Oh boy, I started this post nearly two hours ago, had writer’s block, started up Star Trek Online, now 2,000 sto energy credits, and several burning Klingon Bird of Prey carcasses later, I’m back. I feel all fired up!

*slips Karate Kid II into the PS3*… what? I like part II!

Before we leave Star Trek Online for good this week, I’d like to leave you with this truly awesome trailer for the latest Borg-centric content pack, I mean look at it! If that doesn’t make you want to fire up the game and pilot a starship I don’t know what will. Actually, I think  that really should have been their launch trailer, it makes the game look stupendously impressive (it’s still fun, just not quite as action packed as that trailer might suggest). Whassis about new content I hear you ask? Why it’s the Borg you see, they’re coming… again.

What’s that I hear? Low bandwidth?Can’t be bothered to wait for a video to load? Fear not, here are some screenshots from the expansion to make you salivate, mmmmm….. Borrrrrrrrg!

A game as pretty as Aion lends itself rather nicely to the “printscreen” button, and its one-shots are among some of the most beautiful you’ll find on a site like Massively, which is why I was quietly pleased that NCsoft decided to hold a screenshot contest as part of their Valentines Day celebrations. You can find the winning entries here, d’awwwwww! ‘Ain’t that cuuuute? I wonder how many erm… NSFW entries they got though? I think I like one titled “Kiss, Kiss”, best of all, although the comic is pretty creative.

HULKAGEDDON News! Well, it’s not exactly riveting stuff, but I’ll take any opportunity I can get to write about HULKAGEDDON, and Massively have provided just that with the latest Eve Online Quarterly Economic Newsletter, which aims, in part, to show the effects of the notorious player created event (wherin pirates target mining barges called Hulks).

It would seem the gods at Sony Online Entertaiment have heard by silent plea, and have deemed us mere mortals fit to receive a second, totally awesome, and particularly heroic Q&A promo video for DC Universe Online. Hera be praised! Seriously though, I really am pleased with this, I like these fan driven videos and I’ve still got hope that DCUO will be a worthy addition to the MMO-verse and a great action MMORPG for gamers looking for something a bit more fast paced than WoW.

But enough talk, have at the video here! Erm, guys, how about some gameplay for the next vid?  And why, oh why does it seem that the more we find out about this game the less we know about it? And whatever happened to SOE’s The Agency anyway?

Don’t say I didn’t say it would happen, but it would appear that Cheyenne Mountain Entertainment, the guys developing Stargate Worlds, have filed for bankruptcy. The writing’s been on the wall for a while now, what with CME seeming to have endless cash flow issues, and seemingly never making any progress on the game. Alarm bells went off about a month ago when they announced that they were going to put Stargate Worlds on the back burner while they worked on a stupendously lame looking first person shooter instead.

I guess this means the closes gamers will get to Worlds will probably have to be the sneak peek in the Stargate Universe pilot. Stargate’s a great license though, in fact it’s kind of a wonder there hasn’t been a decent game made using the IP yet. Perhaps well see a similar situation with what happened with Star Trek Online when Perpetual Entertainment went belly up and Cryptic came in with a bucket full of wow gold and bought the license. Of course, the sci-fi MMO space is getting a bit crowded, what with STO, Eve Online and Star Wars: The Old Republic on the way.

Come now, you didn’t think I’d finish up the post without mentioning that Blizzcast #13 is available! *right click, download and save file*

Okay, Danliel san’s about to take on Sato’s newphew at the temple, second best scene in the movie (after Daniel and Kumiko’s courtship in the storm) so I gotta get off here, jump around for a bit, put some coffee on the boil and maaaaybe eat a donut… or five.

Dessert:

- The Astounding Bloom Box (in case you’ve been living under a rock or something).

- Also, I realise I’m a little late with this, but holy mother of BROCK! Venture Bros. toys are coming!

Hot diggity dawg, now that was a good episode of Legend of the Seeker. I won’t spoil it for you if you haven’t seen it yet, but it was a Cara episode, and Cara episodes are always good, right? I’m taking a days break from gaming, so I just popped in House of Flying Daggers to pass the time. And no, I still haven’t earned enough sto energy credits to purchase a shiny new ship, but there’s always tomorrow right?

Would you believe that when we finally get some concrete info on Bethesda’s Fallout: New Vegas, it comes not from IGN or Kotaku, but from… USA Today… whuh? We’ve heard rumors, but now we know some solid details regarding who you play, what you’re up to, and the state of Vegas. Apparently you’re a delivery boy who happens to get shot, buried just outside town, and left for dead, which explains why a friendly robot is helping to dig you out in the trailer. Apparently what you were carrying was pretty valuable, and the game’s plot revolves around you trying to figure out exactly what it was. Says Bethesda’s Pete Hines:

(Vegas provides) a brand new, fresh experience that has a familiar feel of Fallout, but otherwise it’s an entirely new game and a new look, with Joshua trees and tumbleweeds and blue skies. Vegas is up and running. It’s not a ghost town. It still exists and thrives. There are casinos, and you can go down onto the Strip. It will have a very different feel from that standpoint.

