Neverwinter makes its debut as an MMO with action combat and gorgeous graphics
It’s been almost a year since I’ve played Neverwinter. Of course, back at last year’s E3, it was still being designed as a small-scale co-op RPG and Cryptic was showing off their trademark Foundry tools for the game. Fast forward to 2012 and I’m looking at a totally different game. Those content-creation tools are all still there, but the game’s expanded way beyond them being the most exciting part of the game.
More importantly, this first hands-on session made it apparent that Neverwinter is making the transition into full MMO very nicely. Its beautiful visuals, active combat, and a well-crafted world were enough to convince me that it’s the dark horse candidate for best MMO of 2012.
Survive a Nuclear Blast in City of Heroes’ next Incarnate Trial, The Magisterium
In most MMORPGs, your beefy max-level character can take on some monstrous enemies and withstand a serious beating—but have you ever survived a nuclear blast? City of Heroes is giving players the opportunity to test their staying power against atomic explosions in an epic finale against Tyrant—the main antagonist of the Going Rogue expansion—in the upcoming Incarnate Trial, The Magisterium.
Tribes Ascend preview
Hello? Oh, hello The Past. How are you? What’s that, all of your games would like to come back, with reboots or sequels, only free? Alrighty then.
The Tribes series has had a ridiculously checkered history, but its best incarnation – as a fast, team-based multiplayer shooter – all but ended with Tribes 2 and the dissolution of its creators, Dynamix. So to play Tribes: Ascend is to take a wild ride back in time to 2001, shortly after Tribes 2 was released, to relive the game’s skiing, jetpacks, spinfusors, flags and huge battlefields. Only better, and with a free-to-play payment model.
Storming into Hell (again) in The Secret World
A couple months ago, I talked about my hands-on time with The Secret World and its hit-and-miss Illuminati starting area, the frustrating-yet-awesome open-world Egypt zone, its Minecraft-like crafting system, and the brilliant character customization system. But today, we’re getting into the really good stuff: the no-frills, fast-paced dungeons.
First up, we step through “The 13th Gate” and go straight to Hell. That’s right, the burning lake of fire where demons use liars for chew toys.
Guild Wars 2 dungeons preview
To understand how Guild Wars 2’s high-end PvE feels it’s necessary to understand how all the ideas behind the game fit together. Without fixed class roles, the emphasis is on player skill and as such encounters have been designed to be more flexible than most modern MMOs. World of Warcraft’s boss fights are usually constrained to a particular location because it’s by controlling the environment that Blizzard are able to add variety to the traditional tank and spank model. Guild Wars 2 is far less restrained: if your party is able to pull a boss out of their comfort zone, the game won’t stop you.
Guild Wars 2 World vs. World PvP guide
Guild Wars 2’s World vs. World PvP is one of the things that separates its competitive game from the majority of modern MMOs. Small-scale battlegrounds have become the norm, and the classic MMO dream of hundreds of players skirmishing across an open world has faded. World vs. World, then, is a mixed breed: something new that continues the legacy of something old. Playing it for the first time at ArenaNet’s offices during the last beta weekend, I was reminded strongly of Mythic’s Dark Age of Camelot, the 2001 MMO that featured expansive faction vs. faction PvP. The comparison shouldn’t be a surprise: ArenaNet has more than one ex-Mythic designer on its team.
The Secret World Dragon preview
It’s the morning after the GDC earthquake (only 4 or 5 on the Richter scale, but enough to make your correspondent feel like he was about to be thrown out of the bedroom window) and the Funcom crew are having trouble getting their demo kit working. A major power surge ten minutes before we arrived fried half their room, and Ragnar (Torquist, Creative Director) and Joel (Bylos, Lead Content Designer) perform a double-act as cables fly in a back-room. It seems unknown chaotic forces are attempting to prevent them showing us the Dragon introduction to the Secret World, complete with character creation, soul, achievements, lore, and crafting. We suggest they act out the introduction instead. They look at each other, before Joel glances away, muttering; “you really don’t want us to do that.”
