I recently took a survey for the Command & Conquer team that literally took up atleast 30 minutes to complete. About halfway through the survey, I bumped into 2 questions in particular that revealed just what exactly C&C4 is going to be all about.
First up is the description to the epic 15-year dramatic conclusion to the Tiberium series, which I wasn't too crazy about in the first place. The features don't sound too bad though.
Does this mean no more Kane? :(
Getting into the specifics a bit, they displayed what C&C4 could be. I like many of these could-bes but I'm hoping they really change up the gameplay a bit since C&C 3 and RA3 didn't really do it for me. I blame Dawn of War II and Company of Heroes for being so awesome. Anyway, heres the screen.
Class-based teams sounds interesting, DD LFG.
What I would really like to see from the Command and Conquer series is another C&C: Generals! I want to rape and pillage with my overlord tanks! "Overlord Ready"
There was so much information to take in during E3 week, I have wrapped up and listed a massive amount of E3 info worth checking out. We saw some surprises and even new footage from games thought to be dead (I'm looking at you Alan Wake) and overall it wasn't as bad as the last 2 years. Makes me wonder what Pax '09 has in store for us. Anyway, here's the list, enjoy losing many hours of your life ^.^
Just when we thought gaming had hit a critical milestone with web-broswer games on Kongregate.com or Instantaction.com, a new service plans to surpass cloud gaming and take on the 3 console gaming giants themselves. At GDC 09', Steve Perlman presented a 55 minute introduction to this service that's been in "stealth development" for the past 7 years.
Onlive is a new service that is set to come out in Winter of this year. It is a games on demand service, that will be releasing titles the same day as they hit store shelves. Rent them, buy them, demo them or even spectate someone playing them before you buy; Onlive is determined to take advantage of their streaming features. Complete with your own profile that includes avatars and your recorded "brag clips" they've made it a social experience as well. All it requires is a high-speed internet connection. 5mb will get you streams in HD resolutions while 1.5mb will translate to a standard def look. Perlman also explains that Onlive will be supported on both PC and Macs and will have an optional Micro-Console for your TV. Essentially you won't have to worry about your computer's hardware because the Onlive servers will take care of all that information crunching for you. Your machine becomes a "thin client" capable of running games on their high settings. The beta will be running this summer so the signups are available at their site, Onlive.com.
This brings up a couple of things to think about. Will the latency break the service? Gamers are picky, picky little girls and I could see this being a problem if the lag is significant enough to ruin the game. This is definately what could be the make or break feature for them. Onlive also will patch and update automatically so no need for waiting, downloads, and most importantly, no need to purchase new hardware which could be a direct blow to the Big 3. Is a possibly more affordable micro-console that plays any game from any system enough to win over your wallet? Could this be the beginning of the unified console myth that we've read about? Will Batman escape from the shark infested tank? Tune in next time to find out!
NCSoft has many great titles under it's belt but Aion looks to be the most ambitious yet. I've been anticipating this title for quite some time now and finally theres a confirmation for this year. The Aion Community Manager Lani "Liv" Blazier presents us with a letter from Lance Stites....
Originally Posted by Liv Hello everyone,
I'd like to thank you for your patience while I collected feedback, comments and suggestions from various Aion communities' across Europe and North America. I used this information to create a list of questions that I felt needed to be addressed right away by our development team. This list does not cover all of your questions, I realize this, but I wanted to provide what information is available at present. The rest I am still working on.
I have spent the last week discussing the current state of morale within the community and the general excitement for the game with our production team and after reviewing the community report, one member in particular wanted to address you all directly. I would like to introduce you to Lance Stites, Executive Producer of NCsoft West's Game Production Studio.
Greetings to all, As Executive Producer, my responsibilities include preparing and supporting the launch and ongoing operations of product for the "Western" market—including North America and Europe. I've worked with NCsoft since 2001, including 5 years in the Austin office and after a brief time away from the company I returned to spend almost a year in the European office. I've worked to launch or support multiple products or expansions, including the Lineage and City of Heroes franchises.
As you've probably seen, NCsoft West is undergoing restructuring which involves the relocation of certain key staff. We're building a dedicated production studio to support titles like Aion and the Lineage franchise. We've added Lani "Liv" Blazier as our Aion Community Manager recently and she is already taking an extremely active role within the community. Within the MMO community, this role is of vital importance and great to have someone who understands the importance of the player base and will be a tireless advocate of the community needs. Liv has spent the past several days gathering information and answers that are important to the community. We want to continue this open dialogue with the players and look forward to more as we move toward and past our Aion launch.
We really have an exciting time ahead of us in regards to ongoing updates to existing products, new releases on the horizon, and closer cooperation and coordination between the European and North American territories.
Cordially yours,
Lance Stites Executive Producer, Game Production Studio NCsoft West
The Community Team is committed to listening and responding to your needs. Please find below the answers to 5 questions that I wanted to make you had answers to sooner, rather than later.
1) When will Aion be released in North America/Europe?
We expect to ship Aion in NCsoft West territories in the fall of 2009.
2) Why is localization taking so long?
