MMOs, Console Games and anything else with buttons
Good news for local PS2 players. Sony Entertainment Online’s President, John Smedley, has tweeted some further news on Aussie Planetside 2 servers for the game:
So it looks like in just over a week you’ll have some rather nice ping times compared to North American servers, although the game itself doesn’t officially launch until the 20th November. That said, are you pumped?
[via Alex at the Gamers of Oceania Facebook Group]
For those of you who are unfamiliar with this title, I will give you a little bit of background. The original X-COM game from Microprose (also known as UFO Defense) was released in 1994. It is a turn-based strategy game in which you must defend the Earth from an alien invasion.
The primary interface was known as the geoscape and from here we micromanaged our organisation. The game required players to not only search for and shoot down enemy UFOs, but also to micromanage equipment, personnel and research alien technology to advance in the game. It is widely regarded as one of the best games of its genre to be released. It has also spawned numerous offspring including the sequel Terror from the Deep, UFO: Aftermath, Xenonauts, XCOM Interceptor and UFO: Extraterrestrials.
This week saw Firaxis Games’ reimagining of this 90s classic and as you can see it has a lot to live up to. I spent many hours, probably months of my life playing the original so I was very keen to get my hands on this new version.
I was pleasantly surprised by Firaxis’ efforts – the game is definitely a spiritual successor to the original with the majority (if not all) units maintaining their original names. There have been some changes to the Alien races, such as the addition of the ‘Thin Man’ species which was not present in the classic version but the Sectoid, Muton, Chryssalid and Floater species are back with a number of major improvements.
Gameplay: 8/10
In this version we are required to launch satellites and station interceptors around the globe to ensure that global panic remains minimal. If a country or region is regularly ignored, or if we do not station units there, the country will withdraw funding.
Funding is how we accrue in-game currency, and apart from the occasional mission that rewards us with currency, keeping the nations of Earth happy is the only way to ensure we gain adequate funding from the mysterious council. Funding is based on a country’s panic level, the higher the panic of the general populace the less funding we will receive and eventually the country will develop a general panic and funding will be withdrawn.
It is a delicate balancing act to keep the various nations happy. The most efficient way of maintaining a low panic level is to conduct operations within an area.
XCOM: Enemy Unknown follows the lines of its predecessor with turn-based combat. Each player unit can move up to twice, with the option to fire on enemy units on either turn. Abilities that are acquired as soldiers gain ranks and soldier specialisations, such as Sniper or Support can effect what abilities can be used. Movement is relatively fluid and cover is a major part of gameplay as it offers soldiers (and aliens) protection from attacks and lowers the chance of incoming attacks finding their targets.
The primary interface when not on an active mission has seen significant improvement over the original game. We can see a true representation of our subterranean base and the facilities it contains. From this primary screen we can access Research, Engineering, Soldier management and the situation room, where the mysterious council reviews our progress and offers special missions.
As with the original, there is no real control of air-to-air combat as you attempt to shoot down alien vessels. In fact so far there is less control than in the 1994 version, where you could assign attack profiles such as max range and aggressive.
Combat: 9/10
While it does not have the haunting eeriness of the original, where alien movements were obscured in darkness yet their actions could be heard by players, leaving us with lingering footsteps and the screams of dying civilians, this iteration has an excellent combat engine. Alien movement outside of our units’ line of sight is hidden as it was in the original – we do not receive the echo of their actions in our ears.
The aliens react to our presence as they are uncovered and in most cases seek cover immediately. The AI of the alien forces is once again amazing – enemy units will coordinate and attempt to outflank player’s soldiers as well as opting to launch grenades if our units are clustered. Enemy units also retreat and regroup regularly making the higher difficulty settings a steep learning curve for those new to the franchise.
Customisation: 7/10
Firaxis’ edition of Enemy Unknown continues the XCOM series’ excellent customisation abilities. Players, depending on their preference for research can equip soldiers and craft with alien technologies throughout the game as well as customising appearances and names of soldiers.
Bases are customisable in their layouts to a degree, however the bonuses for having similar facilities adjacent to one another discourages it.
The difficulty settings also offer a degree of customisation within the game – on the higher difficulty settings, particularly classic (a nod to veterans of the original) sees amazing reactionary movements and strategy development from the AI.
