Gaff's PC Gaming Blog

The Best Games of 2012 (Part 2)

noreply@blogger.com (Gaff) — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 07:14:00 +0000

And we're back with the final five games of my 2012 rundown.

Up first...

World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria

Developer: Blizzard Entertainment
Publisher: Blizzard Entertainment
Expected: 2H 2012

The next expansion pack for the juggernaut that is World of Warcraft was revealed at 2011's Blizzcon, and from the details it seems that the game is going to be shaken up considerably, as well as increasing the level cap from its current 85 to 90.

The Pandarens (humanoid pandas) are added as a playable race, as well as the Monk class. Pandarens do not choose Horde or Alliance, but play the game as neutral to both factions until level 10 where they make a choice about which to join, which is certainly an interesting way to add them into the game. Additionally, Monks will be able to tank, heal and DPS through their specialisations.

Talents are also being revamped in MoP, with talent trees being removed in favour of a tiered system in which you can select one new ability from a choice of three every 15 levels (so 15, 30, 45, 60, 75 and 90). These skills will be broadly based on the three talent trees that currently exist for each class, but can be chosen completely independently of each other every time you make a selection. Blizzard recently stated that they felt the old talent tree system was unfixable, and that a simpler system would be beneficial to players who felt they had to "min / max" all the time in order to be a good player.

The release date isn't exactly set in stone, but summer seems to be the earliest that it is expected to ship, if not later. Since The Old Republic, The Secret World and (probably) Guild Wars 2 will have been released by then, WoW's dominance is going to challenged by several different players. We'll see if they can deliver the goods under pressure, or whether their recent loss of subscribers turns into a flood.

Mass Effect 3

Developer: BioWare
Publisher: Electronic Arts
Expected: 6th March 2012 (NA), 8th March 2012 (AU), 9th March 2012 (EU)

Slated originally for the holiday season of this year before being delayed to March of next year, Mass Effect 3 will be the final installment of the trilogy started by the original game back in 2007 (on the Xbox 360, 2008 on the PC). One of my favourite game series ever, I have high hopes for ME3 since ME2 hit almost all of the right buttons in 2009 and was the one of the leading candidates for Game of the Year.

As was the case in ME2, you will be able to import your existing saved game from ME2 into ME3 to continue the story of "your" Shepard. BioWare have stated that over 1,000 data points are tracked and affected by this process. Enemy AI is believed to be much improved, and there are said to be many returning characters from the first two games who will make an appearance in the third as it attempt to tie up the storyline of the Reapers.

ME3 will also be the first game in the series to incorporate a multi-player mode to the game. Known as "Galaxy at War", the multi-player campaign will not see you take control of Shepard as in the single-player, but you will instead create an entirely new character from one of the major races (human, drell, asari, krogran, salarian or turian) and will work towards what has been termed "galactic readiness". This is completely optional, and you can choose to do as much or as little of it as you wish. The galactic readiness level can also be fully achieved from the single-player game, so you don't lose anything by not doing it.

Considering how phenomenally successful the Mass Effect series has been I think it's highly unlikely that this will be the final outing for Commander Shepard and his team. If BioWare listen to the protestations of myself and the Internet at large then Mass Effect Online will be swiftly kicked into development following the release of ME3. I think the Mass Effect universe is ripe for an MMO-style game, especially since their only competition would be the recently-released Star Wars: The Old Republic (so they'd essentially be competing against themselves). Barring an MMO, I expect to see other stories set in the ME universe, possibly starring Shepard and other established characters, both in DLC down the line and perhaps a full title in a new storyline (as is the case with the upcoming God of War IV on the PS3).

The Secret World

Developer: Funcom
Publisher: Funcom / Electronic Arts
Expected: April 2012

Funcom's newest MMO looks set to be released in April of next year (although I think it's still possible that date will slip). Set in the real world, TSW explores what would happen if all of the scary stories, myths and legends that you have ever heard were actually true. Hollow Earth, werewolves, vampires, global warming, ghosts; all of these things which clearly do not exist are part-and-parcel of TSW's lore.

The three factions of The Secret World are already well-known: the chaos-embracing Dragon, manipulative Illuminati and ancient Templars, and while you will be able to team up with members of other factions for PvE quests and missions, for PvP it is strictly your own faction versus the other two.

TSW has the potential to change the MMO landscape considerably, with its focus on real-life locations and incorporating puzzles and search engine use into quests. It has some grand ideas, but the variable here is Funcom itself. Their last title, Age of Conan, received decidedly mixed reviews, and transitioned to a free-to-play model after release. With no levels or classes, TSW might appeal to MMO purists from games such as Ultima Online which had you select a number of skills from the dozens that were available in order to make a character that was truly yours. Funcom have stated that there will be hundreds of skills available at release, with the possibility of more being patched in down the line.

I have been following TSW's progress for a few years now, and think it really could be a game-changer. I'm just not sure Funcom have the chops to put such an ambitious project together and deliver on what has been promised. The beta is apparently underway and hopefully we'll get further details as the release date approaches. This one could be Big, but could also be Terrible. Fingers crossed folks, I think it's going to be a bumpy ride.

PlanetSide 2

Developer: Sony Online Entertainment
Publisher: Sony Online Entertainment
Expected: "2012"

You knew it would be here somewhere. The sequel to PlanetSide, the original (and best) MMOFPS that has ever existed, PlanetSide 2 is a "re-imagining" of the original game, with all-new models, physics and gameplay to satiate what has been a vastly under-represented aspect of the MMO genre.

Regular readers will know how likely I am to explode while writing anything about PlanetSide, so I'll try to stick to the facts and avoid the hyperbole.

PlanetSide 2 abandons the classless system of the first game in favour of class-based certification trees that will unlock skills and abilities as you progress further in the tree. Six classes are known to be available at release, two of which are confirmed to be the Engineer and the Infiltrator. It's probably not too much of a stretch to think that the Medic will be another of these six, and perhaps MAXs from the first game as well. You will, however, be able to change classes on the fly whenever you respawn, so you are not locked into any one particular class or playstyle. This gives some added flexibility, especially to the support classes who enjoy pewpewing it up every once in a while.

Sony have also created an all-new engine to power the game. Known as ForgeLight, it uses state-of-the-art graphics and employs hardware physics acceleration through Nvidia's Physx to deliver what seems to be a truly next-gen gaming experience. Some of the screenshots I have seen of PS2 have been breathtaking, since even at its height I doubt anyone ever described the original PlanetSide as "beautiful", unless blocky textures and rock-like grass were your thing, proving that (at the high end at least) gameplay trumps visuals every time.

The three factions from the first game return in the second, namely the Vanu Sovereignty, Terran Republic and New Conglomerate (in order of most to least skillful - hyperbole alert). Each faction receives two empire-specific vehicles, the Scythe and Magrider for VS, Prowler and Mosquito for TR and the Vanguard and Reaver for the NC. Vehicles will be sideways customisable (for example you'll be able to make your vehicle have faster acceleration but a lower maximum speed as a tradeoff) as well as aesthetically customisable, and since Sony have already stated that PS2 is going to be free-to-play then you can bet that a lot of these sidegrades will be available for purchase in the in-game shop (but will probably be available through gameplay as well).

I've been waiting for a sequel to PlanetSide for years now, and I can only hope that Sony are going to do it right. The development team have been actively engaging the community on fansites such as PlanetSide Universe, and I have a measure of confidence that this will actually come out right. Yet the proof of the pudding is in the eating, and it doesn't look as though we have much longer to wait. Beta is imminent and my guesstimate at release would be around the summer of 2012.

Still waiting on my beta invite.

BioShock Infinite

Developer: Irrational Games
Publisher: 2K Games
Expected: "2012"

Rounding out my list is perhaps the best-looking single-player shooter I have seen in some time, BioShock Infinite. From the brain of Ken Levine and Irrational Games, who mainlined the first (and best?) BioShock but had little more than superficial input into BioShock 2, Infinite is not a direct sequel to the other games (it is set in an earlier time period, 1912) but instead shares their themes of open world gameplay and user choice as to how to solve the problems presented.

Infinite is set aboard the sky-city of Columbia, which was created over a decade earlier by the United States government to be a "floating showcase" that would promote America around the globe. Instead, the occupants quickly grew to infighting, leading to a war between what became the Founders (pro-American and anti-immigrant) and the Vox Populi (freedom for all). The US government disowned Columbia and it faded from memory, until persons unknown hire the main protagonist of the game, Booker DeWitt (i.e. you) to infiltrate Columbia and rescue a woman named Elizabeth who, according to them, has been held hostage there for more than a decade.

So you're in Columbia, have found Elizabeth, the rest should be easy, right? Wrong. Her "jailer", a mechanical construct known as Songbird wants her back, and will tear the city (and you) apart in order to do so. Elizabeth also manifests the power to rip apart the walls of reality and import "things" from adjacent realities, so you may be in a situation where you are stuck between two large groups of mobs, and Elizabeth will offer you several choices as to what she can "pull in" from other realities. It may be a choice between a train, a gun and a bomb, and the player has to decide what to have her summon and how to use it. This gameplay aspect alone has me very interested in this game, because that promises to be a mechanic that will not get old.

You have your standard BioShock tonics and abilities you can find in a bottle (in Infinite they are called vigors) as well as nostrums which are passive effects that can be "slotted in" to your character, making you deal more damage or be able to jump higher, for example.

Along with Mass Effect 3 I think BioShock Infinite is shaping up to be the single-player experience of 2012 (although Irrational won't confirm the lack of any multi-player modes, it seems unlikely at this point and even if featured will probably just be a tacked-on forgettable portion, similar to BioShock 2's). I have high hopes of this one.

And that's all she wrote, folks. I hope you've seen details on something you like. It certainly looks like 2012 is shaping up to be a banner year for PC gaming, with several AAA-quality titles due to hit our platform.

Roll on January!

Site Notice

noreply@blogger.com (Gaff) — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 09:01:00 +0000

Just a brief note to say that I am in the process of transferring the domain for my blog to a new registrar, so in the coming days you may see some erroneous 404 or other messages when attempting to visit http://www.gaffonline.com.

It should only take a day or two to straighten out, if any problems happen at all, but you should still be able to reach my blog through the fallback address http://thegaffadin.blogspot.com in the meantime.

The Best Games of 2012 (Part 1)

noreply@blogger.com (Gaff) — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 10:29:00 +0000

Time for my annual run-down of the best-looking games that are expected to ship in 2012. As always these are in no particular order, so no emails about "how could you put game X under game Y".

Getting us up and running...

Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning

Developer: 38 Studios / Big Huge Games

Publisher: Electronic Arts

Expected: 7th February 2012 (NA), 10th February 2012 (EU)

The first game from former pro baseball player Curt Schilling's 38 Studios, Reckoning has been getting a lot of good press recently, as well as putting out some action-packed teaser videos on their site.

Described as "a mix-up between God of War and Skyrim", Reckoning has strong graphics, as well as the involvement of two heavy-hitters in the game's development. Noted fantasy author R.A. Salvatore is helping to craft the world's lore and story, and Spawn creator Todd McFarlane is assisting with the game's visual style and artwork.

Players are free to specialise in whatever skills they choose, and (for a fee) can have their talents reset by certain world NPCs should they wish to try out something new. On the face of it this seems like the game that Dragon Age II promised but did not deliver, leaving Bethesda free to show BioWare how it was done with the hugely successful Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim as the breakout RPG of 2011.

A couple of the best trailers for Reckoning are embedded below, and you can of course find more of them and more information on the official site, linked above.

Known initially as Project Mercury at 38 Studios, it was also announced that an MMO was under development which would be set in the same universe as the single-player game that eventually became Reckoning. For now, this MMO is still known as Project Copernicus and there is next-to-no information about it publicly available. If Reckoning is a success then no doubt further details about Copernicus will be forthcoming.

Borderlands 2

Developer: Gearbox Software

Publisher: 2K Games

Expected: 2H 2012

The sequel to 2009's superb Borderlands, Borderlands 2 seeks to amp up the action with four new playable characters (but don't worry if you liked the four from the original game, they will still be appearing in the sequel as NPCs) as well as new locations, better enemy AI and more loot.

So far the two announced playable characters are Salvador "the Gunzerker", a man able to dual-wield any two guns in the game. Dual rocket launchers? Dual SMGs? This is the guy for you.

The second announced character is Maya the Siren. Her abilities are not yet known, although in the first game Lilith said that she was "one of six" Sirens in the galaxy, and Maya appears to likewise be another of those six.

The final two characters will likely be announced by Gearbox in early 2012, ramping-up to an anticipated release date of mid-to-late 2012.

I was a big fan of the first game and am glad to see Gearbox stepping up and making improvements for the second. Other details are quite thin on the ground so we'll have to wait until the trade shows start up again in early 2012 for more information, but Borderlands 2 promises to be a game worth watching for in the coming year.

Guild Wars 2

Developer: ArenaNet
Publisher: NCsoft
Expected: "2012"

Promising to be one of, if not the biggest MMORPG launch of 2012, Guild Wars 2 is a sequel to the original Guild Wars released back in 2005. Whereas the original was more of a proof-of-concept than anything else, in that it had limited appeal but excelled in certain specific areas (namely from a technological standpoint of having only one heavily-instanced server, and no monthly fee), the second game seems to be more traditional MMORPG fare, along with less instancing and still no monthly fee.

Hot off the presses yesterday was the announcement of the eighth and final class, the Mesmer, so hopefully the beta is right around the corner (we may learn more on Wednesday when the Mesmer is "officially" announced).

The fact that Guild Wars 2, like Star Wars: The Old Republic before it, is focusing so much on story, is one of the unique elements to this MMO. Typically story falls by the wayside when you venture into MMO territory, and you have to go back to single-player games to get storylines of any worth (Mass Effect, Dragon Age, Skyrim, Fallout, etc.). If TOR and then GW2 can turn this around then perhaps an interesting and well-written story can return to the MMO scene once more.

Dota 2

Developer: Valve Software
Publisher: Valve Software
Expected: "2012"

Dota 2 is a tricky one. Technically not a direct sequel to DotA (Defense of the Ancients), since that was a player-made mod for Blizzard's Warcraft III, Valve turned around and hired Icefrog, one of the developers who had been working on DotA with updates and bugfixes, and tasked him to make a spiritual successor to the original mod, this time using Valve's Source engine.

The result seems to be an almost total conversion of the original, with added Valve secret sauce like voice communications and enhanced network support thrown into the mix. DotA has a very enthusiastic fanbase who seem to mostly be on-board with Valve's plans. Other games which draw heavily from the original DotA, such as Riot's League of Legends and S2's Heroes of Newerth, have seen critical and commercial success (especially the former, with HoN trailing LoL somewhat), so clearly what has now been termed the MOBA genre (multiplayer online battle arena) has potential for growth.

More interesting is the fact that both LoL and HoN are free to play; LoL by design and HoN as a later conversion. Valve have said previously that they have a free-to-play game in development, so will that turn out to actually be Dota 2? If not it seems they will have a tough sell to current HoN and LoL players who are already getting a MOBA game for free, although the Valve brand name carries considerable weight still these days, so perhaps it's something they could pull off.

The beta is currently well underway and Valve will likely announce a release date early in the new year.

Diablo III

Developer: Blizzard Entertainment
Publisher: Blizzard Entertainment
Expected: Q1 2012

Originally planned for 2011's holiday season but pushed back by Blizzard a couple of months ago to early next year, Diablo III has seemingly ascended from being a simple game to an experience. You either played Diablo and Diablo II / let them rule your life or you didn't, and those were apparently the only two choices.

Freshly revamped for today's top-end graphics cards, Diablo III will be the first game in the series in over ten years (the Diablo II expansion pack Lords of Destruction was released in 2001) and the masses have clearly been waiting with some anticipation, as D3 chatter reaches fever pitch around certain Internet message boards and websites.

Unfortunately, the one thing people recall most often of the original games, alongside their popularity, is the amount of hacks and cheats that were available. Map hacks, item cloning, duping, as well as a myriad of other exploits, were frequently employed since security in the former games was close to non-existent. Blizzard's bold yet controversial decision on how to counter that in Diablo III is to require a permanent connection to Blizzard's Battle.net matchmaking service in the background of the game. This will allow Blizzard to see exactly what you are doing at all times and where and how you are doing it. In short, cheating will be virtually eliminated overnight.

The downside of this system is requiring you to be online at all times when you may only be playing a single-player game. Various DRM systems (such as the one used by Ubisoft in Assassin's Creed 2 that I have previously mentioned) have started to require this, but my anger for it is somewhat abated by the fact that you will, of course, require an Internet connection in order to play the game online in the first place. In fact, the amount of time you actually play Diablo III by yourself will likely be minimal or non-existent, so for me this is a minor issue. The only big ding that Blizzard have set themselves up for with Diablo III is the fact that there will be an in-game auction house that you will be able to buy items at with real money. This goes directly to the heart of the "pay-to-win" issue and is the biggest problem that I and many others have with the game. Whether it will be enough to stop me buying I'm not sure, but I think it represents the first step down a path that I am not sure will be good for gamers, and certainly not good for games.

Either way, there is no denying that the hype for D3 is off the charts, and the game itself is probably only a couple of months away.

That's all for part one of my roundup; stay tuned in the coming days for part two.

BREAKING: Final Guild Wars 2 Class Announced

noreply@blogger.com (Gaff) — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 23:22:00 +0000

ArenaNet and NCsoft eliminated the 1% of doubt today, confirming that the Mesmer would be GW2's final class.

The reveal was originally slated for Wednesday, but was leaked early by Danish site GameReactor. This led to confirmation by the team on Twitter, with the full announcement still set for Wednesday.

GameReactor also leaked a video detailing some Mesmer skills. This has been taken down, but thanks the magic of the Internet is back up on Youtube, and embedded below:

I doubt this video will last long before the takedown notices start flying around, so check it out while you can.

News About The Old Republic

noreply@blogger.com (Gaff) — Sat, 26 Nov 2011 09:46:00 +0000

BioWare recently decided to lift their cloak of secrecy surrounding Star Wars: The Old Republic, so since I am no longer bound by the NDA I figured it was time for a TOR-themed post detailing what I feel are the game's strengths and weaknesses.

I have been in the beta for approximately two months now and have raised several Sith Warriors (to 16, 9 and 6), a Sith Inquisitor (to ~6), a Jedi Knight (to ~10) and a Bounty Hunter (to 6) so I would certainly say I have a feel for the beginning areas of the game, and less so with the latter aspects (I didn't want to go too far and spoil it for myself if I decided to play it at launch).

Starting with the positives: it feels very BioWare. And by that I mean if you enjoyed KOTOR and the Mass Effect and Dragon Age games then you are probably going to like TOR because it very much has that BioWare new car smell. Even when I began playing the game was very polished, and while there were bugs here and there (which I dutifully reported, because that's the reason I was there in the first place) none of them were game-breaking for me.

While it had already been known for some time that TOR was going to be the first fully-voiced MMO, and I went into it with that understanding, until you actually play the game you can't really see how that is going to affect the experience. Most people probably skip all the extraneous quest text anyway, boiling most quests down to (1) what do I have to do, and (2) where do I do it? In voice conversations there are the typical three BioWare responses in any given interaction with an NPC. You can either be a hardass, an angel or the third option which usually straddles the two somewhat. You will sometimes gain Light or Dark points for conversation choices (these are marked before you choose them) which apparently affect your character's progression down the line, although I never got that far.

One nice touch in quests and NPC interactions is that every once in a while you will be thrown a curveball that only you can decide how to deal with. Without going into too much detail (I don't want to spoil anyone) I was offered a quest by one particular person to obtain something for him, and he directed me to his assistant in order to get the details. When you speak to her she not only fills you in on where to go, but also that if you bring the desired item back to her and betray her master then she will make it worth your while. It's up to you to decide who you want to side with, and after having done it both ways on two different characters I can say that there are satisfying payoffs on both ends.

While the class quests are completely dependent on what class you are playing at the time (i.e. the Sith Warrior story is totally different to the Bounty Hunter story), side quests can be done with any class or even in a group. Groups have a maximum size of four members, and usually break down into a tank, a support / healer and two DPS. When grouped, during conversations with NPCs each character rolls a number and the person with the highest gets to make the conversation choice for the entire party, although you will only gain Light or Dark points for yourself, even if a party member makes that selection (so you won't get namby-pamby Light points on your Dark character if someone else happens to win a roll while grouped and chooses a Light option). One nice touch is that if you are in a separate area of the map to someone else who has initiated a conversation, you can still participate holographically (you will be prompted on-screen when they begin). It's a cool way of "virtually" keeping the group connected even if you are spread out. Additionally, you can hit "Escape" at any point during a conversation to abandon it (say you mistakenly chose option A when you really meant to hit B); you can then start it afresh as if the previous attempt never occurred.

