E3 2012 Retrospective

I wasn't at E3. But I was able to follow the entire thing last week from the comfort of my home (and later in the week, the comfort of my workplace) through the various live streams and the glut of articles released over the course of the week. And I thought that I'd give my thoughts on the press conferences and the games (or at least a number of them) on show.

As such this post isn't about SWTOR, it's mostly not even about MMOs. It's just about what one of the biggest events for gaming had on display this year. And my wholly personal take on things.

I'll split this into two parts. The first looking at the five main press conferences and the second part looking at a number of the games. Catch it all after the break.

Guild Wars 2 Preview

Carefully the young woman makes her way into the cave. She is supposed to meet up with some friends to learn the fate of her long lost parents. But the lure of adventure is too strong and that cave-mouth beckons to be explored. Her past can wait a bit longer.

In the distance looms an imposing figure, a giant who clearly has made the cave his home. Careful not to draw his attention she works her way around him, trying to keep from stepping on any of the grubs scrawling across the floor. More used to being the center of attention than to slinking through the shadows her efforts are in vain and soon she notices him staring at her with a bemused smile. Thankfully for her he turns out to be friendly and he introduces himself as Gort. But no sooner had they exchanged pleasantries or in marches a band of ettins appearing set on violence. This looks like trouble...

Last weekend was the first public Guild Wars 2 beta. It wasn't open as such and it wasn't the first beta weekend the game had, but it was the first time that those who had pre-purchased the game could join. So it was the first time that people other than those selected by ArenaNet could experience the game in comfort. And with Guild Wars 2 being consistently one of the, if not the, most anticipated MMOs in development this was a big deal.

Having spent those two days experiencing the game myself I thought that it might be interesting to write up some of my experiences and views of the game.

This article wasn't that easy to write. You see, I've fallen a bit in love with Guild Wars 2. That makes it very hard to remain objective. And it makes it hard to shut up about it, leading to a very long article. Still, I tried. But the first draft not only turned out to be massively long (probably two or three times the length it is now), I also realized that what I was doing was explaining how the game worked much more than what I thought of it. Since my opinion is the whole point, and there are already plenty of places to learn how the game works, I decided to scrap most everything and start fresh, focusing on my opinions and experiences. The resulting article is still very long (I'm not one known for brevity anyway), but hopefully more easily digestible.

Read on after the break for my preview based on the beta weekend.

 

A Look At The Competition Redux

Over a year and a half ago I wrote a blog post titled "A Look At The Competition", taking a look at a number of MMOs other than The Old Republic and what they were planning to do. Since then I've tried to do a redux a few times, but time never seemed right. Now, with The Old Republic having released, it seems like there will never be a better time than this.

I'll divide the list into four rough categories: "Past Releases" for MMOs that have been released since the previous blog post, "Near Future Releases" with those MMOs I expect to launch sometime in 2012 (though note that only about half the MMOs I expected to launch in 2011 actually did), "Distant Future Releases" for MMOs I expect to launch much later (2013 and on) and "Off the Radar" for MMOs I haven't heard anything about since my previous post (and might never be released) or which seem to be canceled. And just as before this isn't meant to be an exhaustive list (though I do think I've got most of the more important ones). And the information too won't be exhaustive as it's pretty much tied to my interest in a title; sometimes a title might have a fair bit of information out on it but since I've got little interest in it I haven't much to say about it.

Even so it took a good while to put this all together. I started writing well before The Old Republic was even released and thus had to regularly update the text with new information and changes. Hopefully everything is now as accurate as I can make it and hopefully you'll find the post informative. Read on after the break for the list.

Battle for Alderaan Highlights Video

Originally meant to be posted during E3 week, but delayed at the last moment, this Friday BioWare posted the Battle for Alderaan videos showcasing a group quest (and not a Flashpoint as I first thought it was). Here is the official news:

Many people in attendance at this year’s E3 had the chance to slip behind closed doors and see a live demo of a previously unseen portion of Alderaan. In it, a group of players confronts a Republic war hero-turned-power hungry King who has seized the throne in a misguided bid to protect his people from an impending Sith invasion.

We wanted to share the experience with the community as well, so we put together this video to capture the highlights of the mission to bring down the would-be King of Alderaan.

It's a nice video and definitely helps gets excited about the thought of running in with a group of friends and doing this mission. Oh, and I quite like the Consular's outfit too.

The Alderaan video wasn't the only one they released this Friday though. They also released an E3 highlights video. That, some more articles from across the web and the developer quotes you'll find after the break.

EA Louse Dishes Dirt On Warhammer

It's quickly making the rounds online, but it seems that a blogger styling him(or her)self as "EA Louse" (in a wordplay on "EA Spouse" made a rather condemning post towards EA and, particularly, BioWare Mythic.

The truthfulness can, of course, be very much put into question. There is absolutely zero evidence that this isn't all just some made-up hoax. Though similarly there's little evidence to say that it's all false.

Either way the poster seems to have made the post in a rather disgruntled state, claiming to have found out that he (or she) will soon be fired in another round of layoffs come this November apparently. The poster comes across as an artist (possibly an animator) who worked on Warhammer Online and is now airing a whole list of grievances towards how the development of that project went.

You can read it all at the blog (as well as several posts made in the comments by the blogger). But for us the most relevant bits are where the poster talks about Star Wars: The Old Republic. And, according to the poster, it isn't pretty:

And Bioware? Don’t make me laugh. They’ve spent more money making the Old Republic than James Cameron spent on Avatar. Shit you not. More than $ 300 million! Can you believe that?

And you know what they’re most proud of? This is the kicker. They are most proud of the sound. No seriously. Something like a 20Gig installation, and most of it is voiceover work. That’s the best they have. The rest of the game is a joke. EA knows it and so does George Lucas,they’re panicking , and so most of Mythic has already been cannibalized to work in Austin on it because they can’t keep pushing back launch.

Old Republic will be one of the greatest failures in the history of MMOs from EA. Probably at the level of the Sims Online. We all know it too ……

Again, how much of it is true is anyone's guess at the moment. The poster could be telling the truth, the poster could be understating the truth, the poster could be making the whole thing up, heck the poster could quite possibly not work for EA at all and be some disturbed kid in a bid for fame.

If there is truth to it then there's a few things to remember. One, when people lose their job or are otherwise upset then things tend to look very grim and everything tends to look amplified in the negative direction. Secondly it's all a matter of perspective and the poster might be judging the thing completely wrong or completely misunderstanding the situation; the poster doesn't sound like someone very high up so can only guess at a lot of the motivations. And third, regarding SWTOR the poster probably doesn't have that much more inside knowledge than the rest of us (the poster isn't working on SWTOR directly and only gets things from hearsay and speculation within the company). It's certainly not unusual for game developers to move members from one team to another, particularly one that it very, very big and is very, very much in the spotlight. That doesn't mean that the project is in trouble. It's also quite possible that the poster is somewhat disgruntled over the MMO (s)he worked on not doing very well in the end and all attention now seeming to go to SWTOR; it might be some kind of vindication if SWTOR fails too ("see, it wasn't our fault but it was EA's fault").

