Joystiq

CES 2008: A covert intel briefing on The Agency

Michael Zenke — 2008-01-21T15:45:00+00:00

Filed under: Features, PC, Sony PlayStation 3, First Person Shooters, Interviews, CES, MMO

Earlier this month, Sony Online Entertainment finally gave the gaming world a full-on look at The Agency. The unique title, a brand-new blend of the shooter and MMO genres, was featured in a hands-on talk over pre-recorded video; a compromise in the face of demoing an online title in the unfamiliar surroundings of Las Vegas. That talk, given by the mile-a-minute lead designer Hal Milton, has been covered endlessly at other sites. You can view the complete discussion in video format, or read a great writeup of the event over at GamersInfo.

Some of the most interesting tidbits the developers were willing to discuss that day weren't on the guided tour. Lead Designer Hal Milton and Design Director Matt Wilson were willing and able to discuss several aspects of the project still in the development stages with us and our friends at Massively; we were able to pick their brains on the game's business model, the fantastic world they're creating, character advancement, future content additions, and the numerous challenges of creating a game that straddles two platforms.

Easily one of the most refreshing things about The Agency is the humor that the developers are aiming to introduce to the world, as Hal Milton explains: One of the things I love about the spy genre is that everyone automatically gets it. I love fantasy, I love sci-fi, I love writing those stories, but whenever I try to describe the game concept I have to go in and back-fill for like ten minutes. "And then Sir Clamdar of Thobordoxy grabbed the Handbag of Doom." Or, "the year was 2753, and the Federation ..." Most people don't care. They just want to jump into the world and know where they stand, as opposed to being dropped into a world completely clueless. That's what's great about the Agency, there's a lot of similarities but our world is so different from the real world that they start to experience the humor and flavor.

Read on for more 'covert intel' you may not have seen discussed elsewhere on this blockbuster in-development title.

Gallery: The Agency

Behind the Scenes

The game is running on Vista, DirectX 10?

Hal Milton (HM): We are currently developing on XP using Epic's Unreal 3 toolkit.

Matt Wilson (MW): It will run on XP and Vista, we're basically making sure that it will support all the optimizations that Epic has done for DirectX 10. That's why we chose Unreal, so we could be on Vista and XP at the same time.

HM: That's been great. One of the best things about using Unreal ... normally in game development your client takes a long time to mature, and the pipelines for getting art and animation in ... if we have an idea we can prototype it really quickly. We have a whole bunch of features in line for the game, and that lets us just get in there and try it out, see if it's fun, and then say "Hey code could you formalize this for us? Design asks humbly." Having an end-to-end pipeline that works ... we have to build our own hooks in. It's not like Unreal 3 was really designed to work with an MMO, it was designed for limited single-player experiences. So we've done some really hefty architecture on the server side and the client-side to support the number of players and complexity of players, the number of animations.

MW: In other games we've worked on, gameplay is like the last three to six months of the project, like "oh yeah, now let's get the fun in there". One of the things we wanted to focus on, especially with an MMO, is that we want to be playing the game throughout the design process. The negative is that we do have to write a lot; Unreal 3 is not meant to run an MMO and so we've had to do a lot of work on scalability, with multiple characters in there, a lot of stuff that other shooters don't have. But we have been in there playing the game since the beginning, so that's great.

Prague

HM: The outside area in Prague I'm really proud of; when you're building a game as large as this one, handcrafting all the spaces is just ... you'd never be able to do it. Tilesets, on the other hand, can look like tilesets. They can look really blocky and rigid. We built a tileset that looks really organic. You can edit the structures from inside them, we can support a number of different areas.

How big would you say Prague is?

HM: That's hard to say, we're going to have several major districts in the game. That district takes several minutes to run across, and it's one of the smaller districts. We want about double that size. The playable space in Prague, not including private instances ... I couldn't give you an actual estimate right now.

MW: The interesting thing is there is a lot of density with the buildings, and we're not even close to filling up all those spaces. There's already about four hours of gameplay in there.

HM: And none of that is the mini-game activities, or the non-combat activities, or anything like that.

The World

How many cities are you shooting for in the game at launch?

HM: We're aiming to have three locales: Eastern Europe, Central America, and ... am I allowed to say the other one? East Asia.

MW: What we haven't announced is what the cities are in those locales. Jet-setting is a key component to feeling like an elite agent, and so the interesting thing about our game ... even when we're in the embassy district in Prague, we're going to be taking you out to other cities like Paris, or Amsterdam, or other places like that.

HM: One of the reasons we started with Prague is the city has representative architecture for most of Europe. Everyone shoots in Prague if they're trying to represent Europe. Even if they're trying to represent Victorian England or some other part, Prague is a beautiful place to scale your assets from. That's the approach we're taking to the world.

Sort of that romantic spy thing ...

HM: Every spy movie goes to Prague! Prague, Vienna, all these places in Europe are so rich with movies from the past, as well as more modern movies like the Bourne films ... almost the entirety of Mission Impossible 1 is set there. It's gorgeous stuff.

And how many cities would you say are there going to be in one locale? Ish?