Certainly, TOR's greatest feature is its heightened focus on storytelling. This was not hacked together by some High School Metalworking grad, but instead the storyline flows naturally, with meaningful choices having to be made on a regular basis which (presumably) will affect your character's later progression.

As to the downsides of the game...while the graphics are acceptable I wouldn't go as far as to say they were pretty. Graphically you are looking at a level approximately that of the Mass Effect games; not exactly cutting-edge but enough to do the job they need to and no more. The game also desperately needs an option to be able to import key bindings from other characters, as every time I made a fresh person I had to go through the laborious process of getting my keys set up the way I wanted, time after time after time.

There is also the use of instancing in the starting areas of the game. While I understand why this was done (to help alleviate server lag from too many people in one zone at once, and in order so that they don't need to enable server queues as often) I know it isn't everyone's cup of tea. I personally had no real issues with the zone instancing for the brief period I was aware of it (typically you will only notice when you are grouped, when one person is in a different instance than the other members. You can switch between instances although only once every thirty minutes).

Other than that I found TOR to be a remarkably polished MMO. Let's not forget it's been in development for five years, and that BioWare are a very good developer, but still, a Star Wars MMO would be quite an easy thing to screw up, and I did not get the impression of that at all.

TOR is different to every MMO on the market today, but the question is, is it different enough from the elephant in the room known as World of Warcraft, or even the plucky up-and-comer, Rift. My gut instinct says yes, as the anti-WoW backlash is reaching quite epic proportions recently (WoW has lost almost 2 million players during the past year, standing at just over 10 million currently, from the high point of 12 million at the beginning of this year) and people are yearning for something fresh and new. TOR's problem is that next year there are two big MMOs scheduled to be released. Funcom's The Secret World is currently slated for April (although this may slip since the beta hasn't even started yet) and then NCsoft's Guild Wars 2 will probably follow a few months later. This doesn't give TOR a tremendous amount of time in which to build a userbase free from even fresher competition than itself, but that's the way the cookie crumbles.

I have not decided whether or not I will be playing The Old Republic. If I can talk some more people I know into it then certainly I would be more inclined to plonk down the $60 that EA are demanding for it (another inauspicious MMO first - thanks EA!). Either way, I believe it's a solid game that will more likely than not be a success. I'm sure Richard Garriott and Realtime Worlds felt the same way about Tabula Rasa and APB though...

And Then There Were Two - The Downfall Of id

noreply@blogger.com (Gaff) — Sun, 30 Oct 2011 21:42:00 +0000

Like many others I had identified Rage as a game coming out this year that I was interested in. While I'm not a big post-apocalyptic fan (excluding Borderlands, which was great fun) I figured that with id's record it would at least be something worth investigating.

How wrong I was.

id, for those not in the know, are one of the oldest and most well-known PC developers in existence today. Based near Dallas, Texas, they are the developers who made the iconic Doom and Quake series and have generally had a reputation for excellence even at the cost of delaying their games to make this happen. That was ok though, because id knew that a quality product was the most important thing a game developer should deliver.

At launch, the PC version of Rage was a buggy mess. The most egregious issue was texture popping, highlighted in the following video:

There was also the issue of a near-complete lack of any meaningful graphics options on the PC version (v-sync, anisotropic filtering, etc.). id stated that this was due to a design decision to have the id tech 5 engine (id's new proprietary engine running the game) dynamically change these options for best performance on whatever machine you were using, but in practice these are standard options that any decent PC gamer will want to adjust manually. One of Rage's several post-release patches later put these options in the game following the outcry over their exclusion.

Granted, the issue of texture popping was primarily a graphics driver problem that mostly (but not exclusively) affected AMD cards over Nvidia, but it highlighted some poor communication between id and AMD in particular. Also unhelpful was that AMD (ATi) released the wrong set of drivers on launch day, instead releasing drivers with components that were several years old and gave horrific performance in-game. Nvidia owners experienced less of these issues, but a cursory search of the Steam forums on launch day saw plenty of problems being reported by those users as well.

AMD eventually put out some fixed drivers that seemed to resolve the worst issues, and id patched Rage a short time later to include more graphics options and other fixes. Launch day is everything though, and from that standard Rage was surely found lacking.

Unfortunately id chose not to make the PC edition the lead development version (as was the case in all of their previous games). Instead all the versions were iterated at once on the new id tech 5 engine, with principle resources being devoted to the PS3 and X-Box 360 versions of the game. Seeing such a PC-centric developer take a decision such as this is highly disappointing. Granted, console sales are going to be a company's bread-and-butter, but to essentially have 1/3 of your game-base broken at release does not make you good no matter who is playing it. Perhaps some of these issues could have been avoided if more attention was paid to the PC version.

Contrast this to how other companies have handled the PC with regards to multi-platform releases.

DICE, for example, had no qualms about beating the PC drum, making the PC the lead platform for Battlefield 3 and are now reaping the rewards (its current Metacritic rating is 90 and they have sold over five million copies across all formats. By comparison, Rage's current Metacritic rating is 79 and while that is hardly bad, it's not exactly the universal acclaim that id are used to).

One of the year's other major releases, Deux Ex: Human Revolution, also did the PC version right. While not the lead platform, Eidos Montreal had a PC-specific version of the game ported by Nixxes Software. All the usual PC bells and whistles were included (at launch!) and there was even DirectX 11 support thrown in for those with appropriate hardware. DEHR currently has a rating of 89 on Metacritic.

Kotaku recently reported that the mixed reception for Rage, coupled with its serious technical issues, had resulted in work on id's Doom 4 being "indefinitely suspended" (although this was later disputed). True or not, serious questions have to be asked of id following this decidedly-average release of Rage. While the underlying game is meant to be a decent shooter, it also does not seem to have much that sets it apart from the dozens of other shooters released in the past few years. I suspect that Rage will ultimately be remembered in a similar way to Bulletstorm: a fun and enjoyable shooter that has little replay value or much to keep it in the memory past the first few weeks.

Prior to Rage's release I had always thought of id as one of the "big three" PC developers (alongside Blizzard and Valve); a studio that treated its customers with respect, had a strong PC slant and a culture of excellence. In my eyes and many others, Rage has diminished my opinion of id. Time will tell whether their future projects can redeem them or if they are destined to become the next Sierra or 3D Realms of their generation.

What Is PlanetSide?

noreply@blogger.com (Gaff) — Sun, 02 Oct 2011 07:50:00 +0000

I knocked together a quick explanation of what made the original PlanetSide so great, and why people should be hyped for PlanetSide 2, over at Destructoid. I figured people who read here might want to take a look at it, so here it is:

http://www.destructoid.com/blogs/Gaff/obscurity-what-is-planetside--212433.phtml

Guild Wars 2 Within (Good) Touching Distance

noreply@blogger.com (Gaff) — Sat, 17 Sep 2011 23:05:00 +0000

Since it's coming up on twelve months since my last check-in with Guild Wars 2 I figured it was past time to post an update, since the past year has seen reams of new game details pushed out by ArenaNet and NCsoft.

It is already known what the five playable races of Guild Wars 2 will be: heroic humans, plant-like Sylvari, diminutive Asura, combative Charr and hardy Norn. While I felt that the original Guild Wars was a solid (though not spectacular) title, I wasn't crazy about having no other playable races other than humans, and it's good to see ArenaNet address this in the sequel.

Guild Wars 2 will have eight professions, seven of which are already known and the eighth being close to a sure-bet.

First off there is of course the Warrior. No MMO can truly call itself a game without having a Warrior class, and Guild Wars 2 is no different. Warriors are weapons-masters, equally at home with a mace or an axe as with a sword or hammer. They are able to aid their allies using banners and shouts, and some of their abilities will strike multiple opponents at once.

Their unique mechanic is adrenaline. Warriors will be able to store adrenaline and then unleash it to supercharge some of their attacks. If hitting things with large, metal objects sounds like your thing then the Warrior profession is probably for you.

Next up, the Elementalist. As the name implies, the Elementalist is a master of the four planes - earth, air, fire and water.

Elemental attunement is their unique mechanic.

When attuned to Earth, the Elementalist gains defensive bonuses; Air attunement continually damages nearby enemies; Fire attunement grants area-of-effect damage and Water attunement will heal adjacent allies and give access to crowd-control abilities.

Elementalists can also employ glyphs and signets to augment and enhance their abilities.

Another directly-returning profession from the first game, the Ranger is a master of ranged weapons though are also capable of utilising melee attacks in a pinch. They are able to conjure stationary spirits to buff their party as well as placing various kinds of traps that are triggered when run over by an enemy.

Animal companions are the unique mechanic for the Ranger.

Their companion can be set to passive, aggressive or defensive (as is the standard in MMOs with pet classes), and the Ranger will also gain various unique abilities based on which pet he is using at the time. Aquatic animals have also been confirmed to be available in Guild Wars 2, since approximately 20% of the game's content is said to take place underwater.

The Guardian was the first original class announced for Guild Wars 2. Essentially a combination of a Protection Monk from the first game and the standard defensive warrior found in many other games, they are heavily-armoured tanks able to buff and defend their party members. Guardians can conjure spirit weapons to fight at their side for a short time, and also place wards on the ground which may have either a beneficial effect for their party or a detrimental effect for enemies.

The unique mechanic for Guardians are their virtues.

The three virtues are Justice, Courage and Resolve. Justice passively grants them additional burning damage to their attacks, and can be activated to grant this ability to their teammates for a short time. Courage passively grants them a free block every 30 seconds, and can be activated to pass this ability on to their party. Resolve passively regenerates some of the Guardian's health over time, and can be activated to give this ability to their allies for a short time.

The Thief is a new class to the Guild Wars universe. They seem to be largely based on the Assassin from the first game, along with some other bells and whistles thrown into the mix.

A Thief can use various blinks as Assassins could in GW1, and can also steal enemy weapons in order to utilise their abilities for a short time. Thieves also employ traps which can be used both to damage and control enemies.

The Thief's unique mechanic is initiative.

Thieves have ten points of initiative, which regenerates at a rate of one per second either in or out of combat. Initiative is used to power the Thief's attacks and allows various abilities to be chained together as needed.

The Necromancer is the penultimate returning profession from the original Guild Wars. As the name suggests they are able to summon various undead pets which are able to both buff the Necromancer and attack enemies.

