Thursday, October 28, 2010

Gaming Today

Gaming Today

The Lowdown on the Borderlands Level Cap Increase

Posted: 27 Oct 2010 05:47 PM PDT

Gearbox is hard at work on Borderlands title update 1.41. This is notable because it’s the patch that will increase the level cap, as we were promised at PAX. The Gearbox forums (getting a lot of stuff from forums tonight) tell us very specifically what this patch does.

  • Level cap increase for all players of 8 levels. That means that all Borderlands players will now be able to achieve a new maximum level of 58.
  • Owners of The Secret Armory of General Knoxx can achieve a record setting increase to a maximum level of 69.
  • End game players that have completed playthrough 2 will see enemies scale to the new levels up to the new level cap. That means that if you've completed everything, you can play through the game again and again at a challenging level in order to find better and better loot.
  • Item drops (with the exception of COM Decks) will also scale with higher level enemies to the new level cap. That means that this Title Update features the highest level weapons to date!
  • Other fixes, including DLC4 Achievement/Trophy glitches that have affected some users and will be corrected to properly award players for obtaining these achievements no matter which order they were completed in.

OK, well that clears that up, but when is it out? That we don’t know yet. They’ve completed the patch, but it’s undergoing QA and stuff, and they say it’ll be a couple weeks. Which is to say it’ll be out in some unspecified amount of time that is less than one month. One would assume.

That Bioshock 2 DLC that Was Cancelled for PC is Totally Coming Out on PC

Posted: 27 Oct 2010 05:05 PM PDT

So there’s this old Bioshock 2 DLC that console gamers got and PC gamers did not get. I’m talking about the Protector Trials and Minerva’s Den. They were cancelled for PC, and now 2K says they’re no longer cancelled, and, in fact, the team is back to work on them. Oh, and they’ve also uncancelled an old cancelled patch for the PC. This is just crazy, man. Here’s the deal, from the 2K forums:

As with all games, however, the dev cycle must end and patches and updates must conclude so that the team can move on to other projects. We hit that deadline without the content being in a state we were satisfied with, so we did not release it.

One of the core principles of the 2K Games community is to keep an open dialogue with gamers and listen to what they have to say. We are a company of gamers making awesome experiences for gamers – and given the conversations we’ve had over the past two weeks, we’ve decided to go back and finish the PC patch and Protector Trials. Currently, we are patching the final bugs in these two pieces of content and then will submit everything to certification. The cert process can take anywhere up to four weeks, but as we hit major milestones (passing cert or otherwise included) I’ll tell you guys. We are projecting that the patch and the Protector Trials will be ready to cert in December and I’m happy to announce that they will be available free to the community.

When we stopped development on Minerva’s Den, it was not in a workable state and needed significantly more dev time to complete. As of now, we are not certain how much longer it would take to complete the project to our standards, but we have reallocated resources to work on completing the project so PC gamers can have this experience in Rapture along with 360 and PS3 owners.

This is kinda crazy. They don’t really stand to make money off this, but they’re doing it anyway. That’s pretty sweet, 2K.

BlizzCon 2010: Interview with WoW Lead Game Designer Greg Street

Posted: 27 Oct 2010 04:40 PM PDT

One of the most striking things about Blizzard is the level to which fan feedback gets consideration when it comes to the company’s games.

This is sort of common knowledge — World of Warcraft players put their two cents (and often considerably more) all over Blizzard’s forums, and those complaints and questions are often heard and effect future patches and expansions. But even at BlizzCon 2010 last weekend, it seemed like player questions and suggestions were leading to new gameplay decisions right then and there.

“I made a lot of notes just talking to players and things players have said,” said Greg Street, WoW’s lead game designer, after two days of sitting on World of Warcraft panels and helping to answer fan questions. “I found out at one of my panels that they were sad we removed this brutally hard Feat of Strength called Insane in the Membrane, where you have to get exalted with all these different factions. I was like, ‘Guys, this is painful – why are you so excited about doing it?’”

