Posts Tagged ‘MMO’

RPS Feature A conspiracy of currencies

Secret World Legends Impressions – free and easy

The Secret World was always a game struggling to crawl out from under the weight of its own genre. Many have attempted to build a story-led MMO – and it’s a noble pursuit – but no one has ever quite figured out how to do it, not least because an MMO is a terrible setting in which to tell a story. The Secret World got the closest so far. The intricately woven tale of conspiracy upon conspiracy was a huge hook when the game first released five years ago, and some could forgive the janky grindy weirdness of its online necessities to enjoy a setting and quest style not seen before in the genre. Will more people learn to see past the structural faults now, with its free-to-play reboot as Secret World Legends [official site]? Read the rest of this entry »

RPS Feature Digital archeology

The RPG Scrollbars: Old Habitats Die Hard

There’s no better way to cause trouble than to talk about ‘firsts’. Say for instance that King’s Quest IV featured the first female adventure character, and you’re probably going to be drowned out by some pedant waving a copy of Infocom’s Plundered Hearts in your face. That pedant may even be me. Of course, that’s nothing compared to the folly of calling, say, Everquest the first MMO and leaving it without some very quick clarification. The extent of the first M in MMORPG, the importance of success over existence, the jump between mainframe and computer and all manner of other stuff makes it tricky to plant a flag everyone can actually agree deserves to be there.

But there aren’t many games with a better claim than Lucasarts’ Habitat, the latest classic game to get a fancy modern revival project. It definitely deserves it.

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RPS Feature Thanks for the mammaries

The RPG Scrollbars: Farewell And Begone, Scarlet Blade

If you can’t be famous, you can at least be infamous. Scarlet Blade is pretty much proof that while sex doesn’t necessarily sell, it certainly gets attention. It’s one of the most famous MMOs that pretty much nobody will admit to having played, which shuts down this month with rather less bang than whimper. Essentially, and by publisher Aeria’s own admission, it just isn’t worth updating any more, a botched patch has meant a lack of updates, and ultimately players have been asked to go find new adventure and shinier boobs elsewhere. Truly, the end of an era, and by that I mean of course, not.

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RPS Feature The devil's in the details

Devilian Is Like An Afternoon Nap In Gaming Form

Trion Worlds have been churning out MMOs for so very long now that one seems to blur into the next. Their latest to appear on Steam, a translation of the South Korean free-to-play original, is Devilian [official site]. It said it was a Diablo-ish action RPG, so I thought – HMMMM? IS IT THOUGH? And took a look. Well, it sort of is. And it’s sort of an afternoon nap in gaming form. Here are my impressions from a few hours of somnambulistic slashing.

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The Old Republic Awakens: Story Expansion Out Now


Things I never expected to hear myself say: “I’d quite like to go back to Star Wars: The Old Republic” [official site]. This SHOCKING turn of events is in the wake of news that its new expansion, Knights of the Fallen Empire, restores a little of the KOTOR-era Bioware magic that was sadly lacking from the majority of the base game. I suspect most of us expected that EA would leave the over-hyped and, at least initially, underperforming MMO to die a slow, quiet death on its own, but instead it seems they’re taking advantage of unchecked consumerism excitement around The Force Awakens, and making TOR a far more appealing prospect for people who can’t get enough of Far Away / Long Time Ago. Steven’s hands-on report last week detailed why this is worth paying attention to, especially if you’re more of a solo roleplayer, and now the expansion’s actually out. Trailers and whatnot below.
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Transformice Chews Its Way Onto Steam

Transformice [official site], arguably the world’s first MMO mouse simulator platformer, arrive on Steam this week. It’s not a new game – believe it or not, there’s been a dozen or more of them living in your wall cavities for, ooh, I’d say about five years ago looking at the damage they’ve done.

*sucks air through teeth*

Yep, it’s going to cost a few bob to fix all of that up. I’d say at least- wait, free? It’s free? And supported through the sale of cosmetic items? Which are also all unlockable through play?

