Fallen Earth: Welcome to Apocalypse Review: It’s The End Of The World As We Know It

The MMORPG market is overcrowded; it’s almost as bad as folks who like to write game articles for a living. With the successes of past games such as “Ultima Online,” “Everquest,” and “World of Warcraft,” many companies, both big and small, are trying to capitalize on this crowd of literally millions of subscription paying players. However, all these games have one thing in common: They are based in stereotypical fantasy settings. “Fallen Earth: Welcome to Apocalypse” doesn’t follow the story of elves, orcs, goblins, or dwarves, but throws you into a world where a good portion of humanity is wiped out by a dire event. Instead of playing a hero, you take a role as a survivor in this dead world, but can “Fallen Earth” survive the competition? [Continue Reading]

Sam Rami Directing World of Warcraft Movie!

Wow talk about coming out of left field! Variety is reporting that Sam Rami (Spider-man 1-3, Evil dead, Drag Me To Hell) is set to take on the directing reigns for the upcoming World Of Warcraft movie.

From Variety:

“Sam Raimi has signed on to direct “Warcraft,” the live-action film adaptation of the fantasy videogame franchise “World of Warcraft.”

Legendary Pictures and vidgame publisher Blizzard Entertainment are mounting the film, and Warner Bros. will co-finance and distribute. The team boasts an impressive pedigree: In addition to the director of “Spider-Man,” the partners have added “The Dark Knight” producer Charles Roven to the creative mix.

The plan is for Raimi to supervise development of “Warcraft” and shoot the picture after he completes work on “Spider-Man 4,” which gets under way early next year for Columbia Pictures.

The movie will be financed under the Legendary Pictures’ co-production and co-financing deal with WB, in a manner similar to the Todd Phillips-directed “The Hangover” plus the Roven-produced “Batman Begins” and “Dark Knight.”

[Continue Reading]

Dev Box Interview: Fallen Earth’s Colin Dwan

It usually takes a small army to create the video games that we play, and, most of the time, all of the focus gets put on the game itself, and not on the people that came together to make it. Our Dev Box interview series takes a look at some of the unsung heroes that have committed their lives to entertaining all of us. This week we are letting Fallen Earth, LLC’s Colin Dwan take a break from working on “Fallen Earth” and give him a chance to get on the Dev Box and tell us a bit about himself, and what he thinks about the games industry. [Continue Reading]

Anticipating Star Wars: The Old Republic By Finding Out What It Means To Be a True Fan

In the spirit of this anticipation praising post, I want to facilitate the anticipation practices of anyone out there who is impatiently waiting for “Star Wars: The Old Republic,” the upcoming (but very far off) MMO from LucasArts and Bioware. The demise of Free Radical has a few Star Wars fans depressed as some ex-Free Radical employees have been releasing concept art and footage from the canceled version of “Star Wars Battlefront III.” The game looked interesting and it is quite sad to see it fade away so quickly and easily. It’s possible that someone with some funds and a few extra devs might see this distorted message and embark on a quest to fulfill our hope. Until then, I will be drooling over “Star Wars: The Old Republic.”

While I’m not sure I feel comfortable calling myself a real Star Wars fan, I am solidly attached to the Star Wars Universe. Just out of curiosity, I dropped in the Official “SW:TOR” forums and asked what it meant to be a “true” Star Wars fan and I got a bunch of interesting answers: [Continue Reading]

Dev Box: Jumpgate Evolution’s Programmer Josh Stefanski

It usually takes a small army to create the video games that we play, and, most of the time, all of the focus gets put on the game itself, and not on the people that came together to make it. Our Dev Box interview feature takes a look at some of the unsung heroes that have committed their lives to entertaining all of us. This week we are giving NetDevil’s Josh Stefanski a chance to answer some of our burning questions.

Name: Josh Stefanski
Title: Programmer
What you do: I’m currently behind most of the AI development for “Jumpgate Evolution.”
Most recent game worked on: “Jumpgate Evolution”

1. What game has most influenced you, and why?
There’s been a few games that have heavily influenced me, the earliest being “Shock Force” (now known as “Wulfram 2″). I loved how the simple mechanics of two tank types plus deployable bases allowed for incredibly dynamic gameplay, no two rounds were ever the same. It was also the first game I played that truly got me addicted to online gaming, as I spent countless nights playing it. Many more recent games have influenced me and how I go about developing games, such as “StarCraft,” “Half-Life,” “Halo,” “BioShock,” and “EVE-Online.”

