Game News

General news about specific MassMOGs and the like.

City of Heroes Available For Mac Gamers

Submitted by Hoza on January 12, 2009 - 5:42am

NCsoft has announced the availability of the City of Heroes: Mac Special Edition. The Mac Special Edition is a download-only client that includes the usual 30 days of play time and "a set of exclusive in-game items."

Hurray for Mac folks, eh? Mac players will play alongside PC players, by the way -- in case that doesn't fall more in the "well they sure as poop should be able to!!" category on its own.

"Achievements" to hit World of Warcraft

Submitted by Hoza on July 21, 2008 - 2:51pm

Um, is this a Good Thing? World of Warcraft is rolling in "player achievements" with the Wrath of the Lich King expansion.

...*sigh*

I'm slightly intrigued, but a bit more revolted by what feels like a strange addition to the game. Here's where I found a take on it that can I relate to. Although I'm on the "they pull me back in" phase of my journey with WoW, I've most certainly begun to find an end in sight with some of the end-game goofiness. Here's the thing... I've never been in the WoW end-game world before pretty recently.

I played the game since late-ish beta and loved it for a year.5, but fell out of things before ever getting to 60 with any avatars... yeah, I played the game for well over a year and never hit 60. I was always soloing or playing with a single friend while my guild went through the raid progressions of the time. I was never quite high enough level as I wasn't playing nearly as much as others in the guild. Playing catch-up for over a year finally wore on me and I let the 'scrip go.

Then, after Burning Crusade came out, I got back in to see how things were. I finally leveled to 60 and had only two people to rejoice with -- everyone else laughed and pointed. ...onward to 70! Yay. Now I've been in the world of 70's for a while and I'm of course massively undergeared, even with most peoples' 2nd or 3rd alts. Yay!

So I've found a home of sorts in the world of PvP and here's where I realize this game is testing my limits of determination for MassMOGs in the long run. I would really love to do some of the raiding since I missed out on almost all of the instances -- no exaggeration -- but I don't have time to run through any of this stuff unless that Lotto check comes in.

Running battlegrounds persistently has scored me copious amounts of honor and more AV marks than I can possibly spend (maybe I should buy another Stormpike Battle Charger, just in case my other one gets tired??). Now my gear isn't totally crap (for PvP, anyway) but I still have a LONG way to go in that world... how much more can I take of running BG's repeatedly just to get the currency to buy gear so I can run BG's more effectively??!? Oh, and by the way, Season 4 just came out, so now I'm getting rapidly outgeared -- if my outgeared gear wasn't outgeared enough already.

My nephew and a good friend of mine want to start an arena team, so that's why I'm currently motivated to gear up. We'll see how that goes, but damn, it's been months of playing just to get geared enough to feel like we can do anything worthwhile in PvP! All that gearing to prep us for more gearing! Whooo!!

Anyway, I told you all that to tell you this: Achievements??!?

Maybe I don't get it, but I'm not about to embark on the journey of re-exploring the world so I can have a new tabard to mark my achievements. Now, I might find some satisfaction in getting this achievement!

...maybe I'm missing something.

...maybe I'm just rambling about nothing worth reading. Well, you can stop now. :-P

City of Heroes and City of Villains Merge

Submitted by Hoza on July 17, 2008 - 11:33pm

Ya know... it's long, but just read the press release -- with all the fluff and fervor that the marketing folks could drum up:
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It’s All Access for City of Heroes and City of Villains
NCsoft readies the number 1 super-powered MMO for more

There is a reason for the rejoicing in Paragon City and the Rogue Isles. It is official – NCsoft has completely merged the two games into one game universe. All current subscribers who only had one of the games (City of Heroes or City of Villains) now have access to the features of both games. Additionally, all City of Heroes and City of Villains games for sale at retail or online will grant access to both games.

This is the final step needed in preparing the IP for future projects, to be announced later this year. Paragon City and the Rogue Isles have always been a part of the same game universe. When City of Villains launched in 2005 as a stand-alone game, it did not launch with an extra subscription fee, so there has always been this feeling that they are closely related. What’s different here is that NCsoft has taken down the barrier where players had to have a City of Villains serial code to make a villain, and vice versa. Now, it doesn’t matter if you bought Heroes or Villains, you can make characters from either faction and experience their unique game content. Additionally, Heroes now have access to base building, which was previously only available if you had purchased City of Villains.

