Category: MMO

Rumor: Final Fantasy XIV Coming to the XBox 360?

Final Fantasy 14We’ve known for quite some time that Final Fantasy XIII was going to be gracing Microsoft’s gaming console with its JRPG presence in 2010. In fact, just recently we’ve found out how many stinking discs the game is going to occupy when it finally releases for the 360. That’s three discs for those of you keeping score at home. Yes, more than Mass Effect 2. Gasp! Outrage!

Anyway, while we’ve known what the deal was going to be with Final Fantasy XIII, speculation still swirled around the next title in the long-standing series from Square-Enix. Final Fantasy XIV was a big announcement unleashed by Sony at E3 2009, along with the apparent promise of exclusivity. However, a recent LinkedIn profile from a Square-Enix employee suggests that the in-production MMO is going to see a simultaneous release of sorts on the XBox 360 as well. No, that has not been announced, but last year the RPG maker’s executives hinted that talks just might be in the works. While this seems like a genuine confirmation that the speculation is true, it could just be an honest mistake from an employee.

Honestly, this isn’t altogether too surprising, seeing as how many Japanese developers are doing everything they can to garner more of a Western audience, which means opening up to the XBox 360’s predominantly Western core. So what do you guys think about this? Excited? Reserved? Indifferent?

Source- 1UP and Siliconera

World of Warcraft Patch Trailer Announces the Beginning of the End

Say what you will about World of Warcraft and what it’s doing to PC gaming, there’s just no denying that Blizzard knows how to promote their product. This latest trailer is similar in style to the one that Blizzard released for the Ulduar patch a while back in that it sets the stage for the upcoming (and final) dungeon of the Wrath of the Lich King expansion.

Since the Lich King has been a big character in Warcraft lore for years, you can bet that there’s going to be some epic showdowns with the titular baddie. There’s also some pretty neat UI and game-play improvements, but I’m still most impressed with Blizzard’s ability to make a game this old look so good.

What else can we expect from this patch? Justice.

Blizzard Dispenses Advice for Failing MMOs

worldofwarcraft
If you’re setting out to make a successful MMO, I imagine that there’s one undercurrent of thought running throughout the entire design phase: be like World of Warcraft. It seems like a sound plan, seeing as how that game pumps out more golden Ferraris than a Twilight movie release, but it may backfire on you sooner than you think.

According to Blizzard Lead Producer Shane Dabiri, more WoW clones are not what MMORPG fans want right now. While he says that Blizzard finds it flattering that so many companies want to emulate their success with World of Warcraft (imitation is the most sincere form of adulation, after all), trying to pull the same maneuvers may not lead to the big hit that most developers hope for.

He goes on to say that people who have invested a lot of time in Warcraft don’t want to do the same things in a different game. As a Warcraft player myself, I couldn’t agree more. Before I moved over to Blizzard’s digital demolisher I used to play Star Wars Galaxies, which, while it had its problems, was a fairly unique and engaging game. All that changed when the development team took a look at Warcraft and said “we need to do that!”

Soon after that all the hybrid classes were gone, the economy got thrown out the window and Jedi ran all over the place like a herd of ill-disciplined children. Star Wars Galaxies tried so hard to be World of Warcraft but fell so far short it was almost embarrassing. Game after game has bowed to the mighty MMO, but there are few titles on the horizon that may challenge the market by being different. The upcoming Star Wars MMO by BioWare is my current favorite to at least show some decent competition, but I can’t pretend that DC Online isn’t making a strong bid either.

What do you guys think? Has World of Warcraft ruined the MMO scene, or will future MMOs learn a lesson and try something new?

Source: CVG

Fighting Gaming Addictions

everquestEven though I joke about being addicted to video games, I don’t think I can ever honestly say that I’ve had a real actual addiction to them at any point in my life. Thankfully, games have been an area where the fun stays fun, and I can walk away if something is sucking away too much of my life, though Counter-Strike came close to reversing that.

