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SWTOR: PvP Rewards Update and Crew Skills Changes to Come in Patch 1.1.2

Jensen Walker — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 00:30:56 +0000

Ah, Biochem. No crew skill has been more contentious. You were the little crew skill that could, and because you were so plucky, you were swiftly embraced by the raiding masses.

And then you were nerfed.

The masses cried out in thoughtful despair: “WTF BioWare, Rakata Medpacs are useless now!”

To these voices rose the clamor of others who had not experienced Biochem’s sweet embrace, but envied it nonetheless. “Needs to be nerfed even more,” said they.

And thus it was.

In the latest upcoming patch notes for Star Wars: The Old Republic, Biochem unique Rakata stims and adrenals have been reduced in power, now equivalent to their Energized counterparts. The offset is that Energized and Exotech stims and adrenals are no longer bound to Biochemists, meaning they can be transferred and most importantly sold to other players. While this change isn’t likely to please everyone, it does position enterprising Biochemists for a windfall of credits in the weeks following patch 1.1.2.

Principal Lead Combat Designer Georg Zoeller also confirmed that other crew skills would be tinkered with in the future to make them as attractive at end-game as Biochem has been. Zoeller has had a busy day on the forums, elaborating on the following patch note which caused some controversy:

The number of commendations in Champion and Battlemaster Bags has been greatly increased, and the direct item trade tokens appear less frequently in Champion Bags. This change allows players to obtain PvP gear at a steady and significantly more predictable rate with an occasional bonus.

The patch note left many wondering how this would be an improvement when it came to gearing up for PvP, as Champion bags currently only reward Centurion commendations which a chance at a random piece of Champion gear. The prospect of a reduced chance at the superior Champion gear left players up in arms. Fortunately, Zoeller stepped in to clarify.

It’s obvious from comments here that the patch note is not specific enough, so we’ll get it updated before the patch goes to the live servers. Here are some specifics:

Champion Bags now always contain 15 Centurion Commendations AND 7 Champion Commendations. Battlemaster Bags now always contain 15 Champion Commendations. So Centurion gearing up progression for new level 50s is increased significantly and Champion gearing up progression will be steady.

The cost of Champion and Centurion items are NOT changing.

This is a great change, as it will make gearing for PvP considerably less frustrating and time consuming. Further changes, including extractable base mods from purple items, ranked Warzones, critical crafting successes on orange outfits, more bind-on-equip schematic drops for artifice and other professions, increased relevance of augments and a better reverse engineering chance are currently planned for the next major content patch in Game Update 1.2.

For the full patch notes and other developer comments, visit the SWTOR forums.

McFarlane, Salvatore, and Schilling Coming to Gamestop Reckoning Midnight Launch Near You!

Ben Nanke — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 22:30:19 +0000

The release date for Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning is only a week from today. Chances are that if you’ve been keeping up with recent gaming, you’re at least curious or maybe even excited about this upcoming release from 38 Studios. You might even be so excited that you’re planning on attending the midnight release at Gamestop and being among the first to snag a copy. If you’re not, a recent bit of news might change your mind.

According to EA, the lead visionaries for Amalur are going to be making guest appearances at Gamestop midnight releases around the US. Curt Schilling, Todd McFarlane, R.A. Salvatore and Ken Rolston are all scheduled to meet and greet the fans, with the doors opening at 11:30 to allow plenty of time for chit-chat. In case you’re wondering “who the heck are these guys?” allow me to fill you in.

Curt Schilling is the founder and chairman of 38 Studios, the company developing Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning. He was also a major-league baseball pitcher and a World Series champion three times over, so any baseball fans out there can get a twofer.

Todd McFarlane is a renowned comic book author and creator of the Spawn comic series, as well as the founder of McFarlane Toys. He also oversees all the artwork for Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning.

R.A. Salvatore, a New York Times best-selling author 24-times over and acclaimed writer of the Forgotten Realms series. Salvatore is, of course, responsible for writing the rich lore of Amalur.

