Massively

Undead Labs talks about environments and the undead

Eliot Lefebvre — Mon, 13 Jun 2011 20:00:00 EST

Filed under: Game mechanics, Previews, News items, Post-Apocalyptic, Miscellaneous

The upcoming zombie games from Undead Labs are aiming to give players a feeling of genuinely surviving in a world ruled by shambling corpses. To make that work correctly, players are going to need lots of little touches here and there to reinforce just what has gone wrong and what sort of threat living humans are facing. In the most recent set of questions and answers from the development team, more elements of the environment and interaction with same are spelled out, giving prospective survivors an idea of what to expect.

While the game isn't planned to be an ornate physics simulator, there will be a practical limit to how much an individual can carry -- and while vehicles can carry more, the problems of noise and fuel will place some limits on stacking an SUV to the brim with heavy weapons. Hunting wildlife and handling aquatic environments will both be issues in the game, with the obvious caveat that humans drown far more easily than zombies. There are a lot of other interesting tidbits in the full rundown as well as some valuable takeaways that aspiring survivors would do well to internalize.

Undead Labs talks about environments and the undead originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 13 Jun 2011 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Warhammer Online previews Thanquol's Incursion

Eliot Lefebvre — Tue, 19 Oct 2010 21:00:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, Previews, PvP, Warhammer Online, News items, PvE, Races

If there's one note that Warhammer Online has been hitting rather steadily of late, it's the solid note of the Skaven. The vicious rat-men have been a popular race in the franchise for years, and the promise of an increased presence for the group has been met with nothing but anticipation. So it's unsurprising that Thanquol's Incursion is the newest element of the game under development as a 24v24 RvR dungeon -- a chance for both Order and Chaos to fight back against a Skaven operation of enormous scope.

While the dungeon contains several Skaven bosses, the theme is still RvR, with boss fights tallying victory according to both damage dealt and enemy players slain. Players will engage in battles on multiple fronts, and the preview suggests that there's a definite element of trying to work the bosses to deal the most damage possible to your enemies. Take a look at the full preview for what promises to be an all-out brawl between three different sides for Warhammer Online enthusiasts.

Warhammer Online previews Thanquol's Incursion originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 19 Oct 2010 21:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

New Star Trek Online patch structure looks forward

Eliot Lefebvre — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 22:00:00 EST

Filed under: Sci-fi, Game mechanics, Patches, Previews, News items, Star Trek Online

While you can fault the team behind Star Trek Online for some things, failure to plan is certainly not one of them. The development team has been very public about their plans for testing and release, which made a few people rather curious when Season 1.2 launched in early June rather than late May. What would that mean for Season 1.3 and the following Season 2 patch? The most recent Engineering Report on the official forums tackles precisely that, explaining that the team has adjusted their schedule slightly and will roll 1.3 straight into the Season 2 patch.

That leaves us with an enormous list of features for Season 2, which is aimed at July. Ship interiors and a raise in level cap to 51 are the two most obvious changes, with the former offering a choice from several layouts and the latter promoting a player to the rank of Vice Admiral or Lieutenant General. There's also the addition of minigames, weekly episodes, officer trading, new episodes for the high-level band, a new fleet action, and a general surfeit of improvements to the game. Star Trek Online players are encouraged to check out the official thread and offer any feedback to the proposed changes.

New Star Trek Online patch structure looks forward originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 14 Jun 2010 22:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Court documents say Bethesda's MMO already under dev, rumor says it's Elder Scrolls

Krystalle Voecks — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 12:00:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, MMO industry, New titles, News items, Legal

In this most recent round of court scuffles between Interplay and Bethesda over the Fallout MMO rights, it would seem that some details are coming to light about what's going on at Bethesda's MMO "branch", Zenimax Media. According to filings, the word is that there are close to 100 people working on an MMO that costs "tens and tens of millions of dollars" and has been under development since late 2006. Apparently these same filings claim that the title is a "World of Warcraft" type MMO. Of course, considering World of Warcraft is about as equal to McDonalds in terms of brand recognition with its millions and millions served, saying something is like World of Warcraft could mean anything from 'it's a DIKU-based, kill-ten-rats, FedEx, fantasy MMO that looks rather a lot like WoW' on up to 'it's somewhere in the general MMO neighborhood.'

Now, to follow this interesting tidbit up, the word is that Bethesda is moving to have this particular chunk of testimony censored to protect trade secrets. To stir the pot a bit further on why they might be scrambling to block it, VG247 have a source they claim is reliable confirming this is the often-rumored Elder Scrolls MMO. What's more, their source says the Elder Scrolls MMO should have been announced last year.

Continue reading Court documents say Bethesda's MMO already under dev, rumor says it's Elder Scrolls

Court documents say Bethesda's MMO already under dev, rumor says it's Elder Scrolls originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 20 Jan 2010 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

The Daily Grind: Do you read patch notes?

Krystalle Voecks — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 08:00:00 EST

Filed under: World of Warcraft, Patches, Opinion, The Daily Grind

One of myriad things that World of Warcraft seems to have brought to the fore is that many people seem to pay a great deal of attention to patch notes on test servers. With Patch 2.4 releasing to test last night, there was much talk about it over Vent in my guild. Sure, there were people who checked them in earlier games, but it just never seemed to provoke as many complaints or happy-dancing as test patches do in WoW. (There again, you could argue that it may well be proportional, honestly.)

Still, quite a few of my guild-mates seemed extremely nonchalant about it, to the point of almost being "meh" on the entire concept. As one said, everything on test is hypothetical until released. Another one chimed in that he just doesn't want the surprise ruined; new content at endgame is worth its weight in gold. Today we thought we'd ask you if you're the type to pounce all over patch notes and digest every nuance? Do you instead skim patch notes for only class-related items? Or do you think reading patch notes at all spoils the fun of discovering it yourself?

The Daily Grind: Do you read patch notes? originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 09 Feb 2008 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments