01 Jul 09 This just in: Blizzard gets some new trademarks

From the site: http://supererogatory.tumblr.com/post/133430921/blizzard-entertainment-filed-a-trio-of-trademark

This:

Filings by Blizzard Entertainment for the name Cataclysm. They cover computer games, paper-based products, and online games.

Tags: newsworthy

01 Jul 09 Do you smell that?

There is a storm coming. It is starting slowly, gaining momentum around the blog-o-sphere. In this swirling dark brew of anger and fanboyism several will emerge as stalwart risk takers and others will simply batten down the hatches and ride it out.

Which side will you be on? I am predicting that we will hit gale force winds around the week of September 22nd but before that many smaller hurricanes will come through and ravage the coastline of smaller blogs and gaming habitats.

Prepare for accusations, comparisons, picking sides and throwing barbs. Look out for deleted comments, possible Communist Bloc uprisings and maybe one or two blogs being forced underground. Be on the lookout for rampant WoW fanboy attacks, blindly devoted followers of one game or the other, and a general repeat of Warhammer Online but not quite of such cataclysmic magnitude.

PREPARE FOR:

AION vs. WORLD OF WARCRAFT

I am sure round one will begin Monday. What am I going to do? Nothing. I will continue to post about what I do in beta and how I am playing the game. I have taken my comments to email so as to avoid the same type of rage typing that got me in trouble when Warhammer Online launched. I don’t want to take sides but I will not let a game with fresh lore and great polish get ripped on by a crowd blinded by years of Blizzard spoon feeding. Hey at least if my side is losing the great battle for the Abyss I won’t be able to PAY TO SWITCH SIDES right?

Besides, I FINALLY got Dawn of War 2 last night for some multiplayer campaign game goodness.I may have some battle reports to post up.

Storms a comin’ get ready. I can feel it in my bones.

Tags: Aion, world of warcraft

30 Jun 09 XBOX 360 Star Ocean: The Last Hope early impressions

This weekend I dropped some money on a few Blu-rays and also picked up Star Ocean: The Last Hope on the XBOX 360.

Japanese RPG’s usually do not sit too well with me, in fact I think the last one I actually finished was Grandia 2 on the Dreamcast. I usually just cannot stomach the surprise combat zoom ins, walking around and never being able to interact with things, and the overall cutesy factor built into the games. I also used to play Phantasy Star Online but that game was incredibly boring no matter how much I tried to like it. After doing a ton of research last week on which game to give a try (for those nights when PC MMO’s just don’t cut it) I was torn between Tales of Vespia and Star Ocean. I had played Lost Odyssey and hated it and Last Remnant was really getting slammed so I watched videos and read about 12 reviews and finally picked Star Ocean because it seemed to have the most open world and best combat.

I rarely if ever finish RPG’s on the console. I never actually finished Mass Effect and now the second is already coming out soon. I had read that Star Ocean had some of the worst voice overs and most annoying characters but I had been there and done that and those things usually do not phase me. Like most RPG’s I look at the controls, combat, story and the world first to determine if I will like it. I am not against old school turn based combat but I just hate taking two steps and being thrown into random battles like so many other games.

Star Ocean: The Last Hope is actually a prequel to the other Star Ocean games and takes place after the Earth is destroyed by a nuclear war and blah blah you get the picture. You do not need prior knowledge of other Star Ocean games to play this one. This is a good thing because I had no idea what the hell Star Ocean was. At any rate you play Edge Maverick, a teenager who is in a special squad of planetary explorers looking to head into deep space and find places to colonize. Generic sci fi theme aside I did enjoy the opening story and all that went down prior to me actually getting to play and move about. Without giving away too much you basically have a starship issue when warping out and crash land on the intended planet rather than landing nicely and setting up a picnic. Several other ships launch with you at the start of the game and their whereabouts are in question in the first 45 minutes as you try to recover from the crash. I don’t find too much issue with Edge, he is typical main character flavor for these games so I am used to the look and artwork of the game. The first annoying character you will meet up with is the girl that helps you from back at home via the onboard computer. Annoying, but then again nothing Earth shattering I haven’t seen in a gazillion other type of games like this.