Of coruse, all of that is speculation on my part. it's also possible that it's all true.

Well, at least apart from the part where he talks about how Sanya lost her job as she, in turn on her blog, points out that that wasn't quite how things went. Again, that could just be the difference of perception and speculation.

Either way, whether it is true or not, I am sure that this isn't the right way to air one's grievances however much people might be applauding the daring of making such a post now. I've got a feeling that EA's legal team isn't going to be happy regardless of whether it's true or not.

And regarding SWTOR nothing has really changed. The game could still be great, the game could still be terrible; we still won't know until the game is released and we're all playing it by the (potentially) millions. The only thing that has changed perhaps is that a few more people might be aware of the possibility that, despite all the marketing and hype around SWTOR, this game could actually be bad. But I could've told you that without such a blog post.

Take it how you wish. I'm labeling it as "rumor".


[link] to EA Louse's blog post.
[link] to Sanya's response to the blog post.

Sean Dahlberg moves on to Faxion Online development

Sean Dahlberg has been, for nearly two years, the Community Manager for Star Wars: The Old Republic. Then about a month ago news came that he had left BioWare.

We now know where he went to as Massively reports that he's working on design for the free-to-play PvP MMO Faxion now. Here's Massively's news:

For some of our readers, the idea of managing the community for Star Wars: The Old Republic would be a dream job. (How well this lines up with understanding what community managers actually have to do is debatable.) Sean Dahlberg, however, has apparently decided that he's had quite enough of that scene, so he's packed up and moved on to UTV True Games and Faxion Online. It's a bit of an odd move, and Dahlberg has put up a short entry on his personal blog explaining why he's moved on and what he's moving on to do.

Faxion Online is a free-to-play game focused on the war between Heaven and Hell, with what Dahlberg describes as a sense of humor resembling that of the inimitable Dungeon Keeper franchise. He explains that while he enjoyed working with communities, he wanted to get back into designing fun systems for an actual game, and he felt that he could make a larger contribution by shifting focus to his current occupation of Senior Game Systems Designer for Faxion. For more details and a few more tidbits about what's planned for the free-to-play title, take a look at his full entry.

As the news mentions Sean posted some details about the move on his blog.

Having never heard of Faxion before it came as quite a happy coincidence that MMORPG.com has a chance to check the game out at GDC Online (which is going on in Austin as I write this). Here's an excerpt:

True Games, recently acquired by UTV, has several online games in their development stable. They include Warrior Epic, Mytheon, Sky Legends and Faxion (Fac-shun) Online. Faxion is their first completely internal project and Creative Director Mike Madden was on hand to show off the game. Mike’s game credits include stints at Ubisoft, Wolfpack Studios and Stray Bullet. With MMO Shadowbane under his belt, he is no stranger to PvP focused MMOs which is what Faxion Online is all about.

You are a lost soul, finding yourself in Limbo. You can redeem yourself… or not. In Purgatory City, you make your choice. Will you fight for Heaven or for Hell? Will you gain your horns and demon wings or will you gain your halo and angel wings? Who will command the seven deadly sins? Heaven, or Hell?

I'm not sure if it's my kind of game, but I can understand wanting to work on developing a game rather than managing a game's community. And perhaps I'll give the game a shot when it's out (though somehow I doubt it; PvP isn't my thing). Either way, the best of luck to Sean and the team at UTV True Games.


[link] to news at Massively.
[link] to Sean Dahlberg's blog post.
[link] to Faxion impressions article at MMORPG.

World of Darkness Announced

The big news this weekend, MMO-wise, was World of Darkness. Ever since CCP (developers of EVE Online) and White Wolf (creators of the various World of Darkness tabletop roleplaying games and such) merged it was pretty much known that CCP was working on a World of Darkness MMO. And that was pretty much all everyone knew. But this weekend during The Grand Masquerade, which is as I understand White Wolf's official conference, CCP officially announced their next MMO: World of Darkness (though some sources report it as "World of Darkness Online").

Read more details after the break (as well as an off-screen video).

Death of Roleplaying, Rebirth of Adventure?

I've been debating with myself over the order of the two parts in the title there, because the supposed “rebirth” came before the supposed “death”, but somehow putting it the other way around sounds wrong. Maybe it's in a way me trying to keep things positive, but well get to all that.

And I hope that you'll forgive me this, really long, rant, but it's something that I need to get out of my system. Though it has some bearing on The Old Republic (for which they've made the same choice) if you're just interested in news about the MMO then you might want to skip this.


For the last couple of days I've been... upset. I suspect that I'll probably remain such for a while to come. Last Thursday was supposed to be “a great day for BioWare fans” and for a number of them I'm sure that it was. For a lot of others, like myself, though it turned out to be quite horrible.

It started out quite good. I can safely say that my all-time favorite game is Dragon Age: Origins, giving the perfect blend of roleplaying and story. So the initial announcement that BioWare is making Dragon Age 2 was a wonderful one. However, it quickly turned out that Dragon Age 2 is going to be more Mass Effect than Dragon Age.

Read after the jump for the rest of it.

Game Testing Officially Underway

It was rumored a couple of weeks ago that testing for The Old Republic (with people from the community) had started. But now BioWare have officially confirmed it. Here is what they had to say:

Game Testing for Star Wars™: The Old Republic™ is underway! Those selected to test will gain access to the game and be able to provide valuable feedback to help us tune particular areas of gameplay and begin the process of balancing and tweaking our content.

Game Testing is an on-going process being rolled out in several phases. These phases began with smaller, more focused tests with community members from North America, and later will expand to other territories. Users selected for the test program will be notified via email with more information on accessing the Game Testing Portal. If you’ve not been chosen yet, you may be selected in the next wave!

If you haven’t signed up already, it’s definitely not too late! If you’re not already a member of the Star Wars: The Old Republic community, click here to become one today! Be sure to check the box to indicate you are interested in becoming a tester. If you’re already a member, go to the Game Testing Portal to begin the sign up process. Note that you must be at least 18 years of age to accept the Game Tester Agreement.

Please keep in mind that there are no guarantees that you will be selected once you have completed the sign-up process. For more information about testing Star Wars: The Old Republic, take time to read the Game Testing FAQ.

We’re looking forward to your help in making Star Wars: The Old Republic a success!

Good luck to all those who got selected and please try to remember that you're there to help make the game better, not to have fun. In fact, it's probably best to expect the testing to be no fun at all. And remember, as Sean Dahlberg puts it:

Being able to have the community help us test The Old Republic is very important and valuable to the development process. The Game Testing Program allows community members to give us quality feedback so we can make adjustments and have a highly effective service and entertaining experience when we do launch. Our expectation is that players of The Old Republic will follow the terms of the Game Testing Agreement and ensure that the confidential pre-release information we’re sharing with community members remains confidential.