Necromancers have access to well and mark spells. A well is a PBAoE effect around them which buffs allies, such as increasing health regeneration or reducing incoming damage. A mark is a ground-based spell which can be triggered either by a certain condition (i.e. an enemy walking onto it) or manually by the Necromancer himself.

The unique mechanic for the Necromancer is life force.

Necromancers will passively gain life force as they cast spells, and will gain additional amounts when creatures near to them die. When a certain amount of life force is reached, the Necromancer can choose to activate his Death Shroud ability, transforming him into a spirit and granting additional, more powerful, attacks.

The Engineer is a completely new profession. They are very much a ranged damage and utility class that has the ability to perform several different functions depending on what is needed at the time.

Engineers are able to use various weapon kits which give them the temporary use of a special weapon (e.g. a flamethrower or a machine gun) and also backpack kits, which give them a specialised set of skills for a short duration (e.g. a bombing kit giving access to various explosives). Engineers can also construct movable turrets which can have various effects, from dealing direct damage to enemies to even healing allies.

The unique mechanic for an Engineer is their tool belt.

Tool Belts give access to different skills depending on which weapon kit and backpack kit you are using.

It seems that if you want to be able to do almost anything and everything then playing an Engineer is for you.

While the eighth profession has yet to be formally announced, many believe that it will be the Mesmer returning from the original game. Given that ArenaNet have stated that the final profession is a directly-returning one, that they will wear light armour and will affect people's minds in some way, then it is not too much of a stretch to believe that it's likely to be the Mesmer.

Hopefully ArenaNet will confirm this before the end of the year.

Since any race can play as any class then this grants a wide variety of race / class combinations which should be able to satisfy a great many people.

The over-use of instancing was something that was recognised as helping to prevent the first game from being the massive success that it could have been. NCsoft and ArenaNet seem to have taken that on-board with the sequel, and now the only instancing in the new game will be for dungeons (as is the same for most other MMOs) and also in your own personal storyline.

I want to touch on the personal storyline here, because if done right it could be something which truly sets Guild Wars 2 from any other MMO out there. At character creation you will make various decisions for your fledgling avatar which will strongly influence how their story gets played out, and this will continue as the game progresses. Other players can be invited into your storyline (and you can visit theirs) but it is chiefly for you and you alone. Decisions you make will affect how NPCs act towards you and what additional equipment is made available for purchase.

Many MMORPGs have paid mere lip service to having your decisions actually matter, and GW2's approach could be something which really helps to make it unique.

Turning to combat, Guild Wars 2 seems like it will have an extremely flexible and powerful system, quite different to most other MMOs you will have played. Different skills from different professions will be able to interact together to produce new, sometimes unexpected, effects. The often-cited example is that of a Ranger firing a hail of arrows through an Elementalist's wall of fire: the arrows will be lit aflame and will deal additional fire damage to the target.

There will be no auto-attack in GW2, only damage dealt from using your abilities effectively. You will also be able to dodge certain attacks from mobs, so if you see an opponent hold his sword over his head as if he is about to stab downwards, rolling out of the way will be an option and you will take no damage from his attack.

You will also be able to obtain and use various traits for your particular profession. Traits will modify certain skills and abilities according to personal choice; for example you may slot a trait which grants a knockdown to every seventh melee attack you make, or one which reduces the cooldowns of your skills. Think of them as talent points as seen in other MMOs, since you will be using them to further customise your character.

When talking about combat you also have to consider death, and in this regard Guild Wars 2 is taking quite a fresh and dare I say FPS approach. Upon reaching 0 health your character will not be killed but will instead go into a downed state, giving you a new set of skills. Killing an enemy while you are downed will restore you to life and put you back in the thick of the action. In addition, every profession has the ability to "resurrect" downed players even from the beginning of the game, so this should help to keep things dynamic and punchy instead of just running from graveyard to graveyard, hoping the next leap will be the leap home.

This is certainly an original approach, as I cannot think of any other MMO putting this kind of system in their game. As I said, it's really something that FPS games have tended to embrace in the past couple of years, notably Borderlands. ArenaNet run the risk of trivialising death to the extent that players no longer take the necessary caution they would with more challenging encounters. On the other hand, you can just concentrate on having run rather than having to plan an escape route in advance should things not proceed how you wish them to. I think the jury is still out on whether this will be a good idea or not, although once more it is one of those features which will help to set Guild Wars 2 apart from almost every other MMORPG out there.

And that's really where we are right now. ArenaNet seem hopeful that the beta will begin sometime before the end of 2011, and release should then be a few months after that. My guess would be Q1 2012 as the best bet on when to see Guild Wars 2 on store shelves. If they can deliver on much of what they have promised then expect this subscription-free MMORPG to create waves in the industry and perhaps cultivate a new standard for online role-playing games.

And PlanetSide 2 needs to hurry up as well.

PlanetSide 2 Beta This Year

noreply@blogger.com (Gaff) — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 07:06:00 +0000

John Smedley recently gave an interview to Chinese site 17173.com which was subsequently picked up by MMOsite and then of course by the trusty PlanetSide Universe.

In short, SOE are aiming for the PS2 beta to begin before the end of this year and the game will use a free-to-play model. Smedley stated that the beta may possibly slip to the start of next year, but right now this was their goal. It makes sense, as if SOE can get the beta begun this year then that sets them up for a Spring 2012 release (which would - coincidentally - put them up against The Secret World for new MMO releases, as that is scheduled for release in April).

Following some dubious translations of the original Chinese interview, Smedley later dropped by the PlanetSide Universe forums to clarify some points. Among the highlights:

SOE will not sell power in PS2's cash shop.
The specific F2P model has yet to be determined, but "we like League of Legends a lot".
Played-created weapons may be added to the game post-release, but will not be in the game at launch.
Scripted AI PvE invasions may also make an appearance down the line, but again will not be in the game at release.
PlanetSide 2's budget is approximately $50million.
There will be a much greater emphasis on preventing players from hacking. GameGuard and PunkBuster may be employed to this end.

Overall this interview was quite encouraging. I'm a big fan of League of Legends and believe it is without doubt the best implementation of a free-to-play system, so if SOE are going to base their system around LoL's then that is going to be a big plus.

With luck, the beta will begin before the end of the year and we can start getting some more concrete details.

Still waiting on my beta invite, Smed.

GameStop Knows What's Best For You

noreply@blogger.com (Gaff) — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 08:58:00 +0000

GameStop today showed us yet another reason why any serious PC gamer should avoid them like the plague (I realise that many of you may not need much convincing).

The PC version of the highly enjoyable new FPS Deus Ex: Human Revolution comes with a voucher giving you a free copy of the game through OnLive's cloud-based gaming service. So for those times when you are away from your main PC, perhaps out of town or using someone else's machine that isn't as capable as your own, you can simply login to OnLive and play the game. Sounds good, right? Well, not to GameStop.

Seemingly miffed because they also plan to release some kind of cloud-based gaming service in the not-too-distant future, and seeing OnLive as a direct competitor to this potential service, GameStop apparently decided to direct all of their stores to open every PC copy of DE:HR and remove the coupon, whilst still selling the game as new.

Just think about that for a second, while at the same time pondering the questionable legality of selling an opened item as new. You get a nice little bonus that the publisher decided to throw in for you, and because it may possibly, in the future, compete directly with GameStop's service they just unilaterally decide to take it away from you.

Imagine going into a bookstore and picking up the latest bestseller, only to reach page 19 and find it torn out. Upon complaining to the store they tell you that they are bringing out their own page 19 in a few months and it's going to be much better than the author's original, so you should just wait and come to buy theirs as soon as it's available. This is essentially GameStop's argument.

Late Wednesday GameStop decided that they were pulling the PC version of Human Revolution completely, instructing their employees to remove it from store shelves and deleting it from purchase at gamestop.com.

Frankly I find this outrageous, and simply the latest excuse (if more were needed) not to shop at GameStop in the first place. These days you are better off giving your business to Steam (for digital distribution) and Amazon (if you need a physical box) anyway, since they are usually the cheapest two retailers around.

GameStop won't be seeing another cent of my money anytime soon, if ever.

Free-to-Play vs. Pay-to-Play - Round 3: FIGHT

noreply@blogger.com (Gaff) — Wed, 24 Aug 2011 05:11:00 +0000

I thought it was about time I weighed in on the whole free-to-play vs. pay-to-play issue that has been doing the rounds for some time now.

Games were (and still predominantly, are) pay-to-play, in that you purchase the game and then play it, along with paying a monthly subscription fee for MMOs. Some games, such as Modern Warfare 2 and World of Warcraft, have benefitted heavily from this system, since in the former case Activision chose to jack up the PC price from $50 to $60 just because they could (despite the fact that PC games have traditionally been sold at the $50 rate for AAA titles for years now), and in the latter, Blizzard (also owned by Activision) was able to charge $15 a month to around 10 million people for seven years.

By anyone's estimation, that's a large pile of cold, hard cash.

The free-to-play movement is fast gaining traction though. Original titles such as League of Legends, as well as games that originally began as paid but have now transitioned to F2P, such as Lord of the Rings Online, Dungeons and Dragons Online (both developed by Turbine), Funcom's Age of Conan and Cryptic's Champions Online, have all seen their revenues increased significantly almost immediately following their F2P metamorphoses. Even Valve are getting in on it, by converting Team Fortress 2 into a free-to-play game.

Originally I looked down on the free-to-play movement, equating a F2P game with something of lesser quality and aimed at the more casual gamer. Not to say that this isn't true, but it's increasingly becoming the exception, rather than the rule. I myself have played League of Legends for approximately 18 months and the game was of such high a quality that I had no qualms about spending ~$40 in its cash shop over my lifetime of play. I know of many other people who have sunk money into LOTRO or Champions Online, for the same reason.

That being said, there are a couple of caveats that I will not budge from, in order to separate a true free-to-play title from being a simple cash grab that just charges $0 for your first hit. These are:

Do not sell power. Items in your cash shop should be mostly aesthetic (flashy armour, new hairstyles) or grant a character more utility (faster levelling, more character slots).
Do not cripple people who choose not to pay.

I want to mention Allods Online as a particular example of how not to implement a free-to-play system in your game. At launch, Allods' cash shop was both ridiculously overpriced and also close to essential if you were anything other than the most casual of casual players.

A 24 slot backpack (8 slots more than the default of 16) at launch cost the equivalent of $20. Overpriced = check.

