[GameRatty] tag: silence

TGS 08: First Jimpressions of Edge of Twilight

Sat, 11 Oct 2008 04:54:16 +0000

It's been a long time since we heard anything of Fuzzyeyes' Edge of Twilight, the steampunk action-adventure which is full of conceptual promise. In fact, I believe the last time this game was mentioned, it was right here on Destructoid when we interviewed Fuzzyeyes CEO Wei-Yao Lu.

Despite its silence of late, Fuzzyeyes has been hard at work and had a demo walkthrough to show at the Tokyo Game Show. Having only swung by the booth to say hello to Lu, I was instead very kindly taken into a nice comfy room for a private demonstration of Edge of Twilight's combat system.

How are things coming along for this relatively unknown game? Read on and find out.

TGS 08: LocoRoco 2 grabs us with cuteness and depth

Fri, 10 Oct 2008 05:00:00 +0000

Filed under: Sony PSP, TGS, Casual

"Sorry it took so long," LocoRoco designer Tsutomu Kouno told me. In spite of the original's high-profile and well-received launch on the PSP, it's been over two years since we saw these lovable blubbers hit Sony's handheld. The silence around the long-rumored sequel is a bit baffling, as getting our hands on with the upcoming PSP title revealed a disarming amount of new content for the sequel.

It's undeniable that the original LocoRoco charmed hardcore gamers, thanks to its lovable style and rather unique design. However, it couldn't keep the attention of these gamers, as it was perhaps a bit too simplistic. While children and casual gamers were enchanted, hardcore gamers needed substance beyond tilting left and right.

So perhaps LocoRoco 2 is Kouno's attempt at bridging the gap between hardcore and casual audiences. The upcoming PSP-exclusive sequel maintains all the saccachrin sweetness of the original, but adds new gameplay features that add a tremendous amount of depth to the experience. The sheer amount of content found in this UMD/downloadable game is staggering.

Gallery: LocoRoco 2

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TGS 08: Bungie details Halo 3: Recon

Thu, 09 Oct 2008 20:30:00 +0000

Filed under: Microsoft Xbox 360, TGS

After several months of unplanned silence ("This was the project we originally were intending to announce at E3," they say), Bungie finally revealed Halo 3: Recon at TGS. We had an opportunity to talk with Luke Smith and Brian Jerrard during a group meeting in Tokyo this morning and Jerrard briefly addressed some of the more obvious questions we were bound to have:

"It will be a standalone disc sold in stores in boxes next Fall. It's also going to include some multiplayer maps."
"It is a first-person shooter still ... It's not a squad-based shooter."
"As an ODST, compared to playing as in invulnerable Spartan, you are going to have to sort of pick and choose your encounters a little bit differently."
"It is going to very much feel like Halo. Full feature parity."

That out of the way, Jerrard explained that Recon isn't the only thing Bungie's been up to since jumping off the Microsoft Express this time last year: "This is one of a few projects that we're currently working on. This is the first time at Bungie we've actually had multiple things happening at once and not just, every three years, doing the massive game release." In order to develop Recon, Bungie used a "small agile team" made up of a "bunch of elders" who started the Halo: Combat Evolved franchise some seven years ago (that doesn't sound like ex-GRAWer Christian Allen to us). Who better than to deliver a "bit of a departure" from the last three titles?

Gallery: Halo 3: Recon

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Call of Duty: World at War perks list

Wed, 08 Oct 2008 15:33:02 +0000

A new Perks list for Call of Duty: World at War (PS3, Xbox 360, PC, Wii, DS) has surfaced, and this one has reportedly been confirmed. You can check out the full list below. Call of Duty: World at War is slated for release on November 11 in North America and November 14 in Europe.

Perk 1

Special Grenades x3
Satchel Charge x2
M9A1 Bazooka x2
Bomb Squad
Bouncing Betty x2 (similar to claymores)
Bandolier
Primary Grenades x2
M2 Flamethrower

Perk 2

Stopping Power
Fireworks (explosives cause more damage)
Flak Jacket (decreases damage taken by explosives)
Gas Mask
Juggernaut
Camouflage
Sleight of Hand
Shades (decreases intensity of signal flares)
Double Tap
Overkill

Perk 3

Deep Impact
Extreme Conditioning
Steady Aim
Toss Back (resets fuse on tossing back enemy grenade)
Second Chance (ability to revive allies)
Martyrdom
Fireproof
Dead Silence
Iron Lungs
Reconnaissance (shows artillery and tanks on map)