What attracted me to the game was the amount of things you can do on the side as well as the fact that how you interact with people in game effects your story and outcome. One unique feature is explained easiest by cut and pasting the description from a strategy guide I found.

“One interesting aspect of the game is that you can assign room assignments to your characters. To do this, you must examine the room-assignment chart found in the hallway of the Calnus’ living quarters. You cannot place men and women together in the same room unless the two have high affinity towards each other. Having two characters share the same room may also trigger a variety of story events.”

Add a HUGE amount of achievements and trophies you can collect and the ability to switch between characters in fights I knew that for the money this game probably packed the most bang for my buck. Not only can you fully explore many worlds, you can also harvest, craft, collect ships and a ton of other hidden tasks. I like this because in many other JRPG’s for the XBOX I felt constricted and like walking around was just put there to waste time. Already in my opening exploration of the first planet I have buffing food and drink to help me out in combat. These things I found and harvested laying around on the ground. The game also has about 4 (or 5?) difficulty levels as well as a battle simulator you can use without actually starting a game. Defeating monsters also gives you data and when you have 100% data on a monster you can unlock a jewel for that creature that you can use to modify items. These jewels then give you bonus stats based on that monster’s characteristics. I was tempted to get the HUGE Prima Strategy guide for 20 bucks but my wallet was already creaking under the strain.

The game is 3 discs and the opening cut scenes and story took me a good 20 minutes to watch before I finally was off my ship and exploring planets. You can walk around or toggle run mode and even sprint for short distances and the graphics are very nice on my HDTV. The planet surfaces vary according to what I have watched and right now I am on the opening planet which is a jungle type theme but it is not too boxed in. I have the freedom to save at a certain spot outside or I can go back onto my crashed ship and save right outside of my crew quarters.

The combat in this game is real time or for the less twitchy of us you can pause it much like Mass Effect.Even if you do this however you will still have to manually attack. The downside is that for the most part, and most of this is just reading forums, you can simply button mash your way through some of the combat if you want. However if you want to unlock secrets and get the most out of the game you will need to get crit hits and use strategy in your fights.

I had issues with the camera at first as it was backwards where turning the right stick was actually reversed. A quick switch in the options menu and I was on my way. You can attack and block and even string combos together as you fight. The right and left bumpers let you switch to another person while the computer takes over the other characters and performs combat according to how you set their AI. One other feature I like is that TOUCHING the enemy starts a battle in overland travel. You are rarely suddenly sucked into a battle via the time tested method of the swirly zoom in and battlefield load we all have become accustomed to. Depending on how you touched the enemy, the battle will start to your advantage or disadvantage. The key here is to initiate combat by coming up behind the enemies and getting the sneak attack advantage in combat. When the combat starts all enemies will be in defenseless mode and you will get some nice bonuses.

Another cool feature you gain out of combat is the “Battle Board”. The battle board fills up over time as you fight during your current session and gives you in game perks as you play such as bonus XP and damage. You can gain these bonuses by performing crits and multiple kills in battles as you play. The battle board will reset if you flee a battle or quit playing. There are some other criteria as well but at the time they escape me.

The typical XBOX360 achievements are there but so are these trophies you can gather by performing things in combat or out of combat. The list per character is HUGE but if you want to take a look head over to THIS LINK. There are also some achievements based on collecting weapon data and ship data as well.

As you can see there are plenty of things to keep you busy. The game also has a myriad of dungeons to explore so it is not all overland travel. You can mine and harvest a lot of useful items for crafting but remember to always check out the shops for new items.