You will eventually hear a little bit about the events of (Fallout 3), but New Vegas is a self contained story. You don’t have to have played the previous games to have any clue what’s going on here.

It’s a massive game world that will take you hundreds of hours to explore every nook and cranny.

That last sentence right there? SOLD! Granted I’m still fifty hours and five expansions away from finishing Fallout 3, but you can never have too much Fallout, It’s like complaining that there’s too much ice cream and cake on your plate you know? People just look at you like you must be crazy.

You’ve spent wow gold on mounts, you’ve spent real cash on pets, prepare to spend more real cash on cute fluffy Warcraft stuffed toys. That’s right uber-fans, Warcraft plushies are here. Brace yourself though, these cute little fellas will cost you a fair bit more than a pandaren monk, personally I think they’re $10 more expensive than they should be, but I guess Blizzard can charge whatever the heck they want cus they know we’ll still pony up the cashola. It’s pretty cool though that the plushies come with an in-game companion, I guess that makes the high price somewhat easier to swallow. I’m partial to the Gryphon myself.

By the way, if you attended Blizzcon last year and are itching to get into the StarCraft II beta, just be a little patient, Blizzard are working on getting you your pass. Turns out there were so many attendees that they simply couldn’t get everyone in on the first wave of the beta.

You know, as cool as it is that WoW developed this awesome art style that’ll even allow play on a Commodore 64, I’m glad the guys at Funcom are pushing the graphical boundaries of MMO eye candy. Just have a look at these new Rise of the Godslayer screenshots, absolutely incredible.

If you’re looking for more RoG info, Funcom have been talking the expansion up recently, letting us know it’s a great value as it’s a huuuuuge expansion, with director Craig Morrison exclaiming that it’s the biggest production he’s ever lead. Most folks really appreciate what Morrison’s been able to do with AoC since he took the directors chair, so it’ll be interesting to see what he’s able to do with the game when he’s in control of content right out the gate. You get the feeling that the future of AoC rely on the success or failure of Rise of the Godslayer.

If you’re interested in RoG, or are just a bit Conan lore fan, you’ll want to check out CVG’s interview with Morrison, it’s a great piece and probably the best piece of PR I’ve seen for the expansion since it was announced. I’ve been worried that the shift in location wouldn’t really feel like Conan, but it certainly sounds like they’re making the most of the brief mention Kithai gets in Howard’s books.

Before I go, I want to take a moment to talk about the recent announcement of Eve Online: Tyrannis. Since Dominion I’ve wondered where they were going with the introduction of planetary vistas,  now things are falling into place. You can read all about Tyrannis here, though irritatingly we don’t get any screenshots or video of what the expansion offers. I have to say the promise of being able to survey and set up production facilities and mining areas on planets is all very cool. I’ve tried to get into Eve numerous times but I think it’s just a wee bit too complex for me, that doesn’t mean however, that I don’t find the game utterly intriguing.

Welp, I’m off to rummage for some food, the big fight scene between Takeshi Kaneshiro and Andy Lau is coming up, can’t miss that!

Dessert:

- Cus I’m in the mood. Jackie Chan vs. Benny Urquidez in Meals on Wheels.

So I’m sitting here and Jurassic Park is on TV, it’s the first time I’ve seen it in… about ten years.

1 – I completely forgot Newman was in this.

2 – I completely forgot how awesome the first hour or so is, the sense of discovery, Jeff Goldblum bizarre line deliver, Sam Neil being Sam Neil… all great stuff, Spielberg at his wondrous best.

3 –  Also, wow… Sam Jackson was in Jurassic Park… weird.

4 – That theme music, so good.

I am of course taking a break from Star Trek Online, my march to earn enough sto energy credits to upgrade The USS Pax Magellanic continues endlessly on. It’s a funny thing, but during the open beta I hated, hated, hated ground combat, it was a chore. Now however, I actually prefer ground combat to ship combat. I’m really not sure what it is, maybe it’s been the gradual refinements to the ground based UI that make it easier to control your team-mates, but it seems a lot more tactical than the somewhat jumbled mess it was in open beta, which generally involved standing in one place and shooting till the other guy fell down.

I still haven’t worked up the steel to play a PvP match, I’m never big on PvP in MMO’s, I hear it’s a great way to earn energy credits, but… I just don’t like getting my butt kicked

Oi! PC Gamers! Yeah, you! 2K Games have announced Civilization V! I can’t pretend to be a long time fan of the series, the only Civ game I’ve ever played has been Civilisation Revolution on PlayStation 3, but good Lord that game stole hours of my life at a time. As I understand it Civ Rev was sort of a gateway drug to the Civ series, a simpler, more streamlined entry in the console space aimed at getting console players interested in the Civilisation franchise. If that’s true, it worked on me like a charm, because I have to admit I’m eager to see what Sid Meier has planned, I’m especially happy to hear that there are increased avenues for diplomatic gameplay, call me a pansy, but I’d rather talk my way out of a gunfight. If you’re interested in some screenshots, look no further.

Which brings me briefly to Fallout 3…  crikey it’s such an awesome game. I’m 35 hours after losing my first 100+ hour playthrough, and I can honestly say my second experience has been vastly different from the first.