Allods also had an insane death system when the game was first released. Basically, upon death you would lose 25% of your stats for up to two hours (depending on level). But wait! You could get around this by buying “perfume” in the Allods shop, which would remove the stat debuff from you for the low, low price of around $50 a month for the average player. Quite the steal, right?

The developers (Astrum Nival) and the US publisher (Gala-Net) made significant changes to the cash shop just a couple of weeks later following the predictable backlash, taking such actions as slashing the price of most items and even making “perfume” available at no charge, but the damage was done and Allods Online has become the cautionary tale of how not to launch your free-to-play game.

While Sony continue to say nothing on PlanetSide 2's business model, there do seem to be leanings that some kind of cash shop plus an optional subscription plan will be in the offing. Having great success with Free Realms may have emboldened SOE to pursue this system in PS2, which should at least give it a solid launch userbase if nothing else. I will have no problem giving SOE $10-15 a month for an optional PlanetSide 2 subscription should the game turn out to be even remotely close to what they are promising.

And so there we go. Pay-to-play remains the dominant model but the plucky young free-to-play is fast riding its coattails. In five years time will most games have shifted to the F2P model or is pay-to-play going to make a resounding comeback? Stay tuned.

PlanetSide 2 - The Story So Far

noreply@blogger.com (Gaff) — Tue, 12 Jul 2011 06:37:00 +0000

It was information overload regarding PlanetSide 2 last week, with much more information piling out of the dev session on Friday morning.

This is a round-up of the major details revealed so far.

PlanetSide 2 was originally envisioned as a graphical update to the original PlanetSide, coupled with a change to the free-to-play model. It soon became apparent, however, that there were a lot of ideas floating around at SOE Austin about how to extend the PlanetSide universe, to the point where a decision had to be made whether to scale back the project and stick to the graphical overhaul only, or to expand it out to a fully-fledged new game. Fortunately for us, SOE chose the second option over the first.

PlanetSide 2 will have classes that each have their own (apparently quite extensive) skill trees, but you can change roles on-the-fly. This differs slightly from the first game which had no true classes but instead had you create your own character by learning certain certifications which would then permit you to use particular weapons, drive specific vehicles, etc. In addition, you will be able to "queue" up to 24 hours of skill learning that will continue to take place even when you are offline, though it has been confirmed that this learning process goes faster if you are actually in-game.

Specific areas and sub-regions of continents will have specific resources available, which, if captured by your empire will grant special bonuses. This may take the form of bonus weapon emplacements and turrets for your empire, for example, or possibly some kind of flat damage (or damage mitigation) bonus.

In addition to ~~stealing~~ appropriating Eve Online's offline training system, SOE may also have just one unified server which everyone connects to. This would be very interesting if true, as FPS games tend to be more demanding on both the clients (i.e. our PCs) and servers. Eve isn't exactly known for its twitch gameplay, and I'm unsure as to whether one server would be lag-free enough to be able to accommodate thousand of players at once, despite how much server technology has progressed since the original PlanetSide was released.

There will be relatively few character customisations you can make when you first create a character, as was the case with the first. This isn't EQ and FPS players on the whole don't much care about whether our avatars have tousled hair or dreadlocks. As was already known, there will be no instancing anywhere in the game. Period.

The developers also intend to release their three year plan for PlanetSide 2's continued progression prior to release. Based on the feedback they get it might mean changing certain aspects of the plan to better tailor what the community wants. The panel also confirmed that as of now there are no plans for paid expansions to PlanetSide 2; instead there will be "major content releases" (i.e. patches) which will main method used to deliver updates, bugfixes, etc.

PlanetSide 2 was also said to be a re-imagining of the original game, rather than a true sequel (think Battlestar Galactica). For this reason it is my personal belief that SOE intend to close the original game alongside the launch of PlanetSide 2, giving existing players an easy upgrade path.

As seems to be all the rage in MMOs these days, Outfits (PlanetSide's version of guilds) will progress in the same way players do, and will grant additional bonuses and privileges as they level up. The much-maligned third-person view will be eliminated for infantry, although certain air vehicles will retain it in some fashion.

The devs have said they intend to try and vary base layouts a little more than was the case in the first game. You will also not need to be at a specific base in order to perform a specific function (i.e. to spawn Galaxy airship you won't need to be physically present at a Dropship Centre, for example). There were also confirmed to be at least two layouts of towers, and possibly more coming prior to release.

In another departure from the original game, any base will be hackable by any empire but you may need significantly more time to complete the takeover for a base in the middle of nowhere than one surrounded by bases that your empire controls. Headshots will also be making an appearance in PlanetSide 2, no doubt as part of some support / sniper / recon class. You will also be able to target specific areas on vehicles for location-based damage, e.g. you may want to target and destroy the turret on a tank in order to reduce its damage output.

PlanetSide 2 will be the first game to use SOE's new ForgeLight MMO engine. It is essentially being built from the ground up and has already been confirmed to incorporate PhysX support for Nvidia graphics cards. John Smedley said that the engine is extremely scalable even to machines around five years old, but obviously the newer your rig (and in particular your CPU and graphics card) the better it's going to look and run.

Our good old friend the Orbital Strike will be making an appearance in PlanetSide 2, but will likely be tied to an advanced command rank as was the case previously. Sanctuaries no longer exist, players will instead be headquartered at an unhackable base on each continent from where they will launch their empire's attacks. In another departure, combat at sea was also said to be making an appearance.

In short, PlanetSide 2 is meant to be PlanetSide 1 but faster, bigger and better. SOE absolutely refused to be drawn on any kind of release date, but my gut instinct says a late 2011 / early 2012 beta coupled with a release in the first half of next year. That should give them enough time dial up the awesomeness without keeping players unnecessarily waiting for its release.

And finally, if you're reading this Smed, I'll take my beta invite now, please.

PlanetSide 2 Revealed

noreply@blogger.com (Gaff) — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 03:45:00 +0000

As promised, SOE tonight removed the veil that had been shrouding PlanetSide 2 in darkness these past few months, at their annual Fan Faire event in Las Vegas.

First off, there's this spiffy new trailer:

Amongst the other things mentioned at tonight's SOE keynote regarding PlanetSide 2 were that it would be the first game to use SOE's new ForgeLight MMO engine; an engine which would also be used for EverQuest Next whenever that game sees the light of day.

The three empires: Vanu Sovereignty, Terran Republic and the New Conglomerate (in order of best to worst) are retained, as well as no instancing (yay!). PlanetSide 2, as was the case in the original game, will be everyone on the same map duking it out at the same time; none of this simultaneous sideways instancing like Global Agenda thought was what everyone wanted.

PlanetSide 2 will also features classes (that you can change on the fly) that I suspect will merely turn out to be certifications from the original game, renamed. If it's ain't broke don't fix it, after all. Vehicular combat will also be a big part of the game, which is good since it helped make the original game much of what it was.

Expect more information to come from the PS2 panel which takes place tomorrow morning (10am Pacific). I will post a further update shortly after that.

Vanu for life.

Clearly My Threats Worked

noreply@blogger.com (Gaff) — Thu, 16 Jun 2011 23:52:00 +0000

Can I just say - FINALLY.

Threatening Journalists Who Write Negative Reviews Is The Way To Go

noreply@blogger.com (Gaff) — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 23:01:00 +0000

Duke Nukem Forever is an average game, at best.

Phew. Just wanted to get that off my chest.

I'd better be careful, though. The publisher's former PR company, The Redner Group, tweeted that journalists posting particularly negative reviews of DNF may be denied future 2K titles for review. In fact, to quote them directly:

"Too many went too far with their reviews...we (are) reviewing who gets games next time and who doesn't based on today's venom."

That tweet has since been deleted from The Redner Group's feed, and their CEO Jim Redner put out an apology today by email, stating that he made an error in judgement and asking for forgiveness.

To their credit, 2K immediately disowned Redner's comments and tweeted that The Redner Group would no longer represent 2K's PR interests, essentially kicking them to the curb.

It's always chilling when you are told to shoot the messenger rather than the message. I suspect that Gearbox and 2K knew they had a stinker on their hands with DNF and wanted to simply get it released and then buried as soon as possible. Reading other reviews it seems that the game itself is riddled with bugs and is very out of date with contemporary times, no doubt stemming from its mammoth development time, by which I mean mammoths were still around when work on DNF first began. All of this negative publicity about the negative publicity put 2K in a bind though, and forced them to choose the wiser path which was firing The Redner Group.

As apologetic as Jim Redner was today, it doesn't excuse what he said yesterday. Games journalists are still journalists and must be free to publish full and frank opinions about games and the games industry at all times without other considerations getting in the way. If you want a great review, make a great game. Don't try to intimidate journalists into giving you a better review than you deserve.

So say we all.

Post-E3 Wrap-Up

noreply@blogger.com (Gaff) — Sun, 12 Jun 2011 05:51:00 +0000

Another E3 has come and gone, and with it some of my hopes and dreams, forever torn asunder.

The Bad News

PlanetSide 2

So there was nothing about PlanetSide 2 at E3. Not even a bite; not even a nibble. I've got to say I'm getting quite pissed off by the stringing-along that SOE are doing with this game. We were originally meant to get some information in March, which came and went with a big, fat nothing. John Smedley assured us it was still coming but had been slightly delayed. Well, now the biggest gaming show in the world has just finished without anything being mentioned about PS2 at all.

At this point I'm not even sure whether the game will be out this year. We're almost half-way through the year and there is no release date or anything else, in fact nothing to suggest the game even exists except for a half-dozen screens floating around the Internets. No site, no real screenshots, no videos. I'm beginning to wonder whether this is some epic troll on SOE's part, to boost the subscriber numbers for PlanetSide at least for a while (since Sony have promised beta spots for PS2 to all current PlanetSide subscribers - a game that still weighs in at $15 a month I might add).

Perhaps they are holding off the "big reveal" for SOE's annual Fan Faire event (think Blizzcon but less successful) which this year takes place between 7th - 9th July in Las Vegas. Maybe they are even waiting until GamesCom (aka Europe's E3) which runs 17th - 21st August in Cologne, Germany. When there is actual news to report about this game then I will report it, but until them I am done playing the SOE guessing game. All I will say is that there is a limit to my patience, SOE, and as of now you are right up against it.

The Secret World

Further to having no PlanetSide news, Funcom were also not showing at E3 this year so that meant not much information about The Secret World was available. To be fair though, they did update the official site with information about a new area, Atlantic Park, so it wasn't a complete bust. TSW still seems on-track for a late 2011 / early 2012 release, although Funcom and EA are still keeping details locked down.

