Monthly Archives: May 2014

Guns and Robots Announces Massive Tune-up for June

Masthead Studios, today announced that their cartoon-style shooter is undergoing a complete makeover.

The team behind Guns and Robots is proud to announce that their free-to-play shooter is going through complete makeover that will take place in June this year. With easier to navigate and more user friendly interface, the new patch will bring significant improvements to the robot construction, the battles and will introduce a new system for upgrading items. All players will enjoy extremely reduced prices of all items and weapons in the store. This will allow players to build and enhance the robot of their liking and to try out all parts and weapons from the very start of the game with option to upgrade them at later stages.

The patch will add a lot of new game features listed below:

  • Interface Redesign
  • New notification system with more clear game objectives
  • New features for customizing robots
  • New system for upgrading items
  • New boosts, consumable and ammo options
  • Robot Painting
  • Improved system for leveling up
  • Premium accounts
  • Overall Rebalance

GaR_New_UI_HUD

Major update that the free to play shooter will introduce is a total interface redesign. The redesign will ease construction of robots and navigation through all menus. It will introduce players to new social panel, new dialogs with information about statistics and overall player performance, new sections for item upgrades, new customization features, new notification system. Players will now find it easier to navigate through the game interface thanks to the significant improvements.

In battle, a new notification system will help walk players through the main objectives depending on the game mode, showing current states of the robots, details on the ammo and weaponry. Upon battle completion—detailed end-game dialogs will show players’ performance with information for the credits won, bonuses acquired such as charges, consumables and crates.

GaR_New_UI_Garage

Big changes are coming to the robot construction process as well. This update will make customizing robots a lot more fun and easy to do. Fans of the cartoon-style shooter can expect to be given a lot of new ways to customize even more. They will have options to compare items, paint their robots along with easier and faster construction process. Parts comparison will help players pick the best fitting part with relative ease. Players will be shown options to pick parts with detailed statistics information and comparison dialog. The robot creation process will be supported with completely redesigned repair and resupply system for players to monitor. They will be able to check all their available parts that need attention. Robot painting will increase the customization of the robots with up to three available colors per part. Players will have the option to choose from rich palette of available starter pack colors to paint their robots according to their liking. The available options for players to pick will be whether to color a specific part, a module or the whole robot.

Upgrading items is another major feature that will give players who enjoy customizing their lethal machines a variety of options for constructing. With this new upgrading items system, every part can be upgraded in the Tech Tree. The Tech Tree will give players options to upgrade up to ten times their arsenal. Upgrading will be unlocked by acquiring the needed Tech Tree Level. After unlocking this level, an item will be available for upgrading.

After battle, along with the standard prizes, there will be a new set of exciting bonuses for players to gather. Upon battle completion, players will now have the chance to get their hands on crates, that will give items, currency and consumables. The crates will be given at random to players for an opportunity to get epic rewards and get their hand on unique, non-purchasable items. Consumable types will be expanded with new ammo options, such as charges that will give tactical advantage in the game, as well as shield, speed and fire power.

After the team gathered feedback from players, there will be an improved system for leveling up and enhanced experience with major rebalance.

Premium accounts will also be added to the game. From next month players of Guns and Robots will have the option to get premium accounts with numerous perks.

Jump straight into the action at http://www.play-gar.com.

The Future of MMORPGs – As Written by the Past

By W.B. Wemyss (Tagspeech)

 

ShardsOnline

It’s no secret that this is a time of great tumult for the MMORPG genre.  With the imminent release of Wildstar Online, many are saying that the last of the great ‘theme park’ MMORPGs is going to hit the ground, and everything after this will be new territory.  We’re moving away from the hand-holding, quest-saturated, WoW-esque misadventures of 2005-2014, and into a land far more concerned with sandboxes and the encouragement of player freedom and creativity.  Publishers everywhere are wising up to the fact that human beings with hopes, dreams, and brains are the ones actually playing their games, and have decided to fund their projects accordingly.

