Happy September everyone! This is the month many of us will be starting our fall semesters of school, college, or university (or in my case, Lincoln Logs 101). In that respect, let’s talk about what’s taking the top of our priority list: Massively Multiplayer Games!
September is a month of birth, and what a month it is. September sees the launch of:
Gather your superfriends, punch out a destructoid bot, and collect your action figures; Champions Online went live earlier this morning for all of you who did not gain access to the head start. Everything you remember from the beta, minus many of the bugs, is here. Players who haven’t logged in a few days will find themselves having to download several small patches (100-150mb), but should be in the game in the matter of only a few minutes.
But that’s not all! Not content with simply releasing the game and sitting back, Cryptic has taken this time to announce the first “State of the Game,” announcing further updates. Cryptic is looking at making the end-game more difficult in response to player feedback, among other tweaks. The announcement has also come of Blood Moon, a free update that currently has no details available.
Aion releases September 22nd, but that doesn’t mean you have to wait until the end of September to try out this bad boy, nor do you have to import the Asian version to get on distant servers. After many rumors of the sort, the announcement has come that Aion will be holding a week long open beta, starting September 6th, giving access to 30 levels and the full environment to fly around in.
Those who preorder the game will be able to access the head start, and get right into the action on September 20th, a full two days before the full game launches. Players who preorder will also be able to set up their names and servers on the 18th, two days before the early start.
To those of you teetering on the edge: Don’t forget that this is an open beta, the key word being BETA. Although Aion has launched in other parts of the world, that does not mean that there will not be starting glitches in the open beta. That is what the beta is for, to hammer out the final bugs. Also remember: Aion has quite a pull from the community. Expect the patch and client servers to be down for some time, assuming it isn’t hosted on Fileplanet. Champions Online, that recently went into Open Beta, had a good 24 hours of difficulty with servers and clients.
Update: Good news! The Aion client is now available for download!
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Good news everyone! On the 25th, Cryptic gave a short message detailing that they were out of the special 6-month and lifetime subscriptions for Champions Online. The end to the deal was quit a showstopper, and was the topic of much ridicule and complaint over the forums, email, and chat support.
Well, let no one say that the power of the people is not a powerful power, because the subscriptions are back! Rather than employing a set number to be doled out “until supplies last”, the offer will continue until 11:59 on August 1st. If you were still on the edge or if you misses your chance, now is your time to take advantage of the deal.
Don’t forget, purchasing either one will get you special access to the Star Trek Online beta!
I’ve seen a few websites on this recent lawsuit that Turbine has filed against their publisher, Atari, and the whole thing sounds like a James Bond film, albeit corporate instead of the world. All in all, I found the reporting somewhat confusing, as to who had what motives, and what exactly was going on. So I decided to set up a new section of MMO Fallout, “In Plain English”, where things can be spelled out clearly and in context the average user can understand.
I must admit, I misread the reception to Champions Online. Although I knew the game had a big calling, I didn’t think that players would buy up the game’s $60 six month packages, and $200 lifetime subscriptions so fast, even if they promised a few exclusive costumes, not to mention a guaranteed spot in the Star Trek Online Closed Beta later this year, especially not before the end of the beta today (Yes, I was wrong. The beta was extended one day).
So I’ll start out with my apologies to Cryptic for underestimating such an early reception to the game. Those of you who, after much deliberation, decided upon buying one of the two limited time subscriptions today will find that your limited time has run out. Just yesterday, Cryptic announced that they only had one thousand lifetime and five hundred six month subscriptions available. In less than a day, all of those fifteen hundred subscriptions went flying out the door (One six month to yours truly), much faster than even Cryptic had anticipated.
A word from Cryptic, and more information after the break.
The Champions Online beta goes down tonight at 11:59pm Pacific, 3am Eastern. As an end of beta even, Cryptic is beaming robots down to Milennium City for players to fight before the servers go down later tonight. Help the fight against Destructoid’s robots, including the massive Mega Destructoids. Players who aid in the fight against Mega Destructoids will receive special perks and items that will be available at launch, including exclusive Mega Destructoid action figures.
As of this publishing, the servers are down in preparation for the event. The beta is open to all, and the game goes live September 1st with a few days head start for preorders from a few stores. Watch out for the Destroyer clones!
When City of Heroes launched, it taught us one thing: That if you give the ability to create any superhero your heart desires, to flesh out your own living alter ego in his own design, down to the color of your leather shoes; You’ll wind up with about five thousand Goku, Vegeta, Superman, Hulk, etc running around causing headaches and stirring up the pot for a lawsuit from Marvel and DC comics..
So I’ve been watching the landscape for people who have paid homage to the lesser used heroes. Seen above: Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney. There I was thinking it was illegal for a defense attorney to act as a prosecutor.
When Champions Online launches this September, it will be the first in a line of superhero MMO’s looking to dethrone the current, and only, contender for the genre; City of Heroes/City of Villains. As there is no timeline for the Marvel MMO, and DC Universe Online isn’t giving us anything more specific than late 2009, early 2010, Champions Online will no doubt enjoy the leg up on the competition…As it tries to get a leg up on the current competition.
MMO Fallout 