I told you I would one day start producing videos. The first MMO Fallout MMO video is for CrimeCraft, and it’s a doozy. I’ll let video me explain what the video is all about.
- Category Archives Crimecraft
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Crimecraft To Add Persistent Territory Control
I love Crimecraft, even if the Bleedout campaign mode often makes me want to punch a small kitten, but the trailer for the upcoming Gangwars update carries a lot more gore and dismembered body parts than I remember seeing in-game, to which I say: Kudos! Set following the Bleedout campaign, Gangwars sees the rise of player gangs out of their usual role of ragtag drug addled thugs shooting one another in the street, and takes the fight to a persistent territory control system.
You can find details on the expansion here. The update also brings with it new all sorts of new stuff. This almost makes me want to join a decent gang. Almost.
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Bleedout Comic: More Novelty Than Resourceful
You may already be familiar with CrimeCraft (if not, I would start here), in which case Bleedout will also be a known name. Last year, Vogster teamed up with Mike Kennedy and a whole host of artists (Nathan Fox, Zach Howard, Sanford Greene, etc) to write and produce the cutscenes for the MMO shooter’s single-player campaign story. What you may not be as aware of is that Vogster paired up with Archaia Entertainment to turn the animated-comic style scenes into a hardcover book: Thus the CrimeCraft graphic novel was born.
Originally set for release way back in May, Bleedout didn’t ship until near late July due to unseen difficulties (printing issue, as I understand). As far as content goes, this is a direct reprint of the cutscenes in-game, without the motion or the gruff voice-over. Each chapter covers the equivalent chapter in the game, page for page recreated from the MMO. The art style stays true to the game: Dirt, trash, drugs, and violence litter the pages, characters that you can practically feel the slime seeping through the pages. As far as graphic content, there’s maybe one boob-shot and a character sticking the tip of his tongue with a needle. Nothing gut-wrenching.
I highly recommend playing Bleedout on CrimeCraft before you buy this, otherwise you will simply have no idea what is going on. As I already said, the comic mirrors the cutscenes, so each chapter in the book serves as an introduction to the various factions in and around Sunrise City. Looking at the overall story, to take the comic book without playing the game is more akin to buying a book and only reading the first two paragraphs of each chapter. The story will skip ahead too far, too fast for you to keep track of what is going on, who is who, and who you are supposed to hate and why.
CrimeCraft, as I’ve stated in the past, has a rich and deep story once you dive into it, one that is not done justice by this book. Bleedout, on the whole, serves as little more than a companion piece for the game. If you enjoyed Bleedout and you like comics, it’s worth the $10. Otherwise, if you have no interest in Crimecraft (in which case you wouldn’t be reading this), this comic isn’t for you.
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Why Aren’t You Playing: CrimeCraft
I’ve wanted to do a “Why Aren’t You Playing” on Crimecraft since I did the writeup on Gods & Heroes, and actually started writing this piece before Vogster decided to release the free version on Steam. As a result, I almost canned this article because odds are most of you have already given the game a go. Regardless, the show must go on.
Back in my day, Crimecraft required the purchase of a boxed copy and a monthly subscription fee. Since its small release, Vogster has rescinded the client purchase and relegated the subscription to an optional subscription that offers faster leveling at better chances at good loot, allowing anyone to get in for free. Aside from the single player story mode, all of the game modes are open to you as a free player. As far as offering content to free players, Vogster is one of the most giving. A player can, without making a single purchase, access almost all of what Crimecraft has to offer. You will find no restrictions on chat, experience gain, auction house use, gang membership/leadership, and you even have basic access to customer service and the daily tournaments.
Subscribing, which costs $4.99 or $9.99 based on your preferred tier, offers a faster method of leveling up, more loot and cash gained, a decreased cost to use the auction house/mail system, and expanded access to tournaments and customer service. You’ll also gain full access to the Bleedout campaign, a single-player story mode that offers little more than a back story to the game.
If you enjoy shooters, there’s really no reason not to at least give Crimecraft a try. The game features your basic vanilla game modes from deathmatch to team deathmatch, territory control, and a capture the flag style game where you have to steal money from your opponent’s vault and bring it back to your own. My favorite game mode involves two teams fighting over a single node that spawns randomly on the map. Once a team captures the node, they do not respawn until the other team destroys the node, making defense all the more difficult as your team slowly drops around you.
Adding to the strategy are a slew of abilities that you gain access to as you level up, ala Call of Duty, where you can take a very limited number of perks into a match, from health regeneration to limited cloaking, to proximity mines, and everything in between. You can also craft or purchase drugs that offer similar effects.
