Category: Editorials

Jagex Previews New Armor


Ever since Jagex launched the High Definition RuneScape a few years back, many of the game’s assets have fallen behind in terms of visual quality. Over the past few months, Jagex have been slowly upgrading the more popular equipment sets, and this month (possibly this week) the developer is set to release upgraded versions of over two hundred pieces of equipment.

You can preview a few of the armor updates in the link below, the update itself should be going live as soon as this week.

(Source: RuneScape Forums)

The New MMO Fallout


I want to give you all a warm welcome to the brand new MMO Fallout! After a few long and painstaking weeks, we are finally ready to unveil the brand new look. I want to stress that there may be issues with the website as everything is transitioned over, and if you find any bugs feel free to throw me an email: mmofallout[at]gmail[dot]com. Among other changes, you will find that navigating our enormous list of games is now much easier. The new category system will be changed in the near future to better accommodate some of the more populated sections.

A very special thank you to David O’Boyle, without whom this website would still look like just another blog.

A reminder: If you find any broken pages/images, send me an email at mmofallout[at]gmail[dot]com or on twitter @mmofallout.

 

DUST 514 Drops Cover Charge, Fully Free To Play


DUST 514 is set to release this summer on the Playstation 3, and last year CEO Hilmar Veigar made an interesting comment to Games Industry that the downloadable title would be free to play, but carry a cover charge that would be reimbursed via in-game currency.

“You’re really getting the game for free but you have to pre-buy credits in the beginning. We might go fully free-to-play down the line, but in the beginning we have a cover charge just to manage the initial launch of it.”

Since then, someone must have spoken some sense into CCP, because DUST will no longer require a cover fee. In an interview with Eurogamer, CCP Executive Producer Brandon Laurino says that the previous policy was confusing, and that DUST 514 will be free to download and free to play.

“It’s not the classical, ‘We’re going to have four maps at launch…’ We are covering literally a universe of planets, so there’s thousands of different maps and they’re all available to everyone who’s playing,”

You can read the entire article at the link below for some information on what will be available in the DUST cash shop when the game goes live.

(Source: Eurogamer)

Get Early Planetside 2 Beta Key in PC Gamer


This notice is specifically for our friends in North America. If you pick up a copy of the latest edition of PC Gamer (April), the cover is for Planetside 2. Inside, however, there is an excellent coverage of Planetside 2 including a priority beta key.

Grab a copy, get your key, and add it to your Station account. Sony will contact you further when the beta is about to begin.

Development Sunsets On Stellar Dawn


Back in August I wrote an article titled “Does Jagex Have Any Enthusiasm For Stellar Dawn?” In it, I referred to the disconnect between the complete lack of information regarding Jagex’s upcoming MMO and the fact that in August of the (at the time) release year, information on the game was virtually nonexistent. No screenshots, very vague trailers, and barely enough information regarding gameplay t fill a synopsis. Considering Jagex’s upcoming release of Transformers Universe, and the fact that Stellar Dawn is already saddled with the major financial disaster that was MechScape, I questioned whether or not Jagex had the will or desire to ever complete Stellar Dawn.

Jagex CEO Mark Gerhard has confirmed today that development on Stellar Dawn has ceased. In a post on the RuneScape forums, Gerhard says that the decision was not made lightly and was driven by the need to concentrate resources on Jagex’s other titles.

Rest assured that we will review the status of the Stellar Dawn project in the future so long as an appetite for the game remains. I hope Jagex can rely on your ongoing support.

So Stellar Dawn’s future is uncertain at best.

(Source: RuneScape forums)

Eve Online: No More Character Trade, Cheaters


Allowing accounts to trade characters opens the door for a whole host of issues. If you tie offenses to an account, you open the door for someone to simply transfer a character to a new account before the old account is banned, and CCP is specifically addressing just that issue in the latest bot bust.

Following a strike that saw over a thousand bots banned from Eve Online, CCP went on their website to announce a new tool in the fight against ne’er do wells. From now on, accounts hit with a warning for bottling will find their transfer privileges gone.

