Hands-On

Tech 1 ships in EVE Online used to be arranged in tiers that determined the cost and power of the ship and what level of the appropriate skill was required to fly it. This gave a sense of progression back in 2004 when all we had was frigates, cruisers, and battleships, but developers have since filled in the gaps between ship classes with destroyers, battlecruisers, strategic cruisers, and tech 2 ships of all shapes and sizes. In a recent game design initiative, CCP has been removing the tiers from within each tech 1 ship class by buffing the lower-tier ships up to the same rough power level as the largest ship in its class.

The recent Odyssey expansion saw the humble battleship buffed beyond all recognition. The Megathron, Raven, Tempest, and Apocalypse all became extreme damage-dealing powerhouses, but the Dominix, Scorpion, Typhoon, and Armageddon were buffed the most. Each of them can now fit several monster setups, dealing upward of 1,000 damage per second or completely disabling enemy ships with energy neutralisers and electronic warfare. The build costs of these tier one battleships were more than doubled in the expansion, but prices are only slowly rising due to the existing stock on the market. That makes the tier one battleships incredibly cost-effective PvP powerhouses at the moment, and players are beginning to take advantage of it.

In this week's EVE Evolved, I experiment with PvP setups for the newly revamped Typhoon, Armageddon, Scorpion, and Dominix battleships.

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Nestled deep within the Sony booth at E3 amongst a horde of gamewatchers was the Warframe demo. It's a PC title from Digital Extremes that will be released on the PS4 platform at launch. Free for anyone subscribing to PSN, Warframe is a third-person shooter that is definitely undertaking some experimentation in the graphics and control departments.

The PS4 demo was graphically superior to plenty of titles, running in full 1080P without a hitch or glitch in performance. Controls were responsive (although they took some getting used to), and playing with a handful of players was exhilarating at the Sony booth. I'm used to more of a keyboard-and-mouse control setup, but console fraggers will feel right at home.

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This will be my last week using the new Chromebook Pixel, at least here on Massively. I will continue to look at its techier side of things on my personal blog, just as I did with the original Chromebook All-In-One project. The shorter time frame for this series can be explained by the fact that Chromebooks do admittedly cut out a lot of the browser-based MMOs out there by not allowing the usage of Unity or other plugins. Flash is allowed, but Adobe and other companies' recent disapproval of the use of Flash for mobile platforms came with a reason: It's often hard to run. Once HTML5 becomes more standard thanks to publishers like Jagex, I'll be able to comment more on that. It's also important to note that the Pixel is really just a nicer Samsung model, so you can refer to the older posts as well.

I want to encourage everyone who is interested in Chromebooks to check out the Samsung ARM-based Chromebook I talked about last time. It's very inexpensive and quite literally does everything that the Pixel does, albeit on a much smaller screen that is attached to a weaker device that has a much lower build quality. Still, my time with the Pixel has amazed me with a wonderful, touchable screen, but the Pixel has also convinced me that the Samsung should be the flagship device for Chromebook, hopefully kept at the same price range while slowly improving in quality.

Now, let's talk about the games. I found a few that run much better on the Pixel's beefier stats, but please refer to my Samsung coverage for 30 MMOs that run on both machines. The following list is especially good for touchscreens.

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To an outsider, CCP Games' focus on EVE Online's player panel, comics, incoming television series about player adventures, and museum induction show just how much the company works to earn its players' respect, which might sound weird for studio running a cutthroat PvP sandbox. But I've always felt as if I made stronger personal attachments through high-stakes PvP than through most other gaming activities. I don't play EVE or its console cousin DUST 514, but after stopping by the CCP booth for my interview and hands-on at E3 yesterday, I feel as if I should be doing more than reading and writing about it.

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I eagerly consumed about 45 minutes of The Elder Scrolls Online during E3 this week. I stayed glued to my keyboard and headphones until the expo hall closed and I was told to clear out. Part of this time was spent interviewing the nearest willing Bethesda employee, and every other second was hauling Orc butt around ESO.

