Quite frankly, this looks awesome. I’d condition that with budget, them being nerds, etc, but why? This looks awesome, full stop.
Plus, I’m pretty certain someone’s coming out of it with a job in Hollywood. Good for them.
Archive for April, 2009
One for the ladies; buck-nekkid Hugh Jackman
And for us guys, he pretty much stabs, kills and/or blows up everything in the movie. Well, from what I can tell from the trailer, anyway. And hey, it gets a 7. Check out the review over at wired.
Wolverine was shot primarily in New Zealand (standing in for Logan’s home base in the Canadian Rockies), and the country’s spectacular vistas figure into the film’s best sequence, in which a muscled-up Jackman bounds stark-naked off waterfalls and across wheat fields after getting fried in a tub while being surgically transfused with indestructible metal alloy.
Free Realms …. I’m SO done with you. Especially now.
This post has been deleted as it simply caused too much dumb controversy. The gist of it was this: I linked to an article on Massively where they discussed Free Realms being played by adult players. I thought that this was strange since Free Realms is clearly targeted at kids and I posted such.
However, since I tried (and clearly failed) to do it in a tongue-in-cheek, somewhat funny way – and linking to a Penny Arcade comic in the process – I came under fire as seen below in the approved comments. And in other comments I didn’t approve. It was inferred that I was somehow trying to attack Sony, that I was a right-wing narrow-minded crazy. That couldn’t be farther from the truth.
Simply, I was trying to point out that much hubbub was made over regular MMOers playing FR, and it clearly isn’t made for those of us that also play WoW and whatnot (hint: it’s really made for kids). Not that you can’t play FR and have some casual light-hearted fun, knock yourself out. I just find that the intense levels of hype surrounding it, aimed at adult gamers is well… ODD.
Long and short… go about your business – nothing to see here. If you want to play Free Realms, adult gamer, I won’t make fun of you anymore.
The Chronicles of Spellborn goes final
Well, it’s gone final. Because of that, I had to update my review. Man, always causing me work, that game. So there’s 2 good things about this – 1) you can now use reg’lar old credit cards for payment. That effectively negated the calculus needed to subscribe to the damn game and 2) you get 2 weeks for nuttin just for signing up.
Of course, not all is rosy – as of the writing of this article, their site is getting hammered (I presume) and is unavailable. And in Dutch, no less. is back up. However, in the meantime, why don’t you head on over and read my newbie review of the game, so you can discover what to expect from the game.
From Massively.com:
Acclaim has officially launched The Chronicles of Spellborn in North America, and to mark the occasion, premium subscriptions are totally free for people registering before the 7th of May (and for existing accounts). The issue of needing “Acclaim Coins” to purchase subscriptions has been fixed in time for the launch, and when the free subscriptions run out, players will be able to keep them going using their credit cards directly.
via Spellborn launches in the US; subscriptions free for 2 weeks – Massively.
LotRO two-year anniversary… Goodies & cheaper prices!
So LotRO is 2. Awwww lookit ‘im! He’s growing so fast. Actually, I’m a bit bummed about the whole $9.99 pricing for Moria and SoA. I just spent $50 for the same package, not 3 weeks ago. Gahhhh! Oh well. It’s a good game and it’s worth it. You all should go spend $50 on it too! Support the wee MMOs!
Anyway, there’s some cool stuff coming down the pike with Book 8, as described on Massively, Dol Guldur, Sauron’s old fortress. Sweet. And they don’t stop there – they’re also adding Mirkwood – of the giant spiders from the Hobbit. Awesome. Head on over to Massively for the full scoop.
Anniversary Bonuses
To help promote LotRO for new players, Turbine is offering a special anniversary pricing plan for all subscriptions of 3 months or more. From April 24th through June 30th, players can choose any multi-month plan (90 days or longer) and lock in a monthly price of $9.99 for as long as they maintain that plan. Plus, the game itself is $9.99 on the company’s e-store through this promotional period.
During the anniversary celebration, monsters throughout Middle-earth will drop special rare items that can be exchanged for a gift box that will reward them with a variety of in-game items to aid in their adventures in Middle-earth. Plus, anyone with an active subscription on June 30th will receive a special in-game gift called the Writ of Passage which provides 20% discounts at stable masters throughout Middle-earth.
via LotRO two-year anniversary: Book 8 details announced – Massively.
First screenshot of Torchlight!
Torchlight is the upcoming singleplayer action-RPG from Runic Games. Runic is the company created from the remnants of Flagship Studios West. The guys that were working on Mythos.
Anyhoo, they’re developing a single-player RPG first, followed by an MMO… which has just been announced to be published by Perfect World Games. This means that it will have worldwide distribution. Very exciting.
Below is one of the first screenshots of the game in action. It looks sweet – especially the enormous boss in the top left. For those of you that like Action RPGs, from the description of it, Torchlight sounds like its going to be essentially Fate 2.0. And that’s a good thing. I can’t wait to see what the MMO is going to be like.
