Latest Gaming and MMORPG Updates

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• PlayStation Vita Scorecard
• Gala Lab reveals FlyFF 2
• Eden Eternal (TW)
• Why Are Game Budgets So Secretive?
• Team ICO Working Hard to Make The Last Guardian’s Level Design Unpredictable

PlayStation Vita Scorecard Posted: 13 Feb 2012 07:57 AM PST Launch Date: 02/21/2012 Price: $249.99/$299.99 MSRP (Wi-Fi/3G) What is it?: The successor to Sony’s PSP, boasting impressive visual capabilities, a large OLED screen, touch and accelerometer interface features, dual analog stick input, games available both digitally and via compact Memory Stick-style media, and optional 3G wireless. Recommended Games: Uncharted: Golden Abyss, Wipeout 2048, Army Corps of Hell, Escape Plan, Gravity Rush. The PlayStation Portable couldn’t miss. It was going to stomp Nintendo, bringing an end to 15 years of handheld gaming domination by the Game Boy family. It was going to win. Sony couldn’t be stopped. Nintendo’s desperate last-ditch counter, a weird and underpowered device called the DS, only made this outcome more certain. In 2005, the PSP was the future. Seven years later, the PSP could hardly be considered a failure — its worldwide sales recently edged past those of the famous Nintendo Entertainment System — but that puts it at roughly half the units moved as the DS. And the bulk of its popularity has been seen in Japan, where a thriving community of Monster Hunter-obsessed gamers have sustained the platform’s reign at the top of the charts for years. Here in the U.S., however, the PSP never quite found that kind of traction, and the past 18 months have seen only a handful of game releases as the system desperately holds its ground against the double threat of piracy and disinterest. Now it’s time for Sony’s second attempt: The PlayStation Vita. Yet this new platform faces an even more complicated battlefield than its predecessor. The market has changed since 2005, and this time Sony has to best not only Nintendo but overcome the direct threat of the mobile market (spearheaded by Apple) as well. Does the PS Vita have what it takes to conquer its rivals and assume the handheld throne assumed to rightfully belong to PSP so long ago? Or is Vita doomed to obscurity? The Hardware Whatever criticism you may choose to lob Sony’s way over their performance in the post-PlayStation-2 years, you certainly can’t accuse them of being complacent. PlayStation 3 managed to pull itself out of the miserable hole it was born in to stand as a vital platform packed with great software, and PS Vita likewise serves as a direct answer to nearly every complaint ever directed at PSP. It’s an extraordinary machine: Powerful, rich in features, ideally designed for portable play, and even more gorgeous than its predecessor. The PSP hardware suffered a good many flaws, but those issues are largely resolved here — and, even more impressively, within a piece of hardware that doesn’t stray too far from its predecessor. The Vita is clearly the PSP’s child, but bigger, stronger, and handsomer — metaphorically speaking, of course. Let’s start with that screen. Oh, that screen. The PSP screen represented an impressive step beyond what gamers were accustomed to at the time, no question; at four inches across and boasting a resolution of 480×272 pixels, it was a tremendous leap over the Game Boy Advance’s visuals — to say nothing of the 8-bit Game Boy, which had only been retired a few years prior. Yet Vita’s screen leaves the PSP’s in the dust. It’s the first thing you’ll notice about the system, because everything looks unspeakably gorgeous on Vita, even from a distance and at oblique angles. While it’s not quite as pixel-dense as Apple’s heavily hyped “retina display,” it’s close. And while its resolution of 960×540 pixels offers only one-quarter of the full 1080p potential of an HD system, it’s also five inches wide; those half-million-plus pixels are more than good enough. We’ll see better portable gaming screens than this (and quite likely within the year on some smartphone or another), but for now this is as good as you can buy. The quality of the screen helps, too. Unlike the iPhone, Vita boasts an OLED screen that offers incredibly rich colors and pure, deep blacks and a wide viewing angle. Compare the same game running on a top-of-the-line model 3000 PSP against the same game on Vita and the difference is startling; the once-gorgeous PSP looks washed out and dull. The iPhone 4S feels surprisingly small and cheap next to the Vita; the best Android phones offer similar screen dimensions but lack Vita’s visual quality; and Nintendo’s 3DS is practically laughable. Of course, the DS looked laughable next to the PSP, and we all know how that battle turned out. There’s more to a system’s success than hardware design. To Sony’s credit, though, the hardware seems much better thought-out this time around, and some of the fundamental flaws that hobbled PSP have been wiped away. For starters, it’s a solid-state system. The PSP’s UMD drive has always stood as one of the dumbest features ever seen in a handheld console. The complicated moving parts required for an optical drive made the PSP far more fragile than the cartridge-based DS, not to mention more power-hungry. Vita drops the optical drive, becoming in the process more solid in the hands, less fragile, less susceptible to parts breaking down, and less likely to unexpectedly eject UMDs at the slightest sign of torque. At the same time, battery life is decent enough. The system can snooze in sleep mode for a month without need for a recharge (yes, we’ve tested it) and is good for about three-and-a-half to four hours of high-performance play with a game like Uncharted: Golden Abyss running at full screen brightness and Near’s networking features pinging away in the background. That’s not precisely amazing, but it’s the standard for a portable device these days and puts it on par with most phones and the 3DS. We’re well beyond the days of Game Boy’s 40 hours of play time from two AAs, and the only device you can expect better life from is a tablet like the iPad (which is basically a giant battery with a screen attached). In sleep mode with Near searching for other connections, the Vita is good for a couple of days before needing a recharge — much better than the 3DS, which needs to stagger back to an electrical outlet after about 18 hours of Street Passing. Pretty screens and portable longevity are great, but on a strictly gameplay-oriented level the most important change to Vita over any of its portable predecessors is the addition of a right analog stick. Technically, Nintendo beat Sony to the punch by a few days with the Circle Pad Pro, but that thing’s kind of a mess, and its long-term prospects are anyone’s guess. Vita has a right stick built right in, which means developers can design for it and be certain that everyone will have the ability to use it. One could argue that portable games shouldn’t just be scaled-down console games, and that’s certainly true… but we’ve seen enough portable games over the years that would have benefitted from a second stick for camera control (or even for, say, ease of rolling a katamari) that Vita will almost certainly be most developers’ go-to platform for handheld 3D action experiences, hardware power notwithstanding. Posted by: admin in Gaming News Find related article at: http://www.1up.com/features/playstation-vita-scorecard Thank you for Visiting Gameforumer.com, Hope you enjoyed the stay with us.