HM: Easter Europe is a good example, I'd say about ... actually, I'm not going to say. We have a number of locations, whether or not they're fully-fledged cities ... just like in a spy movie you're in the crawl and you're in some section of Kiev ... we're going to have a number of those. More than one, less than a hundred. That's all I can say. What we have on the design side is that we've plotted out the entire story arc for the steadystate story. It basically takes place in three acts for the three locales, with jet-setting in between them, to give a taste of other things. It introduces all the primary factions, the big enemies, gives you all the nice turnarounds in the story ... "Oh, he's the bad guy, he's the one pulling the strings" that sets you up for the static content, as well as the elder-game metacontent we're going to have.

Future Content

Additional content is going to be released on an episodic basis, you've said. Any idea on what kind of schedule that will be?

HM: We haven't announced any kind of schedule, we want to basically have a series of small missions that we release that will stack up. Sort of vignettes ...

So instead of a huge expansion pack ... more like bite-sized chunks

HM: Exactly.

MW: What we want to do with this game is support the long-term addition of content. We'll be putting out updates where there will be new content, new missions. Other times we might put out bigger updates with something like a new city.

HM: Yeah, from the biggest down to the smallest. There's a big expansion where we introduce a whole new locale with a few cities in it, right? Then there's the periodic, every nine months story drops into the existing locales.

So there will be full expansions in addition to the smaller updates?

HM: We hope so.

MW: We haven't sorted out how we're really going to do it yet.

HM: We have to ship the first game!

Business Model

MW: The main reason we haven't announced how we're handling expansions yet is that we haven't announced our business model. One of the interesting things we're looking at is, how can we lower the barrier, get people into the game and playing? We're targeting the console as part of our audience, so it's really important that the barrier is super-low. There aren't that many subscription services on consoles; it's still a new concept to them. One of the projects I'm sure you're going to see here today is FreeRealms, and we're sort of waiting to see how that turns out. It's more of a 'velvet rope' model, you can play with a lot of the content before you have to opt-in and pay. We've been designing the game to support a bunch of different business models and updating models. We haven't decided which one we'll be going with. We're going to see how FreeRealms does.

Platforms

The plan is still to have the PS3 and the PC be two parts of the same experience?

MW: Right now we're working towards that. We'll make decisions as we get closer, but that's still the goal. The interesting thing about that is the second question is 'can you play them together?'. From a technical perspective it's not a problem, but you get into some gameplay issues with PC players vs. console players.

HM: We don't want to water down one experience to support the other, and that's something we see people do a lot. That's one of the reasons we have private instances in MMOs today. People go "here's your big public space, there are so many arbitrary folks together and you need a compromised rulesset to support them all". In a private instance where we can control the population, we can have all the fun story and fun gameplay that they're used to. The same thing applies to cross-platform play as well. If you're having to water down the experience for one, someone is going to feel cheated. We're still evaluating it, we're hoping we can make something happen there. It's about gameplay first.

MW: Probably the most important reason we're still discussing it is that the certification process for consoles is tough. The certification process for packages and stuff ... they've never really had an MMO on the PlayStation. The update of an MMO is important; everyone who plays an MMO expects regular updates as part of their purchased products. If the server goes down or the patch is bad you need to update it immediately. The PS3 right now is not geared to do that. Our certification testing has to be way higher on that platform. That means it may lag a little bit from what's on the PC. We want to make sure the worlds are connected, so there's no reason the database and players can't be shared across the world. You may choose, though, I'm playing on the PS3 shard at first vs. the PC shard.

I was surprised to see all the shooter play, it's really action-oriented, and I imagine that would introduce some constraints between the two platforms.

HM: The PS3 is a nice constraining platform. Building for that controller is ... it's powerful mojo. It's really good for design for us as well. It's really important that it plays well on both controller and PC.

MW: And I'm a controller player. Whenever we're in doing PvP I'm playing with the controller. We had a mix, two of us were playing on controller and one person was playing with the PC controls and we put aim assist in there for people on the console ...

HM: It's an uncompromised shooter experience, and we really want to deliver that. Speed-wise it's somewhere between Halo and Rainbow Six Vegas. But still give people the opportunity to step back and have skills that they earned that have some really cool effect in the world. And then have the persistent world part of it, there are characters that can send text messages to me if I've opted into it. There are characters I'll discover in the gameworld over time, I can go away for two weeks and come back to see how the world has evolved over time ... that's one of the things we want to bring to people. The full persistent online role-playing experience we want to bring to a whole audience that hasn't gotten the chance to experience that, while not changing the fundamental gameplay that they're used to. We're not trying to change the gameplay significantly and then telling them it's the same gameplay. The consoles are ready for it, there's no reason we couldn't do it anymore. It's always been a technological constraint in the past, and this is the time.

How about the character switch ... will you be able to play your character on the PC and PS3 versions of the game?

MW: That's something we haven't determined yet. That would probably be an earlier step than being able to play against characters on the other platform. Our goal is to be able to get the databases shared. As we said, until we push through the iceberg of design issues there are still a lot of database issues, backend issues, firewall issues from a data standpoint. It's all political more than anything.