I will try to report back more on what I find as I play this game but I do not regret spending the cash at this point. The controls are tight, the fighting system is really slick and there is a ton of stuff to do in game to make the purchase worthwhile. The voice acting is terrible however and do not expect to be wow’d by the cut scenes or the plot.

That is about all I have for this game at the moment. There are hours and hours of playtime with this one so perhaps later on down the road I can report back on more findings.

Tags: xbox 360

29 Jun 09 Aion: Gladiator combo footage

Real fast before I head out.

A great video popped up on You Tube courtesy of one of my guildies showing the gladiator class in action with some spectacular combat moves in game.

Take a look and enjoy.

Tags: Aion

28 Jun 09 Aion: a new blog rises up and a dev interview hits the web

First off thanks to anyone that adds me to their blogroll, I always appreciate that and try to return the favor.

Secondly, let me direct my scant amount of readers to a blog just setup for Aion and wish him continued success. The blog is called Aionic Thoughts and is written by Naamah. So far he has had some really good material.

Blogging is not easy, especially blogging about one game. People will watch what you say carefully and then when you flip flop you get into all sorts of trouble. I just want to say as one of the first all Aion blogs out there that you have a long road ahead of you for many months. The game is still in beta but it is an open beta and that gives this blog and Aionic Thoughts the ability to write about things I cannot speak of in Champions Online. I personally think the time for the closed beta needs to come to an end so that publishers have to own up to crap before they release it to the market.

Anyway all that aside, I want to point out a recent post there that captures every chain attack available by every class, then replays them in SLOW MOTION. It is from the Asian client but you all will get the point: THE COMBAT IS GREAT. Pulling these moves off is what keeps me pumped up so I think that it is key that we all know what I am talking about.

The entire post is here but I will include one video to wet your appetite from the Ranger class:

I prefer this:

Over this:

Aion has some really cool things going for it and PVP that I would actually care about. Lastly a new developer interview is up at Game Informer featuring some questions to Lani Blazier and in the interview she outlines some key points:

GI: Are you able to do different things with content in a subscription-based payment model than in games that are free to play and supported with micropayments?

Blazier: Yes, we are able to invest more heavily in content and production value with a subscription-base game. Also, we can invest in more outside-the-game features that have yet to be announced.

Yell at me all you want with all this free to play garbage hitting the scene right now, I still like the monthly model and believe it keeps the riff raff out of your game. The downside? It keeps the riff raff out of your game.

GI: The PvPvE system sounds particularly interesting. Can you talk about how the Balaur interact with players?

Blazier: The Balaur reside in the Abyss and are our AI-controlled faction. The advanced AI on the game server is constantly interpreting real-time events and will make a decision based on various Abyss criteria. The Balaur are one of the many tools we use to keep the Abyss balanced and challenging.

FROM HER IGN INTERVIEW: The Abyss is the single point of the conflict between the Elyos, Asmodian and Balaur. Here the two player factions meet and battle one another for fortresses and control over the Abyss’ many areas (hence the PVP). The Balaur are the NPC race controlled by an advanced AI. Depending on several factors, the Balaur could choose to side with your faction, side with your enemy, or fight against all who oppose them. While party size and strength won’t necessarily trigger a stronger creature, there are several factors that are taken into account to determine the allegiance.

Want more Lani? Check out this link: http://pc.ign.com/dor/objects/822535/aion/videos/aion_trl_devdiary_61809.html .

You can also follow her on Twitter (not that I am stalking) here: http://twitter.com/aion_liv

Very cool, a intelligent AI that effects my PVP and keeps things balanced. I like this. I am not an Aion expert, so if you don’t know anything about the game or cannot figure it out, don’t ask me rather check out all the links I have posted over the past week. That is all for today.

Tags: Aion

25 Jun 09 Warhammer Onine: Jeff Hickman soothes the masses

As a follow up to yesterday’s stunning news, Jeff Hickman has wasted no time in reassuring everyone with a lengthy cut and paste thought out letter that things will continue along normally and not be concerned.

