By Quintin Smith on October 5th, 2010 at 7:27 am.
Remember how you were planning your whole November around the release of DC Universe Online on November 2nd? Well, now you’re FUCKED. The MMORPG has been delayed until “early 2011″. On the plus side, anyone who pre-orders the game before November 15th in North America will still get beta access by November 30th.
What reason could there be for a delay? I’ve come up with a few theories.
- The Chinese developers Sony outsourced some of the programming to misspelt the name of each and everyone recognisable superhero, so gamers would end up encountering the heroic “Supperman”, the dark and brooding “Bantman” and the evil “Too Face”.
- An early balancing issue of Superman being far too super has since become the problem of Superman being nowhere near super enough.
- The game is undergoing an emergency scheme of bug-crushing and polishing in the light of gamers’ recent underwhelmed reaction to subscription-based MMORPGs.
- EDIT: Oh, right. It could also be because of WoW: Cataclysm’s December release date being announced.
It’s anybody’s guess, I suppose. Here’s the GamesCom ’10 trailer again!
Oh my. There was a lot of hostility in those first two sentences! Hilarious, hilarious hostility.
report
Woe betide the developer whose game I write about when I have to get up at 6:30am.
report
Wouldn’t be surprised if this was done because of Cataclysm’s now-announced release date.
report
Buh. How did I miss that?
report
Blizzard is gonna delay Cataclysm when the full weight of TF2′s crafting system becomes apparent.
report
Your second to last sentence is hilarious in light of this edit. No, it’s not really anyone’s guess – it’s Flint’s guess!
report
6.30am man, no-one would blame you. I feel bad enough writing a comment now.
report
Bantman was a far better reason than Cataclysm.
report
The article actually reads great with the edit in, as though Quinn knew DC was wilting before WoW all along and was just rubbing it in with sarcasm.
report
I have to say, this “Bantman” character sounds like a bit of a cock.
report
Perhaps they realised all the Superman sections were infact just ripped from the atrocious Superman 64 game of yore, and had been left in as a placeholder with no-one realising until now.
Or, y’know, the WoW thing.
report
I’m going with something to do with being able to create characters from marvel comics and realising they would recieve just infringement based aggression as they serve everyone else.
report
That’s how I like my Pc gaming news.
report
Agreein wit dis.
report
I think no one trough the game release at november 2 was real. Wheres the Open Beta?.
Hell… we have not seen any long and non-scripted gameplay video. So the game is probably in a very early stage. And maybe this is not the last delay.
report
The name scares me off. DLC Universe Online. No thanks, busy playing minecraft here.
Have a nice day.
p.s. I hope you are not offended that i am posting directly after you, oh omniscent Tei. I apologize sincerly.
report
And I apologize sencerly if my post feel omniscent in any way. I just feel it was written in the wall. I could be wrong, I am usually more times wrong than right.
report
Haha, he said omniscent.
Wait, maybe that doesn’t mean what I think it does…
report
I dunno about an omniscent guy, but I do know of an Omnipresent Man.
http://basicinstructions.net/basic-instructions/2010/1/10/how-to-write-a-superhero-story.html
report
Good news. I’m afraid this game will kill Champions Online (or make it switch to free to play) which I’m kinda enjoying right now even though it’s still deeply flawed in some areas.
report
I’d love to see Champions switch to free-to-play, and just make certain costume sets premium.
report
And there’s me thinking you were just being sarcastic about the bug fixing and polishing.
report
you know how it is with MMO’s these days… Having one launch on the actual day that they said they where gonna launch it, NOW THAT WOULD BE FUCKIN STRANGE
report
We don’t need no, monthly subscription
We don’t need no, simplified control
No fixing combat after beta
Sony, leave them games alone
HEY SONY! LEAVE THEM GAMES ALONE
All in all you’re just another prick in the mmo genre market
report
I’ve never really seen the point in Superhero MMO’s. You’re never going to be allowed to do all the fantastical stuff that they can do in the comics.
You’re limited in how you use your powers by the very design and nature of the game. There’s no option to use them in cool and unexpected ways, which is half of what makes the comics fun.
If you dedicate a game solely to one hero then you can approach giving a representation of what that superhero’s supposed to be like (like Batman: Arkham Asylum), but a game in which you make your own?
I mean let’s take a character like the Flash. There are so many innovative ways that super speed can and has been used in the comics and cartoons, but how can you possibly represent those in-game? Will a super-speed character be able to run up walls / over water? Hack a keypad by simply punching in every number combination? Stop falling debris by creating a whirlwind? By default such characters are also so fast that they can pretty much dodge any conventional attack, how would that work?
The point of superhero’s is that they’re supposed to be fantastical. What could you do with super-speed? But in terms of usage, it’s probably just going to come down to a few different methods of beating down your opponents.
report
(Slow clap)
report
That is why the best “superhero” games in any medium, deal with minor powered, or limited power heroes. Hell even in comic books the limited near-human heroes are VASTLY more interesting than the near godlike ones.
So these issues are less of an issue – it is why Spiderman and Batman games are better than any superman game could ever be. Sure there are loads of inventive ways you could use webbing, but so long as then nail the main ones it’s okay.
So instead of flash like near the speed of light superspeed – you just have 2-3 times faster – that you can do in a game. Instead of superman flight you just have 200% movement speed flight. So on so forth.
report
This is the MMO version of all our favorite Superheroes:
Flash
- Craft twice as fast (passive)
- ‘Flee’ – Ability to flee at 500% normal speed for 10 seconds – 30 minute cooldown
Superman
- Impervious (to poison) (passive)
- Laser Vision! (Ranged Attack) – 5 minute cooldown
Batman
- Detective! (2x in-game radar range) (passive)
- Batarang! (Ranged Attack) – 5 minute cooldown
Green Lantern
- TBD
report
Green Lantern:
- Shield (Activated) – 60 second cooldown
- Blast (Ranged energy attack) (default)
- 125% damage from Yellow attacks (passive)
report
Relating to what Starky said, I felt that Bionic Commando was the best “Spider-Man” game done to date. The swinging mechanics were awesome and they allowed you to use the grappling arm in some interesting ways.
Shame that it was let down by the other aspects of the game (especially the level design).
report
@ subedii: That’s totally fair. I mean, I love City of Heroes, but you do solve all your problems by beating the tar out of a lot of dudes. It’s rightly lauded customisation comes down to how you beat out that tar, and how you look doing it. That’s all fine as long you enjoy the fighting, which is a lot of fun, but it’s not really the creative superheroes we know and love.
report
I like how Pasteface is being backed up by a guy trying to commit suicide with a bow.
report
Quinns = Coyote Smith?
report
Haha. Dude, “You’re fucked” was totally Dan Smith.
(And yes, I am Dan Smith.)
report
thats too bad, i wanted to see cities filled with 5000 batmans next month
report
In memory of Tony Curtis, I would like to see cities filled with 5,000 Spartacuses.
report
@Dominic
I, too, would gladly pay $50 for the client if it went F2P.
report
Despite the fact that I hope it will be good, it appears they’ve done nothing to differentiate themselves from the other superhero mmos.
That’s a shame and makes this game a mere novelty. One that I don’t expect to see in the public eye long. If lucky, or the devs get a brain, it might outlast Matrix Online. Maybe.
report
The real reason, of course, is because DC are still flailing internally in despair that Marvel have hired Kieron Gillen. They got nothing on him.
The game looks a bit shit to me. Battles ripped from generic Asian MMO #23425 and the whole thing is ugly like a slapped arse..
report