Ken Rolston was the lead designer for both The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind and The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, and serves as the Executive Designer for Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning.

And now, the locations!

Curt Schilling and R.A. Salvatore – Bellingham, Massachusetts: GameStop located in the Stallbrook Marketplace, 258 Hartford Ave, Bellingham, MA 02019

Todd McFarlane – Tempe, Arizona: GameStop at the Tempe Marketplace located at 2040 E. Rio Salado Pkwy, Suite 110, Tempe, AZ 85281

Ken Rolston – Cockeysville, Maryland: GameStop located at 10015 York Road, Suite A7, Cockeysville, MD 21030

Be on the lookout for Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning on February 7, 2012. For Xbox 360, PS3 and PC.

Sony: Vita to be “Easiest and Most Well Supported” Platform Yet

Garrett Hartman — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 00:36:55 +0000

Having learned their lesson from the early struggles of the PS3, Sony is creating the PS Vita to be easy to develop for. In an conversation with Develop, SCE Worldwide Studios Boss Shuhei Yoshida, admitted that developing for Sony consoles have been challenging:

“It had very, very high potential and peak performance, but programming for the PlayStation platforms was a huge challenge for game developers.”

And He discussed an important reason for a change:

“Development efficiency has become more and more important,”

“The focus has shifted to be less about getting the most out of the hardware, to be about having a very smooth production process. That’s because now it involves so many more people to make one game.”

Senior Vice president of SCE Worldwide Studios Michael Denny made sure to state the new goal:

“When it comes to ease of development, the Vita is a platform with which we’ve been very mindful of that, In terms of smoothing the development process, certainly what the Vita offers is close to that of the PSP, and with some of the help we’re giving to developers, I would say it is the easiest and most well supported platform yet.”

Sony World Wide Studios CTO Richard Lee agreed and confirmed ease of development a top priority:

“We made every effort to make it as easy as possible, I think we took the experiences from PS3, and decided that we wanted to go out there with a great developer environment that is compatible with the third party tools that developers normally use.”

So there you have it. Good news for developers and perhaps gamers.

Porting Titles From PS3 to NGP – How Easy Is It?

Matthew Sims — Thu, 27 Jan 2011 08:58:42 +0000

Anyone who watched the Playstation Meeting 2011 heard from Sony and third party developers alike that moving PS3 titles to NGP is relatively painless. That seems like a huge step in tech and an even larger step in faith. The NGP while technically impressive isn’t capable of running PS3 games at full specs, otherwise they wouldn’t need to be “ported” in the first place.

Hideo Kojima, while showing a very impressive Metal Gear Solid 4 demo on the device, mentioned that his dream is “cloud computing gaming”. In layman’s terms he wants players to be able to play a game on a PS3 and then walk outside and be able to play the same game on the NGP. He then goes on to say that he will be announcing a game at E3 that will fulfill his dream. Whether this title will stream from the PS3 to the NGP or if the handheld will handle the processing is still unknown, but it is an interesting concept.

Tim Sweeny, of Epic Games, mentioned that the PS3 title Dungeon Defenders was adapted to the NGP in a very short time and Kojima even mentioned a system where model and enviornment data could be exported to the NGP from a PS3 version of the game. Nagoshi even showed a Yakuza demo just to prove how easy it is to port titles to the robust device.

If these developers are indeed telling the truth, we could see a whole new level for portable games. Imagine a game you could play on either your handheld or console and the quality would be identical or better yet – imagine a game that you only have to buy one copy to play anywhere at anytime. The possibilities are astounding, but only time will tell if these extraordinary claims turn out to be true.

Are 3DS Developers Being Hushed By Nintendo?

