Monday 26 September 2011

Bits and MMO bobs

Right now I'm in that slightly awkward phase between MMO obsessions, so my attention is leaping all over the place as I hawk around for news on something to inspire me. So since my head is all random, here's a few random bits and bobs of MMO news I've read lately and felt like commenting on...

World of Darkness, CCP's vampire MMO (same setting as the legendary Vampire The Masquerade RPG), is going to have perma-death. Interesting, bold and a little surprising, but then CCP do have slightly bigger balls than most developers. Though apparently you'll get plenty of warning and opportunity to prevent it, so I'm not sure quite how much of a risk it is, yet it will at least be a genuine possibility.

Also, and this I didn't see coming, in World of Darkness you'll be able to play as a human?! I'm not sure why anyone would want to with the range of different vampire types in that setting (from bestial mingers, to psycho killers, to kinky boot beasts). Presumably there's something fancy planned there. Very little info out there about this game at the moment, but it's one I'm very keen on hearing more about.

On the WAR front the only glimmer we have is the line "And next year we are about encounter bloodlust in an additional way.", which I expect to be the Sylvannia stuff appearing in some form. It irritates me that something like this isn't appearing now, it would make so much difference to the game. Mythic desperately need to speed up their patch cycle. Dramatically.

Planetside 2 will be F2P. Instantly we could choose to start worrying about it being pay2win, but actually I'm not that concerned. The original Planetside's level system didn't work like most MMOs, in that instead of levels giving you power, they gave you options. It allowed you access to a wider range of weapons and vehicles that gave you options in what kind of gameplay you experienced, but it didn't make you better as such. For example the big MAX suits had huge weaponry and armour, but their mobility was terrible. A basic agile armoured infantry set up would still be lethal if played to it's strengths. So I am hoping that the cash shop (I presume it will have one) will sell options rather than power. This remains the big hope for my next long term game, unless SWTOR proves to have long term appeal.

Star Wars The Old Republic has a release date of 20th/22nd December US/EU. No news yet on the head start dates, presumably a good few days beforehand. I just hope people with boxed pre-orders (like me) are given a download option because having to rely on the post at that time of year is less than ideal.

It's a funny time to release the game really, I assume its being done to further break up people logging in (combined with the staggered launch malarkey) to help Bioware with a smooth launch. If it's not nigh on perfect there will be much rage spewing across the internet. Personally I don't care much, it gives me plenty of time with Skyrim :P I do feel sorry for those Bioware employees and their families that have effectively had Christmas cancelled.

Outside of MMOs, because THEY ARE NOT MMOs (Massively I am looking at you), I'm intrigued to see the makers of World of Tanks developing both World of Battleships and World of Warplanes. WoT is a very good game, if a little too cash shop dependent, and as someone with a Silent Hunter addiction, I'm particularly intrigued to see what Wargaming.net can do with the big shooty ships. I just hope it doesn't turn out to be World of Battleshops.

5 comments:

  1. Interesting news about the World of Darkness MMO. I'm not sure how it'll go down, but I've seen people wanting something a bit more challenging and brutal for a while now.

    On SWTOR, I think if I do get round to preordering it that I'll be getting it via Origin. It's the only way to be sure...

    Finally, I tried WoTanks at the Eurogamer Expo. Man do I suck at that game...

    ReplyDelete
  2. Is there any sort of ETA on the World of Darkness?

    ReplyDelete
  3. Bloody marvelous to be able to play as a human, depending on how they do it of course. I dont know mutch about the rpg in itself but im pretty sure they can figure stuff out for humans to be.

    ReplyDelete
  4. No idea on the ETA I'm afraid other than it's anytime soon. I've heard conflicting info on what stage of development the game is at, though I would guess its quite early simply based on how little info there is out there.

    Daevas, certainly there's all sorts of ways it could be done. Yet I do wonder how the day vs night bit would work?

    ReplyDelete
  5. Well V:TM is still an excellent in this day and age. I bought it off Steam again recently for £5 and played it through again as a different vamp, and loved it. So WoD can't come soon enough for me. I guess if you play a human you would be either some kinda thrall or/and maybe some kinda pseudo Van Helsing type :)

    ReplyDelete

About Me

My photo
Half man half pixel. Music obsessive, likes a drink, occasional bastard.