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!
05/10/2010 at 07:32 Armyofnone says:
Oh my. There was a lot of hostility in those first two sentences! Hilarious, hilarious hostility.
05/10/2010 at 07:36 Quintin Smith says:
Woe betide the developer whose game I write about when I have to get up at 6:30am.
05/10/2010 at 07:35 Flint says:
Wouldn’t be surprised if this was done because of Cataclysm’s now-announced release date.
05/10/2010 at 07:37 Quintin Smith says:
Buh. How did I miss that?
05/10/2010 at 07:59 The Dark One says:
Blizzard is gonna delay Cataclysm when the full weight of TF2′s crafting system becomes apparent.
05/10/2010 at 08:04 Tacroy says:
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!
05/10/2010 at 08:10 Groove says:
6.30am man, no-one would blame you. I feel bad enough writing a comment now.
05/10/2010 at 09:01 Alexander Norris says:
Bantman was a far better reason than Cataclysm.
06/10/2010 at 08:48 Noumenon says:
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.
05/10/2010 at 08:06 Tacroy says:
I have to say, this “Bantman” character sounds like a bit of a cock.
05/10/2010 at 08:22 sonofsanta says:
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.
05/10/2010 at 08:34 Heliocentric says:
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.
05/10/2010 at 08:34 sbs says:
That’s how I like my Pc gaming news.
05/10/2010 at 08:51 Sarkhan Lol says:
Agreein wit dis.
05/10/2010 at 08:41 Tei says:
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.
05/10/2010 at 09:06 Torqual says:
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.
05/10/2010 at 09:28 Tei says:
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.
05/10/2010 at 09:29 Jez says:
Haha, he said omniscent.
Wait, maybe that doesn’t mean what I think it does…
05/10/2010 at 10:12 DJ Phantoon says:
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
05/10/2010 at 09:43 Choca says:
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.
05/10/2010 at 10:11 Dominic White says:
I’d love to see Champions switch to free-to-play, and just make certain costume sets premium.
05/10/2010 at 09:57 President Weasel says:
And there’s me thinking you were just being sarcastic about the bug fixing and polishing.
05/10/2010 at 10:16 DevilSShadoW says:
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
05/10/2010 at 10:34 TooNu says:
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
05/10/2010 at 10:58 subedii says:
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.
05/10/2010 at 11:22 destx says:
(Slow clap)
05/10/2010 at 12:44 Starky says:
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.
05/10/2010 at 14:00 mitsoxfan says:
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
05/10/2010 at 16:15 subedii says:
Green Lantern:
- Shield (Activated) – 60 second cooldown
- Blast (Ranged energy attack) (default)
- 125% damage from Yellow attacks (passive)
05/10/2010 at 16:19 subedii says:
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).
05/10/2010 at 17:12 Arathain says:
@ 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.
05/10/2010 at 11:40 Skusey says:
I like how Pasteface is being backed up by a guy trying to commit suicide with a bow.
05/10/2010 at 15:31 Saucy says:
Quinns = Coyote Smith?
05/10/2010 at 16:25 Quintin Smith says:
Haha. Dude, “You’re fucked” was totally Dan Smith.
(And yes, I am Dan Smith.)
05/10/2010 at 16:06 JKjoker says:
thats too bad, i wanted to see cities filled with 5000 batmans next month
05/10/2010 at 16:14 Fitz says:
In memory of Tony Curtis, I would like to see cities filled with 5,000 Spartacuses.
05/10/2010 at 17:40 mujadaddy says:
@Dominic
I, too, would gladly pay $50 for the client if it went F2P.
05/10/2010 at 20:15 destroy.all.monsters says:
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.
07/10/2010 at 22:42 DrazharLn says:
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..