Firefall

If you've been following the development of upcoming crowdfunded sci-fi sandbox Star Citizen with interest, Massively has a brand-new column you might enjoy. The Diablo III test realm hinted at upcoming boosts to life regeneration and the damage output of a few spells, but Blizzard also suggested that a nerf to the Wizard Archon Form might be on the way. Path of Exile started its second season of race events, with over 200 events to take part in and massive prizes to be won.

Third-person MOBA SMITE added the 34th god to its roster this week with acrobatic assassin Ne Zha entering the fray, and Guardians of Middle-Earth released new DLC character Kili the Dwarf. Rise of Immortals added support for game replays and introduced and interesting new White Knight feature that lets players take over from characters who have disconnected or quit in the middle of a game.

Heroes of Newerth announced a huge upcoming balance patch that may finally get rid of the paid-for early hero access and promises to rebalance much of the game's expansive roster of characters. Dota 2's streamlined abuse report update backfired when players discovered they could use the report feature itself to abuse other players. And Firefall may finally be edging toward release with the announcement of a date for the start of open beta.

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If you're in the market for a new sci-fi shooter this summer, mark July 9th on your calendar. That's the date that Red 5 has set aside for Firefall's open beta.

IGN reports that the game will also see "major milestones" in the months of May and July. These include a new UI, crafting and progression tweaks, city power levels, Chosen instances, and Melding exploration.

Firefall is an open-world MMO shooter with skill-based combat and a free-to-play business model.

A demo of Diablo III running on the PS3 was shown at PAX East 2013 this week, and developers confirmed that the game is not necessarily exclusive to Sony. Many PC players have been enraged by the demo, which showed improved loot and singleplayer features developers had previously said were not possible. Red 5 Studios was also at PAX this week to reveal its ambitious plans for a gaming TV channel. The studio plans to expand its gaming video channel Stage 5 with several new high-quality shows about indie games, cosplay, and gaming tropes. Path of Exile also released information on three completely overpowered new support gems currently in alpha testing for its upcoming Patch 0.10.5.

In MOBA news, League of Legends officially launched in Italy this week with a huge launch ceremony in Rome. Several professional players were unrelatedly banned for boosting other players' stats artificially, and one team was given its final warning for using a DDoS attack during a match. Heroes of Newerth received new melee strength hero Prisoner 945, and Guardians of Middle-Earth released a free map update along with a purchasable spider character DLC. Upcoming MOBA SMITE was given a loose launch window of summer 2013, and Russian MOBA Prime World took a big step toward European and US launches with the translation of much of its Russian website into English.

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Red 5 Studios' MMOFPS Firefall is probably familiar to the Massively family, but it presentation Friday at PAX East was a chance to get a look behind the curtain at how far it's come and how far it has to go during testing.

CEO Mark Kern and Lead Game Designer Scott Youngblood presented a little history of the game's development so far, with a look to the future. But if that's not enough to get you to gear up and plant a Thumper, maybe their announcement about a brand-new video channel devoted to everything and anything involving gaming will catch your interest.

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It's hard not to turn into a total tourist when you're checking out a new beta. Out comes the fanny pack, the giddy delight of a new world, and most importantly, the camera.

Reader Michelle kicks off this week's One Shots column with a screenshot of the first Neverwinter beta weekend. It's a shot of her character Nora overlooking the edge of aptly named Neverdeath Graveyard. We're guessing that the caretaker down there has his hands full.

Would you go into such a place if you saw it in real life? I guess that's why we have our avatars to be bold where we would flee! Let's take a look at a few other places where angels fear to tread.

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It's been a huge week for MOBAs, with the release of several new characters, a ton of balance changes, and even a game closing down for good. League of Legends announced that it will start officially supporting Mac and released a new Smart Ping system designed to help players work together as a team despite language barriers. SMITE showed off its new crowd-controlling water god, Poseidon, and console MOBA Guardians of Middle-Earth released a new Survival game mode DLC.

We heard the unfortunate news that Wrath of Heroes will be closing its doors at the end of the month, and it's not the only game going out of business. Online FPS Bullet Run, formerly known as Hedone, is due to shut down on Friday, March 8th, in a big final event. It's not all doom and gloom, though, as Dota 2 has hit another impressive milestone, passing 300,000 peak concurrent players. The first season of Heroes of Newerth's HoN Tour league is soon to draw to a close, and developers are planning a huge balance patch before the next season kicks off.

Blizzard enraged Diablo III fans this week with the announcement that the console version will not feature the controversial always-online DRM and can be played offline. Path of Exile detailed its next open beta patch, which is due to introduce a new fire skill, a 3v3 dueling arena, and significant Duelist class buffs. Online FPS Firefall produced a new trailer this week showing off its flight gameplay amidst criticism from fans over its lack of beta content. Finally, sci-fi sandbox Star Citizen gave fans a look behind the curtain of game development in its biggest development update video yet.

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As any fan of my streams can tell you, I am not awesome at video games. So when Massively asked me to take a look at Firefall, a twitch-heavy, free-to-play shooter developed by Red 5 Studios, it was only with trepidation that I accepted. Could I really find happiness in a world that relied on reflexes and skill more than clever spell rotations? Or would my incompetence make the game so frustrating that I would end up smashing my keyboard with my face?