HM: That's why it's fun pushing for Alpha. When we get out of Alpha our featureset will be defined and done, and it's all about content and polish throughout beta. All the questions about PC/console interaction, business models, it all comes down to the featureset and getting it in everyone's head. Getting the game playable and testable. A lot of these answers immediately fall out. It's about making the game fun all the time. So we're just playing multiple times every week, and forcing people in San Diego to do the same. Our servers are in San Diego, and we're in Seattle, which helps us keep the shooter part of this honest. Our framerate, our lag, these are the twin demons of shooter gameplay.

Music

HM: You're going to be hearing some musical treatments we've been getting in, from folks like Paul Oakenfeld, Crystal Method, Filter, lots of folks want to work with us on this project.

Humor

HM: As we go through the flower shop, some of those teddy bears are intel objects; guns in the stomach, cameras in the eyes ...

Agencies and Progression

HM: So you have your main Agency, and you can gain ranks by completing missions for it. Based on what specialty you have you gain titles and skills within those areas. Just using weapons and items within the game, you'll gain proficiencies within those weapon families, which will unlock even more skills. They're inter-related with each other. "I've been using the Desert Eagle for ten years, now I'm going to switch over using this other pistol, and this pistol already has two skills unlocked." Instead of one monolithic ding, players are going to be going for a series of dings all the time.

MW: We really want players to always feel like they're always progressing, always unlocking new operatives, skills, abilities. Very similar to your classic MMOs, you're limited to what you can do, what you can equip; as you gain ranks it unlocks access to skills and abilities, stuff you can do over time.

HM: Influence and access are the two concepts players will get into their heads. I need to generate influence in order to gain access to story, to operatives, to stuff. That's going to be an easily-digestible concept for someone who many hasn't dived into the meta-language of MMOs. One of the things I love about the spy genre is that everyone automatically gets it. I love fantasy, I love sci-fi, I love writing those stories, but whenever I try to describe the game concept I have to go in and back-fill for like ten minutes. "And then Sir Clamdar of Thobordoxy grabbed the Handbag of Doom." Or, "the year was 2753, and the Federation ..." Most people don't care. They just want to jump into the world and know where they stand, as opposed to being dropped into a world completely clueless. That's what's great about the Agency, there's a lot of similarities but our world is so different from the real world that they start to experience the humor and flavor. We do have one sort of philosophical mandate with our design: we tackle no ideological struggles. The real world is a dark place, and to capitalize on that is not fun. We want people to have fun.

You mentioned the achievements you can get from exploding the guys in the mission or playing Qbert; will that have any sort of character impact?

HM: Influence is earned by completing missions, but it's also earned by completing the bonus achievements we've talked about. It means that you know if you just need a little bit of influence to advance the story mission path, you could go play a side mission if you want, or you could go gamble and reach a new level you've never reached before. That ensures there are a bunch of ways to play that aren't all based on combat. Non-combat in an MMO is just as important as the combat - it's what keeps the glue of the world living.

MW: The other aspect of that is, maybe you've been stuck for a while, you put an operative on your objective and just log off, and it can work for you to gain influence. We want people to be able to feel like they can advance all the time.

There's PARAGON and UNITE; will we get to pick the bad guys to play?

HM: Not at first. There's so much game to build, I think it's valuable to start with the familiar sides. The best part of PARAGON and UNITE is that they're not diametrically opposed enemies. There are going to be points in the story where PARAGON and UNITE will uncover the 'real' villain will be able to team up and take him on together. I think that's going to be a neat mechanic, where PARAGON has gone through these thrill-junkie Eurotrash guys that have been causing problems and UNITE has been going through these human-trafficking weird goth-dudes and then they all realize the central villain is set up in this fortress so they can join together and take out the threat bigger than themselves. I love that idea of bringing players together.

Operatives

How do you gain operatives?

HM: Basically play the game, complete missions, explore the world, you'll attract guys based on your influence. The max guys you can get are less than the total number in the world, meaning folks will be encouraged to specialize in the types of operatives you collect. They also have storylines that you can work through, with small characters having these minor interactions between each other. The operatives also go the places where you can't, because the Planet Earth is kind of huge.

Are you ever going to be in a place where you can have your operatives collaborate on a project?

MW: Of course. In fact, players are going to build joint agencies (like guilds). You'll be able to add operatives to a project to shorten the timespan, or even complete something that's not possible to do by yourself.

I read something about tie-ins with your cellphone? Does that tie-back into the operative system?

HM: If you opt-in, because everybody hate unsolicited spam, operatives will not only give you updates on how they're doing on their mission (completion, success, failure), they'll also do some two-way communication as well. The example I give over and over again is, I've got one guy who's building a car for me for a vehicle challenge. Another guy is out investigating a gang. I'm sitting in a meeting, far away from my PC, I get a text message from the first guy saying "hey, that car you wanted, it's waiting for you". Gaahh ... I need to see my car. The next message is from the other guy, saying "yeah, I found those guys you wanted. They found me. They're asking for a million dollars or they're going to kill me." Text 1 to send a million dollars, text 2 to let him die. It's all about what kind of agency head do you want to be - do you want to be benevolent like M or kind of creepy like the Alias guy?

MW: You can also say "I want to get to that decision when I get back online." It's not that it's going to force you...