Gala Lab reveals FlyFF 2 Posted: 13 Feb 2012 01:55 AM PST Earlier this morning, Gala Lab, the development arm of Gala Net, revealed a teaser artwork for its next upcoming game, currently codenamed F2. This will be the 2nd title the company has released within the past few months, with the other being Eternal Blade (link). Given the feathers spotted, this is no doubt the true sequel to the popular FlyFF. According to the press release, F2 will have large-scale duel and PvP arenas, aerial combat, sieges and various types of PvP quests. More information to come tomorrow! Posted by: admin in Gaming News Find related article at: http://www.mmoculture.com/2012/02/gala-lab-reveals-flyff-2.html Thank you for Visiting Gameforumer.com, Hope you enjoyed the stay with us. Incoming search terms: flyff 2 gala flyff 2 flyff 2 reveal gala lab reviews flyff 2 flyff 2 revealed gala lab f2 gala lab flyff 2 gala labs f2

Eden Eternal (TW) Posted: 13 Feb 2012 01:27 AM PST (English website) There seems to be a wave of features update before X-Legend is adding the supposed final race, Turtles to Eden Eternal (TW). The latest patch to hit the Taiwanese server added the new siege weapons, which can be used in the Territory Wars. As you can see below, there are basically 3 different siege weapons players can choose from. How do players ride in these cool structures? Upon entering a Territory War, players can speak to one of the NPCs and purchase a blueprint. The amount needed will be deducted from the guild’s funds, hence only guild members with the appropriate authority can purchase the blueprint. Besides the blueprint, there are other materials needed to craft the siege weapons as well. Players should be reminded that all these items will disappear once they exit the Territory Wars. The Battle Tank (or so I call it) on the left (above) can carry up to 8 players to move around; the Siege Bomb Tower provides excellent firepower and support from a range and the Defensive Bomb Kart deals good area damage and inflicts targets with different negative elements. The update also added a few new dungeons, but I shan’t spoil the game for the English gamers! Posted by: admin in Gaming News Find related article at: http://www.mmoculture.com/2011/09/eden-eternal-tw-siege-weapons-update.html Thank you for Visiting Gameforumer.com, Hope you enjoyed the stay with us.

