Rabu, 05 September 2012
How Guardians of Middle-earth innovates on the MOBA gametype
Monolith has actually iterated on this complex strategy/action genre in a few different ways. Here's a list of five different things, whether you're a level 30 summoner or a Venomancer newbie, that you'll find new and interesting about Guardians of Middle-earth when it arrives for consoles later on this year.
1. Soldier/minion and Tower Upgrades
Usually in a MOBA game, players can customize their characters in the middle of a match (to counter opponent strategy) by buying items, but in GOME, there's no item store at all. To make sure players can still tweak gameplay when necessary, Monolith has instead allowed players to pick upgrades in-match for soldier minions and turrets. You can choose to have a turret focus on defense or damage, for instance, or change an outgoing soldier wave to consist of siege units (good against enemy structures) or other unit types.
All of these upgrades are per lane, so players with a certain specialty can tweak their defenses to match their gameplay. And as senior producer Ruth Tomandl says, the only real cost is time, that could instead be spent leveling up your character. "You can upgrade anything at any time, once you're at a high enough level," she says. "It's just a time consumption thing -- do I want to upgrade towers or do I want to get XP?"
Both sets of upgrades unlock when players hit level 6, and then it's up to players how they wish to configure those uncontrolled defenses, with new options unlocking as the game goes on.
2. The Tactician Class
In general, heroes in Dota 2 and League of Legends come in three flavors: Attack Power (where basic attacks do the most damage), Ability Power (where special attacks are the main source of damage), and Tanks (where high hit points and armor make survival a priority). There are certainly other types of heroes (some heroes can support with heal spells or buffs), but in general, most heroes fall into these three categories.
Monolith has those classes as well (with setting-specific names), but it also has a new kind of class called the Tactician. Tactician characters are built instead around positioning and strategy: They can create emplacements like mines or turrets, and use big area-of-effect spells to control the movements of other heroes and minions. They can also be very strong against towers, similar to the "Siege" hero type that Blizzard is working on with its Dota variant.
The Tactician class originally rose out of the tower upgrade feature, says Tomandl. Tacticians could initially upgrade towers faster and have more options. "But we eventually found," she says, "that just having a class that was really good at lane pushing was not only useful to us, but was really interesting." Tacticians bring a new type of specialization to MOBA heroes, slightly different from what we've seen before.
3. The Rune Belt
Again, Monolith decided with GOME that it didn't want to create an in-match item store, but then still had to deal with the issue of player progression, and the other solution it's come up with is something called the rune belt. Outside of matches, players can buy and unlock various runes, gems, and relics, and then can place them on a "belt" that slowly unlocks new stats and abilities as characters level up in-match.
For example, one rune could unlock three different parts, that eventually grants a damage-over-time bonus to your basic attack when fully unlocked. At a highly competitive level of play, runes will need to be configured just right, to work both with the characters' weaknesses (you might use runes to protect a less heavily-armored Guardian, for example), and opponents' strategic choices. Multiple rune loadouts can be configured outside of matches, and players can even switch belts before the game begins but after the opponents' heroes have been shown, in order to react to what they expect the match may be like.
There are also default loadouts to play with, for players that don't want to spend the time customizing their characters exactly. But creating the rune belt takes that item customization out of the frantic game itself, and makes for some interesting strategic choices even when not on the battlefield.
4. A Single-Lane Map
League of Legends has had a player-generated sub-gametype bouncing around for a while called ARAM, which stands for all random, all middle, in which all ten players in a match promise to stick to the one middle lane and just battle it out in one big melee rather than strategically using the whole game map (one set of pro players even famously decided to do this during a championship match recently).
And now Monolith has made this gametype official with a single-lane map, where all ten players get one straight, long battleground to face each other down, no extra healing available. "There's no healing pad [at the ends of the lane] and you also get experience over time," says Tomandl. "It's not all random, you can still pick your guys. It's very much about knowing exactly the range of all your stuff and exactly the range of all of your enemies' abilities and being careful about all those ranges."
The single lane map still does have minions coming down the middle and a fortress to defend on either side, and there are a few shrines and extras off of the main lane, with hidden brush areas for players to fight in. But the focus of the map is one big melee, and that's something that players have generated on their own, but many MOBAs haven't officially sanctioned just yet.