GoldenAgeOfMMORPGs

It’s a golden age.  Right?

 

I sat down recently with a man that’s been in the industry for nearly ten years.  He came in toward the end of Ultima Online’s development cycle, where he worked primarily as a UI lead.  His name is Derek Brinkmann, and although he may not be a household name for most gamers, he’s one of the masterminds behind the upcoming Shards Online project – an MMORPG that aims to redefine the genre through an ambitious, highly-customizable game, fully handing creative control and power over to the players themselves if they so choose (Catch the first ever gameplay livestream today at 5pm PDT for more info). He is a forward-thinking man.  In this period of change and reflection for the MMO genre, he seemed to me like the perfect man to discuss the future with.

Everquest14Years

But before we can dive into what might be, we need to see where we’ve been.  MMORPGs are old.  In 2015, we’ll have seen twenty years of the genre being around in its most serious form.  Ultima Online and Everquest were the first well recognized titles, and for veterans that remember them, they might decry the post-World of Warcraft era as one devoid of player choice and creativity.  Indeed, games from the early era were far more about exploration and defining your own path to progression.  There was less UI saturation and hand-holding, no ‘quest markers’ to give players a sort of medieval GPS.  Auto-pilot was still possible, but more difficult.

 

These games were, of course, not perfect.  The grind still prevailed, and worlds were largely unstructured (some might call that a good thing).  World of Warcraft brought polish and direction to the genre, with such success that huge companies have been trying to make that lightning strike twice for a decade.  They have all failed.  The past ten years are a boneyard of slain games, all loaded into catapults and fired screaming at the obsidian walls of the WoW-Fortress; a fortress that only grows taller and more impregnable with each passing year.  It took them ten years, but with the success of Minecraft and other indie titles, coupled with the painful monetary sting of losing game after game to ‘WoW-killer’ efforts, the big financiers of the gaming industry are finally beginning to realize that WoW simply cannot be killed.  It won.  They lost.  Tough break.

WoWFortress

What are we to do?  World of Warcraft has the theme park model boxed and cornered entirely.  There are straggling competitors, but none manage to rise to the lofty heights of WoW.  WoW makes so much money, it is its own micro-economy that could dwarf the GDP of some small countries.  If Blizzard wanted to found a tiny colony for all of its playerbase where everyone could play the game in peace and subsistence, I’m confident it could.  It’s no wonder competitors have been salivating over the possibility of having that perpetual-motion-machine of cash in their hands – but like many moguls, they forget that resources are finite.  There are only so many subscribers to go around.

CasinoRPG

I asked Derek if the seeming casino-like exploitation of players in most quest-heavy MMORPGs is intentional.  Is it?  Do these publishers force their developers to include bright lights, affirming sounds, and pretty colors to accompany generally hollow ‘achievements’ in grinding and discovering rare drops in these games?  With the addition of microtransactions, particularly ones that provide a random reward, and with the randomness-dependency of these games, is this just a very well-disguised form of gambling?  Should it be regulated as such?  These are questions many gamers are asking themselves these days.  It does very much feel like a kind of exploitation of human psychology.

 

Derek’s experience in the development process says otherwise.  No, hard-working developers are not being forced into doing anything – the process is generally more insidious.  All developers want to be creative, to make something fun for others to enjoy.  But above them are people whose bottom line is, well, the bottom line.  They need the game to be profitable – not just profitable, but enormously profitable.  Their expectations of success are sky-high.  If a game cost one million to make and it grosses two million, they see a failure, whereas the developers (and normal people) see success.  That’s double your investment!  How great is that?

 level-up-metal

The issue, as Derek and I discussed, is not that developers or publishers have some malicious desire to exploit the ‘lizard brain’ in the human mind – that primitive reward center that gives us a little rush of chemical satisfaction when we receive sensory affirmation of an accomplishment (a ding, anyone?).  It’s that executives generally have extremely high expectations of success.  They want rapid growth, massive returns, and will shut down and butcher anything that doesn’t give those returns.  They will pack it in and move on, even while the development team itself is still celebrating a successful release and a job well done.