Anyway, BioWare also announced their plans for ComicCon this year. By going to ComicCon you can get a signed page from Blood of the Empire, see the Hope cinematic trailer on the big screen, and attend a number of Star Wars related panels. The most interesting of these, for fans of The Old Republic, is the following:

1:00-2:00 PM – Beyond Solo: Crafting the Multiplayer Story in Star Wars: The Old Republic

Meet up with James Ohlen (Studio Creative Director and Lead Designer, BioWare) Drew Karpyshyn (Principal Writer, BioWare), and Alexander Freed (Managing Editor, BioWare), along with Morgan Webb (G4's X-Play)as they discuss the creation of the multiplayer, planet-spanning story in Star Wars: The Old Republic. While much attention has been paid to the unique individual stories of each of the eight classes in the game, the team is excited to share their approach to the broader stories that players will experience in The Old Republic.

Read the rest of the details on ComicCon at the link above.

In different news, last week BioWare's The Old Republic won the Best of E3 2010 Game Critics Award for "Best Role Playing Game". The Game Critics Awards are voted for by a number (31 to be exact) of gaming publications and thus can be seen as a measure of how the professional gaming press saw E3. So congratulations to BioWare and the The Old Republic team for making the list.

Speaking of E3, make sure that you don't miss Darth Hater's Hands On Impressions article. It's by far the most in-depth E3 hands on article out there, filled with details that haven't appeared anywhere else. The Darth Hater team had a massive number of people attending E3, all geared towards getting as much details on The Old Republic as they could. Definitely not one to miss. Here's an excerpt:

UI Impressions

The User Interface, or UI, of The Old Republic will seem very familiar to anyone who has played a modern MMO. Although not revolutionary, this familiarity should make it easy for most gamers to pick it up quickly and intuitively. We were limited to only a few abilities on our low level characters, but we noticed there were a total of five possible action bars for high level characters who are flush with skills.

The UI was functional and compact, reducing screen clutter, but it may not be effective for hardcore players looking to maximize their information in minimal space. Thankfully the standard design and options imply a great deal of space and flexibility which is an encouraging sight for people looking to mod their heads up display.

One thing new to the UI in this build was Fly Text notifications during combat. Similar to some WoW mods or Borderlands, the Fly Text would show damage or healing done by displaying numbers coming from the target itself. This optional feature helped visualize the action on screen by letting players see exactly what they were doing to a target without needing to look at a scrolling log. While not revolutionary, it was a nice addition.

They seemed to be particularly impressed with the AI, noting that enemies have an "alarmed" state where they notice you (and you can see them noticing you as they'll look at you), but they won't attack yet unless you get closer. And on top of that in combat human enemies often seek cover instead of just rushing headlong into you to get pounded. But they talk about a whole lot of other things as well.


And finally on a completely non-TOR related note... BioWare announced Dragon Age 2. Though there are a lot of question marks I have and a number of concerns, particularly that they seemed to be going with a pre-defined character this time (which if it's anything like Mass Effect will ruin what made Dragon Age special and so deeply enjoyable for me), at the moment I'm trying to remain hopeful that it'll be even close to as good as the first game. We'll see.


[link] to Game Critics Awards.
[link] to Hands On Impressions at Darth Hater.

A Look At The Competition

Ever since the game was first announced on October 21^st 2008 I have been closely following any news regarding Star Wars: The Old Republic and posting any bits on this blog. But BioWare's MMO is far from the only MMO that I've been keeping an eye on (if none of them quite as closely). With a week to go before E3 2010 I thought it might be interesting to look at what other MMOs are in development. That we we can see how the landscape might change over the coming few weeks (if at all).

This is not intended to be a comprehensive list of MMOs in development, nor necessarily a list of all the most important ones to come out in the year before and after the release of The Old Republic. There are undoubtedly going to be MMOs that you might have added to your list, as are there likely to be MMOs listed in mine that you wouldn't have included. A number might not even be released until years after The Old Republic has been and a couple are even nothing more than rumors at this point. The complete list of all coming MMOs is quite long, and for many it is entirely uncertain when, or even if, they are going to be released. So see this instead as a list of MMOs in development that have caught my attention in one way or another to some greater or lesser degree. And of course each bit of information will be far from comprehensive, for some I could probably fill entire blogs in their own right, and be meant more as a brief overview. I'll also endeavor to post a couple of links to more information for each, but here too it's meant more as a taster than a comprehensive list of available information.

Looking at the list of upcoming MMOs one thing to take away is that story seems to play an increasingly important role in the MMOs of the future. Perhaps it is just because of my own preferences, but my two top picks (which I'll list first) both claim to have a strong story focus. Perhaps one could say that they are following in the footsteps of BioWare's MMO, but I think it's likely more accurate to say that a number of studios all saw the industry moving in the same direction and decided to develop their own brand of storytelling in MMOs. Great minds think alike, if you will. And of course there will also be plenty of more traditional MMO offerings, all trying to stand out in their own ways. Either way, and though I'm sure that you've heard this many times before that makes it no less true, it looks like there are exciting times ahead for MMO players.

View my picks of MMOs in development after the break.

Star Wars: Clone Wars Adventures

It was rumored last September that Sony Online Entertainment was working with LucasArts to create a third Star Wars MMO, this one set in the Clone Wars period, targeted at a younger audience and being similar to Free Realms. Today they are confirming those rumors.

Called "Star Wars: Clone Wars Adventures" it is a browser-based, free-to-play game (they're calling it a "virtual world" instead of an MMO since apparently it won't have leveling or quests). Here is the text from Gamasutra:

Sony Online Entertainment and LucasArts are developing Star Wars: Clone Wars Adventures, a free-to-play virtual world based on the Star Wars: The Clone Wars animated series airing on Cartoon Network, set to launch online and in retail stores this fall.

While LucasArts published SOE's last MMO based on the George Lucas franchise, Star Wars Galaxies, the San Diego-headquartered studio is both developing and publishing this title. The companies hope to introduce the Jedi, Padawan and Clone Troopers saga to a new generation of Star Wars fans with Clone Wars Adventures.

In this browser-based virtual world, players will be able can pilot starfighters, fight other starships, duel against "icon adversaries" with their custom lightsaber, play minigames like Droid Programming and Speeder Bike Racing, and play an embedded collectible card game featuring characters, creatures, and vehicles from The Clone Wars show.

While Clone Wars Adventures is free, players can purchase a monthly membership with unspecified advantages. They can also buy outfits, items, and accessories through microtransactions with Station Cash, SOE's virtual currency.

As with Free Realms, SOE's tremendously successful free-to-play virtual world with more than 10 million users, Clone Wars Adventures is designed to be a safe online environment for kids and families. It will offer customizable safety options, such as pre-canned chat and playtime settings for younger users.