Why Are Game Budgets So Secretive? Posted: 12 Feb 2012 07:55 PM PST Before asking the question above to a bunch of people at this year’s DICE conference, I assumed everyone would agree with me that the game industry doesn’t like talking about how much games cost to make. It turns out I was mostly right, but not entirely — some weren’t aware of what I was suggesting, though almost everyone had a unique take on why things are the way they are. Check out all the replies below, and we won’t complain if you want to offer your own take in the comments at the bottom of the page. Promise. Brian Reynolds, Zynga “Because it’s a competitive advantage. When you’ve spent all this time figuring out what a business model is and how to make a profit, you don’t want everybody else to know how good of a business it is. You know, if it’s doing really well, you don’t want everybody jumping in going, ‘Well they’re paying so little to get so much. Let’s go do that and compete with them.” Or the other way if you’re not doing well, you don’t want all your creditors coming after you. [Laughs]” Marc Merrill, Riot Games “I don’t know. Maybe because — and this may be true in the games industry — maybe because most games unfortunately don’t make it. The 80/20 rule kind of applies to games, where 20% of the games have 80% of the success. People don’t necessarily want to go on the record for how much they spend. I don’t know. We’ve been pretty transparent about it, and so I don’t think there’s a good reason.” Don James, Nintendo “Well in the game industry, the budget evolves. When you go into the movie industry, as I understand it, you kind of set a budget, and you’re either over budget, or you’re under budget, or you hit your budget. In the game industry, because it’s an interactive environment and you have to continually work on the game until you get it right, until you feel it’s good enough for release — it’s not too hard, it’s not too easy, it’s not too frustrating — your budget’s going to float around. So I think that’s the reason why they don’t come up.” Mike Capps, Epic Games “I think you see a little bit more us thinking that way, because you’re wanting to create the phenomenon. And you get that with an Avatar by saying how much you spent. For us, game budget in many respects in the game industry has always been the size of the E3 booth. That’s always been the way you show that the publisher’s really behind this title, because ‘check this big booth.’ So that was kind of the way we did that in the past, but I think it’s got to change.” Randy Pitchford, Gearbox Software “I think the distance between the shareholders who are publicly trading the shares of these businesses that are making videogames — that distance between the shareholders and the decision making is really short. You know, most of the movie studios are part of larger conglomerates, and it’s part of a wider network, so I think the idea of fiscal information becomes a very precious commodity to these guys, so they get nervous about talking about it. I don’t care. I’ll talk about stuff… [1UP: What does Borderlands 2 cost?] I think by the time all is said and done, we’re somewhere in the 30-35 million dollar range. We’re still going, so we’ll see what happens, but yeah the publisher took a lot of risk in that. What’s neat about this is because I take my own risk too, nobody gets to know how much Take-Two risked on that.” Robert Bowling, Infinity Ward “I don’t know why they’re so secretive. I think the development cost is less sensitive than the marketing dollars. I don’t think anyone wants to be perceived as wasting marketing dollars. I think right now, you know, especially in the games we work on — we make Call of Duty — I think we have some absurdly large budgets that could easily be cut down. So I would be secretive about it because it’s embarrassing to have a giant budget in game development. I think in game development you can be modest, and you should be modest wherever you can.” Tim Sweeney, Epic Games “Well geez. Epic has always been a very lean and mean company, so we’ve been fairly open about our budgets. I think a lot of companies have been applying brute force methods to game development, and I think they end up with a budget that in many cases might be considered embarrassing… We’ve generally said that the first Gears of War cost somewhere between 10 and 12 million dollars to develop. I couldn’t tell you the most recent numbers with Gears of War 3 — it’s a significantly larger number because we had a bigger team working for a longer period of time.” Michael Condrey, Sledgehammer Games “I don’t know why companies may not be transparent about it. For us, we put a lot of time and energy into these games, and the focus is on the quality of the game. Triple-A blockbuster titles are expensive; I’ll tell you that. I hear quotes out there ranging from 50 to 200 million; I personally don’t know what other companies are doing. I know what we spent. It was a lot. [Laughs] I’ll tell you that. So I don’t know. What we talk about is the game and that second to second experience, and let Activision talk about the numbers I guess.” Matthew Lee Johnston, PopCap “From my own personal perspective, and in my past I’ve done a lot of external development — now I’m doing a lot of internal development at PopCap — when it’s internal, you sort of have a culture that just supports great game development and you’re not really exposing a lot of those details to every single member of the team. For a specific reason — you don’t want them to be focused internally on the cost of development; you want them to be focused on making a great game. So I think that can go pretty high up, and I think exposing those details to people sometimes when they’re creative is a bad idea.” Amir Rao, Supergiant Games “I can speak to it as a small independent developer. We put our own savings in to make Bastion, and a lot of times people ask us, ‘How much did it cost to make?’ And usually they’re asking it from the perspective of, ‘How much money do I need to make a game like that?’ And I think it’s really not instructive of what it actually takes to make a game if you just fund a game with enough to live out of a house, which is what we did for two years. The second thing is, publishers often want to know how much a game costs, and I think part of avoiding the answer is that if it didn’t cost you very much, you don’t want to say that it didn’t cost you very much because you don’t want to appear cheap. And if it did cost you a lot, you may not want to say it cost you a lot because maybe the quality wasn’t where you want it to be. So there’s almost no way you can win, I think, by answering the budget question.” David Jaffe, Eat Sleep Play “Are they really [secretive in the game industry]? I wasn’t aware. I’m so I guess on the inside of that — I know what games cost, so. [1UP: If I was to ask, would you tell me?] I wouldn’t because it’s not my place to, but not because I wouldn’t want to tell you. I would love to tell you. Umm I don’t know. I could probably speculate, and it would probably be some right, some wrong. Maybe it’s that they’re public companies? Though the movie studios are public too. I would have no problem with people knowing how much the games we make cost and what it means to break even. Why not? I don’t care.” Tomonobu Itagaki, Valhalla Game Studios “It’s not cool to reveal such information. That’s all.” Danny Bilson, THQ “Actually, I didn’t know that we were secretive or I might have told you the budget, but now you’ve warned me and I guess I better be secretive… But I originally came from the film business, and we’d usually inflate them because we were sort of telling the audience ‘look how much we’ve invested in you.’ And that was always kind of my opinion. If Itagaki-san and I were making a very expensive game — which we are — it’s all good for the consumer, because we’re spending all that money to give them a great experience.” Ted Price, Insomniac Games “I think it’s harder to pin down for games, because today there are so many different types of development processes, and there are so many different types of games that are successful. You don’t have to necessarily spend lots of money to have a success… I [also] think it’s somewhat irrelevant. When you use budgets to try to justify a game’s quality, it’s a slippery slope. What’s important is the idea and the execution, not necessarily the amount of money it made. Of course, money’s important, because there are limits to what you can do based on the money you have and the size of the team, but when you start comparing dollars it gets away from the core question, which is ‘what makes the game great.” Todd Howard, Bethesda “I would just give you my own opinion on why I wouldn’t want to. This isn’t like corporate policy or why anybody else does it. I don’t want you to change your expectation of Skyrim with that number. I want you to look at it as, ‘It’s 60 bucks, the rest of these games are 60 bucks, how do you feel about what we gave you.’ It doesn’t matter what we spent, and I don’t want that to flavor what anybody thinks about the game.” Posted by: admin in Gaming News Find related article at: http://www.1up.com/news/why-game-budgets-secretive Thank you for Visiting Gameforumer.com, Hope you enjoyed the stay with us.