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Revisit Azeroth With Old Toons Thanks To ‘Veteran Edition’

Word has sneaked out that Blizzard are introducing a new trial account type provisionally dubbed ‘Veteran Edition’ in World of Warcraft‘s update 6.1. MMO Champion turned up patch notes mentioning the Veteran Edition, leading folks to speculate away and some to start doomsaying about a free-to-play shift. Relax, it’s all fine. Blizzard stepped in to explain it’ll simply be a trial open to lapsed subscribers too.

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The Ultimate Party Is An ARPG For 256

Panda Knife Tree understand what partying is really about: friends, fantastical beings, and the ability to gut these rare and precious beings so you can rifle through their entrails for loot. Mwa-ha-ha-ha. Er. Their upcoming browser-based game Ultimate Party promises to bring you exactly that, and then some. It won’t just be your standard isometric ARPG, oh no. It’s supposed to be an MMO ARPG, which seems to mean “You can play with 255 like-minded hellions instead of just six.”

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Monster Revan Looting Party: New SW:TOR Expansion

To my eye, Star Wars The Old Republic was an awkward marriage of BioWare’s singleplayer storytelling and World of Warcraft-derived MMO mechanics. It’s a marriage which seemed to satisfy no one, dooming SWTOR to a brief honeymoon and a slowly diminishing life of quiet desperation. A sad, science fiction Revolutionary Road.

Nice of BioWare to throw the game and its players a little lovin’ then, in a new expansion called Shadow of Revan. It’s raises the level cap to 60, adds a couple of new worlds like Yavin 4, offers new high-level raids, and introduces a new “discipline system” which will affect everyone, including those who don’t buy this $20 add-on. There’s an announcement trailer below.

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RPS Feature Hatworld!

Wot I Think (Part Two): Wildstar

We always feel that MMOs are difficult to review in a single article, and Wildstar is even larger than most. To give a broader sense of what playing it is like, we asked Philippa Warr to venture inside and report back in three parts (part one). Part two covers more combat detail, and getting to grips with PvP and dungeons.

In a piece of advice likely cribbed from Game of Thrones, the Wildstar respawn narrator has just told me to “use the pointy end” while fighting. I went for the Esper class so my weapon is actually a shuriken. The whole damn thing is a pointy end and yet I’m still dead. Maybe I’ve been hitting them with the flat side.

It is at this point I decide to investigate exactly how combat works. Becoming more efficient should speed up the levelling process which in turn opens up level-gated abilities, dungeons and so on in MMO land. It should also mean I cease banging my head repeatedly against quests which are allegedly aimed at my level.

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RPS Feature But Is It A Star?

Wot I Think (Part One): Wildstar

We always feel that MMOs are difficult to review in a single article, and Wildstar is even larger than most. To give a broader sense of what playing it is like, we asked Philippa Warr to venture inside and report back in three parts. In part one, she covers the first 18 levels of combat, questing and exploration.

“Help! Bees! Bees everywhere! HELP ME!”

This recent Wildstar experience reminds me of that bit in My Girl where Macauley Culkin angers a bunch of hostile buzzbings several levels higher than him, realises his questing partner Anna Chlumsky has wandered off to sell loot and tries to escape by falling into a lake. He dies, tragically and so do I. But where Macauley Culkin stays dead and loses his glasses I am resurrected and resolve to give those weaponised bees a combat-based telling off that will become the stuff of legend.

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Of Gods And Spaceships: New Skyforge Trailers

If there was one winner at this year’s E3, it was fans of open worlds. The industry has become so efficient at creating beautiful places that there’s half a dozen games coming in the next year that I want to play in spite of their mechanics, not because of them. Skyforge is on the list. It’s an MMO likely to be a grind to play, but it’s set in the kind of techno-fantasy world that juts mountain palaces up against spaceships and sets it all under a vibrant blue sky. There’s a trailer introducing that world below, alongside another talking through some of the game’s combat and leveling mechanics.

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10,000 Free Neverwinter Booster Packs, Why Not

It certainly has ice... but fire, too!?

We’re not the world’s biggest fans of these traditionally sturctured fantasy MMOs, but Neverwinter is a rare exception. The game lured John into its embrace and cradled him there in a pleasing rhythm of free-to-play questing, levelling and monster-bashing for the length of a three-part diary series. That’s old age, in RPS-diary years.