5. Shrines
Most MOBA games, starting with Dota, have "creeps," or small NPC characters hidden off of the main lanes that provide extra buffs and rewards to players who take the time to find and kill them. But GOME takes that concept further with "shrines," which are small control points between and outside the lanes that provide extra teamwide buffs (like a few percentage points of health or regen) to anyone who claims them by standing close for a set amount of time.
Not only does the idea of a teamwide buff make friendly sharing easier, but Tomandl says these shrines have lead an unexpected effect. "You get fights at the shrines early on," she says. "Because our three lane map is so much smaller, it's easier for players to switch between lanes, so you end up with more map-wide strategic play earlier in the match. And the shrines really encourage that." Shrines start out invisible to everyone, but when controlled, they open up visibility in between the lanes, so they also serve as vision wards to anyone willing to claim them.
Adding such a dramatic bonus in between lanes means it can get bloody in there fast. There are still creeps and buffs elsewhere on GOME's map, but the shrines (and all of these innovations) add yet another interesting element to an already very deep and rich gametype.
Selasa, 04 September 2012
Battlefield: Armored Kill rolls out launch trailer, wide release to take weeks
Description
Built on the cutting-edge Frostbite 2 technology, Battlefield 3 aspires to be DICE's best shooter and biggest launch yet. Expect improved graphics, louder explosions and more smithereens. So many smithereens.
Halo 4 ViDoc makes Chief human, multiplayer map 'Exile' revealed
Dramatic enhancements to classic modes, "Capture the Flag" and "Oddball" and the reveal of "Grifball" debuted alongside new multiplayer map "Exile"; new ViDoc offers a riveting behind-the-scenes look at the making of this year's most anticipated blockbuster
This Saturday, at the "Halo Reborn" panel at PAX Prime, 343 Industries unleashed a volley of exciting news about this year's most anticipated game. 343 announced details on the reimagined "Capture the Flag" and "Oddball" modes, the addition of the community-created "Grifball" mode, a first look at the new multiplayer map "Exile," and the premiere of an epic 10-minute featurette on the making of "Halo 4," entitled "A Hero Awakens."
Additionally, 343 debuted the first look at a brand-new multiplayer map in "Halo 4" called "Exile":
EXILE - Miraculously, the survivors of the UNSC Diadochi's violent crash managed to not only recover provisions from the vessel's debris field, but also use it as a makeshift shelter for several years. When rescue and recovery teams finally arrived, they were surprised to discover a healthy, burgeoning community thriving within the ship's remains. Now this wreckage serves as a battleground in War Games. 'Exile' is an earthy, circular canyon bed interconnected by a network of caves and favoring fast-paced vehicle combat, while still offering frantic, on-foot action.
A video of the panel featuring commentary from 343 and gameplay footage of "Exile" and the newly reimagined modes will be available, starting Wednesday, September 5, on Halo Waypoint.
Fueling the excitement, 343 Industries premiered "A Hero Awakens" ' a new behind-the-scenes featurette on the making of "Halo 4". Featuring never-before-seen development footage, the 10-minute ViDoc provides a captivating look at the creative process for the most anticipated game of the year. The video also offers a sneak peek at how "Halo 4's" voice and cinematic performance capture actors bring the series' iconic heroes to life through emotionally riveting performances, showcasing how the development of Halo 4 rivals the production of a blockbuster Hollywood movie. Check out the ViDoc on Halo Waypoint at: http://halo.xbox.com/en-US/Universe/detail/making-halo-4-a-hero-awakens/7137a262 -1f53-4480-bfc6-96bbb236df18
Launching worldwide exclusively on Xbox 360 Nov.6, 2012, "Halo 4" is the next blockbuster installment of the iconic franchise that has shaped entertainment history and defined a generation of gamers. Developed by 343 Industries, "Halo 4" continues the story of the series' iconic hero the Master Chief as he returns to confront his destiny and face an ancient evil that threatens the fate of the entire universe. "Halo 4" takes the series in a bold new direction by delivering its most epic and explorative campaign yet, alongside an emotionally resonant story and a groundbreaking multiplayer offering unlike anything before it ' setting the stage for an epic new sci-fi saga.
The standard edition of "Halo 4" will be available for $59.99 (U.S. ERP), and the Limited Edition, which includes an extended 90-minute version of the live-action digital series "Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn" and additional bonus content, will be available for $99.99 (U.S. ERP). Fans can also pick up the Xbox 360 Limited Edition "Halo 4" Console Bundle for $399.99 (U.S. ERP) and a standalone Xbox 360 Limited Edition "Halo 4" Wireless Controller for $59.99 (U.S. EPR).