Overall: 8/10
It’s fairly obvious that I was a huge fan of the original XCOM game, and indeed the majority of the series. As I mentioned earlier in the review I was very keen to play this version of one of my all-time favourite games. I have put aside WoW to a large extent over the past week to play XCOM, which will give readers an idea of how much I am enjoying this game. It also offers a nice introduction to new players to a genre that has been largely absent from the gaming community for a long time.
A bunch of ArenaNet’s dev team jumped on Reddit to take part in an AMAA (Ask Me Almost Anything) session in the past day. The level of response was good, with hundred of questions asked a decent amount answered. The focus is quite understandably on development issues rather than gameplay or community stuff. That said, there’s some pretty fascinating insights into a range of things, including:
– plans for an FOV slider in GW2
– how ArenaNet keep server downtime to a minimum
– the biggest defects in the game and what’s restricting the devs from remedying them
– GW2 programming methodologies, standards and practices etc
That’s just the tip of the iceberg so have a read-through for yourself – there’s lots of gold in there.
Blitzkrieg is a new regular column devoted to the very popular MMO World of Tanks. If you’ve got a topic you’d like our resident expert Matthew “Scope” Pearce to cover, drop him a line!
When World of Tanks was first launched, Germany only had one tier X (the Maus), Russians had the IS-7 (even though the IS-4 was just as strong and was a tier IX) and America had the T30.
Since launch, World of Tanks has seen a steady addition of post World War II and now Cold War tanks
So why are the German tier 10 tanks falling behind?
Well the answer is quite simple, some players say the Russian developers are biased and while playing mostly the German tank tree for most of my World of Tanks career I kind of agree with them, I also think the main problem is because the developers did not set the end of World War II as the end of where they would get the tanks for World of Tanks from.
Instead we now have tanks from the late 50’s and now even the early 60’s from the French, Americans, Russians and soon to be the British facing off against German tanks that were designed from 1942-1945 .
Let’s take a look at each factions tier X tanks and what years they were designed, built and used:
Russia
Object 268: 1952
Object 263: 1950
T-62A: 1961-1975
IS-7: 1945-1947
IS-4: 1944-1949
The only World War II tanks are the IS-4 and IS-7.
America
T110E4: 1954
T110E3: 1954
M48A1: 1950-1959
T110E5: 1950
Not a single one of these tanks were built at the end of World War II.
France
AMX-50 Foch (155): 1952
AMX 50B: 1950-1957
Bat Chatillon 25t: 1952
None of these are from World War II either.
Germany
JagdPz E-100: 1945
Maus: 1942
E-100: 1943
E-50M: 1945
All of these tanks were designed and or built during or at the end of World War II.
So why have they not added any German built tanks from the 1950s to fix the balance?
To tell the truth I have no idea. Many players still think it’s because of Russian bias which I tend to agree with but I lean more towards the fact that it’s because they are too scared of giving Germany a good Tier X tank like the Leopard 1.
In the early 1950s, Germany and France started a collaborative design of the Leopard 1 but the partnership ended and the final design was ordered by the Bundeswehr (Federal Defence Forces of Germany), where the production then started in 1965 with over 4,744 built.
The Leopard quickly became the standard tank for the majority of European forces and eventually served as the MBT (Main Battle Tank) for over 12 countries worldwide.
I personally would love to have the Leopard 1 as my new tier X tank and I think it would match up well against the new British tier 10’s coming in Patch 8.1 as well as balance quite well with the current tier X tanks already in game.
So over to you, what do you guys think about the way German tanks (and players) are currently treated and do you think the Leopard 1 deserves to be Germanys tier X tank like I do?
This is a little off the beaten track, but over the past week I’ve found a new gaming addiction to add to my repertoire. I’m a sucker for a sim game at the best of times, but when it’s a free, 8-bit graphic airport and plane sim that’s a lot of fun, then I’m doomed.
Pocket Planes was created by NimbleBit and its premise is simple: build up a fleet of planes and successfully fly people and cargo between cities. There’s a standard levelling mechanism, with the need to accumulate coins and Bux. Coins allow you to buy new airports and upgrades, Bux are the currency that allow you to buy new planes and/or plane parts. Bux are the currency you can use real money to buy more of, and it’s likely you’ll want to do that if you’re in the game for the long haul.
That said, this game is semi-generous in allowing you to build up Bux in-game so do date I haven’t needed to spend anything to get up to 8 plains and a dozen airports – which is the result of my first day’s play.
