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Profile: Stradden
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UsernameStradden
Rank: 100/100Rank: 100/100Rank: 100/100Rank: 100/100Rank: 100/100
Real NameJon Wood
RankManaging Editor
JoinedJuly 8, 2005
Gendermale
Age28
LocationHalifax, NS, Canada
Last VisitAugust 28, 2008
Post Count4397
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Latest Blog Entry - Comic Con Day One - Impressions of Stargate Worlds and DC Universe
From my blog Editor's Note [Stradden]

Day one of Comic Con San Diego is now behind us, but there are still lots of things for us to see and do, even if we limit ourselves to just MMOs the day is going to be relatively full, but there’s no point in talking about today, when we can talk about yesterday to much better effect.

I’m not going to bore you with details of my day, but I’m going to cut right to the MMORPG chase and tell you about the things that I have seen that we just haven’t seen before.

Stargate Worlds

Firesky, the company behind the upcoming Stargate Worlds has gone all out this Comic Con. Everything here, it seems, is branded with Stargate Worlds: ads in the program, full bus ads, Jaffa and Air Force personnel literally everywhere, and almost every bottle of water in the building has a Stargate Worlds label on it.

I’m not by any means saying that advertising = good game. What I am saying though is that Firesky has proven to me that they are serious about their game. Add that to the fact that they have been paired for the entire Con with the Stargate television show (Dan Elgrin, the producer of the game, was even a part of the red carpet press line at the premiere of the new Stargate movie), and you have evidence that while they may have been press quiet for a while, they have certainly been working behind the scenes, both on the game (I’ll touch on that in a moment) and on their relationship with MGM.

While we haven’t yet attended our meeting and interview with the Cheyenne Mountain (now Firesky) folks, I did drop by their booth yesterday and got to see some more gameplay footage.

I have been concerned for a long time that this game was going to look exactly like Tabula Rasa. Let’s face it, it’s a semi-futuristic universe where people are firing a lot of ranged weapons and cover and position matter. Sound familiar?

I am relieved to say that even a quick look at the gameplay videos pretty quickly dispels those thoughts. Not that there’s anything wrong with Tabula Rasa and the way that it looks, but we have one already. I was hoping that SGW wouldn’t be a clone / copy and it looks like it isn’t.

The graphics, for a game in the stage of production that SGW is in, are really pretty great and what you would expect from a AAA MMO set to release in 2009. I’ll have to check into it, but from what I saw, you won’t be looking at your standard MMORPG User Interface either. I didn’t notice an action bar at the bottom of the screen at all.

DC Universe Online

I didn’t get a long look at this one, but like SGW we’ll be talking to them later in the convention and I have been promised some great info.
The first thing that I can tell you about DC Universe is that they actually have a playable demo up and running at the convention. For a game that is still in its pre-production phase, that’s a mighty feat indeed. I have to warn you though, I did see an awful lot of console controllers moving around.

From what I could see, the game looks more like a superhero action game than it does a superhero MMORPG (meaning that it doesn’t look too much like City of Heroes). The look of the game, as you’ve probably already seen through screenshots and early trailer videos, is fantastic. Very DC Comics.

I overheard one of the developers talking about the features that will be in the game, and the points that stood out most to me:

- We’d like to launch with Metropolis and Gotham and places like the Bat Cave.
- You will be doing missions with heroes like Batman and Superman
- The heroes will remember your actions. If you failed once, or didn’t do their quest, they are less likely to give you missions in the future.

While I know that this wasn’t the detailed tell-all about these games that some of you may have liked, I hope you enjoyed it as an appetizer for next week when we release our interviews.

Well, off to the Con for day two!
 

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Recent Forum Posts [more...]

    • Lord of the Rings Online: Correspondent - A Look at Housing

    • MMORPG.com LotRO Correspondent Matt McLean writes this article overview of the housing system in Turbine's Lord of the Rings Online.

      The Lord of the Rings Online is one of the most highly acclaimed MMORPGs on the market right now, and it's mainly due to their consistent updates to the game. The folks over at Turbine Studios, the developers of LotRO, are some of the most attentive in the industry and are always listening to their loyal player-base for ideas. LotRO is also a game that lends itself to various role-playing applications, and one of those is having players own their own property in the game.

      Housing was something that many of the fans of LOTRO wanted right off the bat, but Turbine was steadfast in making sure they had a stable game at launch, and housing was just not ready. Soon after the game launched in April 2007 though, housing was introduced as a part of one of their free "epic book" updates. Of course, like many MMORPGs, housing in LotRO is instanced. But unlike some other games, the neighborhoods actually exist as part of the landscape, meaning you don't have to own a house to see the houses. It's a great touch, and really adds to the lore.

      Read the article here.

    • Posted: 8/28/08 9:21 AM
      General Discussion
    • Pirates of the Burning Sea: Interview with Russell Williams

    • While attending Gen Con in indianapolis, we had the opportunity to talk to Russel Williams, CEO of Flying Lab Software about recent and upcoming updates for Pirates of the Burning Sea, player governed ports, alternative advancement paths, and the revamping of avatar combat.

      Interview with Russell Williams

      While attending Gen Con in Indianapolis, we had the opportunity to talk to Russel Williams, CEO of Flying Lab Software about recent and upcoming updates for Pirates of the Burning Sea, player governed ports, alternative advancement paths, and the revamping of avatar combat.

      Interview with Russell Williams

       

    • Posted: 8/28/08 7:18 AM
      General Discussion
    • EverQuest II: Guild Hall Architecture Art

    • The folks from Sony Online Entertainment have sent us along these exclusive architectural images of the guild halls that are coming to EverQuest II.

      The Guild Halls are under construction in EverQuest II as is evident by these exclusive blue print schematics secured by mmorpg.com!

      The call has gone out that the previously uninhabited islands that lay just a few hundred yards out to the west of Antonica and east of the Commonlands can now be purchased by qualified guilds and built up into guild hall territories. These new halls will serve the dual purpose as headquarters of the powerful city guilds as well as a line of defense from coastal invasion.

      More information on Guild Halls to follow soon!

      Check it out here.

    • Posted: 8/27/08 8:34 AM
      General Discussion
    • Age of Conan: Correspondent - Exploration in AoC

    • MMORPG.com Ag of Conan Correspondent Jean Francois Doyon writes this article about his dissapointment with the exploration factor in Funcom's MMO.

      Who hasn't dreamed of running through far reaches of sand and stones, humid forests and windy plains wearing only a loincloth and the necessary belt to hold it and your trusty, ridiculously badass-looking sword in place?

      Okay, maybe not that many people, but in the vast and rough world of Conan, these are the kind of images that my mind would have expected, along with the scantily-clad women tied to a nearby pole as if we were meant to cross the desert to come across her... Happy was I to find the scantily-clad woman tied to a pole within the first five minutes of Age of Conan, and the rest of the world was lush and lively (for the most part), as I hoped. A pity it was nowhere as vast, however.

      Read the article here.

    • Posted: 8/27/08 8:24 AM
      General Discussion

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