Holy impending laswsuit, Batman! How fast do you think it’s going to take Activision Blizzard’s men in suits to catch on to World of LordCraft? I doubt hiding behind the “homage” or “fan game defense is going to do its developers much good at all, especially with this plastered on their homepage:

World of Warcraft is a classical game, we all love it. It gives us too much memory about Azeroth. But most of people can’t spend much time in WoW. Job and life things always take too much time, so World of Lordcraft is coming now.

Oh Lawd, more like World of LOLcraft, amIrite?

And now, the moment we’ve all been waiting for. Official StarCraft II beta system requirements, yes, the numbers leaked last month by Blizzard weren’t quite accurate, but they were close:

Minimum Requirements:

• Windows XP SP3/ Vista SP1/ Windows 7
• 2.2ghz Pentium IV or equivalent AMD Athlon Processor
• 1GB System Ram/ 1.5GB for Vista and Windows 7
• 128MB Nvidia GeForce 6600 GT/ ATI Radeon 9800 PRO video card
• 1024×768 minimum display resolution
• 4GB free hard drive space (beta)
• Broadband connection

And there you have it? Do you match up? I certainly hope so! To be fair these requirements are extremely low (which is to be expected for a Blizzard game).

Before I jet off into the sunset, I’d like to let y’all know that Age of Conan’s Return to Toth Amon, Update 6 is now live (le patch notes). It’s been a while since I logged into AoC, STO’s been keeping me busy, but this sounds like an intriguing update, I might consider re-upping just to have a look.

And with that lads and lassies, I’m off to fix a cup ‘a joe and rummage around for some day old donuts to warm in me microwave. Remember wastelanders, don’t feed the Yao Guai!

Dessert:

- An oldie but a goodie – Sho Nuff!

- This gesture by Blizzard makes me feel a lot better about them charging folks so much for digital pets. Really nice.

Valentines Day has come and gone once again, and if you’re lucky you got some flowers and a box of chocolates. If you’re a gamer though, you probably asked for a copy of Star Trek Online, and really, who could blame you?

As for me, I’ve been on a self imposed break from STO over the weekend, I’m getting ever closer to Lt. Cmdr (I know, you can point and laugh at how slow I am).

I figured I was going to get my free month out of the way, then give Cryptic a month to get the game more stable, squash bugs are release a bit more content, but they’ve come flying out of the starting blocks, what with the recent news about the Borg content, and now we’re hearing they’ve apparently got concrete plans to open up more ship interiors.

Ship interiors would probably be a feature that most STO players would have wanted from the start, but the simple fact is that Cryptic hadn’t really expected to include them, and only included four mildly different Bridges in the final game (each costing about 1,000 energy credits). They’ve always maintained that if the community wanted them, we’d get them, and this interview with exec producer Craig Zinkievich, is pretty much the closest they’ve come to confirming ship interiors are coming:

“Anything we can do to make the game feel even more like Star Trek is something we want to do. So, definitely, we want to give people more of their ship. This is one of those things we want to get perfect before introducing it to players, though, it’s going to be an undertaking.”

Eagle eyed readers will notice the caveat in that last sentence, it’s basically Zinc saying, “don’t expect this next week”. I expect the challenge, apart from the creation of all the new assets, would be figuring out what to do with all this new game space. What sort of functionality will these interiors have? Right now the in-game bridges are… well they’re useless, I doubt folks will want to cough up thousands more in energy credits for purely cosmetic engine rooms, captain’s quarters, ten forwards etc. The bridge is officially listed by Cryptic as being a social place, but I’ve never really felt the need to invite someone onto my bridge, I mean that’s what ten forward is for, right?

If you’re still on the fence about Star Trek Online, you might want to check out this review-ish article that Gamepro has put up. I’ve been impressed with what John Davison’s done with Gamepro since taking over late last year, and this is probably one of the fairest, and most accurate reviews of STO I’ve come across.

Remember Richard Garriot? Remember Tabula Rasa? Stop laughing at the back! Well, if you remember them both, you might recall that back when Tabula Rasa was still um, operational, Richard Garriot embarked on a PR stunt that sent him into space, well, apparently there was a film crew of sorts that documented his trip, and we’ll be seeing the full video at South by Southwest, in the mean time, here’s a trailer. Wow. I guess nothing good came of Tabula Rasa after all.

*Random thought* I love Chrome, but it’s got so many weird quirks. Ctrl+B controls bookmarks but Ctrl+I still handles italics… really?

Oh! Oh! Oh! So I found this pretty cool episode of Gametrailer’s Bonus Round this weekend. It’s always a great show, but I’m linking to it specifically now because the panel involved, which includes Wedbush analyst Michael Pachter, Naughty Dog Co-Founder Jason Rubin, and Gametrailers EIC Shane Satterfield, are talking about how paying for games has got to change. It isn’t long before they’re talking about the free-to-play model, and then Rubin, the only developer of the bunch, comes across as a strong proponent of RMT. It’s just refreshing to see that some game developers get it. Rubin’s ideas are pretty progressive, and his idea of letting the gamer have the initial game for free, and then deciding how he wants to pay to play it… well, that’s revolutionary. Satterfield presents things from the average gamers perspective, and you can see he’s a little rattled by the idea that someone can come in and purchase for $1 what he’s worked 10 hours for, but like Rubin says, how does this unbalance the game in any way? It’s a great episode, and definitely one to be checked out.