The localization effort is enormous, with a vast amount of content. Aion is not simply being translated, a team of dedicated content writers are re-creating the written dialogue and content to provide AAA quality and to ensure that it is culturally relevant for our audience. We are going to do this launch "right" rather than fast.
3) Has a date been set for our Preview Event?
While we are not ready to release specific details regarding the Preview Event, we can tell you that participants will include those who signed up at last year at FJV, PAX and Leipzig. We will also be extending invites to long time NCsoft customers and dedicated legions. As we get closer, we will be offering more opportunities for fans to get signed up for this exclusive event.
4) Will there be community support for Europe?
Absolutely. We realize that many in the community were surprised with our announcement regarding the consolidation of the North American and European operations. We are deeply committed to our European community and will have native speaking Community Coordinators for our supported languages (English,German & French).
5) Will there be servers for each region?
We will have servers physically located both in Europe and North America for launch. We know you have more questions and they are being addressed. My goal is to have another update for your within the next few weeks.
Thank you,
Liv Community Manager, Aion
Aion looks amazing. If you get around to it, check out some of their gameplay videos online. Too much awesomeness for this blog...too much.
It seems just like yeterday I was rambling on about Hellgate shutting down-well fear not! On January 26th Hanbitsoft claimed it will be continuing Hellgate's servers after Namco Bandai's Jan 31st shutdown date. Hanbisoft will be taking over the patching and updates and keep it going on it's FREE subscription model, how do you like that?
With the good news comes the bad of course. Dragon Age: Origins has been delayed to later this year. Expect to see this title in the "last half of 2009." While this is a bit of a pain to take in I think the flood of new titles throughout the year should keep us busy. If you're like me you still haven't picked up every single holiday title and are thinking "SF4, RE 5, Killzone 2, DOW 2, and Demigod are all within a month of releasing. . . .Holy S**T."
Note: My brother and I are cooking up a special feature for our games of 2008. While we are a bit late to the party, it's better late than never! Plus, it's more than just a list! (hopefully)
Talk about a comeback. The Rebel FM guys at eat-sleep-game.com have had mind blowing success and donation numbers that I'm happy to be a part of. Rising from the ashes of EGM/1UP the ex-1UP employees are making waves with their new homes.
Ryan Scott debuted his first Podcast on Jan 17th with guests Karen Chu, Ryan Higgins, Andrew Fitch, Greg Ford, and Ernie P. The Geekbox hit 10,000 downloads in under 29 hours! And the first podcast was epic. I look foward to episode 2 when its released on the 28th. Follow the link below to enter a soapbox of nerddom.
Also bouncing back are the ex-1up show production crew. Now known as Area 5, they released part 1 of their first show titled "CO-OP" on Jan 21st. The first episode brings together the crew and other fallen comrades for a discussion on 2008's biggest and notable titles. Feel free to check it out while its still free and we wish them all the very best. Follow the link to have a look see.
For those of us who scour the web in all it's forms and infinite information, reading blogs, forums and news sites, none have captured our free time as much as http://twitter.com/.
"If you aren't familiar with Twitter, it is one of those things, like MySpace, that sounds totally ridiculous and stupid when you first hear about it. But once you start using it, you realize how much fun it is."
-Eric Nuzum, Author of The Dead Travel Fast
In a nutshell, you either hate it or love it and until now Twitter has grown to a higher purpose. (for gamers anyway). Recently Sam Houston of QforQ.com fame decided to post up some Twitter URLs from game developers and video game press alike. Big name game developers have followed the calling and even started up new twitters simply because of the huge response it has recieved. If you're interested in taking a peek check out Sam's new site which needed its own website just to handle the tremendous amount of names and companies. http://gameindustrytweet.com/
Let us rejoice, Warhammer 40K: Dawn of War 2 beta will be hitting Steam on Jan 28th. And if you happen to own a copy of Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War - Soulstorm, you get a head start on the competition on Jan 21st. Announced for the beta are 4 playable races and 5 multiplayer maps. Time to go buy a copy of Soulstorm! See you guys in the beta.
So my computer has come down with with a Trojan virus. Damn the web and it's spread of std-like virus'. My computer will be out of comission for a week but I'll be up and blogging in no time. So for the time being Happy New Years to everyone and the start of the new Video Game Arms race. We'll post up some NPD's soon and see who came out on top. 2009 here we come.
Oddworld has come to GOG.com's growing library. If you haven't heard about GOG yet you should head on over and check out their list of games. GOG celebrates the Good Old Games of back in the day. Headlining their library are games like Fallout 1, 2, tactics, Giant Citizens Kabuto, Gothic and Sacred Gold. This month, as a thanks to customers, they released 2 free adventure games for your enjoyment, Beneath a Steel Sky and Lure of the Temptress. GOG's games include free DRM, wallpapers, guides and digital licenses to all the games you buy a' la Steam. So go check it out!
Your insight to anything game related with an emphasis on PC games. We hope you enjoy our personal opinions and reviews on the greatest form of entertainment, video games.
Does this mean no more Kane? :(
Class-based teams sounds interesting, DD LFG.