"Clone Wars Adventures is the ultimate destination for fans of The Clone Wars series and will bring the action and excitement of the show to players online so they can experience The Clone Wars universe firsthand" says SOE president John Smedley.

Smedley adds, "We've worked with LucasArts and Lucasfilm to create a virtual world that is seamlessly integrated with the TV series and a true extension of the show. It's also just flat-out fun to play."

And thanks to Massively I've also got a trailer video of the game for you:


Having played Free Realms a bit, which was quite fun (for a brief while), this could be quite entertaining. It depends on how fun the minigames themselves are (Free Realms' minigames got boring rather quickly, not to mention some frustrating time-based minigames), but might be worth keeping it installed to waste the odd moment here and there.

Sounds like something to check out at least.


[UPDATE]

IGN has a couple of ingame videos and a preview article. Though it seems none of the videos actually have sound. Here's an excerpt from the article:

Similar to Free Realms, Clone Wars Adventures features a hub world where players can interact with their friends and spend Station Cash (a real-cash-to-game-currency system developed by SOE) to buy new outfits and accessories for their characters. The developers also explained to me that certain game types will also be reserved for monthly subscribers, though it doesn't sound like these modes have been finalized as of yet.

I'll refrain from embedding the videos; you can see them at the link above.

GDC 2010

I'm not entirely sure what happened. All that I can think of is that when Darth Hater updated their website it broke my rss feeds to them (both on this site and in my Google Reader). So I pretty much missed all their updates over the weekend and they had a lot of them. Hopefully the feeds should be fixed now though.

And they weren't the only ones. With GDC last week, even though Star Wars: The Old Republic had no specific presence, there were a number of interviews and details popping up all over the web. In particular from the off-site event that LucasArts held where the press got some hands-on time with a Trooper.

Over on the official forums Sean Dahlberg made a post listing a lot of them (some of which I already reported on before):

While there were no panels this year specifically related to The Old Republic during Game Developers Conference (GDC) 2010, there are a few panels that consisted of BioWare developers.

There was also an off-site event specifically for The Old Republic that various press and fan sites were invited to. None of this information will show up till early next week so keep your eyes peeled for that.

We will be updating the list in this post as more articles and threads appear and we plan on having a wrap-up article next Friday.

• GDC 2010: Gordon Walton (SW:TOR Dev) on MMO Retention
• Hands on [Eurogamer]
• GDC10: Hands-on with Star Wars: The Old Republic [Massively]
• LucasArts' Jake Neri on BioWare's James Ohlen, Endgame & Intertwining Pillars [Darth Hater]
• Interview: Story In-Depth With Daniel Erickson [Darth Hater]
• GDC: Trooper Hands-On & TOR Game Play Impressions [Darth Hater]
• STAR WARS: The Old Republic Preview [1Up]
• GDC: Facial Animation & More Aliens! Session Breakdown
• Star Wars: The Old Republic: GDC 2010: Hands On With The Trooper [MMORPG]
• Trooping Through The Oblivious Enemies of The Old Republic [Kotaku]
• GDC 2010: Video Preview of SW:TOR's Troopers [ZAM]
• GDC 2010: Hands-On with SW:TOR's Trooper Class [ZAM]
• Star Wars: The Old Republic PC Games Interview - Daniel Erickson Interview [IGN]
• Star Wars: The Old Republic Hands On [IGN]
• Preview: Star Wars: The Old Republic MMO [G4]
• Hands-on: Star Wars: The Old Republic's Trooper class [Joystiq]
• Shawn Schuster from Massively dishes the dirt on his secret trip to Lucas Arts to see Star Wars: The Old Republic! [GameBreakr]
• Set Blasters to Question: A Star Wars: The Old Republic Interview [GameSpy]
• GDC 10: Grabbing a bomb in Star Wars: The Old Republic [Destructoid]
• Star Wars: The Old Republic [GameDaily]
• We Get A Deep Look Into Ranged Combat [GameInformer]
• Star Wars: The Old Republic: GDC 2010 Jake Neri Interview [MMORPG]

Check out Star Wars: The Old Republic on X-Play as Adam Sessler covers GDC2010, Wednesday, March 17th @ 6:30 PM ET

He didn't get everything yet though; here's a couple more he missed so far:

• Star Wars: The Old Republic Roundtable [GameSpy]
• Star Wars: The Old Republic Updated Hands-On - The Republic Trooper [GameSpot]
• Hands On: Star Wars: The Old Republic [The Escapist]
• What Are They Hiding at Lucasarts? [The Escapist]

Since Sean posted the X-Play video has also been released:


As for a few other things; IndustryGamers reports that, according to one analyst, EA are looking to get 2 million subscribers when Star Wars: The Old Republic releases next year:

Between major successes like Dragon Age and Mass Effect 2, BioWare has quickly become one of the most important studios throughout all of Electronic Arts since the publisher acquired the RPG specialists. EA has already indicated that the upcoming Star Wars: The Old Republic MMO is the "largest ever development project, period, in the history of the company,” and it's quite clear that expectations for this title are huge.

Sterne Agee analyst Arvind Bhatia recently came away from a meeting with EA and reported that although "earnings are somewhat depressed due to ongoing expenses of the Star Wars MMO, management has high hopes for this and believes 2M+ subs is possible." He added that a little over 1 million subscribers is needed to reach the break-even point, but the ultimate goal is to get several million subscribers.

According to GamerVision Star Wars: The Old Republic isn't the only Star Wars MMO in development. They say that "trusted sources" confirm that Sony Online Entertainment is working on a Clone Wars MMO. This is not the first time that we've heard this rumor. Here's what they had to say on it:

Thought EA's The Old Republic was the only Star Wars MMORPG in development? Think again. Trusted Gamervision sources have confirmed that there is a second MMO in development by Sony Online Entertainment, the creators of once awesome, now less-than-awesome Star Wars: Galaxies. Supposedly called Clone Wars Adventures and due by the end of the year, it's to be a browser-based game aimed at a much younger demographic than The Old Republic. Namely pre-teens, the same audience for the popular Clone Wars television show, and far away from those who might even consider subscribing to BioWare's RPG.

So far that's all the information we have, though I'd be surprised if there wasn't an official announcement fairly soon. We're still waiting on details involving the gameplay and pricing model, as any specifics are still unknown, though thinking it's going to be modeled after Free Realms, Sony Online Entertainment's free-to-play online RPG, isn't a stretch. Odds are it will follow a similar pricing model, built on microtransactions instead of a costly monthly subscription. Either way, we expect to hear more information soon, and will be sure to keep you up to date on the other Star Wars MMORPG. Odds are it's going to be much, much different than The Old Republic.

This Friday is said to be a Fan Friday, during which they'll also do a GDC Wrap-Up.

The Ultimate Sacrifice

There's an interesting phenomenon happening on BioWare's social forums; or at least something that I find interesting.