The panel, which was the WoW Open Q&A, concluded the question with the panelists stating that they’d look into creating something equally difficult for players to struggle to accomplish.

“It's this crowd in particular, these are the most hardcore players we have,” Street said. “And it's interesting to know that they want things that are really, really hard to do.”

Also among the ideas staffers seemed to act on was the lack of a new Legendary weapon specifically geared toward magic-users. A player asked a question about the item at the Quests and Lore Q&A panel that featured Vice President of Creative Development Chris Metzen and Lead World Designer Alex Afrasiabi.

The pair responded: “You got it. It’s coming.”

At Saturday’s Open Q&A, Afrasiabi told the audience the developers had talked about the staff Friday night, and it was on its way.

A lot of things seem to go that way. Street talked about the major changes to the way World of Warcraft works that were made in Patch 4.0, which altered several of WoW’s major gameplay systems. Chief among those was the Talent Tree, which is a series of options that players use to customize their characters as they level up. Street said Blizzard spent a huge amount of time revamping the system to make it easier and more meaningful, but the concept developed from a relatively small interaction.

“That change came about pretty quickly in an e-mail conversation that Tom Chilton, our game director, and I were having one weekend and we were like, ‘You know, if we could do it all over again, we would just make fewer talent points overall and more meaningful choices,’” Street said. “And after we talked about it we were like, ‘Dude – we could do that.’”

But it wasn’t anything big that spurred the change — just a nagging desire to try the Talent system in a different, hopefully better way.

“We had no idea (we’d make the Talent change) at the last BlizzCon.”

I asked Street a handful of questions about other changes that have been rolled out to go with Cataclysm.

FileFront: I’ve read that a lot of the sort of streamlining and simplification changes that came out with the Cataclysm patch have been geared at recruiting new players. Was that a big part of your design philosophy?

Greg Street: Definitely getting new players is huge to us. Growing the base is great. But a lot of them were made because what we had was just getting to be too much. The way we changed the badge system we developed for Wrath of the Lich King made a lot of sense at the time – "Oh, every tier's a new badge. What could be wrong with that?" And then you realize you have four kinds of badges and all these old badges from Level 70 and these PvP currencies too, and we were like, the game would be better without them. And we can solve that problem. We can have fewer techs and points for players to manage, and that's not something that's going to affect new players. They're not going to see that for months and months and months, and by that point it's hard to call them newbs anymore.

FF: What about Cataclysm do you think will make players that have maybe been holdouts for the last six years say, “You know what, maybe I’ll give this a try?”

GS: Hopefully we have improved the lowest-level game. I think before there wasn't always a lot going on. I think the classes themselves didn't always function well at lower levels. To use one example, the Rogue has this combo point system but creatures didn't stay alive long enough to actually use the combo points. You'd stab it a few times, the creature would die. You have all these abilities that are geared toward the end game that we sort of give you really early on, and I think it just kind of felt weird. A couple of the classes were really painful to level. Warriors had a lot of downtime, Paladins were hardly ever hitting buttons, they were just auto-attacking everything – so we made a huge effort to make sure that all the classes felt fun at low level, particularly with the signature ability that you get at Level 10 that now really makes you feel like, "I am now a Shadow Priest. I'm only a Level 10 priest, but I'm a Shadow Priest and I can play that way."

[They did improve the lowest level. Check out our hands-on time with Cataclysm's new Worgen race and its opening quests.]

FF: A lot of higher-level gamers have had to kind of relearn how to play with a lot of the changes you guys have made. What’s the response been like? Has it generally been positive?

GS: Yeah, it is generally positive. One of the things that took me by surprise a little bit doing this is that, as a game designer, you always say, "Change for change's sake is bad. You don't want to solve problems, you just want to change things.” But it kind of turns out, in a game that's been going on this long, players want a little bit of that. They want to say, "You know, my mage has stayed the same for six years. I'm ready for something new." They're okay with just totally lateral change – to some extent. You don't want to overwhelm them. They want something to keep it fresh a little bit.