It’s been a while since I’ve talked about Age of Conan, but considering STO’s shiny newness, can you blame me for being distracted? Anyway, the ever reliable MMORPG.com have conducted a Rise of the Godslayer-centric interview with Erling Elingsen (love that name). If you’re so inclined, you might want to check it out. I’m looking forward to RoG, but until we start to see more screenshots and more trailers, it still seems a long way away.

P.S. I’m not even going to talk about the new tile revealed on the WoW Battlecry mosaic. It’s TAKING TOO LONG!

Dessert:

- A Night At The Emirates – The best Arsenal FC video on Youtube!

- The greatest action scene of all time (featuring the power sliding horse)

Ugh! My STO energy credits situation is still pretty dire. I still can’t afford a new ship, not even close actually. I’m thinking maybe I ought to just bite the bullet and spend a day or two grinding over at Starbase 24, score some loot and then sell it off at Earth Starbase. Like I said, I dunno what it is about the way I play RPG’s in general, but I tend to progress so damn slow, it’s been nearly two weeks and I still haven’t cracked Lieutenant Commander. Woe is me.

In the words of the immortal Chris Farley, Oh my freakin’ gourd! It’s a full theatrical trailer for The Last Airbender! For three years or so my brother tried to get me to watch Avatar: The Last Airbender (no relation to the cinematic juggernaut currently ripping the box office a new one), but I refused, I thought (in my ignorance) it looked like a Dragonball Z redux… how wrong I was, it’s easily one of the best cartoons of the past decade, and the fact that there’s a movie coming, well, I’m tickled pink… a very manly shade of pink, mind you.

Back to Star Trek Online news for a moment, I bought TWO collectors editions for the game, one Digital Deluxe Edition from Steam to play, and the other from Amazon to hold and to have… at least until the price appreciated tenfold, Blizzard-style. I suppose I should give up any hopes of ever becoming a high powered financial advisor then, because the STO collectors edition is currently doing the exact opposite of appreciating in value. It’s now available for sixty five smackers, down from eighty just a couple of weeks ago. *Sigh*.

Speaking of the STO collectors edition, if you’re wondering whether it’s worth taking the plunge, Massively’s got an unboxing so you can see for yourself what it looks like. Personally, the only thing that really gets my blood pumping is the metal communicator badge, which looks like it’s well made. Aside from that, it’s probably one of the lamest physical collectors editions for a major MMO release, no holographic galaxy map? C’mon guys!

*runs off to put a pot of coffee on the boil*

Valentines Day creeps ever closer, which means lots of in-game events, which everyone loves because, well, they’re a change of pace for a normally static MMO environment. Safe to say Blizzard does ‘em best, but I’m curious what Cryptic have planned for STO (assuming they’ve got anything planned).

The guys at Fallen Earth certainly have something unique planned, they’re asking players to send them poetry, yes, I said poetry. Submit your entries up until February 14th, and the team will decide which warms their cockles the most, and award the burgeoning Tennyson with a T-shirt and a valentine from the team. Touching. I really wish Fallen Earth had a free trial, I kinda want to give the game a go.

If you’re reading this, chances are you’re not a WoW noob, but you might still be interested to hear that only 30% of World of Warcraft trial accounts make it past level 10. Now, everywhere I’ve seen, this story’s painted things in a negative light, combining the stat with the one that WoW’s subscriber  base seems to have plateaued in 2008, but isn’t turning three out of every ten demo trialists into a paying subscriber really good? Shows you what I know I suppose.

I’m not entirely sure how I missed this one, but it’s really cool. We saw with Fallen Earth a few weeks ago how the developers were giving the ol’ game engine a bit of a spit and polish, and we know CCP have been doing the same with Eve Online for years now, Age of Conan had the DX10 upgrade, and now NCsoft are giving City of Heroes‘ graphics an overhaul. It’s definitely a welcome trend, and one we’d like to see more of going forward.

We’ve heard rumors of this in the past, and it’s something franchise star developer Infinity Ward have moved to distance themselves from in the past, but Activision is apparently still trying to find a way to further monetise the Call of Duty franchise. And they’re looking at a subscription based model. Now, on it’s own this doesn’t necessarily mean we’re going to see a Call of Duty MMO, but given the recent launch of MAG (which really should qualify as an MMO seeing as how it’s battles encompass a larger number of players than your average STO Fleet Action), you can’t help but wonder whether Activision is going to leverage some of the expertise of the guys at Blizzard to help them craft a COD MMO.

You have to wonder though, will this be the moment the franchise jumps the shark? Will gamers (console gamers especially) really be willing to pay a monthly fee to play Call of Duty? Or will they just move on to Medal of Honor or Battlefield: Bad Company?