But before I start a few things. To begin with this post has nothing directly to do with Star Wars: The Old Republic, instead it is about Dragon Age: Origins (specifically) and Mass Effect/Mass Effect 2 (to a lesser extend). It also contains spoilers regarding the endings of those games. Though I'll try to keep from being too specific (no 'how' or 'why', just 'what'), if you don't want (some of) the possible endings spoiled then it's probably best to refrain from reading this post. So with that out of the way, let's get going.

If you've played Dragon Age: Origins then you'll know that it's a story-centric game during which you're asking to make a number of choices with varying levels of consequences. Nowhere is this more evident that in the final choice of the game where you're asked to give your own (character's) life to save the world. There are other ways to do this as well, but each has their own drawbacks (and depending on earlier choices not all of them will be available). In essence, choosing to make the "Ultimate Sacrifice" (which is also the name of the achievement you get for the choice) is the noblest choice to make.

But of course that leaves BioWare with a problem. After all, they want to continue creating more games and (downloadable) content in the franchise for you to buy and play. There are, as I see it, several ways for them to deal with this situation and how to continue on from Dragon Age: Origins.

• The "Shadows of Undrentide" Method
  
  Probably the easiest way for BioWare to deal with the matter is to pretty much ignore the whole thing. Give players a new main character to play, set it in an area far (enough) away from the previous game and have a new story that doesn't reference the old one. This is, roughly, what BioWare did with their first expansion to Neverwinter Nights.
  
  Of course BioWare got a fair amount of critique for this decision from a number of fans (though personally I never had an issue with it). Most people wanted to continue with their character from Neverwinter Nights instead of starting a new character. This is certainly understandable; if you've got a good story then you want to see it continue.
  
  
• The "Mass Effect 3" Method
  
  It is possible that, depending on the choices you make, your Shepard doesn't survive the end of Mass Effect 2. But just as you could import your savegame from Mass Effect 1 into Mass Effect 2 to see the consequences of the decisions you made in the first game, so too will you be able to import your savegame from Mass Effect 2 into Mass Effect 3. That is, unless your character dies (a story death) in the second game as BioWare have said that you can't import the savegame of a dead Shepard.
  
  That makes sense. After all, Mass Effect is the story of Commander Shepard; if Shepard is dead then it's the end of the story. Additionally Shepard's death in Mass Effect 2 is more the result of failure instead of a conscious choice to give up your life for the greater good; as I understand it you only get it as the worst possible outcome with all your squadmates dead as well (you can see this ending on YouTube; as you can see Shepard only dies because there isn't anyone left to save him).
  
  
• The "Let's Ignore It" Method
  
  Another way to deal with the potential death is by letting the story continue, but not dealing with the 'inconvenient' death at all. In this all the choices you made in the game are preserved, except that the fact that your character died is ignored and they let you continue to play your character as if nothing happened.
  
  This, according to the official FAQ, is the solution BioWare seems to be taking for Dragon Age: Origins - Awakening. There is no story explanation, they pretty much just ignore the story. This makes one wonder why they would even bother including all the rest of the story, but I've got a feeling that that's just an artifact of the import method and that the purpose of this option is to have the same skills and stats as your old character.

Unfortunately none of these solutions are really satisfactory for Dragon Age: Origins (and the Awakening expansion in particular). The first isn't satisfactory because Awakening continues on where the main game left off. I would've had no issue with this personally if they had chosen to tell a completely separate story in a completely separate part of the world (i.e. not Ferelden).

The second solution isn't satisfactory either. Mass Effect might be the story of Shepard, but Dragon Age isn't, in my opinion, the story of the Warden. You can already see this from the fact that they're allowing you to play a different Warden (one from Orlais) in the expansion; one who never went through the story of the main game (instead of doing what Mass Effect 2 did and give you a Shepard who did go through the events in Mass Effect 1). A stronger reason for why it's unsatisfactory however is that where the death in Mass Effect 2 is the result of poorly made choices, the one in Dragon Age: Origins is the result of a very deliberate and valid choice. As I said, choosing to give your life is probably the noblest choice to make. That choice deserves to remain valid within the world.

And the third choice doesn't satisfy at all either. While it might be good to have the option available for those who just want to play the same character again and don't really care about story, it doesn't satisfy anyone who does care about story (which, presumably, is why the majority of people play BioWare's games to begin with). Sure, one could choose to play the new Warden, but that means that the story you experienced in the main game doesn't continue as you'll be left with the stock choices that they made. And playing your old Warden again is worse because with that the story goes out the window altogether.

Which leads us to the interesting phenomenon I started the post with. Over on BioWare's social forums people are clamoring to have their character stay dead.

Let us examine that desire for a moment; what is it exactly that people want? It is clear that people want to continue the story, continue in the world that they created through their choices. People want the choices they made to remain valid; what happens to Alistair, what the status is of the main areas you visit, etc. These things are important. Just not importing isn't satisfactory because it's likely that who rules the country isn't who it was when you played (and we know that this will come up in the expansion).

But having some excuse to 'resurrect' your character (and there are various options that BioWare could go with even if they've said that they want death to have meaning in their world and thus are unlikely to do resurrections) isn't satisfactory either because that invalidates the sacrifice that your character made. And it feels cheap to boot. How is it an 'Ultimate Sacrifice' if it isn't permanent?

So what people really want to do is import the decisions of their dead Warden, but play the game with a new character (namely the Orlesian Warden). Ideally people even want that the game makes some references to the noble sacrifice your old Warden made ("that other Warden who sacrificed his/her life to safe us was the greatest hero of our time" or such).

• The "The World Goes On" Method
  
  The character remains dead and players get to play a new character (with a separate background story), but the decisions that the character made before their dead are still in effect in the world and still noticeable. This is perhaps the most realistic method, story-wise.

But that, to me, is fascinating because I think that it might be one of the only times that players are actively asking for their character to remain dead. Usually players try their utmost to keep their character alive. In fact, that is the whole point of most gameplay where dying means that you lost the game. As such it is evident of BioWare's ability to tell emotionally engaging stories that they've turned this on its head with people actively hoping that their character remains dead.

I just hope that BioWare cares as much about story as they say they do.

It must be noted here that all people have to go on really is that faq I linked to earlier, which certainly seems to imply that the only way to import a dead Warden is to pretend this Warden never died to begin with. The faq is particularly light on details regarding the new Warden you've got the option to play and it is quite possible that they'll take another possible approach; one that isn't quite the previous one, but could be good enough to serve:

• The "Knights of the Old Republic 2" Method
  
  When you played Obisidan's sequel to BioWare's Knights of the Old Republic you couldn't import your savegame, and yet they managed to continue the story from the first one (for the most part). They did this by just asking the player what decisions they made in the first game. This could be done subtly as in KotOR2 by asking as part of the normal dialog, or it could be done blatantly by just bringing up a list at the start with "what choices did you make in the first game?".
  
