Joystiq

Geoff Johns to write story for DC Universe Online, new screenshots added

Griffin McElroy — 2008-09-21T15:30:00+00:00

Filed under: PC, Sony PlayStation 3, MMO

Writing the back story for a new MMO is a pretty thankless job, we'd imagine. Most of the players living in the virtual world whose mythos you've so meticulously constructed probably skip through the dialogue from important NPCs and quest-givers in order to return to their regularly scheduled redundancies. However, you can bet we'll be reading every word in Sony Online Entertainment's DC Universe Online, as it was recently announced that the plot of the game will be penned by DC Comics writer Geoff Johns.

Johns has worked on a number of major DC franchises, crafting the storylines of a number of Green Lantern, Action Comics and Justice Society of America series. In addition to the fantastic news that DC Universe's story is in qualified hands, a new salvo of screenshots for the title, each featuring a high-profile hero or villain, was recently released by SOE. You can check them out in the gallery below -- just don't get your hopes up for any Mister Myxzptlk action.

Gallery: DC Universe Online

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AGDC: The DC Universe Online team spills some beans

Kevin Kelly — 2008-09-17T16:00:00+00:00

Filed under: PC, Sony PlayStation 3, Online, RPGs, GDC, MMO

The Art of the DC Universe Online panel was overshadowed by the presence of artist Jim Lee, who fielded most of the questions about the design elements that are going into this game (as it's based on his visual style). We managed to learn some new elements about the game, including the special "inspired by" mode they've added to character creation.

The panel consisted of art director Jared Carr, Jim Lee, lead character artist Jason Smith, and creative director Jens Anderson. Check out all the zap!, pow!, and bam! highlights after the break.

One of the challenges was creating the female characters for the games. According to Lee, "We tend to draw women with very long legs, and when that gets translated to 3D it doesn't work very well." He didn't say anything about the enormous boobs that most of them are drawn with.
They've had to nail down a lot of design elements that are variable in the comics, like the length of Batman's cape.
When you create your character in the game you can choose "Inspired By," which gives you a set of tools to allow you to create a character like Batman or Superman. Alternatively, you can just create your character entirely from scratch.
The player characters in the game will match the size of the iconic DC characters.
You're able to choose a Power, a Power Source (a ring, a pistol, your eyes, etc), and an Origin, as well as design your own costume.
There are different versions of some of the character's costumes, and in some cases the game artists have improved on the comic book designs.
Jim Lee visits the Sony Online Entertainment Austin offices every three to four months, and the development team also visits the Wildstorm offices in La Jolla, California. They also have weekly calls and video conferences.

In some cases the team is using locations and events that won't appear in the DC comic books for one or two years.
Jim Lee has gotten pretty good at making videos of himself in various character poses, but he's scared it'll leak out all over YouTube. He's thinking about doing them while wearing a Mexican wrestling mask for anonymity, so keep your eyes peeled.
Metropolis and the Daily Planet are definitely in the game, but they haven't revealed other locations yet. "We're trying to make it as wide open as we can."
They hinted that the sewers of Gotham City and the Batcave will definitely be locations or instances in the game.
The initial contract is just for the iconic DC characters to appear in the game, but you might eventually see Wildstorm characters as well.
"We have to run on the PS3 as well as the PC, and the PS3 side has their own budget, so we have to be careful when planning environments." Does that mean they'll have to scale the PC side back to match the PS3? Inquiring minds want to know. We have an email in to Sony to clarify this.
NOTE: Here's the official response from Sony - "No. I was just saying that we will take our vision of the environment to the highest possible quality bar while taking into consideration the scope of our environments. This is naturally going to be driven by the system specs on the PS3. "Scaling back" implies we've gone too far, which as far as I can tell is not the case. I was only making a comment on the fact that building for consoles has a much more specific hardware spec, unlike PCs that have high and low end configurations."
Jim Lee has a not-so-secret obsession with Zatanna.

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Picture it: Batman Arkham Asylum [update]

James Ransom-Wiley — 2008-08-15T11:29:00+00:00

Filed under: PC, Sony PlayStation 3, Microsoft Xbox 360

Vin Diesel vs. The Batman? If we didn't know better, we'd have mistaken the first Batman Arkham Asylum screens for the spiffy new chapter in the Chronicles of Riddick remake. (After all, Bats has tangoed with Aliens and Predator -- so why not the Alpha Furyan?) But we digress. Rocksteady Studios eagerly released the "WORLDWIDE EXCLUSIVE Game Informer screens" on its website, but then realized, uh, they're exclusive, and promptly pulled them. Unfortunately, erasing an internet blunder is never as easy as refreshing the page, and the images have spread to new hosts. ~~Hellooo NeoGAF!~~ [Argh, pulled! ... CVG has 'em.]

Update: Warner Bros. Interactive is making the rounds this afternoon, trying to bottle up the pesky genie that escaped earlier today. "The images of Batman Arkham Asylum that Rocksteady posted on their website were done in error," a representative has explained to Joystiq. In turn, we have complied with the company's request to remove any screenshots from this post and will surely not remind you that the images in question are still floating around the internet, maybe even locatable through links posted in the comments section...

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Massively explores a world of capes and tights in DC Universe Online

Michael Zenke — 2008-07-17T13:30:00+00:00

Filed under: PC, MMO

When Jim Lee stepped onstage at the Sony press conference Tuesday, it was the first reminder in some time of Sony Online Entertainment's upcoming super-hero MMO DC Universe Online. The title, meant to bring the world of Batman and Superman to fans of the massively multiplayer genre, has been under a communications blackout and in development for years. E3 2008 is the first substantial chance the gaming press has had to learn about the title, and our friends at Massively were naturally attracted by the smell of grouping mechanics and instanced content.