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Brothers in Arms: Furious 4 dead, new IP born
Further information about the game, including minor details like a name and release window, will have to wait for another announcement from Gearbox.
Senin, 03 September 2012
NiGHTS into Dreams, Sonic Adventure 2 HD receive October release window
Sega's "Heritage Collection," the fancy name for the HD-ification of classics NiGHTS: into Dreams, Jet Set Radio and Sonic Adventure 2, recently released a trailer with more specific launch windows. NiGHTS: into Dreams and Sonic Adventure 2 are now set for this October.
Jet Set Radio already has a PlayStation Plus launch of September 11, with the PS plebs receiving it September 18 for $9.99. The XBLA and Steam version will be available for September 19, with the Vita version rolling in October 16.
James Bond meets Virtua Cop: The development of Rare's GoldenEye 007
During GDC Europe 2012, former Rare developer Martin Hollis recounted his experience directing GoldenEye 007, one of the most fondly remembered games of its time and a landmark title in the history of console first-person shooters. Hollis had only worked on one game for Rare at the time, the arcade version of Killer Instinct. When the opportunity arose to pursue a James Bond game in early 1995, Hollis jumped at the chance; as the video above demonstrates, he was a pretty big fan.
The rest is gaming history. Hollis went over far too much for us to condense into a single piece (in fact, we've already written two others), but we've compiled some of the highlights after the break. Read on to discover how one of GoldenEye's primary influences was actually Sega's Virtua Cop. In the gallery below, you'll find images of some of GoldenEye's original design documents and some behind the scenes stories from the original team.
History
The genesis of GoldenEye goes back to the days after Rare had wrapped up development of Donkey Kong Country and the arcade version of Killer Instinct in late 1994/early 1995. The studio was approached to do a Super Nintendo game based on the new James Bond film, which Hollis says didn't have a title at the time. Tim Stamper, then head of Rare and the head of the Donkey Kong Country team, actually passed on the project. "I heard about this as a rumor, and I said to Tim Stamper, 'This sounds cool, I'd like to make this game,'" said Hollis, "and he said 'okay.' And that was pretty much my pitch."
"I don't really know, and I can't really explain why they trusted me after simply being second programmer on Killer Instinct, but I'm delighted and honored that they did." Before long, Hollis began putting together a team and the project got underway. "In the beginning, we were probably working ten hours a day, but by the end, far in excess of that." GoldenEye would be built on the Silicon Graphics Onyx ' a $150,000 computer roughly the size of a small refrigerator. At the time, it was the closest approximation to the performance of Nintendo's upcoming "Ultra 64," which would eventually become Nintendo 64. "You can see, it's a very large box ' it wouldn't fit under every desk ' and it emitted huge amounts of heat, [had] four graphics cards and it was not that reliable."
Planning began in 1995, and the team was allowed to use "an astonishing amount" of official Bond material and even visit the film's sets. Regarding the actual gameplay, Hollis pictured something between Sega's Virtua Cop and id Software's seminal FPS Doom. "I'd also been playing a lot of Time Crisis together with [programmer Mark Edmonds], and I could see the value of having a gun in your hand, but there was no gun planned for the N64." In fact, the N64 controller hadn't been finalized yet, and the GoldenEye team had "no idea what the control would be like at all." At the time, it was rumored that the control would feature an analog stick, and Hollis wondered if that would work for a shooter.
In an original design document, GoldenEye was compared more directly to Virtua Cop. GoldenEye would have more types of characters and a wider variety of actions. As the controller was still being finalized, several control options were considered, including an on-rails approach, again akin to Virtua Cop. Hollis wanted to create "more intelligent characters" than Sega's light-gun shooter. Ideally these characters would react appropriately to a given situation, doing things like sounding alarms, taking orders or even running away. Further, the game would have a greater degree of interactivity, like bullet holes being left in walls. "Pretty much all you have is the gun, and the more the gun can do, and reach out to the environment, and feed back to you that stuff has happened, the better."
The design document also included a list of levels, weapons, features, characters and visual effects Hollis hoped to include in the game. "Looking back, this is very naive, this list, because it's so ambitious." He cited the sniper rifle with a functional site as an example of that ambition, noting that development was never supposed to take nearly three years. "You can already see the degree of ambition within me and also within the team in this document." Hollis dedicated an entire page to visual effects (muzzle flashes, smoke, day and night cycles, etc). "Again, really quite ambitious for what was supposed to be a short project."