 

It’s this complete disconnect between players, developers, and executives financing projects that causes the modern ‘theme park’ MMORPG.  It’s what causes games to be riddled with free-to-play caveats and microtransactions, with exploitative mechanics and hidden fees.  Too many financiers see failure where everyone else sees success, fun, and enjoyment for all.  Will the lofty expectations of publishers ever lower?  Probably not.  Particularly not in the AAA title category, where budgets soar into the tens of millions of dollars, and returns are expected to be equally titanic.  But there’s an indie revolution going on, and anyone that’s a regular Steam customer can attest – it’s only getting bigger.

CamelotCrowdsourcing

The process of financing and developing games has become a largely democratic process with the advent of Steam’s Green Light program, and Kickstarter.  While neither of these things are perfect platforms, and not every game financed or hyped by common backers is going to be a smashing hit, or even very good, it does give us the unprecedented option of backing and following a game throughout its entire development process.  It’s creating a field of innovation to feed a niche of gamers starved for more perplexing, challenging, and immersive content.  Derek is confident that this niche is going to continue to feed and expand this flux of indie titles, including Shards Online and others like it.   In MMORPGs, ‘people are done with the level grind’ he asserts.

 

Is this a new era on the horizon?  It’s certainly different.  Developers are, as Derek says, ‘giving players the tools to make their own experiences’ more often these days.  But is that what the vast majority of people want?  If people wanted to make their own experiences, by and large, isn’t that what they’d be doing?  Is there not an enormous class of people content to have content and ideas fed to them?  The rails may be stifling and dull to free-thinking, challenge-hungry gamers that want a return to MMORPGs and experiences focused on cerebral, social content largely spearheaded by player efforts and player politics; but there are some people for whom the thoughtless grind is a kind of numbing meditation to enjoy at the end of a long workday.

MMORPGEndGame

No matter what, there is never going to be any individual title that can please everyone.  Expectations are shifting.  The end-game for publishers and developers has to change, Derek says.  ‘Retaining players does not make sense anymore’ he told me.  ‘Online games as a genre need to not build a model around three years of subscription after release.  Companies should redefine their definition of success for an MMO.  500,000 people buying your game and enjoying it for a month or two should no longer be considered a failure.’  In short, publishers can’t expect to retain people anymore.  It’s just a simple fact.  People play, they have their fun, they move on.  It’s simply not feasible to sell a ‘lifestyle’ to players anymore.  There is far too much competition.

 

And then, there’s just giving players themselves the power to mod and create with your platform.  Skyrim is a fantastic example of a game that has only gotten better over time thanks to the mod community.  MMORPGs could use the same treatment.  And with the greater availability of powerful engines like Unreal to indie developers, and the ability to get titles out digitally rather than worry about shipping and packaging costs, the dawning of an age of creation and modular design may very well be upon us.  Those that could care less will continue to do what they’ve been doing.  Those that have been starved for this sort of thing will clamor for it.  In the end, it may very well be that we can all find our imaginary home online – the long years of nomadic wandering for more creative and demanding MMORPG consumers may finally be at an end.  We just need a fertile platform upon which to build our settlements and sew our crops.

SkyrimModding

Tagspeech is the alias of author W.B. Wemyss, who was responsible for the bizarre cyberpunk fever dream called Children of Athena.

Dungeon Inquisitor

Dungeon Inquisitor is a free to play browser game where you take the role of a cruel Dungeon Inquisitor. Trap, capture, and interrogate humans for profit and personal gain – and strive to become the overlord!

Features:

Trap and Capture: Trap, fight, and capture humans, then interrogate them to gain more useful information or to convert them into minions.