So maybe you’re already playing it on John’s recommendation, or maybe you saw yesterday’s news about the Icewind Dale expansion and decided it was finally time to give it a try. In any case, we’ve got 10,000 free keys for an in-game booster pack, in case you needed an extra excuse to finally hit download, install and play.

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RPS Feature Particle Trail

First Look: Cloud Chamber

I think my struggle to calculate an opening line for Cloud Chamber is rather indicative of quite what a peculiar, interesting and original thing it is. But that seemed to work. A multiplayer game in which “playing” is discussing, where there are no puzzles but you’re always puzzled, where mysteries are crowd-solved, but spoilers are impossible. I’ve got a lot of explaining to do.

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Avoid Strolls In The Elder Scrolls: New TESO Video

Now, where did we park our ship... ?
Sage, Konkle & Crenshaw sounds like a folk band–and who am I to say they aren’t–but they are also three developers working on The Elder Scrolls Online. The three of them banded together, as folk tend to do in MMOs, and recorded a little play session, showing-off a little bit of the game’s group content. I love wandering the worlds Bethesda builds, but when a game includes most of Tamriel, being able to easily and swiftly team up with friends is definitely a plus.
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MapleStory 2 Will Be An Enormous Game You Never Play

AAIIIIIIEEEEEEEEEE!

It would be a fool who ignored the power of Maple Story. However, we arguably weren’t fools for not troubling you with the news of a MapleStory 2 last month. At that point Korean publishers Nexon had only put up a useless teaser site. Now there’s a trailer to make something of a more useful announcement.

You don’t care about MapleStory, you say? Sure, it’s not exactly core RPS material. But we should be interested it in anthropologically, if nothing else. This is a game that’s seen over 67 million players, and earned more than $300m before it was even famous. It’s a phenomenon, no question. And now it’s got a really stupid CGI trailer, complete with dubstep.

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The Elder Scrolls Will Go Online On….

…DAHN DAHN DAHN…. April 4, 2014. There, look, I know was a big old tease in the headline but at least I didn’t make you wait long, did I? 4/4/14 is indeed the release date for Bethesda’s MMO adaptation of The Elder Scrolls RPG series, and that’s for PC and Mac – next Jennifer systems will follow in June.

Here’s a PVP trailer, too.
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Money Grinding: Lineage Makes $1.8 Billion Over 15 Years

Shame it wasn't very good.

Lineage, the Korean fantasy MMO from NCSoft, is fifteen years old. In that time, it has made the equivalent of $1.8 billion. This as reported by PCGamesN reporting on Kotaku, as based on a press release that’s in Korean, anyway.

Numbers like this are why companies remain willing to make such large, long bets on MMOs. I talked to Jeremy Gaffney, former NCSoft executive and current executive producer on WildStar, about that earlier this year.
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Bust Into Lego Minfigures Online’s Closed Beta


As a casual observer of the Lego phenomenon, I am continually baffled by the games. I don’t particularly enjoy the LEGO: Pop Culture Thing third-person smash-em-ups, as I mostly want a creative restructuring of things (though John thinks it’s because I’m made of hate. I assure you the two are not related). Smashing and rebuilding without any control just doesn’t fit into my Lego universe, and while I briefly exposed a nerve of interest when Lego Minfigures Online was announced, Adam’s preview was a splash of cold water that made me grimace. There was a lot of smashy and not a lot of buildy. That’s not to say it’s not in there, but they really didn’t want to talk about it if it is. Ah well, I still have Garry’s Mod and Minecraft, and all other kinds of creative games. If you’re looking for more punchy smashy fun, you can now sign up to the the LMO Closed Beta.
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Guild Wars 2 School: Super Adventure Box Back

So, I admit, I bounced off Guild Wars 2. After promises of its being a brand new approach to the MMO, finding myself in a generic fantasy world being asked to kill five of something, I pretty much gave up straight away. I know, I know, I should have dug in, but as you can imagine it’s not possible to dedicate time to every MMO I’m not going to be writing about. Then I see the details of the new Super Adventure Box: Back To School update, and I regret my decision.

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