Tag: MMOFPS

More Details About Survarium Revealed


Survarium is not S.T.A.L.K.E.R, let’s get that straight. It is, however, being developed by Vostok Games, a team made up of ex-S.T.A.L.K.E.R creators. Survarium is an upcoming free to play MMO shooter set in a world that has been taken over by flora. In an effort to combat the growing forest, a powerful herbicide is deployed and, you guessed it, kills the vast majority of the world’s population. As in S.T.A.L.K.E.R the world has become filled with anomalies, and players will find themselves taking on missions for one of several factions, shooting it out in this session-based multiplayer game.

So the game is closer to Crimecraft than it is Planetside, but the developers at Vostok want to make this as unique as possible. Team combat is not what you’d expect: rival teams work against one another to scavenge parts and build a device to protect themselves from a massive storm, and both teams can fail at this objective. Cooperative missions delve into the world’s artifacts. Finally, of the three modes revealed recently, free play drops players in a massive map with 30 other players to move and do as they please.

You can view the entirety of the latest developer diary below. Survarium does not yet have a release date.

Tribes Ascend: Now With More Experience


Tribes: Ascend, the free to play shooter, is great for the very idea that any weapon or upgrade that can be bought with cash can also be purchased by simply playing the game. Granted, by the time you play Tribes: Ascend long enough to unlock every weapon and upgrade, you might be cashing in your retirement check and playing on virtual reality machines.

As part of the June update, Hi-Rez Studios is greatly increasing the rate at which unlocks are obtained. The new system will operate in a manner familiar to sandbox MMO fans: Each piece of equipment has its own experience bar which increases as you use it. To speed up the process even more, you still obtain experience and GP that can be spent on unlocking further upgrades even faster.

Now that Tribes Ascend can (reasonably) be played for free, there is no reason not to jump in and start killing the deserving Sandrakers.

DUST 514 Not Impeded By Sony Certification, Says CCP


Being an MMOFPS, the idea that CCP is releasing DUST 514 on the Playstation 3 understandably has some users worried. How would an ever-expanding and changing world react on a console where updates are notoriously held up in Sony’s certification system? CCP Senior Producer Jon Lander wants you to know that Sony’s certification will not be a problem. In fact, the developer plans on bypassing it entirely.

In an interview with Eurogamer, Jon Lander points out that the game is built with multiple systems in place to allow the addition of new items, or swapping servers around without requiring a client update.

“But if we want to do major client updates to the PS3, then we go through Sony’s usual submission process. But we do have ways of just being able to change other parts of the infrastructure as we need to.”

Additionally, this means that while DUST 514 and Eve Online may exist in the same universe (and servers), Eve Online’s updates also will not affect DUST 514 users.

DUST 514 launches (hopefully) sometime in 2012, although CCP has noted that the game will not launch until the team is satisfied.

(Source: Eurogamer)

John Romero Making MMO-Ish Shooter


“It’s a persistent game, it has persistent player data, the character grows and gets better over time. I think most gamers expect that now anyway, but this was a design I’d done a while ago. I think it’s pretty valid.”

John Romero is one of the industry’s finest, even if he no longer works with John Carmack, and if the man wants to make his own MMO-ish shooter, then by God he will. In an interview with Eurogamer, Romero stated that while the game is still in pre-production stages, he has a solid vision of what he expects the title to become. Romero discusses his distaste for the current shooter genre, and mentions that his game will play faster than the Gears of War titles currently available, and won’t rely on the slower-paced cover based systems and characters who act as bullet sponges. Not to say Gears isn’t a great game, it just isn’t the type Romero would like to create.

If this makes you think of Quake Live, you probably aren’t too far from the target. Granted, very little about Romero’s game, so we will simply have to wait for more details.

(Source: Eurogamer)

DUST 514 On Vita: Companion App


If you had purchased a Vita under the pretense that you would be graced with the free to play MMO shooter known only as DUST 514, prepare to be disappointed. In an interview with Eurogamer, Executive Producer Brandon Laurino has once again spoken up to clarify on a few questions and notes that the Vita DUST 514 app will be a companion app only.

“At the most basic level, you can do transactions on the market; equip and customise your character, your vehicles; set up strategies with your friends and Corporation members – all of these sort of companion functions on the go.”

That being said, CCP is still looking at possibilities for further development of the app, and while it is unlikely that gamers will be on the front line for the glory of whichever Eve Online corporation has the most expendable money, player feedback should bring in any features that don’t make it into the initial release.

On the other hand, this isn’t necessarily a death call for MMOs on the Vita. Square Enix has hope to port Final Fantasy XI over, and then who knows who else would be willing to step up and assault our productivity?

DUST launches on the PS3 this year.

(Source: Eurogamer)

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)

Falling Out #14: Tribes Ascend Beta Key Giveaway


That is correct. Below you will see four beta keys, each with numbers replaced by question marks. By using the clues provided, simply replace the missing numbers and activate your key here (you will need to register a Hi-Rez account if you don’t already have one).

  1. The first Myst game released this year.
  2. The Gameboy launches in North America and Japan.
  3. Super Mario 64 releases in Japan and North America.
  4. The mark of the devil.
T119B-0D221-23324-F78BA-B9E??
T1434-37521-54B64-F7DB2-8B8??
T1012-F0F??-6DF04-D15AB-F05E4
FR658E30F695054206B8E1???