Team ICO Working Hard to Make The Last Guardian’s Level Design Unpredictable Posted: 12 Feb 2012 01:26 PM PST Shadow… Posted: 2 days ago by  GodHandCooper came out of nowhere for me personally, ICO was a cult classic among those who played it but I never had.  SotC was not really covered like crazy as most games are now.  The Last Guardian gets coverage where it can, but the devs will be sure not to spoil anything significant i’m sure….   I am a huge follower of upcoming game news and I had literally not heard anything before Sony sent me a Demo Disc direct(i had no idea it was coming, I must’ve been on some list from the Underground days or something) with nothing but the SotC demo on it.  We had no idea what to think, we tried it, it taught you how to ride a horse, then how to climb, then we went out and BAM there’s a colossus, go for it….  It took us about an hour to realize you actually had to climb the thing, it’s like you “you have a bow, and a sword, shine your sword around to find weakpoints, now kill it.”   It really was one of the most gripping gaming experiences I ever had, and me and my friends immediately took turns playing the demo over and over again, pretty much until the game came out. Posted by: admin in Gaming News Find related article at: http://www.1up.com/news/team-ico-make-the-last-guardian-level-design-unpredictable Thank you for Visiting Gameforumer.com, Hope you enjoyed the stay with us.

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MMO Updates

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• TERA beta videos show crafting, enchanting, Elin creation
• APB now available at European retail stores
• EVE Singularity UI test coming tomorrow
• Firefall video contest can get you to PAX East on Red 5's dime
• LotRO's update 5.2 showers players with lock boxes
• MV Guide: February 13-19, 2012
• The Daily Grind: Did you participate in TERA's first beta weekend?
• Undead Labs answers questions about Class3's open world
• Blizzard admits to 'grossly underestimating demand' for World of Warcraft in 2004
• MMO Week in Review: Rolling in piles of money
• EVE Evolved: New tools for the community
• Wartower video highlights why devs love Guild Wars 2
• Rise and Shiny recap: Cloud Nine
• League of Legends reveals Nautilus, announces Sona nerf