My character of choice, an Orc Dragonknight, loaded into the game on the other side of a polygon-rich bridge from an equally polygon-rich town. The Bethesda employee standing nearby mentioned I could go into the town for some guided content the team had prepared. I made a sharp right turn into the stream and killed a deer instead.

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Don't worry, you're not on the wrong website. This is still Massively and this is a hands on and interview about a racing game. Specifically, according to lead designer Serkan Hassan, this is a racing MMO. The Crew used the word "persistent world" so yours truly had to hunt down a very helpful Ubisoft representative for a last-minute look at the game. I will admit that while I had my doubts, the feature list does make it legit, and despite the fact that I'm awful at realistic racing games, I did have some fun.

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I don't have any strong love of dragons. I don't really hate them, usually, aside from the fact that I've killed far too many to get excited about it, but I've never looked at one and thought, "I wanna collect that like I would a Pokemon!" However, I like Dragon's Prophet. I was actually playing the open beta and got to level 18 on my Oracle until vacation plans and E3 took over my play time, which is fine, since apparently from what the SOE floor representatives tell me, I'm ahead of the curve. Many industry folks were sitting down and trying the game out for the first time at the convention.

Now, to be honest, I didn't unlock all the dragons slots or the stable slots. I haven't done a ton of crafting, and I haven't done a ton research on the dragons and of raising them. The game's pushed out content before localization was done, and the game still has a few bugs. I know it's "open beta," but for a free-to-play game that isn't wiping the servers, it might as well be release. To be blunt, I really shouldn't like this game. It's done a lot wrong, but for some reason, when I pass the booth, I want to sit down and log onto my own account to play my character.

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I wasn't sure what to expect from Solstice Arena when I walked into Zynga/A Bit Lucky's meeting room. I'd heard about the whole "speed MOBA" thing, but I love playing as Nasus in League of Legends, so having no mobs was a bit conflicting. The game's also only being released on the iPhone and iPad, and I use an Android smartphone and a tablet running on Windows 8. But I wasn't worried. Fredrick Descamps and Jordan Maynard, co-founders (and former Trion members) of A Bit Lucky , were on hand to share their vision, but truthfully, the hands-on time won me over.

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Before MMOs, I played the Pokemon TCG. I didn't just play it but dominated my local Pokemon league. Had it not been for Asheron's Call, I would have been the first gym leader who wasn't an employee of the local comic and cards shop, but my brother got that honor instead... until he caved in too. Before that, I played Magic: The Gathering and actually would have placed in the top 15 of a new-release tournament if my mother hadn't literally made me go to bed (that's what happens when you're 12 years old and have to get a ride from your mom). So when I was told that I could do a hands on with HEX, I made sure I made time to hit up the demo.

For those who are familiar with MMOTCGs, I'm hoping my hands-on will be fitting, but for those who don't know how the stack works or what an untap phase entails, you may want to hit up an earlier hands-on that goes into much more detail on mechanics first.

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Defiance broke my heart around this time last year. E3 2012 was the first and last time we saw players from Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC all playing the same game together. I personally haven't played the game since then, but I've kept up with the game news, except for the show. No spoilers in the comments, people! Now that I've gotten my hands on the new DLC that's incoming for the game, I know I'll be catching up with the series. During my Defiance appointment at E3, I had a nice little chat, saw some cute features, tested a new weapon and new vehicle, and killed some new enemies... you know, the usual ark hunter stuff.

But before covering the DLC, I had to ask what exactly happened last year with Microsoft and why PlayStation players can't play with their PC mates. I mean, just because one person wanted to duck out shouldn't mean everyone is punished, right? Well, apparently, Trion doesn't agree. Even though PC players can use a controller to play the game, having PS3 and PC on the same world might bring up the dreaded "keyboard vs. controller" argument. I know some of us still want to be friends with consolers, but I guess having one server for Microsoft and one server for everyone else does sound a bit odd.