Another sign of the team's ambition is the multiplayer mode, which initially wasn't even planned. Before March or April of 1997, it didn't even exist, said Hollis. It was coded in a month, and added to GoldenEye "without the knowledge or permission of the management at Rare and Nintendo." Hollis went on to note that multiplayer wasn't the only feature that was "snuck in," a fact he owed to the trust bestowed upon the team by Rare and Nintendo.
"I'm sure there were six month stretches where no member of Rare or Nintendo management came into the team offices," he said, "which is really quite extraordinary, and all credit to them that they felt able to take that much of a lean-back approach and place that much trust in a team." The fact is even more extraordinary given that no one on the team, with the exception of Hollis and artist Adrian Smith, had actually shipped a game before.Humor
Hollis devoted part of his presentation to the humor in GoldenEye, which he believes isn't discussed enough. "Any first-person shooter, and almost any game, is a series of hills and valleys of tension," said Hollis. Action is part of "ramping up the tension," while humor can help to relieve it. "Humor's incredibly important for that," he said, noting that it helps give a level "emotional structure." One example of humor ' something the team didn't actually plan ' was how GoldenEye deals with the physics of explosions. Thanks to the way the game was coded, enemies stand their ground "slightly too long," after being struck by an explosion, which Hollis noted is really quite humorous to watch. "By rights, I should have been sick of the game by the end of two and two-thirds years, but I derive a great deal of satisfaction from just lobbing around a few mines, blowing up people, watching them cascading around."
And, of course, there's GoldenEye's fairly silly melee animation. "Nobody ever said ' on the team ' no one ever said, 'This is ridiculous,'" said Hollis. "It's absolutely hilarious and I love it but, again, you could make an argument that it should be different ' more realistic, much more sober ' [but] I think you'd be taking out a lot of the character of the game." Anyone who has ever played a multiplayer match of "slappers only" would probably agree.
A Last Minute Fix
One of the most interesting development stories shared by Hollis came from programmer Mark Edmonds. After the game was finished and sent to Nintendo's Lot Check ' an arduous testing process ' the final version came back with a problem. A particular level ("probably Frigate"), when played in a certain way, would result in characters appearing with "terrible texture maps on them because there wasn't enough memory."
Auteur or No-teur
Hollis closed by returning to a question posed at the beginning of his talk: Should a game be considered the work of one "author" or the work of a team of people?
"In my opinion, it's really quite toxic to go into making a game with the idea that one person is going to be giving all the orders and telling everybody what to do. I think that's absolutely the worst way to go about making a game." Giving people the freedom to implement their own ideas, and "simply contribute whatever it was that they wanted" was very important.
"When you work with incredibly intelligent people, they reward your trust in them, and the most rewarding thing for them is their autonomy," said Hollis. "So really, my take home for this talk is: The less you can be a boss, the less you can be telling everybody what to do, the better the likely results." A project can have "an element of personal authorship" in its early stages, "before the team is really a team at all," he said. Once a team is set, however, collaboration is imperative. "If you're trying to steer a team around, and they're great people, they're going to resist you, and it's going to have an emotional cost on both sides.""So really, I think the best thing is just a couple of drops of yourself in a project, and after that, everybody collaborating."
Minggu, 02 September 2012
Weekly Webcomic Wrapup is Maddening
To be honest, our review of the game might seem optimistic to some, and pessimistic to others. It also doesn't cover every aspect of every feature, good or bad. The sometimes-faulty yet fun Kinect pre-play commands were an insignificant part of my experience, as were some of the game's "missing" elements. Lacking the ability to pull draft classes from the NCAA Football series or perform fantasy drafts offline with friends in the landmark Connected Careers mode was never important to my experience with the game. It's also a deal-breaker for other players.
If anything, this speaks to the amount of personal preference every player brings to their experiences with sports games. It felt like a sizable reset button had been pushed for this year's Madden game, and while some of the bigger additions paint a mural of hope for the future of the series, it also left some devoted players in the dust. The unfortunate side effect of this is the Internet arguments that sprout from each player's differing experience, of course. Regardless of which camp you find yourself in, I encourage you to check out last week's webcomics, vote for your favorite after the break, and then settle it on the virtual field. It should cheer you up!