A really interesting article went up a couple of days ago on Kotaku called I Kept Playing – The Cost of My Gaming Addiction. I highly recommend reading it for any of you who have ever had a problem with MMOs (or any game for that matter), or if you’ve had friends affected by the kinds of addiction described within. He describes losing two jobs and the love of his life, all for Everquest. While I’ve had my share of difficulties in one area or another over the years, I’ve never experienced need for something to that level. It really is frightening to think that something could come along and uproot everything that people work for. And a videogame, of all things.

A few years back, my brother went through a pretty rough time where Everquest was all he did. It took him awhile to come out of the funk, and he doesn’t like to think back on it. He’s all better now, thankfully, and living a normal life, but those years were a little nuts. What about you guys? Have you ever known anybody who’s had a gaming addiction like this?

Source- Kotaku

TGS: Final Fantasy XIV Trailer

Malboros! I know Final Fantasy XIII still isn’t out yet, but that doesn’t mean that we can’t have trailers for Final Fantasy XIV, the new MMO (maybe) entry into the series. While Final Fantasy XI never really did it for me, something about the art and the presentation of what I’ve seen so far for FF XIV have been striking.

This new FFXIV trailer straight from TGS only solidifies this position for me. Unless I’m wrong, am I spotting a hint about air and sea battles? Sign me up.

All Points Bulletin Trailer Hits the Streets

Have you been wondering what Crackdown developer Realtime Worlds has been doing since 2007 when their game launched? Well, wonder no more as you absorb the awesome trailer for All Points Bulletin (APB), a free-to-play MMO. It looks a lot like GTA IV multi-player, and as long as they can get it to be a lot more stable than that I think we’ve got a hit on our hands.

In APB, you can join one of two sides, the Enforcers or the Criminals. Once you’ve chosen your side, you can fully customize your own gang and roam around the city with friends hitting fools with you car. The shooting looks pretty tight as well, and I’m very intrigued by the option to recreate the look of the Beastie Boys out of their “Sabotage” video and rip around the streets.

APB is set to debut on both the PC and the 360 in March 2010. Given that Crackdown was a huge sleeper hit, I think that there’s going to be a large player base when this game comes out. Who’s going to be giving APB a try, and on what platform?

Champions Online Beta Impressions

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I’m a big fan of MMOs. I played Star Wars Galaxies almost every day until Revenge of the Sith came out, and brought with it the Trials of Obi-Wan Expansion, which totally ruined the game with dumbed down controls and even more powerful bugs than before. After that, I started playing World of Warcraft, making first a Mage, then a Paladin, and finally a Death Knight. With Star Wars: The Old Republic and the newly announced World of Warcraft expansion, Cataclysm, looming in the distance, I took it upon myself to try out one of the smaller MMOs on the market.

Cryptic Studio’s Champions Online, based on the pen-and-paper RPG, launched an open beta last week for those of us who had either pre-ordered the game or have a FilePlanet subscription. Not exactly “open” in every sense of the word, but at least it gives people an opportunity to try out the game before they lock into a monthly subscription. (And only for the low, low price of $49.95!)

For those of you who are unfamiliar with Cryptic Studios, these are the people behind City of Heroes/Villains and the forthcoming Star Trek Online. They have the pedigree of a successful MMO crafter behind them, but does Champions Online have the hooks necessary to combat Blizzard’s juggernaut? Continue reading Champions Online Beta Impressions

Time Well Spent

elder-scrolls-iv-oblivion-screenshot-_41I have a decent collection of games for the 360 – more than a dozen, if you count XBLA titles – but the game I’ve played far more than any other is Oblivion. At last count, I’ve put in somewhere in the neighborhood of 140 hours. I have a friend who has put in 200+ hours and he hasn’t even finished the main quest line. I think he just likes grinding in dungeons.

Now, I love the game, but I reached a point recently where I started wanting nothing more than to just beat the damn thing. That’s a bit of a herculean task when it comes to an open-world game like Oblivion. It’s not that I haven’t done my best. I’ve completed the main quest-line, as well as the quest-lines for almost all of the guilds and both the Knights of the Nine and the Shivering Isles expansion packs… but I’m not done yet because I don’t have all of the achievements.