  Either way it worked in KotOR2 because the first game didn't have that many impactful choices to begin with (Revan's gender was one and being darkside or lightside was another, but I don't really recall any other big choices) and because KotOR2 only referenced the choices in a sideways manner (Revan was only ever mentioned in dialog). As such it might work in Awakening; ask the player about the main choices that are reflected in the expansion, but even so it might still feel like it's not really your world you created, but just some facsimile.

In the end the whole situation might just be an indication of how difficult it really is to support a myriad of possible player choices within a product. Despite BioWare's claims the main choices you made in Mass Effect got little more than cameos in Mass Effect 2 and never really impacted the main story.* I would hope though that they'll do their best to allow all the possible choices to continue (even if a lot of the lesser ones don't really have any apparent effect in the expansion).

And most of all I hope that they'll allow the story of Dragon Age to continue if your Warden made the ultimate sacrifice to save the world, because the choice is too unique to just sweep under the carpet with a "let's just forget that the whole thing happened".

As one poster on the BioWare social forums said: "For the Ultimate Sacrifice choice to be meaningful, the dead Warden's world has to persist after his death."


* For some example; whether you save the Counsel or not doesn't really matter since you get no more than a few minutes of holographic time with them during which they treat you pretty much the same regardless of your choice. Whether you saved Ashley or Kaiden doesn't really matter because one will just take the place of the other in a brief cameo where they do nothing but scold you. Whether you saved Wrex or not doesn't really matter because if you didn't you just get a different krogan in his place. Whether you saved the Rachni Queen or not doesn't matter as all you get it a brief, cryptic message from an Asari without any followthrough in the rest of the game. Etc.

Obsidian Developing Wheel of Time Games

Well over a year ago I reported that Red Eagle Games was looking to develop games (including an MMO) based on Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series. Now they've announced that they're partnering with Obsidian Entertainment to do the game development (for, I assume, the single player games). As Dragonmount reports:

RED EAGLE GAMES SELECTS OBSIDIAN ENTERTAINMENT AS GAME DEVELOPMENT PARTNER

Noted RPG Developer to Assist Red Eagle Games in Building Video Games Based on Robert Jordan’s Fantasy Series “The Wheel of Time”

Malibu and Irvine Calif. – February 12, 2010 – Red Eagle Games and Obsidian Entertainment today announced they have entered into a services agreement which provides a comprehensive framework for Obsidian Entertainment to work closely with Red Eagle Games’ in-house development team to create new video games for the PC, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 based on Robert Jordan’s best-selling fantasy series, The Wheel of Time.

“The development team at Obsidian Entertainment has demonstrated time and again that they can successfully blend storytelling with technology to craft a superior RPG game experience,” said Rick Selvage, Chief Executive Officer of Red Eagle Games. “Obsidian Entertainment is the ideal development partner to help Red Eagle Games take Jordan’s beloved characters from the printed page to exciting new forms of interactive media.“

“Obsidian Entertainment is thrilled with this opportunity to work with Red Eagle Games in developing games based upon The Wheel of Time series,” said Feargus Urquhart, Chief Executive Officer of Obsidian Entertainment. “The Wheel of Time is a rich universe that lends itself to incredible gaming possibilities.”

Red Eagle Games was formed in 2006, and the Company plans to publish a line of video games on all major platforms, including consoles, personal computers, handheld systems and wireless devices. The Company’s Wheel of Time games will be available through retail channels around the world by the Company’s distribution partner, Electronic Arts. Red Eagle Games’ principals Rick Selvage and Larry Mondragon are also producing a live-action motion picture based upon The Wheel of Time for Universal Pictures through their production company, Red Eagle Entertainment.

“Although Red Eagle Games is both a game producer and publisher, as a new company, we quickly recognized that we could benefit from supplementing small in-house creative and technical teams with a proven third party developer,” said Larry Mondragon, Chief Operating Officer of Red Eagle Games. “Our alliance with Obsidian Entertainment is a perfect fit and will greatly improve the quality, cost and time-to-market for the first-generation of our Wheel of Time games.”

“The Wheel of Time is one of the greatest and well-received fantasy series of all time,” said Chris Avellone, Chief Creative Officer of Obsidian Entertainment. “Games set in Robert Jordan’s universe have the chance to deliver on the epic storylines and the complex characters that the series is known for – and this is one of Obsidian’s strengths. It’s a natural fit.”

Obsidian Entertainment was established in 2003 by a group of experienced industry veterans. With the company’s first title, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II – The Sith Lords for Lucas Arts (2004, Xbox & PC), Obsidian quickly established itself as a top-tier developer of critically-acclaimed role playing games featuring strong characters, richly conceived visuals and storylines and teeming with action and adventure. Obsidian subsequently developed the Neverwinter Nights 2 game series for Atari, based upon the popular Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game. Titles in this series included Neverwinter Nights 2 (2006, PC and Mac/OS X), Neverwinter Nights 2: Mask of the Betrayer (2007, PC), and Neverwinter Nights 2: Storm of Zehir (2008, PC). Obsidian is currently completing two major games for planned release during 2010, Alpha Protocol (PC, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, to be published by Sega) and a much-anticipated sequel in the Fallout series, Fallout: New Vegas (PC, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3).

The details of Jordan’s meticulously crafted series have captivated readers since 1990, when The Eye of the World, the first book in the series, was published. Eleven additional books, including one prequel, have since been added to the series and have consistently appeared on the New York Times Bestseller List with the last five of his novels in the series debuting at No. 1. Jordan passed away in 2007 at the age of 58, but his publisher, Tor Books, subsequently announced that a final trilogy of novels will bring his epic series to its long-awaited climax. The most recent installment in the series, entitled The Gathering Storm, was published in October of 2009 by Tor Books. The last three novels are being penned by fantasy writer Brandon Sanderson using notes, audio recordings and draft materials left with Jordan’s wife and editor, Harriet Rigney.

Jordan’s wildly popular books have been translated into 24 languages, and have sold about 44 million copies worldwide. According to Tor Books, the publisher of The Wheel of Time novels, there are about 65,000 The Wheel of Time fan Web sites as a part of a vast global on-line fan community.

About Red Eagle Games
Based in Southern California, Red Eagle Games is an independent video game company undertaking the transformation of Jordan’s literary masterpiece “The Wheel of Time” into high-quality interactive gaming products for the personal computer, game consoles, mobile and wireless devices, and online play. Red Eagle Games’ Web site is located at www.red-eagle-games.com.

About Obsidian Entertainment
Obsidian Entertainment is an entertainment software development company passionately dedicated to making high quality, next-generation Role-Playing Games for PC and console systems. Based in Irvine, California, Obsidian Entertainment’s Web site is located at www.obsidian.net.

Shortly after Larry Mondragon of Red Eagle Games added the following additional clarification (as you can see in the comments at the link above):

Hello Everyone!