TERA beta videos show crafting, enchanting, Elin creation Posted: 13 Feb 2012 09:00 AM PST Filed under: Betas, Fantasy, Video, Game mechanics, MMO industry, New titles, News items, TERA, Crafting TERA's recent closed beta kickoff (and lack of an NDA) brought with it a slew of user-created video content, and as the testing weekends roll on toward the game's May release window, there will be ample opportunities to see just about every part of Arborea via YouTube. Today we've got a trio of introductory videos that show three different aspects of the game. First up is a clip that features the enchanting process, followed by a brief look at the game's crafting mechanics. Finally, TERA Hispano has uploaded some footage of the controversial Elin race. The video covers almost nine minutes on the character creation screen, and you can find it after the break. [Thanks to Axel for the tip!] Continue reading TERA beta videos show crafting, enchanting, Elin creation TERA beta videos show crafting, enchanting, Elin creation originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 13 Feb 2012 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Source: YouTube

APB now available at European retail stores Posted: 13 Feb 2012 08:30 AM PST Filed under: MMO industry, News items, Free-to-play, All Points Bulletin, Crime The writing may be on the wall for lovers of the physical game box, but not every company is giving up on retail altogether. GamersFirst has just announced a partnership with Iceberg Interactive to distribute APB Reloaded to brick and mortar stores across the UK, Ireland, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, and Scandinavia. The box sells for £20 and features £30 of bonus items including a permanent hi-performance vehicle, weapon, and 30 days of premium access (which in turn provides increased cash and reputation rewards, plus a hefty discount at the cash shop). APB Reloaded is an open-world third-person shooter set in the crime-ridden streets of San Paro. The game is free-to-play, powered by the Unreal 3 Engine, and features an advanced avatar customization system that allows for personalized symbols, clothing, vehicles, and in-game music. [Source: GamersFirst press release] APB now available at European retail stores originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 13 Feb 2012 11:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

EVE Singularity UI test coming tomorrow Posted: 13 Feb 2012 08:00 AM PST Filed under: Sci-fi, EVE Online, Game mechanics, MMO industry, News items, Sandbox It's almost time for the next EVE Online Singularity test. What's Singularity? It's the New Eden equivalent of a test server, and you can connect to it by following the steps for the SisiLauncher tool on the EVE website. This week's test starts tomorrow at 3:00 p.m. Eastern and will last about an hour. CCP says you'll be testing "performance improvements to the overview window and other parts of the UI," and your character will receive two million skillpoints to distribute as you see fit. Further info is available on the (new and improved) EVE web portal. EVE Singularity UI test coming tomorrow originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 13 Feb 2012 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Source: Announcement

Firefall video contest can get you to PAX East on Red 5's dime Posted: 13 Feb 2012 07:30 AM PST Filed under: Sci-fi, Contests, Events, real-world, Free-to-play, MMOFPS Firefall is looking for a few aspiring video editors to shower with fame and fortune (mostly the fortune). If you have the skills and talent to cut together a captivating trailer for Firefall, you could be on the receiving end of a juiced-up laptop or a posh trip to PAX East. In the Firefall Battleframe Trailer Challenge, Red 5 Studios is rewarding creative editors with a good eye for taking raw Firefall gameplay footage and shaping it into an exciting commercial for the game. Entrants are instructed to post these on YouTube, as Red 5 will take into account the likes and views of each video when making its final decision. Videos have to be submitted by March 16th, at which time Red 5 will select the best three trailers for luxurious prizes. The first place winner will get a trip for two to PAX East -- along with hotel accommodations and $500 spending money. Second place nets a spiffy Alienware M14x laptop, and third place will enjoy a Firefall-themed ASTRO gaming headset. Firefall video contest can get you to PAX East on Red 5's dime originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 13 Feb 2012 10:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Source: Contest page

LotRO's update 5.2 showers players with lock boxes Posted: 13 Feb 2012 07:00 AM PST Filed under: Fantasy, Lord of the Rings Online, Patches, Free-to-play, Crafting Lord of the Rings Online is grasping the concept of mystery lock boxes with both hands and isn't letting go. In fact, the game's new 5.2 patch will see these lock boxes dropping with increased frequency across all of Middle-earth. The boxes, which require a special key to unlock for its tantalizing prize, have had their loot tables improved and can even drop additional keys for future boxes. Update 5.2 isn't just about these lock boxes, of course. Improvements to monster play and two endgames raids are on the docket, as well as a much-needed in-game map to the Pit of Irons. For those who have gotten turned around in the aforementioned pit (such as a Massively staffer or two), this comes as a welcome piece of news. Crafters will rejoice to see that the cooldown on guild crafting recipes has been lowered by six hours and that several recipes, such as the Tome of Wisdom, are now granted automatically. Word is that the Buried Treasure in-game event has gone live with the update as well. LotRO's update 5.2 showers players with lock boxes originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 13 Feb 2012 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Source: Update 5.2 patch notes