FF: Why did you guys decide to extend the level cap by five, instead of by 10 levels as with previous expansions?

GS: A couple of reasons. One is, we found that in the last two expansions, a lot of players had hit maximum level before even reaching the last couple of zones, so we were like, you know, we're making these zones that players aren't even seeing, we could just make the same number of zones and players would hopefully get to the end. We also thought, 85 is a pretty big number, and I don't know what World of Warcraft's going to look like at Level 270, so we're just trying to delay that as long as we can. Slow it up a little bit. Mostly players are cool. You know, leveling is a lot of fun for a lot of different people, but there's some also that, it's a little bit of a burden. “Now I've gotta quickly get through this content so I can play with my friends at max level again.” I think five feels like a good number now. I don't know if we'll do five or 10 next time.

…We talked about, could we make an expansion with no levels? But I think to do that, we'd have to come up with something better – something that's more fun. We haven't come up with it yet, so we'll stick with levels.

Final Thoughts: It seems like, despite any complaints World of Warcraft players have (and my WoW-head friends had a few regarding the big changes Blizzard has made), Street and Blizzard seem to have their heads on straight with the decision they’re making. Six years on, Blizzard is finding ways to make the game better — and mix things up.

But even for players who are unhappy relearning raids and rethinking their talents, it’s nice to know that guys like Street are, in fact, paying attention to those concerns. BlizzCon had a lot of ultra-specific comments from players, but it also was full of good ideas: and Greg Street and the rest of Blizzard have been listening.

“The Little Things” of Call of Duty: Black Ops

Posted: 27 Oct 2010 04:20 PM PDT

We all know how a Call of Duty game works by now, right? Well, maybe we mostly know how it works, but Treyarch’s Johs Olin took to the Playstation Blog today to hand out deets on a few features of Black Ops you may not have known about. (Though all anybody cares about is that it’s in 3D, right?) Below, you’ll find said deets in an easy-to-read list, dummy.

  • Splitscreen online multiplayer support (surprise?)
  • Custom games editor. “Players will have the ability to structure their games at all new levels of granularity. From variables as simple as Time Limit and Score Limit, or as deep as which weapons, Perks, and gear are available. You want a Pistols Only match? Make one! No longer do custom game modes rely on the ‘honor system.’
    Furthermore, any Custom Game you create and configure can be placed in your File Share, for friends and the community to browse, download, and enjoy.”
  • Friends list integrated into the in-game menu
  • Regional matchmaking
  • Your emblem is not reset when you hit Prestige.

That’s all well and good, Josh, but can you turn the gravity way down in a custom match? Can you? That’s a serious question, Josh.

I guess we’ll all find out together on November 9.

Adventures in Great Advertising with Tony Hawk Shred

Posted: 27 Oct 2010 03:18 PM PDT

When a game tanks like Tony Hawk Ride did, you’re going to need to be very creative with your advertising for the sequel, and that’s exactly what Activision has done with this launch trailer/TV spot for Tony Hawk Shred, which is out today on the 360, PS3 and Wii. Take a look.

download

I don’t know who the marketing team is over at Activision that put together this and that amazing DJ Hero 2 ad earlier this month, but I like what they’re doing. No telling if this will translate to sales, but I would guess awareness will be high, at least.

Playstation Rewards Program Will Net You Some Themes for Your PS3!

Posted: 27 Oct 2010 12:44 PM PDT

Sony announced today a free rewards program for Playstation 3 owners (and PSP owners in the future), and it goes into bet tomorrow for Playstation Plus and Gamer Advisory Panel people. The idea here is that you buy stuff from the Playstation store, work your way up through a trio of reward tiers (“Select,” “Pro” and “Legendary”), and then you get free stuff like:

  • Exclusive PSN avatars that display member status in the program
  • Exclusive dynamic themes and PlayStation Home content
  • Opportunities throughout the program year to participate in members-only sweepstakes and giveaways for experiences and merchandise you won't find elsewhere (The first of which is an all expenses paid trip to the 2011 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, as PlayStation's guest)

Since you probably won’t end up winning a free trip somewhere, this may not seem so great. But it’s free, so whatever. Also, this tactic is kind of brilliant for this reason: if you own both a PS3 and a 360 and are considering buying a downloadable game that is available on both consoles, you will in all likelihood choose the PS3 version for the achievement/trophy-like status boost.