Dessert:

- God of War II: Chaos Will Rise trailer.

You know, there are few things worse than a morning coffee and no bagel and or donut to go along with it, but as I forgot to pick some up at the store over the weekend, I’m doomed to the awkward combination of coffee and… pineapple? Ah fruit, nature’s lame attempt at candy!

Speaking of candy, I should probably pick up a box of chocolates for me mum, and maybe another box for a certain lass I’ve been sweet on of late. Yes, Valentines Day is just around the corner and lurv is in the air once again. I shouldn’t have to remind you that the Chinese New Year is also looming large (same day!) and that it’ll mean shortages of mmo gold and other services, so um… time to hoard!

So a few weeks ago my PlayStation 3 packed up for um, the third or fourth time, and this time it took my saves with it, I had to restart Fallout 3 over again (for the third time – 170 hours gone!)  I have to say I’m astounded at how much content there is in the game. In my previous playthroughs, once I got the fast-travel ability to any location, I’d just use that whenever I needed to get there. This time, I’m taking things slow and steady, actually running across the Wasteland when I need to get somewhere. I’m seven hours in, and so far I’ve discovered Big Town (which I somehow missed the first time, the Bethesda Ruins (tough for a level 5 character) and Scrapyard (I FOUND DOGMEAT, YES! I have never, ever been able to find him in previous playthroughs!)

Anyway, the reason I suddenly got into Fallout again was because I came across a stash of hot new Fallout: New Vegas info that got me really excited for Obsidian’s entry in the series. Here are the details, gleaned from the latest issue of Game Informer. Of all those I think the parts that interest me the most are:

• Optional Hardcore Mode: You have to eat and drink, ammo has weight, healing isn’t instant.

This could get really old, really fast, but it does have a lot of appeal, especially considering the game’s post apocalyptic setting.

• There is a reputation system in addition to Karma:

It’s a small addition, but I think it’s a great way of having the world react to you.

• Game is set in the Mojave wastelands, most buildings in Vegas are intact:

I’m hoping Vegas itself will be relatively alive and bustling. It would be great to have a change of pace from Fallout 3‘s arid, empty landscape.

• VATS Returns:

I really liked the VATS gameplay in Fallout 3, and hopefully Obsidian will have refined it somewhat. We already know they’re adding “special moves” to the system.

Well, we’ve still got to wait all the way till the fall, but thankfully, I at least have the massive Fallout 3 and its expansions to keep me busy till then.

The folks at NCsoft have graced us with their February Eye on Community. It’s not the most riveting missal, but folks will be happy to know that the developers have been paying attention to requests for a change in the fort timer, and that these will be coming sharpish. There’s also a reminder about Aion’s veteran rewards in there as well. It’s not the longest community letter, but then it’s still early in the year.

You know, the Warcry battle mosaic is awesome and all, but I’m really starting to think this taking far, far too long. In any case, another tile has been revealed, whoop. Maybe it’s the quiet before the storm, but other than the Death of the (old )Lich King, which is admittedly kind of a big deal, it seems as though things have been a little quiet on the World of Warcraft front for a while. Maybe the calm before the cataclysmic storm?

So I came across this interesting little article on Massively whilst doing the daily rounds. It’s titled “would you play a single-layer version?” And it immediately got me thinking about WoW. True we already have single-player versions of Warcraft, but I’d love to see a Dragon Age: Origins style game set in the Warcraft universe. I’m not talking about the blood and guts, but the general gameplay, and the idea that we can pick our own origin stories. From Orc to Elf, warrior to mage, and embark on a quest in over the shoulder, third person style. Maybe there’d be a party involved too. The truth though, is that Blizzard don’t need to make that kind of game, so they probably won’t, they never have anyway.

I think a single player Warcraft game in that style would serve do a number of things. First, it would present the world from a different perspective, and allow Blizzard to evolve the look of the Warcraft universe without touching WoW. As a game destined for the PC and current gen consoles, it could look reasonably advanced and much more detailed. Having the game on consoles would help to open the franchise up to new players, games like Oblivion, Fallout 3, and Mass Effect have seen huge success on consoles, and you can imagine Warcraft would meet the same success. But then, that’s unlikely to happen, as I said before, Blizzard really don’t need to make that kind of game, and they’ve already got their plates full with Starcraft and Diablo sequels, not to mention WoW: Cataclysm.

Well ladies and gents, I’m off here, going to see if I can squeeze in an episode of Avatar: The Last Airbender before I have to head off to EpicToon HQ.

Dessert:

Something to warm the heart, as Guild Wars players join the multitude of gamers giving to Haiti.

Okay, I have thus far managed to accrue a measly 8,000 energy credits in Star Trek Online, I’m also only just on Lt. Rank 7 after a solid week of playing. Why am I so darn slow at levelling and getting currency in MMO’s? I’m eyeing a ship upgrade, but at 150,000 energy credits, it’s a far, far way off. I just need to remind myself of those early days playing wow when all I had was 10 wow gold and that sweet mount seemed so far away. I got there eventually.