Continue reading Time Well Spent

Star Wars: The Old Republic Timeline Trailer 3

Bioware needs to stop teasing me about this game that I can not and must not allow myself to play. Star Wars: The Old Republic, as an MMO, would probably be the end of my social life as I know it, but I can’t help but watch these awesome trailers and hold down my excitement. The newest trailer is yet another glimpse of the timeline of the new game, this time chronicling the rise of the new Mandalore. Nerdy and awesome? You bet.

SWTOR Trailer is Badass, Has Lightsabers

Wow. See, they should have just let Bioware make the Star Wars prequels. If this new ridiculously awesome trailer for Star Wars: The Old Republic is any indication, this game is going to be epic beyond belief. I mean, hundreds of jedi and sith squaring off? Seriously, this is just cool. Maybe the best trailer out of E3 so far. Thoughts?

Microsoft Working on 300,000 Person MMO?

xblIt’s no secret that MMO’s are the train that every major developer hopes to ride into money country, following the trend of Blizzard’s oh-so-popular moolah machine, World of Warcraft. While we know that Microsoft previously worked on a Halo MMO that was ultimately canned, some have speculated that they still had something else they were constructing in the shadows.

Well, a recent post on DevelopMag shows that Microsoft is not only looking to get into the MMO genre, but to jump into it with flying colors. Apparently, Microsoft is working on having a game that can support 300,000 simultaneous players at once over XBox Live. To give you an idea of how nuts that is, EVE Online supports 300k players total. The most ever online at once was 50,000. Kind of crazy.

It definitely makes you wonder what kind of property this MMO is, considering that MS expects to have so many players on at once. A different, resurrected Halo MMO perhaps? It’s the only thing I can think of that would possibly be a big enough IP to attract an audience that large. Thoughts?

Source- DevelopMag

Top Ten Most Needed MMO’s

bioshockI know that one day, an MMO will nab me and never let me go. I’m totally in love with the idea of them, but the gameplay has yet to really catch me on any particular one. And with everybody and their mom starting to turn IP’s into that now popular genre, it’s only a matter of time before one really inserts itself into my daily gaming.

That being said, MMORPG has put together a lost of the top 10 games that need to be MMO’s, and I have to say they have some really crazy but interesting ideas. While I don’t know if a Madden MMO would work, I can see it having that mass appeal that developers are looking for. The possibility of a Nintendo based world is nifty, as well. Also, the idea of zombie MMO where survivors try to find one another amidst a world overrun by the undead sounds cool as hell.

This list is definitely worth reading. What do you guys think of the ideas that are laid out? What is your favorite? Go!

Source- MMORPG

WoW: Secrets of Ulduar Trailer is Fine Machinima

Now this is something you don’t see everyday. As games’ technology gets more and more advanced, it seems that many developers are turning to in-game cinematics rather than the CG artistry of old. Heck, even MGS4’s cut scenes were filmed with a real time camera tool. It’s pretty cool then, to see Blizzard using this machinima trailer to promote its next part of the Wrath of the Lich King, Secrets of Ulduar. The animation is slick and the visuals rock, to boot. Great stuff.

Star Wars: The Old Republic Timeline Trailer

Wow. Everytime I start to forget about the KOTOR MMO (or as it’s supposed to be known, The Old Republic), Bioware dishes out some kind of tease that keeps me coming back for more. Try as I might to avoid this game, I think it will inevitably grip me with a sarlacc pit fierceness.

The newest trailer features the voice of Lance Henrisken (Bishop from Aliens, duh) as the keeper of the Jedi archives. He narrates The Old Republic timeline that leads up to the MMO, and I have to say that it is both epic and enticing. Man, I can’t wait for this game.

It’s also neat to hear that the game will be taking place after the first two KOTOR games. For some reason, I thought it was a prequel. Silly me. Anywho, just watch it.