Thanks to Jason for posting the announcement of our relationship with Obsidian. However, I would like to set the record straight about two important aspects of our development plan.

First, you will all be happy to hear that we are not planning to make a traditional “movie” game that merely recasts the picture we are currently making with Universal. Instead, we want to concentrate our development efforts on telling the other facets of The Wheel of Time story. And as you know, we have a lot to choose from– literally thousands of years of history and scores of major characters, nations, geographies and critical moments in the history of the world since the beginning of the Third Age.

Thus, we have been vetting many creative ideas for game formats, including games derived from the Age of Legends, The Breaking of the World, the War of the Shadow, and even a game concept that focuses on the battle among the Forsaken to become the one and only Nae’blis. We are also looking at skill-based games that are based on the testing of the Aes Sedai for the shawl and the wielding of the many intricate sword forms that are second nature to an experienced Warder. All of this is to simply say that we are critically thinking about game design for an entire family of WOT games that are consistent and supportive of the story portrayed in the movies, but that do far more that merely retell the plotlines, characters and scenes from the films. Trust me when I say that we intend to build games that will excite the imagination of every WOT fan. We just ask that the Wheel of Time community wait to see the fruits of our labor before passing judgement on whether we have been successful in our efforts.

I would also like to make one additional clarification. We are not licensing our WOT development rights and stepping back from the process of building these video games. Quite to the contrary, Red Eagle Games will have an internal development team of its own. However, rather than staffing up a 200 person studio from scratch, we decided some time ago that for our first games it would be far more prudent to hire a small in-house team (e.g. positions such as Art Director, Game Designer, Story Writer, Software Architect, Quality Assurance Director, etc.) and rely on a third party developer to provide the majority of developers and their associated overhead and infrastructure. In this way, we will be providing technical and creative direction to our external developer.

Obsidian Entertainment is a highly-respected game developer with a well-deserved industry reputation for building quality action/role-playing games. By eliminating the need to recruit and manage a large internal workforce within Red Eagle Games, we expect that this new relationship with Obsidian will enable the Company to achieve substantially lower development costs, a shorter production cycle, and improve the quality of our initial video game releases.

We follow the message boards here on Dragonmount closely. We will always give careful consideration to your thoughtful comments and suggestions.

Kind regards,

Larry Mondragon
Chief Operating Officer
Red Eagle Games

I must say; at first I wasn't sure at all about the single player games as I feared that they might just be a quick way to cash in on the franchise, but with Obsidian behind the development this has me really excited. Obsidian has made some pretty good roleplaying games (though not quite as enjoyable as BioWare's games I enjoyed KotOR2 and NWN2 well enough), so there's definitely reason to hope that this too will be some good roleplaying game(s).

I just hope that they'll let you play an Aes Sedai.


[link] to announcement at Dragonmount.

Rumor: Elder Scrolls MMO

In the "not SWTOR" news column a somewhat interesting rumor just surfaced.

It's been leaked (by the court filings of the case between Interplay and Bethesda over the Fallout MMO Interplay is working on) that Bethesda is working on it's own "World of Warcraft type MMO". Now VG247 claims to have been "very reliably informed" that this MMO is in an Elder Scrolls MMO. Combined with earlier rumors that elderscrollsonline.com has been registered by ZeniMax (Bethesda's parent company) as well as a slip-up stating that the next Elder Scrolls game is set 200 years after Oblivion and it's looking quite likely to be true.

Apparently the MMO has been in development since late 2006. If we estimate a development cycle of four to five years then that means that this "Elder Scrolls Online" might release around the time that Star Wars: The Old Republic is slated to be released as well.

Of course, it's all just rumors for now. But could be interesting. Oblivion at least always felt like an MMO you happened to be playing alone anyway.

Rumor: Star Wars: Legends?

In non Star Wars: The Old Republic related news, Kotaku has a rumor of a new Star Wars game in development (and likely to be announced soon). Here's their text:

There's a listing over on the website of the Australian Classification Board for a game we've never heard of. It's called Star Wars: Legends. And no, before you ask, it hasn't been banned.

The title was submitted for classification way back in June, and earned the game a Mature rating (for "fantasy violence"). Interestingly, it's listed as an internal Lucasarts project, with Activision down as publisher.

And it's not just the Classification Board making stuff up; "Star Wars: Legends" also appears as a recent filing with the US Patent Office.

A Star Wars game we've never heard of, developed by Lucasarts, mature content...anyone would think this was the game due to be revealed at the Spike VGAs later this month.

Has me curious what game that might be. Though to be honest, judging on the title alone (as that's all we have), it wouldn't surprise me in the least if this is a game trying to cash in (again) on all the popular Star Wars characters. I'd expect a game where you get all the "legends" (think "famous characters from the movies") together.

But who knows.


[UPDATE]

The Star Wars game revealed at the Spike VGAs turns out to be The Force Unleashed 2. Pity.


[link] to Star Wars: Legends rumor at Kotaku.

Rumor: A New Star Wars MMO?

TenTonHammer has an interesting rumor up.

Apparently SOE, makers of Star Wars Galaxies, have partnered (again) with LucasArts to create another MMO in the Star Wars universe. Supposedly this one uses the Free Realms engine and will be aimed at a much more casual audience, and will be set during the Clone Wars period (so much for SOE learning from its previous mistakes).

Here's the news from TenTonHammer:

From time to time we get to hear some juicy tidbits while we travel from event to event. With crowds of adrenaline-pumped gamers, and energetic developers, lots of conversation takes place, and every once in a while we hear something that causes everyone’s ears to perk up.

The latest of such incidents: Ten Ton Hammer has learned from an inside source that Sony Online Entertainment has once again partnered up with LucasArts to do another Star Wars MMO. While we have not yet learned the title of the upcoming game, it sounds like SOE is planning to use the browser-based Free Realms engine to power the game, and the game’s setting will be the Clone Wars. Does this mean Star Wars mini-games within the game, like the holographic chess-like game as seen in A New Hope? Unknown, but it would be cool to hit up a cantina with some buds and sit down for a few mini games.

A casual Star Wars MMO property was probably obvious in hindsight. Look no farther than LEGO Star Wars for proof that a fun, stylized version of Star Wars can sell big, attracted kids and adults alike. Plus, there was an unusually large focus on Star Wars Galaxies at this year’s Fan Faire, and perhaps this was in attempt to rekindle the SOE/LucasArts hype.

Too soon? Former and current Star Wars Galaxies players can still remember the sting of the NGE that changed the face of that game for everyone. SOE has repeatedly said that they have learned from their mistakes, and plan to not repeat them. If SOE isn't expressly targetting the hardcore segment this time around, they (unlike BioWare) won't have quite the same initial level of expectations to deal with.