HM: We're also never going to put time constraints on you. There's nothing worse than a timer puzzle that you're told is going to happen. That's just cruelty. Everything is on demand. But if the player wants to feel like that's happening ...

MW: Or even if you just want to advance the story, just move the story forward, you can do that. Or you can just say "wait until I get back".

HM: It's a great bridging mechanic, to keep people involved in the world. To give you updates as they're happening. Even if your operatives are just having a personality conflict between themselves. That may lead to a fight, or it may lead to a romance, or ... I love the idea of one of my operatives being unavailable because she got ... well, you know. Each of the operatives have their own personalities, and they increase in rank over time, gaining new specializations and abilities over time, making them more valuable for you to trade them to other players. That's one of the things I love ... when you hit the max rank in our game you'll only be able to have about a quarter of the total number of operatives out there. "I'm going all the weaponry/research route, you're going the vehicle route. I just picked up a guy in my recruit bar, I don't really need him so much but I'll recruit him so I can trade for that dude you don't want." We are going to introduce the concept of rarity to this, and it's going to be particularly interesting. "How the hell did you get the Black Mamba card?" "I got really lucky, I got the gold rating in this mission and she made herself available to be recruited." "Dammit, I got to try that."

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CES 2008: SOE wants to pay you for 'Sharing the Wealth'

Michael Zenke — 2008-01-14T14:30:00+00:00

Filed under: PC, Sony PlayStation 3, Interviews, CES, MMO, Business, Casual

CES provided us with an interesting look at the future of Sony Online Entertainment. We finally found out what The Agency was all about and got a good look at the wacky, kid-oriented MMO FreeRealms. And, in an exclusive interview with Massively, CEO John Smedley unveiled a new program that will launch alongside FreeRealms. Dubbed "Share the Wealth," SOE's unique buy-in program will offer site owners monetary incentives for driving customers to the game:

"Let's say you have your own website. You come out our site, fill out a form pretty much the same as the one for our Station Exchange service with a Social Security number, and give us your PayPal account information. You cut and paste some JavaScript to your site, and now you have a banner ad for FreeRealms on your site. We are tracking every customer you give us, and once a month we'll give you somewhere between 5-10% of all the revenue from every customer you send us. That's as long as they are playing the game."

The full interview gets into specifics behind the program, while the follow-up touches on big plans for the future of the company's Station Access pass.

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CES 2008: Conflict Denied Ops aims at non-existent 'casual FPS' market

Michael Zenke — 2008-01-10T15:28:00+00:00

Filed under: Features, PC, Sony PlayStation 3, Microsoft Xbox 360, First Person Shooters, CES, Casual

Just a few months ago we brought you impressions of an early build of Conflict: Denied Ops. As the newest chapter in the perpetually-lackluster Conflict series, our opinion then was that the game was following in the footsteps of its 4.0 kindred. We were frustrated with the flat look, boring linear gameplay and the use of a needless buzzword - "Puncture-Tech" - to describe destructible environmental elements.

In checking in on the game's progress in a near-release state today at CES, we found that many of these same concerns are still applicable. Eidos and Pivotal Games have stopped using that meaningless marketing buzzword and thrown in a few twists on the A-to-B gameplay, but Denied Ops is basically the same flawed game we saw in October.

So what's the solution for a game company that has an overly-linear title on their hands? Apparently, you start calling it a casual game. That's right: Conflict: Denied Ops is now a "casual first-person shooter." You know: for all those grandmas who have been itching to break into the 'killing things' genre.

The premise remains the same as always: you control two characters (Graves and Lang) in single-player mode, switching back and forth between the two with the push of a button. Alternatively, you can play co-op with a friend. There are simple tactical elements in the single-player game, to go along with the cookie-cutter storyline. (The first level has you trying to find some missing nuclear warheads. Later there is a snow level - wee!) Online modes consist of campaign co-op and small-sized deathmatch games. The weapons are inventive, at least. Both of the main guns has an alt-fire mode. For the machine gun this is a grenade launcher, while the the sniper rifle packs a shotgun blast.

Unfortunately, that shotgun-sniper hybrid is about the only inventive thing in the game (and really, it's just two standard weapons glued together). Playing the game, we got the sense that the developers heard early complaints and tried to address them, but didn't quite know how to do so. For example, since last October, ammo caches have been added to the levels, giving you more objectives than just 'make it to the end of the map.' The ammo caches make some sense since dead enemies don't drop ammo or weapons, but then again, the primary fire mode on your guns has unlimited ammo.

All of these conflicting elements come together in the tagline the people at the Games for Windows booth were using: "casual FPS." The theory is that this is a shooter for casual gamers, folks who don't want to get into the tactical depth of a Rainbow Six or overwhelming action of a Call of Duty. As one of the demo reps put it: "The idea is to make a solid action game, without any unique elements that you'd have to learn how to use. The idea is that you'll already know how to play it."

What you're left with, then, is a game that you've already played. Nothing about Conflict: Denied Ops stands out from any other FPS on the market. Anyone who has ever picked up a shooter before won't find anything to get excited about. As for this 'casual FPS' market we've heard so much about ... um, well, we fear it doesn't actually exist.