Aside from solo play you can compete in world events with a Flight Crew you set up and if you’re playing on iOS or Mac you can compete with friends via the Game Center. There’s also full iCloud and Notification Center integration for those platforms, meaning you can play on any device and it knows where you’re up to in the game. Android users may have something similar too – post in comments if that’s the case!
For the stats geek, there’s lots of information on your fleet including the number of miles each plane has done, how much revenue its generated and the number of passengers and cargo carried.
Overall, this game is incredibly addictive but easy to have in the background if you need to get other stuff done. If I decide to spend some money buying some Bux in this game, I actually won’t begrudge it – which is unusual for me.
Overall score: 4/5 Greeblies
Go grab a copy for yourself:
Android version
Mac App Store
Have you played Pocket Planes and if so, are you still a fan?
On October the 3rd, OVER 9000 World of Tanks players transferred their accounts from the Russian, European and North American servers to the World of Tanks South-East Asia (SEA) servers.
With over 9600 players jumping at the chance to play World of Tanks with a ping under 150ms, a fresh start to the clan wars map or even just because their mates have transferred, one thing is certain – that the SEA servers have gained a large amount of players in a short amount of time.
After a few days spent playing around on the SEA server with a low ping of under 120ms, I believe it makes a HUGE difference compared to the usual 280-300ms pings I would usually get on the NA server.
With the fresh clan wars map starting soon, I currently find myself thinking about whether or not I should finally try and join a clan. Having been constantly asked each day by numerous clans to join them I have quite a few options to look at.
Over the next few days or so I will attempt to try out Clan Wars for the first time and look forward to trying out a new game experience that I have not yet had the time nor care to attempt.
So do you like the new lower pings on the SEA servers and have you joined a new clan or come across with an old one?
[Pic courtesy of http://hellknight10.deviantart.com]
So – what do you think is the most popular game in the world? Is it single-player or an MMO?
Over the past few months I’ve been hearing about how popular League of Legends is, and it appears that over thirty million people agree each month. Over at Forbes.com, Jason Evangelho has penned a piece on the game, including this pretty fascinating infographic on the game:
Of course, determining a game that’s absolutely the most popular is risky, particularly given a lot of these assessments don’t take into account games played in non-English speaking cultures. That said, you can safely say that League of Legends appears to be in a elite rank of games.
If you’ve played League of Legends we’d love to hear from you – tell us why you think it’s the most popular game in the world!
[A big thanks to eagle-eyed and dedicated reader Gail for the heads-up!]
ArenaNet have put another game update live, and this one contains quite the list of bug fixes including a number of dungeon fixes.
Have a read through the patch notes in full:
General
- Fixed a bug in targeting that was causing left-dragging to deselect/select targets incorrectly.
- Fixed a bug in targeting that was allowing users to deselect all targets using the select next target functionality.
- Fixed a bug with human female sword and pistol animations.
- Fixed a bug that was causing quickness to get stuck on players and enemies indefinitely.
- Fixed the Mystic Forge recipe for Melandru’s Gaze that was rewarding the Mystic Staff instead.
- Fixed a potential bug with skill challenge conversations not closing for all parties speaking with the NPC.
- Fixed a bug in weaponsmith Destroyer recipes being swapped for Valkyrie and Berserker weapons.
- Fixed the Mystic Forge recipes for platinum and mithril ingot conversion taking cloth bolts instead of the appropriate ingots. This also fixes the issue with linen and silk bolt conversion recipes sometimes rewarding ingots.
- Fixed the Mystic Forge recipe for Immobulus requiring a defunct item. It now requires giant eyes instead.
- Fixed a bug with Rune of Divinity that was causing it to do 50% more critical damage than listed.
- Removed laughing audio from crafting stations in Divinity’s Reach.
- Raised the maximum karma limit.
- Superior Rune of the Adventurer is now set to give 50% of endurance on heal.
- The character select screen now reflects hidden armor choices.
- Updated Rune of Earth and Rune of the Grove to have a 25% chance to grant 4 seconds of protection and 30-second recharge for superior runes, with 45-second recharge for major runes.
- We’ve relaxed our anti-exploiting system for loot and events.
Camera
- We’ve updated the camera to reduce the amount of camera smoothing currently in the game in order to lower the frequency of related bugs. We’re still looking into other camera issues, but we decided to make this quick change because it greatly improves the gameplay experience.
Events- Fixed a bug that could block “Escort Order of Whispers agents to Jormabakke Stead” in Snowden Drifts from restarting.