After procrastinating for days and hoping that the project would vanish into the night (beta goblins or something), I finally sat down to check the game out. What I discovered is that Firefall is much more than a shooter; it is a vibrant universe packed with fun things to do, intriguing content to explore, and enough character customization to please even the most ardent of tweakers.

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If you watch Firefall's most recent video, you would be forgiven for assuming that this game single-handedly pioneered aviation. That's OK, we suppose, because what Firefall offers in the way of in-flight service does look awfully enjoyable.

Jetpacks, rocket boots, and glider wings are all on display as Firefall's characters rain down death and destruction while giving rude gestures to boring old terra firma. Check out the video after the break and let us know if you think that flight is an essential (and perhaps addicting) element for a sci-fi shooter.

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Path of Exile continued upgrading its servers to cope with the increasing load of new players following its open beta release, closing the servers for three hours this week to add several new database servers. Massively exclusively revealed Blacklight: Retribution's new Safehold and metro maps, and Firefall developer Red 5 Studios explained its development plans for the next quarter.

Rise of Immortals released a spotlight video on its new long-range mage immortal Undine, while Guardians of Middle-Earth showed off its latest two DLC characters Radagast the Brown Wizard and Glóin, father of Gimli.

League of Legends made some balance changes to its Honor system, which rewards players for being nice to each other. Riot also talked to some of Season 3's newest competitive players about what being a professional gamer means to them. Dota 2 finally got its long-awaited team matchmaking system this week, and community broadcaster Beyond The Summit launched a crowdfunding campaign to pay for full-time tournament broadcasting.

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Heroes of Newerth's Patch 3.0 was released this week, updating the game with new graphics and adding bots. The revamp is part of a move to capture gamers who are unfamiliar with the MOBA genre by lowering the barrier to entry. Upcoming MOBA Sins of a Dark Age detailed its own plans to revamp the MOBA genre with its new Realm Quest feature in a new development diary this week. Third-person MOBA SMITE continued beta development with the introduction of its new melee magical tank, Vulcan, the Smith of the Gods.

League of Legends officially started its third competitive season this week, complete with a new Championship Series website and live matches scheduled every week. Online FPS Blacklight: Retribution prepared for its upcoming competitive games with updates to the weapon recoil system, and Firefall announced plans to solve its PvP balance issues with standardised "regulation" PvP gear. We also got a look behind the scenes of upcoming co-op FPS Warframe, which lets players run along walls like ninjas.

Bloodline Champions showed more signs of reaching the end of its lifetime this week as developers shut down the game's Russian servers. Online FPS Bullet Run abruptly reached the end of its own life this week when Sony Online Entertainment announced the game will close its doors on March 8th. The announcement came as a surprise to many who weren't even aware of the game's release. Path of Exile's playerbase continued to grow this week, reaching a peak of over 70,000 players and causing some server stability problems.

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One of an MMO designer's biggest challenges seems to be reconciling PvP and PvE in a game with gear progression. Another example of such comes courtesy of Red 5 Studios latest Firefall dev blog, where the team basically says that it's doing away with both PvP gear and tiers because of balance concerns.

While the approach that Red 5 is taking is certainly valid, another alternative would be to parcel out PvP progression as a series of specialization choices instead of across-the-board power boosts. For today's Leaderboard, we'd like to know which of these paths you'd prefer, or if you think that MMO PvP is simply a lost cause. Vote after the cut!

Ever wish that you could put to rest a long-standing MMO debate once and for all? Then welcome to the battle royal of Massively's Leaderboard, where two sides enter the pit o' judgment -- and only one leaves. Vote to make your opinion known, and see whether your choice tops the Leaderboard!

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Big changes are coming to Firefall's battleframes (the bulky suits of super-armor that serve as the game's class analogue, if you're wondering).

A new dev blog by Red 5 Studios outlines the reasons behind the changes, which, from a high-level view, boil down to the fact that it is "not possible to provide a balanced and entertaining experience in both PvE and PvP for both types of players if both realms use the same gear."

Red 5's current solution is to disallow crafted equipment in PvP and instead mandate that every PvPer use "regulation" gear. PvP tiers are also being removed, mainly because they "make it much harder for our matchmaker to do its job, which means it's much harder for us to provide balanced and fun games to our players," Red 5 explains.

Are you ready to strap on some armor, load up a gun, and go shoot things like they've never been shot before? The staff behind Firefall certainly hopes so because the game is opening its gates on Friday, January 25th, for the first of three upcoming beta weekend events. Everyone can log in and play for free starting at 1 p.m. EST, but the developers have also decided to sweeten the pot slightly by adding a contest to the weekend festivities.

The Skillshot Contest will be running during the open event and is available to all participants in the beta, even normal closed testers. Take a video or screenshot of your best moments for a chance to win prize packs including new Razer mice and Firefall gear. In addition, all participants will receive a special decal in-game to place on their battleframes. If you still need a little more convincing, you can check out a new trailer for the weekend just past the break.

[Source: Red 5 Studios press release]

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