Rock, Paper, Shotgun

MMORTS! MMORTS! Try saying it as a single word. Sounds ominous. Anyway, that’s a collection of letters that refers to but a few games, and End Of Nations is one of those. The forthcoming MMORTS from Petroglyph (Universe At War) and Trion Worlds (Rift) has opened beta sign ups. I thought they did that weeks ago, but not according to a new video bulletin which implores you to support the game in every possible way, which you can see below. That’s going to be weekly, apparently. Mm.
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When did we last write about Trion’s MMO Rift? Oh, May. Just two months after it launched, then. Whoopsie. Well, fortunately Trion have put out a video showing how the game’s grown over the last seven months. It’s jolly dramatic, and conveys both that Rift is holding its own against the big-boy competition, and that for all the talk of freeform progression in other respects it’s holding fast to genre convention. I.e. “bored of WoW? Come hither, come hither” is the presumed message.
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We saw the Gamescom trailer from forthcoming MMORTS End Of Nation last week (although reposted below), but there’s also a piece by Petroglyph talking about the metagame (also below) – which is the whole conquering-the-world thing that the game has going on. They talk about how you can deploy anywhere on the map to help friends out in the their conquests, and talk a bit about how that wider conflict will play out. We also learned last week that the game will indeed be free-to-play and so if Dan’s message about the game from Gamescom (which read simply “strong”) is to be believed, then we might be in for a cheap treat of RTS persistence.
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Just when we thought we’d run out of ways to make jokes about how End Of Nations is a bit like saying “the sea”, another big news story comes out of the MMO RTS. It’s going to be fuh-ruh-ree. Which of course means it’s going to be Free To Play. Co-developed with Petroglyph (the former Westwood team responsible for Command & Conquer), Trion Worlds are claiming that the AAA game’s single player and co-op campaigns will be completely playable to the end without a fee, as well as offering access to 50 player multiplayer battles in the persistent world. So, is there a catch?

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One of the more unusual announcements from E3 was that of Defiance, a cross-platform MMO, that is also a cross-media project incorporating a TV show alongside the game. It’s being developed by Trion Worlds (of Rift) and the television channel SyFy. Anyway, it turns out that the game is “set in a futuristic San Francisco Bay Area”, and will be a mission-based third-person shooter, in which you can play as human or alien races. I’ve posted the full fact-o-thing and screenshots below. Click for full size.
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Trion and the tediously-named SyFy TV channel are teaming up to create a multiplatform MMOFPS that somehow links into a TV show, apparently going as far as featuring player’s characters in the TV show part of it. The project is called Defiance, and there’s a teaser trailer below showing flowers, part of an insectile monster, a heavily modified Golden Gate bridge, and a man with a gun. Trion offer this explanation: “Set on a future Earth, Defiance introduces players and viewers to a world where humans and aliens live together on a planet transformed by decades of conflict. The game combines the intense action of a “AAA” console shooter, with the persistence, scale, and customization of an MMO, while its TV counterpart weaves the rich tapestry of the world into a series with the scope, characters, and drama of a classic sci-fi epic. Because they exist in a single universe, the show and the game will influence each other and evolve together over time, with actions in both mediums driving the overall story of Defiance.”

I do love the “intense” “action” of a “AAA” console “shooter” on my PC, yes sir. Ooh, snarky! But I had a late night. It does look intriguing, though. We need more details!
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End Of Nations, the MMORTS from Trion Worlds, is not far away now. Trion are gearing up to explain how adding MMO to RTS equals a game that you might want to play, and they’re spooling up the hypecopter with a video, which you can see below. It talks a little about how progression in the game works, as well as mentioning customisation, persistence, and a bunch of other stuff in the overlap between pacey strategy and ongong MMOness. Also, those helicopters certainly absorb a lot of bullets, I would say.
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For a week, anyway. There’s a 7-day trial up on the main Rift site, which allows you to play the dimension-bleeding fantasy MMO for no pennies. I’ve still not got around to dabbling, but I understand from Dan’s review, and also from a few of you lot who are playing, that it’s one of the more interesting takes on the MMO business of late (despite some issues with the big public events…)

Anyway, go take a look!

By the sounds of things, fantasy MMORPG Rift is the most competent game to try and encroach on World of Warcraft’s turf in quite some time. Our man Dan Gril was certainly impressed, and the view from the top of Mount Metacritic is impressive enough. The latest trailer, showcasing the Rogue class and the game’s create-your-own-class mechanics in general can be seen after the jump. You know, in case you were thinking about going rogue. Ha! Ah. Ahh.
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