Train and Recruit: Summon, recruit, and train a personal army, from weakling imps to skeletal warriors and more.

Chat and Compete: Make friends and followers in the game’s community, enter weekly contests, and conquer others.

Captain America: The Winter Soldier – The Official Game Review

By Jaime Skelton (MissyS)

 

Ever since the release of The Avengers in 2012, the world has fallen madly in love with the Marvel universe. These iconic heroes have once again become part of our everyday language and culture, and it’s no surprise after the Captain America: The Winter Soldier release this March, a video game was ready to go, named directly after the film with ‘The Official Game’ tacked on the end. Published by Gameloft, the game has two missions available for free trial; the remainder of the game must be purchased.

Metaphors

 

Not a Perfect Soldier, But –

On the surface, CA:TWS is a tactical RPG. You control the main hero, Captain America, and may add a few recruited S.H.I.E.L.D. agents from four roles to your party to assist on each mission. An additional ‘role,’ Avengers, is also available, but only for cash credits. Missions are short, isometric excursions designed to only take a few minutes, letting you lead your team to victory (and earn bonuses for finding a hidden suitcase and completing special objectives). The storyline of The Winter Soldier unfolds with each mission, staying closely tied to the movie’s direct plot, and the graphics have been designed to offer an almost 3D comic-book feel.

Pow

Every character has their own experience, stats, and progression, and while you’re stuck with just one Captain America, you can recruit different agents to get an ideal combination of stats for your party building plans. You can research additional stats for a specific role, and you can equip characters with special shards of ISO-8 that offer additional, specific stat boosts. ISO-8 can also be upgraded or crafted into new combinations to let you specialize Captain America or your agents to their peak performance.

Captain Screen

There is no equipment, but each agent role has its own unique ability. These abilities may be performed at any time during combat, but are limited to the number of role-specific items that you own, so stocking up becomes important if you want to fully utilize your team’s tactics. In addition, as you complete missions, new suits for Captain America will unlock. These new suits offer new abilities for the Captain to use and leave you with an element of strategy in determining which suit you’ll wear to battle.

 

Defeat

Finally, there are some multiplayer components: A.R.E.N.A. and Squads. A.R.E.N.A. pits your choice of three agents against an enemy opponent, in an automated, quick results battle. There is zero real time combat here: it’s simply select your agents, accept the fight, and then check the results to see if you win or lose. Squads, on the other hand, are like MMO guilds: join and have a network of players to chat with, assist, and embark on special missions. Unfortunately, I was unable to get any experience in the latter, as there were no squads on the list to join. The expense of creating a squad is one of many expenses that become problematic (as discussed later on).

Mucking It Up

 

At first glance, and through the first two missions offered through the game’s free trial, CA:TWS seems like a great mobile approach to combining Captain America and tactical combat. Once I started getting just a little further in the game, I was hit with a wall of annoyances built by poor game design.

Suitcase

The most insurmountable problem in CA:TWS is its camera angle. Like many tactical RPGs, the game plays in a top-down, 2.5D mode, and relies on an auto-following camera to help direct the action. Mission maps, however, are filled with corridors that take sharp turns and enemies that can retreat, and the game’s automatic camera is limited as if stuck on a one-way rail. Because no camera control is offered to the player, it’s incredibly difficult to look ahead around the corner to prepare for the enemies in wait; it’s even harder to find an enemy that’s attacking you from behind. By the sixth mission, I was already nearly failing because gunmen were lurking in the hall I’d just come from and directing the Captain back that alley was no easy feat. In addition, the game can only be played in portrait mode, so it is impossible to gain additional screen space by flipping your phone or tablet.

Objectives

There’s also no viewable map. While the game offers a vaguely helpful blue arrow to point you to your next objective, it simply points on a straight line system, meaning you may often have to find the way around to the objective yourself. Additionally, maps are not completely linear: there are alternative paths and dead ends, meaning a religious following of the pointy arrow will often make you miss these extra areas.