Warhammer 40,000: Dark Millennium Online

Also on the negative side, there was next-to-nothing shown at E3 regarding Warhammer 40,000: Dark Millennium Online. There was a new trailer released just for E3, but...well watch it below and you will see the obvious issue:

So yeah...not much content there, unless big, flashy graphics with little-to-no gameplay is your thing, in which case you really lucked out. It's not exactly a surprise, since the game is likely at least a year away and probably closer to two. It would have been nice to see just a little more than what we actually got, though.

The Good News

Fortunately for us there is a lot more good news than bad.

Mass Effect 3

Starting off with what will likely be one of the big games of 2012, Mass Effect 3 was demo'd extensively at E3 by BioWare, and had a new, shiny trailer to boot. Shepard now sports an insta-kill melee move that should seem very familiar to Gears of War fans. BioWare's new ME3 E3 trailer is embedded below:

As trailers go, this one presses all the buttons. The key element here is plenty of gameplay (you listening Vigil?). Insert whatever fancy graphics you paid all those tens of thousands of dollars to the post-production house for, but give us a lot of gameplay on top so we can actually see the game.

ME3 remains approximately 9 months away, and I would expect the information coming out of EA and BioWare about the game to be stepped-up dramatically over the next few months.

BioShock Infinite

Curiously, the game that seems to be getting the most attention (as well as several selections as "Best in Show at E3") is BioShock Infinite. In development by Ken Levin and Irrational Games (who made the original BioShock - but not BioShock 2) it has been known for a while that this game won't be seeing the light of day until 2012 for some time, but based on the videos they have put out so far it looks good:

If you haven't already seen it you should absolutely check out the extended 10 minute gameplay video of BI that Irrational released last year; it's well worth it.

Irrational absolutely nailed the period atmosphere and immersive nature of the original BioShock and from these two videos it looks like they have done the same all over again with BioShock Infinite. The rumour mill says that Irrational are shooting for a Q2 / Q3 2012 release so we've likely got at least a year to go, but BI is receiving a lot of attention based on this most recent showing at E3 and rightly so. Definitely one to keep an eye on.

Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning

Next up there is the sleeper RPG Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning. The first project by rookie developer 38 Studios (founded by former baseball player Curt Schilling) and Big Huge Games (acquired by 38 Studios in 2009), it seems to be your typical high-fantasy RPG, with a couple of notable exceptions. First, noted fantasy author R.A. Salvatore is creating the game's world and lore, and comic book artist and Spawn creator Todd McFarlane is contributing to the artwork and design style.

This is the most recent trailer, made especially for E3:

Another interesting footnote is that 38 Studios are simultaneously at work on an MMORPG set in the same universe as Reckoning. Known only by its codename, Copernicus, it is shrouded in almost as much mystery as PlanetSide 2. Reckoning seems like it could be a welcome addition to the strong staple of RPGs hitting the market recently.

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

Due in November of this year, Skyrim seems to be your typical swords-and-sorcery fair that the Elder Scrolls series has become noted for. Personally I have never really cared for the series myself and it has not grabbed me in any meaningful way, but maybe Skyrim will be the exception. As part of their E3 coverage, G4 received an exclusive behind-the-scenes gameplay walkthrough from Bethesda's Todd Howard and it's embedded below for your viewing pleasure:

If you need to change your underwear after viewing I will find this completely understandable as the game looks amazing. Ok, so the demo was running on an X-Box 360 but you can guarantee that the PC version will look at least as good if not better.

Star Wars: The Old Republic

Although we got no firm release date (other than tacit confirmation to various outlets that we would be seeing TOR sometime this year), BioWare chose to release the introductory cinematic to the game at this year's E3:

BioWare also put up several other videos on their site, detailing the Eternity Vault raid instance (in TOR raids are known as "operations"), a scenario (quest) on Tatooine and a general video about various gameplay features.

After watching all of these videos I think my interest in TOR increased by about 10,000%. Confirmation that space battles will be in from launch was a nice little addition as well, as this is something that Star Wars Galaxies took a lot of heat for not having off the bat (although it was later patched in post-launch).

EA and BioWare certainly seem to be in information dissemination mode, and that generally means that release is right around the corner. I'm expecting to hear news of a release date for The Old Republic very shortly, possibly at GamesCom or PAX Prime which are both in August. My gut instinct says November.

Battlefield 3

Running on DICE's new Frostbyte2 engine and with a slated release date of 25th October in North America (28th in the EU) Battlefield 3 seems set to continue the rivalry that EA have seemingly picked against Activision and the Modern Warfare series. EA and DICE released the Thunder Run tank trailer at E3, which is embedded below:

Frankly, the new Frostbyte2 engine looks ridiculously good. There were several parts of the video that were so photo-realistic that I would have had difficulty discerning whether it was real life or a game, if I didn't already know that it was a game.

DICE tend to cater a little better to the PC than Activision do, so dedicated servers for multiplayer are already a certainty. If the game plays anywhere near as good as it looks then expect BF3 to be an extraordinarily good title.

And there you have it. Of course there were dozens of other games detailed at E3, some of which may still be embargoed and so we haven't heard about them yet. This is just my personal pick of what looked particularly good for us PC gamers over the next 12 months or so.

I guess it's time to upgrade my PC again.

I've given NewEgg so much money I should just buy shares in them.

E3 - Battle For LA

noreply@blogger.com (Gaff) — Tue, 07 Jun 2011 02:26:00 +0000

Tomorrow is the first day of E3 2011, the gaming industry's flagship event. From Tuesday to Thursday gaming journalists from all over the world will descend on the Los Angeles Convention Centre in California to be spoon-fed details, screenshots and perhaps even some hands-on demos about the latest and greatest games that we will be seeing over the next 12 months.

This is my personal top 5 games that I want to see details of (and preferably beta invites as well - thanks!). Some of them might be close to release, others at least a few months off. Either way, speculation away!

PlanetSide 2

Developer: Sony Online Entertainment
Publisher: Sony Online Entertainment
Expected: ??

Yes, you knew it was coming and would be right at the top.

Sony's true sequel to arguably the first genuine MMOFPS, 2003's PlanetSide, still leads a somewhat shadow existence in the gaming world. Most of the information we know about the game has been tweeted by SOE President John Smedley, and there is very little to go on other than that. We were originally meant to know more around March time, but that month came and went with little fanfare. According to Smedley the game has been delayed a little for additional work and polish, but is still not far from release. What this means exactly is anyone's guess, but I am hoping that E3 will finally pull back the covers on this highly-anticipated title and gives us some solid details, screens, and may even be playable there. A release date and beta information would be nice as well.

I've talked previously about PlanetSide Next, and the news that it would officially be titled PlanetSide 2 is about the only thing we've heard in the past couple of months.

I hope you're listening, Sony. If this E3 comes and goes without my PlanetSide 2 fix then you and I are through. No spooning, no friends-with-benefits...nothing.

Mass Effect 3

Developer: BioWare
Publisher: Electronic Arts
Expected: 6th March 2012

The sequel to arguably many people's choice for Game of the Year 2010, the final part of the Mass Effect trilogy was originally slated for this year's holiday season but was recently pushed back three months to March 2012. No doubt a company like BioWare with EA's resources available to them could have knocked it out in time for Christmas, but the lukewarm reaction to Dragon Age II might have made them think twice and decide that some additional polish would be good all round.

BioWare have stated that ME3 will be an extensive part of EA's showcase for this year's E3, so I'd expect to see screenshots, videos and probably a demo or two, since the game is apparently in quite an advanced state already.

Mass Effect remains one of my favourite gaming series to date. The mix of RPG and FPS in a futuristic setting hits many of my gaming food groups all at once. I very much look forward to seeing how BioWare will finish off the trilogy and shall continue my candlelit vigil for Mass Effect Online.

Warhammer 40,000: Dark Millennium Online

Developer: Vigil Games
Publisher: THQ
Expected: 2H 2012 - 1H 2013

The latest Warhammer to get an MMO version, this futuristic 40k adaptation has been in the planning stages for some time and has only recently began to release tidbits of information here and there. Given that it's highly unlikely that we would see this game before E3 2012 then I wouldn't expect a myriad of information to come out from this year's event, but hope springs eternal.

Maybe we will get the scoop on additional playable races (so far only the Imperium of Man and the Eldar Exiles have been confirmed) or maybe even some gameplay details. Though still a way off, DMO is right up there as one of the games I am most interested in. It can only be hoped that it fares better than the critical hit but commercial flop that was Mythic's Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning, released in 2008.

Vigil Games have a good pedigree, as last year's Darksiders was generally well-received and work on its sequel is well underway. An MMO is a different kettle of fish to a traditional game though, and it remains to be seen whether they have what it takes to deliver in this most vicious of gaming arenas.

The Secret World

Developer: Funcom
Publisher: Funcom / Electronic Arts
Expected: 2H 2011 - 1H 2012

Funcom's interesting new take on the MMORPG genre, moving the setting to contemporary Earth but where all those conspiracy theories you have heard are actually true, is still chugging along. There are no classes and no levelling; instead the game is 100% skill-based, whereby the skills you acquire and use define your character.

There has been no talk of a release date, although a closed beta is expected to begin shortly after E3. Since EA are co-publishing the title alongside Funcom themselves, I am guessing they will not want to launch this and Star Wars: The Old Republic close to each other so as to not cannibalise the potential market of the other. My gut instinct says that ToR will be released before TSW, but that's pure conjecture on my part.

Hopefully we'll get further information from E3 as to when exactly we can expect to see this potentially genre-busting MMO.

Star Wars: The Old Republic

Developer: BioWare
Publisher: Electronic Arts
Expected: 2H 2011

Also known as BioWare's other major project alongside ME3, ToR is inching closer to its projected release date of "sometime later this year".

BioWare have been subtly hinting that there will be some major ToR news coming out of this year's E3, making me think that an official release date and / or beta news could well be in the offing. Following the pitiful yet inexplicably-still-in-existence Star Wars Galaxies, ToR is the big Star Wars MMO that many fans are hoping will be The One.

BioWare rarely (never?) make bad games, although the reaction to this year's Dragon Age II was decidedly more mixed than their usual acclaim. I can only hope that they are not losing their touch and that DA2 was just a blip.