Justin Berube — Wed, 08 Dec 2010 02:31:10 +0000

According to IGN’s head of Nintendo channels, Rich George, Nintendo may be forcing Nintendo 3DS developers to stay quiet about their projects for the highly anticipated handheld. From Rick George’s Blog:

“3DS. Is about all I think about these days. I think you guys ought to expect a flood of information… late January 2011? I’m hearing Nintendo is keeping all developers/publishers at bay so… once there’s a green light… brace yourself.”

This information, if true, shouldn’t really surprise anyone. I think Nintendo would be wise in keeping developers quiet about the Nintendo 3DS until January at the earliest. I’m sure the general public doesn’t know much, if anything, about the Nintendo 3DS so why risk more news getting out there when it could negatively impact holiday sales for the current Nintendo DS. Just my two cents.

The Nintendo 3DS is scheduled for a Feburary 2011 release in Japan and a March 2011 release in North America and Europe.

Want to stay up to date on my Nintendo and Nintendo 3DS news and coverage? Follow Me on Twitter @KingNintendoFan or Like Me on Facebook. Let me know what’s on your mind regarding Nintendo!

Source

Square Enix CEO: “Nobody Has Succeeded at Globalisation”

Sam Naylor — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 17:31:33 +0000

Square Enix CEO Yoichi Wada has stated that he feels the globalisation efforts of the videogames industry have been a failure, thanks to the sharp divide between Eastern and Western cultures.

“We have to appeal to customers with different preferences. Sega did not succeed. Konami did not succeed. Namco Bandai did not succeed. Western publishers have not succeeded in selling in Japan. Nobody has succeeded at globalisation,” he told VentureBeat. “But it hasn’t succeeded because it was always based on Japanese direction. It was Japanese people who commissioned the western developers to make games.”

“It is important that what’s in America should be handled by Americans,” he said. “The same goes in Europe and in Japan. These people who are deeply rooted in their own cultures can engage in their own dialogues. The mistakes I have seen so far are when Japanese people try to do everything the Japanese way, using Japanese workers in different areas of the world.”

Wada feels that Square Enix are doing a much better job of creating a global market. “We acquired Eidos,” he said. “By doing this, we have incorporated them in our group. They have become part of our family. It was not like we acquired slaves. In fact, the former CEO of Eidos is the European head of Square Enix. Eidos as a studio is treated as completely equal as the studio in Japan. What I wanted to do is create an environment where completely different ethnic groups can coexist in the same company.”

Of course, he seems to have completely forgotten about Nintendo, who have absolutely cracked the global market. How could he forget about them?

[Via EDGE]

Insomniac Games Is Hiring; Benefits Include Bermuda and Beef Jerky

Demi Adejuyigbe — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 21:45:47 +0000

It’s no secret that Insomniac Games is one of the best developer studios to work at- they’ve won a “Best Place to Work” award year after year. With the Ratchet and Clank and Resistance franchises in their repertoire, anyone wanting to break into the developer industry would be lucky to work for them- and now they can!

Insomniac Games is hiring, and they have a humorous series of videos to prove it. The series follows Chris, a man from Burbank who quit his job at Insomniac Games and moved so he could work for Megacorp, a company that… well, I have no idea what they do, but they don’t do it as well as Insomniac. Hit the jump for the second and third videos in the series.

[youtube width="510" height="313"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pqevrhv2O5k[/youtube]

[youtube width="510" height="313"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tWPG6AxGnhQ[/youtube]

Tony Hawk developer Neversoft is no longer Tony Hawk developer

Sam Naylor — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 16:12:28 +0000

Joel Jewett, founder of Neversoft, has told Great Falls Tribunal that his company will be dropping the Tony Hawk series in favour of focusing on Guitar Hero. The source mentions that “the company has let the Tony Hawk series go to another developer.” As EDGE notes, it’s likely to be Robomodo, as they announced last year that they were working on an extreme sports title for Activision.

“It’s probably best for the franchise … it’s time for someone else to add fresh ideas to it,” Jewett said. Yes, Mr. Jewett. You’re right. Since The end of the “Pro Skater” brand, the games have gotten worse and worse, and the “fresh ideas” from Neversoft turned out to be fresh dung. That said, every time a new game was announced, I held out for them to go back to the simplicity of the superb Tony Hawk’s 4. Robomodo, do not fail me, or I will post a rant on the internet! Fear me!