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CES 2008: Hands-on with first public showing of Space Siege

Michael Zenke — 2008-01-10T13:58:00+00:00

Filed under: Features, PC, Adventure, RPGs, CES

The last Dungeon Siege update came out almost 18 months ago. Chris Taylor and his Gas Powered Games have had plenty of time to mull the next move, reflecting on half a dozen titles in the fantasy world, and even a major motion picture. The move they've made - a quick hyperspace jump away from the fantasy setting - shouldn't surprise anyone. With the Games for Windows initiative ramping up to full power it's the perfect time for the unveiling of Space Siege.

Even in pre-alpha state, Space Siege is already exactly what you'd expect. Instead of a hard-jawed warrior wading through waste-deep goblin blood with sword clenched, the protagonist is a hard-jawed space marine wading through waste-deep alien blood with a big gun clenched in his hands. There isn't a lot of game to actually play on the CES show floor, but what there is reminds us of how much fun it is to mindlessly click creatures to death. Despite the similar-sounding nature of the game, there were actually a number of changes to the formula on display; enough that we think some folks are going to be surprised.

The basics are the same as other Siege games. Space Siege is an action-RPG, built on an evolved version of the same engine used for Dungeon Siege II. The game's perspective is shown from a 3D isometric view, and you can zoom down quite close to the action. To interact with the environment, you just 'point and click.' Protagonist Seth Walker takes care of the hard part (actually firing the gun); you just have to point him in the right direction.

As with previous Siege titles, the engine Gas Powered is using aims to be scalable to multiple levels of visual quality. The Pre-Alpha textures are fairly boring, but the build does feature a few nice explosions and some interesting art choices. It's clear that, given enough time, Space Siege should eventually have a look comparable to past Siege titles on higher end machines. Just the same, the goal is to allow anyone "who has bought a PC in the last few years" to run the game with no slowdowns or hiccups. The term the developers use is 'mass-market.' Given the simple gameplay and uncomplicated graphical presentation, that seems a goal within reach.

Space Siege's physics engine allows for the usual rag-doll hilarity. Walker can toss grenades across a room (and watch them bounce), or shoot a tank of compressed gas and have it fly into a crowd of aliens. The folks at the Games for Windows booth made a point of mentioning the title's verticality. Some spaces are quite deep, and all of it, they claimed, was usable by the developers. They compared this to most action-RPG titles, which tend toward flat plain and confined zones of play.

The developers are also trying hard to switch up another standard of the RPG genre: the confining of the 'story' part of the game to NPC towns. Instead of "action in the field, story in the city," Gas Powered is attempting to weave story elements into the combat-heavy areas of the game. "This is just like a movie, where the story and the action is taking place simultaneously."

One area that doesn't stray far from the RPG standard is the ability to upgrade your character. Unlike the Dungeon Siege games, your protagonist is essentially your only piece to move around the board. NPCs occasionally accompany you into battle, but for the most part you'll find yourself alone. Upgrades are performed by collecting 'parts' that drop off of aliens. These parts will allow for improvements in different areas of character customization. Weapons can be upgraded, as can various skills.

Gross combat upgrades are reflected in the appearance of the character, giving Walker an ever-more robotic-looking exterior. These changes also have story ramifications. Walker's humanity is lessened with every change, and your ability to influence NPCs goes down the more you choose to adopt cybernetic implants.

An alternative to upgrading your own body, and a break in the monotony of playing all by yourself, is the option to upgrade a robot companion. Called the HR-V, or "Harvey," the robot buddy introduces some elements of tactical combat to the game. He can be upgraded just like Walker, with better armor and weapons. The inclusion of a directly controllable robotic companion is (hopefully) going to introduce a new element of strategy to the otherwise straightforward gameplay.

The CES reps reiterated that the game's simple style of play is one of the back-of-the-box features. Like other titles that emphasize "casual" gaming, Space Siege is hoping to draw in players who might not otherwise invest in a sci-fi epic. Assuming that this genre isn't a turnoff, we can definitely see the appeal.

This newest Siege title is staying close enough to its roots to please point-and-kill RPG fans, while introducing a few new interesting twists in the formula. With months of development time between now and the game's release, we're hopeful that the already solid platform Gas Powered is previewing at CES will be a worthy successor to the Siege name.

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Crazy curved Alienware monitor perfect for Crysis

Ross Miller — 2008-01-10T13:26:00+00:00

Filed under: PC, First Person Shooters, Video

Many uses come to mind when thinking of a curved, 2,880x900 resolution (16:5 aspect ratio) monitor - multitasking aside, we'd have quite a fun time opening every Photoshop panel simultaneously, or created the most complex, intricate World of Warcraft user interface imaginable. Alienware decided to show off its arcing display at CES with Crysis, the apparent benchmark for all technology of the future.

Our friends at Engadget who are attending the show noticed three faint vertical lines, indicating the curved illusion is assisted by four sub-panels. The DLP display with LED illumination is due out the second half of this year for a currently-unknown price. Check out their gallery of the monitor; we also have video of the display embedded after the break.