I have to say that over my first week of play with STO I’ve been suitably impressed with performance and sever stability and reliability. Sure there’s down time, sure there are queues occasionally to get in, but by and large I haven’t had too many issues (especially since I rolled back my Nvidia drivers since the client was having issues with the latest ones). That isn’t to say there aren’t problems though, as folks flooding the official forums banging on about not getting their Digital Deluxe Edition add-ons and raging against the server down time will tell you, but by and large it’s been a lot less painless than I expected.

It remains to be seen just how Cryptic will handle what must surely be their most successful MMO ever. Only last week they touted the signing up of over a million accounts on their web page (curiously not mentioning the number of pre-orders though). There have been grumblings of discontent from folks about the lack of Klingon PVP, but it’s important that Cryptic don’t lose focus and execute on their 45 day post-launch content plan, if there’s anything we know about MMO’s, it’s that gamers will burn through content like there’s no tomorrow, and then they’ll turn on the devs! For now though, Cryptic are still enjoying a well deserved “Honeymoon period”.

For anyone else struggling, like me, to make it through the Lieutenant grades, might I point you to Massively’s helpful article on the subject.

Squeee! Squeee! First ever teaser trailer for Fallout: New Vegas. I can’t claim to have been a long time Fallout fan, I only jumped on the bandwagon with Bethesda’s entry into the series (I’ve since downloaded Fallout 1 and Fallout 2 from the excellent GoG.com). I had logged over one hundred hours into Fallout 3 before my save file went belly up, I’m starting over and hoping to get through that, The Pitt, Broken Steel, Point Lookout and Mothership Zeta before New Vegas hits in the fall, tall order, I know.

It’s true it’s a really short teaser, but we can gather some information from it at least. From the title, “New Vegas”, we can surmise that Las Vegas has probably been rebuilt following the apocalypse. From the distance it does appear as though the city is in relatively good shape, but it’s impossible to say for sure. It’s also valid to guess that this entry in the series will have you exploring the more intimate confines of the city of Vegas, a la Take Two’s Bioshock than it will have you traipsing across the vast empty wasteland of Washington DC as we did in Fallout 3.

Though it’s being released by the same publisher (Bethesda), the game is also likely to have it’s own completely unique gameplay systems, as the developer Obsidian  is being given plenty of free reign. Obsidian, also currently developing the spy themed RPG, Alpha Protocol, is comprised of former Black Isle Studios vets, RPG fans will remember that name as Black Isle created the original Fallout 1 and 2, as well as Planescape Torment and Baldur’s Gate: Dark Alliance. In a sense the franchise is returning to its spiritual home, and based on what we’ve seen so far and Obsidian’s track record (which includes Knights of the Old Republic II) then RPG fans are in for a heck of a ride this fall.

Death of the tyrant. The Lich King Falls. Far be it from me to suggest that the mighty Blizzard are in a state of panic, but don’t you find it um… convenient that the Fall of the Lich King was scheduled to coincide with the launching of a certain Star Trek Online? Curious yes?

Okay, SPOILER ALERT! The following link will take you to a video of the cinematic that plays once you defeat the Lich King. Since I’m currently struggling through Burning Crusade, I know it’ll be years till I get to see this, so I didn’t mind spoiling myself. [LINK]<– View at your own peril! That said, it’s infinitely cool, Cataclysm seems a heck of a lot closer now!

*Random thought: How about some interesting new Star Wars: The Old Republic news eh, Bioware?

Dessert:

The best Star Trek Online bug was present in the beta. Sometimes you would beam down to a planets surface… as your ship.

In one of those supremely rare acts of beautiful universal confluence, today, February 2nd, the launch date for Star Trek Online, is also my birthday. This means of course, that I have had no qualms in getting myself a Collectors Edition box from Amazon (with the liberated Borg Bridge Officer) and a Digital Deluxe Edition from Steam, the latter of which caused endless problems, but I’ll get into that later. What really sucks though, was waking up this morning with the mother of all head colds. *sniff*

If, like me, you pre-ordered Star Trek Online and took part in the open beta, you might have been somewhat horrified at the start of the um, headstart, when Steam decided to delete the 10GB client and then begin re-downloading the entire thing. Needless to say the STO player base was not amused. We don’t know whose fault this was, but folks flooded the Steam and Cryptic forums and rained abuse down on the technical support staff (which is, oh so helpful). Thankfully, a dude (or dudette!) on the official forums found this workaround, if you’re running Vista or Windows 7, and you have Windows set to create periodic restore points, which it does by default, this could help you avoid having to re-download everything.

I wish we could get some sold sales figures for STO, I’m really curious about how the game is performing, as Cryptic have let the community know, at least twice, once at the start of open beta, and then at the end of headstart, that they really had no idea so many people were going to be logging on to play. I’m not suggesting the game will do WoW numbers (or anything close to it) but it would be nice to have another surprise MMO success on the level of say, Eve Online. While STO hasn’t had the smoothest of starts, you can’t fault Cryptic for trying to make the game the best it can be, and what they’ve got planned in the immediate future sounds great.