Vehicle Perk

Water Cooler
Greased Bearings
Ordnance Training
Leadfoot
Coaxial Machine Gun

Call of Duty: World at War perks list

Wed, 08 Oct 2008 15:33:02 +0000

Perk 1

Special Grenades x3
Satchel Charge x2
M9A1 Bazooka x2
Bomb Squad
Bouncing Betty x2 (similar to claymores)
Bandolier
Primary Grenades x2
M2 Flamethrower

Perk 2

Stopping Power
Fireworks (explosives cause more damage)
Flak Jacket (decreases damage taken by explosives)
Gas Mask
Juggernaut
Camouflage
Sleight of Hand
Shades (decreases intensity of signal flares)
Double Tap
Overkill

Perk 3

Deep Impact
Extreme Conditioning
Steady Aim
Toss Back (resets fuse on tossing back enemy grenade)
Second Chance (ability to revive allies)
Martyrdom
Fireproof
Dead Silence
Iron Lungs
Reconnaissance (shows artillery and tanks on map)

Vehicle Perk

Water Cooler
Greased Bearings
Ordnance Training
Leadfoot
Coaxial Machine Gun

KOTOR MMORPG confirmed?!?

Tue, 07 Oct 2008 17:06:36 +0000

Still wondering about the KOTOR MMORPG? Never heard of it? That’s even better! According to a report from EGM that made the news some time ago, BioWare formed a new online team to create a Star Wars: Knight of the Old Republic(KOTOR) massively multiplayer online game. That happened almost a year and a half ago, and now, we see the KOTOR MMORPG confirmed! Well, ALMOST confirmed, as we’re going to see right away…

…since after over a year of total silence regarding the topic, EA CEO John Riccitiello casually revealed that a KOTOR MMORPG was in the works. To be more accurate, this was happening back in July, but no other information got through since then.<-125×125 Button - right->

Today, there’s not much to say, only that invitations were received recently, saying that “LucasArts and BioWare invite you to attend the official unveiling of the game that’s been rumored about for years,” and this is going to happen in San Francisco on the afternoon of October 21.

These being said, be sure to get ready to receive some very interesting news two weeks from now. After all, what can be more impressive than Star Wars online? For some people, not even the Bible online could beat that, so stand by to see the KOTOR MMORPG confirmed the right way…

Alan Wake going through 'fine-tuning,' could be nearing completion?

Sun, 05 Oct 2008 16:16:29 +0000

For once an Alan Wake story has arisen without months of silence prefacing it. Last week Remedy announced that they were going to show a special trailer at the Max Payne premier in Finland. Today 1UP put up an interview with Sam Lake, lead writer behind Alan Wake. Among a smattering of topics, one key thing can be gleaned. Alan Wake appears to be nearing completion.

From the interview:

With the first Max Payne, we were only a couple of months from the release when the bullet-time found its final form. We always knew we wanted something like that in the game, but we went though many different iterations until we found the final design. Alan Wake remains true to the original vision of the game, but we are still fine-tuning different elements, making sure that this will be a best possible realization of that vision.

The comparison between the final changes in Max Payne (months before release) and Alan Wake can be construed as a sign that the game is possibly close to completion. It’s odd that Lake would talk about final fixes without thinking that Wake was years away. It’s a thin rope, but I’ve remained hopeful that the game is on the horizon since the Xbox 360’s launch.

What do you guys think? Does a new trailer on a big screen and talk of “fine-tuning” make you think close to final form? Do you still have obsessive Alan Wake thoughts as you lay in bed at night?

Reporting gold spammers in WAR now easier than ever

Sun, 05 Oct 2008 12:00:00 +0000

Filed under: Fantasy, Business models, Economy, Game mechanics, MMO industry, Warhammer Online, News items

The gold seller scourge has fallen upon Warhammer Online, as you've likely noticed. But Mythic Entertainment has taken some rather extreme measures to silence the incessant spamming. To help reach that goal, they're making it easier for players to report gold selling activity and harassment. In keeping with their zero-tolerance policy on gold spamming, Mythic states, "We are committed to making life as hard as we can for Gold Sellers in game and maximizing player enjoyment. To that end we have added a new tool to streamline the gold seller reporting process." That tool is found within the...

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Warhammer Online patch 1.01 quick thoughts.

Thu, 02 Oct 2008 09:42:36 +0000

New patch out today for WAR, and it has an impressive list of fixes. Not bad for one week, eh?

• Players no longer need to scroll down through the EULA when logging into the game. The window now defaults to the bottom, and players need only check the Agreement box and click accept.

This never bothered me as much as it did some, but I’ll take it.

• The war against the gold sellers continues! We have made improvements to the Appeal system to allow players to report spam messages from gold sellers more quickly.