- Fixed a bug that could cause duplicate versions of Agent Briathell to spawn in Snowden Drifts.
- Fixed a bug that could prevent the repair event for “Cascade Bridge” in Lornar’s Pass from triggering.
Dungeons
Caudecus’s Manor
- Closed map exploits.
- Updated the reward vendor for Caudecus’s Manor to include the missing exotic light helmet.
Citadel of Flame- Closed map exploits.
Twilight Arbor
- Upper Spider Path: Increased the attack range of the Nightmare Tree. The area attack and its effect now take place at the same location.
- Nightmare Tree Spider Path: The area attack now correctly does damage at the point of the effect.
- Forward Upper Husk Path: Added damage to the Nightmare Tree’s immobilize skill. Also added damage to the Nightmare Tree egg launch skill.
Story
- Reduced the health of the final boss in “The Source of Orr.”
- Forging the Pact: Implemented changes to ensure that the cave section completes reliably.
- Pets and Walls Make Stronger Kraals: Fix for possible stall during the taming step.
- Battle of Fort Trinity:
- You cannot pick up the water orb until you defeat all of the saboteurs.
- It’s no longer possible to trap players by closing the fortress doors on them.
- Fixed a stall during “Retake the docks” objective.
- Fixed a stall if players did not choose a greatest fear earlier in Chapter 7.
- Lines of Communication: Batanga will now help you fight the Arcane Eye.
- Fixing Blame: Warmaster Gurnn should now kick off his cutscene correctly.
- Fixed a rare bug in “Shards of Orr” where Herboza would not become visible.
World versus World
- The northernmost keep in all homelands has had its collision adjusted on the inner western gate.
- Numerous items have been disabled for use in World versus World to prevent exploits and imbalances. This includes the Experimental Teleportation Gun, ettin gunk, drake eggs, seed turrets, and more.
- Fixed WvW Orb of Power duplication on player disconnect.
Profession
- Attributes gained from traits now apply to the downed state.
Elementalist
- Glyph of Renewal: This skill will now revive downed allies only, not dead ones.
- Signets of Earth, Fire, and Water: These signest have been updated to not fire at targets behind the player.
- Signet of Fire: This skill is now able to hit targets at its indicated range.
- Signet of Air: This skill now displays a hovering signet effect over the user when activated.
- Whirlpool: This skill’s damage has been decreased by 33%.
Engineer
- Grenade Kit: Grenade skills now have the same cast time underwater as they do on land.
- Explosives Trait Grenadier: This trait now gives a bonus to underwater grenade skills.
- Big Ol’ Bomb: This skill has been updated to be a blast finisher.
Guardian
- We are moving towards retaliation being more of a counter to taking many hits rather than a general boon to keep up all the time. We also wanted to improve the combo finisher of the guardian, so we reorganized guardian greatsword skills to the following:
- Skill 2: Whirling Wrath (10 second recharge)
- Skill 3: Leap of Faith (15 second recharge)
- Skill 4: Symbol of Wrath (20 second recharge)
- Updated Bane Signet and Signet of Wrath so they can’t be fired at targets behind the player.
- Updated Signet of Judgment to apply three seconds of retaliation upon activation with or without traits.
- Decreased the activation time of Signet of Judgment.
Mesmer
- Signet of Domination can no longer be cast on targets behind the mesmer.
- Added a much faster breakout for mesmer underwater mantras.
- Phantasmal Warlock: Increased recharge to 20 seconds.
- Chaos Armor: Decreased recharge to 35 seconds.
- Chaos Storm: Increased recharge to 35 seconds.
- Phantasmal Duelist: Increased recharge to 20 seconds.
- Phantasmal Swordsman: Increased recharge to 18 seconds.
Necromancer
- Updated Chillblains to properly function with the Greater Marks trait.
- Signet of Spite can now be cast while on the move.
Ranger
- Crossfire: Increased casting time by 40 milliseconds. This was done to fix some glitches in the animation that caused problems with this skill.
- Removed the broken audio that played with Natural Healing whenever pets were in combat.
Thief
- Pistol Whip: Reduced damage by 15%.
- Basilisk Venom: Increased stun duration to 1.5 seconds. Stun breakers now work on this skill.
Blitzkrieg is a new regular column devoted to the very popular MMO World of Tanks. If you’ve got a topic you’d like our resident expert Matthew “Scope” Pearce to cover, drop him a line!
With the launch of World of Tanks Patch 8.0 comes some changes, some more shocking than the others.