My recent love/hate relationship with Star Trek Online has meant I’ve had little or no time for Mass Effect 2, but I’ve been able to rack up the aoc gold, which has surprised me a bit since I figured I’d be all MMO’d out. I have to admit now I’m severely tempted to hop onto WoW for a bit, but I shall stay strong and keep to playing just two MMO’s and Dragon Age at the same time.

Speaking of World of Warcraft, they keep doing really, really cool things with custom characters. First there was that deal where you could have your WoW characters made into statuettes, and now there’s this Warcraft Poster Character Contest. You have to wonder why other MMO’s don’t offer stuff like this more often (probably because they’re not as big as WoW) I mean I’d really love to have my STO Science Officer turned into a statuette. Also, I like typing statuette.

Can you believe Vanguard: Saga of Heroes is three years old!? I’m still kind of in a state of shock, I mean I remember logging on a week after launch (I was one of the poor saps who bought the game at launch) and thinking, “man, this is really rough, I can’t see this lasting a year”. And yet, look where we are now. I guess it just goes to show how much expertise SOE have when comes to operating an MMO with low overheads, and no, I’m not dissing them, it really was meant as a compliment, seriously, not many publishers have even been able to handle multiple concurrent MMO’s.

While we’re on the subject of oooooooooooold MMO’s, remember City of Heroes? The game that made Cryptic? Well if you’re still playing it, you’ll be pleased to know that the free character transfer program has been extended for another month. I wonder whether they’ve seen such demand they decided to increase the time period, or if they haven’t bee particularly impressed and want to give more time for folks to make the move. Either way, free is good, right?

Got a juicy “letter from the game director” for the month of January, this time Funcom’s Craig Morrison covers the coming 1.06 update for Age of Conan, letting us know its arrival is near, I believe it’s already on the test servers and should be going live relatively soon. There’s also some talk about the guild renown system and hinting about Rise of the Godslayer, have a look. Me? I’ve been too busy playing to care about what’s coming, I continue to marvel at just how brilliantly Funcom have turned things around, it’s a shame there aren’t more folks on the servers though. I guess it really just goes to show that a bad first impression can really kill an MMO.

Anyway, I’m off to go medicate myself with some Benadryl and possibly ibuprofen while I wait for the latest Star Trek Online patch to finish downloading.

Dessert:

- Staaaaaaaaaar Trek!

- Shaft Johnson, reporting for duty.

- Google Chrome now has extensions, go NUTS!

And now it’s time for something completely different.

I thought we’d take a break from the usual news heavy blog format for a change of pace, something that I hope is more of a discussion piece than the norm, which usually involves me ranting for twenty minutes. I still rant, just… not as much.

I’m a Quest Completist:

This specifically drives my erm… guild mates nuts. I MUST complete all the quests within a specific area before moving on. If I see a bunch of golden exclamation marks pop up in a city, I have to have them. I just don’t feel right not solving everyone problems. Even if one of those quests takes me half way around the world to the other side of the planet, on a different continent, where I find a whole new slew of quests, I must return to the original location to turn that quest in, and finish the quests there first.

I finished Mass Effect 1 today (just in time for part 2!), and this failing made finishing Bioware’s space opera incredibly difficult. As most can at attest to, Mass Effect, despite everything it does right (and it does a lot right) has some of the most banal, most tear-your-hair-out-cus-it’s-like-watching-paint-dry, boring side missions. But you know what? I did ‘em all.

I’m a Pack Rabbit:

Hmmm… that looks like an interesting item. It might be useful some time later in the game. I’ll just put it in my knap-sack here… and then forget about it till the end of the game. “You are over-encumbered and cannot run”. I’m far too familiar with this phrase, whether the game is Fallout 3, World of Warcraft, or Age of Conan, I’m always running out of inventory space. Why? Because I hoard items like no ones business. I’ve taken that old boyscout mantra to the absolute extreme, always be prepared, you never know what you might need, so stock up on a little of everything.

I’m a Spendthrift:

I prefer the term “economically prudent” myself, but whether it’s aoc gold, aion kinah, or Fallout 3‘s caps, I just can’t get enough of the shiny gold stuff. I love, love, LOOOOOVE seeing that number climb. Maybe I’ve got a Scrooge McDuck complex. Come to think of it, how cool would it be if Blizzard created an instanced player housing style money bin where you could invite all your friends over for a swim in some wow gold? Oh! Oh! And what if the pile got larger and larger the more wow gold you had? *sigh* we can dream I guess.

I can’t stand Japanese RPG’s:

This one hurts a bit, because I used to quite like them. All the way up to the PlayStation One era, I was playing games like Parasite Eve, Final Fantasy VII (and VIII) and Vagrant Story. However, somewhere along the line in the PlayStation 2 era, I figured out I was playing the same game over and over and over again. The androgynous main, emo/angst-ridden main character, nonsensical storyline, linear gameplay… where was the innovation? Where was the player choice? What happened o the Parasite Eve’s and Vagrant Story’s of the world?