MV Guide: February 13-19, 2012 Posted: 13 Feb 2012 06:00 AM PST Filed under: Massively Meta, Livestream, Miscellaneous, MV Guide MV Guide is a weekly rundown of the MMO gaming events planned on Massively TV. Every week, the Massively staff logs in to play various MMOs live and in person, and we'd love for you to drop by the channel and visit. We have a combination of regular weekly games and new surprises, so you'll find a variety of titles to take a look at. During our streamed events, you can participate in the live chat, ask questions to learn about the game, and simply spend some time with Massively staff and readers. (Of course, streaming is subject to the whims of outside forces like server-side gremlins once in a while.) Follow along after the jump to see what's on this week's schedule! Continue reading MV Guide: February 13-19, 2012 MV Guide: February 13-19, 2012 originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 13 Feb 2012 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

The Daily Grind: Did you participate in TERA's first beta weekend? Posted: 13 Feb 2012 05:00 AM PST Filed under: Fantasy, Events, real-world, Events, in-game, Opinion, The Daily Grind, TERA I guess you could say that TERA is one of the most highly anticipated MMOs of 2012. We love the game every time we get our hands on it, but some recent legal and technical problems have cast some doubt in the minds of many potential fans. This last weekend was the first of five closed beta tests for pre-order customers. While our requests for beta keys went ignored, those on the Massively team who did pre-order were plagued by technical problems in the patcher, making the beta weekend unplayable. So as we sit here cursing the fact that we're not able to write about this particular weekend, we're curious about your thoughts. Did you enjoy yourself? Was it more or less than what you expected? There's no NDA, so spill the beans! 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: Did you participate in TERA's first beta weekend? originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 13 Feb 2012 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

Undead Labs answers questions about Class3's open world Posted: 12 Feb 2012 07:00 PM PST Filed under: Horror, Game mechanics, Previews, News items, Miscellaneous Undead Labs has been putting out a steady stream of information for potential players of Class3, the company's upcoming single-player prelude to the massively multiplayer Class4. The last major update in January showed some previews of the game under development, something that prompted a great deal of discussion about how the game will play. As a result, this month's session of questions and answers focuses on player speculation and the game's open-world environment. According to this set of answers, players will be able to explore the game through a variety of means, including taking shelter inside the houses across the landscape, jumping over fences, and making careful use of vehicles found through the world. There's also discussion about making use of the environment as a weapon via ragdoll physics plus a tantalizing hint that more information will be forthcoming about the game in the spring. Fans of the upcoming zombie apocalypse will want to take a look at the full set of answers, which will hopefully serve as a precursor to an epic MMO in the same vein. Undead Labs answers questions about Class3's open world originally appeared on Massively on Sun, 12 Feb 2012 22:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Source: Undead Labs Q&A

Blizzard admits to 'grossly underestimating demand' for World of Warcraft in 2004 Posted: 12 Feb 2012 06:00 PM PST Filed under: World of Warcraft, Fantasy, Events, real-world, Launches If World of Warcraft is credited with a smooth initial launch, that's only because time tends to smooth over the growing pains that come with every MMO. Blizzard co-founder Frank Pearce was quite up-front with the studio's stumbles in 2004 as WoW launched to unprecedented demand; he's admitted that Blizzard execs "grossly underestimated" how many people wanted to play the game, forcing the company to cease shipping boxes to stores while tech was improved to deal with the influx. "I don't think we had any idea what we were getting ourselves into," Pearce said at the recent DICE executive summit. The studio quickly ramped up from its 500-employee taskforce to 4,700 people in 11 cities across the world. Pearce also addressed the issue of addiction in MMOs, saying that Blizzard "think[s] about it all of the time. If there's something that you're really passionate about, whether it's video games, a book, a TV series [or something else]... we have to consume it in moderation." Blizzard admits to 'grossly underestimating demand' for World of Warcraft in 2004 originally appeared on Massively on Sun, 12 Feb 2012 21:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Source: Gamasutra