2. What are you playing right now? [Continue Reading]

Dev Box Interview: Auto Assault’s Producer Hermann Peterscheck

It usually takes a small army to create the video games that we play, and, most of the time, all of the focus gets put on the game itself, and not on the people that came together to make it. Our Dev Box interview feature takes a look at some of the unsung heroes that have committed their lives to entertaining all of us. This week we are giving NetDevil’s Hermann Peterscheck a chance to answer some of our burning questions.

Name: Hermann Peterscheck
Title: Producer
What you do: Produce . Scheduling, task prioritization, design, budget management.
Most recent game worked on: “Auto Assault”

1. What game has most influenced you, and why?
Probably “Ultima Online.” It was the first graphical MMO I played and acted as a nice transition from MUDs to newer MMOs. It’s also what convinced me that getting into MMO development is what I wanted to do. [Continue Reading]

Warhammer Online Preview With Mark Jacobs

“Premium games for premium players.”

Those are words from Mark Jacobs, CEO of Mythic Entertainment under EA Games, and the force behind “Warhammer: Age of Reckoning” (W.A.R.) or simply Warhammer Online. Those five words can be used to answer many of the questions that W.A.R. encountered since it was announced as a MMORPG. Most of these questions are born in the aftermath of the World of Warcraft phenomenon and are unavoidable to any serious MMORPG developer.

While the rest of the internet community has already made their thoughts known and disputed, we are still eager to hear what the W.A.R. people have to say. All of us have been through the days of the “WOW killers” MMOs (“Lord of the Rings Online”, “Age of Conan”, and “Dunegons and Dragons Online” to name a few). I personally want to know if W.A.R. can be another excuse to keep me away from my level 51 Undead Warlock; amongst other characters in recent MMOs from Asia.

So I was feeling pretty good right after Mark Jacobs finished showing us the newest high-definition cinematic trailer for W.A.R. Thankfully, this isn’t a meeting with a Public Relations person or we will never get to ask the questions we want. I’ve been out of the loop with Warhammer Online since it’s cancellation in 2004 and the pickup by Mythic Entertainment in May 2005. The story is pretty easy: the good guys (Dwarves, Humans, High Elves) are being attacked by the bad guys (Orcs/Goblins, Chaos, Dark Elves). The player is to help either side.

Before we started asking about what makes war in W.A.R. (an acronym that Mark Jacobs made a point to the name the game after) so much fun, we asked if the team was worried about fighting for attention from other popular titles (Starcraft II, Diablo III, Dawn of War II, etc.). Right off the bat, Mark Jacobs answers, “We’re the only new MMO”. He elaborates that that while WOW is a powerful and good game in its own right, “Things get old.” The second expansion to the game, “Wrath of the Lich King” is still part of a game that is three years old and counting. The CEO of Mythic Entertainment explains his relatively humble ambition: he doesn’t care if W.A.R. isn’t the number one game of all time. He’ll settle for being the top five or top ten. Not so much for toppling giants as opposed to standing on the shoulders of titans.

This is when we start hearing about his efforts to make a game that is fun for as many people as possible. Now, normally if I were hearing this from a Public Relations person, we would be overly skeptical. But with the man himself in front of us, we decided some benefit of the doubt is due.

At this point, he brought us into what makes waging war worthwhile in W.A.R. The Realm versus Realm combat which features lessons learned from their earlier MMO “Dark Age of Camelot” and more. The attractive idea behind Realm vs Realm is to participate in a war campaign across four zones until you are literally at the enemy’s gates. Pillaging cities is a series of quests in addition to being a reward to the whole war campaign. You don’t need to be at the frontlines to make a difference either; you can fortify, change, and enhance your home front by fulfilling quests at your own city. This is a welcome change from other MMORPGs in that there is a real war effort going on.

For those of you who are worried on the relationship between the original tabletop Warhammer and W.A.R., Mark Jacob reassures us that they “cared more about making a great game than continuity.” Coupled with the fact that he used to work at Game Workshop (origin of the Warhammer tabletop), the relationship between W.A.R. and Games Workshop is a pleasant one that seems to focus more on great gameplay than licensing wrestling.