Why You Aren’t Playing CrimeCraft
If you aren’t playing right at the moment of this publishing, it may not be out of lack of trying. Ever since Crimecraft released for free on Steam, the game has undergone some heavy traffic resulting in server queues and downtime. Vogster have opened a second server, with more on the way.
You may also be wary of the element of “pay to win,” given Vogster sells weapons and armor on the cash shop. The easiest answer to that concern is that yes, there is an element of “pay to perform better,” but for a game that relies on fast reflexes, such a concept is lost on Crimecraft. You could have the best sniper in the game, but unless you can aim you won’t be getting any kills. So you do have access to some weapons that have better stats than those you can access in game, but those stats are rather meaningless in the grand scheme of things.
Overall, Crimecraft has something for competitive players and those that simply want to massacre mindless AI. The writing isn’t going to knock your socks off, but the Bleedout campaign is definitely worth a look to gather more context on the world that you inhabit. This article is being published on August 28th, 2011, I suggest you wait until Vogster adds more servers before you sign up, otherwise you’ll wind up waiting in a long queue line.
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Crimecraft De-Mergifying Servers Tomorrow
No, de-mergify is not a word, but technically neither is Crimecraft, or Bleedout, or Vogster. Earlier this year, Vogster merged the two servers on Crimecraft down to one, resulting in a certain writer for MMO Fallout losing his low level character (pictured above). To bring in more players and increase the scope of the game, Vogster just recently launched the free client on Steam, offering players a bonus pack if they sign up before August 29th.
So tomorrow (the 25th), Vogster is set to open a second server to alleviate the population. Vogster is going to need a second briefcase for the lods of emone that will be pouring in.
Good luck to Vogster, the existing community, and those who are just now discovering Crimecraft.
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Week In Review: Fueled By Mac and Cheese Edition
I hate limited edition goods, because they always leave me feeling like I need to hoard them before some indeterminate time where they go away to possibly never return. In this case, I’m referring to the awfully tasty caramel iced instant coffee by Starbucks, which they’ve described as “limited time.” What a tease, to bring out a new flavor only to say “enjoy it while it lasts.”
But I suppose I should make this topic relevant to MMOs. Whenever I unsubscribe from an MMO, reading about missing live events ultimately makes me less likely to resubscribe. Like a good number of my fellow gamers, I have a psychological addiction to vanity pets, and the knowledge that one is locked away because I didn’t play during the precise week makes my brain throw its arms up and say “well alright I’ll stop bugging you to resubscribe now.” This is why I made a big stink about Cryptic offering separate pre-order bonuses but then offering them on the cash shop. I distinctly remember Cryptic stating that, in order to obtain all of the sets of ships, uniforms, etc, players would need to buy multiple copies.
1. Couldn’t Have Said It Better Myself, Darkfall.
Darkfall is one of MMO Fallout’s big names right now, likely because of the whole Darkfall 2.0 relaunch and the related hubbub over the possibility of a character wipe. If I may say so, this whole issue might have ended at article #1 and simply continued in August with more information, if it weren’t for Aventurine’s response, which was a complete disregard for why players might be upset at the news and a refusal to offer more information. The announcement was made far too soon, and now Aventurine is stuck between a very well updated rock and a hard place to auto-run against.
I think that Kimoshu on the Darkfall forums gives a very good explanation:
I think one of the biggest concerns players have is having to replay the same game with a few tweaks to it and fresh characters grinding out a lot of the same shit with the same powergap issues not addressed. AV often oversells their updates/expansions(Not that they are the only company to do this mind you…) and also with the rampant afk macroing on players and bugged out mobs as well as free afk stat gaining(swimming) that the majority of the community took part in(Guilty myself for several days of afk swimming in 2 years) I worry that AV will not enforce their ToS and we’ll be back to square one.
Casual players who refuse to break the ToS to gain skills/stats AFK get fucked in DF massively. I hope in 2.0 this gets addressed so that either casual players can still compete without having to set up afk macros or find their spot at the public watering hole for the night.
If AV enforces their ToS this time around finally with real punishments for AFK macroing and DF 1.0 accounts get compensation of free game time and maybe some meditation points then I have no issue doing a full wipe and would accept it gladly. If they wipe, give no compensation AND don’t enforce their ToS I honestly don’t know if I’ll stick around. I probably will because I love the game but it’s going to seriously be a huge pain in the ass to spend 6-12 months leveling again to get a competitive high-end character while others spend a month to get there with programs playing the game for them when they aren’t even there.
