Hi-Rez Studios takes PAX East 2012 by storm just days ahead of the release of Tribes: Ascend. Expanding upon previous run ins, iTZKooPA catches up with the fast-paced COO, Todd Harris, of the fast-paced shooter to chat about the title’s future.
The pair discuss everything from eSports aspirations, monetization, future content and spreadsheets. Yes, Hi-Rez Studios is well versed in the science of spreadsheets and data collection. Join us for all the boring details.
This weekend was the fifth closed beta test for En Masse’s TERA, and the first time we got to see an invasion event, in the form of the capital city Velika being attacked.
To begin, I’m not entirely sure if this invasion event was meant strictly for stress test purposes, or if this is how some of these events will play out, but I have to say I was disappointed with it all around.
From what I heard and read, the first invasion event on Friday night was almost unplayable due to lag, luckly for me I missed that one and instead videoed last night’s invasion event, which seemed to run much smoother, although my framerate never got over 15.
I got to the event about 15 mins after it started and was pretty surprised how many people were there; easily over a hundred, although most people were invisible, which is one of the things that really bothered me. I get that servers can’t have hundreds of players and NPCs on screen at the same time, but making most of the people invisible really kills the fantasy of it all.
A few times I had to sit there and wait for mobs to show up on screen, which wasn’t so bad, but it also caused me to die a bunch of times, since I was running into invisible mobs that could kill me in one hit.
The invasion itself was pretty chaotic, but it didn’t feel like an invasion. Groups of mobs would just randomly appear one after another and once dead, the next wave of mobs would appear. Again, I’m not sure if this was just a stress test or if this is how invasions will work after launch, but in the current form, it needs work.
My archer was level 16 and I found myself to be pretty useless. The current beta level cap is 38, but in the video you can see for bosses, I was only hitting for 1-2 damage with my normal attack and 9-10 with power attacks. I fared a bit better against regular mobs, hitting them for 8-9 with normal attacks and low 20′s for power attacks, but it’s clear these events are going to be tailored for higher level players.
I also didn’t notice any drops, rewards or even XP for kills during the invasion, but I’m going to assume there will be after launch. Another question I have is what happens if there are not enough defenders to repel the attack? Is it possible to actually lose an invasion event and if so, are there any consequences? I sure hope so, otherwise I’m not sure what the point of invasions are, other then to add another form of PvE grinding.
Check out the video below of the TERA Velika Invasion Event from Saturday.
Funcom released a new video today for The Secret World from their press presentation at GDC 2012, which was held behind closed doors, and so far unseen by the public. The video is about 35 mins long, and walks players through the character creation process; as well as some of the early game experience, game systems, and “The Darkness War” dungeon.
In the video we see the Dragon faction’s starting area, as the female player finds a weird kid in a rain-coat standing in-front of her upon first login; then begins to follow him. The game then takes a very quick turn into a sort of lesbian-matrix reveal where a women tells you, in the same way Morphius told Neo, that what you think is true and real, really isn’t. At this point you have sex with the woman. Yes, very weird.
Up next the video skips forward to the Tokyo flashback quickly, then switches again to show combat mechanics. Here we learn that there are 500 abilities that players can use their points on, but players will have to select only 7 active abilities and 7 passive ones for their character builds.
As the video progresses we see a containment camp, where a government field team is trying to contain something called the “Filth”. We get to learn a little more about the Filth via the voiced cut-scene, then the video moves on to a quest in the same area.
The next part of the video takes us to Transylvania where we get to see some vampire fights. We also hear more about the crafting system, called transcribing, where players break-down items they find in the game and rebuild them to fit their needs.
Towards the end of the video, the last 7 mins or so, we get to see one of the dungeons, called “The Darkness War”, which is a five-man dungeon. This instance sends players back to the past in England, about a thousand years, and in the video we get to see the final boss fight. The boss is a giant bore like animal with huge dragon wings.
Below you can watch the full video presentation.
We’re glad to inform you that Perfect World Entertainment will be releasing Zombie Studio’s free-to-play FPS Blacklight: Retribution on April 3, 2012.
Shwing!
The title is currently in Open Beta, so you might as well jump in an begin leveling your permanent character now. If the “headstart” isn’t a good enough incentive for you.
How about this tidbit: The game is currently undergoing a Bonus XP Weekend. Actually, that’s weekend++, as the event will end on Tuesday!
We’re not worthy!
“After five successive months of closed and open beta testing, Blacklight Retribution has recruited a strong community of dedicated players that have provided valuable feedback for our development team to create a tight and polished free-to-play game with innovative and exciting features,” said Andrew Brown, Executive Producer for Perfect World Entertainment. “Our team has been working really hard to prepare the game for its release, including additional content like new game modes, supporting maps, and a variety of new weapons and related gameplay enhancers.”
Above you’ll find the latest trailer for Blacklight: Retribution. To be fair, it’s geared more towards getting your adrenaline pumping than showcasing in-game experiences. This blogger has never faced enemies that stupid, or that willing to spill their blood, which doesn’t exist in BLR.
“Add it in post” indeed.
(Sorry, I just watched Wayne’s World).