Sorry, The Last Boss Fight Costs Extra — Some Devs Willing to Ship Incomplete Games

Chad Lakkis — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 04:31:08 +0000

A few days ago I published an article talking about the impact of used game sales and rentals on developers. The piece revolved around comments made by Frontier Developments’ founder, David Braben and his idea to create two price points/versions of a game — a model he compares to the film industry.

I really disagreed with the idea as well as the notion that the used game market is the root of the problem. Instead, I discussed an alternative solution which involved DLC content or “additional incentive” to buy a game new. That said, never in a million years did I think devs would be willing to consider making a vital part of a game — such as a final boss fight — accessible only via DLC.

Well, if you believe the comment made by Epic Games president, Dr Michael Capps, it seems that this concept has its share of supporters:

“I’ve talked to some developers who are saying ‘If you want to fight the final boss you go online and pay USD 20, but if you bought the retail version you got it for free‘. We don’t make any money when someone rents it, and we don’t make any money when someone buys it used – way more than twice as many people played Gears than bought it…”

Are you shitting me? A game that ships with no accessible ending? That is the best solution these assholes can come up with? Screw over the gamer? When I said that I supported DLC content as added value — I meant it. Added value doesn’t mean you strip away a game’s ending.

What a shame. If it ever comes to the point where large corporations start utilizing these types of tactics to improve their bottom line — I have one wish. I hope the greedy SOBs at the top all find themselves sick in a hospital bed at some point. Desperately in need of an organ transplant to live, they are greeted by a good doctor who walks in and utters the following words:

Sorry, organ donors are impossible to come by these days. Dr. Phil had a show on it. It seems that the lack of used products available to consumers has made people bitter. The overwhelming feeling is, if we can’t benefit from another person’s used stuff, then they won’t benefit from ours either. It’s a shame really — I wish there was more I could do.

Call me a sick fuck, but it would serve them right, and I sure as hell wouldn’t feel sorry for them. The moral o the story, be careful what you wish for.

Source: GI.biz

Used Game Market Not the Problem, Lack of New Purchase Incentive the Real Issue

Chad Lakkis — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 07:57:02 +0000

Look, I’ve been reading a heap of articles lately citing both the Eurogamer and GI.biz sit down with Frontier Developments’ founder, David Braben, and I simply couldn’t take it anymore.

For those of you that missed the hoopla, Braben’s gripe is that the used game market will eventually kill the single player aspect of games and force all developers to focus instead on multiplayer due to its high replay factor. While I agree that multiplayer does offer a much higher replay value, I certainly don’t agree with his proposed fix.

My argument is that for every game there are two versions. One is personal, not for resale and it’s made abundantly clear you can’t sell it. And it’s made available for something like GBP 25 [$40]. And a resale and rental copy, which in film is actually about GBP 80 [$130].

Huh? That has got to be the most ass backwards solution I’ve ever heard of. I understand the need for a developer to generate higher revenue, but handcuffing a consumer to their product is not the answer.

The better solution, which is admittedly more difficult, is to come up with incentives that motivate gamers to buy games new. Companies and retailers alike are already putting this plan into action. Look no further than the upcoming release of Gears of War 2 to see this in action. Those who buy the game new will get access to fan favorite levels from the original Gears. Other titles like LittleBigPlanet have been offering up tons of exclusive costumes, levels, and even real world branded merchandise for pre-order customers.

While both of these games have multiplayer aspects, there’s nothing preventing the creators of single player only titles from utilizing these tactics as well. They may not have the luxury of relying on an internet connected consumer, but that wouldn’t prevent them from embedding content into their games that requires a one time use code to unlock via telephone, smoke signal, bong juice, or bat signal.