“In setting the stage for our upcoming plans for the IP, we felt the time was right to truly consolidate the City of Heroes and City of Villains universe,” said Brian Clayton, General Manager and Executive Producer. “We have removed all restrictions that were created when City of Villains launched in order to make way for some really cool content and features we have in the pipeline. This is an evolution of the IP that lays the foundation for what’s to come.”

The most recent game update, Issue 12: Midnight Hour, launched in May and included a wealth of features, including a new Greek and Roman inspired zone, Villain Epic Archetypes, Powerset Proliferation, as well as more character slots so that players can try out the new character powers and Archetypes.

“We know that character variety is one of our greatest strengths and that’s why our players love to create new characters” said Matt Miller, Lead Designer. “Even former players who reactivate will be pleasantly surprised to see new open character slots waiting for them.”

Uniting the City of Heroes universe enables the development team to focus on other features slated to come in future installments. Improvements to Supergroup Bases and raids, an offline character reward system, and the previously revealed Mission Maker are just some of the systems that will see the benefits of a unified City of Heroes game.
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Oh, and there's also "Double XP weekend" starting on Friday, while we're on the subject of City of Heroes.

"Ask Cryptic July 11, 2008" - Champions Online Dev Blog

Submitted by Hoza on July 15, 2008 - 8:34pm

This is one of a long line of Q & A posts done by the good folks over at Cryptic Studios. Today (well, a few days ago, more accurately) the questions revolve around character leveling, in-game stats, powers, costumes and such. I figure I'll just point you there instead of trying to summarize... yeah, I'm that lazy. :P

Ask Cryptic (July 11, 2008)

Richard Garriott's Tabula Rasa Launches

Submitted by Hoza on November 1, 2007 - 4:01pm
You all know about this game, I'm guessing. I'm going to talk more about it later, but I figured you'd want to know (or be reminded) that Tabula Rasa (well.. "Richard Garriott's Tabula Rasa ", actually) is going live for the non-preorder folks tomorrow, November 2. I just came back from the store where I saw a pile of boxes, so maybe you can get online today. Anyway, the game is very interesting and a lot of fun from what I saw during beta. I'll get into the live version soon to see how it's going and report back later. The buzz has been pretty good overall, so this should be interesting.

Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean Online Launches

Submitted by Hoza on October 31, 2007 - 1:18pm

[I was going to summarize, but hey... you know I'm lazy, so here's the pasted press release: --Hoza]

Disney Online today announced that Pirates of the Caribbean Online (www.PiratesOnline.com), an immersive massively multiplayer online game (MMOG) and virtual world inspired by the popular film franchise, has launched for the PC and Mac platforms. Pirates of the Caribbean Online allows thousands of players to fully experience the adventures made famous in the films and explore beyond these boundaries in a quest to become the most legendary pirate on the high seas.


[full press info and feature list after the jump...]

Warmonger and LEGO Universe Info From NetDevil

Submitted by Hoza on June 23, 2007 - 3:46pm

I'm a bit out of order on this, but I wanted to point out that Jumpgate Evolution wasn't the only game that NetDevil revealed at their sweet 10th anniversary party last night.  They also let us play an 8-player setup of Warmonger and they showed some great little movies of where the LEGO Universe MMO game is heading.

I'm actually just going to point you guys to the article & liveblog posted by Brian over at Kotaku.  That guy makes me realize how weak I am at updating my site, since he does things like post the video for a game an hour before said video is shown for the first time.  LOL... that's a scoop!  Freak, he is.  ;)

Anyway, he's got some great views on what we saw at NetDevil, and I can't think of why I should try to do any more than that for now.  I'll write up my own thoughts more later... both Warmonger and LEGO Universe have me very excited, but for different reasons, and I need to go outside to enjoy this nice Saturday afternoon for a bit.

Here:

NetDevil Unveils Jumpgate Evolution.. and Cool New Offices!

Submitted by Hoza on June 23, 2007 - 3:33pm

Last night, I was happily eating, drinking and chatting at the super-cool new offices of NetDevil in Louisville, CO. I've been talking to the guys over there for a while about the new place, but I was pretty blown away at how sweet it is. I'm so damn stoked for these guys! They've done really well over the years (10th-year anniversary, btw) and I wish all the best for this terrific crew. Regardless of the commercial success of their games up to now (I'm not in a mood to discuss that stuff), the company has grown immensely and has put together a great environment for future development. They've retooled development processes (go Agile!) and gotten much better at evolving their products to be fun and engaging through the development cycle.... ooh, a segue... (read more )

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