[Update]
In fact, this was confirmed and expanded upon by the Creative Head of Zombie Studios, Jared Gerrtizen:
Aftereffects and a path in the video that isn’t in the map…. Heads have rolled.
Zombie Studios takes its community very seriously.
NCSoft today announced that the free-to-play version of Aion will be launching on April 11th. Aion will be truely F2P, with no content restrictions or account tiers. The highly anticipated update 3.0, called Aion: Ascension will bring with it two new systems, C.U.B.E and the Atreian Atlas.
C.U.B.E, which stands for Customizable User Bundling Experience, is just a fancy way of saying you’ll be able to make your own item-store bundles to purchase from the Aion Store. How it works is that players purchase the Cube from the Black Cloud Marketplace, then can place as many store-items into it as they can fit. There will be different size Cubes, at different price-points, depending how many items you want to buy. Pretty clever idea by not allowing players to buy just one item, instead only allowing bundles; which obviously costs a lot more.
The second major feature is the Atreian Atlas; which acts as a guide for players throughout the game. The system will provide players with quest details on past completed quests, upcoming ones including: quest difficulty, minimal suggested level, related quests, maps, videos, guides, boss info, etc. Pretty much everything you need to know in order to complete any quest, aside from the Atlas actually completing it for you.
Along with those two new features, update 3.0 will also raise the level cap to 60 (from 55), introduce two new zones, 6 new instances, and add more housing and mount choices.
Below you can watch the Aion: Ascension trailer.
This past weekend was the third closed beta test event for TERA; but since it didn’t really include any cool new features, I decided to just explore and see how far I could climb up one of the many mountains.
I wasn’t originally going to upload this video, but since it’s a slow news day, and I don’t really have anything of interest to write about, I figured why not.
The video below shows my character near the top of one of these mountains. TERA uses invisible walls to keep you from climbing up, but after some trial and error, I was able to get around most of them: until I approached the summit and couldn’t go any further. TERA is one of the best looking MMORPGs ever, so the views were quite breathtaking. Even though the video is only a minute long, I was probably there for about ten; albeit, I was trying to climb up further most of that time.
It’s also pretty cool how far you can actually see from the top. Most games won’t let you see any further than the zone you’re in, but in the top-right screenshot, that area you see in the distance is actually another zone. Pretty impressive. Anyway, check out the video below.
The latest major content update to Lord of the Rings Online went live today, Update 6: Shores of the Great River, and with it, the official update trailer.
Below, you can read some of the major new additions and changes to the game, and after the jump you can view the full trailer.
The Great River Region
Travel along the shores of the mighty Anduin in the expansive new region coming in Update 6! The signs of war are all around you as Isengard and Barad-dûr put their dark plans into motion. Push back the Easterlings, dangerous brigands and an ancient enemy of Rohan, as they gather for an attack on Rohan and Lórien. Explore seven new areas along the upper Anduin including the green plains of Parth Celebrant where treacherous shades roam, unable to rest.
The Great River region is free to VIPs!
Epic Story
The latest chapter in LOTRO’s free Epic Story awaits! Travel to Lothlórien to seek Galadriel’s wisdom after experiencing troubling dreams. Investigate the grim tidings along the Great River, but be prepared as the evidence may point to a foe more terrible than your darkest nightmares.
Soldier on Landscape
Get the helping hand you need with LOTRO’s new Soldier on Landscape! This new feature allows you to summon your faithful skirmish companion in the field. Customize your skirmish solider to help you tackle even the toughest challenges!
Instance Finder Update
You spoke, we listened, and now we’re making Instance Finder better than ever! Instance Finder will soon allow you to queue for the specific instances and skirmishes that you want to do. You can also choose to change loot rules and remove players with a fellowship vote. The rewards are being enhanced, too, granting additional XP for skirmish completion and scaling currency bonuses for when you queue for a larger range of instances.
It seems I missed the announcement back in July when 20thCentury Fox announced they were making a Family Guy Online MMO game, so you can imagine my surprise when I saw IGN had a trailer for it. If there weren’t enough horrible MMO games around before, I think we can now officially say we’ve hit the limit.
Have we finally gotten to the point where production companies are going to start releasing MMO games to coincide with movie releases and popular TV shows? I certainly hope not. We all know how good games like CSI: The Game or House MD or any Transformers games have been.
In all fairness, I’m sure Family Guy Online will be humorous and enjoyable for a short period of time to fans of the show and it will be free-to-play so that should attract players. I just do see anyone liking the game enough, more than a novelty, to actually spend money on it.
Anyway, check out the Family Guy Online trailer below and let us know what you think.
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Eve Online Score: 8.75
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| Rank | Game Title | Score |
| 2 | Runes of Magic | 8.38 |
| 3 | Star Wars: The Old Republic | 8.25 |
| 4 | TERA | 7.94 |
| 5 | RIFT | 7.94 |
| 6 | SMITE | 7.94 |
| 7 | World of Tanks | 7.88 |
| 8 | World of Warcraft | 7.88 |
| 9 | Guild Wars | 7.81 |
| 10 | League of Legends | 7.75 |