Today’s Do Want: EVE Fan Video, Day of Darkness II

EVE Online, the space MMO that is home to brigands, rogues and generally awesome dudes, always seems to come along and tantalize me. Particularly after a fan trailer like this latest machinima work from EVE player Dire Lauthris. The video is produced mostly with in-game footage (though he adds some sizzle here and there), and is also incredible. Apparently, he’s been working on it since back in 2007.

If you want to hear more about the dude’s methods, check out the EVE forums.

Source- RPS

Would You Pay For A Console MMO?

wow-360While you can’t fault a company for trying to make money (that is their purpose after all), I’m a tad miffed at hearing of the constant nickel-and-diming that is starting to pop up in the video games industry. I am all about paying for great content that is worth the money, but when I hear about EA having map packs and weapons for sale less than two weeks after Godfather II’s release, I’m annoyed.

The same goes with hearing the latest rumor that Microsoft is working really hard to nail down a pricing structure for an XBox 360 MMO at some point in the future. While this shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise, it’s just a shame to hear about a service that already charges money for ongoing online costs expecting to get more money for an individual game. While lots of people pay for MMO’s on the PC, this just isn’t something we’ve seen yet on a console.

So what do you guys think? Would you pay money to play an MMO on your console? And for 360 owners, what’s the alternative? Personally, I might not mind an additional tier to the XBox Live subscription that allowed me to play all MMO’s, but the idea of paying two fees at once still bugs me. Thoughts?

Source- Destructoid

Rumor: Fallout MMO in the Works?

fallout3ps3MMO’s. Everybody’s doing them, so you should, too. One day, every game ever will be an MMO. Well, maybe not, but sometimes it seems that way, no? Heck, even ZeniMax Studios, parent company of a nifty little outfit called Bethesda, wants to get in on the action.

Yup, that’s right. The dudes that own Bethesda are looking at hiring some folks to make themselves an MMO. They’ve already nabbed some Blizzard talent, and are currently searching for additional game dudes.

So, could this mean that a Fallout or Elder Scrolls MMO could be in the works? Interesting thought indeed. I must say that I really do like the idea of living in an online world full of vaults, and traveling across barren landscapes to reach other areas. I mean, imagine living in the city you actually live in, only in Fallout style. What do you guys think?

Source- Destructoid

First Old Republic Webcomic Is Live

swtorBioware is hard at work on The Old Republic, the MMO continuation of the KOTOR franchise. Right now, this is the only MMO that I’ve ever really been tempted to play, and the more content I see, the more I just salivate and have to avoid the Internet altogether. Seriously, this game might ruin me.

In preparation for the inevitable albeit mysterious release date of the Star Wars MMO, Bioware has published the first TOR webcomic. By the time the game comes out, there will be six total. Perhaps when the second one comes out, we’ll have a better idea of when this game might launch.

As far as webcomics go, I’m a big fan of the art, and it looks like it’s setting us up for a pretty grand and epic space opera once the game hits. While many of the commenters hilariously feel the need to gripe about what is just a bit of a prequel piece, I enjoyed it. What do you guys think?

Source- Star Wars: The Old Republic

EVE Players Pulls off Most Badass Grief Job Ever

eveWow. This is one for the record books. Seriously. I’ve heard of some crazy junk going down in multiplayer games, but this one really takes the epic griefing cake. Basically, last night, a virtual mega-corporation was taken over, and it all happened inside of EVE Online.

For those of you who are unaware about EVE, it is essentially a spaceship-fighting MMO. It’s a lot bigger than that, but that’s the simplified version. Basically, in this game, there are guilds, factions, corporations and the like, the biggest of which was known as the Band of Brothers, which owned most of the territory in the game for quite some time… up until last night. When spies attacked. What follows is the greatest gaming teabag of all time.

Continue reading EVE Players Pulls off Most Badass Grief Job Ever

Star Wars: The Old Republic Trailer

Here’s a new trailer from Bioware’s MMO, The Old Republic. While it may seem like just a regular old “making of” featurette, there’s actually a good bit of stuff from the game as it goes on. The more I see from this game, the more it ratchets up the “do want” meter that exists somewhere inside of my brain. Curse you Bioware!

Source- Kotaku