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The folks over at Snail Games had several computers set up at E3 this year to allow the press to play their next MMO, Black Gold. The concept is simple but relatively uncommon: steampunk vs. fantasy. I guess you can say RIFT tried its hand at the trope with its Defiants and Guardians showdown, but it wasn't taken to such an extreme. Black Gold is more like Aztec elves with magic powers vs. an apocalyptic survivalist society that's living off of steam power even though they have telephone poles.

While the game has some really cool art and concepts, the pre-beta demo I got to try was sadly lacking in options. I spent about 20 minutes in the morning trying an Isenhorst human with a rifle, then spent the last hour of E3 day one with still more BG.

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WildStar's promising players the moon, but are gamers just star-struck? I know I personally wasn't paying too much attention to the game until the recent video about paths. I'm not against the graphics, I think themeparks can be fun, and I've put up with PvE vs. PvP stats for about a decade and a half, so what's another year? But... well, I just keep getting the feeling that there's a lot of hype and no substance. The path video and the scientist path hands-on preview got me excited though. No longer were these empty promises! Someone had seen some of them first-hand! But maybe this was my downfall.

For those who don't know, E3 isn't about playing any game you want any way you want. Sometimes devs just bring the live game and let you have at it, but I find that often these games don't have a lot of announcements to make and are mainly there to let... ah, "less informed" gaming journalists see the game. No, instead, you often have a developer leading you on a very strict path, if you're even allowed to play the game. Maybe they release you with a premade character into a specific dungeon that "ends" when the boss dies. Or, as with my hands on with Wildstar, you might be restricted to a few class/paths and have to do the newbie experience.

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I was kind of new, so I figured I'd practice on some sheep first. A little blood, some meat, some fat. Interesting, but kind of simple. I understood some of the basics on how to move and fight, but I figured I should check out the town. Now, I'm kind of old and ugly, so when the dog came at me, I figured it was attacking me. After a few moments, I realized it was friendly and talked to it. It seemed it wanted me to follow it. This was the start of my first quest in The Elder Scrolls Online.

Now, to be clear, I came into my ESO demo at this year's E3 as a skeptic. I played Star Wars: The Old Republic. I figured "MMO with story" meant kill 10 rats; choose 1, 2, or 3; then look for another quest icon. It's not a terrible model, but it's one that left me wondering if there was a better way to do things. Why make it an MMO when you could just do a multiplayer RPG? I'm not sure I know the answer to this yet, but I do feel I'm getting closer.

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ArenaNet's content train for Guild Wars 2 continues to chug along at full speed, and the next stop is the Dragon Bash festival. Unlike the Dragon Festival of the original Guild Wars, this festival won't find anyone revering dragons. The Elder Dragons put a kibosh on any warm sentiments that the humanoids of Tyria might have had for them in the past. Dragon Bash is all about unifying the races in celebration during these dark and terrifying times by distracting them with fireworks, gambling, and candy-filled dragon piñatas!

The celebrations officially kick off tomorrow, but we have a video preview of the Dragon Bash celebrations to whet your appetite.

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The Odyssey expansion has been live for a couple of days now, but it's already starting to have a massive impact on EVE Online. Traffic through low-security space has increased significantly for the first time in years thanks to explorers hunting data and relic sites, and some players are even hunting asteroid belt NPCs in lowsec for the new security tags. New wars have erupted in nullsec following the redistribution of moon wealth, mining has become a more valuable profession, and the rebalanced battleships feel powerful again.

Unfortunately, Odyssey has seen its fair share of problems too. The new jump effect looks spectacular the first few times you see it, but long-term play is reportedly causing motion sickness in some players. Some players have also been objecting to the ice mining changes, and the revamped radial UI menu hasn't done much to fix the game's usability problems. Explorers in low-security space and nullsec are reporting incomes in the billions of ISK per day range thanks to the scan probe changes and new hacking minigame, but not everyone is happy with the new loot-scattering mechanic.

In this week's EVE Evolved, I look at the early impact of Odyssey on the EVE Online universe and discover the secrets behind collecting all the valuable loot when hacking.

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