Xsyon Hits Up Kickstarter To Fund Full Release


Xsyon has been operating in a land we’d like to call “under the radar,” since it launched the “prelude” phase. Since its initial launch, the game has maintained a small community with regular live events from the development staff. We’ve seen the game pop up here on MMO Fallout a few times, including the recent release of an endless trial server (which wipes every week). Despite being a small release, Xsyon has some pretty intense ideas behind it. Players set up in groups and take over land in a world that is continually evolving as new technologies are discovered. Animals breed and migrate as resources move along with them, and players are able to terraform in a manner that permanently affects the world.

Well, Xsyon hasn’t technically gone “gold” yet. Notorious Games has several plans for the title, including separate PvP and PvE servers, as well as a major expansion in territory size as well as new creatures, magic, and more. So the team at Notorious has made its way on to Kickstarter, to seek funding for the game. The project aims for $250,000, with a due date of January 1st, 2013 to gather up all of the moolah. Check it out at the link below.

(Source: Kickstarter)

This Week In Launches: Dual Wielding Shotguns


Happy days are here! November 20th has come and gone, and left us with a little early Christmas present. Over on the browser side, Jagex has finally unleashed the Evolution of Combat. After five months of strenuous beta testing, the update went live on servers Tuesday to some mixed but mostly positive reactions by the community. Along with the new ability bar (and abilities), Evolution of Combat overhauls the combat formula, changing the way everything from weapons, armor, and NPCs work. Players are now able to dual wield weapons as well.

Over on the Sony Online front, Planetside 2 is live and running. Players are fighting on three factions over three continents in an endless tug of war over territory control. You can download Planetside 2 on Steam for easier access, the game is free to play with a cash shop and optional subscription. Planetside 2 brings three factions and thousands of players together to fight in massive, multi-hour battles over large portions of land and resources. The game does require a decent computer to play, so make sure you check out the requirements if your rig is dated.

Finally, RaiderZ has launched today (the 21st). I have a review coming soon, but to sum it up: RaiderZ is a lot like a free to play version of TERA, with a few alterations to flavor thrown in the mix. A free to play game with a cash shop, RaiderZ emphasizes on action-based combat, where you’ll have to be active in dodging your opponent’s attacks and coming back with your own. The game is supported by a cash shop and published by Perfect World Entertainment.

Video of the ___: Tabula Rasa Trailer


Tabula Rasa is gone, but not forgotten. I wanted to share the opening cinematic for those of you who may not have played Tabula Rasa, or did and simply would like a taste of nostalgia.

Darkfall: Unholy Wars Developer Diary


When Darkfall: Unholy Wars launches, I will be a happy man. As Aventurine has ensured myself and the rest of us are aware, Unholy Wars is set hundreds of years after the events of Darkfall, in a world that has been completely rebuilt from the ground up and inhabited by creatures that have slightly evolved over their predecessor. Check out the video above, where Creative Lead Adam Oikonomopoulos discusses the change in art direction for Unholy Wars, as well as how the new Darkfall will expand up on the old.

Darkfall shut down November 15th. Darkfall: Unholy Wars will go live on December 12th.

Falling Out #17: Live Events Q&A


Live events are a trade-off. On one hand, they’re often a massive, lag-riddled clustertruck of players scrambling over one another in an attempt to get their participation noted, leaving out those in other time zones. On the other hand, if you did attend the live event as I did, the sight of the world permanently changing before your eyes offers a new level of immersion. It’s something that if you were there, cool, if you weren’t, you feel left out.

Beta Perspective: City of Steam Weekend #1


A long time ago, the four nations of the world lived in peace and harmony. But all of that changed when the fire nation attacked. I’m sorry, I’m thinking of the wrong IP again. City of Steam is an upcoming browser MMO by Mechanist Games, set in a not-entirely-steampunk world of goblins, draug, dwarves, and man. The game is built over the Unity-3D engine, offering excellent graphics and smooth gameplay with all the benefits of being a browser game. It’s been a long time since I played the alpha, so I took the chance to sit down over the weekend and play in the first closed beta.

City of Steam allows you to choose from ten races and four classes (tank, mage, ranger, healer). Each class is divided into several subclasses that determine what kind of weapon and abilities you start out with. As you level up and gain skill points, you can choose to train in other fields of combat. The first thing you’ll notice is how amazing the game looks. Unity 3D has the ability to push some heavy graphics, and every part of City of Steam looks crisp and rides with the theme. Even better, while there are a few gameplay bugs to note, the game itself ran incredibly well despite the hustle and bustle of players crammed into the beta server. I didn’t experience any lag or graphical hitches, and the game did not crash once during the weekend.

After you create your character, you are given a direct sight to just how grand of a scale this game aims for: With the view of a massive behemoth attacking the city. Even your starting hub is much bigger than it appears to be at first. As the tutorial (which can be skipped) progresses, you learn the usual spat of controls, combat, and healing. Mechanist Games wants to please everyone, however, so while the game can be controlled entire through the mouse, players are also able to use WASD movement controls with the standard keys for abilities and perks. Just remember that your “injections” (hp and mana) are on the Q and E keys. I kept accidentally using health potions instinctively hitting E to pick up items.