Included are such fan favorites as:

We are committed to Warhammer, Ultima Online, and Dark Age of Camelot, and have solid plans for each game.

along with that you get such timeless classics as:

Our experiences have only made us stronger as we continue to bring WAR to the world.

Ok I kid a little, but in between all the cliched comments that most people put up when the masses think that certain DOOM is ahead, he does outline specific changes coming to Warhammer Online that many players can look forward to and he announces that city sieges will be changed and then lists all the improvements they plan on. Want to know more? Head on over to the Warhammer Herald and read up on what is in store.

Tags: warhammer online

25 Jun 09 Followers of Asura: AoC

Think you know a lot about Age of Conan? A quick heads up that Funcom has an ongoing Followers of Asura customer service program. The program is broken into departments consisting of Bug Hunting, Administration and Operations. The Operations department is the ultimate goal of most followers and is basically like your Everquest 1 and Everquest 2 Guide program.

I like to keep all my MMO clients up to date on my machine and after patching Conan last night this message stuck out at me because I love to see programs like that enable players to help out the community while taking some strain off the developers. You can find the link below:

http://cs.ageofconan.com/Public

Speaking of which, the EQ1, EQ2 and EQOA guide program can be found here: https://guide.station.sony.com/guideapp

Tags: Age of Conan

24 Jun 09 Jacobs out at Mythic

From the main Warhammer Online Herald and a blurb at Common Sense Gamer

Today we have important news to share with the community. EA is restructuring its RPG and MMO games development into a new group that includes both Mythic and BioWare. This newly formed team will be led by Ray Muzyka, co-founder and General Manager of BioWare. With this change, Ray becomes Group General Manager of the new RPG/MMO studio group. BioWare’s other co-founder, Greg Zeschuk will become Group Creative Officer for the new RPG/MMO studio group. Rob Denton will step up as General Manager of Mythic and report to Ray. BioWare’s studios remain unchanged and continue to report to Ray.

Mark Jacobs, current General Manager of Mythic will leave EA on June 23, 2009. We thank Mark for his contributions at Mythic and wish him the very best going forward. Mark played a major part in the success of Mythic with his contribution as General Manager and Lead Designer of WAR.

Mythic retains a strong team led by Rob who co-founded Mythic in 1995. Rob played a critical role in the development of Dark Age of Camelot. In his previous role as COO, he was responsible for all day-to-day management of the studio including all development, operations and support.

Please join us in celebrating the union of these two award-winning studios.

Better trade off if you ask me. Either way, something major will go down because of this. I have a feeling we will be hearing some gossip start to spread around the gaming world. I am just going to grab a bucket of popcorn and sit back and watch this get REALLY interesting.

Tags: newsworthy

24 Jun 09 Aion beta key giveaways on Twitter, stigma explained

There will be key giveaways from Fileplanet for North Anerica and via our Twitter feeds (@aion_ayase, @aion_amboss, @aion_liv and @aion_xaen). In other words – you will definitely want to stay tuned to find out more if you are interested in being a part of our future Beta events.

Was going over more Aion game features and finally got around to understanding Stigma, thanks to a post over on AionSource.com.

I won’t go into the details since the post sums it up, but basically Stigma is a way to spec a character and be different and it works like World of Warcraft glyphs only you are glyph’ing YOURSELF and not a spell. If that makes any sense. Here is the kicker though: using stigma stones you can give yourself powers of OTHER classes!

The lore speaks of stigma as thus: “Stigma stones are not just simple and beautiful gems. They contain the strengths and spirits of those who perished in the Abyss. It is their will that you take up their tasks by using these stones. So I’m trying to help support their will.”

The post in its entirety can be found HERE but I will sum up a few pointers.

Each character can equip up to 5 stigma stones. However, with the current level cap at 45, you will be able to equip a maximum of 4.