The following day, we come back, to find out why. The set-up seems to be working now and the interfering forces (possibly the gods of Chaos, possibly the Lego Batman 2 demo team in the hotel room below) seem to have been temporarily thwarted. The Dragon demo starts running.
Mists of Pandaria: Everything you need to know
Blizzard released a lot of new info about World of Warcraft’s next expansion today. But does it all mean? We walk you through all the changes, tell you what we think of them from our hands-on time with Mists of Pandaria, and break down what they mean for every aspect of the game: from questing to casual gameplay to release date.
Risen 2: Dark Waters preview
I arrive on Tacarigua and start looking for work. The Inquisition want me to deliver a message to the pirate camp across the island. To get there I’ll need to buy a map off Governor Di Fuego. But before the guards will even let me approach him, I need a shirt.
Like the first Risen, and the Gothic series before it, Risen 2: Dark Waters doesn’t do power fantasy. After a short, plot heavy stint on the opening island, the nameless character of the first game is sent to the island of Tacarigua with a sword, a pair of trousers and the broad instruction to infiltrate a band of pirates. How to survive long enough to come close to completing that task is left entirely to the player to work out.
How to customize the UI in The Old Republic
Finally, The Old Republic will allow us to change our UI completely to match our personal tastes! We’ve played around with the new UI customization options coming to the game in early April with patch 1.2 and have seen how flexible they really are. Here’s how you can use them to customize your own UI.
Hands-on with The Old Republic’s new PvP WarZone, Novare Coast
At least week’s Guild Summit for The Old Republic, we had a chance to go behind closed doors and play the new WarZone coming in patch 1.2 early next month. The capture-point map takes a few notes from League of Legends and cranks up the control-point action way past any other WarZone currently in the game.
Flying the not-so-friendly skies in World of Warplanes
World of Tanks was one of the sleeper hits of 2011—a realistic, methodical tank shooter that was way more intense than a first glance would grant it. To follow up their flagship game, Wargaming.net is paving the runway for World of Warplanes, which takes WoT’s team play and “Nice shot!” heroics and gives them freedom in three axes of movement. But what can WoT players expect when they make the transition from treads to wings? We got a chance to check out an alpha build at GDC, and from what we saw, WoWP will make those Panzer pilots look like pansies.
The Showdown Effect preview
In the Cambrian explosion of the Quake and Half-Life mod scene, many great game genres were born, survived and thrived – Team Fortress, Counter Strike, Day of Defeat. One of the few that failed to generate offspring, without quite dying, was Action: Quake II, a rapid, silly, pulp movie of a game, with ludicrous moves and all the tricks of a Hong Kong action movie.
The Showdown Effect is a crossbreed between Action: Half Life and Shadow Complex. Up to eight players enter a 2D side-scrolling action area, and battle it out. Their weapons are the standard tropes of 1980s action movies – uzis, Mac-10s, berettas, M16s, rocket launchers and their quips. (The team do plan to introduce stranger weapons, like laser guns and guided rockets later).
Dungeonland hands-on preview
Paradox seems to be cornering the cutesy fantasy market; first Magicka, then A Game of Dwarves, now Dungeonland. Dungeonland’s premise is simple; an evil lord, tired of heroes rampaging through his dungeon, takes a loan from the Evil Overlord Foundation and creates a kingdom especially for heroes to destroy, chockful of powerful monsters and magic tat.
Guild Wars 2 Beta: Charr, Norn, and Human cinematics
Charr cinematic
In the same tradition as the first Guild Wars, ArenaNet’s ensuring that every storyline in GW2 feels suitably unique and grandiose. As you saw in our character creation videos, your customization options aren’t limited to visual appearance tweaks—you’ll also determine your origin story and personality traits. The choices even affect your introductory cinematic, as you give an account of your past triumphs and present aspirations. In Guild Wars 2, one thing is for certain: this is your story.