I also got to see their unique public quests and casino quest reward system. But before that, we saw the minor skirmish in Realm vs. Realm blossomed into a full-fledge offensive on their Beta server. It is an awesome thing to see the faction population helping each other to reach a global game goal.
In the end, I left the meeting with the rest of the guys excited about the prospects of W.A.R. Everything they promised is already working and ready; no promises of “next patch add-ons” or such. I can be a casual PvE player whenever I’m not at my regular job while not worrying about losing too much to the more hardcore player.

Best of all, W.A.R. sounds like exactly what it promises to it’s players: this is war and you are part of it.

You can also check out the full cinematic trailer here.

2 Free-to-Play MMO’s You Probably Haven’t Heard Of…

It offers hotkeys for both health potions and skills. There are five classes to choose from which are Mage, Ninja, Archer, Warrior and Blacksmith. Takes place in the medieval time period. There are different type of battle to choose from which are Stage, Team Death match, Solo Death match, Boss War and my favorite Golem War. In which one must attack the other teams Golem mean while trying to protect yours from the opponents attack.The team that kills the other teams Golem wins the match.

Leveling comes by beating opponents, whether it is by soloing or team effort. You will also receive Gold and bonus points so you can build your character by buying armor, weapons and accessories.

What I like about Rakion is that no matter what level one is, you will be able to compete with other player who may be a higher level that you are. One of the striking features of this game is that as you can summon your inner creature as your rage meter hits critical point. This feature can turn the tide of the game. It doesn’t last long but it can be useful.

If you are looking for a fast paced get in and get out type of game and that is free and fun, I would suggest going to Softnyx website and download your free copy. be warned that this game is bandwidth hog, some servers won’t let you in due the speed of your DSL or Cable.

If you ever played Lineage 2this game is a clone of NCSoft’s MMO. The graphics seem dated and just like its counterpart you grind like there is no tomorrow.

This being an RvR (realm vs. realm) or light vs. dark the quest are rather bland, kill x number of lizards, orcs and oh yes monkeys, OMG no, how has it come to this. Oh well, you can level and get gold faster by doing the quests. The armor and weapons can get very expensive at the shops.Since this is a free to play MMO one can purchase potion to help you level quicker.

Can’t say much about the skilled based system, as you gain points thru each level your character can acquire ever more powerful skills. There are six classes to choose from on the light side, there are the Archer, Ranger, Priest, Defender, Mage and Fighter. The opposing faction has similar classes as well but just with different names Assassin, Oracle, Hunter, Warrior, Pagan and Guardian if you choose the dark side. Not much in terms of character uniqueness, everyone just looks like your clone.

The only time I had fun is when you reach about lvl 15 or so, you go and battle the opposing faction. You will enter the portal where the war is ranging and that is where the fun really lies in this game. You can party with other members of your faction at any time and try to defend the castle. The opposing faction are always trying to attack and ambush you while you are finishing quests.

Since I’ve only played and Elf mage, this review is only based on that particular class of the light faction. I will give a longer review of this game in future posts. If you like RvR then Shaiya has some features that can hold you in the game for a certain amount of time. 1500 vs 1500 , Arena Fights, and Guild Events. Want to give it try? the web site is Aeriagames.com

Reloaded Studios – The Day

Ever heard of Reloaded Studios? What, you haven’t? Well, neither had I until I heard that they were working on a MMO that will reap the benefits of the all powerful CryEngine2. Okay, now for the burning question: “Is it even possible to run an MMO on CryEngine, let alone CryEngine2?”

Apparently the word can’t does not exist in the Korean Developer vocabulary. Considering that the MMO market is becoming oversaturated like the FPS market, it is getting harder to convince gamers that there is anything else other than WoW that they should spend there time with. What can Reloaded Studios bring to the table other than simply statiing that they intend to differenciate? Perhaps Style, agression, and speed.

Jino Lee, the Lead Producer on the game, wants to make an MMO that’s more than just a “Cookie Cutter” game. Since this title is aiming to be an action-oriented MMO, with focus on heavy combat and gameplay satisfaction, the Koream team might pull off something worthwhile. Lee also pointed out that tools used for the development of the game, CryEngine2, were not used based on fact that it provided a graphical overdose, but instead provided tools, and mechanics, that made sense to him and his team. With that, the game might prove that CryEngine isn’t just around for good looks alone.