To top off the annoyances, completing the map’s final objective automatically exits you out of the mission without a prompt. If you want to collect loot off that last set of enemies, or go explore for hidden areas, you have to make sure you do it before that last enemy falls – or suck up your loss and play the mission again.

 

The Price of Freedom is High

Because CA:TWS is a buy to play game, the cash shop is unobtrusive, merely offering cash as an option to get the items you need to complete missions. Despite this, the cost of playing is high when measured in in-game currency. As mentioned earlier, each agent’s unique skill is locked to the number of uses you have purchased. Everything costs coin here, and lots of it, which means you’re often forced to choose between making your agents stronger or using their skills to make missions more enjoyable. This shouldn’t be the case: your agents should be more than auto-attacks, but – with the exception of the Heavy class – you’ll be stuck with S.H.I.E.L.D. pets if you decide to opt to for progress. There’s no reason to not simply put these skills for free use on a time-based cooldown, especially when the game is already purchased.

Consumables

What’s it all mean? If you want to really keep up or compete, you will have to grind, repeating older missions to recollect coin rewards. Without dropping the time (or the cash) in, you’ll be struggling through missions with downed agents and a growing grudge against the low payouts from the lucratively rich S.H.I.E.L.D.

 

Final Verdict: Fair

Captain America: The Winter Soldier – The Official Game is not worth the time or money, even for die-hard Cap’n fans. On the surface, the game teases an in-depth tactical experience for mobile, substantial social PvP and PvE, and a gritty tie-in with the movie. None of these promises fall through. The gameplay is clunky with awful camera angles and poor currency earnings; PvP is nothing more than a computer simulation calculated in seconds; and guilds seem to be either broken or generate zero interest from the community. On top of that, the “Captain America experience” is downright repetitive and childish, from the comic book “Ouch!” when you take damage to Captain yelling out trite, bossy phrases and comments about Uncle Sam – hardly the Captain you’d expect after watching the films. The Official Game is really nothing more than a kid wearing star-spangled briefs on his head and claiming to be a hero.

Vanguard Games Partners with Nexon Mobile

Vanguard

Vanguard Games today announced that it has entered into a partnership with NEXON M, INC (“Nexon M”), the mobile arm of Tokyo-based NEXON Co., Ltd. (“Nexon”)(3659.TO), a worldwide leader in free-to-play (F2P) online games for its upcoming mobile title.

The yet-to-be announced title is Vanguard’s next original project following the critically acclaimed console and PC releases Greed Corp and Gatling Gears. Vanguard has been concentrating on mobile game development including Halo: Spartan Assault together with Microsoft’s 343 Industries on mobile Windows platforms.

“We are very excited to be working with Nexon, the pioneer of free-to-play games,” said Arthur Houtman, CEO of Vanguard Games. “This partnership will give us the ability to leverage Nexon’s experience and success in the free-to-play business model.”

“Vanguard Games is very passionate about developing high-quality mobile titles,” said Aron Koh, Executive Director of NEXON M. “We are very pleased to be working with the Vanguard team and are looking forward to bringing great content to our players.”

For more info, visit http://www.vanguardgames.net/

Zombies Monsters Robots Closed Beta Coming Soon to PC

ZMR PvP

En Masse Entertainment, a player driven publisher focused on delivering great games and exceptional service, is excited to announce that the Zombies Monsters Robots closed beta will be coming soon to a PC near you. Starting on May 27, 2014 players with closed beta access will be one of the first to KILL EVERY THING in the over-the-top, anything goes, third person shooter.

Players interested in joining the Zombies Monsters Robots closed beta, featuring six maps, eight gameplay modes, brutal bosses, and an insane variety of enemies, are encouraged to sign up for a chance to receive access at www.playzmr.com. In addition, those who sign up will also be entered for a chance to win a First Blood Pack, offering an exclusive set of in-game founder’s items.