Free Realms beta early impressions
So I got into said beta on Saturday. Although the game sounds pretty interesting, I was most keen on trying out their supposedly super-fast download system. According to the Sony folks, the client streams to your machine while you create your character on the website.
I was skeptical. Not that I didn’t believe them. Okay, I didn’t believe them. I figured that although it would stream quickly, I didn’t figure there was any way it’d be ready to go as soon as I was done a-clicking and a-sliding my way to a quasi-unique replication of myself.
Whaddya know. I was surprised. Sure enough, in the short space of a couple minutes, I was able to hop right into the game with my newly created character, Luke Oakenshield. Pretty spiffy. However, the character creation part is darn limited. I’d like to see lots more but seeing as how it’s still beta, I’ll cut it some slack.
Since I haven’t played it enough yet to go in-depth, I’ll give y’all the short takes:
- Visually very nice. It looks as good as the screenshots, only everything’s moving. So it’s even better.
- No slowdown. I was impressed. With approximately 40 – 50 characters running around onscreen, I didn’t get an ounce of lag or stutter, even with all settings completely maxed. I have a decent rig, but at 1920 x 1200, in most other games, they start to stutter badly when this happens.
- It crashed twice in about an hour and a half of play. Once when changing settings, once when changing zones.
- Although you could play it as an adult, it really isn’t a game for adults. I was hoping it might hold a little pearl of depth within it’s candy-coated exterior, but alas, it looks like this one is for the parents-with-kids crowd. Or just for kids. It’s just a bit too shallow for anyone who’s played an ‘adult’ MMO before. And I don’t mean one where you run around nearly naked. Even though God knows that happens enough in most MMOs as is.
- Super-easy to get going, with all your different jobs and pets and such.
- Mini-games!! These were kinda cool. They’d get repetetive, I’m sure, but since there’s quite a few to choose from, if you just switch em up a bit, you’ll likely not notice the repetition.
- Nice ‘greencrumb trail’ to find your quest target. I suspect this was lifted partially from EQ2’s ‘wisp’.
So that’s my thoughts so far. I’ll play it again, but I’m really doubting that I’ll sign up for this one. For those of you in the beta, what are your thoughts so far?
The Chronicles of Spellborn Review
The Chronicles of Spellborn
State: Final
Website: http://spellborn.acclaim.com/
Developer/Publisher: Acclaim
The Pitch: The Chronicles of Spellborn is an amazing MMORPG where players take the role of heroes in a post-apocalyptic fantasy setting and a vast adventure unfolds in an authentic living world.
I don’t know what post-apocaplyptic fantasy is. Perhaps a nuclear fireball? Maybe the dwarves had WMDs. I dunno. Nonetheless, it still looks like pretty much every fantasy MMO I’ve seen except almost everyone has WAY longer legs.
Please note: As of April 23rd, 2009, there is now a “regular” $15/month (+ discount for multiple months) subscription option available. Also, all new subscribers get two weeks free with no limitations. This makes the game much more attractive IMO, as the ‘coins’ system is far too convoluted for its own good.
The Caveat
The Chronicles of Spellborn is free to download and play, but you can’t level past level 7 unless you pay. I played right up until the ‘ding’ at 7.9. You can continue to play as long as you want, but unless you pay, your character won’t level any further. So how much is it?
Go to their website to learn how the ‘coins’ system works – it gives you the option to pay for the game without a credit card. If you do have a credit card, the cost is your standard fare – $15/month, $14/month if you buy a 3-month subscription.
Performance
Spellborn ran great on my machine; everything was maxed and it was smooth as silk.
Unique to The Chronicles of Spellborn
Combat System. This is really Spellborn’s ace in the hole. Without their unique combat system, it’s more or less like all other MMOs. So for those that don’t know about it, here’s how it works.
Basically, instead of getting your standard skill bars like most other MMOs, you get a skill cylinder. Each side of the cylinder has a skill bar on it, that can hold a various number of skills. The number of skills that you can have is dictated by your level; as you go higher in level, the more skills you can hold per side. When you use a skill, the cylinder rotates, showing a new selection of skills. Managing this rotating skill ‘deck’ is one of the strategic aspects of the game – you try to make it so that your skills combo with the previous skill you used. The tricky bit about this is the cooldowns. Since all skills have different cooldowns, it’s possible to set up your skill deck so that you end up with a skill bar where all your skills are cooling down, thus rendering you useless in battle.
And this is the critical bit: all battle is in real-time. That’s the fighting, the dodging, the spellcasting. On top of that, your opponent’s AI is one step up compared to most MMOs. They’ll try to flank you and even run away if their morale starts to get low. If you think you can stand in one spot, hitting your hotkeys, get prepared to die. A lot.