Overall, there wasn’t a whole lot to do this weekend. Quests were dramatically cut short for the sake of the beta, so once that was over (around level 6) there wasn’t much else to do but run dungeons. Still, for what was available, City of Steam is turning into a very enjoyable game. If you haven’t picked up a key, you can do so at the link in the above banner. Grab a key, and it is good for all four beta weekends, so if you pick one up now (or in future tests) you won’t need another one for each subsequent weekend.

An Ode To The Oldest Living City Of Heroes Hero


I logged into my old NCSoft account a while back and found this gem, so I took a screenshot tonight to show everyone. If you look at my oldest character on the Freedom server, Alexandravich, you will see that she hasn’t logged in in approximately 4,705 days. The character is locked and I just don’t have the heart to unlock it and see what lies under the veil of “this character hasn’t logged in in over 90 days.” What kind of costume did my even worse fashion sense come up with? What power sets does Alexandravich have? Does she look cool or pretty stupid? I’m pretty sure Alexandravich predates City of Villains, but I’m not sure by how much.

Either way, you’ll see that Alexandravich hasn’t logged into City of Heroes in 4,705 days, which would place her last login on January 1st, 2000, or approximately six months before Cryptic Studios is even founded and about four and a half years before the launch of City of Heroes. So I guess we can mark time travel as one of her powers.

Anyway, as I was saying: Don’t do drugs and stay in school. Otherwise that guy with the claw feet above will eat your face.

The Old Republic: Free To Play Requires A Subscription


Once The Old Republic launched its free to play program, I figured I’d set up a new account to see just how tight the restrictions on free players are. However, as you can see above, I’ve hit a snag: My free to play account doesn’t have an active subscription. Either an overlooked bug or some deeper metaphor giving an insight into the meaning of life.

Either way, it seems like subscribing might contradict the point in seeing what a purely free player experiences.

City of Steam Beta Key Giveaway


It’s only November and yet it already feels like Christmas. City of Steam is heading into closed beta! What is City of Steam, you ask? City of Steam is an upcoming MMO by Mechanist Games, based in the Unity3D engine and set in a steam powered, industrial world. Players are able to choose from ten races with four classes (with more on the way), with a branching story that lets you decide what path you take. I had a chance to play City of Steam during its beta-phase, and I enjoyed the game so much that I leaped at the opportunity to get some of my readers in-tune with the game.

There will be four beta phases for City of Steam. From MMO Fallout, you can get your hands on a beta key for this weekend:

  • Springtime (Nov. 16th – 20th)

[keys id=9160]

How to redeem your key:

  1. After getting your Beta key, head to the City of Steam website here .
  2. Register an account (or sign in if you already have one), copy/paste your Beta Key, click the register/sign-in button, then click on the ‘Play Now’ button and test out City of Steam’s Closed Beta release (or if the test is not yet up, your key will be safely activated and ready for when the game goes live).
  3. Enjoy!

 

Key Features Include:

  • Character and Weapon Customization – Weapon appearance changes when modded
  • Branching Storylines – Choose the path your story will take
  • Lightweight – No massive download or install required
  • Full Featured – Content you’d expect from a AAA MMO, but all easily accessed from a browser
  • Beautiful graphics and scenery
  • 10 races, 4 classes, with more on the way
  • Content for casual and hardcore gamers alike

Glitch Shutting Down December 9th


What a terrible day. As posted on the Glitch website today, the fledgling MMO will be shutting down forever as of December 9th. The website and forums will remain up until 8pm Pacific on the 9th, during which time the website and all services including mobile apps will no longer be available. The team is heartbroken to have to make the announcement, but according to the news post, Glitch had simply not attained a level of income to remain viable.

Unfortunately, Glitch has not attracted an audience large enough to sustain itself and based on a long period of experimentation and our best estimates, it seems unlikely that it ever would. And, given the prevailing technological trends — the movement towards mobile and especially the continued decline of the Flash platform on which Glitch was built — it was unlikely to do so before its time was up.

All recent purchases will be refunded automatically, while all purchases made since November 11, 2011 will be refunded eventually as they are to be taken care of by hand. According to the FAQ, selling the game is not possible:

It’s complicated, but it comes down to this: if that were a transaction that made sense to the purchaser, we wouldn’t be shutting the game down.

There is a ray of sunshine in this story, however. Even though Glitch will die, Tiny Speck will continue on as a company.

Tiny Speck, the company behind Glitch, will continue. We have developed some unique messaging technology with applications outside of the gaming world and a smaller core team will be working to develop new products. But now is not the time to talk about that. Right now our concern is with the players and our comrades who are suddenly looking for new work.

If you want to get some final memories of Glitch, do it now.

(Source: Glitch Website)