MMO Week in Review: Rolling in piles of money Posted: 12 Feb 2012 05:00 PM PST Filed under: Massively Meta, Week in Review, Miscellaneous At the end of every week, we round up the best and most popular news stories, exclusive features, and insightful columns published on Massively and then present them all in one convenient place. If you missed a big MMO or WoW Insider story last week, you've come to the right post. Haters jeered this week as seven-year-old World of Warcraft dropped another 1% of its playerbase, but Blizzard had the last laugh, as the game is still the largest subscription game in the West and the company is still making money hand over fist, something that will likely only continue once Battle.net Balance is thriving and Diablo III has launched this spring. Haha, just kidding -- we all know Diablo III is never coming out. Enjoy the rest of the week's top MMO stories past the break! Continue reading MMO Week in Review: Rolling in piles of money MMO Week in Review: Rolling in piles of money originally appeared on Massively on Sun, 12 Feb 2012 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

EVE Evolved: New tools for the community Posted: 12 Feb 2012 03:00 PM PST Filed under: Sci-fi, EVE Online, Culture, Game mechanics, Opinion, EVE Evolved, Sandbox Earlier this week, CCP Games released a much-needed complete overhaul of the official EVE Online website. Having been in operation for nine long years, the old website had become a mismatch of marketing information aimed at new players and tools for the existing player community. The overhaul split the page into two awesome websites, with a new community site to cater to existing players and an impressive new main page to attract future players. The main page uses HTML 5 to deliver incredible interactive views of the EVE Online galaxy and dozens of in-game ships right there on the website. The community website houses all of the news, devblogs, knowledgebase articles, fictional chronicles, and support tools that existing players use, but with a much neater layout than the old website. In web developer CCP Alice's recent In Development video, she revealed that the team would be working on new community tools following the launch of the new websites. With the community site completely de-cluttered, there's now room to incorporate a lot of the tools players want or currently use, opening up some interesting possibilities. In this week's EVE Evolved, I discuss the new EVE Online website and community portal and speculate on awesome new community tools we might possibly see in the future. Continue reading EVE Evolved: New tools for the community EVE Evolved: New tools for the community originally appeared on Massively on Sun, 12 Feb 2012 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

Wartower video highlights why devs love Guild Wars 2 Posted: 12 Feb 2012 01:00 PM PST Filed under: Fantasy, Video, Interviews, News items, Guild Wars 2 Wartower, a strong pillar of the German-speaking Guild Wars fanbase, has just put out a video detailing why ArenaNet staff members are so passionate about their upcoming game. The video is made of in-game footage captured from conventions and interviews from each of the 30 developers who were present at Gamescom 2011. Each developer was asked about his or her favorite part of Guild Wars 2; everything from race options and combat mechanics to the story and world content was highlighted as a favorite. It's excellently put together and does a remarkable job of highlighting the devs' love for their game. Follow past the jump to check it out! Continue reading Wartower video highlights why devs love Guild Wars 2 Wartower video highlights why devs love Guild Wars 2 originally appeared on Massively on Sun, 12 Feb 2012 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Source: Wartower's YouTube

Rise and Shiny recap: Cloud Nine Posted: 12 Feb 2012 11:00 AM PST Filed under: Video, Opinion, Free-to-play, Hands-on, Casual, Humor, Rise and Shiny, Livestream You know, I haven't been as head over heels in love with the graphics of a game in a long time as I am with Cloud Nine. As I get older, I find myself disliking more realistic graphics and tend to enjoy cartoony, or even better, stylized graphics that do not quite push into cartoony territory. It's not like I'm trying to relive my youth; I just take a game more "seriously" when it attempts to look less serious while actually being pretty serious. I'm talking about games like Free Realms or Ryzom or Glitch: games that are cartoony and not ultra-realistic but do boast some serious gameplay or even lore behind the art. I love that. So when I first logged into Cloud Nine, you can imagine how I felt. Continue reading Rise and Shiny recap: Cloud Nine Rise and Shiny recap: Cloud Nine originally appeared on Massively on Sun, 12 Feb 2012 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

League of Legends reveals Nautilus, announces Sona nerf Posted: 12 Feb 2012 09:00 AM PST Filed under: Video, Game mechanics, Patches, News items, Free-to-play, MOBA, League of Legends Riot Games adds a new champion to League of Legends' growing roster every few weeks to keep the game fresh, and this week Riot revealed the game's next champion Nautilus, the Titan of the Depths. Nautilus is a tank with a unique initiation ability: He throws his massive anchor toward a target, and then drags himself toward the anchor. His abilities encourage spreading damage around during team fights, with his passive adding bonus damage to his first attack against a champion every twelve seconds and immobilising them slightly. A shield ability and area-effect damage spells make Nautilus a dangerous tank to be near during team fights. A number of gameplay and balance changes will be coming in the Nautilus patch. Shen is getting a complete ability set retuning to make him scale better to late game, and let him function better as as tank. It's been a long time coming, but unsurprisingly LoL's dominant support champion Sona is due for a few nerfs in the upcoming patch. The mana regenerated by Soraka's Infuse will be increased but she'll no longer be able to cast it on herself to essentially have limitless mana. Nerfs are also on the way for Vladimir, aimed at decreasing his early game presence without disrupting his fun gameplay. Check out the full patch preview video after the cut for more details. Continue reading League of Legends reveals Nautilus, announces Sona nerf League of Legends reveals Nautilus, announces Sona nerf originally appeared on Massively on Sun, 12 Feb 2012 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Source: Nautilus reveal