One of these changes was of the once great tier V German medium tank: the PZ IV.
Erectus Turretus Maximus! That’s what I called my PZ IV back in the days of the L/70 75mm with its amazing long range fighting capabilities.
The PZ IV before patch 8.0 was one of my favourite tanks why? Because it was a darn good sniper not to mention fast, sure its acceleration was terrible but it had that insanely well armoured heavy turret on it of course it’s going to take a little longer to reach your top speed.
This German tier V medium tank was a good “sample” tank for new players because it showed off some of the Germans best qualities in the game and their long range accuracy, rate of fire, and armour. The PZ IV showed players how the later German tanks would play / feel in terms of gameplay, and the time spent playing the PZ IV helped a lot when you finally got to drive the Tiger 1.
The new patch 80 PZ IV
Why you no snipe??
With the introduction of patch 8.0, the PZ IV had its upgraded turret and 7,5 cm KwK 42 L/70 gun removed.
Which left us with the Turm Ausf.h Turret with its terrible 50mm of frontal amour and 30mm of side and rear armour and the pitiful 7.5 KwK 40 L/48, leaving us the only viable option to choose the “DERP CANNON” the 10,5 cm KwK 42 L/28.
Now the PZ IV feels like it has lost its place in the game – it was once an amazing sniper tank now it’s not even a brawler. Its turning circle is just too big even with its faster acceleration, now that the turret is lighter its top speed remains the same at 48kmph.
The PZ IV feels like a really bad M4 Sherman tank now. The only reason you would play this tank is if you wanted to get to the Maus but why would you do that when there are far better tanks out there – but thats a subject for another post and another day 🙂
Over to you: what do you think of the new patch 8.0 PZ IV and do you miss your old PZ IV?
ArenaNet have posted an update that may on the surface be only of interest to MMO industry geeks like me. It’s an overview of how the Guid Wars 2 ‘live team’ is actually a series of teams devoted to different aspects of the game.
The post though is more than a puff-piece promoting ArenaNet’s commitment to Guild Wars 2. It also shows pretty starkly that there’s some very serious strategy gone into supporting the game ongoing. I’m particularly encouraged that there are separate teams for holiday events (a Halloween one being the first cab off the rank) and a Mac team to support the recently release Beta client for that platform
Read the team breakdown in full, and post your thoughts in comments. Are you still rapt with the game and if so, what are you hoping to see out of the Halloween event?
Electronic Arts have released a 15-minute video of the upcoming Dead Space 3 title, due for release on the 5th February next year. Get your preview right here and now:
So what do you think?
Blitzkrieg is a new regular column devoted to the very popular MMO World of Tanks. If you’ve got a topic you’d like our resident expert Matthew “Scope” Pearce to cover, drop him a line!
Who wants some lead?
The Matilda Black Prince is the first British tank to be added to World of Tanks, and is similar to the medium tank Matilda supplied by the British to the Russians under the Lend-Lease program that was in World of Tanks before patch 8.0.
The new Matilda Black Prince has some big differences, one of the most significant being changes in the turret and gun.
The original Matilda in game used the ZiS-96 76mm, which had 65-108mm of shell penetration, making it hard to penetrate tier 5 heavy tanks. The Matilda Black Prince now uses the same QF 6 pounder Mk. V A that the Churchill used as well as the same A27 turret.
This means that the new Matilda Black Prince has a penetration value of 83-138mm, and the crazy ROF (Rate of Fire) of 26 rounds a minute, meaning it shoots a single round every 2 seconds giving it 1957 DPM (damage per minute)
The Matilda Black Prince is not without its drawbacks however – it shares the same frontal armour as the Matilda medium tank, but has only got 55mm of side armour compared to the Matilda medium tank’s 75mm.
Its engine is also lacking with only 190 horse power compared to the Matilda medium tank’s 274hp, meaning that the top speed the Matilda Black Prince can reach is only 22kmh on flat terrain. With such a low speed, it is usually best to shoot on the move with this tank, and as such I train my crew members in Snap Shot for my gunner, and Smooth Ride for the driver allowing me to fire more accurately on the move.
Erectus Turretus Maximus!
Because this tank is a premium tank, it gains far more credits than normal tanks, and helps the player save credits for those bigger tanks we all want to drive around in, as well as help pay the repair bills.
This tank is loads of fun to play and can be purchased for only 1750 gold from the World of Tanks in-game store.
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