There are a few other nitty gritty deets through the link below.

via Playstation Blog

Battlegroup 42 V. 1.7 Released

Posted: 27 Oct 2010 12:03 PM PDT

Battlegroup 42 is one of many mods of wartime shooters that attempt to create greater realism. What sets Battlegroup 42 apart from the other, similar shooters is the admirably nerdy attention to the seemingly mundane details of life during war. In addition to multi-role APC’s and improved infantry classes, it has more historically accurate equipment that exhibits both the benefits and failings of their real life equivalents. (And that ought to provide some laffs when your M1918 Browning jams up with Indonesian mud, and you develop pre cancer symptoms from the smokes provided in your ration pack.)

The game is designed with an emphasis on the Pacific theater, and aims to promote teamplay by making it easier and more beneficial for players to work together. A comprehensively revised damage system also makes for a much greater depth of feel and, they promise, one-hit kills are now the exception and not the rule. Hallelujah.

Anyway, check out this instructional video for the catapult system used on Japanese aircraft carriers:


Videos & Audio – BattleGroup42 Mod for BattleField 1942 – Mod DB

The grainy, black and white wash is a neat trick. You can grab your slice of kill-em-all WWII nostalgia in 5 bit sized chunks:

Part One.
Part Two.
Part Three.
Part Four.
Part Five.

Now go fight for freedom, gunner.


Sony Says PSP Phone Images “Clearly Fake”

Posted: 27 Oct 2010 07:40 AM PDT

We’ve heard a ton of speculation about a PSP phone that would be powered by Android. Yesterday, Engadget rolled out some pictures of a purported prototype build of this phone.

It’s “clearly fake,” says Sony Europe, according to NowGamer. A bit later, Sony Ericsson trotted out the typical Sony line, saying, “Sony Ericsson does not comment on rumour or speculation.”

It’s no surprise that Sony is denying this. Many people are questioning these images, saying (according to NowGamer),

[The images] have come under criticism from a number of news sites. A closer look at the top screen in particular reveals a number of telltale signs, such as a large amount of dirt collecting around the screen, as well as mention of ‘A’ and ‘B’ buttons on the interface.

I personally hope that the PSP phone never materializes. It seems like a terrible idea to pair a handheld device that has a long lifespan with a smartphone that has a very short one. Once the phone is obsolete, who wants to be packing the thing around? I’d prefer a smartphone for what it does, and a handheld to play games on. Of course, that’s just me.

GoG.com Continues D&D Releases with Neverwinter Nights Diamond

Posted: 27 Oct 2010 06:18 AM PDT

Bioware has moved on to other series like Mass Effect and Dragon Age, but not too long ago the crown jewel in their technology collection ( not necessarily the best story they produced) was Neverwinter Nights. The company’s last licensed D&D game served as more of a bridging project on the  road to creating a full-fledged MMO because it allowed players to create their own adventures and run personal servers for friends, even emulating a part of the D&D tabletop experience thanks to a Dungeon Master client.

Well, Neverwinter Nights Diamond is now available on GoG.com for $10. The version available includes the two official expansions – Shadows of Undrentide and Hordes of the Underdark as well as the first digital expansion – Kingmaker. It’s a bit unfortunate this is not the complete version of NWN since Atari actually released a few more digital modules (Pirates of the Sword-Coast, Infinite  Dungeons and Wyvern Crown of Cormyr as examples) before moving on to the sequel, but it’s a great gaming value for $10.

You can still load up NWN and find an active mod and module community. People continue to run persistent game servers as well. While the  graphics are definitely showing their age, well the play’s the thing right??
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