To kick things off, they've got a description of the extensive trailer that was the core of the SOE presentation. That wasn't enough for the MMO-addicted writers, so they followed that up with an exhaustive Q&A session. Follow along as DCUO Creative Director Chris Cao and SOE-Austin VP of development John Blakely explore how the game will interact with the PlayStation 3, tie-ins between DC Universe Online and the actual DC comics, and an interesting aside about how the developers are already acting like the game is 'released' inside the company. The Massively crew also has a few choice pieces of concept art from the game, from the mind of comic legends like Jim Lee - take a look below.

Gallery: E308: DC Universe Online concept art

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First super details on Sony's DC Universe Online

Griffin McElroy — 2008-06-28T13:00:00+00:00

Filed under: PC, Sony PlayStation 3, MMO

Breaking a new title into the MMO market is difficult, as any game developer whose name isn't synonymous with an overabundance of frosty precipitation will attest -- especially when your title fits into a particular niche already explored by another developer. For instance, NCSoft's City of Heroes cornered the super hero MMO market when it debuted in 2004, creating an intimidating hurdle that other online vigilante simulators have yet to attempt to vault.

The latest issue of Edge magazine features an interview with Jim Lee, creative director for Sony's upcoming DC Universe Online, who reveals the steps Sony is taking to set their title apart from NCSoft's. With their inclusion of a number of recognizable faces from DC's voluminous roster, and their focus on making the title a "kick-ass hybrid between a traditional MMO and a first-person action console game", the apparent differences between the two games are clear. As long as there's a rich, intricate fish-controlling engine, we'll give it a shot.

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Ed Boon clarifies Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe fatalities

Ludwig Kietzmann — 2008-06-24T17:00:00+00:00

Filed under: Sony PlayStation 3, Microsoft Xbox 360, Fighting

In a brief interview with Gamespot, Midway's Ed Boon has (once again) discussed the return of fatalities in upcoming cross-brand brawler, Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe. The infamous finishing moves will be performed by all Mortal Kombatants and DC Comics villains, but not by any of DC's untarnished heroes. You know, the ones "who don't kill that often." Instead, nicer folks like The Flash will have "brutalities," moves which inflict pain upon the recipients without totally murdering them.

Of course, don't expect the levels of violence and depravity to be quite up there (down there?) with previous Mortal Kombat games, as Ed Boon mentions that this Unreal-powered showdown is still pushing a slightly Tamer boundary. "Certain animations, blood effects, and sound effects that we have in the game are really pushing the T-rating envelope," he said. We're sure gore hounds will find this worthy of debate, but we're more concerned about everything that happens before the fatality.

Let's hope E3 grants us the opportunity to beat the snot out of that smug Superman.

Gallery: Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe

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Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe crossing over in Fall '08

Alexander Sliwinski — 2008-04-18T19:00:00+00:00

Filed under: Sony PlayStation 3, Microsoft Xbox 360, Fighting

Despite the trailer koming out earlier today, here's the "official" announcement of Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe. The storyline for the game will be written by the "Mortal Kombat creative team," with comic writers Jimmy Palmiotti (Painkiller Jane, Marvel Nights, Jonah Hex, 21 Down) and Justin Gray (Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight, JLA Classified, Punisher Red X-Mas, The Resistance), and will weave the Mortal Kombat and DC Universe's together into a cohesive narrative -- at least, that's the plan.

Ed Boon, executive producer for Mortal Kombat, says, "Players will now be able to answer the question: what would happen if Batman fought Sub Zero?" It's an interesting question to think about now, but we're pretty confident that up until 24 hours ago -- when news of this game first started leaking out -- that pairing never came up in a "Picard vs. Kirk" style geek-off. We're sure to learn a lot more about this non M-rated version of Mortal Kombat at E3. For now, philosophically speaking, if a Mortal Kombat game doesn't have fatalities, is it still Mortal Kombat?

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DC Comics to publish Gears of War series

Christopher Grant — 2008-04-18T15:14:00+00:00

Filed under: Culture, Microsoft Xbox 360

DC Comics has been busy today, first announcing its kooperation with fighting series stalwart, Mortal Kombat in Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe and also announcing plans for a comic book series based on the Gears of War franchise. We're quite certain that none of this has to do with the New York Comic-Con which, totally coincidentally, got underway today. The series, due in October - again, we're sure this has nothing to do with Gears of War 2: Chainsaw Boogaloo - will be published under DC's WildStorm imprint, whom you may remember from the World of Warcraft comic. No word on the creative team responsible for curb-stomping the video game into the confines of the comic book format, but we're sure any number of lonely high-schoolers with notebooks full of pictures of rifles with chainsaw bayonets would kill for the job.

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Prototype comic coming from DC this August

Justin McElroy — 2008-04-16T11:00:00+00:00

Filed under: Culture, Action

Whether its capturing New York in a room to promote it or breaking out the wallet for a Barry Pepper-caliber talent, it's clear that Sierra is counting on Prototype being a hit. Now, the company has found a new avenue for the game's story of "a genetically mutated shape-shifter with no memory of his past hell-bent on solving the mystery of his existence," with a Prototype comic series coming from DC in August on the Wildstorm imprint.

Since the game itself isn't due until fall, we're hoping that it will offer some early insight into the game's plot. We're also hoping it comes out the same weeks as Buffy: Season Eight, or we may just forget to pick it up entirely.

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