From now on, and this current wave is included, characters who receive a warning such as this will have the characters locked to the account. This means that once you’ve received a warning for botting your character transfer privileges have been revoked in perpetuity. This is to prevent people trying to circumvent the rules by recycling accounts. </

CCP has promised more to come after Fanfest. Stop botting.

(Source: Eve Online website)

Blizzard Lays Off 600: But From Where?


Blizzard is a special case. If any other company were to lay off 600 people, I might put on my tinfoil hat and start predicting the incoming Chapter 11 apocalypse. Meanwhile, while the usual people are screaming of the impending death of Blizzard, it is worth noting that 90% of the layoffs are from the non-development side of the company without impact on the World of Warcraft development.

But there is one factor I wanted to talk about with regard to World of Warcraft, and that is how Blizzard has managed to do a complete reversal of expectations on income versus subscription numbers. In the past year or two since Blizzard’s figures peaked at twelve million, subscription numbers have dropped by nearly two million. Against what you might expect, Blizzard continues to post higher revenue from World of Warcraft thanks to the increasing sale of cash shop vanity pets and mounts.

So while a good few are referring to the layoffs as the death slide of Blizzard, I’m going to need more persuasion before I dust off the old tin foil hat.

Everquest Online Adventures Shutting Down


Talk about disappointingly bad timing. Just as I started writing about Everquest Online Adventures, Sony has announced the impending shuttering of the title. On March 29th, Sony will be shutting down Everquest Online Adventures, Cosmic Rift, Infantry, and Star Chamber. Everquest Online Adventures launched in 2003 as a Playstation 2 exclusive.

As a reward to the players of EverQuest® Online Adventures, we will be giving you 3 months of Gold Membership in both EverQuest® and EverQuest® II. We greatly appreciate all of you and hope that you choose to join us in another version of the Norrath that we all love. These gold memberships will be available starting on Friday, March 16, 2012.

Everquest Online Adventures has survived a long time despite all odds, being a subscription MMO on an obsolete console. While EQOA is playable on the Playstation 3, doing so requires not only a model that has backwards compatibility, but the physical disk itself. A new copy of EQOA Frontiers has become extremely rare and expensive, while the original version, still playable, can experience issues when Frontiers content is displaying on screen.

(Source: SOE Website)

Black Prophecy’s Future In Question


Black Prophecy exploded on to Gamigo’s library of titles as one of the best looking MMOs on the market, even more surprising when you look at the free to play model. The game has been praised for its high production quality and customization, but rather criticized for lack of variety in quests and poor server stability. Unfortunately, as Games Industry is now reporting, the future of Black Prophecy may rely on an outside provider.

Developer Reakktor Media is insolvent, and is seeking contract work to stay afloat.

“We are in a position to accomplish basically anything what is played right now, even if we were focused in the recent times on multiplayer mobile gaming. However, the MMO area is historically our organically grown core competence.”

If there is any hope for Black Prophecy, Gamigo owns 19% of Reakktor Media and may be a prime candidate to buy it up in case the play for contract work doesn’t generate enough income to keep Reakktor afloat.

(Source: Gamesindustry.biz)

Black Prophecy's Future In Question


Black Prophecy exploded on to Gamigo’s library of titles as one of the best looking MMOs on the market, even more surprising when you look at the free to play model. The game has been praised for its high production quality and customization, but rather criticized for lack of variety in quests and poor server stability. Unfortunately, as Games Industry is now reporting, the future of Black Prophecy may rely on an outside provider.

Developer Reakktor Media is insolvent, and is seeking contract work to stay afloat.

“We are in a position to accomplish basically anything what is played right now, even if we were focused in the recent times on multiplayer mobile gaming. However, the MMO area is historically our organically grown core competence.”

If there is any hope for Black Prophecy, Gamigo owns 19% of Reakktor Media and may be a prime candidate to buy it up in case the play for contract work doesn’t generate enough income to keep Reakktor afloat.

(Source: Gamesindustry.biz)