2. Crimecraft Bleedout Comic Ships This Week?
You’ll remember last December marked the start of Crimecraft’s episodic single player campaign and effort to dramatically improve the storyline of the game. Since then, the first season of Bleedout has long since finished and Vogster announced that the art seen in each opening/closing cinematic would make its way into a comic book. Initially on sale on Amazon for a release back in April, the comic has been pushed back more and more, and finally is set to ship this week (July 15-19 according to Amazon).
Hopefully the comic will ship.
3. I Don’t Live In The UK, And NCSoft Wouldn’t Award Me A Turd
First off I want to thank those who offered their support when I wrote the article about NCsoft having journalist awards, but I don’t live in the UK and thus do not qualify. That being said, I hardly think I am a blip on NCSoft’s radar large enough to be considered even if the awards did include the United States.
4. Prime Invokes Thoughts of Star Wars Galaxies
5. Please Stop Asking Me To Report Every MMO Shut Down
Over one thousand MMOs launched last year in Asia. I’ll say that again: One thousand. Do you know how many titles worldwide shut down? I have no idea, but I know for certain that I only report on those that release in the west, first of all, and secondly those that have an actual presence. You may notice titles that gather a respectable following but still do not appear here on MMO Fallout because of a lack of what I call news-worthiness. That being said, I get saturated with requests to do similar articles to the “What Happened” series every time some random Korean-launched MMO with little to no presence in the west shuts down, or when a small group goes bankrupt because their only source of revenue is localizing Asian cash shop titles and maintaining the servers, yet the can’t manage to do that.
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Crimecraft Server Mergers/Euro Server
It’s been a while since I lasted talked Crimecraft, and the game has been going relatively active. Vogster completed the first season of Bleedout (the episodic quest series), and the hardcover edition of the Bleedout comic is coming soon, although Amazon emailed me to inform me that release was pushed back to July.
Well today’s occasion is some good news and some bad news mixed together. Foremost, the two North American servers are merging into one. Exeter will close down on May 23rd, and merge into Jericho. All characters above level 20 will be transferred immediately, however inactive characters under 20 (inactive being defined as not logged in in the past month) will be put on a separate database to be transferred over at request, and according to Vogster, “limited” and on a case by case basis.
Gang hideouts and clubs will not be transferred, but the gang name will be. Cash and gold bars (real world cash) spent on clubs and hideouts will be refunded. Not much information has been offered on the European server, other than:
This is also our first step toward opening a future European realm, but the immediate payoff for our users will be more available matches for characters of all levels and improved game performance.
More on Crimecraft as it appears. If you’d like to get into Crimecraft, submit a comment with your email address here. I’ll fire you off a “recruit-a-friend” email, that will allow you to sign up and get some benefits:
Complete the Tutorial: Upon completion of the tutorial, your friend will receive a Starter Pack that includes a 3-slot weapon, 20 GBs, a free 2-hour XP boost and a 5 pack of skill points. You will receive a free 2-hour XP boost and an Extra Character Slot allowing you to start a new character to play with your friend.
Purchase a GB Pack or Subscription: When your friend purchases a Gold Bar pack or a subscription, he will receive a free 24-hour XP boost and a 10 pack of Skill Points. You will receive 50GBs.
Complete the BleedOut Campaign: When your friend completes the BleedOut campaign, he receives 50GBs and one each of the 24-hour XP, Loot and Cash boosts and a free week of Deluxe membership (or an extra week of Deluxe or Premium membership if they are already members). You will receive 50 GBs and a free week of Deluxe membership (or an extra week of Deluxe or Premium if they are already a member).
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Crimecraft: Of Course There’s A Story!
A long time ago...
I love Crimecraft. Not as much as I should, and certainly not as much as the folks over at Vogster have shown love to me (my last article was featured on Crimecraft’s Twitter) making me feel like a neglectful spouse. One thing Crimecraft has always been somewhat light on is plot, other than the basics of the government has been replaced by gangs and we’re in a post apocalyptic system after a war over limited resources, minus the zombies (for now).
Vogster announced Bleedout, in which they hope to expand upon the storyline. Coming tomorrow, Saturday the 4th at around 4pm Eastern, Vogster is launching episode 1 of an episodic series that will explain the storyline behind the game. Not unlike a television series, each episode releases once a week, free to VIP and premium players, and at a pretty low cost to free players (40 gold bars, or around two dollars). The first episode is free to all players.
There are a few restrictions, if what I understand is correct. First off, you can only complete one episode a week, so if you come in halfway through the season you’ll be on a lag from other players. Of course, Crimecraft is a cash shop system after all, and you’ll be able to buy a fast forward ticket allowing you to skip the seven day limit, although of course you won’t be able to play unreleased episodes (which should be a given, don’t ask me why it was deemed necessary to note).
Here is the trailer for Episode 1. Vogster has hired some major talent for this series, and has even opened a second server in anticipation for the rush of players, and Bleedout looks to be the start of a major investment in the game’s lore. The campaign missions are 100% PvE, as far as we know.
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Crimecraft Trailer…Mmm, Chunky.
I’m getting in the habit of posting more trailers here on MMO Fallout, so here’s the latest from Crimecraft, showcasing the game’s dismemberment system.
[insert ESRB warning about blood and gore]
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Crafting Crime With Crime Craft: A 1 Year Look
A long time ago...
Crimecraft launched in August 2009 to not-so-huge fanfaire over the persistent-lobby-based-shooter-on-the-Unreal-3-Engine. A modest title by any means, Vogster quickly moved the game from a subscription base to a free to play cash shop system, not unlike the Turbine model, and since then the game has been trucking along with a healthy population, healthy enough to ensure that the game will stay afloat for a good long time, at least.
Looking into my archives, I haven’t written a non-sales article on Crimecraft since September 2009, so I was quite surprised when I received an email in my inbox regarding Crimecraft. Apparently at least one of the guys over at Vogster Entertainment is a big fan of the MMO Fallout, and noted my prior interest in the title and a lack of news-stuffs since then. The email contained a promo-code with a leveling boost to incite me back into the game, and incite it did.
I’ve clocked in several hours on Crimecraft in the past week, and I am thoroughly enjoying the new changes. My biggest gripe from the launch was that the A.I in the PVE matches was a combination of too unpredictable, and too stupid. All too often it was easy to sneak up on an NPC and kill them without their AI even activating, but this time around I found NPCs moving around and actively seeking cover. If you start a shootout, other NPCs in the area may come to investgiate. The system isn’t perfect, but it is a far cry from the figures who just stood around and waited for you to shoot at them.
Luckily he only grazed my medulla oblongata.
Another great addition I noticed is the ease in obtaining weaponry. Within a few PVP matches, I had looted a decent shotgun and an assault rifle that gave me a fighting chance over my 3-shot burst SMG. Vogster wasn’t lying about the gibbing/gore mode either, as my character regularly found himself decapitated by close shotgun shells to the face.
I quickly obtained a few boosts in the form of a heart monitor that displays enemy positions on the mini-map, and a few healing drugs that can be consumed in-game. The missions, which will comprise much of your experience, are still pretty basic, not that I’m asking for more depth. You’ll find a myriad of what you would expect, each containing several tiers:
- Kill _ with smg/rifle/pistol/etc.
- Do ___ damage with smg/rifle/pistol/etc.
- Kill ___ of ___ type NPC.
- Kill ___ players carrying smg/rifle/pistol/etc.
- Win __ matches of ___.
The more traditional missions involve going from person to person in the main lobbies, with a story centered around the protection of the city from the unruly gangs and scum that inhabit the surrounding areas, and generally involves heading into PVE instances to complete one of the above mission types.
Stockpile PVE is still all about collecting crates containing everything from weapons to drugs to crafting materials. I also had the chance to try out Safeguard, a PVE mode where players are tasked with protecting a weapons cache from wave after wave of bots, which I particularly enjoyed as the opportunities to become overwhelmed by the sheer number of bots added to the difficulty if you didn’t clear them out fast enough before the next wave spawned. Headhunter is a test of patience, although killing the prerequisite number of bots to incite the boss to appear isn’t a particularly difficult task.
Ammunition and health are much more prevalent now than at launch, with players and bots dropping both much more often. Aside from the AI, one of my biggest issues was running out of ammunition and forcing myself to die in a PVE match in order to obtain more. Now, with the expected amount of ammunition conservation, I find myself running out of ammo much less.
Oh, and in case I didn’t mention it before, the Crimecraftian in-game advertising is still present, as seen below, and still raising the penetrating question: People still use Napster?
Jokes aside, Crimecraft is still a great game worthy of a look, even if you don’t plan on forking up any cash. The game can be downloaded from the website for free, or if you really want you can pluck down ten bucks on a digital copy and get the extra perks that come with it.
Me? I think I’ll continue sporting my OG (original gangster) title, and Tommy Vercetti lookalike outfit. Crimecraft is a great game, and you might even catch me logged in now and then! My character’s name is Rastlowski, if you didn’t pick it up from the screenshots.
More on Crimecraft as it appears.