And there we have it. In addition to these games I will also be looking for information on titles such as Guild Wars 2, BioShock Infinite, Battlefield 3, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning, Tera Online and Darksiders 2; all of theses games look promising but have yet to hit my pleasure centre in that special way in order to get into my top 5. Perhaps this will be their summer.

The Curse Of DRM Returns

noreply@blogger.com (Gaff) — Tue, 12 Apr 2011 21:01:00 +0000

Oh dear. Less than 24 hours after I publish an upbeat story about a potentially cool new BioWare project, today there is the other kind of news, the type that game companies typically do not want you to talk about.

On Friday it seems that the Dragon Age: Origins DRM servers which authorise the DLC for the game failed, leaving a lot of people unable to play a game they had legitimately bought. There are some (customer-devised) workarounds on BioWare's forums, but for the most part you are just SOL if a) you have bought DA:O but not yet activated the DLC, or b) have a saved game which contains any DLC elements.

BioWare (now owned by EA) immediately responded though, right? Not so much.

There was no response from BioWare on Friday (when the hardware failure first occurred), Saturday or Sunday. Instead, BioWare chose to wait until Monday to release this brief statement on their forums:

"Over the April 9, 2011 weekend, some of our Dragon Age: Origins content servers experienced an as yet unidentified failure. As a result, users began to experience error messages when attempting to access their downloadable content, indicating that the DLC was unauthorized.

We apologize for the inconvenience and are currently investigating and working to resolve the issue on our end. We will update this thread once we know more."

So after three days nobody at EA / BioWare knew what happened, nobody at EA / BioWare knew when it would be fixed and nobody at EA / BioWare could say whether or not it might happen again.

That's definitely a solid way to kick your paying customers in the pants, especially since many had bought the more expensive "Ultimate Edition" of DA:O containing all of the DLC and now could play none of it.

Meanwhile, everyone who has pirated the game can happily play without any hindrance or interruption, while paying customers get to twiddle their thumbs since there is no ETA from BioWare as to when it will be fixed (and given that it took three days for them to hold their hands up and admit there was a problem, I wouldn't be holding my breath).

DRM screwing over legitimate customers strikes once more. While I can - possibly - envisage scenarios where unobtrusive DRM can be used to counter piracy (Steam is a good example of this), when it gets in the way of paying customers being able to play games that they have legitimately purchased, then it becomes an issue. I also have no problem calling out publishers whose DRM goes too far in the first place, although this is a different situation.

It certainly seems that EA are fast regaining the poor reputation they enjoyed just a few years ago (before Activision muscled in on that territory). Just recently there was the whole brouhaha about a BioWare forum ban also locking you out of their games; the mixed reception for Dragon Age II; EA's "Project Ten Dollar" attempting to kill the used-game-sales business and finally, starting to charge $60 for new triple-A PC titles instead of the usual $50 just because Activision started the trend and EA wanted to get in on that as well (even though an EA employee publicly stated that charging $60 for games was "exploitative").

I feel like I've got two black eyes and a cracked rib and EA are telling me "don't worry baby, it won't happen again".

Another Potential Time Vampire Coming From BioWare - Mass Effect Online

noreply@blogger.com (Gaff) — Tue, 12 Apr 2011 02:57:00 +0000

It's no secret that I am a big fan of BioWare's Mass Effect series. The first was a solid game and the second was my clear choice for Game of the Year for 2010, an opinion which many other gaming sites seemed to share.

One thing I have always felt that Mass Effect lacked was some form of multi-player. BioWare built this tremendous extended universe populated with more races and backstory than you can shake a stick at, but it's all confined to a single-player experience.

Prior to the release of Mass Effect 2 there were whisperings that multi-player was going to feature in the game somewhere, possibly as a piece of DLC later on. That turned out to be inaccurate (as the final piece of ME2's DLC - Arrival - just appeared, with nary a sign of any multi-player anywhere) but the rumour mill persisted again, saying that perhaps Mass Effect 3 would be the game to expand from the single-player model. After the game's reveal in the most recent Game Informer it would appear that, once more, any multi-player gameplay is off-the-table, and that ME3 will remain single-player as both of the first games were.

Casey Hudson, executive producer for the Mass Effect series at BioWare, recently stated that making some form of a Mass Effect MMO "makes sense". I have long thought that the Mass Effect universe would lend itself to an MMO quite nicely. BioWare have developed an extraordinary universe that I would like to see more of, beyond the confines of a single-player experience. They've even got iconic characters from both of the first two games who could serve as notable NPCs, in the same way that it's likely you will see some characters from Knights of the Old Republic show up in The Old Republic MMO due for release very soon now.

While an ME MMO could be very received, I wouldn't expect to hear any announcements regarding such a proposal anytime soon. First off, BioWare (and EA) would likely want to hold off to see how well The Old Republic does when it comes out later this year, and they would also want to see how well Mass Effect 3 does, since it is slated to be released around the end of this year. If TOR did well and if ME3 did well then I would not put it beyond the realm of possibility to see work begin on an MMO set in the Mass Effect universe. Given how long TOR has taken to develop though, I would not bet on seeing it before 2016 at the absolute earliest. And by then we'll probably all be eating meals in pill form whilst zipping around in our flying cars, as well.

It does seem as if sci-fi-themed shooters are experiencing a pleasant upturn in their popularity. PlanetSide Next is still being baked at Sony; Black Prophecy was just released in Europe and is in beta in North America; Blizzard's rumoured MMOFPS Titan is believed to be a sci-fi shooter; Deus Ex: Human Revolution is due out in August; Crysis 2 was just released; our own ME3 is due at the end of this year and those rumours about World of Starcraft have never really gone away, despite Blizzard's insistence that Titan is based upon a completely new IP.

I also continue to maintain my vendetta against Microsoft for their near-criminal (mis)treatment of Freelancer.

So there you have it. A kickass Mass Effect Online is certainly possible and has no doubt already been discussed at the highest levels of BioWare HQ (as they keep tripping over their enormous piles of money lining all the corridors). Provided Mass Effect 3 turns out to be the commercial (and critical) success that the first two games were then an MMO might well be in the offing to drain both your time and money.

I, for one, would welcome our new Geth overlords.

The Rise of the MMOFPS

noreply@blogger.com (Gaff) — Tue, 29 Mar 2011 20:50:00 +0000

Traditionally, MMOs have been your typical swords-and-sorcery MMORPGs. The best example is, of course, World of Warcraft, but games such as EverQuest, Warhammer Online, Lord of the Rings Online and Ultima Online (the latter typically thought of as the first 3D MMORPG, although technically that distinct honour belongs to Meridian 59) are games that many will think of when asked to name titles that typify the genre.

Why though? Why are there so many MMORPGs in existence (well over 100), but relatively few MMOFPS games, when game series such as Call of Duty (and Modern Warfare), Battlefield and Team Fortress are (far and away) the most popular type of games played online over all platforms? I think there are two answers to this question: history and technology.

With regards to history, PlanetSide (released in 2003) is considered by most to be the first true MMOFPS (although Neocron, released in late 2002 contained many MMOFPS elements, but is usually considered more of a hybrid between an MMORPG and MMOFPS) and the cold, hard truth is that it failed. It's difficult for me to admit that, because it is my favourite online game ever; nevertheless that assessment is accurate. At its height it didn't receive more than ~70,000 active, paying subscribers, and by anyone's standards, particularly in an MMO, that is far from a success. Other studios, after seeing PlanetSide and Sony fail so spectacularly, retreated firmly back into the RPG side of the MMO universe, ultimately culminating in the release of World of Warcraft by Blizzard in late 2004, a game that has almost single-handedly come to dominate the entire MMO market by its phenomenal success (both critically and commercially). 12,000,000 active subscribers are a nice thing to have.

The technology aspect of PlanetSide's failure is more relevant. You can get by with a 50, 100 or sometimes even 200 ping in an MMORPG because you aren't requiring twitch accuracy. An MMOFPS on the other hand requires as low a ping as possible, as you would want in any multiplayer FPS where latency can often be a significant factor. At the time PlanetSide came out, server technology was inferior by several orders of magnitude to modern-day servers, and the system simply could not keep up with the requests hundreds and sometimes thousands of players were making to them. In several large, pitched battles I personally witnessed framerates dropping like stones as the server struggled to update everyone in real time. The game was simply ahead of its time, at least from a technical standpoint.

Where does that leave us today? In 2011 server technology has come along in leaps and bounds. Sony (or anyone else) should not have any issue with being able to deliver 30fps at a bare minimum in the forthcoming PlanetSide Next.

Sony aren't the only ones pursuing an MMOFPS though. I've talked before about the rumours swirling around Blizzard's forthcoming MMO, Titan (which according to leaks is apparently an MMOFPS). The experience they have received from over 7 years of operating WoW will surely only be a benefit when it comes to crafting their newest MMO as well as designing the servers that it will run on.

More and more it seems that people are falling over themselves to try and push out an MMOFPS. MAG on the PS3 has 128 v 128 battles and although I wouldn't consider it a true MMOFPS (there is no open world, just instanced fighting zones) it certainly incorporates many elements of the genre, including levelling, skill trees and a hierarchical squad leadership system.

The enigmatic-yet-controversial developer Derek Smart also has an MMOFPS on the way, known as Line of Defense. It's a while from release, and the Derek Smart name will put off some, but it's definitely yet another MMOFPS being thrown into the mix.

You've also got Firefall slated to be released at the end of this year. Again, it's not a true MMOFPS, but a team-based shooter incorporating some MMO elements. Firefall also has the advantage of being free-to-play, which virtually guarantees it at least an initial playerbase. If Red 5 (made up of many former Blizzard employees) can make it work then this will only widen the genre even further.

We've also seen APB and CrimeCraft ply their trade as MMOFPSs. In CrimeCraft's case they launched initially with a subscription model but moved to free-to-play shortly afterwards. APB notoriously went under as a going concern shortly after its release, but the game's assets were purchased by GamersFirst and is relaunching as a free-to-play title (as it probably should have originally when it was operated by Realtime Worlds) later this year.

This brings me to Huxley.

Just kidding, that shit is the very definition of vapourware.

So it's clear that there are several full MMOFPS games in development (and hopefully we'll be seeing PlanetSide Next sooner, rather than later, although the recent lack of information from SOE does have me slightly concerned) as well as games using some of their nuances but stopping slightly short of being a true MMO. In particular I think Firefall is one to watch. Free-to-play is definitely the buzzword of the industry right now; both Lord of the Rings Online and Champions Online saw tremendous revenue increases after they made the move from subscription to free, and it seems that the market is increasingly moving in this direction.