Level 20: 2 Stigma Slots
Level 30: 3 Stigma Slots
Level 40: 4 Stigma Slots

You cannot access the stigma panel until you hit level 20 and you must do a quest to unlock your first two stigma slots.

The stones drop off regular mobs, but rare spawns drop them more and they can be traded, so hit up that auction house in the big city.

I was looking at some of the known stigma stones and some are pretty neat. Of course all this is subject to change since the game is in beta but a few that stuck out were:

Smoke Bomb I (lvl37): Blinds enemies within 15m for 15~25 seconds. 600 second cooldown. Assassins get this stone.
Markutan’s Light I (lvl45 Asmo): Heals up to 6 friendly players within 25m for 1154 damage and creates a protective shield that absorbs upto 1156 damage for 10 seconds. For clerics.
Aether’s Promise II (lvl37): Recovers 5% of player’s mana with every attack for 30 minutes. (lower level of skill available at lvl 25) for Chanters, which are basically like bards in this game.

Head over and read up more on the Wiki at Aion Source it is a great place to get caught up on game mechanics.

Not much news otherwise. Internet was down as well as cable TV last night (thanks Comcast) so I spent a lot of time either looking through old pictures of MMO’s or playing XBOX 360. Attempted Madden09 and had forgotten all the controls and lost to the computer 17-9. Very sad I know.

I went to update my I-pod Touch today and low and behold Apple wants to charge me $9.95 to update my FIRMWARE to 3.0.

Well aint that a kick in the booty.

Tags: Aion

23 Jun 09 Aion announces release day, Champions hits the media

Aion has released its official release date according to a press junket over on IGN.com and THIS official announcement on the site:

Aion Launches This September!

Your adventures in Aion begin this September! NCsoft is proud to announce that Aion launches in North America on September 22, 2009 and makes its official debut in Europe starting September 25, 2009.

Not only can you find the game at your favorite retail store, Aion will also be available as a digital download at NCsoft.com, Direct2Drive, and through Steam this September.

Don’t forget to take advantage of the special preorder promotion at participating retailers now to receive access to the Closed Beta events as well as a head start to your journeys in Atreia.

Take to the skies and become a part of a stunning world brimming with otherworldly inhabitants, mysterious enemies, and ancient secrets. Become a part of Aion this fall!

That is a long wait and that makes September a VERY interesting month. Elsewhere, the people that decide to get a Collectors Edition version of the game got a nice sneak peek of what their special wings will look like. Along with all the actual CE version of the game has many goodies hidden within.

The Champions Online beta has not gone so swimmingly for me, but that is not due to a lack of developer fixes and new content.

I haven’t been able to play for a two week period and just recently hopped back on there to see how much I had missed. While I cannot go into specifics all the fans out there can be assured that Cryptic is not wasting this new time they have after delaying it. I also do not want to burn out, which started happening to me faster in this game than I like to admit.

The game is going through some good changes in beta right now and a lot of things are getting streamlined and fixed that NEEDED IT badly.

My only issues with it right now center solely on the personal aspect of:

• I got sick and then sick again and missed three weeks
• Summertime blahs
• Wonky in game issues that are now being addressed thank GOD

We have all summer. Let us see how this shapes up.

Bill Roper popped out and gave us some heads up and the Champions Online hype machine has been going crazy in the media. Over the month of June alone their RSS feed has pumped out over 22 news articles and updates. This one MMO loves to keep the community in the loop and that is a good thing. While I have access to the State of the Game posts in the beta, the general public has also gotten some updates as well which I can just post here in a general CO news list:

• Randy Mosiondz talking about what being a hero means
• A June 17^th State of the Game by Daeke
• How developers are handling the ins and outs of the Nemesis code
• A look at the Stonghold Prison instance (lair)

As you can see Cryptic is giving many readers and fans a huge look at the inner workings of what makes a MMO tick. Hopefully once things settle down for me I can devote more time to the beta code.

Tags: Aion, champions online