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CES 2008: NATAS honors Stormfront for original Neverwinter Nights

Jason Dobson — 2008-01-10T10:30:00+00:00

Filed under: PC, RPGs, MMO

The National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, or NATAS for those short of breath, has given us reason to pause and wax nostalgic over our gaming past by honoring the first graphical MMO, Stormfront Studios' original Neverwinter Nights, which ran over America Online from 1991 through 1997. The game is positively archaic by today's standards, but nonetheless laid the groundwork for much of what we know as MMORPGS today, and of course went on to inspire BioWare's own Neverwinter Nights franchise as well. Bugbears, they would be proud.

The nod was made during the 59th Annual Technology & Engineering Emmy Awards ceremony at the CES in Las Vegas, an event which also tipped its hat to Everquest's Sony Online Entertainment and World of Warcraft's Blizzard for helping to spearhead the MMO genre. Don Daglow, who led Neverwinter Nights' design, accepted the award, and commented that "these games are not just entertainment...they build new kinds of communities and create deep people-to-people relationships." Or, you know, furry-to-people, for those who swing that way.

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CES 2008: Age of Conan converts at least one player

Michael Zenke — 2008-01-09T20:00:00+00:00

Filed under: Features, PC, Microsoft Xbox 360, CES, MMO

Sitting down with Age of Conan: Hyborean Adventures today was something of a wakeup call for me. I've enjoyed my previous exposure to the game, but I've never had that 'I get it' moment. You know that moment, every MMO has it. In World of Warcraft it's the first time you start a quest; in Tabula Rasa it's the first time you fire your gun; and in Lord of the Rings Online that moment comes when you look up and behold the majesty that is the Shire. For me, Conan's moment was when I finally 'got' the combat. The CES build of the game, hopefully just a few months away from release, really hit home with the experience of slicing and dicing in real time.

A raid on Conall's Valley (the birthplace of Conan) was the zone on display in the main exhibit hall. The big news for CES is what developer Funcom is calling 'Cheetah 2,' a brand new graphics engine. That project's goals include new rendering and weather systems, an improved framerate and other technical advances. There should be more to report on that advance before the end of the show. In the meantime, I have a few impressions for you as a newly converted Conan fan.

Gallery: Age of Conan

Descending into the Valley, I was impressed by what Funcom calls "placeholder" graphics. The wooded glens stretched on out of sight over the horizon, but of more immediate concern were the rampaging Vanir barbarians hiding behind the trees. As I stood playing the demo, the 'hook' of the combat really got to me. I've seen the hands-on from Dragon-Con, the visual FAQ and Massively's discussion with the devs, but none of it really spoke to me until I had the chance to play with things first hand. You don't just hack wildly in different directions - multi-directional attacks aren't meant to have you flailing like a madman.

Instead, as you stand in front of your opponent, you choose from one of three different attack 'vectors.' In the lower-level situation I was playing, I could swing overhand at the head or in at the body from the left and right. These hit locales corresponded with buttons 1, 2 and 3 on the keyboard. As I hit an opponent in one area, he would raise his shield to protect that vector. The goal is to get around the defenses your opponent has put up by varying your attacks. These attacks also extend to combo attacks - Simone says-like patterns of attacks that can result in massive damage, self-heals, buffs and occasionally fatalities. Fatalities are a grand reminder of the game's mature-oriented content: blood flies and splatters on the in-game camera as your opponents are viciously gutted.

This movement and tactical feel extends to larger elements of the game. Large creatures that appear in raid events might have impressive attacks with a tail or horns and spikes. Depending on where your character is situated in relation to the monster, you might take more or less damage as a result. Healing will also be dependent on movement. Healer-types won't be able to heal from a large distance; instead, heals are directed cones that result in a 'heal over time' effect. Medics will need to move about the battlefield attending to injured comrades on the fly, while attempting to avoid damage of their own. Mounted combat, another bullet point on the game's box, will make use of movement and specifically-aimed attacks to create new combat dynamics. Some of the biggest mounts (like the War Mammoth) can even be used to knock down buildings in the much-vaunted City Siege gameplay.

The Siege content is incredibly ambitious, tying RTS-like gameplay directly into the game. I asked the demo folks if that content was going to make it into the game at launch, but they shied away from a clear answer. That's understandable, though, given the large number of other new features that look to be on track for the game's release. With the new graphics element, the developers are attempting to strike a middle-ground for players, allowing one-button-click changes between high-end graphics and a less detailed experience (for raids and PvP).

To be honest I'm still not convinced this is a game that I'm going to be spending a lot of time with; there are just too many titles to capture the attention of those afflicted with MMOADD nowadays. Today's experience, though, drove home for me why the Conan fans are so excited. There's a definite visceral quality to combat that is simply not there in any other MMO on the market. Here's hoping that the game at launch will live up to the expectations of the developers and long-time fans of the world of Hyborea.

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CES 2008: PS3 in-game XMB promised this year

James Ransom-Wiley — 2008-01-09T18:30:00+00:00

Filed under: Sony PlayStation 3, CES

What good's a trade show without vague promises? Paul Purdy, repping Sony at CES, has done his part, "confirming" that an in-game XMB update for PlayStation 3 is due in the new year, reports TGR. When pressed for details, Purdy backpedaled and reaffirmed that Sony's CES presence was focused on hardware - hardware that, for the moment, lacks consistent multitasking features. (Let's not forget, some games already support the bells and whistles we'd hoped Sony would've included the last time a major update was pushed out.)