All that's required is for someone to cater to FPS players and make an MMO that really delivers on what PlanetSide could (should?) have been. Whether that turns out to be PlanetSide Next, Titan, or some other title, remains to be seen.

Watch this space!

Not A Banner Day For EA Or BioWare

noreply@blogger.com (Gaff) — Sat, 12 Mar 2011 00:44:00 +0000

You've been hard at work on the sequel to what many people consider to be the best RPG of the past decade. Time to sit back with a cold beverage and watch the accolades roll in, right? Not if you are EA and BioWare.

First came the news this morning that copies of Dragon Age II seemed to contain SecuROM, a much-maligned security program that comes dangerously close to being considered a rootkit. The problem is that this was not mentioned anywhere, and in fact BioWare a fortnight ago stated that SecuROM would not be used. In fact, EA are enjoined (prevented) by court order from using SecuROM in any game without fully disclosing it, this one of the terms of the settlement arising from the shitstorm with Spore's draconian DRM a few years ago.

Then on top of that came a story that EA had banned an individual on the BioWare forums, but that that ban had in turn locked him out of playing all of his EA games, including his newly-purchased copy of Dragon Age II. His crime? Reportedly he posted (to BioWare), "Have you sold your soul to the EA devil?" Clearly something that warrants a 3-day ban from all EA forums (including BioWare's) and all of your EA games, right?

The individual, going by the nickname v_ware, had his ban confirmed by Stanley Woo, a BioWare employee, as well as by an unnamed BioWare moderator (who refused to comment further, according to RockPaperShotgun).

Once the story started being picked up by sites such as the aforementioned RPS, Eurogamer, Kotaku and others, EA swiftly slammed on the brakes and reversed course, rescinding v_ware's forum ban and his EA account ban and restoring access to his (fully paid for) games.

Apparently it was all a big misunderstanding (as these things so often are, of course). Now it was "an error in the system" that banned not only his BioWare forum account but also his entire EA account and prevented him from playing the games that he had, quite legitimately, purchased. The fact that this "error" only came to light after a substantial portion of the gaming press had picked up the story and run with it, was mere coincidence. No doubt he would still have been unbanned even if he hadn't publicised the situation to anyone who would listen.

So on a day where we should have been paying attention to more interesting things, such as this snazzy new trailer for Star Wars: The Old Republic, we instead get bogged down dealing with crapfests like this from EA and BioWare.

While I appreciate their apology and withdrawal of their ban, I do not believe it would have happened without the microscope that the gaming press provided for most of the day, and that EA capitulated as a direct result of this negative attention.

The SecuROM issue may be more problematic to fix, since EA are under a court order whereby they are compelled to fully disclose any use of SecuROM (and in this situation did not); violation of this court order could be considered contempt of court, with all of the seriousness that that entails.

So what have we learned?

Large corporations make mistakes, and shining a torch on those mistakes is a good way of trying to get the situation resolved.

Oh, and obeying court orders is for squares.

Edit:

BioWare have responded to the SecuROM allegations and stated that DA2 does not contain SecuROM. What it does contain is a release-day check that has many technical similarities to SecuROM, but isn't actually SecuROM itself.

Death Of PC Gaming Exaggerated - "I was never really that ill" It Is Quoted As Saying

noreply@blogger.com (Gaff) — Wed, 02 Mar 2011 06:24:00 +0000

The PC Gaming Alliance today released a report showing that in year-on-year growth (2009 - 2010) the PC market took in $16.2 billion, an increase of 20%.

Unsurprisingly, more than 25% of that revenue came from China alone, with the rise of F2P titles and the popularity of browser games contributing considerably towards this. Not to be left out, $7.3bn came from the combined sales of the UK, US, Germany, Japan and South Korea.

Apparently, all those naysayers who insisted that the PC was dead as a gaming platform were completely and utterly wrong. Who would have thought it?

The report also shows that Steam currently leads the way in digital distribution, with an estimated 70% of the digital PC distribution market, but with competitors such as Impulse and Direct2Drive hot on their heels and predicted to increase their market share over the next few years.

It seems that publishers are beginning to wise up to the fact that they can get a bigger slice of the pie by bypassing traditional bricks-and-mortar stores and just selling directly to the public digitally, eliminating a good portion of their costs, as well as the cut that the retailers take, in the process.

Steam are the clear leader in this segment right now, but I'd expect some heavy competition coming out from the smaller players (likely comprising of some heavy discounts as Valve are themselves wont to do, or perhaps timed exclusives whereby one of the smaller digital firms gets the rights to sell certain games for, say, a month, before they become available on Steam and everywhere else).

So the sky isn't falling, developers and publishers aren't leaving the PC in droves and the PC is continuing to keep pace with consoles. And speaking of consoles, their most recently-available sales figures (2009) indicate a total revenue of almost $19.7bn (this figure represents PS2, PS3, X-Box 360, Nintendo DS and Sony PSP figures, combined).

On the one hand you have the PC - by itself - at $16.2bn, and essentially every console on the market today, at $19.7bn. The PC is close to beating everyone else combined, and is greater than any single individual segment (even the 360, Microsoft's Holy Grail).

PC Gaming. RIP.

Previously On PlanetSide Next

noreply@blogger.com (Gaff) — Sun, 13 Feb 2011 23:52:00 +0000

Since we are (apparently) inching closer and closer to March, which is when we are supposed to see the release of PSN (or perhaps some kind of open beta announcement), I thought I'd post a recap on all of the salient information that has been released so far on the game to get everyone up to speed.

The first information we received that a sequel to PlanetSide was on its way was when an email survey went out to many ex-subscribers at the end of September 2009. It stated that another game in the PlanetSide universe was forthcoming and that Sony wanted the input of former players to help shape this new game's development.

After that, there was silence for over a year. No one knew whether the game was still under active development or had been silently killed by SOE. But then...revelation. On 8th December 2010 The Escapist published an interview with John Smedley (President of Sony Online Entertainment) where he gave a back-alley confirmation that not only was the game still being developed, but that we would likely be seeing it sometime this coming Spring (specifically March / April). The entire PlanetSide universe (myself and three others) was shaken to the hilt; all praising SOE for making such a thing possible in so short a time.

While there is still very little solid gameplay information out there about Next, John Smedley has been a one-man PR campaign, releasing several PlanetSide Next models both on his Twitter feed and also in collaboration with the popular PlanetSide fansite PlanetSide Universe.

The first image to do the rounds was a revamped Vanguard (New Conglomerate tank):

Original model from PlanetSide

New model from PlanetSide Next

After that we received the new Galaxy (common, large, troop-carrying aircraft):

Original model from PlanetSide

New Galaxy model from PlanetSide Next

This was followed a couple of weeks later by the new Reaver model (common, medium air assault vehicle):

Original model from PlanetSide

New Reaver model from PlanetSide Next

And then the new Mosquito (common, light air assault / support vehicle) shortly afterwards:

Original model from PlanetSide

New Mosquito model from PlanetSide Next

Over the weekend we received the latest model released by PSU (via John Smedley), that of a Terran Republic soldier:

Some TR soldier models from the original PlanetSide

New TR soldier model from PlanetSide Next

From looking at the before-and-after shots it's quite clear to see that all of the new models are much more detailed than those of the original game, comprising of many more times the polygons of the original versions.

These images represent all that is publicly known about PlanetSide Next to date. Assuming that a March / April release date is still on the cards (and we have no reason to believe that it isn't) then I would expect to hear more news later this month, hopefully comprising of solid gameplay information and perhaps some more screenshots and videos, to boot.

All I can say is: bring on March!

I Present...The First Screenshot From PlanetSide Next

noreply@blogger.com (Gaff) — Sat, 22 Jan 2011 17:58:00 +0000

Posted by John Smedley via Twitter yesterday.

It's a New Conglomerate tank, possibly a Vanguard (for comparison, this is what a Vanguard looked like in the original game).

This implies that the original triumvirate of the NC, Terran Republic and the Vanu Sovereignty has remained intact for the sequel.

This is officially Good News.

Microsoft To Push PC Gaming In Windows 8 (Stop Me If You've Heard This One Before)

noreply@blogger.com (Gaff) — Sat, 08 Jan 2011 16:08:00 +0000

Shortly before Christmas came word from the usual tech rumour mill sites that with the upcoming Windows 8 OS Microsoft will be heavily promoting the idea of the PC as a gaming platform.

You may notice that this sounds somewhat familiar, as it's precisely what they said with the launch of Windows Vista, Games For Windows Live, Windows XP and probably DOS for all I know (I'm not that old).

I've already castigated Games For Windows Live multiple times on this blog, and rightly so because for the most part it is a load of crap that pales when compared to Steam or even Impulse. What seems more likely is that Microsoft have seen the tremendous revenues that Steam is producing, both for Valve themselves and also the developers and publishers who push their works out to Steam, and have figured they want in on that. Knowing that GFWL is essentially tainted to the point of no return by most serious PC gamers, they may well be cooking up something that is baked into the OS itself, eliminating the need even for someone to have to go and download a client.

I can see potential in this, but I'm sure that GFWL is going to make an appearance in here somewhere. Frankly I am of the opinion that the entire GFWL system as a whole needs a 100% revamp from top to bottom, including the client, backend online store and the services that support them. Only then can it even hope to compete with Steam which at this point dominates the PC digital distribution market. I'm not saying Microsoft needs to just put out a Steam clone, but Valve have been innovating and tinkering with Steam for over five years now. Some things haven't worked out, but others have been a massive success. By comparison, GFWL has only existed for a couple of years and has really gotten the short end of the stick from Microsoft, who love to throw money at X-Box Live instead of trying to promote and expand PC gaming.

This will probably just turn out to be a lot of hot air anyway. Microsoft have continually let PC gamers down over the years, whether that has been making Vista's gaming performance worse than XP's, treating a great new IP like Freelancer like crap, and then getting out of the PC game publishing business altogether. Contrast this to Valve, Stardock or hell even Electronic Arts (recently at least) who have been pushing the PC hard as a gaming platform of equal status to the PS3 and X-Box 360 and it's clear that it's easy to put out press releases and slip a few rumours here and there about how much you love PC gaming, but putting your money where your mouth is and actually doing something about it is what separates the men from the boys.

Colour me highly sceptical until I see some solid proposals from Microsoft about how they mean to achieve this purported focus in Windows 8. I'll be the guy over here playing games with my friends - on Steam.