Don't let us give you the impression that SOE plans to take on BioWare, and their highly anticipated MMOG debut, The Old Republic, particularly given the engine the game is rumored to be based on. More plausible is that it will be based off the Clone Wars CGI animated film, offering a more stylized approach to the universe. Free Realms boasts over four million registered players, and a lot of this can undoubtedly be attributed to the accessibility and polish of the web-based engine. The initial download is exceptionally small, as the client downloads content as players explore the world. This formula seems more and more to be a key component to popular MMOGs, if the success of Free Realms and to a larger extent, World of Warcraft, is any indication.

So who’s the target audience of the game? Again, it’s unknown. It’s possible, though quite unlikely, that it will be aimed at a younger audience. More likely it will target a casual crowd of several generations who have had Star Wars ingrained as much into their culture as Burger King and McDonalds.

So it sounds like they're making a Free Realms-type Star Wars MMO for casual players. Of course the question is how this would affect the other two Star Wars MMOs, Star Wars Galaxies and Star Wars: The Old Republic, but in truth it likely won't affect it much. After all, it's (probably) going for a very different audience and a very different gameplay experience.

Though, unless I'm mistaken, I think it would be the first franchise to not only have three MMO, but three MMOs running at the same time.

Remember that it's still a rumor though.

The Force Unleashed Coming to PC

I’m a bit late to the post on this one, but just today I noticed that the Star Wars game “The Force Unleashed” is coming to PC (and Mac) this fall.

The Force Unleashed was originally released September 2008 for pretty much every current gaming platform under the sun… except for the PC. The original excuse the developers made was that PC weren’t good enough to pull off the physics. Which was decidedly strange because the game was coming to PS2 and Wii as well and many a game PC even at the time was already more powerful than the X360 and PS3.

So nobody really believed them and the general consensus was that they didn’t because of piracy on the PC.

Now whether they feel that enough time has passed since the original console launch or whether they realised that not releasing a game makes less money than releasing a game that gets pirated, or maybe they suddenly are able to do the physics on PCs, they are now releasing the game on PC as well with a couple of extras.

As per IGN’s announcement article:

US, July 24, 2009 - Aspyr Media and LucasArts will bring the hit game Star Wars®: The Force Unleashed™ to PC and Mac gamers for the first time ever with the release of Star Wars The Force Unleashed: Ultimate Sith Edition this Fall. Developed for PC and Mac and published in North America by Aspyr, Star Wars The Force Unleashed: Ultimate Sith Edition combines the original Star Wars The Force Unleashed videogame with three new levels set in iconic Star Wars locales and a host of new costumes and character models. This special edition of the game will show players the deepest, darkest side of the Force in a story that puts them on a collision course with Luke Skywalker himself.

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed completely re-imagines the scope and scale of the Force and casts players as Darth Vader's "Secret Apprentice," unveiling new revelations about the Star Wars galaxy seen through the eyes of this mysterious new character, who is armed with unprecedented powers. Originally released on multiple platforms in September 2008, the game quickly became the fastest-selling Star Wars game ever, and has since sold six million units worldwide.

There is a bit more on the extras in the game as well there (Jedi Temple mission and two Sith missions against such characters as Obi-wan Kenobi and Luke Skywalker).

To be honest, I'm not all that certain if I'm really interested though. Sure, it was the fastest selling Star Wars game ever (though I've got a feeling SWTOR might top it when it's out), but the reviews weren't that stellar and the kind of gameplay doesn't really interest me that much. And I don't like that it doesn't give you the option of choosing a gender (as far as I'm aware).

But who knows, it might be a fun game. Will wait for the reviews once it's out and see if I'm not already too busy with something else (like Dragon Age: Origins).

Oh, and to get a little bit more recent news, here's the trailer (showing some of the extra content):

Old School LucasArts Goodness

Meh, I should've been in bed already, but this is just too good not to mention.

There is, simply put, a lot of old school LucasArt goodness coming to Steam.

You might already be aware that they're releasing a remake of the classic Secret of Monkey Island, possible their very best adventure game. If you have never played it then I highly recommend picking it up and getting to know Guybrush and learn the intricacies of Insult Sword Fighting. And though they've polished up the graphics, it still plays exactly like the old game (to the point that you can literally switch back to the old game as you're playing and continue from there.

Here's a video:


And the game now has a release date of July 15th. Great; I wasn't expecting it until late August or such.

Then there is the new Monkey Island game Tales of Monkey Island, an episodic adventure of which the first part release, well, today! And though I'm never quite sure of the newer Monkey Island games (after Curse of Monkey Island), this one looks like it could be quite good. here's a video:


And if that's not enough, they're also releasing a bunch of other classics on the 8th of July. And with the suggestion that there will be more in the future. All on Steam.

Here's the list of the first ten:

• Armed and Dangerous
• Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis
• Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade: The Graphic Adventure
• LEGO Indiana Jones: The Original Adventure
• LOOM
• Star Wars Battlefront II
• Star Wars Republic Commando
• Star Wars Starfighter
• The Dig
• Thrillville: Off the Rails

Indiana Jones?! Loom?! The Dig?! Wow! There's some serious nostalgia there. Haven't played the others so much, but I hear Republic Commando is pretty good at least.

Drat, I'm sooo going to run out of time to play all these (again).

Here is the official announcement. And thanks to Kotaku, VG247 and Gamasutra.


[EDIT 20090907]

As of yesterday the games are now all on Steam (with the exception of The Secret of Monkey Island Special Edition, which will be available next week). I can't speak for Euros or Dollars, but Tales of Monkey Island costs about £25 for all five episodes (and the first is said to last roughly four hours). The list of ten games above all have different prices (for example, I recall Lego Indiana Jones being about £13 and Star Wars Republic Commando about £7), but the four old adventure games are £3 each, which seems like a massively good deal to me (if you don't mind the dated graphics). And yes, I bought those four and Tales as well. Good times.

Yahtzee's Prototype vs. InFamous Challenge

Yes, another update that has nothing to do with SWTOR. But this is just too funny to pass up. Don't worry, we'll get a new timeline tonight according to Sean, so suck it up until then.

One of my favorite reviewers, and of many other I'm sure, though not so much for the quality of the reviews and more because of entertainment value is Yahtzee (doing the Zero Punctuation reviews for The Escapist Magazine; you know, the videos with the guy who talks really fast). And a couple of weeks ago he did a review where he compared InFamous and Prototype. Here's the video:


As you can see, at the end he can't decide which of the two quite similar games is the better one. And to ensure that balance would be restored to the universe he (jokingly I'm sure) proposed a challenge to both developers to prove which one was better. "Namely, which of the two studios could produce the best image of the rival game's main character wearing women's lingerie."

Now it seems that both companies took the challenge to heart (or, more likely, that they decided to play along with the joke and get some free advertising out of it) and they sent in images doing just that. And here is Yahtzee's response to them, declaring a winner in the end.

For your convenience though, I'll put the two images below (there's a third one as well here, but it's not as good as the other two). Oh, and these are not for the faint of heart.



Can you guess which one he picks as the winner before reading the article?