[Via PS3 Fanboy]

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Rock Band drum prototype adds sturdiness, cymbals

Justin McElroy — 2008-01-09T10:35:00+00:00

Filed under: Sony PlayStation 3, Microsoft Xbox 360, CES, Peripherals, Rhythm

We love channeling our inner Keith Moon with the Rock Band drum set, but we do have some quibbles. Namely: When we break out with some tasty, tasty hi-hat work it just feels a little inauthentic. Sure, we could try applying some Rock Jam, but it's just not the same. You can understand then why our hunger for Ion Audio's sexy, sure-to-be-pricey new kit is nothing short of ravenous.

Not only does this kit have cymbals, but the sturdiness of the drums has also been improved. Sadly this is still just a prototype, but we're hopeful that the Wyld Stallyns can travel into the future and snag us a set.

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Xbox 360 still open to Blu-ray add-on should HD-DVD fail

Ludwig Kietzmann — 2008-01-09T10:00:00+00:00

Filed under: Microsoft Xbox 360, CES

Following Warner's departure from the HD-DVD ship last week, Microsoft is once again fielding questions regarding the future of its Xbox 360 HD-DVD drive add-on. As is consistent with comments made previously by Scott Henson and Peter Moore, the HD-DVD supporter is still open to a Blu-ray drive should Toshiba's high-definition film format meet its demise. Speaking to Reuters, Xbox's group marketing manager Albert Penello has called it "something we'll have to consider" if "consumer choice" demands it.

Microsoft's initial decision to keep HD-DVD separate from the Xbox 360 hardware has always been trotted out under the "consumer choice" banner, with cost reduction cited as an immediate benefit. Of course, it also makes bailing out a lot easier should white flags start to go up. It may seem strange to envision Microsoft supporting a format so entwined with a competing console, but the company's not likely to shed a tear for discs when there's money to be made in the Xbox Live Video Marketplace.

Update: A further comment from Microsoft emphasizes that despite Penello's comments, HD-DVD hasn't gone away just yet: "Microsoft currently has no plans at this time to consider Blu-ray as an option. We continue to believe that HD DVD is the best optical solution for consumers, since it's the only format today that delivers quality experiences at affordable prices."

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Blu-ray discs to offer portable movies for PSP

Ludwig Kietzmann — 2008-01-08T11:00:00+00:00

Filed under: Sony PlayStation 3, Sony PSP, CES

As tempting as it may be to drag your PlayStation 3 and 50" HDTV along on your next road trip, Sony would like you to consider a slightly more convenient and decidedly less dangerous option for watching movies on the go. In a CES demonstration of the BD Live standard (encapsulated in the upcoming Blu-Ray Profile 2.0), supported Blu-ray discs were shown to offer portable versions of the included movies for download to a Memory Stick or PlayStation Portable. Pop the disc into your PlayStation 3, connect a PSP and watch the smaller movie on your smaller screen (sans UMD).

If you're looking to take advantage of this feature in the foreseeable future, it might be wise to start saving up for one of those fancy 16GB Memory Sticks.

[Via PSP Fanboy]

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Air Guitar Rocker gets Guitar Hero license

Justin McElroy — 2008-01-08T09:00:00+00:00

Filed under: Culture, Peripherals, Rhythm

Have you ever had this thought while playing Guitar Hero? "I'm really enjoying simulating playing guitar, but I just don't feel like a big enough tool." Luckily, Nitrous Roxxxxxide (extra Xs added for emphasis) and Jada Toys have your back with the officially licensed Guitar Hero Air Guitar Rocker.

Basically you strum a magical pick across a very demonic-looking belt buckle and one of 10 different songs (only five of which are licensed) comes streaming from a speaker that you'll also have attached to you. What's more, it doesn't require batteries, as it runs on pure human dignity (this feature still not confirmed). This video from CES makes it seem as if it works about 80 percent of the time, which maybe is to be expected, considering it's only going to set you back $30. Look for it (or don't) in March.

[Thanx, Franx]

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Today's Guitar Hero-as-a-prop video: Bill Gates Keynote

Zack Stern — 2008-01-08T01:31:00+00:00

Filed under: Culture, Sony PlayStation 2, Sony PlayStation 3, Nintendo Wii, Microsoft Xbox 360, Video, CES, Rhythm, Business, Casual

If you saw our coverage -- don't click yet if you didn't -- you know the Guitar Hero-related jokes from the final* Bill Gates CES keynote. But even if you know the premise, these videos are worth watching as a study in tradeshow comedy. Is humor in the timing or the delivery?

See the keynote comedy after the break.

*As Microsoft chairman, that is.

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Sony's new $300, 16GB Memory Stick

Kyle Orland — 2008-01-07T17:15:00+00:00

Filed under: Sony PlayStation 3, Sony PSP

The march of progress continues unabated as Sony has unveiled a new 16GB Memory Stick Pro Duo at CES. The PSP- and PS3-compatible proprietary storage solution will cost a whopping $300 when it comes out in March. That might seem a little steep, especially when similarly sized SD cards are half the price and available now. Still, it could be worse -- back in 1956, you'd have to pay ~~$10,000~~ $50,000 (Edit: whoops. Typo) for a 5MB hard drive. So, really, this new card is a bargain!

