors, only to watch in horror as her guide is mauled by a pack of rabid wolves. Any notion that your character might be a damsel in distress is quickly dispelled when she drops to the ground, pulls out her iconic pistols, and avenges her fallen comrade. Alone, Lara descends into the grotto, with the player only slightly aware of the adventure that awaits before them.

The Essential 100, No. 89: Myst Posted: 18 Jul 2012 12:07 PM PDT Feature Share it: Tweet 1UP COVER STORY 1UP COVER STORY | WEEK OF JULY 16 | THE ESSENTIAL 100, PART ONE The Essential 100, No. 89: Myst Cover Story: Gaming's initial foray into the world of photorealism. G rowing up in the 8-bit era, I always had to use my imagination to picture what a video game world would look like in real life. I had to close my eyes in order to envision what the Mushroom Kingdom would be like if our perspective was freed from the shackles of the 2D plane. This was a fact that I came to terms with during my early years with the medium, mostly because I didn't know any better. I never fathomed that a game world would be so realistically rendered, to the point where I'd be able to completely fall into it without using my imagination. Then suddenly, Robyn and Rand Miller changed all of this. I booted up a game on my PC, watched as the Cyan logo formed across the screen, and realized that I didn't have to use my imagination anymore. With Myst, the world was already formed, and ready to be explored to my heart's content.

Dyad Review: Tripping the Light Fantastic Posted: 18 Jul 2012 11:48 AM PDT When I played Dyad at this year's E3, I had my doubts; sure, my brief encounter with the game had me wanting more, but when compared to the sublime Sound Shapes, I wondered if ][ Games' own take on rhythm action would provide the same longevity. I've always been a fan of music games, and in recent years, I've busied myself with the likes of Audiosurf, Beat Hazard, and The Polynomial in an attempt to "feel" some of my favorite tunes. The problem with those games, though, lies in the fact that their simple game play and audio visualizations show you virtually all of their cards after just a few sessions, and I had the same concerns about Dyad, given that its levels don't feature the same meticulous design as shorter expriences like Rez and Child of Eden. Thankfully, my premonition did not bear out; though its mechanics never grow too complex, ][ Games gives each of Dyad's 26 levels a distinct mix of rules and objectives that provide a completely different experience every time you play. As its name indicates, Dyad tasks the player with matching pairs of objects; as you fly down tunnels Tempest-style, blue and orange nodes will appear and fly towards your -- well, let's just call it a ship for now. In the style of Rez, highlighting one of these nodes will add to the soundtrack, and successfully matching pair after pair will make the background music both faster and denser. This is really only the beginning, though; as you advance through Dyad's many stages, the game continually adds different angles to the system you thought you knew so well. Matching pairs eventually gives way to sailing through the periphery of matched pairs (while avoiding that dangerous center), which leads to a lance attack that lets you blast through the nodes in front of you at the push of a button. And just when you think you've mastered a technique, the game sets up a minor wrinkle that you'll have to adjust for, like the enemies that can stop your lance charge dead in its tracks, or when grinding on rails transforms from highlighting a special node to attacking a foe whose laser retaliation actually creates said rail to grind on. This doesn't necessarily mean that each level adds a new slew of rules, though; some of the later ones involve a single objective, and in fact the difficult "trophy" levels often provide a theoretically simple, yet somehow maddening challenge.

The Essential 100, No. 90: XCOM UFO Defense Posted: 18 Jul 2012 10:02 AM PDT Feature Share it: Tweet 1UP COVER STORY 1UP COVER STORY | WEEK OF JULY 16 | THE ESSENTIAL 100, PART ONE The Essential 100, No. 90: XCOM UFO Defense Cover Story: With its unrivaled balance of tactics and tension, XCOM remains a masterpiece. I f anything drives XCOM, Julian Gollop's strategy masterpiece, it's the aliens. They lurk constantly in the background, pulling the strings on global politics, then striking without warning. Until you finally reverse-engineer their technology and attack their massive base on Mars, they always seem to be one step ahead. Their apparent intelligence invokes a special sense of tension that has kept strategy gamers coming back to XCOM: UFO Defense (UFO: Enemy Unknown in the UK) for nearly 20 years now. And it's a feeling very few games have been able to replicate over the years. XCOM began as a sequel to Laser Squad, a Gollop-developed tactics game for the ZX Spectrum and the Commodore 64. Gollop had been developing PC tactics games for about a decade up to that point, mostly for smaller outfits like Firebird Software and Target Games Limited. When MicroProse -- then the king of PC strategy -- expressed interest in a follow-up for Laser Squad, it was Gollop's big break. But MicroProse wanted more than an on-the-ground tactics game. Sid Meier's Civilization had just struck it big with its epoch-spanning strategy, and Microprose wanted strategy games with a similar sense of scope.

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