I never buy DLC or expansion packs:

Well maybe that isn’t entirely true. I do own Burning Crusade. At EpicToon HQ we have pretty much every expansion for every MMO we play at the offices, so maybe I get my fix there, but even though I wanted to buy Shivering Isles for Elder Scrolls IV, and Bring Down the Sky for Mass Effect 1… I never did. I’m looking at Return to Ostagar right now and thinking “Yeah baby! I’m gonna get that!” But the truth is that once I’m done with Dragon Age: Origins, I’ll be ready for Dragon Age 2, and Return to Ostagar will be but a distant memory. I looooooove Age of Conan, but when Rise of the Godslayer hits, will I get that?

MMO’s drive me nuts:

And yet I can’t stop playing them. I don’t get it. I know why they drive me nuts, it’s because I never really feel like I’m in charge of my own destiny. By design in an MMO, you can’t really alter the world around you or the NPC’s you interact with, because everyone else also lives in that world and needs to do the same quests. It’s why, when you leave Tortage in flames at the end of the first ten levels of Age of Conan, you’re shocked to come back ten minutes later only to find the place in pristine shape.

Admittedly though, time and technology seem intent on changing that. With the advent of phasing, games like World of Warcraft are able to make the same location appear different for different players at different points in the quest line. Also, games like Bioware are creating NPC’s and companions who are reactive, who can decide to leave your group in Star Wars: The Old Republic if they don’t like the way you run the show.

Do you, Gamer, take  this game, Star Trek Online, to be your lawfully wedded MMO, to quest and to loot, to raid and to craft, in beta and at launch, never forsaking, for as long as you both shall game?

Ah the lifetime subscription. It signifies the holy bond between gamer and publisher. I bring this up because on my regular rounds lurking about various gaming forums and the official Cryptic forums, I’ve noticed a surprisingly large number of folks opting to take the plunge on Cryptic’s latest, laying down 240 aion kinah for a lifetime subscription and all its associated benefits. Me? I thought about it, and I’m a huge Trekkie, but Star Wars: The Old Republic is coming next year, and well, Cryptic ain’t got nothing on Bioware.

That isn’t to say that STO’s open beta has been a disaster, far from it in my opinion. In the very early days of the beta there might have been a host of issues that really irked folks, but as we’ve neared the end of the open beta, Cryptic has been pretty diligent about rolling g out patches and updates to squash bugs.  Changes to streamline the interface, improve performance, banish crashes to desktop and general polish have been implemented. There’s even a fancy new cinematic that plays when you first create a Federation character.

The general consensus seems to be that there’s no consensus… but then isn’t that the way it is with all MMO’s, even the mighty World of Warcraft? Most folks though, do seem to agree that Star Trek Online has a lot of promise, Cryptic’s work in respecting the franchise, and its gameplay decisions, specifically in the realm of space combat have been exemplary. However, there’s also a lot of doubt about whether Cryptic have the nuos to maximise the potential of the IP, and expand enough on the base of the game they’ve created to make it truly great. Really, only time will tell, but I for one am rooting for them.

If you haven’t had a chance to check the game out, and you can miraculously get your hands on a beta key, you have until tonight at 6pm PST today to go for a jaunt around the Sirius Sector.

TOR ALERT! New lore video! Man, it really looks like EA and Bioware are pulling out all the stops to challenge WoW with The Old Republic. Of course, there’s always the chance that Actiblizzion will throw a damper on Bioware’s party by announcing their next MMO the day TOR launches.  Blizzivision are kinda sneaky that way.

So it looks like we’re actually going to get a Fallout MMO, and it looks like it’s not going to be Bethesda making the game. Interplay have apparently made definitive agreements with Bulgarian developer Masthead, artisans behind another in-development post-apocalyptic massively multiplayer online game, Earthrise… weird no? I continue to be skeptical about this whole situation, Interplay have… well they’ve gone down the crapper over the past decade and a half, and handing over development duties on a franchise as beloved and potentially lucrative as Fallout to a first time developer just doesn’t seem wise. I should add here that the release of Earthrise has already been pushed back once, from late ’09 to sometime in 2010, not a good sign.

*random thought* When are we finally going to get definitive word on an MMO from Bethesda?

You know it wasn’t quite the other day I was wondering why on earth SOE seemed to have completely gone on an information blackout regarding anything related to two of their most high profile in-development MMO’s, The Agency, and DC Universe Online. It would seem that we’re (hopefully) starting to reach a stage where we’ll start to see and hear more info. It would be great to see a new gameplay vid, but for now the team has posted  a 10 minute Q&A session on Facebook that should get your juices all… juicy again. The physics stuff sounds good, and definitely different from anything we’ve seen in an MMO before.

By the way, Mr. Russell Gusto, first poster in that vid’s comment section, you sir, have a cool name, you too Tubby Zillinger, if that is indeed your real name.

If for some bizarre reason you required further proof than 15 million subscribers that World of Warcraft ruled the world, now it has its own magazine. I kid you not. Subscribe now for only $39.95 a year (:eek! Er, can’t I just pay in wow gold instead?

Before I go, I’ll point you in the general direction of the latest Aion “Eye on Communty”,  topics discussed include, among others, gender change and plastic surgery. Again, I kid you not.

Welp, that’s it for me, I’m off to make me some pancakes. Pancakes is goooooood brain food