Hitman: Absolution (Dave the Direman)
Fine Print (Fanboys)
If College Were More Like Videogames (Loldwell)
Professor Layton and the Mystery of the Dead Hobo (Dorkly)
Fiendish Feedback (Hejibits)
Word Puzzle (Brawl in the Family)
Great Expectations (Virtual Shackles)
Tour Mojang's pop-up museum: view the beautiful lawsuit docs for Scrolls, the insides of a Creeper
In it, we witnessed the actual legal documents served to Mojang head Marcus "Notch" Persson over Scrolls, the inner workings of a Creeper (it's heart is dynamite!), and a very impressive set of Legos. Take the tour with us in the gallery below.
Runic's post-Torchlight 2 plans: Mac port, patches, and a trip to the mountains
A Mac port and language translations are first on the list, says Schaefer ' both of those are real priorities for the team. Runic's also working on patching the game (if necessary), and getting the content editor up and running so both users and devs can make some mods and add-ons for the game. After that, says Schaefer, he's not sure. "We'll go up into the mountains or something and figure out what to do next."
Schaefer says that both a console port of Torchlight 2 and "an MMO" aren't out of the question, but there are problems with both of those ideas. "We will not be making a traditional MMO under any circumstances," he says, so a possible Torchlight MMO could look very different from what players might imagine ' a pretty different stance from what we've heard in the past from Runic Games.
And while the studio had plenty of success with an Xbox Live port of its first Torchlight game (and Microsoft showed interest in a port of the second game), Schaefer says "it's a lot harder this time," given the way the game is built, to put together an Xbox port. All of that is a long way off, however ' Schaefer's more concerned about getting this game released first.
Sabtu, 01 September 2012
Another used games retailer in Florida is selling their business on eBay
Rather than selling an entire life's worth of cars and property along with the stores, "Buddy and Dave" will only be selling the three existing Gamers HQ locations in Belleview, Inverness and Gainesville, Florida for a cool $2.6 million. All three locations are profitable and have been since day one, according to the eBay listing.
Both Buddy and Dave will stay on as consultants for three months after purchase, with an option to help open a fourth location that is already in the planning stages. Additionally, 10 percent of the listing's final sale price will be donated to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. "This business succeeds thanks to children and giving back to them will be our first step if sold," reads the listing.
The chain of stores reportedly makes over $400,000 a year and prospective new owners can expect to earn a monthly take-home income of around $4,000, but if you can afford to spend $2.6 million on something, you're probably earning more than 50 grand a year anyway.
Primal Carnage pre-order lets you play as a fine feathered raptor
Buy Now to Gain Access to the Primal Carnage Beta and Exclusive Raptor Skin: Click HERE
Twain Harte, CA ' August 31, 2012 ' Lukewarm Media and Reverb Publishing's upcoming dinos-vs.-humans deathmatch, Primal Carnage, is available now for preorder at the official website (http://www.primalcarnage.com/website/preorder). For $14.99, gamers will get a Steam key that will grant them early access to Primal Carnage in the closed beta, as well as an exclusive feathered raptor skin when the game launches later this year. Get in early and experience class-based online combat unlike anything else on the market and the best dinosaur game to date.
Not since 1993's Jurassic Park has the terror of a dinosaur onslaught felt so real and thrilling. With Primal Carnage, players hunt AND are hunted, and must choose between defending themselves against a slew of deadly prehistoric creatures with an arsenal of today's weapons, or decimating humans into piles of sinew as vicious carnivores of all sizes and variety. With five unique human classes and five unique dinosaurs, Primal Carnage is a dynamic, enthralling experience. Rendered in high-fidelity using the Unreal Engine, this is one of the greatest looking digital games to date.
Features of Primal Carnage include:
Five large, open environments in which to team up and take down the human or dinosaur competition online
10 playable classes (five human, five dinosaur) each with unique skills and abilities that can trump each other in a rock-paper-scissors fashion
Play from both first-person (humans) and third-person (dinosaurs) perspective
Multiple achievements, unlockables and planned DLC
Primal Carnage is a part of Reverb Publishing's growing roster of titles, which includes the massively-successful Dungeon Defenders, the recently-released Jeremy McGrath's Offroad and JAM Live Music Arcade, as well as the upcoming Sanctum 2, Ravaged, Beatbuddy, Black Knight Sword, Rocketbirds: Hardboiled Chicken and much more. For more information on Reverb Publishing and its line-up of titles, please visit us at www.reverbpublishing.com. For more information about Lukewarm Media and Primal Carnage, please visit www.primalcarna ge.com and be sure to "Like" us at www.facebook.com/primalcarnage.