The point I am trying to make here is that there are other options. And when you’re a company comprised of the type of talent and creativity capable of putting together an interactive game, I have a hard time feeling sorry for you. If you can’t think up ways to help strengthen your consumer bond without the use of restraints, you need to stop pointing fingers at consumers and retail chains and instead point them at yourself.

Chains like GameStop have every right to sell used games without developers pointing their fingers at them in disgust. Looking at the situation realistically, chains like GameStop will cease to exist as soon as more consumers begin to realize that they don’t need fancy middle man pawn shops, offering ridiculously low trade in value, in order to connect with gamers looking for used content.

Personally, you will never catch me selling a used game to a chain like GameStop, but that’s not because I don’t believe they should have the right to sell used products. It’s because I believe the price they offer consumers in exchange for their game is highway robbery. If I have games (or anything for that matter) that I want to sell, I use this lovely tool called the internet created by Al Gore in the 70s. And when I don’t feel like doing that, I whip up a yard sale sign and sit my ass in a lawn chair on my front lawn.

In closing, the solution is not to offer us less by doing away with single player content and it’s not forcing us to retain our copy by placing legal copy on the back of each box. Gamers will respond unanimously to one thing and one thing only — a superior product. If that means the addition of multiplayer, do it. If that means going above and beyond with extra promotional content, do it. Knapsacks, notebooks, pencil sharpers, condoms, lunchboxes, viewfinders — whatever it is — do it, do it, do it, do it.

Deliver a high enough quality product and gamers will not only never sell your title, they’ll worship your box art by framing it on their wall for the whole world to see.

Afterthought: Ok, my rant time is over. What say you loyal readers? Have I lost my mind? Is Braben on to something or should games come with boat loads of swag and other cool perks if we are willing to dish out the cash to buy them new?

Echochrome To Get New Free Levels

Andrew Webster — Wed, 07 May 2008 19:42:16 +0000

Echochrome is one of the most interesting puzzle games to come out for some time. Both due to its amazing sense of style and insane level of difficulty. Although each version of the monochrome puzzler (it’s on both the PS3 and PSP) sports 56 unique levels, Sony has announced more is on the way. The best part? They will be free.

The game will periodically (Sony has not confirmed how often as of yet) prompt the player to download new content, which will consist of a batch of new levels. Since the game allows you to create your own levels, the developers have decided to pick the best of the best and make them available to all. Unfortunately, downloaded levels will only be playable until the new batch of content arrives.

While the time restriction is unfortunate, it’s still great to see echochrome being supported with fresh, new, and free content. Let’s just hope there’s plenty of time to finish the levels before the next batch arrives. No word on when the updates will begin, but we’ll keep you informed.

Source: PlayStation Blog

Kojima: Violence in Games is Important – If Done Right

Kev Lochun — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 18:35:55 +0000

In the midst of the ongoing ruckus surrounding videogame violence, Metal Gear godfather Hideo Kojima has come out saying that it’s pretty much essential.

In an interview in Famitsu magazine, he says:

When you hit someone or inflict pain, faces get disfigured for example, and I want to make games that show that sort of thing.

If you don’t see the pain, you can’t understand what you’ve done, and you’ll pass through battles without taking responsibility for your actions. I don’t want to ignore that. I want players to think, even if it’s just a little, about what violence and war are.

It’s good to hear a heavyweight getting behind the industry for producing mature content, but it’s also clear to see that he means this with a caveat. Earlier in the interview he stated that he doesn’t think many games tackle violence head on.

He reinforces this point by adding: “I think there are fewer developers around today who think about making a good game.” Manhunt 2 and its ilk aren’t getting any love it seems.

As for Kojima’s vision; Metal Gear’s well established penchant for existential debate means we’re going to get a fair dose on the morals of war, but facial disfigurement? Is this some curious new IP brewing in his brain? We can’t wait.

More to the point, why is he being interviewed by Assassin’s Creed producer Jade Raymond?

Read the interview here.