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General gaming

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• PlayStation Vita Scorecard
• Uncharted: Golden Abyss Review: A Crisis of Confidence
• The Vita Launch Round-Up: Part One
• Vita Launch Week: Everything You Need to Read

PlayStation Vita Scorecard Posted: 13 Feb 2012 06:00 AM PST Feature Share it: Tweet PlayStation Vita Scorecard Is Sony's new portable all it's cracked up to be? Our in-depth evaluation. February 13, 2012 Launch Date: 02/21/2012 Price: $249.99/$299.99 MSRP (Wi-Fi/3G)

Uncharted: Golden Abyss Review: A Crisis of Confidence Posted: 13 Feb 2012 06:00 AM PST The Uncharted series is steeped in history; its protagonist claims to be a descendent of famed explored Sir Francis Drake, and each plot unfolds, Indiana Jones-like, as a piece of fantasy-laden historical fiction. The latest chapter of the series, Uncharted: Golden Abyss, revolves around the mystery of real-life Franciscan friar Marcos de Niza and the seven cities of gold he claimed to have discovered. Despite playing out like something straight from a serial adventure, the story reflects a great deal of historical research. I just wish the creators had dabbled in a little more literary history in the process, too. They might have stumbled across one of William Shakespeare's more famous chestnuts: "To thine own self be true." Abyss is many things, but true to itself is not one of them. It squanders entirely too much energy reminding you that it's a Vita game rather than simply being a great game. "Look!" it practically shouts. "A touch screen! And check it out: Rear touch! Dig that accelerometer! You've never seen these things in an Uncharted game before!" And it's true: All of these elements are new to the Uncharted series. But did the Uncharted series really need them? Based on how they play out in Abyss, the answer is a resounding no. At best, they're a mildly amusing distraction; at worst, they actually detract from the gaming experience.

The Vita Launch Round-Up: Part One Posted: 13 Feb 2012 06:00 AM PST Feature Share it: Tweet The Vita Launch Round-Up: Part One Our quick survey of every other game (embargo withstanding) hitting shelves with the Vita. By 1UP Staff It's actually quite remarkable how the Vita has some 20-games for its launch lineup. With limited hardware and staff, we couldn't extensively play each and every launch title for review; for the landmark games that call for reviews, you can go ahead and read those. But for the games that we weren't able to quite review, but have at least played enough to give quick impressions, here they are. If you notice that this list is incomplete, and already checked the reviews, then come back a bit later -- as the ones you're wondering about are likely under embargo until a bit later this week. EA SPORTS FIFA Soccer FIFA Soccer for Vita is a curious beast. While the box art and graphics package resemble the current FIFA on consoles, the Vita version of EA's popular soccer brand dials the defense back to last year's standards: a framework that tied automatic tackles to the X and Circle buttons. Oddly, the helpful trail for Goalie mode that shows where the ball is traveling is also omitted. We realize this portable version of FIFA Soccer sports stunning good-looks, but it seems like the big deal here are the touchscreen passing and rear-touch shooting features. But presently shooting is a little too sensitive -- often firing an unintended shot at the slightest touch. While the ability to target the ball to any spot inside the net is admirable, it makes holding the Vita comfortably to play FIFA Soccer really hard. Our best advice would be to grip the two indentations on the back of the device firmly and hope for the best, or turn off the rear touch panel and avoid the annoyance entirely.

Vita Launch Week: Everything You Need to Read Posted: 13 Feb 2012 06:00 AM PST Pretty much all anyone is going to talk about for the next few weeks is Sony's fancy new PlayStation Vita. Whether you're waiting for the traditional February 22 launch date, or picking up your First Edition Bundle pre-order this week, we've got you covered for news and opinions about the Vita. We'll collect every Vita-related story -- whether it's a new feature or a review or a news tidbit -- and file it right here for your convenience. Keep checking this page throughout the week as we add Vita stories of all stripes. Features:

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