I’ll have to actually see what they mean by this, but hopefully it’s something close to a right-click name / report feature like LoTRO has. The easier it is to report gold spammers, the higher the chance a player will do it.

• TAB-targeting should now more consistently select the nearest enemy in the player’s field of view.

This is actually a very nice change for me, as I change targets often as a DoK, both for new enemies and new healing targets. Anything that improves this and lets me focus more on doing my job, rather than making sure I’m targeting the correct person is a huge plus.

• Corrected an issue that was preventing players from adding new friends to their friend list even while the number of existing friends was below the list’s size limit.

Never noticed this issue, but a fix is a fix.

• Fixed the issue that was causing players to sometimes get stuck in a particular animation state.

Woot! So my DoK won’t be twisting in painful ways half the time now. Hopefully this also fixes the spell animation bug that at times would leave rocks at my feet, or a raven over my head. Very annoying to look at a flapping raven over your head for an hour.

• Monsters which change velocity while moving in combat should no longer return “Target is Out of Range” sometimes when attacked by players.

Sweet, hopefully this finally fixes the remaining mob pathing issues, which have been rather sparse since the infamous Preview Weekend pathing disaster.

• The /ignore command will now work more consistently.

I never got a ton of gold spam, but this will hopefully go a long way to help those with major spam issues.

• In response to player feedback, we have made improvements to player pet movement and behaviors.
• The Pet window should no longer disappear when its master is zoning or entering the game.

Yay for huntards… oh right, wrong game.

• We made many UI fixes including a new “autoloot” feature requested by many players.

We all knew it was coming, nice that it’s here in under two weeks. Wonder what the other UI fixes include. Hopefully the scenario group view has improved.

• Guild cloaks will now display their heraldry properly.

This was a bug…?

• We have made several improvements to the chat window, and it should now be more intuitive to use and set up. A number of chat window issues were resolved in the process. We are continuing to work on your requests about chat, with more improvements to come in the future.

Hopefully this change goes a long way to curing WAR of it’s terrible silence. I still think one of the reasons WAR is so silent is because the character downtime is so short, and usually you have something frantic to do (PQ influence, RvR), but the chat window certainly needed some love.

Overall a good start to the patching process. Tonight I’ll see it all for myself, and hopefully no new issues have been created by the patch. I’m just happy my DoK will stop twisting himself into a pretzel.

Silence isn't disapproval

Thu, 02 Oct 2008 00:46:27 +0000

I am very aware that in the last weeks I have written a lot about Warhammer Online, and very little about World of Warcraft, except as point of reference. There are two reasons for that: Writing about the new game is more fun, and the news about WoW currently aren't reliable. If I had gotten around to write about the WoW honor point wipe, I would now have had to write about how that wipe has been cancelled. I already did write about how Deathknights are far better in soloing than Warriors, but can't tank in group, only to see that change with every beta patch. Anything you read right now about patch 3.0 or Wrath of the Lich King could very well be not true any more tomorrow. So waiting until the patch and then the expansion actually come out, playing them, and reporting about how they are is more my style than getting all huffed about beta changes that never make it into a release version.

But my silence about World of Warcraft and extensive discussion of Warhammer Online should in no way be interpreted as me liking WAR more than WoW. Both games have their good and their bad sides. I am having great fun in WAR when I'm in a large group doing public quests or RvR. But when I'm soloing I actually like WoW better, and I also like the WoW dungeons more than the WAR version. Also the current version of WoW (not the beta or PTR) is infinitely more bug free than the current version of WAR. I play WAR now because it is new and shiny, and not a bad game. But unless Blizzard is having major release problems, on November 13 I will play Wrath of the Lich King. Because then *that* will be new and shiny, and not a bad game.

I am happy that WAR sold half a million copies in the first week, and is well on their way to sell over a million by year's end. I am happy because monopolies are principally bad for customers, and we all profit from Blizzard having some viable competition. But I'm not naive enough to see WAR as a "WoW killer". I won't be the only one running after new and shiny. There *will* be a significant decrease in WAR players mid-November, with many people rushing back to WoW. How things will develop in 2009 is anyone's guess, and I don't worry about it yet. It will be interesting to see both games develop, trying to iron out their weaknesses and building on their strengths. Has WoW improved its endgame? How fun is the raid-free WAR endgame in comparison? I'm looking forward to finding all that out. Getting all religious and proclaiming one game the true god, while condemning the other, isn't really me. I find good things in most games, and never fail to see the bad sides too. I don't even expect to ever see the perfect game. A large choice of good games is all I can hope for, so I'm pretty happy right now.