[Via PSPFanboy]

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CES 2008: New titles join Games for Windows portfolio

Ludwig Kietzmann — 2008-01-07T15:45:00+00:00

Filed under: PC, CES

In another CES 2008 announcement, Microsoft has highlighted nine new additions to its Games for Windows endeavor, promising to "continue the momentum for Windows-based gaming in 2008" and "revive" the PC gaming space. The titles due to be dressed in Microsoft's colors include:

Alone in the Dark (Atari)
Bionic Commando (Capcom)
Conflict: Denied Ops (Eidos Interactive)
Empire: Total War (SEGA)
LEGO Indiana Jones (LucasArts)
Microsoft Train Simulator 2 (Microsoft Game Studios)
Sins of a Solar Empire (Stardock)
Space Siege (SEGA)
Tomb Raider: Underworld (Eidos Interactive)

The list not only cements the "Underworld" subtitle to Eidos' next Tomb Raider, but provides reassurance as to the longevity of Microsoft's initiative. Games for Windows is sure to be around for quite some time if Alone in the Dark manages to arrive under its banner. Microsoft's polite press release is also keen to remind us that other expected 2008 titles -- Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures, Borderlands, The Club, Fallout 3 and Frontlines: Fuel of War -- will stand beneath the flapping emblem.

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CES 2008: Lode Runner coming to XBLA

Christopher Grant — 2008-01-07T13:45:00+00:00

Filed under: Retro, Microsoft Xbox 360, CES

In an early morning meeting with Microsoft, we got a sneak peek of a title that's been a long-time coming to Xbox Live Arcade. Some of you may remember our nearly year-and-a-half old interview with former Xbox Live Arcade Portfolio Manager Ross Erickson, who professed Lode Runner to be his "favorite game of all time" and, it seemed like a natural conclusion that he would be working on bringing that title to the service. Though Erickson's moved on, the proto-platformer is finally making its way to XBLA.

Totally updated for XBLA by developer Tozai (purportedly the original developer and license holder), the version showed off was apparently "incredibly early." Nevertheless, the 3D graphics were sharp and the original Lode Runner gameplay is so immediately infectious it bleeds through every layer of paint thrown on it. But it's not all original gameplay, as the developer is adding in several multiplayer modes like "Hang-On," which supports four players, and "Journey," which supports two.

One of our favorite touches was the history timeline of the game, which aims to educate gamers on Lode Runner's long history and role in the history of video games. A very classy touch, and one we'd love to see more of in our games, along with the original game variant while they're at it. Understandably, there's no word on price or release, but we were told "2008" was a good estimate.

But that's still not the biggest question we've got. No, what we really want to know is whether or not the XBLA version will share the series' iconic level editor functionality. The answer was that while nothing has been announced, the developer is obviously aware of the game's history. Is it too much to hope that we'd be allowed to share user-created levels, perhaps enjoying a LittleBigPlanet-esque community angle? We hope not.

Gallery: Lode Runner (XBLA)

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GPS for Sony PSP coming to US

Ross Miller — 2008-01-06T23:55:00+00:00

Filed under: Sony PSP

The GPS receiver for the Sony PSP is about to find its way out of Japan and into US gamers' hands. According to Sony's CES 2008 page, "Your PSP will provide 2D/3D locations, driving directions, POI's, and even downloadable city guides."

No official release date or price - the peripheral in Japan retailed for approximately US $51. Of course, if you're impatient, you can always hack the PSP now.

[Via PSP Fanboy]

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Guitar Hero champ plays Guns n' Roses song with Slash on real guitar

Ross Miller — 2008-01-06T22:54:00+00:00

Filed under: Culture, Microsoft Xbox 360, CES

Closing out this year's CES keynote, Microsoft's Robbie Bach invited Guitar Hero champion Kelly "TipperQueen" Law-Yone on stage to play Guns n' Roses' "Welcome to the Jungle" on Guitar Hero 3. Not willing to be outdone, keynote speaker Bill Gates brings out Slash - of Guns n' Roses fame - to play "Welcome to the Jungle" on a real guitar. We'll leave the real vs. virtual guitar debate to you and South Park. Instead, we'll just spend our time wishing for this performance - and The Office parody from earlier in the keynote - show up as online video soon.

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UK telecom company BT Group first to use Xbox 360 as set-top box

Ross Miller — 2008-01-06T22:34:00+00:00

Filed under: Microsoft Xbox 360, CES

Having previously announced its intentions to have the Xbox 360 as a set-top box (STB) at last year's Consumer Electronics Show, Bill Gates told the audience at this year's keynote that British telecommunications company BT Group will be the first company to use the console as a set-top box, whose interface was most recently seen by accident in a repaired console.

Said Gates, "The final announcement, last year we talked about the 360 being an STB -- this year we're excited to announce that BT will be the first to provide that capability. Buy a 360 and use it as an STB for your TV." No other details are given (what about DVR?), but we're hoping to hear some more soon. Check out our hands-on with the service from last year's show.

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