The massive change that this introduces to the MMO standard playing field puts it into a completely different category than other MMOs and thus, it’s hard to really compare it directly, especially since combat is the cornerstone of all MMOs. The combat is Spellborn is fluid and tense. Not something you see very much in these games – and for this reason alone, it’s definitely worth trying.
Armor and weapons look cool.Yeah, I know they look cool in other games too. But here, they have no stats. Zilch. Nada. What this does is effectively eliminates gear lust. None of the gear you have or can get in the game affects your damage dealt in combat. So it’s all about looking good. The only thing they’ve added to your gear to make it more useful than just for appearances is sigil slots. These are slots, kind of like rune slots in D2 or Runes of Magic. So you can get sigils that will give you a buff to put into your armor or weapons. I really like this system, but seeing as how I’m a bit of a loot-happy MMOer, I kinda missed getting a sword with slightly better +crit or whatever.
The Good
Audio. The soundtrack is phenomenal. That’s not surprising, considering it’s done by world-renowned game soundtrack auteur, Jesper Kyd. Even if you don’t try the game, I urge you strongly to head over to Kyd’s site to listen to the music he created for this game. It’s haunting, beautiful, and at times, hopeful. Simply fantastic.
Environment design. Although it’s similar in visual style to WoW, Spellborn has some downright amazing vistas in it. I very much liked the art style and more importantly, the architecture and world design. It’s downright fantastic – very often I’d find myself just looking up at the shards in the sky and the various structures in the world. Really cool. I’d basically say the game looks like WoW if Tim Burton had a hand in the visual design.
Graphics. I’m adding this section after the review’s gone live, mostly because I went back into the game (after getting 2 weeks for free!) and I’m simply impressed at how gorgeous this game is. The textures are crisp and well-done, without obvious tiling. It’s fantastic-looking and unlike many MMOs, it has an incredibly strong sense of ambience. You feel a sense of awe when you’re meant to; you feel cozy (like in the pubs) when you’re meant to. The design and the graphics go hand-in-hand, and both are stellar.
Equal playing field. If you’re tired of raiding for loot or grinding to level 80 just to get the best gear, this might be the game for you. Because the loot is more or less meaningless, stats-wise, it becomes all about the gameplay. And the gameplay is a lot of fun.
New ideas. Maybe you’re not so keen on this, but I like that Spellborn is shaking up the MMO field, by daring to do something different. Even after 7.9 levels, I’m not entirely sure how keen I am on what they’ve done – with respect to combat – but at least it’s not like any of the other 25 MMOs I played, that’s for sure. So I’ll give them kudos for that. I do like the real-time aspects of it, but I’m not sure it’s necessarily better than the systems in other games. You may disagree.
Fame and PeP. This is a great idea – I’m surprised no one’s thought of it before. Basically, you get two kinds of points in Spellborn when you kill monsters. Fame and PeP (Personal experience Points). First off, you gain Fame when questing and killing all monsters – this is your standard XP like in other MMOs. You only gain PeP when you kill mobs. So what’s the difference? Well, your Fame goes towards levelling up, which then gives you different skills. PeP, on the other hand, increases your PeP level. And it’s not easy to do as you need lots of it to level. When you do get enough, an increase in your PeP level gives you bonuses. All characters, on top of having Health, have 3 attributes – Physique, Morale, and Concentration. When you’re at level 1 PeP, these are all increased, effectively giving you bonuses to movement, damage dealt, and the speed that your skill deck rotates and your attack speed (respectively). Further levels of PeP continues to increase these. That’s all well and good, but so what??? Yeah, that’s what I thought. Here’s the cool part – if you die, you lose one PeP level. No fame, no XP to make up, no damage to your armor. You lose your bonuses. And trust me, this hurts. So your incentive to stay alive – especially with highly leveled PeP – is huge.
The Bad
No quest tracker? Not only is there no quest tracker, there’s NO assistance whatsoever, outside of the quest descriptions. So you’ll likely find yourself bringing your quest log up a lot as you’re trying to find a person/mob for a quest.
UI inflexibility. This really needs some work. Overall, it’s decent, and reasonably polished-looking. However, a big issue for me is that there’s no way to resize fonts – and they don’t scale up as your resolution gets higher. I was playing at 1920 x 1200 and I have reasonably poor eyesight – so I had to lean close to the monitor every time I had to read dialog/quest text. Pretty annoying. This will likely be patched, mind you. In addition, this issue makes the minimap pretty much useless as it shrinks down to the size of a quarter.
Summary
The Chronicles of Spellborn is a unique and interesting MMO. It boasts real-time combat and non-gear oriented gameplay. It’s a lot of fun, once you get the hang of the combat system. It is reasonably polished and is currently in open beta now final. It’s free, so what have you got to lose? Go download it!
Download value: 
(8.5)
(4.00 out of 5)