Global Agenda Going Even Freeer To Play


I’m not entirely sure that “freeer” (the comparative term for “more free”) is a word, but if it isn’t a simple phone call and bribery of my glass D&D dice should get that added into Webster’s Dictionary toot sweet. Global Agenda technically went free to play back in June last year, following its February launch. In a post today, Hi-Rez announced that Global Agenda will be going entirely free to play, removing previous restrictions on free players. For a one time fee of $20 (with those who had purchased the game already receiving this bonus) players are upgraded to Elite Agent, and receive bonuses to experience and loot.

Free players are not entirely devoid of restrictions, however. Going by the news post, free players will have limited or no restrictions to various features, including the auction house, mail system, chat, agencies, and will also receive ads over the in-game voice feature, as well as being lower on the login priority list.

“Global Agenda has never required a monthly subscription to play and, for a while now, we have offered a generous free trial for the game.” said Todd Harris, Hi-Rez Studios COO.  “Our experience with the limited free trial has demonstrated to us the great demand among free-to-play gamers for a AAA-quality Shooter MMO like Global Agenda. We believe this latest change will further broaden the game’s popularity and appeal.”

This comment from the news article confuses me, unless Todd Harris is spinning words. On second thought, I get it now. Global Agenda never required a subscription, in the sense that my crab legs at Red Lobster didn’t require me to pay, if all I wanted was the free water. The side of the game no one would have paid a subscription for anyway, the lobby-based shooting, was free. With restrictions. It does remind me of what I said last year, however:

I do get the hunch that, much like a certain Cities XL game that came out in 2009 and shut down in March, Global Agenda’s paid MMO side is not doing as well as the company had hoped. Oddly enough, this seems to be a trend with games that release with one half free, one half paid content, unless the game’s name is Guild Wars of course.

If it is any consolation, I still stand by that Global Agenda is a game worth getting into, and if you want to get into the game, the best time to do so may be before the game goes free to play. There is no guarantee that the coupon codes will still work after the game transitions, so you still have an opportunity to purchase the game (and obtain Elite Agent status) for $10, using one of the 50% coupon codes below.

GACOU214902710304
GACOU214902773231
GACOU214902773230
GACOU214902773232
GACOU214902710233
GACOU214902710172
GACOU214902710101
GACOU214902773234
GACOU214902710000
GACOU214902773233

Red 5 Marketing to China? The9 To The Rescue!


He says he's not dead...

Who would have thought I would be following up on a Blizzard story and a Red 5 story at the same time? The9 is a spurned lover. After losing the rights to World of Warcraft Asia-Edition earlier this year to NetEase (granted, who promptly got the game banned just as quickly) and taking a massive loss in revenue, assuming that the company was in some financial difficulty would not be too illogical. Of course, you would be wrong. Not only does The9 have some moolah saved up, likely from the time World of Warcraft was feeding them seven or eight million players in the Asian region, they have enough to financially back two companies: Fire Rain and Red 5.

“Wait a minute, Omali,” you say. “I know that name, Red 5!” I would certainly hope so, I mentioned them just about a week ago. Red 5 has been in the news several times, not only because their MMOFPS is so tightly under wraps that the company actually suffocated (and will likely cancel) it, but because of the substantial number of employees who have been laid off over the past few years. A company of over one hundred has been reduced to approximately 35, and according to my last report, is currently focusing on an MMO for the Chinese Market.

Red 5 has been to death’s door and back, but will it be enough to sustain the company to completion of its Chinese MMO, let alone to spark a re-interest in that MMOFPS they were working on so many ages ago?

More on Red 5 Studios, and the obligatory Star Wars references, as it appears.

Red 5: Goodbye For Now, West! Hello China!


I don't want to go on the cart

A man once said, “Those who can’t do, teach. Those who can’t teach, teach Gym.” I have a similar phrase for companies that make MMOs:

“Those who can’t develop, develop for China.”
-Omali, MMO Fallout, on the Asian MMO Market

Now, if you’re going to accuse me of implying that the Asian MMO market is saturated with hundreds of titles that are nothing more than cookie cutter item mall clones with enough grind to turn a pepper plant into microscopic sized specks, developed by small companies that rake in huge profits of the item mall selling faster leveling and insanely rare items for cash, and then use that money to not support the product by not getting rid of the endless amount of gold farmers that will populate the server and sell to a market in the millions whose standards barely break the point of “I don’t care about lore, immersion, or anything else as long as I can kill this one NPC several thousand times over,” well I would have no idea what you are talking about. I contest your assumption that I am comparing the quality aspect of developing for the Asian market, to the literature aspect of writing a book for toddlers.

Red 5 Studios was founded by World of Warcraft veterans, including Mark Kern, Team Lead over at Blizzard, which could lead one to believe that the company would be marginally as successful as Blizzard. Thanks to some trouble hiring, despite Red 5 going as far as bribing the hopefuls with Ipod Shuffles, development at the new studio never took off the ground. A company that fits the profile of “Never was, is not, and never will be,” Red 5’s initial staff of 100 was butchered down to 65 in 2008, after the company closed its Shanghai office.

Red 5 has confirmed that they have had another round of layoffs, leaving the company with a skeleton crew of just over 30 employees. Webzen, who you will remember took control of Archlord in the Western markets, invested in Red 5 back in 2008, over an MMOFPS that the developer was working on. It now appears that the title may never be released, and Red 5 has plans for another game.

This time, rather than a worldwide release, Red 5 will be “restructuring” and focusing on releasing an MMO in the Chinese market, although they are still claiming that the MMOFPS is not down and out yet, simply shelved until a further date. Haven’t heard that before.

More on Red 5 as it appears.